Chapter 3! I may not post for a while. Finals week, everyone! Grrrrr…..

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-Iason

Inuria

Chapter 3

Zuko sat at his desk staring at everything he was supposed to do, but not really doing any of it. He picked up a piece of parchment, then decided not to and put it back down.

He ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep breath as he stared at all of the invitations and the letters he had received back telling him who was coming and who wasn't. Why did his uncle know so many people?

Of course, many of the people he had invited were people in power who were expected to be there anyway.

Zuko sighed again. His uncle really did too much. He wasn't getting any younger, and though he acted like nothing was wrong in the world, it was perfectly clear that the Dragon of the West was developing some physical problems and limitations in his old age. Just the other day Zuko had to help him get a tea kettle off of a shelf that Iroh normally could reach up and get himself.

Zuko sat back in his chair and stared off into space, lost in his own thoughts.

His friends had finally shown up. Well, everyone except for Suki and Aang, but he hadn't really expected them to show up so early. And yet, even though they were here, Zuko felt like not much had changed. Granted, there was more of a spring in his step, and he felt happier than he had in weeks, but he was still Firelord, and there were still things to do.

Not that he wanted to do them. It wasn't that Zuko didn't want to be Firelord (if you want something done right, you do it yourself...) it was just that it wasn't as much as his father had made it out to be.

Ozai had always made being the Firelord look so power invested - you told people what to do and they did it. Plain and simple. Of course Zuko was trying to restore order, and he wasn't consumed with a desire to conquer the world and make everyone his slaves.

Zuko smiled to himself. Those were the days; when he and his uncle were exiled from the Fire Nation, hopelessly following the Avatar around the world in hopes of doing some good for his father. Believe it or not, life (in a way) had been simpler then.

But he wouldn't have changed anything for the world.

Zuko slowly stood up and stretched, making his way to the door slowly as he stretched out his legs carefully. Sitting down for so long had made his entire left leg fall asleep, and his right leg had managed to begin to cramp up.

I'd better not be getting old already.

Zuko gave one last large stretch and he went into the hallway. It was dimly lit with low burning torches aligning the walls. The red carpets lined with gold gave the corridor a more regal feel than an ordinary palace, and the faint colored walls were soothing to Zuko. He ran his fingers lightly over the minorly textured paint as he walked slowly to his chambers.

He had been up four hours after he had told his friends goodnight at the dinner table.

Zuko cringed a little.

He felt a little guilty for leaving them for his duties but to allow the kingdom to slack just because his friends were present seemed like such a childish thing to do. His uncle had offered to take care of them while they were here, a part of Zuko argued. But that would've put more strain on him than necessary, Zuko thought back. Iroh was too old to deal with such stuff, even if he was too proud to admit it. The man should've been retired a long time ago.

Ah the joys of being part of such an important lineage.

Zuko reached his room and opened the large doors with a sigh. Tomorrow he'd give his friends as much attention as he could spare.

Suddenly his mind flashed back to dinner when they had arisen to go to their chambers. A cool hand sliding softly though his hair as though to comfort him. Zuko unconsciously closed his eyes as he revisited the moment. He opened his eyes and furrowed his brow as he lit the torches on the wall with his firebending.

Had Katara known he was stressed? She's always been there for him even when she hated him. She had kept him true to himself, even when she had insulted him to no end. Because of the close eye she had kept on him the first few weeks he had joined Team Avatar, Katara could read him almost as well as his uncle could. Zuko didn't know whether to be thrilled or scared by that fact.

Zuko took off his outer robes and tossed them onto one of his bedposts.

He shrugged his other robes of and did the same, then pulled off his shirt leaving him standing in the middle of his room barefoot and shirtless.

Going through his "pre-bedtime ritual" (which he actually did without being consciously aware of it), brushed his fingers along all of his large scars that he had received since his father had attacked him as he walked to his bed.

His upper arm from Katara, his stomach from Azula, his forearm from Toph when she had though he was an intruder into her room, his shoulder from his last assassination attempt, and finally his face. The scar that had started it all.

Zuko used to regard the scar with hate. The topic was unspeakable, and whenever someone did mention it or ask, Zuko would flare out in anger whether the person's intentions had been hostile or not.

Now...well now Zuko had made peace with the fact that it was there. How could one ignore such a large part of themselves?

Zuko pulled back the heavy covers from his mattress; the bed was large and Zuko felt a little put down that he was the only one in it and had been for a year. But in all honesty, Zuko was starting to prefer his own bed. Yet another small part of the 'old Zuko' that was still there.

Something rustled outside his window and the Firelord paused. He slowly made his way to the window, his feet light from training and his body tensed.

Zuko stopped right next to the window so that if anyone were to peer in, they wouldn't be able to see him. He paused and listened, hearing nothing for a long while.

