She's Come Undone by Rob Morris
BA SING SE, A YEAR PRIOR...SORT OF
Katara looked at the sealed cave entrance.
"I can waterbend us past those boulders - but the released water will have the loose stone right on top of us."
Toph looked grimmer than normal.
"Faster than I can keep them all back. Those soldiers got us good."
Zuko shook his head.
"You can bend a lot of the water away, but there'll still be enough to make melting the loose stone...well, problematic."
Sokka tried to use boomerang to break some rock. Some pebbles and a trickle of water on his head were all he got for his efforts.
"Notttt to mention torrents of melted and/or heated rocks flowing all over us. Not good. No, not good at all."
Mai shrugged.
"Do I need to say it? Blades and rock. Also, what Sokka said."
Ty Lee felt equally useful.
"They're rocks. They don't have a weak spot - or really, any nervous system at all."
But there was one who would not give up.
"Tough doesn't mean impossible. Sokka, can you tap out how deep the rock goes?"
He nodded.
"Already have. About 500 feet. But there's big hollow spots. Makes pushing any of it back really tricky. Not to mention really deadly, if we get even one thing wrong."
The hopeful one brushed that talk off.
"Then we won't get one thing wrong. Ty Lee, can you open up chi networks as well as close them off?"
Ty Lee pondered it.
"I can do redirect. Channel one flow of chi into another. It'll mean some headaches later on, though."
The planner smiled that confident smile.
"Headaches beat smashed, drowned and burned bodies. Okay. Mai, line the cave opening with blades - all the blades you have. A perfect perimeter around that opening, alright?"
Mai raised an eyebrow, then did as she was asked.
"And this accomplishes what, exactly? Shouldn't we just wait for Aang to get back from the Guru, and notice we're gone?"
Azula didn't take well to that at all.
"NO! I mean, this whole thing is obviously a trap to bait him in with. If we want there to be an Avatar, my plan has to work. We have to meet him ahead of that ambush Zhao bragged about."
Katara expressed faith in her friend.
"I'll follow your lead, Azula. Always."
"Thanks, Kat. Now - Sokka - find ground to stand on that's less likely to give way or have us smashing into the walls. Your job will be to grab us and keep our skulls and bones from being cracked, if we slip up. Don't discount it. This will still be close. Toph, you keep back whatever earth or stone you can. Every bit will count. Ty Lee - headaches or no, redirect our Chi towards our reflexes. We'll have that little reaction time. Big brother - can you redirect the lightning that I throw right back at me?"
Zuko saw his sister's plan.
"Like a negative terminal, little sister."
The plan was enacted. Azula fired lightning at Zuko, who redirected it at her, enabling her to vastly increase her output. This met the metal blades around the edge of the cave, driving the lightning into the boulders, which began to break up and even melt just a bit. Katara was able to seize the emerging water behind the boulders, and the slow breakup enabled Toph to keep every bit of it back. But then, even as his back-up proved unneeded, Sokka shouted out a warning.
"Uh, guys? Boiling Rocks plus Boiling Water, even when contained, equals superheated steam!"
But Katara was on it, pushing back the water in the steam so they were not scalded to death. Zuko sweated but exalted in being alive and free.
"That was a hot one. Wish I could see, though."
Toph, being Toph, couldn't walk away from that one.
"Welcome to my world. I wonder how hot that steam was, though. It knocked my cap off, and -oh boy."
Azula turned suddenly, but found that even her skills weren't that great with steam-filled eyeballs.
"Oh boy-whhaaaa-whoooaa-slipping!"
Sokka grabbed her, despite his own eyes not focusing.
"Gotcha there, Zula-hey why do your clothes feel so-yahhhhh!"
Katara and Ty Lee caught on more quickly.
"Please do not let this steam clear up."
"Says you, Katara. This'll give me one-up on Suki for sure."
A voice came from the distance.
"I believe they are in here, Avatar Aang."
"Thanks, General Iroh. A quick breeze will-GUYS!?"
Iroh turned his head.
"You young people have such strange habits."
Cowering behind every rock structure in the cave, the young warriors had only one request.
"Get us some clothes!"
THE FIRE NATION SECURE CARE FACILITY, THE PRESENT
As Zuko's eyes continued to be as wide as saucers, Azula kept on.
"So we learned that most fabrics and furs kind of lose all their integrity when exposed to really hot steams - and the team got to know each other a lot better. For the longest time after, I would tease Sokka about where he grabbed me - and you know, he does have the cutest-"
Finding his center, Zuko finally spoke up.
"Azula. Stop."
She looked annoyed.
"Stop? Why? Suki knows I'd never make a play for him. She loves the look on his face when I bring all that up. All our adventures were memorable - except the Great Divide. I honestly can't remember what happened there."
Zuko steadied himself, and gave a silent compliment : If this were one of Azula's mind-games, it was a masterpiece, and she deserved to be proud - and then gagged for all time.
"Azula, that's not how things went in Ba Sing Se."
She stared at him uncomprehendingly, and then seemed to catch on.
"Okay, maybe we weren't all completely nude. I think some scraps remained - not enough for a girl's modesty, but that's just how it is. I think Ty Lee took the rest off deliberately. I mean, that girl is shameless."
