Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

ABOUT 80 YEARS AGO

Avatar Aang had been walking for days. Alone, on foot, because in these times of war, it was too dangerous to ride a sky bison or fly on a glider, and it was definitely too dangerous for a group of airbenders to travel together for several days without an end goal in mind.

He could only hope that the remnants of his people were still safe, in the little hidey-hole of a town he’d left them in before setting off on his journey.

If he was lucky, this journey would be what saved them for good. But in the 20 years since the war began, he’d grown accustomed to misfortune.

Still, he continued doggedly on, because he would not, could not, give up on this last hope: saving his people from certain doom, in whatever way he could. His dreams had brought him here, and hopefully that meant something.

When he was beginning to give up hope, he came to the edge of the Earth Kingdom. He stood on the beach, alone, the grit of sand between his toes as waves lapped over them and the wind tugged at his tattered robes. Three elements as one. 

It was a shame he couldn’t manage the fourth. 

As Aang stared out over the endless blue of the ocean, a shape appeared on the horizon. At first, he thought it might be a ship, but as it got closer, he realized it was much too large for that, and it was the wrong shape, too. 

It was a lump, a mound that rose far out of the water. It looked like a small island, its top dotted with rich vegetation and trees. Except it was moving, coming closer to shore. Aang had seen a lot of things in his time, but he’d never seen an island that moved. 

As it got closer, within swimming distance, something inside Aang whispered that he should go to it, and, in a daze, his body moved forward. He plunged into the cold water of the ocean. He was very near the southernmost tip of the Earth Kingdom continent, and the water here was not ideal for most humans to swim in, but Aang was an airbender above all else, and his bending helped keep him warm as he approached the island and the island approached him. 

Before long, he found himself making his way through thick underbrush to the very top of this strange mound, where the trees and vegetation fell away, leaving a clearing whose ground was carved with a hexagonal pattern. 

Aang stepped into it hesitantly, looking around. His earthbending training was sorely lacking despite his best efforts, but even he could tell there was something wrong about the ground here. It didn’t feel like normal rock or earth beneath his bare feet. It was too smooth.

Experimentally, he tried one of the few earthbending moves he knew, attempting to lift a portion of the ground in front of him into a column. It didn’t move. “It’s not earth,” he said to himself, puzzled. 

Maybe he was in the spirit world, somehow? He’d had visions there before; he knew you couldn’t bend there. To test that theory, he tried to conjure a ball of wind in his hand—and did so easily. Frowning, he let it puff away. So not the spirit world then. Still, this island did have a similar atmosphere to the spirit world. It was eerily calm. No wind blew through the trees, no insects or animals made sounds in the brush. Like it was somehow both intrinsically connected to and yet slightly offset from the world he was used to. What was this place?

Spinning around in a slow circle, he called out, “Hello? Is anyone there? I’m the Avatar, and I think I was brought here for a reason. I need your help. Hello?”

There wasn’t a response, at least not one in words he could understand, but he thought he felt the ground rumble beneath his feet, and the leaves on the trees around the clearing began to rustle, all moving in the same direction as a sudden wind blew through. Aang figured the best thing to do would be to follow it, and so he did. 

The direction of the wind led him down through the forest again, though not back the way he had come, until he reached the very edge of the island. There wasn’t a beach, at least not on this side of the island. He was on what seemed to be a small cliff, and looking over the edge, he could see that the water was still a good dozen or so feet down from where he stood. The island seemed to reach its lowest point and then curve slightly upward at the end, like the rim of a plate… or a shell?

Could this whole island be a giant animal? It seemed impossible, but that was the only reason Aang could think of for why it was moving. 

After chewing on his lip for a moment, Aang took a deep breath and dove into the water.

As before, it was brutally cold, and even Aang was struggling to keep his teeth from chattering as he bent a little air bubble around his head and used waterbending to help propel himself forward.

Down here below the waves, he could see that it was a creature. A massive foreleg rose from the depths and nearly collided with him. At its end was a giant paw adorned with claws that were easily twice, maybe even three times as big as Aang was. He followed the trajectory of the leg, figuring that the creature’s face would be somewhere up there, and jetted himself in that direction.

Eventually, he found the face. Two gargantuan eyes opened, regarded him. Then he suddenly felt himself being pushed upward through the water, carried atop one of the creature’s giant paws.

He broke the surface, standing on the animal’s paw, and its head rose out of the water in front of him. Aang could not hope to understand what its emotions were. Looking at it, he felt overwhelmed, not only by the size, but by something much more profound. He had never seen a creature like this before in person, hadn’t known there were any still in existence, but he could tell that this wasn’t just a normal animal. This was a being as old as the world, as old as time itself, maybe even older. It was a lion turtle, something he’d heard of only in distant legends.

He bowed to it. “It is an honor to be in your presence, great lion turtle.”

He wasn’t surprised when the creature spoke, its impossibly deep voice resonating through his entire body, as if it was speaking directly into his mind. As if it wasn’t the lion turtle talking, but the soul of the planet itself. “You come to me with yet another face, but it is no less familiar, Avatar.”

“You know who I am?” Aang asked.

“Many times have we known each other, though fathomless time has passed since last we met. Why have you come?”

“I need help,” Aang said, practically begged. “My culture is dying, my people are nearly dead, and I am too weak to save them. I need a way to keep them safe, and protected from those who would wipe them from the face of the planet. I don’t know that I will live to see the end of this war, but if I can’t, I want to die knowing that the balance of the four nations doesn’t die with me.”

“You have indeed suffered a great loss, and the world would suffer a greater one if what you suggest comes to pass.” The lion turtle paused for a moment, as if considering. Its expression didn’t change in any noticeable way, so Aang could do nothing but hope it was feeling favorable. Finally, it said, “Bring them here, to me, and I shall grant them the salvation you ask. It has been millennia since I have felt the touch of human feet on my back. It shall be nice to have some companionship again. So long as they remain, they will be hidden from all who seek them.”

Aang felt his eyes welling up with tears that spilled forth as he thanked the lion turtle profusely.

His people would be safe. He didn’t yet know if the legacy of Avatar Aang would add up to anything more than that, but at least he knew that much.

And that was more than enough for now.

Chapter Text

PRESENT DAY

Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation sat on the back of a bison and looked out across an ocean very near the one where he’d started at all those months ago. Before he knew the truth of what he was.

Not long ago, Zuko would’ve looked back on that time with longing, but not anymore. After all, back then, he had stood alone, and now he was surrounded by friends. Better yet, now he had a purpose.

“Are we going back to the South Pole?” Sokka asked, leaning over the front of Appa’s saddle to look down at Aang, who was sitting in his usual seat on top of Appa’s head.

They had been flying in a straight path ever since they escaped the Fire Nation, barely stopping even to sleep. Aang was on a mission to get them to this place that he claimed would be safe, but he still refused to tell them exactly what that place was. He just kept saying he’d tell them later, that they needed to wait.

That didn’t stop them from trying to tease it out of him, though. 

“Not quite,” he said, eyes fixed on the ocean below.

“You’ve gotta tell us where we’re going at some point, Aang.”

“I will,” Aang said, “don’t worry.”

Sokka groaned and flopped back down in his usual spot next to Princess Yue. She smiled a little and patted his hand. Zuko didn’t miss the quick glance that passed between them before Sokka relaxed, and Yue pulled her hand away. 

He looked over toward Katara and raised an eyebrow, inclining his head subtly toward Yue and Sokka. She smirked back at him, but shook her head a little.

They continued on for a while longer before Aang suddenly sat up straight. “There!”

As one, they all crowded toward the front of the saddle, looking toward where Aang was pointing.

There, among the waves, was an island covered in a dense, lush forest of trees and other plant life. It was small for an island, and oval in shape—almost a perfect oval, in fact, with none of the strange offshoots or irregularities that islands normally had.

What’s more, Zuko had some knowledge of the area they were flying over, and he was pretty sure there was not usually an island here. At least, he hadn’t seen it on any maps before.

“That’s where we’re going?” Katara asked.

“Yep.” Aang’s expression was strange, like he was trying to sort through many different emotions at once. After a moment of pause, he said, “I guess I should finally say it. Welcome to my home, guys.”

Everyone stared at him until his cheeks turned bright red.

“It looks very nice,” Yue said after an awkward pause. Not knowing the weight behind that statement, she, of course, looked very confused at everyone else’s reactions.

“Your home?” Zuko asked.

Sokka said, “I thought you said you were from the Earth Kingdom.”

“I mean. We’re near the Earth Kingdom,” Aang said, clearly uncomfortable. “Let’s just go down. Everything will make more sense once we get there.”

They all looked at each other, then nodded, and Aang began to lower Appa down.

As they got closer to the island, Zuko was able to make out more of its surface. It was very dome-like in shape, and covered in vegetation, but Zuko didn’t see anything that resembled a village or houses. Nor did he see people walking through the forest anywhere.

He did, however, see several massive trees—six, at least—that dotted the island’s surface, seemingly placed at random, though all of them were closer to the top of the island, a few hundred feet away from that central clearing. They jutted out far above the canopy of the rest of the forest.

Aang brought Appa down to land at the very top of the island, where the clearing was. As they got closer, Zuko could see that it had been carved with an intricate geometric design that he didn’t know the significance of. 

As soon as they touched down, something about the place seemed…different. Zuko felt like he had stepped into another world—and yet it was also vaguely familiar, in that way that Zuko was still getting used to. He had not been here before—but the Avatar had. He could feel it.

Everyone else was picking up on the strangeness of this place, too, because they were looking around uncertainly as they climbed down from Appa’s back. Everyone except Aang. He seemed nervous as well, but not because of the surroundings. Something else was bothering him that Zuko couldn’t identify.

While the others got down, Aang walked over to Appa’s head and began whispering to him and running his fingers through Appa’s fur. After a moment of this, he motioned to the rest of the group to follow and started down a path in the direction of one of the massive trees Zuko had seen from above. He didn’t tell Appa to stay behind, and Appa seemed unwilling to leave Aang’s side. They walked next to each other, Aang’s hand still buried in the fur on the side of Appa’s head. Evidently, the path was designed to more or less accommodate the width of a sky bison, but it was still tight enough that they were all forced to walk single-file next to Appa, with Aang at the front.

The forest around them was eerily quiet aside from the sounds of their own footsteps. It seemed impossibly dense, with bushes and trees and other plants filling nearly every inch of available space to their left and right, like a wall of vegetation. It was even encroaching on the path a little, tree roots and vines stretching across in places and providing easy ways to trip if you didn’t step carefully. 

After a few minutes of walking, they came to a place where the plants were more spaced out. And then they pushed their way into a little clearing.

Or, it would be a clearing, if not for the massive tree that stood at its center.

Zuko had seen these trees from the sky, of course, but here, standing at its base looking up, it seemed far larger than it had from the air. It stretched high in the sky, much taller and wider than any other tree around it.

“Wow,” Katara breathed from behind him as she stepped into the clearing. “It’s beautiful.”

Aang didn’t seem as impressed as the rest of them were—but then, he had said he’d grown up here. Zuko supposed a sight like this was common for him. He walked right up to the tree trunk, then paused and turned around to look at the rest of them.

“You guys wait here. I’ll go introduce us.”

“Do you need anyone to come with you?” Katara asked, at the same time that Sokka said, “To who? The tree?”

Aang smiled a little and shook his head. “This isn’t just a tree, Sokka. I thought you knew a thing or two about camouflage.” He ran his hand along the tree’s trunk, apparently feeling for something. After a moment, he stopped, his hand landing on one of many small round knots that decorated the side of the trunk. It looked identical to all the others, but when Aang wrapped his hand around it and turned, it rotated, and when he pulled, a roughly rectangular portion of the tree opened outward—a door that had been so perfectly carved out of the tree trunk that Zuko hadn’t noticed the seams.

“Okay,” Sokka said. “That’s cool.”

Aang considered for a second before his eyes landed on Zuko. “Actually, you’re right, Katara. Zuko, you should probably come with me.”

Zuko stepped back. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I’m pretty clearly Fire Nation.”

“You’re the Avatar,” Aang said, as if that was enough—and Zuko supposed it was. 

“Okay,” he said, with a little shrug.

Katara seemed less confident in that idea. She glanced between the two of them, concerned. 

“Don’t worry,” Aang said to her. “Like I said, this is my home. We’ll be fine.”

“You’re the only one who has any idea what’s going on, Aang,” Zuko reminded him. “You can’t blame us for being a little nervous.”

Aang bit his lip and looked away. “Yeah, I know. Come on.”

He patted Appa’s head one last time and then stepped into the doorway. Zuko followed.

If Zuko thought arriving on the island had been like stepping into another world, this put that to shame. The inside of the tree had been completely hollowed out and replaced with a village that consisted of platforms and ramps and staircases and ladders and bridges, criss-crossing their way up through the tree trunk as far as Zuko could see. Spiraling up around the edges of cavernous space, apparently carved from the original tree, were several small huts that sat on wooden platforms, connected to each other by this lattice of bridges.

Dappled light shone from little holes and windows carved into the sides that Zuko hadn’t been able to see from the outside. And the light was augmented by lanterns that hung around the space, so instead of being dark and dreary like you’d expect the inside of a tree to be, the whole place was almost as bright as the day outside.

And here were the people. No one seemed to be in the entrance, but Zuko saw at least a dozen people of varying ages walking around on the bridges above them. Their skin and hair color matched Aang’s, though of course they were too far away to see eye color. Most were dressed in nondescript clothing that could belong to any nation, but he also saw a few people wearing splashes of the traditional Air Nomad red and yellow. As far as he could tell, though, no one seemed to be doing any bending, and he saw no bald heads or tattoos anywhere.

Then again, Aang himself wasn’t bald and didn’t have prominent tattoos, so he supposed he shouldn’t have expected these people to.

Aang waved at Zuko to stay down here, then, forgoing the nearby ladder entirely, hopped up to the nearest platform with his airbending.

The people on the bridges all froze and spun toward the sound.

“Don’t worry, everyone, it’s just me.” Aang grinned.

And as if he’d rung the dinner bell, suddenly the place burst into action. Doors opened and people poked their heads out. Gasps and laughs rang out—Zuko heard Aang’s name whispered and shouted by several different voices—as members of the village ran toward Aang.

It seemed that Aang really wasn’t alone.

There weren’t many, but it was an impressive amount of people considering this was the inside of a tree, albeit a very large one. Zuko didn’t know if there were still some inside the houses, or perhaps some that were out in the forest somewhere, but right now, he saw two dozen people or so, about a third of which looked to be children, some of whom were about Aang’s age, some much younger.

Aang was quickly mobbed. There was a lot of chatter that overlapped, so Zuko couldn’t really make out what anyone was saying.

But then a voice echoed through the chamber, “Is that really you, Aang?”

The whole mob stopped, the chamber fell silent, and everyone looked up through the lattice of bridges. At the very top of the tall chamber, the door to the biggest hut had opened, and on the platform in front of it stood an old woman. 

Behind her, two younger adults, a man and a woman, who seemed to be in their mid to late thirties stepped out as well. Based on both Aang’s reaction to seeing them and the resemblance they bore to him, Zuko guessed they were his parents.

Clearly, the older woman was the village leader. People waited quietly as she made her way down the criss-crossing bridges and ramps, until she was standing in front of Aang. The younger couple trailed behind a few feet, holding hands tightly.

She had the gray eyes that indicated Air Nomad ancestry, and she was dressed in faded red and yellow robes. Though she also bore no tattoos, her robes were tied and wrapped in a more traditional style than anyone else’s. Her gray hair hung in two long braids that stretched nearly to her toes, and she was covered in wrinkles, but she still stood tall and regarded Aang with a steely gaze.

Aang peeled his eyes away from his parents and bowed to the older woman. “Elder Jaya,” he said, and then suddenly it seemed like he couldn’t stop the words from flowing out of him. “I’m so sorry that I left without permission. I’m sure you’ve been very upset with me, and it’s understandable if you don’t want to see me, but I need—”

“Aang, calm down.” As he spoke, keeping his head bowed and his eyes directed at the ground, she had started smiling, and when she said that, he finally cut himself off and looked up. She had crossed the distance, and now grabbed him in a hug. He looked so surprised that Zuko had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, but he hugged her back after a second.

“We were so worried about you,” she said, her voice muffled from being buried in the fabric of his top. She pulled away slightly, holding him at arms length and looking him up and down. “But now you’re home, where you belong.” She looked at the gathered crowd, peeking out from the houses and standing around, staring, and waved her arms to invite them in. “Please, let’s welcome Aang home!”

A cheer rose up, and the group began to crowd around again, smiling and laughing and talking. Now that they were lower down, Zuko could clearly see that yes, they all seemed to be of Air Nomad origin, and their clothes weren’t as nondescript as he had originally thought. Most of the outfits incorporated some variation of the Air Nomad yellow and red in one way or another, whether it was an accessory like a sash or a belt over top of otherwise plain clothing or a more traditional ensemble. Their ages ranged from toddlers all the way up to the mid-80s like Elder Jaya, though she did seem to be the oldest, at least based on the deference everyone gave her.

Before they could suffocate him, Aang threw up his hands and said, “Wait! Before we do this—there’s, uh…something else I need to tell you. I didn’t come home just because. I brought some…people…with me.”

The jovial atmosphere instantly died, and the entire group took a step back from Aang in unison.

“You did what?” the younger woman behind Jaya asked. It seemed like she was the elderly woman’s daughter. She had the same steely look in her eye that the older woman had a moment ago—the same one that she had adopted again now.

“I did it for a good reason!” Aang said, taking a step back, in the direction of Zuko, and he glanced over and caught Zuko’s eye, still partially hidden in the shadows near the entrance. “Zuko, could you come out, please?”

Everyone now turned to look in Zuko’s direction—and saw him, of course. He wasn’t trying very hard to hide, and they probably would have noticed him before if they hadn’t been distracted by Aang’s sudden appearance. 

Nervously, Zuko stepped into the light and gave an awkward wave, then walked over to stand under the platform where the group stood. “Uh, hi. I’m Zuko.” Then he shook himself, remembering his manners, and bowed respectfully. “It’s an honor to finally meet Aang’s family.”

When he straightened again, the woman studied him, and Zuko felt like her eyes were knives cutting him into ribbons. She took in the nondescript but ragged clothing, the messy black hair, the scar that covered half his face—and he saw her eyes widen and then narrow when she finally looked into his eyes and noted their color. Golden. Fire Nation golden. Everything else—the skin tone, the hair color—could possibly have belonged to another nation, but his eyes were a dead giveaway.

“My dear, sweet grandson,” she said coldly, looking at Aang. “Could you possibly explain why you have brought someone from the Fire Nation into our midst?”

Another round of gasps, another step back in unison. This time, someone even shrieked.

“Zuko?” Aang prompted.

Zuko nodded. He met the elder’s gaze. “I know my appearance is probably…off-putting to many of you, and I apologize for that, but I bring no ill will. I am the Avatar, and Aang has been traveling with me as my airbending master.”

To prove it, he gathered the air around him and used it to hop up to the platform the way Aang had done earlier. There were some more gasps. Once he had landed, he bowed again, but glanced over at Aang questioningly. 

“We’ve got some other friends with us, too,” Aang said. 

“The Avatar,” the elder said. “And why come here, specifically?”

“Well…” Zuko and Aang looked at each other for a moment. Then Aang launched into the story, explaining how they had been making their way to the Northern Water Tribe to find Zuko a waterbending master, but then when they got there they got captured by the Fire Nation.

“They kept us locked up on a ship for a really long time,” Aang said, “but we came up with a plan, and when we got to the Fire Nation, we escaped. I knew we needed somewhere safe to hide out for a while, so I brought us here. It’s the only place where I know no one will be able to find us.”

Silence followed after that. It stretched for several excruciating seconds before the elder finally sighed. She glanced back at the man and woman who Zuko thought were probably Aang’s parents and shook her head with an expression that was a mixture of annoyance and affection. “Aang…what are we going to do with you?”

“Does that mean we can stay?” he asked. 

She nodded, though there was clear reluctance in her expression. “For now.”

“Yes!” Aang pumped his fist and jumped into the air on one of his airbending-augmented hops. He spun toward Zuko with a grin. “This is great! You guys get to meet all my friends and family, and we’ll be safe here for a while.”

“Uh, yeah,” Zuko said. “I’ll go get our friends, and then maybe you can actually explain what exactly this place is, and what’s going on? I thought you said…” He shook his head. “I’ll be back.”

Some of the people were looking confusedly between Zuko and Aang. Zuko left Aang there and made his way back to the rest of the group. As he left, he saw the elder and Aang’s potential parents approach Aang and begin asking him questions.

“How’d it go?” Sokka asked when he appeared at the doorway. “Where’s Aang?”

“Everything’s fine, I think,” Zuko said. “I guess this is…Aang’s family, or something? They look like Air Nomads. I don’t know, he still hasn’t really explained anything, but we can all go out and meet them now.”

As soon as he said that, Appa took off, heading up toward the highest branches of the tree like he knew exactly what he was doing. After a moment, he disappeared into the tree’s leaves.

Katara frowned. She was worrying at her necklace the way she did when she was uneasy. “Aang told us he was the only airbender left. He wouldn’t have lied about that, would he?”

“Maybe they’re not benders,” Sokka suggested with a shrug. “Only way to find out is to go meet them.” And with that, he stepped through the doorway, with Yue close behind.

Zuko looked at Katara. “I don’t think he was lying. That doesn’t seem like him.”

“No,” she agreed. “It doesn’t. You’re right.”

They headed into the village together.

Chapter Text

Aang was freaking out. As soon as Zuko left to go get the others, he smiled awkwardly at the group of people around him. People whom he had grown up knowing, but who seemed almost like strangers now. 

“Perhaps we should have a talk,” Jaya said, gesturing to herself—and to his parents, who Aang still hadn’t managed to look directly in the eye.

“My friends aren’t far away,” Aang said uncomfortably. “It won’t take them long to get here.”

Jaya frowned. “Later, then.”

Aang stepped a little away and looked in the direction that Zuko had gone—which is why he didn’t notice that his parents had come over to him until it was too late. 

“Aang.” His mother Ceba’s voice was as stern as ever, and he turned around slowly to face her, tucking his head a little in expectation of a reprimand. 

But instead, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. “We were so worried about you.” 

His father Gaden stood a few paces back. “We woke up,” he said, “and you were just gone. No note, nothing. Why?”

“I had to go,” Aang said, pulling back from Ceba’s embrace. Her eyes, gray like his, were filled with tears. “And I knew you wouldn’t let me leave if I told you, so I didn’t.”

He could tell that his parents wanted to say more, but at that moment, Aang’s friends started to appear, led by Sokka, with Princess Yue following. A few seconds later, Katara and Zuko appeared as well. All of them looked momentarily stunned by the sight of the village built inside the tree. 

“I’ll explain more later,” Aang said. “Let me introduce you to my friends.”

He led his parents over to the others, who were all looking around, very confused. 

He was already starting to get a headache, thinking about how twisted all of this had become. His friends knew nothing, and his family knew nothing, and now he was going to have to explain himself a thousand times in a thousand different ways.

If you had just been honest from the beginning, he thought, you wouldn’t be in this situation. 

“Aang!” Sokka said. “Glad the forest didn’t eat you.”

Aang smiled a little. He waited until Katara and Zuko had joined them, and then said, “Guys, let me introduce you to my parents, Ceba and Gaden. Ceba and Gaden, these are my friends.”

There was a quick exchange of names and pleasantries. Then Aang took them around, introducing everyone to his grandmother, and to all of his old friends that he’d grown up with. 

As he did, he could tell there was a weird tension in the air, where both his new friends and his family had about a thousand questions that they wanted to ask, but they were holding it back until they could ask them in a more private way. 

The last thing Aang wanted to do was actually answer any of those questions, but eventually, he had finished introducing everyone, and could put it off no longer.

Not that he didn’t try. He started to head toward the door, saying, “There are some really cool spots on the island that you guys should see. Come on!” And he reached for the door handle, but Katara grabbed his arm.

“Maybe we should talk about what we’re doing first?” she asked.

“And maybe you could explain some things?” Sokka suggested. “There’s a lot about this whole situation that’s not adding up, Aang.”

“I think we could use some explanations, too,” his mother, who had not left his side the whole time, said as well.

Aang sighed. “Fine.”

And so they all made their way up the lattice of bridges and platforms to the very top. There sat the house where Aang had lived for most of his life.

He didn’t have time to reminisce though, because they weren’t going into the house. They instead went past it and climbed a ladder that led up and out of the tree.

Here, they were near the top of the tree, with branches and leaves spreading out in all directions and forming a cocoon around them. But they were outside. The light was brighter here, filtering through the leaves and coloring the floor and everyone’s faces with greenish light. Thick branches obscured most of the view of the forest around them, but if you walked to the edge and looked down, you could see all the way down to the ground. And if you climbed up higher, you could eventually reach the very top, and from there you could see for miles.

Aang knew that because he would often come up here when he wanted to escape. The village used this space for many purposes—town meetings, parties, the like, but mostly it was reserved for the elder and her family. It was also where they’d kept Appa most of the time, which is why Aang wasn’t surprised to see him waiting there. He rushed over to Jaya, Gaden, and Ceba and began nuzzling them affectionately. Aang smiled despite himself as his family laughed and pet him.

“I’ve missed you too, Appa,” Jaya said.

Meanwhile, his friends were distracted looking around the space. Of course, Sokka was the one who brought them back to business. He gathered them around a table near the trap door.

“First things first,” he said, “what the heck is this place? Who are all these people? I thought you said you were the only airbender left?”

“I am,” Aang said, at the same time that Jaya said, “That is true.”

Ceba frowned at him. “Aang, did you really not explain anything to your friends before bringing them here?”

Aang threw up his hands. “I thought that’s what you would’ve wanted me to do. You spent my whole life telling me I needed to keep this place a secret.”

“Yes, but to bring them here with no explanation…” She shook her head, then looked at Jaya. “Perhaps you should explain.”

Jaya nodded. She took a place next to Aang and placed her hands on his shoulders. 

“A hundred years ago,” she began, looking out over the rest of the group, “the Fire Nation set this war into motion when they attacked the Air Nomad temples, wiping out most of the people who lived there. They did this intentionally, of course, knowing that the next Avatar would be an Air Nomad, and that he would still be young when they attacked. Too young, they thought, to stand a chance against them.

“In that, they were mostly correct. Avatar Aang was twelve years old when the attack came, and had only recently learned that he was the Avatar. He knew nothing of water, earth, or fire, but he was an exceptionally talented airbender, having already become a full-fledged master and earned his tattoos, the youngest to ever achieve such a feat. Thanks to this prowess, and the sacrifice of his mentor and master, Gyatso, he was able to escape the attack with a few other Air Nomads and run away to hide in the Earth Kingdom.

“However, in doing so, he also revealed his identity to the Fire Nation, and for the next two decades, they hunted him and the remaining Air Nomads, mercilessly. He tried to train in the elements so he could put an end to the war, but every teacher who took him on was killed a short time later, until it became impossible to find a master who was willing to teach him, or to gain access to any scrolls and attempt teaching himself. He was a talented bender, but even he could not become a master without guidance, so his training stagnated, half-finished.

“Meanwhile, we—the remaining Air Nomads, that is—were dying off. Airbending is a very spiritual practice, you see. In order to use it to its fullest potential, an airbender must be free in mind, body, and spirit. In the old days, every Air Nomad was born with bending, but as refugees of war, actively pursued by the Fire Nation, we were forced to hide in the shadows and let go of many of our traditions just to stay alive and keep our people from withering to nothing. As such, our connection to the element of freedom frayed until it snapped. Aside from the Avatar himself, those who once knew how to bend slowly lost the ability, and the next generation of children were all born as nonbenders. Even I, Avatar Aang’s own daughter, could not call the air to my will.”

“You’re his daughter?” Katara asked, eyes wide.

Jaya nodded, giving a little smile. “Yes, child.” 

“So what happened, then?” Sokka asked. “Clearly you guys aren’t dead.”

“No.” Jaya sighed heavily, closing her eyes. “It was many years ago; I was very young at the time, so I did not fully understand how dire the situation was. I had never known a life before the running, after all. It was just the way things were. But I remember that Avatar Aang was desperate to save us in any way he could, so he brought us to a secluded spot in the Earth Kingdom and told us to hide there until he returned. There were precious few of us left. Me, my mother, a dozen or so others. He left us there and set out on a journey.

“He was gone for a long time—days, weeks, it’s hard to recall—but eventually, he returned, and I can vividly remember the way he smiled, and picked me up, and swung me around. He had found a place where we would be safe, a place where we could hide until the war was over, and no one would find us. He brought us to the southern tip of the Earth Kingdom, and there was an island, not far from the shore. This island.”

“How did he know?” Sokka demanded. “It’s just an island. Why hasn’t anyone found you here?”

“Ah.” She smiled. “You see, that’s just it. It’s not just an island, young man.”

“Then what is it?”

“Perhaps you have heard legends of creatures as big as mountains, who once roamed this land and sometimes allowed humans to live on their backs.”

Aang wasn’t sure that they had. Sokka looked confused. So did Katara. Yue seemed confused, too.

Zuko, though, frowned for a moment, as if her words had shaken dust off a book high up on a shelf in his mind, then his eyes widened. “Lion turtles? You can’t be serious. This place is a lion turtle?”

Now that the words had been said, it seemed that the others had some vague recognition of the term, as well. 

“Wow.” Katara stared at the ground as if it were suddenly made of diamonds. “That’s…amazing.”

“It is,” Jaya said. “The lion turtle agreed to let us live here until it is safe to leave, and so this is where we have been ever since.”

“But none of you can airbend, still, even though no one’s after you anymore?” Katara asked. 

“Well, we’re still limited,” Aang said. “Nobody has left this place since we first settled here eighty years ago—well, besides me, I guess.” He rubbed his right arm nervously and pointedly didn’t look in his family’s direction. “And we lost a lot in the years when we were refugees. Like I told you guys before, everything I know about Air Nomad culture or airbending, I either learned from the few surviving scrolls we have, or I had to make it up. Everyone who remembers what it was like before the war has all been dead for a long time. Even Jaya wasn’t born until after the war started, and Avatar Aang died not long after he found us this place, so he couldn’t pass much on. For a while, everyone thought that maybe our people’s connection to the air had been permanently severed—until I came along.”

“That’s why we named him Aang,” Ceba said with a smile, reaching out and ruffling his hair, “when we found out he was an airbender. For his great-grandfather, the last air Avatar.”

Aang felt his cheeks getting hot. “Yeah.”

No one seemed to know what to say then. Or maybe they had too many things to say. That was probably more likely. They kept looking around at the others, then at Aang, like they were trying to decide who was going to start next.

“Okay,” Sokka said finally, “now that we’ve got that all established, we should probably figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Well, for now,” Zuko said, “I guess we’re staying here and laying low for a while. As long as that’s okay with you, Elder Jaya?”

Jaya’s expression was impassive. “Our doors are open to the Avatar and his companions.” As soon as Zuko had nodded and looked away to continue the conversation, though, she shot a glance toward Aang that clearly meant she wanted to talk with him later. Alone. He bit back a groan.

“We’ll leave you to your planning,” Jaya said, then waved for Ceba and Gaden to follow her out.

When the door had closed behind them, Sokka continued the conversation as if there hadn’t been a pause. He turned toward Zuko. “Sure we can lay low for a while, but we need to figure out what we’re doing after that. We’ve been out of commission for who knows how long at this point, and we have no idea what’s going on with the war. Plus, you and Katara still need to find a waterbending master, and the only place in the world where we could find one is probably occupied by the Fire Nation by now.”

“About that,” Princess Yue said, and everyone did a double take. Aang had forgotten she was here, she was being so quiet. She seemed to be struggling with something internally, but finally she nodded to herself and, meeting Zuko’s eyes, continued speaking: “You don’t need to worry about finding a waterbending master. I am willing to fill that role, if you will accept me.”

Chapter Text

The room fell silent.

Then Sokka said, “Wait, you’re a waterbender? Geez, does everyone here have secrets?” He turned to his sister. “You’re not secretly an earthbender, are you, Katara?”

“I think you’d know if I was,” Katara said with a smile.

Yue laughed a little and placed her hand on Sokka’s for just a moment before pulling away. “Yes, I am. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but there were reasons, I promise.”

“Well, tell us the reasons,” Aang said. He leaned on his elbows on the table, glad that he wasn’t the one in the spotlight for once during this conversation. “You might as well, at this point.”

Yue looked down for a moment, as if collecting her thoughts. “It’s…complicated.” She looked at Sokka. “I don’t know how it is in the Southern Water Tribe, but in our tribe, it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending.”

“Wait, what, really?” Katara asked. Yue nodded.

“So I wouldn’t have been able to get a master, even after I crossed the entire world to find one?” 

“Perhaps.” Yue shrugged. “I was not in charge of making those decisions.”

Katara slumped down in her chair, her expression twisted with annoyance.

“Anyway,” Yue said, “normally, princesses and other female nobility of the Northern Water Tribe are also subject to this rule. I would have been required to learn to heal like the other women of my tribe, and not to fight. But there were some… circumstances that gave my father pause in my case.”

“Like what?” Katara asked, still looking sullen.

Yue twined her fingers together, her expression carefully serene, but she didn’t seem to be able to meet any of their eyes directly. “When I was born, I was not born as most babies are. I didn’t cry, and my eyes were closed like I was sleeping. My parents took me to the healers, and they said they could do nothing for me, that I was going to die.

“But in our tribe, there is a secret, sacred place where the icy cold climate of our home doesn’t reach, and in this place there is a pond whose waters are imbued with the power of the moon and ocean spirits. My parents took me and placed me in the pond, begging the spirits to save me. My hair turned from brown to white, and I began to cry. In that moment, they knew I would live.

“A few years later, when we discovered I was a bender, my father was conflicted. My very life was a gift from the spirits, and he thought it significant that they had blessed me with bending as well. He worried about angering the spirits by preventing me from learning, and so he allowed me to be taught all the ways of waterbending, in secret. Now, it is clear to me why this happened: I was meant to be the Avatar’s waterbending master.”

There was another stretch of silence, and then Zuko said, “Well… I’m happy to have you as my master, Yue.” He bowed to her, then glanced at Katara, who was still sulking. He opened his mouth to say something, then bit his lip and looked away. 

Aang thought he could pick up on what he was thinking about. “You’re going to teach Katara, too, right?” 

“Of course she is!” Sokka said. “We’re not in the Northern Water Tribe anymore, right? The rules don’t apply.”

“I, ah…” Yue looked suddenly uncomfortable. “I…suppose, yes.”

“Really?” Katara stood up from her seat, clasping her hands together. Her eyes were shining. 

Yue smiled slightly. “We can start right now, if you’d like. I know you two came a long way to find a master, and you’ve had to wait a long time.”

“That would be great!” Katara said. Zuko, who was standing on the other side of Sokka from Katara, looked less enthused, but he smiled in a soft kind of way as he looked at her. 

“Aang,” Katara said, and Aang jumped, looking back at her as she turned toward him. “Do you know of somewhere we can practice? A place with lots of water?”

“Well, we’re on an island,” Sokka said. “Maybe just go down to the beach?”

“I mean… there aren’t really beaches, per se,” Aang said. “And besides, the island kind of moves, so trying to bend the water around it probably isn’t ideal. But there are some little ponds and streams you could probably use. I wouldn’t say it’s a lot of water, but it’s the best we’ve got.”

Katara looked at Yue, then at Zuko.

“It’ll have to do,” Yue said. “Lead the way.”

Zuko had hoped it would just be him, Katara, and Yue at the lesson, but of course, Aang had to lead them, and Sokka decided to tag along, too, so it turned out that everyone was there.

Aang had been right; the place he took them wasn’t especially impressive. It was a large-ish clearing in the trees containing a roughly circular, 10-foot-diameter pond that fed into a small stream which worked its way through the forest that had grown on the lion turtle’s back. 

The lion turtle. Zuko was still trying to wrap his head around that particular revelation. He had no idea why any of them had thought it would be a good idea to do this lesson right now. There was no way he would be able to focus after the series of revelations they’d just had.

Not to mention the fact that he was still worrying about his uncle and wondering what Azula and his father would do to him now that Zuko had escaped. How could he have left him? What were they going to do now that the whole world knew who he was?

And yet here they were. Aang stopped next to the pond and said, “Hopefully this is good enough?”

Princess Yue surveyed the area with a slight frown, but nodded. “It’ll be fine.”

“Great,” Aang said. “I should probably head back to the village. Lots of reunions to handle, you know. Do you think you guys will be able to make it back on your own?”

“We’ll be fine,” Zuko said, quickly, grateful that at least one person wouldn’t be around to see what a miserable disaster this was about to be.

Aang nodded and disappeared into the trees, heading back the way they’d come. Sokka, meanwhile, had leaned against a tree with his arms crossed and was ostensibly surveying the clearing. 

“So, how does all this work?” he asked. 

“You’ll see,” Yue said, with a quick smile back toward him. 

“Why are you here, Sokka?” Katara demanded. “You’re going to be a distraction.”

“I’m just watching!” Sokka said, raising his hands defensively. “I’ll be quiet, I promise.”

“Hm.” Katara frowned at him, but then shook her head and turned toward Yue. Zuko did, too—but he noticed that Sokka was definitely paying more attention to Yue than to either of them.

“First,” Yue said, “I want to assess how much you already know. You’ve both done some training on your own before this, correct?”

Zuko bit his lip. “Katara has. I’ve been focusing mostly on air.”

Yue nodded. Then she turned her attention to Katara. “Okay, Katara. Show me what you know.”

Katara frowned. She turned toward the little pond and raised her hands, then looked back at Yue. “I—uh, what do you want to see?”

Yue tapped her chin for a second, considering. “First, I guess show me what the most powerful move you know is. That’ll be a good baseline to start with.”

“Okay.” Katara stared at the pond. She raised her hands in front of her, and Zuko noticed that they were shaking. “Okay.”

Then she just stood there, staring at the water with eyes wide, while the silence sat around them. 

“Katara?” Sokka said. “You okay?”

“I’m fine!” Katara snapped. Then she returned to staring at the pond for several more seconds. 

Zuko stepped up next to her hesitantly and put a hand on her arm. She yanked away and glared toward him, clearly ready with some kind of reprimand, but when she saw it was him, she paused. 

“Hey,” he said quietly, meeting her gaze. “You’ve got this.”

Then he stepped back, but there was a change in her demeanor at the words. She stood up a little taller and took a step closer to the pond, her stance becoming stronger and more intentional. She raised her hands high above her, and the entire pond erupted into a giant wave of water that stretched higher than the tree tops, but did not crash down. She held it there, trembling, for several seconds, before letting it gently come back down into the pond. 

“That’s good,” Yue said after a moment. “You’ve managed to give yourself a pretty good headstart with just your own intuition, it seems. I’m impressed.”

Katara beamed. 

Yue ran her through a few more tests, having her try out a few basic stances and techniques to get a feel for her skill level. Most of them, Katara seemed to do pretty well with, and as the lesson went on, her confidence level seemed to grow, too. Her motions were more sure, and her steps more precise. 

Then Yue’s piercing blue eyes turned on Zuko, and his stomach immediately twisted into knots. 

“You’ve done no waterbending at all, you say?” she asked. 

“Um… no. Princess.” Unless you counted bending in the Avatar State, which Zuko didn’t.

Yue nodded. “Then let’s start with the basics. Katara, maybe you could help me out here?”

Without hesitation, Katara stepped forward. 

Yue positioned herself on the bank of the pond and began rocking her body back and forth in a rhythmic motion while her hands followed the same motion, flowing forward and backward in an easy movement. The water reacted in turn, forming little waves that moved up and over Yue’s toes, then back into the pond. 

As she moved, she talked. “This is the most basic of waterbending techniques, and it teaches the principal that informs everything else in waterbending. Our ancestors saw how the moon pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves. This is where it all started.”

Katara started doing the motion, too, and the waves got a little bigger, coming out onto land further and then receding more than before. 

Zuko watched them for a second, trying to analyze their movements and memorize them. Yue locked eyes with him and tilted her head toward the water, indicating that he should join them. 

He walked to the other side of Katara from Yue and began to copy their movements. He stared at the pond, trying to reach within himself and feel the same connection to the water that he first felt to fire and then air. But nothing reached back. He was just rocking back and forth for no reason. 

“Do you feel it?” Yue asked. “The push and pull of the water, the flow?”

“No,” Zuko said. He stopped doing the motion. “I don’t think I’m doing anything.”

“Here.” Yue stopped too, and Katara did as well. “Let’s see. Try doing it by yourself. Focus on the feeling of the flow.”

That sounded like a lot of philosophical nonsense to Zuko, but he sighed and fell back into the same stance as before and began rocking back and forth.

Saying that he needed to feel the flow was not helpful without context. After all, all of the elements he had learned so far were about feeling the flow in one way or another. When he firebent, he used the flow of energy inside his own body to create fire. When he airbent, he let go of control and let himself get lost in the flow of the air around him (as much as he could, anyway—he’d made some great strides but he would never be Aang).

But waterbending—it involved manipulating something you weren’t even touching. Something you couldn’t necessarily feel physically unless you did all your bending while swimming.

The pond wasn’t moving. At first, Zuko thought maybe it was, but it was just the ripples left over from Katara and Yue. Once those dissipated, the pond was still again, and though Zuko continued rocking back and forth and moving his hands in the way Katara and Yue had, all it did was make him look like an idiot. He didn’t feel anything. Well, he did. But it wasn’t “the flow.” It was an old, familiar frustration rising up inside him.

“You can stop,” Yue said, and though Zuko didn’t look in her direction, he could hear the frown in her voice.

Gratefully, he stopped.

“It didn’t work,” he said flatly.

“No,” Yue agreed. “Let’s give it a rest for now, and head back to the village. I think I’m going to need to approach your training from a different angle.”

“Fine.” Zuko turned and walked into the woods, back the way they’d come. He could feel the anger burbling up inside him, and though he tried desperately not to show it, it leaked through a little in his voice.

The others didn’t seem to immediately follow him. But after he had walked alone for a few seconds, he heard Katara’s voice behind him. “Zuko?”

He stopped and turned. “What?”

She looked at him for a moment, then said, “You don’t need to be frustrated, you know. It’s only your first lesson. It took me forever to learn how to do anything with water.”
“When you were what, three, four?”

“Well…” Katara frowned. “Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“Then what is?”

“The place where I grew up, the culture I was raised in… our whole lives revolve around water. We build our homes out of ice, we pull our food from the sea. My connection to water was a part of me from the moment I was born. Yours still needs to be built. And I imagine it’ll be even harder for you because you’re a firebender at heart, and water is your natural opposite. But if you keep an open mind, I’m sure it’ll work out.”

Zuko grunted. “Sure.” He turned around and began walking again.

He’d expected Katara to stay behind, but instead, she jogged a little and fell into step next to him. She said nothing, and neither did he. They simply walked in silence as they made their way back to the village.

Chapter Text

Aang thought about not going back home right away. But he grew up here, and he knew that you couldn’t really hide on this island. He had the place memorized, sure, but so did everyone else.

So instead, after leaving Zuko and Katara at their lesson, he reluctantly made his way back to the village. Of course, his grandmother and parents were right there, waiting for him at the entrance to the tree.

“We need to talk,” Jaya said.

Aang’s shoulders slumped. “Haven’t we done enough talking already?”

Ceba stepped around Jaya and held her arms out to him. Without hesitation, he stepped into them, and he instantly felt better as that familiar warmth of her embrace enclosed him.

She had hugged him when he had first arrived, but this was the first time he really registered how long it had been since he’d had a hug like this.

“Aang, you’re not in trouble. We were out of our mind with worry. After what happened…we thought you had left for good.”

She held him for a while, and Gaden and Jaya joined in too, until finally they all pulled away.

“We just want to know what happened,” Jaya said.

Aang sighed. He glanced up through the lattice of pathways and saw some other villagers staring in their direction. He gave them a little wave and a smile, but then looked at his family. “I would prefer to talk about it in a private place.”

They nodded. The four of them climbed back up and into Aang’s childhood home at the very top of the hollowed out trunk.

They’d passed by so quickly before that he hadn’t be able to register that he was home. But now, as he walked in, his breath caught a little in his throat.

The house was the biggest one in the town, but it was still pretty small. It was carved directly from the wood of the giant tree, like most of the other houses in their hidden hamlet, and sat on a platform at the highest point in the town. One bridge connected the house to the rest of the pathways, and looking down from the platform, you could see all the way down to the very base of the tree.

Inside, it was cozy, if a little cramped for the four people who had lived here since Aang was born. It was essentially one room, split into two halves by a curtain of woven leaves and vines. The front half was the “public” area, which included a place to prepare food, a little table and chairs for eating or reading at, and a single bookshelf which contained the few scrolls, books, and other relics that their people had managed to salvage during their years on the run before they’d come here. There were also a few chairs arranged near the bookshelf as a sort of sitting area. These were padded with pillows stuffed with various things they’d scavenged from the woods.

