Kuei sat nervously upon his throne, Bosco to one side of him, Avatar Aang and his friends to the other. His nervousness was threefold. On one side, he had just barely pulled through an attempted coup and takeover attempt by the Fire Nation and his own protectors. On another side, part of the force that thwarted it was Fire Nation soldiers, led by two apparently prominent Fire Nation figures who he was about to meet with. But even with all that, he couldn't shake the feeling that in a matter of hours the entire world had turned on its head, and there was no way of knowing what would happen next. After all, there was the matter of the giant honey-badger-mole napping on his metaphorical front lawn. Most would see that as reason enough for nerves, right?
At least the palace functionaries who weren't Dai Li puppets certainly seemed to share his nerves. "P-prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, G-General Iroh of the Fire Nation, and...other to see you, Your Majesty," the scribe announced, filling in for the one who usually announced guests. He was apparently so flustered he couldn't even properly identify the third guest.
Kuei desperately hoped it wasn't the giant honey-badger-mole. "Send them in," he proclaimed, doing his best to at least appear calm.
He looked over the group as they entered. He was rather surprised that he recognized the two humans in the group by their uniforms. He'd spotted 'The Jasmine Dragon' when riding Appa to the Outer Wall with Aang and his group, and had privately decided to stop there for tea on the way back if Aang's revelation hadn't played out. "How did a Prince of the Fire Nation and one of its most famous generals end up running a tea shop in the Upper Ring of my own city?" he asked curiously.
A familiar giggle drew his attention. "Daddy's tea's just that good!" Cadence replied happily as she stepped up.
"Oh!" Kuei gasped out, shocked. "It's my little creature spirit friend. So nice to meet you in the flesh." He blinked as he processed what she said. "I didn't know you were General Iroh's daughter," he murmured as Bosco walked up to say his own hellos.
"Well, I didn't know you were the Earth King," Cadence countered before bursting into giggles as Bosco said his hellos. "Or that Bosco was such a kisser!"
Kuei chuckled, managing to relax a bit. "So tell me, Your Highness," he began, turning to Zuko...after Iroh pointed him to the right face, much to Kuei's embarrassment. "Have you come to demand my surrender?"
Zuko blinked in surprise. "What makes you think I'd be demanding that?" he asked, confused.
"Well, your force is currently the strongest armed force in the city, and surrounding the palace," Kuei pointed out.
"It's only 100 troops-"
"And a giant honey-badger-mole," Kuei reminded him. "In a city made almost entirely of stone."
"Oh, right," Zuko muttered. "Forgot about Chin's friend for a bit there..."
"So you aren't demanding surrender," Aang brought up, trying to keep the discussion on point.
"That's right," Zuko replied. "I understand you are planning an invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun. I want to help."
Kuei frowned. "That seems...a very odd offer from you."
"This war has torn the world apart, and threatens to destroy it," Zuko explained. "It has to be stopped. The driving force behind the war is my father, Fire Lord Ozai. He has to be stopped. But even though this is true...I'm still a Prince of the Fire Nation. My first concern in all my training was the well being of my Nation, of my people. And if I take no action here, my people will suffer greatly from your invasion...and the aftermath."
Kuei crossed his hands under his chin. "And what, exactly, are you offering?"
"I will lead the actual invasion of the Fire Nation capitol," Zuko replied. "I know where the palace is, and where my father would likely withdraw to if an invasion pushed too far or was too dangerous to face head on. We will isolate my father...and when the eclipse ends, I will challenge him to an Agni Kai, for the throne of the Fire Nation."
"At which point it is your intention to work towards stabilizing a peace between the nations?" Kuei clarified.
"That's correct," Zuko promised.
Kuei sat back, lost in thought. The offer was good...almost too good to be true. And after the Kyoshi Warriors had turned out to be Fire Nation spies, he was a bit suspicious of such things. He wished he had some way of knowing if Zuko's word could be trusted.
"He's telling the truth," Toph spoke up suddenly.
Kuei blinked, turning to the blind girl. "He spoke of this to you before?" he asked, surprised.
"No, but he's standing on stone," Toph explained. I can tell through the vibrations when someone's lying. But he's completely calm, not a hint of deception in him."
Kuei turned to the others of the group. "You've seen this ability in action?" he asked.
All three nodded. "If Toph says he's not lying, then he's not," Sokka admitted grudgingly.
Kuei sighed, then nodded. "Very well, Prince Zuko. I accept your terms."
Zuko nodded. "My Uncle is more of a tactician on the grand scale than I," he offered. "His advice would be most useful in planning the assault."
"I am happy to assist my nephew in whatever way he deems necessary," Iroh added, bowing.
"Then I'll introduce you to the Council of Five," Kuei agreed, standing up. As he turned, he paused. "...just as soon as we get their locations out of the Dai Li..."
There's the catch!
6858698 And here comes cadence up to bat...
6858752 I dunno...I think those Dai Li might be immune to cuteness.
Fourth comment? I dunno
6858819 NO ONE IS IMUNE TO PONY.
6858883
Pakku was.
