disclaimer. atla belongs to bryke, but zutara are belong to us.
author's notes. making up for the terrible cliffhanger with this relatively quick update!
thanks to everyone for reading and commenting! and as always, much love to circasurvival for all her diligent beta-reading!
i give you...
southern lights.
chapter xxv. the illusion of separation
she read your mind and called it her terror
misplacing her sleep to keep the world nearer
"flood on the floor" / purity ring
"I'm sorry. Do I know you?"
The words float in the air, insubstantial as their meaning.
This can't be happening. This can't be real. A trick or a joke or something, any minute now he'll give it up.
Her grip on her brother's arms slackens for a moment, the sharp intake of air dying in her throat and abruptly turning into an uncertain scoff.
"Really? Is that the way you're going to play it?" she asks disbelievingly. Her hands jam onto her hips, denial barrelling through new panic. "Okay Sokka, you had me going there for a second. Ha ha, very funny."
Sokka stares at her quizzically. "Is it really? I have no idea what you're talking about. Who are you?"
Katara scoffs again, louder. "Quit joking around! After all this time, I risked my neck and literally almost broke my foot to save you in the middle of a giant life-or-death battle, and this is how you're choosing to thank me? This is serious!"
"Hey, I agree!" Sokka protests. "This is very serious! As in life-or-death, I-could-be-pulverized-into-mooselion-meat-any-moment-now level serious! So I'm…just gonna hightail it out of here, if you don't mind, whoever you are."
She lets out a strangled yell and shoves him by the shoulders. He goes tumbling down with an indignant yelp. "Whoever I am?" Katara yells hoarsely. "How can you even say that to me? After everything – Mom and Dad, the wars, the school –"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sokka's tone holds no mirth. He scrambles to his feet. "I swear to you, I'm not joking around here!"
For the first time since the whole conversation, something other than blank confusion crosses his face. But it isn't recognition.
It's pity.
"No," Katara says, unsure of whether it is directed to him or herself. "No, this can't be right. You're Sokka, you're my brother –"
Annoyance crosses his face. "What are you even talking about? My name is Lee, and – and I would know if I had a sister!"
It flashes through her mind like a spark of Zuko's lightning. The Dai Li. Jet. The large rock chamber with all the sleepers, the bodiless voice echoing along the subterranean corridors…
A chill of fear crawls down her spine. "What did they do to you?"
"Who?"
"The Dai Li." Fury mounts where despair had been moments earlier. She steps up to him, ignoring the stab of pain in her ankle. "They took you, didn't they? Down into their secret lair under Lake Laogai and brainwashed you, just like they did with everyone else." She shakes her head, fumbles for the exact wording. "He has no more need for you – I mean – the Earth King no longer requires your services at Lake Laogai –"
He laughs. For a second, it feels like old times – Sokka finding some way to laugh even in the grimmest of moments. "Yeah, no, been there once already," he remarks, infuriatingly calm even as Katara's nerves skyrocket again. "Nice try, though."
It's like trying to rescue the sleepers all over again, except far worse. The failure from before should have tempered her expectations with a cold dash of reality, but nothing could have prepared her for this.
She grabs him by the temples, hands gloved in glowing water without even thinking about it.
"Get off me! What are you doing?" He yelps, trying to pull away.
"You have to remember," Katara pleads, running her hands along the sides of his temples, trying to feel for a block in his chi, anything that could betray an explanation. "Please, you can't have just forgotten everything –"
"Lady, I just told you, you've got the wrong guy!" Sokka's voice is almost petulant now.
Katara tries to focus. The roar of blood is loud in her ears; the only thing her fingers can really feel is the erratic tremble of her own pulse. But through it, one thing becomes alarmingly clear.
There is no sign of injury to Sokka's head. No tangled chi in the paths of his mind like there had been with Jet. Nothing to betray any foul play of any kind. And if Toph was here, Katara knows what she'd say.
He's telling the truth.
"You can't be." Her voice is a small child's, scared and on the verge of tears. "You're – you're him. You have to be."
A small distance away, something rumbles like a distant thunderclap. The ground begins to tremble again. A sound like a shattering glacier, or perhaps an avalanche, grows louder.
Sokka's hands close around her wrists in fear. They are bigger than she remembers – the Sokka of her memories was a tall, spindly teenager, while the one standing before her is near fully grown, built strong like a proper man from the Water Tribes.
"Look, whoever you are – whoever you think I am," he says wildly, his voice suddenly high-pitched and urgent, "It won't matter if those guys over there catch me, okay? I know too much. They want me dead. Do you understand that?"
Katara watches him through blurring eyes. Her throat is clamped so tight, she can't speak properly. She nods instead.
"I have to make it out of here alive. People are counting on me. If you really want to help me, you'll let me get out of here."
As though it was possible for her to refuse, even after everything. Katara nods again.
Sokka flashes her a grin of gratitude and she feels her heart break. "Thank you, magic water lady! I'll make it up to you one day, I promise!"
"How –" His voice, his face, his smile, all so familiar. Katara struggles to find her voice. "How will I find you again?"
"I'm big in the resistance," Sokka declares, shrugging nonchalantly. "Just ask for Lee."
The conspicuous familiarity chafes violently - how, from the tip of his wolf-tail to his annoying confidence in the face of insane odds, the man standing before her is so very obviously Sokka. And yet -
They did something to him. A new calm settles over her; a new hope to clutch at, however fragile. Something new, something I haven't seen yet. I just need time.
"I'm going to see you again," Katara promises grimly, already turning to face the crowd of Dai Li breaking free from her ice. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this. And when I find out what they did to you...I'm going to destroy them."
He pauses behind her.
"Man. I wouldn't want to get on your bad side!" he quips, but there's a waver of uncertainty in his voice where there hadn't been before. "Uh - thanks again! See you around, I guess. Lee out!"
The sound of his footfalls recedes toward the thick brush lining the base of the mountains. The world seems to go very quiet, even though the Dai Li have mostly broken free and there are shards of ice and broken rock flying everywhere.
Katara stares them down, seeing but not comprehending. She is pinned against a far corner of the battlefield, her friends nowhere near enough to help. Her ankle is close to giving out. The cut on her forehead still oozes, making everything dizzy. There are a little over a dozen of uniformed agents sliding up to meet her.
Somewhere in the distance, Sokka leaves her behind. Again.
She raises her wrists and the shards of ice whiz through the air like sharp knives. A lunge and then a tidal wave larger than before pummels through the approaching benders.
Their screams litter the air but she can't hear them. The sound doesn't register next to the snarl ripping through her throat.
They took him from me. They're going to pay.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck he isn't waking up! What do we do?"
"What can we do? We're literally pinned here! If I move at all, they're going to crush us!"
