The Bridge 6 : She's Come Undone
by Rob Morris
She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for ; It was too late
She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly ; It was too late
It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone
She wanted truth
But all she got was lies
Came the time to realize ; And it was too late
She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for ; Mama, it was too late
It's too late
She's gone too far
She's lost the sun
She's come undone
1969 - The Guess Who, "Undun"
The pronouncement of Fire Lord Zuko was both a relief and a disappointment to Suki of The Kyoshi Warriors.
"I release you from your vow to spy on our two peoples. I also thank you, both as a ruler, and as a friend."
Suki knew this wasn't the wisest choice strategically, but it was a relief to her mind and soul.
"I just wish I'd found something, somewhere. But either things really are this calm, or all our efforts to find some guiding hand have already been factored in and discounted by-well, this guiding hand-if there is one. Or if it doesn't exist, is that just what it wants us to think-but if it doesn't exist, then how does it want anything-Sokka, how do you manage this?"
A young woman broke out of trying to emulate her young man. Instead, she looked with concern upon a young man she had seen target and burn her village a year prior and asked him a sincere question.
"Are you all right?"
"Suki, not again, and not now."
"Is that the plea of a friend, or the command of The Fire Lord?"
Zuko could not bring himself to bark at this woman.
"Plea. Please?"
Suki still looked annoyed.
"I made a promise to Mai. Do not expect me to relent entirely."
"Fine. Keep the promise to the woman who defeated you to keep a loving eye on the man who tried to burn you alive."
Suki snarked back gently as she withdrew, gaining a broad grin.
"So long as you understand."
Zuko then bid his servants prepare him for the transfer of power in Ba Sing Se. No one would dare ask, but if they did, he would not bother to deny that the revelation in Omashu was still hitting both him and Aang like the proverbial ton of spun earth. The Avatar glided in to the Fire Palace, landing only feet from his ally in the great struggle for the world, and now in its rebuilding. The servants and soldiers, accustomed to this, now stirred only slightly. When Zuko was finished being dressed, he and Aang struck out on Appa. It was only then and there, with Katara guiding Appa, that the two began to talk freely.
"You've been tracing the supposed routes."
Aang shrugged.
"I know what Sokka said. But there is no way Air-Bending was used to get your mother out of the Fire Nation. The veteran soldiers all told me of the precautions Sozin and Azulon instituted against rogue Airbender attacks, even keeping them when it seemed pointless."
Zuko tried to keep his tied-up hair and comb in place from the wind's assault.
"Certain units and commanders were punished by being demoted to that duty, after a while. But if Sokka was correct, there was no way they used Airbending in places any civilized person knew of, anyway."
Aang struggled to recall the sage words of Monk Gyatso.
"I was always told that, should an Airbender hit up against a situation that just made directing wind impossible, they should trace back the path of the elements to make up for it."
Zuko caught on quickly.
"So they would be starting from Fire, going back to Earth, and then to Water. Each in its own way can provide flight, if applied correctly. The Fire Nation had airships, used to reach Airbender temples, and whose exit and entry from a nation conducting a war would be at least less scrutinized, particularly at the time of a succession and coup."
Both knew the Temples were not a possible location, and so Zuko kept on.
"An airship ditched in either the established Fire Nation colonies or at the border of the expansion zones would also not be noticed as much, though my people re-invented paranoia on that front as well. No tattoos, am I right?"
Aang was almost horrified to think of such 'naked' Airbenders, but nodded in agreement.
"Hoods and sleeves fall off at the wrong time. Hair can be seen through. So no markings. Especially less than ten years ago."
Zuko was frightened by how coldly logical they were being. Yet if Ursa and the Air Nomads did all this, logic would have to be strictly in play. The Fire Nation and those cowed by it were simply too corrupt or too despairing for this badly wanted group to rely on sympathy or fellow travelers of any stripe.
"The Earth Kingdom is called that for more than one reason. It has a lot of mountain passages. Were your people adept at handling high winds when not airborne?"
"Like I said, part of our earliest training."
"Then they could have taken the highest, most treacherous mountain paths-provided they had a Waterbender or two with them."
Katara, silent until now, added in.
"Makes sense they'd find allies there. They never hit us as hard as they did the Airbenders, but wiping us out was obviously on Sozin and Azulon's minds. And no offense - we can be a lot sneakier about hiding what we can do. In a mountain pass, a Waterbender could clear away ice and snow, use it to hide their movements and provide them with something every traveler needs."
Zuko stretched his own mind back to painful times.
"My mother was given charge over a basically phony charity my grandfather sponsored for imprisoned benders like the ones taken from the Southern Water Tribe. She was eventually removed for being too nice to them, even though that was supposedly what she was told to do. As a little boy, I heard one of them say, 'Ursa is our Angel!'. I-I think I spat at him. Aang-"
The Avatar, looking flushed, suddenly erupted in anger.
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT THIS ANYMORE, OKAY?"
Aang immediately covered his mouth, and looked about him. He looked away from his friends.
