ZW 2013 Day 2: Euphoria
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Flickers, pt. 3
1000 years after the Fire Lord destroys the Air Nomads with the Great Comet, a girl from the Southern Water Tribe is stuck on a boat with the Crown Prince and his Uncle. It's not going as poorly as she expects.
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"I will oversee her execution personally, Father."
Katara's jaw drops. She looks frantically between Zuko and his uncle; Zuko's face is contorted oddly, like he's trying to be impassive but it's not quite working, and Iroh is shaking his head with disappointment etched on his face.
The Fire Lord nods. "Your sister will dock shortly. She will stay here, to aid you in your duty."
Zuko sucks in his cheeks, but he bows before his father notices. "Of course, Father."
The Fire Lord swoops out of the room, and as the door clicks closed behind him, Iroh approaches his nephew. "Are you certain of this decision, Prince Zuko?"
"Uncle, you've been telling me for years that I need to find my own path. I thought I could prove myself to him, that he'd accept me back, but if that means I have to kill someone…" he trails off, and Iroh brings a hand up to rest on Zuko's shoulder.
"Then what will you do?"
Zuko looks at Katara. "We have to leave. Now. Before my sister shows up."
Katara crosses her arms over her chest. "Oh, what, you think you can be nice to me for five seconds and I'll turn around and trust you? How do I know you and the Fire Lord aren't just using this to get me to show you where I left home?"
Zuko grasps her arm and tugs. "We can go wherever you want. We don't have to go to the Water Tribe. We just need to get out of here before it's impossible."
She looks at Iroh pleadingly. "Can't I just go by myself?"
The retired general tucks his hands into his sleeves and considers. "How will you leave?"
"Aang and I can take Appa."
"How are you going to get the Avatar?" Zuko demands. "You think the guards are going to cover for either of us?"
"Why do you want to come? Just say I escaped, and I'll break Aang out of the cell, and we'll leave."
Zuko glares at her for a moment, then storms out of the room. As he stomps through the door, he looks back at her and says, "I'm going to spend two minutes packing. In four minutes I'll be at the docks requisitioning a warship. You and Uncle can come, or not. I don't want to die for trying to help a peasant."
"I'm not a peasant! I'm the Chief's daughter!"
But he's already gone, and Iroh is looking at her with an expression somewhere between worry and frustration. "Go with him, Katara. The Fire Lord is not a merciful man. My nephew is right."
"What about you?"
The old man considers. "Well, it would be improper for me to leave you and my nephew alone on a warship without a chaperone." He produces a rice hat and a bathrobe from somewhere (Katara is at a loss about where somewhere is, exactly). "And I could use a vacation!"
"What about Aang?" She's growing frustrated. Neither man seems to care much that Aang is at the mercy of an apparently unmerciful man.
Iroh's face turns stormy. "He will be kept alive. We do not have time to bring him with us now," he says, pushing Katara out the door and leading her down to the pier. "I have given the Avatar something that may help him. We will go north. I know a man in the Northern Water Tribe who can teach you waterbending."
"I can't learn waterbending without Aang!"
"You can." The kindly old man looks every inch the steely general now, and Katara feels a little cowed at the boom in his voice. "Because when you are a master, we will go to the Fire Nation and liberate the Avatar." His voice returns to normal. "If he needs liberating, that is. Just don't say anything about that to my nephew. He can be a little stubborn sometimes."
Katara can't say she's happy about this. Gran Gran and Sokka must be worried, and she wants to go home. She wants to take Aang out from under the Fire Lord's nose and keep him safe. But she realizes Iroh and Zuko are right; they don't have the time or ability to get Aang and get off Kyoshi Island. And, she realizes, she'll be more useful rescuing him if she can waterbend.
Although how Iroh knows about a waterbending master in a world she thought didn't have bending at all is still a mystery.
Then they're boarding the ship, complete with Zuko stomping around angrily (although Katara is starting to think he's overcompensating for absolute terror) and a local, whom she later learns is called Suki, is perched in the crow's nest with an old drone and a camera. "Azula just pulled into port," he hisses, pointing to an elaborate, sleek vessel a few ships down the dock. "When she's out of sight, we move out."
"Somehow I expected your technology to be better than this."
Zuko huffs. "There hasn't really been a lot of innovation outside of keeping the domes running, okay?"
"You could let people out," she snaps.
Zuko rolls his eyes. "Not a lot I can do about it now. If you hadn't escaped like a water-brained idiot, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Maybe if the Fire Nation didn't always try to rule the world, I wouldn't have tried to escape!"
