Hello there, again it has been a while, in my defence I'm in my final college year and I'm about to begin working as assistant professor of greek, no to mention I still have a thesis to do, so hopefully you'll forgive me for my slowness. Anyway I'm still looking for a beta reader, desperately so; I sent some requests to some people that looked decent enough on the beta section but received no response from any of them, so if you know anyone who might be interested in proof-reading for me I'll be immensely grateful if you could tell him or her about my story. Once again sorry for any spelling mistake you may find, please do notify me if any. I'm already half-way done with chapter 4 and I have a few pages of chapter 5, please do review, the only way for me to improve is to know where I messed up.
"Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination."
Men at War - Ernest Hemingway
AGNI KAI
Like the rest of the boys from the Fire Nation, prince Zuko had spent most of his childhood dreaming of becoming a soldier, though he had no one he could call a real friend, he did remember a time when he played soldier with his cousin Lu Ten or his father and even with his uncle, he would imagine himself a great warrior, peerless in battle, killing hundredths of evil Earth Kingdom soldiers, capturing cities, conquering new lands, battling against impossible odds. War was a game. As he grew up, he had dedicated most of his efforts into studying history, mainly war history, and he would daydream about matching the deeds of the great warriors of the past, and when he finally had been given a firebending instructor, he had been thrilled at the possibility to learn how to use his bending to kill, as that too had been a game.
As he walked through the severely damaged deck of his ship, he stopped every time he ran into one of his wounded soldiers to check on them; fortunately they had not had any loses, most injuries were minor or at least sure to heal with time. Yet in war, not only the physical injuries mattered, as Zuko had discovered that night, he had not gotten a single minute of sleep, he was the man in charge and he had to take his men to safety, it was a convenient excuse, he knew he would have trouble sleeping, he would hear that earth kingdom soldier screaming to stop for the rest of his life, and the screams of his companions, as they drowned and begged for mercy, or the pained wails of the ones that had been burned alive.
After the surprise attack, his men had proven their valour well enough, they had quickly gotten some distance between them and their attackers, enough to avoid the shots at point-blank and get the catapult working as they began firing back, just a single hit had decided the rest of the fight, a ship made of wood would immediately catch the fire and begin to burn, even if the enemy ship was twice as big as theirs, they still held the advantage that came from having a metal ship; at this point he had descended to the deck and was about to ask to conduct a head count and ask for a report on the damage; Zuko thought the enemy would retreat and he didn't want to risk a pursuit, specially considering his suspicion that there was an enemy fleet nearby. But then something happened that he would never have expected, instead of retreating, the earth kingdom ship charged at them and began an attempt to board them, for a moment Zuko thought they were after him, trying to capture and use him as a hostage, but that idea disappeared when the fight began anew. Some ten enemy soldiers had managed to jump into their deck, and hell broke lose.
No amount of reading or training had prepared him for his first encounter with death. By now most of his men were in battle positions, but he had gotten himself separated from the group during the commotion of the hit, three earth kingdom soldiers came at him; the shining of their spears gave Zuko enough of a clue as to how they were going to attack, he dodged the first thrust that came at him, and caught the second spear with his hands using the momentum to throw the wilder overboard; his scream distracted the third soldier and Zuko closed in on him and struggled to take the spear from him, when his opponent attempted to punch him Zuko caught his fist with his left hand and then he let as much fire as he dared out of his palm; his opponent screamed in agony as his hand was burned to crisp, Zuko took advantage of his low guard and with his right hand formed a fire punch that hit his enemy square in the jaw and sent a nice fireblast with it, his enemy fell limp as a rock. Then Zuko turned to the last remanding soldier and saw that he was stunned in fear, he was very young, barely older than him, he was trembling all over, with a strong kick to the chest Zuko threw him into the sea.
It was then that he turned to look around, his men had killed the other seven soldiers that had boarded his ship; Zuko returned his attention to the enemy ship, and saw that it was turning around in their direction, another charge was coming. He could see that there were far too many men there ready to board them this time, they had been lucky that the speed had prevented any more enemies into their ship the first time, it did not look good, if they managed to get close enough to board them again, they would be outnumbered. It was at this moment that prince Zuko realised that they were in real danger of dying and for the first time he felt a new kind of fear, fear for his life; he did not had time to think of an elaborate plan or to go looking for his uncle. He was the man in charge and he needed to lead his men, and perhaps it was this desperate situation that allowed Zuko to use for the first time, what would become one if most reputed talents, taking decisions in the hot spot, with everything on the line. The enemy ship was approaching at fast speed to charge at their left flank.
Zuko returned to the command deck, were Lt. Jee and the helmsmen were trying to ascertain in the situation and restore order, they seemed partly relieved when he entered, yet his next order left them dumbfounded. "Quick, the enemy is making another charge at us, advance at full speed to avoid their hit, then make a u-turn to the left, we are making a charge at them. Lieutenant, order the men in attack lines, we won't let them board us." The idea appeared to be madness, by advancing and then turning left at full speed they would in one movement avoid another hit and put themselves in a striking position, it would have been impossible for a larger ship to do so quickly enough for the movement to succeed, but with a ship as small as theirs it may have been doable, the problem was the size difference, Zuko would have to bet on the advantage of having a ship made of metal and their ability to charge at a speed twice that of the enemy, their power engines against their rowers, their raised spiked bow and metal stem used as a ram, against the enemy's wooden right hull. Despite their shocked faces, the helmsman immediately set the course and raised their speed, and Lt. Jee ran at the main deck to follow his orders.
Zuko, looked as the enemy's charge went right past them, and felt the ship threatening to overturn to its left side, because of the speed and angle at which they turned, he heard several instruments fall to the floor and cursed when he himself almost lost his balance. As soon as the ship had stabilised and he saw that they were closing in on their target Zuko returned to the main deck, were Lt. Jee had already assembled the men in defensive positions, the ten firebenders aboard, aside from him and his uncle, formed the first line commanded by Lt. Jee, the non benders soldiers formed a second line of thirty men, armed with spears and swords. Zuko was glad that all of them were old veterans chosen by his uncle, they knew their job, the rest was up to him, he needed to lead them as they resisted the enemy's last desperate attempt of boarding them, it was the last choice they would have if their hull was pierced, with their ship already burdened with two growing fires, their only hope would be to board them and take their ship, Zuko's job was to prevent that, and buy the helmsman enough time to hit the reverse and get away from the enemy's ship; that was if his plan succeeded, should it fail... Zuko did not want to think of what would happen if the more than two hundredth earth kingdom soldiers that manned the enemy's ship were to board them, his thirty soldiers and twenty crewmen would be severely outnumbered.
At last they made impact, the hit sent shock waves through the whole ship, everything vibrated for a moment, loud cracking and breaking sounds were heard, they had broken the enemy's hull, now they just needed to get away alive from it. Zuko gave the signal to advance, his two battle lines covered the whole width of the deck that was not inside the earth kingdom ship, they felt the engine begin the reverse, they would have to hold until they separated from the enemy.
"On my command!" He screamed, his soldiers knew the standard procedure for this situation. They would wait until the enemy my tried to jump into their ship, once they were in mid air, they would form a firewall and hold it for as long as they could, should it not be enough, or should an enemy manage to pass through the wall, the second line would throw their spears at them, and fight with sword in hand to protect the firebenders.
The earth kingdom ship was mostly on fire by now, screams and wails could be heard from Zuko's position. The enemy jumped into the ship in hurry and without order, and Zuko reacted immediately. "Now!" The firebenders extended their arms and with a scream they rose the firewall, the enemy soldiers that were too close were caught in the flames, most of them threw themselves at the sea to put out the flames that were scorching their bodies, if they were not killed by the spears of the second line; the rest were trapped between the wall and the remains of their own ship to which they could not return.
