Diana-sama
"Lineage of the Most Trusted Betrayer"
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This story idea is original, please don't steal it. You're free, however, to copy my well-BS'd explanation for alternate bending forms.
Summary: Uncertain pairings. Possible Lu Ten/OC. The last of the air nomads were wiped out when Afiko betrayed the Eastern Air Temple to the Fire Nation. Afiko became the Fire Lord's most trusted advisor for many long years, though he died before the Avatar was ever found or captured. Though he never married, he had concubines just like any other advisor - and ninety years after the betrayal, his granddaughter has found an affinity for supposedly 'lost' airbending... while living in the Imperial Palace of the Fire Nation.
A/N: Does anyone know how old Lu Ten was when he died...? I assume from the picture Iroh had in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" he was in his twenties? The timeline for this fic is messing up my brain. Here, we'll go by years in "B.A." time, aka "Before Aang (Reappears)". As you can see, um... I'm mostly going by Zuko's age here. XD
10 B.A. - Afiko's granddaughter, first chapter, age 12.
Zuko: age 6, Lu Ten: age 18, OC age: 12.
6 B.A. - Lu Ten dies, Iroh falls from grace.
Zuko: age 10ish? Lu Ten: age 22?, OC age: 16.
2 B.A. - Zuko is banished, Iroh goes with him.
Zuko: age 14.
0 B.A. - Zuko finds the Avatar, age 16.
I'm going to assume Zuko was nearing age 17 when he found the Avatar, since the 'third year away from home' is mentioned in the series, I think. It's been so long since I watched the episodes that I can't remember fan fact from canon!!! XD Oh dear.
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1. Afiko the Betrayer
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The Imperial Palace of the Fire Nation is a sight seen by very few. Its polished ruby walls and gleaming marble floors are coated by servants with a special ointment that protects each fleck of paint and edge of tile from fire. Never would the palace fall against an enemy if the true, raw power of flame were unleashed within its massive hallways, killing instantly any non-firebender without singing an inch of the beautiful architecture.
Aside from the usefulness of such a secure palace, it served as a firm ruby eye within the body of the Fire Nation. If the eye is window to the soul, then so too was the Imperial Palace a glimpse of the Fire Nation's passionate molten depths. Brilliant carpets and tapestries depicting victory over the inferior elements were touched only by whispers of awed breath and gentle caresses of slippered feet. Paper lanterns in hues of orange, red, and yellow lit the long hallways whenever the sun slipped from its blazing throne of day. Silken kimono and haori in similar shades colored the nobles who lived in this jewel of a home, while their servants shuffled past their bright personages as if red shadows in their masters' lights.
But for someone who had lived there her whole life, the Imperial Palace was plain, old, boring. Who cared to see the same battle sewn over and over again to be hung on a wall? Why did it matter the hue of fire that she was given to wear for the new day? All the important people of the nobility turned into nobodies in Yuiren's gray eyes when she saw them over and over again in the same clothes in the same places in the same manner.
Meanwhile, she had yet to hear from Private Pon. She loved to say his name like that: "Private Pon!" she would call out rebelliously from a pagoda. He always flinched when being called that, and turned to scowl at the little noblewoman, only to see her smile eagerly and wave. Last month she had asked rather politely to begin training for oversea combat in glory of the Fire Nation. Yuiren had impatiently considered that a month was quite enough time to be ignored.
"Private Pon!"
The soldier flinched. Yuiren had to smother impudent giggling when he shot her a withering look. "Lady Afiko, as you can see, I am about to start my new recruits on a meditation exercise. I do not have time to flatter your visit-"
"But, Private," Yuiren quickly interrupted, folding her tiny hands behind the soft orange of her large kimono, "You have yet to inform me of when I might join the ranks of our radiant army. I had thought you kind enough to send notice before picking these new recruits I see here... apparently I was wrong."
He was as reluctant to blatantly refuse her as ever. Being a lesser noblewoman wasn't powerful at all, unless by some miracle Yuiren was chosen for the Imperial Harem, but to outright refuse any noble was risky. "My lady, it is not the place of a noblewoman in the military..." Private Pon trailed off, wondering how this diminutive child of a nobody could be so charismatic as to take his breath away with a mere kimono and some face paint to mark her as nobility.
"I, like any other citizen of the Fire Nation, would be honored to serve for the glory and victory of the superior element."
