where the past can't reach us // zuko x reader

Chapter Seven - Conversations with Iroh Part Two

The next few days were certainly eventful. I'd thought that, despite being unpleasant in every single other way, the ship would at least be somewhat safe for me, but, as it turned out, even that was too much to ask.

DAY 20 OF IMPRISONMENT

A loud crash burst through the silence of my cell, and I sprung from my bed in shock. What on earth was that? Looking through the window, all I could see were the usual blue shades of sea and sky, and, for a moment, the silence settled back down over the ocean, until there was another crash, and then another, and then another. Suddenly, the floor moved beneath me as the ship lurched to the side at the latest crash, and I fell. We were being attacked, I realised, but by who?

I got my answer later in the evening, when Iroh came in for tea.

"Today, the Avatar entered Fire Nation territory," he explained. "He needed to speak to the spirit of Avatar Roku in time for the Solstice. I warned Zuko not to follow him, but he did anyway. We were attacked by Commander Zhao..."

"But did Aang manage to speak to Roku?"

"Yes."

"Then that's great!" I said, relief evident in my voice. "Although..." I paused, suddenly worried, "Who is this Zhao, anyway?"

"He's a Commander in the Fire Nation Navy... Shortly before we came to Kyoshi Island, we met with him. From questioning our crew, he found out that the Avatar is still alive. He's been trying to capture him ever since."

I frowned. Now Aang had two crazy Fire Nation murderers after him. "Is he... a big threat?"

"I'm afraid so. He has a whole fleet, and is determined to capture the Avatar no matter what." He sighed. "His attacks damaged the ship heavily. We'll have to get repairs as soon as possible."

"I hope we don't come across him again any time soon," I said.

"Me too. But something tells me this isn't over yet."

He left soon after, and I went to sleep, worried about this new threat to the safety of the ship, the Avatar, and the whole world itself.

DAY 25 OF IMPRISONMENT

Only a few days later, the ship was attacked yet again.

"My nephew made a deal with pirates," Iroh told me after it happened. "He tried to double-cross them... A fight broke out. He was so busy fighting he could not see his own ship had set sail. We only recovered it after it went down a waterfall."

I sat there on my bed, amongst the mess that my room had turned into after the unfortunate fate of the ship, and listened. He told me more details about how the plan came to be: how he'd diverted the ship to buy a lotus tile for Pai Sho, how they'd spent hours in a town and couldn't find it, how Aang and his friends managed to get away. Then, suddenly, just as I thought he was about to leave, he reached into his robe and pulled out a scroll.

"I thought you needed to take a look at this."

His voice was quiet and serious, and, as I nervously reached out and took the scroll, a knot of dread once again reappeared in my stomach. Every muscle in my body stiffened as I unrolled it, and, before I even read the words, I knew what it was. I knew it was coming from the first moment I stepped foot on this ship, earlier that that, even – I knew it on Kyoshi Island and I knew it when I was escaping the Fire Nation. But it was one thing to imagine it, and another thing completely to witness it in reality. I stared at the poster, and, from the wrinkled, yellow paper, my own face stared back. Wanted dead or alive, it said, for the attempted murder of Princess Azula of the Fire Nation.