Geez, I always seem to be apologizing for updating so late. So I'll just apologize for the rest of this story right here. I want to thank my loyal readers and reviewers—I just realized how unexpectedly popular this story was. I certainly didn't expect more than 10 reviews, haha!
As a quick reminder, I know that The Promise trilogy is completely out, but I had started writing this when just the first book was rolling out, so while the beginning is very familiar to the Avatar fans, I'll be deviating pretty soon.
Also thanks to Pelagiad, who kicked my ass and told me to write. Pelagiad's review is the reason why this chapter is up today.
Chapter Four:
over the rough water, there lies no peaceful land
The sea was rough, but Zuko's moods were even worse.
Suki avoided the Fire Lord as much as she could. She didn't want to be part of the storm that was growing in the firebender's head. She could still that he still hadn't forgiven her for practically destroying his relationship with Mai, and she wasn't feeling any better about it herself.
She could have maybe lived without being assigned to protect the Fire Lord on his trip to the colony Yu Dao—but she was the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, and the other Fire Lord guards had highly recommended her to accompany him.
So here she was, standing under the door frame leading into the Fire Lord's cabin.
"You'd be able to keep him company," the ship captain had said, with a pleasant nod. "You're friends with him—which is better than anyone else on this ship, I'd say."
Suki had smiled to the ship captain. "Of course," she had answered, hiding the fact that they probably weren't friends any longer after last night.
She counted her seventh breath—she was counting to eight and restarting at one, just like she was meditating. This might have been the hundredth round.
"The colonies are a mess," he said finally, breaking the stale silence between them.
Suki waited two seconds before slowly turning around to face him, but she realized that he wasn't even looking at her, instead focused on a world map. She felt like he had been staring at the same world map since he became Fire Lord.
"In the past, the Fire Nation colonized different parts of the world," he continued. "My father used to say that it was the 'will of the fire' to expand—a fire spreads through the forest to get bigger as it fuels its hunger. He said that it was the Fire Nation's 'will' to grow larger. This was why we colonized. This was why we fought wars to obtain more land. It was in our nature, in our blood."
The Kyoshi Warrior pursed her lips. She didn't like where this was going. She had already suspected that Zuko had been talking with Ozai enough to the point where Ozai's ideas and thoughts might have completely persuaded him away from the peace that their generation fought so hard for.
"But," he said, and he paused for a moment. "Aang and I were talking, and we decided that it would be best to erase the destruction that my father caused the world when he placed Fire Nation colonial settlers in the territories."
"The Harmony Restoration Movement," Suki blurted, connecting the dots from what she had seen while snooping around in Zuko's study. She walked a bit closer to his work table to give herself a better view of the world map.
He looked up at her with an intense golden gaze. "Yes," he said. "You read the documents."
She didn't answer.
"This seemed like the best idea to start repairing the relationships between all the Nations," Zuko continued. "But it's a lot more complicated than that." He started numbering off his fingers. "For one, I'm still new to the throne, and my father was actually very popular in the Fire Nation. I'm not respected as the Fire Lord in my own country, even if everywhere else, everyone celebrates me.
"Two, the colonists have been living there for generations now. They have found home where they are at. They're not going to rebuild life in a new place in a forced migration. I mean, the mayor's daughter came on a trip all the way here to attempt to assassinate me!
"Three, in this kind of an act, the Fire Nation is the scapegoat for all the problems that we have diplomatically—and that's not fair for the other Nations to take advantage of."
"But it's the best for the rest of the world, and for long term, right?"
"Is it right for the Fire Nation to apologize, give up everything that the people have worked for, and concede all in the name of some 'promised' peace?" Zuko retorted, getting more worked up as he reasoned out loud. "I mean, the Earth Nation is sending troops to Yu Dao as we speak! The problem isn't just the Fire Nation—the problem is the whole damn world."
Suki took a breath and exhaled deeply. Sure, she wasn't sure why her home Earth Nation was stirring up a troop of soldiers to Yu Dao, but at the same time, she couldn't see it more than the price that the Fire Nation was paying for what it did.
Guess it isn't as easy as it sounded, she thought.
