Chapter Ten: The Avatar Beats Up Zuko (Lots)

The fight was in four hours, and Zuko didn't want any breakfast, go away Lieutenant Jee that's an order, no we're not still pretending I'm a mailboy and yes I outrank you again and if I eat a piece of toast will you go away?

The fight was in three hours, and Zuko didn't have his Agni Kai bands, they were back on the ship, and I know shouting doesn't help so why are you shouting Engineer Hanako you're fifty times louder than I am YES YOU ARE, LIEUTENANT JEE TELL HER SHE'S LOUDER THAN I AM WHERE ARE YOU GOING—

When Lieutenant Jee came back, he had gold fabric. So they wrapped that on Zuko's upper arms instead of real gold, just like peasants did. As least it pinched less than noble bands.

The fight was in two hours and they didn't have a Fire Sage, why hadn't he realized they didn't have a Fire Sage, of course there wasn't a random Fire Sage in the middle of the Earth Kingdom just waiting to bless fights under Agni could they even have an Agni Kai without Agni's blessing?

"I'm sure the sun will be there regardless, Sir," Lieutenant Jee said, and Zuko and all the crewman from the Wani reflexively looked up like they expected a cloud to pass over the sun just to spite them, but it was a lovely sunny day with just a hint of crisp almost-the-winter-solstice bite to the morning air. Omashu was almost as close to the equator as Caldera so there was neither snow nor hail nor any ill omen in sight.

The fight was in an hour and why had he even borrowed Engineer Hanako's shirt it wasn't like he was going to wear it and he didn't have a prayer shawl and the fight grounds were being smoothed down and readied by earthbenders and nothing about this was right.

Colonel Akio cleared his throat outside Zuko's tent (the Colonel's tent, on every night except last night and every day but today). "None of the men have a prayer shawl, Your Highness. I hope you will accept this, instead."

And he draped the division's flag over Zuko's shoulders, already neatly folded to fit him. Zuko ran his hands over the fabric.

"Will you officiate?" he asked, and the Colonel agreed.

The fight was in ten minutes and the Avatar had finally shown up, swooping down on his giant fuzzy amazing bison that he didn't even deserve piled all full of luggage and Water Tribe peasants, and Zuko knelt on the freshly cleared earth with his back to his opponent while someone went to give the airbender a crash course in not offending Agni, take-off-your-shirt-and-put-these-armbands-on.

Noon. The fight was now. Colonel Akio took his place at the edge of the field. It was going to start, any second it was going to start, and everything was wrong and different, this wasn't how anything was supposed to be. Zuko would know: he remembered his first (his only) Agni Kai.

He remembered it really, really well.

"Lieutenant Jee?" he whispered. "It's the Avatar behind me, right?"

Lieutenant Jee, who still thought the prince's burn was a training accident and this Avatar hunt some kind of royal coming-of-age lark gone sideways when the Avatar actually showed up, didn't understand. But he answered.

"Yes, Sir."

"Okay." Zuko stood up. The flag-turned-shawl slipped from his shoulders, and he knew he was supposed to let it fall to the ground as so too do Agni's rays fall, but he caught it before it could get dusty and handed it off to the lieutenant.

And he turned.

And his opponent was exactly who he'd thought.

Zuko let out a slow breath, and took in a faster one, and strode to the center.

King Bumi's reply had warned them to expect the Earth Kingdom troops. It was only fair: if Prince Zuko had a division at his back watching the fight, the Avatar should get one, too.

What they hadn't expected was for the troops to be there when the sun rose. Which implied, rather uncomfortably, that they'd been within an easy marching distance all along. Kuzon of Aomori explained this implication to his fellow Kuzons.

The colonel had looked at the Earth troops with absolutely no surprise. Aomori shivered under his armor, and did not explain the implications of that.

The prince hadn't look surprised either, even though the people who'd come with him had.

Aomori really, really hated politics. Really.

"Where's the 82nd?" Kuzon of Fukushima growled. "Weren't they supposed to protect us?"