Most of the furniture, aside from the chairs around the table, were part of the structure of the house, carved directly from the tree at the same time the house was carved, but they’d been painted with various colors to keep everything from being a monochrome brown.

They didn’t go past the curtain for the moment, but behind it, Aang knew, there were beds for him, his grandmother, and his parents, but not much else. They hadn’t needed much else, really. Living in this village was a very community-focused experience. People spent most of their waking hours outside their homes, either chatting with neighbors, working on things inside the tree, or foraging for food and supplies in the forest.

They all sat down in the chairs near the shelf, and for a long moment, an uncomfortable silence stretched between them, everyone waiting for the others to talk. Aang couldn’t look at their faces, instead choosing to stare down at his own hands.

Finally, Ceba spoke up. “Aang, we were so worried about you. What happened? Why did you leave?”

Aang took a deep breath. “I… I’m sorry. I had to. I…” He sighed. “I guess I should just start from the beginning.” He held up his right arm and pushed back the sleeve, revealing the small, slightly faded blue arrow tattooed on the inside of his upper arm. “You remember the day I got my tattoo?”

His parents and grandmother looked at the mark, and their expressions were a mixture of pride and sadness.

“Yes,” Jaya said. “You begged for us to let you have that.”

A FEW MONTHS AGO

“Guess what, Appa?” Aang asked. “Today, I’m going to become a real airbender!”

The bison grunted, and Aang laughed. They were up at the top of the village tree’s trunk, where Appa usually hung out. Aang was lying against Appa’s giant side, running fingers through Appa’s fur and smiling to himself.

After weeks of begging, they were finally going to let him do it. They were finally going to let him get airbender tattoos. 

Of course, it wasn’t quite true that he was going to be a “real” airbender. Back before the war, before his people had been forced to isolate themselves on the back of this lion turtle and give up on their nomadic ways, an airbender received their tattoos after mastering the 36 tiers of airbending, or by inventing a technique of their own. 

Unfortunately for Aang, though, any written knowledge of most of those tiers had been lost to the war, and the last person who knew them had died almost eighty years ago.

He had, however, mastered the few techniques they still had records of, and though they may not have been as sophisticated as the airbending techniques of old, he’d probably made up at least a dozen others, just by messing around on his own. 

And so, Jaya had finally said yes. She was going to let him get his tattoos. That way, at least, he could start to feel like a real airbender—even if he never truly would be. That was good enough for Aang.

He was dressed for the occasion, too, wearing one of the few traditional monk robe ensembles they still had from before the war.

He smiled up through the branches of the giant tree, then jumped at the sound of the trap door to this area thumping against the floor as it swung open. Looking over, he saw Ceba climbing up the ladder into the enclosure.

She smiled. “I thought I would find you up here. Are you ready?”

Aang jumped to his feet. “Yes!”

Like Aang, Ceba was dressed in traditional Air Nomad robes, swathed in flowing red and yellow fabric. She didn’t have tattoos, of course, but she had her dark hair brushed back so that her whole forehead was exposed, in a style similar to how female airbending masters had often worn theirs. She had wound the rest of it into a loose braid that went down to her mid-back.

“Let’s get going, then,” she said, holding out her hand for him to take.

As they made their way down through the tree, Aang found that he had to force himself to walk slowly, to not jump up and down with excitement, and to look confident.

The rest of the town came out of their huts as they passed and joined their procession down through the tree. Most of them were not wearing traditional robes—there just weren’t many to go around—but there was prominent red and yellow everywhere, and everyone had pulled out the best they had for the event. 

People smiled at him, patted him on the back, bowed to him, whispered and shouted their congratulations, and then joined the line with the others, until eventually they had made it out of the tree and were making their way up to the very top of the island, where Jaya and Gaden would be waiting. 

Aang had wondered about that—he had not actually received his tattoo yet. The tattoo was going to take a long time, especially since they couldn’t use airbending to speed it along like the monks could. Why not wait to have everyone else come at the end, for the reveal? Did they really want to make everyone sit around for hours while Aang painstakingly got his tattoos?

Jaya had said it would be fine. And she’d said it with that look she sometimes got that dared him to question her at his own peril, so Aang had not pressed. 

Their little procession made it to the island’s peak, where the shell of the dragon turtle was exposed, adorned with its familiar hexagonal design. And there, as expected, were Jaya and Gaden. Between them was a little stool holding a small container filled with blueish ink, and in Gaden’s hand, he held an implement with a wooden handle and a sharp-looking metal needle on the end. Presumably that was what they would use to give Aang the tattoos. 

Aang tried to remain serious and stoic, professional, but he couldn’t keep the smile from bursting forth on his lips every few seconds. It was happening. It was really happening.

Jaya smiled at him, and bowed deeply, and Gaden followed suit, then one by one, everyone around them bowed until Aang was the only one standing. It lasted only a second, but to Aang it felt like a century. Eventually, though, everyone rose.

“Aang,” Jaya said. “This is the day our people have been anxiously awaiting for a hundred years. By taking this step and receiving your master’s tattoos, you are not only progressing further on your personal journey, but showing that there is still hope that our people will one day recover from the damage that the Fire Nation has done to us. Please, step forward.”

Aang did, though his heart was hammering in his chest. He bowed his head. “It is an honor beyond words to be given this blessing.”

“Then sit.” Though Aang kept his head bowed, he could hear the smile playing across her lips as she said those words. 

He did. And once again, he wondered how exactly this was going to work. The robes that Jaya had given him had been ceremonial Air Nomad robes, worn only for very special occasions, and they covered basically everything on him from the neck down, except for his right arm, shoulder, and a small portion of the right side of his chest, which were left exposed. Traditional Air Nomad tattoos, he knew, involved more than just the arm. Maybe they were going to start there and do the rest later?

Gaden came around onto Aang’s right side, holding the needle in one hand. In his other, he held a piece of chewy, dried fruit, which he offered to Aang. “Here, chew on this. It’ll help distract you.” Then, in a quieter voice, he said, “I’m so proud of you.”

Then he took up the needle and instructed Aang to rotate his arm so the inside of his upper arm was more easily accessible. Then, very gently, he began the slow process of tattooing, first prepping a small area of the arm by wiping it down with a damp rag, then dipping his handheld needle into the container of ink and starting to poke at the skin.

Around them, the other villagers began to sit, cross-legged, and whispered conversations burbled up, but Aang couldn’t focus on that. He was concentrating too much on staying still, and chewing on his fruit stick to distract himself from the sensations in his arm. 

It hurt, of course, but not in the way Aang had been expecting. It felt like the skin of his arm was buzzing, and it burned a little. Strangely, the moments when Gaden had to pause to dip his needle in the ink were almost worse than when he was actively tattooing, because at least during the tattooing there was a rhythmic tapping sensation that helped distract from the pain.

He steeled himself for many more hours of that pain. But, to his surprise, after less than an hour of this, Gaden leaned back with a smile and said, “There!”

Aang frowned. He’d been avoiding looking over at the arm that was being tattooed, but now he did. There, on the inside of his upper arm, was a small, light blue arrow, maybe about an inch wide and two inches long. The skin all around the tattoo was a little red, and now that Gaden had stopped, that burning sensation was starting to get more intense. Aang’s frown deepened even more, confused.

“Wait, that’s it?” he asked. 

Gaden ignored the question and began gently wiping down the tattoo with a clean, damp cloth, while Jaya stood and started talking to the rest of the village about what an honor it is to welcome the first new master airbender their people had seen in nearly a hundred years.

Aang, though, felt like he was in a daze. Her words were just noise to his ears. That was it? A little tattoo, so small it would be unnoticeable in his normal clothing? After months of begging, years of working as hard as he could to be the airbender his people wanted him to be…this was all?

Surely this was some kind of joke. Maybe they were just doing this much now, and they would come back later, in private, to finish the rest.

But Gaden finished wiping off the tattoo, then pulled Aang to his feet and held up his newly tattooed arm for everyone to see, like this was the culmination, the completion. The villagers cheered, and Gaden whispered again to Aang how proud he was, but Aang barely heard.

So this was what Jaya had meant when she said it would be fine for the whole village to be there for the tattooing process, why it wouldn’t be a problem. They had never intended to give him the proper tattoos at all. Just this measly replacement, to humor him. To placate him and get him to stop nagging, like giving a crying child their binky.

“Aang? Aang!” The sound of his grandmother’s stern voice shook him slightly out of his daze, and Aang realized that she had finished whatever speech she’d been giving, and the cheers of the other Air Nomads had died down, and everyone was staring at him, expectantly. He didn’t know for how long.

“What?” he asked.

“Would you like to say a few words, to close out the ceremony?”

Aang tried to tamp down the roiling emotions that were burbling up inside him for now. He wouldn’t make a scene in front of the whole village. Instead, he slapped on the biggest, fakest smile he could muster. 

“You have no idea how much it means to me to be given this honor. I hope I will get to continue the legacy of my great-grandfather, Avatar Aang, and help lead our people back to what we once were. This tattoo is the first step on that long journey. Thank you.” And he bowed, partially out of respect, partially to hide the fact that his happy persona was crumbling a little. 

Another cheer rose up, and people began to filter away, going back to the village to continue their normal duties. 

Gaden came over and began wrapping Aang’s arm in a bandage, murmuring to him about how he would need to be careful with it for a few weeks, keep it clean so it doesn’t get infected, but Aang was already slipping back into the daze. 

They had lied to him.

After a few more minutes, only Gaden, Ceba, and Jaya were still there in the clearing with Aang. They were all smiles, happy as could be, and none of them seemed to notice that Aang felt anything but.

Until, finally, he found the courage to speak.

“You…lied to me,” he said quietly, and the chattering between the three of them stopped as they turned to look at him. “You never intended for me to get real airbending tattoos, did you?”

Gaden frowned. “What do you mean, Aang? That tattoo is real, real as could be.”

“You know what I mean.”

The three of them looked at each other for a long moment, before Jaya finally took a step toward him. 

“Aang,” she said. “You have to understand, we did this for your sake. Our people have managed to avoid capture for so long because we are careful, and we do not flaunt our location to the world. Traditional airbending tattoos are large and easily identifiable. If anyone saw, it could let the Fire Nation know there are still Air Nomads out there, and you don’t want to put our whole village in jeopardy, do you?”

“Who’s going to see me?” Aang demanded. “We haven’t had contact with anyone from the outside world since Avatar Aang died. Nobody has been allowed to leave, ever. For all we know, the war could have ended twenty years ago, and we’re still here, hiding out, slowly losing touch with everything that made our people who they were.”

Jaya’s eyes went steely. “Avatar Aang’s final wish was that our people survive, as you very well know. I can’t risk exposing ourselves and ruining that wish in any way.”

It was the same thing she had said a hundred times over the years. The same thing that Aang would never understand.

But then, none of the rest of them were airbenders. They didn’t seem to feel bothered by the constraints the way Aang did. Everyone thought that the old Air Nomads had been travelers because they were trying to find enlightenment and spirituality, and while that may have been true, Aang also knew, probably better than anyone else alive, that it wasn’t just that. 

They had to move. It was in their nature. It was a basic need, almost as important as breathing, or food, or water. Staying in one place went against everything in their being.

That was why Aang had always struggled so much with being forced to stay here, why he constantly begged to be allowed to go out into the world, see how the war was, meet new people. Air was the element of freedom, and airbenders were not meant to stay in one place.

Aang bit his tongue. He had argued with her enough on this point to know that there was no point in trying to do so again. So instead he just bowed his head. “As you will, Elder Jaya. Thank you for giving me this much, at least.”

And then he pushed out of the clearing, leaving Jaya and his parents staring after him. 

He avoided the village the whole day, preferring to wander the woods, and ended up falling asleep at the very edge of the island, near the lion turtle’s head. 

And, yet again, he dreamed. For as long as he could remember, he’d had occasional dreams about leaving the island, about something calling him to go, but in the past few weeks leading up to the tattooing ceremony, he’d been having them nearly every night.

In some ways, they felt like more than normal dreams. They felt like a sign. They felt like maybe the spirits were talking to him, telling him he had a destiny he needed to fulfill, and he couldn’t do it here. Each night, the pull became a little stronger.

He dreamed of riding on Appa away from the island, the only home he had ever known. He dreamed of meeting people, indistinct in appearance, little more than silhouettes, and helping them achieve great things. He dreamed of eventually coming home, and leading his people off the island, back to the air temples where they belonged, the war over.

When he awoke, he found himself staring across the ocean, and there on the horizon he could just barely see a landmass, glistening white with snow. In his hazy, half-awake state, something about it called to him.

Then he felt a sting of pain in his arm, the tattoo, and the reminder made him angry all over again. That was when he decided he would leave.

Jaya wouldn’t like it. Ceba and Gaden and all the others of the village would be angry; they would probably never forgive him. At the moment, Aang was too angry to care.

That wanderlust that Aang had felt his whole life was coming to a boiling point, and he couldn’t stand to ignore it anymore. He couldn’t stand anyone else telling him no, that it was too dangerous, that he would bring danger to the village. They couldn’t hide out here forever. This island was the place they lived, and had lived for years, but it wasn’t home. His people needed to go home eventually, and the only way they could do that was by leaving.

Why shouldn’t he be the first?

“Tonight,” he said quietly, and he didn’t know if he was speaking to himself, or to the lion turtle, or to that landmass in the distance. A promise.

He made his way back to the village, pretending everything was fine, until night came. And he left.

“I rode away on Appa late at night,” Aang said, “traveling south toward the landmass I had seen, until we came upon a bad storm not far from the shore. I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but I woke up a few days later in Katara and Sokka’s village. They had found me and nursed me back to health. Then, not long later, we met Zuko, and I finally understood what the call had been for. The Avatar needed me.”

Silence. Deafening, uncomfortable. It stretched for several long seconds, while Aang carefully tried to avoid meeting any of their eyes.

Finally, Ceba shook her head. “Aang, you could have died.”

Aang bit his lip, and didn’t respond.

“What you did was reckless and stupid,” Jaya said. “I’ve half a mind to keep you here and force your friends to leave. It would serve you right, for endangering yourself and our whole culture the way you have. And then for you to come back here, when you are actively being chased by the Fire Nation? How could you—”

Aang grit his teeth. He should have known they wouldn’t understand. “I won’t stay. You can’t make me. If you kick my friends out, I’m going with them.”

Jaya glared at him, and opened her mouth to say something, but Gaden broke in.

“Jaya, please. The boy was just doing what he thought was right.”

Jaya pursed her lips, unimpressed.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” Ceba said. “But you really should have come to us, talked to us. Or at the very least, left a note.”

“I’ve been trying to talk to you for twelve years,” Aang said. “And all you ever did was shoot me down. So I decided to take matters in my own hands, and now look at me. I’m doing something important! I’m helping the Avatar fulfill his destiny and bring an end to this war so that everything can finally go back to normal, and we can all go home. Isn’t that what you always wanted? Isn’t that what Avatar Aang wanted? To eventually be able to leave this place and reestablish the Air Nomads?”

His family all looked at each other.

“I am…proud of what you have accomplished, Aang,” Jaya said, though there was clear reluctance in her tone. “But you should not have returned here. We will allow you and your friends to stay here for a short time, but your presence brings risk, and if the Fire Nation discovers us, we will stand no chance.”

“If they haven’t found us in eighty years, what makes you think they will find us now?” Aang asked. “We weren’t planning on staying long. A few weeks, maybe. Enough time for us to recover, and for Zuko to get a good start on his waterbending training. But before long, I believe we are planning to head to the Earth Kingdom to find him an earthbending master. I just wanted to stay here long enough to give the Fire Nation a chance to lose our trail.”

“This island is not invisible,” Jaya said. “What if you were followed? What if someone saw you land Appa here? If they are using their eyes to track you, you can still be seen.”

“We were careful,” Aang said. “We avoided populated regions, tried to fly up in the clouds as much as possible. I don’t think anyone saw us.”

Jaya shook her head. “It is too dangerous for us to harbor the Avatar for long. Even your great-grandfather avoided staying on this island as much as possible, for fear that the Fire Nation would discover it.”

“Fine,” Aang said, crossing his arms. He kept his expression carefully neutral, though inside he was roiling with anger and betrayal. How naive he had been to think that his family would be happy that he was finally following his destiny, how stupid to think they would want to help him. “Like I said, we aren’t planning on staying long. And when we leave, I can go?”

Jaya pursed her lips again, and her gray eyes pierced into his soul. “Well, like you said, Master Aang. I can’t make you stay.” She paused. “One week. I will give you that, because I have missed you, Aang, and I would like to spend time with you. But then you and your friends must leave.”

Aang just nodded.

Chapter Text

They fell into a strange sort of rhythm over the next few days. Zuko spent most of the day in training. In the mornings, he would go off with Yue and Katara to learn waterbending, and that would continue into the afternoon. Then he would finish off the day with an hour or two of training with Aang in airbending.

Zuko tried to throw himself into the practice so he didn’t have to think about what he would have to do next. But it was difficult. After several days of this routine, he was still doing fine in airbending, making steady progress, but he had yet to successfully bend a single drop of water, and his anxieties kept burbling to the surface despite his best efforts. Iroh, his father, Azula, the war. Sokka had been right, after all. They still had no idea what had become of the Northern Water Tribe, or what was going on with the rest of the world.

Plus, their reception from the Air Nomads was lukewarm at best, which didn’t help with Zuko’s worries. Aang had briefly told them about the conversation he’d had with his family, about how they needed to leave sooner than later, and Zuko could feel the animosity bubbling there behind every interaction. The Air Nomads were not openly hostile, but it was easy to tell that they were uncomfortable with the presence of these newcomers.

Not that Zuko could blame them. If he’d been in their position, he probably wouldn’t trust them either. 

Aang seemed to be taking it pretty hard, though he tried not to show it. He was quieter than usual, more withdrawn, and when Zuko asked him about it, he would brush him off, or end their lessons early.

Zuko didn’t press the matter too much. If there was anything he understood, it was strained family dynamics, and he knew how hard they could be to talk about sometimes.

Plus, Zuko had a lot of troubles of his own, and though he was concerned about Aang, those pressed on his mind more forcefully. 

Like his waterbending training. As he had expected, now that Katara had a proper master, she was flourishing. She’d advanced remarkably fast in just the few days they’d been training.

Meanwhile, Zuko was struggling. Far more than he had struggled with air or fire, and he’d had a fair amount of troubles with both at different points. 

But at least with those, he’d been able to make something happen from the beginning, even accidentally. The first time he had bent either of those elements had been unconsciously, in a moment of intense emotion, and once he had done that, learning the basic forms had not been easy, necessarily (because apparently nothing could be easy for him; that would be too much to ask), but they had at least been possible.

With waterbending, though, it was a total block. He’d tried the rocking back and forth they’d done during the first lesson. He’d tried standing up to his waist in water. He’d tried going for a swim next to the lion turtle. He’d tried submerging himself completely, and holding his breath for as long as he possibly could. Nothing. He couldn’t feel that connection that you needed for bending, that intrinsic understanding that the element and you were as one, a connection he had forged with both fire and air now. No matter what he did, it still just felt like…water.

Zuko almost went back to the thought he’d had long, long ago, that maybe somehow he wasn’t actually the Avatar, and that he was the first person in history who was able to bend two elements, but not all four.

Except, of course, he knew that wasn’t true. First of all, he was done with denying what he was. He was the Avatar, and though he still had mixed feelings about that fact, he had at least accepted it as truth. And second, he had bent water, once before, while he was in the Avatar State on the deck of Azula’s ship. He knew he was capable of it.

So why wasn’t it working?

Yue was at a loss too. Their lessons ended up being mostly Zuko going through the motions, or standing around with Sokka, who came to every lesson for at least a couple hours, watching as Yue taught Katara.

“I think part of the problem is that your heart isn’t in it,” Katara said after one of their lessons. Yue and Sokka had already disappeared, off to do whatever it was they did together every day after the lesson was done. “It’s like you’ve already decided that it won’t work for you, and so it won’t.”

“Is that how it works?” Zuko asked.

He was sitting next to the little pond they had been practicing at today, his feet kicking in the water, and he stared at the ripples as they flowed out from the movement of his feet and bounced against the edges of the pond before coming back.

“You’re very stubborn,” Katara said, as if that was an answer.

She sat next to him and dipped her feet in the water as well. Zuko sighed.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well…” Katara looked at the water thoughtfully. “Waterbending is all about the push and pull. Action and reaction. You have to be…adaptable. Open-minded. You see what I mean?”

“Then how come it works for you? You’re pretty stubborn, too.”

Katara laughed a little. “I guess that’s true.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow at her. “It took you being locked in a cell next to me for weeks to finally stop hating me.”

“Because I let myself start to actually get to know you. If I had gotten over my own issues earlier, I would’ve stopped hating you a lot earlier. And you know… once I finally let go of all that, waterbending started to come easier to me than it had before. I had tried so many times to teach myself, and gotten nowhere, but in that cell, I managed to learn a lot, even without scrolls or a master. I can’t help but think the two things are connected.”

Zuko frowned. “I don’t feel like I’m being stubborn, though. I mean, if I wanted to be stubborn, I would just refuse to come to the lessons at all, right?”

“I think coming to the lessons reluctantly might be worse than not coming to them at all. I’ve seen you. You go through the motions, but you’re not really trying.”

“Because when I try, nothing happens!”

Katara shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I see.”

Zuko grunted, and Katara smiled. She patted him once on the shoulder, then pushed herself to her feet. “Come on, let’s go get some food.”

They were rapidly approaching the end of the week Jaya had allotted them, and Aang was conflicted. They had to leave soon, for a million reasons, not just because Jaya had given them a deadline.

On the other hand, Zuko was still struggling with waterbending. They’d been hoping he would have at least some basics learned before they made their way to the Earth Kingdom. 

There wasn’t room in the village for them to stay, so they had all been given a place together at the top of the tree, where they had met with Jaya, Ceba, and Gaden on the first day. Well, the others had been given a place up there. Aang, technically, had been invited to stay in his old bed in his family’s house, but he tended to hang out with the others instead, at least in the evenings after Zuko’s training was done. During the day, he tried to spend time with his family. Even when he had lived here, he’d very rarely slept in his actual bed, so hopefully his family wouldn’t take it as an offense (even if part of him intended it to be one).

But the evenings were when they planned, so Aang was there. They gathered around the table where they had met the first day. 

“So,” Sokka said, leaning against Appa’s side with a serious expression plastered across his face. “We’re heading out tomorrow, right?”

Everyone looked at each other for a moment. They were all standing in a loose circle next to Appa. Finally, Aang said, “Well, the deadline that Jaya gave us was tomorrow, so I guess we have to, right?”

“Is there any way you could convince her to let us stay a little longer?” Yue asked. She glanced at Zuko, who was staring resolutely at some spot beyond all of their heads, not meeting any of their eyes. “I think we could use a few extra days for Zuko and Katara to learn a little more waterbending in a relatively safe space. It’s going to be even harder to train them while we’re traveling, and we don’t have ready access to a lot of water anymore.”

“I can try,” Aang said nervously. “I don’t think it’s likely, though. Everyone is pretty nervous.”

“Well, it’s already been a week,” Katara said. “And we’ve been here the whole time. If the Fire Nation was going to find us, you’d think they’d have done it by now, right?”

“Maybe.” Aang shrugged. 

Zuko’s attention finally refocused on the group. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to stay,” he said quietly. “We need to get back. We’ve been out of commission for weeks at this point, with no idea of how the war is going. We need information, and we don’t have time to waste sitting around here while I fail to figure out how to bend water.”

“You can’t rush this, Zuko,” Katara said. “Learning the elements takes time. Most Avatars take years.”

“Well, I don’t have years!” Zuko swung toward Katara, anger flaring in his eyes. “Remember what Roku said in my vision? We only have until the end of the summer to end this war before it’s too late. And—the longer we wait, the more likely it becomes that my father will have my uncle killed, or—or—” He sighed, the anger dying just as fast as it had appeared, and shook his head. “We have to keep moving.”

Once again, they all looked at each other. 

“Iroh is a smart man, Zuko,” Katara said. “He’ll be fine. Besides, he would want you to focus on your training.”

“You think you know what he wants?” Zuko said. “You were with him for, what, a month? I’ve known him my whole life.”

“Zuko—”

Zuko shook his head. “Just forget it. The point is, we don’t have time to waste. I’m going to have to figure it out on the go. We don’t have a choice.”

“I agree with Zuko,” Sokka said. “Another week to train would be great, but we need to get back out into the world, figure out what’s going on with the war, find allies, make a plan. We can’t end this war all by ourselves, even if Zuko manages to complete his training in time—no offense, Zuko.”

“None taken,” Zuko grumbled.

“Besides.” Sokka met Yue’s gaze. “Yue, don’t you want to know what happened to your tribe? To our tribe? We have to figure out a way to save them.”

Yue fixed her eyes on the ground. “I admit I have been trying very hard not to think about what has become of my people. I was being raised to one day be their leader, and instead I abandoned them to be taken by the Fire Nation.”

“You didn’t abandon them,” Aang protested. “You were captured. There was nothing you could have done—there was nothing any of us could have done. Not then. But maybe now we have a chance to fix it, together.”

Yue kept her gaze downward for a long moment, then looked up and swept her eyes around the group, locking eyes for a moment with each one of them, before she finally nodded. “Okay. But how?”

“We find allies, like Sokka said.”

“Do you happen to have any ideas on where exactly to find those allies, Sokka?” Katara asked. She looked conflicted, but whatever thoughts she was having, she kept them to herself.

“I… don’t,” Sokka admitted. He looked at Yue, then at Zuko. “I was hoping maybe one of you would have an idea? I’m just a southern water tribe peasant—I don’t know much about the political machinations of the world. Both of you are actual nobility, with connections, right?”

Zuko laughed bitterly. “Unfortunately, I don’t think any of my ‘connections’ would be interested in helping us—I burned most of them when I was banished. And now that everyone knows I’m the Avatar, and I have actively refused to join my father’s cause, I’ve burned what few connections I had left. No one in the Fire Nation is going to help us now.”

“Okay,” Sokka said. “What about outside of the Fire Nation?”

Everyone looked at Yue, who shook her head. 

“The Northern Water Tribe has been isolationist ever since the war began. Intentionally so. It’s why we managed to survive so long without being targeted too heavily by Fire Nation attacks. Unfortunately, though, it also means I don’t know much about the outside world, either, or at least, anything I do know is probably horribly outdated. This is the first time I have ever been away from the Northern Water Tribe.”

Zuko was frowning, staring at the ground as if deep in thought. He glanced across at Yue. “The only thing I can think of is Ba Sing Se. It’s the capital of the Earth Kingdom, where the Earth King lives. The Fire Nation has tried to get past its walls dozens of times over the past century, and they’ve never managed it. Even my uncle couldn’t, when he tried a few years ago. We might be able to get an audience with the Earth King, possibly convince him to lend his troops to our aid? He might even be able to help us in the final confrontation against my father, if we’re lucky.”

“It can’t be easy to get an audience with the leader of the entire Earth Kingdom,” Sokka said. “We’re just a bunch of kids.”

“We’re traveling with the Avatar,” Katara said. “Surely that will be enough.”

“Maybe.” Sokka looked dubious. “Still, we probably shouldn’t head straight there, right? Maybe we should try to make some friends in the Earth Kingdom first, see if we can find anyone who can give us an in.”

“We have to find Zuko an earthbending teacher at some point, anyway,” Aang said. “This’ll handle both of those at once.”

“So it’s decided, then?” Sokka asked. “We’re really leaving tomorrow?”

Aang looked across everyone’s faces. Sokka and Zuko looked ready to go, Zuko nodding along with Sokka’s statement, a resolute look on his face. Katara and Yue, however, looked a little more like how Aang felt—unsure, a little reluctant. Whatever their reservations were, though, they didn’t voice them, and nodded as well.

And so Aang nodded too. Tomorrow it was.

Chapter Text

Zuko had been hoping he could get out of training today, but Yue decided they were going to do one last training session before they left. That was why he found himself now, early in the morning, reluctantly trudging a few steps behind Yue and Katara, who were talking excitedly about waterbending forms and ways that they could continue lessons once they got off the island.

Zuko was not particularly excited about the prospect of failing to waterbend one more time, but he knew there was no way they would let him stay with Aang and Sokka to help pack up. After all, he was the one who needed training the most.

Katara was still doing amazing. It had only been a week since they started, but to Zuko, it seemed like she had already practically mastered waterbending. He knew that wasn’t true, of course, but compared to the zero progress that he had made, her skills were incredible.

They made it to the little pond that Aang had showed them to the first day. This was where they usually went to practice. Zuko was tired of looking at it after so many long hours spent standing nearby, trying desperately to feel any kind of connection to the liquid within it.

“Okay,” Yue said, clapping her hands together as she stood in front of the pond, facing him and Katara. “Last lesson on the island, so let’s make the best of it, right?” She met Zuko’s eyes for a moment, and he nodded, trying his best to look confident and prepared. He didn’t think he succeeded, based on the way she pursed her lips as she turned slightly away to address both him and Katara at once.

As she did, she fell into a familiar stance and pulled a stream of water from the pond behind her. She brought it around to float in the space between her and them. So easily, like it was nothing.

He supposed it wasn’t, after years of practice. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have years to practice.

Still, as the lesson began, he tried to keep an open mind, like Katara had told him.

The problem was that doing that also left his mind open to think about all the stress in his life. His worry about Iroh, about the war, about what his father must be thinking about him at this very moment. About the deadline Roku had given him to learn the elements. About how far the knowledge of the Avatar’s identity had spread. He may have accepted that he was the Avatar now, but he still wasn’t sure how he would react when they left this island and ran into the first person who recognized him as the Avatar.

His father knew by now, of course. He had probably known within an hour of their escape from the ship.

All of these fears beat down on him, making it hard to focus. Zuko had never been a particularly fast learner. Azula may have been younger, but even though he was two years older, once she began her firebending training, she had surpassed him almost immediately, and he’d never been able to catch up, no matter how hard he tried.

How could he hope to master—or even become mildly proficient with—three more elements in less than a year, when he’d been working on firebending since he was old enough to walk and still hadn’t mastered it? It was impossible.

Maybe Katara was right. Maybe the reason why he was struggling so much with waterbending was because part of him had already decided he couldn’t do it.

He wished Uncle were here. Zuko had always found his words of wisdom annoying before, but now he longed for them. He’d know what to say, how to help. Instead, Zuko had to figure it out by himself. And he wasn’t prepared for that.

“Zuko!” A voice shook him out of this line of thinking—and he did a double take, because he was expecting the voice to be Yue’s, or Katara’s, but it wasn’t. It was Aang’s, and he sounded panicked. “Katara! Yue!”

“What is it, Aang?” Katara asked with a frown as all three of them turned to see Aang running into their little clearing, holding his staff in one had, a wild expression on his face.

“We’ve gotta go,” Aang said. “Now.”

“What’s wrong?” Zuko asked. “Did something happen?”

“My grandmother’s had a couple lookouts posted around the island ever since we got here, and she just got notice that one of them saw a Fire Navy ship nearby.”

“What?” Katara said.

“We can’t let them get to the island,” Aang said, and Zuko could see now that there was a little bit of wetness forming at the corners of his eyes. Tears?

“Let’s go,” Zuko said, and they all took off toward the tree.

It didn’t take long to get up to the top of the tree, where they had been standing for the last few days, and there they found a nervous Sokka, as well as Aang’s parents, Ceba and Gaden, and Jaya. As they got there, Sokka was loading the last of their bags onto Appa’s back and making sure the saddle was tightly secured. Jaya turned to them with a stern look as they all climbed up into the little clearing between the branches.

“Good, so Aang has told you the situation?” she asked.

Zuko and the others nodded.

“Then you know you must leave. Now.”

Aang, Yue, and Katara all immediately began making their way toward Appa, climbing up onto his back, but Zuko paused.

“Maybe we should wait a second,” he said, though he couldn’t believe he was saying it.

“What?” Aang said. “You want them to come here?”

“Well, do you know for sure they were headed this way?” Zuko asked. “What if it’s just a normal patrol, and we end up drawing more attention to the island by flying away from it on a very recognizable bison? The Fire Nation will know to look for Appa.”

“That’s true,” Sokka said. He was already sitting up in Appa’s saddle, and had been reaching down to help Yue climb her way up, but paused for a second at Zuko’s words, and looked over. “Maybe it would be better to lay low for a little bit, see if they pass us by.”

Aang looked dubious. He looked at his family, who were all staying silent, but who looked just as dubious as he did. “I can fly up and scout, I guess. See if they’re headed here or if they’re just patrolling. Jaya, do you know how close we are to the Earth Kingdom right now?”

“I do not pay attention to the island’s route, no. It goes where it whims.”

“I’ll fly up. You guys wait down here, and I’ll let you know if we need to get out. Hopefully if it is coming here, seeing us leave will convince it to follow us instead of coming to the island.”

“Well, for all they know, this place is just an abandoned island, right?” Sokka asked. “They would have no reason to come here unless they think we’re here.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Zuko asked. He was already reaching for the glider that was tied to Appa’s saddle.

Aang tapped his glider on the ground, and the wings shot out. “Sure. But we have to stay low. If the ship is looking for us, we don’t want them to see people flying around the island.”

Zuko nodded. He tapped his own glider on the ground, and those beautiful red and gold wings emerged.

The two of them flew up carefully through the tangled branches of the massive tree, until they made it to the very top of the canopy and alighted on the highest branch. In a normal tree, of course, the branches at the edges of the canopy were the weakest and thinnest, and could not hold the weight of a person. This tree was no normal tree, however, so even the smallest branches were easily wider than Zuko’s entire body, and they held both him and Aang with no issue.

Zuko scanned the horizon. All around them was endless ocean, no land anywhere in sight, but he could see that there was indeed a single Fire Nation ship, still far away, but it was hard to miss that distinctive trail of black smoke rising from the central tower, and the metallic sheen of the ship as it reflected the midmorning sunlight.

It was too far to tell for sure which direction it was going, but Zuko began to doubt that it was a patrol. What was there to patrol, out here in the middle of the ocean?

Zuko retracted the glider, slung it on his back, and wrapped one hand around the branch for balance, looking over at Aang. “What do you think?”

“The ship is still far away. Maybe if we leave now, we can get out stealthily, and it won’t know we were here.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zuko said slowly, “unless whoever is on that ship already knows we’re here, and is coming here anyway. Then it would come here after we’ve left, and your family would be in danger.”

Aang slumped against the branch, sagging with the weight of the emotions running through him. He kept his eyes trained on that ship on the horizon, never looking over to meet Zuko’s gaze. “I never should have brought you guys here. All it’s done is cause trouble.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Zuko said. He reached out with his free hand and placed it on Aang’s shoulder. Aang just nodded.

After an awkward beat, Zuko turned his attention back to the ship and removed his hand from Aang’s shoulder. “We should wait here for a second, watch the ship to see if it’s getting closer.”

“And if it is?”

“Then we’ll have to deal with it.”

“Deal with it? You don’t mean, like…kill the people there?”

“Well… ideally, no. Ideally, we’d lead it away from here. But if we have to…yes, I would kill them. We can’t let anyone on that ship bring back the knowledge of this island and who lives here to my father.”

“What if it’s Azula on there? And her friends, what did you say their names were, Mai and Ty Lee? There’s no way we can beat them.”

Zuko bit his lip. “It’s…probably not them.”

“How can you know that?”

“I…don’t.” Zuko sighed. “Look, Aang, this is your people. Whatever you think we should do, I’ll go along with it. I’m just trying to give you options.”

Aang closed his eyes for a moment and sagged even more heavily against the branch. After a few seconds, he shook himself and opened his eyes. “You stay here and watch the ship to see if it’s getting closer. I’m going to fly back down to the others and tell them to start making sure any sign of life is hidden, and then I’m going to come back up here. If it looks like it’s heading for us, we’re going to try to draw it away from the island.”

Zuko nodded, and crouched down against the branch, keeping his eyes locked on that distant ship while Aang made his way back down through the tree’s branches to the place where they had left their friends.

Aang swung down off the lowest branch and landed with barely a sound in the center of the assembled group, who were all still waiting down below.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Sokka asked. “Are they coming here?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Aang said. “The ship is still really far away. I think for now what we should do is make sure everyone comes back to town and hunkers down.” He looked at his grandmother. “We have to make it look like the place is abandoned, so if they do make it here, they won’t see anything notable. Call everyone back to the tree.”

Jaya looked dubious, but she nodded. “You are not leaving?”

“Not yet. Zuko thinks we should wait a little bit, try to determine if they actually are coming here, and if they are… then we’ll take off on Appa, make it obvious that we’re leaving, try to draw them away from the island if we can.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Katara asked.

Aang shifted uncomfortably, looking back and forth between the ground and his friends. “Then we’ll have to handle it. For now, just go make sure there are no signs of life anywhere. I don’t know how much time we might have.”

With that, they all broke off, abandoning the task of loading up Appa and disappearing to sound the alarm. Luckily, this sort of thing was not an entirely unfamiliar occurrence. Jaya was constantly paranoid that they would be found out. It was why they’d built their home inside a tree in the first place. All throughout Aang’s childhood, they’d done drills every few months, practicing for what Jaya saw as the inevitable day when the Fire Nation or someone else would discover the island.

This was the first time Aang knew of that it hadn’t just been a drill, though.

He took a deep breath and wandered over to Appa for a moment, who was of course the only one still left up here. Appa nuzzled him as Aang walked up, and for a few seconds, Aang let himself enjoy the comfort of his oldest and closest friend, before he finally sighed. 

“You ready, buddy?” he asked, and Appa grunted in an affirmative way. Aang smiled. “Well, that makes one of us.”

Then he started to make his way back up through the branches to Zuko. As he did, though, he heard a thud from below, and glanced back down to see the trap door swinging back open, and through it came Jaya.

“Aang?” she called to him. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

Aang bit his lip, but nodded and dropped back down. “Of course, Elder Jaya.”

She grimaced. “No need to be so formal, Aang.”

“What did you want to talk about?”

“I worry about this plan you’ve laid out. You say that the Avatar suggested it? Suggested we wait to see if the ship gets closer before acting?”

“It was Zuko’s idea, yeah.”

Jaya nodded, then didn’t speak for a few seconds, her eyes casting about as if she was trying to figure out how to phrase her next words. “Aang… how certain are you that we can trust him?”

The question was like a smack. He didn’t know what he had been expecting from this conversation, but whatever it was, it wasn’t this. “Of course we can trust him.”

“He is Fire Nation.”

Aang couldn’t believe they were really talking about this. “He’s the Avatar. And he’s my friend. I’ve been traveling with him for months now. He’s come a long way.”

“How can you be certain this is not some kind of trap? Perhaps he is working with the Fire Nation, and that ship coming here is part of the plan. The Avatar is not infallible, Aang. They are still a person, just like any of the rest of us, with their biases and their flaws.”

Aang felt a flash of annoyance. “I know that, Jaya. But like I said, I have been traveling with Zuko for months. I know him. I’ve seen his struggles and his failures, and I’ve seen him working to move past them and become better. I trust him. If you’re not willing to do that, I hope that you will at least trust me?”

“Aang…” Jaya sighed. “I trust you.”

“Do you?”

“Of course I do.”

“It didn’t seem like it the other day, when you told me I was reckless and threatened to make me stay here.”

“Aang, I don’t think now is a good time to be having this discussion.”

“When is a good time, then, Jaya?” Aang asked. “My friends and I are supposed to be leaving today, one way or another, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

He felt familiar tears pooling up in his eyes again, and blinked hard to keep them from spilling over.

Jaya didn’t respond for a long moment, just studied him, her expression impassive. Eventually, though, her eyes softened, almost imperceptibly. He probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all if he hadn’t spent his whole life learning how to read her.

She took a few steps forward, bringing her closer to him, and reached out to take his hands in hers. Aang flinched at first, but didn’t pull away. He couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze, though.

“When I said that, it was not because I don’t trust you,” Jaya said. “It was because I was—am—worried about you, and worried about the wellbeing of our people.”

It was, of course, no different from what she’d been saying Aang’s whole life. Insisting that they needed to stay right where they were, not leave, not try to find out what was going on in the wider world—for their own protection, she claimed. 

“That’s what I’m worried about too,” Aang said. “I want our people to be whole again, and we can’t be while we’re stuck here on this island. I left because I want to help get us to where we’re supposed to be.”

Jaya let go of Aang’s hands. Her expression changed subtly again, and he could see a little bit of exasperation in her eyes. “This island is the only reason why our people are still alive, Aang. And now that’s been put in jeopardy because you decided to leave and reveal yourself to the world, then directed its attention here.”

Aang shook his head. “This island is a prison. In the old days, our people traveled the world, Jaya. We’re supposed to be nomads. The island may move, but we do not. Our people have spent the past 80 years since Avatar Aang died sitting in the same place, too scared to leave.” He finally forced himself to meet her gaze. “I’m sorry that I may have brought the attention of the Fire Nation here, and I will do everything in my power to keep everyone from being discovered, but I won’t apologize for leaving in the first place. If we want to truly become Air Nomads again, we have to be willing to take some risks. And no one here has done that in a very, very long time.”

Jaya’s eyes narrowed, but she did not speak for a long moment. Finally, she just said, “I need to go and prepare our people. I will speak to you later.”

And with that, she left, climbing back down the ladder into the tree.

Aang stood there for a few more seconds after she was gone, emotions brimming under his skin, and tried to calm himself down. Eventually, he began to climb back up to where Zuko waited.

He hated the way her words always got under his skin. Her disapproval of his choices, her distrust of Zuko and maybe even the rest of his friends. He’d put on a confident face while talking to her, but now that she was gone, her words made him doubt himself, made him wonder if he really was doing the right thing. 

Maybe it would have been better if he’d never left at all. At least then his people would be safe. 

It was too late to worry about that now, though, he supposed. 

Chapter Text

Unfortunately, Zuko could no longer deny that the ship was heading their direction.

He wasn’t sure what was taking Aang so long to get back, but while he sat there alone, that ship, which had been just a shape on the horizon at first, was getting bigger and more clearly defined. There was no way to know for sure, Zuko supposed, whether or not it was headed toward the island because it was chasing after them or if it was a coincidence, but if Zuko had to guess, it was because of them.

Either way, though, it was coming. 

The leaves below him rustled, and Zuko turned as Aang made his way up onto the branch beside him. 

“Any updates?” Aang asked.

Zuko nodded toward the ship. “Well, it’s headed this way for sure. Is everyone hiding?”

“Yeah, they’re rounding everyone up. Luckily we’ve all been doing drills for this for years. In a few minutes, this place will look totally abandoned to anyone who doesn’t know any better.”

“Good. I think we’ve got a few more minutes before that ship gets here.”

“We can’t let it get here.”

“No,” Zuko agreed. He stared at that ship for a little while longer as it continued to get closer and closer. Now he could see people in armor moving around on the deck, though it was hard to tell what they were doing. Whatever it was, though, that was definitely not a merchant ship.

He turned toward Aang. “Come on, let’s go down.”

“What’s the plan?”

“We’re gonna get our friends, and we’re going to intercept.”

Aang bit his lip, glancing past Zuko’s shoulder for a moment to look at that ship, then he seemed to come to a decision. He nodded and followed as Zuko climbed down through the branches.

Several frantic minutes passed of them making sure all the Air Nomads were hidden and secure, and then the group of Zuko and his friends regathered up at the top of the tree, where Appa was waiting. Aang’s parents and Jaya were also there. Ceba and Gaden were helping load Appa, while Jaya stood to the side, her arms crossed in silent disapproval as she watched them.

“Is this goodbye, then?” she asked. “Are you leaving?”

“Well...” Aang paused and glanced across at all of them. “Maybe. We’re going to try to lead the ship away.”

“Depending on how it goes,” Zuko said, “we may or may not be back. You guys should probably say your goodbyes now, while you can. But we don’t have much time.” He pushed Aang toward his family, then turned to the others. “You guys finish loading up Appa, I’m going to go up top to see how close the ship is now. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He swooped up through the tree branches, partially using airbending, partially using his own strength to pull himself up, until he reached the top of the canopy, where he could see out across the entirety of the sea around them.

The ship was closer and now Zuko could see that the people walking around on the deck of the ship weren’t just going about normal ship maintenance tasks. Instead, they were preparing weapons, and a few of them were setting up a familiar Fire Nation-made catapult that had been brought out onto the deck of the ship.

Zuko tried to look through the people gathered on the deck for anyone who looked familiar, but the ship was still far enough away that the people on the deck were little more than shapes dressed in red and black, so he couldn’t tell if Azula or her friends—or, as unlikely as it was, even his father—were anywhere on board.

He shook his head and made his way back down through the branches to where his friends waited. They were all in their places in Appa’s saddle now—Yue, Sokka, Katara, and Aang, who had apparently finished his goodbyes with his family, because the three of them were no longer up here. He was sitting in his usual spot on top of Appa’s head, his expression an odd mixture of anger and sadness, but when Zuko arrived, he nodded.

