A/N: Chapters 1-3 of this story have all been up on FFNet for ages now without any updates or new chapters, but just recently (4/24/07) I went through and updated all the chapters. The main difference, if you read the old version of this story, is that every 2 chapters are now combined into one. I thought it just made more sense, due to length, context, and the average length of future chapters based on my outlines. So old chapters 1 and 2 are now chapter 1, old chapters 3 and 4 are now chapter 2, and old chapters 5 and 6 are now chapter 3. Everything else (as far as the text of the chapters) is the same, except for small differences noted at the bottom of each chapter.

War is Brewing

Ranon was running as fast as he could, trying to make it in before nightfall. He knew he should have gotten up earlier, and now he was paying the price.

Next time you promise your friend that you’ll meet him at his house at a certain time, get out of bed in time to get there!

The gates of the Fire Nation capital city of Grendal were closing quickly, and if Ranon didn’t get in before they were closed, the guards would not let him in. Recent raids by mysterious bandits on many important cities all over the world were forcing many rulers to take severe measures, and that meant no exceptions. Not even for a 14 year-old boy simply trying to visit his friend. And if he used airbending to jump over the city walls, he would probably be attacked.

“Wait! I’m almost there!” Ranon shouted desperately.

I’m not going to make it, he thought, when a sudden picture of his friend popped into his mind.

“I call it the air scooter,” Aang was saying.

“Whoa!” said Ranon. “That’s cool! Where did you learn that?”

“I made it up…the key is in the circular motion…”

Ranon had officially mastered airbending and earned his Airbender tattoos just one month ago. He was one of the best young airbenders in history. The only student in the temple who had ever surpassed his skill had been Aang. Despite all this, the air scooter had never come to him easily, and Ranon had only managed to do it successfully twice. Summoning everything Aang had ever told him about the air scooter, he quickly made the circular motion with his hands around the quickly developing sphere of air, and hopped on it. It worked.

“Yes!” he shouted in excitement. But his elation only lasted for a second; Ranon quickly realized that the gates were almost completely shut. Parting the air resistance in front of him, and at the same time putting more energy into the sphere of air beneath him, Ranon sped through the city gates seconds before they clanged shut behind him.

“You cut that one pretty fine,” the guard noted as Ranon hopped off the air scooter.

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“You’re right. It won’t,” said a voice behind him.

Ranon spun around, and saw, to his surprise, that Sozin was standing behind him, looking at him with an expression close to frustration. Ranon bowed, for he had heard that the Fire Nation’s Council of Elders had recently appointed Sozin as the Fire Lord. Usually, the eldest child of the Fire Lord took over the position when the Fire Lord died, but the previous leader of the Fire Nation had not had any family, making an appointment necessary.

“Fire Lord Sozin,” Ranon said with respect. “I was happy to hear that the Council appointed you. A worthy choice, I think.”

“Thank you,” Sozin responded, yet for some reason, his eyes were narrowed. “I need you to come to the palace briefly, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” said Ranon immediately, although he was puzzled.

Why on earth would I be wanted in the palace?

Sozin lead Ranon through the capital, until they came to the palace. He threw open the doors, walked through the hall, up a flight of stairs, and settled himself on the throne.

“The reason I wanted to see you,” Sozin began, “is because I have a message for you. I intend it to be received by your instructor, Gyatso.” Sozin produced a small scroll, and threw it toward Ranon, who caught it. “I must ask you not to open it, and deliver it only to Gyatso. It is very important that only he read this.”

“Ok.” Ranon said. He didn’t like to take orders, especially from people that he hardly knew, but he didn’t dare refuse the Fire Lord. Not only did Sozin have “Sir, may I ask if-”

“I’m afraid my son is not here today. I don’t know when he will return”

“Ok. Also, what did you mean when you said-”

“Grendal will soon be closed to visitors. We feel this precaution is necessary for the time being against all the attacks that have been going around. People are already in low spirits because no one seems to know who these people are, and know one ever survives the raids. It would devastate the Fire Nation if the capital fell to a nameless group of bandits.”

