A/N: To anyone who thinks Zuko's met too many nice people lately... remember first, they don't know who he is. Second, some of these people may be Iroh's White Lotus contacts. Third, people in Ba Sing Se go to great lengths to avoid trouble. (Dai Li for troublemakers, anyone?) And finally, remember Zuko's usual luck. When things do go wrong, they're going to go wrong catastrophically.
-------
"So." Safely ensconced in their new apartment, Iroh poured hot water into a cup in front of his nephew. No point in wasting good tea on an experiment. "Can you show me again?"
Gentle words, that he hoped sounded casual, instead of carefully chosen. Zuko had fought so hard, so long, to master Sozin's style. To bend fire as others claimed it should be bent. Learning to follow his own instincts and experiment now - it was a delicate, delicate task.
He tried, and failed, so many times. And with Azula, and my brother… it was never safe to fail.
Yet without failure, how can we discover anything new? And this is new. Or, perhaps, very old.
"I'm not sure," Zuko admitted. "I just - got angry." Biting his lip in concentration, he touched steaming water, and slowly lifted his hand.
Thin and sparkling, a strand of water clung to his fingertip.
Holding his breath, Iroh watched.
Water collapsed back into the cup, and Zuko hissed in frustration. Frowned. Held himself still, and deliberately breathed out, slow and easy. Dipped his fingers in a scooping motion, as if gathering a handful of flames.
A globe of water shimmered in his palm, still steaming.
He's done it. Iroh breathed freely again, spirit soaring. "Magnificent."
"It's just a little water, Uncle."
"And an acorn is only a small nut," Iroh smiled. "You have proved it can be done. We will build on that." His smile turned rueful. "Tomorrow. We have both had a busy day."
Zuko tipped the globe back into his cup, staring at his dry palm. "I look like a waterbender."
"It might be best not to do that in front of the Fire Sages, true," Iroh admitted. Both the Fire Lord and the Fire Lord's heir were children of fire. No other element would suffice. "But I doubt any of them are here. And think, nephew. Now, if you carry a waterskin, you can bend anywhere in Ba Sing Se. Without betraying yourself." He chuckled. "And as to that - you told our story perfectly."
Zuko reddened, and ducked his head. "I didn't think it would work."
"Under other circumstances, it likely would not have," Iroh said bluntly. "You are a very poor liar, Prince Zuko. Which is nothing to be ashamed of." It was inconvenient, yes. Nearly fatal, given the viper-scorpion's nest Azulon and Ozai had made of the court and the military. But not shameful. "You were angry and upset, and clearly worried for my life. And those about us had every reason to wish Jet wrong, and these walls safe from even the thought of the Fire Nation."
"You mean, I didn't fool them," Zuko said grimly.
"But you did choose the right words, to allow them to fool themselves," Iroh said with great satisfaction. "It was well done." He laughed again, softly. "But take pity on your poor, elderly uncle, and do not scare me that way again."
Standing, Zuko snorted at poor and elderly. But gave him a faint, tentative smile. "I'll try."
"Ah." Iroh's eyes danced. "So you mean to find some entirely new way to terrify your uncle to death?"
"Uncle Iroh!" Zuko sputtered.
Chuckling, Iroh stood, and opened his arms.
And almost immediately regretted it, as Zuko froze in place. Too much, too soon, Iroh berated himself. He is tired, but not as unbalanced toward water as he was this morning. I cannot expect-
Gingerly, Zuko met him halfway, and hugged him back.
Felling the body in his arms tremble, Iroh frowned. "What is wrong?"
"It hurts. Inside."
Iroh stiffened. "I never intended-"
"Don't. Don't let go."
Interesting. And given what Amaya had told him, of the wound to his nephew's spirit…. Iroh held on. Firmly, but not so tight Zuko could not pull free, if he wished. "If it hurts, do not take more than you can bear."
"It's a good pain." Zuko's voice was low, just above a whisper. "Like stretching a scar." A few more moments, and he had to retreat. "I'm sorry, I'm trying…."
"No more than you can bear," Iroh said firmly. Gripped his nephew's shoulder. "I can wait. I trust you. And I know you care."
Green eyes glinted at him, fierce as gold. "I'm not going to give up, Uncle."
"I know you will not," Iroh nodded. Which is part of what worries me.
One step at a time, the retired general reminded himself, preparing for bed. We are here, fed, housed, and relatively safe. And I will be more careful with my bending.
No need to force Zuko to break his word, after all. He only needed to delay the pursuit, until summer was over. Which should be easy enough. The Avatar had a flying bison, and aid from hopeful people throughout the Earth Kingdom. Surely, now that he had found young Toph, he could hide among the mountains no Fire Nation troops would have reason to venture up, and safely learn earthbending. Why should any of them come to a city bearing the focus of Fire Nation assaults?
Outside his window, Iroh glimpsed the moon.
…Why do I even ask?
------
Moonlight itched at him, and Zuko buried his head in his pillow. Pushing and pulling and damn it, he knew there wasn't a drop of hot water left in the apartment! Why couldn't he sleep?
I need some air.
Pulling on a robe, Zuko slipped out the window and climbed up to the tiled roof. The moon danced in and out of spring clouds, shadows turning footing uncertain. But he was used to that.
The wind is worth it.
He'd always loved the wind, even though Fire Nation ships didn't need it. The wind told you about places you'd never been, lands you might never see. If you knew how to listen.
Leaning on the roof cistern, Zuko closed his eyes.
Murmurs of people, faded by distance. Music somewhere west of here; no tsungi horns, and the rhythm was different, but it was definitely supposed to be music. A drift of green and earthy scents grown too familiar over the past month; farms, inside the Outer Wall.
You'd never know there was a war out there.