With a flick of Appa’s reins, they took off into the sky, bursting from the cover of the branches to head right toward the approaching ship.

“So the plan is to lead them away, right?” Katara asked.

Zuko took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on that ship. He was becoming less and less confident with this plan the longer it went on. “If we can, yeah. But I think we should be prepared for a fight, just in case.”

Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, but didn’t argue.

Aang turned away from them, took a deep breath of his own, and then began to direct Appa down toward the approaching ship.

Luckily (or perhaps unluckily, depending on how you wanted to look at it), they didn’t need to do much to get the ship’s attention. Almost as soon as they left the island, Zuko could hear alarm bells ringing down on the ship, and the action on the ship’s deck became even more hurried. He could see soldiers loading a boulder coated in tar into the catapult, and a soldier in more elaborate armor that marked him as a firebender stepped up to set it ablaze.

“Watch out!” Katara shouted, and Aang yanked on the reins as the soldiers on the ship engaged the catapult and sent a flaming boulder rocketing toward them. Appa swerved at the last second, and the rock just barely missed them, passing within a few feet of their side, so close that Zuko could feel the heat of the flame against his face and smell the tar burning. 

He rushed to the back of the saddle and watched as the boulder fell past them and landed in the ocean below, sending up a huge gout of water as it did.

“Is there any way you can make Appa go a little faster?” Zuko asked.

“I can try,” Aang said, though he looked a little uncertain. “Do you want me to land on the ship?”

“No!” Sokka said immediately, and Zuko bit his lip, because his instinct had been to say yes. “Go around. Head north.”

Aang looked at Zuko for confirmation, and after a long pause of consideration, Zuko nodded his agreement. “At first, at least. Let’s see if they follow us.”

Aang patted the bison’s head. “Come on, buddy, let’s go. Yip yip!” 

With a grunt, Appa flapped his tail and turned to the north, speeding off in that direction.

Zuko leaned over the side of the saddle and looked down at the ship. Soldiers were reloading the catapult, and though of course they were too far away to hear anything that was being said down below, Zuko had spent enough time on a Fire Nation ship to recognize what was going on. It looked like they were getting ready to turn the ship to follow them. 

Hopefully this works, Zuko thought to himself. 

“Do you see anyone you recognize, Zuko?” Yue asked him. She leaned over the edge of the saddle, too, looking down at the ship below, while Katara and Sokka were at the other edges of the saddle, keeping a look out on the horizon.

Zuko squinted down at the ship. “We’re too far away for me to tell. I don’t think so, though.”

“Do you want to go down closer and see?”

“Maybe.” Zuko shifted a little. “That’s probably not a good idea, though.”

At this point, the ship below had managed to course correct, and reload the catapult.

“Get ready to dodge another one!” Zuko shouted toward Aang, who nodded, with a quick glance toward the ship.

Zuko gripped the side of the saddle as hard as he could, his eyes on the catapult below.

Except it wasn’t just the catapult that was the problem now, he could tell. A group of three soldiers in firebender armor were lining up near the railing of the ship nearest to Appa, as if preparing for something. 

Zuko started to open his mouth to warn the others about this new development as well, but before he could, the catapult released, and those three firebenders began summoning a large fireball of their own. 

Anticipating the one blast, Aang yanked the reins, and Appa swerved out of the way of the catapult’s boulder—but the firebenders below had been anticipating that, and they aimed their blast. A huge ball of fire, at least as big as the boulder the catapult had fired, if not bigger, came blazing toward their new position. It was going to smack them right in the side.

Zuko felt time slow down around him, even as he was getting thrown to the side from the force of Appa swerving to the side. Before he could think better of it, he had launched himself off the side of the bison, pulling his glider from where it was slung over his back and whipping out the wings.

“Zuko, what—” Katara’s voice was snatched away by the wind in Zuko’s ears as he swooped down toward the fireball.

Zuko pulled in the glider’s wings at the last second and went into a spin straight into the center of the blast. His heartbeat was loud in his ears. Wind whipped around his body, superheated by the proximity of the fire. He wasn’t sure whether this was firebending or airbending or both, but he crashed into the flames and they split around his body, dividing the fire blast into two smaller sections that passed just above and below Appa.

Zuko spun in the air, starting to head back toward the bison, but then he glanced down at the ship, and the catapult that was already being reloaded. They couldn’t outrun the ship, and those soldiers were just going to keep shooting these things until eventually they got a lucky hit.

Unless Zuko could take out the projectiles.

In a split second, Zuko changed his mind. Instead of swooping back up to land on Appa’s back, he let himself continue to plummet until he was nearly to the ship’s deck, then flipped out the wings and started to glide ten feet above it. Dodging past a few fire blasts that flew his direction, he sucked in a deep breath of air and felt the power of the elements surging through him. 

Then, his eyes locked on the catapult, he sent a blast of wind that slammed into the side of the contraption and broke it in two.

More fire blasts shot his way, as well as a few arrows from archers stationed on the ship’s tower. Any illusions Zuko may have had about this being a simple patrol were long gone now. This ship was clearly prepared for a battle against flying things—which could only mean they had been looking for Zuko and his friends.

He didn’t have much time to think too heavily about that, though, because it took all of his focus to duck and dodge between the projectiles coming at him. But there were too many, and though he dodged what seemed like dozens of arrows and blasts of fire, eventually one struck true. An arrow took him in the side, knocking him off course and sending him spinning and scattering onto the deck of the ship, his glider flying out of his hand and gliding a few extra feet away before hitting the railing and coming to a stop.

Zuko groaned and pushed himself to his hands and knees, ignoring the way his vision spun and jittered as pain throbbed in his side. Already, a few nearby soldiers were approaching with swords drawn.

Now that wind wasn’t whistling in his ears anymore, Zuko registered the shouting all around. Various voices in various tones and pitches. “It’s Prince Zuko!” “Avatar! It’s the Avatar!” “Men, stand your ground!” “Don’t let him get away!”

No time to get overwhelmed. Two soldiers lunged for him at once, but Zuko hooked an arm around one of their ankles and a foot around the other’s, making them stumble and miss their attacks. He pushed himself to his feet, and nearly blacked out from the pain in his side.

No time, no time. He shook his head, forced himself to focus, and stumbled frantically toward the glider against the railing, one hand reaching automatically to pull out one of his dual blades. If he could just get to his glider, he was free.

Another soldier saw what he was heading for, and kicked the glider away, sending it skidding across the ground, too far away to get to easily.

Zuko growled under his breath and drew his other sword. Okay, so this was how it was going to go, apparently. So be it. 

A sword came at him, and he clanged it out of the way almost without looking. Pain still throbbed in his side, ebbing and flowing and spiking with each motion of his arm, but he’d fought through pain before, so he just gritted his teeth and pushed on. 

At this point, there were a few more screams and shouts, and a loud roar rang out from above them, followed by a massive THUD! as something slammed into the deck of the ship. The whole ship shook a little with the impact.

Zuko spun around to see, of course, Appa, carrying Aang and the others. Katara, Sokka, and Yue were already sliding off of Appa’s back, squaring off against a few nearby soldiers who had barely managed to avoid getting crushed under the giant bison.

“Zuko!” Aang yelled. “What are you doing? What happened to running away?”

“Plans change!” Zuko shouted. “Thanks for the help!”

Zuko didn’t get to see how Aang reacted to that, because he felt an impact against his back, and had to spin around and slam his arm against a person who had been trying to tackle him to the ground. The arrow in his side pulsed with pain again, and he nearly stumbled and fell to the ground anyway, but managed to keep to his feet and adopt a practiced stance.

The person who had attacked him staggered backward, knocked off-kilter, which gave Zuko a chance to slash at them with one of his swords. One good hit that cleaved past their armor, leaving a large gash across their midsection. The soldier wavered on their feet, trying to back away from Zuko. Zuko let them, instead turning toward the next attacker that was coming for him. 

And there were many. Probably a dozen or more, scattered about the ship. The deck had erupted into further chaos with the arrival of the bison and the rest of Zuko’s friends. Yue was slinging water, knocking people overboard or freezing them where they stood. Sokka was near her, picking off any stragglers she missed with her waterbending. Aang flew overhead on his glider, expertly spinning and twirling out of the way of enemy archers, and knocked a few of them down from their high perches using his airbending. Katara was holding her own against a couple firebenders with her own waterbending, and seemed to be working her way in Zuko’s direction.

Meanwhile, fire blasts warmed the air all around them, and arrows cluttered the sky. The sounds of metal clanging, of yelling rang from all sides.

Zuko took all of this in from his periphery, keeping his attention focused mostly on the task at hand as he fought his way through the crowds toward his glider. One of the soldiers had picked it up now, and was making his way belowdecks with it.

Zuko knocked away another attack from his right with one of his blades, then made a quick stab in that direction, sending the attacker stumbling and falling to the ground. He started to run toward the man who had taken his glider, doing his best to dodge and parry and force his way through using a combination of his swords, firebending, and airbending (though mostly his swords—old habits died hard). A few people got some nice hits in, but he left a swath of bleeding soldiers in his wake.

As he got closer to the escaping soldier, though, he sheathed his swords, thrust out both hands, and swirled them around themselves before pulling them back towards his body. Wind surged from the other side of the man who was running and blasted against the front of him, causing him to stumble backwards and eventually skid until he was within arm’s reach of Zuko.

“Where do you think you’re going with that?” Zuko demanded, and ignored another pulse of dizzying pain as he reached out to grab the man’s arm and spin him to face him. 

The man stared at him, wide-eyed, for a split second. Then he gritted his teeth and made a quick motion, attempting to pull away from Zuko’s grasp and toss the glider away at the same time. He was fast, but even in his hazy, pain-filled state, Zuko was faster. His hand shot out without thinking and snatched the glider out of the air, then he swung it, two-handed, towards the man’s head like a quarterstaff. It smacked him right in the temple, and the man went down. 

“Zuko!” Katara’s voice yelled from behind him, and he spun just in time for her to crash into him. Her eyes were full of rage. “What are you doing? This wasn’t the plan!”

“Well, I just thought I’d take out the catapult so they wouldn’t keep shooting at us! I didn’t mean to get shot down!”

“You got—” Katara’s eyes widened as she seemed to notice the arrow sticking out of his side for the first time.

If it wasn’t for the adrenaline still coursing through him, he was certain he would have passed out by now, but as it was, he barely even felt the pain—though he was trying very hard not to look down there, for fear that would ruin the illusion.

“That looks bad. We need to get you back to Appa,” Katara said, “and we need to get out of here. Now!”

An explosion of flame hit the deck between them, and Zuko instinctively raised his arms to bend it away—but too late. The fire singed the whole front of his body and sent the two of them scattering to the deck a few feet away from each other. 

Zuko’s world spun for a second, but he managed to keep to his feet, just barely. He smacked the staff against the ground and popped out the wings on the glider, then took to the air and swooped over toward where Katara was just recovering from the blast. 

He held out his hand to her. “Come on!”

Katara reached out and took his hand, and with effort, Zuko lifted them both up into the air.

“Can you keep the projectiles away from me?” Zuko yelled over the wind. It was taking everything in him just to focus on keeping the glider headed in the right direction, toward where Appa was roaring and thrashing his tail over at the bow of the ship.

“Of course!” Katara had already bent a whip of water out of a pouch she kept at her side, and was using it to snatch arrows out of the air and intercept fire bolts that came in their direction.

“Are we leaving?” another voice shouted to Zuko’s left. He glanced over and saw Aang, riding on his own glider. He looked a little singed in various places, and his glider was a little more tattered looking, but otherwise seemed to be fine. 

“I think so!” Katara shouted back. “Where’s my brother? And Yue?”

“I’ll go get them, you guys get to Appa!”

As Zuko swept over the deck, he realized that they had really done a number on the crew. He’d been so focused on what he was doing that he hadn’t realized how much the tide had been turning in their direction, but now he could see that a good portion of the crew was either stumbling around in pain or splayed out on the deck, unmoving. And the rest had been thrown overboard by bending or other means, and were now struggling out in the waves.

They had…won. That was a new feeling. Winning.

Not that he was of sound enough mind to think about that too much.

Zuko and Katara landed on Appa’s back, and almost immediately, Zuko’s strength gave out. His vision blurred, and he had to grab onto Katara’s arm to keep himself from falling down. His glider clattered to the bottom of Appa’s saddle.

“Whoa, whoa, it’s okay.” Zuko felt Katara grab hold of his arms, and she helped him lie down, then knelt down next to him and pulled a wooden stick out of her bag. She handed it to him. “Here, bite down on this. I’m going to have to pull out the arrow before I can heal you, and I don’t want you to bite off your tongue when I do.”

Zuko grabbed the stick. “Can that… happen?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to risk it, though.”

Zuko nodded and put the stick in his mouth. He watched at first while Katara took a deep breath and began bending water out of her pouch and forming it into a glove around one hand. The water started to glow a little, just faintly blue.

When she started to reach out toward the arrow in his side with her other hand, though, he turned his head away, biting down hard on the stick.

“Try to hold still, okay?” Katara said gently. “This is going to hurt.”

He nodded tightly.

Though he was expecting the pain, it still shocked him with how sharp it was. It flooded through him, overwhelming his senses for an instant. His whole body tensed up, and his vision started to tunnel, turning dark at the edges as unconsciousness threatened to take him. He focused as hard as he could on the sensation of his teeth clenching around the stick in his mouth, and managed to stay awake.

The pain was followed almost immediately by a cooling sensation as Katara touched her water-gloved hands against his side, and the pain slowly subsided over the next ten seconds or so as his wounds stitched themselves back together.

Zuko opened his eyes and pulled the stick out of his mouth. He smiled weakly at Katara. “Thanks.”

“Maybe don’t jump off of bison backs next time, okay?” She was already turning away from him as Aang, Yue, and Sokka landed on Appa’s back. They looked bloodied and bruised as well, and Katara began tending to their wounds with her water healing while Aang climbed down onto Appa’s head and told him to take off. 

Zuko pushed himself up to hands and knees and grabbed onto the edge of the saddle to look down at the ship as they left it behind.

Chapter Text

“So where are we going?” Aang called out as they soared up into the air. “Are we headed to the Earth Kingdom now?”

“Well, we probably don’t need to worry about that ship following us anymore,” Zuko said. He was still leaning over the side of Appa’s saddle, staring down at the ship. The ship was basically dead in the water at this point. The few people who had been writhing on the deck had stopped moving, and Zuko could no longer see any of the people who had been thrown overboard struggling in the waves. He didn’t think that ship was going anywhere anytime soon.

He tried to ignore the guilt that was creeping up in the back of his head. He’d prevented the Fire Nation from finding out about the Air Nomads’ secret hideout. That was a good thing, right?

In theory, yes.

Zuko forced himself to turn away from the ship and back toward the others. They all looked as uncomfortable as Zuko felt.

“About that,” Katara said. “What on earth were you thinking, Zuko? I thought the plan was to lead them away from the island. Why on earth would you dive down there?”

“I…” Zuko hesitated. “That fireball got really close to hitting us. I was worried that if we kept the chase up for too long, eventually, one of those fireballs would hit us, and if that happened, there was no way we’d get away. So I went to take out the catapult, but then I got shot down, and well…everything sort of spiraled from there.” He looked down at his lap. “Thank you for coming to save me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Of course we were going to come save you, dummy,” Sokka said. He didn’t seem as bothered by the scenario as everyone else, and he lightly punched Zuko in the shoulder with a grin. 

“I get the logic, Zuko,” Aang said. He had pulled back on Appa’s reins so they were hovering in the air, not moving forward anymore, and turned around in his customary seat on top of Appa’s head to look back at the rest of them in the saddle. “Really, I do. Just… maybe next time you could share the plan with the group? Instead of jumping in without warning?”

“That would have been helpful,” Katara agreed.

“I’m…sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Aang sighed. He glanced in the direction of the ship, and the expression on his face darkened a little. “You know, you’re probably right. It was for the best anyway. This way, the Fire Nation doesn’t know where we were, or where we’re going. We’re still hidden, as far as they’re concerned.”

“And,” Yue said quietly, “your people stay safe. With that ship gone, no one but us knows about the Air Nomads. The island’s location stays hidden, and it’s free to continue on and disappear.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Aang looked over toward the island, which was already farther away on the horizon than it had been when they first got to the ship, the lion turtle slowly making its way through the waters away from them. From this high up, Zuko could even see a wake dragging behind it, barely perceptible unless you knew what you were looking for.

He stared at the island for several seconds in silence, while they all watched him, his expression hard to decipher. After a while, he shook his head and turned back to the rest of them. “I guess we should keep going, then, right?”

“Might as well, right?” Sokka asked. “You already said goodbye, and your family was expecting us to leave today anyway.”

“Yeah. I just wish… I don’t know. We should go.”

Aang started to turn back around to tell Appa to move, but Katara made her way over to him and touched his arm. “Hey, we’ll come back, you know.”

Aang smiled a little, meeting her gaze for a moment before looking over at Zuko. Zuko couldn’t meet his eyes, but tried his best to give him an encouraging smile anyway.

“Yeah,” Aang said. “We’ll be back.” He pulled his arm away from Katara’s touch and gave Appa’s reins a flick. “Yip yip, buddy! We’re headed to the Earth Kingdom.”

Zuko felt the familiar rush of wind as the bison flapped his tail and took off, taking them away from the relative respite that Aang’s home had been and back into the world.

Zuko couldn’t help but notice that, as they flew, Aang kept glancing back toward the island they were leaving behind. He did it the whole day, long after the island had disappeared from view.

That was why, when they finally made camp on an island they came across, while Katara, Sokka, and Yue were distracted with setting up and cooking food, Zuko walked over to where Aang was absent-mindedly brushing Appa’s fur.

“You okay?” Zuko asked, and Aang jumped, spinning to face him.

“Of course I am.” The smile that Aang plastered onto his face was the fakest thing Zuko had ever seen, and he raised an eyebrow. Almost immediately, the smile faltered and fell. “Okay, no, not really.”

Zuko glanced back toward the others for a second, then nodded toward the woods. “Walk with me for a second.”

When they were alone, Zuko said, “Does this have anything to do with your family?”

“Well…maybe. I’m worried about them. When I said goodbye earlier, well…”

“What happened?”

Aang looked at Zuko for a moment, hesitatingly, then began to tell him:

Earlier…

As Zuko climbed out of sight, up into the branches, Aang and his family excused themselves and headed down through the trap door, then made their way into the tiny little house that Aang had grown up in.

It was strange, how small it seemed now.

They gathered in the same chairs they had on that very first day, and Aang gave each member of his family a hug. 

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” Ceba said, and there were tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

Gaden patted him on the arm. “I’m proud of you, Aang. You are truly living up to your great-grandfather’s name.”

Jaya, however, did not look proud, or happy. She sat with arms crossed, watching as his parents doted over him, until eventually she said, “I wish you well, Aang, but… I still think what you are doing is more dangerous than you know. Are you sure we can’t convince you to stay, and let your friends leave without you?”

Aang closed his eyes for a second, pulling away from the warmth of his parents’ love and instead facing his grandmother. “I’m sure, Jaya. As I told you before, I’m not just doing this for myself. I’m doing this for all of you too, so that someday we can go home.”

Jaya’s expression darkened. “This is the only home you have ever known, Aang.”

“But it’s not our home,” Aang said. “Our people’s home. That home is and always should be out there.” He waved vaguely toward the door of the house, indicating the entire rest of the world. “We’ve forgotten that, but I’m hoping that someday I can help our people remember.”

“Unless your foolishness brings death to us all before we can.”

Aang bit down hard on his tongue, while Ceba said, “Jaya, please…”

“You two have always been too soft on the boy,” Jaya said, shaking her head. She stood up and took Aang’s hands in her own, her gray eyes meeting his, and they softened just a little. 

“Aang, I do not wish for this conversation to end on a bad note. I want you to know that I am proud of you, though I do not agree with your methods. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

Aang nodded, looking down. After a few seconds of mulling it over in his mind, he said, “Maybe you should all leave, after we do. Abandon the island. That way if the Fire Nation does suspect, they won’t find anything here. The point of staying on this island was so that we couldn’t be tracked, but no one even knows anyone here to track them, right? Maybe you’d be safer away from here than here.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Jaya’s eyes went hard. “We will not be doing that.”

“But—”

“No, Aang. Our people have been safe on this island for years, hidden away from prying eyes. Need I remind you that the only reason that is not the case now is because of your decision to bring the Avatar here? Once you have left with him in tow, this island will be able to slink back into the shadows where it has always been, and our people will be safe once more.”

“What if you’re not, though? What if—”

“You must promise not to come back here, Aang,” Jaya continued as if he hadn’t said a word. “Not until you have succeeded in your task, and ended the war. Your presence is dangerous. Do not return. Do you understand?”

“I…” Aang tried as hard as he could not to let his voice start shaking. “Yes, I do.”

“Good.” Jaya smiled, just barely, and released her grip on his hands. “Now, goodbye, Aang. I hope we will see you again someday.”

Aang pressed his lips together and looked at the ground for a long moment before finally saying, “I hope so too. Goodbye.” And without waiting for a response, he turned and made his way back up to his friends.

“I know they don’t want me to come back,” Aang said, “but I’m just so worried that maybe somehow the Fire Nation will find out about them because of us, and I won’t be there to help them when they come.”

Zuko placed a hand on his arm. “I think we probably kept that from happening with what we did today on that ship.”

Aang paused for a long time, looking away. “You’re right, I know. It just… I went on a whole spiel to my family about how I left the island in the hopes that someday I could bring my people back to what we were meant to be…and then the very next thing we did was kill a bunch of people, or at least leave them stranded in the middle of the ocean to eventually die. My people are supposed to be pacifists. Maybe my grandmother is right. Maybe I’m not doing what’s best for my people.”

Zuko frowned. “Well… we’ll try to keep the killing to a minimum from here on out, but, Aang…this is a war. People are going to die. People have been dying, for a hundred years. Sometimes you have to do hard things to achieve a greater good.”

Aang was silent for several more seconds, but eventually met Zuko’s eyes and nodded. Then, just as quickly as he had looked at him, he looked away. “Come on, it smells like the food is close to being done.” 

He stepped around Zuko and made his way back into the camp. After a beat, Zuko followed.

Chapter Text

Fire Lord Ozai’s throne room was especially hot today, Azula thought as she carefully took her place at the end of the table nearest her father’s throne. Already, war ministers and generals had gathered, and started bickering over this or that.

As usual, though, one word from her father, and the room fell silent but for the crackle of flame. 

“Have we any news of my son?” he asked.

The silence continued for a moment too long, the generals all looking at each other nervously. Azula kept her face carefully neutral, her expression polite but detached. On the inside, though, she was rolling her eyes. 

“No, my lord,” General Raisu—a balding older man with a short gray goatee and an uncertain expression—said. “Last we heard one of our scouting ships had spotted the bison off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom, but our contact with that ship has gone dark. We believe it may have been discovered.”

“Hmm. How disappointing.” From behind his wall of fire, Father drummed his fingers on the armrest of his throne—the sound of the tap-tap-tapping rang in the room. “I hope you understand how vital it is to our victory in this war that we find my son and…remind him of his duty to his nation?”

“Of course, my lord,” one of the other generals—this one was called Leiyun, a tall woman whose traditional topknot was immaculate, not a hair out of place—said, bowing low even though she was already seated. “It’s just that unfortunately, we have very few leads. This sighting was the first we’d heard of in over a week. They seem to be very skilled at not being found.”

Father simply continued to drum his fingers on his throne. It was impossible to see what his expression was through the flames obscuring the throne, but the silence felt oppressive around them. Azula held down a smile as the silence stretched, as the assembled generals began to sweat.

“We will, of course, devote more resources to finding the Avatar, my lord,” General Raisu finally said. “If that is your will.”

“It is. I believe the Avatar could prove a useful tool, if we can keep him here long enough to talk sense into him.”

At this, though the fire still obscured her father’s face, Azula thought she felt his gaze land on her, just for the briefest of moments, and she did her best not to grimace.

She knew it was not a good idea to speak. She knew that he would shut her down once again. And so she held her tongue and sat through the meeting, listening to the generals discuss war plans and battles and make no headway on their plans to find Zuko.

She waited, quiet and respectful, speaking only when directly addressed, until the meeting was over and the generals left. Even then she still sat, waiting, until she was sure they were long gone, and it was just her, her father, and the crackle of flames.

She didn’t rise from her seat, didn’t look his direction, but she could feel his eyes on her. The flames continued to crackle, until finally, he let them die down, and she could see him again, seated on his throne, looking at her.

“Speak, Azula,” he said. “I can sense you have something you would like to say.”

“Father,” she said, after a beat of silence that was just long enough that she didn’t seem desperate, but not so long that it was disrespectful. “If I might ask once again for your blessing in pursuing my brother’s whereabouts myself? It is unnecessary to divert our forces from the frontline when I can travel more quickly, undetected, and bring him home.”

“Like you did when you captured him at the North Pole? I already trusted you to bring your brother home once, and you failed. You even had him right here on our shores, so close to the final destination, and you let him get away. That does not…spark confidence.”

One failing grade in an otherwise perfect record. That was all it had taken to lose her father’s trust. Azula felt her resolve starting to waver, but she held firm. She would prove herself to him once more. “It was a slight miscalculation,” she admitted, being very careful not to let emotion into her voice or face. “But it is not a mistake I will make again. If you would just allow me to—”

“Azula, we have had this discussion. I cannot risk any more…mistakes.”

Azula’s careful facade began to crack. She held onto her calm demeanor, her measured tone, like her life depended on it. “Your generals have been searching for Zuko ever since he escaped, and they’ve found no leads but one, which has now gone cold. I am the one who discovered his secret in the first place. I’m the one who concocted the plan to infiltrate the Northern Water Tribe. If you would only give me the chance to prove myself to you, I will not let you down this time. I will—”

“That is enough, Azula.”

Azula shut her mouth and bowed her head. Inside, though, she felt cold rage building in her stomach. He was treating her like Zuko. She could do a much better job than these idiot generals. She knew it, and she knew he knew it too. Why was he treating her this way? Why was he wasting her talents?

“You are dismissed,” her father continued, and Azula’s head shot back up, surprised. 

“What?”

“You may go.”

“Father—”

“Now.”

Azula’s expression smoothed into a mask of calm as she bowed to her father and left the room—but she couldn’t quite keep her hands from shaking. 

How dare he?

Chapter Text

Aang had trouble sleeping that night. Bad dreams, images of his hidden village engulfed in a blazing inferno, of his friends and family in the Air Nomads screaming and running and dying. They plagued him through the night, making him toss and turn, waking him several times, until finally, he woke to the feeling of a hand shaking his arm. 

“Huh?” He jumped awake, then calmed when he saw Katara’s face before him. Glancing around, he realized that morning hadn’t come yet, and the others were still asleep around him. He forced a little smile. “Oh. Is it my turn for the watch?”

“Yes,” Katara said, but frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine, why?”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Aang sighed and pushed himself to his feet. “Bad dreams, that’s all.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

Aang looked around at all the people sleeping around him, then back at her, about to say no, she should just go back to sleep. But her expression was open, full of nothing but curiosity and concern. And Aang suddenly remembered that feeling he’d had all those weeks ago, when he’d woken up in her little Water Tribe village. Kinship.

Like him, Katara was the only bender her people had. Like him, she held the weight of an entire culture on her shoulders.

If anyone was going to understand what he was going through, he thought, it would be her. 

And so he found himself nodding. “Will you step away with me?”

“Sure, Aang.”

They stepped around their sleeping friends, careful and quiet, and found a spot past the treeline where they could still see the clearing but could speak without worrying about accidentally rousing anyone.

“So what is it?” Katara asked.

Aang leaned against a tree and searched the sky through the boughs, trying to find the words while Katara waited patiently.

“Can I ask you something?” Aang said.

“Of course.”

“Do you ever regret this? Agreeing to leave with me, to chase down Zuko? You could have stayed home, and your life would be a lot safer.”

“Well, I didn’t leave to chase down Zuko, you know. Not entirely, anyway. I left because I wanted to learn waterbending.”

“Right. Still. You could have stayed. You didn’t have to come with me.”

“I suppose. But then I never would have had the chance to find out more about my culture. We lost so much, and I’ve been able to learn a lot from Yue. It may not be exactly my culture, since the North is so different, but it’s at least more than I had before.”

“Yeah.” Aang sighed.

“Why do you ask?” Katara said. “Does it have to do with your family?”

Aang shifted from foot to foot for a few seconds, not meeting her gaze. “Yeah. I don’t know, I’ve just been…wondering, recently, if I did the right thing. By leaving.”

“Of course you did the right thing, Aang. You’re helping the Avatar. We’re bringing an end to the war. If you hadn’t shown up, Zuko might have never found out what he was, and even if he did, you’re the only person in the entire world who could teach him airbending. How can that not be a good thing?”

“Jaya thinks I’ve put my people in unnecessary danger by leaving the island and revealing that airbenders still exist in the world. And then I brought the Avatar right to them, when I knew we were being chased by the Fire Nation….” He finally looked up and met her gaze. “Katara, I’m terrified.”

“Well, it’s fine to be afraid. I’m scared, too. This is all…very big. Ending a war.”

“Not just that. I think maybe you understand this better than anyone else can, but… Katara, I’m it. I’m the last airbender. I’m all my people have. You, at least, had a sister tribe to go to, and learn from, but me… My culture is dying. It might already be past reviving. I thought that by leaving and finding my own way I could restore it, but what if instead I die, and my people stay stuck on that island, continuing to forget everything that made the Air Nomads what they were? Or worse, what if me leaving leads the Fire Nation to them, and they come to finish the job? Maybe I should have listened to Jaya, and waited out the war, tried to salvage what I could from the inside.”

Katara stepped forward, placing a hand on his arm. Her blue eyes pierced him, and his face and chest warmed.

“Aang, if you had stayed on that island, even if the war did end, you might never have found out, and the Air Nomads might never have had the opportunity to come back. Now, at least, we have a chance to fix what this war has broken. I have to believe that we will succeed, and then we can work on rebuilding both of our cultures, right?”

After a moment, Aang smiled a little. “I think you’re right, Katara. I don’t think Jaya would agree with you, though.”

“Well, then we’ll have to prove her wrong.”

Aang nodded. He broke away from her gaze, looking up at the stars through the boughs of the tree again. “Thanks, Katara. I think I needed this.”

She smiled. “I’m glad I could help. Now, let’s get back to camp. I’d really like to get some sleep.”

It took a while before they finally made it to the Earth Kingdom. First, of course, they had to figure out which direction the Earth Kingdom was in the first place. It turns out that attempting to chart a course from an island that moved presented several unique challenges. It had apparently moved to an entirely different part of the ocean during the week they had been there, so it took a bit to get their bearings. 

Luckily, Zuko had spent three years living on a ship, and both Sokka and Katara had a fair amount of experience with tracking and navigation thanks to living in their Water Tribe village. With those skills combined, it didn’t take them too long to figure out where they were located on the map, and from there, to figure out the best way to get themselves to Ba Sing Se.

Unluckily, however, they were far from Ba Sing Se. Zuko, Katara, and Yue spent as much time as they could training, Aang flying low enough to the ocean’s surface that they could reach it with their bending. Or Katara and Yue could, anyway. Zuko still hadn’t managed to bend a single drop.

On the other hand, his airbending was getting pretty good, at least according to Aang. Zuko knew very well that he would never be as good an airbender as Aang was, but air came easily to him now, and every lesson he had, he felt like he was making good progress.

He gravitated more towards lessons with Aang for that reason, though he knew that he couldn’t avoid Yue’s lessons, as much as he may have wanted to.

Once they made it to the mainland Earth Kingdom, the waterbending lessons slowed significantly. Without constant access to large amounts of water, they had to make do with the water they carried with them and any rivers, ponds, or streams they could find when they settled down to camp.

Another reason why the lessons slowed, Zuko thought, was because Yue seemed to be almost as frustrated as Zuko was with his lack of progress in waterbending. She did a decent job of hiding it, but Zuko could sometimes see it simmering under the surface.

It didn’t help that Katara seemed to be excelling at waterbending. Her aptitude didn’t surprise Zuko in the least; he’d always known that once she got her hands on a proper master she’d be an excellent study. But it did make him feel a little useless. It was like Azula all over again—except Katara was much nicer to be around.

In fact—not that he would ever admit this to Yue—he seemed to learn more from just watching and listening to Katara than from Yue’s actual lessons. She would often stop him after lessons and give him encouragement or pointers, and though he hadn’t figured out how to do the actual “controlling water” part of waterbending, he had gotten pretty good at the forms, if nothing else.

Not that being able to flow through some stances would be all that helpful if they got into a fight and he needed to waterbend. But that was what Katara and Yue were there for, he supposed.

Of course, Zuko hoped that they wouldn’t get into a fight anytime soon—but he wasn’t naive enough to think that they would be that lucky. They’d taken out that ship, and they were trying to avoid towns as much as they could while they traveled toward Ba Sing Se, so the Fire Nation still probably didn’t know exactly where they were, but they would be searching, Zuko had no doubt.

He tried not to think too hard about it, instead distracting himself with the day-to-day. Travel, hunting, gathering, tracking.

And training.

“Okay.” Yue clapped her hands together, a steely look in her blue eyes. The group of them—including Sokka and Aang, who were off to the side, clearly pretending not to pay attention to what they were doing—were standing next to the stream they’d been following for the past few days. “One more try. I feel like you’re close this time.”

Am I? Zuko thought doubtfully, but he fell into his stance nonetheless.

Katara had finished with her own training for the day, and instead stood next to Yue as an assistant. She had taken to doing that on occasion, sometimes because Yue asked her to, sometimes of her own accord.

“Step into the water.”

Zuko did, though somewhat reluctantly. It was cool, but not uncomfortably so, gently sliding around his ankles as it moved with the rest of the stream. His feet were bare, his pants rolled up almost to the knees, so he felt every rock and branch on the bottom of the stream, felt the soft mud beginning to mush between his toes. Those were uncomfortable feelings, so, grimacing, he tried to block them from his mind and focus on the water alone.

Yue continued talking, as he stood there. Repeating things he’d heard before. Water was all about balance, about the push and pull. Turning your opponent’s offense into your defense.

He tried to internalize the words, to feel that connection you needed for bending…and for the first time, he thought he felt something new at the edges of his consciousness, something cool and soothing, like the water that brushed against his ankles.

As Yue and Katara guided him for what felt like the hundredth time through some basic waterbending forms, he tried to reach for that feeling. Eyes fixed on the water around him, he moved his body in that same simple motion they’d started him with a few weeks before, rocking back and forth as his hands moved back and forth with him.

And there was…something. A whisper that brushed at his ear. The water around him still did not respond to his call… but maybe if he tried a little harder…

He glared at the water in front of him and, doing another motion he knew by rote, stepped back on one foot as he raised his hands in front of him. In his mind’s eye, he imagined a globule of water pulling itself up out of the stream and hovering there before him.

The water around him seemed to slow in its flow—or was that his imagination? That soothing feeling was closer now, an arm’s length away. He tried reaching out to it in his mind, holding it in his hand.

A small section of the water in front of him started to burble up, almost imperceptibly, so slight that he almost thought it was his imagination, and he felt a spark of excitement. Come on, come on…

But just as soon as that happened, it all went away, the feeling of closeness sliding through his fingers like…. well, like water. And all he was left with was burning frustration.

“That was good, Zuko!” Yue said, and Zuko turned toward her and Katara. “You’re close, I think. A little longer, and you’ll be there.”

“Did you… see?” Zuko asked. Both Katara and Yue frowned.

“See what?” Katara asked.

“I think I… I thought I…bent it. A little.”

Katara and Yue glanced at each other. “I didn’t see anything,” Yue said. “But if you felt that, it’s an even better sign!”

That frustration burned a little hotter. “You didn’t see anything?”

“No, Zuko, I’m sorry.”

Zuko let out a harsh breath and stepped out of the water. He dried off his feet and slid them back into his shoes, his motions a little jerkier and more aggressive than they probably needed to be.

He’d been trying really hard not to let his temper overflow the way he used to, but it was always a battle inside him. It threatened to bubble over more and more frequently with each failed waterbending lesson.

Had all of that just been his imagination? Since Katara and Yue didn’t seem to notice anything, he had to assume it was, but….

“I think maybe if you tried again,” Yue was saying, “we might be getting somewhere.”

Zuko shook his head and fixed her with a glare. “You’ve been saying that every lesson for the past week. Nothing is working. And this time… I swear I felt something, but you didn’t even see it?” He turned from the stream and walked away.

After a brief pause, he heard Katara and Yue’s footsteps behind him, following him toward the place where Aang and Sokka were setting up their camp for the night.

They had cleared out of a little area in the center of the camp and arranged some sticks and logs there for a campfire, but as had become customary, they’d left lighting it to Zuko. He picked up a stick off the top of the pile and set it aflame with barely a thought, relishing the feeling of the energy surging into his hand. After a few seconds of watching the flames flicker on the wood, his skin started to tingle with pain as the fire came close to burning his fingers, so he dropped the stick back onto the pile. With an inhale and a subtle motion of his hand, he made the fire spread to the other sticks and logs until there was a nice campfire crackling before him. That, at least, was still easy.

“Done with waterbending for the day, Zuko?” Aang asked, looking over from Appa’s saddle as Zuko plopped down next to the flames and stared at them.

“Yeah.”

Behind him, Katara’s voice spoke up, “You know, Zuko, I think maybe we’ve been pushing you a little too hard.”

He flinched as he felt the touch of a hand on his shoulder, and looked up into her understanding blue eyes. Understanding, and yet looking into them he felt nothing but shame.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Unable to handle looking her in the eye any longer, he turned back to the flames.

“Well…” She glanced over toward Aang. “You gave me some good advice a while ago, Aang, when I was struggling with my bending. Do you remember what it was?”

“Oh, uh…yeah, sure.” Aang scratched at his head like he was not sure at all. “I definitely remember, it was very good…. Uh, what was it again?”

Katara laughed a little. “You told me that sometimes when you hit a block, you need to take a break from whatever you’re having trouble with and work on other things for a while. Then when you come back to it, you might have a new perspective that helps you understand something you didn’t before.”

“Oh. Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I?”

She nodded, then refocused her attention on Zuko. “With that in mind, Zuko, Yue and I talked about it, and we think maybe instead of continually smashing our heads against the wall until you get it, we should put your waterbending training on hold for a little bit and just focus on getting to Ba Sing Se.”

Sokka crawled out of the tent he was finishing and stood up to pat the dust off his pant legs. “Maybe we could try to find him an earthbending teacher in the meantime?” he suggested. “I get taking a break and all, but we are still on a time crunch, right?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Katara said. “The Avatar cycle is the way it is for a reason. I don’t think you’re supposed to go out of order.”

“How do you know?” Sokka demanded. “Are you suddenly the expert on all things Avatar?”

“Zuko?” Aang asked, as Katara turned to glare at her brother.

Zuko chewed on his lip. During this conversation, he had not looked up from the fire, just listened and watched out of his periphery. “I don’t know. I don’t exactly have anyone to teach me how to be the Avatar. No one’s seen one in a hundred years!” 

That came out more aggressively than he wanted it to, and the fire in front of him flared in response to his emotions. He forced himself to pause, take a deep breath, and finally looked away from the flames to meet Aang’s gaze. “I did a lot of research on the Avatar, though, while I was…you know, hunting for them. For me?” He sighed. “Anyway, there’s not much information out there, because the Fire Nation has spent the past hundred years trying to wipe as many records of the Avatar as possible. But I know that most of the time, Avatars learn the elements in order, starting with their native element and then following the Avatar cycle. So for me, it’d be fire, air, water, earth. Going out of order... It’s not recommended, but it’s not unheard of, either. Avatar Kyoshi sort of did it.”

“Do you want to?” Yue asked.

“Not really,” Zuko said. “But I don’t see how we have much choice. I have to learn all the elements at some point, and I have very little time to do it, if my vision’s right. Water clearly isn’t working for me right now, but I can’t afford to wait until it clicks. If there’s a chance I can get a head start on earthbending, it might be worth it.”

Katara crossed her arms with a frown. “I’ll go along with whatever you want to do, Zuko, but I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Well, we don’t need to worry about it right now, anyway,” Aang said. “We might not even be able to find him an earthbending master.”

“We definitely won’t if we keep avoiding towns the way we have been,” Sokka said. “Part of the plan was to try to make connections, right? Find people who can help us, and who might even be able to get us an in with the Earth King when we get to Ba Sing Se? I know we’re worried about the Fire Nation finding us, but honestly, we haven’t seen evidence that they’re tracking us aside from the one ship back at the island, and we made sure that ship couldn’t relay any information. We’re going to have to start getting bolder.”

Zuko tried to squash the spike of fear that shot into his chest at the thought, and nodded slowly. “You’re probably right, Sokka. It’s time we stop hiding in the woods.”

If he was being honest with himself, part of the reason why he’d been keeping to the woods for so long was because he was still a little scared to face strangers as the Avatar. He’d gotten used to referring to himself that way around his friends and to himself, but other people were more complicated. Even the Air Nomads had been isolated. But when they started visiting towns in earnest, he knew he’d have to admit publicly who and what he was, and he worried that it would backfire.

After all, how could the world do anything but scoff at the Avatar born as the crown prince of the Fire Nation, a country that had been wreaking havoc on the rest of the world for a century? He expected there to be nothing but hate toward him, and really, could he blame anyone for feeling that way?

No.

Chapter Text

Zuko walked down a crowded walkway in Gaoling, full of people dressed in the greens and browns of the Earth Kingdom. Though he tried his hardest not to, he couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder every once in a while, worried that he would see a Fire Nation soldier rounding the corner at any second.

Luckily, the southern parts of the Earth Kingdom were still relatively untouched by the Fire Nation. Most of the occupied towns and villages were along the western coast of the continent, nearest to the Fire Nation. They hadn’t seen any soldiers since they got into town. Still, Zuko worried.

It didn’t help his concerns that people stared at him wherever he went. Most of them were trying not to be overt about it, but Zuko’s paranoia made him notice them anyway.

He tried to remind himself that it probably wasn’t recognition that spawned those stares—more likely, it was the scar on his face, though now that his hair was longer and worn loose, he could hide it better than he could before. Even so, the scar was always the first thing people noticed about him.

He made sure to walk in the middle of the group and turn his scarred side away from where the most people were. 

It was a small comfort, or perhaps even more concerning, that at least he wasn’t the only one in the group who stood out. Sokka, Yue, and Katara all still dressed in Water Tribe blue and white, which contrasted sharply with the muted browns and greens Aang, Zuko, and most of the townspeople wore. Yue especially stuck out like a sore thumb, with her bright white hair and her robes, which, though tattered and torn from her time on Azula’s ship, were clearly of a finer make than anyone else’s.

Zuko made a mental note to get her some different clothes while they were here, if they could.

She stuck by Sokka’s side, keeping her head slightly bowed and her arm looped through his, but she drew just as many stares as Zuko, if not more.

“What exactly are we trying to do here?” she asked as they pushed their way into a busy central market square. This was on the bigger side, as towns went, and a fair number of merchant stalls dotted the square, Several dozen marketgoers wandered around with baskets, occasionally stopping to talk with the merchants.

“We need to get some intel,” Sokka said. “I figure the best place to start with that kind of thing is the market, right?”

“Well, that depends on what kind of information you’re looking for,” Zuko said. “If you want information on the war, normal townsfolk probably aren’t going to know much, especially not this far away from the front lines.”

Sokka frowned. “It’s worth a try, right?”

“We should get some supplies anyway,” Katara said. “I for one am glad we don’t have to hunt for food anymore.”

“Maybe we could try to get some work, too?” Zuko suggested. “I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t have any money.”

The others all stopped and looked at each other, as if they hadn’t considered that part before now. To be honest, Zuko himself had almost forgotten. They had all spent the past month or two either in hiding or trapped in a jail cell on a ship, so it was strange to realize that they were entering society again, and for that, they would need money.

“That’s a good point,” Aang said with a laugh. “Do you think maybe any of these people will hire us for something?”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask, I guess,” Katara said.

With that, they all began walking into the marketplace proper. Zuko tried to relax a little, so he wasn’t so suspicious, walking around and looking over his shoulder every few seconds, but he couldn’t help but keep half an ear open to the conversations around him, listening for mentions of the Fire Nation or the Avatar.

He didn’t find anything of that nature, but he did hear something else that caught his attention. They walked past a couple of young Earth Kingdom boys—probably not much older than Aang—who giggled and whispered to each other as they loitered near a fruit stall where two adults who might have been their parents haggled with the merchant. 

“I heard that the Blind Bandit is going to be competing in the Earth Rumble tonight,” one of them said. “We’ve gotta be there!”

“We have to figure out a way to get out of the house first,” the other boy said.

