Chapter Text
气
BOOK ONE: AIR
CHAPTER ONE: THE BANISHED PRINCE
Prince Zuko, one of Fire Lord Ozai’s twin heirs, the rightful heir to the throne, had been banished for three years now. When he was 11 he went to a war meeting with his Uncle and disgraced his father. In response his father forced him to duel and when he refused, he was branded as a coward with a scar gracing the left side of his face. Permanently. Prince Zuko scowled as he had been at sea for three years and had not yet spotted a glimpse of the Avatar. According to his father if he managed to capture the Avatar once and for all he would be able to return home a hero, and be exonerated of his exile.
Prince Zuko had just searched the Eastern Air Temple for clues on the whereabouts of the Avatar. He sailed away, towards the Southern Air Temple. He had been given a ship commanded by his distinguished Uncle, General Iroh, the Great Dragon of the West who treated it as a mere vacation. Meanwhile the crew was made up of exiles as well. Lowlife thieves and cowards and a lazy old man. This is not the life of a prince, Zuko thought.
Zuko groaned and yelled up to the bridge. “Can’t this thing go any faster?!” The captain meekly responded “No Prince Zuko, we’re doing the best we can!” The Prince scowled and paced across the deck. “You know Prince Zuko, you need to relax,” his uncle said, almost yawning. “Would you like some Jasmine Tea? Or perhaps a game of Pai Sho?” “I don’t have time for your games old man! I’ve scoured the globe for the Avatar for three years and what do I have to show for it?!The weight you’ve gained? The rust and barnacles on the bottom of this pathetic ship?!”
“Nephew, you must relax. Your have a deep rage within you, a rage that fuels the fire inside of your soul and the fire you bend. However, if this fire gets out of control, it will burn you from the inside out.” Zuko hated his Uncle’s overly complicated metaphors on life and how he should live it. “I don’t have time to relax! I can do that when I’ve captured the Avatar and have returned to the to the Royal palace!” Iroh sighed. His nephew was hotheaded and determined to accomplish this unfathomable goal.
The Avatar had disappeared 100 years ago, even if he was alive he would surely have mastered the four elements and dramatically outclass Zuko, or he had died and the Avatar was reincarnated as an unknown citizen of one of the Water Tribes or the Earth Kingdom. Either way Zuko was on a fool’s errand. His father had truly banished Prince Zuko for life, however he gave the boy false hope to make his exile unbearable.
“Uncle, come with me! I think I know how to get this ship moving.” Zuko shouted. The pair of royals walked to the back of the boat and Iroh remarked “What’s your plan? The only way to make this boat move any faster would be to waterbend it.” “Or,” Zuko said with a smirk, “to firebend it.” Zuko squatted down and got into a firebending position. He breathed, absorbing the small fragments of heat in the arctic air, preparing to shoot a flame out of his fist that would propel the boat foward. He sent his fist through the air and to his horror no fire came out.
Rather than a raging inferno release from the banished prince’s fist, a gust of wind was released as if he had pushed the air itself. Zuko got down on his knees and stared at his hands. He bent fire. He only bent fire. For his entire life, disregarding his infancy when it was believed he was a non bender due to Azula showing such an aptitude from such a young age while Zuko struggled to produce a spark until he was three years old, but this changed everything. If Zuko could bend fire and air, he realized what that meant. He could bend all four elements. He was the Avatar.
Uncle Iroh looked at his nephew, struggling to keep his reserved nature. He realized what his nephew had realized: the Avatar they had searched for the past three years, that the world searched for the past hundred years, was Prince Zuko. Iroh Made sure no one saw the young Prince’s display of airbending and then saw something he hadn’t seen since the boy’s father dueled and scarred him: Prince Zuko was crying.
He was scared and confused, with a million thoughts running through his head Should I turn myself into my father? What would he say? What would he do? A cry of anguish was released from the newly discovered Avatar’s mouth as his eyes and scar glowed blue. The wind increased a hundred fold and the sky turned dark. Prince Zuko was enveloped in a storm cloud and the first mate was ringing a bell and shouting: “Everyone below deck! Cyclone! Everyone, come quick!”
Zuko rose into the air, still in his kneeling position as lighting emanated from his fingertips. The worst storm Iroh had seen in his entire life was ravaging the small battleship, thousands of miles away from dry land. Rain poured down like the sky itself was crying out and gusts of wind almost capsized the mighty ship. The sky was as dark as the night, covered in clouds, and waves rose as high as mountains. Zuko was filled with anger, grief, sadness, confusion and so many more emotions all at once. It overwhelmed him.
Iroh struggled to walk towards the royal Avatar while all across the world, temples of the four nations began lighting up with the same blue glue emanating from Prince Zuko. The sages of the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes all came to the same conclusion: the Avatar had returned. As news was sent to the respective leaders of the three nations, Iroh yelled out to Zuko. “Prince Zuko! Nephew, don’t do this! You’ll destroy the ship! You’ll kill the crew, you’ll kill me! Please stop, we can talk about this!” A bolt of lighting hit Iroh however the Great Dragon of the West redirected it using his own technique and cried out for his nephew. “Zuko! Snap out of it!”
Upon realizing he could’ve killed his Uncle, the blue glow emanating from Zuko evaporated the the storm he had caused left as soon as it arrived. The prince of the Fire Nation fell into the arms of his Uncle, who brought him below decks and tucked him into his bed. He lied to the crew and said that Zuko had fallen overboard during the storm and the yelling was him trying to find him. Iroh sat and drank his tea while watching over his sleeping nephew. He had searched for the Avatar for three years and turned out what he was looking for was inside of him the whole time. Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, banished until he could find the Avatar, the fabled “Last Airbender” was in reality the Avatar.