Author's Note: Really short chapter here, but this is the best way I could fit it into the story. The North Sea Declaration is really the U.S. Declaration of Independence, cut down and changed in a few relevant areas/modernized a bit. Overall, none of it is really my intellectual property.
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Avatar Franchise. Additionally, all material related to the declaration of independence was obtained from public domain records and altered to suit my purpose. Aside from those slight alterations, the Declaration is the intellectual property of the United States Government, and I make no effort to claim it as my own.
Chapter 11
Suki walked slowly towards the Fire Lord's small office. She had a letter, freshly delivered by messenger hawk that morning, from the some group calling themselves the Federation Council. She admitted that she didn't know too much about the state of affairs in the Fire Nation colonies, but she had a sinking suspicion that whatever was contained in the message was something that Zuko wouldn't like too much. The insignia on the message was unfamiliar to her as well. It was five red stars, arranged in a small circle on a field of blue.
She hesitated at the entrance to the small room, silently scolding herself for being so worried to do something as simple as deliver a message. After all, while Azula had been well known for banishing the messenger, Zuko had a much more even temper. She took a nervous breath and stepped through the curtain. The Fire Lord looked up from his desk.
"Suki," he said, confusion tinting his voice slightly, "is something wrong?"
"No, not at all," she replied, "I just have a message for you."
"A message? I haven't been expecting any messages. Who is it from?"
He stood up and reached out. Suki crossed the small room and handed it to him before stepping back and admiring the large map of the world on the wall behind him.
"A Federation Council, whoever that happens to be."
She noticed a faint trace of a scowl cross his face, but otherwise he did a fairly good job of masking his emotion. As he broke the seal on the message and began reading it, however, the mask slowly cracked. Suki felt the room begin to heat up as the candles on his desk flared, the flames rising higher with every breath the Fire Lord took.
"Has a copy of this been sent to Commander Long?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"I believe so."
"Good. Send word to him that his entire fleet is to get underway for the North Sea colonies, with orders to burn Captain Yuan's pathetic fleet and bring me all of these traitors. But first, I think you should hear this."
Zuko stood up, and began to pace the room as he read aloud.
"The unanimous declaration of the Federation of North Sea Islands.
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to assure their safety and happiness. Prudence will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government."
Commander Long looked up from the message, pausing to make eye contact with every one of the captains that were seated around the table.
"This is what we're dealing with men," he said, "this is what we sail today to take on."
The order had come in an hour before, hand delivered by one of the Kyoshi warriors. Long was taking this last opportunity to address his captains personally before they sailed, as he knew that they would likely not get another opportunity to meet like this again.
With a deep breath, he continued reading.
"A ruling family whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to rule a free people."
Lieutenant Lee paused for a moment, letting those words echo through the speaking tube for a moment. All around the ship, everyone had stopped what they were doing to hear the announcement. Deck seamen had stopped painting. The cooks in the galley halted the serving line, and the mess decks were completely silent for the first time in memory. Even the men in the fire room and the engine rooms had ceased work. The entire ship stood still, as Lee was sure that the rest of the ships in the fleet were standing still also. He looked around, noticing that several men on the bridge were tearing up. Not the least among them was Captain Yuan.
"We, therefore, the representatives of the Federation of North Sea Islands, assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the Fire Lord, and that all political connections between them and the Fire Nation are and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to declare war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
