A/N: Now here is another new chapter as promised, enjoy!
Sokka and the rest of the group had been led in the dark of the night to the home of Master Piandao; greatest swordsman in the Fire Nation and apparently a personal friend of Iroh. They were immediately lead to two rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, and given some proper Fire Nation apparel to help them blend in more. After some brief protesting from Toph about having to redo her bun into a top-knot, having to wear little girl's shoes with soles, and having to carry a wooden stick to feel her way around with she understood that the stick was not a doubt about her abilities but a way for her to see her way around and not draw attention to herself. They were sent to their rooms after that, all except for Sokka, who was eager to present himself to Master Piandao.
"Why don't you wait until morning?" asked Lee as Sokka finished dressing in his red and black Fire Nation disguise.
"Because then he'll think I'm not serious." Said Sokka as he tried to put his hair into a top knot. At least it wasn't a ponytail.
"I think you should just be yourself and try your best. He'll see that you're already good with the boomerang and then he'll see that you'll be a great student." Said the ever optimistic Aang. He felt bad about not knowing how Sokka felt all this time.
"But don't be too much yourself. I get the feeling that I know this man from somewhere and I get the feeling that he was pretty strict." Said Zuko as he attempted to put his short hair into a top knot. He made a frustrated noise and gave up.
"Maybe he's the one who taught you how to use your dual swords." Said Sokka absentmindedly as he debated taking his boomerang with him. He decided against it, a boomerang was not a sword after all and he was going to become as close to a master swordsman as he could before the eclipse.
"Dual swords?" asked Zuko. He remembered some in the old apartment but his Uncle had said that those were just for decoration.
"Yeah, you used to be the Blue Spirit. You saved me once from this guy, Admiral Zhao, when he had me captured. You had a mask and swords and you saved me but then you got shot with an arrow but then I saved you but then you passed out but then you woke up and we talk but then you shot flames at me but we're friends now." Said Aang in one breath without stopping. Zuko and Sokka both wore expressions of amazement.
"Wow…that really happened?" asked Zuko. He could sort of remember something like that happening but he couldn't see himself doing it. It was strange, like a memory from a dream long since gone.
"Yeah, it did." said Aang absently as he tied a headband over his tattoo. He would have to wear a headband and a hat until his hair managed to grow out more.
"…And why, exactly, haven't I heard about this before?" asked Sokka still trying to wrap his head around this. Aang told them about things he did a hundred years ago with people long dead all the time but something like Zuko saving his life back when they were still enemies slipped his mind?
"Well this is back when you and Katara were sick and I had to go and get those frozen frogs for you to suck on." Said Aang pulling his long sleeves down over his arm tattoos. Great, he was going to bake like a fruit pie all summer long. This material was much heavier than his normal monk's clothes mainly because the Fire Nation didn't make long clothes for in the winter.
"Frozen frogs…?" asked Zuko. Where would they get frozen frogs in the middle of the Earth Kingdom? How did those frogs get frozen in the first place?
"Ugh! Don't remind me, I had warts on my tongue for a week." Said Sokka rubbing his tongue on his sleeve as he felt the phantom bumps of the tongue warts.
"Warts on your…tongue?" asked Zuko feeling his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Now he regretted asking. He did not like where this story was going.
"Yeah, but you got better." said Aang forever the optimist. Zuko gave him a look; he supposed that optimism was all that Aang had after losing everyone he ever knew. Wow, his thoughts were getting kind of dark. Must have been the stress of the day.
"Sure, I got better, but you never told me about the whole getting captured by Admiral Zhao and then getting saved by Lee thing." Said Sokka. He felt bad at the anger of his tone but he felt like this was the kind of thing that warranted mentioning.
"I just…I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up or worry anyone. I mean, he wasn't ready to join us then and you and Katara were sick…then I just sort of missed my chance to mention it with the everything that happened to us." Said Aang finishing the last button on his sleeve. He looked every bit the Fire Nation kid, albeit an overdressed one.
"It's Ok, Aang." Said Sokka putting an arm around Aang. Zuko watched the scene with a pensive look. He hated not being able to remember everything.
"The master will see you now." Said one of Master Piandao's servants. Sokka wordlessly got up and screwed his face into an appropriately respectful expression. It was now or never.
"Iroh, what makes you think that you can tell me who I will and will not take on as a student?" asked Piandao as he sipped his tea, the game board in front of them filled with tiles in an intricate pattern
"I do not presume to order you to teach or to not teach the boy, I simply said that you would not do well to pass him up. He has great potential." Said Iroh placing another piece on the board.