Wind shifted, bringing faint cries of lake-gulls chasing schools of fish in the moonlight. Something tickled his hand, and Zuko snatched-
And blinked. Bison fur.
A few, thin strands. Not freshly shed, if the past few months had taught him anything. Spring fur, not winter - though length was a little hard to judge. Half the strands had been melted back, tips charred from white to smoke-brown.
You idiot.
He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe.
I warned you. I told you! She does what Father asks - she does everything perfectly, even if it means killing….
No.
Kneeling, Zuko pressed his head against the night-cool ceramic of the cistern, forcing panicked thoughts into rough order. No. The Avatar couldn't be dead. Not just because he desperately needed Aang to be alive. Because if the Avatar were dead, Fire Lord Ozai would have announced the Fire Nation's triumph to the skies.
And Ba Sing Se would be falling, even now.
Which obviously wasn't happening. So the Avatar was alive. He had to believe that.
Panic receding, Zuko let out a slow breath, and braced his hands on top of the cistern to stand again. Don't scare me like that again, Aang.
Aang. He'd thought of the Avatar as Aang.
And he could feel the water under his hands, separated from him only by thick, fire-hardened earth. No fluttering almost-heartbeat of fire, like the steaming brew in Uncle's teapot. Just pushing, and pulling. Waiting. Aching at him.
Trying not to think, Zuko swept an arm out, hand open.
Like the moon, like the tides; like Katara facing me, angry and lethal as a host of blades….
Pulled it back.
Water erupted.
Reflexes seized hold even through shock; he skipped back, feet not even damp. Water curled on itself, following-
Stop!
The wave halted, rippling in time to his trembling, out-flung hand.
…I can feel it.
Not a warmth; not a heartbeat. Not like fire. This was the flow of blood in his veins, the ripple of a stream over his fingers. The heady rush of turning a ship into the teeth of a storm, knowing it'd take everything he had to survive - and knowing he could.
The ache inside was easing, and that was the most frightening thing of all. Other benders might be too young to remember. He hadn't been.
Eight, and there was something I needed, and I couldn't - I couldn't figure it out. It was like being hungry and thirsty and drowning, and I couldn't get air. And I wasn't cold, but it was like cold, I had to get close to the fire, I needed it….
He'd needed fire then. Like he'd needed water now.
Terrified, he snapped his left hand out, fire blazing to life in his palm even as the wave collapsed.
Oh yeah. Real smart. Idiot!
He snuffed it, relieved despite his mortification at breaking cover. Whatever was wrong with him, his firebending was still intact.
It doesn't feel wrong. Just - like bending.
Crouching, Zuko ran a hand over wet tiles, fingertips not quite touching the roof.
Water beaded up in the moonlight, and followed.
Oh, Agni.
He should be panicking. He knew it. But rage and panic and fear for Uncle's life had seared through him so many times the past few days… there just wasn't anything left. All he felt was numb.
I can never go home again.
Oh, but it was worse than that. So very much worse.
"So this is your answer," Zuko whispered to the spirit shining overhead. "The Fire Nation destroyed the Air Nomads, and now you'll destroy us." A tear slipped down his cheek; he wiped it away. "That's what's going to happen. My father only has two heirs. And Azula's insane." Another tear; he let it fall. "When he dies, she'll inherit. And I know what she'll do. You think the war is bad now? Just wait.
"And if she doesn't inherit-" Zuko swallowed hard. "Firebenders are loyal. We need it. If there's no Fire Lord, my people will tear each other apart. We won't be able to stop. And once our defenses are down, once we're at each others' throats in a civil war…." He could see it, clear as daybreak. Water Tribe ships sailing into the Fire Nation's deepest harbors. Ramps falling, unleashing earthbenders in a roar of steel and stone.
Zuko's fists clenched, and he stared up at the moon through a veil of tears. "Great plan." And he bowed, formally, vanquished to victor.
Then straightened, and glared defiance back at silver. "But we're not Air Nomads. We'll fight. We'll live." He swallowed tears. "I'm going to save them. As many as I can."
I'm going to learn what Amaya does. All of it. And then-
And then, what? Hide frightened refugees all through the Earth Kingdom? They'd be found. Hunted down. Killed.
I don't know yet. Jaw set, Zuko climbed back down off the roof. But I'll think of something.
Lu Ten says I give spirits a headache. Agni, I hope he's right.
------
"You are ridiculously awake for this hour of morning," Amaya murmured, downing the last of her tea. And almost immediately wished she could take the words back. If Huojin was right, and she'd never had reason to doubt him yet, Lee might not know her gentle teasing for what it was.
Like a Northern chieftain's son, trying to pass as a simple Southern tribesman. It's a wonder he's managed to stay unnoticed this long.
No. Not a wonder, not given what she'd seen of Lee so far. Pure, unrelenting effort, fueled by intelligence, tenacity, and the burning desire to live that marked the best of her charges.
"Firebenders rise with the sun," Lee said, studying the scroll she'd lent him as if he hadn't noticed the snap in her voice. "Polar summers are hell. No one can sleep. Polar winters - there's good reasons not to go that way."
Amaya tried not to let herself react, storing those facts away. You've been to the poles. More than once. And you're usually surrounded by firebenders. What have you been doing?
She shouldn't want to know. She'd made it a habit, not to know about people before they came to her. But none of them had been benders.
I want to know. You've done something impossible. How?
He glanced at her warily. "I didn't think waterbenders needed to be up nights."
Hmm. You're curious too. "We don't," Amaya allowed. "I prefer to work a later day for my clients, who often must be working from dawn to twilight, with irregular times off. And for myself. I may be a master healer, but I am not the strongest waterbender by far. I take advantage of the moon, when I can, for more difficult healing."
Some of the tension eased out of Lee's shoulders. "Work around your weak points. I know."
Amaya frowned. "Your uncle thinks well of your skill."
