Author note:
Hi! I'm Vigilante4. This is my first published FanFiction entry. I hope you enjoy!
Rating: T - children beware.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avatar series. This is just some fictional idea spawned by my overactive imagination. However, with the amount of reading on this site I do, I can't absolutely guarantee that every single idea in my story is my own. If I have infringed on anyone else's work, I'm very sorry. It was not intentional. Please inform me if you notice something that's not entirely my idea, and I'll try to correct it if possible.
Summer, 93 years since the Air Nomad Genocide
His name is Zuko. He is the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, son of Ozai and Ursa. He is a firebender. He is a loyal supporter of his father and his lineage. He is a highly educated and privileged nine year old boy with an incredible social and intellectual advantage over all of his peers. Nobody would dare lay a hand on him, not even the lowliest Earth Kingdom peasant or Water Tribe savage.
Or, at least, that was what he had thought. But as the waves of agony coursing through his face crept up on him again, Zuko was forced to revise all previous thoughts about his so-called "royal protection".
It had been several hours since the fateful Agni Kai. The boy had been unconscious for most of that time. The remainder had been spent resting and worrying incessantly about his future. Zuko was a clever boy. He knew that one didn't lose an Agni Kai to the Fire Lord and live in peace to tell the tale. His father was not that merciful to those who dared to defy him. His weakness would not be tolerated.
As time went by, Zuko dozed fitfully, kept awake by his thoughts and the burning pain from his face. He got no real rest. Both his surroundings and thoughts were too chaotic for him to sleep properly. He couldn't keep himself from replaying that horrible duel over and over in his mind, the sheer terror of the moment his father burned him etched into his mind forever. He knew that moment would star in his nightmares for months.
Not only was the young boy's mind in turmoil, the ship was too. Being on a Grand Progress with the royal family to conduct an inspection of the troops in the southern waters was a difficult business. Calls for messages to be delivered, chores to be completed and royal needs to be met were constant, as was the racket from the kitchen and the war rooms. Hundreds of voices yelling over the top of each other inside the confined metal cruise ship was enough to give anyone a headache, never mind the injured child.
Eventually, night fell, and the roaring bustle faded to a dull murmur. As soon as he was able to put the thoughts of the fight behind him, albeit temporarily, Zuko conked out completely. He was so tired that not even the pain from his injuries could wake him up. The night passed like the blink of an eye to the boy, as he was so deeply asleep.
Hours later, as the sun crept over the horizon, a conversation managed to shake the boy from slumber. He blinked his eyes tiredly, denying the urge to find out what the two men who were outside his room were talking about in favour of attempting to get some more sleep. However, just as the boy was dozing off, he heard one of the men say his name.
"The Prince -"
"Just Zuko, now." One of the men scoffed. "He's no prince anymore."
"- is being deported this morning."
"To where?"
"The wide open sea," the man said with a hint of sadistic glee. "Over the side on a wooden raft. It's against tradition to kill a noble, whether he's a pansy or not, so the Fire Lord is leaving his fate up to the Spirits to decide. But if you want my opinion, he won't last even an hour before falling off the damn thing."
"Too true," the other man continued, their voices fading as the apparently left the scene. "I'm sure...boy...wind up dead..."
Zuko was alarmed, but his mind was still half asleep, and didn't make the connection between the man's words and his own future for a long time. The tide of sleep took him under once more for a few hours, until around midday, where he was woken by the sensation of being picked up.
He was slightly more alert this time, but still unable to do anything due to his injuries. Apart from the scar on his face, Zuko had broken a leg, a rib and had lost a lot of blood. Coupled with the fever he had already been running and the pounding headache he had recently acquired, he was in no position to resist when the guards entered his room and lugged his sleep pallet up several flights of stairs to the deck.
Once he was in the sunshine, the boy perked up a bit more, but was still fairly out of it. He did, however, manage to grasp the fact that being tied to a small, rickety raft by armed guards was not a good thing.
