Chapter 91 – Eclipse
The Fire Nation military finally brings some tanks over to provide support. They had to bring them all the way from factories on the other side of the city. The momentum of the invasion begins to slow as the fatigue of the invaders builds and the surprise factor is fully worn off, but Pakku and Huu still have plenty of fight left in them, so they continue to destroy firebender tanks left and right.
However much anime logic can stop death, it tries, but death and terror are everywhere. Pakku is glad that Yue isn’t here to see this. Huu knows that death is just an illusion so he doesn’t mind.
~ ~ ~
Nyla heaves with exertion as she carries the five into the Royal Palace. June feels pity for her sake, “Uh.. old man, do you mind?” The tension is slightly broken as the group realizes that Nyla is on the verge of collapsing under their weight.
Aang says, “Never mind. We’re already there anyway. He won’t be hard to find.” Azula also feels like they might have overplanned this part, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. They all get off and Iroh looks apologetically at Nyla, who huffs in relief.
Feeling moderately agitated as she enters the walls of the Royal Palace, Azula loses control of her flame and her Zulrath Face Mask disintegrates. Zuko takes this as a cue to unmask, so he removes his Lee Face Mask and burns it as well. They had actually not planned on whether or not to unmask, because Nuwa had wanted to leave it up to them.
There’s 10 Royal Guardsmen who see the Prince and Princess return together with Iroh and are surprised that they would all be found and return at the same time. All three had been missing for months now, with only rare sightings of Iroh recently. They had even suspected that they were captured by the Earth Kingdom and would require a large ransom to reclaim. Ozai had lined up punishments for them for besmirching his honor upon their return.
The head guard looks at both heirs in shock and says, “Princess and Prince! I’m glad to see you’re fine, but you shouldn’t be here! Your Father’s mood is already in the gutters with the surprise invasion of the rebels. He’ll surely punish you harshly if you show up now!” Then the guards notice Iroh and Aang’s shiny head with airbender tattoos on top of it.
Azula bullshits in a calm and serene tone, “Don’t worry, Hamid. I’ve captured the Avatar as asked. Let us in.” She had never noticed that many among the staff of the castle showed her kindness, despite her twisted nature, until now that she returned with a more balanced perspective of the world. They’ve known her since she was a little baby and loved her in their own way. Azula doesn’t want to involve them in her conspiracy or to let them get hurt in the crossfire.
Hamid, the captain of the royal guardsmen, is still too shocked over the return of the heirs to register the fact that Aang is not restrained in any way and seems to be psyching himself up for a fight. He also seems to have no doubt in Azula's loyalty to the Fire Nation. “Very well, Princess.”
The Royal Guardsmen let them pass. The group enters the throne room to see Ozai sitting on his stage watching a group of advisors and engineers bickering amongst each other about how they aren't prepared for a local invasion of this degree. They are planning various high-level logistics like possible evacuation of nobles and recall of veterans from the countryside for additional support.
The high jets of the flames from the stage reflects Ozai's oppressive rage. He himself isn't much of a strategic planner, so he has no choice but to let them think up some plans and punish them if they fuck things up. One of the advisors is wrapped up in a panicked fervor and thinks Capital City is doomed. He shouts as the group is walking in, "We have to run! There's no way we can stop from taking the castle!"
No one wants to be the one to break the dire news, so when they hear someone break the truth so bluntly, all of them stop speaking. The flames around the stage lower as the advisor shakes in fear at the consequences of his outburst. By the time they are lowered to nothing, a bolt of lighting shoots out from Ozai's position and hits the advisor's head. Aang shouts,"NO!" but the advisor is dead before he can hit the ground, with smoke coming out of his charred body. Iroh sighs and looks at both Ozai and the advisor in pity.
All the advisors are frightened to the bone, and turn to look at the next unfortunate one who spoke against Ozai. They see it's the Avatar, along with the Old General, Prince, and Princess.
Ozai immediately understands what is going on, because he expected such a scenario for years. However, he never expected that his older brother would succeed in turning his precious daughter against him. He designed her upbringing in such a way that she would think nothing of the weak, which is the opposite of Iroh's principles.