The firewall had successfully archived its purpose, it had stopped the incoming attack, taken out a considerable number of enemies, trapped the remains of the boarding party, and dissuaded the enemy soldiers that had not yet jumped into their ship from doing so. They heard another crack as their ship began separating itself from the enemy's, as soon as they had put a safe distance between, Zuko ordered the men to fire from the catapult again, if anything just to make sure it would sink.
"First line! Advance!" He said, still some twenty enemy soldiers remained behind the fire wall, they had to be taken out; the safest way to do so was to force them to jump into the sea by pushing them with the fire wall; but once more the enemy did something that Zuko did not expect; they all charged at once against the wall, setting aside their initial fear. Out of the corner if his eye, Zuko saw several earth kingdom soldiers, completely covered in flames penetrate the wall and charge at them, some even managed to tackle or hit some of his soldiers; surprise, confusion, and the need to defend from the enemy's suicide attack forced the firebenders to surrender their wall and begin hand-to-hand combat.
Prince Zuko did not have to wait long for the first man that came at him, amazed at their will to fight, despite the fact that their situation was hopeless, and most of them were already burning, Zuko dodged the first parry that his enemy threw with a sword, but his opponent threw himself at him and tackled him to the floor, before Zuko could react his enemy had out two hands around his neck and began to strangle him; the world became dizzy and confused, and once again Zuko feared for his life, his reaction would hunt his dreams for the rest of his life, he summoned flames to his hands and fingers and grabbed his enemy's face and set if aflame, his opponent released him in screams; before he could even run, Zuko grabbed his sword and with quick swing at his neck he finished him.
Still entranced, Zuko charged against a man that was overpowering one if his soldiers, without being seen he swung the sword at the enemy's ribs, his armour protected him, but he fell to floor, the air had been knocked right out of him; Zuko raised his sword and he heard his enemy give a muffled scream "Wait!", but to no use, his swing had been perfect, the enemy's head rolled. He turned around and saw two men coming at him, Zuko threw the sword at the man to his right, which stabbed him right in the tummy, then he shot a fireblast to the man at his left, it hit him square in the face, the man did not get up. He raised his gaze and looked around, the fight was over, his men had successfully defeated the enemy, he looked at the enemy's ship, it was already half sunk, he could hear their drowning screams muffled by the waves, their cries for help and their burning ship slowly breaking apart. A closer scream caught his attention, it was the man he had stabbed, he was desperately trying to get up, Zuko slowly walked towards him, the man tried to run, but he fell instead, he turned to face at Zuko, whose face and hands were stained with blood, Zuko made a fist and flames came out of his knuckles, with a scream he threw a punch at the man's face, but a strong hand caught his fist before it arrived at its objective.
"That's enough prince Zuko!" It was his uncle. "That man is done already." He turned again to look at his fallen opponent, just in time to watch his eyes covered in fear go blank, the man was dead, Zuko looked at his body and caught a strange odour in the air, a small pool of liquid was coming from between the man's legs, he had literally pissed his pants, yet his face was the worst of it all, it was a face completely contracted because of the fear that his owner had experienced during his lasts moments.
But now it was all over, dawn was arriving. His plan had been a complete success, considering the fact that his crew was still intact and the enemy's ship in the bottom of he sea. A few hours latter Zuko could see the harbour in sight and in a few minutes they would be there, resting and tending to their wounds, but there were wounds that never healed.
General Iroh of the Fire Nation was not a man that easily made mistakes, but the ones he had made in his life had costed him dearly, and the more recent one was no different, first he had been asleep when the attack had begun, while he was on his way to the control tower to see what was the commotion, after the enemy's fist charge he had heard a scream echo through the halls and stairs coming from below the control tower, close to the engine room, he didn't know what madness had taken over for him to actually decide to go and see what it had been; it was obvious they were under attack and it was obvious that there would have been screams and these would echo all around the ship; the weird thing had been that all the men were supposed to be at their battle stations, yet the scream seemed to have come from inside the ship. He was getting close to the engine room when he felt the ship do a wild u-turn and he himself fell along with all the unfastened weapons in the armoury, and probably all the belongings of the men in their cabins, plus whatever had been around that could fall, then he had felt the impact, and the whole ship had trembled, they had just hit something very hard, whatever he had come looking for clearly was less important than their current predicament; when he finally arrived at the control tower he was shocked to see an earth kingdom ship burning and sinking, and a bloody fight in their deck, as he scanned from the high view he saw his nephew getting tackled by a man whose right arm and leg were completely aflame; he had immediately headed to help him, yet by the time he arrived at the deck he saw his nephew half covered in blood impale an enemy soldier with a thrown sword and fireblast another out of the ship. Iroh at least he had arrived just in time to stop him from finishing off a man that was already beyond hope. As he had held his nephew's fist, he had been just about to reprimand him from his cruelty when he saw his face, it was the face of a man that had been pushed to his limits by the fear and pushed aside all his humanity to survive, it was a face he knew very well, for forty years of war, he had seen it uncountable times in the young recruits after their first taste of battle, yet Zuko's eyes had been sparkling with something other than fear, they had been filled with excitement, Iroh was stunned, he had also seen those eyes before, when he was young, a time of his life he wanted to forget, he had had those same eyes, Lu Ten too had had them, when his son had first displayed his fierceness in battle Iroh had looked at him with pride, yet he now feared for Zuko.
Iroh watched Zuko organise the medical attention to the wounded, order a report on the damages and order a watch, in case they met another enemy ship; he himself had commanded the guard, and had not slept a minute. When Iroh finally decided to talk to the men his heart froze when he heard all the details of what had transpired, after the attack Zuko had really taken charge of the situation repeling the initial attack and ordering a counter attack, which he himself had commanded, leading the first battle line, and then bravely defended his life, saved one of his men and killed a number of enemy soldiers, one he had beheaded, and they had pointed at the still rolling head on the ground. Iroh had known the day would come when his nephew would have to become a soldier, and begin taking lives, but he had hoped that time would not be so soon. When Zuko had been a young disciple of Pindao's swordsmanship school, he had often played at beheading the practice dummies, and what scared Iroh the most was, that according to the soldiers testimony, he had just killed at least four men and beheaded one with the same ease as he had beheaded those dummies all those years ago, without showing any regret.
As dawn came and they arrived at the harbour, he saw his nephew act completely normal, as if nothing had happened at all; in his many years of leading men into battle, Iroh had often seen first timers lose their cool after their first kill, or at least show some doubt or remorse afterwards, but seldom did a man remain as calm as his nephew was at this moment, and those men, were usually natural born killers, Iroh shuttered at the thought, but refrained to speak of it to his nephew about it, hoping that Zuko was just putting on a face in front of his men and that he would seek his counsel soon. Besides there were other matters at hand.
They had already docked and were about to disembark, they would have to file a report to the man in charge of the harbour about the attack, and if necessary stand to witness to the closest admiral or general, a Fire Nation ship carrying two fire Nation princes, one a retired general, and the other a banished, yet still, the apparent heir to the throne, was a very serious situation. Specially now that Iroh actually stopped to consider the circumstances. Why had they been attacked in the first place? After having their ship set aflame why had they attempted to sink and board them instead of retreating? And why had they made that last suicide attack against the firewall, why the need of such extreme measures?