"He's good. I'm - nowhere close." Lee didn't look up, voice quiet and steady. Not angry, as she would have expected from a young man his age, much less a young firebender. Barely even a whisper of resignation, buried in the smooth flow of fact.
We'll have to work on that.
"So if you're not usually up this early, why are you?" Now Lee glanced up, lone brow raised.
Blunt, but not suspicious. Maybe his reflexes weren't quite as hair-trigger as Huojin feared. "I need to make a house call," Amaya answered. "And I don't want them to see me coming."
…And perhaps Huojin was right after all, and a warrior's trained suspicions were merely held under iron control. Uncanny green fixed on her. Not the familiar leaf-green of blue on Fire Nation amber. A fierce, emerald blaze, eerie as the flames in the Earth King's palace. "You're expecting trouble," Lee said levelly.
Amaya caught her breath, and shook her head. "I'm not certain what I'm expecting." What is it about this boy? I faced down young Arnook, when I wasn't much older than he is now. And we all knew he was raised to be Chief someday.
Chief, yes. A leader of men in war, certainly; though they all hoped the Fire Nation had learned their lesson decades ago, and would never return. But Lee was more than that.
Fire is the element of power.
Even soaked in water's shadows, Lee burned.
"What's the situation?" the young man asked, impatience leaking into his voice.
"I would prefer not to tell you," Amaya said plainly. Raised a dark brow, before he could open his mouth. "Something is going on, and I have not be able to determine what. It could simply be a series of accidents. But there have been so many, these past months." She paused, deliberately. "It could be malice. Everything I know from my training, everything I know about these people, says that it can't be. But I could be wrong." She tapped a finger gently on the table. "I would like a pair of fresh eyes. In case friendship has clouded my judgment. Do you need to know more?"
He reddened a little, and ducked his head. "No, Master Amaya."
Amaya smiled quietly. Teenager, with the arrogance of the nobly born engrained into his bones… but Mushi had at least taught him manners. "Madam Meixiang is one of your people. She's married to Professor Tingzhe Wen, earthbender, archaeologist, and historian with Ba Sing Se University-"
"Does he know?" Lee caught her look, and glanced away. "…Sorry."
It was a reasonable question. "He knows," Amaya nodded. "Not that he cares. I don't think Tingzhe pays attention to anything that happened after Avatar Kyoshi died. Meixiang has to remind him when the children's birthdays are." She chuckled, shaking her head at one memory. "When Jinhai was born, Tingzhe's students had to drag him out of the rare scrolls section of the library! He was tracking down this piece of Fire Nation correspondence from someone else who'd been researching the Avatar. Spirits only know why. I'd thought the Fire Nation worried about living Avatars, not dead ones."
No reaction. Not so much as a twitch. In fact, it was such a careful non-reaction, she was startled.
What's that about?
"They have children?" Lee asked warily.
"Four," Amaya said, rising. I have so much I want to ask you. I wish it didn't have to wait. "They don't know their mother's history. It's safer. The rest, I'll tell you on the way."
------
Nice house, Zuko thought, mentally comparing it to other Earth Kingdom dwellings he'd seen. Not palatial, by any stretch of the imagination. Not even really big. But the Middle Ring definitely had the Lower beat when it came to quiet style. "Why don't you live up here?"
"Most of those who need me will never leave the Lower Ring," Amaya said quietly. "If Meixiang didn't love Tingzhe, I doubt she would have left. It's hard for your relatives, trying to fit in." Blue eyes regarded him. "Are you faring well?"
I'm wanted for dereliction of duty and treason. My sister wants me dead. And the spirits have made it so the whole Fire Nation will want me dead. How do you think I'm doing? "I'll be fine," Zuko forced out. "I still have Uncle, and…."
I'm a waterbender. Despair opened up like a black pit, hungry to swallow him. I don't have anyone.
…No. He clung to hope, the way Uncle would have wanted him to, even when caring cut him to the bone. He said he didn't hate me. Even after he thinks - after Mom-
He's Uncle. He's not going to turn me away. He won't.
If he could only be sure.
"I still have Uncle," Zuko repeated quietly. "I guess - most of the people who make it here aren't that lucky."
"Some aren't, no." Amaya frowned at him a moment longer, considering something. Shook it away, and beckoned him to follow as she knocked on the front door.
"Amaya?" A middle-aged woman, impeccably dressed despite the early hour. "Oh, I'm glad you're here… why are you here?"
"I'd like you to meet my new apprentice, Lee," Amaya said briskly. "Who's hurt?"
"Suyin," Meixiang answered, stepping aside so they could enter. "It was her turn to make breakfast. I've warned her to be careful, she's just at that awkward age…."
Zuko listened with half an ear, looking for anything out of place. Not that he'd know what was out of place in an Earth Kingdom professor's house. Something he'd reminded Amaya of on the way over.
But she'd asked. He had to try.
Suyin's the younger daughter, he recalled from Amaya's briefing. Thirteen, not a bender. The older sister, Jia, is a good bender, but tries to hide it - it's not ladylike here. Mostly her father trains her. She's in and out because she's a student at the university, along with her older brother, Min. He's sixteen, he is getting official training, and that's something Amaya's worried about. The Army would be one thing, but if the Dai Li want him as a recruit…he's mentioned it a few times, and the family's not handling it well.
And then there was Jinhai. Granted, he didn't know anything about normal families, but he remembered time he'd spent with Lu Ten. Teenagers and a six-year-old weren't always a good mix-
Zuko frowned, leaning closer to the painted screen half-folded by the entryway, blocking direct view of the stone stairs to the second floor. Were those spark-holes, half-hidden in the black of cat-owl feathers?
Pretty far from the kitchen for sparks. Even if they were using a hearth instead of that stove.
