Disclaimer: (since its been awhile) I still don't own Avatar or any of its world

Hello everyone, new and returning readers, thanks for sticking by and coming back despite my very long absence.

Anyway welcome to Book Fire, bringing this storyline into the show's third season. Here we have the surely long awaited return to the Fire Nation (I know I've been looking forward to writing all the politicking rather than fight scenes), and Lu Ten's POV. This chapter ran long so Lu Ten gets a solo chapter while Zuko gets to sleep.

Enjoy!

PS. I accidently fittingly named a character as a literary reference, let me know if you caught it (although I guess why its fitting hasn't been specified yet).

Book Fire: Chapter 1: The Smoke Clears

When Lu Ten had gotten to the apartment, after a few wrong turns—he'd never had the natural sense of direction his cousin apparently possessed—it was dark and Zuko had gone, only the moved pot and additional dirty cup were evidence he'd passed through.

Feeling tired and confused he sat himself down infront of the small low table pressed against the west wall with its little vase and bowl of sand for incense. The vase had been empty for the couple days he'd seen it here perhaps it was hard to find the flower that his father always put on the shrine, but he noticed the decoration of the vase was a vine of jasmine. He sighed and let his head drop onto the table's surface.

"I know, you're probably ashamed of me. I shouldn't have left like that. I just don't get it." He was fully aware that he had no idea what she would think, he was talking to the spirit of a woman he had never known, who arguably had never known him. But he'd always found some comfort in association with her, perhaps because he'd been so surrounded by reminders of her and assurances of her hypothetical affection from a young age. "Do you like how he's changed?"

He wanted to light some incense for her, there was a small box under the table of the sticks. If he tried, he could get a couple out with minimal mess, but even if he did he no way to light them. He felt so useless, he was a firebender who couldn't even make a fire without great risk of bodily harm; his father had had to shave him, he'd never before the last few days had someone else do that for him; he'd been embarrassingly thankful that Zuko had brought him a spoon without him having to ask; he couldn't provide aid to his own family.

The conversation with his father in the middle of the night did nothing to comfort either his confusion regarding the changed man and world, or his feelings of uselessness.

Laying in bed, not half as soft as his one at home, and only marginally better than his cot, and yet uncomfortably comfortable just as the city's night quiet was unnervingly loud, he sought comfort in a well-developed mechanism he'd begun while young, abandoned for some years, and become practiced over the last few years. He imagined a mother's touch on his head; and there it was, cool with long slightly calloused fingers. But the comfort this brought came with a twinge of guilt, not the guilt he'd mentioned earlier and long outgrown but a feeling that it was a betrayal. He was aware it was not his mother's hand he was imagining: she'd been a bender her hand would have been warm, she'd been a noblewoman whose hobbies were politicking and dancing rather than gardening and mixing herbs. Nevertheless, it was comforting in the confusion of all that had occurred.

His sleep, when he did, was disturbed that night by nightmares of Zuko being captured in his lone efforts to infiltrate the palace and winding up in the same dark cell.

Lu Ten was woken before dawn by the city noise of early merchants and produce carts. He sat on the main room's floor waiting for the sun. He ignored his father as he entered made tea and left him a cup, until he was about to leave. There were somethings he needed to know about where his father stood. The answer left him with nearly as many questions. It did however force him to speak of a decision he'd been thinking on for some days. He didn't want to, he was hesitant to push away what he had just regained, to disappoint or leave him again, but he had known from how his father had talked about his teashop it would be necessary.

"You want to build a life here," for what reason he still couldn't comprehend. Of all places, why here? "However this ends," because he had no idea what would become of this outpost of their family by sunset, "you'll have to do that without me." There. He'd said it, and it hurt as much to say as it had to think.

He went on to explain his reasons in what he hoped was a coherent argument. The thoughts made his chest feel tight: the life he had lost, leaving his father on bad terms again, that place that still hung over him as long as he remained in sight of the walls, and finally going home. He didn't know what response he'd expected: a hug, assurances that they would all be going home together, an offer of tea and discussion on the options before them.

A sad "I understand," was not one of the expectations, and irrationally those two words stung more but in the same way as when he'd been left at the palace for the first time. He didn't want to be understood, he wanted to be heeded, for it to be acted on as the ultimatum it was. A second parting on divergent terms was the last thing he wanted and yet so it would seem was their path.

