Fanfic #166 Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Third Fire Prince [SI/AU] by ArcMeow(Avatar)

This fanfic is an si into Avatar the last airbender as an original character, the younger twin of Azula. I really like this fic because it does a really good job of exploring the world, and even though the mc is definitely power wanky, it does a good job of showing the effects of his actions and expanding the world through that.

Synopsis: Ursa was very proud of her three children. Zuko was the kindest and most hardworking boy she'd ever known; Azula was determined and more focused than any three-year-old had any right to be; and lastly, her Raizu was an oddity amongst oddities but in a good, though bordering disturbing kind of way.

Rated: M

words: 46k

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/avatar-the-last-airbender-the-third-fire-prince-si-au.974944/reader/

Here's the first chapter:

Ursa was very proud of her three children. Zuko was the kindest and most hardworking boy she'd ever known; Azula was determined and more focused than any seven-year-old had any right to be; and lastly, her Raizu was an oddity amongst oddities but in a good, though bordering disturbing kind of way. She had no doubt that Azula's younger twin was definitely her and Ozai's child, having given birth to the boy, but in some ways even she wondered if she really were indeed his mother.

"Lightning is the highest form of fire bending," the Fire Lord said. Her father-in-law, Azulon, made a show of firmly rooting himself in a neutral position. "Only with the proper conviction can you truly harness the very power of the heavens itself."

Raizu was a brilliant child. Brilliant to the point that his own grandfather would deem him worthy of a favor in exchange for what he had given to the nation. A favor, his own father wanted for himself, that she had no trouble telling from the way Ozai burned with envy. And true to his desires, the boy asked for his prize then and there in court: a lesson on lightning.

"Because we can only provide guidance to the energies," supplied her youngest. The boy in question sat a little too close to the Fire Lord, glued on to his every word.

Ursa wasn't too sure what to feel on the matter, if it were either Zuko or Azula currently glued to the man responsible for the ongoing war then she might have been more afraid. But with Raizu, the first order of worry was always in what the boy would get into after the fact.

Azulon nodded. "Indeed, we do not have enough Chi within ourselves to create lightning, but we are able to provide a strong enough suggestion to convince the heavens to hit something—or someone—else instead of ourselves."

The Fire Lord gestured at Raizu to take a few more steps back, and thankfully the boy acquiesced to the concern.

Azulon took a deep breath before one hand slowly traced a line away from him, the very energy in the air sparking against his fingertips. "We use our hands since we have the most control with our own Chi through them. Knowing you, you'd probably try it with your feet. Don't."

Her little boy pouted at the clear instruction that was not open to any creative interpretations. Something he was very liberal about abusing whenever and wherever he could. A fact she has had to think more than twice about whenever she needed him to stop doing anything annoying or dangerous to himself.

"Fine, grampa." Raizu was already following the motions, thankfully without separating the energies yet.

Out of all the royal family's children, only Zuko would not have gotten away with being so casual with the Fire Lord. Though from Iroh's stories at least, her father-in-law had greatly mellowed out after the birth of Lu Ten, even if it took Azula and Raizu after that to really have the old man be the person who he was now.

The Fire Lord sighed. "But if you must, you can only do so while I am supervising you."

The little boy celebrated with a little dance, what was left unsaid was how dangerous it was to even attempt to separate the energies. Let alone with limbs other than the two most often used with any bending disciplines. Not that that mattered to her youngest. It should though. And it mattered to her other children, but Raizu was more dangerous unsupervised than he was around others.

Azulon continued the kata with sparking fingertips, forming large circles in front and behind him with his hands mirroring each other.

Ursa felt the energies tugging at her own inner fire, the air saturating with power as the Fire Lord further and further rent the space around him out of balance up. When the hairs at the back of her neck stood, that's when the Fire Lord brought his fingertips together and directed the lightning with his leading hand, the forked light leaping and roaring towards the open sky with a great flash of light.

Azulon returned to a neutral position, breathing out and steadying himself.

Ursa couldn't help but wonder what the Spirits had in store for her Raizu. He was so bright like one of those heroes in the stories of old, something sublime and beyond. And she didn't need a Fire Sage to tell her how easily he drew others around him.

The boy took to the histories and stockpiles of knowledge of the Fire Temples like a dragon to a brush fire. He devoured all he could on anything and everything the moment he learned to read. Her youngest was true to his desires, always rushing towards the next idea he set himself to. Lightning was just the next thing, but there would be countless others after this.

Azula was ambitious, always stuck to her father and learning the ways of the court. While Zuko was the only real child among her children growing up like any other child should. But she knew that her twins were exactly what Azulon wanted. Wanted to the point of stealing her away from the life she knew.

At least with his prophecy fulfilled, maybe with this at least they'd finally leave her and Zuko alone.

"The pure energies of the world do not take kindly to having their balance disturbed." Azulon called for Raizu to stand in front of him, urging the boy to take the same neutral stance. "This is why lightning is so powerful. It is the way of the world to restore balance where chaos was wrought, and our role is to simply take advantage of the aftermath."

It was fitting that such power was not truly owned by this accursed family. Just like how Sozin wrought chaos upon the world, so too did his descendants reap the benefits after the wake of destruction.

The Fire Lord took the first stance and waited for Raizu to mirror the forms.

"Do not move your Chi yet, focus first on the sensation."

Azulon repeated the kata a few times, noting the preciseness with how the child in front of her could move his body as he envisioned it. It scared her, whenever her son became like that, like she was watching something that was only in the form of a child. But her saving grace was how the boy truly loved his family—that was something she could not deny.

He wasn't like Azula's stinging cunning, or Ozai's casual cruelty. He was neither like his uncle's firmness or his grandfather's intensity. No, her Raizu was stubborn and strongly opinionated with whatever he felt was right, things she couldn't expect from other children at his tender age. Much less from a fire bender.

"It is important you do not let the energy you separated from the air to touch your own Chi. Keep the external energy outside of your body, always keeping your Chi just beneath your skin."

"Because otherwise the energy will enter through you and destroy you," Raizu said with a nod.

Azulon raised a brow. "And that's also why you shouldn't try to harness such energy internally. Our Inner Fire feeds on our Chi, but it cannot feed on the energy taken directly from the world around us."

Raizu raised his hand.

"Others have already tried and failed with fatal results. You can have access to the records for those in the restricted sections. Do not try it."

Raizu lowered his hand.

The Fire Lord massaged his temples. "If you must teach your siblings these forms, do so only in the presence of either me, your father, or your uncle."

Ursa couldn't help a small laugh. Raizu never kept anything he learned to himself, most of the time to the point of exasperation of others. Even his own mother was not safe from him sharing the subtleties and wonders of bending and metal working. The sages loved sating her Raizu's ravenous thirst for knowledge, but the other court's children couldn't stand such droll things. And it was only with Zuko's patience and Azula's competitiveness that Raizu didn't bore either one to death.

As she listened to the endless questions from the boy to the aging Fire Lord, she took comfort knowing that as long as Raizu was there, neither Zuko nor Azula would ever fall victim to Ozai's poisonous affection.