A/N: New chapter ;-) Many thanks for reading!

"Is that thing heavy?"

Lu Da stood, resting his crossbow against a tree and wiping dirt from the barrel. The day had warmed well past comfortable and forced them to take a break by midafternoon. Stone tablet in her lap, Katara was watching him now from where she sat on a bed of spongy moss. At the question, he slid her a glance.

"Thing?" Lu Da scoffed, aghast, turning back to his weapon. "Did you hear what she called you?"

Katara cleared her throat to mask the laugh, brushing a damp curl from her forehead. "I'm sorry… Does it have a name or something?"

"Of course she does." He gave the engraved wooden stock a tender pat. "Soraya's the only girl who's never let me down. Been through a lot together."

"Soraya." Her lips twitched in a poorly repressed smile, blue eyes dancing. "Why name your bow? It's just an object."

"It's a crossbow. One of a kind. I trust her more than most people."

"Most people." Her smile slid into a frown, eyes flicking past him. "You trust Ozai?"

Lu Da followed her gaze to where the man sat alone, dark and brooding, parchment in hand. Shrugging a shoulder, he replied, "I do. More or less. Not what you want to hear, I know. You're certainly justified to hate him."

Katara's mouth pinched. "I don't know if I hate him exactly, but… sometimes I think if he was on fire and I had water, I'd drink it."

"Ouch." He feigned a grimace. Katara smirked and Lu Da returned it, coming to sit down at the foot of a tree across from her, crossbow on his lap. "Eh, Broody Brow's not all bad though. Mostly bad…?" He leaned back, a sigh, crossing his legs. "Well, yeah, I could give you that. But he has some reasons for being the way he is."

She huffed softly, looked away. "So I'm learning."

For just an instant, the world stilled. "You are?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"He's told me a few things," Katara shrugged faintly.

Lu Da raised a brow, cocked his head. Fuck me running. Gone for barely a week and he comes back to the aloof master sharing bits of his tortured past with his captive?

"You must have an uncanny way with words, chickadee," he said. "Ozai's not exactly the chatty type."

"I don't know. I just… asked about the scars on his back one day. He told me his father did it." She chewed her lip, looked at the ground. "I guess it made me curious and I kinda… kept asking more after that."

A soft snort. "And he let you?"

"Well, not always." She glanced up, mouth pulling to the side. "Sometimes he threatened me."

Lu Da nodded, laughed softly. "Yup."

Silence crept in as they sat there, insects droning in the somnolent heat. Above, a pair of birds warbled tirelessly.

"How well do you know him?" Katara asked at length.

"Well enough to know that very few actually do. Ozai doesn't make a habit of revealing personal stuff. He keeps that shit locked up tight."

Which was why he found it so odd that Ozai would let this girl in at all. What was his motive? The man never did anything that wasn't thoroughly calculated. Perhaps he had taken his advice after all and lightened his tactic to make things easier for him with Katara. Ozai was a practiced manipulator, he was certainly capable of it. And though Lu Da knew it could explain why she was without restraint, and the air between them seemed different now, it was far too quick for that to have brought about such drastic change so quickly. There had to be something more.

"Do you know what happened between him and Ursa?"

Lu Da eyed the girl for beat, considering her. "No. It's one thing he's always refused to talk about. I asked once. Only once. Learned my lesson after that."

As Katara likely did, he surmised. Why did she care?

"Am I interrupting something here?"

A deep voice cut in from above and he turned, looked up. Ozai frowned back with an edge of displeasure, eyes cutting briefly to Katara and back. Lu Da gave a cool shrug.

"Not at all," he replied, meeting the intimidating man's hard gaze with control, hoping he hadn't overheard the last bit. Lu Da held his mask steady as Ozai's brow furrowed. Truly, it was a miracle the man's perfect forehead wasn't etched with permanent scowl lines.

"Then you won't mind taking over for a while," Ozai, grumbled at last, holding out the creased paper and Lu Da took it with silent relief. He hated riddles, but only a fraction less than he hated an angry Ozai. "Your turn to work on this cursed thing. How much farther till we reach a market?"

"Last I checked," Lu Da nodded at the rolled-up map sticking out of the small bag, "probably not till tomorrow."

Ozai's frown tugged downward, his attention shifting to Katara who had returned to studying the tablet. "Girl…"

The air seemed to shiver. Blue eyes crawled coldly from the stone slab on her lap to Ozai, and if a look could say fuck you, hers shouted it from the rafters.

Ozai closed his eyes with a small, silent sigh. "Katara," he began again, lower, a note of quiet resignation. "Any progress?"

Her edges softened. "A little. It would help if I had something to write with."

