AUTHORS NOTE, RIGHT NOW!
Firstly, I got hit with a huge project at work, so I wasn't able to write for almost two weeks.
Secondly, I binge-watched the new Avatar show on Netflix...
This chapter is really short as a result of these two things.
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Semi review... Spoilers ahead for the Netflix Original Avatar.
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To preface, it is not the masterpiece that is the original cartoon, so let's get that out of the way.
I think someone's been taking notes from Connor. First chase scene and an earth bender breaks up the earth of an alleyway and turns it all into a literal canister round.
Fire acts exactly like I was expecting it to, and overall the series takes the less cartoonish approach to fights. Like people 100% die on screen in this. The effects are really good for a Netflix show. Same with the set and costume design. It feels grounded in a lot of ways, but not overly realistic. That said, Fire Nation ships look almost a little too advanced. Like some subtle things make the ships look more like they're from the early 1900s, rather than mid to late 1800s. The ship's bulging hull, rather than a more angular hull, gives me HMS Dreadnought vibes, and the steel looks like it's entirely seamless and welded, which is something out of the 1930s, where in the original show, there are places where rivets were detailed in metal, and very obvious separate plates of steel were being used.
They fill in some lore for how Sozin was able to kill nearly all the Air Nomads but does not throw away established comic book lore on how those who weren't in the temples survived only to be hunted down.
Air nomad robes act as drag chutes while falling, which makes the flying squirrel suits we get in Korra more compelling.
Some line reads are admittedly a little goofy, but not terrible, that's just the nature of using child actors. (And having bad writers)
It is very condensed, and this is probably a part of the show I do find the most fault in as it happens in every episode. It's trying too hard to be dramatic and splitting attention between separate characters in compressed episodes instead of fleshing everything out, (seemingly relying on the source material to provide all of the background information that new viewers won't have,) and honestly, that combined with a few events happening out of place, is a huge turn off for me… Like, almost everything happening in Omashu with a little from season two creeping in, just shrinks the world and fails to tell a good story... Like they have a moment where some bar-goers say that they heard Aang and the Gaang is out doing stuff, but we don't see it.
They sort of flubbed bending too, in an attempt to mystify it, they just made it too simple.
That said, Azula is in it early on and is arguably my favorite part of the thing, (even with how they're handling her vs Katara) and if I continue watching when the second season comes out, it'll probably be just to see how much they change with her specifically. I called Azula doing archery back in 2020, off the hunch that it's a weapon of precision, and so would be her shtick.
As far as the changes go, the good is too few and far between to outweigh the bad...
Anywho...
Chapter 5 Sic Semper Tyrannis
The sound of a steam whistle broke the morning air as the passenger train pulled into Ba Sing Se. Jin and Samuel both stepped off the train, coming face to face with a woman in cream-colored robes who had distinctly green eyes. "Hello, and welcome to Ba Sing Se, I am Joo Dee." The woman said. "Secretariat Hei has been expecting you."
Jin and Sam looked between themselves before Sam shrugged. "Has he now?" He asked the lady.
Joo Dee nodded, smiling at the two. "Please, follow me." She said, before guiding the two to a cart. After a short ride through the city, the ostrich horse-drawn cart came to a halt outside of the former King's palace and once inside the two were given entrance to a tea room, where Hei was already seated on a cushion beside a low table. A woman in the same robes as Joo Dee beside him, though her eyes were gray, and the seemingly plastered-on grin the other girl wore was instead a thin smile.
"Jin." Hei said, raising a teacup to her arrival. "And I take it this is the elusive Minuano."
"Please, call me Sam." Samuel said, as both he and Jin took their seats. "Now why exactly is it that you sent poor Jin here all the way across the earth kingdom just to deliver a requisition letter for me?"
Hei sipped from his glass, taking a moment to fully formulate his response. "You're free to indulge. It'd be a shame to waste tea from the Jasmine Dragon."
Jin glanced over her shoulder at the woman who'd led them to the tea room, who was still behind her. "Are the extra servants really necessary?"
Hei closed his eyes for a moment. "Right… Joo Dee, if it would be too much trouble, could you please leave us." He asked. Their guide to the palace seemed to freeze up for a second, before turning and leaving the room. The woman beside Hei giggled to herself, and Hei turned to her. "You as well darling." The lady rolled her eyes, though still smiled as she left the room.
"You'll have to forgive me. Much of the staff enjoy feeling included." Hei said, before placing his tea cup on a saucer, as Sam took up his own glass. "As for why I had Jin bring you to me, it's quite simple." Hei said, as he picked up the teapot on the table, and poured Sam some tea. "You don't belong here."
