AANG

Aang sits at the edge of the cliff, his glider beside him. Appa doesn't like lightning very much, so he's hiding in a cave nearby. For some reason that afternoon, Aang had had the strangest impulse to fly north. His mother had said, "These things happen for a reason," but what that reason was, he couldn't get out of her, so he flew with Appa until they reached the sea, and waited. And now there's a storm, and they won't be able to fly back until it's over. Bummer.

Lightning whites out the sky, and at least it's better than sitting in the dark. The stark light illuminates barren cliffs, so quickly that each flash is like a still life, paralyzed for a brief moment. The surface of the water freezes in each strike, a rolling field of ashen waves that seems to go on forever. Rain drills down in relentless sheets, moving ghost-like across the ocean and also drenching Aang to the marrow.

He sighs and stands. Whatever brought him here today doesn't seem to have stuck around. He's better off waiting it out with Appa; at least it'll be dry. He looks back at the water once more, and something catches the corner of his eye, a break in the glassy, dark monotony of the waves.

"Oh no!" Someone's far out there in the water, struggling to stay afloat. "They'll drown unless I do something!"

Appa whimpers in the cave, and Aang counts him out. He picks up his glider, but stops short as another flash of lightning forks through the sky.

It's only a few hundred yards. If I'm lucky, I won't be burned to cinders. Hopefully.

He spins his glider open and flies into the storm. Lightning strikes twice on his way, but not close enough for damage. The drowning person is, well, still drowning, but Aang sees him more clearly now as he flies nearer, a boy about his own age.

"Don't worry, I'm going to help you!" he shouts over the storm, but his words go unheard as the boy starts to sink. Aang sucks in a full breath, drops his glider, and propels himself into the cold water, blowing a small bubble around his head to open his eyes underwater. His target is falling steadily several yards below him. He expels part of his remaining breath and pushes himself into the ocean's depths, stretching his arms out before him, and just manages to grasp a handful of hair.

Oops, that's very rude of me. He yanks all the same and makes for the surface. They're a long way from shore, or maybe it just seems longer now that he's struggling to stay afloat for two of them. Glider-surfing might have been an option, if only there was some driftwood around. All right, there's nothing for it but to swim.

A loud roar sounds above them, and a moment later, a heavy crash in the water signals the arrival of—

"Appa!" Thank goodness. He leaps into the saddle, lugging the boy's deadweight—he's not so heavy after all. "Yip yip, buddy! Let's get this guy straight home. Staying out in thunderstorms isn't the best cure for the recently drowned."

Appa takes off, and Aang turns to the unconscious boy next to him, who hasn't so much as stirred. His lungs must be filled with seawater. Aang pounds his back to no avail. Perhaps his airway is closed? Only one way to fix that.

"Sorry about this," he apologizes, dragging the boy onto his back. "It'll save your life, though. You're lucky an airbender found you." He pinches the boy's nose shut, tilts his head back, pulls his mouth open, and seals their lips together. He blows a tiny gust of air; no response.

A little more, then; still nothing. Monkey feathers! He blows a short, percussive blast, and the lips beneath his come to life. It's less romantic than it sounds because a moment later, he's liberally sprayed with coughed up seawater. The boy twists away violently, still coughing his lungs out. He finally straightens up and faces Aang.

Aang can't help noticing how… well, lovely he is. There's a fragile delicacy in his sharp chin, his pale, eggshell skin that makes Aang think of moon peaches. The scar branding half his left side is jarring and speaks of two lives in one face. It looks new, still, and Aang wonders how long he's had it. Seawater drips down from his hairline; half his hair spills out of his bedraggled topknot. The fancy hairpin's a nice touch.

He opens his mouth to introduce himself, but the boy cuts him off. "Tenzin?"

Aang gapes, not at all expecting this. Ironically, it's the first time he's ever been mistaken for his own father. Most people who knew him when he was alive are dead too.

"…no, Tenzin's actually my dad. I'm Aang. Sorry if you were looking for him. What's your name, then?"

"Zuko." His voice is low and nervous with a tiny lisp.

Aang hears the hesitation in his voice and wonders at it. Is Zuko running away from something, someone associated with that name? It sounds strange on his tongue, nothing like the names of the Earth Kingdom villagers he knows. Zuko shivers and wraps his arms around himself.

