~Chapter 54~

Aang sat back. "Ok, so who are you?"

The vialed woman smirked. "I am Emperies Medusa Shard, Dussa to most, I am the master of shadow, sound, plant, and metal. And this," She placed a hand on Leo's arm, "Is my husband, Admiral Leopold Shard, former crown prince of the Shadow Nation. He's also the greatest shadow bender I've ever met."

Leo chuckled. "You spoil me, darling."

Dussa turned to face the others. "Now who are you?"

Aang straightened up. "I'm Aang the Avatar master of all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire and these are my friends. The man who contacted you is Detective Mako, he-he's a fire bender and a prince of the Fire Nation." He glanced over and put his hand on Katara's shoulder. "And this is Katara, she's the best water bender ever and my girlfriend…and then there's Toph she's a blind earth bender."

"And the best earth bender, I invented metal bending."

Dussa giggled. "My dear the great master's of mines invented metal bending or at least my home land's version of it. Don't take that as a discount of your talents it's very impressive to meet a person who has mastered two elements no matter their close relation. I am also impressed to me another blind bender since we are far too few and far too under estimated."

Toph crossed her arms and smirked. "I think I'm going to like you."

Katara looked at Dussa. "Your blind? Is that why your eye look like black stones?"

"My eyes look like black stones my dear, because they are actually emeralds. I rather not go into it but understand I had a hard life. There was a war raging across my homeland. The past Emperor, try as he might, was not able to stop the Shadow Tsar's march across the map but delay it until his death." Dussa sighed. "Emperor Aaron was a kind soft soul, he was never meant to be a warrior, I guess that's why I was given a warrior's soul. Either way the war started around the time I was born when Leo's father was killed by his younger brother."

"I became a pirate in order to survive." Leo chimed in. "I met Dussa after her small town was attacked by my uncle's forces. They almost killed her; they took her eyesight. I saved her and after we both grew up a little and she reviled herself to be the Emperies we hatched a plan to stop the war and take my uncle out of power."

"Along the way I learned to bend all four elements and made quite a few friends, including the current Tsar. It took a good few years to gather the forces we needed and I admit the birth of my sons delayed us even more but we won! Peace came back to our countries" Dussa took a deep breath. "I honestly thought this was all over but then Anastasia broke out of prison and fled with a band of loyalists. Leo and I set out to bring her back taking only a small fleet."

"And that's how you ended up here isn't it?" Mako asked leaning forward.

Dussa nodded. "Yes, we came to meet with your Fire Lord as this was the first country we came to. He was quite rude."

"Well, sad to say but he met Anastasia first and I think that colored his opinion of you two." He looked them up and down. "I mean you two don't exactly look like good guys."

Leo crossed his arms. "Well you don't exactly look like a prince."

"I'm new to the prince thing." Mako admitted. "So it really sounds like all you want to do is get Anastasia back."

Leo nodded. "Yes, and her forces."

"We want this done as quickly as possible." Dussa added. "I want to get back to my children and my homeland. This place is too strange for me."

"Well I can respect that." Mako leaned against his knuckles. "So how do we catch Anastasia and her forces?"

.o.

Iroh woke up in his room feeling achy. He looked over next to him were Korra was sleeping soundly. Making sure not to wake her Iroh kissed her cheek and slipped out of bed. He walked into his formal sitting room and found almost everyone passed out on some type of furniture. Even those who had guest rooms had stayed. Iroh shook his head. How late had they stayed up?

Iroh delicately navigated across the room and out the door. He looked at a wall clock. It was almost six a.m. too early for most of his family to be up. Even Commander Bumi liked his sleep now that he was out of the military. Iroh walked through the halls and slipped into the kitchen to make himself some tea. He practically jumped when he saw his mother nursing a cup. She looked over at him with her golden eyes. She looked tiered.

"Good morning Iroh."

Iroh nodded. "Good morning mother…are you ok?"

Honora straighten up. "Why of course I'm ok…I'm the Fire Lord everything in my life is perfect or it would be if my only son would stop getting himself almost killed!" She gave him a look and pointed to his bandaged face. "What did you do to yourself now?"

Iroh turned away. "Nothing, I just ran into an old friend."

"And old friend that tried to kill you?" Honora ventured.

Iroh began to heat the water. "Kind of, the person was dead…his ghost was not exactly happy to see me." Iroh looked over at his mother. "Don't look at me like that I'm not mad."

"I know you're not." Honora sighed. "You were born the same day as your father's funeral, it's to be expected." She walked over and patted his cheek. "Was it worth it? This mission you went on with your sister was it worth the pain?"

Iroh looked at his mother in shock. "You-you know about Lafey?"

"Of course I do. I've known about her ever since that whole K-Company massacre. Bumi dragged you home and you were so upset that you would talk in your sleep." She looked down. "You would cry about not saving your best friend and that you had failed your sister. After that I looked into it and found out from some of Karrem's buddies that he did have a fling once a little before he died. I traced the woman down and found out she had a water bending daughter named Lafey….and when I finally saw her at a distance I knew she was Karrem's. She had his eyes." Honora looked over at Iroh. "What is it with this family and keeping secrets huh? You knew for all these years you had a half sister and you never once told me."