I don't think that's what they were here for, Aomori didn't explain. "I hope the prince wins," he said. "I really don't want to fight those guys."

"Flamin' right," Fukushima said (to Byakko's baleful side-glare), "They look like they eat boulders for breakfast, with undertrained firebenders for garnish."

"You heard the Avatar," Byakko said. "If the prince loses, we're retreating. Not fighting. Win-win for us, right?"

Kuzon of Byakko, Aomori continued to not explain, you're a great guy, but stay out of the capital. You'd last three minutes at court. Five, if somebody thought you were funny.

The Avatar had promised that. Not the colonel. The colonel hadn't technically agreed to this at all; he was not honor-bound by the outcome. And while a prince should outrank him...

That still-healing scar on his face had a pretty clear explanation once Aomori'd put together the whole who could get close enough to a prince to do that with the Fire Lord has a new heir.

"...Right?" Byakko asked again.

Kuzon of Fukushima took away the sword Aomori had been sharpening (how long had he been doing that?) "You're being real quiet, Aomori," he said. "Something you want to tell us lowly country bumpkins?"

So Aomori explained. Everything. And it wasn't just Kuzons who were close enough to hear.

The new recruits of the 41st gathered around the fight grounds, and very sincerely cheered for their prince's victory.

Colonel Akio noted, in the corner of his mind devoted to if-we're-still-alive-tomorrow, that Kuzon of Aomori either needed a promotion or a year on latrine duty.

Time for this match to start.

"No weapons," Colonel Akio listed. "No outside interference. No targeting spectators. No leaving the ring."

The Avatar shot a hand up in the air, but didn't wait to be called on. "But flying is okay, right? I am an airbender."

The colonel stared at him until his hand withered back to his side. "No leaving the immediate airspace of the ring, or the ring itself—"

Zuko didn't raise his hand; that was for commoners. Princes interrupted. "What if I get blown out, but I can still fight?"

Colonel Akio had accepted his role as impartial judge, and treated the prince to precisely the same stare he'd turned on the Avatar. "No intentionally leaving the ring or the airspace of the ring, and if either opponent is involuntarily pushed out they must make every reasonable effort to immediately return, and their opponent must allow them to do so—"

Finally the list of rules was over and finally the soldier-guy let them start and finally everyone stopped fire-splaining Agni Kais to him, Aang knew the rules okay? Kuzon had told him.

...Umm. His Kuzon. A hundred years ago. So maybe the refresher had been a little useful (and also ruined his plan to just blow Zuko out of the ring, this officiator was totally biased against airbenders.)

But it was okay, he would just go with Plan B: Win Honestly! So as the fight started he stayed on his toes and/or in the air and kept moving, and fireballs were hot hot hot but it was okay, he could dodge them and not having a shirt was actually really useful for not getting lit on fire, he totally understood that rule now, and Zuko—

Zuko was being really cautious. By Zuko standards. He was kind of… slow, actually. Sokka was right: without a village to threaten, the prince really wasn't that hard to fight. Aang could do this!

Zuko couldn't do this, he couldn't, everything was different but everything was the same and every time the Avatar jumped in the air and got between him and the sun his shadow was just as long as Father's—

"KICK HIS ASS."

But he hadn't had Engineer Hanako cheering him on back in the capital. Or Lieutenant Jee, or Crewman Teruko, or the entire 41st Division.

He had to do this. So even if his breath control was so awful Uncle would have brewed him an ocean of calming tea and even though the sweat on his left eye burned like fire, he just… kept getting up.

Zuko wouldn't stay down why wouldn't Zuko stay down he was going to get really hurt if he kept getting back up. Aang was the better fighter, everyone could see Aang was better, this fight was already over but maybe he'd hit Zuko's head into the ground too hard with that last airblast because Zuko didn't seem to realize he couldn't win.

"Stay down!" Aang shouted. And got fire kicked at him, as Zuko flipped back to his feet.

