Chapter Text
If you had told Hakoda that not only would the war be ending, but he would also be welcomed into the Fire Nation's capital to discuss and negotiate the healing of the world with all of its leaders per the new Fire Lords request - who was a teenager - he would have told you you were crazy and demand you visit the healer below deck.
Yet here he was with Bato at his side and two Kioshi Warriors behind them, walking through the streets of Caldera where people with yellow eyes and pale skin roamed, foreign people who didn't chase him or hate him or burn him on sight.
It was strange, and he never thought it would be possible.
But here he was.
It was still unnerving, however, being surrounded by the enemies colors when they were no longer the enemy. When the red like his people's blood could be seen everywhere. When the gold of murderers was everywhere.
He figured it was also strange for them, seeing people looking like him in their home without chains. It must be strange to relearn everything after being hand fed racist propaganda for decades.
They had been taught that his people were savages, cannibals, unintelligent brutes who would bash your skull in with a club made of bones.
Okay...only that last one was true, but that was simply their way. War was messy, and brutal, and horrible. It had to be.
He also remembered not all of these people murdered. Not all of them had a choice. Not all of them knew what was right and wrong when they were surrounded by thousands of people led by a tyrant who believed he shat everyday with their Spirits blessing.
That didn't make it right, or easy. It was just the truth, as it was the truth that he and his men killed soldiers barely older than his son was now, hardly older than the new Fire Lord because that's what it took to keep his men and family safe. The truth was messy and mean, but it held no lies.
His gaze lifted to the sun hanging in the center of the sky, it's name coming to him like a dream.
Agni.
If he didn't know any better, he'd say the days had been brighter since Fire Lord Zuko took the throne. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Agni looked just as hopeful as the rest of the world that another war wouldn't break out as soon as this one had ended.
You never know, with the Spirits.
Hakoda's musings were interrupted by a weight on his shoulder from his second in command. He turned his head to Bato, seeing his curious blue eyes swimming with unasked questions. Hakoda smiled lightly and nodded, bringing a hand up to squeeze the one clasped over his arm.
Bato's shoulders relaxed at this, and slid his fingers down his arm before intertwining them with Hakoda's where they swung by his side.
Hakoda smiled.
Yes it may be strange. But it's what it is now. And it's a hell of a lot better than fighting for your life every other day.
🔥☀️🔥
The palace was like nothing he'd seen before.
Laid in red and sculpted with gold, the Royal Palace towered over the Water Tribesmen like a mountain guarded by dragons and roaring flames. It was large and imposing, a symbol for power if Hakoda had ever seen one.
When they reached the palace doors, the guards opened them at the sight of them, their Fire Nation armor the same as every soldier Hakoda had fought and killed in his years at war. But they didn't have the eerily skull-like face plates. He caught himself being surprised when they did not attack, just resuming their positions on either side of the door they held open, staring off into the distance without a single emotion on their faces.
Hakoda and Bato shared a look as they stepped over the threshold, shocked even still once they saw the inside.
Somehow everything was covered in even more gold than what was outside, carved into every wall, pillar, and dome of the ceiling. Torches lined every wall, casting dark shadows from the corners of the room. It was unsettling, how quickly the light and life could be sucked out of a place.
The center of Caldra had been filled with life and celebration, smells and colors catching you at every turn. The palace was cold despite the searing heat just outside the doors now shut behind them, giving Hakoda the feeling that he was being watched from the dark, observed from the unseen eyes shrouded in hidden places. Bato held his hand tighter, feeling the same.
Without a word, the Kioshi Warriors change their position to lead them through the room and down a hallway, then another, all of the walls looking identical to the other. It was disorienting once they ran into their tenth golden dragon.
"Traditionally, negotiations take place in the Fire Lord's throne room." One of the Warriors began to explain unprompted, leading them around another corner. "Fire Lord Zuko has had it renovated for such purposes in order to give everyone equal ground." She emphasized those last words like they were important, and Hakoda could see why they would be. Before all of this, before the war had ended, the Fire Nation had made a point to prove it was the superior nation. That through the horrors of the Fire Lord, they were sharing their greatness. Even now, it made him sick.
Finally they stopped in front of a set of doors not much less grand than those of the entrance, just as intricately designed with flames and the Fire Nation symbol. Just as there had been outside, two guards stood on either side, spears held straight in their palms.