Zuko still stared at her. She shrugged.
"Well, Katara and Sokka grew up in close quarters, and we were always walking in on each other in that palace-Mai is your girlfriend, most of us were girls, not to mention accidental potty break sightings all those nights camping out..."
When Zuko still stared, Azula began to look annoyed.
"Even if I'm getting some of the fine details wrong, it's still indicative of our struggle with the Fire Nation."
Zuko shook his head.
"I think it's more indicative of your struggle with reality. Azula, in Ba Sing Se, not all of us were on the same side."
She blinked.
"We weren't? You mean, the team split up for awhile? I remember Katara agreed with Jet's tactics at first, but I didn't think it was a permanent rift. By the way, did he die? My memories are kind of vague on that one, too."
Zuko's mind began to explode from the inside out.
*Please, please! Laugh at me. Say 'Haha ZuZu you're so easy to play' or something.*
"Azula, we weren't all on the Avatar's side at that point. In fact, even I wasn't entirely."
Azula's face shifted in horror.
"You mean you, Sokka and Katara used to work on Father's side?"
Just for a moment, Zuko was forced to check his own memories, fearing reality was now slipping away from him.
"Why would two members of the Water Tribe work for the Fire Lord who had killed their mother?"
Azula seemed to think back.
"Didn't he kidnap them and brainwash them after that? No, wait-we met them when we joined Uncle to see if the Avatar had returned. That was when Zhao started chasing us."
Zuko again fought off a brain blast.
*I will grant you a full pardon right now if you will just call a prank and we can both laugh.*
But there was to be no such relief.
"Azula, Zhao died in the Northern Water Tribe siege. Months before we were in Ba Sing Se."
She looked at him quizzically.
"Really?"
Again, the possible breakthrough died before it was born.
"Well, good. I never liked him."
Zuko was growing frustrated, and so tried a different tack.
"Aang was almost killed in Ba Sing Se. Fact is, he probably did die, briefly, before Katara healed him. Do you recall who did this - Azula?"
She nodded.
"Of course. Only one person had the skill and the power to bring down the Avatar and the walls of Ba Sing Se - shouldn't that be Na Sing Se, now? Anyway, I remember it all like it was just last year."
Zuko sighed.
"It was just last year."
BA SING SE, AGAIN KINDA-SORTA THE YEAR PRIOR...MAYBE-IF
Aang pushed his teammate and second-in-command aside.
"Stay back, Azula. Now that I can enter the Avatar state at will, this will be easy."
The others rushed forward, but Azula stopped them.
"No! This is Aang's fight. His risk-his choice."
But as Aang rose, he was just as quickly cut down. The adversary jeered.
"Fools! Did your band of misfits and traitors truly think to defeat Fire Lord Ozai so easily?"
Iroh guided Toph as both cut out another exit for Appa, and the shattered team fled.
"Don't think this is over, FATHER! Azula doesn't forget."
But all her lightning could do was keep his at bay while they fled.
THE PRESENT, AND REALITY THAT DOESN'T SHIFT
"Azula? Father wasn't in Ba Sing Se, and he never faced Aang until the day of the Comet."
He then leaned directly into her face, determined to call this farce done, whether inspired by madness or mad genius.
"You, Mai and Ty Lee were the enemies there. I rejoined you, to my eternal regret. Almost nothing of what you told me today actually happened. Not in any way, not in any shape, and not in any form whatsoever. Did - Not - Happen."
Azula looked sad.
"I don't know why you're doing this, Zuko, or why you're keeping me here. I know I broke down at war's end, but it was hard on all of us. But the fact remains, I know who my friends are, and that I love them, just as I love you, Brother. My memories are what's real, and I stand by them. And one more thing about what I KNOW happened in Ba Sing Se?"
He took the bait, knowing full well how dangerous it was.
"Yes?"
She smiled impishly.
"After that incident with the steam in the cave, I began to regret that we were brother and sister."
Zuko felt the back of his head explode with imagery he never wanted to conceive of.
"Well, at least you didn't call me ZuZu."
She looked confused as he walked away.
"ZuZu? That's a girl's nickname. You shouldn't be ZuZu. I should be ZuZu. Yep. From now on, my name is ZuZu. Zu-Zu! Zu-Zu! Zu-is that a bell? The Nurse said, that every time a bell rings..."
Well away from this take on altered and rewritten reality, Zuko sat and talked with Azula's primary caregiver.
"Physician, what is up with that nonsense she was spewing? Is she just trying to get under my skin? Seems like an awful lot of effort to accomplish something she's always been good at."
The Physician had previously been given pardon to speak freely to Zuko, so he dispensed with all but the most required of pleasantries.
"Well, Fire Lord, perhaps the operative words are : she 'was' good at that. She was once good at a lot of things. We haven't seen her bend so much as a cup of hot water in all the time she's been here. Whatever that really means, the former Crown Princess Azula is trapped by a fact her formidable mind cannot find a way around. Whatever she once was, whatever she was going to be, she came at some point to realize that, in the final analysis, she was a lonely teenage girl with no friends and no family who truly cared for her. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out this train of thought helped lead to her breakdown. As to her fantasy past? In it, she has adventures with friends and allies - and stories of embarrassing nudity. For some reason, teens are fixed on stories of embarrassing nudity. No Nudist retreats, or just married folk, or a wild swim - no, it always has to be unplanned and someone finds them. I..."
