ArrayePL: Here you go! Thank you for the review!

IET: Thank you so much! Your review made me super happy!

Shadow entity: This is probably the story that I like writing the most. If it weren't I wouldn't bother doing it at all, since I only get three reviews per chapter, if that. ;{

IMPORTANT: I have seventeen people on my alert list, but only five of them have bothered to review at all. Is my story good enough to read to pass the time, but not worth the effort to review?

And, if you have reviewed, and done it on chapter five, then I would ask that you also do so for chapters 1-4. It just makes me feel good. A couple seconds of your time goes a long way to making my day. It sucks to know that my writing isn't even worth that.

BANDON-MAKES-A-START

Iroh sank to the floor of the tea shop, clutching his aching sides. "Oh," He moaned, "My nephew was right; I do need to exercise more often." Breathing deeply, Iroh was glad that Zuko was now safe with G-Ma and Lynn, tucked away in some remote warren, instead of out in the open, as he had been.

Standing on wobbly legs, Iroh peaked out the kitchen door, making sure that the children were still exactly where he had left them. The young Avatar was frowning at something that the dark skinned girl had said, and Toph was laughing at the both of them.

Smiling, Iroh grabbed a large piece of cherry cake and a fresh glass of jasmine tea, walking out to join them at their table for a moment.

"I see that you three are already done with your treats. If you would like, you may come back once I have closed, instead of waiting around until noon." Iroh told them kindly, sitting at the empty chair.

"We don't mind," Katara said, "We didn't have anything to do today but find out about Roku's great grandson."

"And why do you need to know, if you don't mind my asking?" Iroh tried to keep the anxiousness from his voice, but he could tell that they caught onto it.

"We won't do anything bad to him," Aang assured him, "We just need his help with something."

Iroh couldn't keep the shock from his face; What could they need Zuko for?

"And you would be willing to accept the help from this person, regardless of who he is?" Iroh asked, idly rubbing his goatee.

They frowned, looking at each other, "Yeah, I mean," Aang said, "how bad can he be? If he's Roku's great grandson, he can't be that old. It's not like he can be a general or anything. I'm sure that we can convince him to help us."

Iroh nodded, biting his tongue to keep from telling them about his nephew. "Before I tell you who he is, you must swear to me that this thing that you need help with will not harm him in any way. I will not betray a child."

Toph blushed, not liking that the older man that she respected would think that they were like that, "We won't hurt him, no matter who he is. We promise that we will protect him as much as we can in the task that we need his help for."

Iroh nodded, sighing as he leaned back in his chair to look at the clock that he kept above the door. "You still have an hour and a half until my shop will be empty. I suggest that the three of you get comfortable, if you do intend to stay here until then." They nodded that they would, and Iroh left to the back room.

"They are young," he muttered to himself, "impossibly young for such things as war."

Looking at them through the crack in the door, Iroh shook his head, less edgy now that he had their word that, no matter what, they would not hurt him nephew.

BANDON-MAKES-A-BREAK

The last hour had been unbearable for everyone. Toph, Katara, and Aang were only too happy to help Iroh close his shop down. Iroh asked the patrons to leave thirty minutes early, citing that he wished to visit his nephew before he went to the market to pick up supplies. No one made a fuss about having to depart sooner than they would have liked, only giving the aged man pats on the shoulder and leaving ample tips upon the tables as they left.

Lighting a few lamps before closing the blinds against the noon sun, Iroh motioned for the three children to come into the back room, where they could all sit without having to strain to see one another.

Taking a seat near the fire, Iroh sighed at the eager faces watching him. "I have your word, Avatar, that no matter what information is given here, nothing leaves this room?"

Aang frowned, but nodded.

Iroh looked at Katara and Toph, both of whom nodded hesitantly.

Rubbing his tired eyes, Iroh began, "The tale of Avatar Roku is one that I am sure that you are all well versed in, true?"

