Hey everyone! So I finally finished and edited the next chapter! I really hope I will be able to update more often from now on, since I've got holidays, but I don't want to make any promises.

And we're finally in book three territory! Just imagine that Aang woke up a few days ago.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this! Please leave reviews, if you do!

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor its characters. The only characters I own are my OCs.


Chapter Nineteen

Zuko

The first few minutes back in the capital were overwhelming.

I couldn't contain my joy at seeing my home again, and I allowed myself to smile. It still all looked like it had three years ago. I didn't remember how I had left the city, for it had been just two days after the Agni Kai, and I had barely been able to perceive anything.

Frowning, I shut those memories away. This would not happen again. I would be a better prince from now on.

Unfortunately, I couldn't ride in a coach with Mai, but had to sit in one with Azula on the way to the palace.

She seemed extremely pleased with herself, as she smirked out of the window.

Since the curtains were pulled to the side, we could both look out and see all the people on the street, following us from the port to the palace.

"Hm? Did I lie to you saying you would be celebrated as a war hero?" my sister asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I blinked and looked out on the street again.

The people were all waving Fire Nation flags, there were banners held high saying our names, mouths shouting our names, welcoming phrases, that we were heroes.

But… it wasn't as cheerful as it could be.

There were no flowers, no one was smiling or laughing, the children had large eyes, looking intimidated, and stuck to their parents' legs. Some looked way too serious, and the parents mostly looked very dutiful. They all seemed curious to look at us, to capture a glimpse of the princess and the prince, to show their loyalty to the Fire Nation by shouting our names, but… I didn't feel any real joy.

Along our way a lot of soldiers stood, and it all had a rather serious, military atmosphere.

"No, you didn't lie," I said, but wasn't happy with the situation, either.

Azula glared at me for a short while, which I only returned, then she shrugged and stared out of the window again.

Thirty minutes later I saw the Fire Palace Square for the first time in three years. It was named after my great-grandfather Sozin.

I'd like to say that I had not breathed Fire Nation air for three years, either, but since I had broken the laws of my banishment last winter to follow the Avatar, I couldn't say that.

Did Azula know about this? Did Father know? That I had violated my banishment?

The royal palace looked like it always had. There were the houses of the important ministers, councilmen, and other citizens around it, there was a square, a gate, another square and then the steps to the front door.

I was totally captivated by that sight.

When I had been younger I had only seen the palace from this position, when Mother and I had come back from a trip into town or from the beach, and whenever we had come back from holidays on Ember Island. Otherwise, I hadn't been outside at all.

In the last three years there had been times, when I had feared that I would never be able to come back and see those steps, see those doors, those columns, all this red…

But today the door looked to me like the mouth of a dragon, wanting to eat me up and swallow me completely. Making me one of them.

I took a deep breath, trying to convince myself that I was ready to go in there. I was ready to become one of them.

"Are you done staring at your home, Prince Zuko?" Azula mockingly asked me.

Suppressing my thoughts I looked back at her and smiled. "Well, I haven't seen this in three years, Azula. I'm glad that nothing has changed so far," I said.

Her expression turned to thoughtful, as she nodded. "Yes. Almost nothing changed, while you were gone."

Once we were borne over the steps by the chairmen, the gigantic front door opened. I knew it was a mechanism behind it, and a guard just had to pull on a lever to get it to open.

The doors here were a bit smaller than those in the Earth Kingdom palace, but I didn't mind that at all. I had found all this extravagance there disgusting, after all.

Azula left the palanquin first, and I followed after her. She stood with her legs apart, hands on her hips, a smirk curling her lips, and looked as if she owned the place.

I didn't like this at all. I was supposed to become the next Fire Lord, why was she smiling like that?

She let out a sigh, and her shoulders slumped a bit. "It's great to be home again! I really hope I'll never have to go to the Earth Kingdom again. I don't know how anyone can live there." She shot me a glance. "No offense, Prince Zuko."

My hard look didn't impress her at all, but I was pleased that she didn't call me Zuzu in front of the guards.

Looking around I noticed that Ty Lee's and Mai's coach was not here.

"Where are Ty Lee and Mai?" I asked.

Azula rolled her eyes. "At their homes, dum-dum. You'll see your dear girlfriend again tomorrow."
Time without Mai was not something I was looking forward to. Since it was still early in the morning, I became a bit anxious at not seeing her for over a day. I didn't like this one bit.

"You still remember what I told you about today, right?" Azula asked, not even looking at me, while we advanced the palace entrance.

Nodding, I followed her through the door, seeing how every guard around of us bowed lowly.

"Yes, Azula. My memory works very good, thank you," I answered.

"Good," she said. "I take it that it is okay for you to spend the day mostly to yourself? I have a lot of things to do, and I'll have an audience with Father in the evening. You still know how to get around?" she asked.

Frowning I nodded again. "Why can't you just go to your room and relax for a while? The journey was tiring, and you just conquered the biggest city in the world."

Azula sighed happily, as I had noticed she did whenever someone mentioned her conquering Ba Sing Se. "I would, but I have a far better place to go to relax."

I raised an eyebrow, because of course, I wanted to know.

Normally, I really didn't care what Azula did to relax, but back here? I would need to know everything, whenever someone seemed like they didn't want to tell me something.

"The spa?" she said, as if I were an idiot.

Which I probably was. Yep, the spa was very relaxing. But I couldn't remember her going there, when I had still been here.

"You... go there now?" I asked. "Since when?"

"Some time now," she answered, sounding nonchalantly.

"Mhm." She had clearly changed a lot, since I had last seen her before my banishment. She was much more adult, of course, and also crueller, but I still thought it was sad that I had missed her growing up a bit.

In the last days, it had become a bit easier to begin to see her as my little sister again, and not as a sadistic demon. We were nowhere near actual sibling love, that's for sure, but I didn't get envious at her firebending anymore (so much), and she didn't burn me or insulted me all the time. The teasing didn't stop, but I suspected that was just part of teenage girls and maybe sisters in general.

Finding my old room would be no problem for me, even though Azula would turn left first to get her spa treatment. I still knew everything about the palace I had known when I was a kid. I knew how to hide behind the curtains in the throne room, I knew how to sneak to the kitchens, and I knew how to open the weapon chamber. Of course, I didn't know as many hiding spots and secret tunnels as Azula, but what I had known had been enough. The Fire Nation palace was not at all as strange and complicated as the Earth Kingdom palace had been.

Our rooms were at the tenth floor, the Fire Lord's was two stories above, the highest story of the palace. The Fire Lord was mightier than dragons, and he commanded the fire and people with the sun spirit's blessing. That's why his residence was all this way up, closest to the sun.

Rooms, in which commoners were allowed, had always been in the lower stories, the kitchen in the basement. The servant's chambers were on earth level, and the few nobles who lived here with us had a tower of their own, only seven stories high.

Azula had confirmed to me that none of this had changed during my absence.

Although I had had time to prepare, knowing the whole time which room was up ahead, I couldn't do anything against the sick feeling in my stomach, the crawling of my skin, when we approached the war chamber.