Zuko didn't glare at the Physician's tangent. He didn't really need to.
"Apologies, Fire Lord. But for some reason, a lot of her stories have that feature in them, and you marrying Lady Katara. That I can't figure. Anyway, we'll continue to keep you apprised, as always."
Zuko looked over at his sister from the hidden vantage point in the caregiver's office.
"Physician, what are the odds that this is just a game? A build-up to a bigger scheme?"
The older man sighed.
"Given everything I've ever heard about her, I'd say those odds are excellent. Or, she could be just what she appears - a shattered thing that so desperately wants acceptance and love, she'll rewrite history to get it, and to have always had it. Fire Lord, you've been looking about since you got here. Is there something wrong - other than your sister's status?"
Zuko gave in.
"Is Azula your only patient?"
The Physician nodded.
"Ever since the war's end, anyway."
Zuko asked the obvious.
"How can that be? I mean, I place importance on my sister's health and well-being, but there must be some others who need this type of care."
The Physician shrugged.
"Well, she is royalty, after all. But you yourself cleared this facility, Fire Lord."
Zuko was getting what his father always called 'a bad feeling about this'.
"When was this?"
If Zuko imagined someone forging his name on orders, the answer was in fact very much mundane. Zuko still wouldn't like the answer.
"You-you ordered all those imprisoned for political crimes and once socially unacceptable opinions released, when you took your throne."
Again, Zuko liked the answer not one bit.
"Are you telling me that my father used mental hospitals like this one to lock away people whose opinions he didn't like?"
The Physician perhaps thought he was being played, but saw his young guest's honesty in his expression.
"You didn't know? I mean, this goes back as far as Sozin. Our tradition of mental care expertise began to keep those imprisoned from actually going insane - and, I'm sad to say, at some facilities, to bring that about when the Fire Lord directed. We're kind of glad to have your sister here - someone to actually help, who needs it. We'd like to help some troubled returning soldiers - but the Fire Nation has never been keen on the idea of seeing a Psyche Specialist. Most still think it means weakness. Fire Lord, if anything I've said has upset you, I apologize."
Zuko got up.
"Of course it's upset me. You just told me my clan was pettier than even I ever imagined. But I'm glad I know it. The Lady Mai told me that parts of our conduct in this war were just the back and forth that occur in every war, though I know that's not entirely true. What she also said was that it's in the small atrocities that we really excelled. Now I've just learned that again. Physician? What if I said I can get you soldiers who need your help to come here discreetly?"
The man's face lit up.
"That would be our dream. Our oath is to do no harm, but we feel like we did anyway. To heal those that need it-but how, Fire Lord?"
Zuko smiled.
"Easy. I'll just tell any soldier who gets into trouble and is reported to be moody they can be analyzed either by you - or by Sokka."
The Physician was confused.
"Commander Sokka is a licensed mental care giver?"
"Just trust me, Physician - once they fall under Sokka's mental care-giving - they'll line up for yours. No less than Avatar Aang told me that."
But while this plan would work well, Zuko left troubled. His sister was only a stone's throw away, but living in a high school comedy play. His family was once again revealed as more ruthless and petty than he could stomach. Then there was the matter of locating his mother, and possibly finding Aang's people, thought to be long-dead.
*Oh, and missing you, Mai. Can't forget that.*
Getting back to the palace, he walked in on Sokka and Katara arguing.
"I wasn't trying to push him! I was just poking around anything he might remember - maybe something he doesn't even realize is a clue - that could help us find Lady Ursa and the Air Nomads."
"YES, but you just had to ask him right after he went on a whirlwind tour of all four Air Temples, chasing your wild goosganders. Sokka, at long last, have you no sense of tact?"
"OH REALLY? Maybe I would have asked him at a better time if he wasn't always pushing me off, and you helping him in doing so. Maybe I could have spared him that run."
Katara's anger seemed to crumble.
"Sokka, he's just not ready. It's bringing it all back for him."
She looked down.
"I almost think he doesn't want to find them - because if they're found, they could be lost again. I'd even risk hurting you to prevent that."
Zuko spoke up.
"May I take the fact that you feel you have time to argue means that everything is still a little too quiet?"
Since the suspense of this suspicious peace still weighed on all of them, Sokka tried joking, and showing her nerves, Katara joined him.
"Ummm-actually, we're being invaded on all fronts-and they're making new fronts on every front's...front...as well."
"Like my brother said, Zuko. We're full-frontal!"
Zuko rolled his eyes.
"You have no idea just how annoyingly ironic that joke is."
They soon were made to know just that, and their reactions, while supporting Zuko, also provided him with nothing he didn't know already.
"Well, ya know, this is Azula. I'll betcha this mind-game isn't even her true aim. I'll bet she's trying to organize armies from the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes to form an unstoppable army to retake her throne. That was only hers for five seconds."
Katara cut off what she saw as Sokka's joking around.
"Do I need to say that makes no sense at all?"
Sokka leaned on his arms and looked like defending his theory was not a consideration.
"No. But we'd see that coming just as much as we've seen any of her schemes. I mean, the girl took Ba Sing Se and had the walls down inside a month of deciding to do so."