The soldier felt his words heavy in his mouth, as if his own body were warning him against refusal. He could not see the little girl's hands covertly twisting up and down within her giant sleeves. "Perhaps you should take up your case with your Housemistress, Lady Afiko." Private Pon let out a great breath of relief as soon as he managed the very sentence, ignorant of the suddenly tense muscles in Yuiren's hidden hands. "For now I must see to it that my men recieve their training in a timely manner. Perhaps at the next recruiting you may join us."
Yuiren gave him the coldest farewell that a twelve-year-old noblewoman could politely give, storming off in a scurry of little steps due to her kimono's tight grasp. Only recently had she been forced into the multilayered dress of kimono, which was for women, a sign of graduating from the status of a child. To be honest, she had dreamed of owning her own beautiful kimono until she figured out that they were hot and heavy and she would never have enough money to actually own a single dress. Such was the fate of most lesser nobles, but at least the men have a chance at wealth if they join the army, Yuiren thought to herself.
Only the Afiko family had the money of a peasant and the fortune of royalty. Being the most newly-made nobles, due to Yuiren's grandfather's great deeds in the name of the superior element, none of the Afiko family had yet to make strong alliances with the other noble families. Yuiren's mother and aunt were concubines, and her aunt had a miscarriage and a child who died at age ten many years ago. Yuiren was the only hope for the continuation of their thin lineage.
And if I want anything more than marrying a favored merchant, I have to join the military, Yuiren repeated mentally. Wishes of favor and wealth and fame all circled on that single option. She wasn't pretty enough to score a nobleman, especially with the gray eyes of a foreigner, and she wasn't rich enough to buy a noble husband, and she was born an unfortunate female. If she'd been male, concubines would have been easy enough to find while she searched for a rich merchant wife to pay through her lifetime.
But I'm not a man, Yuiren thought depressingly, for the millionth time. She sat down hard on the pale, polished benches of carved yellow brick which framed ornate pools filled with flame-colored koi fish. They curved and swirled below the surface of the water, which shone white in the dimming sunlight. Her tiny slippered feet kicked unhappily at the perfectly manicured grass beneath the bench. Fire flowers stretched open in the shade, gleaming orange with a hint of the blazing red to come at dark.
"Why can't I be as good as a man!" Yuiren shouted at the pretty scenery, careless of any possible eavesdropping servants. Her cheeks scrunched up in anger and flushed a deep pink as she leapt to her feet, shouting at the calm air. "I'm not going to sit by and let this drag on! Pon will put me in his damnable army, and I will gain riches and opportunity for my blood, by Agni!"
Not even a breeze answered her tirade, and the silence of the wind only angered her further. She stomped one foot and sent a miniature hurricane at the koi fish, who darted in circles fearfully. "No firebenders are going to stop me from beating them to the top! I don't care if fire is the better element, I'll just be a better bender!"
"Oh? I didn't know we had airbenders at home."
Yuiren jumped in shock at the strange voice, losing her concentration. She spun around as the young man finished, "Actually, I didn't know we had airbenders left on the Four Nations."
"Who're you?" Yuiren demanded hotly, flushing red with shame beyond her previous anger. She had slipped by speaking so boldly outside her private rooms, but the man before her was dressed like a servant. Hopefully he wouldn't have anyone to listen to him but a milkmaid or whoever servants made friends with.
He smiled, looking handsomely tan and tall despite his servant clothes. "I'm Hotoh. Who're you?"
"This is not a game of Who The Hell Am I," she retorted snobbishly. Maybe if he doesn't know my name, he won't be able to figure it out and tell on me. "Just leave me alone."
"You seem intent on speaking to someone, Lady Afiko," Hotoh chuckled. "I'll have a listen, thank you very much, lest you can prove the winds are listening to your anger with a sense to reply instead of making you angrier."
Yuiren sighed, deflating. He knows who I am. What's the point of acting noble? I just blew my cover. "No one but the wind even listens to me. I am the granddaughter of the greatest betrayer in the world. I am not of Fire Nation blood, as proved by my airbending..."
Hotoh sat down kindly on the bench Yuiren had vacated. He pulled at a few loose strands of his long, silky black hair, seemingly a personal habit. "Afiko was a great advisor, and his name is valued greatly by Fire Lord Azulon. Why do you think of him as the grestest betrayer? He was more Fire Nation than many warriors."