"Guys, I don't know why I did that."
Zuko was mock-sarcastic.
"Gee, we're only pulling scabs off of barely-healed wounds that are still raw like they were brand-new."
The two titans of the world fell silent, but Katara now thought back to the incredible news her brother had revealed in Omashu.
OMASHU, A WEEK PRIOR
"Lady Ursa is with the Air Nomads."
Zuko looked down, and breathed in.
"All warnings and precautions aside, I am giving you a minute to tell me this is some misguided attempt at humor."
Aang had a look on his face that said essentially the same thing. But Sokka did not freak, laugh stupidly, or try and explain his lie, because it was not a lie.
"I get it. Believe me. Why do you think I've held off on telling you this?"
When neither young leader could speak, the women who held them dear did.
"Brother, explain your theory."
Mai reinforced something normally self-evident.
"You have our trust."
The tension in the room was beyond any Bent, even to the power of the Avatar State, to wade through comfortably. Sokka did his best, and all appreciated this, concerned looks or light glares aside.
"It'll be easier if I explain how I came by this explanation-this theory-though I believe it's the only real possibility. Okay. We know that Lady Ursa made a deal to get out of town once she-enabled the coup against Azulon-uhh yeah. We also know, from Ozai's journals, that he had high hopes of dragging her right back in, and lying through his teeth about any claims she would make about why she did what she did..."
Sokka shifted his stance and stood with his hands each over the opposite wrist. A disdainful glare was on his face.
*How dare this treasonous assassin make such assertions about my father's untimely passing. Do any of you believe Mighty Gracious Azulon would demand my son's death, when he was already mourning a grandson, my nephew, the fallen Martyr Lu Ten?*
Sokka's imitation had none of its usual humor, emphasized when he leaned forward and seemed on the verge of joining Iroh in breathing fire as he finished his words. He breathed and shifted back.
"Sorry. But that kind of thing helps me get inside people's heads. Alright. Zuko? Is it fair to say that your mother knew what sort of man she was married to?"
That answer was easy.
"Only too well."
Sokka's next question brushed against a very tender line, but Zuko understood it immediately.
"If he had caught your mother back when, would he have hesitated to either publicly execute her or at least loudly make people aware he had done so?"
Zuko wished he had the difficulty answering such a question that Sokka had supposed of him.
"Sozin and Azulon liked keeping such things quiet. My father was loud. He was all about loud. If-If he had caught my mother, he might have even used what she did as an excuse to be rid of me. Yeah-if he had her, he would have crowed about it long before we met up during Black Sun."
Sokka paced the floor, but once more this did not seem in tune with his past efforts to amuse or look dramatic. Katara was once more growing unnerved. The universe may have loved proving her brother wrong, but she was fairly certain the powers of creation did not want a serious Sokka. That was one twist no one needed.
"So Ursa knew that Ozai could not be trusted. Ozai would have burst rather than not make a show of Ursa's trial, if he could have done it. This is the Fire Nation we're talking about, so Ursa likely had an existing escape route planned, maybe at one time including a way to get Zuko out. Maybe she was afraid Unc would try to take his rightful throne back, Ozai aside. But each probable answer pushes us to new questions."
His improved art skills aside, Sokka was drawing a verbal picture that drew his audience in a hundred-fold over his best work with ink and charcoal.
"Trusting no one in the Fire Nation of six to eight years ago isn't just propaganda. It was reality. We saw firsthand that even the Fire Sages, supposedly in service to the Avatar, had long since sworn for the Fire Lord. Now maybe the odd person in the street hated the war and its costs, but I don't think it too much of a stretch to say Ursa would have trouble finding someone who wouldn't drop the coin on her, be it loyalty, fear, or desire for Ozai's favor in play."
Zuko and Mai knew that what Sokka was saying spoke very poorly of their people. Yet they also knew just how accurate it was. There was no one Ursa could have dared turn to, perhaps even in the Earth Kingdom towns that bordered with Fire Nation colonies. Unless she reached Ba Sing Se - and both they and Azula had checked for that - Ursa could not possibly have felt safe setting up a plan of escape where moles and spies thrived. Even in the case of Ba Sing Se, Ozai would have known. The walls may have once been impenetrable, but they could always be watched.
"Now, guys-and ladies-I'll admit I was up against it. No one who is known and accounted for could or likely would have given Lady Ursa aid and comfort without betraying her or being betrayed themselves. But she did get out. The kind of search Ozai's soldiers gave the capitol city was almost-eeehh-medical in nature. So what's left?"
Katara was surprised to find her brother's model was not as hard to follow as she thought. To her delight, it had a flow of its own. The Water Tribesman's heritage shone through, bending or no.
"Someone who shouldn't be there at all, right, Sokka?"
Sokka drank down some water, and downed a sausage bread.