"Well maybe-"
"Nephew," Iroh interjects. "Perhaps we should depart now."
Zuko shoots her a nasty look, but he wastes no time stalking to the bridge and tapping a series of engine control panels. Nothing Katara recognizes, but then her tribe still uses wooden boats with sails. "Do we have a full crew?"
Iroh chuckles ruefully. "We have my old friend Lieutenant Jee. We will stop in the Capitol and borrow some engineers from the prison."
"From the prison?!"
"Treason is a popular charge in the Fire Nation."
Katara has nothing constructive to say to that.
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Sokka found it. It took him almost the full week Katara and Aang have been gone, but he found their sneaky little hole in the wall (mostly because the warm air has started to melt the ice around it and the hole is now substantially bigger). Gran Gran doesn't like it that he's decided to leave (because Sokka still has a little respect for his elders and tells her first, unlike some people), but she's worried about Katara and can't go herself.
"Wait for your father and the other men to come home," she says, holding his shoulders.
Sokka continues packing his bag. "They're not going to be back for another month, Gran. I'm not going to send a messenger, either. Katara could be in trouble, and the village needs meat more than it needs me."
Gran Gran is nothing if not both practical and utilitarian, so she sighs heavily and begins packing the seal jerky. Sokka sets out before dawn (or what amounts to dawn in the dome, anyway), and drags his canoe across the snow and ice until he reaches the hole. It's bright blue against the gray wall of the dome, and sun streams inside, making Sokka blink quickly and shield his eyes as he approaches. He has to climb up what remains of Aang's iceberg to get to it, but when he does he's able to slide down in the canoe and directly into the water. The island looks like it's about a mile away.
That shouldn't be a problem. He can paddle that far. When he looks back, to Sokka's surprise, he can't see the hole as the gray skies inside are nearly the same color as the ice and snow that spill out. It's melting though, and around the dome there's odd, dead looking brown stuff that had crunched under the canoe bottom.
By the time he reaches the island, the sun has risen and he can see a commotion on the docks, so he beaches the canoe in a small inlet on the opposite side of the island, swings his pack over his back, and walks into town like he belongs there. Or he does after he's borrowed some red clothes from a line, anyway.
The people are gathering around a large, ornate ship decorated with phoenixes and Fire Nation flags. A tall man with long, straight, dark hair is at the head of a small procession, and a boy with an arrow tattoo on his head-Aang!-follows him, heavily shackled. As Aang is led into the belly of the ship, the tall man turns to face the crowds. "The Avatar threatens our very existence." A heavy silence falls over the crowd, and the hush is eerily expectant. "He will be held in the Capitol, in the most secure prison, for our safety and security."
The man turns back to the ship and disappears, and Sokka knows he absolutely has to get on that boat. Katara must already be on it. And he supposes as long as he's rescuing her, he might as well grab Aang too. Kid is too nice to get stuck in the Fire Nation for the rest of his life. By some miracle, perhaps an act of the spirits, Aang suggests later, Sokka is able to wind his way through the crowds and board the ship under pretense of being a servant. It's too easy, like the guards have never had to be suspicious of anyone in their lives, and Sokka can't imagine that's true.
Then he realizes the clothes he stole from the line were, in fact, a servant's uniform, when he stumbles into the engine room and a man shouts at him that servants aren't allowed down here. Which is really too bad, because Sokka can't help but stare a little at the sterile walls and the smoothly running engine in the center of the room.
Aang is being held deep in the ship, so deep that Sokka is pretty sure there aren't any guards because if the bottom hits something, this will be the area that floods first. The younger boy is absolutely thrilled to see him, something Sokka wholly expects from everyone in his life (although he always pretends to be a little confused that his expectations are never met), and they waste no time filing through the chains (thanks for the random box of tools in the bag, Gran) and hatching an escape plan.
"Where's Katara? I can't find her anywhere?"
"Still on the island. They only wanted me."
Sokka decides that doesn't make sense, but at least she's safe. "Okay. We'll get her. How do we get off the ship?"
"This old guy who loves tea gave me this weird whistle," Aang says, holding out a small white object, shaped like a bison. "He said it was an Air Nomad antique."
Sokka pulls it out of his hand and shoves Aang through the door of the cell. "Let me see." He studies it for a minute as they stop at the bottom of a ladder, then looks at Aang. "Do you happen to know what happened to Appa when you were captured?"
Aang grins. Then he snatches the whistle back from Sokka and blows as hard as he can.
