Book Two: Dragons and Badgermoles - BloodandPassion (2024)

Chapter 1: Chapter One: Echoes of the Past

Chapter Text

“Okay, so the plan is that we stop at this Earth Kingdom military outpost first to get any extra supplies we need and spread the word that you five, but especially you three,” Sokka pointed between Zuko, Uncle, and Azula. “Are traitors to the Fire Nation. Or, well, to the Fire Lord, but everyone else thinks they’re the same thing. We’ll get an escort from that outpost to Omashu, where Aang’s old friend King Bumi still lives, so he can learn earthbending there. Any questions?”

“Just the one.” Azula hummed as she drummed her fingers against Appa’s saddle, a look of quiet contemplation in her eyes. “What is our plan of attack if they decide to betray us? I prefer not to walk into an ambush unprepared. And for all that Zuzu and I are relative unknowns to them, General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, is not. They will not be particularly happy to host him.”

Sokka’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked back at Uncle with a sigh. “You’re their uncle on their father’s side, aren’t you? I guess I just assumed… That’s on me. Okay, so how bad are we talking here?”

“I was dedicated to the war effort throughout my youth, working my way up to the rank of general and becoming a decorated officer. I was, I’m ashamed to admit, quite thirsty for power in those days. It took losing my son during my siege of Ba Sing Se to break my fighting spirit, and it was only after my retreat, the additional loss of my father, and my travels around the world and into the Spirit World that I began to truly understand the true extent of the damage I had done. I vowed to never make those mistakes again. I vowed to never allow myself a position of power to avoid the temptation. A leopard seal cannot truly change his spots, after all, only dull his fangs.”

Katara and Sokka exchanged a grim look before she asked, “Were you… Ever involved with the raids on the Southern Water Tribe?”

“Hm? Oh, no no! My focus was solely within the Earth Kingdom. I am still not proud of it, but I at the very least gave my opponents the chance to fight back. I never operated anywhere that there was not already a strong military presence. There were… Less notable generals for tasks such as that.” Uncle sighed, turning back to face Zuko with a wan smile. “I feared for my nephew greatly when he was first banished. The apple does not often fall far from the tree that bore it. I expected him to become bitter and angry, and perhaps, in some ways, he did. But he also immediately went behind my back, gained the trust of his crew, and set sail to save the 41st Division from inevitable slaughter after my brother and his generals decided to use them as a bait. He took that anger and bitterness and directed it at the one who was causing all this pain and suffering, instead making a point of helping everyone he could. I had never been more proud. He already saw what it took me decades to see and understand at that young age. It was then that I knew that I had to help him become Fire Lord, to guide our people into an era of peace and prosperity.”

A jolt of alarm raced up his spine. What had ever given his uncle the impression that he wanted to be Fire Lord? He had no mind for politics or strategy. None! His plans usually consisted of: get in, wreck sh*t, get out. Their people, primarily their noble families and military generals, would eat him alive. They already thought poorly of him for speaking out for the 41st Division.

Thankfully, Azula put a swift end to Uncle’s misconception. “You’re freaking Zuzu out.” Azula’s voice was sharp and snappish, with the faintest hint of a dragon’s growl buried beneath it. “Did it ever occur to you, Uncle , to ask him what he wanted? Because it isn’t being Fire Lord, I can promise you that.” Mai chuckled lowly at the look of absolute bewilderment that danced across Uncle’s face. Ty Lee was far less restrained. Aang, Katara, and Sokka were all trying and failing to pretend that they weren’t extremely invested in listening to the family drama unfolding here. “The day after Father was coronated, Zuzu came to me crying about how he didn’t want to be the Fire Lord. I told him that was fine, that he didn’t have to be, and that I could always be the Fire Lord so he didn’t have to worry about all the politics of it. Instead, he would be my royal advisor. I would listen to him when he told me I was being too harsh, I believe the word used was mean at the time but I was only ten, and in exchange, I would get the throne and power that I wanted and that he decidedly did not. I mean, just think about it, Iroh!”

Azula gestured sharply in his direction, and Momo poked at her finger with a curious tilt of his head. “Zuzu would be miserable on the throne. He would be constantly surrounded by and expected to somehow trust the people who not only stood aside and watched him get burned but, somehow, thought he deserved it. Or,” she sniped with a glare. “Those who couldn’t even bring themselves to watch, like cowards . They knew he was right but didn’t dare speak a word. The plan for the 41st? It was cruel and it was wasteful . Zuzu was right to speak out against it when no one else would. And if he was the Fire Lord, then he wouldn’t even be able to heal someone without politics getting dragged into it, without people fighting over him favoring one faction more than another, and it would destroy him. You would take everything good in my brother and sacrifice it to the flames that have already stolen so much from him.”

“I… I was only considering what was best for the Fire Nation.”

“Yeah? Well try considering what’s best for Zuko. Of the two, I know which one I care more about.”

Uncle’s gaze turned considering then, eyes widening with a sudden realization. “Zuko is part of your hoard.”

“ Obviously . Do try to keep up, Uncle. I won’t stand aside and let you make the boy who first saved me from an assassin when he was eight , despite having barely a spark of flame in him at that point, miserable. You were hardly ever in the palace. You don’t know what happened behind those walls, the things we survived together, so get off your high ostrich horse and quit pretending that you know what’s best for us just because you’re old!” Thunder rumbled in the distance as a storm threatened to erupt with Azula’s temper. She took several, calming breaths before schooling her face back into perfect neutrality. “You’re here because you’re useful. You have connections that we can use. That is all. If you start threatening my brother’s happiness, then I’ll throw you off this flying bison myself.”

“Okay, seriously, do we need to leave him somewhere?” Sokka asked, only half-joking. “Because we can, useful connections or not.”

“Zuzu?”

“... No. Uncle has been good to me. He just… Didn’t know. Now he does.” Azula huffed, clearly displeased but willing to let the matter lie. “We can reevaluate later, if it comes down to it.” Because as much as it would hurt him to do so, he would choose Azula over Uncle every time.

“Very well,” Azula conceded, sounding marginally happier about his willingness to do so at a later date should it become necessary. “Back to our plan regarding potential betrayal?”

“Sure,” Sokka agreed with a shrug. “It depends on exactly how many soldiers they have and how many of them are earthbenders, but I figure that worst comes to worst, you two terrorize them as dragons while the rest of us get to Appa and, most importantly, off the ground. If we had an earthbender ourselves, we’d be able to ensure we could make a clean getaway, but since we don’t, we might have to ride you two until we manage to free Appa if they do try to keep him in place. After that, we’d just head to Omashu anyway and send Aang in ahead of the rest of us to get King Bumi to let us in. It would be easier to get in with an escort, security is pretty tight and we had to lie to get in the first time with far fewer people, but we could manage without.”

Azula’s eyebrow steadily climbed higher, impressed despite her exceedingly high standards. “Not bad. My only suggestion is that you stick to riding Zuko if necessary, all of you, unless you want to get inadvertently blasted with lightning. It tends to travel.” And also because Azula would not stand for being used as a beast of burden but knew that Zuko wouldn’t really care.

“Noted.”

The rest of their journey was far more peaceful, and Uncle was quiet, contemplative in a way that felt distinctly unusual for him. Zuko leaned his head back to look up to the clouds above. Anzu curled up in his lap and squeaked contentedly as he pet the space between her ears, slowly dozing off. It wasn’t quite as exhilarating as flying under his own power, but riding Appa was pleasant in its own way. Zuko wasn’t sure when his eyes slid shut, but they didn’t open again until he heard Sokka’s voice call out, “There it is!”

It was oddly ornamental for a military outpost. The white and gold felt more reminiscent of a palace or a nobleman’s home than a base for military operations, standing out far too starkly against the landscape to be anything but intentional.

“Oh, well isn’t that fancy?” Azula murmured lowly, clearly thinking along the same lines. “Either we’re about to deal with a bunch of puffed-up fools, or they think themselves invincible, making a target of their base like that. The latter could be arrogance, or…”

“It could be warranted.” Mai grimaced faintly as her eyes roved over the outpost for any signs that warranted immediate concern. “Be on your guard.”

“Come on, guys! I’m sure it can’t be that bad. So what if it looks nice?” Aang chirped with a laugh. “They’ll probably have supplies for us. And we’ll have beds to sleep in tonight!”

“No one’s saying you can’t enjoy those things,” Ty Lee promised him. “Just… Be careful, okay? It doesn’t really matter if they’re full of themselves, but if they’re super strong and take offense to us being here…”

“Master Pakku did send a letter ahead of us.” Katara gave Ty Lee a reassuring smile, though there was a slight set of tension to her shoulders that wasn’t there before. “So at least it won’t be a surprise. We should know pretty quickly whether or not we’re going to have a problem.”

There was at least that. Thank Agni and La for small mercies.

“Welcome, Avatar Aang!” The general’s greeting was almost disturbingly cheerful as Appa landed, not even blinking at the sight of the lion vulture that followed him shortly. That was not a particularly good sign. Most sane people would balk at the sight of Mikan; even Zuko had been extremely cautious until he earned her trust. “I am General Fung.” The general and his men all bowed in perfect unison, undoubtedly rehearsed. There wasn’t so much as a single soldier who was a half-second behind the rest, and it was eerie.

“And welcome to all of you great heroes: Appa, brave Sokka, the mighty Katara, steady Mai, the limber Ty Lee, rather more animal companions than any of us were expecting, and, of course…” General Fung’s eyes trailed over to Zuko and Azula, briefly flitting over to Uncle with a twitch of his plastered on smile before he refocused on them. “The banished prince, Zuko, and Crown Princess Azula. I have heard much about the both of you, and yet, I did not truly believe until now.” Finally, begrudgingly, the general muttered, “... General Iroh.”

“Retired general,” Uncle insisted with that smile of his he used to convince people who didn’t know any better that he was a harmless old man. General Fung’s smile twitched again. “I left that life behind me many years ago. I am simply here to ensure that my precocious, treasonous niece and nephew do not land themselves in any trouble that they cannot get themselves out of.”

“Yes, you would understand the importance of family, wouldn’t you?” Zuko bristled at the implied jab, at the utter disrespect to Lu Ten’s memory, but Azula’s hand rested on his shoulder in silent warning and Uncle merely smiled sadly.

“Quite.”

Then, in quite a strange contrast to the tension between generals, fireworks began to soar into the sky, exploding in bursts of color. Momo chattered loudly in fright, plastering himself against Zuko’s chest with bristled fur that only laid flat once gentle, warm hands began to run over it. Anzu joining him in Zuko’s arms and brushing her face against Momo’s certainly helped matters along there. He caught Sokka soothing a quietly whining Laichi out of the corner of his eye, despite the awe in those brilliant blue eyes as he watched the fireworks, and Zuko fell in love all over again.

“Woah! These are so pretty!” Ty Lee was positively beaming, twirling around with a laugh. “Talk about a welcoming party. This reminds me of when I was in the circus!”

“Would you mind following me?” General Fung asked, though it wasn’t really a question. “We have much to discuss.”

“Sure!” Aang chirped, and they all followed because the kid really was far too quick to trust. They were led into a grand room built entirely of stone, made entirely of their weapon , and it set Zuko’s teeth on edge. Katara seemed fairly relaxed and Uncle made a show of being so, but Sokka picked up on the tension from all the others and shifted away from General Fung ever so slightly. His hand hovered near his waist as he sat down in what could be mistaken as a mere placement of the hand but really gave him easy access to his boomerang in a hurry, if needed.

“Avatar Aang, we were all amazed at the stories of how you wiped out a large portion of the Fire Nation’s most secure stronghold, and after being captured by those particularly troublesome archers as well! I cannot imagine what it feels like to wield such devastating power. It is a great responsibility.”

“Oh, um, that actually wasn’t me. I mean, I escaped, obviously, but it was Zuko who got me out and um… Took care of all of that, so…?” Aang’s voice warbled with unease at that particular memory, averting his eyes and fixing them to the floor.

“... Truly?” General Fung asked, and that was certainly a reevaluating glance being sent Zuko’s way now. “That must be quite the story.”

“Aang was in trouble,” he started bluntly, with a bit of an irreverent shrug for dramatic flare. “I ensured he got out of it. That’s all.” Better that the general was focused on him than Aang. Something about the man was just pressing all his buttons and raising his metaphorical hackles, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. “As I had done before and as I will continue to do until he no longer needs me to. Perhaps even then.”

“He’s the Avatar. How much help could he truly need?”

“He’s twelve,” Zuko countered smoothly and with a lifted eyebrow. “Most Avatars aren’t even informed of their roles until sixteen. He still has much to learn, both in the way of bending other elements and in handling spirit matters.”

“... I suppose that is true. But what if I told you of a way the Avatar could end the war now, could face the Fire Lord and win, in spite of that?”

“What?!” Aang spluttered in shock. “No, I couldn’t!”

“I must agree with him there.” Azula’s gaze was sharp and knowing and extremely displeased, for all that she was good at masking it. “If it were so simple, then I would have shoved my father’s crown through his skull years ago.”

“Aang still needs to master all four elements,” Katara explained further, voice lilting and confused.

“Why? With the kind of power he possesses, with the stories I’ve read of previous Avatars and the Avatar State, he could defeat the Fire Lord now!”

“But, sir, the thing is, Aang can only do those things in the Avatar State.” Sokka exchanged a nervous glance with Zuko as he said, “And he can’t just activate that on a whim. Or at all, really. We’re not sure what triggers it, and it’s only happened once before.”

“Without you,” General Fung continued as if he hadn’t heard any of them at all, looking directly into Aang’s eyes. “We’d be slaughtered before we even reach their shores. But with you leading the way, as the ultimate weapon, we could–”

A snarl, rumbling and distinctly inhuman, escaped Zuko’s clenched teeth. The general paled when he turned and found himself pinned in place by slitted eyes and lethal fangs. “If you are about to suggest that we use a pacifistic twelve-year-old as a battering koala ram, forced to not only bear witness to unimaginable horrors but actively fight on the front lines, then I suggest you walk yourself up the nearest, tallest mountain and promptly throw yourself off it before I do so for you.”

Mai snorted, swiftly schooling her face back into perfect neutrality as Azula stepped in and smoothed things over. “What my overprotective brother means to say is that it would be senseless and cruel to place that heavy of a burden on Aang’s shoulders, Avatar or not. The age of enlistment is sixteen for a reason. Your nation knows this as well as ours, or it would not be one of the few things we still share after a hundred years of war.”

“Be that as it may, he would not still be twelve if he had not disappeared when we needed him most. This war rests upon his shoulders. Avatar Aang, I understand that you do not know how to properly utilize the Avatar State, so this is my offer to you: I will help you figure out how to get into the Avatar State, and in return, you will then face your destiny.”

“The Avatar State is both a delicate and sacred state of being, using it in this way is–”

“Did I ask for your opinion, General ? I am barely tolerating your presence in these great halls as it is. Do not push your luck.” General Fung turned back to Aang and said, “So, it’s decided then?”

“No! Nothing’s decided,” Katara protested as they all rose to their feet, tense and ready for a fight if it came down to it. “We already have a plan. Aang’s pursuing his destiny his way.”

“Well, while you take your time learning the elements, the war goes on. May I show you something?” Hesitantly, they all followed the general over to one of the many windows in this room. “That’s the infirmary. And those soldiers are the lucky ones. They came back. Every day the Fire Nation takes lives. People are dying, Aang!”

“Do you think he doesn’t know that?” Zuko growled, claws scraping against stone. “As if he hasn’t lost the most of us all? As if his entire people, his entire culture, wasn’t wiped out because of this war? Only flickering remnants of the airbenders hidden within other nations still live. It was nothing less than a miracle that we found Ty Lee! You speak as if he does not know loss and delude yourself in your self-importance.”

“We know that you’re tired,” Azula soothed in a false, sympathetic murmur. “You simply wish for this war to end. We all do. But these things must be done properly, or we risk triggering yet another, even bloodier conflict. What would happen, do you think, if Aang were to trigger the Avatar State and destroy everyone around him indiscriminately because he can not control it? How much worse would things get if we pushed too hard, too soon and ruined all our chances of making progress? Avatars are meant to represent balance. How can he do so while only having mastered one element and knowing pieces of another? Besides…” And here, Azula allowed a bit of her true self to slip through, a wicked smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. “Provided this war hasn’t ended before my sixteenth birthday, then I’ll kill Father myself. I would do so now, were it possible.”

“And why is it not?”

“If I killed my father now, then who would take the throne? Uncle Iroh, who once waged war throughout the Earth Kingdom and could never regain their trust, even if he did wish to end the war? Zuko, who was banished and has spent the last three years living as a sailor after blatantly disrespecting our war generals and nobles, no matter how right he was to do so? Or myself, a year too young to sit on the throne without extreme, mitigating circ*mstances, such as the Avatar’s explicit approval after aiding me in the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai. To have no one on the throne would only incite anarchy, and that would devastate not just the Fire Nation, but all the territories currently occupied by them. It would not matter that we wished to end the war. There would be revolt and violence and death beyond even what you are seeing now, and it would only grow all the more terrible for being utterly free of the restraints of military orders.”

Aang was steadily growing more pale, only now realizing just how deep these problems truly ran. Zuko took several deep, calming breaths before Aang could promise the general something without thinking it over, asking, “General Fung, I do not doubt that your healers are excellent at their jobs, but do you have any bending healers?”

“We do not,” the general admitted begrudgingly. “Why? Katara, I have heard rumors of waterbenders capable of healing… Could it be, that…?”

“I can,” Katara agreed with a nod. “Though not as well as Zuko does; I’m really more of a fighter. I’d recommend having him look over your more severe injuries.”

“That cannot be.” General Fung’s eyes were wide with shock. “Fire cannot heal!”

“It can and it does beneath my guidance,” Zuko murmured with a flicker of iridescent flame. “But I know that would make your soldiers uneasy, and now is as good a time as any to get in more practice.” He unscrewed his waterskin’s cap, and, with a gentle pull, bent the water out of it and allowed it to coat his hands. The water glowed a gentle blue before fading back to normal. Zuko gently guided the water back into his waterskin, and though he lost some of it, his fine control was fairly good, all things considered. He had always excelled in control over power. “The Great Spirits are keeping a very close eye on the Avatar, General Fung. I would advise exercising caution before you risk offending them.”

“... I will keep that in mind. My offer still remains, but perhaps it would be best to wait a while longer. It is simply wise to… Be able to utilize the Avatar State, should you need it. Think it over.” Having said his piece to Aang, he turned to face Zuko and Katara. “If your offers of aid were made in true, then I know they could use the help. There are some things that traditional medicines simply cannot fix.”

“There are some things that healing through bending cannot fix either,” he warned. “But we’ll do what we can.” He only needed to exchange a single glance with Mai to ensure that she’d keep guard, and he had no doubt that both Azula and Sokka were prepared for just about any way this could possibly go wrong. Hopefully, they’d be able to leave come morning and leave this whole mess far behind them.

Considering Zuko’s luck, he rather doubted that.

Aang agreed to go along with General Fung’s attempt to induce the Avatar State come morning. Zuko was far too exhausted from being up most of the night healing soldiers, who immediately assumed he was a war child when they saw golden eyes and waterbending and he didn’t bother correcting them, to even try to express how bad of an idea that was. Whatever. A large chunk of his hoard was right here, and he knew that they’d protect Aang if push came to shove.

So far, the tests at least seemed harmless. Tea that did nothing more than leave Aang bouncing off the walls, Sokka and Momo teaming up to scare him, a ritual that just ended with everyone covered in mud… It was all strange but harmless.

But when Aang decided that it would be for the best that they didn’t try to induce the Avatar State, that they should move along and begin his earthbending training instead, everything fell apart. Zuko was helping Katara and the other healers out in the infirmary when the earth shook and he heard a shouted, “Men! Attack the Avatar!” He and Katara both exchanged a sharp look before they sprinted out of the building.

Things were looking pretty dire when they arrived at the courtyard. Azula, Uncle, Mai, Ty Lee, and Sokka were all bound by earthen handcuffs, and though Azula looked particularly murderous, there were several scorched guards that indicated her putting up a hell of a fight, she couldn’t do anything now. Her “cuffs” were more like full bracers that completely encased her hands. Uncle hadn’t taught her how to breathe fire yet. Dragons had to engulf themselves with flames, though water would probably work for them too now, to transform, and even Azula’s feet were firmly stuck to the ground. She was going to be drilling herself relentlessly the next time they stopped. Azula never handled anything short of perfection very well.

Aang was still running around, barely dodging a relentless onslaught of attacks from earthbenders. Both he and Katara ran into the fray. They put soldiers down, thankfully not forever, as Aang kept running from the bulk of the attacks and refusing to fight back whatsoever. They weren’t really making much progress, the outpost’s arrogance was unfortunately warranted, but it all came to a head when, “Maybe you can avoid me, but she can’t.”

And Zuko, mid-air as he punched a blast of fire through an incoming boulder, avoided the attack, but Katara… General Fung reached, twisted, and pulled her into the earth.

Aang’s eyes and arrows glowed a blinding, spirit blue. Wind began howling as it swirled around Aang’s body, and the general cheered, “It worked! It worked!” Something in Zuko snapped .

A roar tore through his throat, barely heard over the deafening winds. Golden eyes gained slits for pupils, fangs extended as white-hot flames curled around them, claws curved his fingers and tore through his boots, and a pair of wings, one red and one blue, burst from his back as his tail thrashed behind him. Zuko stalked forward with only one thought in mind: Go for the throat of the one who just stole one of his and pull until it collapsed.

Elation swiftly gave way to horror when General Fung watched an enraged Avatar and equally furious dragon exchange a single glance, nod, and advance on him as a singular, murderous unit. Wind blasted the general into an unforgiving stone wall, and Zuko lunged and exhaled a blast of flame that had General Fung scrambling to get out of the way with a shout. Aang rose higher and higher as a tornado swirled to life beneath him, turning brown with dirt and dust as it expanded. Zuko dropped to all fours and snarled, more animal spirit than human, before lunging again.

“Your friend is safe!” the general shouted as he unearthed Katara, frantically backing up several paces. Katara coughed and heaved as her lungs desperately tried to refill with air, and Zuko’s eyes flickered to her before refocusing on the threat. His growling steadily grew louder. “It was just a trick to trigger the Avatar State!” General Fung promised as he all but sprinted away from Katara when Zuko leaped between them. Golden eyes flickered between the one who was his and the one who dared harm her once more before he turned his head just enough to breathe a stream of healing flames over Katara, slowly mending her sore throat and the nicks and bruises that came with being shoved beneath the earth. Then those golden eyes pinned the general in place, waiting, watching, evaluating.

Aang, however, was completely lost to the Avatar State. The kind, pacifistic twelve-year-old was gone, replaced by countless lifetimes’ worth of power and rage, and the earth around them shattered . Buildings collapsed, soldiers were flung into walls, and waves of rock and dirt curved around Zuko and Katara to bury General Fung alive. The sight of it shocked Zuko back into a more human mindset, and he grimaced as he shook out his no longer clawed hands and stood up properly.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m more worried about Aang.”

"Me too..."

Thankfully, at least for Aang’s sake, General Fung’s head emerged from the earth with a gasp. Aang was deathly still, no longer moving or attacking, and Zuko barely caught a glimpse of spirit blue before the kid entered the Spirit World, leaving his body behind. “Release them all!” Zuko snarled, wanting to ensure that he didn’t catch on to the lack of threat Aang currently posed. He could be scary enough for both of them if he had to. His voice was still distinctly other , and the general swiftly relayed that order to his men.

If she knew how to breathe fire, Azula would have been spitting sparks as she marched down the stairs. Heat radiated from her so strongly that even Mai and Ty Lee kept a careful distance. “Katara!” Sokka shouted as he ran through the courtyard, wrapping his arms around them both. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t keep me under too long, and Zuko helped clear up my throat.”

“Nephew, is Aang…?”

“Spirit World,” he confirmed with a nod. “Caught a glimpse of him going, though I’m not sure who with. He’ll probably collapse as soon as he gets back. Uncle… The animals, they’re all okay, right?”

“Yes, they just earthbended a cage around them. I imagine that both Appa and Mikan will be quite cross once they’ve been freed, but the others were only mildly spooked.”

“Thank Agni and La,” he murmured. Because if General Fun was crazy enough to outright attack the Avatar, then he really couldn’t rule out him hurting the animals just because either.

“What an absolute fool!” Azula hissed, her own eyes slit with rage. “I underestimated the sheer stupidity he was capable of, but never again. Attacking the Avatar, making significant political enemies without even thinking of the consequences…” His sister glanced back at the too-still form of Aang’s body, wind still swirling around him in a protective dome, before marching over to General Fung and acting as a distraction. “Do you have any idea just how horrendously you have erred today? You’ll be lucky not to get dishonorably discharged for this.”

“So I was, perhaps, a bit rash to use one of the Avatar’s friends as bait, but it worked, didn’t it? And it isn’t as if the girl was harmed.”

Azula hummed with that wicked, cruel smirk of hers that she got whenever she was about to verbally eviscerate someone. “The girl? You know her name, even if you have not been addressing her with proper respect. The girl you just buried alive is Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.” General Fung’s face went deathly pale. “And the Fire Nation is rather invested in the continued well-being of the Southern Water Tribe. Prince Sokka is my brother’s partner, after all. You have made a grave insult to not only the Avatar but two royal families on this day, General Fung. It will not be forgotten.”

Zuko caught another glimpse of spirit blue, something that almost looked like another dragon, before Aang returned to his body and immediately collapsed. Katara ran over to catch him before his head could hit the unforgiving ground, and brown-gray eyes blinked open blearily, wide and horrified and the damage he had done. “I’m sorry, Katara. I should’ve listened sooner. I hope you never have to see me like that again.”

“We will be taking our leave now, General,” Azula declared as Appa and the other animals raced into the courtyard. The flying bison looked ready to ram the general into a wall, and Mikan screeched in warning when one of the nearby soldiers twitched at the sight of her. “You can keep your escort. And once peace negotiations with the Earth Kingdom begin, well… We won’t forget what happened here today.”

“Have I ever mentioned that your sister is super scary?” Sokka muttered. “Cool, but super scary.”

Ty Lee poorly stifled a laugh behind her hand. “She’s proud of that.”

The exhausted group took to the skies once more, beginning the long trek to Omashu on their own. This stop wasn’t a complete waste of time, though. They now knew that the Fire Nation wasn’t the only nation willing to hurt Aang to get whatever they wanted. Tentative allies or not, they were going to have to be a lot more careful in the future.

Chapter 2: Chapter Two: Oma and Shu

Chapter Text

“I cannot believe you shredded your boots, Zuzu.”

“I usually take them off when I’m going to use my claws for something!” he protested with an embarrassed blush. “But when I saw Katara go under I just… Freaked out.”

Katara was the one currently attempting to mend the shredded leather, to a surprising degree of success. They wouldn’t be as sturdy as they were before, but Zuko hadn’t thought they would be salvageable at all.

“Are the wings and tail a new thing?” Aang asked hesitantly. “Because you didn’t get them the last time you were…”

“I think so. It probably has something to do with me hosting La, if I had to guess? The instincts were a lot stronger and the already blurry line between me being human and spirit got really thin for a moment there.” Zuko peered over the edge of Appa’s saddle and jolted when he saw the first lake he’d seen in ages. “Speaking of La… Is there any way we could stop there for a bit? It’ll probably be harder to find places like this to practice waterbending at throughout the Earth Kingdom, we can all refill our waterskins, and… Honestly, my every instinct is screaming at me to dive into that water right now. I think La appreciates being landlocked even less than I do.”

“Sure we can!” Aang agreed, now sounding significantly more cheerful. “That’s a good idea, especially since you and Azula need to practice too.”

“I’ll make a point of marking any significant bodies of water on our map,” Sokka promised him as Appa started to descend. “I know you can kinda sense them out if you try, but it’ll be helpful if we’re traveling in the general direction of one already. I don’t really want to find out what happens if we keep the ocean spirit away from water for too long. Sounds like a recipe for a lot of storms to me.”

Considering that Azula could stir up the beginnings of a storm just by being upset enough, and she did not appreciate that indicator of her mood, Zuko didn’t doubt the possibility. “Thanks,” he murmured.

Sokka rubbed at the back of his neck with a flustered smile. “Of course!"

The water was gorgeous, and it took all of Zuko’s self-restraint to wait for Appa to land properly before he jumped into it. Ichigo squawked with dismay as his favorite perch disappeared beneath the lake’s surface, circling helplessly above the water for a few minutes before he flew off with Momo. Zuko felt much better once he resurfaced, soaked from the short hair that was steadily growing on top of his head all the way down to his toes, and didn’t bother drying himself off. They were about to be throwing around a bunch of water anyway.

“I honestly expected you to transform down there,” Azula hummed with a little smirk. Almost everyone else was either laughing or trying very hard not to. “But perhaps later. Has your lizard brain been satisfied?”

“Yes, it has,” he sniffed with exaggerated disdain. He managed to last all of ten seconds before he started snickering with everyone else.

“Alright, seriously,” Katara chuckled. “Let’s start practicing. We can’t stay here too long, as nice as it is.”

“You were gonna show us the octopus form next, right?” Aang was, quite literally, vibrating in excitement. Azula was decidedly more restrained, but she still had that competitive gleam in her eyes that always came with training.

“Right! Let me see your stances.” Aang kept his arms farther apart than Zuko remembered seeing in the scrolls, so when Azula kept her stance tighter, closer, he mimicked her. Because he knew better than to think that Azula hadn’t already memorized the forms just by looking over them on the way here. Zuko’s form was a bit less rigid than hers, but he also didn’t have to fight the water as much to get it to move. Zuko was water, after all. “Your arms are too far apart,” Katara murmured as she joined them and circled behind Aang, maneuvering his arms into the proper position. “See, if you move them closer together, you protect your center. Got it?”

Aang’s cheeks were bright red as he nodded. “Oh, yeah. Thanks!”

Katara backed up to give them some space to work with, looking over each of them before nodding once. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Aang was a natural at this, as he seemed to be with everything. He supposed that’s what it meant to have hundreds of lives’ worth of experience tucked away in your soul, even if the memories were beyond access. Azula wasn’t much worse off, either. Her water tentacles were a bit larger, a bit less steady and more prone to whipping out, but they followed her movements and blocked off the icicle spears Katara tossed at her just the same as Aang’s did. Zuko’s were more condensed than both of theirs, but he barely had to move at all for the water to move with him. He also absorbed the icicles into the water under his control quite easily, rather than just swatting them away like Aang or shattering them like Azula.

“Not bad!” Katara was grinning from ear to ear, and Aang’s blush only became more pronounced. “You’ve all got different strengths, but you all make fine octopuses.” Aang promptly took a deep breath and pulled an orb of water up and over his body, resembling an animal that looked almost like a catopus but without the ears. Katara and Ty Lee both laughed as he started swirling his water limbs around again.

“So,” Azula murmured as she sidled up next to him, a smirk tugging at her lips. “How long until she realizes he has a crush on her, do you think?”

He snorted at that. “If even I’ve noticed, and this quickly, then I’m sure she already knows. Or she will soon.” Ichigo flew down from the trees and landed on his shoulder now that they weren’t throwing water around anymore, and he scratched beneath his beak with a fond smile. Momo chattered in question, ears perked up from where he’d been floating along in a leaf raft with Sokka, and the other animals all turned their heads in the same direction that he did. Then he and Azula heard it too, faint and distant. “... Music?”

“Don’t fall in love with a traveling girl. She’ll leave you broke and broken-hearted.” A group of five travelers crested over the hill, each either carrying an instrument or dancing as the one leading sang along. They all paused when they caught sight of the group in and near the water, but before he could even brace for a potential fight, the man just smiled and laughed. “Hey, hey! River people.”

“Well,” Azula muttered. “Someone is… Free-spirited.” That was said with no small amount of scorn, and Zuko couldn’t help snorting at the faint curl of disgust at her lips.

Katara regarded the strangers with a lot more confusion than defensiveness, though there was still a hint of that lingering beneath the surface after what happened with General Fung. “We’re not river people.”

“You’re not? Well, then what kind of people are you?”

“Just… People?” Aang hedged uncertainly, also a bit wary of revealing his status as the Avatar now.

“Aren’t we all, brother?” the man asked with a chuckle. They all made their way over to the group while exchanging cautious looks, Mai’s fingers running over one of many hidden daggers on her person, as Sokka marched his way to the front. His heart swelled with affection again at that instinctive desire to protect, even more so when Mikan and Kashisu walked forward to stand guard at either side of his partner.

“And who are you?” Sokka demanded.

“I’m Chong! And this is my wife Lily. We’re nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us.” That caught Aang’s interest, and even Chong playing a horrendously discordant solo on his stringed instrument and singing utter gibberish wasn’t enough to deter that interest completely. Zuko couldn’t blame him for it, really. After finding out that Ty Lee was an airbender too, Aang had been keeping a very close eye on anyone they meet looking for signs. Chong didn’t particularly look like an airbender, not in the same way that Aang and Ty Lee did, but that didn’t mean it was completely impossible. Especially not with him and his group traveling wherever the winds took them.

“You guys are nomads? That’s great! I’m a nomad!”

“Hey, me too!”

“... I know,” Aang muttered as he gave Chong a pretty impressive side-eye. “You just said that.”

“Oh. Nice iguana parrot,” the nomad said, redirecting the conversation with an awkward chuckle. “Never seen a red one before.”

“... I guess I was something of a nomad too,” Zuko allowed even while Azula leveled him with a disbelieving glare. “I was at sea for over three years. Made all sorts of interesting friends.”

“I can see that!” Chong agreed with a smile. He was also utterly unphased by the lion vulture at Sokka’s side, but Zuko was pretty sure that was just because he couldn’t be bothered by much of anything rather than being unhinged like General Fung. Probably. He would keep a close eye on him anyway. “Since you’re all taking a break anyway, why not come to shore for a while? Relax a bit?”

Even if the nomads wound up being a threat, which was seeming less likely by the minute, their group firmly outnumbered them this time. They all followed them out of the water, and the nomads seemed utterly delighted when Uncle made them tea, braiding flowers into Appa’s fur in turn. They also made a bunch of flower crowns for everyone, which even Azula and Mai tolerated to Zuko’s surprise, though Sokka took his off and gently tugged it over Laichi’s head instead. It hung around her neck like a loose collar, and she didn’t let Sokka escape her reach without giving him several slobbery kisses that he pretended he was disgusted by even as a smile tugged at his lips.

“Hey, Sokka! You should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere.” Aang beamed in their direction, and Ty Lee waved as she reclined against white fur, letting Lily weave flowers into her braid like the others were doing for Appa.

Chong chuckled. “Well, not everywhere, little arrowhead, but where we haven’t been, we’ve heard about through stories and songs.”

“They said they’ll take us to see a giant night crawler. Maybe Zuko can tame it too.” Aang snickered at his half-hearted glare.

“On the way, there’s a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!” one of the nomads who hadn’t introduced himself explained with a smile. Zuko wondered what it would be like to live with so little pressure and so little at stake, truly.

“Look,” Sokka started. “I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Azula is busy, I guess that’s up to me.” Azula leveled Sokka with a sharp glare in the midst of painting her fingernails, steaming them dry just so she could make a crude gesture that the nobility would throw a fit over her knowing. “We need to get to Omashu. No more sidetracking, no giant worms, and definitely no rainbows. We’re kinda on a time limit here, remember?”

“Whoa! Sounds like someone’s got a case of destination fever.” Chong shook his head with a sigh. “You’re worried too much about where you’re going.”

“You’ve got to focus less on the where and more on the going,” Lily elaborated further, moving on to braid flowers into Katara’s hair as well now that Ty Lee was finished.

“Oh. Ma. Shu.” Sokka’s voice was firm and unwavering, and more than that, they all knew he was right. They really shouldn’t linger long, even if it was nice to meet a group of nomads that couldn’t care less about who they were or where they came from. Ty Lee had been fluttering over their sunny auras the whole time.

