Chapter Notes: Second part of Chapter One! A little more Zuko, plus a party and a fight, even if the party's sort of offscreen. :D

Chapter One: The Avatar Returns (Part 2)

The sound was loud and sharp and seemed to come out of nowhere, though that last wasn't especially unusual; the gaps between icebergs tended to channel sound oddly, make it echo and reverberate, and it had happened before that a distant crunch of ice had sounded like it had happened barely a hundred feet away. Zuko turned from where he had been leaning on the rail, thinking - not brooding, no matter what Uncle Iroh said - and looked in the general direction of the sound in time to see the glow of light. His father must have sent at least one blue Firebender along with the ships. Zuko felt a little ten-year-old part of himself quail at the thought that it might be Azula - but, no, or she would have been on deck to taunt him when the ships had passed.

Whatever the explanation for the light, one thing was obvious: they'd found someone, whether it was the last Waterbender in the south or just a village they felt like destroying. Long after the light faded away, Zuko kept looking, waiting for a sign of the ships returning.

But it didn't come, not until the next morning. "Ship ahoy!" the lookout shouted, just as Uncle Iroh was pouring their morning tea, and she pointed off into the light morning mist. "Only the one," she added, sounding a little puzzled.

Zuko left his tea, ignoring Uncle Iroh's disapproving click of the tongue, and went to the rail: the ship was out of the mist now, and unless the other was unusually far behind, it was indeed alone.

The deck seemed markedly crowded, and a vague suspicion was starting to form in Zuko's mind even before one of the other ship's officers shouted, "Spare some supplies?"

Zuko glanced at Uncle Iroh.

"Whatever decision you make, I'm sure it will be the right one, Prince Zuko," Uncle Iroh said.

"Of course it will," Zuko snarled, rolling his eyes. Stupid old man. Zuko deliberated for a moment, and then shouted back, "For a price - tell me everything that happened."

"All right," came the response, a moment later.

It was only reasonable, Zuko thought; they would never find out, otherwise. There was no reason for Uncle Iroh to be beaming at him like that.

.*.

The ship went on its way an hour later, loaded with whatever Zuko's quartermaster had calculated they could spare. Little wonder the officer had agreed to commit the moderately treasonous act of talking to Zuko; sailing back from the South Pole was unpleasant enough without having to keep nearly two ships' worth of soldiers appropriately rationed with one ship's worth of supplies. Lucky for them it had stormed not long ago, and Zuko had plenty of drinking water saved up from the rain barrels.

The officer was Captain Gao; Captain Chang, from the second ship, had gone down with it when it had capsized. Most of the other men and women on it had been rescued, though, and brought under the command of Captain Gao.

Zuko was hard-pressed to contain his glee when Captain Gao told him they had failed to capture the Waterbender, who definitely did exist. True, it wasn't the Avatar, but it was something his father wanted - maybe it would be enough.

"I don't know," Uncle Iroh said, when Captain Gao and her ship were shrinking away in the distance. "I don't think she was telling us everything. Why did they leave, instead of chasing the bender down, when she flipped the other ship?"

"Because they're fools," Zuko said. "Or ashamed of themselves. She must have taken them by surprise, maybe even prepared an ambush, to capsize an entire ship by herself. But if we go in fast enough, she won't have time to set up anything like that again."

"Perhaps," Uncle Iroh said, but he was frowning speculatively as he sipped his tea.

Zuko shook his head; they had no time for Uncle's groundless worrying. They had a bender to find.


Mother put Katara and Sokka on the wall for the day, to keep an eye out for the ship in case the raiders changed their minds, and to watch the children while the women went hunting. Katara suspected it was also partly for Sokka's sake; his head was healing up relatively well, with no signs of infection in the wound, but he was still having moments of wooziness. At least if he fell off the wall, he wouldn't drown.

Katara was trying to use the time to patch up a few old tents; but her mind kept wandering off to Kyoshi, and the task of finding a bending teacher, and Aang's suddenly pained face.

The fifth time her hands went still in her lap, Sokka said, "Okay, seriously, what is wrong with you?"

Katara jumped, though thankfully not enough to tip herself off the wall's broad top, and looked up to find Sokka looking back with narrowed eyes. "I, uh," she said thoughtfully. "What?"