"Might be able to pick up some charcoal and paper at the market," Lu Da offered.

Ozai nodded and leaned down to retrieve the map. "I think we've rested long enough. We have a few hours yet till dusk. I'll lead for a while, you study the scroll as we go." Ozai motioned to the scrawled translation in his hand and Lu Da glanced down at it once, gave a nod as he climbed to his feet.

"Can't promise anything," he said, gathering his effects. Katara stood and handed the tablet back to Ozai. If anyone should have a go at the riddle, it was her. At least she enjoyed it. But he supposed Katara had her work cut out for her. "But I'll see what I can do."

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

The days were stretching long, the summer solstice looming close on the horizon. Heat and exhaustion drove the three of them to retire early in a tangled glade, glowing with the rich, warm blush of evening sun.

Ozai sat on a large rock protruding from the earth, cool and grey and spattered with lichen, Lu Da whittling a stick against a nearby tree. No amount of the puzzle had been cracked despite the captain's efforts and Ozai had taken over again, studying it now with grinding teeth. At this rate, they could be wandering aimlessly until the next avatar was reborn. Drawing a long breath, he steeled his focus and started again.

One guardian stands watch in the heart of the heavens.
A sentinel without fingers, he points,
without arms, he strikes
without a mouth, he sings –

"I feel disgusting…" a voice buzzed distantly. "…to the river to wash these layers of sweat away before sleep."

Ozai only half-registered the words, glancing up just long enough to see Katara trudging past, tousled hair twisted in a knot as she fanned her neck. Back down to the paper in hand. He frowned, his thoughts straying.

The girl was an enigma. He couldn't quite understand her and that frustrated him. It was a strange and unfamiliar hindrance, master of the human mind as he was, and perhaps that was why she had grown to intrigue him.

Katara ought to be afraid of him. He had given her every reason to be. But not only did it seem she no longer feared him, the girl had even gone so far as to save him from certain death. And since then, had stayed with him of her own free will when nothing was stopping her now from making an escape.

She should very well hate him. He wanted her to hate him. Yet Katara exuded every aspect to the contrary. Where he had only meant to reel her in with pieces of his story, she had instead shown genuine sympathy and interest to a degree he hadn't anticipated. He had only desired her cooperation. He had no want of her sympathy. Her face flashed, sincere compassion in the grey morning light, and something writhed inside him. Ozai forced himself from the thoughts, throwing his focus back to the riddle.

A guardian standing watch in the heart of the heavens. What did it mean?

What could point without fingers? Strike without arms? Sing with no mouth?

He rubbed the edge of his jaw, a thought unfurling. Ozai sat up straighter. A clock, perhaps? It was something to consider. But still maddeningly unhelpful.

In the heart of the clouds where he abides
does the moon thus sleep.
Moon above and sun below,
when th–

A shimmer of light caught in the corner of his eye. On impulse, Ozai looked up.

Water glinted, curving up from the river in a gentle arch at Katara's command as she stepped gracefully out of the bubbling current and onto the riverbank. Almost entirely naked. Only meager white bindings covering her breasts and nethers. White bindings that were now very wet.

A bolt of heat shot down his center. His eyes brushed over her figure quickly and wrenched away.

Or rather, that was what he intended. But she was so beautiful… A detail he'd noted in passing that only a blind man would miss, but it struck him now so completely that he found himself staring. At her sultry curves, her wild, exotic locks cascading over her bare shoulders, the last of the day's sunlight gleaming gold on her wet skin.

Ozai's heartbeat pulsed in his hands, the overwhelming longing to touch that skin crashing over him anew. He tore his eyes away from her with force. Throat tight, Ozai returned to the riddle but the words evaporated as quickly as he could read them. He clutched the paper in his hand, rubbing a brow.

Why couldn't he bury it? This feeling had been only a phantom. The transient spawn of blood loss and delirium and the girl's immense healing power, it wasn't him. It couldn't be. She was a Water Tribe peasant… among other things. He couldn't desire her. But no matter how many times he buried it, the feeling reemerged stronger, dug in deeper. The last thing he'd needed was her glistening caramel figure thoroughly detailed beneath thin, wet–

The image still churned behind his eyes, sent the blood rushing to all the wrong places. Or all the right places, depending on who you asked. His mouth tasted bitter.

Jaw clenching, Ozai closed his eyes and drew a breath, let it out with control. When he had composed himself, he stuffed the crumpled paper into his pocket and crossed the clearing, snatching the canteen from the satchel next to Lu Da and taking a long, cool swig. Or lukewarm swig it turned out. The water wasn't nearly cool enough and left the ache smoldering. Ozai dropped it back into the satchel with a grimace. What he would give right now for a tall, stiff drink. He considered perhaps immersing himself into the icy river, let the waters cool the virulent heat coursing through him, when he turned and nearly collided with her.