“Sokka’s right,” Katara agreed with a careful nod as she glanced over at Aang. “We need to find King Bumi so you can learn earthbending somewhere safe.”

“Well, sounds like you’re headed to Omashu.”

“We just said that…!” Sokka groaned with a facepalm at Chong’s words. The man didn’t really seem… All there, and Zuko honestly wondered if he was just like that or if they had been smoking some of those weird herbs he’d overheard a few of his crew members talk about sometimes.

“There’s this old story about a secret pass… Right through the mountains. Would be faster than going around it.”

Even Sokka was vaguely curious now. “Is this real or a legend?” Katara asked skeptically.

“Oh, it’s a real legend. And it’s as old as earthbending itself.” Chong smirked as he began to play a song, and Zuko found himself rather enthralled by it, as he typically was with stories like this. “Two lovers, forbidden from one another. A war divides their people…” He and Sokka exchanged a quick glance at that, and his partner looked much less exasperated all at once. A hand intertwined with his own as Chong kept singing. “And a mountain divides them apart. Built a path to be together… Yeah, I forget the next couple of lines, but then it goes something like: Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountain… Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah.”

Zuko clapped alongside all the others, even a begrudging Sokka and Azula joined along, with a faint smile. “I think we’ll just stick with flying,” Sokka muttered once they’d all relaxed again. “We can handle whatever comes our way.”

“Yeah, thanks for the help, but Appa hates going underground.” Aang patted the flying bison with a smile. “And we need to do whatever makes Appa the most comfortable, especially with so many of us.”

Fiery catapults kept them from going very far, and even with Zuko, Azula, and Uncle redirecting the flames, Appa was thoroughly freaked out and far less opposed to going through the mountain now. “Secret love cave,” Sokka muttered once they’d all returned to the clearing where the other nomads were hanging around. “Let’s go.”

They were led through an array of valleys and canyons, past ancient trees that stretched into the sky and crumbling ruins of civilizations long lost. He wondered how long ago it was that people lived here. He wondered if the stone structures all crumbled and fell long before the war or as a direct result of it.

“How much longer until we reach this tunnel?” Mai murmured as Kashisu stalked alongside her. The pygmy puma occasionally darted off to grab a sparrowkeet or an elephant rat, sharing the spoils of his hunts with Laichi and Anzu.

“Actually, it’s not just one tunnel,” Chong began. “The lovers didn’t want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth.”

“Labyrinth?!” Sokka groaned. “How are we supposed to find our way through a labyrinth?”

Chong shrugged dismissively. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

“We could always burn arrows into the rock,” he murmured once Sokka returned to his side. “Make sure we know which way we’ve already gone. Some stone might be harder to burn than others, but we have Azula so…”

“That… Makes me feel better, actually. Man, firebending can be so handy when it’s not used against us.”

“All you need to do is trust in love,” Lily reassured them, either not hearing their whispered conversation or not caring to listen to it in any way that mattered. “According to the curse.”

“... Curse?” Zuko muttered lowly. And the hackles on the back of his neck rose the closer they got to this tunnel, sensing a powerful well of spiritual energy in the distance. “Of course this is more spirit stuff. Of course it is.”

Uncle merely chuckled. “We may have to keep our own board, Nephew.”

Zuko rolled his eyes at that. “I don’t think there’s much of a point. We’re even more likely to have spirit encounters now than we were before.” They were traveling with the Great Bridge, after all, and Zuko was already prone to attracting a lot of unwanted attention. Together? They were practically a beacon for every spirit for miles around them.

“Oh, hey, look!” Chong pointed out with an easygoing grin. “We’re here.”

“What exactly is the curse over this place?” Sokka asked, hoping for clarification and noticing just how uneasy Zuko had become as they approached the cavern before them.

Chong hummed lightly. “The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you’ll be trapped in them forever.”

“And die.”

“Oh yeah, and die.”

Azula was stiff and still, pale in a way that had nothing to do with being from the Fire Nation, as she muttered, “Maybe I should take my chances with the catapults. Fly over as a…”

“Hey,” he murmured. “You’ll be alright. You’ve just gotta remember why you’re here.”

“Why I’m…?” Azula glared at him, but it was decidedly weaker than usual. “I’m here because I care about you, dumb-dumb.”

“Exactly. You gave up everything to be here with me, to help me, just because you care. That’s love too, Azula. And you clearly trust me enough to gamble your throne on us winning this fight, so I think you trust in love enough to get through these caves.”

“Well, when you put it like that I feel stupid. Cut that out,” she huffed. “Of course I can get through these ridiculous caves.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Come on,” Sokka muttered. His fingers were still interlaced with Zuko’s, and heat fluttered underneath pale cheeks. “Let’s get through these tunnels.” It warmed his heart to know that Sokka trusted him just as much as Azula did, that he trusted enough in what was between them and Zuko’s spirit sense to walk straight into a cursed passage, even before one of the nomads pointed out the ominous smoke that rose from one of the cliffs behind them.

“We can make it,” Aang declared after casting a furtive glance in Katara’s direction. “Come on, everybody!”

They all quickly shuffled into the labyrinth, and luckily for them, the Fire Nation tanks that were following their path stopped outside of it, electing to cause a landslide and trap them within the tunnels instead. Three balls of fire, one a shimmering rainbow; one a blazing blue; and another the comforting orange of a hearth, flickered to life to illuminate the darkness, and Chong whistled, sounding pleasantly surprised as he said, “You’ve got firebenders traveling with you, huh? That makes this a bit easier. Gives us longer than the torches would, anyway.”

“We’ll have to be careful not to burn through our oxygen supply,” Uncle muttered as he took a look around. “But that won’t be a problem for many days yet, considering the complexity and size of this tunnel system and assuming they haven’t closed off the other side.”

Appa tried to dig out the rubble at the tunnel’s entrance, but it was no use. “It’ll be okay, Appa,” Katara reassured him. “We’re going to be fine.” It took her and Aang both to calm him down, and had it gone on for much longer, Zuko probably would’ve resorted to healing flames to ensure the flying bison didn’t cause a second, far more deadly, landslide by accident.

“We’ll be fine,” Sokka reiterated firmly. “We’ve got a plan. If we burn arrows into the walls pointing in the direction that we went in, then we won’t get too turned around. We should probably do it fairly regularly even on straight paths, but definitely at any connecting tunnels that make us turn or give us more than one direction to go in. It might take a while, but eventually, we’ll map it out and all get out of here. I should probably draw up a map while we’re walking too, actually…” Sokka grabbed a roll of parchment from one of Appa’s saddlebags, returning to Zuko’s side as healing flames shifted to hover slightly above them both without a word. The parchment was illuminated from its place directly beneath the ball of light. “You’re the best, thank you.”

They all walked forward as a unit, the smaller animals clinging to Zuko while the larger ones walked either by his side or just behind him, while both Uncle and Azula marked the path along the way.

Somehow, despite the arrows and the map, they were getting turned around anyway. There were definitely spirits involved, the presence here was too powerful for there not to be, but they seemed strangely active, physically, in the mortal realm. Because this wasn’t one of the in-between places like the forest with the Mother of Faces, that place deep beneath the ocean, or the Spirit Oasis. It should not have been this easy for even a Great Spirit to interfere with their travels like this apart from the winter solstice, and these were not Great Spirits. Beyond that, the spirits didn’t feel malicious or like they were trying to mislead them, so it was honestly stranger that they seemed to be conspiring to keep them within the mountain instead of guiding them out of it. Maybe they wanted something from them.

“Sokka, this is the tenth dead end that you’ve led us to,” Katara groaned as they came to a dead halt.

Sokka’s eyes were roving over the map, looking for anything he could have possibly missed, as he cursed lowly. “This doesn’t make any sense. We already came through this way, so why is it blocked off now?”

“Interference,” he murmured. “It doesn’t feel like a spirit, at least not the strongest presence in this mountain, but maybe it’s one that’s better at hiding themselves?”

Chong simply shrugged and said, “We don’t need a map. We just need love. The little guy knows it.” Aang averted his eyes with a blush when Chong pointed in his direction, and Sokka just leveled a disbelieving stare at them both.

“We can have both. I’m marking off the cave-in, and if we turn around and go back this way…” They all froze as the earth began to quake, starting nearby and traveling further from them in a way that was decidedly natural except for…

“Badgermoles!” he realized with a gasp. “These are badgermole tunnels. No wonder they’re changing. That explains how large and perfectly formed they are, too.”

“Oh, look, Zuzu’s obsession with animals is helpful for once.” He shot Azula a half-hearted glare before rolling his eyes. “How does one deal with badgermoles, exactly?”

“They’ll be hostile when they first see us, they’re pretty territorial and usually only shuffle their dens around like this when they’re raising young, but once we calm them down, they shouldn’t give us any trouble. Honestly? Music will help,” he said as he gestured toward the traveling nomads. “And my healing flames should do all the rest. I just need them to pause long enough that I can create a connection with them. Our best bet… Is probably still wandering through the tunnels and marking any changes as we go, at least until we find them.”

A low growling noise came from the tunnel they just walked through, and Zuko tensed. That was definitely not a badgermole. A wolfbat came swooping down from above and tried to snatch Anzu, and he had to quickly shift his hovering flames into a thin chain of sorts, swinging it toward the animal and wrapping it around its neck as it crashed to the floor. It screeched and clawed at it, desperately trying to get free, as he sent calming waves of peace friends no food here down the link. Slowly, surely, the wolfbat stopped fighting him and slumped to the ground instead, exhausted.

“It really is a shame you didn’t join the circus with me,” Ty Lee chirped. “You would’ve been good at it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he murmured fondly. “I feel like Mikan’s continued presence is proof enough of that.”

“We’re not keeping the wolfbat, are we?” Mai asked with an intense side-eye as Zuko let it go. She really knew him so well, but unfortunately, that would be a terrible idea.

“No, no, these guys live in groups and need to stay in the dark anyway.” The wolfbat screeched at him again before it took off down a different connecting tunnel, but at least it didn’t make a dive for Anzu or Momo before leaving. “But we should probably head in the direction it just came from. Their only natural predators are badgermoles, after all.”

A whole pack of wolfbats flew past them as they walked down the tunnel the other came from, further solidifying the theory that the badgermoles were somewhere in this general direction. But they were only growing closer to the hub of spiritual energy within this mountain, the distance rumbling of badgermoles digging new tunnels still quite far away, when they came across a door.

“Is that the exit?” Aang asked as they ran up to inspect it. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t get the door to budge, and none of the traveling nomads were earthbenders. Appa snorted and lowered his head, and they all scrambled to the sidelines as he charged past them and slammed into the door, stone crumbling beneath his horns. “Thanks, Appa!”

But when they went through the door, it was not an exit. It was a tomb. “Well… That explains why the spiritual energy was so strong here,” he murmured. “We should leave them to their rest.” They all began to turn back, but a sudden, strong surge of energy stopped Zuko and Sokka in their tracks.

“Wait,” one of the two spirits, blue and faintly glowing from their crossover from the Spirit World, pleaded. “You are like us.”

The legendary Oma and Shu gazed upon them with no small amount of fondness, eyes fixed on the interlaced hands of two teenagers whose nations were at war. Who managed to come together, in spite of everything, no matter what boundaries threatened to keep them apart. Who would fight and bleed to remain at each other’s side, knowing that there was no guarantee they both made it out of this alive.

“Love burns brightest in the dark,” Oma murmured, stepping forward with Shu as he came to stand before them.

“And what dark times you live in. To see another pair willing to make such a perilous journey… You will be granted safe passage through our mountain.”

“The badgermoles will gladly guide you.” The earth shook around them as the first earthbenders in the world journeyed toward the tomb of the first humans they shared that knowledge with. “May your journeys end with peace, and above all that, love, in whichever form you desire it.” Oma’s ghostly figure placed a kiss upon both Zuko and Sokka’s forehead. “... And may you two have the happy ending that Shu and I only achieved in death.”

Oma and Shu faded away, returning to the Spirit World with smiles on their faces. Zuko and Sokka were both bright red, though Zuko’s blush was unfortunately much more obvious, as they rejoined the group and found a pair of badgermoles waiting for them. “Come on, then, lovebirds!” Azula teased from her place atop one of said badgermoles with a sharp laugh. “Looks like you got us our ticket out of here.”

The sunlight was all the more beautiful for how long they spent parted from it. Their group parted from the badgermoles with friendly waves and swishing tails, and then they parted from the nomads with more waving and gentle music that echoed through the mountains. “Alright,” Sokka muttered. “Let’s get moving. And we should avoid flying, at least for now, unless we want to end up in the same mess that had us going through those tunnels.”

It was a long, hard walk that he might have struggled with more if he hadn’t spent so long at sea and journeying to Earth Kingdom towns to offer healing. Mai stumbled more than a few times, having lived a rather sheltered life, though not by her own choice, outside of her training within the palace that most certainly did not include climbing mountains. But Mai was resilient and stubborn, and she had Ty Lee offering a hand any time she wavered for more than a second. She only grew steadier as they continued on, adjusting to the sensation of rock and dirt shifting beneath her feet.

They finally crested the final mountain, and for a moment, every single one of them stood there in silent disbelief.

“Oh,” Azula murmured. “I did not think I would ever be so disappointed to see Fire Nation flags. No wonder military activity here was so heavy.”

Omashu had been taken over by the Fire Nation.

Chapter 3: Chapter Three: Strike a Match

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe it,” Aang whispered with a shaky voice. “I know the war has spread far, but Omashu always seemed so… Untouchable.”

“Up until now, it was.” Sokka sighed as a grim expression settled over his face. “Now, Ba Sing Se is the only major Earth Kingdom stronghold left.” And if the Earth Kingdom fell, then this would all be over in the worst possible way. They needed to end the war before there was nothing left to save.

“This is horrible,” Katara murmured as she joined Aang’s side, resting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “But we have to move on.”

“No. I’m going in to find Bumi.”

“Aang, please.” Ty Lee joined him and Katara at the edge of the cliff with an expression so sad that it ached to look at her. He suspected that Aang would look the same, perhaps mixed with a heavy dose of determination, if he dared to look back at them. “I know this is awful, but we don’t even… We can’t be sure that your friend is still alive. I’m not saying we can’t look for him, but we need to be careful. We’re not exactly a subtle group.”

“... There’s a secret passage into the city.”

They scout for any signs of nearby soldiers before carefully riding Appa down a sheer cliffside just outside the city’s walls. He didn’t need an enhanced sense of smell to know that this was part of Omashu’s sewage system. “We can’t all go. Fire Nation soldiers typically implement curfews since they’re weaker after dark, the light is fading fast, and we’ll draw too much attention to ourselves if we travel with such a large group.”

“Uncle Iroh, Ty Lee, Katara, and Sokka, you should all stay here.” Azula lifted her hand to silence any protests before they could begin. “Someone needs to keep an eye on all the animals and be prepared to bail us out if this goes sideways. It makes the most sense to split the group in half. Zuzu, Mai, and I are all practiced in stealth, and we need Aang to ensure that King Bumi will come along with us, assuming he is able to do so. Combine that with the fact that the three of us look the most obviously Fire Nation… Well, let’s just say that the guards are more likely to look the other way even if they do manage to spot us.”

“Ugh.” Katara groaned, heaving out a sigh as she looked to the skies. “I hate it, but you’re right. Just promise that you’ll be careful?”

“We will be,” Aang promised as he carefully pried the sewage grate free by forcing air through the thin space between the pipe and grate. “You be careful too. And if you have to take Appa and go, then go. We’ll be able to find you again, and, well… Both dragons are coming with me so we’ll be okay! We’ll be back with King Bumi in no time.”

The sewage pipe was absolutely rancid, and he was honestly surprised that Azula wasn’t putting up more of a fuss about it. Her nose was scrunched up in disgust, not even Mai was able to completely mask her reaction to the smell, but they kept putting one foot in front of the other and bending the sludge around them until they were within the city, quickly ducking into a nearby alleyway. A bit more sludge clung to Mai than it did the rest of them, despite their best efforts to guide it around her too, but they got her sorted as soon as they were tucked into the shadows. The last thing they needed was to leave any sort of trail for guards to follow.

Aang led the way, uncharacteristically quiet and serious, while noting their preference for traveling through alleyways and darkened corners and sticking to them the best he was able. There was absolutely nothing that could keep the kid from reuniting with who was quite possibly the last friend from before that still lived, and he could practically see Azula’s estimations of him tick up ever so slightly. Aang was still a kid, acted more like one than he or Azula ever had the chance to, but he could be serious when he needed to be.

The sort of fierce, stubborn determination to push forward and save his friend, like failure wasn’t even an option, was so extremely fire that it reminded Zuko that, regardless of being an airbender first and foremost, Aang had a bit of each of the elements in him. ‘How fitting,’ he thought. ‘That the Fire Nation should unintentionally stoke his flames.’

They steadily made their way toward the center of the city: the best place to begin looking for King Bumi's current location. Zuko hoped, for Aang’s sake, that they weren’t too late.

Flickering torchlight illuminated the path to their left, and they ducked behind some steel beams even as Mai’s breath hitched. “Tom-Tom… Mother.”

“Guess your father got that promotion he’s been angling for after all,” Azula murmured. “But with that many guards escorting the two of them… The city hasn’t fallen completely yet. And if there are still resistance forces, then the odds of King Bumi being alive have increased significantly.”

The earth quaked. Boulders slid down half-constructed steel walls and toward Mai’s family, toward the little boy that she loved despite her complete apathy for their controlling parents, and Zuko knew that stealth was about to fly out the window before Aang blasted the boulders away with a concentrated burst of air.

Mai’s mother, Michi, looked over with wide, teary eyes, freezing in place at the sight of her daughter. It was like she’d seen a spirit. “Mai… You’re alive?”

Zuko was suddenly, violently reminded of the fact that Zhao believed both Ty Lee and Mai were dead before the siege of the Northern Water Tribe and passed that information along to the Fire Nation. He wasn’t surprised that any soldiers who might have seen them during the attack didn’t survive long enough to tell the tale.

“We don’t have time for this,” Mai hissed quietly before putting down each and every one of her mother’s guards. They weren’t hit anywhere vital, and so long as they received medical attention, they would be fine. But they would not be fighting any time soon. Mai grabbed her mother’s wrist and dragged her along while he, Aang, and Azula fought off the earthbenders that didn’t seem to care overly much about the fact that they just took out several Fire Nation soldiers for them.

“Brilliant work, Mai,” Azula chuckled once they managed to slip their pursuers. They would need to keep running, especially with Tom-Tom sniffling and the toddler being on the verge of full-blown tears, but they were relatively safe, for now. “Having hostages will be quite useful in getting your father to release King Bumi to us.”

“Hostages…?” Michi murmured faintly, clutching Tom-Tom to her chest. “Mai, what in Agni’s name have you gotten yourself into?”

“We’re helping the Avatar end this war, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” Mai’s gaze was fierce and determined, burning with fire for all that she wasn’t a bender, and he honestly couldn’t tell where her commitment to seeing this mission through ended and where years of repressed anger from being forced to be a perfect, pristine doll anywhere outside of the royal garden where four children armed themselves to fight against the entire world began. “Because this is the right thing to do. I don’t care about our social standing or what we stand to lose, I don’t care about what anyone might think about it, and I don’t care about being a proper noble who marries for prestige and money instead of any amount of genuine affection. I’m free of you now. I’m free of that life. I’m free of you and Father both, and I am never going back.”

“You would hurt your own family…?”

“I wouldn’t enjoy it.” But she would, and they could all hear it in the steel lining her voice. She would. Tom-Tom was the only one she’d refuse to hurt on principle.

“... Where did I go wrong with you?”

“Where didn’t you?”

Their group fell into a tense silence after that, but Michi knew better than to attempt escaping or shout for help with her son cradled in one arm and her daughter’s nails digging into her other. That paired with both royal heirs and the Avatar escorting her would grind her chances of getting out of here into dust, and though they had no intention of hurting her, she couldn’t afford to risk it. She wouldn’t dare. They all knew it, and though a frown tugged at the corner of Aang’s mouth, he seemed willing to let them handle this particular part of their improvised plan.

They found King Bumi’s pet, a goat gorilla named Flopsie, chained to a wheel and forced to pull it along for the sake of energy production. The pair of guards who were driving him with whips swiftly went down to blasts of fire from Zuko and Azula, groaning as they hit the ground. A couple of quick knocks to the head plunged both of them into unconsciousness.

Now that the coast was clear, Aang pulled water from a nearby pot to freeze the padlock keeping Flopsie attached to the chain, shattering the ice with a blow from his glider. Aang laughed as Flopsie showed his appreciation with slobbery kisses. “Come on, Flopsie. You’ve gotta help me find Bumi.” Aang climbed up on the goat gorilla’s back, and though there wasn’t nearly enough room for all of them, there was enough room to get Mai, her mother, and Tom-Tom up there so they could make the exchange. “Yip, yip! Oh… I guess that doesn’t work with you. Uh, let’s go!”

Flopsie took off, and he and Azula exchanged wild grins as they allowed just a little bit of the other inside of them to peek through. “You ready for a run, Zuzu?”

“Born ready.”

They couldn’t hope to outpace a goat gorilla on two feet, but they doggedly kept him in their sights. Zuko and Azula blasted past guards so quickly that they didn’t even bother to put them down, knowing that they couldn’t catch up to them if they tried. The stone cracked beneath their footsteps, straining with pressure, in a way that could’ve made anyone who didn’t know better think they were earthbenders. When he glanced to his right, Azula’s blue eye blazed with a simple joy he hadn’t seen in her since they were five and six years old, back when things were simpler and running around the palace was a game, not a fight for survival. They were in the middle of enemy territory, plotting against their nation and charging into a hostage exchange that Ukano would have no choice but to accept, and yet… They were both smiling.

Life at sea had treated him well. Life outside of the palace was treating Azula well too.

Flopsie led them to the most predominantly Fire Nation building in all of Omashu, even the roof had been painted red already, and Mai’s father looked like he was about to keel over in shock when his daughter dismounted King Bumi’s pet with a dagger held to her mother’s throat. Tom-Tom babbled, squirmed, and got loose, but Zuko was pretty quick to scoop him up before he could wander off and get hurt. Ukano’s face only became paler when he saw Zuko and Azula accompanying his daughter. He almost didn’t even register the Avatar’s presence, but he looked downright faint once he had.

“Hello, Father.” Mai’s voice was cold, monotone, and straight to business. “We’ve come to make an exchange. King Bumi for Mother and Tom-Tom. Agree and we’ll leave, no harm no foul, refuse and you’ll never see either of them again.”

“Mai… What is the meaning of this?! You cannot possibly– Guards! Seize them!” They all braced for a fight, but the soldiers that surrounded them did not move. “You heard me!” Ukano spluttered indignantly. “Arrest them!”

“... This is the path you wish to take, Princess Azula?” one of the soldiers murmured. “You intend to aid the Avatar?”

“I do.” He could see the satisfaction in his sister’s eyes, the achievement of a long game finally won, as three years of planting the seeds of civil unrest and rebellion finally bore fruit. “My father’s cruelty and tyranny has been left unchecked for far too long. The balance of the world threatens to collapse entirely, and I will not stand for it. My brother and I fight by the Avatar’s side, and we will right the wrongs committed by our family. The wrongs which have seen Agni scorn our current Fire Lord. The decision you face now is simply which side of history you wish to be on.”

The soldiers did not move, and for one long, pointed moment, he thought they would have to fight after all. Then they turned on Ukano as one, spears and swords pointed in his direction. “Release the king!” one of the soldiers barked. “We will follow your orders no longer!”

“I’ll begin evacuating civilians,” another one of the soldiers murmured. “We don’t want anyone caught in the crossfire once the Fire Lord finds out what we’ve done.”

“I’ll go with you. Can’t trust the dishonorable cur to not murder babies after what he did to his own son.”

“My cousin was in the 41st Division, you know? And the only one who even tried to protect her was banished for it. I want the honor of our nation to mean something again.”

Like a steadily flowing ripple, almost every single soldier turned on their commander. Those who didn’t were swiftly knocked out and tied up. Ukano hadn’t moved an inch. “We’re waiting, Father,” Mai reminded him in that typical, bored tone of hers. “King Bumi. Now.”

“Right! Right, yes, of course,” Mai’s father stammered. “I’ll go get him right now.”

“No need. We’ll lower him ourselves.” What looked like a lieutenant marched off to a nearby construction site, one of the many surrounding the recently captured city, and lowered what looked like a steel coffin from one of the many support beams that towered above them. Chains rattled and laughter echoed from the single slot left open in the metal, just enough to peer out of and breathe, and Ukano was trembling in place as several Fire Nation soldiers pried open the metal as soon as it hit the ground.

They had King Bumi. He knew that, if they were so inclined, there was absolutely nothing he could do about them taking Michi and Tom-Tom now, not with no soldiers backing him up and no bargaining chip left to offer.

Mai released her mother’s arm. She all but ran to her husband’s side, and Zuko narrowed his eyes in disapproval before stepping forward and handing Tom-Tom over to her again. He did not like how quick she was to abandon her son, not after the way she'd treated Mai all these years. “You can keep them,” Mai muttered. “We’ve got what we came for.”

“I would recommend leaving, though,” Azula suggested with a cruel smirk. “Because these soldiers aren’t going to listen to you any longer, and I can only keep them on a leash so long as I’m here.”

King Bumi cackled as his feet touched stone and earth once more, grinning at Aang with the sort of warm familiarity that could only come from being close friends. “You’ve made some interesting friends since your last visit, Aang!”

“Oh, you have no idea,” the kid muttered with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “But it is so good to see you again!” Flopsie ran up to his person and smothered him in even more affection than he did with Aang. “Come on, I really need to talk to you about something.”

The soldiers let them through. More than that, they bowed to Azula as she passed by, deep and reverential in a way the screamed of one of his sister’s plots. He was so proud of her. “So,” he started once they were out of earshot of any potential eavesdroppers. “How long have you had a large chunk of our military forces waiting for your word to begin a civil war?”

“Oh, the whispers started almost immediately after your banishment. But for them to truly be willing to go to battle for me… Some within the first year. Most in the year after that. Discontent grows stronger by the day, and I have been carefully nurturing it all the while. I expect our father will be too busy curbing rebellions and fighting his own people to give us too much trouble, at least for a time. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even get lucky and they’ll take care of the problem for us. If nothing else, it buys us time for Aang to master the other elements.”

“Wait!” Aang cried out, and Zuko’s attention immediately snapped over to the conversation he was having with the king. “What do you mean you can’t come with us?”

“Listen to me, Aang. There are options in fighting called jing. It’s a choice of how you direct your energy.”

“I know that! There’s positive jing when you’re attacking and negative jing when you’re retreating.”

“And neutral jing: when you do nothing.”

Aang blinked, staring at his fingers as he lifted a third. “There are three jings?”

King Bumi grimaced, shaking his hand in a so-so motion. “Erm, technically there are eighty-five, but let’s focus on the third one. Neutral jing is the key to earthbending. It involves listening and waiting for the right moment to strike.”

“... That’s why you surrendered, isn’t it? Because I can’t really see a way that you would’ve lost.”

“It would have cost us far too much, so I surrendered before the fight could begin. But yes, and it is for that same reason that I cannot leave now. It is going to be… Quite interesting to maintain leadership over both earthbenders and firebenders, but now is the time to listen and wait, not strike out recklessly.”

Aang sighed deeply, eyes trailing to the ground as he murmured, “I guess I’ll need to find another earthbending teacher, then. I don’t want to put you guys in any more danger by staying here.”

“Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing. You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking.” King Bumi’s smile turned into something softer then. “Goodbye, Aang. I’ll see you again when the time is right. And as for you two…” The king’s gaze landed on Zuko and Azula with a curious, approving glint in his eyes. “Tell your Uncle hello for me. It has been quite some time since we last had the chance to play a game of Pai Sho.”

He groaned. Why in Agni’s name did everyone seem to play that awful game? And why did his uncle know an Earth Kingdom king well enough to play it with him?

Chapter 4: Chapter Four: The Fears that Haunt Us

Chapter Text

“Hey, Zuko? Is it just me, or is that swamp calling to you too?” Aang looked thoroughly disconcerted by the fact that he’d been steadily lowering Appa toward the tangled trees and the water they were rooted in without even realizing. “There’s this sort of… Pull.”

“I feel it too,” he murmured. “And it’s not just because of the water. This is definitely another spirit thing.” Sokka groaned despairingly, and Azula looked about a half-second away from joining him despite the fact that he knew, on some level, she felt the pull too. She managed to maintain her decorum, though.

“Well then,” Uncle hummed with an easygoing smile. “I suppose we should go see why they’re reaching out to you. It is seldom wise to ignore the call of destiny.”

“It’s not the call of destiny,” Mai muttered. “It’s the call of increasingly pushy and demanding spirits that refuse to leave us alone. It hasn’t even been a week since we met Oma and Shu.”

Ty Lee laughed at that, and Zuko did too, a helpless, almost hysterical little thing that slipped past his lips without his say so. “It’s still my job to help the spirits wherever I can, to keep the balance between them and humans,” Aang said as he guided Appa toward the ground, on purpose this time. He sounded like he truly understood the desire to laugh until he cried, or laugh so he wouldn’t cry, though. This poor kid had such an enormous destiny dropped on his head far sooner than it should have been, and then he woke up a hundred years later in a world he barely recognized at all. Perhaps he did understand, despite his limited personal interactions with spirits so far. It was only their interference that would have kept Aang alive all these years, after all, frozen in ice or not.

Only a Great Spirit could have frozen his body in time too, and Raava alone would not have been enough to do so after binding herself to Avatar Wan and beginning the reincarnation cycle. Aang was exactly where the spirits wanted him to be, exactly when they wanted him to be, at great personal cost to himself. Fairly typical for spirit interference, really.

Appa lowed uneasily, sensing the spiritual energy down below and not liking it any more than they did. Fur bristled and feathers rustled uneasily, but with some gentle coaxing, Appa did land and Zuko was able to calm his animal companions before they entered the swamp in earnest. They stuck close to him once everyone carefully slid down Appa’s tail and into the murky water, uneasy and protective in a way that truly warmed his heart while also making him all the more wary.

Momo chattered sharply at a nearby spider wasp from his perch on top of Zuko’s head, and both Ichigo and Anzu claimed one of his shoulders and kept turning their heads this way and that, two little sentries keeping careful guard. Laichi’s fur brushed against his left side while Kashisu’s brushed against his right, and Mikan stood just behind him, turning her head back with nearly every step as if to ensure they weren’t being followed.

Sokka took one look at the way they were acting and how hesitant Appa was to follow them and sighed. “Oh, I really, really don’t like this place.”

“Me either,” Ty Lee agreed with absolutely none of her typical cheer. “This place’s aura is so… Foggy and icky and it clings to me in a way I really do not like. I hope this is a quick trip.”

It would not be. This truth was one he felt down to his very bones. Zuko knew better than to voice it aloud, though.

This swamp felt alive in the way that only one of the in-between places, the physical locations that maintained a powerful connection with the Spirit World, ever did. The towering trees swayed in nonexistent winds, the water rippled and shifted out of time with their steps, and the vines and underbrush rustled despite there being no visible creatures within or near them. A thick fog condensed over the water, steadily rising higher until it became almost impossible to see the others around him. The sun set, the sky grew dark, and then his sense of hearing and smell grew fuzzy too, everything around him blurring together until the only thing he could be certain was real was the continued presence of his animal companions as they pressed fur and feathers and beaks against him.

When the fog lifted, the rest of the group was gone.

A firefly illuminated a dim circle in front of him, hovering in place for a pointed moment before it glowed far brighter. That familiar, spirit blue flashed as bright as the beams of Tui’s light that slipped between the trees. Dozens, no hundreds, pairs of eyes lit up in the same blue, lurking in the treetops, beneath the water, and everywhere else he looked, really. He was utterly surrounded by spiritual energy that didn’t feel malicious but certainly didn’t feel benevolent either, hovering in that firm middle ground that most spirits found themselves in. It didn’t make this situation any safer. It was only the gentle brush of La’s mind against his own and the sway of water around him that reassured Zuko he could get out of whatever this was if he had to.

That did not make him worry less about the others. In fact, his concern was growing stronger by the minute. He had no way of knowing if it was only him that got separated, because that truly was Zuko’s luck, or if every single one of them were on their own right now, but if it was the latter, then that was not a good thing. That pointed more toward the kind of spirits that didn’t intend to let them leave.

Dark, twisting vines started shifting in the distance. Up and down, left and right, with every pounding heart beat, they crawled closer. Zuko, with all the exasperation and patience with spirits that came with having a large chunk of his life dictated by them, simply waited. He did not move, he did not run, and he did not try to fight. He waited as a single vine twisted itself around his wrist and tugged it lightly, a silent request to follow, and ignored the dozens of other vines lurking at the edges of his vision, willing and able to drag both him and the animals off by force if they had to.

The vine tugged again, more firmly this time, and Zuko followed. Anzu leaned forward to sniff at the vine and reeled back with bristled fur, not exactly promising, but there was little they could do about this now. If he ever wanted to find the others and get out of this swamp, then he needed to find out what the spirits wanted with him first.

Familiar snarling echoed from his left, and Zuko turned his head before nearly freezing in place at the sight that greeted him. It wasn’t real, just a trick of a spirit and the dim light, but that made it no less unsettling to see a mirror image of himself, half-feral and covered in that cursed shade of red, snarling and spitting fire while surrounded by the still, unmoving forms of everyone he cared about. He didn’t know whether to feel relieved or further sickened by the fact that none of the mirages of his family and friends were burned or bloodied, simply gone in a way he could not change, while false-Zuko fell apart and lost himself to the rage.

He was tugged forward again. Pale and nauseous, Zuko trudged on.

His heart almost stopped when he caught sight of purple scales and a mane of pure silver, looking up into gentle, golden eyes that made tears well up in his own. “... Mom?” he whispered, so desperately hopeful that it burned. His mother huffed, blowing a thin stream of fog out of her nose, before fading into mere mist and vapor. She was there one minute and gone the next, and wasn’t that familiar? The sharp sting of heartache shocked him back to his senses.

Zuko kept walking. He looked away as his father praised a younger, scarless version of himself for doing him proud, for being the one to suggest sacrificing the 41st Division in place of that old general. He looked away as Lu Ten’s ghost asked him why he wasn’t finishing the job he started, why he wasn’t fighting for the Fire Nation in this war, and if his life was really worth so little to him. He looked away as Sokka told him that this was all too much, that he tried but couldn’t bring himself to forgive the prince of the same nation that stole everything from his people. He looked away as Aang turned on them in the nebulous final battle, imprisoning both Zuko and Azula after ensuring that Ozai was out of the picture, permanently. None of it was real. These were just his worst fears come to life, shimmering in and out of existence in this strange, spirit heavy fog. The only enemy here was his nightmares.

The vine kept leading, and Zuko kept following. Mikan snapped her beak and screeched at a wandering vine that lurked too close, and it backed off, sliding back into its home among the shadows. He kept walking even as the sun rose, wondering how far he’d traveled or if he’d gone anywhere at all, really, because it was always hard to tell in places like this. For all he knew, the vine had been leading him in a neverending circle and would continue to do so until he collapsed from exhaustion before dragging him off somewhere else.

“Stupid f*cking vines!” he heard Sokka shout in the distance, and the relief that coursed through him nearly brought him to his knees. Even more so when he realized that the vine was pulling him in that direction. “How has this become my life? Dealing with living vines and spirits and… Zuko? Or is this another one of those tricks of the light?”

“It’s me,” he croaked, throat dry and sore in a way he really didn’t anticipate it being. When was the last time he drank anything? How long had he been walking? “Just… Going wherever this thing is taking me,” he explained helplessly, lifting his right hand to reveal the vine still twined around it. “Spirit stuff. You know how it is.”

