Chapter 11: Parting Ways


As Rinzen reached the armory, she could see Sokka sullenly sharpening a spear and looking distinctly put out, clearly irritated that he wasn't with the other Water Tribe warriors.

"Hey," she said as she entered and he looked up, startled.

"Rin!" He got to his feet, abandoning the spear in favor of approaching her instead. "How'd you get here? Where's Zuko?" He peered over her shoulder as if expecting to see Zuko hiding behind her.

"Would you believe our ship exploded?" she answered wryly and Sokka's eyebrows shot up. "No, seriously. Zhao tried to have me and Zuko killed. We both got out safe and stowed away on his ship to get here."

"Well, that explains the scar," Sokka said, nodding to her forehead, and she rubbed at the thin scar self-consciously.

"Is it that noticeable?"

Sokka ignored her, prompting, "So Zuko's here, too?"

"Yeah. I already told Aang and Katara to watch out for him, but I don't know if Zuko knows where they are," she answered. "Princess Yue's taken them to the Spirit Oasis and-" She broke off at the sight of the immediate red tint that spread across Sokka's cheeks. "Oh, for spirits' sake," she sighed wearily. "If you can't even take the mention of her name, you must be really into her."

"Have you seen her?" Sokka demanded. "Of course I am!"

"Well, good news, buddy, she's really into you, too," she reassured him and he visibly perked up.

"Really? What did she say? How did she look when she was talking about me, happy or annoyed?"

Rinzen rolled her eyes, deciding not to answer him and instead continuing, "Anyway, they're at the Oasis now. With luck, Zuko won't figure out that's where Aang is, but I thought I'd come get you so we could all keep watch over Aang just in case."

Sokka nodded, going back to his bench to retrieve the spear he had set aside. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Chief Arnook wanted me to protect Yue, anyway." He patted the sheath on his back where his boomerang was secured before leading the way out of the armory and down the hall. "So, seriously, Zhao tried to have Zuko killed?"

"Yeah, shockingly, not everybody in the Fire Nation is conspiring together against us," Rinzen answered dryly as she followed him. "Besides, something's different about Zuko these days. He's not as...y'know. Obsessed with capturing Aang."

"Yeah? Then what do you think he's doing here?" Sokka asked, frowning as he glanced back at her.

She chewed her lip before admitting, "I don't know, but I guess I'm hoping he'll change his mind. Or change sides. Or something."

"Yeah, well, just don't get your hopes up," Sokka warned her as they rounded the corner to leave the building. "Just because you spent a lot of time with him, doesn't mean he's a different guy than he was before."

Rinzen pursed her lips, unsure whether that was the case or not, but before she could say anything to protest, she and Sokka turned the corner and nearly ran right into Yue.

"Oh, hey, we were just coming to meet you-" She broke off at the panicked look on Yue's face. "What's wrong?" she demanded, her heart immediately stuttering slightly in her chest at the thought that something must have happened to Aang and Katara.

"It's Zuko," Yue answered immediately, biting her lip anxiously. "He arrived at the Oasis and Katara was holding him off, but-"

Rinzen didn't hear the rest of her sentence, taking off at a run towards the Spirit Oasis and skidding around the corners to get there faster. Sokka and Yue were quick to follow, racing after her, but the only thing they found when they arrived at the lush green plot of land was Katara unconscious on the ground and Aang and Zuko nowhere in sight.

She stirred as they approached, taking a moment to collect herself before bolting upright when she realized what had happened.

"Oh, no," she moaned in despair, clutching her head even as the flying lemur Rinzen had seen plenty of times before - Momo - curled up in her lap, chittering anxiously. "Zuko took him. I couldn't stop him."

"It's not your fault," Rinzen reassured her, despite her own heart pounding rapidly with panic. She could see how terrible Katara clearly felt over losing Aang to Zuko and knew there was no point in getting irrationally angry at her. She studied the steep walls surrounding the Spirit Oasis, chewing her lip worriedly. "What's up there?" she asked, glancing at Yue.

"Nothing but ice and snow," the princess admitted. "They wouldn't last a day up there, if that's where Zuko took him."

"They would've been spotted if Zuko took him through the city," Sokka pointed out as Katara set Momo on the grass and got to her feet. "He had to have gone up to the tundra. We can get Appa and catch up to them."

Feeling a spark of hope, Rinzen followed him, Yue, and Katara back out of the Oasis and through the city to the stables where Appa was being held. The bison was already shuffling anxiously when they arrived, clearly aware that his owner was in peril. Rinzen patted his nose soothingly before climbing aboard his saddle.