Katara was about to point out all the qualifiers that statement demanded. But she stopped before she said the first word of refutation. As usual, her brother had caught onto the core truth of a situation. It was why the Fire Lord and the Avatar listened to him, and why the women in his life tended to love him. Goofy annoying, yes. Definitely. But as the late Combustion Man had learned, Sokka could hit that target and make it count.
"Okay. She wasn't faking that meltdown, though. I'll remember her defeated sobs until the day I die."
In fact, Katara had been unnerved by Azula's breakdown in ways she hadn't realized at the time. She found she could not delight in seeing her once-invincible opponent falling to pieces, every smooth surface revealed to have infinite flaws and gaps you could fly Appa through. Mai and Ty Lee, now no fans of their former leader, also looked nearly repulsed when told of it. Toph had offered none of her usual snark. Only Suki had even a hint of vengeance in her face, and that faded quickly. Katara had later wondered why she had in essence assembled a girls-only retelling of the fight. She had come to realize that this was because the guys' reaction had been 'glad she's beaten, but sad how it happened', almost to a one. Perhaps only another deeply capable and skilled woman would really see the built-in fear of the account. The fear that said *Good or Evil, Could That Have Been Me?* While that question demanded as many qualifiers as Sokka's tossed-out theory, like that theory, it had spoken to a core truth and a deep terror.
Zuko said words he would regret, and yet were also brutally needed.
"Let them strike. If it's her, let the plan unfurl, and then unravel. If it's anyone else, let me go into the next room, see them snickering on my throne, all my soldiers lined up against me, and every capital and village occupied. But I am through looking over my shoulder. Maybe we're just not used to peace. I think between all the members of our little group, there's no corner of this world we haven't been to, chased through or been chased in. So maybe this peace is just what it seems. It doesn't matter, though. I want the maybe-if-conspirator to get it done with."
Katara put her head down on the table.
"Me, too. Just hit us already. Or-is that the trap, after all? Just wearing us down, straight through till we drop from lack of exhaustion-ehhh. You know what I meant."
Sokka gently put his hand on his sister's head, and offered up what he had.
"Okay. Suggestion time. Let's put all that we have into two things : Figuring out Lady Ursa and the Air Nomads, presuming I'm right - and figuring out if Azula's for real. The one we need to know for closure. With Azula, even if this kinda-sorta-whatever conspiracy isn't hers to start with, we've seen firsthand how she can take over someone else's."
Katara sighed lightly.
"That would leave us wide open to this mystery planner - if so, etcetera. They may be waiting for this kind of opportunity-"
She sat up, startling her brother and Zuko.
"-brilliant, Sokka. It may be the only way of drawing them out!"
Zuko agreed.
"We'll still need to be wary, but mainly observant. We keep these observations inside our circle, and even then, we don't tell everything we know. Just hold something back, in case someone is talking to someone even they don't know is in on it."
Sokka nodded.
"So what you're saying is, we'll be both more relaxed and yet much more paranoid?"
Zuko realized the nature of his words, looked a bit less certain, but did not backtrack.
"If we want to survive and have done with this thing, yes. Now - any news on the search?"
A groggy voice, the embodiment of creation's will and lifeforce, interrupted.
"No more! I'm tired of this thing already. Why don't we all just grow up and accept that they're not out there? They're dead, alright? They're gone, and they're never coming back!"
Avatar Aang looked like a 113-year old boy.
"Okay, Aang? I have a counter-proposal."
Sokka showed he knew his friend.
"Let's not search for the Air Nomads. Let's only search for Lady Ursa."
How well he knew him is another story.
"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot!"
A story that will now be told.
"Then stop acting like one about this. You're scared to find them, because they might blame you for running away. Or, they might be delighted to see you, the prime representative of their culture, who fulfilled his destiny and ended this war when the war-makers finally ran out of tricks. But if you don't find them, presuming they are there to find, you'll never know. I know you, Aang, and I know you would want to know if there is anything to know, and you'd hate not knowing...if there's anything you wanted to know...about..."
Sokka froze up.
"I was doing so well, too! Sis-"
Katara patted him on the back, and Zuko put a towel on his shoulders as he sat down.
"Stand down, Commander. You put up the good fight. Katara?"
At Zuko's nod, Katara finished up.
"Aang, Zuko's ancestors committed a horrible wrong against your people. But in this quest is the ability to give him back his mother and show that, even at its worst, the mightiest military the world has ever seen can be defied. Finding them together, if Sokka is right, shows that they weren't invincible, either as they started their rampage, or as they prepared to finish it. Who knows? Maybe this search will even trip up our mystery conspirator - if there is one. Wow. A lot of ifs here. But aren't these the kinds of questions we dare not ignore? Letting any more time pass could mean that we one day find out we could have reunited with them, but failed to do so before they were truly lost. Could you, of all people, live with one more regret like that?"
But even the one he loved best of all would have a hard time shaking the Avatar out of this funk.
