Embers

by Vathara

Dragon's fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world... Follows "Theft Absolute".

37. Chapter 37

We need a better plan. Leaning away from the boulder behind him, Sokka looked at the little island-marks he'd scrawled in the dirt, now half-obscured by sunset's shadows. Sighed, and knuckled his eyebrow to rub at a gnawing headache. We need a different plan, anyway. Don't know if we need a better one.

Then again, just about any plan might be better than just charging into the Fire Nation blind. They didn't have the Earth King's troops behind them. What they did have, or could get - it'd have to count.

And it won't, if I don't figure out where to aim it. Darn it, we need information...

Like they had in Ba Sing Se. And they all knew what had happened when they'd relied on other people to tell them about the city.

Aang died. Really died. We all almost died.

We can't do that again. If we're dead, nobody can stop the Fire Lord.

We need to know what we're up against. And... I don't think we can do that from outside the Fire Nation.

Which was the same conclusion he'd circled back to for the past three days, and Sokka muttered words under his breath that would have Gran-Gran washing his mouth out with soap.

We need to get in there. And Zuko gave us a way.

If they could trust the firebender. The exiled, lousy, sister-scaring bastard...

Don't lie, Sokka told himself harshly. It's not Zuko you're worried about.

If they took Zuko up on his offer, Katara would be playing the part of a girl hunting her mother's killer. And... he was really worried... it wouldn't be playing.

Tui and La. He didn't want to think about if they could trust Katara.

Damn it...

"What'cha drawing?"

Sokka didn't look up, even when bare toes stepped into his line of sight, carefully avoiding each scribble. "The Fire Nation. I'm trying to, anyway. The Earth Generals had a big map of it. I think this is what it looked like. Aang's working with Katara again?"

"Trying to figure out how to freeze a wave without freezing somebody's head inside it," Toph confirmed.

"Good luck with that," Sokka grumbled. "Sooner or later, he's got to figure out... well. He'd better figure out something to do with the Fire Lord. I don't think talking him out of conquering the world is going to work."

"Me neither," Toph agreed. "But it's still a good idea. Twinkletoes has big and flashy down pat. Figuring out how to fiddle with the little things in a move - he needs a lot of work on that. If he wants to do it with water instead of earth, 'cause he gets to drool at your sister? Fine. Just as long as he does it."

For once, the Fire Nation took a sharp right out of his mind, only hanging around to giggle maniacally. "He's what?" Sokka yelped.

"Relax," Toph shrugged, waving a hand back and forth. "He's drooling, but she's cooled it down a lot. Xiu must have made her think. Good for her. Aang doesn't have any parents to check on her family. He doesn't have anybody. It's not fair to get him into something that might not be a good idea."

"Hey! How can being my sister's boyfriend not be a good idea!" Sokka protested. Stopped, and buried his head in his hands. "Argh. Brain... broken..."

Snickering, Toph sat down by him. "Sometimes I wish I had a big brother. It'd be neat if he were a lot like you." She punched him in the arm. "Though I can take care of myself."

"What, and you think the master waterbender can't?" Sokka grumbled.

"She's too busy taking care of the rest of us," Toph said seriously. "Katara keeps us together. You keep us focused." She paused. "And Aang takes a lot of focus."

"Tell me about it," Sokka groaned. "I just... I don't get him sometimes. Make that a lot of the time." He bit his lip. "You know what I really hate about that mess at the library now? We spent all our time looking for ways to beat the Fire Nation. I just... I kind of wish we could go back and look up the Air Nomads."

Toph frowned, toes kneading dirt. "I knew it. We left you guys alone, and you got to do all your guy talk with no girls to toss some sense in, and now something's bothering you."

"It's not like- okay. It kind of is like that," Sokka sighed. "Every Air Nomad was a bender. All of them." He waved his hands, unable to describe the odd sinking feeling he'd had when he finally realized that. "I'm not even sure where to start asking Aang about... stuff."

"You want to know if all the Air Nomads thought they were blessed by spirits," Toph said bluntly. "Like Katara does."

Sokka picked up his jaw. "How'd you know?"

"Zuko told me about that." For once, Toph looked a little ashamed. "And after I talked about spirits some with Katara... I'm sorry. I didn't know I was stomping on your toes when I-" She stopped. Shook her head, and started over. "Bending's just me, Sokka. I use it the way you use Boomerang. When I bend to move you, I'm not trying to say I'm better than you. It's just the easiest way to do things when I'm mad."

Sokka started to shoot back a comment about cheap apologies... and stopped, as something a few months back finally clicked in his head. "Bato was with a bunch of nuns when he was hurt. But they weren't earthbenders."

"Yeah?" Toph cocked her head at him. "So why's that strange? My parents didn't say much about nuns. Just that it was a calling. Kind of like Aang getting stuck with the world, only a lot smaller."

"But if they're not benders, how do they talk to the spirits?" Sokka asked, puzzled. "I mean, most of the time. When the spirits aren't mad and trying to kill people."

"I dunno," Toph shrugged. "What's bending got to do with talking to spirits? I've met lots of benders who never even met a spirit. I didn't, 'til I went with you guys."

It was a good thing he was already sitting down, Sokka thought. Because that was just... weird. "Aang talks to spirits," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's 'cause-" Toph shot to her feet, and kicked a line of dirt that rumbled under the boulder to roar up in a ring of earth. "Talk!"

Something stomped impatiently, rattling pebbles loose from inside the wall.

"Peace, little one," a hearty, elderly man's voice said gently. "The young lady has every right to be cautious." He cleared his throat. "As I believe she was about to say, young man, that is because Avatar Aang is a spirit. And a human, who embodies the Avatar Spirit, so it might better understand our world. A bridge, after all, must be part of both sides."

Sokka blinked at Toph. Who shrugged, and sank the wall back into the ground.

"Okay," Sokka said, stepping around the boulder to get a close view of the man. Middle-tall, straggly white hair and beard, a hooded cloak mottled in rock-colors over a plain brown robe, and timeworn fingers easily gripping a knobby wooden staff. "So who are you, and why are you looking for Aang?"

"I am Tao," the elderly man inclined his head. "A wanderer of these hills. At times a shaman, when there is need. And I was not looking for Avatar Aang, precisely." He waved a hand at a waft of dust in the setting sun, that swirled with a vigorous stomp. "Does this little one belong with you?"

---

"So it can be okay to name a spirit?" Aang breathed a sigh of relief as they gathered around the evening fire. Tao had apparently managed to talk to Boots as he traveled, somehow, and he'd brought enough dried noodles to cook for everyone. Best of all, he'd brought tofu.

No meat. Yay!

"Under certain circumstances," Tao agreed. "Which are, unfortunately, rare. It's not simply the act of naming, it is the emotions gifted with the name that a spirit takes to itself. Tui and La, Guanyin, Agni, the Autumn Lord of your own people; they were all great spirits to begin with, so the tales say. Their names were first spoken with reverence and awe, and that clings to them, no matter what has happened after." He shook his head slightly. "The lesser spirits, the kamuiy, are far more strongly affected. A hide-behind spirit, for example... well, normally those who encounter such creatures do feel fear, no matter how brave they may be. And that fear clings to any name, and leads the spirit to take the fear as part of itself. Which means they seek to inspire fear, over and over, for that is part of their essence." He waved toward the earthbender. "Toph was fortunate. She sensed a creature she did not fear, and named Boots accordingly." He leveled a stern finger across the fire. "You were lucky, young lady. Had this gone awry, you could have unleashed quite the little terror on the countryside. I'm certain the Avatar could have stopped it, but if he has not been trained in the proper handling of spirits... well. It'd be like using a stone mallet to swat a spider-fly. It does the job, but it's rather hard on everything else."

"Oh." For once, Toph looked taken aback. "So Boots went to find you?"

"That is what you asked of him." Tao smiled, a bit sadly. "I would say he was the best messenger you could have sent. There are too few of us who follow the shaman's path, these days."

"Because of the Fire Nation," Katara stated.

"Because of choice," Tao corrected her. "Though yes, the invasion does matter. It is easier to mute the call of the spirits when your village and family need defense in this world."

"How could you do that?" Katara asked, offering Momo a few nuts, before he fluttered back to Aang's shoulder. "It's an honor to be chosen by the spirits!"

"A lethal honor, should you happen to meet a kamuiy bent on malice whose strength is greater than your own," Tao said dryly. "With the world out of balance, that is happening more and more often. And while thirty years ago, if the need was dire, we could call on Ba Sing Se's Dai Li for aid... those who might still wish to aid us, have been influenced otherwise."

"Whoa, hold it." Sokka held up his hands. "The Dai Li helped you?"

"They are shamans, of a sort," Tao said wryly. "Not always of their own will. But they still battle evil within the city." He sighed. "Though if the tales are true, they have fallen into even greater evil. For one trained in dealing with spirits, human malice is ever an unexpected danger. Long Feng... well, you would know more of him than I."

Aang winced, trying not to think about the Dai Li who'd held Appa captive and worked with Azula. "So it's not just Koh? There are other evil spirits?"

Tao drew back, gauging him with a suddenly wary look. "You've dealt with the Face-Stealer."

"Well, I... kind of had to," Aang admitted, scratching his head. Darn it, maybe getting into the Fire Nation would be easier with hair, but he didn't like it at all. "Zhao was attacking the North Pole, and the Fire Nation was going to win, and - I had to. Avatar Roku said he was the only one who knew where to find the Moon and Ocean spirits..." He trailed off, seeing grim disappointment wash over Tao's face.

