Aang shot himself up onto Appa, who was trudging through the thick, brown waters of Jang Hui.
"You guys, I think this water's polluted." He looked down at himself, seeing himself dripping with clingy mud. He airbent it off of himself and onto the others on accident. Seeing this fault, he blasted out another wave of air that left them a little disorderly, but free of oozing dirt.
"That would explain why I haven't had a bite." Sokka reeled in his fishing pole. He dropped it down on the saddle and pulled out his schedule for the eclipse, sinking down into the saddle with the others. "Looks like we'll need to find somewhere else to get food."
"Is that going to fit in your schedule?" Katara snipped in annoyance as her brother looked over the long scroll unraveling in his hands.
"Sure. But that means we're only allowed two potty breaks today." Sokka held up one hand with two fingers stretched up as he smiled, impressed with his master plan.
"Maybe we can get food there." Aang pointed out toward a free-floating village on the poor excuse for water, before glancing back to Sokka, who grasped Appa's reins.
"I can't feel anything. Where is this village?" Toph's sightless eyes wandered over the edge of the small cliff.
"It's in the middle of the river." Sokka explained, squinting to try and see it better.
"Sure is!" came a chipper, yet cracked and aged voice. "My name's Dock. Mind if I ask who you are?" They looked down to see an older man getting into a boat loosely fastened to the docks. They struggled for a moment to decide what to tell the man, when Zuko answered.
"We're from the Earth Kingdom colonies." He spoke clearly, knowing nobody asked much of colonials.
"Wow! Colonials! Hop on, I'll give you a ride into town!" he croaked helpfully. Without much hesitation, the gang slid down the Cliffside and onto the dock, and helped themselves to seats on Dock's makeshift raft. A few minutes into the trip, Katara spoke.
"Why do you live on the river?"
"We're a fishin' town. Atleast that's how it was 'fore the factory moved in." Dock whipped his oar over his passengers, nearly clipping Toph with it in the process, and gestured with his free hand to a factory on the edge of the river, slurry pouring out into the water from waste pipes. "Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up the river." Dock's voice was unusually casual for what he was explaining.
The gang stared at the factory for a few moments, before focusing back on the approaching village. Zuko's eyes stayed fixated on the factory with a sullen expression painted on his face.
"Now our little village is struggling to survive." Dock added with a small sigh. This little phrase seemed to hit Zuko like a physical blow, causing him to look down to the dirty waters to avoid the approaching town, idle civilians lingering around in depression and sickness. The raft pulled up to the floating village and the gang got up onto it, Toph clinging to Sokka's arm to lead the way for her.
"Thanks for the ride!" Aang waved back as Katara's gaze panned over the town, breathing in a panorama of village life, poverty stricken and sickness-ridden. Thoughtlessly, Katara and Zuko followed the others towards a food stall, both drinking in the horrible conditions these people were living in. Katara stopped, her eyes wandering still over the town. The others turned to look at her.
"Look at this place. It's so sad." She frowned hopelessly. "We should help them."
"We can't waste our time here." Sokka answered swiftly. "We have a bigger mission we need to remain focused on. These people are on their own." Sokka swung his hand across the air to emphasize his point.
"How can you say that?" Zuko interrupted. "These people are starving. We can't just turn our backs on them." He crossed his arms and glared at Sokka from behind Katara, who glanced at him thankfully.
"I'm not turning my back to them, I'm being realistic." Sokka glared back at Zuko. "We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the Firelord!" Sokka hissed loudly, only to get a slap in the mouth from Toph, who'd quickly found her way between the water tribe siblings.
"Hey, loudmouth!" she seethed at Sokka. "Maybe we should be a little quieter when talking about taking out the Firelord, hmm?" Toph's sightless eyes stared forwards, her hand cupped over Sokka's mouth.
Sokka sighed as Toph removed her hand, looking back to Zuko and Katara. "Come on, guys, be realistic about this. You know our mission has to come first."
A long pause ensued, Zuko looking back to Katara, whose face remained dead-set on helping this town. Eventually, her face dropped and she nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right." She looked up to Zuko with a sigh. Zuko also let his muscles loosen as he trudged after the others, Katara not far behind.
"Let's just get what we need and go." Aang decided neutrally, up ahead. They eventually came to a stall appearing to be managed by the same man that gave them into town, however now he was wearing a different hat.
"Hey, Dock. You work here too?" Sokka asked, approaching the stall, the others close behind.
"I'm not Dock, I'm Xu. Dock's my brother." Dock cheeped with a friendly smile. Obviously, this confused them, a baffled look on each of their faces.