She was returning to their campsite with an easy walk, posture relaxed, and hardly seemed to notice the way he slammed to a stop as she strolled by, softly flipping her dry hair behind her shoulders. The girl was clothed again, thank the spirits, but he couldn't separate the accidental glimpse from the way she moved now, the sway of her hips, the curves of her body half-veiled now beneath the tunic, the swell of her breasts.

Inadvertently, her cool smile snagged on Ozai as she passed. He tensed, felt his mouth go dry, scowling as he tore his eyes from hers. The smile curdled as she slowed to a stop, eyeing him curiously in his periphery for a beat too long.

Ozai had goaded the girl for her awkward attraction to him, even flirting with her to incite a reaction. Just a fun little game, watching her blush and squirm. Suddenly, it didn't feel quite so fun anymore. What a punishing stroke of irony.

"What do you say we get some grub and some shut eye?" he heard Lu Da say and turned to see the man pull out a pair of raw carrots and a cucumber from the satchel, mouth twisting. He grumbled. "I feel like a damn rabbit eating all this raw, crunchy shit. I'm starving."

"Me too," the girl said, eyeing the vegetables reluctantly.

"If we set out before sunrise, we should hit the market in plenty of time before it closes at dusk."

There was still a measure of daylight left, but the captain was right. They needed sleep if they hoped to keep a steady pace tomorrow, considering what little sleep they were running on from the night before. Hopefully by this time next evening, they would have some real food. And a new set of sleeping bags.

Ozai quietly avoided the girl as the three of them ate. He had just rested down for the night along the uneven ground when he heard a soft sigh nearby. He glanced over to see Katara reclining just a few feet away. By sheer accident their eyes met as she lied back, stretching out graceful and sleek, and suddenly those few feet felt like an inch. A dull pang gripped his stomach. Ozai turned onto his side with a glower and kept his back to her.

The caravan faded into the distance. Azek and the two girls watched it slink through the shallow valley from where they sat on a hill. A high hill, not quite a mountain as this part of Fire Nation was in rather short supply. High enough to keep out of sight at least.

They had first spotted a caravan of carts and ostrich horses the day before while cutting across the remote stretch of hills. It had struck them as odd, a caravan out in the middle of nowhere, and Nori had suggested they keep an eye on the area with which they had all agreed. By that evening, a second caravan had lumbered by, and now this morning, a third. There was definitely something going on down there. Whether it had anything to do with cagrium or the rebel forces remained to be seen.

"Well, we going to check it out or not?" Emiko flitted to her feet, hands on her slender hips. "The day's not getting any younger and I wanna scope it out before another convoy shows up."

"Don't be hasty. We don't know what, or who, might still be down there." Azek eyed the dark blotch on the landscape that was clearly some kind of hole. "What if some of them stayed behind?"

"I didn't say storm in and make a scene, did I? We can be sneaky."

"Yeah, because there's so much down there for us to sneak behind," Azek snarked.

The valley below was a sea of rolling grass and only sparsely dotted with trees, the early morning sun climbing cheerfully up the sky. If someone was watching, they'd see them coming for ages.

"Well, it's either take our chances while we can or sit here aimlessly waiting for the next parade to roll by. I doubt that's what Fire Lord Zuko had in mind when he sent us on this mission." A gust of warm air sent her spunky, jaw-length fringe into a flurry, black ribbons teasing milk-white skin. "Besides, my bet's on us if we have to take them. We have fire, earth–" Emiko gestured to herself and Nori, then turned to Azek, "and your… uh, super-fast speed?"

Her voice was light, but the barb found its mark and Azek's hand moved defensively to the hilt of his sheathed weapon. "Yeah, I just carry this jian sword around for funsies."

Emiko laughed, nudging him hard with her elbow. "Lighten up, it was just a joke. Sheesh, let me know if you need a tampon."

"Come on, you two," Nori cut in. "We're wasting our time. Are we going down there or what?"

It was an uneventful trek without incident and they soon found themselves looming over a very large, very deep sinkhole.

"We should come back with some rope," said Azek, eyeing the pit's crumbling edges.

"Sure, you do that," said Emiko. "Meanwhile, I'll just go down and check it out."

"We don't know if it's–" Safe, he was going to say, but Emiko was already jumping into the hole.

Azek let out a hard breath as he watched her, seemingly weightless, flit down into the dark, passing between rocky handholds, sometimes leaping. Alighting on narrow ledges with virtually no sound of impact. Azek held his breath, watching her, half expecting the stony ledges to give way and suck her into the darkness. But they didn't. In a matter of seconds, she was halfway down in the pit, pausing to look over her shoulder and call up at him with a wide grin.

