Ozymandias, King of Kings

by Think of a Wonderful Thought

After that fateful Agni Kai, Ozai makes a different call. Branded as a traitor and banished to a prison camp, Zuko learns just how cruel the Fire Nation can be. Three years, a water tribe raid, and a gang of over-enthusiastic, idealistic children put Zuko back in the spotlight. The revolution is coming, and it wants Zuko for a poster boy. Zuko wants to be left alone.

15. Chapter 15

The Fire Lord cast an imperious eye over the kneeling boys, and the corner of his mouth twisted slowly upwards. Lifting his hand, he gave a dismissive wave. With no more than that gesture, he ordered the room clear of all but the four soldiers still holding tight to the prisoners' shoulders. Zuko shuddered. His father, sat imperiously on the dais, simply took another deep sip of his tea and waited patiently as the room emptied around them. As soon as the door clanged shut behind the last of the guards, he turned his attention back to the two boys.

"I am surprised to see you," the Fire Lord admitted, with a slight tilt of his head. "I am sure that I recall banishing you from the Kingdom, boy. On pain of death."

Zuko shuddered again; he couldn't help it. It had been three years and yet Zuko felt like it was mere moments since he had last felt hard, merciless stone beneath his knees, as he stared up at his father and begged for mercy. He hadn't found any then, and he knew he wouldn't now. His hands were shaking at his sides, and he clenched them into tight fists.

His father noticed his nervousness. His face twitched once again into that disdainful half-smirk that had always promised pain to the unlucky recipient, be it some poor bastard pleading his case before the court, or his terrified son in the dim light of the royal study.

He took another sip of tea, studying Zuko over the rim of the cup.

"So imagine my surprise to find you here," the Fire Lord continued in a lazy drawl, "in the depths of my palace, in the middle of the eclipse." He languidly uncrossed his legs; Zuko flinched at the movement. His father narrowed his eyes in irritation. "Go on then- astound me, Zuko. Why are you here?"

Zuko couldn't have answered, even if he had known what to say; his mouth was dry as stone and his lungs felt like they were trapped in a slowly tightening vice. It was a struggle to remember to breathe, let alone how to speak. It had been three years, Zuko thought to himself, half-hysterically; how could his father still make him feel like a terrified child?

"Come now, boy, I'm sure even you haven't forgotten your manners so easily," the Fire Lord taunted. He leant casually to the side and deposited his teacup on the low table that had been placed, as with all things the Fire Lord might ever demand, conveniently within his reach. "When I ask you a question, I expect an answer."

The silence in the room mocked him as mercilessly as the glimmer in his father's golden eyes; it dragged on and on, weighing heavier on Zuko's shoulders than the hands of the guards pushing him into the floor. He didn't know what to say; he never knew what to say. It didn't really matter anyway; his father wasn't really expecting an answer.

"No?" The Fire Lord's smirk was mocking, as his eyes tracked over Zuko's face. "Perhaps I'll have to remind you-"

"We have nothing to say to you," Sokka's voice cut over whatever threat the Fire Lord had been about to make.

Zuko didn't dare look away from his father for even a second, so he couldn't see the look on Sokka's face, but he knew the other boy well-enough that he could picture the cold fury gleaming in those ice-blue eyes. The Fire Lord's eye twitched in irritation; he was not a man used to being interrupted. Zuko flinched and his eyes flickered to the floor.

"And who are you?" His father nodded to one of the soldiers who immediately grabbed Sokka's chin, forcing it up so that the Fire Lord could look down on his face.

The scornful laugh fell on Zuko's bowed head like a blow. He looked over at Sokka, begging the other boy to be silent, to not draw the Fire Lord's attention.

"A Water Tribe peasant, Zuko?" His father's voice had dropped into something low and very, very dangerous. "I should not be surprised that three years away has not made you any less of a disappointment."

He cast a dispassionate gaze over Sokka's face. The guard holding Sokka's chin tightened his grip and the other boy let out a grunt of discomfort.

"Your name?" the Fire Lord demanded.

Sokka glared up at him, his eyes harder than stone and colder than ice.

"How brave," Ozai remarked. He nodded to the guard holding Sokka's chin.

The man yanked Sokka around to face him and then crashed the back of his hand across his cheek. The force of the blow sent Sokka crashing sideways into Zuko's shoulder with a sharp cry of pain. Zuko flinched as if he too had been hit.

"Shall we try that again?" Ozai asked. His voice was as calm and dispassionate as if he were commenting on the weather. "Who are you, boy, and why are you here, with my traitorous son, in the middle of this pathetic attempt at an invasion?"

Sokka hauled himself up and glared up at the Fire Lord once again.

"No," the Fire Lord sighed. "How disappointing." He nodded at the guard. "Again."

Sokka flinched into Zuko's shoulder, and something in Zuko snapped. He had expected violence from his father, but only towards himself; he knew without any doubt that he could not sit quietly and watch Sokka be hurt. He sucked in a breath and tried to ignore the satisfied smirk that had crawled over his father's face.

"Stop!" His voice came out hoarse and rasping, but it had the desired effect; his father turned his attention back to him, dispassionately raising a palm to halt the blow before it was dealt.

"You have something to say now, boy?"

"Wait, I-"

Whatever Sokka had been about to say trailed off into angry, muffled grunts, as the guard's palm slammed down over his mouth, abruptly silencing him. The Fire Lord turned his attention back to his son, waiting expectantly.

Zuko swallowed, his throat convulsing painfully. Agni, but he had not thought this through.

"Leave him alone," he ordered, although with the weakness in his voice it came out as more of a plea.

His father snorted in derision and pulled himself to his feet in one fluid motion. He made his way down the stairs of the dais in smooth, stalking steps. The Fire Lord crossed the room with agonising slowness, drawing steadily closer and closer, until he stopped directly in front of the two prisoners, close enough that Zuko could see the patterns embroidered on his robes. Zuko's breath froze in his chest. The guards let go of his shoulder and slunk backwards, leaving their master to his prey.

"What a disappointment you turned out to be," the Fire Lord sighed, leaning forwards to grasp Zuko's chin. "A traitor twice-over now, boy? Begging for mercy for some enemy brat? Banishment was clearly too kind to you." He sighed in a parody of dismay.

"It wasn't banishment. You sent me to prison."

The words were out of his mouth before Zuko could stop them. He had thought that particular injury long scabbed over and crushed down by years of depravation and brutality. So why was it that now, kneeling before his father, that it suddenly felt like he was thirteen once again? That he was that desperate, feverish child staring down a cruel, pointless sentence and reeling from how unfair it all was? Why was nothing ever enough, why was Zuko never good enough?

"And you finally show something resembling a spine." His father raised a delicate eyebrow. "I had hoped some time away from the palace would teach you respect, not more of this pointless defiance." The fingers tightened on his chin as his father tilted his face further into the light, studying the scar with an air of academic interest. "Clearly you didn't learn your lesson."

Beside him, Sokka let out another string of muffled cries, but Zuko barely noticed. Something deep in his chest was rising up, crushing any thoughts of common sense or self-preservation. Years of repressed hurt surging forward, howling the same desperate plea for some scrap of affection, some sign that his father felt something for him other than disappointment and disdain. Somewhere, in a part of his mind that Zuko had diligently never allowed himself to acknowledge, the faint hope that perhaps his father hadn't meant to hurt him so badly, hadn't known how bad the prison would be, fizzled out like a spent fuse. Zuko held onto that feeling, coaxed it and let it push back the fear. He met his father's eyes squarely and fed every ounce of his hurt and fury into that look.

"Respect?" Zuko all but spat, riding the rage and taking vicious delight in the flicker of surprise in his father's eyes. "You challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, your son, to a duel! Just for speaking out of turn! You burnt half my face off!"

His father's fingertips pressed into his jaw with bruising force. He stared down at his son with nothing but cold calculation in his gaze. A terrible sense of déjà vu came over Zuko as he knelt before his father, the cold stone pressing against his knees and that terrible blankness in his father's golden eyes. It wasn't a revelation, but the unvarnished truth hit him, once again, like a blow to the chest.

"You tried to kill me."

His voice was flat. It was a statement, not an accusation. Both father and son had long since known what happened between them in the Agni Kai arena that day. Ozai smiled.

"And yet here you are." He drawled, leaning forwards to whisper, pointedly, in Zuko's bad ear. "I won't make that mistake again."

Zuko flinched, and Sokka let out a cry of alarm, suddenly struggling fiercely against the captors holding him. From somewhere in the bunker, a deep gong sounded. Both boys froze, but Ozai's smile grew wider.

"Whatever plan you had has long-since fallen apart," he remarked. The hand at Zuko's chin began to grow uncomfortably warm. "The eclipse is over. You're too late." He looked Zuko in the eyes. "You failed."