When he got uncertain glances, Iroh waved his hand, "It is no matter. I will explain it, in due course." Running his fingers through his sash, he continued, "Roku had one daughter, as I have already told you, who went on to marry a general on the fire nation. They had two children, one who died shortly after birth, and one that survived. Ursa, the stronger of the two, grew into a beautiful young lady, who would come to catch the eye of a very powerful, very important man." Sighing again, Iroh took in the expectant faces around him, "That man was Fire Lord Ozai."

Silence rang like a blast through the dim room, heavy breathing the only sign of life.

"What are you saying?" Katara asked softly, her voice merely a whisper, "Are you telling us that the granddaughter of the Avatar Roku married the grandson of Sozin?"

Iroh nodded, closing his eyes, "They were young still, barely older than you are now. They met in a garden and fell in love. It was not until several years later, after the miscarriage of their third child, a boy, that Ozai fell to the darkness within him." Iroh took a drink of his tea, unsure how to continue, "Ozai became insatiable. Unstable, if you will. He thirsted for power. He was no longer the naïve young man that he had been. Ursa feared for him, tried for years to change him back into the loving husband that he had been, but she could not. She chose, instead, to concentrate on raising her children as best she could in a world so filled with hate."

Aang took a deep drink of his tea, face slightly green, "If Ursa married the fire lord, and had children with him, does that mean-?"

"Please wait until I am done, young Avatar," Iroh admonished, "I haven't told you the full extent of this."

Aang nodded, though he still looked sick.

"Ursa realized quickly that he son, Zuko, was very different form her daughter, Azula. Where Azula was callous, Zuko was kind. They were like night and day, her children, in both looks and in temperance. Zuko favored his mother, who was fair skinned with the lightest amber eyes and full lips, covered by midnight black hair. Azula was her father in miniature, with waving brown hair, crimson tinted amber eyes, and strong, haughty features." Sighing, Iroh rubbed his face tiredly, "It was to be expected that Ozai would favor his daughter, who was so like him. Ozai neglected his son, who was neither as fierce as Azula nor as powerful a bender. With his mother's love, Zuko could look past this, and did for many years, until he turned twelve."

"What happened then?" Toph asked, unsettles by the waves of agony coming off of the old man.

"Ozai's brother, Iroh, who had been on campaign, lost his only child, a son, to the soldiers of Ba Sing Sei. Iroh had been devastated and ended up having to withdraw from the six hundred day siege of Ba sing Sei to return to his home country and bury his son in the family plot next to the grave of his wife." Iroh paused, feeling the sadness gripping him again, "Iroh could not command his troops any longer, and without him the siege crumbled, allowing for Ba Sing Sei to rebuild. Ozai used this as an excuse to lobby his father, Fire Lord Azulon, for permission to cut Iroh out of the line of ascension. Azulon had seen that Ozai was using the bereavement of his brother to further his power, and demanded that Ozai either sacrifice his only son or step down as an heir."

Katara gasped, clutching her hand to her mouth in horror, "How could he do that? Didn't he love Zuko?"

Iroh smiled bitterly, "Azulon loved nothing but conquest. He was a cold man whose only redeeming feature lied in his sense of fair play. Ozai had tried to take Iroh's rightful place through the death of a son, and so Ozai had to suffer the same." Iroh shuddered, glad that his nephew had not died. "Azulon had not thought that Ozai would be able to kill his only son and heir, but instead expected him to step down."

"He didn't?" Toph asked, voice coated with revulsion.

"No," Iroh spat, "Ozai agreed to sacrifice his twelve year old son in a bid for power. Ursa, being a loving mother, begged that Ozai not harm her child, begged that he step down and live with her in the castle as an aide. Ozai had sneered at her, deeming her love for the weaker of his two children indecent. He told her that the only way to save the son that she loved so much was for Azulon to die, leaving no one else but him to rule."

"What did she do?" Aang asked, hoping that it hadn't come to that.

"She did what she had to do." Iroh said softly, "The eve of the ceremony in which Zuko would be sacrificed, she snuck into the chambers of Fire Lord Azulon and killed him. In the night she stole into Zuko's room and told him that all that she had done was for him. She warned him that he should not lose himself to the poisonous world that his father had created. And then she was gone."

