The Great Conference

By: smarcheer917

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

In the years immediately following the war much of the world was in chaos and debut. The Fire Nation barely managed to stand on its own feet.

After Ozai fell and Azula was killed almost all the nobles fled for the countryside. The workers of the Fire Nation towns invaded the palace and took over the government, they happened to be led by the remaining nobles who had been conspiring against Ozai anyway. As they placed more value on keeping the monarchy then starting a whole new type of government, they placed the worthiest person they could think of on the thrown. Not the first person to disobey Ozai but the most remembered. The person who walked among them for months and who lived like they did.

They placed Zuko on the throne.

After this occurred nobles came out of the woodwork. Nobles who were thought to have committed suicide turned up with the end of an era and the start of peaceful times. The first thing he did was appoint his best friend from childhood that had been put away by Ozai for showing defiance at an early age to him and his ideas, as well as looking like a threat to Azula's amazing abilities, as his head body guard and co-secondary advisor. His first advisor was Iroh.

Unlike what most people thought, Ozai had known the end was coming. In his last two months as Fire Lord, he allowed the nation to fall into a state of utter chaos so that whoever had to clean it up would surely go mad.

The first year was chaotic. The nations all met along with the avatar for a short conference where they drew up a treaty just stating that all the fighting was to stop until a real meeting could be instead once the nations were all stable. That's all. No reparations. No war guilt. No land to be returned. Just that the fighting was to stop. Troops were gradually withdrawn from stations not in conquered lands and sent to their homes and their families. Once returning home, Zuko had a pile of work to sort through that was catastrophic.

The Earth Kingdom fared better off, but not by much.

With Kuei only on the thrown for such a short time he was already lost. He had no idea what to do. With the end of the war came a million of other responsibilities. Long-Feng had kept the economy under control, but with his beheading in a riot following the end of the war and an accidental raid of the jails it melted itself to the ground. The fighting had to be stopped between the people who were there now, and have always been there.

Of all the nations, the Water Nations fared the best. They were not affected much by the war other than the loss of most of the southern water tribe. The remains of the tribe and the new arrivals from the Earth Kingdom and Northern tribe made the microscopic village grow into a small village very quickly. The Water Tribes held the most hate of the two nations, and this made it difficult.

The war ended 3 years ago to date, and this is where we find our characters.

Fire Lord Zuko held his head high as he stepped off the boat into the outer desert-land of Ba-Sing-Se with his body guard at his side. The pair loaded into an ostrich drawn carriage sent by the avatar to take them to the Earth Palace. Zuko watched out the window at they approached the great wall. He felt a hand on his knee.

"Don't worry," Haya said, "It'll be fine."

"Haya, they hate me by association."

"Well they're missing out." Haya said, "It'll be fine." She gave him a rare, soft smile. Zuko looked away and Haya withdrew.

"I don't know," Sokka said as the crew shuffled nervously around the boat in the last 10 minutes before docking. "How do we know that Zuko won't pull something? He's done it before. Remember Ba-Sing-Se?"

"Yes, of course I remember. We'll need to keep our eyes on him and that's all. He didn't pull anything at the first meeting."

"Because it was all of us versus him. He didn't stand a chance. Now he has some of his guards and advisors."

"You just seem unconfident in our abilities." She told him. He huffed and looked away. The captain of the ship came down from the steering room.
"My Lord and Lady, we have docked in Ba-Sing-Se. A train car has been readied for your decent to the palace."

"Thank you for the ride." Katara said

"My pleasure." The captain commented.

Everything is in place for our stay at the palace, my lord." Haya said and bowed slightly to him as he stood at the door of the train, waiting for it to come to a halt. He nodded and she moved to his side.

"I suggest we stick to indoors and away from windows and streams. I don't want any accidents."

"On your watch?"

"My eyes can be everywhere, but my arms can't." He smirked.

"I can handle myself." He said. She nodded and stepped back. The train came to a halt.

"Welcome!" Kuei said as Katara and Sokka stepped off their train and onto the palace grounds, "Your rooms are ready and Ju Dee will show you where to go." Sokka looked horrified and Katara smiled politely.

"Thank you, your majesty, for your hospitality." He nodded and wandered off to do whatever he needed to do. A Ju Dee appeared, less scary smiley than before.
"I am Ju Dee, I will show you where your rooms will be." She turned and started walking. Sokka and Katara followed.

"Your room is near the avatar, Lord Sokka." Sokka did his 'Water Tribe' representation. Katara rolled her eyes.

"You room was slightly more difficult to find. The only room near the avatars was a rather dry one. Seeing as you were a water bender, the King said you should be placed near the water. Your room is on the opposite side of the guest wings, next to the gardens and the fountains."

