Author Notes: While the progression of the story roughly follows that of the show, many events are changed, arranged in a different order or omitted. This is fan fiction, after all.
On the monorail, a certain flame-scarred boy turned to the distant smoke and commotion on the outermost wall.
"What's going on, uncle?" Zuko could only see thick black smoke and hints of boulders raining down the wall.
"Someone is trying to breach the wall by force, and has learnt their lesson, "Iroh didn't move his eyes from his tea.
"Weren't you here before?"
Iroh looked silently as his tea. "I was here, for five hundred days. Your cousin died about there, where the smoke is."
"Oh, sorry uncle," Zuko sat silently beside his only relative (as far as he was concerned).
"You have to understand something, Zuko. This is the first time I've seen the inside of the city, but I don't feel like the man who laid siege to it five years ago. We are not here to start trouble."
"I'm not the one who fire bent his tea back at the station!" Zuko whispered, nudging his uncle's arm.
"That was the last time I will firebend in Ba Sing Se, apart from training you, and that when we find a place no one will see us."
"How are we going to find something like that in a place like this?"
"I still have friends inside here. Remember Mister Fu from the Misty Palms Oasis? He was on the boat before us."
Zuko was about to smile and compliment his uncle, but two Dai Li agents shuffled past him; their low hats seemingly making them look at everyone at once. The Fire Nation prince lowered his gaze and suppressed his breath until the enforcers were on the opposite side of the carriage.
"The Dai Li," Iroh spoke under his breath. "They were the ones…who killed your cousin…so long ago. Iroh felt a jabbing in his heart at the memory of Lu Tien, his son lost five years ago to a ruthless Earth Kingdom maneuver that lost him one thousand men, fifty siege machines and of course his only son. The survivors of the move said that only twenty of the Earth Kingdom's famous elite police unit took part in the move, sustaining no losses. This was the turning point of Iroh's siege and what broke his heart for the rest of his life. The only thing that stopped Lu Tien' s body being torn apart by four Earth Kingdom Ostrich Horses was a personal appearance by the Earth King Kuei himself on the frontline. In a grand gesture of respect, the bespectacled King returned the Fire Nation prince to his father in exchange for the surrender of the Fire Nation and the total retreat of the entire army, complete with the leaving behind of prisoners, war machines and booty. Iroh returned to the Fire Nation a failure, and subsequently lost his title as Crown Prince. Despite being fifty, his father Azulon was still going strong at seventy and chose Zuko' s father Ozai for his crown prince. Azulon would have ruled for more years if not for a strange occurrence of events that led to his death and Ozai becoming Fire Lord. Iroh chose self imposed exile, although thousands in the army swore allegiance to him no matter where he wanted to go. One ship crew in particular was very close to the Firebending master, offering to give him their vessel for his travels. That crew may have been lost in Admiral Zhao's great loss at the North Pole, more good people for Iroh to mourn.
Iroh opened his slightly misty eyes as the carriage screeched to a halt. Zuko was his 'son' now, and after many tricks and turns chasing the elusive Avatar were now in the city of the Fire Nation's greatest enemy for no particular reason other than fate. Something drew him here, the polar opposite of the Fire Nation- or so he thought.
"I need new experiences too, I guess," he turned to Zuko, although he didn't seem to be talking to his nephew. His first footfall in Ba Sing Se felt like a grand victory, but soon faded into the mundane weight of his own body. Zuko found himself holding his uncle up, something he wasn't expecting to do.
"Uncle?"
"This place is heavy!" he let out a belch, "just like the local tea!"
"First time here, old master?" a young man called out to "Lee" as he was known in his passport. "I haven't been here in a long time myself."
"We're refugees, but you don't look like one," Zuko looked up at the man on the stairs. The man had his face shrouded by a conical hat, but his voice was surely that of a teenager.
"My uncle had some bad tea at the station, that's all. Do you mind, we need to get through."
"It's alright, Lee. I know that voice, even though I haven't heard it in five years."
"Mr. Mushi, is it?" Mitsu tipped his hat upwards with his staff and examined Iroh's fake passport.
"Mr. Ishihara, is it?" Iroh stood up without support.
"Indeed it is, old uncle," the two hugged.
"Uncle…?" Zuko looked slightly confused as the two men looked each other over.
"You've grown very tall since the last time! Not the twelve year old runt I saw passing the desert rim! This is my nephew, Zuko."
Zuko felt his sweat freeze to his face and ducked in case of any Dai Li overhearing. "Uncle, not our real names!"