The flames were kind of pathetic, actually. They didn't even singe Aang's pants.

There was something wrong with his fire. Zuko knew they'd needed a Fire Sage.

(Maybe Agni didn't approve of this at all.)

Zuko tumbled over the ground and got up again and attacked again and he knew he'd timed his breath right that time, but his fire whip was half-strength at best—

(The Fire Lord was Agni's mortal voice. His father had ordered him to capture the Avatar, and his father had ordered the 41st dead, and here Zuko was not even thinking about capturing the Avatar because he had a division to save.)

The Avatar's attacks were not half-strength. If anything, they were getting stronger as the monk got more frustrated. He was even shouting now, but Zuko couldn't really hear it over the ringing in his ears.

(Maybe Agni would have forgiven him if he felt guilty, but he didn't. He felt... really good.)

He tumbled over the ground. And got up again. Attacked.

(Everything was going wrong, he could feel it going wrong in the aches and bruises, in the guttering of his flames, but this all felt right.)

Tumble. Get up. Attack. What even was that, Azula would have been rolling on the ground if she could see him now and he'd have beaten her because she was laughing too hard. Zuko snorted.

The Avatar didn't get the joke.

(He was disobeying the will of his Father and his Nation and his God, and all three of these were the same thing.)

Tumble. Get up. The little pfft of smoke that came out of his fist couldn't even be called an attack. So he ran forward, and tried to kick the monk instead. Just a regular, non-fiery side kick. The look on the Avatar's face as he dodged was hilarious.

If he just kept getting up, there was nothing a pacifistic monk could do to beat him. And he would keep getting up. He'd already lost half a face to this, and if Fire Nation economists had ever heard of the sunk cost fallacy, no one had told Zuko.

He was going to save everyone. He really was.

(He was happy.)

Zuko couldn't win. But he wouldn't lose.

Why was Zuko smiling, his fire barely even worked, he had to know he couldn't win, stop smiling—

Everyone was counting on Aang to win this. Bumi and his city, and even the Fire Nation soldiers (even if Aang hadn't stopped to tell them so), and… and the whole world! This was supposed to be practice, Bumi had said so. If Aang couldn't even save Fire Nation troops from Zuko's stubbornness how could he save the world from being lit on fire by Zuko's dad?

And now he might lose (how was that even possible?), but he couldn't because if he did then—then he'd convinced Bumi to surrender Omashu! Why had he done that? This was all his idea and all his fault.

He'd thought it would be easy. And it was. Zuko wasn't a master of his element like Aang, and every time Aang hit him he got slower and clumsier and it was really easy, was this why other nations hurt people, because it was so easy? But he wasn't like them, he was fighting for a good reason, and he had to win—

"Stay down! Please!" Aang maybe yelled and maybe pleaded. And Zuko punched him in the face. Which, Katara told him later, was when he started to glow.

"AANG!" Her voice called him back to a field that was a lot less flat than he remembered. There were kind of… rock spikes everywhere. And some scorch marks? Had the armies gotten into a fight while he was… while he was… oh no. Where was Zuko? He hadn't hurt him, had he? The crowd was a lot further away, like everyone had backed up really fast, all except for Sokka and Katara who'd held their ground.

"Aang!" Katara called again.

Sokka was holding her back from the field, and it took Aang way too long to realize it wasn't because Sokka was afraid of him but because the fight was still going. No outside interference.

Aang remembered that rule, right about when Zuko tackled him to the ground.

Zuko sat on the Avatar. And the Avatar didn't get back up. He kind of squirmed and twisted, but Zuko was a big brother (and his little sister would light something on fire if and when he let her up, so Zuko had become a master of delaying the inevitable).

"Did I… win?"

Everyone was really silent. Colonel Akio watched the Avatar, and watched, and watched, and raised a hand. On Zuko's side.

Half the crowd started to cheer. His half. Zuko's ears started ringing again, and events got a little blurry.

