Title: Cauterize
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: ensemble, mild Zuko/Katara, mild Aang/Katara
Warnings: violence, possible squick factor regarding burns
Word count: 13,431
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to the nice folks at Nickelodeon. The fic draws heavily on S2, "The Crossroads of Destiny." If it sounds familiar, then it's probably not me.
A/N: Thank you to jin_fenghuang for the beta! This story is second in a series I'm calling "Heals All Wounds." It'll make more sense if you read "Touch and Go" first. The plot arc will be on-going in this AU with a few more standalone stories. Ships will develop and change.
Summary: Sequel to "Touch and Go". A remix on "Crossroads of Destiny". Some things work out for the better. Some things, most decidedly, do not. [Heals All Wounds #2]
Katara's with Suki.
Aang repeated the sentence to himself, in his head and lightly under his breath, trying to make himself believe it as they flew Appa toward the apartment. He was settled uneasily on the scruff of Appa's neck, hands clenching and unclenching into his buddy's fur as he scanned the Upper Ring beneath them. He heard Sokka beside him snicker, leaning over to wave at a scandalized Joo Dee. It wasn't every day they saw a flying bison. Toph nudged Sokka harshly, asking what was so funny, and Aang let his worry block out their conversation.
Just one speck of blue. That's all he wanted to see. Dark Kyoshi green would be nice, proof that Suki really was there, but Aang'd take blue if that was all there was.
Fear slipped down his back, crown of his head to base of his spine. Aang took a consciously deep breath, pushing it away. He didn't want to undo the guru's hard work – whatever that turned out to be worth.
He put Appa down in the courtyard right in front of their house, and Aang slid lightly to the ground, Sokka jumping down beside him. Toph landed with a pronounced thump and a happy sigh. Together they dashed into the house.
The interior was dark, unchanged but for the scaffolding installed to repair the damage Toph's little experiment with freedom of expression had caused. Aang cast about, looking for Katara.
She was nowhere in sight. Someone else was, though – and eager to see Aang.
"Momo!" Aang cried out as the lemur scurried up his body. He raised his arms, glad to feel Momo curl his tail around his neck.
"There's no one else here," Toph declared.
Aang gulped. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Bosco's animal instincts!
"Katara is in trouble! I knew it!"
"Oh no," Sokka said.
"Wait," Toph said. Aang's eyes shot to her. She pointed with a level, straight arm directly past his nose. Aang edged back slightly, eyes darting sideways to follow her finger. "There's someone at the door."
A loud rap sounded out at the door. Aang exchanged a look with Sokka. Toph was kinda freaky sometimes.
Toph smiled.
"Actually," she said happily, walking over to the door. "I know who it is. It's an old friend of mine."
She slid the door open to reveal General Iroh.
Aang brightened instantly. Right next to the door, Sokka squawked indignantly, wheeling his arms as he jumped back several paces.
"Glad to see you're okay," Toph said.
"So am I," Aang said.
He inclined his head respectfully to the old man, hands pressed together before him. They hadn't exactly parted with Zuko or Iroh after Katara healed the older man – since Zuko had vowed they would meet again as enemies and stuff – but Aang still remembered Iroh talking of becoming allies. His exact words had been something or other about sailors and wind, which Aang liked on general principle, and combined with Iroh's general good cheer, the old man had reminded Aang deeply of Monk Gyatso.
Iroh raised his eyes, giving a slight nod of acknowledgement to Aang. His face was furrowed and solemn, hands tucked into his sleeves as he stood before them.
"I need your help," he said.
"Wait a second," Sokka said, drawing the vowels out. He stalked forward, gesturing with the point of his machete. "How do we know you're not going to just take our help and run? Again?"
Toph kicked Sokka in the shin, and he cast a nasty, futile look her direction. He rubbed at his leg, balancing on one foot while he held his weapon steady on Iroh.
Iroh watched him blandly, bringing one hand up, index finger extended.
"Firstly, because it is not the kind of help I could take without offering anything in return. And second," he reached out, quick as an eel-hound, snatching Sokka's machete from him and leaving him to gape in shock. Iroh flipped the machete around his hand, grip landing in his palm, before he laid it out on his outstretched hands. He bowed, offering it back to Sokka, who took it hesitantly. "And second, you will just have to trust me."
"Yeah, okay," Sokka said with a deep gulp, sharing a wide eyed look with Aang.
Toph stepped up to Iroh's side, taking him by the arm and leading him further into the apartment.
"So what's the problem?" she asked.
The expression on Iroh's face was very grave. His eyes narrowed, sunlight glinting off his yellow irises. Despite his formal, Earth Kingdom robes he looked suddenly threatening in a way he never had on Zuko's ship.
"Princess Azula is here in Ba Sing Se."
Oh, not good, Aang groaned to himself. It wasn't exactly like he'd hoped she'd just shrug and go home after the drill thing… except that was sort of exactly what he had hoped. A distressing thought occurred to him.
"She must have Katara!" he exclaimed. He could see his vision again clearly in his mind. Katara, chained to a pillar, somewhere inside the palace.
Iroh nodded – although they hadn't actually updated him on the Katara-in-danger situation – and added, "She has captured my nephew as well."
"Then we'll work together to fight Azula, and save Katara and Zuko," Aang said. He felt determination settle over his shoulders, pushing aside his trepidation about Zuko and his queasy doubts about his unfinished Avatar training. He couldn't focus on that, not now. Not when it was so important. Not when it was for Katara.
Behind him, he could hear Sokka hmph in barely repressed suspicion. He turned, aiming what he hoped was a commanding glower back at his friend. Sokka rolled his eyes. Okay, so not commanding, then. That really wasn't Aang's thing anyway.
"We have to do this, Sokka!" Aang urged. "All of Ba Sing Se is in trouble. Working together is our best chance."
Sokka uncrossed his arms to gesture wildly at Iroh.
"Has it occurred to you that maybe this is a trap? Kinda their thing, you know. Trapping us!"
"Surely you have noticed the wanted posters for Prince Zuko and myself. We are no more welcome in the Fire Nation now than you are," Iroh said placidly. He frowned, and then offered a conciliatory shrug. "No offense."
"None taken?" Sokka replied with a half shrug of confusion.
Aang scratched the back of his neck. He had kinda noticed more wanted posters around, but that was usually in the vicinity of Fire Nation controlled areas. They tried to avoid those, and definitely didn't linger long enough to read the notices posted in the town square. Well, except that one time, and hadn't that taught them their lesson? The upshot was that he had the feeling that Iroh was telling the truth, but they hadn't actually seen the proof Iroh was offering up, and Sokka tended to be a stickler for proof.
"Why wouldn't you be welcome? Aren't you both princes?" Sokka asked. His tone of suspicion, however, was wearing down now into mere curiosity. "What was up with Azula fighting you guys, anyway?"
"It would take some time to explain. Family, you know?" Iroh shook his head remorsefully, before focusing those bright, amber eyes back on Aang. "Our time is short, and our loved ones are in danger. I am asking you to trust in me, and to believe. There is good in my nephew, I promise you!"
Aang nodded decisively, and even Sokka seemed persuaded. Toph clapped her hands together, dusting them off as if for a fight.
"Finally! So, what's our plan?" Toph asked.
"Well," Aang started, furrowing his brow as he concentrated, trying to summon up the hazy, distorted vision he had of Katara. She'd been in chains, somewhere inside. "We definitely need to go back to the palace. That's where Katara was in my vision!"
"And then what?" Sokka asked. "Where's Azula?"
Aang shook his head. His vision hadn't really covered that. It'd been pretty vague and unhelpful, altogether. Thanks, vision, Aang thought with a frown.
Iroh cleared his throat.
"I brought someone along who might be able to help us."
He walked back out the door, expecting them to follow. Toph was quick out the door behind him, followed by Aang. Sokka just hovered by the door, clutching the frame as he looked around it and the other newcomer. Captive, actually.
A Dai Li agent.
Aang's eyes went wide. He slanted a look between the bound and gagged agent and Iroh. How had he managed to carry the agent? Iroh wasn't exactly the most … er, fit guy around.
Less taken by the physics of the situation, Toph was already boxing the agent in on himself with jutting slabs of rock. He groaned beneath his gag, clearly uncomfortable with his position. Aang winced once in sympathy, before straightening his shoulders. This guy knew what had happened to Katara.