"Some rumors begin to be explained," the shaman sighed. "Is that what he said, young man? Is it exactly?"

Aang gulped. "Well... not exactly..."

Tao rubbed his head, the same way Sokka did these days. "Avatar Aang. This is one of the first things you should have been taught of spirits, and it is vital. The dead do not see the same world as the living. Especially those of the dead who remain in the spirit world, and do not visit us as ghosts still tied to mortal kin. And like any creature, the dead act on what they see."

"Roku wouldn't hurt Aang!" Katara protested. "He is Aang!"

"No, young lady," Tao said steadily. "If what I have been taught of the spirits is true, he is not." He regarded Aang, gaze level. "The Avatar Spirit is incarnated, life after life. Separate, human lives, each of whom claim their own spirit. Each of whom will in turn pass away, to join those who advise the next Avatar. You are many things, young man, but you are not Roku."

It hurt. Like diving into cold water without a breath to keep you warm first. "But I've been Roku," Aang objected. "And Kyoshi. And even Yangchen!"

"Any shaman can allow a spirit to possess him, so it may make its wishes more clear to humans," Tao stated. "It is not to be done casually, or without those around you who can bring you back if the spirit chooses not to leave. For while you are possessed, if the spirit is powerful, it can reshape even your mortal body as its own. If the spirit is malicious... shamans have died in monstrous form before."

Wide-eyed, Aang started to back away-

Hit a solid wall of rock, as Toph frowned. "He's telling the truth." She swung a finger Tao's direction. "I don't know about Kyoshi, but Roku and Yangchen helped us."

"And I do not doubt they will do so again," Tao inclined his head. "They are Avatars, and I am sure they mean you no harm. But a man's intention may not be the same as his result. That is as true for the spirits as any of us."

"You think I can't trust Roku?" Aang said, disbelieving. "No way! You heard Toph; he's always helped us out!"

"That's not what he said," Sokka stated. "Remember the solstice? I bet Roku just meant to scare Zhao off, and take the temple down 'cause he was ticked off. Only he kind of forgot we still had to get out of the temple."

"If you believe Zuko," Katara said pointedly.

Sokka lowered his head, lips moving silently for a minute. "Katara. Either Roku brought it down on our heads by accident, or he did it on purpose."

"He wouldn't!"

"Then he did it by accident, and that's the point," Sokka almost snarled. "Us, alive. Able to be crushed by falling rocks. Roku, dead, kind of past worrying about it." He eyed Tao. "That what you're trying to get at?"

"In part," the shaman agreed. "The dead do not see the same dangers as the living. They can mean well, and still do great harm."

"But Roku's really, really wise!" Aang protested. "He wants to stop the war before the comet comes. He wouldn't get us hurt!" He looked toward an uneasy silence. "You know he doesn't want anyone to get hurt."

"Dad doesn't want anybody in the tribe to get hurt fighting the Fire Nation, either," Sokka said soberly. "Sometimes there isn't any choice. If you want to win, you have to send people where you know they're going to get hurt."

Aang swallowed hard. "But Roku's my friend." Like Kuzon was.

"Bato is Dad's friend." Katara's eyes were shadowed, hurting for him. "But the tribe, the world... it's more important than one person. More important than anyone. If Roku's trying to fix the whole world..." Her hands fisted in blue cloth, and she gazed at the fire. "Roku is your friend. And if the dead see things the living don't, I bet he knew we'd get out of there okay. But he's not your tribe. Not your family." She hesitated, picking her words. "He might not be as careful as he would be if you were."

It felt like getting hit in the stomach. "You think he's my friend, but I can't trust him?" Aang shook his head in disbelief. "Katara, that's crazy!"

"Crazy?" Katara sputtered. "Aang, he's not your tribe."

"You're not making any sense!"

"I'm not?" Katara's eye was twitching. "You - you-"

Toph wove her fingers together, cracking her knuckles. "Packed, over the side, gone."

Which made no sense. But Katara took a deep breath anyway, and smiled at Toph. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Toph faced his way. "I think we got another mix-up, Twinkletoes. Roku's like Gyatso, right? Older guy, helps you out, teaches you about what you're gonna be when you grow up?"

"Well, yeah," Aang admitted. Like she had to say that?

"I thought so." She faced toward Katara. "You're trying to tell him not to trust Gran-Gran."

"Oh." Katara looked like she'd swallowed a live catfish-eel.

"Even Gran-Gran can be wrong sometimes," Sokka pointed out. "Aang, if there's one thing I've figured out on this crazy adventure, it's that the world is really broken. I bet Roku sees a lot more than we do, but we can't count on him seeing everything. He told you to master the elements and defeat the Fire Lord. Okay. But he didn't tell you how. Maybe you're supposed to figure it out; part of all that Avatar stuff. Or," Sokka spread his hands, offering a shrug. "Maybe he just didn't know." He paused, deliberately. "If Dad tells me to go hunt zebra-seals down at the cove, and I stop and look over the water for leopard-sharks first, that doesn't mean I don't trust Dad. A good man of the tribe knows things happen. Just because the water was safe an hour ago, doesn't mean it is now."

Roku might be wrong. Aang swallowed, and felt like scrubbing his eyes. Teachers weren't supposed to be wrong!

"So young," Tao sighed. "Too young... Aang. He may have been the Avatar, but Roku is a spirit now. And while spirits of the dead may look in on the living, they often act on what they knew the world to be while they were alive. It's been a hundred and twelve years since Roku perished. The world is very different now."

"Fire Nation armor's changed, and that was just eighty-five years ago," Sokka nodded. "I don't know how far Hahn's guys got on Zhao's ship, but... well, not the point. The thing is, Chief Arnook didn't know it was different, and he's living in this world with the rest of us. Roku could have missed stuff."

"So the Northern Water Tribe did attack the Fire Navy?" Tao's brows climbed. "I had heard rumors, but I didn't know what to believe. Some went so far as to claim the entire Fire Navy was destroyed. I knew that couldn't be true, I've seen Fire Nation ships with my own eyes. Yet some of the invaders I've seen have seemed ill at ease. Which is very, very unusual." He glanced over them all, inviting the truth.

Aang had to look away. I don't want to think about it. I had to, people were going to die - but it was awful.

"Zhao attacked the spirits," Sokka said after a moment. "They helped Aang hit back. Some of the fleet got away; we ran into one of their ships later. But most of it didn't."

"Hah!" Tao pounded a fist on his leg with relish. "I saw the moon; I knew something extraordinary must have happened. Well done, young Avatar!"

Aang cringed. Well done wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear after all that death and terror.

"Very well-" Tao paused, eyes widening. "Oh no. Not good."

"Not good?" Katara gave the shaman a dark look. "How can saving the North Pole not be good?"

"Saving lives is always well done, even if it's hard on your enemies," Tao said firmly. "Not good is... I am a shaman, young waterbender. My concern is the dead as well as the living. Nothing is more dangerous to the living than the restless dead. And nothing is more likely to create malicious ghosts than spirit-dealt death." He paused. "Do those of the Northern Water Tribe know how to lay Fire Nation soldiers to rest?"

"Of course they do!" Katara said fiercely. "They didn't lose their benders to the Fire Nation. They fought!"

"Nor have we lost what we knew of death, and the spirits," Tao said gravely. "But it took time for us to accept that rites which console an Earth Kingdom spirit do not suffice for those of the Fire Nation. Simple, honorable burial does not gentle their ghosts to accept untimely death. They must be burned."

"You bury bodies?" Katara said, stunned. "How can you not give them back to the Ocean? That's wrong!"

"For you, perhaps," Tao said firmly. "For us, it is right and just. As those of the Fire Nation need a pyre, and Air Nomads need their sky burial. We are born of our element, and to it we must return."

"Sky burial?" Sokka turned the weirdest look on Aang. "How does that even work?"

Aang gulped. "It's, um... kind of messy. And we just ate!"

Now everybody looked weirded out. Except Tao. "I have seen it," he said mildly. "Those close to the dead take them high among the mountains, where the vulture-eagles will gather. Then they simply... render it easy for the scavengers to do what is natural."

"Uh," Toph managed. "Wow. That's..."

"Erk?" Sokka suggested.

"...Yeah."

"Told you it was messy," Aang said, cross. Wait a minute. "You've seen a sky burial? How old are you?"

"I believe I've lost count," Tao chuckled. "I was born... well, not long after Sozin invaded the Earth Kingdom the first time, before Avatar Roku drove him off. Which would be... hmm. Well over a hundred and thirty years ago, now."

You could hear the cricket-mice chirping.

"You look surprised," Tao mused. "The war often kills us early, but benders can live a long time. Fire Lord Sozin lasted over a century and a half; I was beginning to think he'd outlive me. Not that Azulon and Ozai have been any more charming." He frowned. "I almost miss Azulon. His forces conquered and killed ruthlessly, but they contented themselves with that. Under Ozai..." Anger flickered in green eyes. "What else can one expect, of a man willing to maim his own son?"

Aang swallowed, as the world seemed to drop out from under him.

"Aang?" Katara leaned toward him, barely held back by the fire.

Determined, Aang stood, glad that Tao and the others rose to match him. He bowed to the shaman. "Thank you for the lesson, Sifu Tao. Will you tell us more about the spirits tomorrow? I think-" He hesitated. "I think I need some time to think."

"Of course," Tao bowed back. "I wish you luck. All of you."

"It's dark," Katara objected. "You don't have to go."

"Night holds no terrors for me," Tao said kindly, his own bare feet stirring a puff of dust. "I may not see as you do, Toph, but I can find my way about. A shaman needs considerable time alone. Sometimes the spirits speak very softly, and if we're always listening to our fellow humans... that can be trouble."

