Giangxi Iron Mines, Kioka Province, Fire Nation

Tetsuya heaved the last crate of building materials into the jeep and wiped his hands on his worn down, mud-saturated denim pants in pouring rain. Over at the other building, Taemon was repairing a machine for the factory where they had to provide manual labor to fulfil the community service portion of their sentence.

"Ready to head back to the tent yet?" Tetsuya asked Taemon under the machine.

"Almost," Taemon replied. There was a click and a clunk and an exclamation from Taemon as something fell on his head.

"You alright?" Tetsuya asked with genuine concern.

"Fine— it wasn't heavy," Taemon replied from under the machine. "Where is Tatsu?"

"Didn't show again. Probably hungover in some gutter," Tetsuya replied.

Taemon sighed and emerged from under the machine dabbing his bloodied forehead with a filthy rag. "Let's find him and bring him back."

They found their brother stumbling around behind the back wall of the factory with a black eye, a bloodied fist, a bruised cheek, a torn shirt and limping leg.

"Dear brother, you were once so beautiful like me. Quit this folly," Tetsuya said, touching his twin's face.

"Never." Tatsuya threw a feeble punch that his twin brother evaded effortlessly. The elder picked up his drunken twin and walked beside Taemon from the industrial area back to the laborers' camp.

"You still wear your hair long like a fucking prince that you'll never be," a fellow laborer jeered as they passed the gates of the guard house to the tents.

"It's a personal preference and has nothing to do with my blood relation to royalty," Tetsuya exuded with an admirable sense of confidence and self-assuredness as he carried his inebriated twin brother to their tent.

"Your brother?" Another stranger asked, nodding to Tetsuya as he emerged after dumping Tatsu onto a straw mat to get some stew from the kettle on the open fire place in the center of the cluster of tents.

"Obviously," Tetsuya murmured sarcastically.

"And you still care for him?" another laborer asked as if he were surprised.

"He's blood," Tetsu responded stiffly, appalled why anyone wouldn't want to help his or her own brother. Then again, he almost cost his sister, and his cousins their lives. He tried to murder his own mother, outright.

"Then what's your excuse for sticking around them?" a third asked Taemon pointedly. "You ain't share no blood with these wretched bastards."

"Loyalty," Taemon answered, smoothly sipping his tea.

"What do a couple o' convicted traitors know of loyalty?" a fourth laborer asked.

Tetsuya lunged to defend his chosen brother, nearly spilling his night's rations.

"Tetsu, don't fight back!" Taemon ordered, holding a hand out in front of the younger.

Tetsuya flipped his perfect hair back out of his face and huffed, returning to his tent with his tin of stew.

Taemon exhaled and followed with his own pitiful ration.

Tetsuya kicked his bag aside, then picked up his dulling razor to shave his face after wiping the dirt and grime of the day away.

"Why do you even bother with self-maintenance, Brother?" Taemon asked, squatting over the edge of his bamboo mat with his cracked bowl in hand as Tetsuya groomed himself.

"Mother always told us that presentation was important. Even before we could say we were part of her family, we represented her name and had to act accordingly," Tetsuya replied.

"And yet you let your brother go out every day in rags and then out again every evening to get drunk."

"It was his way of coping when she couldn't be there to see him. I tried to teach him to breathe, to help him find peace, but his energy— it just runs on a different channel as mine."

"Do you miss her still? After what she's done to us-" Taemon asked sadly.

"Yes." Tetsuya replied solemnly.

"Do you think we could have done it? If it weren't for her inner fire?"

The man paused. "Honestly? I'm not sure. She's smarter than everyone I have ever encountered. With that league of hers, she would have found out eventually no matter how many of her agents we turned against her. She was always ahead."

"Once Takeo becomes Fire Lord, would you want to try again?"

"No. Once again, Mother's right. We're not foolish enough to try to do the same thing especially now that she knows our tactics and has declared herself the World's Weapon. Would you?"

"Not in this lifetime," Taemon replied, drinking the last drop of his sad soup.

