The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

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"Father, be reasonable! This is a girl we've known since childhood and she-" Zuko started to say, but the guards were running out toward her. And, Zuko realized, there was a bigger issue.

Aang was also running out to meet Ty Lee. Zuko spun, trying to grasp Aang's tunic, but it was like reaching for fog on a moody day. It was impossible, and he slipped his range.

"No! Fuck- Kuzon!" Zuko said, running out into the arena because whatever Aang was about to do was not going to help.

Aang looked back at him, his eyes full of liquid sorrow. He scowled, swallowed, and met Zuko's gaze.

And Zuko understood that things were just about to get a thousand times worse.

Maybe if Aang had fire-fought his way out, it would be okay. Well, not okay, but more reasonable. He did the second worst thing he could have done, though, next to airbending. He opened the earth below the pair and sent him and Ty Lee disappearing below the earth.

The public was not quiet, nor slow this time.

And Zuko was, desperately and panicked, trying to figure out how to fix this. How to fix everything. How to fix something that had gone so wrong.

Time moved around him strangely. He saw his father spin toward Zuko with a rage uncontrolled, but long before his father reached him, Iroh was moving faster. Iroh hugged his son and clasped Lu Ten's hand. He then brushed by Zuko and so quietly, almost so quietly that Zuko missed it, Uncle Iroh whispered something to his nephew.

"You knew nothing. Worry not about me."

While Zuko was still trying to untangle these words, his father was in his face.

"You! You brought that boy back! You were protecting him! The Avatar!" Steam exhaled from Ozai's nose and the entire area beneath the stands was warm, uncomfortably so. Zuko felt the sweat drip down his back.

Before Zuko was able to stand up to his father, finally, Iroh intervened.

"He knew nothing, my brother. It was I who found the Avatar four years ago and chose to hide him within the Fire Nation. Prince Zuko believed the lie that he was a long-lost family member like everyone else. He had nothing to do with it," Iroh said evenly, narrowing his eyes and jutting out his chin, challenging Ozai.

"Is this true?" His father's hand was at his throat, burning.

Zuko found words difficult to find but he managed. "Yes, father. I would have never allowed..." He nearly couldn't say it, but from his Uncle's encouraging smile he knew what he had to say, "A...a...murderous traitor like that into our home."

Ozai regarded him, and for a tense few seconds, Zuko was sure that he was going to call out his lie. Zuko tried to look disgusted at the thought that Ty Lee and Aang were hiding under their noses the entire time.

"You'd better hope you had no knowledge," Ozai said, dropping Zuko. Zuko's legs buckled and Lu Ten was there to grab him and keep him upright.

"Guards, take my brother away. He was consorting with the number one enemy of the nation and will be tried as a traitor," Ozai said, waving a finger. The guards hesitated, but after a hiss from Ozai, they all stumbled forward to grasp onto Iroh's clothes.

"No!" Lu Ten stood, "You...can't."

"Would you like to take his place?" Ozai asked Lu Ten in a cool tone. Lu Ten looked ready to fight Ozai right then and there, but from behind, Iroh shook his head. Lu Ten's shoulders dropped.

"No, Uncle."

"That's Fire Lord Ozai to you," Ozai replied, and Lu Ten flinched, as though experiencing a physical slap or preparing for the onset of one.