Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zuko panted, exhaustion ringing through him as he kept his gaze on the ground in front of him. His hand twitched to go to his water bottle, but he resisted. It would be just as empty as the last dozen times he’d reached for it. A part of him was still tempted to try for one more drop, but the rational side that knew that he’d already drunk that last drop managed to push the impulse down. 

“Perhaps we should rest, Nephew.” Uncle said from his position on the ostrich horse. Zuko didn’t bother glancing at him as he shook his head.

“The village we saw from the hill should be just over this ridge.” The teen managed between his heavy gasps. “We can rest once we get there.”

Iroh hummed his ‘I-am-doubting-you-but-know-that-voicing-this-will-make-you-more-stubborn-so-I’m-hoping-this-will-do-something’ hum. Zuko wished he could speed up and put some distance between himself and Uncle’s disapproval, but it was all he could do to keep plodding forward. 

He could hear the woman on Dragon “quietly” apologize, insisting that she was more than happy to walk for a bit. Zuko tensed, but Iroh knew him well after all this time, and the man simply chuckled. “My Lee is a stubborn boy, especially when it comes to what he believes is right. I am afraid very little could convince him to take your place. Perhaps a broken limb, but even then I’m not so sure.” The man laughed good-naturedly. Zuko grit his teeth, but didn’t bother wasting the energy to reply. The other two who were on their feet let out breathless laughs, but were similarly focusing on simply moving forward. 

The Fire Nation royals had run into the trio of refugees the day before. Iroh had been drawn to the smell of their dinner, meat sizzling over the firepit. They were going towards Ba Sing Se as well, and while it was not safe for them to travel together long term, Zuko had seen that one of the women was pregnant and insisted that they travel together to the next town. He had been adamant that she take his seat on Dragon, with Iroh and the woman’s companions trading out the second spot in regular intervals. Zuko alone had made the rest of the journey by foot, and he was looking forward to hitting the town, mentally budgeting whether or not they would have enough coin for a night in an inn. 

Definitely not. 

They might have enough for two hot meals and some ostrich-horse feed, depending on the prices. His stomach rumbled at the thought. While they hadn’t gone hungry-hungry yet, helping support the three other travelers had bit into the supplies they had purchased with his storytelling money. They’d had to ration a bit, but that was better than slowing down their journey to allow the strangers time to forage as they had been intending. 

It was fine, maybe he could try storytelling for tips again. 

He just had to figure out how to start it on purpose.

Zuko signed in relief as they crested the hill and finally spotted the derelict outskirts of a town. There were echoing sounds from the others, but he forged ahead, passing gamblers until he came up to what looked like a merchant stand. “Could I get some water, hot meals, and some feed?” He asked, dehydration making his voice even harsher than it typically was. 

The man inclined his head at a water pump a few yards away. “Hot meals for all of ya? And how much feed do you need?” The man grimaced. “Prices are going up, too. That isn’t me trying to cheat you, it’s just… the war.” 

Zuko grimaced, but before he could begin the long haggling process, a hand on his shoulder stopped him. The husband of the pregnant woman smiled at teen calmly, Iroh at his shoulder. “Please, you have done so much for us, rest for a bit.” 

Zuko nodded, taking the out. He was good at arguing, as long as one didn’t measure his skill based on whether or not his arguing actually got him his way. He would let someone else haggle. The teen moved to the water pump, filling his waterskin and draining it almost as quickly. As he filled up the skin a second time, he took a careful look around the town. It was clearly isolated, few shops, and those held mostly farming supplies and simple, sturdy-looking clothing. The buildings looked one natural disaster away from being rubble, and the people looked hardened or fearful. He noticed for the first time that the gamblers were glaring at them, and he glared back. 

He was much better at it than them. 

The man visibly scoffed at him and turned back to the game. Zuko continued scanning the town, but kept his senses half-trained on their group. They seemed dangerous. He wasn’t necessarily physically intimidated, he could take them, but they seemed like the type to create problems just to throw their weight around. Those types of people were dangerous. 

Zuko would know. He grew up with two of them. 

It was because he was splitting his attention that he saw a pair of kids just the right age to cause trouble peek out from an alley. The kids giggled to each other, then the taller one threw an egg at the gamblers. 

One side of Zuko’s lips twitch up-it was funny- but apparently that movement alone had the gamblers turning on him when the kids disappeared the moment the egg left their hand. “Hey! You throwing eggs at us stranger?” 

“No.” Zuko responded simply, refusing to give into their posturing attempt to incite him to start the fight. It had never worked with Azula, but then again Azula knew exactly how to get his rage boiling. These random soldiers wouldn’t be able to do it so easily. 

At least, he hoped not. 

“You see who did throw it?” 

“No.” 

One of the other men scoffed. “Is that your favorite word: No?” Was this what constituted insults and fights in the Earth Kingdom? Azula could have done better in her sleep. Then again, so could Jet. Maybe these guys were just idiots. 

“Egg had to come from somewhere.” The original man insisted. 

“Maybe a chicken flew over.” Zuko offered, tone still even and posture non-combative, even if he was counting the time in which he could become combative in milliseconds. One of the men laughed, and Zuko had to stop himself from smirking again. He really didn’t want to start a fight now. Not because he was worried about losing, but who knew what that would do to the prices Uncle and the stranger were working so hard to haggle on. 

The original gambler stepped forward angrily, his hand lingering towards the stone hammer at his feet, but before he could come much closer, Zuko felt a presence at his back. 

“Is there a problem, nephew?” 

Zuko looked back to see that their traveling companions had finished speaking with the merchant as well, and were standing behind him. Suddenly the group were not facing a single stranger, but instead a group of five. Two of the five were clearly non-combative, three if you take Uncle at his appearance, but still the men paused. Evidently, they weren’t interested in a fight unless it was dangerously one-sided. 

Yeah, they seemed the type. 

Still, the men lingered, eyeing the cowering young girl and the pregnant woman, clearly trying to decide if the fight was still worth it. Out of the corner of his good eye, Zuko saw Iroh shift, moving his feet so that they were solidly in position. As someone who trained under the retired general, Zuko recognized it as the firebender rooting his stance. However, to the strangers the move was eerily close to an earthbender getting closer to their element. 

Maybe that was intentional. Uncle did always enjoy studying other forms of bending, and who would know roots better than an Earthbender?

The leader of the group scoffed and turned away, headed back to the crates they were gambling at. “You aren’t even worth it,” The man grumbled. “But you better not linger, you’re not welcome here.” 

The family sighed in relief, though Iroh and Zuko kept a wary half-eye on the thugs, just in case, as they said their goodbyes. The family were extremely appreciative, louding their gratitude as they prepared to split off on their own. Zuko and Iroh would want to wait until nightfall to move off again, and it would be better to separate rather than risk the strangers coming face to face with their enemies. Besides, the strangers were relatively well-rested and eager to get to Ba Sing Se before it was time for the baby to be born. 

As with most social interactions, Zuko stepped back to let Iroh handle all that. As he did, he heard a small “Pst!”

He looked down to see, crouched next to the water trough, was one of the kids who threw the egg. 

“Thanks for not ratting me out!” 

Zuko blinked. What was with random kids coming up to him? This never happened before the Northern Water Tribe story hut. Did they do something to him? “Uh, you're welcome, I guess.” He turned back to Uncle, about to insist they find a place to rest until heading out again. He didn’t think storytelling would go over well with those men watching them. Before he could say anything, the kid darted in front of him. 

“Come on, I'll take you to my house and feed your ostrich horse for you! They eat a lot, and if you’re traveling you probably want to save your grain!” 

“Uh, I don’t…” 

“Come on! I owe you!” 

“Ah, who is your young friend?” Iroh asked, amusement licking up his warm tones. Zuko sighed heavily. Well, there was no getting out of it now. 

Sokka groaned as he peeled himself out of the water. Okay okay, he got it. Aang says the swamp is calling to him, yeah not creepy at all, except now they got kidnapped by the swamp. Swamp-napped. 

No wait, that would mean they kidnapped the swamp. Kid-swamped? No, that was bad too. Just stick with kidnapped. Or how about his old friend denial? That usually worked out for him, right? Like, a good 70% of the time at least. Yeah, the swamp didn’t maliciously attack and kidnap them, it was totally reasonable that when Aang didn’t follow the hypnotic thrall of this clump of gross trees, a tornado came up out of nowhere to pull him down anyway. 

Yep. Made perfect sense. 

“Sokka, you’ve got an elbow leech.” Katara interrupted his panic spiral. 

The boy yelped. “What? Where?” 

“Where do you think?” 

Well excuse him for not thinking straight after a totally normal tornado popped up to, uh naturally pull them into the not-haunted-at-all swamp. “Why do things keep attaching to me?” He cried out, peeling the leech from his elbow (duh). 

Aang finished yelling for Appa and Momo and swooped down. 

“You couldn’t find them?” Katara asked.

“No, and the tornado… it just disappeared.” 

YUP. This was… totally… normal. 

Zuko looked around as the kid led them through the pathways to a farm that was nearly screaming with the racket of Pig-chickens and pig-cows and pig-sheet, and well, just about any pig-hybrid that existed, this place probably has it. 

And they were loud. 

“No one can ever sneak up on us.” The kid bragged. 

“No kidding.” Zuko smirked as Iroh chuckled. The kid tugged the reins out of Zuko’s hands. At first the teen resisted, muscle memory too ingrained with the desire to hold tight onto anything given, to never release unless it was forced from his hand or coerced with the threat-promise pair of starvation vs food. Luckily, he was able to force rational thought relatively quickly, and dropped the reins before the, somewhat oblivious, boy realized what he was doing. 

The child began leading Dragon into the barn, and Zuko moved to follow still when a man appeared from the field beyond the home. A woman hovered at the edge of the barn warily, her eyes darting between her son and the pair of strangers. 

“You friends of Lee’s?” The man said, his voice the oddest mixture of wariness while trying, wanting, to be hospitable. The voice of a truly friendly man who had wariness beat into him by war and fear. 

For a moment, Zuko blinked, thrown by the man asking if he was a friend of his own fake name. Luckily, the child popped out of the barn to save him. “These guys just stood up to the soldiers! By the end, they practically had them running away!” 

That wasn’t quite how Zuko remembered it, but it seemed this Lee was also a bit of a storyteller. 

“Do ‘these guys’ have a name?” 

Zuko hesitated. He’d known that ‘Lee’ was common in both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, it was one of the reasons why he’d chosen it. (A lot of the Freedom Fighters had been named ‘Lee’ by their parents before they got all the weird nicknames. He half thought that was why they all had nicknames.) It still felt just… extra fake to say that your fake name was the same as someone’s real name. Luckily, Iroh didn’t seem to have the same reservations. “I’m Mushi, and my Nephew is a Lee as well!” He laughed. 

The mother and father pair smiled, warming a bit more to the strangers. “It is a common name.” The woman said. “Our Lee is named after my Father.” 

“As are the other dozen ‘Lee’s that I know.” The man chuckled. “I am Gansu, and my wife is named Sela. You have already met Lee. Please, come and sit. Anyone who can hold his own against those bully soldiers is welcome here. Those men should be ashamed to wear Earth Kingdom uniforms.” 

Sela nodded. “The real soldiers are off fighting the war, like Lee’s big brother Sensu.” 

Zuko shifted uneasily, unsure how to respond to the mix of sadness and pride. Luckily, the woman shook herself a moment later. “Supper’s going to be ready soon enough, I will have to add a bit, but it shouldn’t be long.” 

Iroh happily began to compliment the woman on the smell of dinner, though the scent of a meal could barely penetrate the pig-animal hybrids. Zuko however, looked at the small farm, the threadbare clothes on the family, the derelict and run-down home and barn. Uncle had never come to want, he didn’t know it well enough to recognize the signs. Zuko didn’t have that luxury. 

“We shouldn’t. We appreciate your feed for Dra-for our ostrich-horse, and for your offer, but we should be on our way.” 

“Nephew,” Iroh practically moaned, and Zuko felt his resolve falter, though it remained standing. The Fire Nation had taken much from this family without recompense, it seemed cruel to add even two meals to the tally. 

Sela, however, caught his eye and seemed to understand somewhat. “That’s too bad,” She said knowingly. “Gansu really needed some help on the barn. With our eldest gone, and Lee so young, we didn’t have anyone else strong enough to drive the nails through the tiles. I was going to ask for some help while I finished cooking.” 

Zuko eyed the woman’s arms which revealed the wiry strength of someone who worked hard and constantly for their living and recognized the lie for what it was: a counteroffer. Unfortunately, so did Iroh, who grinned. “Come nephew, what honor would we have if we refused this lovely woman in her time of need.” 

Zuko sighed heavily and set his bag down. “Tell me what you need me to do.” 

He studiously ignored the look of victory that the family shared. Some hard labor for food, very different than storytelling, but how hard could it be? 

Everything sucked. Sokka was officially done with swamps. After an entire afternoon of yelling for Appa and Momo and cutting through so many vines that his machete was starting to dull, they were trying to make camp in gross moss-and-mud filled vines, with stinky swamp-gas constantly bubbling, and, apparently birds that screamed like someone was dying. 

Sokka gulped as the bird flew off. “I think we should build a fire.” 

He scrambled to pry some bark off the nearby trees. It was all damp, again swamp, but if he tried hard enough he was pretty sure he could get it. 

“Sokka, the longer we’re here, the more I think you shouldn’t be doing that.” 

A valid concern, but one Sokka was electing to ignore in favor of doing anything. “No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine.” For emphasis he grabbed a root and shook it. “Right swamp? No problem, Sokka!” 

Aang looked annoyed, but didn’t protest any more. It wasn’t that hard to get a fire going, (though he was a bit out of practice from letting Zuko do it all the time) and soon they were falling asleep under the gaze of a hundred swamp monsters that may or may not want to eat them. 

This is fine. 

Or at least, it was fine until Sokka woke up to a vine yoinking him away from the others, it’s ropey vine digging into his leg as he was pulled through the swamp, mud and leaves. Thinking quickly, Sokka flipped onto his stomach, digging the blade of his machete into the ground, and though the rope pulled at him, he held fast. Katara and Aang were not so lucky, as they quickly disappeared into the heavily-covered vegitation. More and more vines appeared, constricting around him like some kind of tree-snake and pulling at him. The boy dropped his machete, pulling the sword off its scabbard at his back. Unlike the machete, it wasn't made for clearing and hacking through foliage, but it’s sharp edge cleaved through the vines easily enough for the moment, and after a few pointed sweeps, the attack stopped. It didn’t matter though, the others were long, long gone. 

Okay, fine, the swamp might possibly be haunted. 

Maybe. 

The teen got to his feet, picking up his machete in one hand while keeping his grip on his sword in another. He may not be able to dual wield like Zuko, but he could beat some vines. He started hacking his way through the undergrowth, softly cursing his luck as he went. The teen only paused when he caught a glimpse of familiar blue out of the corner of his eye. Wait, it could be- “Dad?” He called. 

Hakoda stared at him nearly expressionless, then turned and began walking away without a word. Sokka jerked and darted after the familiar sight of his father’s back as he walked away. 

“Wait!” He cried out. “I- I have so much to tell you! I helped invent human flight! I earned the mark of the wise with Bato! Katara and I found the Avatar! I rescued a prisoner from some jerk freedom fighters and kept Katara from crushing on their ringleader. I can use a sword! Wait, where are you going? Zuko said you’d be proud.” 

But Hakoda didn’t turn, somehow remaining several feet ahead no matter how quickly and frantically Sokka scrambled after him. 

Chapter Text

If Zuko had any misconception that the offer for him to stay in exchange for work was out of a genuine need for aid, rather than an act of charity, that would have been gone within the first five minutes on the roof. Zuko used approximately 5 nails to every one of Gansu’s, and unlike the man’s clean straight rows, his were warped and bent out of shape by the time he managed to actually get the shingle to stay where he wanted it. He felt himself burn in embarrassment, but beyond occasionally tossing out a bit of advice, Gansu said nothing about the disaster that was Zuko’s portion of the roof.

If only Lee was so quiet.

“You don’t seem like you’re from around here.” The boy said from the ladder. 

“We aren’t.” Zuko answered simply, biting his cheek to stop a fire-nation curse when the tile slipped the second he let go, regardless of the three nails he had already hammered into it. 

“Where are you from then?” 

Perhaps Zuko could have come up with a lie. He had traveled plenty by now, after all. He could even have said Gaipan. But that would have brought brainpower away from trying to find the ridge of the roof where the nail would actually be useful “Far away.” He said simply. 

“Ohhh. Where are you going?” 

“Lee,” Gansu interrupted, a scold in his voice and Zuko looked up guiltily before his brain caught up to him and he realized the man was talking to his son. “Give it a rest. Stop asking the man personal questions, got it?”

“Yes.” The boy said in disappointment, and Zuko guiltily considered engaging more. Maybe he could talk about being a storyteller? But he ultimately decided not to risk the attention that could gain him in an already-hostile town. Not when he had an out at least. He went back to focusing on his task, he was pretty sure he finally placed it just right.

“So how’d you get that scar?”

And there went his thumb.

Zuko nearly drew blood as he bit his cheek to avoid several ‘flame’ and ‘smoke’ and ‘ash’ based curses, barely able to hear as Gansu scolded his son. Whatever he said must have been effective though, because Lee slipped down the ladder to bother Iroh, leaving the two on the roof to work in peace. 

Zuko wasn’t any better at it. 

He improved a bit as the day wore on, and by the time night had fallen he was extremely relieved to be resting and full of Sela’s flavorful and hearty meal. The manual labor after an already exhausting day of walking had encouraged him to go into a deep sleep. 

Not deep enough, however, to miss Lee sneaking into the barn where he slept and stealing his swords. Curious, Zuko gave the brave but shortsighted boy a few moments head start before sneaking out of the barn after him. The teen was careful to avoid waking Iroh, who was snoring loud enough that the pig-roosters probably considered him competition.  

Lee was in the sunflower field below the home, clumsily swinging the blades around and ‘pruning’ the flowers in uneven, ugly slashes. The boy ended his makeshift ‘set’ by leaping at a dead stump, hacking at it with the blades. 

Zuko winced. Those would need to be sharpened. 

At least the kid probably wasn’t strong enough to cause the blades real damage. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true of the reverse, especially if Lee swung them like that. 

“You’re holding them wrong.” The firebender said evenly, watching the boy carefully. Lee yelped and fell back in surprise and Zuko had to hold back a wince, glad that he had not cut himself in the stumble. Lee seemed unaware of his own danger though, and instead of seeming nervous he sheepishly held the blades back to Zuko. Oh good, if Zuko could get him to hold them correctly, he would be much less likely to hurt himself.

The banished prince took the blades and fell into a comfortable battle stance. “Keep in mind, these are dual swords. Two halves of a single weapon. Don’t think of them as separate, cause they’re not. I have a friend who fights with a single broadsword, and training him… it’s completely different. These, they’re different parts of the same whole, you have to treat them like it.” 

With a single sweeping movement, Zuko swung, cutting a straight line through the stalks of the nearest flowers, each cut clean and absolutely parallel. Lee watched in wonder, his amazement only growing when Zuko handed the blades back to him. Zuko couldn’t have been much older than Lee when he first met with Piandao. That was certainly younger than most of the master’s students, but… well, living in the royal family was dangerous. His firebending hadn’t been good enough to protect him physically, or socially. So they’d sought alternatives. 

It had kept him physically safe. It hadn’t helped socially. Blades could not substitute the pride of a clear flame. 