"Glad you picked up on that one so quickly, little sister. Because it took me basically forever. But like said, one answer, ten new questions at minimum. How can someone outside of scrutiny be there, when you have a war, a paranoid but brilliant Fire Family, along with soldiers and a populace so patriotic and so fearful ready to pounce on any outsiders? Let's face facts - absent Aang's abilities, our little school infiltration was always on the verge of being exposed, and those were kids and uptight teachers, not trained hostile-sniffers."
For emphasis, Sokka pointed to each of the high room's three windows in turn.
"Lady Ursa's own servants were probably loyal to her, but you can bet they were either long since infiltrated or failing that, kept an eye on by Ozai's servants-or even Azula's."
Most seemed surprised by the last assertion. But Zuko said nothing and Mai shrugged.
"Yes, a little girl told her servants to spy on other servants. And this surprises you why?"
Sokka pointed to the second window.
"Lady Ursa had no relatives to speak of anymore. Sozin may have put a good public spin on his falling out with Roku, but he apparently made sure that all who could serve from Roku's clan got frontline positions. Preferably places where the frontline kept moving. The war did the rest, and most of Roku's kin ended up serving the cause looking like loyal martyrs. Who could she have left? This was the part that almost made me promise to give up meat in exchange for a sign. Yet it was meat showed me the way."
The smile on Sokka's face almost provoked Aang into yet another statement about his beliefs. But if that protest broke Sokka's train of thought, no one would have forgiven him, least of all himself. So the verbal essay continued.
"Okay, how meat? Simple. A rat stole my drumstick, and ducked into a corner. Gone. At first, I cursed this rat like you would not believe."
Aang gave up his silence.
"Sokka, you're way off track, and besides, the rat was only going where the food was, and then to where safety was. With how clever you can be, that corner was probably the only safe place for the rat to go."
Sokka nodded.
"Give the Avatar a smoked cabbage roll with cheese! See, I realized my mistake. Whoever helped Ursa, it could not have been a mere favor, or even a friendship. At that point, if she had family, probably some couldn't have been trusted. This is not the sort of thing you can ask around about or even hint at. No, this was so insane-risk-full that there had to be a blood debt involved. But who would owe an almost-Queen such a debt?"
Sokka shook his head.
"She may have been nobility, but she was only royalty by a thread. She may have known how to fight, to hear it told, but she never saw the war, a fertile place for that kind of debt. No way Lady Ilah's kin would have taken her in - not only would they hate her and what she did, but they worshipped Unc and thought his butt in the Burning Seat would end the war through sheer radiated wisdom. They learned the hard way that Ozai remembered all slights."
Zuko knew he shouldn't concur with something so obvious, but some things were instinctive.
"Yeah. Kind of-yeah. He did."
Sokka knew that this was draining his audience as well as him, so he moved to wrap it up.
"So turned around, the question becomes less who got Ursa away and more why would they do it? So in that light, the blood-debt wasn't to her specifically, but to her clan. That means the debt was to Roku, or to Roku's widow and children. The war began after his death. After Sozin betrayed him. He hunted the new Avatar even as his friend's bones were turning to dust. In less than fifteen years time, the Air Nomads were a people on the run, with nowhere to hide, and being wiped out wherever they landed. Then there was the 'Map Marking' that Sozin ordered."
Aang broke the flow momentarily.
"Umm, we're not just talking about making marks on a map-scroll, are we? No, this is Sozin. Of course we're not. Geez, Zuko, did your people do anything besides give cutesy names to horrible stuff?"
Zuko shook his head.
"Nope. There was even a bureaucrat called 'Secretary Of Iron Euphemisms' until one of them displeased Azulon with something he called *Operation : Under The Flame Of The Fire*. Oh, boy, do I have a screwed up lineage."
Sokka brought it back, which once again had him in the uncomfortable position of most mature man in the room. He vowed to make his friends pay for this one day.
"Could we focus? Yeah, the Map Marking was as ominous as it sounds. Places even remotely suspected of hiding Air Folk were bombarded into craters, often without warning, and even within the borders of the Fire Nation-though they gave more warning there. So where could an Air Nomad flee that it wouldn't just see their hosts and protectors killed along with them?"
Suki had been told the news before the others, but was still struck into reacting. Somehow, seeing her man's brain at full gallop let her know how he must have felt seeing her in action. She had a formidable brain, and he could fight. But there was picking up a brush, and then there was art.
"That's the connection! Wow-they would hide with a family living in the Fire Nation capitol itself-and it would be a family of means that felt a connection to all four nations, through the last Avatar. You told me all this, but it never clicked till just now."
Sokka called the revelatory session to a close.
"A group of Air Nomads turned to the family of the fallen Avatar for protection. They granted it, and the Nomads were gratefully and cheerfully in their debt. Roku's clan knew they were being whittled down, and so asked the Nomads to plot a way out of the Fire Nation that no one could trace. Because Sozin lied about how Roku died, he and Azulon were - at least directly - not able to so much as breathe on what was seen as a loyal and great clan. When the time came, the Nomads were true to their word and got the Lady out. As for the rest-"
A touch to the back of his neck put the unsteady man off his feet.