Zuko shakes Aang's shoulders violently. The unconscious Air Nomad's head bobbles unresponsively. Thin streams of blood dribble out the corner of his mouth.
His broken shoulder screams where it bleeds profusely. Giving up, he lets Aang go and clutches at it with his good hand.
"Where's Katara when you need her?" he hisses, twisting his head to stare blankly at the thick rock wall in front of him. It sinks into the ground, straining.
"Sugar Queen is a little preoccupied, in case you haven't noticed!" Toph snaps. "We have to see this through ourselves!"
"But how?" Zuko's fingers prod at his shoulder, already stiffening up under the blazing pain. "There are only two of us now! I don't even know how many are left, I don't know what the others are doing, if the rest of the troops are going to make it in time! There's just you and me, Toph! That's it!"
"Well it's not ideal," Toph grates, squatting deeper, shoulders shaking with the effort to keep the wall covering them. "But we can't keep hiding like this, Sparky. We need a new plan now!"
"This was all a big mistake!" The words burst out of him along with all the terror he can no longer hold back. "We weren't ready for this! Look at us! Aang's unconscious, Katara ran away, you can barely stand, I can't move my arm -"
As though in answer, Toph doubles over with a cry, knees digging into the dirt and muscles in her neck straining. The rock wall guarding them from the rest of the Dai Li shrinks foot by foot. Her arms lift back up, corded and shaking with enormous effort. The boulders littering the ground whiz toward the wall and stack along its top.
"Sparky, listen to me," she hisses, struggling back onto her feet as the top of the wall solidifies. "You're slipping. Get it together. We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves -"
"I'm not feeling sorry for myself, okay? It's a fact! They're going to win. There's no way around it anymore. This is how we're going to die."
"No." A twist of Toph's fist sends a small pebble flying toward him. It raps him against the temple, harmless but hard enough to smart. "I'm not taking that for an answer! They have us surrounded, so you need to get back up and get your lightning in order now."
"I can't!" The pain in his body slips away; he can't feel anything but fear, all-encompassing, utterly paralyzing. "There's still so many of them left to fight! What if the others won't make it in time, how are we going to last -"
"Because we have to!" Her feet gouge into the ground as she tries to stay rooted. "This is the real deal! Twinkletoes is out for the count, Sweetness is out there somewhere on her own, and if we don't do something now, she'll be joining the club!"
It hammers into his fraying nerves. "O-okay," he stammers, scrambling to his feet.
The earth quivers beneath him. His body is gripped with uncontrollable tremors. Next to the sounds of the battle erupting beyond him, quiet is very hard to find. He tries to remember his uncle's lessons (accept everything, surrender) but all he can see are nightmares made real. Aang's unconscious body. Toph collapsing. Katara running away, pinned off in some corner, surrounded and alone.
How can I accept this?
The chi pooling in his gut sparks and fizzles out. Smoke trails from his fingertips harmlessly.
"I can't do it!" he chokes. Despair eats at the last of his control. "I have to be calm, Toph! How can I be calm now? I - I keep trying to push it all aside but I just can't."
"So don't!" Toph bellows. "What are you, some sissy Air Nomad who runs away when the going gets tough? You're Prince Zuko for crying out loud! Stop trying to push your problems away and start facing them head on!"
The wall covering them shrinks down to a couple of feet in height. He crouches behind it to stay out of sight.
"In a moment, we're going to be out of cover," Toph bites out, kneeling beside him. "I'm not wasting anymore time hiding. Whatever is waiting on the other side of that wall, we're going to face it. Sweetness needs us, and we're going to protect the rest of our friends. Together. Are you with me?"
Zuko's breath rattles in his chest; his heartbeat is erratic. But he squares his shoulders anyway and says, "Yes." His voice is even.
The world sways uncontrollably. The ground fissures and begins to split. The air is alive with flying rocks; they seem to surround him like a storm. But when Toph holds her hand out, he grips it firmly. Her fingers feel as clammy as his, and despite the stubborn set of her jaw, he sees the same fears reflected in her sightless eyes.
Then she throws her head back and her entire body relaxes.
The last few feet of wall covering them suddenly shatters. The pieces hang in the air, floating in a strange orbit. Through the cracks that open up between them, Zuko sees the Dai Li bending in unison directly in front of them. Jeong-Jeong and Iio pick them off at the edges; the others are out of sight.
The sharp edges of the rocks slowly turn inward until they're pointing straight at him. Then, obeying some unheard command, they rush toward him like flying daggers.
There's no time to think about anything except for the air rushing out of his lungs.
His feet stay planted to the ground. His aching body pushes through its agony, outward at the incoming onslaught.
Somewhere beside him, Toph does the same.
Bright fire seems to surround him in every direction. He squints through it, barely able to see. The air grows boiling hot. The incoming rock shards seem to grumble for a moment before the sound of whooshing liquid drowns it out.
Something crashes to the ground and barrels toward the opposing Dai Li contingent with the fury of rushing water - and the uncompromising strength of earth. Its glow is infernal.
Screams reach his ears from a long distance away. He blinks, barely registering the scene in front of him.
The battlefield looks like something straight out of hell, the ground rent and broken, smoking incessantly. And everywhere is a strange molten substance, red-hot and bubbling slowly. It carpets the surface of the earth, obeying his command like fire, but heavy - like a slow liquid.
"What the hell did you do, Sparky?" Toph yells, awestruck. Her fists close experimentally and she lunges forward.
The liquid fire bears down on the Dai Li with the weight of a thousand rocks. The enemy benders struggle, unable to redirect its flow.
The sight is dumbfounding - did this really happen - and the triumphant familiarity of it all threatens to overwhelm him.
After all, this is not the first time he's accidentally fused his bending in battle before, but it still feels just as surreal to him.
"You mean, what the hell did we do?" he corrects, his voice a mystified hush. All the complaints of his injured body slide away, fear and despair yielding to the sudden surge of energy welling up inside.
He twists into an offensive stance and follows through with a firebender's spiral kick. The fiery molten substance reels and breaks through the formation of enemy benders, splitting them off from each other effortlessly.
"We did that?" Toph's grin widens. "What the hell are we even bending right now?"
"I..." Zuko realizes with growing amazement, "I think it's lava!"
The power of it seems to echo somewhere in his gut, invigorating, intoxicatingly renewing. And where mere moments earlier he'd been tired, broken, defeated, now he feels more invincible with every passing second.
Toph drops into a squat and the lava swirls and explodes outward, raining hell onto the enemy benders. "Well, it seems like they can't defend against it! Wanna go roast some Dai Li butts?"
He stares down the line of enemy benders, fists clenching, a huff of surprise sticking in his throat. "It would be my honour."
The sun is low in the sky by now, the day deceptively short. It glares bright orange in her eyes, blinding.