All of Ozai's hopes rested on his daughter and he even set up a marriage to the Zata heir for her. The throne wouldn't go to her or the Zata, it would skip a generation and go to Azula's son. That was his plan. It would also allow Azula to subsume the naive and power-hungry Zata family's power into the military and siphon off their assets. Historically, most noble families that marry into the Royal family think they will gain more power by being closer to the seat of power, but don't realize that the seat of ruler is all about balancing power and influence so that none of the noble families can be a threat to the Royal family's power.
The moment a noble is married into the Royal family, the bride or groom of the Royal will be tempted and pressured to slowly maneuver assets and power to the Royals with a combination of pressure and schemes. The key is that now that the bride or groom is married in, they count as Royals now, and therefore have an obligation to protect the Royal family, which includes themselves by proxy.
Ozai too isn't that good at balancing the Noble families. That's why the Zata had schemed its way up in the first place. Hence his plan to suppress them. Old noble families know these dynamics and avoid Royals as much as they can. That's why Lady Pea didn't want her daughters involved with the royal heirs. The above is how family dynamics with normal Royals would go, but Azula and Zuko have been subject to counter-influence by Nuwa and Iroh. These are the politics that Zuko will have to navigate with Mai. Azula doesn't care about any of this. She leaves the complicated stuff to Nuwa.
Digressions aside, Ozai's dumb plans are all ruined now and the enemy is knocking on his door. He grits his teeth and stares at Iroh with venom. "You finally show your true colors, Iroh. I knew you craved my throne all this time. You even turned my children against me! What's the point of it now, huh? You're an old man now.. hahaha. All of those you love are dead! HAHAHA!"
Ozai isn't wrong. They're only 7 years apart in age with Ozai in his 40s and Iroh in his 50s.
But Ozai looks a full 20 years younger than Iroh with his middle aged, still handsome looks and brown hair. Iroh is balding with white-grey hair. Incensed, Zuko says, "He's more of a father than you could ever be!"
Ozai looks at Zuko and says, "Silence, fool of a son. You're an utter disappointment, just like your mother."
Zuko cringes, clenches his fists, and asks, "Did you ever love her or us?"
Ozai snorts and replies with irritation as he enters a battle stance, "What does that have to do with anything? It's time to meet your end." He then shoots a lightning bolt directly at Zuko, without any remorse that he might kill his own son.
Azula isn't sure that Zuko can overcome his shock, so she intercepts the lightning and redirects the bolt at Ozai. He opens his eyes in fear and flips his cape in front of him. The lightning bounces upon contact with the heavy-looking special fabric. Feeling vague remorse at engineering a killing machine only to have her turn on him, Ozai's eye twitches. The old hags had ensured him that her training was perfect!
The air swelters with fire chi. The greatest firebenders of the world are all here. Aang quiets down and remembers that Nuwa had told him to let the family drama finish before he fights Ozai. He's upset that they didn't come in time to save that burnt body on the ground though.
Zuko is stunned that his father went for the kill right away without hesitation. He's still processing the fact that his father and him are now irreconcilable enemies.
"Surrender obediently, Ozai. You're outnumbered and overpowered." Azula says casually. Ozai is unnerved that Azula is unaffected emotionally by the situation. He's supremely agitated! He suspects that those saggy tit hags secretly sabotaged her brainwashing course. He internally swears he'll strangle the life out of them the next time he sees them.
Ozai tries to throw large fireballs at the group, but he flubs and only lets out a candle spark that fizzles out a few feet later. He panics and keeps throwing fireballs, but they are all pitifully weak. Stomping with anger and rage, he imbues all of his emotions in his fist and only lets out a normal sized fireball that goes slowly towards the group.
Everyone comes to realize that the room has darkened and they look outside. The sun has eclipsed! Fire Nation morale drops precipitously with the sudden loss of the sun. Enlightened, the chi-blockers now understand what Lady Pea meant by it being a dark day in Fire Nation history. She meant it would be literally dark, causing their armies to be overrun by the loss of firebending!
Iroh steps up and walks towards his younger brother. Ozai thinks that they played some tricks, until he sees the eclipse and understands that they invaded knowing it would be the Day of the Black Sun today. He roars in rage at the all-but-assured loss of his armies and rushes up to beat up the old man approaching him.
The old general catches the Fire Lord's punch in his palm with a small shake. Ozai's no slouch when it comes to working out. He has no fat and all muscles under his robes. Ozai throws his other fist at Iroh's face and it is also caught.
