Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of a New Beginning ❯ Mark of a New Beginning ( Chapter 1 )

Prompts: `fools idolize fools' and `beginnings'

 

Mark of a New Beginning

 

Mai was distracting him with her pacing around his office. While Zuko looked over the final touches to the revision of the Fire Nation justice department, he let out a heavy sigh.

 

“There's something bothering you. I can tell, so what is it?” he said, sounding a little more annoyed than he wanted to. She flashed him a frown.

 

“I don't see the point of these trials. Ozai and Azula are already in prison.” Mai gave him a hard stare and crossed her arms. “Isn't that enough? I mean, it seems like a waste to parade them into a courtroom for the whole populace to see.”

 

Zuko leaned back into his chair and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't know how many times he had to explain to her that these trials were necessary.

 

“I know that, but if we're going to show a new and more just Fire Nation, we have to start by making an example of them.” He got up from his chair and approached her, and he lightly patted her arm. She nodded once, looking up at him. “The Fire Nation has had a history of violence and destruction for too long. It ends with them, and the trial only shows that even in regard to criminals, we can still give them fair judgment.”

 

Mai looked up into his face, no longer angry and tortured as it once was. She mirrored his light smile. “I keep forgetting that so much has changed.” He felt her soft hand stroke the line of his jaw. “How much you have changed.”

 

“I'm not the only one,” he said just above a whisper, and he leaned down and gave her a light kiss. He felt her hands cup his cheeks as they sank into each other.

 

Reluctantly, he broke away to return to his chair. Mai leaned against his desk with a more hopeful expression. She picked up the new picture frame of them on his desk and stared at it.

 

“I never thought for once while I was following Azula that I was doing anything wrong. I feared her, but I also felt a thrill working for her. Palace life with my parents was such a bore, and fighting against the Avatar was so much more exciting. I never realized until I confronted my feelings about your defection that I was following the wrong path.”

 

Zuko watched her intently and shrugged. “It doesn't matter now. That was how the Fire Nation was back then. That's how our parents molded us.”

 

She put the picture down and sighed. “I know, but we'd never thought to question following a tyrannical fool.” She put the picture down and started to leave his office. “I'll leave you be. You have a lot of preparations for the trials.” She stopped at the doorway. “Zuko?”

 

“Hmmm?” He looked up from his papers momentarily to meet her calm face.

 

“You don't have any reservations about trying your own sister and father, do you?”

 

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. “No. You don't even have to ask.” She nodded. “It's a new beginning, Mai. The Avatar brought that to us.”

“You helped too. Don't forget that,” she mockingly scolded him.

 

“I know. My role here isn't finished. I have to repair the damage of this Fire Nation and bring our people together. It all starts with the trial.”

 

She rewarded him with one last smile before she left. Zuko slouched down into his chair and made a face at the stacks of papers in front of him. There were so many Fire Nation officials to try. Many of them would probably get off with minor infractions as long as they were willing to reform.

 

But his father and sister… He frowned. The Avatar had obviously left his father powerless when he took away his bending. His crimes spoke for themselves, but he could no longer damage anyone. Who would have thought his father, the once great Fire Lord Ozai, would someday rot away in a cell?

 

He didn't even know what to think of Azula. The last he'd seen of her, she'd been taken away in shackles and escorted to a high-security mental facility deep within the heart of the underground city. Reports from the guards said the former princess was no longer herself. She was a mere shell of a girl, and surprisingly enough, she was no longer competent to even use her bending to attempt escape. She spent the majority of her days muttering gibberish to herself, unaware of the world around her.

 

He didn't mind that Mai questioned his decision though. For so long they'd blindly followed the way of the Fire Nation elite. Destruction and dominance was the only thing they grew up with. For the longest time, it was the only thing they'd ever known.

 

Though, with him and the Avatar, things were beginning to change. He'd no longer follow the foolhardy ways of a corrupt lord. He was lord now, and Zuko would follow his own course. His father and sister would get what they truly deserved, retribution for the sins they committed against their people and this world.

 

Zuko looked out the window to the setting sun. The first trial would be in a few days, and then once the former Fire Lord Ozai was tried, reform would truly begin. His people and the world would see the dawn of a new day.

 

They would see that with him as the new lord, the Fire Nation was finally capable of justice and peace.