where the past can't reach us // zuko x reader

Chapter One - Waking Up

My name was (y/n), I was twelve, I was currently in the Western Air Temple (wherever that was), and I had nearly died but was magically put in a coma. Great. I rolled my eyes, realising I'd need to figure things out on my own.

I crossed the room, sneezing at least five times in the process, and opened the door. The wind was fresh and cold against my face, a sensation I hadn't felt in... How long exactly? But what surprised me the most was the view. I was on the middle floor of a building, except – the building was upside down? And it wasn't just my building; everything around it was the wrong way up. I was standing on a temple under a cliff, tucked out of the way of the world, suspended in the air. I tried my hardest not to look down.

It took me a few minutes to regain my composure. No matter what, if I wanted a better idea of what was going on, I would have to explore this mysterious structure. Find some people, some answers. Because, right now, answers were what I needed more than anything. And with that in mind, I set off to explore the Western Air Temple.

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General Tomin of the Fire Nation Army was on holiday with his wife, and what better place to go than the Western Air Temple? For him, it would be a chance to see the result of his ancestors' dedication to the Fire Lord, and for Mayako... Well, she'd probably appreciate anything foreign. She was a bit odd like that, Tomin thought, always curious about other cultures, maybe too curious. But she was his wife, and he loved her, and even if tomorrow she came to him and confessed that she'd secretly been plotting to assassinate the Fire Lord for years, and she was planning on doing it tomorrow, he would keep his mouth shut when the secret police inevitably came knocking on their door. For they would certainly come – they always did, but he loved his wife more than he loved his country. Still, it felt great looking at the deserted temple. Such a masterful work of architecture, once home of Avatar Yangchen, now conquered by the Great Fire Nation. The beautiful view, quiet and peaceful, the silent stairwells...

"Honey!" Mayako called out to her husband from about fifty meters away. She'd ran excitedly up the stairs and into the inner temple so fast that Tomin had lost sight of her, but her voice rang out clearly through the noiselessness of the deserted building.

"Yes, love?" Tomin shouted back.

"Come look at what I found! Oh, you won't believe this!"

Loudly sighing, but suppressing a small smile at his wife's enthusiasm, Tomin quickened his pace up the stairs. In a few minutes, he reached Mayako, and stood staring, dumbfounded at her discovery.

He was expecting something completely mundane, something that probably had meaning to his wife alone, something to look at for a few seconds and then immediately to forget. At best it would be something historical that would give him a deeper appreciation of the Air Nomad culture. He most definitely wasn't expecting this.

In front of him stood a young girl, not yet a teenager, dressed in the yellow and orange Air Nomad robes. Her (h/c) hair was messy and tangled, and her eyes looked inquisitively into his own. It was impossible to tell which one of the two was more confused. In her hand, she held a note. Tomin shifted his questioning eyes to his wife, a wordless request for an explanation. Mayako beamed at him.

"Look, honey, isn't she sweet?"

Tomin shook his head.

"Look Mayako, I don't know what's going on here, but this can't possibly be real. I mean this, this kid, she can't possibly be alive! All this time I thought- I was told- All the history books said..." he looked abruptly back at the girl. "Little girl, who are you? Where are your parents?"

She didn't answer, and instead handed him the note. He read it quietly, then handed it to his wife. When they'd both finished reading, they exchanged a look. If what the note said was true, then that had to mean...