Sailing away

As the phoenix emperor made his way through the corridors of his ship after leading Toph to her chamber, he couldn't help himself from appreciating his transportation's fine crafting and advanced design.

'Although the emperor-class battleship is one of a kind, it's another formidable vehicle that is in my arsenal. Being steam-powered, like the regular cruisers my empire inherited from the fire nation, this warship will serve appropriately.' He thought.

Taking out his cloak and noticing the clothes he used to infiltrate gaoling, Zuko thought. 'That reminds, the waste of coal in its exhaustion. Even though it serves as an excellent method of intimidation, the "black snow" it's neither cost effective nor helpful for the environment.'

Eventually he met some crewmembers moving on with their duties, while they bowed and praised his name, the young emperor continued his line of thought.

'Perhaps I should have my best scientists to find a way of capitalizing on my inextinguishable flames." Zuko stared at his hands. 'I'm sure my black fire can accomplish much more beyond aiding me in combat. Perhaps even a motum perpetuum motor if I can make it safe for others to manipulate.'

The warm temperature present all around the warship made the young emperor also consider some possible ways of making use of his white flames.

But instead of heading straight to his chamber, like he initially had intended, Zuko had now decided to take the tourist route.

After all, an emperor should be well acquainted with his underlings and possessions.

The layout below deck showed the emperor's ship had a massive cargo capacity.

Though not specialized to, the ship could perfectly function as transportation for him and his underlings. Not to mention this one was fully stocked with heavy armaments like trebuchets and harpoons ballistae. Military equipment already selected by Zuko and Mei. Land vehicles like tank trains and komodo rhinos were well kept and maintained.

Being as massive as it was, it had an appropriate alternative for sailing in shallow waters with some smaller ships ready for immediate deploy.

Above deck, the already towering structure still had multiple conning towers, where the chambers of the emperor, his guests and high-ranking officers.

Zuko smiled. 'Excellent, only thing missing would be my airships… oh, and those explosive shells.'

Having enough exploration for a day, the young emperor made way towards his chamber.

As he reached his chamber's door, he noticed the royal guards were guarding it with great zeal. As a matter of fact, Mei and Ty Lee were waiting for me alongside them.

"Mei, Ty Lee! It didn't know you were coming!" He exclaimed with open arms and a charming smile.

"Hey there Zuzu!" Ty Lee greeted him while ignoring the raised eyebrow expression Mei gave her.

"Hey, don't tell me we disappointed you." Mei said as she turned to Zuko.

"A surprise to be sure…" He approached them and hugged both girls. "But a welcome one!"

"See Mai? I told you he would love it if we came to visit him." Said Ty Lee with her wide smile.

After Mei nodded in agreement, Zuko resealed them both from his hug and asked while laughing. "Heh, I see that my guards went a little overboard in regards to my security."

Both guards were about to apologize before Zuko stopped them. "Not to worry soldiers, I'm sure you were only accomplishing your jobs. But I'm now giving you expressed orders to follow these ladies commands, so next time I expect to have these inconveniences avoided."

"Yes my emperor!" They both replied with a respectful bow.

Zuko nodded in satisfaction before turning to his guests. "So girls, shall we?"

"Yes." They replied with their respective tones.

Entering his room, the first one to speak was Ty lee. "Wow! Look at that view! I've never thought ships could be this accommodating!"

"I suppose they aren't allowed to save luxuries from the emperor." Commented Mei.

"Ha, sharp as ever." Zuko said while taking his clothes off.

Before the girls had time to comment, Zuko began speaking. "Apologies for my indiscretion, but I'm in a dire need of a bath." He moved towards the bath that had been prepared for him and entered the water.

"No problem handsome." Ty Lee said with a smug expression while Mai replied. "Sure."

"So, if you would pardon my rudeness, why have the both of you left the capital? Who's taking care of my mother?" Zuko questioned while cleaning himself properly.

"Don't worry Zuko, your mother has come as well. But she wished to speak with Azula first." Mei replied.

"Did she?" Zuko was a little surprised by the information. "Interesting. Hopefully, they won't take long to settle their differences."

"Yeah, Azula had always tried to convince us that she didn't want her mother's attention. But her aura had always been chaotic whenever the subject came to discussion." Pointed Ty Lee while she sat on Zuko's bed.

"Hey Zuko, where are your holters? Did they end up serving you on your journey?" Mei questioned while changing subjects.

"Unfortunately I still haven't had the opportunity to properly use them Mei. Nor did I have the chance to test the chi blocking you had been teaching me as well Ty Lee." Zuko said to them while pouring some water over his head with a bucked. "But my new recruit's training will certainly benefit from those skills."

"Really?" Asked Ty Lee, low lying on his bed and getting herself comfortable.

