Love in Danger Chapter 11: Fire Lord Ozai...?

"The answer to that is .... No" Ozai answered after a pause as to create tension.

Aang felt Ozai's body react to his statement.

"He's lying" said Aang. At least now they knew Aang could sense Ozai's lies. "What did you see?" Zuko asked sharply.

"Why should I tell you two?" Ozai scoffed. "You my son are nothing but a traitor and as for you Avatar, well everyday of my life has been a living hell since you stole my Firebending. I will tell you nothing."

"Typical" was Zuko's immediate response. "But Azula was always your favorite. Don't you want us to bring the people who broke her neck to justice?"

"Justice!" the former Fire Lord flared. "Justice oh that is rich! What do you naïve fools know of justice? As I recall you both are so weak and without a sense of justice that when either of you had a perfect opportunity to kill me, you didn't have the spine. You won't avenge my daughter; you won't kill the people who murdered her. So then why should I tell you anything?"

"A sense of justice?" Zuko repeated. "As I recall you define justice as scarring a 13-year-old boy permanently just because he spoke out of turn! Would you rather I turned out to be a cold-blooded murderer like you and Azula?"

Ozai merely sighed.

"Tell us what you saw!" Zuko demanded, as flames expelled out his mouth.

"Or what?" his father asked. "You won't kill me if I don't and you won't torture me to get me to. You have nothing to threaten me with; there is nothing more you can take away from me; you already took my bending and my throne."

Zuko growled in frustration. He took Aang over to a corner of the room and spoke quietly with him. "He's right" Aang said. "We don't have anything to threaten him with."

"Well then what do we do?" Zuko asked impatiently. "Can't you make him tell us Aang?" "What? How could I do that?" Aang replied.

"Don't you have some kind of Avatar power that can force him to tell us?"

"No. The Avatar doesn't have any powers like that. Maybe we could offer him something in return, like better prison food or something."

"It's worth a try."

They reproached the table.

"What do want in return for the information?" Zuko asked calmly, yet still obviously resenting being in this man's presence.

Ozai cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked tentatively.

"You live in a prison; there has to be something you want. Better food, better clothes, more blankets and soap, a bed; what do you want?"

"There is but one thing I will trade for this information" Ozai said calmly. "What is it?"

"You cannot give it to me" Ozai snapped. He turned his head to Aang and smirked evilly. "You can Avatar."

"What?" Aang replied, shocked.

"Give me my Firebending back Avatar and I will tell you everything you want to know." "What? No way!" Aang shouted.

"That is my only price" Ozai said as he smiled proudly.

"No deal! I don't even know if I could" Aang responded. Aang had meant what he said, the ways of Energybending were still shrouded in mystery to him; he had used it only once in his entire life, when he had eliminated Ozai's Firebending abilities. He knew little else of its capabilities and whether of not he could restore the former Fire Lord's power if he wanted to.

"It's a shame" Ozai said. "Won't it be dreadful when those horrible men come in the middle of the night to kill your family?"

"It would be no different than if I returned your Firebending" Aang said. "The only difference would be that it be you doing it."

"If you give me back my bending I promise no harm will come to either of you or your loved ones" said Ozai.

Aang felt the falseness of this statement with his Earthbending. "You're lying." "Aang is right" Zuko said. "Even if we could, we won't return your Firebending."

"Aang?" Ozai repeated, looking to the Avatar. "So that is your name; Aang. Never in my life did I think a Fire Lord would have the audacity to be on a first name basis with the Avatar, his mortal enemy."

"It's not the first time it's happened" Aang interjected. "My past life Avatar Roku was once best friends with Sozin, your grandfather."

"What?!" Ozai spat, clearly offended.

Seeing this gave Zuko satisfaction and unlocked a natural barrier in his mind. "That isn't all" he added. "He was my great-grandfather!"

"We all know that Sozin was your..." Ozai began.

"That's not what I meant!" yelled Zuko. "Avatar ....Avatar Roku was my mother's grandfather!" "What?!" Aang said at the same time as Ozai.

Ozai slumped in his chair and sneered, "It figures she was the spawn of treacherous scum." "Don't talk about her that way!" Zuko demanded.

"Oh did I strike a nerve son?" Ozai teased.

"Don't call me that" Zuko ordered. "It doesn't matter who created me; Uncle Iroh is my father. But at least I can call Ursa mother."

"Or at least you used to be able to."

Aang knew in that instant that if Zuko's rage would now become like flame doused in gasoline.

"Where is she?!" the Fire Lord boomed. "My men turned that Earth Kingdom village upside down to find her, but she wasn't there! You lied to me! Where is she?!"

"...She wasn't there?" Ozai asked confusedly. "Tell me where she really is!"

"I don't know where she is! If she wasn't there then I don't know!" "You're lying!"

"Uh...Zuko" Aang said cautiously. "He uh...isn't lying." He felt they were getting off-subject, but knew better than to say anything.

Zuko's eyes widened as his friend told him this. He began breathing heavily but then he regained control of himself.

"See this?" Zuko said as he pointed to his left eye. "This is where my scar used to be before my friend healed it. If my mother had known that you, her husband, would be the one to do it to me, she probably wouldn't have had second thoughts about leaving. She left because you were heartless enough to even consider ending your own son's life. I'm just glad she wasn't here to see what a greater monster you've become. Let's go Aang."

He opened the door and readied to leave. Aang slowly followed him. As the Fire Lord peered after them, he appeared genuinely surprised.

"W...wait" Ozai beckoned. The Avatar and the Fire Lord halted. "...The men who killed Azula were Dai Li agents. There were three of them. Long Feng was one of them. I recognized the other two; they had fled the Fire Nation before the war had ended because they were still loyal to Long Feng.

They names were poli and jing. poli is missing his right pinky finger. When they left they said something about their other targets."

"Other targets?" asked Aang.

"Your wife for one" Ozai elaborated. "But if you're here I'm sure you already know that. They didn't know you were married then but they still knew that would aid in their vengeance."

"Who else did they name as a target?" Zuko asked.

"They said something about a warrior who left his mark on Long Feng when they tried to assassinate the Earth King."

Aang's chest nearly exploded in shock. He knew what Ozai was speaking of; his friends had told him of everything that had transpired in that incident. When the rest of Team Avatar was preoccupied fighting off Dai Li agents, Long Feng had the perfect opportunity and pinned the Earth King down as he prepared the killing blow but before he had the chance a metal boomerang sang through the air and cut a gash in his forehead. He was so near death the entire Dai Li had to retreat. The thrower of that nation-saving boomerang was none other than Aang's brother-in-law.

"Sokka!" Aang yelled as fear gripped his heart.

"Sokka?" Zuko repeated dismayed. Sokka was one of Zuko's closest friends; Zuko had bonded closely with Sokka when he had aided him in a mission to rescue his father from the Boiling Rock Fire Nation Prison. "Oh no...what else did you hear?"

"That's all I know" said Ozai. Zuko looked to Aang. "Everything he said was the truth" the Avatar confirmed.

"So what do you need in return? Now that you have spilled the beans I would presume you would need something in return" Zuko asked.

"No... no I don't need anything... S-son. I a-a did it for no Intensions of needing something in return, Just Lead the Fire Nation with Iron Fist" Ozai (surprisingly ) said with his face mirroring the looks of a sad person.

"Then we don't have a moment to loose. Let's go Aang" Zuko said as Aang jetted out the door. Zuko lingered for a moment.

"...Father...?"he started. "What?" Ozai asked quietly. "Thank you."

Zuko was about to leave when he saw Ozai with real sad emotions and a tear rolling down from his right eye.

[ Throw me the POWER STONES!]