Chapter 52

Political Prisoners/We March

Maddi

There were a lot of things I was expecting Zuko to return with. A smile? Yes. Aang? Most definitely. A tiny red dragon? Not so much. I knew that Zuko ended up with a dragon sometime before Legend of Korra but he wasn't supposed to have one before the first series ended. I could feel myself start get a headache as Zuko and Aang landed, a baby dragon wrapped around Zuko's neck like a scarf.

To say there was a commotion was an understatement. Fire Lord Zuko had just returned with an infantile dragon on his shoulders and the amount of people who had come out to greet him was astounding already. He was grinning like a child at Christmas as he approached me and took my hand.

"Maddi, meet Druk, Druk, Maddi." The little dragon blinked owlishly at me before blowing a small cloud of smoke at my face and burying his head back in Zuko's shirt.

"You have a dragon." My voice sounded hollow, I was completely shocked. Zuko's smile fell for a second as he gazed at me in confusion. Aang too shared a look with Zuko.

"You didn't know?" He asked me as Katara came running and threw herself into his arms. I shook my head.

"Sort of, I'll explain later." The two of them nodded as suddenly they were both swamped by courtiers.

It took a good fifteen minutes before the four of us could escape for a moment. The nobles were as bad as reporters, curious if this was some sort of political statement and if that meant that the dragons were not extinct.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked, once the four of us were out of earshot.

Zuko and Aang explained the entire story from the sun warriors to the egg hatching.

"We thought you knew considering you sent us." Aang finished. I shook my head.

"I didn't, I was just thinking that going to Ran and Shaw would be a good way to officially end your training... although I did suspect that Zuko would get a dragon, I didn't know when." Then I explained that there was a second series but I hadn't seen much, just small tidbits every once in a while through a friend.

"So I guess my knowledge is from now on pretty much useless." I stated softly. We were all awkwardly silent for a moment.

"We have to be going Aang, the army's leaving tonight." Katara stated before glancing at me.

"Maddi... be careful okay?" I smiled and stood. For a moment the two of us looked at each other and then I held out my hand. I wasn't comfortable with hugging Katara again, not yet but this was an offering. One she accepted immediately. We shook hands.

"Good luck Katara, Aang." Zuko stated, moving forward to hug both. My mouth quirked as the avatar and the firelord said their goodbyes. After all, they wouldn't be separated for long.

It was two days after the army left that Zuko and I began to work on our list. Druk of course had seemed to find his happy place was wrapped around Zuko's neck or huddled under the blankets of one of our beds, preferably Zuko's.

When it came to this list that there was a huge list of names and most of them had no paperwork to state why this or that person had been put in jail and as such we were unable to identify which prisoners were political or not.

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked, staring at yet another scroll of names. It was ridiculous how many names there were.

"What do you suggest we do?" He asked glancing at me from his scroll. My head fell against the desk.

"I don't know, just looking at these names..." I threw my hands up in the air and stood, walking away. There was silence for a moment.

"Why don't we start with the more important prisons, apparently some of our inventors have just finished working with the air contraptions. We could travel to the high ranking facilities and then to the lesser, deal with it all right there." I turned, gazing at Zuko with appreciation.

"Zuko, you're a genius." I crowed. He smiled warmly back at me, gold eyes gleaming while I stuck my head out and waved down a servant. There were so many servants here, so many people working under the Firelord's employ, it had to be an important part of the economy. A hand touched my shoulder as the servant stopped.

"I'll take this one." Zuko told me. I hesitated before stepping back.

"Can you figure out which prisons we should travel to first?" He asked. I nodded and walked back to the scrolls.


Katara

We were heading straight to Ba Sing Se to confront Azula. It was a little daunting actually but Aang had defeated Ozai with little difficulty, so how much harder could Azula be? Of course during that time the 'firebending was out' so he hadn't had any ability to fight back. And Azula wasn't some who would be curled up like a coward in a bunker, she would be out there fighting everyone, willingly killing all those in her path.

"Are you okay?" I turned, Aang was watching me. He had changed so much from when I had first met him, from a playful excited boy to a serious young man. A man who I loved.

"I'm okay." I replied with a small smile reaching over and placing a hand over his. Absently I gazed out over the ocean and the fire nation that was slowly vanishing behind us. It was a beautiful day with no clouds, and summer just around the corner. We had a month to defeat Azula. One month before the comet came. I hoped we were ready. He gave me a wane smile.

"What about you?" I asked, leaning forward. Aang sighed.

"I'm okay, just... thinking." His grey eyes looked troubled as he gazed past the water, past the firenation, somewhere that only he could see.