"Congratulations!" a hunched-over old guy dressed in really terrible purple was… pouting at him? "You don't like my new outfit?"

Oh. Zuko had said those other things out loud. "I can burn it for you, if you want," he offered.

The old guy threw back his head and laugh-snorted. "Well, at least I'm surrendering my city to an honest man!"

Oh. King Bumi. Zuko had heard he was insane, no wonder he'd even agreed to this I'm talking out loud again aren't I—

"Yeah you are," Sokka said, and when had the Water Tribe peasant gotten here? "Been here for a few minutes. Could you stop sitting on Aang? And you should probably get someone to check on those multiple head wounds, Aang really kind of… bounced you around at the end. A lot. Do you remember that part…? Easy, just kind of slide off, maybe don't try to stand yet—Or do, that's fine, no need to take advice from a Water Tribe peasant."

Zuko narrowed his eyes. "You let the Avatar borrow Fire Flake. I'm never letting you hawk sit for me again."

"I wasn't hawk-sitting for you! And Fire Flake is a stupid name."

"A little help here, Sokka?" the waterbender sounded really snitty. "I do not!" She did. "You—!"

"A little help here, sis?" Sokka caught the sagging Avatar as his sister almost dropped him. Then there was a lot of glowering in his direction. The Avatar was awake and apologizing to Bumi and all limp-and-weak over the Water Tribesmen's shoulders like he was the one who'd just gone from fighting an airbender to fighting the Avatar.

Wait, the Avatar. He should probably try to capture—

Bumi waggled a finger at him. "I'm surrendering the city of Omashu. As Aang and his friends are not Omashu citizens, they're free to go."

Something about that didn't sound quite right, but Lieutenant Jee was next to him now and looked like he was going to do something appalling like help Zuko stay standing, so he let it go.

And the bison flew away, and Colonel Akio was talking to King Bumi in kind of a is-this-really-happening-or-are-we-all-waiting-for-the-Avatar-to-leave-before-we-fight voice (but a really professional one).

"Would somebody get him to the camp doctor?" Colonel Akio frowned his way. But it was the kind of frown his mother would have given him, not his father. "...Now, please."

"I can walk!" Zuko shouted. And proceeded to prove, a little shakily. Why was he so shaky, he'd won.

Zuko made it to the edge of the Agni Kai field. Then he threw up. This endeared him to the raw recruits of the 41st in a way bravery hadn't.

And later, after they'd marched into the city and into the palace and it wasn't all a trap, King Bumi really had surrendered, Zuko leaned over a balcony staring down at a gorilla-goat and a demolished pile of hay and asked a question he hadn't wanted to ask the doctor.

"Lieutenant Jee, can Agni take your fire away if you disobey the Fire Lord?"

Which is the point where Lieutenant Jee realized he was not, and had never been, qualified to look after children. "...You should probably ask your Uncle that one, Prince Zuko."

"Kuzon," Zuko corrected. "It's Kuzon again."

Because Omashu was Fire Nation territory now, and Prince Zuko couldn't be here. By order of the Fire Lord.

Even later than later, Zuko found a mail bag stuffed under a guest bed in the Refurbished Chamber That Was Once Bad (which was where he was staying, with the rest of the Wani crew, because they could not take a hint). So Kuzon the Mailboy handed off most of the bag to a slightly sullen Omashu postal worker, and hand-delivered a copy of Pai Sho Monthly to the dungeons.

Which is when he realized some genius had invented the Bumi Box.

Predictably, this is when the shouting (re)started.

"He surrendered to me! I mean, to Prince Zuko. And Prince Zuko would be really angry if he learned you were keeping his honorable prisoner in a box he wouldn't keep a sparrowkeet in. If you can requisition steel for a box, requisition enough for a bigger box. Just make him a real cell. No one can metalbend."

Across the country, sprawled in the hard-packed dirt of her teachers' den, another twelve year old had the sudden urge to cackle and didn't know why.

This was a frequent occurrence for her.