Lee was more careful this time, following the teen’s example with surprising competence given his age. The sunflowers he cut were still somewhat jagged, still at an angle, but they were much better than his earlier attempts. The child grinned broadly at Zuko, and the banished prince’s chest ached at the memory of seeing Lu Ten after his first week with Piandao. The elder prince had encouraged him to spar, Zuko’s blades against his cousin’s fire. He remembered the pride that came from the first block. It was… a bittersweet memory. 

The pair walked back to the barn together after a long time practicing, each caught in their own minds. Lee broke the silence, as children are wont to do. “I think you’d like my brother Sensu. He used to show me stuff like this all the time.” 

“He… he’s in the war, right?” 

“Yeah.” The kid kicked at a pebble. “Don’t tell my parents, okay? But I’m worried about him. I wish… wish I could do something. I’m brave! I’m strong! I just want to help him. Somehow.” 

Zuko was silent for several moments. “I… used to have a knife. On one side, it said ‘Made in the Earth Kingdom’ and on the other it said ‘Never give up without a fight’. I used to think that the second inscription was the important one, but… I think it’s both. The earth kingdom is never giving up without a fight. It endures. It fights. It’s strong. And sometimes, being strong is making sure that people have their home to come back to. Protect your home, care for this earth, and when your brother comes back, he will be grateful.” 

The teen’s words rang out under the clear night sky, resounding in silence for a long moment before Lee replied. “That’s so boring though.” 

“I thought I saw Mom.” Katara said softly, and a chill went down Sokka’s back. Even if he knew Aang’s mystery girl had to be a spirit-thing (not that he would admit it ever), it was another thing entirely to hear that. 

He tried to deflect. “ Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here.” 

“You saw something to?” Katara asked, shocked. 

“I… I thought I saw Dad.” He saw a flash of fear in her eyes. If she saw the dead and he saw their father, that could imply… “It wasn’t him though. He… his face was blank and he didn’t act… right. It wasn’t him. We were both just seeing people we miss a lot.” 

“What about me?” Aang asked, as if Sokka wanted his Avatar-weirdness ruining his plausible deniability. “I didn't know the girl I saw. And all our visions led us right here.” 

Oh. He hadn’t thought about that. See, this was why he hated spirit things. 

“Okay ... so where's here? The middle of the swamp?” Katara asked. 

Sokka eyed the area, the surrounding woodland, the position of the sun, and oriented himself using instincts and techniques taught for dozens of generations. Welp, this was literally dead center. This can’t be good. 

Apparently, Aang had some kinda freaky Avatar-sense that told him the same. “Yeah, the center ... it's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it.” 

Sokka argued, trying one last time. “It's just a tree. It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here.” 

Then, of course, the very moss of the trees attacked. 

Sokka hated spirit stuff. 

Zuko carefully brushed at Dragon’s feathers, nodding absently to a babbling Lee and keeping an eye on Iroh from the corner of his eye as the man thanked Sela for the packs of food in his arms. Suddenly, the farm animals got even louder (which he wouldn’t have thought possible) and all eyes went to the entrance of the farm when Gow and the other bullies began riding into the farm. 

Gansu’s eyes tightened, and he released Dragon’s claw from where he had been inspecting it. “What do you think they want?”

“Trouble.” Zuko responded resolutely, and the man reached for a pitchfork leaning against a nearby post. 

Iroh stepped forward to show solidarity with the other men, while Sela ordered Lee behind her. 

“What do you want, Gow?” Gansu asked brusquely. 

The msn grinned with the sadistic glee of a bully in a position of power, the picture of a man who enjoyed making you suffer simply because it boosted his sense of superiority. Zuko was intimately familiar with the expression. “Just though someone ought to tell you that your son’s battalion got captured.” With a sneer, the man turned to his companions. “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 ‘em on the front line unarmed, the way I heard it. Then they just watched.” 

Zuko felt fury rise in him, an anger so intense and pure that he had to fight not to breathe out the flames of his passion. His anger surged, anger at Gow for his cruelty and thoughtlessness, anger at his nation for resorting to such unhonorable and despicable practices, and anger at his father for allowing and approving of it. 

Gansu yelled at the man, and Gow moved forward threateningly. Zuko immediately met the movement, stepping between Gansu and the soldier with pure fury emanating from him, begging for a fight to let out some of the rage simmering in his soul.

How dare his people resort to this? How dare it be approved and become common practice. How dare this man brag about the death of his own people, and the moral decline of another. How dare- 

Gow denied Zuko his fight. True to form, the man remained a lemming-chicken and turned his ostrich horse around, fleeing back to town with his followers. Zuko took several long, deep breaths, fighting to keep out the flame that wanted to escape. 

“What’s going to happen to my brother?” Lee asked softly. 

Gansu replied. “I’m going to the front. I’m going to find Sensu and bring him back.” He and Sela made their way back to the house, silent but for the mother’s sobs. 

Lee however, ran up to Zuko. “Will you stay?” 

Zuko looked up and met the gaze of Iroh, who looked pained. It was the look of a man knowing that they were about to receive terrible news, but also knew they couldn’t stop it. “No.” Zuko replied. “But Uncle is. So is your dad.” 

“Nephew…”

“What?” 

“Go get your parents, tell them that I need to ask them something.” The boy looked uncertain, but after a moment ran back towards the house. The pained expression never left Iroh’s face. 

“Zuko, you can’t.” 

“I can’t ignore it, Uncle.” 

“What about joining your friends? I thought you were worried.” 

He was. But… he needed to do this. “I can’t forsake these people. I… have to trust my friends to survive without me for now.” 

“It will be safer if I join you. I am not so old as to be useless, you know.” 

Zuko shook his head. “We can’t. If… the worst happens, we need someone who can teach the Avatar firebending. If I am unable to fulfill my oath, I pass that burden to you.” 

Iroh cursed by coals and ash at the familiar formal wording, knowing the bind that it was. The elder man did not argue any further, but every line of his form made it obvious that he was unhappy. 

Nodding, Zuko lowered his voice as he saw Lee pull his parents out of the house. “Did Zhao get a lot of updates about the army’s movements while preparing for the siege of the North Pole?”

“None that he bothered to read. However, he did not keep them from me.” The man responded reluctantly. “If we are where I believe us to be, then the nearest branch of the army will be a few leagues northeast of here. It is impossible to say where, but armies are difficult to move, and will be burdened even further with prisoners if they are truly keeping them alive. A single man on an ostrich horse could perhaps make in a few days.” 

Zuko nodded as the mournful and weary family neared. Bending down, the teen took the bundle of provisions that Sela had given Iroh and strapped it to dragon. He met the eyes of each member of his audience of four. “I will be back in less than two weeks time with Sensu.” He made sure to catch Lee’s gaze. “Stay here and keep his home safe for his return.” 

With that, he touched the mask hidden in his bag, swung onto Dragon’s back, and kicked her into high gear, checking the position of the sun and angling their trajectory towards the northeast. He had no time to lose after all. 

Okay, so not spirits, or not entirely spirits, just a creepy old dude who hated pants. Also, apparently there are more waterbenders outside of the tribe? So, apparently world-shattering realizations would not be limited to once a lifetime, that had already been proven long ago, but he would several for just one per month. Please, this constant information overload was getting a bit much. 

“Oh the swamp is a mystical place all right.” The weirdo said. “It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan-grove tree. I heard it calling me, just like you did.” 

Sokka was pretty much done. “Uh huh, seems real chatty.” 

The man then started to go on about some big philosophical ‘we are all one’ kinda stuff, but Sokka let his mind wander off to the much more important concern of ‘I am so stinking hungry I am going to go insane and I ate the last of the Northern Water Tribe’s weirdly seasoned seal jerky’. He came back to the conversation to hear Aang realize that he hadn’t met the person from his vision yet. 

Also, apparently “Time is an illusion”, whatever that means. 

“Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we need to find Appa and Momo.” 

“I think I know how to find them.” Aang knelt and held a root of the tree. O…kay, Sokka wasn’t quite sure what he was trying for but- “Come on! We've got to hurry!” 

Okay, holding the tree apparently was the solution this whole time. Because… reasons. Sokka probably shouldn’t have zoned out of the conversation earlier. 

The meal was quiet as Sela, Gansu, Lee and Iroh stewed their thoughts, all full of a fear which hope attempted to fight, each fight and hope different for each person. 

Finally, Gansu spoke up.

“I still feel like I should join the army, try and find my son. I know that you believe in your nephew, but if I wait too long…”

All eyes went to the empty stool where Zuko had crowded at the small table the day before. Iroh’s pang of fear-hope increased.

Sela spoke evenly, any emotion hidden. “Does Lee really think that he can rescue Sensu in the middle of a Fire Nation battalion?” 

The question startled a chuckle out of Iroh, because that hadn’t been a concern of his at all. “Oh, he could certainly do that. He has gotten more secure prisoners out of more secure locations.” 

Sela blinked. “What.”

“Cool.” Lee said, his youth and trust in Zuko making him the least fearful of the group. 

Iroh shook his head. “No, my fear is from something else entirely. My nephew… when he comes eye to eye with dozens of prisoners facing a dishonorable death… he will not be able to leave them to their fate. He will be leaving with the entire Earth Kingdom battalion or he will not leave at all.” Probably more than just them, to be honest. The boy believed in his Nation, and was growing into a good judge of character. If there was one person in the battalion who did not truly support the war, Zuko would find them. An entire battalion and then some, and his beloved hypocrite was raising such a fuss about his friends rescuing one king. 

“He could do that?” Gansu looked startled, almost spooked. Iroh sighed heavily. 

“I am not sure. But he will try.” Zuko never did learn easily from his mistakes after all. It was one of the reasons Iroh loved him so much.

Sokka shook his head and decided to stop trying. Okay spirits, you win this time, he will concede that this swamp is super, super haunted. The boy sighed and took another bite of his bug as Katara excitedly talked to Tho and Due about their waterbending techniques and Aang talked philosophy with Huu. 

The warrior ignored them all as he finished his, admittedly pretty gross, dinner and wanted the sky. He idly wondered if that ‘everything is connected’ thing could help them find Zuko. Wherever he was, Sokka only hoped his friend wasn’t doing anything too stupid. Though, that was probably too much to hope for, knowing him.

Chapter Text

Zuko looked up as he finished refilling the last of his waterskins. Dragon was still greedily sucking down water. He would have to slow her in a second to prevent cramps, but for the moment he was loath to drag her away after the long and fast trek they had made through the arid landscape. It wasn’t quite a dessert, but it certainly wasn’t brimming with water either. The occasional pond was a rare relief. As the teen took in a deep breath, he surveyed his resting spot, eyes tracing the ground and vegetation for signs. 

He had been mainly content to let Sokka handle hunting for meals while he took care of the fire, and he’d stayed far from the hunting parties in the North lest his inexperience deprive the tribe of a meal. Still, he had picked up just enough from the Stories and Sokka’s explanations to know for sure that the army hadn’t  been here.

Water was rare enough that the army would almost certainly have stopped to refresh their stores, if not make camp here. For there to be no signs at all, it meant that they hadn’t made it this far yet. Uncle said that they were coming from the North West, so he would keep heading that direction. News of the capture had only come through a few days ago, and to be honest it took a good deal of time and resources to move a large number of prisoners, especially ones that could Earth end and therefore had to be specially secured. In order to cut down on the back and forth of moving around, the Fire Nation would likely be sending hawks back to their superiors until they had a set target. 

At least he hoped so. The majority of his plans centered on the hope that the battalion would be stationary. Well, for a given value of ‘plan’. 

The teen shook his head. He’d seen some of the Earth Army’s old camps a bit further east, so maybe he should focus on going North more so than West for the moment. Zuko squinted his eyes at the sun as he mentally tracked what direction that would be. The sun was close to setting too. He should consider resting at some point. 

In fact… the Fire Nation would be much easier to spot at night, with fires that burned brighter and more frequently than those of other peoples. A Fire Nation soon after a victory and no knowledge that they had anything to fear would be even more liberal with the light. Zuko chuckled to himself darkly. How many times would the arrogance of his nation provide their downfall?

He huffed and sat down, pulling Dragon’s head away from the water to give the mount’s stomach some time to settle. He was decided then, it would be best to rest for a moment here, where the elevation was decently high and he had water and shade. When night fell, he would find the Fire Nation by the light of their victory fires. 

Then he would… enact his plan. 

Now may be a good time to come up with a plan.

Sokka spluttered as he spit out a lemur hand. 

When had this become his life? 

“What are you doing in my mouth?” He asked the lemur angrily. Momo simply chittered as he ate a fly. Sokka sighed tiredly. “Momo, you need to be a little more sensitive to my boundaries.” 

He yawned tiredly, letting the creature climb on him. The first one awake, life truly was pain. 

Suddenly, the ground shook and Fire Nation men on rhino popped out of the ground. 

Okay okay he took it back, waking up early wasn’t that bad, he got it! 

“Give up!” One of the men shouted, as the others startled awake. “You’re completely surrounded.” He yelled, liked someone who didn’t realize that there was no such thing as ‘completely surrounded’ when you had an Appa. 

Next there was a valiant game of ‘let’s try to get on the flying magic beast as quickly as possible’. A game which involves chain whips, firebending, flaming arrows, and bending. One in which Sokka lost a sleeping bag and a boomerang, but managed to win his life and so technically came out on top. 

Katara and Aang lost nothing. 

He wondered if there was a prize for having the world’s worse luck. A moment later he dismissed it. Zuko would win gold, metal, and silver before he managed to even compete. 

He wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but he felt it in his bones. 

Zuko crouched, his dusty brown-green Earth Kingdom clothing working as effective camouflage against the vegetation and rock. It certainly had been better camouflage than the Fire Nation guard he’d snuck past. The soldier had stuck out like a sore thumb, clearly visible in the black and red. They had chosen a decent spot, with lots of visibility and shade against the hot Earth Kingdom sun so they didn’t risk heatstroke. They were a good guard. 

Zuko was a better sneak. 

As long as his knowledge of Fire Nation tactics was still accurate, when at a low threat level common practice was to only have one level of guards to act as sentries in a ring around the camp. Now that he was past that line, he should be in the clear as long as he didn’t literally walk into someone during the shift change. 

He really hoped he didn’t just think that possibility into existence. 

Regardless, hunkered in his hiding spot, he had a perfect view of the camp in the valley below. They had set up camp next to an area where the stream pooled into a decent-sized pond, as he’d expected. Based on the state of the camp, they were settling in for decent reprieve, using the tents that were much more comfortable, but took too long to set up to be practical for simple overnight use. The boy let out a small sigh of relief. So he’d been right, they were waiting for orders before bothering to move. Good. He was still on a time crunch, but he had more options than the alternative. 

Not that he’d had any luck figuring out what those options actually were. 

Huffing to himself, the boy looked over at the camp, wondering which of the men was Sensu. The Earth Kingdom soldiers were forced in tight quarters, trapped sitting or kneeling on a wooden platform that sat on steel legs a few inches off the ground so that it didn’t touch earth directly. Chest-high metal poles jutted out from the base and acted as anchor points for their bound hands. Which is to say, it was hard to identify specific people in the mess of bodies. 

Especially when he didn’t know exactly what Sensu looked like.

That one kinda looked like Gansu, but he was a bit older than Zuko would expect. Which was probably why he kinda looked like Gansu. That one carried himself like Sela, but otherwise didn’t bear a strong resemblance. Oh, that one had Lee’s smile. 

Wait. The soldier was a prisoner, what was he smiling at? 

Zuko watched as the guard who just started their shift matched straight to maybe-Sensu, angry face contorted as they scolded about something and waved their arms. The other soldiers in camp largely ignored this, and Zuko felt a stab of anger that this heaping of indignities upon already defeated people was so commonplace. 

Then, once every eye had dropped away from the yelling soldier, they knelt down, pulling something hidden from the folds of their armor, and dropped it into the Earth Kingdom boy’s hands before spitting out one last insult and stalking away. The boy quickly passed whatever it was to the person next to them, and Zuko watched as it was passed around the prisoners until it wound up in the hands of a man who used the contraband to cover a burn wound as best as his bound hands would allow. 

Oh. 

That Fire Nation soldier had snuck them bandages! 

Zuko swallowed around a suddenly thick throat. That gave him a bit of an idea. 

It also gave him a bit of hope for his people that he hadn’t realized he’d lost.

“Sorry about your boomerang, Sokka.” Aang said in the exact tone of someone who didn’t understand that he didn’t just lose a bit of wood and metal, but in reality a precious artifact, a limb, a very part of his very self and being. 

And no, he wasn’t being dramatic. 

“I feel like I’ve lost a part of my identity. Imagine losing your arrow or Katara lost her… hair loopies.” 

Katara gave him a hug that said she understood, that she remembered when their grandpa pressed the rare and hard-to-make weapon into his young hands and the hours that he spent with Dad practicing and perfecting his craft. Like she remembered the years when he was too young to be effective with a spear and so his boomerang was his only source of protection against beasts of the tundra and the monsters of fire who killed their mom. 

The man from the stall passed him a basket of food. “Here’s your produce, ponytail guy.” 

Okay, he did kinda deserve that for defining his friends by their hair, but way to give insult to injury.  “I used to be boomerang guy…” He sighed morosely. 

He slumped on the ground as Katara finished the transaction, only brought out of his slumped misery when Aang perked up. “Avatar day?” 

Avatar what now? 

“You guys are coming to the festival, right?” 

Okay, maybe that could cheer him up! The last festival they went to… ended with them fleeing and setting off a ton of fireworks. 

This one probably wouldn’t be quite as interesting, but… well it would probably be worth a distraction.

Zuko breathed from his spot hidden in the bush, twin streams of air shooting from the nose holes of his mask as he stalked his prey. The soldier he’d seen earlier seemed to have mostly internal positions, watching the prisoners chief among them. Zuko had wasted another full day trying to find an opportunity to get them alone, watching them relentlessly to make sure he didn’t lose them amidst dozens to hundreds of others in the exact same uniform. Finally though, the soldier gave into the restlessness of an agitated firebender and decided to work it off via a hike around the perimeter rather than going back into the training grounds yet again. 

The teen eyed a portion of the kinda-sorta-path around the valley that the soldier was using. He’d scouted the area earlier and knew that if she would just stand next to this copse of trees, the foliage was actually hiding a small crevasse in the mountain. Not a cave, not really a sink hole either. It was just a recess into the hillside that was completely hidden from the encampment below. 

It was too close to the soldiers for Zuko to feel comfortable risking it as a place to make camp, but for this… it would be perfect. 

The soldier was angrily grumbling and complaining to herself as she stalked along the path, the words too low for Zuko to pick out but so full of anger that Zuko almost expected to see sparks fly from her lips. 

That wasn’t something most firebenders did though. He’d learned it from Uncle, and it had felt as natural as breathing. For Zuko, it had felt like the first bit of firebening that had really fit him. The only bit of firebending that had ever felt like that until the day he’d arrived at the Sun Warrior temple. 

Father hadn’t been impressed. 

Zuko had long since stopped caring about that. His eyes narrowed, tensing as the soldier stepped beside the copse. He leaped, moving silently and quickly through the air. One hand crammed itself under her mask and around her jaw, the other snaked around her waist as he tackled her through the trees. The teen threw his weight and twisted his body into a roll until the momentum carried them through the barricade of foliage and Zuko was sitting in the crevice, the solder trapped in front of him with her arms trapped by one of his, and his other hand muzzling her and preventing a scream. 

To the soldier’s credit, her reaction time was immaculate. She was fighting back almost before they had stopped tumbling, striving to scream through his hand and throwing her whole weight in trying to break his hold. Despite his grip over her arms, she was able to get enough flexibility to send a bolt of fire towards his head. In reaction, the prince had to release his hold on her arms to counter the attack. 