Opposite to it father's portrait still hung. Or, at least, one of them. He had others hung about the palace, and one at the royal gallery, where you could see all the Fire Lords back to thirteen hundred years before our time. Of course, the very old paintings or those of not very important Fire Lords didn't hang there anymore, and some had also had to be repainted.

Staring at the painting I thought it didn't look like him at all. Father's face wasn't that hard, and his lips were always pale, and never curled in this disgusted way. When Father was disgusted, he used to simply scowl.

"Zuko?" Azula asked.

"It doesn't look like him at all," I said, noticing my voice was husky again. I had cleared my throat over a hundred times since I had gone through voice break, but it had never worked, and I hadn't got used to this raspy voice yet.

Azula stepped next to me, looking up at the portrait of our father, too. "You're right. He's looking too mild."

That's when I glanced at her, unbelievably, since it was just the other way around! The portrait didn't look mild at all.

But I chose to stay silent, and continued to walk towards the entrance of the royal tower.

Azula said goodbye to me, when we reached the fourth floor in the lift, going off to the spa.

Swallowing I stood as straight as possible, until the lift halted at the tenth floor.

These were the hallways of my childhood. And they were all empty.

I didn't hear anyone talking, nor did I hear footsteps. It seemed as if it had been abandoned.

Azula had to live here all by herself for the last three years! That couldn't have been good for her, being so alone, only having servants around.

Tensing up, I marched on to my room, half expecting guards to stop me and tell me I was still banished, getting thrown into prison. Maybe seeing Father giving me another scar.

Clenching my fists I stayed extremely wary, and paid attention to any shade, corner or metal pipe at the ceiling. My whole body was tense, and the armor I wore suddenly felt uncomfortable, and as if it would be in the way, should it come to a fight.

I'd have to get out of the palace very fast, if this had only been a trap.

I didn't want to think that Azula would have known, but I was still not convinced that father would welcome me back.

When I got closer to my room I suddenly could hear something. Footsteps. Hushed voices. Metal clattering.

Shit.

There were no guards standing in front of my room, so I knew I could open the doors, without anyone knowing I was here first.

Pushing them open, I jumped into the room, wishing I had my swords, but settled into a defensive firebending stance, lighting fire daggers in my fists.

That shocked the servants unpacking my things pretty much.

One even cried out and ran to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, while all the others turned towards me with frightened expressions.

Blinking I quickly let the daggers go out and stood straight again, wanting to scratch my head, but my hair was pulled into a topknot, which I would clearly never get used to, and scratching one's hair wasn't very princely behaviour. So I cleared my throat.

"I apologise. I didn't know of servants being here, and…" Unpacking my things. "I should have thought of that," I murmured as an afterthought.

But how had my stuff come here so quickly? Hadn't we been the first to embark the ship?

A woman in her late thirties or early forties stepped closer, frowning at me. "And who are you exactly to come into the prince's room like that?" she demanded to know.

"I am the prince," I said clearly.

An old servant, looking as if he could really need a walking stick, took some wobbly steps towards me. "I remember Prince Zuko! He had a very kind and friendly face. And you're not him, so out with you!" he snarled.

Now they had clearly shocked me. I had definitely not expected people not to know who I was!

I blinked a few times, still feeling baffled, when anger finally hit. Curling my hands into fists I took a step forward to the old man.

He held himself tall, trying not to get intimidated.

I narrowed my eyes. "If you knew the prince, then you clearly know he got a very huge, ugly burn on the left side of his face from the Agni Kai he refused to fight with his father, and therefore was banished!" I yelled, pointing at my own face.

The old man raised one eyebrow. "I don't know of any Agni Kai."

I opened my mouth to probably snarl something, when the woman who had spoken before, quickly stepped in front of the man, bowing lowly to me. "Please forgive him, Your Highness. His memory gets bad with age."

Frowning I decided not to snarl, and stepped back to give them more space. "Perhaps it would be time for him to retire then," I proposed.

"Ha, and whose money will pay our house, hm?" the old man flared, his jaw clenched and gesturing around with his fists.

This was clearly not a comfortable conversation, and I hated being reminded of the wealth around us, what now belonged partly to me again.

But I knew how the man felt, and I wanted to remember him, to find some solution to this. Maybe I could look into the servants' salary and work in general. For this old man unpacking things clearly wasn't the best work in the world, so there might be others not working what suited them, too.

But now, I couldn't take care of that.

"Be careful how you talk to me, old man," I said quietly, threateningly.

If the people in the room hadn't already been stock-still, they would have been now.

The man gulped, but bowed then, too. "Of course, Your Highness."

I only wanted a place where I could take off my armor and relax for a while, maybe meditating, but with the servants here that would be difficult. I could just wait for them to finish, but then I wouldn't have any privacy. I could also go out on the balcony, but then I would be outside on the balcony.

"You can leave now," I told them.

The old man raised an eyebrow, but bowed to me, as did the others, except for the woman. She looked back at the trunk and my clothes the servants had spread on the bed to fold them. "Are you sure you don't want us to clean up?" she asked, her voice thoughtful and soft.

Frowning I shook my head. "No. Go. I wish to be alone."

That's when she bowed, and hurried after the others out of the room.

"And get some guards up here!" I shouted after them.

Kilara

Cuiling's "birthday" was a very good party.

The whole pub was full with people, everyone drinking, gambling, some eating and some were actually dancing. There was no one playing instruments, but the people simply sang something, while dancing. I didn't know any of the songs, and I felt incredibly uncomfortable in general.

This place was so loud and unfocused that I couldn't think well.

The whole evening Cuiling had introduced the three of us to a bunch of people, all apparently very interested and very useful in a rebellion. We had given every one of them a bunch of flyers, telling them they should give them to trustworthy people, saying there would be a meeting in the Armadillo Lion in two days at nine pm for those who wanted to participate in the rebellion.

It was marvellous how many different people Cuiling knew, and I wondered how she had got to know two high ranking military officers, one wealthy upper ring citizen, and one politician. How she knew all those soldiers seemed pretty obvious to me, let alone the refugees, since her life was here in the lower ring.

I would have to ask her about that later, because now I was just filled with hope and happiness, even though I didn't like my surroundings too much. Knowing all those laughter, cries and scramble would only help to conceal what it was we were really doing, I tried to appreciate it.

Some people had already tried to sit down, actually wanting to play pai sho (because we sat at a pai sho table, but I didn't know why), when Cuiling had asked them with a friendly smile to leave. She was, in general, much more impressive than I had thought, and I found myself admiring her, wanting to be more like her.

After a young earthbender, the eighth person we had talked to that evening, had left our table I leaned towards my brother, saying: "Don't you think it's a little bit strange how Cuiling knows all those people?"

Nanuk rolled his eyes. "You worry too much. Just be grateful for her help!" he murmured, raising an eyebrow at me.

Narrowing my eyes at him I sighed. "I am grateful, but all of this feels just too easy."

"You're always so paranoid," Nanuk complained and grabbed his drink, downing a few sips.

Denzai looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as a young man approached our table.