"What makes you think that he has talent?" asked Piandao motioning for his cup to be refilled.
"I was right about my nephew, wasn't I?" asked Iroh with a smile. He knew, or at least hoped, that Zuko's skills would come back to him. He made up for his lack of bending talent with his swordsman abilities.
"Yes but you were also wrong about a lot of things, you know what I'm talking about." said Piandao with a pointed look.
"My friend, even the best plans are not carved in stone." Said Iroh in a jovial voice, not betraying at all what he was really feeling.
"No but I would like to know how one is supposed to follow plans which change hourly." Said Piandao sipping his tea again.
"Oh? I believe that you teach that one must be ready to change direction at a moment's notice." Said Iroh
"The way of the sword is not confined to one nation or one situation but it is not applicable to all situations." Said Piandao
"You trust me in my directions, it is for the good of everyone." Said Iroh not in the sagely tone he used with the group but in one that simply stated a fact. An irrefutable fact, one which could not be questioned like the sky being blue.
"This war has got to end; too many lives have been lost on all sides." Said Piandao thinking not only of the loss of an entire ethnic group but the senseless loss of life that had gone on for a hundred years. Entire generations had grown up knowing nothing but war, death, and suffering.
"I have seen the results of this war, played out in so many different ways so many different times." Said Iroh with a haunted look on his face.
"Your trip to the spirit world?" asked Piandao. He believed in the spirits, not to would be foolish, and he believed that Iroh had been there. There was nothing in the world that could stop a grieving man, especially one who had outlived his own son. Such a thing was a very common unnatural occurrence in these war torn years.
"Yes. As punishment for making my way into their world I was shown every possible ending to this war. I had seen the Fire Nation destroyed by the very spirits who created it and I, myself, a refugee in a sea of thousands; the last Fire Bender. I also saw a young man with a scar standing before a crowd next to a small air bender monk. They were revered and loved by the crowd who cheered and cheered for them. That is the future I want so see come to pass." Said Iroh. It felt good to get all of that off of his chest. He took a calming breath, he felt old then, impossibly old. A knock at the door disputed the silence that had engulfed them.
"That would be young Sokka." Said Piandao
"I feel that this would be a good time to dismiss myself. Goodnight, my friend." Said Iroh. He got up and took his leave just as Sokka entered the room. Sokka watched the mast swordsman as he sat at the table taking small, leisurely sips of his tea. Suddenly all his planning, his bravado, evaporated like water in the desert.
"Let me guess…you're the greatest swordsman in your village and you've journeyed long and far to be taught by me?" asked a very bored Master Piandao as he sized up the gangly water tribe boy in front of him.
"No, I think I'm a good fighter but I know that I still have a lot to learn." Said Sokka humbling himself before master Piandao. Not in a false way like a jealous noble posturing himself before king but in a genuine way. Sokka knew he had a lot to learn and he was not ashamed of this simple fact.
"Then we'll begin in the morning." Said the Master turning back to his game board. Sokka excused himself with as much dignity as he could muster before skipping down the halls without a care in the world. He passed Jin coming out of the girl's bedroom.
"Hey guys…." Said Jin as she saw a giddy Sokka skipping down the halls with uncontained joy.
"Yeah Jin, what is it?" asked Katara as she experimented with her hair. She had it in a sort of semi top know with most of it loose. She had also tied her top into a mid-drift baring outfit; it was really hot in the Fire Nation. She wasn't sure how she was going to survive for the next few weeks without melting into a puddle on the floor.
"It feels like Sokka's skipping." Said Toph as she felt Sokka skipping down the wooden halls. Thank goodness she had been practicing seeing the earth in the wood of trees back when they were in the forest. Still, when she had her shoes on she was mostly blind inside. It scared her and she would have lived in the yard if that wouldn't have aroused suspicion.
"How can you tell it's Sokka?" asked Jin as she searched through the clothes for something that would fit over her bulging mid-section. Everything here was red and black and silky and tight, very tight. She almost missed the long robe like dresses of the upper ring of Ba Sing Se. Almost, that is.
"I just can." Said Toph turning towards the window so no one could see her blushing. She had been doing that a lot lately, it was annoying.
"Oh, so I guess Master Piandao agreed to teach him." said Katara happy for her brother. She felt bad having not realized how Sokka felt being the only non-bender in the group.
"Looks like." Said Toph. She was met with laughs a few moments later as the joke sunk in. These were looking like good times, good times.