"But we just saw you. You're even wearing the same clothes. The only difference is your hat." Aang pointed to him with his eyebrows coming down sharply.
"Dock works on the docks, that's why they call him Dock. I work here in the shop, that's why they call me 'Xu'." He flung his arms out either side of him as if someone should've been yelling 'tada'.
"I don't get it." Toph interjected.
"Me either!" Dock yelped excitedly, ducking down and pulling out a crate of discolored fish. "So, what can I get'cha?" he leant forwards over the crate. "Hey, I'll give you a special deal! Buy three fish and I'll throw in a clam for free!" he grinned, baring a few missing teeth.
Sokka pushed his finger into a fish, forcing out some of the gunk from the river. He squinted in disgust. "I think we'll just take the fish." He lifted up a pair of fish in one hand. Dock took it out of his hands and wrapped it up in brown paper, before handing it over the counter to Katara as Sokka paid the man. "Mind telling your brother we'll need a ride back to shore?" Sokka added.
Without a word, Dock disappeared under the counter and emerged with his original hat on. "Hey, colonials! My brother says you need a lift!" he skipped his way around the back of the stall and motioned over his shoulder for them to follow him back to the raft. The group followed him, but Katara paused when a young boy pulled on her skirt to get her attention. She turned and looked down at him, holding the wrapped fish in her hands. The boy was small, shirtless and thin, with torn trousers that came to his knees. He was barefoot too, and a rash was spread over his shoulder, most likely from bathing in polluted water.
"Can you spare some food?" the little boy asked, his hand still clasped around her skirt's fabric.
Sinking down to almost kneel, Katara unwrapped the fish and handed him one of them. "I wish I could spare more." She smiled weakly. The boy bowed to her thankfully, before running away and stopping at a bed-ridden woman, showing her that he'd gotten food for them. Katara's eyes followed the little boy to his mother, before she reluctantly turned to see Zuko looking at her, a similar expression to hers painted on his face.
"Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule." Sokka scratched his chin in thought, examining his plan. The night sky overhead made it hard to read it, but he dared not bring it near the campfire. "It's going to take some serious finagling to get back on track."
"Finagle away, Oh schedule master." Toph yawned sarcastically, falling from a sitting position onto her back.
"Well, for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day." Sokka sat down and watched as Aang and Katara split the pollution from the cooking water.
"Forty-three minutes." Katara grimaced skeptically and glanced at Zuko, who was sitting against a cliff, deep in thought.
Sokka looked back to Katara and crossed his arms. "Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Firelord in time for the eclipse, which, by the way, only lasts for eight minutes. And we just lost a whole day, so if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we have to wake up early."
"Well, I'm not waking up early." Toph sat up.
"Or we could just cut out all our eating breaks." Sokka added, obviously not meaning it, but trying to get their attention.
"What?" Aang piped up, staring at him.
"No way." Katara unraveled the brown paper bag, leaning over the cooking pot.
"Forget it." Toph gave him as good a death glare she could, not being able to see him.
Sokka smirked at their reaction, but was still unsettled by Zuko, who seemed to be sleeping with his eyes open, his sword sheath sitting at his side. With a sigh, he continued. "Either way, we have to leave first thing in the morning."
Katara frowned, unable to get the little urchin from earlier out of her head. If only there was something she could do to help them. She glanced at Zuko, who despite looking completely apathetic couldn't avoid Katara knowing he was thinking the same as her.
A loud groaning noise awoke the entire campsite, causing them to sit up in their sleeping bags and blink the sleep from their eyes and settle their gazes on Appa, lying on his side and groaning. Katara stood near the bison as if trying to decipher what was wrong, while inwardly marveling at the intelligence of the great beast, who seemed to know what she wanted him to do. For a split second, she wondered if feeding him all those berries had upset his stomach, however she shooed this thought away, knowing it was for a good cause.
"You guys, I think Appa's sick." Katara called to the others, bringing them to get up and approach Appa.
"What? Appa's sick?" Sokka darted toward Appa with comically wide eyes and a frown in the shape of a crescent moon. "That's awful!"
"Wow, I didn't think you cared that much." Toph crossed her arms with a slight smirk.
"Of course I care! We might as well just throw our schedule away right now!" Sokka threw his arms up in frustration.
The gang gave him a long cold, unforgiving glare before he rephrased.
"And I'm upset because my big furry friend is feeling under the weather!" Sokka added, burying his hands and arms in Appa's white fur and pressing the side of his face into the fur, mumbling out baby talk or something like that.
"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water." Toph spoke thoughtfully.
