Chapter 2: The Searcher

Aang was just finishing his dawn meditations when a sound – or rather, the lack of a sound – caught his attention. The noise of Appa's crunching his way through his breakfast pile of hay and vegetables had suddenly ceased. Momo, too, cocked a large ear toward the air bison's lavish stable, which adjoined Aang's own spacious quarters.

"Appa? Buddy? You okay in there?"

"He's fine, Aang," came an unexpected voice. Aang stuck his head through the opening into the stable to see the newly crowned Fire Lord with a brush in his hands, going over the fur near Appa's horns with a light touch. Appa was lounging with his eyes half-closed, enjoying the attention.

"Zuko! Hi! What's up? Did you climb in through the skylight again? I thought I wasn't due down at the Fire Palace for an hour or so yet." Aang spotted Zuko's clothes and his eyebrows went up. The Fire Lord was wearing his traveling gear -- loose pants, sturdy boots, and his red and gold tunic. "You're not dressed for court." There was a stuffed rucksack resting near Zuko's feet. "Uh oh. Where are you going?"

Zuko avoided Aang's gaze. "There's something I have to find. I was hoping you'd let me borrow Appa – it'll make things go a lot quicker."

"No way. No bison for you until you tell me exactly what's going on. Weren't we going to work on the prisoner-of-war repatriation agreements today?"

"I'm not really needed for that, just my signature. Uncle and Mai and Chief Hakoda can handle the details better than I can, anyway. I gave Uncle the legal right to sign for me until I return. Which I hope won't be long."

"You hope?" Aang swung his staff. A gust of wind smacked into the Fire Lord from the left, lifted him up an inch or two, spun him around, then let him fall to the ground. He landed, catlike, on his feet again, but facing Aang. His hair had gone as wild as a bristle-thistle, Aang noted with satisfaction. Zuko's expression was a mix of irritation and embarrassment. "Talk to me, Zuko. Unless you want to walk to wherever it is you think you're going. All by yourself. With assassination threats all over and you pretty easy to identify. Idiot."

Zuko grimaced. "What, have you been taking scolding lessons from Katara?" Another gust of wind hit him, flinging hay around and making him sneeze. Aang thought the bits of grass now stuck in his hair were a nice touch. "Okay, okay, okay! Turn off the hurricane. I didn't really want to talk about this –"

"So what else is new?" said Aang.

"You want to let me tell this or not? Anyway…I'm going to find my mother."

"You…wait…didn't you tell Katara you mother was …uh…"

"Yeah, I did, in Ba Sing Se. Back then I thought she was dead. Turned out she…may not be. I don't know. My father lies about so many things that I can't…I have to find out. You understand, right?"

"Of course! Have you got a good lead? I can get the others together in a couple of hours and we can all go. It'll be great!" The five of them hadn't been together on Appa since before Ozai's fall, about two weeks ago now. "We can finally have a group trip without the war hanging over our heads!"

Zuko looked pained. "It's not that I don't want – look, Aang, this may come to nothing. I could come back empty handed…or worse. I don't see any need to drag everyone through that with me. They all have important things to do, anyway. I just thought I'd, you know, duck out quickly and just…find out. And come back."

"And be all alone when you can't find her, or when you find out she's dead? So you can just bottle up all your feelings and sit on them?"

Aang had gotten unnervingly perceptive since his experiences on the day of the comet, Zuko thought.

"Did you tell Mai, at least?" Aang continued. "Never mind, I can see by your face you didn't."

"She would have insisted on coming along and I –"

Aang made a threatening movement with his staff and Zuko cut off what he was about to say. The Avatar sighed. "Fine. You want to keep your pain private. I get it. But you don't get to stew over it completely alone. If you want my bison, you have to take me along. That's the deal." He added, "I'm getting a little tired of all the constant adulation around here anyway. Not to mention these heavy robes. Why does Fire Nation formal clothing have so many layers, anyway? It's not like you have a real winter here." Aang zipped back to his room, adding over his shoulder, "You saddle up Appa while I change and pack my bag. Hey, you did at least tell Iroh about this, right?"

"I left him a note…"

"ARRRGH! Didn't Mai break you of that habit? Go and tell him in person. Right now!"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Zuko stepped onto a hay bale and vaulted to the edge of Appa's skylight, pulled himself up, and vanished over the rooftops.

