Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender
Since the first human bent fire, it was expected that every one hundred years a sacrifice called the Homa, would be made to the lord of fire, Agni, before the Great Comet passes, otherwise Agni would blot out the sun until the comet passed again. When the Fire Sages were created the Fire Lord's duty was to complete the sacrifice. As more time passed it became the royal families job to sacrifice to Agni. It was specifically the oldest child's rite to present the gifts to Agni. Before his planned attack Sozin proffered the offerings then immediately attacked the Air Temples. One hundred years later the comet was preparing to pass again and a sacrifice was waiting to be made.
Many miles north of the Fire Nation in the Western Air Temple, Zuko, oldest child of the family, meditated, searching for something he could not remember. For many days, a feeling in the back of his brain bothered him, a memory of something that was necessary to happen. He then stood up and walked around the temple looking at pictures of the monks gracing the walls. Something shinning in the light caught his eye, a topknot piece in the shape of flames not unlike the Fire Lord's and red robes lain around it. The gold of the topknot was more orange than yellow while the robes the color of the very tips of flames, and then he remembered, the Homa.
Immediately he picked up the topknot and robes and raced off to his rooms to put it all there. He then began going over everything that was necessary for the sacrifice to occur; choice meat of a male animal, freshest fruits and vegetables from the earth, four bowls large enough to hold it all in, and a place directed toward the Fire Temple.
Zuko left his room when Katara called all of them to dinner, not that he would be having any due to having to fast for the Homa and Katara hating him. The meal started as it normally did with the GAang, Hakoda, the Duke, Haru, and Teo talking and discussing their days, while he and Chit Sang hung in the background not contributing to the conversation in anyway unless spoken to. At the end of the meal, Zuko stood up and said, "Aang, for the next week you must train on your own, I am currently busy with other things" and then began walking away. "What? Why? What are these other things you have that is so much more important than training Aang? Are you trying to make it so your father will win?" snarled Katara at his back as he walked away. Zuko turned around slowly face expressionless and simply said, "Yes I have things to do that are more important than training the Avatar," and disappeared into the shadows of the temple. Katara sputtered angrily, while the others looked on in various stages of anger and confusion, all the while Chit Sang watched with excitement, he was going to see one of the greatest feats of firebending at the end of the week, the Homa.
The next day, Katara searched for Zuko to force him to train Aang or to find out what trap he had created to capture them. But it was if Zuko had disappeared into thin air no one had seen him, and Toph claimed she didn't know where he was. When the call for dinner sounded, he reappeared holding a golden chunk of metal covered in dirt and grime. He continued past his companions eating without giving a second glance only turning when Chit Sang called out to him, "May I watch?" Turning back around he said, "If Agni allows, you will all watch." Once again, he disappeared into the night ignoring any other questions sent at his retreating back.
The following day, Zuko was found in one of the many courtyards. In his hands, he held the golden metal and split it into four pieces with his superheated hands. To each piece, he paid special care shaping each into a perfectly symmetrical and identical bowls. He ignored all as Katara attempted to distract his as to make him train Aang, but when she tried to hit him with waterbending he merely sent a fire blast at the water and instantly evaporated it without ever loosing focus on his work. On one bowl, he began to shape the sides into mountains topped with clouds with small gusts of wind swirls blowing it as a sky bison soared across it with a monk riding on it, written in the center of the bowl it said Air. On another bowl, he added mountains with tunnels and a badger-mole peeking out of it to the outside on its back sat a small girl dressed in finery, like the first one written in it was Earth. Looking at his work he decided that they were satisfactory and placed them in the water to cool then took them to his room. He then sat with the others at dinner and ignored any attempts that the others made to ask what he was doing.