“I really wish I didn’t.” Sokka chuckled, shaking his head as he joined Zuko’s side. “But man am I glad to see you. We were all so worried when you just… Vanished, and then those freaky vines started snagging us and dragging us off one by one. Freaky.”

“I’m sure we’ll find the others soon,” he murmured. “And hopefully we’ll figure out whatever it is that the spirit of this swamp wants from us along the way.”

“... So,” Sokka started once the two of them were moving again, going along with the whims of the far gentler vine than the others were apparently graced with. “What kind of spirit are we dealing with here, exactly? Is that something you can tell? Like… How powerful is it, what does it want with us, that sort of thing?”

“Vaguely. It’s not a Great Spirit, but it isn’t a minor one either. I’d guess one of the Major Spirits? Like Wan Shi Tong, though this obviously isn’t him. And this spirit isn’t malicious, but it’s not actively trying to help us either. It feels more neutral, almost… Playful? A trickster, maybe. It would explain the nightmares come to life bit.”

“Great, fantastic,” Sokka muttered. “A spirit is playing pranks on us. No big deal.”

“I’m sorry.” And maybe the vision of Sokka leaving him, of deciding that he was better off without all the complications surrounding Zuko, came through in his voice a bit because the look Sokka leveled him with was equal parts reassuring and fond.

“Hey, none of that. I knew what I was getting myself into. I like to complain, but I’m not going anywhere.” Kashisu grumbled as Sokka took hold of his hand, falling back and swinging around to walk on the other side of his boyfriend. “What’d you see that has you so spooked, huh?”

“A lot of things,” he grumbled evasively. “I’ve been walking for ages.”

“... It’s only been a couple of hours? Like, I feel you, but you’ve also got freaky endurance and wouldn’t usually be complaining about trudging through the water for a bit.”

“What? No, it’s been a full day. The sun went down, the moon went up, and now the sun is…” Back in the sky, exactly a few hours later than it was before he was brought into the fog. “How in Agni’s name…?” he murmured. “I felt the sun go down. I felt it, and I’m Agni’s champion. I’m even more connected to the sun than most firebenders, and every single firebender can tell when the sun rises and sets so how…?” This was definitely a trickster spirit of some sort. He couldn’t imagine any other way that they could so thoroughly confound his senses and innate connection with the sun.

“Ugh, spirit stuff.” Zuko merely nodded in weary commiseration. “Come on. The faster we move, the sooner we’ll find all the others.”

Aang and Katara bumped into them first, the former merely looking confused while the latter looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Appa followed shortly behind them. Then came Uncle and Azula, both pale and shaken, with his uncle unable to look him in the eye while his sister’s already long nails verged on shifting into claws. Ty Lee and Mai seemed the least affected at first glance, but Ty Lee was all but hanging off of Mai and, despite how sodden her clothes were, Mai didn’t even attempt to detach her.

He wanted out of this swamp, not to be dragged toward the heart of it, yet here they stood, looking up at a tree that stretched endlessly into the sky. Every bit of spiritual energy in this grove was condensed in that tree, starting at the roots and traveling up up up into the leaves closest to Agni’s light. That spiritual energy grew stronger, brighter, and he murmured, “Something is here.”

Water burst up just to the side of the massive tree root they were all standing on, moving in strange and distinctly wrong ways as a creature covered in plants with a wooden mask for a face towered above them. But the spiritual energy wasn’t coming from over here. “You won’t trick me again,” he muttered dismissively, waving his hand and stalking toward the tree before he could even realize he’d exposed a person beneath the disguise of a false spirit as water dragged those plants back into its depths. Zuko studied the tree, tilting his head with a whispered, “Why did you bring us here? What did you want from us?”

A barking laugh reverberated from beneath the roots of the massive tree, and a nearby bush shifted into a familiar form with a swirl of smoke. A Tanuki, a trickster spirit with far less intent, good or bad, behind their pranks and a simple desire to befuddle those who wander into their territory. It was a bit unusual that they would intentionally lure in targets like this rather than wait for one to come along, but he supposed that the combination of his and Aang’s lure for spirits was enough to make the Tanuki curious. And this one… This Tanuki had called this swamp their home for a long time, long enough to bend and twist the place into a link to the Spirit World, and only grown all the more powerful for it.

“Hello,” he murmured, solely focused on the spirit before him and not on the others’ increasingly loud conversation. “Is there a name I may call you, Major Spirit?”

“You may call me Shei Mei. It’s as true a name as any other I’ve given.” Shei Mei laughed again, echoing and eerie as it bounced off of hollow trees and vines that still twisted with every twitch of their tail. “And I was curious. The Great Bridge needed to meet someone here.” With this, the ancient Tanuki nodded their head toward a strange man that had not been there earlier. “And you are a child of opposing elements, more so than even your sister. Conflict calls a place within your heart home. So very contradictory, so very many fears lurking at the edges of your mind, forced back and ignored.” Glowing, blue eyes pinned him in place as Shei Mei murmured, “You will not be able to ignore them forever. Call this kindness, call this cruelty, do as you will. The opinions of humans matter little to me, and those of shifters, of contrary creatures such as I who cannot decide which skin best suits them, matter only slightly more. Just know this, dragon of the spirits…” The Tanuki stretched, growing taller and taller until they vaguely resembled a humanoid figure with fur. They rested a paw on Zuko’s wrist, in the exact same place as the vine that had been guiding him to this place, and it shifted, suddenly flickering between a calloused, human hand and a scaled one with claws as dark as coal. Both looked distressingly familiar. Both were his hands.

“There will come a day where you have to choose.”

Zuko nearly fell to his knees when Shei Mei disappeared with a poof of smoke and the heavy pressure of the spiritual energy in this place eased. Only Uncle’s steadying hand kept him from collapsing. “The spirits are… Distressingly straightforward with you, Nephew,” Uncle murmured. “It is not good for an old man’s heart.”

“Sorry,” he murmured. Because what else could he say, really? “Is everything okay with… That dude?”

“Hm? Ah, yes, Huu was merely protecting his home, this swamp, from intruders. He was the, ahem, monster that you so summarily dismissed as not being a spirit.” Uncle chuckled at his embarrassed flush. “His usage of waterbending to manipulate plant life is rather inspired. It makes one wonder… Hm. Perhaps it is best not to speak some ideas aloud.”

Zuko knew better than to try prying more information out of Uncle when he got all weird and cryptic like this, and there was still a hint of tension lingering in his uncle’s shoulders that begged him to leave it be. So he did.

Honestly, he was just glad to get out of this swamp. And Aang thought he might have seen a vision of his future earthbending teacher somewhere in the fog, he was the only one willing to discuss what he’d seen at all, so that was a plus. It gave them somewhere to start, if nothing else.

Zuko very carefully did not think about the warning that Shei Mei had given him. He shoved it in the same little box that all his fears went into and firmly declared it out of sight, out of mind. It could be a trick, just like the illusions that had haunted them throughout the swamp, and if it wasn’t…

Well, there was no point in dwelling on decisions he could not yet make, in circ*mstances he could not yet know. That way led only to madness.

Chapter 5: Chapter Five: Choose Your Battles

Chapter Text

Appa was tired, so they set up camp and stopped for the day a bit earlier than they typically would. It was to be expected, really, carrying as many people as he was. Airbending made that easier for him to do, but even the strongest people and animals needed rest. Zuko made a point of running flickering, iridescent flames over Appa’s sore muscles until he practically melted into the dirt. Then Zuko sat down and began the process of grooming and caring for all the other animals too. It was soothing, gently working a brush through fur and carefully straightening out skewed feathers, and after all the craziness of these past few days, it was a much needed reprieve.

“I’ll take care of you too, Appa, I promise,” he murmured as the flying bison lowed appreciatively. Zuko was leaning back against him, and Appa seemed to find his residual body heat very comfortable. “You’ll just take a lot longer to brush than everyone else.”

“The palace is going to become overrun with animals, isn’t it?” Azula sounded equal parts exasperated and amused. “I suppose I’ll get used to it. This is a good practice run, if nothing else.”

“Aw, leave him alone!” Ty Lee giggled as she pivoted around in the middle of a hand stand. “I’ve never seen his aura so glowy! It makes him really happy.”

“I know. That’s why I’m willing to tolerate the creatures.”

His smile only grew all the fonder as he listened to his sister bicker with one of her best friends, running a hand through Laichi’s thick fur to confirm that there weren’t any more tangles or knots hidden within it. “Mind if I sit with you?” He glanced up and returned Uncle’s smile, nodding and patting the ground next to him. “She truly has changed, hasn’t she?”

Zuko hummed. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Uncle was implying there. “Not really. You’re just allowing yourself to see what was always there.”

Uncle sighed, and it was a sound filled with so much guilt and regret that his chest ached by mere proximity to it. “She always seemed so…”

“Cruel? Cutting? Vicious? Uncle, she had a role to play. She had to play it all the better for the fact that I was bad at it. She wasn’t cruel for the sake of being cruel. She was protecting me. She’s known I could heal for as long as I’ve known it, and she knew exactly what our father would do if he ever found out about it. I couldn’t… I couldn’t protect her in the same way she could protect me, but I could heal her, could help her image become even more untouchable and perfect. So that’s what I did. We just… Looked out for each other, the best we could. That's all it ever was.”

“I’m beginning to understand that,” Uncle murmured. “And I am truly sorry for not seeing it sooner.”

Zuko shrugged. As far as he was concerned, Uncle was simply proof that their act was convincing and that they did it well, that the Fire Lord was truly blindsided by their betrayal, and he wasn’t going to be upset about that. He couldn’t bring himself to be, really, after Uncle came with him and stuck by his side through treason that he’d truly gambled on committing with a former general by his side. “I’m not the one you need to apologize to.” His voice was nothing more than a whisper on the wind, threatening to disappear at the slightest breeze. “But she’s not ready to hear that yet. She’s not ready to admit how much it hurt her that you and Mother always treated her like a monster, like she wasn’t a scared kid too. She was. She’s just always been a better liar than I am, and that includes lying to herself.”

Uncle looked troubled and truly, deeply apologetic, so he took mercy on him and said, “Offer to teach her the breath of fire. And then fire breathing. If you prove that you can be useful to her personally, then she’ll be more willing to talk with you and, eventually, accept an apology. Just… Listen to her when she does talk. Not just to what she says but to how she says it and what she doesn’t say.”

“I am truly fortunate to have such an understanding nephew.” If he was more like Azula, then he probably would’ve responded with something along the lines of a snarky ‘I know’, but since he wasn’t willing to be quite that mean to Uncle, he merely smiled.

Azula and Ty Lee’s “argument” was broken up by Aang offering to teach Ty Lee a few airbending moves, a surefire way to distract her, and Mai followed, expressing a quiet interest in knowing how to use pre-existing winds more to her advantage in knife throwing. It was really more about watching her girlfriend happy and smiling even more brightly than usual, but Mai would never admit to that out loud and Aang didn’t know her well enough to call her out on it yet either. He didn’t have to. Azula’s smirk spoke volumes for them all, and Mai’s glare was as sharp as one of her daggers before she huffed and rolled her eyes, following their airbenders away from the main campsite.

Uncle walked over to Azula, and he watched his sister's wariness shift into intrigue before she nodded tightly. Good. Zuko had grown used to mediating arguments between members of his hoard, someone could not live for three years on a boat as tightly packed as the Wanyi without people getting into spats, but that didn’t make him any happier about when his people were fighting. Hopefully this would be a good first step to smoothing over any ruffled feathers between them.

“So,” Sokka started once Zuko was nearly finished brushing through Appa’s fur, hours later. It wouldn’t be much longer before sunset. “Once you’re done with that do you wanna spar with me? Katara’s all but chased me away from the campfire, and I’m getting restless.” Sokka was somehow even more of a menace around a cookpot than Zuko was, so he couldn’t blame Katara there. And for all that his arms were sore, it wouldn’t do to let himself get rusty with his dao just because he was practicing waterbending too now.

“Sure. I’ll just need to stretch for a bit first.”

“Fine by me! I don’t know how you’ve managed to stay hunched over like that for so long anyway.”

“Practice,” he huffed, thinking of all the times he’d gone through similar grooming routines on an unsteady ship and how long he spent bent over maps and plotting out their courses with Lieutenant Jee. “That and the knowledge that I can heal myself after.” Sokka’s face went so red that he could actually see it, and Zuko quirked his eyebrow, wondering what in Agni’s name was going on there when his boyfriend stammered and all but ran away. Katara was trying so hard not to laugh that tears beaded in her eyes. “... What did I say?”

“Don’t worry about it, Zuko.” Katara lost her battle against laughter there, a bit, voice shaking with amusem*nt even as she wiped at her eyes and pretended that it was the onions she was working with that made them water. “It’s not your fault that my brother’s mind is in the gutter.”

“Wha– Oh. I didn’t mean it like that!” he squawked as a blush raced across his cheeks, face burning nearly as brightly as fire itself. Katara did laugh at him then, open and honest and unrestrained in a way that made him very glad she wasn’t a firebender because their dinner would be charred beyond edibility if she was.

“I know that, don’t worry. My idiot brother knows it too, but that didn’t stop him from thinking it.”

Zuko was, perhaps, a bit harder on Sokka than he strictly had to be during their spar later. But what did his boyfriend expect, really, when his opener was calling it swordbending practice in front of everyone? If he had any less self-control, then Zuko would’ve gone up in flames from sheer embarrassment.

Everyone went to sleep in high spirits, so it really shouldn’t have surprised him when they were woken up by the familiar thundering of komodo rhinos charging into the clearing. That was simply the sort of balance Zuko’s life and terrible luck entailed.

“Give up! You’re completely surrounded.”

“sh*t, the Rough Rhinos,” he snarled as he jumped to his feet. All things considered, it could be worse. They were an elite military unit, but that meant they only had to deal with five people plus their mounts. Their group outnumbered said unit. He doubted they realized who, exactly, they had stumbled across until now, and if he could take the komodo rhinos out of the battle, then they were going to be put firmly on the back foot despite their military training. Their entire fighting style and group was based around engaging in combat while riding komodo rhinos, after all.

Twin threads of rainbow flames extended from his fingertips, snaking around the nearest komodo rhinos as he sent soothing waves of calm no fight friends toward them. Maintaining the connection with so much chaos surrounding him was a bit tricky, but the others had his back.

Aang and Ty Lee knocked the riders off the backs of the komodo rhinos that Zuko enthralled, Aang with a blast of air and Ty Lee by lashing her chain out like a whip in a way that was certain to leave bruises, speaking from personal experience. Katara froze and shattered the spear of another rider before he could even point it at anyone. Azula and Mai fought back to back, daggers and blue flames flying and sending another member sprawling to the ground with a pained grunt. Sokka’s boomerang took out the last rider, knocking him out cold, while Uncle made sure the other downed members were either unconscious or tied up. A couple of the komodo rhinos snorted and shuffled uneasily, but Zuko extended additional threads of calming flames to the three he hadn’t yet calmed until the mounts were all placidly grazing and it was safe for him to release them.

“We should get out of here before they start waking up,” Sokka muttered. “Or before any more of their buddies show up.”

Azula nodded sharply, and she was the first to start packing up their things though everyone else was quick to join her. Even Momo and Anzu were chipping in. “I agree. The Rough Rhinos typically operate alone, but it isn’t worth the risk of lingering. There should be a village nearby.” Their most recently updated map indicated that there was one, at least, but there was always a risk of it being gone now with the war. “We should resupply while we can and get moving.”

The village, when they arrived, seemed to be in the middle of a festival. Zuko immediately resigned himself to the fact that Aang was not going to let them leave in the middle of the festivities and that, if they were lucky, they would be leaving tomorrow morning. Azula looked far less pleased by their shared realization, but Ty Lee’s excited fluttering worked her down from almost murderous to vaguely irritated. He almost hoped that the Rough Rhinos would try their luck again. Almost. It would certainly cheer Azula up, if nothing else.

They learned, through whispered bits and pieces of conversations they overheard beneath fluttering green banners and lanterns, that this whole celebration was centered around the Avatar. Their group split in half because nothing was going to stop Aang from seeing everything he could, Katara trusted that they would handle resupplying, Ty Lee loved festivals, and Uncle was not allowed to hold the money pouch, given his spending habits. Zuko, Azula, Sokka, and Mai all took care of the business side of things because they could actually be trusted to stay on task. Prices were marked up a bit for the festival, so they only restocked on what they really needed in the immediate future.

Zuko may or may not have purchased an extra grooming brush for their animal companions in addition to what was on his list, but his old one was starting to get worn and lose bristles. The replacement was needed. “All right, I think that’s everything,” Sokka muttered. “We should probably go find the others before they get into trouble.” Momo, who Sokka was carrying after he refused to stay behind with Appa and most of the other animals, chattered in agreement, and Ichigo mimicked the sound from his perch on Zuko’s shoulder.

“Mhm.” Mai hummed quietly, glancing over to the main street before murmuring, “Is that Avatar Kyoshi?”

He nodded, but something about this whole situation felt off to him. “It is. Seems a bit odd that they would choose to celebrate her, specifically, so far from Kyoshi Island, though… She's not generally popular in the Earth Kingdom, especially in recent years."

Azula’s eyes widened, so slightly that he doubted anyone but him even noticed it, at his words. “Oh. Considering the area that we’re in… This isn’t a celebration at all.”

Avatar Roku’s statue following shortly behind Kyoshi’s did not inspire any confidence that his sister was, somehow, mistaken. Considering how the rest of the world felt about the Fire Nation right now… They followed the crowd into the village’s center, and when they saw a giant, smiling effigy of Aang join the other two in the plaza, Zuko muttered, “Oh, f*ck, this is about to become a whole problem.”

They needed to leave, yesterday.

A torch bearer jogged past the crowds and set fire to the wooden and fabric statues as the villagers chanted, “Down with the Avatar! Down with the Avatar!” They were all looking for the others so they could get out of here when Mai groaned in exasperation and thinly veiled exhaustion.

Instead of not making a scene at the clear sign of hostility this village held for the Avatar, Katara was running forward to defend Aang’s honor and put out the fires herself. It was admirable, sure, and he knew Aang would appreciate it, but it certainly wasn’t doing them any favors right now.

“Katara, why?” Sokka groaned, and their collective weariness doubled once Aang joined her, jumping up to stand on his own effigy’s shoulder. He even tossed the straw hat they’d been using to hide his arrows to the ground as he stood up for Katara and confronted the villagers about their festival. “One time. I’d just like for everything to not fall apart and end in us fleeing one time.”

The crowd was quickly devolving into chaos.

“It’s the Avatar himself!”

“It’s going to kill us with its terrifying Avatar powers!”

An utterly heartbroken look settled on Aang’s face. “No, I’m not. I–” But his extended hand only made a few people scream, and that entire section trembled in fear as he slowly drew back his hand and let it rest at his side.

“I suggest you leave. You are not welcome here, Avatar.”

Considering that they weren’t being chased out of the town by earthbenders and sharp weapons, Zuko was keen on taking that suggestion and running with it. But by the time he and the others rejoined Aang, Katara, Uncle, and Ty Lee in the plaza, Katara was already protesting. “Why not? Aang helps people.”

“It’s true. I’m on your side,” Aang promised as he floated to the ground, but the villagers were not having it.

“I find that hard to swallow, considering what you did to us in your past life! It was Avatar Kyoshi. She murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great.”

Oh. Oh, this suddenly made so much sense. No wonder Azula realized what was going on here; they learned about Chin the Conqueror in their history lessons, though he didn’t doubt the stories themselves were exaggerated pieces of propaganda. Their map only told them that there was a village here, not which one they were in, but this was undoubtedly Chin Village.

“You think that I…Murdered someone?”

“We used to be a great society before you killed our leader! Now look at us!” an older man yelled, and Zuko wished so desperately that they could just leave already.

“We should go!” he hissed quietly. “There’s no reason to cause trouble for ourselves.”

“Aang would never do something like that!” Katara protested, ignoring him completely. “No Avatar would.” He grimaced. Zuko knew that Katara had an idealistic view of the whole Avatar thing in general, but even taking into account the Fire Nation’s propaganda, there were plenty of Avatars who killed their fair share of people. His false hunt for the Avatar led to some pretty interesting scrolls about Avatar Kyoshi and Avatar Yangchen, in particular. “It’s not fair for you all to question his honor!”

“Let’s tell her what we think of the Avatar’s honor!” Shouting and jeering rose from the crowd, and before Aang could say anything else, Ty Lee clapped a hand over his mouth as Azula bowed in faux apology.

“We’ll be going now,” she reassured them with a smile that convinced people she was too young and pretty to be dangerous. It was only a shade or two off from Uncle’s harmless old man smile, and that was a truly unsettling realization to have in the middle of a hostile crowd. “Apologies for the interruption. I do hope you enjoy your festival.”

“What was that for?!” Aang protested when Azula all but dragged him away. Katara was silently fuming as Sokka steered her away as well, only going along with it after Zuko shot her a desperately anxious look that made her righteous anger wilt into something a bit more guilty. “You didn’t even give me a chance to prove my innocence!”

“They were one more inflammatory argument away from arresting you, and we do not have the sort of money to waste on bail right now,” Azula muttered lowly. “And you’re not innocent. Or rather, Kyoshi wasn’t. She absolutely killed Chin the Conqueror, but if it makes you feel any better, he wasn’t a good guy. Like, he was trying to conquer the Earth Kingdom and threatened Kyoshi's home levels of not a good guy.”

“... It really doesn’t. But... Are you sure?”

“Quite so, I’m afraid,” Uncle confirmed with a sympathetic smile. “My nephew may not have ever been truly hunting for you, but he had to put on an act of doing so. We learned rather a lot about the Avatars that came before you as a result. But this does not reflect on who you are now, Aang. Each individual Avatar is their own person, regardless of your shared reincarnation cycle, so do not hold onto guilt that isn’t yours to bear. A smothered flower will never have the chance to truly bloom.”

Aang and Katara both looked down to the stone path beneath their feet, embarrassed and quiet, as they swiftly got out of Chin Village and took to the skies. All three effigies were burning again as they flew away, and Aang sniffled as he averted his eyes.

“Hey,” he murmured as he leaned into Sokka’s side. “Think we can make a detour to Gaoling to cheer them up? It wouldn’t be a bad place to look for an earthbending teacher either.”

Sokka looked down at where Zuko was pointing on their map and hummed in agreement, resting his head against Zuko’s shoulder. “Sounds like a good idea to me. I’ll go tell him in a little bit.”

For now, the two of them took comfort in the fact that their visit to Chin Village didn’t go nearly as poorly as it could have. For now, Aang and Katara whispered among themselves with teary eyes and slumped shoulders. For now, Ty Lee and Mai dozed off, Laichi forcing herself into the middle of their cuddling with a steadily wagging tail. For now, Uncle and Azula murmured to one another as the tiniest curls of fire flickered in Azula’s mouth and their uncle gave her an approving smile.

Smoke danced in the gentle breeze, and though Zuko hated the traces of unhappiness that lingered over Aang and Katara, he was grateful that this particular wake up call didn’t leave them with any physical scars.

It so easily could have, had the villagers been more inclined to violence and even slightly less afraid of the Avatar.

Chapter 6: Chapter Six: The Blind Bandit

Chapter Text

“It’s pricey, but I really do like it…” Sokka had been agonizing over purchasing a new bag for a while now, knowing that his current one was more patches than bag and an accident waiting to happen. Zuko was pretty sure that part of it was him playing up his indecisiveness, both Aang and Katara seemed more bored and amused than upset now, but he found himself searching for any design flaws alongside his partner nonetheless. A good quality, more expensive bag was better than a cheap one that would inevitably fall apart on them later, especially with as much traveling as they had in their future.

“Then you should get it,” Katara insisted with all the weariness of someone who just wanted to leave already. Mai shot her a commiserating look. “You deserve something nice.”

“I do, don’t I? But no. It’s too expensive. I really shouldn’t…” Now that he was certain that Sokka wanted this bag in particular, Zuko walked up to the merchant and haggled him down to two silver pieces for it instead of three. “You didn’t have to do that.” Sokka was smiling as he picked up the bag, though, so he was glad that he did.

“It’s no big deal,” he promised. “You needed a new one, and it’s better to get something that’ll last. Besides…” His voice dropped to a whisper as their group kept walking down the main street. “If we really end up low on money, then I can always find a group of pirates and engage in some… High-risk trading. Or we could go after a bounty.” He’d really prefer the pirates, though. Zuko was positively itching for any excuse to get back to the coast and into the ocean. He knew that the Earth Kingdom was huge, but the sheer distance between himself and any major body of water right now felt like a personal affront. If only he could’ve brought Suika with him, then covering that sort of distance within a day wouldn’t have been any problem, but alas… They needed to find Aang’s earthbending teacher, and they weren’t likely to find her, assuming that it was the girl Aang saw in the swamp and had never seen before that point, on the coast.

“That’s true,” Sokka agreed with a snort. “Can you imagine the look on their faces? This group is kinda terrifying.”

“They’d see Azula and start running.” A smirk tugged at his sister’s lips when she overheard that, and he couldn’t quite stifle his laugh. “Not that she’d let them get far.”

Their promising future of stealing from pirates aside, they managed to avoid spending too much of their money. Uncle did end up talking him around to a new tea set, but their group was large enough that they could use more cups anyway and it was a better deal to get a new teapot with them. At least they had a spare if one of them broke in the midst of one of the many inevitable fights to come.

“Psst! Hey, you kids like earthbending? You like throwing rocks?” Zuko quirked his eyebrow at the vendor that stopped them, wondering why he was trying to make this sound like some furtive and secretive thing. He had seen no less than five earthbenders casually bending since they got to Gaoling, so it wasn’t like it had been recently outlawed here like it was in some of the smaller, Fire Nation controlled villages. “Then check out Master Yu’s Earthbending Academy!” The man gave Aang a pamphlet before walking off to corner another group of travelers.

“Hey, look! There’s a coupon on the back. The first lesson is free.”

Katara leaned over Aang’s shoulder to read it and hummed. “Who knows? This Master Yu could be the earthbending teacher you’ve been looking for.”

“I still think it’s going to be that girl, but she could always be taking his classes! It’s worth checking out. I mean, it’s free!”

“If nothing else, it will be a good way to establish the basics,” Azula agreed with a nod. “So your future master won’t think you hopeless before you get the chance to win her over.”

Minds made up and grateful to see the hope return to both Aang and Katara’s eyes, they immediately set out to find the earthbending school. It wasn’t particularly difficult. They only needed to follow the sound of rumbling and shifting earth to find the ornate gate leading into a practice courtyard, and they left Aang to it, though they lingered nearby.

“He’s definitely not the one,” Aang groaned once he stumbled back out to their group. “I just got pelted by a bunch of rocks, and then he offered to bump me up a belt if I paid for a year’s worth of classes.”

“Ugh, that’s the worst,” Mai groaned while Ty Lee nodded vigorously. “A money hungry master is never a good one.”

“I think The Boulder is gonna win back the belt in Earth Rumble Six.” Zuko tilted his head toward that particular bit of gossip, intrigued. He noticed both Azula and Sokka straightening up too.

“He’s gonna have to fight his way through the best earthbenders in the world to even get a shot at the champion.”

Aang beamed, running over to his former classmates before they could get too far. “Excuse me, but where is this earthbending tournament, exactly?”

“It’s on the island of Nunya. Nunya business–” The boys began to laugh, but their laughter died in their throats when Azula stalked up to them with a vicious gleam in her eyes and a smirk that could cut stone.

“He asked you nicely. I won’t. ”

“It’s underground!” one of the boys stammered. “Here! There’s an entrance just outside the city, and the fights will start after dark, tonight. The entrance is lit up; you really can’t miss it!”

“There, now was that so hard?” Azula waved them off, and the boys sprinted away like their lives depended on it. Then she turned to Aang, who was looking more hopeful by the minute. “Perhaps we will find your earthbending master tonight. Perhaps not, but it will be worth checking out before we move on, nonetheless.”

“Yeah!” Ty Lee agreed with a cheer. “It can’t be a coincidence that we just happened to get here the same day as one of these fights.”

Uncle nodded with a quiet hum. “The universe does work in mysterious ways. There is a design to this turn of fate that speaks of a spirit’s guiding hand.”

“Well, hopefully it’s a spirit like Oma or Shu,” Zuko grumbled under his breath. “And not one like Shei Mei.”

They rejoined Appa just outside the city limits, and with the help of Aang, Mikan, Momo, and Ichigo flying around, they were able to find the entrance that was carved into the mountain for the tournament later. After that, there was little left to do but kill time until sunset.

Kashisu went hunting with Sokka, and the two of them brought back a pair of turkey ducks for dinner. Momo, Ichigo, and the messenger hawk that Sokka had taken to calling Hawky were grabbing and eating any bugs that tried to crawl on Appa, something that the flying bison huffed appreciatively about when they took care of some particularly persistent spider ants. Azula and Uncle stood off to the side, and his sister grinned with unfiltered joy when she managed a brief jet of blue flames from her mouth. Laichi bullied Mai into a game of fetch that she pretended to hate, but he could see the slightest smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. Aang was sparring with Ty Lee so she could get used to fighting with her chain when the air was actively impeding her and not helping her along, and they occasionally darted over to where he and Katara were working on dinner, he wasn’t much help yet but she knew that he genuinely did want to learn, so Zuko could heal a particularly nasty cut or bruise. Anzu was squeaking happily as she perched on Mikan’s back, and the lion vulture ran around and indulged the fire ferret’s desire to get a better view of their surroundings. They went into the air at once point, but Mikan was always more careful flying when she had a passenger and they both returned to the ground without incident.

It was peaceful, a much needed rest while they waited to make their next move, and they all felt better for it. It only made them all the more eager to get moving once the sun dipped below the horizon.

The arena was packed and the cheers were deafening. They arrived early enough to avoid the fates of the poor suckers forced to sit in the front row, a very hazardous place to be for any non-earthbenders, but only just. A boulder flew into the stands and nearly crushed one of those unfortunate souls as the announcer rose on an earthen platform in the middle of the arena. “Welcome to Earth Rumble Six! I am your host, Xin Fu.”

Katara sighed, almost immediately losing interest at the sight of the muscled, overly performative man. “This is just gonna be a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other, isn’t it?”

“You would be surprised at just how creative participants of tournaments such as this can be,” Uncle disagreed with a chuckle. “The path less traveled often retains more of nature’s beauty. And though this particular tournament may be focused on earthbending, you would also be surprised by how much one can learn from incorporating another element’s bending style into their own. I created lightning redirection from a waterbending form, after all.”

A flicker of curiosity danced in Katara’s eyes, and though she looked a bit skeptical, she did look back to the arena. “The rules are simple!” the announcer continued. “Just knock the other guy out of the ring, and you win.” Katara’s curiosity blazed into a desire to learn when the announcer channeled his chi to jump up to a platform much higher than anyone could hope to reach without doing so. Even Zuko and Azula couldn’t make a leap like that without some serious effort, and they were dragons. “Round one: The Boulder versus The Big Bad Hippo!”

“Listen up, Hippo!” The Boulder taunted with a smug grin. “You may be big, but you ain’t bad. The Boulder’s gonna win this in a landslide.”

“Hippo… Mad!” Stone rumbled beneath the force of The Hippo’s stomp, and the battle began. The Boulder hurled several large rocks at The Hippo, and not only did the mountain of a man remain unmoving, but he bit into one of the larger rocks and shattered it with his teeth. That… Was incredibly creative, and Zuko wondered if he could replicate something similar with waterbending to catch any opponents that didn’t know he couldn’t drown off guard. It probably wouldn’t be comfortable, but it might be possible for him to condense and shoot out a blast of water from his mouth, like the unagi does, if he swallowed enough of it. Something like a combination of the fire breathing and a larger water whip…

The Hippo’s retaliation shook the entire arena, tilting the battlefield side to side with his jumps as The Boulder stumbled to regain his footing. “Unbelievable, ladies and gentleman! The Hippo is rocking the boat!” The Boulder barely managed to regain his footing at the edge of the arena, bending backwards to grab and throw a sheet of rock that he pulled from the side of arena at The Hippo’s unguarded back. Which was what he got for celebrating preemptively, really. It wasn’t like the announcer called out that The Boulder was out of bounds.

A massive chunk of the arena rose with The Boulder’s hands, lifting The Hippo, who was still stunned and flat on his back, into the air. For a few tense seconds, it seemed like The Boulder might not be able to move the combined weight any further, but then he hurled both the platform and his opponent right out of the arena. “The Boulder wins!” Cheers erupted, and Zuko was not ashamed to be among them. Most of their group was, and even Azula and Mai looked begrudgingly impressed. If nothing else came of this, then at least they were having fun.

“How about The Boulder?” Katara asked. “He’s got some good moves.”

Aang hummed noncommittally. “I dunno. I still think I saw that girl in the swamp for a reason. Anyways, Bumi said I need a teacher that listens to the earth. I’m pretty sure The Boulder is just listening to his big muscles. What do you think, Sokka?”

Sokka’s eyes were damn near glowing with excitement, so caught up with cheering that he didn’t even hear Aang’s question. Zuko chuckled, a warm fondness fluttering in his chest as he answered Aang instead. “I’m sure you’ll know your teacher when you see her. If The Boulder doesn’t feel right, then he probably isn’t. And honestly, The Hippo was a more creative bender, but he doesn’t really seem like the teacher type.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Aang agreed with a nod. “But we may as well keep watching! It’s still good to learn what I can from them, and I just… I have a good feeling about this place.”

They all knew that a “good feeling” from either Aang or Zuko usually translated to some spirit or another nudging them along by this point, so they settled in and returned their attention to the arena as it was smoothed out by a badgermole. “Next match!” the announcer cried out. “The Boulder versus Fire Nation Man!”

Fire Nation Man marched out into the arena, wearing what looked to be a slightly off replica of an Agni Kai shawl and carrying a Fire Nation flag. Ty Lee stifled a giggle behind her hand as the crowd booed, and Azula quirked an eyebrow, amused despite herself. “Ah, there’s the propaganda. What good underground tournament goes without?” Fire Nation Man was a clear caricature, a character people loved to hate, but that didn’t completely stifle the uncomfortable, guilty squirming in his chest.

“Please do rise for Fire Nation national anthem!” He ducked his head into Sokka’s shoulder as mortification burned through him. “Fire Lord, my flame burns for thee–” The booing crew even louder, and The Boulder sunk Fire Nation Man into the arena, making a dramatic show of defeating the man who had shown he could earthbend via the bridge he entered on but refused to do so now in order to stay in character. The Boulder raised himself up, higher and higher, on a towering platform as Fire Nation Man put on a show of begging for mercy. “Please! Please no!"

Zuko and Azula both went very, very still.

Every inhale burned like fire, and Zuko shook like a leaf trapped in a cyclone. Azula was better at hiding it, had to be after spending so long trapped in the palace’s walls, but her eyes went blank and glazed over, hazy and unseeing. They were both trapped in a memory far away from this place.

“Oh, spirits,” he faintly heard Uncle whisper, fuzzy and distorted and barely sounding like him at all.

The cheering of the crowds around them slowly melded into heavy, weighted silence and the feeling of hundreds of eyes staring, watching and doing absolutely nothing as–

“... Zuko?” Sokka’s voice was small and worried and wrong wrong wrong in a way that made his eyes snap over to him immediately, even as the rest of the world blurred around him. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay, you’re safe.” He shuddered, tensing briefly when Sokka cautiously, slowly reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder. “It’s safe.” The tension slowly melted out of him.

It felt like it took an eternity to regain control of his breathing, and he slumped over in exhaustion once every breath no longer felt like consuming fire. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, voice hoarse and croaky. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s not your fault,” Uncle murmured. His voice was strong and firm, as steady as a crackling fireplace, as he glanced between where Zuko was all but curled into Sokka’s side and where Azula drummed out an unsteady rhythm against Mai’s thigh as she recollected herself. “You could not have expected or prepared for… Do you wish to leave? I can take you and your sister back to Appa.”