Just as Tetsuya finished shaving, there was a loud rapping on the canvas flap of their tent and the camp warden entered.

"Ey! Ya bastard beauties, get up! There's someone here ta take yeh all this evening," he grumbled lazily but dutifully, throwing the flap open. Both Tetsuya and Taemon jumped, startled while Tatsuya remained unconscious on his mat, fatigued and likely hungover..

"Brother, Brother wake up!" Tetsuya whispered insistently, shaking Tatsuya's shoulder only to get no response.

"Ugh!" Tetsu grumbled, slapping his brother across the face before turning to the camp warden miserably.

"Yerall have ter come," the warden ordered a little more insistently than before.

"I got him this time," Taemon said, heaving the inebriate over his shoulder, following the camp warden out of their tent.

Tetsuya tossed his broken mirror and old razor into his bag and grabbed his two brothers' and followed.

"Genkei?" they asked when they saw their mother's non-bending Captain of her personal guard.

"Boys," he nodded.

"You know we're older than you, right?" Taemon asked.

"I'm only following the Fire Lord's orders, to retrieve her sons. We're going." Genkei informed the three.

"Where this time?" Tetsuya asked wearily.

"To Ember Island, for vacation."

Vacation?

"But what of our sixty hours a week of community service?" Tetsuya protested like a boy, fearful of the potential public retaliation that would arise when they find the Fire Lord's sons blew off their punishment.

"They are cumulative. You will make them up after your break. You don't want to risk disobeying her lordship again, do you?" Genkei asked.

"No, I suppose not," Tetsuya said with a heavy sigh, following the elite member of the Amber League back to a royal airship.

"Where's the third?" Fire Lord Izumi demanded of her servant when he presented Taemon and Tetsuya to her.

"Asleep, my lord. He hasn't stirred since we retrieved them from the camp. Would you like us to try to wake him?" Genkei asked.

"No. He must need his rest," Izumi replied understandingly. She turned to study the two men kneeling before her. "Good. They haven't beaten you too badly yet," Izumi commented as she bored into their souls with her blazing golden-tangerine-colored eyes.

"Not us, but Tatsu. He-" Tetsuya couldn't bring himself to say it.

"Hasn't been in the best of shape lately-," Taemon answered for him.

"It's a shame really, what he's become," Izumi sighed melancholically, interlacing her hands and leaning her elbows on her desk. "If my father hadn't banned Agni Kais, Tatsu could have possibly gained the rank of dragon." she mused. "I've thought several times to reinstate the ceremony but my advisors opposed me."

"Why didn't you crush them like you crushed us?" Taemon asked.

"Because people died in Agni Kais," Izumi answered clearly. "They weren't tournaments. They were death matches for honor and glory. Their only purpose was to preserve tradition no matter how sick and twisted it became. You two still probably don't realize it, but we are on the same side, you and I. We all want change in the Fire Nation and we can't stand its current rate."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Let Takeo lead the charge forward with his youthful new face. I am sure the Fire Nation is already tired of me. Besides, once word gets out about what we uncovered in those two weeks I am certain they will lose faith in won't trust me after they find out just how many bastards I am hiding and will begin to wonder what other secrets we keep." Izumi said, leaning back in her seat. At first, neither man before her spoke.

"Is it true what they say? About us going on a vacation?" Tetsuya asked.

"Yes. It's also a test for you three. The only rules will be that you cannot individually go beyond the bounds of the property alone. You may be accompanied by a handler, a cousin, parent, or even each other." she paused after emphasizing each other. "My advisors think me insane for trusting you with such independence, but from what I knew of you in your youth and from what I have observed of your careers, you are both brilliant minds who do not ever make the same mistake twice," Izumi told the boys. "Please prove me right."

"But your reputation— if the people find what you've done—"

"I will tell you now, at this point in my life, I don't care about my name anymore. My time is almost done and it will be you who will have to live for a long while with the choices you've made. Is that in any way unclear?"

"No ma'am," Taemon responded looking down.