The grip on his face was blazing hot now, and Zuko knew, with terrifying and familiar clarity, that his father was about to kill him. He sent up a silent prayer to Agni that he would be well-received in the spirit world. Hopefully he and Sokka had bought Aang some time to escape, that had to mean he'd done something worthwhile in his pathetic life, didn't it? Sokka was struggling even harder at his side, but Zuko knew it wouldn't do any good. He shut his eyes.

A frantic clanging cut through the moment, as someone hammered at the door to the bunker room. His father's breath hit his face in one deep sigh.

"Enter!" The Fire Lord ordered irritably. The hand at Zuko's chin cooled almost immediately, and he cautiously peeled open his eyes.

A young soldier came hurrying into the room, his uniform dusty, dishevelled and entirely soaked down the left hand side. He bent into a low bow, gasping for breath.

"Your Majesty," he wheezed out, "urgent report."

"What is it?"

Ozai dropped his hand from Zuko's face and turned to face the messenger. One of the guards hurried back to his place at Zuko's shoulder, a heavy hand holding him in place until the Fire Lord was ready for him again.

"It's the Avatar," the soldier explained, his voice shaky even though he'd got his breathing back under control. "Your Majesty, he's here, in the bunker."

The Fire Lord clenched his fists. Smoke twisted from them in slow, curling spirals.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, Majesty." The soldier had still not risen from his bow. "He has the waterbender with him, and what we think is a team of earthbenders."

Ozai was silent for a long moment. He looked, for the first time in Zuko's life, entirely unsettled. Clearly, whatever he had been expecting from the eclipse, it had not been a personal visit from the Avatar- he'd looked less surprised to see his long-exiled son than to hear that particular news. Clearly, they'd done a better job of concealing Aang's survival from the Fire Nation than they'd thought; perhaps Master Piandao hadn't turned them in, after all?

"Who has been sent to apprehend him?"

"Princess Azula is personally leading the defence, Your Majesty," the soldier replied. A thrill of fear rushed through Zuko; he didn't want his sister anywhere near his friends.

Ozai hummed thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing.

"Leave us," he ordered the soldier, who backed his way back out the door without straightening from his bow.

Ozai turned to the four men still holding both boys.

"You too," he ordered, as he moved to sit back down on his dais. "Get out and do not move from outside this room. I will remain here until the threat has been contained."

The men were too well-disciplined to even contemplate questioning orders, but it was clear by the looks on their faces that they didn't approve of leaving the Fire Lord alone with a traitor.

As soon as he was released, Sokka took in a deep, gasping breath and then spat several times on the floor. He scrubbed roughly with the back of his hand at the spot where the guard's hand had held his mouth.

"Charming," Ozai remarked to the now all-but-empty room.

Sokka froze and pulled himself back up straight to glare daggers at the Fire Lord.

"You-"

"Silence!" Ozai's voice boomed out, and Sokka quickly shut up. "And you…" his eyes narrowed to mere slits as he turned back to Zuko. "I should have known better than to trust the water peasants to do the sensible thing and kill you, when I didn't respond to their notification of your capture."

Sokka let out a gasp, but Zuko ignored it and focused on his father, tracking his every move; he didn't know why Ozai wanted them alone, but it implied his father wanted to do something unpleasant away from prying eyes.

Ozai shook his head in a parody of disappointed hurt.

"I never would have imagined that you'd join forces with them, against your own people!"

"Then you don't know him very well," Sokka all but growled, jutting his chin out defiantly.

Ozai ignored Sokka completely, and kept his gaze entirely on Zuko.

"I do wonder where I went wrong with you." He hummed as if in thought. "Perhaps I let you spend too much time with your mother. She was always too soft-hearted. Too weak." He let out a deep sigh, shook his head once more, and then stared down at Zuko with a smile so sharp it could cut diamond. "But I am willing to give you one more chance, boy."

His voice was soft as honey and the hairs on the back of Zuko's neck prickled in warning.

"You're working with the Avatar- no, don't try to deny it." He held up a hand to prevent Zuko's instinctive denial. "Only an honourless traitor would sink so low as to help the greatest threat to this nation infiltrate the palace. That was clearly the plan, wasn't it? I have no doubt you've told him secrets of state that will lead to the deaths of countless innocent men, women and children."

Zuko flinched, but forced himself to meet Ozai's eyes. The horrific smile widened.

"I am willing, however, to forget all of this. In my gracious magnanimity, I will offer you a pardon and lift your exile, so that you may eke out whatever living you so choose back in the Fire Nation, as a free man."

"And all you want in return is…?" Sokka's voice was dry as bone.

Ozai bristled, but kept his eyes fixed on Zuko's.

"Help me bring down the Avatar. Here. Today." He gestured to the room around him with a sweep of his hand, ignoring Sokka's scoff. "Find the boy and bring him back here for me to deal with. That is all I ask you to do to regain your honour and come home to the Fire Nation. What do you say, Zuko, will you help your country or die a miserable traitor?"

Zuko smiled widely, and his father returned the expression with what might, to a casual observer, look like a passable attempt at sincerity. Zuko let out a huff of disgusted laughter. There was only one answer he could give.

"Fuck you."

Ozai's face twisted into a vicious snarl, before suddenly becoming eerily blank. Zuko held his breath and forced himself not to flinch; this was it. His father's hands whipped out to the side and vicious blue sparks spun into existence around them. Lightning. His father was calling lightning.

Zuko could only stare in horror as his father's hands shot out straight in front of him, channelling two bright streams of crackling energy directly at his kneeling form. Just before the lightning struck, something heavy crashed into his side, as Sokka pushed them both safely out of the way of the bolt. A trail of sparks caught the leg of Sokka's trousers, setting the fabric alight. Sokka slapped the fire out as Zuko hauled them both up to their feet, dragging them away from the scorch marks on the floor.

Ozai didn't give them time to recover. He jumped to his feet and kicked out, sending a burst of flame careering towards them. Acting on pure instinct, Zuko flung his arms out and around him, sweeping up the fire before it reached its target. With a further twist of his arms, he flung the fire around his left side and that caught it for the briefest second as it as it came back around on his right. With one last movement, he flung the flames, now hotter and moving faster than before, back at his father.

Zuko didn't even wait to enjoy the shocked expression on his father's face. Instead, he grabbed Sokka by the arm, and sprinted out the doorway. Sheer momentum and the force of surprise carried them past the men on guard. They cleared the line of soldiers and kept running. A shrieked command for the soldiers to lay chase rang out from the bunker behind them. Both boys gritted their teeth and ran harder.

The corridors of the bunker were oddly empty and just as labyrinthine as Zuko had remembered. Still, it wasn't enough to shake the guards on their tail, and the pounding footfalls and shouts seemed to be growing louder and louder behind them as they made their way through endless identical earthen tunnels.

"We've got to get out of here," Sokka panted, as they turned into yet another corridor at a flat run.

Zuko grunted in agreement. They were tiring, and quickly. They'd been subsisting on starvation rations for the past few days, and they were running on fumes. Unless they found a way out - or a decent place to hide- very soon, then they were as good as dead.

About a hundred yards ahead of them, there was a junction with a corridor leading off to both the left and right. Sokka pointed to the left option, and Zuko let out a grunt of agreement; one way was as good as the other when they were already hopelessly lost. The sound of the chase grew louder behind them and they forced themselves to pick up the pace even further, desperately trying to coax more energy into aching and quivering muscles.

Before they could reach the junction, however, a section of the wall ahead of them came smashing open in an explosion of rock. Three small figures came sprinting out of the dust cloud, heading straight towards Zuko and Sokka. Leading the charge, covered in dirt and blood streaming from a cut on her forehead was Toph, with Aang and Katara at her heels looking equally bedraggled and worse for wear.

"Sokka, stop! It's us!" Aang yelled, but it was too late. Both groups had too much momentum to stop, and they came crashing together in a tangle of limbs in the middle of the corridor.

"We've got to get out of here," Sokka yelled as he scrambled to his feet. The voices of the guards were far too loud now; they were almost on top of them.

"No kidding," Toph shot back, but before she could say anything more, Sokka threw himself back to the floor. A stream of bright blue fire flew over their heads, searing the air where Sokka's head had been moments prior. Zuko looked up to see a teenage girl running full pelt down the corridor towards them, a host of soldiers at her back. She was close enough that he could see the expression of shock dance over her face the moment that their golden eyes met.

Toph let out a truly vicious curse and slammed her hands down onto the ground. The floor beneath them dropped away, sending them crashing down into the room below. The young earthbender quickly jumped up and sealed the gap up with huge chunks of rock, leaving the rest of them huddled and groaning on the floor in the sudden silence of the empty room.