Even just knowing the gravity of the situation that the Fire Lord was dealing with was heavy with guilt and responsibility. She felt as though she had another weight on her shoulders to carry—maybe he was starting to confide in her a bit more than he should have been.
She didn't even think that Sokka had ever confided in her about the political happenings in the Water Tribes.
And while she started to worry that she might be getting to know Zuko's issues a bit too well for someone in her position, she couldn't help but feel sympathetic for him. They were practically the same age, but she knew that the Fire Lord had been forced to age about 20 years when he stepped into the title.
It probably didn't help that the uniform that he donned had once been on the shoulders of his father.
She reached over to touch his shoulder, and after hesitating at his lack of reaction, brought him into a full and warm embrace.
"I'm here for you," she said.
at Yu Dao
Even before the Earth Nation army had gotten to Yu Dao, rebels were already causing damage to the streets, tearing down infrastructure and pulling up the rocks that made up the roads. The Fire Lord wasted no time exercising his power, crushing the rebels and gathering them up in a round, guarded by Fire Nation army men.
Suki was sure that she wasn't the only one that was in awe of Zuko's clear lack of forgiveness for the rebels.
"I don't even know what you're fighting for or whose side you're on—you're making this more difficult than it needs to be!" he yelled, approaching all the rounded-up rebels.
"Get out of here, loser!" a voice emerged from the crowd.
Zuko snapped. "Who is that? Bring him to me."
A scrawny boy was dragged out of the mess, pushed toward Zuko.
"Give me one reason to spare your life," Zuko said, snarling at the kid.
The boy returned a smug face. "I'm Kori's boyfriend."
Suki turned to Zuko. "Who's Kori?"
But Zuko just let out an inaudible curse.
"Hey, yo, Zuko!" another rebel yelled from the middle of the crowd.
When he looked up to see who the hell was disgracing his name, he was surprised to see a familiar face. "Smellerbee?"
Smellerbee, accompanied by fellow Freedom Fighter Longshot, weaved through the rest of the crowd to come as close as she could get to Zuko. She and Longshot made their best efforts to push through the Fire Nation guards—who were trying to keep Zuko safe—as they could.
"What are you doing here?" Zuko asked.
"Protesting you!" she snapped. "The Fire Nation needs to get its ass out of Earth Nation territory!"
"I'm working on it!" he yelled back, immediately offended.
"Then what the fuck are you coming here with all of your army men for?"
"The Earth King—he's sending an army this way. I'm just not bringing an army for the sake of being an army—I'm protecting the people here!"
"Why is it your issue then?" Longshot pitched in, helping Smellerbee's argument.
Zuko's face darkened. "Technically Yu Dao is under the Fire Nation…"
"You see? You're just another dictator—just like your father!"
It was at this point when Zuko lost it.
"No more restraining them," he commanded the Fire Nation guards, in a growl. "Just get them out!"
later
"Mayor Morishita," Zuko started. "You must know why I'm here."
Suki dutifully watched over the discourse, making sure that the mayor and his daughter weren't doing anything funny during their conversation with the Fire Lord—especially given the daughter had previously tried to kill Zuko. She tried as hard as she could not to listen in on the discussion.
"I apologize for my daughter's misbehavior," the mayor said, putting his hand on his daughter's head. Kori pushed her father's hand off her. "But I do think that there are more important matters at hand."
Surprisingly, Zuko took the offhanded comment a lot lighter than even Suki, who hid her clenched fist at her side.
More important matters than an attempt on the Fire Lord's assassination? she thought.
Zuko deserved well more than an apology for an assassination attempt.
"I understand," Zuko said. "And I'm not even going to question if you were the one that had put your daughter up for this—"
"No," Kori interrupted. "This is all your fault! We're perfectly fine here—we're not going to move because you're forcing us to! We've earned our right to live here! My mom and dad fought hard to be successful here!"
"Now, now, Kori," the mayor said. "That is no way to talk to the Fire Lord." He looked at Zuko again. "I'm sorry about Kori. Perhaps we should talk—just the two of us."
Suki noticed the mayor look at her as well, implying that she should remove herself from the environment as well. She dismissed herself, walking out of the door into the hallway, accompanied by the mayor's daughter. They stood in silence and didn't say a single word to each other.