"Chief Hakoda and his Second Bato of the Southern Water Tribe." The warrior to his right introduced. The guards nodded before opening the doors, otherwise acting as if they weren't there.
With his hesitancy buried deep down and his partner by his side, Hakoda strode through the doors with the confidence of a man that had stepped into battle many times and survived with his head on straight.
Immediately, he saw the line of Fire Nation guards lining the furthest wall blocked by fire, cast in colors he had never seen from flames. It was yellow and red, as expected, but more hues travelled with them, reaching towards the ceiling and glistening in the sunlight reaching in from glass windows lining the other two walls. Pink, purple, green, a gorgeous shade of blue that reminded him of home and safety.
Before he could examine the unusual fire any further, his gaze caught on the large circular table in the middle of the room lit by the colorful fire inches away from eating at the walls, a dark wood polished and clean, but otherwise plain. There were seats all around its perimeter, each one comfortable and embroidered with each of the nation's four symbols. There were six Water Tribe seats for each of their Chiefs and advisors as well as Sokka and Katara. Similar were the Earth Kingdom seats with an extra for Toph Beifong. There was only one Fire Nation seat, facing the door, but no more special than anyone else's from what Hakoda could tell.
Directly opposite was a yellow, orange, and blue seat. The Air Nomads. The Avatar. It was the only one.
It didn't hold his attention for long.
"Dad! Bato!"
Gathering his children in his arms, Hakoda squeezed Sokka and Katara close to his chest, their heads resting next to his own in a stark contrast to the way they would have rested on his stomach when they were kids. It still hurt, knowing he had missed so many years of their life, that he had not cherished their last age of innocence before the war forced them to grow up and mature faster than they ever should have.
But at least they're alive, he reminded himself. At least he can hold them at all.
His arms were soon replaced by Bato's, allowing Hakoda to get blind sighted by a whirlwind of bright yellows and oranges.
"Chief Hakoda!" The Avatar chirped, holding out his arm expectantly. Hakoda grinned right back at the boy, clasping their forearms together to shake before dragging him into a hug too.
"It's good to see you Aang." Hakoda said, patting his back before releasing him, admiring the traditional Air Nomad robes and relics draping his shoulders. The Avatars large grey eyes beamed up at him, making his chest tight at the reminder that the savior of their world really was just a twelve-year-old boy. A twelve-year-old master of the elements with the ability to take away anyone's bending at his will, but twelve nonetheless.
"You too, Hakoda! Sokka and Katara are so glad you could make it."
A harsh punch to his arm assured him that the whole Gaang was here, the young blind girl in practical green clothes grinning up at him a bit too widely.
"Hello, Toph." He smiled, knocking his knuckles lightly against her own arm. Somehow the earthbender smiled wider, laughing like she knew everything in the world.
"Hey Chief, looking good." She laughed, earning a groan from all of the children in their vicinity. "What? You guys make it too easy!"
"Thanks Toph." He said anyways with a shake of his head, all four kids gather together again in front of him in tailored clothes and mixed jewelry from each nation, bone necklaces and jade beads and intricately stained wooden earrings and shining gold rings, contributing to the fact that they were a team, that they acted as one in the face of hardships.
Hakoda couldn't even begin to describe his pride with words alone, but before he could even attempt to try, the soft chatter from the rest of the room dispersing with the creak of doors. everyone turned to see the Fire Lord donned in layers of fine red fabrics with gold threads and jewels, his head held high with his fire crown while his scar seemed to ripple under the fire's shadows.
"Thank you all for responding to my invitations and joining me in our nation's negotiations." He announced after he took a seat with Suki just a step behind him to his left, everyone in the room rushing to their seats as soon as his raspy voice met the air. "If you're all ready, I'd like to begin."
🔥☀️🔥
The negotiations were not going well, to say the least.
Hakoda wouldn't say it had gone poorly so far, there had been no declaration of a second war or draw of blood, but offence was found easily enough in words, no matter how carefully articulated. The Earth Kingdom seemed to be taking the worst grievances with the young Fire Lord's (impressively generous) attempts at peace.
"I assure you, general Fong, that your compensations are among our top priorities, but the Water tribes - especially the South - have suffered the most among the-" a small sigh, barely there but as pained it was as though he had screamed, left the teenagers mouth, his gaze flicking to Aang's, "-surviving nations. Our top priorities since the end of the war have been releasing Water Tribe prisoners and calling back our soldiers from their stations as well as dealing with the unrest within our own nation. If our economies crumble before we can even begin giving aid to your nation, we would be of no help."
