Air Soars (Book 4 of Avatar: the Last Dragon)

by Dapper Stormtrooper

Akodo Zuko has returned! After six long years of exile he has returned to the land of his birth, victorious at last! But not all is well in the Fire-Nation... Nothing is as he remembers it, and while he has been restored to his rightful place by Fire-Lord Ozai he cannot help but wonder if the choices that brought him here, were the right ones.

10. The Boiling Rock

A/N: The Following is Rated MB; for Male Bonding.

It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S3E14&15 of the same name.

Reader discretion is advised

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Chapter 10 "The Boiling Rock"

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Late Spring, year 12 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai

"Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?"

It had been a few weeks since Aang and Zuko had returned from the island of Taiyoshima, and directly after that return Aang had insisted that it was "just plain silly" for Zuko to have to build his own campfire and be all alone when he could sit with the rest of the group and "have so much fun." Zuko who, unlike the Avatar, knew that Katara was still only a hair's breadth away from staking him out for the raven-hawks, protested that it "wasn't necessary."

Aang insisted, Zuko prevaricated.

Aang wheedled, Zuko scowled.

Aang, through dint of being both annoying and persistent, won.

It seemed to be his best and most successful tactic.

Katara had of course been furious, and insisted frequently, and at great volume, that she did not feed "traitors and scum." So, now Zuko simply sat with the group, waiting in awkward silence, until they had finished eating and put all their cookware away before he began to boil his own meager rice.

Before he had left, he had traded some of his good Fire-Nation long-grain rice in equal measure for his mother's stock of wild brown which he would cook over the now abandoned campfire. Its different texture now had an exceptionally pleasant emotional context for him.

Eating it almost made him smile.

Smiling had always been difficult for Zuko. He could sneer, grin, snarl, leer, or smirk with the best of them, but smiling was different. Smiling was a "happiness" thing and, for the most part, Zuko didn't do happy.

Katara had made him happy, happier than he'd ever thought possible. He had managed to smile for her for the brief time that they had had together.

His sisters, both of them, had managed to make him smile as well. Their ferocity and wit made him both happy and amused.

His mother, and the powerful wave of nostalgia she inspired, along with the new remarkable sensation of relief from a guilt that had settled itself deep in his bones, made him smile almost uncontrollably.

But now, sitting alone by a nearly abandoned campfire, deep in contemplation of these emotions, and how they could be used in his and Aang's firebending, he could almost smile.

It was a dramatic improvement for him.

But it was in that intermediate period, after the main group's dinner but before Zuko's, that Sokka approached and asked him his question. The two of them walked off to the edge of the firelight, observed by no one but the Duke.

"If someone was captured by the Fire-Nation, where would they be taken?" Sokka asked quietly.

"It depends," Zuko said, folding his arms over his chest. "Who was captured?"

"When… my invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken. I just want to know where they might be."

"Your invasion plan?" Zuko said with a snort. "I should have known. Only you would be the appropriate combination of audacious and stupid to do something like that."

"Hey! It would have worked if…"

"If?"

"If your sister wasn't such a conniving bitch."

Zuko had Sokka by the throat, a snarl of rage bursting from his lips, before he even realized he had moved. He took a deep breath, and loosened his fingers, reasserting control.

"Sorry," he muttered, eye on the ground.

"It's ok," Sokka said straightening his tunic and glancing around to see if anyone had seen. He missed the Duke, who's tiny form was hidden directly behind Zuko. "I get it, it's family, right?"

Zuko nodded sheepishly.

"That's why I'm asking. It's my dad. He was captured, and I need to know what I put him through."

Zuko grunted in acknowledgement and thought for a moment. "Though they should have been offered the opportunity to commit seppuku…" Sokka shook his head in negation as the Unicorn didn't practice seppuku except in the most extreme of circumstances. "Generally speaking, common ji-samurai will be taken to the western mountains. To the prison of Shadow Keep."

"Ok. Sure. But my dad's the Chief so…"

Zuko blinked. "The Chief? The Chief of what?"

"…The Southern Water-Tribe."

"The… the whole tribe?"

"Uh… yes?"

"Your father…"

"Shinjo Hakoda."

"…Shinjo Hakoda is the Chieftain of the Unicorn of the Water-Tribes?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"So… he's the Lord Shinjo?"

"Well, we don't do Lords in the Unicorn," Sokka said dismissively.

"Is he the head of your family? Your extended family?"

"Not much of a family left really. Just me, him and Katara. My uncle Bato is a Moto and his mom, my Gran-Gran, is a Daidoji turned Moto."

"…I'm sorry?"

"My mom's mom, she was a Crane, but she ran away and married my Gramp-Gramp, who was a Moto. Oh, and he was a Chief too, before my dad."

"Moto… Chagatai?" Zuko breathed.

"Yeah, that was his name, I think. He died before I was born though. Some big battle." Sokka shrugged.

"Water's Fall," Zuko said hoarsely, his lone eye wide. "The battle of Water's Fall."

Ash and bone… so THAT'S where Katara gets it from, Zuko thought, stunned. Moto Chagatai's temper, and waterbending skills, had been legendary even in the Fire-Nation. It had taken the combined strength of Fire-Lord Azulon and the twenty-year-old Crown-Prince who would earn the name "Dragon of the West" afterwards to bring him down, and the Fire-Nation herald-poets of the Ikoma family had been all too quick to memorialize the moment with their usual rousing prose.

Zuko was at a loss.

"You mean to tell me," Zuko began, grabbing Sokka by the shoulders and shaking him slightly, "that your mother was descended from the Daidoji Iron Warriors of the North, and the last great Warchief of the Unicorn, while your father is the head of the family of the royal line of Shinjo?!"

Much like Akodo in the Fire-Nation, Shinjo had been the founder of the Unicorn Dojo and the Southern Water-Tribe. And, like Bayushi, her sister, Doji, had founded the Crane and the Northern Water-Tribe instead.

Of all the people to discover the Avatar.

"We don't do royalty either," Sokka said, rolling his eyes.

"…You're a flaming Prince," Zuko said wonderingly.

…and Katara is a Princess, a long silent sighing voice whispered.

"We don't do… a Prince, huh?" Sokka said suddenly looking intrigued.

"Your father will not be at Shadow Keep," Zuko said taking a step back and giving Sokka a nod. "Foreign nobility and bending samurai from the Fire-Nation are taken to the Boiling Rock."

"That… actually sounds worse."

"It is. It's the highest security prison in the Fire-Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It's inescapable."

"Soooo… where is the place?"

"Why do you need to know? What idiocy are you planning?" Zuko said, eye narrowing.

"Uh… nothing," Sokka said, obviously lying.

Zuko glared at him.

"Ok, fine. I'm going to go rescue my dad."

"…What part of the word 'inescapable' is unclear to you?"

"Look, I have to do this, OK?" Sokka said, that painfully familiar look of shame and guilt on his face. "The invasion plan was my idea and it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong. It was my mistake, and it's my job to fix it." He sighed. "I have to regain my honor."

Zuko blinked, then grunted approvingly. Honor was the important thing here.

"Excellent," Zuko said with a nod. "When are we leaving?"

"Wha- 'we?' No, that's not-" Sokka made a variety of waving negating motions as he spoke- "I have to do this alone… because… honor?"

"Don't be an idiot," Zuko said with a snort. "You're going to storm the highest security prison in the Fire-Nation, the location of which you do not yet know, alone? Don't be stupid."

"I can't ask this of anyone else. It was my fault and-"

"You are not asking because I am telling you, I am going. I came here for allies, and the Chieftain of the Unicorn fits that description. Besides," Zuko shrugged, "honor. We can go tonight if you l-" Zuko cut himself off as he turned around and discovered the Duke standing silently behind him.

They stared at each other for a beat.

"Listen, boy, while you have admirable stealth, it is considered somewhat rude to just keep popping…" Zuko trailed off as the Duke turned around and trotted away.

"Do you think he's going to tell Katara?" Sokka said nervously.

Oh, wouldn't THAT just be fan-fucking-tastic.

"I don't know," Zuko said aloud. "We may want to leave quickly, just in case. We will take my war-balloon."

The two of them set off to gather their supplies from their rooms.

"Why don't we just take Appa?" Sokka said as they walked along hurriedly.

"Because the last time I took Appa anywhere, Katara nearly peeled me like a Dragon-Berry. You remember? I am not to 'monopolize' everyone's only means of escape should the other 'firebending scum' discover us."

"Didn't you go with Aang? I mean, it's his bison."

"Do you think she cared?"

"She is being really weird about this… whole situation. She really doesn't like you."

"I am not very likable," Zuko said flatly.

They both reached their rooms and quickly grabbed a minimum of supplies that they felt they might require for a stealthy infiltration mission. That accomplished, Sokka scrawled a note indicating that they were actually just going to go fishing, no matter what the Duke said. Zuko added a small, and far more legible, addendum concerning the forms and exercises that Aang was to practice in his absence.

Only Appa, and the still silent the Duke, saw them rise into the night sky and depart.

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"Sooooo," Sokka said, gazing around at the open sky as the next morning dawned.

"So?" Zuko said.

"It's a long flight… to this prison?"

"Several days. Yes."

"Sooooo… what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't."

"Oh, come ON!" Sokka shouted, making the war-balloon's basket sway slightly. "You can't just sit there and meditate the whole time. What am I supposed to do?"

