Ozai's Vengeance

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Chapter 15

Disclaimer: ATLA is the property of Nickelodeon and VIACOM. No profit is made by this story.

Notes:

I want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed. Recently I did a tally of all the countries the readers of this story come from. You're quite an international crowd! In addition to the US and Canada, this story has readers in China, Brazil, Portugal, the Philippines, France, England, Australia, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden! Thanks to all my readers for making this process worthwhile.

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Zuko detoured long enough to find his captain of the guard. She was a rather tall, fierce woman named Xiao Zhi whose White Lotus affiliations ran deep enough that she had been the "older sister" at Piandao's dojo and had recruited Sokka's swordmaster to the organization. As the daughter of Piandao's teacher, it wasn't difficult. She was more Iroh's employee than Zuko's; she and the old man had an understanding and as long as it got things done, Zuko saw no need to disrupt the status quo. Now, however, there was no time to waste. Zuko and Katara found her in the armory with a slight, eager young man at her side. They strode into a room lined with explosives. Both the woman and the boy made the traditional salute before Xiao Zhi said: "My Lord, my Lady. How may I be of service?"

Beside him, Katara blushed. Zuko fixed his gaze on the older woman. "My uncle trusts you in all matters. I find I must do the same."

Xiao Zhi lifted two white eyebrows. She spoke in a sandpaper voice. "May lightning strike me if I fail you, my Lord."

It wasn't an idle vow when speaking to a Fire Lord, and they both knew it. "My son," Zuko said. "My nephew and nieces. All of our guests. I want their protection increased. Everyone, down to the gardeners; I want only the best to surround them. I have received information that a plot may be afoot. The information may be spurious. Reports are forthcoming. For now I want your eyes everywhere."

"My Lord," Xiao Zhi said, a smile tugging at her deeply-creased mouth. "Your son and his cousins have had heightened security for days now. They have had since your son first fell ill. Those were General Iroh's orders."

Zuko felt his good eye widen just a fraction. "My uncle suspected…?"

"The General does not take his grandson's health lightly, my Lord."

"But he told us not to worry," Katara said.

"Naturally, my Lady," Xiao Zhi said, inclining her head slightly. "My operatives are functioning at top efficiency. There is no need to fear."

Zuko frowned. "The palace physician…"

"One of ours, my Lord."

"And the nanny?" he asked.

Xiao Zhi shook her head softly. "The White Lotus has yet to reveal its secrets to her. Her family, on the other hand…" The old woman straightened. "We can eliminate her at any time, my Lord. But we have followed her since the incident and she has revealed no disloyalty. She is the only suitable nursing mother on staff. If she poisoned the prince, then she tainted her own milk from within."

Part of Zuko had gone very warm. Heat radiated from his chest outwards like fever, like the day of the comet, and burned pleasantly down his arms and legs. She called him "the prince." Katara was talking: "You can just have her taken out like that? Isn't that a little harsh?"

Xiao Zhi's golden eyes examined Katara the way a dragon-hawk's might focus on a polar mouse. "Fire Lord Ozai's reign may be over, my Lady, but the Fire Nation still does not suffer weak links in the chain."

Katara stepped backward. "You sound like Azula…"

Xiao Zhi's lip curled. "A weapon is a weapon, my Lady. The Fire Lord wields me as he wishes."

"And now I wield you as the twin blade to my uncle," Zuko said. "I am relying on you to protect both my sides."

"I will break before I fall, my Lord."

"See that you do neither." He turned to Katara. "Let's go."

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They found Toph in the garden with the children. She stood perfectly perched atop a small, smooth stone, sending up curtains of shale and pebbles to block Saya's fist-sized rocks. Zuko frowned. "Their eldest girl is an earthbender?"

"No one was more surprised than Sokka," Katara said. "Or more proud."

"What's up, Sparky?" Toph asked, stamping her foot into the sand. A pillar of stone levitated Saya high into the sky. The girl shrieked laughter and clung to the pillar. Toph brought it down, then back up. Saya screamed a little and giggled with each turn.

"May I borrow your aunt from you?" Zuko asked the girl.

