6. The Man Behind The Curtain
"All right, setting course for home!" Sokka announced, punching their previous coordinates into the nav-computer. "Also, dinner in ten minutes," he added.
"You just ate!" Katara protested.
"But he didn't, and he's just been through a healing," her brother replied, jerking his head toward Zuko, who was watching them with an inscrutable expression on his face. Katara was surprised at her brother's thoughtfulness until he added, "That, and making vid-calls makes me hungry. So let's make it in five!"
Katara and Aang glanced at each other and sighed quietly.
"So," Sokka said to Zuko through a mouthful of food. "How'd you get to be a captain in the Agni Kai Armada at your age?"
"Ignore him," Katara ordered, before Zuko could say anything. He glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. "Until he has good manners, just pretend he isn't there. We have to train him somehow," she added in a stage whisper.
"I'm not a polar bear-dog that needs training," Sokka growled, sounding very much like a polar bear-dog.
"Until you start acting like the heir to the Water Tribe, I'll keep doing it," Katara warned.
"Oh, I'm Katara, I'm responsible, I talk to Ba Sing Se diplomats every day," Sokka mocked. "Just because you're - "
"Come on, guys," Aang interrupted. "We do have a guest…"
"Eh, he's part of the crew now," Toph said, looking up from her plate for the first time. "He can take a little bit of sibling rivalry."
The Agni Kai man muttered something that sounded like, "You have no idea."
"Do you have siblings?" Aang asked, having heard this comment.
"A younger sister," he replied.
"Do you get along?"
"No," Zuko said shortly, effectively ending that line of questioning.
"Anyway," Sokka said with a nasty look at Katara, "back to the original question - how'd you get to be a captain so young?"
Zuko sighed and thought about how to put this. "My uncle is rather high up in the Armada, which was a help. But I am very good at what I do." Top of the cadet class, top of everything in basic training and the Command Academy - but, of course, the Fire Lord expected no less from his only son and heir.
"Are you being vague on purpose?" Toph demanded, scowling at him. "Because if you are, it's really starting to irritate me."
"I don't know you," he replied coolly, "and I don't feel the need to tell every detail of my life to people I don't know." He stood. "If you'll excuse me," he said with the smallest of bows, then strode out of the mess, heading for the cabin Katara had quickly shown him before dinner.
He collapsed on the bunk with a scowl, putting one arm over his eyes. He could hear his mother's voice in his head. Zuko, is that any way to treat your hosts?
No, Mother, he replied silently, but they shouldn't have been asking questions. Then he shook his head. Stupid. He must be more tired from the healing than he thought, if he was having mental conversations with his mother. Still, it had been annoying, all the questions they were asking.
He had to admit, the Water Tribe heir didn't act like one - much like the sister had pointed out. The sister - his only excuse for not recognizing her the moment he opened his eyes was disorientation, but that was an excuse, and no excuse was acceptable to an Agni Kai. He was still angry with himself for that particular blunder.
The Shu girl was a problem. None of the intelligence reports he'd ever seen had made any mention of a lie-detecting ability. It was uncanny, the way she'd looked him straight in the eye and called him a liar. Azula always claimed he was a terrible liar, but this was something else altogether.
At least there was a silver lining, if you could call it that, he thought grimly. Whoever it was that had tried to have him killed thought they'd succeeded. He allowed himself a moment to think of his mother and his uncle, then brutally shut the thought down. He needed to think through this.
So, someone had tried to have him killed. This someone obviously had considerable resources - they'd hired pirates, and Zuko had a feeling that they weren't cheaply come by. This person also had to be somewhat high up, because troop missions and ship movements were known only to the Fire Lord, the four Dragons, the seven admirals, and, occasionally, Azula, since she was a) royalty and b) going through her own training at the Command Academy for her captaincy.
He could rule out his Uncle Iroh, Dragon of the West, head of the Armada, immediately. His father… well, his father was strict, but Zuko had done nothing to displease him, and the Fire Lord was nothing if not just. It was a hard justice - the Code demanded it - but it was still justice. And besides - the Fire Lord would not stoop to assassination, especially not of his own heir.
Zuko briefly considered Azula, then ruled her out. She didn't have the time or the resources, not when she was in the Academy, and she wasn't going to waste time doing anything that would put her captaincy in jeopardy. She didn't need the Empire, just a crew who would do her bidding. Though he pitied her crew. Honestly, Zuko didn't really want the Empire either - the responsibility alone! - but it was his duty, and he would fulfil it to the best of his ability. The Code required nothing less.
That left him with the seven admirals and the three remaining Dragons. The admirals he mentally ran through and dismissed. None of them were ambitious enough to try and assassinate the Crown Prince, and it wouldn't do most of them any good anyway.
He was down to three: Piandao, Dragon of the East, in charge of the army; Jeong Jeong, Dragon of the North, in charge of internal defense; and Zhao, Dragon of the South, who oversaw the intelligence force of the Empire. Of those three, when it came down to resources, time, ambition, and just general dislike of Zuko, none stood out further than Zhao.
The dislike had been mutual, but now as Zuko thought it over, it sharpened into hatred. One of his father's top generals, his most trusted advisors - the man in charge of all the information that came into the Agni Kai - was a scum-sucking, Code-breaking, smug, ambitious bastard who hired pirates to try and assassinate the one person who was in his way. The Fire Lord named his heir officially when they came of age, which Zuko just had, at 21, but if the heir was still underage, like Azula - who would be the heir in his place, now that everyone thought he was dead - a special advisor would be named. No doubt Zhao would find a way to maneuver himself into that position instead of Iroh, the slimy -
Zuko froze. What if Zhao's ambitions extended beyond direct influence on the next Fire Lord? What if he wanted to be Fire Lord himself and proceeded to stage a coup? He could do so easily, being in charge of the intelligence service - they specialized in quiet removal of threats, Zuko had seen it himself during the slave rebellion several years ago. And coups had been known to happen - in fact, though they weren't particularly proud of it now, that was how the current dynasty had begun its reign. Now it seemed as though Zhao was ready to begin his own dynasty.
Zuko had to stop him.
A/N: Kudos to Millie, who knows what I am going to write before I even write it. (Does this mean I'm getting predictable? :/ ) Also, I'm glad I could clear up any confusion :)
So now we know who's trying to kill Zuko... the dastardly Zhao! We'll see more of him later. Plus, coming soon, more pirates!