He bowed to us, hands in the sleeves of his long green tunic. I only noticed him then, watching him straightening himself again. His headband, which covered his hair and forehead, made me think immediately of a pirate, and I became wary of him in an instant. I wanted to look around for Cuiling, so that she would tell him to leave.

The man's expression was a friendly, but serious one. "Cuiling told me to come here to teach you a bit of the garden's secrets." His face didn't seem threatening or negative in any way with its oval form, angular jaw, and smoky skin. It had a darker complexion, like Nanuk's and mine had, but seemed a bit greyer, which didn't look sickly, just different.

"What?" Nanuk simply said.

I raised my eyebrows, looking around for her, but couldn't find Cuiling in the crowd.

The man nodded towards the chair in front of us. "May I?"

Denzai smiled. "Of course, please, take a seat."

Headband smiled at him and sat down, looking expectantly at all three of us.

I raised an eyebrow. "What's your name?" I asked.

The man smiled. "My name is Lee," he introduced himself.

Honestly, I would not ever believe anyone again, saying his name was Lee.

I answered him with a lifted corner of my mouth, not believing him one bit. "Yeah, and what do you want, Lee?"

He made a hand gesture over the pai sho board. "Do you know how to play?" he asked.

Nanuk looked at me, and I looked at Denzai, who nodded. Since Nanuk was the one sitting in the middle, they changed their seats, so that Denzai could face Lee and sat on the right spot for a game of pai sho.

I had never learnt how to play pai sho myself, but I knew that Dad had always liked it. He had wanted to teach me, but Mum had always intervened, saying my waterbending training was more important. I should probably ask him again to teach me, now that I could schedule waterbending for me as I wanted to.

Lee pointed at a pai sho tile showing a pale brownish flower with a red dot in the middle. "Lay the white lotus tile in the middle," he instructed Denzai.

"Uh… So we're not really playing?" my friend asked, looking confused, hand hovering above the tiles.

Lee shook his head. "Like I said I'm here to teach you something." His gaze travelled to Nanuk and me. "All of you. You better pay attention."

I raised my eyebrows, but leaned forward, watching Denzai putting the white lotus tile in the middle of the board. It confused me that it was called "white" lotus tile, since its colour on the tile wasn't white at all.

Attentively I watched how Lee told Denzai which tile to lay where, and I quickly noticed that they were going to lay a form on the board. Their tiles would connect to one another in just a few draws.

I tried to remember which tile they laid where, but it was just so many different ones. I also couldn't recognise any order or harmony in their arrangement, which made it difficult to memorise the tiles' positions.

When they were done the tiles formed a flower, probably a lotus flower.

We all waited for Lee to say something, but he simply looked at us, as if we had to say something.

"Now what does it mean?" I asked impatiently, gesturing towards the game board.

Lee pointed at the white lotus tile. "Those who favour the white lotus gambit cling to the ancient ways. They can always find a friend," he said, as if he were reciting something.

My frown only deepened at that. What the tsunami did that mean?

"And how can that help us?" Nanuk snarled. "This is just an old people game, and we need recruits!"

I kicked at his shins under the table.

His eyes widened and he grinned sheepishly at me, while I fought the urge to snarl that he should better tell everyone of our rebellion plan. Moon, why was he like this?

Lee smiled again. "You will know of its use, when the time comes. Say you're a friend of Lee's, and we will make an exception." With that he simply rose and walked away.

"What. On Earth. Was that?" Denzai asked, looking as confused as we were.

I wanted to answer him, when Cuiling came over, another person following her.

Taking a deep breath I decided to have a talk with her later, as she came closer. Once she stepped aside to let the person behind her coming closer, I noticed that it were, in fact, two people.

A girl our age stood behind her with pale skin, brown eyes and dark hair, her hands on the handles of a wheel-chair, where a man, perhaps in his twenties sat. A scar on the right corner of his mouth made him look very grim at first, but he had kind pale brown eyes. His hair was braided into many tiny braids, all of them pulled into a pony tail.

"Kona, Liwei, Shoi-ming," Cuiling greeted us. "I want you to meet my husband and his sister. Liang and Meixiang."

Oh. That's what Cuiling had meant saying her husband had suffered deep injuries during the battle and in prison. Maybe his legs had been burnt. Or they had resided to hurt the inmates with metal weapons. However, I couldn't make out what his legs suffered from, since they were covered by a blanket.

Denzai, Nanuk, and I bowed to them, as they did to us.

"Good evening," I greeted. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Liang smiled warmly at us, and I felt myself somehow reminded of General Iroh. Liang's eyes held a lot of wisdom, too, tolerance, and calmness. He had probably seen way too many things in his life before, given he was at most thirty years old.

Meixiang seemed to be very shy, only glancing shortly at us, before averting her gaze.

"The pleasure is mine," Liang repeated with a warm deep voice. "What you're trying to do is remarkable. We are glad to be able to help you. Unfortunately, none of us is a really great fighter, so we never had the courage yet to rise up against the Fire Nation. And in my condition… Cuiling didn't want us to get involved into something dangerous, you see…"
He unintentionally answered one of my questions here for me. Because if Cuiling hated the Fire Nation as much as she had claimed she did, and had the connections to actually change something, why hadn't she done so earlier? Why had she only started to do something, when three teenagers had come to her pub?

But if she had simply wanted to protect her family, her husband who was already bound to a wheelchair, then I could understand her.

"Of course," Nanuk answered, giving one of his trademark warm smiles back. "We understand. There is no need to explain yourselves."

"We are only grateful to have found you," I added.

"Meixiang and I will attend the meeting in two days here, too. But I thought we could probably first talk about some strategies," Cuiling said, laying a hand on her husband's shoulder.

I immediately perked up at the word "strategies", since I had spent all of my free time in the last week to come up with one. Not that I had a lot of free time with all the studying I had to do, but I considered the plan I had come up with as pretty good. It still wasn't perfect, though, but when I could talk to other people about it, then maybe they would have ideas how to prefect it.

"Tonight?" I asked.

Cuiling raised an amused eyebrow at me. "Sure, why not?"

Uuuhhhh. Hihihi. Finally!

Then she suddenly looked up, apparently seeing someone and smiled in a very pleased way. "Not now, however. Someone you've got to meet just came through the doors."
"Another person?" Denzai asked.

"With all the useful people you brought to us so far, I'm surprised you haven't shown us the right hand of the actual leader of Ba Sing Se yet," I joked, making Denzai and Liang laugh, while Nanuk only rolled his eyes.

Cuiling contorted her brows at me, as if I had said something bizarre.

The person she had meant for us to meet quickly came to stand at her side.

It was a man with a neatly trimmed beard, probably in his forties, his hair pulled up in a bun. He was tall and lean, but his face was one of those nondescript faces, which you forget almost instantly after you looked at it. From his broad chest and shoulders I could see that he was well trained, maybe even in martial arts, or a bending art. His eyes, though, held a great intelligence.

Cuiling stepped aside, gesturing for him to sit down in front of us. He bowed to us in greeting, and sat down then.