"-as to the rest, he needs some."
Since what Sokka had said bowled them over so thoroughly, no one resented Suki's disallowing for anything more that day.
THE PRESENT, THE SKIES OVERLOOKING BA SING SE
About the only resentment Sokka faced was keeping this information from them for weeks after his 'super-brain' episode had put it together. The thing was, and all seemed to understand, while in his talkative-even-for-him phase, Sokka knew the potential hurt his words could have. So, while in the process of this he turned his attentions to arranging a truce/treaty meeting between Zuko and Northern Chief Arnook. The Chief had asked that Sokka and Suki's first child should become his royal heir, owing to the fact that Yue might well have chosen Sokka as her husband, given time that she turned out not to have. Added to this was Sokka's status as the only son of Chief Hakoda, potentially reuniting the Northern and Southern Tribes. This tender request only made Zuko all the more nervous upon meeting the man who had sustained an invasion Zuko himself played a backhanded role in.
*Not to mention losing a daughter to Zhao's blasphemous treachery. I never thought I'd say this of anyone, but I hope the spirits torment and task his dark soul. I wonder what my father would have thought when the fish catches went down to nothing, and ladies stopped having as many children. Who am I kidding? He'd blame it on me, and tell Azula to have a lot more heirs. She'd relish the challenge. Why do I keep looking to these people for anything resembling basic Humanity?*
Needless to say, it was Iroh who had told his nephew of the possible consequences of Zhao's murder of the Moon Spirit, had the brave Northern Princess not given all she had to undo it. Later conversations with Sokka while on the way to the Boiling Rock rescue gave the distinct impression that Iroh, for all his chilling words, had if anything been euphemistic for his nephew's sake when talking of this.
*So many little Zhaos in this war, most made by our side. Another one I owe Sokka. Soldiers need something to do, so war crimes were punished by community service undoing what harm they caused, enforced by the locals they used to bully. Not everyone was delighted by this, but if we didn't save actual trials for the worst of the worst, we'd spend another century sorting it all out.*
That life-loving Aang endorsed this scheme helped it along, both with Zuko and the general populace. So far, only fourteen executions-and one lynching—but given what the accused Commander had personally done and allowed to occur under his watch, Zuko immediately pardoned the people involved, partly at Mai's insistence. To compound the humiliation of the remaining soldiers under this unlamented man's watch, they were hauled off not by the Avatar, as they'd 'demanded' upon their surrender, but by the Kyoshi, who, as Ty Lee told them upon arrival :
"We're your worst nightmare – girls who can hit back. Like-THIS!"
The phrase 'where it counts' had never been quite so apt.
On the ground, Iroh awaited his nephew, dressed in full armor as the General he once was. Yet now this armor was the green of his new home, and he carried the banner of the Earth Kingdom. The show was set to begin. Iroh pointed.
"Fire Lord Zuko! I speak for the people of The Great City, once called Impenetrable. I lay at your feet the demand that you end the occupation of and by The Fire Nation-forever!"
Zuko bowed at the man who had loved him enough to rescue his soul, once far more scorched than his face had ever been.
"General Iroh, once leader of our forces here. Do you now say that you stand with the Earth Kingdom, and speak against my continued rule?"
The people knew they were watching theatre, but they loved every minute of it as Iroh responded.
"My time here cost me my son, but gained me an appreciation for beauty and majesty that can never be owned by one man, or even one people. Like our precious planet itself. So here I stand, where I will live, and where I plan to die."
The next moment was unscripted, and meant as a tender surprise, payment to a very great man.
"General Iroh, I will yield up the freedom of the Earth Kingdom, its capital and its people, if you will agree to one term and condition."
Iroh hid his surprise, but not completely.
"What is your term, and what is your condition, Fire Lord Zuko?"
If the people in attendance thought that some sort of military or land arrangement was about to be laid down, they were happily badly mistaken. Zuko rose up and smiled.
"The fallen Fire Lord Ozai has spurned me, as he has done before. Your son, Lu Ten, fell in this place under strange circumstances."
Now, Iroh knew, and could not contain his smile as Zuko finished.
"Let the condition of our hearts be also the letter of the law between us. Let me be your son, in the eyes of all, and let me call you Father."
Iroh held his boy close.
"This boy needs a father. Do any here object if I make him my son?"
The cheers were rousing, even among the most cynical in the crowd. Zuko turned to them as Iroh wiped away tears of joy.
"By my father's wish, and in the name of justice, the Fire Nation apologizes for its aggressions of times past and restores the great and mighty Earth Kingdom to its status as a power of this world. You will have our aid. But our crowns are once more separate. These are the words of Zuko RLF. But your kingdom has no ruler. King Kuei will not be returning to you..."
Boos and hisses erupted, but a snatch of the dialogue behind them told Zuko they were not aimed at him.