All he heard was his own soft breathing and the wind blowing outside. All of a sudden a flash of concentrated lightning blew the window inwards, causing Zuko to shout in alarm as the shards flew everywhere.

Two men dressed in all black, one wearing a dark green mask, the other wearing a dark purple one, jumped nimbly through the window and immediately faced the Firelord in a bender's stance.

Zuko was already crouched in his, and as he studied the men, he could immediately tell that one was a waterbender, and the other was a firebender.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Zuko demanded as the men began to slowly get closer to him.

The green-masked man answered first. "The same as you Your Highness," he addressed Zuko almost mockingly with an obvious sneer.

With that he blasted a powerful ball of blue fire at Zuko who killed it with a large sweeping motion. The force made him slide backwards a foot on the carpet and Zuko clenched his jaw.

"What do you want?!" Zuko fired a blast of fire at the man in the green and the man easily did a backflip over the blast that went out through the window.

"Peace. Order. A ruler of a powerful nation. This nation is no longer powerful." The purple masked man answered this time, the launched multiple ice shards at his face.

Zuko rolled and popped back up and fired two blasts - one at each man. The with a mighty roundhouse kick he sent a wall of flame at them.

One man fell backwards while the other had dodged. The green masked man.

"You have blue fire," Zuko said aloud more to himself than anything else.

The green masked man seemed to study Zuko carefully before he answered. "Some of us are more powerful than other firebenders."

Zuko clenched his fists, glancing at the unconscious purple masked man. "I'm not weak," he hissed through his teeth. He then gave a shout as he fired a few shots, doing a flip in the air and launching multiple attacks with his feet before landing.

He looked up, breathing hard as his opponent gracefully landed as well. So far The man had only fired twice the entire night.

"ZUKO!" A voice was shouting from a distance, and the sound of running feet was making its way to his chambers.

The green masked man quickly turned and draped the other man across his shoulders. "I only came to deliver a message, Firelord."

Once again, his tone was mocking.

Zuko was growling. "What?"

He could've sworn there was a smile in the man's voice when he replied.

"Tomorrow you will deposit a bag with 1200 pieces of gold by the beach a mile down from the docks. There will be a large rock marked with an emblem. You will put the bag by the rock and walk away. A week later you will do the same until you hear otherwise."

He started for the window.

Zuko fired a fireball near the man's head, effectively stopping him. "I can easily not do everything you told me. I could tell someone else about it. The entire imperial guard will be there waiting for you or whoever goes and gets my money!"

The man chuckled and without turning around, responded. "No. I do think you'll keep this under wraps. And you will do what I've asked of you - after all: it's common knowledge that some dear friends of yours are here for a while. It'd be a shame if something happened to their ship on the way back as they were on it...sailing home...no knowing they'll never reach it. Your highness, if there's one thing you need to understand, it's this: we. Are. Everywhere."

Then the man nimbly jumped out the window and disappeared into the night. Zuko gave a frustrated shout once more and fired a long constant blast through his window after the man who had just left.

He only stopped when someone grabbed his face and forced him to look at them. When his fierce amber eyes made contact with concerned, beautiful blue ones, Zuko felt the energy drain out of him and his muscles slacked.

Katara. Her mouth was moving and her eyebrows were knit in concern as her eyes were studying his face. Slowly her voice faded in.

"Zuko! Zuko! Zuko look at me! Look at me, I'm right here! Zuko! Zuko, you're okay. You're okay."

He had felt hopeless many times over. So many times in fact, he had lost count. But for the first time in his life, Zuko fainted.

Katara stared down at her friend's unconscious form, and gently ran her hands through his hair. She didn't know why she liked doing this; she had learned to accept it.

After Zuko had snapped out of whatever it was and his eyes had finally focused on her, they had rolled back into his head and his entire weight had slumped against her. Using her waterbending and a lot of lifting, Katara had managed to put Zuko into his bed. She had then gotten rid of the glass shards that had obviously come from his window and then she had frozen a sheet of ice where the window should have been.

Then she had pulled up a chair by Zuko's bed and sat there watching him rest. She didn't know why she was doing this. But she did know that she wouldn't be able to sleep right if she just left him here after seeing him pass out.

It had been obvious from the start that Zuko needed some sort of break from his Firelord duties. And from what she had heard and seen, it seemed like someone had tried to kill him again.

Katara sighed and studied his face. Normally hardened by stress, and tensed up with his Zuko personality, his face was immensely relaxed now that he was unconscious. His brow was loosened, his forehead completely clear of any frown marks, and his mouth was even hanging open a little.

Katara glanced back at the giant closed door that led to the corridor. Should she leave?

Katara stared at her friend and put her hand on his hand. No. She'd stay. When he woke up, she'd be there. Like a good friend should.

Katara settled herself for the night and waited.

"Was the message delivered?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. In a week's time everything will be perfect. Our inside agent has sent the 'all clear'?"

"Yes, sir.

"Good. Now, we wait."

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