The thing about Zuko was that he just didn't know when to quit.
Sokka felt like maybe someone had told him, a long time ago, to pick his battles, and Zuko had picked all of them.
It was like his fight or flight instinct didn't exist. It was just fight. All the time. Constantly. And it was on overdrive.
That was what was going through Sokka's head as he watched the scene unfolding in front of him.
Zuko was yelling at a general who was three, maybe four times his age. And he was pissed.
"I am telling you to withdraw all troops from the Earth Kingdom! I am telling you to do that and you are telling me no, is that right? Am I misinterpreting the situation or are you telling me no?"
"I am telling you no, that's right."
"Oh, really? Because the last time I checked, I'm the one in charge!"
"I am a Fire Nation general!"
"And I am the Fire Lord!"
"You are a child! Tell me, what does a child know of war?"
"WE ARE NO LONGER AT WAR!" Zuko roared - and yes, roared is exactly the word Sokka would choose - and the torches that lined the walls flared with his anger.
The general actually, physically took a step back, and he looked genuinely afraid. Sokka could hardly blame him.
Zuko had told Sokka a few days ago that he was working on controlling his anger.
Right now, it appeared as if any attempts to control his anger had gone right the fuck out the window.
"Fire Lord Zuko, I did not mean-"
"Oh, I know what you meant. I know very well what you meant," Zuko said in a low, almost growling voice, and somehow it was even more terrifying than him yelling. "You think I'm too young. That I don't know what I'm talking about. Is that right?" He didn't wait for the man to respond. "You think I know nothing of war, but in the past three years I've come to know war. I've gotten to know war on an incredibly intimate level. What is war to you?"
The man said nothing, as if waiting for Zuko's permission to speak.
"Go ahead. Answer me. What is war to you? I'm asking you a question. What do you think war is?"
"Well, war is... it's a conflict between two nations."
"It's a series of battles."
"I'm gonna cut you off right there because whatever you're gonna say, it's wrong!" Zuko slammed his fist down on the table. "War is death. War is-"
"Well, yes, people die in every war, but that's just the price we-"
"Do not. Fucking. Interrupt me," Zuko growled. "This war? The one I'm trying to end? This war is the genocide of a people who couldn't fight back. This war is the decimation of one tribe and the forced isolation of another. It's imperialism. It's the erasure of entire cultures. It's a series of not battles, but massacres."
It was at this point that Sokka realized Zuko had the general cornered, had him backed up against the wall.
"This war has lasted for 100 years and now I'm saying that it's over. That we are no longer going to spread death and destruction across the world, because that is what we are doing. What do I know of war? I know a 12-year-old boy who's the last of his kind. I know a 14-year-old girl whose mother died to protect her. I know a girl who's far too good at fighting for her age. I know a little blind girl who nearly died trying to take down our airship fleet. And I know a boy who had to become the head of his family far too soon. Who had his childhood stolen from him when his father had to leave him to fight in our war. A boy my age. If I am too young to be Fire Lord, then he is certainly too young to be a soldier! Do not try to tell me what war is when you've only ever had a cushy, high-ranking position on the winning side! Don't try to tell me what war is until you've been on the front lines fighting what you know is a hopeless battle! Don't try to tell me what war is until you've seen what it's done to the children. You say I am only a child, and you're right. You say I'm too young to know anything of war? I am. I am too young! And that's the problem! Someone my age shouldn't have to experience war the way I have, so it ends here! Today! You are going to have all of our troops withdrawn from the Earth Kingdom, and from wherever the fuck else they might be, or I am going to have you thrown in a prison cell and let you rot."
The general nodded. "Yes, Fire Lord Zuko. It will be done."
The general left, and Zuko sank into his chair, his energy spent. "I know you've been watching us, Sokka."
Sokka came out of his (admittedly terrible) hiding place behind a plant. "You alright?"
Zuko sighed. "That's the problem. I don't know how it feels to be alright. That's the true cost of this war. No one alive now has ever experienced peace."
A/N: okay so this was supposed to be a short, funny piece about Zuko losing his shit at a general but then it turned into a rant about the effects of war, so... yeah, sorry about that.
