Ozai's Vengeance

Chapter 10

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Summary: Twelve years after the final battle, Zuko summons Katara to heal an epidemic sweeping the Fire Nation.

Disclaimer: ATLA belongs to Nickelodeon and Viacom. No profit is made by this story.

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Zuko threw himself into the work of being a Fire Lord. He recognized in himself a remarkable skill for self-deception -- that much had not changed in twelve years -- and used that skill to accomplish his tasks more efficiently. His secretaries skittered all over the palace organizing the details for Sokka and Suki's arrival, answering letters, scheduling diplomatic visits, and reviewing reports from ambassadors and trade guilds and mining camps. At times like this, Zuko thought of the Fire Nation as a person he could learn to understand if he simply read enough. He used each piece of data to assemble a larger picture of the country he'd come to rule. The more he learned, the more detailed that picture became. And focusing on those details meant he had very little time to dwell on the hollow pit slowly expanding from his gut to his heart.

He skipped breakfast, proceeded directly into firebending practice -- his trainers wondered aloud what had happened, where his control had gone and what ferocity had replaced it -- and worked his staff to the bone until a late lunch. Afterward, they worked through until dinner -- which he missed -- and he visited the family hot spring with a bottle of ryu-nyuu and some re-drawn maps.

So it was here that Toph found him, torchlight blocking out the moon's silver rays, sulfurous water steaming around him, and his head fuzzy with alcohol. He watched her pick her way around the pools until she found his. Without asking, she dropped to the ground and stuck her dirty feet into the water near his shoulder.

"So," she said, "you wanna talk about it?"

He grabbed the dragon-shaped bottle of ryu-nyuu and took a swig. It was his father's private reserve. Zuko had yet to commission a batch for himself. Most Fire Lords did not do so until their betrothal. The liquor had a tingling sweetness like fermented milk with a spicy wash that caused his eyes to water. He sighed and fire appeared at his lips.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Quit lying, Sparky."

"Which it would you like to talk about, Toph? The fact that my country has no money? The fact that a simple mistake caused the deaths of who knows how many innocent vill-"

"You and Katara," Toph said, kicking the water. "You two aren't sleeping together any more."

Zuko almost laughed. That's what you get for trying to deceive the Blind Bandit, Zu-Zu. "What ever gave you that impression?"

"You smell different. For the past few days, you've smelled the same. You used the same soap." She nudged him with one toe. "You're not too good at this whole secret affair thing, are you?"

Zuko sank down into the water. "It's none of your business."

"I can feel your heartbeat, you know."

"Well it's lucky you can't read my thoughts, then."

Toph grabbed the ryu-nyuu and took a sip. She winced and coughed. "I forgot how strong that stuff is," she said. She cleared her throat. "I don't have to read your thoughts, Sparky. I know what you're thinking already."

"Then why are you here?"

Toph tilted her head. "That's a good point. You're being a jerk. Ling's waiting for me, and she'll make it worth my while if I hurry."

"So maybe you should just go."

Toph snorted. "Too bad I already promised Ling I'd stay." She took another drink, pounded her chest, and coughed. "At least until you get out of that water and quit feeling sorry for yourself."

"I don't plan my evenings around dirty earthbenders."

With unerring accuracy, Toph withdrew one dripping foot and kicked the back of Zuko's head. His vision blurred as she did. Must have drank more than I thought. "Shut up, Sparky. I'm doing the best I can. You're lucky I don't just bend you out of this pool and send you flying."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Don't tempt me, Fire Lord. I'll kick your royal butt if I want to." She rested one foot on his shoulder. "I've never been good at motivational speeches. And I've been running short on inspiration since Aang died."

Something pricked at Zuko's eyes and he blinked it away. "I understand."

"You said some really beautiful things, that day. When you eulogized him, I mean."

"I didn't do him justice."

"None of us did, Sparky." Toph handed him the bottle and Zuko took a swig. "I don't know why it's still so hard," she was saying. "I still keep expecting to hear his footsteps."

"It was only two years ago. Two years isn't very long."