"He doesn't look sick." Aang scratched his chin for a moment. "You okay, buddy?" he pushed open the bison's mouth as if lifting the mechanic's hood on a piece of machinery. A purple tongue unfolded from Appa's mouth, and Katara had to force herself not to grin in pride for her work.
Mistress of deception. She thought to herself in satisfaction.
"His tongue's purple!" Aang cried out. "That can't be good! Can you heal him?" he looked to Katara.
Katara had known someone would ask this. "He looks like he needs medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town." She motioned toward where Dock had taken them to town the day prior. The other moved ahead of her as she paused and looked at Zuko, who was looking at her with a suspicious look painted on his face. "What?" she asked quickly.
"Nothing." He answered swiftly, walking past her after the others.
"Is it just me, or does this place seem different?" Toph asked, blindly staring into Sokka's back. People were bustling around, the town lively and prosperous.
"Yeah, it seems … happier." Aang added in equal confusion, as a the same little boy who Katara had given food to the day before came running past kicking a ball around. Smiling to herself, Katara followed her friends to Dock's stall. By his hat, he seemed to be inhabiting his 'Xu' persona.
"Hey, Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" Sokka asked, putting a hand on the counter.
"Somethin' amazing happened last night!" Dock grinned happily. "Food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person … The Painted Lady."
"The painted who?" Katara squinted at him for a moment.
"The Painted Lady!" Dock clacked down a small wooden statuette of a heavily draped, cloaked and hooded damsel in a conical hat and veil, eponymous face paint that looked almost tribal on her pale face. "She's part of our town's lore. They say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now."
"See?" Sokka glanced at Katara, and then at Zuko. "These people don't need our help; they already have someone to help them." He looked back to Dock. "All we need is some medicine for our sick friend."
"Medicine?" Dock frowned briefly. "Sorry, all the medicine around here goes to the factory. That's why so many of our people are sick."
"Looks like we'll have a stay another night so Appa can rest." Katara said to Sokka, hiding her triumph in her head.
"I guess you're right." Sokka exhaled exasperatedly. "Do you have any more food to sell?" he looked back to Dock.
"Sure do." He held up a piscine monstrosity in each hand. "Would you like the one-headed fish, or the two-headed fish?" he turned one in his hand to reveal it had two heads.
Sokka mulled it over briefly. "Two-headed." He answered, earning a whine of revolt from the others. He glanced at them. "What? You get more for your money that way!" He barely managed out the words before his friends fled from the stall as Dock handed him it in some brown paper. Later, after he caught up with them and they mooched a ride back to shore, Sokka was pacing back and forth scratching his chin and waiting for Katara to finish cooking the dual-headed fish into a stew. "You know, actually, if that's all the Painted Lady plans on doing, that town's going to go right back to the way it was before."
Zuko continued scraping one of his swords against a nearby rock to sharpen its edge as Toph asked Sokka to elaborate, albeit with a sassy suffix. Aang was sitting at Appa's feet and toying with his long fur in his hands. Katara looked up with a dark look at her brother, who seemed not to notice.
"Well, eventually, that food she brought will run out, and they'll be back to relying on their sparse fish. It's like … you know they say 'give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for life'? It's sort of like that."
"But they already know how to fish. There just isn't enough fish for them all to eat." Toph raised an eyebrow.
"Whatever; the only way they're really going to be any better off is to make that factory go 'poof' and disappear with spirit magic or something." Sokka threw his hands out away from his body and made a 'poof' noise with his mouth.
"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. Tell him, Aang." Katara dipped a ladle into the pot of stew.
"Yeah, Sokka. It's more like …" Aang hunched over and made a claw-like gesture with his hands, sputtering out a fizzing noise and gargling briefly. Toph shook her head and laughed, dropping onto her back in boredom as Katara scowled irately. Zuko scoffed a laugh at the two boys comparing imitations.
Katara slunk away in her makeshift Painted Lady attire, just a little too clumsily, tripping over Momo and making him cheep in confusion after her as she fled from the campsite. Momo clawed at Zuko's thick gray blanket before dragging his cat-like tongue over Zuko's unharmed cheek, causing the boy to stir and his eyes to blink open. Zuko saw the lemur tilting his head at him and he faltered, jumping out from under his blanket, momentarily terrified of the small creature. He shook his head and scolded the animal half-heartedly, before the sound of footsteps on pebbles came from far off. Zuko turned his head to the sound, catching a glimpse of a conical hat with a veil falling from it, and a dainty arm with red painted stripes moving behind a stout cliff. Zuko's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the concept of the Painted Lady.
Thoughtlessly, he hurdled Sokka's sleeping form and ran after the woman. Only after the others were out of earshot did he call after the woman, just as she came into sight. "Hey! Wait!"
