A few of you guys asked to see the extended scenes from Step into the Light, so here they are!!
Snippet #1: extended scene, when the Gaang are talking with Iroh about Zuko’s powerful firebending.
“At any rate,” Zuko continues, “seeing the dragons helped. They helped me realise why my reasoning behind what makes bending stronger was flawed, which turned out to be a good thing in the end.”
“That still doesn’t explain how powerful you were last week while fighting Azula,” Katara says unexpectedly. “I mean, to teach Aang you had to be a Master in your element, but that was… crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“The Comet was strengthening our bending,” Zuko protests. “I’ll admit, I’m good at bending – but I’m not as great as you all seem to think I am.”
“Buddy.” Sokka looks incredibly distressed. “The only reason you stopped fighting was because your sister tried to shoot lightning at my sister and left you unprepared to deflect the attack.”
“Well, yeah, but-”
“Even with Sozin’s Comet,” Katara interrupts, “You were toe-to-toe with Azula. You said she’s a prodigy. You could keep up with her fine, and that was with the Comet boosting her abilities.”
Zuko looks uncomfortable, and there’s some grief in his expression too. Iroh decides it’s time to gently direct the conversation away from Zuko’s duel with his sister.
Snippet #2: deleted scene, after their conversation with Iroh. (Chronologically takes place a week or so after the coronation). It’s unfinished and unedited,and I left it off abruptly when I pieced the story together and found that it didn’t fit.
They find him in his office.
Zuko’s eyes are red-rimmed and puffy, and his hair’s a mess. His headpiece is lying haphazardly on the mahogany desk, and his papers are scattered across in an uncharacteristically careless manner. Suki blinks at him, then the desk, then at Sokka, and wordlessly moves to organise the papers into some semblance of order.
Sokka crouches before his friend, who’s slumped against the wall. His eyes are terrifyingly blank.
“Hey, buddy,” he greets, sitting in lotus pose a few feet in front of him. “What’s bothering you?”
Zuko turns that awful, empty look on him. It’s all Sokka can do to not scoot next to his friend and throw his arms around him, but he knows it would be unwelcome.
“The diagnosis came through.” His voice is hoarse, but has the same, carefully empty tone as his eyes. “Azula needs to be institutionalised.”
Sokka blinks. Okay, so it means she needs more help than he thought. He doesn’t say anything, only waits as Suki joins him on the floor opposite Zuko. He can be patient, on occasion.
“I don’t get it,” he says, after a long pause. “She was his, she was perfect – how could he just shove her aside like that?”
There’s no need to ask. When it’s Zuko, there’s only one he that makes him so upset.
“I know why she snapped, but – how could he do that to her? I get why he’d take his – his anger out on me, but Azula was everything he wanted.”
Suki speaks up for the first time since she entered. “You know,” she says softly, carefully. “He only ever thought of people as useful and not. When he’d achieved all he wanted, when he got what he needed from her, he just…”
Zuko lets out a pained groan that shoots through Sokka’s heart. He hates seeing his friend hurting, and wishes he could stop it. Unfortunately, there’s no healing this kind of pain. Zuko needs to process this on his own, but Sokka’s willing to be there for the man he considers his brother.
“I know I had to leave her,” he says, voice cracking from emotion. “I had to leave the… toxicity. But the worst part is that she was only so bad because she had no one else.”
This scene had the potential to become a story of it’s own, and right now I’m undecided on whether or not I’ll be fleshing it out (I have a lot of Feelings about Azula and Zuko becoming estranged). If anyone has their ideas of continuing it as a story, I’d love to read it!
#1: In which Zuko adopts a dragon, and Mai really should be used to this by now
Just when she thinks he can’t surprise her anymore, Zuko goes and does something that proves her wrong. Like bringing home a baby dragon.
“I’m going to call you Druk,” he coos at the little coiled lump in his hands. “You’re lucky I’m here, otherwise Sokka might have called you something like Firebreather or Noodle.”
Mai has been introduced to Zuko’s turtleducks both before and after his banishment. Sokka’s not the only one who would be tempted to name a dragon Noodle.
“When Ty Lee said you wanted some time away,” Mai says conversationally, “I don’t think this is what she meant.”
He starts badly at her voice, but when he spins around to face her, he’s beaming widely. Spirits, he could light up the entire Fire Nation with that smile. “Mai! I thought you were coming back next week.”
“I got bored,” she repeats, smirking. “I missed Ty Lee, and gave my parents the slip when they said they were taking a detour. Seems like I wasn’t the only one who ran away. You’ve been up to a lot, hm?”