"Absolutely." Zuko stated before washing his hair. "By the way, despite not applying the technique's you've taught me, I certainly felt the effect of its physical training. In combat I can already feel myself more nimble and precise. Helps me conserve energy while still avoiding unnecessary destruction."

"As if you needed to." Joked Mei with a snicker.

'Heh, point taken." He replied.

Now finished with his bath, he walked out of the water and instead of picking the towel, had his body temperature surge to the point of quickly drying himself. He put on his casual attire and smiled at the girls.

"Ladies, I apologize again. But the travel had tired me, shall we resume our conversation after my rest?" He told them.

"Sure, let's go Ty lee." Mai responded.

"Ah, can't we stay here with you?" Ty Lee jokes.

Laying down on his bed, he replied with a smile. "I don't see why not."

"But you said you were tired." Pointed Mai.

"And I meant it." Zuko replied with a casual expression. "But I believe you two might be as well, given that the ship came with such a hurry from the capital. Please, make me company and enjoy my chamber's accommodations." He said while crossing arms behind his head over the pillow and closed his eyes.

"Okay then, but would you mind telling where are we heading?" Mai said as Ty Lee yawned and moved to lay besides Zuko while placing her head on his arm.

Without opening his eyes, Zuko said. "We are heading to Kyoshi Island."

Mei didn't know what Zuko wanted to do there, but was aware that their trip would take quite some time until reaching their destination. "Alright."

After he had both girls laying beside him and silently disputing ownership over him, Zuko let out a smile.

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Despite not being entirely honest when he stated he needed some rest, Zuko still enjoyed the comfort of his bed. Being cuddled by two beauties was only cherry on top.

And after getting tired of resting, he found out that both girls were more tired then they were showing.

But that wasn't a surprise to him.

Since he had summoned both girls to the capital after his coronation, they had been very diligent with the responsibilities he had proposed to them. Besides helping him to train, they had dedicated some time to instruct some of his best soldiers, who would later pass down to some of his elite guards.

Mei worked with his war minister to make an overhaul on my troops equipment and armaments worthy of their evolution to an empire.

Basically, she was helping him with making his "stormtroopers" improve to the same level of military competence and prowess of the "clones".

As for Ty Lee, her sensibility in regards to aura wasn't developed enough to produce practical results yet. But by giving her a theater, he had found that her artistic expression was very intertwingled with her spiritual growth.

Zuko had managed to better grasp the basics of energy bending thanks to her, and now, he could feel glimpses and faint impressions of those aura's she had always spoken about.

Chi blocking and deadly precision with projectiles were the perfect tool to make his soldiers that weren't benders as relevant as the ones that were. Even the fire benders' train was somewhat improved by those skills.

What Zuko had already noticed was his influence over other benders, but now with his better understanding and constant practice, he noticed his excessive quantities of chi were strengthening the bending of those close to him.

That was the main reason why he didn't directly order for Mai and Ty Lee to follow him on his journey, he had not noticed any type of change in them.

But regardless, he had high hopes that the same process he was exploiting by having Azula and his elite royal guards training close to him, would give fruitful results during Toph's straining.

Zuko picked one of his throwing knives from his holsters, and attempted mimicking the flow of energy he had sensed when seeing Toph metal bending.

The sharp blade began levitating, and he confirmed he had certain control over its shape and weight.

Sadly, the piece of metal began to glow and emit noticeable waves of heat, one of the side effects he wasn't still able to mitigate was the overflowing energy he had inside him. As soon as he attempted cooling it down with his opposite influx of energy, the bending stopped all together.

He had long theorized that his black and white flames were aspects of unlimited energy and the complete absence. Which explained his hard time finding a balance between both natures.

That idea still made him chuckle from time to time.

Hilarious coincidence was to have the balance between his flames that he was seeking and the avatar's balance that he was seeking to destroy using the same term.

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When he found Toph's chamber empty, Zuko had expected to find her sulking about missing her parents somewhere around the ship, but after hearing her joyful laughter coming from the training arena, that idea was immediately thrown away.

"Muwahaha!"

When he reached the entrance of the large section, he saw a four foot girl lifting massive quantities of weights with multiple soldiers completely stunned by the feat.

But all the soldiers quickly recovered from their shock and bowed for their emperor.

Though Toph still lacked the ability to move metal without touching, her sheer power was already impressive.

"Behold my awesomeness!" She announced it to Zuko.

"Very nice Toph." Zuko praised her, and after seeing her happy expression, he deduced she had been striving to impress him. "How's the seismic sense?"

"Seiskik what?" She asked, confused.

"I was referring to your earth bending sight. Have the metal floor and the tides being kind to you?" He began stretching.