"It is when you're mourning." Toph leaned over and rested her elbows on her knees. She brought both feet back into the water and drummed her heels along the basalt of the pool. "I'd been in love with Ling for a long time, you know? But I didn't do anything about it until after Aang died." She shrugged. "Life's too short."

Zuko turned to her. Toph's long bangs hid her sightless eyes. He thought he saw a faint blush, but it may have been the firelight or the steam. "I can't be with Katara," he said.

"But you love her."

The pit inside him widened a little. "She doesn't love me."

"Then she's stupid. But she's always been stupid. You loved her back then and she had no idea. That's pretty dumb, if you ask me."

Zuko splashed water over his tingling face. It helped the conversation seem more real. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew. I'm a blind earthbender, not a complete moron. You sent out enough vibrations to scare away half the cave-hoppers in the area."

Zuko resisted the urge to sink even further into the water. Instead, he took another drink, then sent a blast of fire away from his mouth. "I suppose I should thank you for not saying anything."

"Don't bother. I would have held it over you sooner or later." She took the bottle from him and drank. "So what happened this time?"

"Which time?"

"This time. Last time she married Aang. What was it this time?"

It was on the tip of his tongue to explain it all. But then he remembered Katara's naked body sitting in his chair, the utterly comfortable and intimate way she'd sprawled over his furniture, and his lips clamped shut. "It's private."

"Must be. Your heart's leaping around like a rabbaroo."

"None of it matters now. It's over. We're done."

"Oh yeah. There's the Zuko we all know and love. The guy who has no trouble letting go."

Zuko turned in the water. "I don't have to explain myself to you. This isn't your business. It's over. There's nothing more for you to worry about. I won't be defiling your precious Sugar Queen any longer."

Toph sighed and disturbed her bangs. She shook her head. "I hate to say it, Sparky, but Katara's needed a good defiling for years now."

Zuko blinked. He sat up in the water and reached for a towel. "We're not having this conversation."

"What? I'm no girly-girl, but I know what girls like." She winked.

Zuko stood up and toweled off. "I refuse to discuss this with the little girl I taught to swim."

"Come on, you and Azula never had any midnight chats about Mai?"

Fire streamed from his mouth: "Leave Mai out of it!"

Despite the proximity of flames to her hair, Toph's face remained impassive. "So. You're still all worked up about that, huh?"

Zuko climbed out of the hot spring and pulled on a caftan. He picked up the bottle. "We're leaving."

"Must be tough, having all the women in your life just die on you like that."

He balled his fists. He took deep breaths to master himself. Toph continued to face away from him. At this range, he could hit her or kick her or aim some fire her way, and she wouldn't be able to protect herself. In the twelve years since the war he had not truly looked at her -- not at the yearly war memorial gathering or any of the festivals or dinners Iroh invited her to -- and for the first time, he saw age in her face. Her posture and bearing were the same as those of the child he once knew: graceless, intractable, unyielding. But now he saw the first lines under her eyes. His own age washed over him and with it Katara's words and all that had happened between them.

Stop being a child. You're not a prince, you're a Fire Lord. Your life is no longer your own. He straightened and squared his shoulders. The ryu-nyuu in his belly kept his brow sweating. "I'm going to bed."

"See you tomorrow, Sparky."

He had already begun walking. "No, you won't. I have an audience tomorrow."

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The Society for Justice in Learning made several good points. They took great pains to explain each of their charts and graphs so that even the simplest child could understand their import. They read testimonials aloud from parents and children who pleaded for schools and training facilities. They drew a line from the war to the recession to the population boom to the current crime rate. They drew it so clearly that Zuko felt like crawling into a hole when he realized that he still needed to reject the Society's proposal.

Then Katara entered the room, and things got worse.

"So what you're saying is that there are now more Fire Nation boys than ever before, and that even though the Fire Nation Academy for Girls is still in working order, male firebenders don't have somewhere to train?"

The Society representative, a courtly gentleman named Yun-Zi with an elegant walking stick, smiled at Katara. "Yes, my Lady. That is exactly what I am saying."

"And these kids, instead of attending school, they're just sitting around playing Hide And Explode?"

