My apologies for the delay in this chapter! I spent weeks trying to figure out how to untangle a certain plot point in the next chapter with no success. Then my beta reader pinged me to see how things were going, and he fixed the plot point in about two seconds. I guess I should have asked him much sooner!
Chapter 35: Revelations
I recently received intelligence that the Dragon was not informed of the plan to the extent we had discussed. Words cannot express my disappointment in whoever made the foolish decision to leave him ignorant of the truth of my health and whereabouts. I trust that you, my faithful partner in the crafting and implementation of the plan, also had no knowledge of this tragic mistake. Make inquiries among our acquaintances and see what you can learn. If you have information on the location of the Dragon, forward it to me immediately so that I can meet with him and make my apologies. And if the fault was your own, I encourage you to confess while there is still time.
Taste the fruit and know its mysteries.
-Grand Lotus I
Master Piandao rolled up the scroll and sighed. So Iroh had found out before the eclipse. And what's more, he suspected that he, Piandao, was behind it. That was unexpected, at least so soon.
Naturally he was angry. When he and Jeong Jeong had discussed disobeying Iroh's direct orders, they had known that they risked incurring his wrath. But they had assumed they would have until Ozai was deposed before it was discovered, at which time Zuko and Iroh would both be at the palace together at the height of their victory and little indiscretions such as this were more likely to be overlooked.
It didn't matter much, he supposed. The effect of their plan had already been set in motion, and they had done the right thing. Iroh coddled the boy, and he in turn relied too much on Iroh.
If Zuko had known Iroh was alive, he would have tried to contact him for advice and been less sure of himself publicly, for fear of saying something the true Fire Lord would disapprove of. But because he believed he was the sole remaining opposition to Ozai, he took the reins of power with the assurance of someone who knew his word was law.
But the question remained: how had the secret gotten out? He shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh.
"Did I do something wrong, Master?" Sokka paused his sword exercises and looked up at where Piandao was sitting on the veranda.
"No, no. Keep going. You're doing quite well."
Though he said it only so Sokka would get back to his work and he could retreat back into his thoughts, the words were true. Sokka had improved greatly in the two weeks since he and his friends had arrived at his home. The boy had a talent that he had never seen before. He would truly be a great swordsman some day.
On the other end of the courtyard, the Avatar was practicing his bending. Katara and Toph guided him through his waterbending and earthbending exercises, and he was doing quite well at those. His firebending, on the other hand…
Fat had been the only person Piandao had trusted with the secret that the Avatar was hiding out in his estate, and so naturally it had to be Fat who was the firebending instructor. He was a bender, technically, but not a very talented one. He had never had the privilege of great instruction, and his natural talent was not enough to overcome that barrier.
And it showed. Aang alternated between producing a sickly, anemic fire that sputtered out after only a few moments, and a raging inferno that had come close on several occasions to setting fire to Piandao's estate. He'd burned Toph, Katara, and Fat several times each. He had no control over his power.
It was a great irony that the Avatar wanted for firebending instruction while he was in the Fire Nation. He couldn't help wondering why Zuko and Mai hadn't stuck around with the group? Zuko would have been an excellent firebending teacher.
He wished he could ask the kids what had happened, but he couldn't bring up the subject without revealing how much he'd known about their movements before this. If only one of them would speak about it to him so he would have an excuse to ask!
But it seemed that they, too, were adept at keeping secrets. Whether because they didn't fully trust him, or because they didn't realize it was important enough to mention, he wasn't sure.
He turned his attention back to the letter in front of him. None of this mattered, really. The eclipse was in less than a week, and they were practically assured a victory. And after that, no one would care what Zuko had or hadn't been told about Iroh's plan. Fire Lord Iroh would once again be on the throne, and all would be right in the Fire Nation - and, indeed, in the world - again.
He picked up his brush, dipped it into the ink, and considered the blank paper on the table. As always, he chose his words carefully for once written, they could not be taken back.
The time grows near; the event we have spent months preparing is but a few sunrises away. All on my end is going to plan, and I expect to joyfully welcome you back in short grieves me to hear that you have experienced this pain. Unfortunately, I have no intelligence on the location of the Dragon. Even if I did, at this late date it is unlikely that a meeting could be arranged before events unfold. I look forward to witnessing your happy reunion. What a relief that will be!
You have my sword and loyalty, from now until the end.
Taste the fruit and know its mysteries.