Zuko glanced toward the others. All of them were seemingly distracted with other things, looking around at the stalls. But Aang caught his eye.

Earth Rumble? he mouthed, and Zuko nodded.

Without further discussion, Aang broke away from the group and walked right up to the boys.

“What are you—” Zuko began, but it was already too late.

“Hi!” Aang said, in his cheerful way, and both of the boys spun in his direction, startled. “I heard you say something about an Earth Rumble? What’s that?”

At this point, the rest of the group had noticed Aang’s departure. 

“What’s going on?” Sokka asked no one in particular. “What is he doing?” 

Zuko waved at the others to move on. “Keep going, we’ll catch up.”  He started to inch in Aang’s direction.

Meanwhile, the boys had taken a step back from Aang. Looking at them more closely, they definitely seemed to be siblings. They had similar builds and face structures, with the typical black hair and green eyes of the Earth Kingdom. One of them was a little taller, with slightly less rounded features, so Zuko guessed he was probably the older one. He wore a green tunic layered over top of a long-sleeved brown shirt and ankle-length brown pants, and his feet were bare, unlike his brother’s, which indicated he was probably an earthbender.

He was the one who spoke up first, frowning in Aang’s direction. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And what are you doing listening in on strangers’ conversations?”

“You weren’t being very quiet. What’s the Earth Rumble?”

The other boy got a big grin on his face and looked around conspiratorially. “Who’s asking?”

“I’m Aang.” Aang smiled, then glanced over his shoulder toward where Zuko stood a few feet away. “And this is Zuko.”

Zuko winced, but luckily the boys didn’t seem to pick up on the obviously Fire Nation nature of the name. He made another mental note—this time, that they needed to come up with fake names if they were going to be reentering society. The younger boy smiled even wider and opened his mouth as if to speak, but the older boy put a hand out to stop him and narrowed his eyes at Aang and Zuko.

“What’ll you give us if I tell you?”

“Uh…gratitude?” Aang said. 

“If you don’t want to tell us freely,” Zuko said, not stepping any closer but resting a casual hand on the hilt of the swords that hung at his waist, “I can always follow you later and find it out for myself.”

Aang shot a surprised glance at him, and Zuko felt a flash of guilt—was he really threatening a couple of kids? But Aang recovered his expression quickly as both boys glanced between each other.

“Uh…uh, no, that’s okay, sir,” the older boy said. “The Earth Rumble is a earthbending competition that’s held every once in a while. It’s pretty hush-hush, we’re not really supposed to talk about it.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow, and the boy rushed to start talking again, lowering his voice to barely a whisper. “But there’s a secret entrance behind the butcher’s shop.” He gestured in a vaguely northwestern direction. “It’s about two blocks down that way, the building with the sign out front that has a picture of a pig on it. The entrance leads down to the arena where the competition is held. I can’t tell you much more than that, but if you’ve got the coin, they’ll let you in.”

Zuko exchanged a glance with Aang. Coin. That was going to be problematic. But he just nodded. “Thanks for all your help, kid.”

“Yeah, no problem.” The older boy tugged on his brother’s sleeve, and they both walked away as fast as they could.

Aang and Zuko looked at each other. 

“I guess we really need to get that work now, huh?” Aang said.

“Or we could not go,” Zuko said. 

“Well, after terrifying those poor kids, I feel like we have to. Plus, it sounds really cool, don’t you think? An earthbending tournament? What if we can find you a master there?”

“I don’t know if the sort of people who compete in underground bending tournaments are really going to be earthbending-master material, Aang.”

“What are you talking about?” Katara asked. She and the others had returned, having apparently noticed that Zuko and Aang were alone now.

“We found out there’s an earthbending competition happening tonight in some underground arena,” Aang said, his voice a whisper. “I think we should go.”

“That sounds awesome!” Sokka said, at the same time that Katara and Yue looked at each other uncertainly.

“Do we really have time to be going to things like that?” Katara asked. “Shouldn’t we be trying to find someone who can give us connections in Ba Sing Se?”

“Well, maybe this can,” Aang said. “Or at least, it might give us a lead. Besides, maybe we can find Zuko an earthbending master.”

Zuko winced. “Maybe talk a little quieter, Aang? We don’t want to go around advertising to everybody that”—he lowered his voice even more and glanced around. There were a handful of people looking at their group strangely, but he didn’t think they were any different from the strange looks they’d been getting all day—“the Avatar is in town.”

“Technically, Zuko,” Katara said, with a tiny smirk, “you’re the one who said it, not Aang.”

Zuko glared at her, and she just smiled back at him and gave him a good-natured poke in the ribs. “I’m just messing with you.” Then, turning back to Aang. “You guys already know how I feel about finding an earthbending master, but I guess it could be fun to go to this competition anyway.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Yue said.

Sokka looked at her with big, pleading eyes. “C’mon, Yue, it’ll be fun! We haven’t had fun in a while.”

Yue studied him for a few seconds, then softened with a sigh. She looked away. “If you all want to go, then I will go too. But I doubt we’ll find anything useful there.”

“Well, the thing is,” Aang said. “The kids we talked to said that you need money to be able to get in, so we need to find a way to get some before tonight or this whole conversation was pointless.”

“I think I might have an idea for that,” Sokka said. “While you guys were doing your talking, we were scouting around, and…” He pointed to the opposite side of the square, where there was a large building with a sign above the intricately carved double doors that read “Master Yu’s Earthbending Academy” and then underneath that, standing on an easel next to the door, there was another sign:

Master Yu’s Earthbending Academy 25th Annual Anniversary Celebration (sponsored by the honorable Beifong family)

Come help us in celebrating 25 years of great achievements at Master Yu’s Earthbending Academy! Looking for servers, entertainers, and runners for immediate hire to staff the event. Inquire within for more information.

“It doesn’t give a date,” Aang said. “What if it’s not for another week or something? We can’t stick around that long.”

“Well, it says ‘immediate hire,’” Sokka said. “So I’m guessing the event’s probably pretty soon, right?”

“Also.” Katara shook her head in amusement. “I can’t believe I’m the one saying this, but we should probably go there anyway, since it’s…an earthbending school? And you’re looking for a potential earthbending master?”

“Oh yeah, that too,” Sokka said, looking a little sheepish.

Zuko shook his head, exasperated. “Let’s just go.” He started stalking across the square toward the building, and after a second, the rest of his friends followed.

Chapter Text

Zuko pushed through the double doors without bothering to knock—which, he realized a second too late, was probably not the best way to ingratiate himself to a potential employer.

Inside, he found a stone entry hall, bereft of furniture aside from a wide stone desk in the center of the room, where a young man in a yellow and green tunic started and looked up as the group entered.

The room—and probably the whole building—had clearly been made with earthbending. The desk seamlessly melded into the floor. There were several stone placards lining the walls listing the various awards the academy, and Master Yu specifically, had received during the twenty-five years of the school’s existence. The placards also appeared to have been formed out of the wall rather than hung up, though they’d been painted with vibrant colors to stand out against the gray stone.

There were four stone doors, two on each side, leading to offshoot chambers. The doors were closed at the moment, but Zuko guessed based on the numbers carved into them and the faint sounds of grunting and thudding from the other side, that they were probably classrooms.

On the wall opposite the one they came through, behind the desk where the man sat, there was another set of double doors almost as intricate as the front door. Presumably those went to some sort of office area.

The man at the desk recovered from his surprise and stood up with a welcoming smile. “Hello, and welcome to Master Yu’s Earthbending Academy. My name is Moha. How can I help you today?”

“We saw the sign outside your door,” Zuko said, “asking for people to help with the anniversary party? We’d like to sign up.”

“Well, maybe,” Sokka cut in, stepping up next to Zuko. “We’d like some more information about it, at least.”

“Yeah, your sign was a little vague,” Aang said.

Moha nodded, and began digging under his desk for something. There was the rustle of parchment, before he pulled out a few sheets and spread them out on the desk. “Well, you understand, this is a private event for the students, parents, and staff of the academy, so we can’t put all the information out on a sign for the whole town to see.”

They all looked at each other for a second and shrugged.

“I suppose that makes sense,” Katara said.

Moha nodded. Then he looked them over critically. “All of you want to sign up?”

They nodded.

“Very well. I will lay out the basic parameters of what the job would entail, but ultimately it is up to Master Yu and Lao Beifong, who’s sponsoring the event, to determine whether or not you are a suitable match for the position. If you wish to pursue this, I can set you up to meet with them after we’ve spoken. First of all, what are your names?”

They gave them, and then he launched into an explanation of the event. They had already filled most of the positions listed on the ad outside, but they were short on servers, which is what they would need Zuko and the others to do. The event was being held in just a few hours, immediately after classes let out for the day, and it would be held in the Beifong family gardens, on their private estate just outside of the town proper.

“Who are these Beifong people you keep mentioning?” Aang asked, and Moha’s eyes went wide. 

“You don’t know who the Beifongs are?” he asked. “Where are you from, exactly?”

“Uh…” Aang shifted uncomfortably, and Katara jumped in. 

“Well, as you can probably tell, the three of us”—indicating herself, Sokka, and Yue—“are Water Tribe, and Aang and Zuko are from… further west. We’re just looking to get a little extra money as we pass through on our way northeast.”

Moha nodded uncertainly, looking over first the Water Tribe citizens, then focusing his attention on Zuko and Aang. His eyes went a little wide when they landed on Zuko. Noticing the scar, hopefully, instead of the telltale Fire Nation gold of his eyes. Zuko tilted his head down and away slightly, partially self-conscious, partially cautious. The one good part of the scar is that it tended to distract people from the eyes.

“Oh, I see,” Moha said with a nod as he quickly looked away. “Refugees, then?”

“Yes,” Zuko said quietly, glancing at Aang, who nodded along silently.

“We don’t get too many of those around here.”

“I guess you don’t hear much about the war, either?” Sokka asked. “We’ve been…uh, out of commission for a while, and we came here hoping to get work, but also maybe some information?”

“I’m just the receptionist. You’d probably have better luck asking the Beifongs when you meet them.” He glanced at Aang. “In answer to your earlier question, they’re one of the most powerful noble families in this part of the Earth Kingdom, with connections stretching all the way to Ba Sing Se, or so I hear. If anyone in this town is going to know about the goings on of the war, it’d be them.”

They all exchanged glances, and Zuko could tell they were all thinking the same thing: all the way to Ba Sing Se? How interesting. That could be useful.

“Anyway,” Moha said, “your job would be to help set up before the event, serve food to the guests during the dinner portion, provide refreshments during the soiree afterwards, and then help with clean up. The total compensation will be one gold per person for the event.”

“And how long is it?” Katara asked, at the same time that Sokka said, “One gold? That’s it?”

Ignoring Sokka, Moha smiled at Katara and said, “The event is expected to last two to three hours, including cleanup.” He stood up from his seat. “Now, would you like me to arrange the meeting?”

“Please!” Aang said excitedly, and behind him, Sokka grumbled to Yue.

Zuko barely caught what he said: “There’s no way that’ll be enough money to get into the tournament. Surely you need more than five gold pieces for that kind of thing, right?”

“I don’t know, Sokka,” Yue replied under her breath as Moha led the group beyond the double doors behind his desk. “I’ve never been to one. Besides, the money’s not the important part, is it? We’re meeting people with high-level connections; this is exactly what we came here for.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to go to that Earth Rumble,” Sokka said, a little whiny, and Yue laughed quietly. 

“Maybe we’ll still get you in there,” she said, patting him on the arm.

They stepped through the door behind Moha into a large central courtyard with similar doors leading to the right, left, and straight ahead. The courtyard itself consisted of a sandy floor with several short pillars spaced around the middle. Zuko guessed it was probably used for earthbending training, though it was currently empty aside from them. 

Moha led them to the door on the opposite side of the courtyard and knocked on the door. “Master Yu?”

They waited a few seconds, and then the door cracked open and a man poked his head out. He was an older man with a long goatee, and a thin mustache whose sides didn’t connect in the middle, but which extended past his chin. Some of his long, black hair was piled atop his head in a topknot secured with a dark green and yellow band, which matched the dark green and yellow robes he wore. The rest of the hair continued long and straight down to his mid-back.

“Yes?” He frowned at the group before him. “Why are you disturbing me right now, Moha?”

“These people are applying to be servers during today’s event, sir.”

“Oh? Wonderful! Come in, come in. Thank you, Moha.”

Moha bowed and stepped aside as Master Yu ushered the group through the door. Just before he closed it behind them, he said to Moha, “Could you also send word to the Beifong estate letting them know that I will likely be arriving with this group in a few minutes?”

“Of course, Master Yu.” And the door closed.

Inside was a lavishly decorated, unnecessarily large office. It stood in sharp contrast to the relatively austere appearance of the rest of the facility they’d seen thus far. Silks draped the walls in various bright shades of green and yellow, and the chairs and desks in here were not stone formed directly from the floor or walls, but wooden ones with intricate carvings and colorful paint. Behind Master Yu’s desk, a massive window that covered nearly the entirety of the far wall showed a beautiful view of the landscape that surrounded the city. More plaques also adorned the walls and tables in here, proclaiming the various achievements and awards Master Yu had received since founding the academy.

“Sit, sit, please!” Master Yu said, waving his hands toward the chairs arranged in front of his desk as he walked around to the other side of it. 

Unfortunately, there were only three chairs, so Zuko and Aang remained standing behind the chairs while Sokka, Yue, and Katara sat. 

“So, you have already heard what will be required for the job, yes?” 

They all nodded, and Master Yu smiled. “Great. Well, this is mostly perfunctory, but I do have a couple screening questions I need to run you through before we can move on to see Mr. Beifong.” He pulled out a piece of parchment from behind his desk and began reading off of it. 

After only a couple of these questions, Sokka cut in and said, “Uh, Master Yu, sir? We actually had a few questions for you, if you don’t mind?”

“Hang on, hang on, let me get through this first, and then we’ll move on to the next step, okay?”

Sokka looked a little annoyed, but nodded. 

They went through the next few questions quickly, before Master Yu finally nodded and put away the piece of parchment. “Alright, well, you seem to be well-qualified from what I can tell, but we’ll need approval from the Beifong family before we can officially sign you on. I was about to head up to their estate for an appointment anyway, but if Moha has done as I requested, they should be expecting your presence as well. Would you care to join me?”

Everyone nodded, though Sokka did mutter under his breath, “This sure seems like a lot of prep work for an event where they’re only paying a gold per person.”

Master Yu’s eyes tightened a little at the comment, but before he could say anything, Aang jumped in with: “We’d be happy to travel with you to the Beifong estate, but first—we noticed that this is an earthbending academy. We were actually interested in finding an earthbending master, so could we maybe ask you any information you might have about that?”

Master Yu raised an eyebrow, looking them—and particularly Yue, Sokka, and Katara in their obviously-not-Earth-Kingdom clothing—over. “You’re earthbenders?”

“No,” Aang said. “Well—most of us aren’t. It’s a little com—”

“I’m an earthbender,” Zuko said, before Aang could dig that hole too deeply.

Master Yu’s gaze moved from Aang to Zuko, and his eyebrows somehow rose even higher. “You seem a little old to be looking to enroll. Most of our students start much younger. How much training have you had?”

“Uh… none, sir.” Zuko tried not to wince. 

Katara glanced over at him, her expression very clearly saying, Just tell him. But Zuko wasn’t certain that was a good idea. He tried not to meet her gaze, and she frowned at him. 

“None at all? Unusual for someone your age.”

“I, uh… I’m from the, uh…” Katara’s eyes kept needling him, and he sighed, abandoning the lie that he’d been trying to form in his head. “I’m the Avatar, and I’m in search of an earthbending master.”

Zuko wasn’t sure how he had been expecting Master Yu to react to that statement, exactly—but laughter had certainly not featured on the list. And yet, after a half-second of silence, Master Yu did just that.

“That seems highly unlikely, boy,” he said once he’d recovered enough to speak, “considering that the Avatar hasn’t been seen in over a hundred years.”

Zuko frowned in confusion, glancing at his friends. Most of them seemed confused as well. 

“He’s telling the truth, sir,” Katara said. “He really is—”

Master Yu waved her off. “Yes, yes. You think you’re the first person who’s come to this school over the years claiming to be special, chosen by the spirits, even declaring themself the Avatar? I’ve heard it all. I don’t know if you noticed the placards in the halls, but this is a very prestigious school, with a strict enrollment policy. And, no offense intended, but I have to say”—he looked over Zuko’s clothing appraisingly once more—“you don’t look like you could afford my lessons, Avatar.”

Normally, words like that would have evoked a self-righteous anger in Zuko, but he was so stunned that he could do nothing but stare.

Aang tried, “But—”

Before he could say another word, Master Yu had gotten out of the seat and crossed to the door. “However, you do seem reasonably well suited for a job as servers, despite your falsehoods. So let’s go, shall we? Time is wasting, and the Beifongs should not be kept waiting.”

Without waiting for a response, he pushed open the door and stepped through.

The group all stared at each other in stunned silence for a moment, before Zuko finally shook himself and went after Master Yu, the others following behind him.

Chapter Text

The group walked in silence behind Master Yu, making their way toward the estate outside of the city that was apparently the Beifong’s. As they walked, Aang kept glancing over at Zuko, who still seemed to be reeling from the way Master Yu had reacted to his claim of being the Avatar.

He didn’t think it would be a good time to ask him about it, though, with Master Yu right there, so instead he shared a concerned glance with Katara. 

Luckily, the walk to the outside of the estate wasn’t particularly long, so they only had to endure a few minutes of awkward silence.

The walls outside of the estate were constructed of a beautiful white stone, topped with a green overhang, and hanging above the towering double doors that marked the entrance to the grounds was a massive golden symbol of a flying boar. The two guards stationed to either side of those doors, who stepped forward to greet Aang and the others as they approached, had that same symbol embroidered in shimmering golden thread over the left breast of their finely tailored uniforms. 

“What's your business?” one of the guards asked. “We are busy preparing for the celebration later today. The master of the house is not currently accepting guests.”

“You mean you don’t recognize me, Jiahao?” Master Yu asked with a grin, stepping to the front of the group. “I believe a runner should have been by, to let you know I was coming. I am Master Yu, as you well know, and these people are looking to work at the event. They will need to speak with the master of the house to gain final approval—and of course I am also here for my regular appointment with the family’s treasure.” He bowed a little at those last words.

The family’s treasure? That sounded like code for something. Aang glanced at his friends surreptitiously. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who had noticed, because the others were all glancing between each other as well.

The guards both nodded. “Please allow us a moment while we confirm they are ready to accept you.”

One of the guards remained at the gate and returned to his post, ignoring their group and staring beyond them at the path, while his companion cracked open one of the doors just enough to fit himself through and slipped in. Aang craned his neck, trying to get a glimpse of the grounds, but all he saw was a flash of green—maybe grass?—before the door closed.

A few more minutes passed while they waited for the guard to return, and Sokka apparently got sick of the silence because he started making nervous conversation with the guard who was still there. 

“So… the Beifongs. You like working for them?”

The guard’s eyes narrowed a little, but he didn’t respond. 

“Do you live here, on the estate?” Sokka asked. “Or do you live in town?”

Still no response. 

“I like that spear you’re carrying. It looks very well made. I usually prefer smaller weapons, myself. Easier to maneuver. Do you—” 

Katara elbowed him. “Sokka, I don’t think he wants to talk.”

“Right, sorry.” Sokka laughed and reached up to tighten the wolf tail his hair was tied up into.

They lapsed back into silence for about a minute before the guard finally returned. 

“You are admitted. I will escort you to the meeting chambers. Please follow me directly, and do not stray.”

The guards opened both doors wide to let them enter, and Aang gasped despite himself.

The grounds were gorgeous, and huge. The whole front half of the space inside the walls was occupied by a massive garden with walking paths and artfully placed trees and flowers and water features and a few hedge sculptures. In the middle of the garden, where the paths all intersected, he could already see the large fountain with a carving of that same flying boar as its centerpiece. 

That had to be the family crest, right? Or else this Beifong guy was really obsessed with flying boars.

Beyond the garden, Aang could see multiple white stone buildings with green roofs, all of various sizes and shapes, but with one larger, multi-tiered building all the way at the back of the estate.

Aang wanted to spend hours in here, just wandering around and looking at the garden, but the guard escorting them kept a fast pace that didn’t allow for gawking, so Aang had to make do with quick glances out of the corners of his eyes. 

He also had to keep reminding himself not to airbend. He’d gotten sloppy with that again, after spending a month or more surrounded by people who already knew he was an airbender, but now that they were back in society again, he needed to keep that in check. After all, the Fire Nation was after them, not only for Zuko, but also for Aang himself. If they could leave as little a trail as possible until they got to Ba Sing Se, that would be better.

Just as they had passed the fountain and started down a path between a copse of trees on their left and a large, beautiful pond on their right, Aang thought he saw movement in the trees, and his eyes darted that way. 

There was nothing there, but Aang was almost certain there had been something. A flash of white and green, moving between the trees. He shook his head and turned away. The sun was on that side of the sky. Maybe it had just been sunlight catching his eye the wrong way. 

He wasn’t so sure about that, though, and a part of him kept an eye out for another glimpse as they continued toward the big building at the back of the estate.

He didn’t see anything else, and as the guard led them into the main building, Aang decided it had probably been nothing. 

The house they walked into was nicely decorated, not in the garish style of Master Yu’s office, but in a simple, elegant way. The same flying boar symbol did show up in several places, but most of them weren’t as glaring as some of the outdoor decor had been.

They walked through a few beautiful hallways until they came to a doorway with a sliding door that was currently closed. The guard waved for them to step back while he knocked on the door and called out, “Sir, ma’am, I have brought the guests I told you about.”

After a moment of silence, a male voice responded, “Very well. Bring them in.”

The guard nodded, though the person he was talking to couldn’t see him, and slid the door open. He stepped aside and waved for the party to enter.

Standing up straight and tall, Master Yu pushed past everyone to enter the room at the front of the group.

Beyond was a larger room that was clearly a formal greeting chamber. A man and a woman in green and white robes sat cross-legged on a cushioned dais on the far end of the room. The wooden backboard was ornately decorated and carved, making the dais seem almost like a his and hers throne—which, considering that these were apparently the most powerful people in miles, Aang supposed they may as well have been.

The rest of the room matched the decor of the house thus far, though with slightly more gold and intricate carvings. Clearly it was meant to be impressive.

The man and woman did not rise as their group approached, though they did incline their heads with acknowledgement as Aang and the others gave respectful bows.

“Welcome to our home,” the man said. “I am Lao Beifong. I suppose you are the potential hirees?” He looked at Master Yu for confirmation, who nodded.

“Yes, these are the ones I sent word about.”

Lao Beifong nodded. “Good. Master Yu, thank you for bringing them. I will take it from here.”

Master Yu nodded once again, and bowed as he backed out of the room.

Lao Beifong turned to the rest of their group and studied them with an appraising eye. “Welcome,” he repeated. “As I said before, I am Lao Beifong, and this is my wife, Poppy. May I know your names?”

“Of course!” Katara said. “I’m Katara.”

The rest of them ran through their names, though Zuko hesitated slightly before saying his.

Lao nodded. “And Master Yu tells me that you are looking to be servants at the event later today?”

“Well—yes, sir, we are,” Aang said. “But that’s not the only reason we wanted to meet with you.”

Lao’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What other reason could you have?”

“Well…” All of them glanced back toward Zuko, who was standing at the back with his eyes slightly downcast. He flinched at their attention, then straightened.

“I, uh…” He met Lao’s gaze. “We did come here for work, sir. We’re low on funds, and we still have a very long way to travel. But we also hoped to gain your favor. We’re headed to Ba Sing Se, you see, and we've heard you have connections there that could be…helpful to us.”

“So you are refugees, then. Why should I help you?”

Aang could see the conflict in Zuko’s eyes. Perhaps he was thinking of Master Yu’s reaction to the admission. Perhaps he was still struggling to accept. Aang didn’t know, but Zuko paused for a moment that seemed to stretch on, though it was probably only a few seconds.

Before Zuko had a chance to make his decision, Yue stepped forward. She bowed slightly, though she met Lao’s eyes as she did so, and straightened quickly, never breaking that eye contact. “We are refugees, sir, that is true. But we are somewhat unique among refugees. I assume, being connected as you are, that you’ve had word of the Northern Water Tribe’s defeat at the hands of the Fire Nation?”

Lao and Poppy glanced at each other. “We’ve heard, yes,” Poppy said, speaking for the first time since they arrived. “What does this have to do with my husband’s question?”

Yue brought herself up even taller. “I am Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe, daughter of Chief Arnook. And”—she gestured to Zuko, finally breaking eye contact with Lao to meet his eyes instead. Something seemed to pass between them, and Zuko broke her gaze for a moment to look at Katara, who gave him a little smile and a nod. Then Zuko stepped up next to Yue and looked at Lao.

“And I am the Avatar, sir,” Zuko said. “We are working to reclaim Princess Yue’s home, complete my training, and defeat my—end the war. We believe that the best way to do all of those things is by beseeching the Earth King for aid, but we need connections to do that. Connections that you have, we hope.”

“The Avatar…” Lao’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Then he shook his head, doubt and suspicion bleeding across his face. “You cannot expect me to believe that. The Avatar has been dead for a hundred years.”

So it seemed the Fire Nation was keeping Zuko a secret from the rest of the world. 

“We can prove—” Sokka began, but before he could finish, Zuko had already fallen into an airbending stance, his eyes full of defiance that caused the lanterns to burn a little hotter on the walls. He spread his hands out in a wide circular motion and sent out a blast of air in all directions that ruffled the clothes and hair of everyone in the room and nearly knocked a couple tapestries off the walls. It also instantly put out all of those lanterns, plunging them into darkness.

But barely a second later, Aang heard Zuko shift into a new stance and take a deep breath. Tiny streaks of fire began to shoot around the room and the space brightened bit by bit as each lantern reignited. When it got bright enough to see clearly, Aang could see that the flames were coming from Zuko’s fingertips as he pointed to each lantern in turn with careful aim and precision.

Once he was done, the room was silent for several seconds while both of the Beifongs stared, slack-jawed, at Zuko.

“Do you believe him now?” Sokka asked.

“Th—the Avatar!” Poppy cried, putting a hand to her lips. She glanced at her husband. “We’d heard rumors brimming, but we didn’t think it was true….”

Lao blinked a couple times, then stood up from his seated position and gave Zuko a deep bow. “It is an honor to have you in our home, Avatar. And”—turning slightly in Yue’s direction—“you as well, Princess.”

Zuko and Yue glanced at each other, then back at him.

“There is no need to bow,” Yue said. “After all, we came to you for aid, didn’t we?”

“Yes, I suppose.” Lao frowned. “What is it you wish of us, exactly?”

“Well,” Zuko said. “We came here to work your event today, because we need money to make it to Ba Sing Se.”

“And,” Yue said, “if you have connections in Ba Sing Se that you could perhaps write us some letters of recommendation for. Or even just give us some names of people to talk to. We will be arriving to the city blind to its ways and we need to bypass as much…red tape as possible. We’re on a bit of a time crunch, as you can imagine.”

“O—of course, of course.”

It seemed that the Beifongs had no idea how to deal with the situation they were in, and the rigid formality they’d held themselves in up to this point had all but dropped. Aang almost felt bad for them.

“And…” Sokka popped out from behind Yue’s shoulders with a smile. “If there’s any way we could maybe get a little extra money on top of what the job offered? After all, we’ll be traveling a very long way, and we’ll need all we can get to make it to Ba Sing Se.”

“Sokka!” Katara hissed, but Sokka didn’t even glance her way.

Lao straightened up. “How much was the job supposed to be again?”

“The receptionist at the academy said it was one gold per person,” Sokka said.

“Oh! Well, that won’t do at all! Of course, we could give you more, if it would be of aid to the Avatar.”

Zuko seemed to be getting increasingly uncomfortable with this line of conversation. “Thank you for all your help.”

“Would you like to stay here tonight, as well?” Poppy Beifong asked. “We would be happy to have you.”

Zuko got halfway through shaking his head when Sokka jumped in. “Yes! We’d love to!”

Zuko shot him a glare, but relented as the Beifong bowed to them.

“Wonderful! I’ll get the chambers arranged right away.” Poppy Beifong stood up and left the room, leaving them with her husband.

“Yes,” Lao said. “That will be wonderful. In the meantime, would you like me to show you to where the event will be held?”

They nodded, and Lao rose and waved for them to follow.

As they walked, Aang pushed past the rest of the group to ask, “As a side note, like my friend the Avatar said, we are looking for bending masters to train him. You don’t happen to know any good earthbending teachers, do you?”

Lao glanced at him, his expression suddenly guarded. “Unfortunately, neither my wife nor I are benders, so we don’t have much knowledge in that department. However, the man you arrived here with, Master Yu—he is a world-renowned earthbending instructor. Perhaps you could inquire with him.”

Aang nodded. “When we were requesting entrance at the gate, Master Yu mentioned that he was here for a ‘regular appointment’ in addition to bringing us to meet you. Is he in charge of training your guard?”

Lao’s expression had turned to solid stone. “Let’s just carry on, shall we?”

He turned away from Aang with finality.

Chapter Text

The event was being held outdoors, in a secluded corner of the massive gardens they had walked through on their way to the manor earlier. Already Zuko could see servants bustling about, setting up chairs and tables and decorations.

As they walked, Lao was trying to tell them that there was no need for them to work the party. It would be an honor to host the princess of the Northern Water Tribe and the Avatar at a humble anniversary celebration for the academy.

The man had really changed his tune, becoming incredibly deferential. Zuko wondered what Master Yu’s reaction would have been if he’d given a similar display back in the academy.

“It’s alright, Master Beifong,” Yue was saying. “We’re trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves. Better that our identities stay a secret between us for now.”

“On that note,” Zuko said, because he figured he might as well take advantage of the opportunities presented to him, “you don’t happen to have some more…appropriate clothing for us? As you’ve probably noticed, we stand out quite a bit in this area.”

“Of course!” Lao said, a little too enthusiastically. “We would be happy to provide you with such things. But I still must insist that there is no need for you to work the party. Even if you do not wish to attend as yourselves, we could come up with some excuse for you to attend as normal guests instead of servers.”
Zuko exchanged looks with the others.

“We don’t mind,” Katara said. “It’s the least we can do when you’ve been so kind to us. And it really is best that we stay as unnoticeable as possible.”

It took a fair amount more convincing, but Lao finally relented. He would, reluctantly, allow them to be servers. He gave them all servant uniforms to wear—and also gave them a couple extra, nicer outfits too, in colors that were more appropriate for the Earth Kingdom than their current clothing. Yue would still stand out with that white hair of hers, but at least now she might have a better chance of looking like she belonged. At least as much as any of the rest of them, anyway.

Once they were dressed and ready, they headed out to the gardens to begin greeting the guests who were arriving. The party was not a very interesting affair, just a bunch of well-dressed rich people standing around and discussing how talented their children were, while soft music played in the background.

Zuko had been to many similar events in the Fire Nation, though those had at least has slightly more interesting decor. But it didn’t matter how boring the party was. All that mattered was that they got the money Lao Beifong had promised them, and some potential contacts to reach out to when they got to Ba Sing Se.

And, at least according to Sokka—that they were out of there in time to go watch the Earth Rumble competition they’d heard about from those kids. Zuko was less enthused about that, but since they were staying here tonight anyway, he didn’t see how it could hurt.

At the party, Zuko couldn’t help but notice that Lao seemed distracted. He kept glancing around the garden, like he was looking for something.

“Can I get you another drink, Master Beifong?” Zuko asked, sidling up next to him, and he jumped.

“No, I’m quite alright, thank you,” he said, waving a hand.

“Are you, sir?” Zuko lowered his voice a little. “You seem a little nervous. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, of course.” Lao frowned at him. “Now, go, before someone notices a servant being too familiar.”

Zuko didn’t believe him for a second, but he did as he was told, grabbing another plate of hors d’oeuvres as he made his way back to the rest of the party. But he, too, kept his eyes scanning around, looking for whatever Lao was so nervous about.

And that was why he saw her. A black-haired girl around Aang’s age was crouched partially behind a nearby hedge, wearing a white dress  with a simple cut but made of very nice fabric. One of the students of the academy? But then why was she hiding, not part of the group?

She didn’t appear to be doing anything obviously nefarious yet, so Zuko continued to play his part as the server, but he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She made some subtle motions with her hand, and he noticed that one of the plates of food on the table nearest to where she hid was subtly moving in her direction, inch by inch, until eventually it “fell” off the table, but didn’t break when it hit the ground, and scooted its way all the way over to her. This all happened very slowly over a period of about 5 or 10 minutes, and no one but him seemed to notice. Her prize won, she disappeared behind the hedge.

She was an earthbender, obviously. She had to be one of the students. But why…?

Zuko shook his head at the strangeness. He was just being paranoid. What did he care about some girl stealing food from the party?

Despite these reassurances, Zuko continued to glance around every once in a while for the rest of the party, to see if she reappeared. She didn’t.

A few hours later, Zuko found himself in a dimly lit arena under the butcher’s shop, sitting on hard stone seats. Around him on all sides, sweaty, unwashed Earth Kingdom citizens screamed their heads off with each crack of rock smashing against rock—or flesh.

Sokka screamed right along with them, standing up from his seat at the end of the row of their group. Next to Zuko, Aang remained a little more reserved, but he gazed around with wide eyes, clearly caught up in the excitement as well.

Yue sat primly between Aang and Sokka, not participating, but smiling in fond amusement as she watched Sokka. On Zuko’s other side, Katara smiled tightly, but with her arms crossed, like she was trying to hold in her annoyance.

Zuko, for his part, only felt miserable. It was loud and hot and stinky, and the combatants in the ring were all over the top characters in a way that grated at his nerves.

Admittedly, though, they were fairly skilled, as far as Zuko could tell with his limited knowledge of earthbending.

Still, one combatant was clearly dominating the rest of them, to the point that Zuko wondered what the point of this even was. A very muscled up, but otherwise relatively unassuming, man who referred to himself in third person as “The Boulder” wiped the floor with every person he fought, from the very beginning.

The fights had gotten so predictable by the end that Zuko had all but tuned them out, his mind wandering to thoughts about how nice it would be to sleep in a proper bed at the Beifong’s estate tonight. How nice it was that he wouldn’t have to try waterbending for a while.

Katara elbowed him, bringing him back to himself. “Any of these guys earthbending master material, you think?” she asked with a smirk.

“Are you kidding?”

They both flinched as a boulder the size of Zuko’s entire body slammed into the stands a few feet away from where they sat. Katara looked back at him.

“The Boulder seems okay,” Aang said from Zuko’s other side. “Though he doesn’t seem in tune with the earth so much as he’s in tune with his muscles.”

“I am not training with a man who insists on referring to himself in the third person all the time.”

“I’m sure we can find you a better teacher,” Katara agreed. “Maybe we’ll start by not looking in underground earthbending arenas—”

She cut off as the emcee’s voice boomed across the room. “And now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… The Boulder will face his final opponent, and our reigning champion… The Blind Bandit!”

The crowd lost their minds more than ever before, and Zuko gave a cursory glance toward the arena to see what new overly muscular man had arrived to get pummeled.

Instead, standing at one side of the ring, he saw a girl who couldn’t be any older than Aang, with black hair and cloudy gray eyes—a familiar girl. The same one he’d seen at the Beifong party earlier today.

She was dressed differently, outfitted in more battle-ready gear instead of that shapeless white dress she’d been wearing before. But it was definitely her.

Zuko stared.

“She can’t really be blind, can she?” Katara asked, frowning at the girl. “That’s just a stage name?”

“I think she is…,” Aang said.

“I think she’s going down!” Sokka said, and Katara shot a glare his direction, while Yue laughed quietly.

But Aang glanced over at Zuko. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Zuko said, shaking his head to clear it. “Of course.”

Down on the stage, The Boulder had started talking in his over-the-top way.

“The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl.”

The girl pointed across the arena at him, her tone blatantly mocking. “Sounds to me like you’re scared, Boulder.”

The Boulder stared at her in shock for a second, then his expression morphed into a frown. “The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings, and now he’s ready to bury you in a rock-alanche!” He slammed his fists together to emphasize the last word.

“Whenever you’re ready, The Pebble.” The girl laughed.

Both of them fell into stances, and the room went quiet, the audience waiting with bated breath as the two fighters appraised each other.

The girl had her head cocked to one side, as if listening, still with that faintly mocking smile dancing on her lips. But otherwise her expression was one of focus.

Her stance was strange too. Admittedly, Zuko didn’t know much about earthbending technique, but he knew that it typically involved a lot of low, steady stances. She held herself more upright. Her stance was still very grounded, but her feet were closer together, her arms held near her body, her hands outstretched in front of her.

The Boulder made the first move. He stomped the ground to raise a pillar of rock in front of him. Then, with an unnecessarily elaborate flip and a chopping motion with his foot in mid-air, he broke the pillar into three pieces and sent them all flying toward the Blind Bandit at once.

She didn’t even flinch as she wove between the chunks of rock with ease, her expression one of perfect calm. The Boulder was starting his next move, but as he took a step forward, the Blind Bandit made a motion with her hand and the ground right underneath where his foot was about to land shot up suddenly, knocking him off-balance. Another quick motion, and a pillar of rock slammed him in the chest before he could regain his footing, sending him flying out of the arena.

It was the fastest battle of the entire night.

The group of them stared in disbelief while the girl accepted her champions’ belt and the crowd went wild. Sokka’s expression was one of absolute horror and devastation. Yue raised an interested eyebrow. Katara, Aang, and Zuko all looked at each other.

“How did she do that?” Katara asked.

Zuko shook his head. Aang looked thoughtful.

“I don’t know,” Aang said, “but I think we need to talk to her. We came here looking for an earthbending teacher, right? She’s the best option we’ve seen all night.”

“You weren’t really serious about that, were you?” Katara said.

“I saw her,” Zuko said, “earlier, at the party… she’s one of Master Yu’s students, I think.”

“I didn’t see her,” Katara said with a frown. “When was she there?”

Down in the arena, the emcee had reappeared from below. He stood next to the Blind Bandit and held up a bag that was bulging with what appeared to be gold coins.

“Another rousing victory from the Blind Bandit,” he cried, “but why don’t we make things a little more interesting? I’m offering this sack of gold pieces to anyone who thinks they can defeat the Blind Bandit!”

Around them, the crowd went quiet for the first time tonight. Yue, Sokka, Aang, and Katara all looked at Zuko.

“Are you crazy?” he hissed. “I can’t go out there—I can’t even earthbend.”

“We need to talk to her,” Aang insisted.

Down in the arena, the emcee made an overdramatic expression of shock. “What? No one dares face her?”

“I will!” Aang said, standing up.

Zuko grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back down. “What are you doing?” 

But it was too late. The crowd was already turning to look, and Aang pulled his arm free of Zuko’s grasp without looking down at him.

Zuko could do nothing but watch in horror as Aang made his way down to the arena. Sokka was all about it, though, screaming at Aang to avenge The Boulder.

Everyone had apparently forgotten that their goal was to stay as under the radar as possible, and now an airbender was walking into a fight with an earthbender in front of what had to be at least a couple hundred people, maybe more.

“What is he thinking?” Zuko muttered to no one in particular. “He’s going to get us all killed.”

“I’m more worried he’ll get himself killed,” Katara murmured next to him. Zuko felt her hand clamp down on his arm, and at first he flinched, but then reached up with his other hand and patted it in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Yue said. Sokka was still standing up next to her, and she pulled him down and whispered something in his ear. He frowned.

“We have a challenger!” the emcee said, holding his arms out and backing away while  Aang approached. He looked around at the crowd of people all staring in his direction as if suddenly realizing this might be a bad idea. But he smiled widely across the arena at the girl.

“Do people really want to watch two little girls fighting down here?” she asked mockingly.

Aang held up his hands. “I don’t want to fight you,” he said. “I just want to talk to you.”

Zuko groaned, while the crowd booed loudly—including Sokka. Katara shot a glare down the row at her brother.

“Sokka, don’t boo at him!” she scolded.

“Booing seems appropriate to me, considering,” Zuko said quietly, then flinched a little when she turned the glare on him.

The Blind Bandit only laughed at the idea of talking. In two quick motions, she’d called up a boulder and shot it in Aang’s direction.

But he darted out of the way, an instinctive use of airbending to make him go a little faster. He stayed just barely aloft as he moved around, before touching down on her right side. The girl seemed confused, unsure about exactly where he was until his feet touched the ground.

“Someone’s light on his feet,” the girl said, sounding annoyed as she turned toward him. “What’s your stage name, Twinkle Toes?”

Aang laughed. “Sure, that works.”

She scowled and shot another rock his way. But again, she wasn’t prepared for the agility of an airbender, and he danced out of the way of the rock easily, taking a few seconds longer to land this time.

“Where are you?” she demanded, tilting her head like she was concentrating. The second Aang’s feet touched the ground again, her head turned immediately toward the location. “There you are.”

Was she using earthbending to see, somehow? Zuko knew that earthbenders liked to go barefoot to feel a better connection to the earth, but he’d never heard of them being able to see that way.

Then again, he supposed he hadn’t heard of many blind earthbenders.

She turned and started to call forth another boulder. Aang raised his hands. “Wait!”

But she wasn’t listening. With some quick motions, she brought up two boulders and sent them both at Aang at the same time, one on either side.

At first, Aang tried to escape the way he had before, but she was growing wise to his tricks. The boulders moved with incredible speed. If he tried to escape one, he’d only get hit by the other.

Seeming to realize this, he thrust his hands out in a wide arc in front of him. Extremely strong wind smacked the two boulders aside—but some of it also caught the girl, knocking her off balance and sending her flying out of the ring.

To someone who didn’t know Aang was an airbender, it could have been mistaken for earthbending. At least, Zuko hoped so.

A split second of silence followed before the crowd erupted into cheers. Aang was trying to run out of the arena, toward where the girl had fallen, but the emcee grabbed hold of his arm before he could and raised it in a presentory way, holding the bag of gold aloft in his other hand.

That might have been a waste of time, but at least the gold would be useful. Assuming it actually was gold.

Clearly distracted, Aang accepted the gold and the champion’s belt, but as soon as the emcee let go of him, before he’d finished speaking, Aang ran after the girl and disappeared down the steps.

“What is he doing now?” Zuko said. He stood up and began marching toward the arena.

“Do you want to make even more of a scene?” Katara demanded, and he paused. “Wait a second.”

The emcee was clearly surprised, but he managed it well, thanking everyone for coming and bidding them goodnight. Then he disappeared below the arena as well.

Around them, the crowd began to filter out.

“What do we do now?” Yue asked. “Should we wait for Aang?”

“No.” Zuko got to his feet again, and this time Katara let him. He pushed against the flow of the crowd, making his way down to the arena, and his friends followed.

The area around the ring was empty, but when they went around the back where Aang had disappeared to, they found him there, hitting his hands against what seemed like a completely ordinary part of the rock wall.

“Uh, Aang?” Sokka asked.

Aang jumped and turned around. When he saw it was them, his shoulders slumped dejectedly.

“She wouldn’t talk to me,” he said.

“Well, you did just steal the champion title from her,” Katara pointed out.

Aang glanced to the side, where the overly large, elaborately decorated belt and the sack of gold pieces lay side by side against the wall. “I guess, but it’s not like I wanted to.”

Sokka went over to the belt and the sack of gold and picked them both up. “Then you won’t mind if I keep this?”

“Have at it,” Aang said.

“You can have the belt,” Katara amended. “The money’s for the whole group.”

“Fine,” Sokka said, “but I’m gonna have to take some of it to buy a whole new outfit to go with this. Maybe a nice new bag? Yue, what do you think?” He held the belt up against his waist and posed.

She brought her hand up to her lips to stifle a laugh. “You look very nice, Sokka. Perhaps we could see if the Beifongs have some more clothing that will match.”

He grinned.

“Okay, but can we focus back on the problem?” Aang said. “We need to talk to that girl.”

“Why?” Zuko asked. “She’s a good fighter. So what?”

“It was more than that, though,” Aang insisted. “Didn’t you see her? She was incredible. It can’t be a coincidence that you’ve run into her twice now.”

Zuko sighed. “Come on, Aang. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Fine,” Aang said, crossing his arms. “But this conversation isn’t over.”

Chapter Text

Zuko woke to the feeling of someone jostling his shoulder. He opened his eyes and blinked in confusion for a moment. He lay on a very soft bed in a very nice room—one that was familiar. Too familiar.

His room in the Fire Nation palace. But…how was that possible? Hadn’t he gone to sleep somewhere in the Earth Kingdom?

He didn’t get the chance to question that too deeply, however, because his eyes landed on what—or rather, who—had woken him. A woman with long black hair and familiar golden eyes set with a concerned look. Her hand still rested on his shoulder, and she smiled when she saw he was awake, though the smile didn’t touch her eyes.

His mother, Ursa. She looked exactly the same as she had when she left.