"Okay, so maybe they hid themselves really, really well. What does it matter if they did? Zuko's ancestors specialized in rendering every trick and hiding place moot. They made an art out of bringing down everything that wasn't supposed to be able to be gotten into. They took Omashu. They took Ba Sing Se. They took ALL FOUR Air Temples. They corrupted the Fire Sages and probably the Fire Temple itself, for all we know. They had people on the street on their payroll. They walked into the Southern Water Tribe whenever they felt like it, and they got to the most sacred spot in the North, even killing a powerful spirit, which by the way they learned of by getting to a legendary library MONTHS before we did, conveniently turning its guardian against us before we ever met them. You know what we'll find, if we learn of their hiding place? We'll find Ozai repowered, Azula not insane, and Zhao not dead, all laughing about how it all was a trap foreseen by Sozin-or something. That's how it goes, Katara! We go looking for something, and we find the bad part of the Fire Nation already there, or already gone, their work done and our search made USELESS!"
She wouldn't stop trying, though.
"Don't shout at me, Aang. If you really believed all that, you wouldn't even be arguing the point. Of course we're bound to be disappointed by whatever we find, at least somewhat. Sokka held back on this news for precisely that reason. But the bad part of the Fire Nation is beaten. Don't you think Ozai would have used them all as hostages, if he had them in custody, or even in his sights? Do you think Azula would have hesitated to? No. All they did was make catty and pointless remarks to Zuko, because that was all they had. Zhao is dead, and I wouldn't want to see what revenge the spirits took on him. Maybe this search fails, and maybe it even ends in the worst way possible, with our minds, spirits and bodies broken and our will to go on drained by mocking laughter..."
Katara stopped, the family resemblance to her brother now coming out in a different way. Zuko couldn't resist a remark, despite firmly supporting her.
"Way to oversell it there."
When her glare reminded him of Mai, the Fire Lord looked like the Fire Lamb.
"Sorry."
Aang seized the moment.
"See? Even you know it's true. The one and only major hope from out of nowhere that we've found is the Lion Turtle. Hope is a great thing, when tempered by work and thought. But hope alone has this tendency to splash back on me, and when it turns rancid, it stinks."
Zuko moved to regain the ground his snark might have cost him.
"I asked my Uncle why the Lion Turtle appeared to you, and not any other Avatars."
Since Ozai had been brought up, Zuko referred to Iroh as his Uncle, to clear away any possible confusion, despite the adoption in Ba Sing Se.
"Well? What did he say?"
Zuko may have been more closely working with Sokka. But Aang remained the one he needed to rebuild the world with.
"He speculated that, to the others, killing was always an option. To some, a grim option. To some, a simple, common sense option. Roku didn't want to kill his friend, and then later regretted he hadn't. Kyoshi saw no problem with it, if she felt it was called for. You, with your conflict, and refusal to accept that all you were taught was just some high ideals ill-suited to the real world, intrigued the Lion Turtle. Had you killed my father-my birth-father-I think even I might have resented you, at least in part. But then we would also have endless stories of treachery, poisons, conspiracies-you name it. Now, all anyone can say is the truth - Fire Lord Ozai was defeated by Avatar Aang on several fundamental levels. Even the most bitter of them have no choice but to accept that. Past defeats suffered by this nation have been waved away - a lot of nonsensical what-if's, maybes and a lot of talk of backstabbing. Any battle we lost was a battle no one could have won. Centuries of being turned back wasn't our fault. It was always about this noble lost cause, punctuated by a thousand if-onlies. But not in this case. Our armies were super-prepared and super-powered. At our best and strongest, we still got taken down. I think that's maybe one of two reasons why this peace really isn't that suspicious. I'll go into the other one later."
Aang no longer looked combative or bitter, but he did look unconvinced.
"What's your point, Zuko?"
Zuko felt a bit surer of himself, with this harsh reality beating out Azula's fantasy adventure comedy.
"You thrive on hope, Man. You always have. You won because of hope, and it would be stupid to abandon it now, just because fear is tagging along for the ride. I know your people saw hope as a distraction. We needed the distraction. We still need it."
Sokka almost didn't notice the other three begin to cheer up.
"Four Air Temples. Four Air Temples. Hey, Aang?"
Their heads turned and at first, it seemed like Sokka was cracking wise with his sometime-battering-ram timing.
"Could there be a fifth Air Temple?"
Aang tried and failed to hide his annoyed look.
"You're serious?"
Sokka now gave his friend an annoyed look of his own.
"No. I just want to play cruel stupid games with my extremely powerful best friend and future brother. Because I'm never-serious Sokka-aoaoaoaggghhh!"
He made a funny face which vanished very quickly. Aang turned away.
"Okay, so you're serious. But I think you're grasping at air - something even I don't do. Four temples, Sokka. North, East, West, South - why would there be any more?"
Sokka saw more support in the faces of Katara and Zuko, but only just so.
"Well, because four doesn't make any sense. Especially not for the Air Nomads."
Katara saw her brother's reasoning first.
"Four. Gran-Gran always warned against four."
Zuko felt foolish. This was an old lesson. But then again, he'd had so many lately.
"Four - is bad luck. Four can even be death."
Aang saw it now as well.
"Toph joked about that when she was training me. Asked me if I believed in old superstitions."
Sokka drove home his point.
"Toph is great. Love the girl. But let's face it - our luck soured when she joined. Nothing on her, but from then until Zuko finally found us, our efforts just kept meeting with pure disaster."
