Chapter four (APC)

I only just got word that were nearing port. I'm currently gathering up weapons.

I'm taking my duel broadswords, several dozen throwing knives, sai, and stilettos. Suffice it say, I picked up a couple skills from Mai. Having gotten all my gear together; I teleport on deck, where uncle said he would be waiting.

When I arrive, everyone jumps in surprise.

"Your leaving?" Uncle asks in resignation.

"I am, but don't worry so much, uncle. I'll be fine. Even if I do get caught, I'll turn Omashu into a mass grave." I say, with complete confidence and faith in my abilities. Everyone looks unnerved by that statement. "I did heed your advice though, uncle." I say, to his interest. "I'll be meeting up with an old friend, who agreed to help me with my conquest."

"Who is it?" Uncle asks in concern.

"The Butcher of Gaipan base." I say, to everyone but uncle's shock. "Yeah. He agreed to take prisoners. Mainly, because I told him he'll have to clean up the bodies himself. Anyway, I'm off to conquer Omashu." I teleport away.

I arrive near Omashu, a moment later.

I employ my ability to create shadow clones and create a duplicate of myself. I toss it the combat gear I wore when I liberated the soldiers from Bujings failed plan. It being a copy of me is well aware of my plan and puts on the outfit.

When he's ready, I teleport us into Omashu.

I decide to do recon until nightfall. Thankfully later in my life; I learned that Earth Kingdom base commanders kept secret lists of benders for potential recruitment to the army. That should allow me to eliminate all earthbenders as a
threat in one move. There are also secret prisons to deal with rebellions; designed by Bumi, who really is a mad and possibly evil genius.

Hours later- Nightfall

I've spent hours doing recon; even finding some Fire Nation spies, weapon stores, explosives, wealth, and other war resources. Now It's time to conquer this city. I teleport into the first base.

When I arrive, I quickly incapacitate four soldiers with Chi-blocking. I place my hand on two of them and teleport them into the secret prisons for non-benders. I do the same to the other two. I decide to focus on the sleeping soldiers, they're more vulnerable. I teleport into the first of many rooms, thankfully they're all asleep. I teleport them away, two at a time. I continue onto the next one.

I successfully empty twenty rooms of soldiers. When I teleport into the twenty-first, I see the soldiers are awake. I quickly make four shadow clones of myself and take them out, with chi-blocking. I dispel the clones to conserve energy and continue my work.

Fortunately cleansing this base is done without further incident. My clone should have cleansed the other base by now, we can split the third. I'm currently in the room used by the bases commander. I gather up my power and send a wave of magnetism out and find a major source of metal. I hope It's the base payroll, that's what I'm here searching for.

I will myself a blade of blue fire to form, from my index and middle finger. I will my blue fire hotter, causing it to turn white and I begin cutting through the stone floor.

I finish a minute later and remove the chest. When I open it, I see a large sum of money. I teleport the wealth to one of my vaults. I decide to move on to the next base, I teleport there.

When I arrive; I check for witnesses and do not see or sense any.

I quickly cleanse part of the third base of all personnel without difficulty. I encounter my clone and verify that it has seized the wealth of the other base and this one. I decide to begin containing the civilian earthbenders, police, and former military. My clone and I teleport to the gates to contain the threats there.

When I arrive, I chi-block two guards on the wall and stun two more further away. I teleport behind the guard outside and knock him out, all under fifteen seconds. I begin teleporting them to the secret prisons. After I finish, I continue my silent conquest of Omashu.

I spend the next two hours dealing with all the threats, leaving only King Bumi to confront. I teleport my clone and I
into the throneroom, sadly Bumi is awake. I just hope he likes neutral jing, right now.

"Hello, King Bumi." I say, as he looks at me in surprise. "I am Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. I have taken all of your active earthbenders, soldiers, police, as well as all retired military and police prisoner. I have come to accept your
unconditional surrender or defeat you in battle." I say, coldly. Looking him straight in the eyes, successfully unnerving him. I stand confident in front of him, awaiting his answer.

"I had heard you were banished from your homeland. I had also heard that you were weak, though I can see that's not true by the way you carry yourself." Bumi says, seemingly stalling for time. At least he's not insulting me with his
senility act.

"I feigned weakness, to cause myself to be underestimated. My one blunder with that strategy was thinking my own father wouldn't hurt me. A rather huge blunder, that required me shed my mask of comical weakness and stupidity."
I say, indulging his attempt.

"I had heard you were to search for and capture the Avatar. He's already gone, he left hours ago." Bumi says, noticing my lack of surprise. He sighs. "I, King Bumi, hereby surrender the city of Omashu to Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation."
Bumi says.