"I know, buddy, I'm worried about him too," she crooned as she settled on top of Appa's head, picking up the reins and snapping them gently. "Yip-yip!"

It felt good to lift off into the air after months of being grounded, the wind ruffling her short hair as they sailed over the confines of the city walls and up to the icy tundra over the Spirit Oasis. The moment they passed into the tundra, the icy winds nearly knocked Appa off his course, but Rinzen held him steady so that he would obediently push on through the blizzard as they all scanned the snowy ground for any sight of movement.

What felt like hours passed by before Rinzen finally spotted movement near the mouth of a cave, a tiny orange-red light flickering inside and an even smaller orange-yellow being running out of the cave.

"It's Aang!" she called over her shoulder, directing Appa downwards even as Sokka and Katara got to their feet, already prepared to fight. As they landed, Aang spotted them and hurried through the wind and snow towards them, struggling to move due to his hands and feet being tied with rope.

Zuko hurried out of the cave after Aang, spotting Katara and sneering instinctively at her. "Ready for a rematch?"

Katara's expression was stony as she replied, "Trust me. It won't be much of a match." With just a flick of her wrist, the snow beneath Zuko lifted him up before slamming him down into the ground again, knocking him unconscious.

"Hey, this is some quality rope," Sokka said as he untied Aang's ropes, delighted, and Rinzen rolled her eyes.

"Priorities," she scolded even as she helped Aang to his feet and then tugged him into a tight embrace. "Are you okay?" she asked softly and he nodded against her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm okay." He pulled back slightly to smile back up at her, relieved. "I knew you'd come for me." Katara and Sokka had already climbed onto Appa again and as Rinzen let go of Aang reluctantly, she glanced back at Zuko laying unconscious in the snow. As if reading her mind, Aang blurted out, "We can't leave him, he'll die up here."

With a loud sigh, Sokka tossed down the ropes he had pilfered and Rinzen caught them, moving to tie Zuko's hands and feet before dragging him up into the saddle. It was likely he would burn them off if he woke up, but it was better to play it safe while he was unconscious. Once Aang was settled at the reins again, he snapped them, calling, "Appa, yip-yip!" Just like that, they were airborne again, Rinzen relaxing back in the saddle now that she knew Aang was safe - and secretly, she was a little relieved that Zuko was safe, too.


"Zhao wants to kill the Moon Spirit," Aang said as they flew back to the Oasis, breaking the tense silence that had fallen on the journey there.

"The Moon Spirit?" Katara echoed, bewildered. "But that means we can't waterbend!"

"I know." Aang's expression was grimmer than Rinzen had ever seen it and she wondered just how much pain and torment her brother had been through while she hadn't been there to protect him. "The koi fish in the pond, they're the Moon and Ocean Spirits. If Zhao kills either of them, it'll throw the whole world out of balance."

As if to punctuate his words, a dark haze settled over the full moon above them, turning the whole world around them a hellish red. Both Yue and Aang clutched at their heads, groaning softly.

"What happened?" Sokka demanded, wrapping his arm around Yue's shoulders.

"I feel weak," Yue admitted, leaning into his embrace.

"So do I," Aang added as Rinzen slid down to settle on Appa's head beside him and wrapped an arm around him to hold him close.

"I get why Aang's affected by the Moon Spirit, but why you?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at Yue.

"When I was born, my eyes were closed and I was silent. The healers did everything they could, but they couldn't wake me up and told my parents I was going to die," Yue explained, "My parents prayed to the Moon Spirit to give me life and bathed me in the water at the Oasis. The Moon Spirit gave me some of its own life. My hair turned white, and I opened my eyes and began to cry. That's why my mother named me Yue, for the moon."

Rinzen tried not to think about what that meant if the Moon Spirit was dying or was already dead, a chill going down her spine as Aang directed Appa to land down in the Oasis. To her horror, Zhao was already there with a number of his troops, holding a wriggling bag that clearly contained one of the koi fish. The other fish was frantically swimming around in the pond at Zhao's feet, splashing erratically. If the fish had a voice, Rinzen thought as Appa silently landed on the grass, it'd be screaming.

"They'll call me Zhao the Moon-Slayer," Zhao said proudly to his men, "Zhao the Conqueror! Zhao the Invincible!" His boasts were undermined by Momo suddenly jumping off Aang's shoulder where he had settled as soon as they had landed and leaping at Zhao, scratching with his tiny claws at the man's face. Zhao grabbed him, throwing him aside, and noticed Appa with everyone on board, promptly lighting his fist on fire and preparing to burn the bag in his grasp.