Aang still tried to counter this logic.
"Two problems, Sokka. One, you're a scientist. Numerology? Really? Two, the Air Nomads were very spiritual, but they didn't like simple superstitions. Leads to too much fear, and fear takes away from the core of the spirit."
But Sokka now had his footing, and he would explain his new theory no matter what.
"Numbers are Science, Aang. Without numbers, no science. Science is all numbers. There is a flow to certain numbers, while others not so much. As to superstition, this belief isn't like seeing a spider-wasp before the New Moon, or like that. It's been around the block. I think the Air Nomads would have respected the avoidance of four. I'm not a spirit guy, but obviously there are spirits, and if someone is a firm believer that way, why risk offending them by holding to such an ominous number?"
Aang shook his head.
"My people had a lot of wrong-headed beliefs, Sokka. They gave me a parent in Gyatso, only to yank him away, and they thought I'd do nothing? They also thought they were in Temples that couldn't be reached, and couldn't be breached. But the Fire Nation did all that, didn't they?"
Aang didn't allow for a rebuttal this time.
"You saw it too, Zuko. They were everywhere. They were always everywhere, and if your father hadn't gambled all he had on the Comet, eventually your people might have won this war. It would have taken awhile, but go and tell me that against all that scheming, one tearful mother and a group of pacifists could have moved a hair without them knowing it, and maybe even planning it!"
Zuko was thrown by his friend's intensity, till he made a simple, logical jump away from a point of view in its own way as skewed as Azula's.
"But that's what did happen, Aang. At the very least, my mother got away, and she did this in an environment where only someone out of view could have aided her. That at least could have been the Air Nomads, in a scenario like Sokka told us about in Omashu. Is it possible he's wrong, and that my mother died quietly with no one around? Believe me, I've thought of that. It haunts me. It will continue to haunt me until I know, or at least have a vague idea. Don't tell me it won't be that way for you. I know you well enough for that."
Aang held his arms and palms open, challenging their notion, trying to scare it off from becoming too real to him.
"Then where are they? The war is over, it's been over for months. That's long enough for news to reach even the deepest hiding place. If your mother is around, why not come to see her son who now rules the world? If the Air Nation endures, why not come and see me, who saved the world? It was in all the news-scrolls, last I checked."
Katara seemed to be not merely siding with her brother, she seemed to be channeling him.
"If they dug in deep enough, maybe it hasn't reached them yet. Maybe they don't trust outside news. Like you said, Aang - the Fire Nation laid a lot of traps-I'll never forgive that one old merchant-and they might think that news of the war's end is a set-up. They'd be trapped by that fear just like we've been about this kinda-conspiracy..."
She looked at her brother.
"You go like this all the time? My head hurts."
He shrugged.
"You get used to it. Eat something. It dulls the motion sickness."
Katara was of course, far from dim or stupid, but she felt like Sokka might have trying to bend water by throwing around filled buckets. A servant entered after motioning to Zuko, after which the Fire Lord relayed a message.
"Aang? Toph wants to see you in Omashu. She says its important. Since this conversation is going nowhere, you might as well go-err, there."
A still-flushed looking Aang was out of the chamber before anyone could blink. Appa was seen departing moments after.
"I thought he and Appa just got back from a pretty exhausting tour of like, everywhere."
Sokka's words barely registered with an upset Katara.
"They'll find a place to rest before long. But it'll be away from us. Oh, why did I push him when I was the one arguing against it?"
Zuko had an answer.
"You knew he couldn't go on pretending this possibility means nothing to him. Sometimes old wounds do have to be reopened, so the scars and infection can heal fully. Wow, that was almost Uncle-like. Do I have any gray?"
Sokka, perhaps put off by his dear friend's anger, began to backtrack.
"I just now remembered...there are four elements. Four types of bending, and the Four Nations, politics and war aside. I just ticked off the most powerful guy in the world for nothing."
Zuko was not having this.
"Four nations, yeah. But only the Fire Nation is homogenous, and the Air Nomads...well, they were. The Earth Kingdom is almost several nations in one grouping, and the Water Tribes are tribes, not Tribe. Thanks to Sozin, only three real nations still exist - was- was he aiming for good luck that way? Aaaahhh! WHEN DO I FIND OUT ABOUT SOMETHING NICE MY FAMILY DID FOR THE BEST REASONS?"
The looks of decidedly mixed sympathy from the siblings told Zuko what he already knew : Not to hold his breath waiting. Katara picked up countering Sokka's self-criticism.
"Besides, Sokka, there's energybending, however lost that art became, and the realm of the spirits could be seen as another nation, another Bent, another element, and yet another set if you regard the Avatar as the Bridge between all those things. Almost anything we count one way is just how we count it. In fact, all three things we count as four have always had at least an unspoken or forgotten fifth part to them."
Sokka was grateful to be dragged back, but his doubts were not gone yet.
"Thanks, guys, but I think Aang was still right. The Air Nomads were all about 'not part of the world', right? So maybe what some people saw as spirit-stuff was just silly fluff to them. Besides, if there ever were a Fifth Air Temple, it's probably long since crumbled and forgotten, like energybending..."
His eyes lit up.
"Used to be."
Katara saw it, and was glad to punch through both her brother's doubt and Aang's grump.