Since the coronation the public streets had become both annoying and not entirely safe for Zuko to travel, so more and more the young Fire Lord was taking the city's "high road" when he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. Of his various counselors, only Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, and Aang himself were really equipped to follow the fleet-footed firebender on his jaunts, so he usually managed to avoid getting pinned down by both would-be assassins and, worse, bureaucrats. Aang recalled one time when Mai had caught Zuko and quite literally pinned him down to drag him off to a budget meeting he had been frantically avoiding. As a rule, Zuko took his Fire Lord duties seriously and didn't try to ditch the more onerous ones, but long columns of numbers tended to make him panic.

An unexpected side benefit of Zuko's climbing habit was the rumor spreading around town that the new Fire Lord could mysteriously appear and disappear out of the Fire Palace at will. The whole gang had been amused the first time they'd caught that rumor, though Sokka said he wanted to put up flyers saying, "It's not magic, Zuko's just a sneak!" Toph had threatened him with dire consequences if he did any such thing – she had a fine instinct for showmanship and thought the "mystery" should be played up as much as possible.

It took Aang almost no time to switch to traveling clothes and toss a few items in a bag. He made sure Appa finished his breakfast, then brushed and saddled him. He was just getting the reins properly arranged when Zuko dropped back in through the skylight, landing right in the saddle.

"Okay, it's all set," he said. From his expression, Aang guessed that Iroh had not been exactly thrilled, but had given his blessing to the trip anyway. If Iroh had truly put his foot down, Zuko would not have gone against his wishes, which meant that Iroh thought this trip was worth the risk and was willing to cover for his nephew.

Aang tossed Zuko's bag up to him. "Don't forget this." Something in it clanked. Zuko grabbed it hurriedly and stashed it away, an odd expression on his face. Aang decided he'd pressured Zuko enough about his secrets for the time being and let it go. He'd find out later if he really needed to know.

Aang called out a "Yip yip!" and Appa rose up out of his stable, sending bits of his bedding drifting everywhere. From down on the streets came cries of awe and children shrieking in delight – Appa was a big favorite in Crater City. Zuko ducked low in the saddle, wanting to keep his absence from the city quiet for as long as possible, while Aang happily shouted back and waved to the early-morning denizens of the capital.

"Which way are we headed?" Aang asked as soon as they had cleared the crater walls and were over open sea.

"Almost due east, and a little bit south. There's an archipelago there, full of tiny islands, some with equally tiny villages on them, but mostly deserted. Not enough land to farm. My fath — Ozai said mother was held captive on one of them."

"Did you take Toph along to check his answers when you asked?"

"No."

Aang put his face in the palm of his hand, but didn't say anything. Zuko had improved beyond all measure since joining up with Aang, but he still tended to fall back into his loner habits under pressure. Some days Aang wondered if he'd ever fully open up to anyone but his Uncle and Mai. Aang vowed to keep working on the older boy . Under no circumstances would Zuko be allowed to fall into the same pit of mental and emotional isolation that had claimed the sanity and the humanity of his Fire Lord forefathers since Sozin -- the same pit that had swallowed Azula whole and was showing no signs of releasing her.

It took about half a day of flight before the first of the tiny islets came into view. By that time Aang had given the reins over to Zuko and was napping in the saddle. He came awake when Appa let out a displeased grunt. Looking to the front, Aang saw that Zuko's hands had gone tight on the reins, his knuckles white, and Appa wasn't pleased by this.

"Um, Zuko, want to let me take over so you can concentrate on watching the islands?" Without waiting for an answer Aang slid forward and captured the reins. Zuko moved to the back without protest. "Do you know anything more about which one it's supposed to be?"

"It's supposed to be on the southeast side, and shaped like a barbed hook." Zuko was looking paler than usual; his scar stood out vividly in the noon sun.

Trying to get Zuko's mind off the upcoming confrontation with long-awaited answers, some of which might be devastating, Aang asked, "So what exactly happened with your mother, anyway?"