Master Lotus P
The moment the war balloon touched down on Fire Nation soil, Zuko and the four archers breathed a collective sigh of relief. The balloons were designed to fit two, maybe three people comfortably. Five was more than a stretch, and they were all tired of not being able to sit down.
As Zuko was the only firebender of the group, he had been responsible for maintaining the fire, standing in his tiny space in front of the furnace for hours on end. His legs and arms ached, his face was covered in soot and sweat, and all he wanted was a bath, a bathroom, and a bed. He climbed out of the balloon with more grace than he felt. He was acting mostly on instinct, though, as his mind was unable to concentrate on much of anything.
"Where are we going to hide this thing?" Julong's voice cut through his brain fog.
Right.
It had been one thing traversing the Earth Kingdom without being seen, where the population was mostly concentrated in isolated villages and cities, and there was plenty of empty land; it was another thing entirely in the Fire Nation, where everyone was packed like sardine shrimp on a dozen or so islands. They had landed in the remains of a village destroyed by the last major volcanic eruption, which was perhaps the most remote location on the main island. But even this was not safe.
Even if they hadn't been spotted while flying - which was still a big 'if' - someone was sure to come across the balloon and ask questions. Four Yuyan archers and a never-before-seen Fire Nation military balloon would garner more attention than they were prepared for.
"We should break it down first," he replied, pushing his exhaustion to the back of his mind. "Then we can hide it in the volcanic rock."
Lee reached down to untie the basket from the balloon, but before he could Ryu grabbed his hand and stopped him.
"Make sure you pay attention to how it's put together! That thing is our only way off this island if things go wrong."
"Obviously," Lee said, perhaps a bit more testily than he would have yesterday.
Zuko didn't want to think about things going wrong. Everything they'd been planning for led up to the eclipse. If that didn't work, he had no more ideas, at least none that he felt were any good. The eclipse was their best shot. Father would be vulnerable, many of his soldiers would be vulnerable.
It would work. It had to work. He would make it work.
"So…" Ha Joon gave him a side glance as he began unbolting the furnace from the basket. "About Princess Ursa…"
The rest of the group paused and gave Ha Joon looks that ranged from exasperated to incredulous. They all knew Ha Joon was not crazy with the idea of rescuing her before the eclipse. They also all knew it didn't matter; Zuko had ordered it.
"What about it?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Ha Joon held up his hands placatingly. "Hey, I just wanted to go over the plan again. I didn't mean anything by it…"
"Sure you didn't," Lee muttered.
"I just think we need a concrete plan so we're not wasting time we could better spend on planning for the eclipse-"
"If he decides to forget the entire eclipse plan in order to rescue her, that's his right," Ryu snapped. "She's his mother."
The rest of the group drew in a collective gasp. Even though they all knew of Zuko's adoption, no one had dared say it aloud. His grandfather had forbidden any mention of his birth family, and even though they were more than one Fire Lord removed from that decree, most people still felt it carried the full force of law.
Ryu gave Zuko a defiant glare, daring him to say something. When he didn't, Ha Joon spoke up, more hesitant this time.
"Look, I get that. If it was my mother or sister in jail… Yeah, I get it. But the eclipse is our best shot at Ozai." He gulped and cast a brief, furtive glance at Zuko. "Who, you know, is his father."
That elicited a swift response from the other three. Their voices raised and angry, it was hard to tell one from the other, though he could clearly hear some imprecations that would have made his mother blush.
"What?" Ha Joon spoke over them all. "We can talk about Princess Ursa being his mother, but it's off limits to mention Ozai?"
The rest of what he said was drowned by the outraged shouts of the other three. It was fast dissolving into a brawl.
"That's enough," Zuko said wearily, not even bothering to raise his voice.
He didn't need to. The fight stopped immediately, and they all turned to look at him, expressions ranging from hesitant to furious to defiant.
"Ha Joon is right. We only have one shot to do this right, and we don't have any time to waste. Now, the plan." He paused to Ha Joon a hard look, and when he continued speaking his voice was harsh and commanding. "We are going to break down and hide this balloon. Then we are going to find my mother and break her out of jail, and after that we will find my father and relieve him of his temporary status of Fire Lord. Is that clear?"
Ha Joon stood stiff for a moment before bowing. "Yes, my lord."