"Pardon?" Sam asked, as Hei finished pouring, and set the pot back down.
"I don't mean that in an offensive way, it is just a fact. For one, you are a fire bender, part of your original commission record that made its way back to Ba Sing Se over a year ago made extensive note of this, and while I initially considered brushing it off as being possible you have a fire bending ancestor from before the war, a much more recent development changed my mind about your "duel heritage" and its importance."
"What kind of development?" Sam asked, before sipping from his glass.
"During Ba Sing Se's fall, I had a few chance encounters and sightings of an anomaly." Hei said as he slipped a piece of scroll parchment from his robe sleeve, laying it out on the table in front of Sam. Sam took the paper, a refugee in-processing record, and read through the description. "Red hair… That sounds like a man I just met."
"Indeed. Joo Dee recently saw him at a conference in Baiyin, a town your train would have made a stop in." Hei said, earning a look of befuddlement from both Sam and Jin.
"What exactly does he matter to you?" Sam asked.
"He matters about as much as you do, or about as much as several other strange persons that have seemingly come and gone through the Earth Kingdom in the past several hundred years." Hei said, laying out three other pieces of parchment.
Sam looked over the documents containing a descriptive account of the Earth King's assassination nearly nine hundred years ago. "Blond hair…" He said in Portuguese, as Hei put a framed family portrait and an ancient water stained paper receipt up onto the table.
"Hey, is that?..." Jin asked, recognizing the clothing and makeup of the tall woman in the painting's left, a woman who was holding an infant. Beside her was a shorter man, with black hair, a thick mustache, and a patch of hair on his chin.
"If you're about to say, Avatar Kyoshi, you'd be correct." Hei said as Sam took the painting. "It's one of four she had commissioned by the Earth King's painter of the era to commemorate the birth of her daughter. The original is supposedly buried with Kyoshi on her island, and I can only imagine the other two have either been lost to time or perhaps could be found in the great spirit library of Wan Shi Tong. This one we managed to dig up from the Dai Li's archives."
Sam studied the portrait, denoting how pale both of the adults in the painting were. Perhaps they both wore face paint for the event, as Kyoshi always did for public appearances.
Jin glanced back at Hei and asked another question. "Well, is this guy the father then?"
"I'm under the impression he would be, though this artifact is nearly three hundred years old. Kyoshi was over one hundred at the time and for the most part had secluded herself on her island. Her signature is on the back, as are two other names, the baby's, and what I'm guessing is the man's, though it's eligible." Hei said.
Sam turned over the painting, the wooden back containing brush strokes that wrote out "Kyoshi," and "Koko," in common, and beside it in a Latin script, was the name "Alejandro." Hai fixed Sam with a firm gaze before he continued to speak. "You can read that name can't you?" Sam nodded his head. Hei leaned closer to Sam. "Sa Mu, I want you to know that the next question I have is inquisitive, not accusative. Where are you from? And I mean, where are all of you from?"
"You mean, us strangers… The ones who don't fit it?" Sam asked.
"You do blend in more than others, to your credit… Aside from your oddly proportioned eyes, and face, you don't have the striking hair and skin colors that have piqued my interest." Hei said with a shrug. "You see, I firmly believe that something happening once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times makes that something a pattern… And you being the fourth something I've seen or heard of appearing out of the blue raises a question of why it keeps happening, and how many times has it happened without the notice of historic accounts. I do wish to have you take up a commission again and be in my army for your skills, but I also want the potential knowledge that I'm assuming a being not of the four nations would possess. I want to know from what desolate uncharted edge of the map you all are from…"
Sam set the family portrait down and looked up at Hei. He cleared his throat and swallowed. "I, and I suspect all of the strangers you seek to learn of, can trace our roots to a land called Europe…"
Iron bars separated Zuko from his father, who'd yet to respond to his question. The disgraced former Fire Lord sat up straighter, before chuckling. "You ought to bring me some tea for my health. Perhaps we could talk while sipping from little cups befitting royalty. I can give you advice on how to be a better Fire Lord, and in exchange, I get some better company than the guards."
Zuko rolled his eyes. "I should have known you'd just waste my time." Zuko said as he turned away.
Ozai coughed twice. "I'm just saying… Perhaps talk of your mother could come up." Zuko continued towards the door. "The pressure of the throne is going to weigh upon you Zuko, as it always has upon every Fire Lord. When you need answers that my idiot brother can't provide, assuming he even wants to see you again, you'll be back."
The door to the cell slammed closed, leaving Ozai in the dark once again. "You always seem to come back."