"Whatever you would like."

"I'd like to TALK."

"Then do so. Just don't expect me to participate."

"You're soooo boring."

"And you are very irritating."

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"Pretty clouds, huh?"

"Uh… yeah… fluffy."

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"… and then she just vanished, you know? Poof. Most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, and she just sacrificed herself and disappeared."

"That's… rough," Zuko said honestly.

"Yeah…" Sokka sighed wistfully. "I just worry… Do you think it makes me a bad person for… you know, liking, another girl after Yue?"

"No. I think she would most likely want you to be happy," Zuko said musingly. "And we were always taught that if the dead were truly upset with us their displeasure would be obvious. Seeing as how… you said she is the Moon now? I would imagine that she has ways of making her anger known."

"Yeah, I suppose," Sokka said, sighing wistfully… again. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Anybody special waiting for you back home?"

"No."

"What, not even that gloomy girl with all the knives?" Sokka crooned, waggling his eyebrows. "I thought the two of you were betrothed?"

"…how in the ash did you know that?"

"There were posters, man! When we were in the Fire-Nation you couldn't go two feet without somebody getting all weepy-eyed about the 'returned hero and his blushing bride-to-be.' Ugh, it was disgusting. And Katara went off like a freezing bomb every time she saw one."

"…did she?" Zuko said quietly.

"Yeah, really weird. I always thought she hated your sister and that cute acrobat chick more, but the way she stared at those posters and just fumed, I guess she didn't like the knife-thrower either… She was kind of cute though, must have really sucked leaving her behind."

"Mai and I… we were never really engaged. We're just friends, and it was just politics."

"Wow, that sucks. So, you were cooped up with that grim spooky girl and couldn't even date anyone else? Tragic."

"Mai is one of my best friends and I would appreciate it if you didn't continually insult her."

Sokka shrugged in acceptance and looked back out the side of the basket for a long moment. "She was pretty cute though."

"Oh, absolutely," Zuko said with a nod.

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"Asinine."

"No, just hear me out! The boomerang always comes back, see?"

"Yes. Back to the same spot. Meaning that you must remain stationary and vulnerable to return fire if you wish to use it repeatedly. The daikyu has better range, accuracy, and, with the right ammunition, it is highly effective at armor penetration."

"Yes, but does the arrow come back."

"…No. It doesn't."

"My point exactly."

"…Asinine."

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"We are not talking about this," Zuko growled.

"Come ON. I told you about YUE for the spirits' sake! That's got to count for something! You OWE me."

"I did not ask you to-"

"But it happened! AND you nearly killed my other girlfriend!"

"The battlefield is a dangerous place," Zuko snapped. "The Avatar would not have revealed himself if I had not-"

"AND you broke my nose, TWICE!"

"You… shouldn't have been standing there," Zuko said feebly.

"Ok, ok, ok. Look, we're bonding here. Having manly bonding time. You can either tell me about your scar OR the last woman you slept with… or both."

"We are NOT talking about-"

"In the Water-Tribes you have to trust your allies. Especially the ones you plan tofight alongside. How the frost are we supposed to do this if you don't trust me enough to talk about yourself?"

"…you are VERY irritating."

"Irritating in my rightness."

"I could have killed you at the South Pole you know!"

"I could have killed you at the North Pole! We had you tied up on Appa for HOURS. Could have just 'slipped' and been all 'oh no! He fell on my boomerang! He fell on my boomerang like TWENTY times!' Would have been tragic."

"…we are NOT talking about this!"

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"No way!"

"Yes way. I had enough for both of them," Zuko said, grinning slightly as he held the "Earth-Rumble VI" commemorative cups aloft and then filled them, again, with the sake that Sokka had pulled from his bag. "I had means AND opportunity!"

"That is so awesome! I really wanted a "the Boulder" poster but Katara said-"

"That it was 'just a bunch of guys chucking rocks at each other?'"

"Yes! Exactly!" Sokka grinned, then looked at his cup questioningly. "I suppose I get you buying the 'Fire-Nation Man' cup, but… 'the Bandit?'"

"What the ash are you talking about? Toph was the best one there… by a LOT."

"Pffft. The Boulder was the cool one. He-"

"The Boulder always referred to himself in the third person. You don't get much more lame than that."

"Your face doesn't get much more lame than that!" Sokka retorted.

"You are completely nonsensical," Zuko said, mildly amused as he finished his cup.

"Frost with it! The Sokka says we need another drink!"

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"And then… he burned half my face off," Zuko said quietly, dropping their fifth, now empty, sake bottle to the deck.

"… Holy SHIT."

"Yes."

"That… frostbitten motherfucker."

"Yes."

"…that's rough."

"Are you happy now?"

"Are you?"

"I'm never happy," Zuko said grimly, despite his intoxication. "Why was it so important for you to know?"

"Well… I don't know… I mean… I always wondered how you got it," Sokka said, a slight slur in his voice. "And bonding is IMPORTANT. Also, you're like the first guy my age in the group. I've been surrounded by all this lady energy for so long… Honestly, I figured you'd got a cool scar like that in a cool battle or something… cool, ya know?"

"The Ash are you talking about? The guy with the mustache is our age. And the one in the wheelchair can't be that far off."

"Haru and Teo? Yeah, I mean Teo's cool and all, real smart, but not very… manly. And Haru… well… Haru's…"

"… Haru's what?"

"Let's just say that there's a LOT of lady energy."

"Oh, for the Sun's SAKE, Sokka!"

"Hey, I'm not judging, it's cool, it's cool. Just… you know… not very Manly."

"You are an idiot."

"Hey now, it's just kinda my thing, ya know? At least, I'd like it to be. I'm Sokka; the meat and sarcasm guy. I'd like to be Sokka; the meat, sarcasm, and manliness guy."

"Toph is more manly than you."

"Oh well, that's just not fair."

"I suppose," Zuko said with a grin. "To be fair, Toph may be more manly than me, and I'm a bearded, firebending, General-Prince, who used to date his former arch-enemy."

"Yeah, Toph is pretty awes-… wait… what?"

"…what?"

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"MY SISTER!?"

"Sokka…"

"NO! No no no no no no NO!"

"Sokka."

"This isn't happening. This is all a DREAM. A BAD dream. Worse than the one where food eats people!"

"Sokka!"

"We were bonding! It was working! And now…"

"Ash and bone, Sokka."

"What?! WHY?! What?! How? WHY!?"

"It just… happened."

"No! Getting fishhooks stuck in your thumb is something that just 'happens.' Dating my… UGH! I can't even say it!"

"Stop acting like a child!"

"Your FACE is acting like a child! With my SISTER!"

Zuko rolled his eye.

"When!?" Sokka said thrusting his finger in Zuko's face.

"Sokka, you do not want to have this conversation with me."

"WHEN?! You frostbitten pile of-"

"Gaoling."

"Gao… Gaoling? But that was… Moon and Sea, that was over a year ago! How long were you two… ugggh."

"Off and on from Gaoling until… the fall of Ba Sing Se."

"Holy shit! That's why she was so pissed about those posters!"

"I don't know. She knows that Mai and I weren't involved romantically."

"Then why?"

"…What happened at Ba Sing Se, Sokka?"

"… Oooooh."

"Yes. 'Oh.'"

"But if you two were dating why did you…"

"Exactly how was I supposed to pick between the woman I love and my sister?" Zuko snapped.

"…Love?"

"Yes. Love. I LOVE your sister. I have for years."

"…Still?"

"Still."

"…Right!" Sokka said, lurching to his feet.

Then, unexpectedly, his fist collided with Zuko's face and the brawl that started shook the basket of the war-balloon dangerously.

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"Oooh look! That one looks like a rhino-whale!" Sokka said taking a swig then passing the seventh sake bottle to Zuko.

"No. No, it does not." Zuko took a mouthful and passed the bottle back. "If anything, it looks like an Empire-Class Battlecruiser."

Drink. Pass. "…I'm not seeing it."

Drink. Pass. "Tilt your head to the left and squint your eye."

Drink. Pass. "Which eye?"

Drink… Zuko, his single yellow and now blackened eye, glared at Sokka in the dim predawn light.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

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"Ash and bone, you trained with Lord Ikoma?"

"…Who?"

"Piandao. Ikoma Piandao. Lord of the Ikoma family."

"Oh yeah, it was awesome! He helped me make space-sword."

"That… that blade is a Piandao original?" Zuko whispered, eye going wide. "As in… he, himself, made it?"

"Well… I helped."

"You got to WORK with Lord Ikoma!?"

"It wasn't that big a deal."

"Not that big a deal? Not that big a DEAL?! Are you insane! That's a HUGE deal. Lord Ikoma… he's a KENSAI! A flaming Sword-Saint! He hasn't made a blade for anyone, or trained anyone, in years! He just sits in his castle and paints. He doesn't even come to court functions anymore! He just lets Ty Lee's dad run everything!"

"Who?"

"Ty Lee?... the acrobat, the one in pink."

"Oh, right, scary-hot number two. Huh. That's cool."

"… scary-hot… number two?" Zukohad a sinking feeling that he knew who "number one" would be.

"You DON'T want to have this conversation with me," Sokka said grinning at him.

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"It just doesn't make sense!" Sokka exclaimed.

