Chapter three (APC)

I sit in my room peacefully, with my eyes closed meditating. I will the thirty candles to steadily increase and decrease with every inhale and exhale. I've been waiting for uncle's pre-rehearsed interruption for hours. Uncle cracks open the door and peeks through while I open my eyes.

"The only reason you should be interrupting me, is if you have news about the Avatar." I say, calmly. "Come in. Close the door behind you."

"Well, there is news, Prince Zuko, but you might not like it. Don't get too upset." Uncle says, nervously.

"So he hasn't been found yet?" I ask, calmly.

"No, he hasn't." Uncle informs me.

"He hasn't been revealed yet, he is on Kyoshi Island. It will just take time for the news to spread. Though I'm considering going there now to drive him away and maybe even guilt him into behaving. He goes to Omashu next and I plan to conquer it. I need to prove myself capable in wartime environments and that I'm a pro war Fire Lord and give Aang a reality check." I say, before becoming angry. "He's far too detached, while people die of hunger and battle; he gets fat and enjoys luxury."

"Then we should move on Kyoshi Island, as soon as possible." Uncle advises. "What's your strategy for taking Omashu?"

"I'll discreetly take out and imprison the cities forces, contain them in prisons for earthbenders. I'll fight and defeat King Bumi and call in the Fire Nation to occupy the city. I'll make sure to send Ozai a letter informing him of it. He wants good publicity for the royal family, so he'll make sure I get credit. It'll make him look good by extension." I say, outlying my plan.

"A good plan. Would you like me to send Ozai a letter, days in advance? That way, he'll watch out for your letter and attempts to steal credit for your accomplishment. There are several opportunists who would try." Uncle says.

"Yes, please. Originally I was just going to assassinate whoever tried, but your way sounds less time consuming." I say, to uncle's disapproval.

"I'll give the order to the helmsman to head a course for Kyoshi Island. You should consider getting some rest, Zuko. You'll need your strength to conquer Omashu." Uncle says, in concern.

"I will. I see no reason to take chances. Even though my strategy removes their numerical and tactical advantage." I say, to uncle's approval.

"Good night, nephew." Uncle says, walking to the door.

"Good night, uncle." I say, distractedly. Uncle exits my cabin moments later.

"Hopefully I won't kill all the Kyoshi Warriors tomorrow, even if they do deserve it." I say, angrily to myself.

*Flashback*

I was sitting on my throne looking down at the captured Kyoshi Warriors; Ty Lee having oversaw their capture, after overhearing them talking of reporting my actions to King Kuei. This, in addition to my failure at City Hall has made this a bad month.

"You have all been accused of espionage: specifically spying on a world leader. I had believed you would be neutral, though; I now see I was mistaken. What do you have to say for yourselves?" I yell, angrily.

"We had too. King Kuei is the leader of our country. He was concerned you would declare war again, so he asked us to report information to him." Suki says, speaking for her group.

"You still committed a major crime, you will have to be punished for it. My nation is now a nation ruled by law, all are equal under law. You will all be imprisoned, for life, on the newly improved Boiling Rock." I say, to their shock
and outrage.

"You can't do that! We're citizens of the Earth Kingdom!" Suki cries out.

"Who have been revealed as enemies to my nation. The normal penalty is execution. Which I must say, I'm strongly considering. You could have went to Aang, or came to me to get out of spying. But you went along with it, therefore
committing a crime. I will consult with Aang, to negotiate a way to reduce your punishment. Until that time; you will be imprisoned." I say, before turning to my guards.

"Take them away!" I command.

"You know Team Avatar won't be happy, right?" Ty Lee asks, in concern.

"Yes, I know. I'll most likely be vilified and I'm the victimized party." I say, truly dreading that.

"Would you like me to contact Avatar Aang to begin negotiations?" My secretary asks. "I will, of course, inform him of the charges and punishment."

"Yes," I say, politely.

End Flashback.

I was of course proven correct about being vilified, a week later.

*Flashback*

Aang walks into my throne room, followed by an ambassador for the Earth Kingdom; both of which look very angry.

"Good, your both here." I say, taking control of the meeting. "As you should both be aware; King Kuei ordered the Kyoshi Warriors to spy on me, a world leader. The penalty for spying is death, I imprisoned them instead. So you can both get over your obvious anger towards me, It's directed at the wrong person." I say, causing Aang to realize I'm right and the Ambassador to look slightly humiliated and chastened.

"Very well. I'm here to inform you, that, if you do not release your hostages, the Earth King will declare war." The ambassador says, nervously.

I laugh at him, as do most of my advisors. Even Aang is fighting laughter.

"Your nation would lose and probably cease to exist. Kuei truly is an idiot, the Earth Kingdom was losing a Hundred Year War, it only survived it due to the actions of my uncle and myself; who's betrayal allowed the war to end." I say, before pausing to calm myself.

