AN: Real short peace. Kind of just whipped it up on a whim. full explanation is in the much larger authors note at the bottom but for clarities sake it's an Avatar the Last Airbender fic focusing on an OC aboard Zuko's ship.
I prostrated myself on the deck before the scarred prince. My forehead touched wind chilled steel and I took a moment to simply breathe. It didn't work my breath hitched in my throat, and I felt my eyes sting as the tears formed.
"This-" The words caught in my throat as a sob, but I forced myself to push on. "This son of Air, begs the prince of Fire for, for the mercy of a clean death."
The last word escaped as a wretched half sob. Weak. I'd struggled for years braving every risk my existence brought with it. Yet here and now, death looked down on me from above and my dreams burned to ash as fate laughed. I was weak. Too weak to even look my death in the face. Because if Prince Zuko refused me this…
It would be long, and bloody. I would be tortured for information I didn't have, kept alive until they were satisfied I truly knew nothing, and then... Then there was only the Black Iron Dragon.
Even under the midday sun I shivered. I'd bite off my own tongue before I made that monstrosity roar for the Fire Lord's amusement.
"Why?" The Prince's question was enough to make me flinch.
"I, I've done my duty to the best of my ability, nature and bending be damned. I've served loyalty and never once betrayed my oaths to the Fire nation. Please, if I'm going to die let it be quick."
"No," my heart dropped like a stone, "why did you save me? Why reveal your bending? Why would an air bender join the Fire Nation Navy in the first place?"
I gingerly eased myself up slowly. But I stayed on my knees. The Prince wasn't denying my request. He just wanted information. I could do that. So long as he didn't start asking about things I didn't actually know.
"I, the crew, you all, I've sailed with you all for more than a year. I couldn't just let you die. I just… moved."
The ambush had come out of nowhere. Archers were uncommon outside of the fire nation, but when airows had started falling from the sky… I didn't know a lot of bending forms, but a dome to throw the arrows back and away was within my abilities. Of course then I'd had to kill every enemy present. I was the only air bender alive, to my knowledge, and by bending I'd condemned myself, but if there were others still loose in the world… I couldn't let rumors spread. I couldn't put them at greater risk. Especially not if the Earth Army got it into their heads that my situation was somehow normal and whatever remnants might still live had all thrown in with the Fire Nation.
So the crew held off on fighting me long enough to help me put down our ambushers. And then I surrendered. I could have run, but I'd have never escaped. Ten Marine Firebenders, the Prince, who probably met the bair minimum requirements for an Imperial Firebender, and General Irow, that plus a dozen spearmen thrown in just because.
I was good with my butterfly swords, and a half trained airbender, but that wasn't enough. I wouldn't have stood a chance, and damn it I liked most of these men! I couldn't bring myself to hurt them to buy myself a few extra heartbeats.
"I joined the Navy because it was what was required of me. My parents were merchants and they died in an attack on the colonies by the Earth Kingdom. After that I was raised in an orphanage in the colonies. To repay the debt of raising us we were required to serve in the Military." I still couldn't look the Prince in the face. I kept my eyes trained on his feet.
"Please, I know the law, but I've never betrayed my oaths and I can't, I won't be used to make the Black Dragon roar." The entire crew was gathered around to watch this spectacle, but at the mention of the infernal execution device they all shifted on their feet. "Please, a clean death is all I ask."
"Shore leave." Lieutenant Jee spoke from off to the Prince's left. "You never stayed out. You'd disappear into the city for an hour or two but you always came back with some books and some bottles. You never…" The man trailed off and I assumed he had glanced at the Prince before biting his tongue. Which was kind of pointless. The Prince might be young but more than a year at sea around sailors? I'd be very surprised if he didn't know what happened at ports during shore leave.
"I couldn't risk it. Anyone who might have been with me, any child that might or might not have been mine. I'd have condemned them to share my fate. I couldn't do that. It was too great a risk."
At least now they'd stop questioning if I was gay. Poor comfort for a dead man, but I'd take what I could get.