Zuko's expression tightened further, going white around the lips with tension. Then he made a visible conscious effort to loosen up, taking a few deep breaths and burying his hands in Appa's thick, soft fur. It seemed to help, because when he looked up some of the strain had gone out of his expression. He sighed. "I'll tell you what I know, but it isn't very much. I was younger than you are now and I've never found out the whole story. Uncle wasn't there, and I can't trust anything Azula told me. I only got Ozai to speak of it when I confronted him during the eclipse."

Aang remembered Zuko saying that he'd only ever had to redirect lightning at his father. "Is that when you turned the lightning back at him?"

Zuko nodded. "I went to talk to him during the eclipse because I thought it would be safest. I didn't realize you and your friends were still coming or I'd have tried to go to you instead – which probably wouldn't have gone over well, but who knows. I thought you knew that Kuei had told Azula about the invasion plans and I was sure you wouldn't walk into the trap."

"Kuei didn't bother to tell us he'd spilled our plans to Azula. Knowing Kuei, it simply didn't cross his mind that it was important." Aang sighed. "I hope he gets his act together now that he's back in Ba Sing Se. We never did find Long Feng or those Dai Lee that Azula sent away on the day of the comet."

"Yeah, I worry about them too. Anyway, I went to tell father – Ozai – that I was going to try to join you and make an alliance to stop him. He didn't take it very well. I stupidly let him bait me into staying too long because he started talking about Mother, and then the eclipse was over, and he tried to fry me." Zuko said the last in a quick flat voice, trying not to let on how badly the experience had shaken him. "I never thought he'd actually go that far. I should have, after hearing his plans for the Earth Kingdom. I just – I didn't think he'd do it. Couldn't make myself believe it." He sighed. "I know better now. Him and Azula both." Zuko's hand wandered toward where Aang knew the star-shaped scar resided, right over his heart. "Now what I can't believe is that I thought either of them could ever love me again. That's why I sided with Azula in Ba Sing Se, you know. Stupid, Zuko, right?"

"Not really. Well, okay, not listening to your Uncle, that probably counts as stupid. But wanting your sister to love you isn't stupid. We didn't exactly have siblings among the Air Nomads since we were all raised together, you know? We were all brothers. No sisters though – the girls were raised at a different temple. But I've seen what Katara and Sokka have, and while they bicker all the time, they really do love each other. It would be hard for them to throw that away for people they don't even know." Aang shot a look at the older boy. "Hey, I never expected you to help us. I kind of knew you weren't going to."

"How did you know that? I wasn't even sure myself."

Aang frowned. The memories of just before Azula had brought him down were a bit fuzzy. "I'm not sure. It's just – sometimes I can tell stuff about people when I look at them. I remember looking at you and thinking something about two dragons fighting – looked like Ran and Shao in my mind now that I think about it, but it didn't feel like them if that means anything. And the bad dragon was winning."

Zuko gave him a startled look. "That – I had a fever dream about that. The two dragons. That, and –" He shut his mouth with a snap and looked away. "And other weird things, when I was sick in Ba Sing Se."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Zuko remembered looking into a mirror and seeing the Airbender arrow on his own shaven head. He was definitely not telling Aang about that. "Just things. Most of it didn't make sense." He frowned. "But…in them I was Fire Lord. Huh. Strange." He shook his head. "Never mind that. So how did you know I was on the level at the Western Air Temple? No one else wanted to give me a chance. Except Thumper, of course." That brought a half-smile to Zuko's face.

"'Thumper'?" Aang said, incredulous.

"Oh, yeah. You know. Toph," said Zuko. Aang started laughing. "Hey! She calls me 'Sparky'! I had to fight back somehow! …Anyway, she doesn't seem to mind."

"She wouldn't. Thumper. That's perfect. Boom, boom, boom, that's Toph. Anyway, I don't know how I knew to trust you at the Western Air Temple. Things just…just…well, it felt like all the pieces were finally in place, you know? Like it was right. I knew when I let the others talk me out of giving you a chance I was making a mistake, but I was scared to firebend." He shrugged. "I guess it's what Sokka would call 'weird Avatar stuff'. It just happens sometimes. I know things."

"Like I knew –" Zuko muttered, and stopped short again.

Aang sighed. "You know, if you're going to censor yourself, you ought to do it before you open your mouth, you know? Like you knew what?"

"Well…this is probably going to sound stupid."

"If I were Sokka, you'd be sorry you gave me that straight line."