Yet his questing fingers came away with specks of soot, far below the height anyone would carry a candle.
Any adult, Zuko reminded himself. When you were six, you had to carry a candle. Which had been humiliating as hell, for one born of Sozin's line. He'd learned to get around without them whenever possible. He'd practiced sneaking through the dark, ever since-
Jinhai is six.
Suyin got burned.
Sparks where there shouldn't be.
No. Couldn't be. This was an earthbender's family.
Eyes narrowed, Zuko started searching.
"What are you looking for?"
Suyin, arm healed but dark green eyes wary as her mother and Amaya talked, Meixiang rescuing the breakfast rice from scorching. Young as she was, Suyin still gave him a considering look that oddly reminded him of Lieutenant Jee after the storm.
"I'll know it when I see it," Zuko said levelly, crouching to view the house from more of a six-year-old's height. I just hope I don't see it.
There. A patch of wall slightly paler than the rest. One regular, rectangular stripe, as if the scroll painting beside it had been moved just a little over….
Lifting painted paper aside, he stared at small, blackened fingerprints.
Damn.
"If you don't know what you're looking for, how will you know if you find it?" Suyin smiled bravely, hand on his arm. "Have you had anything to eat yet? We've got some great peanut sauce-"
"Suyin," Zuko said quietly, "where's Jinhai?"
She recovered well, he'd give her that. "Just here, a few minutes ago - he's always a pest in the kitchen, he knows he's supposed to wait until the meal's ready…." She looked into his eyes, and swallowed hard.
"He was there," Zuko went on, still quiet. "When you were burned."
"I - got distracted." She faced him squarely, a mother turtle-duck in front of her brood. "It was an accident."
You know. And if she knew about her brother, what didn't she know? "Accidents can get worse, if someone doesn't know what they're doing," Zuko said plainly. Kept his hands from trembling by an effort of will. The more people who know, the more danger we're in. But these are my people. Even if they don't know it. "Suyin. I can help."
Suyin sucked in a startled breath, and her mother's attention jerked toward them. "What's going on?" Meixiang asked.
"I would like to know that as well," Amaya said evenly. "Lee?"
"Master Amaya." Zuko didn't try to soften the grim look on his face. "We have a problem."
"Where is he?" rang down the stairs. Young, male, and ticked off.
An unintelligible groan echoed down to them. Jia, Zuko guessed, from the half-heard maledictions on idiot older brothers who didn't know when to keep their voices down.
"Don't cover for him, Jia! Not for this!" Half-shaved, university uniform thrown on, Min brandished a ribbon-tied sheaf of scrawled-on paper, now liberally splashed with fresh ink. Stones cracked under his feet as he stomped downstairs, sliding askew. "My class notes! Do you know how long it's going to take to rewrite these?"
Do you know how long it's going to take to put those steps back to rights? Zuko thought wryly, hand against his waterskin to warm it. Facing an upset earthbender without firebending and without his dao was not on his list of fun things to do today.
"Min, the stairs!" Meixiang said sharply.
"Slag the stairs! He does not get out of it this time-" Min stopped short, finally getting a good look at Zuko's face. "Who are you?"
"I'm with her," Zuko said levelly, nodding toward Amaya as he took in the temper, the way upheaved stones were tilted at odd angles instead of directional, and the lack of balanced stance. Trained, but not experienced. Just keep calm, and keep your head. He turned back to Suyin. "He's probably scared too. I know what that's like." Twice over. Somebody really hates me.
Suyin paled a little, but nodded. "What are you going to do?"
Zuko tried to smile. It probably wasn't reassuring. "First, we get the accidents to stop."
"Accidents?" Min's eyes narrowed, and he stomped toward the kitchen, a wave of one hand yanking up the trapdoor that led down to the root cellar. "All right, brat. No more nice big brother."
You're going to corner a- Oh, you idiot!
Zuko moved, quick enough to catch the trapdoor before it fell back into place. The thin layer of stone on top of wood yanked down with more than its own weight; apparently Min didn't want to be interrupted.
Exhale, and push.
Stone and wood shattered.
…Oops.
He leapt through the opening down the stairs, in time to see Min yank a tearstained, brown-haired boy out from behind pottery jars of rice.
"Let me go!" Jinhai squirmed, twisting his arm around. "I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"
"Hiding's not going to do you any good," Min said grimly. Gripped the collar of the boy's robe, and gave it a tooth-rattling shake. "I'm going to do what Dad should have done weeks ago."
No!
Jinhai flung up hands in front of his face, and sparks flew.
Landing on the cellar floor in a crouch, Zuko swept his hands out to deflect, then pushed flattened palms down.
Every spark winked out.
Min had dropped the boy, and was backing away from him with a look of pure horror. "You - you're-"
Looking up at his older brother, Jinhai crumbled into fresh tears.
"Jerk," Zuko ground out. Stepped around Min in one fluid motion, and caught Jinhai before he could scramble away. "It's okay. Shh." He held on tight, rubbing the boy's shaking back. The way Ursa had, years ago. "Just breathe. It's going to be all right."
"Who're you?" Jinhai sniffled.
"I'm Lee," Zuko answered. "Amaya's apprentice. Let's go talk to your Mom, okay? I'm sure she wants to know everyone's all right."
"All right?" Min sputtered. "He's a- a-"
"Firebender," Suyin said bluntly. "Took you long enough to figure it out."
"You knew?"
Leaving his apparently capable ally behind to distract Min, Zuko carried Jinhai upstairs and handed him off to a pale Meixiang. With difficulty. The boy did not seem to want to let go. "He's not hurt," Zuko reported. "But he needs to learn control. Or people are going to see things Suyin can't cover up."
Jinhai buried his face in his mother's robes. "I didn't mean to."
"I know, sweetheart," Meixiang said quietly. "You haven't done anything wrong. Mommy's just… surprised." She looked between Zuko and Amaya. "He's six!"
