As they continued their repairs on the airship, Zuko suspected that they had long since fixed its problems and were now working on certain improvements. While Sokka's engineering expertise did impress Zuko, his lack of sleep from the night before combined with the midday heat was starting to make his vision blur. Seal jerky and Whaletail Ale for both breakfast and lunch didn't help, either. Finally, they stepped back to assess their work, and much to Zuko's relief, Sokka declared the project done.

"It needs a name," he said.

"A what?" Zuko raised a hand above his forehead to shield his eyes from the glaring sun.

"You know, like we do with our boats? My Dad built his with his own hands and named it—"

"The Blue Wolf," they said together in unison.

"Believe it or not, I helped with the design of these things," Sokka added, pointing back at the airship.

Zuko nodded. "I believe it. You gonna name it after your spirit animal, then? Like your Dad did?"

Sokka laughed. "It's fitting for an airship, I guess. The eagle hawk. Maybe I should keep it simple, though. The Eagle. Or The Hawk. I already have Hawky as a messenger bird, so how about The Soaring Eagle?" He waved his hand in the air in a dramatic fashion before gripping his chin in a more thoughtful manner. "Hmm. Eagle is a distinction for chief in the Water Tribe, so Chief Eagle? Eagle Chief? No, that doesn't sound right. What do you think? Zuko? Zuko! What's the matter?"

Naming an airship should be simple, yes, but Zuko's stomach was doing that thing where the bottom of it felt like it was dropping out—as if a dead weight had settled there instead, this resident dread that kept clinching his gut and threatening to shatter his world over and over again. Sokka's voice only just barely broke though the sound of blood pounding behind his ears.

"Zuko, sit down. You look like you're about to toss your fireflakes."

"S-s-sokka. Wasn't your grandfather's spirit animal an eagle?"

"Uhh, yeah? Why?"

"How much do you know about him?"

"Not much. Dad hardly ever talks about him. I don't think they got along. Bato told me once that my grandfather was pretty ruthless as a chief. Not anything like Dad. And he was a rotten father. Why? Did he tell you something?"

"Not much, no."

"Then, what's up?"

"Nothing. I just… I had a dream about an eagle. That's all." And a snow leopard. And a blood sacrifice.

Oblivious to the dark turn Zuko's thoughts had taken, Sokka continued, "You're probably right. I shouldn't name it anything with the eagle. Hmm, what about Warrior Hawk? So it's a nod to Suki, too?"

Zuko swallowed back the bitterness of bile in the back of his throat. "Sounds like the name of a warship, though." And I've lost my taste for war.

Sokka pulled the pai sho tile out of his pocket and gently rubbed it between between his fingers and thumb. "I'm afraid it might be needed as one."

Zuko wished he could blame it on the bad ale and not fear overtaking him, but he couldn't help but do just as Sokka had said. Except that he hadn't eaten any fireflakes to toss. And the last time he had thrown up had been on the prison steps after visiting his father, thus solidifying his suspicions. With all notions of spirit animals aside, he just knew these bad feelings had something to do with Ozai.

"The New Ozai Society," Iroh said with a deep-set frown.

"The what?" Zuko leaned in toward his uncle at the table where they shared tea and rice cakes with Hakoda and Sokka later that afternoon. Suki had apparently roped Katara and Jin into helping her with some wedding stuff. Sokka gave him a look of warning, calling them the "saber-tooth sisters," but Zuko only wished that proposals and marriages could be their main focus right now.

"It's a message from Advisor Piandao. It came by way of falcon-hawk since they're the fastest and hardest to track," Iroh continued.

"Falcon Hawk! That's what I should name the airship!" Sokka said with a spark in his eyes and a mouthful of rice cake.

"Sokka, shut up! This is serious!" Zuko snapped, earning him stern, yet solemn gazes from the two elders at the table.

"There was an attempted coup at the palace, but Colonel Cheng's guards held them off, and your advisors have everything under control for the time being." Iroh's finger followed the words on the page as he read. "Piandao and Jeong Jeong will remain there, but they wish for us to rally a support faction here to accompany the Fire Lord's return."

"What about the prison?" Zuko asked.

Iroh raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Is it… secure? Do they know if anyone—"

"I'm sorry, it doesn't say, Nephew."

Fuck. "What about the mental hospital?"

"It doesn't—"

"WHY doesn't it say?" Zuko grabbed the parchment from his uncle's hands and skimmed over it. The message revealed nothing else, unfortunately.

"I don't think you need to worry about Azula right now," Iroh said.

"Why not? She's my sister! She's family!" Zuko saw Hakoda's expression darken, perhaps at his defense of someone who had once tried to kill him. She also tried to kill Katara.

But Hakoda understood about complicated family dynamics, didn't he? And betrayal, too.

Zuko let out a long sigh. "So, we don't know anything about this New Ozai Society? What do they want?"