"To what specifically were you referring?" Zuko said as he stoked the fire that was keeping them aloft.

"You and my sister."

"… Why do you keep bringing this up?"

"'Cause it doesn't make any fucking SENSE to me! First of all, WHY would my sister, high-chieftainess of goodness and light, date the Prince of fucking DARKNESS."

"… Your metaphor needs wor-"

"Second!" Sokka shouted ignoring him, "When in the frozen hells did you find TIME for this? We hadn't seen you for months before Ba Sing Se."

"I was in Chin… on Avatar Day."

"… Of COURSE you were! Probably a Royal Family tradition! Spit a few Avatars over the fire, gently baste, then serve over a bed of RICE!"

"Actually, Avatar Roku was my great-grandfather," Zuko said turning back to the boiler.

"…WHAT?!"

"My mother is Kitsu Roku's youngest grandchild. So, no, it is not a family tradition."

"Putting… that aside, why would my baby sister… ugh, I still can't say it. I think I'm gonna gag."

"I do not KNOW," Zuko snapped, slamming the boiler door in irritation. "I do not NOW, nor have I EVER, understood your flaming sister! SHE…" he slumped almost comically, "she confuses me."

Sokka stared at him, mouth agape. "Holy SHIT! You ARE in love with her!"

"Uh… yes? I did say that."

"Why?"

Zuko shrugged again. "Uh… well, she's… just… do we really want to be talking about this?"

"It's like watching a canoe crash," Sokka said with a nod, a look of pensive horror on his face.

"She is just so… fierce. Never uncertain. For most of my life I have only pretended at that kind of conviction and she just carries it with her like the water she bends."

"Yeah. Ok. I can see that. She's super bossy like that."

"Commanding," Zuko said repressively.

"Nah, she more just gets the wind in her sails and goes until she runs aground. Gets herself in trouble more times than not. It's super annoying."

"She has conviction," Zuko snapped.

"Annoying," Sokka said, eyeing him.

"Your FACE is annoying." Zuko's eye then bulged slightly in horror at his own accidental use of Sokka's stupid joke-rebuttal.

"HA!" Sokka crowed in triumph.

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"No. Absolutely not," Zuko growled.

"Absolutely yes! They're essential!" Sokka said smiling winningly.

"How are- No, nevermind. I am NOT calling you… 'Meatmaster.' It just sounds… wrong."

"Code names are an integral part of any stealthy infiltration mission!"

"No. No, they are not."

"You are…" Sokka mused for a moment, "Bossylover. Because you apparently have a fetish for annoying bossy sisters."

"You are NOT calling me that!"

"AH! So you admit the fetish!"

"What?! NO! It just sounds stupid."

"Your face sounds stupid!"

"That one didn't even make sense!"

"Your FACE doesn't make any sense!"

"I'll flaming well make YOUR face make no sense!" Zuko roared, a grin on his face.

After much bickering, and a slew of rejected names, the two of them settled on 'Hawk' for Sokka and 'Ghost' for Zuko.

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"Wake up," Zuko snapped, "we're here." He pointed in front of them at a rapidly approaching column of rising steam. "We'll do a flyover first, to get a general impression of the layout."

"Uhhhh… you do know how these things work, right?" Sokka asked a note of concern in his voice.

"Prisons? Yes, I believe I have some knowledge of the criminal justice system."

"Not the prison! The hot air balloon!"

"Uh… yes? I've flown us all the way here? Fire here makes the balloon go up. It also heats the boiler and makes the prop turn, propelling us f-"

"Do you know why it goes up?"

"… the fire goes here, and-"

"Heat rises! The balloon goes UP because it is hotter than the air around it!"

"Hm. Interesting. I fail to see what-"

"Is steam hotter or colder than the air around it?!" Sokka said his voice rising in panic.

Their vision, at that very moment, became obscured by the previously mentioned steam as they passed over the boiling lake below.

"Oh… Shit."

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The water was quite literally boiling.

Zuko had hoped that the name was merely a metaphor designed to reinforce the mystique of the Fire-Nation's most secure prison but, unfortunately, the Boiling Rock lived up to its hype.

It was only Zuko's time in the Fire-Nation navy that mitigated his previous error and saved both he and Sokka from a hot boil-y death. As the rapidly deflating balloon plummeted from the sky, he whipped the craft's rudder hard to port forcing the balloon's hull into a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn. Then, by calculating their previous momentum and pumping the boiler as though his life depended on it (which it, in fact, did,) he managed to dodge the gondola cable that was the only official entrance to the prison and to only skim the surface of the boiling lake, bringing them into a rough, but survivable, landing on the prison island itself.

After Zuko and Sokka finished a whispered shouting match, full of recriminations and blame, they extracted anything of use from the crash site and then pushed the ruined vessel into the lake so that it wouldn't be discovered.

It was fortunate for them that the main task of a prison guard was to ensure that no one got out, as opposed to preventing anyone from getting in.

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Zuko was annoyed.

And for the first time in several days, it wasn't Sokka's fault.

I should be grateful for this, he thought as he and Sokka skulked through the metal corridors of the prison's administrative complex.

And yet he was just annoyed.

This is the Boiling Rock. Mothers frighten their children to sleep with this place. It is SUPPOSED to be inescapable!

He was becoming annoyed because, as he was discovering, "inescapable" was not the same thing as "impenetrable."

And, also, because Sokka, creeping along beside him with surprisingly decent stealth kept grinning his ash-eating grin at him and mouthing the word "inescapable," with varying degrees of facial ridiculousness, after finding almost every corridor they came upon either empty and unguarded.

The real kick in the teeth came when they found an equipment room, full of uniforms, weapons, and other prison sundry… unlocked and unguarded.

I swear, whoever is in charge here is getting fired! Zuko thought as he angrily threw on a guard uniform.

Guard uniforms that he soon discovered had face-concealing visors on their helmets, rendering all his ideas for disguising his scar unnecessary.

That's it. First order of business after I'm on the throne: No more face-concealing uniforms! To the pits with Scorpion tradition. You want to wear a mask to work? Go join a Noh theater troupe, NOT the penal system!

Now no longer skulking, Sokka and Zuko strode boldly through the administrative sector, Sokka waving merrily to guards they passed, Zuko with his nose in a book of prison rules and regulations he had found in the equipment room.

As soon as they crossed into the prison proper, however, it was a different story.

The door back into the administrative wing had slammed behind them rather forcefully, and a quartet of guards, stationed two to either side of the door, stared at them suspiciously. One of them had stepped forward with the air of a man about to ask "what in the ash they thought they were doing," when the sound of a crashing alarm gong began to roll through the entire prison.

Zuko and Sokka were then swept up in a veritable flood of real guards who proceeded to rush into the prison yard to quell an altercation. Emulating their notional co-workers, the pair forced their way through a cheering crowd of prisoners in red ragged uniforms which had formed around the disturbance.

Zuko's eye widened as he took in the scene. A half a dozen prisoners lay on the ground, several with rather nastily broken bones, gasping in pain at the feet of a large bushy-bearded prisoner who sneered down at them in contempt.

It was Matsu Haki

What in the Ash?! He's supposed to be… damnit!

"Isn't that…" Sokka began quietly.

Zuko simply nodded, staring, at the man who was supposed to be gathering the massive personal armies of the Matsu clan under his banner.

"I have had just about enough of your insubordinate attitude, prisoner!" one of the guards, a captain by the look of him, said pushing through the crowd and glaring at Haki.

Haki shrugged, his snarl changing to a roguish grin. "If you're trying to get me killed, you really should pick better tools, coward."

The guard-captain responded by snapping a fire-whip at Haki's face, which forced him to block reflexively with bending of his own.

"You know the rules, traitor," the guard-captain said, sounding rather pleased with himself, "no firebending in the yard. Looks like you're heading back to the table. Say hello to the warden for me, will you?"

Surprisingly, Haki actually paled slightly at that.

"You," the guard snapped, pointing at Sokka, "help me take this one in."

"Meet me back here in an hour," Sokka muttered before shouting a confirmation at the guard.

Zuko nodded and, once again taking cues from the real guards, began chivvying prisoners away from the scene.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, new guy, huh?" a guard asked as Zuko entered the breakroom.

Zuko nodded.

"You can take off your helmet in here you know. This is the break room."

"Ah… but… what if there is an incident?" Zuko asked, restraining nervousness. "I could be struck on the head. And I was sure that the regulations said-"

The rest of the guards on their breaks began laughing uproariously as Zuko fished out the book of regulations again and began thumbing through it.

"Look at the new guy!" "Reading the manual!" "Give it a week! He'll loosen up," the guards shouted in amusement.

Zuko began to bristle at being laughed at before remembering the gentle teasing that had gone on back when he had been in the regular army. This had the same tone to it, more a feeling of inclusion and comradery than of any actual mockery.

They are soldiers. I can DO soldierly.

"I don't suppose the new guy can ask some questions, can he?" Zuko asked quietly as he sat down at one of the tables.

"No. You can't date the female guards," one of the self-same female guards said wryly.

"Trust me, you don't want to," snorted one of the men at the table, and he was quickly rewarded for this comment with a half-full teacup to the face.

Zuko chuckled along with the rest of the room as the two of them rose to their feet and began shouting half-joking insults and threats at one another. After the room had settled back down Zuko continued.

"Actually, I was curious about the… uh… traitors?"

