Chapter 1:
Family Reunion
Fire Lord Zuko approached the maximum security Fire Nation prison with hesitation. His heart pounded in his chest, and drops of sweat trickled down his forehead.
This was the first time since the war ended that Zuko had seen his father, Ozai, or his sister, Azula; it had been more than 6 months.
As he approached the tall building, he felt even more nervous. The tall, cold, gray building was very intimidating.
He drew even closer to the building and thought angrily at himself, Man up Zuko. You're here to interrogate, not talk about your feelings. Neither of those two traitors can hurt you. Ozai can't bend anymore and- well Azula might, but it's nothing you can't handle. It's not like she has had any time to practice.
He took a deep breath as he came to close to the guards. Neither of the guards recognized him, but that was due to the cloak Zuko was disguising himself with.
"What are you doing here?" One of the guards barked. His voice was deep and raspy.
"I guess you don't know who I am." Zuko responded, still hidden by the cloak. He wasn't surprised nobody had recognized him yet.
"No, but I suggest you leave soon, or you'll have the Fire Lord to deal with." The second guard said. His voice was much more smooth and tenor.
"That's funny." Zuko paused, removing the hood from his head. "…Because I am Fire Lord!"
Both of the guards were dumbfounded. They scrambled for apologetic words and gestures, but they were both too frozen from shock to even breathe. They stood before the Fire Lord, mouths agape, too stricken with fear to say anything.
Finally, after about 45 seconds, the guard with the tenor voice spoke.
"S-sorry, you're m-majesty… w-we didn't know it was y-you! O-our deepest apologies, sir."
"I guess you're confusing me with my father." Zuko chortled. "I'm not going to banish you, or do unspeakable things to you. Just let me in before I change my mind." Zuko actually smiled for once.
His new position as Fire Lord made him feel like he had the chance to make the world right- and all it needed was a little more happiness.
"I didn't expect you to know who I was! I was wearing a cloak after all" He smiled and laughed as the guards pulled the heavy doors open.
"No one is to know about this little endeavor. Nobody is to be let in after me. Not even Mai." Zuko demanded as he walked through the entrance.
As he entered the building, air whooshed in his face, and subsequently caused his robe to ripple in the breeze. The deep red fabric trimmed with gold was fluid like water.
There was only one hallway in the building. It spiraled up gradually. Zuko started up the cold hallway. The air had a heavy- almost dead feel about it. Every few yards were guards stationed, to prevent any escapees. In between the guards were lamps to illuminate the hallway. They gave off an orange glow, and little warmth.
Zuko could hear his footsteps echoing throughout the hallway. The cold metal made a harsh clinking noise as his boots walked along the dark hallway. It echoed in a lonely manner.
Zuko passed by several guards who all looked identical. All of them were tall, muscular, and rigid against the wall.
As he walked up the sloped hallway, he passed by some of the darkest names in recent Fire Nation history. They had committed crimes that even Ozai deemed terrible.
Zuko was almost near the top when he reached Ozai's cell. He opened the large, heavy, metal door and shut it behind him with a loud thud.
The full moon shone through a small window into his damp little cell. It was almost identical to the one that Iroh had wrongfully been kept in during the war.
"What could you possible want with me?" Ozai sneered.
"Oh, didn't they tell you? I came for your company and stories!" Zuko laughed sarcastically and abruptly stopped and spat "No." at his father.
"Then why are you here?" Ozai questioned.
"You are going to tell me where my mother is." Zuko demanded.
"Why on earth would you want to know that? She's probably dead by now. Banishing people doesn't really have a fantastic survival rate does it? When the people of the Earth Kingdom found out where she was, they probably crushed her. They tend to have a dim look upon Fire Nation. You would know all about that! A refugee, forced to hide his true identity to avoid death. You could've returned home sooner, but you were a failure and couldn't finish one simple task. Capturing the Avatar shouldn't have been so hard! You found him, and you decided to join him! Despicable and disgraceful. Ultimate dishonor!" Ozai spat at Zuko's feet.
"I'm not here to play games." Zuko retorted forcefully. He tried not to let his father's harsh words eat at him, but it was almost impossible.
"Neither am I. You put me here. A son put his own father into jail for life! Terrible." Ozai was trying to screw with Zuko's mind.
"You did it to yourself." Zuko said without remorse. "You didn't have to kill all those people."
"You're just weak." Ozai said. His tone was bitter.
"Stop it." Zuko's voice trembled.
"You're weak, just like my brother. I can scarcely call him my brother after what he did to the Fire Nation. He lost us Ba Sing Se because his son died in battle! Weak, spineless fool. I don't have to call him my brother, but I have to call you my son. I don't have to love you. Why do you think I banished you?" Ozai was really trying to throw Zuko off his game. He cackled maniacally.
" I said STOP IT!" Zuko screamed and punched flames out of his fist. Mere inches above Ozai's head, the stone wall was blackened.
Ozai seemed unaffected by the fire that could've caused him a scar like the one he had so affectionately given Zuko.
Zuko regained his composure.
"Now you are going to tell me where my mother is, or I will make your life a thousand times worse than it already is." He spoke through his teeth.
"Even if I was going to tell you, I wouldn't know." Ozai said nonchalantly. "After I banished her, it was my responsibility to get her to the Earth Kingdom, and that's it. After setting foot on Earth Kingdom soil, she was no longer my problem. She was a traitor, and did unforgivable acts to the Fire Nation royal family. She poisoned my father the night before I was supposed to kill you." Ozai was now leaning against the wall. His clothes were all tattered and baggy. They were a muddy brown, and hadn't been washed recently.
