Aang lay on his back and watched the stars winking at him for a moment before rolling over and closing his eyes, a slight smile tweaking the corners of his mouth. He finally had a teacher. An Earthbending teacher. The best teacher in the whole entire world: Toph Bei Fong. An Earthbender so powerful, she could "see" with her feet!
Now if he could just stop Toph and Katara from going at each other's throats, he might actually learn Earthbending. True, Katara had spats with Sokka occasionally but this was a bit- scarier.
Plus there was something following them and no one could get any sleep.
As if reading his thoughts, Toph's voice broke the silence.
"That thing is back!"
Sokka groaned. "Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes for just a few minutes."
A plume of smoke bloomed over the horizon.
"I don't think so, Sokka," Aang replied, throwing Appa's saddle onto the sleeping bison's back. Appa groaned.
High the air, the four children slumped in the saddle, exhausted.
"Seriously, what is that thing?" Katara mumbled.
"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph added.
Aang flicked the reins over Appa's head. "I don't know, but this time I'm gonna make sure we lose 'em."
Sokka gazed blearily over the edge of the saddle.
"Mebbe is Zuko," he slurred.
Katara gave him a dirty look.
"That's absurd and impossible. It's not Zuko."
Toph raised an eyebrow. "Who's Zuko?"
"Angry freak with a ponytail," Sokka mumbled, burying his face into his rolled sleeping bag.
Katara made an exasperated sound in the back of her throat.
"Sokka, he doesn't have a ponytail anymore. Chief Arnook cut it off."
"Oh, yeah,"
"Besides, he's locked up."
Sokka raised his head to look at her. "Maybe he got away."
"And now he has crazy funding and some kind of monster machine and all kinds of support from the Fire Nation Military? I don't think so."
Toph turned away and leaned over the front of the saddle. Sokka and Katara continued to bicker.
"So, who's this guy, exactly?"
Aang turned around halfway to reply.
"Well, technically he's the Prince of the Fire Nation. Or at least, he was. He got in trouble somehow. I'm not actually too clear on that point, but the part you should probably understand is that he was kind of tracking us all over the world. Until we got to the North Pole, and he got caught. We left him with General Fong."
"You want to run that by me again, Twinkletoes?"
"He's the Firelord's son, he's trying to catch me as punishment-"
"Not that. The part with the General."
"Oh. Well, we couldn't drag him with us-"
"No, what I'm having trouble with is that earlier today Katara was trying to fill me in, before she got all cranky, and she said some crazy General buried her alive so you'd go into the Avatar State."
"Yeah…"
"Same General?"
"Yeesss…"
"You left a prisoner of war with a psychopathic meathead?"
Aang turned to face forward again as it finally hit him that he had, in fact, done just that. Hit him with the force of a barn sour ostrich-horse kicking him in the gut.
I left Zuko with a psychopathic meathead.
"We have to go back."
Sokka and Katara stopped arguing and looked up. They both recognized the tone is his voice. Sokka spoke first, gesturing emphatically with his arms.
"Oh, no. No way are we turning back now. There's a thing chasing us, and with all likelihood Zuko is involved somehow."
Katara smacked him in the arm.
"For the last time, it's not Zuko!"
It wasn't.
***
Zuko was lost.
He didn't particularly care. What difference did it make if he knew where he was? He wasn't going anywhere in particular, just away. Away from what he couldn't quite articulate, but the threat of it possessed the same substance as the stony path under his bleeding feet.
In a way nothing had changed. He avoided well-traveled roads, stole what he could carry from farms along the way, and tried to supplement his diet with wild plants he recognized as edible. He didn't recognize any plants as edible.
The difference, really, was that he had no destination. He was running from, not to. He no longer paid attention to direction, choosing his course by heading away from anything that resembled human civilization. He wasn't taking care of himself anymore either. The rags tore into strips and he let them, stumbling onward regardless of the blisters and cuts on his feet. The cold iron shackle rubbed his ankle raw before the blood crusted over to form a protective scab. Dirt settled in the creases of his clothing. His hair fell in matted clumps over his face, turned brown with dust.
It was spring, and ought to be getting warmer, but now he found himself climbing up into the mountains where the air held biting chill. Day and night blurred together, and there were moments when he could no longer separate dream from waking life. Part of him wanted to give in, lie down and just stop breathing. Part of him wanted to go back, to turn himself over to his father's justice if only to have a roof over his head and something to eat. He did neither. He kept walking.
***
Katara hunkered down in Appa's saddle and suppressed a shiver.
"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu."
"I still think we could've taken them," Toph muttered.
