Chapter 13: Underground


Meat Street, Fire Nation Port, Fire Nation Capital

Both girls had a second kebab, which pleased Izumi greatly. They both seemed far too skinny for their own good, but that could simply be because they weren't as muscular as she, Lin and Kya were back when they were pro-bending.

Izumi asked about Ursa's recent travels to Omashu and Miyoko about her university studies and that boy, Ikta Soren that lead the organization for which Miyoko served as Vice President. She seemed very reluctant to talk about him.

"Is he a crush or a secret boyfriend?" Ursa asked the younger girl with a smirk.

"Neither!" Miyoko yelled, snatching up their empty trays to go throw away. Both Izumi and Ursa laughed.

"We shouldn't be mean to her," Izumi said after collecting herself.

"But she is so cute when provoked!"

"She is." Izumi sighed watching her baby walk away. "And unlike somebody else I know, she doesn't burst into flames," Izumi added turning back to Ursa.

Ursa laughed. "Ma, can I get one more meat stick to go?"

"Sure," Izumi said, beckoning a few gold coins to her hand to give to her daughter.

Izumi looked down at the darts on her wristband and pulled one out, twirling it between her fingers, like a student would do with a pencil, while she waited for her daughters to return to their table.

She thought about Saru and wondered how his day with Baatar, Tenzin, and Bumi was going. She wondered if Su and Kya managed to convince Lin to join them on their spa day. She wondered if Rikuto would ever best Huifan in sparring or if her future mother-in-law, her father, and Aunt Katara were keeping out of trouble in their old age. Then she was suddenly pulled from her thoughts as she heard a blood-curdling scream. She turned to see a blast of blue fire coming from near the trash bins by a planter box in the eating area.

"Let go!" came another too familiar voice. Izumi turned the other way and saw Ursa on the ground, surrounded, and in the first direction Miyoko shoved against a wall. Izumi jumped onto the table to get a clean shot at the attackers in both places. She raised a hand in the direction of each girl. People dove out of the way and she fired lightning at their captors only for them to be replaced by others. It was a premeditated effort. Izumi held her fire and waited for the inevitable confrontation, her heart pounding out of her chest.

"Choose one, Fire Lord Izumi," a man in civilian clothes said, walking up to Izumi as his accomplices lifted the girls off the ground and held them like shields before their own mother. "The Princess, or the Bastard Half-Breed of your lover, Mr. Lee."

The crowded street fell silent as they recognized who Izumi was, even without her golden crown and silk finery.

"Release them and I may have mercy on your soul and your family," she ordered, her voice low and commanding.

"You are in no position to bargain while we hold their throats."

"You have no idea what I am capable of and you will regret every laying hand on my daughters."

"We might, but first, we will make you regret having them," the man said, sneering.

Izumi glanced between her girls' terrified faces and closed her eyes and fired her lightning. So many people, including her daughters, screamed when the bolts made contact with their bodies. With her precision bending, Izumi guided the energy around her girl's and into their captors and the captors' accomplices. The attempted kidnappers dropped their charges, and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. She sent just enough lightning to hurt them, to torture them, but not enough to fry them alive.

"Yoko! Ursa! Get over here now!" she ordered. They both ran to the table. Izumi let go of the lightning and grabbed them both by the arm and ran.

"Where are we going?" Miyoko screamed.

"Just shut up and trust me!" Izumi ordered dragging them into an alleyway creating a wall of flames. She yanked the grills off a drain. "In there, NOW!"

The girls jumped in.

"Ugh!" Ursa groaned as she landed in a river of city sewage.

"Come on!" Izumi said coming in after them, dragging them again by the arm out of the flow of the sewage and onto the maintenance sidewalk for the underground.

They walked in silence for miles, following their mother's blue flame until they came to a drain spout with various fluids pouring out of it.

"Through here," Izumi said climbing up into the spout against the water flow, her skirts getting drenched through with the brine.

"Ew! I'm not going in that city shit juice!" Ursa declared.

"Ursa do as I say or suffer house arrest for a year," Izumi ordered, waiting for the girls to go ahead of her.

"You know whats funny?" Miyoko asked as Ursa went first and Izumi took the rear.

"I didn't know anything could be funny in times such as these," Ursa grumbled miserably.

"Mother's threats are the opposite of most of her ancestors," Miyoko replied. "House arrest versus banishment." Both royals groaned as the young lady laughed alone while they trudged on through knee high sewage. It was a long stretch before reaching any maintenance sidewalks again.

"You know, it almost felt cleaner wading through the sewage than walking next to it," Miyoko commented, trying to break the silence.

"Why?" Ursa asked.

"Because you don't feel the squish of the feces saturated in your skirts when it's flowing around everything," Miyoko replied. Ursa gagged.