"That won't hold them for long," she told them, her mouth fixed in a grim line. "The Dai Li weren't far behind her. We'll have to move."

"Which way?" Sokka asked, as he and the others slowly hauled themselves to their feet.

They were in what looked like a storage room; shelves lined every wall and there was a selection of brooms, in various states of repair, pushed up against the back wall.

Toph stomped once, her head cocked to the side, and then pointed towards them.

"If we break through there, there's a series of natural caves between us and the open air." She nodded to herself and then, without waiting for a reply, cracked her knuckles. She stomped her left leg and then slid her right out into a kick that sent the back wall exploding away from them and into the promised expanse of the cave behind it.

"Toph," Sokka said, face alight with an exhilarated grin. "You are truly amazing, you know that?"

"Thank me when we get out of here, Snoozles," she told him dryly. "We ain't out of the woods yet."

She was right. The caves had been left untouched by many Fire Nation architects over the years, and for good reason: they were a death-trap. The ceiling stuck out in odd places and the floor both sloped and dipped erratically, forcing them to clamber over and around countless jagged rock formations and, in more than a few places, to crawl through very tight gaps, to get to the cave beyond.

Worst of all - and the reason Toph refused point-blank to make any changes to the topography - was the lava. It was to be expected, of course, as the bunker was situated deep within an active volcano, but the searing streams of molten rock seemed to be everywhere, as if the volcano itself were actively conspiring to make their escape as difficult as possible. There was a cave where it shot up from the ground in odd, erratic bursts and another where it dripped from the ceiling in a slow, oozing flow of searing orange. They had to measure every move with careful precision or they would all end up burnt alive.

Zuko followed silently behind Toph as she led them safely through cave after cave. He was almost grateful for the constant danger of their escape route, if only because it kept his thoughts focused on where he needed to place his feet and on the crawling feeling of the walls closing in around him, rather than on the events of the past few hours. He knew, abstractly, that at some point, he was going to have to deal with everything that had just happened. He also knew that the realisation that he'd just seen both his father and his sister for the first time in years was going to hit him pretty hard, at some point in the near future. But, until that happened, Zuko let himself ride the wave of adrenaline and think about nothing more than getting as far away from the bunker as was humanly possible.

It took probably no more than half an hour for them to wind their way through the caves, but it felt like an age. By the time Toph brought them all to a stop and punched her way through one last wall to reveal daylight and blessedly clear air, Zuko had all but convinced himself that the caves would never end. He was beginning to despair that they'd be stuck down in the volcano until the lava got them, or they starved to death- whichever one came first. When they finally saw daylight, he had to force himself not to go running straight out onto the mountainside out of sheer relief. Instead, he followed Sokka cautiously through the newly-formed exit and off to the side, where a rocky outcropping provided some minimal cover for them to regroup.

"We've got to keep moving," Katara said, as soon as they had all gathered. They were sprawled out on the patchy grass, chests heaving and muscles shaky from exertion. None of them had any desire to move, but Zuko knew she was right. They were on the eastern side of the volcano, facing out to sea and within sight of at least two watchtowers and the main road from the harbour to the city: they were sitting ducks. The longer they stayed there the more risk there was of being picked off by catapult fire.

"Do you think we can make it to the harbour?" Aang asked, in a very small voice.

"We can try," Sokka said, face grim and drawn with exhaustion. Zuko shared his pessimism.

The Fire Army had rallied, supported by the secondary forces they'd seen gathering back at the palace. Judging by the debris littered along the mountainside, they'd met the invasion force somewhere along the path to the city and were pushing them back towards the plaza tower, where the fighting was still ongoing. The air was thick with smoke and countless fires crackled away to in the twisted, blackened, metal husks of what might have once been weapons or transport for either side. There were bodies, too, but Zuko forced himself not to examine them too closely. From this distance and through the smoke he couldn't make out if they were wearing red, green or blue; he thought, perhaps, that that might be for the best.

Zuko sighed. It looked- at least to his untrained eye- as if some serious fighting had gone down. He sincerely doubted that this much chaos and damage was the result of a feint attack that was only ever meant to have been a distraction. It seemed as if the invasion had failed- just as he'd known it would.

Sokka rubbed his hands together, eyes focused as he started working his way through the beginnings of a plan.

"If we make our way to the south of the plaza tower-"

A large shadow settled over them, cutting Sokka short. As one, the four of them looked up into the sky and saw a fleet of impossible machines floating overhead.

"What is it?" Toph asked urgently. "Why did you stop?"

"They've got war balloons," Sokka stated, his voice faint. "How did they get their hands on that many?"

As Zuko watched in horror, the balloons began tipping large red barrels over the side. As the first rally fell to the ground, they exploded upon impact, sending earth flying in all directions and tearing gaping holes in the invasion force. Columns of flame roared upwards from the debris and soon half of the mountainside seemed to be on fire. A strange, high-pitched whistling rose through the air and Zuko looked up to see a shell dropping directly above them. Toph let out a curse and pulled a chunk of rock directly from the side of the mountain to make a makeshift shelter over their heads. The rock caught the bomb, with mere seconds to spare; it exploded with a force that shook the ground beneath them. Everything was chaos; Zuko's ears were ringing, and he felt dizzy, but the bombs wouldn't stop coming. Another two crashed down on the rock above them, making chips of rock crumble down onto their heads.

"They're headed for the submarines," Aang gasped.

He was right; the airships had all but passed over them, leaving a trail of fiery devastation in their wake, but they weren't turning round for another attack. Instead, they were heading out to sea, ready to unload countless more of their shells on the only method of retreat back to the fleet.

"We can't stay here," Zuko said, over the whining in his ears. "That shelter won't last much longer."

"And go where?" Aang asked. "They're taking out the submarines. We'll all be stuck here."

"We need to find Appa," Katara yelled. "He's on the other side of the volcano; he won't have been caught up in any of this."

"You brought Appa here?" Aang whirled around to face her, his eyes wide with betrayal.

"It was the only way to get to the palace in time to rescue you," Sokka insisted, before the Avatar had time to work himself into a panic. "Like Katara said, he's on the other side of the volcano. He'll be fine."

"You don't know that!"

"We don't have time for this," Toph insisted. "We need to get out of here."

"We're going to have to go around the outside," Sokka told them. "We can't risk going into the city."

"We'll be out in the open." Zuko didn't like their chances.

"We'll have to be quick." Sokka clearly didn't either.

They set off in stony silence, picking their way across the slopes of the mountain as fast as they dared. The terrain was tough, covered in scree and tall, spiky grass. There were hundreds of animal burrows too- small but deep holes which lay, like slumbering beasts, ready to take down the next unsuspecting walker who stumbled onto them. Picking their way over the slopes was much slower going than any of them would have liked, and the heavy smoke blown up from the fires raging at the harbour was choking the air, making it difficult to breathe. Being out in the open made Zuko feel painfully exposed and the hairs on the back of his neck were prickling constantly.

Suddenly, Toph stopped. Her face was paler than bone.

"Can you hear that?" She didn't wait for a reply. "Something's coming!" Her voice was hoarse and crackling from the smoke. "Sounds like twenty- no thirty- animals." She stopped for a moment to let listen once again. "Big," she elaborated. "Big and fast."

"Shit!" Zuko swore as his stomach plummeted into the bowels of the volcano beneath them. "They're on komodo rhinos." His eyes met Sokka's for the briefest of moments and he saw in them his own terror. "We've got to move!"

They barely made it a hundred yards worth of stumbling steps before the cavalry found them. They came racing around the mountain from the west, the soldiers whooping and hollering to the percussion of the beasts' pounding feet and rolling, shifting bass of their grunting and growling. Any hopes Zuko might have had of finding Appa were abruptly dashed; there was no way the bison wouldn't have spooked and flown off at the sheer cacophony of the komodo charge.

"They're going to run us down!" Sokka met Zuko's eye and in one moment of silent communication, they agreed a new plan. Zuko all but grabbed hold of Aang and Toph as he flung them to the front of the group, where Zuko could see if they started to fall behind. Sokka yelled at everyone to run down the mountainside and out towards the foothills and trenches where they might stand a chance of breaking the charge.

Gravity led them speed, but the rhinos gained fast. They were near the base of the volcano, but the rhinos would be on them in under a minute.

"We're not going to make it," Katara yelled.

Aang nodded and, with all the true grace of an airbender, spun around and all but fell backwards down the mountainside, his hands whirling about in front of him in an intricate pattern. Within a few seconds, a twisting wind had formed in front of the charging rhinos, whipping up the loose rock and smoke into a deadly vortex that danced about, in front of, and amongst their pursuers.

