Here is the first chapter of my second Avatar fic, an AU following the adventures of a character through the Fire Nation after the end of the War :D

I don't plan on making a grand epic fan fic, but it'll certainly be a long fan fic, that will deal with the events of the sequel comics like The Promise or Smoke and Shadows, and original situations.

I know that it's far from perfect, so as I noted in the reviews, don't hesitate to drop a review or two, it'll help me a lot with the story : )

Have a good read !

"Grandma, please, tell us everything."

"The very very beginning ? The very middle ? The early middle ?"

"Erm, just the spy stuff."

"The early middle then !"

"Very well, then. »

The ninja lurked across the landscape, silently moving around the empty land around the base, leaping or sneaking past any of the barriers or signs enciting civilians to leave the area. Fences stood at some point, but it was nothing that she couldn't simply get past.

The person was clad in a dark and blue suit that covered her entire body, with a blue uwagi, an undershirt with a turtleneck, two gloves, dark blue pants and shoes, and a face-concealing eyes. Only her brown eyes could be seen through it as she stared down the peak of the mountain, the crater in her sight.

The Zalmar base was located within a lake, itself located in the humongous crater of the nearby mountain. Long ago, when the spirits were roaming around the Earth, that mountain used to spew fire, lava and ashes at the region, enveloping everything around it within its titanic wrath and creating large wastelands whenever it awoken.

Its power was far above any fire bender, and even a fully-realized Avatar would struggle to control the full, unleashed might of the volcano. That one volcano fell to its own power though, and ceased to breath fire some millenias ago, to the point where a lake, and even a military base, eventually managed to settle themselves in gaping maw.

She did not come simply to study the old mountains, though. She already bought the books about it and the adorable little volcano plushie. What interested her was the military base at its very center, and what that military base held.

The kunoichi took the time to avoid a nearby patrol, ducking behind a huge rock. She quickly deemed it useless when she saw that the soldiers were awkwardly moving around, erratically making their way in the plain land around the crater.

She smiled. Not only because of the comical appearance of the guards, but also because it meant that she succeeded in the first step of her goal. The rest of the mission was going to be a piece of cake, maybe she'd even be back to the capital by the night ? It was an hopeful thought, but a distracting one, and she continued to walk.

Ever since Avatar Aang defeated the previous Fire Lord, one year ago, the Fire Nation has been in turmoil. With his daughter, Azula, reduced to a screeching harpy, it was up to his hated son, Zuko, to take on the task of leading the proud country through the turmoil of the end of the war.

She never knew what to make of it. As a ninja and citizen, she was taught to respect and love the Fire Lord ever since her birth. It didn't matter if Zuko used to be an exile, he was the ruler now, and her fellow ninjas had no choice but to bend their knees and awaits his order. Her superiors followed a similar line of thinking, and merely set themselves to work for the scarred young man.

Others were much less graceful, and were not willing to bow down to the new Lord. These men and women, belonging to the elite of the Fire Nation, be they governors or generals, were clearly not intent on letting the banished son gain the throne, and went underground to plot their rebellions, taking some rogue soldiers with them, convincing them with either charisma or the promise of a good sum of money.

Some of these rebels argued that Zuko technically never defeated his sister in duel, some said that the young prince spent his time in the war helping the enemy to defeat the Fire Nation, making him an opportunistic traitor who savvily took his family members out of the way while ensuring himself to be out of the grasp of the Avatar.

Others defended their notion of power, and how the new Lord would happily let the other nations devour the warm body of his own nation, unlike his glorious father and grand-fathers who managed to bring the world to their knees. Ozai may have lost his bending, but his ruthless spirit was still there, and that was all he needed to once again conquer the globe.

The idea that Ozai was completely insane and willing to burn down a part of the world just to get rid of resistance never seemed to cross their minds.

One last portion of them simply enjoyed specific benefits under the Fire Lord's reign, and lost these benefits with the arrival of the new Lord. Most of the governors fell under that category, and didn't specifically wish to put up Ozai or his screechy harpy on the throne again, they merely wanted a new ruler who would be more accepting of their illegal activities.