"Zhao, don't!" Aang pleaded, sliding off Appa's back onto the ground. "Destroying the moon won't hurt just the Water Tribe. It'll hurt everyone, including you. Without the moon, everything would fall out of balance. You have no idea what kind of chaos that would unleash on the world." If Rinzen wasn't so afraid of what would happen, she would have wondered how her little brother had become so mature.

"He is right, Zhao." Never had Rinzen been more relieved to see Iroh entering the Oasis, stripping off the hood that had concealed his face.

"General Iroh," Zhao sneered, "Why am I not surprised to see this treachery?"

"I'm no traitor, Zhao, the Fire Nation needs the moon, too. We all depend on the balance," Iroh answered firmly. His expression hardened in a way Rinzen had never seen before and she suddenly knew why he was called the Dragon of the West. "Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you ten-fold. Let it go, now!"

Slowly, Zhao knelt down, releasing the fish back into the pond. The little white koi fish rejoined the black koi fish, both beginning to circle each other serenely as they had been before. Rinzen couldn't believe it had been that easy as Zhao straightened, but then recoiled in shock as he threw a blast of fire into the water with an angry yell, burning and killing the Moon Spirit. Instantly, the world changed from red to a lifeless gray, all color bleeding out from their surroundings as the moon turned black and left an empty void in the sky. The warmth of the Oasis vanished, too, leaving Rinzen feeling just as cold as she had in the tundra.

Her eyes were on the dark sky above, as were her companions', until she felt the flare of heat as Iroh sprang forward to attach Zhao and his men with a rage she had never seen him exhibit before. The soldiers were easily defeated, but Zhao escaped in the skirmish, disappearing before Rinzen could determine where he had gone. The anger drained slowly out of Iroh's expression as he approached the pond to scoop up the dead koi fish mournfully. Rinzen and the others slipped off Appa's saddle to join him at the edge of the pond, surveying the damage miserably.

"There's no hope now," Yue said bleakly as she knelt beside Iroh. "It's over."

All was silent for a moment, everyone staring at the dead fish, before Aang's sudden voice broke the silence, echoing with centuries of power, "No. It's not over."

Rinzen looked up to see his eyes glowing white and his expression cold and furious as he stepped into the water, mysteriously making no ripples in the pond. The Ocean Spirit slowed its erratic swimming to stop in front of Aang, gazing up at him as its eyes slowly began to glow white as well. As if an underwater current had sucked him in, Aang suddenly disappeared into the water and a bright blue light spread through the pond and out across the Oasis into the city's canals. Everyone looked up to see a giant creature vaguely resembling a fish and made of the same blue light emerging out of the water and slowly making its way into the city, Aang in the center of its chest and controlling it.

Rinzen clambered up into Appa's saddle to try to see Aang better, but the Ocean Spirit - for that was what it must have been - had already gone too far for her to spot her brother. She sighed, sinking into the saddle and chewing her lip worriedly as she studied everyone gathering around the dead Moon Spirit again, before realizing that the ropes behind her were empty, some of the ends burnt away.

"Damn it," she muttered, sliding down from the saddle and doing her best to quietly get out of the Oasis without being spotted. If she could catch Zuko again, she wouldn't have to worry the others when they were already feeling hopeless about the Moon Spirit's death.

As she escaped the Oasis unnoticed, she slid down a broken pillar of ice, clearly having been damaged by the battle raging in the city. She could see Aang and the Ocean Spirit in the distance, waving their large amorphous hands and wiping away lines and lines of Fire Nation soldiers. She tried not to think about all the lives that would be lost and how Aang would feel when he came back to himself as she hurried along the icy paths, trying to spot any sign of Zuko or Zhao.

To her surprise and luck, she found both of them fighting on a bridge, exchanging blasts of fire left and right. As she hurried down to the bridge, Zuko knocked Zhao down just as the world burst into color again, everything no longer gray or red, but a dim pleasant blue.

She looked up to see the moon back in its place against the starry sky, and before she could wonder how that had happened, her attention diverted as Zhao shouted, "It can't be!" Even as he stared up at the moon incredulously, a mass of blue energy slid down the canal below them, forming into the shape of a hand and reaching decisively for Zhao to scoop him up.

To Rinzen's surprise, Zuko climbed up onto the ledge of the bridge, reaching out his hand. "Grab my hand!" he called to Zhao, who instinctively reached out before then retracting it, his expression steeling over as the hand dragged him down into the murky depths of the water below. Rinzen closed the gap between herself and Zuko as the prince climbed back onto the bridge, noticing her presence there and tensing marginally. She couldn't blame him for being nervous of her reaction; he had tried to kidnap her brother yet again.

"You okay?" she asked quietly and the question clearly took him off-guard as he blinked.