Where they after Zuko or me? He considered, but quickly dismissed the thought, the banishment of his nephew was an official matter of the state, outside the Fire Nation nobility, or the highest military ranks, no one ever really was informed of the political intrigues of his nation, even in the Fire Nation, the vast majority of the population didn't know that their crown prince was banished.
He was still thinking about this subject when the ramp was lowered and he disembarked by his nephew's side to greet the official in charge of the harbour, he stole a few glances at him that confirmed his fears, Zuko was as tranquil as a platypus-bear after dinner. Give him time and space, he thought.
"Uncle" Zuko's voice was calm, too calm, prince Zuko of the Fire Nation was not a man to remain calm for too long, just like his father, he was prone to quick anger. "I want the repairs to be made as quickly as possible, should a messenger hawk arrive for me, I want to be notified immediately. Make sure our wounded are properly treated, tell Lt. Jee that he is to file a separate report on the attack. We will be staying here for a while, the men need to rest, I'll request a tent to the commander of the harbour, whatever happens please take care of if, I don't want to be interrupted while I write my report; as soon as repairs are done, make sure we are ready to set sail, I don't want anything getting in the way." Iroh was just about to open his mouth when they were interrupted by a voice, a very dark and familiar voice, he saw his nephew's face cringe, as they turned to face the man speaking to them.
"Getting in the way of what Prince Zuko?" A tall and muscular man with big sideburns, dressed in the uniform of a Fire Nation official was in front of them, arms behind his back, and a tip waisted grin on his face. Zuko had no fond memories of him, bad blood ram between those two. Zuko crossed his arms with contempt.
"Captain Zhao." Dislike and venom filled those two words.
"It's commander now." He smirked, he then turned to Iroh with a more serious face, he respectfully bowed as he addressed him. "General Iroh, great hero of our nation."
"Retired General." Iroh emphasised as he returned the bow.
"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests anytime. What brings you to my harbour?"
Iroh gestured to his back, pointing at their severely damaged ship. "Our ship is being repaired."
"That's quite a bit of damage."
"Yes!" Said Zuko exasperated, Iroh was partially relieved that his nephew was showing emotions again, instead of the death-like calmness that he had had for the last hours. "Uncle, tell commander Zhao what happened."
Iroh's eyes widened at the surprise of being taken out of his thoughts. "Yes, I will do that." He cleared his throat and began. "We were attacked by an Earth Kingdom warship."
"Really?" Asked Zhao in disbelief, since Iroh had destroyed their fleet, few Earth Kingdom warships had been sighted, all of them had fled at the sight of a Fire Nation ship, why would they attack one now? "You must regale me with all of the thrilling details." Zhao smirked, inspecting Zuko's face from a very close range. "Join me for a drink?" He asked.
Zuko averted his gaze. "Sorry but we have to go." And began to walk away, but after a few steps Iroh placed a hand on his nephew's shoulder to stop him. "Prince Zuko, show Commander Zhao your respect." Iroh said to his nephew and removed his hand from Zuko's shoulder as he turned to face commander Zhao, Zuko slanted his eyes. "We would be honoured to join you. Do you have any ginseng tea? It's my favourite." He told Zhao.
As they began to walk towards Zhao's tent, Iroh heard Zuko grunt in anger at his tea comment. He then growled in wrath and, by joining his hands at the height of his face and quickly separating them, he firebended a small fire arc out of annoyance as he turned to walk after them. Iroh was at least glad that Zuko had returned to his normal angry self.
The Fire Nation had made several ports throughout the Earth Kingdom coasts in order to provide for easy access for the invasion troops and supplies, safe points for their ships to dock, a safe network of communication that were designed to support their big ships and their great numbers; the earth kingdom-made harbours and ports had two flaws that could not be overlooked, they were too small and too little, so the Fire Nation had to resort into making their own harbours, like the one commanded by Zhao; they had to be done rather quickly and the number of people or ships in it would vary, so instead of actually making stone or metal buildings, the Fire Nation soldiers simply built camps close to it, they were cheap, easy to install or quit, and offered the advantage of their mobility and easy organisation. Yet Prince Zuko was surprised that a man as arrogant as Zhao had deigned himself to actually live in one for so long instead of having something built for his personal use.
After they arrived at his tent and heard Iroh relate the whole attack, Zhao had excused himself for a moment to take care of some business, he had returned almost four hours after, Zuko suspected that it probably was just to slight them, still Zuko had taken the opportunity to recover some sleep. After he returned, Zhao had babbled non stop about his successful career, his so-called great accomplishments, and finally about the plan he intended to propose to the council of generals to finally defeat the Earth Kingdom.
"...and by the year's end, the Earth Kingdom capital will be under our rule. The Fire Lord will finally claim victory in this war." He finished, Zhao looked surprisingly satisfied of his plan which consisted in doing, what they had done already or were doing. Replace the commanding generals, call in more troops, tighten their grip on the conquered, suppress the rebellions by bloody force, and organise all-out attacks against Ba Sing Se; yet Zuko was sadly aware of the fact that such a plan might actually get approved, so he decided to omit criticism to Zhao's role in the plan and tell something obvious, if for nothing else just to get rid of him already.
"If my father thinks the rest of the world will follow him willingly, then he is a fool!" Said Zuko angrily.
"Three years at sea have done little to temper your tongue, I see." Zhao looked at Zuko then smirked. "So... I'd ask you how is your search for the Avatar going, but I'd be losing my time, instead I'm more interested in your little adventure, according to what your men are saying, you acted quite bravely. But more interesting still, is this. Why were you attacked in the first place? And with such fierceness, more impressive if we consider the fact that for almost ten years no Earth Kingdom warship has dare to attack any Fire Nation ship, be it military or civil; so far everything seems to confirm your version of a surprise attack, and yet I wonder. Why now? And why you? What do you think Prince Zuko?"
"I have no idea." answered Zuko bitterly.
"If I was informed correctly, you are returning from a trip to the south pole to search for Avatar. I find it quite curious that you just happened to suffer an attack that might as well be considered an attempt to utterly destroy your ship and everyone in it, when you were returning from such a quest. Now tell me what did you find there that the Earth Kingdom wanted you death so badly."
Zuko looked absolutely astonished, he truly had no idea what Zhao was talking about. "I haven't found anything." He answered aggressively. "Come on uncle get up, we are going." And with that Zuko went to the entrance, but the two guards at its sided crossed their spears. Zuko was about to protest when a third soldier entered the tent and spoke to Zhao.
"Commander Zhao, we interrogated the crew as you instructed, everything seems to confirm that it was a surprise attack, however when we searched the ship, we found a water tribe girl in the custody of prince Zuko's soldiers, we have taken her in for interrogation."
Zuko's face went pale at the information, he saw Zhao smile evilly before he asked. "Now remind me, what was it that you said you found."
Iroh was as astonished as he nephew when he heard Zhao tell them about the water tribe girl, he had no doubt about it, that girl was undoubtedly Miss Katara, and he was sure that she was what he had heard during the attack. But he could not phantom why was she here, from what he could see of his furious nephew, he too was trying to figure out what exactly was going on; that or coping with the fact that Zhao had utterly humiliated him by interrogating his crew, searching his ship and confiscating a prisoner, even if Zuko was not aware that he had one, without his even notifying him, let alone asking for leave or permission. Iroh was glad that at least they gad given them more tea, even after Zuko had broken in two the tea table when Zhao had left to personally search the ship and ordered his men to keep them under custody. Not even one hour had passed, before a soldier came to escort them to their assigned tent, where they were to wait for commander Zhao.