Katara stared at her incredulously. Sure, Toph was an amazing Earthbender (and that was saying a lot, since Katara knew King Bumi) and the twelve year old had no problem disposing of all the crazy Earth Rumble guys in five minutes flat, but this was different.
"Are you kidding? The crazy blue Firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough, but last time we saw them one of those girls did something that took my bending away. That's scary." She rubbed her arm, looking out over the horizon as the sun peeked over the crest of a mountain.
The dawn light spread through the sky, casting a soft pink glow over everything it touched. Katara closed her eyes and felt the sunlight warm on her face and for a moment she felt better, despite everything. Then Sokka opened his mouth.
"Oh no, the sun is rising! We've been up all night with no sleep."
Aang was tired, too, but he tried to sound reassuring. "Sokka, we'll be okay."
"Are you sure? I've never not slept before! What if I fall asleep now and something happens? And something always happens!"
"Every time we land, those girls are there, so we'll just have to keep flying," Katara replied. Honestly, Sokka could be such a baby sometimes.
"We can't keep flying forever," Aang responded wearily.
***
There were few places left in the world that had survived a century-long war untouched. Kyoshi Island had been one, before the Avatar landed there with Zuko hot on his heels. The Yin mountain range, north of the Dao He, was even more protected despite its location on the western coast of the Earth Kingdom. To put it simply, while the region teemed with wildlife and wildly blooming plants, it wasn't a very hospitable locale for people. The slopes were too steep to support any kind of large farming operations or settlements, and it was far, far easier to live, travel and fight on the floodplain further south.
Self-sustaining villages nestled in the secluded valleys, and the people who lived there went about their lives much the same way they always had. It was a hard life for those who weren't born into it, and since there was nothing of any real value there for the Fire Nation to target and the river offered a safer alternative to any of the mountain passes, most everyone avoided the jagged peaks altogether.
Zuko was not everyone. He wandered further into the twisted hills and valleys, absently noticing that while the topography was rather vertical, it was nothing like the volcanic islands he remembered in his homeland. The air was drier, and thin. Instead of branching out over his head in swooping boughs most of the trees stood straight and tall, bristling with needles or short flat scales instead of wide leaves. Some of them even had spiky bark, making them look more like decorated columns than anything organic.
In another state of mind, the scenery would be breathtaking. As it was, Zuko had a hard enough time breathing without paying the slightest bit of attention to his surroundings.
***
Aang yawned. "So, what's the plan?"
Toph slumped in the saddle, her face framed by the large circular opening in the side "Don't know… too tired to think."
Katara and Sokka drooped against the pile of packs and sleeping bags at the back of the saddle.
"I'm sure we'll come up with something after a short nap," Katara supplied.
"Yes! Sleep!" Sokka agreed.
Apparently, Appa felt the same way. All four passengers felt the bottoms of their stomachs lurch as the bison abruptly dropped underneath them.
"What's going on?" Toph shouted, clinging to the saddle as it fell away. Momo clung to her foot, green eyes wide, his long ears flying.
"Appa fell asleep!" Aang yelled, desperately gripping the reins. Katara grabbed Sokka's hand and held tight as her brother twisted his hands into the straps holding their cargo. Appa kept falling and they all screamed, but the bison did not wake. Sokka pulled Katara closer and she clung to him. Aang gained a hold on Appa's fur and crawled over the bison's massive head to stare at one of his eyes.
"Wake up buddy!" he cried.
Appa's eye opened slowly, and he flicked his rudder-like tail, abruptly stopping his descent. Everyone slammed down, and then scrambled for purchase as he lurched forward, crashing into treetops in an effort to control his descent.
He hit the ground at an angle, plowing a furrow in the soft soil as his forward momentum spent itself out. Then the great eyes closed again, and Appa's head hit the ground.
Aang slid off and walked away slowly.
"Appa's exhausted."
Sokka and Katara passed him, sleeping bags held to their chests. Toph flopped down on her stomach.
"Okay," Sokka declared, "we've put a lot of distance between us and them. The plan now is to follow Appa's lead and get some sleep."
Katara followed him, but couldn't help adding, "Of course, we could have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues."
Toph slammed her hands against the ground and it cracked. "What!"
She jumped to her feet.
Always the peacemaker, Aang held out his hands to prevent another fight. "Alright, alright! Everyone's exhausted. Let's just get some rest."
Toph wasn't having it.
"No! I want to hear what Katara has to say. You think I have issues."
Katara held her face in a serene expression but her voice didn't quite match.
"I'm just saying, maybe if you helped out earlier we could've set up our camp faster and gotten some sleep and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation!"
