The sight of the war room gave chills to the young prince who had 'very cunningly' made his way into a meeting to discuss the updates on the frontlines. At long last getting to see the inside for himself.
He didn't even notice the chamber's warmth, despite it being several degrees hotter than what a non-firebender would endure as soon as they entered. In fact, a tingling shiver ran down his spine, and tiny bumps formed on his skin. But these chills came from his excitement, not actual cold.
The same royal ensigns and banners that hung on his bedroom walls carried a more imposing sight with them here, like they were meant to be flown and displayed following conquest.
The flaming symbol called to him, he thought. He was Fire Lord spawn, the first of the current dynasty and next in line for the throne. This sacred symbol of the people of Agni and mantle of his family, he would be sure to defend it with the utmost pride and honor to his very last breath.
But his fantasies involving himself leading armies and laying waste to the enemies of the Fire Nation would have to wait, he himself told his uncle he had yet to learn how to rule or how the shots were called on the battlemaps. And so, the old dragon of the west granted him clearance so he could sponge up everything he could from the elders currently in power.
Not without a warning though, Iroh had once taken the Fire Lord to these very same meetings when he was young and brash like the kid beside him. Iroh had been but a novice officer at the time, a prodigy in firebending and combat forms, but without real experience in the front.
Both him and young Ozai wore golden trimmings on their necks and armor, as well as a flame ornament that sat atop their hair and distinguished them as princes. But they were to make no mistake, this was not their place to rule or command. Before either of them sat behind the fire curtain where Azulon observed and listened to his esteemed generals, who rested higher on the hierarchy than them as long as they were inside this room. This way the Fire Nation won a great many conquests and territorial gains, bringing the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes nearly to their knees.
Now young Zuko sat to his right, between himself and general Li, peering over a map of the battlelines between their forces and the defending earth kingdom military. The latter holding onto the ground between them and their capital with the desperate fierceness of the damned.
But Zuko didn't see that. He looked with contempt at the green pieces on the map, representing regiments of earthbenders and pockets of resistance. His uncle beside him overran them years ago and even managed to breach the outer wall of the earth capital. How hard can stomping them again be? He thought grimly.
"Here at the Southwest sector, in the hillsides, army group three has been sustaining high casualties in its rearguard. We conclude it's a matter of rebel activity inflicting damage to our troops shielded by the favorable topography for their partisan tactics." Said Li, directing to the points he mentioned with a cane.
"It would seem like us capturing the Sia Jong served them more than it did us. It was supposed to be a staging base for the offensive and push for the walls." An admiral grumbled from the other side of the gathering, probably bitter at the role the Fire Navy had been relegated to in the latest developments of the war. To mostly act as a force patrolling the shores around the north and transporting supplies to the colonies from the industrial eastern islands, all while the army took on Ba Sing Se headfirst.
Zuko was vaguely aware of the internal competition and sometimes bad blood the higher ups from the Army, Navy and Elite forces showed to one another. All eager to claim the glory and bring it home themselves, but within the presence of the Fire Lord, they all displayed a unified front. One that they could barely maintain in front of their thinly-veiled arrogance and ambition.
"The main issue is that they used that knowledge to plan their counterattack and used the geography of the hills to make for a natural encirclement–Here, they placed a company of their finest earthbenders to pin the third between them and the hills, which are also full of the rebels who have been chipping away at our troops. The tanks cannot move until the path forward is cleared."
Zuko in that instance, wondered how the men of the third would be holding up right now. Probably exhausted from keeping half an eye open during nights to prevent having their throats slit by the rebels, as well as the dreadful and looming threat of the master earthbenders that could come and crush them with the literal hillside at any moment.
He frowned looking at the pieces.
"How is it then that we will retain the Sia Jong and bring down the earthbenders?" Asked another commander.
"We will put two divisions in play–One borrowed from the vanguard of the fourth, close enough to be called up for this operation. They will mount an attack from the rear of the earthbenders' position here and sweep the path to the walls."
"A fiery surprise gentlemen, it always suffices to conquer the enemy." Li allowed himself to light up a small flame in his palm and extinguish it with his fist, smirking to his envisioned plan.
"Hold on." Said Zuko, breaking his silence and getting the attention of everyone in the war room. "You mentioned two divisions would be used for this plan, which one is the other?"
Li brought a finger and his thumb to his chin in quick ponder, then he moved a battle piece with a two pointed flame symbol and the number '41' written on it.
"The best option to call forward would be the forty-first. They will engage the earthbenders in a frontal charge, opening them for a more devastating blow from the fourth's vanguard."
The admiral that spoke earlier narrowed his eyes at the map. "I thought the 41st was made up of inexperienced recruits, meant for support and occupation until they are fit to engage battle-hardened enemies. How do you expect them to bleed the earthbenders even a little?"
"I don't. The 41st will be nothing more than a distraction. They will catch the earthbenders off-guard due to the absurdity of a frontal assault, but the earthen scum will crush them like a bull ant. But a dagger to the nape works best when you're looking down." Li smirked again.
Zuko had heard every word, a part of him wasn't listening to the words of approval from the other generals anymore however. He knew that those men, not even the age his cousin Lu Ten would have now if he was alive, were being ordered to march straight into a massacre.