"It's alright, Zuko. He knows who I am, he was a friend of your cousin," Iroh patted Mitsu on the back.
"You have friends in the strangest of places," Zuko clasped Mitsu on the forearm.
"I'm not a native, I just arrived here myself. I went overland, like Sand Benders do. So what brings my tired old uncle to the city of walls and secrets?"
"I'm on extended vacation, I thought I'd come back as a tourist," Iroh chuckled, "it's an unexpected boon to see you here! I thought you'd be in that library of yours reading for the rest of your life! Well Lee, it looks like we have a traveling companion for now."
"I can stay with you for a while, I guess. I have some personal stuff to deal with, and the rest of my…caravan also might get worried," Mitsu was careful not to mention Aang and his friends, who had warned him about Zuko. Iroh was another matter entirely as Mitsu had his own memories from five years ago regarding the old uncle.
"Of course, I know what you're talking about," Iroh nodded. "But I'm hungry, have you found us an inn to stay in?"
"Of course, my tired old uncle," Mitsu kissed Iroh's hand.
"Stop calling him that!" Zuko was slowly burning up.
"That's what I called myself when Mitsu and I first met. It only brings a smile to my face, Zuko. Onward…To the inn!" Iroh sprang into a brief march, singing along the way.
The three walked down Ba Sing Se's wonderfully crafted streets, the last metropolis in the world not run or run over by the Fire Nation. The walk was long, but the vibrant outer city life made it pleasant. Iroh didn't seem to mind, but Zuko looked around, half suspicious and half curious. He was a kind of wanderer himself and remembered quite a few things from his own solo travels. He fondly remembered the town where he met a young girl and lit lanterns for her; somewhat wishing he could see her again. Mai would always be first in his heart, but it was ironic that people liked him more outside the Fire Nation where it was less about etiquette and obedience and more about one's own bearing. Iroh taught him to understand the other nations, and his assault on the South Pole still weighed heavily on his mind. The terrified children, the determination of Sokka to kill him and his men, the brutal Zhao fighting him over the simplest of matters all made his shoulders weigh heavily. Zhao's death at the North Pole did nothing to soothe his nerves; Zuko realized that he never even stopped to see the Spirit Oasis or the North Polar Tribe's city of ice. He wished he hadn't been so shallow back then.
"We're here!" Iroh chirped, putting his hand on Mitsu's shoulder.
"The Jade Dragon Tea House, nice name," Zuko tried to cheer up.
"This is the best place to have a sip and a nip, as they say. Look, it's some people I know," Mitsu walked over to a group of merchants.
Iroh sat at a table with a Pai Sho pattern, clearing the board and propping up the adjoining tea table. Zuko mumbled something about kid's games and sat beside his uncle.
"We're playing Pai Sho now?" Zuko held his cup in one hand.
The Pasha turned from talking to Mitsu and sat opposite the ex-Fire Nation general, placing a tile in the middle.
"Do you play?" his baritone voice reverberated through the room.
"Sometimes, in the best of seasons…Since we're sitting at the table now, I guess I have to counter your move." Iroh calmly took a tile from under the table and adjoined it to the tile in the middle.
"The White Lotus…" Zuko noticed the middle tile.
"How are your children?" the Pasha made a strange move with his next piece, one that wouldn't win him the game at all.
"My eldest son cries all the time despite his age," Iroh exhaled and placed his tile in another strange position.
"We old fathers, we have to keep them quiet and healthy," the Pasha put a black tile near the far side of the board.
"My eldest is on another long trip," Iroh sighed and attached a tile to another part of the board.
In the end the pattern of the tiles, like their conversation made no sense if one was to count the score, but it resembled a beautiful flower in bloom with the White Lotus in the center. Zuko was stuck to his seat, unlike the last time where Fu and his uncle went into another room to discuss matters.
"I see we finally meet, Grand Master Iroh," the Pasha bowed.
"Likewise, Grand Master Mehmet Pasha," Iroh bowed in return.
To Zuko it seemed like the two men grew even taller, their bright eyes focusing on each other. Zuko felt lightning circling the two older men, although no one else in the inn apparently felt the same way. Mitsu stood beside the Pasha, who was the same person who had ferried him and Aang's party to the Serpent's Pass.
"All we need is Master Piandao and we'll have a convention," Iroh patted the Pasha on the shoulders.
"He shuts himself in his compound now and turns away many eager young men," the Pasha inhaled a hookah pipe that a waiter had brought him. To Zuko he looked like a pirate king, which technically wasn't far from the truth.