One of Sozin’s assistants walked through the door then, and he looked troubled when he saw Ranon. He walked quickly up the stairs and whispered something in the Fire Lord’s ear. Sozin’s expression changed instantly, he suddenly looked almost worried.

“Ranon, I’m afraid that I have to ask you to leave. See to it that Gyatso gets that scroll. Good day.”

Ranon felt awkward at the sudden dismissal, but he turned and departed the room without another word. As he left the room though, he noticed a man in the doorway wearing a hooded robe that hid his face, and long sleeves falling past his arms. He thought the man’s build was familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he thought he had seen a similar person before. Just as he was about to look away, he caught the man’s eye, and the stranger quickly looked away after seeing him. But as he did this, his forehead caught the light, and it almost appeared as if there was an arrow on his head…

Why would another airbender not greet me according to custom? Or even acknowledge me?

But Ranon didn’t have any more time to dwell on it, he was quickly being led out of the room by two guards, and, before he knew it, he was outside. However, his paranoid (and slightly curious) streak simply could not pass up what he had just seen, and as he was blowing on his bison whistle, he decided that he would return and try and find out whom the man was. The bison that he had borrowed from Monk Gyatso landed next to him shortly. While he was waiting, Ranon had quickly scribbled a not explaining that the scroll he was now giving to the bison was to be delivered to Monk Gyatso.

“You can get home on your own, can’t you boy?” Ranon said, rubbing the bison’s head. The great creature only growled in response, but Ranon took it as a yes. He backed away slightly, and the bison took off, and began flying in the direction of the Southern Air Temple.

I can always get there on my glider if I have to. It’ll just take longer……a lot longer.

Turning back to the towering gate of the city, he took a slow, calming breath, and began creating the air scooter so that he could sneak into the Fire Nation capital.

Ranon swiftly ascended the lowest guard tower in the city, taking care to always be in the blind spot of the many patrols that circled Grendal after the gates closed. Just as he began to feel his air scooter lose strength, Ranon reached the peak of the tower. Fortunately, there was no one at the watch post at the moment, but there was a patrol coming along the walkway that connected all of the guard towers in the city. Ranon swiftly jumped down from the guard tower, allowing the air to catch him at the last moment and slow him down. He looked around, and realized that he was very near the palace.

Fire Lord Sozin showed me out in such a hurry and even had an escort make sure I left the city. If I’m caught, I’ll be in a lot of trouble…

Determined, yet wary, he started to climb the side of the building. Airbending would make far to much noise, and the last thing Ranon wanted to do now was draw attention to himself. After a couple minutes of this, Ranon reached the roof, and, looking around, saw a closed maintenance shaft that led directly into the palace.

If this thing is straight, and my sense of direction is accurate, this leads directly into the throne room!

It was no problem to open the shaft with airbending, and soon, Ranon was crawling through the small pipe. He was just about to reach the throne room when the pipe suddenly changed direction.

What?!

Ranon instantly realized what had happened. It wasn’t a maintenance shaft he was in; it was a ventilation tube.

Still, I should be just above the throne room…

And he was. Listening hard, Ranon could just manage to make out voices. Concentrating with all his might now, he heard what was unmistakably Fire Lord Sozin’s voice say “Bring him in.” There was a scuffling sound, then a noise that sounded like someone stumbling into a room. Sozin’s voice rang out again “You say that you come to help me with my plans.”

“Yes, Lord So-”

“Silence! When I wish to be spoken to, I will tell you. First, you must prove to me that you are indeed on my side and not simply working for the nomads.”

“I assure you Lor-” but the voice suddenly fell short. However, the voice had spoken a little longer this time, and Ranon thought that he recognized the voice.

“Your assurances are neither appreciated or accepted, monk. I want another sort of proof.”

Monk! Now Ronan knew where he had heard that voice before, it was one of the master monks of the temple. This particular monk had never had any hand in Ranon’s training, and so his name was unknown to Ranon, but at least he was beginning to get an idea of what was going on.

“What sort of proof do you require, Lord Sozin?”

