Disclaimer: The following chapter is entirely fictitious. Any similarity to the history of any person living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional, except when specifically noted otherwise in the cast and crew credits. All celebrity voices are impersonated and no celebrities have endorsed any aspect of this fic.

Chapter Fourteen: Revelations

'-'

The following day Zuko woke up much later than he ever had before. He tried recalling why he woke up in the physician's office but then he remembered why: last night he was almost killed, though almost was most certainly a hyperbole, considering who tried to do it. Even if he was not in any danger as of right now he was still lucky that the Resistance members that were sent were not very good at what they did. The only success they did have was almost draining him of the blood in his body, but once again, he was still fortunate that his assassins were as bad as they were. His whole body was stiff and he could barely move his arms, let alone his head too much. He felt as if he had either exercised too hard or had been beaten senselessly. Either way, he took the deepest breath he could on order to put some feeling into his dead limbs.

"Oh good, you're awake," The physician's voice said from the other side of the room. He was not feeling as dizzy anymore so Zuko lifted his head to the best of his ability in order to get a better look at what the doctor was doing. "I have some good news, based on your weight from yesterday I assume you've only suffered from about fifteen percent or so blood loss, which is very good so you should be perfectly fine in a couple of weeks. You're going to have to eat a lot of protein and iron filled food and I know you don't like it, but your vegetables too." The doctor continued what he was doing while Zuko rolled his eyes at him, "Also, I'm also going to have you drink a lot of liquids, and absolutely NO extraneous activities for the next few days, but other than that, you're going to live."

"No extraneous activities!" Zuko exclaimed in frustration. "But—"

"I know what you do, Fire Lord Zuko, and I've fixed you up through broken ribs, broken feet, torn ligaments, all kinds of burns, sprained muscles, even the common flu, but you never listen to me when I tell you that plenty of bed rest will do wonders for you! For god's sakes, you are getting too old that this whole 'I'm fine' thing is becoming stupider. You're going to get to the point where you're really going to end up hurting yourself if you don't listen to me. Let me warn you, if you decide to do anything extraneous, such as fighting, you will get dizzy, and you will pass out. Now that doesn't sound too bad now, but if you're fighting for your life, well, that won't be good for you now would it?" Zuko glowered at his physician who had not turned himself around just yet and growled at him. "Now don't growl at me, mister," the man scolded, finally turning around with a plate filled to the edges with different kinds of meat, eggs, and two slices of bread with butter and a glass of what appeared to be mango juice, "that is very immature, not to mention highly inappropriate for a king. Now I know this is not a normal breakfast, but I cannot risk waiting any longer. You need to eat all of it, no exceptions."

"Can I at least eat outside?" Zuko grumbled nastily. The physician smiled.

"It's getting cold outside, put on a coat," he ordered. "You need to take care of yourself as best as you can." He was unsure if he should laugh or not, but Zuko actually hid a smile and took the plate of food and slipped off the bed. "You stay bundled up, Fire Lord, Zuko!" the physician called. "We'll be landing in only a day or so and I'm not sure what will happen!"

Zuko made his way to the deck of his ship, trying to find a secluded spot. Since they were getting further away from home and closer to the south, the ocean air became much colder, so everyone had migrated from the outside to inside, avoiding any reason to venture out into the chilly air. The bodies from last night were gone, as was the blood, however the dents were not. Zuko assumed the crew may have tossed them overboard, which was fine by him. Scum of that sort did not deserve even a shallow grave. He kept to the back of the ship, as he always did, and slouched down against the wall to eat the stack of food the physician had ordered him to eat. Though he was still a bit nauseous and still had the flavor of it in his mouth from last night he was surprised at how much he managed to keep down, since he assumed he would not be able to eat any of it.

"I see you're up," a familiar voice said from his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Weird," Zuko answered her bluntly. Mai strode over and took the empty seat next to him. "I can't describe it. It's a strange mixture of being nauseous and having an imbalanced head."

