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This time, when they crashed, it was not elegant. It was not artistic, the kind of thing you'd find in a painting or a tapestry, but it was beautiful nonetheless. There was a savagery to it, an animalistic intensity. Iroh was enraged by the words Natsu had told him both before their fight and during. Natsu himself? He had no rage on his bearing, but he had a hunger. The hunger an alpha feels when matched with a contender. He had the hunger for putting down this threat to his dominance, except that it was matched by an equally pervasive enjoyment of the situation itself—being equally matched with someone else.

Flames surrounded their bodies, every attack was matched with fire aplenty. Natsu's a dark green that seemed to eat at the light itself when it was called forth, while Iroh's flames, red as his fury matched the ethereal green, if not in beauty then surely in intensity. The men fought, Iroh's face marked with a frown while Natsu's held a grin that grew by the second. He punched at the older man's head and dodged a knee aimed for his chest in return.

The distance between the men began to glow as their fires clashed again and again. Natsu went underneath a swipe enhanced with flame claws and retaliated with a kick that forced Iroh two steps back. The older man was the first to give ground, and Natsu pounced on the weakness. Practically running forwards, he lashed out with a roundhouse kick. Iroh ducked beneath it, and Natsu stopped the kick in the middle and brought it down right upon the older man as an axe kick.

Iroh caught the kick and the ground around them shattered from the force that flowed from the kick into his body and into it. Natsu, leg still resting against Iroh's crossed forearms, used said leg to push himself upwards into a spinning kick with his other leg that sunk into Iroh's unguarded midsection. The older man coughed out blood as the kick went further and further before he was sent flying. He rolled across the rock garden for a few feet before his body came to rest against the remains of a statue that had been so damaged that even the best historians would struggle to identify it.

Iroh did not remain down for long. He pushed down against the floor and practically came flying to his feet, before he turned to Natsu with rage in his eyes. "They call you the thunderer. Only because they have never seen lightning when conjured by the bloodline of Sozin." Those words were the only warning before he stood straight and took a stance that Toji did not recognise- of course the words made it easy enough for him to figure out the intention. The man began to move his fingers along an arc. Another man would have trembled at the sight, would have tried to run even if it would have served them no good, but Natsu remained on his feet, staring at the man. It was almost academic—his curiosity. From knowing him for years, Toji could tell that Natsu was breaking apart ever facet of Iroh's stance, cataloguing it and storing it in his memory.

Toji wanted to scream at him to do something, but Natsu was not suicidal. This inaction was part of some plan to see to his survival. No one doubted Natsu and made it very far, so he remained silent and watched the whole thing, not looking to miss a moment. When Iroh finished his movements, taking them even slower than he surely could once it became clear that Natsu was not going to try to dodge, the world changed colour. The lightning bolt that came into being was so large that it practically seared itself on Toji's irises, but he did not blink, making sure to catch every moment. The lightning hit Natsu head on. No, not him. His fingers.

He'd stretched his hand out right at the last moment, and then he twirled on the spot before lashing out with his other hand. Another lightning bolt, just as fearsome as the first shot from Natsu's fingers right for Iroh. The old man was clearly shocked, but that didn't stop him from taking the lightning in his hand and sending it right back. Toji's breath was caught in his throat. None of this should have been possible. Another lightning bolt came into being- or was it even the same bolt being tossed between them like a twisted game of volleyball.

Iroh sent it back to Natsu, but once the lightning left him, Toji could see the way his body began to vibrate with the absence. Toji's mind came to the problem easily. Whatever they're doing isn't meant to be used like this—they're twisting it and the lightning is fighting back, he figured. When Natsu released the lightning, he was similarly left in a state of agitation. Iroh took the lightning once again, and this time, it was like his body was struggling to channel it and send it back. This fight between masters of their craft had turned into an endurance contest. The air around them became charged, and Toji felt the hair all across his body lift up from the lightning in the air.

An endurance contest that Natsu was losing, he realised as the lightning returned to his friend and he took even longer than Iroh did to send it back. Toji turned some of his attention to Natsu's old master. While only a fool would get in the middle of this situation, Toji knew that the chance to get Natsu now that he seemed so vulnerable would be nearly impossible to resist. The glow from the lightning passing between them had formed some sort of bridge connecting the two men. Sparks left Iroh's body to strike Natsu's and the same happened the other way around.

Iroh returned the lightning and fell to his knees immediately after. Toji looked at him and knew the man as done. Come on, Natsu. This is it. Just this one more, and you've won, he said in his mind as his friend took the lightning into his body with a breath. From the moment the lightning hit him, it was clear that Natsu was struggling to keep up with the channeling. Toji could see arcs of lightning dancing across his body as he tried to redirect it. In the end, he fell to his knees with the lightning still in his body. And then from his knees, he fell to the floor face first.