Zuko looked like he was ready to kill the next man that crossed him, fuming and quietly cursing while they crossed through the tents. Iroh was about to speak to his nephew, when they overheard two soldiers that were passing by.
"I'm telling you, that girl really doesn't know a shit, there was no point in roughing her up so much. But the commander is so death set on getting her to talk he's going to have her whipped."
"He had her whipped? a small gal like that?"
"Not yet I hope, me and Lee told him that we ain't whipping no girls. Shit, I got a daughter that's almost her age, then the commander threatened to have us tried for insubordination. What nonsense is that? My pa' raised me to protect my nation and to kill my enemies and I've done so till now, but that girl is no enemy of nothin'. A couple minutes ago the lieutenant Wong was still trying to speak sense to the commander when I left my shift, but he ain't listening."
Iroh was so petrified that he bumped into Zuko's back, he had abruptly stopped and turned to follow the two soldiers that had just passed them. Iroh continued behind his nephew for a few steps, until the guard that was supposed to take them to their tent ran towards them, demanding to be followed and threatening to call on backup, all the men that were around turned their attention to them, but Zuko kept on walking; when their guard cached up to him and tried to restrain him, he was met by a sudden jab at his face, the soldier felt like a sack of potatoes.
Immediately Zuko was surrounded by five soldiers, including the two that he had been following, they charged at him trying to subdue him. Zuko didn't eve break a sweat, two kicks, a fireblast, and a well placed punch were enough to send four men to the ground; then he dodged a fire fist, grabbed his attacker's the arm, and used his momentum to throw him to the floor. Before the man could attempt to get up, he found a hand full of flames a few centimetres away from his face, and a very angry scowl in Zuko's face. "Where is the water tribe prisoner?" The soldier gulped.
To say that Katara of the water tribe was scared would not have been accurate, terrified would be more like it. She sat in front of a wooden table, next to her were two scary looking Fire Nation guards; they were the only two people that had remained with her after the commander had left. She was still whimpering.
When she had left her grandmother to board the prince's ship, she had expected to be found sooner or later, and when the time came, she trusted that the prince or the kind old man would agree to let her come with them. What had actually happened was far beyond her plans. The first two days had passed without incident, she had successfully managed to avoid detection while living on the engine room occasionally daring to venture into the adjacent bathroom to relieve her necessities. On the night of the second day, just as she was preparing to sleep she had been taken by surprise when the ship was attacked, she had screamed at the impact caused by the rocks and the following chaos; only the fear of being discovered had driven her to crawl back to her corner and cover her mouth, even as she heard the yells and screams of men fighting outside. This she had not considered, even if it now seemed obvious, the prince and his uncle were soldiers, and their ship was a war cruiser, it was normal of them to go into battle, what was she going to do? The impact caused by the charge of the earth kingdom ship was so brutal that had made her scream again; she was trebling by the time the ship made the fast u-turn, once again Katara had been caught unawares, her head had hit the wall, and everything had gone black.
Once she woke up, she had remained for a few hours sitting in her corner, waiting for her headache and dizziness to go away, and she would have waited there more time, if she had not heard the steps and voices coming closer, a few soldiers were coming her way; Katara rose and slowly went behind the door, the hallway from which the men were coming led only to this room; Katara would have to wait for the men to enter and quietly slip behind through the door and make a run for it. Of course it had not gone as planned, she had been immediately spotted and captured, after a brief initial struggle, Katara decided that resisting would not help, it was better to be taken to the prince or his uncle. While they left the hall and were walking to the main deck, they came across another group of soldiers. They asked who was she, the men guarding her told them that she was a prisoner of prince Zuko and they were taking her to him; the other group told her guards that by order of commander Zhao, she was to be taken into custody, her guards tried to oppose but eventually gave in, telling the man in charge that he'd have to answer to prince Zuko.
They had taken her to her current tent, five men had registered her bag and began to question her. A moustached man had asked who she was, where she'd come from, what was she doing in the ship. She had answered honestly, the interrogator and the guards seemed to believe her; they had just told her she would be returned to prince Zuko's custody when the commander came; he was a tall muscular man with big sideburns and an angry scowl. He was quickly informed about the whole procedure but he refused to believe anything she said.
He had asked many things about which she had no idea. Where was the Avatar? Where was the southern tribe's fleet? Who was their leader? How many ships they had? How many men? What resources? What where they planning? What had prince Zuko discovered at the south pole? Why had the Earth Kingdom tried to kill him?
She had said every time that she didn't know, yet the commander kept asking again and again the same sort of questions, Katara got more and more nervous with each passing second, finally she screamed "I don't know!"
That had been a big mistake, the commander had slapped her, hard. Katara had been left speechless and scared. The commander was clearly angry, he had once again began to ask her, and each time she answered that she didn't know, he'd slapped her; by the tenth question her checks were completely numb, red and sore; she was weeping uncontrollably.
"Please I don't know anything, please just let me go." She had begged between whimpers and tears. The commander was even more frustrated by her lack of response.
"Take her to the flogging wall, five whips would help to refresh her memory." He said, ignoring Katara's pleas for mercy, fortunately for her, some of the men in the room protested against the measure, the commander threatened to have them judged for insubordination, one of the men had left the room; and another, a lieutenant had even managed to get the commander to leave the room with him to discuss the situation. Katara could still hear their raised voices from where she sat.
The two remaining guards looked at her pitifully, if the commander could not be persuaded, she would be whipped, no matter how they felt about it, orders where orders. Katara was trying to clean her tears with the back of her hands when commander Zhao stormed screaming back in the tent. "Incompetent fools, she's clearly pretending, I'll show you how she sings." He looked at her angrily grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the tent, Katara screamed and struggled against him but to no avail; each time she tried to grab onto something he'd slap her until she released her grip, she then tried to bite him, but only succeeded in getting a fist so her left cheek that almost knocked her unconscious. Practically half of the camp heard her screaming and came to see what was all about, though no one dared to defy their commander.
When they came to the flogging wall, Katara's fear at the sight of the two ropes that were meant to held the hands of its victim gave her new strength to continue her screaming and struggling, but a violent punch to her stomach put a sudden and painful end to her desperate efforts. She tried as hard as she could to resist when Zhao tied her hands tightly to the ropes, but in the end all she could do was weep as she was tied facing the wall, and her arms where held raised and apart by the ropes, so tightly that her feet were barely touching the floor. She felt the commander's rough and merciless hand grab hold of her tunic's collar; and how with a strong yank he tore open her blue tunic, exposing her back, with only the sarashi wrapped around her chest to cover her. She tried to struggle still, but the ropes were beginning to cut through her wrists, she turned her head and saw the commander place himself some five meters away and grab the whip, Katara made one final effort of begging, but when she heard the whip being yanked back, ready to strike, she closed her teary eyes and braced herself; when she heard the loud crack of the whip upon impact she screamed, it took her probably a few seconds to realise that she had felt no pain at all, she dared to turn to see once again through the blurriness of her teary eyes, what she saw shocked her already terrified heart.
Prince Zuko stood between her and the commander, the whip had struck on his raised right hand and he had somehow managed to grab hold of it.
"What is the meaning of this Zhao? How dare you torture an innocent child?" Screamed the prince angrily and throwing the whip back at him.
"Get out of the way prince Zuko! I'm in the middle of an interrogation."
"You've overstepped your authority, I shall suffer no more of your insults and I shall stop you from harming the innocent child you took from my custody." Prince Zuko's words were as full of wrath as he was, which is why his eyes burned with indignation when he heard Zhao's mad, cruel laughter.
"You? Stop me? Impossible." Said Zhao between laughs, his face was that of a very amused man, this only seemed to irritate Zuko even more.
