Title: Perception
Characters/Pairings: Kuzon, Aang
Rating: K+
Summary: It's all about perception, really. The Air Nomads were evil and the Fire Nation did a civil service for the world. So they needed to fix the inaccuracies in the history books.
Disclaimer: I do not receive money from this work of fanfiction.

A/N: I've realized - Kuzon is a really interesting character. And propaganda is a powerful subject. So I ran with the concept, and this is the finish line. How'd I do?

Perception

It is three months since Sozin's Comet, and the history books have changed.

Kuzon remembers the day because it has been two months since he's first heard the rumor that the Air Nomads don't exist anymore. Three months since his firebending had experienced a curious surge in power. Four since his father had left home on some mission for the army. Fifteen since he had last seen one of his closest friends, Aang.

He tries not to think of the possibilities. Because they hurt too much and it's too much for a thirteen-year-old soon-to-be-a-man to worry about. So he toys with the idea that Aang is just in hiding. Or that Aang's real parents, who are actually Fire Nation, had finally found him and brought him back and they're just getting settled in and he won't be able to visit for a while.

These books are brand new and very special to us, his teacher tells them sharply. Take care of them or face the consequences. Kuzon, for a split, sees her eyes water and lips quiver (did she have an airbending friend too?). And a moment later it is gone and replaced with her usual stern features. Open your book to page seven.

Kuzon knows this isn't normal. That history books are only ever updated once a new Fire Lord takes the throne. That Fire Lord Sozin is nowhere near death and his son won't be wearing the crown anytime soon.

He reads through the book on some nights to see what has changed: the Water Tribes are savage and want to be taught about civilization (don't they just have a simpler way of living?); the Earth Kingdom's government is weak and needs to be united (but isn't each individual city-state strong in its own way?); and the Air Nomads were a threat to society and deserved to be removed from the world (but didn't they believe in peace?).

Kuzon reads the Air Nomad section over and over until the characters blur together and forever imprint into his mind. Until he cannot tell the difference between his own beliefs and what the book tells him. Because it hurts to think about the other possibilities.

And so he forces himself to believe that the Air Nomads broke apart families (because they believed in bonds not written in blood, but in friendships as strong as any family name).

He forces himself to believe that the Air Nomads ostracized those who couldn't bend (rather than the common belief that nonbenders simply didn't exist within the Air Nomad community because of their spirituality).

He forces himself to believe that the Air Nomads were only hungry for power and worked towards subtle world domination under the guise of uniting the peoples of all nations (though the Fire Nation is doing the same thing, but for the good of the world and not for power).

He forces himself to believe in his nation. Because, he would laugh to himself, who has ever heard of a nation that wouldn't do the best for its people? Or a nation that lies?

And he tries not to about other fathers being taken away from other children. Or the young woman who one day had protested the war and claimed the Fire Nation really had lied to them, but went missing the next.

Because it hurts to think about the other possibilities. The possibility that one of his closest friends, Aang, will never visit again. The possibility that thousands of innocent people will never again be able to open a new, freshly printed history book.

So Kuzon sits quietly in class, like any good boy-almost-man, should, and writes about his day in his class journal. It's three months since Sozin's Comet, and we have new history books…