"About what?" I asked, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.I was still taller then him, but he was growing taller already. One day he might stand as tall as my father.

"What's going to happen after we win this war, Maddi and Zuko have already gone their own way, Sokka's going to head back to Kyoshi island for a bit to see Suki, Toph's been talking about making an metalbending academy." I suddenly understood why Aang looked so downcast. He was scared.

"I'll stay with you." I promised.

"I know but... you are all my family and losing you..." Aang trailed off. He shifted uncomfortably, nearly pulling away from me. We were all he had left, myself, Sokka, Toph, Pala, Zuko, Appa and Momo. We were his family. I knew that fear the fear of losing the ones you loved. I had been forced to face that fear when my father left the south pole. I had now long since forgiven him for making me live through that. Aang though needed reassurance.

"You aren't going to lose us." I promised, "This is the way things go, it doesn't mean that we can't spend time with them or they won't be our family any more, we just won't see them as often." Aang smiled and hugged me back before pressing a kiss to my cheek/

"Thanks Katara, where would I be without you?"

"Still floating in a chunk of ice?" I teased, causing him to laugh.

"Yeah, I probably would be."


Maddi

"Druk! No!" I grabbed the baby dragon as he once again tried to once again fly into the boiler fire.

"Is everything alright my lady?" I struggled against the baby dragon as one of the 'mandatory guards' that had come along came forward, a worried look in his eyes. He reached out but stilled. It had been not so recently discovered that Druk didn't seem to like anyone touching him but Zuko and myself. And he barely tolerated my touch as it was. Apparently this was normal and in a year he would accept other people. At least that was what the sun warriors had stated. The only reason that Druk let me hold him at all was apparently because he saw me as Zuko's mate, which wasn't all that inaccurate.

"I'm fine thanks, besides he doesn't-" I yelped as Druk spun and sunk his teeth into my fist. My cry alerted Zuko, who had been at the front of the small ship. Instantly Druk was wrapped around the neck of his daddy, but not before he flicked my face with his tail. Well he was clearly angry with me for keeping him away from the boiler it was a lot gentler a tantrum then what the maids had received when they had pulled him from Zuko's bed. The little dragon had almost scarred the poor woman and if it hadn't been for Katara she most assuredly would have lost a finger.

"Are you okay?" Zuko asked, grabbing my hand from the dragon bite marks. Thank goodness he still had his baby teeth, if he had his adult teeth he could have bit my hand clean off.

"I'm fine," I stated wrapping my uninjured hand around the bite mark which was leaking blood.

"What happened?"

"Druk's been trying to fly into the boiler." I explained as one of the guards passed me a cloth bandage to wrap my injured appendage in. Zuko frowned at the tiny dragon.

"Fire won't hurt him, but I agree, if he went in we'd never get him out." I gave a small smile as Zuko wrapped the baby dragon around his hands and held him at face height. I watched in interest as he scolded Druk. It was an interesting event to watch, his face became angry and smoke billowed from his nose and mouth. This was particularly effective when he held Druk to face his scarred side. For some reason Druk seemed to like that side of his face the most and as such seeing it angry was a good punishment. We didn't know why the little dragon was so fascinated with his scar, until one maid pointed out that it looked like a dragon's face. The tale of Zuko's scar had never been told to the general public and as such many servants and peasants alike seemed to think that it was a gift of the dragons. Zuko wasn't going to tell them any differently, his scar no longer meant shame to him, perhaps it was best that it was reborn.

Peasants. Thinking back I shook my head. I disliked the word, it made those seem like lesser beings. I barely accepted the word servant. It was one of the biggest areas that I had to adjust to. I liked the lifestyle, being able to access a large library, having a bed again, and food served by a professional chief. It was a dream. But having people working for us and so many people at that, it was difficult to adjust to.

"We're here your highness." I glanced down over the edge of the blimp and smiled. Far below the boiling rock sat, centred in the middle of a volcano. For obvious reasons as we were guests and not uninvited we would land outside the volcano and then make our way to the prison.

I had listed the boiling rock as the first prison to see for two reasons, the first was to make sure Suki wasn't here or if she was to get her out quickly. The second was that the boiling rock held a lot of the more famous cases, plenty of which probably needed review.


"You're majesty." The warden bowed deeply, "You honour us with your presence."

"I assume you were told as to why I am here?" Zuko asked.

"Of course your majesty." He gestured with one arm, "Please come this way." I kept time with Zuko, glancing around. Our guards closed the area around us, making me feel stifled.

We were lead to a medium sized room with two chairs placed on one end and another chair, this one with straps on it placed on the opposite end.

