Azula couldn't help but gape at what she had just seen. Harry had blasted both of his parents on their butts, looking decidedly pissed as he did so. Whatever her father's plan was, it had surely backfired now. Azula's gaze went back and forth between the pissed-off Harry and his parents. She had not seen them in many years until they showed up recently, under the orders of her father.
Harry's mother, Rio, was a woman that Azula knew was always hoping to escape the middle-class barrier that the family was in. She knew that the woman was ecstatic when she learnt that her one and only child had become best friends with the two heirs to the Fire Nation along with two daughters of noble houses. Harry's father, Akito, was a completely different animal. If Rio was loyal to the Fire Nation, then she was nowhere near as much as her husband. She believed the man was willing to chop off his own arm if her father ordered it. He was loyal, strong, powerful, knowledgeable and fairly smart. She'd dare say that if he had been born a noble then he'd probably be one of her father's top men.
The pair had been more than proud of Harry, why wouldn't they be? He was strong, capable of fire bending that many others couldn't do, he could bend other elements as well. Not to mention that he was 'The Emerald Dragon', the most feared Fire Nation warrior of modern history.
She didn't have much experience with either of them, never ever talking to them for more than a few minutes. But given the way Harry put importance on family, she had believed that the three of them were inseparable. However, that obviously wasn't the case. Had she been blind or was she simply just not knowledgeable enough when she was younger? Now that she had thought about it, she had started to realise things.
Harry had rarely ever talked about her parents, she could barely ever recall him talking with them.
"Harry?" Rio coughed as she and her husband climbed to their feet. "What...what...why would you do that? It's us, we're your parents!"
"You are no family of mine," Harry said coldly, glaring hatefully at the pair of them.
"Boy," Akito grunted, staring at Harry with a rather forced neutral look. "You do not talk to us like that,"
"Going to make me stop?" Harry snorted. "Doesn't matter what you say, not anymore. We're not family, you all will stay out of our way." Harry said as he walked over to Aang, the rest of the team quickly came closer to him. The group was staring at Harry with shocked looks on their faces, looking about half as shocked as Azula and Zuko felt.
"That's enough," Akito said sternly. "Harry, this has gone on for far too long, son. It would be best if you stopped, now. Return home with us and live the rest of your life as you should, the pride of the Fire Nation. The Avatar is right there, capture him and bring him to the Fire Nation, I'm sure the great Fire Lord would be willing to forgive you for your previous acts."
"Son, please," Rio said in a pleading voice.
"Fuck the Fire Nation," Harry said, staring his parents dead in the eye. Rio gasped while Akito looked seconds away from throwing his own fireballs. "Fuck the Fire Lord!"
"Son, you will mind your tongue!" Akito snapped.
"And fuck you," Harry finished before he reached out and tapped Toph on the shoulder, the girl took that as her cue and stomped her foot down, creating a wall of earth that shot up and covered them. Akito growled before slashing his arms in a diagonal motion, sending a fire attack that shattered the wall into pieces. The last of the earth crumbled, revealing that Harry and the team had vanished.
"Blast," Akito cursed.
"I think," Azula spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her. "That some explanations are in order," She said, her voice colder than ice as she gave Akito and Rio a look that showed that she was not pleased, not pleased at all.
"So...that was something, huh?" Sokka said weakly as the team flew away on Appa.
Everyone sat on the saddle, trying not to act awkward as they all stared at Harry who was sitting by the tail end of the saddle, exuding an aura that gave off the impression he would snap the neck of the first person that bothered him. The weapon of mass destruction gazed off into the sky with a murderous look on his face.
"So..." Sokka coughed. "You...you want to..."
"Shut the everlasting fuck up," Harry told him bluntly before letting out a deep sigh as he turned to face the team. "What happened has happened, forget about it and move on."
"I...are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Katara asked hesitantly.
"I'd rather get circumcised by your brother," Harry said honestly.
"It's just..." Aang looked around at the others before turning back to Harry. "We...I thought that your plan was to defeat the Fire Lord and then return to your family, right? I mean, that's what you told us. But...your parents..."
"They are not my parents, they're just the cunts that gave birth to me, that's all," Harry said firmly. "They are not my family,"
"But...if not them then...who did you mean?" Sokka asked softly. "Azula? Zuko?"
"No, they'd be better off without me," Harry said with a shake of his head.
"Who then?"
"It doesn't matter,"
"Yes, it does," Sokka insisted. "Who? You have a sister or something waiting for you?"
"I've got other family waiting for me," Harry grunted, not looking at any of them as he stared down.
"Where? In the Fire Nation?" Katara asked, Harry didn't respond. "Do you have some friends in the Earth Nation then? Or um...in the Water Tribe?" Harry didn't respond.
"Are they waiting for you in the spirit world?" Toph asked, speaking up for the first time.
"Something like that," Harry responded quietly.
"What?!" The other three blurted out.
"Dude, are you serious?!" Sokka demanded disbelievingly.
"The..." Katara trailed off, staring at Harry with a horrified look.
"You..." Aang stared at Harry like he had never seen him before. "...You mean that you were...you were going to.."
"I don't need to," Harry snorted softly as he finally looked up. "At the end of the war, the result is the same. If the Fire Nation wins, I'll have to serve them or die, spoiler alert, I'm not serving them. If the Fire Nation loses then the other two nations won't want to risk having me around."
"But you're a hero!" Aang cried. "You have helped so many people since joining us!"
"Doing good doesn't wipe away the bad," Harry replied in a tired voice. "Even if it did, my sins are still higher. I've filled graveyards with the amount I've killed. So I helped stop a war, does that mean my victims don't deserve justice?"