"What happened?" Katara gasped, "Did they catch her?"

Iroh shook his head, "She left the country, fleeing in the dark of the night to lands unknown. I have heard rumors here and there of a woman matching her description trying to find the last of the air benders, but nothing concrete enough to merit notice."

"I thought that Aang was the last air bender?" Toph asked, coking her head to the side.

"There are other air benders alive?" Aang shouted, standing from his chair.

"Calm yourself, young Avatar." Iroh said sadly, "There has been no evidence that any air benders, beside yourself, have survived this long. What I speak of are rumors created, most likely, by desperate people looking for the Avatar's return, nothing more."

Aang winced, sitting back down as the brutal demise of his people lashed through him again.

"Though Ursa left, it was told to the people of the fire nation that she had died in the night, alongside her father in law, from a poison that was found in the matured mead that the fire lord loved." Shaking his head, Iroh continued with a sympathetic glance at Aang, "For a year after that, Zuko lived with his father in the castle, studying to be the next fire lord. On the fire princes thirteenth birthday, when he was to be crowned the heir, everything changed."

"What happened?" Katara asked, frowning.

"The prince was eager to prove his worth to his father. He wished to enter into the chamber of war and learn the ways of the greatest generals, though the guards would not let him. He argued with them until his uncle Iroh came upon them, asking what the problem was. Zuko begged his uncle to take him into the war chamber as a birthday present, and Iroh agreed after getting his nephews word that he would not speak, no matter what he heard. Iroh sat next to his nephew, keeping an eye on him, judging his reaction to the things that the most powerful men of his nation would propose." Iroh sighed, "Had Iroh not let the boy in, maybe it would not have happened, but it did. Zuko held his word until the very end of the meeting, though he had had to bite him lip to the point of bruising to do so. It was with a last, brutal scheme that Zuko lost control of his empathy."

"What was the plan?" Toph asked, "What was so bad that not even that psycho could stand it?"

Iroh gritted his teeth at the insult, but carried on in the most unaffected voice he could muster, "The senior general proposed to lead a full battalion of newly trained soldiers into a battle that they could not win."

"Why?" Aang asked, confused, "They were fire nation soldiers, right? Why send them to their deaths?"

"It was a clever strategy, on the tactical side of analysis; the soldiers would march into a field made of near solid rock, drawling the earth benders into a patch of terrain that they would need to use more energy to fight on." Iroh cleared his throat, "The new recruits would be slaughtered, defeated under the weight of a thousand earth bending masters. Not a one of them would likely survive. But the earth benders would be exhausted, both from the battle itself and the looting that went on afterwards."

"And then they would be ambushed," Toph gasped, "By a second wave. Already tired from bending strong materials, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves from an attack. They'd be little more than helpless."

Iroh nodded, "That was the plan. Zuko saw it as madness, a waste of life, he had said. He stood up in front of the entire court and declared that to send our people into battle as little more than bait was a betrayal of the trust that they had in their leaders. He said that it was the responsibility of the officers to see their men through conflict, not deliver them to it. The old general had sneered at Zuko, saying that the lives of a hundred soldiers was nothing compared to the access to the border that the defeat of the earth benders would bring. He said that the soldiers in question would lay their lives down gladly to protect their nation."

Shaking his head, Iroh slumped in his chair, "Zuko stared into the eyes of the general, his youthful face full of contempt as he spoke the words that ended up damning him to the fate that you three hate him for."

"What?" Aang, Katara, and Toph asked in unison.