"Good evening," he said. "Cuiling told me you want to try to rebel against the Fire Nation and free Ba Sing Se?"

We nodded.

"Yes, it is not just for one nation to occupy another," Denzai said. "There are meant to be four nations in this world. Now there are only three, and we won't go down to only fire and water!" he declared passionately, holding himself way more confidently than I had thought he would.

In the last few weeks he had certainly surprised me a lot. Since I had met him at our course I had thought him to be a very friendly, cheery, and shy person. He was not a fighter, that's what he had said himself, and sometimes I wondered if I had maybe pushed him into this. Without me he wouldn't know about any of the Fire Nation's crimes, and maybe he only did all of this, because we were friends, and he didn't want to disappoint me, or simply wanted us to do this together. But when he spoke like that I felt comforted, knowing he was here only out of his own will. I probably gave him not enough credit.

The man nodded, twisting his mouth thoughtfully. "You are right. This world is out of balance, and since there is no Avatar anymore, it is up to us to try to restore balance in this world."
I immediately liked him.

Having no special looks, he had a very special voice which sounded wise and friendly. Besides, I totally had the same opinion about the state of our world.

"What is your name?" I wanted to know, leaning a bit more forward.

"People call me Jianjun," he answered, cocking his head to the side.

Narrowing my eyes I knew that was not his real name. But then again, we didn't use our real names here, either. It still was strange to me that he didn't tell us his real name, for he was after Lee the first one to lie about that. Why would he need to lie about his identity? Maybe it was also just to protect his family and him?

Denzai, Nanuk, and I looked at each other, and I knew they had noticed it, too.

"What exactly do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

"To help you, of course. I simply want this war to end, and the world to return to how it's supposed to be. It will never be as it had been before the war, but maybe the Fire Nation can understand that there is no such thing as a superior element. However, if no one stops them and stands in their way, it will be difficult for them to see the value of the other elements, for they only understand force, violence, and strength."

Something about the way he talked about the Fire Nation seemed odd. His voice was not full of hatred, not even fear or disgust. He sounded more resigned and sad about it, almost as if he pitied the Fire Nation. It certainly was a strange thing to do for an Earth Kingdom person.

"How do you want to help us?" Nanuk asked. "Are you a good fighter or something?"

Jianjun smiled sadly. "Yes, I can fight. But that is not how I wish to help you."

When he didn't say anything else I noticed Nanuk to tense and get annoyed. "Then what do you wish to do?"

Jianjun shot a glance at Cuiling, as if asking for guidance, and blinked at us. "I wish to be an advisor."
"Advisor?" all of us echoed.

Huh, until now no one who had sat here had suggested that. The feeling that there was something more to this man didn't leave me.

"I'm working at the palace. In the last few weeks I learned a lot about the Fire Nation military, and also how they organise this city. I believe I know how to drive them out," he said, leaning a bit forward, as if telling us a secret.

My frown cleared, and one corner of my mouth lifted. "Very well, Jianjun. Be here at nine pm in two days, and we will listen to your plan."

Zuko

I spent the rest of the morning in my room, putting away my luggage and trying to get comfortable with my room again.

It hadn't changed at all during the time I was gone, almost as if it had just waited for me to return. Or no one had actually cared to do something with it.

At least, it had been recently cleaned.

After dressing in more formal robes, I wanted to visit the turtle duck pond, but first went into the bathroom.

A young woman cowered in the corner, her eyes closed and her hands over her mouth.

What the magma was that servant doing in my bathroom? It didn't look like she had cleaned it.

"Who are you and what are you doing in here?" I snarled.

She flinched. "I-I-I was… out there, p-putting the th-things of the prince away, when y-you came in to attack. P-Please don't hurt me!"

I frowned. Oh yeah, I remembered. One of the servants had run into my bathroom. I had totally forgotten about that.

I didn't like cowards. And I didn't like creeps who hid in other people's bathrooms.

"Just get out of here," I said, suddenly feeling tired. "And do your job. I believe spending half the day in here was not what you should have done today."

She whimpered, nodding, but kept sitting on the floor.

"Get up!" I shouted.

Flinching, she jumped to her feet, kept standing, and stared at the ground.

I didn't know if anyone else had ever felt so afraid through my mere presence.

Swallowing, I stepped to the side to make way for her to get out. "Now go," I said, trying to sound a bit softer.

She still kept her head down as she bowed and exited the room, somehow slowly and cautiously, but also very fast.

I closed my eyes, took deep breaths and pinched the bridge of my nose. Well, my welcome in the Fire Palace was frostier than I had imagined it to be.

Kilara

"Huang, Zhai Bao, please stay here," professor Chiu asked, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Hearing my name I froze, stopping packing my bag to leave.

It was afternoon, and class had just ended. Chiu had given us some extra work for the weekend, which I wished to complete today before going to the Armadillo Lion.

Denzai looked from Chiu to me, his eyes wide and asking.

I simply shrugged. I had never been asked to stay after class before, and I was certain Denzai hadn't either.

Was it something bad? Was Chiu not satisfied with my work?

So Denzai and I waited, until everyone else had left the room. Cheng grinned at us, as if he would think we would get expelled. Trying not to let myself get affected by that, I turned my head away and looked at the prof who was currently rummaging through his bag, standing behind his desk now.

"Come on, you two. I don't bite," he said, waving us closer, without looking up.

I glanced at Denzai again, and walked over to Chiu's desk then.

He made a motion with his hand in the direction of the door, and it closed. I hadn't known he was an earthbender. That was probably something he didn't deem that important, since he was mostly interested in the intellect of other people.

"You should be more careful," he said, laying a very familiar looking flyer on his desk. It said For the Freedom of the Earth People!.

Swallowing, I felt myself tensing up, and immediately took a step back to step into a bending stance. Concentrating on Chiu, the door and windows, I couldn't pay attention to what Denzai was doing.

Professor Chiu studied us for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not going to do something to you, and I won't reveal your identities to the authorities. I actually wasn't even sure, if you two were really involved, but your reaction betrayed you," he said, almost smugly.

I narrowed my eyes. Shoot. So, if we had just played dumb, he wouldn't have even noticed it was us distributing the flyers. Although for the last two days, it had been the people we had met at Cuiling's birthday party who had distributed the flyers.

"Very well done," he suddenly said, nodding to himself. "The rumour spreads incredibly fast, and as far as I know, no Fire Nation person knows about it yet. I hope this Armadillo Lion is large enough for all the people who will be there tonight."

Exchanging a glance with Denzai, I relaxed my bending stance again.

"So… you think it is okay?" I asked hesitantly.

The professor nodded. "Why, yes. Of course. I am pleased to find out that there are young people really caring about the world's fate."

"How do you know it was us distributing the flyers?" I asked, tensing a little bit again. "We wore disguises. If someone would have seen us, and told you, you wouldn't have been able to even identify us."

One corner of Chiu's mouth lifted. "You're quite right there. But I have a friend who went to see you in the Armadillo Lion, and I went with him. I sat in a corner."