Katara turned her head and looked over her shoulder, recognizing his voice, but still not believing it. As soon as she saw him, she could see he was running after her, fast. She shot off away from the firebender, her feet carrying her as quickly as they could. She could see the dock approaching ahead, but it was the middle of the night and Dock wasn't there. Then again, a spirit would be able to hover across the water, so that meant she could use her waterbending to get across. She struggled down the cliff to the dock and moved toward the water with a grimace. She really didn't want to get slime on her sandals. She stepped onto the slimy water, her bending holding her weight as something hastily grabbed her wrist. She tossed her head to see Zuko pulling her back onto the dock.
Zuko stared down as he felt the skin in his hand. She was a spirit; how could he possibly be holding her by the arm?
Panicking, Katara said the first thing she could in a fake, eerie voice. "You should know better than to interfere with the spirits!" she pulled free of his dazed grip, some of her paint wiping off on his hand as she knocked him back with her a flat palm and swished onto the river toward the village.
Zuko blinked his eyes open as the morning sky greeted him. She sat up and pulled his arms out from under his blanket. Red paint still sat on his hand, smeared on from his grip on the Painted Lady. He hadn't dreamed it up.
"Hey Zuko. What's that?" Katara asked casually, tucking Sokka's money pouch into her belt.
Zuko looked up. "Huh? Oh, uh … clay." He wiped his hand on his blanket.
"Oh. Well, I'm heading into town to get some more food. Everyone's still asleep. Want to come?" Katara invited, smiling briefly.
Zuko thought for a moment, before nodding and getting up without a word and following her into town. Walking along the wooden village, Zuko and Katara approached Dock's stall, where he was polishing something with a cloth, presumably his Painted Lady figurine. His hat was the same one he'd worn the first time they'd seen him. Life was bustling even more than the day prior, if that was possible. People they'd seen bed-ridden and idle were now busily scurrying about.
"Hey, Dock, is Xu around?" Katara asked cheerfully.
"Let me check!" he sucked himself down behind the counted and popped back up with his Xu hat on. "Hey there! Back again, are ya'?"
"Our friend is still sick, and we can't leave 'til he's better. Any more food?" Katara inquired with a chipper smile.
Dock produced a platter of noxious-looking clams and plopped them down on the counter. "That's too bad about your friend. Hey! Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will visit you in the night and heal your friend!"
"Yeah, and make us a midnight snack. Maybe we'll have a sing-along too." Zuko drummed his fingers on the counter sarcastically. He'd had enough of the Painted Lady for a long time. Katara glanced at him with a raise of the eyebrow.
"Yeah, Maybe!" Dock grinned in reply, oblivious to the Prince's sarcasm. "Y'know she visited us again last night; healed most of our sick folk, too."
Katara turned back to face Dock. "Is that why everyone's so festive?" she suddenly turned her head to the loud thump of the villagers erecting a huge statue of their beloved patron spirit. She stared at it for a second as Zuko took the money from her and paid Dock, who dropped the clams into a brown paper bag and wrapped that paper bag in another.
"Sure is. All of it's 'cause of the Painted Lady."
"Can you believe how much this place has been changed just by one lady?" Katara whirled around to look at Zuko. "-One spirit?" she corrected herself.
"It's great. She's obviously got it under control." Zuko shrugged awkwardly. "I'm glad they're being helped, anyway." He added as they walked toward where Dock was quickly changing his hat and pretending to have been there for ages. "Sokka has a point though."
"Huh?" Katara tilted her head to squint at him.
"Well, unless she plans to keep coming every single night, that factory needs to go." Zuko reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "Not that … I'm one to interfere with spirits." She drew up his shoulders.
Katara found herself smirking slightly. She'd scared the pants off him with her little charade last night. "No, you certainly don't want to do that."
"Huh?" Zuko turned his head to look at her. "Why not?" he gulped.
"Oh, well you saw what the ocean spirit did at the north-pole, didn't you? You don't want to anger them." Katara knew it was mean to mess with him like this, but honestly, after tying her to a tree, stealing her necklace, blasting her into objects and almost killing her, she deserved to have a little fun toying with him. "You can ask Aang if you want. There's this one spirit who steals faces."
Zuko cringed and looked down to the wrapped clams in his hand. "I don't have to worry about that one, anyway." Zuko managed a small smirk.
Katara smacked him in the arm playfully. "What did I tell you not five days ago?" she shook her head.
"It's not that bad doesn't exactly fill me with vanity, you know." Zuko smiled at her, showing a little twinkle in his eye, both of them slipping into Dock's boat. After the trip ashore, Katara spoke again, making sure Dock was out of earshot, just in case he listened in and one of them said something a little less than Fire Nation patriotism.
