"I don't want any trouble on my ship."

Katara is ready to fall to her knees and beg that the suspicious old women just let them on the ferry — to her side, Zuko, bedraggled, looks like he's about ready to do the same — but it's her daughter who crosses her hands over her chest and stares her down. "We're paying you. You let everyone else go. You have to let us go."

The admiral, or whatever she is, almost seems like she's softening before lightly snapping to Zuya. "Everyone else isn't trouble, young one. Your family is gonna cause trouble."

Before Katara can intervene Zuya asks back innocently. "Why —"

She pushes the girl over to her father who moves the both of them off the dock, nodding at Zuko as he wraps his arms around her and starts pointing at the fishes swimming in the shallow water of the port. When she turns back Lieutenant Aki is speaking again, spitting out words. She looks old and bedraggled, even with her hair harshly taken out of her face. "We don't do mixed families in the Fire Nation, not like your colonies," she warns. "Nobody does them. Take your kid and your husband and go back to the Earth Kingdom, miss. He might be a soldier," she gestures towards Zuko and his clear-cut scar, "but colonized families aren't welcome."

"I don't care about what's welcome or not," she hisses, reaching down for her coin purse and dragging out a handful of silver and gold coins. It's a lot but they're willing to spend here — it's much more money than what this warship, now a glorified ferry, asks its passengers for. "We need to go."

They really need to go. They've spent weeks trekking their way through the Earth Kingdom — she misses Appa — and she's terrified about Kaz. And Eun, the member of the White Lotus she'd run into all those years ago, had been gone by the time they'd reached his home. He had left her a single message, handed over by his wife, an address to Piandao's old home and a note: here, first.

Both her and Zuko's first instinct when they'd seen the piece of parchment was to forget it and just continue onto the Fire Nation Capital where Kazou probably is. But then they'd both calmed down and realized that the ferries that leave from this town on the harbor go through Shu Jing before they continue to the Caldera. They can stop there for a few hours if they need to, although they both remember seeing Piandao's burned body on their way into the city. It's likely that Eun was old and didn't know this; as Zuko had said, his tone melancholy on their way back, the White Lotus do not know everything.

She still has hope that they will find something; but before they can make any progress and find Kaz at all they need to secure passage on this boat. Aki seems a little convinced by the gold pooling in Katara's hand so she shoves it closer. She takes one coin and holds it up to the light and she can almost feel Zuko's wince — these are their life savings, meant to take Kaz through Ba Sing Se University — and then speaks again. "Fine. But more."

"More? This is already more than you asked of —"

Her wrinkles move. "You will have to take a captain's quarter because of your child. You cannot leave the room. Five more."

Katara is still tense as she carefully picks out another five gold coins and hands them to Aki. The money exchanging hands is bad enough, not to mention their exploitation, but also the note of their child — they have two children. She's lost in thought as the old woman rips three tickets out of her belt and hands them over, shoving them into her hands. This is a Fire Nation ship — they haven't been in Fire Nation territory so far, and this is still technically Earth Kingdom, but . . . but these people are Fire Nation.

She has questions but she doesn't even know if she should ask them. She doesn't even know if she wants answers — Azula could have executed Kaz or murdered him or done something terrible to him and she might not know — she just wants this boat to leave as fast as possible. Zuko returns and she presses the tickets into his hands while Zuya reaches out for her waist. "I don't like it when people do that."

"Do what?"

"Just, don't like us. For being us."

She doesn't know what to say. "People don't like us because we're —"

"I get it Mom," Zuya says, and she sounds tired. "I'm not Kaz. You shouldn't have been like that with him but — I know. I'm not blind, okay? We're different. It's fine."

Zuko touches Zuya's shoulder on the dockside. They think she knows the truth now. They don't hide, anymore. They tell the truth as much as they can. "That doesn't mean it's alright, Zuya. You should never think it's fine. It's important to speak out against injustice."

Her lips start trembling and she turns to the side until her face is squished between both of her parents. "That's why Kaz left us. That's so not fair."

How can she argue against the truth? "Zuya —"

"I want him back, Mom. It's not fair. He messed up and you guys messed up and everyone messed up. I just want to go back home."

They've been travelling like this for weeks now and Zuya hasn't broken down like this yet. Katara's heart breaks and she leans down and puts her feet over the wooden side of the ramp leading up to the large metal ship. It's midmorning and boarding for the journey tonight won't start for a while — but they'd checked out of the small place they'd stayed for the night early and they have no place to go. After a second Zuya joins her, her small feet dangling over the clear blue waters. Zuko ends up sliding in besides her, keeping a firm grasp on their bags next to him. "I know," he says after a heartbeat, an arm around her shoulders. "I know. We're going to get him back."

