And now for something completely different

[resonance_and_d]

So I've been working on this fic, with the premise that it was much more than 100 years between the time Aang was frozen and the time Katara and Sokka found him. So we have the same characters, and there's still bending, but the level of technology is at the level of present-day Earth

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[resonance_and_d]

Iroh had taken in his brother's children without a second thought, and he loved them both very much. He loved them enough that taking care of them made his heart break.

He tried not to worry too much about Zuko. The boy was hurt, both in body and soul, but he had a good heart, and he was slowly recovering from all the damage his father had done to him.

But Azula- he wasn't sure what to do with her.

There were days when she was sweet and lovely. She smiled at people. She gave them gifts- cards, or cookies, or a hug and a few kind words. She seemed like a normal seven-year-old.

Other days, she was not as in control. She was, after all, a very young child, and she let the mask slip sometimes. (Even on the good days, there was something a little bit strange about her. The way her dolls kept disappearing, to be found, later, disfigured or damaged. The way her eyes narrowed, a little too gleeful, when someone else was in pain.)

Iroh had been much older than Ozai, but he had been home often enough to see his brother grow up. He knew what was happening. He knew what a child with no sense of empathy acted like.

He found the word sociopath, and he knew that it fit her.

You've been dealt a poor hand, Azula, he thought. Everyone else has is born with a sense of warmth- of humanity. And whether you never had it or it was snuffed out too soon to bloom, you are broken now- and there is probably nothing I can do to fix you.

There were two choices before him.

Azula and Zuko were close in age. It was likely that she would be very cruel to him- maybe even violent. As she was the better bender of the two, Zuko could be hurt.

He could focus his efforts on protecting Zuko. He could let Azula follow the path she was on, and end up as a poisonous flower, charming and lovely until the moment she wasn't.

The part of him that had once been a general knew that the smart plan was to cut his losses. To abandon hopeless projects and focus his forces on targets he could defeat.

The part of him that had been a father, and was now a father again, said: I will not give up on her.

You are missing a part of yourself, he thought to her quietly. But maybe I can help you build a substitute, out of logic instead of intuition, out of thought instead of feeling.

It was probably hopeless. But Iroh could not admit defeat. He could not lose another child.

Right now you wear a mask to manipulate me. But wear a mask long enough, and maybe it can become your face.