"But you were forced to do it, right?!" Katara cut in, tears pricking at her eyes. "It's not like you wanted to!"
"Doesn't matter," Harry said dismissively. "I'm too dangerous to be kept alive, they all know it. The Northern Water Tribe saw first-hand exactly how much damage I was capable of when I decimated and destroyed the Fire Nation fleet. The other nations deserve justice and they'll get it, I'll stand trial and let them decide my fate. It doesn't matter to me. If they jail me then I'll deserve it, they want to remove me from the equation, and then I get to see my family again."
"Harry! You can't just give up like that!" Sokka said angrily.
"I'm not giving up!" Harry snapped at him. "I'll fight with my last breath to help you all accomplish your goal! Our goal! Stopping the Fire Nation and ending the war! I'm just realistic about what's going to happen after! Once the war's done, they'll come for me and I am tired of fighting! Once the war's done, I'm going to take responsibility for my actions and stand trial! That's it! End of story!" He said before stopping and taking a deep breath.
"But Harry-"
"I said enough," Harry cut in, firmly but calmer than before. "Leave it, guys. We've got other things to focus on, in case you haven't noticed, we still got an entire war to get through before we get to that happy event."
Azula sat on her chair, imperiously staring down at the two in front of her. On her left stood Mai and Ty Lee, her two friends, friends which she trusted far more than most people. Then on her right was Zuko, her brother. Recently, she started reevaluating her relationship with Zuko. Oh, he was still annoying and irritating, but she was beginning to admit - only to herself, mind you - that she maybe had made a few mistakes of her own when it came to their relationship. Still, now she was beginning to start enjoying his company.
He stood there, dressed in his Fire Nation armour, looking quite imposing. Especially as he scowled down, his face was slightly more intimidating because of the scar given to him by their father. She briefly felt like she had a scar-faced bodyguard, but knew better than to mention that particular thought out loud. Zuko was not as strong as her, he'd admit that (when he wasn't being stubborn) but that didn't mean he was the weakling that her father thought he was. Zuko was, as Uncle Iroh suggested, a late bloomer and had started coming into his own, being far better at firebending than Azula thought he would be. She'd dare say that he'd have a fair chance of beating all of her father's generals.
In the corner of the room, stood Uncle Iroh, looking perfectly calm and pleasant as always. Uncle Iroh was another person that she was starting to see differently. She had always had mixed feelings about the man. Father thought he was a useless disgrace, so she did as well. But then Harry liked him, so she did as well until she started suspecting that Harry liked him more than he liked her, then she hated him until she realised Harry didn't like him more than her and then she liked him again. He gave her presents so she liked him, but those presents were dreadfully boring things like girly dolls while Zuko got cool stuff like knives, so she hated him. He seemed to like her, but she always felt like he liked Zuko more than her. But now, she was starting to learn under him and she liked him again, and was starting to respect him.
Despite his appearance, Azula knew for sure that the man was indeed dangerous, he had earned his title of 'The Dragon of the West' and it wasn't just because of his skill with firebending. The man was a genius, even if he didn't act like it. If anything, it felt like he was trying his best to distance himself from the man he once was.
She stared down at Rio and Akito, both of them were kneeling before her with their heads bowed down to the floor. Azula was admittedly tempted to burn the two of them for ruining her attempt to bring back Harry, if anything they had both pushed him further away than when he left.
"So," Azula spoke up. "I think some explanations are in order," She said, causing the two to finally look up, though they wisely remained on their knees.
"Princess Azula," Rio spoke up first, respectfully of course, though there was also a slight shake in her voice. "We were merely doing as we were ordered to, by the Fire Lord, your father."
"I am aware of that," Azula didn't bother to hide her annoyance. "But I would like to know what your exact orders were,"
"The Fire Lord had instructed us to try and convince our son to come back to the Fire Nation, Princess Azula," Akito answered.
"Where were the two of you?" Zuko spoke up suddenly, Azula sent him an annoyed look for interrupting but he didn't see it - or more likely simply ignored it - and continued speaking. "I haven't seen the pair of you in years, even before I got banished."
"My irritating little brother does make a good point," Azula said, ignoring Zuko's protest about not being the younger one. "Where have you two been all of these years?"
"We...um...we cannot answer that," Rio said nervously.
"Can't?" Azula raised an eyebrow. "Or won't?" She asked in a dangerous voice.
"We cannot answer," Rio said quickly. "We've been instructed not to reveal anything."
"By my father?" Azula guessed.
"Yes, Princess," Akito nodded. "He's forbidden us from revealing many things, including where we've been."
"Even to me?" Azula asked, sounding more interested than anything else.
"Yes, Princess, even to you," Akito said apologetically. "We are but humble servants of the Fire Nation, we live to serve our lord. If you are able to obtain permission from the Fire Lord then we will happily reveal everything to you."
"I'm sure," Azula drawled, looking decidedly unimpressed with the two. It was times like this when she wished she could simply blast things to solve her problems, people are so annoying. She needed some time time to think. "The pair of you, leave this room and head to the room you've been assigned."
"We...we haven't been assigned a room," Rio said, sounding confused.
"Then get assigned," Zuko growled impatiently. "Get out!" He barked.
'Yeah, I'm starting to like him more,' Azula thought as Rio and Akito got up and made their way out of the room as calmly as they could.
"This is complete tiger-bull crap," Zuko said once they were gone.
"Agreed," Mai yawned.
"Their auras were really off," Ty Lee added helpfully.
"Does anyone want to accompany me to get some tea?" Uncle Iroh asked suddenly.
"I'll go!" Ty Lee said cheerfully.
"Agni help me," Zukos sighed, rubbing his eyes as the two left. "There's two of them now, they'll end up coming back with pink tea, I bet."