It was enough to make even the battle-trained rhinos balk. They broke formation, racing in all directions to get away from the terrifying wind as their riders swore at them in a mixture of fury and alarm. Aang did yet another graceful twist in the air and was back running with the group again, his mouth set in a firm line. Zuko didn't have the breath in his lungs to praise him, but he shot the young airbender a grateful smile.

Aang's distraction bought them enough time to stumble the rest of the way down the mountainside. They hit the foothills at a dead sprint and kept going, twisting their way onto increasingly smaller and tighter trails in the hope of shaking off as many rhinos as they could. More and more riders dropped away, but there were still far too many following on their heels.

"What do we do?" Toph asked, through heaving breaths. "We can't outrun them."

Sokka shook his head. They just had to keep running.

A few minutes later and Zuko was beginning to seriously flag. Adrenaline could carry him so far, but he was exhausted, and he could only imagine what it would be like for Toph and Aang. They needed a way out, but as much as he desperately racked his brains, he couldn't think of one. Then, over the noise of their pursuers, a new and more dreadful sound came piercing through the air: a high-pitched whistle.

The bomb fell before they even saw the airships. It crashed to the ground a few yards from them, sending the earth beneath them trembling. Zuko fell forwards and he turned it into his roll, using the momentum to spring back up to his feet at the end of it. There was another terrible whistle and another bomb fell, about a half mile ahead of them. Countless others were dropping on the foothills around them. This wasn't a targeted attack, Zuko realised half-hysterically, they were just going to bomb the countryside to ashes and hope to take down the fugitives alongside whatever other poor innocents got caught up in the path.

It was impossible to keep running; the ground shook and trembled too much for them to keep their footing. They all stumbled to a stop, doubled over and gasping for breath as the bombs continued to rain around them.

"The rhinos are stopping," Toph commented. "They're turning back."

"They don't want to get blown to smithereens!" Katara agreed.

"They're bombing their own people?" Sokka wheezed out in a series of aghast breaths. Then he stopped himself. "Wait, of course they are, why am I even questioning this?"

"Why would they doing this?" Aang's eyes were bright, his expression fierce.

"Because they want us dead," Zuko told him simply, "and they don't care who gets caught in the crossfire."

Another bomb came whistling down, this one landing close enough that Zuko could feel the heat from the flames, even as the explosion rattled his teeth inside his head. A large piece of rock came flying towards them.

"Move!" Zuko ordered, grabbing Aang by the arm and pulling him out of the path of the projectile.

"We need to get under cover," Sokka said, "they aren't targeting us specifically, we can wait this out. Toph, can you…?"

She nodded tightly and cracked her knuckles.

"I got this covered."

With a quick stomp, the rock at their feet sprang up at a sharp angle, flying up to crash against the slope of the nearest hill in a make-shift lean-to.

"That'll hold for a while."

They all huddled under the cover and slumped down to the ground in various states of exhaustion. Katara was rubbing at her aching feet, whilst Sokka gulped down water as fast as he could. Zuko collapsed onto his back and stared at the rock above him, taking rasping breaths as his heart slowly started to regain a normal rhythm and the bright spots stopped dancing in front of his eyes.

Another bomb crashed to the ground somewhere nearby. Their shelter trembled, but it held.

"How long will this go on for?" Aang asked.

"How many bombs do they have?" Zuko replied. "At least if they're bombing us, we won't be running from the rhinos."

There wasn't much else anyone could say to that.

They decided to wait out the bombardment under the shelter and to try and snatch what rest they could. There was no food to pass around and Zuko's stomach howled its complaint, but he forced himself to ignore it; he had gone longer without food before and he knew he wasn't about to starve, no matter what his stomach was trying to tell him. The others bore up with admirable fortitude; not even Sokka complained when Katara apologetically admitted that all the food bags had been left with Appa. Instead, they decided to try and get some sleep. They knew they'd have to move as soon as the bombs stopped falling and it was far better to face running for your life in the enemy heartland when you had a bit of sleep behind you. Zuko did not want to know what experience led the other four teenagers to agree that with such world-weary unanimity. After surprisingly little debate, they decided to sleep in shifts; Toph, Aang and Katara went first, whilst Zuko and Sokka kept silent vigil at the openings at either end of their shelter.

As it happened, the bombs ended up falling all night. A few hours after drifting off, Toph jerked awake, sitting bolt upright and breathing heavily. Whatever dream she'd been having, she refused to talk about it, insisting instead on taking the next watch whilst Zuko and Sokka slept. Katara had been stirred by the commotion and was in the darkest mood imaginable at having been woken. Even so, she agreed to help Toph keep watch, grumbling that someone, at least, should get some sleep as clearly she wasn't going to be able to anymore.

Zuko was out within minutes of closing his eyes. His dreams, when they came, were full of high-pitched whistling and fire. He was running, always running, and he didn't know who was chasing him or why, only that if they caught him something bad- something unspeakably bad- was going to happen to him. He was running down a mineshaft when he suddenly came face to face with shocked, golden eyes. Then he was on his knees, hundreds of eyes boring into him, and he knew with sudden, sickening clarity, that he'd been caught.

He let out a choked cry. He was terrified, so scared he couldn't move, couldn't do anything but feel the cold stone beneath his knees as he let out sob after desperate sob. This was it; his father was. He was begging, whatever words that tumbled from his lips barely distinguishable over the ragged gasp of every breath he forced into his lungs. He was going to die, he knew that. He was going to die and it was all his fault and he hadn't meant to and…oh Agni. He was on fire, flames dancing over his face, charring his skin and burning through his hair. He was screaming and screaming and it hurt -oh Agni it hurt- and it wouldn't stop. Someone was reaching towards him, grabbing his shoulder. He flinched away, but the hand tightened and shook him sharply.

"Zuko!"

He couldn't move. It was too much. It hurt.

"Zuko," the voice repeated, shaking him again. "Come on, look at me. Please."

Zuko let out a choking gasp, but he didn't dare disobey an order. Slowly, gasping in pain, he forced himself to raise his eyes to the figure in front of him.

It was Sokka, leaning over and looking at Zuko with concern in his bright blue eyes. What was Sokka doing there? Slowly, the walls of the arena faded around them and Zuko shook off the last lingering tendrils of sleep. He pushed himself into a sitting position, his skin prickling with the cold sweat he always got post-nightmare. Sokka sat back, watching him carefully.

"You with us, now?"

"Yeah," Zuko nodded, feeling the heat blazing across his cheeks as he realised that not only was everyone else awake, but that they were all watching him with identical looks of concern.

"We couldn't wake you up," Sokka explained. "The bombs have stopped, and we need to get moving."

"Sorry," Zuko muttered, rubbing at his arms to try and dispel the lingering chill. "Nightmare."

Sokka nodded in understanding.

"Guessed as much." He shot Zuko a look out the corner of his eye. "If you want to talk about it-"

"No!" Zuko bit out a little too quickly. "No, I'm fine. Let's just get moving."

"You're as bad as Toph," Sokka sighed, throwing his arms up in the air. "Alright, I've leave you alone." After that, he mercifully let the matter drop and helped Zuko haul himself to his feet so that they could set out once more.

The night was dark and the clouds hung heavy and low, blocking out the stars and choking the moon until it shone as little more than a sickly yellow smudge against the nebulous sky. Their exhausted, staggering group made their way haltingly forwards through the dark in utter silence. There was no way of knowing how much ground they covered, but when the sky began to lighten with the promise of the oncoming dawn, Zuko make out the capital a good few miles behind them. When Agni's face finally climbed over the horizon, Sokka brought the group to a stop.

Toph made another shelter out of thick slabs of stone. This one was much more elaborate than the previous day's make-shift offering; it was fully enclosed and blended much more naturally in with the landscape. To anyone passing by it would look like any of the countless natural formations that littered the fields around them. The others all settled in with relief for another sleep, but Zuko's adrenaline was still surging. As long as they could still see the capital, he knew it wasn't safe to stop.

"We have to keep moving," he tried to whisper only to Sokka, but ended up addressing the entire group anyway. As all of their packs and bedding rolls were back with Appa, they were forced to huddle together for warmth; it was nearly impossible to have a private conversation. The others all averted their eyes and let Sokka deal with Zuko's neuroses. Sokka grumbled and forced his eyes open. Zuko could feel old panic rising in his chest and he knew that they needed to move, to get away somewhere, anywhere that wasn't here. His breathing started to quicken and he slumped to the floor as he struggled to get air into his lungs.

"Zuko, stop!" Sokka urged, reaching over to grab Zuko by his arms. "Please!" He shook Zuko gently and forced him to meet his eyes. "You need to stop!"

"We need to keep moving!" Zuko gasped out between breaths.

"We need to rest!" Sokka's voice was thin and curt with exhaustion. "We're exhausted. We've been running for hours and we've barely eaten for days." Sokka took a deep breath and continued slightly more gently. "This place is safe enough- no one followed us here. We need to rest."