"The schools are overloaded, my Lady. For the past one hundred years, boys above the age of fourteen were sent for military training. With the cuts in defense spending, we now have no infrastructure to handle the sudden arrival of so many leftover boys."

Zuko pointedly ignored Katara. His mind had the strangest habit of undressing her. "The war is over, and the Fire Nation has no further need to tax its people into poverty so that our sons can be forged into weapons," Zuko said, directing his gaze at Yun-Zi. "Those cuts in military spending allow our people to keep more of the money they work so hard to earn. Would you prefer I re-introduce the taxes?"

"Yes," Yun-Zi answered, blinking. He nodded and lifted his walking stick to tap it on the floor. It made a dry, ringing sound on the marble. "Of course, I would prefer the money be directed to education, but I consider it no great sacrifice to reach into my pockets and give the children of my nation the means with which to better themselves." He arched one white eyebrow. "Perhaps others in this nation think differently."

"Others who are idiots, you mean," Katara said under her breath.

Zuko turned to her. He spoke in an under-tone. "I don't recall summoning you."

"You didn't. Your uncle did. He said you could use some experience in the room."

Zuko said a silent prayer that Yun-Zi and his attendants hadn't heard that. He leaned closer. "Experience?"

Her eyes met his. "In case you've forgotten, I've been running a school for the past few years. I know what these kids need. And Yun-Zi is absolutely right: they need a safe place to learn before they turn into roving bands of thugs." Zuko opened his mouth, but Katara turned away before he could speak. She leaned forward in her seat and looked at Yun-Zi. "How many of the students you surveyed are orphans?"

Yun-Zi sighed. "Too many, my Lady." He shrugged. "Sadly, not enough of them have the means to transport themselves to your orphanage, and the war destroyed their extended families. Many of them begin working for a living before they're twelve."

So did Toph, said a voice in Zuko's mind that sounded suspiciously like Mai. Zuko dismissed the thought as petty: Toph was special, like Aang or Azula. Toph had grabbed adulthood by the forepaws and refused to let go. Other children -- children who weren't bending prodigies -- likely wanted something different. He had wanted something different.

He drew breath to speak. "Nevertheless-"

"I don't believe you," Katara hissed. "How can you say no to a bunch of orphans? All they want is an education. What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me is that you're undermining me in front of my people," Zuko said. "I don't need you here. Get out."

Katara flinched. She drew away and stumbled a little moving backward. On his left side, Zuko heard curtains rustle. "Am I interrupting?"

He turned. A slender, lanky boy with silky black hair stood before him. Soft eyes hovered above a chin sharp as an arrowhead. The boy smiled minutely with only one corner of his mouth. A needling pain twisted inside Zuko's chest. For a moment he forgot to breathe.

"Tom-Tom," he said.

"My Lord," Mai's little brother said, beginning to bow.

"Get up," Zuko said, and left the dais. "You don't have to bow to me."

"But I'm a supplicant," Tom-Tom said as Zuko descended the steps. "I'm here with the Society."

Zuko blinked. He gestured at Yun-Zi, who smiled behind his sun-spotted hand. "This Society?"

"I'm in need of a good education," Tom-Tom said. "It seems my parents don't know how to do anything but govern Omashu, and they failed at that twelve years ago."

"Wait," Katara said behind them. Zuko turned and saw her stand. She hurried down the steps. "Your parents were the governors of Omashu back then?"

"My father, my Lady," Tom-Tom said, bowing. Before he could complete the motion, Katara had him in her arms. Tom-Tom patted her back stiffly, staring at Zuko over her shoulder. Zuko shrugged.

Katara pulled away. "I've always wondered what happened to you!"

"My reputation precedes me," Tom-Tom said.

"I know you won't remember me, but I took care of you when you were little," Katara said. "Your parents told you about the penta-pox, right? And how they almost traded King Bumi to the people of the Earth Kingdom just to get you back?"

Tom-Tom rolled his eyes. "Oh, yes. That."

"Well, when you were with those Earth Kingdom rebels, so was I. Well, so were we. The Avatar carried you in his arms, you know."

Tom-Tom blinked. A hint of color showed in his face. "He… He did?"