Another nod, and he faded into the night.

Shamans have to be alone? Aang thought, petting Momo for comfort as he sat back down. That sounds awful-

Dust whirled, and he almost ended up flat on his face. "Cut that out!"

Pattering like snickers, Boot scurried away around the fire.

"Great. It's staying." Sokka heaved a sigh, then turned a concerned look on Aang. "You okay?"

"Yeah." If you didn't count wanting to toast a spirit, just a little-

But that filled his mind with flames again, and Aang shivered. "The Fire Lord did that?"

Toph whistled. "Nobody told you what Xiu told us?"

Aang perked up a little. "What'd she say?"

"A lot of things," Katara said firmly. "Why does it matter? We always knew the Fire Lord was a monster."

"Maybe you did." Aang looked down. "I was kind of hoping..." He swallowed. "That's why Zuko doesn't trust us."

Toph leaned back against some raised rock, intrigued. Sokka frowned. And Katara flung up her hands. "Of course he doesn't! We're going to stop the Fire Nation!"

"No," Aang said quietly. "He won't trust us because his father hurt him." He moved a hand, feeling air swirl in it. Seeing Zuko's scar again in his memories; a raw, red mess that looked like - like someone had just cupped a handful of fire against Zuko's face...

Don't look. Just... don't.

"I ran away because I thought - I thought Gyatso was just going to let the elders send me away," Aang explained. "And it hurt. And you say parents are like teachers..." He shook his head. "If Gyatso had really hurt me, I don't think I could trust anybody."

"The Fire Lord's evil," Katara stated. "We know that."

"Evil or not, he's Zuko's Dad," Sokka shrugged. "Just like Azula's his sister. Bleah." He stuck out his tongue. "Glad I'm not in that family." More serious, he eyed Aang. "So this is important?"

"Yeah." Aang leaned his chin on his fist, thinking hard. "Zuko can't trust us because the Fire Lord hurt him. And the Fire Nation can't trust the Avatar because Kyoshi hurt them. I know she didn't mean to, and I bet that Earth King deserves a kick in the butt. But they think she did it on purpose." He poked that cloud of an idea from every angle he could think of. Took a deep breath, and pointed at Toph. "But Zuko trusts you."

Everybody's eyes fixed on the earthbender. Even Appa, lying quietly out of spark range from the fire, let out a questioning snort.

"Huh. Ask the easy ones." Toph frowned. "First off, Twinkletoes, Zuko's not like a lot of the Fire Nation. He's been banished for three years, and he listens to Uncle. What works with him might not work with anybody else."

"I know," Aang admitted. "But right now? It's the best idea I've got."

"You want to get Zuko to trust you?" Katara tried not to bristle.

"We want to get the Fire Nation to trust us," Sokka said firmly. "We're going to have to fight the Fire Lord. And the army. And who knows what else. But remember Gaipan? Some people in the colonies are just people. If we can get them to trust Aang... maybe a lot of people won't have to die."

I don't want anybody to die! Aang tried not to shiver. But - kick the ice and start walking, Sokka had said. Maybe he couldn't see a way to save everybody now. But that didn't mean it wasn't out there. And maybe, just maybe, if he figured out how to save some people, he'd end up in the right spot to save more. "So how'd you do it?" he asked. "How'd you get him to trust you when you found him?"

"First problem, Twinkletoes," Toph said plainly. "He found us."

"Amaya," Katara muttered.

"You think so?" Toph smirked. "I thought you guys put the address on the posters."

Sokka slapped himself in the forehead.

"But he already knew where Appa was," Toph went on. "He found us after." She frowned, obviously remembering. "Boy, was he mad. Not yelling mad. Pretty calm. Mad inside, the kind that makes you shake all over and feel like banging your head off rocks. There we were, there you were, all set to be grabbed like a solstice gift. No Appa to get away on. No help from anybody else, not with Long Feng and the Dai Li in the way. He could have grabbed you. He could have tried, anyway, if the Dai Li kept out of it-"

"We would have stopped him," Katara said angrily.

"And that's why he was mad," Toph said impatiently. "He finally figured it out. He couldn't take all of us. He can't take Aang. He knows that." She took a breath. "Trying to do what his Dad wanted, trying to catch Aang, wasn't going to work. So he stopped." She pointed at Aang. "And then he tried to figure out, screw his orders, what was the right thing to do?"

"So he wanted to let Appa go." Aang smiled.

"Not that simple," Toph shot back. "He didn't let Appa go for you. He did it for the Fire Nation. Remember that letter? Generals. Back you into a corner. North Pole all over again. That's what he figured might happen. And that wouldn't help anybody stop the war. Not us, not the Earth Kingdom, not the Fire Nation. So getting Appa out, so you could get out, was what Zuko figured was the best thing he could do. And after he figured that out, that's when he asked Iroh to find me, and ask if I'd hear him out." She shrugged. "He told me everything, and he asked if I'd help. And I did. Because he didn't lie to me, and I could hear how much he was beating himself up over telling me he couldn't grab you. He knew it wasn't gonna work. Worse, it wasn't gonna work and lots of people would get hurt if he tried. He doesn't like hurting people." She was quiet a long moment. "So I don't know if that's gonna help. Zuko took a chance trusting me 'cause he was backed into a corner, and not getting help would have made things worse. But he had to be all the way back against a wall. And he had Uncle. And I think Uncle wants to help you. The Fire Army? Not so much."

Oh. Yeah, that made sense. Darn.

But bad as that was, there might be a way. Maybe. "We're going to stop the Fire Lord," Aang said thoughtfully. "If he's the guy who wants the war the most... then maybe after that, we can make them think stopping the war is the best thing to do."

"They won't," Katara said quietly.

But it was more of a sad quiet than an angry one, so Aang just asked, "Why?"

"They'd have to say they were wrong," Katara answered. "That they've been wrong for a hundred years. Who's going to say that?"

Aang felt his heart sink. This isn't fair. It's impossible, it's too big-!

"Jeong Jeong did," Sokka pointed out. Looked doubtful. "Though he's... kind of nuts."

Which made Aang want to smile all over again, suddenly relieved. "Bumi said we need mad genius." He thought about that some more. "If Zuko said Kyoshi drove the Fire Nation crazy - maybe it's the ones they think are crazy, that really aren't."

Sokka and Katara blinked. Momo scratched his ears. And Toph... smirked. "Uncle."

"Okay, I'll buy that," Sokka muttered. Eyed Toph, who was still smirking. "No."

"Oh, yeah," she grinned.

"Aw, no..."

"No, what?" Katara asked, curious.

Sokka gave Toph a narrow look. "You really think he went back there."

"Yep." Toph's grin was all teeth.

"Azula's going to flatten him!"

"She's gotta catch him first," Toph shrugged. "And he's good at being sneaky."

Katara stared at them. Aang looked between them. wondering why they were suddenly talking about Azula when they'd been talking about- "Zuko went back to Ba Sing Se? Why?" He wasn't going to help Azula after all. Was he?

Sokka let out a slow breath. "Toph? Clear me some dirt. I'm going to draw a map."

It wasn't a really good map. But with a little help from him and Katara, they had everything sketched into place. "Okay," Sokka went on. "Here's Chameleon Bay. Here's where we are. Here's where Suzuran was. Now remember that Zuko's responsible for the whole ship, and Suzuran can't fly." He tapped a stick on the ocean outside Chameleon Bay. "And remember there's a lot of Fire Navy ships that keep coming up this way, no matter how many of them Dad stops."

Right, ships needed water, so... Aang traced a path through lakes and north. "He's got to go past the city."

"But if he goes past, Azula's going to know something's up," Toph stated. "She's the princess in charge. Suzuran's got to stop."

Aang gulped. "But if she finds him-"

"She thinks he's dead. He almost was. And he's sneaky." Toph crossed her arms. "Don't worry about Zuko. He wants to stay way, way away from you."

"Okay, that was just mean," Sokka grumbled.

"Why?" Katara gave her brother a sardonic look. "I think it's a great idea."

It probably was, Aang admitted to himself. Zuko and Katara in the same place were scary.

Besides, Toph was right. Zuko was sneaky. He'd be fine.

---

...Ow.

Warm feathers were nestled against him, and a beak was nibbling his hair. Which was just about the only part of him that didn't hurt.

"Finally," Amaya sighed in relief. "Gently, Iroh, gently..."

The hug was gentle, except for Asahi's grumble as she was shoved aside. "Uncle," Zuko breathed, tasting tea and smoke and worry. Not opening his eyes. Not yet. "The train?"

"Dispersed through the fleet," Iroh answered. "There were casualties; you and Shirong, frostbite, and some near-drownings. But very few fatalities."

"Azula." Zuko swallowed the guilt. "I tried... tired."

"You should be," Amaya said tartly. "There are limits to how much blood loss waterbending can mend. Get comfortable in that bed. You're staying in it a few days."

Zuko opened his eyes a crack, taking in his quarters on Suzuran, Amaya and Iroh's worried faces, Asahi ruffling her feathers as she peered at him... and a few others jammed in as well. "Captain Jee. I need to-"

"With all due respect, your highness, you need to stay right there," Jee said dryly. "In a few hours we'll hit the spot Earth King Kuei wanted us to bring his resistance troops to, and that should let us ditch the ferries. Without them, we can move faster; which is good, given we're counting on speed and wits to get us past patrolling ships. If we need waterbending on top of that, and I suspect we will, we need you as rested as possible." He smiled wryly. "Though I think earthbending alone may be enough of a surprise to get us clear of most trouble. Agent Shirong and Professor Wen have some interesting ideas."

