fire in your eyes • zuko

xix

Her head was spinning.

There was so much going on around her. So loud. Too loud.

Someone was prodding her face, poking her eye. It hurt.

Stop, she said. I don't like that. Stop it.

They didn't stop.

I said stop!

Nava woke with a gasp and as soon as she did, blinding pain shot across her forehead. She tried to feel the area but was stopped by some bandages across her eye. Confused, she looked around her: she was onboard a ship. A Fire Nation ship, to be exact, judging by the fire banner hanging on the wall across from her. Panic settled deep in her chest.

What happened in Ba Sing Se?

Where were Iroh and Zuko?

Where was she?

She forced her legs over the side of the bed, ignoring the throbbing pain in her skull. She got to her feet, a little wobbly at first, but she managed to shuffle into a small bathroom. Her reflection in the tiny mirror was haggard. Her hair was a mess, lips cracked, and a bandage covered nearly half of her face. She could not, for the life of her, remember just why she had the bandage on.

The last thing Nava remembered was going to the Earth Kingdom palace to serve tea for the Earth King... and then after that... nothing. With shaking hands, she slowly unwrapped the bandage and let it fall to her feet.

She stared at herself in the mirror for a solid minute, processing what she looked like.

Her eye.

Where her right eye was – her dominant eye, the eye that she relied on to be an archer – was nothing else but a mutilated mess of blood and flesh. A diamond-shaped cut was where her iris should have been, and the entire socket was bloodshot. She found that she could still blink but her eyelid didn't go down all the way.

Then everything came rushing back to her.

Azula.

The Dai Li.

Zuko betraying his uncle.

Zuko betraying her.

Getting stabbed.

Someone screamed. A blood-curdling, vocal chord-tearing scream. Nava didn't realize it was her until a nurse burst into the bathroom with her. She allowed herself to be pulled back to the bed. The nurse re-wrapped her eye and pulled the blankets over her legs. Nava stared blankly at her lap.

"We will be back in the Fire Nation by tomorrow afternoon," the nurse said when she came out of the bathroom holding the old bandages. "You shouldn't have to worry about infection, the wound has mostly scabbed over. All that's left is the healing process."

"How long was I out?" Nava asked quietly.

"About two and a half weeks."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I don't know."

The nurse left Nava alone with her thoughts. She didn't know what time it was, but it definitely wasn't daytime yet.

Am I going to die?

I don't want to die. At least not at the hands of the Fire Nation.

If they kill me will Zuko come to my execution?

Would he cry? Would he try to redeem himself? Would he vouch for my freedom even though we're now on opposite sides?

She laid back, blinking away angry tears. She hoped Zuko would attend her execution, just so he could see what his decision did to her.