A/N: The Following is Rated M; for Moving right along.
It contains a variety of dialog from season 2
Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter 10 "The Long and Winding Road"
Spring, Year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai
It turned out that the Burning Sands were HOT.
Hence the damned name, Zuko growled at himself.
The hardpan seemed to stretch out forever, scraping the very edges of the sky. The monotony of the land broken up only by the occasional slowly shifting dune that seemed to crash like a wave in an almost haunting lethargy as Zuko's komodo-lizard carried him and his uncle forward.
At least I don't have to WALK across it.
In legend one of Zuko's ancestors had done just that. Prince Toturi, who would later go on to challenge his brother Fire-Lord Arasou for the throne, had been something of an explorer and scholar. He had written extensively of the "sublime stillness and wonder" that was the desert. Hidden in between the lines of that text, however, was the record of the several dozen men and women who didn't come back out with him. Lost to dehydration, heat exhaustion, madness and "sizzle-skin," an unpleasant affliction that only seemed to bother firebenders lost in the desert.
That was one of the things that had always bothered Zuko. When discussing firebending with the uninitiated, they always seemed to assume that a firebender must love the heat. Must simply revel in it. Fire was hot; and so, obviously, a firebender must like that sort of thing.
Upon reflection, Zuko supposed that he and his fellows enjoyed it just as much as any other bender enjoyed being saturated in their element. As much as an earthbender enjoyed being buried alive or a waterbender enjoyed being lost at sea. A firebender exuded heat, radiated it, and in the endless burning expanse of daylit sand there was nowhere for it to go. Hence "sizzle-skin." The night, during which they actually traveled, wasn't at bad thankfully. The cold was a soothing balm after the grinding near sleepless misery that was the day.
It was, of course, not as soothing as he had found Katara, but in Zuko's entire life he'd never found anything quite that calming. She was a virtual siphon for his normally simmering temper. He had almost gotten used to her being around, and her absence had become… uncomfortable.
Now all he had was his uncle… who was not particularly soothing.
"OOhh. Aaggg. Ugggg."
Zuko ignored his uncle's over-the-top groaning and continued to steer their komodo-lizard through the starlit sands.
"Eeeg. Errg. Oooh."
"Are you alright uncle?" Zuko said, the moonlight illuminating a throbbing vein in his forehead. This would not the first time his uncle had leaned on his injury as a reason for stopping to take a tea break.
Not even the first time tonight.
"Oh. No. Don't stop on my account," Iroh said, in apparent misery.
"Very well. I won't."
An entire dune passed in silence.
"Erg. Oog. Aah."
"Ash and BONE, uncle!" Zuko roared as he wrenched the komodo-lizard to a halt.
"What?"
"How, in Akodo's name, did you ever lead an entire army if you had to stop every other hour?!" Zuko spat, dismounting in a huff. "If we ever want to get OUT of this damned desert we need to keep mov-"
"Ah but you forget, nephew," Iroh began, his sandals hitting the sand as well, "I was so much younger then. And, unless I'm very much mistaken about the day, we are about to see the wonder of the dragon-turtle's meteor shower on the western horizon. Obviously, we need to stop and…"
Zuko, vein still throbbing in his temple, glared at his uncle malevolently.
"I mean… this wound is so grievous! I must rest!"
"…Let me see your shoulder," Zuko growled.
"…What?"
"If it is bothering you so much then I should see if I can't fix it," Zuko said as he slowly stalked forward, glowering at his uncle.
"WHAT? No, no that's just fine nephew. These things… they just take time!" Iroh said backing away, clutching his kimono to his chest in a fair impression of a scandalized woman.
"You… old… FAKER!" Zuko roared, grabbing at his kimono. "If there is even a scab anymore I will EAT my sandals."
The two of them struggled in an inelegant manner for a long minute; muttered curses and mock scandalized assurances of innocence rolling around in the dunes.
Then somebody cleared their throat.