"Usually, you can't get enough of a day on the wall," Sokka said. "'Oh, Sokka, I'll get so much done!' 'Oh, Sokka, I've been meaning to finish this for ages!' 'Oh, Sokka, stop shoving me off the wall!' What's going on?" He paused, and squinted at her. "Are you still freaking out about the Avatar thing? Because, really, if you think about it, it's pretty awesome-"

"I have to leave," Katara blurted out, staring down at her needle. "I need to learn how to do everything - I need to go find a Waterbending teacher."

"-and it means we get to go to the North Pole, too, apparently," Sokka said. "Even better."

"We?" Katara said, startled.

Sokka gave her a look. "Like I'd let you have all your crazy Avatar adventures alone. Please. If you leave, I'm going with you."

Katara stared at him, and then found herself laughing; she should have known, she thought, Sokka hated it when important things happened without him around. "You don't have to," she offered belatedly, but she didn't really mean it, and judging by the sideways glance Sokka shot her, he knew it.

"Yeah, whatever," he said. "You know you want me to come," and he leaned over to jog her companionably with one elbow.

Katara thought about letting it stay the half-joke it was, but it didn't seem right. "I do," she admitted, and elbowed him back. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sokka said, briefly serious; and then he grinned. "You're such a sap."

"Oh, shut up," Katara said, giggling, and shoved him off the wall.

.*.

When the hunting party came back, Katara told Mother everything: the dream, what Kyoshi had said; that she knew now she would have to leave, and that Sokka would be going with her.

Mother listened silently, and as she began to wrap it up, Katara worried that perhaps she was angry. But when Katara was done, she blinked a couple of times, and then said, very softly, "I think you're right - you must go," and Katara realized abruptly that she wasn't angry - only sad.

"Oh, Mother," Katara said, and wished, irrationally, that she had never said anything.

But Mother put on a smile, and pulled Katara close enough to kiss her forehead. "It's all right," she said, "I knew you would have to. I just hoped it wouldn't be this soon, that's all." She turned and motioned to Aunt Mitika and Aunt Tarosha, each of whom, Katara noticed belatedly, had one side of a travois that was heavily loaded. "We brought down a tiger seal today - it should make a fine farewell feast for you."

"Thank you, Mother," Katara said, and hugged her as tightly as she could.

.*.

They were ready to set out almost first thing the next morning. They couldn't have taken one of the large boats by themselves, even if there had been any left after the men and the women without young children had gone to fight in the Hundred-Year War; but they did get one of the nicer canoes, with space for everything Mother could think to give them.

With everyone helping, it didn't take long at all to pack, and before she was entirely ready for it, Katara was one hug from Mother away from getting in the canoe and leaving her home behind.

Mother drew her in tight, cradling her head in that way that meant Mother was on the edge of crying. "You are the Avatar," Mother murmured into her hair. "I know you don't quite believe it yet, but you will. Take care of your brother, all right?"

"Don't worry, Mother, we'll do our best not to get killed," Sokka said, very reassuringly, and Mother started chuckling too hard to cry properly.

.*.

The true strangeness of it didn't hit Katara until they were nearly out of the loose ice and close to open water - it was further than either of them had ever gone to fish, even on the days the fish had been at their most elusive.

It was quickest for Katara to bend the water under them and carry the canoe along that way; Sokka had promised to paddle if she got tired, but considering that he was now snoring lightly in the bow, Katara had some doubts about his sincerity.

She was just considering how best to wake him - a wave all over would be the most satisfying, but might get their things wet; a splash in the face would probably be better - when the first fireball roared overhead and crashed, steaming, into the water ahead of them.

Katara ducked reflexively and yanked on the water, pulling the canoe suddenly to the left; the jerking motion woke Sokka, who yelped.

"Hey! What are you-" He cut himself off abruptly, and his eyes went wide. "Katara," he said slowly, "why is there a Fire Nation ship behind us?"

"That'll show you for falling asleep when you ought to be the lookout," Katara shot back. Another fireball came down behind them, close enough for Katara to feel the heat on her back, and she had to turn around to catch the wave of suddenly warmer water before it could swamp the canoe. "Time for you to paddle," she said over her shoulder, and then swung her hands up, pulling the wave higher, into a shield.