Zuko glanced at the relieved Dai Li, who'd just nudged Teruko awake where she'd been leaning against the wall. Gingerly swept his gaze across the room to make sure Tingzhe and his family weren't there. And leveled a weak glare at Iroh. "When were you going to tell me Roku was Ilah's father?"

Jee choked.

"Ah," Iroh sighed. "I had hoped, never."

"What?"

"If you chose to help the Avatar, I wished it to be your choice," Iroh stated. "Not an obligation to our ancestors. You have had enough of those in your life. More than enough." The general looked over the room himself, and motioned for Teruko to listen at the door.

"Clear, sir," she reported.

He inclined his head. "There is an organization that wishes to restore balance to the world. You know it in passing, Amaya, for they have brought many of the Fire Nation to your door. Our ability to act is nowhere near as great as our desire to; we have a way of falling in the paths of conquerors. Chin, and Sozin, have only been two of those who have decimated us. But some of us survive. And we hope." His gaze rested on Zuko. "With a century passing, and no sign of the Avatar... our best chance to restore the balance was to work toward a true Fire Lord. One who understood the four elements, and how they need each other. One who would realize the war was wrong." He smiled. "That he would be of Roku's blood as well... we believed it could not hurt."

Zuko swallowed hard, vision graying at the edges. Faintly he could hear shocked gasps, Shirong's hiss of breath. "You set me up."

"Nephew-"

"You crazy, idealistic - you!" Zuko yelled, rising up, hands clawing air in a red-and-gray fury. "That's the same damn mistake all over again! One person to save the world? One Fire Lord to say oh, we're so sorry, we'll stop killing you and everybody will play nice? I'd be assassinated in a month! And if I wasn't, I'd still be under Kyoshi's decree! We'd still be going insane! Agni, what do you think happened to Sozin to make him crazy? He saw what being a loyal lord did to Zouge! Holding every clan together when half of them want to fillet the other half - it killed him! Sozin watched it kill him! And you - you-"

Trying to get up... was a mistake.

As the world blacked out, he felt Shirong catch him, and heard Amaya curse.

"General?" Teruko's voice was fading like everything else. "I know I promised him, but I think you'd better wait to tell him about Kuzon..."

---

"Is he right?" Amaya glanced back over her shoulder, blue eyes wide in the lamplight of their quarters. "Would someone dare assassinate the Fire Lord? Is that even possible? He holds your people's loyalty."

Iroh paused in brushing her hair. "It is possible," he said, resuming his strokes. "To break one's loyalty does not kill instantly. There is time for desperate acts." He hesitated. No. Give her the truth. "And the bonds of loyalty are not quite as straightforward as the Water Tribe's ties of family, village, and tribe. That is the order in which they hold you, is it not? Pakku has not always been straightforward in his answers."

She started. "You know Master Pakku?"

"I have had the distinction of being frozen by him, yes," Iroh chuckled. "It is one reason I perfected the breath of fire."

"Master Pakku wants to bring balance back to the world?" Amaya's voice dropped. "I've wronged him, all these years."

"Perhaps," Iroh said judiciously. "Then again, he is the one who trained Katara."

"Hmm."

"Loyalty first binds a child to his parents," Iroh went on. "That bond begins to loosen when one is about thirteen, and taking on the responsibilities of an adult. It does not break, if the child chooses to remain loyal. Many do. Zuko is a responsible and honorable young man, so he remained bound; for Ozai was his father, and his clan head, and lord of the capital's domain, and the Fire Lord."

"Clan head?" Amaya shifted so he could pick apart some particularly stubborn strands. "Meixiang says Tingzhe's the head of Wen."

A shock and surprise, indeed. Earth and Fire, bound together? Could it even work? "He is," Iroh agreed. "As clan head, he is owed loyalty from his wife, his children, and his brother, Shirong. Once Shirong's children pass thirteen, they will owe their first loyalty to Tingzhe, for his is the senior branch of the clan. Unless, and only unless, it is evident the main family will perish without heirs. A living branch holds loyalty. A dying line does not."

Amaya stilled under his hands. "So when Lu Ten died..."

"My brother moved too quickly, and angered our father," Iroh acknowledged. "But he was within his rights. If I had no heir, and adopted no heir, then his was the living branch of the clan." He sighed. "But he did anger Fire Lord Azulon, and that snared our family in strangler's coils. For while Ozai should have been loyal to our father, Ursa was not."

Amaya held up a hand to halt his brushing, obviously thinking it through. "She would have been loyal to her children, her husband, and her parents..."

"But while Lady Kotone has made her bow before the Dragon Throne, that loyalty does not, and did not, bind her daughter," Iroh nodded.

Amaya winced. "No wonder he's so angry."

"He is often angry," Iroh sighed. "Though I had hoped he had grown past it-"

"Iroh." The healer gave him a level look. "You were the only one of his clan who hadn't betrayed him. And now he knows you've been lying to him."

True. Unfortunately. "For our people-"

"For the world," Amaya corrected. "If it were for your people, he'd understand."

Iroh's shoulders slumped. "I tried to teach him to care about the world."

"That scar seared more than his flesh," Amaya reminded him. "He fought to care about you, and then us, and then all of our people in Ba Sing Se. He's trying to bring airbending back." She spread her hands. "How much more can you ask?"

Iroh smiled ruefully at his own, unguessed ambitions. "I suppose I wished a son who would follow in all my footsteps. But Zuko has never been drawn to Pai Sho."

"You would have made it work, if the spirits hadn't intervened," Amaya agreed. "I don't think any assassin would get past you." She had to pause, and take a steadying breath. "I know your folk on this ship aren't like that, but that Zuko thought of that so easily..."

"That may not have been simply Zuko," Iroh admitted. "Knowing what I do now, I have suspicions about Kuzon's death." He snorted ruefully. "I should have had them before. In his sleep, indeed."

Brushing stray strands out of her eyes, Amaya gave him a sidelong look. "Even in the Fire Nation, that must happen to someone."

"It often does," Iroh agreed. "And he was ninety-seven, even if he seemed as hale as men half his age. But a lord who is weakening will go home. So that he may tend to his people, and ensure they will be well led after his death. Yet Kuzon died in Shu Jing." He smiled wryly. "It is not quite as far from Byakko as Kyoshi Island is from Ba Sing Se. But it is not much nearer."

"Kuzon." Amaya frowned, and held out her arms for a comforting hug. "Tell me, Iroh. What are we dealing with?"

---

"Kuzon of Byakko." Swords against swords, Shidan held both Islanders off, eyes narrowed over a thin-lipped smile. "My father-in-law, and my best friend."

Okay, Saoluan thought, trying to catch her breath as steel strained against steel. This guy? Definitely not human.

She didn't worry about the crew working Nami no Kizu around them; they'd been treated like honored if slightly odd guests all the way up the river, even when she and Langxue chased Shidan across the deck with sharp pointy things to work off some steam. She had nothing to complain about. Except for the fact that talking to Shidan was... well, talking to someone that just wasn't quite meshed in with the rest of those who walked on two legs. Asking why are you doing this, and don't tell me it's just spirits, just hadn't cut it.

"Hold," she gritted out, waiting until the pressure against her wrists eased before drawing back her own blade and sheathing it.

"Saoluan?" Langxue frowned at her, but looked a little guiltily glad for the break. He was good, but he was still too young to have built up all the muscles needed to make swordplay look easy.

She beamed at him, then turned a wry glance on Shidan. "Maybe you could be a little more specific, honored dragon? I hate to talk anybody out of helping us, but the Fire Lord's going to smack an army on top of your people as soon as he knows you've switched sides."

Hands empty, Shidan's smile glinted, sharp-edged. "That would be unwise. Mount Shirotora is a water volcano."

"...Huh?" Saoluan blinked.

"There's two different kinds of volcanoes," Langxue said, with that distant frown she'd begun to recognize as hunting down something Hyourin remembered. "Earth and water."

"There are far more, but those two are the most critical to know," Shidan stated. "Earth volcanoes have gentle eruptions. Lava, a bit of ash; certainly dangerous for villages that can't move out of the way, but they give more than enough warning for most people to simply walk away. You have at least two on the Earth Kingdom's west coast. Apart from a few suicidal fools who've no better sense than to slip off the crater rims into lava pools, they haven't killed anyone in centuries." He paused. "Water volcanoes are not so kind."

Her little sword-brother's eyes widened. "Because there's water in the lava."

"Precisely," Shidan nodded, as Saoluan tried to fit together water and molten rock without making her head explode. "And that is what makes them deadly. The water becomes steam, boiling and building under a cap of stone; and what would happen if you sealed a clay pot of water, and placed it in a furnace?"

"Boom." Saoluan's heart sank. Oh great. We're getting helped by a crazy dragon. "And you live on this thing?"

"We do," Shidan stated. "We must. For without someone to speak to the White Tiger, the spirit of the mountain, to calm his rage and persuade him to allow our firebenders to bleed off bits of steam and lava, it would erupt. Not today. Not tomorrow. But when Shirotora roars, all the Fire Nation is in peril."

Not crazy. Not the way I thought, anyway. "You've blackmailed the Fire Lord," Saoluan said in admiration.

"Such an ugly word, Warrior." But the humor in pale gold didn't deny it. "The lords of Byakko have always done their duty to the clans, and to our nation. Mount Shirotora rests willingly under our care, respected and honored. We would not even think of being neglectful. The Fire Lord has nothing to fear from us."