Zuko considered it for a moment, but in the end, he shook his head. “I’ll be okay,” he promised. “I doubt that… I doubt they’ll have another character like that. I should be okay, really, I just…”

Uncle accepted that with a nod, but not without whispering, “Let me know if that changes.”

He didn’t pay much attention to the following fights. The entire world still felt like a hazy blur around him, and it wasn’t until the final fight that he managed to pull himself together enough to feel like he wasn’t going to shake right out of existence.

“Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… The Boulder versus your champion, The Blind Bandit!!”

Aang gasped as a young girl lifted the championship belt above her head. “That looks like her! That looks like the girl I saw!”

“She can’t really be blind… Can she?” Katara asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Ah, but the badgermoles that humans learned earthbending from were blind,” Uncle reminded her. “It would not be an impossibility that she learned to bend and perceive the world in a way similar to them.”

Katara hummed consideringly as The Blind Bandit and The Boulder squared off. “The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young, blind girl.”

The Blind Bandit cackled. “Sounds to me like you’re scared, Boulder .”

“... The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings, and now he’s ready to bury you in a rock-alanche.”

“Whenever you’re ready, The Pebble !”

“Oh, I like her,” Azula murmured. They were the first words she managed to utter since their shared episode earlier. “If she can back that talk up…”

And she could. The Boulder, who had been sweeping everyone up until now with very little effort, didn’t manage to make a single move against her before The Blind Bandit used the earth to force him into a split and knock him right out of the arena. Between one heartbeat and the next, it was over.

“Your winner, and still the champion, The Blind Bandit!”

“How did she do that?” Katara murmured, wide-eyed and awed.

Aang’s smile practically lit up the arena. “She waited and listened. It really is her!”

“To make things a little more interesting,” the announcer continued as he joined the reigning champion in the arena. “I’m offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat The Blind Bandit.” Silence. “What? No one dares to face her?”

“I will!” Aang called out as he ran into the arena. The announcer swiftly returned to his ledge to observe and commentate from afar, and Zuko watched, curious to see what Aang was planning here. He assumed that he was attempting to impress the girl he was certain would be his earthbending master by proving himself, but he didn’t exactly know enough earthbending to do that here. Were other types of bending allowed in these tournaments? He doubted that Aang cared either way, but he did wonder.

“Do people really wanna see two little girls fighting out here?” The Blind Bandit taunted with a smirk, and the crowd absolutely ate it up.

“I don’t really wanna fight you. I want to talk to you.”

“... Then why didn’t he wait until after?” Zuko groaned.

But fight they did. The Blind Bandit raised the earth beneath Aang’s feet, and he floated off of it, sliding to the side and landing with the sort of grace and quiet that he grew used to from Ty Lee. “Somebody’s a little light on his feet. What’s your fighting name, The Fancy Dancer?"

Aang circled around her while The Blind Bandit waited for the slightest sign of where he was, hurling a boulder at him when he called out, “Please, wait!” He instinctively sent a blast of air back to redirect the boulder, and in doing so, he knocked The Blind Bandit off the arena platform as well. The crowd was dead silent in its shock. Even the announcer didn’t manage a word before cheers erupted at the unexpected upset, and Aang chased after The Blind Bandit.

He was thoroughly downtrodden by the time he came back up to the stage, undoubtedly rejected by an angry earthbender that was still nursing her metaphorical wounds, and was not in the slightest bit excited to receive the champion belt or the gold. “It was her, I’m sure of it,” Aang murmured as they walked back toward their campsite. “But how am I supposed to find her now? She wouldn’t even talk to me.”

“Is there anything specific that you remember seeing in your vision at the swamp?” Azula asked with a quirked brow. “Even the smallest detail could give us a hint.”

“Um… She was wearing a really fancy white dress? Oh! And she had a pet flying boar with her too.”

All five members of the Fire Nation’s royal family and nobility exchanged a look with each other and said, in perfect, eerie unison, “Beifong.”

“... Explain?” Sokka hedged uncertainly. “For those of us that don’t have a freaky mind link thing going on, apparently?”

“The Beifongs are a powerful and influential noble family in the Earth Kingdom,” Azula explained with narrowed, calculating eyes. “They’re a merchant clan that holds immense wealth, and the vast majority of the Earth Kingdom banks with them. Their family symbol is the flying boar, and if Aang saw one in his vision, then I can think of no other family that she might belong to. They would certainly be very useful allies to have… And they do live right here, in Gaoling.”

“Great!” Aang cheered. “Then we’ll go pay them a visit tomorrow morning!”

Azula barely managed to talk Aang out of breaking into the Beifong family complex come morning. “You are the only person in this group that is not technically some kind of nobility,” she pointed out with a quirked eyebrow. “And you are the Avatar. It will be a bit rude of us to request a meeting without advance notice, but with so many foreign powers in one group, they’d be fools to refuse it for such a minor offense. Simply follow my lead.”

The word ‘princess’ barely left Azula’s mouth before one of the servants was rushing to inform the current head of the Beifong family. They were led inside mere minutes later. A feast awaited them, a show of status and wealth that indirectly addressed their minor snub by showing that even unannounced guests would not catch them off guard, and Azula dipped her head with a faux apologetic smile.

“You have our sincerest apologies for our lack of forewarning, Lord and Lady Beifong. Our visit to Gaoling was rather unexpected, else we would have sent word ahead of us.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all,” Lord Beifong insisted with a decidedly less strained smile. Now that the offense had been acknowledged, it could be dismissed as a mark against their status as guests. “Whatever could have brought you to our home, Princess Azula?”

“The guidance of a spirit. You see, my companions and I are on a quest to find the Avatar’s earthbending teacher. He received a vision that led him here.”

Lady Beifong lifted a hand to cover her mouth as her eyes widened ever so slightly. “Truly? We would be honored to aid you however we can, of course. Would you do us the honor of introducing us to your companions?”

“The honor is mine,” Azula insisted. “To my left is Prince Iroh, my honored uncle, and to my right is Prince Zuko, my honored brother.” Her firm disavowal of their father declaring him honorless and in exile caught the immediate attention of both Lord and Lady Beifong. Their daughter seemed equally intrigued. "On the other side of my uncle sits Avatar Aang, of course, and to the right of my brother is Prince Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Princess Katara of the Southern Water Tribe sits directly across from him, and to her right is Lady Mai. And last but certainly not least, I introduce to you Lady Ty Lee, the only confirmed airbender outside of the Avatar himself.”

The Earth Kingdom was the only nation not represented in their group, and it took less than a second for the Beifongs to both realize this and immediately decide they wanted in on the alliance forming here. “My, what esteemed company we have,” Lord Beifong acknowledged with a bow. “As my wife said, we would be happy to aid you however we may. Though, if you do not mind my asking, there have been… Whispers of rumors, as of late. Word of an uprising in Omashu, of earthbenders and firebenders fighting off the Fire Nation’s army side by side. Do those rumors hold any grain of truth?”

“My, but you are well informed.” Azula giggled politely, wearing a saccharine smile full of falsities that the Beifongs swiftly found themselves endeared by. “Indeed, you heard true. My brother and I have long since opposed our father’s actions and the war he has waged on the world, and we have put much time and effort into securing allies these past few years. The Avatar’s resurgence has only made our plans all the more achievable, and sooner than we initially anticipated. The Fire Nation awaits only my word to revolt. Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe has established a connection and a promise for alliance once the war has concluded. The Earth Kingdom is, quite unfortunately, one of the few places where our allies remain quite scarce beyond King Bumi himself. We’d like to change that, and in turn, your family will be lifted to even greater acclaim and riches, all without a war to threaten the loss of them looming over you.”

Lord Beifong’s eyes glinted with satisfaction. “But of course. Name your price, Princess Azula. We would be most pleased to negotiate terms with you.”

“The spirits seem quite certain that your daughter is meant to be Aang’s earthbending teacher.” It was clear that whatever the Beifongs expected Azula to say, it wasn’t that. “He saw her in a vision, looking exactly as she does now, with a flying boar at her side. The prestigious symbol of your family, of course, led us right to you.”

“Oh, but you must be mistaken,” Lord Beifong insisted. “Toph is still learning her basic forms. And due to her blindness, we’re afraid that she will never become a true master. We will be happy to help you search for an earthbending master, of course, but interpreting spirits can be quite tricky. Perhaps they merely intended to lead you to us so we could offer our aid in the matter.”

“Perhaps,” Azula allowed with a dip of her head, sharply glaring at Aang before he could make a scene. “Would you mind too terribly if we were to enjoy your hospitality, in the meantime? Of course, we could continue camping outside the city…”

“No, no!” Lady Beifong insisted. “That simply will not do. You are honored guests, and we would be grateful to host you.”

“You are most gracious.” Azula smiled, and this one was a touch more genuine. “We shall go gather our things, retrieve our animal companions, and allow you the time necessary to prepare for our stay. My sincerest apologies, again, for the lack of notice.”

An amused smirk tugged at Toph’s lips as her parents all but tripped over themselves reassuring Azula that it was perfectly fine and they would eagerly await their return. She seemed far less defensive and more curious now, so Zuko wasn’t surprised when, later that night once everything was settled, Toph came to visit them.

“Look, I’m sorry about before. Let’s call a truce, okay?” Aang nodded eagerly, and Toph beckoned for him to follow. “Come talk with me for a minute.”

They watched as the youngest member of their group walked outside with a girl who couldn’t be much older than him. All was peaceful for a time, Tui’s light illuminating the night sky, until the earth began to shake. They all immediately jumped to their feet and outside of the open window, running toward a large crowd of men that were currently surrounding Aang and Toph, both trapped inside metal coffins similar to the one King Bumi was kept in.

“Hey!” he snarled before spitting fire at the nearest target. There were more than a few screams at the sight of flames, though the earthbenders, all from Earth Rumble Six, quickly recentered themselves and started fighting back. He, Azula, and Uncle all focused on channeling their chi to kick through boulders, and they followed them up with blasts of fire that broke the earthbenders’ roots, fear making them stumble back and giving them the opportunity to knock the intruders out. Katara used the water from a nearby pond to cut through the steel coffins’ locking mechanisms, sawing back and forth until it gave way. Sokka and Mai both stuck to the outskirts of the fight, watching each other’s backs and attacking from a range whenever they could get the drop on one of their attackers. Once he was free, Aang joined Ty Lee in using air to blast the boulders right back at the men launching them, though the latter also utilized her chain to great effect, swinging low and knocking several fighters off their feet. Katara turned her attention to the battle, sending several ice shards flying toward an unguarded earthbender, after she freed Toph, and the girl who would hopefully become their newest member proceeded to show the remaining earthbenders exactly why she was the uncontested champion.

Lord and Lady Beifong, alongside several guards, showed up to the courtyard just in time to witness Toph bury the announcer, the last man standing, up to his chin. “Thought you could get the better of me, huh? Nobody beats The Blind Bandit!”

Toph’s mother gasped, and she turned to where her parents were standing with a smirk that mirrored Azula’s perfectly. “Mom, Dad, I know that it’s probably hard to see me this way, but the obedient, helpless little blind girl that you think I am just isn’t me. I love fighting. I love being an earthbender, and I’m really, really good at it. I know that I’ve kept my life secret from you, but… You were keeping me secret from the whole world. I know you were doing it to protect me, but I’m twelve years old and I’ve never even had a real friend. It’s been… Lonely. And now that you see who I really am, I hope it doesn’t change the way you feel about me.”

“Of course it doesn’t change the way I feel about you, Toph,” Lord Beifong murmured. “In fact, it’s made me realize something.”

“It has?”

“Yes. I… We have kept you caged here, and no matter how beautiful the cage, it remains exactly that: a cage.” Lord Beifong cast a nervous glance in Zuko and Azula’s direction. “It made you feel as if you had no choice but to break yourself out of it if you were to ever find freedom. The spirits have led Princess Azula, the Avatar, and their companions here for a reason, and they have proven themselves as capable warriors able to both protect our daughter and… Fight by her side. So long as Toph agrees and you still wish to have her as your earthbending teacher, Avatar Aang, then it would be a great honor to allow you to teach our daughter the ways of the world in turn.”

“Really?” Toph asked with a wide smile. “Yes! Yes, I want that!”

“We’re happy to have you, Toph!” Aang’s smile was just as wide and bright. “You’re gonna be a great earthbending teacher; I just know it.”

“Take care of our daughter,” Lady Beifong pleaded, cradling Azula’s hands in her own. “No matter what may come… We are entrusting her care to you and your people. End this terrible war.”

“We will.” Azula’s words were nothing less than a promise. “And for all that I’m certain your daughter can protect herself, rest assured that she’ll have each and every one of us at her back regardless. We’re a team. She’s part of that now.”

They left come morning, with Lord and Lady Beifong wishing them well in their travels and supplying even more gold than they won from Earth Rumble Six. Zuko expected that it was going to become far more difficult for the more responsible members of the group to rein in impulse purchases in the near future, but for now, he simply relished in the fact that they would be focused more on finding good spots to train instead of spending quite so much time in villages and cities. He was looking forward to having the chance to enjoy the water again.

And Appa, he knew, appreciated the fact that their newest member was so small. Zuko would be rewarding him with many treats and all the warm massages he could want for managing his burden so well.

Chapter 7: Chapter Seven: Stand Your Ground

Chapter Text

“Alright, Twinkletoes! Let’s see what you’re made of.”

Toph quickly proved herself to be a demanding taskmaster. Considering the fact that Aang was more inclined toward darting around his problems than dealing with them directly, it was obvious why she was the one meant to be his earthbending teacher. He needed someone immensely stubborn and firm in their methods if he was ever going to manage bending his opposite element. Katara hovered nervously, clearly not a fan of Toph’s methods, but at least the rocks Aang had hurled at him weren’t so large that they’d leave more than bruises if he was hit. He was probably going to need to pull Katara aside if Toph was going to make any genuine progress with Aang, but with the way the kid was still dodging and weaving around the rocks instead of even trying to meet them head-on, he figured he had a bit of time before that became necessary.

That was why he and Azula were working with Uncle instead. They finally had time for him to teach them that lightning redirection move that he mentioned in Gaoling, and though their father was the only threat they knew of, for sure, that could wield lightning, it was better to be safe than sorry. And it could always be useful in a bad storm, if nothing else.

“I must first remind you not to redirect lightning unless you are left with no other choice,” Uncle warned them with a dire expression. “It is my hope that you will never need to use this technique, but it would be remiss of me not to teach you, given who we are up against. Aang will need support when it comes time to face Ozai, and you two are the best equipped to aid him outside of myself. It would do us no favors to put all of our eggs into one basket.”

“We understand, Uncle,” he murmured, and though Azula rolled her eyes with a sigh, she did concede to their uncle’s wishes with a begrudging nod. It was the best they’d get out of someone so determined to master everything she learned until she was without flaw, and he and Uncle both knew it.

“Now then… With your basics firmly established in waterbending, you will likely find this easier to manage than you might otherwise expect. First, you extend your fingers like so.” Uncle’s pointer and middle fingers were the only ones he utilized to redirect the imaginary lightning, the rest all curling into the palm of his hand. “With one pair of fingers used to catch the lightning and the other to redirect it in the direction you wish to release it in. If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips up your arm to the shoulder, then down into the stomach. As you know, the stomach is the source of energy in your body. From your stomach you direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical, understand? You must not let the lightning pass through your heart, or the damage could be deadly.”

He rather doubted that Azula, after being proclaimed the dragon of storms by two Great Spirits, ever needed to fear lightning, but Zuko immediately filed that information away and vowed to never forget it. He would not be so lucky.

Azula seemed rather frustrated that Uncle wouldn’t throw lightning at her so she could prove that she’d gotten the form down, as if there was any doubt when she mimicked Uncle perfectly on the first try, so he slipped away from the inevitable argument and joined Katara in watching Aang’s earthbending practice. She looked a second away from interfering when Toph hurled something more like a boulder than a rock at Aang’s head, so Zuko asked, “Do you want to practice waterbending with me? There’s something I’ve been wanting to try, and I think it’ll benefit us both.”

Katara blinked, first in surprise and then in open confusion, but at least he distracted her from the disaster unfolding a few feet away from them. “What did you have in mind? There’s not a lot we can do when we only have our waterskins to work with.”

“I don’t think we do,” he murmured thoughtfully. “It’s… Okay, so it’s more humid in the Fire Nation than it is almost anywhere else in the world, barring maybe that swamp, but that doesn’t change the fact that there’s still at least some moisture in the air wherever we go. I haven’t tried using it, but I can still feel it. And when we have an actual source of water, then it obviously wouldn’t be worth the effort of manipulating such a small amount of water, but if we ever find ourselves backed into a corner with no other way of bending…”

“Then it gives us a chance to catch enemies off guard when they think we’re no longer a threat! Aang and I even used airbending and waterbending to shape clouds before; I can’t believe I didn’t think of using the water in the air!” Katara’s eyes gleamed with excitement at the thought of a challenge, and she all but dragged Zuko off to practice, leaving Toph and Aang to figure things out on their own.

They weren’t able to pull much water out of the atmosphere itself, barely enough for a small water whip when condensed into a stream, but they were both delighted when they discovered that they could pull the moisture down to the earth’s surface and create a veil of fog around them. “Imagine what we could do if it was already foggy.” Katara’s wicked grin was just shy of Azula’s typical intensity. “And Toph being able to see through earthbending… It gives me an idea. Do you think we could use fog to not only hide ourselves but also track others through the moisture clinging to them within it?”

“I don’t see why not,” he murmured with a thoughtful hum. “Even if we can’t see them precisely, we would probably be able to tell where their body is, in general. It’s more than they’ll be able to see.” There wasn’t enough moisture in the air to truly test it here, but he had little doubt that they’d be testing it out the next time they stopped near a body of water. If they could simultaneously obscure their movements while tracking their enemies’, then it could make a world of difference in both stealth missions and group fights that weren’t going well for them. They’d need to account for the fact that Uncle, Sokka, and Mai would have no way of tracking their enemies either, and he wasn’t sure whether or not Ty Lee would be able to use the air to do something similar though it was worth a try, but if six out of nine members of their group could fight blind, then that was a skill worth cultivating. And honestly, with Mai’s sharp eye, he doubted that she couldn’t figure out a way of fighting through the fog as well. Sokka and Uncle would struggle the most with that particular handicap, given their specialties.

He and Katara decided to take a break once the air started to feel uncomfortably dry, and Zuko left her to her eager brainstorming with an amused smile. He had a feeling that he would need to shift her focus to waterbending throughout much of Aang’s training with both Toph and Azula, at least when he was first starting out. Neither would go easy on him, and Katara could be a bit protective. Best not to cultivate tension when it could be avoided.

Ichigo squawked quietly when Zuko joined him and Kashisu on a pleasantly flat sheet of rock, basking beneath Agni’s rays with a smile as the iguana parrot shifted over for him. Kashisu’s chest rumbled with a purr, and the pygmy puma’s eyes closed in clear contentment as his basking spot grew warmer with a firebender’s presence. Mikan soared down from a nearby cliff face, beak bloody from a recent meal, and pressed against his side as she sprawled out beneath the sun. Sokka looked thoroughly amused when he walked over to their impromptu cuddle pile. “Is this a dragon thing or a firebender thing?” he asked with a wry grin. “Both? I bet it’s both. I can’t imagine that a rock is particularly comfortable, but–” Sokka squawked when Zuko latched onto his wrist and pulled him down to join them, and Ichigo mimicked the sound with a slight warble, sounding distinctly mocking and amused. “I deserved that,” Sokka muttered.

“Are you uncomfortable?” he rumbled after several minutes of peaceful silence. Sokka leaned back against him, shaking his head as he looked back with a smile.

“Surprisingly, no. It’s too warm to be uncomfortable. It’s like aches I didn’t even realize I had are melting out of my bones.” A thread of concern tugged at his heart, and iridescent flames immediately flickered to life on his hands. Sokka positively melted into his touch. “Oh, that’s nice. I see why Appa likes it so much.”

“You can always ask me to do this,” he mumbled, dutifully ignoring the heat in his cheeks. “It really doesn’t take that much energy, especially during the day. I don’t mind.”

“I might just have to take you up on that.” Sokka sighed contentedly. “You’re going to spoil me, you know? How am I ever supposed to go back to living in the cold all the time without your warm hands?”

“You won’t have to.” Zuko didn’t even think before saying those words, but he knew that he meant them nonetheless. “I don’t intend on going anywhere, Sokka.”

“But you’ll be busy trying to fix things in the Fire Nation after the war! I know that, Zuko, and I don’t blame you for it. I’m not going to ask you to leave your home behind just so I can go back to mine. They’ll be fine without me, but the Fire Nation needs you and your sister.” The implications of those words, that Sokka would stay with him in the Fire Nation and assumed he would need to, made his heart race and twist all at once. It was incredibly, endearingly sweet, but he could never ask that of him.

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised instead. “You could always be an ambassador for the Southern Water Tribe, and we could split our time between the two. It won’t be impossible for me to be Azula’s advisor from a distance during our time away, especially considering the fact that she and Mai are both politically savvy and I’m only meant to temper their more ruthless streaks. Ty Lee could do that too, if it was an issue demanding immediate attention.”

“You’d do that for me?” Sokka sounded equal parts disbelieving and pleased, radiating heat in a way that wasn’t solely from the sun blazing above them. “Really?”

“Really. It may take a while before we’re able to visit the South Pole at first, I can only imagine what a mess things will be immediately after the war ends, but it’ll stabilize eventually. I don’t intend to keep you away from your home and people forever. I could never do that to you. I would never want to.” And then, seeing the true heart of the issue, he murmured, “I’m not another person that you have to give everything of yourself to protect, Sokka. We’re partners. We’re meant to do the protecting together. Just let me help you too, okay?”

Sokka smiled, warm and genuine, and Zuko's heart threatened to beat right out of his chest. “... I think I like the sound of that.”

They dozed comfortably, knowing that they had more than enough rations and money to tide them over until they reached the next village, and allowed themselves a moment to relax and let go of the stress that constantly weighed upon their shoulders. Ty Lee flitted by them once, murmuring about what delightfully warm and pink auras they had, but they were left to their own devices until the sun began to set and Katara fetched Zuko to help with dinner again. Sokka grumbled discontentedly, still half-asleep, but accepted Mikan curling up behind him in Zuko’s place with minimal complaining.

“I’m really glad he has you,” Katara murmured as they walked toward the campfire. “Sokka has always been… Really prone to stressing himself out. I’ve never seen him this relaxed before.”

“I’m glad to have him too. And Agni knows I’ve given Uncle no few headaches over my tendency to act first and think later. Sokka makes me slow down, think first, and actually come up with some sort of plan.” Katara snickered, both at his blush and that particular mental image, as he muttered, “I just… Wanted you to know it goes both ways. He helps me too. I'm serious about this.”

“I know it does, and I know you are.” They walked the rest of the way in silence, and it wasn’t until dinner was well underway that Katara asked, eyes firmly trained to the floor, “How do you know if you like someone?”

“I might not be the best person to ask,” he pointed out with a chuckle. “Seeing as Yue was the only reason I actually realized what those feelings meant to begin with. And I know it can vary from person to person, but… For me, at least, everything feels warmer and lighter when he’s around. My burdens aren’t quite so heavy, laughter comes easier, and I find myself smiling any time I look in his direction. I want to help him and protect him, but I also want to encourage him to grow as a person, much like I have, no matter how scary that growth may be. I don’t ever want to hold him back, you know? Or be the reason why he doesn’t chase after his dreams. I just want to be there when he does. Does that make any sense?”

“... Yeah, yeah I think so.” Katara glanced up to where Toph and Aang were still training, the latter utterly exhausted and struggling to make much progress. “I want to help him. I hate seeing him struggle like this, but… He needs to learn how to earthbend, and trying to keep him away from it just because it hurts now won’t help him. So I just… Offer to help afterward? Continue being a listening ear and offer healing when he needs it?”

“That sounds like a plan to me,” he murmured, tactfully ignoring her near-confession and doing his best to offer the advice she was actually asking for. “Earthbending was always going to be difficult for him to learn. Aang doesn’t like fighting or meeting problems head-on, and that lends itself well to airbending and waterbending. But you have to exert control over the earth, you have to be firm and direct with it, or you won’t get anywhere. And the same sort of control is needed to keep fire from burning out of control. Cutting any corners now will only hurt him later, and it will be far more dangerous for everyone around him if he loses control over fire once he starts bending it. Better that he struggles to move the earth at all before we get to that point. He’ll figure it out. Just give it time.”

“Thanks, Zuko. How do you know all of this, anyway?”

“Well, beyond having to pretend that I was hunting for the Avatar for three years, I was never a very good firebender. Not in the traditional style, at least. Healing with fire and treating it like water was the only way I could bend effectively, so I’m not really surprised that I’m getting better at waterbending now than I ever was at firebending. I just… Didn’t have it in me to be that aggressive, and it took years before I figured out a way to make it work for me at all. Aang has the advantage of having several lifetimes’ worth of knowledge tucked away in his soul, even if he doesn’t remember it, and being a prodigy to begin with. It may take him time, but I don’t doubt that he’ll figure earthbending out. And now that we have Toph… Well, it’s not like we have to search for any other teachers. All that’s really left to do is train and travel until it’s time to strike. We have time for him to figure out how to tap into his inner earthbender.”

“I guess that’s true,” Katara agreed with a hum. “We still have a time limit, but… It’s less stressful now that we have everyone we need, at least for now. The spirits led us to Toph for a reason. She’ll get through to him eventually.”

Aang was positively exhausted when he joined them for dinner, clearly frustrated despite his efforts at remaining upbeat and positive, but a murmured word from Katara had the tension melting out of his shoulders as he nodded sheepishly. The rest of their meal went by peacefully, and after discussing their options with the group and deciding it probably wasn’t best for them to linger anywhere for too long, they agreed to head toward the nearest village both to check it out and pick up some supplies before they ventured farther into the more rural areas of the Earth Kingdom. There was no telling how long they’d go between visits to towns or villages out there, and even if they weren’t running particularly low on anything yet, it was better for them to resupply whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The cool breeze from riding Appa was nearly as refreshing as water itself while they soared over arid plains, dry heat draining even the firebenders among them. Agni’s rays were merciless today, a swift turn from yesterday’s pleasant weather that caught them all off guard. Even Toph, who didn’t appreciate being so far from her element or being unable to see, seemed grateful for the winds that eased that heat, even if only slightly.

“Hey, look, there it is!” Several people, himself included, instinctively jolted and looked in the direction that Toph pointed in before she burst into laughter. She waved her hand in front of her unseeing eyes with a smug grin. “That’s what it’ll sound like when one of you sees it.”

“Ugh! I can’t believe I fell for that,” Sokka groaned, ducking his head in embarrassment. Azula was snickering in clear amusem*nt, as one of the few that didn’t fall for it, and Toph shot his sister an even sharper grin in return. He dreaded to think of what they were capable of when they worked together, so he refused to do so. Zuko would rather it be an unpleasant surprise than to spend all day dreading the possibilities and potentially give them any more ideas with his loose tongue.

Appa lowed quietly as Aang guided him down, landing just outside the dilapidated village that had certainly seen better days. Zuko hoped that spending their gold here could help these people, if only a little bit, but seeing the ways that the war had harmed people even far from its battlefront made his heart ache. There was an unspoken agreement that they would help out however they could and leave shortly after, not wanting to outstay their welcome or strain the village’s limited resources.

Earth Kingdom soldiers watched their arrival with a greedy, calculating glint in their eyes that set Zuko’s teeth on edge. They looked like the same viper rats that filled the Fire Nation’s war counsel, merely wearing shades of green and brown in place of reds and golds. They were all painfully aware of the stares leveled at their backs while they exchanged money for several days’ worth of food and water, guards and hackles raised, so when a pair of giggling kids chucked an egg at one of the soldiers after the vendor ducked inside his shop to get their order together, they knew they were going to start trouble.

“Hey! You think it’s funny to throw eggs at us, travelers?”

“I’m sorry,” Toph whirled around with a sneer. The soldiers froze in shock, if only for a moment, at the sight of her pale eyes. “I must have misheard you. Are you accusing us of wasting food we don’t currently have just because we’re not from around here? Do you have any idea who I am?”

Azula’s eyes practically shone with glee when one of the idiotic soldiers didn’t heed Toph’s warning. “You’re a stupid little girl who needs to learn her place,” he growled as he stepped forward, and Toph scoffed.

“I am Toph Beifong.” The soldiers froze again, this time in panicked fear. “And I am the greatest earthbender in the world! If you’re trying to pick a fight, then don’t be such a coward about it. I’ll throw down any place, any time!” The earth quaked beneath her feet as she stomped, a carefully controlled warning that made the soldiers take several rapid steps back. They exchanged a single, loaded look with one another before turning tail and fleeing. “Hmph. That’s what I thought.”

Azula cackled outright, startling the vendor as he returned with their supplies. “Oh, I knew I was going to like you. Well done.”

“That’s high praise coming from you, Tempest.” Toph looked even more pleased with herself than she was before. “Honestly, those idiots should’ve known better. Taking on such a large group on their own? And only one of them had a root decent enough to be an earthbender. I could’ve wiped the floor with them, easy.”

“That would’ve been a sight to see,” the vendor murmured with a sly grin. “Those soldiers are supposed to protect us from the Fire Nation, but they’re just a bunch of thugs. I appreciate when someone humbles them every now and again.” The man pointedly did not look at where the kids who had thrown the egg were hiding, simply returning to the shade offered within his shop without another word.

“Thanks for not ratting me out!” one of the kids exclaimed with a toothy smile. His friend was already long gone. “I can take you to my house and feed your animals for you. I owe you one.”

“Aw, that’s sweet!” Ty Lee gave the kid a warm smile. “But you really don’t have to, I promise. We don’t wanna be a burden.”

“You won’t be!” the kid insisted. “I bet Mom is gonna be real excited to see so many interesting critters. I didn’t even know that you could tame lion vultures… And I got no clue what the big white fella is.”

“This is Appa, my flying bison!” Aang chimed in with a grin. “And if you really don’t mind… I bet he misses hay.” Appa usually contented himself with grazing wherever they landed, but the grasses here were dry and crunchy in a way that was decidedly unpleasant for the flying bison, though he still tolerated it.

“It’s no problem at all. Follow me!” With a few good-natured shrugs, they did just that, figuring it couldn’t hurt anything. The kid chuckled as he led them down the path to his family’s farm, and both wooly-pigs and moo-sows announced the presence of people so loudly they could probably be heard from miles away. “No one can sneak up on us.”

Zuko snorted at that, grateful that Mikan was full and didn’t spare so much as a second glance at the squealing animals. “No kidding.” A pigster crowed loudly as if to reiterate that point, and a man, likely the kid’s father, walked out to join them.

“Y’all friends of Lee’s?” he asked with a curious hum.

“These guys stood up to the soldiers! It was mostly, um… Toph! But the soldiers ran away before the others needed to do anything.” Toph waved, beaming at the father’s disbelieving look that she could probably sense in his heart rate.

“Did you even ask for any of their names, sweetheart?” Lee’s mother asked with a fond smile, wiping the dirt off her hands as she joined them. “Aside from Toph, that is.”

“Um… I may have forgot?” Lee laughed sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Don’t feel like you have to tell us,” Lee’s father assured them. “Sela and I are both grateful that y’all looked out for our son. We know he tends to… Get into a bit of trouble.”

“No, no, it’s no trouble at all!” Uncle insisted, harmless old man act in full effect. “Why, I remember when these two were little and always getting up to no good.” Uncle shared a commiserating look with both of Lee’s parents before glancing between Zuko and Azula, and they visibly softened at the sight of it, not knowing just how much of it was a lie. “My name is Iroh. My niece and nephew over there are Azula and Zuko, respectively, then there’s Mai and Ty Lee. Sokka and Katara are our other pair of siblings, you already know Toph, and of course, there’s Aang.”

“Hi!” Aang chirped, beaming brightly. “Do you have any extra hay for Appa?” Aang gestured back toward the massive animal with a nervous laugh. “We can pay you!”

“That’ll be no trouble at all,” Lee’s father assured him. “My name is Gansu. Anyone who can stand up against those bully soldiers is welcomed here. Those men should be ashamed to wear Earth Kingdom uniforms.”

“The real soldiers are off fighting the war,” Sela continued with a weary smile. “Like Lee’s big brother, Sensu. I’d ask if y’all want to stay for supper, but we won’t have nearly enough to feed all of you.”

“We can help you make more,” Katara offered, pointing between herself and Zuko. “We just bought more food, so it won’t be any problem at all.”

Sela blinked, looking pleasantly surprised as a more genuine smile tugged at her lips. “Oh, that’s sweet of you. Are you sure you wouldn’t mind? I’d hate to ask so much of guests…”

“I’m sure! Between you and me, I think Zuko will be really happy to spend time around so many animals. Every animal we have with us, minus Appa, is his.” Katara’s faux whisper was really more akin to open teasing, but Sela laughed as the tiny thread of guilt she had over their lack of preparedness for so many guests, like she could have predicted such a thing, melted away.

“Is that so? Well, we’re always happy to have another helping hand around, if he wants an excuse to spend more time with them.” Zuko flushed at Sela’s teasing smile, but he dipped his head in a nod. That would be nice. “Is there anything your other animals need? I’ll admit, I haven’t seen many of them before. Your group must be well-traveled.”

“You have no idea,” he agreed with a chuckle. “But they should be fine. Mikan, um, that’s the lion vulture, may need some sort of meat if we stay for any longer than a day, but she ate recently. She’s also more of a scavenger than an active hunter, so you don’t need to worry about her picking off any of your livestock, I promise.”

“It’s no problem at all, son,” Gansu assured him. “We trust your judgment. Now, while they’re busy working on dinner, I could use some help patching up the barn’s roof. Any volunteers?”

Sokka’s hand shot up immediately, jumping at the chance to make himself useful for others, and Ty Lee was only a heartbeat behind him. “I was an aerial performer in the circus,” Ty Lee explained at Gansu’s skeptical look. She knew that she looked far more delicate than she really was. “I’ve got a lot of practice keeping my balance up high, and I’ve had to help patch up the tent more than a few times. I know it’s not quite the same as replacing shingles, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Aang, do you wanna help?”

“Oh!” Aang startled, smiling sheepishly. “Sure! Between the four of us, we can get it done in no time.”

“I have a wide selection of tea blends if you wouldn’t mind me brewing some,” Uncle offered, just as pleased as Sela was at her approving nod. “Excellent! I find that tea always tastes better when shared with friends.”

Mai traced a finger over one of her few visible daggers, humming quietly. “I’ll watch over our stuff, make sure none of those soldiers come back and try anything.”

“Yeah, what she said!” Toph exclaimed with a smirk. “Besides, I wanna mess around with the dirt for a while. Guess that just leaves you, Tempest. What’s your plan?”

Azula sighed, as if greatly put upon, before she muttered, “I suppose I can help Uncle with the tea. It seems a useful skill to have.” Uncle practically lit up, even knowing that Azula was using him to avoid the more menial labor options. She could have insisted on guarding things with Mai, after all. Lee’s family had no clue just how competently Mai and Toph could handle any threat that came their way.

Even knowing that Azula had simply come to enjoy his tea and wanted to ensure she could make it herself later on, so there was no chance of someone else poisoning her, made Uncle happy. Zuko was happy for him, honestly. Especially because he just couldn’t get past the fact that all teas tasted like hot leaf juice to him, try as he might to taste the essence of jasmine or whatever.

“Pardon me for saying so,” Sela murmured once it was just him, Katara, and herself in the kitchen. Uncle and Azula were fussing over the tea in the living room, bickering quietly. “But beyond being well-traveled, your group… Appears to be from all over. What is that like?”