It was a Fire Nation ship; Katara couldn't be sure, looking at its blurry, distorted outline through the wall of water, but she thought it was smaller than either of the ships from two days ago. Which was good, in a sense, if the raiders were gone and this ship was only after her, not after the village. On the other hand, she thought wryly, it also meant that she had only been the Avatar for two days, and the Fire Nation was already trying to kill her.

Sokka kept them moving to the left, and a moment later, they rounded the edge of the nearest iceberg. The ship was - at least temporarily - blocked from view, and Katara let the wave-shield tumble back into the sea with a splash.

"So, uh, I don't suppose you feel like glowing and flipping this ship over?" Sokka said, still paddling.

"I don't suppose you feel like getting hit over the head again?" Katara said.

"Well, not really," Sokka conceded, "but if it's that or, you know, death-"

"Maybe we don't have to pick," Katara said thoughtfully, eyeing the water ahead of them. Her first panicked tug had given them a fair amount of momentum, and Sokka had paddled pretty hard; they had nearly rounded half the iceberg, and they were facing back toward the ice field now, not out toward open water. "If we go back in and draw them into a narrow spot, I could pull the ice down-"

"And freeze the water under them, too, freeze them in," Sokka finished, nodding. "It won't hold them forever, but it'll give us time to get away."

The ship was starting to come around the iceberg, so Katara drew another wall of water up - just in time to catch the next fireball, which bounced off and down to fizzle out in the water behind them. Sokka kept paddling, and a few dozen yards further on, they were between two middling-sized cliffs of ice, both taller than the Fire Nation ship, with the ship itself bearing down rapidly on them.

Katara abruptly let the water-wall go, and the ship was close enough now for her to see individual faces on the deck: the focused look on the woman who was lighting the next fireball in the cradle; the hard-faced man who was adjusting the angle of the catapult, on the orders of the shouting boy with the scarred eye. She took a deep breath, and reached out to the top of one iceberg.

"... You're going to pull it down soon, right?" Sokka said.

"I'm working on it," Katara gritted out, straining. It had been warm and sunny the past few days, which she had been counting on, and the ice was soft and loose; but it was more, and further away, than she usually tried to do anything with.

"I'm just saying," Sokka said. "They're almost done with the catapult."

Katara pulled on the ice as hard as she could, forcing her hands sideways against the weight that was resisting her bending, and it gave with a creak and a low rumble of sound, tumbling down over the deck of the ship in a sudden avalanche. A symmetrical movement in the other direction, and the other side gave, too, sliding down into a heap right on top of the catapult.

"Ha-hah!" Sokka shouted, punching one fist into the air, and Katara tried not to feel too pleased - she hadn't even finished yet, she reminded herself.

It was easier to freeze the water around the ship than it had been to bring the ice down, because she didn't have to move it anywhere, only concentrate on it. She was rewarded after a moment by a light crackling sound, as ice formed and thickened around the hull of the ship; and then they were paddling off around the iceberg again, away from the trapped ship, and out onto the open ocean.


Zuko put his palms against the heavy fall of ice chunks and loose snow that was pinning him to the deck, and melted it away with a surge of anger. Idiot bender - she had only made things worse for herself in the end-

"A clever trick," Uncle Iroh said, with noticeable admiration; he'd freed himself already, and was now heating the last of the dampness out of his sleeves in a blast of steam. "And good technique, too - kept her elbows up, very nice."

Zuko struggled to his feet and stared over the rail: the canoe was shrinking away into the distance, undoubtedly sped along by the girl's bending - the wake was far more than you'd expect, for a canoe that size. "We have to track her down," he snapped. "Who cares about her technique?"

"You should," Uncle Iroh said, very mildly. "She's not a master - at least, not yet. But she's very powerful. When you underestimate your opponent, only one of you suffers for it; and it is usually not your opponent."

Zuko grimaced, but said nothing. It didn't matter how skilled or powerful a bender the Water Tribe girl was - Zuko would track her down and kill her, and be one step closer to ending his exile.