"I wish I could return the sentiment." He gritted out while maintaining a blank face, because he didn't understand. Didn't understand why this city was being chosen over him, however petty those feeling were. And he would not let the hurt show; this felt oddly like one of the many times the Dai Li had prompted reaction from him by reminders that his father, his grandfather and fire lord, and his nation had abandoned him to his fate and forgotten him.

And so they parted.

He had let the tea go cold some time ago while meditating and trying not to think what would happen to him if both Zuko and his father were captured and he were left here alone. He rather regretted it, as his father's tea was one of the things he'd missed and dreamed of having again. The copious amounts made and shared since his return to the world had been welcome bits of normalcy. He wondered vaguely if his father knew of the association for him and had meant it as a peace offering for the previous night.

The door flew open broken out of its track as though the enterer couldn't wait to bother testing whether it was open. Something must have gone wrong, the Dai Li must be coming and he was not going back down there. There was one option, it might not work and it might end badly but he would rather die trying to fight than go back. Before he saw more than dark green figures, he took a deep breath low near his sea of chi feeling a low rise of warmth and rolled from his seated position onto his back, drawing his legs in and—concentrating on feeling the energy flow down, keeping thoughts far from his arms—kicking out on a rushed exhale. A plume of flame came from the soles of his feet, it was rather small and red but in the moment he was too happy it had come at all to care how weak it was, for the first flame in six years he was proud of it. Or was until he watched the plume split and easily dispersed to nothing in seconds by one of the figures, and heard a bored young voice.

"Pathetic. Zuzu really is too gullible. Lu Ten may have gotten himself killed, but he was a strong bender. If you're going to impersonate a member of the Royal Family you should at least put some effort into it."

Lu Ten rolled back up to sit and look at the girl. She looked the same, older, taller, harder in the eye, but easily recognizable as his baby cousin. "I'll admit it wasn't great, but is that anyway to say hello, Azula?"

"Impertinent peasant! How dare you address me so familiarly, and persist in this charade." She drew a hand back filling it with blue flame as her eyes burned down at him.

"Oh its blue now! Congratulations, Lala!" The nickname he had last addressed to a six-year-old version of the girl slipped out in his impressed excitement.

She paused, her eyes blown in surprise.

"I'm still waiting for the 'hello', baby cousin, it has been eight years."

"Hello, Cousin Lu Ten." She deadpanned dutifully, her gaze now coolly wary toward him.

"I gather much has occurred since last night."

"Oh, yes. Ba Sing Se is ours, Zuzu has his precious Avatar, and Uncle Iroh has been taken prisoner as a traitor, quite the stain on the family though hardly surprising," here she looked from the distraction of her nails to bore into him again, "is that stain to be doubled?"

"I am a loyal son of the Nation, even if I can no longer be her soldier."

She looked at him questioningly.

He held up the hands that had been resting in his lap in answer. "Earthbender hospitality." He let all the bitterness seep into his voice, Azula had always appreciated straightforwardness, as he glared at the agents flanking her.

"And you're ok with all this?" She asked without further elaboration.

That could mean anything. What happened to his oh-so-literal baby cousin? Being in the city, being near Dai Li again, his uncle on the throne in place of his father, his father imprisoned and branded traitor, the city felled at long last. To the first two a resounding no, to the next two he was not yet certain how he felt, and a definite yes to the last. "My father has made his choice, such as it is. I just want to go home."

"Come on, then. Ugh. I can't believe I'm going to have to admit Zuko was right, again." Lu Ten laughed at the bit of sibling rivalry as he stood, remembering the pair's mutual insistence on being right regardless of topic.

She turned on him and the laugh died at the glower on the preteen that she could only have learned from her father. And it occurred to him that the intervening years had changed the little girl as much as it had the talkative and eager boy into a moody teenager. He met her gaze and it shifted from him to the handful of agents around her. They shuffled around uncomfortable, which brought them out of Lu Ten's scope of vision making him antsy too.

"I'm sorry to hear about your mom." He ventured as they left the apartment.

"Why?" She asked, her stride unbroken on the street. "I didn't need her. You did fine without a mother."