"Well?"

Frowning, Azek paced the edge, looking for a place to go over. Emiko had made it look so easy. He knew it wasn't. In the brief time he'd come to know her since their recruitment into the army, he'd found Emiko had a way of making everything look easy, effortless. Azek may have been fast, but she was lithe, more bird, or perhaps spider, than human.

Nori brushed past him and lowered herself over the edge with ease. Curvier and thicker than Emiko, with a bust that could hold several pencils in its cleavage, she was shorter and less spry than her friend but every bit as fearless. She paused at the edge to tie her long brown locks up in a ponytail, shooting him an encouraging smile before disappearing below the rim. Azek stepped forward and watched her descend. Not wanting to be left behind, he let out a deep sigh and started down after them.

It was a long way down. He reached what he thought was the bottom to find Nori and Emiko inspecting the cavity. The ground stretched out for perhaps only twenty feet before ending abruptly in another dizzying drop. How far down did this thing go?

Murky water had collected in puddles wide and deep, obstructing a clear path to the other side. Without any hesitation, Emiko started across in little skips, like a child crossing a stream on stepping stones. She pirouetted at the edge of the steep drop-off, turning back to him with a self-satisfied grin.

"You're crazy," he grumbled, stepping around the pockets of water after Nori.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't." Azek was looking down, watching his step, but he could almost feel her grin widen.

"Crazy is only a bad thing if you don't use it productively," Emiko winked, going over the edge with ease, Nori following after. Groaning, Azek lowered himself down slowly.

"I see," he said as he found the next foothold. "You're the good kind of crazy, are you?"

"Oh, yes," she said. "The very good kind. I even taste good, or so I'm told."

Azek was too focused on not falling to his death, so he missed the mischief in her tone and the smirk she shared with Nori.

"Taste?" he scoffed good-humoredly. "You tend to keep company with cannibals?"

Emiko sputtered with delighted disbelief, and only then, too late, did Azek register her meaning. Oh spirits. Taste. He snapped his head down to look at her, nearly losing his balance in the process. She was perched now on a narrow outcropping against Nori, the two girls laughing harder at the shock on his face.

"Cannibals!" she gasped. "Oh, spirits, that's good. I should start calling you that, Nori. My sweet cannibal." The two of them leaned in on each other, snorts of laughter against each other's necks, before Emiko managed to compose herself enough to speak. "Wanna know a secret?" She leaned up slightly toward him, fingers laced with Nori's, and whispered the rest, wide-eyed and salacious. "I'm a cannibal, too."

Azek flushed with mortification. "Keep your private matters to yourselves."

"You're blushing like a maiden," Nori chuckled. "Honestly, you seem as innocent as one. It's kinda sweet actually."

"Who'd have thought it? A smolderingly good-looking catch like you, Azek?" Emiko wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "I'd have thought you had girls flinging themselves at you."

"I'm not innocent," he grumbled, defensive.

"No? Tell us, then. Are you a maiden?"

A maiden? He kept on descending. Did she mean a virgin? Was she really asking him that?

"Come on, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Emiko prodded. "Plenty of fine gentlemen wait until marriage."

Azek scoffed. "And you've been acquainted with plenty of fine gentlemen, have you?"

"Well, not really, no," Emiko admitted. And then, as though a new thought had occurred to her, she asked with a note of zestful curiosity. "Have you?"

The innuendo struck him and made him flash hot. Nori suppressed a laugh and Azek shot them a warning look as he climbed lower, reaching the floor of the sinkhole several long moments after the girls. He ignored the question and, to his surprise, they let it go with just a few spicy remarks uttered under their breaths. Azek did his best to ignore those too.

Only a splinter of white light pierced the darkness now from far above. Emiko opened her palm, filled it with soft orange flame as they looked around.

Glints of green winked in the darkness and Azek's eyes widened. The entire wall of rock, maybe the entire chamber here, was veined with raw cagrium ore.

"Well." Azek took a deep breath. "Guess we've found the source."

Emiko ran her hand along an emerald stripe. "One of them anyway. Matsu implied there were multiple deposits."

"We should cut a chunk out, take it back to the Fire Lord," Nori suggested.

Azek nodded, withdrawing the pickaxe from his backpack, and got to work, hacking out wedges of the smooth green mineral, placing them in a small compartment. When he was through, the three of them ambled around the dark cave in a rare beat of silence, their feet scraping over loose pebbles.

"How far do you think this tunnel goes?" Emiko asked, the three of them staring into the deep, hollow dark.

