Ok so I just rewatched the first season of avatar the last air bender for the millionth time and I started to think of a possible side story after Admirable Zhao is taken by the water spirit whilst dueling Zuko. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking 'I bet he's not dead!' always expecting him to pop up later in the next seasons to harass Aang and the gang. Needless to say he doesn't. But overall it got me thinking as to what actually happened to Zhao after he was taken by the water spirit, did he die? Was he taken somewhere else and tortured by the fish that sought revenge? Don't get me wrong, Admirable Zhao is not my first pick of characters id like to write about, I think he's an absolute arse and definitely got what was coming to him. But his side story was too good to pass up, and I always loved the idea that he ended up somewhere unexpected. So without further ado here it is, please be kind. Oh and constructional criticism is welcome.
Prologue
The room in which he sat was cold and damp. He could hear a faint drip somewhere down the long dark corridors and the light in which he read flickered annoyingly. Despite the many things that would have once distracted him and driven him insane, General Zhao sat on the edge of his seat in hard concentration pouring over encyclopedia's and pages of pages of ancient Water tribe secrets.
His stumbling over this library was sheer luck and pure genius Zhao thought as he silently chuckled to himself. Not only had he discovered long lost traits about the water tribe he figured that only half of water benders even knew, but he had also discovered that when they were most vulnerable and most powerful. This is exactly the information that would come in handy when the siege of Ba Sing Se was over and they focused all the fire nations' military on the water nation.
From what he had last heard General Iroh's siege was going according to plan, they had almost made it through the wall, with the help of his son Lu Ten they were an unstoppable force.
Zhao chuckled again. What a foolish bird for letting me in here. There were aisles and aisles of information on all four nations. He'd spent more than 5 hours on the earth nation alone, 2 on the extinct air nation (but mainly just searching for some hidden information about the long lost avatar), but much to his displeasure he'd walked away with a few bits of useless information. He'd now been the water nation section for 7 hours and had found countless bits of information that he could and would use against them in the future impending battle. Once they had secured Ba Sing Se and obliterated the earth nations spirits to ruble they would close in on the water nation with an unstoppable force that made Zhao so proud to be apart of the mighty fire nation.
Zhao put down the papers that he was holding and had a long stretch and rubbed his tired eyes. He was sure his army battalion would soon be getting worried about his whereabouts, he had told them all to remain just inside the building ready to leave at the drop of a hat. The large owl that had identified himself as Wan Shi Tong was extremely pleased to have a visitor who was as highly intelligent as Zhao, though he couldn't speak very highly of the wing nuts in his battalion. Wan Shi Tong gave him the grand tour and Zhao was the perfect guest, he listened intently and was very well mannered, he had played Wan Shi Tong like a harp. General Zhao was very surprised that a creature from the spirit world could be so easily fooled.
General Zhao placed some more information in his already full sack. Pleased with the progress he had made today Zhao made to leave only to notice something he hadn't noticed before. Zhao pulled the large book off the shelf and flicked through a few of its pages.
General Zhao's eyes widened as he read the following passage.
"Thousands of years ago, La and Tui decided to leave the spirit realm and take up mortal forms in the physical realm to benefit mankind. Both spirits resided along with the people of the northern water tribe, aiding them in the quests and endeavors into the unknown of water bending. The moon was the first water bender and taught the people to push and pull the currents. The people of the water pull their strength from the spirit of the moon, but their life from the spirit of the water. Both Tui and La work together to create balance as La means to pull and Tui means to push, highly resembling that of yin and yang…"
Zhao stopped reading as the severity of this passage sank in.
'If the water nation took their strength from the moon and the moon spirit had taken a physical form it could easily be eliminated therefore rendering all waterbender's completely and utterly powerless' Zhao mused
The generals smiled increased wider as he read on and managed to locate the where about of these two spirits and the forms they took. Today was a very good day indeed.
Zhao walked down the aisle whistling a merry little tune. Nothing could bring him down off the high perch in which he now sat. He was going to be in history books as the conqueror of the moon, destroyer of the water Nation. He liked that title as he said it over and over in his head. The general quickened his pace eager now to leave the library.
Zhao pulled up suddenly when he caught sight of the fire nation's part of the library. He peered down the dimly lit corridors holding up his torch to see how far it went. A wicked notion started to formulate in his head and he suddenly pulled himself away and headed towards the exit hoping to avoid Wan Shi Tong and getting caught with stolen literature.
Zhao caught sight of his battalion all sitting looking bored at the entrance. One of the men, the one Zhao had placed in charge till he had returned stood up and saluted the general.
'At ease captain Jin' General Zhao said saluting the captain back.
'sorry to keep you all waiting' Zhao said looking around his battalion of men who were all now standing waiting for his next order.
'I have discovered an inconvenience that could place the fire nation state of secrecy in jeopardy. If any of the other nations came in here they could easily infiltrate the fire lord's master plan for the future. I need you to destroy the part of the library that house's all information on the fire nation' Zhao commanded his troops
His troops almost immediately ran off to the direction that he came from. Zhao smirked and walked out of the library and into the harsh elements of the desert.
Ok well that is the first chapter, the next one will make more sense I hope, this is only the prologue and I know its boring information but I need to get it out of the way now before I begin the fun stuff. Anyway please R&R if you enjoyed.
