chapter 1: empire
if i gave you control
would you say that we could've saved it?
-honest by the neighbourhood
"The world needs to be balanced. This is not the way, Sozin. We can be powerful and respected without conquering other nations."
"How can you be so blinded to the obvious, Roku? Our nation is in a prosperous period, the next natural step is to eliminate the weak."
"You will address me as Avatar Roku, like you are supposed to."
"I-"
"I tolerated your colonization of the Earth Kingdom. I tolerated your treatment of Water Tribe traders. I will not tolerate this."
"You are a citizen of the Fire Nation. Your first loyalty is to your nation, to me-"
"You are wrong, Sozin. I belong to the world."
-o-
The airbenders were gone, but Avatar Roku let the Fire Lord burn before the waterbenders could be touched.
-o-
"It's been nineteen years."
The voice comes in Katara's ear, and she tilts her head slightly to the right, eyes still on the water in front of her. The moon's cool light casts shadows over the South's back harbor; cut off from the rest of the Southern City and only accessible through the palace. Each of the dozen soldiers carries a lantern, illuminating the area in a strange mix of warmth and cold. Katara's father is on her right side, rigid, and her brother stands in front, closer to the mouth of the frozen port alongside the formation of Southern soldiers.
"It has," Katara says quietly in reply, blue eyes still transfixed on the murky shadow of a ship on the water, drawing slowly closer. Colonel Aritak shifts beside her, and Katara has to suppress her smile. He can never quite stay still no matter what the situation is.
Everyone's eyes are on the ship. It becomes deathly quiet, except for the sound of snow crunching as Aritak puts his weight on foot and then the other. The ship draws close enough that Katara can make out the dark outline of the Southern City's emblem of three curling waves, carved into the helm of the boat. Katara curls and uncurls her fingers at her side.
Nineteen years.
The ship is almost close enough to the dock to be tied down now. From ahead Sokka shouts, "Prepare the ropes and fenders!", and immediately a third of the soldiers break out of formation, carrying their lanterns further ahead to the wharf.
Rope is unwound and tied to the wooden fenders, and finally, the ship is side-by-side with the dock. Someone leans out of the ship to catch the rope tossed by one of the soldiers on the ground. Katara feels herself buzz with a strange sort of excitement, and she looks over at Aritak to see the same sort of dazed expression she's probably wearing.
Once the ship is stable a line of naval troops neatly make their exit. Every other soldier has a grip on the bound hands of a green-clothed person. Lanterns are picked up and the mini-procession of naval soldiers, ground soldiers and prisoners alike comes back towards the palace. At the very end, Katara recognizes the profile of Admiral Hahn coming out of the ship and walking behind the group at a short distance.
"Well, there's Hahn," Aritak leans over to whisper in Katara's ear, snapping her mind out of its nervous racing. Katara lets out a short bark of laughter at Aritak's sour tone, like he's just been told someone ate the last seaweed cookie.
The silence persists again, punctuated with the sounds of a few dozen pairs of feet crunching across the snow. The ground soldiers walk in two lines behind the naval troops and prisoners, and behind the ground soldiers is Hahn, his hands clasped behind his back.
Katara can't see his expression but she's sure it's smug. She rolls her eyes but supposes he does have reason to be smug, considering the precious cargo he's managed to pick up.
The naval troops stop a good three feet away from where Katara is standing with her father and Aritak. The ground soldiers form a solid line behind the naval troops and prisoners. Sokka circles around his soldiers and comes to stand by Hakoda, and Hahn circles around from the other side, leisurely making his way to the head of the group of naval troops. Katara scans her eyes over the group. The naval troops are wearing Earth-style silver armor; the kind that high-ranking soldiers of the Earth army usually wear. Strange.
"Bring forward the prince," Hahn says to the naval troops. Three figures part from the group. Two clad in blue and silver and one, in the middle, wearing light green.
Katara's brow furrows. She tilts her head the slightest bit to the right and mumbles to Aritak, "Light green, huh?" Light green is the color of the Earth nobility. Everyone had expected the prince to be hiding amongst the Earth farmers or lower class, dressed in darker, muddled shades.
"Along with the armor, it should be an interesting briefing," he murmurs back.