Saya plunged the pillar back to earth and hopped away. "Sure thing, Uncle Zuko." She eyed him and Katara, then grinned and ran away. Her braid bounced on her back as her legs pumped. Zuko watched her; she bounded to a nearby training ground where Sokka stood overseeing a match between Tom-Tom and Senzo. Sokka modeled the motions with his own sword first, then Senzo tried -- awkwardly -- to repeat them. Sand spiraled up around their feet in the afternoon light. A sudden breeze brought the scent of the sea.

"Takes you back, doesn't it?"

Zuko blinked and looked at the earthbender. "I have a favor to ask."

Toph shrugged. "Name it."

"I want you to learn whether my son's nanny poisoned him."

Toph's mouth opened. She blinked. Then she licked her lips twice and said: "Right. No problem. It's done. But it'll go better if you help me." She frowned. "Sparky? Is there something going on I should know about?"

Zuko paused. "And if there were?"

A small smile curved across Toph's pale face. "Then I'd say someone's messing with the wrong family."

Something very like peace of mind washed over him. "If that's what the Blind Bandit says, then I know there's nothing to fear."

"Damn straight," Toph said. "Leave it to me. We'll start by visiting the little one. Come on."

She led them to the training ground where Sokka was demonstrating another move for his son. Tom-Tom rolled his eyes at Zuko as he and Katara passed. "Hey, there's the proud papa," Suki said, grunting a little as she rose to her feet and offered Kurzu to Zuko. "You hold him for a while. I need a stretch."

Zuko slid an arm under Kurzu's legs, but the child immediately wanted down. He squirmed and Zuko crouched in the grass with him. To his surprise, Kurzu used his protruding knees as leverage and hauled himself up to stand. His tiny hands wavered in the air for a moment before Zuko caught them. A giant, drool-smeared smile appeared on Kurzu's face. "You're standing," Zuko said. "You're really standing." He turned his head. "Katara, look, he's-"

Katara stood with Suki, a grin on her face and her hands gloved in glowing water as they roved over the other woman's belly. Suki rubbed her lower back and sighed. Katara brought her hands away, bent the water back to its pouch, and nodded. Beside him, Saya slapped her forehead with her palm. "Not again…" She brandished a finger at him. "You only get to have one baby, Uncle Zuko. I can't take of any more!"

His jaw dropped. "Your mother is pregnant again?"

"Dad says she's more fertile than the Foggy Swamp," Siida said, her ears going pink.

From her place beside Siida, Sora shouted: "Mama! Siida called you a swamp!"

"No one likes a tattletale, Sora." Suki waved her off. "I'll be with you in a minute."

"One baby," Saya said, raising her chin. "No more."

Zuko looked at Kurzu's smiling face. The child -- his child, now, the prince of the Fire Nation and law be damned -- looked healthy and pleased with himself. He was chubbier now than when they'd brought him from Tetsushi. His eyes were brighter and bluer and his smile had more teeth. He'd spoken his first word. And if anyone tries to hurt him, I'll burn them down to powder. "One is enough for me."

"That's what everyone says," Suki said, coming to stand beside him. "Then you realize he'll have no one to ride the elephant koi with."

"It looks as though he'll have no shortage of cousins," Zuko said. He extracted his fingers from Kurzu's grasp and turned the child around. "Let's try walking, little one." But rather than let him walk, Zuko steered his son toward his nanny. The young woman sat a few paces away with her back turned to the family, her arm crooked in an unmistakable nursing posture. Zuko cleared his throat. The woman -- he vaguely recalled her name was Shuzi and now cursed himself for not paying better attention earlier on -- quickly covered herself. As she did, Zuko watched Toph quietly take up a position behind her in a copse of gold-birches.

"My Lord," Shuzi said, flushing. She stood and dipped the knee. "I apologize. The Kyoshi-"

"There is no need to apologize," he said. "I am merely here to inquire after the health of your own child. A girl, isn't it?"

"Yes, my Lord. Her name is Sa Ming."

