Chapter 7

The Royal Palace was quiet. It was after midnight and the occupants of the Palace were asleep or otherwise in their bedrooms. The only sounds in the halls were the steps of the patrolling guards as they walked through the empty palace. The Fire Lord was asleep in his room, Prince Lu Ten was sleeping in the nursery with his nanny and Prince Ozai was supposedly entertaining in his wing, but the guards had learned to avoid that area of the palace when he had company.

The guards stationed at the entrance were bored. Nothing ever happened at the palace. It was a cushy job, being stationed at the palace. The guards who patrolled the rest of the Capital loved to brag and tell stories of the fights that they broke up, the women that they saved. But to be a Royal guard was a prestigious, if not entirely boring, position.

"It's an awfully cloudy night tonight," one of the guards commented, looking up at the sky.

"Weird for this time of year," he said in agreement.

Unbeknownst to them, a figure in all black slipped through the cracks and made it through to the palace.


Meiko laughed at Lee's joke as she took another sip of her drink. She was sitting on Prince Ozai's bed with Lee while Ozai paced back and forth. Ozai was frustrated; he hadn't thought that it would be this difficult to get Ursa to agree to marry him. His father was getting more and more insistent about marriage but he seemed to be making no headway with the girl. He had picked her because he thought that she would be easy to charm, buy her a necklace, open up a bit about their parents and she would fall at his feet as every woman did. But not Ursa.

It made him want her more. He couldn't wait to possess her. The granddaughter of Avatar Roku. See if Iroh could find another bride like her.

"Will you stop?" He growled at Lee.

Lee simply rolled his eyes at his friend. "Let loose Ozai, you have a beautiful woman in your bed and me. What more could you want?"

"For my father to stop being such a god damn asshole would be nice," he said through gritted teeth.

"Your brother didn't have this much trouble courting Kuvira. He was married by the time he was twenty three!" Fire Lord Azulon chided his younger son.

Anger flashed in Ozai's eyes. When would his father stop comparing him to Iroh? It wasn't his fault that his mother died giving him life. It wasn't his fault that he was the second son and he didn't inherit a military position. No, he just inherited his father's search for the Avatar, a hopeless undertaking that would amount to nothing because the damned Avatar was dead.

"And see how that ended up! Kuvira died and Iroh was left with his son and he couldn't even handle that responsibility. You—"

The flames around Azulon grew larger. "You dare talk about your brother like that you ungrateful boy. I should punish you right here!" He bellowed.

"Let's go, father," he challenged. He knew that he would win. If his father died now with Iroh all the way in Omashu, Ozai could claim the throne. Iroh was too weak to challenge him.

"The insubordination!" Azulon cried. "Get out of my sight boy. Now!"

Ozai stood there, his chest heaving. He sent his father one last glare before he stormed out of the throne room, slamming the door behind him.

"He thinks that Iroh is such a gift to humanity, he's not! He will see one day that he was wrong to put so much stock in Iroh. Mark my words, Iroh will show the world how weak he is, how I would make the better Fire Lord."

"Yes, yes, Prince Iroh is weak and you are the rightful heir. Come and join us on the bed, Ozai. I'm cold," Meiko said, her voice bored.

Ozai shot her a look of disgust but made his way over to the bed. He sat down beside her and kissed her forcibly.

"I'm right here," Lee laughed with casual ease. He stood up. "I'll be back. I'm going to go get some fresh air."

Ozai waved him away and continued to kiss Meiko. She put her hand on his cheek and smiled against his lips as he pushed her back onto the bed. They didn't even acknowledge the door opening and then shut with a soft thud. He pulled away for only a second to strip his shirt off before returning to kiss Meiko again. He began to strip her of her clothes when the door opened again.

Not looking at the door, Ozai pulled away. "I thought you were—"

"Uh, Ozai? I think you need to take care of this."

Ozai finally turned to look at Lee and it took him a moment to take the scene in. A man in black was holding a knife to his throat. He wore a mask to hide his face. Meiko let out a scream and Ozai sprang into action, shooting fireballs at the assailant. He threw Lee to the ground, and Lee quickly moved out of the way, Meiko jumped off the bed and ran to Lee, wrapping herself up in a sheet. The assailant had dropped the knife and was returning fire at Ozai, but Ozai could see that his bending was weaker than his and he was having trouble keeping up. In a few moments, he had spotted the assailant's weak spots.

The assailant shot fire at him but it missed Ozai and lit the canopy on his bed on fire. "Will you shut up?" He growled to Meiko who hadn't stopped screaming. He couldn't concentrate with her yelling. Ozai ran towards the assailant, dodging his pathetic fire, and in a matter of moments subdued him, just as the guards raced into the room. Ozai had him pinned on his knees and he ripped the mask off of his face. The boy looked young and his eyes were full of rage. He looked familiar to Ozai but he couldn't quite place him.

"How dare you break into the palace to try and kill me!" Ozai shouted as the guards took over holding him. The boy struggled to get free but they held on tight. "You thought that you could overpower me? You're just a pathetic peasant thinking that you could defeat the Prince. It's laughable. Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Because you don't deserve her!" He spat out at Ozai.