"I assume they wish to see your father in power again," was Iroh's grim reply.

"WHICH IS WHY I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRISON!"

"Wait, wait," Sokka interjected. "Wasn't New Ozai the name of Omashu when it fell? Maybe the group is from there? Or bitter about what happened there? It doesn't have to be about your dad, Zuko."

"Perhaps King Bumi can offer some insight when he arrives," Iroh considered.

"IF this secret society hasn't overthrown Omashu, too!" Zuko knew he was assuming the worst. He always did. And he was usually right. Anything with Ozai's name attached to it is bound to be bad. Worse than bad, actually.

Hakoda started to say something, but before he could get more than a few words out, a Kyoshi villager interrupted them. "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, but General Iroh asked me to alert you if anyone approached the island. There is a ship entering the bay now and should be docking soon. It's… Water Tribe, sir."

"It's probably Master Pakku! Maybe Gran Gran came, too!" Sokka's face lit up like they hadn't been talking about gloom and doom at all.

No one else shared his excitement, though. Zuko noticed the muscles that flexed in Hakoda's arm when Iroh warily placed his hand there and asked, "Do you want to go check it out, Chief, or would you like for me to?"

Hakoda's jaw clinched. "I will." He stood swiftly and nodded to the villager. "Zuko, would you please come with me?"

Zuko saw the hurt in Sokka's eyes. A brief exchange of glances between father and son meant that Hakoda saw it, too. "Sokka—" he started.

"—is needed for some urgent work with the Order." Iroh removed his hand from the Chief's arm and gently gripped Sokka's shoulder. "You have a messenger hawk, don't you?"

"Yes sir," Sokka answered without taking his eyes off his father. Zuko didn't understand why they didn't just switch places. He could help his uncle with the White Lotus business, and Sokka could go receive the Water Tribe ship with Hakoda. This doesn't make sense.

But instead of speaking out, he just watched them go, suddenly struck by his own wave of jealousy.

"Sokka doesn't know," Hakoda offered by way of explanation. "And I'm not ready… to tell him, yet. Not… like this."

The Chief walked away before Zuko could collect himself and his thoughts. When he finally caught up, he was trying so hard to match the other's furious stride, that the plaguing question slipped unbidden from his lips. "Why did Kanna kill your father?"

Hakoda didn't say anything at first, he just kept taking determined steps in the direction of the docks. Then, he stopped, and everything else seemed to stop with him. There was no crunch of their feet scuffling across the ground, no distant sound of waves crashing against the shore—only his voice, deep and low and sad.

"She thought it was in my—the tribe's—best interest if he were no longer the chief. It happened years ago. I thought he had just fallen ill. I never considered—"

Poison, then. A good way to get rid of unwanted leaders. Zuko shuddered. "How did you find out?"

"She told me. Just before I left. She said that desperate times call for desperate measures. And if I didn't kill Gilak, then he would surely kill me. He had already threatened my loved ones, just like… just like my father did… so something had to be done."

"Who is Gilak?" Zuko asked, but he already knew. He had to be the leader of the rebel group from the South Pole—the one who had tried to kill Malina and arranged the attempted murder of Katara. Surely Hakoda would deal with such a man on his own terms. And he wouldn't need Kanna's encouragement—or confession—to spur his actions.

"He's a… brother in arms," the Chief replied. "We fought together in the war. I thought I could reason with him. I thought we could talk things through. But I was wrong."

"Some people think violence is the only way. Men like that don't see reason. Men like… my father. Men like…" Yours.

"But do you answer them with violence? He is not my enemy. We are not even at war."

"It is a different type of enemy." The one you never see coming. "And a different type of war." Not the one that spills blood, but the one that severs the bonds of it.

Something in Hakoda softened, almost to the point of breaking. "It was never supposed to be like this. We were like brothers."

"But you'd be right to protect your loved ones. It sounds like Kanna may have been trying to protect you… and probably Kya, too… if she…" The image from his dream of the leopard feeding her cubs flashed in his mind. His mother would do—had done the same for him. And if—when someone had threatened Katara, he'd take care of the guy himself if he could.

Wouldn't he?

Even though Hakoda had started walking again, time and space still seemed to be suspended between them. "Zuko, tell me something. Would you kill your sister even after what she did to you? And your loved ones?"

"No." For his part, Zuko never viewed his Agni Kai with Azula as a fight to the death.

"What about your father?"

"That was Aang's fight, not mine." It was his default answer. Partly because he believed it was true and partly because he knew it was safe. He wasn't sure what he would do if he faced his father again. Surrender? Speak his mind? Neither had worked out well for him in the past. Maybe Kanna was right. Desperate times call for…

"Balance."

Zuko gaped at Hakoda, wondering if he missed something. "Huh?"

"Aang fights for balance. With violence on one end of the scale, you can only balance that with mercy. Aang chose not to kill your father because more bloodshed would tip the scale and plunge the world further into chaos. You can't fight evil with evil."

