After the war

Execution

Zuko quickly found out what had woken him when he laid his eyes on a looming, humanoid shadow. There was a fleeting silvery glint above him and as he rolled away from the knife that came down on him, he let out a spine chilling scream. The knife narrowly missed him and in a split second he looked at the hole that the blade had left in the mattress when it was removed. It was sizzling and hissing around the edges where the poison that coated the blade had seeped into the fabric.

The next few events went by in a blur. Zuko was barely registering what was happening, he was just focusing on staying alive and not being stabbed. He didn't want to firebend for fear of setting his bedroom alight. Zuko kicked out blindly in the darkness and felt his foot hit what he thought was his attacker's chest. The assailant sailed backwards and hit the wall.

Zuko shot a small bolt of fire into the bedside lamp, flooding the room with light, but the attacker was gone and sprinting down the hall before Zuko could get a look at his face.

The Firelord leapt off the bed, grabbed his spear and the scabbard containing his dual swords and gave chase to the assailant. He got some weird looks from the servants who were still up and performing various duties as he ran down the hall with no shirt and three weapons on his person.

He could hear the patter of something hitting the floor in between his footfalls but he was too focused to register what it was. He could also hear Sokka in close pursuit of both the Firelord and the attacker.

Zuko could see the assailant running just ahead of him. They were quickly approaching the end of the corridor and in a split second Zuko had the thought of throwing his spear to pin the attacker to the wall.

Shockingly, it worked and the assailant was pinned to the wall by the shoulder of his clothing. Zuko ran up to the attacker, ripped the spear out of the wall and grabbed the man by his shirt and violently slammed him into the wall so he stood upright.

The Firelord unsheathed his swords and used them to pin the man to the wall by his shirt.

"Who are you and what in the name of Agni were you doing in my bedroom with a knife? Who sent you to assassinate me?" Zuko yelled, still holding a fistful of the man's shirt, pressing him harder into the wall. The Firelord saw Sokka arrive next to him out of the corner of his eye and stand at his side.

"Not talking, huh?" Sokka jeered as he stepped forward and reached for the man's mask to remove it and see who had made a, thankfully failed, attempt on Zuko's life.

"What. The. Fuck?" Zuko heard Sokka whisper next to him and for once he thought his boyfriend's foul language was justified as he saw who was under the mask.

"I trusted you" Zuko narrowed his eyes at the man who had attacked him.

"My first question is why did you try to kill Zuko?" Sokka asked, crossing his arms.

"Because, he's the Firelord! The Fire Nation did horrible, awful things! No matter who their leader is, it will never make up for all the wrong they did to the other nations!"

"That was the whole point of the nation representatives! To heal the world!" Sokka raved at the assassin.

"That doesn't matter! This man is descended from the awful, evil bastard who wiped out the Air Nomads! Plus, he can deny it all he wants, but it will never change the fact that he is Ozai's son" the assassin glowered at Zuko as he spoke in a low, accusatory tone.

"How dare you? I am nothing like Ozai! Do you hear me! I will never be like him!" Zuko yelled as he took a fistful of the man's hair and pulled his head up to face the fuming Firelord.

Zuko could hear the guards stationed outside his room coming down the corridor and he turned to face them, letting go of the man who had tried to kill him.