"That sounds okay..." Katara said, following the woman's high pace with some difficulty. While walking was easier here it wasn't exactly faster since she tended to scuttle across the floor ungracefully, thanks to spending the majority of her life trudging through snow. They were led down countless hallways, all decorated with beautiful green tapestries pulled back to allow the lushness of the plants grown in the walls to be seen and to get light. She stopped in front of a door in an obvious warm area.

"Lord Sokka, your suite. Dinner is when the gong will sound, you will find a map here to lead you there." Sokka nodded smugly and opened the door to his room. Katara didn't even bother to look in. The woman turned again and started to march down the halls again. Katara followed. She could see, even from behind, the slight cringe from the woman about her appearance. She had been expecting that. She was a warrior, not a noble woman no matter what they called her. She knew enough to get her by when she needed to, but she found no need to bother at the moment. The woman's obvious distaste made her want to be more inappropriate, but she behaved. It wasn't worth all the gossip that would come of it.

The woman continued her hurried walk across the floor. Katara followed closely behind. They stopped in front of another door, this one automatically feeling cooler in appearance. She could feel the water that was said to be near. A small smile came to her face at this. She did like to be near water.

"This will be your room" She said, "Dinner tonight will be informal seeing as we are not expecting all of our guests until tomorrow. If you choose not to attend tonight's dinner breakfast is at the sound of the gong." The Ju Dee bowed and left Katara in front of a door. She shook her head and pushed it open.

Inside was an amazingly beautiful room. It wasn't a suite, not like she had a need for one as no one would be in her room except for her brother, Toph and Aang all things considered. The large, rectangular windows without glass led to a fair sized garden. Green curtains hung from the tops of the windows to the ground. The floor was stoned over entirely for another foot out into the garden. A large pond was bubbling near her window. The bed was huge, and the adjoining bathroom was too much.She sighed and walked over to the bed, flopping down onto it.

"Maybe I'll just take a quick nap." She mumbled into the comforter. She was asleep in moments

Zuko sighed as he looked around his suite. It was near water (he was almost positive this was a precaution because they were firebenders, but it was ridiculous because they had more control over it then they were thought to) Everything was green, surprisingly, and the windows were left open for the dry air to flow. It was much different then the humid air that surrounded most of the Fire Nation. He shook his head and swung moved into his bedroom. His suite consisted of a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It was large, but nothing compared to the open ground the Fire palace was set on. Then again, the also built up here while in the Fire nation they did not, as it was more or a fire hazard. He shook his head and turned around as Haya came into the room.

"They will not allow me any say in their guard positioning. I tried to suggest something more efficient to that drone and she would not allow me another word."

"Haya, if you let them think that they're right they'll hate us less." Yabou said, entering behind her, his other secondary advisor.

"And I should compromise our safety over that? What makes you think more riots will not break out?" Haya said, spinning neatly on her heal to face him. Zuko rubbed him fingers to his temples.
"Its been 3 years! And if something was to happen, do you really think that with all the benders here we would not be able to handle it? We're fighters, not comfy livers."

"Could you two not argue while we're here? If anything that will make us think we are as barbaric as my fathers generals"

"We know." The two answered simultaneously. Zuko shook his head and began pacing.

"What's the agenda?" He asked the two.

"They were not expecting us to arrive so early," Haya said, "Apparently some Southern earth Kingdom villages haven't shown up yet, but have shown message that they should arrive by mid-day tomorrow. Tonight is an informal dinner, kind of a very light meet and greet without the pressures of extreme formality like tomorrow nights opening ball. We can skip if you like."

"I highly recommend we go. Skipping appears rude." Yabou said.

"I agree." Haya said. Zuko raised his eyebrows and shook his head

"You two never cease to amaze me." He said.

"I suggest you take a nap, my lord. We wouldn't want you dozing off during dinner tonight." Yabou said in a concerned voice.

"You both are dismissed. Go down on your own tonight and I'll meet you there."

"Yes my lord." They said in unison and exited the room. Zuko flopped down onto his bed.

Sharing a small, enclosed space with those two for 8 days had been pure torture. They never stopped arguing. On the rare occasion they did its usually ended with another fight. It was the exact reason that he had made them both his secondary advisors. He needed a just opinion. By taking the liberal and the conservative views and deliberating from there he could make the best decision for the nation. If not that, they both completed each other. Haya was brilliant at various types of math and fighting and science. Ways to make money was one of her best qualities, right next to being extremely stubborn for her terms. Yabou could convince a cat to swim. Every detail of history was stored in his mind. He had originally wanted to be a doctor, but he wanted nothing to do with fighting and doctors were often sent overseas into battle to treat the wounded.

"I'll just close my eyes for a minute" He said. In minutes he was asleep.

So this is the first chapter. Well first real chapter. I'm going to let the automatic labels do what they want unless I want something different. Occasionally there will be little filler stores that come in at completely random and/or suspenseful times. Old tales for the area, that kind of stuff.

Let me know what you think? Review?