"I, Prince Zuko, of the Fire Nation accept your surrender." I say, calmly. I nod to my clone, which I decided to call Shadow for public meetings. It teleports away and retrieves a metal box. "If you would please enter the metal box." I ask, politely.

"Very well." Bumi says. He enters and I close the door, sealing him in. I move the box off to the side of the room.

"Thank you. I'll be back in a few minutes with more men." I say, before my clone and I teleport to the deck of my ship.

We arrive moments later to see one crew member keeping watch as planned.

"I need an occupying force now." I inform him, causing him to jump in surprise.

"Yes, Prince Zuko. I'll inform the crew and your uncle as planned." He says, before jogging away to do so.

My clone and I wait for five minutes until finally a dozen firebenders, soldiers, and uncle arrive on deck.

"Great. We need to get back to Omashu." I say, drawing everyones attention to me. "I need you all to make firm physical contact with each other, so I can teleport you as a group." I say, and everyone does so. I step forward and
teleport them all to Omashu. My clone and I teleport ourselves there, though in hindsight I could have left him there.

When I arrive, I quickly assign locations to my soldiers to guard. Having uncle guard the throneroom and Bumi. My clone and I begin carving out doors in the palace, with fire and lavabending.

When we finish an hour later. I send off a letter to Colonel Mak; who's controlling the base housing the occupational force for Omashu. I also inform Ozai of my success.

"Uncle, I'm going to rest some. I need to regain some of my strength." I say, to which uncle nods. I sit on Bumi's throne, I close my eyes and clear my mind of all thoughts.

Line break-remove text and replace.
Time Skip.

I'm awoken an unknown amount of time later, by my clone.

"You have a message." It informs me, masking It's voice. I groggily turn to the soldier, who's waiting nervously.

"What is the message?" I ask, in slight concern.

"It's a message from colonel Mak. The occupational force and chosen governor Ukano, along with his family will be arriving after sunrise. He also sent a hundred and fifty men to be placed under yours and general Irohs command. The men are outside, awaiting your orders." He informs me.

"Ah. Shadow is what your nervous about." I say, in understanding and cause Shadow to snort in amusement. "Rest assured he won't kill you; unless you attack, insult, or offend him. Unless, of course someone hires him to kill you,
which is very unlikely. I highly doubt you have enemies that can afford his services. I can't afford his services. He's indebted to me, though." I say, before realizing I got distracted. "Anyway, send in the men." I say, the soldier quickly leaves to do so.

A hundred and fifty men enter the throneroom, several looking amused at King Bumi in a metal box.

"Welcome to Omashu. The essential points that need to guarded are the gates and secret prisons. There are several hundred earthbenders in one prison several thousand soldiers in two others. Retired military and police; along with all
current military and police have been contained in the appropriate prisons. Containing the cities forces will take priority. Separate in groups of fifty and guard them, I'll move my ships crew to the gates. Highest ranked officers will handle the separation into groups. When your ready, inform general Iroh, myself, or Shadow and we'll guide you to the locations."

After a few moments; they seem to be ready.

"We're ready, Prince Zuko." A major says, respectfully.

"Excellent." I say, rising from the throne. "Uncle, Shadow." I say, gesturing to them. "For those of you, who don't know him; this is Shadow a friend and student. Also known as the Butcher of Gaipan, Man in Black, and Hero of Gaipan." I say, causing fear in all the soldiers. "We will now lead you to your post." I say, having advertised my affiliation with 'Shadow' enough.

After I guide them to their post, I teleport onto the prison rig.

When I arrive, I see the ships off in the distance. I quickly go to where I last found Katara's necklace. I decide to amuse myself with some murder, fortunately there are ships full of victims. I conceal myself with illusion and fly after the ships.

I catch up minutes later and confirm It's only Katara on a ship. Appa, who's carrying Aang and Sokka is a safe distance away. I teleport onto the ship and blast the engine's and coal storage and quickly teleport into the air. I watch in amusement as the ship explodes, taking hundreds of lives with it. I teleport onto the other and repeat the process, teleporting out.

"That should help the Fire Nation." I say, before teleporting back to throne room.

When I arrive, I quickly go to sit on the throne. Getting an odd look from uncle and Shadow.

"I had to do something." I say, as explanation. "Essential for a future plan. I'll explain later." I say, while gesturing to King Bumi.

"Prince Zuko!" A soldier says, running in. "The Governor and his family are here. What do you want me to do?"

"Make them wait. I need to assert my power." I say, and the soldier patiently waits.

"Okay." I say, five minutes later. The soldier leaves and retrieves Ukano, Michi, Mai, and Tom-Tom. Ukano struts in,radiating arrogance. He takes in the scene of the throne room with a proud smile which falls when he see's me
sitting on the throne, with uncle and Shadow near me. I watch all this with amusement, enjoying Mai's reaction to seeing me and I do look amazing.

