After the war

I am you, you are me, we are one!

* !! TRIGGER WARNING !! *

There's some really uncomfortable stuff in this one you've been forewarned and I'm sorry oops

When Zuko's eyes opened he was in front of the door of the throne room. He could have sworn he was asleep with Sokka. If not for the fact that he was fully dressed, he would have put it down to sleep walking. He was wearing the Firelord shoulder pieces, he had definitely taken those off and put them away. He didn't remember putting them back on. He opened the door and immediately reeled back in shock at what he saw.

He wanted to say something, he wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, but no sound came as he looked at the display above the throne.

On the back wall of the throne room there were four bodies pinned to the wall with a space in the middle directly above the throne. Zuko reached out his hand and stumbled towards the wall and time slowed down as he recognised the bodies.

He took a few more steps towards the throne and looked up at the bloodied fingertips of Katara.

Either side of the throne the beaten, battered, broken bodies of Aang, Toph, Suki and Katara were hung on the wall. Their hands were pinned to the wall and their arms were outstretched either side of their bodies.

Zuko knew what was at the foot of the platform that held the throne. He didn't want to look, but he knew he had to.

His eyes travelled down and leaning in a seated position against the throne's platform was the bruised and bloodied corpse of his boyfriend.

Zuko fell to his knees and crawled towards Sokka as tears streamed down his face.

"Boomerang" Zuko's voice was a strangled, cracked whisper as his hand came to rest on his boyfriend's cut up face.

"You know who's fault this is, don't you, Zuko" the Firelord felt a shiver run down his spine as a familiar voice sounded from behind him. His hand dropped down to lace his fingers with Sokka's blood stained ones and a hand rested on the firebender's shoulder.

"They're here because of you, but you know that already, why don't you look to the pillars? The ones closest to the throne" the owner of the voice was crouched behind the weeping Firelord.

Zuko reluctantly turned his head and looked at the pillars on his left and saw his sister and mother pinned to the pillars in the same position as his friends above the throne. On the right hand pillars he saw Ikem and Kiyi. Zuko felt fresh tears streaming down his face as he looked at the dead bodies of all of his loved ones.

"Even with no bending I'm still strong, and seeing you yesterday gave me the drive I needed to free myself" Zuko screwed his eyes shut and gripped Sokka's hand tighter as he listened to the mocking voice.

"When you told me about the water tribe boy, I just had to see him for myself, and when I did he asked me to give you something"

Zuko tore his eyes away from his deceased boyfriend and looked up at the man who was taunting him incessantly.

His eyes traveled down to the man's hands where there was a large, red object. He paled as he realised what it was.

It was Sokka's heart.

"You see that space right above the throne?" Zuko looked at the space in between Katara and Toph as he felt the crown being pulled from his hair. "That's where you'll go, as a warning to usurpers" Zuko felt himself being pulled backwards and through the strands of the hair that had fallen into his eyes, he looked up at the man who had killed his friends and family.