"I, uh...yeah. I'm okay." They both turned their gaze upwards almost simultaneously to gaze up at the full moon illuminating the city around them as if it had never vanished. "What do you think happened to bring it back?" The quiet wonder in Zuko's voice took Rinzen by surprise as she shook her head.

"I don't know." Instinctively, her hand slipped into his and he started a little before clutching her hand in return, squeezing it tightly as if to ground himself back to reality. Distantly, Rinzen noticed that the Ocean Spirit had vanished back into the depths of the water and hoped that it had left Aang somewhere safe.

"You should go," Zuko said abruptly and she blinked, looking back up at him in confusion.

"Go?" she echoed, bewildered, and he nodded over her shoulder. She then registered Katara's voice calling her name, clearly searching for her. She flushed slightly, her cheeks warming with embarrassment. "Oh. I...yeah. I should go." She released Zuko's hand, almost wishing she hadn't the moment his warm palm left hers. "What're you going to do?"

Zuko shrugged slightly. "Find my uncle, get out of the city. See what happens from there. We're apparently traitors now."

"So you're gonna stop hunting my brother, then?" Rinzen couldn't help a tiny grin as he leveled a sour look at her.

"I never said that," he muttered, but she could see the wry smile tugging at his lips.

"Be careful," she answered sincerely instead of calling him out on it, moving forward again to slip her arms around him. He froze briefly before awkwardly bringing his hand down to pat her back gently.

"You, too." Rinzen reluctantly let go, moving back a few steps before Zuko blurted out, "Maybe we'll see each other again." He clearly hadn't meant to say it, because his cheeks flushed the moment the words came out.

Rinzen couldn't help a smile in return. "I'd like that," she admitted. She wanted to tell him how he was her first friend who hadn't been Aang's friend first, how grateful she was for all the times he had saved her life and been kind to her, but the moment was gone, and Katara's calling became more insistent and worried. She settled for a quick "Bye" and turned to hurry back along the path to the Oasis.

When she looked back impulsively, Zuko was gone, no trace of him left on the icy bridge where they had parted ways.


"Did you find Zuko?" Katara asked Rinzen as they sat on the edge of the palace ledge together the next day, swinging their legs as they waited for Aang and Sokka to join them. They could survey the damage done to the city easily from there, some of the buildings still smoking and smoldering while other ice structures had completely been destroyed or melted away.

"No, he got away before I could find him," Rinzen lied, deciding that it was too personal to tell Katara the truth. "But I have a feeling we won't have to worry about him for a while."

Katara nodded decisively. "Good. We don't need him on our tail again." She squeezed Rinzen's shoulder gently. "It's good to have you with us again. Aang's really been worried sick all this time."

"I won't leave him again," Rinzen promised, smiling faintly back at her. "You guys are stuck with me."

Katara's smile was a little teasing now as she nudged their shoulders together. "Well, hey, there's plenty of room on Appa's saddle."

"There'd better be, I'm the one who made that saddle," Rinzen deadpanned, earning laughter from the other girl as Aang landed behind them on his glider. Rinzen decided there was no point feeling a pang of loss over her own staff as she got to her feet, moving to wrap her brother in a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you," she murmured against his shoulder as he clutched her back, his smile evident even as he pressed his face into her neck.

"You're staying this time, right?" He pulled back to study her expression, clearly trying to find some kind of reservation in her face, but she only smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, kiddo, I'm staying. I'm not leaving you ever again." Aang relaxed fully at that, hugging her again tightly. "So where to next?" Rinzen asked as she finally let go, still holding onto Aang's shoulder. It felt good to have her little brother close again and safe where she could keep watch over him.

"We have to go to the Earth Kingdom and find Aang an earthbending teacher," Katara explained as Sokka joined them, a somber expression on his face that hadn't changed since Yue had given her life up to become the new Moon Spirit. "In the meantime, I can finish his training in waterbending."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's hope we don't get chased across the world again this time." As the others laughed, Rinzen wondered if Zuko would really end up back on their trail again, hunting Aang down. She hoped not, but at the same time, she couldn't help but hope that she would see him again, at least for a moment.


Aaaand that's Book 1 done!

I'm still debating whether I should go through most of Book 2 or just have a giant time-skip to the second half when they reach Ba Sing Se, as that's where it mainly will diverge from the canon, so I'll leave it up to you guys to decide. If I go through all of Book 2, the first half is just going to be pretty much a recap with just a few more lines thrown in from Rinzen, which wouldn't really be fun to either write on my part or read on your part. Let me know what you think!

I'm super sorry for the delay, life got in the way and hit me in the face with a huge writer's block-shaped shovel. ^^' Hope you enjoy this chapter!