"Don't underestimate me Zhao!" Zuko answered, already completely enraged. Then a third voice appeared.
"Prince Zuko, that's enough." Said Iroh sternly, but neither Zuko nor Zhao seemed to mind him.
"You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of war ships under my command and you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. Your own father doesn't even want you." Said Zhao confidently, putting a strong emphasis and smiling as he uttered the last phrase.
"You're wrong! Once I deliver the Avatar to my father he will welcome me home with honour, and restore my rightful place on the throne!"
"If your father really wanted you home, he would have let you return by now, Avatar or no Avatar. But in his eyes you are a failure and a disgrace to the Fire Nation."
"That's not true!"
"You have the scar to prove it." That did it, with a scream of frustration Zuko ran at the commander, stopping just shy of his nose before yelling at his face.
"Maybe you'd like one to match!"
"Is that a challenge?" Asked Zhao mockingly.
"An Agni Kai. At sunset." Stated prince Zuko, clear and loud, not once taking his enraged eyes from Zhao's.
"Very well." Answered Zhao confidently. "It's a shame your father won't be here to watch me humiliate you." He then turned to look at Iroh. "I guess your uncle will do... please keep that water tribe scum out of my sight." And with that he walked away.
Katara saw Zuko walk towards her, and shrieked when she saw him pull out a knife, he grabbed her hands and held her steady as he cut the rope, even if she had not received a single whip, Katara had taken the beating of her life and was still too terrified to walk, her body was completely limp and would have collapsed under its own weight if Zuko had not held her and slowly lowered her to a sitting position.
She was trembling and breathed heavily between whimpers, Zuko covered her exposed back with a Fire Nation coat. With his rough and callused hand he grabbed her chin as he examined her injuries, her whole face was swollen, her cheeks were red from all the slaps and an awful bruise was begging to form on her left cheek, were she had taken the punch. He held her face gently but firmly with his left hand and with his right he cleaned her teary eyes and cheeks with a handkerchief. She was still shaking even if her whimpers had slowed, Zuko saw clearly that there was still fear in her eyes, he pulled her into a light embrace. "Shhh. It's all right now." He whispered quietly into her ear, Katara could not hold it any longer, her hands grabbed his back tightly as she buried her face in his shoulder and began to weep again, Zuko gently caressed her back as her whimpers made her tremble in his arms, Katara felt oddly safe in those arms.
Iroh had stayed a few steps behind Zuko during the whole scene, not wanting to interrupt one of the few precious moments when he could see his nephew show any other emotion apart from anger and annoyance, he had almost forgotten that Zuko was still capable of showing great kindness to others. Yet what had transpired between him and Zhao needed to be addressed, he quietly asked. "Prince Zuko, have you forgotten what happened last time you dueled a master?" He saw Zuko's back tense as he answered darkly.
"I will never forget." Iroh would latter remember that despite his anger at the bitter memories that his question most have awoken, Zuko had not stopped caressing the girl's back.
Sunset was a part of the day as important to firebenders as sundown, it was time used for meditation or praying, for the families to gather, for the soldiers to rest, and it was the time of the day traditional for an Agni Kai, a fireduel, the traditional form to solve any dispute between firebenders, and naturally it was preferred over long trials, the result was never questioned whatever it may be; and it was traditional to meditate before one, as prince Zuko did now, kneeling, he wore nothing but light pants and a duel scarf over his otherwise bare shoulders, he needed to concentrate, he could not lose, not again, not in this arena in front of a whole camp of Fire Nation soldiers, for his father was sure to know the outcome of this duel. He kept his breathing in a steady rhythm, letting the air fill his longs gradually and then out, he felt the sun rays on his back, Agni would stand witness to his battle. I will not lose, he said to himself, there was too much at stake, Zhao had committed a grave offence to him not only by interrogating his crew, searching his ship and taking the girl from his custody (it mattered not that he was unaware of the said girl being in his custody); but by openly insulting him in front of his soldiers and his uncle, the meditation could only keep rage at bay for so long.
"Remember your firebending basics, Prince Zuko. They are your greatest weapons." His uncle told him, he would observe the match from the side. Zuko slowly rose to his feet letting the duel scarf swivel from his shoulders and leave him completely bare-chested, he turned to face Zhao, the time had come.
"This will be over quickly." He said.
The Fire Nation soldier in charge of the overseeing the duel was standing on higher grounds; when he saw that both contenders had taken their battle stances and were ready, gave the signal and a loud gong was heard. It had begun.
Zuko lowered his arms, leaving a trail of fire and directed a strong fire blast at Zhao. Zhao simply dodged moving to the left, out of the way of the blast and then moved back to the right to avoid the second blast that came at him, he smirked. Zuko then shot two more strong blasts at him, Zhao crossed his arms in front of himself and took the blasts head on, moving one arm up and the other down to dissipate the flames. He smirked again at Zuko who was panting heavily with his arm still stretched out from his last attack, he had put too much strength behind his first onslaught. He grinnched his teeth, gathered his breath and jumped doing a roundhouse kick, spraying flames towards his opponent. Zhao created his own flames to push away Zuko's blazing attack. The prince squinted his eyes and directed another powerful flame kick in Zhao's direction. But Zhao had expected that and held his own fire ready, he launched forward as he swung his arms over the ground creating a firewall that severed Zuko's next attack. Zhao was unfazed by Zuko's attacks, the prince had used up a lot of energy in his violent onslaught and was breathing heavily with fatigue. His uncle had noticed too.
"Basics Zuko! Break his root!" He said to his nephew, tired as he was, determination was written on his face.
Zhao began a series of ferocious attacks on Zuko with a strong fire blast, the prince was thrown back a bit by the force of the attack when he diverted the flames to both of his sides. Zhao took a step forward and shot another powerful blast at the prince, using both arms this time. Zuko was thrown back again but still managed to divert the fire away, a third step and a third blast ended with the same result on Zuko's side. Zhao stopped and firmly planted his foot down holding his both wrists together and fired another strong blast, stronger than any of the previous ones, Zuko was thrown back upon impact and slided back several meters over the ground. He lifted his head while grunting in pain, his pained expression turned immediately to one of shock as he looked up and saw that Zhao had jumped up and was soaring towards him. With a loud scream, he landed at Zuko's feet, erected himself and thrusted his fire fist forward to deliver the final blow. At the last possible second, Zuko rolled out of the way and swirled his feet around, while getting up, he swiped Zhao's legs from underneath him. Zuko planted his feet firmly on the ground, he smiled and began his second onslaught, he stepped forward, sliding fire at Zhao's feet, the commander steped back, he was caught off balance and wobbled backward. Zuko kept repeating his move, directing his attacks at Zhao's feet in an attempt to throw him off balance, he succeeded. Zhao fell back in distress, Zuko did not let him any room for recovery, when he was close enough, he directed a powerful fire-kick at his adversary; Zhao barely pushed it out of the way while staggering back ever further, Zuko kicked again and this time he succeeded in knocking his opponent down. Zhao fell and rolled over the ground, where he ended up on his back, Zuko ran up at him and threatened him with an outstretched arm, ready to deliver the final blow. Zhao brought his head up and looked at Zuko.
"Do it!" screamed Zhao.
