Bad Choices (Zuko x Reader)

14: Zuko Thinks About Morality

Zuko went back to his father just a few days later. There was a story that his father had told him that he had begun to decrypt in his own way.

"So you're saying... I should have defended the turtle-crab? I should have sided with the weaker of the two?" Zuko asked, in regards to the story.

"You're only partially correct in your assessment. Your sleeplessness does indeed stem from your inability to choose sides, to distinguish what is right. But you're wrong about the hawk." Ozai spoke, for one of the few times, like a normal person.

"But I've already done that, Father! I'm no longer neglecting the needs of my own people, as I did when I first took the throne! And I still can't sleep!" Zuko raised his voice. "At the beach, I was overwhlemed by my circumstanes because I couldn't decide whose side to take. I should have sided with the hawk. It was strong and noble, much like the Fire Nation. It had earned its meal."

"What I'm saying is this-- There is no right or wrong apart from what you decide. Who you choose to defend deserves to be defended simply because you chose them. You are the Fire Lord. What you choose, by definition, is right." Ozai explained.

And, on the Fire Nation, Zuko wished he could have accepted that. He wished he could say "fuck it" and "this is my Swampy girlfriend, we're having a baby, they're going to be my heir". But he couldn't.

"No!" He exclaimed. "Right and wrong are bigger than me, or you, or even the Avatar! And I believe that the Earth King and I can come closest to what's right by working together!"

"I've heard rumors about this little meeting of yours." Ozai pointed. "Do you think the Earth King, after being humiliated time and time again by our mighty nation and his own incompetence will be reasonable? Do you think he'll treat the remaining Fire Nation colonials fairly? In an attempt to restore his own dignity, he'll send out his army to crush them!"

Zuko sensed his father slipping back into overlord mode. It would be futile to speak much further.

"If you are truly the Fire Lord, you will defend the Fire Nation citizens of Yu Dao ferociously! Not simply because they are your people, but because they are an expression of your will!" Ozai continued.

"I'm going to wait." Zuko spoke calmly. "And my patience will be rewarded with a peaceful resolution for everyone! Even as we speak, the avatar is--"

"The avatar is an irrelevant relic of a bygone age! HE wants to keep the world frozen in time by denying the inevitable victory of the strong over the weak!" Ozai declared strongly.

"Avatar Aang is my friend! More often than not, he's been on the side that's right! I trust him!" Zuko began to lose his own cool.

"More than you trust yourself?" Ozai questioned.

Zuko looked away.

"You sicken me, Zuko. Leave my presence." His father stood and turned away.

"Who are you to talk to me this way?" Zuko stood, offended. "Have you forgotten your current place in--"

"Leave! My! Presence!"