The man in the middle - the last prince of the long-collapsed Fire Nation- is pushed forward by the two soldiers holding him. He looks like he's going to stumble for a split second but quickly steadies himself. One side of his face catches the light and Katara lets out a small gasp before she can stop herself. Pink and red scar tissue mars the skin around his eye, and from her limited healing knowledge Katara can tell the scar is very old, as if he's had it since he was a young child.
"It's customary for prisoners to bow in the presence of the Chief," Hahn says to the prince. The prince stands to his full height -he looks about as tall as Aritak, who's one of the tallest in the City- and stares straight ahead, his scar fully illuminated by lantern light. Despite being a prisoner, he looks almost menacing.
A few heartbeats pass with no reaction from the prince.
"You heard Admiral Hahn," Hakoda says pleasantly. The prince continues to stare, and Katara wants to roll her eyes. Vain defiance will not help anyone. Of course he realizes that. After another short length of silence, her father says icily, "I order you to bow."
Something sparks in the prince's eyes and he starts to open his mouth, but the taller of the two soldiers restraining him shoots him a look and the firebender's mouth snaps shut. Painfully slow, he starts to crouch, then kneels down, and finally touches his head to the snow.
"You may rise," Hakoda says after a few moments. With the same slowness, the prince rises, amber eyes glinting. "Private Urago and Private Kira," Hakoda says, acknowledging the two soldiers holding the prince; first the taller man and then the more petite woman. "Lady Katara will accompany you the prince's cell." Katara nods once, curtly, at this.
"Colonel Aritak will accompany the other prisoners to their cells with the rest of the unit. Admiral Hahn and Major Sokka will follow me. Dismissed."
Aritak touches Katara's arm just as she's about to walk over to her assigned trio. "You have your waterskin?" he asks softly.
Katara laughs at the concern in his eyes. "Yeah, I do. Don't worry, I don't think the prince can firebend very well in these temperatures anyway."
"Fine, laugh at me for being concerned," Aritak says, throwing his hands up in mock surrender.
Katara grins at him, buzzing. They've captured the prince and everything will be better now. Her mind swirls with the thought. "Let's move. I think my father's glaring at us."
She takes off towards Private Urago and Kira without looking back. They both bend at the waist upon seeing her approaching.
"I trust that you have a blindfold?" Private Urago says, and Katara nods once, quickly unzipping her side pack/ waterskin creation and taking out a blue bag made of thick material. She hands it to Urago and he in turn slips it over the prince's head, pulling the drawstring at the bottom closed just enough so that it doesn't slip off. Katara zips her pack again and gestures for the privates to follow her to the palace's back entrance.
Her father nods at her as she passes through the doorway, while Hahn's signature self-satisfied pout seems to be rejuvenated upon seeing the prince's blindfolded form. Sokka grins at his sister, mouthing, Getting to lock up the bad guys now, huh?
Katara resists the urge to stick out her tongue at him, but shoots a small smile at him all the same.
Once inside the palace, Katara turns left, leading down the wide main hallway, and then turns right, starting off on a chain of long, icy passages. The palace is expansive, with only about a quarter of it actually occupied full-time by Katara's family and the occasional group of soldiers or generals with nowhere else to go, and most of those areas are in the front. Back here, nearly every hallway is dark and only dully lit up in some places by dying torches. They pass by several guards but no one else.
After a few minutes, the stone flooring gives way to cold metal, and they approach a door flanked by two guards. Upon seeing Katara and the tall green-wearing prisoner, the guards' eyes widen slightly and they immediately open the door. A short flight of stairs leads into a wing of twenty cells, split evenly on each side, and all of them empty.
"Evening, Lady Katara," one of the two guards pacing the length of the wing says. He nods. "Private Urago."
"It's been a while," Urago says, breaking into a grin and saluting the guard. So they recognize each other. Katara lives in the palace and still can't quite recognize the guard. "It's more night than evening now, eh?"
The guard laughs. "We can never tell down here."
Urago prods the prince forward, and Katara says, "We can take off the bag now." He nods, reaching out to loosen the drawstring and pulling the bag off. The prince huffs out a breath, looking around his new home with a calculating gaze.
