Fire and Aether

Chapter 53: Rose's Lost Days (Part 1)

   Rose and Zuko had fallen asleep again after holding each other for awhile.
   But Rose woke up to the sounds of Roku speaking to her, much too loudly to allow her proper rest. She shot up in bed at his insistence and gazed around the room.
   After Zuko had passed out following his revelation during the battle with the Earth Kingdom, Rose had brought him to Iroh's home in Ba Sing Se. (Iroh had decided to live there and had reconquered his tea shop following the war.)
   It felt nice to be in that familiar place, somewhere where she held such a fond memory...that of when she and Zuko had originally been soul bound.
   Rose turned to her lover and future husband, stroking across his face before moving some hair out of his face. "I'll be right back, love."
   She aetherbended, landing on the roof of Iroh's house. Sitting down Indian style, she began meditating. Before long, she felt the familiar presence of Roku, sitting across from her.
   "I'm not like you, Roku." she said by way of greeting.
   "Rose, you are me."
   Rose shook her head. "We are nothing alike." She stood and paced atop the roof, thinking. "You go behind my back and ask Aang, my friend, my brother, to kill Zuko because I won't do it? Your own great grandson and my soulmate?"
   "It needed to be done." he said, cryptically.
   "No." Rose shook her head. "You brought us together in the first place. You were the one who shared your story with us both and you insisted that our bond was important. Now you ask that I stand by and allow you to sever it?"
   Roku growled in frustration. "For the sake of the world, Rose! I hoped your bond would make him correct the sins of the past. But I was wrong. He endangers the fate of the world. And, if you can't end him, someone else must."
   Rose lowered her gaze to focus on her footing. "When you told me to contemplate the world, what did you expect me to picture in my mind? A map? Some floating ball of cosmic energy?
   "You know what I actually did see? I saw my family: my father, Ryker, my mother, Ophelia, my brothers, William and Jasper, my sister in Caitlyn. I saw Aang and Appa and Crystal. I saw Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Aurora, my friends and my family. I saw the Kyoshi Warriors, the members of the White Lotus, the witches that are a part of Aurora's family, the monks that raised me and Aang, the people who loved me when I was young like Starling.
   "But, most importantly, I saw Zuko. I saw that bond we shared. I saw a future for us, one where we married, we had children together. You brought us together for better or worse and it was your presence that Zuko originally felt connected to. It wasn't me or my flirty personality although those things did eventually cause him to realize his feelings for me.
    "I don't know how to contemplate the world without first thinking of the people I care about. Especially Zuko. Do you know what I realized when he told me his story? I realized he has never been a bad guy; he's always just been broken. His father was cruel to him, all because he spoke up against him. It was that brokenness I felt when I looked at his face the day we met, when I saw his scar.
   "The day Zhao captured me and Zuko saved me, I was scared because I realized I fell in love with him. And not for myself, for him because I knew he had a hard road ahead of him. But he surprised me. He did the right thing in the end and I know, somewhere deep in my heart, he will always choose the right thing...because he will always choose me. Just as I will always choose him above everything."
   "Even the world?" Roku questioned. "By choosing not to take decisive action, you continue to put the world at risk."
   She finally turned to him. "It's a different world now, Roku. Maybe killing Sozin would've been the correct path for you in the past but allowing Zuko to die isn't my destiny. Whether you agree or not, I make my own destiny. Aurora taught me that."
   Her gaze lowered again as she bowed in respect. "Avatar Roku, you taught me so much. I couldn't have become the Avatar I am today without you nor could I have found my soulmate in Zuko. But everything's so different now. It's not like when you were alive. I have to figure this out on my own. That aside, my mother always told me that every aetherbender is meant to find their soulmate one day and I found mine. And I'm not giving up my happy ending for anything...even you. Goodbye."
   Roku disappeared, begging for Rose to come to her senses. "Goodbye." she said again. Taking a deep breath, she aetherbended back to Zuko's side.
   He stirred as she ran her fingers through his hair again. "Mmm...Rose?" he questioned, turning his face and opening his eyes to look at her. "Where'd you go?"
   "I had to say goodbye to an old friend." At his confused expression, she added, "Roku. He disapproves of my decision to stop Aang from killing you."
   "Oh."
   Zuko sat up, rubbing his head. "How long was I out?"
   "Not long. A few hours."
   She moved closer to him and he ran a hand over her cheek, caressing her face before leaning in and kissing her.
   "So, Zuko, I was thinking." Rose said when they parted. Zuko's eyes widened in worry. "You trusted me with the worst time of your life. I was thinking...I should share my side of the story."
   Zuko let out a sigh of relief. "What do you mean "your side of the story"?"
   "I'm going to tell you about the worst time of my life...when I became the Avatar."
   Zuko's eyes widened in shock. "But...you said..."
   "I know. But, at the time, finding out I was the Avatar was the worst thing that could've possibly happened to me." She sighed. "So here's what happened."
                      * * * * *
   More than a hundred years ago...
   A fifteen year old Rosalia woke with the sun shining through the window. Her leisurely smile turned to one of celebration.
   Today was the celebration festival of Centurion Spiritus, a festival that happened only once every hundred years when the spirits of the dead would mingle with the living.
   Quickly, Rose jumped out of bed in time for her ladies maid to enter the room. "Good morning, milady."
   "Good morning, Starling." Rose excitedly greeted her favorite maid.
   Starling began dressing Rose in a fancy white and blue dress that flowed to the ground, puffy sleeves that covered her arms. Rose's hair was left down but styled in a simple plait around her head and down the middle. A long gold cape was pinned to the back of the dress.