Zuko scrambled away from her, confused. “Wh—what?”

“Shh, Zuko, I don’t have much time. You need to listen to me.”

“Mom?” Zuko hated how very small his voice sounded, like he was ten years old all over again.

“Yes, darling, it’s me. Now, shh, and let me speak.”

He nodded.

“Your uncle is in danger. Gather your things and come with me now.”

“What do you mean?” Zuko demanded. She shook her head.

“No time. We have to move now.”

Reluctantly, Zuko got out of bed, and though he didn’t remember traveling, he suddenly found himself in a different place. The palace prison, standing frozen (and alone, his mother nowhere to be seen) in the hallway as several guards dragged his uncle, beaten and bloody, out of the cell.

His body moved woodenly along with the group of soldiers as they escorted Uncle out to the prison courtyard. And Zuko knew, without being told, that his uncle was being taken to be executed.

He turned away, unwilling to watch. As he did, he felt a hand slide into his. When he looked up, surprised, he saw Katara standing next to him.

“We’ll save your uncle, Zuko,” she said, squeezing his hand. “I promise.”

“How?” Zuko demanded. “We’re going to the complete other side of the planet from him.”

She just smiled at him. “Trust me.”

Behind him, he heard the sounds of flame crackling, a fire building. And laughter. The familiar laughter of the girl from the earthbending tournament.

He blinked, and the prison was gone. But the sounds of flames remained—and that girl’s laughter. He ran up massive stone steps, at the front of the pack, with Katara to his left and that girl to his right, Aang swooping overhead on his glider and the rest of his friends running right behind them.

They stopped at the top of the steps, and there waited Azula—and Zuko’s father. But it wasn’t the Fire Nation palace. The color scheme was wrong. Greens and browns instead of reds and blacks.

“You’re too late, boy,” his father sneered. “Too late to save anyone. Least of all my weakling brother.”

Zuko’s eyes flew open to a dark room. For a moment, he thought he was back in his bedroom at the palace again.

But as his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized it couldn’t be his room at home. Even with the colors muted by the lack of light, he could tell that the walls were too pale, the decor and architecture distinctly Earth Kingdom in style.

He realized he’d been dreaming. He was still in the guest room the Beifongs had given them. And now that he realized that, he finally noticed the sound of his friends’ soft breathing as they slept in their own beds around the room.

The room the Beifongs had given them to stay the night in was gorgeous. The beds were plush, the linens heavenly. His was certainly softer than anything he’d slept on since his banishment.

It was little wonder then, he supposed, that he’d had such troubling dreams.

His mind buzzed with a hundred different thoughts. The bed was too comfortable, the room too nicely decorated. When he tried closing his eyes, tried to go back to sleep, he could almost imagine he was back home.

A home he could never return to.

A home he was actively moving away from.

A home where his uncle was trapped, and Zuko had no idea when or if they could save him.

Zuko barely slept the rest of the night. He tossed and turned, plagued by more dreams when he did manage to find brief moments of rest and by worries when he couldn’t.

When morning finally came, Zuko felt it as always. The room didn’t have windows, but he could sense the subtle shift in his firebending power as the sun crested over the horizon. He’d never been more grateful for the sensation, because it meant he could finally give up on trying to sleep.

The Beifongs had invited them to have breakfast with them before setting off. Feeling grouchy and anxious after his night of horrible sleep, Zuko was sorely tempted to simply leave.

But they were the only connection they had to anything in Ba Sing Se, so unfortunately, they needed to stay on good terms.

After they’d gathered their things and gotten ready for the day, they made their way to the dining room.

There, to Zuko’s surprise, more than just Lao and Poppy Beifong waited for them. Two others sat around the table when they entered. One was Master Yu, who looked far more apologetic and respectful than he had the last time Zuko saw him. Maybe the Beifongs had told him about Zuko and Yue.

What really drew his attention, though, was the other person in the room with them, standing in between and slightly behind Lao and Poppy. It was the same girl he’d seen at the party yesterday and the earthbending tournament. The same girl who’d been in his dreams last night. She was dressed similarly to how she’d been dressed at the party, in a simple dress, and she stood demurely, with her head slightly bowed.

Zuko did a double take, but tried to quickly cover the surprise. At the same time, though, he noticed her expression flash to surprise as well. Her head turned in Aang’s direction, and though her eyes stared past all of them, they also narrowed ever so slightly.

Zuko glanced at Aang, and saw that Aang was also looking at him. He didn’t looked surprised or alarmed, like Zuko was expecting. Instead, he grinned with what seemed like genuine excitement.

Oh no.

“Welcome!” Lao Beifong held his arms out in a welcoming gesture. “Thank you for agreeing to share a meal with us, Avatar. You’ve met Master Yu, of course, but I’d also like to introduce you to our daughter, Toph.”

Daughter? Zuko forced himself to bow slightly. “It’s nice to meet you, Toph. I’m Zuko. These are my friends.”

“Hi, I’m Aang!” Aang said cheerfully, stepping up next to Zuko with a wide smile. Toph’s eyes widened again, just for a moment, before smoothing back into the same neutral expression.

The rest of them ran through their names quickly.

Toph bowed slightly toward the group of them. “Nice to meet you.”

Even her voice seemed different in this context, more reserved, quieter, almost shy. She seemed uncomfortable.

“You know,” Aang said as they made their way to the table, “you look familiar. Have I seen you anywhere before?”

“I doubt it,” Lao Beifong said before she could answer. “My daughter’s schedule is very busy. As you may be able to tell, she is blind, so she requires a lot of extra attention and help. She doesn’t often leave our home, isn’t that right, Toph?”

Toph’s eyes tightened, but she kept a smile plastered in place and nodded.

Aang exchanged a glance with the rest of the group, frowning, but no one said anything else as they sat down at the table.

An awkward meal followed, filled with a strange tension that the adults in the room seemed to not notice or understand. 

“So, Avatar, Princess,” Lao Beifong said, looking between Zuko and Yue. “You had mentioned you were headed to Ba Sing Se and that you wanted my help in perhaps securing you some connections there. Do you have anything specific in mind that would be useful?”

“We’re going to try to get an audience with the king,” Yue said. “The only way we’ll have a chance at reclaiming my homeland or defeating the Fire Lord is with the aid of the Earth Kingdom armies. So if you had any contacts in the royal court, or the military?”

Lao frowned, thinking over the request, but before he could say anything, Aang jumped in, his eyes darting toward Toph as he spoke. “Or, again, if you knew of any particularly good earthbenders who could serve as Zuko’s teacher. Not in Ba Sing Se specifically. In fact, ones around here would be even better, so he could get started sooner.”

“Aang,” Katara hissed reproachfully, elbowing him. “We already asked him about that, remember?”

Across the table from Aang, Toph’s expression had gone dark. 

“Indeed,” Lao Beijing said. “And as I said before, unfortunately, my wife and I are not benders, so we’re not very well acquainted with most of the bending world. However”—he gestured at Master Yu, who smiled graciously—”I cannot recommend Master Yu highly enough. He is renowned all around this area, and he has been training Toph since she was a young girl.”

Master Yu inclined his head slightly. “Yes, Avatar, it would be the honor of a lifetime to train you.”

That wasn’t what you said yesterday, Zuko thought, pursing his lips as he regarded Master Yu.

Aang refused to let the topic drop. “If he’s been training Toph since she was little, she must be a great bender. Maybe even good enough to train someone else—”

“Aang!” Zuko growled under his breath, at the same time that Toph’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t move as far as Zuko could tell, but Aang’s chair suddenly slid forward, slamming him into the table and splattering his plate of eggs all over his face and shirt. 

He wiped them off, then glared at Toph, who just continued calmly eating, her expression having smoothed back to innocence.

Lao Beifong glanced between Aang and Zuko with confusion, then gave a polite little laugh as he looked at Toph. “Unfortunately, no. Master Yu has been keeping her on basic bending forms and breathing exercises. Due to her blindness, I don’t think she’ll ever be a true master.”

Toph frowned, while Zuko and the others all exchanged glances. Maybe she wasn’t the same person from the tournament? She certainly seemed to be.

Aang spoke again, more uncertain now. “I’m sure if you gave her a chance, she’d surprise you—”

Once again, Toph didn’t move, but Aang’s chair slammed into the table again, knocking the wind out of him. His eyes flashed angrily.

Katara reached for his arm, but it was too late. Aang’s sudden exhale from the slam became a wind strong enough to knock Toph’s plate off the table and into her face.

She stood up from her chair, slamming her hands on the table. “What’s your problem?”

“What’s your problem?” Aang demanded.

Lao, Poppy, and Master Yu looked between the two of them, obviously confused. 

“No worries, darling,” Poppy said, motioning for a couple servants to come over. One of them simply handed Aang a napkin to wipe himself off, but the servants physically helped Toph sit back down and began wiping off her face like she was a toddler. Toph was obviously annoyed, but she didn’t resist.

After a second of awkward silence filled with only the scrape of utensils on plates and the sound of fabric wiping down the table, Zuko cleared his throat and looked at Master Yu.

“You seem to have quite an operation going here, Master Yu,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t afford to stay in one place very long, so any earthbending master I had would need to be willing to travel along with me and my friends. Is that something you could do?”

He hoped the answer would be no, and Master Yu didn’t disappoint. His expression shifted into one of discomfort. “Well… you see…”

“No worries if not, of course,” Katara said. “We can always look somewhere else.”

Master Yu relaxed a little. “Well, I’m very busy with my work here, of course. But I wish you all the best on your way to Ba Sing Se. Perhaps one of Master Beifong’s contacts can help you.”

“I’m sure they can,” Lao Beifong said with a smile.

Chapter Text

After breakfast, they went back to the room the Beifongs had given them to pack their things while Lao gathered some papers for them to bring with them to Ba Sing Se.

As they were finishing up, a girl’s voice from the doorway said, “The Avatar, huh?”

They all jumped and spun to face the voice. There, leaning in the doorway without a care in the world, was Toph. Immediately, Aang fell into a defensive stance, but Toph waved a hand in his direction, still not moving from her position in the doorway. “Calm down, Twinkle Toes. I just want to talk.”

Reluctantly, Aang relaxed. “Talk?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Sure. It’s not every day you get the Avatar and the princess of the Northern Water Tribe visiting your house, is it?”

Yue frowned from where she stood on the opposite of the room, and Zuko thought he could guess why. Lao had called Yue “Princess” during the meal, but as far as Zuko could remember, no one had specifically mentioned the Water Tribe. How had Toph known?

“How did you—” Yue began.

Toph smirked. “I know about most things that go on in this house. It’s not like I have much else to do, to be honest.” She turned her head in Zuko’s direction. And though those cloudy gray eyes of hers didn’t move to focus on him, he could tell her attention was on him. “So you’re the Avatar?”

“I am, yes.”

“And Twinkle Toes over there seems to think I would make a good earthbending teacher for you?”

“I have a name, you know,” Aang grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah.” She was still focused on Zuko.

Zuko didn’t know what to make of her. But he was starting to think Aang was right, and she was supposed to be his earthbending teacher. It seemed like too much of a coincidence, to have run into her this many times, to be staying as guests her house before they even knew it was hers. After everything that had happened in the months since they’d left Sokka and Katara’s little village, he was starting to think nothing was a coincidence anymore.

And then there was the dream he’d had last night. The dream where she had been with him, alongside the rest of his friends, as they faced his father. In the past, Zuko might have brushed it off as just a dream, but he was the Avatar now. Dreams were significant things to Avatars.

“We all saw what you did in the tournament last night,” he said carefully. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It seemed like a lot more than skills you’d get from only learning basic forms and breathing exercises,” Sokka said. He sounded impressed and annoyed at once as he fiddled with the ridiculously oversized Earth Rumble championship belt he had fastened around his waist.

Toph’s expression twisted into a frown. She didn’t immediately speak. “Would you walk with me?” she finally asked. “Just while you carry your things to your bison?”

They all looked at each other, then agreed.

They stayed silent as they made their way out of the house to the gardens beyond, and even for several paces beyond that. Then Toph began talking.

She told them about her upbringing, how she learned bending from the badger moles, how she used earthbending to see in spite of her blindness.

“That’s amazing,” Aang said. 

She smiled slightly, then sighed. “My parents don’t understand. They think that because I’m blind, I’m this delicate flower that needs to be coddled. But I’m not.”

“Maybe you should come with us, then,” Katara said, though she sounded uncertain.

“I can’t,” Toph said. “My parents may not understand me, but they’re still my parents. I can’t just leave them.”

“Parents aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be,” Zuko murmured.

Katara glanced over at him with a frown. He didn’t look at her, but he felt her hand slide into his, and he was weirdly grateful for the contact.

She looked at Toph, though. “Have you tried telling them? Maybe they would understand.”

Toph shook her head. “Didn’t you see at breakfast? They don’t even trust me to wipe egg off my own face.”

“Sorry about that, by the way,” Aang mumbled.

Toph shook her head. “Look, the point is, I’d love to come with you guys… but I can’t.”

“That’s okay,” Katara said, though she looked at Zuko. “We’ll just have to find Zuko an earthbending teacher somewhere else.”

Zuko frowned. “Right. We’ll just…do that.”

He didn’t feel confident that anyone else they met would be better, but what was he supposed to say? He couldn’t take a girl away from her family. He would give anything to have a family who actually wanted him around, even if they were maybe overprotective like Toph’s was, and now he was considering taking her away from that?

They made it to the stables, which had been almost entirely cleared out to accommodate the massive sky bison. Aang ran over to him and gave him a massive hug.

“Hey, buddy! I missed you. Have you been doing good here?”

A couple of stable hands stood on either side of Appa, trying and mostly failing to fasten his saddle. Sokka stepped up next to one of them.

“We can handle this,” he said, “but thanks.”

He took hold of one of the saddle’s straps, and the stable hand backed away gratefully.

Toph stopped in the doorway, ignoring the stable hands as they stepped around her and left their group alone. She looked shocked. “He’s so big.”

Aang turned away from Appa and smiled hugely at Toph. “Oh right. Toph, this is my sky bison, Appa. Appa, this is Toph.”

Toph stepped forward, looking strangely cautious but also fascinated. She held her hand out toward the bison, then hesitated.

“Go ahead,” Aang said. “You can pet him. Right, Appa?”

Appa grunted an acknowledgement and inclined his head toward Toph’s hand.

Toph took a few more hesitant steps forward until her hand met Appa’s forehead. Her fingers twisted in his fur, and she smiled with an air of wonder that seemed at odds with the standoffish demeanor she'd presented thus far.

She ran her hand over the fur on Appa’s head a few times, until Appa licked her with his massive tongue, and she laughed even as it nearly knocked her over.

“He likes you,” Aang said with a smile. Then his eyes met Zuko’s, who still stood with Katara just inside the stable door. Zuko could see the question in his eyes.

Zuko started to shake his head. But then a voice from the doorway said, “Toph!”

Lao Beifong practically ran into the room, clutching a few scrolls in one hand. “What are you doing in here? Get away from that thing!”

Toph’s expression shifted immediately from wonder and curiosity to anger, but she allowed her father to pull her away. He didn’t seem to notice as he turned toward Zuko.

“There’s no need to be worried, sir,” Sokka said. He’d finished strapping on Appa’s saddle, and slid down off of his back to join the rest of them. “He’s very friendly.” He patted the side of Appa’s head. “Isn’t that right, Appa, you big softy?”

Appa licked Sokka in answer, knocking him to the ground, covered in slobber. He grinned up at Toph’s father. “See?”

It didn’t seem like the display had made Lao feel any better. He just nodded tightly and focused his attention on Zuko once again.

“Avatar,” he said, and Zuko forced himself not to flinch, “these are the recommendations you requested. I can’t promise anything, of course, but these should at least get you in the door.”

Zuko took the scrolls with a nod. He turned away without a word and carried his things over to place in Appa’s saddle.

“Thank you for all your help,” Katara said, looking at Master Beifong with a smile.

“It’s no trouble at all, my dear,” he said, waving a hand. He still had one arm around a sulking Toph. “I wish you well on your journey.”

“I think those papers will go a long way toward helping us with that,” Yue said.

Lao nodded again, then left, taking Toph with him. As they left, though, Zuko bit his lip, glancing around at the others.

Katara called after them with a smile. “Take care, Toph.”

“You too,” Toph mumbled, not turning around. Then she was gone.

Chapter Text

Sokka insisted they stop by the market one last time before leaving the city officially. He claimed it was for supplies, but Zuko suspected he just wanted to go shopping. He hadn’t stopped going on about that belt Aang had won the night before, which he still wore around his waist.

Zuko hadn’t bothered to argue because he hadn’t seen the point, but he also refused to go, deciding to stay behind and finish packing up their things.

That was why he was alone in the stables with Appa when Poppy Beifong rushed in, looking distraught. She clutched a rolled up piece of parchment in her hand. “Avatar!”

Zuko flinched, then turned. “Yes?”

“It’s my daughter! She’s been kidnapped! I know you were about to leave, but please, won’t you help us get her back?”

Zuko frowned. “Kidnapped?”

Poppy held the scroll out to him. It was a ransom note, claiming that the kidnappers would return their daughter in exchange for an amount of gold that was the same, Zuko couldn’t help but notice, as the amount Aang had won in the earthbending tournament. The note was left unsigned, but the location given for the meeting was the same as the location of the tournament arena. Zuko had a feeling this was their fault somehow. He looked up from the scroll to meet the desperate eyes of Poppy Beifong.

“I’ll get your daughter,” he said gravely. Then he spun on his heel and ran from the stables.

Behind him, Appa groaned and started to follow, but Zuko paused in the doorway and glanced back at him. “You stay here, Appa.”

Appa shook his head and grunted in protest.

“I’ll be back,” Zuko promised. “Stay here and wait for Aang.”

Appa gave an annoyed look, but flopped down with a massive puff of dust and hay that Zuko had to wave away. Zuko nodded at him, then turned back around and began to run to the edge of the estate again.

He kept half an eye out for his friends as he made his way through the village market toward the butcher shop where Toph was being held. Having them around might be helpful if this turned into a fight.

He didn’t see them—but Katara was more perceptive than he was. Just as he was about to exit the market, he heard her voice calling out to him. “Zuko!”

He winced, and turned. He really needed to discuss using fake names for him when they were in public.

When he saw her smile, though, the spike of anxiety in his chest lessened. She took a few steps away from Sokka and Yue, waving Zuko over.

Behind her, Sokka turned with a grin. “Hey, Zuko, did you change your mind?”

“Not exactly,” Zuko said, lowering his voice as he drew closer to the three of them. “I might need your help. I’m going to the butcher’s shop to save the Beifongs’ daughter.”

“Toph?” Katara frowned. “What happened to her?”

Zuko lowered his voice even more. “Those people from the tournament kidnapped her. I think maybe it has something to do with—” He cut off suddenly, frowning as he looked around. “Hey, where’s Aang?”

Yue glanced up from Sokka’s other side. “He’s right—” She raised her arm to point, then frowned. “Well, he was at that fruit stall over there.”

Zuko’s stomach flipped nervously. First Toph gets kidnapped, then Aang disappears? He was increasingly certain this had something to do with the fight at the tournament. “I think I might know where he is,” he said. “Will you all come with me to the shop?”

“Well, let’s just look around first,” Katara said. “You know how Aang is. He could have wandered off somewhere.”

Zuko nodded reluctantly. “Let’s hurry.”

They split into groups of two and searched the entire small market in just a few minutes. As Zuko had suspected, Aang was nowhere to be seen. He could only assume Aang had been taken too.

They met back up at the edge of the market square and set off down the street for the hidden fighting pit under the butcher’s shop.

Though it was midday, when they got to the shop, they found it empty and dark. Even the nearby roads appeared to be mostly abandoned, as if the townsfolk had some innate sense that they should stay away from the area today.

Zuko unsheathed his dual swords and used them to keep distance between himself and the door as he approached and used one of the swords to push. The door swung open easily—it wasn’t locked. Zuko let it swing forward and jumped back, expecting some kind of trap to come flying out. Nothing happened.

The interior of the chamber lay still and dark. Zuko frowned and glanced toward the others.

Sokka pulled his sword off his back, while Katara and Yue both opened the lids on the waterskins they wore around their waists. Zuko adjusted his grip on his swords and nodded.

The group advanced into the dark cautiously. Zuko sheathed one of his swords, raising the other hand aloft and almost produced a little fire in his hand to light the space. Then he remembered where he was and barely stopped himself.

Neither of the two bending disciplines he knew were ideal for public use, but fire was definitely off limits.

So instead, he pulled his other sword back out and continued leading the way to the secret trap door at the back of the shop, where they’d entered the Earth Rumble arena the night before. 

Strangely, there was once again no people, even as they began to creep down the darkened stairs. Zuko could see the flickering orange and yellow of firelight farther down, though, so at least the place didn’t seem to be totally abandoned.

No—it certainly wasn’t abandoned. As they got closer to the bottom of the stairs, Zuko began to hear voices echoing around the corner.

“Let us go so I can smack that smile off your face!” a young girl’s voice—Toph—called out.

“I’m not smiling,” a gruff older voice responded. It sounded like the emcee of the tournament from the night before.

“Could you at least tell us why you brought us here?” Aang’s voice asked. He sounded remarkably calm. “I’m sure this is all just some big misunderstanding.”

“Do you think we’re idiots, kid? No little boy and girl is going to dupe me.”

“But we didn’t—”

“Hush you.”

Zuko glanced at the others, raising a questioning eyebrow. “What should we do?” he whispered. “That’s definitely them.”

“We could try talking to them first,” Katara said. “At least to see what this is all about.”

“If they let us,” Sokka grumbled.

Zuko hesitated, then quietly sheathed his swords and crept forward. He kept his hand on the hilt, just in case.

Behind him, he heard quiet footsteps as his friends followed him down though the empty spectator stands toward the large raised platform in the center, where a half dozen muscle-bound tournament competitors stood. Most of them were still dressed in the over-the-top costumes they’d worn during the tournament. Zuko couldn’t fathom why. Did they dress that way all the time?

Hovering above the center of the platform, two metal box-like contraptions hung from chains on the ceiling. Inside, Zuko could see Toph and Aang looking out from a barred, rectangular cutout on one side of each of the boxes.

As they approached, the argument continued, with Toph shouting threats and Aang trying and failing to mediate. The men standing below their cages were paying them no mind, which only seemed to make Toph angrier.

Zuko got to the bottom of the stairs and called out, “We came, just like you asked. We’d like our friends back.” He held up the letter that was sent to the Beifongs.

A beat of silence fell as the assembled group of earthbenders turned toward where Zuko and his friends stood.

“You kids don’t look like the Beifongs,” the competition host said derisively.

“They sent us,” Zuko said.

The man raised an eyebrow. “Did they, now? So you have the requested ransom?”

Zuko glanced back at his friends—and realized for the first time that only Sokka stood behind him now, glaring down toward the earthbending fighters with his sword raised. Where did Yue and Katara go?

Zuko tried to keep his face composed as he turned back to face the platform where the earthbenders stood. “No.”

The earthbenders all immediately started laughing. As they did, Zuko’s eyes roamed across the group of them—and alighted on something moving in the shadows of the stands on the other side of the platform, closest to where Aang and Toph’s cages were. He paused, trying to focus on that spot, and realized it was Katara and Yue, scooting around.

He brought his gaze back to the earthbenders, who had stopped laughing.

“So your plan was what?” one of them demanded. Zuko recognized him as the one that had been referring to himself as the Boulder. “You thought that you would come here and demand your little friends back, and the Boulder would roll over?”

To be honest, Zuko wasn’t certain what exactly his plan had been. When he’d left the Beifong estate, his only plan had been “get Toph back.” He realized now that perhaps he should have thought this through a little more.

He stared at the Boulder, uncertain how to respond. He should say something witty, probably, but his mind was a total blank.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to worry about that for too long, because a moment later, a loud CRASH echoed through the room as the two cages fell from their now-severed chains and slammed into the ground. 

They were poorly constructed—not Fire Nation quality at all—and fell apart into two pieces as soon as they hit the ground, leaving Toph and Aang standing in the middle of the ring of muscular men, looking momentarily confused. 

“Oh no, you don’t!” the tournament’s host cried out, lunging for Aang and Toph. “You’re not getting away that easy.”

The other combatants looked shocked, but they were turning away from Zuko, falling into battle stances, ready to attack.

Zuko and Sokka exchanged a quick glance. Without a word, Zuko quickly sheathed his swords, grabbed Sokka’s arm, and called on a swirl of air to catapult himself and Sokka across the gap to the central platform. 

As soon as they landed, Sokka was already running toward the assembled group of men with his sword out. 

So much for trying to talk things out. It didn’t seem like that was how it was going to go today.

Zuko drew his swords again and followed behind Sokka.

The intention had been to save Toph and Aang from getting pummeled by the half dozen earthbenders around them. 

“I beat you all before and I’ll do it again!” Toph cried loudly, raising her hands in the air. 

She didn’t move to strike, just stood still with her head half-cocked, as if listening for something.

The other earthbenders were not waiting, though. They ran toward Aang and Toph. Aang took a step forward offensively, but Toph held up a hand and shook her head.

Aang paused, looking at her in confusion. After another second, Toph said, “They’re mine.”

Then she raised her arms. Zuko felt the ground beginning to rumble dangerously under his feet, and he braced, hoping she wouldn’t mistake him and Sokka for an enemy. How precise was that earth sense of hers? Could she already recognize them through that, though she barely knew them?

Before he could find out, though, a man’s desperate voice called out, “Toph!”

It sounded like Master Beifong, and the sound of it made Toph falter. Her eyes widened, and her head turned toward the sound of his voice. The rumbling stopped as her hands fell to her sides.

“Dad?”

“Stop this now!” Master Beifong said imperiously as he marched down the stairs toward the platform, a sheepish Master Yu and Poppy Beifong trailing behind him. “I don’t know what the meaning of this is, but you will release my daughter at once.”

The earthbenders had stopped their attack at his cry, and now they glance between each other. Xin Fu, the Earth Rumble’s announcer stepped toward where Master Beifong stood at the bottom of the stars. “Of course, sir, we would be happy to. If you could simply provide the payment we’re owed.”

Zuko was about to open his mouth to protest, but before he could, Lao reached into his robes and pulled out a pouch that jangled with coin. He tossed it across to Xin Fu, who caught it.

He measured the bag’s weight in his hand, opened the pouch to study the coins inside for a moment, then smiled and motioned toward his men. They shoved Toph toward her father, and she stumbled in that direction, looking confused, but not fighting. It seemed like the presence of her father had drained most of the fight out of her, and she said nothing as she walked across toward him and reluctantly allowed herself to be pulled into an embrace.

The Beifongs and Master Yu turned and began making their way back up the stairs to exit. Toph seemed to be dragging her feet as much as she could, but she didn’t resist.

Aang started to follow, but before he’d taken more than a few steps, a ring of earth sprang up from the ground around him and pinned him in place. His eyes went wide. 

“What—? Let me go! The ransom was paid!”

“Ah, but you see,” Xin Fu said, “that ransom was just for the girl, not for you. I’ve heard some rumors over the past month about someone very much like you, and I think you might be worth much, much more to the right buyer. Don’t you think so, little Avatar?”

Aang’s body was pinned in place by the stone, but if possible, he seemed to stiffen even more. His eyes darted around. 

In all the time they’d been with the Air Nomads, Zuko had all but forgotten about the rumors Aang had accidentally started about himself being the Avatar. But it seemed that though the Fire Nation had kept Zuko’s true nature under wraps, those false rumors about Aang were still very much alive.

“I’m not the Avatar!” Aang said, laughing, but he sounded too nervous to be convincing. “I don’t know where you could have gotten that idea from.”

Across the arena, Zuko saw Katara and Yue readying themselves to attack, and Sokka’s hand gripped his boomerang so hard his knuckles turned white.

Zuko took an aggressive step toward Xin Fu with his swords raised, doing everything in his power to keep his hands from bursting into flame and attacking right then and there. 

“Let him go,” he growled. “Or we’ll kill you where you stand.”

Xin Fu glanced at his assembled team of fighters, then looked at their group, and smirked. “Will you now?”

Too late, Zuko saw a few of the earthbenders behind Xin Fu stomp the ground. The rock under his feet suddenly softened, and though he tried to jump out of the way, he moved too slowly. His feet sunk into the ground and the rock hardened around them, locking him in place.

He wasn’t the only one, either. Around him, he saw Sokka, Katara, and Yue all struggling against similar restraints, and Zuko was starting to think maybe he should do some bending after all, ill-advised as that would be. He raised his arms, ready to shoot some fire.

Then Katara’s voice rang out across the arena. “Toph! We need your help! We need an earthbender!”

Zuko turned his head toward the stairs. The Beifongs and Master Yu had nearly reached the exit, but Lao Beifong turned with a withering glare at Katara’s words.

“My daughter is blind!” he said, with venom he didn’t bother to conceal. “She is tiny and fragile and weak. She cannot help you.”

Even in the darkness at the top of the stairs, Zuko could see Toph’s face twist in anger as she turned back toward the central platform. She yanked away from her father’s grasp. “Yes. I can.”

Then she sprinted back down the stairs, ignoring as her parents cried out in surprise and reached for her.

She continued down the stairs and stepped onto the platform with her arms raised and her feet planted.

“If you want a rematch,” she said softly, while the surrounding earthbenders shifted to face her, “then I’m happy to give you one.”

The earthbenders frowned in anger and—Zuko thought—a faint hint of fear. They’d barely taken a step when Toph slammed her hand into the ground, and the stone around their feet suddenly crumbled into rubble, leaving them tripping and stumbling and cursing. While they were recovering, Toph made a few sharp motions, and Zuko felt the ground under his feet shift, releasing its grip on him and allowing him to move again.

“Get behind me!” Toph shouted to them as she stepped toward the center of the arena. “I’ll handle them.”

Most of Zuko’s friends were all too ready to obey that order, but Zuko hesitated just a moment, watching as Toph raised her arms above her head again and the ground exploded into a fine powder that rose into the air like fog, obscuring the view of the arena.

Zuko coughed instinctively, regretting his his hesitance. He waved his hand in the air, trying to clear some of the dust away as he stumbled out of the cloud.

Toph had disappeared into the cloud. Zuko could no longer see what was going on, but as he joined his friends at the edge of the cloud, he could hear the sounds of rocks crashing and men groaning. A few of the earthbenders even got tossed out, their bodies slamming into the stands with a loud crack! They stayed there, groaning in pain and glaring back toward the cloud.

A few feet away from where Zuko and the others stood, Master Yu and Toph’s parents were standing, staring with slack-jawed faces toward the center of the arena.

“Your daughter is amazing!” Master Yu cried, but Toph’s parents didn’t seem impressed. They seemed horrified.

All at once, the dust cloud dissipated, and Toph stood in the center of the arena, her arms up protectively in front of her as she circled around the very last combatant. 

Across the arena from her, Xin Fu, the announcer of the Earth Rumble, waved away the last of the dust, then fell into a stance immediately as his eyes fell on Toph. 

Scattered around the edges of the platform were other earthbenders in various states of unconsciousness, some of them pinned between rock walls or buried halfway under rubble. Toph had taken them all down in a matter of seconds.

Once again, Zuko noted how Toph held herself differently than any earthbender he’d ever seen. Her feet were still strongly grounded, but her entire upper body seemed to almost cave in on itself, her shoulders narrow, her head tilted slightly down. She held her elbows tight against her sides, her hands stretched out in front with her palms facing toward her own face.

She didn’t make the first move, instead circling silently, waiting and watching. 

When Xin Fu finally moved to strike, Toph almost seemed to anticipate his motion before it was complete. He raised his hand and called forth a boulder, which rocketed toward Toph with blinding speed. Her expression didn’t change or move as she took a small step to the side and made a subtle hand motion. Just before the boulder hit where she had been standing, it splintered into a hundred smaller shards that all froze in the air.

Then, just as fast, Toph shot her hand forward, and the suspended splinters of rock all rushed back toward Xin Fu. He tried to call up a rock wall to protect himself, but Toph simply moved her hand and the shards all curved around the wall, almost as if moving on their own. The next thing Zuko knew, Xin Fu had been pinned to his own protective rock wall. The shards had been placed with remarkable precision, outlining his entire body and catching onto only the barest edges of his clothing to keep him immobile but uninjured. Thick bands of rock sprung up to clamp down over his wrists and ankles to keep his arms and legs from moving.

The arena was deadly quiet as Toph walked around to the other side of the rock wall. Xin Fu glared at her cocky smile. 

“You know, I’d be happy to keep pummeling you into pieces, but I’m just as fine with this being over. Do you yield?”

Xin Fu grumbled under his breath for a moment, struggling uselessly against his bonds. “Fine.”

Toph’s smile widened even more. She stomped her foot, and all the bindings fell away from Xin Fu’s body. He fell to the ground, catching himself on his hands with a grunt, and glared up at Toph.

Silence fell again, pressing offensively against their ears for several long seconds as everyone looked at each other. 

Toph seemed to suddenly remember who was in the room with her, and for a moment, her cocky demeanor began to fade as she turned in the direction of where her parents and Master Yu were seated.

Then Sokka burst into enthusiastic applause, running toward Toph and shouting, “That was amazing!” 

Aang seemed more reluctant, but a moment later, he began clapping too, and ran after Sokka, shouting his praise as well. Toph’s deflation immediately reversed, and she smiled as they approached.

Zuko first shot a glance toward Yue and Katara, who were smiling and had started moving toward Toph as well, though with less haste than the boys. Rather than moving to follow them, Zuko glanced up toward Toph’s parents and Master Yu. Master Yu still looked shocked and impressed, his mouth agape, while Toph’s parents’ expressions were harder to read.

As the rest of Zuko’s friends crowded around Toph, congratulating her on her success and patting her on the back, Zuko stood still as Lao Beifong’s eyes moved slowly from the group of smiling children to Zuko. They narrowed into near slits.

It took everything Zuko had not to let it show on his face, but his stomach dropped. 

Just a few hours ago, he’d been thinking he didn’t want to steal this girl away from her family. But now, it seemed he may have done it anyway, whether he’d meant to or not.

Chapter Text

“I know you think I’m a small, fragile little girl,” Toph said, “but that’s just not who I am. I love fighting. And I’m really, really good at it.”

She paused with a smile, looking up at her mother and father. Her voice was so full of hope.

Lao and Poppy Beifong had stayed silent the entire walk back to the Beifong estate, and they were still silent now, as they sat side by side on the cushions in the same meeting room where Zuko had first revealed he was the Avatar.

Toph stood in the middle of the room, still dusty and dirty from the fight, dressed in the shapeless white gown she was kidnapped in. The rest of them—Zuko, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Yue—stood at the back of the room, though Aang had tried to position himself by Toph’s side.

The silence stretched for a beat too long, and Toph faltered, but she pushed on, turning her head down even more. “I hope that you’ll still be able to love and accept me now that you know who I really am.”

Another too-long beat of silence as Lao and Poppy Beifong exchanged a look. Then, finally, Lao spoke up.

“Of course we still love you, Toph. In fact, I can see now that that has caused us to be too lenient with you. From now on, you will be escorted at all times, even on the grounds. I cannot allow you to be put into any more danger.”

Zuko’s face felt hot suddenly, and next to him, his friends gasped. From his position standing behind her, Zuko couldn’t see the expression on Toph’s face, but she seemed to take an involuntary step backward, her head shooting back up.

“But—”

As for Toph’s parents, Zuko could see their faces just fine. Completely serious as Lao raised a hand and interrupted. “No arguments, young lady. I will have you kept safe, and sneaking off to underground earthbending tournaments is anything but. Do you understand?”

Zuko started to step forward and speak up, but Katara beat him to it. “Master Beifong, please reconsider. Your daughter has a gift, and—”

“Enough!” Lao Beifong’s eyes snapped to her for a moment, then landed hotly on Zuko. “I have welcomed you here, and I will not be disrespected in my own home, not even by the Avatar and his friends. I cannot help but notice that none of these rebellious tendencies showed themselves in my daughter until your group came along.”

Zuko pressed his lips together as hard as he could and flexed his fingers. All he wanted to do was lash out, maybe physically, but he couldn’t do that. They still needed this man and his connections. He was all they had.

Aang spoke up. “You’re joking, right?”

“You got my daughter kidnapped,” Lao said simply. His eyes had not moved away from Zuko’s. “I think perhaps it’s best if you and your friends leave, Avatar.”

Zuko felt a flash of white-hot rage and shame that nearly blinded him. He was being banished, yet again, from another place—this time for something that had practically nothing to do with him. Sokka and Aang had wanted to go to the tournament. Aang had insisted Toph needed to be Zuko’s teacher. Aang had exposed himself as an airbender and gotten both himself and Toph kidnapped. Katara had called out to Toph to come and save them in the arena. Yue and Katara had broken the cages. All Zuko had done was agree to go and save Toph after she was kidnapped.

And yet Lao Beifong’s glare fixed itself on Zuko, not Aang or Sokka or Katara or Yue. In that moment, Zuko realized another fundamental thing about being the Avatar, something he’d never fully considered before.

The Avatar wasn’t just the master of all four elements and the person tasked with bringing balance to the world. They were also a convenient scapegoat. When things went wrong around him, people were always going to blame it on him first. The world’s problems were his problems. Forever.

That thought only fanned the flames of his ire. Zuko took a step forward without thinking, his expression twisted with an anger that he could no longer disguise. Before he could do anything more, he felt a hand on his arm, and glanced to the side. Katara stood there, looking concerned. She said nothing, but her hand slid down his arm until it slipped into his and squeezed. The touch reminded him, again, that he couldn’t fly off the handle. He needed this man’s trust and his connections if they had a chance of getting anywhere quickly in Ba Sing Se.

Zuko’s anger lessened, but only a little, as he forced himself to take a deep breath and turn back toward Lao Beifong. He saw that Toph had shrunk in on herself, falling silent. Her whole body was trembling, and though Zuko still couldn’t see the expression on her face, he could see the way her hands had balled into fists at her side, and he guessed she probably felt as angry as he did.

“If you want us to leave,” he said tightly, “then we will, Master Beifong. We meant no disrespect, of course.” He knew he should probably leave it at that. Bow and turn to leave. He couldn’t do it. “But Toph has an incredible talent, and it would be a shame to put that aside.”

Toph’s head tilted upward, and she turned slightly toward Zuko. He could see now that her cheeks were streaked with tears.

Lao Beifong’s frown deepened. “The servants will escort you back to the stables, and I would ask that you would leave immediately.”

The rest of the group nodded along with Zuko, while servants came forward.

As they did, though, Sokka spoke up. “Those papers you gave us are still good, though, right? We really will need contacts in Ba Sing Se.”

Zuko had to stifle a groan. Why would Sokka remind him of that?

To his surprise, though, Lao nodded. “Yes.” He said nothing more, though.

As the servants led them out of the room, Aang hung back to go last, and Zuko heard him whisper a soft apology to Toph, who whispered back, “It’s okay.”

Her voice shook with tears, and Zuko wished he hadn’t heard.

They were quickly ushered to the stables where Appa was waiting. It didn’t take long before they were out and flying away, but almost as soon as they were off from the grounds, Aang landed them on top of a hill just outside the village of Gaoling.

They all glanced at each other, then looked toward the estate, and for a moment, silence hung in the group.

Katara broke the silence. “I wish we could have done something to help her.”

Sokka said, “She’ll be fine. She’s rich. Besides, we got the connections we needed. That’s all that really matters, right?”

Katara frowned at him.

Aang glanced up at Zuko from his spot on top of Appa’s head. “How do you feel, Zuko?”

Zuko stared toward the estate grounds for a long moment with a frown. “I think she was supposed to be my earthbending teacher.”

Everyone exchanged looks with each other at that. 

“So you agree with me, finally?” Aang asked.

Zuko nodded. He thought about sharing the dream, but instead remained silent and continued to look away from everyone.

“We’ll just have to find you a different one,” Yue said firmly, though she was frowning at Sokka. “We’re going to Ba Sing Se, after all. There have to be plenty of great earthbenders there who can teach you.”

Zuko just nodded again, while Aang shook his head.

“Maybe, but I doubt we’ll find anyone like her again,” Aang said.

Zuko felt Katara’s hand slide into his again. He finally tore his gaze away from the estate grounds to look down at her. She didn’t say anything, just gave him a reassuring smile that made his chest feel warm.

“Let’s just get out of here,” he said, and Aang nodded reluctantly before snapping Appa’s reins and sending them into the sky.

Something kept them from straying too far from Gaoling that day. They flew slowly, and stopped for camp barely an hour or two after setting off, though it was still quite light out and they had many more miles to cover before Ba Sing Se. Part of it was the stress of the day, and part of it, Zuko suspected, was the group’s mostly unspoken reluctance to leave Toph behind.

Zuko couldn’t ignore that sense of wrongness building in his stomach. He kept thinking about his dream, where Toph had been there with their group, fighting his father. Had that just been a normal dream after all? Maybe someone else really was meant to be his earthbending master.

Aang had landed them near a river, but neither Katara nor Yue suggested they try a waterbending lesson tonight. Instead, the group went about setting up the camp mostly in silence.

When Zuko fell asleep that night, he had uneasy dreams. His mother’s voice whispering to him, his uncle’s voice crying out for help, his sister taunting him. Flashes of images. Fire. His friends fighting—Toph among them. His father smiling from behind that wall of flames.

He awoke in the middle of the night, the sky still dark and full of twinkling stars. At first, he thought it was just a bad dream that had woken him, but then he heard it again. The snap of a twig, and a hiss. It didn’t sound like an animal’s hiss, though. More like a person, sucking in a breath of annoyance.

Immediately on high alert, Zuko sat up and glanced around. His friends were still asleep around him. Should he wake them? He shook his head. What if it was just an animal, or his own imagination? No need to worry anyone yet.

Leaving his dual blades sheathed on the ground for now, he pushed himself to his feet and moved toward the section of trees the sound had come from. One hand stretched out in front of him, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

As he did, a person stepped out from behind the nearest tree, their hands raised in a way that seemed like a strange mixture between surrender and a similar readiness to attack.

Zuko blinked. “Toph?”

And there she was. No longer dressed in the gown, she now wore a similar outfit to the one he’d seen in the arena the other night. A loose-fitting green jumpsuit with an off-white tabard that covered the middle front and back of the outfit. She wore no shoes, but had a studded black belt around her waist and simple green guards around her wrists and ankles.

“Hi.” Toph hesitated for a moment before fully stepping into the clearing.

“What are you doing here?” Zuko asked.

Toph turned her face away. “My dad changed his mind. He said I could go travel the world with you all.”

Zuko frowned. He didn’t believe that for a second. He tilted his head to the side, trying to get a better look at her face.

“Alright,” he said slowly. “Well, come in, I guess. We can tell the others the news in the morning.”

Toph nodded. She hiked her bag up on her shoulder and made her way over to the side of the clearing. She began quietly setting up a little area for herself to sleep, while Zuko watched, chewing on his lip nervously.

He had a sneaking suspicion this would bite him back later. But for now, at least, he resolved to just be happy to have an earthbending master.

Chapter Text

Princess Azula of the Fire Nation strode down a darkened hallway, head held high, every strand of hair in place, every fold of her royal garb perfectly aligned.

The immaculate nature of her dress and bearing belied the dark, dingy place she now walked through. In truth, tasks like this one would normally have been beneath her.

But Azula had always found that the only one she could truly rely on to do a satisfactory job at any task was herself. And so she walked, alone, down the barely lit halls of the imperial prison, until she found herself slipping behind a sliding metal door into a room.

A series of close-packed metal bars stretched from the floor to the ceiling, cutting the already small room into two smaller halves. Behind them, there was just enough room for a tiny, threadbare cot, a chamber pot, and the cell’s single occupant. Azula slid the door closed behind her and turned to face the bars with a smile.

“Hello, Uncle. Is your treachery treating you well?”

It disgusted her to even refer to this creature before her as her uncle. He looked very little like the proud, ruthless general that had nearly conquered Ba Sing Se when she was a child. He was a traitor to his country, and he would pay for it for the rest of his life.

But when he met her gaze, Azula could see that spark of cunning behind his eyes—a spark he tried to hide. He looked to all the world like a pitiful old man, with scraggly hair and grime-caked clothing. But though the prison guards and even her own father were fooled by his weakling routine, Azula knew better.

Her uncle had a plan, and she needed to have a better one.

He smiled politely and stood up in his cell, the metal chains jangling from his wrists. “Azula, my niece! To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Azula crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded him. “A pleasure, Uncle? Is that truly how you feel?”

Iroh stepped up to the bars with a calm smile. “Of course. It is always good to have company in my solitude.”

That smile grated on her, but Azula kept her expression carefully neutral.

“I’ll do my best not to keep you too long, then. I do have other things to do, of course.”

“So I take it you have not come to simply say hello to your dear uncle, Princess Azula?”

“No. I came because I need to speak with you of something…important, which unfortunately I believe only you can help with.”

