Chapter 13 – Three-way talk
King Kuei got into his royal battle Armor, and had two Dia Li agents with gauntlets made of crystals from the catacombs and several elite earth guards, the King looked at his escort and his generals along with the army of professional soldiers, conscripts, and resistance fighters (fire fighters)he made his way to a earth Kingdome War-Balloon and he decided to give a speech.
"men of the Earth Kingdom, I wish I could say I played a major part in keeping the Earth kingdom safe… but I can't honestly say that, I along with the elite of Ba Sing Se were made blind to this war for over 100 years by agents we trusted.
The Fire nation conquered, ravaged and burned your homes, while we did little more than host elaborate parties, and get exotic pets.
as your King, and fully aware of the atrocities done to our Kingdom, I will not abandon you to the flames, we will retake the colonies and the people of the Fire nation will have to learn to tread carefully on earth territory!"
the crowd erupted into a mass cheer as the War-Balloon lifted up and the Army advanced behind it.
Zuko was on his ship 'the Agni' getting dressed in his full Fire Lord war armor and having his personal Elite Fire Guards who were ready to escort him. He made his way to a War-Blimp, and he looked at the mass of Fire Nation soldiers, tanks with soldiers on them, Yuyan archers sitting on some near by trees, and the war ships with more soldiers and Generals intermixed with them, he decided to give them a speech.
"Soldiers of the Fire Nation, I know that many of you must have mixed feelings of me and my reforms, making our people withdraw from the newer colonies, downsizing the military, and even paying excessive reparations to our former enemies.
I have only listened to the needs no; the wants of the Earth King and never voiced any objection even when my conscience was protesting and for that I am ashamed.
Today I will live up to the true roll of Fire Lord, not by birthright as some sort of god King with an attitude of 'I'm always being right or because I'm the Fire Lord', but by my deeds, as your warrior servant to guide and protect you.
My brothers and Sisters in arms, on my honor I promise you all that the last 101 years of war won't be a waste, that the resources and lives lost won't be in vain.
And should you win the day, this new era wont just be an era of love and peace, but also Dignity, Dignity for all, not just the victorious, and the next 100 years will bring prosperity the likes of which our forefathers can only dream, but we will make that into reality for the next 100 years!"
the army cheered and chanted Zuko's name, the War Blimp lifted off and started to head for the Rolling Hills Farm, and the army fallowed not too far behind.
Sokka was getting his armor on, and he held the blue Spirit mask and thought for a second, Suki was helping get the cape adjusted and the other Kioshi warriors were waiting. Sokka put the mask on and went to the field just outside the city walls of Yu Dao, he mounted his now armored Ostrich-horse and he looked at the Militia in front of the city and he felt he needed to give a speech.
"I was going to ask you something about the nation we fight for but, we don't even have one to call our own, however today that is going to change.
I am looking out on this open field, and do you know what I see? I see people, ordinary people, farmers, factory workers, Piety members, rich and poor all with ancestry from all the nations, I see earth-bender daughters with fire-bender fathers, fire-bender sons with Earth-bender mothers, I see families of all these endless possible combinations of elements.
Both the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom will be deliberating what boot will be pressing down on us. But I have say we care what color of boot they press on our faces, a boot is still a boot, and those don't belong on faces, only on our feet"
the people laughed for a little bit, and he continued
"that is why I have a request of all of you, should we win the day. I want you to not think of yourselves as Earth Kingdom people, Fire Nation people, or even Water Tribe people anymore, but to think of yourselves as a people of a new nation to call our own, a people of the freest Men, Women and Children in recent memory, the people of the now United Republic of Nations!"
everyone cheered for ten minutes straight then it died down, Sokka (as the Blue Spirit) road his Ostrich-horse along with an escort of mixed troops of Kioshi warriors, fallowed by an army of Fire-benders, Earth-benders, water-benders, and Toph with her metal-Bender students, Yasuaki, Kori and any one else willing to fight for their own destiny.
Aang, Katara, and Tylee were at the Rolling Hills farm, they set up a large tent and they were just waiting for the three armies to come, and the talking can begin. Katara not sure what to do, she knew she had to tell Aang the truth of her and Zuko, but she wasn't sure on how.
"what's got your aura in a ruffled state?"
Tylee asked as she took a seat next to her. Katara sighed
"I um… don't worry… it's complicated"
Tylee the cartwheeled in front of her and looked her in the eye
"let me see, I'm pretty good at figuring things like this out"
Katara wasn't sure but seeing she had nothing better to do, she just went along with Tylee.