"Should've kept the bag on after all," the guard remarks upon seeing the prince's scar. Katara finds herself looking at the scar as well. In the light, it looks less harsh, but still bad. Katara wonders what kind of freak accident the firebender had to get himself into to get such a mark.
The guard takes a key out of one of his pockets and uses it to unlock one of the cells in the middle. Urago and Kiro shove the prince forward into the cell, and he goes in with little resistance. The firebender settles down in the middle of the cell with his legs crossed. Urago and Kiro take a few backwards and stand by the guard while Katara walks right up to the cell.
She fleetingly thinks about asking the prince if he knows the old Fire dialect, entertaining the idea for just a second before letting it go. Instead, she launches into the introduction that every prisoner is given some version of.
"You will be given two meals a day," she starts, looking right at the prince. He stares right back at her, and when their eyes meet, Katara feels a jolt. "The rest of the captured firebenders will be held in a different wing of cells for as long as all of you are here. You are expected to comply with all interrogations and provide all information asked of you if you want them and yourself to live."
"Empty threats," the prince says. His voice has a rasp to it, but Katara can't tell whether it's from thirst or if it's always been like that. "Your father would never kill the firebenders. They're too important."
"You overestimate their importance. We would and will kill them if you fail to cooperate," Katara replies easily. The only one who is really important is the man in front of her. "We have captured hundreds of firebenders in the past. These firebenders are no different."
Angry amber meets blue. "Except that they are firebenders under my command."
"The only person they and you will respond to from now on is Chief Hakoda of the Southern City and Chief Arnook of the Northern City. You have absolutely no authority."
"I do not obey the call of cowards."
Katara raises an eyebrow. Vain defiance. She has seen it a thousand times.
"And I do not entertain foolish resistance." She turns on her heel and says, "Private Urago and Private Kira, you may leave to your homes or escorted to accommodations by a guard. I need to leave for the briefing."
-o-
"They were hidden among Earth nobility," Hakoda says flatly.
"For nineteen years," Sokka adds, his voice far away.
Katara can feel the shift of the moon starting to fade away. They've been in this room far too long; her father, Sokka, Aritak, Hahn, and herself. And this is only the first of a series of briefings. First this, then the briefing including the mission unit, all armed forces, and finally one open to the public.
Hahn straightens in his seat. "Of course, the only way this could have happened was with the cooperation of the Earth King."
Stating the obvious. Katara bites back a remark about his advancing problem solving skills.
"We need to search the King's palace," Aritak says.
"We can't; or at least not under the Southern City's name. The Earth people love their king," Sokka replies, tapping his fingers on the table. "There's already the trouble with Chief Arnook moving in more of his forces into the Earth lands. We can't create distrust towards the Southern side if we want to gain more support for the Southern City."
"The lack of our enforcements in the Earth lands is the only advantage we have," Katara says, more to herself than anyone else.
They'll need to convince Arnook to issue a search warrant for the Northern force. She bites her tongue, looking at Hahn. She'll have to talk about this with her father later. "It's almost sunrise. Chief Arnook's representatives are coming in tomorrow. Dad needs his rest."
"Thank you, Katara, but-"
"It's late, Dad. We've said all that can be said." Katara catches her father's eye at the last part, and he seems to understand.
"Hahn, give me a quick run of the numbers."
"Six injuries on our side, ten injuries on their side, fourteen captured in total including the prince."
"And the armor? Where did that come from?"
"Hush money, essentially," Hahn says, brow furrowing.
"And you accepted it?"
"As a gift."
"Very well. This meeting is dissolved. Katara, you will be staying behind."
Hahn and Aritak bend at the waist when they stand before leaving. Sokka leaves seconds after, departing with a nod in Hakoda's direction.
"Why don't we get some fresh air, Katara?" Hakoda says.
"Of course," Katara replies, following Hakoda out of the meeting place and back to the palace's back entrance. Her father takes a seat on the topmost step leading up to the door, facing the distant harbor. Katara settles down next to him and looks ahead at the lightening sky.
"You still don't completely trust Admiral Hahn," Hakoda says. It's a statement.
"No, I don't. He only joined the Southern forces two years ago, Dad."
"It's a long time, Katara. A lot can change in seconds, let alone two years. You think he still has loyalty to the Northern City."