"Well it's true. You can't just ignore it, but I don't think it's ugly." Katara shrugged thoughtfully, taking the clams from him.
Zuko looked up at her. "What?"
"I don't think it's ugly." Katara repeated, shrugging it off again. "It's just a thing, like any other."
Zuko tilted his head in thought. "Really?"
Katara smiled and nodded. "Yeah."
He paused, with a slight lopsided smile. "Thanks."
Zuko pushed his blanket away and jumped to his feet. If he was correct in his thinking, the Painted Lady would be in the village about now. He was going to find her, if not just to apologize for the misunderstanding the night before. He grimaced, tying his belt around his middle; perhaps she wouldn't be too happy to see him, but Katara hadn't been too happy to see him in the catacombs and look where it had gotten him.
And the last thing he wanted was to have his face stolen, however unattractive it was.
Pulling his sword sheath onto his back, Zuko marched away from the others, just in the nick of time, seeing her moving swiftly, yet casually, towards the dock. Silently, initiating Blue Spirit mode, he ducked low and darted across the landscape after her. Years hunting the Avatar came in handy as he sprinted in deafening silence. He pressed his back to a boulder as he saw her looking back. He hoped she hadn't seen him, and peeked around it. She was standing at the top of a steep slope toward the water, at the factory. Zuko snuck up on her and only when he was behind her, only two feet away, did he try to plan how to initiate a conversation without startling her. Then again, she was a spirit. She probably already knew he was there.
"Uh … Painted … Lady?" he asked politely.
Katara gasped and turned to face him in surprise.
"Don't run!" he held up his hands immediately, showing no weapons. "I came to apologize for … whatever I did wrong last night."
Katara held her arms daintily at her sides, trying to find something to say. Deepening her voice to the same tone she'd used the night before, she spoke. "You are wise to seek peace with the spirit world."
Zuko nodded slowly, dropping his hands to his sides. He smiled nervously. "I … I'm not really sure what to say to a spirit, sorry."
Katara glanced up, annoyed by her hat, at the moon. It was starting to sink back toward the earth. "You have made your peace. Now you must excuse me. I'm very busy." She put her arms out at her sides to let the heavy cape move majestically in the breeze.
Curious, Zuko leant down a little to try and see under her hat. Somewhat, he'd expected her to be a little ... taller. "Um … oh! Wait, can you heal my friend? I don't know what you know about huge flying bisons, but I mean … you must be able to do something, right?"
"Are you deaf?" Katara suddenly yelped out, annoyed with his persistence. She suddenly realized her fault in forgetting to mask her voice.
Zuko jumped back at her shout, putting his hands up in front of him. His eyes widened and his eyebrows came down in suspicion. "Katara?" he said through a thoughtful breath. "You're the Painted Lady?" his fearful posture became one of anger.
Katara let her shoulders droop as she reached up, removed her hat and sighed heavily. "I wasn't at first. I wanted to help the people and I just sort of … became her. I know, you must think I'm a horrible person for lying to you all-,"
"Wait a sec; is Appa even sick?" Zuko raised his good eyebrow and kept the other firmly down, not that he had much choice.
Katara paused. "I guess he could be sick of the berries I've been feeding him, but otherwise he's fine." Katara looked down, chagrined. She glanced back over her shoulder at the factory. "Zuko, I meant what I said, I'm very busy. Are you going to help me or not?"
Zuko glanced at the factory too. "You're actually going to destroy the factory." He stated skeptically.
Katara nodded slowly. "Sokka was right. The only real way to help these people is to get rid of this factory."
Zuko paused and took a heavy breath. Girls are crazy. He heard his own childhood voice in his head. "What's your plan?"
Katara stared blankly at him. He exhaled in exasperation.
"You don't have a plan."
Zuko rarely lacked a plan, but he supposed he trusted their teamwork enough to expect not to die on this mission.
Zuko punched the air, a blast of fire shooting down the metal door of the factory. The two of them raced in and made their way to the melting pots. Katara drew water from the condensation around her and slapped the bars that held three melting pots of boiling metal. They came crashing down and collided with each other, molten metal spewing out as Zuko drew out his swords and sliced through the rope on the wall that traveled up, over a bar and held a heavy engine at head level, most likely to have its undercarriage worked on. Grasping the rope as the engine went down, Zuko swung his swords together as one weapon, slashing through the weak rafters above, weakening the structure of the factory.