“Well, it’s certainly interesting. We all have our own way of doing things, but they blend and work together better than you might expect. My brother and I are from the Southern Water Tribe, and honestly, I’ve gotten along with our newfound group far better than I did with most of the people in our sister tribe at the North Pole. Zuko, despite not knowing how to cook before, doesn’t sneer at it or call it women’s work like my brother used to; he just wanted to learn how to do it. At the end of the day we’re all just… People. We have different opinions sometimes, different ways that we go about solving the same problem, but we all still care about each other. That’s the important part. And we respect each other's differences. That's why I've got this separate pot here for Aang; he's a vegetarian."

“It sounds like you’ve found something quite special.” Sela’s smile was warm and motherly in a way that made Zuko’s heart pang in nostalgic remembrance. “Family, even if not born strictly of blood, is the most important thing there is.”

They all end up eating outside. There wasn’t nearly enough room for them to do so in their hosts’ home without walking all over each other, but between the setting sun and a slight breeze, it wasn’t quite as miserably hot as it was before. The barn’s newly repaired roof was finished, and both Gansu and Lee seemed immensely pleased by this, even if the latter was happier about all the stories that were shared with him while they were doing so.

“Is it really true that you got your lion vulture from the circus?!” Lee asked with a wide smile and sparkling eyes. He didn’t give Zuko the chance to answer before he kept chattering on, but he figured that Ty Lee had already told him anyway. “That’s so cool! I’ve never even been to a circus before.”

“You know what? Once all of this awful war business is done and over with, I’ll make sure a circus comes by just for you,” Ty Lee promised him with a fond grin. “I bet they’ll do it if I offer to perform for them again. Maybe Zuko can do another act for them too, accept another animal as payment.”

Everyone had a good laugh at his expense as his cheeks burned, but he couldn’t help chuckling with them. Might as well fuel the fire. “I wouldn’t be opposed. Maybe I’ll bully a tigerdillo out of them next time.”

Mai sighed in exasperation, mostly because she knew he was only sort of kidding, while everyone else either laughed or snickered under their breaths. The calls of various hybrid pigs rang out in the fields, and their lighthearted conversation continued until the sun dipped below the horizon and Tui took her place in the sky.

“Why don’t you stay for the night?” Sela offered with a warm smile. “Now that the barn’s roof is fixed, it should be quite cozy. And there will be plenty of hay for Appa as well.”

“Thanks! You’re so nice.” Aang beamed as he jumped up to hug Sela, offering the same to a grinning Lee.

Lee seemed so excited to spend time with a kid his age that it really wasn’t a surprise when he asked, “Can I sleep out there with them, Mom? Please, please, please?”

Sela and her husband exchanged a fond look as she murmured, “So long as it’s alright with our guests, I don’t see why not.”

Uncle chuckled and nodded his head with a smile nearly as fond as Lee’s parents, lost in the memory of a younger, clingier Zuko. His cheeks burned when Uncle glanced back at him. “The more the merrier, I say!”

Lee settled between Aang and Toph with a grin, running his hand through Laichi’s fur as the polar dog snuggled up next to him. It didn’t take long for Zuko to drift off, leaning against Sokka with both Momo and Anzu curled up in his lap, and he slept more soundly here than he had in quite some time. He only stirred at the sound of a startled squeak, locking eyes with Azula as they both watched Mai give Lee one of her spare daggers and promise to show him how to use them tomorrow if he let her sleep. He accepted that offer with a sheepish grin and an apology, and Zuko dozed off once more, reassured that all his people were safe.

Come morning, Mai upheld her end of the bargain with Lee, and Zuko was contently working with a wide variety of hybrid pigs. The wooly-pigs were his favorite, they were just so soft and cuddly, but they were all absolutely adorable. Sokka watched him take care of the most recently weaned wooly-piglets with a smile that made his heart do somersaults in his chest. “This is too adorable for words. You might actually manage to make me feel bad for eating these things, and I’m the sarcasm and meat guy.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them warm up to someone so quickly before,” Sela marveled from the picken pen. “They’re not even squealing now. And look at that little girl! You know, she’s bitten me and Gansu both, but here she is, acting like you’re the best thing since fresh bread.” Sela chuckled as the wooly-piglet pressed even more insistently against his hand, and though Zuko’s cheeks burned, he still happily pet her. “You’ve got a way with animals that you don’t see often. They can tell you’re a gentle soul. It’s almost a shame you have to go.”

“Yeah,” he agreed with a sigh. It would be nice to be able to stay here for a while, help their family with the farm in exchange for somewhere to stay, but he knew it wasn’t possible. It was too dry here, and they’d need to be able to practice waterbending too. Zuko was already starting to get that itch beneath his skin that told him he hadn’t fully immersed himself in the water for too long. “But thank you for letting us stay the night. Your hospitality has been appreciated.”

“Of course! It’s been a pleasure to have you. If you’re ever in the area again, please feel free to stop by.”

They waited until the sun was blazing bright in the sky, both Mai and Lee having returned about an hour ago, before they packed up their things and prepared to leave the village. “Hey, we’ve got company! Doesn’t sound friendly to me,” Toph cried out just before they heard the distant rumbling of a group of ostrich horses running toward the farm.

“What do you reckon they want?” Gansu grumbled at the sight of the same soldiers Toph had scared off yesterday crested over the horizon.

Azula’s eyes narrowed. “Nothing good, that’s for certain.”

“What do you want, Gow?” Gansu growled when he and three other soldiers slowed to a halt atop their armored ostrich horses. The poor things had to be so uncomfortable. He could only imagine the way the oppressive heat made the metal scorch the poor animals' feathers and skin.

“Just thought that someone ought to tell you that your son’s battalion got captured.” Gansu’s eyes widened in shock, and Sela gasped quietly while Lee’s eyes watered. “You boys hear what the Fire Nation did with their last group of Earth Kingdom prisoners?”

“Dressed ‘em up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the front line unarmed, from the way I heard it. Then they just watched.” Zuko hated that he couldn’t completely discount this as a propagandized rumor. He wouldn’t put anything past his father or his men at this point.

“You watch your mouth!” Gow led his ostrich horse forward, clearly intending to have the animal attack Gansu because he was too cowardly to do so himself. An earth wall sprung up in his way, completely obstructing his path.

“Um, hello?” Toph scoffed. “Forget me so soon? My family has a vested interest in the continued well being of this farm. I suggest you keep moving before I make you.”

Gow stared them down the best he was able to, barely being able to see over the wall, and grumbled, “Why bother rooting around in the mud with these pigs?” He and his men left after that, and it wasn’t until they were well out of sight that Toph lowered her wall and returned it to the earth below.

“... What’s gonna happen to my brother?” Lee whispered.

Gansu hugged his wife close, shoulders shaking as he steeled his resolve. “I’m going to the front. I’m going to find Sensu and bring him back.” Sela sobbed, and Gansu led her back to the house as Lee ran up to them, eyes just as teary as his mother’s.

“Can… Can you stay? Just for a little while longer? It’s gonna be hard for Mom and I to do everything on our own.”

And despite the itch beneath his skin, despite the fact that they only had a well to use for waterbending practice and Aang still wasn’t getting anywhere with earthbending, there was only one answer he could give the kid. “Of course we will. We’re not in any huge rush.”

“Mind if I borrow your messenger hawk, Uncle?” Azula asked once she saw just how invested in this Zuko had become. “It seems I have a few inquiries to make.”

“But of course, Niece! Hawky will be grateful for the chance to stretch his wings, I am sure.”

Gansu, Sela, and Lee all went down to the village proper to say their farewells, an ostrich horse trailing behind them for Gansu to take on his journey. When Sela ran back up to the farm barely more than an hour later, Lee was no longer with her and she was in hysterics. “Please, you have to help! It’s Lee. Those thugs from town came back as soon as Gansu left, and when they ordered us to bring them back to the farm and give them our food, Lee pulled a knife on them. I don’t even know where he got a knife!” Mai stiffened, and even if it was so slight that no one else would notice it, he and Azula certainly did. He didn't doubt that Ty Lee figured it out either. As for the others, he assumed that they hadn’t realized why the kid followed her out to the sunflower fields this morning. “Then they took him away. They told me if Lee’s old enough to fight, then he’s old enough to join the army!” Sela sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “I know we barely know y’all, but you seem like such good people. And you’re the only ones I can count on to stand up to those… Those bastards! Please, please help us. Please save my son!”

“Oh, we’ll get him back,” Toph promised with a crack of her knuckles. “And we’ll make those idiots regret the fact that they were ever born. Come on, Sparky!” He staggered when Toph jumped onto his back like a much larger version of Momo, wrapping her arms around his neck with a snicker. “I’m stronger than you, but I’m not quite as fast. So let’s move it!”

Zuko raced down the dirt path after securing Toph on his back and with Azula at his side. Both Aang and Ty Lee were able to use airbending to dart past them, and though the others were slower, only Uncle remained behind to console Sela and reassure her that everything was going to be okay.

“There they are!” Lee cried out with a relieved smile, bound in rope but on his feet with three of the four soldiers standing right beside him. “I told you they’d come.”

“You’ve got a whole lotta nerve!” Toph snarled the second that Gow joined his compatriots, and he could see how unnerved the man was when her head whipped over in his direction despite being unable to see him. “What part of the Beifong family having a vested interest in Lee’s farm gave you the bright idea that you could do something so stupid? Let him go, now, and maybe you and your merry little band of idiots won’t be blacklisted by every merchant from here to Ba Sing Se!”

“Oh, really?” Gow sneered with a decided attitude change from earlier. “The thing is, I’ve done some asking around, little girl, and ain’t no one ever heard of the Beifongs having a daughter before. Certainly not a blind little slip of a thing that wants to act tougher than she is.” A single stomp of Toph’s foot had Gow and each of his men buried up to their chins in the dirt, and Zuko darted forward to cut Lee free with his knife and pull the kid back to the others. Sokka, Katara, and Mai caught up to them, and the latter gave him a steady nod when Lee darted to her side. She would protect him.

Gow’s men, like Toph predicted, weren’t earthbenders. Gow was, though, and when he freed both himself and his little gang members, the battle begun in earnest. Well… That was what it would have been called, if said men weren’t laughably bad at fighting. Ty Lee had one down and out with a few jabs of her fingers, leaving him paralyzed and groaning face down in the dirt. The second man wasn’t any better, and when Aang blasted him back into a wall with a jet of air, he turned tail and fled the village. Toph knocked the other one out with a rock to his head and a bored yawn. Gow’s eyebrow was twitching in barely restrained fury as Lee laughed at them, reaching for his hammer as he prepared to start hurling boulders at them. He didn’t get the chance to even start before Sokka’s boomerang hit the back of his head and put him down and out for the count. Zuko found himself immensely grateful that no one had tried to attack this village so far with such paltry, poor excuses for defenses, but he knew that it wouldn't last forever. It couldn't last forever. And he couldn't bring himself to just leave it like this.

He didn’t notice Sela or his Uncle joining the crowd that watched them, as brief as the fight was, but even if he had, it wouldn’t have changed what he said next. “This town has suffered under Gow and his men for far too long. You have likely suffered under the Fire Nation for even longer, no matter how distantly. No more. The time for that is over."

“You’re lucky I know you and your bleeding heart so well, Zuzu,” Azula hissed under her breath. “Or you’d be making a lot of false promises that we couldn’t stay to keep forever.”

But it was precisely because he knew the sort of aid Azula would request alongside securing Sensu’s safe return home that he was confident in doing this, and she knew that as well, for all that she insisted on mocking him for it. “This town is now under the protection of the rebel prince and princess of the Fire Nation, the liberators of Omashu, and teachers of the Avatar, who is just as dedicated to putting an end to Fire Lord Ozai’s tyranny as we are.” Aang stepped forward with a sheepish grin, waving at the dumbstruck villagers. “You will never need to fear men like Gow and his ilk ever again, and should the Fire Lord’s army come, our people will fight him.”

“The Fire Nation has been on the brink of a civil war for years,” Azula murmured. “They were waiting for us to grow strong enough to openly oppose our father, instead of doing so solely from the shadows, and that time has come. They fight at my command now. Sensu’s battalion will be returned home. Each and every survivor will be treated with the utmost respect and care, and for those unfortunate few who did not make it, we will return them to you all the same for their final rites. I cannot apologize enough for the harm my nation has caused, for the damage it has done since long before my brother or I were ever born, but know that we will put an end to it all. We will make things right.”

Uneasy murmurs rippled across the crowd, and Sela raced forward to jerk Lee away from them. The kid watched them with wide, betrayed eyes as Sela warned them, “Not a step closer.”

“They’re not going to hurt you!” Aang promised, looking so genuinely distressed at the sudden turn of the village’s opinion. “They’ve been helping me this whole time, no matter how dangerous it gets. I trust them.” And though Aang was only able to bend air and water right now, his demonstration of doing so calmed the majority of the village. “I know it’s scary. I know the Fire Nation has done a lot of really terrible things, but that doesn’t mean that everyone in it is terrible! The Earth Kingdom has done some really terrible things to me too. There was this awful village that hated me so much just for being the Avatar, and General Fong could have killed Katara! All because he wanted to use me as some weapon to end the war right now, before I’m trained enough to stand a chance, no matter how awful things would be for everyone around me because of it. But I still fight for you all! I still care! This war has to stop, everyone has to stop hurting each other, but hating people in the Fire Nation who haven’t even done anything to you, who’ve only helped you, makes you exactly the same as the people you really hate! It’s not fair!” Aang’s eyes and tattoos flickered a brilliant blue before he took a deep, calming breath.

Toph broke the weighted silence with a delighted laugh. “You tell them how it is, Twinkletoes! Channel into that sort of stubborn protectiveness and you’ll master earthbending in no time.”

Sela looked absolutely stricken as Lee darted out of her slack embrace, tackling Zuko into a hug with watery eyes. “I believe you,” the kid promised. “You’re way too nice to be evil. Can you really bring Sensu home?”

“We will do everything in our power to do so,” he promised, praying to every Great Spirit he knew that Sensu was still alive. “And that isn’t a small amount of power, despite everything.”

“Thank you,” Sela whispered. “And I am… I am so sorry. We’ve lost so much to the Fire Nation that I…”

“I understand.” His smile was nothing but sympathetic as his left hand trailed up to his scar. Sela followed the motion, and her eyes widened in sudden, horrified realization. “I understand,” he repeated in a whisper. “I don’t blame you for it.”

Sela’s gaze, previously watery and uncertain, glinted with steel. “Come on, then. Let’s take you all back to the farm. Today has been quite the day.” She spoke as if daring anyone within the village to contradict her. None of them did.

A week later, Gansu returned with an escort of Fire Nation soldiers loyal to Azula and Azula alone. Alongside him was Sensu and every living man and woman of his battalion, each promised safe passage to their homes and guards to take them there for those who had somewhere else to go. Many remained with their families here. Many who did not live here but had no one waiting for them elected to stay, finding work in the village that was now much safer than most other places in the Earth Kingdom.

“Zuko,” Sela murmured the day before they left, watching his iridescent flames heal a moo-sow who had twisted her hoof with a fond smile. He pet the animal one final time before putting the flames out. “Your little friend has been demanding your presence again.” She held out the wooly-piglet that clung to him like a burr, deftly avoiding the animal’s nippy mouth as she passed her over to Zuko. The wooly-piglet immediately settled in his arms, rubbing her head against him with a happy grunt. “You should take her with you. She adores you, and I can only imagine what a little terror she’ll become once you leave.” She paused, hesitated for a moment, before whispering, “I guess she’s a better judge of character than I was, huh? You brought our son home. I never thought I’d see the day where both of our boys…”

“It was the least we could do,” he murmured with averted eyes. “And I couldn’t have done it without Azula, but I’m glad that he’s okay. I’m glad that you all have actual protection now, not just a bunch of thugs looking to take advantage of you.” Zuko readjusted his grip on the wooly-piglet before glancing back up to meet Sela’s eyes. “Are you sure I can keep her? I’ll definitely pay you–”

“No you will not,” Sela snorted with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It’s the least I could do. Besides, like I said, she’ll probably become a little terror once you go. I’d feel awful if we had to make her a meat pig just because she refuses to like anyone but you.”

“... Thank you,” he murmured, holding the newly named Nashi close to his chest. Azula was going to tease him for hours, at minimum, for this, but he was too happy to care. “The wooly-pigs on your farm are all the miniature variety, right? I noticed they all seemed pretty small.”

“That’s right. I doubt she’ll get any bigger than your polar dog, and honestly, she’ll probably stay smaller. She’s a little dumpster too, as most hybrid pigs are, so she’ll eat whatever you’ve got on hand.” Sela smiled at him, warm and maternal in a way he was slowly getting used to no matter how much it hurt, and hugged him when he stepped out of the pen. She dodged another one of Nashi’s nips with a laugh. “Take care. And remember, if any of you happen to be in the area again…”

“We’ll stop by,” he promised. “And if nothing else, Ty Lee did promise to bring Lee a circus. We intend to uphold that promise.”

Sela laughed, warm and delighted, with a nod. “Of course, how could I ever forget? We’ll be looking forward to it.”

Azula did tease him, mercilessly, when she saw him walking up Appa’s tail with a wooly-piglet in hand, but it lacked her usual bite. They were both pleased by the shift in opinion both with Lee’s family and the village in general, wary caution morphing into hopeful trust. It gave them both hope for making reparations in the future, not just with nobles and leaders but with the common people of the nations that the Fire Nation had caused so much harm to.

“Bye!” Lee called out with a wave. “I’m gonna miss you lots and lots! Kick butt out there!”

Ty Lee laughed, bright and amused, as she promised, “We will! We’ll be back before you know it, Lee!”

They soared over the village and were given nothing but happy faces, waves, and cheering as they departed. He would have offered them help no matter how much they hated him despite it, or even for it, but Zuko couldn’t deny that it was nice to feel appreciated. It was nice to feel like he was making a change that mattered, a change that would last, solely of his own volition. He didn’t do this because a spirit guided him here or said it was his destiny to do so but simply because he could help and so he did.

Zuko hoped that this was the first of many cases like this one.

Chapter 8: Chapter Eight: Ill Omens

Chapter Text

“Look at all this fur,” Zuko murmured mournfully as clump after clump of Appa’s fur fell off of him. Now that the weather was firmly shifting toward and staying in the warmer months of spring, the flying bison was shedding his winter coat. For an animal so large, it was something of an ordeal. “Well, I guess I know what I’m doing today.” There was no need to risk anyone tracking them through a trail of white, distinctive fur, just because Ozai’s forces hadn’t found them yet didn't mean they never would, and he knew that Appa would be at least mildly uncomfortable until the majority of that excess fur was gone. He already had a heavy burden to carry; Zuko was going to help him out however he could.

“We could always wash him off in the river,” Aang offered with a glance toward the body of water, not big enough but better than nothing, that they were setting up camp next to.

Zuko shook his head. “It’s better not to. With this much fur, it could end up getting stuck in the gills and mouths of whatever fish are in there, and then they wouldn’t be able to breathe or eat properly. Maybe we could bend some water over him near the end, but we’d drown all the plants if we did that to start with. And if there are any mats in Appa’s fur, which there shouldn’t be but I don’t want to risk it, then water will make it a lot harder to get out.”

Aang blinked a couple of times as a wide smile lit up his face. “I didn’t even know that! I’m gonna have to ask you to groom Appa all the time, I think. I'm pretty sure he won't ever settle for what we managed to do for him before again.”

He snorted at that, smiling fondly as Nashi rolled around in the thin layer of fur that coated the ground around them like snow. Her wool had the fur sticking to her even more insistently than the rest of them, and he knew that he’d be grooming her too, once he was done with Appa. “Well, you know I wouldn’t mind. Brushing him is very relaxing, almost meditative.”

“I’m just glad that I won’t have to be the one scrubbing between his toes again,” Sokka muttered before gathering up a whole armful of fur. Before he could even ask what he was doing, Sokka had fashioned some sort of wig for himself and startled a laugh out of Zuko. “But hey, at least his fur makes a great wig!”

“And a great beard!” Aang hopped down from Appa’s head with a giggle, rubbing at the massive, furry mop he had stuck to his face with a creative use of airbending. Sokka and Aang both burst into laughter, and Ty Lee swiftly joined them in weaving patches of fur into her braid. Katara rolled her eyes as Toph plastered two massive tufts of fur beneath her armpits, amused and irritated in equal measure, as she joined Azula and Mai. There were times when the antics of the larger portion of the group, and he absolutely included Uncle in that because he was an enabler, exasperated Katara, but she always had the company of the far more level-headed girls when the rest of them became too much.

She usually found it all more amusing with a bit of distance. He wasn’t surprised to hear her laughing a few minutes later, shortly after Anzu joined Nashi in rolling around and made herself look more like a mink snake with a fresh winter coat than a fire ferret.

Once they were done goofing around, at least for now, Aang used his airbending to move Appa’s saddle off of him, and Zuko started working on brushing out all the loose and tangled fur on the flying bison’s back. Appa melted beneath the combined attention of his brush and warm hands, and Zuko focused on doing what had become his unofficial job within the group while everyone else went about setting up camp. They all swiftly learned that Toph was fiercely independent, preferring to do her own thing and take care of everything she needed for herself alone. She even made her own tent out of two sheets of rock, and though he could tell that Katara was a bit bothered by her refusal to help with group chores in exchange for her fierce individualism, there were so many of them that she let it slide. There were only so many tasks for a group of nine to manage.

“Ow!” Sokka yelped once he got back from fishing, Kashisu purring at his side in a way that spoke of him stealing one of Sokka’s fish at some point. He startled back, sticking his finger in his mouth as he grumbled at the little wooly-pig that had just nipped him. “You really do only like Zuko, huh? Yeesh.”

“Come here,” he murmured while trying desperately not to laugh. Sokka pouted, Zuko wasn’t very good at hiding how hard he was trying to keep a straight face, but he still offered up his lightly bleeding finger and let him heal it with minimal grumbling. “She’s still pretty nippy. She might get used to other people in time, might not, but most hybrid pigs are smart. I’ll train her to keep her teeth to herself, at the very least.”

Sokka sighed wearily. “Good. I can’t believe that I have more reason to be worried about a wooly-piglet biting me than a literal lion vulture. What even is my life?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question for years,” he snorted. “You learn to just roll with it eventually.”

Zuko’s heart made that weird, flipping sensation roar to life in his chest when Sokka settled down next to Appa and started brushing the smaller animals so that Zuko wouldn’t have to later. He couldn’t do Nashi, Laichi and Kashisu were having to take turns herding her away from Sokka because she kept trying to bite him and was making a general nuisance of herself, but everyone else had neat, glossy coats and straight feathers before Zuko finished brushing out Appa. Even Ichigo, much to their mutual shock and delight given how fiercely loyal iguana parrots were to a singular person, allowed Sokka to straighten out his feathers, though he sat on the ground and firmly refused to climb into Sokka’s lap like the other animals had. It was still more than either of them expected from him.

Nashi positively melted into Zuko’s lap once he was finished grooming Appa and could give her attention again, oinking quietly as he worked the staticky, clingy fur out of her wool. It would probably only be a matter of time before she started rolling around in the mud near the riverbank and he was forced to groom her all over again, but he would just have to bathe her before they left if it happened. And invest in some shears the next time they stopped in a town. He didn’t want her wool to get overgrown as she aged, though he'd be sure not to cut it too short, and between her and Appa, they could probably make some decent money selling to fiber artists and yarn spinners.

“Of course, she becomes a perfect little angel for you.” Sokka sounded equal parts exasperated and amused when Nashi nudged against Zuko’s hand and licked him, leaning into his touch. “Is there anything your magical, warm hands and special fire doesn’t work on turning as tame as any regular polar dog?”

“I mean… That wolfbat didn’t like me very much.”

Sokka waved his hand dismissively. “It was already freaked out by the badgermoles, and they don’t like light to begin with. It still calmed down enough to not try and maul us; I’d say that counts.”

“... Then I’ve yet to find something it doesn’t work on, and let’s hope I never do.” He couldn’t imagine that ending well for anyone involved. The thought did make him want to try something particularly reckless, though. Maybe he could try taming a sabertooth moose lion...

Once his job was done, Zuko happily threw himself into the river, wishing more than anything that it was large enough for him to transform in. Still, submerging himself in the water felt like coming home, and everyone was happy when he was able to use clawed hands to catch several more fish for dinner tonight. Between him and Sokka, they had so much that they would be able to turn some of it into jerky for later, and that was after feeding the animals that ate meat too.

Nashi had, as expected, used the excuse of her person being in the river to roll around in the mud bordering it, plastering muck all over herself and getting several branches stuck in her wool. He huffed in amusem*nt as she happily pressed her little, wet snout against him the second he emerged from the water, and she squealed in displeasure when Toph fashioned a shallow basin made of rock for him and he promptly gave her a bath in it. “I know, I know,” he murmured. She calmed down once his hands were on her again, warm and comforting, but she definitely did not like the water much. “But if I leave you like this, then you won’t be able to control your temperature properly. You’re not a moo-sow; the mud is just going to cake onto your wool and keep you from cooling down. I'm trying to help you."

The wooly-piglet was even more relieved than Zuko when that ordeal was over, and she plastered herself to his side after he dried her off and used waterbending to get any lingering water out of her wool, refusing to even step close to the river or mud with the resulting bath fresh on her mind. Uncle thought it was cute until she tried to bite him too.

Thankfully, her nippiness didn’t seem to extend to her fellow animals, so Zuko was still surrounded by furry and feathered creatures as he drifted into the land of dreams. Soft, freshly cleaned wool pressed against his arms as he cradled Nashi to his chest. Though unknown to him, the little wooly-piglet snuffled in distress when her human’s body slackened, still breathing but unnaturally still.

“Hello again, my vessel.” La’s voice echoed both within his head and outside it, and his golden, slitted eyes blinked open with a rumbling, unsettled growl as he suddenly found himself in the other realm. The ocean’s fathomless depths surrounded him, water shifting in unnatural currents as the great, black sea serpent wrapped around him. He wondered how they could both exist in the Spirit World at the same time if he was currently hosting La in his body. “In much the same way that my existence as the ocean and Tui’s as the moon does not prevent us from taking on a mortal form. We are not limited solely to the vessels that hold us. We are together yet apart, one and the same yet different, mortal and immortal, yin and yang… Balance, as in all other things, my vessel.”

“Why did you call me here?” In his human form, his voice would have come out as a whisper. As a dragon, he was incapable of being that quiet, but it was a near thing.

“There have been great shifts in the currents here, a rising tide within the Spirit World that threatens to spill over. Should it do so, this cataclysm will threaten all life, both human and spirit, and destroy the world before Ozai the Pretender can even attempt it. The beginning of the end. The breaker of balance. One who inserts himself into the endless cycle of give and take, only to take and take until nothing but himself remains. Balance must be upheld. He must be stopped.”

Dread settled in his stomach, so oppressive and heavy that he struggled to breathe. If this threat was severe enough that La would pull him into the Spirit World to communicate it to him, even if she was still being a bit vague about it, then he was up against something unfathomably powerful. Something powerful enough to frighten a Great Spirit. There was really only thing it could be. “How… How am I meant to fight a Great Spirit?”

“You are the champion of two, are you not?” La asked with a mocking croon and a tilt of her head. “And favored by yet another. Perhaps you should beg her assistance, when the time comes, but until then… Seek the domain of Wan Shi Tong. He Who Knows Ten Thousand Things will have the knowledge you seek, but earning his favor shall not be an easy task. Nevertheless, it will be easier than the task that follows.”

“Great,” he grumbled lowly. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. I’ll see it done. Was there anything else you needed?”

“So impatient, my vessel.” La’s hold on him tightened, suddenly and painfully, before he was let go and left to gasp for air. “Do not forget your place. The ocean can be as cruel as it can kind, and you hosting a portion of my power does not spare you from the crashing waves.”

“Of course. I beg your forgiveness, Great Spirit of the Ocean.” Zuko dipped his head so low that his entire body threatened to flip over in the water. Eerie laughter echoed in his head.

“You are forgiven for your impudence, this time. I will not be so merciful the next.” The space around him shifted and changed, morphing from the darkest pits of the ocean to a searingly bright sky that had him instinctively flapping his wings and cringing away from its source. “My dearest’s brother wishes to speak with you, so I shall leave you to it.”

The sky flashed with light, burning and dizzying in a way that threatened to ground him if there was anything but an endless abyss of blinding blue to fall through, and Agni, unlike La, did not bother to take on a form that didn’t strain at the edges of any mortal’s sanity to perceive. He was everywhere and nowhere all at once, searing his eternal presence into Zuko’s eyelids and piercing through his scales no matter how tightly he screwed his eyes shut. “Do not hide from me, my little dragon. Do not forget who holds the greatest claim to you in life, regardless of your form or the favor you earn with other Great Spirits.”

He forced his eyes open. Beholding the sun up close was agonizing, but it was pain that he had to endure until Agni got whatever he wanted from him. “Good. You know that I care for you, my little dragon. I would not assign you a task destined for failure. La’s quest for you is of great importance, but you must grow stronger first. Learn to pull the water from deep within the earth up to its surface or face certain death in the desert that Wan Shi Tong’s domain resides within. You will suffer greatly for the lack of water there, no matter how much energy I imbue you with. Do not set foot within that desert until you find yourself capable of creating your own oasis. I have no intention of losing my claim on you so soon, and if you run foolishly to your own death to end a disaster that has not yet come to pass, that cannot be stopped until it is already in motion, then I will haunt your every incarnation for the rest of eternity. Understand, my little dragon?”

“I understand,” he promised. “I’ll work on my waterbending, use what I’ve already learned to pull water from the air to pull it from the earth as well, and I will make it work." He wasn’t sure if anyone else could ever manage such a thing, maybe Azula through sheer stubbornness, but his connection with La would surely make it possible. And like Agni said, he could be demanding, but he wouldn’t ask Zuko to do something he was truly incapable of doing.

“Good. In doing so, you will make the Si Wong Desert far safer to cross, not just for you but for all living things. I care little for that, but it should be sufficient motivation for your bleeding heart.” Agni’s voice did that strange thing again, managing to sound both menacing and fond in the same breath, that made Zuko want to cringe away. He didn’t dare to. “That is all I wished to say. Prepare yourself for great things, my little dragon. You will soon be forced to live up to the legacies placed upon your shoulders.”

Zuko woke with a startled gasp, with teeth too sharp and eyes both bright and inhuman, and was almost immediately hushed by Nashi’s snout pressing against his chin. The little wooly-piglet grunted quietly, fluffy tail flicking back and forth, as she settled down on his chest and drifted off to sleep, content that her human was now safe. His breathing slowly leveled out, the tiny animal rising and falling with his every breath, and one of his trembling hands brushed against her back and stayed there.

He was safe. He had work to do, a path to work toward, but that was nothing new. At least he knew something about what sort of trouble he was preparing himself for this time. It could be a lot worse. It has been a lot worse.

This time, Zuko drifted into the land of dreams and stayed there, free of any further spirit interference. Tui’s gentle light shone upon him, and though Yue could not possibly be there to offer him her support in person, he could have sworn that he felt a chilled hand brush against his forehead just before his eyes slid shut.

It was the best night of sleep he’d had in a long time.

Chapter 9: Chapter Nine: Spirit Quest, Spirit Oasis

Chapter Text

They found themselves stopping for the day in a craggy valley, hidden by sheer cliff faces and surrounded by rock and mountains as far as the eye could see. Toph wanted to have an abundance of material to work with now that she’d found a hint of an earthbender’s stubbornness buried deep in Aang, and the kid seemed equal parts excited and afraid to have a barrage of boulders thrown at him.

Toph’s manic grin stretched from ear to ear as the earth rumbled and her stone tent shattered around her. “Good morning, Twinkletoes!”

Aang bowed, appropriately wary of an earthbender of Toph’s caliber, and murmured, “Good morning, Sifu Toph.”

“You never call me Sifu Katara.” She sounded more amused than genuinely upset about that, but Aang still flushed and started stammering as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Well, I will if you think I should…”

Sokka growled and rolled over, taking his entire sleeping bag with him, as he grumbled under his breath. He was definitely not a morning person, especially on days where they intended to stick around and train rather than travel, and Ty Lee stifled a laugh at his expense. Mai was just as disgruntled to be woken up this early, Uncle was already making tea, and Azula had been up for a while, having started practicing her firebending a safe distance away from their camp the second that the sun shone above the horizon.

“Sorry, Snoozles,” Toph teased with a wicked smirk as Sokka continued grumbling unhappily. “We’ll do our earthbending as quietly as we can.” She then proceeded to stomp her foot and launch Sokka into the air with a pillar of rock, jolting him awake as he screamed. Ty Lee used her airbending to slow his fall in a controlled effort that showed how much progress she’d been making with Aang lately. Sokka got out of his sleeping bag with a rather ineffectual glare at the only member of their group who couldn’t see it, though he did nod his thanks to Ty Lee before stomping off with a disgruntled huff. Zuko considered following him for a moment, but seeing as Sokka was taking his sleeping bag with him, he decided to let him get whatever rest he could. He should probably start figuring out how to pull water from the earth soon anyway.

“So, what move are you gonna teach me first?” Aang asked Toph with an excited grin. “Now that I’ve connected to what drives me as an earthbender and all. Rock-alanche? The trembler? Oh, maybe I can learn how to make a whirlpool out of dirt!”

Toph snorted, stopping Aang before he could get any more carried away than he already had. “Let’s start with getting you to actually move a rock. All the drive in the world won’t help you if you can’t use it to force the earth to move.”

Aang laughed at that. “Sounds good to me!” He and Toph walked off to begin their training for the day, and Zuko intervened when it looked like Katara was about to go supervise, knowing both that it probably wouldn’t be the best idea for her to do so and that he would likely need her help to figure out how to draw water to the surface of the earth in a reasonable amount of time. He wasn’t sure how soon this world-ending threat would become a problem, but it wasn’t exactly the sort of thing he wanted to wait around on solving.

“Hey, Katara? Would you mind helping me with something?”

“Hm?” Katara stopped in her tracks, blinking as she turned back to face him. “Sure, what did you need? Were you wanting to practice making fog again? It does feel more humid down here…”

“Not… Exactly. I had a strange dream the other day, a spirit dream, and it was made pretty clear that I need to learn how to draw water up through the earth’s surface. I can sense that there’s an underground reservoir somewhere further down in this valley, but you’re a lot better at connecting with and controlling water that you can’t see than I am. I’d really appreciate whatever help you can give me, even if it’s just for a little while.”

The second he mentioned spirits, Katara’s eyes glinted with steel. Even those who had never met one before were swiftly gaining a healthy caution regarding interactions with them, and they all knew by now that refusing to answer a spirit’s call would only ever make things worse for everyone involved. “Let’s go figure this out, then. It’ll be good to have something to do, and Aang might be able to focus better if it’s just him and Toph anyway.”

They started walking, past their campsite and past where Azula was practicing, and Zuko’s eyes narrowed as he strained his senses and fixed his gaze on the ground. He tended to get a bit of tunnel vision when trying to find water like this, it was the only way he could maintain enough focus to track specific sources of water down, so Katara matched his stride and kept her eyes peeled for any threats that he might not notice because of it. He appreciated how immediately willing his friends were to compensate for weaknesses that could have been crippling otherwise more than he could ever put into words.

“We’re getting closer,” he murmured, though he likely did not have to. There was no river or stream traveling through this particular offshoot of the valley, but random patches of stone were damp here and the increased humidity only became more evident the farther they walked. “But it feels like it’s going to be pretty deep underground. How in La’s name are we meant to pull water through so much stone?”

“We’ll figure it out,” Katara reassured him.”The spirits wouldn’t ask you to do something impossible. Probably. And we can always go back and borrow Azula and Aang if this ends up being too difficult for two waterbenders to manage, but I don’t think we’ll need to. I mean, we figured out the fog thing pretty quick, and Aang and I reshaped the clouds once. This will probably just be another delicate, more finicky way of waterbending. Doesn’t make it any less doable.”