Zuko peered at the bundle in Shuzi's arms. The infant seemed awfully small, and now sounded somewhat angry about having her feeding interrupted. Her little red mouth yawned open and puckered toothlessly. "How old?"

"Only six months, my Lord."

Zuko nodded as though that meant something to him -- he really couldn't judge ages very well; growing up alongside a prodigy did that to a person -- and said: "And how is she faring?"

Shuzi' smile faltered. "Faring, my Lord?"

"The illness that weakened my son," he said. "He and your daughter are in close quarters. Surely it impacted her as well."

Shuzi blinked and swallowed. "No, my Lord," she said. "She was lucky. I am very blessed."

We'll see about that. His gaze drifted over to Toph; the earthbender gave him a thumbs-up. "It seems you are. Don't you find it strange that two children who share the same nurse -- even the same nursery -- should have such different reactions to an illness?"

Sweat appeared on Shuzi's brow. "Yes, it is very strange, my Lord."

Again, Toph gave the thumbs-up. "And do you have any idea why that might be?"

Shuzi's gaze hit the grass. She seemed to choke a little. "My Lord…"

"I am speaking to you as a fellow parent, not your Fire Lord," he said in a voice that he knew sounded anything but fatherly. He stepped forward until he could smell the scent of milk on her child's breath. "You have more experience than I do in these matters. I'm going to ask you again: do you have any idea why my son fell ill and your daughter did not?"

Trembling, Shuzi said: "No, my Lord, I do not."

Zuko's head rose and he looked to where Toph sat shaded by trees. The earthbender's features had settled into a grim mask. Her thumb shifted parallel to the ground; her confidence in the other woman's truthfulness was shaken. "Thank you," Zuko said, and lifted Kurzu. He nodded his dismissal. "You have been most helpful."

Zuko moved Kurzu to his shoulders. Toph re-appeared at his side a moment later. "She's terrified of you," Toph said.

"She should be."

"It makes her hard to read. Up until the last minute, though, she was dead-on. I can't tell if she was lying to you or just ready to shit her pants." She sighed and folded her hands behind her head. "The kid needs a better nickname. I'm thinking Drooly."

"You are not calling my son 'Drooly.'"

"Swaddler?"

"No."

"Stinky?"

"No!"

Toph snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" She pointed at a spot a few inches away from Kurzu. "Slowpoke."

The baby leaned toward her. "Oph."

Toph's finger fell. "What did he just say?"

"Apparently he's not as slow as you thought," Zuko said. "Try again, Kurzu. Toph. T…oph."

"Oph! Oph!"

"Good boy." Zuko lifted the child down and set him on the ground. He held his hands tight. He directed him toward Katara. "Let's go see if you can learn any more."

"His second word already?" Iroh appeared lumbering down the path, a scroll in one hand. He smiled down at the child. "You're not slow at all." Iroh moved a little closer and lowered his voice. "Perhaps a family meeting is in order before dinner, my nephew." He rocked on his toes. "And by that I mean the whole family."

"I see…" Zuko frowned. "The children?"

"I have had your trainers set up an obstacle course." His expression darkened. "You may never know when they will need the skills."

Zuko nodded. "It was your idea. Make it happen."

Iroh shuffled off toward the training ground. "Sokka! May I interest you in a drink before dinner? Grown-ups only, of course."

Sokka's face broke into a huge smile. "You read my mind, old man."

"Fruit juice for me, thanks," Suki said.

"But we were just getting to the good stuff," Senzo said, flailing lamely with his practice sword.

"Don't you want to challenge Tom-Tom to the obstacle course?" Zuko asked.

The boy's eyes glowed. "Obstacle course? Last one there's a rotten koi!"

Tom-Tom looked heavenward and let his twin hooks fall. "No training is worth this…"

Zuko watched as the other adults herded the children toward the course. Tom-Tom hung back. "Get going," Zuko said.

Tom-Tom turned to him. His expression was classic Mai and for a moment Zuko profoundly wished his childhood sweetheart was alive, if only so she could see herself reflected in this boy. "I'm not their nanny," Tom-Tom was saying.