She didn't know how wrong she was about that, how happy he'd been when he found out he was getting an aunt, Father had joked that he was more excited about it than Uncle Ozai was.

On the street there was a great grinding sound of massive earthbending that froze him in his tracks for a moment before he forced himself on and there was effort in keeping his pace slow. It continued behind him and the needling of self-preservation forced his gaze to the source. This time it was awe that halted him. The wall separating the upper and middle rings was coming down in columns around where the gate had been. Something caged in his chest soared at the sight of the natural horizon far beyond it where the other walls had also been felled.

A pleasingly triumphant laugh shook his chest. The smile didn't leave even through the coughs caused by the stabbing pain in his lungs brought on by the laughter. After he'd fought for his breath back, he looked up, still smiling like an idiot, to see Azula and her still disturbing guard of Dai Li watching him. Well, Azula was, the men were instead looking with slightly mutinous expressions at the empty space where the walls had been. Azula wore an expression of pride, obviously this had been at her orders.

"I thought I'd never—"

"What, 'see the day'? Well, with that attitude, no wonder your campaign failed."

"See the horizon again." He admitted.

Her face scrunched in the same way it would when she was little and confronted with 'feelings'. He couldn't help the chuckle it brought. She turned away with a huff and started back toward the city center with alittle more adamance to her step than before, like she was trying very hard not to actually stomp away.

As they walked toward the palace, past its open gates, it felt strange to enter the building not as either prisoner for execution or conqueror, but as guest of its new rulers. He had to suppress a bout of the same giddy, slightly hysterical laughter at the circumstance as when the Dark Water Spirit had opened his cell door. He was reentering society, going home, being completely cracked would do him no favors there; home or not it was still court.

The steps looked like they'd been through a battle. They were also about five stories high with a landing in the middle that he was very tempted to stay at, his legs were starting to shake with the exertion. So little walking for so long, and despite the work he'd put in the last few days to work the limbs they still could not withstand long walks.

"Tired, cousin?" Azula taunted from several steps above him.

"There aren't many opportunities to exercise when your feet are bonded to the floor." He grumbled, willing his legs to take the remaining steps like there was no problem.

"Princess," an agent who had just come up the steps from behind him, addressed Azula with a shallow bow, "the gates have been brought down as you ordered and the messages have been sent."

"And?"

"And… the troops have entered the lower ring and are on their way."

"Good," she smiled thinly and proceeded through the giant doors that opened before her. She'd picked up quite the flare for the dramatic in the last eight years. "Have all the Dai Li gather in the throne room before me. All of them."

The agent bowed and stepped away to do as ordered.

By the time they reached the end of the throne room, he felt like he'd been marching for two days straight.

"Mai, Ty Lee. Get Long Feng and bring him here. Try not to lose this one." She looked over at him standing by the throne, and kicked a foot stool toward him. "Sit."

His knees were locked in a stance of attention that he could and had fallen asleep in while remaining upright, it was also warded against such things as leg fatigue, he wouldn't give that up to crouch on a foot stool.

"Suit yourself," she shrugged.

They were not waiting long before the throneroom was filled with Dai Li—some still bound in bandages and supported by crutches—with their leader at the front, and surrounded by Fire Nation troops lining the hall. Lu Ten stared down Long Feng and received the cold gaze back in return, he had not recognized the name but he could never forget the face or the eyes that never showed emotion as he watched on. The man who had first informed him of his predicament, who had distributed the warnings, and overseen his mutilation. Long Feng held his gaze either as though daring him to do something or as though gazing on something rather disgusting to him. Either brought his blood to boiling as he stood like a statue.

"The Dai Li are disbanded. There shall be no more of your secret police or cultural heritage commission." Azula stated to the assembly.

"You said it would remain."

"I said I might consider it. I have decided to be in agreement with my brother, there is no longer a need for you."

"Princess, there will be a lack of control in the city without us." Long Feng tried to defend.

However much he hated to do so, Lu Ten had to agree with the man, there would be a power vacuum in the city without king, generals, or Dai Li on a terrifying scale that the Fire Nation occupiers would have to deal with.

"That is not my problem." She looked out at the men then glanced at him still glaring down the Grand Secretariat.

"Shouldn't Zuko be here for this?"

