Batman of Ba Sing Se
He should not have let Ozai stop him.
That's all Iroh could think of since he saw his nephews ship disappear into the distance. That he should have done more. He loved his nephew like a son but he had allowed his brother to keep him from helping Zuko.
Iroh had planned to help Zuko through this difficult time. Iroh had stayed by Zuko's side as the healers treated his wounds from that horrific Agni Kai. Zuko was not often awake during this time, a mixture of the medicine and fever leaving him drowse and unaware to the world around him, it was good for him however. Sleep would help him regain his strength.
The day after the Agni Kai news had been sent to them that Zuko was to be banished on an impossible mission to find the Avatar, further punishment for his acts of weakness in Ozai's eyes. Zuko had not been awake when the messenger had arrived, they expected him to leave quickly. Far sooner than he could be expected to recover from his injuries. Ozai would send his son into exile while he was not even aware of what happened around him. It would be difficult for Zuko, Iroh knew, he would have no time to prepare himself for the journey. He would wake up in a strange place with his home behind him. Iroh would make it easier for him, he would join Zuko on his journey and would bring some of Zuko's personal belongings with him for when the prince awoke.
But there where something's Iroh knew he could not do for Zuko, like say goodbye to the girl Mai, whom Iroh knew Zuko cared for.
Iroh quickly got to work making the preparations for Zuko. In such a short amount of time Iroh had to find Zuko a ship and a trustworthy crew. Lieutenant Jee had fought under Iroh's command in the past and with some persuasion he had agreed to help. Iroh went about settling some of his own personal business as well, knowing that he may not get another chance.
It was a few hours before they were scheduled to leave. Iroh placed Zuko's knife in a small chest. He was collecting the last of Zuko's cloths and belongings for the journey. The small blade had been a gift from Iroh himself during his siege of Ba Sing Se and had become one of Zuko's most prized belongings. That made Iroh feel just a little bit proud.
As he worked, a messenger entered telling him that The Fire Lord had demanded his presence. That was rather puzzling. Ozai had made it clear that he wanted Zuko gone as quickly as possible and Iroh knew that his brother did not care for him. He should be pleased with his elder brother leaving. No matter how strange, Iroh could not openly defy The Fire Lord so quickly followed the messenger.
The Fire Lord was not in the throne room but in his private office. The servant sent Iroh inside but did not follow himself. Iroh stepped inside where Ozai sat at the desk. As was custom Iroh knelt before The Fire Lord and after a little too long was given permission to rise. Ozai spoke. "You plan to accompany the boy?"
It was phrased as a question but Ozai already knew Iroh's answer. "He will need a guide and a teacher on his journey and I'm willing to offer myself in that capacity." Iroh responded respectfully.
Ozai gave a brief mocking laugh. "And what could you teach him? The ways of tea and failure? It is your kind of weakness that I wish to rid the boy of!"
"You do not like me to be at the palace, so why would you stop me from leaving?" Iroh asked, cutting straight to the point. Iroh had been making these preparations for days. Why was Ozai only questioning him now?
"I do not stop you from leaving. I stop you from traveling with the boy. Suffering will be his teacher, not you." Ozai spat. His eyes filled with contempt for his older brother.
Iroh gave a huff. "I do not know your plan, Ozai, but you will not stop me from going with my nephew." The door opened behind Iroh and the servant from earlier stepped inside and gave a swift nod to Ozai.
"I'm afraid it is too late for that. He's already gone." Ozai said with a smug smile.
"What have you done?" Iroh demanded.
"I prepared my own ship and crew for the boy, as opposed to the one you prepared, to further remove him from your influence." Ozai told him.
When Iroh was excused he went straight to the infirmary where they had kept his nephew, the bed now empty. They had taken Zuko's luggage as well. Iroh hurried to the docks and asked which ship Zuko was on. The harbour master told him that he had seen a group of men carrying him onto a ship. When Iroh asked which one the man pointed out to see at a ship sailing away.
Iroh would have left that very moment if Ozai's men had not stopped him. He was detained for a few more days, each one meaning that Zuko's ship got further away. Iroh did not like it but he could not openly defy The Fire Lord. So Iroh used the time to better prepare himself, planning out a course and how to best help Zuko. He worried for his nephew, he would wake up surrounded by strangers, in pain and confused.
But now Iroh could fix it. Iroh and his crew where coming up on Zuko's ship. It had taken them some time to find the ship after Ozai had given them leave but he would soon be reunited with his nephew.
They brought the ships alongside each other, lowering a bridge between the two. Iroh stepped on board, two firebenders behind him. There was a sense of unease amongst the crew of Zuko's ship as they greeted the old general.
