Chapter 93 – Surrender
Nuwa looks angrily at Momo and Appa for their clearly reckless behavior endangering themselves and Aiwei, but it’s hard to scold them when Appa is so happily licking Momo. The lemur stays still for the first one out of platonic love, but evades the others. Appa’s tongue is many times larger than Momo’s body, so he ends up drenched in icky saliva with a single lick. When Momo flees back to her bosom, Nuwa airbends him dry, but refuses to hold him. “Go away, stinky squirrel monkey. Can’t you see we’re having an emotional moment?”
Ozai is released from his restraints and he starts throwing punches and kicks, incredulous at the fact his bending is gone. He screams with a deranged face, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” He tries to tackle Aang with his body, but Aang earthbends his arms and legs back into rock. Iroh pulls out his tea spark for a moment and Ozai involuntarily calms down.
Realizing that he’s been fully defeated in all ways, Ozai falls into a depression. He believes that, without firebending, he’s weak and unqualified to be a Fire Lord. Iroh beckons Aiwei, who is hopping off Appa, over to him and kneels down in front of Ozai.
He asks with a slight tremble in his voice, “Tell me, little brother. Were you involved in the death of my son, Lu Ten?”
Ozai simply wallows in his depression looking down on the ground. He mumbles, “What does it matter anymore? Nothing matters anymore. I have nothing now.”
Iroh replies, “Then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to tell an old man the truth?”
Looking up, Ozai sees Iroh and feels an immeasurable rage take over. He smiles viciously and says, “I won’t tell you. You’ll never know. You’ll torture yourself to the ends of days not knowing if I was the one responsible for killing your family or not! HAHAHA!”
Aiwei narrows his eyes at the response from his Innate ability. When he analyzes the truth patterns of Ozai’s phrase “I was the one responsible for killing your family”, it is blurry, but mostly indicates false. When Ozai says, “or not”, the truth patterns reveal that he is mostly telling the truth. This overturns what they had predicted was the case. It seems Ozai had a small part to play in the death of Iroh’s family, but he didn’t have the main responsibility. He may have only covered it up after the fact.
Iroh sighs at how wicked his brother’s personality has become. He knows that Aiwei got a decent read on the truth, so he drops the topic to discuss later. Azula steps up and asks, “Where is Mother?”
Ozai laughs uproariously and says, “This I can tell you. I ordered my men to find her and KILL HER! You won’t even be able to find her body! HAHAHAHA!”
Azula looks over at Aiwei and he shakes his head to indicate that he’s lying. Returning her gaze to Ozai, she backhand slaps him and says, “I know you’re lying. Tell me where she is.”
Ozai chuckles and spits some blood from the overly vicious backhand. “You’ll never find her. Heheheh.”
Nuwa stops them and contradicts by calmly saying, “Ursa is still alive and I know where she is, babe. I didn’t want to tell you until you solved everything here. She would be in danger if anyone knew where she was and Ozai was still in power.”
Azula lets out a sigh of relief before returning her focus back to controlling her Dao Seed’s ravenous hunger for her own father. She almost let her anger get to her and disintegrated him. They need him alive and intact for their plans to prove to the world that he’s had his bending removed by the Avatar and not escaped for a future comeback. The devastated commoners of the Earth and Water Nations would be reassured better this way. A public execution would also be reassuring, but probably a bit more gruesome than necessary when the goal is to bring about an era of reconciliation. This means that she’s not allowed to eat him.. yet.
The group gets on Appa and heads back to Capital City. There’s various fires in the city still being put out by waterbenders. Iroh and Aang look distressed at the innocent casualties that were accrued. Reconstruction will not take long, but the emotional traumas will last.
Appa lands in the Royal Palace where the old timers, Jeong Jeong, Xai Bau, Pakku, Bumi, and Huu are already stationed with Zuko, Piandao, Lady Pea, and Lord Pea. The other heads of noble families are looking at the others with venom and unease given the absence of Ozai.
None of them escaped like the Zata Lord did because of three main reasons. Firstly, there are unwritten rules of war regarding safe-keeping of captured nobles. Secondly, they do not want to be declared as deserters, or that would stain their family’s honor. Thirdly, and most importantly, none of them have escape plans in place because they were too complacent in the Fire Nation military’s power. All of them are sitting in the garden with chairs still being brought in by servants as more are escorted in by rebel soldiers. It’s only early afternoon, but everyone is tired, so they can expect the negotiations to run for only a few hours.