"How are we even supposed to trust that you have our best interests here?" The general spat, fists clenched on the table in front of him. "I mean, what if it's all just a big coup to trick the world and hold all the power without killing your own soldiers? How do we know if you're going to keep your word? You're a child for Oma's sake, what do you know?!"
Instead of lashing out or rising to the bait, as much as some of the children around the table seemed to want to by their scowls and affronted scoffs, the young Fire Lord took a deep breath and waited a moment, never taking his eyes off of the Earth Kingdom general. And then another, before finally speaking with a calm cadence.
"General Fong, do you know where you're sitting?"
"Yes. The enemy's capital where you hold all of the power." He scowled. Hakoda and Bato shared a subtly exasperated look at the man's stubbornness.
"Former enemy, and no. I meant that specific seat. Do you know where you're sitting?"
As silence followed, the general clearly not knowing how he was supposed to be responding, Zuko nodded as if he expected this, long pale fingers clasped in front of him.
"I sat about where you do now, nearly four years ago, in a war meeting. I was thirteen at the time." Hakoda caught the shift from the sturdy line of guards behind Zuko, just in time to see them look at each other and wince. Obviously, this must be a well-known story within the Fire Nation. Briefly, he remembers rumors himself, ones of a disgraceful prince striving for the throne and a failed coup against Fire Lord Ozai. Rumors of an ignorant brat too entitled to see his fortune.
"What does this have to do with-"
"I had begged my Uncle to let me attend. If I was to become the next Fire Lord, I would have to oversee meetings and understand our battle plans, yes? Well, eventually he let me, under the condition not to say a word.
"I had agreed." Hakoda had a bad feeling about the Fire Lord's story. He recalled more rumors from year prior, each description of the prince's wound more brutal than the last.
"And so I attended a meeting in the presence of my Uncle, the Dragon of the West; my father the Fire Lord; and a table full of seasoned war generals. All roughly where you sit now." He kept eye contact with Fong, before letting his gaze drift across the rest of the room, meeting everyone's eyes before going back to Fongs'.
"In that meeting, General Xan, who had been appointed five medals for the military in his lifetime, introduced a plan for the 41st Division. A heinous plan." Hakoda noticed how several of Zuko's guards cringed at the name and the coldness creeping into Zuko's careful tone, and his unease grew.
"The 41st was a division of children. Of soldiers just barely out of training. The oldest was barely twenty. The youngest, fifteen." Many gasps filled the room, and Hakoda didn't know if he was one of them through the disgust chilling his veins and the shock of picturing his own children in that division, marching carelessly into battle for a nation that didn't care for their lives.
"That division was offered as bait so a more prepared team could take out the Earth Kingdoms camp from the back. Those children were sent to war. Those children were slaughtered." At this the Fire Lord stopped his pacing - when had he stood? - just behind Fong, but he didn't look at him anymore. Instead he stared at the wall in front of him, just above Chief Arnook's head.
"I spoke out against the plan. Those soldiers loved and defended our nation. If we carried out that plan, then we would be betraying them. Betraying ourselves.
"Those children died, sacrificed by their own Nation."
He looked down at General Fong and placed a pale, slender hand on his shoulder, fingers just barely touching the green fabric. Fong tensed, not daring to turn around as his usually angry eyes narrowed in confusion.
"I was challenged to an Agni Kai for insubordination. A fire duel. The first to be burned, die, or give up, lost.
"Do you know how difficult it is to burn a firebender?"
"It's nearly impossible." Fong growled, turning his head only slightly towards the hand on his shoulder. Bato's hand gripped Hakoda's under the table, nails digging into his skin just as Hakoda's did to his.
"Not really, no." Zuko spoke slowly now, his expression far away, almost imperceptible with the way his scar twisted and slanted half of his face, the left corner of his mouth pulled forcibly upwards in a permanent scowl. The hair on Hakoda's bare arms stood on end with the chills down his spine. "You just need to hold a very steady, and very powerful flame, for a very long amount of time."
Everyone moved - even Fong, who had to strain his neck - to look at the obvious burn scar on the Fire Lord's face. The Fire Lord that was barely seventeen. Hakoda felt bile burn his throat and stain his tongue.