Iroh walked over to the man, reaching up to slip the gag from his mouth. Before Iroh couldn't even ask a question, the man started to talk, "Azula and Long Feng are plotting a coup. They're going to overthrow the Earth King."
Aang and the others shared an uneasy look. Sokka stepped forward, anger clear on his face. He brandished his machete at the Dai Li agent.
"Where is she? Where's Azula?"
The agent shook his head, much as he could, wedged between two huge rocks. His eyes searched Sokka's face in a panic.
"I don't know! She was in the palace when I left. She's probably headed to the throne room to capture the Earth King, but I don't know for sure."
"What about my nephew?" Iroh interjected. His voice was calm, but for the steel underneath. "Where is Azula keeping him?"
The agent sighed, happy to have a question whose answer he was sure of.
"In the crystal catacombs of old Ba Sing Se, deep beneath the palace."
Good enough. The urgency clear in his mind, Aang took for Appa at a run. He could hear the others behind him. They'd have to split up, from the looks of things, two going to the palace to face Azula and rescue Katara, and two going down into the caves to rescue Zuko. Ugh, he hoped the crystal caverns weren't too deep down. Who knew how long it'd take to earthbend down there and back, and if they were all going to be allies now, Aang could admit that he wouldn't mind having Iroh's fire power around for dealing with Azula. Zuko's, too, actually.
Aang felt somewhat buoyed by the thought. As he urged Appa into the air, he glanced over at Sokka, Toph, and Iroh, a small smile on his face. The situation was dire, and Katara was still in danger, but he was surrounded by friends and allies. They'd make it through.
"You're a horrible person, you know that?" Katara's voice trembled, her hand clenching into a fist as she glared across the cave at Zuko. He sat with his back turned to her, shoulders hunched. As Katara paced, she could see glimpses of his face, his hands where they tucked into the long sleeves of his robe. The light was green and sickly, casting his normally pale features into an even more unhealthy pallor. He bore her abuse silently. A curl of guilt formed in her stomach, and it just made her angrier. "Always following us, hunting the Avatar; trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! Even after I…"
After she saved his uncle's life. After Zuko stood watch, and protected them. Even then, he said they parted as enemies. Even then, he followed them to Ba Sing Se.
"Even after you helped me," Zuko supplied softly. He didn't look up from a study of his hands.
Katara's jaw worked, and she turned her face harshly to the side. She could feel her hair sway with the movement, metal beads a cool touch against her forehead.
"What do you care? You're the Fire Lord's son. My help was just your due, right? The world gives and you take. That's all the Fire Nation ever does! Except, excuse me, I forgot: you gave us war and violence and hatred!"
"You don't know what you're talking about."
Katara whipped around, glaring at his back. Her mouth was a thin, hard line, cheeks flush with anger.
"Oh, I don't? How dare you? You have no idea what this war has put me through! Me personally!" Katara raised a hand, touching the charm of her mother's necklace where it hung at her neck, before turning and dropping to the cave floor. She pulled her knees close to her chest, hugging them for comfort. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me."
"I'm sorry," Zuko said after only a moment's pause. Katara scrubbed at the tears on her cheek, angling her head to listen. Her heart sounded very loud in her ears, surprise almost catching up with the anger that still tingled along her nerves. "That's something we have in common."
Katara swallowed deeply. She pressed her hand to the ground, closing her eyes and trying to breathe past the tears. She didn't know if she could do this, if she could talk to Zuko again. When his uncle was injured, Zuko had been… almost civil. Angry, sure, but like an actual human being. He'd been worried. He cared.
Yeah, he cared all the way to Ba Sing Se, hunting us, Katara thought bitterly. Saving his uncle hadn't been enough to get Zuko to leave them alone, and as angry as that made her, as much as it upset her and filled her with worry for the future, it also gnawed at her in a completely different way. She'd extended the hand of friendship to him, only to have it slapped away.
She wasn't going to make that mistake again. She wasn't.
"So what? That makes up for it? Or am I supposed to turn around and give you a hug? Poor little prince," Katara said, trying to infuse her voice with her earlier disdain.
"I'm not a prince," Zuko said.
Katara laughed. Okay, the Fire Nation really had to be grasping for straws if they thought she was going to buy this gambit.
"You don't just stop being a prince. You'll be a prince until you're Fire Lord. Which, by the way, I hope doesn't happen," Katara replied with a sniff.
"You'd rather have Azula? Good luck with that." Zuko laughed bitingly. Katara turned to look at him, and their eyes met briefly. He looked irritated, but subdued. Defeated, almost. "And, by the way, you can stop being a prince. Or I can. Ever since my father branded me a traitor."
"Branded?" Katara whispered. No, that was ridiculous. Come on. Even the Fire Lord wasn't that evil.
Except… she'd talked to Toph after they left Zuko and Iroh behind in that ghost town. Toph seemed to have been left with a more positive view of both men, and Katara had been curious to know why. Well, more like annoyed by Toph's smugness and know-it-all attitude, but that really wasn't the point right now. She'd asked what Toph and Zuko talked about. Toph had mentioned Zuko saying his father gave him a "mark of dishonor."
And in confirmation of Katara's worst assumptions, Zuko turned around fully. He raised his hand to his face, splaying the fingers in a sick parody of a magician's presentation. His eyes bored into hers, demanding a reaction, a condemnation.
"Oh spirits, Zuko…" Katara shook her head slowly. It seemed like a shallow, empty thing to say, but it was all she could think of. "I'm sorry."
"But I should be more fair to Father. He burned me years ago. The death warrants are a new thing, for my failure at the North Pole. I'll never go home now," Zuko continued, as if he hadn't heard her. His expression was strange, a mixture of loathing and longing both. He was silent for a long moment, and then he refocused. His clear, sharp eyes met Katara's from across the distance of the cave. "So you don't have to worry about me, anymore. Even if I did capture the Avatar, Azula would just take him out from under me."
Katara tried to process that. It was easy to envision Azula, cackling as she slapped manacles on Aang, and not much harder to add a defeated Zuko to that picture. But it was very difficult to understand the context of it all. A father who burned his son. A sister sent to kill a brother. Sokka would never do that to her.
Not that he could, she thought reflexively, because water beat boomerang every time, seriously.
"So, um," Katara bit her lip, trying to think of a less awkward way to change the subject. She failed. "If you didn't follow us to Ba Sing Se, what were you doing here?"
"I was serving tea," Zuko said, emphasizing his words by pulling at his outer robe. It kinda looked like a uniform. Kinda a lot, actually. "In a tea shop."
"In the Upper Ring?" she wondered. And, yes, now that she thought of it that was also a flaw in her original "trap" theory. Going undercover, securing a passport and a place in the Upper Ring, and then waiting around for the Avatar to get thirsty wasn't quite up to par for Zuko's usual schemes.
Zuko shrugged slightly, and Katara had to suppress a smile at the vaguely chagrined expression on his face.
"Uncle's very good with tea."
Katara twisted around, settling to sit more comfortably while she looked at him. At some point, Zuko had edged closer, changing from sitting cross-legged to ready on the balls of his feet. Whether to flee from the conversation, or to attack their jailer, Katara didn't know. But she was certain, at least, that he didn't mean to attack her, and that was a surprising turn around.
"I did think about it, you know," Zuko said. He looked down to the cave floor, picking up one of the crystals. He worried it between two fingers. His hands were so long fingered and elegant, his features so aristocratic – but for the scar – it was hard for Katara to imagine him serving tea. He really did look every inch the Fire Prince, she noted, even in Earth Kingdom clothes.
Taking her distraction for confusion, Zuko looked up, catching Katara's eye. She blushed.
"I thought about turning you in," he clarified. "When the Avatar put out that flier for his stupid bison—"
"Appa's not stupid!"
"—I found him under Lake Laogai. I could have captured him, flown the Avatar and his bison straight home to father. But I let him go."
"And that's how Appa could come to get us," Katara said, eyes going wide as the pieces fitted together. Without Appa swooping in to save them, the Dai Li would have captured them all, hiding them away from the Earth King, or worse, brainwashing them into forgetting their mission. It would have ended the war forever, right there. The enormity of what he had done struck Katara, making her reel. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you save us?" she asked, before catching herself with a cough. "I mean, why did you save Appa?"