Aang watched the situation escalate with a growing sense of alarm.
"You're blaming me for this!?"
Katara hurled down her sleeping bag and beckoned with her hands. Toph clenched her hands into fists and advanced, mouth set in a thin line. Aang stepped between them.
"No, no! She's not blaming you!"
"No, I'm blaming her!" Katara affirmed, glaring at the younger girl.
"Hey!" Toph shoved Aang out of the way. "I never asked you for diddly doo da. I carry my own weight! Besides, if there's anyone to blame, it's sheddy over here!"
Aang landed on Appa's back picked, his composure dissolving in an instant. "What? You're blaming Appa?"
Toph neared the giant shaggy beast in question.
"Yeah! You wanna know how they keep finding us?" She pulled a wad of fur from Appa's side and opened her fingers, letting the wind catch it and float away. "He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!"
Aang leapt down to confront her.
"How dare you blame Appa! He saved your life three times today! If there's anyone to blame, it's you! You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not! He is! Appa's carrying your weight! He never had a problem flying when it was just the three of us!"
Toph didn't say anything, not immediately. Then she kicked the ground and her bag practically flew into her hands.
"I'm outta here."
And she walked away.
Sokka stepped in front of her with his arms spread to the side-
"Wait-"
-but she simply moved the earth underneath him and he slid to the side. She kept walking.
It took a while before Aang reacted.
"What did I just do? I can't believe I yelled at my Earthbending teacher. Now she's gone."
He sank to the ground and Katara came up behind him.
"I know. We're all just trying to get used to each other, and I was so mean to her."
"Yeah, you two were pretty much jerks."
"Thanks, Sokka."
"No problem."
Katara ignored him. "We need to find Toph and apologize."
Well, obviously, Sokka thought, but all he said was, "Okay, but what are we going to do about the tank full of dangerous ladies chasing us?"
Aang echoed Toph's earlier gesture, pulling a clump of fur and letting it float away, his expression thoughtful.
"I have a plan."
***
Zuko stopped to catch his breath, shapes flickering at the edge of his vision. He felt dizzy, and it wasn't just from the altitude. There was a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that he ought to be more lucid than this, but it was overwhelmed by general exhaustion.
He was still running. No solutions had presented themselves, so he was still stuck in an unsolvable predicament. There had to be something. So what if he wasn't trained for this sort of situation? He wasn't trained for a lot of things and still managed just fine. Right?
There had to be something. Some reason he kept walking forward, upward, eastward, even if he couldn't remember what that reason could possibly be. There had to be something useful locked away in his brain to get him out of this, but he could only recall random facts, worthless to his current situation.
No, he did remember something. Something about survival: the law of threes. Three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. He didn't remember finding water, or drinking it, but he was still alive so he must have. He was still alive, right? Threes. Three weeks, three years, three wishes. If wishes were fishes he'd have something to eat.
"You're pathetic."
Zuko looked at his sister with a bit of surprise. What was she doing here? More importantly, why was she nine?
"Don't look at me, brother. It's not my fault your mind is as weak as a day old kitten-snake."
"Shut up," he muttered. She laughed.
"Or you'll what?"
"Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Than make fun of your miserable excuse of an existence? Not really." She grinned.
Zuko placed both hands against the trunk of a tree to steady himself. Azula flickered. He blinked as ripples ran through her body. He needed to sit down for a while, catch his breath.
"You aren't giving up are you? That would be a shame. All that wasted energy, and for what?"
"Shut up, Azula."
She shrugged and vanished. Zuko slumped against the tree, panting. His fingers felt stiff, almost brittle. He couldn't feel his feet at all anymore, which was probably just as well. A detached part of his mind noted that he must be in pretty bad shape if he was seeing things that weren't there. Of course, he might actually be dreaming. It was hard to tell anymore. Everything was muddled, blurred together.
Why was he sitting down? He had to keep going. He had to go-
Somewhere.
He had to go. Keep going. Up the mountain, crawling when it got too steep to walk. He couldn't stop. It was important, even if he couldn't remember why. He staggered to his feet again and pieces of the world broke off and fell away in the corners of his eyes.
***
Toph was not going to apologize. Not to Aang, or Katara, or Sokka, or Appa (stupid lump shed fur like crazy). She was especially not going to apologize to the old man she had knocked over. What was he doing out in the middle of nowhere, anyway? What was she doing here? And why the heck did he have a teapot?
The tea smelled really good though. She had to give him that.
Iroh smiled as he poured a cup and handed it to his unexpected visitor.
"Here is your tea. You seem a little too young to be traveling alone."