6858893 Point.
6858819 Immune to cuteness? NEVER!
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Say, did you know that the Dai Li were instated by Kyoshi herself to be a sort of police to protect the the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se? I was intrigued when I learned that in that one nickelodeon game all those years ago; who knew that it was actually true? I suppose that, in the end, no matter how an organization is set up, it can corrupt its view just as easily from ensuring utopias as it could from fear... at least, that's how I would put it if I were to make an Avatar fanfiction.
Well, good luck with the invasion, I guess. It would've been nice to see some stuff from the third Season, but that doesn't seem like it would happen.
6858915 Never underestimate children and their propensity for deviousness.
6858819 Who said anything about cute, I'm betting she'll go all Pink Chessmaster on em, like he did for Zuko's girlfriend.
6858893 But Nick Fury wasn't. Despite his matra after meeting Rainbow.
Problem:
Little Azula still knows about the invasion.
Unless I missed something.
Missed the quote between "explained." and "I".
6858698 threath en them with honey badger mole!
6859196
You mean the part where she's been captured and crippled? You might have missed that bit from the end of the last chapter.
Seems like Kuei was... Shaken, not stirred.
At least Bosco isn't a bunch of nerves even though Kuei was bearly holding it together.
Bosco can ease tensions lickety split.
At least Bosco isn't tongue tied.
How big is Cadence at this point?
I think your looking for the word strategist instead of tactician on a grand scale.
6859312
About the twice the size of Momo.
6859315
Not with how he wrote it.
Wow. I cannot believe that I just binge-read the entire story. I should probably be doing my homework instead...
6859330 so about half grown?
6859553
Three-quarters, actually. About the size of Twilight in the first few seasons. She's still got a bit more to grow to reach her full adulthood from the show, but not much.
6859248 God damn it, Sans!
nice, things r going well, unlike in cannon
6858893
Pakku's not a "someone", he's a robot. True Facts.
6764346 Ah, I remembered when I made this comment. It was made with the assumption that Cadence would learn from her mistake in a positive manner. But then, you know what it means to assume. What must be done is that one is to PREsume about something, lest they find themselves thoroughly slapped in the face for what was written down.
I mean, don't get me wrong, there are times when letting people choose the course of how a fanfiction works is a good thing. It lets people know that the author cares about what they think and they can feel like they contributed to something. But other times, it doesn't go as planned. For example, I once read a fanfiction where the OC main character winds up with his OC sister because everyone was saying it in the reviews... I wish I was joking about that, I really do... Because the fact is, shipping characters with other characters have major implications for what it means to represent a character's growth. Heck, just look at how it affected Homestuck characters in all those alternate timelines.
Where was I going with this? Right, I remember. I guess that, in the end, not everything goes as perfectly as you think it might go; sometimes you just have to have faith that it'll go OK... i mean, there's always the chance it'll go downhill faster than you can say "School Days", but I guess that's part of the fun.
6859242 And it was on this day that F14m3rz realized something really, really important...
Oh my gosh, you just talked to The Fiery Joker, AND he reads your stories. That's so COOL!!!
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6858883 Not even Toph was immune to it... And she's BLIND!
That would be Cadence, who is rather unique.
Simple. If power was determined but how well you could make tea, Iroh would already be the ruler of the entire world.
Good point.
Really? Uh, Zuko, you sure that's a good idea? He's voiced by Mark Hammil. That makes him a Badass. Want proof? Luke Skywalker, exploder of the Death Star, and the Joker, the Unkillable.
That may help.
6860773 wait a second...
Fire Lord Ozai was voiced by Mark hammil?
6860953
Yep. Now imagine him with the Joker's grin and a lightsaber. You're welcome.
6860962 what is seen can not be unseen gahhhhhhhhhhhh
6862095
Hmn, this upcoming invasion may just go quite a bit differently.
The real important questions are, do we get Sparky Sparky Boom man or the Space Sword?
6860773
i actually saw a You Tube once that shows that Luke destroying the Death Star was actually a bad thing,
6871141
You mean this one?
6872792 yep,
Awesome chappie my friend! :d haha!
6872792 Huh... that was pretty interesting to watch, intriguing even.
6933386 *Gasp* You've never watched Game or Film theory?!?
Well, we finally are off the rails now.
6859315 Grand tactics is a British synonym for operations in the Prussian sense. Civilians, especially American civilians tend to confuse it with strategy, and I've noticed that translations out of Chinese and Japanese usually call people I'd call G-3 operations officers "strategists".
While I understand this story is fairly old, I still feel the need to correct this. Tactics aren't large scale. Strategy is. There is a difference between a Tactician and a Strategist.
7929583
I actually wanted to pull out the old "nerd" Simpsons joke but your info was actually cool. I actually didn't know a tactician and a strategist were different!
7929583
I have no compunction in responding still later.
The difference between strategy and tactics isn't just one of scale - both operate at a wide range of scales. Rather, strategy is what you need to do to achieve your overarching goal; tactics is how you do it.
In this case, the goal is to secure peace for the world; the strategy is to overthrow the fire nation and hold peace talks (replacing the previous strategy of capturing the avatar and conquering the world), and the tactics are the troop movements and dispositions that will let them infiltrate a unit of picked troops into the capital and make the challenge...
Just give them to candence and toph you'll have the locations within 5 min tops lol... 5mins being the time it takes to get to the cells lawl