"But what about this New Ozai Society? With my father alive, there could still be more chaos… and evil…"

"As long as there are good people around like you and Aang and others who seek to maintain the balance, then the evil forces will stay in check."

"But what happens when the good people decide to leave, Chief?" Zuko wondered if his meaning would be understood.

Hakoda broke stride again and turned to pin him with eyes of ice. "I'm not going anywhere."

"But you left the South Pole."

"And I'm headed to our sister tribe. We all used to be one tribe anyway."

"But the South needs someone to fight for them."

"I'm not running away, Zuko. Not this time. I, like you, have recognized that it is not my battle to fight. It's someone else's."

Zuko's mind was racing now, but he couldn't settle on which question to ask next, if any. He'd certainly probed enough, but his instincts were telling him there was more. Something wasn't quite right. This isn't the wolf. The wolf is loyal. The wolf is a fighter. The wolf stays with the pack. Unless…

"We better get to that boat," Hakoda huffed. Picking up pace, he roughly pushed past the brush and into the clearing that led to the docks. As leaves and twigs scraped across barely healed skin, he gripped his side and grimaced.

That was it! The wolf had been injured. He left… to die alone. It was only by chance that we were there to rescue him.

Hakoda had called it a pride thing. And Uncle had said pride was the source of shame. And Malina said shame could block one's water chakra?

Zuko knew he was supposed to draw wisdom from more than one source, but why did it have to be so… confusing?

"It's Nutha! And Niyok!" Hakoda's voice shook him from his thought trance, although Zuko couldn't make sense of the words. Some Water Tribe spirits I haven't heard of, yet?

No, they were girls. Two of them around Katara's age that had disembarked and were wrapped up in one of Hakoda's infamous bear hugs. This is… odd.

The three then huddled together and shared cautious words as evidenced by their worried expressions, but they were all smiles by the time Zuko caught up to them.

"Nutha, Niyok, this is Fire Lord Zuko." Hakoda made the introductions, and everyone offered the customary greetings and bows.

"They've been working at the Earthen Fire Refinery, but the fumes keep making a lot of the workers there sick. I've arranged with Suki for them to come train to become Kyoshi Warriors," Hakoda continued.

"That's great." Zuko realized that it was the first time he'd seen anyone else from the Southern Water Tribe that was the same age as Sokka and Katara. He'd never thought about it before, but he suddenly wondered why that was the case.

"If you two want to go on and meet Suki up at the village, Zuko and I can gather your gear for you," Hakoda offered. Zuko nodded in agreement.

"Oh, that would be so nice! Feels great to finally stretch our sea legs!" Niyok replied. "I can't wait to get out of these boots!"

"Ugh, no one wants to smell your stinky feet!" Nutha waved a hand in front of her freckled nose.

Hakoda laughed. "You won't be needing those parkas here, either."

Nutha then eyed her sister with a smirk before pulling Niyok's hood over her head. She took off running, calling over her shoulder, "Race you there, skunk bear!"

Zuko stared after their retreating figures. Yup. Definitely Water Tribe women. Same smirk. Same spunk.

"Sisters," Hakoda said while shaking his head.

It was a more lighthearted moment, and Zuko hadn't seen the Chief smile so fondly in a long time. He hated to ruin it.

But he did anyway. "Why are there so few in the Water Tribe the same age as Sokka and Katara? Did they all go away somewhere to work like Nutha and Niyok?"

Hakoda's demeanor immediately turned grave, and his entire chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath. He let it out slow and steady and almost painfully before he finally spoke. "Under my father's rule as chief, young men were sent to war as soon as they came of age at sixteen. I wasn't allowed, though, because I was the only heir after my brother passed. And I had a responsibility to provide my own heirs for the chiefdom."

He paused, and Zuko's thoughts drifted to the forty-first division and the Fire Nation's strategic sacrifice of new recruits. It wasn't quite the same, but…

"Almost an entire generation was lost to the war," Hakoda continued. "Only a few came home, and when they did, they were different. The fighting had changed them. Some, like Bato, refused to start a family. He wouldn't bring children into such a ravaged world. Nutha and Niyok… well, their father had a different way of coping, you could say."

Zuko wondered if he had met their father without knowing it. He'd encountered many gruff and war-hardened Water Tribesmen during their South Pole stay.

"When I became chief, we went on the defensive. We took some time to rebuild and grow. And I would never force anyone to go and fight. And we didn't have to until…"

Hakoda closed his eyes, and Zuko knew he was reliving the day that Kya was taken from him. Spirits, it must have been horrible. The heat of anguish burning. The lingering smell of smoke. The echoes of someone…

Screaming. Someone was screaming.

Hakoda's eyes shot open and met Zuko's for the briefest of moments before they both started sprinting back toward the village.