Tylee looked up then down, stroking her chin, did a hand stand then sat back down and looked at Aang who was with Appa and Momo then back to Katara
"you have something truly important to tell Aang about your personal life… involving Zuko. you don't know how to tell him without emotionally compromising him, considering the political situation were all in, and you want to emphasize the importance of your friendship with Aang"
Katara was absolutely flabbergasted at how accurate she was but tried to keep it down because Aang is less than a hundred feet away.
As Aang did some hot squats to kill the time, he noticed a group of people in Air nomad attire approaching them, Aang wasn't sure on what to think of them but then it hit him
"did that fan club fallow me all the way here? Now that is determination."
and he quickly ran up to them fallowed by Momo, Appa, Katara, and Tylee.
The group of people introduced themselves to Aang as the Yu Dao branch of the Avatar fan club.
Katara and Tylee looked at each other questioningly and Tylee asked them
"Yu Dao branch, how many branches are there?"
the leader of this branch, who was a man who was probably 7 feet tall with a shaved head and big burly harry arms, but he spoke in a kind of squeaky voice (similar to Momo from Aang's nightmares leading up to the black-sun invasion)
"I don't know the exact number, but I think it's at 5 now. anyway, that isn't important"
he and the other people of the group (about 10 all together) all bowed to Aang and their leader spoke to Aang
"this may be a bit of a rush but, we are here to help you in any way we can with this whole negotiation"
Aang, Katara, and Tylee looked at them with confusion. Then one of the smaller female members spoke up
"and don't worry too much about us, even though we are not bender's of any of the elements, we are martial artists and even former military folk from both the earth Kingdom and Fire Nation"
Aang thought for a minute then smiled
"thanks, it is nice to have all this support"
Aang got a look of relief and then started to talk with them and shared what his plans were and their place in them.
Katara was looking at Aang enjoying himself with people who share his values, even Tylee was getting some attention from this branch of the fan club.
Katara was left out, but she wasn't too upset about it, but she was still not able to talk with Aang about her and Zuko.
"I suppose I'll have to wait for Zuko to help with this talk"
but her wait wasn't long when she saw the Fire Nation army approaching from the southeast
"Aang! There here!"
Aang stopped what he was doing, told the fan club members to take their place and he flew up with his glider. That is when he saw the other two armies, the Earth Kingdom army coming from the northwest, and the… blue spirit army approaching from the east.
Aang was now facing this vision in reality but like with fortune teller he wasn't going to be slave to fate, after all Air is the element of freedom and he should live up to it.
Once all three armies were roughly 500 meters from the designated meeting location and 1 kilometre from each other, they each set up their encampments, the leaders of their respective armies brought members of their high command along with their personal guards and followed the Avatar fans to the tent where a meeting room was waiting for them with three large tables and over a dozen chairs made of stone. Once each army representatives picked a table they put their respective flags on it, at the Fire Nation table was Fire Lord Zuko , Mayor Morishita, and several Generals. At the Earth kingdom Tabel, there was King Kuei, Smeller-Bee of the Fire Fighters, and the Earth kingdom Generals. The colonies table had the Blue Spirit (Sokka), Suki of the Kioshi warriors, Toph, and general Yasuaki. They were joined by Aang, Katara, and Tylee as well, seeing the other tables were full.
One of the Earth Kingdom Generals stood up and ranted on the war and the so-called "reasonable" demands of reparations and returning of the colonies to their "rightful rulers", Zuko then replied to him on how absurd the Reparations are, and the economic devastation it would cause. The Blue Spirit then interjected that the colonies and the people that live in them are not the biggest fans of the earth Kingdom and told them that forcing families apart regardless of Bending or nationalities wasn't doing them any favours. One of the Earth Kingdom generals did try to say that there were earth Kingdom loyalists in the colonies and tried to sing of their heroism and that it shouldn't be ignored, but the Blue Spirit wasn't having it.
"are you referring to the Eternal Earth Enclave? If so, you should know that most of them came from outside the colonies, many of them I met during the war. And I'll have you know they are no heroes"
he then signaled to one of the Kioshi warriors to bring couple of scrolls
"this is a list of all the crimes the EEE has committed against the people of the colonies and yes they weren't discriminatory on ethnicity…"
he listed off names of men and women who had their property destroyed for either bedding with fire nation people or ash makers, being related to them weather being siblings with, parents or children of the Ash makers
"their children are referred to as Ash-Spawn so you know"
he then started to list off harsher crimes, everything from child murder, theft of property, and (crimes I'm not going to say here).
Katara held her mouth in shock, all of that was done in a month, Aang then stood up and asked the Blue Spirit.