Iroh smiled magnanimously. “I see. This wouldn’t have anything to do with your brother, would it? I hear he is still missing, yes?”

Azula didn’t let herself flinch, but her eyes did narrow. “And where exactly have you heard that, Uncle, while you've been here in your cell?”

Iroh waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, here and there. I think you know as well as I do, Princess, that simply staying silent and listening can teach much.”

Azula frowned. Did that mean the guards had been talking within earshot of their prisoners? She would have to have a conversation with the guard captains and make sure that practice did not continue.

But right now, she was here for a purpose, and she couldn't get distracted. She took a quick breath in to recenter herself and stepped forward one more time, to the bars. 

“Uncle,” she said. “I admit it, you’re correct. I am here to discuss my brother. You see, our lieutenants and generals have all failed in their endeavors to find him since he escaped a few weeks ago. And my father is”—Azula faltered here, looking away for just the barest instant before bringing her eyes up to meet her uncle’s once more—“loath to give me leave to go looking for him myself. So I decided to come to you.”

Her pause had been so brief, so short that she’d been certain no one could have noticed it, not even (ex) General Iroh. But something in his expression was different enough now that she thought he had noticed after all.

“I see,” he said thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t know how much I can help you from in here, my niece. Nor do I think your father would approve of you seeking me out.” He raised an eyebrow.

I know, Azula thought, but she kept her expression perfectly poised. “You know Zuko better than anyone, and you’ve spent three years with him. There is surely something you could share that would aid the search.”

“Perhaps.” Iroh tilted his head ever so slightly. “But if I tell you, Princess, will you be taking that information to your father’s generals and captains—or using it for yourself?”

Azula brought herself up tall. “What I do with the information I find is of no matter to you, Uncle.”

Iroh raised his manacled hands, taking a small step back from the bars—but he was still smiling that pleasant smile of his. Azula could still see that cunning hidden behind his eyes. 

“A fascinating proposition you offer me, Princess,” he said carefully. “But surely you know I would not betray Zuko so easily as that, my dear. What are you offering in return?”

The lifeblood still flowing in your veins should be payment enough, Azula thought in irritation. But of course she had known it would not be easy to convince her uncle to help her. She had known that if she truly wanted his counsel, she would have to provide something in return. 

And so, despite the anger seething in her at this compromise, she put on one of her careful, practiced smiles, stepped forward, and whispered a promise through the bars.

Chapter Text

To Zuko’s surprise, the rest of the group was more than happy to accept Toph’s addition to the party with very few questions asked.

Zuko thought the others believed her claim that her parents had agreed to let her leave about as much as he did, but no one seemed inclined to argue. They did make sure to pack up their things and get on their way as quickly as they could, though.

After all, Master Beifong had almost certainly sent people after them. But that was a problem they could worry about later.

Within less than an hour of waking up, they had all piled onto the increasingly crowded saddle on Appa’s back and set off into the sky.

It didn’t take long before they left the forests surrounding Gaoling behind and found themselves flying through true mountains to the northeast. Far in the distance, to the north, they could see the beginnings of the Si Wong Desert.

As they flew, Sokka was poring over their map, frowning thoughtfully.

“The shortest route to Ba Sing Se is if we fly straight across the Si Wong Desert from here,” he said.

“We can’t do that,” Zuko said.

“Why not?”

“Well, for one, it’s dangerous. It’s a huge desert. People go in there and die all the time.”

“We’ve got a flying bison,” Sokka protested. “We’ll be flying over it, not hiking through it.”

“Second,” Zuko said, ignoring Sokka for the moment, “I thought I was supposed to be trying to learn earth and waterbending on the way? If I’m going to do that, shouldn’t we try to stick to places that have, you know, water and rocks?”

“Isn’t a desert just a bunch of ground-up rocks?”

Zuko frowned, and looked toward Toph. Sokka did too.

She didn’t seem to be a fan of flying. She was at the edge of the saddle with her arms wrapped around the lip for dear life. She didn’t turn until Yue, who was seated next to Sokka as usual, reached over and gently tapped her arm.

“Toph?”

Then she jerked in surprise and looked toward the rest of the group. “What?”

“We’re trying to plan out our route,” Yue said calmly.

“And?”

“For your earthbending training,” Sokka said. “Can you do that in a desert or do we need to stick to the mountains?”

Toph frowned. “I’ve never been to a desert before, but I don’t think it’s exactly like regular earth. I’ve heard that there are people in the Si Wong Desert who specialize specifically in sandbending, but I’ve never done it. It would probably be better to start with the basics.”

“So the mountains, then.” Sokka sighed in a long-suffering way. “That’ll set us back a bit, but I guess we can do it.”

“It’s better for Zuko to have more time for training, isn’t it?” Katara asked.

Sokka shrugged. “No matter how we look at it, we’ve only got a few months left. When that comet comes, we’ll have to go against the Fire Lord whether Zuko is ready or not. I think we really need to get to Ba Sing Se as soon as we can to get the Earth Kingdom’s aid.”

Zuko didn’t love the reminder, but he remained silent and simply turned away, looking out across the landscape below them.

Meanwhile, Toph frowned from her spot clinging onto the edge of Appa’s saddle. “Hold on. Comet? The Fire Lord?”

Everyone did a double take and glanced Toph’s direction.

“Oh yeah,” Sokka said lightly. “I guess we didn’t give you the proper onboarding before we brought you onto the team, did we? Basically, there’s this big, scary comet coming in a few months’ time that’s going to give the Fire Nation enough power to end the war once and for all. We’ve gotta get Zuko trained up in all four elements and find a way to stop the Fire Lord before he can do that.”

“Sokka,” Katara said scoldingly. “You could have phrased that a little more gently.” She turned toward Toph with a comforting smile. “Sorry, Toph—”

But Toph did not seem to be alarmed, or even fazed at all. She simply nodded thoughtfully. “That’s why you were all so insistent about me being his earthbending teacher, I guess?”

“Yeah,” Aang said. “Zuko is still working on air and water, but we don’t have time for him to learn them one at a time.”

“Plus,” Yue said, “you’re clearly an incredibly talented earthbender.”

Toph smiled proudly. “Well, you’ve got that right.” She turned slightly in Zuko’s direction. “So, Avatar, when do we start?”

Zuko, who had been listening with half an ear as he continued to stare out toward the horizon, jumped slightly despite himself. He turned to face her and shrugged. “I guess we can start tonight, when we make camp.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Katara frowning at that. He knew she still thought he should follow tradition and learn water before earth—or, at the very least, be able to do the barest amount of waterbending first.

And Zuko would love to do it that way too, but they didn’t have time.

“Great!” Toph’s smile had an edge of mischief to it that made Zuko vaguely uncomfortable.

The conversation lapsed then, as Sokka turned back to his maps, and Toph returned to holding onto the edge of the saddle, and Zuko scooted over to where Katara sat.

He didn’t have to move far. With so many people in their group now, the saddle was more cramped than it had ever been. That wasn’t helped by the fact that Sokka insisted on laying his maps out on the floor, weighed down by bags and rocks and whatever else he could find.

Still, the rushing of the wind allowed for a small amount of privacy, if you sat near someone and kept your voices low enough that others couldn’t hear you over the sound.

“Hey,” he said softly, nudging Katara with his shoulder. “You still think it’s a bad idea for me to start earthbending training before I can waterbend, don’t you?”

Katara’s frown deepened even more. “Avatars have been learning the elements in the same order for thousands of years. It seems wrong to disturb that, don’t you think?”

Zuko shrugged. “If you have any suggestions for how I can suddenly learn how to waterbend before my first earthbending lesson tomorrow, I’m all ears.”

Katara sighed. “No. It’s fine. We agreed that we’d set aside your waterbending training, at least for now. Maybe getting a little progress in earthbending will unlock something that helps you with waterbending.”

Even as she spoke, Zuko could see how uncomfortable the words made her. She was going along with the plan, but he could tell she didn’t like it.

“Maybe when we settle for camp tonight, we’ll try to find a place that has a lot of water and a lot of rocks,” Zuko suggested. “I’ll give waterbending one last try before we start earthbending. We can try to meet up tonight. We probably won’t start earthbending until tomorrow, I imagine.”

Katara’s shoulders relaxed, though she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Sounds good to me.”

Sokka insisted that they fly as far as they possibly could during the day, to make up somewhat for all the time they spent in Gaoling. So when they finally landed to make camp, it was fully dark out, but the place they found was beautiful, located in the foothills with a nearby stream. It seemed like the perfect spot for both waterbending and earthbending training.

Not that Zuko was confident in his ability to do either.

He’d promised that he would try, though, so here he was, ready to do just that. 

Toph slid down from Appa’s back and simply stood for a moment, her head tilted thoughtfully as the rest of their group began unloading and unpacking the camp. After a few moments of this, Zuko noticed her nodding once to herself, then setting off to a far corner of the camp. She bent herself a tent made out of rock, then flopped down inside it.

A couple of the others in their group glanced at each other in confusion, then shrugged and continued setting up the camp. Zuko noticed that Katara didn’t, though. She paused, frowning in the tent’s direction for several seconds, and when she finally did return to her tasks, she kept glancing toward Toph’s setup.

Finally, she set down a bundle of sticks next to the fire Zuko was building and walked over to the tent Toph had set up. Zuko slowed down his work, watching as she headed over.

“Hey, Toph?” Katara said.

It took a few seconds, but eventually Toph poked her head out of her tent. “Yeah?”

“I was wondering if maybe you could help us set up camp. We usually like to divide—”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Toph said. She pat the bag she’d been carrying. “I carry my own weight. I’ve got all I need right here.”

Katara frowned. “Okay… but we still have some things that need to be done, and they’ll go a lot faster if you help out.”

At this point, Zuko noticed that the others had stopped their various tasks as well, and were alternately sharing glances between each other and looking over toward Toph and Katara.

“So you guys can’t handle it yourself? Like I said, I carry my own weight. I’m not asking any of you to help me with my setup.”

“That’s not the point. If we’re going to be a team, we need to work together, and—”

“I don’t see the problem here.” Toph crossed her arms over her chest with a frown.

Katara narrowed her eyes, opening her mouth to speak, but before she could, Sokka called, from his place next to the tent. 

“Katara, give it a rest. It’s her first day. We can handle it. I could use your help holding this tent upright while I hammer the stakes in.”

Katara scowled. She turned her head toward her brother and stared at him for a long moment. Then, finally, she said, “Fine.”

She walked away, but as she did, she shot a single glance over her shoulder toward Toph, as if to say, This isn’t over.

Zuko turned back to arranging the wood for the fire, thinking now probably wasn’t a good time to remind Katara that Toph couldn’t see her withering glare.

By the time they had finished setting up their camp, they could already hear light snores coming from inside Toph’s stone tent.

Katara frowned in its direction, but said nothing else about it for the rest of the night.

Chapter Text

Well into the night, Zuko woke to the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, shaking it gently.

“Zuko?” Katara’s voice whispered.

He opened his eyes—and his breath caught despite himself when he saw her leaning over him. 

She had undone her hair from its usual braid, so it hung in soft waves that framed her face, and the light from the nearly full moon glittered off her strikingly blue eyes. For a moment, Zuko could only stare dumbly at her.

“Hey,” he said. 

Katara smiled, releasing his shoulder and standing up a little straighter. Zuko shook himself and sat up.

“Come on,” Katara said softly. “Quietly.”

Zuko followed her away from their little campsite full of sleeping companions, down to the nearby stream. Then they walked along the stream for a few hundred feet, until they were far enough away that the sounds of their practice wouldn’t reach their friends.

“I don’t think it’s going to work, Katara,” Zuko said. 

“Not with that attitude.” Katara stopped and turned to face him, putting her hands on her hips. “We have to try. One more time. I just need you to bend a drop of water before you start earthbending tomorrow.”

She waved for Zuko to follow her, then slipped out of her shoes and stepped into the stream. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back to the sky.

For a moment, Zuko found himself unable to move as he watched her. She had not put her hair back into the braid, so it hung long and loose down her back. The moonlight seemed to give her a kind of ethereal glow.

Zuko felt his face warming, but he shook his head. What was wrong with him today? He kicked out of his shoes and stepped into the water next to her. 

It was getting into early spring now, but the water still felt cold as it moved past his ankles.

Katara opened her eyes and looked over at Zuko. “You ready?”

Zuko tried for a smile. “As I’ll ever be, I guess.”

“Good.” Katara dipped down and pulled a stream of water out of the river. She bought it around to hover in the air between them.

Zuko looked down at the water as Katara began to speak.

“Close your eyes,” she said, and Zuko hesitated, then did as she said. “Feel the water flowing around your feet, the way it changes size and shape to go around you. Can you feel it?”

Zuko nodded. Now that he’d been standing in the stream for a few moments, it didn’t feel as uncomfortable, as his body acclimated to the temperature. Instead, it was just a pleasant coolness against his skin. 

He tried to focus on the feeling of the water, the way it parted around his feet. The element of the change. With how many things had changed in his life the past few months, it was amazing he hadn’t managed to get it yet.

“Good.” Zuko felt the water shift around him as Katara stepped closer. “I’m going to pour a little water over your hands, but don’t open your eyes, okay?” 

Zuko nodded again. 

“Okay. Can you cup your hands in front of you, please?”

Zuko did, and a moment later he felt the coolness of the water dripping into his hands and slipping through his fingers. He tried to focus on the feeling of it and internalize it.

And maybe he would have succeeded, if he didn’t suddenly feel a sheet of water splash into his face. 

His eyes flew open immediately. “Hey!”

Katara was giggling madly, her hands in front of her mouth. 

“Sorry,” she said, though she didn’t sound apologetic at all. 

Zuko was caught halfway between anger and amusement. He reached up and touched the top of his head, where his hair was soaked with water dripping down onto his shoulders. 

He looked over at her with a glare, ready to say something snappy, but something about the way she was smiling stopped him. Despite himself, he felt his own lips twitching with the barest hint of a smile.

“Isn’t this supposed to be a lesson?” he asked, deadpan.

Katara shrugged. “There are many ways to learn.” 

She pulled another stream of water up out of the creek and flung it at him, but this time he was ready. He ducked under the stream, then waited, tense, expecting her to send another splash his way.

She didn’t. Instead, she raised her eyebrows at him. “Water is about balance,” she said. “And redirection. This wouldn’t be much of a lesson if it was all one-sided, would it?”

“You want me to throw water at you?”

“Well—I want you to try, anyway.” Katara’s lips tilted upward again, but this time it was more like a smirk. A challenge.

Zuko felt a strange fluttering in his chest. After a moment of hesitation, he rolled his eyes dramatically and leaned down to scoop up a handful of water. He splashed it toward Katara, but before it had even gotten half the distance to her, she’d caught it and whipped it back at him.

Zuko cursed, barely dodging out of the way. “That’s not fair.”

Katara smiled wider, raising her hands to call more water out of the river. “It could be, if you put a little effort into it.”

So that’s what her angle was. Zuko scowled. “What do you think I’m doing?”

“Right now?” Katara asked, as she formed a ring of water around her lower torso. “Complaining. Now, show me what you’ve got.”

With that, she grinned and ran at him, sending a spray of water in his direction. Zuko’s instincts screamed at him to jump out of the way, but he forced himself to stand his ground, falling into a stance he’d done a million times during his training with Yue. He tried to stop the water, to curve it around his body and prepare to send it back like he’d seen the waterbenders in the North Pole doing.

Instead, the water slammed into him, followed by Katara herself.

The unexpected force sent both of them topping into the stream. Zuko instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around Katara, holding her against him to cushion her fall as much as he could.

As he did, he realized she was laughing. He hit the ground hard, his breath choking off from the impact, and then he felt choked for an entirely different reason as he found himself staring into Katara’s eyes. 

Her laughter had died out, and now her cheeks were bright red.

For a split second, they simply stared at each other.

Then Katara started to push off of him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to run into you so hard.”

Zuko let her go immediately. She got to her feet, then held out a hand to him to help him get up as well. He took it and pulled himself to his feet, then frowned down at his now-sodden clothing, trying to will the blush from his own cheeks before Katara noticed it.

As he did, though, he felt another splash of water hit him, and his head snapped up. “What are you doing?”

Katara stood there, her cheeks still pink as a glob of water floated in the air above her hands. She gave him a mischievous smile. “I never said the lesson was done. I was talking to Aang, and thinking about what happened when you bent air for the first time. The more structured lessons obviously haven’t been working for you, so I thought I’d try something a little different this time.”

She threw her glob of water at him, then immediately pulled another from the stream.

Zuko cursed, and barely dodged the first strike, keeping his eyes on her as she followed up with a second. 

“Are you crazy?” he demanded, but Katara only replied with a smile and another splash of water directed at his face.

What followed was the world’s most one-sided water battle, as Katara threw wave after wave of water at him, and Zuko did his best to dodge them. He could feel that familiar frustration building up inside him, but to his surprise, he couldn’t hold onto it.

Katara’s laughter was infectious, her smile warm and bright, and instead of getting lost in the same old anger, he found himself smiling, too.

He got better at avoiding her attacks, and even managed to get a few back at her—though his were far less impressive, of course, just the measly amount of water someone could get out of a normal kick or scooped handful.

It had been a long time since Zuko had had fun. Maybe he never had.

But right now, he found it remarkably easy to slide into the rhythm of their back and forth. Dodging her attacks and retaliating with his own. The coolness of the water felt good against his skin. Not just good. Right.

He grinned as he ducked under another stream of water Katara sent his way, then reached down to cup another handful of water and fling it at her.

As he did, he felt something shift inside him, a gear clicking into place. What he flung her way wasn’t a handful’s worth of water, but a deluge equal to any of Katara’s bending.

It slammed into Katara, knocking her slightly off balance and thoroughly drenching her, but she didn’t seem to care. Her lips burst into a giant smile as she stared across at him.

“You did it, Zuko!”

Zuko, for his part, had frozen in place, watching with shock and awe as the water hit her—water he had bent. Droplets of it fell from her hair and clothes in slow motion.

Zuko looked down at his hands, then back up at her—and he smiled, too, though more uncertainly. “I…I did.”

Chapter Text

The next morning, Zuko found himself being awoken again, but this time in a much less gentle way. The ground around him shook violently, and he bolted awake, immediately on high alert, reaching for his weapons.

Then he heard the laughter, and he turned toward the sound, first confused, then annoyed.

“Good morning, earthbending student!” Toph said. She sat cross-legged on the ground where her tent had been, and smiled mischievously as she popped some jerky from her pack into her mouth.

Zuko glared at her. Around him, his friends were grumbling and reluctantly pushing themselves to her feet.

“Was that necessary?” Katara asked.

Topg shrugged. “Figured you’d want to start as early as possible, since you were all talking so much about our all-important time limit yesterday.”

She kicked her foot, and a stone platform rose up under where Sokka had rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. He shot a few feet in the air, then hit the ground and sat up, glaring over toward Toph and mumbling garbled obscenities.

Her smirk only widened.

“Let’s get started, then,” Zuko said, looking from Sokka to Toph.

“Great!” Toph pushed herself to her feet and waved for Zuko to follow as she turned and walked away from the clearing.

Zuko started to follow, when Aang called out from behind him, “Do you want any of us to come with you, Zuko? Maybe we could give some pointers.”

Zuko glanced over his shoulder. Sokka was still grumbling while Yue sat next to him, giggling and rubbing his shoulder, but Aang seemed wide awake. He stared after Zuko and Toph with a hopeful expression. Katara paused in the middle of rolling up her own sleeping bag, and glanced toward Zuko curiously as well.

Zuko was already starting to shake his head—the last thing he wanted was a repeat of his first failed attempt at waterbending back on the lion turtle. But before he could say anything, Toph, who had stopped and turned around a few feet further into the forest, laughed derisively. 

“No offense, Twinkle Toes, but I’m not sure how much advice an airbender is going to be able to give during an earthbending lesson.”

That was one way to phrase it, Zuko supposed, though he wished she hadn’t said it quite so rudely. He could already see Aang deflating.

“Right,” Aang said. “I…guess that makes sense. Zuko?”

Aang gave him the big, hopeful eyes. Great. Now if he agreed with Toph and went to train with her alone, he was going to look like a jerk. 

Well, whatever. He’d looked like a jerk a hundred times before.

At the very least, though, he thought he could soften it a little. 

So he tried to put on a self-assured expression and said, “Maybe next time. I’d like to get some one-on-one training first.”

Aang deflated a little again, though thankfully not as much.

Katara said, “That sounds like a great idea to me, Zuko! Make sure you’ve got the basics down first.”

Just as quickly as Aang’s face had fallen, he recovered again, and both he and Katara were giving Zuko nothing but encouraging smiles as he turned back around.

That didn’t make him feel any better. He hurried his pace as he continued following Toph through the woods.

Thry walked for a while, until Zuko finally said, “Where exactly are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Toph said. “I found this place I think will be perfect.”

Zuko frowned, glancing behind again.

“Just trust me,” Toph said, annoyed.

A few minutes later, the trees around them thinned and cleared away to reveal a large moss-covered rocky expanse and a further stretch of forest climbing up the side of the mountains.

Zuko’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

Toph turned around in the center of the clearing, putting her hands on her hips. “Alright. You ready to learn some earthbending?”

“I guess.”

Toph frowned. “I’m gonna need a little more enthusiasm out of you than that. I said, are you ready to learn some earthbending?”

This time, she stomped the ground, and the earth around them shook as a pillar of rock rose up beneath her and lifted her several feet into the air.

Zuko stared impassively back at her. “Just get on with it.”

Toph crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, if you want to be boring about it.”

She lowered her pillar back to ground level and stepped off it, moving to stand next to him. Then, with a few precise motions Zuko couldn’t follow, she pulled two large round boulders up from the ground and placed one of them in front of him, the other in front of herself. 

“Let’s start with something easy, yeah? Move a rock.”

Toph fell into a low stance next to Zuko, her feet spread wide and planted firmly into the ground. She rotated her body to face the boulder and made a flat-palmed shoving motion with both hands.

Immediately, the boulder shot forward and slammed into a nearby tree with a crack!

Toph straightened back up, bringing herself into a more natural standing position as she turned toward Zuko again. “Earthbending is all about your stance. If you want to move rock, you have to be stubborn and strong, like a rock.”

Zuko frowned slightly. Stubborn and strong.

He thought about the years he spent doggedly pursuing the Avatar into even the most remote areas of the world, and about his obstinate resistance to the idea that he was the Avatar himself. His mother’s words came back to him, something she’d said to him when he was a child. That’s who you are, Zuko. Someone who keeps fighting even though it’s hard.

Zuko didn’t think of himself as strong, exactly, but he certainly had stubbornness in spades. Maybe that would be enough.

“Ready to try?” Toph asked. She fell into her stance again, as if in demonstration.

Zuko nodded, fixing his gaze on the boulder in front of him and widening his stance into something close to Toph’s.

It did feel strange, to adopt such a grounded stance after weeks spent trying to learn air and water. Those elements both focused more on mobility, on staying light and adaptable. Even fire required a looser stance, quicker footwork.

And yet this wasn’t uncomfortable.

He took a deep breath, relaxed into the stability of the stance as he exhaled, and pushed his hands forward. He imagined the rock flying off into the woods the way Toph’s had, and shoved all his willpower into the movement, demanding that the rock move.

To his surprise, it did.

Not without resistance, of course. Toph was right; the earth was stalwart and strong. Zuko felt his willpower slam against—well, against a ton of rock.

But the resistance didn’t feel insurmountable in the same way his struggles with water and air had. It felt almost familiar.

Air and water required benders to learn to let go of control and flow with the elements, becoming one with them in a way. Fire, though, was volatile, erratic. It required careful control and a firm hand, lest you destroy something or hurt someone you didn’t mean to.

Earthbending, it turned out, was similar in some ways. Earth wasn’t erratic like fire, but it was stubborn. It didn’t respond to a gentle touch. It demanded that you assert yourself and force it to comply.

For better or worse, Zuko had experience with giving commands, and so when he commanded the boulder in front of him to move, it listened.

It wasn’t as impressive as what Toph had done, but it did fly backwards and land just beyond the tree line. A few seconds after it had fallen out of sight, Zuko heard a boom! and felt a faint tremor in the ground beneath his feet.

“Good job!” Toph said, surprise coloring her voice. “I was expecting that to take a lot longer.”

Me too, Zuko thought but didn’t say. Instead, he said, “Well? What now?”

Toph grinned back at him.

If Zuko thought he’d been doing a lot of training before, that was nothing compared to his schedule during the weeks they spent traveling to Ba Sing Se. Every morning, Toph woke him long before everyone else was awake and spent at least an hour or two on earthbending. Then, during the day, as they flew on Appa, he and Aang would go out on their gliders and do some airbending training in the sky nearby. When they landed for the night, he’d get a brief respite while they set up camp and ate, but then they’d do a little more earthbending training after dinner. And most nights, when the moon was high, he would go out with Katara for waterbending lessons.

His training in earth and air was generally going well, but even so, it was a lot of hard, exhausting work. As for waterbending, ever since that night at the stream, he’d at least figured out how to make the water move, but it was still more difficult than the other elements.

He did seem to be doing better now that Katara had taken over as his primary teacher, though. Katara insisted it was because they’d started doing lessons at night under the moon, when waterbending was strongest, but Zuko thought it was more than that. He didn’t miss that it seemed to bother Yue, but he tried not to feel guilty about that.

Despite his waterbending-related issues, Zuko finally felt like he was making some real progress, maybe for the first time since he first discovered he was the Avatar.

Plus, it helped that he was so busy and so constantly exhausted that he didn’t have the time or energy to worry about things like his uncle. Not while he was awake, anyway.

His dreams, however, told a different story. They continued to be plagued by visions of his father smiling from behind a wall of fire, of his uncle crying out for help, of his mother whispering that he had failed her. Of a strange metal cylinder burrowing through a massive wall. Of Azula, standing proudly as a red and gold Fire Nation banner fell to cover an Earth Kingdom symbol on a wall behind her. Of his past lives—Roku, Aang, Yora, Ti—begging him to avenge them and save the world. Of a comet, roaring across the sky and bringing with it destruction.

Most nights, when Katara woke him for his nightly training session, he was all too eager to leave his dreams behind.

In addition to training, his days were filled with conversations and drama between the members of the group. Katara and Toph, in particular, seemed to get on each others’ nerves at least once a day. Katara would often spend at least a few minutes during their nightly training sessions complaining about Toph’s lack of team spirit.

Zuko, for his part, mostly found it amusing, though of course he didn’t dare say that to Katara. He very clearly remembered the days, not so long ago, when Katara’s ire had been directed at him instead. He wasn’t eager to return to that anytime soon.

Aside from that, there were regular debates with the rest of his companions—especially Yue, Sokka, and, to his surprise, Toph—about what they were going to do when they got to Ba Sing Se. What the plan was, how they were going to get in with the Earth King.

Toph, as it turned out, was far more knowledgeable about the city, or at least about the customs of Earth Kingdom high society, than any of the rest of them were. She’d even been there a couple times, which was more than Zuko could say.

As the days of debate and training went on, though, Zuko began to realize just how out of their depth the group was in this situation. He’d already known it was true, of course—but when you got down to it, most of their group were kids who had been incredibly sheltered for most of their lives.

Yue had spent her whole life in the isolationist Northern Water Tribe. Katara and Sokka had barely gone more than a few miles from their home village until they left to chase after Zuko. Aang had grown up on the lion turtle. And Toph, aside from the rare, heavily guarded trip outside of Gaoling, had been mostly confined to the grounds of her family’s estate. Zuko, with his three years of exile, was the most worldly of the group by far.

He was also the Avatar, which one might think would give him some leverage, but he’d learned from his experience with Master Yu and the Beifongs that it might take more than just his word to get people to believe that. Plus, though at this point Zuko imagined that the Fire Nation itself would no longer recognize his birthright, to the rest of the world, he was still the crown prince of the Fire Nation. Commoners probably wouldn’t recognize him, but the political and military leaders might, even if he had changed quite a bit since the last time he’d sat for an official portrait.

That meant it might be hard for him to get close enough to any important Earth Kingdom leaders to even have the chance to convince them he was the Avatar before they killed him.

Despite these concerns, they continued ever onward toward Ba Sing Se, until finally, after several days that seemed to blur into a nonsensical mash, Aang called out from his usual spot on top of Appa’s head.

“Look! There it is!”

Zuko leaned over the edge of the saddle, and his eyes went wide. 

He’d heard a lot about Ba Sing Se, of course. The Impenetrable City, it was called, which would be an arrogant-sounding moniker if it hadn’t turned out to be true. It stood as a source of great annoyance and occasional shame for the Fire Nation. Various generals had tried and failed to pierce its walls many times since the war began, and even Zuko’s own uncle had failed to do so in an infamous siege during Zuko’s childhood. 

But he hadn’t realized just how big it was. It stretched out below them, covering the entirety of the ground they could see.

“Wow,” Aang said. “How are we supposed to get anywhere in there?”

Zuko thought that was a very good question. And one he had absolutely no answer to.

Chapter Text

Aang flicked Appa’s reins and directed them further into the city. It seemed to be arranged in rings, with walls between the sections, and even from the sky, Aang could easily see that the wealth levels in each of the rings were vastly different from each other. The outside ring was the largest and most populous—and also appeared to be the poorest. They were too far up to see the people, but the buildings were enough. The outer ring consisted mostly of dilapidated structures that were practically stacked on top of each other, while the architecture and general ambiance seemed to get fancier as they approached the massive stone palace that Aang could clearly see sitting at the city’s center.

Aang’s first instinct was to fly toward that palace—that was presumably where the king would be, right?—but as he began to turn Appa in that direction, Yue’s voice spoke up from behind him.

“Where are you going?”

He brought Appa up short, glancing back at his friends. “We’re here to meet the king, right?”

“I don’t think they’re going to let us walk right up to the palace, Aang,” Katara said.

Toph, who was sitting next to Sokka, holding onto his arm, grinned and said, “Hey, I say give it a try. Maybe they won’t even kill us.”

Aang frowned, glancing down at the city. “Well… where should we go, then?”

“Depends on how much we care about being noticed, I guess,” Sokka said thoughtfully. “If we wanna get some attention, we could always land in the middle of the market.” He grinned.

Katara elbowed him. “Sokka.”

“What?”

“I think people are probably going to notice us no matter where we go, Sokka,” Aang said, looking down at the city again. “They maybe already have.”

“Just land, then,” Zuko said, clearly annoyed. “We’re wasting time arguing about it.”

Aang chewed on his lip, then finally nodded. He pulled on Appa’s reins again. “Come on, buddy. Let’s go down.”

As Aang had suspected, as soon as they got close to the ground, he could hear distant cries and see people pointing up to the sky in alarm. There was never much chance they’d get a successful stealth landing when their ride was a ten-ton bison that could fly.

Before they’d gotten to the ground, guards in green and brown uniforms had appeared on the roofs of buildings all around the small square Aang had been angling toward. 

Voices shouted up at them. “Who goes there?” “Halt!” Etc.

Aang pulled up on Appa’s reins and leaned over the side of Appa’s saddle, looking down at the people below.

“Hi!” he said brightly, waving. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zuko rolling his eyes, but ignored him. “Are you the city guard here? We could use your help.”

The guards looked between each other awkwardly for a moment, then one of the more decorated looking soldiers stepped forward. “We are the Dai Li, the cultural protectors of Ba Sing Se. And you are…?”

“I’m Aang,” Aang said. “I’m here with Z—” He cut off as Zuko shook his head sharply. “I’m here with the Avatar and some of his friends. We’re looking to speak to the king, if we can. We have important information for him.”

“The Avatar?” one of the other guards scoffed. “The Avatar hasn’t been heard from in a hundred years. How—”

The lead guard held up a hand for silence, his expression thoughtful as his eyes scanned across first Aang’s face, then Appa and the rest of the group. “Why don’t you follow me?” he said after a moment.

His subordinates looked at him with surprise. One of them said, “Sir?”

The guard shot a look at that person, who looked away.

“Men,” he said, waving a hand down toward the ground, “return to your posts. I will handle this from here.”

The other guards exchanged dubious looks, but did as they were told, making their way down from the roof slowly until it was only Aang, his friends, and the lead guard.

“I cannot allow you to continue to alarm the people in this city by flying overhead with your…animal,” the man said, looking nervously at Appa.

“Sky bison,” Aang supplied. “They’re herbivores. Appa won’t hurt anyone.”

The man didn’t seem to be comforted by that. “Nonetheless,” he said, “if you wouldn’t mind landing, I can lead you and your friends to a place where we can talk out of the public eye.”

Aang glanced at his friends for their input. Zuko and Sokka looked a little dubious, but nodded, while Katara and Yue seemed more enthusiastic. 

Aang patted the side of Appa’s head. “Bring us down, buddy.”

Luckily, the streets in this part of town were wide enough to accommodate a large animal like Appa. He landed next to the building while the man used earthbending to make his way down from it, and they all piled down onto solid ground again.

The man waved at them to follow after him. Aang did so immediately, some of the rest of his friends following with a little more reluctance. Zuko sidled up next to Aang behind their new guide. 

“What’s your name?” Zuko asked. Aang had to stifle a wince. He was clearly trying to sound casual, but clear suspicion colored his voice.

The man glanced back at him with a frown. “I am Hao.”

“And where exactly are you taking us, Hao?”

“I believe there is someone you should meet. He is the leader of my organization, the Dai Li.”

“The Dai Li?” Aang asked.

“Have you never been to this city before?”

“No,” Aang said with a smile. “I don’t think any of us have, right?” He glanced back at the rest of his friends, who shook their hands in answer.

Hao’s frown turned thoughtful. In an offhand tone, he said, “The Dai Li are the cultural protectors of Ba Sing Se. We handle those threats that might be harmful to the cultural heritage of our great city and its people.”

“And you think we might be one of those threats?” Sokka asked, sounding defensive.

“I did not say that.” Hao fell silent and continued walking. Though Aang and his friends continued to ask questions as they made their way through the (strangely abandoned, Aang noticed) streets, he did not acknowledge them any further. 

After several minutes of walking, they came to a large building. Aang could hear the sounds of commerce and people just on the other side of the building from where they stood, but the area they were standing in was still empty. 

The building looked fairly nondescript. It was clearly a building made from earthbending, with thick walls of rock that jutted directly out of the ground and a mostly flat roof. A single, very large stone door was set into the front, but there were no windows, adornment, or anything else to indicate what the building’s purpose was. 

Hao walked up to the building without preamble, stomped his foot, and the stone door slid down into the earth, creating an opening large enough that even Appa would be able to pass through.

Inside waited a dark, empty room, like a very large stable of some kind, and a single, human-sized door on the far right wall.

He waved for them to follow as he stepped inside, but Aang and his friends hesitated.

“What is this place?” Katara asked.

Hao glanced back at them then sighed and stepped back out into the light. “It is a place for you to meet the person I mentioned earlier. And a place to keep your animal, at least until we can find him more…suitable accommodation.”

Aang’s fingers twisted into the fur on Appa’s side. “You want us to leave him here?”

“Possibly. That is not my decision. Please enter, and everything will become more clear.”

They all exchanged a look, hesitating, and finally Hao sighed again. “Wait here a moment, please.”

He stepped back inside and walked straight over to that door on the wall, disappearing beyond it. They waited.

While they did, Aang found himself nervously stroking the side of Appa’s massive body. They couldn’t possibly mean to have him leave Appa in a place like this, could they? No windows, no access to the outside except through a door that only earthbenders could open?

Appa hated being confined even more than Aang did.

Whatever Hao was doing, it apparently wasn’t a quick process, and eventually their collective patience wore out.

“Where did he go?” Sokka demanded. “And why is he taking so long? We can’t stand around here forever.”

“I don’t know.” Zuko stood farther back from the door than the rest of them, his eyes darting around nervously. He dropped his voice lower when he spoke again. “Maybe we should just go, find our own way in the city. Did you notice that there weren’t any other people around as he led us through the streets? It’s just like back at the North Pole, when Azula ambushed us.”

Appa made a disgruntled sound, and Aang realized he’d gone from stroking Appa’s fur to twisting his fingers in it so tightly he’d accidentally pulled some of it out. “Sorry, buddy,” he murmured, carefully pulling his hand free.

“Find our own way?” Yue asked dubiously. Her eyes trailed to Aang and Appa. She looked away quickly, but not so fast that Aang didn’t catch the glance. “I don’t think we’ll be able to get very far. We’re very noticeable. If this is a trap, we’ve already fallen into it.”

Aang stiffened. 

Katara took a step toward him, her expression hesitant. “Yue does have a point, Aang. Maybe you could tell Appa to fly to somewhere safe outside the city, just until we can get ourselves established here? You still have that bison whistle, right?”

“If Appa has to leave, I am too,” Aang said with a frown.

Sokka rolled his eyes at the same time that Zuko shot Aang an incredulous glare.

“Be reasonable, Aang,” Sokka said. “We need you here. Besides, Appa can take care of himself, can’t he? He’s a big, smart sky bison.”

Appa grunted indignantly. Aang was about to echo that sentiment, but another voice interrupted him before he could.

“I don’t believe you’ll need to worry about that. I assure you that we will take very good care of your sky bison, young airbender.”

Aang and the others spun to face the newcomer and found two people in the doorway of the empty building. One of them was Hao, the man who’d escorted them here. He carried a more subservient bearing now, positioned a few steps behind and to the right of the person who’d spoken.

The other one was a middle-aged Earth Kingdom man, half bald but with a long tail of black hair braided down his back. He wore intricate, flowing green and gold robes and a smile that seemed pleasant, but not warm.

“I am Long Feng,” the man continued before any of them could speak. He gave a polite bow. “Leader of the Dai Li. It is an honor to learn that our great city has become host to the Avatar. Please, come in and speak with me.”

Chapter Text

Zuko had already decided he did not trust this guy. His fingers twitched, itching to pull out his blades. His legs burned with the desire to run.

Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the man—Long Feng. “And if we don’t come with you?”

His friends shot him looks, some more disapproving than others, but he ignored them.

Long Feng’s eyes slid from Aang, standing next to Appa closest to the door, to Zuko. His smile widened. “You are welcome to leave, of course. I will not stop you. My understanding, however, was that you and your friends wish to speak with the king. As his most trusted advisor, I am one of very few in this city who can help you do that.”

Zuko didn’t see why that meant they should follow him into a dark room with no exits.

“Why don’t we talk out here?” he asked, glancing around pointedly at the empty passageway around them. “There’s no one here but us.”

“A fair point, I suppose. I simply wished to bring you to a place where we could all be a little more comfortable. And besides, sometimes even the walls have ears.”

Zuko scowled. But Katara exchanged a glance with her brother, then took a step in Zuko’s direction. 

“Maybe we should go with him,” she said, her voice gentle but not timid, as though Zuko was a wild animal she was trying to calm. That only annoyed him more. “The things we need to discuss aren’t the kinds of things you should talk about out in the open.”

Zuko glared at her, but didn’t speak. He hoped his expression was enough to convey the thought on his mind: If this turns out to be a trap, I hope you remember it was your idea to go along with it.

She glared back, and Zuko thought he could read a whole sentence in her expression, too: If we go around assuming everyone we talk to is leading us into a trap, then we’ll never get anywhere.

Or maybe that was just Zuko’s own mind, reminding him of that. He reluctantly looked away from Katara, meeting Long Feng’s eyes once more. He still wore that same pleasant expression.

“Fine. Lead the way.”

Around him, the tension that had been building in the group seemed to release. Zuko realized his friends had been holding themselves in ready stances, their hands hovering near their weapons or bending sources. It mollified him somewhat when he noticed that they didn’t relax entirely, though, as Long Feng smiled even wider, bowed respectfully, and turned to walk back inside the building.

The rest of the group followed behind, though Zuko noticed that Aang hung back a little, nervous, as he eyed the dark, empty room. He hung back too, raising an eyebrow at Aang. He was reluctant now, when he’d been so happy to share so many of their secrets to Hao earlier?

“Appa doesn’t like being in places where he can’t see the sky,” Aang said, by way of explanation.

“Then have him wait out here,” Zuko said, trying not to let his annoyance bleed through in his voice. “Or have him fly off somewhere safe, like Katara said. I don’t like the idea of going in there any more than you do, but we don’t have much choice.”

Aang hesitated, his expression torn. Something about that look made Zuko’s annoyance wash away.

It was easy to forget, sometimes, that despite all his skill and the strange wisdom he sometimes showed, Aang was still just a child of only twelve. Right now, though, he looked every bit like a young boy, afraid to leave his oldest friend behind in this overwhelming, unfamiliar place.

Even Zuko was intimidated by the sheer size of Ba Sing Se, now that they were here, and he’d spent most of his life in the Fire Nation capital and traveled half the world during the years of his banishment. How would he feel if he were Aang, whose longest experience with a city of any kind was the scant hour or two they’d spent in the Northern Water Tribe before Azula captured them? A city that was miniscule compared to this one?

Zuko had never been very good at being comforting, but he reached out cautiously and put a hand on Aang’s shoulder, tried to make his expression confident and reassuring. “Hey. It’ll be okay.” He glanced at Appa, hoping for support.

The bison regarded him with those too-intelligent eyes of his. After a moment of consideration, he gave them both a lick with his massive tongue, pushing them both toward the empty doorway, and made a grunting noise that seemed to say, Go on.

Aang still seemed uncertain, but he giggled, wiping bison slobber off his face. “Alright, alright, fine. If you’re sure, buddy.”

Appa grunted again, and Aang finally turned to follow Zuko inside.

As they followed Long Feng and Hao, Zuko became increasingly regretful about agreeing to this. He didn’t know where they could possibly be going, but it was obvious that they were no longer near the place where they’d started. Long Feng led them through the door they’d seen Hao enter earlier, then down a set of stairs and through a seemingly endless underground hallway that extended far away from that original entrance.

Doors dotted the walls to their right and left at intervals, all closed, and Long Feng shot a warning glance when Sokka tried to surreptitiously open one.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking, during which time all of them became increasingly uncomfortable with where they were going, Long Feng stopped at one of these doors. It looked no different from any of the others they had passed, but Long Feng didn’t hesitate as he pulled a ring of keys out of the pocket of his robes and unlocked the door, then waved for them to follow him inside.

They did, though Zuko warily paused for a half-second at the threshold, surveying the room beyond.

While the hall they had been walking through was plain and unadorned, the room Long Feng had brought them to was anything but. It featured plush carpets and furniture, all glittering green and gold, and a large, already-lit fireplace against the left wall.

It looked at least as opulent as any room in the Fire Nation palace, which made Zuko nervous, but he didn’t see anything that screamed “trap!” (Well, besides the entire situation, but that couldn’t be helped at this point.) So, with some reluctance, he stepped into the room with the others and crossed to sit on one of the couches that Long Feng indicated. 

Once all of them had entered, Zuko heard the door close behind him, along with a distinct click that did not make him feel any better. He glanced back. Hao had not entered with them, so they sat alone with only Long Feng.

Well, only Long Feng within sight, anyway. Zuko found himself scanning the walls and decor, looking for hidden doors or places where secret attackers could be hiding.

“I assure you, Prince Zuko, we are quite alone in here.”

Zuko’s head whipped toward Long Feng so fast that he almost got dizzy. Long Feng still wore that same maddeningly calm expression he’d had since he first met them at the door.

“How did you—?”

“As I believe I’ve mentioned, I am the Earth King’s advisor. I work very closely with the Earth King on every aspect of our kingdom’s political endeavors, including, as you might expect, the war. As such, I make it my business to know the names and faces of our enemies.”

His smile hadn’t changed at all, but it somehow seemed more threatening now than it had a moment ago. Zuko tensed, glaring back at him.

“I—”

“Luckily!” Aang cut in abruptly. “We’re not your enemies! Isn’t that right, Zuko?”

Zuko forced himself to relax, just a bit, though he couldn’t keep the frown off his face. “Yeah.” He took a breath and met Long Feng’s gaze. “Yes, I am Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, as you say. But I am not here as your enemy—”

“I would hope so,” Long Feng noted. “Flying into the city on a sky bison in plain view would be a poor method for infiltration.”

Zuko gritted his teeth, but continued as if the man hadn’t spoken. He was having trouble keeping his temper from flaring, though he wasn’t certain why. Something about that sly smile, the frustrating calm, the way he seemed to be several steps ahead of them….

It clicked. Long Feng’s demeanor…it reminded him of Azula.

“I’m here seeking refuge for me and my friends,” Zuko said tightly. Then he glanced at Yue, meeting her gaze for a second. She smiled at him, and he turned to Long Feng’s again. “And, more importantly, I’m here to ask for the Earth Kingdom’s aid in fixing some mistakes.”

For the first time, Long Feng’s confidence seemed to waver ever so slightly. He wasn’t as good as Azula was at maintaining that careful mask, and Zuko had years of experience trying to read her. He saw a flicker of confusion flash behind Long Feng’s eyes.

“And why exactly would the Earth Kingdom provide any of those things? I know you are in exile, Prince Zuko, but that hardly makes you a friend.”