Sokka hadn't believed the other boy was an airbender until the newly-apparent airbender had nearly blown him across the room. "Watch it!"
They manage to get through the decks and into open air without being accosted, but there are nearly twenty soldiers on deck and no sign of Appa. "What do we do now, Sokka?"
"I don't know! This was your plan!"
The soldiers advance on them, and Aang takes a defensive pose. It's enough to make some of them fall back, and it gives Sokka time to pull his boomerang off his back. "Sokka, take the whistle and blow into it as many times as you can. I'll hold them off."
"What makes you think this is going to work?"
Aang doesn't answer, busy as he is with twenty firebenders, so Sokka figures he has nothing to lose. He throws the boomerang at a man sneaking up on Aang from behind, and he blows, and then a moment later there's a bellow and a flying (he's really flying!) bison. Aang swoops both of them up into the saddle, and they escape by the skin of their teeth.
"Nice work Sokka." Aang grins at him.
"You too. Now let's stash Appa somewhere and get Katara."
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The ship glides through the smooth water, a welcome change from the storms of the night before. Katara and Iroh are bent over a Pai Sho board, with Suki off to the side trying to teach Katara about strategy. Zuko has been doggedly steering them north at top speed, constantly looking over his shoulder. Jee stays firmly planted in the crow's nest, eyes glued to his sensor monitors and mouth set in a line. There's a ship coming in fast from the south, he says, probably Azula from the size of it, and Zuko grumbles that maybe if they had a waterbender who actually knew something about bending, they could make a fog cover. Katara shouts that maybe if the Fire Nation hadn't convinced her people bending was impossible, maybe there would have been someone to train her.
Zuko's mood does not improve throughout the day, but the ship closes as the sun dips down.
Jee is surprised to find that the very, very large dot on his monitor turns out to be a flying bison and not a ship at all. He knew getting rid of the telescopes on warships was a bad idea. Katara runs out to the deck, Iroh close behind.
"Katara!" Aang shouts, jumping off the bison and wrapping her in a hug.
"Aang! You're okay!"
"Iroh helped me."
Katara looks at the man behind her and is about to thank him when she's distracted by a loud thud.
"Ow! Oh yeah, don't worry about me, Aang. I'll just stay up in the bison saddle while you have your happy-go-lucky reunion with my baby sister."
"Sorry Sokka. I thought you could get down yourself."
"I could-!"
He's cut off by Katara launching herself at him. "Sokka!"
They talk late into the night, trading details and arguing about whether they can really trust Zuko and Iroh, and why can't they just go back to the South Pole and because I have to learn waterbending, Sokka. Sokka, for his part, is a bit distracted by the girl named Suki who's almost as good at Pai Sho as Iroh and almost certainly a better fighter than Katara. It's mostly that she's pretty, but she looks at him like she's sized him up and found him lacking, and it rankles him.
Zuko finally allows himself to rest when the edges of the sky turn pink. The autopilot will do a fine job, Uncle assures him, and a man needs his rest. Katara brings him lunch around noon, when the sun has pulled him back to awareness.
"Why are you doing this?" She hands him a bowl of rice and pig-chicken.
He eyes her warily. "Why does it matter?"
"Sokka doesn't trust you."
Zuko snorts. "So? He can take you on the sky bison if he wants. I got you out of Kyoshi and I got myself out of Kyoshi."
"Why are you doing this?" She puts her hands on her hips. "I'm not leaving without an answer."
He turns away from her and glares at the wall. "It wasn't honorable to execute you. Just like it wasn't honorable to keep the other nations locked away. My father gave me a second chance to learn respect; he won't give a third."
Her eyes widen. "What-"
"Thank you for the food."
"Zuko."
"You can go."
"Excuse you, you can't just order me out!"
He says nothing, and the silence is so unbearable that after a minute or two, she leaves anyway.
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"Prince Zuko is very serious about his honor," Iroh tells her.
"What did he mean when he said he had a second chance to learn respect?"
Iroh raises an eyebrow at her. "I think that you should ask him."
"I did. He told me to leave."
He sighs heavily, and when he looks at her again, he looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. "When Prince Zuko was thirteen, the dome over the old city of Omashu cracked after an earthquake. Much of the city's population escaped, and the Fire Nation military leaders were called to the Capitol to decide the proper course."
Katara wraps her arms around herself. "What happened?"
"I allowed Prince Zuko observe the meeting. One of the generals proposed that the army slaughter the entire city, which would avoid the cost of rebuilding the dome and avoid the difficulty of all the people who suddenly knew they did not have to live there. Prince Zuko spoke against the plan. The Fire Lord did not take kindly to what he viewed as an act of disrespect."