Yuiren could barely contain her angry shock at the sight of a servant sitting before a noble who remained standing. All servants and slaves were honor-bound to do only as told, otherwise stand in silence. Already this man had spoken without being asked, and now he sat before her as though he was her better, in those plain sunset robes! She was also irked about his eavesdropping, but that was something Imperial servants always did anyway; only House servants could be depended on.
He noticed her enraged hesitation and motioned to the bench he sat on in an attempt to appease her. "Would you like to sit, my Lady?"
Instead of calming, Yuiren stiffened and held her ground with a prickly sense of pride. The Afiko family may not be rich or large, but it was nonetheless a name of great honor, beyond that of any rich lesser nobles. How dare this servant presume to command a noble!? It mattered not that he had asked, asking in itself was forbidden without permission from a noble.
But Hotoh's mouth only curled up at the edges. "Very well, you can stand there if you please. Maybe if I irk you well enough, you will fly away as the phoenix into the sun..."
Comparing her to the phoenix was both complement and insult, a rather clever allusion for an uneducated servant. The bird of fire was known and reknowned for its beauty and power, but it also symbolized dangerous revolution, and the servant had connected its flight to her airbending abilities, as if she were a danger despite her Fire Nation loyalty. Curiously, Yuiren peeled her pride away and sat down beside the servant with oddly smart speech and bizarre manners.
"My grandfather... He was honorable to the glory of the Fire Nation," she agreed slowly. "But he was not the blood of the element. He was neither the spirit of the element, he could airbend! Yet he turned on his own people and led the superior element to victory, using airbending against fellow airbenders. It is... betrayal in the other side."
Yuiren became animated with her explanation, as she often did when forgetting herself in a story. "You must know how whispers carry! One needs no light to see darkness in people. They say, if a man can betray his true element, he can betray the superior element. They say his trust in the superior element is unknown by his betrayal in his original element... and the faults of a father, are the faults of a child."
The little girl's head gently lowered to the earth in quiet shame. Hotoh's golden eyes studied her kindly and he placed a large hand under her small, pretty chin, lifting her gray eyes to meet his own. "That is not the extent of the story, Lady Afiko."
She bravely blinked back tears, which would have made her shame dishonorable by being public. Worse, the man before her was a stranger of no rank, so her dishonor would have been incredibly multiplied. Yuiren sniffed and jerked her chin out of his grasp. "The Air Nomads were travelers, and Afiko one of the Great Five of the Eastern Air Temple-"
"What's the Great Five?" Hotoh interrpted, his eyes suddenly alight with interest. Yuiren was not surprised. Most people knew nothing of the Air Nomads, and her knowledge came from carefully secret blood-bound scrolls, hidden by Afiko in a place where only his own descendents, airbenders, could find them.
"Each Air Temple had five monks who were the elders, known as the Ruling Five. The Great Five were the five most skilled monks in each Air Temple, who usually traveled far from the temple, and returned only when one of the Ruling Five passed on to take their place. It is very unlike the tradition of Fire Nation Houses.
"Afiko was one of the Great Five. He returned to the Eastern Air Temple when Fire Lord Sozin requested a possible alliance treaty with the Air Nomads-"
"What!?" Hotoh interrpted again, this time squawking in disbelief. "Sozin never sent an alliance treaty to the Air Nomads!"
Yuiren glared at him and began twisting her fingers in her sleeves to shallow his breaths, hopefully calming and quieting him. "It was merely the consideration of a future treaty, not a formal request by word. Afiko spent much of his time exploring the islands of the Fire Nation, which is why Sozin asked him this favor."
Hotoh leaned in eagerly to her story. His closeness was slightly uncomfortable, due to his seeming lack of manners and his handsomeness, though Yuiren mentally reassured herself that no servant could be fool enough to force himself upon her. And she always had her airbending. "However, the Ruling Five voted against any further communications with the Fire Nation. They despised the idea of Fire Nation tradition and conquest. Afiko argued with them for many days, explaining the Fire Nation's need for supplies and Sozin's stubborn will to achieve what was needed."
"But they didn't listen," Hotoh guessed, absorbed.
Yuiren nodded. Her hands had left off the task of airbending Hotoh's breath, and were once again moving avidly to accent her storytelling. "When Sozin's Comet struck, soldiers struck a double blow against the Earth Kingdom at Port Chin and the Water Tribe at the North Pole. The Air Nomads had believed peace would be bargainable between the three countries, despite Afiko's protests... letting Fire Lord Sozin succeeded a powerful blow to start his war campaign.