When Appa lands, the audience brings their attention to the main attraction: the downtrodden former Fire Lord. Azula shoves him off Appa and he barely catches himself from eating a faceful of grass. He looks around viciously at one of the onlookers who snickers. The onlooker flinches in fear, but then Ozai looks downward at his hands and slumps his shoulders again. The noble family heads are in pure awe at the disgraced image of their formerly dignified and invincible ruler. It is only now that they lower their upturned noses and realize the true depth of their loss. A rebel squad parades Ozai to the Capital City prison with some dramatic flair to ensure that the pockets of resistance formally surrender like the military has.
Momo chews on a gold trinket he found earlier today. Aang notices this and almost facepalms. Aang swipes it away from Momo’s paws with some difficulty and wipes the lemur saliva off sneakily before walking up and ceremonially offering it to Zuko. It’s the Fire Lord’s headpiece representing the ultimate authority of the Fire Nation. Zuko smiles wryly, because he can tell from Aang’s expression that something is wrong with it, but he lowers his head slightly to allow Aang to affix the five-pronged headpiece into his topknot.
The nobles gasp slightly at the rapid shift in politics. ‘There’s a new Fire Lord! He bowed his head to the Avatar! Wait, now they hugged! So the battle for Capital City was an internal conflict between the new generation allied with the peace faction and the former Fire Lord allied with the militant faction? That means we’ve not actually been invaded. We can keep our factories and money!’
The old foxes pounce on the new Fire Lord Zuko with flattery, congratulations, handshakes, and well-wishes. Nuwa could have sworn that one of them looked so slimy that she could imagine him sneaking a few gold coins in Zuko’s robes. Nuwa gags and internally comments, ‘Utterly shameless. Their loyalties are as fickle as the wind.’
The wise, neutrally-aligned nobles are more reserved in their acknowledgement of Zuko’s ascension. They know better than to put all their eggs in one basket. Zuko’s leadership capabilities are unknown and he is not well known among the commoners and soldiers. Officially, his short military track record is quite pitiful. He joined one failed naval invasion of the Northern Water Tribe and otherwise did nothing else other than harassing Fire Nation colonial nobles. Unofficially, he now has the huge backing of the rebels, the Avatar, and the peace-seeking faction of the Fire Nation.
These factors guarantee that Zuko will keep the throne, but how proficiently he can maneuver politics and prevent the Fire Nation from giving too many concessions to the rebels is yet to be seen. Since Zuko is allied with the rebels, most of the nobles are expecting some serious concessions, but when they hear the surrender demands from the rebels, they are instead pleasantly surprised.
All of the nobles will be required to monetarily assist the Fire Nation colonies in becoming an independent Nation open to all benders. Whichever noble families made more war money and committed more war crimes will be expected to donate more of their family assets to the endeavor. The nobles feel chills when they see Zuko easily pinpoint the worst offenders among the family heads with his eyes. They now know the spies of the peace-seeking faction are widespread and not at all half-assed in their support of Zuko.
Several morally degenerate noble heads stand up in succession to oppose the motion of asset seizure. Once the third one stands up to also oppose the motion and his fat mug sends spit flying everywhere, Azula loses her patience. She stands up with a snort and lightning crackles around her body. The fat noble immediately shuts up mid-tirade with his mouth open and the remaining slobber which his body had prepared to be ejected out of his mouth instead drools down onto his triple chin. His son next to him was going to help him back down onto his seat, but he decided otherwise seeing that pathetic display. He’s pulled back down onto his seat by his equally fat wife.
Zuko mediates, “It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, but this is the best solution for the good of the commoners of all Nations. The keyword of these peace initiatives is ‘reconciliation’. I will be working closely with Earth King Kuei on establishing Republic City on the previously agreed upon spot of Cranefish Island to be the capital of the United Republic of Nations. The Earth nobles will also be contributing to the development of Republic City. Don’t worry, it’s not all on your wallets alone. Besides, if you take part in developing the United Republic, you will have more opportunities to build trade relations and profit off of free trade between Nations newly at peace.”
Pakku jumps up and volunteers on behalf of the non-isolationist faction, “The Northern Water Tribe will also help develop the United Republic.”
