Howdy team! Welcome to another chapter. Nothing much to say here this time. Hope y'all are ready because the plot train is rolling out of the station. Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review.
I do not own Avatar
Fire Lord Ozai was growing impatient. He was usually patient; always waiting for something. Today, however, he was waiting in his study in the far reaches of the Fire Nation Palace. It was his favorite time of the day: mail time.
This, coincidentally, was a certain message room person's least favorite time of the day. Pongi was sitting in his semi-office sipping his tea when he saw multiple large birds fly into the room. He sighed, knowing that they were for the Fire Lord, and walked over to greet them at the window.
The first bird was a large red hawk that had multiple scars on its beak. It had long talons and had a Fire Nation brand on its chest. It squealed rudely at the poor messenger, who hurriedly walked over to it. He removed the scroll that was attached to its leg and placed it on the table next to the other things he was going to be delivering. Next to this bird was a slightly smaller white hawk that also had a Fire Nation brand on its chest. It was much quieter than its comrad and even got a pat on the head from Pongi. Like with the first bird, he removed the message from the bird. Finally, there was the orange and red bird that never stopped squawking.
I never liked his bird, Pongi thought as he tried to grab the message from around its neck. The bird, not wanting to be bothered, nipped the man in the finger, which drew blood. "Ow!" he yelped as he glared at the messenger hawk and shooed it away once he successfully grabbed the message.
"Well, at least I got that promotion now that Boss went missing," he thought aloud. He sighed and placed the scrolls on the table as he collected the other things he was going to be bringing the Fire Lord. He walked over to his door with his collection of letters in hand and started his long trek to Ozai's office.
He made it outside the messenger building and started walking towards the Palace, but suddenly encountered several guards.
"Halt!" one of the guards yelled.
Pongi suddenly stopped walking and stood at attention. He clutched the scrolls closer to his chest and started to slightly shake. "Y-yes?"
"This one is a pussy," the other guard spoke as he walked over to Pongi. "State your business. No commoner is supposed to walk to the palace."
"I'm delivering Fire Lord Ozai's mail," Pongi responded as he showed them his identification card.
"Yeah?" one of the guards chimed in to check over the card. "Well then, we can't keep the Fire Lord's mail waiting for him, now, do we?" He mocked the poor messenger as he started walking away.
Pongi let out a breath he didn't know he was keeping in when he saw the two soldiers walk away. He quickly made haste and walked to the Palace. Once he got past the various security checkpoints, he started walking towards the study.
Whenever Pongi walked through the halls of the Palace, he would always take in how beautiful everything was. This started as a fascination and natural curiosity for the place that housed his great nation's leader, but soon turned into a wanting to look at something beautiful and majestic before meeting an untimely death by the hands of said leader. Pongi knew that his job was a risky one. He was constantly on the receiving end of either really good news, or really bad news and was constantly subjected to the Fire Lord's rage.
He sighed to himself and just continued the long walk down the winding corridors and hallways until he was in front of a large set of wooden doors. Whelp, if this is where I die, I'm glad I told my wife that I loved her today. He walked up to the door and knocked on it.
Ozai was having a very...interesting day. He was waiting on numerous reports from the field that had to do with a certain Avatar, his daughter, and a gaggle of misfits who are spread around the world and he wanted to hear updates.
He sighed to himself and hoped that Pongi, who he actually was starting to like, would show up soon. He sighed to himself, grabbed his glass of water, took a nice long sip, as he waited.
He heard a knock on his door and smiled a little. "Enter!" he shouted. He knew who was behind it and hoped that that person could save him from his mountain of paperwork on his desk.
"My Lord, I have brought you your mail for today," Pongi spoke as he walked up to the Fire Lord, who was still sitting at his desk.
"Pongi, please tell me something from the spies, Commander Dai, or at least something interesting!" Ozai pleaded to the messenger, who instantly froze.
W-why is he talking like that?! Oh, maybe I have died. This has to be some twisted version of the Spirit World. "My Lord, you have letters from both spies and Commander Dai. I am not allowed to read them, but I have them here for you to read."
Ozai smiled, which made the poor messenger shiver and quake where he stood. "Excellent. I can always count on you to do your job to perfection. Unlike your last boss, who was quite brash and rude, you executed your job to perfection and actually made me look forward to hearing my mail. You are dismissed, Messenger Head Pongi."
Pongi, was, at this point, scared out of his mind. He had never been complimented before, let alone by someone of the prowess as the Fire Lord. "Th-thank you m-my L-Lord," he stammered out before exiting the room.