A handful of enemy benders are scattered on the ground, unconscious. Only four remain, too quick, too clever, too powerful for her flagging strength.
She has them backed up against the edge of a deep fissure, trying to wash them into its depths. But her throat is so dry the sides stick together. Her body feels like lead, the weight of it screaming against exhausted muscles. Her water is all but gone, leaving her to bend the very sweat off her brow.
They pause, just out of her reach, watching her from under the brims of their hats. She grimaces at them, struggling for breath.
They took him from me, she tries to think, a mantra against the overwhelming weariness that threatens to cripple her, they took him -
She tries to attack again, but her form is weak and her legs can scarcely hold her weight up. The water that rushes at the enemy benders is more of a puddle than a stream; they swat it away with humiliating ease.
One seems to materialize right before her, too close for her to bend. But close enough to punch. Her fist follows through, an uppercut aimed to the jaw.
The agent disappears before she can touch him.
Something slams into the small of her back, knocking the wind out of her. She collapses to the ground, pinned under its weight. Nausea bubbles through her gut, bile rising in the back of her throat. She spits onto the ground, coughing up red.
Four pairs of boots crunch onto the ground around her. Her vision is dotted with strange black spots.
She tries to scrabble back up, but her body is deaf to the command of her mind. Her fists clench and unclench uselessly. A few drops of water dance on the surface of a puddle harmlessly.
A metal-gloved hand grabs her by the collar and drags her off her feet with enviable strength.
Her hands clutch at the one holding her by the throat. Her feet dangle off the ground. The neck of her armour digs into the back of her head.
The agent holding her tilts his head up and she can almost see his face under the shadow of his hat. His eyes are a pale green, luminous in the dark, but cold and emotionless even as his fist flexes around her neck.
She chokes on her breath, everything seeming to flash before her at once.
I hope he got away, she thinks, squeezing her eyes shut. I hope the others are okay.
In the distance, something seems to sigh.
The agent holding her stiffens. The cloth of his uniform whispers as he turns his head.
An answering rumble as the others surrounding her take off.
Huh?
Katara's eyes slit open. The darkening sky glows bright orange and pink, the sun still heavy on the horizon. Its cool red glow tinges the ground, alive with something -
She blinks, trying to make sense of the fiery red river charging along the ground. It flows and floods like water, yet all the Dai Li standing in its path crumple as though it was stone.
The hand around her neck lets go. She falls to the ground with a crunch. Lands on her side, pain shooting blinding white everywhere.
Stars dance through her vision as the agent turns away from her, toward the oncoming - thing. He hasn't uttered a sound the whole time, Katara realizes, but the set of his shoulders almost makes him look...scared.
The screams, the clanging of rock on metal, all of it seeming to fade to a muffled silence under the low slosh of the fiery river. It bubbles thickly, cascading into the deep fissures splitting the earth and filling them up.
She barely notices the ground swelling behind her. But it tunnels past her, across the length of the valley right to where the bulk of the Dai Li are pinned off by that glowing red substance.
The agent in front of her takes an inadvertent step back. The heel of his boot brushes her shin.
Her eyes stare blankly at the back of his uniform, dark green cloth and smoke grey armour glinting gold in the dying light. Something buzzes in her chest as she struggles to feel something other than fury and despair.
It takes a second before she registers the sudden change in the air. But as the temperature spikes infernally, her weakened body understands danger.
She rolls out of the way just as the sound splits the air.
A massive blast of fire rocks the earth, leaving a smoking crater where the agent had once stood.
The explosion buffets her across the ground. A high-pitched whistle keens loudly in her ears.
The world spins uncontrollably until she crashes into something very solid. A boot - another agent – she opens her eyes, the shrill whistle in her ears fades out to a drone.
But the soldier staring quizzically at her - and the rows of troops lined up behind him - are dressed in deep crimson instead.
She doesn't hear the command shouted in the air to charge, doesn't see the scores of armoured earthbenders leap out of the ground and flank the remaining Dai Li where they stand, trapped and now solidly outnumbered.
All she can really understand is the world swimming around her, a dizzying clash of too many people rushing down the slopes of the ringing mountains, and explosions splitting the air everywhere.
Somewhere, an indomitable buzz of vengeance hisses commands that her bone-weary limbs can no longer understand. Get up, it snaps. Finish it. They took him from you. Make them pay -
A glove emblazoned with the flame-red Empire insignia reaches for her. With a gasp that sounds almost reluctant, darkness finally wrenches her under.
The sun has nearly set by the time the fighting finally stops.
By now the entire valley resembles the ruined city at the heart of the canyon. Except there is no city anymore, the ancient structures smashed to unrecognizable piles of rubble that carelessly scatter the earth. The smooth grassy plains are gouged, scorched, and smoking. Small pools of cooling lava still glow here and there, dotting the former battlefield like swollen red fireflies.
There is a flurry of activity everywhere. Where there had only been nine fighters holding the entire Dai Li force at bay, suddenly hundreds of Fire Empire soldiers dressed in red and green mill about. They put up tents, set up campfires, sort out the wounded, the dead, and the prisoners of war.
"But do you think any of them will actually talk?" Zuko asks grumpily from outside the infirmary tent. Makeshift cots line the area immediately outside it for the less critically wounded. It hasn't been long since he found himself marched off the front lines and seated onto one by the army medics.
You need prompt medical attention, Your Highness, they had explained to him reverently, you and your friend too.
Why, you held almost the entire force at bay nearly single-handedly... Surely after so heroically protecting the Empire from this heinous attack, you can allow yourself a little rest.
Let the others take it from here, Prince Zuko...
Everything that followed was a confusing rush of medical muttering. A small army of medics descended upon on him, plucking off his broken armour and checking everywhere for injuries. Vile-tasting tonics were poured into his mouth, his agonized shoulder stitched up and poulticed carefully, healing salves slathered across the unscarred, heavily bruised side of his face. Only one medic remains, a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, winding clean white bandages along his broken collarbone.
Toph lies sullenly on the cot next to his. Someone had attempted to force a healing tonic down her throat before she lost her cool and yelled at them to leave her alone.
Zuko jerks away from the hovering medic, done with his cast and now poking uncomfortably at the muscles just above his ribcage. "Get off me! Can't you see I'm fine?"
"With - with all due respect, Your Highness," the medic manages to squeak back, "you have several broken bones and - and some hairline fractures that really should be looked at -"
"I said it's fine." Twin flames burst out of his nostrils.
The man falters, before bobbing his head and dipping into a bow that annoys him to the core. "Y - yes, Your Highness! My deepest apologies, Prince Zuko. Perhaps you would like something else to be comfortable? Something hot to eat, perhaps someone to draw up a soothing warm bath -"
"No! Just - just go away!" Zuko pinches the bridge of his nose as the medic backs away, hands wringing.