Zuko, grunted in anger and thrusted his fist forward, but as he was aiming, the world became dizzy and dark; for a moment, Zuko saw nothing but darkness, he turned to Zhao, but he was no longer there, only an Earth Kingdom soldier lying on his back, looking at him, he screamed Wait! Before his head fell from his shoulders into his hands, the head's eyes were still terrified, they were looking at him, and again the head screamed Why prince Zuko? Why? The body launched itself at him, Zuko screamed in terror and shot the strongest fireblast he could muster at the headless corpse. Then, he heard them, gasps and screams all around him, he turned and saw that he was still in the arena, soldiers were gasping at muttering at each other; someone was screaming for a medic. He turned to his uncle, the old man was kneeling, trying to give some air to the water tribe girl, apparently she had fainted; but then he turned to look at him, his uncle's face held a terrified and pained expression What have you done? Uncle Iroh, didn't say it, but his eyes spoke clear enough.
Only then Zuko saw men running past him, his gaze followed them, they were running to help a man on the floor, the whole place began to stink of burned flesh and blood. Zuko gasped when he recognised the man. Commander Zhao was holding his throat with both hands, applying pressure, blood was escaping from within his hands and mouth, his whole body was torn between spasms; a medic arrived soon at the scene, but it was to late to do anything, his blast had hit Zhao right in the neck, below the chin, it had burned past the skin and tore open his throat, that day, Zhao son of Zhun, of the Num family, and commander of the Fire Nation army, died after two hours of agony.
There were very few things that Mek Kang, former colonel of the tenth regiment of the Western Army under General Iroh, Lord of Haishan, and lord protector of the South hated more than war council meetings; yet ever since Ozai had decided to implement his so called reform to the army, he had been stuck in almost every one of them, he would much rather spend his days looking for female company; the pursuit he had found was just as exiting that what came afterwards.
When he was still very young, Mek had become Lord of Haishan and all its surrounding lands, after the death of his lord father. He had never lacked of wits, all of his private tutors had been amazed at his ability to learn, his firebending too was elite, yet because of his many natural talents and abilities, he became bored very quickly; so he had spent most of his early youth indulging himself in the pleasures of the body; had it not been for his friend, the crown prince Lu Ten, who got him to join the army, he would have spent his days quietly living off his inheritance; which he had planned to do after his return home, but his political position as the heir of one of the richest families in the Fire Nation, one that had traditionally retained overlordship of the whole south since the ancient civil war, and thus controlled directly or by families sworn to them the most populated, fertile and developed region of his country, had denied him of his early retirement. As lord protector and political representative of the Fire Lord's authority, he was tasked with the administration of the whole region, just when he had managed to push al responsibilities into trusted subordinates he had been called to organise the newly created southern militia.
The whole invention was part of Fire Lord Ozai's new strategy. They had been at war for almost a hundredth years, and the consequences were being felt too at home; he was sure that neither Sozin or Azulon had planned for the war to be this long and consuming, he will never dare to say it out loud, but to him it was very clear that if they could not end this quickly, his country would get into big trouble, not because he thought that their enemies could actually turn the tables on them with their own strength, rather he feared for the Fire Nation's own strength. Their society, economy and political institutions were simply not designed to endure such a prolonged conflict; their army had always been manned by free citizens that owned land, no matter the social status, no matter how small the property; this was the law passed down since the civil war, thousands of years ago; it had been meant to ensure the loyalty of every single one of its soldiers to the Fire Lord himself, since the soldiers would always be fighting to protect their own land and property, their whole inheritance and that of their families; no lords would be able to force or manipulate their wills. But those laws had been written under very different circumstances, when wars where short and fought relatively close from home, so the soldiers would return to their homes after six or seven years of service.
Sozin's war was much different, now the soldiers left their homes when called, to fight across the world against people they never met and meant no immediate harm to their wellbeing, still they all did their duty and fought for their Fire Lord, yet most of the times, they remained stuck in the battle field long after their service had ended; the necessities of a war against a country as vast and as populated as the Earth Kingdom meant that every soldier was very valuable; they were outnumbered at least ten to one; so by raising their payment, giving them a larger part of the spoils or simply by an order of their commander, soldiers could spent twenty or thirty years of their lives fighting, if they survived that long. During the firsts decades of the war, this situation had meant no structural problem to their organisation as a society, but slowly, it took its toll on them. At first aged soldiers returned to an almost forgotten home to find that their families had adapted to life without them; then the sons of those soldiers would go to war, and they would die fighting like their fathers or return to find their family worse than how they left it. Birth rates began to drop, each year more and more men would be called to service, less and less would return, and if they returned, it would be too late, without enough men to work the fields and begin new families, a vicious cycle was meant to begin; less newborns meant more of members of a family would be called to war, and that meant less men to support and provide for the family, and consequently less newborns.
Fire Lord Sozin had foreseen that such a problem could arise, so he had tried to prevent or palliate this phenomenon with his laws for the war effort. By far the most controversial measure, was that of the newly created legal figure of "paramour"; with it any free land owner could take any widowed or unwed woman as a paramour legally, provided that the woman consented to it and the man accepted to recognise the children born of her as his own and give them lands to cultivate. Most of the wives had been scandalised at the measure, but accepted it anyway, legally or not, a husband that chose to be infidel would be so; had probably thought Sozin, this way at least that infidelity would be an effective mean to keep a healthy birth rate. But his emergency measures could only last for so long, even the great and cunning Sozin, could not have foreseen that the war would be this long.
Soon enough, powerful lords and rich merchants, both equally greedy, would actually take advantage of the long absence of the men of the house and buy their lands if they saw a family desperate enough to pressure; it became frequent that the whole male line of a family became extinguished, so their remaining relatives would have no choice but to sell their property. That meant in turn less men to join the army.
The men that had been fighting for over twenty or thirty years too began to lose any hope of returning home, others had been too young to have started a family in the Fire Nation, so they began to make the soldier's life as a life career, choosing to die on the battlefield and live off their spoils of war and their payment as soldiers; in the best of cases the veterans would become merchants and form a new family; yet that meant that they would no longer be fighting for their immediate land, but for the profit (providing they actually bought any land for their new family). But normally they would turn to mercenaries to guard the caravans of the merchants, or worse they would turn to a lord back home and start a family that lived working other's land; the recent trend was for them to take even earth kingdom women as wives, which immediately disqualified their children as possible soldiers of the Fire Nation. Without noticing, they had been cutting the ties between the soldiers and their land, and given birth to a new social class in the Fire Nation society, that of the warrior that lived for war only, or at best, taken thousands of families form their lands and given them to the lords or merchants.
Mek had talked much about this with Lu Ten, and even General Iroh had listened to his analysis of their current situation. Apart from the problem of the lowering birth rate; the breaking of the ties between soldier and land affected directly to discipline of the men, for now they had different motives to fight, even if loyalty to their nation was still the essence of it. A man whose only profession was that of a soldier, whose only way of making a living was fighting and plundering was less likely to be patient or disciplined, since he would always be trying to fight and get quick booty, most of them would have no families; more over, most of these sort of men, which now made up almost half of their armies, had little to no reason to return and have families, assuming they had not lost their land yet, for they were too used to life as a soldier to return to the land; ironic really, the Fire Nation had got what they wanted, soldiers who could and would dedicate many years of their life to do nothing but fight.
General Iroh had persuaded Fire Lord Azulon to apply some palliative measures such as giving their veterans some land in the new colonies and conquered territories, but the lack of interest and love of their soldiers for land had shown them the gravity of the situation, less than a fifth of their veterans had accepted the lands offered to them and turned to live a farmer's life. Mek had advised Lu Ten to expropriate the many lands that the lords of the Fire Nation had taken from the farmers and return them, or to give those lands to the plebs, those who possessed nothing; for they would be giving them a way of life and restoring the lost balance between the classes of their country, this was the best solution, but too slow to give its fruits; that meant they would have to wait until the new or former families had adjusted and their children grew, for them to be able to call them into the army.