Ozai watched the man walk out of his study and smiled softly to himself. "I should have promoted him ages ago," he sighed to himself. He looked at the pile of letters he received. Alright, let's start with the letter form Haki. He grabbed the letter that had a blue wax seal on the back and ripped it open to read.
Fire Lord Ozai,
It has been 13 days since we have left the Stronghold located on the westernmost port on the coast of the Earth Kingdom. As you requested, my dumbass partner and I spied on the Princess, the Avatar, Mai, and Ty Lee. We can indeed confirm that Princess Azula has not only gotten closer to the Avatar, but that she is training him in the art of Firebending. We also have reason to believe that she is in a romantic relationship with the Avatar. I have seen that they do often sleep together in the same room and in the same bed. I have overheard her (Princess Azula) talking to Ty Lee and Mai about the ideas of marriage, child conception, and deepening the bond that they share as a whole. I would dare to say that many soldiers have noticed she is losing her edge. She is not as commanding of her forces as she used to be and is being far more pleasant than before. We can lead to the conclusion that the Avatar is actively changing her mind and warping her into a different person. I will keep spying on them while they are on the boat. I have also heard that it is the Avatar's birthday coming up soon, so she and her friends might try and do something to celebrate. I will report when we get to our next destination.
Until next time,
Haki
To say that Ozai was displeased by the contents of this letter would be an understatement. He was furious at his daughter for sleeping with such a lowlife, but was enraged to figure out that they had been in a relationship together.
"That traitorous bitch!" he yelled as he threw the letter across the room. He slammed his fists into the table and groaned. That's one letter down. Let's go figure out what Commander Dai wants. He tore open the letter with a yellow seal on it and started reading it.
Fire Lord Ozai,
I write to you from my ship. It has been three weeks since the catastrophe at the Stronghold. As you may very well know, I was in the mountains training my elite guard of Fire Nation soldiers that you called for in our last meeting, right before you sent Azula to Ba Sing Se. Speaking of my group of 200 elite Fire Nation soldiers, they are all 100% loyal to you and the Fire Nation as a whole. I call them Snufferes. In about three weeks time we will be landing at Fire Foundation City where we will be able to engage the fugitives that are: Toph Befong, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, and Suki, the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. I was informed that they got into contact with a merchant by the name of Mr. Rizon. We expect for him to make a stop in the city, so we will be prepared to confront the trio. We also have reason to believe that Prince Zuko and the Waterbender, Katara, are somewhere hiding. It was stated in Sango's report from the Stronghold that Zuko had been badly injured by the Avatar. We can only suspect that the Waterbender is healing his wounds and nursing him back to health. In other news, we have sent a group of mercenaries to intercept the merchant's vessel, though we have not heard from them in a few days. We can assume that they are dead and that the merchant is still heading to one of the islands. I will follow up with you once we reach the Foundation City.
Until then,
Commander Dai
Ozai smiled lightly at the letter. He placed it down and walked out of his study towards his throne room. At least these two know how to do their jobs, he thought. He was much more pleased with how the second letter came out than how the first did. He was glad that they had a general understanding of where all the people who could affect their plans the most were. They knew that Aang and Azula were heading to the capital and would be there within the next three months. They also knew that the three fugitives would be at the capital in three months as well, due to how fast they were traveling.
He continued walking to the throne room and saw that the generals were already in the room. He opened the door and announced his presence.
Almost immediately, everyone in the room stood up and saluted the Fire Lord, who simply ignored all of them and walked to his throne. "It has come to my attention that my daughter and the Avatar have entered a romantic relationship with each other," he announced.
The room went silent as he said that. No one dared speak out after that statement. They could see the pure anger plastered on his face. Their Fire Lord looked like he could murder the entire room (and for all intensive purpose, he could).
"We also have reports that they are celebrating his birthday and are sleeping together in the same room." He spoke through gritted teeth at the council in front of him.
They all started shouting:
"This is blasphemy!"
"I don't believe this!"
"We should kill them when they get to the capitol!"
"We should stop this at once!"
Well, I'm glad that they are at least loyal to me. "Quiet!" Ozai shouted in a tone that commanded his respect and dripped with authority. Once the room was quiet again, he began to speak. "While I had a suspicion that she was going to be a traitor, I didn't think that she would betray us to such a degree."
"My Lord," one of the generals said from the table, "I believe that we should give the order to the captain to have her detained. What's their position currently?"