"Remember him, Zuko? He taught you swordsmanship when you were a lot younger. This is my nephew Zuko, Mehmet."
Zuko got up and bowed, the Pasha eyeing him top to bottom.
"Piandao's last student before he closed his doors?"
"No, I'm afraid he took Lu Tien's death almost as badly as I did…" Iroh remembered the painful split between the Fire Nation's four greatest soldiers before the siege of Ba Sing Se. "Piandao resigned his commission and cursed my son for staying in the military, Jeong-Jeong disappeared altogether, and only I was left. Here I am again at Ba Sing Se, all by myself with no son, no best friends but …as a tourist!" He put on his makeshift straw hat and grinned. The Pasha laughed and waved for a servant to attend to Iroh.
"Give him and his boy full room and board for as long as they like," the Pasha waved a certificate and handed it to the servant. The servant bowed and snapped her fingers for porters.
"We don't have much luggage; we're refugees after all…" Zuko moved next to Mitsu.
"The porters are not for your luggage, they are for your uncle. They have a tradition in the Sand Bender Tribes on greeting people of great rank and age. Just watch."
The two porters lifted Iroh, still sipping his tea, on their shoulders and moved the singing general up the stairs. Zuko hurriedly followed them up with another porter taking their meager belongings behind the prince.
"Honestly, I had no idea," Mitsu turned to the Pasha.
"I am pleased they are here, the safest city in the world," the Pasha took another whiff of his hookah pipe. "That man has seen too much sadness in his life outside of these walls. Here he can do what he likes best with the one he considers his own son. Iroh deserves peace and his nephew must control his inner turmoil."
"It takes a Sand Bender no effort to read people's expressions, I guess," Mitsu took a swig out a water bottle.
"We are descendants of the earth and the wind, child of the Great Rock. Nothing seems to change in the desert, but we both know that is not true. The sands shift and the winds change with the times."
"When will you tell the Avatar?" Mitsu lowered his tone.
"I cannot tell even Iroh what we know about the Avatar's kind, and even you know too much as it is. Were you not proven to be trustworthy I would have stuffed you full of sand years ago."
"Did Sozin really … you know?"
The Pasha shook his head and put his hookah pipe down, signaling the porter to take the pipes back behind the bar.
"We speak enough of it, Ishihara. You must remember your own oath. Until the Avatar himself discovers, you cannot reveal it to him or anyone he knows. Only your kind ever knew this apart from our tribes." The Pasha got up and bowed.
Mitsu bowed in return. "I do not forget my vows, Pasha. Or my history. It was fortuitous to meet you here, where I think I will be staying as well. Can you do me one favor?"
"Name it, child."
"I'd like a Messenger Hawk," Mitsu took his staff off the wall. "I'm feeling like writing some messages."
"You know as well as I do they do not allow those birds in Ba Sing Se! Even the Avatar's beast has to roam the fields behind the Outer Wall, and the farmers are not pleased."
"All the better, I still have to meet a few other people here, but I want to keep in touch with them. The Fire Nation won't give up after the big drill failed, and I don't trust the Dai Li one bit."
"They do not trust us either," the Pasha folded his cloak over his shoulder. "I will send you a box of premium blend Flower Tea in the morning."
Mitsu heard Iroh joyfully singing up in the deluxe room, playing his wind-pipe. "Wow, he sings like he owns the place."
"He does, what certificate you think I gave him?" the Pasha smiled and turned towards the door. "Temporarily, of course," he winked. "I'm out of town."
"It's a Messenger Hawk! Wow, they don't have these at the South Pole anymore!" Sokka proudly displayed the bird, which had a natural pouch for carrying scrolls and letters.
"What message is it bringing us?" Toph got up off her back.
"It's from Mitsu!" Katara took the scroll. Toph was on her feet while Aang came closer.
"Come on Sugar Queen, what does it say?"
"You're awfully anxious, Toph," Sokka blinked, before getting a punch in the hip.
"I miss him, don't any of you?" Toph tugged at Katara's arm.
"Ahem," Katara cleared her throat, "he says that he's in another part of the city, in the outer rim of the city. He tells us to be careful who we talk to and who speaks to us, and whatever we do, don't mention the drill and the war outside. We're to send him a message if we do get that audience with the Earth King."
"That's it?" Toph folded her arms.
"There's more," Katara further unfurled the scroll.
"Look out for a strange man accompanied by a bear. What does that mean?"
"What's a 'bear'? Doesn't he mean a Platypus Bear?" Aang looked at Momo.
