CHAPTER 5: COMMANDER ZHAO

A young man stood on deck a fire nation ship surrounded by a dozen of his own crew. This young man revealed himself to be Zuko, Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.

Just a ways away sat an elderly man with a kettle of hot tea. Zipping on a cup of hot tea he oversaw the encounter.

Upon the rise of his hand, the dozen fire nation soldiers attacked. Each threw out a fist of fire attacks that enveloped the young Prince Zuko.

Their flames somehow whirled into a ball of flames. Zuko bend the flames around into a circle that surrounded him. He proceeded to enhance the flames, enlarging them. The flames separated into a dozen arms that shot back at the men.

By the shock of the flames the men were send flying. All that was left standing was Prince Zuko himself.

The young Prince still looked disappointed by his performance.

The old General sitted by the side agreed by his nephews own self criticism.

“Your breathing was out of tune,” he began. “You also used too much movement. It also halted your momentum.”

“I tried to increase the size and intensity in the counter but my breathing got out of control and my hand movements also slowed me down.” Zuko agreed.

“Charging your attacks requires greater Ki control. You must first master combining your breathing to your movements. Until you get to a point it becomes instinctive.” Iroh added.

“I need more training to do that,” Zuko agreed. “Right now I can easily fight against most benders but to go against the true masters I need for the basics to become second nature just like you said.”

“Indeed, to reach the level of myself and Ozai you need master the basics.” Iroh added.

With that the training was complete. Zuko joined his uncle for a cup of seemering hot tea.

The rest of the afternoon passed by slowly as the two started breathing exercises. The sun was lowering down the horizon when a member of the crew suddenly joined them.

“The Tsufuru Base is on the horizon. We should be arriving within the hour!” Reported the young man. His nervousness made his voice high pitched. The aura he felt from Zuko was simply overwhelming.

“Inform the rest of the crew to prepare disembarking,” Zuko ordered.

The young man left in a hurry to not be around such powerhouses.

“This is going to be a very interesting trip,” Iroh commented as the base came into view.

The two stood towards the front of the ship. The port of the base grew larger with every minute that passed.

The ship pulled up to the port slowly. It's torn hull dangling like a broken finger.

As soon as anchor dropped the crew immediately began disembarking. At the front of the crew was Zuko, Iroh and Mui.

They walked up the pier and towards the shipyard.

“I will inform the shipmaster of the repairs we need and the extra man power needed for us to get back to sea as soon as possible!” Mui revealed and entered the building.

Iroh and Zuko turned left towards the rest of the island. The building of the base commander overshadowed and stuck out like a sore thump from the rest of the town.

“Who was the commander of this base?” Zuko asked even though he already knew the answer.

“I'm not sure myself,” Iroh answered with his usual lacklustre attitude. “I know it use to be Lieutenant Colonel Teou but I think he was promoted to Admiral over the years.”

“So we have landed in an unknown military base of the fire nation.” Zuko said with a tone of scepticism.

As they appreached the entrance to the rest of the base, a group of soldiers approached them.

A soldier in his twenties walked to the front and stood infront of the royal pair.

“Prince Zuko, General Iroh, I am Lieutenant Tau. The commander has ordered me to escort you to the mansion.” Revealed the young man.

The condescending attitude of the Lieutenant caught them both off guard. His entire aura smelled of a hidden agenda. Especially how he appeared to be looking down on them.

Iroh was used to this as the black sheep of the family. Even Zuko who was inhabited by another soul didn't care too much about such matters but he still needed to maintain his facade as the proud Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.

“Quite the number of men you've gathered for simply an escorting,” Iroh commented.

“It is fine uncle, should they try anything they will die right where they stand.” Zuko threatened with a devastating aura of killer intent.

The sheer force of his aura suffocated the nearly two dozen soldiers infront of him.

Even the Lieutenant backed off due to the sheer pressure he felt from Zuko. Eventually the pressure was too intense he dropped to his knees.

“My apologies, this was just a precaution,” he apologised as he barely caught his breath. “The case of soldiers taking over our ships and impersonating fire nation soldiers has been a current occurrence in these waters.”

Zuko walked up to the kneeling Lieutenant and looked down on him. His aura was more intense then ever before. It felt like the weight of a tanker pressed down on him.

“The only reason you are all still breathing is because I allow it!” He warned. “Show me or my uncle such disrespect and you will... forfeit your life!”

“You showed up unannounced to a military base and expect us not to take precautions!” A voice suddenly called from behind the bunch of soldiers.

They separted to reveal a middle aged bold slidely bolding man with long bushy sideburns that made him look almost like wolverine.

“Captain Zhao, it's been sometime!” Iroh greeted.

“General Iroh, its actually Commander Zhao now,” Zhao corrected. “Prince Zuko, its been ages.”

Zuko did not have the wide carefree smile as his uncle. He was still carrying the facade of the proud Prince.

“Control your men properly Zhao, treating royalty with such disrespect will only result in them forfeiting their lives needlessly.” He raged.

“You must understand Prince Zuko, we are in the middle of a war.” Zhao pleaded. “We have lost atleast a dozen ships to impersonators in these waters.”

“It doesn't matter Zhao,” Zuko argued. “That doesn't excuse them to show such utter disrespect. Next time this happens you and your entire base will lose their right to live!”

Zhao was taken aback by the attitude of the Prince to refuse to understand something so reasonable. To him it almost seemed like the Prince was doing this to provoke a response from him.

“Enough Zuko!” Iroh reprimanded with a base in his voice. “Let's live this matter as it is for now!”

Zuko did not dare speak back. It was rare for his uncle to lose his temper and he did not dare envoke his wrath.

Even in his current state he was still nowhere near the level of his uncle. Their sparring match the previous day only proved that point without a shadow of a doubt.

“Certainly General Iroh,” Zhao accepted the ceasefire for the time being. “If your identities were real I actually ordered the Lieutenant to invite you to my mansion.”

“Yes indeed,” Iroh graciously accepted the invitation.

The three continued towards the mansion as Zhao and Iroh continued to discuss affairs of the base and the war. Zuko simply followed along silently, keeping up his facade of the rage.

Unknown beknownst to Iroh and Zuko, Zhao signalled his men to investigate the reason the Prince arrived at a Fire Nation base given his exilation by his father.

---

A little while later, the three men sat around the dinner table. With Zukos rage calmed down the conversation continued to flow easily.

“So what do you think of our efforts in the Xu Jin Province?” Zhao asked. “I believe that we will soon have captured the majority of the villages and towns.”

“You have certainly made great strides in the area in such a short period of time,” Iroh agreed. “Remember that you can only do so much with the limited resources at your disposal.”

“Indeed as you say, with my current rank the resources are limited and my men are already stretched too thin.” Zhao agreed. “Hence I have been using the resources from the nearby bases to bolster our troops but I think it is an unsustainable method.”

The conversation continued to flow along as eventually the food was brought along for dinner. Seeing the wide spread of food, Zuko finally cracked a smile.

He started to wholeheartedly enjoy the food, that was until the very same Lieutenant Tau arrived in the dining room.

After dodging a death glare from Zuko he whispered in the ear of Zhao.

The smile of the commander that was present since they met suddenly vanished. His face twisted to that all too familiar scowl he remembered from the show.

Zuko knew exactly what was coming and he was prepared for it.

“You let the Avatar escape!?” Zhao demanded.