Katara had a way of injecting hope into even the most absurdly bleak situations, and it almost made him want to tell her just how important it was that they figured this out, quickly. Almost. Without any real information beyond an ominous, looming threat and a single stop they needed to make along the way, as if the Si Wong desert wasn’t massive enough to leave them searching for Wan Shi Tong for weeks, there was really no point in stressing everyone else out over it yet. It wasn’t like they could do anything more than what they already were.

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks.” Zuko came to an abrupt halt several paces later, crouching down and running his finger across the dusty earth at his feet. “It’s here,” he murmured. “Can you feel it?” There was an unusually large source of water deep beneath the earth’s surface, not just a river but an entire lake, and he couldn’t help wondering if they were guided to this particular campsite for that very reason. It would certainly be easier to work with this than whatever minuscule amount of water they managed to find deep beneath the arid sands of the desert.

Katara nodded with a thoughtful expression. “I can. Hm… Let me try a few things, then we can see if you’re able to replicate them.” Zuko sat down next to her as Katara’s fingers twitched, pointing down to the earth beneath them, and he cast out his water sense to watch her work.

It was fascinating, really. A thin ribbon of water lifted from the underground lake, twisting this way and that like a viper bat searching for prey. Katara guided the water up, maintaining the stream and its connection to the majority of the water down below, through crevices and porous rocks, losing some of it along the way while still steadily bringing it closer to the surface. They both cheered when the dirt became damp with water and a shallow pool, barely large enough for Momo to sit in, emerged from it. Katara wiped away the sweat on her face with a beaming grin as she dropped her connection to the water, and Zuko shuddered at the strange sensation of the thin stream slowly sinking back into the earth. The puddle remained. “Ha! There we go. Think you can copy that? Did you get a good enough look at what I was doing?”

He nodded with a determined glint in his eyes, knowing damn well that he wouldn’t stop trying until he managed to.

Zuko found waterbending easier than firebending, though that really wasn’t saying much given how much he’d struggled with the latter for years, but Katara was right to call this finicky work. Infuriatingly so. Connecting to the water wasn't too difficult since he knew that it was there, he had La to thank for that, but leading it up a path through the earth that didn’t end in patches of clay absorbing it entirely or getting stonewalled by rocks that the water couldn’t travel through was tedious and time-consuming. It took ages for him to stumble across the same path that Katara had used, and he couldn’t help snidely muttering, “At least this part will be easier when I’ve only got to worry about sand.”

Katara’s smile went from self-satisfied and teasing to proud when Zuko finally managed to bring his stream of water to the surface. When she saw that he wasn’t letting up, that he was steadily pushing the stream of water to move faster and grow larger, as the pool of water steadily expanded into something closer to a pond, Katara joined him in speeding the process along. They only stopped once they’d created a proper oasis, leaving only a small path around it and otherwise stretching across the entire valley, and Zuko dipped his hand into the water with a smile.

It began to glow. Katara startled at the luminescent blue that rippled across the water’s surface, and they both blinked, dumbstruck at the rapid growth of grass and flowers in a ring around the oasis. “Did I just…?” He really should have considered this possibility. It wasn’t like humans were able to create the sort of spiritual center that the Spirit Oasis was up in the North Pole, and as La’s vessel, why wouldn’t the ability to create something similar be within his capabilities? “I really shouldn’t be surprised at this point.”

“Probably not,” Katara agreed blithely. “Feeling anything strange or concerning?”

“Just a stronger pull to the water than usual. I think… The Spirit Oasis was strange, a portal between our realm and the Spirit World, and this feels similar but not quite the same. I think… I think it’s linked to the Spirit Oasis instead, maybe?”

“Well… Guess there’s only one way to find out.” Katara sat at the water’s edge, carefully avoiding touching the water itself, and quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’ll keep watch, but you should go check it out. Say hi to Yue for me if you get the chance.”

He snorted at her complete nonchalance about this whole thing, shrugging off any lingering apprehension as he dove into the water. Mere seconds after doing so, he could feel his human skin giving way to scales as he was pulled down, down, down into depths that should not have existed. When the entire world flipped on its axis and his head breached the water despite the insistent downward tugging up until that very moment, golden eyes locked with the equally spirit-touched blue of Yue’s and the faint light that illuminated the air around her.

“Hello, brother,” she murmured with a fond smile. “I see that your training goes well.”

“It does,” he rumbled, not bothering to shift back into his human form. “You look well. How are things in the Northern Water Tribe?”

“Much better.” Yue gestured to her bare neck with a wicked grin. “I’ll never have to worry about Hahn’s design on becoming chief again. It took some work, but the council is slowly coming around to the idea of me taking the lead once my father steps down, though that will not be for many years yet. They likely would not have, were it not for Tui’s presence within me, but I hope to pave the way for future generations and the other women of my tribe nonetheless. They deserve better than a life bound to the man they’re wed to, hoping only that it is a decent match for lack of having any choice in the matter.”

“That they do,” he agreed with a nod. “How did you know that I would come here today? I did not even know it was possible.”

“Tui came to me in my dreams, much the same as La did to you. She told me of great change and an even greater threat than any human war could ever hope to be, and I wished to offer you my assistance.” Yue dipped her head with a smile. “I cannot leave my people just yet, but when the time comes, know that you can call upon your other half. You know now how to find me, no matter where in the world you may find yourself, and when it is time… I will know, just as surely as you will. I will know, just as I knew that my presence was needed in the Spirit Oasis today. Shifts such as these do not tend to go unnoticed.”

He chuckled, rumbling and deep as smoke curled around his teeth, and dipped his head in acknowledgment. “Very well. It was a pleasure to see you again, sister, but I should not stay overly long. The others do not yet know me capable of this. Oh, and Katara wished to pass along her greetings.”

“I understand. Time waits for no one, not even us, and you have an important task to complete. Do pass along my well wishes to the others. And tell Katara hello from me as well.” Yue’s laugh echoed in a way that would feel eerie were it not for their connection, and Zuko knew that he wasn’t imagining the flash of light reflected upon walls of ice when he dipped beneath the water’s surface. He was not the only one training, preparing for the threat to come, and it put him at ease that someone else both knew of it and was able to prepare for it in a way that the others… Simply could not, not at this juncture.

“Well?” Katara asked once he emerged from the water, shaking himself off and shrinking back down into his human form. “How’d it go?”

“It was, in fact, a link to the Spirit Oasis. It was also very disorienting, but all things considered, it’s still useful. Yue said hello. Also that she was willing to help us out whenever serious spirit sh*t goes down.”

“That’s good to know. Feels like we could use all the help we can get on that front.” Katara brushed herself off as she got to her feet, smirking a little as she asked, “Wanna go see how Aang is doing? I heard some pretty serious rumbling earlier, so it’s either going really well or really badly. They might need a better healer than Azula nearby.”

He couldn’t help snorting at that. Azula, for all her prodigious talent and swift adaptation of waterbending into her combat abilities, was not inclined toward healing, and it showed. She was as likely to leave new bruises on her patients as she was to heal them. “That would probably be for the best,” he agreed, and they began their journey back to camp.

Azula had joined Mai and Ty Lee in their training by the time they returned, swiftly dodging blades, blasts of air, and a length of chain while returning blasts of fire that barely verged over into blue. Azula didn’t believe in going easy on anyone, but she still didn’t want to hurt either of her friends and avoided making her flames quite as hot as they could be if she pushed herself. Uncle was with Appa and all the other animals, trying and failing to win Nashi over with bribes of food, and they followed the quakes from Toph and Aang’s earthbending practice with quiet laughs. Sokka was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t particularly unusual. He went hunting all the time. It was a bit strange, though, that he didn’t take either Kashisu or Laichi with him, but for all Zuko knew, Sokka might have decided to get a good laugh out of watching Toph throw rocks at Aang instead. He wouldn’t start worrying just yet.

“Look! Look!” Aang shouted when he caught sight of them, grinning from ear to ear. The shattered remnants of what must have been a truly massive boulder were scattered around his feet. “I did it! I was able to move a bunch of rocks, and even though I jumped over it a couple of times, I stood my ground and broke the boulder this time!”

“It probably helped that I kept hurling bigger boulders at him,” Toph muttered with a wicked grin. “I wasn’t about to reward Twinkletoes for dancing around his problems like an airbender. Figured if the problem kept becoming bigger, then his method of avoiding it would eventually become dealing with it before it got worse. It worked.”

“That’s great, Aang!” Katara cheered with a smile. “I’m really glad that you’re starting to get the hang of earthbending. Did you want to practice your waterbending next? Zuko and I made an oasis in the other direction by pulling water up from underground, so we’ve got a pretty good source to work with now. Just… Don’t fall into it. Spirit stuff is involved.”

Aang laughed at that. “Isn’t it always? But sure! That sounds good to me.”

The two of them walked off, and Aang had just as much energy as always, while Toph chuckled. “Thanks for distracting Sugar Queen. She babies him a bit too much, and that might work for water but it would never work for earth. It’s not like you can come at moving a rock from a different angle. You find the rock, you force it to move.”

“It was no problem,” he assured her. “I really did need her help figuring something out anyway. But… Can you sense Sokka anywhere near here? Or know what direction he might have gone off in? He wasn’t back at the camp, and as much as he enjoys sleeping, there’s no way he wouldn’t have woken up by now.” It was nearing lunchtime, and Sokka wasn’t one to skip meals. Ever.

“Hmm… He’s not in my immediate range, but I can find him if you give me a minute. Hold on.” Toph shifted her feet with a concentrated furrow of her brows, tilting her head back with a guffaw at whatever she found. “Snoozles got himself stuck in some crevice, but he’s alright. There’s a little animal that doesn’t feel like any of yours sticking around him. Guess it’s his turn to bring a stray back. Come on, let’s go get him.” Toph marched off before he could get a word in edgewise, knowing that he’d be only a step behind her regardless. She was right.

“Toph! Zuko! Boy, am I glad to see you two,” Sokka cried out as a saber-tooth moose lion cub tugged at his hair. “A bit of help, please?” Zuko gently picked up the squirming cub while Toph pushed Sokka up and out of the crack in the ground, laughing all the while. “Yes, haha, it’s very funny. I thought I was a goner for a minute there. I will admit though…” Sokka looked over at the teething cub that was chewing on Zuko’s hand with a smile. “He is pretty cute. I’m kinda glad that I missed. I mean, look, he even brought me an apple! I couldn’t eat it with my arms stuck, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”

“He definitely seems to like you,” Zuko agreed when he put the cub down, allowing him to run right back to Sokka with a quiet bark that sounded more like a squeak. “I’m just worried about where his mother is. Saber-tooth moose lions are fiercely protective of their cubs… How long has he been out here with you?”

“I don’t have your freaky sense for time through the sun or whatever, but my best guess is two or three hours? He’s been here with me ever since I got stuck, and he was already in this area when I stumbled across him.”

“That’s a concerningly long period of time for his mother to leave him alone.” Zuko shifted on his feet before extending his hand to the friendly little cub, utterly unsurprised by his docile nature. Most saber-tooth moose lions were pretty friendly unless they believed their cub was being threatened, and the babies were especially easy to win over. “She might be sick. Or hurt. Toph, can you–?”

“Already on it, Sparky.” Toph shifted again, humming as she said, “Hm, yeah, there’s something pretty big coming our way. She seems pretty steady, but her back left leg is a bit weaker than the others. Nothing’s broken, but… An old injury that didn't heal quite right."

Zuko rapidly took a step back from the cub, gesturing for Sokka to do the same. Their newest friend did not seem to like the sudden lack of attention, butting his head against their ankles with disgruntled squeaks, but he perked up when his mother crossed the threshold between a nearby forest and the craggy mountainside. The mother watched them warily, tail swishing back and forth, but since they were all pointedly keeping their hands to themselves and the cub was free to dart back to his mother, she did not roar or charge at them. They could have left it at that, but with Toph’s words fresh on his mind, he couldn’t help taking a single step forward. The mother tensed.

“Will you let me help you?” he murmured with a flicker of iridescent flame weaving between his fingers. “Your leg has been hurting you, right? Making it harder for you to find food and protect your cub? I can take that pain away.” The mother bared her teeth at him, but when her cub turned around and ran right back to Zuko, teeth latching onto the fabric of his pants, she allowed her baby to pull him toward her. “We’re not going to hurt you or your cub,” he promised. Slowly, the mother calmed down, and with her cub trotting right alongside him, Zuko rested his hand on her once-injured leg and allowed comforting heat to seep into her bones. She practically melted beneath his touch. Zuko found himself on the other end of a far less cautious saber-tooth moose lion afterward, rough tongue scraping against his skin as she groomed him like he was one of her cubs. Sokka and Toph both laughed themselves sick over that.

He wished that he didn’t have to say goodbye to their newest friends, but much like Suika, these two were much too large for Appa to carry. Or, well, the mother was, and there was no way he was about to take her cub away from her, though they would have made it work if he’d been on his own.

They couldn’t bring their newest friends with them, but that didn’t stop the pair of saber-tooth moose lions from following them back to the camp for tonight. The look on everyone’s faces was so hysterical that he couldn’t even really be upset by their inevitable parting.

Chapter 10: Chapter Ten: Preparations and Reparations

Chapter Text

With little more to go off of than needing to travel in the general direction of the Si Wong desert, which was deceptively far away from their current location no matter how closely he and Sokka studied their map, the group decided to make something of a game out of finding interesting places to stop along the way as miniature vacations. Or, well, Aang, Katara, Toph, Ty Lee, and Uncle all wanted to do so, so Zuko, Sokka, Azula, and Mai were outvoted and simply along for the ride.

Barren plains with little more than dried grasses and occasional sprigs of desert plants stretched as far as the eye could see, bordered by yet another mountain range. It was bizarre to think that the Earth Kingdom had so much land, yet almost half of it was borderline uninhabitable. “So, what’s out here, anyway?” Sokka asked while gazing toward the horizon. “Because all I’m seeing is a whole lotta nothing, Aang. Are you sure that whatever used to be here still is?”

“There’s a lot, actually.” Toph chuckled as she knelt on the ground, splaying her fingers out as she dug them into the earth. “There’s hundreds of little–”

“Shh! I know you can see underground, but don’t spoil the surprise.” Aang brought a flute up to his lips with a mischievous grin, and Toph let him have this, flopping back into the dirt with an amused snicker. “Just watch.”

Azula quirked an eyebrow and leveled them all with an unimpressed look when Aang played a single, sharp note. A singing groundhog popped out of one of many circular holes in the earth and mirrored the note before ducking back underground. Zuko couldn’t help the smile tugging at his lips. He’d heard of singing groundhogs before, but they only lived in arid, landlocked environments. He never thought he’d get the chance to see them as anything but an artist’s rendition within a scroll.

“Haha, yeah!” Aang’s smile only grew wider as he played another note, immediately copied by one of the singing groundhogs. “I’m putting an orchestra together!”

Ty Lee laughed, warm and bright in a way that melted the apathy off of Mai’s face. “This is great! If these little guys didn’t live underground, then I bet they’d make a pretty amazing act in the circus. Singing groundhogs… I’m getting to see so many things that I didn’t even know existed before!” She hummed a tune that the singing groundhogs mimicked, joining Aang as he started playing his flute again. Two individual melodies twined together, and the singing groundhogs copied each individual note, forming a symphony that wouldn’t be out of place in a festival. Even Azula had the slightest of smiles tugging at her lips.

Zuko had to keep ahold of Kashisu to make sure he wouldn’t lunge for any of their newest furry friends, but that was a small price to pay for the happiness of his people.

Aang and Ty Lee played with the singing groundhogs until the sun began to set and the rodents dug deep into their burrows to sleep for the night. Even then, the two of them were so exuberantly happy that they grabbed Katara and Mai’s hands, respectively, and danced around the crackling campfire.

“What was the plan for tomorrow, again?” Sokka asked him while Zuko and Azula looked over their map one last time before they completely lost daylight. He honestly couldn't remember where they were headed next.

“Your sister wanted to visit the Misty Palms Oasis,” Azula reminded them both. “Not a bad choice, all things considered. It’s one of the nearest pockets of civilization to the Si Wong desert, and I intend to spend my time searching for someone who knows more about Wan Shi Tong’s library than we currently do. There’s little we can do if it’s part of Zuzu’s spirit quest to find it on his own, but there’s no need to cripple ourselves when the opportunity to gather information arises.”

Sokka chuckled at that. “You’re speaking my language. I always love a good plan. And there’s probably all sorts of useful information in that library, not just spirit stuff. I’m kinda excited to check it out, honestly, if I let myself forget about the fact that not one but two Great Spirits ordered Zuko to go there.”

“It certainly doesn’t bode well,” he murmured, locking eyes with Uncle as a mournful look passed between them. “If even the Great Spirits are nervous about this threat… It makes sense, that the universe has become so out of balance that their are threats on their side of things too, but that doesn’t mean I like being the one chosen to deal with it. How the hell am I supposed to fight a Great Spirit…?”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and it’ll just be a Major Spirit?” Sokka hedged uncertainly. He gave up that thin veil of hope almost as quickly as he adorned it. “Who am I kidding? Your luck is awful. But if Agni and La want you to go to this library, then there has to be some sort of answer in it, some way of doing this. And you won’t be alone! You’ve got all of us and Yue, so we’re going to find that library, find the information that the spirits wanted you to go there for, find a way to take down a Great Spirit, and save the world so that we can take down your father and save the world again. Man… They do not make it easy.”

“That they do not,” Azula agreed with a stifled snort. She sniffed and pointedly ignored Sokka’s resulting smirk. “But Zuzu and I have survived every challenge the universe has thrown at us so far. We’re hardly going to roll over and die now.” They had more support and allies now than they ever imagined was possible, and while Azula may not have said as much out loud, he could hear her appreciation for that buried in her steady words. They were no longer alone, fighting assassins twice their size in a desperate bid for survival. They had people they could genuinely trust to watch their backs, people who were now with them almost 24/7 instead of the limited assistance that Ty Lee and Mai could provide when they were trapped within the palace's walls, and that made a world of difference, even when the threats they faced were far larger than the murderous, human faces hidden in the shadows.

They would survive this. And they would make damn sure that everyone else survived alongside them.

There was no hiding Aang’s disappointment when they arrived at the Misty Palms Oasis and found that it had certainly seen better days. “... Must have changed ownership since the last time I was here.” He was angling for a humorous tone, but Aang’s delivery fell flat as his smile twisted into a grimace. The fact that his words were followed by a rickety, wooden sign nearly falling on top of their heads only nurtured the seed of weariness in Aang’s heart. “We may as well check it out while we’re here. Who knows? Maybe it’s, uh, better than it looks?”

It was not. Misty Palm Oasis was all but deserted, and the few locals that loitered around weren’t exactly friendly. He did not doubt that only the sheer size of their group and Mikan’s feathers puffing up in a silent threat as she walked in step with Zuko kept a few particularly rough looking characters from attempting to rob them blind. It wouldn’t end well for them, but he could tell they were still considering it. Honestly, their demeanor and even the way they dressed, to a certain extent, reminded him of pirates.

They were all on guard as they entered the only building they could hear a low thrum of conversation within: some sort of bar that specialized in fruit-based drinks with cups made of solid ice. They weren’t completely in the clear, but the people inside the building were far less hostile than those loitering outside of it. “Well… I don’t see any harm in us enjoying some of those fruity beverages while we discuss our next steps,” Sokka muttered with an eager gleam in his eyes. They were all quick to follow him when he darted up to the counter, and the man who ordered just before they got here, looking down and not paying any attention to the re-invigorated Aang, bumped into him, dumping his entire beverage on Aang by accident.

“No worries!” Aang reassured the man before he could do more than stammer out the beginning of an apology. “I clean up easy.” Aang bumped his fists together and dried himself off with a gust of air, and that, more than anything, wiped the apologetic look off the man’s face and replaced it with one of pure excitement.

“You’re a living relic! An airbender, in the flesh, standing before me…”

Aang laughed at that. “Thanks, I try. But it’s not like I’m the only one. We’re just… Really rare, these days.”

“I'll say! I’m Professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University,” the man greeted Aang with a bow. His almost manic fervor suddenly made a lot of sense. “Tell me, which of the air temples do you hail from?”

“The Southern Temple.”

“Oh, splendid! Now, tell me, what was the primary agricultural product of your people?” Zei flitted around Aang, almost matching an airbender’s enthusiasm as he took measurements and generally treated him more like an ancient artifact than a living person. A growl rumbled in Zuko’s chest when Aang shot him an uneasy look and hummed under his breath, trying not to be rude but looking quite uncertain about the whole situation.

“Uh, do fruit pies count as an agricultural product?”

“Oh! Truly fascinating, this is one for the journal.”

His growl grew louder, nearly audible, when the professor refused to back off despite Aang’s clear discomfort, and he was on the verge of snapping and baring his teeth when Sokka interrupted the man, passing a drink over to Zuko as Katara did the same for Aang, putting herself between him the the overzealous anthropologist. “So, professor, you’re obviously a well-traveled guy. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Wan Shi Tong’s library, would you?”

Zei’s attention was almost immediately diverted to Sokka instead, and Zuko slowly relaxed as he began to realize that the man was simply intense, not overly interested in Aang in particular but instead deeply invested in any knowledge he could learn about. “Ah, a scholar after my own heart, I see! I regret to inform you that I’ve yet to find it, but I’ve charted my journeys into the Si Wong desert searching for it. I’ve found lost civilizations all over the Earth Kingdom, but I still haven’t managed to find that crown jewel. It’s all in vain, I’m afraid. I’ve pushed about as far as any person could hope to venture into the desert without dying, and I’ve yet to find even the faintest hint of the library. I’m afraid that library may simply be beyond human reach, now.”

Aang and Sokka exchanged a weighted look, a silent question asked and answered in a heartbeat, before Sokka asked, “Professor, would you like to see our flying bison?”

“A flying bison? You actually have one?!” Zei rolled up his map and eagerly joined their group without any further explanation, unbothered by Mikan’s scrutinizing glare or the careful eye that Azula kept on him at all times. They ventured to the outskirts of the Misty Palms Oasis only to find those same sketchy characters from before trying and failing to steal a very aggravated Appa. Kashisu and Laichi were both darting around the men’s legs and snapping at or clawing them, and Mikan charged the thieves with a screech, drawing blood from a man who didn’t back up quickly enough. They all took off toward a strange, almost boat-like vehicle. The sand beneath them propelled them into the desert, shifting like ocean waves as they sailed forward. Appa huffed and watched them go with wary eyes. He waited until they were long gone before awarding his fighting companions with slobbery kisses.

“Sandbenders,” Zei sighed with an aggrieved look. “They’re a large part of what makes crossing the Si Wong desert so difficult. They’re little better than pirates and thugs, abducting people and stealing everything they have, but no one can make it deep enough into the desert to drive them out. Towns like this one, those that are just a bit too close to their territory, are terrorized by them on the regular.”

A heavy weight settled over them all, and Appa groaned unhappily at the additional weight of yet another person on his back. Zuko soothed him with rainbow flames that Zei gushed over and immediately began interrogating him about, but even with his assistance, between the weight load and the overbearing heat, Appa couldn’t fly as high or as quickly as he usually did. It still beat traveling on land, but with sunny, clear skies, it made Zuko wary of being followed. He kept a close eye on the endless stretch of sand around them as Sokka searched for any signs of the library with their spyglass.

They flew for hours, and almost everyone was getting restless as they ventured further into the desert with nothing to show for it. If they didn’t have Zei plotting their course as they flew, they’d have no way of telling that this stretch of the desert was any different than where they started. It all looked the same, and it was hardly any wonder that he'd heard stories of people losing both their lives and their minds to this particular desert when trapped in it for too long.

“There it is!” He jolted at the sound of Toph’s voice, head whipping over in her direction as she pointed out to the distant horizon. It took him all of a few seconds to realize exactly what was wrong with Toph being the one to spot the library, but the fact that only Azula and Mai didn’t fall for it spared him some of the embarrassment. “That’s what it’ll sound like when one of you spot it.” Toph waved her hand in front of her unseeing eyes with an exaggerated smile, and Azula burst into laughter, so wild and unrestrained that Mai startled in surprise.

“Oh, I knew I liked you,” Azula snickered. “That was great.”

“Thank you, thank you. It’s good to see that someone appreciates my genius.”

They kept flying, but this time, Azula and Toph set about keeping each other entertained while the rest of them looked for anything similar to the giant, ornate building that Zei told them was a depiction of Wan Shi Tong’s library. Though, truthfully, they’d point out anything unusual that they saw to be one the safe side. There was no telling if that was an accurate depiction of Wan Shi Tong's library or simply a creative version of it that someone made up.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to find a giant, ornate building,” Katara muttered with a sigh. “It’s gotta be out here somewhere.”

Sokka suddenly straightened, whipping the spyglass back to an area he had already swept over. “Hey, look at that! Down there, that looks like some sort of tower, doesn’t it? Just… Buried.”

“Good eye,” Mai murmured. “It does seem similar, architecture-wise, to the depiction in the professor’s scroll… It doesn’t hurt to look.”

“At this point, I’ll take anything that isn’t an endless stretch of sand.” Azula huffed as she fixed her topknot, only a few strands had fallen loose but his sister was nothing if not a perfectionist, but even while doing so, her eyes darted toward Toph with something akin to affection. It wasn’t dissimilar to the look Azula had when she first met Mai and Ty Lee and claimed them as her own, and he wondered if his sister might have expanded her extremely exclusive hoard by one after all. “And I’m sure our resident earthbender is eager to dig her feet into the dirt again.”

“You can say that again!” Toph groaned. “I love traveling, don’t get me wrong, but I hate flying, no matter how fast it is.”

“We’ll stop and take a break even if the tower isn’t anything important,” Aang promised her as he guided Appa toward the ground. “But I have a pretty good feeling about this.”

“You’re right to.” Zuko shivered as Appa landed, pupils contracting as a wave of spiritual energy washed over him. “This is definitely Wan Shi Tong’s library. The spiritual presence here is too strong not to be a Major Spirit’s.”

“Ah, you’re spirit-touched. I had wondered, what with the way your hair is blue underneath the sun, but I got so excited about your unique flames that I forgot to ask. Fire that can heal… The applications of that alone, of the healing properties of the one element whose bender is never without it, are simply revolutionary. I had heard the rumors, but I never imagined it was the work of a human…” Zei shook his head, smiling as he continued jotting notes down in his notebook. “To think, years of searching culminating in this, and with such unique company… Wonderful, simply wonderful.”

As if they needed any further confirmation that this was what they were looking for, a Knowledge Seeker ran straight up the tower’s wall with a scroll in their mouth, retreating with the knowledge they had acquired for their master. Toph splayed her hand out on the stone tower to get a better read on it, smirking as she said, “The inside seems to be completely in tact. And it’s huge. I would’ve dragged it up to the surface if I had to, but I’m kinda glad it’s not necessary. Doesn’t seem worth all that effort to me.”

“You sure you don’t want to come with us, Toph?” Sokka asked as she crossed her arms and sat down while leaning against it. “I’m sure that there’d be something interesting in there for you too…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it, Snoozles.” Toph waved her hand dismissively. “I can just as easily feel unique architecture here as I could from inside it. No point in me going through all that hassle when every book looks the same to me. Besides, someone’s gotta keep an eye on all our stuff.”

“Oh, right,” Katara chuckled as she rubbed at the back of her head. “Thanks, Toph.”

“No biggie. Let me know if they have anything you can listen to. I might just make the trip if there’s something like that in there.”

Aang and Ty Lee worked together to take Appa’s saddle off, careful not to disturb Nashi too much since she was sleeping and not actively trying to bite anyone at the moment. Anzu curled up in Toph’s lap with a squeak, and both Laichi and Kashisu laid down on either side of her. Mikan stuck close to Appa, as per usual, while Ichigo perched on Zuko’s shoulder and Momo flew Sokka’s boomerang, with rope attached, up to the window and secured it. Sokka tugged it a few times to ensure it was safe to climb before leading the way, and with both Aang and Ty Lee there to catch them if they fell, not to mention Zuko and Azula’s dragon forms if push truly came to shove, they weren’t too worried about getting hurt. Ichigo flew up to join Momo once Zuko began his climb, taking up the rear just behind Uncle.

The climb down the inside of the hollow tower was reminiscent of climbing the sheer cliffs surrounding the air temples. The drop was positively deadly if anyone fell, and it made Zuko infinitely glad for the fact that they’d invested in sturdy rope. He didn’t want to imagine the overeager interrogation that would follow Zei discovering that he was a dragon, so if that fate was at all possible to avoid, he would take the necessary steps to do so.

“Oh, it’s breathtaking,” Zei whispered. “The spirits certainly spared no expense in designing this place. Look at those beautiful buttresses.” Aang and Sokka snickered, and it was only the imagined weight of Azula’s glare if he laughed at such a thing that kept Zuko from snorting in amusem*nt, even it was more from their reaction than anything else. “What’s funny?”

“Nothing.” Aang lied almost as smoothly as Azula did, exposed only by the slight pause before he spoke. “We just like architecture.”

Zei smiled at that. “As do I.” It was a relief to have the entire group back on their feet without incident, Momo landing on Aang’s shoulder while Ichigo reclaimed his place on Zuko’s. “My word! The exquisite mosaic handiwork of this tile-rendered avian symbol–” The professor blinked, catching himself before he fell into another rant and chuckled. “I mean, it’s a very nice owl.”

The rustling of feathers far too large to be Ichigo’s startled them into silence, and they all swiftly ducked behind pillars while getting a feel for the situation. Zuko slowly started to relax as who could only be Wan Shi Tong arrived. “So, you’ve finally come.” Zuko stepped out into the open with a dip of his head, refusing to balk under the weight of Wan Shi Tong’s gaze. “And you have brought human companions with you. Were there not so much at stake, I would demand you leave at once. For it was your kind that ravaged an entire section of my library and saw it buried in the first place, and it was your kind that ensured I would not allow another human to set foot in my domain again.”

Something hit him, then. Broken pieces of an incomplete puzzle clicking in sudden, horrifying clarity. “Zhao. That’s how he knew about Tui and La, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” Wan Shi Tong confirmed with a steely glint in his eyes. “It is only your part in preserving the Great Spirits and your sister's part in ending the man who sought to harm them, the same man who destroyed all the information that my Knowledge Seekers and I had gathered about your nation over the millennia, that stays my hand in this particular instance. You may seek the knowledge you have come for, but in return…” The rest of the group joined them, Zei barely restraining himself from saying anything as Zuko discussed terms with the Major Spirit. “You must all contribute to the knowledge kept within my library, and those of you from the Fire Nation will have to contribute quite a bit more than the others to begin remedying the loss of information one of your own ensured. That is my price.”

Zuko dipped his head in a nod, an acknowledgment of a deal offered and an acceptance of it all in one. “Then that is the price we shall pay. I thank you for giving us a chance, Wan Shi Tong. I will not forget the favor you’ve done us, and in return, once this wretched war is finally over and things have stabilized enough to permit my absence, I will return and share as much knowledge with you as I possibly can on the Fire Nation.”

Wan Shi Tong locked eyes with him, a hint of genuine surprise and pleasure flashing in his eyes, there and gone in an instant, before he murmured, “Then it shall be so. Make your initial offerings, and I shall escort you to the section regarding spirits myself.”

Zei, no longer able to restrain himself, walked forward and held out a bound book, kneeling as he held it up in offering. “Please accept this tome as a donation to your library.”

“First edition… Very nice.” Wan Shi Tong accepted the offering without any further comment, clearly pleased. A pair of Knowledge Seekers joined them, one carrying a bunch of loose rolls of parchment and the other a cluster of pens, passing them out to the Fire Nation citizens that would need to write down their contributions before they could be donated. While they were busy doing so, Katara stepped forward and offered the most advanced waterbending scroll they had given her all that time ago. “Oh, these illustrations are quite stylish.” Wan Shi Tong accepted her offering with an approving nod while Aang and Sokka scrambled over what made a respectable offering.

“Uh… Oh, I know!” Aang exclaimed before reaching into his shirt and pulling out one of the many wanted posters put out by the Fire Nation with the Avatar's likeness on it. Zuko didn’t even want to ask where he’d grabbed that or why he actually kept it.

“... I suppose that counts,” Wan Shi Tong allowed gracefully, though he was not particularly pleased by it. Hopefully Zuko sharing everything he knows about dragons, both typical ones and his family in particular, would make up for that particular flub on Aang’s part. If not, he had hope that between his sister’s advanced firebending forms that she was currently drawing, Uncle writing down the key to lightning redirection as its inventor and something about Pai Sho that he barely caught a glimpse of, Ty Lee’s unconventional use of airbending due to only recently discovering she was, in fact, bending at all, and Mai’s painstakingly detailed description of noble traditions and ceremonies that her mother drilled into her head until she could never dream of forgetting them would make up for it.

Sokka, on the other hand, was surprisingly thoughtful with his offering despite his general disdain for dealing with spirits. He’d learned enough through conversations with Zuko and the general nonsense that followed him to not offend, at the very least. The Knowledge Seekers, who seemed oddly drawn to his boyfriend, happily passed him a scroll and pen when he asked for them, and Sokka then proceeded to sketch out detailed schematics for a Fire Nation war balloon. It was a bit rough around the edges, but each part was still clearly recognizable and labeled, with in-depth explanations regarding the purpose of each design choice, despite the invention being so new that even Azula hadn’t known more about the war balloons than the fact that they were soon to be in production.

“Major Spirit, I present to you the schematics of a piece of machinery that I helped the Mechanist, an inventor living in the Northern Air Temple, finalize. My contribution to the design was the hatch situated at the top here, allowing for hot air to escape when an attached chord was pulled, that enables the balloon to safely descend instead of infinitely soaring higher and higher as heat lifted it into the sky.”

“Very nice,” Wan Shi Tong approved readily, taking the schematic and eagerly looking it over before tucking it beneath his wing with the others. “It is rare, indeed, that we receive information of such recent technological advances directly from its source, and one meant to be used by the nation of which very little information within my collection survives…” The Major Spirit locked eyes with Zuko, and there was no disguising his genuine pleasure at this particular bit of knowledge joining his library. “I can see why you are so enamored with this particular human.” Sokka puffed up a bit at the spirit’s clear approval, smiling as one of the Knowledge Seekers bumped their head against his hand with a happy bark.

It took a bit longer for the rest of them to finish their donations, given that their toll for entry was higher and Wan Shi Tong had already warned them of that, but Ty Lee was the first to skip forward with a nervous smile. “Here ya go! It’s not exactly traditional, but I didn’t realize how much I was using airbending to help me, subconsciously, perform some of the stunts I’ve done over the years. And I know that most air nomads didn’t utilize airbending for fighting, but since I grew up in the Fire Nation… Well, it seemed important to explain what I do with my chain, nontraditional as it is.”

Wan Shi Tong nodded approvingly, readily accepting her scroll. “The more eclectic the knowledge, the more valuable it becomes. Very few humans dare to think outside the boxes they were placed in from birth.”

Uncle was the next one to pass his scroll over, and Wan Shi Tong blinked before studying his uncle more closely. “Intriguing. Your invention of lightning redirection stems from a waterbending form, correct?”

“Indeed, it does,” Uncle agreed with a smile.

“And the other information you have provided me… It is rare that my Knowledge Seekers are able to acquire any scrolls regarding that particular organization. They are rather quite secretive… Your contribution is appreciated.” He had no idea what any of that meant, but Wan Shi Tong seemed pleased and that was all that really mattered.

Zuko was finally able to shake out his aching hand and pass over his own scroll, which the Major Spirit found quite interesting. “You wield healing fire? How fascinating… And the Mother of Faces is capable of quite a bit more than she lets on, it would seem, though that is to be expected from the creator of virtually all life in either realm. Did you know that only Raava and Vaatu precede her?” He recognized Raava’s name, of course, from learning about the Avatar over the years, but Vaatu wasn’t a name he was familiar with. He wondered if Wan Shi Tong was giving him a hint about the information he was looking for or if he simply wished to share knowledge that was not known to most humans while he had a tolerable audience. Either was possible, really, but he figured that it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about Vaatu while he was here.