The room grew instantly still, all relaxation and mirth gone in a heartbeat.

"You don't want to be talking about the civil war in here, kid," one of the older, grey-haired guards said quietly. "And you DON'T want to be mentioning it out in the yard either. Fastest way to start a riot. Half of the new prisoners are rebels and the other half think they can earn themselves a pardon by shanking the first half."

"Oh. Right. Sorry," Zuko said. "So… what about the foreigners? Do they riot a lot?"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Uh… Hello. New Guy here."

This was the third darker skinned guard Zuko had sidled up to in his attempt to find Sokka after the allotted hour had passed.

"Zuko?" Sokka said lifting his face visor.

Zuko cocked his head to the side in confusion. "…what happened to the code names?"

"I thought you hated the code names?"

"I hated your code names."

"Meatmaster is a perfectly manly name!" Sokka said firing up at once.

Zuko shushed him and then let him in on the bad news. "I asked around the lounge and… I'm sorry Hawk… but there aren't any Water-Tribe prisoners here."

"What? Are you sure? Did you double-check?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Damnit. So we came all this way for nothing? …Fuck. I… I failed again," Sokka said somberly, banging his fists on the railing overlooking the prison yard.

Zuko was suddenly hit with a curious combination of emotions. Ever since his time on Taiyoshima he had been trying to separate and distill the usual mishmash of emotions he felt into their disparate elements. It was helping him better categorize and deal with each emotion in turn, something he was beginning to find was very helpful in his new styles of firebending and, possibly more importantly, in maintaining his self-control.

Currently, he was irritated, at the whole situation he found himself in, angry, because he was always angry, and just now those two emotions had been paired with a hint of… remorse?

Why am I…

Probably because your friend is beating himself up a little bit, Zuko thought, nodding in realization.

Then he froze in shock.

Friend? FRIEND?! This idiot isn't my-

He'd told Sokka about his scar.

He hadn't even told Katara how he'd gotten his scar.

He just DIDN'T talk about it. EVER. For any reason.

Certainly, he'd been mildly intoxicated at the time… but… still…

Ash and bone… it worked, Zuko thought wonderingly a look of complete and utter bewilderment on his face. I had "manly bonding time" with this idiot and made friends with him. How stupid is that?

Apparently not very stupid at all, as it had been entirely successful.

I… I should say something… cheer him up… How do people DO that?

He glanced at Sokka, who was now banging his head on the railing with steady if increasing force.

What would uncle say?

"Uh… Sokka, sometimes in life… there are… uh…" Zuko glanced around for inspiration, finally looking up into the very blue sky, "…clouds. And clouds… well, they're fluffy… and…"

Wait, uncle had one of those stupid happy sayings about clouds!

"Clouds are… well, they have two sides. Yes, that was it! Two sides. One is… dark… I think… and the other… is… light? Yes, that tracks. And… between them there is gold… or maybe silver. Yes, definitely silver. And so, it's like… a silver… sandwich? So… when life becomes hard… you should take a bite of that silver sandwich. And probably have some tea. There was always tea in there somewhere."

Sokka who had laid off banging his head on the rail and looked up around the time Zuko had said "sandwich," suddenly brightened. "Maybe we haven't failed after all!" he said, a grin forming on his face.

"Really?" Zuko said, a grin appearing on his face as well. "Wow. I can't believe that actually worked! Honestly, I didn't even know what I was saying."

"No, what you said made no sense at all," Sokka said repressively, "but look…" he slung one arm over Zuko's shoulders and pointed out into the yard.

There in the center of the yard was a surprisingly familiar looking red-headed woman wearing one of the standard prison uniforms.

"It's Suki," Sokka said with a sappy smile.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"So, what is the plan here?" Zuko said as the two of them marched towards Suki's cell.

"Ok. So. You are going to keep a lookout outside of the cell door, knock twice if somebody's coming. I will be inside, with Suki, hopefully with no pants on."

"Oy!" Zuko barked, glaring at his… friend.

"Ok. Maybe just some light under-the-tunic, over-the-bindings action. I'll play it by ear."

"I swear, by my ancestors, if you get us caught because you can't keep it in your pants…"

"You'll what? Glower me to death?"

"No… I'll tell Katara."

"You wouldn't," Sokka said sounding scandalized. "Besides, she won't believe you anyways."

"Fine. I will tell Toph. Who, after she is done kicking your ass, will then tell Katara."

"Oh, that's just… mean!"

"Listen, Hawk,"Zuko said putting one hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Just… reign it in for a little bit, ok? Just until we get out of here? Then you can… fornicate… to your heart's content? Alright?"

Sokka nodded. "Right. Mission. World in peril. Got it."

They reached Suki's cell and, with another nod, Sokka entered. Zuko placed his arms behind his back and turned around to face the corridor.

I am a guard. Look at me, guarding away.

Zuko's eye snapped to the cell door as something slammed into it from the inside with a loud BANG. It was, however, immediately followed by the audible intake of breath and the happy sounding exclamation, "Sokka! It's you!"

He rolled his eye.

Just a guard… guarding this corridor. Nothing suspicious about THIS guard, no.

"Hey, you!" A female guard called from further along the hallway and she began to stomp towards him.

Oh ash, Zuko thought, restraining a wince, and tapping on the cell door surreptitiously to alert Sokka.

"I need to get into that cell," the woman growled, glaring beadily up at Zuko.

"Uh… no. You can't… because… well… the lights are out. And the prisoner could sneak up on you."

The guard's glare intensified. "You know, I see this a lot?"

"…I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, it's nearly always the same. One idiot stands outside a cell door, while another idiot is on the inside… assaulting one of my prisoners. Which is generally why we don't let the male guards on to this floor without a chaperone."

"That… well… that's not…"

Ash and bone that's EXACTLY what's happening! Minus the assault part. This one is getting a promotion. Possibly TWO promotions.

"Step. Aside," The potential promotee snarled.

It would have been rather easy to dispatch her very quickly with firebending, as close as she was to Zuko, but that would have been unacceptable. She had shown great honor, and Zuko was unwilling to simply end the life of someone who was not only simply doing their job, but doing so in an exemplary manner.

So he instead grabbed her wrist and bent it behind her back, driving her away from the door to allow Sokka to escape.

To his surprise the woman revealed herself to be exceptionally proficientat unarmed combat and, with a lunge and a sweeping motion, she freed herself from his grasp and set about trying to subdue him with a great ferocity. Had Zuko not outmassed her by six inches and a good seventy pounds of muscle, she might have even succeeded.

THREE Promotions! Zuko thought, pleased in spite of himself.

"Hey!" The woman cried, her eyes darting over Zuko's shoulder, "You there! Help! I think this guy's an imposter!"

Zuko spun around to try and find the new threat, but was unceremoniously tackled as he tried to do so, first by his unknown assailant then by the first guard.

He began to struggle, the idea that it would only take two people to bring him down was asinine, but he froze as the figure behind him hissed quietly in his ear.

"Just be cool, I'll figure it out," Sokka said, as he wrenched Zuko's arms behind his back.

Zuko was on the brink of fighting back anyway, a part of him was sure that the Shinjo idiot had just been biding his time, waiting for a good moment to get Zuko caught and invariably executed. He was probably just-

No. He's trustworthy. He's a Prince, like me and… and…

And, no matter how unlikely it had seemed a fortnight ago, they were now friends.

This idiot had better come through, Zuko thought as he was marched through the prison, or I am going to cut off his "manly" bits and feed them to a school of piranha-squirrels.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko tried to remember names and faces of the few guards that helped Sokka remove Zuko's stolen prison uniform and forced him into the rough scratchy red woolens of a prisoner. They would not be receiving any promotions, as it took only the barest of effort on his part, aided by timely distractions from Sokka, for them to entirely miss the fact that their newest prisoner was, in fact, their former prince and probably the most wanted man in the world after Aang.

Unfortunately, that anonymity was, in part, destroyed by the arrival of the warden.

Who, as it turned out, was Mai's uncle.

"Well, well, well. I never thought I'd find you here, your highness."

Not only was Soshi Maken Mai's uncle on her mother's side, he was also the younger brother of Lord Soshi, who Zuko had previously gotten indicted for spiritual negligence. There was a very short list of people that it would have been worse to be captured by.

"You are going to be my special prisoner, boy," Maken said with a sneer. "You should thank me. If I let everyone here know who you were, the traitor prince, well, they'd tear you to pieces."

Zuko, surprised at himself, just smirked. He knew perfectly well that if Maken breathed a word of his identity to the prison at large he'd have a full-scale riot on his hands.

"You think this is funny, boy?" Maken snapped. "Well while I'd love to show the error of your ways, I think it would be more appropriate if I just sent a letter…"

Damnit. We're going to have to make a break for it sooner than I'd like t-

"…to my niece," Maken finished.

Zuko blinked.

"You know how good she is with her knives. I look forward to seeing her sharpen them on your bones!"

Zuko blanched, not in fear of Mai's knives, but in dread of the scolding she was very likely to deliver upon her arrival.

This had not been part of the plan.

Mai hated deviations from the plan.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko had just given up.

He was done. Could not do it anymore.

He simply was never going to remember all the changes, and firings he was going to have to do in this place when he ascended the throne.