He chuckles. “Kind of,” he admits, and his expression turns serious. “The palace was getting to me, so I needed a break. I wasn’t intending on bringing Druk back, but I don’t mind.”
“Do the turtleducks like him?” she asks dryly.
“They love him. It’s weird, they’ve never actually seen a dragon before.”
“And you have? Before… Druk, I mean.”
He flushes, opens his mouth to speak, and closes it again.
“Zuko, that’s a yes or no question.”
“It’s… confidential?” he squeaks, flicking his gaze to the tiny hatchling winding around his hand, weaving around the limb before lying across Zuko’s shoulders like a very short scarf. It’s adorable.
She exhales. “When it stops being confidential,” she allows, “let me know before the others? And by that I mean the Fire Nation officials. I’m going ahead and assuming the Avatar and your other friends know.”
“Aang knows, but the others don’t,” Zuko corrects. “Of course I’ll tell you the whole story first.”
“Good.” She walks up to her best friend and embraces him tightly. He stiffens momentarily but hugs her back, careful not to dislodge Druk. “I didn’t just miss Ty Lee, you know.”
She can feel his smile against her shoulder. “I know. I missed you too, Mai.” He pulls away and holds her at an arm’s length. There’s a wicked smile on his face that’s somehow also completely devoid of malice. Not that she could ever see malice on him. “But you mostly missed Ty Lee.”
“One more word and you’ll find a knife on your royal person,” she warns.
#2: In which Sokka takes Zuko into the towns outside the Caldera to show him how much the place has changed
“You know what I think?”
Zuko hums and looks over from a scroll to his friend, who’s lounging on the bed with a map held above his head.
“I think the council members are jealous,” Sokka says.
Zuko raises his eyebrow. “What of?”
“Huh?”
“What would they be jealous of?”
“Oh,” Sokka exclaims, blinking in surprise. “They only have a few supporters among the nobility. Mostly in Caldera City. The people love you and your reforms, and your latest repeal of Sozin’s marriage laws won you even more favours among them.”
“There were more dissenters,” Zuko says with a frown. “I thought it was massively unpopular, even if it was the right thing to do.”
Sokka turns over and waves a hand vaguely at him, grinning like a fool. “See, that’s what I mean. You don’t care about popularity. You saw the marriage laws and knew that you couldn’t put boundaries on love, so you changed the rules. You found out why the war was wrong, and you ended it. Not without help, of course, but you did it all. You care about your people, and they know it.”
Zuko doesn’t know what to say to this, so he resorts to throwing a cushion at his friends face for having him confront feelings. His indignant yelp is a sound that leaves him chuckling for a good minute, so he lets it slide.
But the matter isn’t done yet, at least according to Sokka. On the last day of his visit, Zuko finds that there are no meetings scheduled for the day. He thinks he’ll spend some time in the gardens with his friend, like old times, but Sokka seems to have other plans.
“You guys have fun,” Suki says with a kiss to Sokka’s cheek and a clap on Zuko’s shoulder. “I’ll catch you later.”
Sokka pulls Suki into a proper kiss on the lips before he calls out a quick goodbye and drags Zuko out of the palace.
“Have you been to the towns and villages before?” Sokka asks as they make their way down the slope of the inactive volcano housing the capital city.
“Not nearly as much as I’d like,” Zuko admits. “I’ve been around the capital and Ember Island, but there wasn’t any reason for me to go down to the rest of the Fire Nation.” By reasons, he trusts Sokka understands that he means Ozai had strict rules to stay within the city limits.
“Huh. That’s not great.”
“I went to one of the towns once with my cousin, though,” he adds, expecting the familiar pang in his heart at the mention of Lu Ten before it hits him.
“He’s one of the good ones?” Sokka guesses.
Zuko smiles sadly. “He was like an older brother to me. You know, he was the one to tell Mom and Uncle that I was good with swords?”
“No way.”
“Ozai knew that I was leaving for a change in instructors,” Zuko continues, “but he never really cared either way at the time. He only really became a problem when Uncle and Lu Ten left to fight.”
“Ah.” Sokka rests a hand on his shoulder and squeezes lightly, and Zuko knows to draw comfort from the gesture. He misses Lu Ten dearly, but the sting of loss is numbed, now. He can think of his antics with his cousin during his early childhood without the accompanying sorrow threatening to overwhelm him.
They’re at the base of the volcano now, so Zuko slips up his hood. His hair is free of its topknot and falls over his scar so that he can blend with the crowd unremarkably. There’s no sign that he might be discovered, though, and no repercussions even if he is (except perhaps from his guards, but Ming won’t really mind once she understands why).
