He never once had a peaceful sleep since that night. Every little sound startled him and kept him awake until the sun rose in the east.
After that first night that someone had tried to kill him, there have been four more attempts.
"Down with the traitor! Down with the Fire Lord who betrays his own people!"
Despite heightened security and drastic measures, Zuko was still in unease. One such night, he shot up from sleep, gasping from his nightmare. "Who's there?!"
Zuko got up from his bed and marched to the door. Alarmed, the guards rushed to the Fire Lord. "Fire Lord, please, go back to sleep. We're in the most secure tower in the entire palace!"
"No one will get to you tonight, we assure you, your Highness!"
"Just like no one got to you last night, or the night before that, or the night before—"
"Do not mock me!" Infuriated and anxious, he grabbed a soldier by the collar and shouted in his face. "There have already been five attempts on my life since I took the throne!"
"A-and that's why we moved you here! Please! You have to trust—" The soldier was cut off when an object flew and hit him in the helmet hard. The object attached to a long metal chain slinked back into the darkness of the hallway.
Zuko let go of the guard and aimed a shot of fire from where the spiked weapon came from.
"Down with the traitor! Down with the Fire Lord who betrays his own people!"
He barely avoided the iron spikes that was aimed for his head as the assassin jumped out of nowhere, but the latter wasn't finished. The intruder then aimed for Zuko's leg, the long chain wrapping around his ankle and making him lose his balance.
Before the assassin could deliver a final blow, Zuko managed to retaliate, sending jabs and fire fists. One such attack rendered the attacker incapacitated and he took his chance to pull off the mask.
"Convince me not to take your life!"
"Go ahead!" She dared him, not flinching in the slightest. "My family has been loyal to yours for generations! By getting rid of me, you would simply complete your betrayal!
"Your... family?"
"My father is the Mayor of Yu Dao!"
"Yu Dao..." He thought as he stared into her hatred-filled eyes. "The first of the Fire Nation colonies..."
"Yu Dao is my home, and now you and the Avatar are going to destroy it with your precious Harmony Restoration Movement!"
The morning after the attack, Kori was sent back to Yu Dao in chains. Her father, Mayor Morishita, was in utter shock to see his daughter in such a state. "W-who are these men?! What are these chains?!"
"I went to go see someone about our problem, father."
"Who?"
"Him."
Wearing the full regalia of the Fire Lord, Zuko stepped down from the palanquin and approached them. "You must be Mayor Morishita. Your daughter snuck into my home and tried to kill me!"
Unbelieving of his words, Morishita turned to his daughter. "K-kori?!"
"Someone had to do something!"
He sent Kori aside and knelt on the ground, head bowed. "My sincerest apologies for my daughter's rash behavior, Fire Lord Zuko! Please, have mercy!"
"I should have this whole place burned down!" Zuko spat, still clearly enraged.
"Why bother?!" If not for the chains that bound her, she would have lunged at the Fire Lord. "The Harmony Restoration Movement will accomplish the same thing without you having to lift a finger!"
"Why can't you colonials get it through your thick skulls?! The Harmony Restoration Movement is a means to peace!"
"Peace?!" Mayor Morishita stood up from the ground, clenching his fists. "Peace for whom?! With all due respect, your Majesty, my family has lived on this land for generations! This city was built on our blood and sweat! We have as much a right to be here as anyone else!"
"You are Fire Nation citizens! You should live in the Fire Nation!"
"You're right, Fire Lord Zuko! We are Fire Nation citizens! And I'll tell you this! Your father would never have let the Avatar and the Earth King bully him into something so obviously bad for his own nation's citizens!"
"Of all the people in the world, I have the wisdom you need, the wisdom of experience!"
He was stunned. "My...father?"
"Do you think being Fire Lord is easy?!"
Next thing he knew, he had grabbed the Mayor by the collar, pushing him up against the wall and holding a fire dagger to his throat. "I AM NOT MY FATHER!"
Zuko felt no fear from the man at all as he said, "No, young man, you're not. Fire Lord Ozai had many faults, but he was never a coward. He was never a traitor."
Aang helped Mayor Nishi off of Appa and proceeded to aid the soldiers in docking the ship that transported the colonials back into the harbor of the Fire Nation coast. Katara and Sokka assisted as well, helping the elderly and the children off the ship.
Halfway through unloading the vessel, shouts could be heard throughout the crowd, and it eventually reached Aang and Mayor Nishi.
"You're colonials?" The soldier addressed Mayor Nishi who merely nodded, still in shock. "Return to the Earth Kingdom by order of the Fire Lord Zuko!"
Everyone stopped, dropping the tasks they were handling, unsure if they heard him right. "What?!"
"Fire Lord Zuko has officially withdrawn his support of the Harmony Restoration Movement!"
After retrieving Toph from her newly established Beifong Metalbending Academy, and consulting Avatar Roku, Aang decided to pay their old friend a visit.
Outside the gates of Yu Dao, a crowd had gathered, led by Smellerbee and Longshot. "Fire Nation out! Harmony now! Fire Nation out! Harmony now!"
Just as they landed, the Freedom fighters cheered. "Look everybody! It's the Avatar!"
Smellerbee hopped down from Longshot's shoulders and greeted Aang. "We were hoping you would come! So, what's the plan of attack? The Freedom fighters are at your service!"
"I appreciate your confidence, Smellerbee, but I really just want to talk to Zuko."
"What?!" Her joy quickly turned to anger. The time for talking was over as soon as the Fire Lord broke with the Harmony Restoration Movement! And besides, you're not getting into that city without a fight! Fire Nation troops are everywhere!"