"It sounds better than yesterday," she laughed, plucking a piece of komodo sausage from his plate and popping it in her mouth.

"Hey, I'm supposed to eat all that," he frowned. "The physician said so."

"At least you're conscious, and you know what you're talking about," she said to him, continuing to pick at his half eaten plate. "Last night you started out fine, but then you started to sound like you were half asleep. The physician only let you sleep if you were in his office, plus he wanted your feet propped. You fell asleep pretty quickly, though."

"I don't even remember falling asleep. Last night went by in kind of a blur. I think the only thing I really remember is him taking my pulse, and then everything else I can't really…" He thought for a moment and suddenly recalled what had started their evening in the first place. He wiped his only available hand clean on the back of his thigh surreptitiously and gently reached out to her face to turn her towards him. She frowned, for she knew exactly why he had done that.

"It's just a little bruised, it's nothing, really," she understated, shoving his hand away from her face. "I'll be fine. It just needs ice."

"That's not little," Zuko growled quietly, and indeed it was not since the swollen indigo discoloration almost engulfed the whole bottom part of her chin where his hand had landed."I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"It's not even your fault, Zuko," Mai said plainly. "You couldn't control yourself."

"Still, I shouldn't have brought you," he sighed. "I think part of me knew something bad was going to happen. I brought you into danger."

"Zuko, you sound like a girl," Mai rolled her eyes. "I don't think you know this, but I've been so bored at home. I'm actually glad to get out of the house."

"Well, what do you do at home?" he casually asked her, nonchalantly sipping from his cup of mango juice.

"Nothing, mostly," she replied. "I go to work and then I come home. The only reason I decided to work was because my mother kept nagging at me to get married."

"So why don't you just move out?"

"My parents won't let me. She said that wouldn't look good for my father. So of course I have to stay."

"So why did they let you come with me?"

"Well when they heard you wanted me for a very important mission, they were more than happy to let me go. And since you're married, they didn't think twice about it."

"But she's not here," he frowned. "Didn't they know that?"

"They don't need to know everything," she shrugged dully. "Plus I didn't tell them you asked for me directly."

"So you lied to them?"

"I didn't lie, I just didn't tell them the whole story."

"Should I be concerned about this?"

"Why should you be concerned? It's not lying."

"No, but Marukai does the same thing to me. She only tells me half the story, so when something happens that she knew about, she claims I didn't ask, so she didn't tell me. She's always hiding things from me and I've had enough of it. I didn't think you were like that, too."

"I'm not," she said defensively. "I just knew my parents would say this and that about my father's image and our family's image and frankly I think I'm getting too old for that charade. It was understandable at first and I got whatever I wanted, so long as I behaved. But as I'm getting older I realize there's very little I actually want, and if I did want anything, well, it's not too big a deal anymore. And now that I don't have anything I would want, I've found I'm slowly caring less and less about what they have to say about the things I do. Like now, if they were to find out that I went with you while your wife stayed at home, they would be so angry with me. But I'm getting so bored and so tired of all their overbearing actions. Do you know how upset my mother is about me not being married? She tells me how I need to be more social and more docile, and I blame them. So she and my father promised me to Officer Yaozu's son."

"But his son's fifteen!" Zuko exclaimed. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to have to take care of someone who's practically ten years younger than me. I'm supposed to be a wife, not a mother."

"Yeah," Zuko chuckled softly. "Could you imagine? You'd have a fully grown child before you could have any children of your own?"

"Yeah, oh, and why bother even having kids? I'll already have one! I'll just be replacing his mother, anyhow." The two of them shared a lighthearted laugh at their jokes and continued to pick at the remaining items on Zuko's plate. "So," Mai said, deciding to change the subject, "what exactly do you expect to find down south?"

"I'm supposed to warn someone who's in the same position as I am," he answered her. "And then I'm supposed to warn Hiashi's family, but I wouldn't know where to start looking for them."