"The Air Nomads would believe in the negative power of Four, I'm sure of it. But if there were a lost place they could count as being the fifth, they'd be fine with it. The Air Nomads were most in touch with the old ways of all the nations - if this place existed, even in legend, they'd know about it, and almost no one else would. If the Lion-Turtles withdrew, then a memorial temple of some kind would be the last thing of theirs to endure, for however long it lasted."
If Aang had problems with hope, the Fire Lord was fine with it.
"I'll talk to our map-makers. We'll see if there's a geographical spot in the center of the four temples' locations. Then, in a day, we get going. I'll ask Ty Lee to..."
"No, Fire Lord."
Zuko looked at Sokka, as did his sister.
"What did you just say?"
"Also, why did you say it that way?"
Sokka shook his head, but not for his previous doubts.
"I said it that way because I can't say no to Zuko. He's my pal. But Commander Sokka has no choice but to remind the Fire Lord of his duties and reality. Reality is that your map-makers are in overdrive, resetting borders that now change with every troop withdrawal and reallocation. Duty is - your Ex-Dad let a lot of the day-to-day stuff slide by, till it got to the point Mai and I bonded over rescuing you from the dog-pile of bureaucracy. I have plans to clear all that up, and give you time to declare a sabbatical without losing your staff's respect and loyalty. But we'll need a month. I'll need my sister to help clean up a mess that makes my room at home look like the Northern Spirits' pool."
Sokka looked at her, and saw her hesitation.
"Katara, if you try and bring him back, he'll just go farther off. Let him finish his business with Toph, and maybe call for you to join him."
"I dunno, Sokka. Sounds a lot like what I was trying to tell you earlier."
He nodded.
"If I'd kept my mouth shut, maybe Aang would have pulled us along to Omashu, instead of stamping off."
Katara took the out he offered.
"He walked in on our conversation, remember? When he comes back, he better do some serious groveling. We gave him space. He chose to invade ours, and work himself up from some simple questions."
Zuko assented to Sokka's idea of table-clearing without too much debate.
"No such thing as a simple question. Also, how does your plan allow for figuring out anything about Azula's brave new heavily revised world?"
"Working on that. Look, to make this happen, we're gonna have to break some of our promise to Mai about not working you too hard. To create time to do what we need to, we need to spend some time taking care of business. That means official fourteen-hour days for the Fire Lord hearing all business from all comers, probably going to sixteen or even eighteen in some cases. We can handle it. Katara, we'll need you on every front there is. Policy, crowd control, conflict resolution, you name it."
"I'll help, Sokka. Get my mind off of Aang, sort of. But how do I do conflict resolution?"
Sokka pondered.
"Think of the face you use when you catch me right before I say something wildly inappropriate."
Katara winced.
"I can't just call that up on demand. That's a part of you and me, of us together."
"Little Sister-fake it. They won't know the difference."
"I can't go faking it, Sokka. I..."
Zuko raised his arms.
"As Fire Lord, I summarily declare this conversation to be over! Geez! You two sometimes make me glad that Azula and I aren't that close. Katara, do what you can. That's always enough. Sokka, when do we start?"
Honestly pressed for an answer, the man with no bending but a lot of answers surprised his rest-loving, food-loving self when he responded.
"Now. This day still has ten working hours left. We'll start by clearing some food vendors to operate inside and around the palace. We're going to face some capacity crowds. Also, we won't just address immediate concerns. Be prepared to change laws to thin out some of the crowd I just mentioned."
Zuko closed his eyes and sighed. It didn't involve battle, or out-thinking an opponent. It was going to redefine tedious. But it desperately needed to be done. The bureaucratic back-log was a legacy of his former father, and it needed to be disowned the same as him, but in this case by attacking it headlong.
"Let's do it - and, while those vendors are here, let's order in and stock up."
The next day, as they began their work in earnest, the Avatar awakened and pressed on to Omashu. As Appa flew, Aang saw something far beneath them.
"It's a Fire Nation colony - right by an Earth Kingdom village - and there are people gathering! Down, Appa. They'll need us."
Impatient, Aang leaped out as they approached - just as he had in Omashu a month before.
"I am The Avatar! I'm here to offer what help I can."
The two leaders of each side nodded.
"The Avatar can be a witness to what happens here."
"Fine by me. Let there be no one to dispute how it really went down."
The two men walked over to a blanket covering an object, and pulled it away. Aang tensed.
"Is it an arena? A fighting platform? A decree of war?"
The object was a stone wheel in a metal frame. The wheel was dotted with smaller sharpened rocks. The Earth Kingdom leader and the Fire Nation leader stood together like they were brothers.
"Not everyone has a bender handy, and there's a lot of burnt ground to plow."
"But plow-shares are hard to custom for ground that varies this much - until now!"
Aang couldn't tell which one was talking when, but soon they were holding a plow-share up while the wheel was spun.
"See? This one now has a scoop for pushing up smaller firm rocks."
"But the next one could have a back-curved shear for pushing through muddier earth."
Aang felt his brains explode.
"They're beating their plowshares into better plowshares."
As he got back onto Appa, an elder of the area, fat and with a rounded face, smiled and announced to the crowd the hopes for their joint efforts.