Toph quirks an eyebrow. "Suddenly you're a real celebrity around here, aren't you?"
"I'm the same exiled prince I was this morning," he mutters. "Nobody cared less back then. Why is everyone fussing now?"
"Because this morning you weren't the exiled prince who heroically saved the Empire," Toph sings in mocking imitation, waving her hands dramatically to emphasize her point.
Zuko groans. "Not you too."
"Hey, as one-half of the Empire-saving duo who isn't getting offered hot baths, I've gotta claim my bounty some way or another." She grins cheekily. "And please stop glaring at me, you know I can't see you anyway."
Zuko drops his gaze to the ground, where he proceeds to glare at the tops of his scuffed black boots.
We made it. Despite everything that went wrong, we made it. We held back the Dai Li, the ambush worked, and now everyone thinks I'm a hero.
He should be elated, but he just feels restless.
The valley is wide around him and the fattening sickle of moon hangs high in the sky above. Yet he feels as if he's caught in some invisible snare.
He glances at the infirmary tent again, its entryway curtained off. A faint whiff of burning herbs and strong ointments escapes from it, but apart from that, nothing. It is the largest structure in the whole valley, except for maybe the prisoners' hold on the far side.
It hasn't been longer than an hour since they'd dragged Aang's unconscious form in there; since Katara, prone and feebly stirring, had been carried in on a makeshift stretcher. The thought of her brings back a surge of complicated feelings he'd rather not dwell on.
Instead, he's racked with guilt. Which is ridiculous, because it was Katara's own inexplicably stupid decision to run off by herself in the middle of the battle and get herself pummelled half to death. None of this is his fault.
But it rankles nonetheless.
A hand clamps down on his injured shoulder. He shakes it off vehemently. "I said no more! What part of 'I'm fine' do you not understand -"
"Now, is that any way to speak to family?"
Zuko freezes before whipping around to face the newcomer.
Standing before him, wearing a smirk of amusement, is Prince Lu Ten.
"Cousin?" Zuko chokes out, equal parts humiliated and ecstatic. He scrambles to his feet; every single muscle in his body burns in protest at the sudden motion.
"Zuko!" The little smirk grows into a grin that reminds him wrenchingly of his uncle. Lu Ten's arms wrap around his shoulders in a fierce hug. "It's been too long - just look at you! You're nearly as tall as I am, now!"
Zuko lets out a tiny burble of indignation, but he is far too spent for banter. "It's good to see you too," he says awkwardly instead. "I see you got our message in time."
"Just barely! Good thing we were already sailing south for the capital when Master Jeong-Jeong's falcon-hawk reached us. I'll admit, I wasn't sure if the old man was exaggerating or not, but from the looks of it he wasn't messing around."
"No. He wasn't." Through the delight of seeing his cousin again, Zuko manages to feel clumsy and tongue-tied.
"Apparently not! Although," Lu Ten tilts his head to the side and gives Zuko a shrewdly appraising once-over, "it seems like you almost didn't need us at all! Saviour of the Empire, they're calling you!"
"Uh…" Zuko feels his face flush at the unexpected praise. Somehow instead of pride, he just feels embarrassed in the scrutiny of the battle's aftermath. He rubs at the back of his head with his uninjured arm. "Well, I think you know by now not to set too much store by what people say."
Lu Ten whistles airily. "And he's modest, too! You really have been spending a lot of time under Father's wing, haven't you?"
"Uh…"
"It's okay to take a little credit once in a while! Anyway, what am I asking you for? I was there, I saw the whole thing! Was that lava I saw you bending? How in Agni's name did you accomplish that?"
"I'm not entirely sure." Zuko coughs, turning to glance at Toph briefly. "Maybe Toph has some ideas."
"Toph Beifong? A friend, I take it?"
"Nah. More like a chaperone," Toph quips in response, before turning her head back to face the darkening sky overhead.
Zuko scowls even as Lu Ten laughs again. "It's a long story," he supplies, suddenly eager to change the subject. "You said you were sailing to the capital. Why?"
Lu Ten gives him a funny look. "For the coronation, of course. Why else?"
The word punches straight into Zuko's gut. "Coronation?"
Lu Ten's eyes, the same amber hue as Uncle's, soften a touch. "You mean nobody told you?"
Zuko shakes his head slowly.
Sympathy crosses Lu Ten's face. It makes Zuko feel very small. "Walk with me," he says steadily. "It appears we have a lot to talk about."
"Apparently." Zuko heaves the word out, hoping he doesn't sound bitter. He tosses a glance over his shoulder where Toph is patiently lying on her cot, pretending not to listen. "Toph, excuse me. I'll be back."
She nods. "Go ahead. It sounds awfully dramatic."
Zuko sighs. "Family matters usually are."
Katara awakens with a start, a hand flying to her chest where her heart drums in a panic. Her eyes dart around the unfamiliar space, her breath trembles in short uncontrolled bursts.
A second later, the pain hits. Every single part of her body hurts, ranging from a dull throb to a blinding, searing bite.
And playing through her mind are wisps of memory, flashes of sheer chaos.
She remembers a fight, a brutal, terrible fight. Underground in the bunker, and then utter carnage in broad daylight.
She remembers fear, pain, desperation. Sparks of lightning racing through the air, some strange fiery river that she surely must have hallucinated.
Vaguely, she remembers gasping and struggling uselessly, ground to a pulp against a faceless enemy - the Dai Li and their sleepers...
And then it hits her with a rush of horror.
Sokka had been there. She'd thrown her arms around him. And he'd looked at her like she was a complete stranger, as though he didn't know her at all…
He didn't remember who he was.
"Katara?" mumbles a sleepy voice.
Her head cranes to the side, where she can make out a narrow pallet right next to a giant brazier, glowing with dim red coals. And lying in that cot, so pale he almost seems to glow in the dark -
"Aang?" Katara asks, confused for a moment. "What - what are you doing here? Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm not sure." Aang's voice is brittle; as her eyes adjust to the dim light, she is able to see him struggle to sit up. "We were fighting against the Dai Li - there were a lot of them, but then –"
Her teeth bite into her lip; her heart thuds to an uncertain halt.
"Zuko knocked most of the sleepers out with his lightning - it was a brilliant shot!" Aang lets out a small laugh that turns into more of a wheeze. "Seemed for a second like we were winning! Then uh, you ran away and I got worried –"
Katara turns to face him sharply as he continues, somewhat abashed, "—I remember trying to follow you and then, uh...well, not much else."
The dam at the back of Katara's mind bursts, giving way to a host of things it's been trying to ignore.
Aang, trying to support her down in the bunker when she'd stupidly, selfishly pushed to rescue the sleepers. Toph, furiously trying to talk her out of it. Collapsing when everything ended up backfiring. Zuko backing away from her, his face sick with betrayal. She can hear his voice clearly; it seems to ring in her ears, accusing. Do you value us so little?