"It happens, sometimes," Zuko shrugged. And bit back, I was eight. Prince Zuko's late firebending was still afloat in the currents of vicious noble gossip, even if it wasn't nearly as juicy as his scar. No point leaving clues around for Azula.
"How the hell did it happen at all?" Min stalked up the basement stairs, Suyin rolling her eyes in his wake.
"Min Wen, you watch your language!" Meixiang ordered. "That sort of thing may be passable among the young idiots at the university, but it is not proper in this house!"
"…Sorry, Mom." Min only looked abashed for a moment. "But how? We're citizens of Ba Sing Se! Dad's an earthbender!"
"And Mom's a refugee from the war," Suyin said bluntly. "Figure it out, Min."
Meixiang stared at her daughter. "You know?"
"Jia helped me put it together," Suyin said shyly. "You don't talk about outside much, and when you do, you always say you were from far away. You know a lot of people who look like Lee. And once things started happening around Jinhai…." She shrugged.
"But you can't be," Min said, stunned. "Not one of them."
"Good people are where you find them, Min," Amaya said calmly. "No matter what their nation. Or their element." She turned a considering look on Zuko. "You can teach him?"
"It'll take some time. Putting fires out is trickier than starting them," Zuko said honestly. "Yes. I can."
Jinhai lifted his head from his mother's embrace, just enough to give him a wide-eyed stare. "You put it out!"
"Yes, he did," Amaya smiled. Turned a serious look on Meixiang. "You should talk to your husband, and tell me what you decide. Lee is my apprentice. If he needs to train someone else as well, we'll have to work out a schedule."
"What's a firebender going to learn from a waterbender?" Min said sourly.
You've never fought another element, have you? Spirits, I hope someone trains you before you do. Or you'll be toast. "Healing," Zuko said flatly. "We don't all want to kill people. Firebenders make glass. Forge steel. They do all kinds of things that aren't the war." Though the Fire Lord's orders have taken a lot of people away from even that.
It wasn't right. It was his father's will, but - it was wrong, that other nations didn't know anything of firebenders but killing.
Min pressed his palms to his forehead, as if to hold in a splitting headache. "This is crazy."
Zuko hid a smirk. Welcome to my life.
------
Shutting the clinic door, Lee leaned his head against the wood, just for a moment. Sighed soundlessly, and straightened. "Is that it?"
Level voice. Ready stance. You'd never know he's had a day that would work most young men into the ground. Amaya studied her apprentice. And I don't think it's an act. He doesn't hoard his strength, no - but he spends it judiciously. Carefully. Enough to see the job done, and keep moving.
Mushi said he wasn't a soldier. But Lee had the same steely discipline she'd seen in the best earthbenders off the Outer Wall.
And something more. She narrowed her eyes, trying to pin it down. They're part of a unit. Always sure someone will be there for backup. To rescue them… or at least, avenge them. Lee's not like that.
For Lee, there is no backup.
She could still see that arc of flame snapping toward her, searing orange, before Mushi had shoved it aside in smoke and rippling hot air. But she couldn't hold onto the anger anymore. Not after he'd given her everything she asked for, all day, with people who even got on her nerves, biting back what probably would have been scathing comments as professionally as a soldier on a grim but necessary detail. Not after she'd seen him with Jinhai.
I still want to know how he broke that trapdoor. He didn't bend anything. Did he?
"There is one more thing I need your assistance with." Amaya pointed toward one of the waiting chairs. "Sit down."
"Why?" Lee asked warily, complying.
"I want to examine your eye."
Ah. White knuckles, carefully hidden up his sleeves. "It's a scar. You can't heal that."
Which was as close as he'd come to telling her to go to hell all day. So there is a teenage boy in there, Amaya thought, wryly amused. I was beginning to wonder. "The surface, no. You'll always carry that mark. But underneath it - the body tries to heal for years. Something should still be willing to bend." She gave him a frank look. "Huojin says you are skilled with the dao. He doesn't have to tell me what a wound like that likely did to your peripheral vision. Let me see if I can do anything about that."
"…What do you need me to do?"
"Sit still, and keep your eye closed. This will prickle a bit." Hand sheathed in water, Amaya touched her fingers to ridged flesh and held them still. Waiting. Fresh wounds were obvious, a swamp-muck of disruption in the body's chi that dragged at her like quicksand. Scars were more subtle. A fine grit of sand, washing under her fingertips.
There you are.
She'd never be one of the great healers; never close a mortal wound with her patient on the brink of death. But scars didn't ask for power. They asked for skill, and patience.
Bit by tiny bit, she picked at still-healing tissues, willing them to draw strength and become whole. Drove her concentration deeper, into the blood, and dug at the under-layer of the scar itself.
Sometimes you must break, in order to mend.
Delicate work. And likely more painful than a prickle. But her patient made no sound.
Leave it there.
Amaya drew her energy away from his blood, back into healing water. Passed her hand slowly over the scar, feeling grit drag at her chi as she healed the flesh anew. Held her fingers still, searching, and nodded. "That should do for tonight."
"For tonight?" Lee blinked at her as she let water glide back into a basin. "You plan to do this again."
"For at least a week. Two would be better. Slow and patient; that's the best way to handle old wounds. Remember that. No, stay there," Amaya added, before he could rise. "Sight feeds into your balance. Give yourself a little time to adjust." She gave him a patient smile. "Perhaps you could tell me exactly what you did to Meixiang's cellar door?"
"Oh." Lee reddened. "I overdid it."
"The shards of stone were a clue," Amaya said wryly. "What did you do?"
"Breathed," Lee said, deadpan. Took in her raised brow, and shifted his shoulders. "Instead of pushing it out as fire, you keep it inside. It's a little more strength, a little more speed." Another half-shrug. "It's not a big deal."