"Very honorable." General Iroh rumbled from his place on the Prince's right.
"My honor is all I truly have, sir. That and a now dead dream retiring and vanishing to somewhere I could let myself dream of a family." Nowhere in the Fire Nation would have been safe. But I could have retired to the colonies then slipped past the lines into the depths of the Earth Kingdom. Maybe found somewhere far from the front where starting a family wouldn't have been the same as condemning them and myself to death.
But that was pointless now. I was going to die. The only hope I had left was that I wouldn't go screaming.
"Are there more of you? More Airbenders?"
I swallowed, but answered honestly all the same.
"I don't know. My father was an air bender, but he's dead. There could be more, but I've never met any."
"How are you here. How did your ancestors escape the temples?"
"My Prince… The elders and children stayed in the temples, but the rest? They were nomads. They wandered wherever the winds took them. My ancestor was out visiting a pretty girl in an Earth Kingdom village half a continent away from the nearest temple when the comet came. I'd be amazed if the initial purge caught more than three quarters of the Air Nomads. And while we've been hunted across the world ever since… I don't know. There may be more like me, there may not be. I've been at my wits end trying to survive on my own since I was fourteen. It's not easy, but until today I was managing."
"Why do you call me that?!" Sparks flew as the Prince stomped a foot on the deck. "Why would an Airbender refer to me as 'my Prince'?!"
"...The Fire Nation took me in, fed me, clothed me, housed me, raised me. They demanded I serve them for that kindness, and I could not say no. I have fought for you, killed for you. What else would I call you if not my Prince?"
Please let him be more merciful than his father. Please!
"... Bind his hands and lock him in the brig."
My heart sank and I moved. Lunging to the side I managed to grab the knife Private Sai kept in his boot. Had to get this right. I was only going to get one chance. Between the ribs and into the heart. I drew the knife down towards my chest only to have it stop a bare inch from my skin. Two hands gripping my own and the knife handle in a grip a firm as iron.
I looked up into the eyes of General Iroh who stared down at me with a blank face.
"Do you really hate me so much, sir. Is my existence so terrible a crime that you would condemn me to your brother's mercy."
"My Nephew," the General spoke with all the steady purpose of a navy vessel going to war, "is not his father."
"If his father learns I live it won't matter. Let me die, here and now I won't make that monstrosity roar."
"If it should come to that. I will grant you your mercy myself. But do not rush to join the spirits so soon. They do not look fondly on those who hasten their own demise."
The General's word was good. But would it be good enough?
"You swear?"
"I swear on my honor. I will not let you be killed in such a way. Saving my nephew and your fellow soldiers… No matter what my father's law might say, you deserve far better than that."
I closed my eyes and let my fingers relax. The knife clattered to the deck.
"I'll hold you to that General."
My former comrades moved in then almost gently binding my hands behind my back and leading me below. I didn't have much hope that things would actually improve. But at the very least the death that had haunted my nightmare's for so long seemed to no longer be a possibility. It wasn't much… but it would have to be enough.
AN: This idea is….. very, very, very, loosely based on a fic I read on QQ a while back. Don't remember the title. I liked the concept of airbender having to survive in the fire nation a lot but between the OC being an SI, the SI having some sort of weird DND growth scale, the SI solving all the problems, and just a whole load of random shit getting added on every time the fic turned a corner… I honestly hated the fic by the time it was wrapping up. And as is the norm for me that just prompted the question "Could I do it better?" It's been percolating away in the back of my mind and finally crystalized into something writable recently.
The Black Dragon I keep mentioning is a reimagining of the Brazen Bull. The basic concept being make a hollow metal statue, throw the poor unfortunate inside then light a fire under it. The person gets cooked to death. And then just to make it even more disturbing, put some kind of device at the mouth of the statue which turns the screams into the noise of the animal in question.
As usual I don't actually have time for another fic so this is up for adoption. Just let me know if you want it, and remember even if I don't have time to write it I'm always happy to help writers find their feet.