And then, abandoning them all on the battlefield without sparing a single thought. All in a last-ditch effort to find Sokka, only to be left behind again. She sees it as clearly as she can see Aang, deathly pale and bedridden, with his entire torso wrapped in bandages, so frail he can barely move.
Suddenly, the ache of her whole body isn't enough to drown out the sickening tide of guilt that threatens to overwhelm her like one of her giant waves.
"You got hurt," she whispers, horrified. "You got hurt trying to protect me."
Aang tries to shrug gingerly, but ends up wincing at the effort. "It was an accident, Katara! I should have been a little more careful –"
Her bottom lip quivers; her throat closes up tight. Through it, her voice is a wavering thread of sound. "This is all my fault."
"It's not your fault –"
"But it is!" she very nearly screams. "We had a plan and I messed everything up and nearly got all of you killed! You can say it, Aang!"
"We all do things we're not proud of when we're scared, Katara. I can't hold that against you."
"But I wasn't scared! I was selfish, and I didn't think of any of you at all and – and –" and it didn't even matter, Sokka didn't even know me and he ran away again, what was the point?
"You had no idea that it would turn out like this," Aang maintains, and through the dark his big grey eyes seem to shine. "The Dai Li were the ones who knocked me out, Katara - if anyone's to blame, it's them. Look, what's done is done, and it isn't healthy to keep blaming yourself, you won't move on that way!"
"What if I don't want to? What if that's what I deserve?" Guilt rises like her gorge and she nearly vomits over the side of her bed, except it's been so many hours since she's last eaten, there's nothing left in her stomach to bring up.
"Katara, stop it!" Aang's faint voice seems to rise in volume. "I can't see you like this - please stop doing that to yourself, it's not going to help you –"
The air in the dim room is suddenly too hot, too stifling; it feels too much like the cloying deathtrap of the Dai Li bunker. She pushes herself off her pallet, swaying a little as her head spins alarmingly.
"Katara, what are you doing? You're still hurt!"
She staggers to the curtained flap covering the doorway, pushes it aside. The night time air assaults her senses, bracingly brisk and with a faintly briny taste of sea.
"Whoa there, Sweetness, what's going on?" A new voice, stronger, concerned even through its brashness. Toph.
Katara stares at her mutely, vaguely seeing the bandages and the bruises lining the blind girl's body. More visible to her mind's eye is Toph collapsing, spent to exhaustion from saving them all. Because I made her drop everything and save the sleepers. Because I only cared about finding Sokka.
"The medics said total bed rest for you," Toph continues, swinging off her cot and crossing her arms stubbornly. "So, whatever it is, it can wait. Back you go –"
"I can't go in there," she blurts out, stumbling even as Toph makes to grab her by the arm. "I can't –"
"Stop talking stupid and go back to bed, Sugar Queen!" Toph snaps. "What the heck's gotten into you today?"
Katara's breathing is too deep, too quick; there's a band around her chest like she's suffocating. The rush of salty air in her nostrils just makes her head spin faster.
"Just leave me alone," she chokes in a strangled voice.
Katara steps away from Toph, who is saying something she doesn't hear. Away from the infirmary with Aang and his broken body and his transcendent goodness, away from everything that makes her feel anything at all.
Each step sends pain lancing through her body and she welcomes it. Her pace quickens to a run and she blunders through the encampment, heedless of the heads turning in her wake.
She runs and runs until she reaches the shoreline, where all she can hear and smell is briny seawater. It laps at her toes, at her senses, and briefly, for a moment, it feels comforting.
In the palm of the ocean, nothing else seems to matter. The water pulls at her with all its weight. For a moment, its call is enticing: she could just slip in, let it bear everything away.
Instead, she lifts her arms and pushes back with all her strength.
"Today?" Zuko echoes disbelievingly. "The coronation was today?"
Lu Ten nods grimly. "We received word on the new year. It was scheduled for sundown." He glances at the sky, where only a faint band of pale blue lingers on the distant horizon. "Well, looks like we're both out of luck, it must be over by now. Hell of a start to their reign, though—"
"How am I only hearing about this now?" Zuko spits, momentary disbelief fading to stung indignation. "Nobody told me. Nobody ever tells me anything!"
"My father never sent for you?" Lu Ten asks sharply.
"No. Did he send for you?"
Lu Ten glances at his feet nervously. "Well – well, yes, once he reached the capital and found everything a bit of a shambles, really –"
Now it's Zuko's turn to stare at his feet. "I see."
Lu Ten's admission hurts a lot more than he cares to admit. It seems like ages ago since he'd been shut up in his room, wishing he could be by his uncle's side. Now it just makes him feel foolish, for wanting yet another thing he couldn't have.
"I'm sure he meant to," his cousin tells him gently, and his eyes are wide and earnest. "Things probably just got in the way, what with how sudden everything is –"
"He still had time to summon you," Zuko points out, trying hard to keep the accusation from his voice.
Lu Ten still flinches. "Yeah, but -" but he's my father. It lingers unsaid between the two of them.
Zuko knows it's not Lu Ten's fault, but he still can't stop the twinge of resentment that rages through him. "I get it," he says stiffly. "It's not my place. Forgive me."
"There's nothing to forgive. You're family, Zuko. No matter what your father says." Lu Ten's arm closes on his shoulder. "Your place is wherever you want it to be, little cousin. Even if it's back at the palace –"
"I'm not going back there," Zuko grits out stubbornly. He crosses his arms defensively across his chest. "I won't go where I'm not wanted."
"Not even for my wedding?"
Zuko stares sharply at his cousin, who raises his eyebrows in return. "Did my father keep this delightful bit of news from you as well?"
"No," Zuko stammers, shaking his head. "No, he told me about that. To the Mao girl, right?"
"That's the one. See? You're not entirely in the dark, just behind on some recent developments." He grins suddenly. "For example, you probably don't know that my wedding's a fortnight away!"
"What?" Zuko demands, shocked. "So soon?"
"I guess." Lu Ten shrugs. "My father just wrote that the Empire needed to see a show of strength from the royal family, and what better way to do that than promise more heirs on the way? So...wedding time."
"But Emperor Azulon just passed away! His funeral was barely a week ago. Now Uncle wants to get you married off? Isn't this all happening a little quickly?" The more he mulls over Lu Ten's words, the more unsettled he becomes. "And what about this attack? Why would Uncle choose a coronation over helping us? Shouldn't he be worried about keeping the Empire safe first?"
"Politics, little cousin. Strength comes from unity within, remember? In light of this attack, it's important now more than ever to show that the Empire is unafraid and not without leadership. But…" Lu Ten's grin hitches, turning into a grimace, "the succession has raised a lot more questions than Father would have liked. Without the luxury of appearing at odds...I expect he believes a grandson or two would cement his position nicely."