"You broke the door," Amaya pointed out.
Red deepened. "Should have known it wouldn't be as tough as iron," Lee said, eyes down. "You should see Uncle. He can just shove, gentle as a kitten-owlet pat - and they stop skidding forty feet away."
Amaya stared.
Still looking at the floor, Lee missed it. "I try not to use it too much. You don't want to depend on it. Never know when someone might take your bending away."
"Might what?" Amaya started, aghast. "Bending is a gift from the spirits!"
"Which you can't use if you can't move your chi." Lee was looking at her now, confused. "Aren't there special enforcers in Ba Sing Se? People who know how to block chi?"
"If there were, I hope I would know about it," Amaya stated, feeling faint. "Someone can take your bending away? Forever?"
Lee shook his head. "Only for a few hours. Depends on how hard they hit you."
Amaya felt ill. "And you've seen this happen."
"You could say that," Lee muttered. Hand almost touching one of the key chi meridians on his side, before he forced it back down to grip his chair.
Don't react, Amaya told herself forcefully. There could still be a reasonable explanation. "Can you describe the symptoms? I'd like to know what to look for."
"Okay…."
------
"Lady Amaya?" Iroh set a cup of tea down before the healer trembling in his kitchen chair. "It is a bit late for Lee to be out shopping, no matter how much I do appreciate your offer to split a roast duck."
"Curfew's not for hours yet. And that license gives him the right to be out even after it, so long as he's off to a patient or heading home." Amaya cradled the cup in her hands, as if chilled. "Mushi… your nephew was sabotaged."
Mid-sip, Iroh halted. Deliberately set his cup down. "Please explain."
"I can't believe - spirits, if that's the child your brother wants as heir, what is wrong with the man, he deserves to be flung overboard to the leopard-sharks…." Amaya stopped, and deliberately breathed out anger as a wisp of chill. "Lee's sister. She has a friend who knows this… chi-blocking?"
Ty Lee. "I know the girl you speak of, yes."
"She made this girl practice on Lee."
If porcelain had been in his hand, he would have shattered it.
"The odd thing is, he doesn't blame the girl at all," Amaya said softly. "His sister asked her to, called it necessary training, and she had to do it. Even if she didn't want to." Blue eyes beseeched him, desperate for it not to be true.
Iroh winced. "That would be so, yes. The girl could not have refused her… requests. Not without dire consequences. And this girl has six sisters to think of, all of whom would have been in peril." He forced down the anger. "How often? For how long?" How much damage did she do, that I had no chance to see?
"What kind of consequences, Mushi?" Amaya demanded. "What reason in the world could be enough for you and Lee to think it doesn't matter that she hurt him?"
"It matters," Iroh said bluntly. "It matters a great deal. But Lee would never have wished the girl's sisters to die for her defiance."
Pale, Amaya fell back in her chair. "Die." She swallowed. "Lee's sister could-"
"Kill them?" Iroh finished. "All of them? Yes. She could. She has done such things." Even traveling the world, he'd kept up on news of the royal family. His Army contacts might have cringed to pass along word of Azula's actions, but they respected him enough to tell the truth. And frankly, burning down a guard for disrespect on the very steps of the palace wasn't something that could be kept quiet. "Tell me what you mean by sabotage. Lee's sister would not have had him blocked during his training. She is far too cunning for that," he finished, half to himself.
"Not… during his official training." Amaya kept her voice quiet, even if it shook with tears. "She'd - arrange for it to happen afterwards. Not all the time. But often enough he mentioned techniques he avoids using, because if your bending is cut off in the middle of them…." Dark fingers curled on the table, tightening into unpracticed fists. "She tortured him, Mushi. Her own brother." Blue eyes glistened, angry and aching with disappointment. "And you're not even surprised."
Iroh bowed his head, accepting the rebuke. And the guilt. "I can only say that, like my brother, she is very clever at disguising the true nature of her actions," he said quietly. "I left a shy, happy boy of eight, who was just learning to bend, and was sure his father would finally come to love him. I returned to find Lee's mother gone, his sister all but acknowledged as the true heir, and Lee himself an angry eleven-year-old whose skill was…." He couldn't say it.
"Sabotaged." Amaya gripped her cup, horrified disbelief etched on her face. "How could his father let-?"
"I doubt he knew," Iroh said dryly. "My brother preferred her, yes, but to have Lee such a disgrace in skill? No. He would not permit that." He chuckled bitterly under his breath. "It explains many things. Why Lee improved so greatly after we left, for one." And why he has fought so hard to gain skill in moving unseen.
"You honestly believe a six-year-old girl could plan this?"
"Plot a course of action that would see her confirmed as heir, and Lee discarded?" Iroh said coldly. "I do. We are skilled at long-term strategies. It is in our blood. From letters Lee's mother sent me, she made this girl and her companion friends within weeks of first meeting her at school. And believe me, Lee's sister sees no need to make friends." He frowned, looking back on memory. "Though she could not have acted directly until Lee was nine. The girls of that family are not taught chi-blocks potent enough to stop a firebender until they are at least seven."
"And you're not even surprised." Anguish wracked Amaya's voice. "Tui and La, why didn't you take the boy and-" She cut herself off, hand pressed to her lips to hold back horror.
"Take a loyal firebender from his father?" Iroh said quietly. "Would that I could have." He sighed. "If I had believed we would survive the flight - yes, I should have drugged Lee years ago, and disappeared. But we would have been hunted, to the very ends of the earth. I chose a slower path. And I will not regret that. Choosing to heal instead of wage war - Lee's father would never approve. He knows that. Yet he has chosen to study with you. And that is the most hopeful sign I have had in some time." Iroh folded his hands before him, regarding her gravely. "There is a secret few know, Lady Amaya. But I believe you will use it wisely. To break one's loyalty, suddenly - that is fatal. But to wear at it, slowly, and nurture another, fiercer loyalty in its place… that can be survived. Even by a firebender."