"H...Hey," he managed to wheeze out nearly silently, "w-what are you doing?"
The guards didn't answer of course, too busy laughing to themselves about the fate of the battered boy they were surrounding. Zuko's anxiety peaked and he began to struggle weakly against his bonds as they lifted the raft and walked over to the back end of the ship.
His heart leapt out of his chest as the four burly men swung him and his attached raft over the side of the ship. One sniggered to himself. "Nighty night, kid," he chuckled grimly before the four of them dropped the raft suddenly, sending the boy plummeting down towards the choppy ocean. Bursts of pain overrode Zuko's senses as he hit the water, taking his breath away and knocking him out swiftly.
The last thing Zuko remembered before the world went dark around him was the piercing blast of a war horn, and the accompanying cry.
"Incoming!"
They had been sailing for days by now, subtly following the massive metal cruiser that housed their greatest enemies: the Fire Lord and his family. Hakoda and his soldiers were patient, as their element dictated, and had been planning their sneak attack for days by now. Their crew of thirty might not be as strong as the two hundred on board the metal monstrosity, but they had an ace up their sleeve which the Fire Nation would never expect.
Fourteen of them were master waterbenders.
After the raid on them sixty years ago, the Fire Nation thought they had wiped out all of the southern benders, but one had escaped their clutches. Hama, a young girl at the time, had managed to slip off the Fire Nation ship and swim back to shore within days of the ship departing. And with her there to recognise and train potential benders, many more were discovered amidst the young children of the next generation.
Hakoda was part of a long line of southern Chiefs and another long line of powerful waterbenders. Achieving his mastery at the age of fourteen, he was considered to be the ultimate bending authority in their tribe now since Hama was so old and fragile. Under his leadership, the tribe had flourished with a fresh batch of waterbenders to build permanent residences and the towering walls of ice and packed snow their people were know for.
Now, the period of rebuilding had ended. The tribe was fortified enough against outside threats in the absence of their men. The women had been trained to fight and bend alongside the men, as was custom in their tribe, and four of their number had joined the expedition as benders to make an even wolfship's crew. The gates to the city were sealed and manned by the teenage and preteen bending students. If the Fire Nation dared to mount a raid against them in the absence of their warriors, they would be stopped blank by the colossal walls of ice and packed snow.
They were finally ready to start fighting back.
Hakoda had already sent an embassy of a few of his troops up north to the Earth Kingdom to liaise with the King. Battle plans were in the making for a few year's time. The Earth Kingdom needed to rebuild as much as they did before mounting an offensive, but when they were ready, the Southern Water Tribe would help them.
Their sister tribe in the north, of course, had done absolutely nothing during this war. The Northern Water Tribe was well known for their reluctance to get involved in conflict that didn't serve their own purposes. With their fortress to hide behind, they were safe from the horrors of the war, and the Fire Nation had given up trying to crack the nut that was their city more than fifty years ago. The rest of the world held them in severe disdain for leaving them to suffer the brunt of the Fire Nation's offence without even sending warriors down to fight. While the South were publicly supporters of the North, they too thought the northerners to be cowards.
"Ship sighted," Karruk, a tall warrior, said from the top of the crow's nest in their ship.
Hakoda waved in acknowledgement before beckoning for the young man to come down. The Water Tribe warriors gathered in the bow of their ship, leaving Analaq at the steering oar to keep them moving. Hunkering down below the bulwarks, Hakoda and his fighters loosened their weapons in their sheaths and uncapped the flasks of water on their hips. If they managed to get below deck, they would need an accessible supply of water.
"All right," Hakoda murmured quietly, "everyone ready?"
"Aye," Bato replied, followed immediately by all of the others. "Good to go, Chief."
"Analaq?" Hakoda asked the skipper.
"They're in the Great Divide," he reported. "Closing at a hundred...seventy...fifty..." The warriors hefted their weapons, tensing their muscles to spring. "...thirty...twenty...ten..."