With one wave of his arm, he used a technique he’d invented after hours upon weeks of going through forms with Katara using a fading scroll, and several evenings spent fighting waterbenders of every level of skill and experience. In a surprisingly flowy move for a firebender, he gained control of the thrown flame and softly diverted it into the ground. The soldier tensed at the casual mastery of firebending displayed, distracted from her frantic escape attempts.

Zuko moved quickly as he struggled to contain her, keeping one hand anchored over her mouth, he twisted the rest of his body until he was straddling her torso, her arms pinned by his knees as his free arm anchored him to the ground to fight against her attempts to kick and twist out of the hold. 

She inhaled sharply as she caught sight of his mask and suddenly stilled. Zuko cocked his head. Okay, that reaction was… unexpected. Still, he wasn’t going to look a gift ostrich horse in the beak. 

“If I let you speak, do you promise not to scream?” 

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded. 

“Do you swear on your honor?” He asked again, and this time there was no hesitation. 

He released his hold on her mouth and sat back, though he didn’t move to release her arms. He wasn’t an idiot. 

“You- you’re the Blue Spirit.” She said softly, voice pitched low to avoid being accused of screaming. 

“I am.” 

“You’re the one who broke out the Avatar.” Her eyes shifted towards the camp, as though attempted to spot the Earth Kingdom prisoners through the rock and trees of the mountain. 

“I am.” 

“Is that why you’re here? For the prisoners? Is that your thing? Are you just going around the Earth Kingdom conducting prison breaks against the Fire Nation?” Again her eyes darted back to the camp before focusing on him. Zuko ignored the question, choosing to instead ask his own. 

“I have heard the plans that the Fire Nation has for these prisoners. I know what those carts of old uniforms are for.” She was frozen, breath so ragged that it was audible from beneath her mask. “Do you support the nation that does things like this?” 

The woman froze, and Zuko knew the test she was seeing. Yes, he wore the mask of the one who rescued the Avatar, even claimed to be the airbender’s rescuer. But he could lie. The Blue Spirit hadn’t used firebending, and he had. He could be a test of loyalty, as odd and convoluted as that would be. It could be a million things, and he could see the possibilities flash through her mind before the soldier straightened, finally showing the backbone required of the kind of person who would sneak help to their enemies. 

She spat. “It is dishonorable.” 

The closest thing the Fire Nation would dare to say to ‘it isn’t right’.

Beneath his mask, Zuko smiled.

Chapter Text

“I can think of almost a dozen right off the bat,” Ahn Nee said. “Probably more.” 

Zuko shook his head. “Remember, I only want those you trust 100%.” 

“Not even 95%?” She bit her lip. “Cause Shezu would be a big help, and I’m almost certain that he-”

“No. There are too many lives at stake for risks.”

To the soldier’s credit, she didn’t seem disappointed, simply nodding her acceptance. “Okay. 100% only. I’ll think on it.” 

“Good. Once you have identified those you can trust, send them here one at a time, discreetly, throughout the day. Then, come late into the evening tomorrow and I will tell you the plan.” 

“Why not tell me now?”

Because he hadn’t completely figured it out yet. 

Okay because he had very little. Some bare bones, but not really a plan per say, more of a suggestion, a course of action.

Sokka probably would have still called it a plan.

Katara would have yelled at him for calling it one. 

“Recruitment is one of our most vulnerable times. If you get made, I want you to have as few secrets as possible.” That's what Kyoshi said in Act II of the Fire Nation play of her biography, it probably applied here. 

She nodded. “Right.”

“And just send them this way, explain as little as you can get away with.” 

Ahn Nee nodded. “The less that this is discussed in camp the better.” She hesitated, then admitted. “The captains requisitioned a lot of the spirits to be unpacked tomorrow. I think they’re going to celebrate the capture.” She bitterly grumbled something to the effect of ‘for the fifth time this week’ before continuing. “We can’t come all at once as a group, but if we slip in one at a time, no one should notice we’re missing if we come after dark. We can all meet at once to hear the plan. That way we don't have to risk passing it along as much.”

Zuko hesitated. It meant that he had a much firmer deadline, which was terrifying and made the lack of Sokka much more stark, but… “Be safe.” He said with a nod, agreeing to the suggestion. 

Ahn Nee nodded back, then bowed over the shape of the flame, going so low that Zuko had to feel for his mask to confirm that it was still up, that she hadn’t realized she was dealing with royalty. 

It was funny, the bow felt like it meant… more, knowing that she hadn’t.

Huh… Sokka was pretty sure that there had been less fire at the Fire Festival.

 Perhaps he should have more of a reaction at seeing effigies (one of one of his closest friends,  one that looked eerily similar to his first kiss, and… a random old guy he didn’t care much about but Zuko probably would) burning in front of him, but he was still in mourning, so he could be forgiven if his brain running a bit slow. 

Besides, Katara had it covered. 

The young man took another bite of the fried dough as he watched his sister use nearby pots of water to douse the flames. The villagers… did not seem happy about this. Sokka was beginning to think they could never go to a festival without running out of town because one of them decided to extinguish the flames of the entertainment. 

Hey, maybe next time it would be his turn! 

Unsurprisingly, Aang popping up and revealing that they were burning his effigy did not make them like their group more. Although,okay, cowering in fear of Aang was taking things a bit far, he was like happiness incarnate and hey maybe it was time to get a bit more involved. 

Sokka moved to join his friends as the leader of the village yelled that Aang was not welcome. 

“Why not?” Katara asked. “Aang helps people!” 

“It’s true! I’m on your side.” 

The man scowled. “I find that hard to believe considering what you did in your past life! It was Avatar Kyoshi; she murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great.” 

…Sokka was starting to think that Water Tribe festivals really needed some updating, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom parties were way more interesting. 

Zuko stayed in his hideout the day after recruiting Ahn Nee, lying amidst the foliage on his stomach to remain hidden as he watched the camp. His eyes traced the prisoners, the guards, and the other Fire Nation soldiers. He committed every act to memory, studying the way camp conducted itself. 

The prisoners went almost completely ignored, and those not on active duties were treating the time as a hybrid of leave and active. They trained and sparred, but when training was over they relaxed and lounged around in a mix of good spirits and boredom. Only the prisoner guards, and those presumably watching the perimeter, were observant. The rest had been lulled into a sense of security. 

Zuko was about to prove it to be false.

As Ahn Nee promised, a little over a dozen visited Zuko’s little spot throughout the day. It was a laughably small number in an encampment of hundreds, but Zuko had made her promise to only tell those she completely trusted about their plans.

She delivered. 

Those who visited Zuko were a mix of experience, ranks, and ages, with the only common thread between them a stark disapproval of the war in general and this battalion in specific. Some, like Ahn Nee, wanted to support the Fire Nation that they had been told existed, one of honor and achievement. Others had all but forsaken their birth nation, fighting for it only due to the threat of death facing deserters. Regardless, all had been in full support of the Blue Spirit, and were enthusiastic at the thought of freeing the soldiers, at doing something ‘honorable’ for once. 

Zuko eyed the camp as Ahn Nee slipped into the clearing, the last of their group. True to her word, the camp didn’t seem to notice the disappearance in the slightest. Several campfires littered the camp, with the higher ranked officers clustered around the biggest one, drinking from sloshing tankards and singing extremely off-key bar songs. Other soldiers sat scattered around the other fires, talking, playing cards, or singing their own songs. A couple were in the tents with the flaps pulled down, clearly attempting to sleep despite the rowdyness outside. Those guarding the prisoners divided their time between staring at the fires with envy and yawning heavily, with the prisoners themselves nothing more than sleeping lumps on the wooden platform. 

The masked teen nodded and turned back to the group, seeing 14 shadows in the darkness. He lit a small fire in his palm, not enough to glow through the trees, but just enough to illuminate the nearby faces. They stared at his flame in shock, but Zuko ignored it. He took a deep breath, mind rushing through the words he’d read and seen in dozens of military plays as he picked and chose what to say. 

He couldn’t mess this up. He refused to. 

With quick, precise words he outlined the basics of the plan he had spent the full day cooking up, watching their faces for any twitch of uncertainty or disagreement. He got none. When the basic outline was through, a few of the soldiers offered complications or suggestions, simple things that didn’t change much, but that came through their knowledge and experience and would make everything run just a bit more smoothly. Soon enough, the final plan was formed.

“Rezu,” He said, turning to the boy. Rezu was younger than him, technically below conscription age, but he’d been caught sending in anti-war essays to an underground publication in the Fire Nation. He was a brilliant writer, especially for his age, but unfortunately not brilliant enough to avoid scribbling ideas into the margins of his textbooks. As punishment, he’d been sent to the front lines. Not as a soldier at least, but as a scribe for the lieutenant colonel of the battalion. Which meant that he was the one tasked with planning the guard rotations. “Tomorrow during the post-lunch rotation, I need you to make sure all of the prisoner’s guards are people within this group.” 

“Can do!” The boy said, grin so wide that his teeth glinted in the firelight. 

“Good. I will arrive about halfway through the afternoon drills, so Iskai, I need you to get me that key before lunch.” 

“I’ll make it happen.” Iskai was older, not as old as Uncle, but past middle aged. She had lived as a soldier in the war for more of her life than she’d spent out of it, and was tired of the horrors she’d both seen and inflicted. She was also a drinking buddy of the quartermaster, who had a copy of all the camp keys, including the one that was used on the prisoner’s shackles. 

“I only need it for a few moments, he shouldn't even know it's missing." Zuko took a deep breath from behind his mask, hardly daring to believe that this might actually happen. “Everyone else, you know what to do. Keep a low profile and get ready. I need someone to return tomorrow night to discuss progress and pass it on to the others- discreetly.” 

“I can do that!” Shai Lee chirruped. She was a few years older than Zuko, but still young by most standards. She had felt bitter about the war ever since her little brother was sacrificed as part of the 42nd division. “People think I’m a gossip, so they won’t pay attention to a little whispering. You wouldn’t believe the secrets I know that I actually haven’t told anyone.”

“Good. Then that is all for tonight, any questions?” 

There were heads shaken all around, with only an older man named Gunlow hesitating. Gunlow had gladly and excitedly joined the army when he’d gotten to be of age, fully believing in the message and superiority of the Fire Nation. To see the reality had, in the man’s own words, broken him. However, after he became a soldier he didn’t see an escape and had been trapped ever since. “I just… I don’t know that now is the time for it, it’s far out there but I just…” 

“Spit it out.” Ahn Nee commanded, not unkindly. 

“After we set off the flares, or distraction or whatever you want to call it, what do we do after that? If your plan goes like you want, they’ll think we died. If we show up after that unharmed…” 

At that there was uneasy shifting and muttering among the group, though not a single person showed true doubt.

And it was then that Zuko knew, he messed up. 

Hours of talking and going through the plan, and he’d forgotten one of the most important parts? This was why Sokka was the plan guy. 

He nodded, the motion so abrupt that his wooden mask banged against his chin. “Once you have set off the flares, rejoin our group. We won’t be waiting, but they’ve been tied up, unable to move for a few days now. Not to mention the injured. They won’t be moving quickly. I will give you directions to an Earth Kingdom clinic a few days travel away. You will be safe to rest there for a time and lay low. One of the healers, Meddi-M- I mean Mei-di, will give you directions to a faux colony town that is supported by the deserter Jeong Jeong.” He held himself back from mentioning the 42nd division with a side glance at Shai Lee. Better not to get her hopes up, he didn’t know that everyone from the division had survived. “So long as you don’t make waves and reveal yourselves, you should be able to find a home there.”  

There was dead silence in the clearing, a heavy pause that lasted long enough that Zuko internally started to panic. What was wrong? Had he misread something? 

“Are you saying,” Lihan- a middle aged, muscular woman man who was often tasked with training new recruits and was tired of seeing them die-  asked in a level and nearly breathless voice. “That you know a way to get out of the army? Successfully.” 

“Um… yes? Or, I don’t know really, but I know people who do and how to get in contact with them and-” 

There was a sniff, and suddenly the eyes shone a bit brighter in the firelight. Ahn Nee's voice trembled and broke as she replied. “Flame and Ash, Blue Spirit, if you’d have said that in the first place we would have had a lot more people here.”

Zuko realized abruptly that the soldiers there had come with no intention for themselves. They were dedicated to freeing the dozens of men that were destined for a painful, devastating death, but had not come with the hope of bettering their own lives. The prince had to clear his throat, and when he did speak, his voice was even gruffer than normal, though he did keep it from trembling like Ahn Nee’s. “It’s too risky to add any more, the plan wouldn’t work with many more people. We should keep to this group. For now.”

There were solemn nods all around. Zuko, too overwhelmed to speak again, bent into a bow far deeper than a prince should ever offer. 

They deserved it and more. 

So, Aang was in jail now, so that was fun.

“How was I supposed to know they wouldn’t take Water Tribe money?”

Also, their main currency may not be valid this far inland. Also fun.

“So some people don’t like you, bit deal! There’s a whole nation of firebenders who hate you. Now let’s bust you out of here!”

Also, not relevant at the moment but he was still boomerang-less. So just… fun all around.

“I can’t.”

“Sure you can!” Sokka yelled. “A little swish-swish-swish! Airbending slice and we’re on our way!” This jailbreak would be even easier than Zuko’s. Which, also, Sokka is very glad he didn’t get to see Zuko’s reaction to… any of this. He can’t imagine any of it would have gone well, up to and including seeing Aang in handcuffs and making those eyes. Why was Aang using those eyes.

Katara rolled her eyes. “I think what ‘Master Swish’ is trying to say is that you’re supposed to be out there saving the world. You can’t do that locked up in here.”

“I can’t do that with people thinking I’m a murderer either.” Sokka literally could not see why not but whatever. “I need you guys to help prove my innocence.”

“How’re we gonna do that? The crime happened over three hundred years ago!”

“That’s okay, Sokka.” Aang said. “For some reason, I thought you were an expert detective.”

Hmmm, that was a good point, and one Sokka had not yet considered. “Well, I guess I could be classified as such.”

“Yeah!” Katara agreed, because she was a good little sister who could see her big brothers talents. “Back home, he was famous for solving the mystery of the missing seal jerky.”

Ah yes, he best and most difficult case. Maybe this wasn’t as hopeless as he thought, Aang would be out of here in no time, after all, he was on the case.

“-serious, I swear it had a bunch of different colors in it. Have you ever seen-” 

“Never, and you know if it existed I would have heard about it. Can you think of how impressed the crowds would be? I would-” 

Hanzo and Ahn Nee silenced as a uniformed soldier in a high ranking uniform stalked near them. They tensed, shooting glances with the two other guards who stood at the opposite side of the prisoner platform. They had both been in the clearing the night before as well, and the fear of this soldier messing everything up was mirrored in their eyes. 

Ahn Nee stepped forward purposely, meeting eyes with the white mask that hid the other’s face. “What do you want?” She asked, her tone just barely the side of hostile that wouldn’t result in her receiving disciplinary actions if he ended up being as high ranked as his posture and presence indicated.

The soldier looked at her steadily, and the voice that came from behind the mask was shockingly familiar. “You are expecting me, soldier.” 

She relaxed immediately at the gravely tones. Duh. What did she expect, him to saunter through camp in the Blue Spirit mask and get out without anyone noticing? (That was what she had been expecting actually. Something about the mysterious figure made it feel like he could get away with outrageous things.) “Of course sir!” She immediately did a crisp salute. Her eyes traced over his form, the small mental box that held ‘who is the blue spirit’ filed away the fact that he had put on the complicated uniform perfectly, the only thing slightly out of place was the bag strapped over his shoulder, and even that was technically militarily appropriate.

She changed a glance behind the man and saw with relief that any interest her confrontation had garnered was quickly slipping now that the chance for drama was gone. To be safe, she nodded at Hanzo.

The older man was one of the first second generation babies to be born in a Fire Nation colony of the Earth Kingdom. The first colony to be officially settled, and after nearly a hundred years and a few generations, the Earth Kingdom natives and Fire Nation colonists had settled into a frosty, not-peaceful-but-not-hostile cohabitation where adults were keenly aware of the social divides, but it could easily go over the heads of unobservant children.

Hanzo… was pretty unobservant (key word is ‘was’, his time in basic training had fixed that, and after years of fighting he was now hypervigilant if anything). He’d been unobservant enough that even into his teenaged years he never picked up on his family’s severe dislike of his best friends, who were Earth Kingdom through and through. He’d held onto his dream of travelling the land with them, fire juggling to their songs as they lived together as entertainers and nomads, up until the moment he'd come home to learn his father had enrolled him in the army. He’d spent his entire life since killing far too many people who looked far too much like his friends. He nodded at her, then started bellowing out a truly atrocious version of some Earth Kingdom melody about a secret tunnel.

There was a reason why he was planning to be a fire juggler rather than a singer.

Well used to this Hanzo's unique method of avoiding boredom when on guard duty, those closest to the prisoners scattered, giving them no more attention than to yell some joking ‘do we really have to torture the prisoners’ and comments of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ as they made their escape.

As if anything about this wasn’t cruel, though it had long ago stopped being unusual.

Blue Spirit startled, his expression hidden behind his mask, but when he saw people nearly sprinting away he let out a small huff that was almost like a visible smirk. He shook his head, then stepped close enough to her to be heard with a barely-there whisper, even with the singing happening a few feet away. “Which one is the best earthbender?” 

Her eyes glanced at the platform, though she knew the exact potions of every prisoner by this point, she had glanced through the crowd out of anxiety often enough this morning. “Two rows up, three from the left. The one with the messy hair.” 

Blue Spirit grunted. “The one that you slip bandages to?” 

Her blood went cold for a moment. It didn’t matter that she knew he had watched for a while before contacting her, that she knew he had good hiding spots nearby to observe the whole camp, there was something about the way that he spilled things she thought secret that made her wonder if the ‘spirit’ thing really was just a moniker. She had always been a skeptic, but if someone told her that she was working with an actual spirit this whole time, it would be difficult to disagree.

She tried to hide her reaction behind a nod, though with the mask it was hard to see if it had worked. He nodded his head in a motion and command in one, urging her to join him as he made his way to the platform. The prisoners, lethargic after days of inactivity and exhausted by the strained position and exposure to the elements, stirred at their approach, muttering and straightening as they watched the stranger distrustfully.

The earthbender she worked with was missing his usual easy smile, eyes nervously jumping back and forth between her and the disguised Blue Spirit. Ahn Nee spared a moment to think about what this must look like to him, after several days of them working together to commit minor treason to help them as she could, but in doing so giving him contraband and otherwise encouraging him to do things that could conceivably get him singled out as a problem.

So, not a great look.

Still, she moved forward on stiff legs, weaving around the tensing, nervous prisoners with fire in their eyes. That fire had been somewhat dampened with their familiarity of her, but was back now with the stranger she brought into the mix.

Her coconspirator watched them cautiously as she led the Blue Spirit to him. He affected a scowl, though it did nothing to hide his confusion. “What do you want, you, uh... rotten ashmaker?”

She had to bite her lip to stop from laughing. Really? His life was on the line and this was the best that he could do? She didn’t say that though, merely bending over to whisper in his ear. “You’re going to have to get better at lying if this is going to work.” He inhaled sharply but she continued. “Trust him. We… I can’t promise anything, but its not like you have a lot of options.”

He looked at her with expressive eyes blown wide, and nodded.