Fall drove on into the tenth month of the year, and after a short celebration of Connor's seventeenth birthday on the thirteenth, he would find himself aboard the Fire Lord's private rail cars once again, making headway to Ba Sing Se with Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. The trip was thankfully uneventful, and not a week and a half after boarding the train in the colonies, did it come to its final destination in Ba Sing Se's inner ring.
There was a gathered crowd, having formed in anticipation of the Fire Lord's arrival, rife with reporters and jeering citizens, all held back by members of the Dai Li. A carriage had been provided for them, and as the royal party was carried into the city, Zuko could hear the muffled groan of The Avatar's bison above them. Peeking his head out of the carriage's curtained window, Zuko smiled. Appa had come to land just outside of The Jasmine Dragon.
Zuko had the door of the carriage opened before their chauffeur had stopped the ostrich horses, and had to restrain himself from moving too quickly to greet Aang. "Aang!" He called out, with a grin. "How'd riding the flying fishopotamus go?"
"It went great." Aang said as the two shared a hug. "Turns out they will try to eat people if they're angry enough."
"And once again." Sokka said, holding a finger up. "I told you so."
It was then that Zuko's attention turned to the double doors, which were closed to provide privacy for the upcoming meeting. His smile vanished.
Aang could sense his friend's uncertainty. "Are you going to be alright? You know, seeing your uncle again?"
Zuko closed his eyes for a moment, as the rest of his party caught up with him. "I don't know. He probably hates me…"
"I doubt that." Katara said.
"It's just…" Zuko said. "It's been so long, and the last time I saw him he was in jail because I betrayed him."
"And since then you've done more than enough to redeem yourself, Zuzu, so you can cease with the melodrama…" Azula said as everyone began to walk towards the tea shop doors.
"Aren't you just the least bit anxious about seeing him again?" Mai asked.
"Why should I be? I've changed." Azula smirked.
"I think that remorse for your past actions might be more what Uncle's looking for." Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Never said I didn't have any." Azula shrugged. "But our reunion's bound to be as dry as these sort of meetings usually are, regardless of my feelings."
Aang put his hand on the door and opened the tea shop for everyone. Inside, gathered around a series of tables that had been put together, sat the members of the White Lotus, Masters Pakku, Piandao, Jeong Jeong, an unknown to team avatar, and finally at the head of the tables, was Grand Lotus Iroh. He stood upon seeing Zuko, and as the Fire Lord hesitantly made his way around the gathered tables, Iroh moved to meet him. They both stopped just behind an empty chair, but before Zuko could even open his mouth to begin apologizing for every one of his past failures, Iroh wrapped his arms around the young Fire Lord.
"You're… Forgiving me?" Zuko asked, trying to maintain his composure with a tear welling up in his right eye. "After everything I've done?" He returned the hug.
"It's because of what you've done that I forgive you, Zuko." Iroh said.
"I thought you'd still be angry with me." Zuko said, as his uncle let him go, and Zuko maintained a hand on his uncle's shoulder.
"I was never angry with you, Zuko. Only saddened to see you lose your way." Iroh said, before not-so-covertly brushing away the tear from his nephew's eye, before his attention was taken by Azula, still standing just inside of the building's doorway.
Azula looked away for a moment and rubbed one of her forearms before Connor leaned over and gently elbowed her shoulder. She took a few steps into the room as Iroh approached her. "Hello, uncle…" She said, crossing her arms.
"Azula…" Iroh said, before smiling. "It is good to see you doing so well." He then pulled her into a hug. Not expecting the embrace, Azula blinked for a moment, then awkwardly returned the hug. "You took my advice to heart, I'm guessing? Accepting those who love you?" He asked, releasing her.
Azula cleared her throat from the mildest amount of choking up she was doing, before holding her hand out to Connor. "As a matter of fact, I did. You remember Connor?"
"The strange young earth bender who you hunted your brother and me with?" Iroh asked, eyebrow raised.
"Well…" Azula grinned. "He's my fiancé."
"Oh, that is great news!" Iroh said as he held his niece's hands. "Though I never would have seen it coming… When can I expect a wedding invitation?"
"Easy uncle, I've still got nearly a year before I'm sixteen." Azula said, grinning slightly.
"Well then perhaps I will simply have to make plans to return to the Fire Nation in a year's time." Iroh said, as he turned to Connor, and bowed, hand above his fist. "It brings me much joy to know that my niece has found someone to share her life with."
Connor returned the bow in kind. "I'm guessing that means, as the closest thing she has to a true father at the moment, you approve of my intent to marry her?"
"Azula is her own woman, and you would not need my permission, but the fact you feel the need to acquire it, would make you worthy of it." Iroh said.
