Pre-Chapter A/N: Please do check out the first chapter of the novel I'm working on up on pa-treon- it's completely free to access.
What can I say except you're welcome? Here we go with the seventh chapter of 2025. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to pa-treon and read the next two chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read.
Ships being spotted on the Horizon didn't mean that the ships were close by. In fact, it would take another few hours for the ships to make it to the port. That meant I had time to put things in order. The first thing I considered was summoning the Generals and revealing what had happened to Ozai to them, but I had hours, and that cantankerous lot would be fine keeping me there with their arguing and debating. Besides, we were technically in rebellion against the throne at present, so there was no point in giving them a way out at present. When I absolutely had to tell them, I would.
That meant I needed a way to get a Company of soldiers to the ports without drawing much attention. Of course, that was as far as I got before there was a knock on my door and Sung was walking inside. "General Natsu, I felt the need to bring the ships on the horizon to your notice" My former Commanding Officer said. Of course, the bastard knew. He had probably even figured out some part of what was going on. Not the whole story though because that was far too far-fetched for anyone to come up with all that with no context.
"I am aware, General Sung. I will be moving to meet them as they disembark" I said.
"And this has nothing to do with the letter from the Palace that arrived today?" He asked. Someone in my service had a very loose tongue, and they were going to lose it once I found out who it was. It was with irritation that I took the scroll up from my table where I had shifted it to the side and gave it to him.
He devoured it in seconds and his eyes snapped to mine. "Fire Lord Ozai is dead?" He questioned. I nodded, expecting him to launch into a rant about how I had no right to keep such secrets.
"Good. It's good that you haven't told anyone, I mean. The others — the others will not take this well. They're an ambitious and grasping lot who toe the line now because they hope the Fire Lord will put you in your place when the time comes. If that stops being open to them, then it's difficult to predict how they will react — what they will do next." He said.
"You think they could rebel?" I asked.
"They do not like answering to you. They feel your family lost royal favor, and the fact that you killed a Prince of the Blood — some of them were raised in a different time. Fire Lord Ozai had two heirs-"
"He had one heir. One. Me!" Azula cut in, eyes wide. I could see it now, the rage, the insanity that had made her such a character in the other world. I grasped her hand, squeezing it tight.
"I am sure General Sung did not mean to insinuate otherwise. He was trying to speak from the perspective of those old bastards" I said, rubbing my thumb across the back of her palm in a soothing way. She stilled and nodded, but said nothing. I gestured to Sung to continue.
"Of course. I merely meant that they would see it as Fire Lord Ozai having two heirs. The rightful one, the Princess Azula, who has proven to be attached to you. And the Heir Presumptive, Prince Zuko, who has been in exile from the Fire Nation for years and will be more open to being influenced. In that case, they might choose to submit to him with the hopes of having a Fire Lord they can easily control."
"And assuming Prince Zuko got it in his head to end the war?" I asked, while tapping my fingers against the desk in thought.
"End the war? That's what we're all trying to do, isn't it?" He asked confused.
"No. I mean, end the war by giving back all that we have taken. Returning the Fire Nation's army to its islands and suing for peace with those we have conquered." Sung looked like he had been struck at those words.
"That is treason" he hissed, and I nodded. That was, indeed, treason. To give up on all that generations had fought, bled, and died for was a betrayal of the highest order. I wondered how he had managed it in the canon universe. In this one, he would get assassinated in days. People had lost spouses, children, parents, lovers and more to the war effort with the idea that it was all a necessary sacrifice to fulfill a glorious purpose. If he spat on all that by walking back on our gains, then there would be no fire nation for him to lead. At the very least, no military.
"If he…if he does that, then it's no longer a choice." Sung said with a flustered look at the very thought. I silently reminded myself that both of his parents had been killed in the taking of Yu Dao. He dropped to a knee right in front of Azula before bowing down completely, face to the ground.
"All hail, Fire Lady Azula" He said, and I watched the way her eyes lit up at the name. She turned to me, and I smiled before gesturing back at him.
"Thank you, General Sung. Rise and be welcome to my service." She said in her most imperious tone. I smiled again. I walked around the table until I was standing right in front of her. She gasped as I dropped to my knee as well.
"All hail Fire Lady Azula" I said, swearing my loyalty as well. I had married my fate to hers a long time ago. This was just cementing what we already knew.
"Rise General Natsu. Rise, my right hand, and destroy all my enemies" She said, and I rose with a smile.
