Oh my gosh. Ohmigosh, OHMIGOSH!
It's here! It's the climax! The story's big moment! Oh my gosh - are you excited? I'm excited! I hope you like it
I've decided I don't like Sailor Moon so much any more. I noticed after the first thirty episodes that they all pretty much only have one attack each. It got kind of boring. NOT AT ALL like watching thirty episodes of Avatar (I wish!) so I stopped.
By the by, there are more chapters after this - this isn't the last, youse!
Zuko had been pretty sure this was the most boring meeting he'd been in to date until the guard had burst in the room, ranting about the escaped Avatar.
Chaos bloomed like a beautiful spring rose after a rainstorm.
Or maybe a chrysanthemum. Whatever.
Generals and Admirals and Lords were arguing while Iroh tried to calm them down, when the Fire Lord stood and grabbed everyone's attention by sending all the flames in the room into high power.
"Silence!"
Everyone stopped and turned to the Fire Lord.
"The Avatar is a boy," the Fire Lord thundered. "Nothing We cannot handle."
Zuko thought about warning him not to underestimate the Avatar, but then decided that he liked the other side of his face.
A wind blew through the room and the raging fires Ozai had heightened flickered. Everyone in the room turned to where the guard had entered with his dire news. Standing in the doorway was the Avatar.
And Katara and Sokka and Elsie and (for some reason) a maid and Lady Shomlen. What a strange group.
The Avatar thumped his staff against the marble floor and the sound rang clear across the room. "Fire Lord Ozai!" he shouted. "You have disrupted the balance of the elements and thrown the world into chaos!"
Silence filled the room. Zuko wondered what the boy would do next after such a proclamation. His pulse beat a little faster with not little amount of anticipation.
To Zuko's distinct disappointment, the Avatar bowed.
"Please stop."
A strange noise began at that. A bizarre rolling sound, like an earthquake where the ground is made out of tin foil. It wasn't particularly pleasant and it took Zuko a while to recognize it for what it was:
The Fire Lord was laughing.
Ozai stepped down from the dais he normally sat on.
"You think I will stop my conquest of the world because you ask me nicely? You are just a twelve-year-old boy, despite your happenstance of being the Avatar." The disturbing sound came again from the Fire Lord's chest, rumbling around and causing the hairs on Zuko's arms to raise.
"If you think I cannot teach a young boy a lesson, ask my son. He will tell you of a lesson well learned when he was about your age."
Zuko felt the fire within him flame up at that, and from the corner of his eyes he saw movement. The Avatar glanced at him, but that wasn't what fueled Zuko forward. It wasn't even his own anger that caused him to do what he should have done a while ago. It wasn't a sense of wronged-ness or self-worth because, frankly, he didn't have all that much.
What he saw that made him appreciate just exactly what his father had said was, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katara. When the Fire Lord said his jabbing little comment about teaching lessons, he saw her jaw clench and her fists tighten.
Katara was angry for him. She was insulted for him.
That, above all else, made Zuko step forward.
"No, Father. You're wrong."
If it had been quiet before, even the dust stopped making sound.
"What did you say to me?" growled the Fire Lord.
"You're wrong, Father." Zuko felt like crying and running and staying right where he was all at the same time. "This war is wrong. You send innocent men to heir deaths to take over people who won't stop fighting until they're dead. And they won't die until they win.
"Do you expect to cause the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom to go extinct like the Air Nomads? Maybe you could wipe out the Water Nation but only if you could successfully lay siege to the Northern Water Tribe and that's near impossible. The Earth Kingdom is just too large. If Uncle couldn't fell Ba Sing Se, who can?" At seeing Zhao open his mouth, Zuko cut him off. "And if you say Zhao, you are a fool. Zhao could not lay siege to a paper lantern."
"Hey!"
The Fire Lord swiped his hand in the air before him and Zhao stopped speaking.
"What are you saying, Prince Zuko?"
Zuko took a deep breath. Power is in the breath, not the muscle.
"I am challenging you to an Agni Kai."
"Don't do it, Zuko." The Avatar had looked up at him, worried. He had told Zuko to let him proxy; he'd tap his Avatar spirit and beat the Fire Lord once and for all.
The boy, Sokka, had looked at Zuko like he was an idiot. The Fire Lord was powerful.
Iroh had simply said, "Remember your basics, Prince Zuko. Fight from your base and your breath."
Katara had simply squeezed his hand. She loved him. There was nothing else to say.