"No, but you are one of the few people I trust with my nieces and nephew. Senzo and Siida will listen to you, and Saya can help you. Keep them out of trouble. Don't let Sora wander off. And no bending."

"Nobending?"

"No bending. Sokka's children don't play with firebenders; they don't know the rules. I'll see you at dinner." When the youth still hung back, he added: "This is part of your training too, Tom-Tom. When I ask you to do something, I expect you do it."

Tom-Tom sighed. "All right."

"Good. Thank you."

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Iroh convened the meeting in his personal, private study. The room could have been an antiques shop, so crammed was it with the various trinkets the old man had acquired on his travels. Sokka stared at a stone monkey with rubies for eyes and said: "I swear I've seen this thing before…"

"First, a toast," Iroh said, lifting an elegantly-carved bone cup of ryu-nyuu, "to my new grandson."

"Hear, hear," said Toph. "Way to go, Sparky."

They drank. The ryu-nyuu burned its way down Zuko's throat. The taste was less offensive than he remembered it being in his youth. I must be getting old.

"Now if you could just find a mother for your baby," Suki said, cocking her head toward Katara.

Beside him on a red silk sofa, Katara stiffened. Zuko cleared his throat and adjusted his cuffs. "I did not bring you here to discuss private matters," he said. He looked at Sokka and took a deep breath. "Do you remember Jun?"

Sokka smiled. "Do I remember Jun? Be still my beating heart, of course I remember Jun! How could I forget? Her with those beautiful-" Sokka seemed to sense Suki's eyes on him. His hands froze in the air. "Shoulders," he said. "She had a great pair of shoulders."

"And she still does," said Iroh. "She paid us a visit today."

"What would a bounty hunter want with you?" Suki asked.

"She claimed to have information on the man from Tetsushi that we've been seeking," Zuko said. "She claims to have delivered him to the last remaining citizens there. In all likelihood, the man is dead."

Toph shrugged. "So? Good riddance."

"She also claimed that there is a well-funded rebellion in the works," Katara said. She leaned over and rested her elbows on her hands. Her drink slowly iced over between them. "There's a chance that you're all in danger."

The room went quiet. Only Kurzu's half-speech carried. Zuko watched him crawl over to a low table and use it to pull himself up. "What evidence did she give?" Ling asked.

"Almost none," Zuko said, still watching his new son. "She… She suggested that Kur- my son's -- recent illness was the result of something deliberate." He swallowed. "There have also been dragon-hawks missing. Communications may be being tampered with. And the rumors that you heard…may be part of a misinformation campaign."

"Or she could be screwing with us," Katara said.

"Wait, why were you at that meeting?" Sokka asked, pointing toward his sister. "Don't tell me you made up your mind so quickly."

Zuko turned. "What's he babbling about now?"

Katara's eyebrow twitched. "I'll tell you later. First we decide what to do about all this."

"We don't do squat," Toph said from over her drink. "We've got no evidence. Sparky, if you strike now without any proof, you'll look like your dad on a bad day. You can't do that."

"Oh, so I should just let traitors into my home where they can hurt my family?"

"No, you should be asking me to help you! I can figure out who's lying to you a lot faster than you can." Toph plunked her drink down on the floor. "Kurzu's nanny didn't poison him as far as we know. She's nervous, but when I mentioned Slowpoke's sickness to her, she didn't start lying. She's afraid and with good reason. You're a scary guy when you want to be."

"That doesn't mean she wasn't asked to by someone else," Katara said. "Jun knew about the sickness. How did she know? Someone must have told her. Maybe she had heard about a plot, but Shuzi got too scared to follow through with it."

"Because she knew she'd lose more than her job if Sparky found out," Sokka said.

"Or that you would find the poison during your healing procedure," Suki said.

The hairs on Zuko's arms rose. He stared at his son. Cold rippled through his chest and into his stomach. "That's it."

"Huh? What's it? Sparky?"

"I was going to send Iroh," Zuko said slowly. He turned to Katara. "I was going to send you and Iroh to Tetsushi."

She frowned. "I know that. But why is that so important?"