General Houn was the second type, the kind of old man who walks in front of a gigantic banner while making a speech about the gloriousness of the nation to hordes of impressed young men and women. Out of all the traitors, he was amongst the last to be found out, and appeared to be constantly moving in and out of his base.

It was unlikely for her to catch a glimpse of Houn in the Zalmar base, but he wasn't her objective so she didn't mind.

The true goal of her search was something else entierely, something that would bring down the man himself and allows her to get rid of the menace represented by Houn forever, and maybe get some of his own allies as well.

The ultimate instrument of his downfall was… a box full of scrolls. Not some weapon to take him down or a bomb, no, they would just need to get that box. It contained everything about Houn's trips, his allies, his bases, and his plans as well. Everything that they needed to know would be known and catching Houn would be very easy.

He already managed to trick some soldiers by luring them to fake boxes, but her sources told her that this one was the defintive version. It seemed that the man was fond of gathering everything he needed in one spot but she wasn't going to complain about it, especially because she knew how he treated his soldiers well enough to establish a little trick of her own.

Arriving at the edge of the crater, the young agent grabbed her rudimentary binoculars and held them up to stare at the base itself. Not like she truly needed it, since she could hear the sound of cheers even from her position. It was always more careful to lay out the map before doing anything though, since she certainly did not want to stumble upon a drunken soldier or vice-versa.

The base was built on several wooden platforms, with a large pagoda at the very center, and smaller houses for the rest. Each of the platforms were connected with wooden bridges, but some small ships were also there for easier transportation. If everything was normal, there would be archers on every roof, soldiers would be walking down the platforms with their usual stoic frowns, and traps would be set in the water.

That wasn't a normal day.

All the soldiers were busy walking through the bridges or fighting over empty bottles of alcohol. The entire base was lit up, and the only sober soldiers were barely able to maintain order, preventing their companions from falling and drowning into the clear water and handing out vomit buckets with great distress and disgust.

The traps were laying on the bridges or platforms, hurringly pulled out to avoid harming the drunken men, she memorized the patterns of these traps, since they couldn't all be pulled out given the size of the base.

All the soldiers who worked for the rebels weren't motivated by pride of the Fire Nation, especially after coming out of the Hundred Year War. Those at the base had to work under an unforgiving general, who was quite passionate about 'discipline. » They could say goodbye to pleasures like drinking or even gambling, because Houn wanted fresh, focused soldiers under his command.

As a result, the base was filled with men who were desesperately trying not to think about drinking any alcoholic was going to happen when the girl, thanks to some useful proxies and the absence of Houn, manages to sneak some barrels of the stuff into the camp ?

A lot of chaos, as excepted. It worked to her advantage but she had to get by pretty quickly before the commotion is noticed. She could already see hawks flying out of the base, probably attempting to seek advices from the other camps.

A wiser ninja would shoot them down, but she felt that she could do the job before they'd even reach the other bases, and headed over to a particular rock to bury some of her stuff, while grabbing some bamboo. She was going to go underwater and swim over the main house, pick up the box, and escape while the sober commanders were dealing with the commotion.

Of course, she knew of the risks of swimming in a lake located in the middle of a crater, or in potentially vomit-filled water, but apparently, the lake was safe enough. And she simply needed to take the safe road.

And beside, simply being dirty wasn't the worst that could happen to her. She'd just need to bathe extra hard tonight and avoid meeting anyone she knew. Knowing that more dangers awaited her, the young girl quickly went in the water, avoiding the spots where some soldiers managed to successfully jump into the water without much after-effect.

The lake used to be a popular bathing spot before the military settled in there, after all. She knew it because the brochure said it so.

She finally took a dip and plunged her head underwater, using the bamboo as a crutch of some sort to breath up, and started swimming. The water of the lake was surprisingly agreeable, but the bottles, armor parts, and regurgitated meals at the surface nonethless made swimming in there disagreeable.

Nonethless, she continued her little trip within the lake, breathing out with the bamboo while escaping suspicion, the humble breathing device allowing her to stay underwater for a long period of time. She was afraid of someone streaming booze down the bamboo but the soldiers would rather drink or wag their empty bottles, from the sounds of it. She nearly got hit by some bottles, as a matter of fact.