As Sokka had marched him, quite alone and otherwise unsupervised, from the maximum-security wing and into the general population, he had explained how he had gotten Zuko transferred by the simple expedient of claiming that the warden had wanted Zuko moved. Zuko had only been in the tiny box-like cell for about a half an hour before Sokka, playing on the guards' fear of being seen as disobedient, had gotten Zuko released into his custody.

Despite the fact that he was, obviously, not really a prison guard.

Really, I'm probably just going to have to close this place down and re-evaluate everything still inside. Who knows how many people are only in here because of my father's mad demon-loving whims.

He contemplated this, and any number of other things, as he resolutely focused on mopping the prison floor. Sokka had deposited him with a work crew that had been gathered to help clean the prison and he determinedly focused on his task so that he would not have to deal with the angry blue eyes that were glaring at him approximately one mop length away.

"Ah, so you two have already met," Sokka said once the detail had spread out enough to make conversation feasible.

"Yes, we have," Suki snapped, her fists tightening on her mop handle, "when he burned down my village."

"Oh… yes, that," Zuko said his lone eye still on his mop. "And in Full Moon Bay as well."

Suki's glare changed to one of confusion, which was then replaced by one of shock.

"That was you!?" she said, almost dropping her mop in surprise. "The cute guy who didn't know how to shake hands!?"

"Cute?" Sokka and Zuko said one on top of the other, goggling at her in horror/surprise.

"I must have been the worst customs agent in the history of the Earth-Kingdom," Suki said, ignoring both of them in favor of looking horrified. "I let the gravel-chewing Fire Prince into the impenetrable city."

"To be fair, you were the only one who even looked at my paperwork," Zuko said respectfully. "And they were excellent forgeries."

Suki resumed glaring at him, although he felt it was slightly less angry than before.

"I am pleased to see that you survived, Ms. Suzuki," Zuko said, giving her a small bow.

Having now managed to recover from the fact that his girlfriend had called Zuko cute, Sokka pulled the two of them aside, into a quiet corner of the area they were supposed to be cleaning so that they could strategize.

"It's going to be a problem, Ghost," Sokka said rubbing at his chin in thought as the three of them sat on their haunches. "I'm pretty sure I can get you and Suki out of this place without much of a fuss, but anything more than that…"

"Who's 'Ghost,'" Suki asked curiously.

"We are not leaving without my people," Zuko said, ignoring the question.

"And we can't leave without my Kyoshi warriors," Suki said glaring at Zuko. "You'll need us to-"

"Your Kyoshi Warriors couldn't fight their way out of a wet rice-paper bag," a quiet voice growled from over their heads.

There peering at them from a balcony above them much like a canary-cat with the cream was Matsu Haki. He dropped down, with a surprisingly quiet thud and grinned at Suki in an unfriendly manner. He didn't even seem to notice that his liege lord, whose back had been to the wall, was right next to him.

Hmmm… I guess combing my hair over my face really DOES work as a disguise.

Although it might have also been that the variety of bruises around his face and arms were dulling his senses. Whatever his punishment for the previous altercation in the yard had been, it had been executed in a swift and brutal fashion.

"Back off, flame-brain," Suki said quietly.

"I heard you hatching an escape plan," Haki growled down at the girl who was easily a foot shorter than him.

"Uh… the only thing we're hatching… is an egg?" Sokka said, making excuses rapidly.

"Fine. I'm sure the warden will be interested to hear about this 'egg' you little shi-"

"That will be enough, Major," Zuko snapped.

Haki froze and with the slowness of an armadillo-sloth he turned in place to turn his wide-eyed gaze on Zuko.

"Highness?" he whispered, his face pale and drawn. "Oh Spirits, you've been captured too?"

"No, Major, I came here on purpose. As you can see, I have a man on the inside," Zuko said pointing at Sokka, who gave a little wave.

Haki looked skeptically at the now grinning Unicorn man in prison armor.

"…Isn't that the idiot kid with the boomerang?"

"Hey!" Sokka said, his grin disappearing.

"That is Shinjo Sokka, heir of Shinjo and eldest of Shinjo Hakoda, Chieftain of the Unicorn."

Haki blinked once, then nodded in understanding. "Oh, so he's a prince then. That makes more sense."

"We don't do Pri-" Sokka began, but cut himself off at the exceptionally warm look that Suki was now giving him.

"You didn't tell me you were a Prince," she said her eyes seeming to glow slightly.

"Oh… well… you know," Sokka mumbled, mildly flustered.

Zuko loudly cleared his throat. "Can we focus please?" He turned to Haki. "How many of the prisoners are on our side?"

"Probably less than a quarter?" Haki said, scratching his beard in thought. "Obviously not enough to just overthrow this place and put that bastard's head on a spike."

"My Kyoshi Warriors will fight," Suki said finally tearing her eyes away from Sokka's.

"Oh, like that's going to flaming help," Haki snorted.

"Major," Zuko said, exhaling a puff of flame from his nose and cutting Suki's no doubt heated retort off before it could begin, "you will keep a civil tongue in your head, or I will remove it."

"Yes, sir," Haki said still glowering at Suki

"What is his problem," Sokka said behind his hand, but not at all quietly enough for Haki to not hear him.

"He's just pissed that my girls keep kicking his ass every time there's a brawl in the yard," Suki said grinning in pride and amusement.

"They cheat," Haki grumbled, his face heating slightly, "gang up on you."

"A numeric advantage is a strategy in its own right," Zuko quoted, shaking his head. "This should actually be rather simple then. No one is expecting your groups to work together. Tonight, during the last yard time, we start a brawl. My retainer and your… uh… friend-"

"Girlfriend," Suki said, lacing her fingers through Sokka's causing a massive grin to form on his face.

"Yes. Fine. Your girlfriend and my retainer's forces working together should allow us to gain the upper hand. If we move fast enough, we should be able to seize the gondolas and make our exit."

"Ok. One change though?" Sokka suddenly looked sheepish. "Do you think we could hold off for one more day?"

"What? Why?"

"Well… uh… the scuttlebutt around the lounge is that we're going to be getting a new shipment of prisoners in tomorrow. I was really hoping…"

"That it would be your father," Zuko finished. He thought for a moment, a pensive frown on his scarred face. "I was hoping to leave before Mai got here. I'd rather not force her hand too s-"

"Mai?" Haki blurted. "Your girlfriend is coming here? Then we need to leave right flaming now!"

"Haki, she is on our side," Zuko said.

"The ash she is! She's the one who captured me and got me locked up in here!"

Zuko drew back in surprise.

I told you, a voice whispered, never trust a Scorpion.

"Maybe… maybe we shouldn't risk it then?" Sokka said sadly. "If little Miss Gloomy is in route…"

"No," Zuko said darkly, ignoring his inner doubts. "I trust Mai. She… she must have had a good reason to…"

"A good reason? Sir, I was supposed to bring the whole Matsu family to your side. But my gran won't make a move with me locked up like this."

Zuko mused another long moment before responding. "Did your wife and children escape?"

"Yeah. But just barely."

"Good." Zuko turned his eye on Sokka. "We can wait for the next group to come then, your choice Hawk. If Mai comes… I'll deal with it."

"Ok," Sokka said with an exhale, "we'll stay. Thanks man."

"Who's Hawk?" Suki and Haki asked at the same time.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko spent his next, very sleepless, night in his cell, meditating on the nature of trust.

Trust was dangerous. So very dangerous, more dangerous than swords or flame or any weapon in the hands of an enemy. He knew that better than anyone.

Trust was on the inside, a saboteur waiting for the right moment.

If you never trusted, then you could never be truly betrayed.

He had trusted his father. Trusted that the man was making the right decisions, for Zuko, for the Nation, for Azula. That trust had led to nothing but guilt, ruination, dishonor, and madness.

But Zuko had trusted. Despite the things he knew, and his constant self-recrimination, he had trusted.

He had trusted his officers, and they had rewarded that trust with exemplary skill and with trust of their own.

He had trusted his uncle, and the man had almost lain down his life to ensure that the world had a future, that Zuko would have a chance to make things right.

He had trusted Sokka and, so far, the man had come through.

… Mostly.

And so, despite all evidence, both real and imagined by the hyper-paranoid section of his brain, he trusted Mai.

She had to have a reason for imprisoning Haki.

Trust was dangerous, but in Zuko's experience everything worth having, and everyone worth knowing, was.

Which may be why I am still in love with the most dangerous woman on the planet.

Zuko grinned in the dark of his cell.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

After a long time sitting in the dark, there was a knock at the door of his cell.

"Ghost? You in there?"

"Yes," Zuko said rising to his feet and moving towards the door where Sokka was peering in through the small view-hatch.

"Cool. So, I've got good news and I've got… unknown news?"

"Mai is here, isn't she?"

"Yep. And so's my DAD! He was on the first gondola this morning!" Sokka was beaming, his grin wider than it had been when he had seen Suki.

"I am glad Sokka… I mean Hawk."

"I've already talked to him, Bushy and the Minx," Sokka said with a nod, "we're now a go for operation double-team this afternoon."

Zuko blinked at him. "I'm sorry… who, who and what?"

"Haki and Suki, taking over the prison. Come on man, get with the program!"

"Fine. Yes. Good. Whatever. We are going to have to move quickly if we're going to-"

"Hey! What are you doing there?" came a new voice from down the hall and out of Zuko's vision.