"Aaahhh," Denzai said, nodding.

Well, yes, that made sense.

"I wish you luck for tonight. I'm excited to see what you're planning." Chiu's smile seemed genuine, as he put his hands behind his back.

"So you're coming?" asked Denzai, his eyes wide.

Nodding, Chiu suddenly had this warm gleam in his eyes. "Of course. There are many small groups who had already thought about rebelling, you see, but with what you did, they will be able to find together and unite."

"So you belong to a rebel's group?" I raised my eyebrows, and had difficulty keeping my jaw from going slack.

"You could say that," he mused, putting one elbow in his hand and making a small gesture with his hand from his chin towards us. "Although we are against violence. Our goal is to have all the nations to live together in harmony. It's not about brute force, and simply fighting the Fire Nation with violence will not show them another way. It won't prevent them from attacking again. I hope you considered this." Now he was back to his teaching voice, leaning forward, eyebrows expectantly raised.

"Of course." I nodded, since I totally saw his point.

"We should all be free of the Fire Nation's tyranny. And the Fire Nation should be it, too," Denzai added, smiling hopefully.

oOo

"Kilara?"

Lifting my head from my desk, I drowsily looked around my room. Strands of my hair hung into my face, and I felt that my skin was a bit too dry.

Moon, had I fallen asleep while studying?

"Yes?" I answered, my voice hoarse. Yep, I had fallen asleep. Although I had only wanted to close my eyes for a few, very little seconds…

San opened the door to my room, and I quickly sat up, only now noticing the chaos around me. That was probably not fitting for a young girl from Ba Sing Se.

Books, scrolls, clothes, shoes, and bags were lying on the floor, on my bed, everywhere, just not where they belonged.

San didn't even seem to notice it, as she only looked at me with her friendly eyes. "Your father will have a guest this evening, and I shall tell you that you should look your most presentable."

I pouted, my whole facial expression sinking. "Do I have to?"

San raised her eyebrows, but seemed amused. "I'm afraid, yes. Do you need any help?"

Smiling, I shook my head. "No, you already have too much to do with cooking."

Her eyes shone warmly, as she nodded, and headed back, closing my door.

Groaning, I let my head fall onto my desk again.

One hour later, Nanuk, Dad, and I stood in the hallway together, awaiting Dad's guest. He didn't tell us anything about him, and we hadn't asked.

Having done my hair with a comb which had belonged to my mother, I really looked my best. I wore my finest hanfu, white with light blue patterns, with light pink flowers on green tree branches on the fabric. My hair was up, and for once I didn't wear the braids I always let hang down to frame my face and show my Water Tribe heritage. Tonight, I looked like a real Ba Sing Sean girl.

Nanuk was wearing his finest suit in a dark green, with long sleeves, but he hadn't done anything about his hair, and he also didn't have to wear make-up. I just hoped Dad's friend wasn't anyone looking for a daughter- or sister-in-law.

"Do you know what is going to be served for dinner?" I muttered to Nanuk.

"No, San didn't tell me, but it smells delicious," he whispered back. It was mostly pretty futile, because Dad was standing in front of us, hearing us anyway.

"I know. I cannot wait to eat, I'm really hungry," I complained.

"Kira, don't say that in front of our guest," Dad whispered, and now it all really didn't make any sense. If Dad was whispering with us, then why were we whispering at all?

Nanuk seemed to think the same thing, as he grimaced at me.

I sighed. "Dad, who is this who will visit us? Is it that important that we meet him here?"

"Well, I hold deep respect for him, so I thought it would be fitting. But he doesn't stand highly in the hierarchy of Ba Sing Se, so don't worry," Dad answered, his voice sounding as if he would smile.

"Well, who is it?" Nanuk probed more, leaning forward.

In this moment, there was a knock on the door, and Dad stepped forward, opening it.

Nanuk and I almost broke our necks, stretching to look over Dad's shoulder at this friend.

Was he from the university? From Dad's travels? Maybe even an old childhood friend?

I felt myself suddenly getting excited, since I didn't know a lot of people from Dad's past. Of course I knew Uncle Aiguo, and I had met my grandparents and my aunt, but only twice. My aunt had been an accident, and had been born only a few years before Nanuk and I, when my grandparents had already been rather old to get a child. To me, she had been more of a cousin. The point was that we knew very few friends of Dad, and in general we didn't know a lot about his childhood in the colonies.

Not like I hadn't tried to ask.

When Dad moved to the side, I didn't only gasp, my eyes grew wide like saucers, and my heart suddenly stuttered.

What was the meaning of this?

In front of Dad stood no one else than Jianjun, our new rebellion advisor!

They greeted at each other, before Dad stepped to the side, letting Jianjun see us, too. He either didn't recognise us, or this was Jianjun's twin.

"Takiro, please meet my children. Kilara and Nanuk. They are twins," Dad added, grinning, as if he would be proud of the fact. Well, maybe he was. I had never asked, and I also didn't know the meaning of twins in the colonies.

My eyes widened at the man, who bowed to us. "It is my pleasure to finally meet you."

Nanuk shot a glance at me, and I tried to tell him just to go along with this.

We bowed back. "The pleasure is ours," Nanuk said for us both.

Takiro. That was either a Fire Nation or a colony name. So that's why he had lied about his name two days ago.

Swallowing, I stared him in the eyes, trying really hard to keep on smiling and looking like a dumb little girl, while I actually tried to find something on his face that would show us that he recognised us. But he kept the polite and friendly smile all the time, not even his eyebrow twitched the slightest, indicating to wanting to form a frown, but it didn't.

"Please, Takiro. Follow me. The dinner room is this way," Dad said, giving Nanuk and me a pointed look shortly, before he started walking towards the dining room.

Jianjun smiled at us, but followed Dad.

Nanuk widened his eyes, his eyebrows rose, as if he wanted to say "What was that from Dad?".

I just shrugged and walked behind Jianjun into the dining room.

Did we maybe really look so different from the evening in the pub that Jianjun didn't recognise us, or did he only not want Dad to find out? If that was the case, he was being awfully thoughtful.

I sat down on my usual seat, Nanuk today next to me, so that Jianjun could sit next to Dad's right.

The table was already set, and a steaming pot of rice sat in the middle of it, candles around.

My eyes widened at the unfamiliar dishes and cutlery, but I could see that it was way more expensive than the one we usually used.

"So…" Nanuk started. "Where do you know each other from?"

Jianjun's smile turned to be amused. "Straight to the point. That is good. We actually don't know each other yet, but we have a common friend," he explained, raising his eyebrows slightly, as if trying to look innocent.

"Our father said he respected you. How could he do so, if you don't know each other yet?" I asked in a slightly higher pitch than usual, but trying to sound ladylike and not as annoying as Nanuk.

"I respect what I've heard from our friend," Dad explained. "Takiro, why don't you just tell us about yourself? My children will understand."

Uh-huh. So was this about the Fire Nation? Was Jianjun actually from the Fire Nation? Was Takiro maybe his real name?