"Ah, nothing that I can't handle. In a way, things here seem to move quicker. The waves movements are too chaotic, beyond this ship I can't sense a thing." Toph replied in deep thought.

"Hopefully that will help you in the long run." He smiled and began picking and wearing some training equipment reserved for the soldiers. "Speaking of running, I want you to strengthen your body as well. But since we should avoid hindering your growth, let's just work on your cardio. Run some laps around this section, I want to see how far you can go."

A little unsure at the beginning, Toph quickly made up her mind and replied. "Not a problem."

Seeing the small girl running around barefoot, Zuko remembered that earth benders had a stronger build by nature.

Air benders were swift and nimble, fire benders had stamina and strong force of will, water benders were overall very adaptive.

Which left earth benders to be physically stronger and resilient.

But that was what Zuko had noticed during his reflections.

He wondered if the bending specialization like lightning, lava and metal had any noticeable influence over the individual physique and mentality.

'Food for thought.' Zuko concluded.

After ordering the small girl to run until she got tired, Zuko waited for at least half an hour of sprinting before Toph collapsed to the ground panting.

The other soldiers had resumed their individual training, not daring to perturbe the emperor, but couldn't avoid whispering to one another about the earth bender girl.

It was somewhat expected, these people were born during a war that had started almost a century ago. The last bender they had sighted had most likely attempted to claim their lives.

Zuko had already expressed his order to revise the knowledge that has been lectured to the kids of his domain.

Although his figure as the emperor continued to be glorified and respected, he wanted to make the transition from fire nation to Blaze Empire more than a mere whim of his.

He wasn't afraid of pointing out the failures of the past, making sure to describe better and more rational options of how history could've been better.

If his dream could be described, the empire's capital would somewhat resemble Republic City.

Hopefully, he will be able to get rid of the flaws that the canonical Gaang failed to deal with.

He certainly won't hold his empire back, nor Toph will end up in a swamp this time.

Saving his thoughts for later, Zuko approached Toph. "Well, color me impressed. You managed to surpass my expectations Toph… again."

Hearing his praises, if not for the exercise, her blush would've been more easily noticed. "Thanks… ah, I'm tired. Never been much of a runner, you know." She struggled to stand up, but after Zuko lended her a hand, she asked. "Anything else?"

"Nice of you to ask." Zuko patted her on the head. "I want to test your flexibility."

That made Toph cringe a little. "Really?"

"Really." Zuko said with a calming tone.

"Alright, you are the boss." She began mimicking his movements.

Despite not being as nearly as flexible as Ty Lee, Zuko noticed he was far better at doing the basic set of movements than Toph.

Sadly, the resilience that made earth benders capable of shrugging off most attacks, worked against them during exercises like the ones they were doing.

But the police metal benders of Republic City were far from sluggish, so in theory it wasn't an impossible standard.

For now throwing stuff was out of the question, at least until Toph showed signs of being able to echolocate like a bat.

He had high hopes for his Blind Loli. She could be Spiderman with metallic cables and even daredevil with magneto powers.

The final exercise he wanted her to do was a sparring match with him.

Fortunately, asking for her to not hold back was much more effective than to ask that to one of his underlinings.

Zuko was immensely powerful in regards to bending arts, and his recent training seemed to have helped him mitigate most of his blind spots.

But he wished to avoid getting complacent.

He had ordered that a container full of sand and another full of earth was brought to them.

Their spar was a way for him to better study the complex bending maneuvers that came so naturally to Toph.

He had already read basically everything related to earth bending from the fire lord's archives, which helped him lava bend during his first match against Toph.

Interestingly, sand bending seemed to be a cross between earth and metal. Or at least, a bridge between both styles.

As a matter of fact, metal bending had some fundamental premises very akin to water bending.

But still, for now, that sand he attempted to manipulate turned into molten glass. And the earth just overheated until it became lava.

Same thing for metal.

Initially Zuko was worried that his subordinates would think that he was the Avatar, but seeing that he had their main interest in mind, even if that was the case they wouldn't oppose him.

His failure by overheating stuff was seen as an intentional sign of his will to honor their nation's now turned empire.

The match between Zuko and Toph was unfortunately shorter than they wanted.

His influence and constant alteration of the materials somewhat shielded them from Toph's influence.

"Hey hot stuff, let me play with something." Toph remarked while reaching for more metal.

"Alright, that's enough for today." Zuko stated, almost making Toph trip thanks to her momentum.

"Really? Ok then…" She dusted herself off. "... so… what now?"

Zuko smiled while taking his training gear off. "I'm sure we can figure out something."

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(09/12/2020)

*Hope this chapter is of your liking. Anything you wish to ask, feel free to do so.

Thanks as always for your attention and please be safe.

Any problems with my writing, just point them out and I will correct them as soon as possible.