Without prompting, she led the way, skulking deeper into the bowels of the cavern. They had only walked perhaps a few yards before Azek stopped short, his lip curling. He was fairly certain he felt the hairs in his nose wither.

"Gods, what's that smell?" Emiko beat him to it.

It was easily the most repulsive stench Azek had ever met in his life. A reek he could only compare to a burst belly covered in hippo-cow shit and burning human hair, seven days rotten.

"Emiko, can you turn that up?" he asked and the spider girl's flame brightened three-fold. Gasps echoed sharp through the chamber. Beside him, Nori swallowed back a gag, Azek's stomach heaving.

"Oh my gods…"

Bodies upon bodies in various states of decay lied tangled in heaps against the farthest wall. Some horribly mutilated, others deformed beyond recognition, twisted into a ghastly perversion of what had once been a human form.

"What the f–" Nori choked on the words.

"It's a grave." Azek could only take little gasps of breath without gagging. "The experiments… I think they must be tossing all the botched ones down here."

"That's a lot of experiments gone wrong."

"Who knows how many have gone right," he said.

Silence filled the hollow.

"What are the rebels doing to these benders for so many of them to end up like this?" Nori asked at length. "I can't believe anyone would volunteer for such torture."

"A sadomasochist's paradise. Whatever tickles your pickle I guess," Emiko snarked.

Shaking his head, Azek muttered, "It's hard to say what exactly Taint does to cause their powers to mutate. It must be horrific. I find it hard to believe anyone would sign up for this willingly."

Nori glanced at him. "You think Matsu was lying about that?"

A shrug. "Just saying. It's hard to believe."

"We should get a sample," Emiko said decisively. "Take it back for examination."

Her partner recoiled, wrinkling her nose. "If you want to touch those things, go right ahead."

"It might prove useful," Azek agreed. "Could be some traces of the drug left, give us a clue into what they're doing."

"And since you're the one with the knife, that means you get to do the honors," Emiko smirked.

Azek grimaced but didn't argue, drawing the smaller dagger from his belt reluctantly. He scuffled over to the mound of disfigured bodies, Emiko at his heels to light the way, and stooped down before it. He stifled a gag, turning to breathe once over his shoulder before finally sinking the knife in.

Flesh squelched, the wet sound of metal cleaving through layers of rot filling his mouth with acid. A twist and a slice in either direction and the hunk of human flesh popped free, slipping through his fingers to land on the cavern floor with a moist thud. Nori retched behind them. With a tattered exhale, Azek repeated the process on three other bodies and finally stepped back, covering his mouth with the crook of his arm to gulp a breath.

"Guess we need something to take the souvenirs home in. We have anything in there?" Emiko asked, gesturing to his backpack.

Azek shrugged it off and the girl rummaged through it, pulling out a komodo rhino skin pouch filled with first-aid supplies. Emptying the contents into the backpack, she held it up, arched a brow.

"That'll work," he nodded. Azek plopped the lumps of flesh into the pouch one by one and she cinched it up, dropped it into the bag with a curled lip.

"We better get out of here before anyone comes back," said Nori, glancing back down the dark tunnel.

Emiko slipped on the backpack as Azek surveyed his hands, turning them this way and that, half-expecting them to start sprouting legs and teeth. He grimaced.

"Just so long as we beeline for the nearest waterway," he said, following them back through the passage.

The spider girl grinned over a sinewy shoulder as they walked. "If your hands don't fall off before then."

"So, I've noticed you eyeing Soraya. Wanna give her a go?"

Katara crunched away on the last bite of her carrot lunch, blinking as she met Lu Da's gaze with the soft arch of a brow.

"What, like, shoot it?" she asked, grimacing as she swallowed it down. "I don't know, it looks complicated."

"She's a proper lady, true, but the rewards more than match the effort," he smirked. "Come on. I'll show you."

With a faint smile and a shrug, she slid the stone tablet from her lap and stood up. "Well, okay."

Lu Da handed her the weapon and Katara took it gingerly, as though it were a snake that might lash out and bite her. He laughed. "Just relax, you're gonna do great. Now first you gotta nock the arrow." Standing at her side, he showed her where the slot in the nock lined up with the string and helped her pull it back until the latch cocked.

"All right, now bring it up to rest at your shoulder, like this." He guided it into position and showed her where to place her fingers and thumbs along the forearm of the stock. "Nice and easy. Firm grip. Now the trick is to aim with your eyes. Trying shooting for that tree burl over there," he nodded, hands on her shoulders to steer her. "Take a deep breath. And place just your fingertip on the trigger."

She exhaled long and deep, her eyes on the target.