As soon as they felt the boat grind to a stop against the metal hull, the warriors sprang out of their hiding spot and swarmed over the bulwarks onto the enemy ship, Hakoda and Bato leading the silent charge. Once every waterbender's feet were on the ship, Hakoda yelled a command.
"Right side!" he ordered, sliding into a bending stance and raising a towering wave over the side of the enemy ship, feeling the strength of the thirteen benders behind him helping him raise it to greater heights. When it reached its peak, Hakoda sent it crashing over the deck, sending half the guards toppling over the side. As planned, their rapid attack took them completely by surprise. Once the defences were diminished, Hakoda led his warriors in a charge against the twenty odd firebenders left to defend the royals, already snapping out a water whip towards the closest.
A melee of fighting broke out on deck, with the Water Tribe easily sending the remaining soldiers over the side as well. Once the deck was clear, Hakoda froze the water behind them, leaving a barrier of treacherous black ice for the soldiers to get past once they managed to climb aboard, before making a beeline for the stairs leading to the lower galley.
Descending rapidly, the warriors swiftly split themselves into two groups to search the ship. Hakoda's group sprinted down the left corridor, knocking out the guards with a few well-placed punches and kicks as they went. They went down another level, and Hakoda used a bit of his precious supply of water to freeze the non bending guards to the wall while his sister, Janna, ran past him and knocked two of the benders over with her spear, kicking them in the head to knock them out.
Their mission relied on speed and the near silent take down of their adversaries. Their only objective was to find and either kill or capture as many members of the royal family as possible. It was against the warrior's code of honour to kill men who were fighting unwillingly, and Hakoda was reasonably sure that nobody would volunteer to come this far south and face up against the forces of the Southern Water Tribe, whose reputation was already beginning to spread.
Once they took out the guards, they continued down the corridor, throwing open every door them came across and searching the room briefly. They found nobody until they reached the last door at the end of the corridor, decorated with the seal of the royal family. Hakoda smirked grimly to himself. His hours of planning and underwater surveillance would finally be paying off.
He kicked down the door easily, drawing all the remaining water out of his flask, ready to freeze and secure a Fire Nation royal. But upon seeing the inhabitant of the room, he relaxed his stance, redirecting his water back into his flask.
"W-Who are you?" the teenage boy said, trying to conceal the quiver of fear in his voice and failing miserably. "What do you want with me?"
He was a nervous, meek looking thing, Hakoda thought with a tinge of disdain. Slight, with soft skin and hands, obviously never worked a day in his life. Fancy topknot, of course. The gold eyes spoke of firebending, though...a problem might arise there. The boy seemed to have no intention of fighting them off - unusual, for one of his people. However, a sneaking suspicion was beginning to form in Hakoda's mind as he took in the abject fear in the boy's gaze...and it didn't stem from his nationality, that was for sure. But as always, Hakoda knew to live in the moment, and brushed his speculation off for consideration at a later date.
Hakoda raised an eyebrow. "Directions. Where's the royal family?" He wasn't about to hit a child, no matter their allegiance. He couldn't exactly leave him free while he abducted the royal family though...
"The Fire Lord and Lady are on another ship," the boy managed to get out shakily. "My parents are with them too - oh, Agni," he whispered in horror to himself as he realised what he had just said.
"Your parents are guards?" Janna asked.
The boy hesitated slightly, his eyes darting left for a moment before he opened his mouth to answer. But Hakoda caught his slip. "No," he said, slowly drawing his water back out of his flask, "his parents aren't guards."
The boy gulped.
Another member of their boarding party, Kuraq, caught on to the mistake as well. "By the look of him, chief, I'd say he's a bit better off in life than a guard's son. Someone of a better class, for example...a prince."
The look of horror on the boy's face, coupled with his earlier slip, clued the quick-witted chief in to his identity instantly. "Iroh's son," he realised, fixing a calculating eye on the boy, "Prince Lu Ten."
