Metella: Yes, I did come up with the idea for the ashes. I actually had no intention of writing anything about the catacombs except that they held the Firelords' Final Testaments, but as I was writing things just kept hitting me and more and more ideas kept flowing. It normally turns out that way. I have a detailed outline of everything that is going to happen in this story and originally aimed for about eleven chapters, but when I write, detail after detail keeps coming to my mind and they branch off into many new descriptions and rabbit-trails which I personally love to read in fan fiction. I love the little details and the things that really give a true setting, and so I try to demonstrate that in my writing. The story will probably end up being about twenty chapters long simply because I always wind up adding so much to the chapters.

TrueThinker: I thought about expounding on that just a little, and saying that afterwords the servants were executed (lol, how cruel!), but if you read above you know that I like to fill my writing with details, and I've gotten a couple of reviews outside that have said I give too many details, so I decided to cut that little bit because it was so insignificant.

Alydrial: Aw, thank you so much! Everyone's reviews really do give me more inspiration to write. Thank you all so much for reading, I hope you all enjoy it.

(Minor spoilers for Chapter 5 in the following paragraph. If you wish to, read this after.) This chapter is where the story takes on a new form. Previously, it's been mostly talking, planning, and conspiring. Now it's time to take action. In this chapter it's just the very beginning of the content that will be in the next chapters. Chapter 5 introduces the first sight of blood, the first true act of violence, and a little drop of citrus flavoring, if you know what I mean. Now you can relax (or for some be disappointed), this story's not going to be filled with lemons. This is probably the only time I'll even include anything sexual at all, but due to the mixture of implied sex, blood, and for the weaker in guts, perhaps disturbing scenes, this story has been raised to RATED T. (End minor spoilers.)

The Truth Behind Ursa
Chapter 5 - Plans of Felony

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, love," said Ursa as she and I were about to send him off to spend the night with one of his friends. We had to somehow get him away from the palace so that there would be no chance of him being found once our plan was in action. It was about seven in the morning and we had arranged for he sleep over the previous day, so it was the perfect plan. Or so we thought.

Two nights ago we had devised every detail of our plan from beginning to end, and now it was time for action. Zuko left with a wave to us, Ursa waved back and I simply stared in disgust. I had my own plans for his future, but first we had to complete our first task, and that was getting my name on Azulon's will.

As soon as he was out of site, Ursa and I exchanged glances, then both bolted for the palace. When we arrived, we went over the plan with each other one final time, then nodded at each other as we went our separate ways. Ursa went outside the palace walls into the city, and I went deeper into the palace to start working on the plans of my own. I had two parties that needed to be briefed on their orders: one for my plan with Ursa, and one for my own plan to get rid of both of them. I continued down the hallways until I came to the room where I had ordered my first group of soldiers to gather. I entered, and there were eight professional firebenders standing in line awaiting my arrival. They bowed to me, and I began to give them their orders.

"We are committing serious felonies against the Firelord, today." I began. "I understand that you may wish not to continue down this path. I understand. But you do not have a choice. I will give you order and you will obey them to your fullest capability. Any hesitation will earn the reward of death, and I will be more than happy to carry out that deed on each and every one of you if you so much as think about betraying me. Do you all understand?"

"Yes, Prince Ozai." They all said in unison.

"Do you swear that this day you will serve Prince Ozai and Prince Ozai alone, and thereafter serve Firelord Ozai when he sits on the throne?"

"Yes, Prince Ozai." They repeated.

"Good. Now here are your orders. I am going to be attending a meeting in which I will confess to my father that I have committed a shameless deed and that Zuko is no longer heir to the throne. Two of you will be guarding inside the chamber as I say this. Two of you will be outside the chamber guarding. Two of you will be escorting my wife, Ursa, at the proper time. And the other two of you will be on guard patrolling the hallways nearby. When I signal behind my back, I want the guards inside and outside the chamber to switch places and cover it up as just a shift-switch. For the two of you that will be patrolling the hallway, this will be the signal to bring Ursa in. One of you must run a alert the two that are escorting her, who will be hidden down the Inferno Hallway in the fourth room on the right. Bring her back, and allow her in the chamber. then simply man your posts as normal and do not say a word about this. Understood?"