"Yeah," Langxue said wryly. "As long as you're there. Where you can keep the lid on it. But if you're not..."

"That has almost happened, once." Shidan gripped the rail, hard nails tinging against steel, eyes dark with memory. "When Fire Lord Sozin ordered the Air Nomads destroyed. Byakko refused, and paid with their lives." He drew a sharp breath. "I- there was no warning. Makoto was clever, and Sozin even more so. We knew Sozin was rousing hate against the Air Nomads. We knew some of our clan elders - of the dragon clans - had vanished; we were searching for them, when..." He looked into the river, grieving. "I was able to heal Kuzon, and some others. But for weeks Mount Shirotora hung poised on the knife's edge, and Sozin knew it. So even though Lord Kuzon was fifteen, even though he was known to be a friend to airbenders - the Fire Lord dared not touch him."

Langxue raised a skeptical brow.

Shidan matched it with his own. "It would take more than two-score Fire Sages to force the White Tiger to submit. The moment they slipped, Shirotora would rage to cast the heavens down. Whereas even one of Kuzon's blood... the mountain knows us. No; Sozin was not so foolish as to risk weakening his forces. Not when he could have all he wished by simply leaving us alone."

"Now you're not making sense," Langxue complained, rubbing his head. "Sozin wanted to kill airbenders, and he left you alone?"

"A thousand years can make anything a legend," Shidan said dryly. "Airbenders, indeed. Why, any schoolchild can tell you exactly what Air Nomads were like. They were detached from the world, careless and cruel enough to call hurricanes down. They rode sky bison. They had tattoos, and they never ate meat." He gestured at Langxue's katana. "And they certainly never carried swords."

"Detached?" Langxue said in disbelief. "Come on! The temple monks, maybe. But nobody could call the Duo Qang-"

"Xiangchen destroyed that tribe," Shidan said quietly. "Or so my clan said, long ago."

"Who?" Saoluan asked, as Langxue paled.

"There once were several tribes who roamed the winds," Shidan informed her. "Long ago, before the world went wrong. Before Subodei, and Xiangchen, and the Invasion of the North." His laugh had just a trace of bitterness. "I suppose we must call it the first Invasion of the North, now. Avatar Hirata would never have dreamed his death would lead to this..." He sighed. "Unfortunately, some of the Duo Qang's descendants did survive."

Airbenders. There are airbenders, still alive, Saoluan realized. "How can that be a bad thing?"

"Because today they are not called Duo Qang, but onmitsu," Shidan said bluntly. "The Fire Lord's own chi-blockers... and assassins."

---

Winter rains sheeted down; blinding the moon, rendering merely mortal eyes and ears near useless. Chill rains, soaking through haori and robe and tabi, as he danced with steel across the moss and decorative stones of the inn's contemplative garden. Sweet, fresh rains, that almost washed the taste of blood from his mouth.

Almost let him believe he wasn't dying.

I never would have picked Shu Jing as a place to die.

Well. He was fairly sure Temul hadn't wanted to die here, either. Doubly ironic, that her death would lead to his own. He'd grown used to the acerbic ghost over the years. They'd shared so many secrets; so much pain. Her smoldering hatred of the Fire Lords had not died with Sozin, and she watched Azulon's agents like a raging dragon. Of all the world outside Byakko an old firebender might roam, Shu Jing had always been safe.

Not this night.

Some Fire Sage must have found a way to bind her. Agni, grant her the strength to win free!

Ironic, to be praying for a ghost over his own life. But Temul was iron and flame; so long as she existed, her heart would never be broken.

His - had shattered. Was shattering, with every rain-soaked chi-blocker he cut down.

Heiya. Arisama. Shiri...

He knew them. All of them. Agni, he and Ran had sent welcoming-gifts to half of their births!

Ran...

His beloved lady. The other half of his soul. Dead and lost these two years, swept overboard in a storm while traveling from the capital. An accident.

As this would undoubtedly become, no matter how many dead bodies he scattered about the grounds.

I pray you're not seeing this, Ran.

Duck and slash and twin dao licking out to slice rain and cloth and bone...

That assassin fell without a whimper, darts flying in a storm even as his leg and hand went their separate ways. Rain and a swirl of steel blocked four-

The fifth and sixth sank into his shoulder, biting to the bone. He staggered back, dao dropping from the dead weight of his right hand.

Damn. So close...

Rain faded, one band of clouds passing to leave a few minutes' gap of quiet. The moon couldn't quite break through... but there was enough light to see ranks of dark-garbed assassins, waiting in silent menace on the inn roof.

Not close at all.

He smirked, and knew it was stained with blood. Heiya had managed more than just a poke to block his bending, in those fatal seconds when grief and bewilderment had overridden instinct. Surely, surely one of his own rescued could not intend-

Yet surely she did, and just as surely he'd killed her. Autumn Lord have mercy on her spirit.

But unable to bend, unable to heal... she'd killed him, too.

Just as Azulon intended. Bastard. Coward!

He'd spent his life sowing confusion among his enemies. He wasn't about to break the habit now. "I see Azulon cared enough to send his best," he panted, breathing shallow. "I suppose I should be flattered, Tahou. You so rarely take the field yourself anymore."

Silence. One of the taller masked figures fluttered off the roof, landing... not quite in range for a lunge. Damn it.

Above masking cloth, pale eyes measured his own calculation, and smirked. "And what makes you think we do this for Azulon, Lord of Byakko?"

He chuckled bitterly, no matter how much it hurt. "You're all his lapdogs, Tahou. Telling yourselves you serve to save the many, by killing the few... The Temples were blind, but you? You've corrupted an ignorant way of peace into abomination."

No rumble of hate, not from such as these; but there was a stiffening of darkness in the rain. "Do not dare speak of our ways, thief!"

"Ah," Kuzon breathed. "So this is Ja Aku's will, as well as Azulon's." A laugh; a cough. "I wish I were surprised."

"You destroyed our heritage-"

"I couldn't save the bison, you sanctimonious old fool!" Kuzon snarled. He'd made himself heard across battlefields before; he'd make himself heard now. No matter how little good it would do. "They're large. They're obvious. Half my clan was dead! All I could save were children!"

"You robbed us of our future!"

You robbed yourselves. "And the old hermit picked up the sea cobra, and fed it bits of fish, and warmed it in his bosom through the killing cold of night," Kuzon mused. "And at dawn it struck, and slithered away as he lay dying. For that is the nature of serpents." He tightened his grip on the remaining hilt, ever so slightly. "How fitting that, this night, you give truth to Sozin's lie. The ever-treacherous, murderous Air Nomads."

Some of those shadowy figures above tensed; Tahou raised a gloved fist, halting them. "It's not too late to live. Swear that you will unearth your own treachery, and your chi will be restored."

"No," Kuzon said simply. Watching shadows in the rain.

Somewhat fewer shadows, now.

"You'd condemn your clan to-"

"To what?" Kuzon snarled, tired of pretty half-truths, and sneering lies. "Does your master think Kotone won't know? He has our Ursa; if he wants more, the blood will be on his hands. Our nation's blood! Will he shed that, with a world willing our country's death?" He snorted, the world turning a darker gray with dizziness. "Cross into Byakko if you dare. Shidan will rip you apart."

Old friend. Son I never had. I'm sorry.

And yet another shadow vanished into the night.

They'll notice soon. What can I- ah. He staggered a step sideways, painfully aware it wasn't an act. "Best gloat while you can," he gasped. "You won't have much longer."

Tahou stood still. Almost surged forward-

Yes! Take the bait, you treacherous fool! Because if Tahou was here, there was still one thing more he needed to hear from Kuzon's own lips. If he could just hang on a little longer...

"Where are they?" Tahou ground out.

And now Kuzon could smile, the pain of betrayal easing to something... bearable. It wouldn't be for much longer, after all. "Your brothers and sisters? You'll never know." He'd been fifteen and terrified and grieving - but Shidan had been with him. And no one knew predators like a dragon.

Scatter them, Shidan had advised, in the play of images and feelings that was a dragon's silent song. Friend with friend, and those who act as kin together, yes - but scatter those kin-groups away from each other. Let them know the others live; never let them know where.

The Lord of Byakko holds Mount Shirotora in check, and so is safe from Sozin's wrath. If he seems to know nothing. Be that lord. Hold their existence in your heart.

And carry it to your grave.

"You've already tried to ask Temul," Kuzon breathed now. "She's not here because you bound her to demand her answer. And she doesn't know." He coughed, tasting copper. "And now you've killed the only man who does."

Pale eyes flared wide with rage above the mask. "You will not deny us-!"

Keening to chill the wind, Temul's wraith shimmered from the storm clouds. A blue-glowing jian saluted the sky, and slashed down-

Lightning struck, blasting roof and assassins into a cloud of gore-streaked tiles.

Faint in the crash of thunder, Kuzon thought he heard a young man's, "Whoa! Watch it!"

But that was yards away. Here, now, Tahou had twitched. As who wouldn't twitch, between ghost and lightning and death...

Tahou knew who he faced. Knew better than to let his attention stray. Yet decades of training couldn't kill a man's nature. One foot slipped slightly to the side, abandoning balance to ready himself for flight-

Kuzon lunged.

Everyone remembers a dao's blade. Never the point.

Though Tahou certainly looked as if he'd remember it...

And then the assassin's face went slack, and the body fell, and Kuzon fell with it.

Black and red and... someone lifting his head. Warm hands, and breathing. Not Temul.