"You're right, I would. I was going to say – Like I knew when I finally found you."

Aang looked intrigued. "You did?"

"Yeah. I did. Uncle thought it was just another wild goosehawk chase, but I saw that light – I guess it was right when you first broke out of the iceberg -- and I just – I knew. I swear it felt like that light called to me. I thought it was my destiny calling, dumb as that sounds."

"What makes you think it wasn't?"

"Er…uh…okay, good point. But the thing is, I knew it was real. That light could have been a lot of different things, but I knew it was the Avatar."

"Well, the first time I saw you I knew something was really wrong," Aang added. "Because it felt like we were supposed to be friends. But you hated me. It was just…all wrong. Really wrong."

"Is that why you saved me from Zhao?"

"Why did you save me from Zhao?"

"Because I didn't want him getting credit for capturing you. You were my prize, not his. Don't give me any credit I don't deserve, Aang."

"But he wasn't going to kill me. He was going to hurt me – a lot, and in ways I don't like to think about – but not kill me. You could have waited until I was too weak and hurt to do anything and then taken me from him. I wouldn't have been able to fight you at all." Aang stared at Zuko. "You knew what he was planning to do to me, didn't you. That's why you came when you did. You didn't want to let him torture and cripple me."

Zuko ran a hand through his already-mussed hair, making it stand up wildly in the wind. "I… I don't know. I thought I was just doing it to protect my own interests. But…yeah. I knew what Zhao would do to you. He was never exactly the subtle type."

"Well. For whatever reason, I was glad you came when you did. So I wanted to return the favor, because I think Zhao would have done really bad things to you too."

"Yeah, he would have. And Father wouldn't have punished him. Ozai liked him a lot more than he ever liked me." Zuko sighed. The he suddenly sat up. "There!"

Aang looked down. They had crossed over the thickest part of the archipelago, and the islets were starting to thin out. Just off to Appa's left was a medium-sized one, and with a little imagination you might be able to see it as a double-barbed fishhook. Aang looked back at Zuko. Zuko's eyes were a little wild, and he was biting at his lower lip, but otherwise he looked okay. Aang clucked to Appa, and the bison dove down toward the wrinkled sea below and the bait on Ozai's hook.

A quick flyover showed nothing promising. The island was a still-active small volcano, the long part of the hook a result of its lava stream trailing off into the ocean. Aang brought Appa down on the coolest place he could find.

Zuko stepped down out of the saddle and looked around, frowning. "This isn't right. Nothing lives here and never has. The volcano's too hot, too active." His shoulders slumped. "She's not here. He lied."

"Hey, don't give up. So Ozai lied. Next time go back and take Toph with you." Like you should have the first time, he thought, but did not say. "She'll get the truth out of him."

"No, he'll probably just clam up if I let him know I have a way to tell when he's lying." Zuko sighed and hunched down, tracing patterns in the black volcanic sand with a finger. "This was stupid. I'm sorry I dragged you and Appa off for this."

"Zuko," Aang said.

Zuko looked up. Aang was pointing at the sand scribbles. "Look what you wrote."

"Huh? I didn't write anything. I was just doodling." He glanced down. "What…?"

The lines weren't perfect, but they were readable. Without thinking, Zuko had drawn the character for "Mother", and an arrow. Pointing due north.

"That…that has to be a coincidence. Or just unconscious wishful thinking." Zuko shook his head hard. "No, we should go back. I have work to do."

"It won't take us that long to check out the islands north of here," Aang said. "But it doesn't matter what you think, because I want to check it out, and I'm the one with the bison. So, are you coming, or am I leaving you here on this steaming rock?"

Zuko flung up his hands. "Okay, fine, whatever. You want to chase this goosehawk, we'll chase." He leaped lightly back up into the saddle. "Yip yip, Appa!"

The man looked up from the spring where he was filling pails of cooling water for Ursa. There was a tiny dot in the sky. It was not moving like an aukbatross or other sea bird. A war balloon? And if so, did it come to rescue them, or dispose of them? Over the last few months they had seen the floating death machines more and more often, right up until the day Sozin's Comet had flared in the sky. Since then – nothing. No twice-weekly guard visits. The date when their supplies were supposed to arrive had come and gone, and there had been nothing – no balloon dropping packages, no bundles ported through the tunnel by wary soldiers – nothing. Something huge had happened on the day of the Comet, they could tell, but what? Did the Fire Nation still exist? Did anyone know, or care, about them, or were they trapped here until they ran out of grain and they and the animals slowly starved?