Mai handed over her scroll on etiquette and all things Fire Nation noble while Azula put the finishing touches on the final sketch within her own scroll, and Wan Shi Tong simply nodded in acceptance when she didn’t say a word in the entire exchange. “Here you are,” Azula said as she followed behind her shortly, giving Wan Shi Tong a scroll with a truly astonishing number of firebending forms depicted on it. “Everything that I learned from my firebending lessons over the years, both the standard forms themselves and the improvements I made upon them. In addition to that, I included the process for producing and harnessing lightning and how I was able to push my fire hotter and hotter until it burned blue. I do hope that will suffice.”

“It more than suffices, and you very well know that, chosen of Tui.” Thankfully, Wan Shi Tong was merely amused by her perfectionism and insistence on being the best rather than being offended by it. He’d been softened quite a bit by such valuable additions to his library. “Follow me. I shall lead you toward the information that you are searching for, though its discovery will remain up to you alone.”

“Thank you, Wan Shi Tong,” he murmured with a bow. “We appreciate your hospitality.”

They were guided deep into the bowels of the library, led into a secret room that was tucked behind one of many bookshelves that stretched to the ceiling above them, and left with the same pair of Knowledge Seekers that had brought them supplies at Wan Shi Tong’s behest. “This information was once freely given, but knowing now what Zhao the Blasphemer wished to do to Tui after learning of her location here… We relocated any information pertaining to spirits, shielding them from the prying eyes of potential intruders. The mechanism will lock behind me, but I give you my word that I shall come to let you out as soon as you send one of my Knowledge Seekers to retrieve me.” A spirit’s word was as good as gold. They could misdirect and obscure, hide their true intentions behind puzzles and tests, but no spirit has ever been capable of lying outright. That was a purely human skill.

“We thank you, Major Spirit.” Uncle smiled as he bowed once more, and even the more hesitant members of their group mirrored that show of respect. “Both for the trust you have given us today and for giving us your word.”

“... As much as I may have grown to dislike humans over the years, I can and will put aside my personal feelings when so much is at stake.” Wan Shi Tong swept out of the room without another word, and Sokka leveled Zuko with an exasperated look.

“Mind telling us what, exactly, was told to you in that spirit dream now? Because if a spirit like Wan Shi Tong is freaked out about it, then I feel like we should all be more freaked out about it than you have been.”

“I never intended to keep it from you,” he promised. “There just wasn’t much point in stressing everyone out before we even got here, and you know how vague spirits love to be. About all I got from it is there is some dangerous Great Spirit that’s resurfacing, threatening to escape the Spirit World and destroy the balance between our realm and theirs. They pose as much of a threat to the other spirits as they do us, so that’s why they gave me as much information as they did about seeking out Wan Shi Tong and learning what I could about what we’re up against. I wouldn’t worry about anything less than a Great Spirit, even a Major Spirit like Wan Shi Tong wouldn’t have Agni and La both in a frenzy like this, and whoever it is, they’re bound to be a downright malicious spirit. Anything less than that wouldn’t risk causing just as much harm to their own realm as ours.”

Zei blinked, taking in the faintly exhausted looks on everyone else’s faces as that information sunk in. “... I’ll help you look. Doing a deep dive into any books on the Spirit World itself can wait.”

Azula was the first one to find anything promising, but further reading proved that Father Glowworm was defeated and absorbed by Yun, an earthbender so powerful that he was once believed to be the next Avatar before Kyoshi became known to the world. Though it wouldn’t be completely impossible for a spirit that powerful to emerge again, it would not be so soon after his defeat, relatively speaking. Such a thing would take thousands of years.

“Oh!” Aang gasped, suddenly struck with an idea. “I completely forgot about Koh! He’s this Great Spirit that’ll answer questions if you’re brave enough to face him, that’s who I wound up finding instead of Tui and La when I went searching for them at the Spirit Oasis, but if you show any change in expression at all, then he’ll steal your face. It would not be a good thing if he ended up here.”

“We should definitely look into him,” Zuko agreed with a nod. “I don’t know much about him beyond the fact that he’s the Mother of Faces’ child. I’m not sure that he’s powerful enough to truly threaten the balance of our worlds, but if he gained a boost in power somehow, maybe through a deal or some sort of sacrifice made in his name… It’s not completely outside of the realm of possibility. We should keep searching for other options and digging through the oldest scrolls and tomes we can find, though, especially since Wan Shi Tong made mentioned Vaatu. Better to be overprepared than unprepared.”

“Aye, aye!” Aang cheered with a salute, and Zei and Sokka partnered with him to learn everything they could about Koh while the rest of their group continued their search. Unsurprisingly, it was rather difficult to find information on the few malicious Great Spirits that existed without more than one name to look for, but at least the highly specific nature of their search kept them from endlessly slogging through tome after tome, scroll after scroll, in search for even the slightest hint. There were only so many spirits that they could be faced with that would warrant the severity of the warning Zuko was given. Most things they grabbed were able to be safely reshelved mere moments after they skimmed over the general contents.

“... Oh,” Uncle whispered with an ashen face, looking sick at the contents of the ancient, delicate scroll that he’d been carefully reading over. “Nephew, you’re going to want to read this.” He put back the tome he’d been skimming over and walked over to his uncle’s side, peering over his shoulder and swiftly becoming just as pale as he was.

“ Oh. Oh, Agni and La, this is not good. Please don’t let my luck be this awful.” Surely not. Surely the Great Spirits didn’t expect him to somehow take down not just one of the oldest but one of the two original spirits, Raava’s other half, when Aang wasn’t even a fully realized Avatar. From what he was reading here, a fight against Vaatu would be an exercise in futility, at best, but they had little choice but to prepare themselves for it nonetheless. With how active spirits have become since Aang’s return, he wasn’t ruling out the possibility that Vaatu could break free of the prison Raava and Wan trapped him in during the Harmonic Convergence that led to the beginning of the Avatar Cycle. Zuko sighed. “See if you guys can find anything else on combating spirits here. As much as I hate to consider it, Vaatu meets the criteria, and Wan Shi Tong probably mentioned him for a reason. We'll be in for a hell of a dangerous fight if it's him."

Momo and Ichigo helped the Knowledge Seekers retrieve any tomes and scrolls that were beyond their reach, the latter being capable of scaling straight up the bookshelves as if gravity didn’t affect them at all, and they spent what must have been hours poring over any information they could find on Koh, Vaatu, and the limited ways one could hope to survive an encounter with them. They kept an eye out for any other particularly powerful Great Spirits whose names had been lost to time, but they were unable to find any that currently resided in the Spirit World beyond those two. All others had been defeated and were yet to reform or had been killed outright, more often than not through the combined efforts of several Great Spirits themselves. It made him wonder if they really needed Zuko to defeat this particular threat or if it was another test of some sort, but there was little he could do about it even if it was the latter.

“Thanks for your help.” Zuko patted one of the friendly spirit foxes with a fond smile, chuckling when they leaned into the touch. “Would you mind getting Wan Shi Tong for us? I think we’ve exhausted our leads here, and we shouldn’t leave Toph waiting for too long.” A bark and a slowly swishing tail were his only response, but mere moments after that, the Knowledge Seeker squeezed through a small path meant only for Wan Shi Tong’s servants to traverse through. The Great Spirit was surprisingly quick to return with the spirit fox by his side.

“Were you able to find what you were looking for?” he asked as they filed out of the hidden room, shelves sliding back into place as Wan Shi Tong hid it once more.

“I think so,” Zuko confirmed with a nod. “Thank you for allowing us into your library.”

“So long as you bring a donation with you and follow my rules, you will be welcomed here any time, though the offer does not extend to any other humans you bring with you. They will have to prove themselves just as you did... And I look forward to the day where my section on the Fire Nation has returned to its former glory.” The Great Spirit paused, craned his head to the ceiling, and said, “There seems to be some sort of commotion on the surface. I would hurry back to your friend, if I were you.”

That jolted them all into action. Zei was the only one to not immediately begin running for the exit, instead turning to Wan Shi Tong and pleading, “Please, allow me to stay and learn for as long as I am able. This place… I have been searching for it all my life, and I could die happy within its walls. I do not wish to leave.”

“... If you swear yourself to my service, then I can permit that, but it would mean becoming one of my Knowledge Seekers upon your death.”

“I could think of no greater honor.”

Even Zuko’s enhanced hearing could barely make out the words, “Then it shall be so,” over his pounding footsteps. The sound of a distant conversation gave way to shifting sands above them, and he cursed under his breath at the realization. Those damn sandbenders were back, and Toph had reluctantly admitted to having fuzzy vision on less solid ground a few days ago. Capable as she was, they never should have left her out there alone. They should have known that trouble would find them, as it always did.

Zuko forwent the rope entirely, snarling as wings snapped into existence on his back and he soared straight up, Ichigo and Momo following just behind him. Aang and Ty Lee swiftly joined him with twin blasts of air, and the three of them leaped into a chaotic disaster of a fight. There were several downed sandbenders and even a wrecked ship, but there was a notable lack of Appa anywhere to be seen. And now that he was looking more closely, someone else was missing too.

“They took Appa and Mikan!” Toph shouted as she struggled to fend off another attacker. Ty Lee was quick to blast him off his feet, and for once, the headstrong earthbender didn’t mind the assist. “Those jerks came back for Appa with a bunch of backup, and Mikan kept screeching and biting them, it sounded like. I think she took down half these guys while I could barely see them…” Toph sniffled as Aang burst into tears, and seeing her this way, knowing that Appa and Mikan were both scared and had been taken by poachers, made rage burn in Zuko’s heart. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s not your fault,” he promised her. “Even the best earthbender in the world shouldn’t have been left out here alone. Besides…” He gazed past the unconscious, bloodied sandbenders that remained while their companions fled, and a relieved smile lit up his face when he saw that their other animals had all either hidden themselves or avoided being taken in the fight. Most importantly, Laichi was still here. “You haven’t been with us long enough to know this yet, but Laichi is an amazing tracker. And Appa’s saddle, the one that’s still laying right where we left it because you didn’t give them the chance to grab it? It’s got a bag with Appa’s brush in it, and that thing is never completely free of his fur. Or his scent .”

Aang’s head whipped over to him, eyes wide and hopeful, and they were joined by the rest of the group as Zuko dug through their bags and retrieved said brush. “Everyone should grab as much as they can safely carry. Let’s go teach those sandbenders a lesson in picking fights they can’t win.”

They moved swiftly beneath the setting sun, eager to keep moving despite the imminent loss of Agni’s light. There was bound to be a lot of ground to cover. Even Azula’s pupils slit in rage at the audacity of these sandbenders, and that shared determination eased Aang away from despair and into steady determination. Zuko held out Appa’s brush as his loyal polar dog trotted up to his side.

“Laichi, find!”

And they were off, blindly following a nose that had yet to fail them into the seemingly endless stretch of sand that was Si Wong desert.

Chapter 11: Chapter Eleven: A Treacherous Journey

Chapter Text

They traveled all throughout the night, illuminating their path with tiny balls of flame cradled in their firebenders’ palms, and into the next day, refusing to halt their steady march despite the steadily rising heat and the tug of exhaustion at their eyelids. Zuko’s healing flames were the only reason that Laichi hadn’t collapsed yet, but even with his energy pool bolstering her own, they would need to stop soon.

Now, more than ever, he lamented having to leave Suika behind. The desert wouldn’t have been kind to her either, but they would be capable of crossing it far faster and she wasn’t a bad scent dog herself. It would have enabled Zuko and Azula to utilize their dragon forms to ferry anyone who couldn’t fit on her back through the skies, flying just behind her, but as it was now, they were all forced to travel on foot and follow Laichi’s lead if they wanted any chance of finding where those sandbenders took Appa and Mikan.

As the sun took its place at the pinnacle of the sky, they were all forced to make camp and wait out the worst of the heat. Aang was twitchy and anxious, positively frantic at the thought of losing his best friend and last living connection to his people, but even he knew they couldn’t keep going like this.

“How’s our water situation looking?” Sokka asked shortly after they all but collapsed into the sand. Only the continued efforts of both Uncle and Azula kept the sand from being so hot that it burned to touch.

“Not great,” he muttered lowly. “At this rate, we won’t be halfway across the desert before our waterskins run dry. Katara and I are gonna pull as much moisture from the air as we can find once night comes, but…” He hadn’t sensed a source of water large enough to create an oasis from yet, and it was starting to making him nervous. He had a bad enough time being cut off from large bodies of water as it was; the Si Wong desert was proving itself to be a special kind of hell both as a person and as the vessel of La. “I hate the thought of splitting up, but…” He glanced over at Aang once more, taking in his dejected expression as he intermittently blew on his bison whistle just in case Appa managed to free himself. “If it becomes necessary, I can transform and fly back to Misty Palms Oasis, bring back as much water as they can spare. Laichi can still lead you, and I’d find my way back to the group eventually.”

“Let’s leave that as an absolute last resort. Like, a ‘we’re gonna die if you don’t do that’ kind of last resort. All this sand looks the same no matter where we go, and the last thing we need is for anyone else to get lost.”

“I can always kick up a bunch of sand with airbending if it comes down to that!” Ty Lee’s smile was tired but no less genuine as she leaned against a quietly grumbling Mai. The fact that she didn’t shove her exuberant girlfriend off of her despite the heat spoke volumes of her fondness. “My control is getting better, so I could always twirl it around like ribbons or something. It means it’ll be easier for other people to track us too, but…” She glanced over at Azula, who wasn’t showing much strain at all despite everything, and giggled. “Well, it’s not like anyone would have much of a chance against us anyway. They’d be in for a very rude surprise, and we could probably get some free stuff out of it too!”

“Highway robbery, huh?” Toph asked with a delighted cackle. Uncle looked extremely concerned by the turn this conversation had taken, glancing up from a letter he had sneakily acquired from someone at Misty Palms Oasis while they talked with Zei. “I like your style, Bouncy.”

Uncle spent a few minutes futilely attempting to persuade them to avoid a life of crime, but that argument swiftly fell to the wayside in the wake of Azula pointing out that they were all technically wanted criminals, at least by the Fire Nation, and that it wasn’t like they were proposing to rob random people. Stealing from bandits who tried to steal from them was only fair. The sweet siren call of sleep was too strong to resist long enough for Uncle to even try formulating an argument against that, though he clearly wanted to and his heavy, exasperated sigh said plenty.

Zuko drifted off with the faintest of smiles curling his lips, and though they were all hot, stressed, and exhausted, he was thankful for the fact that it was pulling them closer together rather than shoving them apart. They could get through this.

Their group stared moving again once the sky was tinged with the reds and yellows of sunset. Buzzard wasps began stirring as the desert grew cooler, and though a few of them initially hovered near their group with the clear intent of picking off their smaller animal companions, Kashisu kept a careful guard over them all and even wound up knocking one of the scavengers out of the sky with a sharp swipe of his claws. It spoke volumes of Aang’s distress that he didn’t make so much as a sound regarding the loss of life in front of him, and by unspoken agreement, they all moved just a little bit faster, urging Laichi forward as she followed Appa’s scent trail with a single-minded focus.

All things considered, they managed to catch up with the sandbenders shockingly quickly. It only took a quick glance to figure out that it was because Toph had done a number on even the ones who managed to get away despite her lack of vision in the shifting sands and her struggle to manipulate the loose grains of earth.

Laichi barked as her hackles raised and a snarl curled her lip, and they all got into a battle ready stance as Aang pulled out his staff and leveled the weary sandbenders with a glare. “You stole them. Where are Appa and Mikan? Tell me now!!” Air powered by Aang’s shout blasted the sand between the two groups into the sky, and the already nervous thieves grew more so as Aang’s eyes and tattoos flickered. His rage and the lack of their furry companions’ presence was pushing him to the edge of falling into the Avatar State, and at this point, Zuko wasn’t particularly inclined to discourage violence. He couldn't see them anywhere, and there wasn't exactly a place to hide a massive air bison around here.

“He’s lying!” A particularly tattered looking sandbender tried to convince their leader of innocence that no one was buying, not with Mikan’s distinctive claw marks scored into his arm, and when Aang destroyed one of their sand gliders and repeated his demand, the leader turned to who was evidently his son in clear horror.

“What did you do, son?” he asked as Aang destroyed yet another sand glider.

“It wasn’t me!”

Toph shook her head with a glower as her feet dug deep into the sand. “No, I recognize your voice. You’re the one who said to put a muzzle on them both, and I remember hearing you shout when Mikan screeched at you. I might not be able to see it, but I’d bet good money on him having claw marks from a lion vulture somewhere on him.”

The leader paled as he closely studied the wound on his son’s arm, but that loss of color had nothing on the ghostly hue that every single sandbender took on as Aang lost control, voice distorting as he fell into the Avatar State and asked, voice echoing and multilayered in its fury, “You muzzled Appa?!”

“I’m sorry!” the thief cried out with tears in his eyes as the last of their vessels were destroyed by Aang’s airbending. “I didn’t know it belonged to the Avatar!”

“Tell me where Appa is!”

“I traded him to some merchants! The lion vulture too! They were giving us too much trouble to be worth holding onto and bartering for a better deal, so I just… They’re probably in Ba Sing Se by now; they were talking about selling them to some zoo there.” Aang’s silence was heavy and weighted with his rage, and Zuko honestly wasn’t much better, teeth sharpening and pupils narrowing as a snarl rumbled at the back of his throat. It was hard to believe just how quickly they managed to get rid of their companions. He’d honestly, truly expected Laichi to be able to lead them right to Appa and Mikan despite the obstacles they faced, but it would seem that this was far from the first time these sandbenders resorted to thievery to get by. They wouldn’t have such firmly established underground trading channels otherwise. “Please, we’ll escort you all out of the desert. We’ll help however we can!”

Air began swirling around Aang in that telling way that spoke of a true loss of control, and only Katara refusing to part from his side and reaching out to him, fearlessly pushing her hand through the turbulent winds, before pulling him into a hug kept the sandbenders alive. Tears streamed from Aang’s eyes even as they glowed, and Katara held him even closer as she began to cry as well. “We’ll find him, Aang. I promise.”

Needless to say, they didn’t take the sandbenders up on their offer. They used the stars to navigate, something that Zuko was familiar with after living on the ocean for so long, and wound up stopping a bit early when Zuko sensed a well of water deep underground and pulled it to the surface, creating a small oasis for them to rest and refill their waterskins at. Now that they had a solid destination in mind and were no longer solely relying on Laichi’s nose to track down Appa and Mikan, there was no point in pushing themselves so hard that they risked collapsing. They took turns dunking themselves in the water to cool off before sprawling out in the sand. Only half of them even bothered pulling out their sleeping bags this time, and Zuko was not one of them, drifting off to sleep despite the gritty sand beneath him. He could always rinse it off in the oasis before they left.

The next day promised to be better as they finally escaped the desert and found themselves in a craggy area with solid ground, much to Toph’s relief, and a natural pond that was steadily filled by a waterfall. Zuko wasted absolutely no time diving into it, and even if it was too small for him to transform in, he remained submerged in his human form for so long that his fingertips were wrinkled by the time he came to the surface again.

“I was beginning to think you’d turned into a fish, Zuzu,” Azula teased with a smirk, as if she hadn’t just gotten out of the water herself. “Can never be too sure with the way the spirits hound you…”

“Haha, very funny.” He snorted as he forced himself to get out of the water, steaming himself dry between one heartbeat and the next. “Have you and Sokka decided on what route we’re going to take yet?”

“Judging from where we came out of the desert, we’re south of Ba Sing Se. Somewhere around here,” Azula explained as she pointed at a small body of water on their map. “And the only passage that connects the south to the north and allows entrance to Ba Sing Se is this small sliver of land labeled as Serpent’s Pass.”

“You’re sure that’s the best way to go? It doesn't sound very safe, you know?” Toph asked dubiously.

Sokka shrugged. “We don’t really have a lot of options, but push comes to shove, Zuko can always make friends with any snakes that it might have been named for. And that’s assuming it’s not called Serpent’s Pass just because it’s a thin, twisty stretch of land.”

“... You know what? That’s fair.” Toph didn’t have any further complaints or questions, and though Uncle lamented the lack of towns in between their current location and their destination, he was pretty quick to get on board. They started packing up their things, Mai sighing heavily at the thought of traveling toward such a bustling city, and were just about to get moving when a group of three stumbled across them.

“Hello there, fellow refugees!” the only man greeted with a cheery wave and a smile. They all instinctively tensed a little, and it was only the pregnant woman traveling with him that slowly melted the tension out of Zuko’s shoulders and led to Aang talking with them.

“Are you guys headed to Ba Sing Se too?”

“Sure are! We’re trying to get there before my wife, Ying, has her baby.”

“Great!” Katara’s smile was warm and genuine, coming a bit easier than it had for any of them these past few days. “We can travel through the Serpent’s Pass together.”

All three travelers jolted in alarm as grimaces overtook their face. “The Serpent’s Pass?” Ying asked incredulously. “Only the truly desperate take that deadly route.”

“What makes it so deadly?” Mai asked in a bored tone as Toph ribbed Azula and Sokka both for their choice. “Is there really a serpent there?”

“A massive sea serpent that sinks as many ships as it allows through,” the man murmured. “Such a thin stretch of land in the middle of its territory is not any safer from that beast, from what I’ve heard.”

“Than, Ying, and I were planning on going to Full Moon Bay instead. It’s probably one of the better ideas my brother has ever had. Ferries take refugees across the lake. It’s both the fastest and safest way to get to Ba Sing Se from here,” Than’s sister explained. “You should come with us. It’s well hidden, so the Fire Nation can’t find it.”

“Hm… Peaceful ferry ride or a deadly pass? Such a difficult decision…” Katara teased before gracing the travelers with a wide grin. “If you wouldn’t mind us tagging along… We’d really appreciate it.”

Full Moon Bay was dark and secluded, filled to the brim with refugees adorning clothes that practically hung off of them. An uncomfortable, squirming sensation tugged at Zuko’s gut as he took in the exhausted faces of adults and children alike, all far too thin to be healthy.

“I can’t believe how many people’s lives have been uprooted by this war,” Katara murmured quietly.

“We’re all looking for a bit of life. Safe, behind the walls of Ba Sing Se… I cannot imagine a brighter future than that.” Than’s smile was tinged with sadness even as he rested a hand on Ying’s swollen belly.

They stood in line for the ferry, but the second he heard the woman in charge of admissions yelling at a cabbage merchant for trying to bring vegetables on board, something about cabbage slugs, he knew that this wasn’t going to work. “There’s not even a chance they let us on with all our animals, is there?” he muttered lowly as he cradled Nashi to his chest. The wooly-pig snorted in what almost sounded like agreement, and though Anzu and Momo ducked down into his shirt in a poor attempt to hide themselves, there was really no hiding Ichigo, whose brilliant red feathers drew a lot of attention as he perched on Zuko’s shoulder, Kashisu, or Laichi.

Sure as the world, even if they had passports, they did not; Uncle grumbled about a missed opportunity for getting those, no animals were allowed through and they swiftly got out of line before the woman could call security on them. “I probably could’ve flashed the Beifong symbol and gotten us through, but…” Toph hummed as she shifted her stance with a sigh. “I really didn’t want to get on a boat anyway. We got those other three here safe, and it’s not like we need to worry about some sea serpent with Zuko here.”

“Hey, you.” A vaguely familiar voice called out to them, and Zuko whirled around to face the source of it with narrowed eyes. They slowly widened as he realized why that voice sounded so familiar. “Any dragon sightings lately?”

“Suki!” His old friend was greeted with a fanged smile and a hug. “You figured it out, huh?”

“Hard not to. There’ve been a couple of sightings here and there, always near the Avatar, and your timing was too good back then. I can’t really say I was surprised.” Suki’s smile took on a teasing edge as she beckoned for them to follow. “But we shouldn’t talk here. There’s a veranda nearby with decent privacy, if you wouldn’t mind following me…”

“You look so different without your makeup,” Katara commented idly once they’d ensured they were alone. “And your new outfit…”

Suki snorted at Katara’s unasked question. “That crabby lady makes all the security guards wear them. It’s not really my look, but, well, when needs must and all that.”

“Are the other Kyoshi warriors around?” Aang asked with a tilted head, sounding curious and hopeful in equal measure. It wasn’t hard to guess why.

“Yeah! After you left Kyoshi, we wanted to find a way to help people. We ended up escorting some refugees, and we’ve been here ever since.” Momo peeked his head out from Zuko’s shirt and flew over to Suki, chittering quietly and demanding to be pet. Suki laughed at his eagerness. “Hi, Momo. It’s good to see you too. Oh, hello Laichi.” Momo sulked as one of Suki’s hands drifted down to ruffle the polar dog’s fluffy fur, but he was easily appeased when she hit just the right spot beneath his ear. “So, why were you guys trying to get tickets for the ferry? Wouldn’t you just fly across on Appa?”

They all looked down at that. Even Mai looked more somber than usual, a truly difficult feat, as Katara murmured, “Appa is missing. Some sandbenders stole him and Mikan, a lion vulture that Zuko took in, from us. We’re hoping to find them in Ba Sing Se.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Suki’s voice was barely over a whisper, looking between Aang and Zuko in clear concern. “Are you two doing okay?”

Aang looked like he might lash out for a moment there, but he took a deep breath, really looked at the way that Suki was just as worried about Zuko as she was about him, and heaved out a sigh. “... Not really. I just need to find him.”

“I’ve been better,” Zuko admitted when Suki’s gaze focused solely on him afterward. “But we’re going to find them. We won’t rest until we do. Laichi should be able to track them down within the city once we get there; it’s just a matter of getting there.” He’d been keeping Appa’s brush and the fur within it carefully separated from everything else for a reason. He wasn’t about to risk contaminating the scent as it grew fainter by the day.

“I’ll let you know if I find anything,” she promised them both. “Me and my girls will keep a sharp eye out for anyone buying or selling animals like that.”

“Thank you.” Sokka’s smile was nothing but grateful, if a bit weary, as Suki nodded in turn. “We really appreciate–”

“Avatar Aang!” Ying cried out from afar, and he blinked at the sight of tears welling in the eyes of a woman who had happily and easily received her and her family’s tickets shortly before their failed attempt. “You have to help us,” she begged. “Someone took all of our belongings. Our passports, our tickets, everything is gone!”

“I’ll talk to the lady for you,” Aang promised with a determined look, but it in the end, it didn’t do them any good. The woman was not willing to make any exceptions. “Don’t worry, you’ll get to the city safely.” Aang’s voice was lined with steel and spoke of an unrelenting certainty that he would make true, one way or another. “I’ll lead you through the Serpent’s Pass.”

“It really won’t be too bad!” Ty Lee reassured them with a sunny smile at their appreciative, albeit anxious, smiles. “Zuko has made friends with way scarier things than a sea serpent.” She glanced in Mai’s direction before asking, “How much do you wanna bet that he’s going to make friends with it and get it to help us or at least let us through before we get to Ba Sing Se?”

“That’s a fool’s bet,” Mai snorted derisively. “Of course he is. Just look at him.”

Than, Ying, and Than’s sister all really took the time to look closely at Zuko then, studying the wide variety of animals clinging onto him, and suddenly look a lot less afraid about the whole ordeal. Than’s sister even laughed a little bit, and Ty Lee beamed at her successful attempt to lighten the mood.

They left Full Moon Bay in higher spirits than they arrived, and though getting to Serpent’s Pass wasn’t easy, the wide array of supplies that they liberated from Appa’s saddle before being forced to leave it behind easily kept the entire group fed regardless of the extra mouths to feed. Than and Uncle both helped Ying traverse rougher, rockier areas and ensured she wouldn’t fall, and both Aang and Ty Lee were on standby, ready to catch her with the air before she could ever touch the ground, if she did.

Serpent’s Pass was, admittedly, rougher terrain than he’d been expecting. The narrow strip of land was barely wide enough to walk across, trailing higher and higher up a jagged cliffside that threatened to fall out from beneath their feet at any given moment. In fact, it did, and only Toph’s quick response kept Than from plunging into the water below. Thankfully, they managed to avoid drawing the attention of a nearby Fire Nation cruiser despite the chunk of rock that fell into the ocean. He figured that wasn't a particularly uncommon occurrence around here.

They made camp once the sun started to set and they found a small clearing barely wide enough to fit them all, huddling in close both for warmth and out of necessity. Ying gasped quietly, eyes widening in shock, when Uncle lit the fire with a flick of his wrist and started boiling water for some ginger tea to help with her nausea. Than and his sister both missed it, the former being too busy rubbing his wife’s sore feet to see and the latter dedicating herself to making themselves as comfortable as possible with the sleeping bags their group offered to them while a few of their own curled up on top of blankets, and he briefly tensed, expecting trouble despite the fact that they were those three’s only chance of getting through this safely. But perhaps Ying realized that as well because she did not say a word, simply looking between Aang and Uncle with a contemplative expression.

It took a long time for sleep to claim him, only truly relaxing once Ying herself fell asleep without uttering a word of what she saw. When the sun rose and she still hadn’t said anything, simply smiling in thanks as Uncle passed another warm cup of tea to her alongside their breakfast, he allowed himself to believe that it just might be okay for them to use firebending openly here. Not inside Ba Sing Se, certainly, at least not in any noticeable way, but it should be fine for now.

“It’s not quite as steep as it was yesterday,” he commented idly once they’d packed up their camp and continued onward. “Hopefully that’s a good sign.”

Zuko really should’ve known better than to say anything. The universe liked to take that as a challenge.

They all stood in front of a long stretch of water, the path becoming completely submerged for a long stretch, and stared in disbelief. Toph was looking increasingly nervous, being unable to swim for obvious reasons, and she wasn’t the only one. There was no way Ying would be capable of swimming across safely, even if there wasn’t a potentially hostile, territorial sea serpent to worry about, and without Appa to ferry them across, there was really only one option left.

“Alright,” he muttered. “Anyone who can’t swim, regardless of their reasoning, can climb on my back.”

“Huh? What do you–” Than’s voice choked off into weighted silence when a swirl of rainbow flames left a dragon standing before him, red and blue scales split perfectly down the middle as eyes as golden as the sun itself, illuminated by Agni’s rays, glittered with wry amusem*nt.

“Oh,” Ying murmured. “I suddenly understand why you weren’t worried about a sea serpent.”

“You’re the best, Zuko!” Toph cheered as she all but jumped onto his back, patting his scales with a wicked grin. “I really hate crossing water. At least this way I’ll be able to focus on the vibrations of your heartbeat… And I know you wouldn’t let me fall.”

“Indeed, I would not,” he rumbled lowly. “Than, I would recommend sitting behind Ying to keep her steady. Though I will move as smoothly as possible, it is not quite as easy as riding an ostrich horse or something similar. It will take some effort on your part too."

“R-Right. Of course.”

In the end, Toph, Ying, Than, Than’s sister, Uncle, and every animal except for Laichi and Nashi, who couldn’t get a good enough grip on him for it to be safe, wound up hitching a ride on Zuko, and he carefully marked out the path for the others to follow, after Katara organized them into a single file line, with his tail. Katara, Aang, and Azula all utilized their waterbending to create a pocket of air as the path went deeper and deeper underwater. Zuko’s tail flickered with rainbow flames that illuminated their path as it continued dragging along the path to the best of his ability, floating directly above it instead the path in places where it was deep enough that he had no choice but to start swimming in earnest.

He likely wouldn’t have needed La’s gift to sense the sea serpent’s approach, but it certainly helped matters. Zuko nudged his head back, encouraging Momo and Ichigo to give up their perches atop his horns before he dipped his head beneath the water's surface. He locked eyes with the sea serpent in clear warning, flames flickering around his teeth as he instinctively hissed, “These travelers are under my protection. I shall not see any harm come to them. We will vacate your territory as soon as we are able, I assure you.”

“A great serpent of the sky… It has been many decades since I last saw one of your kind. Very well, cousin. I shall grant your passage just this once, but if you ever again need to cut through my territory, we will do battle if you do not first seek permission.”

“I understand,” he agreed with a dip of his head. “And I thank you for your graciousness.”

The sea serpent merely twisted their body in silent acknowledgement, swiftly reversing their direction and heading away from the main path. Zuko’s head emerged from the water once more with a relieved sigh. “We’ve been granted passage,” he rumbled to the nervous strangers upon his back. “You have no need to fear.” Momo and Ichigo swiftly reclaimed their perches atop his horns with echoing chatters, and they pressed onward.

Once they returned to solid land, and Zuko returned to his human form while pretending not to notice the way Than’s sister; Ying; and Than himself watched him afterward, the rest of the journey was far easier. The cliffs didn’t rise quite as high, the path wasn’t quite so narrow, the sea serpent had guaranteed their safe passage, and they didn’t even see another Fire Nation ship sailing through the western waters. It went about as well as it possibly could have, all things considered.

And then, after finally setting their eyes on the distant wall of Ba Sing Se, Ying went into labor. Zuko averted his eyes, frozen stiff and horrified, as Katara and Uncle helped Ying and her family deliver the baby, and that, more than anything, seemed to reassure the other group that he was just another teenage boy, regardless of his other form. Katara easily took control of the situation, getting Toph to erect a massive stone tent to hide them from view while Aang grabbed some rags, Sokka fetched some water, and Zuko boiled it to make absolutely certain it would be safe for use. Azula and Ty Lee were even more uncomfortable than he was with the situation, somehow, though Mai wound up joining Katara and Uncle within the tent to help with the delivery itself. The rest of them could do little more than wait.

A baby girl, appropriately named Hope for the bit of light she cast upon them all, was born a few hours later. Ying was still a bit woozy with blood loss and understandably exhausted, but between Katara’s healing and Zuko offering her as much energy as he had to spare through his rainbow flames, she was already on the mend. Aang, having inspired Hope’s namesake and solidifying his own hope that they really would find both Appa and Mikan again, took to the skies to make sure he couldn’t see any traveling caravans heading into the city. Even with their help, it would take a few days before Ying was ready to travel again, and though he returned with a shake of his head, Aang’s smile was still there. Faint and weak, but there and more genuine than it had been in a while.

“We’ll find them,” Aang murmured. This time, he sounded like he actually believed it. “We’ll find them…”

Zuko dipped his head in a nod. “We will. Even if we have to search the entire world, we’ll find them.”

Agni and La help anyone who tried to stop them.

Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve: The City of Secrets

Chapter Text

When they finally arrived at the station where stone monorails took any new refugees into Ba Sing Se and through the city’s great walls, they all breathed a sigh of relief. There was a bit of a situation regarding all the animals that were moving into the city with them, mostly confusion since the vast majority of people could only get to the city by ferry, but Aang put his foot down and showcased his skill in airbending, waterbending, and earthbending to prove that he was genuinely the Avatar and had no intention of leaving a single one of his travel companions behind, regardless of who or what they were.

They were all allowed to board the stone train. Watching earthbenders operate it was actually pretty interesting, and they got a good view of them doing so from the back car that they got shuffled into.

“Look! The inner wall.” Katara was doing her best to lift the mood even when they all wished they didn’t have to come here at all, and honestly, it was sort of working. Ba Sing Se was a huge city, and the sheer scope of it made him and Aang both more hopeful that they would be able to find Appa and Mikan here, given enough time. He only hoped that the sheer number of scents that would be layered over each other wouldn’t confuse Laichi too much. He was beginning to worry that she might not be able to track them down here. “I didn’t know that cities could even be this big…”

“It’s just as magnificent as I imagined it would be,” Than murmured. “Hope will be able to have a future here. To build a life here.”

“All thanks to you.” Ying’s smile was gentle and warm in a way that tugged at his heartstrings and reminded him of his mother. “We will not forget the favor you’ve done us in getting here.”