"I'm a war child and grew up in Yu Dao, in the colonies. For a few years now, I've been working in the Earth King's palace as a scribe," Jianjun / Takiro said, just as San came into the room, and started to pour tea for everyone.

"Thank you, San," Dad said, smiling.

She inclined her head and went back to the kitchen to get the food out.

When my mother had still been alive, she had been the only one doing the cooking. But when the food was ready, she had always made us help her carry it onto the table. After staying with Uncle for these few months, and living here with San, I had got used to being served food, but I still felt the urge to get up and help her sometimes. But that would be rude. This was San's job, and helping her would imply that she didn't make it correctly or not fast enough.

"Well, and I'm still there. There isn't much to do, actually, since the Fire Nation officials write down everything by themselves. We only have to look it over to make sure that there is no cultural misunderstanding of a word or something like that. And the Earth Kingdom officials aren't allowed to do their job, as it is." Jianjun seemed to have finished, as San came in with a pot of hippo beef stew and a pan with green beans and pig chicken.

"That is a shame," Nanuk exclaimed, and I nodded, taking shallow breaths.

"And so unfair," I added, sounding snubbed, and my voice still uncomfortably high and low.

Dad nodded. "Yes, it is."

"So, what are you going to do?" Nanuk wanted to know, and I thanked him mentally for asking what I wanted to know.

Jianjun raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath. "Well, what is there to do? I can merely wait until the Fire Nation officials trust us enough to give us work, or until they decide they don't need us, and simply dismiss us."

Nanuk quickly shot me a glance full of surprise, which probably mirrored my own expression. Well, I hadn't expected him to admit that he was going to be part of a rebellion, but he could have at least expressed his unhappiness with the current state of things more.

"Takiro will help me in writing a report about the conquest of Ba Sing Se. He knows a lot from the Fire Nation side, too," Dad announced, grinning.

I frowned. "A report? Why are you writing that?"

"Well, someone has to document what and how it happened. It will certainly serve the university in the future, and this way no lies about it can be spread later," he explained, his eyes following San, as she returned to the kitchen, after having brought pig chicken kung pao and black beans with shrimps in garlic.

My stomach started to rumble at the sight of shrimps. Moon, I loved sea food, and I definitely didn't eat enough of it. It was probably difficult to get it in Ba Sing Se, and I noted that I had to thank San for it later.

My frown deepened, as I tried to fight my anger, because of course, Dad would only write a report for the university about the conquest. Of course, it would all simply be about military advantages and disadvantages, with a prologue about the war itself. But would the injustice of it all be mentioned? The Fire Nation's cruelty? What about the degraded state the Earth Kingdom citizens had to live in?

Nanuk clasped my fist under the table, and I took a deep breath. I immediately felt calmer, and I squeezed his hand shortly to let him know that. He squeezed back, and let it go.

"That is very interesting," I cooed, leaning forward a bit. "This must be very difficult, though." It was hard not to sound sarcastic with these sentences.

"Oh yes, you're right about that. The new Dean actually ordered it to be written," Dad added, sounding less excited now. "He's from the Fire Nation, and the report is to be handed to the Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator Joo Dee. She's the one in charge of the city."
Jianjun tensed, his eyes suddenly downcast.

What did that mean? Did he know this Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator?

Narrowing my eyes, I took a mental note of mentioning her again this evening, and later at The Armadillo Lion so that I would be able to see a difference in his reaction.

"Oh," I said like this was totally new to me.

"Hm," Nanuk hummed.

Then San came out of the kitchen with a table of baozi and declared that this was all, and we should start eating.

I wondered if Dad would invite her to eat with us again, but as she bowed he simply inclined his head and watched her going into the kitchen again.

"Enjoy the meal," Dad said, and for a while we were all busy with loading food on our plates and into our bowls.

I immediately went for the shrimps, and when I smelled their aroma, I knew that the garlic around them had been marinated so the smell wouldn't be that strong. That meant I could eat as much of it as I wanted without starting to stink of garlic!

Jianjun asked that we told him something of us. Nanuk and I looked at each other, as Dad started to talk. "They're both benders! Really good ones."

Jianjun's eyebrows rose in interest. "SO you can fight?" he asked us.

Nanuk nodded. "Yep. But Kilara can also heal."

Dad's guest contorted his eyebrows in confusion. "Heal?"

"She's a waterbender," Dad explained.

I smiled softly, innocently and shrugged.

"A waterbender? My, that's quite interesting," Jianjun murmured, as if more to himself, and frowned a little, staring at his plate.

I raised an eyebrow in Nanuk' direction, who shrugged.

"If you're going to write a report about the conquest, then you had to know about the military movements of the Fire Nation, too, don't you, Takiro?" I asked after a while, as a thought came into my mind. And I also wanted to stop talking about Nanuk and me.

Jianjun / Takiro looked up from the pig chicken kung pao he had just grabbed with his chopsticks and looked at me with something that seemed oddly like satisfaction in his eyes. But he didn't seem surprised at me asking something like that, so I suspected that he had indeed recognised Nanuk and me. "Yes, I was informed about their movements back then. I don't know too much about them now, but through calculating and some sense it should be easy to find that out."

Dad blinked at him, looking slightly confused, while I tried to hide a smile.

This was even better than I had thought. Jianjun / Takiro or whatever his name was knew even more than he had let on a few days ago. And since he was close, or at least, working with Dad, that meant he could probably keep Dad from interfering with our rebellion business.

oOo

Cuiling had managed to get earthbenders to enlarge the basement under The Armadillo Lion. I was pretty sure that it couldn't have ever been this large before, and it did look more like a cave than an actual basement. What is more, Cuiling didn't stop bragging about how she had terrorised three earthbenders into enlarging the basement.

Her husband Liang seemed even a bit annoyed by that, as he tiredly rolled his eyes.

I grinned.

When we arrived down there, it was fully packed with people. It was so crowded that Liang had real difficulties to get through with his wheelchair, until Cuiling started to wheel him through.

The people down here were mostly young adults to middle aged ones. Most of them seemed to be more of the poorer side of the society, but what was most important was that they seemed desperate. Desperate for the Fire Nation to leave and for something to change. A lot of them looked like good fighters, some even more on the shady side.

The cave was lit with oil lamps standing on small convexities of the walls, making the light down here orange and yellow.

Fighting to get through the crowd, I felt very small suddenly, although I was quite tall for my age, but all those adults around me… I was only fifteen. Wasn't I totally crazy thinking I could help planning a rebellion? Shouldn't I be more concerned about doing my homework? What if no one would take us serious? Or what if all of my plans would fail, and I would suddenly realise that I wasn't as smart as I always thought?

Then I saw Professor Chiu in the crowd. He was looking in the direction of the stage, a slight smile on his face, talking to a young man next to him.

Professor Chiu had said he was pleased we were caring about the fate of this world. He hadn't seemed mortified or disturbed that two fifteen year olds were involved in the rebellion. And he was a man who I knew told the truth.

Stealing myself, I tried to get and keep calm, as we were nearing the small stage in the middle of the cave. We had decided that Cuiling and Nanuk would go up and hold short, energetic speeches. Nanuk was a people person, he knew immediately how to make someone like him, and he was very charismatic.