"Good," Izumi sighed sitting up.

"In that case, is that all, Mother?" Tetsuya asked.

"For now."

They were about to leave when Tetsuya hung back.

"May I stay a moment longer?" Tetsuya asked once Taemon had gone.

"Always. That, you never have to ask that," Izumi replied, laying her crown flat to the side of her work. He analyzed her collection. She was incredibly neat and efficient with her to-do pile, current work, and things to mail out the next morning. Then along the top of her table, she displayed an array of personal artefacts: rwo photographs that Tetsuya could not see and a couple of other nicknacks. Among them, an origami turtle duck stood out.

Both their eyes rested on the same object.

"You kept it?" Tetsuya asked. "After all this time?"

"Always," Izumi replied, staring him straight in the eye. "As I said I would that moment you gave it to me."

"Mama! Mama! Guess what Father taught us to bend today?" five-year-old Tetsuya asked, beaming as he ran into Izumi's arms.

"What did he teach you?" Izumi asked, kissing his face and brushing his long dark hair away from those brilliantly shining eyes that matched hers perfectly. She was worried, slightly for at this same age, she and her lover, Masaru were already bending lightning at each other in secret since nobody else would.

"He taught us how to beeeeend—- ORIGAMI!" Tetsuya said, producing the tiny paper turtle duck.

"Oh Tetsu, it's magnificent!" Izumi exclaimed, sweeping her son up into her arms and turning him around with glee before bringing him to rest on her hip.

"I'm glad you think so!" Tetsuya exclaimed, petting its tiny inanimate head. "It's for you!" Tetsuya replied, turning it over for one final inspection before handing her his creation.

"I shall cherish it forever, my Love. Just as I cherish you." she promised him, accepting the gift gratefully. She touched his nose to his and kissed him again, holding him in her arms, wishing for the moment to never end.

They looked up at each other. Tetsuya's golden tangerine eyes were cool and unreadable, conditioned apathy burned into his being from his time serving in the Amber League. His mother's matching ones flickered in the candle light, still bright with life but at the same time overshadowed by grief for a time long lost to misery.

"Forgive me," Izumi whispered.

"There's nothing to be forgiven," Tetsuya replied. Izumi came around the desk and the two hugged.

"My boy, my darling boy! I should have never let you join the League. I should have never let the politics interfere with my family. I should have ousted the Fire Sages sooner, fucked the clergy and married your father before everything! I should have never forced you to harbor my secrets, to grow up suffering—"

"It was for our own protection, I understand that much—"

"No, it was me being selfish and weak. It was me allowing myself to be manipulated by the masses, and I'm so sorry!" Izumi said, holding him, running her fingers through his silky hair.

He bent down on his knees so she wouldn't have to tip toe. So he could rest his head on her chest and listen to his mother's heartbeat like an infant still in the womb or taking his first breath, he felt human again.

"You're so cold now," she said, feeling his energy instinctively.

"It's only the normal temperature for a nonbender, 98.7 degrees," he replied. Firebender blood naturally ran about a hundred and thirty. Izumi and Masaru ran even hotter as a result of their all-consuming inner fire constantly threatening to break out. Even without his bending, Tetsuya could feel their warmth from a mile away.

Izumi held him and he held her back for a long while in her office.

"Mother, will you tell me a story?" Tetsuya asked quietly.

"What kind of story?"

"What was it like when you were a child, before you were told you were a princess, back when you were truly carefree and happy?"

"I can barely remember such a time existing."

"You do. I know you do. I can see it just beyond your eyes. You dream of it- your childhood- just as I dream of mine."

Izumi's face melted with a bittersweet sadness. "It was blissful at times. Running as fast as I can through these very halls, sliding into the walls trying to turn. I was always the pursuer if you would believe it. Saru would provoke me and I would chase him and make him pay for wronging me."

"And did you catch him?"

"Always."

"Did you break things?"