"I was wondering my liege when Ozai would be coming here?" The warden asked. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He looked almost eager for the arrival of the ex firelord.

"I'm afraid he will not, my father will remain in the prison close to my home." Zuko stated. Both of his eyes were narrowed as he stared at the warden. He was suspicious.

"Are you sure that is wise? Your father is a powerful bender and a very dangerous man. If he was to escape I'm sure that he would not hesitate to finish what he started all those years ago. And the prison there can not even come close to the security level that we could offer here." Alarm bells began ringing in my head. Finish what he started all those years ago? Was that a slip or was this man's allegiance not to Zuko? Either way I was going to keep my eyes out for any more slips.

"I believe it is what is best." Zuko stated. His face had become cold, a mask that I had never seen him wear before.

"Of course my liege, let me summon the first prisoner..." He turned back from the door to look at us, "Although we are a very large facility here, I'm afraid that meeting the prisoners one at a time like this will take at lest two days."

"Then I suggest that you start." I interjected. He bowed again and left. I glanced at Zuko who was frowning deeply.

"Is it just me or did that man give you the creeps too?"

"He's Mai's uncle." I pursed my lips that was hardly an answer. Then I glanced back at the room. Right, guards. That was probably why Zuko was so tight lipped. I supposed we needed to look good in front of the guards, we needed to be the pillars of firenation society.

I suddenly realized that ruling the firenation at Zuko's side might be harder then I had expected. I sighed and moved to take a seat. Zuko followed after me.

We waited for several minutes until the warden game back with a man in chains and a prisoner's uniform guided by two guards. He was an old man, face long wrinkled in age, his hair was fading and he walked with a slight uneven pace that I recognized. This man was old and fragile. How long had he been living here?

"This is our oldest prisoner." The warden stated, handing Zuko a scroll. Then he walked away to go and gather another prisoner. Zuko picked up the scroll and read it before passing it to me.

"You murdered your wife." Zuko stated. The old man flinched away before timidly nodding.

"But you've had exemplary behaviour since then." I added, browsing the scroll with interest before pausing.

"You openly admitted to killing your wife. Why?" I looked up to the man. He shifted uncomfortably.

"Because she betrayed me. I thought that they would understand... a woman's job is to do whatever her husband tells her." I winced internally. Well that was sexist.

"How did she-"

"With other men!" He snarled before recoiling as if expecting to be struck. I was torn. This old man clearly wasn't repentant but at the same time he was just an old man. I glanced at Zuko who waved at the guards. They grabbed the man by the arms and dragged him away. I gazed after him torn, unsure whether I should pity the man or not.

The day continued in this fashion, reviewing cases. A good amount were killers, one in particular who killed non-benders by burning them alive. A serial killer, MO and everything. But not all of them were killers, especially those from Ozai's time. Two men had tried to start rebellions, another one had started a rally that had nearly turned into a mob. All three of them were released immediately. The next group was formed from a large pile of deserters, many of whom apologized that they were not there the day of black sun. One even threw himself to the floor and begged for our forgiveness.

For obvious reasons that entire group was released.

It was evening when a familiar brunette appeared through the door.

"Suki!" I cried. Suki jerked in surprise as her eyes met mine.

"Maddi!" I stepped forward to hug her but paused, remembering the multiple sets of eyes in the room and that not all of them would be friendly.

"Release her." Zuko commanded from behind me. Suki's handcuff's were unlocked but her eyes were now focused on Zuko and she didn't look happy.

"Suki... meet Firelord Zuko, Zuko, this is Suki leader of the Kyoshi warriors." Zuko moved forward with a smile.

"Well met."

"Not really." Suki snapped.

"Suki!" I cried. She glared at me.

"In case you didn't forget that guy burnt down my village." Zuko's eyes widened as he suddenly remembered where he had heard the word Kyoshi.

"I'm sorry." Suki turned to look at Zuko. Then turned to look at me again.

"So he's firelord now."

"Zuko has done a lot for the war effort, without him we wouldn't have won." I told her quickly before glancing back, "And we're in a relationship." Suki sighed and looked back at Zuko.

"I'm sorry for the way I behaved." Zuko smiled slightly.

"Well I deserved it a little. I did destroy your village." There was a moment of silence then Suki gave a small smile in return.

"I suppose." I sighed in relief and began chatting with my old friend while we waited for the next prisoner to come.


A/N:

Sorry for the late update, exam week still isn't over for me (It won't end until the eighteenth when I finally get to go home.) So what did you guys think? What's going on with Mai's uncle? Also I mentioned in the last chapter that the dragon's name was Fang. I was wrong as pointed out by Failisse that his name in Legend of Korra is Druk. So sorry for any confusion.