He landed swiftly on two feet and a hand, to see Katara running past him. He ran after her, into the next area, glancing back as a huge wave of dirty river water came crashing into the factory. His eyes bulged when he saw her running for a room that looked like a boiler room. He darted after her as she tugged open a heavy metal door and set her eyes on the boiler.
"If we overload the boiler, we can blow the whole place sky high." Katara turned to him and tilted her conical hat up to meet his eyes.
"And us with it." Zuko replied, looking up at the pipes running along the ceiling. Something hit him, familiarity of the night his ship had exploded, intending for him to die. "Blasting jelly." He heard himself saying under his breath.
"Huh?"
"Blasting jelly. There's got to be some here." Zuko led her out of the boiler room and took a glance at the map pinned up to the wall. "Maybe we can control the blast."
Katara grabbed it off the wall and took a look at it, seeing Zuko sheathing his swords in her peripheral vision. "There. Storage." Katara pointed to it. "Any idea how we can get down there-,"
She was cut off by an alarm, someone shouting out and 'Intruder alert! It's sabotage!'
Zuko grimaced, snatching the map and shoving it back up on the wall, stabbing the pin back through it. "I don't think we have time for the blasting jelly." He stepped back into the boiler room.
"But you just said it was dangerous." Katara walked in after him. She could hear heavy clanking footsteps.
"I'm not blowing up the boiler." Zuko glanced up at the pipes. "These are fuel lines." He pointed up. "If I get the pipes hot enough, they'll ignite the fuel inside, travel to the outlet, and explode. The fire will get to the source and then the factory will explode. Gives us more time to get out." He glanced back at her.
She nodded quickly. "Do it already, then."
Zuko jerked his head up to concentrate and grabbed two pipes. Katara watched them turn bright orange in his grip, before turning white-hot, a small spark noise and a flaring sound became apparent. He brought his hands down and ushered Katara out at a run. His feet began pounding under him as he ran behind her. Katara gripped a rail and swung around it to turn a corner. She nearly tripped on her painted lady robes, clutching the water on the other side of the walls in case. She could still hear more feet pounding through the factory. She let her mind wander to the chance of hurting the factory workers in this explosion, but quickly her mindset changed when she saw another room filled with melting pots coming up ahead.
While she knew everything would go down in the explosion, if she could block the path for anyone to follow them, it would only benefit them. She raced under them and let Zuko run past as she slapped the water from outside in through the windows and tipped the melting pots out into their habitat. Workers came running after them, baring firebending proudly. Katara washed the workers out into the river with a flick of her wrist. She turned her attention to the melting pots again. She poured one towards herself, using the water to cool it as it covered the pathway from any followers. She turned to see Zuko grabbing her hand and moving even faster, sure the place was going to go off like a powder keg any second.
"Run!" he shouted in a panic.
She struggled to keep up, her feet catching on her heavily robes. She could see the blasted-in door up ahead, just as a deafening explosion filled her ears and the two of them were propelled forwards, upwards. Zuko felt his back hitting the top of the tunnel, before the explosion blasted him out of the factory, straight into the slimy river. Groaning, Zuko glanced up as fire roared overhead, the factory collapsing in on its own foundations.
"Whoo!" Katara yelped in excitement, pulling her slime-covered conical hat off in the water. "Wow!"
Zuko grinned. "I never thought I'd ever say this about anything; but it looks better on fire."
Katara laughed out loud. And pushed herself ashore with her bending. She bent the goop off herself, but left the clean water there, sort of as a trophy. Not a single scratch was on her. "We'd better get out of here before someone sees us." She looked back to the burning factory. Zuko nodded, standing up on the sand, grimacing down at the slime on his clothes, in his hair and all over his shoes.
"This is gross." He stuck his tongue out, disgusted.
"You know, sometimes I forget you're a prince." Katara shook her head and grabbed the slurry on him with her bending, tossing it back into the water. "There. Better?"
"Thanks." Zuko smiled briefly, ruffling his own hair to dry it. "Come on, let's go." He made for the campsite, Katara right behind him.
"… and you just flicked them away like buzzard flies!" Zuko laughed, clutching his stomach from his hysteria.
"Did you see yourself? You were all slashing stuff and setting things on fire and-," Katara cut herself off with a sob of laughter.
Zuko snorted another laugh. "-Oh, boy, are they going to be angry-,"
Katara erupted in fits of laughter, grabbing his arm to steady herself. He laughed with her, smiling. "The whole place just went … fwoosh!" Katara mimicked the flames bursting out. She could see the run rising out over the landscape. It was dawn. They got to the campsite to see all three of the others cross-armed and unimpressed.
"And where exactly have you two been?" Sokka squeaked angrily.