"We tried not to, but it was inevitable. A couple of vases shattered. A couple of suits of armor dented. A couple of tapestries torn. Nothing burned, surprisingly. We only had each other. There was no Iroh teaching us the dragon dance, no Sasuke showing us how to use swords, and there certainly was no Rikuto showing off earthbending forms. It was just the two of us, eerily quiet and dreadfully lonely. We were both kept secret, Saru because of Toph's own pains and me, because the Fire Sages couldn't bear the thought of a woman ruling our precious country."

"Were you glad to have so many sons?"

"It did not matter if you were a son or a daughter. I was just glad that my children had friends that could love them and keep them company when I wasn't there. I was glad I was healthy enough see you all grow up. I was grateful however you were all boys when Ursa came. I knew someday she'd be fucked, that someday she would be subject to the same pains as me."

"Thank you for not giving up on us, mother," he said crying.

"I will never give up on you. You are a part of me," Izumi said, looking into his eyes sincerely.

The Ember Island Airfield

The air was warmer and more humid than Kuvira ever felt Zaofu being, and when she looked outside, she saw tropics instead of the grassy plains she grew up seeing. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Ember Island, in the Fire Nation," Suyin replied calmly as the door of the airship opened and the gangway was lowered by metalbending guards.

"This is a trick, isn't it? We're just being transferred to another prison?" Kuvira asked, tugging anxiously at her sleeve, following with her head hung low, not wanting to face anybody.

"It is not a trick, Kuvira. It is the real deal. Come meet your new Aunt and Uncle," Suyin said, waving for her to follow. "Baatar, let's go," she called her eldest son over, careful not to call him 'Junior.'

They both looked up from their feet to see a couple dressed in casual Fire Nation beachwear waiting for them on the deck of the airship dock.

"F-Fire Lord Izumi?" Kuvira stuttered, startled, bowing respectfully.

Izumi smiled. "Just Aunt Zumi is fine. Besides, I am no longer Fire Lord. My son Takeo is though, but since we are all on vacation, you don't need to worry about anyone's titles."

"Takeo?" The name was unfamiliar to Kuvira, who had extensively studied every member of every foreign leader and all potential enemies of her Earth Empire. "I thought you only had two children—Iroh and Ursa—"

"So did the rest of the world until recently," Izumi replied with a disarming smile, glancing at the man standing beside her.

"Kuvira, Baatar, meet Masaru Lee of Earthen Fire Refineries," Suyin said, motioning to the tall, broad-shouldered, high-cheekboned, slightly old Fire Nation man with amber eyes and fine lines. "He is my half brother and Lin Beifong's full brother-you remember my sister, Lin, right?"

"The Chief of Police of Republic City?" Baatar asked softly.

"Well, she is not Chief of Police anymore, Mako is."

"Mako? The idiot brother of the idiot Bolin?" Kuvira asked in disbelief. "And Toph Beifong was okay with that?" She never thought she'd see a time when Republic City's esteemed metalbending police force would be led by a firebender, but clearly that was no longer the case.

"Not really, but you know how difficult it is to keep your stupid kids from doing stupid things, ain't that right, Saru? Su?" Toph Beifong asked, appearing out of the metal surface of the metal airship deck, elevating herself on a platform to place her leathery, bony arms over Izumi and Masaru's shoulders. Masaru jumped while Izumi and Suyin both laughed warmly. Kuvira and Baatar simply looked on, both too stunned to react to anything.

"How is this all even possible?" Baatar Jr. asked breathlessly.

"It is a long and complicated story that will reveal itself soon enough," Masaru replied as he brushed himself off, pretending he hadn't been scared in the least. "In the meantime, come meet your other cousins. After that, we'll release you to rest or do whatever you want. I'm sure you've had a long journey and though the airship is relatively comfortable, I know there's nothing more comfortable than solid ground beneath the feet of an earthbender." Masaru added, glancing at Kuvira with a sympathetic smile.