"Are you cold? Here, let me just—"

Aang bends a vigorous airfront through Zuko's clothes, leaving him dry and very mussed. It's not a bad look, if he's being honest with himself. Zuko stares at him in incredulity.

"You're an airbender."

"Yep," Aang says, popping the 'p' irreverently. "Other clues include the blue arrow tattoos and the flying bison that we are currently riding to escape from the storm that nearly drowned you."

They've actually left the storm well behind them by now, but Zuko seems to have just picked up on the 'flying' bit. "What is this thing?" He leans over Appa's saddle, gawking at the bison.

"This is my sky bison Appa, and he appreciates being called Appa, not a thing." He pats Appa, as much of him as he can reach over the edge of the saddle, anyways. "You're getting a whole bushel of apples when we get home, Appa." He turns back to Zuko. "He's been my best friend since I was born. Even though he's afraid of lightning, he flew us through the storm. I was going to try and fly you back to shore myself, but it would have been pretty hard going."

"Oh. Yes, that would have been… quite difficult," Zuko says awkwardly.

"All the same, you swallowed a lot of sea water, so I'm just flying us home; it's not far. I mean, I'm not sure where's home for you, but you should at least rest the night with us."

"I… thanks. Thank you. For saving me." He twists his hands nervously together, Aang notes, as if it were terribly puzzling and unfamiliar to be rescued by a stranger from the middle of the ocean. Fair enough; he supposes that is quite a strange thing to have happen to you.

"How did you know my dad, anyways? He died sixteen years ago, you would've been too young. Unless you're older than you look? Or, maybe you were frozen in an iceberg and didn't age for years? No, that doesn't make sense."

Zuko watches him curiously as he rambles. "It's a long story."

"Oh." Aang pauses. No story seems to be forthcoming. "Well, that's all right. Don't worry, we'll be back soon."

ZUKO

The sky lightens, clinging to the last vestiges of grey dawn, as Appa starts to descend through the clouds. Zuko can finally see Aang more clearly. His profile as he sits calmly at the front of the saddle is just like Tenzin's, a perfectly domed head, blue arrow snaking its way down his nape and past one bare shoulder.

This must be who Tenzin wanted me to see. But what now? Do I just say, hey, I'm the Avatar, what do you think of that? There's no way he'd believe me. I don't even believe me. I'm still inclined to think this was all just one long fever dream, and I'll wake up back on the ship to the coal mines. It would be just my luck.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Aang asks. His grey eyes are too bright for someone who presumably hasn't slept all night. "Why are you staring? Do I have something on my face?"

Shoot. "No, I was just… spacing out."

"Oh, okay. Well, we are just about here, so space in and get ready to meet everyone."

"Everyone?"

"By which I mean my mom and our three pet sparrowkeets. You've already met Appa."

They touch down near a small hill, on top of which stands a modest cottage. Smoke rises from the chimney.

"We do have some neighbors a few miles in that direction," Aang flails an arm in an arc that doesn't seem to indicate any direction at all, "and the village of Chin isn't far. We only go to the market occasionally, though. It's mostly just me and mom and Appa."

He jumps down from the saddle; Zuko tumbles out less gracefully and follows Aang across the field.

"Mom, I'm home, and I brought someone with me!" Aang calls out as they enter.

"Welcome home, Aang." Her voice sounds familiar. A woman with long hair, a wooden beaded necklace, and airbender tattoos (do they all get them?) steps into the room. She sorts through a basket of apples as she walks, but stops short when she sees Zuko.

"Mom, this is Zuko."

His mother collapses in a faint. The apples hit the floor and roll everywhere as Aang and Zuko both rush to her side.

"Mom?! Mom!" Aang cradles her head in his lap. Zuko watches helplessly. "Come back to me, please."

She wakes slowly and finds Zuko, her slate eyes sharp with knowledge. "Avatar Zuko. You've returned."

ZUKO

"So why didn't you tell me you were the Avatar?" Aang agitatedly spins an apple by its stem until it flies off and plops onto the table. Zuko stops it as it rolls towards him.

"I wasn't sure of it myself. No one ever told me. I just had a dream of Avatar Tenzin; for all I knew, he was a figment of my imagination."