Katara jumped away from Zuko, letting go of his arm, just incase Sokka, well … you know. "Huh? Oh, we um … got up early and … Zuko wanted to know about uhh … constellations."
"I did?" Zuko looked at her. "Oh! Yeah, I did." He looked back to Sokka with a guilty smile.
"Lying." Toph yawned. "I didn't even have to use earthbending to get that one, Sugar Queen."
Sokka glared. "You have five seconds, guys."
Zuko glanced at Katara, who crossed her arms, holding her painted lady attire under her arm. "Are you going to tell them?" he asked.
She sighed heavily and threw down her disguise. "I'm the Painted Lady." She squeezed her hair to wring out the water. "Happy now?"
Sokka and Aang glanced at Toph, who confirmed it with a nod. Aang took a deep breath. "So Appa's not sick."
"No, he's not. But he's a great actor." Katara smiled sweetly at the beast, who gave her an almost appreciative nod.
"You held up our schedule to heal a few stupid yokels?" Sokka flailed his arms angrily.
Katara's anger flared up. "They're not yokels, they're people! And I will never turn my back on people who need me." She glared at Sokka.
Sokka turned his attention to Zuko, who for a change looked less intimidating than Katara. "And what were you doing? I'm pretty sure there's no healing to be done with firebending." Sokka put his hands on his hips. "Plotting with your evil sister?"
"No!" Zuko shouted, offended. "I was helping Katara!" he threw an arm in her direction. "Will you stop with the stupid accusations?"
"Are you kidding? You kidnapped Aang while he was in the Avatar state, burned down Kyoshi village, tied Katara to a tree-,"
"And I've forgiven him for that." Katara advanced on her brother, who stepped back. "He's learnt his lesson, now cut it!"
Toph grabbed Sokka's mouth before he could say anything. "The point remains, nothing's going to be achieved by us shooting off our mouths." She said, staring sideways, blindly. "We can catch up with the schedule if we skip the next location and head straight for the one after it, okay, Snoozles?" she uncovered Sokka's face. "We could even make time."
He scowled and nodded. "Fine. We'll get supplies, but that's it. Then we're leaving." He swung his arm across the air. "Got it?"
Katara and Zuko agreed, following the others into town, initiating a silence between them all, refusing to speak to Sokka for his accusation. Upon leaving, Aang spotted military types advancing on the village on steam-powered jet-skis, fury painted on their faces. Katara's jaw dropped as she glanced at Zuko, who gulped, and the both of them sped up their paces. Sokka grabbed Katara's shoulder and spun her around.
"What did you do?" her brother was frowning.
Katara cringed. "I … sort of blew up their factory." She said in a tiny voice.
"You did what?" Sokka exploded in her face, causing her to step back.
"It was your idea!" she held her hands up.
"I said to make it disappear with spirit magic!" He flailed his arms again.
"Well obviously I couldn't do that." Katara scoffed, pushing him away. "Now I'm going to finish what I started. I promised to protect these people." She moved to turn away from him. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.
"Wait." Sokka sighed. "I want to help."
Katara stared blankly, shock on her face.
"I promised to protect you." He answered her silent question, and a smile lit up her face as she threw her arms around him.
"You really do care!" she hugged him tight, her voice cracking as he hugged her back.
Aang glanced at Toph, sniffling. "He really does care, doesn't he?" he wiped his eye with comic sniffles. Toph, without so much as a word, extended her fist and hit him in the arm so hard that he fell down.
The Painted Lady skittered across the water's surface, toward the village. Hiding under the wooden ground of the village, Aang blew a misting breath onto the water, fog erupting across the entire river. In the distance, Toph hit the earth with itself, a slow, loud, tribal drumming, eerily making the Painted Lady's presence known. Sokka fluttered his fingers delicately over a wooden flute, blowing a dainty tune out. Zuko crouched low on the roof of a hut, counting the soldiers making their way through the town. The military rounded up the entire village and an obvious leader, possibly a general, judging by his badges, paced between the soldiers and the villagers.
"I thought we could live as neighbors, in peace. But I guess I was wrong. You steal our food, our medicine…and then you destroy our factory." He paced, glowering at each and every citizen he passed.
"We didn't do any of that!" Dock put his hands on his hips and frowned. "The Painted lady brought us food! She's the one that healed our sick, not your medicine!"
The man laughed in Dock's face, before continuing to pace. "Right. The mysterious Painted Lady." He scoffed. "WELL WHERE'S YOUR PRECIOUS PAINTED LADY NOW?" he quickly shouted at no one in particular, his fist propelling a fireball at a house, destroying it. He initiated a raid on the village, demolishing homes and grabbing what little people owned, the soldiers attacking mercilessly. From a jet-ski, a grappling hook wrapped around a stilt holding up a house, pulling it and sending the home crashing into the water. Zuko quickly catapulted himself onto another building to keep from getting sucked down into the river.
