Force of Iron
Chapter 7
The Truth: Part 2
Katara couldn't help but notice the venom that was soaked in the words that passed through his lips. She clung to Zuko's arm as if she was afraid he was going to disappear any second. Ozaian obviously noticed this and with his words lined with venom once more said, "Don't worry, Zuko will be tagging along with us…in the brig."
Katara wouldn't have been surprised if Ozaian could turn into a snake or was ever a serpent of sorts.
The two of them just stood there against the wall of the cell. They had put what was left of their clothes back on and waited for what was going to happen next. Zuko just stared at Ozaian with hate filled eyes, wanting him gone and out of his life. Knowing all Ozaian would ever want to do is destroy everything he built. Not to mention that if he ever hurt Katara, he had another thing coming. The thought then dawned on him that Ozaian would be keeping him in the prison hold of the ship, so if he ever did hurt Katara he would have no way of knowing.
Zuko wrapped the arm the Katara clung to around her small waist pulling her close. He could tell she was scared, and the simple act of pulling her close was an attempt to comfort her.
Ozaian stepped aside from the doors threshold, letting three guards enter. Katara immediately recognized them as the rouges she had seen on her way here, except they were dressed in Fire Nation armor. Two of them almost instinctively yanked Zuko from Katara's grasp, while the third had placed a firm grasp on her arm, preventing her from rebelling in any way.
They half dragged, half led Zuko out of the cell and out to the ship. Before they disappeared completely from site Katara saw them place heavy iron handcuffs around his wrists. She slightly cringed, seeing her love in chains, only wishing she could do something about it, but couldn't.
Even though Katara had stopped struggling, the rouge still kept a tight grip on her arm. She was afraid he was going to cut off her circulation sooner or later. Ozaian approached her slowly, loving how helpless and afraid she looked. He stood right in front of her, looking straight into her eyes, as he had done so many nights ago back at the palace. Fear once again ran up and down her spin. She missed how warm and safe Zuko made her feel, despite their location or situation they were in.
"You truly love Zuko, don't you?" he questioned slightly smirking, evilly of course.
"Of course," she replied in almost a whisper.
"Then I'll say that it would be best if you cooperated…with everything I say or else your beloved will unfortunately have to pay the price," he said moving his hand upward to let his fingertips graze the skin on her cheek, she cringed away from his touch. She would never, ever let him touch her.
Ozaian turned away, slightly disappointed, and began making his way towards the door. The rouge tugged on Katara's arm, following Ozaian out of the prison, and onto the ship that waited for them at the dock.
After they had dragged Zuko out of the prison and onto the ship, they led him to the prison hold of the vessel. His own brother was treating him like dirt, as a prisoner, who didn't even deserve something as valuable as freedom, or sunlight it seemed.
It was early morning outside in the open air on the deck of the ship. Zuko tried to soak up as much sun as he could before they dragged him below deck, away from the sunlight and his power source. It was the first time in months he had ever seen the sunshine, yet he was cut off from it all too quickly.
They took him down into the lower parts of the ship, were the cells were no longer classified as prison holds but as brigs. The usual prison holds were small steel rooms with steel doors as their only way in or out. Brigs were a series of iron bars, positioned vertically and horizontally so it fashioned into a small room, or also known as a cage. Usually used for keeping valuable cargo or goods in, now Ozaian was using it to keep Zuko locked away.
They removed Zuko's handcuffs before roughly shoving him into the brig and locking the door behind him. He felt like a caged animal, at least in the cell he felt somewhat human. The only dignity he had left it seemed were the dignities that Katara gave him.
He sloped down against the bars of the brig, until he was sitting on the ground. All he could do was wait until something happened, hopefully that something was Ozaian had died, or Katara was rescued by Aang or her brother. He let out a heavy sigh, wishing this was all just a dream he would soon wake up from.
Katara sat at the edge of the bed in one of the ship's cabins. She stared at the room before her, her mind brainstorming all possibilities of where she should start.
'Spy on Ozaian. Okay were to start. Talk to him about his plan… while trying to seduce him. Eww! No! Um I could sneak around the ship and try to eavesdrop. Yeah! That would work, but…'
Her thoughts suddenly stopped when there was a knock at the door. "Yes," she automatically answered.
"Milady, I have some things for you. May I enter?" said a female voice from the other side of the door.
"Of course," she answered. The door opened and the elderly maid, that had approached Katara while she was being 'escorted' to where Zuko was a few weeks ago, stepped through the threshold.