"My spy said that they were going to be shopping for the Avatar's birthday," Ozai explained. "The closest established town is Amarasu, which they would have landed at right in time for his birthday. Since this letter is dated thirteen days since the Stronghold incident, and considering the amount of time it took for this letter to arrive here, it's been about two weeks since this letter was written. In theory, they should have celebrated his birthday last week. If we send them a letter, it wouldn't get there for another two weeks, putting them in the middle of the ocean between Roku's Island and the Fire Foundation City."
The generals nodded in understanding. "Well, should we send notice for them in Foundation City?" one of the officers suggested.
"No."
Once again the room went into absolute chaos and anarchy. Papers were flying everywhere and people were shouting. Everyone wanted Azula's head at this point. Not only was she with the enemy, but she was sleeping with him in the same room, as well as teaching him Firebending.
"Why not?!" one of the commanding officers yelled. "Have you gone cenile?"
Almost immediately, there was a loud crack and the officer was no longer there. Upon further inspection, there was only a pile of ashes that remained.
"Anyone else want to question my judgment?" the Fire Lord asked casually while looking at his smoking fingers. The room went silent again and he smirked. "Excellent. Now, as I was saying, we should not send a note to Foundation City as a whole, but to the leader of the battalion of Snuffers that will be stationed there. I have been informed that three fugitives will be docked there and we would like to catch them. Or, at least, show them that we are watching them." Once again, he received nods from the room.
"My Lord, what are we going to do once Azula actually arrives at the Capital?" an officer queried.
Ozai paused for a second and looked at the council. Well, I'm going to have to confront her about it, he thought, Along with the Avatar. Knowing her, she will probably have them in disguise.
"We will treat her like normal and see what happens," he concluded aloud. "I do know that - depending on how she acts - we will send her to Boiling Rock as a mission to scout the prisoners, but we will move a section of the Snuffers there so that they can capture them and put them into the Boiling Rock. That way, we can take care of all of them at the same time."
"What will happen to the other three?"
"Well," Ozai said, grinning evilly, "they'll join them. We've already taken care of them."
Katara was very happy with herself. She was standing in the middle of a lake that was located near where she and Zuko were camping and she had just finished creating the healing water from the Northern Water Tribe.
I did it! I actually did it! I can heal him properly now! Maybe he'll like me even more. Maybe we can train together! Katara internally squealed at the idea of being able to help heal faster. She walked over to the tent whilst bending a large amount of water.
"Zuko, are you decent? I think I can fully heal you now!" she called while suspending at least three gallons of water around her body.
Zuko was practicing his breathing while sitting on his bed. He was breathing in and out slowly. When he heard Katara call out to him, he sighed and opened his eyes. While the pain was slowly starting to subside, he still wasn't able to move all that well. "Yes, I'm decent. You can come in," he replied as he tried to mentally prepare for what was about to happen.
"Okay, I'm coming in now," she called out as she entered the tent with the water still swirling around her. "Alright, I'm gonna try to fully heal you. I was able to recreate the water from the Northern Water Tribe, so it should hopefully help you."
She walked over to Zuko and pressed her hands onto his chest. The water that was around her started to encase all of Zuko's body and spin. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing so that she could concentrate on what she was trying to do. Almost immediately, the water started to glow bright white and illuminate the already well-lit tent.
After a few minutes, the water started to slow down and the light that was being illuminated began to die down. Finally, the water stopped spinning and lost all of its glow. Katara sighed and looked up at Zuko.
"H-how do you feel?" she tentatively asked the Firebender.
Zuko tried to move around and found that he could do so with no pain whatsoever. He moved his neck and arms and was able to do so perfectly. He looked at Katara with a shocked expression on his face. Wow, she's amazing!
Katara immediately started blushing at his face and smiled. "I-I'm guessing that everything went well?" she asked again as she kept watching his face for any sign of pain.
"Yeah! I feel great Katara," he said as he sat up. He had a small smile on his face.
"Well, that's good. I'm glad I was able to help you and heal your injuries."
"Do you think I can start bending any time soon?" he asked as he attempted to get out of bed. He was able to stand but as soon as he took a step he nearly fell.
Katara saw that he was about to fall and ran over to catch him. "Hey, I wouldn't try anything brash or fast for a few days. I can help you move around for the time being, but you are gonna have to take it easy for a little while."
Zuko sighed and silently thanked Agni that Katara was there so that he wouldn't get hurt again. "Thank you."
Katara started to blush once more. "O-of course!"