"You mean against my father," Zuko realizes slowly, staring at his cousin in a different light. Lu Ten stands a shade of an inch shorter than him, but built broad and strong like Uncle Iroh. The little flame crown glimmers where it sits on his topknot; beneath it, long black hair streams down his back. His face, long and narrow like Zuko's, is square at the jaw and lined with the sharply trimmed whiskers of a fully-grown, virile Fire Nation man. Lu Ten is many years older than Zuko, but only now does he really appreciate what that means. "Azula is a strong heir, but she hasn't even turned eighteen. She will hardly be producing sons anytime soon."
Lu Ten's smile fades. "Something like that, I imagine. But if your father gets it in his head that he also needs grandsons," Lu Ten cocks an eyebrow as he continues, "...well, let's just say you might find yourself summoned back to court sooner than you'd like."
Zuko sputters loudly at that. He shudders at the thought of being called back home only to be used like a stud ostrich-horse. "I don't think so." Somehow his voice stays steady. "Azula would poison any son I'd manage to father in its sleep. Besides, my father would never cast her aside – not for me, anyway."
"You should come back anyway. Show him what he's missing. Once everything gets sorted out here, I'm sailing back home. You should join me."
The invitation catches Zuko off-guard. Home. The thought fills him with a yearning he can barely describe, a sense of incompleteness that makes him ache whenever he thinks about it. For a moment it disappears, dimmed in the bright hope rearing its head at Lu Ten's simple offer.
I could go home with Lu Ten. I could sleep in my own bed, I could see the turtleducks again, I could…
And then it fizzles out as he remembers everything else. There would be no war councils for him, no duties, nothing but dishonour from his family. He would simply exist on the fringes, irrelevant and inconsequential.
"I won't go where I'm not wanted," he repeats quietly. "Besides…there are people who need me here."
Lu Ten raises his eyebrows but his expression is sympathetic. "Well, I'm not going to force you, little cousin. If you're sure –"
"I am."
"Okay, okay, if you insist." Lu Ten smiles slyly at him. "But if you happen to change your mind, you know where to find me."
Zuko returns to the infirmary tent, only to find Toph pacing and fuming by its entrance.
"What happened?" he asks, still distracted. The flap of curtain at the tent's entrance is pulled back a crack, swaying in the slight breeze.
"Sugar Queen happened," Toph retorts witheringly, jamming her hands on her hips and rolling her sightless eyes. "Story of the day, apparently! I don't know who slipped what in her bean curd this morning, but I've had it up to here with her nonsense!" She gestures at her neck emphatically.
Zuko rubs at his temples, inadvertently smearing his fingers with the herbal salve that he'd forgotten was all over his face. He groans, wiping them off on his stained uniform - Agni, I need to get out of this thing. "What did she do this time?"
"Beats me! She just freaked out and left!" Toph throws her hands up in frustration. "Scared the pebbles out of Twinkletoes too -"
"Aang's awake?" Zuko pushes the curtain aside and pokes his head in. In the light streaming in from outside, he can vaguely see Aang's pale form seated half-upright on his pallet. Relief surges through him, a welcome distraction from the simmering resentment of earlier. "How are you feeling now?"
Aang shrugs gingerly, wincing at the small motion. "Honestly? I don't feel much at all. I think they gave me a lot of herbs for the pain while I was out cold." He smiles weakly. "It's probably better that way, huh?"
"Well, a giant rock to the chest couldn't have been good for you," Zuko says, somewhat uncomfortably. "You really had us worried back there."
"Sorry to make you worry," Aang offers apologetically. "But I think Katara took it pretty badly when she came around."
"Badly?" Zuko echoes. "What do you mean?"
"Did you not catch the part where she freaked out and left?" Toph deadpans. She marches over to join him at the infirmary entrance, leaning against the wooden frame for support.
Zuko glances at the pallet next to Aang's. It is empty, the sheets rumpled as though its occupant had left in some distress.
Something like guilt burrows its way into his conscience before he has a chance to stop it.
"She was upset, Toph," Aang reproaches. "I think she blamed herself for what happened to me."
"Well, she should! If she'd just stayed and watched our backs instead of running off like some unpredictable idiot, this wouldn't have happened to you!"
"You don't know that," Aang counters, his quiet voice a foil to Toph's mounting agitation. "The battle was really intense. I might have gotten knocked out anyway."
"Well, that would have still sucked," Toph admits before her face darkens, "but at least I wouldn't be blaming Sugar Queen for it!"
Zuko isn't sure if he agrees with Toph or not when he abruptly remembers how she'd argued with him before the battle, with them all in the bunker. It should frustrate him too, but it only makes him feel worse in a way he can't quite understand.
"I think you're just blaming her because it's easier for you to cope that way," Aang suggests, his grey eyes seeming to stare right through Toph and all her bluster.
Her jaw drops and she flounders for a moment before regaining composure. "Now I get why she ran off after talking to you," she huffs through clenched teeth, turning away.
Aang blanches. It is more than Zuko can take. "Enough," he snaps. Both of them start but he pays them no heed as he barrels on. "Today was a hard day, okay? We clearly all have a lot of issues to work through, but we've already lost one member of the team! Don't you two start as well."
Aang sighs. "Yeah…"
Toph scuffs her heel against the ground. "Right." She turns her sightless gaze back into the infirmary. "Sorry, Twinkletoes. Low blow there."
Aang gives her an uncertain smile. "That's okay. Apparently I need to work on my pep talks, if they keep making you guys run away."
"No kidding," Toph snorts. "So. Who's going to go talk some sense into Sugar Queen?"
"Well…" Aang raises his hands defensively. "I can't exactly move. Plus, she might feel worse if it's me. Since she thinks it's her fault."
"Right, Twinkletoes stays here." Toph claps a hand on Zuko's forearm. "Thanks for volunteering, Sparky!"
Zuko recoils. After everything that's happened in the last couple of days, he thinks there's hardly anyone Katara would want to see less. "Me? Why me?"
"Because no good deed goes unpunished."
"Yeah," Aang pipes up, "and between the two of you, Toph isn't exactly...gentle."
"Plus, if there's anyone here who's an expert in handling angry Sugar Queen," Toph continues breezily, "it's you, Sparky!"
Zuko groans, rubbing at his forehead and getting salve on his fingers again. "Great," he mutters, wiping at his uniform vehemently. "Just what I needed to make my day. Where is she?"
Toph's face scrunches up in focus, before she points toward one of the nearby mountains. "There seems to be a lot of flooding going on in that one spot."
Sighing, he heads off in the direction that Toph pointed out to him.