Iroh looked down. "I-I didn't want you to know. I figured if I told you and my dad was alive somewhere you'd have him locked away or figure I already knew who he was and after I learned what happened…I just couldn't hurt you like that. I didn't want to tarnish his memory."

Honora gave a weak smile and nodded. "Yeah, well your father wasn't perfect but you know no one is. He was still a pretty good guy besides that."

Iroh nodded. "I guess but I'm kind of glad you married Commander Bumi instead since he never strayed. I think he loves you more than anything else."

Honora's smiled grew a little bit. "You know what? I think you're right. I just wish that I had come clean about him sooner to everyone. I mean you would have grown up with a dad…not just some friend of your mom's."

Iroh shrugged. "Well even as a 'friend of my mom's' I always looked up to Bumi as a father figure. Between him and Grandfather I was really never wanting for a male role model. I mean I think I turned out alright."

"Eh you're not bad, but I would like it if you took better care of yourself. At least until you have kids."

Iroh chuckled. "I haven't even been married a year yet, and you're already asking for grandchildren?"

"With your affinity for trouble? You bet I am." Honora smirked and leaned against the kitchen island. "You know, if you want really want to make me happy go make some breakfast in bed for Korra."

Iroh smirked. "How do you know I wasn't going do that anyway?"

Honora raised an eyebrow. "Were you?"

Iroh hung his head. "No, but that's a good idea."

"Of course it's a good idea!" Bumi said walking in wearing a pair of boxers that should have been retired years ago. "Your mother rarely has any bad ones."

Iroh looked over at his stepfather. "Would buying you pajamas be an idea she'd be open to?"

Honora patted Iroh's shoulder. "I have, like you he wants for nothing in the clothing department…he just refuses to utilize it some nights." She kissed his cheek. "Have a nice morning Iroh, if you need me I'll be in my chambers." She grabbed Bumi's arm and exited the kitchen.

"Hopefully throwing those boxers out!" Iroh yelled after them. He shook his head. "Knowing the commander those things are as old as I am….ew."

.o.

Korra woke up to the rich smells a traditional Fire Nation breakfast. She sat up and stretched making sure Iroh wasn't laying next to her. "So did Iroh send you to apologies for leaving so early this morning?"

"Or perhaps Avatar, this is Iroh being nice and bringing you breakfast."

Korra could feel heat in her cheeks. "Oh…I didn't check I just thought…. How are you this morning?"

"Little Achy but fine." Iroh kissed her. "While this might seem ill phrased look before you look before you leap darling." Korra felt a tray being set down on a lap. "Mother thought you would enjoy some breakfast in bed."

Korra grabbed a piece of toast. "She was right. Want to join? Or do you need to see to the people sleeping in our living room?"

She felt Iroh climb on to the bed and sit next to her. "They were all still passed out in the other room so I'm not needed there and I'd rather be with you."

Korra smiled. "You're sweet."

.o.

"So you think they'll let me borrow their shower? Want to get once nice hot bath before going back to the past. Man I will miss indoor plumbing." Sokka stretched and looked over at Zuko who was bent over the diary. "Find anything interesting?"

Zuko rubbed his chin. "I think so, this guy he's in prison so his accounts aren't really in the thick of it but he talks about the flag changing and the guards being confuses." He looked up. "I think we need to get back as soon as we can."

"So no shower?"

Zuko wrinkled his nose. "No, there's time for a shower. Everyone here needs one."

One of the warriors stirred. "Oh that's not nice…Woo never mind. Nice or not accurate." Ringling stood up. "Now if I remember things right the two love birds have at least three guestrooms with bathrooms."

Suki looked around. "Why so many?"

Lafey stretched. "So they can be turned into nurseries and later kids' rooms. I remember talking to Iroh about it when he was having these apartments designed; we wanted to be close to his kids when he had them. I guess he figured he could be a better dad that way." Lafey smiled. "That's one of Compass's endearing features always planning for better future."

Mai frowned. "Is there something between you and Iroh? You two seem awfully close."

"We've know each other for most of our lives of course we're close."

"But it's not romantic or anything like that is it?" Suki looked over at Lafey knowingly. "You're more like siblings."

"Exactly, even if I was into men, Iroh would be off the table and I've got a feeling you know exactly why Captain Suki." She crossed her arms. "The only question is how?"

Suki looked down. "I found an old letter of Iroh's he mentioned you and…. you two have very similar features. It's hard to miss once you know what you're looking for."

Sokka looked over at Suki. "What are you saying?"

"She's saying that she knows I'm Iroh's half sister." She smirked. "Don't look so surprised. Now let's get cleaned up and back to the past, there's nothing left to do here. Noting productive at least."

.o.

Hakoda looked at Lafey and the two other warriors standing behind her. "So you all are coming?"

Lafey nodded. "Yup, you guys can always use some back up. Ringling and Jigsaw agree with me so their coming too."

Zuko sighed. "Fine that's nice but we need to get going" Zuko was the first to go through the mirror and stopped. Sokka came next and ran right into him.

"Ow! Hey! Why'd you...stop." Sokka looked up at a white and black banner hanging where the Fire Nation standard should have hung. "Oh this is not good."

Zuko nodded. "Not good at all."

A/N: please comment if you feel so compelled I'll see you all later!~C.C.