"Natsu!" That scream. His head snapped to the other side of the garden, the other balcony, and found Toph there, body covered in sewage for some reason. That was the least of his problems, though. His best friend had just lost, was probably dead. Toji knew he should probably jump down and go in there, but he was frozen. He couldn't move. His hand was shaking. Not just his hand, his whole body. Toph screamed again, and unlike him, she had jumped straight down and was rushing towards him. Before she got to him, though, his hair flashed with lightning and in a blur he had moved across the field. Toji gaped at seeing Natsu's hand shoved right into Iroh's chest. What? How was he even standing?

Toji's eyes instantly went back to the spot Natsu had collapsed on and noticed the scorch marks on it. He had grounded himself by channeling the excess lightning into the earth. Genius. And the rest of it? Well, Toji could smell Iroh's body cooking from the inside all the way from here. The Fire Nation Prince never even got the chance to say any last words or to resist the approach of death.

"Rest well, Iroh, son of Azulon and Ilah, Father of Lu Ten. You were truly strong". Toji heard Natsu whisper down to Iroh's body with his hand still shoved in the old man's chest until he lifted his head to look at Jeong-Jeong. There was heat in that gaze.

"Your turn, Master" Natsu said, removing his hand from Iroh's chest with a squelch and then pushing the body to the side so it landed on the floor. It was clearly one hell of an intimidation tactic because Jeong-Jeong actually took a step back at Natsu's approach.

"Come at me, bring your best and maybe your death will be painless" Natsu said and Jeong-Jeong flared his fingers, moving like he was about to attack before he lifted a massive fire wall. Even from here, Toji could feel the heat of the wall. Natsu didn't even flinch at the fire until it died out, revealing that Jeong-Jeong was nowhere to be found, and Natsu suddenly moved to drop to his knees.

Not on Toji's watch, though. He jumped down and ran across at his top speed, just managing to grab a hold of his friend before he hit the floor.

"You won" he whispered to him.

"I won. Have people sent out to find Jeong-Jeong. Get someone to check in on Azula as well. How's Toph? I heard her-" Natsu whispered against his body before Toph's arrival shut him up. The blind girl practically hurled herself at him in a hug, and it was all Toji could do to keep them balanced. She was crying, he noticed.

"Thank you, Kid. I heard you there" Natsu whispered to the girl, and her light sniffles turned into full-blown bawls as she pulled her body even deeper against his.

XXXXX- NATSU

There was no news from the Homeland. It had been a week since the eclipse, and there was no news. I was getting antsy, but I wasn't the main problem. The problem was currently pacing her way to wearing a hole in the carpet of the solar I had since claimed as mine. The repairs in the castle were proceeding at a snail's pace, so I didn't want her causing any unnecessary damage.

"You can sit down, Azula" I told her with a sigh, and her head snapped right up to mine.

"No. No, I can not. If those cowards attacked my father during the eclipse, then they could have actually managed to find a way to deal with him. I can't lose him, Natsu. We can't lose him" By we, I surely hoped she was referring to someone else in addition to her because a dead Ozai worked well enough in my favour that I was almost tempted to wish for it. Still, I knew it would hurt the girl in front of me, so I didn't allow any trace of those thoughts to show on my face.

Instead, I plastered my most conciliatory expression on my face, and sighed. "Just give it a few more days. We have gone longer than this without receiving word from the Homeland and by my calculations, we still have a day or so until our own messenger crosses the gate of Azulon with news of your uncle's death."

"That old coward was no uncle of mine" Azula said with shocking vehemence, suddenly switching from worried girl to pissed off dragon.

"He betrayed the Fire Nation, he betrayed father. He tried to kill you. And he did it like a coward" She said, turning a surprisingly soft expression my way.

"He was a traitor, but he was still your uncle" I said, walking up to her and taking her hands in mine. I had to work to head off any possibility of resentment building with Azula. The show told me that they hadn't ever been close, but I hadn't come this far by relying entirely on half-remembered memories of a show I had watched in another life that was almost two decades passed.

"He tried to kill you. It's a good thing you did because I would have killed him myself for trying to take what is mine" She said, leaning into my grasp. I nodded, enclosing her in a tight hug.

"Jeong-Jeong is mine though," She suddenly pulled out of my grasp to utter those words. I looked at her and tilted my head.

"Swear it to me, Natsu. Swear to me that Jeong-Jeong will be mine. I must teach a lesson to the rest of the world about touching things that do not belong to them—my things" She said, and I couldn't even deny that that sounded hot. Would have had me all hot and bothered if those words had come from a different set of lips.

"I swear it Princess" I told her, making sure to place my chin on the top of her head so she wouldn't get any ideas.

