Dragon At Heart

Chapter 7

7. Zhao's Secret

"We have got to do something" Aang said, his voice worried but determined.

"No! You can't intervene", Ilya replied, biting her lip. "Shen made it very clear that everyone is going to end up in more trouble if you show yourselves."

"How could they possibly get into more trouble than this?! That Commander guy is going to burn the whole village down unless we do something", Sokka pointed out.

Katara tried to focus on what the others were saying, but her thoughts kept escaping to the events on the street below.

He is here. He has followed us here. And he is a prince. But what is he doing now?

ooo

A proper Agni Kai required all sorts of preparations, but Zhao and Zuko were on the same page about this one being handled according to the short ceremony. Neither of them even bothered with taking off their armors. That always left the risk that one or both were hiding concealed weaponry, but Zuko trusted that Zhao wouldn't resort to playing dirty in front of all his men.

Zuko walked over to Uncle and gave him the six small blades he always had with him, hidden in various places on his armor. Zuko was sure that Iroh would give him a lecture on how foolish his rash behavior was, but the older man simply took the knives and nodded.

"No lecture?"

"Not this time", Uncle answered. "I am proud of you for standing up for what you believe in. Extremely worried, but proud."

Zuko was surprised by Uncle's words, but there was no time for a groundbreaking conversation.

As Zuko turned to look at his adversary, he saw that Zhao, too, was done giving orders to his second in command.

"Remember your basics", Uncle shouted after Zuko as the Prince walked towards their improvised battle arena.

I'm guessing that is Uncle's way of saying 'don't use secret illegal firebending abilities you're not supposed to have'.

Although the village was small, the main street was wide enough for an Agni Kai.

Zuko wasn't sure how much the villagers understood of what was going on, but at least they had had the sense to back off and make space for the actual audience.

Why fight Fire Nation when they, for a change, prefer to fight each other?

Zuko reached as good a spot as any, turned his back on Zhao and knelt. A small prayer to Agni was one of those ceremonies that were never skipped.

Master Kurita had made Zuko memorize several traditional and less traditional Fire Nation prayers, but Zuko didn't feel like bothering the spirits over this. Instead he took the moment to calm himself, took deep breaths and planned his first moves.

Zuko got up and turned around. He would not fail.

Zhao was up already, a confident smile on his face.

The crowd around them consisted of Zhao's men and a few curious Earth Kingdom civilians. The noise was enough to drown out Zhao's next words, but Zuko could read them from the man's lips: This will be over soon.

For a moment, both men just stared at each other. The audience grew quiet, sensing the almost tangible hostility in the air.

Zuko knew exactly what to do. Countless times Mizzra had told him that the best advice to remember in a fight was 'appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak'.