He didn’t know. Zuko couldn’t help it. He smirked, ever so slightly, as he met the man’s eyes. He’d never managed to best Azula like this, and this didn’t feel nearly as good as he imagined that would, but it was nice nonetheless.

“Your spies aren’t as good as you think, apparently,” he said. “Or surely you’d have heard by now that I’m the Avatar. We made quite the spectacle.”

Long Feng’s calm mask dropped entirely as his eyes widened in obvious surprise. “That’s impossible.” His gaze flickered to Aang, then back to Zuko.

Aang smiled at him, giving a little wave. “Hi. Not me. I’m glad our trick still seems to be going strong in the Earth Kingdom, though.” He shot a look at Katara, who smiled.

Long Feng only frowned at all of them.

“I’d be happy to give you a demonstration,” Zuko said, “if you promise not to attack me or my friends when I do.”

Long Feng didn’t answer immediately, instead narrowing his eyes at Zuko, studying his face intently. Now it was Zuko’s turn to meet that searching gaze with a calm stare.

Finally, Long Feng waved a hand, as if to say, Go ahead.

Zuko stood up from the couch and stepped to the side of the room near the crackling fireplace. As he had when meeting Toph’s parents, he took a deep breath to center himself, then began to bend the air.

Technically, Zuko now had access to all the elements. He could have bent all four of them, just to prove the point even more. But he was still new at earthbending and bad at waterbending, so rather than embarrass himself trying to do either of those, he settled for the elements he knew best.

He swirled his arms in the air, creating a breeze that danced around all of them, ruffling clothing and hair and sending stray papers flying, before sending it all in a sudden rush toward the fireplace. The room plunged into darkness.

Another intake of breath, and when he exhaled, he sent a single, controlled blast of fire to relight the kindling and set the fireplace ablaze again. Then he turned to face the rest of the group again.

“I see,” Long Feng said after a moment, when Zuko said nothing. “This is certainly an interesting turn of events. However, it still does not answer my earlier question. Why should the Earth Kingdom help you?” 

Zuko blinked. He would have thought it was obvious.“Well…uh…”

“Perhaps because you care about the wellbeing of the world?” Yue suggested quietly, from her spot at Sokka’s side. She leaned forward, toward Long Feng, who turned his gaze from Zuko to her as she continued. 

“Allow us to introduce ourselves properly,” Yue said. “You seem to know our friend Zuko already, but these are Sokka, Katara, Aang, and Toph.” She pointed to each one as she spoke their name, then paused before speaking again. “And I am Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe. I escaped Fire Nation capture a few weeks ago with the help of the Avatar and his friends, but I still don’t know much of what has become of my tribe. We came to you for many reasons, but one was the hope that you might offer us aid in reclaiming my city, or at least that you might let us know what has become of it? If you are truly as connected to the war effort as you say, then surely you must know.”

Long Feng studied Yue for a long moment, as if trying to determine the truth of her statement. His gaze moved across the whole group, dissecting each of them in turn before he finally turned back to her.

He bowed. “Princess Yue. My apologies for not recognizing you immediately. Your unique beauty is well-known among the nobility here.”

Yue’s eyebrows rose at that, but she said nothing as Long Feng continued to speak.

“I do, unfortunately, know some of what has become of your home. We had word that a few weeks ago, it was suddenly and unexpectedly raided by the Fire Nation navy, and the city fell far more quickly than anyone could have expected. We had believed all the leadership there was either dead or captured, but I am glad to see you escaped.”

His tone was appropriately apologetic as he said this, but Yue’s face had still grown paler and paler the longer he’d spoken. She was still sitting down next to Sokka, or Zuko thought she may have actually fainted. As it was, she leaned heavily against Sokka, her hand wrapped in a white-knuckled grip around his.

“And my people?” she asked faintly.

Long Feng gave her another apologetic smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know for sure, Princess. I expect perhaps the Fire Nation has done the same for them as they have for most of the Earth Kingdom cities they’ve captured, but that’s only speculation.”

That didn’t seem to make Yue feel any better. Zuko couldn’t blame her. It didn’t make him feel better either.

After all, he’d seen first-hand what Fire Nation occupation had done to many villages on the western coast of the Earth Kingdom. Benders carted off to be jailed or killed, nonbenders relegated to second-class citizens at best.

Guilt clawed its way into his throat. The Fire Nation had all but given up on the Water Tribes for the past few decades. Sure, Zuko knew that once Ba Sing Se was captured (and most of the Earth Kingdom with it), his father wouldn’t have been content to leave the Water Tribes alone. He would have brought them to heel too.

But not so soon. Not before victory over the Earth Kingdom was assured. The only reason the Fire Nation had been interested in the Water Tribe at all was because of him. Because they knew the Avatar was traveling north and wanted to capture him.

Zuko had been dealing with so many problems and worries since escaping Azula’s ship that he’d almost managed to forget his guilt over his failure at the North Pole. But now it came roaring back. He watched Yue blinking hard, struggling to hold back tears as Sokka rubbed comforting circles into the back of her hand with his thumb.

Zuko couldn’t speak. His throat felt tight as the emotion threatened to overwhelm him.

He’d spent all this time, the whole trip since their escape, worried about his uncle. His uncle, who was the strongest person Zuko had ever known, probably one of the greatest generals in Fire Nation history, and almost certainly had the situation well handled. And yet he hadn’t spared a single thought for Yue’s entire people, who were probably suffering far more than Iroh.

“Can you lend us aid to take it back?” Aang asked. “You must have plenty of troops.”

Long Feng was the only person in the room who didn’t seem to be the slightest bit moved by Yue’s obvious anguish. His smile had barely changed from its earlier appearance, though it had a slightly more apologetic cast to it now.

“That will not be possible, unfortunately,” Long Feng said. “My focus—and therefore, of course, the king’s—must remain on preserving and protecting the Earth Kingdom. With the Northern Water Tribe now fallen, Ba Sing Se and a handful of other Earth Kingdom cities are the only strongholds left against the Fire Nation threat. They must be protected at all costs.

“Besides, it would take weeks or even months to transfer the number of troops needed to reclaim the North, and our earthbenders would not be effective in a land of ice and snow. It simply does not make sense to waste the time or resources for such a thing.”

“So you’re not going to do anything?” Katara demanded.

“I did not say that, young Katara. I am doing everything I can to ensure the Fire Nation does not make any more advances into Earth Kingdom lands.”

“What’s the point of that?” Katara’s face was red with rage now. “You’re just going to let the Fire Nation get away with wiping out a whole nation again?”

A heavy silence fell over the group as everyone winced at that statement. Long Feng, though, remained unmoved. “The loss is a terrible tragedy, but one that, someday, once this war is over, the world can recover from. Sometimes leaders have to make difficult choices for the purpose of the greatest good. You are still just a child. I don’t expect you to understand that.”

Katara looked like she was about ready to jump up from her seat and rip Long Feng to shreds—and Zuko suspected she might not even need to use waterbending to do it.

Honestly, he was tempted to let her. The others seemed nearly as keen—especially Toph, who hadn’t stopped frowning in Long Feng’s direction the whole time they’d been speaking.

Before she could, though, an idea occurred to Zuko, and he found himself speaking. “What about the waterbenders?”

Everyone looked at him.

“Excuse me?” Long Feng said.

“The waterbenders,” Zuko said, looking at Yue. “If we reclaim the North Pole and its waterbenders join the fight, this war could go from a stalemate to potential victory.”

Yue stared back at him with wide eyes. Long Feng raised an eyebrow and turned his gaze on her. “It seems that decision lies with the North more than the Earth Kingdom. If we could get assurances that the Northern Water Tribe would discontinue its decades-long isolationist policies… well, this might be a different conversation.”

Might. Zuko winced.

Yue did an admirable job of maintaining a calm expression as she turned to meet Long Feng’s gaze. When she spoke, her voice was soft, but carefully controlled. “It seems clear from the past few months that my tribe’s commitment to isolation has done little good for us. Or for the rest of the world.” At this last part, she glanced over at Sokka, and some emotion Zuko couldn’t identify flashed across her face for a moment before disappearing. She said nothing else as she looked back at Long Feng.

“Hmm.” Long Feng studied each of them in turn for a moment, then stood. “Well, as lovely as this conversation of ours has been, I do have other meetings to attend to.” He waved a hand toward the door and called, “Joo Dee?”

The door immediately opened, and an Earth Kingdom woman with a too-wide smile appeared there, as if she’d been standing outside waiting all along. 

She gave a bow. “Hello, I am Joo Dee. I will be your guide during your stay in our lovely city. Allow me to convey you to your new home.”

Toph immediately frowned even deeper at the arrival of this new woman, her expression twisted with annoyance. Everyone else looked as confused as Zuko felt.

“Wait,” Sokka said, looking between Joo Dee and Long Feng. “That’s it? Are you going to help us or not?”

“These kinds of decisions cannot be made after a single conversation,” Long Feng said. “I must confer with the king, and with other royal advisors and generals before any decisions can be made.”

“Well, let us come with you to talk to the king, then,” Toph said. “Weren’t you just talking about not wanting to waste time? We can’t waste time hanging out here for very long, either.”

In the doorway, Joo Dee’s laugh drew their attention again. “Oh, Toph. One does not just pop in on the Earth King. Please, follow me, and the officials will get back to you shortly.”

Toph grumbled under her breath. Zuko turned back to Long Feng, ready to demand answers. 

He was gone. Disappeared from the place he’d been standing, as if he’d never been there at all.

Chapter Text

The house was nice. 

Unfortunately, the positives ended there. They had been in Ba Sing Se for almost two weeks now. They could leave the house whenever they wanted, and with Appa, they could technically leave the whole city at any time. And yet Zuko couldn’t shake the feeling of being trapped.

It didn’t help that Joo Dee insisted on accompanying them whenever they did go somewhere. She didn’t stay in the house with them, but she had an uncanny (and unnerving) habit of showing up anytime they left.

Zuko had grown up in the Fire Nation royal family, of course. He’d spent much of his life prior to his banishment being trailed by servants or bodyguards—being “handled,” as Toph liked to call it. This felt different. Joo Dee was too attentive, too happy, too…present. In Zuko’s experience, servants and guards tried to blend into the background as much as possible, to not get in the way unless they were needed.

Not Joo Dee. Even when she stayed quiet, her presence was almost palpable—and discomforting. When she was around, you never forgot it.

Zuko almost wanted to cut their losses and leave, maybe storm the Water Tribe or the Fire Nation capital by themselves. The problem was, of course, that if they did that, they would almost certainly die. And as much as this city made him uncomfortable, they did still need help, and this was probably the best place to get it.

It was also the best place to try Zuko’s very thin patience.

The day after their meeting with Long Feng, Joo Dee had informed them that it would take at least a month for their requests for military aid and a meeting with the Earth King to be processed. Zuko had to wonder if that was actually true. It didn’t seem possible that the Fire Nation hadn’t defeated the Earth Kingdom already, if it took that long for Earth Kingdom military leaders to make tactical decisions like this.

The more likely answer was that Long Feng was just stringing them along, making them believe there was hope before ultimately telling them no.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to wait, or to take no for an answer. So Zuko and the others had set out later that same day to take matters into their own hands.

They’d been traveling around Ba Sing Se, talking to people and trying to get help wherever possible, but they hadn’t made much progress, and Zuko had a sneaking suspicion it was because of Joo Dee. He apparently wasn’t alone in that feeling, because one night as they were all sitting around the table for dinner, Sokka brought up the topic without prompting.

“We have to get rid of her,” he said. “We need information. Nobody is going to talk to us when we have that creepy agent of the city following us around.”

“Sure,” Aang said, “but how? We can’t just tell her to go away.”

“Sure we can,” Sokka said, shooting a grin in Zuko’s direction that he didn’t return. “Half of us are nobility, and we’ve got the Avatar with us. We can do anything we want.”

“Being the Avatar didn’t seem to make much difference to Long Feng,” Zuko said flatly. “And Joo Dee clearly answers to him, not me.”

Sokka frowned for a moment, but then grinned again, undeterred. “That’s the negative way of looking at it.”

Zuko rolled his eyes.

Toph said, “Alright, genius, then what’s your suggestion?”

“We split up?” he said.

Toph shook her head. “Tried that, remember? At the market?”

“Well, what if some of us stay home while the others go out, then leave later?”

“There are probably people watching the house,” Zuko said, crossing his arms. “That’s the only way Joo Dee could somehow know every time we leave.”

“You can be sneaky, though, right?” Sokka asked. “You’ve got that mask of yours?”

Zuko shrugged. “Sure.”

Next to him, Katara frowned. “If there are people watching the house, though, how will a mask help? We don’t know where they are. It’s hard to hide from people you can’t see.”

“You can be really, really sneaky, right, Zuko?” Sokka said.

“Or we could figure out where they are,” Yue said, laughing a little.

“Or that.”

“They’re probably somewhere up high,” Aang said around a bite of food. “No one ever looks up.”

“We’ll just have to keep an eye out, I guess,” Sokka said. 

Logically, Zuko knew sneaking out by himself wasn’t a good idea. It was the sort of reckless thing that had gotten him banished in the first place. The sort of recklessness that had landed his uncle in prison.

He’d been so good for so long, keeping himself in check, trying to stay hidden, trying to be smart and thoughtful.

But something about this place grated at him, spurred him to action. And so, when the others were all fast asleep, Zuko silently slipped out of bed, grabbed his mask and a few supplies, and went to the bedroom window.

Heeding Aang’s earlier words, Zuko first scanned the sky, squinting at the roofs of the nearby buildings to try to see any hint of potential spies. When he saw nothing, he turned his gaze to the ground instead.

All his careful checking yielded nothing, which didn’t make Zuko feel any better. Still, if he couldn’t see anyone through this window, that probably meant anyone who was watching the house didn’t have a very good view of this window either. He hoped, anyway.

Regardless, he was tired of feeling like a caged animal. He slid the window open and climbed out into the night.

He kept his eyes on the move as he slunk away from the house, searching the world around him for possible tails. A few houses down from the one they’d been given, he stepped into an alley and fastened his mask onto his face. When he came back out, he felt himself relaxing, just a little. He still avoided main roads, skipping through alleys and climbing over roofs. He continued to look around and occasionally behind, searching for any possible tails. But the mask was an old friend. With it, he felt a confidence he couldn’t quite explain.

The confidence of anonymity.

He crept through the darkened streets of the city, unsure where he was going besides away. The farther he went, the more sure he became that he had avoided the notice of anyone watching the house—if there were any people watching the house at all, that is. He saw no signs of anyone following, and so he let himself be a little more bold. 

Maybe that was a mistake. Or maybe he simply wasn’t as good as he thought he was. He found himself crouched on a rooftop near a small market square, still fairly busy even at this late hour, wondering what he was planning on doing.

In a flash of movement, someone ripped off his mask from behind and clapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t be alarmed, Prince Zuko. I only want to talk.”

The voice carried a non-threatening tone, but Zuko was still very much alarmed. He struggled, trying to pull away from his attacker’s grasp and reach for his sheathed weapon, but whoever it was was surprisingly strong, their arms wrapped around Zuko like a vice.

“I will let you go,” the voice said, “if you promise not to yell.” 

Zuko growled. He finally managed to wriggle one arm free of the hold, and seized the arm covering his mouth. In an instant of will, his hand became scalding hot, and the person behind him yelped in pain, jerking backward instinctively as their skin burned under Zuko’s touch.

Zuko took the opportunity to spin around, one hand up, the other reaching for the swords at his belt. 

“Wait,” the attacker said, holding up both hands. “Wait, I swear. I’m here to help you.”

Zuko hesitated, now that he could see the person properly. A man stood there, his hands up, wearing no weapons of any kind that Zuko could see. Older than Zuko, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, dressed in common Earth Kingdom robes. His hair was black, tied up on top of his head with a green ribbon, and in one of his hands he held something small and round.

He threw it to the ground between them, and Zuko tensed instinctively, expecting some kind of explosive or trap.

Instead, it simply made a gentle clacking sound as it hit the stone of the building’s roof. It came to rest a few inches from Zuko’s feet, and the light of the moon revealed it to be a small stone disk with an image of a lotus flower on it. A tile from that game Uncle Iroh liked to play. Pai Sho.

Zuko frowned at it, his eyes flickering between the tile and the man in confusion. “What is this supposed to be?”

The man’s confusion matched his own as they stared at each other, but the man recovered first. “We clearly have much to discuss. Please, follow me.”

“I’m not following you anywhere.”

The man sighed heavily. “Please, Prince Zuko. All will be explained, but we must go somewhere safe first. I have been sent here under the direction of Grand Lotus Iroh.”

 Grand Lotus Iroh…? Zuko’s frown deepened, even as his heart squeezed painfully in his chest. Could that be who he thought it was? Had his uncle escaped? Was he here?

If he was, why hadn’t he come to find Zuko himself? Zuko couldn’t dare let himself hope.

Perhaps the man in front of him could tell that he was still distrustful, because he reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, offering it to Zuko.

“I was told you might be reluctant. Perhaps this might convince you I mean what I say?”

Zuko considered the paper for several seconds before hesitantly reaching to take it. He unfolded it.

Inside, he found only a simple phrase, written in a familiar hand. Never give up without a fight.

There was no signature, but he recognized the quote instantly. It was the inscription  on the knife Uncle Iroh had given him, so long ago. The one he still kept tucked away among his things.

Azula knows about the knife, too, a little voice inside Zuko’s heart whispered. And this wasn’t the first time she’d tricked Zuko with letters in his uncle’s hand.

And yet… if it really was him… Zuko stared at the paper for a long moment before he carefully folded it back up, then nodded at the man. “Alright. Lead the way.”

The man seemed surprised that he’d agreed (and not a little relieved). That didn’t make Zuko feel any less worried about what was going to happen at this place the man wanted to take him to, but he had already made his decision, so when the man nodded and turned to leave, Zuko followed.

They made their way through the darkened alleyways of Ba Sing Se, avoiding main thoroughfares as much as possible. As they walked, Zuko found himself getting more and more antsy. This route the man took was circuitous and long, leading away from the Upper Ring, through the Middle Ring with its passable architecture and layout, and finally into the Lower Ring, where the buildings were practically stacked on top of each other and existed in various states of disrepair. 

The building they stopped in front of looked unremarkable. A simple wooden sign that read “Flower Shop” hung above the mouldering wooden door. The man pushed open the door and held it, motioning for Zuko to enter, which he did, reluctantly.

Inside, he found a tiny room which would have been shabby looking were it not for the many hundreds of flowers that burst forth from every open space. Only a single, thin aisle of walkable floor led from the front door to the counter on the far wall. Otherwise, the room was packed with flowers of all kinds, whose variety of colors and scents conspired to overwhelm Zuko’s senses as he stepped inside.

It took everything in him not to sneeze as the man shut the door behind them and led him the few steps to the counter. Another person waited behind it, much older than Zuko’s guide and apparently male—but not Uncle Iroh, to Zuko’s disappointment.

“Ah,” he said when his gaze landed on Zuko. “You found him. Good, good.”

Zuko took a half-step back. “Could someone please explain what’s going on?”

“All in due time, sir,” the man behind the counter said amiably.

He stood up from his chair and rapped on the door built into the wall behind him. It wasn’t a normal knock. It seemed to be a very specific and complex rhythm. When he finished, he sat back down. “Please, make yourself at home. It should only be a moment.”

“A moment for what?”

The man only smiled back at him in response. Zuko’s frown turned into a scowl. He folded his arms over his chest and glared, first at the utterly impassive shopkeeper before him, then at the man who brought him here, then at the rest of the room.

He thought about leaving. He didn’t have time for this nonsense. But he unfolded the paper and ran his fingers over the words of the note, then glanced at the closed door behind the shopkeeper one more time.

He’d already walked all the way out here. If he left now, all he’d have done was waste time.

So he suffered the excruciating minutes of uncomfortable silence until finally, after what felt like ages, the door behind the shopkeeper opened a crack. No one spoke from behind the door, but the shopkeeper and Zuko’s guide both stepped aside and motioned for Zuko to enter.

When he did, they didn’t follow him inside, but instead closed the door behind him with a click that sounded a little too loud in the quiet.

Beyond the door waited a room about the same size as the first, though the lack of flowers made it seem far larger. There wasn’t much furniture aside from a few chairs and a circular wooden table at its center, the top of which was laid out like a Pai Sho board, complete with tiles scattered across it, as though someone had started a game and left it unfinished.

On the other side of the table from Zuko, rolling a Pai Sho tile between his fingers, was Uncle Iroh.

Zuko’s heart stopped beating for a full second while he scrambled to process the sight.

“Uncle?”

“Hello, Prince Zuko. It’s good to see you after so long.”

“Uncle, I—what are you—” To Zuko’s horror, he could feel tears welling up in his eyes, as all the fear and worry and self-loathing he’d been bottling up for weeks suddenly broke free at the sight of his uncle. “I’m so sorry, Uncle. I’m so sorry I abandoned you. You must hate me. I should’ve—” He couldn’t finish the sentence as the words dissolved into sobs.

Uncle Iroh shook his head, stepping around the table. He pulled Zuko into his arms, and Zuko practically collapsed against him.

“You did not abandon me, Zuko. You were simply doing what was necessary to protect yourself and your friends. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me.”

Zuko heard the words, but he couldn’t process them. For a long moment, he could do nothing but hold onto his uncle and let the tears roll down his face. Iroh didn’t rush him, or pull away. He simply held on tightly.

Finally, the meaning of Uncle Iroh’s words wormed their way into Zuko’s beleaguered mind, and he pulled back, confused. “You?”

“I knew very well what a perilous situation I had gone into, and I was not as careful as I should have been. Were it not for my pride, Azula may never have discovered our secrets, and the Northern Water Tribe might still stand. That is my shame to bear.”

“No, Uncle—”

Uncle raised a hand, cutting off Zuko’s protest with a fond smile. “We could go all night trading blame, my nephew, but now is not the time for that. I am not only here to give you my greetings. I came to give you a warning.”

Zuko tensed immediately and took a step back from his uncle, wiping the last of his tears from his eyes. “A warning?”

“Your sister is on her way here. She will be arriving in a day or two, I believe.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“Because I led her here, of course.”

“You’re working with her?” Zuko asked incredulously, taking another stumbling step backward.

“In a way, I suppose. You could say we have an agreement.”

“But… you know you can’t trust her, Uncle. She—she’s—she’s Azula.”

Iroh studied him. “I know.”

“Then… then…” Zuko found himself speechless for the second time during this conversation, this time not from guilt but from shock and betrayal and a fair amount of anger. How could his uncle do this? What was he thinking?

“Peace, nephew,” Iroh said, taking a step forward. “Let me explain.”

Chapter Text

Everything had worked out well, Azula thought.

Sure, she hadn’t expected it to be quite this easy. Her uncle had readily accepted her offer to subtly assist his escape, and with the Fire Nation army spread thin between manning the frontlines, maintaining the Northern Water Tribe occupation, and searching for the Avatar, it had been nothing at all to convince her father to let her chase after him. Even with his recent doubts about her reliability.

Tracking Iroh had been easy, too. Insultingly so, to be honest. Though she’d made no such request in her agreement with him, he seemed to have gone out of his way to make his path abundantly clear. As if he thought she wouldn’t be able to find him without that.

Annoying, yes, but it was no matter. Soon, she would have both Zuko and Iroh, and all of Zuko’s friends, too. Soon, her father would never again have reason to doubt or deride her. 

It had only taken a few days of following the trail before she realized Iroh was headed for Ba Sing Se. Which was why she’d decided to find herself a ride.

She sat on a makeshift throne, trying to ignore the obnoxious sounds of metal grating and fires roaring that echoed all around the control room of the massive drill.

Azula supposed that it was impressive, though she tended to prefer a subtler approach to these sorts of things. If nothing else, a giant metal drill burrowing through Ba Sing Se’s walls would serve as a nice distraction for her covert operations—and, if she was lucky, an effective lure for the prey she was hoping to catch in the city.

To her left, Mai leaned against the wall, looking bored as always while they watched Ty Lee “practicing her balance” by walking around the control room in a handstand. The activity appeared to be inconveniencing the engineers who were operating the drill, but Azula didn’t care enough to tell her to stop.

“Isn’t this thing supposed to be the fastest machine in the Fire Nation?” Mai asked. “Shouldn’t we have gotten to Ba Sing Se by now?”

“We should be there soon, young lady,” the captain said, his lips forming a smile that did not reach his eyes.

Mai sighed heavily and rolled her eyes, while Azula leaned forward. 

“Don’t worry, Mai, I’m sure the captain is doing everything he can to get us to Ba Sing Se as fast as they can. After all, he knows very well that we have a tight schedule to keep. Isn’t that right, captain?”

He jerked to attention, his back straightening, then bowed slightly as he turned to look her way. Good. He should remember his place.

“Yes, of course, Princess.”

Azula nodded once. Then she got up from her chair and walked across the control room to the large window on the opposite side. It looked out across a plain landscape at the moment, filled with rocks, sparse grass, and maybe the occasional tree. Nothing compared to the lush environment of many of the Fire Nation’s islands. Why these people clung so hard to such a dull place as this, Azula would never understand.

“Hey—what’s that?” Ty Lee asked, flipping back onto her feet as she came to stand next to Azula at the observation window. She pointed, and Azula followed her gaze.

It was far off yet, but she could see…something. A plume of dust, and a disturbance in the ground, like a large tunneling creature, coming straight for the drill.

“Should we check it out?” Mai, who had crossed the room to stand behind Azula and Ty Lee, asked.

“There is no need to trouble yourselves, Your Highness,” the captain said. “I’m sure it is nothing, and in any case, I can send one of my men to go check it out.”

“Halt the machine, captain,” Azula said, ignoring him. “And ready the mongoose lizards. I think we will have need of them.”

“Your Highness—”

She turned sharply, meeting his gaze. Though she said nothing else, she didn’t need to. He closed his mouth and nodded, bowing again. “Of course, Princess. It will be done.”

Then he turned and began yelling for his men to move.

A few minutes later—but still longer than Azula would have liked—the drill’s forward momentum had been halted, and she, Ty Lee, and Mai were on their mounts, racing toward the disturbance.

As they got closer, the disturbance clarified. It was a half-dozen earthbenders in Earth Kingdom army uniforms, racing across the land on a massive, moving hill of earth.

They saw Azula and the others riding on their lizards and clearly tried to change course, but Azula made a quick hand signal to Mai and Ty Lee. The two of them nodded, then split off in different directions to head off the group in either direction they might go. Azula watched them flounder for a second, then seemed to realize that it was too late to turn away. They came to an abrupt, clumsy stop.

Azula locked eyes with Mai and Ty Lee for a moment, then the three of them brought their mounts in closer and dismounted before approaching.

“We don’t want any trouble,” one of the earthbenders said, raising her hands out in front of her defensively as the rest of the troupe fell into a formation behind her.

Azula raised an eyebrow, flicking her eyes over the very coordinated stance. “Your actions say differently. Why are you here?”

The first earthbender who had spoken—clearly, she was the leader—glared back at her, and said nothing.

“I’m not fond of repeating myself,” Azula said calmly, as she and the other two closed in carefully around the earthbenders. 

“I don’t care what you’re fond of, Fire Nation scum.”

Azula tilted her head. Idle threats and name-calling. This was clearly beneath her. 

The soldiers didn’t look like anything special. Simple armor, adorned with Earth Kingdom symbols. Faces that blended together like so many Earth Kingdom faces did.

But they had been moving with great purpose through the land. Perhaps they had information—information that could be useful.

Azula did not rise to the insult. Instead, she let the silence stretch between them, staring expectantly at the lead earthbender until some of that angry bravado started to fade. 

Her subordinates broke much faster. After only a few seconds of this silence, they began shifting nervously, eyeing Mai and Ty Lee as they walked up and stopped to either side. Eyes darting around for escape. 

The captain eventually broke, too. “Are we free to go, then? Or are we going to be stuck in this staring match forever?”

“I’m still waiting for the answer to my question,” Azula said. 

“And you won’t be getting one.”

She moved, and in a split second the energy of the confrontation changed.

These earthbenders were fast—but Azula and her companions were faster. Azula dodged aside as a boulder ripped out of the ground and flew toward her.

“I think you’ll regret doing that,” Azula said. She drew her hands together and sent a blast of blue-white fire right into the center of the cluster.

Chaos erupted as the earthbenders cried out and scattered. Some of them managed to avoid the blast, others screamed in pain as the fire singed their skin or clothes. 

Azula nodded at Mai and Ty Lee, and they got to work. Ty Lee was a blur of flying fists, incapacitating two of the earthbenders before they knew what hit them. Mai’s knives flew, slicing into flesh, pinning men to the ground by their clothing.

In just a few moments, this mildly formidable group of earthbenders was reduced to cowering children.

“Please,” one of them begged—not the same as the one who’d spoken before. That one had been badly burned by the blast of fire, and currently lay in the dirt a short distance away, struggling against Ty Lee’s paralyzing touch. “We’re just simple scouts. We saw something interesting, and went to check it out. We mean no harm.”

“Hmm,” Azula said. “In that case, some advice? Next time, try not to be so obvious.”

Assuming, of course, that there would be a next time.

She left Mai and Ty Lee to bind most of the captives, while she approached the leader and knelt at her side. 

“You should be ashamed,” she said softly as she reached down and began to pull out a pair of metal cuffs. “You were the leader of this troupe, yes? A leader should know better than to make such a foolish error. But then, I suppose true leadership is not something that can be learned by a common peasant, is it?”

The woman on the ground looked up at her, as if she was half in a daze. Something about her green eyes caught Azula, made her pause.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” the woman whispered. “Princess Azula.”

Apparently, Azula didn’t quite manage to hide her surprise, because the woman smiled faintly. “Your uncle sends his regards.”

Azula’s blood ran cold, but she forced herself to move, clamping the metal cuffs onto the woman’s wrists in one quick motion. As she did, though, she felt the woman pressing something into her hand in return. She jerked back, looking down at the object. It was a tiny, rolled up piece of parchment, sealed with a strange-looking icon, like a lotus flower. 

Her first instinct was to drop it, let it fall back to the dirt and grind it under her boot. Then she thought, No. It was too dangerous to leave here, not knowing what might be contained in this note. She should take it, and destroy it properly in private. Covertly, she tucked the parchment into her pocket, then turned back to Mai and Ty Lee.

“Let’s get them loaded onto the mongoose lizards,” she said imperiously. “I think some time as prisoners will do these fools well.”

Chapter Text

When Zuko got back to the house, it was still dark out, but his brain buzzed with too many thoughts for him to even try to sleep.

In his hand, he carried a Pai Sho tile. After his uncle had finished explaining, he’d handed that to Zuko. Look for the lotuses, he’d said before they parted.

Zuko went to Katara’s room and knocked quietly on the door. It was only as he took a step back from the door, waiting for her to answer, that he stopped to think, What am I doing?

Why was he bothering Katara in the middle of the night about this? It wasn’t as though there was anything they could do right this moment. Besides, shouldn’t this be something he should talk to the whole group about?

He was about to turn away and rush back to this own room, but before he could, the door creaked open, and a sleepy-eyed Katara peeked out warily. When she saw it was him, she smiled and opened the door a little wider. Just seeing her, Zuko felt his anxiety calming—which only made him feel even sillier for coming here. 

“Zuko? You’re not usually this eager about our lessons,” she said. Then she seemed to register the expression on his face, and her easy smile slipped into a frown instead. “That’s not what this is about, is it? What’s wrong?”

Zuko blinked hard, trying to stave off the tears that he could feel beginning to form in his eyes. He would not cry now. He’d already done enough of that with his uncle.

Then again, that was the trouble, wasn’t it? His uncle.

“My uncle is here, in the city,” he said.

Katara’s eyes went wide. “Zuko, that’s great!” Then she hesitated, studying his face. “Isn’t it?”

“I…” 

He shouldn’t have come here. Not when he still felt so confused.

His uncle had explained the deal he’d made with Azula. She would help him escape, and in exchange he would “accidentally” lead her to Zuko. He’d explained that of course he had no intention of letting Azula take Zuko or any of his friends, and he certainly had no intention of letting her take the city itself. He had a plan—he always did.

And Zuko trusted his uncle. He did. His uncle meant everything to him, and though Zuko didn’t always understand him, he at least knew that no matter what, Uncle Iroh would be on his side.

But that same Uncle Iroh had worked with Azula. Agreed to lead her here, to Zuko. To Katara. To Aang. To Toph and Sokka and Yue. To this city of secrets and lies, with so, so many desperate refugees just hoping to make a better life for themselves. 

Azula would be here in just a few days, riding on a massive drill designed to conquer the city…and she was coming because Iroh had led her here.

The idea was so unfathomable, so impossible, that Zuko still couldn’t quite believe it was real. Even though his uncle had explained the rationale, had assured him that it would all work out…

How could he not feel betrayed?

While Zuko stood there stammering, unable to form his emotions into coherent sentences, Katara took a careful step forward and touched his arm. A tingle of electricity followed her hand as it trailed down his arm and wrapped around his hand, then squeezed.

“Why don’t we go run through some forms?” she asked.

Zuko nodded numbly, and Katara, still gently holding onto his hand, led him out into the mansion’s courtyard, where a small koi pond sat surrounded by several well-cultivated shrubs and other plants.

She began guiding him through some basic waterbending forms, occasionally pulling water out of the pool to pass back and forth between them. Neither spoke for a long time, except when Katara needed to gently correct Zuko’s form or technique.

Zuko tried to let himself get lost in the familiar motions, letting go of the buzzing in his mind for just a moment while he focused on the sensations of his body.

It worked, for the most part. By the time the short training session was done, he felt a little calmer, a little more in control.

At least, until Katara asked, gently, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Zuko’s anxieties came rushing back in a flash, but he did his best to hold onto the peace the training session had given him. He nodded once, then, shooting a wary glance toward the surrounding rooftops, waved for Katara to follow him back into the house. 

Once they had gotten back inside and sat down in the mansion’s common room, Zuko still didn’t immediately speak. He reached for Katara’s hand without thinking, wanting the comfort of her touch to help steady him. Then he pulled back at the last moment. Or, he would have, but she smiled a little and caught his hand before he could.

He couldn’t bring himself to let go, so instead he just turned his face slightly away and took a deep breath before launching into an explanation of what had happened. Finding Iroh, learning that he was working with Azula, that Azula was coming here. His confusing tangle of emotions surrounding the whole situation.

It was nothing short of a miracle that he managed to make it through it all without crying again.

Katara stayed quiet through most of the explanation, holding onto his hand gently and occasionally squeezing it when he needed encouragement to continue.

When he’d finished, she stayed quiet for a few seconds longer, as if waiting to make sure he was truly done. 

Then she said, “You know your uncle better than I do, Zuko. Do you really think he would betray you?”

“I—No, of course not.” Zuko sighed, running his free hand through his hair angrily. “I just don’t understand. Azula? Of all people? I don’t always get why my uncle does the things he does, but I thought one thing we agreed on was that Azula can’t be trusted. The idea that he led her here…”

“Well, we were going to have to face her eventually.”

Finally, Zuko pulled his hand away from Katara’s so that he could throw both of his hands in the air. “Yeah, but not here. Ba Sing Se is the last great stronghold left against the Fire Nation. The last thing we need is for Azula to swoop in and conquer it.”

“We’ll stop her.”

Zuko didn’t mean to laugh. It just burst forth from him. A cold, humorless laugh. 

“Because that worked so well last time.”

Katara frowned. Her eyes searched his face, reading things there that Zuko did not want her to see. The guilt, the self-loathing. 

He turned his face away, trying to shove away those feelings, but they wouldn’t budge.

In his mind, he flashed back to the ship. The power of the Avatar State raging inside him. Azula’s face of utter terror. Fear he’d been so sure was genuine… until it disappeared in an eyeblink.

Had that fearful look just been another of Azula’s lies? He’d always been too soft around her. So gullible and easily manipulated. 

He should have killed her.

Shouldn’t he?

Oh Zuzu, even with all the power in the world, you’re still so weak.

The last time he’d seen his sister, he’d failed. He’d let himself and his friends get captured, and the entire Northern Water Tribe had fallen because of it. Yue was always outwardly pleasant with Zuko, but he couldn’t help but think there was an unspoken tension there. She must blame him for the loss of her tribe, her people. Her father.

Zuko certainly did.

He was the Avatar. His job was to bring balance, and prevent tragedies like the loss of the North from happening. If he hadn’t wasted so much time trying to run away from his destiny, maybe Uncle never would have gotten captured in the first place. Maybe he could have gotten to the North Pole before Azula. Maybe he could have stopped her.

Maybe he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to let her trick him again.

And now, here she was, racing across the desert to conquer another nation’s capital city. Another chance for Zuko to show what a failure he was.

“Zuko…” 

He could tell from Katara’s tone of voice that she’d seen through his feeble attempts to hide his emotions. She reached for his hand again, but this time Zuko didn’t let her take it.

He shook his head and pushed himself to his feet. “It’s late. We should rest. It looks like we’re going to have a long day tomorrow. I’m sorry for keeping you up so long.”

Katara didn’t move. She just looked up at him, meeting his gaze, and though Zuko wanted to turn away, to leave her there and walk back to his room, her gaze seemed to pin him in place, freezing him as solidly as if she’d encased him in a block of ice. 

“There was nothing anyone could have done about the North Pole, Zuko,” she said quietly. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“Can’t I?” Zuko’s voice broke, and in a sudden burst of anger and embarrassment, he spun away and stalked to his room, leaving Katara alone in the darkened common room, staring after him sadly.

When Zuko told the rest of the group about Iroh’s revelations the next day, the reactions ranged from elation to apprehension, but no one seemed to be as rocked by the news as Zuko had been at first.

Not that all of his worries were gone, of course. He still had them in spades. He just had a slightly better idea of how to deal with them now.

“We have to go to the palace,” he said once he had finished his explanation, “and demand an audience with the king. We can’t afford to wait for him to get around to meeting with us.”

“Great!” Toph said. “When do we leave?”

“Hold on, Zuko.” To Zuko’s surprise, Sokka was the one who dissented. “Look, normally I’d be all for this kind of plan. But maybe we should be a little more strategic about this. If we do manage to get in to see the king, what are you going to tell him? ‘My uncle said there’s a crazy drill coming to punch through your wall’?”

“Well… yes.”

Sokka shook his head. “Do we have a way to prove that?”

Despite himself, Zuko heard a little bit of anger leaking into his words. “My uncle’s word is enough proof.”

Sokka raised a hand. “I know that, of course. Obviously, we know your uncle is good on his word. But the Earth King probably isn’t going to take it at face value that one of his enemy’s top generals would just give away military secrets like that. We need something tangible, something that can prove what Iroh says is true.”

Zuko deflated slightly, though his next words still came out a little snappy. “I don’t have anything like that.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Toph insisted, before Sokka could reply. “Isn’t that drill gonna be here in, like, a day? We don’t have time to go looking for proof. Besides”—this part she said half under her breath—“I’m sick of following this stupid city’s rules.”

“She does have a point, Sokka,” Aang said. “We don’t have much choice.”

Sokka let out an annoyed breath, crossing his arms. He exchanged a glance with Yue, who was frowning, too.

“What?” Zuko demanded, looking between them for a moment before landing his eyes on Yue.

“I just worry,” Yue said. “As annoying as it is, this place surely has these rules in place for a reason. If we go barging up there, we might lose any chance we had of getting Earth Kingdom aid. And—” She bit her lip, her eyes flickering away for a moment before meeting Zuko’s gaze again with uncharacteristic force. “Well, what if your uncle’s information isinaccurate? Then we’ll just have shamed ourselves in front of the Earth Kingdom court for no reason.”

What a terribly political way to say that she thought Uncle Iroh might be lying. Or worse, incompetent. Sure, only last night, Zuko had felt confused and betrayed and a teeny tiny bit unsure of Iroh’s true allegiances. Sure, even now, he still felt a little of that confusion.

But to have someone else suggest that his uncle was anything but 100% trustworthy and capable? A person who’d never even met Uncle Iroh, at that?

That was unthinkable.

Zuko shot to his feet. Vaguely, he heard Katara crying his name and felt her hand scrabbling for his wrist, but nothing could penetrate the heat of his rage.

“My uncle’s not a liar, or stupid,” he growled. “If he says the drill is coming, then it is.”

Yue’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t—” 

But Zuko was done with talking. Before she’d even started speaking, he’d spun on his heel and begun stalking toward the exit.

He wouldn’t stand by and do nothing this time. For once in his life, he was one step ahead of his sister. He had information that could help save this city, and he intended to use it.

“Uh, Zuko?” Aang asked. “Where are you going?”

“The palace. If anyone wants to come, feel free.”

Then he disappeared beyond the door.

Chapter Text

Getting into the palace wasn’t nearly as difficult as Zuko had expected.

Having a flying bison helped. They rode on Appa straight toward the center of the city—all of them, even Sokka and Yue. The combination of Appa’s fancy flying and some bending let them get past the guards, who sent rocks flying toward them in the sky, until they landed and ran up a wide set of stairs. At the top sat a large set of double doors that made Zuko’s breath catch.

He recognized this place, though he’d never been to the Earth King’s palace before this moment.

He’d seen it in a dream. A dream where his father and sister were conquering the Earth Kingdom.

He glanced around anxiously, as if Azula or Ozai might step around the nearest pillar at any moment. Then he shook himself, feeling silly.

It was just a dream. They weren’t here.

While Zuko had paused at the top of the steps, the others had continued toward the doors. As Aang was reaching out to grasp the handle, the doors swung open on their own.

The whole group tensed, hands flying to weapons or bending sources, but instead of a squad of soldiers or palace guards rushing toward them, a single man stepped out of the doors.

A familiar man, with long robes, a half-bald head, and a long braid.

“Hello again, Avatar,” Long Feng said pleasantly, meeting Zuko’s eyes. “If you’d wanted a meeting, you could have simply asked.”

“We’re not here to talk to you,” Zuko said—almost growled. “We need to talk to the king. Now.”

Long Feng’s eyes narrowed as they scanned across the group. “As you all know very well, the Earth King is very busy. He—”

“The Fire Nation is bringing a giant war machine that can burrow through the wall,” Aang interrupted. “It’s going to be here in just a few days. I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to wait until the king is ready to speak to us.”

“We have to be ready,” Zuko agreed. “When it comes.”

Long Feng smiled, though Zuko couldn’t imagine what there was to be happy about.

“Ah. I see. There is no need to worry about any of that. We have the situation well in hand.”

“Well in hand?” Zuko demanded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Long Feng said, “that your services will not be required. There is a way things must be done in this city, Avatar. A way that is methodical and precise and far more subtle than any heroics you might try.”

“This isn’t the time for subtlety,” Zuko said. “Let us talk to the king. We need to evacuate the people living near the wall, and get the military mobilized. The drill could be here any day.”

“As I said,” Long Feng said, still perfectly calm, though at this point Zuko had gotten close enough to grab him, “we have it well in hand. This city has weathered worse before, and it will weather this now.”

“But… but—” Zuko sputtered impotently. Then he shook his head.

There was no use trying to talk to an eel like Long Feng. He started forward, intending to shove his way past, but before he could take a single step, the stone around his feet turned to liquid. Panicked, he tried to jump back, but within that same split second, he’d sunk up to his ankles in the stone, which then immediately solidified around his feet, locking him in place.

Behind him, he heard his friends crying out, and glanced back to realize that they, too, had been pinned in the same way. 

“The Earth King is a very busy man. He does not have time to deal with the day to day minutiae of a neverending war. This city is a peaceful one, Avatar. The last true bastion of peace left in the world. And it is that way because of the careful balance I and the Dai Li maintain. I have let your antics go on too long as it is. Your talk of the war has brought undue distress to the people of Ba Sing Se, and I can now see that it will only get worse. I will not allow you to run to the walls and bring more panic to the masses.”

“What do you mean?” Zuko demanded. “I want to protect them. The Fire Nation is coming. We can help.”

Long Feng shook his head. “There is no war in Ba Sing Se, Prince Zuko. I hope you have a peaceful trip to Lake Laogai.”

He waved a hand, and Zuko’s world was enveloped in darkness.

Chapter Text

Zuko woke up. At least, he thought he did. It was hard to be sure, because the world around him was still dark as coal.

He shifted against the cool, smooth ground beneath him, and heard the telltale clink of metal.

Chains. 

He could feel them now, heavy links of metal that ended in manacles around his wrists and ankles, binding them together tightly. With difficulty, he managed to sit up, then lifted his hands up in front of him. Fire sputtered to life in his palms, allowing him to see the small cell that surrounded him. More of a cubby, really. No windows, not even a door. Just stone on all sides. Presumably, the room was designed to be accessed with earthbending.

An odd place to imprison the Avatar.

Though admittedly his earthbending knowledge probably wouldn’t be of much use to him in here. The room was just barely big enough for him to lie down or sit, but not stand. Certainly not big enough for him to take a proper earthbending stance, even if he got out of the chains. 

