Air, Earth, Water, Fire, and Steel
"Wake up!"a loud bossy voice said from behind the door, followed by a sharp knocking.
"I said wake up!" The door burst open and light streamed into the room illuminating the bed's single occupant.
"Gah!" Shio exclaimed, shielding his eyes with the pillow, "You know my eyes are super sensitive Azula, shut the damn door!"
Azula shut the door but didn't apologize, "My father has called an emergency meeting of the court and I need my bodyguard with me."
He grumbled sleepily, "Haven't you told your father that you don't need a body guard?"
"Multiple times," she replied, "but he insists that it is proper for a princess to have one even though she can easily defend herself."
He grunted in reply, throwing the covers off the bed and reaching for his protective sunglasses, "Give me ten minutes to get dressed." He said.
Without a word Azula left the room. Shio quickly bathed and dressed in a pair of loose fitting black pants, a tight, sleeveless black shirt and his jacket. The jacket was sleeveless like the shirt exposing lightly muscled arms; the red, black and yellow coat has been custom made for him by one of the finest garment makers in the fire nation, a gift from the princess for his birthday. He belted on two short swords around the small of his back; the hilts protruding on either side of his back and donned a large broadsword, the hilt sticking over his right shoulder. He opened the door where Azula was waiting for him and they departed for the throne room.
"So what is so important that we have to be in the throne room at this time in the morning? The suns barely up."
"No idea," Azula replied, a courier just came and got me, I know just as much as you do."
They continued the rest of their walk to the throne room in silence. As they approached the entrance to the throne room, Azula changed her gait from her usual aggressive stride to a more delicate walk befitting of a royal princess. Shio too changed his gait, squared his shoulder and did his best to make himself look taller, and more intimidating as a bodyguard should.
"Princess Azula and her escort Shio." the crier shouted as they entered.
"I really wish they would give me a different title," Shio muttered to Azula as they crossed the floor, "makes it sound like we're screw… uh, romantically involved" he said catching himself, it wouldn't look very good if someone overheard him using that kind of language in front of the nobles.
Azula snickered and rolled her eyes, implying wordlessly that the thought of the two of them ever being romantically involved was silly.
Azula approached the curtain of fire that her father sat behind, she bowed, "Father."
Azula stepped aside, heading for her place beside her father, Shio approached the fire and bowed in an identical fashion, "Firelord." He turned and followed Azula to her seat and was about to take his place standing directly behind her when the firelord spoke, "Shio, come here." One of Shio's eyebrows shot up in surprise but he strode over.
Ozai motioned for him to kneel beside him, which Shio did; Ozai then leaned over and whispered something in his ear.
From her seat, even though she couldn't see his eyes behind his dark glasses she could tell that Shio was shocked at what her father was telling him. She began to seethe a little with envy as she wondered what made Shio privy to this information and not her.
Ozai finished his instructions to the swordsman, "Now go," he said dismissing Shio, "There is transportation waiting outside the palace gates."
"Y-yes, Firelord, right away." Shio replied standing up and bowing quickly. He stepped to the massive flame curtain which parted in front of him. He was so shocked at the news that Ozai had told him, he forgot to adopt his intimidating stride as he left the throne room. He got into the dragon moose drawn carriage at the front of the palace which started immediately for the docks. Could Prince Zuko really have the avatar? He wondered staring out the window of the carriage at the bright sunny day.
Several minutes later the carriage arrived at the main harbor; Shio got out and began walking down the docks, passing the massive Fire navy ships that dwarfed anything the other two nations had. Soon Prince Zuko's ship came into sight; it was quite easy to spot as it was just a small clipper that was miniscule next to the massive Battleships docked next to it. He arrived just as the gangplank of the ship was being let down, Shio stopped at the bottom of the ramp his read coat blowing in the stiff ocean breeze. Prince Zuko emerged within moments and immediately spotted Shio standing at the bottom; he gestured to someone inside and made his way halfway down the ramp where he stopped.