"But-"

"First rule of hunting: every good hunter needs to pace himself." Sokka told him firmly. "If you just go running full pelt across the ice, you'll never have the energy to get home."

"Snoozles is right, Zuko," Toph cut across him, rolling over and stretching her hands above her head. "No one is going to find us here. I promise. I made us a good place."

Sokka back slumped down at Zuko's side and pressed up against him, lending his silent support and reassurance as Zuko finally got his breathing under control. Eventually, despite the fact that beyond the walls of their shelter the sun was still high in the sky, Zuko let the exhaustion take him over and he fell into a deep sleep.

He woke up in darkness, his heart pounding, convinced that he'd been buried alive. He finally managed to gather up enough wherewithal to summon a small flame in his palm. The soft light of the flames flickered in their small shelter, dancing across the sleeping faces of his friends. Zuko let out a deep, shaking breath, and sent more energy to bolster the weak flame.

Sokka threw a hand over his face, grumbling at the light. Zuko quickly toned it down, but the damage was done. The others all starting waking up around him. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks, but decided the damage was probably already done. He pushed more chi into the fire, giving them all a proper light.

"We need to figure out a plan, we can't just keep running senselessly," Sokka said, after they'd all finished yawning and stretching awake. "Where should we go?"

They all looked to Zuko.

"I… I don't know," he admitted, rubbing at his forehead. He'd barely ever left the walls of the palace, let alone the Caldera. He knew that there were a few trading villages on the roads heading to the capital, but where those might be in relation to their current location, he had no idea.

There was a long, awkward silence, before Sokka clapped his hands.

"Right, well first things first," he tapped his chin in thought. "We can't keep going on foot."

"Well we aren't going to find Appa anytime soon," Toph said bluntly. Huddled next to Katara, Aang flinched. "I bet he's miles away by now."

Sokka tilted his head slowly in acknowledgment. "Well, we'll need transportation, then." His stomach gurgled loudly. "And food."

"Are there any villages nearby?" Katara asked Zuko with a gentle smile. She'd been looking at him like that since she'd seen him wake up from his nightmare. He didn't like it.

Zuko narrowed his eyes, but nodded in reply.

"Yes, a couple." He racked his brains, desperately trying to remember the geography that had, at times, been beaten into him. It was difficult to think when everyone kept staring at him. "

"Well that's a start," Sokka said after Zuko's silence stretched on for just a moment too long. "Toph, you think you can get a feel for any buildings around here?"

Toph grimaced and pulled herself to her feet, pushing the others out the way to make room, before stomping her right foot a few times.

"I can't feel anything," she grumbled. "Just rock."

"Okay," Sokka said, tapping his chin and staring up at the roof above them. "If I were on a hunt, I'd say we need to find ourselves a high point to orienteer ourselves, but I'm not all that keen on drawing any more attention than we need to."

Zuko grunted in agreement.

"Can you remember anything else, at all?" Sokka asked him casually, but his voice was too tight to properly pull it off. Zuko was in no doubt just what a desperate situation they'd found themselves in.

"If I knew something, I'd say," Zuko snapped, crossing his arms defensively in front of himself. "There's no point trying to figure out where we could go, when we don't even know where we are."

Sokka flinched back, his face twisting in hurt, before settling into an angry frown. Zuko groaned and slammed his head back against the wall of the shelter. He hadn't meant to snap, really, and now he'd upset Sokka. He knew he should apologise, but every time he tried to find the right words his mind went utterly, painfully blank.

The rest of the group ended up agreeing to find their way to the nearest road. From there, Zuko had tentatively offered, he might be able to figure out where they were in relation to civilisation. Sokka seemed to accept the peace offering for what it was, but he made sure to pout at Zuko for a good long while to ensure that his point had been properly made.

When they were finally ready to go, Toph sent their shelter slipping back into the ground around them with a few quick stomps of her feet. It sank into the earth with a groaning rumble that sounded way too loud in the crisp morning air. It was bright outside, and still only late morning; Zuko realised he must have woken them all after only a few hours' sleep. It was safer to travel in the dark, Zuko knew, but at least in the daylight they might stand a chance of figuring out where they were. Zuko shivered and sent up a silent prayer to Agni that they wouldn't be noticed, and that they'd find some kind of road or civilisation before they died of starvation, or exposure.

The fields around them were ugly, a mix of bright, verdant green and dark black patches where bombs had crashed to the earth and burnt the grass to ash. A few small fires still flickered away, burning pyres of twisted metal shells dotted about the landscape like miniature beacons. Zuko hoped they had enough time to clear the area before the Fire Watch braved the risk of another bombardment to come and put them out. Bombs might kill you, but a grass fire would; the Fire Nation took these things seriously.

They walked along in silence, until Sokka cleared his throat loudly, forcing everyone's attention to him.

"So, are we gonna talk about what happened yesterday?" Sokka asked, forcibly ignoring the way the others flinched around him. "We saw that Dai Li head back after you…"

Katara let out a heavy sigh.

"We were trying to find a way back round to you, but then Toph said she couldn't hear anyone in those corridors anymore and we realised they'd taken you somewhere else. So Toph got us into the bunker." Katara shivered. "The Dai Li found us there. He started attacking again and then…" She trailed off, rubbing at her arms as if to dispel the memory. "Then Azula arrived. We fought." Her eyes flickered over to Zuko and whatever she saw in his expression stopped her from elaborating much further. "We had just about got the upper hand when the eclipse ended. Then Azula started throwing blue flame and we started running."

"Until you bumped into us," Sokka finished, rubbing at his forehead.

"Pretty much," Toph agreed. She had found a grass stalk and was chewing it as she walked. "What about you two? We thought you'd been arrested."

"We were," Sokka agreed. "We broke free."

Toph raised her fist.

"You call that a story Snoozles? I need details!" She shook her fist, in what was a surprisingly threatening manner for a tiny twelve-year old girl.

"That's pretty much it," Sokka whined.

Toph lowered her hand with a frown of disappointment.

"Oh, and we kind of met the Fire Lord, too," Sokka added. This time Toph did punch him.

"You what?" Katara shrieked.

"Yeah, he's a massive dick."

Sokka filled them in on the rest of the story as they wandered further and further into the countryside. Zuko tried very hard not to listen; he didn't want to think about his father until he was good and ready to open that particular can of worms. Instead, he focused on trying to work out where the fuck they were and where the fuck they were going.

Zuko didn't know how he managed it, other than that perhaps it was his own way of coping, but Sokka kept up a constant stream of conversation for the rest of the day. It would have been admirable if not for the fact that the vast majority of it had been Sokka riffing on the different ways that the Fire Lord had gotten the stick up his ass. Zuko really hadn't needed the mental image that had created.

They'd found themselves wandering into a forest, around the time that the sun reached its zenith. Mercifully, Sokka had taken this as his cue to start commenting on how it was lunchtime, and how he was so hungry he'd even eat a cabbage, and where was a good local cabbage merchant when you needed one these days, anyway?

They had spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down a small forest trail (which they had all been way too enthusiastic about discovering) and listening to a catalogue of all the things Sokka would eat if he could. It was early evening and Sokka had just begun debating the merits of arctic sea hen versus meat kebab when they, quite literally, stumbled upon a village.

The tree line was made up of thick and densely packed bamboo that had grown up into one tangled wall of interlocked stalks. They hadn't been able to see the clearing on the other side until the gap in the trees suddenly appeared beside them. They surged through and found themselves stood at the far end of some kind of yard, right behind a hefty pile of roughly chopped wood and just to the side of a large, clearly much-used well. The building ahead of them was a little run down and aged looking, but its windows shone with a bright, warming glow and a chorus of loud voices and laughter rose up from within. Stretching out behind it were clusters of smaller buildings, homesteads and outbuildings for whatever farms kept the local area fed.

Zuko found himself smiling; they'd found a village! He turned to Sokka, ready to share the success. Sokka's attention, however, was solely focused on the building in front of him.

"It's an inn," he commented rapturously, staring at the building with longing. He turned to Zuko. "Think they'll give me a meat kebab if I offer to wash pots?"

Zuko snorted, but it wasn't a bad point, aside from the fact that they definitely didn't want to run into any villagers whatsoever.

"They'll have food of some sort, somewhere," he commented with forced casualness. "I can go and-"

"No," Sokka cut him off quickly. "We're not splitting up. Not after what happened last time. If you go, we all go."

Katara, Toph and Aang all looked nodded in vehement agreement. Zuko didn't dare belabour the point. They went together.