The healer sat up straight, absorbing that. "You know this."
"I do," Iroh nodded.
"You said you were loyal to Azulon."
"I was," Iroh allowed. "Until I found myself forced to choose between the Fire Lord's orders, and the lives of the men under my command." He chuckled ruefully. "I admit, it surprised me. I had not realized how deeply we were bound to each other." He shrugged. "I was fortunate. Someone realized I was ill, and why. And did not betray me." Only later had he learned what considerable skill at Pai Sho his aide Toushirou had been hiding.
"Lee doesn't know." It was not a question.
"No," Iroh admitted quietly. "Do not tell him. Lee's choice is more difficult than it is safe for you to know. If we are fortunate, circumstances will work in our favor."
"Your nephew doesn't seem to believe in luck," Amaya pointed out.
"If fate serves us so ill, then he must make his choice because it is right," Iroh said heavily. "I will do all I can, to see he survives it." He favored her with a conspiratorial smile. "Though whatever you might do to give him ties to this life, instead of that which we left behind, would only help."
"You may be surprised." Some of the color had come back to her face, along with a glint of wicked humor. "He seems to be handling that on his own."
"Oh?" Iroh raised a curious brow.
A knock at the door. "I'm home," Zuko's voice filtered through, before he opened the door. Stepped through, wrapped meat in hand, and looked at them both. "Is something wrong?"
"Not at all." Amaya smiled, accepting her half of the duck. "I was just telling your uncle you should have a talk about Jinhai. Good night."
"Jinhai?" Iroh asked, once she was gone.
"Jinhai Wen," Zuko sighed, adding the duck to already-simmering rice and vegetables. "His father's a professor at Ba Sing Se University. And an earthbender. So are his older brother and one of his sisters. His mother's one of us."
Us. Iroh smiled as he poured more tea to go with dinner. You have always been loyal to your people. "And?"
Zuko gave him a half-smirk. "Jinhai's six. And he gets up at dawn."
He didn't quite spill his nephew's tea. But perhaps he did set the teapot down a bit hastily. "A firebender? Born in Ba Sing Se?"
"I can teach him to put fires out," Zuko said quietly. "They saw me stop him from burning his brother by accident, they know about me. They don't know about you." He set his jaw. "But I don't know if that's fair to Jinhai."
"You will be fine," Iroh said firmly. "You have a thorough grasp of your basics. Give him a firm foundation, and all else will follow." He smiled. "So my student will become a teacher. I am pleased." He had to sigh. "And worried. An earthbender, or a waterbender - they might train in secret. A firebender…."
"Sooner or later, he's going to lose his temper," Zuko agreed grimly. "I know. I can't just abandon him!"
"Of course you cannot," Iroh agreed. Though your sister would. In a heartbeat.
"He needs to get out of Ba Sing Se," Zuko muttered.
"Ah? And to where?" Iroh pointed out. "Where can a young firebender go, and be beyond the war's reach?"
"…I don't know."
"Eat," Iroh advised. "Let us enjoy this duck, and perhaps an answer will come." It was delicious. Perhaps he could convince Lady Amaya to share another, some days from now. They were a bit cheaper that way….
Be in the moment.
Bones polished clean, Iroh leaned back in his chair, while Zuko gathered up dishes and blew a surreptitious breath of steam to warm the wash-water. "A firebender, of Ba Sing Se." The retired general shook his head, amused at his own lack of foresight. "I should have considered this might be possible, once we learned of the waterbenders of the Foggy Swamp. It is within the Earth Kingdom, yet it seems they are Water Tribe. Of a sort."
"So, what? The spirits get confused in the Earth Kingdom?" Zuko's brow climbed. "Why is it strange Jinhai was born here? Plenty of firebenders are born in the colonies."
"Under the rule of the Fire Nation," Iroh said practically. "Bending is in part our spirit's way of influencing the world. And it is channeled by the philosophy of our nation. Ba Sing Se is the heart of the Earth Kingdom. Any bender born here, should be born of earth."
"For once, Uncle? Your philosophers are dead wrong," Zuko said grimly, tipping dishes into hot water.
"How so?" Iroh eyed his nephew, curious.
"I mean, if it was just your philosophy, how could anybody be the Avatar?" Zuko said quickly. "He has to be born in one of the four nations."
"True," Iroh allowed. Though that was not what you were thinking of. He frowned. "But I have never heard of two elements being born in the same family…." He hesitated, an old rumor drifting out of memory. "Kyoshi Island."
"They have a lot of blue eyes," Zuko recalled, arms crossed as he waited for the dishes to soak. "The Southern Water Tribe trades there a lot, right?"
"For centuries. And the island is neither fully of the Earth Kingdom, nor of Water Tribe territory," Iroh said thoughtfully. "In the past, both earthbenders and waterbenders have called it home."
"Ba Sing Se takes in everyone, as long as you keep your head down and don't cause trouble." Zuko's eyes narrowed. "That's not what you said earth is like."
"No," Iroh said darkly. "Earth is diverse. Strong. Not rigid. Not punishing." He breathed in steam from his teacup. "So they have bought their safety with their ideals, and lost themselves."
"Because there's more than one element born here? Kyoshi Island didn't give up who they were," Zuko objected.
"That is true," Iroh murmured, struck by the fierce glitter of green eyes. Like dragon's fire. "Nor has Lady Amaya. Nor have we. To hide in the face of overwhelming force, is not to give up. It is adaptability. Perseverance. Will." He chuckled, dryly amused. "Water, earth, and fire."
"It's not funny," Zuko said grimly. "If any element can be born here…."
