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I was just thinking about the dark!Lu Ten AU that electronswrites came up with (specifically this scenario based on an ask from
paintedbluerose) & came up with a new angle: A corruption arc for Zuko. Special offer - 2 dark Fire Princes for the price of 1!
Basically, as in the linked post, Lu Ten sells Zuko out & the Earth Kingdom takes him prisoner. They torture him for information but get nothing. But things go awry when they try to offer him for ransom.
Because look, Ozai might not care about his son, & Zuko might be banished, but this is still his son we're talking about here, & if news that the Earth Kingdom had him were to leak then that would be an unacceptable humiliation for the Fire Nation. He still ain’t gonna give them shit though, so he just strings the negotiators along while instructing Azula to take a detour on her way to Ba Sing Se. Or gets someone else to do it (a job for Combustion Man or the Rough Rhinos, perhaps?).
He'd planned just have Zuko quietly & conveniently die & had already written the eulogy. But then he learns that Lu Ten is alive (even though Ozai had a deal that he would be killed) & - apparently - Iroh was the one who ordered that Zuko be given to the Earth Kingdom. To him, it all looks so obvious: Iroh latches on to Zuko so that he has an heir ready for when he takes the throne (back) from Ozai (why else would he want to spend time with Zuko???), but then his own heir reappears & Zuko is now surplus to requirements. And Ozai is pissed. Zuko & Azula are his possessions! How dare Iroh think he can use one of them as his pawn? Well, two can play that game, & Ozai does not intend to lose.
Zuko has spent less time in Earth Kingdom hands than if he'd had to wait till Iroh could get him out after the war, but he's still in a pretty bad way. So he ends up in the palace infirmary, high as a kite on painkillers, while Ozai & Azula tell him how awful it is that Iroh did that, & doesn't that prove that he & his son don't deserve the throne & that Ozai was right? But don't worry, you're home now, with your family. You're safe here with us... And Zuko is listening to all this, drugged & in pain, & it all makes so much sense. And his father did rescue him. That must mean he actually does love Zuko after all, right? Ozai praises him for not telling his interrogators anything (just because he doesn't know anything useful doesn't mean he's going to talk) & Zuko absolutely seizes on that.
Maybe Ozai would claim those letters that Zuko found were forged. Maybe Azula would gaslight him into believing that their cousin had always been like this & their father was just trying to protect them by getting rid of him. Or maybe Zuko would be beyond caring by this point.
Ozai publicises the 'Iroh & Lu Ten totally sold Zuko to the Earth Kingdom' story to discredit his brother & nephew & head off any potential bids for the throne, so the Gaang find out what happened. Naturally they don't believe it at first - they joined forces with Iroh & Lu Ten in Ba Sing Se, & sure Lu Ten seems kinda weird, but Iroh is chill so they give him the benefit of the doubt. But Lu Ten doesn't even try to deny it. Hey, he did them a favour by getting rid of the guy who chased them for months! Iroh is devastated.
And he can't do anything about it. Even if he was desperate enough to give himself up in the hope that he'd get a chance to apologise to his nephew, he knows he has to teach the Avatar firebending (sure as hell can't leave that task to Lu Ten). And he can't reason with his son, because as far as Lu Ten is concerned, this just proves him right - see how easily Zuko went back to that traitor! They find a poster with the text of a speech the Firelord gave about how horrified he is that those monsters could do such a thing to his beloved son who he has missed sooooo much, which Iroh sees for the obvious propaganda it is but Lu Ten accepts as truth & cannot be convinced otherwise. (The speech includes mention of some of the injuries Zuko came home with, & Iroh hopes they're as much a lie as the declarations of love.)
Iroh has to deal with the fact that both of his sons have gone dark. Also, this would probably result in the Fire Nation winning, or at least not losing as conclusively as they did in canon.
Because assuming that Aang's encounter with the lion turtle still happens then Aang would still have everything he needs to be able to defeat Ozai. And Iroh would probably guess about the 'burn it all down with airships' thing because he knows what his brother is like & airships provide a great way of causing maximum damage. So not much change there. But Zuko not defecting means that the Boiling Rock doesn't happen (or if it does then it doesn't involve him), so Mai & Ty Lee don't betray Azula to save him, so she's not going to go into a downward spiral & dismiss anyone who looks at her funny. Anyone showing up at the Fire Palace is going to face a united front of Azula, Zuko, Mai & Ty Lee, as well as her Dai Li agents (& any other guards she dismissed offscreen in canon).