X-

The next few weeks passed without any news from the capital. I spent my time in a cross between training with Azula, sparring against Toji and Toph at the same time, and whipping my soldiers into shape. A Prince laid dead at my hands, and for some reason, that fact had made the other generals fall in line even more than anything else. My best guess was that the fact that Azula stuck so stubbornly to my sides even after I had killed her family member meant that they were beginning to realise that separating us would be a difficult task and when the wiser ones capitulated, the foolish ones had to follow suit to avoid sticking out like sore nails. The nail that stuck out would be hammered into place or that sort of thing.

That was what brought me here—watching hundreds of firebenders move in unison, executing each step of the difficult kata flawlessly. All the Generals had submitted their troops for my training and I had been whipping them into shape as a single unit. If they thought I'd be returning the men to them then they were sorely mistaken. These would be my tools. I knew that they muttered about me being battle crazy behind my back. Sung had put down all resistance in miles of here, and I had taken most of the Earth Kingdom before coming here. The only places that did not fly the Fire Nation flag at present were villages so small that they were rounding errors in the grand calculus of the earth kingdom's population numbers. With no enemies to fight, they wondered why I spent so much time training. I did the same, but training was all I knew how to do and there was no point allowing the troops to go lazy when the Northern Water tribe remained unconquered. What truly worried me though, was Iroh's words.

The Avatar hadn't even gotten close to succeeding in his original attack on the Firelord during the Eclipse, but if he had Iroh on his side, then it was possible that they might have managed something. Azula had mentioned that there was a standing policy for the eclipse. The Royal family and trusted advisors would retreat to the Fire Lord's holiday home instead of their residence in the Palace to deter attacks. If that was the case, then Iroh would be aware of that, and there was no chance he wouldn't have told the Avatar about that. In that situation, it was difficult to see a situation where Ozai left that matchup intact. Well, he could have delayed them for the length of the eclipse, but that was doubtful. Aang on his own was a bender that I didn't even know if I could beat with my bending. Holding him, and his water bending master, and all their allies at bay for seven minutes would be far from believable.

The fact that all our messenger hawks had gone unreplied, and our physical messenger was yet to return, was another point in favour of Iroh's words being valid. I watched them for a few minutes longer before I turned around to leave. They still had another two hours of practice left for today, but that would be supervised by their commanding officers. It was on my way out that I ran into Ping, the messenger.

"This letter came in for you, General Natsu, it bears the insignia of the fire nation royal family" He said, and I nodded before taking the sealed scroll from him. So a messenger hawk had finally made the journey. I debated opening it as I walked, but the risk of prying eyes was too great. It was good to train my discipline, so I spent the walk to my office wondering what the letter contained. It was either a message from Ozai, or from whoever had taken over if they succeeded in killing him. A message from Ozai would probably be a summons back to the fire nation. One from the would-be conquerors would likely be the same. If they had any wisdom, they would pretend to be Ozai and summon me nonetheless so I would be within their custody and forced to surrender or be grossly outnumbered. I smirked to myself at the thought of slaughtering my way through the capital city and making my mistake. That would be legendary for sure.

I arrived to find Azula in the office. I didn't even bother hiding the scroll from her. There were lies I could tell and lies I could not.

"A letter from the fire nation" I said, showing her the scroll. She practically tore it from my grip and only spent a second checking the seal before she opened it and begun to read. With the height difference, it was easy for me to loom over her shoulder and read the words it said.

"General Natsu of the House of Wu,

I do not know you. We have never met. But a friend of yours assures me that you are a good man. That is why I send this letter. Since my Uncle has not returned to me, I assume it means that you have him in your custody. My father, Ozai, was not a good man, but Uncle Iroh is all that I have. In exchange for his safe return, I will accept your surrender and not treat your actions as treason. This is an order from your Fire Lord.

Signed,

Fire Lord Zuko, First of his name."

I lifted my eyebrow at that. He didn't know his Uncle was dead. That was interesting. Both Pakku and Jeong-Jeong had managed to escape, so where were they? It said a lot about the time in which this letter was sent.

"General Natsu Sir" The messenger said as he bumbled inwards, tossing me from my thoughts. I wondered what had made him barge into my office like this. He was usually better put together.

"Yes, Ping?" I asked.

"There are ships, sir, on the Horizon." He said.

"There's a port not far from the city, so that does often tend to be the state of things, Ping" I pointed out with a sigh.

"Yes, Sir. But they are Fire Nation ships, Sir. Dozens of them."

Fuck. Well, I guess that answers the question of whether Zuko had managed to find out about his uncle's fate.

A/N: And that's a chapter. Goodbye Iroh, you will be missed. As always, the following two chapters are up on pa-treon. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not neecessarily the daily updates available with a regular pa-treon membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!