"That day, as the sun began to set, I walked into that arena thinking I was going to fight an old, slow general. I thought I would win."
There was a collective silence, a single breath held by dozens of people.
"It was not the general I faced that day. For it was the Fire Lords war room I had spoken out of turn in," No... "-and when I turned around..." Tui and La please no... "...it was the Fire Lord I faced."
Hakoda nearly cried right then, the circulation in his hand non-existent with the force Bato held him and he squeezed back. How could a father do that to their child? To their own flesh and blood, to the person they were supposed to protect and love most in the world? How could anyone be so cruel, so utterly vicious? How could such a monster exist?
Zuko released his hold of Fong's shoulder and began walking back to his seat, gate slow and measured as he continued his tale.
"I refused to fight him. He was my father. And either way I could not win. Should I fight, I could be charged with harming someone of the royal family- worse, the Fire Lord. But since I did not fight, I was a disgrace to the throne. To him. Because I did not fight, because I begged, I was banished."
He sat in his seat, hands hooked together like they had been at the beginning of their meeting, but Hakoda could see the tremble in them, how his lidded eyes were carefully blank as he looked up and to the rest of the room, how his burned eye squinted just slightly more, hindered by the burned eyelid above it.
"But first, I was burned."
The silence was agonizing.
Hakoda couldn't perceive how long it was as Zuko met each individual's eyes, his right and only eyebrow rising higher as he took in their expressions. Hakoda saw the horror and anger on his children's faces, on all of their faces as they stared. Hakoda could barely contain himself from storming the palace and finding the pathetic excuse of a man and showing him what a disgrace looked like.
"General Fong," Zuko finally addressed after much too long. His voice startled almost everyone in the room, no matter how quiet or strained it sounded. "What my father did was cruel, and it was wrong. After years of abuse under his hand, I am striving to heal a nation- a world, that has suffered during his reign. And his father's before him. And before him.
"This war was cruel. This war was wrong. The Fire Nation, for the past century, has been diabolical past what should be imaginable. This nation has caused pain and hardship as all of you well know. And as I sit where he never thought to deign himself," he gestured to his spot, sitting at the round table, sitting amongst them, with them, the fire throne empty and alone behind drawn curtains. "I am offering my people hope.
"No matter what I do, no matter what treaties we make, I cannot right the wrongs of my nation in my lifetime alone. We might never be able to. But I want to set the stage. I want to do what's right and I want to do it now so that the future of the Fire Nation will continue this new legacy. I want to take the steps towards an era of peace. But I cannot do it without all of you.
"The Fire Nation has taken from all of you. They have slaughtered your people, pillaged your homes, raped your families, and burned your lands. And I cannot say this enough, but I am sorry. And I know I can't fix what my people have done. Not with words or actions alone.
"But I'm going to try."
Hakoda felt his chest tighten with anger and sorrow. This boy - the Fire Lord - was in charge of reconciling a hundred year war. This boy was taking on the murders and crimes of his people practically alone and he was doing it well, if the resounding silence and impressed expressions were anything to go by. Even Fong couldn't seem to find the words to argue.
This boy didn't deserve this, but the world did. His compassion, his resolution, his stubborn determination to fix what might be unfixable. Hakoda's people had suffered- as had the Earth Kingdom, and even the vast majority of the Fire Nation suffered under who was supposed to be their protector. The Air Nomads wouldn't have a chance to save their culture, their homes, their history. Only the Avatar. Only a twelve-year-old boy.
Hakoda looked at the Fire Lord with a newfound resolution.
"Then we will try with you." He declared, gently removing Bato's hand from his to set his arms strongly on the table. A moment passed before Sokka spoke from Zuko's right, his posture matching Hakoda's almost directly.
"We are with you, Fire Lord Zuko." He agreed earnestly. "The Southern Water Tribe appreciates your sincerity and determination, and we will work with you for this better world."
Katara and the rest of their friends were not far behind, the Avatar's voice joining in the loudest.
"I support you fully, Fire Lord Zuko. Your plans are amendable and open, your heart is set righteously, and you have our support from now onward."
Zuko looked as if he was becoming overwhelmed by their words, especially when the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom reluctantly joined them, but hid it well as he faced the table with a strong spine and set jaw. He nodded to them all, solid and firm.
"Then let us begin."