"Pull back, gently but firmly…"

The moment coiled tight with silence, the girl's chest hitching, and then suddenly there was a sharp snap as the string released. The arrow hissed through the air and pierced straight into the crown of the fat tree burl with a dull thwack.

Katara lit up in a bright, bubbly laugh and Lu Da blinked, his surprise melting into amused approval.

"Not too shabby for a first timer. Maybe you should get yourself one of these," he said, smirking, as she handed back the crossbow.

She smiled. "I think I'll stick to water, but thanks."

The girl returned to the tablet with a sigh and Lu Da rested Soraya down against the tree, wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead. Even the forest shade was hot. Crossing the clearing, he stopped before the large satchel, stooping down to rummage through it until he found the canteen.

A crawling sensation was spreading over the back of his neck, like the prickling slink of a spider. That distinct feeling of eyes on him. He looked behind to find Ozai fixing him with a sour expression. Lu Da tensed, his eyes darting away briefly.

"What?"

"She's not a pet," Ozai rumbled. "She's a hostage."

Lu Da stood, canteen in hand, and tipped his head with a frown, blinking hard. "I'm aware of that," he said, a sharp angle of his brow.

"Well, that's a relief." Ozai scowled, amber eyes narrowing. "Because I was starting to think you may have forgotten."

Uncorking the bottle, Lu Da exhaled a dry laugh, shaking his head. "You know…" A few gulps of water and he plugged the lid, dropped the canteen back in the satchel. "I wasn't gonna say anything. But that sure is funny coming from you right now. You show up in Guo Yang and what do I see? Your hostage free as a bird at your side, not a rope in sight." He fixed Ozai with a strong look and nodded at Katara. "That look like a hostage to you?"

The hostage was kneeling comfortably over the stone tablet beneath a willow tree, expression soft, twisting her long, sultry, brown waves over one shoulder as she studied it.

Ozai's scowl deepened and Lu Da met it with steady aplomb. He was not ignorant of the unique rapport he had with Ozai. Anyone else would have received a swift ass kicking right now for speaking to him like that. But somehow, over the years, the two of them had reached an unspoken accord of mutual respect, even a modicum of trust – a luxury neither of them had any right to – and something that closely resembled friendship.

"Maybe I just haven't been acquainted with enough hostages," Lu Da said, crossing him arms, "but I'd think most would run toward the guards who might save her, not in the opposite direction."

To his credit, Ozai didn't attempt to argue it. But his face darkened in a brooding frown, the forest humming softly around them. Lu Da released a sigh and slumped down on the fallen tree beside him. The seasons had been harsh, stripping its bark and outer layers away over time, lending it the appearance of driftwood, the veins twisting in patterns that reminded him of seaside waves. Lu Da's arms draped over his legs as he studied the creases in his tattooed knuckles, the glint of metal where his rings caught the light.

"Ozai," he began finally, his eyes fixed on his hands, "you and I formed a kinship over our hearts of stone. I get it. I really do. But I'll be the first to admit that mine isn't completely stone cold, and I happen to know that yours isn't either, much as you'd have me believe otherwise." His eyes flicked aside to Ozai, caught the hard set of his sculpted jaw, and back down again. "Now, I don't know what must have transpired along the way for you to allow your hostage – if that's what you want to call her – to go about unfettered, and for that girl to seem so oddly at ease around you. And you don't have to tell me," he relented, opening his hands in concession. Lu Da turned fully to him then, speaking sharp and clear. "But do not insult my intelligence by insisting that nothing's changed when clearly something has."

Ozai turned his head away a degree further, unyielding scowl fixed firmly on the ground. Lu Da breathed in and straightened, placing his hands on his knees.

"I find it amusing, that's all," he said as he stood, crossing his burly, inked arms, "accusing me of much the same. The irony."

Ozai glowered, a tight frown. He was silent and Lu Da was beginning to accept that might be all the response he was going to get when the larger man released a tight, grousing breath.

"We were attacked," he grated out at last, gaze on the ground. "Along the Bone Road."

Lu Da's eyes went wide in a blink. "What?" He didn't utter the word so much as exhale it, his stomach dropping like a stone in a lake. "And you… survived?"

Ozai shook his head, didn't look up. "No." Barely a whisper. "I would have died. The waterben–" His words cut off, eyes squeezing shut with something close to a sigh. He began again. "Katara saved my life."

He registered the genuine use of her name as his mouth fell open like a broken drawbridge. Lu Da choked out a shocked laugh, searching for the words, but all he could drag together in the end was, "…Why?" Ozai didn't respond. "I would've left you to rot if I'd been her. No offense."

"I don't know why," came the low rasp. Lu Da could only shake his head, sliding a look at the most unhostage-like hostage in history. He wasn't so sure Ozai was telling him everything, and even less sure that the man was fully oblivious to her reasoning.

