Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Goddaughter ❯ Fleet the Fire ( Chapter 1 )

Goddaughter

Chapter 1: Fleet the Fire

"Zuko, if you think that this is a good idea, then something must have fallen on your head,"

A young teenaged girl in a red formal dress flailed her arms at the Fire Nation's heir, her full, floor length sleeves a deadly missal unintentionally aimed at the Fire Prince.

"Don't, Rev. I've made up my mind," Zuko, replied, busy writing something unknown to the girl.

"Fist of all, Zuko, my name is Revyna and you will not call me Rev, prince or no. And second of all, I will not allow you to walk into your death! The Fire Lord will not restrain from killing you!"

Zuko did not reply, both caring not to and too concerned with whatever he was writing. It invoked Revyna's rage.

"Please, Zuko!" Revyna pleaded, rage coursing through her blood. "The Fire Lord will not take kindly to this! It's treason! I fully support your decision to join the Avatar, but if you face the Fire Lord, you'll have to worry about a fully scared face!"

When Zuko again did not respond, Revyna took a deep breath to calm herself and put a warm hand on the prince's shoulder. "Zuko, if you won't listen to me, then there's only one thing I can do about it. I'm going with you."

Zuko immediately jumped up from his chair, almost knocking it over, and, facing Revyna, finally spoke.

"Revyna, no! You can't!"

Revyna crossed her arms and smirked, as was quite common of her when she won an argument. "If I can't, then why can you? You know I can handle myself,"

"I don't want you getting hurt!"

Revyna sighed, her arms falling to her sides and her smirk sliding off her face like water. "Zuko, I feel the same way, and I sure Mai does too. But if you're going to do this, if you're going to truly commit yourself to screwing up your life, than I'm going to be with you every step of the way."

Zuko glanced down at his shoes, thinking back to puberty when Revyna would go to any lengths to protect him. Zuko knew that Revyna could hold her own. She was an even better fighter than Zuko himself. But that didn't stop him from worrying.

Sighing before speaking, Zuko looked back up and directly into Revyna's golden eyes. "If he makes one move towards you..."

Revyna cut him off by saying "I'll defend myself and stand my ground."

Sighing again, Zuko sat back down and picked up his brush, painting his elaborate words across the page.

Revyna leaned over her friend's shoulder, her silky black hair falling over her own shoulder.

"To Mai?" she asked, even though she knew the answer was yes.

Zuko nodded wordlessly, continuing to write. Revyna stood by his side, watching every stroke of the brush, trying quickly to catch up and read what the prince was writing.

"Zuko," Revyna said in a voice she knew would comfort her friend. "If she truly cares for you, she'll accept that you've made the righteous choice. I promise you that she will understand if she's any kind of decent."

Zuko looked up, a sad smile hanging off his lips. "I know. That's why I have to write it."

Revyna chuckled, comforting Zuko more, even though Revyna didn't know it. It was one of the reasons that were the best of friends. Revyna was the kind of girl who always knew how to cheer her friends up. And that was the reason he knew that bringing Revyna might actually be a good idea.

"Revyna!"

Revyna popped out of a door frame, changed out of her formal dress and into her normal attire of a red top and a darker red skirt with a brownish tint outlining it. Her hair hung loosely behind her back, her usual, traditional Fire Nation bun absent.

"Agni, Zuko!" she whispered urgently. "Do you want everyone in this bunker to know we're about to commit the biggest act of treachery in Fire Nation history?"

Zuko looked down the hall to where he knew his father resided. He was nervous and almost desperately wanted to turn back. But when he looked back he met Revyna's bright eyes, eager to go, bravery shining like a raging fire.

"Ok, let's go," Zuko finally whispered, his heart beating as if he were free falling from the highest tower of the royal palace. Revyna said nothing but simply nodded, following Zuko in his quick yet silent steps.

Before either of the young firebenders were ready to face what they knew was coming, they had arrived at the end of the corridor, scarred out of their minds.

Revyna gently set her hand on Zuko's shoulder in a comforting gesture, knowing that it was not only to calm the Fire Prince's nerves, but her own as well. Zuko looked back at her, his expression silently telling her that he was ready.

With a blank and completely stoic look on her face, Revyna nodded. Zuko took a breath and walked through the door leading to where his father was sitting, and Revyna followed directly behind him.

The look on the Fire Lord's face as he looked up from his tea reminded Revyna of a dumbfounded child surprised when fallen in a puddle.

"Prince Zuko, Princess Revyna," he declare, obviously surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Zuko quickly glanced at Revyna as for assurance, but her gaze was an intensely focused glare on the Fire Lord in front of her.

"I'm here to tell the truth," Zuko said quickly and bluntly.

"Telling the truth during the middle of an eclipse? This should be interesting," The Fire Lord motioned for his guards to exit, and they quickly followed his command.

Once every guard had exited and the doors on either side of the room were shut once more, Zuko spoke. "First of all, in Ba Sing Sei, it was Azula who took down the Avatar, not me."

The Fire Lord looked amused, and not at all like this should have been shocking information to him. "Why would she lie to me about that?"

"Because the Avatar's NOT dead, he survived."

The Fire Lord was now enraged, for this was shocking news to him. Revyna grasped at Zuko's side, taking his hand and wrapping her arm around his shoulder like a protective mother.

"In fact, he's probably leading this invasion. He could be on his way here right now."

Had the eclipse not been underway, Revyna was sure Fire Lord Ozai would have stuck mercilessly against his son with all the fire he possessed. She was even more worried and concerned now than ever, and she clutched Zuko to her body even more tightly than before as the Fire Lord stood, rage shaking his body.

"Get out! Get out of my sight right now if you know what's good for you!" The Fire Lord yelled, his usually cocky, evil, calm demeanor gone, replaced with infuriating rage.