"Disgusted with his people's refusal to help the world, Afiko returned to the Fire Lord and they conferred only briefly. The war was begun and would not end in peace unless all of the Fire Nation's needs were met. Afiko reminded the Fire Lord of the Avatar's duty, and they agreed that he would sway enough respect for the world to bend to Fire Lord Sozin's will without more bloodshed.
"Once again did Afiko return to the Eastern Air Temple. But the Avatar was only a boy then... Afiko went against the Ruling Five and told the boy who he was before the usual age of sixteen. That, alongside his ties to the Fire Nation, convinced the entire Temple to banish him-"
Yuiren's voice dropped to a deadly rage, buried carefully beneath time and manners. "-without trial."
"Trial?" Hotoh repeated. "That is a barbaric custom. Though, Afiko seems to have done nothing worthy of dishonor."
"Amongst the Air Nomads, a trial is the honorable system of judgement, since they do not hold to family ties and there is no divine ruler. It is barbaric compared to our Fire Lord, destined to rule by the divine blood of Agni, but they did not even give my grandfather that honor! Despite all his good intent and honorable action, they cast him away out of spite and fear!"
A tiny fist slammed into the stone bench. Hotoh looked up to see the sky clouding with a strong sea breeze, the subconscious result of Yuiren's anger. Through the blood-bound scrolls of her grandfather, she knew all his misery and suffering. His blood was hers, and his betrayal hers too; his reversal of loyalties thrummed through her veins and fueled her heart with a fiery need to fulfil the glory of the Fire Nation.
The slim golden eyes that watched her tirade caught all of this within Yuiren's stormy expression. "Afiko knew this child Avatar would not bring peace to the Four Nations. The Air Nomads planned on raising him to master the four elements and then turn on the Fire Nation. He led the Fire Navy to each of the Temples and fought as Admiral Afiko against his own element. All other airbenders were destroyed."
"Except for the Avatar," Hotoh reminded her.
Yuiren made a skeptical face at the servant, forgetting station yet again. "He disappeared! My grandfather believed he escaped into the Spirit World. Time is strange there, and the Avatar probably won't return for centuries, if at all."
"Hmm," Hotoh said demurely, for once sounding like a proper servant.
This made Yuiren remember herself, and she quickly stood up. "I won't bring up your bad manners as gratitude for listening to me," she told him decidedly. Yuiren hoped he would pick up the hint that she was exchanging her silence over his bad manners for his silence over her own lack of protocol.
Hotoh stood, which would have been a polite gesture had he not towered over her with such a knowing smile. Yuiren frowned visibly, blushing under her makeup. It was embarassing to be so attracted to a servant, even if she kept her feelings to herself as a noblewoman ought to. He summed up easily, "So you want to join the army to further your grandfather's good name?"
Yuiren nodded tentatively, her voice lost in the rush of liking toward this handsome oddball servant. "But... just as much," she added shakily, "I want to lead the Fire Nation as my honorable grandfather did, in glory of the superior element... The element that warms my blood despite the betrayal of my original people."
Looking up made her feel like a weak little girl, but Hotoh's smile made that weakness feel somehow giddy. Yuiren couldn't tear her eyes away from him as he lay a large, reassuring hand on her small shoulder. "Lady Afiko... I will do everything I can to get you into the army. So I swear, beneath the light of Agni."
Yuiren's gray eyes widened in shock. To swear upon Agni while beneath the sun-god's daylight was the greatest oath one could take. Despite the fact that this man was a stranger and had no rank, she felt within her a renewed sense of hope. Her breath caught in her throat until Hotoh disappeared around the bend without so much as a bow good-bye, nonetheless permission from his better. She gingerly rubbed her head with a frown, confused beyond measure at the weirdo she'd just encountered.
As the sunset reflected up on her painted white face from the koi pond, Yuiren's gray eyes lifted to the sky, where clouds had passed by due to her strong wind and the smell of the sea lingered. She first related the scene to dizzying blood, pouring from the blue of veins into the red of wounds, but as the sun caught one long cloud in glittering orange, her mind instead imagined the colored feathers of a phoenix caught on a breeze.
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Final Notes: Why are there so few characters in the damn summary list!? D': Anyways, I already have up to chapter 11 planned and up to chapter 4 written. Reviews are welcome. :) This WILL be updated at least to chapter four. Lol.
Edit: WHY THE HELL DO SOME OF THE SYMBOLS DISAPPEAR ON FFN? DAMN YOU, FFN, DAMN YOU!