"Don't be too hard on Kuei. There's a lot of days I just want to find someplace where nobody knows me or my friends, and just farm our days away. I get why he did what he did. But the Earth Kingdom does need a ruler. Father, will you serve as this?"
This part got back to their basic script, much to Iroh's delight.
"No, my son. I was once a potential conqueror, then an actual liberator. But I am now made ruler over tea leaves and tasty pastries. I will not take the Enduring Throne."
Zuko looked about him, partly for show, and partly for fear that the new King had backed out.
"The Fire Nation's reign in The Great City is done! Who will put their back to The Enduring Throne, and thereby be the stone spine of this great kingdom?"
Thankfully, and a bit more seriously than normal, a voice came in positive response.
"I will put my back to that throne, and I will be that spine! I am Bumi Of Omashu, and my ancestors were Earth Kings of old. If my brother of lineage Kuei cannot find his way back, then I offer up a King of vintage and skill. People Of The Great City-Will You Have Me?"
The murmurs from the crowd were mixed. Zuko would declare Bumi Earth King no matter what happened, barring a revolt. But he wanted the people with them on this.
"Father! Will you lend your aid to the 53rd Earth King in this great ambition?"
"My son-as he had my aid in taking back this wonderful city, he will have that aid in raising it back up."
Captain - once Lieutenant Rondorz of the Fire Nation's occupation army, lent his voice unbidden. Zuko forgave this immediately, for his voice was needed.
"By your command, Fire Lord, we who were once thugs and wastrels now pledge our service to the 53rd Earth King, and we shall obey him in all things, unless directed to attack our homeland. We shall stay until told to go, and then do so with all speed."
This was expected but still good news to have confirmed. Rondorz' reorganization of their forces into a small police force had earned his squad the gratitude of a people who had no enemy occupying them, but who also had no walls to keep bandits and such out. Zuko did his best to seal the deal.
"People of Ba Sing Se - by treachery and treason, your walls were taken from you, but it was your spirit that was truly impenetrable. It was your spirit that made my predecessor so fearful, he enacted a plan to ruin the world! By all the authority I have left in this city, I issue one last command to you : Embrace your destiny, which is not servitude, but FREEDOM!"
In fact, Zuko knew well that he had relinquished all such authority, but good theater is good theater, and it did the trick as the crowd cried out first his name, then Bumi's. But if good theater serves purposes, missteps can derail them as well.
"Thank You! You have proven my new father right about the strength I saw but tried to deny existed in this place when we fled here. Now, let's not kid ourselves. There are people I hurt in the Earth Kingdom, and I mean me personally. I've tried to track all of them down, and make compensation for the acts not of a storied ruler, but of a petty thief. And to answer a letter from one young lady I met here one evening-sorry, I'm kind of engaged, now. You'd like her-I think. Ummm-anyway, I pledge to you and the people of all nations that I will, henceforth, maintain and uphold the tradition of my great-grandfather!"
Iroh, and then Bumi, put their hands to their heads, and Aang's eyes went wide indeed. When the crowd fell to stunned silence, Zuko finally realized what he had failed to say.
"Of-Of course, I meant by that, my Great-Grandfather Avatar Roku! Not-not-not-ya know, Comet Guy-definitely not him-uhhh-"
The new heir to the Earth Kingdom rescued a new friend from his tripping tongue.
"Hiya, Folks - I'm Oma, your new Princess-and I'm not a narcissistic psycho with Mommy issues."
She waved at the crowd and they cheered, their minds almost off of Zuko's flubbing of his lines.
Zuko for his part would not forget it anytime soon.
"Well, my son, a King must on occasion prove himself to be also a man-and boy, did you accomplish that. Oh, brother, did you accomplish that."
Seeing that Zuko was already aware of his mistake, Iroh relented, but Aang did not.
"Oh, it is so your turn in the barrel. But don't worry-I'll leave it all in Sokka's hands."
The Fire Lord knew he would be zinged, and Sokka wasn't even the worst of it. Omashu's new queen, Toph, would send a messenger with a horrid groaner joke at his expense. Worst of all, Zuko knew why he was so distracted.
*I also know who I have to see to end this distraction. The two people I want least to see, ever again. Wow. This job is really all about having no choice.*
It was also all about getting very little rest at times. The Fire Lord, the Avatar and the woman who would gain the title "Burukazul" in regards to her victory over a Princess who was a narcissistic psycho (with plenty of Mommy issues) departed while Bumi entertained questions from his new subjects. Iroh merely gave his new son a thumbs-up before hearing one of Bumi's responses.
"...in every pot? Well, the way I see it, first you need to buy, find or catch a chicken. I'll help out where I can, but really, you need to meet me half-way on some of these things..."
None of them had the courage to once more broach the tender subject that had upended their lives, so the trip to the Northern Water Tribe was made up of wishes for toppings on Two Guys' Plaza Pies, cracks about Zuko's comedic performance, and an extended if pointless exercise in wondering how things would have gone if Zuko had joined them in Ba Sing Se. When Aang spoke of lessons Gyatso had given him about "other worlds" where such things could be reality, it seemed like even Appa started getting dizzy, and the conversation stopped.