The two former Lion samurai paused for the briefest of moments, then sprang to their feet, backs together for protection, fire appearing at their hands. They found themselves surrounded, the shadowed forms of rhino-lizard cavalry having taken positions around them on the tops of dunes.
"You two done?" growled a familiar voice.
"Haki?" Zuko asked, peering into the dark, not dropping his stance.
The man in question summoned fire into his hand, the burst of orange illuminating his normally genial bearded face. He didn't look overly happy at the moment however, and next to him, on a mount of his own, was Zuko's former infantry Sgt-turned-officer Uesugi Rin who had the same grim look he always wore.
"I'm sorry, but you've got to come with us sir," Rin said.
"Go with you where?" Zuko asked, knowing the answer before he even asked.
Haki and Rin glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes.
"Her Highness…" Rin began.
"Is too busy to come and deal with me herself," Zuko growled. "Well, lieutenant, I'm afraid that I must deny your request."
"It's captain now, sir."
"Really?" Zuko said with a sneer. "Well at least your services were not cheaply bought. When did YOU become so concerned with rank, Captain?"
"Since my family's fortunes became dependent on it, sir." Rin's normally calm demeanor turned sheepish for a moment. "It's Bo sir. She's pregnant."
"And what that to do with… YOU?" Zuko's jaw dropped. "But you… she…" Zuko was stunned. Lt Bo, Zuko's former engineer, was only a touch over half Rin's age.
"She made a very convincing argument, and her parents were far more comfortable with her marrying a captain than a simple lieutenant."
"Congratulations!" Iroh said, beaming. "I was always rooting for you two!"
Zuko shook his head, dismissing the image of his rather happy-go-lucky twenty-something lieutenant standing next to the dour forty-year-old sergeant he'd served with since he had been fifteen. "Well I would HATE to make Bo a widow," he said narrowing his eye. "Leave. NOW."
"I can't do that sir."
"You can, and you will Captain. That's an order."
"We don't take orders from you anymore, ronin," Haki shouted. Then he spurred his mount forward down the dune, bending fire at the same time.
Zuko rolled to the side, dodging the fire, and then leaped forward tackling Haki and taking him off his rhino-lizard. It charged past Iroh, who, no longer showing any signs of injury or fatigue, belched fire at the four soldiers that were bearing down on him.
After forcing Haki off his mount Zuko spun away, dodging fire, and almost had his head taken clean off as Rin's blade came flashing out of its sheath, flying in a deadly silver-gold arc in the reflected moon and firelight. Zuko managed to react just in time however, falling backward and summoning fire in a spinning circle from his feet.
Zuko dodged and ducked, bent fire at Haki and parried Rin's lightning quick strikes as best he could. He was pleased to note that his former subordinates had at least formulated a strategy to fight him to their best advantage. They remained on either side of him, taking advantage of his lack of depth perception and peripheral vision. They drew him back and forth between the two of them, not allowing him to engage and overwhelm either of them in turn.
Their only mistake was that they thought they had seen everything that Zuko had to offer, that they knew everything he was capable of.
"Never assume the enemy will remain the same. The enemy is a living thing, and the only constant in life is change," Akodo had written.
Time to see if this works as well here as it does in practice.
Zuko seized one of Haki's wilder blasts of fire, amplifying it and sending it spinning around him in a brief hurricane of fire, creating space between himself and his two attackers, giving him just enough time to center himself and…
Divide and…
"rrrrrr-AAAHHHHHH!" Zuko roared, driving his fist into the ground, creating a thundering shockwave that sent a ripple through the sands and sent Rin and Haki flying backwards, almost fifteen feet, knocking them senseless.
"Uncle! We're leaving!" Zuko shouted, running to mount his komodo-lizard.
"Waiting on YOU, nephew," Iroh said with a toothy smile from his seat on top of one of his enemies' mounts.
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"I must say, I am surprised nephew."
It had been almost a week since that initial encounter with Zuko's former subordinates. The two groups had clashed several more times after that and Zuko now had a few new scars. To be fair, he was pretty sure he'd given Haki a concussion and broken one of Rin's ribs in the last encounter. They had been remarkably persistent in their pursuit, which Zuko was both annoyed and pleased by. Annoyed because it made his trip through this infernal desert even longer, and pleased because their skill and persistence reflected well upon him as their former commanding officer.