"Well, I hope you at least said thank you."

Ozai turned away a fraction, his stupidly flawless lips twisting, and Lu Da rolled his eyes closed with a groan.

"Of course you didn't." A shake of his head. So that was what Katara had meant. Like you owed it to me.

"I did," he corrected with a growl, meeting his eyes. Eventually, the tone implied. After she gave him a good piece of her mind, Lu Da wagered.

"Well, that's an improvement, I guess. Baby steps," he smirked as Ozai shot him a scathing look. The girl seemed to possess a fiery spirit and a bold tongue, which she didn't seem shy about using, even with such a strong, formidable man as her captor. Semi captor… Former captor? Whatever. Lu Da had known right away he liked her.

Well… Maybe not right away. A grimace. Rest in peace, Lady Luck, his first and favorite ship. Not such a lucky lass after all.

Shifting his weight, Lu Da crossed his arms as he changed the subject. "So, these assholes that attacked you. They didn't happen to be sporting a certain distinguishing mark, did they? A red handprint with a grey skull?"

Ozai straightened, his brow drawn darkly. "How would you know that?"

"Lucky guess," he grumbled. "Same pricks that I had a run in with on my way to the White Spire. The Blood Brotherhood, they call themselves. Apparently this side of the Earth Kingdom's overrun with these roaches and they're planning to extend their reach."

"And just how did you come to know all this? They tell you over a nice cup of tea?"

"Close. Turns out, their head honcho is an old friend of mine. Bao Zirrik."

Ozai blinked. "Bao the Bloody?"

"So you have heard of him."

"You call him a friend?" he scowled, sitting forward. "The man let his thugs beat your face to a pulp."

"Friend used very loosely these days. Found out after the fact the man's running the show, and he's the only reason I even made it out of there. You can write him a thank you note later. Though I did end up having to tell him what we're doing."

"What?!" Ozai shot to his feet with a snarl, towering over him and Lu Da had to fight not to draw back. "You didn't think to lie?"

"I tried, the man's fucking clairvoyant. He called my bluff. Even then, he only let me leave if I promised to come back and join him after I'm done helping you. Told me to convince you to back his gig too, for a stake in the profits, once you come to power again."

Ozai shook his head, a muscle twitching in his jaw. "And you agreed to all this."

"I agreed to come back," he said with a roguish smirk. "Never promised to behave myself when I did."

"Alright, I think I'm finally getting close." Katara appeared at Ozai's side, holding out the tablet to return it. "I don't think I can do much more without writing things down."

For just a fleeting moment, an odd thing seemed to happen. Ozai appeared… uncomfortable. The man was a monument to cold, distant control, but Lu Da could almost feel Ozai's hackles rise, as though caught off-guard by her sudden closeness. He took the tablet and then turned firmly away from her, as though she were a dangerous animal. The moment spanned only a blink and the man's mask of control fell back into place, and Lu Da could almost believe he had imagined it.

Almost.

He watched with pursed lips as the man cinched the tablet up in the satchel and shouldered the bag. It was clear Ozai wasn't going to respond so Lu Da turned to Katara who was frowning at Ozai's back.

"Hopefully we can remedy that shortly."

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

The market was a modest cluster of booths and stalls in the heart of an unremarkable town, listless and silently bloating in the hot sun. Locals and travelers roamed the square, fanning away the heat, perusing goods and haggling over prices. Despite its size, the place was home to a rather surprising assortment of wares.

There was a booth full of seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, a butcher with his bloody lumps of meat on display and naked chickens hanging up. Specialty jams, honeys, teas, and smoked fish. Beyond the edible goods, several tarped stalls boasted shelves and hangers of Earth Kingdom clothing, hats, shoes, as well as rugs, tableware, traveling gear, and sleeping bags.

Ozai gave silent thanks for that last one as he stood cloaked at the edge of the square, in the shadows of the village inn, watching Lu Da make his way from booth to booth through the sluggish crowd.

At his side, Katara groaned, shifting on her feet. "It's the dead of summer," she said, peering at him from inside her hood. "Aren't you afraid our cloaks might draw more attention to us standing here?"

"More attention than our faces on full display?" he asked tartly.

She let out a hard breath, plucking at her cloak to let air in. Silence resumed and Ozai scanned the town square, like a gazelle rabbit scanning a meadow for movement. The girl was right, of course, about the conspicuous appearance of their cloaks. Only slightly less conspicuous than not wearing them at all. He silently willed Lu Da to hurry.