Sokka and Suki awaited them, and with Aang, they slept atop Appa, who took a well-deserved rest as well while food was gathered for them. Aang was going to once more "work the circuit" of towns along the probable routes Lady Ursa could have taken. This time, he would make full stops and actually provide aid to even the smallest projects, hoping that more active involvement would shake loose some memories. Sokka was continuing his investigation, as well as keeping his promise to the palace staff not to leave them alone with Regent Ty Lee for too long. Suki had decided that, released promise or no, she had to at least travel and keep an ear out for any plotting. Their new ruler was legit, but something about the situation wasn't. She would be proven wrong in this, and then horribly right on a level none had even guessed at.
Zuko met Arnook next to the spot that saw Zhao vanish forever. There, they shook hands, where a hand of rescue was scornfully refused. Arnook looked at the water.
"We never found a body. But then, when you consider who took him down, that's not too great a shock."
Zuko shook his head.
"The only reason I'd want him back was to face trial. Probably, even then, some of his former command might see to it he never got there. Chief, there's no chance he made it out, is there?"
Arnook looked annoyed, but then saw that Zuko asked this out of fear, not some misguided sympathy.
"Fire Lord, what do you think?"
Zuko took a chance, and relayed the growing fear that he and his friends had that a conspiracy of some kind was forming outside their vision. Arnook seemed to appreciate being allowed into their confidence, with one exception.
"Why didn't Sokka or Suki inform me of these concerns? Or you, when we first briefly met?"
"Because for how much those two love to joke around, they tend to be serious about things that are extremely serious. Besides, I think the Water Tribes are too far removed to direct such an effort, if it existed. Plus, I wanted them to assure you I was for real, not make you think I was an idiot, jumping at shadows we can't even see."
Arnook silently conceded the point about the Tribes' remoteness, especially since it was based on simple geography, not a slight against their intellect or capabilities.
"To have such concerns, Fire Lord, is not idiocy. But to let them consume you might be. Is there anything I can offer you in this? Like you said, we're not positioned to even hear loose talk where we are."
Zuko sighed.
"I guess...I have no fellow rulers to talk to. Bumi and Toph are just settling in, Kuei's off in the islands, Chief Hakoda is a lot like his son, and I already have Sokka as an advisor. Chief-I had a nightmare about me turning to my father for advice, and in the dream, he seemed to make such sense-until I realized who I had turned to, ran outside the jail-and saw the world at war once again, all because I once again listened to that monster."
In later years, Arnook would confess that this was the moment he knew the boy in front of him would become a great ruler, perhaps the greatest the world had yet known.
"I would offer up this-Zuko. Of all the minds capable of thinking up such a masterful, always-in-the-corner-of-your-eye sort of scheme, the two most likely candidates are both in your custody. I believe some of my people, both North and South, could rise to that level, but where would they find the experience, being on defense for the last one hundred years? I doubt most Earth Kingdom folk would hire a Dai-Li to sweep their shops, let alone lead them in a scheme that takes us back to war. An unknown is possible, but they would have had to have been outside the loop in all nations for a century that saw the old world and ways shattered, so where would their following be?"
Zuko nodded.
"Aang pointed out that someone seeking to make their mark and shake things up wouldn't do it with an artificial peace, anyway."
Arnook looked at the moon, standing by a young man who had sadly redefined its meaning for him.
"She's in crescent mode, right now. I think it's actually easier to see her face - not that it's really there, mind you. Did I mention she met Suki during the last solstice? She gave her approval - and then joked she was seeing Koh The Face-Stealer anyway, so it was all good. When my eyes went wide, she laughed - that lovely, lovely laugh - and said "Fath-er! As If!" I think my point is, Zuko, that there are phases to all things. The state of the world is that of a New Moon. In its light, you have tried to build on the goodwill of the people and their desire to see war done with. If this peaceful time is all a schemer's prop, then there is nothing you can do that you haven't done. You were heroes at the end of the Great War, heroes in rebuilding, and you will be heroes once more if you are pressed to do so. The only ones I pity are the people, who will be the first to suffer in such a scheme, and the schemer or schemers themselves, being up against all of you. Because, without an ounce of proof that they exist, and without so much as a two-second glance at their plans, I say that they are already defeated."
Zuko smiled, and once more they shook hands. He decided it was time to get back to business.
"Now, all we have to do is nail down a treaty to make that Merchant Fleet Chief Hakoda proposed."
Arnook waved his hand dismissively.
"Since all agree that this should happen, let's just leave it to the diplomats. You're here for a week, Zuko. Come fishing with me. It's the one thing I could never persuade my daughter to do, after she was a certain age. You can pepper me with rulership questions, and I can make clear what I expect of the Fire Nation in the long term. Then you can tell me where to stuff both my answers and my demands."
Zuko liked the thought of quiet time a lot. His words in Ba Sing Se had been true ones. Kuei's idea of running away was one he did not resent entirely.
