Fire Lord Iroh Alternate Universe

[beboots]

Another fic idea ahoy!

This fic idea is mostly because I wanted to play around with the idea of politics, and a Zuko who is actually a competent Crown Prince. Not to mention having Iroh and political shenanigans... and an Iroh who never truly gave up being the Dragon of the West, but who still retains a protective soft spot for a certain nephew... Essentially, all of the elements of fanfic that make me glee - I just wanted them all in one. Let's see if it came together in a coherent manner...
  
Little Zuko, while hiding from his sister one day, overhears something that he shouldn’t have, after Lu Ten died. Namely, treasonous words coming from his father’s mouth. Zuko hadn’t meant to overhear, really, it’s just that he had been avoiding a tutor. After Ozai dismisses whomever he was speaking to (SECRET AGENTS?!), Zuko makes a noise that he shouldn’t have, and is discovered in his hiding place. Ozai is furious, and Zuko’s voice is tremulous and far too naïve – why would father WANT to have Lu Ten killed? Ozai has no choice but to silence his own son. Cue scar-making. Perhaps Ozai has second thoughts about killing his son at the last moment – and Zuko lives. Barely. Zuko is in tremendous pain and is delirious. Ozai calls for the medical aid of the Fire Sages, and blames an assassin (whom he has conveniently chased off). He then sweeps off to plot his own father’s murder. He wouldn’t allow a plan, once put in motion, to be foiled by a young boy. He uses his authority as Prince to ban Ursa (and anybody else, except a few elderly Fire Sages loyal only to him) from visiting Zuko, in case he might talk, and gives some thin excuse about security or something. Nobody goes in or out of those chambers without Ozai’s say-so. Ozai also resolves to properly dispose of his son, erasing his moment of weakness. Iroh returns home a week or so later, though, for Lu Ten’s official state funeral, and his shocked and appalled at the news that someone had tried to assassinate his nephew. He musters up enough energy and anger to resist the Fire Sages at the door to Zuko’s sick room. Iroh is still The Dragon of the West, after all, and hasn’t fallen too far, physically, in the weeks that his son has been dead. Zuko is the only “son” of sorts he has left, anyway. Iroh sits vigil at the feverish boy’s bedside long into the night. He is observant, though, despite his grief, and notices some unusual things – a lack of fresh bandages, for one. The “pain relieving” tea – untouched - also doesn’t smell quite right. Iroh knows tea, after all. He dips one pinkie finger in the liquid, tastes it, and immediately spits it out. Poison. Someone is trying to make sure that Zuko doesn’t wake up. Iroh makes certain that no-one, not even the Fire Sages, are allowed in after that. He barricades himself in the room. He knows how to survive a siege – he’s been trying to break one for a long time, and he knows how they work. There are enough supplies in this wing of the palace for a week, at least. He wasn’t about to let his nephew die, not like Lu Ten. Iroh nurses Zuko for another day before the boy becomes coherent enough to say anything. What he hears shocks and appals him. Iroh packs up Zuko and carries him to the Fire Lord’s audience chamber, and Iroh presents the information he was told by (the now, again, unconscious) Zuko. The story of treason makes much too much sense (pieces of current events fall conveniently into place), especially with the conversation that Fire Lord Azulon had just had with his younger son, Ozai. Ozai is arrested, tried for treason, and imprisoned, pending execution. (He later escapes, taking Azula, who always visited him in his prison cell, with him – they will pop up later as rebellious warmongers rally around them.) Zuko is lauded as a hero, once he recovers. He got proper medical treatment after that, and his wound healed clean and uninfected, so while the scar is still bad, it’s not as angry, red and shocking. (Well, it’s still shocking). Everyone knows the story – how the brave boy resisted his own father, a far superior fire bender, to do the honourable thing, which in the end prevented a coup d’état and stopped his honourable grandfather’s assassination. Fire Lord Azulon, who is still rather old, dies a year later, leaving Crown Prince Iroh the Dragon Throne. Iroh adopts Zuko as his own son, making him Crown Prince. One of the first things that Iroh does after his coronation is order a cease-fire with the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes. He calls an end to this senseless war that has “taken sons and daughters from all of us.” A few months later, Ozai escapes (with Azula), and they form a resistance comprised of those hotheads who still wanted to continue the war of conquest (AKA spreading the glory of the Fire Nation to all four corners of the