"What are you doing here?" Zuko asked sneering at the swordsman, "Are you my welcome party?"
"You could say that," Shio replied shrugging, "I'm here bearing a message from your father
"Oh? Well let's hear it."
"He essentially says that if you have come back without the avatar or with a fake one you will not be leaving this island again."
"So he has decided to take me back no matter what?" Zuko asked, his hopes clearly rising.
"No," Shio replied, smirking slightly, "He implied that the consequences of a fake or nonexistent avatar would be much more severe than the punishment you received last time." Shio noticed Zuko's hand reach up for the scar on his left eye but quickly stopped himself. "So you would technically be living here, but you would be living here six feet underground…"
Zuko frowned but did not seem too worried, "If that's all then you can get away from my ship and let us unload." Zuko snapped, expressing his intense dislike for the swordsman.
Frowning, Shio snapped right back, "Oh, drop the attitude Zuko, you're damn lucky that your father didn't have you blown out of the water as soon as you entered the harbor."
"Respect your superiors," he said condescendingly, "You will address me as Prince Zuko."
"I don't have to address you as CRAP, as far as everyone on this island is concerned, you're still banished and have no title or birthright."
Zuko couldn't argue with that so he kept his mouth shut and glared fiercely at the older boy.
"Anyway," Shio continued, "The Firelord has ordered you to come to the palace immediately so you can present your captives, if you have any, directly to him. There will be transportation waiting for you at the end of the dock. NOW I'm finished, I'll see you at the palace."
Without another look back Shio turned and strode back up the docks and to his carriage. He was still angry at Zuko for such a cocky little jerk but by the time he got back to the palace he had cooled down. He strode into the throne room, waving off the crier who had been about to announce his name again. As he approached Azula she raised an eyebrow, wordlessly asking what that was all about. Shio shook his head and mouthed You'll see to her. The curtain of fire parted in front of him and he took his place behind Azula, his feet shoulder width apart and his hands clasped behind his back.
They only had to wait for a few minutes until the crier opened the massive doors to the throne room and shouted, "The Great General Iroh and his nephew Zuko!"
The entire throne room gasped in surprise and whispered quietly to themselves as the generously proportioned former general and the scrawny, scarred teenager stepped through into the throne room. Zuko strode in confidently, seeming quite sure of himself while Iroh seemed incredibly uneasy. They stopped in front of the throne and bowed to the Firelord. Shio saw a jolt run through Azula as she realized who had just walked in; it quickly subsided and she quickly regained his composure.
The silhouette that was the Firelord leaned forward slightly, "I was certainly surprised when I was informed that you were about to dock in the harbor, I can only assume you have a good reason to return," the Firelord.
"I do Father," Zuko replied loudly, making sure he was head by the entire court, "I have captured the Avatar…"
This time the court erupted into all out chatter, not even trying to whisper anymore.
Zuko gestured and two of his guards hauled three figures into the throne room. They forced the trio down to their knees. Peering over the curtain of fire Shio was surprised to see that they were but children. The one in the center was a boy, maybe 11-13, Shio couldn't be sure, he was dressed in yellow and orange clothing and had obvious blue tattoos on his bald head. The two kids on either side of him were dressed in blue clothing, what Shio assumed to be watertribe garb. The looked around nervously too scared to say anything, the boy with the tattoos however had a muzzle of some kind over his mouth. Shio was rather skeptical of this, as the Avatar would have been well over 100 years old at this point.
Ozai seemed to be thinking the same thing as he stiffened, "Then WHY," the firelord thundered, "have you brought me a Bunch of children!?"