"why were these actions done by this group?"
The Blue Spirit then placed the scrolls back in the bag they came in
"in their words, they wanted to get the Ash makers out of their lands by any means necessary"
The Earth General then spoke up with a fuss
"so what if they actually did those actions! The Fire Nation army has done the exact same thing on a larger scale!"
Zuko then stood up and decided to inform the Ignorant General
"yes, the Fire Nation army did, after my coronation, I had all of those who did said actions pay for their crimes whether it be through reparations, arrests, executions or more fitting punishments. In short, we are not letting their crimes go unpunished"
then Zuko got a smirk on his face and asked the General
"but something has me curious, you didn't deny that they did those acts nor did you deny where they actually came from"
The Earth King then stood up and looked at his generals
"this is just astounding to me, and I will investigate this, and if I find that any Nobel and members of my government have been funding these EEE thugs, I will make sure that they are punish severely and justly. Blue Spirit and Fire Lord Zuko, this is my promise to you, that regardless of this meeting's outcome, I will see that Justice is done to the Eternal Earth Enclave and any of their sponsors"
Zuko Bows in thanks as does the Blue Spirit, he then quickly tells king Kuei
"we will surrender all of them after the meeting is adjourned… in a peaceful manner of course"
a few of the Earth Kingdom Generals were a little uneasy as was some of the Fire Nation Generals, Toph could feel the irregularities of their heart beats but not wanting to make a seen she decided to whisper to Aang and Katara.
"there is something up with some of the Generals of both Nations, they seemed to be getting nervous after Zuko's and King Kuei's justice talk of the EEE"
Aang asked a whispered question
"can you point them out"
Toph shook her head
"no, I don't want to get them scared and cause a seen… however one of them I think I've met before"
Aang looked at the Earth Generals and he didn't remember Toph meeting any of them during and after the war, but fallowed Toph's example and didn't make a seen. He knew he was going to have to work with her to single out the ones she was talking about.
After 4 hours of debate, persuasion, accusations, and all matter political talk, Aang figured that he should call a 2-hour recess and let everyone take a breather, he was glade that at least everyone agreed on what to do with the Eternal Earth Enclave as well as the war criminals of the Fire Nation. During the Recess Aang went to visit all the camps to have a more one on one interview with each the respective leaders.
Toph and Tylee were walking through the Earth Kingdom encampment, they were looking for one General in particular but for the more part they were catching up on their lives, Toph told her about her metal bending school, and of course the recent events she was a part of
"so why were you traveling with Aang for the past week?"
Tylee looked some birds that were fling over head
"well, after I left the Kioshi warriors I decided to take a spiritual journey"
Toph looked at her with confusion
"why would you do that? leave the Kioshi warriors I mean, they are awesome!"
Tylee felt a little down, Toph could tell this wasn't an easy answer
"I um… I… well I don't want to part of a matching set…"
Toph then remembered Mai talking about Tylee and her family with 6 identical sisters with Katara back at Iroh's tea shop then Toph put it all together.
"oh ok I see… sorry"
Tylee in her cheery attitude
"it's fine, I find its good for one's aura to let your feelings out once in while. Now for the traveling with Aang part, I was on my spiritual journey by going to different shrines and temples, then I was attacked by the EEE guys, and Aang, Momo and Appa saved me"
Toph felt her hear flutter a little but not by much and she let her continue
"anyway after taking them to the local jail, I decided to go with him. It was safer and he is the avatar, the link between the spirit world and ours, so what could be more spiritual than that?"
Toph smiled but not her menacing or goofy smile but one who was genuinely happy for someone else, even an acquaintance now friend, her students, business partner were softening her up and she knows it. This was going to have to wait, because Toph could sense that General she met before along with two Dia li agents and she decided to fallow them, and Tylee fallowed her, they shadowed him until he came to a random corner of the encampment, Toph and Tylee were about 30 feet away, Toph sensed the general was talking with someone but not those agents, but couldn't sense the person he was talking to so she had to ask for help.
"Ty can see who he's talking to?"
Tylee looked and filled her in
"I can see someone standing on a tree, but I cant see who specifically, he is wearing a red and black outfit and holding a long bow"
Toph couldn't help but roll her eyes, she still has no concept of color but she wasn't faulting Tylee for not knowing this, but…"
"a bow? Like a bow and Arrow?"
Tylee nodded
"yep"
Toph then had to ask and tell her
"ok, um I'm blind so I don't know what red or black are, so who wears those colors as in nation's army?"