"Jinhai will not be the last." Iroh nodded, troubled. "And those of our people who believe themselves safely hidden, are not." He paused, seeing a sudden misery in the slump of his nephew's shoulders. "Zuko?"
"Not any element," Zuko said quietly. "There's no freedom."
And without that, air could never rest within a spirit. "No," Iroh agreed sadly. "Not here…."
Green met green, eyes widening. "Somewhere else," Zuko breathed.
Iroh raised a brow, silently encouraging his nephew to go on. If Zuko's thoughts had followed the same path as his - it would not be following Ozai's will.
And yet, the Fire Lord has not ordered that Zuko could not do it, Iroh thought wryly. And it would help our people.
Tread carefully, nephew. Please. You walk between your loyalties, even now.
"What if there were somewhere else to go?" Zuko said slowly. "Somewhere - not safe, nowhere's safe. But free. For everyone."
"Such a place does not exist," Iroh stated. And paused, for one heartbeat. "Yet."
"That would be…." Zuko swallowed dryly. "A lot to pull off," he whispered.
"Hmm." Iroh stroked his beard, keeping his expression merely thoughtful. "You are trained in the movement of troops, Prince Zuko."
"Yes, but this is-"
"And in building field encampments, and evacuations in the face of hostile forces."
"Yes, but Uncle-"
"And in what is required both to build a new colony, and see that it flourishes." Iroh gave him a knowing smile.
Zuko winced. "You know what happened with Azula."
"I know that we had relatively little time to plan, and serious disadvantages entering the fight," Iroh said plainly. "Yet you accomplished your goal. We lived, and the Avatar survived, and Azula does not yet have him."
"I almost lost you!"
"Then we will need to plan more carefully, this time," Iroh said firmly. "Now. What is the first piece of intelligence you need to construct such a plan?"
Zuko bowed his head, thinking. "A location," he said at last; uncertain, as if he couldn't believe he was saying it. "What we need to get there, how we get there, what we'll need when we reach it - all of that's going to depend on where."
"Consider that I may have some possibilities in mind," Iroh said mildly.
Zuko's eyes widened. "You do?"
Iroh beamed.
------
Make a place to go.
Sitting in his room with a pitcher of water, Zuko lifted a hand, and let it fall, studying how water rose and fell with it. It was easier and harder than fire. Easier to move; it wanted to move, even trapped in a pitcher. Push and pull and change was part of what it was.
But if moving it was easy, knowing when you were moving it wasn't. Fire was a sword in his hands. Water was - damn, Uncle could always find the right words, why couldn't he?
Frustration curled his hand in a snap of motion. Water twisted with it, over and over, the curl tightening until it collapsed in on itself and splashed back into the pitcher.
Like a net for an octopus.
Staring at rippling water, Zuko considered that thought. Three years on a ship. He'd caught his own baitfish plenty of times. Using a net… and a flow of motion, that echoed what he'd seen of Katara's bending.
See your target. He marked a spot in midair. Arrange the folds. One hand to grip gently, the other poised to fling-
Coolness swept over his skin, and he almost dropped it all.
Hold! Don't look at - at the net. Look at the target. Just hold. And wait.
All the while feeling hands that were and weren't wet. Spirits, this was weird.
And throw. With the little half-twist at the end that took forever to master, just enough torque to fling weighted edges wide over the unsuspecting school-
Water snapped around air like a jeweled flytrap, dragging a clear bubble back with a tug of his hands.
It worked? Incredulous, Zuko cupped the bubble in one hand, and poked it with a finger. Wet, and then dry; he'd caught his target, even if it had only been-
Splash.
Wiping droplets off his face, Zuko sighed. And started carefully sweeping his hands to gather the puddle off the floor. This is going to take some work.
An hour later, he guided a globe of dirty water into the sink, and let it flow away. Crept back into his own room, silently sliding the screen closed, and collapsed.
Got it. I think.
Water was different. Slower. Not as sharp as the motions you had to make with fire.
Like trying to write backwards.
His eyes snapped open in the darkness. Backwards? Or left-handed?
The rhythm's different. Push and pull, not a heartbeat. But they both flow. Water, and the fire outside.
I can do this.
And if he could make waterbending work… then maybe, just maybe, Uncle wasn't chasing flying pigs after all.
Don't try to find a place for our people. There isn't one. Anywhere.
So we have to make one.
Oh boy. This was going to be a lot more complicated than ambushing Azula and living to tell about it.
I need to make notes. A lot of notes.
…Starting tomorrow.
He was asleep almost before he finished pulling the covers up.
------
A/N: Some of you have asked about Sozin's style of firebending, and why Zuko has such a problem with it. Here's a few plotholes for your enjoyment. Warning, some of these are spoilers....
At one point in the Avatar canon, we see an unnamed Fire Nation Avatar, in the past, summoning volcanoes to erupt. Which implies he could stop them, one hopes. We also see Kyoshi work with lava when she splits Kyoshi Island off from the mainland.
And yet Roku not only doesn't know his island is going to erupt, he gets killed by it.
Sometime between Kyoshi and Roku, a critical part of firebending must have been lost.
Combine that with the creators' statement that "Fire Lord" used to mean just the head Fire Sage. But by Sozin's time it obviously doesn't; he's the crown prince, and it's hereditary. And, when he's helping Roku with the volcano, he does not bend the lava - he bends the heat out of it to cool it.
Add to that the fact that Kyoshi created the Dai Li. And that she was Avatar for over two centuries. What else did she do?
Some answers will turn up in later chapters. To put it shortly - in this AU, the "darkest day in Fire Nation history" was during an eclipse. But the eclipse itself was the least of their problems.
As for why Zuko has problems? Remember what Iroh said a few chapters back. Zuko handles energy in a way most firebenders just don't. Not for a very long time.