"Hang on," said a familiar young voice; one Kuzon had heard only yesterday, giving an informal report on conditions in the Earth Kingdom. "I'll get a healer-"

"Don't be a fool, Major Piandao," Kuzon rasped. "You've been on enough battlefields... to know there's no time." He breathed, looking at the not-quite-solid old woman standing at a young soldier's shoulder. "So you've met. Good. Explain what you can, old friend. After... after you get him out of here."

"Lord Kuzon," Piandao began.

"You can't be here," Kuzon rasped. "By dawn, you'd best be anywhere but here. And you will be visibly surprised, but not upset, to hear the lord of Byakko... died in his sleep."

"But-"

"You're not," Kuzon coughed. "Not stupid, Major. Don't act the fool." Breathe. "I've done... as much damage as I can to Azulon's war. Speak of my death, and he'll suspect you as well."

"And he'd be right," Temul smirked, voice a mutter of rain and wind. "We've killed a good fourth of Azulon's tame nomads. He won't build those forces again in a hurry." At his fading glare, she snorted. "You think I ever liked those scatterbrained, truth-twisting sky-riders? Hah!"

"Nomads?" A ghost might not have rattled the swordsman's nerve, but this did. "They were nomads? But the airbenders are-" He cut himself off, and gripped the hand Kuzon could still feel. "Sir. Your family..."

"Knows what they must," Kuzon got out. "Knows... why." He forced himself to focus on the major's face. "You... serve Azulon. To serve our people." Hang on. Just a little longer. "Azulon... will destroy us all. Choose."

And the rain faded, and hands faded. And, finally, the pain ebbed away.

But not the ache in his heart.

I waited too long. Planned too long. I searched for you, Aang - Agni, I searched!

I should have stopped.

The Avatar is gone. You are gone, Aang; I scoured the world for you, and there was no trace. But the world is still here.

And the Fire Lords will destroy it.

If only I'd known. If only I had some way-

Fire in the darkness. Pain and anger and the razor-edged colors of hope...

"Some way, child of fire?"

My Lord...

Warmth wrapped him; stern as iron, unyielding as the sun. "There is a way," flames crackled, "to keep your promise."

Tell me.

---

The scent of feathers was all that kept him from blasting something.

It's not raining. I'm not dead.

But I was.

"I am Zuko," he breathed to the darkness, gauging the feel of sun-returning to almost dawn. "Son of Ursa, and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and once heir to the Dragon Throne!"

But I remember...

Not hard-edged, except for that lingering nightmare that had been reality. More like a well-loved story, read over and over for all its terror and wonder, until he could almost touch what it would have been if it were real.

It was real.

Kuzon of Byakko. Agni, no wonder Teruko hadn't wanted to tell him.

Iroh, though...

"I need air." Working his way out from under the covers, Zuko paused to catch his breath. Patted a clucking Asahi on the neck. "Bet you want some too, huh?"

The black hen huffed, and caught his hair in her beak, just for a moment.

"I know, I know; I promised bad guys," Zuko apologized. "We'll just have to find some the next time we land."

From the snort, Asahi didn't quite take that as an acceptable excuse. But she got up, letting him lean on her when the world spun a little, and headed sedately for the hatch.

...Working the seal on a hatch when the room kept graying out was not fun.

Have to ask Captain Jee if they've given our refugees the safety drill. There's no way Jinhai could manage this.

Eventually, it clanged open. Zuko winced, expecting marines to pounce and drag him back to bed-

Nobody pounced. There were two firebenders in the hall eyeing Asahi, and she snaked her head with malicious glee, but they just stood there. "Morning, sir," the elder said, politely taking off his faceplate to expose a weathered, clean-shaven face. "Healer Amaya said you shouldn't be up."

"I'll take it slow, Sergeant Kyo," Zuko promised, already tired. "But I need..." To get away from dying. "I need some sun."

Asahi had her eye fixed on the other marine, tilting her head as he twitched nervously. Zuko flicked her head near her ear. "No. Leave Private Sukekuni alone."

"Thanks?" Sukekuni squeaked, as Asahi snickered her way past.

Zuko sighed. Eyed them both, and led her on. "There's more to life than just biting people."

"Skrrr..."

"Yes, I know it's probably the best part," Zuko said wryly. Down, and another hatch, and out-

Dawn.

He found a quiet spot of guardrail and clung to it, soaking up that reviving strength.

The sun rises. The sun sets. No matter how crazy the rest of the world gets.

Given what he knew, what he remembered... it was pretty crazy.

Zuko's hands tightened on steel. Azulon ordered me... ordered Kuzon murdered.

Probably for more than one reason. If Azulon had discovered that he'd hidden survivors from the South and West temples, then Azulon probably also guessed he was the last human link to them. Meaning either Ja Aku's onmitsu would torture the locations out of him before he died... or they wouldn't.

If they'd gotten the sites, he'd pick them off one by one, so the onmitsu could drag them into harmonious accord and fold them into the families. If I just died - any survivors would stay away from the onmitsu, like everyone steers clear of the Fire Nation. And Azulon would never risk losing his pet assassins to what Air used to be.

Either way, Azulon won what he wanted. And if that cost him a quarter of the onmitsu's forces... well. Azulon had planned to live as long as Sozin. He'd counted on having decades to increase his power.

Except he didn't.

Zuko had no doubts, now, that Ursa had killed Fire Lord Azulon. Byakko had been walking the knife-edge of rebellion so very, very long, to protect their island and their children...

And he was angry and confused and so proud. She hadn't broken. She hadn't wavered. She was Byakko, and dragon-child, and she'd lived honor.

Next to that, his own quest for the Avatar looked pathetic.

Breathe. All we have is here. All we have is now.

And he only had now because he had no luck. He'd given it all up into Agni's hands, so there might be a chance of unsnarling Koh's webs before they strangled the world. So one young prince, not the heir, would have the soul-deep knowledge that something was wrong. That the world shouldn't be this way. That the Fire Nation should be respected for its honor, not feared for its ruthless slaughters.

"That... didn't quite work," Zuko muttered.

Why it hadn't was painfully clear now. Besides Lu Ten dying - and he had all kinds of suspicions about that, given what he knew about his father and Long Feng - Kuzon hadn't been a dragon-child. Kuzon had been a relatively ordinary master firebender, no more stubborn or crazy than... oh, Jee. Kuzon had been sane. Rational. Easy-going enough to take a temple full of airbenders in stride. He'd loved his wife, and daughter, and Shidan - and had still been caught completely off-guard the first time one of his granddaughters had bitten him.

Zuko vaguely remembered biting a few servants himself when he'd been little. Before Ursa had done what Shidan had done with her, decades before: grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, shook him - gently, but with fire in her fingertips - and told him no. Not prey. Bad.

It worked. Eventually.

Sozin was a dragon-child, Zuko thought now, gripping steel. Agni set it up, so the Avatar would know what drives the Fire Nation... spirits, that blew up.

Sozin, and then Azulon was twice over. And Ursa was. He rested his head on the railing, feeling cool steel warm from his temper. I am screwed.

He might have Kuzon's spirit, but he'd been born with enough dragon blood that a hundred years ago, no clan would have dared send him to court. He'd get himself killed.

Well, almost.

And if Kuzon hadn't realized what he was getting into, Agni did know. The spirit of fire knew his children.

But I had Lu Ten. Zuko lifted his head, swallowing the lump in his throat. Things weren't really bad until...

The world is so screwed up.

And Aang had no idea. He'd gone from a world of apparent peace - Gyatso had always chosen their trips very carefully - to one where, if the war hadn't seared its way through a place, people were living on borrowed time. And they knew it.

No wonder he couldn't figure out Ba Sing Se. It's probably the first place that felt normal.

Agni, Aang didn't even know about the yamabushi; much less the onmitsu, or the Touzaikaze of the Si Wong Desert, or... spirits, a half-dozen other small groups that knew enough to just whisper away on the wind when trouble threatened.

And if he doesn't know that, he has no idea why Shidan made sure we met in the first place. Or what Uncle Kuroyama was planning with Gyatso. Or what the elders were really going to do to him if Gyatso couldn't stop them.

Zuko shuddered, guiltily relieved. Aang might have the attention span of a flutter-hornet on a honey high, but that impulsive decision might just have saved the world. An Avatar, twisted the way the temples twisted all the nuns who hesitated to give their children up? The way onmitsu made sure all their active agents were twisted?

Ty Lee. I'm so sorry.

And it hurt, it hurt so much, because he hadn't known. Spies and assassins, yes; but Ty Lee's relatives had families, they looked happy, they'd looked like somewhere safe to put some of the children he and Temul had rescued...

Until he'd sat down one awful night, still trying to get the domain in order, and put together some of the reports Byakko's own agents had sent their young lord. Reports indicating the onmitsu had suddenly gained a swarm of newborns to look after. All with the same slight build, and laughing gray eyes...

Sozin never meant to kill the children. Not all of them.

The Northern Temple had been laid ruin, monks and boys slaughtered to the last. The Eastern... had been harvested.

And if that weren't gut-wrenching enough, that was the night he'd finally pieced together the rest of Kuroyama's plan: to introduce a young monk to his distant kin, to see what the temples had driven out, and how it had maimed their own spirits. A plan that had died in the comet's flames.

I have to do something.

Zuko gripped steel harder, and swore under his breath. I am doing something. I'm getting these people out of the line of fire. I'm going to keep the Fire Army from grabbing the Mechanist back. I'm going to make a place airbenders can live without tearing themselves apart just because they're human. And we're all going to call the drowned home, so things don't get even worse.