"It seemed like the right thing to do," Zuko mumbled. He looked away, before darting a quick, cautious look back at her face. Maybe it was the beaming smile on her face, maybe not, but he didn't look away after that.
"I should do something," Katara said, suddenly. She stood, feeling impulsive and brave and not a little bit foolish. "For you. To thank you."
Zuko stood slowly, watching her warily as she approached. Katara reached into the fold of her robe, extracting the vial of spirit water. Zuko took a step back.
"What are you doing?"
"It's… I'm not going to attack you. I just said I wanted to thank you," she said. Was he always this paranoid? "You saved us by freeing Appa. And I just thought… maybe you could be free too. Of your 'brand.'"
And your horrible father, she finished to herself.
Zuko stiffened, shoulders going taut with tension. He turned away from her.
"It's a scar. It can't be healed."
"This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole," Katara said. She took a step closer to him. Zuko didn't move, but for his eyes, looking between the sewn seal hide of the vial and Katara's face. "It has special properties, so I've been saving it for something important. I don't know if it would work, but…"
Zuko ducked his head, closing his eyes, and Katara's breath caught in her throat. She stepped up next to him, reaching up to touch his scar lightly. It was cool and smooth to the touch.
"Does that hurt?" she whispered.
He shook his head silently.
Katara took a deep breath, nodding to herself as she prepared to bend the water from the vial. She really had been saving it for something important, something life changing. What could be more life changing than this?
The earth shook beneath her feet, nearly knocking Katara from her feet, and a giant hole suddenly blew outward from the cave wall. Katara stumbled backward in surprise. Zuko caught her by the elbow, steadying her, as he aimed a frown to the opening. His expression cleared in a matter of moments, as soon as the dust settled.
"Uncle!" he shouted, letting go of her to rush to his side. General Iroh embraced his nephew, holding on for a long moment before pushing him back and examining him at arm's length.
Katara craned her head, trying to look past them for Aang. He really needed to stop taking his time on these rescues. After only a moment, she stoppede in surprise.
"You're welcome, Sweetness," Toph grumped loudly. She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring somewhere over Katara shoulder. "I don't believe it! I earthbend all the way across the Earth Kingdom – and out of a metal box! – to save your sorry behind, and I don't even get a thank you!"
Katara mimed a quick bow, although she wasn't quite sure if Toph would 'see' it, before running over to give the other girl a hug.
"Thank you, Toph."
"All I want is a little appreciation."
"Of course, Toph," Katara said, not even trying to suppress rolling her eyes. Toph's ego was more than enough evidence of how appreciated she was, in Katara's opinion.
On the other side of the cave, Iroh and Zuko were talking in quiet voices. Katara's eyes drifted over to them, taking in the proud smile on Iroh's face, the surer, happy posture Zuko assumed. Her fingers traced clenched around the vial of spirit water in her hand; she had not forgotten it, but they probably didn't have time now…
"Hey, Katara! Katara! I'm talking to you!" Toph said. She reached up to snap her fingers in front of Katara's eyes. Well, chin. The idea was there. "What were you two doing before we came in, anyhow? Kissing?"
"Toph!" Katara protested. She looked over to Zuko, embarrassed to see that he had heard Toph clearly. Iroh gave her a startled look, followed by a congratulatory thumbs-up. Katara groaned aloud, slapping her hand across her forehead."No, we were not kissing! I was…"
"You were what?" Toph asked impatiently.
Katara met Zuko's gaze. He looked uncomfortable, but nodded for her to go ahead.
"I was about to try healing Zuko's scar."
"Oh," Toph said. She pushed at Katara. "Well, hurry up, then."
She found herself hustled back over to Zuko, so close they almost touched, looking up into his amber eyes awkwardly. Zuko flushed at the proximity and looked away, angling a friendly glower at Toph's back.
"So, I guess this is attempt number two?" Katara babbled, clutching the vial against her chest.
Zuko did not look back at her, his clenched jaw and closed eyes the only acknowledgement of her words he gave. She cupped the good side of his face in her palm, turning him back toward him, and then she uncapped the vial. She bent the water out to form a glove on her hand, gasping slightly at the sensation. It felt powerful.
With more confidence than she felt, Katara moved her water-gloved hand over his scar, feeling out the currents of chi within it. They were weak, just faint strains of the normal energy threads ran over a person's body. The chi was gnarled and knotted there, coursing full of painful memories. Katara frowned, moving her fingers slightly to smooth the tangling chi, nudging pathways back to right.
It was minute, intensive work, draining in a way that fighting never was. Perhaps it wasn't that the spirit water had power, Katara considered. Maybe it was just a gateway, a facilitator, allowing more of her power to flow out than normal water did. Whatever the case was, Katara felt tired when she finally released the water from her control.
"I don't know if it worked," Katara said quickly, watching as the water glowed bright blue and sank into Zuko's skin.
His scar shifted, smoothing and lightening in front of her eyes. Before it disappeared.
"Thank you for trying," Zuko returned. His eyes were still closed, his hands held down by his side in stiffly clenched fists. He looked like he was still waiting for it to begin, expecting some painful onslaught required for healing.
Katara couldn't help it. Laughter bubbled up inside her.
"Zuko!" she exclaimed. She grabbed him by the hand, forcing it open and bringing it up to touch his healed face. His eyes flew open in wonder. He looked from her to his uncle, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
A very pretty smile, actually. Katara covered her mouth, looking at him with fresh eyes. Toph's comment didn't seem all that ridiculous right now.
"What is it?" Toph demanded. "What's so funny? Is it Zuko? Is his face funny?"
"It's hilarious," Katara lied.
Zuko gave her a surprised, ever so mildly hurt look before he took in her smile, and greeted it with one in turn.
Iroh came up beside her, bowing deeply.
"Twice now you have given me a great gift. The first time it was my own life – which I'm quite attached to, you know! – and the second time it was my nephew's smile. Thank you." Iroh bowed deeply to Katara. She pressed a hand to her chest, touched by the gesture. "But now, I am afraid we do not have time to celebrate. There is urgent business."
"Time to go kick Azula's butt!" Toph said, smacking a fist into her palm.
Zuko nodded curtly, a determined expression on his face.
"It's time I dealt with her. Where is she?" he asked
"We know she is plotting a coup with the Dai Li. The Avatar has gone to the palace to warn the Earth King," Iroh said. "So it is best that we make haste, or else he'll defeat her before we get there!"
Katara smiled grimly at the sentiment, although she wasn't so sure. She worried to herself, holding the empty vial of spirit water tightly in her fist as the group ran back up the tunnel Toph had created. Each time they'd encountered the Dai Li or Azula on the battlefield, they had come so close to defeat, just scraping by long enough to escape. Trepidation settled in the pit of her stomach. They had to save King Kuei and liberate Ba Sing Se from the Dai Li, but even with new allies, she wasn't sure they could do it.
"I hate to be positive," Sokka started between huffing breaths as they ascended the huge staircase leading to the main structure of the palace. He glanced sidelong at Aang, who skipped lightly up the steps, looking unruffled and unaffected by the climb. Figured. "But I think we're going to pull this one out."
"Thanks, Sokka! What's got you so confident?"
"First of all, all that 'sympathy' and 'repaying debts' stuff for healing the Fire Nation guys has finally paid off. New allies, check! Fighting fire with fire, doubt check!, Sokka crowed, ticking off the numbers on his fingers. Of course, Aang wasn't even looking, but did everything have to be about the Avatar? No way. Some stuff was just by Sokka for Sokka. "Secondly, you, the Avatar State, and some glow action! That's how we get stuff done! Remind me to send a thank you hawk to that guru after we save the city.
"And, I don't know," Sokka continued with a grin. "Today just seems like a good day."
Aang didn't reply, and Sokka's upbeat attitude shriveled suddenly into the familiar nugget of cynicism he usually carried around in his chest. It didn't sound like contemplative silence, nor focused silence. It was pensive silence. Sokka shot a look over at Aang, noting how the other boy's gait had faltered, the smile on his face going false and strained. Yeah, okay. Not good.
The pair finished climbing the stairs, Aang dragging his feet up the last couple. Sokka frowned, pulling the other boy aside next to a stone pillar.