"I've had enough of you." Zuko's expression was wild; he snarled and his eyes were wild. At this, he spat at Ozai's feet and spun around. His robes flowing behind him like water.
Zuko effortlessly opened the ridiculously heavy door, and slammed it behind him.
He had intended to talk to Azula that night but decided to return the next night.
The Fire Lord walked heavily and angrily down the long, dimly lit hallway. His shoes clanked on the metal floor.
He reached the exit and the guards opened the doors. He pulled his cloak over his dark shaggy hair and set off for the royal palace.
The air was cool and damp. A gentle breeze sent air up through Zuko's cloak.
Zuko stalked down the dirt path with his head hanging. The malicious words Ozai had said to him sting in his mind like the scar on his face.
The path upon which Zuko walked made a slight crunching noise and he walked. He contemplated where to start his search. From what his father had said, even if it wasn't true, he should start in the Earth Kingdom.
I'll write a letter to Iroh, and ask him if I can stay there for a few days. Zuko thought to himself.
He continued to trudge down the dark path; the palace was growing nearer every second.
Finally he reached the gates of the palace. The quiet night was disturbed by the palace guard's voice.
"Welcome back sir." The guard spoke.
"Thank you." Zuko responded. His voice was heavy. "Can you open the gate? I need to go to bed." Zuko sounded irritated, and the guard complied immediately.
Zuko walked up to the palace door. It was huge and red with gold around the outside. Two guards struggled to pull it open, and as soon as they finished, Zuko strode inside.
"Where have you been?" Mai "greeted" him. She didn't even give him time to respond.
"Why are you out so late?" Mai sounded worried- an emotion she rarely displayed, much less in the presence of guards.
I've barely got through the door and she's already nagging me. Zuko sighed internally.
"I was visiting my father in the prison." Zuko responded.
"Why?" Mai sounded angry and curious at the same time.
"What are you planning to do? Why did you go see him? What's going on Zuko?" Mai sounded panicked.
"Calm down. I'll tell you everything in the morning." Zuko yawned.
Mai placed a slim pale hand on Zuko's chest.
"No. Tell me right now." She demanded.
"Listen. I'm tired and I really want to get to bed. I'll tell you about it in the morning." Zuko gently took her hand off his chest and proceeded to his bedroom.
"I want to know. Right now. You. Will. Tell. Me." Mai was furious.
"How crass of you. Just leave me alone. I can't believe you would be so selfish as to deny me rest, just so you can know something right now. It can wait until morning." Zuko stormed on towards his room.
Mai clenched her fists. She didn't care that she was being a brat she had to know what was going on.
"You come back here right now!" Mai screamed. Her voice echoed in the great hallway. Zuko didn't reply.
If Mai had been a fire bender, she would have consumed the palace in a conflagration of rage. Mai stood there in the hallway, tense and full of rage.
She thinks that just because she's Fire Lady, she can do whatever she bloody well wants. Well she's forgetting one minor detail. I'm Fire Lord! I'm one step above her! She's gone from being a ball of blah, to being a bratty ball of blah. She's almost as bad as Azula. He sneered at the name of his sister.
Zuko tried to calm himself as he strode down the hall. His cloak made it appear as if he were floating like a ghost. The servants might have believed it if it weren't for his heavy, contemplative footsteps that echoed throughout the halls of the palace.
The Fire Lord's bedroom was at the back of the palace, which meant he had a lot of walking to do. He glided past the war room, which made him uncomfortable every time he went in there.
It was a cold and cruel room where inhumane and unspeakable acts of selfish war games were made. Nobody else had ever connected the little figurines with actual souls. Souls with families and friends.
He also walked past the paintings of past Fire Lords. Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin were the three most recent. Soon he would be hanging on the wall with them.
However much he looked like his father and grandfathers, he knew he wasn't like them at all. Zuko wasn't concerned with overtaking the rest of the world in a fiery blaze. He was more concerned with restoring the damage caused by his malevolent forefathers.
The palace felt cold and lifeless. Even though it was late at night, Zuko felt as if the air were thick with strictness and fear.
He finally reached his bedroom. The handle was a dragon made of gold. It was a fierce looking dragon with eyes made of rubies. Its mouth was open, and out of its mouth there was a ring used to open and shut the door. The sharp teeth fascinated him as a child, but nowadays he tried not to think about his childhood.
The door unlatched itself and the sound resonated throughout the hallway. Zuko entered the large bedroom where the window was open and the moonlight shown in. A breeze blew the curtains, and the scene was rather cliché.
The huge four-poster bed stood in the middle of the room. It was a dark cherry wood, carved with dragons on each of the four posts. The sheets and blankets were a deep red, with gold trim. As was everything else in the Fire Nation.
Zuko disrobed and crawled into bed, without Mai. Mai and Zuko rarely slept separately. It was only on occasions such as these, that Mai slept in her own room.
Mai's room was equally extravagant as their shared room.
Zuko yawned and stretched underneath the warm covers. He fell into a troubled sleep, where his dreams were polluted with bad memories of his childhood, his father taunting him, and his upcoming fear of never finding his mother. He woke up the next morning hell bent on finding Ursa. Zuko was sure she was still alive, he could feel it.
**author's notes:
The start of my new story! I very much like the concept of this story, and hope you do too! It's much more of a serious story than my other one, but I hope you like it as much, or more! XD Reviews are always appreciated.