"Oh, get over yourselves!" Izumi said, holding her flame up to look at the roof of the tunnel.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Ursa asked.

"I know exactly where I'm going," Izumi said turning down another tunnel.

Finally, they came to a ladder. Izumi went first only to find the old door sealed. She put both hands on the metal and melted the hinges right off.

"Look out!" she yelled to the girls as the metal door fell to the bottom of the tunnel. She looked at the stone that had been paved over in the most recent renovation and blast through it with a fist of fire. "All clear!" she said climbing through, sitting on the edge, helping her daughters out of the hole.

They were by a window in a tower. "We're back at the palace?"

"Why couldn't we just have gone to the car?"

"I didn't know how many of those guys were lurking in the port city and needed to get you two to safety until we can conduct an investigation, so I just brought us directly back here," Izumi explained looking out the window.

"Which part of the castle is this? I don't recognize it." Ursa asked.

"Part of Azula's Forbidden Quarter," Izumi answered. "You've never been in this deep. I'll call for help," Izumi announced climbing onto the windowsill. She shot sparks into the sky.

"Why do we need help if we're back at the palace?"

"Because I don't want the contents of the city's sewers all over the floors of my palace; it's disgusting." There was a clap of thunder and then more lightning. Izumi returned with another pattern of sparks. "They will bring us a change of clothes.

"Is that how you communicate with Father over long distances or something?" Miyoko asked.

"Short distances. There's— something else we use for long distances," Izumi said, thinking of her inner fire and the six dragons that lived inside of her.

"We heard what happened!" Masaru said running in the room followed by Genkei, Tadashi, Rinjuk, Sunako, Iliana, Ursa's maid Marnie, and a dozen guards.

"Thank goodness you're all okay!" Iliana said offering a hand to the Fire Lord as she slid off the windowsill.

Iliana lifted a robe while Izumi shed her filthy clothes right there in front of everybody.

"Uh…" Both Ursa and Miyoko looked at their mother strangely.

"Once you've had an audience for your bedding ceremony, you stop caring about public nudity. But if it makes you feel better, Tadashi, will you build privacy walls for the girls?" Izumi asked.

The earthbending member of the Amber League stomped his foot and created three walls blocking the Princess and her little sister from view as they changed with Marnie and Sunako's help.

"I can't believe she just dragged us through the city sewers all the way back to the palace!" Ursa whispered, shrugging off the dress and yanking off her boots.

"I can't believe she shot lightning at us-" Miyoko replied. "-and we didn't feel a thing!"

"And you're both still alive and back at the palace, so stop complaining," came Izumi's voice over the earthen walls that Tadashi made.

Sunako exchanged a glance with Marnie.

"Father, what did you do to her?" Miyoko asked Masaru while Izumi was occupied talking to Genkei.

"What do you mean?" Masaru asked.

"Mother seems different today than she usually is," Miyoko explained.

"I told her to be herself and more honest with you girls," Masaru informed her.

"Father, would it be a crime to say that our Honest Mother is even more annoying and terrifying than Fire Lord Mother?" Miyoko asked. Masaru frowned.

"I didn't think that was possible until today," Ursa added standing beside Miyoko in a robe.

Tadashi collapsed the earthen walls back into the floor of the Palace.

"Mother, permission to go bathe," Ursa called.

"Yes, and Yoko, sorry we didn't make it to the Artisan Street for your wind instrument. I guess we'll just have to go again another day," Izumi said.

"It's alright, I can just go with friends once I am back at school," Miyoko replied as she and Ursa went their separate ways.

"Other than the attack, everything else has been okay?" Izumi asked Genkei.

"For the most part, yes," Genkei responded. Just then a guard ran in.

"My lord, interim Fire Lord Kei-Lo is in need of your immediate attention. A detective from Shu Jing and a constable from the island of Hau Ting has discovered a link between ALL of the kidnappings that have occurred in the outer isles in the past decade!" the guard announced in a single breath. "He is in a meeting now with the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Chief of the anti-human trafficking ring."

Izumi turned to Masaru. There goes our family vacation. "I'll be right there," Izumi said leaving with Iliana to change quickly before joining Kei-Lo in the meeting.


I know Ursa is 26 years old, but let's admit be honest. None of us REALLY feel like adults until we have kids of our own, especially with our parents.

I can see she and Yoko becoming good sisters with time. What do you think? They can team up with each other against their Mother and be infuriating daughters. Good luck, Zumzu!

Just a little lore for you in my AU. Masaru and Izumi can use their inner fire and those six dragons they each have to communicate with each other over long distances. It is kind of like a patronus in Harry Potter.

Also, updates may slow down as the posting is catching up to the writing... There is SO much that I can do with so many OCs, but need to keep focused on the story and the timeline.

Well, if you're In the USA, and at university, and on the quarter system, GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS! And get some sleep. :) Happy reading:)