She nodded back, then turned to Blue Spirit. The uniformed man fluidly knelt to one knee in a move that was honestly impressive in the armor and padding. He gestured for her to go back to her post. She moved to obey, then hesitated, turning to the two prisoners in front of his kneeling form.

“Can you sit up straight? Block him from the camp.”

They glanced at her helper, and when he nodded they obeyed. Ahn Nee resumed her pose and  was gratified to see that she could see nothing of him beyond the slightest flash of red if she looked very closely.

She resumed her guard position, attempting to avoid both listening to Hanzo, Even if you're lost, you can't lose the love because it's in your heart, and speculating on the conversation hidden among the prisoners. 

Chapter Text

This close, it was a lot clearer just how much this young man looked like Lee, Gansu, and Sela. It made this gamble a lot easier. “Sensu.”

Immediately the nearby soldiers bristled and shifted. The young man’s eyes narrowed harshly as he tensed. “How do you know my name?”

Jackpot. “Your family showed me great kindness. I’m here to return you to them.”

The man’s eyes traced over the mask, as though searching Zuko’s eyes. “Return me… to my family?” 

“Yes. If I don’t, I’m afraid Lee would do something stupid to get you back.”

Sensu smiled wryly as he relaxed slightly at the name. “Really? I haven’t seen him in years, he’s really big enough to try something like that?”

“Try, yes. Succeed no.”

The man chucked. This was going great. Zuko cleared his throat. He’d spent half the night preparing this next bit. It was important, but if he could just deliver it correctly, he had a decent chance of winning his compliance, if not his trust. “Now, I know you and your squad have no reason to believe or trust me, but I have a plan to get you all out. I’m asking for a lot of faith as a stranger, but-“

The man let out a laugh sharp enough to have Zuko tensing, but apparently the singing acted as a force field, as no soldiers who weren’t in the know were close enough to hear.

Sensu was grinning now, something almost manic in his eyes. “My guy, I don’t know what situation you’re looking at, but we’re all sitting here waiting to die painful deaths at the hands of our own countrymen. It literally cannot get worse. You’re pretty much the only chance we’ve got. You do not have to be working this hard to sell me on this.”

“…fair.” Zuko admitted, though he was a bit off balance. He’d worked hard on that speech. The teen shifted to sit in a familiar sieza. “Okay, uh great. I'll explain the plan to you shortly, but first…”

He put his thumb against the wooden platform and incited a flame. As soon as it caught, he took hold of the fire, breathing out meditative breaths and controlling the burn in an only-slightly-more-complicated version of the ‘don’t burn the leaf’ task he’d done with Jeong Jeong. The only difference was that he was both trying to get it to burn while constraining it tightly. He was gratified to see the flame eat a hole straight through the wood and slowly expanded it.

“Oh.” Sensu said lightly. “You’re a firebender. Cool. Cool, coolcoolcool.”

Ah. Yes. He probably should have warned about that. “I am. There are… several in this camp who do not believe that this is right. They are willing to take on the risks and the name of traitors to save you.”

“You don’t say.” He said softly, and Zuko peeked up to see the man watching Ahn Nee with an inscrutable look on his face. The glance also revealed that Hanzo had escalated to practicing his fire juggling to accompany his singing, possibly to disguise the smoke and scent of burning from the camp.

He was good.

Much better at it than the singing.

Zuko closed his eyes and focused once more on the ring of embers in the wood. The Earth Kingdom soldiers had all scooted as far away as their bounds would allow, but even with his eyes closed he could sense them staring at him, watching as the red flared with his exhales and darkened with inhales and the wood was slowly but steadily eaten through with the flames.

Finally, he had a near-perfect circle in the platform that was a bit larger around than his hand. He huffed out a final breath, removing the fire and pulling out the heat. He tapped at the edge of the circle, more for show for Sensu than anything, and though a bit of ash fell he was gratified that it was nothing more than a touch warm.

“Okay, if you stick your foot through this, can you touch the ground?”

Sensu’s eyes blew wide and he made a soft choking noise before practically shoving his foot into the hole. The noise he made when his bare foot touched the earth had both Hanzo and Ahn Nee looking back in concern. The young man nearly collapsed against his bonds in relief.

“Man, my guy, that’s the stuff. You have no clue how much it sucks to be cut off from your bending like that.”

Zuko… chose not to respond to that truthfully.

“Can you pull up a chunk of rock?”

“Yeah man, can do!”

His face scrunched up in concentration and his bound hands waved and his legs flexed, but after a few moments a wobbly rock floated above the hole and Zuko grabbed it. He frowned, then motioned to Ahn Nee, who had been glancing over periodically, indicating that they should up the ante on the distraction.

Immediately, Hanzo’s fire juggling changed to techniques requiring large, cloaking flames, dragons and trees and faint silhouettes.

Huh. He really was good. Even some of the prisoners were distracted by it, muttering in amazement even in the hands of their enemy. Zuko stood, and with a few well-placed kicks, severed the chains to free the other man’s wrists as he held back a shutter, remembering how much he’d longed to be able to do it to his own bonds, but never having the strength or angle or…

No, now wasn’t the time for this.

Sensu rolled his wrists, eyes glowing in amazement. “Thanks.”

From his bag, Zuko pulled out the bowl Sela had packed into the rations she’d given him and Uncle. Sensu inhaled sharply at the sight, as though recognizing the craftsmanship, but he didn’t say anything. The inside of the bowl was filled with hardened clay, an imprint of a key in it’s center. He’d found the clay in a depression of land when he’d first been surveying the land. Iskai had delivered on her promise and brought the key she’d taken from the quartermaster in the early morning, and he’d made quick work of pressing it into the clay and using firebending to harden it just enough to create a mold. He’d thought about making the key out of clay, but he wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t crumble after a few turns. A professional artisan using a higher grade clay could probably manage it, but he had a bowl of mostly-mud that he barely knew how to heat without making it explode.

This was better.

“Bend the rock to fit this mold.”

Sensu bit his lip, brow furrowed in a way that matched Gansu’s expression when he was fitting the roof tiles. “That’s a little… delicate.”

Zuko scowled behind his mask. “I thought you were the best earthbender here.”

“Well, like, I’m up there, but that’s the tactical move-a-ton-of-rocks-and-knock-people-over kinda stuff or the make-a-hole-that-a-ton-of-people-fall-into stuff, you know? The stuff that is useful in a battle, not the kinda bending that makes detailed, like, sculptures and knick knacks, you know?”

Zuko scrunched his nose, though he supposed it made sense. Like the difference between throwing fireballs and maintaining a consistent heat for a forge. Technically, firebenders could do both, but you might be more talented at one than the other.

Of course, you could also be really bad at all standard forms of firebending until you studied ancient techniques that were no longer practiced, but Zuko wouldn’t know anything about that.

Sensu stared at the rock in concentration, as it started making the approximate shape of a key. “Wait, I know, gimme a second.”

He crawled through the other prisoners, careful not to get tall enough to be seen from the outside as others sitting around the perimeter straightened to hide him better. Zuko took the moment to look around the group. While some were watching the fire juggling show or Sensu, the majority were looking at him in various level of caution and mistrust. Several seemed openly hostile, which was understandable. He wouldn’t let it bother him so long as it never got so severe that they actually endangered the mission.

Sensu had crawled to an older soldier, who seemed to be talking through the process of bending the key. After a moment, Sensu straightened slightly, showing Zuko the key with a victorious grin.

Zuko nodded, began to motion to his wrists, then stuttered, unable to even indicate the thought of his own hands being bound. He instead motioned to the wrists of the man who had helped with the bending. Sensu’s eyes blew wide, as did the older man, and the elder teen surged forward with such enthusiasm that he nearly dropped the key. Zuko drooped in relief as the key unlocked the first manacle.

Good. He hadn’t really had a plan ‘B’ for that.

The ex-prince glanced around at the other prisoners closest to the hole, only to see that someone else had stuck their leg in the hole as soon as Sensu had crawled away. “You can earthbend?” He confirmed.

The man nodded, seeming nervous at being spoken to despite Zuko’s obviously benevolent intentions. “Try to get rocks about the same size that Sensu pulled up earlier and send them over to that man.”

Zuko crawled over to join the others, with the prisoner pulling out of his way even more than they had for Sensu, straining against their bounds as if just touching him was dangerous. Zuko ignored it, focusing on the wonder of the newly freed man. “More rocks are coming your way. How long would it take you to make enough keys for everyone?”

“A day.” The man answered immediately, fire and determination in his eyes. “Quicker if I can get some others to help me.”

“Only get the help of those in the center, not anyone too visible.” Zuko commanded. “People should be able to share as well, you don’t need a key for every prisoner. Make sure there is enough for everyone on the perimeter, then at least one for every two people on the inside. Don’t let anyone unlock themselves before I give my say so unless they’re helping you, and I’m sorry but you’ll have to lock yourself back up occasionally. We can’t have anyone seeing prisoners sitting free when they come to take people to the bathroom or hand out your rations. Make sure everyone hides the keys in their sleeves or something.”

The man grimaced, but nodded.

“Keeping everything hidden is absolutely imperative. Everything relies on the element of surprise.”

“I understand.”

Zuko nodded, then turned to Sensu and pulled a bundle of cloth out of his bag. He shoved a pair of pants at the older teen. “Put these on. You’re smaller than the man I stole it from so it should fit over the clothes you have on.”

Sensu did as commanded and put on the uniform underclothes with no protest greater than a puzzled expression. It wasn’t until Zuko pulled out the armor that he balked. Still, after a moment he reluctantly accepted it.

“Sorry, it’s just, heh. Kinda funny, but I guess I’m ending up wearing that uniform whether we escape or not.”

Zuko didn’t laugh, but it was clear Sensu hadn’t actually expected him to.

They both knew it wasn’t really funny.

Perhaps being worried about Aang was making her more sensitive than normal, but to be honest, it was easy for Katara to remember why she had been so happy to leave Kyoshi island. The villagers were a little… intense about Aang. Sure, other places had been excited to see the Avatar, but no one else had foamed at the mouth and fainted about it. And then when everyone left as soon as they realized Aang hadn’t come with them…

Yeah. Not her favorite place. At least Oyaji had rushed to help them once they explained what was going on. For all of the craziness of most of the people, they had some very good friends here as well.

“So, uh, … what’s Suki up to?” Sokka asked, trying so hard to be casual that Katara had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “Is she around?”

Yeah, they had met some really good friends here. Some, uh, closer friends than others.

Oyaji didn’t seem to notice as he responded, “Actually, she and the other warriors left to fight in the war. You kids had a big impact on Suki. She said you inspired her and she wanted to help change the world.”

“Oh, well… that’s great.”

Oh! That was actually great news! Just not for Sokka. Who had lost his boomerang and gotten dumped in the last few weeks. She put a comforting hand on her btother’s shoulder. “Sorry, you’ll have to show her your new sword skills later.”

Sokka cast her a grateful smile. “Yeah! Just wait till she sees me after even more practice! She won’t be able to help being impressed.” Sokka had been lucky that ‘Snowy’ had been packed with Appa for that night. He had it strapped to his back now, but if he’d lost that in the attack on their camp, she was pretty sure he would be fully inconsolable.

“And before you ask,” Oyaji continued, “Uncle Tea is not here either. We received a letter that he would be late this year, if he is able to come at all.”

“Oh!” Katara perked, excited to bring good news. “We actually found his nephew! They, uh, met back a few weeks ago and are travelling together now.”

Oyaji smiled broadly, a genuine grin of happiness. “That is wonderful news!”

The trio continued to chat as they made their way to the temple at the top of the hill. The temple was gorgeous, full of carefully preserved artifacts that they were commanded sternly not touch. One by one the artifacts and images held within the temple thoroughly destroyed the story the Chin people had come up with, and even if her brother had done it in the most annoying way possible, by the time they boarded Appa, she was confident that they would set Aang free by the end of the night.

Sensu hummed. “Its both a good thing and a bad thing that they made camp in a valley like that.” He had gleefully and gratefully shed the Fire Nation uniform the instant they made it to stranger-guy’s camp. Which, also apparently stranger-guy was also the Blue Spirit, as in the guy who broke the Avatar out of the most secure Fire Nation fort in the Earth Kingdom. So this dude just went around performing prison breaks against the Fire Nation? Sensu knew who he wanted to be when he grew up.

The Blue Spirit had snuck them past the Fire Nation lookouts, and now they were standing a few acres outside of the perimeter, staring at the wall of a mountain as though they could see through it to the camp beyond. During the walk the Blue Spirit had explained the plan, and now Sensu was scratching his chin to figure out the best way to actually pull it off. Had his plan to save the Avatar sounded this buck wild?

He hoped so.

“It means that it would be a lot to burrow underneath it or something, but if I can just go straight through a mountain or two, I should end up at a wall or some other fairly accessible point. The problem is going to be direction and angle. Once you are underground long enough and deep enough, it can be hard to gauge direction and time well. Angle a bit to go around a harder mineral for a few minutes, and next thing you know you’ve been going the wrong way for an hour.”

Okay, it was kinda hard to tell with the mask, but he was pretty sure Blue Spirit’s already pale Fire Nation skin had lost even more color, which was… a reaction.

“Would an extra pair of eyes help you… keep steady?” His rescuer asked, each word sounding like it was being pulled from him through torture. Okay… so, was that supposed to be subtle, or…

“Nah. At least, not a non-earthbender pair of eyes, to be honest. Unless you fire types can magically tell direction based on the placement of the sun.” He added jokingly.

“It doesn’t work underground.” Blue Spirit said, sounding way too knowledgeable for it to be conjecture. Um. That was something to unpack later. When he had mental capacity beyond ‘escape survive get everyone else out’.

“That tracks.” He hummed, considering. “Supposedly, really really good earthbenders can sometimes sense movement in the ground if it’s significant enough. I’ve never really felt it, which is a bummer, but if I can just figure it out maybe we can do something with that.”

The Blue Sprit’s head cocked to the side consideringly. He pulled out his sword- his two swords what the heck?- and started banging on the mountain wall with the hilt. Which- what? Oh! Sensu knelt, touching the ground and concentrating. He scrunched his nose up, feeling for… something in the earth, but unable to quite reach it. “I got nothing.”

It was weird how some people could scowl with their entire bodies. It wasn’t a thing Sensu had ever thought of before, but boy did this guy manage it.

Suddenly, the rescuer sat and motioned for Sensu to do the same. Unable to come up with anything better, he followed. A flame appeared in Blue Spirits hand, tame and jumping. Okay, when it wasn’t being used against him, he had to admit firebending was pretty cool. I mean, it has so much more color than normal cooking fires, and the way it was just floating there was pretty sick.

As he watched, the flame started to flare and abate in time with the firebender’s breath. “When we are first taught firebending, the first thing we learn is to meditate, to focus on the source of the flame and feel it. Before we are allowed to create flame, we spend hours doing nothing more than connecting with it. Your power comes from the earth, that is the source of your bending. How often have you spent time just… connecting with it?”

How did you connect with something that was always there? Something as firm and steady and constant as the very earth. Even when he couldn’t touch it, he knew it was there, he leaned on it. He’d never felt disconnected.

But… maybe that didn’t mean he was connected.

“What do I have to do?”

Blue Spirit talked him through the position, the breathing, and the mind exercises of meditation, and Sensu did his best to follow, his breath soon slipping into a smooth and easy cadence as they sat. After a while he shifted, the position seeming… wrong. He moved so that he could dig his toes into the dirt, his hands going from on his knees to pressed against the ground. Then, he felt the ground, the earth, the source of all that was familiar, that which endured when all else passed away. He felt the ebb and flow of the terrain, each mountain as vital as each valley, each cave as present as an outcropping. He felt that which was and is and would be.

He was dimly aware of Blue Spirit striking the ground. At first, it was an irritating distraction from his awareness, but the irritation flowed away as he recognized that the beats matched with those of his breath, those of his heart. Then… he realized that it wasn’t his heart that he felt them in. Like a ripple of a rock in a pond, like movement of the earth himself, he realized that he could feel the beat.

“I got it!” He said, eyes flowing open and feeling for a moment lost at the world he saw, open and bright and so different from the hidden world he’d been engrossed in a moment before.

And okay, Blue Spirit must have been incredibly expressive, because even through the mask Sensu could feel the grin.

So. He lost his boomerang. Aang got arrested. He spent the whole day investigating on Kyoshi island and didn’t even get to see Suki. He hadn’t even been right about the truth behind the crime. And Kyoshi looked so much like Suki that for a moment, he had thought the words woah, Aang looks hot.

This was officially his least favorite day ever.

He held onto Katara as a tornado transformed Aang from the smoking hot warrior to the tiny bald monk. (It wasn't that Aang couldn't be considered hot. If you squinted. But he was like, 12 and felt like a brother. No.)

“So, what just happened?” Aang asked.

“Uhhh…” Katara sounded as stunned as Sokka. “You kinda confessed. Sorry.”

Just, the worst day.

Mayor jerk (and to be honest, pretty much every Earth Kingdom leader that they had met had either been a jerk, insane, or some combination thereof. He was starting to understand how the Fire Nation attack had been so successful.) stood, a look of disgusting smugness on his jerk-like face. “And I find you guilty! Bring out the wheel of punishment!”

They pulled out a horrible wheel full of different types of punishments and tortures. Seriously, this was insane. You know what, Kyoshi was 100% right and he should say it. These people were the worst. He said nothing, only sneering in disgust as the villagers shouted for blood and pain on the 12 year old and only kept from speaking out by trying to imagine how busted everyone’s earbuds would have been if Zuko were here. Finally, the wheel settled, after going past options that were worse and worse, it landed on ‘boiled in oil’.

The siblings shared a glance as the villagers cheered. No matter what Aang had promised, they were not letting this happen. Sokka felt for his sword, touching the hilt  as he tried to survey for the best course of action.

His plan did not include the bomb that suddenly exploded the temple. (He wasn’t mad to see it go though).

Suddenly, the boomerang-stealers burst into the amphitheater.

“We’ve come to claim this village for the Fire Lord!” The spokesperson yelled as the warrior behind him swung his blade threateningly, actually cutting through the ugly statue with a single slice. “Now show me your leader so I may dethrone him.”

And surprise surprise, the villagers who delighted in torture and bloodshed and made a sport and game of pain, had no reservations about throwing their leader under the bus. Also, big surprise, the mayor very much did not want to be on their receiving side of that ‘game’ and changed the ‘punishment’ to community service. Because he was not, despite all evidence to the contrary, an idiot.

Sokka moves as soon as Aang does, leaving the man with the bladed staff and the firebender to the Avatar as he ran towards the other warriors. Fire and explosions were filling the town as bombs, fire blasts, and lit arrows flew from what felt like every direction. Sokka was able to use Snowy to deflect some chains that were aimed to tear down a house by the support beams. The man screamed at that, but rather than going after Sokka himself, the man attacked Katara, who easily used her bending to send the chains back at the man and send his rhino running. Okay, that was one down. Two if you counted the one Aang airbended out of the fight.

Okay, time for Sokka’s mad skills to take one out. He hefted Snowy, ignoring the way his detective-monocle wobbled and threatened to fall off. Oh, actually…. He glanced around and grinned. That could work. He dropped the hand with the sword and used his other hand to take off the monocle, angling it in the light so that it reflected the sunlight directly into the eyes of archery-dude. The man immediately tried to shoot him, but with the sunlight in his eyes, the aim was off and it instead landed directly in the bag with the bombs.

Take that, boomerand stealers.

He ducked for cover. Unfortunately, bomb dude noticed and threw away the bag, but not fast enough to get out of the bomb entirely, and he slammed into a wall, bag landing a few feet away from Sokka, with Boomerang sticking out of it like it was reaching out for him.