"Oh, hello," greeted Katara when she recognized her. The maid walked up to the bed that Katara sat on and set down a pile of neatly folded clothes next to her. She briefly glanced at the pile, and was slightly relieved that she had new clothes. She had worn the same garb the entire time she stuck in the cell with Zuko. She knew she looked filthy, she probably smelled too. Every single piece of clothing in the pile was red; obviously Ozaian just had servants grab some decent things for her to wear straight out of her closet.
"Are you okay, Milady? You look pale," said the maid interrupting her thoughts once more.
"I'm fine, just thinking about things," Katara said looking up at the maid. The maid nodded, understanding, and made a motion to leave.
"Wait," Katara cried out, before the maid left the room. She turned around and looked at Katara slightly puzzled. "Why did you give me that key? How did you know I would need it?" she asked, though her mind was brimming with many other questions.
The maid closed the door to the room, before joining the future Fire Lady on the bed, sitting right next to her.
"Its quite a long story milady, are you sure you are up for it?"
"Yes, I'm sure I am...By the way please call me Katara, I'm not Fire Lady yet," she said simply, though she was thinking that now had a small chance of happening. She was only becoming Fire Lady because that was what came with marrying Zuko. That path that was ahead of her didn't have her and Zuko's marriage included, so far.
"So um...I'm sorry whats your name?" questioned Katara slightly embarrassed, by not knowing the maid's name.
"Its Elsa," she said with a small smile the brightened up her aged features. Katara guessed Elsa was around 50 or 60, with an aged wrinkle face, and silver hair pulled back into a neat bun. She could immediately see Elsa as one of those maids that had probably worked as a palace servant for a good number years, maybe most of her lifetime.
"So Elsa, how did you know that the key would help me?"
"Do you want the whole story to why this is occurring or do you want the most basic answer to that question?"
"I would understand it more if I was told the whole story, but if your not up for it that's okay," said Katara considering how much Elsa had to work since she was a servant, and an elderly one.
"Its almost time for my break anyway so I must as well start off with the beginning," said Elsa as she crossed her legs, situating herself in a comfortable position.
"First off, Ozaian is Zuko's twin brother. They were born on the same night a few hours apart. I remember that night. I had just started working at the palace, and my job was tending to Fire Lady Ursa during her pregnancy. When she went into labor Zuko was the first one born, and nobody expected there to be a second child born, nobody expected there to be twins," she paused, letting Katara take it in. Katara smiled inside when she thought of Zuko as a baby, it made her think of wanting to have children of her own one day, Zuko's children that is.
"Anyway, when Fire Lord Ozai reliazed that he had two male heirs to the throne, he knew it would be difficult when it came time to decide which one would inherit the throne in the end. Now Katara, in the past where two legitimate heirs were avaiable for the title as Fire Lord, it often resulted in civil war. The two brothers would have divided up the Fire Nation, and fought to the death. Winner would have the country at his command and title as Fire Lord. But Ozai was already fighting a war, as we all know, so he didn't want the war in the Earth Kingdom to slow down because his sons were having a dispute," she continued.
"So he decided for the sake of the war to get rid of one of the twins,"Katara cut in.
"Exactly! Before the birth of the new Prince was announced he had Ozaian sent to a orphanage, where he was raised. Zuko was kept because he was the first born and as tradition holds the crown is always passed down to the first born prince," said Elsa with a sigh.
"Poor Ursa she must have been heartbroken when one of her sons was sent away without her consent," said Katara, knowing full well of the connection between mothers and their children.
"Actually, after Ursa gave birth to both of the boys, she passed out from exhaustion. She was up all night giving birth. It wasn't until dawn when she could finally rest. While Ursa was asleep, Ozai had made the decision without her. He knew very well that she would protest against it. So by the time she was awake, Ozaian was already half-way to the orphanage. We were given strict instructions to tell her that Ozaian had died not long after birth, due to a simple birth defect, and not mention even a whisper of the truth," said Elsa sadly.
"That's horrible. Every thing I hear about Ozai just makes him more and more cruel," said Katara, feeling sorry for Ursa that had to endure Ozai's cruelty, as well as every one else that did too. "But why is Ozaian here now?" she continued.
"Isn't it obvious. He wants Zuko's throne, he's jealous of everything he has. Even you."
"I know that part already, but how did he get here if he was raised in an orphange," Katara asked sligtly annoyed.