Mek had actually given a report on the subject to the new War Minister Qin, when Ozai had ascended the throne, he even bothered to make drafts on the necessary laws that would regulate the expropriation and handing of the lands; he had talked with the Finance Minister about lowering or exempting those who were given lands and beginning families from some taxes and giving them financial aid; all of his proposals had been ignored, instead Fire Lord Ozai had implemented his own plan, in Mek's opinion it was folly, he had changed one of the oldest's laws in the Fire Nation, and allowed the plebs who held no land of their own to join their army, hoping to get them to do something useful instead of living of whatever meagre work they did at home, the worst of it had been his decision to put the lords in charge of the plebs who wanted to join the army and organise them as local militias, train them and command them to battle when so ordered. As lord protector of the south, he had been assigned the difficult task of housing, feeding, dressing, equipping and training the almost thirty thousand plebeians that saw the opportunity to earn a few coins and get a nice meal every day for as long as they remained enlisted; Mek had almost been overwhelmed, it was easy to teach a farmer how to become a soldier, their lifestyle made them disciplined, healthy and strong; but the plebs, those poor malnourished lowlifes who did not know what hard work meant were a different case, still he had done all he could and in three years he had sent his militia over to the Earth Kingdom, they had arrived late to their only battle, but that had not been their fault but his.
Fire Lord Ozai probably thought himself smart, with his so called reform he had almost rid the streets and lands of the Fire Nation from beggars, thieves and poor exploited workers, while simultaneously duplicating the size of their army, to use as cannon fodder and auxiliary troops of course, and he had not spent a single coin on it, by tasking the lords with organising these new militias he had basically made them pay for all of it. But those were not real soldiers, they would make good mercenaries at best, if they were bloodthirsty enough; and only their loyalty to their nation and their Fire Lord would keep them more or less in line, but greed would soon corrupt them, greed and fear for their lives; a man that does not fight for his land and family, that fights only for himself would always make his life a priority, exactly the one thing that a disciplined army needs the less.
Mek sighted, for it didn't help to dwell on these matters, or even bring them up during these boring useless meetings; Ozai had surrounded himself with incompetent fools or flatterers and sycophants; none would ever tell him the truth, and he would not listen anyway; the banishment of prince Zuko had made that clear enough. Mek had not been during that session nor had he seen the following Agni Kai and banishment, but he had heard all about it, he had seen the young prince Zuko only once in his life, when the prince was a seven year boy walking by his mother's side; the young prince might not know it, but his opposition to Bujing's stupid and cowardly plan had been the last rational opinion expressed in the Royal Palace in some time.
After at least two hours of rambling and pointless excuses for his still retreating army, General Bujing finally finished his report and silence grew on the hall, Lord Mek Kang was about to rise from his seat when something unexpected happened, War minister Qin spoke.
"My lords, a new situation has arisen." He began, and told the council about a letter that the prince had written to the Fire Lord requesting permission to join the ranks of the army under the command of whomever his father saw fit, he also requested leave to coordinate with the officials in charge of the invasion to search for the Avatar in enemy territory. Most of the generals barely paid any attention to this and were perhaps about to simply dismiss the whole affair; they all paled in surprise and awe when the minister informed them of the contents of a second letter that arrived a day after prince Zuko's, it came from the military harbor in which prince Zuko had docked.
Prince Zuko's ship had been attacked by an Earth Kingdom warship during the night; the letter contained all the minor details of the whole affair and included the signed testimonies of the officers from the ship and the mechanics and soldiers from the harbor that were repairing the damages. Mek was still stunned by the unexpected prowess in battle that prince Zuko had demonstrated in repelling the attack and sinking the enemy's ship, when the gasps and murmurs of the whole council joined his own, as Lord Qin related the Agni Kai and Zhao's death; even the Fire Lord himself had to be surprised by that one; Zhao had been an arrogant bastard filled with ambition and rage, but he had been a master fire bender, the only pupil of the traitor Jeong Jeong, and yet according to the testimonies of his own officers and that of the General Iroh, Zhao had died of his wounds while prince Zuko had barely received a bruise; he had paid dearly for openly insulting prince Zuko's authority.
Lord Kang took his time to examine the reactions of the Fire Lord and the council members; the flames did little help in examining Ozai, but if he could take the stillness of his outline as sign then the Fire Lord must have been stunned in surprise, though not necessarily angry. General Bujing wasted no time in calling for an exemplary punishment of prince Zuko, the commander had been a great asset to the army that had stood out among his peers for his dedication and hard work, or so the general said. Lord Kang waited for couple more of generals and councillors to express their opinion before him; it was no secret that Ozai rarely listened to any man that had publicly expressed his loyalty to general Iroh or the deceased prince Lu Ten, and with good reasons he supposed; he still had fresh in memory the day general Iroh had returned with three armies at his back and how the whole country had come to the capital to greet and hail him as a hero, there were even rumours that Iroh had returned to claim the throne for himself and neither the nobility nor the army had made any show or declaration of their allegiance to Ozai, rather they had wasted no time to putting themselves at Iroh's disposal; those who had been particularly open about their friendship with Iroh had been removed from any high post or position they held when Iroh bended the knee and recognized his younger brother as Fire Lord. Ozai had appointed his closest friends, which where not many, in the highest positions within the government, and where he could not find close friends, he named people less likely to be in debt or friendship with his brother, and he had done all he could to try and win over the rest for the next four years. Ozai could now claim to have a solid position, but still at least half of the Fire Council and generals had been at some point sworn to Iroh or Lu Ten, and a vast majority of the nobility, merchants and plebs had lived their whole lives under the command of the Dragon of the West; not to mention that he and his son Lu Ten had been loved and liked by everyone, boasting of a considerable number of friends throughout the Fire Nation. And there was the fact that very powerful and influential people had renounced their position as councilors when Ozai took the throne and even a renowned admiral has deserted. The current Fire Lord did well in reminding everyone, of whom had earned his trust through loyalty and constant support.
After hearing the war mister Qin, colonel Shinu, and a couple of noblemen oppose to the opinion of General Bujing, all agreeing in the fact that Zhao had indeed overstepped on his authority as commander in charge of the harbour and prince Zuko had defeated him honourably in an Agni Kai, thus justice had been served. At this point Lord Mek Kang glanced at the Fire Lord and saw his flames tensing, apparently he was not too pleased with his councillors siding with his banished son, instead of caring for the interest of a man that had been devoutly loyal to him and whose family had been among those few that had always stood by his side even when prince Lu Ten lived. Under any other circumstance Lord Kang would have stood idle and quietly watched as Ozai grew in anger and likely punished, unjustly, his already banished, dishonoured, slighted and wronged son; but there was a particular bond of loyalty between Lord Mek Kang and the late prince Lu Ten and his father general Iroh. Prince Lu Ten had been his closest friend, one of the few people that had not shunned him for his lascivious life, nor searched for him on account of his birth, money and influence, he had shown him life outside his luxurious palace and helped him in times of doubt and need, general Iroh had given him an opportunity to prove his worth as a soldier and granted him command of a regiment by Lu Ten's side in his campaign against Ba Sing Se, and he had forgiven him for failing to protect prince Lu Ten in battle, Lord Kang had once failed in protecting his friend and liege, he had disappointed the trust and confidence of his crown prince and general, he had not lived up to his oath and caused much suffering and trouble to his liege lords and to his nation. He remembered that once, prince Lu Ten had asked him to look after his family should anything happen to him; he was utterly ashamed to admit the he had not been in the capital when prince Zuko had spoken against general Bujing, if he had perhaps prince Zuko would never had had the need to speak and thus would not have been burned and banished. Lord Mek Kang would not fail again, this he swore, but now he needed great care and skill to actually take prince Zuko out of trouble.