He liked to think that he had taught them the meaning of obsessive pursuit.
Now he and Iroh, along with their mounts, were secreted in a cave they had found in a butte which overlooked a small oasis. They needed a break, a chance to rest and recover, and to that end, they had obscured the entrance to the cave to best of their ability. While Zuko was certain that the false trail he had made to send them off course was not perfect, it was still a fair sight better than the one the Avatar had made.
Now he sat silently, watching the desert through the debris that hid their hiding place.
"I said, I am surprised-"
"I heard you uncle."
"Oh." Iroh paused for a moment, regrouping. "Why haven't you killed them? Rin and Haki. You've had opportunities."
"They're my men."
"Zuko, they're not your soldiers anymore."
"True, but they're not really my enemies either. They're my people. I have a responsibility to them, a duty. They're not doing anything dishonorable, and I have the ability to defeat them without killing them. Seems simple enough to me."
"Even if we have to hide in caves?"
Zuko shrugged.
"Tell me what's in your head," Iroh said gently. "Please."
Zuko was silent for a long moment.
"I have been contemplating the nature of duty, uncle. 'A samurai is intensely loyal to those in his care. To those he is responsible for, he remains fiercely true,' Akodo said. Though I am disowned, cast out by my family-"
"Present company excluded," Iroh said.
"Present company excluded," Zuko agreed with a small nod. "In spite of that, I am not released from my duty, from my oaths. 'Even if all friendship and glory desert me. Even though the land be swallowed by the sea, and the very Sun falls from the sky.' That's how long they last. The Fire-Lord has released me, but I am not sure that that releases me from my duty to my people; even if some of those people are trying to kill me. In fact, I believe you once told me that my duty to my people supersedes my duty to the throne. Even scarred, exiled, and stripped of name I do not contemplate killing my father. So why would I kill the soldiers I helped train, who helped train me? The ones who fought by my side." He snorted in mirth. "Besides, I was not lying before. I would hate to make Bo a widow. She deserves better."
"She does indeed," Iroh said with a chuckle. "You really had NO idea about…"
"None whatsoever. I'd have had to censure them for fraternization if I had. When in the Sun's name did that happen?"
"Just after the Kyoshi raid, I think."
"After Kyoshi? Ash and bone, I am an idiot."
"There was a betting pool actually; on when you'd figure it out. I lost ten koku," Iroh said, grimacing in remembrance.
"And there was gambling as well? Truly I was remiss in my duties," Zuko said sarcastically. Gambling was one of those things that was technically against shipboard regulations but was only enforced by the truly stupid. Soldiers liked to gamble, and as long as they weren't taking advantage of one another, thus causing a loss in good order and discipline, most officers turned a blind eye to it.
"Well, you did have other things you were focusing on," Iroh said, smiling amiably.
Zuko grunted in the affirmative, his eye turning back to his contemplation of the desert.
Zuko had been contemplating the nature of duty, but more specifically, an argument he'd had with Katara. Apparently, she thought that samurai had "a duty to care for all peoples." She thought that all people should be treated as though they were her own tribesmen, as though she had a responsibility for every living person on the planet. Zuko didn't agree, didn't understand it, but, given his feelings for the girl, he was doing his best to simply accept it.
Absolutely ridiculous.
He smiled.
Charming, but ridiculous.
He shook his head, banishing thoughts of her. No matter how pleasant they were, they were a distraction from vigilance. It was also unlikely that he would be seeing her again anytime soon and frankly, he was glad. He didn't want to drag her into another conflict, she already had enough of those to be getting on with.
"It was good to see them again," Zuko said, bringing the conversation back to their pursuers. "Although I find myself wishing that I still had friends that weren't trying to murder me."
"…Friends that aren't trying to murder us, huh?" Iroh mused for a moment. "I think I have an idea!"
