Fuel To My Fire - Book Three (ATLA Zuko Fanfiction)

Chapter One

A/N: The picture above is what Sakari will be wearing while in the Fire Nation :)

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Sakari's POV

It was the morning after we had arrived at the Fire Nation Palace, Zuko and Azula were being presented to the Fire Nation as heroes by Lo and Li, while Ty Lee, Mai and I stood to the side and watched. There were many Palace guards surrounding us, including my biological father, Kato.

"Your Princess Azula, clever and beautiful disguised herself as the enemy and entered the Earth Kingdom's capital. In Ba Sing Se, she found her brother Zuko, and together, they faced the Avatar. And the Avatar fell, and the Earth Kingdom fell. Azula's agents quickly overtook the entire city. They went to Ba Sing Se's great walls and brought them down."

I zoned out from their speech at this point and thought back to the night before, when I had come face to face with my real father.

*****

"Daughter?" Kato asked, staring at me in shock.

"You are the guard that was in love with the Northern Waterbender, yes?" Azula asked him.

"You better come in, dear." Kato said to me, stepping to the side to let me into his room.

The door shut behind me and I sat in a desk chair, waiting for the man in front of me to say something.

"So... Uh... What's your name?" He asked awkwardly.

"Sakari. I was named after my mother." I told him, trying to sound tough for some reason.

"Ah, how nice." He replied. "And how is your mother?"

"Dead." I replied bluntly. "She died giving birth to me."

"Oh... Oh no..." He said sadly, tears threatening to spill down his face.

"Why do you care, anyway? You assaulted her." I reminded him, crossing my arms.

"Is that what they told you?" He asked, looking at me with wide eyes. "Of course, the Water Tribe would twist the story."

"What do you mean?" I asked, relaxing my body a little.

Kato quickly made his way over to the desk I was sitting in front of and opened the top drawer, taking out a piece of paper and handing it to me.

"Your mother left me this note the day she left me." He explained.

I held the note up so that I could read it.

Kato. I am truly sorry, but I cannot stay here. I must return to my tribe and to my husband. I hope you know that I will always love you.

- Sakari

"She loved you?" I asked, getting very confused about the situation.

"And I loved her. We were in love, Sakari." Kato explained to me. "But, of course, her husband would tell everyone that I assaulted her."

"This is so confusing..." I said, more to myself than to him.

"I know this must be hard for you, child. But, if it's ok, I would like to learn about my daughter's life." Kato said, placing a comforting hand on my arm.

We stayed up for half the night talking about our lives. I told him about how I had grown up in the Southern Water Tribe, and about everything that happened with the Avatar, and with Zuko. He told me that he used to be a soldier that had been involved in many raids before he decided to leave that life behind him and become a palace guard. I quickly realised that he was very lonely, he never married or had any more kids, and it made me feel bad for him.