"If I may speak your majesty…" with this the whole council gave his attention to him, and quietly awaited for the Fire Lord to nod in approval, which he did; for all of his zealous campaign against those loyal to Iroh and Lu Ten, even Ozai had been forced to let him retain his position as a councillor, even the Fire Lord could not openly act against the Lord of Shu Jing, lord protector of the South, a former colonel of the western army, and a man whose family had the allegiance of all the noble houses of the south, thanks to their distinguished loyalty to the crown in the civil war. His position had made him almost untouchable, for he was the second wealthiest man in the Fire Nation, second to the Fire Lord himself, but Mek also had the direct control and loyalty of the most fertile and rich region of the Fire Nation, and he had also moved his pieces to gain the favour and friendship of the merchants under his jurisdiction, not to mention his remarkable skill in battle and his outstanding work implementing Ozai's reforms and making a bunch of hungry low-life plebeians into an organized and competent militia; without neglecting his duty to dispense justice and manage the local affairs of his competence. If one added to all this the simple fact that either through his own family or through families loyal to him he had blood and marriage ties and friendships with all the great and powerful noble houses of the Fire Nation, it would be clear and simple for anyone to understand why even the all powerful Fire Lord Ozai had decided that removing him of his duties would cause more trouble for him than any benefit, if any.
"I also have to disagree with general Bujing, it should be clear to all men of sense and honour that prince Zuko acted righteously when he saw himself insulted, for what would become of our great nation if the chain of command should be ignored? In what chaos would we fall if any man were to openly insult and defy not only a member of the royal family, but two? For your majesty, and my fellow lords surely remember that General Iroh was second in command of prince Zuko's ship. I say our dear commander Zhao got the better side of the bargain, for the Dragon of the West would have turned him to ashes had it not been prince Zuko's duty to fight and uphold the honour and rank of the royal family as captain of a ship on a royal mission as important to our nation and the war effort as capturing the Avatar. Please tell me my lords would we tolerate an idiotic proposition such as punishment if it had been general Iroh the man to defend the honour of the royal family and our Fire Lord?"
Mek paused for a moment to see the vast majority of the council to silently nod in agreement to his opinion, but the still heating flames that surrounded the throne told him that even if Ozai saw his point he was still not pleased with his proposition of simply letting prince Zuko go on his merry way; he needed to persuade him, the Fire Lord still had the final say in the matter regardless of the opinions of his council.
"But we must also admit my lords, that general Bujing is not entirely in the wrong." Now it was him receiving the astonished and confused stares of the council, he knew for sure that now he had picked Ozai's curiosity. "Prince Zuko does deserve some punishment, but not for doing his duty and defending his honour, the honour of the royal family, our Fire Lord and all our traditions and laws that are embodied on his majesty. His offence is a minor one, but one that is unbecoming of a man in his position. Let me explain myself before you my lords: Once, prince Zuko insulted his lord father, our great Fire Lord by speaking out of place, by ignoring his position and arrogating himself to more than he was due; he was thus challenged to an Agni Kai, were he brought even more shame to his father, to you your majesty, by refusing to fight and defend his honour, for the shame and weakness that he brought upon his whole nation, he received his just punishment and was banished. My lords, we should not punish him for doing exactly what he did not do when he was banished, we should rejoice upon learning that he learned his lesson and acted as a prince of the Fire Nation should, he fought courageously and protected his crew and ship, and properly brought his wrath upon the enemies of the Fire Nation, he defended the honour of the crown and punished a man who stepped out of line, a man who openly challenged and insulted a member of the royal family."
Mek knew that he now had managed to at least prevent Ozai from openly punishing prince Zuko lest he showed himself as a hypocrite in front of his council, but he now needed to make sure that Zuko did not receive a hidden form of punishment.
"My lords, what prince Zuko should be punished for is this: He has asked us to ignore the law and give him a position in the army without undergoing the proper training and rising through the ranks as befits a true soldier, one taste of battle, one successful defense and he thinks that he has the right to jump through the ranks just because he is a prince."
Now he felt sure to have Ozai's favour and that of his fellow council members, not only was he not lying nor acting unjustly towards prince Zuko, but he was also pleasing his Fire Lord, yet it would be all for naught if his proposed punishment did not satisfy Ozai.
"Your majesty, this is what I propose as punishment: Grant him his wish… but in accordance to the law. Let him prove his worth and allow him to undergo the proper training and take the trials to become a soldier, should he succeed in getting accepted into the army, then let him fight and defend his nation while he searches for the Avatar in the front lines, for he speaks true when he states that there is a very high possibility of the Avatar hiding deep into enemy territory. But let him do this according to our laws and traditions, strip him of his command of a personal ship; he should not have any advantages over the rest of the citizens when proving himself a soldier of the Fire Nation, just like you, your majesty, did when called to arms, like general Iroh and prince Lu Ten did when their time came, like Fire Lord Azulon and Fire Lord Sozin and all the previous Fire Lords have done."
His suggestion was met with complete approval of the council, for he appealed to the most essential and important values of the Fire Nation, honour, strength, tradition and pride. Unlike the Earth Kingdom savages or the Water Tribes, in the Fire Nation the Royal family had to prove themselves fit to take command before actually taking it; the Fire Laws dictated that in case of emergency or disorder among the ranks and hierarchy, the closest member of the royal family would automatically asume all militar and civil authority over the region in the name of the Fire Lord until the situation stabilized or an appropriate replacement was appointed by the Fire Lord himself, but in order to be eligible as an emergency authority the royal member needed first to pass the same trials and tests that any normal citizen would before being appointed to the position of general or lord commander of a region, to this day there had been no exceptions to this law, and thanks to that whenever an emergency had arisen, there had always been a competent leader to take charge and command. The same applied when a member of the royal family wanted to join the ranks of the army, he first needed to prove himself worthy; though this was not necessary when appointed to a personal task or commanded a few personal forces like prince Zuko did, but he would need to prove himself alone and thus give up his current command. With a few dry words of approval from the Fire Lord and the subsequent official announcement from the war minister, Lord Mek Kang's proposal concerning the events surrounding prince Zuko, his duel with commander Zhao, and the prince's request to enlist was accepted on its terms.
Once the meeting was over and Lord Kang walked out of the palace in search of his palanquin, he was congratulated by his fellow councilors for his wisdom and accurate advice. Mek knew that he had archived a great political victory that day; those who had any reason to support prince Zuko would be happy that he had avoided any injustice from befalling him, while those who had any reason to dislike Zuko would be naturally be inclined to see his actions as an obstacle to the prince, since he would be on his own for a while, without the support and advice of general Iroh and without troops at his command; and those who simply wanted the Fire Lord's attention and cared for nothing but a few reasons to brag over dinner would think him to be same as them, a man that had no interest whatsoever in the prince or in his quarrel with the Fire Lord, but wished to expand his influence; and most important of all, he had managed to persuade the Fire Lord that he was punishing Zuko while simultaneously helping Zuko obtain what he had requested and preventing any injustice to be done against him. The true good politician was he who adapted so well to his environment and circumstances that he left himself enough manoeuvrability and flexibility to move in any convenient direction should the situation so require it, without revealing his true purpose yet making everyone believe they knew his intentions and objectives. Politics was the art of deception.