That probably wouldn’t have mattered to Toph, but Zuko still had a long way to go before he would get close to matching her skill. If he ever did. 

Zuko could almost hear his uncle’s disapproving words in his head, You act too rashly, Prince Zuko. You never think before you act.

He’d been trying to be better. He really had. But he’d slipped up, let anger and fear overcome his rational mind. And now he was here, alone in who-knew-where, with no idea what had happened to his friends, and no way to stop Azula or the drill.

Another city was going to fall, just like the Northern Water Tribe had. And it would be all his fault.

Zuko slumped back against the wall of his “cell,” letting the flame in his palm go out. There wasn’t anything worth seeing in here anyway.

The air felt wrong. Stagnant, suffocating, not the gentle caress Aang was used to. It was scared.

Or maybe that was just him.

He struggled against chains that chafed against his skin. He could feel his breath accelerating, hyperventilating as the panic set in. Around him, he saw nothing but darkness. Pure, endless darkness.

Despite that, he knew, somehow, that he was underground. As he rolled around, trying to pry at the chains, he bumped into walls. Walls that were too close together, seemingly closing in…

Katara thought of her mother as she lay in the dark.

She’d struggled at first, fighting against chains. She’d even tried to make a little frost with her breath to break the chains, like she’d done before.

But the air was too dry, and her mouth felt like she hadn’t had a drop to drink in days.

All she’d managed to do was waste air.

So now she lay, quiet. Trying to ignore the terror slowly building in her chest. Trying to hold onto her hope.

Was this how her mother had felt, at the end?

Sokka often felt like a failure, but this was a particularly big one.

He leaned against the wall in a dark room that was mostly occupied by a small table and two chairs. His weapons were gone, but they hadn’t even put shackles on him.

He was trying not to be offended by that.

Luckily, he didn’t have much time to stew, because the door opened, and a man in a Dai Li uniform stepped in, carrying a lantern.

“Hello, Sokka,” he said with a smile that made Sokka nervous. He gestured to the chair farthest from the door. “Why don’t you have a seat?”

Yue felt months of freedom slide from her grasp.

She’d traveled hundreds of miles, practically to the other side of the world, and yet nothing had changed.

She stood in another dark cell. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that she felt the waves that had gently rocked the Fire Nation ship. The one solace she’d had during those weeks of confinement.

But of course, this was no ship, and her people were just as doomed.

Metal. Figured.

Toph slammed her fists against the walls of the prison, yelling threats and curses to the guards she knew were right outside.

They ignored her.

Everyone always did that.

Almost everyone. Everyone except these new friends.

Friends who were probably trapped just like she was.

At that thought, she banged harder, desperately. If she could just get out, she could help. She had to help.

She couldn’t go back to being alone. Not again.

The guards outside eventually yelled at her to cut it out, but she could ignore them just as well as they could her.

Time passed. Hours, maybe days. She didn’t know. She banged and banged, forcing her will into the metal walls around her, worry and anger fueling every strike.

Until finally, she felt a ripple through her senses. Through her feet that had been her eyes for as long as she knew.

She could feel the box around her, not quite earth. But something close, related. Earth, refined and purified.

It would listen to her.

She smiled.

Chapter Text

Zuko drifted in the dark. He couldn’t feel the chains anymore, couldn’t feel the stone beneath him.

Vaguely, he knew that should be concerning. Had he run out of air in the small room? Was he hallucinating? Was he dying?

Those worries seemed unimportant. It was nice to just exist here in the comforting warmth of the dark.

As always, though, that comfort couldn’t last.

Zuko.

He shook his head, keeping his eyes closed, even as the darkness behind his eyelids started to brighten, red and white splotches piercing through the black.

“Zuko.”

The voice sounded vaguely familiar. His uncle?

“Zuko, get up.”

No. Not Iroh. A similar voice, but not quite the same. More nasal. More demanding, too.

Roku.

Zuko wanted to tune out the voice, keep his eyes closed, and try to find that peace again. By now, though, the light beyond his eyelids was so bright he could no longer ignore it.

So he reluctantly opened his eyes, and found himself lying on his back in a familiar forest of too-skinny trees and ankle-deep water. Avatar Roku stood over his prone body with a stern expression, holding out a hand as if to help him up.

“Am I dead?” Zuko asked groggily. He ignored the hand and pushed himself to his feet, noting distantly that he wasn’t wet, though he’d just been lying in water. 

Roku tucked his hand back at his side. “Not yet, Prince Zuko.”

Zuko had to force down a bitter laugh at the title.

“What do you want?” he asked instead, crossing his arms.

Roku didn’t answer immediately. He studied Zuko’s face, his expression unreadable. 

Finally, he said, “I sense doubt in you, Zuko. You must be strong, or the world—”

“Will end,” Zuko snapped. “Yes, I know, thanks. I’m the only hope. I have to fix everything, or my father will destroy the world. I was just looking for a way out of the cell I was trapped in, in case you hadn’t noticed. If you’ll excuse me—”

He had started to turn away, trying to will himself out of this vision and back into his body in the real world, but he felt a hand on his arm, and looked back.

Roku’s expression had softened, that stern expression fading to something kinder, almost…paternal? Zuko stiffened. He tried to pull away from Roku’s touch, but his body wouldn’t move. 

“Sometimes, being the Avatar means relying on others, too,” Roku said quietly. “Always remember that you are not alone. We are with you.” He gestured behind him, and for just a flash, Zuko saw a line of people, other Avatars, stretching off to infinity behind him. In the next moment, they disappeared, and Roku smiled at him. “And your friends are with you too. Trust in yourself, and trust in them.”

The vision started to fade back into the darkness of the tiny cell, but this time Zuko tried to hold onto it, staring at Roku’s face, at his smile.

Why did it seem so familiar? 

Despite his best efforts, the vision slipped away—and in the next moment, the wall next to Zuko exploded.

Chapter Text

Blinding light poured through the wall as debris scattered across Zuko’s body. He blinked against it, holding up an arm to shield himself, and saw a small figure silhouetted against the light.

Toph Beifong, wearing crumpled metal like a suit of armor, strode forward, grabbed Zuko’s bindings, and snapped them with an easy motion.

“Come on, Sparky,” she said. “We’ve got a drill to stop.”

Stunned, Zuko could only nod. He stumbled to his feet and followed Toph through the rubble.

An hour later, Zuko crouched in a darkened stone hallway, peering around the corner while the rest of his now-freed friends waited from behind. 

They’d seemingly managed to mostly lose the Dai Li who had been tailing them, but Zuko didn’t trust that. He looked all around, nervously, expecting one to pop out of the wall at any moment. 

For now, though, they had a mission. Get out of this place, whatever it was, get back to Ba Sing Se, and stop the drill before it was too late. 

“Footsteps,” Toph warned. “Behind us.”

Zuko nodded. 

They continued forward through the maze of hallways. Zuko stayed at the front, but Toph was really the one leading them. She would stop the group occasionally, or have them turn and go a different direction, sensing distant movement through the earth that Zuko couldn’t hope to detect. 

As they did, they passed rooms. Some of them were closed and silent, but others contained people. Not prisoners. Peeking in or listening at doors let them hear that the people inside seemed to be going through classes of some kind. Others simply sat in the rooms, still and completely silent, with beatific smiles on their faces.

The people inside did not appear to notice Zuko and his companions passing, which only added to the discomfiting energy in the place. But they continued.

Finally, though, Toph yanked on Zuko’s arm, pulling him to a stop, then cursed under her breath.

“What is it, Toph?” Katara whispered. 

“The way out is that way,” Toph said, pointing further down the hall toward a closed stone door. “But it’s a trap. I can feel a lot of people that way, hiding.”

“Then let’s go a different way,” Sokka said. 

Toph shook her head. “Can’t.”

“Why not? Aren’t you an earthbender? Couldn’t you bust through the ceiling?”

“Sure,” Toph said, “if you want to bring a whole lake’s worth of water down on our heads.”

Katara perked up. “There’s water above us?”

“Feels like it,” Toph said.

“Long Feng did say he was sending us to a lake, didn’t he?” Aang mused. “Lake Late Guy?”

“Laogai,” Yue said.

“Yeah, that.”

“Anyway,” Toph said. “If you guys think you could manage to keep the lake from flooding this whole place, I’d be happy to open us a hole.”

Katara frowned, opening her mouth as if to speak, but Sokka interrupted before she could.

“Wait, why do we care if this place floods?” Sokka asked. “This is a creepy secret hideout full of bad people, right?”

Zuko wasn’t so sure about that. He thought about those people they’d passed, sitting silent and complacent in darkened classrooms, or reciting lines in unison. It seemed more like this place was full of innocents who were being used to further Long Feng’s goals. Maybe even the Dai Li—who knew how much they actually knew, and how much they were just following orders from their commander.

“I think we should go forward,” Zuko said, feeling everyone’s eyes turn on him. “We’re not going to be able to get anywhere in this city unless we deal with Long Feng first.”

Zuko expected someone to argue, but instead, the group fell silent.

“You’re right,” Yue said softly after a moment. “We have to go in there, don’t we? Trap or not.”

Trust in yourself, and trust in them. Zuko met her eyes and nodded resolutely. “Together.”

The rest of the group looked at each other, then nodded.

Zuko turned and strode down the hall, his friends behind him. A quick motion moved the stone wall aside, and he led the group into the chamber beyond. 

The chamber was massive, rectangular, and—at least at first glance—mostly empty. Smooth stone walls and floors, with a single visible exit besides the one they had entered through: a large round tunnel burrowed into the wall a few dozen feet up from the ground, which led out onto a balcony. 

That was where the mostly part came in, because Long Feng stood on that balcony, looking down at Zuko and his friends as they entered the chamber and spread out a little.

He shook his head with a long-suffering expression. “I did try to show you mercy, Avatar.”

“I think you and I have very different ideas of what mercy is,” Zuko said.

“I cannot have you destroying the peace this city has maintained. It’s vital to the continued functioning of our culture.”

“What peace?” Zuko demanded. “Your city has been at war for a century. Hundreds of refugees are crammed in the Outer Ring, and hundreds more are making their way here every day.”

“Yeah,” Toph said. “You can’t hide from it.”

Long Feng shook his head again. “Were it not for your esteemed position, I would have had you tossed out of this city the moment you arrived. I can see now that I was a fool not to have done so.”

He waved a hand, then turned away, as if to leave. At the same moment, two rectangular slabs of stone—one on each side of the room—flipped around, revealing a dozen or so Dai Li agents clinging to the other side. They leaped from the walls down toward Zuko and his friends. 

“Don’t let him get away!” Toph yelled, throwing out her hand. The tunnel that Long Feng was about to step into slammed shut, and in the next moment, the balcony he stood on began to crumble and fall.

For a moment, Zuko thought that might be it. But Long Feng only fell a few feet before he slammed his hand against the wall. A shelf of stone shot out beneath his feet, catching him as the rest of the balcony continued toward the ground.

He was an earthbender. Of course.

He turned toward their group with a sneer, as if to say, Fine. Have it your way.

Then he launched himself in their direction.

Chapter Text

While Zuko was distracted watching Long Feng launch himself from the wall, two Dai Li agents slammed to the ground on either side of him. He moved without thinking, jerking out of the way as two small stone projectiles flew toward him.

As he spun, he quickly took in the rest of the scene. The Dai Li had them surrounded in an instant, forcing his friends closer together than Zuko would have liked.

Toph, though, with her metal armor and her powerful earthbending, was keeping many of them at bay, while Zuko and their other friends held their own against the few remaining ones.

The Dai Li didn’t fight like normal earthbenders. They were quicker, more targeted. Instead of hurling massive boulders, they mainly used smaller objects. Their gloves, which Zuko realized were made of interlocking pieces of stone, could break apart into tiny projectiles or morph into many different forms.

Zuko flipped and spun through a barrage of tiny rocks, shoving aside what he could with his earthbending while avoiding the rest as much as possible. A few managed to get through anyway, sharp, burning pain flaring on his cheeks and arms as the rocks sliced his skin.

He ignored it as his vision zeroed in on Long Feng. The man landed halfway across the massive room, far behind bulk of the fighting. As he did, the ground rumbled, the force of his landing sending out a wave of moving earth that rolled toward them.

“Watch out!” Toph yelled.

Zuko barely had time to brace with his earthbending before the wave slammed into the group. Toph managed to shield herself and a couple of those closest to her, but the rest got hit with the full brunt of Long Feng’s attack, falling down or getting flung back.

Even the Dai Li. They seemed more prepared, but many of them still stumbled or fell. Zuko saw flashes of annoyance on the nearest Dai Li faces, glances back toward Long Feng.

Hints of discontent?

He’s the real target, Zuko thought. Once he goes down, this is over.

Zuko raised a hand, willing the ground to obey, and a pillar of rock shot up under his feet. He soared through the air, a little off-target, but a quick push with airbending got him back on course. Half a breath later, he landed with a crash, slamming his fists down against the ground.

Instead of an earthquake like Long Feng had done, though, Zuko’s slam caused walls to shoot up on all sides of Long Feng’s body.

That was the plan, anyway, but Long Feng reacted too fast. He shot up on his own pillar, just barely slipping through Zuko’s trap, and landed a few feet away, already calling up a boulder to send at Zuko.

As it flew toward him, Zuko didn’t duck or dodge or even try to block. Instead, just before the boulder smashed into him, he swung forward and punched the rock with a force that would have shattered every bone in a normal person’s hand. 

For Zuko, though, it wasn’t his hand that shattered, but the rock. It exploded into millions of tiny shards that hung in the air for a moment before Zuko pressed both hands forward and sent them all flying back toward Long Feng. 

He leaped after them.

Long Feng’s eyes went wide. With a frantic motion, he stomped the ground. A wall shot up between the two of them. Zuko was already reaching out to crumble the wall, but he didn’t need to.

It crumbled just before Zuko’s rain of projectiles would have been forced to a stop, and at the same time, Zuko heard the sound of metal hitting the ground nearby as Toph landed next to him.

With Long Feng’s barricade handled, Zuko forced all of his willpower into the shards of stone, pushing them forward faster, and this time Long Feng had no chance to react fast enough. 

Rocks pummeled him. The smaller shards sliced and tore at his flesh and clothing, while the larger pieces knocked him off-balance, sending him stumbling, then falling.

“Nice one, Sparky,” Toph said while they ran toward Long Feng’s prone form. “You might just become a master earthbender after all.”

Zuko didn’t answer, but he couldn’t help the slight smile that tugged at his lips. 

Long Feng wasn’t dead. Already, he was starting to recover from the barrage, trying to get to his feet as Zuko and Toph arrived at his side.

Toph leaped on top of him. Though she wasn’t very big, the surprise was enough to knock Long Feng down again. Quick as a blink, Toph tore off chunks of her metal armor and bent them around Long Feng’s wrists and ankles, pinning him to the ground before she rolled back to her feet. 

With a casual kick, she carved out a rectangle in the stone around Long Feng’s body, then tilted the slab upright.

“This is impossible,” Long Feng hissed, looking at Toph as he struggled against his metal bonds. “You’re just a child. How are you doing this?”

Toph smirked. “I bet you wish I’d tell you, don’t you?”

Zuko spun back toward the fight. 

Neither the Dai Li nor the rest of his friends had apparently noticed what had happened. 

“Stop!” Zuko yelled, using the air to bolster his voice and make it pierce through the sounds of battle.

As the single word echoed in the room, at first, Zuko thought the Dai Li would simply ignore him. But one turned. When the agent saw Long Feng, pinned against the slab of stone, the gasp they let out seemed to echo almost as much as Zuko’s shout had.

At the sound of it, the rest turned too, and one by one, the battles died down. 

“We’re not your enemy!” Zuko said, stepping toward the group of Dai Li.

Behind him, Long Feng chuckled.

“What right have you to claim that, boy?” he asked. “We offered you hospitality, asking that you simply follow our customs in return. And instead, you stormed the palace, threatening to sow terror and chaos among the people. Does that seem like the actions of an ally to you?”

Zuko heard a pained hiss, and glanced back to see that Toph had grabbed hold of one of Long Feng’s bindings and squeezed, bending it even tighter so that the metal pierced his skin ever so slightly.

“Don’t make me put one of these over your mouth, too,” she said. 

“Toph,” Zuko said reproachfully. 

She sighed and took a step back. “Fine.”

“I had no choice,” Zuko said, meeting Long Feng’s glare. “You can’t keep up this illusion of peace you’ve been holding on to. We’re at war, and the Fire Nation is coming. They may be here any moment.” He turned back to the assembled Dai Li. “When we first got here, we were told that the Dai Li were the cultural protectors of Ba Sing Se. If we don’t stop what’s coming, the Fire Nation will destroy the thing you claim to protect. This isn’t something you can sweep under a rug and hide away. We need to act. Let us help you. Let us help each other.”

Long Feng scoffed, then grunted in pain, and this time Zuko didn’t bother to tell Toph to stop. He kept his eyes on the Dai Li.

Most of them stood still and quiet, their gaze flickering between Zuko, Long Feng, and Toph. Measuring, deciding.

They weren’t convinced, but they weren’t attacking either.

Not yet, anyway.

Zuko took another careful step forward. “Please. I know for many of you it might be hard to trust me. In many ways, I’m the reason why you’ve had to cling so hard to these deceptions. My people have caused so much strife over the last hundred years, but now the world has a chance to be whole again—if we work together. Let us go. Let us talk to your king. If we stay divided, we’ve already lost.”

He could see sparks in the eyes of the Dai Li before him. Some were still wary, uncertain. But others seemed to be listening, maybe even believing his words.

One such man stepped forward, meeting Zuko’s gaze, and Zuko suddenly realized he recognized this man. It was Hao, the Dai Li they’d met on their first day in the city.

“You may be right, Avatar,” Hao said. “We seek peace for our people. But peace does not come from ignoring the truth.” He knelt, bowing his head. “I pledge my skill to your cause, Avatar Zuko.”

Zuko stared with wide eyes. He wanted to tell Hao to stand up, but he was too stunned, and before he could, the other members of the Dai Li behind him knelt, too, one by one.

The last Dai Li that knelt, though, did not bow his head. He clenched his hands against the ground, his eyes fixed not on Zuko, but on something behind him.

CRACK!

Zuko realized what was happening too late. He started to spin back toward Long Feng, but he’d barely managed to even turn his head before his torso erupted in pain as something small and sharp pierced the small of his back. Warm wetness began flowing from the wound, and Zuko’s knees buckled. He stumbled, barely managing to keep himself upright as he continued his spin.

The slab of stone had shattered at the Dai Li’s command, and though Long Feng still had Toph’s metal bindings wound around his wrists and ankles, they didn’t hinder his motion at all as he swung his bloodied dagger toward Zuko’s chest this time.

Long Feng smiled as Zuko barely dodged—condescending, belittling.

That smile sent a bolt through Zuko’s consciousness. For a moment, he didn’t see Long Feng there before him.

He saw Azula, on the ship. Even with all the power in the world, you’re still so weak.

He saw his father. Standing above him as he cowered in the Agni Kai arena. Thirteen years old, just a child. To the rest of the world, his father’s expression had been stoic, cold.

But as he’d leaned down closer with a hand wreathed in fire, reaching to touch Zuko’s face, Zuko had seen his expression change, an expression meant only for the two of them.

He’d smiled. He hadn’t spoken, but Zuko had read the meaning in his eyes. Maybe now you will finally learn your place.

Then there had been only agony.

For years, that memory had brought shame and fear, but now, instead, Zuko felt a boiling rage.

Zuko screamed—a sound of pure, primal fury—and lunged toward Long Feng, sending a blast of fire from his outstretched fist. 

He was so, so tired of being walked all over, of being belittled and tricked and condescended to. He attacked, and though Long Feng was a skilled earthbender, he was no match. 

It was a short battle, which ended with a fire blast to the chest, sending Long Feng flying backward to slam against the nearest wall. As he slid down to the ground, he didn’t move.

Zuko wasn’t done, though. He swung around toward the rest of the Dai Li, anger still simmering in his eyes. “If you won’t listen to me,” he shouted, “then I’ll fight all of you if I have to. But I’m going to try one more time to offer you the chance to save yourselves and your city from destruction. Any takers?”

This time, when the Dai Li’s eyes flickered from Zuko to Long Feng’s prone form, their demeanor seemed different. Impressed. Fearful.

It made him feel sick. He didn’t want to be his father. He didn’t want to be Azula. He didn’t want to win allies through fear and coercion.

But he didn’t have time to do this the right way. If the Dai Li refused to respond to anything but force, he could give them that.

After all, he’d had a great role model, hadn’t he?

Chapter Text

While Zuko did quick, terse negotiations with the Dai Li, Aang slipped over to the place where Long Feng had fallen. He still wasn’t moving. 

Aang pressed his lips together.

“I think he’s gone,” a voice said at his side, and Aang jumped. He hadn’t noticed Toph following him.

She stood a foot behind him, her expression stoic but, Aang thought, mixed with a hint of melancholy too.

“I…figured,” Aang said, because he didn’t know what else to say. For a moment, they both stood over Long Feng, silent.

Aang found himself thinking of his home—or, more accurately, of what happened the last time he left it. The ship, the battle. 

Zuko’s words later. Aang…this is a war. People are going to die. People have been dying, for a hundred years. Sometimes you have to do hard things to achieve a greater good.

Long Feng had kept a whole city under a veil of secrets and lies. This was a greater good… wasn’t it?

Zuko’s voice called to them, “What are you two doing? We have to get out of here.”

Toph shrugged. “Come on, Twinkle Toes.” 

She began moving toward Zuko without another acknowledgement of Long Feng.

Aang, though, hesitated. He turned halfway, looking back at Zuko, but didn’t move toward him yet.

Zuko’s eyes glinted strangely, and there was a new weight, a darkness to the hunch in his shoulders and the way he seemed unwilling to look beyond Aang at the man—the body—that lay on the ground behind him.

Zuko’s expression went hard as his gaze met Aang’s. “Come on, Aang,” he said, already turning around to follow the Dai Li, who had begun leading the group toward the tunnels.

With one more backwards glance, Aang followed.

The Dai Li led them to the surface, promised to provide aid and convey them to the king, and even retrieved Appa for them—unharmed, which Aang was grateful for.

The man who had first responded to Zuko’s offer, Hao, seemed especially apologetic, and kept shooting glares toward the other Dai Li agent who had freed Long Feng. Aang hoped that meant he’d been sincere in his initial pledge to help them, and it hadn’t just been a ploy to catch them off guard.

Not that it mattered. They didn’t have time to be picky about people who were willing to help.

Especially when they learned from Hao that they had been held in Lake Laogai for two days already. When Zuko heard that, he insisted they get on Appa and fly toward the palace as soon as possible. 

They crested into the air, soaring over the city toward the central palace, their whole group gripping onto Appa’s saddle-less back along with Hao and one other Dai Li agent.

As the sprawling cityscape of Ba Sing Se spread out before them, Aang immediately noticed something wrong.

A trail of dust leading toward the southern part of the wall. Something very large and metallic.

At the same moment he noticed that, they all heard a BOOM, so loud that it reached even their ears, far from the city wall as they were. 

“The drill,” Zuko said. “We’re too late.”

“Not yet, we’re not. Everyone, hold on!” Aang yanked on Appa’s reins, spinning them back to race toward the wall.

In just a few minutes, they’d gotten to the wall, landing atop it to the confusion and fear of several of the soldiers who were standing on the wall, firing boulders down at the massive drill burrowing through the wall below them.

Even before Aang hopped off of Appa, he could feel the wall rumbling beneath them, shaking him to his bones. And the sound—it was almost deafening, a horrible cacophony of grinding metal and stone that overwhelmed all other sensations.

A man in a fancier uniform than the other soldiers—probably an officer of some kind—spun around as Aang and the others jumped down. 

“What are you doing up here?” he asked in a panicked tone. “Civilians aren’t allowed on the wall—especially not now.”

Then he saw Hao and the other Dai Li agent they’d brought with them, and his eyes went wide.

“We’re here to help,” Zuko said, stepping forward. “What can you tell me about the machine down there?”

The man’s eyes slid from Hao to Zuko with a frown. “I’m not sure how you think you could help. Our soldiers are very well trained, and there—”

“Just tell us about the drill,” Zuko snapped, unusually gruff and angry, even for him.

The man did, though he clearly didn’t know much. Apparently they had tried to send some scouts out to check it out a little more closely, but none had come back.

“I can get us inside,” Toph said. 

“You?” the man laughed. “You’re just a child.”

Glowering, Toph ripped one of the metal studs off her belt, held it up in front of the man, and made a fist. When she reopened her hand, instead of the rounded stud, a metallic lump lay in the center of her palm. The man’s eyes went wide. 

“That’s… that’s impossible.” His eyes flickered across the group, suddenly fearful. “What are you?”

“That’s not important right now,” Sokka said. “Can you help us get down there sneakily? What paths do your scouts use?”

A few minutes later, they were on the ground on the other side of the wall, hiding in the shadows and dust of the drill. 

“We don’t have much time,” Sokka said as they ran. “That thing will punch through the wall any minute.”

“Guess we better work fast, then,” Zuko grunted. “Toph?”

They came to a stop under the drill. It was louder down here, but at least there wasn’t quite as much dust. 

Toph raised all of them up on a pillar of earth, just high enough to reach the bottom of the massive machine. Then, she took a breath, rubbed her hands together, and began tearing the metal away from the bottom of the drill with her bare hands.

It clearly wasn’t easy for her. Her expression twisted with focus and exertion, sweat pouring down her face, but after an anxious minute (during which Sokka reminded her again that they didn’t have much time, and she snapped back a biting retort that this technique was still only a few hours old, and maybe he should try it), she’d managed to pry away a hole big enough for them to fit through. They piled in.

Inside, they heard yelling down the hall, and when they went that direction, they found a battle already in progress. People in red and black Fire Nation uniforms fought against another group—but it wasn’t Earth Kingdom soldiers. Instead, these newcomers wore dark blue robes with white cowls decorated with a lotus design. 

At the head of these warriors was a very familiar man with gray hair and beard—General Iroh.

“Uncle!” Zuko cried, and Iroh turned as he ducked a blow from the soldier he was engaged with. A lower ranked member of his team took his place, and Iroh jogged over to the group with a smile.

“Zuko! I worried we’d miss each other! Go to the command room just down the hall—we will hold these off, so you can stop the drill.”

Aang saw conflict raging across Zuko’s face in a split second, and he had a feeling that Zuko wanted to object. But then his expression hardened again, his emotions locking away, and he nodded. 

“We’ll talk after, Uncle.”

General Iroh clapped his nephew on the shoulder, and then the group pushed on to the control room.

It was empty.

Well, not exactly. There were plenty of people, actually. Engineers and a few guards. But it may as well have been empty for all the trouble they caused. Some metal bending from Toph destroyed the control panel, which brought the drill to a screeching halt, then bending from the rest of them and boomerang work from Sokka quickly incapacitated the crew.

But their true targets—Azula and her friends—were nowhere to be seen.

“Where is she?” Zuko demanded of one of the half-conscious guards after they’d secured the room, his face a mask of dark fury as he crouched next to the man and pulled him up with one hand.

“Wh—who?”

“Azula,” Zuko said. When the guard’s eyes widened in obvious surprise, he continued, “Yes, I know she was here. Where is she?”

The guard flicked his eyes around the room, apparently weighing his fear for his life against his fear of Azula. Then his gaze landed on Zuko again, and somehow his eyes widened even more—not with surprise, but recognition.

“You’re Prince Zuko.”

“Yes,” Zuko agreed. “Do you know where my sister went, or not?”

“I—I don’t know, si—Your Highness.” He said the title almost like a question. Aang wondered how much the poor guard knew. Did he know Zuko was the Avatar, or did he simply think he was a banished prince?

Zuko didn’t seem impressed with that answer, so the guard stammered on.“I don’t know where she went, I swear it, Your Highness. She—she didn’t tell us. She and her friends snuck off just before we hit the wall. Said they had business to attend to in the city.”

Zuko seemed to freeze in place for a moment. Then, abruptly, he dropped the guard and stood up, turning to look at the others.

“We have to get to the palace now.”

Chapter Text

Zuko sprinted through the palace halls, his heart pounding in his ears. His friends ran behind him, though Iroh wasn’t among them. He’d stayed behind to secure the drill, telling Zuko to go ahead.

The palace decor was probably beautiful—Zuko saw lots of green and gold out of the corners of his eyes as he rushed by—but he couldn’t focus on it. His every thought was focused on the next step, on stopping Azula before she did the same thing she’d done at the North Pole.

He couldn’t let her best him. Not this time.

They burst through a pair of ornate double doors that Hao said led to the king’s throne room. Beyond them lay a huge, mostly empty room with a throne against the far wall. The throne was occupied by a man in ornate green and gold robes and a large crown.

He was tied up, eyes wide with fear as three familiar figures surrounded him. To the side of the dais, strangely, was a large animal with brown fur, lying on its side and tied in ropes in an almost comical way. 

Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee spun around as Zuko and his friends rushed into the room.

“Let him go, Azula!” Zuko shouted, falling into a ready stance, his hands raised in front of him.

Azula rolled her eyes—but Zuko thought he detected a hint of surprise in her expression. She hadn’t expected them to find her so fast.

“So dramatic as always, Zuzu. I’m just here to discuss some important matters with the king. We’ve been having such a nice talk, haven’t we, Earth King Kuei?” Azula said, leaning casually against the throne and placing a hand on the bound man’s arm.

The king flinched at her touch. His face was full of confusion and fright, his skin so deathly pale that Zuko worried for a moment he was bleeding out. But he couldn’t see any wounds or blood on the king’s body.

“I was really expecting the famed leader of the Earth Kingdom to put up more of a fight,” Azula said, then turned away from the king to look at Zuko again. “Did you know, he didn’t even know about the war at all? The great Earth King turned out to be just a silly, pampered man who’s been kept in the dark about the truth of the world. It’s pathetic, really. Don’t worry, though, we’ve been filling him in.”

Zuko’s mind reeled. He flashed back to the conversations they’d had with Long Feng, the way he had always seemed to be far more in control than a simple advisor should have been. Could it be true, that Long Feng was the real leader all along, and the king was just a figurehead?

Did it matter?

He shook his head. No, it didn’t. Not right now. He knew what Azula was doing. It was the same thing she’d done at the North Pole, talking to keep him off-balance, distracted from the real goal.

Rather than listen to her for one more second, Zuko shouted, “Aang, catch him!” He stomped the ground, and a pillar erupted from underneath the Earth King’s throne. It sent him flying in an arc in Aang’s general direction.

Ty Lee reacted faster than Azula or Mai, using her acrobatics to launch herself into the air in an attempt to catch the king before he’d flown too far. But Aang had the wind on his side. The king seemed to move with unnatural speed, carried on a sudden gust out of Ty Lee’s grasp before slowing and coming to a gentle landing behind Aang. With Sokka and Yue’s help, Aang began working on getting the king untied.

While this was happening, Zuko charged, Toph and Katara flanking.

Azula sighed. “Fine, Zuko, have it your way, then.”

She shot a beam of bright blue fire at the group, but Zuko met it head on, using his dual blades to cut the blast in half. The flames cooled to red-orange as they split to each side, just barely avoiding Toph and Katara behind him.

During the moment it took to disperse the fire, Azula and her friends had already sprung into action, Mai and Ty Lee flanking to take on Katara and Toph, while Azula came for Zuko.

Zuko met her halfway, feeling the wind of her passage and spinning into a dodge as she aimed another careful blast. He used the air to carry him further, landing lightly on her other side, then thrust his hands in an upward diagonal motion to send a stone pillar shooting toward her back.

She moved aside at the last moment, but not quite fast enough. The pillar clipped her side, sending her staggering. She crashed against a decorative column to the left of the throne’s dais, keeping herself upright by grabbing hold of it. While Zuko advanced, she pushed herself off and spun to face him.

“Have you fallen so low that you refuse to use our true element, brother?” Azula asked with a sneer. “If you had any honor left in that treacherous heart of yours, you’d face me properly, with fire alone.”

Zuko narrowed his eyes at her. In his periphery, he kept tabs on Mai and Ty Lee, who were still engaged with Katara and Toph. Farther away, Aang, Sokka, and Yue had gotten the king untied, and were starting to turn to join the fray.

“You want fire, Azula?” Zuko asked softly.

“It’s only fair, don’t you think, Zuzu?” she replied, grinning slyly. “The only way we’ll really know if you’ve finally caught up.”

As she spoke, she began rotating her arms in a familiar motion. Blue sparks started to form around her fingers, but she didn’t fire yet. She just smiled at him—knowingly, tauntingly.

Lightning. The thing Zuko had failed to learn.

Zuko shot to his sister in an eyeblink. Before she had the chance to fully form her lightning bolt, he grabbed her in a leg tackle—ignoring, with difficulty, the shock of pain that zinged through his body when he touched her. 

Her eyes went wide, and as her concentration broke, the bolt released in the direction her hands happened to be pointed as they both fell to the ground.

CRACK! Zuko’s ears rang from the near-deafening sound. The smell of ozone filled his nostrils.

Azula’s lightning bolt slammed into the ceiling above them, blasting it apart and sending chunks of stone raining down. He reacted immediately, shoving aside the falling stone with his earthbending.

Then he looked down at his sister. “Fine. Fire only, then. No lightning, no other elements. Starting now.”

She smiled in a way that sent chills down his spine, then twisted suddenly, wriggling out of his grapple with a burst of blue flame that he had to frantically disperse.

He staggered to his feet, not daring to take his eyes off Azula as the battle truly began.

Zuko no longer had space to keep tabs on his friends. Vaguely, he could hear shouts, groans of either exertion or pain, the sounds of water and air and earth flying around. At one point, Aang and Katara both individually called out to him, asking if he wanted help, and he vehemently waved them away. 

But for the most part, it was all just background. All he could do was hope that their part of the battle was going well as his fight with Azula consumed most of his attention.

She was good. More than good. Exceptional. She always had been. His pride wouldn’t let him back out of the deal and start using the other elements again, but he knew, in the back of his mind, that there was no way he’d beat her. Not with fire alone.

And yet…

Azula shot fire at him, and instead of dispersing them like a firebender normally would, a few times he found himself instinctively redirecting the flames instead, turning his defense into his offense—like a waterbender. He danced between gouts of flame, light on his feet, moving like the wind even though he wasn’t actually airbending. When the fight was too furious and he had no chance to dodge, he instead fell into a solid, stubborn, earthbending-like stance, deflecting Azula’s fire and throwing out his own.

Though he bent only fire, he still carried the other elements with him… and he was winning.

She was clearly just as shocked as he was. He could sense a strange frustration in the way she fought—almost a desperation. She wasn’t quite as precise, wasn’t as careful, and as the battle wore on, those little mistakes became more pronounced.

Finally, he had her pinned down. In that moment, they both seemed to take in the rest of the battlefield for the first time.

Mai and Ty Lee were down, unconscious and tied up. Zuko’s friends were beat up, but alive. They stood guard over the captives, watching Zuko and Azula’s fight from a distance, ready to help if necessary. Zuko caught Katara’s eyes for a moment, and she smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back.

He looked across at Azula, whose eyes were wide.

Last time, he’d been in the Avatar State. He hadn’t been able to do it then. Could he, now? Could he really kill her, the way he had Long Feng?

Was that who he wanted to be?

He had to. He couldn’t be weak again.

But as he looked at her, he found his resolve wavering again. He could see a familiar fear in her eyes. The fear of a cornered animal.

Zuko had already decided he couldn’t bring himself to kill her when she broke the rules.

Sparks began to flicker around her hands once more, lightning gathering at her fingertips. She was in point-blank range, and she aimed directly toward his chest.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Zuko watched as the lightning streaked out from her fingertips, seeming to move in slow motion directly toward his heart.

At the same time, he felt a familiar sensation overtake him—not quite the Avatar State. Not fully. Just instincts he didn’t know he had, taking over the way they’d done all those weeks ago, on the day he’d bent the air for the very first time.

He reached out and grabbed hold of Azula’s hand, feeling the energy of the lightning course into his hand and down his arm, moving oh so slowly in this frozen time.

He let his body follow that instinct, bringing his other arm up, down, and out the other direction.

Time sped up as Azula’s redirected lightning blast slammed into the ceiling above the throne, which was now on the other side of the room from where they fought. Their battle had brought them near the large double doors, still ajar from Zuko’s entrance earlier.

For a moment, they stared at each other.

Then, Azula ran.

Chapter Text

Zuko followed, ignoring his friends crying out behind him to wait.

They needn’t have worried. Azula tore away down the hall and out the palace doors, then sprinted down the steps and disappeared into the city. Moving a bit like a bolt of lightning herself.

Zuko followed to the doors, then slumped against them, watching as her dark form vanished in the distance.

He let her go.

Perhaps that was stupid. Perhaps that was his weakness shining through. At that moment, though, it just felt…right.

He stared out into the city long after he could no longer see her anymore, feeling numb and worn, until he felt a familiar hand touch his shoulder, and turned.

“She’s gone?” Katara asked.

He nodded, then sighed. “I was too weak to do it, Katara. Again.”

Katara frowned. Her hand slipped off his shoulder. “I don’t think it’s weakness, Zuko. I think it’s kindness.”

Zuko scoffed. “She’s dangerous. Letting her go is reckless. It will only lead to more suffering. I should have killed her.” His words were confident enough, until the last sentence. Then his voice wobbled and trailed off, the statement sounding more like a question.

Katara didn’t answer immediately. For a moment, they both stood there silently, side by side, looking across the city before them.

Then she said, “Do you regret that you didn’t?”

“I…” Examining himself, he realized that no, he didn’t. The last time he’d fought Azula, he’d left feeling guilty—but not because she hadn’t died. He didn’t regret that Azula lived. He didn’t regret that he hadn’t killed her.

No, instead, he felt…relief.

“No,” he admitted.

Katara nodded. “I think you should trust that, then. You made the right choice.”

It was very reminiscent of what Roku had said, back in the cell. They fell silent again, looking out over the city before them.

The city they had…saved. What a novel thought that was.

Zuko glanced sidelong at Katara. She looked so tired—as tired as he felt—but happy, too. Her eyes shone with hope and pride. Beautiful.

They should go back inside, Zuko knew. They were standing out here, exposed, and behind them in the palace was a confused Earth King who would be expecting an explanation, along with a million other things they still needed to do.

But well… maybe he felt a little bit of hope too. He couldn’t bring himself to move away, to go on to the next task. As he looked at her, both of them dirty and bruised, their hair and clothes singed and torn, he felt a familiar warmth, a fluttering in his stomach. He reached out carefully and touched her hand.

She looked up with a smile, and that warmth inside him built into an inferno. Bolstered by her smile, he let himself thread his fingers through hers as he turned to face her.

“Katara,” he said softly, “I think I need to do something a little reckless again.”

Their eyes met, and Katara’s smile changed to something more playful. Teasing. “Oh? What’s that?”

He almost lost his nerve. But then he steeled himself and took her other hand in his. “I think I need to kiss you.”

Katara’s eyebrows shot up, and an adorable blush flared across her cheeks. She stared at him, silent, and hesitated for so long that Zuko started to waver again, feeling silly and stupid.

He started to pull his hands away, his own cheeks flaring red. “Sorry—”

“I think you should trust that,” Katara said suddenly, her hands tightening around his before he could pull them away. Then she smirked. “Just this once.”

Zuko froze, looking down at her. Sure, he’d asked, but he hadn’t really expected…

The sound of her laugh shook him out of his shock. Amusement twinkled in her eyes, though her cheeks still flared that lovely red.

She tilted up onto her toes just as Zuko leaned down, and their lips met at last.

Later, Zuko and his friends stood around a large rectangular table, engraved with a map of the Earth Kingdom. The Earth King Kuei was there, looking nervous, as well as a few generals.

Azula hadn’t been lying, it turned out. Somehow, Long Feng had kept the truth of the war from the Earth King for his entire life. They’d spent the past few days getting him up to speed as much as possible. With help from Hao, they’d cleared out Lake Laogai and taken many Dai Li defectors into custody. Meanwhile, Yue and Sokka, with some advisement from Zuko, had begun working with the Earth Kingdom generals on creating a plan to retake the Northern Water Tribe and eventually strike toward the Fire Nation.

Now that Long Feng was gone, everyone was far more helpful. The king especially, though he was clearly still reeling from all the revelations he’d had in the past few days, had been more than willing to go along with their request for aid in reclaiming the North Pole, and now those plans were moving along well.

Zuko suspected that neither the generals nor the king had even been aware of his presence in the city beforehand. Though they knew who he was, Zuko only occasionally sensed distrust from them. Apparently, saving the city from an attempt at regicide, plus being the Avatar, went a long way toward helping people ignore the fact that he was still, technically, the son of their number one enemy.

Still, Zuko was happy to let Sokka and Yue handle most of the negotiations, only offering his own input when it was needed. He had a feeling everyone was more comfortable that way, not being constantly reminded that they were working with the crown prince of the Fire Nation. Instead, he focused his efforts on the Dai Li, and on subtly looking for Azula.

Iroh and his White Lotus had disappeared back into the shadows after securing the drill—Iroh had insisted that Zuko and his friends take full credit, asking that they not tell anyone about his involvement. His uncle’s White Lotus were looking for Azula, too, but she didn’t seem to be anywhere in the city as far as they knew. Either she was hiding very, very well, or she had truly left.

Her friends Mai and Ty Lee, however, were still in custody, stripped of weapons (well, as much as one could strip weapons from someone like Ty Lee). They were being kept in separate cells underneath the palace complex. Zuko himself avoided going to see them as much as possible, but they had multiple guards on them at all times, just in case. Ty Lee seemed confident Azula would save them, but Zuko doubted they had much to worry about. Mai and Ty Lee might be Azula’s oldest friends, but she wasn’t going to come for them. Her sense of loyalty only went so far as a person’s usefulness to her, and she was perfectly fine with leaving behind a tool when that usefulness ended.

She’d gotten that from their father.

She would be back eventually, though, he knew. Not to save her friends, but to save her own pride—her honor.

Zuko felt a hint of amusement, thinking of that. He’d beaten her, twice now. There was no way she would let that stand.

“Avatar Zuko?” a gruff voice said, yanking Zuko from his thoughts.

He still stood in the war room in the Earth King’s palace. He’d let his thoughts drift while the others had been talking, but now, he found everyone looking at him.

He covered his embarrassment, standing up straighter and meeting the general’s eyes from across the table. “Yes, General How?”

The general’s lips pressed into a straight line. “Our preparations to recapture the Northern Water Tribe are nearly complete. Are you and your friends ready to accompany our soldiers to the North?”

Zuko nodded, grateful that this was a question he could answer. “We can be ready at any time, sir.”

“Good. We will depart within the week.”

The meeting adjourned a short time later, and Zuko trailed away from the war room. His friends followed along behind him, heading out to a balcony that overlooked the city.

From here, as he approached the railing, Zuko could still see the wreckage of the drill that had pushed through the Outer Wall. Katara bumped up against his side, grinning at him conspiratorially as she brushed her hand against his on the way past. Aang ran past both of them, laughing as he launched himself into the air on his glider and began swooping back and forth overhead. He nearly knocked Toph over in his haste to get airborne. She grumbled something about airbenders, then scowled as Sokka teased her, and Yue laughed.

Zuko leaned against the railing, unable to keep a smile from his lips as he looked across the city, then back at his friends. They still had a lot of work to do, a long way yet to go… but as Zuko stood at the balcony, his friends at his side, he found that for the first time in a while, hope had found him again.

Chapter Text

Azula’s hands trembled as she unrolled the letter. It was marked with the official seal of her father, the paper a deep red.

A few days ago, when she’d arrived at this outpost, she’d written a letter to her father. She’d spun words, pulled out all her best tricks and sweetest lies, for she knew that he would hear of the events at Ba Sing Se. On the outside, it was not a pretty picture, so she had wanted to ensure he understood. This was just a minor setback, barely anything to worry about. She was already concocting a dozen plans for how she could come back from this.

If he could just give her a little aid, or a little more time, she would prove herself to him once more.

As she unrolled the scroll, her eyes scanned quickly over the words in her father’s distinct handwriting. It was very short. Simple, even.

Azula, I see that my faith in you has been misplaced. I will not suffer yet another failure. If you are not to come home with your brother, then do not bother to come home at all.

Azula stared at the words for a long time, unblinking. They blurred on the page, waving in and out of focus. She only realized tears had formed in her eyes when they slid down her cheeks.

Failure. The word rattled in her head. Failure failure failurefailurefail—No! No, this wasn’t a failure. It couldn’t be. She could fix it. She would fix it.

She bowed her head over the paper on the desk, squeezing her eyes shut against the tears. Her body shook from the effort of holding them in, but she didn’t move.

Not until she felt a soft, familiar hand touch her shoulder, and her mother’s voice whispered, “It’s alright, Azula. I’m here for you.”