While I would be able to talk about strategies and our specific plan until dawn, Nanuk would get the people into the right mood.

Liang, Meixiang, Denzai, and I stood in front of the stage, looking up at our pair of entertainers.

Nanuk brought his foot down and a light shock wave rushed through the earth, making everyone go quiet.

"Welcome!" Cuiling shouted. "Welcome to this meeting!"

Some people shouted hello, hi, or 'Glad to be here' back.

"We're all here, because we believe in freedom," she went on, earning a few small cheers. "We believe in the freedom of our people!" Her voice became louder, and more people cheered. "And we want to be free again. We're the people of earth, and we're going to put the fire that's been burning us out!"

The crowd erupted into loud cheers.

Nanuk took a step forward. "The Fire Nation conquered our city. We are the capital of the Earth Kingdom. With us the state of the war changes. If we're free, then there's still hope, but if we're conquered, is everything hopeless? Will the Earth Kingdom give up?"

Loud shouts of "No way!" or "Never!" were heard from the crowd.

I smiled and my heart filled with something which felt like hope and pride.

"No, we, won't. Because no matter with what they're gonna come at us, we. Are going to. Stand. Our. Ground!"

After waiting for the next wave of cheers to calm down, Cuiling spoke again. "The Avatar is dead. He was the most powerful being in the entire world, and the fourteen year old Fire Princess managed to kill him. And whose fault is that? It is ours! Our fault! We hid behind a twelve year old boy, simply believing, simply hoping that he will defeat our enemy! We burdened him with all our sorrows, making him carry the weight of the fate of this world on shoulders thinner like this." She held her hands in a distance to each other which seemed to be quite fitting. "And the Avatar died because of our cowardice! The Avatar died for us! The Fire Nation believes that his death will crush all our hopes towards winning the war. They believe we are too depressed to fight them. I say we are not!"

Loud clapping sounded this time, too, cheering, whistling. The people were in the right mood. They were ready to fight for their rights and for their freedom. I just hoped that no one wanted revenge.

"We won't let the Avatar's death be in vain! We won't keep burdening others with our sorrow! We will honour the Avatar's legacy and fight to bring balance back to the world!"

Now, even I couldn't stop myself from clapping and wooing. Wow, Cuiling's speech was amazing. I was grinning wildly like an idiot, filled with the desire to fight any injustice and imbalance in this world.

"My friends, it is time that we stand up for ourselves," Nanuk said calmly, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. How he was standing there, he looked so adult and so sure of himself… "It is time that we take our city back. It is time that we take the Earth Kingdom back! And then we will bring peace to the whole world!"

While the crowd around me was erupting with cheers and applause, I fought to really understand that this was our doing.

Three teenagers had started distributing flyers, and now this had happened. And we could do so much more.

From behind the stage, a small stone column shot up, on which a middle aged man stood, who already had grey hair. "No offense or anything, Lady Guozhi, but how exactly are we going to do this? We're not many, and the Fire Nation has crazy modern weapons."

Distinct murmur spread through the crowd, sowing doubts.

I narrowed my eyes at this man.

Cuiling turned around to look at him, and I couldn't see her face anymore. "We're not many yet, my friend. And we are developing a plan. But we need many people for that. Everyone who is willing to fight, anyone who is good at strategizing, anyone who can support us financially, and people who can pass us information about the Fire Nation. Only when we all work together will our plan work!"

The man seemed appeased, and his stone column sank back down to the ground.

Nanuk turned around on the stage, looking at all the crowd from every angle and pulled the attention back to him.

That was Denzai's and my clue to make our way back to the entrance. We could hear Nanuk's words still well enough while navigating back.

"Yes, we need your help. Everyone who can offer some of the help Lady Guozhi just described is asked to stay here later. We'd like to discuss those matters with you. Anyone else who thinks they can help us with something only they have please stay here, too. And to the rest, don't forget this evening. Don't forget our message. Spread it to trustful people. Spread it to people you know would be willing to help, so that our rebellion may grow, until we're too many for the Fire Nation to defeat!"

Those were the last words of the evening.

Denzai and I were already on the two tables at the exit, piles of paper in front of us, several pots of ink and several quills as well. We would make everyone sign up with their name and swear not to breathe a word of this to anyone who would try to harm us.

It would be more effective if Nanuk were here, since he could tell if someone was lying or not, but I had become rather good at that, too. Nanuk always said that people's heart beat became faster and that also meant that the blood was pumped faster through their veins. So I should be able to feel the difference.

Not everyone signed up, though. Some people thanked us with big smiles and deep bows, praising us and would have probably signed up five times if we'd let them. Others were looking nervous and still a bit frightened. They seemed intrigued by the idea of a rebellion, but not as if they wanted to have anything to do with it. They were too much afraid to write their names on a paper like that. I could understand that. In their place, I would have written a false name down.

However, telling if someone was lying proved to be… problematic.

Everyone was still excited, a few people were nervous, others frightened, and they chattered loudly. Concentrating on their blood gave me a headache, and I wasn't good enough in this to tell which heart beat fast of excitement, or who was lying! I really wished Nanuk would come here quickly!

In the end, seventeen people stayed, offering their different services. Jianjun was one of them. We talked with all of them in a row, making them wait in line.

Many of them were former Earth Kingdom officials who had resigned when the Fire Nation had conquered the city. They had felt hopeless that day. Now, they wanted to help us strategizing. There also were a few people here who we had already met at Cuiling's "birthday party" like the politician, or the rich man from the upper ring.

He and one other person had ties to rich ministers in the upper ring, from whom they were serious they could get some sponsor money and information about the Fire Nation.

Jianjun finally told us what he had hinted at during dinner. He would be able to know what the Fire Nation military would do next, and how their positions would change, also outside of Ba Sing Se. I mentioned the Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator, and noticed how Jianjun's eyes widened a little bit, how he took a small shaky breath. If I hadn't paid close attention to his reaction I would have probably not even noticed it. There definitely was something. It could become a problem for us, maybe Jianjun was only a spy of the Fire Nation and would bring us false information, leading us into a trap. Or we could use it for our gain. I would have to find a way to find out what his ties to the Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator were.

The last three of the remaining people had ties into the underground. They knew how to get information, how to make people disappear, new people appear and how to even get unnoticed into the upper ring.

They did seem like normal people, there was nothing shady about them, but hearing them hinting at their jobs… It gave me the creeps. Smuggling was just one part of that. One of these guys seemed to hit on me, which caused Nanuk to almost throw rocks into his face.

I rolled my eyes, but felt a little flattered. After all, this guy didn't look so bad himself. And I've never talked to a professional criminal before. It was somehow… thrilling.

The only criminal I had ever talked to before was a thief. I closed my eyes to banish the Fire Prince from my thoughts, as I continued counting all the signatures we got.

"We definitely did some good work tonight," I said when I was finished.

Aside from Cuiling, Liang, Meixiang, Denzai, Nanuk and me, only Jianjun and the three earthbenders who had bent the cave larger were left.