Zuko cringed and recoiled slightly as the curtain of fire blazed higher under his father's anger. Shio saw him quickly compose himself, a look of determination on his face. "Father, this child is the Avatar," he said gesturing at the one in orange; He hauled him up by the arm and marched him closer to his father's throne. "If you'll look closely father you can tell that the boy's tattoos are authentic as far as we can tell from the illustrations in historical texts." Shio could see the boy's tattoos much easier now that he was closer, they appeared to be very intricate lines all meshed together to form an arrow on his forehead and continued down his neck and disappeared under his clothes. "We also discovered this," Zuko continued, presenting his father with a wooden staff. A servant came forward and took the staff, handing it to the firelord who began inspecting it. "As you can see, father, it is a glider that the airbenders used." The firelord nodded, seemingly convinced of the fact that the boy was indeed an Airbender.
"What of the other two? Why have you brought them before me? Asked Ozai, sounding much less angry than he did before.
"They attempted to rescue the avatar after we were underway. They attacked us with his flying bison
"How do we know he's the avatar?" Inquired Azula, Shio could detect a small hint of anger in her voice, "How do we know that he isn't the child of some airbenders that managed to escape the purge?"
"Azula makes an excellent point Zuko, what proof do you have that this is the Avatar?
Iroh spoke up, "We were sailing near the Southern water tribe and spotted a large beam of energy and immediately sailed towards it." Iroh looked down, seemingly ashamed of the next part, "When we arrived, we found the boy and forced him to come with us by threatening to raze the village to the ground. Then we performed the avatar test; we already knew he was an Airbender from the short fight he put up. We placed the other three elements in front of him and all three of them reacted to his presence. We are sure he is the-"
"Show me." Interrupted Ozai, "Show me the test."
Iroh nodded and gestured to the guards; the one holding Aang shoved him forward and brought him back to his knees closer to the Firelord, the other brought a bag out and first placed a candle in front of the bound and gagged boy and lit it. the flame seemed to flare and be slightly drawn to the boy.
Shio raised an eyebrow and shook his head slightly; any reasonably skilled firebender could do that.
Next, the guard took out a water skin and poured haphazardly around the boy scattering the water everywhere. The droplets now seemed to move slightly on their own eventually coalescing into a perfect circle in front of the boy.
Shio was impressed, if this was a trick he couldn't figure out how they could pull that off without warping the floor itself.
Finally, the guard pulled out a rock with a pointy end on it. To demonstrate, he walked closer to the firelord and placed it on the pointy end where it promptly fell over. The guard brought the rock back and placed it the exact same way in front of the boy where it balanced perfectly and stayed there.
Shio heard Ozai exhale loudly and the curtain of fire flared in front of him. Ozai stood and walked through the flames, passed through them and began to approach Zuko, whose eyes widened with poorly suppressed fear. Ozai strode right up to him and put ha hand on his shoulder.
"My son, you have redeemed yourself." He said a smile slowly spreading across his face. "As of right now, your honor and title have been restored," He turend to the rest of the throne room and proclaimed loudly "The Crown Prince has returned!" the throne room erupted into applause.
Shio applauded as well, he glanced down at Azula, who was barely clapping at all. He could see her frowning, her anger barely contained. This was only compounded as Zuko approached the two of them; he saw Azula's back stiffen.
"Hello Azula, nice to see you again." The prince said smirking slightly.
Azula's voice was neutral but Shio could tell she was hiding anger behind it, "Nice to see you too, brother."
Zuko then leveled his gaze at Shio and cleared his throat pointedly.
Shio rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Welcome back, Prince Zuko."
Zuko gave him a cocky grin; he opened his mouth to say something else but at that moment Ozai clapped his hands. The throne room instantly fell silent and all attention was focused on the firelord.
"First, take the prisoners away and lock them up in the main prison. Then interrogate them, find out if they know about those pesky water tribe boats that have been harassing our supply lines."
A trio of royal guards crisply saluted and roughly dragged the children off. Shio winced in sympathy as the watertribe boy's head was knocked against the ground.
"Second," continued Ozai, "begin preparations for a feast! The Crown prince has returned and a celebration in in order!"
The throne room erupted in applause, and Zuko smugly looked around, glad to be back in his rightful place.
Shio politely applauded, but the nagging thought that this event would change the royal family forever permeated his mind.