A weight that had been oppressive and constant seemed to melt away as he dropped Snowy and grabbed for it. “Boomerang! You do always come back!” He shouted, immediately throwing it at the archer. His throw, extra perfect as through it was as happy to be reunited as Sokka was, sliced through the arrow still held in the man’s bow, and created a small cut on the man’s cheek. The attack distracted him enough that Katara was able to take out his saddle and set his rhino running. Sokka grinned, picking up Snowy just as Boomerang came back and he caught it with the hand that didn’t have his sword. He felt complete again. Maybe this place wasn’t so bad.

Later that night, after forgiven had been given and victory celebrated, Sokka looked down at their reward: a bowl of gross raw dough. “This is by far the worst town we’ve ever been to.”

Chapter Text

Zuko pounded lightly against the mountain wall with the rock that he had picked up to take mercy on his sword hilt. They had been working throughout the day, but finally had made it through. Or at least, they would have in a few minutes. They have further to go in the morning, but as soon as Sensu came though they would have made it to his hideout in the outcropping that he used as a base to meet with the others of the Fire Nation. That was far enough for one day, especially since Sensu had been underground the whole time. Zuko shuddered to think on it.

The prince struck again and jerked in surprise as his hand went through the suddenly-very-thin rock wall.

“Woah!” The wall said, and Sensu’s squinting face appeared in the hole that Zuko made. “Oh man that’s bright.” His face disappeared and Zuko peeked in to see him crouched with hands over his face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just… been in the dark for a while, give me a minute for my eyes to adjust.”

A shiver went down Zuko’s spine, the teen remembering what it had been like to see the sun after his time in the cave. It was already approaching twilight now, but even remembering that phantom pain was enough for him to give the man his sympathy.

After a moment Sensu’s eyes apparently adjusted, and he tore down the remaining bit of the wall. When he stepped out into the open air he was dusty, exhausted, but grinning from ear to ear. Zuko tossed him a fresh waterskin and watched him chug it down as he accepted the now-empty one that he had given the man hours earlier. “We did it!” Sensu said as he came up for air. “Or, did we do it?”

“We did enough for the night.” He said, pulling the man to the bit of shielding foliage and pulling down a branch to reveal the camp, as though the noise didn’t reveal their closeness already. “There’s a bit more that we will have to do tomorrow, but I think you earned a rest for now.”

“Are you sure? I can totally keep going if you want! Anything to get us out of here sooner.”

Zuko shook his head. “No matter what we do tonight, we can’t move until tomorrow.”

“Oh thank Oma and Shu, I was about to collapse.” Sensu said with a groan as he flopped onto the ground. Zuko smirked and tossed him a pasty from his rations bag.

“Thanks!” The older teen said, then a moment later muffled from a full mouth, “This tastes just like my mom’s!”

“It is from your mom.”

“Oh.” He said, then, horrifically, sniffled. Zuko whirled, startled. “Sorry, its,” He sniffed, not meeting Zuko’s eyes. “I just… never thought I would get to taste her cooking again.”

Zuko froze, unsure what to do or say to that, but luckily before he had time to figure it out, the bushes parted as Shai Lee made her way through. Sensu reacted, stumbling to his feet and getting into an aggressive position with hands that shook with exhaustion.

“Stand down!” Zuko said sharply as the Fire Nation soldier was startled enough to move into a defensive position of her own. He stepped between the pair. “She’s on our side.”

Sensu’s eyes narrowed before he seemed to remember that he trusted Zuko. “Okay. Sorry about that and bla bla bla.” He reached for Zuko’s bag and started rooting in it for more of Sela’s cooking.

The two fire nationals immediately lost their tension. “Report?” Zuko asked.

“Things are coming along okay on our end. Captain Reiko was too hung over to do a proper count of the prisoners this morning, and Gunlow pulled out the nice firewiskey he’s been saving for a special event and is going to bet it at cards tonight. Gunlow is terrible at cards so it won’t be hard to make sure Reiko ends up with it. We should have the same thing happen in the morning tomorrow.”

Zuko was not impressed with his country’s army.

“Apparently almost all of the prisoners have the fancy stone keys already, they worked really fast, and they actually got the bowl back to Ahn Nee when she started her second shift so that there was less evidence.”

“Smart.”

“She and Hanzo earned enough credit earlier with providing distraction that the Earth Kingdom soldiers have agreed to let them come in tonight.”

“What are they doing tonight?” Sensu asked, around a mouthful of jerky that he ate while lying on the ground. Zuko abruptly remembered that he hadn’t told him much of the plans beyond making the tunnels.

“Same thing that I did earlier, making holes in the platform so that more earthbenders can touch the ground.”

“Oh. If you need more people for that I can go back and vouch for them.”

“It’s not worth the risk of dragging you back into camp. We’ll have to make it work.”

Shai Lee hummed. “Rezu has to turn in the schedule soon, but he wanted me to check in on the status before he did it, make sure things were still going as expected on your end since you’ve been gone all day.”

Zuko gestured at the brand new cave in the wall. “On target.”

“Thank goodness. Iskai has so many friends higher up, you wouldn’t believe what she had to do today that was bad enough to get punished with perimeter duty, but wasn’t suspicious. Great. Just so you know, since we have so many people working the night shift, it would be the after-lunch shift at the absolute earliest before Rezu can get all the prisoner guards and perimeter guards to be our people.”

“That’s fine. Sensu still has some work to do before we’re ready.”

The older teen groaned at that, Zuko’s bag under his head like a pillow as he yawned. “Wake me up when it’s my shift I guess.”

That… that had all of Zuko’s food.

Shai Lee chuckled. Zuko shook his head. “Make sure everyone on perimeter knows the name ‘Sensu’. I won’t be able to join him for that part and I’m going to tell him that anyone who doesn’t greet him by name should be treated as an enemy, just in case something goes wrong.”

“’Sensu’, got it. I’ll pass it along.”

“Good. I’m also going to need you to contact Lihan and some of the benders. See if you can make it so that they require ‘extra sparring practice’ and have them practice it in the open area near the prisons. As long as they can remember their positions, that will be better than a million ‘X’s all over the ground. We’ll need a few no matter what, but the more subtle we can be the better.” 

“Won’t be hard.” She nodded. “She pulls people out all the time for all kinds of things. I’ll talk with her and the benders who need to be there. Should I even ask why what matters?”

“He can sense where they are if there’s enough consistent movement.” 

Her nose scrunched slightly. “Earth bending is kinda weird.”

“Nuh uh.” Sensu yawned, not opening his eyes. “Firebending ‘s the weird one. No fire anywhere, and suddenly ‘poof’? Can’t do that with earth.” 

She shrugged. “I guess. I wouldn’t know. I’m more of the bow and arrow type.” 

Zuko snorted and shook his head, but brought the conversation back on topic. “Try to come mid-morning, and right after the afternoon shift change for updates. We will see from there when we expect.”

“Got it.” She paused for a moment. “We… we’re actually doing this, aren’t we? We could actually pull this off.”

“We will.”

Okay, so say what you will about the pitfalls of retail therapy, but man it felt good to know that when he went to bed tonight, he could tuck Boomerang safely into his spiffy new bag, even if it was overpriced. Gaoling was a trading and commerce town, which meant they actually accepted the money that the Northern Water Tribe had given them, and you know what? He deserved something that looked really cool and was slightly overpriced. He was helping save the world after all, did he not deserve to live a little?

Sokka nodded to himself as he met up with Aang and Katara, who were talking to a creepy man handing out flyers. Oh no. Things never went well when weird people in markets started paying attention to them. This better not be another pirate incident. Or cheap fisherman incident. Or- you know what, he wasn’t even going to continue this list he had things to do today. Luckily, the man was gone by the time Sokka caught up with the others, which somewhat decreased the chance of it being an ‘incident’, though not completely.

He glanced at the flyer. “An Earth bending school?”

“The first lesson is free.” Aang said, waving the flyer and brandishing a coupon on the back. Hmm, questionable marketing strategy aside, Sokka always had been a sucker for a good sale.

“Score!”

Katara grinned. “Who know, this Master Yu could be the earthbending teacher you’ve been looking for.”

“I hope so.” Aang said, eyeing the decorated paper. “Watch and wait. That’s what Bumi says.”

Sokka hummed, ignoring the bending-magic-whatever that meant nothing. “Even if he doesn’t… do… whatever that means, we should try to find a master here. This is like, the first place since that canyon where we’ve seen earthbenders who aren’t like, soldiers.”

“And we know how well that went.” Katara said, the sarcasm in her voice proving that she was his sister.

“Exactly! And it seems like the Fire Nation is mostly ignoring this place for now. We might be able to just like, coast for a few days and let Zuko catch up.”

Aang perked. “That’s a great idea! He’s probably mad that we’re going all over the place and making it hard to find us.”

Sokka wished that wasn’t as good of a point as it was. “Do you think there’s any chance I could convince him I relinquished navigator roles to one of you guys? I don’t think I can handle the yelling."

"Maybe you should see if there are any earplugs that match your new bag.” Katara smirked.

Sokka groaned, complaining all the way to this earthbending school. He and Katara loitered among parents of the other students as the lesson took place. Aang looked… out of place. He was several years older than the student closest to him in age, and actually looked tall compared to his opponents. As the training went on, he also looked worse at earthbending than the rest of them, a fact with culminated him halfway buried through a broken jar before the lesson was half over.

So. Things were going well.

How about this, Sokka was just going to stop thinking things would ever actually go well. If life couldn’t be easy, he could at least be right.

Aang left the lessons downhearted, and leaking sand from places that should not leak sand. “Ehh, he’d not the one.”

Sokka snorted at the statement of the obvious, but before he could reply, he overheard some of he other students talking. “I think The Boulder is gonna win back the belt at Earth Rumble VI.”

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

Okay, so almost none of that made sense, but ‘best earthbenders in the world’ certainly perked his interest. As well as Aang’s apparently, as the Avatar was rushing towards the students and excitedly asking about the ‘rumble’.

“It’s on the island of Noneya…” One of them said. “Noneya business!”

Okay, that was HILARIOUS. Sokka bent over laughing as the strangers walked away. Finally, they meet someone with a sense of humor. “Oh, I got to remember that one.”

He was still chuckling about it when Katara ran off after the boys, though he had settled by the time she came back. “You ready to find an earthbending teacher? Because we’re going to Earth Rumble VI!”

“How’d you get them to tell you?” Aang asked, and Sokka was surprised that the boy had to ask. Had he just met Katara?

“Oh, a girl has her ways.”

Ways that Sokka did not want to hear anything about. Katara could be scary when she wanted, he would rather live in blessed ignorance to whatever tactics she used. Besides, he had more important things to think about. Specifically, why did they let him buy a new bag? He didn’t need this thing! Would they even do returns? He’d spilled some fruit juice on it during the ‘watch Aang get pelted with rocks’ show, did that matter?

Sensu yawned as he urged the ostrich horse forward. Dragon snapped at his foot in response and he cursed, pulling the leg out of the way. The mount was as dangerous and opinionated as its namesake. Its owner too for that matter. Sensu had grown up on a farm, practically lived in a saddle throughout his time in the calvary, but this thing knew he wasn’t Blue Spirit and wasn’t happy about it. 

Understandable. Blue Spirit was the coolest, Sensu would prefer him too. That didn’t make it less annoying. The fact that he was exhausted didn’t help. Between the last two days he had spent more time earthbending than he ever had in his life, even during basic training.

Blue Spirit had woken him early, looking disgustingly awake just like all the crazy firebenders did. He couldn’t wait to be on the farm and woken by the rooster-hogs at a reasonable hour instead of waking to firebending training as soon as the sun even looked like it might start showing maybe. Sensu had spent the way-too early morning finishing up the cave, and setting up barely-covered pits under the feet of a smattering of firebenders who had been performing katas near the prisoners’ platform. That had been finicky, it all had to happen below ground, and even with his new meditation allowing him to sense the right area, shifting so far away was a bit complex. He’d managed though, and after an early lunch he’d finally started on the last part of the plan. 

He felt jittery, a bit like he was going to be sick with nerves and a bit like the best thing ever was happening to him. There was a really big possibility that in less than an hour, his entire remaining battalion would be saved. They had almost completely resigned themselves to death, hopeless and full of a fear so intense that he’d felt dull. Now… well, hope really did make the world look beautiful.

The young man shook his head. Okay, that was lame, even for him. Still… somehow the sunrise had seemed especially significant this morning. 

That may have just been the way that Blue Spirit (in a weird blue-white bandana not the full mask) had been looking at it.  

Sensu led Dragon around the curve of the mountain, freezing when it brought him face to face with a Fire Nation soldier standing tense and ready. His mouth went dry. This had gone well with the last four of the lookouts, but what if-

“Senzu?” The man asked, and the earthbender relaxed. 

“Close enough. Real name’s Sensu.” 

“Right, dang it. Sorry, I tried really hard to remember it, but I’m bad with names. Took too many rocks to the head if you know what I mean.” Well. That was awkward. The man suddenly seemed to realize it and cursed loudly. “Ashes and smoke, that was not a good thing to say, you’re one of the ones that hit me with the rocks.” He paused and swore again. 

“That- that was even worse. Geeze, just bury me now- No! I mean- I’m just going to stop talking.” 

Sensu snorted, looking at the man and strangely being reminded of the circular conversations, turns of phrase, and inside jokes that occurred when you were stuck with the same squad day in and day out and rarely had to interact with anyone else. After some time of that, talking to anyone new felt like traversing a minefield, even just someone from a different unit. Taking pity on the man and knowing that he wasn’t trying to cause offense, the Earthbender joked, “Was all that because of the rocks too?” 

Relaxing visibly when Sensu showed no offense, the man laughed ruefully. “I wish I could blame it on that. Nah, that’s just me. My feet spend more time in my mouth than on the ground it feels like.”

Sensu snorted. “Well, I would say that we should use a boot in honor of that, but it sounds like we’ll have a long walk so maybe not.” 

“Yeah, that’s fair. Helmet too unoriginal?” 

“It has been a favorite, but sometimes things are a classic for a reason.” 

The soldier snorted in amusement and tossed the earthbender his helmet. With a few well practiced movements, Sensu tore up the ground enough to approximate a battle, leaving a roughly human-sized portion of dirt that was especially messed up. He then sent several rocks to the helmet until it was broken and dented, and half buried it into the ground. 

He bit his lip nervously. “Look, I know that the Blue Spirit said this would work, and none of the others said anything about it, but since we have some time to kill and you seemed more chill than that Gunlow dude…” 

“Oh yeah, ask me anything.” The older man said.

“Are you really sure that they won’t dig for the bodies? They’ll just… leave them behind, really?” He didn’t add the disgust that he’d felt swelling at the very notion of that. He didn’t think about how they tried to get bodies sent back home, no matter what. Now that the Fire Nation soldiers were seeming increasingly less like faceless enemy fire machines, and more like people with real lives, the part of him that missed home ached at the thought of these soldier’s family not receiving a body to mourn. 

The soldier was quiet for a long moment, then, “Have you ever tried to… unbury an enemy? One that had been crushed?” 

“I guess not.” 

“I did once. I joined the army with my brother. Home was… not great. We joined together to send money back to mom. That’s not really important, I guess. I just mean, when he died… I wanted to-.” The man sighed heavily and shook his head, giving up on finishing the sentence. “It’s not the kind of body that would give anyone any kind of comfort. Bones are crushed, internal bleeding makes the skin look weird. Its… better to give the families a memento-” he nudged the helmet with a foot, “And not make them see it. This will probably go next to his on the family shrine.” 

Well. That was a mood ruiner. “O-oh, sorry.” 

The other man shrugged, looking increasingly awkward. “It’s war. I get it. I don’t think I ever blamed the Earth Kingdom, even then. If we hadn’t been there, if the river hadn’t been polluted and we could still fish… It’s the war itself that killed him, just like it killed thousands of others, your people and mine. I’m sure burn wounds don’t make for pretty funerals either.” 

“They don’t.” Silence reigned between the two, awkwardly glancing at the ground and camp and sky and anything but each other.

 “Hey,” Sensu said after a long, stilted moment. “Do you want to talk about literally anything else?” 

“Oh, sun yes. Any ideas?” 

“Okay, the Blue Spirit’s fire, can you all-” 

“Nope. Not a clue, it’s driving Hanzo insane.”

Sokka cheered wildly for the Boulder as Hippo was carried away in defeat. This. Was. Awesome. The crowd joined his cheers and he felt excitement and adrenalin flowing through him after the fight. He hadn’t known that this was even a thing a few hours ago, and now he didn’t think he’d ever been more invested in anything in his entire life.

He whooped as the next match was introduced, a smile nearly splitting his face. Why didn't everywhere have stuff like this? This was incredible!

His joy crashed in the next moment, elation turning into icy dread that brough him from flying high to a pit in his stomach the size of the great divide. The teen shuddered as though with a chill as Fire Nation Man stepped into the ring to a cacophony of boo’s and jeers.

It- it wasn’t the same, he knew it wasn’t. This guy was walking up of his own volition, was playing it up for the sake of the show- the entertainment. This whole place was about entertainment! It couldn’t be more different than the hole in the wall a 10^th of its size that had stunk of fear and desperation even before he’d known how horrible it really was. This was for fun, the guy wasn’t even really from the Fire Nation, he was an earthbender for crying out loud. He was fat and old and had a horrible fake accent that didn't even sound like he was trying for Fire Nation-y and he didn’t even look a bit like Zuko.

But… seeing that red, those insignias in an underground cave, watching the man fight in a battle that everyone knew he would lose, hearing the Earth Kingdom people calling for his defeat mixed with the pained grunts the fighter made when the rocks hit home…

Hearing him beg and scream as he was thrown across the arena.

Well… the whole thing just didn’t seem as fun anymore.

Katara noticed when the next hero came to the stage with a noted lack of enthusiasm from her brother. “You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah.” He shrugged, fiddling with his new bag to avoid looking at the arena. “It’s just… bringing up more memories than I would have thought.”

The girl’s brows furrowed in confusion, so he nodded at where Fire Nation Man was being attended by a nurse. “I don’t know if I mentioned it, but the cave where I met Zuko… we think it used to be something like this.”

“Oh.” She looked stricken.

Sokka shook his head. “It’s different. This place tries to be- it is fun, but I guess I lost my taste for it thinking about him being here.”

She didn’t say anything, there was nothing to say. She just leaned on him a bit in silent comfort. Aang frowned, glancing between the arena, Sokka, and Fire Nation man. “We should go.” He said. “I… don’t think we’re going to find the kind of teacher I need in a place like this.”

Suddenly the lighting dimmed, and their eyes went to the stage. “Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… your champion… the Blind Bandit.”

Sokka paused, half standing, too curious too just leave. Really, who could compare to the absolute mountain of a man that was the Boulder. Who was the champion that this fighter had to defeat? Someone even tougher and stronger and bigger and- what the heck? Earth Kingdom had the weirdest sense of humor.

Sokka watched as the tiny blind kid handed the belt to one of the attendants next to her and get into a ready stance.

This… was not a joke. This was just his life now.

“She can’t really be blind.” Katara said, squinting. “It’s part of her character, right?”

“I think she is.” Aang answered.

The current favorite fighter seemed just as perplexed at the appearance of this ‘champion’. “The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl.

The young blind girl responded. “Sounds to me like you’re scared, Boulder!”

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

“Whenever you’re ready, The Pebble.”  

“Okay, now I have to watch.” Sokka sat back down, eyes glued to the stage as his anxiety about Zuko faded to a background nagging that he could ignore for whatever this was about to be.

