XIV: Return

Not long after Iroh was thrown into a prison cell on Fire Nation land, Zuko and Azula had returned to the Fire Nation Palace. Although he didn't want to admit it, Zuko had a glimmer of happiness when he walked back into his proper home; and after three long years, he finally got to see his father again, but this time, when Zuko met him, he held a level of disgust and yet pity. For he was a man with no pure intentions, just a lust for power, but yet had never really known love, hardly ever showing it or receiving it.

Ozai showed them to a dinner table laden with a feast as a welcoming treat for the young heroes of the Fire Nation, and Azula let on the details of their victory, praising Zuko's power and ferocity… and how it was Zuko who'd slain the Avatar.

"Well now, Azula, this has been a wonderful listen… but you've neglected to share about who dared to put that scar on your cheek." Ozai stated.

"Ugh, it was a filthy Water Tribe peasant, she got me with a sneak attack… but father, I haven't told you the best part yet: While I was in disguise, in one of those disgusting Kyoshi Warrior uniforms, that foolish Earth King told me of a plot for an invasion on our lands on a day of black sun."

Zuko had to fight to keep from putting on a shocked face. He knew that this information would have to get out to the Water Tribe, but what would that mean for the invasion. He wanted it to happen, but if the Fire Nation knows about it, what could be done?

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Later in on the evening, Zuko wrote two letters. He tucked them both in his sleeve, and went out for the night to the prison. There he demanded to see his uncle, and for the soldier guarding him to take a break with no replacement. Once inside the room, he looked into the bars, where Iroh sat in the center of the cell.

"Uncle, we need to talk." Zuko told him, but Iroh turned away and kept silent.

"Uncle?" Zuko spoke again, but he still didn't get a response. Zuko took a deep breath to maintain his composure, he pulled out one of his scrolls, and asked: "Would you at least take this?"

Again, Iroh sat, not looking at him, not even making movement or sound. That was when Zuko had a brief snap, and he threw the scroll through the bars, and struck Iroh in the head with the scroll. It bounced off the top of his head, ricocheted off of the wall, and then rolled back to Iroh by his knee. It so happed that Zuko wrote something on the rolled up scroll that read: The truth.

Finally Iroh looked back at Zuko and found his eyes hoding a glimmer of hope. So he picked up the scroll and read it:

Uncle Iroh,

I know what things looked like to you back in the underground of Ba Sing Se, well what you saw wasn't what you think it is.

Before Azula's return to Ba Sing Se, Sokka and I devised a plan should we face her again; we shared it with Toph, Aang, and Katara, but we kept you out of the loop because Azula is clever. I needed you to feel genuine betrayal when you saw me turn against my friends, and you so I could fool Azula that I'd returned to her side. However, my ations were all part of an elaborate rouse to gain Azula's full trust and be brought back to the Fire Nation as the Avatar's inside man. I'll send them messages using the hawks.

The Fire Nation believes me to be a hero, but at heart, to the nation, I should be considered a traitor. Should their invasion on the eclipse end as their loss, I plan to rejoin them, and become Aang's Firebending master.

Iroh looked up from the scroll, after reading it twice, looked up to his nephew, and gave a small smile. He up and burned the scroll to ash.

"Take care of yourself, Zuko." Iroh told him, and then he sent Zuko away.

When Zuko returned home, he took out the other scroll and sent it out with a messenger hawk.

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While out at sea the Water Tribe fleet sank their ships and set a trap to capture a Fire Nation ship, and long story short, they actually had an easy time taking a ship, with their sneak attack, they caught the crew completely off guard and basically found themselves captured before they really knew what hit them!

To further blend in with the Fire Nation fleet, they stole the armor off of the crew, and raided the armory, donning their attire.

A couple of men took Aang's broken body into the quietest room in the ship, where Katara took it upon herself to give him healing sessions, oftentimes, there were several sessions a day… Katara worked herself to the point of exhaustion.

During a session, perhaps the 100th, honestly everyone lost count, Sokka entered the room and told her: "Listen, I know I'm not a bender, but I believe you'd be much more of use after you've had some sleep. You need your rest."

"We need Aang to wake up. The fate of the world rests on us, and we can't do it without him!" She snapped.

"You're right we do need Aang, but right now he needs you more, and since Aang needs you, then that means that we need you, and so everyone needs you to get some nourishment and some sleep." Sokka told her. He saw that she was tired and growing weak, and so he found it easy to just pick her up and carry her out over his shoulder. When he used a free hand to shut the door behind him, he told Katara: "We found that the food supply is fully stocked, and we found some recipes. Turns out Bato actually doesn't make for a bad cook when it comes to Fire Nation food, although he's been telling us that he does cut back on the spices."