"Good work?" Nanuk asked incredulously. "We got over six hundred signatures! I thought not even three hundred could fit into this cave, so wow!"

I frowned. "There is still so much in front of us, so much we have to consider," I murmured.

Cuiling chuckled. "Aw, come on, Liwei!" She laid her hand on my shoulder. "Consider this an achievement. We didn't think that that many people would actually show up."

I bit down on my lip, nodding. I knew she was right. But getting lazy over one small victory was nothing we could afford to do. We had to stay sharp, and we had to work on our plan. I could enjoy tonight's success, but I would still keep planning.

We stayed a bit longer, getting free glasses of warm apple juice in the pub from Cuiling, and were then brought home by the three earthbenders. They had bent the basement back to how it had originally been, and were now waiting for us. Cuiling said she trusted them, so we decided to be okay with it. But I insisted that we would all go to Denzai's first, before Nanuk and I were walked home.

None of us said anything. Maybe we didn't dare to, or we were still too excited.

There was a full moon, and I knew my excitement didn't only come from the meeting earlier. Although the full moon normally kept me up until dawn, I felt deeply calm and satisfied right now. The pull of the moon felt more like a gentle caress, encouraging me to keep going. It felt like it told me that I was doing the right thing.

Zuko

It was five days after Father had accepted me back as his son.

Those three days had been gone in bliss. I had woken up to the sunrise as usual, getting up to train firebending. Fighting had regained a purpose for me. I was sure that the Avatar wasn't dead, and I wanted to be ready and strong for when the day came that he would strike back.

Azula trained in the same courtyard, but on the other side. We kept our routine of first feeling the first sun rays of the day on our skin, then training on our own, and sparring in the end.

I could tell that Azula didn't hold back, which made me glad. I felt way stronger than I had been, when she had tried to imprison me. Must be due to the fact that I was back home.

The smell of breakfast greeted me every morning in my room after my training session. It was set on a small portable oven to keep it warm, if I didn't want to eat it right now. After practising I always took a shower first, sighing in bliss at standing back under a Fire Nation shower. There was no better way to get clean, and the ones in the palace are the best.

Eating breakfast was not something I was looking forward to. I ate alone. Every single day. I didn't like it, and often caught me thinking about Uncle, wondering if he ate breakfast now, too, and what he ate for breakfast.

After breakfast, I usually went to visit Mai, and we would spend the day together, sometimes going out into the city, or simply staying at her place. I planned on asking her today, if she wanted to spend today in the palace.

I felt a bit off, which was probably due to my lack of sleep. Sneaking out of the palace and the capital, it had taken me two hours on foot to get to the industrial town close by, where a lot of the metal we use for our buildings was produced and forged.

I had thought that finding a solution for the Avatar problem would make me feel calmer, but I guess I just felt worse. Now another person knew that the Avatar was still alive. I had heard he didn't spill secrets, but this was a very huge secret!

However, I couldn't just go off by myself and try to find the Avatar again, to really eliminate him this time, although there was nothing I'd rather do. I hated having other people dealing with my problems.

I still hadn't any real duties to perform and I waited for Father to trust me enough to let me have a more important place in the government. Maybe I could lead the guards, dealing with their schedule and solving criminal problems in the city.

Azula wasn't doing anything important, too, but she didn't mind. She practised her bending, getting better every day, she has instructions from father, and other than that she just seemed to be doing what she wanted to. I envied her. I hated having nothing to do.

After having one goal for three years, and every action leading towards it, filling my days with banal stuff was even worse than it had been in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. Although, of course, doing banal things in the fire capital or the palace was way more enjoyable.

Yesterday morning, I had ordered the servants to not serve me tea anymore at any time. That morning had been after I visited Uncle in his cell, and I had still felt angry. He had just kept silent, as if I had been the one doing the wrong thing. As if I needed to be punished by him. I refused to let him give me a bad conscience, and I refused to dwell on it. So I didn't want to think about it at all.

I grew even angrier at Uncle, when I noticed I couldn't even drink tea, without thinking about him. I probably wouldn't ever be able to look at a pai sho board or see lotus flowers again, too.

But I had tea on my breakfast tray now again. Although I had ordered it to be kept out of my sight.

Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the pot and cup, then walked to my doors and pushed them open with my shoulder, since my hands were full.

The two guards, who stood here since Father had acknowledged me, looked at me. It were, of course, not the same guards all the time, at least, I thought they weren't. I couldn't remember their faces very well.

Raising my arms a bit, I used the movement to put more force into the downward motion of my arms, smattering the pot and cup on the floor, china and tea splattering and splashing in every direction. "Get the servant who was responsible for my breakfast, and make them clean this up. No one else is to clean this. I ordered not to be served tea anymore. They better remember it," I ordered, making my voice sound dark and menacing.

Although I was their superior, I was still shorter than a lot of the grown men, and I hated it. I really wished I would have a growth spurt very soon.

The one to my right bowed. "Yes, Your Highness. I will see to it immediately." He walked away, his steps fast.

I glared at the other one, challenging him to judge my actions, and then slammed the doors shut.

Sighing I tried to enjoy my breakfast, but I'd never been a person to enjoy food. Not like Uncle. I had been enthusiastic at eating my first breakfast back in the fire palace, but the fifth time had just lost its thrill. While I was still happy having Fire Nation food again I was just not capable of enjoying a meal the way Uncle could. Or the way Kilara had enjoyed my Omashu pasta.

I leaned back from my meal a bit and tried not to think about this part of my life. That was behind me. I would find other, better friends. And I would stop giving me a bad conscience for going against Uncle.


Thanks for reading!

Answers to reviews:

To 247: Thank you so much! I loved your last review! Yeah, having Kira and Nanuk be caught by Dai Li agents was not part of the plan. And no, I don't think you mentioned before that it's weird that I don't get a lot of reviews, but thank you for the compliment! Honestly, when I read some fics, I'm thinking the same thing, but I also don't know if I would actually read my story, if I weren't the one writing it. I'm not a big fan of Zuko x OC stories, actually, but I think my story is a bit different, since it is written as if it could really happen in canon. I think sold souls is a bit extreme, but I guess my story is maybe not "mainstream" enough. Also, the summary and the title are stupid. When I published the first chapter, I just wanted a title to be able to publish this, but I didn't really think about it, and I really don't want to keep the title. The title sounds like a Zutara story, which this isn't. Maybe it's inspired by it, but that's it. And I have been thinking about rewriting the summary for a long time, but I still didn't come up with something better, after all, this is really just about who Izumi's mother is, and how all that happened. Yeah, I know that feeling about wanting to know how a story will continue.

To Sam. HoranTurtleDuck: Isn't there a gang in Republic City called The Triple Threats? Yes, you wrote Cuiling okay. There was a bit more of Zuko's POV in here. I hope you liked it. I'll try to keep things about Cuiling mysterious and interesting, since it's always hard to introduce new interesting characters. This is so much more to remember than just the characters from the show, and I always have difficulties remember the names of all the OCs from other fics...