"General Iroh. We were not expecting you." The captain greeted, he was a balding man with a triangle beard.
Iroh gave the man a kind smile. "I've come to help my nephew on his mission."
"No... I mean you can't! The Fire Lord forbid it." The man was clearly very ill at ease.
"Regardless of the Fire Lords orders, I am here to help my nephew." Iroh glanced around the deck. "Where is Zuko?"
"Still sick! In his cabin!" The captain said quickly.
That was on usual. Zuko should have begun to recover by now. They must have treated him poorly, it was the only explanation Iroh could see. It was worse than he thought. Ozai meant to make him suffer through his illness!
"I will go see him." Iroh moved forward but was blocked by the captain.
"No! You mustn't! The healer said… Prince Zuko asked not to be disturbed!" The captain blurted out.
"I think he will make an exception for his uncle." It was then that Iroh noticed something green out of the corner of his eye. On the belt of one of the solider was a knife that he recognised. He pushed past the captain. As he got closer, the details of the weapon became clearer and fear gripped his heart. He snatched it from the man's belt and examined it. He unsheathed the small blade, on one side where the words: Never give up without a fight.
It was Zuko's knife. He grabbed the man by the throat. "Why do you have this? Where is my nephew?" He turned back to the captain in a fury. "Where is my nephew?!" He screamed. The captain cowered away from him.
Iroh ordered his men to search the ship. What they found shocked him. No trace of Zuko himself was found on the ship but they found many of his belongings shared out amongst the crew. The swords Iroh had backed for him to practice with where found in a chest in one of the men's quarters. The candles for meditation where in the cooks bag. The worst was a picture of Zuko's mother, one of the few that where left after her disappearance. Iroh had brought it to help comfort Zuko through this trying time. They found what was left of it in an empty fireplace, blackened and burned.
"Where is Zuko?!" Iroh roared at the collection of crew that his men had gathered on the top deck. "What have you done with him?"
Three years later.
"Get over here and help us look!" Kaito called, keeping his voice low. Bipin ignored him however, still keeping himself flattened against the wall staring out through the warehouse doorway into the night. Eyes flicking from the sky to the street. Why was he put on this job? Kaito thought. This was supposed to be a simple pick up and this guy can't even handle the pressure.
"We already got Ratna and Daruka on watch, Lee is waiting with the wagon so will you get over here and look through the damn crates!" Kaito yelled but not too loud, he didn't want to draw to much attention to their work. Bipin finally looked at him, looking like he was about to go into a full blown panic. His thin moustache twitching and clutching his club like his life depended on it. From what Kaito knew, Bipin had been working for Black Mask nearly as long as Kaito had but only the low level stuff. He hadn't even seen the boss in person until last night.
The idiot decided to speak. "But what if… what if IT shows up?" Bipin asked, his voice shaking.
Kaito gritted his teeth. "I just told you we got three guys on watch! We got six- excuse me five guys in here that is excluding your coward self, all armed so if anyone does show up looking for trouble we'll kill 'em! And to top it all off, we don't need to be scared of a bedtime story!"
Kaito turned away from Bipin, going back to look through the crates. Realising he had finished looking at these ones, he moved further along the row. A simple pick up that's all this was supposed to be but the guy who was supposed to give them the crate number hadn't shown so they were forced to search the warehouse for the right one. Crate by crate. For a simple pick up this was taking way to long.
Alpa, a big man with a bald head and tattooed arms, stopped what he was doing to chuckle. "You don't believe in The Batman do ya, Kaito?"
"No, I don't. Now hurry up and check the crates." He answered sharply.
"You seem to be in an awful hurry though." Rokurou teased. "You sure you're not a little bit scared?"
Kaito looked up speaking to all of them now. "I'm in a hurry because the boss is expecting this done tonight, but if you like we can take all the time you need. So when we get back and the boss asks us why we took so long I can tell him every one was either too damn lazy or too damn scared to get the job done!" He let that sink in for a moment. "And then the boss can decide what he's going to do to you."
Everyone went back to work then. Except for Bipin, who edging his way back to the wall. Each of the six had a small lamp, enough light to see if you held it close enough to the crate but not enough to get rid of the darkness from the room or attract too much attention.
Alpa scoffed. "If you want to tell Black Mask why we took so long, you tell him that this guy didn't show. Not our fault. Besides, someone tries to possum chicken out on Black Mask they deserve whatever he does to them. No one cheats the boss." That at least Kaito could agree on.
Rokurou spoke up. "What if he didn't possum chicken out?" They all looked at Rokurou. "What if he was taken… by The Batman?!" He then made an exaggerated ghostly wail at Bipin.
Alpa and the two others whose names he couldn't remember laughed. Bipin didn't.