After that, everything ran fairly smoothly. They finished breaking down and hiding the balloon just before the sun set, and by keeping to the shadows they were able to avoid any unwanted attention. They made good time to the Capitol Prison, which was their best guess where his mother would be held. There was always the possibility that Father had sent her to the Boiling Rock… but he didn't want to consider that possibility until he had to, partly because they didn't have time to go to the Boiling Rock before the eclipse, but mostly because he didn't want to picture his mother at that horrible place.
Once at the prison, Julong, Ryu, and Ha Joon created a disturbance outside so that Zuko and Lee could sneak into the warden's office and check the prisoner lists.
She was there, in a cell on the top floor. He glanced at the map, out the warden's window to get a visual on her cell, and then they crept out of the office and began scaling the prison wall.
The others were doing their job well; all the commotion seemed to be coming from outside the prison walls. The inner courtyard was deserted. Lee waited at the bottom of the prison as lookout, and Zuko began scaling the wall.
After a few minutes of tedious - and at times terrifying - climbing, he reached her window and peered in. She was sleeping on what passed for a bed.
"Mother?"
She gasped and sat up.
"Zuko!" Her voice was barely a whisper. "You shouldn't be here!"
He slid through the bars of the window and dropped to the floor without a sound. "I'm here to rescue you."
She shook her head and held up her hands in front of her. "You shouldn't have come. If the guards find out you're here, Ozai will have every soldier in the Fire Nation on high alert."
"They won't find me." Zuko's lips curled up in an easy smile, an expression he couldn't remember making since the night Hinata died. His mother was a balm for his aching heart, and he drank in the feeling of being loved, of feeling like he was enough, of feeling safe.
Which was a ridiculous feeling, he knew. Mother wasn't going to be the one protecting him, if it came to it. But there was something about his mother's presence that made him feel like there was nothing in the world that could hurt him.
"Come on," he whispered, holding his hands out to her. "I can get you out the way I came. The guards won't know."
She smiled softly, but shook her head and leaned back against the damp stone wall. "I'm not coming, Zuko. I have to stay here."
He hadn't expected that reaction. He shook his head, confused. "But… why?"
"I already told you. Ozai suspects you're coming. He's expecting an attack during the eclipse, either by you or Iroh supporters, and he has agents all over the Fire Nation waiting for you in places where he thinks you might show up. Like this prison. If I suddenly escape…"
"They'll know it was me." He sighed and sat down next to her. "All right, I get it. Not tonight." And he really did understand. He had thought he wouldn't feel right until she was no longer behind bars, but now that he saw her in person, he realized all he needed was to know that she was alive and unharmed. At least, that would be enough for tonight. "So when can I come back for you?"
Her eyes narrowed, and her voice dropped to an even lower pitch. "When you are on the throne again, and Ozai is no longer a threat to us."
The tremble in her voice as she said it frightened him. It sounded as if she were reliving some terrible memory.
His hands clenched at his sides. "Has he hurt you?"
"Of course not." But she couldn't hold his gaze as she said it.
Zuko's blood began to boil. How dare Father harm his gentle, frail mother? He grasped her shoulders and turned her to face him. "I promise I will make him pay for every ounce of pain he inflicted on you. I will pay it back tenfold."
"No," she said calmly. "He deserves to be dethroned, but you can't torture him. He's your father, and you will show him proper filial respect."
"He's my father?" He let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "That's not what he told me."
She smiled slightly. "Of course legally you are the son of Fire Lord Iroh, and for that I will be forever grateful, but that doesn't mean you can treat Ozai like he is nothing to you."
"That's not what I meant." Now it was his turn to look away. "He told me my real father's name is Ikem. He said he found a letter you were going to send him, saying that I was his son and not…" He trailed off, not sure he wanted to say it aloud. But he couldn't stop himself; he had to know. He looked back up at her and whispered, "Is it true? Am I only royalty by adoption and not by birth?"
In the dim light he could see her shoulders stiffen. A silence hung over the cell, and Zuko determined that he would not be the one to break it. He would get answers from her.
Then, slowly, hesitantly, her whisper broke the stalemate.
"It's not true. At least, not all of it."
"Then what is the truth?" He said it with more harshness than he'd meant to. It was inexcusable to speak to his mother that way, but he was so tired of wondering.
She leaned back against the stones. Her eyes took on a faraway look, as if she were transporting herself back in time.
"Ozai is your biological father. That is an indisputable fact. But I was in love with a man named Ikem, once upon a time. He was my boyfriend. And for one blissful hour, he was my fiance."
