The candle flames around Jeong Jeong flare as another person enters his tent uninvited. He is tired of being interrupted so rudely; yet, before he can say so much as a word, his finely-attuned sense of heat catches on to something interesting:
His guest, whomever they may be, is a firebender too, of great prowess.
The candles extinguish themselves as Jeong Jeong faces the newest arrival, none too surprised to see a scowl and a scar-marred face staring back.
"Crown Prince Zuko," he addresses curtly, with a careful mask of indifference.
"Jeong Jeong, the Deserter," Zuko growls, trying to appear intimidating, "I know the Avatar was here. Tell me what he has been doing here and which way he has gone and I'll be on my way."
A barely raised eyebrow is as much as Jeong Jeong allows himself to show. "Here I imagined you were the latest in the Fire Lord's attempts to bring me to justice."
"The Avatar is a bigger priority, and I don't care to have my men fight your traitors while he slips away even further. Talk."
Jeong Jeong breathes in deeply, feeling his inner flame stoke. "The child needed a firebending teacher. He had hoped to find one in me. He did not. I will not tell you anything else."
"You will," Zuko snarls. "We have your camp surrounded."
"Then why have you not attacked us yet? You have the advantage here."
Zuko blinks. "…Uncle convinced me to try negotiations."
Ah. There it is. Grand Lotus' firm, invisible hand guiding his nephew. Perhaps…
"Very well. I will tell you…on one condition."
"You aren't in a position to-"
A small, flickering flame appears in Jeong Jeong's palm. "Do you think fire is inherently destructive?"
"What has this got to do with anything?" Zuko frowns in confusion.
"Humour me, Crown Prince."
"…Tch. Whatever. Fire is the strongest element."
"I did not ask you that. I asked you whether you thought fire was inherently destructive or not."
Zuko scoffs. "No? We'd be dead without fire. Fire gives us life. Fire is life."
The flame in Jeong Jeong's hand flickers and disappears as he sighs, "You are incorrect."
"What? You-" the scarred teen jumps up, "Ugh! I knew this was a waste of time! Tell me where the Avatar is now!"
"Or what?"
"What do you mean, what?! I said we have your entire camp surrounded!"
"I have been known to win harder battles during my service to the throne."
"So have I," Zuko spits, "Like Commander Zhao, for example. Your pupil."
Jeong Jeong shakes his head disapprovingly. "Zhao is diseased. So are you, it seems," he adds with a twinge of disappointment, then kneels. "Sit."
"Do you really think I'll just-"
"Sit."
Against all better judgement, Zuko does. Jeong Jeong picks up a dry dead stick off the ground. "Observe," he says as a small flame in his hand lights one end of it on fire.
"Unbelievable," Zuko tries to get up, "you're just stalling."
"Silence," the old firebender commands, "You say fire is not destructive. Observe, then," he moves his fingers on the stick that is now burning brightly, "how fire consumes this stick in it's entirety."
Zuko is visibly irritated, but plays along. Jeong Jeong puts the flaming stick on the ground and they both watch, in darkness and quiet, as it burns.
"Fire destroys," Jeong Jeong says, "until there is nothing left to destroy. And then, it dies." He accents the word just as the last of the stick is charred and turned to ash. The man then picks up the remains and holds them in front of the prince.
"This is absurd," Zuko slaps the hand away with a snarl, "Fire keeps us warm. Fire keeps us alive. You literally have men under your command making campfires out there!"
"Us who?" Jeong Jeong asks pointedly. "Humans?"
"Who else?!" the prince shouts angrily.
"Are we the only ones to inhabit this world then? Humans?" Jeong Jeong parries.
"What? No!"
"Indeed. Tell me then, what other inhabitant, what other animal in this world worships fire as we do? Uses it as we do?"
Zuko almost moves to answer…but no answer comes forth.
"Your silence is telling," Jeong Jeong scoffs, obsering the fallen expression on the boy's face, "There are very few species in this world who would not enjoy basking in the sun, soaking in Agni's Grace. Yet there are no animals alive that see fire as anything other a reason to panic and flee."
The prince seems to be lost in thought for several moments, before facing the deserter and smirking. "Then how do you explain this?" With an inhale, a small form of flame appears in his palm, flickering steadily in rhyme with Zuko's breathing. "Do you see anything being destroyed, or consumed here?"