"You okay?"
Aang avoided his eyes, bringing his hand up to scratch the back of his neck.
"Yeah, fine. It's just…" He looked up, gray eyes wide with worry and not a little bit of guilt. Thinking on it, he looked almost exactly the way he had when he first claimed that he didn't know anything about the Avatar, way back when. "You know how I said I mastered the Avatar State?"
"Aang!"
"I know! I just… I didn't know it was going to be important!"
Sokka boggled at the other boy, slack-jawed.
"Let me get this straight," he said slowly, anger building. "You went to see a guru to learn how to control the Avatar State. You stay with him for a week, you come back and tell us that you did master it, we make it the centerpiece of our plan to defeat Azula, and then you tell me you 'didn't know it was going to be important'?"
"Well, when you say it like that, it sounds really stupid," Aang replied sulkily.
Sokka ran a hand over his face, pulling on his chin. There were a lot of very shouty, somewhat frantic sentences building up in his chest. They, however, would have to wait. Just over Aang's shoulder, Sokka sighted one of the Earth Kingdom generals. That was exactly the kind of help they were going to need to quash this coup, particularly without glowy power. He raised his hand, about to signal to the man and draw his attention.
And then he dropped it, just as quickly, dodging back behind the pillar to hide as two Dai Li agents appeared from nowhere, flinging manacles at the general. The man struggled in their grasp, but the metal held fast, and a third agent appeared, talking to him as the general was subdued. The agents led him away, calm and solemn in their treachery.
"The coup is happening right now!" Sokka hissed to Aang.
"We need to get to the Earth King!"
"Whoa, there!" Sokka said, flinging out an arm to block Aang from running toward the throne room. Aang ducked under it smoothly, a gust of air coming up to flap Sokka's tunic up into his face. He flattened it, glaring at Aang as he did so. "We're not done yet. I'm plan guy, and I'm really in need of a new plan here."
"Um. We warn the Earth King?"
"And if Azula is already there? How are we going to save Katara if Azula is the one guarding her with crazy blue flame and lightning?"
"We'll find a way! What happened to the power of positive thinking, Sokka? We don't have time for this. Katara doesn't have time for this!"
Sokka let out a long, frustrated groan, but let go of Aang. He was right; Sokka would just have to plan on the fly. Which he was getting pretty good at these days, but he really hated it when his unraveled, as this one was currently doing with speed.
Quietly and swiftly, the pair moved down the halls of the elaborate palace, Sokka guiding their path often as not. He didn't remember as much as the layout as he wished he did, but Aang wasn't being much help on that front. He kept worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, obviously upset. Sokka cast a look down at him, feeling guilty for yelling at the kid, even as he shared those same fears himself. If Azula hurt Katara…
No. Not even worth thinking about. Besides, couldn't happen. Katara might be a know-it-all, bossy, irritating little sister, but she most definitely wasn't a pushover. Not in the slightest.
Which meant that if she went down, it was only after a fight. Which meant…
Sokka gulped, trying to will the thought away, but it just wouldn't go. It meant Katara must really have been hurt, to get captured.
"So, uh," Sokka started, desperate to make conversation. They were sidling down one of the giant hallways, backs pressed to the wall as Aang slunk forward just enough to peer around a corner. He glanced back at Sokka, nodding once to confirm that the hallway was clear. They made their way forward, and Sokka continued, "What exactly did the guru teach you? Why didn't it work?"
Aang shrugged slightly.
"He did some guru-y stuff. Just didn't work."
"Yeah, got that the first time. What I mean," Sokka emphasized with a glare at the back of Aang's head, "is what went wrong and is there any chance I can fix it? So we don't die in there, you know?"
"I don't know. Maybe," Aang sighed. "He taught me about chakras and how emotions can block energy from flowing. At first it all made sense. Everything Guru Pathik said sounded just like the koans we used to meditate on at the Air Temple. But then I remembered…"
"You remembered what?"
"That I'm terrible at koans. Seriously!" Aang looked up at Sokka suddenly, gray eyes beseeching. He gestured wildly with his arms. "Koans were my third worst subject in school! What was I thinking, expecting to master the Avatar State? Why did I think it would be so easy?"
Sokka didn't have the faintest idea what a koan was. Ha, school.
"So what were your first and second worst subjects?" he asked in a deep, serious tone. He tapped a lip thoughtfully. Really, he had nothing, but it wasn't like Aang needed to know that. The only thing he had as far as strategy was this, right now: trying to distract Aang from his increasing and obvious panic.
"Argumentation and calligraphy. Monk Chang Po always said my strokes had too much yin and not enough yang," Aang said with a scowl, before looking up sheepishly at Sokka. "Uh, don't tell Toph I just said that?"
"… I won't?" Mostly because he had no idea what it meant. How could strokes have too much yin? The argumentation thing did make sense, though.
Sokka jerked, blinking as he took in their surroundings. His mission of taking Aang's mind off of things had worked a little too well. He'd kind of forgotten what they were doing himself.
"Uh, Aang," he said, snagging a finger into the orange neck of Aang's tunic. "I think we're going the wrong way."
"What?" Aang whipped his head around, shoulders slumping as he realized that with the distraction of their conversation, they'd followed the wrong branch in the network of hallways. They'd have to back track. "Well, I guess we just gave you more time to plan?"
Uh. Right. About that.
"So, here's my plan. We warn the Earth King, rescue Katara and if Azula is there… you hit her with a rock!"
Aang nodded thoughtfully.
"Simple, yet effective," Aang agreed.
Caution thrown to the wind, they dashed down the hallway. It was oddly empty regardless, and the sinking feeling in Sokka's stomach was confirmed when they skidded into the throne room.
The entire room was lined with Dai Li, Long Feng standing proudly at their head. King Kuei sat on his throne, hands clutching at the armrests, neck outstretched as he strained to avoid the blue blade of flame Azula held near his throat. Bosco lay at his feet. Someone had knocked his hat off, and he was batting it around the floor, oblivious to the tense proceedings around him. Two Kyoshi warriors, incongruously enough, stood right in front of the raised dais of the throne, guarding Azula.
Katara wasn't anywhere in sight.
Sokka's heart sank.
"Oh no! We're too late," Aang said, groaning aloud.
"Maybe," Sokka started, biting his lip as he desperately tried to spin the situation in his mind. "Maybe Katara's with Zuko in the caverns."
Which, in Sokka's mind, still wasn't an altogether comforting thought, since it hinged on Zuko not being the angry jerk he knew so well, and Iroh not being involved in some kind of complicated trap. Sokka mostly believed Iroh was sincere in trying to help them, but it was that tiny sliver of doubt that was left over that niggled at him. Sokka pushed the thoughts aside; they were bad enough in his head, but giving voice to them would be even worse. Aang didn't need to start thinking that way.
Although, with a sidelong glance at the younger boy, Sokka confirmed that Aang's mind was probably going down that path already. He had a distant, glassy look in his eyes. It was clear that he was still busy thinking about Katara, worried for her, and not at all ready for the coming fight.
With trepidation, Sokka tried to refocus.
Sokka narrowed his eyes at the two Kyoshi warriors. If Suki's comrades had gone rogue and joined Azula, then they were really screwed. He tried to place the girls. They looked familiar, but not in a good first-serious-kiss kind of way.
"Those aren't the real Kyoshi warriors!" he exclaimed. Just loudly enough to turn the attention of everyone on him, ending the stalemate had developed between Azula and Long Feng.
"It's the Avatar!" Long Feng shouted, turning in surprise. He directed the Dai Li agents with one long sweep of his arm. "Arrest them!"
Rock manacles flew at them. Aang shattered the first set with a slicing current of air directed from his staff before moving into a stronger stance, bending a wall of solid earth out of the marble floor to block the next set.
"Sokka! Plan?" Aang cried out, shifting on his feet to thrust another wall up from the floor.
"Um," Sokka drew out the syllable, stalling as his eyes darted around the room. He couldn't help but notice how Long Feng and Azula hadn't moved, continuing their stare down. His breath caught in his throat. It was just crazy enough to work. "Aang, wait!"
"Wait? Are you crazy?" Aang pushed out, shoving the wall outward on a rippling of wave of rock until it collided with the far wall, two Dai Li smashed in between. They lolled to the floor, unconscious.
