A/N: This is because chapter three was so short. Don't be getting greedy ;D
~Four Months~
They already felt stronger. Each day Katara was pushed to swim to the other side of the massive lake without waterbending. Each day Zuko was pushed to get to the top of the volcano. Each day Toph was pushed to climb a neighboring mountain, no earthbending allowed. The physical exercise made them stronger, even though none of them could accomplish their tasks… yet.
They worked on various things. Zuko was to learn control. Katara was to learn how to lose control. Toph was preparing for the procedure that would, if all went well, restore her vision.
The young earthbender had sworn to herself, years ago it seemed, that she was the greatest earthbender on earth. Now that she had been proved wrong, she felt her pride pushing her forward.
~Zuko and Rhyu~
The rightful heir to the Fire Nation sat, meditating just at the edge of the molten rock. Each day, after pushing himself as far as he could to the top, Rhyu would force him to rest before taking him to the peak. There, they would go down a neatly hewn tunnel into the heart of the active volcano.
Meditating amidst the flames was another daily ritual for Zuko. Rhyu instructed him to sit on one of the few solid surfaces and meditate until he understood the flames without assistance. Rhyu would keep the poisonous vapors created by the volcano away from his pupil but nothing more.
"Tell me, Zuko, have you figured it out yet?" Rhyu asked his student, once again burning off the sulfurous gas before it could harm the banished prince.
"Not all of it," Zuko said, his eyes still closed as his mouth set into a determined frown. "Each time I seem to understand something, it just slips away and I cannot do anything."
Rhyu nodded thoughtfully.
"Zuko, what does fire need to thrive?"
"Fuel," he said without hesitation. Rhyu nodded again, staring into the lava.
"Precisely. When you, or any other firebender, creates fire, you pour your own emotions into the flame. Your emotions feed the flame. The firebending you will have learnt from your human masters were simply the basics, relying almost completely on anger and hatred to fuel the fire. Any and everything beyond that requires almost if not absolute calm." Rhyu paused, turning back to Zuko as his student opened his eyes. "Tell me, why do you think that your younger sister always outmatched you?"
"Father said that she was born lucky, and that I was lucky to be born," Zuko said, the bitterness returning to his voice. Rhyu shook his head patiently.
"Your father was incorrect. Your bending was weaker because, unlike Azula, your fire wasn't fueled with hate for many years. She maintained dominance simply by throwing the concern of and for all others away while you allowed yourself to care."
"So I should stop caring?" asked Zuko, his tone serious.
"Not at all. At the end of this war, caring will have given you more strength than indifference or even hatred. Do you remember why your firebending weakened just after you joined the Avatar?" Rhyu asked Zuko nodded cautiously.
"Just as you had lost your purpose, you are slowly losing yourself in the guilt of your nation. You are trying to carry the blame of an entire nation on your shoulders, Zuko. You need to release what isn't yours' in order to reach the calmness required for firebending."
At the end of Rhyu's small speech, Zuko nodded, closing his eyes again. As he exhaled deeply, Rhyu smiled.
"Very good. Now, take control of the fire around you, and release it!" Rhyu ordered. Zuko obeyed, his eyes snapping open as he jumped to his feet. His hand twisted and he punched outwards, sending a large ball of fire forward. A small ripple pulsed through the lava as the fire ball brushed the surface.
He noticed, almost numbly, that the fire was now blue instead of its usual red-orange.
"Good," Rhyu smiled, a hint of pride in his eyes.
~Katara and Uisce~
Uisce watched as her apprentice took a steadying breath of air before whipping her hands around her upper body in a swirling motion. Right on command, the water of the lake began to pulse before a large wave rose up, just in front of the young waterbender.
She held the wave, panting slightly with the effort.
"Hold it," Uisce ordered quietly, walking towards Katara. She had gone just two steps when another, albeit smaller, wave came towards her. She smiled at Katara, now holding the larger wave with just one hand. Uisce glanced at her feet. The ice Katara was standing on was intact and holding, even with the diverted attention.
"Release it slowly," Uisce smiled. Katara sighed, slowly lowering the water so as not to create a large disturbance in the lake. A drop of sweat rolled down the side of her face as the wave was returned to its original location.
"You are improving," she complimented before looking at Katara appraisingly.
"I've noticed something," Uisce said, interrupting her pupil's concentration.
"What is it?" Katara asked curiously, wondering if there was something wrong with her form.
"Waterbending originated in the Northern Water Tribe, as you know," Uisce said, introducing her topic. "When the Southern Water Tribe branched off, they kept to the cold. Through years, water and ice bending have become so instinctual to you that many benders have forgotten the third."
"Third what?"
"I suppose you could say temperature. You have been comfortable bending ice and water, but have you ever tried to boil water?"
"You can do that?" Katara asked, surprised. She supposed it made sense, though, seeing as she could freeze and unfreeze water.
"Yes, and it is a useful skill. Warm water is easier to heal with. Steam can create a useful diversion if you need to make an escape. You can cook food without making a fire and alerting anyone to your location with smoke."
Katara's eyes lit with understanding and she smiled.
"Now, instead of smoothing the water into ice, you're going to... disrupt the flow of water. It is strange to explain, but it comes naturally. You put your own energy into the water to heat it, and the disruption you create sustains the heat.
