"WHAT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?" Shiyu screamed out as everyone else watched the young Fire Lord head slam straight into the Political Room's table. The once quiet room was now in complete disarray and chaos, with some people leaping out of their seats to rush to the prince and others panicking about what just took place before them.
Zuko, in almost an instant, fell right out of his chair and landed face-first onto the floor, his skin turning pale immediately.
Iroh couldn't believe what was happening before his eyes.
"No! Lord Zuko, what's wrong, please wake up!" Iroh chanted frantically as he held his nephew trying desperately to bring him back to consciousness.
Slowly, the Sages devolve into quarreling:
"What's wrong with him?"
"What the hell do you mean 'what's wrong?' the boy's been poisoned, that's what happened!"
"I knew none of you could ever be trusted, you all wanted him gone the minute he became the Fire Lord, you always were nothing but loyal slaves to your master Ozai, but to have this happen, this is low even for you all!"
Shiyu suddenly found himself ganged into a corner after that blatant attack.
"What did you just say to me, you insubordinate fool?" The Sage Leader asked as he gleered at Shiyu with a look of absolute disgust and shock at the words that just came out of his spiritual brother's mouth.
"How dare you, HOW DARE YOU try to brand US, who have been loyal to the Fire Nation Royal family from the very beginning, who have done nothing but love, serve, and honor Fire Lord Zuko to the upmost and fullest of our capabilities, of betraying him and threatening his life! Do you really think that low of us, brother? That we would actually engage in that ridiculous nonsense!?"
While everybody else was busy panicking and fighting amongst themselves, Aang stood up and unleashed a gigantic tornado that silenced everyone in the room.
"EVERYBODY! BE, QUIET, NOW!" yelled Katara in anger.
The Sages stopped almost immediately after the Ambassador and the Avatar ordered them. They may have had their pride, but picking a fight with the people they were trying to make peace with was not on the table.
The whole room froze in silence; people lost pondering their own thoughts, a traitor in the mist of peace! Who could have done this? The nobles suspected foul play amongst their ranks, while the SWT held their seats in contempt for the Fire Nation. Typical, they thought, of the people in the Capital to sabotage their own through deceit and treachery.
"Alright, nobody move an inch." Aang stated with shocking aggression as he stood ready to launch all four elements onto anyone who dared to move a muscle. This was no shock to Katara though, seeing as how much her and Aang had grown to care so much for Zuko during his short time as a number of the Gaang. The very thought of someone even daring to threaten his life would be enough to set her over she the edge, she thought.
"Aang, go check on Zuko, I've got things covered if anyone tries anything."
"Right." Aang said as he dashed across the table to where Zuko had fallen.
"Hey, Zuko! are you alright?!" Aang loudly whispered nervously, fearing for his friends life.
"He's still breathing, Avatar Aang, but he needs medical attention, or else I'm afraid the poison he took could spread to his system." Iroh said, holding his beloved nephew in his arms, holding him so as to not agitate his body.
"H..Hey Aang, don't look like that, this isn't gonna stop us from bringing peace to the world, I've dealt with worse in my life than this, so I'll get through it, don't worry." Zuko mumbled weakly, putting his hands onto Aang's in order to reassure him everything was going to be alright.
"Give him his space! Back up!." Iroh commanded at the nobles hovering over Zuko. Given their current situation, they wouldn't want anyone they weren't sure they could trust right next to him.
"Let me take care of Zuko, Uncle Iroh." Katara said, having about what seemed like billions of water spears aimed directly at everyone in the room.
"My my, she can do that with only a little bit of water? She really is a POWERFUL girl." Iroh thought to himself as he addressed the young Water Tribe girl.
"My nephew always respected you and trusted you completely, and from what I have seen, I know you will take care of him." Iroh said with a smile on his face.
Katara tried to hide her blush at Iroh's compliment as she quickly, but cautiously got Zuko off his feet and took him to his chambers.
"Alright." said Aang, his full attention now on everyone else in the room. "Time to get to the bottom of this."
Notes:
Finally back to this story after so long! For some time I've been trying to decide on how long these chapters are going to be, so I figured I need to make them short and tight for now, since these first couple of chapters are going to be pretty dialogue-driven and tension-driven, especially the next chapter.
I don't have the time to work on this regularly like I want, but I will be updating whenever I have the opportunity, since this is my first "real" fan-fic and I love playing around with these characters; I've always wanted to make a Kataang fic that's more action/adventure-based, but I'm not against Zutara at all, so there will definitely be no mitigating of their bond for ship agendas in this story.
I won't be revealing too much for now as far as who is where and what's going on with everybody right now, but, I will say that all questions will be answered in due time. *evil snicker*
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, see you next time!