"No, listen to me. You can earthbend," Sokka hissed, getting as close as possible to keep the sound from carrying. He held his machete out at the same time, giving the Dai Li the easy target of his wrists. "Go ahead and let them take us. You can just earthbend us free. Something is going down between Azula and Long Feng. We're better off if we let them fight it out first."
"Ohhh. Right!"
Aang made a show of leaping over one of his earthen defenses, yelling and swinging his staff. The Dai Li closed in from all sides, and soon Sokka found his wrists and ankles clapped in rocky cuffs.
"Well, that was a letdown," Azula sighed. She hadn't moved from the king's side, fire still at the ready. Her sharp golden eyes raked over both Sokka and Aang, a smirk on her lips. Sokka had the sense she knew exactly what he was pulling.
But she let him get away with it, nonetheless, which made him wonder what she was pulling.
"Get him out of my sight," Azula said, shoving the king toward one of the faux-Kyoshis – the one with long black hair that Sokka suddenly recognized as a dangerous lady. The gloomy one with all the knives.
"Bosco!" the Earth King cried out, turning half in her grasp.
Azula rolled her eyes visibly. She flicked her hand out toward her other henchwoman.
"Ty Lee!"
"On it!" she backflipped up onto the dais, and unhooked the bear's lead, cooing to him, "Aww, who's a good bear?"
Both the king and the bear were led from the room, looking all the more relieved to be out of it rather than in. Sokka shook his head. He couldn't say he was precisely disappointed in the Earth King's show of bravery, or lack thereof, but it did sort of make him wonder who he was even saving Ba Sing Se for. Yeah, the people, but when it was a choice between Long Feng and King Kuei, were they really going to win either way?
But, speaking of, Sokka forced his attention back to the interplay between Long Feng and Azula.
"Interesting gambit, giving up both your leverage and your armed forces," Long Feng was saying. "I think you will see the dust has now settled. It is clear how this will end. The city and the Dai Li are mine."
"Are they?" Azula asked loftily. "You know, I've found my time in the Earth Kingdom very informative. We learn so little about it in school. It's really amazing all the resources and wealth that have been brought to bear in Ba Sing Se – by the Dai Li, in particular."
While she talked, she paced back and forth, finger wagging in the air. Sokka stared at her, trying to identify the nagging sensation that this was familiar. A grin spread across her face, and then her pacing slid into the terrifyingly distinct stance of a firebender summoning lightning. Her hands stroked through the air, two fingers held tightly together as they gathered a storm of electricity.
"For example, did you know," she started through a cruel smile, blue sparks lighting her eyes. She thrust her hand forward and lightning raced out from it, arcing toward one Dai Li agent before zipping back and forth across the line, hitting six almost at once. "That the simple ore you use to make your rock gloves is highly magnetic and electroconductive? Amazing."
Sokka was suddenly feeling a lot less good about having that very same rock around his wrists. He liked his wrists and he really wanted to hang onto them as long as possible.
He chanced a look over at Aang – who in turn was staring at the six Dai Li agent groaning on the floor in pain, clutching burned hands to their chests. The other Dai Li agents were moving to Azula, forming an honor guard around her and leaving Long Feng abandoned and alone in his opposition.
So much for hoping Azula and Long Feng would just kill each other. In fact, it looked like his 'wait and see' plan had sort of made things a million times worse.
"We have to stop this," Aang said.
"Yeah. Right there with you."
The only question was how?
"Okay," Aang started, eyes narrowed as he looked across the room to Azula. He brought his hands up in front of him, rocks dropping to the ground. Sokka shifted toward him, relieved to feel the pressure abate. He rubbed his sore wrists, listening avidly for Aang's plan. "Here's what we do. I'll go right, and you go left."
Sokka took a moment to meditate on that. He shrugged.
"Eh, worth a shot."
With a shout worthy of a Water Tribe warrior twice his age, Sokka leapt to his feet, zigging left as he ran toward Azula. Aang gave more of a sedate hello, followed by a wave, but also ran forward, throwing out furious gusts of wind. Azula gave one last look to Long Feng, arching a questioning eyebrow his way. He bowed, backing away as if graciously offering her the fight.
"Useless coward," she sneered in return. "As if you had a choice. The Avatar is mine!"
Aang encased his feet in stone, riveting himself down to the floor.
"Sokka, watch out!" he called in warning, before hooking his hands downward, pulling back against the solid marble. The floor rumbled and then rippled outward, becoming a storm-tossed sea.
"Whoa!" Sokka exclaimed, wheeling his arms for balance. He ended up clinging to a pillar, trying to ride it out. He grumbled to himself, "Yeah, okay, maybe gonna have to sit this fight out."
He looked over, seeing Long Feng doing much the same as he was, and his posture straightened in anger. No way! So Sokka wasn't big with the crazy magic powers. But he still had Boomerang, and no way was he going to let kidnapping his sister pass without a fight.
On the main floor of the throne room, Aang and Azula continued to trade blows. Jets of blue flame sailed over Aang's head by only a hairsbreadth. Rock spears jutted up from the floor, aimed at Azula's body to knock her down. She dodged them easily, smirking at Aang every time she frustrated his attacks.
"You know the problem with you airbenders," she started casually, blue flame licking at her fingertips. She clenched her fists, thrusting them backwards as she used the fire to propel her across the marble. She jumped up, boosted by fire from her boots, and kicked out a wide arc of fire at Aang. He just barely managed to duck in time. "Is that you don't have any killer instinct. You keep angling to disable, Avatar. And that is why you will lose!"
"We'll see about that!" Sokka called. He gave his trusty boomerang a commanding, pleading look, and then winged it out onto the floor. Azula moved idly to the side, letting it fly right past her. She didn't even bother giving Sokka the disdainful look her brother had back in the day.
But, just like it had back in the day, Boomerang flew full circle, coming back around to hit Azula squarely on the head. She fell to the ground, dazed, while his boomerang skittered to a halt on the floor only a few steps from Sokka.
He stooped to retrieve it, shouting across the room to Aang, "Now's your shot! Time to glow it up, Aang!'
Aang gulped, wide eyed, and then – very weirdly, in Sokka's opinion – chose than moment to settle on the floor, cross legged, for meditation. Huh, yeah, okay. Aang pressed his fists together, trying to take deep, slow breathes. Sokka stared at him, wondering he was doing but hoping whatever it was would work.
And then, abruptly, Aang's shoulders slumped. He looked apologetically across the room at Sokka.
"I can't," he said. "I can't do it! I can't give her up."
Her. Katara.
Sokka's hand clenched around his boomerang in wordless frustration. When General Fong had tried to provoke Aang into the Avatar State, it had come down to her. No less than her life on the line could force Aang into the Avatar State back then, and now, apparently, that guru had asked Aang to give her up? What kind of crazy, high-altitude, low-oxygen logic was that?
Azula drew herself up slowly, glaring ferociously at Sokka and Aang both, and Sokka swore to himself that – on the off chance he survived this – he and his boomerang were going to have a little talk with that guru guy.
It was hard for Zuko to resist the urge to run his fingers over the healed, smooth flesh of his face, even as the group jogged along the rocky tunnel path Toph earthbent in front of them. The skin felt fresh and new, tingling as if scrubbed clean by Royal manicurists with their pumice stones. Zuko almost wished for a mirror – the first time he had wished for one in nearly three years, since that first desperate urge to see the mark of shame his father gave him. His hand did not leave his face as he ran, trying to memorize the feel of being whole once more.
Feelings warred in his chest. A tightness, an unknowing dread that somehow this would go awry. Somehow it was a dream. Somehow it would be taken from him. And yet, at the same time, he felt that same warm, contented feeling he had awoken with not so long ago, fever broken and mind clear in a way it hadn't been for years.
He was finally ready to make a choice. In fact, it had already been made for him, hadn't it? Zuko cast a long look at Katara, running almost apace with him, just a few steps behind. Her hair streamed out behind her, feet pounding against the rock with strength and grace both. She wore a determined frown on her face, but Zuko could hardly argue that it didn't suit her.
He had much to thank her for; fighting at her side was the least he could do.
