Dark Puck - Blood Ties

With both the Firelord and Li Shang missing, Katara and Iroh were in hellish moods that had most everyone in the palace trying to avoid them. Leilani was no exception to this and thus took care not to aggravate them when she crossed their paths. She had a fair amount of success with this, until one evening, about a week after the two men had vanished, when Katara actively sought the older woman out.

Leilani looked surprised. “Katara? Did you need something?”

“I need you to confirm something for me,” the Firelady said, sounding somewhere between worried and very, very irritated.

“All right…”

After making sure there wasn’t anyone listening in, she murmured, “I think I’m pregnant.”

…oh, dear.

Leilani nodded. “Let’s go to the infirmary, and we’ll check.”

“As long as we’re discreet. If I’m right, I can’t actually let people know until Zuko gets back.”

“Of course,” Leilani replied with a smile.

Katara smiled back. “All right, then.”

Leilani draw Katara to the infirmary and used her bending to sense out Katara’s qi, grateful to the two years she’d spent in the North Pole learning from their healers. After awhile, she moved her hands.

“Well?” the younger woman asked.

“Congratulations,” Leilani replied with a small smile. “You’re going to be a mother.”

“That’s great,” Katara said, smiling. Awful timing, but still… great.

“I’ll keep it quiet,” promised the healer, “but you should tell the general.”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” she said, quietly, sighing faintly.

Leilani hugged her gently.

Katara hugged back. “It’s just… this is… this is wonderful, but this isn’t really a good time, and the fact that I’m even thinking that…”

“I know,” the healer replied.

“I’m going to go talk to Iroh,” she said, standing up.

“All right. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I will,” the Firelady promised, then left to talk to the general.

Leilani sighed, watching her go. She didn’t like this at all. She was one of the few aware that the palace had been infiltrated by the Róng Yào, and that frightened her — especially after what had happened to Zuko five years before.

Which was part of the reason why Katara felt the timing was bad — entirely apart from Zuko being spirits-knew-where, the palace was compromised and it was entirely possible that there would be open rebellion very soon.

Which was why Iroh had to know, now that she was certain. And that was another problem — by rights, Zuko should be the first person she told. But, thanks to his damnfool quest, that wasn’t possible.

Liàng stopped just outside the palace walls. He dared take his prisoners no further, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave them alone. This presented him with a poser — how to inform the General that he was there?

Golden eyes narrowed as he considered, then he nodded — why not do what everybody else did?

He didn’t have long to wait; one of the pages went racing by and Liàng grabbed him by the shoulder of his tunic. “One sec, kid,” he said. “Could you deliver a message to the General for me?”

The boy nodded, and Liàng pressed a piece of paper into his hand. “Don’t let anyone else see it,” he warned. The two copper pieces he’d included with the paper would be enough to ensure the boy would remain silent.

“Yessir,” the boy said, and scrambled off.

Ten minutes later, Iroh came out to meet Liàng. “Liàng. What went wrong?” If his agent was here in person, either there was a massive move being made on the part of the Róng Yào, or his cover had been blown. Or both.

“One of my erstwhile comrades got suspicious,” he replied. “A message was intercepted, and they decided that torture would be a good way to ascertain my loyalty.”

“So you ran. Good.”

“And was followed.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the wagon. “Hence our guests.”

“I see.” Iroh went over to the wagon and inspected it. “Four. Good.”

“…I think I ran into your nephew as well.”

“Did you, now.” The old man seemed rather annoyed. Clearly, Zuko’s departure from the capital had not been planned. Nor had it been cleared or discussed with his uncle.

“Well, he was a firebender, he kept a hood over his face, he was accompanied by a Li — Li Shang, to be precise — and the Li was bitching at him about risks. I’m pretty sure it was him.”

“…Sergeant Li left with Zuko,” Iroh said. “Well, at least he’s with him, and not chasing. It could be worse.”

“It is worse,” Liàng said. “The Róng Yào are moving.” He relayed the details he knew to Iroh, though he admitted that their plans had likely changed since his escape.

“…It’s worse than you think,” the old man said. “They found their own heir.”

“…they what.”

“They found an heir. Zuko was poisoned a few weeks ago, that’s when we started to suspect. We have people out searching for said heir.”

“Son of a bitch.” Liàng’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have orders for me?”

“Lie low. You’ve been exposed.”

“Yes, sir,” Liàng replied.

“Nothing other than that. Keep your head down, and don’t do anything stupid.”

“What about those bozos?”

“I’ll take care of them.”

The smith bowed and made himself scarce.

Iroh brought the wagon into the city to transfer the four rebels to prison.

Aang, Ichiro, Yui, Kouji, Mai, and Mikoto approached the capital two weeks after leaving Omashu — they had made very good time. Even Mito was cautiously excited to finally meet his father.

Imagine their surprise to learn that Zuko wasn’t in the capital.

Yui and Ichiro were blown away when Kouji began to rant on learning this information. The word ‘idiot’ came up repeatedly.

Mikoto just stuck close to Yui and tried to hide from all the people who exclaimed over how much he looked like Zuko.

“Welcome back,” Katara told Kouji wryly, hugging him. “I guess you’ve heard about Zuko’s little trip.”