“I want you to lead the plan. You will lead my troops in and tell your fellow monks they are there on a friendly mission. You will do all of this in front of my men, who I already know I can trust. I have given a young airbender the note for Gyatso, he is, as we speak, flying back to the temple to deliver it. He will be alone at the tents in 15 days time, where you can take him out with the support of my troops.”

“On account of my loyalty, I have told you that the monks have always scorned me, and not valued my input. I want revenge on them, and with your army and my knowledge of the temple, I can get that. And I promise you my lord, Gyatso will be taken out, that was essential to the plan. Gyatso is the most powerful airbender in history, he could have easily wrecked our-”

There was the sound of Sozin jumping up from his throne at the monk’s words. He let out a fire blast, which, unfortunately for Ranon, raised the level of the temperature in the room considerably, temporarily expanding and weakening the supports that held up the roof…..

“IT IS NOT OUR PLAN, FOOL, IT IS MINE! YOU CAUGHT WIND OF IT BY CHANCE AND VOLUNTEERED TO HELP, YOU ARE LUCKY TO BE A PART OF IT! NEVER FORGET THAT! NEVER FORGET THAT IT IS ONLY BECAUSE I ACCEPTED YOU INTO MY GOOD GRACES THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE KILLED ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHER AIRBENDERS!”

Killed!? Ranon was panicking now, this sounded serious. If he had understood correctly, then Sozin was mounting an attack on the Southern Air Temple, and if he did that, then that had to mean…..

“My dearest apologies, my lord, I will be more mindful. But I must ask you, your messenger, he said that the power of you firebenders would increase a hundredfold. How is this possible?”

“It is possible, I assure you, and how it is possible is not your concern. Your only concern is getting my troops into all four air temples in the world at the same time, and leading the attack on the Southern one.”

“Of course, my lord. I have managed to secure………….”

But Ranon didn’t hear the rest, the ventilation tube he was in was beginning to collapse, and it was groaning loudly, drowning out the monk’s voice. Ranon winced. Any second now…..And then it came. The tube collapsed, and Ranon was dumped into the attic of the Fire Lord’s palace, the only thing between him and Fire Lord Sozin was the thin ceiling, which Ranon felt was still very hot from Sozin’s outburst.

“Very well,” Said Sozin. “You may go. I need to attend to other matters, you are to stay at the local inn, you will find it quite accommodating. You are to stay in your room and not let anyone know who you are until my chief advisor comes to summon you, understood?”

“Yes, Lord Sozin,” said the monk’s voice, though it sounded resentful, as Ranon had expected. If the monk had betrayed the airbenders because he felt he wasn’t appreciated, and was now receiving that same treatment from the Fire Nation, he might begin to have second thoughts…A bubble of hope filled Ranon for a second, before simple logic punctured it. It was too late now, the monk would either have to help Sozin in his plan or be killed.

Way to be optimistic. I don’t even know for sure what’s going on here.

Suddenly, Ranon noticed a beam of light issuing from a small hole in the ceiling. Ranon made his way carefully over to it, and peeked through. He could see the throne room, and the only people in it were maintenance. There was one man who looked like he was polishing the throne with a small saber of fire he was issuing from his hand. Ranon relaxed slightly, and looked up higher into the rafters for a means to leave. He saw the ventilation tube he had fell through, and prepared to jump up in the direction it was going, to try and follow it back to the roof. But as he did this, the increased weight from Ranon standing directly on the ceiling and preparing to jump caused the weakened rafters to give way, and before he could jump, Ranon found himself falling down into the throne room, right on top of a team of firebenders….

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A/N:

There weren’t many changes of the text from when Ranon sneaks into the Fire Nation to the end of the chapter). I changed a few words here or there that I thought just sounded better and made more sense mostly, but nothing big. I did change one bit of information from nearer the beginning though, that is, Sozin’s line saying “I gave the letter you requested I send to Gyatso…” to “I have given a young airbender the note for Gyatso…”. I wanted to make sure it was clear that this whole thing is Sozin’s plan, not anyone else’s. Thanks for (re) reading!