"He told the general that the battle in which the soldiers would die was not in the defense of our nation, or of its people. He told the general that the only thing that would be accomplished if those men were to die in that field was a prolonging of plot for domination that had claimed more lives that it was worth." Iroh didn't hear them ask what happened after that; he was already going on in a distant, dead voice. "Ozai was furious, of course, but it was the general that proclaimed that the only way to cleanse such an abomination was for Zuko to participate in an Agni Kai." Iroh took another sip from his empty cup, needing some kind of a distraction from the horrors flashing before his mind. "Zuko had looked at the aged general and had been unafraid. He was strong, of course, and he was a brave, determined young man." Iroh got up from his chair and put water on to boil, using the movement to hide his tears, "That night, when he should have been helping his uncle prepare his birthday dinner, Zuko was getting ready for his first Agni Kai. Zuko was not afraid," Iroh continued, his back still turned, "He was even excited at the prospect of proving to the court that he was powerful, useful."

Pouring the hot water into his cup, Iroh added a spoonful of sugar and a couple of leaves, "In an Agni Kai, two opponents face off in front of a large audience of people. They kneel at opposite ends of a long rectangular stone stage. When the gong tolled, Zuko turned to face his challenger, a small smile on his face. And then horror, terror. Zuko had misunderstood. Though he had spoken out at the general's plan, he had done it in his father's war chamber."

Iroh closed his eyes as he saw the look on his nephews face again, so young, so scared, "Zuko looked upon the face, not of a stranger, but of his own father."

"No!" Someone screamed.

"Zuko had stared at his father for a moment, frozen in shock. He hadn't been able to conceive fighting with the person whose love he yearned for the most. But Ozai had no mercy on him. He came at Zuko with abandon, hitting and kicking him, burning his son whenever he could not evade." Chocking on the words, Iroh hid his face in his hands, "Ozai kicked Zuko to the ground, demanded for him to fight, but Zuko couldn't. Zuko begged for forgiveness, begged his father to call off the duel. I can still hear the crowd laugh at the boy's panic, his desperation." Pausing, Iroh took a deep breath, "Ozai demanded that his son fight him, fight to regain his honor. Zuko began to cry, backed into a corner and bloody, he cried for his father to stop, but Ozai had laughed along with the rest of the people watching. He pinned Zuko to the ground with crushing force, though his son did not resist."

"What happened?" Aang asked, shaking.

"Ozai starred down into his son's face, and spoke the words that will haunt me for the rest of my life." Iroh gasped for breath, hearing the venom ringing in his brother's voice inside his head, "'You will learn respect,' he hissed down at his weeping son, 'and suffering will be your teacher.'"

Iroh turned back to face the others, "And then he placed his hand over Zuko's left eye, holding it there as he scorched the flesh." Iroh stopped, taking in the horror on the faces of the children before him, noting with some satisfaction that no cruelty was held there. "Ozai left Zuko writhing on the ground in front of a jeering crowd of people that had, until that night, been his family." Iroh gathered himself as he took a drink of his fresh tea, "Zuko passed out not long after that, the terror of the night too much for his young mind. He woke on a boat the next morning, banished from his home with nothing but a dozen men and a second hand vessel at his disposal. His uncle, Iroh joined him, whether out of pity or out of love is unclear." Iroh's voice became bitter, "And they traveled for three years, looking for something that couldn't exist."

"What were they looking for?" Katara asked.

"They were looking for someone who had been dead for a hundred year, they looked for the Avatar."

"Oh, spirits," Aang gasped, sagging in his chair, "I never knew. . ."

"No one did, young avatar. After the Agni Kai, Ozai forbade anyone from uttering a thing about Zuko's punishment. For the rest of the world, Zuko was a banished prince out to capture the Avatar for his father. For years Zuko and his crew searched, looking in every city or port or jungle for any trace of the Avatar. From the heights of the air benders temples to the depths of the great tunnels, Zuko searched restlessly for three years, until, quite by accident, he found the Avatar."

Iroh looked at Aang, who was staring at him in horror.

"Grandpa?" Toph asked, uncertainly, "How do you know all of this?"

"Because, young one, I am the person who would know best, beside from Zuko himself. I am Prince Iroh, the dragon of the west, and Zuko is my nephew."

BANDON-MAKES-AN-END

Hey! I hope that you all like this, even though it's so short! Um, I really am sorry about the month and six days between the last update and this one.

Anyways! Read and Review!