And, okay, conflicted feelings aside, that fight was one of the coolest things he’d ever seen, and it had lasted like 3 seconds. It was as though the earth itself was fighting against the man, and in about 3 moves the man who had defeated half a dozen others was quickly defeated. The reigning champion hadn’t even broken a sweat, had barely moved.

“How did she do that?” Katara asked, breathless.

Aang smiled. “She waited… and listened.”

Whatever the heck that meant.

Zuko took deep, even breaths beneath his Blue Spirit mask. The air whistled where it came out underneath the wood, reminding him of the sound of Aang’s bending. It grounded him somewhat. He was doing his friends proud, he knew it. Now he just needed to hope that all of his planning had been enough. 

“Ready.” The man next to him breathed, meaning that everyone had been unshackled.

Zuko’s eyes darted around, one last confirmation that everything was ready. Lihan was running through drills exactly where they had planned for them to be. The group looked all for the world like a regular punishment training if it weren’t for the occasional nervous looks to the ground after an especially hard stomp, as though the ground beneath their feet was fragile. Shai Lee and Rezu stood nearby the prisoners on nearly-invisible ‘X’s, gossiping with mischievous expressions. Sensu’d had over an hour to do his part, he should be done by now. Everyone guarding the prisoners were tensely waiting for the plan to commence, and no one else in camp was anywhere close. 

It was time. 

He really hoped this went mostly like when he’d rescued Aang from Pouhai stronghold, and not like… pretty much every other plan he’d tried to enact. 

Zuko shed the last of his soldier uniform and set up a few sparks, the signal. 

“Hey!” Ahn Nee bellowed, noise in the camp and training stilling. “Who are you and what are you doing in there?” 

She lied as well as a member of the Fire Nation court. 

Zuko stood, Blue Spirit mask stark against the dull brown landscape and twin blades shining in the sun and reflecting the horrified gazes of the Fire Nation camp that had self-congratulated to the point of laziness. 

“The Blue Spirit!” Hanzo gasped, his practiced projection spreading even further than Ahn Nee’s initial yell. As one, the Earth Kingdom soldiers rose. Those near holes stuck one leg in them to touch the ground, and those in the perimeter jumped off the platform. The prisoner guards and ‘training’ soldiers started as though moving to attack, but before they could do more than twitch the pits that Sensu had spent the morning carefully crafted opened, and all the nearby soldiers fell through. From above, they appeared to be buried and Zuko shivered despite knowing well that they had all fallen harmlessly into small holes and had known to brace themselves for impact. 

At the sight of their companions' apparent deaths, the other soldiers startled into advancing as well, but before they could get close enough to truly attack, the Earth Kindgom soldiers moved, working together to push the ground of the valley, creating a wall of rock between the prison and the rest of camp. They pushed forward until the wall moved like a tsunami wave, pushing the camp back to cries of terror. 

Almost immediately, the ‘buried’ soldiers began scrambling out of their pits, and Zuko realized that he hadn’t breathed since the first one fell in. There was one incident where a particularly hostile Earth Kingdom soldier tried to bury them in earnest, but other Earth Kingdom men put a stop to it before Zuko could even make his way over. 

Which was good. Zuko wasn’t sure what he would have done, but it wouldn’t have been in a headspace that anything good came out of. 

He pointed at the section of the mountain that Sensu had shown him earlier. “There!” He commanded, and the earthbenders got into stance to pull the thin rock away from the mountainside and reveal the man made cave hidden behind. “Go go go!” He commanded, watching as soldiers scrambled into the cave, some supporting the injured and others bending platforms for wounded to sit or lay on. Lihan led the way, with other firebenders spaced out and providing light. Ahn Nee brought up the back of the group, looking back Zuko as she did. The woman hadn’t liked that Zuko wasn’t going with the rest of them, and that worry remained clear on her face until the wall was bent back in place, hiding the fleeing soldiers from the camp entirely. 

Zuko shuttered as the cave closed. Between getting into that cave and facing an entire battalion alone his choice was easy. 

Perhaps not sane, but easy nonetheless. 

Zuko sprinted up the newly created rock wall, standing on the top and seeing with relief that the attack was so sudden, and the escape was so seamlessly quick  that the soldiers were only just collecting themselves for a counterattack. Cries of fury erupted as he appeared over them, and bolts of fire were thrown with impressive distance and mediocre control. Zuko moved with flow and lightness learned from Katara and Aang, redirecting and buffering the attack rather than standing and blocking the bows. The fire shot to his chest instead arched around him, cresting behind his back like Katara’s wave and coming out the other end stronger, brighter, and entirely under Zuko’s control. He ran the length of flame in a line between him and the soldiers, constructing a barrier made of their own attacks and maintaining it through the techniques that allowed the Sun Warriors to maintain floating circles of flame for hours. 

The control of fire and unfamiliar bending techniques so stunned the soldiers that they momentarily faltered, unfamiliar with how to attack one who used their own powers against them. Suddenly, fires flared far off, and attention was diverted from Zuko as the battalion saw the fire of, what they thought was, a nearby sentry facing off against the escaped prisoners. As could only be expected, the flames died off quickly, as the poor soldier who was unlucky enough to be in their escape path faltered against nearly a battalion's worth of enemies. 

Ignoring the Blue Spirit whom they did not understand and did not know how to beat (if indeed you could even beat a spirit. They had assumed that the Blue Spirit was a man in a mask, but now that belief had been shaken), the battalion leaders started commanding men to head towards the direction of the flares, hoping to overtake the prisoners. 

However, before they could move, similar flames burst from the opposite direction where another sentry stood watch, only to die off just as quickly. Then next sentry, and the next, until the soldiers realized with horror that each of their guard had fallen alone, and they had no clue which direction to go to catch their prey. Zuko grinned and, feeding into the urging of a primal part of him that had only grown through his imprisonment and flourished under the guidance of the Masters, lifted his mask just enough to shoot a flame of fire from his lips that flew over the guards, making them gasp and squint in wonder. By the time the army looked away from the flames and back to the bender, he was gone. 

He had disappeared, like a ghost, like a spirit, like his namesake. 

Chapter Text

Sensu gave up on attempting to reign in Dragon and just let the beast drag him and the firebender guard he’d befriended- Shinho- to Blue Spirit. Shinho slipped off as soon as the creature stilled, rushing to join some of the other fire nation soldiers with the relieved celebration of someone who’d only somewhat thought they would actually survive.

Relatable.

Sensu looked around the group as he swung off the ostrich-horse, eyes lingering on the Fire Nation soldier who had been smuggling him supplies from the get go. After a moment he shook his head and he turned to survey the rest of the trudging people. The Earth Kingdom soldiers’ stiff joints and sparse rations didn’t make for a fast group, but they were a happy one. Brilliant smiles peeked from exhausted, dirty faces, and each step they took from their enemies the joyous chattering got louder and louder as the soldiers dreamed of home and freedom. 

A few still warily, or hostile-ly, eyed the Fire Nation soldiers, but for the most part they seemed to have accepted the help. Sensu sighed in relief and tried to pass the reins of the mount to Blue Spirit. The man shook his head, though he petted the creature's head in reward. 

“Flares looked good, any additional trouble on your end that I didn’t hear about?” 

“Nope! Easy as mud, and it looks like everyone made it.” He glanced around again, easily recognizing all of the soldiers whose armor he’d half-buried for show. 

Blue Spirit nodded. “We have a few more hours of travel, but at this rate we should hit a small oasis not long after nightfall. The Earth Kingdom soldiers are listening to me, but they will follow you. I’m relying on you to keep them going and inform me if any troubles arise that they won’t tell me about.” 

“Sure sure, you do realize I’m like, a total rookie and like the youngest here, right?”

“That matters less than you think. The Fire Nation killed anyone with enough rank that your people would automatically look to them to follow. They don’t have anyone leading them now. I’ve seen people younger than you take command of groups larger than this simply by being brave, intelligent… and acting like they had more authority than they actually have.” Something about his voice sounded ruefully amused, though the tone of command was back when he spoke again. “If you take command, they’ll follow.” 

Sensu snorted. “You say that like you’re younger than me.” 

Blue Spirit said nothing.

Alright. We don’t have time to unpack all that. “Anyway, do you want your beast back or not?” 

Blue Spirit shook his head and directed Sensu to bring the ostrich horse to help some of the wounded. Some of the earthbenders were carefully floating slabs of rock to act as makeshift gurneys, but that took a lot of concentration, power, and control, all things that were in short supply of the exhausted benders who had been deprived of their element for so long. 

He helped two of the injured men to shift from the rocks to the animal and made rounds around the rest of the group. To his shock, Blue Spirit’s words were surprisingly accurate. The soldiers paid little attention to his age and rank as he took reports and set up a rotation for the benders creating the rock stretchers. One of the older men was lagging a bit behind the group, trailing even behind the firebenders who were guarding their flank as he walked with a strange shuffle. At first Sensu’d headed for the man to try and help him keep pace, but was stopped by one of the firebenders who said that the earthbender was hiding their tracks and they were looking after him. Sure enough, the man’s strange shuffling was actually an unfamiliar earthbending move that was disturbing the rock and sand that they had flattened by walking over it, erasing any sign of their group.

Okay that was a neat trick and one he was definitely learning any time other than the day he’d basically hollowed out a mountain and more.

Satisfied, the young man made his way back to the group and slipped through to the woman he’d once dubbed as not-crappy-firebender. She was helping to support a man who had injured his leg enough to limp, but not enough to warrant a spot on one of the limited stretchers.

“So,” He began conversationally. “I’ll note that I didn’t actually have to get better at lying for all of this to work.”

She snorted. Sensu grinned and introduced himself. 

“Ahn Nee.” She said, offering the hand not holding up the soldier to shake. “It’s still a talent you need to improve.”

“I might need lessons.” Sensu winked, freedom loosening his tongue and making him bold.  

The limping man grumbled. “Do I really have to listen to this? Burn me now.” He inhaled sharply and straightened, frantic eyes meeting Ahn Nee’s. “Wait no, sorry, I didn’t mean-” 

Sensu laughed. “Okay, remind me to introduce you to Shinho later.” 

Aang watched the stage in wonder. This was his earthbending teacher. He could feel it. It was more than just the vision he’d seen in the foggy swamp, it was a resonance in his very being, it was the way that her movements echoed the recommendation of his oldest friend.

He couldn’t wait to meet her.

The spokesman of the rumble, Xin Fu, jumped from the announcer’s platform to stand beside the mystery girl, grinning broadly as he hefted a large green bag. “To make things a little more interesting, I’m offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone he can defeat the Blind Bandit!”

This was perfect!

Xin Fu smirked before Aang could reply. “What? No one dares to face her?”

“I’ll do it!” Aang said hurriedly, rising to stand on the bleachers. There was no way he was missing out on the chance to meet his future earthbending teacher and, probably, best friend.

The crowd, which had been yelling and screaming before, murmured as he entered the ring. They didn’t seem like… bad murmers at least?

“Be careful Aang!” Katara yelled.

The Blind Bandit smirked. “Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?” She asked, and the audience ‘ooh’ed.

Oh, maybe he hadn’t thought this through. He hadn’t really considered the ‘fighting’ element, he just wanted to meet her! And talk! …admittedly, the middle of a fighting arena wasn’t the best place for that. In retrospect. “I don’t really want to fight you. I want to talk to you.”

He winced as the crowd boo’ed and jeered at him, trash and debris flying, though none got anywhere close to the stage. It brought back bad memories of the Chin village. Fighting through his discomfort, Aang stepped forward. The Blind Bandit smirked, a single stomp of her foot creating a shock wave that threw Aang through the air as the very stone beneath his feet attacked.

That could have gone better. Luckily, he was an airbender, so it also could have been worse! He airbent to slow his momentum, landing lighting on the ground behind the girl. Ok, so maybe try two?

“Somebody’s a little light on his feet!” The earthbender taunted. “What’s your fighting name? The Fancy Dancer?”

Okay he kinda really liked his name, but before he could say anything, a pillar rose beneath his feet and shot him tow the ceiling. OK, so try two went even worse, he hadn’t even gotten to say anything that time! He stepped off the pillar, floating slowly towards the ground.

“Where’d you go?” The Blind Bandit growled.

Aang took the moment in the air to yell out- “Please wait!”

“There you are!”

Ok, hard to say if that went better or worse than the last try. He did say something, but not much and only because he wasn’t on the ground. It was, he admitted as rocks came flying at him, an imperfect sliding scale. But he at least could admit that this wasn’t going well. Which meant he had to try something else.

Aang used a blast of air to launch the rock back at the girl, casting her out of the ring.

Oh. Well he hadn’t meant to do that.

The crowd around them cheered, but Aang had no eyes for it, chasing after the former champion as she stalked out of the arena. “Please, listen! I need an earthbending teacher, and I think its supposed to be you!”

“Whoever you are, just leave me alone!” The bender bent a hole in the wall and disappeared through, leaving Aang with no way to follow without the skills she was refusing to teach him.

He only stared at the now-solid wall, despondent until Sokka threw an arm over him and brandished the belt. “So, do you think if I gave this to Zuko he would laugh, or is that way too dark?”

Ahn Nee watched as Sensu maneuvered around the slumping Earth Kingdom soldiers, talking in hushed tones and worriedly looking back towards the way they were fleeing. When the man straightened and started heading determinedly towards the Blue Spirit, she passed off the soldier she was leading to an able bodied Earth Kingdom man and ducked after to catch up with him. 

Sensu didn’t question it when she appeared beside him, but she tried not to look too much into that. 

Much like she wasn’t looking too much into his flirting. 

Or her flirting. 

She may look into it later, when the shackles were a distant memory and they were safe in their respective towns and she could daydream without all the added messiness of reality butting in. 

Blue Spirit was in intense-looking conversation with Hanzo of all people, and the fire juggler looked more engaged than she’d ever seen him. At the moment, the Blue Spirit was gesturing wildly. “-but, if you noticed all of the plays and songs written about Roku in his lifetime have been destroyed or censored, and The Tome of Roku was written well into the reign of Azulan, and notably not by anyone who knew the man or would vouch for his character. In the Water Tribe, Avatar Roku is actually highly regarded and considered clever and hardworking. They praise him for his ability to learn waterbending even though it was difficult as his opposite element and commended his fairness and bravery.” 

Hanzo almost squeaked. “Are you telling me you know Water Tribe stories? I’ve wanted to study them for shows forever but they say they don’t write them down.” 

“It’s an oral tradition.” Blue Spirit confirmed. “I sat in on their elders Speaking a few times. I actually performed the tale of the first firebenders for them, though my fire sculptures didn’t do it justice.” 

Ahn Nee heard Sensu beside her breathe ‘how does he get cooler every time’ before he loudly cleared his throat. Hanzo jumped, but Blue Spirit simply inclined his head as though to give permission to speak, having given no indication that their presence was at all a surprise. 

“So, you know how I’m apparently some kind of blue-spirit-assigned spokesperson?” 

“I am aware of the position I gave you, yes.” 

“Cool, so here’s the deal: they’re lagging. We can’t keep up this pace after everything. I know there’s a lot of daylight left, but if we can just take a break, we can move faster the rest of the day.” 

Blue Spirit nodded, glancing around the area. His entire body seemed to be scowling, but he sounded grudgingly accepting. “Fine. That’s why we escaped the way we did, so they wouldn’t know where to look for us.” 

Ahn Nee nodded. Going through the mountain kept them hidden and let them get much further away than climbing over it or trekking around it, and the fake flares from the perimeter guards ensured that their captains would have no way to know what way they had actually gone. It had seemed excessive at the time, but she knew that Iskai was a couple acres behind with the ostrich horse checking for scouting parties, and the fact that she hadn’t ridden back with alarms blaring meant that all of those precautions were working. 

So far. 

Blue Spirit eyed the landscape before pointing at a dropoff. “We’ll get to the bottom of that and rest there. Ahn Nee, assign people to act as lookouts. Sensu, if any Earth Kingdom soldiers feel up for it, have a few of them join. We can’t stop long.” 

The man gave him a thumbs up and melted into the crowd. Ahn Nee chose the more respectful path of a bow before she followed the command as well. Soon enough, they were safe in the relative shelter of the outcropping, men sharing waterskins and collapsing to the ground. 

One of the more able bodied Earthbenders did a move to increase the wall of the outcropping a bit. Ahn Nee watched at parade rest as the man dug his feet into the ground and precisely moved his arms, building up rock bit by bit to conceal their hiding spot.

Blue Spirit started speaking to the man, who looked nervous at the masked man’s approach.

Understandable. There was still a non-zero chance that he was a spirit, much as she was trying to maintain plausible deniability that she had ever considered that as an option. Still, she couldn’t help but watch the exchange, even as her eyes occasionally slipped to Sensu as the young man made rounds around the resting soldiers.

She couldn’t hear what was said, but she watched as the blue spirit firebent, his colorful flames licking through the ground in a steady stream. The earthbender seemed hesitant, but shook his head, saying something she was far too far away to make out as he got back into his earthbending pose. Blue Spirit nodded, looking like a student sucking up to a teacher more than a near-mythical liberator talking to a man he’d freed.

Then, the Blue Spirit got back into his kata pose, the stance slightly different- similar in some ways to the earthbending stance beside him- and this time when he bent, the stream of fire came out like a wave, more forceful and solid than before. Huh. Ahn Nee found herself copying the change in pose a bit, remembering the oldest of firebending lessons about the importance of having a strong base.

She was so focused on the pose that she only halfway noticed Sensu’s throwing his hands in the air in apparent frustration. Sensu started stalking towards the masked hero, and she rushed to follow, some instinct in her gut yelling that something was about to happen that she wanted to be a part of.

The earthbender and Blue Spirit were still talking, though now the masked man was going through the basic steps of a simple firebending kata, with the earthbender clumsily following along. A loud murmur went through the group when the earthbender implemented the moves. It looked odd, more blocky than the firebender’s move and somehow more similar to a punch than a strike. It still was powerful enough that it created craters the size of a man’s chest into the wall of the outcropping.

Well. That was… something.

Benders, fire and earth alike, had gathered around the pair, watching the exchange with further widening eyes. She…. She didn’t know what this meant, but if felt significant. It felt important.

It felt like a step forward, though to what and away from what she didn’t know.

“Yo! Blue Spirit!” Sensu interrupted the lesson as other earthbenders struggled to their feet to work through the moves. He threw an arm around the other’s shoulder in a way that almost gave Ahn Nee a heart attack. Blue Spirit didn’t shake him off though, and accepted the arm with nothing more than what could only be described as a full body eye roll. (And that was another thing. Ahn Nee really liked to think that she wasn’t full of spirit stories and fairy tales taking permanent residents in her brain, but there was something about the way he moved, like he hadn’t quite gotten used to normal body language, or had forgotten it. Some bit of him that she couldn’t put her finger on but screamed uncanny, screamed off.) Sensu grinned proudly, like being able to casually touch the Blue Spirit was some kind of grand prize.

It was.

“What do you want?” Blue Spirit asked the grinning man, and the brilliant smile faltered a bit before coming back.

“So, we are all like, super crazy, incredibly, unbelievably grateful for you, uh you know, saving our skins from a certain and painful death.” Sensu was glaring in the general direction of the crowd that he had been talking to before.

“Um. You’re welcome?”

“There are some people that would really like to know who they are thanking. You know, not that it matters since you’re a random Fire Nation dude that they wouldn’t even recognize, and your jailbreaking ability probably relies heavily on your secret identity, but for some reason it’s really important to them.”