He sidesteps the main encampment and the roaring cheer of the soldiers celebrating their victory with growing boisterousness. His pace is very slow; his body feels like it's filled with stones, the way exhaustion dogs at his limbs.
But the encampment is only a short distance inland and it doesn't take very long before the sounds of celebration fade to silence, before the unearthly roar of the sea takes its place.
It grows louder with every step he takes, seeming to bounce off the slopes of the mountains rising on either side. For some reason, he feels nervous. It's been a long while since the last time he'd been nervous to face her, but here he is.
His mind keeps turning back to the bunker, in the room with all the sleepers. He doesn't know why he keeps dwelling on it, but he can't shake the way she'd looked then. Not angry, not combative, just…
Devastated.
Except that didn't even begin to cover it. No, it was stubborn, heartbreaking despair that had been written all over her face. And instead of recognizing that, he'd accused her of being selfish and turned away.
And then she ran away mid-battle without a second thought and fought until she couldn't stand.
The guilt twists deeper and deeper.
Wind nips at his face and as he looks up, the shoreline comes in view.
For a second it's beautiful and calm, the sea rippling almost black along the grey stone of the shore, the dark blue sky bedecked with glowing cloudy swirls.
Then the water peels back from the shore, rising higher in the air than any tide had the right to be. He watches a safe distance away as it towers and halts, a giant barrier of cold rushing darkness that seems to blot out the moon.
At its foot stands just one girl, arms stretched up high, shaking with exertion. Next to the towering giant wave, she appears absurdly tiny.
Then her arms push down and the colossal wall of water crashes back thunderously. It foams and writhes into turbulent white-capped peaks, big at first and then smaller as the water calms.
He picks his way over to where Katara stands, perfectly dry and breathing heavily. Even as he draws nearer, she bends her arms and the water parts down the middle, as though unveiling a path straight into the heart of the sea.
She makes a sound and the water collapses back into place.
"Just like old times, huh?" he says suddenly and her back stiffens in surprise at his voice. "You know, I was starting to miss them."
She glances at him over her shoulder before turning back to face the water. "Leave me alone. I don't need another lecture about how I should be feeling."
"Who said anything about a lecture?" He decides against joining her, settling to stand some small distance behind her.
Her fist closes slowly. She lets out a long, shuddering sigh before turning around to face him. "What do you want."
Zuko weighs his options, wondering what to say.
"Are you here to gloat? Maybe an I told you so?" Katara continues, stepping up to him. "After all, you were right –"
"No," he interrupts, shaking his head. "No, that wasn't fair. I shouldn't have said that to you."
"Yes, you should have!" Katara exclaims, sounding dangerously close to tears. She jabs a thumb to her chest. "I needed to hear it, okay? You were right, I should have told you guys something. I thought – when it came to him, I didn't have a choice but...I guess I was wrong…"
He thought she'd looked devastated down in the bunker, but that's nothing compared to what she looks like now. Her guilt, combined with… "I'm sorry you couldn't find your brother," he says.
She stays silent for so long, he begins to fear that he's overstepped, misjudged the situation entirely. He braces himself for the inevitable backlash when, to his dismay, she deflates instead.
"I did find him," she admits hoarsely, her voice trembling nearly as much as she is. "I was right. Lee, Jun's spy – he was my brother. But...but he didn't know who I was."
The sound of crashing water seems to fade. "That's – that's awful," Zuko stammers, feeling entirely useless. "Was – was it the Dai Li? Did they brainwash him? Maybe they –"
"No," Katara shakes her head. Her hands fiddle with the belt of her tassets, twisting viciously. "He wasn't brainwashed the way Jet was – and he didn't hurt his head either, I checked. This...this is something I haven't seen before."
"The other sleepers haven't woken up either," Zuko points out, insides hollowing at the realization. "Maybe something's changed. They could have –"
"This is different," Katara insists. Beneath the quaver of her voice, Zuko hears the iron. "Somehow, he just – just woke up with a completely different set of memories. I don't know what the Dai Li did – or how they could have done it! Spirits, I don't even know for sure if it was them..." Her lips press together in a very tight line, as though her fury is the glue holding her very self together.
"I'm sorry," he breathes, entirely out of his depth. Everything he wants to say seems trite, inadequate, unhelpful.
"And then he ran away. Again." Her voice wobbles dangerously; her arms fold across her chest like a fortress. "He left me behind once and – and then he didn't even know me and he disappeared again, and…and I just don't understand anymore." She shuts her eyes. "Why did I bother? What's the point?"
Something in his chest lurches at the sound of her voice; the sight of her so broken and defeated feels viscerally painful. He tugs at her shoulder. "Ugh, come here."
She tries to shake him off half-heartedly. "I said leave me alone—"
He pulls her tight against his chest, deaf to her protests. His arms wrap around her already shuddering shoulders, as the fight goes out of her and the sobs begin to crack through at long last.
For a while, the only thing he can really focus on is how fragile she feels in his arms – and still so very solidly real. Her fingers twist feebly at the stained fabric of his uniform. He presses his cheek into the top of her head; a few of her hairs stick to the salve on the bruised side of his face. She smells quite strongly of sweat and metallic earth – the delicate fragrance of waterlilies long gone by now - but still like her.
And how it makes everything else seem inconsequential. The looming threat of the Dai Li now at bay, meaningless. The wheels of family politics back home, irrelevant. Her feelings still impossible for him to unravel, and how little it seems to matter.
"You'll find him one day," he tries to assure her nervously. The sobs calm to slow, hiccupping gulps of air and the tension racking through her whole body fades.
"H-how?" Her voice muffles into the shirt of his uniform, warm and wet with her tears. "He could have gone anywhere…" She clutches at his shoulders, pressing closer to him as though trying to find solace in the crook of his neck, and he winces as she accidentally jostles the sling on his shoulder. "The world is so big. He could be half an ocean away by now."
He snorts, recalling how easily she had parted the water just moments earlier. "Like the ocean's big enough to stop you," he mutters into her hair.
"I'm just one person," she whispers. "And I'm so tired."
They stay like that for quite some time, Katara clinging to the warmth of his body, Zuko absently running his hand along the fall of her hair.
Somewhere in the sky, moonlight pierces through a filament of cloud. At length, her breathing calms back down and Zuko finds the courage to speak.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" he asks bluntly. "Why keep it to yourself like that?"
She looks up at him, clearly caught off guard. "I – I don't know," she confesses, chewing at her lip guiltily. "I didn't – I couldn't –" Her eyes, small and puffy from crying, dart from his face to the ground for an instant, and then back up. "He's my last memory of home. The last good thing," she tries to explain, watching him carefully. "Do you know what that means?"
The last good thing. Zuko casts about in his head, trying to understand her meaning.
