Summer 99 AG
Northern Air Temple

The promised time has passed, and my vow has been fulfilled, the very same day that the mechanist saw his son stand on his own after so long was the day I knew I had a loyal subject for life.

Iroh was also impressed at the benevolence of the sun and his willingness to help me in my schemes.

The prototype balloon is almost done, the only thing missing is the propeller that allows the control of the forwards and backwards motion. As a side project he has begun altering the engine of my ship making it more efficient and augmenting the amount of energy it generates. The results are very impressive; the speed has almost doubled.

"Zuko" Iroh is once again interrupting my sunbath "Zuko"

"Yes uncle" I couldn't really hide the exasperation in my tone as I turned to the direction of his voice "What do you need?"

"I know you asked me not to bother you, but you haven't told me how exactly you plan to get into the Northern Water Tribe" ah the joys of a worried parent.

"I guess you won't take 'don't worry about it' as answer" sighing. I stood up and headed to the little table that was usually set up for my uncle to drink his tea as he watched me train, Iroh noticing my direction followed me.

We sat down in silence while I came up with a good way to say that I was planning to take the mechanist on a trip with the balloon and I was then going to crash it inside the water tribe city, meanwhile Iroh heated up some tea with his bare hands.

"You need to show me how to control heat, I think it would be even more useful than throwing fire" in my mind I could already see me disintegrating people with my own hands once I had enough control of the technique.

"It is a very advanced technique nephew one that has been passed through from father to son, only those who are destined to be Fire Lord can learn it, my grandfather Sozin has been the only one to truly master this ability, he was capable of taking the heat of lava itself in order to cool it" he took a sip of tea and passed me cup before he spoke again.

"I've given you enough time…What are you planning Zuko?"

Time to confess "The truth is that I plan to take the mechanist's newest invention for a test drive and if that test drive conveniently allows me to infiltrate the water tribe, then all the better for me, don't worry about me I know what I'm doing"

"Zuko, you do know that you look nothing like a person from the Earth Kingdom, how exactly do you plan to hide your eyes, golden colored eyes are not exactly common even on the Fire Nation itself" he spoke patiently and with as much tact as he could no doubt fearing an outburst of emotion from me.

"Please, the people of the Northern Water Tribe have been in isolation longer than I've been alive and the last time that anyone with an eye color like mine was here was in the time of Azulon, besides I can just say I'm from the colonies and Ozai's parting gift before my exile will help sell my story" I finish the sentence while gripping my throat on the exact spot that my scar is, the flesh is not as tender nor as rugged as in my memories.

A relatively awkward silence surrounds us now that I've mentioned my scar, something that we used to ignore before I woke up here. We finished the tea without another word. The sound of footsteps alerted us that someone was approaching, the mechanist was coming towards us.

"Prince Zuko, excellent news, it's ready the war balloon is finished" the exuberance in his voice was palpable and contagious.

"Congratulations, this are excellent news, you must bring it here and prepare yourself to test it"

"I thought you might say that so it's already down here, your soldiers and your engineer are checking it out for security reasons, I have prepared my tools to make any repair necessary and now I'm ready" the man was almost vibrating with anticipation, a very comical sight.

"You are way more excited than I thought, I should be more excited as I will be the first man from the Fire Nation to fly this century but somehow you have more enthusiasm than me"

"To be honest it will be the first time I fly-"

"Wait, didn't you make the glider your son uses to fly?"

"yes of course, I just didn't fly with it"

"You gave your son something to fly that you didn't even test yourself?" This man was insane.

"NO!, you misunderstood me, I tested it inside the boundaries of the temple and very close to the ground, so I didn't properly fly with it. To be honest I don't fully trust the gliders, but it was a way to make my son happy, so I let him have it, the balloon is both safer and more stable than the glider, so I'm more confident in using it"

"well... great, I want to see the water tribe city north of here, I trust that won't be a problem?"

"It will take a few hours, perhaps we can make the trip faster, hmm" he walks off and starts writing and drawing something on a notebook he takes out of one of his pockets.

Seems like the man is having another moment of inspiration, deciding that leaving him alone was the best course of action, I headed to the ship, I will need my swords as insurance and some food just in case.


It's fucking red, the balloon is fucking red, the only thing missing is the flag of the Fire Nation so all the waterbenders left in the north pole can freeze our asses. Breathing in deeply as I try to calm myself only causes the campfire to rise.

"Did it really have to be red?" I said through gritted teeth to the mechanist

"Well… minister Qin didn't really give me any other color to work with" of course.

"Zuko perhaps you should postpone your trip"

"I will not waste anymore time" jumping into the basket. I motion the mechanist to do the same.