"It's a great thing to see the nationalist prejudices of the past set aside in the name of love." The stranger among them said.
Iroh chuckled. "Where are my manners?" He asked himself, before gesturing to the table. "For all who are unfamiliar, these are Masters, Piandao, Jeong Jeong, Pakku, and Xai Bau." He said as everyone began to take seats around the table.
"It's great to see everyone again." Aang said, bowing to the group, before he sat down beside Katara. "And it's nice to meet you, Master Xai Bau."
"A pleasure…" Xai Bau said, crossing his arms. "And where might Hei be? He's late, that is, if he has not sent one of his servants in his place."
"He is a busy man." Pakku said.
"This entire meeting was set up specifically for him and his nation though." Piandao said. "It would be rude of him to fail to make an appearance."
Feeling footsteps coming from behind them, Connor turned in his seat, and Toph tilted her head up slightly. "Speak of the devil." Connor said in English, as Hei approached the tea shop.
"Secretariat." Iroh said. "Please, take a seat."
Hei came to a stop at the head of the table, pausing for a moment, as he noticed Connor's presence. "I'm afraid I can't indulge in all of your company for too long. As much of a shame as it would be to miss out on your ginseng tea, I've an important matter to attend to regarding the reconstruction of the lower ring." Hei said, holding his hand up to Master Pakku. "If you'd please, I'd like to sign the necessary documents with The Avatar's verification, and be on my way." He said, before slipping a scroll out from his robe sleeve, as Pakku unfurled the paper in front of him, and then pushed it in front of Hei.
"So much for ceremony." Suki whispered to Sokka, as Hei signed the Avatar Szeto War Accords with a brush dipped in ink, binding the Earth Kingdom to their regulations.
"Now the real important part." Hei said as he laid the scroll out, leaving two fingers from his rock gloves on the parchment to flatten it. "With the king long dead, no heir apparent having laid claim to the throne, and with so few administrations having survived the revolution and the Fire Nation's purge, The Earth Kingdom is in dire need of restructuring, and these Federation Articles will provide that restructuring. First and foremost, the end of the monarchy. Too many times throughout history have kings and queens sat upon the throne in Ba Sing Se, only to either be ineffectual puppets, or autocratic monsters towards their people and so the Earth King's powers over his kingdom are being split apart into separate bodies. Henceforth as secretariat, I've written to the many lower kings, and governors of the states and provinces in the "Kingdom" requesting that they, through the process of a direct census of their populations, chose a representative for every thirty-five thousand people in their state to keep Ba Sing Se well informed on local matters, and to deliberate on the nation's problems. Make laws and such. Hopefully, this will prevent situations similar to what the former Grand Secretariat Long Feng created."
"A congress then?" Connor said.
"As opposed to a more conventional council of elders, yes." Hei said.
Connor leaned over to Azula and spoke English. "Watch this screw over all the farmers in the long run."
"Why?" She thought, before running the sentence back through her head. "Oh, the major population centers will have more people, and will be making decisions for the rural regions."
Hei continued speaking. "Of course, an executive office will still need to exist. To balance power and enforce this congress's lawmaking, I'm reinstating the former positions of Executive Minister and Chancellor indefinitely in the forced absence of a monarch. The details for their selection and limitations on power are outlined in the Federation Articles, but they will be the head of government in international affairs, and of administrative agencies. The judiciary system will of course need to be reigned in. Currently states hold too much power in the way of criminal punishment, and more importantly to ensure neither the Congress nor Prime Minister steps out of line, judges are to be the sole body determining what is considered justice under the law. Two will be appointed by the Prime Minister, and one by the Congress, once they've all been elected." Hei re-dipped his ink brush. "As a final note, once I sign this, the date on which three supreme judges have been appointed will be the day that the position of Secretariat of the Dai Li becomes subservient to the Executive Minister."
"You'll be relinquishing power?" Zuko asked, somewhat surprised.
Hei nodded. "My station in life is not to be a monarch, but to be a servant of order on behalf of my kingdom, or as it will soon become a nation sized republic."
Azula raised her hand. "Out of curiosity, what pushed you towards this decision? For the Earth Kingdom, such a drastic change is, well, it hasn't been seen since the shift in power to Chin the Conqueror during the Kingdom's warlord era."