Two dirty children in ragged clothes were wandering through the market. A young boy and his little sister, no older than six and four, if Ozai had to guess. Holding out a cup with pleading eyes to passersby, most of whom were going out of their way to ignore them. Ozai watched the hope leach out of their faces with every snubbed nose.

"Those poor children," Katara rasped beside him. "Where are their parents?"

"Probably hiding in an alley around the corner. For all you know the kids are a pawn, tricking an empathetic fool into giving away his money."

The girl let out an indignant breath. "How can you be so cynical and heartless? You have no reason to believe they're anything but starving, homeless kids."

"Better cynical than naïve," he grumbled. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

"The world is full of more good people than it is bad," she said at last. "I truly believe that. If that makes me naïve, so be it."

Ozai shook his head faintly, mouth twisting. "You simply haven't lived long enough yet."

Lu Da returned finally with both satchels stocked with food and goods.

"Sleeping bags, check. Enough real food to hopefully last a solid week, if we're careful. I think we're good to go."

"Wait," Katara said, and Lu Da turned. "Can you give me my share of dinner now?"

His brows squished together, sliding a curious glance at Ozai and back to her. "Why?"

"Just…" She leveled a pointed look. "Can you?"

Shrugging, he reached a tattooed arm into the smaller satchel and drew out a small loaf of bread, handed it to her. She smiled and spared Ozai a quick glance.

"What are doing?" he demanded, his arms tightening.

"Be right back." She sprung into a swift step before he could stop her.

"Katara," Ozai hissed at her back, jaw clenching as she headed straight into the heart of the market. She stopped before the two children, stooping down.

The little girl shuffled back behind her brother, eyeing Katara around his shoulder with large, sad eyes. Ozai watched, hands curled tight, as the waterbender spoke softly and held out the loaf of bread, the pair inspecting it eagerly but hesitantly. At last, the boy took it with a small smile and a bow before turning back to his sister, exchanging wide-eyed grins and galloping off onto a quiet side street.

Ozai could only glare as she returned, smiling, seemingly unfazed by his dark anger. Gritting his teeth, he took her calmly by the upper arm but his sudden, hard grip betrayed any calmness he might have shown. Katara gasped, her smile breaking as she met his gaze, rewarding him with a fleeting quiver of fear.

"What are you doing?" he snarled.

Her blue eyes flitted over his. "Feeding those poor, begging kids."

"No. You're causing a scene. The last thing we need is to draw unnecessary attention."

"Like you're doing right now?" she challenged and he gripped her harder. "Hardly anyone even seemed to notice or care about those kids."

"Which is why your little chivalrous act would draw attention."

"Ozai's right, buttercup," Lu Da cut in. "It was a noble thing to do. But best we get moving."

With one quiet shove of her arm, Ozai drove her forward a step before letting go. They made their way as discreetly as possible toward the other side of town, keeping mostly to the perimeter.

"I hope it was worth it," he rumbled on the way. "Sacrificing your evening meal to those filthy urchins."

"They needed it more than I did," she replied quietly. Ozai slid her a grumbling look. He sighed deeply, shaking his head, but knew it was futile to argue with her any further.

As they neared the eastern border of town, Ozai spotted a wooden noticeboard, weathered and splintering, full of yellowed paper and rusty nails. Local announcements, advertisements, opportunities for those seeking work, one such flyer informing them that "Help" was indeed "Wonted." At the far-right side of the board was a poster for some sort of curiosity shop. Tonro's Curios: Rarities, Oddities, & the Finest Antiquities.

The noticeboard slipped from view as Ozai passed but at the last second something caught his eye. He slammed to a stop, Katara nearly running into him as he turned back, glancing over the poster again.

Ozai ripped the sheet of paper from the board to get a closer look, trying to process what he was seeing, eyes widening beneath furrowed brows. Below the shop's description, and vague directions to the town of Tiankong, was the shop's insignia. A tree, mirrored on itself as in a reflection, a starry sky overhead with a crescent moon in its branches. And beneath, its twin, with a vivid blue palate and blazing sun.

"What is it?" Lu Da asked, coming to his side.

At first, Ozai could only stare in bewildered disbelief. "This image…" he said at last, shaking his head. "I saw it in a dream."

Moon above, sun below.

His dream. The riddle. And now this. It hardly seemed possible.

The man shifted on his feet, studying him long and hard. "Uhh… Listen, if this heat is getting to you… It's almost safe now, maybe you should take that heavy cloak off."

"I'm serious," Ozai retorted, giving him a stern look. "I saw it."

Lu Da's mouth worked, searching for words, releasing a baffled breath. "How?" he asked. "What would that even mean?"

"I have no idea," said Ozai, straightening as he folded the paper up, slipped it into his pocket. "But I think we should head for Tiankong."