Author's Notes: Hello everyone, hope you enjoyed the last chapter. As always I do not own avatar: the last airbender. Henry the V belongs to Shakespeare.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers-Henry V

Zokar remained at the palace for three weeks. Fortunately his body healed quickly; he also had found a new activity. The horse Azula had given had been quite the sensation. He knew of course what her motives were and a distant part of him was faintly amused by the fact that the one who had always shunned him was now courting him. Regardless of her motives, he did enjoy the horse; he rode every day and personally groomed it afterward, earning him the gratitude of the grooms as the horse proved to be ill-tempered around everybody but him.

Of equal interest to him was the book she had given in addition to the horse. He could not read the strange writing of course, but he could look at the pictures. They showed men in armor made of metal and wielding weapons of strange design. What was most peculiar was he saw no one bending in the book. Surely in any military, and this was clearly a military manual of some sort, benders would be the focus of the book. This was an established fact; every kingdom and tribe in the world based their strategies around their benders. The only reason he could think of was that wherever this book came from there were no benders.

The thought on the surface seemed ridiculous; there were benders in every corner of the world. On the other hand; no corner of the world as far as he knew had ever heard of the horse. If there was a place where there were horses then there must be a place with no benders.

He gave that a great deal of thought. If there were no bending then he would not be the pariah that he was now. His father would not have shunned him all his life and he may have been spared his siblings taunting, well most of it anyway, Azula being Azula.

He was, of course, no longer bothered by either his father's hostility or his siblings taunting he still could not help but admit to himself that their absence would have been nice. He thought about this a great deal on his rides. Ever since he was young he had been told he was worthless because he was not able to bend, but know he knew otherwise. He had won honor on the field of battle and had beaten benders.

He knew his father would send him back to the war sooner or later; he was, at least for the moment, popular with the army and sending him would save him from sending Azula, his only remaining viable heir. When he went he did not want to go as a mere aid as his father would doubtless arrange; he could not send Zokar on another suicide mission without people getting suspicious, or worse, winning Zokar more glory. He could hardly have his non-bending son out shine his bending daughter heir.

Zokar did not want to command armies, not yet at any rate. But he did not want to spend his time shuffling paper work. No, he wanted something else entirely, and he knew how to get it.

He sent for Chen soon after coming to his decision. Chen had stayed at home; the peace in the colonies after the battles meant Kang had no further need of him. Woo escorted him into Zokar's sitting room. After the exchange of greetings they sat down on a balcony overlooking the city. Chen arched his eyebrow when he saw that Woo was serving them wine as opposed to tea.

"Some may think it a little early to be partaking."

"I do not share my uncle's mania for tea; wine I find is more appropriate for serious discussions."

"Is this to be a serious discussion?" Asked Chen; his tone losing its levity.

"Yes, do you remember the last conversation we had? When you spoke of your ambitions?" Chen nodded. "Well; I have ambitions of my own. I have had a plan forming in my mind that could help us both."

"I am all ears my prince."

Zokar stod and walk to the balcony railing. He stood there with, his hands clasped behind his back, facing away from Chen. "You know, I presume, how I am seen the people?" Chen looked uncomfortable and struggled to find words. Zokar answered his own question. "Fireless. Cursed by Agni. Ash. These names and more I have been called. Just as you; doubtless, have a few less than flattering names given to you. I propose we give the lie to those who call us worthless."

He turned back to face Chen and opened the book Azula had given him and showed him the illustrations. "This is what I propose. These men, wherever they are, are not bender and they are the elite, the book clearly shows how much they are valued. I want to form such a group; a unit of elite non-bending cavalry."

"Like the Rough Rhinos?"

"No;" said Zokar firmly, "I am in complete agreement with the late General Wozen. Those men are little more than glorified thugs and very good thugs at that. I do not want raiders; I want an elite unit of heavy cavalry; and more. I believe I have studied the bending arts more than any other non-bender. More than most benders as well; as I have studied the forms of all three bending styles while benders for the most part stick to their own element."

"Curious; why study something you cannot do? It seems rather a waste of time."

"Not at all; I study them so I can defeat them. I believe I am more knowledgeable of the weaknesses of benders than even most benders. I can teach these weaknesses and how to exploit them to you and to others. We can create something that has never existed before; a unit of non-benders who specialize in combating benders."

"Fascinating idea; but how…"

"How does get this get us what we want? Simple, as you are aware all the militaries of the world base their strategies around their benders. If we do this, if we form this unit, then we will always be at the forefront of every battle, we will be where the fighting is thickest; we will face the enemy elite in every battle. I think that should satisfy you need to prove yourself to your family. As for myself…well; I think I'll keep my own motives to myself for now."

They sat in silence for several minutes sipping at their wine. Chen appeared deep in thought as he mulled over the proposal. Zokar waited in his seat his face as impassive as ever. At last Chen seemed to come to a decision.

"You honor me my prince with this offer. To the best of my knowledge, though I will admit my knowledge of such things is pretty slim, no nation has ever created such a unit. So, yes, I will join you. If we succeed then we will be famous being the first unit of its kind and perhaps altering one of the most fundamental strategies. If we fail; we'll be seen as brave but doomed heroes. Either will do for me;" he paused and then added, "And both get girls."

Zokar stared at him for a moment before speaking. "Lord Chen, how is it that everything you speak of inevitably arrives at the subject of women?"

Chen grinned. "Why my prince; they are the most pleasant of topics, so it should be no wonder that my mind returns so faithfully to them."

Zokar had no reply to that. For some reason Chen found that funny and chuckled, leaving Zokar wondering if he should have indeed served tea instead.

Perhaps sensing that he was pushing it Chen again became serious. "You said all these men would be non-benders what other qualities are you looking for?"

"I have given that much thought since the idea first occurred to me. They will need to be skilled at arms of course, but as most will come from other military units that should not be that much of a problem. As I said will be fighting the enemy elite in every battle and their bending will give them an edge; so these men will need to be of great courage. But this is not enough; there must be more. They must be men of intelligence to learn what I will teach them; and they must have initiative to adapt to rapidly changing situations and they must have discipline, I do not want another Rough Rhinos, who have skill and initiative but are, as I said earlier, little better than thugs."

"Those are quite the requirements my prince."

"Well, if everyone could join elite unites they would not be elite."

"I suppose not; by the way, what are you planning on naming this unit?"

"Seeing as it shall be my unit and I have taken the title of Ash Lord, the name seems obvious." Here he smiled his cold smile as his thoughts drifted else ware causing Chen to pale and try to push away while still seated. "They shall be called…the Ash Knights."

Author's Notes: Well there you are. I hope you like it, for some reason this chapter did not want to get written. As stated earlier I dropped a few hints, can you spot them? Will try to write another chapter before the end of the month. Will be going up north for the summer to help renovate some family property and will have only intermittent internet connection so may be a while. If I don't get one before I go I will have a multiple chapter update later. Goodbye and may Jesus bless you all until next time.