Katara lifted a sphere of water from the lake, narrowing her eyes slightly in concentration as her fingers flicked towards the water. The water shuddered and bubbles gradually began appearing.
"That was good, for your first try. Now… Attack me!"
On command, Katara's arms rose up, closely followed by streams of water, the sphere of water falling into the lake. The water coated Katara's arms as she darted forward. She sent a water whip towards Uisce but the spirit only leaned to the left, the water completely missing her.
Flicking her wrist, Katara snapped the water back towards her master before the whip could retreat, freezing it into a blunt spear. Uisce simply held up a hand, allowing the ice to collide with her hand, melting back into water as the water bending master touched it.
Katara dropped her other arm quickly, aiming the water at her master's feet. Uisce danced away from the water, forming ice under her feet without thought.
"You are still overthinking your attack," Uisce mused. "Release your control on the water. The water wants to follow you, you don't need to force it into submission."
~Toph and Cruinne~
Cruinne watched as Toph bended the metal sheet in front of her into various shapes.
"Turtleduck," he ordered, watching his apprentice peel the right amount of iron away from the sheet before molding it in her hands.
The work was difficult for the blind girl. Her master was judging her creations based on accuracy to the real thing and, without having seen anything outside of earthbending, each detail was hard to replicate.
She lifted the lifelike model up to her teacher, hoping she had gotten it right.
"What's wrong with it?" Cruinne repeated to the young girl, waiting for her to get the length of the wings correct. Toph scowled but placed her fingertips against the warm metal once again, ready to perfect her statue without any idea of what she had done wrong.
~That Night, Suppertime~
"So," Katara said, breaking the awkward silence, "How's your training going, Zuko?"
"Hm," Zuko, exhausted by his training, said, shrugging noncommittally.
Katara sighed, used to the reply but still hoping for something different.
"Toph?" she asked, trying to keep the plea out of her voice. Toph scowled, turning her head slightly away from Cruinne. The earth bending master only grinned.
"She's just annoyed. Actually, she's doing better than I thought she would by this point."
"Thank you, O Great and Powerful One," Toph grumbled irritably. Uisce smiled softly.
"Easy," she soothed. "Katara shall very soon be doing the same thing with ice, if that is any consolation."
Apparently it was. Toph grinned as Katara shifted uneasily. The water bender turned to her master, an anxious look on her face as she took in Uisce's teasing eyes.
"Then again, she'll also have the visual aspect to all of her memories, so the task may be a bit easier," the spirit reasoned, chuckling softly as Toph's sightless gaze darkened angrily.
"Speaking of visual aspect, have you and Katara began with-"
"Not yet," Uisce interrupted Cruinne. "I'd like to make sure that she has a solid understanding of everything she needs before I can even think of such a procedure. Judging from where we stand, it will probably be five or six weeks before she's ready to even assist me with something of that scale."
"What's going on?" Zuko asked, yawning tiredly. Toph shifted her weight anxiously, spiking Katara's interest.
"It's not important," Toph said, quieting uncharacteristically. This was not left unnoticed but the young waterbender obeyed her friend's wishes and changed the subject.
"How are things on the outside?" she asked Awyr. It had been the lone airbender's job to travel to and from the nations, bringing news of the Fire Nation's progress as well as the status of the Northern Water Tribe, the only land free of the Fire Nation's troops.
"Not well," she reported easily. "Fire Lord Azula has begun her campaign north."
"Why is she taking things so slowly? The Azula I know would have struck as soon as they found out about Aang," Zuko said, his voice catching slightly when he mentioned his former student and friend. Awyr nodded slowly.
"She is searching for you. Very carefully. Fire Nation soldiers have been combing what's left of the Earth Kingdom for weeks. The Southern Water Tribe has been destroyed."
Zuko's eyes flashed carefully towards Katara. The waterbender tried to keep her composure but her facade was quickly slipping. Before it could disappear completely, she looked up at Awyr.
"Survivors?" she asked, her mouth a thin line.
"Few and far between. I have no word of your grandmother or father," Awyr reported, nodding sadly. Katara took a deep breath, leaning back in her chair.
"Remember why you are here, child. They are not lost to you let," Uisce said to her student. Katara nodded, almost to herself, before averting the subject once more.
"So Azula knows that we're still alive?" she said, trying to keep her voice light. Zuko's eyes darkened slightly with concern but she disregarded it as Awyr nodded.
"She's using all of her resources to track you all down. Especially you, Zuko," she informed the banished prince. He looked stunned.
"What?" he eventually managed to say. She turned to him with a wry smile.
"If you have a son or daughter before Azula, then your child would be the legitimate heir to the throne according to Fire Nation law. As would their children be the next rightful heir and so on. If Ozai and Azula do not end your line, their power will always be faulted."
Zuko regretted asking, blushing into his food as Toph laughed at his expense.
A/N:
Okay, done with this one for today. Next updates should be Monday night. If I don't remember - let's face it, I won't- PM me on Tuesday. I've still got chapters sitting in Google Drive but I don't want to overload anyone that follows me with update emails.
Bye!
^.^ Susie ^.^