Kuvira and Baatar followed Masaru silently while Suyin and Izumi hung behind. Once the ex-convicts were out of earshot, Suyin let her smile fade and turned to Izumi sadly. "They've both changed so much. Baatar's depressed, and Kuvira looks like she's been starving herself. The light in their eyes is gone completely." Suyin sighed, regretting everything.

"Just give them time. They'll come around," Izumi replied, putting a reassuring hand on Suyin's shoulder.

They arrived at the cliffs just above the private beach of the Royal Family's vacation property just as the sun began to set, casting a beautiful orangey glow on the gentle waves that lapped at the sand below.

"It might be easier to introduce everyone from up here, where you can see everything," Masaru mentioned before proceeding. "Playing Kuai Ball now are Suyin's sons-you remember Wing and Wei, right?-my daughter Miyoko, and one of Lin and Tenzin's airbenders, Jiexue," Masaru informed Baatar Jr. and Kuvira, pointing at the circular court that had been set up on the beach.

"Wait, Lin and Tenzin have a daughter?" Kuvira asked.

"I could have told you that," Baatar Jr. sighed wearily.

"Three daughters, three sons. They were all born before Jinora. Opposing them are Hungjian, the eldest child of Lin and Tenzin, Huifan, second eldest, Rikuto, Mine and Izumi's only earthbending child, and the former Crown Princess, Ursa of the Fire Nation," Masaru continued.

"Former Crown Princess?"

"Until Takeo has a child of his own, all of his siblings are Princes and Princesses. None of them direct heirs to the throne," Izumi explained.

"Out surfing are General Iroh, Fire Lord Takeo, Tenzin and Lin's youngest son, Kang and Tenzin and Pema's older son, Meelo," Masaru added, pointing at the waves. "By the tidepools, mine and Zumi's son, Sasuke, is walking with Jinkun and Rohan. Jin is another one of Lin and Tenzin's and…"

"Damn, you all breed like the Weasleys," Kuvira muttered as she struggled to follow.

"Sorry?" Masaru asked.

"Never mind, it is just an expression from a fantasy novel that I once read," Kuvira replied dismissively.

"Anyways, Opal wanted Bolin to join us on the vacation, but we didn't want his brother to feel left out, so we invited Mako too, and by extension Korra and Asami so that he wouldn't end up always third wheeling…"

"You know, Korra and Asami are also kind of a thing, so Mako would still kind of end up third wheeling if he hung out with them," Suyin commented.

"But I thought he dated them both," Masaru responded. "Why wouldn't they just have a threesome?"

"Love, enough about the private lives of the young people," Izumi shut down quickly. "Is there anyone we are forgetting?"

"Down here, braiding hair…" Kuvira answered deathly quietly, gazing down at one man in particular.

"The three boys are mine," Izumi said solemnly. "Taemon is the one with his knee bent and the twins Tetsu and Tatsu are being tortured by Tenzin's daughters, Jinora and Ikki."

Just then Ikki looked up and saw them. She whispered something to Jinora and let go of one of the twins' long dark locks and jumped, with a puff of air landing on the cliff in front of Kuvira.

"You're back!" She exclaimed, hugging Kuvira and surprising everybody. "Would you like to help us braid hair? We were wondering what fire boys looked like with crimped hair, so we decided to make a thousand tiny braids and then make them sleep with it and then brush it out in the morning," Ikki explained rapidly.

"And are the fire boys okay with this plan?" Kuvira asked.

"Well they haven't yet protested," Ikki replied, shrugging innocently.

"Well… I suppose that counts as a perverted form of consent," Kuvira replied, nervously edging herself towards the cliff.

"Wait, Kuvira, before you go, there is only one rule while you're here," Izumi called. Kuvira looked back to her. "And it applies to everybody, even us old folks, so don't view it as a punishment," Izumi added as a reminder to Ikki. "No one goes beyond the bounds of the property alone."

"Fair enough," Kuvira shrugged. "But what if nobody wants to come with me?"

"Then ask one of us," Izumi responded. "We're not at all busy for the time being."

"Thank you," Kuvira sighed, turning back to the cliffs warily.