"Gladly" I said before accepting her outstretched hand and planting a kiss on her knuckle.
"Prepare a suitable escort, General Sung. We shall go see what these ships want. And if they were indeed sent by my brother, then I will take the pleasure of removing his head right there and then" She said.
When the ships were spotted, they were like spots in the distance. Scouts had only been able to see their flags with a telescope. By the time everything is put together for Azula and I to arrive at the docks, we can see them with our naked eyes. They are about an hour out from making dock. But ahead of that, we have some men begin beating drums in a signal the any Son of Agni would recognise. It was a request for dialogue- a call to converse. From us, it was as much a trap as a question.
If Zuko were on those ships, he would not dare risk getting within my arm's reach. His Uncle had been his better by all means, and the world now knew I was Iroh's better. But he could also not send a lesser to meet us. It would be a stain on his honour- honour that could not take any more staining. So if he were there, our call would be ignored.
But then, surely and clearly, we heard it. The answering call. We waited and then the ships, massive fire nation war ships, behemoths of steel and powered but enough coal to blot out the sky with their smoke, dropped their anchors and released smaller boats from their sides. On the boats, I could make out a few shapes, but no one distinctly recognisable.
It was not until they were almost at the beach that I saw him. By Agni himself, how long had it been since I saw him last. Years, at least. So many years. Was it a weakness that I wanted to run to him even now? Embrace the man who had insulted my friends and tossed his lot with Ozai? But the truth was that whatever anger I held towards him had faded from a burning rage hot enough to outshine the sun in its radiance into a collection of dying and dead embers. I missed him. I wasn't angry about his words anymore. I just fucking missed him.
Still, I held my position behind Azula- my Fire Lord, and waited for them to beach and step on to the pier. It was a collection of old men, one and all. Old fucking men, each grayer than the last. It was like one of my grandfather's tea parties again. They arrived towards us, and as one dropped to their knees in full bows. I noticed one was wearing the robes of a fire sage, if not the hat- fascinating. Those tended to be a package deal.
"All Hail Fire Lord Azula" They said, and she turned to me with a smirk on her face. These were not Zuko's men. They were hers. And the world was just a little bit brighter for it.
"Rise, Sons of Agni, and take your place in my service" She said in her most imperious tone. I wondered what others saw when they looked at her.
XXXXXX- KATARA
"How the hell did they escape?" Zuko was practically spitting fire as he paced through his office. The prison guard who had come to report the absence of the old men they'd captured during the escape looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in front of the obviously irritated and unstable fire bender. She was never the biggest fan of Zuko's, but she could recognise and empathize with the fact that he had only gotten this bad once he realised that his Uncle's mission had failed, and he was probably not coming back. Zuko even refused to recognise the possibility that he was dead — claiming for all to hear that none would dare kill a Prince of the Blood, but he clearly had no idea what kind of monster this General Natsu was.
"They were released, Fire Lord" The man said, still practically shaking in his boots as Zuko's bright golden eyes snapped to him. Katara could feel the temperature in the room rising. Good. He was well and truly pissed now.
"Who would dare release them?" He screamed and the door to the office swung open.
"Uh, I did" Aang said, and it was all Katara could do to avoid facepalming. Zuko wanted to take a swing at him, but he knew better. He had learned better. Aang's training with his past lives had made him all but untouchable when he fought. He could go into the Avatar State at will now, accessing power that was nothing short of godlike.
"Why in the name of Agni would you do that Aang?" It was clearly Zuko was trying to control his rage, squeezing his hands shut tightly. So tightly that she was worried he'd break something before she caught herself at the thought. She wasn't worried about Zuko- it wasn't possible.
"I spoke to them. One of them is General Natsu's grandfather, you know? He promised that he'd get his grandson to surrender" He said, and now Katara did facepalm. So did Zuko. So did Bato, who was sitting at the other end of the office, watching the proceedings with a keen eye.
"Let me get this straight — he promised that his Grandson would surrender, and so you let him go?" Bato asked, while the rest of them were almost struck silent.
"He swore it" Aang said.
"They were trying to get rid of Ozai, same as us, so they clearly have had enough of the war as well. Natsu is the last one in the fight, and you guys were saying that we'd lose thousands of people trying to take Ba Sing Se from him. This was a way to end things peacefully" Aang pressed. Zuko stared at him for a long minute before he turned to the wall, roaring flames in every direction.