He thinks of his life back home, before the Agni Kai changed everything. Master Piandao's approving nod as he mastered the dual swords. Sitting by the garden pond, feeding turtleducks with his mother. Family vacations taken on Ember Island, when Azula was just his baby sister, too young to be competition. His father's hand heavy on his shoulder as they walked in the tall grass side by side.
His throat tightens at that last one, surprised that he can still remember it after all this time.
And then he thinks of Lu Ten's blithe offer to take him home. How even after all these years away, he'd still refused – I won't go where I'm not wanted, there are people who need me here – and how the longer he stands here, the more sense that decision seems to make.
"Yes," he answers simply.
The strangest expression flits across her face. Her eyes seem to soften, flickering to his mouth for a short moment.
Then she leans in. Her face draws closer, too close.
His heart scampers in anticipation even as it plummets in the panicked clarity jolting through him. It hasn't been so long since the last time he broke and kissed her and suddenly complicated everything between them. And after the day they've just had, the last thing he wants is to invite yet another messy complication.
Besides, he still isn't sure what it is that she wants from him. And as much as he would like to believe that the press of her body into his is deliberate, a part of his conscience yells at him with his uncle's voice, reminding him – there's too much going on, nobody's thinking straight, this wouldn't be right –
With more reluctance than he's willing to admit, he turns his head carefully away instead. It makes her pull back, suddenly aware of her surroundings. Confusion and faint disappointment crease across her face.
"And you're not alone," he blurts out, a wilful distraction against the mortification blooming bright red on her cheeks. "I need you. We need you."
He nearly kicks himself for slipping. But then she smiles weakly at him. "I think I need you too," she admits, wiping at her face. She pauses, suddenly worried. "Toph is going to kill me, isn't she?"
Something in his chest swells inexplicably as he shakes his head. "It's all a front. Don't let her fool you. She's actually really worried about you..."
Most of the encampment has fallen asleep for the night by the time they return. Only the posted sentries, and a handful of others, remain awake and alert to their surroundings.
Katara feels many things as she limps toward the infirmary tent, her weight braced against Zuko's side. Guilt, pain, heartbreak, hopelessness...
Toph lies on her makeshift cot in front of the infirmary tent. She sits up at their approach, momentarily amused before her face scrunches up forbiddingly. Katara stops in her tracks. She can't help but feel a little nervous at the shift.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Toph grouses. "About time, too. Twinkletoes was getting really worried about you."
"I wasn't the only one!" Aang protests weakly from inside the tent.
Katara pauses at the doorway, pushing the curtain flap aside.
"I—" she begins hesitantly. Because through all the things Katara feels, some manage to surprise her.
She glances inside, at Aang sitting on his pallet with all his bandages, and then back outside, to where Zuko leans against the door frame and Toph stands with her arms crossed stubbornly.
"I'm sorry I left you all in the middle of the battle," she manages to say. "I'm sorry you all got hurt because of me. I...I should have been there, and I wasn't. I put you all at risk because I couldn't see past what I needed for myself."
"You don't have to apologize, Katara," Aang says firmly. "We get it. Everyone can see that you're sorry."
"Not everyone," Toph complains, tapping a foot against the ground. "Besides...she isn't exactly wrong, either."
Katara's gaze flits between each of them. "Of course I have to. I want to," she says softly, feeling lighter by the second. "I don't know what I can do to make it up to you guys. But if I think of something, I'll do it."
Toph whistles. "Now you're speaking my language, Sweetness! I'll have to think of something good…"
"How about you tell us what happened?" Aang suggests gently, taking Katara aback. "Tell us why."
Her throat tightens in response.
"I don't want to hear some lame story," Toph sniffs, "I wanted something good."
"Toph," Zuko says wearily, rubbing at his temples and accidentally getting salve all over his fingers, "she already knows that you're not actually mad at her. You might as well cut it out."
A strange group to be sure, but one where she belongs. Where she feels safe. Trusted. Maybe even loved.
"Fine," she hears herself say. "I'll tell you. But it's a long story…"
It is just after breakfast the next morning when Jun, in the process of saddling Nyla up, finds herself interrupted.
"Leaving so soon?" Katara inquires casually, leaning on a wooden walking-stick.
Jun runs a hand along Nyla's reins as she sizes up the young Water Tribe girl, sporting more bandages and casts than she can possibly count. "Yeah," she replies nonchalantly. "I came to warn you guys about the Dai Li attack, help you guys out if you needed it. Well, the fight's over, and my work here is done. Time to get going."
"Do you have a lot of work waiting for you back home?"
Jun narrows her eyes as the girl shifts uncomfortably before her. "Something like that," she answers carefully. "Why, what's up?"
Katara's unsettlingly blue eyes alight upon Nyla. "Your shirshu can track scents, right? That's how you find people."
"That's right," Jun agrees, wondering how long the girl would waffle before getting to the point.
"And how do you get a hold of these people's scents?" Katara presses curiously, but her eyes blaze uncomfortably. "What do you need to track them down?"
Jun shrugs. "Could be anything that belonged to them. Anything they touched." She pats Nyla on the snout. "Why, do you need me to track someone down for you?"
Katara nods solemnly, her feigned nonchalance dropping abruptly. "I do. What's your price?"
Jun laughs loudly at that. "After saving my life and rescuing one of my old buddies? There's no price for you. What do you need me to do?"
Katara fiddles at her belt and unclips something from her waterskin. "There's someone important to me. I lost him long ago. I...I need to know what happened to him."
Jun whistles through her teeth. "Sounds easy enough. Was it a boyfriend or something?"
Katara shakes her head. "A brother," she corrects, pressing a long, curving metal object into Jun's hand. "This belonged to him."
Jun blinks at the worn old boomerang in her grasp. Then she looks more carefully at Katara, the resemblance so striking it suddenly seems obvious. "A brother, huh? I didn't think Lee had a sister."
Katara looks at the ground darkly. "Neither did he. I need answers, Jun. I have to know what happened to him, how he could forget everything."
Jun frowns. Lee was a useful spy and he'd pulled her out of a sticky spot more than once. But beyond that, she knows next to nothing about him. As a bounty hunter, Jun never wondered about things she didn't get paid to solve. But the ferally injured Water Tribe girl standing before her manages to raise her curiosity.
"Well, there's one way to get to the bottom of it." Jun brings the boomerang to Nyla's nose. Nyla sniffs a couple of times before she raises her head, slavering and growling low in her throat. Jun pats her on the neck before remarking, "Looks like she caught the scent. Should be smooth sailing from here."
"Good." Katara limps forward. Ill-concealed anger flares in her eyes. "Find him," she commands in a low voice. "Find out where he is, where he's been...and bring him back to me."
Jun's hand closes tightly around the boomerang. She gives it a twirl before stashing it away in her belt.
"Consider it done."