Huh. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t great at lying, but maybe had a bit of flame in his spirit, a bit of performance and manipulation. She watched as the crowd of Earth Kingdom soldiers turned on the group he was glaring at, recognizing them as the hostile ones that had caused a few minor issues during the escape. The type that would rather be right and angry than safe and trusting.

Perhaps it was a good thing that she found her eyes so drawn towards Sensu, because it meant that while everyone else was looking at the dissenters, her eyes had drawn back to the pair, and saw Blue Spirit’s head nock to the side in consideration.

“I guess…” He said softly, but his gruff voice seemed to echo through the crowd, and the growing complaining and jeers died on mass. Every eye turned to them, and even Sensu seemed to feel the gravity of the situation as he dropped his arm and moved a few steps away. “By this point, I am only hiding my identity from the Fire Nation, everyone else knows who I am. There is little danger of anyone here revealing my identity to the Fire Nation.”

The man’s fingers traced the lines of the mask, stuttering and hesitant, as though giving up a comfort and security. No one said a word as he considered, though Ahn Nee was gradually aware of the other Fire Nationals appearing at her side as they watched with bated breath. Finally the man nodded.

“I ask that all of you swear to tell no one who I am, but… you all deserve the truth, especially those who forsook their Nation to follow me.” And with a single, abrupt move, he removed the mask.

As a child in a rural coastal village, Ahn Nee had occasionally engaged in idly curiosity about what it would sound like to be in Caldera and have the Fire Lord walk by. She wondered what it would feel like, to recognize the face of a ruler and, instantly and instinctually, prostrate herself.  She wondered what it would sound like for everyone around her to kneel and bow, the sounds of dozens falling to their knees without a word.

She no longer had to wonder.

“Oma and Shu, what is happening? Should I be bowing?” Sensu broke the moment, but Ahn Nee didn’t answer, couldn’t answer. She just kept her palms and forehead on the ground as the words came as though behind a wall of static. She could barely comprehend what she had just seen without anything extra being added to it.

“No, no.” The prince of the Fire Nation said in a familiar gruff voice. “Please, everyone-“

“Who are you?” The earthbender asked, but Rezu answered, his words coming out in a cadence that sounded like when he recounted his essays in the darkness of night with the privacy of patrols.

“Prince Zuko, Firstborn of Fire Lord Ozai and Lady Ursa, nephew of the Dragon of the West, grandson of Avatar Roku, once heir apparent to the dragon throne, now banished on charges of treason against the royal family. Scarred as the youngest Agni Kai victim in the history of the nation. Charges placed on him for-“

Shai Lee interrupted, through sobs that Ahn Nee slowly realized had been going on for a while, filtered out by the cresting static that was only now starting to die down. “For the crime of trying to save the life of my brother, and hundreds of other teenagers who were just trying to make their country proud.”

No further words were spoken, for a moment that seemed to stretch longer than an eternity. Then, the sound of Sensu moving, and a near deafening sound of hundreds of others following. When Ahn Nee could finally bring herself to look up, she saw that though they were all standing and the form was unfamiliar, the people of the Earth Kingdom were folded into deep bows. In front of them, certainly a fully human man, Prince Zuko stood, the scar of legends bright against his pale skin.

He looked extremely awkward for someone who was receiving what they were due through both birthright and actions.

Aang was nearly vibrating with excitement. “That’s the flying boar from my vision. Come on!”

He hadn’t been sure about this when they had been talking with the earthbender boys, but seeing the boar for himself had brought back his usual enthusiasm. It looked just like his vision. This had to be it. It would be perfect; he would apologize and then they would talk and then she would become his earthbending teacher and then she would be his friend and they could travel together and find Zuko and he would have all of his bending masters in one place. It would be awesome, just bending and traveling with his friends. It would be the Blind Bandit, not Bumi, but it could still be awesome.

The three of them made their way into the courtyard but almost before they took a second step in, the wall rebelled, throwing them into the air. Aang spit out flowers as he pulled himself out of the rosebush he’d been thrown into, hearing Sokka groan. He hadn’t managed to hit a rosebush. The girl from his vision stood in front of him in a dainty, delicate dress and a fighter’s scowl.

“What are you doing here, Twinkle Toes?”

“How did you know it was me?”

“Don’t answer to Twinkle Toes,” Sokka said as he painfully dusted himself off. “It’s not manly.”

“Did you or did you not spend half the morning trying to figure out if that belt matched your new bag?” Katara asked.

“How did you find me?” The girl asked.

Oh, that was easy. “Well, a crazy king told me had to find an earthbender who listens to the earth. And then I had a vision in a magic swamp, and it had a boar with wings, and so do you and-“

“What Aang is trying to say,” Katara interrupted, and Aang had to work to keep himself from pouting. He’d thought it was going well. “Is that he’s the Avatar. And if he doesn’t master earthbending soon, he won’t be able to defeat the Fire Lord.”

 Oh yeah, that was probably important information. Oops.

“Not my problem.” The girl scoffed. “Now get out of here, or I’ll call the guards.”

“Look,” Sokka said. “We all have to do our part to win this war, and yours is to teach Aang earthbending.”

“Guards! Guards, help!”

Okay, Aang didn’t expect her to actually do it. They ran, disappearing from the garden before they could be discovered, though Aang stayed on the roof. He frowned at the girl. None of this was going as he expected. He needed another idea to get to talk to her. The guards said something about her dad as they led her away.

Oh! Aang smiled. Of course, parents! He wasn’t used to dealing with people that had those, or at least not present ones. Maybe he could do something with that! He’d have to ask Katara and Sokka though. They at least had more experience with it than him.

Chapter Text

Zuko pet Dragon’s head as the ostrich horse slept on his lap. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d revealed his identity, but it wasn’t all… that. He’d ended their break shortly after his reveal, 20% because enough time had passed and 80% just because he wasn’t sure how to follow up after… everything.

At least it was a more comfortable walk with the mask packed away.

Once they had started walking once more, things had gone mostly back to normal. The fire nationals were even quicker to listen to him and there were, awkwardly, salutes now, but no one had reacted… negatively to working with one of the Fire Nation’s most famous traitors. Which should have been expected considering they were all willing to join Jeong Jeong, but it was still nice to know. If anything, they seemed happy that he was alive. Rezu especially found ways to be nearby which gave Zuko a chance to ask about the whole ‘grandson of Roku’ thing, which was wild (Aang could never know).

It was more than he could have hoped for from him countrymen, and it was hard to really work through how he felt about it. Sensu was acting even more aggressively like… himself, or at least he was when they were walking. Zuko didn’t see the man now, but assumed he had passed out the instant they had stopped for the night, along with most of the other earthbenders. Zuko couldn’t blame them. It had taken the rest of the day and half of the night to reach the oasis, but the moon was full and it was safer to walk at night so long as it could be done without fire, and the earthbenders naturally managed to avoid holes and rocks and other tripping hazards, so they had pressed on.

Some of the earthbenders had managed to put a protective wall up behind them to hide their forms and the low fire they’d built, and there were a few lookouts, but for the most part everyone was too exhausted and hungry to do much more than pass out.

Zuko wanted to join the sleeping soldiers, he really, really did, but… The wall rose in his periphery, any time he glanced in the direction. It was just… something. It shouldn’t have been too bad, he’d slept indoors, in canyons, and against walls. Heck, it wasn’t that much taller than Appa when you thought about it. But… just so much had happened today. Even discounting the dangerous and daring escape, he’d just revealed his full identity to hundreds of people. It was the first time he’d revealed himself at all really, unless you counted Jeong Jeong, and he’d been on Uncle’s list and had only been one person. It had been a completely different situation. Notably, it hadn’t come after he staged a a massive prison break that involved burying people and caves and…

Even when he turned away, it felt like he was hyperaware of the wall, like it was all he could focus on, looming and constricting. He didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

Which… why was he?

Zuko rose. Ahn Nee looked over at the movement. She and Shinho had volunteered for first watch, the former looking jittery and still somewhat disbelieving of their success, and the latter seeming nearly as uncertain about the wall as Zuko.  

“Where are you going?” She asked, voice pitched low to avoid waking the others and the flame in her hand going out. She had been practicing the grounding techniques of the earthbenders, and her fire was burning hotter because of it. He could see it from how she held the flame so far from her face.

Zuko had done the same thing.

“You guys can take it from here. You remember the directions from the village to the clinic?” She nodded. “Good. I’m going to ride ahead. These people are going to wake up still tired, still injured, and still hungry. They won’t be able to go much further without food, not quickly at least. If I ride alone, I should be able to get to the village before the end of day tomorrow. I can send people back this way with actual supplies, maybe even some carts and wagons for transportation.” There, that sounded like actual reasons, right?

She watched him steadily for a long moment. “You won’t be coming back with them, will you?”

“No. I have my own mission.” Zuko hesitated, then added “Thank you. I couldn’t have done this- any of this- without your help.”

“I didn’t do much.”

“You helped me to have faith in my people again.” Zuko bowed, and Ahn Nee inhaled sharply. Without another word, Zuko turned back to wake his ostrich horse. He couldn't bring himself to look at her reaction.

However, when he made it to where the mount was sleeping, he was surprised to see Sensu wasn’t asleep like he’d assumed, but was sitting near Dragon with freshly re-filled water skins in hand.

“What are you doing?” Zuko asked. Sensu smirked and waved behind him to Ahn Nee.

“I’m going with you, prince-dude.”

Zuko scowled and shook his head. “No, you aren’t. Your people-“

“Will listen to the men I put in charge. Look, I’m the only one from my village in this squadron… the only one left at least.” He shook his head. “Maybe my family will listen to you, but everyone will listen to yours truly. We kinda need to move the earth under their feet, you know? I mean, prisoner rations were very specifically made to not sustain a full day of walking. This time tomorrow our stomachs growling themselves will be loud enough to send the fire army our way. The shopkeep owes me, for like a lot of stuff. Me and my friends used to race our parents’ zebra-oxen, so I know whose are the fastest and those can pull the big carts, and-.”

Zuko held up a hand to silence the arguments and nodded. Less because he was actually convinced, and more because arguing like this was just wasting more time. However, before he actually woke Dragon, he had to ask- “How’d you know I was going back tonight?”

The man’s eyes flashed towards the tall wall, so fast that Zuko wouldn’t have caught it if he weren’t hyper-aware of the thing. “Your vibes were kinda off, you know?”

He had no clue what the other man was talking about, but that wasn’t exactly new. He just shook his head and went to rouse Dragon, trying to ignore the discomfort festering in his chest. Azula had always said he was easy to read, but he’d assumed that was a her thing, or a court thing, a comparison between his expressiveness and the den of fire-adders that made up the palace. Whose halls hosted people with masks so permanently etched that it would take a chisel to pry them off and reveal the faces underneath.

Turns out it was just him.

An uncomfortable truth that he could ignore when it was just Jet pushing his buttons; or Sokka and his constantly learning gaze; or Aang and his strangely intense empathy; or Katara and her motherly intuition; or- well he was proving his own point. Now he could add Sensu to the mix. The fact that he’d overheard that before his reveal some of the Fire Nation soldiers were worried he was actually a spirit helped a bit, but honestly overall he was starting to get used to people just realizing things about him.

Oh well. At least he hadn’t had to actually say any of it out loud.

The teen jumped on his ostrich-horse and pulled Sensu on behind him. With a final nod to Ahn Nee, the pair rode off into the night.

(Hi ho Dragon, away!)

“Allow me.” Aang sent a small tornado towards the Blind Bandit-whose real name was Toph apparently-‘s mug, watching as the steam blew away. There was a smattering of applause from everybody but his hopefully-future-earthbending-teacher. Aang grinned. This was going great, asking for an invitation to dinner was the best plan.

“Avatar Aang,” Toph’s mother said. “It’s an honor to have you visit us.”

Her father nodded. “In your opinion, how much longer do you think the war will last?”

Aang hummed to beat off a victorious grin. That was the perfect in! This was almost too easy. “I’d like to defeat the Fire Lord by the end of summer. I’m already a mater airbender, and I have teachers for water bending and fire bending, I just need to find an earth bending teacher and I should be on schedule.”

Lao chuckled and gestured to the other adult at the table. “Well, Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land. He’s been teaching Toph since she was little.”

Wait no, that wasn’t what he wanted, but it was fine, he could make this work. “Then she must be a great earthbender! Probably good enough to teach someone else!” Suddenly a rock flew into his leg. “Ow!”

Aang glared at Toph, but the girl was just sipping her soup like nothing had happened. Hmm… maybe things weren’t going as perfect as he’d thought.

“Toph is still learning the basics.” The earthbending master said.

Then Top’s father went on about how her blindness would stop her from being a true master which… did not compute. Aang had a growing example of bruises that would prove him very wrong. Of course, the moment he started to say that, he got another bruise as a fissure hit him so hard that he fell into his soup.

The soup wasn’t even good, it was more fancy than tasty. Somewhat-kinda-mostly-on-purpose, Aang sneezed, the burst of accompanying wind sending bits of soup to cover the Beigfongs. Okay, maybe that was a bit immature, but she started it.

“What’s your problem?” Toph yelled, finally seeming like the girl from the arena again. Aang however, was too angry at this point to really care.

“What’s your problem?” He retorted, and glared at her until Katara gently led him to the living room for dessert.

Long after dessert had been served and his friends were asleep, Aang remained awake. Most of that time had been spent sulking, but as always some time hanging out with Appa helped calm Aang down and cheer him up. So the first plan didn’t work. Or, was this the second? Third if consider Bumi as plan one… it didn’t matter. They would just have to come up with something else. Never give up without fighting or something, right? If this was meant to be, it would be.

It had to be.

Aang looked up to see Toph walking into the courtyard. He hesitantly moved into a battle position, but the smaller girl just shook her head.

“Relax.” She said. “Look, I’m sorry about dinner. Let’s call a truce, okay?”

That… was more than okay. That sounded like a first step. Aang nodded. “Okay, truce.” And he followed the girl into the yard, listening with rapture as the girl described the way she used her earth bending to understand the world around her, even without sight.

“My parents don’t understand. They’ve always treated me like I was helpless.”

“Is that why you became the Blind Bandit?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why stay here where you’re not happy?”

“They’re my parents. Where else am I supposed to go?”

Aang… literally did not see what she meant by that. What did parents have to do with anything? Like, none of his friends had seen their parents in years, and he’d never met his. Was that not normal? “You could come with us!”

“Yeah. You guys get to go wherever you want. No one telling you what to do, that’s the life. It’s just not my life.”

Aang was just about to say that it could be, but before he could say anything the earthbender tensed and touched the ground. “We’re being ambushed!”

Suddenly, they were in metal cages, surrounded by what looked like the entirety of the Earth Rumble fighters. The host sneered at him. “I think you kids owe me some money.”

Okay… maybe they should have left the fight club when Sokka had wanted to.

Iroh stood placidly but solidly between the young Lee and the Earth Kingdom soldiers, remaining steadfast and blocking all visual and access to the bound child. Sela had run back to the farm to get Gansu, but even at a run the farm was several minutes away. Iroh still wasn’t sure where the child had gotten the weapons, but he recognized the moves that accompanied them, as well as the mantra the boy shouted as he attacked.

Zuko would likely be proud to hear that the child had managed several blows on the seasoned soldier, no matter the trouble that it had caused. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the child shared his nephew’s moniker.

The men laughed at him. “Who do you think you are, old man? You really think you can tell us what to do?”

I think, Iroh did not say, that I am the Dragon of the West. I am the name of the nightmares that plague Earth Kingdom generals and kings. I am the one who, within young Lee’s lifetime, destroyed kingdoms ten times the size of your village and killed men of far greater skill, rank, and character than you and your cronies combined. I have made Ba Sing Se sweat and cities fall. Your life is even now only yours because I have chosen to walk a better path.

He did not say this, instead he said “It does not matter who I am. It matters who you are. You are men who present themselves as soldiers, but are not. You are bullies and freeloaders to a people already beaten down. You abuse power you have not earned over the vulnerable, especially those who should be able to depend on you. You are a dishonor to your people and a disgrace to your army.”

The lead man, Gow, scowled, but in the way of all cowards who tormented the weak, he was not willing to face the strong himself. He turned to one of his followers. “Are you gonna let this stranger stand there and insult you like this?”

The soldier attacked, spear swinging wildly in a way that showed Iroh why, exactly, he was not active duty. The retired general had no difficulty sidestepping the wild attack in a deceptively calm move, and landing a punch to the man’s gut that it sent him staggering back with struggling, gasping breaths as the wind was knocked out of him. The man stepped back with wide, terrified eyes as his attack was so easily deflected. He ran off, as was the way of a bully against one with the power to face them.

The second of Gow’s goon’s attacked, his spear held much more levelly. Iroh was not worried. This time, the general sent out a practiced hand, catching the haft of the spear as soon as it came within arm’s reach. He pushed up so that the spear went above his head instead of thrusting at his stomach, and the soldier stumbled at the surprising change of vector and lack of expected resistance. The movement brought the man closer to Iroh, bending low enough that the short firebender was able to grab his forehead and push the man to the ground from the very vulnerable place. It likewise sent the man fleeing after his compatriot. Iroh placidly folded his hands back into his sleeves, and sent Gow and his remaining follower the peaceful, benign smile that always infuriated his enemies, the one that would ensure that the men would use whatever means to wipe it off his face.

Iroh may be retired, but he was by no means a pacifist.

By now a crowd had certainly formed, with even Sela and Gansu joining the ranks, and while no one there mistook his expression for anything other than the overt passive aggression it was, it still gave the striking image of the third soldier rushing to attack an unaggressive old man. The image did not last long. With a speed that completely contradicted his appearance, Iroh lashed out with a wide-sweeping kick, landing solidly against the spear and shattering it. There was a frenzied muttering of the crowd as the tip flew into the air near them, but a subsequent lack of a cry of pain reassured Iroh that he didn’t actually hit anyone. The soldier did not seem concerned with this possibility, as he immediately fled.

Iroh turned to face the remaining bully, slotting back to the same unconcerned pose as if Gow held no more of a threat than his cronies. Which he didn’t. Even when the man pulled his hammers out and pulled a chunk of earth out of the ground, Iroh didn’t break his position. One didn’t gain the record he had without being able to dodge earthbent rocks. Very, very well.

When he easily sidestepped the first boulder, Gow quickly sent three more in quick succession, the first two of which were easy to dodge, but the third was coming directly for his stomach, too quick to avoid. With a grimace, Iroh shifted into a position. Firebending would both reveal their position to those searching, and alienate the town, but he could not take the blow and walk away as a younger him could have.

Just as sparks began to leave his fingertips, a blur in black with a blue and white mask at his waist kicked the rock away.

Ah. His nephew always did have flare for dramatic entrances. Iroh blamed the Ember Island Players and Ursa’s loud complaining about how they could have done better.

When Zuko landed, rock pieces scattering around him, it was in a fighting-ready crouch with his swords raised. His work done, Iroh stepped back and began working to undo the knots of the child behind him. The crowd had formed something of a fighting ring at this point, similar to how Zuko described the sparring at the North Pole, though much less deliberate. Iroh wondered if there had been as much cheering and jeering at the pole, or if the ‘training’ element had stilled their tongues.

Iroh watched his nephew move with elegance and ferocity, blades flashing and body moving almost quicker than the eyes could track. Every rock shot by the man was decimated, as he stumbled back, more and more unsure.

It… was painful to watch. Iroh had heard of the years upon years of nothing but fighting that his nephew had endured. He’d heard how over half of the time had been purely martial, bending gone and with nothing but his faux blades, his fists, and his desperation to remain alive. Iroh had heard every word of his nephew’s tale, had believed every one other than those meant to downplay and reassure. He had heard. He had believed. But he hadn’t understood.