Aang opened his glider and looked to Katara. Walls and soldiers were too easy of an obstacle for them. "You ready, sweetie?"
"I'm ready, sweetie!"
Toph rolled her eyes as she felt the pair take off from the ground. "'Sweetie?' Seriously?"
"I know right? Soooo oogie."
As soon as Katara and Aang landed in the city proper, they were met by soldiers. "This city is under the protection of the Fire Lord himself! No one may enter without his express permission! Not even the Avatar! Leave now!"
"Please, I'd like to talk to Fire Lord Zuko, that's all." Aang responded in his calmest voice.
But the commander was stubborn. "You were warned." He kicked up flames at Aang's feet, which the latter easily avoided by jumping ten feet into the air and landing to his side.
He earthbended the stones beneath the commander's feet and effectively trapped him. "I don't want to fight!"
The other soldier's stepped back, but their commander's shouts snapped them out of their thoughts of fear. "What are you dolts waiting for?! ATTACK!"
Aang never sent a counter-attack to any of the men, choosing instead to avoid and dodge the fire as best as he could. He heard Katara call his name with worry and he turned to her with a smile. "Don't worry, sweetie! I can handle them! Just give me a sec!"
"Aang, you're on fire!"
"What'd you say?"
"I said, Aang you're on FIRE!"
"I know, right?"
"I meant your clothes! They're on—Oh for crying out loud!" Katara opened the waterskin tied to her waist to put out the fire on Aang's robes.
"Ohhhh...thanks!"
Having had enough, Katara used the water from the fountains to attack the soldiers. "STOP. TRYING. TO. SET. MY. BOYFRIEND. ON. FIRE!" By the time she was done, the soldiers were stuck in ice to the walls and to the ground.
"Whoa..."
"Aang, are you okay?"
He looked around at the soldiers, still in shock. "Yeah. I'm fine."
A soldier had broken free from the ice and charged at Aang at full speed, raising a fistful of fire. Katara raised her arms to attack once more. "Can't you people give it a rest?! He just wants to talk!"
"Katara, stop!" Strong hands gripped her wrists before she can send the ice shards towards the soldier.
She turned her head and saw Fire Lord Zuko restraining her. "Let go, Zuko! You're hurting me! Don't make me hurt you back!"
"I'm hurting you?! What are you doing to my soldiers?! My people?!"
"Let go of her, Zuko! She said you're hurting her!" Aang's rare temper was slowly rising to the surface.
"First, she has to agree to stop attacking my people!"
"Your soldiers attacked first! Let her go now!"
Zuko didn't recoil from their staring match. "I am the Fire Lord! I have to protect the citizens of the Fire Nation!"
Aang breathed in a huge amount of air, and as he exhaled, he directed the strong gust towards Zuko. The force had the Fire Lord flying a few feet and landing on the hard ground with a thud. He spun back to his feet and counter-attacked, sending flames after flames towards Aang.
"I came here to talk to you, Zuko! As a friend! But you've changed! You've forgotten what we've worked for!" Aang used the water from the fountain to block Zuko's attacks.
Zuko's eyes widened as he watched Aang's eyes and tatoos glow as the latter entered the Avatar state. "Maybe Avatar Roku is right. A promise is a promise."
The wind around them whipped chaotically under Aang's command. Even the soldiers trapped with ice tried their best to get away and flee from the Avatar's wrath.
"Aang! Stop!" Katara put herself between Aang and Zuko. "If you enter the Avatar state in such an emotional way, you won't be able to control yourself!"
She reached up and cupped Aang's face gently. She was no longer afraid of the Avatar state. She was more afraid of Aang being hurt, physically and emotionally. "You have to calm down. Please, sweetie. For me?"
Slowly, the chaotic wind dissipated and Aang's feet touched down back to the ground. His tattoos and eyes returned to normal and he slumped forward, clinging onto Katara for support. "I...I can't believe it. I might've done something terrible without thinking it through... Zuko, I'm so sor—"
"Katara's right. We both need to calm down and talk."
"Are you kidding me?!" Aang's temper flared once more. "THAT'S WHAT I WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
They walked around the market, searching all the stands for quality ingredients to cook dinner. Noriko lifted a cabbage from the cart and showed it to Chiyo. "When choosing a cabbage, you should pick a tight compact head that feels heavy for its size."
Chiyo took the cabbage carefully and weighed it in her hands, then took another from the cart for comparison. "Hmm..."
Noriko smiled as she watched the girl try more, eager to find the perfect cabbage. A trait she had noticed about the apprentice entertainer was her tireless pursuit of perfection.
On the days she spent with Noren and Man Wol in the theatre, Chiyo made sure that every detail of the play was precise, from the actions, to the words. She left no avenue unexplored, and no opportunity untaken.
And through all that, when the day was over, she always found time to be with Kiyi; helping her with lessons, dressing up dolls, making and eating rice cakes.
She was glad that her daughter finally found a friend.
"Aha!" Chiyo held up a cabbage proudly. "This is the one!" She turned to the merchant and smiled sweetly. "How much for this?"
The cabbage merchant failed to respond, too entranced by the apprentice entertainer in front of his cart.
"Sir?"
A couple more calls snapped him out of his trance. "Oh! Uh, I...uh...a silver coin for each!"
Chiyo reached into her pocket and placed a gold coin into his palm. "I hope your business goes well, Mr. Cabbage Man!"
As soon as Noriko and Chiyo left, the onlookers crowded around the cabbage cart, trying to buy the cabbages that the apprentice entertainer had taken interest in.
He couldn't contain his glee as the sales poured in. "M-MY CABBAGES!"