"Now, Kuei has committed an act of war. My nation has made reparations and tried to atone for It's actions. I think Kuei should suffer a fitting punishment; I propose five hundred million gold coins in penalties to be paid by the Earth
Kingdom. In exchange: I will release the prisoners in one year, while banning them from ever entering Fire Nation territory again; under pain of death, I'll also not completely and utterly destroy the Earth Kingdom, with a surviving
superweapon from Ozai's regime." I say, to their fear. "I'm well within my rights to do so, not only did Kuei commit an act of war, but he outright threatened my nation with it." I say, keeping my voice cold and threatening. Just like Lo and Li have been teaching me.

"Zuko?!" Aang exclaims, I silence him with a glare.

"The Earth King will accept this most generous offer, Fire Lord Zuko." The Ambassador says, fearfully, even bowing somewhat.

"Good. Please wait outside, Aang and I need to catch up." I say, dismissing him. He promptly leaves.

After he exits the room I rise from my throne and motion Aang to follow me into my office.

"Do you want a drink before an explanation?" I ask politely.

"No. You need to destroy that superweapon!" Aang exclaims, angrily.

"There is no superweapon. It was a bluff to get justice done and insure peace. No one will wage war with the Fire Nation if they think we have a superweapon. In other words I just insured many years of peace, Aang." My logic seems to have silenced him. "Now, as soon as the gold coins are transferred; I'll mark the prisoners for release." I say, and Aang nods in agreement. He seems to be sure I'm still a good person.

"I'll go, Zuko. And I'm sorry about not speaking out at City Hall, I really do regret that." Aang says, remorsefully.

"It's okay, I'll truly forgive you in time. Bloodbending could have done a lot of good though, but, now it never will." I say, sadly.

"Bye, Zuko." Aang says, before quickly leaving. About time, I have things to do; like meet with operatives to enact my true plan.

End Flashback

I succeeded; in not only getting my five-hundred million gold coins, but even more. My operatives stole a lot of wealth for me and inflicted massive damage on the Earth Kingdom economy. None of the attacks were ever traced back to me. I watched with smug satisfaction as the Earth Kingdom became increasingly mediocre, eventually ceasing to exist.

I yawn and decide It's time for bed. I've allowed myself to get lost in thought.

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Time Skip

Our ship has reached the shore and the walkway is being lowered. I, along with three other soldiers disembark from the ship.

"I want the Avatar alive. If you encounter him signal me." I order, as we ride closer to the village. I hear Katara trying to wake Aang, good. Maybe they will leave.

We arrive near the Kyoshi Statue minutes later.

"Come out, Avatar! Haven't enough people suffered because of your cowardice?" I yell, before smirking. "Find him." I order my soldiers, who quickly obey my order.

They are ambushed moments later.

Suki is running to engage me, I sense Sokka hiding to aid her. I quickly send a fire blast at her, to quickly for her to dodge. I watch her fall and quickly teleport away from a Kyoshi Warrior trying to knock me off my rhino. I watch her
land on the ground. I teleport closer and knock her out; with an axe kick to the back of the head. I enhance my speed with my Chi and quickly kick Sokka in the abdomen and punch him in the face; he falls onto the ground, unconscious.

I take in my surroundings and see my soldiers losing to the Kyoshi Warriors. I quickly unleash a barrage of lightning, forking it to hit the Kyoshi Warriors, stunning and knocking them out.

"Nice try, Avatar! But these little girls can't save you." I yell as a taunt.

"Hey! Over here!" I hear Aang say and I quickly turn to where his voice is coming from.

"About time, coward!" I say, angrily. "Don't you ever get disgusted with yourself?" I ask, to Aangs confusion. "While you were enjoying luxory, people were dying in this ongoing war." I launch two large fire blasts at Aang, who barely decimates them with his staff. He rapidly spins the staff over his head, propelling himself in the air. He lands in front of me, I immediately kick the staff out of his hands. I stun him with a light burst of lightning.

"You could have prevented all of this," I say, gesturing to all the destruction. "All you had to do was your duty." Aang looks at what has happened here: a lot of burning houses and my soldiers among them. Aang looks back to see the burning statue of Avatar Kyoshi, which saddens him even more. He runs down the main street and picks up his staff along the way. "Just give up, Avatar!" I say, with false arrogance.

Aang spins around a few times to create a bigger momentum and uses the extra power of his swirl to blast me in a nearby house with a strong blast of air. I feign unconsciousness and remotely listen to Team Avatar.

"Look what I brought to this place." I hear Aang say, after he lands near Katara.

"It's not your fault." Katara lies, in an attempt to spare his feelings.

"Yes, it is. These people got their town destroyed trying to protect me." Aang says, upset.

"Then let's get out of here. Zuko will leave Kyoshi to follow us. I know it feels wrong to run, but I think it's the only way." Katara says.

"There's no time to say goodbye." I hear Suki say.

"What about, 'I'm sorry?'" Sokka says.

"For what?" Suki asks in surprise. Cheating on you in the future?

"I treated you like a girl when I should've treated you like a warrior." Sokka says, regretfully.

"I am a warrior. But I'm a girl, too. Now get out of here! We'll hold them off." Suki says. I think she kissed Sokka.

"Appa, yip yip!" I hear moments later.

I decide it's time to 'wake up'.