"So, you think Batman's real, Roku?" Alpa asked.
"Yeah' I mean people are seeing something right?" Rokurou said.
Kaito was sick of this. "No he's not! Some idiot thinks they see something and tells someone about it, then they tell someone and so on 'til when someone messes up a job and uses it as a dumb excuse. It catches on and it's everywhere. Now everyone thinks there's eight foot tall bat monster prowling the streets beating up criminals." He wanted it left at that so they could get back to work but Rokurou leaned forward across the crates.
"Okay if there is nothing out there, what's been messing with Penguin, The Ghost Dragons, The Monkey Fist Cult?" Rokurou asked.
"What do you think it is Rokurou?" Alpa asked.
"A wolfbat, a big wolfbat but still just a wolfbat." Rokurou sat on one of the crates. "See as the wars gone on, with all the dead bodies, the wolfbats have had more to eat so they've gotten bigger. So now they're so big that they can just snatch people up in the middle of the night." Alpa laughed.
"Hope Bipin's right and one comes here." Rokurou continued. "I need me a new coat and how many people do you know with a wolfbat coat?" Rokurou spun his sword.
"None." Alpa said, both of them laughing.
"It's a spirit." Bipin said in a haunted voice, eyes staring straight at them. "You hear what people say? No way it's just an animal. People say it's like a living shadow. Something that fast, that strong, that angry? It has to be a spirit. The war, all the broken people left in its wake that come here, the crime in the city, we've angered them."
They all stared at Bipin. He's losing it. Kaito thought.
Apparently it was Alpa's turn to share a theory because he spoke next. "It could be the Avatar." This is ridicules. Kaito thought. They had stopped work completely to talk about an urban legend.
"You think it's the Avatar?" One of the nameless ones asked, the other one was ignoring the conversation and was still working.
"Yeah. All the stuff they say he can do, no one bender could do that so he has to be bending all four elements. He uses earthbending to make it look like he can walk through walls and disappear and stuff. Firebending to destroy people's weapons. Airbending to move really fast and make it look like he can fly and it's why no one can beat him because he has his Avatar powers."
The nameless one asked another question. "If he is the Avatar why is he hiding in Ba Sing Se instead of fighting the war?"
"Practice?" Rokurou offered with a smile.
Alpa laughed. "I hope he comes here as well. We could catch him give him to Black Mask and he could sell him to the Fire lord."
"I've found it."
They all turned to the other nameless one. Kaito picked up his lantern and pushed past the others who all picked up their own lanterns and followed him over. They held the lanterns close to one another to make it brighter. This is it. Kaito thought. "Let's get it loaded up and get out of here." He picked up his own lantern and started walking to the door to get Lee and the wagon. "Oh, and sorry to disappoint every one put no Batman tonight."
Something dark flew through the air, smashing all the lanterns that where resting on the crate, and extinguishing the light. The only one left was the one in Kaito's hand. A shadow crossed above their heads and landed on top of one of the nameless ones, smashing him into the ground.
Alpa swung at the shadow with his pole axe but the shadow ducked beneath it. Then it kicked one of Alpa's legs, forcing him to his knees before delivering another powerful kick to the face. Leaving Alpa lying on his back.
Rokurou swung his sword at the shadow but his arm was stopped mid strike. The shadow then punched him in the face with a sickening thud, staggering him back. The nameless one that was still standing tried to stab it but it dodged, grabbed his arm and smashed an elbow into the side of his head knocking him out. Rokurou charged at the shadow but it grabbed him as he was running and used the momentum to throw him into a crate.
Alpa managed to climb back to his feet. Striking down at the shadow with his axe, trying to split the creature in half. It evaded, kicked off from one of the crates to get high enough into the air to come back down, driving an elbow onto the top of Alpa's head, knocking him out.
Kaito turned and ran, making it to the door. The moon was out now. Something pushed him in the back he spun around with his sword draw. It was Bipin. He was about to say something but in an instant something latched around Bipin's legs with a snap. Pulling him off his feet and dragging him into the darkness.
"HELP ME!" Bipin screamed.
Then silence.
Kaito ran for the wagon. Looking back over his shoulder. A shadow scaling the walls and roofs of the buildings. He made it to where the wagon had been waiting and yelled for Badger to move put then he saw. The ostrich horse was cut free. Lee, Ratna and Daruka lay unmoving in the back of the wagon.
He spun on his heels to try and find a way out. Then he saw it. Rushing towards him. He swung his sword, screaming. "Get Away!"
The shadow struck his hand, knocking the sword from his grasp. A vice-like finger gripped his throat. And then a fist struck him.
Old story I decided to re-upload.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading.