Chapter 17: Reunion

It had been just over two weeks since the GAang had seen Zuko. They'd looked for him, they'd even asked Jeong Jeong if he could find him, but that had fell apart when Zhao had attacked.

That was when they started hearing rumours. Not about a one-eyed swordsman, but about the Northern Air Temple.

They were at the market, buying rice, when the merchant leaned over and said to Katara, "You heard anything about the Air Temple?"

That attracted Aang's fleeting attention. "Air Temple? What about it?"

The merchant began bagging up some rice for the group. "Story going around is that there's people living in the ruins."

Sokka said, "What's so strange about that?"

The merchant shook his head. "Nothing, save for the fact that there were seen flying."

Aang's mouth dropped open. So did Sokka and Katara's. The merchant nodded. "Exactly. Word is that they must be Airbenders who survived, that they've been in hiding for a hundred years but now they're back. Course, that's just what I hear. Haven't seen them for myself."

Sokka asked quickly, "But this at an Air Temple?"

The merchant nodded. "Yeah, the Northern Air Temple."

Aang turned to Sokka and Katara, poised to speak. Sokka interrupted with, "Yeah, yeah. We're going."

Zuko had been at the Air Temple for about a week. He'd turned up in the dead of night, clothes smelling of salt and covered in cuts and bruises. He was dragging his feet, eye almost fluttering shut. He was clearly mentally and physically exhausted.

The people of the Air Temple had seen him coming up the main road and hurried down to help him. They knew Lee, while he wasn't one of them he was an ally, someone they could trust to help them, especially if bandits and brigands were involved.

Several of the men had carried him the rest of the way, despite his weak protests.

He grumbled, "'M fine. Put—put me down."

Teo, rolling along beside them, just said, "Just go to sleep, Lee. We'll look after you."

That was the last thing Zuko remembered before he passed out.

Aang felt nothing except disappointment when he arrived at the Northern Air Temple. Disappointment and a fair amount of anger. These people weren't Airbenders, they weren't the descendants of the Air Nomads. They were just trampling across his people, his culture. Practically making a mockery of it as they destroyed relics and architecture that had stood for thousands of years. All in the name of the Mechanist's 'progress'. It made his stomach churn, especially when he watched Sokka and Katara getting chummy with the cause of his upset; Teo and his father, the Mechanist.

He was perched on a high tower, brooding as he watched Teo and Katara glide through the sky, lacking all the grace and joy required for Airbending. Beneath him he knew Sokka was helping the Mechanist, no doubting erasing whatever was left of the Air Nomad's presence at the Temple. That was when he saw him.

Aang frowned, squinting to make sure he was right. "Lee?"

Zuko had spent his first couple of days in bed, revering from the pirate attack that had almost killed him.

As the ship had cracked and sunk, it had tried to drag him down too. By sheer luck he'd managed to hold his breath and swim hard enough and far enough to escape its lethal grasp. He'd swam over a mile to shore, and then walked through the night and through the next day until the Northern Air Temple was in sight.

He had memories of people being there; they were familiar to him, but he hadn't been able to apply names to them. He knew that they'd picked him up and carried him the rest of the way. He assumed he passed out in their arms, as he woke up on a cot in their infirmary.

The Temple's resident healer, an ancient woman named Sha, had proceeded to berate him for almost drowning, along with his excessive amounts of exhaustion. When he'd tried to stand up, she'd whacked his shins with her cane, sending him stumbling back onto the cot. He'd remained there for the next day or so, until she was satisfied that he was well enough to leave her care.

Zuko had grumbled all throughout this, muttering half-hearted curses about the old woman under his breath. Sha had returned them with twice the force, using words he'd never heard before but couldn't help but be insulted by.

Zuko liked Sha. She wasn't the slightest bit scared or intimidated by him, and she had no problem cutting him down to the size; in fact, she seemed to take an unhealthy amount of pleasure in doing so.

Since then, he'd been careful about moving around. While he hadn't broken anything, everything felt sore and bruised. Every muscle he had ached. Add in the fact that he kept hearing the boom of cannon fire, which kept transforming into the boom of Earth Kingdom artillery, and he wasn't feeling great.

Zuko could feel a scratching between his shoulder blades. Someone was watching him.

Aang was positive it was Lee as soon as the black eyepatch came into view. Brooding anger forgotten, for the moment, he leaped from his perch, using Airbending to control his descent.

He shouted, "LEEEEEEEE!"

He heard his name being cried a split second before something tackled him to the stone floor. He grunted as he slammed into the ground.

"Son of a—" he gasped, as an orange shape settled on him, wrapping its arms and legs tight around his middle.

He focused enough to make out a shaved head and blue Airbender tattoos. He sighed.

"Aang, don't take this the wrong way, but you need to get off me. Now."

Aang looked up at him. "Why?"

"Because everything hurts and you're really not helping."

The Avatar shot to his feet and tried to help Zuko up. The Firebender waved him off as he struggled upright.

That was when Aang got a good look at his friend. Bruises shadowed the visible part of his face, and there were dark bags under his eye.

He asked concerned, "What happened to you? You disappeared from Gisiro. Why do you look so… bruised?"

Zuko shrugged, masking the wince that came from the action. He said, "Appa flew off and I saw you take-off on him. Figured trouble might be coming so I headed into the forest, went west to the coast."

At the moment Teo and Katara landed. Upon seeing Zuko Katara ran over and nearly tackled him in a hug.

"You're okay!"

Thankfully Zuko had seen her coming and was able to brace himself, though he still grunted as she collided with his sore body.

She pulled away and saw the sorry state he was in. She said, "What happened?"

Teo interrupted, "Lee, you know these guys?"

Zuko nodded. "Yeah, I was travelling with them for a while, just before my little brush with pirates."

Aang and Katara both said, "Pirates?"

Lee nodded. "Hmm. Old friends of ours."

Katara's face turned guilty. "Oh no. You don't mean—"

Lee sighed. "It's not your fault, Katara. There's no saying they even knew it was me. I was on a merchant ship that was heading up the coast."

Katara nodded, though she didn't look like she agreed with Zuko's assessment. She frowned deeper. "Wait, so they attacked your ship?"

He nodded. Aang said excitedly, "Did they swing across on ropes with knives between their teeth? I saw a play with Gyatso once about pirates and they did that."

Zuko frowned at the boy. Slowly he said, "No, they just shot at us with cannons."

Aang's face sank as the reality set in. "How did you get away?"

Zuko shrugged again, forgetting the pain it brought. He hid it and answered, "I jumped ship, same as the crew. Some of them were in a life-boat, the rest of us were in the water."

Katara said, "So you swam back to shore?"

"Yes."

"And then walked all the way to the Northern Air Temple?"

"Not all the way. Some of the people here saw me coming and met me on the road."

Katara nodded slowly. "Are you sure you should be up?"

He waved her off. "I'm fine, Sha said so herself."

The girl frowned. "Who's Sha?"

Teo grinned. "The oldest, meanest healer you're ever likely to meet."

Zuko snorted. "He's not wrong. I've got more aches and pains from her walking stick than I did the ship going down."

Zuko turned towards Teo. "I haven't had a chance to talk to your dad yet. Any idea where he is?"

The boy nodded. "Think he's in his workshop. You want us to come with?"

Zuko waved him off. "I remember the way. Besides, you looked like you were enjoying yourself up there."

He pointed towards and sky and smirked. Then he turned and began slowly walking back towards the Temple proper.

Katara shouted, "Lee?"

He paused and glanced over his right shoulder. From this angle Katara couldn't even see his eyepatch. She was shocked to note how handsome he looked.

He said, "Yeah?"

She shook herself, fighting down the beginnings of a blush. She said, "Why'd you leave? We looked for you when we left Gisiro."

The boy's eyebrow rose. "You did?"

She frowned. Aang did too. He said, "You didn't think—you didn't think we left you behind, did you?"

Zuko was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "Of course not. See you guys later."

He walked away, a little faster than before.

They watched him leave, disbelieving his response.

Aang turned to Katara. "He was lying, wasn't he?"

She bit her lip and nodded. "I think so, yeah."

The Avatar sighed. "What do we do? He thinks we abandoned him."

Teo frowned at them both. "Have you known Lee a while?"

Katara frowned in thought. "A few months, maybe. Here and there. We've kept meeting him on the road every so often."

Teo nodded, as if understanding. "Yeah, that makes more sense."

Aang frowned. "What do you mean?"

Teo shrugged. "Lee's been coming here for a while now. He turns up every so often, stays a week or two, and then moves on. I've never known him to travel with anyone."

Katara's frown deepened. "No one?"

The boy shook his head. "He always turns up alone. We've offered him a place here countless times but he never stays. He always says he's got to keep moving."

He sighed. Then continued, "It's a shame. We like him round here."

Katara asked, "How did you meet him?"