Following Zuko's lead, the group circled their way around to the back of the inn, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. They managed to find the back door just off from what looked and smelled like the kitchen. Peering round the back of the empty chicken coop, Zuko tried to case the building as well as he could. They would probably need to wait until the inn was closing for the night and the owner far too busy kicking out anyone who refused to ignore the hallowed rule of 'last orders'. He might be able to pick the lock on the door, or he could try the window. Zuko's eyes slid over to the small window almost automatically, and immediately stopped short. It couldn't possibly be that simple, could it?

There, sat on the window frame to cool in the balmy evening air, was a plate of steaming hotcakes, just begging to be stolen. Zuko's stomach ached just to look at them. Before he even realised what he was doing, he had started to slink forwards. A hand shot out to grab his arm.

"What are you doing?" Katara hissed, looking at him in alarm. Zuko stared down at the hand grasping his elbow and then gestured mutely to the tantalisingly close food.

Katara fell silent immediately. They needed food and she knew it. He turned back to the others, gesturing to the plate in a silent question. Aang nodded and Sokka shot him a thumbs-up. Toph hissed at them all that if they didn't get whatever it was that smelled so delicious that she was going to crack heads.

Zuko took a deep breath and flipped his hood up over his head. He had permission for the theft, but he still needed to carry it out. It wasn't going to be easy. There were a good couple of yards of open yard between the coop and the window. He'd have to be quick; it would only take one customer coming out back for any of the myriad uses people could find for the yard of an inn and he would be caught. A gust of wind caught the hotcakes. Zuko made up his mind very quickly. He'd spent the entire afternoon listening to Sokka extol the virtues of fifteen different cuisines. He was going to get those hotcakes for him and his friends or so help him Agni he was going to die trying.

Of course, Zuko should have known better than to invoke the spirits. He was barely two feet away from the window when a face appeared at it, startling badly at the unexpected appearance of a teenager in the middle of his yard. His eyes flickered between Zuko and the plate of hotcakes and his face reddened quickly, realisation dawning.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man barked, storming out the back door. He slammed it open with a loud crash. Zuko stumbled backwards and went to run, but was stopped short by the man's words.

"Don't even think about it! I've got a taproom full of imperial guards- I shout 'thief' and they'll come running."

Zuko froze where he stood, and slowly turned to face the man, his heart in his throat. He didn't have his dao, or Sokka his sword. They were exhausted and hungry and there was no way to fight their way out of this unless they resorted to bending; Zuko didn't want to draw that kind of attention until absolutely necessary. He hung his head in defeat.

"Where are the rest of your little friends then?" The innkeeper scowled. "Bet they put you up to this." He put his hands on his hips and looked about the yard and his eyes landed on the exact spot the others stood hidden. "Come on out from behind there, the lot of you. Unless you're leaving your friend here to take all the blame?"

Sokka's head poked out from around the chicken coop. His eyes met Zuko's and Zuko shook his head, urging Sokka to just run. He didn't listen. Instead, he slunk slowly out to stand at Zuko's side, the others following soon after like turtle ducklings following their mother.

"Who are your parents?" The innkeeper asked stiffly, as soon as they were all lined up before him.

It wasn't difficult for the man to look intimidating; he cut an imposing figure. He stood well over six foot tall, with arms like tree trunks from years of hauling barrels, and legs to match. Zuko forced his breathing steady, as the innkeeper surveyed them, but the man's face showed nothing more than righteous indignation at the attempted theft. It seemed as though, for now, he'd assumed them to be local children caught in a dare.

"Not so brave now, are you?" The innkeeper barked when his first question went unanswered. "You think it's funny to steal, do you?" He didn't wait for an answer before he continued. "Just be grateful it was me who caught you and not one of the guards. You three look old enough to conscript, and don't think they wouldn't just because you say you're sorry!" He pointed to Sokka, Katara and Zuko in turn.

He paused in his rant for a moment and looked closer at Sokka and Katara, his forehead creasing in thought as he took in the state of their clothing and their colouring. Finally he turned to Zuko.

"Take that hood off," he ordered.

Zuko stood frozen, refusing to move.

"Take that hood off or, so help me Agni, I'll come over there and do it myself."

Zuko looked over at the others. Katara's hand fell to her hipflask; she gave Zuko a sharp nod. He reached up and slipped the hood over his head.

The innkeeper took in his face with steadily widening eyes, the light of recognition dawning brightly within them.

"Of fucking course," he hissed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "This has just been my fucking week." He let out a sigh and dropped his hand to his side. He turned back to the others, looking over them with newly appraising eyes. "You lot are in huge fucking trouble, you know that?"

They stood silently, waiting for the man to make his move. Katara's hand twitched at her hip flask and Toph shifted her feet. Zuko knew that, between the two of them, they'd have the man tied up and gagged the moment he even thought about sounding the alarm.

The innkeeper waited them out for a good couple of minutes, before he heaved another sigh and stepped out of the doorway, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to point them inside. "Well, you'd better come in then, hadn't you?"

Zuko didn't want to go into any enclosed spaces with the man, particularly if he had been telling the truth and his inn was currently filled with any number of imperial guards. It was only the man's increasingly unimpressed stare and Sokka's hissed suggestion- that it might be better to have whatever conversation they were going to have somewhere less open and exposed- that made Zuko acquiesce.

Thankfully the innkeeper didn't go much further than the kitchen. He grabbed the place of hotcakes from the window and slammed them in the middle of a large, freshly scrubbed table, grabbing one for himself and indicating to his unexpected guests that they should follow suit.

Despite how hungry he'd been only minutes before, Zuko no longer had any appetite. It seemed to be the same for the rest of them; the cakes lay untouched in the middle of the table. None of them elected to sit at the table, either; instead, they chose to cluster by the doorway where they could make a hasty getaway if needed.

"So you're the reason I've got half the imperial guard in my taproom?" The innkeeper said, around a mouthful of food. "Agni, give me strength!"

"We don't want any trouble," Sokka assured the man, his eyes flickering to the door by his side. "We just want to get as far away from here as we can."

"Oh, I bet," the innkeeper sighed. He wiped the flour from his hands and leaned forwards, resting his elbows on the table. "Now I don't know much of what's going on," he began, "but that scar's pretty hard to ignore. I got a cousin who has a similar one, myself." He grinned. "Course, his was caused by a training accident at Ba Sing Se," he trailed off, the smile fell from his lips and he pointed over at Zuko with one thick, stubby finger. "I know who you are, Your Highness, and I know you ain't getting more than half a mile away from this town on your own. They've got checkpoints on every road from here to Ember Island."

"Can you help us?" Aang asked, hopefully. The innkeeper sat back and crossed his arms.

"This one's way above my head," he said abruptly. "I really should turn you in," he muttered, almost to himself. "They find out I helped you and I'll get the camps for sure. Me and every poor bastard in this Agni-forsaken dump of a town."

Zuko shuddered. Katara's hand went back to her water flask, but Aang shot her a quick glance. She dropped her hand and Aang turned to look at the man with his bright, wide eyes.

"Please," he said, his voice very young and very desperate. "Please don't turn Zuko in. It's not his fault. I just…" His eyes hardened and he straightened his spine, looking the man in the eye. "I did something really dumb and my friends came to help me and now they're in trouble too. But it isn't their fault- it's nothing to do with them. So…So if you want to turn someone in, you can give them me. But let my friends go."

"Aang," Katara hissed. "What are you doing?" The innkeeper snorted.

"And why would anyone give a flying fuck about you, kid?" he said, not unkindly.

"Because I'm the Avatar," Aang replied, conjuring a small, spinning ball of air in his palm as evidence.

The innkeeper stared at Aang's hand long after he'd let the spinning ball dissipate back into the air. Then the man cast his eyes up to the ceiling and let out a string of mutterings which could have been either prayer or profanity, Zuko couldn't tell which.

"Alright, fine," the innkeeper told them when he finally fell silent. "I know a guy who might be able to help. Comes through once a week to go to the market up in the city and takes my old barrels back to the brewery up at the Port of Sozin." He let out a low, disbelieving laugh. "He's due in tomorrow morning- spirits must be on your side after all."

"So…you're not turning us in?" Aang asked, a hopeful smile dancing over his lips.

"No," the man sighed. "Though Agni only knows I'll probably end up regretting it." "And we're just supposed to trust you?"

"Right," Zuko snorted. "All of a sudden you just want to help us out of the goodness of your heart. What's your angle?"

The man let out a grim laugh. "Do you really have any choice?"

He stood up and pushed his chair back against the stove, he then hauled the table over to the corner and rolled away the rug beneath, revealing the trap door to some kind of cellar. "You can hide down here for the night," he told them, lifting the hatch to show a dark, but surprisingly spacious room beneath.

"Hang on, you were going to turn Zuko in a couple of minutes ago and now you want us to just let you lock us up in your creepy cellar?" Sokka's eyebrows were practically at his hairline. "'Cause that doesn't sound skeevy at all."

