[fic] Something to Hold Onto, Chapter 8: All That I Have

[wildgoosery]

Title: Something to Hold Onto [8/13]
Word count: 10,500
Pairing: Jet/Zuko
Rating: A very hard R for language, violence and sexual content
Summary: Since the day the walls of Ba Sing Se fell, the Freedom Fighters have struggled to protect what remains of the city and its people. Jet and his second command, a mysterious boy named Li, have spent the

Comments

[sistermagpie]

I'm...I feel like I'm crouched in that alley, collapsed with them. I'm barely keeping myself from yelling, Shatner-like, at the sky, except instead of "KHAAAAN!" it would something more having to do with the fire nation.

It is tough to be Jet. I mean, it's great that now he has Zuko because boy, does he need to feel like he's not alone. But this chapter really brings home how over his head he is--not because he's lacking any competence but because the odds are so great. His plan was so great to talk to the Dai Li, and I love how he's using what he's learned about Zuko to put to use for strategy. He's much better at imagining possibilities now. But the tension in him is almost unbearable! I totally bought all the times he was putting on a brave face--I mean, a brave smirk--trying to make himself a leader when on some level he just wants to kick ass.

Which also makes it fascinating to think of Zuko learning from him, because he's the calmer of the two in some ways, even if nobody would know it most of the time. Ack! The scene where Jet was practice fighting and walked off unable to drop his swords was just...wow. And I also love watching him take in other people, discovering just how unexpectedly awesome Iroh is, and even though we weren't in his pov, I could feel him taking in Zuko lighting the lamp in the beginning.

It's funny, because on the show he mostly deals with the pre-Zuko GAang, none of whom really have to redeem themselves. And obviously he's got that in common with Zuko, as he alludes to when they meet. But here you've got him surrounded by people who were going in one direction and then changed their way, and he's learning from all of them, just by seeing them existing. It's what nudges him from good leader of a ragtag gang in the forest to a real leader.