Author Notes: While the progression of the story roughly follows that of the show, many events are changed, arranged in a different order or omitted. This is fan fiction, after all.
Um, can I still do what I want to him? I'm a bit nervous now…" Zuko's hands shook slightly. The tea tray was quite stable, but the liquid seemed to swirl inside like a whirlpool in the Serpent's Pass.
"We've been invited to serve tea to the Earth King himself! I feel incredibly honored!" Iroh looked at himself in a corridor mirror and adjusted his green robe and by habit, his belly.
"It's an invitation to the royal tea room… or the dungeon, or worse, the chopping block!" Zuko tried to whisper, as the guards were rumored to be able to hear through the walls.
"Quiet 'Lee', the guards can hear through the walls using Earthbending!" Iroh shushed his nephew.
A burly looking man slid a door open, bowing to Iroh and Zuko. He had no weapons, though his uniform indicated he was an Earthbender. Iroh couldn't see his face under his high collar, but he looked serious.
"The King will be with you in half an hour, please prepare the table for his arrival."
The guard stepped out, pointing the way to a room at the end of the corridor with an unadorned table surrounded with cushions. Tapestries hung from the wall, brazen characters written on them. Two guards were side by side near the door, but it was all creepily silent to Zuko. They had been awoken by several guards and officials only a few hours earlier, but the messenger managed to produce the invitation before Zuko could even find his dual swords.
His Earthly Majesty , Kuei the King of Ba Sing Se and all the Earthly Realms invites Mushi , new owner and tea brewer of the Jade Dragon Inn to serve his Earthly Majesty on the middle hour of the morning when the fifth bell strikes and after the announcements are made. Please do not be late, for in Ba Sing Se nothing is too early and nothing is too late. It just is as it has always been.
Sealed by: Arts and Entertainments Division 3, under the power of the King
"Wow, that's a lot of seals," Zuko noted all the 'copy to' seals and 'for the care of' seals and about twenty different seals around them. The King's seal was clearly the largest and on top of all the others, something resembling the national crest but red. "Did the King himself actually write this?"
"After he drinks our tea he will be writing to us a lot more," Iroh met the invitation with a mixture of elation and foreboding. He would finally meet Kuei, who as a young 11 year old boy king stopped his soldiers from dismembering the corpse of Iroh' s son Lu Tien and even sending him home in Earth Kingdom finery. Iroh wondered if he was still wearing that odd hat as well as the long jade beads that were the King's symbol of office and rank, and most prominently the eyeglasses that made him stand out in a world of people with perfect vision. He remembered his own generals begging him not to forgive the Fire Nation general, hoping for more than a military victory. Kuei was the only person to look Iroh right in the eye and understand his pain.
He is already crushed. Send him home, Iroh remembered him saying. The retreat was painful for the proud Fire Nation men, compounded by the fact that the Earth King didn't even seek retribution, not even during the long march back to the port. Forgiveness, they learned was an even harsher punishment than vengeance. The emptiness of the landscape drove some of the men mad, running aimlessly into the desert or towards the east back to the city where they never came back. No Earthbender attacked them all this time but no one spoke to them or even appeared in front of them. The Earth Kingdom's large size was evident here, and few of Iroh's men wanted to stay after finally reaching the shores. Many had died on the way back, as no towns or villages were on their route to Ba Sing Se- a fatal mistake Iroh made in charging the capital directly. He left on the last boat out, a single boy waving to him from the shoreline, golden eyes full of sadness. Today, he thought, would be a turning point where everyone would appreciate his real skills – not war but providing happiness for all.
"Half an hour in Ba Sing Se seems like a whole day," Zuko tapped his fingers on the kettle as the silence bored holes in his skull. His thoughts were stopped cold by heavy footfalls around him, where he found the floor stuck to his feet. Twelve men in conical hats rose out of the ground, all bearing the telltale symbol of the Dai Li. A series of lighter footfalls were heard behind a wall, with two more Dai Li popping up with a very familiar face.