"Yes, Prince Ozai." They thirded.

"Any questions?" I asked, but a short silence fell thereafter.

"Good. Occupy this room until my wife gets here. When she does she will tell you what to do and when to start. Listen to her like you would me." And with that I took my leave. I had another group to attend and another speech to give. Simply the next door down there was another squad of eight elite firebenders. I had ordered two squads into the rooms, but for different missions. This squad was for my own, personal plans.

I began with the same type of briefing I had done before. I told them that we were committing crime, but it will be revoked once I am on the throne. After briefing them on the consequences of betrayal I moved on to explaining their task.

"Your job is simple, and you should have no trouble doing it. You all know my son, Zuko. He is staying at a friend's house for the night, and is sleeping over. Your job is to make sure no such thing happens." A long silence then ensued, interrupted a minute later by one of the soldiers.

"Do you mean, you want us to... eliminate... your son?" One of the men asked.

"Eliminate may not be the best word, Soldier. Fancy terminology is not something I appreciate. ... Kill him. And take down anyone who gets in your way. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes... Prince Ozai." A half-committed team answered me.

"What was that?" I barked at them, noticing the uncertainty in their tones.

"Yes, Prince Ozai!" They all stiffly spoke, quickly standing up tall.

"That's what I thought. ... Commit the deed at seven tonight, sharp. Oh. And no firebending when you kill him."

"What?" One man spoke out. I turned to him quickly and gave him a horrifying look, at which he realized his mistake and stepped back in line.

"Do not burn him, at all. And bring back every weapon that is involved in harming him, unclean and bloody, in a bag. Understood?"

"Yes, Prince Ozai." They said in unison. I then walked out to check the time. Twelve o'candle. Heh. Azula comes up with the funniest names. It was just about time for the meeting, and so I walked down the halls, peeking in on the room with the squad that was working with Ursa. They were gone, so they must have began the mission already. Perfect.

Once I arrived at the Firelord's Chamber, I took a deep breath before exchanging a glance with the guards. He nodded to assure me that everything was in place. I smirked and opened the curtain, walking in for my appointment with Father. I bowed when I came close enough to the wall of fire.

"Why have you called a meeting with me, Prince Ozai. I do not have time for any of this." My father snapped rather quickly.

"Father, I have come to remind you of your promise that you made." I spoke softly.

"What is it that you desire, Ozai? You waste far too much of my time already. Many years have a wasted on your silly shenanigans. Speak, now." He was obviously in a bad mood. During his last statement I knew that I couldn't stall for much longer, So I signaled to the guards. A few more minutes of my stalling went on, along with father's anger. The sooner Ursa got here the better. I had to speak soon, though.

"Father," I began, "Your promise to me shall be kept, for I have committed the deed. My son is no longer among the Fire Natio-" At this point, Ursa burst in. It couldn't have been more perfect timing. She was sobbing what appeared to be uncontrollable tears; her make up was dripping, her outfit had blood splattered on it, her hair was a mess, and over all she just looked completely haggardly.

"OZAI!" She shouted in a panic, "Ozai, he's gone! They killed him, Ozai! He's gone!" She cried.

"What are you talking about, Ursa?" I replied.

"Zuko! These men ambushed us on our walk and stabbed him to death! He dead, Ozai! Our son it dead!" She wailed. I looked up at my father a smirked at seeing his facial expression: horror and shock. He must have believed it. Ursa then stood up from her kneeling position and took her head off the floor. She tugged at my drooping sleeve.

"Come on, Ozai. We must move!" She struggled. I pulled my arm away from her, causing her emotional face to become even more hurt, albeit an emotional hoax.

"Hold," i told her. "Go, I will join you quickly." At that she stood up, looking shocked and surprised to see me turn her down, just like we planned. Her expression turned from hurt to angry, and she ran out. A moment later I broke the chamber's silence by addressing my father.

"I kept the end of my bargain. I expect you to keep yours." I said with a slight bit of hate in my eyes, trying to get the point across that I had done something regrettable, when in reality if this situation were real I would have rejoiced. I began to walk out, but as soon as I was about to open the curtains, Father spoke.