"He doesn't have the stomach for what I'm about to propose." She leaned back and relaxed into the stone throne. Then louder, so others could hear, but still ostensibly directed at him, "Perhaps we should return their hospitality? As a reward for their treatment of a member of the royal family."

Lu Ten was not above some petty revenge and took no small amount of satisfaction from seeing the men's faces run bloodless at the words. Azula smiled coldly at the reaction, a hint of amusement not leaving her eyes.

Some of the Dai Li were young and their broad hats sat crooked in a way only new recruits could manage, and these were trembling. A handful made a run for the door to the outside. Soldiers made move to strike these down.

"Let them go," Lu Ten commanded, happy to find his voice could still carry with strength. Then more quietly, "They're just green recruits, there can be no harm from them."

Azula looked like she was going to say something regarding that statement but decided not to speak it. Instead, she made a motion in signal for the soldiers to begin casting fire onto the floor where it splashed at the agents' feet and catching on long robes which could only be stamped out worsening the state of the limbs.

Finally, beyond fear and trepidatation there was panic in Long Feng's eyes. After Azula had called out "Enough," one pikesman went to slice off the man's braid. The somewhat confused look this action received from the victim made Lu Ten suddenly think there was not the same shame in it for the Earth Kingdom.

"Take him back to his cell. Leave the rest." Long Feng was hoisted from the floor and carried out while the others moaned from the ground rocking in an effort to relieve the pain or else crawling away on their bellies. A handful were still standing clinging to eachother or pillars for support.

The vengeance was less gratifying than he had thought. It looked and smelt like too many an aftermath of marching through hostile towns in the advancing push toward Ba Sing Se. This punishment was less severe than those had been. But he should not have let her do this; it was not an order a fourteen-year-old should give. It had been necessary, to negate the threat of the old order, an earthbender who could not stand could not fight afterall. But it had also been done for his sake, he should have given it himself.

Her friends had disappeared before the mass punishment. Looking around the room he noticed how oddly similar this was to the one at home. The indefiniteness of his stance was wavering, his legs felt like jelly, and he decided collapsing onto the stool was at least more dignified than just collapsing. He felt a gaze boring into him and looked up to Azula's eyes narrowed in an assessing way. She swung off the throne and stalked off down a hall, all the soldiers relaxed immediately. He went back to looking around and forced himself to view the remaining agents in their attempts to waddle delicately away and out of the palace. Part of him wanted to go see Long Feng behind bars and weakened to gloat in his own freedom, the rest could not bear the idea of going down into the palace's dungeon or walk past the others contained there. Perhaps, once he could feel his legs again, he'd go for a walk, the Earth king's gardens were supposed to be legendary.

He watched the lines of soldiers dithering on whether they should remain there or not, then leaned forward, elbows on knees and hands in sleeves. "So, anyone got an extra uniform?"

"Uh… who are you?" one brave soul asked hesitantly, he was young. A couple older men, easily identified by the visible repairs to their armor, converged on him to inform him of the various hints that had been dropped by Azula.

"I do, sir." Another, a sergeant, according to his pauldron markings, who had brought his pack and managed to keep it during the march into the city, said.

"Thank you."

"Good to see you alive, sir." He said offering a well-folded set of uniform.

The voice was familiar, combined with the oddly-specific preparedness. "Genji?" The soldier removed his faceplate to reveal a grin and fully grey beard. "What did you do to get bumped back down to sergeant, Lieutenant?"

"Barfight, Captain," there was no hint of remorse for it in him.

Lu Ten laughed lightheartedly, he was glad there seemed to be more of his men who had survived his folly and the interceding years than he had thought.

"Do you know the princess' orders?" Genji asked glancing toward the doorway.

"I do not." He looked again at the twenty men around the room. "Are there others outside securing the city?" Genji nodded. Again, he checked the men for the officers, their were two lieutenants and a captain rocking nervously in his stance like he knew what was coming. "Captain," the man started, "what would you suggest?"

"Uh, setting a guard…" he looked around for confirmation but everyone was looking straight ahead. "Two for the princess and for the prince, and for your highness—"

"That won't be necessary."

"But—"

"I'll stay near the off-duty group."

"Three for the door and hall, and five for perimeter." He motioned to the lieutenants, who organized their men accordingly.