As soon as he knew his cover was blown, a blast of fire was thrown their way. Only Hakoda's swift reflexes saved the group of fifteen from instant incineration, as he doused the flames well before they reached them. Kuraq took the initiative, gracefully sending water arcing over the blast and onto the boy, freezing him in place. Janna and her friend Kanata surged past the chief and worked together to truss up the teenager securely.
A crash and the sound of men pouring onto the deck above heralded the arrival of more soldiers. Hakoda grimaced to himself. "Time to go," he said decisively, beckoning the young boy towards him. "You're coming with us," he informed the boy. "Don't worry. You're a prisoner of war, and the Water Tribe honours the stipulations thereof." Hakoda paused. "And of course, we'd never dream of harming a child."
He swallowed before nodding, hesitantly shuffling closer to the man. Hakoda patted his shoulder reassuringly, his paternal instincts kicking into gear, before he made a swift hand gesture and the ranks of the Water Tribe warriors closed up in formation, Lu Ten in the middle. Hakoda and Janna led the charge against the arriving soldiers, knocking them back far enough that they could get up the two flights of stairs to the main deck, ushering their prisoner after them.
Arriving on the deck, Hakoda saw the other members of the raiding party making their way back to the ship as well, unfortunately without prisoners. Bato was facing off against a group of middle-aged guards, holding back their attacks with his long spear while his teammates scrambled over the bulwarks back onto their own ship, readying it to sail away as soon as everyone was on board. Instantly, Hakoda's jets of water sprang to his best friend's aid, helping him defend their escape route as Janna and the others easily swarmed back into the ship, one of the men hustling their captive along with them. As soon as everyone was on board, Bato and Hakoda traded a glance, and as one, turned and sprinted for their ship, vaulting over the side just as they pulled away from the large metal steamer.
The Chief did a quick head count, sighing internally in relief as he saw every member of his crew had escaped alive, if not entirely unscathed. As the proud wooden ship of the Water Tribe sped away from the enemy, Hakoda began to relax and unwind slightly from the tense battle. His first thoughts went to the injuries of his crew. The close seconds were to the wellbeing of his prisoner, the teenage Fire Prince.
Hakoda always felt slightly guilty when fighting the Fire Nation. He knew that a fair chunk of them were forced to conscript and didn't enjoy killing innocent people. It never sat right with him, fighting those who would rather not fight. So far, he had detained three high ranking officials of the Fire Nation for interrogation in Ba Sing Se. He was used to the uncomfortable feeling that people were never going to see their families again because of him. But Hakoda understood that this was war. The lives of the few had to be sacrificed for the lives of the many unless there was another option available.
However, he couldn't come to terms with kidnapping a child. Being a parent himself, Hakoda understood the absolute terror that would grip a parent if they knew their child was in the hands of the enemy. His decision to take the royal children was strategically a good move. It would spread the Fire Nation's forces thin and would shake the nerve of the Fire Lord. Intellectually, he knew he had made the right decision for his people and the future of the world. Emotionally...well, he wasn't so sure.
Hakoda sighed, straightening his shoulders and cleared his throat to talk to the men. "May I have your attention, please?" His voice carried the unmistakable air of authority characteristic of him, and even the most unruly members of the crew fell silent and paid attention when he was being serious, like he was then.
He surveyed the assembled warriors with a critical eye. "Thank you," he said briskly, a small smile playing over his face. "That mission counts as a success," he continued his short debriefing. "We have one of the members of the royal family, and have dealt a severe blow to the confidence of the Fire Nation. You all performed admirably. Good job." He paused for a moment. "Now, we have three healers on board. Any injuries - and I mean any, Lakan," a chorus of sniggers swept through the audience at their Chief's rebuke of their youngest and most careless member, "- are to be reported to Keitak, Namara or myself. No exceptions. Everyone fit for duty is to hold a course for home, but take it easy, please. And does anybody want to volunteer to watch Lu Ten?"