Katara gasps. "They didn't-not all those people."
Iroh sighs deeply. "I should have spoken more strongly. I have many regrets about that day. The people of Omashu are no more, and Zuko has lost much of the sight in one eye."
"His father-?" She chokes on the words, her face pale.
The air is still and solemn between them after that, and things are quiet.
Quiet until Suki calls from the crow's nest that there's a ship closing from the south, and the sensors have identified it as Azula's ship. Zuko stomps up to the deck and taps his screens, begging the engines to go faster, asking Katara if she's sure she doesn't know how to make clouds. She doesn't, and neither does Aang, but Sokka has an idea.
"Katara, if you can just raise up the water a little, then Zuko can make it hot and it'll steam."
"Sokka, I don't know…"
Zuko doesn't bother with her uncertainty. "Uncle! Start throwing fireballs into the water."
Iroh looks at him blankly. "As you wish, Prince Zuko."
It doesn't work particularly well, but Katara is just starting to get better at pulling water into the air and Zuko is just starting to think maybe they've made it just a little harder for Azula to see-not hard enough that she can't find them; she could with the sensor data anyway, but hard enough that maybe she won't be able to board.
Then there's a clank of metal, and the light tapping of boot heels. Azula steps out of the light fog, the light bringing her from shadow to sharp relief. "Nice try, Zuzu. But you shouldn't worry so much. Father isn't angry with you."
A series of emotions flicker across Zuko's face. "You're lying."
"Now, Zuko. Why would I lie about something like that?"
Zuko narrows his eyes. Azula always lies. He would have fallen for it when he was thirteen. He probably would have fallen for it when he was sixteen. But Zuko is nearly twenty now, and he's had time to think some things over. One of those things is that he's tired of innocent people dying, and the other of those things is that he should always believe Azula only tells half-truths.
"Father isn't angry with me."
"No, of course not. He just wants you to come back, so you can work things out."
"Father left on his ship with the Avatar. He doesn't know I'm gone."
"I sent him a messenger hawk right away," she says, too sweetly.
"No you didn't. Father thinks Katara was executed yesterday morning and I'm still on Kyoshi, because if he knew we were gone, it would be your fault. He sent you to babysit me."
"Zuzu, quit being ridiculous."
"Take me back to Kyoshi and I'll tell Father the waterbender is still alive," Zuko says. His voice is level, but Katara can see his hands shaking. "You failed him."
"I haven't failed him. It's been a brief delay."
"You lied to him. Father. No one lies to the Fire Lord."
"You will regret this, Zuzu," she says, cold as ice, but she turns around and walks back to her ship. Pausing on the deck, she turns back to them. "You're fortunate Father would want you returned alive." A cruel smile curls one side of her mouth, but she turns away again and Zuko is left to shift uneasily. The bridge across is folded back, and the ship slowly pulls away from them and turns into a tiny dot on the horizon as they watch.
"Ha! I win, Azula!" Zuko shouts, and he reaches for Katara and grabs her with both hands, bringing her up in the air above his head and spinning them both around. When he sets her back down, a euphoric grin shining on his face and an unusual light in his eyes, Katara's cheeks are stained red and she's left breathless. Suddenly, he pulls her to his chest in a tight hug before just as abruptly pushing her away. Now his cheeks are red, and his smile falters. "Sorry. I didn't mean-I mean-"
"It's fine," she says, even if Azula gave up too easily and there's a horrible unease tickling her mind and it feels like a strategic retreat and nothing is fine.
He smiles at her, no smaller this time and still genuine.
They're not exactly sailing into the sunset; it's not even close to happily ever after, like the princesses in Gran Gran's stories. But she has all the important things. She's going to learn to waterbend, she's going to be the Avatar's waterbending teacher, she has her brother, and Zuko isn't so bad after all. Maybe, for now, everything is fine. They'll worry about Azula tomorrow.
She reaches out and hugs him back, her smile as large as his.
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A/N: I'm not really sure what the technological status of this world is. On the one hand, they have some cool stuff, like high tech weather domes. But also I gave them a boat with a crow's nest. Ah, priorities.
If you're new to this story, check out the Fireflies and Alternate Universe chapters (in that order).
Thanks to all for reading. If people are interested in this as a standalone multichapter, let me know and I may start drafting a bigger story. I'm starting to get a bit more invested, and this chapter was a bit rushed.