Sokka started, then pulled away from the door, the gears in his head almost visibly spinning. "Uhhh… well… I was just telling this dirty lowlife what I think of him!"

"Well, you're going to have to do that later. He's coming with us to visit the warden. You can have a go if there's anything left of him after that."

Oh ash, it's time, Zuko thought, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Could I just get ten more seconds to rough him up a bit?" Sokka pleaded.

"…Fine, ten seconds," one of the voices said permissively.

Sokka quickly opened and shut the door, immediately being to shout in mock attack, slamming his fist into his palm.

"Take that… and THIS… and a half-dozen of THESE!"

"Listen," Zuko said quietly, close to Sokka's ear so that he could hear him over his own loud exclamations, "If I am wrong, and Mai kills me, you're to escape with everyone and get back to Aang. Tell him to 'go get the Golden Flame.'"

"The what?" Sokka said, leaving off his shouting for a second.

"The 'Golden Flame.' He knows what it means."

"…Good codename!"

The door began to open at that moment, and Sokka immediately put Zuko into a fake headlock and began to make almost comically false angry noises.

"That's enough, rookie. We've got places to be."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Much to Zuko's growing disquiet he now found himself strapped down and shackled on a rough metal table, waiting for Mai and her uncle. Even his head was immobile, held down by a rubber strap and his palms were pressed flat on the table to discourage firebending. The room was bare metal with only the table, a water spigot, and a floor drain for adornment.

It was not a great room to be left alone and helpless in.

I should have FOUGHT them! A part of Zuko's mind shouted in panic. I can't just lie here and wait for the end like a koala-sheep to the slaughter!

I trust Mai, the larger part of him retorted.

However, as silence reigned and the seconds grew into long minutes, that panicked portion of Zuko's brain grew larger and more vocal. Zuko strained against his shackles, testing their strength.

They didn't even rattle.

Well… shit.

Finally, barely audible over the sound of his heartbeat hammering in his ears, he heard echoing footsteps coming down the long hallway that he'd been dragged down, growing louder and somehow more ominous the closer they came, along with the raised voices that they carried with them.

"Honestly, Mai, I can't just leave you alone with him. What if he-"

"I can handle myself, Uncle Maken. Besides," and here Mai's voice entered through the doorway and into the room with Zuko, "it will be at least two hours before he even starts making noise. Come back after I've taken out all his fingernails."

"But… the Fire-Lord-"

"His Majesty has even less concern for the well-being of the traitor prince than I do. If I bring him his head, our families will be rewarded appropriately. Now, leave me." Mai spoke in terms of absolute authority and shut the door in her uncle's face.

Then she entered Zuko's field of vision carrying a rolled-up leather bundle under one arm.

A bundle which she then unrolled on the table next to his head.

It was full of knives, in a dazzlingly large variety, and she gracefully pulled one out to examine its edge.

Shit.

"Hello Mai. It's good to see you again."

"Coming here was a stupid move, Zuko," Mai said, pulling out a whetstone and dragging the blade across it in a faintly ominous ringing manner.

"Well, I have never claimed to be particularly smart."

Mai laid the blade back down on the table next to Zuko's face, allowing him to get a good look at the deadly edge as she did so. Then she drew another blade, this one fanged and serrated, and began sharpening that as well.

"I must admit, I am surprised," Mai said, examining her knife intently, "I expected this place to be a wreck, bodies lying everywhere, and a dozen guards in here to hold you down."

"I trust you, Mai."

"Another stupid move."

"Maybe… but some people are worth the risk."

Mai blew out a rather standard bored sounding sigh. "Always so dramatic."

"Family trait." Had his shackles allowed it Zuko would have shrugged here.

"I really should take one of your fingernails," Mai said, eyeing him, "just for making me come all the way out here."

Zuko snorted. "Ridiculous. You were already in the area. And I know why."

"Oh? Well, why don't you enlighten me?" Mai said, taking up the first much larger knife and resting it on his unscarred cheek.

"You would have to be quite close to make the transit here at the speed you did," Zuko said completely ignoring the knife on his face in favor of staring up into Mai's tawny eyes. "You are here… because you are trying to figure out how to get Haki out without tipping anyone off."

Mai paused for a long moment before sighing bitterly, and with a single deft motion of her hand, she cut the strap that had been holding Zuko's head down.

YEEESSSS! Zuko's inner voices cried in triumph as he heaved a sigh of relief.

"What did I miss?" she said, sounding irritated as she pulled a key that she must have lifted off of her uncle out of her sleeve.

"His wife and children," Zuko said grinning at her, much the same as he had on the very very rare occasions he had beat her at Go. "You would never have let them slip away unless you were doing it on purpose."

"That's what I get for being sentimental I suppose," she said, sighing again as she began unlocking his hands and feet.

"He is rather annoyed with you, you know."

"Please. Your asinine 'break up letter' was never going to be enough. I needed to give your sister something so I could stay in her good graces. Haki was the logical choice."

"I thought it would be something like that," Zuko said beginning to rub life back into his limbs. "How… how is she?"

"Not well."

Those two words spoke volumes.

"Shit."

"So," Mai said, as Zuko continued to rub the stiffness out of his wrists, "how are we going to play this?"

"Very soon there will be a riot in the yard, and we will start a coup of the prison. Haki and the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors are now in collusion and no one here is expecting that. Shouldn't be too-"

"I meant you and me," Mai said blithely.

"You're… coming with us."

"Not yet," Mai said, narrowing her eyes in irritation, "I don't know that I've uncovered all the spies that your father is planting in the rebellion yet. I am very close, but I know I'm missing some."

"Oh." There was a long pause as he contemplated what excuse she could give that would allow the status quo to remain unchanged. "Maybe… I… uh… I… seduced you?" Zuko said questioningly. That was a classically dramatic thing to do.

Mai rolled her eyes.

"I'm open to suggestions here," Zuko growled mildly.

"Fine," Mai said heaving yet another long-suffering sigh. "But I'm telling everyone that you ravished me before you escaped."

"What!? The ash you are!" Zuko spluttered, entirely scandalized. "I wouldn't… You… I mean… Sun's name, Mai."

"What? I'm not good enough to be ravished?" she said cocking an elegant eyebrow.

Zuko continuing to sputter protests for another moment but was cut off as an alarm gong started going off.

"That will be Haki," Mai said, pulling a piece of parchment out of her sleeve. "These are all the names I've managed to discover so far."

"Alright. I… I guess I should lock you in?" He did so then peered through the viewport at her. "Be careful."

Mai flashed him one of her extremely rare smiles. "I'm always careful."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The riot was in full swing when Zuko, skulking through hallways to avoid guards, made it to a balcony overlooking the entire conflagration. Every guard on hand seemed to be doing battle with the small knot of prisoners down below and Zuko's well-trained eye took it all in. Suki's warriors and Haki's rebels were working together rather well… but given the disparity in numbers it was effectively a stalemate.

But it wouldn't be for long.

As Zuko watched, more guards continued to trickle out into the yard, gradually turning the tide in their favor, the bulk of the prison population simply watched from a distance, neither helping nor hindering milling around and simply enjoying the spectacle.

Damnit. I need to get them involved, Zuko thought worriedly. Without much thought he flew forward and leapt onto the balcony's railing, balancing at a corner, and overlooking the yard.

"Sons and Daughters of Fire!" he bellowed down at the throng of people, all of whom suddenly grew still at the sound of his voice. "I am Akodo Zuko, the Prince of Fire! The time has come for you to rise up! Join me, and together we will END this destructive conflict! Join me, and together we will regain our honor! Join with me and regain your FREEDOM!" He finished by raising his fist into the air and summoning his blade of flame.

There was a rather pregnant pause…

… and then he was answered by a thunderous cacophony as most of the formerly unaligned prisoners roared back, fists raised, and charged the prison guards, some of whom were, shockingly, throwing down their helmets and joining Haki and Suki's knot of defenders.

Wow. That was really effective! Zuko thought, a snarling grin on his face as he lept down to the battleground. How's THAT for overdramatic!

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko dodged, blasted, and burned his way through a swath of enemies as he made his way towards the knot of his allies, and his idiot friend.

"Glad to see you could make it!" Sokka crowed, grinning widely. His helmet was off and his "space" sword was in one hand while the other was helping to support a dark-skinned man who could only be Shinjo Hakoda.

The man looked like he had been through the wringer.

Zuko simply grinned at him and, turning to face the enemy, he punched one of them so hard that it knocked his helmet off and put him on the ground. "Status Report," he bellowed.

"We're surrounded and unarmed," Haki said, snarling through a wild grin of his own as he continued a firebending duel against the largish guard who had tried to fire-whip him earlier. "And sir, I am pleased to report that I am KILLING THE UGLY ONE FIRST!"

"We still need to secure the warden," Sokka shouted, pulling his father out of the path of an errant fireblast.

"The warden?" Zuko asked, after headbutting an enemy.

"Yeah. If we don't have leverage, they're just going to cut the gondola lines when we try to cross.

Excellent foresight, Zuko thought.

He took a step away from the line of battle and a pair of what he assumed were Kyoshi warriors swung into his place. He cast his eye around the prison, starting at the higher levels where he assumed a warden would have his office.

"There!" he shouted pointing his blade of flame straight at Maken who, four levels above them, was staring at Zuko with a rather large amount of rage on his face.