"Ozai didn't fully cut off all connections to his son. He had the orphange director send him reports about how Ozaian was progressing. Now looking back on it I think he was planning something in case anything happened to Zuko. He didn't tell the orphange director that the boy was the son of the Fire Lord, he wanted the reports sent to be honest and he didn't want Ozaian to know his true identity," she paused to take a breath. Then continued, "From what I heard Ozaian grew up almost exactly like Zuko did, slightly struggled in his bending abilities, but eventually became great with proper instruction. Ozaian didn't find out who he was until Zuko was banished. Ozai expected Zuko to fail in his quest for the Avatar. From what I heard Ozai was in the midst of planning a way to get rid of Zuko, and replace him with Ozaian. It was then that Ozaian had learned of his true identity, I think Ozai had even let him in on the plan. But as we know Zuko did return to the Fire Nation eventually, and eventually left again. During that time, Ozaian's destiny was crushed, and renewed within a matter of months. After Zuko left Ozaian was admitted into the palace. Ozai expected Zuko to be captured and eventually executed."
Katara shuddered at the thought of Zuko dead, yet gestured for Elsa to continue. "With Zuko gone, Ozaian would take the place of Zuko, except that Ozaian would be the son Ozai wanted. Everything that Zuko wasn't, much like another Azula, except male. Now may I remind you, that this was one of Ozai's closely guarded secrets, everyone who worked in the palace was sworn to secrecy about the issue."
Katara nodded taking everything in. "So what happened when the war ended and Zuko became Fire Lord?"
"I'm not quite sure, he disappeared suddenly after his father was defeated. For awhile everyone thought he was dead," said Elsa watching her shoes, deciphering her next words. "He somehow found most of Ozai's men that served him loyally in the army, needed a job or just wanted to see that the Fire Nation won the war. We guess that he had spent the last few years building and preparing an army to take down Zuko."
"B-But why isn't anyone doing anything? Certainly someone is starting to become suspicious about what is going on?" said Katara flabbergasted.
Elsa put a hand on her shoulder and said, "You have, you were the 1st one out the entire palace staff to notice the difference between Ozaian and Zuko. I'm sorry to say this Katara but this is only the begining."
"Wait what happened to Zuko those months he was..replaced by Ozaian?" asked Katara as Elsa made another motion to leave.
"I'm not quite sure how that happened. All I know is that the prison you just came from was under control of the Fire Nation, and that if they saw their Fire Lord in there they would know that something was wrong. Ozaian had that key with him the moment he arrived. Knowing that Zuko never possesed such a key I could only assume that it was the key you would need."
Katara licked her lips taking it all in. She sighed and said, "Did you suffer from the war, Elsa?"
"Yes I did. I had five brothers when I was young. When they got old enough they all joined the army. Now I have no brothers," Elsa said sadly.
"Do you want to help me Elsa? Zuko and I have a plan that is still in the making. We need to know what Ozaian is planning before anything can happen. I was thinking of ways I could get information, but I know I won't be able do it alone. Will you help me?" she said, trying not to sound desperate.
"What do you need me to do?"Elsa said, happy to know there was a way she could help stop this from happening.
"I was thinking about eavesdropping. I would be alot less suspicious if you were doing it." said Katara, hope rising inside of her.
Elsa nodded, "I'll do my best...By the way I heard from the cook that Zuko is down in the brig on the bottom level of the ship. If you ever need to see him just take the stairs near the prison hold, they'll lead straight to the brig," said Elsa smiling.
Katara nodded her thanks before she left. She sighed knowing her Zuko wasn't far away, she already missed him, even though it had been an hour or so since she last saw him. She got up from the bed and took a shower in the bathroom that was connected to her room. It felt good to be clean again. After brushing out the nest that was her hair, she dressed in one of the dresses that Elsa brought her,and left her room in a dash. Heading down to the brig were Zuko was kept.
Well there you have it the 7th chapter. Sorry if this one took longer. Something was wrong with Word on my computer. For some reason I couldn't type anything up, so I had to wait for it to pass, or until someone fixed it. Also the reason why this chapter is so long is for obvious reasons. Katara had to find out the rest of the truth about the connection between the two, and the only one who knew the whole story was elsa, so I had to have elsa explain he whole thing to Katara. Now that I think about it, I probably could have done another flashback, but that would've been more complicated and maybe even longer. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm currently juggling two stories right now so I don't know when I'll have the next one up.
-See ya :)