She spoke about this man as though she still loved him, and it made him decidedly uncomfortable. Mothers were not supposed to be in love with men who weren't their husbands. It simply wasn't done. But despite himself, his curiosity was piqued. "Why only an hour?"
"Because that's when your father and grandfather showed up at my parents' house," she said bitterly. "Ikem and I were going to tell my parents about our engagement. Instead, I was given the honor of accepting your father's proposal, and I never saw Ikem again."
"But Father said you wrote him letters."
"Just one, and it never reached him." Tears filled her eyes. "Your father discovered the letter before it was sent and had him killed."
Her tears brought another memory to his mind, of the two of them sitting at the pond in the palace gardens on the day he and Mai became formally betrothed.
I wish you all the happiness in the world. He remembered her words as though she'd spoken them in this room and not nearly four years ago. At the time he hadn't understood her tears. Shouldn't she have been happy for him? But now, with this new knowledge, he thought he understood.
"That's why you didn't want me to marry Mai. Because you were forced to marry Father, and you lost the man you loved."
"It's not easy to have no choices. I'm sure Mai felt the same way, at least to some extent. All the power is with you, and none of it with her."
"Oh, Mai has plenty of power," he said bitterly. "And she's not afraid to use it."
She looked at him appraisingly. "Perhaps you are right. You are more like me than Ozai, and maybe Mai is more assertive and strong than I was. But in terms of position, you will always be her superior. There is an imbalance in power. Most marriages don't work that way, nor should they."
"She isn't loyal to me." He regretted the words immediately. He made it sound like she was secretly an Azula spy or something. "I mean, she doesn't care about the Fire Lord thing. She has her own priorities, secrets, and-"
He was explaining it all very badly, but without going into details it was all a muddle.
"Zuko." She smiled at him and shook her head. "That's a good thing. The world doesn't revolve around you, and neither should she."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You don't understand."
Her smile vanished. "I think I understand far more than you think."
"She married me under false pretenses!"
"Is she secretly married to someone else?"
"No, but-"
"Nothing else matters in a royal marriage. I married Ozai while in love with someone else. It didn't matter. And Mai's 'false pretenses', whatever they may be, don't matter either. What matters is how you handle it. Do you allow her to have her own identity and self, or do you use your power and position to force her to be who you want her to be?"
"What if she was an Ozai loyalist?"
"Is she an Ozai loyalist?"
"No…"
"Then it doesn't matter," she said with finality.
That only served to make him more upset. He had to make her understand.
"Mother, she lied to me. About something important."
"About what?"
"About-" he stopped suddenly. She wouldn't let him rescue her. What if Father tortured her - she'd insinuated as much earlier - and she told him that Uncle was still alive? That would jeopardize Uncle's safety. "I… I can't tell you. For safety reasons."
"Zuko." She laughed softly and ruffled his hair. "You're angry at Mai for keeping a secret from you that you can't even tell me?"
It did sound pathetic when she put it like that. His cheeks reddened, though hopefully she couldn't see it in the dark.
"You've stayed longer than you should have," she said when he didn't respond, pushing him towards the window. "You have more important things to worry about than rescuing me."
He grudgingly acknowledged that she was right, and only paused when he reached the bars of the window.
"I'll be back," he said, kissing her on the cheek. "I promise."
She put a hand on his cheek and furrowed her brow. "Be careful, Zuko. He's expecting you. Don't do anything foolish."
"I won't." He flashed her a grin that he hoped was full of confidence, and slipped through the bars and back onto the rooftop.
He glanced down at Lee, who gave him a thumbs-up. He climbed back down the wall as quickly as he could, and he and Lee ran across the courtyard and out of the prison. Just before it was out of sight, Lee sent an incendiary arrow at a crate near the warden's office - their signal for the others that they were finished.
A few minutes later, they were all huddled together in an alley a few blocks from the prison.
"Well?" Lee asked. "What happened? Is Princess Ursa —" He cut himself off abruptly.
Zuko shook his head and twisted his face into a rueful smile. "She wouldn't come with me." He turned to look directly at Ha Joon. "Not until we've defeated Ozai."
A flash of amusement passed across Ha Joon's face for the briefest moment, but it was immediately replaced with a fierce determination.
"Then that's what we're going to do. For Princess Ursa."
The others nodded and echoed his words.
"For Princess Ursa."
Zuko looked around at the group, his spirits further buoyed by their support. The heaviness that had been there ever since Hinata's death was now replaced with a sense of purpose and determination.
Tomorrow was the Day of Black Sun.
He was ready.