Zuko wasn’t usually the best at figuring out the words that people meant when they didn’t actually say them, but even he felt confident in assuming that this was her way of promising they wouldn’t say a word about Zuko being a dragon. Or about the fact that there were firebenders in their group at all. As far as anyone else was concerned, they were simply with the Avatar and no other questions were necessary.

“Don’t worry, man,” Sokka murmured as he bumped their shoulders together. “We’ll find them. Even a city this big only has so many places to hide a flying bison, and Mikan would… Probably take the hand off of anyone who tried to keep her away from Appa. They’ll be fine.”

He had no doubt about that. Mikan had already survived a lot before he met her, and Appa would do everything in his power to find Aang the second he got free. He only wished that they didn’t have to go through this at all. Zuko worried at his lip as they all took in the sight of a massive maze of a city, stretching farther than the eye could see, and quietly resigned himself to the fact that they would be here for a while.

“What a magnificent city,” Uncle murmured as they stepped off the train and waved farewell to Than and his family. “The very embodiment of the resilience of Earth Kingdom citizens.”

Toph sighed, and she was one of the most visibly unhappy to be here. “Back in the city. Great.”

“I dunno, I think it looks pretty interesting.” Ty Lee skipped forward with a hum, looking out over the horizon and taking in the bustling city with a smile. “I bet there’s all sorts of interesting things to do here.”

“It’s just a bunch of walls and rules,” Toph promised her. “Just you wait, you’ll get sick of it in a couple of days.”

“As far as I’m concerned, that just gives us the opportunity to learn how to stealthily break said rules.” Azula’s eyes glinted at the perceived challenge. “It isn’t like you to give in quietly, Toph. We’re with the Avatar right now. They’ll probably be a lot more willing to tolerate things that they typically wouldn’t. As far as they’re aware, he’s their only hope, after all.”

Aang took out his bison whistle, looked over the city, and blew into it. Unfortunately, as much as they figured this would happen, Appa was still nowhere to be seen. “I’m coming for you, buddy.” Katara walked up to his side, resting her hand on Aang’s shoulder with a comforting smile. “He’s here, I can feel it,” he promised them all, and with Appa’s status as his animal guide, Zuko believed it. Aang looked back at Zuko then, and his smile, though strained, was real. “We’ll find them both, I promise. We won’t stop looking until we do.”

The train departed, moving on to another stop, and they were greeted by the unnerving sight of a woman who grinned from ear to ear walking straight up to them. “Hello, my name is Joo Dee. I have been given the great honor of showing the Avatar and his companions around Ba Sing Se. Welcome to our wonderful city. Shall we get started?”

Their nods were a bit hesitant, but Joo Dee’s smile didn’t falter an inch. “Great! Let’s begin our tour, and then I’ll show you to your new home here. I think you’ll like it.” They all followed her into the most crowded part of the city with little more than a few shrugs and wary glances. It wouldn’t hurt to know how to navigate the city better, but something about their tour guide just felt off. Something about the way she talked… “This is the Lower Ring.”

“What’s that wall for?” Katara asked, subtly prying for information.

“Oh, Ba Sing Se has many walls. There are the ones outside, protecting us, and the ones inside, that help maintain order. This is where our newest arrivals live, as well as our craftsmen and artisans, people that work with their hands. It’s so quaint and lively.” As if to immediately disprove her words, they caught a glimpse of a man holding a nasty, curved sword, smirking when he caught sight of them. “You do want to watch your step, though.”

“Why do they have all these poor people blocked off in one part of the city?”

Aang gave Katara a tired look. “This is why I never came here before. I always heard it was so different from the way the monks taught us to live. People shouldn’t be treated like this.” Starving refugees were everywhere they looked. What they saw at Full Moon Bay was a mere prelude to what was to come here, where people were discarded and forgotten by the powerful people of Ba Sing Se, left to struggle and die within its walls.

Joo Dee quickly led them out of the Lower Ring. Her painful-looking smile didn’t falter for a moment as she explained, “This is the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se, home to the financial district, shops and restaurants, and the university.”

Sokka straightened up when he heard that bit of information. “Yeah, we met a professor from Ba Sing Se University. He helped us find an ancient, underground library so we could learn more about spirits. He didn’t want to leave, though. Decided he’d stay and help Wan Shi Tong until he died and become a Knowledge Seeker after that so he could keep learning forever.”

“How fascinating. I will ensure the professors know not to expect him back.” Joo Dee pointed to their right and said, “Look, here’s one of the oldest buildings in the Middle Ring, town hall.” Her firm redirection was both strange and out of nowhere, and even though her smile remained fastened on her face, something uncomfortable flashed through her eyes at the mere mention of Professor Zei.

“They do that a lot here,” Toph muttered as soon as Joo Dee was out of earshot, patiently waiting for them to follow. “Managing people. If you bring up something they don’t wanna talk about, then you can just forget it. They will not budge. They’ve outstubborned me before. Me!”

“Oh dear,” Uncle muttered. “When one refuses to listen, then they cannot possibly hope to learn.”

“Yeah. And they don’t like talking about anything outside of this city. As far as Ba Sing Se is concerned, the entire world is right here.” Toph stalked forward to get the rest of this tour over with, but not before warning Aang, “Don’t expect any help from these guys. They won’t. We’re gonna have to find Appa and Mikan on our own.”

They followed Joo Dee all the way up to the Upper Ring, and she turned to face them with that smile that was beginning to disturb even Azula and Mai. He could see it in the way their eyebrows were pinching together. “The Upper Ring is home to our most important citizens. Your house is not too far from here.”

“Woah! It’s so pretty!” Ty Lee clapped her hands together and beamed with an exaggerated smile that fooled people every single time. Joo Dee looked quite pleased to see it. “What’s inside that other big wall over there? And what’s with those total cuties in the robes?”

“Inside is the royal palace. Those men are agents of the Dai Li, the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se. They are the guardians of all our traditions.”

That sounded about five different levels of shady, and he could see the way his sister mentally filed that information away for later. Zuko could barely focus on that, though. Something about that place felt incredibly wrong, almost actively malicious, and he shuddered and picked up the pace. Ty Lee merely nodded with a wide grin and whispered, “They sound so cool…”

Joo Dee led them toward the place they’d be staying without any further hesitation, pointing out the homes of a few prominent families along the way. “Here we are, your new home.” Both Momo and Ichigo took to the skies, circling around it to get a better look. As much as none of them wanted to be here, it was a shockingly nice place for them to stay in, especially considering that they didn't give any kind of advance notice.

“We thank you, Joo Dee.” Uncle bowed to her without showing a trace of his previous reservations. “You honor us with your courtesy, and we are grateful to be given a place within this great city.”

“It is my great honor to welcome you to Ba Sing Se. We are all safe here.” And with that, Joo Dee left them to get settled in. That didn’t make him feel any less like every single move they made was currently being watched.

He really hoped that they didn’t have to stay in this city long. But knowing Zuko’s luck, they would be stuck here for ages. Besides… The longer he tried to focus on it, the more certain he became that something was terribly wrong here. “Guys?” he murmured once their doors were shut and they had some semblance of privacy. “Something about that palace feels all kinds of wrong. Spiritually wrong. I don’t know if it’s the palace itself, exactly, but even if it's somewhere close to it…”

“Roger that,” Sokka saluted with a sigh. “Keep an eye out for creepy spirit stuff, as per usual.”

“Maybe we should request an audience with the Earth King,” Katara suggested. “Surely he’d want to know if there was something dangerous in his city.”

Mai was casually cleaning under her fingernails with the tip of one of her daggers as she muttered, “Don’t expect that to go anywhere quickly. Nobles love making a big deal of how valuable their time is, even more so with kings. We’d be stuck waiting for months to talk to him.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t hurt to put in the request!” Ty Lee clarified. “But we should probably be ready to just handle this on our own if it blows up in our faces.”

They were all in agreement on that. After they put away their things, they stepped outside to begin their search for Appa and Mikan and were immediately startled by Joo Dee’s swift return. “I would be a poor host if I left you alone,” she explained before any of them could even ask. “All settled in? I can escort you to anywhere you wish to go.”

There was no chance they were going to try and investigate the palace with a shadow, so Aang asked her to lead them to the nearest pet shop instead. It was probably their best bet at finding their furry companions if merchants truly sold them here. Unfortunately, the shopkeeper was quick to inform them that his shop was a bust. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard anything about a flying bison. I didn’t even know there were any.”

Laichi whined as she leaned against his leg, and he knew what that meant.This was not good. Like Zuko had feared, the sheer number of scents had overwhelmed her and made it almost impossible for Laichi to track Appa within the city. Unless they found themselves very close to where he was, she wasn't likely to pick up on it.

But Aang wasn’t about to leave this place without some sort of lead. Even if the man didn’t have Appa or Mikan, he was probably connected to the people who did. “If someone wanted to sell a stolen animal without anyone knowing, where would they go?”

Sokka immediately backed him up. “Where’s the black market? Who runs it? Come on, we know you know, we won't tell anyone.”

The shopkeeper looked incredibly nervous, and Zuko didn’t miss the way he glanced toward Joo Dee before saying, “That would be illegal.” He definitely knew something, but he wasn’t going to say it while she was with them. “I think you should go now. Best of luck finding your flying bison and, uh, lion vulture, was it?” There was a story there, he definitely knew something, but they were forced to leave it be for now. Maybe they could circle back to him later.

Questioning the students of Ba Sing Se University didn’t yield any results either. Professor Zei knew the most out of any of them about sandbenders and desert culture, and there was no way they were setting foot in Si Wong Desert again.

“I’m sorry no one has seen your companions,” Joo Dee apologized after escorting them back to their home. It was perhaps the most hollow, insincere apology he had ever heard, and Zuko literally grew up in the Fire Nation royal palace. “Why don’t you go get some rest? Someone will be over with dinner later.”

And finally, they were truly left alone. The man who lived across from them peeked through his window, shrinking away from their gaze the second they looked his way. Something was deeply wrong with this city.

“Should we go talk to him?” Sokka wondered out loud. “Try to figure out what’s going on here?”

“No. We’ll need to uncover that ourselves.” Azula shook her head with an exasperated sigh. “I’ve seen looks like that before. People like him are too scared to talk. This whole city is too scared to talk.”

“Told ya,” Toph muttered when they all turned in for the night, stomachs full of both their provided dinner and the anxiety churning within them. “This city sucks.”

Mai laid down with a sigh. “Understatement of the century, there. Ba Sing Se is going to bore me to tears; I can see it already.”

They had a lot of work to do, and he had a feeling that they would be fighting the city officials every step of the way if they wanted to get anything done.

After a week of subtly questioning people about where animals could be found within the city and visiting a truly heart wrenching zoo, Aang and Katara dedicated themselves to finding a printer and making lost posters to distribute throughout the city. That was a much more reasonable ask, apparently, because they brought them back that very same day. The art on said posters was strikingly realistic, easily some of the best he’d ever seen, and Zuko couldn’t help wondering who had drawn it.

“Any trouble with Ms. Smiles A Lot or the Dai Li?” Sokka asked them as soon as they shut the door behind them.

“Nope! Pretty sure they’re just leaving us alone now since we aren’t causing trouble.” Aang rubbed at the back of his head with a nervous laugh. “Thanks for the advice, Azula.”

“But of course. It was only common sense, really. They’re so obsessed with everything happening within this city that it stood to reason the war simply was not spoken of. I will admit, it surprised me that some of their citizens genuinely do not seem to know about it, but all the better for our plans.” Azula smirked as she looked over the poster, nodding her head in approval. “They might not like us doing this, but we’ve been model guests so far. It is perfectly reasonable for us to be searching for our lost companions. They have to strike a delicate balance between maintaining order and offending us so greatly that we may leave, planting the seeds for all sorts of nasty rumors that they won't want circulating either.”

So they got to work. Aang, Momo, and Ichigo distributed posters from the sky, dropping them down and letting the wind carry them wherever it may. Ty Lee and Mai worked together to put them up high in extremely visible and difficult to reach places. Zuko and Sokka worked together to cover the Lower Ring since they had visible weapons that made any potential muggers hesitate, Azula and Toph worked together to handle the Middle Ring and made a point of plastering posters on storefronts that got a lot of daily traffic, and Katara and Uncle took care of putting up posters in the Upper Ring, though the latter was also busy ingratiating himself with the locals and effectively fostering his own miniature spy network.

Once they all finished passing out leaflets and hanging up posters for the day, Zuko settled down in their little backyard and took a deep breath. He could sense a large amount of water underground, and with the spiritual energy in this place only getting darker and stronger by the day, he knew that he needed to do this sooner rather than later.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he pulled water to the surface, creating a miniature pond and, more importantly, the base for another Spirit Oasis. He allowed the faintest flickers of his flames to purify the water, burning out the sludgy, spiritual darkness that had seeped into even the water supply of this place. His absolute certainty that something was wrong here only solidified all the more when, before he could even poke his head through to go to find Yue, she emerged from the water with a tired smile.

“Hello, Zuko. My but this place feels vile. What in Tui’s name has been happening here?”

“That’s what we’d like to find out,” he muttered as he got to his feet. “Think you can spare a few days? Whatever is happening here, I don’t like it. I’m beginning to suspect that whatever Agni and La were warning me about, whichever dark spirit is going to find their way into our world and threatens to wreak havoc, it’s going to start here.”

“You feel it too, then? That only makes me all the more certain of my need to stay.” Zuko extended his hand to her, and when she accepted it, he guided her toward the house, steaming her dry in an instant. “I’ll be able to spare a few days. I warned my father that this was coming, so it will not be a surprise. The fate of the world, of both worlds, is rather more important than a few meetings.”

He chuckled at that, silently wondering why they were the ones who always found themselves in these situations. “Thank you. Everyone will be excited to see you.”

They walked through the back door just as Aang got back. “I just finished dropping all the leaflets. Has anyone come in with news about Appa or Mikan?”

“Not yet, Aang,” Katara murmured apologetically. “But it hasn’t even been a day yet. Try to be patient; I’m sure that someone knows something.”

Aang sighed, setting his glider down as he slide to the floor. “I guess you’re right…” Then he looked up, noticing where Zuko was standing and who he was standing with, and rubbed at his eyes, blinking in shock. “Yue?!”

Toph snapped her fingers with a wicked grin. “Ah, so you’re the princess that was name-dropped while convincing my parents to let me go traveling around the world. Nice to meet ya. Thanks for your contribution to my freedom, however unintentional.”

Yue chuckled, and a little bit of the exhaustion that lurked beneath her eyes lightened for just a moment. “I am happy to be of assistance, especially in regards to earning freedom from overbearing families.”

Any further conversation was interrupted by a knock at their door. Unfortunately, Joo Dee was the one standing on the other side of it, not anyone with the information that they needed. “Joo Dee?” Aang questioned with a tilted head. “Why are you here?”

Their previous shadow pulled out one of the many fliers that had been scattered throughout the city. “Dropping fliers and putting up posters isn’t permitted within the city. Not without proper clearance.”

Azula stepped in before anyone else could put their foot in their mouth. “I apologize for our ignorance. Our worry for poor Appa and Mikan has blinded our good sense and worsened our manners, I’m afraid. How would we go about getting the proper clearance?”

“So long as you understand,” Joo Dee acknowledged with her unwavering smile. “I can put in a request to have your case looked at, but it may take a few weeks before you receive your answer.”

Mai dipped her head in a nod. “We understand. There is no rushing these things.”

“Yeah!” Ty Lee chimed in. “Thank you for all your hard work, and we’re super sorry for accidentally breaking the rules.”

“It is no trouble at all. It is my job to guide you whenever you have erred, and it is my great honor to do so. It is normal for newcomers to our great city to require an adjustment period. Is there anything else I may assist you with?”

“We thank you for your offer, but we are alright for now. We'll be sure to let you know if that changes,” Azula reassured her with the slightest of smiles. “And also we’ll be sure to ask you before doing something so drastic again.”

Aang was trembling, practically shaking the entire floor in his desperate effort to contain his frustration, as they watched Joo Dee walk away, and he turned to Azula with a million questions racing through his eyes. He managed to condense it into one. “Why did you let her boss you around like that?”

“Because the fliers have already done their job. It will be impossible for the Dai Li to collect every single flier and poster out there, and anyone who hasn’t already seen them or decided to keep one for themselves will certainly hear about it after they suddenly vanish. The information is out there. We’ll have a better chance of actually receiving it if we’re not being watched too closely. Playing it off like an innocent mistake born of concern makes us look emotional and soft, easy to control, and will allow us more freedoms.”

“You’re so smart that it honestly scares me,” Sokka muttered, and Zuko couldn’t help chuckling in helpless agreement.

“It is always a wonder to see you at work.” Yue dipped into a shallow bow, and Azula returned the gesture with a wicked smirk. “If only I had someone like you around to talk some sense into my council… I’ve got a long battle ahead of me, there.”

“Well, if you ever want any tips, my doors are open.”

The next day, there was another knock at their door, and this time, it was exactly what they were hoping for. Just from a source that Katara was extremely angry about, for some reason. “Katara, we don’t have any other leads,” Aang pleaded. “If there’s even a chance that Jet is telling the truth, then we should check it out. It’s not like he can take all of us in a fight anyway.”

Katara dropped her combat-ready stance with a sigh, allowing the spikes of ice that had pinned Jet to the wall to melt. “... Fine. But I don’t like it, and we will be keeping a close eye on you, mister.”

Jet led them toward a large building in the Middle Ring, and Laichi, who Zuko brought along just in case they could find a fresher scent, immediately perked up. Her tail started wagging as she barked and ran forward, and Aang’s face lit up like the sun. Zuko was hardly any more subtle. They ran forward and burst through the old, wooden doors, and he almost started crying with relief.

“Appa!!”

Aang all but tackled the flying bison into a hug, shattering the chains around his feet in a single motion, and Appa’s excited bellows warmed Zuko's heart Then Appa stood up and revealed that Mikan had been tucked into his side, Aang immediately freed her as well, and Zuko laughed as she tackled him to the floor in her excitement. “Hey, girl. I missed you too.”

“Jet, you actually…”

Katara got a sheepish shrug as Jet explained, “I work near here. Two guys were talking about some giant furry creature that they had, and I figured it had to be Appa. Then they started talking about having to go to a butcher’s shop for scrap meat, and that certainly sounded like something you’d feed to a lion vulture. I’m glad it worked out.”

“You’ve finally come to get them? Good,” an old man with a broom muttered. “I’ve been cleaning up fur and various, uh, leavings for days, and that damned lion vulture bites. I’m glad to be rid of ‘em.” Zuko had a feeling that they were not the people who were meant to be taking their companions out of here, they would not have been chained if that was the case, but the old janitor either had a soft heart buried somewhere in there or simply wasn't paid enough to care.

“We should head back soon.” Yue’s eyes glowed with the power of the moon, and he watched Jet visibly startle and take a step back. “They did not intend for us to find them here, and if we do not move quickly, then we will fall into their trap. You,” she pointed at Jet, “Come with us. You will be in great danger if you do not.”

“Uh, right. Sure?”

They all made haste back to their temporary lodgings in the Upper Ring, with Aang flying Appa overhead so that no one could miss him. It would make it look even stranger if he suddenly disappeared again, and Azula openly approved of that move.

“So, uh, how’d you know we needed to run?” Jet asked Yue once they were safely within four walls. Or as safe as they could be within this city.

“The moon bears witness to all the lies and secrets that the living attempt to hide within the dark of night. The citizens of Ba Sing Se are no exception.” Yue blinked, the glow fading slightly from her eyes as she explained, “I’m Tui’s vessel. I can’t always tap into her foresight like that, but if something extremely important is about to happen, she’ll warn me when she can.”

“You get used to it,” Sokka muttered at Jet’s befuddled look. “This group is filled to the brim with spirit nonsense, and it’s easier to just nod and roll with it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Is there… Someone who could go find Longshot and Smellerbee in the Lower Ring? They’re the only two who came here with me, and if the Dai Li start looking for me, then they might get pulled into this mess too. I'd rather they not get blindsided by it.”

“I’ll go, Sokka volunteered immediately. "I’m not a bender and we’ve kept our heads down, so they don’t think I’m dangerous. Aang and Katara are too obvious, and no one else has met them.”

Ty Lee jumped to her feet with an easy nod. “And I’ll go with you, just in case. They bought the whole ditzy, airhead thing and seem to like me, so they’ll be even less suspicious if the two of us are wandering around together. They’ll probably think it’s a date or something.” She giggled at the very thought of that. “We’ll be right back, promise!”

They waited in a tense, weighted silence, but neither Joo Dee nor the Dai Li came knocking at their door. Now that they’d found their companions, it would seem incredibly suspicious for them to be anything but happy for them. They were stuck pretending that they hadn't, more likely than not, been involved in a plot to kidnap them and use them for something for the sake of keeping the peace.

“What on earth have ya gotten us into now, Jet?” a young girl with twin lines of face paint on both of her cheeks muttered. She shook her head, but even though she was trying to look disapproving, a smile kept tugging at her lips. “At least it was because ya did the right thing, this time. Ya really have changed. We're proud of ya.”

“I’m trying," Jet deflected nervously. "Everyone, that would be Smellerbee, and the silent archer is Longshot. I would, uh, introduce you guys, but I don’t really know any of your names outside of Aang, Katara, and Sokka. Man, this group has gotten big.”

“Ah, right!” Aang, who was completely willing to forgive whatever Jet had done in the past now that he’d reunited him with Appa, was about to start introducing them when the earth began to quiver and shake beneath their feet. He froze at the same exact moment that Zuko and Yue did, feeling the massive swell of energy that pulsed beneath the palace. It was spreading further, growing stronger, and Zuko cursed as he realized that it was infesting the entirety of the underground lake beneath them.

“We’re about to have much bigger problems than the Dai Li.”

The earth shook, and a Great Spirit awakened with a screech that could be heard throughout the entire city.

Chapter 13: Chapter Thirteen: The Hubris of Humans, the Empowerment of Koh

Chapter Text

“I should not have wished for more excitement,” Mai groaned as the ground continued to quake. “It was stupid of me to tempt fate like that, truly.”

“Come on! The worst of it is coming from right underneath the palace.” Toph filled in the cracking earth around them before it could swallow them whole. Some of the panicked citizens running through the streets were not so lucky. “We’re never gonna find the actual passage like this. We have to tunnel underground!”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Jet cried out. “We’ll all die if we do that in the middle of an earthquake. It’ll collapse on top of our heads!”

“Not with me and Twinkletoes holding it steady, it won’t. Look, you can stay here or you can come with us, but we don’t have time to argue about this! Either put your faith in the greatest earthbender in the world and her student, or stay here and pray that you don’t get squashed by a collapsing building. What’ll it be?” Toph stomped and twisted her foot, forcing a tight circle of all the earth and stone around their group to stop shaking. One more stomp carved out the start of their tunnel, and Aang darted forward to keep the earth above it from collapsing into the open passage. “Now come on!”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Jet and his friends were only a few steps behind them, and the moment that they were underground, the pathway behind them closed and plunged the tunnel into darkness. That didn’t impede Toph in the slightest, but for the rest of them, it was far too dark for such a large group to safely move forward in these conditions. Zuko didn’t even think twice about snapping his fingers and cradling a flickering ball of rainbow flames in the palm of his hand. “What? A firebender? You’re traveling with a f*cking firebender?!”

“We really don’t have the time for this, Jet!” Sokka snapped as they pressed onward. He suspected that the only reason Jet kept moving at all was because he’d be crushed by the ground above him if he lingered for too long. “Not everyone from the Fire Nation is evil, Zuko and Azula have been working together to undermine the war effort and spark a civil war in their nation for years, and we have bigger f*cking problems right now!”

Jet’s hand still twitched for his swords, but he grit his teeth and kept moving. It wasn’t until Smellerbee’s eyes widened and she muttered, “Wait, Zuko? Azula? As in the Fire Nation’s prince and princess? That Zuko and Azula?” that hell truly threatened to break loose.

A snap of Katara’s water whip knocked Jet’s swords to the ground, and only Ty Lee’s quick thinking kept them from being buried in the rubble of the tunnel that moved with them. “Not another move from you,” she threatened. “They have been helping us this whole time, and we trust them a hell of a lot more than we trust you. I know that you’ve suffered because of the Fire Nation, but we all have! I mean, look at Zuko’s face!” He snorted at the immediately horrified and apologetic look she shot him, waving it off with his free hand. “The only reason you were even able to see well enough to try attacking him is because he’s helping us, Jet. Get ahold of yourself or we really will leave you behind. If not in this tunnel, then whenever we’re stuck going up against whatever Great Spirit just crossed over into our realm and is currently threatening to tear the fabric of reality apart!”

Jet averted his eyes, and after a moment of observation, Ty Lee returned his swords back to him. “You’re gonna need these.”

“What? Why would you…?”

“You’re just scared and angry. I’m not gonna let you hurt my friends, but I don’t want you to walk into this unarmed. This is going to be difficult enough as it is.”

“Hey guys?” Toph called back. “Get ready for one hell of a fight. Whatever’s in here is huge!” With those daunting words, their tunnel finally let out into an underground cavern that was filled with glowing, green crystals. The earth still shook all around them, but that suddenly seemed unimportant in the face of a much larger threat.

“That… Is not the Koh I remember seeing in the Spirit World,” Aang whispered, frantically glancing back at Jet, Longshot, and Smellerbee. “You’ve gotta keep a perfectly blank face no matter what. If he catches you showing any emotion at all, then he’ll steal your face and you’ll be trapped in a state between life and death, forever, unless someone finds a way to save you or you, well…”

“Got it,” Jet grunted. Between one moment and the next, he managed to sculpt his face into the picture perfect look of neutrality just like Longshot, Azula, and Mai had already donned without the threat of a fate worse than death looming over them all.

Hundreds if not thousands of legs attached themselves to a segmented body that stretched beyond what any of them could see. Instead of the typical, singular face at his head that Koh was known for, a wide variety of stolen faces lined the sides of his body, promising certain doom to anyone who emoted within their extended line of sight. Koh hadn’t bothered them yet, he was too busy laughing about whatever he and his main face were doing in another part of the catacombs, but it was only a matter of time now.

“I apologize,” Yue whispered with the practiced, perfectly neutral face of a princess. Her eyes began to glow. “This will be uncomfortable, but it is our best chance of getting out of this as we are now.” She lifted her arms, and a curious hum reverberated from Koh as his many faces blinked in perfect unison. One of the many smaller pools of water in this place was lifted straight out of its basin, glowing silver with Tui’s purifying light as Yue separated it into thirteen individual blobs. A twist of her hands and the careful curling of her fingers shaped the blobs of water into an approximation of faces, and clenching her fist froze each of them solid.

Masks made of ice flew toward and fastened themselves to each and every one of their faces. The chill was biting, but the faint hum of healing energy that Yue and Tui had infused into the water promised to prevent any serious injury from frostbite. Yue panted softly behind her own mask as she murmured, “These will limit our range of vision a bit, but that may prove to be an advantage in this case.”

Koh’s laughter returned. His seemingly endless number of legs scuttled along the crumbling walls, knocking stone and crystal fragments alike to the cavern’s floor as he redirected his focus to the intruders within his lair. “Oh, you think yourselves clever, don’t you? No matter. If you seek to hide your true selves from me behind an unwavering mask, then I will simply have my loyal followers shatter them one by one.”

An entire army’s worth of people marched into the room in perfect synchrony. Many adorned the uniform of the Dai Li, a horde of women wore outfits that were identical to Joo Dee’s down to the smallest detail, and others were draped in robes and finery that couldn’t have belonged to anyone but nobles. There was also a strange, furred creature that looked almost like an armadillo bear without its trademark shell.

Every single one of them was faceless.

“Oh, f*ck me,” he groaned. “Guess the Dai Li are still a problem after all.”

Everything became very chaotic after that. Toph and Aang were forced on the defensive by the onslaught of rock and crystal hurled in their direction by the Dai Li, who could still earthbend and approximate their location by sound, and Ty Lee quite literally flew around the room blocking chi points and paralyzing as many of Koh’s benders as she could. Mai was helping Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot utilize their weapons non-lethally to take down the Joo Dee clones, sharing her supply of shirshu venom that she’d bribed off of June months ago and saved for a situation like this. Yue and Katara utilized the abundance of water within these catacombs to alternate between sweeping their opponents aside and freezing them in place and healing any injuries that their group sustained, and Azula was careful to avoid their side of the battlefield as her fingertips sparked with lightning. She darted around almost as quickly as Ty Lee, carefully controlling her power output as mere sparks either sent their unwitting foes to their knees or knocked them unconscious but left them still breathing. That left him, Sokka, and Uncle to deal with Koh himself.

“Got any words of wisdom for us?” he asked Uncle, half sarcastically and half hoping that he actually had some advice.

“Very little beyond generalities, but we must find and target the source of his power and send him back to the Spirit World through the same method he used to arrive here. Getting to that point, however, is far easier said than done.”

“Sure. We’ll send the giant, scary spirit monster right on back home, no problem at all,” Sokka muttered. “How the hell are we supposed to…?” His partner stiffened, and Zuko didn’t need to see anything but his eyes to see the realization washing over them. “The faces. He stole hundreds of new faces all at once, and he was only ever depicted with one in the scrolls. That’s our answer.” Sokka took out his trusty boomerang, calculated the angle between them and the nearest of Koh’s faces, and let it fly. The Great Spirit was so focused on watching the others fight for their lives, laughing all the while, that he didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. A screech of pain rattled the walls as Sokka tugged his boomerang free, and Koh whirled around and moved to strike the human who had dared to harm him.

Zuko was between them in an instant, half-transformed with wings, tail, and the strength to show for it. His claws dug into the earth and refused to budge an inch, and his fingernails darkened and extended until they sank into the chitin surrounding Koh’s primary face like it was made of paper. “Go!” he shouted back at Sokka and his uncle. “I’ll hold him off; destroy the rest of his faces!”

“Let them try!” Koh hissed as the rest of his body thrashed, desperately trying to free himself from Zuko’s grip. “You think yourself powerful enough to stop me? You, a mere mortal?”

“Oh, but you have truly lost yourself to madness if you believe me a mere mortal, Koh.” La’s voice layered over Zuko’s own, and every body of water both in this room and those neighboring it began to ebb and flow like the ocean’s waves. “I existed before you, and I will exist long after you. You have risen to sudden and great power, and so it shall be just as swiftly stolen away. Balance. Not even we Great Spirits can escape it, and you were a fool to try.”

There was no telling how long it would take Uncle and Sokka to destroy each of Koh's faces. He supposed it depended on how swiftly the others took down their opponents and were able to join them, but there was something Zuko could do that would make it a bit easier on them in the meantime. It would destroy his mask, it would be a great risk for someone as expressive as Zuko, but he had something that he had nearly forgotten about up until this very moment: the Mother of Faces’ blessing.

A kaleidoscope of colors flared to life and consumed him entirely. Zuko pinned the upper portion of Koh’s body beneath his scaled feet, a snarl curling the dragon’s lips as smoke curled around his teeth. His face remained exactly as it was.

“Damn you! You have my mother’s blessing?!!” Koh struggled all the harder, but it was difficult for him to move with such large claws piercing through him until they anchored into the stone below. He spat literal venom in Zuko’s face, but a wash of healing flames eradicated the faintly irritated sting of that with no trouble. The tide began to turn in their favor. Yue and Katara redirected their focus to sending spears of ice through the eyes of Koh’s many faces once all the nobles were safely frozen in place, and Mai and Longshot joined Uncle on the left side of Koh’s body, because of course there were faces on both sides, while Smellerbee and Jet tackled the right alongside Sokka. Aang, Toph, Azula, and Ty Lee were still dealing with the Dai Li, but their numbers were dwindling and there was no doubt that they would manage to defeat them, in the end.

“You became greedy,” he rumbled. “Had you simply forged a place for yourself among the mortal world, we would not have needed to intervene like this. But you wished to become so powerful that it would skew the balance between life and death, and that is an unforgivable crime in an era where our world is one great travesty away from collapsing into nothingness. You have admired Vaatu for many millennia, and now, you shall share his fate.”

He could feel the very instant that the last of Koh’s additional faces was destroyed. With a snarl, Zuko sank his teeth into the Great Spirit’s neck, and with several beats of his powerful wings, he took to the air and dragged him into the large body of water that stunk of Koh’s corruption the most. His entire body was illuminated in purifying flames as he dove beneath the churning surface. An inescapable, blinding light flashed throughout the entirety of the Crystal Catacombs as Koh’s presence was driven out of this place and returned to the Spirit World, and Zuko knew, even without La telling him in so many words, that the malicious spirit would swiftly find himself sealed away for many millennia.

Zuko emerged from the water and took in the tired, relieved faces of his friends and allies with a pleased chuff. The living embodiment of sunlight within his eyes flickered and flared when he turned his gaze to the hundreds of innocent, faceless people who got pulled into Koh’s madness, and he knew that his work was not quite yet over.

The dragon turned his head and gazed upon the water he had just emerged from, exhaling a plume of rainbow flames as he dipped a single foot into the water and called out to the only Great Spirit who could fix this. “Mother of Faces, I am sorry to call you so far from your home, but I am in need of your aid. If you could return to us the faces stolen by Koh, there is not a sacrifice that I, personally and pertaining only to myself, would refuse to make.”

For a moment, there was nothing, and he feared that his pleas would fall on deaf ears. But then the underground lake flashed in a brilliant surge of white light, and a multitude of glowing faces fastened upon a tree of life rose from its depths. “You ask much of me, little dragon,” the Mother of Faces murmured as a wooden hand cradled the left side of his face. “Even for one of my favorites. There is a reason why I bestow only one face upon a human per season. To perform a feat such as this… It is possible, yes, but it would require a great deal of my power to do so. It would weaken me. You would have to make an offer worthy of such a sacrifice, and you, little dragon, have so very little of yourself left to give. Agni holds claim on both this form and your healing fire, and La claims your very body as her own. What is it that you have left to offer me, little dragon? I am most curious as to your offer.”

And really, he only had one thing left to give. He wondered if she had always intended for this to happen, all the way back to the moment that she blessed him with the same abilities as the wolf spirit that served her. “I offer you my soul. I offer my spirit to your eternal service once I’ve parted from this mortal plane, preventing any future incarnations from ever being born.” He ignored the shocked gasps and cries behind him, focusing solely on the Mother of Faces and waiting for her response.

The smiles that graced each of her many faces were truly blinding. “I had hoped you would say that. Consider it done, my little dragon.”

Zuko allowed himself to return to his human form as the Mother of Faces walked over to the crowd of motionless husks, slumped over like puppets with their strings cut, and gently dragged her hand down each and every disturbingly smooth patch of skin where a face once was. She restored their faces one by one, leaving a lot of confused and terrified citizens of Ba Sing Se in her wake.

“Why would you do that?!” Sokka hissed as he all but tackled him into a hug. “You have got to stop making deals with Great Spirits!”

“I had little choice,” he murmured. “We could not leave them like this. And besides…” Zuko glanced back at the horrified and furious expressions of his uncle and sister, respectively. “I think this will go a long way toward making reparations with the Earth Kingdom, don’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean that sacrificing your soul should be your first choice, dumb-dumb. You could have at least tried to bargain.”

“Not in this. I really did not have much else to offer her. And I prefer this fate to the likelihood that, with La claiming me as her vessel, I would start a cycle of reincarnation not dissimilar to the Avatar Cycle after my death if I had left things as they were. The Mother of Faces is kinder.”

“I… Suppose you have a point, there,” Uncle admitted with a sigh. “You could not have chosen a more benevolent Great Spirit to bind yourself to. All things considered, it could be much worse.”

Azula was still angry with him, but she was less so when they discovered that King Kuei was one of the many unwilling members of Koh’s former army. He owed them too great a debt to be ignored.

When the day for it came, the Earth Kingdom would back them as they took down their father.