Hei took a moment to contemplate the question. "Ironically, it was your Thesis On The Dissolution Of Corrupt Governance." Azula pulled her head back slightly. "Propaganda as it might have been, it called attention to many of the issues facing the nation, notwithstanding its corruption, and as a solution I looked to the Water Tribe's complex form of clan representation, and expanded upon it to suit the needs of a far larger country. I only hope that permanently separating power within the nation will do good to keep any individual from gaining too much of it." Hei briefly looked around the room. "I thank you all for coming to witness this historic moment, but I do have other matters to attend to." Hei said, before bowing respectfully to the group, pulling the rocks he'd left on the table up and back to his hand, along with the documents he'd signed.
As Hei left the building, Zuko looked around the table. "Well, that was… Brief."
Iroh shook his head, and Xai Bau scoffed. "Paranoid bastard finally comes to one of these meetings, and he's only here for two minutes."
"He is striking a delicate balance of maintaining diplomatic relations with the rest of us while managing his own kingdom's many powerful local landowners, governors, and princes. Walking on a razor's edge as it were." Piandao said.
"He's gotta have some serious dirt on everyone if he thinks the rest of the kingdom's going to just go along with this "federation," he's planning." Toph said.
"The Dai Li's influence might have been confined to the walls of Ba Sing Se, but their eyes and ears extended far beyond them." Xai Bau affirmed. "And local power is likely to remain unchanged. They bowed to an unfit king they saw as a god, they too will bow to a bureaucratic figurehead, especially if they believe they have a say in who that figurehead is."
"Let's not drag our feet on Hei's social skills." Pakku said. "After all this is just as much a family reunion as it is a diplomatic venture." He said, looking between Zuko and Iroh.
"Yes, it is." Iroh smiled.
The afternoon wore on, and eventually, the sun began to dip toward the horizon. Enough tea had been made to sate everyone's thirst, and after Sokka's humorous attempt to capture the joyful meeting in ink, Piandao took over to paint a more accurate landscape of the gathered friends.
Aang had left the building, and a short time later, Katara had followed suit. Azula had spied them through the doorway and smiled softly. Katara had approached him by the courtyard's railing overlooking the plaza and street. Their eyes met, and she leaned down, kissing Aang, the sunset casting a scenic background for them. Almost instinctively, Azula leaned into Connor's side, before Zuko clearing his throat broke her attention away from the adorable display of affection.
"Not to be a nuisance…" Zuko started, his sister smirked, though kept what comment she had to herself. "But if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like a moment of privacy with you two."
Connor looked down to Azula, who shrugged.
The three stood and stepped out the tea shop's back door. Connor leaned against it to block the way, and sense if anyone was eavesdropping. "What demands such secrecy, My Lord?" Connor asked with a grin.
Zuko checked over his shoulder for a moment, before sighing. "I spoke with our father."
Azula narrowed her eyes. "Why in the world would you go and visit him?"
"Because I want to find our mother." Zuko snapped, causing Azula to pull back slightly. "I thought that maybe he knew something about where she'd go, or if the banishment was only from the main island, or the archipelago, or even the entire nation… He wouldn't tell me anything… But he said that the throne would change me, that it does every Fire Lord."
"And you're what? Worried he's telling the truth?" Connor asked.
"Maybe… As far back as I can think of, every Fire Lord either started their reign with noble intentions, and fell into depravity, or inherited the throne as a tyrant." Zuko said. "And I don't believe I'm immune to the corruption that unlimited power like that comes with."
"Well, it's a good thing your power is not absolute then?" Connor asked. "Aang's around after all. He could take your bending away if ever you became a dictator."
"But he's not around all the time." Zuko said, before taking a breath and closing his eyes for a second. "And you two are… I don't want to see myself become anything less than a just ruler, to my own people, or the other nations. That's why if either of you see me turning into anything like Ozai, I want you to do whatever it takes to overthrow me."
"Oh don't be so dramatic, Zuzu." Azula said. "You're far too soft-hearted to become like our father."
"But he's got plenty a temper to match." Connor said. "What's stopping the rest of the royal family from trying to take the throne if one of us does have to kill you in say, a year?"
Zuko rubbed his neck. "Well, the line of succession would fall to Azula for now."
"And I've lamented that I don't want it." Azula said, crossing her arms. "And I'll not kill you just because I think you've gone a step too far. As far as I'm concerned you and Mai better have kids before Connor and I."
Zuko chuckled a little. "That shouldn't be a problem." Just as quickly his frown returned. "But seriously… Connor, I know that you of all people could do it. Will you promise me if I ever become like my father, like a tyrant, that you won't hesitate to kill me if it comes to it."
Connor's lips curled up as he thought for a moment. "Ay… I suppose I could... Sic Semper Tyrannis and all... To be fair, I don't want to... I'll give you a warning if ever I believe you to go too far. Keep you in check so that I don't have to."
Zuko closed his eyes again. "Thank you."