Zuko felt the cloth flutter to the ground as he whirled around in the arena. There was no surprise this time when he turned and found his own father as his opponent. It made sense in its own way. Life was a circle and it seemed right for this situation to arise once more.
Zuko took a deep breath and settled into his stance, bending his legs and bringing his center of gravity close to the earth.
He waited.
When the first blow came, he blocked it, surprised at the force and power of it:
Iroh's were much stronger.
In that strange detached feeling a person feels when they're fighting sometimes, Zuko remembered that the reason the younger brother was Fire Lord wasn't really because he as stronger or better for the job. Thinking back, it seemed more like Ozai had gotten the position more because he had been there, while Iroh had been returning from his defeat at Ba Sing Se.
The thought lent conviction to his movements.
Ozai kicked and punched in an intricate pattern, throwing fire at Zuko. Zuko breathed deeply and brought his arms up and apart, breaking the fire. He swiftly swept his foot around and returned a blow. Ozai blocked it and struck out.
Zuko blocked and blocked, waiting for the right moment to strike. The crowd was silent as Ozai sent flame after flame, but Zuko didn't notice them. His focus was on his father and the way his father moved, somehow less gracefully than his short, tubby uncle.
Finally, the moment came. Without even thinking and with a battle cry that rang out in the huge arena, Zuko struck.
Ozai fell.
The man lay on the ground, panting. Zuko stood over him, his fist at the ready.
Ozai glared up at his son. "Do it," he huffed, trying to catch his tired breath. "A strong man would do it."
"Mercy is not weakness," Zuko said. His voice was strong and hardly his own. He didn't know where the words came from, only that they were the right ones. "It is the ability to let your opponent live without the fear that they will beat you another day."
"You sound like your uncle," Ozai spat.
"Sometimes Uncle says things worth listening to," Zuko replied. A short laugh came from the left and Zuko knew it was Uncle.
"And what will you do with your mercy?" Ozai demanded. "Send me off to a deserted island? Do you think my loyal followers won't follow me and bring me back to defeat you?"
Zuko raised an eyebrow. He felt so calm.
"Do you mean Zhao? Zhao is a coward and a leech; he only wants to profit from the most powerful person he can. You aren't powerful anymore, Father. No one wants to follow you."
"It's true, Ozai."
Zuko glanced to his right in surprise. Iroh had stepped out onto the arena platform, his face very serious.
"I have been speaking with assorted members of your court. They are very unhappy with the way the war is progressing. Many have lost sons and daughters in your ruthless tactics. And," he added with a smile and a nod to Sokka, Elsie and Takiko. "I have heard your people are unhappy with your tactics as well. Rumors of your true battle plans behind the Battle of Tao Shei have escaped and many of the populace blame you for the crushing loss.
"However, they find your son to be a most promising figure." Iroh stroked his beard as if he were considering Zuko for the first time. Zuko felt a little surge of pride rise up inside of him at his words. "They see a young man who not only discovered the Avatar, but captured and beat him as well. They see him as a promising future for a country that is beginning to feel the troubles of a hundred year long war, even if they are on the winning side.
"It would be best for you to give up, brother," Iroh advised him. "You cannot win."
"Never," Ozai hissed. "I'd rather die."
"So be it," Iroh relented and punched the air.
Ozai burst into flame so quickly and horrifically that no one had time to scream, let alone the former Fire Lord.
Zuko jumped back, his eyes wide, his earlier calm gone.
When the flames died down only seconds later, Zuko turned to his uncle and spoke into the silence.
"Uncle…"
"I am sorry, you majesty," Iroh bowed low. "I would not want to begin your reign with such a blemish on your conscience." As if that were the real reason.
Iroh lowered himself to his knees and bent his head against the ground. Zuko was about to protest, but mass movement in his peripheral vision gave him pause.
The entire arena, full of hundreds of people, members of high court and their servants, monks of the Fire Nation's temples and respected militants – all of them dropped to the floor and bowed before Zuko.
The only ones standing were the Avatar and his friends, and even they were bowing deeply.
It was the beginning of a new time, and this time, the proper prince was bestowed the monarchy.
O.o
So? Do you like it? Was it believable? How about Iroh dishing out the death? How about Zuko being the one to challenge his father? What's going to happen to Azula? Come on and GET EXCITED!
(Just to let you know, there are definitetly at least two more chapters left. I might even update this one with the next one at the same time, but you should still review for both!)
REVIEW! (please!)