"On it!" Suki barked, and with a jump she leapt up, vaulted off of Haki's head, and began running across the top of the crowd of people.

"Follow her!" Zuko bellowed, and the circle of the battle line began to move, gradually at first, but with growing speed, towards the edge of the prison yard. Their number quickly grew with the addition of prisoners who, fists raised, had begun to chant Zuko's name.

"Zu-ko, Zu-Ko, ZU-KO!"

VERY gratifying, Zuko thought, but we need a better chant. Something more unifying…

As he made his slow way to the wall he kept one eye, or more correctly one half of one eye, on Suki as they followed behind her.

She was, he had to admit, nothing short of breathtaking.

After making her way over top of the crowd of combatants, using their heads like stepping stones, she scaled the metal prison wall with a series of flips and clever climbing. By the time Zuko and company made it to the ground floor stairwell she was already three stories up, single-handedly fighting and defeating multiple groups of firebending enemy guards. Running at top speed, leaving the bulk of the still rapidly growing crowd of allies on the ground, Zuko and Sokka made their ascent, passing by the bodies of foes that Suki had already defeated.

They barely made it to the top floor in time to see her gag Maken, having already tied his hands behind his back.

"Sorry, Warden, you're my prisoner now," she said with a smirk, just on the near side of sultry.

The group of men who had followed her up stopped to catch their breath and appreciate the view.

"That's some girl!" Hakoda said, giving his son a shake.

"I'd be her prisoner," Haki said wonderingly.

Zuko just whistled softly, if appreciatively.

"Hey!" Sokka said, firing up.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The warden secured and slung over Haki's shoulder like a bag of rice, Zuko had leaned over the rail and bellowed down to the mob of people to make for the gondolas. With the warden as a hostage and a surprising number of guard defections, they made it to the gondola docks with little trouble.

So little trouble that it had actually made Zuko nervous.

The gondolas were large, but not nearly large enough to take the entire mass of prisoners who were escaping and guards who were merely submitting their immediate resignations. They were going to have to make several trips and Zuko, much to Haki's consternation, insisted that he would go last.

"Highness there's no flaming TIME for this. We need to get you out of here!"

"I am not going anywhere, Major," Zuko snapped. "I have a duty to these people and-" he cut himself off at the sound of a horrible brittle sounding laughter.

"So very noble, Zuzu!" an unfortunately familiar voice called out after the laughter died away.

Damn it. I KNEW this was too easy.

"Nice to see you again, sister," Zuko called out as Azula appeared, a horde of loyalist guards, along with soldiers she must have brought, behind her.

"I don't HAVE a brother," Azula spat, her voice now cold as she stalked towards him. "Nobody in MY family would commit treason."

"It's not treason to overthrow an honorless madman, Azula!"

Azula laughed again, a bright jagged thing, that hurt his heart to hear. "Weak! So weak! Just like mother. She died for you, you know? Died because-"

"She's ALIVE, Azi."

Azula cut off, her eyes wide.

"She is ALIVE," Zuko said, "and I am going to bring her home once our father has been put down like the rabid dog he is. It… it doesn't have to be this way, Azi! We can-"

"No, we CAN'T!" Azula snarled and with very little warning she bent fire.

Zuko reached into himself and did so as well.

He bent fire in a technique that he had only barely remembered from the North Pole, and had been stunned to see inscribed in the High Temple of the Sun-Warriors.

It was named "Ganko" and it meant stubborn.

Zuko had taken to it like a turtle-duck to water.

A wall of red flame rose between them, twenty feet high and burning with crimson intensity. Azula's blue flame simply fell into it and was absorbed. Ganko blocked the entire pathway to the docks and no one tried to come through.

"Wow," Sokka said looking up at the curtain of flame.

"Hawk?" Zuko said through gritted teeth. "I would appreciate it if you could see if you can't do anything to make those gondolas go faster. I'm not sure how long I can hold this."

"Oh… Right," Sokka said, and trotted over to the crowd of also goggling escapees and began to chivvy them onto the gondolas.

After five minutes, Zuko began to sweat.

After ten he began to breathe more heavily.

At twenty his knees began to wobble.

And after a half an hour he gasped as Haki shouted that everyone was over.

"Right," Zuko said and gritting his teeth he began to walk slowly backwards, the wall of fire following, growing more unsteady with every step.

As he reached the gondola, he twisted his hands out and flung the wall at the pursuers that he could not rightly see. The wall of flame diminished rapidly in height but still forced Azula and her soldiers back long enough for Haki to pull him into the gondola and for Sokka to throw the lever on the docks forward and then cut that same lever off at the base with his space-sword.

And then the gondola was away.

That… was… AWESOME," Sokka said jubilantly, grabbing Zuko by the collar of his prison shirt and shaking him back and forth where he sat on the gondola floor.

"Son? I don't think we're off the bad ice yet," Hakoda said, looking back at the gondola dock.

"My sister is pursuing us somehow, isn't she?" Zuko said tiredly.

"Yep," Sokka said after rising to his feet and looking out the gondola in the direction his father was pointing. "Looks like she's using a handcuff to ride the wire. And she's got the acrobat with her."

"Good," Suki said with a glower, "this is the re-match I've been waiting for."

Zuko started to ask her if she would mind not killing his sister and friend but realized, before he even opened his mouth, that this might be asking a bit much at this point.

So, instead, he lurched to his feet and tiredly took in the sight of Azula and Ty Lee making their slow but steady way towards his gondola which was now approaching the halfway point.

Zuko sighed and rolled his neck with a popping sound.

"Prepare to repel boarders," he growled

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The duel of Suzuki Suki and Ikoma Ty Lee was the sort that would later be spoken of in tones of reverence and awe by those who had the good fortune to see it. It was an elegant dance on the roof of a gondola that swayed dangerously over a lake of boiling water and, in spite of that, displayed some of the finest non-bending martial arts of both the Earth-Kingdom and the Fire-Nation. Their technique was flawless, their prowess unmatched. Had a poet or painter been there they very likely would have had a seizure at the pure artistry and inspiration of the two rapidly moving women.

And on the other side of the gondola there was Zuko and Sokka vs Azula… which looked more like a drunken tag-team match.

Zuko, seriously fatigued from holding Ganko for nearly a half an hour, would only barely manage to deflect fire from Azula, and then Sokka would dart out from behind him and attack with space-sword. Even through the haze of exhaustion, Zuko recognized Lord Ikoma's influences on Sokka's swordsmanship. He was impressed, and no longer grudgingly so, as Shinjo Sokka managed to fend off his sister.

Zuko was content with the stalling tactic; they only had to hold the two girls off until they reached the other side of the lake. Then they would have to either flee or be captured by Zuko's superior numbers.

However, the balance of power was disrupted when Soshi Maken, having somehow managed to spit out his gag, shouted out across the boiling lake back to his prison.

"CUT THE LINE!"

And within seconds the gondola had ground to a swaying halt, disrupting everyone's balance.

…Fuck.

The guards below had thrown a literal wrench in the gearage, and were even now bringing out a giant saw to follow their warden's orders.

"It's time to leave," Azula called to Ty Lee, and with a smirk and a blast from her feet she threw herself to the gondola heading in the opposite direction quickly followed by Ty Lee.

There was a long silence as Zuko watched his sister glide away.

"Plan?" he called over his shoulder.

"Nope."

"Nothing."

"Sorry."

"Yeah, can I kill this guy?" Haki shouted from below, holding a growling and re-gagged Maken out of the window.

"He is a prisoner, Haki," Zuko said repressively.

"Yeah, I know that but-" Haki cut himself off as the gondola, inexplicably, began to move forward again.

"Who's that?" Hakoda asked gazing out the window at the frenzy of activity on the docks below.

A dwindling figure in red and black now spun and fought below. Her knives flashing, her long black hair flying.

NO, Zuko thought, his lone eye wide with a burst of horror… followed very quickly with a strange fierce calmness.

"Oh… ash. Highness? I can't allow you to-" Haki began.

"Sokka? I need to borrow boomerang," Zuko said, eye still fixed on the prison he had just escaped from.

"Uh… Ok. Sure," Sokka said handing him the angled metal weapon.

"Sir! I need you to-"

"My sister will have brought a ship when she came here. Find it, and get everyone on it," Zuko said, ignoring Haki in favor of contemplating the angled metal weapon.

"Yeah, but-"

"Damn it! You get your royal ass back in-"

"Remember," Zuko said, turning, and putting his hand on Sokka's shoulder, "Gold flame."

"Ok… sure, but-"

Zuko didn't wait for him to finish as with a leap he linked his arms around the gondola cable and, supported by Sokka's boomerang, began to slide back towards the Boiling Rock, Haki's loud cursing fading away behind him.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Zuko ignored the pain in his shoulders and hands as he watched the scene unfold below him.

Mai fought valiantly but was subdued, overwhelmed by firebending and superior numbers before Azula even disembarked from her gondola.

Then they squared off against one another, Mai and Azula, glaring, their conversation too far away to hear but the postures so familiar, like that night on Ember Island.

Then Azula summoned lightning.

Even Zuko gasped in shock as Ty Lee, innocent, loyal, Ty Lee, moved in a blur and struck Azula, interrupting the lightning and blocking her chi.

Ty Lee sprang towards Mai, attempting to pull her away, but she was instead tackled by almost a dozen soldiers whose shock had evaporated as soon as she began to move towards Mai.