Was anyone else still alive out there at all?

Now, if his tired eyes weren't playing tricks on him, the dot in the sky said that yes, there were still people out there. But friend, foe, or neither? Help, or destruction?

He decided he could take no chances with Ursa in her weakened state. There was very little space in their island prison, but he had managed to dig out a temporary shelter and cover it with vines and leaves. It might let them hide long enough for dangerous visitors to depart, if they didn't know to what to look for.

He entered the cabin, where Mikka worked tirelessly over Ursa's still form. "Mikka, there may be someone coming. I saw something in the sky. I want to move Aunt Ursa to the emergency shelter, just in case."

Mikka looked up, worry in his blue eyes. "I don't know if that's a good idea. She's awfully weak, and I still can't find what's wrong. And she's been delirious again."

"You'll go with her, of course. We'll wrap her well and I'll carry her there, all right?"

"Well…okay. If you think we have to."

They bundled the ailing woman up as well as they could, and the man carried her to the little scraped-out shelter, roofed with brush and branches, and the two of them tried to make her comfortable. She kept mumbling, "Don't fear…love you…love you, always…" over and over, as she had been, on and off again since this unknown illness had fallen on her on the day of the comet. Mikka kept soothing her with his healing hands, which helped, but had so far not been able to cure whatever was wrong.

The man took up a watching position nearby, in a blind he had built of woven branches for just this purpose. The little dot grew steadily larger, and it wasn't long before the man realized it was definitely not a war balloon. He had no idea what the flying thing actually was, but it definitely wasn't a balloon. Nor a bird. It looked like a furry flying hill, of all things. He rubbed again at he eyes, but the thing kept right on looking like a furry flying hill.

It continued to look like that as it homed in on their little crater island and then hovered above it. From this distance, the man could see that the hill had legs and…horns? Yes, definitely horns. And six bushy legs.

And a saddle. With riders, it seemed. He couldn't see them, but he could hear snippets of conversation floating down from above. Who or whatever these strangers were, he was grateful that at least they weren't Ozai's Imperial Guard, come to clean up a few last lingering loose ends from his long and vicious climb to power.

The riders appeared to be having a small argument about landing the furry hill. There really wasn't room for it in their tiny encampment – all the area that wasn't covered by their cabin and the shed for the chickens and the nannycow was covered in trees.

After a moment the argument seemed to be resolved, and a rope was flung over the side of the flying creature. A red-and-gold clad figure did a neat acrobatic flip off the saddle, caught the rope, and slid rapidly to the ground. A moment later a second form appeared, this one – wait, was it flying? It looked like a young boy holding onto a narrow-winged contraption. By rights he should have fallen like a stone, but instead an oddly cooperative wind lifted the glider, and after a few quick downward spirals, the boy settled ever-so-lightly to the ground, the wings of his gliding device snapping down until he held a very ordinary-looking staff.

The man studied the newcomers carefully as they peered around, clearly looking for something. He couldn't see much of the Fire Nation boy since he made a beeline for their cabin and disappeared inside, but the other boy – the other boy was looking toward the emergency shelter, a listening look on his face.

The boy was bald.

There were blue arrows on his head and hands.

He wore the saffron robes of an Air Nomad.

He had been flying.

And he had a flying creature.

The things the man had been hearing as rumors for months now clicked into place. The creature was a flying bison. And the boy…

This boy was the Avatar.

The Avatar was the enemy of the Fire Nation.

Lu Ten cursed silently, and readied himself for a fight. He would protect Ursa and Mikka with his life if necessary. Thanks to Ozai's treachery and cunning, the rest of the world thought him dead anyway. If he had to offer up his life to save the lives of the Lady Ursa and the boy he had come to think of as a little brother, a replacement for the younger cousin he was unlikely to ever see again, he would consider it a bargain. He would try to rush the boy-god, and hope to catch him unawares. And if that didn't work, with his last breath he would beg for mercy for the Lady, and for Mikka.

To be continued