world)… meaning civil war. A whole section of the royal navy, under Admiral Zhao, defects to Ozai’s banner. (I have no idea how Ursa fits into all of this – perhaps an advisor to Fire Lord Iroh? Or maybe, because she knows her husband’s mind so well (even if she doesn’t like what she finds there – she heartily disapproves of his ruthful determination to kill of male heirs of the line of Sozin, for one), she’s sent off with a team of elite firebenders and trackers to try to find escaped Ozai?) Of course, the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdoms have a vested interest in seeing Fire Lord Iroh remain on the throne, and they wish to ally themselves with him. And this is the world that Avatar Aang wakes up in two years later. ---- But first: a meeting of delegates for peace talks a year after the cease fire (this makes Zuko approximately fourteen). There are representatives from all of the nations that still exist: War Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, along with his Northern counterpart (what’s his name, the father of Yue) and his most trusted advisor, Master Waterbender Pakku; the Earth King Kuei of Ba Sing Se and his advisor, Long Feng of the Dai Li; King Bumi of Omashu, and several representatives of the Earth Kingdom city states, including prominent merchant families, including the Bei Fongs (because I have to bring Toph and her awesomeness in somehow). As a show of good faith, they have brought their children along: Sokka, Katara, Princess Yue (and a bodyguard or two, perhaps Hahn, for the lulz), and Toph Bei Fong. Of course, it would only be polite that Crown Prince Zuko accompanied them around the capital and palace, and showed them fine examples of Fire Nation culture (taking them to festivals, plays and games, etc.). (Even though he’s like Failko with children his own age. Still, his uncle insists that he get practice!) At first these diplomat’s kids think that he’s über aloof and arrogant, but it turns out he’s just super shy and awkward and dorky. Culture clash shenanigans are a must. I also like the idea of Prince Zuko interacting with Princess Yue in some fashion. Also, Sokka must make at least one rude comment about the scar on Zuko’s face, and/or any ponytails that the prince may be sporting, only to later get the story of the scar told to him by a secondary source. --- Fire Nation formality is extremely complicated. There are levels of language akin to Japanese – the tense and vocabulary depends on one’s own rank as well as the rank of the addressee in relation to the speaker – but the situation also influences things like body language, clothing, etc. The rules were even more strict under Azulon and Sozin, however. --- After being presented to each other, but before a private dinner with just the main delegates and their children, Zuko shows the child delegates how to act in a proper tea ceremony. Fire Lord Iroh takes his tea very seriously, after all, so it’s important to know the ritual. Toph already knows some of the techniques (she’s been taught proper manners, even if she doesn’t like using them), but Katara and Sokka feel a little out of their depth. They don’t have much experience with royalty, especially not those of a foreign culture, and have built up this grand (and mean) image of Iroh that doesn’t match the jovial and congenial man they see up close later on. Fire Nation royal family members have perfected the stoic serious statue looks (which look particularly intimidating when silhouetted by a wall of flame in the throne room), and Iroh is no exception. When the delegates were presented to him in the throne room, he didn’t smile, not once. But then again, he was in front of his entire court of Fire Nation nobility, and so he couldn’t, not even a reassuring grin at the obviously jittery water tribe children. Iroh has a soft spot for kids. --- One of the first thing that Zuko does after leading the “children diplomats” away so that his uncle can speak with the adults about important diplomatic matters is duck down a side hallway so they can shuck the most cumbersome of their formal robes. Zuko has a full set of more comfortable and free Fire Nation style clothing underneath his voluminous sleeves and robes. A week or so down the line (at the beach at Ember Island? Where the Water Tribe folk are shocked at how much bare skin they see?) Zuko is totally attacked by assassins – some of his father’s supporters. He fights them off pretty easily, though. Surprisingly easy, for how dorky he is perceived to be by the kids he is accompanied by. The world is a dangerous place for the crown prince, especially when members of one’s immediate family have already made an attempt to kill you. Iroh stepped up Zuko’s training, and had a personal hand in it. Plus, he gets frequent practice due to frequent visits from said assassins. So yeah, Zuko can still be awesome.