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"Your idea was to play PAI SHO?" Zuko snarled quietly in his uncle's ear.
After Rin and Haki had come and gone from the oasis, following the false trail Zuko had lain, Iroh had led the two of them north, moving at speed. After a few nights of tense travel, they made it to the oasis town of En'u Yashinoku. While once, before the war, the area around the miraculous ice fountain had been a major tourist attraction, the village now resembled nothing more than a poorer, seedier, sandier version of Tohin Wo. Bandits, sandbenders and other assorted scum roamed the streets, gambling and fighting, blades bare in their hands.
Incongruously, in the other hand, most of them also carried a variety of fruit cocktails, in large cups carved from ice, that would have looked more at home in the hands of academy co-eds back in the Fire-Nation.
They even had little umbrellas in them.
Iroh had led Zuko and their mounts straight to the most disreputable looking tavern at the town center and once there had ordered two of the fruity alcoholic beverages. After Zuko had paid for them, Iroh shoved one in his hands and then made his way to a Pai Sho table in the corner of the bar, seating himself across from an older, significantly less seedy looking gentleman.
Despite his nephew's muttered curses and snarls Iroh said nothing, only having eyes for the game once he had sat down. He played against his opponent with an unusual methodical rhythm, eschewing his normal tact of peppering his play with puns, witticisms, and laughter. Throughout he remained quiet, almost solemn.
"Well played," Iroh's opponent said after nearly a half hour of silent play. "Welcome brother. The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."
"The wha-" Zuko question was cut off as the door to the bar flew open, admitting Rin and a semi-furious Haki. Apparently, they had doubled back to the oasis.
"It's OVER ronin!" Haki shouted. "You're coming with us!"
Iroh and his opponent shared a look. Iroh nodded slightly.
Zuko leapt to his feet, throwing his nearly empty ice bowl aside as he did so. "I am really getting tired of you tw-"
"I KNEW IT!" Iroh's Pia Sho "brother" shouted, surprisingly loudly for such a small man. "You two are wanted criminals with a GIANT BOUNTY on your heads! You two think you're going to capture them and collect ALL THAT GOLD?!"
Haki looked confused.
Zuko did as well, but after a beat he grinned.
Rin put his back to Haki and his hand on his sword.
"It's the flaming pirates all over again," he grumbled, narrowed eyes sweeping the bar.
The entire bar, full of bandits and other assorted dregs of humanity, was now on their feet, weapons to hand, greedy glints in their eyes.
After an entirely too brief pause they pounced, almost as one, and it turned into a free-for-all.
Zuko excelled at free-for-alls.
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After the three of them managed to surreptitiously extract themselves from what had become a madcap brawl Iroh's Pai Sho friend led them to a flower shop on the outskirts of town.
How or why an impoverished village full of bandits and scum would have such a thing as a flower shop was a question that remained unanswered.
Zuko, still dripping and stinking of alcohol and fruit juices, was left cooling his heels in the front of the shop while Iroh and several other mysterious people inclined to the "cryptic arts" had a meeting in the backroom. He emerged several hours later, with false Earth-Kingdom paperwork and a plan to smuggle them all the way to Ba Sing Se.
"It's the safest place in the entire Earth-Kingdom nephew," he said, dismissing Zuko's skeptical look. "After all, not even I was able to get in!"
Ba Sing Se. The impenetrable city. The great enemy. The great Kaiu wall had stood for thousands of years as both a marvel of engineering and earthbending, guarding the great city's fertile rice lands from their ancient enemies, a now extinct race of legendary creatures collectively called "the Oni."
In the modern era however, that wall stood as a challenge. An implicit suggestion that, perhaps, the Fire-Nation was not as powerful as they thought they were. Only one man had ever breached the wall, and Zuko happened to be his nephew. Beyond the Kaiu lay the smaller, but no less impenetrable, Uchi wall which protected the city itself. Iroh might have torn that one down as well if his son had not fallen in battle, and Iroh himself not fallen into the madness.