On the fourth day, Zuko started working on the other two bowls molding them to perfection. The first one had great waves reaching up the sides, with a large crescent moon with Yue sitting in it mournfully watching the world, and riding on one of the waves were two people, a girl controlling the wave and a boy standing protectively over her wielding a boomerang, and like the two before it, it too had writing in the middle, the word Water. The final bowl he created dragons weaving across each other making tongues of flame burst from their mouths, and standing on the back of one was a boy bending the flames with the dragons, and in the center of the bowl it read Fire. While all of this was happening Katara was snooping around his room searching for whatever had been taking up so much of his time. She then saw the two finished bowls with Air and Earth written in them. Looking at them she assumed that Zuko had been wasting his time making frivolous objects, and decided to hide them where he would not find them. But, try as she might, she was unable to even budge one of the bowls they were so heavy. Forgoing that she decided to bug Zuko at dinner until she was told what he was doing.
When she met up with the others for dinner she found Zuko already there talking to Toph and Haru discussing semantics of a building. As they listened the other discovered that Zuko required a large alter facing the Fire Temple with areas for flames to burn. Suspicious that Zuko was not signaling the Fire Nation she asked what he required it for. In return she only got an emotionless stare and the words, "You will see at the end of the week." The next day Zuko spent with Toph and Haru perfecting the alter he needed until everything was perfect.
On the sixth day Zuko went into the surrounding forests and returned with arms full of ripe fruit and vegetables without imperfections or blemishes on them. Seeing them Katara assumed they were for her to cook with and tried to take from him. When he refused to give them to her, she snarled, "You stupid, selfish, spoiled, firebender! The rest of us need that food you ought to give it to me so I can cook with it and feed the rest of the people here, not just you." In return Zuko only gave her a heated glare and walked away saying, "These are not for me either." Once again, he disappeared and didn't return for dinner.
On the seventh day Zuko appeared leading a sabretooth moose-lion up to where Toph and Haru had made the alter for him. He was dressed in only a loose red pants with his chest bare. On his chest and back were painted dragons curling around him and blowing flames across his skin. His face was painted much like a Yu Yan archer's was but instead of a straight mask it was more like red flames around his eyes hiding his scar among them. His hair was up in a topknot the golden holder in place holding it above his head and around his upper arms two golden rings. His eyes were still the same gold but the pupil seem slit like and reptilian. Overall, he looked like a strange spirit out of place in their world yet strangely noble.
The first to move was Chit Sang kneeling and saying, "My lord prince, may we watch as you honor our Lord Agni?" The strange eyes turned to him and Zuko said raspy as if he hadn't talked for a long while, "You may, but do not disturb the Homa." As they followed him to the alter Chit Sang explained the Homa to them how if it wasn't completed the world would be dark for a hundred years. As they followed they began to understand why this took a higher priority to Zuko than training Aang as it was his duty to do. Then the Homa began.
Zuko placed the four bowls he had been working on during the week at equal distance apart in the order they were made: Air, Earth, Water, and Fire. He split the fruits and vegetables evenly between the bowls and lit them on fire, each fire in the bowls changed color the air to whit, the earth to green, the water to blue, and fire to a deep rich red. After the fires began to burn steadily Zuko brought forth the sabretooth moose-lion. Taking a fire dagger, he sliced its throat and allowed its life-blood to spill out on him and the alter around him. The spectators looked on in fear at the gruesome scene, as Zuko ripped out and separated the brain, the heart, the legs and the torso of the animal. The brain went to the water bowl, the legs to the earth, the torso to the air and the heart to the fire. When he had finished, he began chanting, "Agni, lord of the sun and fire except my offering from each of the peoples who live under you." Then he stopped and began firebending the fire around him, evaporating the blood on and around him, and everything in the four bowls. The fire began swirling so greatly that they could no longer see Zuko's form inside of it only the eternal rainbow of fire. The all the fire shot to the sky into the sun which glowed brighter, soon after Zuko fainted and was caught and taken back to his room by Chit Sang.
Across the world people who knew what the sudden flare of fire meant were relived, Former Prince Zuko had succeeded in appeasing Agni for another hundred years. Back in Capital City Fire Lord Ozai and Crown Princess Azula seethed, the disgraced royal had succeeded and was stronger than they had previously thought.