Toph accepted the cup but didn't drink it immediately. "You seem a little too old."
He laughed at that. "Perhaps I am."
"I know what you're thinking. I look like I can't handle being by myself."
"I wasn't thinking that," Iroh responded softly, and poured himself a cup. He breathed the steam and smiled gently.
"You wouldn't even let me pour my own cup of tea." She took a sip and was pleasantly surprised. Whoever the old man was, his tea was good.
"I poured your tea because I wanted to and for no other reason," he replied, gesturing with his free hand despite knowing she couldn't see it.
"People see me and think I'm weak. They want to take care of me. But I can take care of myself by myself."
"You sound like my nephew. Always thinking you need to do things on your own without anyone's support. There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you. Not that I love you; I just met you!"
Toph laughed. "So, where is your nephew?"
The old man paused for a moment as if considering his words and not finding the right ones. Toph lowered her teacup.
"Is he lost?"
"Yes, a little bit. His life has recently changed and he's going through very difficult times. I'm afraid I was not able to be there for him, and I'm trying to fix that."
"So… now you're following him."
"Not exactly following. Just hoping I'm on the right track to find him again."
She considered this for a moment and then finished her tea. "Your nephew is very lucky, even if he doesn't know it." She handed the empty cup back to him. "Thank you."
Iroh inclined his head. "My pleasure. Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights."
"No, thank you for what you said. It helped me."
"I'm glad."
Toph shouldered her bag. She started to leave and then paused. He really was a very nice man. He deserved some advice in return.
"About your nephew- Maybe you should tell him that you need him too. When you find him, I mean."
Iroh smiled and inclined his head. Then he watched her leave, bare feet solidly connected to the earth she manipulated as easily as unbaked dough.
Fascinating child, he thought absently. I wonder…
***
Zuko blinked as the trees turned red and ordered themselves into straight rows. He staggered down the hall of columns. He had to find her. Mom couldn't just be gone. Azula was lying. Azula always lied. She wasn't the only one...
His footfalls echoed in the vastness of the chamber, so small as he ran, but the door never got any closer. The columns never ended. They just rushed past to either side of him, reaching up into the shadowed vault. He couldn't reach the doorway. He couldn't escape, the hall went on forever, an endless path of columns in red and black and gold. The floor sagged under him and Zuko looked down. He was sinking into the floor, the polished wood warped around his shoes and when he tried to pull himself free and lunge for the door it wasn't there anymore.
"Maybe you can find a nice Earth Kingdom family to take you in."
How had he gotten back to his bedroom? He was trying to reach the garden, dammit, he had to leave, but Azula wouldn't get out of the way.
You have to go backwards to get ahead.
Zuko wasn't sure where the thought had come from but it hardly mattered. He turned away from his sister's mocking grin and dove forward. The room tore like the rice paper background of a theater set and he stumbled and fell to his knees.
The floor was stone, set in square tiles, and Zuko knew without looking up that he was kneeling in the Agni Kai arena. It was dark, quiet. Empty.
Empty but not silent. The darkness reverberated with harsh whispers. Words burned into his memory, some spoken but others merely implied. Suggested, but no less real for all of that- venomous declarations whose source could not be denied or argued with. Fool. Coward. Why didn't you fight? Useless whelp. Get up. Get on your feet and fight like a man. Pathetic worm. Gutless weakling. Craven child. Worthless wretch.
Father, please…
…no son of mine…
I'll do anything you want.
You will learn…
Father-
There was no one there. The arena was empty.
"Look on the bright side, Zu-zu."
There's a bright side?
Azula is eleven now. She looks as she did when he last saw her. This is the day he leaves. The day he is made to leave.
Azula settles herself on the edge of the infirmary cot. He has not been back to his room. He is not allowed. Zuko stares out the window. The view faces southeast, toward the waterfront. Behind him, Azula preens like a cat.
"You always said you wanted to see the world."
Zuko feels his shoulders hunch forward and he grits his teeth. He knows rising to her bait will only make things worse, but the only thing keeping his temper in check is the medicine the healers use to dull the pain. It dulls everything else, as well. Even the sky seems dull grey, grey like the metal of the ship waiting for him in the harbor.
"It's your own fault, you know."
He knows.
Azula shifts position and falls out of his field of view. He has no depth perception with the bandage on, and no peripheral vision on the left side. It's a miracle the healers saved his eye. The damage is mostly cosmetic, they say. He feels so much better to hear that.
"…are you listening to me?"
"No."
Azula pouts.
"Whatever. I was trying to cheer you up…"
Fat chance of that.