"Yes. And I looked after you. I fed you and changed you and-"

The boy threw up his hands, his color deepening and his gaze hitting the floor. "Please. Spare me."

Katara embraced him anew. "You sound just like your sister."

"That's…nice," Tom-Tom said, his voice muffled in Katara's shoulder. "Can you let go, now?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Katara reached out to tidy the boy's hair. Tom-Tom neatly sidestepped her and tidied it himself. He gave Katara one nervous glance before speaking. When he did, his voice carried only a hint of his sister's husky rasp, and the way he held his shoulders told Zuko he spoke from memory:

"I'm here to speak on behalf of students like myself born during the war. Yun-Zi is right. We need a proper education. But like Yun-Zi, I've looked at the numbers. I know the national coffers can't afford an undertaking like this one without re-introducing unpopular taxes and eroding public goodwill, especially when the Fire Lord has made it a priority to fund other projects." His eyes slid over to Katara. The orphanage. He's going to ask me to- "Choose, Fire Lord Zuko. You must choose a new priority. You have supported the Southern Air Temple for long enough. You cannot do so indefinitely at the expense of your own people. The children of the Fire Nation need you." Tom-Tom drew himself to his full height. Like his sister before him, he was tall and thin for his age, all planes and edges. Zuko's heart squeezed. Don't ask me to do this. "Will you turn your back on your own people?"

Silence reigned. Zuko felt Katara's eyes on him, heard her indignant breath in her throat. Funny, how she could attack him so fiercely one moment and itch to defend him in the next. "I will never turn my back on people who need me," Zuko said. He swallowed. "That includes the orphans this nation left behind."

To his left, Katara let go of a breath he'd had no idea she was holding. Did she think I'd discontinue funding because we no longer share a bed? Does she need the money that badly? Who does she think I am?

"I see you have made your decision," Tom-Tom said, his eyes flicking between them. "Then I must ask you one favor."

"If you want a teacher-"

"I want an Agni Kai."

It was as though the floor had opened beneath him. Zuko looked quickly at Yun-Zi, but the old man shook his head emphatically -- he appeared as surprised as Zuko felt. Zuko's gaze landed on Tom-Tom. Did I look this way at his age? Did I look this small, when I accepted the challenge? Something inside Zuko cracked. "No! I will not!"

"It is my right," Tom-Tom said. His voice sounded too much like Mai's now: too deep, too tired, too bemused by Zuko's failings. "You have denied me that which is rightfully mine. You have insulted my honor by favoring the needs of foreign orphans over mine and the Fire Nation's."

"How dare you?" Katara asked. "Zuko would give anything for his people, you have no-"

"You'll forgive me for saying so, my Lady, but you have a vested interest in keeping that orphanage alive," Tom-Tom said, folding his arms. "That money the Fire Lord sends you-"

"Is my money to spend any way I like," Zuko said. "You have no right to tell me how to invest it, Tom-Tom. You're a bright boy and a credit to your family. Mai -- your sister -- would be very proud of you." And especially proud of how you've outmaneuvered me. "But if I want to spend my money on…on ruby encrusted monkeys, I will! The money I spend on the Southern Air Temple comes from my private holdings."

"Which are depleted," Tom-Tom said, his half-smile becoming a smirk. "You have nothing left."

Katara's mouth fell open. "Zuko, is that true?"

"Yes," Tom-Tom said.

"No," Zuko said.

Tom-Tom's lip twitched. "You'll never sell your mother's property on the peninsula," he said. "It's the last thing you have left of her."

Zuko moved one hand to cover his eyes. He understood Iroh's meddling. He could have handled Katara's insistence on offering her expertise, Yun-Zi's making him feel like a tyrant for denying his country what was so plainly necessary, and Toph's mocking words echoing through the spicy haze of his post-drink mind. But Tom-Tom appearing in this room and demanding an Agni Kai and reminding him of his every failure and looking just like the heir he might have had if he and Mai had been just a little less careful… And if Mai had been just a little slower, and if Azula hadn't reached inside her with a hand made of lightning. If you hadn't endangered her. If you hadn't let her die. If you had followed Azula's plan instead.

"Tomorrow," he said. "Dawn."