With a defiant streak and a determined edge in his voice, Zuko spoke. "And that's another thing. I'm not taking orders from you anymore."

Taking a step forward, the Fire Lord, enraged even more, spat his words out, emphasizing every one. "You will obey me, or this defiant breath will be your last!"

Knowing what Zuko was about to do, Revyna took several steps back from him, and he pulled his swords.

"Think again," Zuko declared, making Revyna grimace in fear. "I am going to speak my mind, and you are going to listen."

The Fire Lord sat back down, his angry expression never faltering. He looked upon his son with nothing but the utmost contempt. Revyna looked back and forth between father and son, knowing she had a part in this, but it had yet to come.

"For so long, all I wanted was for you to love me, for you to accept me. I thought it was my honour that I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. My father, who challenged me, a thirteen year old boy, to an Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child?"

"It was to teach you respect!" The Fire Lord yelled, almost as if trying to convince himself that it was justifiable.

"It was cruel!" Zuko declared, anger building. "And it was wrong."

"Then you learned nothing,"

"No. I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own. Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in all of history, and somehow, the war was our way of sharing that with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness, they hate us! And we deserve it. We created an era of fear in the world, and if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

The Fire Lord laughed an evil, maniacal, heartless laugh. "Your uncle has gotten to you, hasn't he?"

Zuko bowed his head, not lowering his defenses, simply out of respect for his uncle. "Yes, he has."

The Fire Lord looked at his son, almost as if he had forgotten Revyna was there. His face conveyed his rage, yet he was managing to keep it at bay, worrying Revyna about Zuko much further. She knew that when this eclipse was over, if they had not fled the bunker they would die in cold blood on the spot.

"After we leave here today, I'm going to free Uncle Iroh from his prison, and I'm going to beg for his forgiveness," said Zuko, briefly giving his father time to remember his goddaughter was also in the room. "He's the one who's been a real father to me,"

"Oh that's just beautiful. And maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure."

"But I've come to a more important decision," Zuko continued, as if he had not heard his father's insult. "I'm taking Revyna with me, and I'm going to join the Avatar. I'm going to help him defeat you."

The Fire Lord looked back and forth from his son to Revyna, amused. "Really? Since you're both full blown traitors now and you want me gone, why wait? I'm powerless, you've got your swords, Princess Revyna's got her fighting abilities. Why don't you just do it now?"

"Because I know my own destiny," Zuko quickly replied, as if required no thought. "Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny." Without any warning or words, Zuko slung his swords back in their sheath. He said nothing to Revyna signaling her to follow, but she did so anything.

"Goodbye," Zuko said bluntly. Revyna looked quickly back at her godfather, hardly believing he was the man who had raised her.

"Cowards!" The Fire Lord yelled after his two kinsmen, clearly more enraged than either of them had ever seen. "You think you're brave enough to face me but you'll only do it during an eclipse!"

He stood, and regained his evilly calm and cool demeanor. "If either of you had any courage, you'll stick around until the sun comes out. Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?"

Before Revyna could say anything to Zuko, before she could warn him not to take his father's bait, Zuko had swung around, boldly facing the cold hearted man he wished wasn't his father.

"What happened that night?" Zuko said, taking a few wary steps closer to where the Fire Lord stood.

"Your grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son. And I was going to do it. Your mother found out, and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne, and she proposed a plan in which I would become Fire Lord and your life would be spared. Your mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished."

Realization dawned on both Zuko and Revyna, who had both believed Fire Lady Ursa to be long dead.

"So she's alive?" Zuko asked, tears pouring down his face.

"Perhaps," he said uncaringly. "Now I realize that banishment is far too merciful a penalty for treason. Your penalty will be far steeper."

Within that second, Revyna felt the sun's presence in the earth again. "Zuko, get out of the way!" she screeched as The Fire Lord summoned his lightning bending abilities. Revyna pushed Zuko out of the way, even though she knew he was fully capable of redirecting lightning.

Zuko thudded to the ground behind Revyna, shocked, not by the Fire Lord's actions, but by Revyna's. He watched as his father showed no mercy to his own goddaughter, shooting lightning at her as if she were some nameless enemy to be destroyed.

When Revyna shot back, it knocked the Fire Lord over, sending him back in a wave of flame and fury.

"Zuko, let's go!" she screamed to Zuko, who had somehow managed to climb back to his feet despite his utter shock.

Revyna grabbed Zuko's hand and they ran as fast as they possibly could up and down the hallways and rock stairs and out into the world where the sun once again shone brightly.

Revyna fell down to her knees, tears gently streaming down her paler than normal cheeks. She knelt over as if she were going to vomit, sobbing harder than Zuko ever knew her to be able to.

"Zuko, you idiot," Revyna managed to choke out. "You almost got yourself killed."

Zuko, in a Revyna like gesture, put his hands on both Revyna's shoulders. "I knew what I was doing."

Revyna pushed Zuko's hands off her shoulders and stood up in a rush of anger. "No, Zuko, you didn't! You didn't think, even when you knew he was baiting you! You have no idea how worried I was the whole entire time!"

Zuko looked down at the dirt beneath him. "Revyna, I can handle myself, you don't need to act like my mother."

Revyna sighed at sat down on a near by rock. "I act like your mother because you're like my little brother, Zuko," she said head resting in her hands. "I'd never forgive myself if you got hurt."

Zuko put out his hand to help Revyna and she accepted it. Revyna stood, taking in Zuko's full form. Without warning, Revyna hugged Zuko. Zuko was surprised, but he hugged her back.

After at least a minute of hugging, Revyna stepped away. "Let's go. I don't want your father sending guards after us."

END CHAPTER