He'd thought he had. Thought that he’d seen the boy’s well-etched muscles and seamless grace, the way his firebending was leaking with the moves of one who knew how to fight and almost nothing else, and could see how that time had honed skills and moves and prowess that mere practice could never achieve.

He hadn’t. Not until now.

Iroh watched Zuko destroy rocks and avoid blows as if it was second nature, as if the movements were ingrained into his skin. He watched the boy fight without ever once reaching for his flames, not out of desire to remain hidden or conscious thought, but because he knew that his opponent didn’t need them, didn’t deserve them. He didn’t need his fire to defeat this man.

It was beautiful. It was painful. Iroh smiled at a cheering Lee, it was the only way he could prevent tears from welling into his eyes.

Some people had anger that was like a volcano, a slow gradual build up until it burst forth into something catastrophic. Some people had anger like a tornado, sudden and powerful. Toph had anger like an earthquake, always simmer beneath the surface and liable to break the earth if given it’s way. She roared and yelled from the cramped metal cage that was making her blindlostblindreallyblind, any fear completely burnt out by the heat of her fury. “You think you’re so tough?” She yelled in challenge. “Why don’t you come up here so I can snap that grin off your face?”

Xin Fu, the dirty weasel-rat-that-gave-all-other-weasel-rats-bad-names, simply said, “I’m not smiling.” As if that was the point. By the time Toph was done with him, he wouldn’t have a face at all, it didn’t matter what expression was on it.

“Toph!” Dad’s voice cried. And great, just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse.

“Here’s your money.” Twinkle-Toe’s friend said, the voice accompanied by the thud-crinkle of what was presumably a bag full of money being thrown across the arena. They released her, and Dad put an arm around her shaking shoulders. She grit her teeth, knowing that the man would read fear into the trembling. He would never realize that the shaking was for a fury that was nearly overwhelming and had no outlet

“What about Aang?” The girl yelled out.

Toph could almost hear Xin Fu’s smirk. “I think the Fire Nation will pay a hefty price for the Avatar. Now, get out of my ring.”

The earth beneath her feet whispered its secrets to Toph, showing her the moments of the other Earth Rumble fighters as they got into ready positions, intimidating moves perfected after years of fights that were just as much about looking impressive as they were about actually kicking butt.

“Go, I’ll be okay.” Aang called, but Toph could already feel the steadiness of the positions of his friends, the way they were rooted. Outclassed and outnumbered, these friends would not abandon the Avatar.

“Toph, there’s too many of them.” The girl said, though she remained as steady and loyal as the rock beneath their feet. “We need an earthbender. We need you!”

“My daughter is blind.” Dad said, his feet already poised to leave. “She is blind and tiny and helpless and fragile. She cannot help you!”

Toph breathed sharply, as those words compounded on the fury that she could barely contain as is, as she felt the steadiness of the Avatar’s companions and the flightiness of the man who dared to doubt her. Father or no, the earthquake could no longer be contained. The plates were moving and Oma help the earth around her. “Yes, I can.” She moved back into the ring, feeling the ground welcome her as home in a way that her family grounds never could. “Let him go! I beat you all before and I’ll do it again!”

“The Boulder takes issue with that comment.”

Toph really couldn’t care less.

What felt like moments later, Toph stood in the rubble of a fight. Around her lay the slumped bodies of some of the best earthbenders in the kingdom, and within her was a calmness she had faked but seldom felt. Fury fully abated for the first time in a long while, she made her way to where her shocked father sat. “Dad, I know it's probably hard for you to see me this way. But the obedient little helpless 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 I've kept my life secret from you, but you were keeping me secret from the whole world. You were doing it to protect me, but I'm twelve years old and I've never had a real friend. So, 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.” Dad said, and Toph’s heart tentatively soared. “It’s made me realize something.”

“It has?”

“Yes. I’ve let you have far too much freedom. From now on, you’ll be cared for an guarded twenty-four hours a day.”

The problem with a soaring heart, is that when it fell, it fell from even farther. “But, Dad!”

“We’re doing this for your own good, Toph.” Mom added, already in complete agreement with the father that would make her prisoner.

“I’m sorry, Toph.” Aang said.

“I’m sorry too. Goodbye Aang.” She felt a tear slip from blank eyes. Where was that fury? How could she get it back? It would be far better than what she felt now. She despondently followed her parents, searching for the anger that had sustained her so long. It wasn’t long before she managed to coax it back, stoking it with every step towards her future cell, a life even more restricted than it had been before.

The ground beneath her feet whispered to her, secret promises of a world far greater than what she had known. By the time her parents closed the door to her room, she knew that there was only one response she could give. Moments later, she had her Blind Bandit go bag in hand, feeling the rockdust born of the arena that had imbedded itself in the weave. She touched the eave of the window, feeling the familiar motions of the household settling for the night. She whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then she was gone, running to the vibrations of a great beast the size of the biggest badger mole she’d sensed, though somehow lighter than it’s size would indicate, a creature of the air, just like its owner.

“Toph!” Aang shouted as she neared, long after she’d sensed him. “What are you doing here?”

“My dad changed his mind.” She lied. “He said I was free to travel the world.”

There was silence that she couldn’t interpretate, as the three were on the beast and she couldn’t sense their movements. When the Water Tribe guy responded, it was clear that he didn’t believe her, but she thought he understood her. “Well, we’d better get out of here, before your dad changes his mind again.”

“Good idea.”

“Don’t worry.” The boy continued. “We know all about friends with dad’s who make bad decisions.”

The girl made a dissenting noise. “Sokka, you can’t compare her dad to him.”

“My point stands.”

Toph was about to ask, but before she could make up her mind as to whether or not she actually cared, Aang spoke. “You’re going to be a great teacher, Toph.”

Oh yeah. “Speaking of which, I want to show you something.”

“Okay.” Aang said, and he must have jumped off of the bison, because she sensed the moment he touched the ground. Immediately, Toph shot a rock into his stomach, blasting the boy into a tree.

“Now we’re even. I’ll take the belt back.” She held her hand out, then fell as something slammed into her head. “Ow!”

“Sorry!” The water tribe boy said.

Toph growled into the ground. Oh, he was so going to pay for that.

Zuko spun, swords clashing as Gow struggled to pull his hammers back into his hand fast enough to block the attack. He was nowhere close. Smellerbee had been faster. His last slash brought with it the scent of iron, a spray of red, and a cry of pain. Zuko stepped back to see the man clutching the wrist of his bleeding palm with this uninjured hand while staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. It wasn’t a debilitating injury, in all honestly, it probably shouldn’t even stop the fight. No good earthbenders relied on their hands above their feet.

Gow was not a good earthbender.

The man tried to school his face into a scowl and bit out some comment he probably thought someone cared about, but the cries of the crowd completely masked it as the man scurried away. Zuko turned and sighed in relief to see Iroh had taken the time to free Lee. The child was instantly in front of the younger firebender, excitedly enthusing about the battle enough that it distracted Zuko from the odd look in his uncle’s eyes.

“-was just the coolest thing ever!”

Sometimes, the world really was a stage, with openings and opportunities so perfect that a master playwrite couldn’t do better. Those moments, were rare. Sometimes you had to create them, or seek them out. Sometimes, they fell into your lap.

Zuko crouched, preparing to point back where he came, where Sensu was struggling to convince the tired ostrich horse to plot into town, (Zuko had jumped off the instant he saw Iroh in trouble, calling for the older man to handle the mount as he sprinted to the fight) and prepared to say something like ‘want to see something even cooler?’. Before he could say a word, his awareness of flames flared in the back of his mind, and Iroh yelled out a panicked cry of “Nephew!”

Zuko reacted, grabbing Lee and pushing him behind him. Zuko shielded the earth child with his body as he blasted out a bolt of flames to collide with and halt the ball of fire that had been aimed at his back. As the flames collided and died, he pulled his blades out of their scabbards, sending flames to mingle with the metal as a team of Fire Nation warriors rode into town on rhinos.

Uncle stepped forward to stand beside his nephew, making sure attention was centered on them and not the villagers that they endangered. Zuko was somewhat aware of the sound of Lee running to his mother, but his focus was centered on the threat in front of him.

“Colonel Mongke! What a surprise to see you here, a bit far from your usual haunts.”

The man with the spark of a firebender sneered. “You know exactly why we’re here. At least assuming you didn’t let your mind go as much as the rest of you.”

Iroh rubbed his stomach slightly with a laugh. “At my age, you start to appreciate a good cup of tea and a pleasant snack.”

“You know these guys?”

“Sure. Colonel Mongke and the Rough Rhinos are legendary. Each one is a different kind of weapon specialist. They are also a very capable singing group.”

There was a mutter from the villagers at this, and Mongke’s face went red from either shame or embarrassment.

“We’re not here to give a concert. We’re here to apprehend fugitives!”

“Perhaps we could discuss this over tea, out of town? There is no need for damage we would come to regret.”

Mongke scowled. “I think you mistook me for someone else, old man.”

Iroh frowned. “No, no, I know you are Mongke.”

“I mean that you mistook me for a fool! Round ‘em up!”

This time there was no audience. As the men attacked, the people scattered with cries of fear and panic. Zuko didn’t let it get to him, barely aware of Iroh making quick work of the man with the chain and the one with the pole, sending a rhino running and eliminating both. Zuko focused on the archer. He was good, but not as good as the Yuyan archers. He wasn’t even quite as good as Longshot. Zuko easily stopped his attack, sending a bolt of flame that set his bow to ash. Meanwhile, Mongke was focused on defeating Iroh, so focused that it was easy to come up from behind and kick him off his own mount, knocking the wind out of him as he fell to the ground.

This was the legendary fighters of his nation? Really? Though… Zuko did recognize the look of windburn on the archer’s face, and on the man with the pole there was a cut on his cheek that was eerily similar to the familiar mark of a boomerang. Zuko allowed the possibility that there was a reason why they weren’t at their best. The last Rough Rhino tossed a grenade at them, but Zuko kicked it back, shooting a fireball at the bomb and setting it off early so that it knocked the man off his rhino and rolling on the ground, but didn’t cause serious injury.

Zuko breathed deeply as he surveyed the area. Most of the attackers had been completely driven off, with one or two slumped over on the ground with their rhinos long gone. He turned his back to the group and moved to where Lee’s family were huddled, hoping to make sure the child was okay. Before he could take more than a few steps forward, Sela and Gansu stepped between them, their hands shaking as they blocked Lee.

“S-stay back.” Sela said firmly as Gansu watched Iroh seriously. Oh. Right.

Lee peeked out from behind their legs, fury and betrayal etched across his young face. “I hate you!” He cried out, eyes locked on the teen’s steaming hands.

Zuko stiffened, feeling like he was physically struck. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, telling himself that it was okay. It wasn’t okay, but… he was used to this type of not-okay. This was far from the worst reaction he’d gotten with Earth Kingdom citizens learned he was a firebender. Zuko took a few steps back, then bowed.

“I apologize for lying to you about who I was, and for allowing you to host me when I was deceiving you.” He pointed in the direction that he’d come. “A few days walk that way, you will find all remaining of Sensu’s battalion. They are hungry and many are injured. With them are people like me, Fire Nation. They will not be lying to you about who they are. I ask only that you allow them to stay and rest as they go on their way.”

The townspeople started muttering at that, but before anyone could say anything, a familiar voice called out. “Look out!” Suddenly a chunk of rock rose from the air to cover a grenade that burst into rockdust that showered the two Fire Nation princes. Zuko whirled, but already the rocks beneath the last Rough Rhino fighter had risen to bury the man up to the neck.

The firebender wasn’t sure when the man had woken up, but he was, as was becoming usual, glad to have Sensu at his back.

Sensu grinned at Zuko and handed him the reigns for the ostrich horse. “Sorry it took me so long, this thing really doesn’t like me.”

“Probably because you call him a ‘thing’.”

Sensu laughed, but the sound was interrupted by a gasping sob. “Son?” Gansu asked. Then the three of them were rushing forward, meeting Sensu in a large embrace halfway.

Zuko stepped back as the family reunited. He met eyes with Iroh, silently communicating that he wanted to leave while they were distracted. The two men started out of the village, wordlessly agreeing not to burden the ostrich horse more by riding him.

Sensu’s voice called after them. “I’ll take care of your people. I’ll make sure they get what they need.”

“I know you will.” Zuko said, though he didn’t turn. He didn’t want to know what Lee’s expression would be, couldn’t see the hate on it again.

Neither he nor Iroh had stopped, and no one impeded them as they left the town, though if that were due to fear, shock, or something else, it was difficult to say. Iroh looked troubled as they plodded through the ground. “Nephew, I think we need to reach out to the White Lotus.”

“What? Why? Wait, why didn’t we do that days ago?”

“With the scrutiny on us, I did not want to risk revealing the White Lotus. Some flowers thrive better in the shadows rather than the sun.”

Zuko grunted. “And all flowers thrive better when they aren’t on fire.”

Iroh chuckled, then sobered. “However, it concerns me that Azula sent the Rough Rhinos after us. She is not one to delegate important tasks unless she knows that they will be performed to her level of perfection.”

“… Unless she has something more important to do.”

“Yes… and the only thing that she would consider more important than bring us in…”

“Is bringing in the Avatar. She’s going to try to capture Aang!”

Iroh nodded. “While I do believe your friends have the prowess to defeat her, if they know of your relation or see her age and underestimate her, it could be disastrous.”

“Okay, where is the closest Lotus… petal?”

Iroh chuckled but neither confirmed nor corrected the term. “We must head towards the Misty Palms Oasis of the Si Wong dessert. I can send a letter to him to expect us. We will find them, nephew. I am certain of it.”

A bead of sweat slipped down Ahn Nee’s brow. Not even firebenders could withstand the heat of a forge without being at least somewhat affected. The blacksmith of the town (technically called Hearthton, but known to the inhabitants as Iazo as one of the many bits of micro-treason) had been happy to let her regain her family’s craft, even if it wasn’t as useful as the weapons and tools his forge was usually busy making.

She pulled her first pendant out of the cast she had spent the last several days creating, the metal cool to the touch. Placing it on an anvil, she spent a good amount of time polishing the pendant, ignoring the comings and goings of the rest of the forge. When it was polished to her specification, she blasted the cold steel with as hot of a blast as she could, using the stances she’d learned from the earthbenders and the breathing she’d stolen from Prince Zuko.

(She was still kinda reeling from the fact that she had met actual royalty. She was trying not to think about it though. When she did, she worried that she looked as shocked as that poor medic had when they said he had around 20 people to smuggle out. Kid couldn’t have been more than like 15. Then again, the prince would be around16 if her math was right, so maybe that was just the way things were. Ashes and smoke, early 20’s should not feel this old.)

With the new techniques, she managed to get hotter than she ever had in her dad’s workshop, going well into the 600 degree range. When she has methodically and evenly blasted the ornament, she grabbed the tongs and dunked it in the vat of oil sitting at her side. When she pulled it out, her heat treatment had left an iridescent, color changing sheen on the bit of steel.

“Woah.” A familiar voice said behind her.

Ahn Nee turned as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “You like it?” She asked Sensu. The boy grinned.

“I love it! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Don’t get too excited yet. I promised the first two to Shai Lee and her brother.” She chuckled, but couldn’t help the swell of pride in her work. “Dad says it used to be a really popular Fire Nation artisan technique, before firebenders were conscripted so much. It pretty much died out because its hard to get normal fire hot enough to do it without being so hot that it melts the metal. I was never strong enough as a kid to get it this hot. I’m pretty happy with it though.”

“You should be. It’s gorgeous. Not the most beautiful thing here of course but it has stiff competition.” He winked.

The others in the workspace groaned in loud, longsuffering moans. Ahn Nee was red because of the heat of the forge and no other reason. “What are you doing here anyway?” She asked as a deflection, before she could say something stupid like ‘well it’s not the most handsome thing either’ which was the first response she could think of and really a great example of why she had been single all her life.

“We lost sight of Lee for about 2 minutes, so I’m here to make sure he wasn’t in here trying to get swords again.”

The groans rose up again, but they were just as good natured as the last set. Lee already had a bit of a reputation, and they’d all only been there a week or so. She… hadn’t expected Sensu to come with them to the Iazo. She had expected him to join the throngs of soldiers talking about returning to the army and telling their tale. The Earth Kingdom didn’t conscript yet, these men had wanted to fight. Even after everything, most of them wanted to return to fighting for their kingdom and people.

It was baffling how the Fire Nation had dismissed these people as weak and spineless. It was a lie so incorrect it could be considered ludicrous.

Sensu though… he had wanted to join them. Had said that he had joined the army because he wanted to do something important, and he could feel that what they were doing, what Zuko was doing, would end up being the most important thing. She… couldn’t argue. Not when she understood exactly what he meant.

Not when she’d wanted him to join so badly.

A few others had come as well, mostly men too battle-worn or old to want to continue fighting, but without people to return to. The old man who had been good at making keys was working with some firebenders to create a kiln, try to see what kind of pottery fire and earth combined could make. Between them and Sensu’s family, there was a decent smattering of earth kingdomers in their village. It wasn’t…. perfect, not by far. But it was improving, and it already felt better than most colonies she’d been stationed at so…

“How’s he doing?” She asked, and the smile slipped from easy to rueful. She hadn’t been there, but apparently the moment Lee had stopped hugging his brother, he’d burst into tears and started running towards the direction that Zuko and his Uncle (General Iroh, near mythical figure of the Dragon of the West. Apparently, bearing the names of legends was an inherited trait) had disappeared to long before. Sensu’s whole family had felt horrible once the heat of the moment was over, apparently. She could see how easy it would be to say something you didn’t mean if you were just minding your business then suddenly a bunch of assassins burst into town and the Earth Kingdom refugees you had let into your home and trusted turned out to be ‘the enemy’. Not a great moment for rational thinking.

“Better. I think I finally got it through his rock skull that Zuko doesn’t actually think he hates him, and that he won’t hold it against him.”

The last bit was likely true, the first was not. Ahn Nee was pretty sure Sensu knew that, he’d spent even more time with the prince than her. “So you are getting better at lying.”

He looked chagrinned. “Well, don’t tell him that! I just convinced him that playing hide and explode with the firebender kids would make Zuko happy, not turn him into a hypocrite.”

 Now that was true. “You still need practice then.”

“Hey! Come on, I’m great at lying! Look, I didn’t even mention that your pin isn’t the right shape.”

Ahn Nee chuckled and turned the pendant again, admiring the shimmer of the colors. That was intentional. The pin was exactly as it should be.

Weeks later, Ahn Nee’s father received a package from an Earth Kingdom colony. It was not unusual. As a prominent jewelry artisan, the man often got examples and tools from all over the world to use in his craft. He hadn’t done much work since news of his daughter’s death, but he had finished turning part of her recovered helmet into a memento for his wife and living children. It was time to get back to work, including going through his mail.

In the package, there was an ornament, to be worn as pendant or pin. It was an image of the Fire Nation’s three-flame crest, but, in perhaps a craftsman error, the rightmost flame, the one that symbolized the firstborn in some interpretations, the people of the nation in others, was much taller than it typically was. The flame rose higher than the middle flame, which meant the Firelord in all interpretations. The jewelry shone in an iridescent near-rainbow, using a technique that very very few people knew about.

He got the message.

Both of them.

He placed a mail order for several more. In addition to being worn by nearly everyone in a certain colony, the pins grew in popularity across the Fire Nation.

But only by a very specific group of people.