Firstly, that would probaby make her precious uniform dirty. Secondly, she was never ever tagged by archers in the course of her life, getting hit by a stray bottle would be a source of immense dishonor for her, and would ruin her so far perfect streak.

Thankfully enough, she soon reached the main house, a huge pagoda, and peeked her eyes out. Two sober soldiers, unfazed by the happenings, were standing at the entrance of a well lit room, with a fancy red box at the center of it. More protectors were supposed to be standing around, but they were currently drinking their hearts out.

A wiser ninja would throw two bladed weapons and end their lives in a single instant, but she wasn't that kind of ninja, and instead dove back in the water silently. The ripple would be noticed, but the water was troubled enough, giving her the time to reach the back of the pagoda and climb out. That one sound was noticed though, and she could hear the guards noticeably tensing at the other end.

Footsteps soon echoed as she dove into the shadows. Normally, she would merely hang over the roof and silently strike them both, but she was dripping wet and would be easily noticed. Her eyes quickly darted as the soldiers walked together on the right side. It had the effect of preventing them from covering the left side, but they were together at least.

She checked to see if a spotter was supposed to be located on another wooden « island ». He was, and he was also brawling with invisible demons to keep his bottle.

The kunoichi walked to the right, and smiled as the footsteps on the other side rushed, deliberately luring the soldier into coming in before leaping up to one of the roof above right as she was standing in front of the room, the two soldiers approached barely a second after her leap and promptly looked down upon the ground to notice her vanishing.

The mistake was to look inside the room in panic for a split second. Because a split second was all she needed to leap down and knock their heads together, the soldiers promptly slumping to the ground as the helmets briefly rung. The hard fall was stopped by their mysterious attacker, who took the time to check around before carrying the soldiers inside and laying them aside quietly, looking down at the red box.

« Sorry guys, better luck next time. »

Her smile was an happy one as she laid her hand on the box, no animosity was present in her voice as she presented her apologies. She knew that they couldn't air but the action was important.

It was as large as her torso, and if it weren't for all of her strength training, she might have been unable to pick it up. Thankfully enough, she was just strong enough to barely suffer any strain while carefully picking it up. Houn seemingly relied a lot on his soldiers, because there wasn't any effects to taking the box.

The box was coloured rex with some figurative yellow flames over it, and was marked with a gigantic lock at its center. Apparently, one needed special keys to open that one lock, and all of the other locks beside. Only the general had them on him, or his aide, and they were both away.

That, or he tricked them again, she'll let the guys over at the HQ decide.

The young woman picked up the box, carrying it under her arm, and looked over at the water. If it were another box, she would be forced to take the way of the sky or sneak up on the bridge, but she knew that the box was made to resist the elements.

If it were to fall in the lake, or get caught in a firebender's attack, or get buried under rocks, the box would survive and the scrolls inside would be safe. The material in it was tougher than most armors, and was pretty hard to find. They knew that the other boxes were safe because they broke to the second drill.

Houn paid well to protect his scrolls, and that was about to bite him.

« Well, I'm either going to go home in glory, or I'm going to need to explain why I brought wet papers to my superiors. »

The ninja rose to the tip of her feet, prepared her leap, and jumped into the water with a nice dive, water engulfed the box and her own body, but it stood firm as ever. She was tempted to raise it above her head in triumph, but then realized that she'd get spotted and took the way back instead.

By the time they realized that she was even there, she would be away with the box, and Houn would get caught before he even knew what hit him ! She briefly thought of leaving a calling card with an ironic inscription on it, something to the effect of « you smell », but she lacked any paper on her at the moment.

The trip back to the shore was all clear, and the shadow of the night helped her to blend in as she went back to her stuff, carrying it out of view at a good pace and looking around before slowly taking her hood off, raising the box above her head !

« Once again, On-Ji succeed ! »

« wut ? » said a far-away voice.

On-Ji yelped and promptly ran away.

AGENT OF THE FIRE NATION