The mist on the water thickened over the village momentarily. When it cleared, the Painted Lady stood proud, her posture relaxed.
"It's her!" a few children yelped from the crowd, before their mothers covered their mouths instinctively.
The general stepped behind his soldiers, shoving a few of them forward. "Do something!" they reluctantly drew near, but a gust of Airbending from underneath the docks threw them off and sent them running after their jet-skis and buzzing away. Another soldier moved forwards, shaking and cowering. With a swift slap of Katara's hand, the water underneath him shot up and spat him over into the water. Zuko got closer, up to where Katara stood. He leant over the weak roof, feeling his weight make the structure shudder. He slipped down quietly, landing on his feet and crouching low. He made his way to the edge of the deck, swinging his way underneath it, toward where Aang clung on. Aang's eyes met Zuko's as they silently arranged for Zuko to take Aang's place. 'I know what I'm doing', Zuko whispered.
The remaining soldiers ran for their jet-skis and fled, leaving their leader to fend for himself. "I'll take care of you myself." He growled, his arms swinging around himself and fire forming as he blasted it at Katara. The fire reflected in Katara's eyes, for a second she considered flinching, when the flame shot up, skywards, before her, her clothes and veil rustling in the air caused by Zuko's redirecting the flame. Katara was thankful for not dying, despite hating how close the flames had come to her. She would have to remember to kill Zuko later.
Her arm raised at the general, she said in her fake, spirit voice; "Leave this village. And never come back." And that was all it took for him to turn and run from the dock. However, Aang decided to give him a little push so he landed face-first in the water. A wave of applause and cheering overcame the village, throwing hats up and celebrating. After a second of thought, the villagers began moving toward her.
"Thanks, Painted Lady!"
"I knew you'd come!"
"Thank you! Me and my brothers owe you a lot!" Dock came closest. Katara suddenly realized some of her paint had come off, because Dock's eyes widened and his eyebrows came down. "Hey, wait a minute! I know you! You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl!" he pointed. Katara stepped back. The little urchin she had given a fish ran up beside Dock.
"Yeah! You're the lady that gave me the fish!" he shouted angrily.
"You've been tricking us! You're a waterbender!" Dock crossed his arms.
"She's a waterbender! How dare you pretend to be our painted lady?" came a jeer from the crowd. The mass surged forward, but Sokka, who had rowed into town with Toph, ran to her defense, intervening.
"Hey, maybe she is a waterbender, but she was only trying to help you!" Sokka held up his hands. "Because of her, that factory isn't polluting your water anymore, and the army is gone! You should be down on your knees, thanking her!"
Katara removed her hat and put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "It's okay Sokka." She sighed, before turning to the villagers. "I'm sorry I lied to you. And I'm sorry I pretended to be someone I'm not, but someone had to do something. It doesn't matter whether or not the Painted is real, because your problems are. You can't just stand around waiting for someone else to solve them. You need to help yourself." She pushed back her hood and wiped some of the paint off herself.
Dock paused. "You're right. But what should we do?" he asked reluctantly.
Toph pushed through the crowd. "Maybe you should clean the river." She suggested. Nearby, Aang was helping Zuko back onto the deck. The two of them joined the other three.
"Yeah! We'll clean the river!" Dock turned to the people, who cheered at the idea. He turned back to Katara. "Thank you. You know, you ain't so bad for a waterbender."
Sokka slid into view. "You know, it would be great if we could keep that a secret."
Dock laughed. "Sure, no problem! Keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty! My brother Xu on the other hand, whoo! He's a blabbermouth!" he shook his head as the others formed an arc facing him, glancing between each other with a knowing smirk.
A/N: Finally! I know I left out the last scene, but I don't think it was really necessary for the episode plot. This is 7483 words long, so that's why it took so long to update. Minimal Zutara, as you can tell. I fixed up that fight scene a little because I didn't like Katara going flying up, 'cause she'd have come down in reality with her skirt flying up. I reaped the benefits of Zuko's firebending :)
I'm very happy with how it turned out. Avatar Spirit Transcripts have come in very useful, too. I've had a lethal case of writer's block lately. My creativity is like Mai's emotion sometimes, you know? It's all bleugh and stuff.
I got in that factory scene after buying myself some new sneakers. That cheered me up :) Happy New Year everyone! Anyone else get to go to a sleep over and tell their family 'see you next year' ? :D that was the best bit. Xxx Review!