Drowned spirits all around the Spirit Oasis, where Koh could cross into the physical world on sheer whim. The Face-Stealer had to be laughing like hell.

"Um." The eyes and queue of the man eyeing him said Earth Kingdom; the ragged bangs and water-worn loose clothing said independent merchant captain, or worse. "You got a grudge against that rail, kid?"

Zuko blinked, realizing Asahi had warily backed off. As who wouldn't, when steel was glowing red-hot. Oops. "And you are?"

"Donghai. Captain," he said, as if it weren't obvious. His expression seemed caught between wary and sour. "Didn't know the Fire Nation recruited kids as firebenders."

Zuko smirked. "I was born into the job."

"Born into the-" Donghai stared at him. Glanced over the rail and back, where a ragged fleet of red-sailed ships was making as much as they could of dawn's light winds. "…No way."

Zuko raised his eyebrow.

"I know Shirong said – and that Sadao guy, but…." Dongahi trailed off, shaking his head. "This is even crazier than I thought."

Zuko let go of steel before it blazed any hotter. Damn it, I know how risky-

Donghai's mouth turned up at one corner. "Just might work after all."

Zuko eyed him, aware that Sergeant Kyo was lingering unobtrusively in the background and Asahi had just ruffled her feathers in a way that promised friendly mayhem.

"Ah, there you are, Captain Donghai." Jee stalked up, glancing at the hot air shimmering around the railing. And gave his young commander a look.

Zuko flushed, and took a step sideways to make sure he could grab Asahi if she got cranky. It was just the railing! I didn't set anything else on fire!

But he didn't say it. Suzuran was Jee's command, and the captain had every right to take anyone who threatened her to task. He might not have always respected that before, but he was going to do better now. No matter how hard he had to bite his own tongue to do it.

"Captain Donghai is here to represent some of our allies in the fleet, as we discuss options," Jee went on. "Will you be joining us for tea?"

Zuko tried not to grimace at the undertone: You and I both know you shouldn't be up. How far are you going to let your pride push you?

As if he didn't know collapsing in front of their allies was a bad idea.

"I believe I'm going to take Healer Amaya's advice, Captain," Zuko said formally. "Please inform General Iroh that I have full confidence in you both." He paused. "And… tell my uncle I understand why he did what we spoke about earlier. I don't agree with it. But I understand." Do I tell him?

…Yes. No more lies. "And tell him, and Agent Shirong, that when it comes to obligation, Roku's going to have to get in line. I remember Kuzon."

---

"All right." Shirong looked over the small wardroom Iroh had borrowed, trying to gauge exactly why the occupants wouldn't meet his eyes for long. And why Zuko's enigmatic statement had gathered these three to talk to him. Teruko, Amaya, and the general himself, yet not one of the Wens, or Captain Jee? Why? "I can understand that obligations to one great-grandfather might outweigh obligations to another, depending on the circumstances." Fire Lord Sozin, Avatar Roku, and Lord Kuzon of Byakko. Spirits, he had to wonder if there were any other pots of blasting jelly in the branch of Zuko's family tree he didn't yet know about. "But how does the prince remembering Kuzon make a difference? Spirits don't usually make allowances for human frailties like memory. They hold you accountable whether you remember you've promised or not."

Silence. A guilty, prickly silence in which no one met his eyes.

Oh, this is bad. "All right," Shirong said carefully. "What's the obligation Zuko's being held to?" When in doubt, try to find the spirits' deal. And see if you could force a loophole.

Iroh coughed into his hand, looking as if he wished his cup held something stronger than tea. "It would seem Kuzon promised to find Aang, bring him back, and make him apologize for fleeing his destiny."

Oh. Oh my; that explained quite a bit about the mysterious Fire Nation lord and spy. Including the letter Jinhai was holding on to, and why it'd been found where it had. Where better to look for clues about an Air Nomad Avatar, than in lore of the last Air Nomad Avatar? Still, there was a slight problem with Iroh's statement. "Kuzon is dead," Shirong pointed out. "And while the spirits may not hold to, he who dies, pays all debts, any obligation Kuzon incurred should be stuck in the spirit world with him. It shouldn't force Zuko to carry out any part of it, any more than he's forced to uphold the balance for Avatar Roku and Ta Min, or wipe out the Air Nomads for Fire Lord Sozin and Tejina. Unless his last set of great-grandparents incurred some really nasty spiritual debt...?"

"Dragons pay their own debts," Teruko said firmly. "Shidan's clan didn't bring this on the prince."

Dragons? Shirong thought, stunned. What on earth does she mean by-

If he hadn't been keeping an eye on the most dangerous person in the room out of sheer paranoid habit, he'd have missed it. But he was, and Shirong saw the slight quirk of Iroh's smile.

Okay, don't ignore it, it is important, Shirong told himself firmly. But get it out of them later. He's using it to distract you from whatever this mess with Kuzon is. Which means that's even more important.

On top of that, Teruko still looked incredibly guilty. "I suppose I should just ask him," Shirong mused.

...And didn't that set the cat-owl among the chicken-pigs. Though it was a horrified silence, not squawking oinks, that sank into the corners of the room.

"I will ask him, you know," Shirong said levelly. "He saved my life on that train. Even if he nearly scared me out of it later." Putting them both on a boat, for Guanyin's sake. When he knew earthbenders and water didn't mix!

Though being on Suzuran wasn't nearly as bad as the horror stories he'd heard from Dai Li agents forced to sail over Lake Laogai. The metal was stern, yes, obviously meant for war... but then, so was the Outer Wall. He could stand it here. So far.

That Captain Jee had taken on pieces of the train itself as ballast, specifically for the comfort of earthbenders on board, definitely hadn't hurt.

"It is difficult to speak of," Iroh said heavily.

"He means you'll think we're all mad," Amaya put in, blue eyes dark with worry. "We're not. I have never heard the legend Iroh tells in either of our nations, but from what I sensed in Zuko's spirit..." She let out a slow breath. "It's real. I don't know how it can be, how any spirit could make that choice. But he did."

Shirong felt chill. "Choice?"

Iroh sighed. "Zuko is bound by Kuzon's obligation because, in a sense, Kuzon is no longer dead." The general hesitated. "Though it seems he was sleeping. A mercy from Agni, that should never have been reft away. Yangchen has much to answer for."

Shirong fit facts and implications together, and staggered back against a friendly wall. Guanyin have mercy. "Zuko... has lived before. And knows it."

Iroh inclined his head.

Oh, hell.

Everyone knew reincarnation was the way of the world. This life was but one among many, preached the sages and monks; and a human who was virtuous would be reborn as yet another human life, just as the Avatar was. But that was always years, even centuries later. To return while your kin in the third degree remained alive tangled the whole web of an innocent child's destiny. Obligations of the past, obligations of the present - a soul could go mad, trying to balance them all. And even if he escaped that fate...

He'd have the worst luck in the world.

Numbly, Shirong realized that the wall was all that was holding him up, and Amaya was cradling a ball of water in concerned hands. "I'm all right," he said raggedly. "I will be, at least... Oma and Shu. What did he ever do to deserve that?"

"If the legends are true," Iroh said, very carefully, "he would have offered himself to Agni's task deliberately. To stand as ally to kin or friend who desperately needed it; as he would have stood to the last, had he not died."

"Lady Kotone's letter said he was looking for a friend." Shirong's heart sank. "He was searching for Avatar Aang..."

"They were friends," Iroh nodded. "However Zuko may deny it now."

"It's not denying it when the kid's tried to kill him," Shirong grumbled. "Shale and shards, why?"

"I did not know Lord Kuzon well," Iroh admitted. "He was one of my father's spies, one of the few firebenders left old enough to remember the world before the war, and Azulon did not trust him. But he had unflinching honor. If Agni revealed to him that Aang would return to the world, and this might be the last, best chance to restore balance - I believe he would not hesitate." Iroh looked grave. "I pray I would not, if such a fate were offered me."

"Because if it were you, the fate of the world would come first," Shirong mused. "No matter what it did to everyone around you." It fit. Damn. "No wonder you don't want to face him. Kuzon might have chosen to do that to himself, but you were about to do it to your own nephew."

Iroh winced. Amaya didn't. "What else should he have done?" the healer said reasonably. "The tribe has to come first."

No help there. And the general's feeling guilty, but not enough to change his mind, Shirong thought. Teruko, though... "A few months ago, I would have agreed with you," the agent admitted. "Before I realized my generals were about to use a twelve-year-old child as a weapon." He met Amaya's gaze, unflinching. "I don't know what you're willing to do in the Water Tribes, but if we'd done that to save Ba Sing Se, we would have deserved everything the Fire Nation's done to us."

"The airbender is a child," Iroh stepped in to defend her. "But Zuko is a prince of the Fire Nation. He was raised to accept command, and responsibility."

"And he'll keep being responsible until it kills him," Shirong said bitterly. "Weren't you listening, general? Didn't you hear anything he said? Anything you said? Kuzon didn't come back for the world. He definitely didn't come back for the Fire Lord."

Gold eyes narrowed at him. "Then why?"

"If you can't figure that out," the agent said wryly, "then you'd better ask him."

---

"Ocean spirits, river spirits, wind spirits, well spirits, mine spirits - mine spirits?" Ticking them off on his fingers as Katara stirred their lunch stew, Aang turned an incredulous look on Tao. "Mines are people digging into the earth. How can they have a spirit?"

"Hey, I dig in the earth all the time," Toph objected.

"Yeah, but that's bending," Aang pointed out. "That's different."

"You think so?" Sokka was giving him another of those weird considering looks. "I thought you were glad Tao's people were up in the air."