The Kaiu wall was so monumental a project, so intrinsic to the identity of Ba Sing Se and the Crab dojo as a whole, that the workers who had been involved in its construction had all been given the honor of a surname. The Kaiu "family," had it been organized like a traditional noble family, would have probably been the largest in the world. The surname was even common in the Fire-Nation colonies and Zuko's very first retainer had born the name.
Now, it seemed that Zuko was to bear the name as well as he snuck into the city, disguised as a refugee no less.
The two former Akodos departed En'u Yashinoku concealed in two large flower pots, abandoning their mounts amid the sounds of still enduring battle. Even from the inside of the earthenware pot, Zuko could still hear Haki roaring.
As they traveled further north, now riding with the pots instead of inside them, the desert gave way to badlands, which quickly gave way to a thin strip of fertile land which clung to the banks of the Mangetsu river as it flowed into Chameleon Bay. While the larger bay area was still under Fire-Nation control (thanks in no small part to Zuko) the mouth of the eastward flowing river was still in Earth-Kingdom hands, with the great fortress of Shiro Yasuki overlooking it and the safe refuge port of Full Moon Bay.
Using their newly acquired identification "Kaiu Mushi" and his scowling nephew "Ping" joined the massive crowds that were fleeing before the Fire-Nation advance, purchasing tickets for a ferry that would see them across the river and up a tributary to a hidden port just outside the wall. Zuko did his best to blend in with the rest of the refugees but found it difficult where it wasn't flatly impossible. The huddled masses were cowed, stoop-shouldered and shambling, where Zuko, for the most part, stood and sat with his back ramrod straight.
Iroh managed the deception far more easily, laughing and joking with people, occasionally singing for coins, much to Zuko's embarrassment.
After waiting an interminable time in line to buy their tickets, they spent nearly another day camped out in the underground docks simply waiting for the next ferry to arrive. When it did, Zuko joined the line to have his papers checked before boarding.
"Do I know you?" one of the customs agents said, examining his passport and his face.
"I do not think so," Zuko said tersely.
The guard was a surprisingly attractive woman, with big blue eyes, red-brown hair, and a pair of tessen at her hips.
"How'd you get the scar?" she asked glancing back at his paperwork.
"The Fire-Nation," Zuko replied. This was in keeping with the backstory provided for in their false identities and was what Zuko had started telling people in the Earth-Kingdom who dared to ask. Usually, that was enough to make people stop asking questions.
Instead, the guard chuckled. "Yeah, I've got a couple of those myself," she said patting her tessen. "Comes with the territory."
"You are a Kyoshi warrior," Zuko said. It was less a question and more a statement of fact.
"You've heard of us?" the girl said, beaming.
"I have several friends who speak highly of your skills with the tessen," he said, bowing politely.
The guard stuck her hand out. "I'm Suzuki Suki. No jokes please, I've heard them all."
…SUKI? Oh shit.
"Kaiu Ping," Zuko said, bowing again.
"In the Earth-Kingdom we shake hands, Ping," Suki said, cocking an eyebrow.
"In the Fire-Nation… Colonies, we don't"
"Well you're not in the Colonies anymore," Suki said with a smile. "Put 'er there."
Flaming Barbarians.
Despite his misgivings, Zuko put "er" there.
"See, that wasn't so tough, was it?" Suki said and then mused for a moment. "You might not want to tell people you're from the Colonies from now on though. The city can be… rough. A lot of overcrowding. Some people will take any excuse to start trouble."
"I thank you for your advice, Ms. Suzuki. May I pass?" The line behind Zuko was beginning to grow restless.
"You're sure we've never met?" she said, peering at him.
Zuko thought back to the raid on Kyoshi Island, over a year ago now. The woman before him looked remarkably different without her traditional makeup, but he remembered holding her at sword point, roaring for the Avatar to stop hiding and face him, and burning down her village.
But he wasn't that man anymore. Akodo Zuko had died on the banks of the Kashi-no-Ki. He was the ronin Ping.
"In a different life perhaps," he said.
Suki shrugged and waved him on.
