13. Jeong Jeong

Once Pakku heard that Zuko was indeed a bright child, he accepted the boy with open arms. The days in the Northern Water Tribe were therefore spent in peace.

Zuko quite liked the glistening streets of Agna Qel’a. Many of the citizens, although a tad weary of his presence, had a natural flow in their steps. Thankfully for them, he was not here to conquer.

He spent hours watching the waterbenders practice their redirection forms. Why Pakku even allowed this was because a Grand Lotus was accompanying Zuko. That alone was enough for him to trust that the two had ‘good intentions’.

One evening, as the aurora danced green and violet above the icy ramparts, Zuko stood on a balcony overlooking the sacred oasis. He practiced the movements he had observed—a slow, circular sweep of the arms, channeling an imaginary current from one hand to the other.

Iroh, wrapped in thick furs, found him there. The former General watched silently for a moment, recognizing the technique. It was the foundation of lightning redirection.

“I can see you are really dedicated to becoming stronger,” Iroh mused, stepping onto the balcony.

Zuko didn’t stop his movements. “It’s the only defense against opponents like myself.”

Iroh chuckled, shaking his head. “My nephew, you can be very dramatic when I least expect it. Mind I join you?”

“Not at all…”

After they were finished, they joined Pakku in their regular tea outings. Zuko had long past the test to determine where he stood in the rankings of the White Lotus. Yet neither Pakku nor Iroh could give him the title of Grand Lotus, for Zuko wasn’t truly a member.

“The boy is one for the ages, Iroh. I dare say I almost mistook him for being one of the Avatars in time past. Bwahaha!”

Iroh laughed a hearty sound. “Fair enough! But tell me, Pakku, who do you think my nephew will wish to see next?”

The two paused their tea drinking and pai sho game to hear Zuko out. Zuko, having not wanted to play since he was bad at the game, answered, There are two more… Jeong Jeong and king Bumi.”

Pakku and Iroh exchanged an awkward glance. A second later, they let out enough laughter to wake the next-door neighbor. How could they not be jovial? The White Lotus was a secret society, yet this child spoke of its members as if he were reading a roster.

“Jeong Jeong, I understand,” Pakku mused, “but why king Bumi also?”

“To learn,” Zuko said simply. “Jeong Jeong understands the burden of fire. And Bumi… Well, I figure he could share some of his famous rock candies while I learn how to wait better.”

The answer earned him a respectful nod from the two elders. It was clear to them that Zuko was both collecting new techniques and new philosophies.

✟

Three days later, an otter penguin arrived at the tribe. In its mouth was a scroll sealed with the White Lotus insignia. It contained coordinates to a camp hidden deep in the Earth Kingdom forests.

That was where Jeong Jeong was located.

After verifying the contents were real, both Iroh and Zuko parted from the Northern Water Tribe.

The journey south was swift. And when they reached the designated port in the Earth Kingdom, Zuko ordered the crew to remain behind.

Jeong Jeong, after all, was still a fugitive being hunted by the very nation Zuko represented. Should his crew see him with the ‘Deserter’, they would report the matter to Azulon. Discretion was therefore paramount.

Iroh and Zuko traveled inland on ostrich-horses as the landscape shifted from cliffs to forests. When they finally located the camp, hidden beneath a canopy of trees, Jeong Jeong was waiting by a campfire.

The Deserter looked wilder than the stories. His white hair was a tangled mane, and his eyes made him look haunting. ” Have you lost your mind, Iroh? Why did you bring a prince of the Fire Nation to my camp?”

“I brought a student,” Iroh calmly said as he dismounted. “One who has already rejected the path of destruction.”

Jeong Jeong scoffed and turned his back on them. “Fire will spread and destroy everything in its path if one does not have the will to control it! It is a curse. To teach a prince is to feed a monster.”

“I’ve been called worse by my sister,” Zuko said, stepping forward.

Rather than bow or beg, he simply extended his arm out and opened his palm.

Jeong Jeong turned back to watch a magnificent white flame dance across Zuko’s palms, then down his arms until it flourished throughout his whole body—all without even burning the fabric on the prince’s clothes.

Jeong Jeong was intrigued despite himself. He saw the discipline in the boy’s technique and the lack of controlled breathing. He was wrong. If this was no prince seeking power, then what was he truly after?

“Show me that again,” Jeong Jeong commanded.

“How about something else instead?”

At those words, Zuko raised his hand again and pointed at a boulder like a gun. He then focused his chi into a single point, causing a high-pitched whine to fill the camp.

Boom!

A beam of condensed, white-hot energy struck the boulder before shattering it into dust.

Jeong Jeong stared at the smoking crater with his mouth slightly agape. The explosion, while deafening, was also controlled. There was no collateral damage, nor any wildfire. Just a precise strike fast enough to blow someone’s head off without them knowing.

He had researched about techniques like this from the rumors of when Avatar Yangchen was present, but to see a royal prince wield such a volatile art in these times was most certainly unheard of.

“How…” he whispered. “That bending can kill the user.”

“Not if you’re someone like me,” Zuko countered.

The elder looked at the boy with new eyes. Only now did he begin to see the potential in Zuko. And for the first time in years, the Deserter felt a spark of hope for his country.

“I dare say that there is nothing I can teach ‘someone like you’,” Jeong Jeong said.

It sounded more like a question of curiosity than a statement.

So Zuko replied, “You can. Before you, I was learning from your former student, Zhao. His ways were too destructive. And if I wish to liberate the Fire Nation, I’ll need to understand your ways of discipline first.”

At that answer, the elder fully gave in with a smile of approval.

✟

For the next several weeks, the forest became a dojo. Iroh would often return to the ship alone in order to maintain appearances. That gave Zuko enough time to train.

Jeong Jeong taught him restraint, as well as how to visualize fire as a wall that could protect as easily as it destroyed. Zuko applied these principles to both his firebending and his combustionbending.

Under Jeong Jeong’s tutelage, Zuko’s “finger gun” technique evolved. He learned to curve the blasts and modulate their intensity. Better yet, he could also fire multiple shots in rapid succession without overheating his chakra or burning his fingers.

His favorite gain was how he could vaporize a target from fifty yards away without singeing a leaf on a nearby tree.

One evening, as they sat by the embers of a dying fire, Jeong Jeong looked at his student.

“You are dangerous, prince Zuko. More dangerous than your father or his father ever was.”

“I know,” Zuko said, poking the coals with a stick. “That’s the point.”

“But why, I wonder? Why seek such power when you have so much security at your disposal?” Then the elder secretly hoped. “Can I assume that there is a rebellion happening in the Fire Nation?”

“You know just as well as I do… Those who use firebending can become monsters. And sometimes, you need a bigger monster to stop them.”

That was a lie. The only biggest monster in this world was none other than Zuko himself.