"Is she afraid of heights?" Izumi whispered nearly inaudibly, to Suyin.

"She probably just hasn't earthbent anything in months," Suyin replied. She slid a foot forward catching Kuvira on an earthen platform, then lowered her down to the beach. Kuvira dug her fingers into the earthen surface and looked up with a gasp.

"Don't worry, it'll come back," Suyin said with an understanding smile.

"Mother, do you know where I might find a bed? And a drink, possibly?" Baatar Jr. asked weakly.

"I'll show you to your room, but I won't give you a drink, not until you've eaten something. Are you hungry?" Suyin asked, putting an arm around her son, guiding him to the large beach house.

"Not particularly," Baatar replied. "In which case, maybe I should just have some water and some sleep."

"That sounds good, sweetie," Suyin replied, holding his arm and his waist as she guided him.

"Jinora! I got a helper!" Ikki announced excitedly. The three men-not boys-turned to look at Kuvira. All three of them looked particularly drained of their energy for some reason. The twins, Tetsuya and Tatsuya returned their gazes to the glowing surf after a few seconds while Taemon's eyes remained on the newcomer a little longer.

"Here, you can help me with Tetsu!" Ikki said, kneeling behind one of the men sitting on the beach.

Kuvira sat down on her knees in the sand and reached for a lock of the long, silky black hair, wanting to ask why he and his comrades looked so tired. Their golden and amber eyes looked like they'd walked through hell and barely survived.

"Speak freely, please," the man with the amber eyes said sternly, still looking directly at the former Great Uniter. Kuvira looked up with surprise. Was she that easy to read? "What is on your mind, Kuvira?"

He recognized me? "How do you know my name?"

"How could anyone not know your name, Great Uniter? You were an inspiration to many," he replied. Jinora and Ikki looked between the two with uncertainty. The twins didn't move, but listened intently.

An inspiration, eh? "I just wondered why you looked so tired when everyone else…"

"Looked fine?" Taemon asked. "Relieved? Almost jovial as they play their games on the beach?"

"It's what happens when you are robbed of your bending. Grandfather Zuko says we will get used to it in time," one of the twins, Tetsuya replied.

"Your grandfather is… Lord Zuko?" Kuvira asked in disbelief.

"The one and only," Tetsuya replied with an insincere smile.

"Scar and all," Tatsuya mumbled, clearly depressed about something, but by the looks of it, hadn't been for long.

Kuvira looked at their long faces, pointed chins, sharp jawline, long nose, narrow, slanted eyes and high cheekbones and the mirroring locks of hair that hung down the twins' faces. Now that she thought about it, they did bear a striking resemblance to their grandfather.

Ikki reached for one of those locks of hair. "Touch it, and I will bite you," Tatsuya threatened. The little girl immediately let it go.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened here?" Kuvira inquired.

"A fight for freedom," the other, seemingly less temperamental twin, Tetsuya answered.

"Obviously, we lost," Taemon added, gazing out on the ocean. His hair was combed back and came down to the base of his neck, much like his adoptive father's but unlike Masaru's wasn't at all curly and to the young airbenders, not as satisfying to play with as the twins', apparently.

Kuvira looked down at Tetsuya's hair in her hands and began braiding.

"You still have questions," Taemon said after a while, turning to look at her directly.

"But none I feel like asking right now," Kuvira replied, a little annoyed by the man's prying eyes.

A/N
I am getting really excited for the World's Weapon just because there are so many options with so many characters now. If you haven't read anything else from my massive AU. Don't worry, you shouldn't need to read the other stories to understand this one. You can discover all of the OCs with poor Kuvira who has been thrown back into the Beifong Family that has grown significantly since she was ousted from it.

For anyone who is familiar with my other stuff, sorry but The Fire Lord's Flames is on hiatus (Chapter 23, 24, and 25 of that are done, but 22 is being a little bitch so I cannot finish it at the moment.).

Anyways, I hope you like the story. And as always, all feedback is greatly appreciated *inserts heart*.