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"Who would have thought that after all these years I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace… as a tourist!"
Iroh beamed out at the waters of the Mangetsu underneath a ridiculous flowered hat he had acquires from somewhere. Zuko, standing beside him at the port side rail, frowned down at him.
"Be cautious uncle. I was nearly recognized coming on to the boat."
"Don't be such a pessimist nephew," Iroh said, nudging him with an elbow and leering. "That girl was flirting with you. She was very pretty."
Zuko rolled his eye.
The journey upriver to Ba Sing Se was expected to take almost a week, and twice a day the huddled refugees, who for the most part lived and slept under the open sky above deck, would line up at the aft of the boat to receive a bowl of stew to eat.
Zuko had initially been pleased to hear that there was to be stew, recalling the wonder that had been Senla's stew back in Haiya. He was, however, bitterly disappointed. This stew was practically a sacrilege by comparison. The meat, which looked suspiciously like ostrich-horse, was half rotten. The broth was more water than stock and the vegetables made the meat look fresh.
"This is disgusting."
"Food is food, nephew," Iroh said pacifyingly. Despite his words, he didn't appear to want to eat any more of the swill himself.
"What sort of honorless dog feeds starving peasants like this?"
"You ain't wrong," a voice said.
A young man around Zuko's age strode over to them. He was lightly armored and had a piece of long grass between his teeth, but Zuko paid more attention to the pair of hook-swords slung over his back.
Anyone who carried those was either exceptionally dangerous or a complete idiot.
In a worst-case scenario, they were both.
"I'm Jet," the man said, and gestured to the two shorter men behind him. "These are my friends, Smellerbee and Longshot."
Zuko considered them for a moment, then lifted out his hand to shake.
Might as well get used to this barbarian custom.
"Kaiu Ping," Zuko said, doing his best not to scowl at his own name. They shook hands.
"Well Kaiu, I ain't much fond of the food myself. 'Specially the fact that while we sit out here, eating mold and bugs, the captain of the boat eats like a King."
"What kind of a King?" Iroh asked.
"The fat and happy kind," Jet said with a sneer.
"You speak like someone who already has something in mind," Zuko said flatly.
"Yeah. Not too complicated friend. We sneak in, take the food, hand out the foot, eat the food. Simple." He gave Zuko what he seemed to think was a winning grin. "What d'yah think?"
Don't be a fool. These aren't your people. This is a needless risk.
Zuko cast his eye over the miserable people picking at stinking swill.
We have a duty to care for all peoples everywhere, Katara had said.
…FINE. We'll try it her way.
"I have always preferred to keep things simple," Zuko responded.
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All things considered, it was the least dangerous stealth mission Zuko had ever been on.
Security was non-existent. There were no traps, ambushes, or patrol patterns to memorize. No enemy at the end of the maze to duel and NO Tsurushi archers to generally just fuck things up.
The aftermath was a relatively new experience however.
As they passed out the foodstuffs, the refugees smiled, and in some case, even wept in gratitude. It had probably been years since anyone had looked at Zuko like that.
Probably sometime before you found the Avatar.
It made him uncomfortable, and so, a single bowl of rice in hand, he retreated from the milling crowd and went to the edge of the boat to think.
Was this the right choice? Certainly, it was easy, but there will be consequences later.
He knew for certain that this was what Katara would have done, she probably would have had the whole boat up in arms, but Zuko wasn't sure if that was really an endorsement or not. The girl was entirely too kind and didn't really consider second order effects.
Not that I have much room to talk. I'm the one who tried to drag the Avatar overtop of a glacier during a blizzard. But no matter how righteous this cause was, there WILL be consequences. I wouldn't be surprised if-
"Yah know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were," Jet said from behind him, startling him away from his thoughts.
Zuko hand dropped to the scabbard of his katana.
"You're an outcast, just like me," Jet continued. "Us outcasts have gotta stick together. We have to watch one another's back. 'Cause nobody else will."
Zuko took his hand from his sword and fixed Jet with a look. "What are you suggesting?"