The rock under Zuko's feet was even, a steady incline building as they went. Toph bent the earth away from them with an ease that seemed almost unconscious, but Zuko couldn't summon up even the usual pang of jealousy at such prowess. His legs only just began to burn with the strain of climbing the angle when Toph abruptly stopped, flinging out an arm to signal everyone else to halt – or else smash into the dead end in front of them, Zuko supposed – tilting her head as she stomped once, trying to feel the vibrations of the tunnel.
She nodded once to herself, pleased with whatever result she felt.
"Going up!" she said, and that was all the warning they had to brace themselves. The rock underneath them formed itself into a platform, thrusting up toward the ceiling spread apart only moments before a rather ignominious end for them all. Katara gasped out in surprise, clutching at Zuko's arm at the near miss, before leveling a glare at Toph's back.
"You did that on purpose," she accused.
"Yep!"
Zuko awkwardly tried to disengage Katara's hand from his arm; she gave him a look of confusion, to which he raised his eyebrows, nodding his head toward where she still held him. With a flush, she snatched her hand back, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.
"So, uh," Zuko started, fumbling for a topic. Battle! They both battled. Had battled each other. Were going to battle soon. Surely that was a valid topic. "You're going to waterbend at Azula, right?"
Katara gave him a look that plainly declared he was an idiot.
"Yes. Because I am a waterbender," she said slowly.
"Right, but, uh, I meant… how? Where are you going to get water from?"
Katara reached for where her waterskin would normally hang, eyes widening with realization as she registered its absence. Her face went slightly ashen, blue eyes gone wide as she remembered.
"They took it! Oh no, what am I going to do?" she asked. She whirled on Zuko, as if he had made a suggestion, finger thrust into his chest to silence him. "I am not sitting this out, you hear me?"
"I do not think that will be necessary," Uncle interjected. Zuko fought the urge to slap a hand over his forehead and hide his face. He often had that urge, lately, whenever he realized that Uncle had just watched him embarrass himself, usually over a pretty girl. "The great palace of Ba Sing Se has no lack of water. The same year construction was completed, hundreds of years ago, the entire palace burned to the ground. And only two hundred years later, the palace met the same fate again. So, you see, they have gotten a little more mindful about fire precautions."
"Good move." Toph snorted. "Given who we're fighting."
Iroh nodded to her in acknowledgement. Zuko tried not to take the sentiment personally, and surprised himself by managing to do it.
"The entire palace is ringed by a river, and its waters are regularly emptied into gigantic metal cisterns that line the outside walls of the palace buildings, so even in times of drought they do not need rely on the rains to save them from fire. All you need to do is get to a window, and there will be water beneath," Iroh advised Katara.
She nodded thoughtfully, although she still looked concerned.
"Don't worry," Zuko said, leaning over to her. "I'll clear a path for you."
Katara offered him a quick smile – cut short by their sudden arrival into a dark, barely lit room in the palace. Distinctly not the throne room. Zuko squinted, turning his back to hers and closing formation with Uncle, all of them facing outward. He shook his head slowly. He didn't like the feel of this.
"Ding! Ground floor," Toph announced. A flame flared bright and yellow above Uncle's palm, casting the room into sudden, sharp relief. "Armory, dried goods, and –"
"Guards," Zuko finished with a hiss.
Unconscious guards, actually. Zuko jumped off the platform, poking a toe into the side of one collapsed man. The man gave a pained, yet reassuring, groan.
"Looks like someone got here before us," Katara said. She knelt by one of the downed guards, fingers gently probing a raised, red welt on his head. She gave a half shrug. Nothing she could do, probably, but it seemed none of them had been fatally wounded at least. "The coup has already happened."
"But why come here?" Zuko wondered.
"Duh, we're right under the throne room!" Toph said.
Zuko shared a blank look with Katara. Silence extended into the room before Zuko abruptly realized that Toph wouldn't have seen their confusion.
"So what?" he asked.
"We're in the Earth Palace of the Earth King! In the Earth Kingdom. You know, country of earthbenders! Gee, I wonder how someone might try to assassinate the king? By tunneling through the earth, maybe?"
Fair point.
"So they set up a guard post and armory directly under the throne room!" Iroh said enthusiastically. There was a light in his eyes that Zuko recognized as professional interest. Zuko rolled his eyes. He really doubted Uncle would ever be back in the position of trying to conquer Ba Sing Se.
"But doesn't that just work against them?" Katara asked, brow furrowed as she reasoned things out. "An assassin could just earthbend up to here, fight the guards, take their weapons, and then just earthbend up to the throne room."
"Yep. And that's why they reinforced it," Toph said, shooting her platform up to the ceiling. She placed her hands on the marble above, pushing it apart as she would curtains. The marble crumbled as it fell, and Zuko threw up one hand to shield his face. When the dust cleared, he could see what Toph was gesturing at. A lattice of metal bars.
"Then why did you bring us here?" he snapped.
Toph spit into her hand, rubbing them together before reaching up to grasp one of the bars she had revealed. The welded seam broke under her bending, and then the entire bar folded back double. Zuko took a step backwards in shock – and newfound respect.
"Because," Toph started, tossing a smug look down at him. "I am the greatest earthbender in the world!"
"Wow," Katara said softly in an aside. "She said she bent out of a metal box but… I thought she was joking."
Weird joke, Zuko thought. But then, he wasn't exactly one to cast stones in that department.
They watched as, stomping and grunting, Toph bent every piece of the lattice to her will, making a large opening between the two layers of marble. She bent the platform back down to the floor, abruptly enough that her feet briefly lost contact. She landed with a huff, even more hair than usual falling in her face. She offered a glare to anyone looking.
"I meant to do that."
"Okay, so," Katara started, giving each of them a look in turn. "Are we ready?"
"Just one moment," Uncle said. He surprised Zuko, taking him by the arm to draw him away. Zuko shook him off in annoyance.
"What was that for?" he asked, glaring.
"It is good to see you so happy and so at peace with yourself, my nephew," Iroh said. He gave Zuko a measuring look, and while it was pleased, it also looked vaguely… sad. Iroh turned to the weapons cabinet in the corner, rummaging around before he found a pair of ox-tail dao similar to the ones Zuko usually wielded. He gave them to Zuko, pressing them into his hands when Zuko tried to resist. Iroh's eyebrows lifted as he said with slow emphasis, "Just in case."
"I don't need swords to fight Azula!" Zuko said.
"But it won't hurt to have them," Iroh replied. Zuko glowered, but slung the sheath across his back nonetheless.
They gathered onto the platform, and took one long, deep, collective breath as Toph bent it upwards, pushing the marble ceiling aside. They burst into the throne room.
Probably at the exact worst time.
"Duck!" Iroh shouted. He pushed his hand down on the back of Zuko's head, making him stumble to the ground. He looked up, just in time to see Uncle root himself to the floor, arms arcing to form a fire-whip. He whirled the whip over his head and then lashed out with it, a circle of fire forcing back the group of Dai Li agents they had appeared amongst.
"You couldn't feel that?" Katara shot over to Toph.
"Didn't make a difference! They're everywhere in here!"
"You need to get over to the window," Iroh said. He stepped casually from the platform, falling easily into a ready stance. Zuko sprang to his feet and joined him. Iroh gave him a quick look, mouth pressing into a thin line. His doubt felt like a sudden blow, but he didn't have time to focus on it with the agents already approaching. Iroh kicked his foot out against Toph's rock platform. "Go!"
Toph sped the platform away on a ripple of marble, Katara clinging fast to the surface.
Uncle let loose a long, orange blast of fire, warding the Dai Li agents back. Zuko worked through his first form, planning to superheat and shatter the wall of marble some earthbender had set up as a defense, right when he heard her.
"Well, well, well," Azula said, voice cutting through the echoing rumble of battle. "If it isn't my dear Uncle Fatso."
Zuko spun around on one heel to look, and found her on the far edge of the room, standing near the throne. The Avatar stood not far off, panting and streaked with sweat where it had cut through the rock dust covering him. His companion, the other from the Water Tribe, peeked out from the pillar he had been using as cover, machete clutched between two hands. The two shared a look, clearly debating whether to attack Azula while she was distracted. The Avatar gave a subtle shake of his head, and the Water Tribe boy looked suddenly, sympathetically dejected.
Stupid. Zuko was all for honor, really, but there was no downside to attacking Azula while her back was turned.