"I am," Aang nodded. "But that's different. Maybe they're not bending, but they're not hurting anything, either."

Tao raised a gray brow. "So you think a bender would never harm the earth?"

"You feel your element," Katara stated. "How could you ever hurt it?"

"Most benders will never be so attuned to their element as you are, young lady," Tao stated. "Among many peoples in the Earth Kingdom, nobles try to avoid ever touching the earth, unless they are obligated to bend it. Ride, certainly, or take coaches, or palanquins - but allow one's own feet to be soiled? That is for farmers. And soldiers. And peasants."

He gave the word the same twist Zuko had, fighting Katara. Aang felt something in his insides curdle.

Tao's tone softened, friendly again. "They forget their debts to the earth that bore them. Just as the Fire Nation wishes to forget that once they were the honor of the world." He looked down. "It's a sad world you've been handed as your charge, young man. We are all so broken. I've searched for ways to heal us for almost a century. And with everything I try, I only uncover deeper wounds."

"Sozin wrecked the whole world," Sokka said soberly. "Man."

Katara stirred the embers. "It didn't start with him."

"Really?" Tao leaned back a bit, as if he were just politely interested.

But he's not, Aang realized. He knows something!

"Xiangchen came for the air-healers, and Chin came for the earth-healers, and Sozin... he came for the fire-healers," Katara said quietly.

She couldn't have said what he thought she'd just said. She couldn't have. "Xiangchen did what?" Aang sputtered.

"Earth-healing," Tao mused, ignoring him. "Now, there's a legend I've not heard spoken in a long time. A long time," he said, half to himself. Letting out a slow breath, he focused on the present once more. "How did you know about Chin?"

"...The Moon spirit gave me a vision."

"Ah." Tao nodded.

Aang blinked at him, distracted even from that impossible thing she'd said about Xiangchen. "Ah? She talked to the Moon!"

"And that is an honor and a blessing." Tao frowned, eyeing him. "Oh dear. Did you think that was something remarkable?"

"But..." Aang swallowed hard. "The Avatar's the bridge between our world and the spirits."

"Of course," Tao nodded. "But at the end of every Avatar's lifetime, that bridge is gone for many years. Those of us without such power, but with need, can find the shallows to cross, if one from the other side is willing to meet us. Even if we are not deserving." His eyes looked haunted. "Even if we could never be deserving."

That didn't sound good. Aang glanced at the others, seeing them tense. Toph looked calm, but he could tell by the careful angle of her feet that anything that twitched wrong was going to get flattened. "What do you mean?" he asked carefully. "You seem like a good guy. Why wouldn't the spirits talk to you, if they wanted to?"

Tao sighed, and bowed his head. "Avatar Aang. Airbender Aang. Much as I am glad to teach you of the spirits, that is not, truly, why I am here." He bowed deeply. "I came to beg your forgiveness."

"Why?" Aang wondered, fear making his throat dry. Were they going to be betrayed to the Fire Nation again? Were they going to have to run again, because he wasn't strong enough to win? "What'd you do?"

"Nothing," the old man said quietly. "A hundred years ago... I did nothing."

"I don't understand," Aang protested. But he did, oh spirits, he did. And it was horrible. "Why... why would you do that? What did we ever do to you?"

"Young man." Tao did look up then, green eyes dark with old pain. "What on earth makes you think it was anything you did?"

He wanted to whimper. He did. Because if that was true - if that was true then the world wasn't fair, and the spirits weren't fair, and that couldn't be right! Because if spirits weren't fair, then-

Aang's mind shied from ice and night and pain. I'm the Avatar. I'm supposed to make things fair.

Katara gripped his shoulder, and squeezed gently. "I think you'd better explain, Master Tao."

The shaman grimaced. "It is not an easy thing to speak of." He sighed. "Nor should it be."

"So you did let the Fire Nation get to the temples," Toph said flatly.

"Yes," Tao admitted. "We did."

Aang swallowed, but couldn't get the words out. Glanced at Sokka, gray eyes imploring.

"I'll bite," Sokka half-sighed. "Why?"

"Because we didn't care."

Aang stared at him, wanting to shake. Wanting to - to hurt someone, and that was just awful. Didn't care? They didn't care?

"We are earth, and we remember." Tao's face was haunted. "It's good to honor the past, so the traditions which bind us as peoples live on. But memory cuts for good and ill, and too often we forget earth's true heart: not tradition, but compassion." He looked down. "We cling to grudges centuries old as a miser does jade coins. And so we remembered what you did not do, when Chin the Conqueror savaged his way across our lands. And as you had stayed your hands, so we stayed ours. We saw the Fire Nation massing. We heard their tales of hate, and we could guess what they meant to do. And we did - nothing."

"How?" Katara's voice shook, and her hand clenched painfully on Aang's shoulder. "How could you? They killed everyone. Every sky bison. Every child!"

"It's easier than you think, when you don't see it happen," Tao said sharply. "You tell yourself they're nomads. Perhaps they've only flown away. You tell yourself the Fire Nation was too strong to fight. That the Avatar should have stopped them, as Roku did Fire Lord Sozin's first invasion. And worst of all," his breath caught, and worn hands gripped his staff like a twig in a flood. "Worst of all, you lie to yourself, and say they deserved it. That they were arrogant. That they were outsiders, who took and gave nothing in return, and no concern of yours. That they should suffer for the sins of their forebears, who flew overhead as your ever-so-great-grandfather's crops were burned, and his brothers slaughtered, and his wives and daughters violated. And did nothing." He stared into awful memory. "You tell yourself all of that. And all of it is true, and still a lie. For there is nothing, nothing, that justifies abandoning Guanyin's mercy. But we did. And so, we allowed a people to die."

"And you want Aang to save you?" Katara snarled.

Aang felt sick. "Katara-"

"No," Tao said firmly. "We who abandoned Guanyin, out of fear or hatred - we do not deserve the Avatar's aid. But our children..." He lifted his gaze, and the pain there was terrible. "I can ask for nothing. But for those born to know only war, who never had the chance to fail your people-"

"Stop," Aang said faintly. "Just - stop."

His friends went quiet. Sokka gave him a serious look. "Aang?"

"Being the Avatar isn't about who deserves help," Aang managed. "It's about making things right. The world needs to be balanced again. That means we have to stop the Fire Nation." He swallowed. "And it means I forgive you."

Tao glanced away. "I don't deserve it."

"Gyatso said once, nobody deserves to be forgiven." Aang remembered that day, trying not to hurt inside. Guru Pathik had said the Air Nomad's love had been reborn as new love... but it was Gyatso. "I told him that sounded awful. There had to be something somebody could do. But he said no. Forgiveness isn't about them. It's about you." He took a deep breath. "What you said - it hurts. A lot. But you've been hurting too, all this time. And when Boots came and found you... you could have left, and we wouldn't know anything. But you didn't. You came to help us. Even... even when you thought I'd hate you." He bit his lip. "And you knew what Roku did when he stopped Sozin the first time. You know what an Avatar can do when... when we get mad." He swallowed dryly. "You're really brave."

Tao raised a brow. "Because I dared to face you?"

"No," Aang said, thinking it over. "Because you didn't stop hoping." He looked at Katara, and her wonder made his heart beat faster. "It takes a lot of courage not to give up."

Toph grinned. Sokka gave him a thumbs-up, and shot Tao a considering look. "So you were around before Aang was born, huh? What was that like?"

Tao looked thoroughly nonplussed. "You need instruction in the ways of the spirits..."

"Yeah, that too," Aang agreed. "But I need to fix the world." He flung his hands wide. "How'm I gonna do that if nobody tells me about how it should be?"

"Hmm." Tao stroked his beard. "Well. My mother was displaced by the invasion, you understand; Fire Lord Sozin might have been forced to withdraw, but she'd already decided the yin and yang of that site were hopelessly unfavorable for her. So I was born at Taku, in the great school of herbalists..."

Leaning back, Aang got ready to do one of the hardest things in his life.

He sat still, and listened.

---

A/N: Duo Qang - sentimental, full of emotion. Found in a book about Tang dynasty poetry.

To answer a few reviewer questions: canon, there are cats in the Avatar 'verse. And displacement is what lets a metal ship float... or a train with curved "wings" of ice sheathing, shaped to displace enough water to equal the mass of the train, so the lake buoys the train up. Zuko's been on a steel ship for three years. He would know how that works.

And yes, I do read reviews. In detail. *G* I just have a definite plot for the story already. (And I'm up to my eyebrows in classes, so finding time to reply is taking distinct second place to just writing the story. Darn it.)

For whoever put the long entry mentioning WWI on the Just Bugs Me Embers tropes page, about the mess and sticky moral situations of trying to clean up after a war - yay! That was cool! "When people play catch with Idiot Ball", indeed. Exactly. And BTW, a lot of your speculations about the Air Nomads are correct.

Finally, a note on those who've commented on the differences between the concept of "For Want of a Nail" and AU... part of the problem is, when I started writing this story, I didn't intend it to be nearly as AU as it turned out. But then I got into researching exactly what sparks off genocides in RL, and what usually has to happen first. And then wondered about why water was the only healing element, and how that might be balanced if all the elements are supposed to be necessary to the world's balance. And then the bunnies tied together Koh, and Wan Shi Tong, and a few other things...

It, um, kind of snowballed from there. Sorry.

At least now I have a fairly good idea of all the backstory for this AU. And it is drastically AU. No question. Hopefully Scarlet and Black, when I get back to that AU, will be much more "For Want of a Nail"!