Katara continues to stare ahead. "It's not- maybe. I don't think Hahn has loyalty to anyone in particular. He only wants what will bring him the most glory. I don't want him to know anything more than he needs to."
There's no reply for a few moments.
"What was it you wanted to discuss?"
"We need to get Arnook to authorize a Northern crackdown on the nobility."
Hakoda sighs. "I realized. But there's no way Arnook will order that. He's already burned a few bridges with the Earth people by sending in additional troops. He won't go back and burn more."
"We have the prince now. Arnook might become flexible in exchange for some information."
"They have the Fire princess. We don't know how much this prince knows that his sister doesn't."
"We'll still be able to crush the rebels, though, with the prince. He'll definitely know more about the other rebels' whereabouts than his sister. And now the rebels have lost the face of their resistance. Arnook will have to give up control of some land to us and send in more forces to help hunt down the rebels."
"They'll be a lot of false leads and lies, too, though. It'll take a while."
That silences Katara. Arnook is always one - or ten, if Katara's honest with herself - steps ahead. The Northern forces have more waterbenders, more of the Earth and Fire lands, more resources, more minds.
"We also have the old Fire library remains," Katara says, carefully. She looks at her father and tries to gauge his immediate reaction.
Exasperation.
With a tired voice he says, "We've gone over this too many times, Katara. The remains are not useful. All they contain is the past. You need to focus on the present and future."
"There's still so much to be learned from them, though. They could have something important, something that gives us an advantage-"
"Stop, Katara. You've been translating those documents since the second they arrived last year and you haven't found anything useful yet."
"Some of my translations are probably wrong. If only-"
Hakoda turns and looks at her, and Katara feels like all of her thoughts are exposed to her father with the way he seems to see right through her.
"You will not go to the prince for translations."
Katara internally winces. She shouldn't have brought it up, of course he knew-
"I wasn't going to-"
"I forbid you."
Katara simmers but knows better than to press the issue.
The sky continues to brighten.
"There's something I wanted to talk to you about too, Katara."
Katara looks over at her father, immediately knowing his topic of choice. "Dad, we already talked about this-"
"You can't hold it off forever, Katara. People will start talking."
"Maybe a bit of gossip is a good thing. It'll keep them distracted."
"That would be fine, Katara, if you weren't in such a position. The city looks to us for example."
"I can't get married, Dad," Katara says quietly. Not that she's completely opposed to the idea, but she doesn't feel any need to. She's only seventeen.
"You have complete freedom of choice, Katara. I won't be forcing anyone onto you." Hakoda lets out a long breath. "I won't force you to marry either, but you have to realize it's either marriage or enlisting in the waterbenders' forces."
"I can start teaching new waterbending recruits."
"You're not a master and you don't have hands-on experience. That's not possible."
Good enough to fight but not good enough to teach.
"I'm nearly a master. A few more months of training-"
"Katara."
"I could take on a full-time role of strategist. That would give me a position in the forces." Strategy is where Katara has always been best.
"No general or commander would listen to you. You need field experience in fighting before they'll consider what you say."
Katara quiets, her mind racing. She needs more time to go through the old Fire documents and
"Give me three months. If I don't master waterbending by then I'll make my choice."
Hakoda looks at his daughter.
"Three months, then, on your birthday. You'll make your choice then. If you are to enlist in the waterbenders' forces, you will go straight to combat training."
She can't leave the Southern City, and most of the new waterbending forces are deployed straight away to the Earth or Fire lands. Sokka is already gone on army missions for most of the time. There needs to be someone around to help Dad, she tells herself.
And of course, there are the old library documents.
"Your hopes are too high, Katara."
-o-
(a/n) this is an AU story inspired by imperialist europe and vaguely by medieval times. slow-developing zutara; so warning for that. i don't know how this will work, if at all, but i hope you guys enjoy anyway. i'll be updating once a week and have about 5-6 chapters already written and in the process of editing, so you can expect me to stick to regular updating, and this chapter was fairly short, but they will be getting longer.
thank you for giving this story a chance!
edit 7/12/14: i've realized from feedback that the first fourish chapters are a bit boring, please bear with me though as the real action starts around chapter 5-6 (there's a lot of setting up; sorry)