"General Iroh, you should move to one of the other islands, some of my people will soon perform some flying maneuvers to send me off, it will be better if they don't see you"

Iroh nods and tells the crew to start moving, as the balloon steadily rises higher and higher, once we are almost at the halfway point to the temple, it starts moving forward and the shadows of his
people flying above us become visible.

It is a nice spectacle, the movements of the people in the air are graceful and daring, and from on high I can hear them screaming to the mechanist that he should have a safe trip. The man is happy and has teary eyes.

"You've truly made this place your home, haven't you?"

The man turns and closes his eyes a single tear falls to his face before he opens them again.

"Yes and to be honest I wouldn't trade it for anywhere else" he looks fondly to the temple in the distance and to the figures flying around it.

"I give you my word, this place will always be your home"

We finally enter the open ocean, I order him to bring us closer to the sea while maintaining a safe distance making sure no stary wave can fling us into the cold water below.

"Before we departed you had a moment of inspiration, you grabbed some materials from your workshop, and I noticed that you brought some machinery with you. What are you building?"

"I'm making an artifact capable of channeling the powerful flames of firebenders and transforming that energy safely into speed" the man takes out what I can now more or less recognize as a jet engine or a rudimentary copy of one.

"Fascinating, does it work?"

"I haven't really tried it for obvious reasons, but it should work, however I don't know if it will manage to survive some of the more enthusiastic blast from people of your caliber" I shoot him a questioning look since he has never seen me do actual firebending "Your people talked a lot about your great talent, and I saw the way the flames reacted to your mood"

"Can you install it while we are flying? I prefer it if we didn't need to stop until we arrived at our destination"

"It is a relatively simple matter to add it, I just hope it doesn't blow up" I could barely hear the last part but I decided to ignore it, I wouldn't die even if I fell into the ocean.

The mechanist wasted no time and started securing the thing onto the basket making sure that the exhaust wouldn't point to anything important.

"it's ready prince Zuko, after you fire it up" was that a fire pun? "I recommend you hold onto something" the man started strapping himself rather tightly to the metal parts of the structure.

"Noted" I didn't worry about it after all, how fast could it really be. After taking a rather deep breath I aimed a decent attack at the thing the blame was quickly taken in and before I could say anything about the process the balloon moved, the only thing I could think of was to compare the turbulent movement of a ship trapped amid a storm.

I slammed into the railing of the basket and almost felt overboard, this dammed old man must be trying to kill me.

"I told you to hold onto something" he was using that annoying tone of voice all parents use when they speak to dumb children.

Deciding that ignoring him was the better choice, I continued using his newest invention, I was more cautious however and used a smaller more consistent flame to make us go faster, about an hour later, some panic from the fact that because of my flame the air became hotter and we started losing altitude rapidly and a strange encounter with a giant sea crab, we could finally see the last city of the Northern Water Tribe.

"Well prince we are finally here, if you don't mind telling me how exactly are we going to get in and what is the next step of your master plan?"

"Crashing this plane" I really couldn't help myself.


Summer 99 AG
Agna Qel'a, Northern Water Tribe Royal Palace
Yue

Sometimes I hated being a princess, the responsibilities and crushing duties were too much for me…that was a lie, I loved my position, and I performed any task from the tribe with a smile, I just wish I had a little more freedom.

It hasn't been long since my betrothal was announced and the one that was chosen is not really…likable, I know dad is just trying to do what is best for the tribe, but he could have at least asked for my opinion on the candidates.

Hahn wasn't a bad man, nor an ugly one, his personality just wasn't the most compatible with mine and it might be childish, but I wanted to marry someone I loved not just for political convenience.

Sighing at the empty room I walked towards the balcony, looking at the ocean and the waves in the distance always cheer me up, the sound of a bustling city reaches my ears along with the smell of the ocean, wait… what is that?!

In the air heading directly to the palace something red and completely out of control if the way it's moving and shaking is any indication, is falling from the sky.

"THIS IS NOT HOW I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA GO" a voice screamed above me as the figure fell right onto the floor.

It was a teen like me, black of hair and with fair skin like something made out of the most perfect porcelain, a very chiseled body and somewhat odd clothes but the most fascinating thing about him was his face, piercing golden eyes and long eyelashes and the most delightful beauty spot under one of them.

"Hello, my name is Zuko, can you help me up?"


AUTHOR NOTE: hey sorry for posting so late i got distracted watching One Piece on netflix, the G-8 saga is one of my favorites and i had been waiting for it to be translated into spanish. Anyway as always you can check out the next chapter out on my , and i will update this next wednesday. Have a nice day guys. Also i had been waiting for the 'crashing this plane' bit ever since i first got the idea for this fic.
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