"You have been true to your word, Prince Ozai. You will be given the birthright this night." I turned and bowed my head so quickly that I thought I might have pulled a muscle. I bowed low to the ground, seeing as I was trying to cover up my uncontrollable smile. I then turned and walked out. Everything was going smoothly and as planned.

Until I rounded the corner of a hallway and bumped into a figure about two thirds of my height. I knocked whoever it was over, and began to reach down after rubbing my shoulder to help them. "I'm-" I suddenly stopped, my entire body cold yet shaking. I could not believe my eyes.

"Hi, Dad," My son said cheerfully to me as he reached for my open hand and pulled himself up to the ground.

"Zuko, what are you doing here?" I questioned, then quickly grabbed his hand and ran towards my bedroom.

"Yuri's sleepover was canceled. She told me that their house was being inspected by a group of Royal Firebenders without notice." Zuko spoke quickly but curiously as we entered mine and Ursa's bedroom, despite the fact that we almost always slept in separate rooms with the state of our marriage being the way it was. Though the previous two nights, she had come to bed with me, and we slept in the same room. I'm still not sure to this day if it was a thanks or a bribe.

I closed the curtains to the entrance of the room.

"Dad, what's going on?" He asked.

"Stay here and stay out of sight. Do not come out until I tell you. Understand?"

He nodded and I walked out. I cursed the whole way down to Ursa's bedroom where she had been sleeping the previous months other than last night and the previous. I burst in to see her removing her makeup. She jumped at might quick arrival, quickly asking what was going on.

"Zuko's here," I blurted out. "He's in our room right now. I told him to stay there."

"What! He was supposed to be at Yuri's!"

"I know, but the sleepover got cancelled for," I paused, "some reason. I didn't ask."

"Well what are we going to do?" She continued.

"I told him to stay in our room. As long as we get this done quickly it should work out fine." But everything was not working out fine. Not at all. Zuko was supposed to die. He was supposed to be murdered, it was supposed to look like he was killed from Father's point of view, and it was supposed to look like it he wasn't killed from Ursa's point of view. Things weren't going as smoothly as I had planned. Not at all.

Then things got worse. A servant asked to enter. We panicked and looked at each other, but didn't have much of a choice if we didn't want to look suspicious.

"Sir, there's someone here to see you. She says it's important." The servant continued.

Look at us: sweaty, hot, and messy. Anyone would know that something is up if they saw us like this. How could we cover it up quickly? Then an idea hit me.

...

No no, that's too embarrassing. We can't do that.

"Sir, I'm coming in with your guest. She says that she must speak with you." The servant said in as humble a manner as he could. It was obvious that he didn't want to barge in, but who thinks they have the right to come into the Firelord's room without permission? Who could this guest be? The servant's feet could be heard walking up to the curtains covering the door. We had to do something, fast.

I quickly grabbed Ursa's arm and pulled her on top of me, laying on the bed together. I kissed her passionately, and she panicked, not knowing why on earth I suddenly started to do such a thing. She tried to pull away but I only deepened the kiss, and I can assure you that it was indeed shocking to both her and I. We hadn't kissed each other in months, and she had just started sleeping in the same bed as me. Now I'm kissing her with my leg wrapped around her body on the bed in our room? I can understand why she was so shocked and why she tried to pull away. But I only pulled her closer and closer to me the more she resisted.

"Oh, um..." The servant then spoke, seeing that we were in the middle of something. Mission accomplished. I let go or Ursa and she stood up quickly, taking a huge breath of air from our what seemed an eternity of a kiss. She was about to yell at me when she looked at the servant, and then looked behind and saw an ancient lady, aged probably a hundred and fifteen, with a white bun on her head and giant earlobes.

Of course it was Li. She's the only person I could ever expect to think they could walk in on me.

"Li," Ursa bluffed an embarrassed smile, "What a... um, pleasant surprise!"

"I do hope I was not interrupting anything." She said with a chuckle. Ursa looked at me with a scared look. What else could go wrong today? My son came back already and is trying to figure out what's going on. My men are investigating a house for a boy who is not there. And Ursa and I were caught looking like we had been doing horrible crimes and had to cover it up by making it look like we were having sex. What else could go wrong now?

Certainly everything.