“Your husband needs to learn the concept of ‘patience’,” Kouji replied, hugging her back warmly. Ichiro was standing in the shadows, apparently not being the most social of creatures, while Yui was doing her best to keep Mikoto from being overwhelmed.

“Yes, he does,” she replied. She hugged Aang briefly, then turned her attention to Mikoto.

She’d been prepared to resent him — her husband’s bastard. She was only human, and had disliked the notion of concrete proof he’d been with another woman.

All thoughts of resentment melted away on seeing the little boy who looked so much like her husband. “Hi,” she said, softly.

“Hi.”

Yui took it on herself to make introductions. “Milady Katara, this is Mikoto. Mito, this is Lady Katara.”

He bowed, carefully.

She bowed back, gravely. “I know you probably want to meet your dad, but he’s not here right now. He actually left a few weeks ago, to go looking for you.”

“…Why?”

“Because he’s an idiot,” muttered Kouji. Louder, so Mikoto could hear, he added, “Zuko has a long history of trying to make right things he perceives as mistakes. He most likely felt bad that he wasn’t aware that you existed, and so decided he could make it right by finding and acknowledging you as his son.”

“…What’s that mean?” he asked, confused.

“It means Lord Zuko felt bad that he didn’t know about you,” translated Yui, “and he wanted to make it up to you by bringing you here.”

“…Oh,” Mikoto said, frowning a little. That didn’t make sense, not with what all the guards had told him over the years.

Kouji sighed. “Shall I try to get a message out, Katara?” he asked the Firelady.

“Good idea,” she said. “Sooner he gets back, the better.”

“I’ll do that, then. Ichiro?”

The older man shrugged. “I’m probably gonna head home with Yui—”

“I’m staying with Mito.”

Mikoto grabbed Yui’s hand and clung to it — hers was the first open, friendly face he’d seen (except possibly his mother’s), and this place was scary enough, he didn’t want her to go away.

Yui knelt and held him close, glaring up at her brothers. Kouji sighed. “Fine. I’ll show you to my room first. Is that okay, Katara?”

“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll go tell Iroh you all are back.”

He grinned at her. “Thanks. I’ll report in when I get that message to Zuko.”

“He’ll want to hear what you have to say,” the Firelady agreed.

“C’mon, Yui, Mito,” he said to the younger pair, leading them out.

“I’m going to go tell General Iroh what I’ve learned,” Mai said, then headed off to do so.

Ichiro shrugged, bowed to Katara, and walked out.

Katara sighed, and headed off to her own duties.

Kouji got his twin and Mikoto settled, then wrote his message, sent it off, and went to see Iroh. Not being a fool, he told Yui to lock the door when he left.

“Welcome home, Kouji,” Iroh said, giving him a quick embrace. “Mai told me you found the child?”

“Yes,” Kouji replied with a slight smile. “My twin sister apparently likes to take trophies with her when she pulls off an escape. Granted, when she left the Róng Yào with him, she didn’t realise who he was.”

The old man nodded. “Either way, at least for the moment, he is out of Róng Yào custody, which can’t help but be a good thing.”

“Yeah. He’s with Yui now — they’re practically inseparable.”

“…Then she might have to stay here in the capital. Zuko isn’t going to give his son up, but he doesn’t want to hurt the child any more than he feels he already has by his absence.”

Kouji nodded. “I don’t think she’ll really mind. She’s all but adopted the kid anyway, and he adores her.” He hesitated. “He’s a bit… confused, though.”

“The Róng Yào have been indoctrinating him?” Iroh asked quietly.

“Yeah. Yui’s already turned some of that over — I think he asked her what war was, and got upset when she told him. So he doesn’t want to start one, at least.”

“And he’s young enough that we should be able to persuade him the rest of the way.”

“But gently. He’s still trying to get his head around earthbenders not being bad people.” Kouji grinned.

Iroh nodded, smiling slightly. “Yes, of course. I’ll go meet him later.”

“If you’d like, I can bring them both by. I told Yui to lock the door to my room — there’s no telling who the duckmole in the palace is.”

“Please.”

“When would be a good time?”

“Two hours from now, perhaps?”

“Sounds good. I’ll let ‘em know.”

“Thank you.”

Kouji grinned and hugged the general, then slipped out to talk to Shang’s second-in-command about security for Yui and Mikoto.

“Lord Kouji,” she said, with a curt bow. “Welcome home. How was your trip?”

“Irksome, but that’s what I get for travelling with my older brother.” He smiled slightly. “I need to talk to you about some security needs.”

“Of course. Please, sit.”

The teenager took a seat and explained the situation to her without mentioning the Róng Yào.

“So, the short version is, we have a royal bastard that at least two militant extremist political parties would like nothing more than to see dead,” she summarized. “And he is in our palace.”

“Pretty much. And I think the Firelord would be a little upset if his son were killed, no?”

She snorted. “To say the least.”

“So I’d appreciate it if you could get some guards on Yui and Mikoto.”

“Not a problem.”

“Thanks. I’ll leave that to you, then.”

“Right. Anything else I can do for you, sir?”

“No, that’s everything,” he said.

“All right, then, sir. I’ll see about that security increase.” She rose and bowed again.

“My thanks again, corporal,” he said, bowing back and exiting.

She turned back to her desk with a faint frown, and swore under her breath. This would be hellishly complicated, and require more discretion than any other assignment she’d ever received.