"It's not going to be the same," she croaks. "We can't go back home and I can't go home because you guys got in trouble and you're not who you said you are."

More than anything, Katara wishes that she could disagree with her daughter right here. She knows Zuko feels the same way; she wishes they could both just find Kaz and go back to the way it was with the tea shop. But she's not about to tell another lie. "We'll find a new home and a new school. It'll be similar, sweetheart. Nothing is really going to change."

"You're wrong, Mom. Everything has changed," Zuko reaches out to wipe one of her tears and she wraps her arms tightly around the both of them. "I want Kaz back. Really badly. And I want Aunt Ty. I miss them a lot."

"Kaz is young and he loves us. He loves you. And I promise," Zuko leans in to her to wipe away another tear and she does something like laugh — "I promise you'll see Aunt Ty again. I'm sure she's right behind us. Don't worry, she's fast."

Zuya sniffles and Katara tightens her grip. Ty Lee had been given a strange concussion by her impact with the ground, on that day she doesn't want to think of, and it had been a wound she hadn't been able to heal. But she'd promised to come right after them and Katara is sure that she's kept her word. For all she knows of Ty Lee, the woman might already be in the Caldera.

After a few more seconds of quiet recollection as they hug each other Katara slyly reaches down to the water and draws a ball up to Zuya's face, using the droplets to wipe away her tear stains. She laughs a little as the water rubs against her, warm in the sun's light, and looks out into the vast expanse of the ocean around her.

Katara ends up taking the water and running it over her face methodically until the rhythm lets her fall asleep, head nodding towards Zuko, who wraps an arm around her to ensure that she doesn't fall into the ocean. He kisses the crown of his daughter's brown hair and reaches up to make eye contact with her as well.

They truly don't have words to say at this moment, but they can also both tell that Zuya's words sliced through their hearts. Katara doesn't have it in her to stop once she starts thinking about everything again — her eyes sink off his and her face bends until she's moved Zuya into the crook of her neck, the top of her head touching Zuko's chin. One of her hands reaches out to trace the fingertips of the hand that's clutching Zuya's green skirt.

"What are we going to do?" she whispers even though it's rhetorical. "What have we done?"

She knows she can't get answers right now because they don't exist. "Step by step. We messed up," he repeats like he does constantly, his throat thick, and she taps on his fingers and lets the warm air flow over them. "Do you remember what happened the last time we were here?" he questions after a moment.

Katara murmurs in response and he takes up the mantle to speak, softly whispering. "Remember that terrible storm, all those years ago?"

"Oh," she says. "Yes. Sokka and Aang —"

She stops midway and squeezes one of his fingers especially hard. "I think it was a little south of here, that village."

"Right," her giggle is unconvincing but still alleviates some of the pressure in her head. "I remember how you grabbed my wrists. And tied me up."

"I didn't see anything like this coming back then."

"Of course you didn't, Mr. Ponytail," she teases. "I was a peasant and you were trying to save the world."

"My world."

"No," she breathes. "You were trying, Zuko."

"Then I guess I've been failing since," he grumbles.

"Don't sell yourself short," she says lightly before her tone evaporates and she's back to the present. "We can ask the crew about him. If they know anything —"

He shudders. "I asked a few members of this crew last night in the pub. They haven't been back to the Caldera in half a year."

"What've they been doing, then? Haven't they heard something —"

"It probably wouldn't be accurate, anyway. Just that Azula was missing last they'd checked, I heard. And she's back now," he shifts. "All these former warships have been going around. They went all the way to the North Pole —"

"Maybe we should go back there. After."

"Yeah," he says, and she wishes he wouldn't confirm their delusions. But she also can't blame him. They both want to have hope here; hope that this won't be the beginning of the end. Zuya breathes deeply against them and Katara smooths her hair out of her face. Zuko's feet are skimming the water. "I'm sorry."

Her grip goes loose. "Me too."

"I love you."

"I love you too. And I love Kaz and Zuya," she's crying again and pulls back to see his lips twitch. "I just wanted us to be okay. Why can't we be okay, Zuko? Why do we have to keep losing everything?"

"I want to know," he whispers. "I want to — but it was worth it, wasn't it? All of it. However long we had. It was worth it," he says with finality.

"Stop talking like that. We'll be fine —"

"We might be fine," he acquiesces. "But it won't ever be the same. And . . ."

"That's okay. As long as we're together. That's okay."