Almost unconsciously he rose to his feet and barely resisted the urge to slam his hands into the table. "We can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers enlisted because they love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?!" He cried
The room went silent at his words and every pair of eyes were on him. To his left, his uncle tensed up and almost reached for him, but he couldn't care at the moment. The 41st, the third army group and every man and woman deployed in the Earth Kingdom, were his soldiers, his people. Not fresh meat to use as bait to lure out earthen beasts.
"Young and naive prince Zuko, this would not be the first time we make necessary sacrifices for the good of our nation. It will certainly not be the last."
"No! What will we even tell their families, their loved ones! How can you send casualty notification officers to say we sacrificed an entire division of good soldiers who sacrificed everything themselves to be there!" The wall of flames that separated everyone in the room from the Fire Lord fanned but only slightly, unnoticed by everyone except the Fire Lord himself.
"We will tell them what they must hear and nothing more. Like I said Prince Zuko, they are not the first of our troops to give their lives for our victory." He took the piece symbolizing the division and pondered. "How many of our men do you think we 'sacrificed' as you so angstily put it, in order to deter the airbenders from raining destruction upon our home islands from their sky bison 97 years ago?"
"Oh yes, if you were to pack up for a lovely field trip to any of the territories in which those filthy monks lived, make sure to bring some fire lilies. You'll be sure to find thousands of our uniforms and helmets sprawled at the foot of their mountains. Do thank them for their sacrifice. Had they lived, the airbenders wouldn't have been overwhelmed, and their counterattack would have been infamous."
Zuko knew his insides were responding to no small offense if the strange, violent sensation he felt indicated anything. Firebenders and non-benders would relate to different things when they felt angry. The former would always exude heat rather than simply heating their insides, and the latter would say they 'feel their blood boil' when provoked. Nuance aside, it was a somewhat reliable example of the character of the two groups and the difference between them. Zuko was experiencing an unpleasantly clashing sensation, but for the first time he ever noticed, he could feel his veins running hot before he spit any smoke.
The prince of the Fire Nation thought of massacred troops of the Fire Nation-no, not troops, men and women of his Fire Nation. It being mentioned so coldly and cynically, so matter of factly, as if they were merely white masks on the uniforms, with no faces behind them . Zuko felt more furious as a man than as a firebender.
But firebender he still was. And when he jumped to his feet, his emotions ignited too. He was determined to scream something at the general, not sure of what, but such cruel treachery had to be admonished. The puff of smoke that escaped from his nose and mouth however, was not followed by his words.
"NOT ONE MORE WORD OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, PRINCE ZUKO."
Complete silence and an increase of temperature and brightness that was immediately noticed by every firebender in the war room.
The wall of fire doubled in height and made Zuko's eyes squint when he turned to his father. He froze, watching as the Fire Lord slowly rose from his kneeling position, parted the flames to cross into direct view and walked up to him. Every officer in the way cleared the path so they stood face to face.
Ozai towered over Zuko, golden eyes meeting in a tense standoff. Despite Ozai being the fire lord, his gaze ironically had an icy strength to it that snuffed Zuko's fire. The son now remembered why the uncle had warned him not to speak out of turn. Warned him not to anger the father.
"You make your way into the war chamber, abuse your position and dare question the decisions of my military." Ozai affirmed.
"Not only that but you have the audacity to double down and throw a tantrum to my generals and admirals as if you sat down on the throne." He chuckled dryly "The line between your stupidity and your weakness is truly invisible prince Zuko."
"You will make amends for this transgression to me, your Fire Lord."
The eyes of his father announcing a sentence passed, made Zuko's blood flow freely again and his senses return, not having any time to process how this was not a challenge for an Agni Kai, but rather a command. He would have to defend his ideals with his fire, which returned at the thought.
He turned to face the equally grounded to his feet general and spoke, again too eagerly and too naively. "General Li! I challenge you to an Agni-"
"Do not turn your back on me. You do not challenge here, you will fight because you've been ordered to."
Fear etched onto his heart once more, but his determination didn't extinguish entirely.
General Li was a bag of old bones with more pride than combat movement on him. True, Zuko was not a master firebender yet, and he was constantly scoffed at and deemed mediocre for a crown prince. But that was only because he had the misfortune of sharing a house with the most promising firebending prodigy seen in a century.
Zuko would best this butcher of a general, humiliate him with honor in the arena and relieve himself from the sitch he so stupidly leaped into. Yes,Father will likely still be pissed off for a while, which would suck, but I'll regain his favor through victory! Thought the young prince, composing himself as he bowed and addressed the Fire Lord.
"Yes father."
A/N: My ATLA fanfic debut y'all! I really hope this gets traction because I am a master, and I mean a master at having great ideas that get ditched.
But, as a way to commit to this story, I did what I have never done when writing fanfics: I… made a storyline to follow instead of winging it as we go, and I wrote and finished a second chapter before even posting this one.
It's not the most myself way of doing things, but I have left many promising stories for doing things my way, and I regret that. I write for fun, but thinking about abandoned things I wanted to write and never did because of x or y reason is not fun.
So, you have my word and work that this will get my attention. I hope it's not shit because effort spent for it to be bad would be devastating.
I'll see you for the all too familiar Agni Kai between father and son… or is it actually familiar?