"Thank you, Chief Arnook. I accept your offer - but I do the cooking."
"It is simply Arnook. Cooking agreed to-but we may hit a thunderstorm or two as well."
Zuko made a joke about being good with lightning, and a week of ice fishing plus relay diplomacy began. The world did not fall apart in his absence, yet the week went by too quickly, and as two teams of exhausted diplomats set sail for Ba Sing Se, the Fire Lord prepared to depart on Appa to confront two members of his family as his quest for a third kept on.
"Chief - I hope that I learn as much from you as my nation has taken away from yours. Arnook of The Northern Tribes - I offer you my hospitality in that nation - and ask that you serve as witnessing ruler when the Lady Mai and I finally wed."
"Zuko of The Fire Nation - I'll be there with bells on."
If Arnook's figurative and nearly literal embrace of a young man who ruled the nation that had cost him his daughter might seem odd to some, the Chief might explain it as his delight that Zuko met and exceeded every last assurance Aang, Katara, Sokka and his fellow Chief Hakoda had given him. His daughter's life had restored the moon; if foregoing a grudge for her loss restored the world, then the Chief needed no cipher-board to do that math. Besides, in the earnest young people of the Avatar's group, he saw Yue's spirit enduring below as it did above. But after Zuko left, Arnook turned to one of his officers.
"What about this conspiracy?"
A spy-master who was to intelligent subtlety as Long Feng was to ham-fisted slap-downs answered his liege.
"Ever since Commander Sokka blurted out and retracted that talk, my people have been active, but found nothing. Yet still, we are troubled."
Arnook watched as the sky-bison finally vanished over the horizon.
"Define troubled."
"Arnook - you know me. Never go in for gut instinct except when needed or left with no choice. I don't want vague impressions. I want pilfered documents. I want yapping defectors I can turn into double agents. I want to know the favorite rare foods of every city council member in creation. I want to know about the families people love to brag on - and I want to know about the families they may have hidden on the side. That's me. But this time is different."
Arnook waited for his friend to keep on.
"This time, I say those kids are right. This peace is wonderful, but I dunno. Like they say in the old stories, maybe a little too quiet."
Arnook nodded.
"But you have nothing concrete. Well, there goes my hope of giving Zuko intel as a wedding gift."
"We have nothing period. Besides-you should give furniture. I don't care who they are - a young couple always needs furniture."
A message from Sing Se gave happy news of new walls raised up at the city's rear, making its defense much easier. As Zuko went to see the man he once called Father, he mused that this might be the only good news he got that day.
"Ahhh-here for my monthly interrogation? I'll save you some time - she is located -"
Zuko finished Ozai's riddling mantra for him.
"My mother is located as far as I care to look, and just five steps after I give up. You know, for the first few months, I really analyzed that one. Told no one about it, even Mai. Analyzed every last second of our time together. Every glance and glare. Every little joke and insult. The first time you told me I was lucky to be born, and the very last words we spoke before the war council meeting."
Ozai was feigning not paying attention, as he often did, so Zuko burnt the bread he was reaching for.
"Imagine my surprise when I finally told a friend about your riddle, and he promptly told me 'Dude, You're Being Scammed. I'll bet he doesn't even know where your Mother is!'. My only regret is, I didn't catch on sooner."
Ozai's sneer no longer affected one who had memorized it as few others had.
"Who was this? Your boyfriend from the Water Tribes?"
Zuko had a response ready.
"If Sokka were my boyfriend, I'd still be doing better than my mother ever did - besides, you snore."
The prisoner rose up in a fury.
"I DO NOT SNORE!"
Zuko reflected his former father's practiced sneer back at him.
"Wow. You are so easy."
Ozai looked every inch the petulant child as he sat back down.
"If not to question me, then why have you come here?"
Zuko mentally warned himself not to enjoy his superior position too much. It was the hardest thing he'd had to do since the war ended, but he kept it up.
"To enlighten you, if that's even possible. First order of business is, you've been disowned. Do Not Call Me Son, Even In Anger Or Disdain. For I No Longer Call You Father."
The first real look of surprise and even shock Zuko had ever seen on Ozai's face now emerged, but it was quickly and slickly replaced by what Zuko finally realized was a manufactured smile.
"Then you've also surrendered your claim to the throne - which flowed through me."
Zuko was burning inside upon realizing just how much of Ozai's seeming invincibility over the years was simply that much bluster and hot air. How many times had he fallen for it?
"You are reaalllly stuck on yourself, you know that? Grandfather's supposed last will only placed you ahead of your brother - it didn't entirely disinherit him. My claim flows through General Iroh, a man respected throughout the world."
Before Ozai could issue some rant or insult, Zuko pre-emptively cut him off.
"Please-just don't. You never wanted me. I was just a numbers game you played to get revenge on my new father. You know, first born disdained, second-born handed it all, including endless votes of confidence? Face it, former Fire Lord Ozai - you and me, we're done. Cheer up - you still have your soul-copied daughter to chat with-if she ever learns to speak whole sentences again-and overcomes that whole potty training thing."