"Listen, kid," the innkeeper growled, clearly done with the litany of complaints. "You were going to steal from me, remember? And considering the circumstances, I think I've been pretty damn forgiving about the whole thing. So let me make this crystal fucking clear." He glared at Sokka, stalking forwards until they were almost nose to nose. "I don't want anything to do with you. I don't want you in my fucking bar. I have a bunch of very drunk and very angry men who would burn me alive if they knew I'd even spoken to you." His eyes narrowed. "I just want to keep my head down and my family alive and have as little to do with this fucking war as possible and you've brought the fucking Avatar and the Prince right into the middle of my village!" He stopped short, chest heaving. Then, as if coming back to himself, his eyes flickered over to the wide-eyed, alarmed look Sokka was giving him and then over the deep purple bruising that covered most of Sokka's face. He sighed and took a few steps back.

"Alright, look." The man heaved a sigh of irritation, visibly trying to calm himself down. He shot a glance back over his shoulder to where the noise of the taproom was growing steadily louder and louder. "You won't be locked up down there, there's another way out- leads to a tunnel network that stretches underneath the city. There's food and water down there and you can help yourselves to as much as you want. I got my own reasons for helping and that's all your gonna get. I want you out of my town on the first available cart and you can trust me on that much."

Zuko stared at the man for a long moment. "Toph?"

"He's telling the truth," she confirmed.

Zuko nodded, but just to double check, he jumped down into the cellar; it was always better to be safe than sorry. He dropped to the ground in a crouch and summoned a flame in the palm of his hand as he straightened. The room wasn't massive, and it gave him enough light to get a good look around the room. It was filled with the expected barrels of wine and beer, and a few sacks of flour and rice. But here and there, interspersed amongst the regular supplies were the odd box of clothing and small, easily transportable wash kits and ration packs. Over in the corner, right next to the promised escape route, there was even a small stack of very official and very blank identity cards. Zuko picked one up and studied it carefully before he put it back on the pile.

"We're good," he called up to Sokka.

Sokka jumped down and the others quickly followed after him. Zuko stepped forward to catch Toph as she jumped and helped her to find her feet.

The innkeeper closed the door above them, with a promise that he'd be back first thing in the morning. There was a loud scraping sound as the table was put back into place and then silence. He'd seemed relieved to be rid of them; Zuko could understand why.

Zuko summoned a small flame once again and used it to light an old oil lantern handing from the wall. The dim light flickered around the room, casting eerie shadows in the dark corners. He slid down to sit on a stack of old sacking, his back against the wall. Toph, Katara and Aang came to join him as Sokka stalked about in the middle of the room, gesticulating wildly.

"Not that I'm doubting Toph's amazing lie-detector skills, or anything," Sokka began, as he peered around the room will ill-concealed discomfort. "But he seemed to go from ready to turn us in to offering us a way out pretty damn quickly."

"He's a smuggler," Zuko told them quietly. "With what I imagine is a pretty decent side-line in getting deserters out of the capital." He shrugged and pointed to the paper that he'd found earlier. "There's a whole stack of blank identity cards over there."

"So, he just didn't want us risking his operation?" Sokka asked. "But then why'd he change his mind?"

Zuko shrugged. "I think there're more people in the Fire Nation that support an end to the war than you'd think. Did you notice he changed his mind as soon as Aang told him who he was?"

Sokka snorted. "I still don't like him," he insisted with a pout. Then he rolled his cracked his knuckles and started making his way over to the shelves. "But he said there was food down here, so I am willing to reconsider my position."

After a few minutes of snooping, Sokka let out a roar of success and came back to Zuko's side armed with a box containing a large loaf of bread, a selection of sliced and salted meat, and a large bag of dried fruit and nuts. They all set about demolishing the food with ruthless efficiency. When they were done, Sokka went back amongst the shelves, returning with a large leg of some kind of cooked meat. He slumped down on the sacking on Zuko's good side, a massive smile on his face.

"I'm a man of simple pleasures," he admitted, at the incredulous look on Zuko's face.

They settled down back against the wall in amiable silence. After a few minutes, Katara wandered over to sit next to Aang.

"Are you alright?" She asked him quietly.

"What?" Aang replied with a grin that was just a fraction too wide. "Yes, I'm fine."

"Only," Katara continued, as if Aang hadn't spoken at all. "What you did up there was really brave and also really stupid." Aang's face fell. "What would have happened if that man had taken you up on your offer? You know what the Fire Nation would do to you."

Zuko privately thought that Aang didn't know what the Fire Nation would do to him, not really, and that that was kind of the problem. The look on Katara's face however, made him hold his tongue.

"I couldn't let anyone else get in trouble for me," Aang said softly, "not after what I did." He pulled his arms up to hug his knees in tight to his chest.

"I'm so sorry," he continued, his voice more quiet and subdued than Zuko had ever heard it. "I thought…." He trailed off and took a deep breath. "I don't know what I was thinking." He looked up and met each of their eyes, on by one. "I was scared. After everything with Hama…" Katara flinched and Aang took another deep breath. "I just wanted everything to be over. I thought…I don't know…it doesn't matter anyway." He sighed and crossed his arms tightly in front of himself. "I put you all in danger and I ruined the invasion and now everyone might be dead and we're stuck in the middle of the Fire Nation and Appa's missing and it's all my fault!"

"Shh," Katara told him gently, rubbing her hand softly between his shoulders. His voice had been growing louder at the end, getting dangerously close to the kind of volume someone in the room above might hear, even through the thick floorboards of the cellar. Until the innkeeper came back, they needed to be quiet. "We understand," Katara consoled, as Aang started sobbing.

Zuko didn't, but he held his tongue. Part of him was still furious at the young Avatar. Aang was right; the invasion force should never have gotten near the island, let alone the city itself. They were forewarned and they knew that it was a trap; there was absolutely no reason that any of this should have happened. Agni, but how many people had died so pointlessly, on both sides? All because the young Avatar what…freaked out and had a tantrum?

Zuko sighed and stared down at his hands, desperately trying to ignore the quiet hitching sobs that he knew Aang was fighting so hard to control. Because that was where the whole thing fell down and made it so hard to maintain his anger. Of course Aang had had a tantrum, a freak out or whatever; he was a kid, a twelve year old boy forced into circumstances way over his head. The kid literally had the weight of the war hanging on his shoulders and was a spirits-damned pacifist. Zuko knew it was unfair to expect clear-headed and cold-hearted pragmatism from a boy who thought fishing was tantamount to murder. Still, Aang had been arrogant and foolish and had put them all at risk. But he was a kid; he had to be allowed to make mistakes sometimes, right? Zuko realised that his hands were shaking.

"Are you okay?" Sokka whispered in his good ear, sending a shiver down Zuko's spine.

He turned to Sokka and let out a huff of self-deprecating laughter. "Not even close," he whispered, a bitter smirk twisting over his lips. "It wasn't exactly the nicest homecoming."

"I know." Sokka pressed his shoulder into Zuko's.

"I never thought I'd see him again," Zuko whispered, clenching his fists to try and suppress the shaking of his hands. "Or survive it, if I did."

"I know," Sokka repeated, his voice barely more than a breath.

"He tried to kill me, Sokka," Zuko said. "Again."

"You survived," Sokka told him, reaching over and grabbing his hand tightly. "We got away from him, Zuko, and he is never getting anywhere near you again."

"You can't promise that, Sokka."

"Watch me." Sokka smiled. "And speaking of getting away from him… what was that move you pulled? I've never seen a firebender do that before."

Zuko shrugged, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks.

"I have no idea," he admitted. "It's not an official form or anything; I just reacted." He leaned in closer towards Sokka, resting his head on Sokka's shoulder. "I think I copied most of it from Katara's basic kata."

"What?" Sokka grinned in surprise. "I had no idea you could do that. Copy stuff from different elements, I mean."

"Neither did I!" Zuko insisted. "It wasn't exactly planned, Sokka!"

"Well I was impressed," Sokka told him, nudging his shoulder gently. "And that doesn't happen that easily."

"Yeah right, Sokka." Toph snorted from across the room, entirely unashamed at eavesdropping on what had been a whispered, private conversation. "What about that time you told that man at the crab shop you'd name your first born son after him? Are you telling me that's not 'easily impressed'?"

"I will have you know," Sokka replied in a tone which conveyed both that he was very put upon and also that he did not deserve such cruel mockery from his friends, "that was the best crab I had ever tasted and I would be honoured to call my son and heir Lee the crab-catcher." He paused, thoughtfully. "Or was Lee the man at the oyster bar?"

"They were both Lee, Sokka," Katara said, groaning in exasperation. "And you got sick after eating both, or don't you remember?"