"What are you doing on the throne?!" Ukano questions, angrily.

"Sitting." I answer, as if that's an idiotic question. I look at him like he's an idiot and make Mai smirk.

"Why are you sitting there?!" Ukano asks, even angrier.

"Because I'm tired from conquering a city and staying up all night. Oh and because I conquered this city with the help of Shadow over there." I gesture towards Shadow. "Sitting here also has the additional benefit of annoying arrogant idiots like you. I truly have no idea why my father; a very intelligent man would appoint you here. An extremely small town perhaps, but not Omashu." I say, continually angering him and making Mai smile more and more.

"Get up!!!" Ukano yells, making Tom-Tom begin to cry.

"Shame on you! Making your own child cry!" I conjure up a large amount of red, blue, white, and green flames. I form them into dragons, which I make fly around to distract Tom-Tom. He stops crying and watches them in awe. I make them fly around, eventually into each other and turn into smoke. Tom-Tom claps happily, making Mai and Michi smile.

"Now, I'll wait till my men are ready to go. I'll have someone bring seats for your family. You should also watch your tone when talking to me, Ukano. Captain Zhao insulted me and he's still getting medical help. He'll never fully heal from all the damage I did; physically and to his reputation." I say, to Ukano's interest.

"Oh?" He asks. Four seats are brought in for his family and they sit.

"Lets just say, when Zhao was conceived; the random sailor paid her very poorly." I say, in amusement; grossing out Mai and Michi, amusing everyone else.

"So who is this Shadow, who helped you conquer Omashu?" Ukano asks, previous insults seemingly forgotten.

"You don't know about the Hero of Gaipan; more commonly known as the Butcher of Gaipan?" I ask, causing fear in Ukano and Michi.

"You associate with murderers?" Ukano asks, in disgust.

"Yes. I'm related to several. However Shadow liberated the soldiers from Gaipan base, while I was busy elsewhere. That makes him a Fire Nation hero. Though his only interest is money." I say, in amusement.

"Your father wants him as a potential husband for your sister." Ukano says; to mine, uncles, and my clones amusement.

"Well I'm a peasant and an orphan. I have no manners or class. Furthermore, I'm actually a very unpleasant and annoying person. I even blackmailed Zuko into teaching me firebending. I saw him training in secret and threatened to expose his true power and skill. He agreed, after threatening me for a very long time." Shadow says, to Ukano and Mai's shock. "Just think. If he fought back during that Agni Kai; he would be your Fire Lord." He adds and uncle nod's in agreement. "In short; he only wants me as a son in-law because he doesn't know me."

"It's true. Lu Ten and I trained Zuko in secret. He could have won, but he mistakenly believed Ozai wouldn't hurt him to such an extent. Zuko knew he would never get the throne, but he would most likely have to die so someone else can. As such he hid his true skills, which are quite extensive; even to the point that he suffered a burn from his own father." Uncle says, playing his part.

"I surrendered Omashu because he scares me." Bumi adds from his metal box. "As soon as I saw him; I knew I couldn't defeat him." Bumi just made an unexpected, but appreciated contribution.

Ukano's family looks shocked by this revelation.

"Prince Zuko." Jee says, getting mine and everyones attention.

"Yes?" I ask politely.

"All crew are ready to return to the ship." He says.

"Oh well. Tell them get in a group, I'll take us to the ship in a few minutes." I order and Jee goes to relay the order. "Well, it appears I have to go." I say, sadly, rising from the throne. I walk towards Mai and lean in and kiss her,
causing her to blush. "Good bye, beautiful." I whisper into her ear, causing her to blush again.

"Good luck." I say, to Ukano.

I walk out the throne room, followed by Shadow and uncle.

"That was interesting, Zuko." My clone says.

"I'm glad you liked it. If you want to go, you can. Thank you for your assistance." I say, continuing our act.

"Later, then." Shadow says, before teleporting to my room.

We arrive at my group moments later.

"Please make firm physical contact and I'll teleport you all to the ship." I order and they all obey. I teleport them to the ship. I teleport there moments later.

When I arrive It's to see an expectant crew.

"Yes?" I ask, in amusement.

"Sir. How did you meet the Butcher of Gaipan?" Jee asks, seemingly for the crew.

"He extorted me into teaching him firebending. He's my first and best student." I say, to their shock. "Yeah. He owed me a lot of favors to prevent me from getting revenge; after his leverage was gone."

"Thank you, Prince Zuko. We were all wondering." Jee says and they all go about their business. I return to my room.