Two guards propped Azula up as she faced down Mai and Ty Lee, both of whom were being held on their knees by a multitude of guards. One of them struck Mai on the back of the head, forcing a cry from her that even Zuko could hear over the rising wind in his ear.

A cry which was only one note, one part of the terrible harmony that was the SONG which boiled through him.

"What should we do with them, Highness?" a guard asked, all eyes locked on to Azula.

"Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again, and let them ROT!" Azula screamed, pain and fury in her voice.

Everyone was looking at the slumped form of the Princess. Most still in shock at a betrayal that no one, not even the Princess herself, had foreseen.

Nobody saw Zuko coming.

BOOOOM!

Zuko hit the docks like the unholy offspring of a Kayaku bomb and a Comet. The stonework cracked, the shockwave took everyone off their feet, and a corona of red flame scorched the stone all around him.

A part of him wanted to say something dramatic, something that Mai could sigh and roll her eyes about later, but he was too tired to think of anything. So, he simply rose from the crater he had made, surrounded by malignant looking red flames, and roared wordlessly at his enemies as they scrambled to their feet.

The guards took one look at him… and fled, the still screaming figure of his sister in tow.

Those few who were either brave enough or stupid enough to stay were quickly paralyzed by a now freed Ty Lee.

Once they were out of sight, Zuko fell to his knees, panting.

"C'mon, Zuko," Ty Lee said as she scooped an exhausted Mai off the ground, "we gotta go before Azula figures out a way to scare them even more than you did."

On shaking legs, he managed to stagger after her and into the gondola.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"I can't believe you did that," Mai said quietly as she slumped against the side of the gondola.

"I can't believe that you did that," Zuko said from much the same posture on the other side of the gondola.

"I can't believe that any of us did any of those things!" Ty Lee said with a smile, her voice still full of energy, the only one of them not teetering at the edge of exhaustion.

"What the ash were you thinking?" Mai said a hint of anger in her tired monotone.

"I-" Zuko began- "am the one who does stupid, overdramatic stuff. You are the one who is careful. Stupid," he pointed to himself, "careful," the finger swung back to Mai.

"Idiot."

"…Pretty sure I just said that," Zuko said, a small smirk manifesting on his face.

"And… and you?" Mai said, looking at Ty Lee, seeming as utterly mystified as Zuko had ever seen her. "Why would you-"

Then Ty Lee kissed her.

"You know why, dummy," she said, a sunny smile on her face.

Mai smiled. Smiled wider than Zuko had ever seen, wider than he would have thought possible.

Then she kissed her back.

Zuko smiled, nodding to himself. Good for them, I have always thought that-

They continued kissing.

Zuko cleared his throat, loudly, to remind them he was still there.

They ignored him.

His face rapidly growing the same color as the approaching sunset, he hauled himself to his feet and staggered to the front of the gondola, facing away from them.

Mai let out a soft happy sound that Zuko would have previously wagered money that she was not capable of making.

"Oy! Could you not-" Zuko then made the mistake of turning around. His well-practiced eye and analytical brain noted positions of hands and faces and a sudden and surprising lack of clothing.

Literal, physical, steam shout out of his ears as he whipped back around, facing away from his two friends.

Ty Lee let out a gasp. An extremely suggestive gasp.

Akodo Zuko, Prince of Fire, stuck his fingers in his ears and began to hum.

---

A/N: Congratulations! You've reached the end of THIS, my longest chapter to date, my take on "The Boiling Rock," AND a nice surprise ending that I hope you enjoyed. But if you didn't (or if you did) as always I want to hear about it. So click that figurative button and blah your insights/criticism/praise/rage/love/etc out on to your keyboards and let me have it. Go on, I dare you.

But enough prodding, if you're still reading it's because you want…

Such BITS. Much META.

Floating heads: The conversation between Sokka and Zuko in the balloon as they floated along is easily the oldest part of this chapter, predating the addition of Ursa and Kiyi from the last chapter even. I just started writing dialog, without tags, of those two goons (who I love) going back at forth at one another. It was a hell of a time, I was laughing to myself as I just sort of sat back and just "listened" to them argue/fight/drink/fight again and eventually bond. I hope that I've added enough tags and extraneous action for it to be coherent but if not please let me know. I am a worrier, especially where this is concerned.

Male bonding: I hope that I was as successful here in creating a legitimate reason why Sokka and Zuko became friends, as I seemed to be with Aang and Zuko previous to this. I definitely see Sokka as the impetus of the whole thing, Zuko literally would have just sat there meditating the whole time. I do not think that even HE intended it to work as well as it did though. I think he would have seen it as just another manly thing; spent the night drinking with an old enemy, then thrilling heroics. But instead, he gets a guy his age who he can bicker with over weapons/code names/earth rumbles and will simultaneously risk his own life, several times, just on the off chance Hakoda might be there. There is also the fact that he now knows that Zuko is still in love with Katara. He has given him the requisite punches to the face for making her cry and I think he kinda feels for him. He is kinda a sad sack.

Landing on the island: So, one of the things that bothered me, because I pay too much attention to stuff that is neither work or school related, is the landing on Boiling Rock. In the show… do they land on the far side of the lake? The part without the prison? Because it certainly looks like it to me. If so… how did they get into the prison? Then, how did they get guard uniforms? How did… just everything. But, as previously mentioned I think too much.

Overlord's Rules: If you, for some reason, have not seen them go google "peter's evil overlord list," and enjoy. Essentially, for those of you who are either lazy or require more persuading, it is a meta-list of all the really bad villain clichés and tropes and how, as a super-villain, to avoid them. As I have painted the Fire-Nation as very much an island OF somewhat cliched villain types they, by pure narrative logic must be in violation of quite a few of them. I know that Ozai had at least one as mentioned in previous A/Ns. Currently, Maken is in violation of #1, probably #2 as well. Actually, in review, there are a lot of these being broken by the FN at large. Probably why they lost to a 12-year-old (in canon.)

Coolers? What coolers?: Again with the jenky technology level! Not that they don't have the technology to do something like this, but to have multiple cells with sub-zero temps like that? While being set next to a lake of boiling water? That would require an extraordinary amount of power output, and thus expense and just sheer… agh! Physics! Thermodynamics! SCIENCE! JARGON!

Anyways. I didn't like it, so I got rid of it. Shortened the escape. Now Haki (who got to replace Chit Sang) just get strapped to the "table" that we saw later, and got the hell beat out of him. Which leads us directly to…

Matsu Haki: The tradition of taking political prisoners is a long and time-honored one. That's really what the Boiling Rock is. A holding cell for those whose families are being compelled with the threat of violence to their family members. Haki is being held because the Matsu family is large and, after Akodo, has the most direct vassals and troops under their direct control. Holding somebody in their line of succession would effectively put them in a holding pattern for the entire war. A serious blow to Zuko's side, which is why Azula let Mai remain in the FN after she "failed to predict" Zuko's betrayal.

Suki also a BAMF: Holy crap! Go watch Suki again on the show. At one point she literally scales a metal wall, a sheer metal wall, with only her hands! Is she Spiderman? Spider-suki! Even Haki is impressed. I hope that the sheer awesomeness of that scene came through here, cause it was. Awesome.

The problem with maiko: So, what follows is probably an ill-advised rant about shipping. Should you feel inclined, go ahead and skip to the next point, I won't hold it against you.

One of the anti-zutara things that often gets discussed is that Zuko would have jumped in front of that lightning bolt for anyone. If that is the case… why didn't he go back for Mai? We're talking the same expectation of death here, and this time for his "official" romantic interest. Yet, Zuko makes absolutely no effort whatsoever (in canon) to go get her back. He has already infiltrated one scary impossible prison, what's one more? Why would honor-obsessed Zuko, who now owes Mai a huge debt not do ANYTHING to redress this? Yet we are expected to believe this same person would sacrifice himself, once again defying physics as he did so, and leap in front of a lightning bolt… for a good friend.

Nope. Just nope. Lacking in internal consistency. So, because it's my world and I'll bloody well do what I want, we get the most thrilling heroics. Zuko does love Mai, but in a very different and non-romantic way.

I regret nothing.

Chapter Length Again: This is the longest chapter I've written so far. Honestly, if there had been a good place to do it I would have split it into two (even canon did it in two episodes) so please don't be disappointed when next weeks chapter is less than 10k? I need time to do other stuff! No matter how much I wish I would just win the Powerball so I could do nothing but write all day, it ain't happening. Thanks for being understanding.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm sure that some of you (hopefully) will be excited to hear that book one of my Katara-centric work is now completed in it's first very very ROUGH draft. So, yes, you will be getting that at some point in the future. However, I regret to inform about half of you that, due to formatting concerns it will most likely NOT be appearing on FFN. It will be available on AO3 however. The problem is the "strikethrough" effect. The work is in the style of a journal and I started using strikethrough as a way of showing edits, censorship, and other various bits of hilarity. Unfortunately, it does not seem that strikethrough is supported by FFN. So, unless I can figure out a way of getting the same effect without it… you see the problem.

Well that's it folks, see you next time. Don't forget to comment/review for all the reasons as stated above.

Thanks for reading!

.

.

NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...

Zuko goes on a road (air) trip and is shouted at a great deal.

TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!

Original post date: 3 February 2019