"The Avatar spirit is in you, Zuko," Aang's mother—Jinora—says. She looks composed and calm as she dishes out steamed vegetables and sweet buns for each of them, but her voice wavers on Zuko's name, more accustomed to another. "I felt it, just as I did when Tenzin was alive. You are the Avatar reincarnated in the Fire Nation."

They eat in silence for a few minutes. Zuko can feel Aang's eyes on him from across the table. "What?"

"So you're a firebender."

"Yes… something wrong?"

"Well, firebenders are kind of the reason my mother and I are the only airbenders left in the world." Aang stops eating, frowning down at his bowl.

"Aang, fire is not inherently evil, nor are the people of the Fire Nation," Jinora says. "Fire Lords Sozin and Azulon wiped out the Air Nomads. Their family's legacy is terrible to behold, but as the Avatar, Zuko has the power to restore balance to the world."

Zuko's heart sinks. He is, after all, part of that very legacy that so callously destroyed an entire culture.

"You said no one told you that you were the Avatar?"

"No, I never knew. I don't know if my parents knew." His mother must have known, though; why else would she have given him Roku's headpiece? Did his father know?

If he knew, would he welcome me home?

"I was banished from the Fire Nation for… offending a member of the royal family. I was to be sent to the Fire Nation's coal mining colony as punishment," Zuko explains vaguely. Of course, it's not the whole of it, but he can't exactly tell them that his father, the Fire Lord, banished him after he refused to fight an Agni Kai, can he? He pushes sliced carrots around his plate, his appetite quite evaporated. "I lost my honor along with my homeland."

"Oh child… you couldn't have done anything to deserve such a thing." Jinora leans over and touches Zuko's shoulder in comfort. "Honor isn't something you are born with and then lose. It's something you earn, and no one can take it from you."

"Just like I earned my airbending tattoos; no one can take those from me!" Aang chimes in.

"In moments like these, I sometimes wish I could," Jinora says drily, but her eyes are fond.

ZZZ

Outside in the garden, sparrowkeets chirp in an apple tree. The mid-morning sun shines warmly on them as Jinora and Zuko walk by the stream that runs near the cottage. Aang crouches a ways downstream, far enough that his energetic dishwashing is little more than background noise. Zuko had offered to help, but Jinora asked to speak with him.

"The Fire Nation holds no power over you, Zuko. The road forward for you is no longer dictated by your father, nor by your people. It is determined by you, as the Avatar."

"That means I have to master the four elements, right? I've already mastered firebending." More or less. If you don't count lightning. "I'm ready to move on."

"The Avatar Cycle states that you must then learn earthbending, waterbending, and finally airbending."

"Can't you teach me airbending now?"

"No, Zuko." She walks over to the apple tree and picks up a fallen branch. With it, she draws the elemental symbol for fire on the ground, wavering flames. "Fire is the element of power, free and wild. To gain discipline and strength, you must learn earthbending."

She draws the sign for earth. "Earth is the element of substance. It is enduring and unshakeable. However, the world changes with every footstep, every raindrop."

"Water is the element of change. You will learn waterbending," she draws the wave symbol, "which will be the most difficult for you, as a firebender. As your spirit becomes fluid and smooth as a river, you too will master it."

She draws three swirls. "And finally, air is the element of freedom. You will learn airbending, and when you master it, you will be able to detach yourself from worldly concerns and bring peace to yourself and to all."

"It sound so straightforward when you lay it out like that," Zuko says.

"I sense a 'but' coming."

"But… even if I do manage all that, then what? Even if I'm able to bend all four elements, how will that stop this war?"

"With some things, you will not know what to do at first. You must wait and listen before acting. Observe."

Jinora stands in silence for a moment, then suddenly whirls and slashes a sheet of air into the tree above them. Aang falls out of its branches with a surprised yell and catches himself just before hitting the ground.

"How'd you know I was there? I was being so quiet!"

"I listened for the absence of sound. Normally you are all sorts of noisy. The silence was telling."

Aang scowls, and Zuko covers his smile with one hand in amusement.

"If you've finished washing the dishes, I have another job for you."

"Anything you ask, mom! I am your humble servant."

"I want you to accompany Zuko on his journey to master the elements, and to teach him airbending when the time comes."

Aang gawps. "What?"

"I feel this is the right path. Zuko, you came here for a reason. You cannot face your task alone. Aang, you are the last airbender. You are destined to teach the Avatar, for the good of the world."