When I arrive, I absorb my clone back into myself sit down to rest some. I verify all secondary mission objectives were achieved.

The Shadow persona is quite useful, it has allowed me to fight at full strength without revealing It's me. Though that isn't completely necessary now. I'll never forget the first time I used the persona; when I liberated the soldiers from Bejings failed plan and prevented the rise of the Red Lotus.

*Flashback*

I had just finished my recon of Gaipan Base, I had mentally mapped it out, in It's entirety. I was at the highest point of the base, with eyes on the guards at the tower on top of the base. I quickly chi-block them and absorb their chi
and life-force with energybending. I teleport into the other towers and repeat the process, without incident. I added centuries of life to my own, before continuing into the base.

I spend what I estimate to be twenty minutes taking out other soldiers; adding their chi and life-force to my own. When I'm done, I place the life-force behind seals. After all; I don't want to be thirteen for eternity. I quickly kill the
guards outside the dining hall and enter with an elemental barrier over myself, which can only be broken with airbending.

When I'm inside and being stared at; I lift all but Xai Bau off the ground with gravitybending and crush them, in an revolting explosion of gore. Xai Bau looks at the scene in horror and disgust.

"Hello, colonel Xai Bau." I say, coldly.

"Who are you?" He asks in fear.

"A man in a mask. If you want to know my name; you will have to kill and unmask me." I say, in amusement.

"So be it." Xai Bau says, hatefully. He quickly pulls dozens of rock coins from the floor and barrages me with them. I let them hit and due to my elemental barrier, they break.

"My turn!" I say, loudly. I send a Comet-Enhanced fireblast at him and he hides behind a massive earth wall, it breaks and he goes flying back into a wall. I quickly generate and direct lightning at him; he attempts to dodge, but, he's too slow. It burns through his chest, like a spirit cannon.

"How disappointing." I say, as I confirm that he is indeed dead. Oh well, I wasn't expecting an epic battle.

I begin walking to the prison under the base.

I arrive a few minutes later, while wondering why I didn't just teleport. I quickly use magnetism and rip open the cell doors.

"Attention, enemies of the Earth Kingdom! Your free! Please follow me to the dining hall and separate into groups based on nationality." I yell, they all thankfully obey.

We all arrive in the Dining Hall minutes later.

"Okay. After I interrogate the Earth Kingdom soldiers; you can all leave. You, step forward." I say, pointing at one who enjoys the scene of my massacre. He obeys. "What crimes were you charged with?"

"Mass murder; 642 counts, rape; 217 counts, torture; 72 counts, ten counts of treason, hundreds of counts of sedition. All on Earth Kingdom citizens." He says, without any remorse. "I was trying to remove that weak idiot Kuei from power. They arrested me after a large battle and my army fled into hiding. My former nation keeps me alive, planning to make an example of me." I smile from behind my mask, he will be very useful.

"Very well, please step back into line. Next." I say, coldly. A burly earthbender steps forward.

"I was charged with extortion of a superior officer and desertion for trying to flee when it failed." He says, nervously.

"Back in line. Next." I say and he steps back in line and the next steps forward.

"I was charged with desertion, treason, and two hundred and fifty counts of sedition. I convinced far more than that to rebel against the Earth Kingdom, though. They went into hiding, fleeing from persecution by the Earth Kingdom."

"Very well. Fire Nation soldiers, your free to go and welcome to loot the base. Earth Kingdom citizens, stay behind." My nations soldiers quickly leave, eager to get away from me. I close the doors of the Dining Hall, for privacy.

"Now I would like to offer two of you a deal, with plenty of incentives. I, too disagree with Kuei's weak leadership and would like him removed from power. I think two budding warlords would help make that dream a reality." I say, and
the burly earthbender tries attacking. I stun him and he falls onto the ground. "What do you say? The current incentives offered are a lengthened lifespan, a marginal power boost to your bending. That and I won't kill you. Also, if you ever rape anyone again; I'll hunt you down and torture you for years, constantly healing and lengthening your pain filled life. I will do this till you lose the ability to feel."

"I accept." The rapist says, in agreement. He also looks sufficiently cowed by my threat.

"As do I." The other warlord wanna be says, in agreement.

"Excellent." I say, before levitating the coward from the ground. I quickly use energybending to absorb his chi and life-force. I quickly give it to my two pet warlords. "I want you both too ally with each other and silently build up your
strength for a few years. I'll call on you then." I say, before teleporting them to a safer location.

I spend the next twenty minutes destroying the base, after verifying It's empty of Fire Nation citizens and loot, of course.

I then teleport to my next target.

End Flashback

My Shadow persona will continue to be of use in shaping this world as I desire.