"…but if you want to sit around and mope be my guest."
He can see her fingers curling in the corner of his vision. She's starting to look like Mom, and she's always been graceful. Mom had slender fingers, too, but she didn't wrap people around them the way Azula does.
Did.
***
Dodging yet another blast of blue fire, Aang wondered why he kept expecting the scarred Firebender to enter the fray. Katara had been right, as usual. It wasn't Zuko tracking them anymore; his sister was quickly proving herself a far more dangerous adversary. At least he wasn't alone in the battle; Sokka and Katara must have taken care of the other two "dangerous ladies" because here they were.
The princess was good, there was no doubt about that, but she was outnumbered three to one and that definitely changed the odds in Aang's favor, at least for the time being.
Then the ground shifted under the princess's feet and Aang smiled despite his weariness. Four to one, now, and the Firebender wasn't smirking any more. Toph looked grim, there was no hint of the shark-toothed smile she had worn in the ring. This was no Earth Rumble, no mere competition for glory or money. It was honest to gods combat.
Then the odds changed again. Aang bit back as exclamation when he recognized the grizzled traveler. The old man looked different; his hair was down and his beard had grown out long. Instead of red armor, he wore faded green and brown, but there was still no hiding the fact that he was Zuko's uncle, Iroh. Where had he come from?
"Azula, stop!"
The girl's eyes flashed.
"I don't think so, Uncle. You're a failure and a traitor. I have no reason to listen to the likes of you!"
Iroh's eyes narrowed. There was no sign of his nephew, but the Avatar stood flanked by the Waterbender, her brother (boomerang in hand) and-
The little blind Earthbender.
Even backed into a corner, Azula knew an opening when she saw one. Her uncle was distracted only a moment, but that was all it took.
Someone screamed as the old man fell, and then all four friends attacked simultaneously. Azula raised a shield of flame, and when everything settled again she was gone.
For a moment no one moved, but Azula had retreated (for now) and Iroh did not stir. He lay on his back in the dust, and Toph pressed her lips together and fought back the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She could feel his heartbeat thudding through the earth, low and thready.
Katara knelt down by the old man's side as the ghost town burned. Sokka placed his hand on Toph's shoulder. He didn't know why she was so upset about someone she didn't (couldn't) know getting hurt, but that wasn't the point.
"It'll be all right, Toph. Katara can help."
Katara swallowed, hard. Fixing Zuko was one thing- he hadn't been that badly hurt to start with- but this was altogether bigger and scarier and she wasn't sure if the scant time she had spent with Yugoda really prepared her for-
Just do it already. You can't possibly make things worse.
Drawing a deep, calming breath, Katara pulled the stopper from her water skin.
***
Something splattered against his bare arm and Zuko looked up. Dark clouds filled the sky, spilling fat droplets onto his upturned face. The rain washed away the dust and he blinked.
The ground turned to sponge under his feet as the storm increased. At first he welcomed the softness, but then he started to sink with every step. Part of the hillside slipped away in the downpour, carrying away the tenacious shrubs clinging to the mountain. Zuko slogged onward, bent forward against the slope of the hill to keep his balance. He kept his head down as the rain pelted against his back and neck.
Three years, three wishes. I wish I could stop.
He knew he couldn't stop. If he did, he'd never get up again. He had to keep going. There is no reason; it just had to be done. Zuko had always been at good putting aside his own wants for what had to be done. It didn't matter if he was tired, even if he had never been this tired. He still couldn't quit. It just wasn't in his nature to give in.
The slope leveled under him and Zuko realized he was crawling on his hands and knees in the mud. The storm raged on above him and Zuko shook with exhaustion. A sudden blue flash lit up the sky, and as it printed after-images of a nearly barren plateau on his eyes Zuko realized night had fallen. That was why everything was so dark now.
When the thunder came he thought his head would split in two. He pressed muddy hands against his ears and bowed forward. The wind picked up and lashed the rain sideways.
Zuko struggled to his feet and stood against the wind. Lighting flared again, and this time Zuko saw the edge of the plateau and a stark, twisted tree some ways back from the drop-off. Thunder cracked, and this time Zuko laughed.
"Is that all you've got?!"
Rain pelted his face but Zuko was beyond caring anymore. He bared his teeth to the sky, shrieking defiance back into the face of the storm.
"You've always thrown everything you could at me! Well I can take it! Come on! Strike me! You've never held back before!"
Lighting flashed, high above and away to the east. Zuko sank to his knees, all but unaware that tears streamed from his good eye to mingle with the rainwater hitting his face. He bent forward and screamed.
The storm raged on, unaware.