"And who is this?" Azula asked, eyes raking over Zuko's face. He lifted his chin, proud to be free of his scar, glad that she was the first to notice. Her breathing went shallow as she looked at him, yellow flame of curtains she had earlier set alight suddenly flaring bright blue as it bent, almost against her will, back into her control. Her face contorted in rage. "What is this?"
"You already know, Azula. I'm tired of your games," Zuko called out. He glared back at her, firm in his resolve. "Let's finish this – Agni Kai!"
Azula laughed, wild and broken.
"Agni Kai against you? Maybe I should," she said, eyes narrowing, breath hissing out with audible rage. "Put back the mark father left on your face, the one you washed away like it was nothing! Like he was nothing! How dare you, traitor!"
Zuko's insides shivered – just a moment – at her words. She'd always been good at that, striking where it hurt, saying out loud the fears he hadn't quite let himself think. He choked the feeling back, eyes cutting over just briefly to Katara. He drew confidence from her presence as she stood in a large pool of summoned water, arms raised as she bent it into the many arms of an octopus, holding off several Dai Li agents at once.
"Well?" he called.
Azula gave a cruel smile, sauntering closer to him. The little green bow in her hair bobbed as she moved, girlish and young and at odds with every other piece of her.
"I think I'll leave your eye unburned," she said after a moment of consideration. "That is father's right, after all. The rest is fair game."
She jumped on the last word, bringing a jet of flame down toward him as if it were a sword. Zuko twisted and slid out of the way, punching out his out gout of flame.
Or he would have. If he had bent fire rather than smoke.
Zuko stared at his hand in shock, punching twice more and producing nothing more than weak glows of candlelight.
Azula's laughter was sharp in his ears; it almost drowned out the panicked rush of blood pounding through his head.
"Oh, well done, Zu-zu! You've improved since you were a child – just a little!"
She threw a wave of fire at him, casually as splashing in a lake. Zuko dodged, diving away and tucking himself into a roll. He sprang up, running across the throne room and just barely jumping behind a pillar before the next shot of fire skidded past him.
Zuko thumped his head back against the pillar, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Why is this happening?" he groaned. "Why now?"
Doubt seized in his stomach. Uncle said before that he had gotten sick because good and evil warred within him. But could it be more than that? Could it also be that his spirit was as ravaged as his body was and healing the scar tissue on his face had only torn the spiritual wound open once more?
Or was it worse than that? Zuko wondered. Did turning his back on his father, on his country, mean firebending would turn its back on him?
"Psst!" someone hissed to him. Zuko opened his eyes to see the Water Tribe boy dodging over to him, skirting the edges of the fight as he moved pillar to pillar. The boy – Sokka? – nodded sharply with his head. "Time to go!"
"We're supposed to save the Earth Kingdom," Zuko replied listlessly.
"Yeah, that was the old plan. New plan: we live!" Sokka pivoted around his pillar, striking out with startling precision to hit a Dai Li agent on the head, before jumping over to join Zuko in his hiding spot. "Come on, angry guy. We've just now got you on our side, and you're already giving up? What happened to all that ever so aggravating drive and persistence?"
"I don't know." Zuko blinked, Sokka's words catching up with him. "Wait, you recognized me?"
"Nah, but I did recognize the name Crazy keeps shouting."
Blue flame splashed against the far wall facing them, cutting off anything more the other boy would have side. Zuko exhaled a long, desperate sigh, hitting his head once more against the pillar.
"Come out, come out, Zu-zu! Come out and face your death with honor!"
Zuko's jaw worked. It was a stupid manipulation. Stupid and obvious and beneath her.
But that didn't mean it didn't work.
"Oh my – what is wrong with you?" Sokka asked. He grabbed for Zuko's arm, but Zuko pulled away. "Don't go out there!"
Zuko squared his shoulders, pushed away from the pillar, and walked out into the center of the throne room. For the first time, he had a clear view of the entire room. The fighting had settled into long, tense stalemates interrupted by occasional bouts of bending. Uncle stood to Zuko's far right, not far from Azula herself and the throne. He was ringed by Dai Li agents but, surprisingly, also fighting back to back with a Dai Li who must have defected. Katara stood near the window, pool of water swirling and poking up tendrils to fight back agents. Toph was probably furthest from him, clear back at the entrance of the hall, happily turning Dai Li battlements against them. The Avatar was locked in a fierce stare down with several agents only steps away from Zuko; he kept breaking his gaze to look wistfully over at Katara, only to have an agent take advantage.
"Any last words?" Azula asked. She began idly circling her hands through the air. Zuko could feel his hair stand on end, so close to the gathering lightning. He pulled the ox-tail swords from the sheath on his back and raised them. If he was going to die, he at least wanted it to be with weapons in his hands. He opened his mouth to say as much, but Azula interrupted him, "Nevermind! Don't care."
She drew her fingers back, shooting out a blinding arc of lightning.
"No!" Uncle's voice echoed from across the great hall.
Zuko let his eye slide shut, ready to welcome the lightning, not even trying to redirect it. What was the point, with his firebending gone? And it was just as his eyes closed and the lightning seared white through his eyelids that he felt a body collided with his side, knocking him to the floor and the breath from his lung. The electricity passed over them, sharp pinpoints and claws extending enough to burn shallowly across their skin, without penetrating.
Gasping, Zuko forced his eyes open and shoved the other boy off of him. No, not the other boy. The Avatar. Zuko stared down at him in surprise and mounting horror. The lightning had passed over him with no harm. But the Avatar… he shook and twitched under Zuko's hands, eyes spasming shut as pain shuddered through him.
"Why did you save me?"
"Questions later, Sparky, escaping now!" Toph shouted, skating over to them both on marble boots. She planted her feet and lifted, creating a disc underneath Zuko and Aang, before hopping on. "Snoozles!"
Zuko looked up and saw Sokka running flat out toward them. He made it just as Toph began to swing the disc around, aiming it to where Katara still fought. On the other side of the throne room, Uncle had abandoned his Dai Li friend to charge Azula directly. Zuko turned to watch the fight unfold, hands clenching uselessly. He didn't even have his swords anymore, which lay on the floor, dropped the moment Aang saved him.
The platform jolted once at a rock lobbed by a Dai Li agent. Toph stopped their movement just long enough to do something that made the man give a strangled scream. Zuko didn't turn to look.
Water sloshed around them as they sped over to Katara, who jumped on nimbly. She sent the remaining water rushing toward the men she had been fighting in one huge, violent tidal wave that washed men out a nearby window, covering their retreat. Giving a loud sob that made even Zuko twist around, she dropped to her knees next to Aang. Her hand reached out, pressing down on his chest to feel his heart.
"Is he…?"
"Still there," she whispered. "But… not good. I don't know."
Zuko nodded, wishing he knew anything that could help. He placed his hand over hers, briefly, on Aang's chest, the only reassurance he could give. Katara squeezed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face.
Pulling away from her, he looked over to Toph.
"We need to go back," he told her. "We need to get my uncle."
"I'd love to," she snapped. "There's just the little problem of the million Dai Li agents in the way and, oh yeah, your crazy sister!"
Zuko opened his mouth to argue, but Sokka cut him off.
"She's right." He gave Zuko a steady look. "General Iroh knew what he was doing, attacking Azula. He bought us time to get out of here. Let's use it."
Zuko held his gaze for a long moment before nodding grudgingly. They'd live to fight another day, and he would rescue Uncle to repay him.
Toph maneuvered their platform toward the exit of the room at speed, stopping only twice to throw up marble barriers and thwart the attacks of Dai Li. It was when they were nearly at the threshold of the throne room door when two things happened nearly simultaneously, in a confusion that rattled the entire group.
The first thing was a man jumping on the back of their platform. Sokka shouted, kicking out with one leg to push him back off.
And as the man stumbled, nearly falling off entirely, the second thing occurred. The sharp whisper of projectiles – marble darts thrown by earthbenders – whizzed past and hit flesh.
Katara cried out in pain, and then fell backward onto Zuko, blood spreading across his hands and robe. The man pushed Sokka aside, clambering fully onto the platform and then turning around. He bent marble straight from the wall beside them, breaking it into shards to fire back into the throne room. It hit something, and Zuko couldn't help but take satisfaction at the screams he heard.
"What are you doing, Long Feng?" Sokka demanded.