Tylee then looked at the guy
"his cloths look kind of like one of those Yuyan archer guys"
Toph knew of them they were some sort of elite archer group in the fire nation, what were they or one of them talking with an Earth Kingdom General.
the two of them crept closer, through bushes and behind rocks to get closer and they were now able to here their discussion.
"you clear on your job?"
the General asked, and the Yuyan archer just bowed
"it will be done!"
and he ran off hopping from tree top to tree top, the General with the two Dia li agents then turned and headed back for the main camp. Toph was assessing the General as he passed by, listening to his heartbeat, the way he holds himself up, and anything other traits she recognized. Then she recognized him, she decided to tell Tylee that they should leave now, however as they left Toph notice that they were being tailed by a couple of Dia li agents. Tylee and Toph decided to go through the heart of the encampment where most of the earth soldiers were, they knew that the Dia li agents didn't want to bring too much attention to themselves, and apprehending the Avatar's Earth-bending and an air-Acolyte would make people (even their own people) some unwanted questions, how ever the two of them knew they had to take it slow and only move with the crowd.
After the recess had ended the Zuko, Kuei and the blue Spirit decided to meet again with Aang as the referee, and it wasn't any better than before.
Katara was watching all of the leaders very closely.
King Kuei seemed determined to reach his goal, but he was completely lost on how to navigate the negotiations, at least not without making it sound like declaration of war.
the Blue Spirit (Sokka) would just stay silent for the more part, just listening to what Kuei or Zuko had to say and make an objection to any ridiculous proposals involving the colonies.
Zuko was definitely the most patient of the three, he would let people finish their questions before answering them, though he did have a way of glaring that made people nervous; even the Aang was little nervous when receiving it.
on of the Earth Kingdom Generals asked
"why don't you just enforce the HRM, you are the Avatar after all, you just say it and it should be done?"
Aang was quiet and didn't give any response, so Zuko stood up
"ok, then ask your this; if he told you to give up all your property to him would you?"
the General was silent but kind of mad but Zuko continued in a mocking tone
"he is the Avatar after all, what he says should be done right?"
Zuko then took a more serious tone
"I love and respect my friend the Avatar, however I don't want to use our friendship as a lever to accomplish my political objectives, however I will not kowtow him either. I made that mistake already and it has cost lives and destroyed families and if you want to listen to you, make your demands less absurd"
King Kuei then Stood up
"if I allowed the people of Fire Nation and Water tribes to stay and gain citizen ship, could there be negotiations?"
Zuko looked at him nodded
"yes, I will be willing to hear you out on that"
Zuko and Kuei seemed to be making some decent progress, positions and generals asked good questions and dumb questions here and there but progress seemed to be made, maybe even a compromise, Aang could only hope.
one of the Earth Generals stood up and decided to do a form of negotiation
"would you exchange them for something?"
Zuko looked at them with a confused look
"you don't have anything that I want"
the General continued, Aang didn't like where this was going but let him go on
"well, we found a fire Nation woman just under a year ago. We didn't know what to think of her at first, but through some investigations we found you are quite determined to find her"
Zuko had a look of disbelief but the general continued
"come here Ursa"
and a woman about 40ish came in, she had red robes, Katara looked at her from a distance and looking at Zuko approaching her with a look of shock and disbelief. Aang looked at the General and knew there was something familiar about him, how ever his attention was more or less focused on Zuko and his 'mother?'.
Zuko got a few steps away from her when he stopped, Ursa then started to plea with Zuko
"please son, lets put to its end and we can be a mostly intact family again"
Zuko just looked at her then asked
"what about Azula?"
Ursa then smiled
"I love her so much, and cant wait to have her back in my arms"
Katara looked at Zuko and she could see tears in his eyes but his eyes were also filled with anger and disgust and he simply said
"get away from me you deceptive viper!"
Ursa in confusion asked him
"what! How can you say that, I'm…"
Zuko with a more furious face on interrupts her
"because the Earth King has invited you to lake Laogai"
the woman then stood still and replied
"I am honored to accept his invitation"
Zuko then steps around the now statue like woman, knowing she intentionally had nothing to do with this deception but he turned his vengeance to the Earth king
"I don't know what is more detestable, that you tried to deceive me with this woman or that fact that the Joo Dee program is still in operation under your watch!"
The Earth King was stunned beyond comprehension, he looked around for the general who presented her to him last night but he was nowhere to be seen, now he was alone with a very Angery Fire Lord
not willing to wait anymore, Zuko just ordered his men to head to the camp and he turned to Avatar Aang, King Kuei and Katara.
"this peace talk is over"
and he left without another word.