"Well, I used to have a little group of friends back home. We'd… look out for each other, work together on… projects. I think you'd have fit in just fine."
"You know nothing about me."
"I know you're skilled. I know you ain't afraid to do what it takes, whatever it takes. I know you like to keep things simple. Ain't much more I need to know," Jet said smirking at him. "City up ahead is supposed to be on the rough side. It's good to have friends."
Zuko began to respond but Jet cut him off. "Don't have to answer now. Just give it till the boat docks. You'll see I'm right." With that, he turned and walk away.
Zuko scowled at his back, and then turned and scowled at the moonlit river.
I'm beginning to think that this whole plan was a BAD idea.
A/N: Happy Sunday sports fans (or if you are reading this in the future, happy whatever day of the week it is, provided our robot overlords still allow you access to a calendar) Hope you enjoyed the semi-long ramble fest that was "the long and winding road." So much ground covered, so many corners cut. Anyway, thanks for reading all the way to the end and if you liked it, why not leave a comment/review. Or a kudos. Or just, you know, good vibrations, or something. The Beach Boys and I both love them good vibrations. Anyway…
Met-AAAAAA-BITS! /sound of thunder
No rough rhinos: Now, to be clear, I'm not suggesting that Rin and/or Haki were the ones responsible for burning down Jet's village (which was another of those plot lines that never really got resolved). They might have been, but I'm not touching on that at all, or at least have no PLANS to do so. So instead of adding new (admittedly canon) characters I've simply substituted my own OCs into their place. Because I can, that's why. They also take the place of Toph's bending teacher (whose name escapes me and I am too lazy to look up) and Xin Fu as the bounty hunters in misty palms oasis (now named En'u Yashinoku, thank you google translate). I thought it would be good to just touch base with them a bit. But that said you can assume the that the Rough Rhinos ARE still a thing, but just not here and not chasing Zuko at the moment.
The Crab dojo: So now comes a bit of exposition where I talk about the OTHER aspect of this fusion in great (and probably exhausting) detail. If you don't care, which is a perfectly acceptable state of mind, feel free to skip to the next bit. Still here? Awesome. In L5R the main antagonist is a devil/hades/slumbering-darkness type guy named Fu Leng. A seriously bad dude. He fell from heaven and landed in the realm of the dead, from there he sort of burst out into the mortal world all evil and scary-like with a horde of demons and other horrible abomination things. The Crab clan's entire purpose in life is the defense of the empire from those things and the Shadowlands at large. To that end, they DID build a giant-ass wall (a wall of china homage) and they man it with a intensity. So that's their deal. For the purposes of THIS fusion, you can assume that the tales of demons and oni are more legendary, having happened in the distant, distant past. Legend of Korra places the first Avatar 10,000 years prior to the modern era and I have accepted that number as a sort of "age of heroes" for this world. 10,000 years ago saw the wars against the demons, the rise of bushido, the foundations of the dojos, the birth of the first avatar, and a variety of other legendary events. Honestly, the presence of the wall in Ba Sing Se, and Zuko's honor obsession were the first two parallels that got this fusion idea a rolling, thus consuming a considerable portion of my free time.
I regret NOTHING.
Jet: So I don't know if it's something I should be apologizing for, but for some reason, when I started writing Jet's dialog… he decided that he was from Texas. I assure you that that was never something I planned, HE frigging decided, NOT me. SO you will probably have noticed that, and will continue to notice it, because if nothing else I will always run with something I think works. Weird, random and possibly off-putting or not, I run. Anyway, Jet's here with all his smirking, shit-eating grinning and charisma. We all have SOME idea of how this is going to turn out, don't we?
Well, that's it! Good work everyone! A true team effort. Remember I'm always open to concrit and reviews/comments. If you like (or hate) my work always feel free to tell me about it. Please use proper grammar when you bash me though, otherwise I FAR more likely to just ignore it.
Thanks AGAIN!
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NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...
Iroh drinks tea! Zuko gets angry, and the police are summoned!
TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!
Original post date: 14 October 2018