The wise nobles try to pick holes in Zuko’s plans, but they are solid. What chills them is that even the worst of the nobles are pacified in this scenario. The long-term economic ramifications of investing in the United Republic are so large that even the most bigoted of the firebender supremacists reluctantly agree to jump on board. Otherwise, they will be outcompeted and fall behind the times within a few years.
The wise nobles with long-term vision analyze internally, ‘Doesn’t that mean the rebels came in fully expecting victory and had planned out all of this beforehand so that there could be no viable objections? These idiot and criminal nobles are temporarily pacified, but no doubt they’ll disappear over the next few years after their money is invested. Fire Lord Zuko.. had he been a wolf in sheep’s clothing under our noses all this time? We might even have to terminate all our ambitions during his reign and lay low!’
Nuwa had prepared Zuko well in maneuvering politics. Most of these plans were hers. She had already explained to Aang and Katara that the Air Nation and Southern Water Tribe would have to be satisfied without any official concessions other than a formal apology from Zuko and the warmongering nobles, but she would scrounge together plenty of money for their future development. She wants to try campaigning as the first president of Republic City. Although this would be a dangerous job, it would be very lucrative. Nuwa also feels confident in her power to defend herself and ability to influence the masses to adore her.
This is evidenced by how she’s chilling in the background near Appa with only her face uncovered by Fire Nation armor, but she’s still drawing stray stares. Without her Stella Face Mask, the eyes of men and women are periodically attracted to how unnaturally flawless her face looks. Nuwa has skin that other ladies would have to spend two hours on that high-quality expensive makeup from back on Earth to set up. The good news is that her natural attraction is weaker in the Mortal Realm than it is in the Spirit Realm, or else she would be in trouble without a mask.
Zuko wraps up the negotiations when some of the older nobles start falling asleep. The gang, with the addition of Lord and Lady Pea, follow Zuko into the Royal Palace. The moment he’s inside, Zuko collapses onto a sofa in exhaustion. The pressure of being faced with the fate of a Nation and arguing against a bunch of self-serving worms takes a heavy toll. He had to maintain his dignified appearance to prove that he is mature enough to adequately shoulder his duty. He is struck by an intense longing for Mai. She would be comforting and spoiling him if she were here right now.
Still, he has his bros, Aang, Dan, and Sokka to keep him company with compliments on his performance. Aang and Sokka are equally as emotional as he is over today’s monumental events. They’re definitely getting drunk tonight after a nap.
The gang waves off Appa, Bumi and Iroh as they set off back to Omashu to drop Bumi off and pick up Katara and Mai. It should only take a week for the round trip. They all file into the lavish Royal Palace. Nuwa notices Azula’s discomfort and offers, “Babe, we can go to the Pea mansion instead if you want?”
Lady Pea isn’t exactly chill with the whole girl-girl relationship or Nuwa’s surprise pregnancy, but these minor things can’t smother her love for her favorite girl. Also, she finds Azula much more pleasing to the eyes when she sees the heart-eyes she makes at Nuwa. Nodding to herself, Lady Pea smugly thinks, ‘My oddball baby ought to be loved and adored by everyone, even the strongest and scariest like Azula. That’s normal. She can’t help it. She gets her looks from me.’
Nuwa prods her mom and Lady Pea gives her a big hug, “I missed you so much baby!!@$@#!!”
Smiling innocently and kissing her cheek, Nuwa replies, “Me too mom and dad. I missed you both lots. I was just wondering if I could take Azula to our home to sleep?”
Lady Pea says with wide eyes, “Oh.. fine.. That’s fine. Maybe you could keep it down though? Everyone’s tired from all the fighting they didn’t do.”
“MOM! I have a little bit of shame when it comes to volume at least! You’re the shameless one to let your troops not even pretend to help! Hold on, why am I getting a deja vu?” whined Nuwa.
Giggling, Lady Pea says self-righteously, “This is your just desserts for all the times you teased your parents. Naughty girl, perhaps you should have considered the consequences of your actions!”
Nuwa let out a groan of frustration and ran out hand-in-hand with Azula to the nearby Pea mansion. Azula looks back at Lady Pea’s bantering form and then at Nuwa, ‘So that’s what it’s like to have a normal family. It seems nice.’
(A/N: Lady Pea ohoho’ing it up over here O_O)