The Kyoshi Warrior preferred it that way. She probably would have exploded in anger at the girl if the girl tried to make a fuss. This Kori girl was escalating things to a point where it wasn't necessary—the only reason why Zuko had chosen to come down to Yu Dao in the first place was to talk to the mayor about a potential misunderstanding.
Not to mention that Kori was the daughter of the mayor of Yu Dao—the girl was practically part of the imperial hierarchy. Her father was the one that was running the colony himself! Of course she didn't agree with the Harmony Restorative Movement. Her father would lose all the power that he had. And Kori would lose all the popularity she had—what a shame.
Suki felt her eyes roll in her head. The brat needed to get over it. Not everyone's childhood was going to be perfect.
The sound of quiet sobbing surprised her, forcing Suki out of her internal drabble. Suki looked over, realizing that it was Kori that was crying. She stiffened though, not wanting to lose her authority by bending down to help the girl, but nevertheless asked her what was wrong.
"Are you okay?" she offered.
Kori slumped down to the floor and looked blankly at the ceiling. "I'm breaking up with Sneer."
Suki quickly recalled the scrawny boy that had deemed himself Kori's boyfriend. That rebel kid?
"What happened?"
"You wouldn't get it," Kori snapped, but after a moment, confessed. "I saw him with the rebels today. The rebels want everyone with Fire Nation blood out of their country." She sighed. "I thought he was on my side…"
Suki formed her question carefully before asking. "Well, what do you want?" she asked in an attempt to console the teary girl.
"I don't know. I just don't want to leave home," she said. She looked at Suki. "You better convince the Fire Lord that he can't just kick us out of here, trying to make some so-called peace by displacing us. It's not right. We shouldn't be the ones punished when it's the royalty that needs to pay for what it did."
Suki tried to show as little expression as possible.
"I'm sorry," she said to Kori, realizing that given the sentiments of the many citizens in this Fire Nation colony how conflicted Zuko truly was going forward with the Harmony Restoration Movement.
Kori didn't acknowledge Suki's apology. "You're probably on his side anyway," she said. She scoffed. "Fire Lord Ozai was stronger than him," she continued. "Fire Lord Ozai would have never let this happen to his own people. Just because we live across the seas doesn't mean that we're not loyal Fire Nation citizens.
"And we're not the same as the rest of the Fire Nation," Kori continued. "My mother is an earthbender. I know a lot of families that are both Fire and Earth Nation. Even if we did move, I wouldn't belong… the rest of the Fire Nation would consider me a half-breed. I'm not pure."
Suki averted her gaze from the suffering girl and leaned back against the wall, her eyebrows furrowed and eyes closed.
I don't have to deal with this, she reassured herself. This isn't my responsibility…
But it was Zuko's responsibility.
She breathed in and out deeply, letting heavy silence take over the rest of the conversation.
Zuko's emergence into the hall interrupted the moment. He let the door slam behind him and didn't even wait for Suki to catch up with him, Fire Lord cloak billowing behind him.
"Hey! Zuko!" Suki called after him. He ignored her, walking straight out of the mayor's home. Outside, his assistant quickly followed after him, gathering as much information from their short discourse as possible. Zuko didn't seem to want to talk any further, however, and the entire Fire Nation fleet was soon gathered up in the ship on the way back to mainland without him having said another word.
Once again, Suki was assigned to stand by the Fire Lord—and also asked to try to get him to open up about what had been discussed in the mayor's home.
She watched him stare at the window of his cabin into the dark waters of the sea. His gaze was immovable, even though she knew that he could probably see her approaching him through the reflection on the glass.
"What happened?" she asked, softly.
He didn't answer the question.
"They're my people, you know," he said, quietly. "I don't feel a thing towards them at all, but they're my people, and they're my responsibility."
"I'm sure you're making the right decisions," Suki said, stuttering. She didn't know how to deal with such tormented anger. "Any bad consequences that might happen along the way aren't entirely your fault—"
"Every decision we take is my own!" Zuko suddenly snapped.
"Zuko," Suki said. "If you had the choice, would you have accepted the throne?"
This he didn't answer.
Please review! (It might be in your best favor to do so too, because if you don't, I might just tell Sokka you were the one that actually ate Momo.)
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