Prologue *pilot chapter

Zuko was born in 83 ASC (after Sozin's Comet) as the firstborn child of the Second Prince Ozai and his wife Ursa. Since his birth, he was disdained by his father. As the infant seemed to lack the "spark in his eyes" that is typical for most firebenders, the royal family was unsure if Zuko was a bender at all.

Ozai, viewing a non bender firstborn as "shame", planned to cast his son over the palace walls. Only when Ursa and the Fire Sages intervened did the Second Prince give his newborn son a chance. Later on, it turned out that Zuko was a firebender, and peace returned to the young family but the animosity still remained.

The royal family made frequent vacations to Ember Island in the following years, moments like this would make even a skeptic believe they were a happy family.

At the age of three, Zuko already had inner conflicts between the nature of good and evil. One example of this was when the young prince acted to save a turtle-crab from the talons of an eagle hawk, but immediately had conflicted feelings in letting the predator to die of hunger.

Such an event didn't earn him anything but more contempt from his father, especially after forcing Ozai to rescue him from drowning after a wave caught him off guard in the beach.

Zuko also often watched the play at the Ember Island Theater with his family. He used to reenact the action scenes of the play with his younger sister Azula, normally taking the role of the evil antagonist against his will.

As he grew older, Ozai wasn't the only family member that became hostile to Zuko, Azula eventually started to place him as the object of her manipulation, ridicule, and deception. Their mother was the only one that treated him kindly and showed affection for him, apparently her favor for Zuko only made Azula's animosity towards him increase.

This only led to Zuko tearfully lamenting for not understanding why his sister had to be so evil, especially towards him. All the while always reflecting why he suffered for doing what he believed was the right thing.

Although he was trained by Piandao in the art of fighting with dual broadswords in his early youth, his father's remarked it as being a barbaric fighting style.

Ozai constantly asked Zuko about his firebending training, expecting to compare him to his sister that had already mastered more than a dozen forms. The meek and easy to intimidate prince had to continuously hear his father recount how he would have almost discarded Zuko because he thought that he was a nonbender.

Ozai directly stated that Azula had been born lucky, while he had been lucky to be born.

At the age of eleven, his cousin, Lu Ten, was killed in battle. General Iroh, devastated by the loss of his only child, abandoned his 600-day siege of the Earth Kingdom capital city, Ba Sin Se.

Following this event during an audience with Fire Lord Azulon, Ozai voiced his desire to be made heir in Iroh's place, justifying his reason by pointing out Iroh's erratic behavior after such war effort had been made, and then concluded that he would be a more fitting heir to carry on his line.

The Fire Lord angrily disagreed, outraged he declared that Iroh had suffered enough, but Ozai's suffering had just begun (while both Azula and Zuko eavesdropped their encounter).

That same night Zuko ran away to his chamber trying to sleep, provoked by Azula's remark that Azulon ordered their Father to kill him as punishment. Their mother heard the commotion and took Azula away to talk to her. Zuko reassured himself by remembering that "Azula always lies."

Later his mother returned and explained to her sleepy son that everything she had done was to protect him, and pleaded with him to never forget who he was.

Since that night, things changed drastically, Fire Lord Azulon had died and their mother went missing. Not much after, at Azulon's funeral, the Fire Sage conducted the ceremony named Ozai the new Fire Lord declaring it was Lord Azulon's dying request.

Now, two years later, general Iroh allowed his thirteen-year-old nephew Zuko into a war council.

Although the young prince was instructed to not speak during the meeting, when one general outlined a plan to sacrifice a complete division of fresh recruits in a deceptive maneuver, Zuko publicly spoke out against the general's suggestion, seeing it as a betrayal of the recruits' patriotism.

This act of insubordination was seen as a grave insult and an Agni Kai was immediately demanded for the prince to participate. The fool accepted.

Upon turning to discover the face of his opponent, he found out that it was his father and not the general whom he had insulted that challenged him. He immediately became meek and shamefully bowed on his knees and tearfully begging for his father's forgiveness.

His refusal was considered another act of disrespect and cowardice, Ozai announced "he will learn respect, and suffering will be his teacher".

When Ozai tried to burn his son's face, something unbelievable happened. Ozai saw white and black flames emerging from the fists that were grabbing his wrist. And a completely different expression from his cowardly son, stared back at him.

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(24/07/2020)

* Hello and welcome dearest reader! I hope this short prologue helps me frame the past of my story, I'd like to avoid resorting to flashbacks on my stories. Don't worry, the future chapter won't be this info dump mess and hopefully much longer. Besides, I find it necessary to show you my writing style to show firsthand how much I must improve alongside my vision for this fic.

I still haven't committed to any frequency quote to publish future chapters. I'm doing my best to make the fact that "english isn't my first language" don't undermine my work here.

Please, feel free to share your thoughts and possibly some advice for me to improve.

Glad you gave the chance to entertain you. Stay safe.

😁