"Azula!" Zuko's flames ignited almost immediately.
"Dear niece, do you know why I was called the Dragon of the West?" Iroh simply stood up with no flames.
"I don't think I have time for your long stories," the princess waved her uncle away and turned round. A sudden heat surge behind her forced her to duck, as Iroh' s mouth suddenly ignited with flame, torching the sleeves of the Dai Li, whose uniforms protected them from serious burns, although the proximity of the flame forced them to step back. Iroh turned in a full circle and threw all of them back, bursting into a sudden run. Zuko followed his uncle, dropping the stance he was holding and firing flame blasts to hold the elite Earthbenders off. Iroh stopped running and fired a blast of lightning at the wall of the room they had started in.
"Come on, Zuko!" he called after his nephew. Zuko had his back to Iroh, dodging Azula's blue flames and making some of his own.
"I'm going nowhere, I've been all across the world and even here you try to kill us, Azula!" the two clashed at point blank range. "I challenge you…to an Agni Kai!"
"Don't be stupid, I've already won," Azula backed off and let the Dai Li men raise an earthen platform to block Zuko' s fire and then bind him tight. Iroh looked on in horror but leapt out the wall. Two hands gripped him on the shoulder and lifted him off the ground. Flames erupted from his hands but as Iroh looked up his face turned less grim.
"Mitsu! They've got Zuko!"
"Who? The city is in chaos, somehow the Outer Wall's been breached by tanks and airships! We have to get to the house!"
"What good is that, my nephew is still back there with Azula and her Dai Li minions!"
"Dai Li?" Mitsu nearly dropped Iroh. "They've…oh no, Kuei!" His flight became a zigzag burst between buildings, clothing lines and desperate flying rocks launched by the soldiery at the invading airships. Mitsu landed on the roof just as a rock flew past Iroh's head, having missed an airship and thundering just outside of the house.
"I don't have time for lengthy explanations, my lord but stay in this house. I have friends coming to help, but I have to get into the palace now!" Mitsu swung at a falling rock and hit an airship, making it explode above the din of the panicked citizenry.
"Wait, who are these friends of yours?" Iroh tugged at Mitsu's boot as he tried to fly away.
Mitsu looked Iroh in the eye. "The Avatar and his friends…look out for their Sky Bison, which is coming in from the south! Tell them to send my Messenger Hawk to me when they are all out of the city! Just get in the house! It's fire-proof and can't be collapsed by Earthbending!"
Iroh looked at the youngster's panicked face as they stared at each other for what seemed like longer than the few seconds they actually were, then nodded. "The Avatar picks good friends," he walked slowly into the house.
"You're my friend too, old man! If we ever see each other again, remember you aren't alone!" Mitsu turned and sped upwards into the fray, as more flaming bombs fought flying rocks for control of the city. It was near pandemonium in the Inner Ring; most people there had never even heard of the word "war" in there, let alone experience a full invasion. Mitsu saw two Generals being dragged to the palace from their official residences, but could spare no time as Kuei would be in terrible trouble if his generals were already taken. He focused all his power and thrust his wrists forward, powering his force through rock and stone. The Royal Guards raised the innermost wall all the way, surrounding the Palace in rock, although Dai Li emerged on the battlements to attack them as well. Mitsu pulled his fist back and punched at the dome, cracking it in several places and throwing Dai Li off the wall. Grabbing one, he threw him all the way back towards the house, a small poof seen in the distance. The Avatar's group would know what to do with Iroh, as well as the Dai Li man he had just gifted them.
Below him though, he saw more Dai Li turning on Earth soldiers, earth on earth battles aplenty. His heart burned with rage and his eyes glowed brightly, and his rod bent into an axe. A red rage washed over the Heretic, one inherited from his forbears and unseen by most until today. One word escaped his lips in a terrifying, echoing voice.
Die.
The eyes turned red.