Iroh tries to roll Ozai's fist away from his body, but Ozai locks his fingers together with Iroh. Ozai wants to use his powerful muscles to grapple his fat brother onto the floor and beat him into submission! He won't accept any redirection! There's an unspoken agreement among the gang to let the brothers duke it out. Nuwa says it is more satisfying this way.
Iroh and Ozai's arms tremble with exertion. Ozai angrily says, "You're fat and useless! There's no way you're this strong!" And tries to knee Iroh's gut. He succeeds, but it lands on Iroh's contracted abs. Ozai was expecting an impact earlier, so he is slightly disoriented. Iroh returns his knee and lands it squarely on Ozai's unprepared gut.
He's momentarily winded, which Iroh takes advantage of to grapple Ozai onto the ground and get him in an armlock. Iroh speaks for the first time, "Little brother, it's over. Let it go. We all lose sometimes."
Ozai's head throbs with wrath. "I can't lose! I won't lose! You're the fat fucking loser!"
Iroh calmly says while squeezing the struggling Ozai into a tighter lock, "We'll have a long talk after Zuko's on the throne. It's not the end of the Fire Nation or your lineage."
"I won't give my throne to that useless waste! It will besmirch my honor!"
~ ~ ~
Nuwa continues to fly over to the Royal Palace as the whole city darkens under the shadow of the moon. The ice fortress has a long respite from attacks. Pakku and Huu sweep away all of the military's war equipment into the ocean without resistance. The stalemates at the military barracks in the city end and they are quickly overrun by the alley squads.
Jeong Jeong and Xai Bau, who are leading the earthbenders and bandits in the central lane, forcefully tell their soldiers to calm down and rest as all the firebenders run away. The military resistance is over. The city has been taken by the rebels.
~ ~ ~
Azula walks over to the two on the floor and stomps Ozai's face onto the floor. It's not a strong attack, but it's enough to daze and humiliate her father. "How does the rug feel like in your nose? Still think anyone cares about your honor?"
The advisors who have slunk off to the side of the room make a break for the exit when they see Azula do that. This is way out of their pay grade! They are witnesses to the utter humiliation of a Fire Lord by the Princess!
Zuko shouts at them, "Stop!" But they don't listen. When they open the door to run out, they instead see spears are pointed at them. Hamid traps them inside and ignores the fact that Ozai is being stepped onto the floor. Several guardsmen loyal to Ozai or their duty are knocked out on the side.
Ozai screams with rage and tries to summon lightning, but fails. The opening of his mouth fills part of his mouth with dust from the rug. “I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” Iroh sighs and says, “You’re making it worse, niece.”
Just then, the sun peeks into the throne room and all of their firebending returns. The actual eclipse event only lasts 8 minutes. The blow to the morale of the defenders from the unexpected loss of the firebending is the most important aspect of the invasion.
Iroh and Azula both back away as Ozai’s whole body bursts into flames on the floor. Ozai has been stalling and exaggerating his rage to give the gang a false impression. Inwardly, his main course of action is to kill all the advisors who saw his humiliation, escape, and declare everyone in the throne room as traitors to the Fire Nation at a later point. The odds are stacked against him at the moment with the majority of his forces in either the Fire Nation colonies or the Earth Kingdom invasion line.
Ozai shoots up into the air above the throne room with incredibly good aerial control of his fire thrusters. His aerial coordination is much better than Azula’s and is probably on par with Aang’s aerial abilities despite not being an airbender. Ozai throws several large fire blasts at the advisors and the traitorous Royal guardsmen, but Iroh summons his tea spark to slow it down and displays his own elegant aerial combat skills by smashing each slowed fire blast with a punch.
By the time that the others realize what’s going on, they hear a crash. The window area near the ceiling of the throne room is blown away and Ozai shoots out of the Palace heading out of Capital City. Iroh, Azula, and Aang all have to use their own fire thrusters to follow him. Aang’s fire thrusters aren’t up to par. He habitually uses the slower airbending in flight out of habit.
“No way am I being left behind in my home ground of air!” Aang focuses intensely and pushes chi in the proper firebending paths and to boost himself fast and catch up with the others!
(A/N: Hold up, wasn’t I writing a porno fan-fic? Right, right. Sorry lads. I’ll make it up to you after the war.)