Sokka spluttered for a few moments and then, in a true display of the dignity befitting the son of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, stuck his tongue out at his sister. Katara narrowed her eyes and soon she and Sokka were engaged in full-on sibling bickering. Zuko had long since been reassured that it was all good-natured and, that when they went at each other like rabid dogs, it was simply their way of showing affection. So he relaxed and sat back, watching the verbal sparring for the sheer entertainment factor alone.

Thus Toph, with a surprising demonstration of heretofore unseen social grace, managed to turn the conversation away from Aang's self-flagellation and Zuko's unrelenting family issues and into a full-on session of Katara mocking Sokka and his myriad poor life choices. Zuko thought that Sokka bore it all with good grace, playing up his outrage as much as possible for the biggest laughs. He'd managed a few barbs about some guy called Jet, but had quietly let those drop when Katara looked uncomfortable. It seemed they had all needed something to break the tension, and Sokka was more than happy to be the butt of the joke.

At some point in the night, Zuko slipped into a light dose, waking only when the innkeeper returned to the kitchen. Heavy footsteps plodded across the floor, sending showers of dust trickling down on their heads. There was a loud grunt and then a scraping wail as the table was dragged away from the top of the hatch. Finally the trapdoor slammed open and the early morning light rushed in, searing Zuko's eyes.

"Come on," the innkeeper urged them, "time to go." Zuko forced his eyes open. The man was reaching down into the darkness, ready to hand them off to the dubious safety of his contact.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked urgently.

"Shh!" The innkeeper hissed, looking over his shoulder as if expecting one of the imperial guards to come waltzing in. Zuko prayed to Agni that one wouldn't. "The driver's agreed to take you," he whispered. "He'll get you to the Port of Sozin, but you're going to have to get yourselves on a boat." Zuko finished helping the others out the cellar and the innkeeper quickly closed the door and rushed to put the rug and table back in place. "You've got to go now," he told them urgently. "He won't wait for you long."

Glaring at them all to silence any more complaints, the innkeeper led them cautiously out of the kitchen and into a long hallway that ended with the front door. The sound of raised voices and bawdy laughter filtered through the thin walls from the taproom just off to their left. Clearly some of the guards had decided to make a full night of it. Zuko could make out the faint strain of one of the drinking songs that the guards back at camp had shared, as they bent over cups of pilfered wine in the dark and lonely winter nights. All that protected them from immediate discovery was the thin door separating the taproom from the main hallway and the hope that none of the guards felt the need to leave the room until they were safely on their way.

Just outside the front door, a large wooden wagon stood ready for loading. The innkeeper hurried the children round to the back where heavy doors held open on an empty containment area. The five of them all clambered up and hurried to the back, following the innkeeper's instructions. He left them with one final hissed order to keep quiet, before hurrying back to the bar. He returned moments later and proceeded to fill the rest of the wagon up with row after row of heavy barrels, each stacked two-high and strapped down with thick cord. Within minutes the group of fugitives was completely hidden from view, and their only way out was blocked. It set Zuko's nerves on edge and he had to forcibly remind himself to keep his breathing calm and steady. They'd chosen to trust the innkeeper and his network of smugglers; the only thing they could do now was keep quiet and let them do their job.

After another tortuous ten minutes or so, the storage area was completely filled. The doors at the back were slammed shut with an almighty thud, and the thick metal bolt slid into place with a screech, locking them in the dark.

Someone bashed the side of the wagon with a hefty thump, and then their driver cracked his whip. The poor dragon moose that was hitched up to the heavy cart let out a startled cry and lurched forward into a slow, trundling walk. Their driver didn't introduce himself or make any indication that he had stowaways hidden amongst his cargo beyond a cursory comment, seemingly to no one in particular, that the army patrols were out in force on the roads that morning.

They trundled along in silence, wedged uncomfortably against the wooden walls and barrels alike. It was intensely claustrophobic; the only light that came to them snuck its way through the small gaps between the panelled wooden walls. The near-total darkness made everything feel closer and more airless. Whatever suspension their vehicle may once have had had long since been broken beyond all repair and so the poor rural roads jostled them painfully, sending them smashing into one another at every painful pothole they came across. It was miserable and nerve-wracking and Zuko hated every minute of it.

They were stopped twice on the road by patrols. The first spent a torturous amount of time studying their driver's paperwork, and even insisted that he open up the back of the wagon so that they could check the veracity of his contracts of carriage. Zuko held his breath from the moment the heavy doors were wrenched open, through the inspection (as cursory as it turned out to be) and only dared to take a breath the moment that the doors were once again locked and their driver was bid to pass through the checkpoint. Zuko knew he wasn't the only one who had been on edge; Toph was squashed up against him and he could feel her heart hammering.

The second time they were stopped, Zuko had been prepared for yet another ordeal, but it seemed that the soldiers at the next checkpoint were far less concerned with the contents of the wagon and more with the contents of the driver's wallet. After a few minutes and the jingling of some coins, the wagon was waved through and was making its merry way further and further away from the Fire Nation capital and out towards the northern side of the archipelago, where the Port of Sozin lay.

After what felt like another few hours of painfully slow travelling, the driver let out a low cry and gradually coaxed the dragon moose to a halt. Then, with a sigh and a muttered curse, he jumped down from his seat and made his way round to the side of the wagon. He spent another couple of minutes banging and cursing, before there was a loud click; a panel in the side of the wagon, just behind Aang's shoulders, slid free and they were suddenly blasted with fresh air and daylight.

"Fucking finally," the driver cursed, and peered into the small compartment. "Right, out you get."

Zuko's eyes were stinging at the bright light and his good eye watered badly as he clambered out through the panel and half jumped/half slid his way out into the open air. They were on a narrow dirt track, surrounded by dense, green forest on either side. The wagon was parked completely in the middle of the road, but it was immediately obvious that they were in the middle of nowhere. When he finally blinked away the tears, Zuko could make out the sun high in the sky; it was mid-afternoon still, he concluded. They hadn't been travelling nearly long enough to reach the port. He spun around to face the driver as the others were slowly adjusting to the bright light.

"This isn't the Port," Zuko growled.

The driver shrugged, and slid the hidden panel back into place with a click.

"This is far as I'm paid for," he told them, scratching at the back of his head. "Someone else will meet you here for the next leg."

"Hey!" Sokka yelped. "That wasn't the deal!"

"Not my problem, is it?" The driver shrugged, spat once, eloquently, on the ground and then heaved himself back up into his seat.

"You can't just leave us here," Katara yelled, her eyes bright with indignation.

"Someone will be along any minute," the driver told them, as he picked up his whip. "If not, there's a hamlet about a half-day's walk down the road. They're usually pretty decent about not asking the kind of questions I bet you don't want being answered." Then with a crack of his whip, the dragon moose let out another plaintive yowl and started walking once more, pulling the wagon steadily away down the road.

"Wait!" Aang yelled, as the back of the wagon slowly drew further and further away from them. "The hamlet! You didn't say which way it was!"

The driver either hadn't heard him, or didn't care enough to reply; whichever it was, it didn't matter. Aang's voice was lost to the wind, and the wagon soon disappeared, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere. They stood around, looking at each other in horrified silence.

"Well, fuck." Sokka said blankly.

Zuko agreed.

"What are we meant to do now?" Toph asked.

"We could just wait here," Aang suggested, scratching idly at the by now desperately greasy mop of hair on his head. "He did get us past the checkpoints…"

"Yeah, just to leave us in the middle of nowhere!" Sokka objected. "That's not exactly filling me with confidence, buddy!"

"Someone's here," Toph cut in, abruptly, just as a figure pushed through the treeline a few yards ahead of them. He was tall and thin, dressed in a long white robe; it was immediately familiar, even with the thick coat of mud soaking the hem.

"Isn't that-" Sokka cut himself off as Zuko nodded in agreement. How had the White Lotus got mixed up in all of this?

The man was hooded, but he bowed to them in a traditional Fire Nation greeting as he hurriedly made his way over.

"My apologies for all the secrecy," he said immediately. "We only received word of your location last night and we had to cut a few corners to get you out as quickly as possible."

His voice was clear and rattled out with the kind of speed, efficiency and enunciation Zuko had long-ago learnt to expect from military officers. It was also achingly familiar. It couldn't be though, could it? The last time he had seen this man, he'd been dragging his unconscious body through an inferno. There was no way he could have survived…but that voice was so familiar.

"Is that you?" Zuko asked faintly, ignoring the looks shot at him by Sokka and the others.

"It's good to see you alive and well, too, Prince Zuko," Jee replied, as he flipped his hood down and gave Zuko a tight, rueful grin. "You have no idea how difficult it's been to find you."