Sokka dragged her all the way to a table, set just outside the kitchen, where they joined their dad, and Bato served them something to eat.

After one bite, Katara realized how hungry she really was and ate two plates full.

"There you go, that's what I wanted to see." Sokka told her.

"I should get back to Aang, thanks, Bato, the food was good."

"No way, you just ate, and now you need some rest!" Sokka told her.

"Sokka, I won't be able to sleep, the way I'm feeling. Aang needs me!"

"You're right, but most of all, Aang needs you to sleep. Dad will show you to the most comfortable bed on the ship, and I'll watch over Aang for the night, if I notice any changes in him, I promise I'll shake you awake and drag you to him myself."

"Your brother's right, Katara, let's go. For all your hard work, you'll be sleeping in the captain's quarters, and once you're refreshed, you can spend all of tomorrow with healing Aang." Hakoda stated.

So Hakoda led Katara all the way to the captain's quarters and had her lay down and made sure that she fell asleep before he left the room.

When Hakoda returned to the deck, he heard a bird call from the sky and took it on his arm. It was a Fire Nation messenger hawk, with a letter from the Fire Prince and so he ran it to Sokka.

"Our inside man's sent us a message." Hakoda told him, passing the letter.

Sokka opened the note and read it aloud:

Sokka, Katara,

I hope that things with Aang have gotten better, it looked like things had turned quite bleak, but somehow I feel like the Avatar will pull through in the end.

So, I'm back home now, and I'll admit that it's somewhat nice. The plan worked though, Fire Lord Ozai welcomed me home with open arms, and so he suspects nothing of our plan. As for Uncle Iroh, he's been thrown in prison as a traitor, but I'll make sure that he's at least treated well.

Zuko.

With nothing else to do, Sokka wrote back:

Zuko,

Aang is alive but he is in critical condition, Katara's working on healing him. Since you've left, we've managed to capture a Fire Nation ship in order to blend in with the fleets. We still plan on our invasion, but with a smaller but elite team of friends we can gather.

So far, all's well with us but it will be better when Aang wakes up.

Sokka

After that he sent the bird back to Zuko.

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Aang woke up still in pain, and the first thing he saw was a Fire Nation banner! Fearing that he had been captured, he picked up his staff and ran to make his escape, but once he reached the deck, he found his friends hanging out peacefully on the deck, with Appa, Momo and even Pipsqueak and The Duke from the time they really first met Jet.

Katara and Sokka brought him up to date on the happenings, what happened with Zuko, what happened to him and how he was brought back to life with spirit water, how they captured the ship, and then they told him that he'd been asleep for a few weeks, and Katara complimented Aang on his hair.

"I have hair?!" He asked grabbing at his head.

The next thing that they told him was that the whole world thought him to be dead. They saw him as their secret weapon, but Aang looked at it as the ultimate failure.

Aang wasn't happy about that, it made him feel like the ultimate failure. So when a Fire Nation ship started to approach them, Aang wanted to take it on himself, but Sokka held him back and told him that the other ship didn't know that they were not Fire Nation and brought him inside to hide.

"I hate not being able to do anything." Aang grumbled.

"If you're lucky, you wouldn't even have to." Sokka told him.

However, after the visit from the other ship, Toph overheard them that they suspected that they were on a captured ship, and called out: "They know!" She thrust her hand towards the floor, grabbed and twisted the metal and bent a fissure in the metal leading all the way up to the bridge. The bridge buckled, and threw the officers into the water below. Katara split the ships apart by pulling up a massive wave.

"Load the Toph!" Toph called out, and The Duke and Pipsqueak loaded her up with earthen ammunition for her to throw and take out the catapults.

Katara whipped up some cover by turning some seawater into steam, and eventually they got away.

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Aang came to the decision that he had to face the Fire Lord alone, and it drove him to fly away on his glider in the middle of the night. He wasn't too certain where he was going, but he knew that the Fire Nation was somewhere up ahead. However, he came into the clutches of the ocean in his broken up state.

When all hope seemed lost, visions of Avatar Roku and Princess Uwe, Moon Spirit, came to him. Roku told him that he should've seen the war coming and prevented it, and Uwe told him that he'd already saved the world and that he'll do it again. So with a newfound spirit, he found the strength to reach the safety of the shores of a Fire Nation island.

Later on in the morning, he woke to the sight of Katara, Sokka, and Toph looking down at him, and they were relieved to see that he was alright. At that point he came to terms that it was best that the world thought him dead. Toph found his glider, ruined from the storm, but Aang came to accept his loss, saying that it would be easy for the enemy to recognize him with it. So he stuck it into a crack in a volcano, and let it burn to ash.

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