It was a day and a half before they got to see him again, and he looked much calmer.
"The situation in the city remains tenuous" He told them, silently asking them to leave but not saying it. Oh she wished they could. She hated every part of living in this palace, but she could not. She had to make sure that he kept his promises — the most important being ending the war.
"We'd love to make your life easier by taking off on Appa, but you have to live up to your end of the deal" She pressed. Aang was silent, just as she had begged him to be. Sokka himself had taken charge of their occupation of the city and was busy putting out one fire or the other. That was the latest in the long list of things that the Nation's upper class had taken to- setting their own buildings on fire. So silly.
"Ending the war doesn't just happen with the stroke of a pen, Katara. There are thousands of soldiers out there, each in a different arm of the military. We have prisons to decommission, training camps to stop, cities to evacuate, and a million other small things. I cannot sit on my throne and end the war simply by declaring it so" He said with a sigh.
"You say there are millions of things to do, but I do not see you doing any one of them" She pointed out. And she was right. They had staged a rushed coronation with a few fire sages basically held at sword point, and announced Ozai's death, but beyond that, Zuko had been twiddling his thumbs. She understood that he wanted his Uncle back, but that was no excuse for this much inaction.
"I need to make sure they listen to me, Katara. I was banished. I was told never to return unless I captured the Avatar to regain my honor. Now look at me here colluding with said Avatar. The city is at a knife's edge because they feel I have stolen from Azula and collaborated with our enemies. They think I killed my own father. I need to do something to get them on my side because if I don't, then there's no point. I could issue a million decrees and get nothing from it" He said. She sighed. She had no idea how the Fire Nation worked, but she knew Leadership. He was the Chief here. Why couldn't he just tell them what to do?
"What are you doing to get them on your side?" Bato asked, hand on his chin.
"I have invited the Governors from across the territories and the various Lords from their castles to attend to me here. I will host them, and force them to submit. If they submit, the rest of the realm will follow" He said.
"And this Natsu fellow? What about him?"
"He is with my sister, and he has my Uncle. I never met him when I was younger, but I heard a lot about him. The initial plan had been to force his surrender on threat of his Grandfather's life, but that is no longer open to us" He said, directing as glare at Aang.
"The past is in the past. There's nothing we can do about that" Katara cut in smoothly, trying to channel the way her father spoke when he was dealing with the other men in the tribe.
"And so you understand why the war cannot end tomorrow. If I make an order like that, lacking the proper backing and placement, there is no chance that I do not end up facing an uprising in days." He said.
"No. No, I don't. You are the Fire Lord, Zuko. We made you the Fire Lord to do one simple thing, and if you can't do that, then what use are you" She heard Aang suck in a breath beside her, and even Bato did the same. She could not back down now. They had given so much. Her father had lost his life fighting to end this war. Zuko had to do his duty. They'd all fought and bled for this.
"I was raised from being a child to be a Prince of the Fire Nation, and when my father took the throne, to be the next Fire Lord. One of the first lessons I learned was that the Fire Lord does not rule alone. You can see it as there being four major powers in the Fire Nation — The Fire Lord, the Fire Sages, The Nobility, and the Military. We need at least two of those on my side to give me the legitimacy I need to do something so controversial. The Nobility all own massive estates, with hundreds of staff and stakes in massive swathes of Farmland. Where they go, the people follow more often than not. Maybe if I hadn't been banished. Maybe if my Uncle was on the throne instead of me. Maybe then we could do this without them. But we can't. We need them."
She wanted to scream and pull at her hair, punch him in his stupid face as he explained things down to her like she was slow. She just wanted this all to be over. She had had enough of the Fire Nation- and enough of this stupid war. It was changing both her and the people she loved in ways she was not comfortable with.
"So when will this meeting with the Nobility take place?" Bato, bless his soul, asked when he could see that she couldn't bring herself to speak lest she say something irredeemable and doom this alliance before it even achieved anything.
"In two weeks. They must travel from their various manors and castles to make it here" He said.
"Fine. You have two weeks, Zuko" She finally said with a glare.
"In the meantime, I need to know which men flew this flag" She said, passing him the paper that contained her best drawing of the flag she'd seen on that day — the day they took her mother from her.
A/N: We get some time in the fire Nation — obviously we don't get a full picture because that would just be an info dump rather than semi-organic dialogue so you can fill in the gaps with your assumptions, and we can see what ends up being true or not as time goes on. As always, the next 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!