Again, Zuko moved to shut the de-clawed monster down.
"Eppppp-No. If you go at me now, unless it is actually an insult you've never before used on me-I will give you a scar to match mine."
Ozai's lower lip was shaking. Of course, as Zuko guessed, that quiver of original insults was empty. So the prisoner turned back to business.
"You said you had two things to tell me."
"Yes. The second thing is about our duel."
This time, Zuko did not cut Ozai off, but rather allowed him enough rope to complete fastening the noose.
"Oh? Is this about how cruel I was? How uncaring, to scar and whip a disobedient boy? How I was, dare I say it-?"
Zuko rolled his eyes.
"Dare, Dare!"
Ozai was now back to smiling, even grinning.
"...Insensitive?"
Zuko grinned back, even more widely.
"Noper! Covered all that, whether you were paying attention or not at the time. No, this is about why I didn't want to fight you."
Ozai leaned back in a relaxed pose.
"Because you were and are a coward? Because you did not wish to fight the man who gave you life, who you just now spurned?"
Zuko looked at him dropped all jokes.
"Of course I was afraid. I knew your power. Give me that much credit for brains. And yeah, I would prefer not to fight someone I once cared for, given a choice. But' s that not the main reason I tried to back out of the duel."
Ozai was now silent all on his own, waiting for Zuko's next words, till his patience gave out.
"And?"
Zuko clarified that old piece of history.
"I tried to end it because, even if I had the power and confidence to take you down, I thought that raising my hand against my father and the Fire Lord would be considered treason."
Ozai fell silent, then started to laugh.
"Well, of course it would have been treason! Why do you think I scarred you? If only you had merely possessed the drive to fight me, it would have been the perfect excuse to finally be rid of you! I was furious when you didn't take the bait-again. Years of little comments, some from me, some from your sister, all aimed at driving the last of Ursa's influence from my palace, and until that day, you played the loyal, obedient prince!"
Zuko swallowed continents full of fury and blocked off the urge to look back on a part of his life that now possibly stood revealed as one long assassination conspiracy. Instead he again moved to frustrate his caged enemy.
"Thank You."
"What?"
"You heard me. Either you're telling the truth, and that plot is completely in character for you and Azula, or you're telling another lie-and in either case, I choose to ignore it. Having said my piece, I'll be leaving-for good this time."
Ozai, who had no tirade to pick apart and taunt, instead launched one of his own.
"TRAITOR! FAITHLESS CHILD! WORMY REBEL SCUM!"
Zuko looked back at him.
"Wormy Rebel Scum? Really?"
Ozai was not yet through.
"Go on and finish destroying our nation with the aid of your weakling cuddle-toy Water Tribe 'Reformer'!"
Zuko shook his head.
"You know, most people place me with his sister. Some of them are really insistent about it..."
"Call him what you like! He is ripping the steel from our spines...aaaaggggghh!"
It was not Zuko who pinned Ozai down in his cage. It was the guards, silent until then. The Sergeant leaned in close to his fallen monarch.
"You-and your father-always had us fighting newer and deadlier campaigns. Always away from our homes, our families, our friends. All for an agenda no one believed in anymore, except callow schoolchildren. Your 'Radiant Glow' burned down more than just our supposed enemies. It is because of Commander Sokka and his reforms that we can go home at night, to our wives, and our children."
Ozai may have been a brilliant strategist. But in the end, he would repeatedly prove, he really wasn't all that smart. He smiled at his former subjects, a cocky uncaring smile they would make him eat.
"Well, there you go. See, I've seen your wives and children. I was doing you a favor by keeping you away from them."
The glares from the guards were set to melt Ozai's face off. Zuko said one thing before leaving, as Ozai shot a pleading look to his former heir.
"Sergeant-your prisoner."
What followed was decidedly unpleasant and violated many of the precepts behind the humane treatment of prisoners of war. For his part, Ozai was just a bit less chatty after this.
For his part, Zuko girded himself to see Azula. He mentally prepared to deal with any tactic she could throw at him. For he now knew she was not invincible, either.
"Let her out. I'm ready for her."
The attendants at the holding center doubted this, but guided their patient out as ordered. The girl in restraints was looking down.
"Azula? It's me, Zuko."
Would she seem normal but power-hungry? Condescending? Insisting on her rights as a Princess? Would she be demanding vengeance on himself, Mai, Aang, Katara, Ty Lee-well, that was a pretty long list, but he didn't doubt she would demand every last head.
"Zuko?"
Okay. It was Zuko, not ZuZu. That was a start.
"Yes, Azula?"
"I-have only one question."
When she looked up at him, Zuko was made to realize once again that there was no preparing for Azula. Her face was frantic, she looked scared, and badly confused as she asked her question.
"Are you my brother?"
No, there really was no preparing for Azula. Yet that was exactly what they would all have to do.