"But wouldn't warning them only make matters worse? I mean, if they didn't know, then that would only bring that whole Resistance group faster, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not sure," he answered truthfully. "Gingitsune just said to warn them. I guess if they're warned then they know exactly what to look for and anticipate. We knew what we were looking for and we managed to escape with our lives, so maybe it will work out for them."

"But the people who came after us were terrible at what they did," Mai said with concern. "Remember the airbender girl? She managed to suffocate us and we couldn't fight that. Who knows what will happen?"

"But it's better if they're warned," he replied adamantly. "She obviously knew something that I didn't, and if she said to warn them, then that's what I'm going to do. If anything we can try and infiltrate the Resistance with the information we have."

"But how do you kill something that can kill you in seconds from across the room? Is it even possible?"

"Maybe," he sighed. "I'm sure she gave us all that we needed to know."

"So what's going to happen if say you do manage to destroy this all powerful resistance group, what are you going to do after?"

"I won't have to worry about it anymore," he simply answered. "That'll be one less thing I have to worry about. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the whole bargaining with the Earth Kingdom, and then maybe the Fire Nation will stop hating me so much."

"Is that it?" she asked coyly. She added nothing else to her question, but he knew, or at least hoped he knew what she was aiming at.

"I'm getting rid of Marukai, that's for sure," he said to her. "I don't want her in my palace anymore. And maybe I'll replace her, for someone I actually like a lot, maybe." Mai did her best to hide her blushing and stifle her smile and reached back to his plate at the same time Zuko was, the two of them inadvertently aiming for the same piece of sausage as each other. Mai took the piece, however, instead of eating it herself, she placed it in Zuko's mouth instead, smiling another of her rare grins he only recently realized he missed. He hoped, then, that the two would make it out of their problem alive, if only to keep Marukai from assuming the throne, but mostly so that for once, he could be happy.

'-'

I only hope that what I'm doing doesn't come back to bite me in the ass, she thought quietly in her mind as she walked down the cold and bleak corridor to the last place she wanted to be. If I fail this… I know… I just have to ignore my better judgment and pray I… I'm doing the right thing. She knocked on the door to the small office waiting on the other side. She took a deep breath when she heard the voice from inside beckon her in.

"Marks Kurogane," Keme smiled his maniacal grin from under his paperwork, acting as if there was no secrets to hide, "so nice of you to stop by. I assume you have good news for me?"

"Yes," Kurogane forced herself to say, swallowing the dry lump in her throat. "I thought about what you said, about me being hesitant to kill the children you've told me to kill, and you were right. But what I think does not matter. I understand I have a mission I need to go through with and the Resistance comes first. So even though I may not agree with it I will do it nonetheless. I will kill them all." Keme stopped writing and looked up at her with a quizzical look.

"Well, that is not exactly what I wanted to hear," he said with a strained sense of confusion, "but that is better than refusing, I suppose. I expect them dead soon."

"I will do my best, sir," she said once again forcefully. "But after all, I will definitely be outnumbered. Who knows what could happen."

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Epically lame chapter, but I was hoping to post a chapter before The Last Airbender movie came out. I've got my ticket already for the midnight screening and I'm revving to go! I can't wait! I don't care what people are saying about the whole racist thing, they've got a Mexican playing Yue, so I'm perfectly fine with that. Plus Toph's supposed to be Asian, so I am also happy with that. Well, that and the fact that Zuko's being played by Dev Patel. Double epic win for me! I'm über-excited! I just PRAY with all my heart that it doesn't suck as bad as the reviews say it is. I would be devastated if it was... As to Midnight, yes, Darja is a total tool and jerk for standing up for Keme and his douchebaggy ways, but even evil people have followers. It's tragic, but oh so true. I mean, look at devil worshipers. I mean, even if you don't believe in the whole heaven/hell thing why would anyone want to worship the supposed prince of darkness? It's like those same idiots you see parading in the white cloaks down in Skokie. Freaking gets me mad… but I digress. Need to go and calm myself. NEHO, like always, please leave a review, check out my DA page, any art suggestions would be great, and that's it (I think). Until next time, Signing Off.