"Back to the ship! Don't lose sight of them!" I order, while stumbling. I mount my rhino and begin the return trip to my ship.

We're drenched in water almost a minute later. I shake in rage and begin emitting heat, turning the water into steam. I dismount my rhino.

"Soldier. Please lead this rhino back to the ship and inform my uncle I'll rejoin the crew after I do something." I say, handing the reins to him. He takes them with a nod.

I take flight and begin barraging the waters surface with lightning and fire blasts.

Minutes later, I have what I wanted.

The Unagi surfaces getting get by a fire blast in the process. It snaps at me, I teleport out the way and hit it with a fire blast. I get more distance from it, while charging up lightning. It pursues me and I attack; hitting it with the
lightning and stunning it. I quickly hit it with another immensely more powerful lightning attack and it falls into the water dead.

I teleport back to ship.

"Very impressive, nephew." Uncle says, from his seat on deck.

"Thank you," I say, before turning to Lieutenant Jee. "Lieutenant. When is the earliest we can get moving?"

"We can leave immediately. Destination?" Jee asks, respectfully.

"The port nearest Omashu." I inform him. I get some confused looks. "My instincts tell me to go there and King Bumi is around the same as the Avatar."

"We'll leave immediately, Prince Zuko." Jee says, respectfully. He quickly leaves to inform the helmsman, the other crew leave too.

"I'll write my letter and bring it to you Zuko. You can speed up the delivery as planned." Uncle says, before rising from his seat.

"Good. I've already written mine." I say, and uncle nods and leaves to write his letter.

I decide to retire to my room to think.

It's likely Ukano will be placed in charge of Omashu. I think I can prevent myself from torturing him to death. Mai will most likely be there, I won't make the mistake of re-fathering Izumi with her. Though that was decades from now. I guess I'll have to amuse myself in other ways. At least I'm not having to infiltrate Omashu to rescue my in-laws this time.

*Flashback*

I had just retrieved Tom-Tom and his family, I was leading them to an exfiltration point.

"Hello, Lord Zuko." I hear Kuvira's voice say, with clear amusement.

"Hello, Kuvira." I say, in annoyance; turning to where her voice came from.

"You shouldn't have sneaked into Imperial territory. Now I have to place you under arrest." Kuvira says, with a sneer.

"Interesting idea. How about my counter-proposal, as an alternative?" I say, catching her interest. "If you don't step aside and let us go; your reign as Empress will be the first, last, and shortest. That and crossing the Fire Nation
would end with your annihilation, possibly your armies too." I say, angering her. "Aww, is the wittle Empress angwry? Too bad. Move or I'll turn this place into a mass grave, with your mangled body at the center. I'm here for one reason; rescue my in-laws, not to help you with your severe mental issues." I say, enraging her further.

"So. Easy way or fun for me way?" I ask, in a bored tone. I discreetly place Tom-Tom and his entire family under a massive barrier than can only be broke by airbending. I also place one on myself; as an after thought.

"Kill them!" Kuvira yells, and over fifty soldiers begin barraging us with rocks.

I calmly wait for over a minute, then the barrage stops.

"Are you weaklings done yet?" I ask, in annoyance.

"Surrender or be destroyed, Lord Zuko. You can't survive our attacks forever." Kuvira says, arrogantly.

I respond by going on the attack. I quickly generate and unleash a sustained stream of lightning killing half of her so-called soldiers. I generate enough lightning to stun, and knock out Kuvira with it. I turn the ground beneath her
surviving soldiers into lava and make it less solid, causing them to sink into it; causing them to drown and be burned alive at the same time.

"We're leaving, now." I say, to Tom-Tom and his family, who nod, while awestruck. I look down at Kuvira who's waking up, but still paralyzed. "Don't ever cross me again. Because if you do, I'll reduce everything you have built to ash." I say, before kicking her in the head, knocking her out again.

It was then I realized; I'm a one man army.

End Flashback

In hindsight, killing her then would have been a good idea. Oh well. The plight of the republic wasn't my concern. I had more important things to do; build up my power and knowledge base.

I hear a knock on my door.

"Enter." I say and uncle enters my cabin.

"I've finished writing my letter." Uncle says, handing it to me.

"Great. Thank you, uncle." I say, gratefully.

"How are you, nephew?" He asks in concern.

"I'm good. I wasn't injured in battle and I'm so immensely powerful, that I barely used any power. At least relative to my full power anyway." I say, to ease his concerns.

"That's good. We should be nearing Omashu in a day. Are you sure you don't want help conquering it?" Uncle asks.

"Yes, I'm sure. I have confidence I can silently conquer it, without being exposed. Bringing in more people creates more unpredictable variables that can cause the mission fail. What I'll be doing requires my own unique skills." I say, trying to get uncle to give up on the matter.

"Very well, Prince Zuko." Uncle says in resignation. "I'll leave you to prepare for your mission." Uncle says, recognizing my desire to be alone.

"I'm sorry. I'm not good company today." I say, sadly.

"It's fine. I'll see you later, Zuko." Uncle says, in understanding.