"Hey, Everyone? We're all gonna get rich!"
Aang rose into the air and sank into his seat.
"Can't we all just get into a conflict?"
When one no longer has to be on the lookout, the most direct routes can be taken, and people who sighted the sky bison only waved. Aang was in Omashu late that same day, this time taking care to land, finding Mai waiting.
"Glad you sped it up. She's really upset."
Aang didn't even look up as he dismounted.
"Yeah, whatever. Life just upsets, doesn't it? Any peace of mind you've got, it moves in to take away. Might as well just stay upset. Saves time."
Mai looked at the Avatar.
"Did I bite you last time you were here?"
Still not responding, Aang was taken to see his Earth-bending teacher.
"Twinkletoes! You're very lucky. Normally I never see anyone."
The Queen Of Omashu waited.
"Wow. An open invitation like that, and you let it pass? Where are the others?"
Aang shrugged.
"Back in the Fire Nation. Probably trying to magically wish everyone who ever died back to life."
Toph spoke to Mai in whispers.
"Did you bite him or something?"
"I asked already."
She focused back on their visitor.
"Aang, thanks for coming - if you are in fact all here. I need your help. It's really crazy-bad."
Aang sprang to life. A conflict had presented itself at last.
"Is it an army of Fire Nation renegades, looking to get revenge?"
"Uhhh, No."
"Is it a Spirit that's trapped on this side, and just can't be reasoned with?"
"No."
"An inexplicable famine that threatens the stability of this hard-won peace?"
"Aang, would you just..."
"Long Feng, trying to set up shop in Omashu and turn it into a base for his comeback?"
Mai gently but firmly swatted Aang in the back of the head with two fingers.
"You know, in some places, constantly interrupting the Queen is even frowned upon?"
Toph raised an opened hand.
"It's good, Mai. Twinkletoes has lost his twinkle. In a way, it's almost endearing - or would be, on anyone else. Aang, I don't know what's with you and the others, and right now, while I care, I can't let myself. I have to go back to Gaoling. To see - my parents."
Aang was ready to explode.
"So you need Appa to take you there? You're a monarch, and you're rich. You think the Avatar is a taxi service? I have people who need me, Toph. Somewhere. Maybe. I'm sure someone somewhere isn't living in an age of peace and miracles."
Toph stamped her foot, and shook the throne room.
"Hey, I wouldn't just call you here for a ride. Aang, my parents have a new daughter. They did it, all right? They replaced me. Even announced the birth of their 'First And Completely Perfect' child. But they'll let me see them and her - if you are with me. Only if you are with me. That much they made clear."
Aang was still in a state that silently had the women making the 'Mai-Bite' joke again.
"Why? So they can finally arrest me for kidnapping?"
Toph was actually prepared for this.
"I'm a queen, Twinkletoes. Sovereign Immunity? Plus, I took the precaution of getting Bumi to liberate me from my folks, and pardon you for any outstanding warrants in the Earth Kingdom. They try and pull anything legal-wise, we have them for treason."
Mai sighed longingly.
"Arresting your parents. Oh, It's good to be the Queen."
Sighted or not, both glanced in her direction. She shrugged.
"What? Reconciliation or no, I have lingering issues and can be quite petty."
Toph nodded.
"That's why I love her. Aang, will you take me there, and hold my sweaty shaking hands as I meet the kid who's gonna have everything I never did - and less?"
Aang could not have seemed less committed to his goal.
"Why not?"
After he walked out to prepare the resting Appa, Mai shook her head.
"Okay. It really is depressing to be around someone like that."
Toph punched one hand into the other palm.
"Whatever he and Sokka talked about, it must be a doozy. I'm gonna make him tell me. No matter what I have to do."
TWO HOURS LATER
It had been a verbal fight to the finish.
"...and Sokka thinks that there must be a fifth Air Temple, or something like it, and Katara thinks that they're so deep in hiding or mistrusting, the war really being over hasn't reached them or sunk in."
Just not really.
"Oh, and Azula is writing some kind of fiction about us. Anything else?"
Toph got up and walked off.
"I only asked you if you wanted a salad before you turned in. Sheesh!"
The next morning, they arose, and it occurred to Aang that the Beifongs might have hired mercenaries meant to bring him in. Smiling, he imagined them refusing his offer to walk away.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road...wha?"
Toph and Mai were dressed up, and Mai was holding her little brother. Both had a lot of bags.
"Aang, we can't just meet my little sister in rags. First impressions, you know?"
Aang was feeling this trip go sour already.
"Why is Mai coming? And why is Tom-Tom with her?"
Toph looked firmly decided.
"Mai is my top aide. She speaks her mind, and doesn't always want to talk, which I like both ways."
Mai, who had once felt about Tom-Tom as Toph now felt about her unknown baby sibling, was seen of late to be about making sure her parents' goal of not repeating their mistakes with her was kept to.
"My folks are on city-wide renovation duty. They have no one to watch him with Bumi, Telen and Oma in Ba Sing Se. Besides, he likes you."
They all clambered in, and Appa gave a friendly growl to the baby's attempts at speech as they rose. Aang's spirits, however, continued to fall.
"My month just keeps getting better and better."
Next Chapter : Bureaucracy, Hypocrisy and Figuring It All Out