Dead silence reigned for a moment, before Bato stepped forward and nodded once to his friend before laying a firm yet kind hand on the youngest's shoulder and steering him towards the side rail, murmuring a few words of direction and assurance in his ear. Hakoda nodded to himself, satisfied that the boy would be well looked after.
"Now that we've settled things," he continued, "let's get -"
"Craft sighted!" The lookout, the only member of the crew excused from briefing, called from his perch at the top of the mast. Hakoda looked up instantly, a frown marring his face. "Small raft to the west," the man reported, "no people I can see...wait...there's one." He paused for a few seconds before finishing his observations incredulously. "It's a boy," he said with a tinge of grimness as he peered more closely through the rudimentary spy glass he had. "Fire Nation, only about ten years old, I'd say."
Lu Ten inhaled sharply at that. Every eye on board slowly turned to face him. After a moment, Hakoda spoke. "Lu Ten? Who is that?"
The boy swallowed, trying to compose himself. "I think...I think it's Zuko, er, sir." At their point blank looks, he clarified. "My cousin."
Hakoda made the connection instantly. "What is the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation doing out here alone?" he asked suspiciously, his mind immediately thinking of ways the Fire Nation could be planning to attack them.
Lu Ten hesitated. "He...he and his father had a bit of a...falling out, let's say," he explained quietly. "My uncle disinherited him last night, after...well, after a fight with him. He was thrown overboard to take his chances against the elements this morning. They didn't think he'd survive, not with his injuries..."
Quiet murmurings broke out amongst the crew. Many of them were incensed at the Fire Nation's treatment of a child. The Southern Water Tribe raised their children in a harsh and strict environment on a diet of strong discipline and large amounts of work. However, they were a very close-knit people, and they did love their children very much, despite their firm stance on punishment. To leave a young boy alone in hostile territory, injured and left to drift on a rickety raft until he died was inexcusable, no matter what the child had done.
Hakoda'a feelings on the matter matched the general consensus. He warred with himself for a moment before finally giving in to his parental instincts. "Analaq, bring us round," he ordered calmly.
He had been drifting for, oh, just under an hour he'd say, although he couldn't really tell as he had been unconscious for a bit. Zuko was actually starting to enjoy it, kind of. Calm...peaceful...quiet... Yes, Zuko was enjoying this part of proceedings more than any other that occurred in the past twenty-four hours.
There was a fog clouding his mind and his one good eye. He knew what was going on around him, but honestly, Zuko couldn't bring himself to care any more. He noted with a detached interest that he would die before the day was out. He could feel that he was in serious pain, but it didn't have him crying or screwing his eyes closed. Instead, the boy looked almost as if he was sleeping from a distance. It was only upon closer inspection that one could see the shallowness of his breath and the horrific scarring of his face.
Almost an age later, Zuko slowly became aware of a new sound being added to surroundings. A soft whuffing noise...like a piece of cloth in the wind, really. He didn't pay it much mind at all, not even when it got so close that he could see where it came from. The elegant, noble wooden wolfship was obviously not Fire Nation, he recognised that much, but instead of being terrified by the Water Tribe savages that had come to get him, he was morbidly amused. It was more funny than anything when a well-built yet light-footed Water Tribe man dropped onto his craft with a soft thud from the higher deck.
As the man knelt by his side, concern marring his proud yet kind features, Zuko was suddenly struck by the urge to cry. He hadn't cried at all since the fateful duel, and it had caught up to him. So when the foreign stranger laid a soothing hand on his face, tilting his chin up from the wooden raft gently, the young boy gave into temptation, screwed his eyes shut, and allowed a single tear to escape. His pride wouldn't allow anything more.
And when the man brushed away his tear lightly before carefully picking him up and passing him up to another two men on the boat before agilely leaping back on board himself, Zuko had to exercise all of the self-control he could muster in his injured, confused state to stop himself from letting out another.
Then darkness came over him once more.