Lu Ten accepted the bundle offered to him by Genji and stood back up to go down the same coordinator Azula had gone down, but immediately his legs became jelly under his weight. Genji caught him by the elbows. A growl of frustration escaped him, many of the soldiers scooted further away from the small display of temper.

Once righted and steady, he went to bathe and change out of these retched green clothes.

"Do you need—"

"No!" he snapped at the offer of help. Later, standing, at last, in a room with a wash basin and struggling with the belt of his robe he admitted, "yes" to himself. The knot was a familiar one, one he'd learned early, and was used for securing armor it held strong and was easy to undo, if one had working fingers. After about ten minutes of picking at the knot with his thumbnail, it finally came apart and he ripped the garment over his head. Tossing it into a corner, he instantly regretted the room's mirror. It was the first time he'd gotten to look at himself. He'd lost the muscle mass of his upper body, except for a very lean kind of musculature around his abdomen—by which he'd mostly been moving himself. The large mess of various scar tissue bridging chest and abdomen marked its history of damage. The base was roughly circular, red and dry, and around its edges the hollow of his ribs was emphasized by broken ribs that had healed at incorrect angles. Pink shiny scars spread across the base and expanded outward where'd he'd chased and tried to burn away infection, the whole area was poxed with infection scars and divets from what had continued after he was no longer able to do so. His face was haggard and boney, making his own reflection look foreign to him. The way he'd been shaved looked off-puttingly similar to Zhao's stupid muttonchops, but more stupid the incorporated half-mustache, but he couldn't do anything about that now. His hair was short, shorter than he had ever worn it; it felt weird. Had his hair been that matted? Short hair wasn't uncommon in the Fire Nation, but it certainly was among the royal family, it was another reminder—though presumably not purposefully on his father's part—that his status had changed quite abit.

He dressed into the red and black uniform and after afew attempts managed to tie the belt into a looped knot that he could undo. The tunic nonetheless hung on him but the feel of the uniform's fabric was familiar, as was the smell of military-issue soap and river water.

When he returned to the throneroom, Genji was talking in a circle with about six men. "… don't mind it, it blows over."

"What blows over?" he asked. The circle quickly moved away from Genji's vicinity, leaving him a solitary target.

"Your temper, sir." He answered, grinning. "The royal temper's gotten a more terrifying reputation than it used to have."

"Ah." Yes, he understood how that came about, Uncle Ozai had a dangerous temper which was cold and long-memoried, Zuko's was short-fused and explosive—always had been still was—and little Azula was a firecracker—Agni, she'd been a firecracker at two—and the repercussions of her anger could come at anytime after the offence. His own and Father's, even Grandfather's tempers had been varying degrees of quick and intense, but they were all short-lived and relatively harmless; it was the fury of Azulon or the Dragon of the West that were truly to be feared and the lines between mere temper and true anger were clear. He took a seat next to Genji and the others realizing it was clear regrouped and settled as well.

The guard that would have been assigned to Zuko were redistributed into the rotation of postings, because no one knew where he was and one of Azula's friends had gone looking for him, she had returned but not told anywhere whether she'd found where he'd wandered off to. Lu Ten was worried, assurances that Zuko had gone off to get some sleep and had been fine after the fight against the Avatar and his father were less reassuring than they could have been seeing as he'd disappeared around noon. But whenever he'd offered to help look he'd gotten very hard looks from the one girl coupled with deadpan and serious statements that everything was fine, made clear that either it was under control or he was unwelcome.

Among that military group was where he stayed the rest of the night, through the off-duty group's rotations. It was nice, to slip back into that constant noise of chatter and jangle of loosened armor plates. It felt safe, sure the noise covered the sounds of possible danger but it also meant there were others keeping look out, one wasn't alone. Once evening descended into true night, he slept more deeply than he had in years.

I have a couple chapters stockpiled, so I'll post them weekly til I run out, unfortunately as I continue to be a second-year grad student I can make no promises as to a regular update schedule after that.

I hope you'll leave a comment/review, I'd really appreciate your thoughts or critiques on the story as it goes (There's lots of things I'm happy to discuss in this chapter ;) ). Or leave a kudos, if you liked it, those are nice too!