"I would like to live," the man returned, throwing yet more darts backward with precision, "long enough to reclaim my city."
"It's not your – oh, nevermind!"
"Okay, so, not that I'm calling anyone here fat," Toph started, panting between each word. She dropped the platform, letting the rock settle where it chose. "But I'm tapped."
"Well, that's convenient," said a new voice. A woman in white and red face paint stepped into the hallway. She was dressed like one of the warriors from Kyoshi Island, but Zuko would recognize that perfect frown anywhere. Mai.
"Saves us a lot of trouble!" Ty Lee chirped from next to her.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" shouted Sokka, hand going to his head to pull at his hair.
Zuko rose slowly from the platform, eyes locking with Mai's.
"Zuko!" she breathed out. She took one halting step toward him before stilling. She folded her hands into the green folds of her robes demurely, just as he remembered. "What did they do to your face?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
She nodded.
"Yeah. You always were one for the obvious."
"So, how is this going to go, Mai?" he asked tiredly. If they fought, he knew they would lose. He was tired of losing.
She gave him a razor thin smile; he tried to ignore the hard thump his heart gave in his chest.
"You have to ask?"
Mai moved aside gesturing for them to pass. Even through the make-up, the panic was plain on Ty Lee's face. Zuko ignored her, moving quickly to gather Katara up in his arms. The blood was flowing less quickly now, but it hadn't stopped. She still had a chance, if only a small one.
Behind him, Sokka moved to support Aang with Long Feng's help, Toph defending the rear as much as she could. As they passed Ty Lee, Zuko heard her whisper frantically to Mai, "Not good! What are we going to do when Azula –"
"Not tell her," Mai returned sternly.
That was enough, just barely enough, to stir some kind of hope inside him. He gave her a long look over his shoulder, and she nodded back in understanding.
After they made it past Mai and Ty Lee, the group ran down the halls unimpeded, walls and door blurring together. Zuko had given up on keeping track of where they were going, relying only on Toph's directions. He focused on the steady pounding of his feet, the steady pulse he could feel in Katara's blood slicked wrist. Then they were out, the bright glare of daylight harsh and hot on Zuko's face. He looked up into it, almost in wonder. So little time had passed.
He shifted Katara in his arms, getting ready to descend the steps. He craned his neck as he did so, casting about for their ride out of there, and hoping they weren't about to find yet more Dai Li agents waiting for them.
"There he is!" Sokka shouted from behind him.
Zuko turned to look where the other boy pointed and sure enough, there was the familiar form of a flying bison waiting on the flagstone of the courtyard. He breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank Agni. For a minute I thought he might have been stolen or something."
Toph hit him very soundly in the side.
"Don't say that. You'll just jinx us and it'll happen. Again!"
"Ugh, I am so not up for stairs right now," Sokka complained. He and Long Feng set Aang down, just long enough for Sokka to rifle through Aang's clothes. Triumphantly, Sokka extracted a weird shaped whistle. He held it up to his lips, blowing. A rumbling groan echoed up to them, and then a loud thump. The bison was flying toward them. Sokka gestured proudly. "That's what I'm talking about!"
The bison landed in front of them soon enough, quelling any further cheer. It was enough to climb onto the animal, careful not to jostle Katara or Aang unduly, and then settle in for the flight with quiet anxiety. The weird little lemur the Avatar always had with him was also on the bison, and he flapped his wings, jumping up into the air to fly over to Aang, chittering his distress. Sokka sat on the head of the bison, picking up the reins and quietly commanding the beast to rise. The bison slapped its tail against the ground, and soon they were airborne.
The wind coursed through Zuko's hair, slowly for all that they didn't know where they were going. It was cool up here, empty. He looked back down at the palace. There was no sign of the fight, no mark or change.
He chuckled darkly to himself. Sometimes the biggest changes left no mark.
"Where to?" Toph asked.
"The North," Sokka said. He looked like he'd been thinking about it all during their escape. "That's the only place where there are healers that I know of."
Zuko thought briefly of Song and her small town clinic, but she dealt in poultices and herbs, not electrocution or stabbings. He didn't think his face would be very welcome, regardless.
"North it is," he acceded with a sigh.
"I hate to tell you," Long Feng began silkily, tone belying his words. He had settled between Aang and Katara, monitoring both of them. He raised an eyebrow, angling a look Zuko's way. "But this girl will not survive to the North Pole."
"What?" Sokka shouted. He scrambled onto the saddle, fists balled at his side as he looked helplessly between his sister and Long Feng. "What did you do?"
"What I could," Long Feng said, eyes narrowed. He reached down onto the saddle, picking up a long, thin spike of marble. "I removed what projectiles and shrapnel I could. But I am not a healed, and I could only prevent further damage, not repair what is there. She is bleeding out. But there is someone here who can stop that."
Again he fixed his gaze on Zuko. His breath caught in his throat.
"Fire can't heal!" he snapped back.
"No, but it can cauterize. Which is precisely what she needs."
"I can't. Didn't you see back there? I've lost my firebending!"
"Mm, true enough. I guess she'll die," Long Feng said. He didn't sound particularly troubled by the thought.
Zuko stared at him, feeling rage welling up inside him, bilious and acidic. Katara was going to die – defending this man's city – and he just shrugged it off?
With steadiness born of anger rather than confidence, Zuko moved quickly to Katara's side, dropping down to kneel next to her. Now that he got a good look at her, it was clear precisely what the damage was, and it was also clear precisely what needed to be done. Her side was dark with blood, slowly but steadily seeping out. Even through her tunic, Zuko could see that it was not the puncture wounds that were the problem – a good thing, since there was nothing he could have done about those. Those were minor. The problem was the large gash in her side, relatively shallow but long and still bleeding.
Zuko looked to her face. Her complexion had gone ashen and her breathing was more rapid than it ought to be. There was also a small lump on her head, and it was a relief to realize that was what was keeping her unconscious, rather than the blood loss.
Maybe that would make it easier. He would have to burn her, but he wouldn't have to see the pain in her eyes when he did it.
He tilted his head, folding back the layer of her tunic for his first look at the cut flesh itself. He laid his hand against it. He compared his hand against her skin, noting how alike they looked. His hands, his clothes, maybe even his hair, were already dark with her blood. With a deep gulp, he pressed down, feeling the length and breadth of the cut. Katara shuddered in pain, and Zuko jerked back, eyes widening in surprise. She didn't wake up, though, merely going limp once more.
"Okay," Zuko breathed out. Fire was in the breath.
The wound fit against his hand, and he pressed once more. He thought of his father burning him years ago, about Katara's light touch on his face. He focused on the churning, sickening self-loathing the contradicting thoughts produced, channeling it into his hand to create a white hot glow.
Agni, that smell. He remembered that smell.
Katara squirmed again, crying out. Her eyes snapped open, going to his. He shook his head frantically, unable to explain but willing her to understand what he was doing. Her hand clutched weakly at his arm, trying to force him away. He held just a moment longer, just long enough to be sure, and then let her push him back.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered.
Katara shook her head wordlessly, breath coming in pained hiccups. Sokka appeared from over Zuko's shoulder, moving in close. Katara pressed her face to his side, sobbing.
Zuko edged away as much as he could.
"Hey," Sokka said softly. Zuko looked to his face. It swam in front of his eyes, focusing only briefly into a grateful, understanding look. "Don't blame yourself. You did what you had to do. She'll get that.
"And thanks," Sokka added. "I really owe you."
Zuko nodded shakily, not really believing him.
Long Feng sat gazing out over the Earth Kingdom, toward the retreating walls of Ba Sing Se. There was a cunning, angry look on his face.
"The Earth Kingdom," he pronounced, "has fallen. But it will be mine again."
"Sure," Toph told him tiredly. "You get right on that."
He threw a glower her way, which she did not notice, before going back to plotting. For her part, she let out a jaw cracking yawn, slumping down against the back part of the saddle, and falling quickly into exhausted, earned slumber.
Zuko was hardly in the mood to join either of them, so he instead turned his attention to Aang. The boy was still breathing, still hanging in there, but when Zuko touched his wrist to feel his pulse, he could feel it fluttering with arrhythmia.
Hang in there, he thought. The kid had to survive to the North.
Or else Zuko had just joined the losing side.