DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER; ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO NICKALODEAN, AND THEIR AFFILIATES. CREATED BY: MICHAEL DANTE DIMARTINO AND BRIAN KONIETZKO, I OWN NO PART PAST OR PRESENT IN THIS FRANCHISE

Title: Eien no ai

Rated: T

WARNINGS: some suggestive situations, as well as terminology.

A/N:

OK so here it is an AU of mid to book 2,and everything in the episodes that I do not rewrite happens ok? That simple? I am throwing this out here as a sample, because really I if no one likes it, I probably won't post any more than the first two chapters….

Oh and a reference to the movie "Griff the Invisible" will be appearing throughout

And all words in other languages will be translated within the story eventually.

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Introduction: Visions, Dreams, and the Sweetest Things

The dreams were relentless, waking in a cold sweat would be a comfort, but his body rebelled against his mind. Open eyes, and a fire spreading to his extremities marked the end of his sleep cycle. He called them nightmares; they caused him stress, and cost him rest.

In all they consisted of the Avatar, just as his dreams before their meeting in the South Pole. The only difference being that the subject now had a face, an oddly young one at that. He never remembered them when he woke up, but slowly through the day they would come to him like memories of a distant life.

They all began the same, him falling into an abyss, from there they diverged.

In some he would be chasing the boy in the darkness, feeling as though he could never reach him, and when the young prince felt exhausted to the point of collapsing, his legs would give way to his own weight. The boy would appear above him, sit and cradle the Prince's head in his small lap. Whispering soft words in a language he could not comprehend, then when Zuko would muster the strength to lash out, the boy dissipated into a thin blue smoke screen, and hovered around him, like a prayer. Seeping into his lungs until he could no longer breathe, but the Prince never felt fear, even when he would begin to feel a heat form in his skull and his vision would go gold. That is how it would end in the void, burning then consciousness would slam into him. The burning sensation would still linger in his bones, which caused him to shudder, and cast the blankets away.

In the other dreams the heat would begin immediately, and his irises would glow with an unnatural light. A woman would be before him, and he felt that he knew her. The Woman's eyes glowed just a bright as his own, and she would kneel to meet him, and reveal a line of souls extending as far as history itself. All with illuminated eyes, he felt these to be the colors of the four nations. He knew them all intimately, but knew none of them by name. She would ask him so softly like a mother, "What is the Avatar?"

And Zuko would frown and reply, "A Prize" and the fire of each soul's eyes would burn him alive.

In the third, he would find an oasis in the darkness, a pool of water with a small bush and tall tree. Two sitting rocks stood on each side, and a voice called him there. More like a collection of voices. The Prince had brought himself to sit upon one of rocks, and behind him appeared the line of souls from before. In front of him would sit the Avatar seemingly out of thin air, and another line of souls he felt he knew just as well appeared behind the boy. The Avatar would smile, "What does the Avatar mean to you Trung Thành Một?"

Zuko would inhale, and reply, "My honor"

And again he would feel a fire from behind him consume his own soul.

Each dream he replied his true feelings, yet he would awaken feeling as though he had been burned alive. As if those people in his line hated him, as if he gave the wrong answer and was being punished for it, he wondered what the right answer was.

The dreams had begun after he had liberated the Avatar from Zhao's fortress and archers, but intensified after their encounter involving Jun. And that was when the fourth dream began.

The oasis seemed different here, and the Avatar stood in the water, extending a hand forward. The Prince did not know what possessed him but he took the hand offered, and entered the pool. Not a moment would pass before the small boy began dancing with him. And whispered "You'll be the rhythm, and I'll be the beat"

It was the only dream he had ever awoken from without fire in his blood from dying, and it was the only dream which he had words remaining to be said, even if he himself did not know what was to be said.