"Before you arrived, we had only announced that I was to go," Iroh said. Zuko could see the gears whirling in his uncle's mind. "For your own security, we did not publicly state that you were on your way or that you had agreed to visit Tetsushi. We only announced that after your arrival."

"They didn't know…" Zuko licked his lips. "They didn't know, Katara. They didn't expect both of us. That's what saved us."

"They wouldn't have attacked someone accompanied by the Bloodbender," Suki said. "She could have healed the damage."

"And inflicted worse," Katara said.

"So what you're saying is that Tizo the overseer was part of a big conspiracy to poison the people of Tetsushi and attract your attention so that you would send Iroh, just so that they could take Iroh out?" Toph frowned. "Doesn't that mean that Iroh was the original target?"

Iroh examined his cup. "Yes."

"But if they're after Zuko…"

"They would start with his best general," Sokka said. He turned to Katara. "Forget everything I said before, Katara. I want you out of here. Now."

"What does he mean?" Zuko asked.

"It's too late, Sokka," Katara said. "I've made up my mind. And don't you ever try to order me around again. I'm not getting left behind this time."

"If this is about Aang-"

"It'snot about Aang." Katara sat up straight. "So are you all going to leave, or not?"

The room went silent. Belatedly, Zuko noticed his son chewing on a corner of the table and pulled him away from it. He checked the boy's mouth for splinters. He felt Sokka's eyes on him. Toph spoke: "I'm not leaving my friends behind." She picked up her drink from the floor. "Snoozles and Fan-Girl have little ones to worry about. I don't. I'm staying."

"That means I'm staying too," said Ling.

Iroh leaned over and spoke in Sokka's direction. "Sokka, no one would fault you and Suki for wanting to leave. Toph is right. You have children to think of. I don't want you putting them in danger."

Sokka sighed. He turned to Suki. "You could go," he said. "You could take the kids, and-"

"Sokka, we're a matched set. If you're staying, then I'm staying."

"But the kids-"

Suki held up a finger, effectively silencing him. "Iroh, what evidence do we actually have that this bounty hunter wasn't just trying to play you for some petty cash?"

"My sources should begin reporting to me this evening. Currently, she is being followed."

"Well, we wouldn't be able to leave until at least tomorrow anyway, so we might as well wait for whatever information we can get." Suki smiled. "So in the meantime, I suggest we enjoy our time together."

Toph raised her cup. "I'll drink to that."

Sokka turned to Zuko. "Tell me you've at least got more guards posted near where my kids are sleeping."

"It's been taken care of," Iroh and Zuko said in unison. Iroh continued: "Tonight, I plan on introducing them to a friend of mine who plays a mean game of Pai Sho."

Sokka frowned. "What does that have to do with protecting my kids?"

"More than you know, my boy, more than you know."

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It had been a very long day when Zuko and family finally sat down to dinner. The children bounded in full of stories about the obstacle course and how "totally awesome" Zuko's trainers were. Senzo prattled on and Siida insisted on sitting beside Tom-Tom, who continued eating blissfully unaware of the pair of round eyes that followed his every move. Sora cried when her mother slapped her little hand away from a third helping of cave-hoppers fried in honey, and Kurzu squirmed and made Zuko spill his drink. Katara laughed at them both. At one corner of the table, Ling began to teach Saya how to fold an artful paper fan. Iroh stared at them both with folded hands and fond eyes.

It was loud and it was messy and during the meat course, Sokka stood up and reeled a little and raised his fourth serving of ryu-nyuu and toasted Suki's latest pregnancy. Then there was yet another toast to Zuko's new son. And to Aang. And to the children, who were growing up so strong. Even the guards and servers applauded. (Zuko pulled one aside and said they were all to have a piece of almond tart in celebration of the day's many accomplishments -- Katara's fingers grazed his under the table and that alone sent desire coursing through him.)

For once, the royal dining hall felt full. He sat at a table with the world's most powerful benders. They were his loyal compatriots, his family of heroes. None of them knew what tomorrow would bring, but for the moment nothing could tear them apart. Not even fear. Take that, you bastards.

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