Teo frowned as he remembered. "We'd been here for less than a month when bandits started attacking us, raiding our supplies. We tried to defend ourselves, but we're not warriors. Most people here are farmers, miners, you know? My dad came up with some traps and defences, but it wasn't enough.

"Then one day Lee showed up. Right in the middle of one of the raids."

Teo's frown turned troubled. "He cut the leader's head clean off and told the others to run and not come back. Most ran, some stuck around and Lee fought them too. He must have killed four bandits that day. None of them ever came back though."

Aang's face was downcast. "He killed people?"

Teo nodded. "Yeah. Bothered me at first too. But—" he stopped, thinking about what he wanted to say. "I've never seen him draw his weapons while he's here. He never even raises his voice. He's just… nice. Kind, you know. Sometimes he brings us medicines that are hard to get a hold of, or he picks up certain things for my dad. For his inventions. Tools, equipment, that sort of thing."

Aang and Katara exchanged a look. One that clearly said, 'Who is this guy?'

Sokka had never met a man quite like the Mechanist. While he knew his own father was highly intelligent and mechanically minded, the Mechanist was on another level. A level that Sokka would quite like to achieve himself.

"These are just some of my inventions." The Mechanist said, gesturing to his workshop.

Sokka pointed at a metal block with a groove down the middle. "What's that one for?"

The Mechanist picked it up and said, "This is for sharpening knives safely. I call it my 'finger-safe knife sharpener'!"

Sokka frowned slightly, almost positive that he could come up with a better name. Instead he said, "And those?" He pointed to three oddly shaped pieces of wood with metal caps on one end.

The Mechanist's face went pink. "Ah, yes."

He picked them up and held up his left hand, revealing three missing fingers and a metal contraption strapped to his hand and arm. He slotted the fake fingers into place and locked them tight.

"I lost three fingers making the knife sharpener." He admitted, face turning a little more red.

Sokka nodded slowly, trying to skim past this little bit of awkwardness. He saw plans laid out on the table; sketches of what looked like a boat with something fastened above.

His eyes skimmed over them, taking in the little notes and labels all around the drawing.

He said, "Is this for flying?"

The Mechanist went, "Hmm? Oh, that, yes. Well, it would be if I could get the blasted thing to work."

He pointed with one of his wooden fingers. "That is attempt number 11 and it still isn't right. Ah, but back to the drawing board."

Sokka could already feel ideas coming together in his mind. He was about to ask what the Mechanist had already tried when a familiar voice asked, "Goh? You in here?"

Sokka turned to see the Mechanist shaking hands with, of all people, Lee.

His jaw dropped. Zuko looked over and smirked at the gobsmacked look on his face.

He said, "Hey, Sokka. How's it going?"

Sokka was quiet throughout Zuko's explanation of where he went and what had happened in the last two weeks.

He said lowly, "Man, we looked for you. We asked Jeong Jeong to help us find you. You just vanished."

Zuko nodded awkwardly. "Yeah, Aang and Katara told me. Look, I just saw you flying away and assumed trouble was coming. I've told you before, I can't afford trouble with the Fire Nation."

The Mechanist, who had been bent over a workbench, shot up and said, "Fire Nation? What about them?"

Zuko raised his hand in a calming gesture. "Relax, Goh. We should be safe. I didn't lead them here and I'm sure Sokka and his friends didn't either."

The Mechanist nodded slowly. "Yes, yes, of course. You wouldn't lead them here, of course you wouldn't."

The two boys watched as he went back to his tinkering. Sokka stared at the man, then looked at Zuko and raised an eyebrow.

Zuko smirked slightly. Out loud he said, "Everyone here has run from the Fire Nation. They don't want to lose this little bit of sanctuary that they've scraped together. It's why I don't come round too often; too much chance I might lead them here."

"But you're here now." Sokka said.

Zuko nodded. "Didn't have much choice. I needed somewhere safe to catch my breath. People I trust not to rat me out, you know."

Sokka nodded, though he didn't fully sympathise with the feeling. Yes, they had to be careful in certain places because of Aang, and yes, he was arguably the most suspicious and paranoid of their little group; but he'd never been quite so practical about the whole thing. They'd gathered some allies on their little journey, like Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors, but he'd also be willing to trust the next unassuming innkeeper as long as there wasn't anything outright wrong about them. He got the impression that the Firebender wasn't the same.

He asked, "That ever happened? Someone selling you out to the Fire Nation?"

He watched as Zuko's face darkened and hardened. He said quietly, "Once."

He looked away from Sokka, towards the floor. Sokka let the subject drop.