"But mom, then you'll be all alone."

"Aang, I will be fine. You need to see the world, to see more than what the Fire Nation has laid waste to. Your father would have wanted this. And besides, I won't be alone. I have Pikku, Pakku, and Panku, don't I?" She raises a finger and whistles, summoning three sparrowkeets. They jostle for position on her finger.

Aang sighs and looks away. "Well, I guess you're right. Come on, Zuko. You're a bit shorter than me, but if we're going to be wandering around the Earth Kingdom, you'll need some normal clothes, not Fire Nation issue."

They leave Jinora under the apple tree serenely listening to the sparrowkeets' song, but Aang is quiet.

ZZZ

Zuko lights the hearth as night falls, then sits back and watches the flames. Aang is out preparing Appa for their journey. Apparently this involves combing all of Appa's fur and picking his toes. Jinora joins him by the fire. He glances over at her and wonders if airbenders ever get tired of sitting crosslegged. His own ankles start to ache after an hour or so.

"I didn't fully answer your question earlier, regarding what you must do after mastering the four elements, because in truth, I do not know. You are so much younger than those who seek to control you. You have never seen the terrors of this war, that has gone on for so long. Even before I was born, we Air Nomads were in constant fear of attack from the Fire Nation."

"I'm sorry," Zuko says. "I wish all these things had never happened." That's getting old really fast, but it's true. He has lost people to this war and to the Fire Nation too. What wouldn't he give to have them back?

"So do I." Jinora twists her fingers around her Air Nomad beads. "When you spoke with Tenzin, did he… say anything about me, by chance?"

Zuko hesitates. He hears her pain and longing, the same pain that filled his mother's voice when she left the night Fire Lord Azulon died. "He… he says he loves you very much. You and Aang both. And that he misses you. And that he'll be with you again one day," he lies.

"You don't have to make things up, Zuko. Though that much is true." Jinora smiles, if indeed the broken twist of her lips could be called a smile. "I am ailing. Even if I wished to accompany you, I could not. Tenzin died at the Southern Air Temple, and when I fled with Aang, this was the farthest I could take him. Any farther, and I feel my soul wilting. I have always been able to sense my husband's spirit, even in death."

He turns towards Jinora, desperate to stem the tears he can feel prickling even from here. "Death is not the last place you will see him." Her long hair, streaked with grey, frames her face, and he sees her with different eyes.

JINORA

"Jinora."

She looks up, and there he is, no older than the day he died.

"Tenzin!"

"My love, I am so sorry. Sorry that I had to leave you, to raise Aang all alone."

"It's all right, Tenzin. He's beautiful, I wish you could see him now. He looks just like you. He's healthy and happy and… the only way he could be happier is if you were here."

"I know."

"But he's going to help your successor." Jinora smiles weakly. "I've taught him everything I know, and he has your resilience. He's going to make things right."

"Oh, Jinora. All these years, you've been so strong."

"I miss you more than I can say," and her tears do spill over now, pinging on the floor and shining, ephemeral, in the firelight. "Without you, it's like there's no air in the world, no light."

Tenzin takes her hands in his, and it feels so real, like he'd never left—

"I love you, Jinora. Don't worry about Aang. I will watch over him. As for you, take care of yourself."

Through her tear-blurred eyes, he starts to fade. "Tenzin!" she cries, but he is gone, and in his place, Zuko clasps her hands.

ZUKO

"It's all right," he says, trying to ground her. He's not clear on what just happened, but he seems to have channeled Tenzin briefly. "I'm going to take care of Aang. I'll bring him back to you when this is all over, and you'll be the proudest mother ever. You'll see."

But he feels the emptiness of his words, as weightless and easy as the lies he told her just now, and the one he omitted earlier.

I am the son of Ozai, son of Azulon, son of Sozin, the downfall of your people. I am the monster in your nightmares, the face of your enemy.

Perhaps he can save the world. Perhaps he will damn it. Either way, it will be too late for Jinora. For his mother.

"You'll see," he whispers again, as his tears join hers on the ground. She squeezes his hands harder.

Aang finds them there, silhouetted against the fire. His mother weeps as he has never seen her do. He leaves again, unable to watch, and goes to sleep with Appa.

A/N: Writing notes for this chapter here: archiveofourown dot org /works/7019827/chapters/16649341