It is clear he expects Jeong Jeong to back down. Jeong Jeong almost enjoys the look of shock on Zuko's face when he says, "No, and you are correct in this instance, Crown Prince," instead, summoning a flame of his own. "Each and every single firebender had been given a gift – creating fire without having it consume. Creation without destruction. Bringing life without bringing death. Just like Sun itself."
"You-! You belittle me, disagree with everything I say, until you suddenly don't," Zuko says, "Enough. Avatar. Now."
Jeong Jeong only shakes his head disapprovingly. "Every student needs a teacher, a master. Tell me, who was it that taught first humans how to firebend? I will assume your royal education has not skimmed over this."
The prince shoots up, impatient, fire blazing at his fingertips. It reflects in his golden eyes. They burn, too much like his father's in this very moment, Jeong Jeong notes. He himself does not move, merely spares an eye roll at the spectacle.
All fire, eventually, burns out. Zuko's does too. He settles back down, frowning.
"My question, Prince Zuko. Answer."
"The original firebenders – the dragons," Zuko sighs.
Jeong Jeong nods ever so slightly. "The dragons. Agni's children, just like us. The only beast to enjoy the warmth of fire, like us, rather than shy away from it. Remind me, what happened to them?"
"Really?" Zuko is quick to explode again. "You dare to guilt trip me? It was not my actions that killed them! I hadn't ordered it. I wasn't even alive!"
"I am merely proving my point," Jeong Jeong replies calmly, "and you are all too eager prove it as well." With a deep sigh, he slowly reaches for a nearby scroll of parchment and unrolls it, revealing a map of all four nations.
"Last question. What is the first lesson every firebender is taught, once they are able to summon fire?"
Zuko looks over at him in disbelief but answers regardless. "Controlling it. Controlling fire."
"Control," the old master hums.
Jeong Jeong places a single finger on the world map – straight on the Fire Nation. Within moments, the parchment ignites, fire slowly eating through it, burning the part of the map that represented the Fire Nation away. Jeong Jeong falls into a steady rhythm of breathing, and the fire stops right at the edges that denounce the nation's borders, blazing but spreading no further. Jeong Jeong holds it there.
"Control, was it?" the master asks with a hint of twisted amusement. "Your grand-grandfather saw it fit to forget that very first lesson."
With a loud exhale, he lets go. The fire, once again, bites into the parchment, devouring it hungrily, sea and land alike. Zuko stares at it, speechless.
"Nobody else since has tried to bring that control back – they have only fueled the flames. Your grandfather. Your father. Everyone who has ever willingly followed their conquests. If this simple showcase has not shown you, Crown Prince, what you will be doing by following in their footsteps, then we have nothing else to discuss."
Both of them watch as the map burns brightly, leaving only charred refuse behind. "The ability to bend fire used to be a gift. A gift we so horribly misused, mutilated its' purpose beyond recognition. Killed our brethren, set the world aflame, for what? Blind, mindless ambition. Firebending - we do not deserve to have it. Not anymore."
"You-" Zuko barely finds his voice, "you're- you're mad. Insane."
"If what you consider madness is willingly walking away from that," Jeong Jeong voices his contempt, pointing to a pathetic pile of ash left behind, "then I would reconsider your own sanity. You are as lost as those before you."
Zuko stares at the ash pile, eyes unseeing, then storms out of Jeong Jeong's tent. A brief commotion outside, in the camp, can be heard. His men are on high alert, yet they are not attacked. Eventually, when it's clear Crown Prince's forces have withdrawn, they settle down and fall asleep. Jeong Jeong doesn't sleep long into the night. His mind finally finds rest when the only thing to be heard outside is the steady crackling of a burning campfire.
A month later, a missive with a lotus sign finds its' way to Jeong Jeong's arms. It is shaped and written like a typical letter, though incredibly obtuse and boring to read for those uninitiated. For the firebending master, it is a detailed report from Grand Lotus himself, going over Avatar's erratic movements and actions all over Earth Kingdom. One sentence in particular catches his attention.
"I have to thank you for taking care of my garden when I was unable to. Though it was hard for the little lotus to grow in such cold and unfriendly waters, I believe it will blossom soon."
For the first time in a long, long while Jeong Jeong, the old, weathered firebender finds a smile creeping onto his face.