The first thing he notices are the sounds. There’s laughter, chatter, and the occasional yelling interspersed with off-key music. He’s already taken aback by how different it is from when Lu Ten helped him sneak out one night when his parents were away with Azula.
“I…”
Sokka smiles and loops an arm around his shoulders. “You haven’t seen anything yet, buddy. You’re going to love this.”
The wind blowing around them is cool enough to be uncomfortable, so Zuko tugs up his collar and raises his internal temperature to compensate. Sokka seems to be unaffected by the chill, which is only to be expected considering his friend spent most of his life in harsh southern winters. They stop every few paces to look at what the roadside stalls were selling, and more than once Sokka actively considers the merits and demerits of buying something they sell before deciding against them, moving forward, and darting back only to walk away again.
The fifth time this happens, Zuko finds a permanent solution in the fire-dancers performing in the streets. It’s his turn now to haul his friend over to them, and Sokka is all too willing to oblige as Zuko watches the performers exaggerate their movements with graceful bending.
“You know, this was pretty cool in the Fire Days Festival too – spirits, are you okay?”
From how distressed Sokka suddenly looks upon seeing his face, he automatically reaches up to touch the scar only to find his cheeks wet. He hadn’t even realised he was crying, but he scrambled for an explanation to keep the other boy from panicking.
“I used to watch the fire-dancers with my mother every year when we went to Ember Island,” he says, swiping at his eyes. “I always wanted to learn their bending style, it’s much more flowy than any other form of firebending. And… it’s been a while since the Fire Nation was this happy outside of festivals. And, well, Ember Island.”
Sokka nods slowly, but he doesn’t look any more placated.
“I guess it never really felt real to me,” Zuko mumbles, ducking his head as his eyes start to burn and glaze over once more. “I’m always stuck at meetings or fighting the council to pass a reform that would help my people, but…”
There’s a lump in his throat that stops him from speaking further, but Sokka leads him away from the crowd gently and finishes it for him.
“You never saw how your decisions impacted your people.”
Zuko manages a strangled chuckle. “They’re happy,” he whispers.
Sokka holds him an arm’s length away, hands firm on his shoulders. “That’s what I wanted to show you,” he says. “They’re healing, and they’re happy. I know most of the people you see are the ones who benefitted from the war, but when we were making our way to the capital before the eclipse, we noticed that it had left its mark on the Fire Nation too.”
Zuko nods, thinking about how he’d received news of an important weapons factory suddenly stopping production because of some problem with the river it was located on. He’d investigated it further and had declined to deliver that information to Ozai once he heard how badly the nearby town had fared.
“We’re the ones who instigated the war,” Zuko says, slumping against the wall of some building. “There were so few people who didn’t suffer for it.”
Sokka slides down next to him wordlessly. It’s not self-deprecating for him to say this – it’s the truth, and Zuko’s doing his best to make up for his ancestors’ terrible choices. They weren’t mistakes, not when each tragedy piled up on top of each other with the sickening, deliberate motive painting them red with blood.
He’s going to help the world heal, and if that starts by healing the Fire Nation? Well, that’s all for the better.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Gen
Summary: Two years after the end of the Hundred-Year War, Toph and Zuko travel to the Earth Kingdom in time for her birthday.
A/N: Toph’s birthday is a bit offscreen here, but the found family certainly is not! The references to the comics are explained in the end notes for anyone who hasn’t read them
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Gen
Summary: Some days, Zuko can’t tell were his childhood memories stop and the lives of his people begin. It's all the same in the end, striking parallels of each other.
The least he can do is help them all heal.
A/N: There are a few extended / deleted bits left in my folder from when my story got too rambly or the scene didn’t exactly fit with the theme, and I’d love to share those excerpts if anyone would like to read them!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Gen
Summary:
They wonder when they decided that the children should be the ones to pick up the pieces from their mess.
Or, the adults deal with the aftermath of watching their kids sent into a war.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Gen
Summary: Azula's diagnosis leaves Zuko doubting the merit of his actions as a brother. It's up to his friends - his family - to help him settle his worries.
A/N: This story is an expansion of the deleted scene I posted a while ago of Step Into the Light (it’s scene 2). I was originally going to center it around Zuko and Azula but it went in a completely different direction (which I also liked) and resulted in this.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Gen
Summary: Toph loves sitting in on Zuko’s diplomatic meetings. They’re usually at least a little interesting, and he’s absent-minded just enough to let slip a detail that sends the Earth Kingdom ambassadors reeling with alarm and confusion. Whenever there's some little detail to be recalled from the last year, Zuko has it covered.
Inspired by this post and its brilliant additions.