"P.S: I REALLY MEAN "BEAR", NOT PLATYPUS BEAR."
"I've never seen one of those before," Sokka scratched his head. "Well, Mitsu's the one with the books."
"P.S.S: SOKKA, DON'T HUNT THE BEAR FOR MEAT." Katara giggled, while her brother folded his arms.
"We're not going anywhere waiting for that Joo Dee woman to get back to us," Katara rolled the scroll back neatly. "Doesn't anyone have an idea how to get to the top quicker? Toph?"
"Don't look at me, it's not like I'm from here. Why not just use the Avatar shtick and get inside that way?"
"I've tried; the guards don't want to let me in. They say I need the proper identification. What's more identifying than this big blue arrow on my head?" Aang pointed to the obvious.
"I'll write a reply to Mitsu for advice, but we have to move quickly," Katara took an ink box from the shelf behind her together with a brush. "The King has to know about the Day of the Black Sun as soon as possible."
"I got so bored, I made that zoo outside," Aang pointed to the outer wall. Appa's bored as well since Sky Bison usually fly higher up in the sky. Still, we've all had the best food in a while."
A knock on the door was answered by Toph, who instantly recognized the footfalls of the person outside.
"Hey, it's the Pasha from the desert!" Toph waved.
"It is good to see all of you," the Pasha bowed and handed Sokka a bag. "Your friend sends you this; you seemed very interested in it."
Sokka opened the bag and pulled out a gear compass. "Wow, this is great, I like it! How does it work?"
"We need your help, Pasha," Katara invited him into their house, a reward from the Earth government for their service in the drill incident. Mitsu parted ways with them immediately after the mop-up and wasn't present when the generals handed them the keys, but told them about the bureaucratic process to get an audience- six to eight weeks.
"We're trying to see the King," Aang sat beside the Sand Tribe chief.
"Ba Sing Se is a city of many walls and many rules, which is why we Sand Tribes are merely transients here. I am only here for the protection of our women and children. The sands are quieter and less alive but at least they are safe. Even I, chief of many tribes cannot see the king so easily."
"I am sick and tired of these rules!" Aang kicked at a stool. "I'd have better luck seeing the Fire Lord!"
"Let's just bust in," Toph stomped onto the wooden floor, disappointed by the lack of earthen action.
"I heard nothing you said," the Pasha pretended not to look.
"The reply is written," Katara grinned, sending the Hawk out into the open air with the message. "We'll give him two days to join us at the front door."
"Two days, and then you will see the King," the Pasha counted his fingers. "I have not seen him since he was a boy."
"He never gets out?" Sokka fumbled with the spherical compass.
"They never let him out, they say his voice is too holy for people to hear. Some say he sneaks out at times to mingle with the people, but the locals are hardly ideal sources for news."
"It would be easy to sneak into the city if no one knows what you look like," Aang mused. "By the way, Pasha, do you know what a 'bear' is?"
"Just a 'bear'?" he fondled his beard and shrugged. "I have no idea, young man."
"I'm so excited, we're going to break stuff after all," Toph punched her palm.
"I wish we didn't have to, but the people here are even more hard-headed than Toph. No offence," Sokka quipped.
"None taken, I really want to leave this place. Worst city in the world," Toph huffed.
"Two days," Aang mused. "I'm going to see Appa on the outside. If we're going to piss off a lot of people, we'd better have a great getaway plan. Joo Dee said he was over some place called Lake Lao Gai." The Airbender took a few steps back and glided out the window.
"I'll just sit here and uh, practice drawing." Sokka took out some paper he found downstairs.
"What are you drawing?" Katara looked over. Sokka's left handed scrawls resembled a vase with sharp designs and flowers on top.
"It looks nice," Katara patted her brother on the shoulder.
"It is supposed to be Suki."
Katara struggled to contain her giggles, as a seemingly decent drawing of a vase turned out to be one of his girlfriend. He was not pleased at all but stared at the drawing like it was open space.
"Looks like her to me," Toph lay back on the floor.
"Thanks, I worked rally hard- hey, you're doing it again!"
Toph only grinned. She took out her father's journal and held her hand over it, reading the next chapter.
"Since when were you, of all people an avid reader?" Sokka put the drawing to one side.
"I'm bored, okay?" she thumbed over the embossed pages.
"I'll get the laundry," Katara tugged her big brother's arm, "this is the first time we've had clean clothes in a while."
"But my clothes are…" Sokka howled.
"Come on, Sokka," he was dragged by the collar. "Toph wants to be alone," she whispered.