It suddenly clicked; Ursa's friend, the boy that they ran into at the market, the boy whose father ran a shop.

Ozai let out a cold laugh, throwing his head back. "That's so cute, you thought that your friend needed saving—"

"She's not my friend, she's my girlfriend!" Ikem spat out, glaring at Ozai.

Ozai looked down at the boy, an unreadable expression on his face. Ursa had a boyfriend. He shot a dangerous look at Meiko. He had given her the task to find everything out about Ursa but he had missed this crucial fact. A boyfriend. It complicated matters some, he supposed, but nothing that he couldn't workaround. And besides, this boy was as good as dead. If he didn't sentence him to death himself than surely Fire Lord Azulon would.

"Listen here, boy. You haven't saved her at all; you've just killed yourself in the process. Take him to the tower to await execution," Ozai said coldly.

The guards nodded at once and dragged the boy from his room. "We'll alert Fire Lord Azulon," one of them said. Another guard went to put out the flames on Ozai's bed.

"Yes, do that," Ozai said dismissively. He could still hear the boy screaming in the halls. "Meiko dress, please. Father doesn't need to see you like that," he said.

Walking over to his bar, he poured himself another drink. Meiko was shakily walking over to the bed where she got herself dressed again and Lee rubbed at his neck where the blade had dug into his skin slightly. The room was somber.

"I—I didn't know," Meiko told him shakily. But Ozai simply lifted a hand to silence her. His father was coming; he could hear him from down the hall.

"What happened Prince Ozai?" Fire Lord Azulon demanded as he came into Ozai's bedroom. "I heard that there was an attack!"

Ozai turned to his father. "Yes. I subdued him rather quickly. The only victim here is my canopy but I suppose the servants can make me a new one."

"What did he say? What did he want?"

"To avenge Ursa," Ozai said flatly.

Fire Lord Azulon looked at his son. "Are you starting trouble again, boy? If you are—"

"I'm not," Ozai replied bitterly, his voice firm. "I have been a perfect gentleman just as you have asked me to be. I don't know what goes through the mind of that boy. It doesn't matter anyway; I've sentenced him to death."

Fire Lord Azulon looked at Ozai for a long while. Nobody said anything, they were all afraid to break the silence. Finally, Fire Lord Azulon spoke. "I'm glad that you are alright, Prince Ozai." Ozai simply bowed his head. "Meiko and Lee please return to your homes. Take a guard with you."

The two quickly gathered their things and slipped out of the room, leaving Ozai and the Fire Lord alone.

"When you are married you shouldn't be alone with that girl anymore, Ozai." His temper flared but he kept it in check and said nothing. He was going to do as he wanted, he always did. "Fine. I see that now isn't the time for a conversation. I will see you in the morning, Prince Ozai," he said and turned and left the room, leaving Ozai alone to his thoughts.


They had just sat down to eat breakfast when there was a frantic knocking at the door. Ursa looked up from her spot at the table as her father rose to his feet and went to the door. She could hear hushed voices but she couldn't make out any words, but she couldn't deny that she felt unsettled. Was it Prince Ozai? Around her, her mother and siblings were continuing to eat their breakfast, although she did see her mother's eyes go towards the front door several times.

"Eat your breakfast," Rina said. "Afiko, eat you can't be late for school today."

"Sorry mom," Afiko said as he dug into his breakfast.

Jinzuk returned to the kitchen followed by Ikem's father, Arik. Ursa looked up and immediately looked to her mother.

"What's going on?" Rina asked.

"Can you come outside? Ursa, you too," Jinzuk said somberly.

Ursa grew worried. What happened to Ikem? Something must've for his father to be here. She could feel the pounding in her heart grow faster and louder as she pushed the chair back and followed her mother and father outside. Ursa took a moment to observe Ikem's father and she immediately saw the fear in his eyes. Something had to have happened to Ikem. Her mind was racing a thousand miles a minute as she stood there with her mother's arms around her.

"Ikem's been arrested," Arik whispered.

"Arrested?" Rina asked surprised, holding onto Ursa tighter. "Arrested for what?"

"He snuck into the palace and tried to kill Prince Ozai."

Ikem was arrested. Ikem tried to kill Prince Ozai. Ikem tried to kill Prince Ozai. The words kept repeating in her head as she stared at Arik, not moving. She felt like she could barely breathe, her heart was racing so quickly. What had they done to him? What did Ozai do to him? He was arrested which meant he was alive. It meant that there was hope. It meant that things weren't lost.

"They sentenced him to be executed at dusk," Arik croaked, tears finally falling from his eyes. "My only son. What am I going to do?"

Jinzuk put a comforting hand on Arik's shoulder and shared a look with Rina. Rina hadn't let go of Ursa.

"No. They can't!" Ursa exclaimed. "They-they can't execute him. I'm…I'm not going to let them. I'm going to stop this."

Ursa pulled from her mother's grip and looked at Arik. "I promise you, I'm going to save Ikem. He's not going to die."

And she began to run.

Authors note: The next chapter will pick up directly where this one left off. I hope that you liked it and I can't wait to get the next chapter up! As always I would love to hear any feedback and I hope that you enjoyed!