Chapter 29: The North Pole
When the Northern Water Tribe ships spotted Appa in the sky, they hailed the sky bison and gave the travelers an honor escort into the city harbor. Along with a cheering crowd, Gran Gran and Pakku greeted them there, and took them to Pakku's large home, where they would be staying. They didn't even have time to unpack before they heard they were expected at the chief's residence for a dinner to welcome them.
When they arrived in the ice mansion, they were delighted to see the other guest of honor, Fire Lord Zuko, who had landed just the previous day. After a small mob of hugs, he explained his presence.
"It's a diplomatic visit. I'll be formally signing a peace treaty, introducing and meeting newly appointed ambassadors, discussing the construction of embassies, trade, cultural exchanges... I scheduled my trip to coincide with yours because it's considered fortuitous when the Avatar is present for these kinds of international agreements."
"Not just because you wanted to see us?" Sokka elbowed him.
"Well, that was a factor," he admitted, smiling.
"Who's in charge back in the Fire Nation?" Aang wondered.
"Iroh took a break from the tea shop."
"Mai stayed behind?" Katara didn't see the dark-haired young woman in the small crowd.
"Yeah, she said she hates the cold."
The chief had invited only his council and family, and Pakku and Kanna, and the young visitors to the dinner, and talk was more personal than political. The gathering was intended to make the leaders and guests more comfortable with each other before the official meetings began.
The chief and council members dominated Aang's attention. One of the only other young people at the party, a curvy girl in a fashionable low-cut dress who was introduced as the chief's niece, Eskina, tried valiantly to flirt with Sokka, who looked bored and tired. He and Toph ended up leaning back in their chairs, complaining to each other about the stiff company and praising the reindeer-moose steaks.
Zuko was seated next to Katara and glad to have a chance to catch up with her. "I wanted to let you know, I sent a ship with engineers to the South Pole to look at that old wreck." He informed his friend.
"Really?"
"Of course. You asked. They disabled the booby traps and made a plan to completely dismantle it and recycle the pieces. The work will start with the next spring thaw."
"That's great!"
The engineers' ship also stopped at Kyoshi Island and dropped off enough rice, preserved vegetables, and moo-sows to get the village through the winter."
"I'm sure they really appreciated that."
"How's Aang?"
She thought she knew what he was asking. "Visiting the Southern Air Temple was tough. That was where he spent his childhood."
"I can't imagine." Zuko shook his head regretfully.
"I think the funerals were good for him. Something he needed to do."
"That's good to hear."
"We've been having a lot of fun." She wanted to be sure he knew that their tour hadn't so grim the whole time. "I wrote you about Bumi's birthday, his match with Toph."
"The rematch, you mean? I still can't believe they thought it was a good idea to cause earthquakes when we were supposed to be getting ready to launch a surprise attack on an impenetrable city." Zuko shook his head at the memory.
"It's not easy to be the most mature person in the group, is it? Especially when the group includes a centenarian."
"Do you mean King Bumi or your boyfriend?"
She started. "I don't often think of Aang as that old, but I guess he is..."
"It was a joke," Zuko assured her. "The years in the iceberg obviously don't count."
"And sometimes he does act very mature. It surprises me..." She was thinking of how he seemed to have transcended petty jealousies that would have once caused so much drama. Her eyes found her boyfriend surrounded by powerful-looking older men who seemed to be hanging on his every word. The respect he commanded, despite his apparent age, was remarkable, and she realized that she found it incredibly attractive.
Zuko followed her gaze. "I probably don't want to know." He teased her.
She blushed and looked down.
"It's cute." He assured his friend, hoping he hadn't embarrassed her. "You guys seem happy."
"We are," she answered. Even with her questions and doubts, most of which she was able to suppress most of the time, she was very happy, especially when she and Aang were together. She was falling in love, after all. When she was in his arms, she didn't worry about the future. That only happened when they were apart, especially when she was trying to get to sleep at night.
Zuko turned to survey the rest of the party, giving her a chance to recover. "Look at those two," he pointed across the room to where Sokka and Toph were snoozing on a couch, curled up together like polar puppies. "Long flight?"
"I guess we need to get home to bed." Katara laughed.
First thing the next morning, Katara presented herself to Yugoda, the headmistress of the Academy of Healing Arts.
"Master Katara". The old woman peered at her over the rims of her spectacles from behind her imposing desk. "I thought you had no interest in the healing arts." The master healer seemed miffed that Katara had left her class for Pakku's the previous year.
"No, I do!" Katara insisted, hoping she hadn't offended this venerable lady. "It was just that I needed to learn to defend myself and my friends in the war. And….you know I grew up in the South, right? I was the only waterbender in the whole hemisphere; the Fire Nation had killed or captured all of the others. I needed to be able to fight to keep that from happening to me, or anyone else I loved."
"I understand. Here in the North we have been insulated from the horrors our sister tribe has endured." Katara was grateful to see that the woman's strictness still left some room for empathy. "I'm sorry your childhood was so difficult, and that you were not able to develop your abilities without leaving home."
"Now that the war is over, I want to focus on healing." She told the older woman earnestly. "I'm pretty good at it, but I don't always know what I'm doing or why it's working. I'd like to become more confident in my skills, to have the words to explain what I'm doing to others."
"Very well. Tell me what you know and have been able to do."
Katara described some of the injuries she'd healed, and noticed Yugoda make an impressed face when she described the burns she'd treated.
"You have nothing to learn from my classroom lectures." She declared briskly. "Tomorrow morning, come to the hospital and you can work under my supervision. Then I can see if you deserve your reputation." The master healer gave Katara an appraising look as she thanked her and left the room. It made her determined to prove herself.
That afternoon, she went to Pakku's school, where she offered herself as instructor for the beginner classes, as long as her schedule at the hospital allowed. The classes in Pakku's school weren't exactly segregated, but the beginner class was mostly women, because they'd begun learning so recently, while the advanced class was almost all men, since they'd been training for a longer time.
The women water benders were excited to learn directly from Katara. Her battle with Pakku had become legendary, and everyone knew how she had trained the Avatar, and fought in the invasion on the day of black sun, and defeated Princess Azula. Her fame preceded her, and some of her classes even had an audience of non-bending spectators, or advanced students who already knew the moves she was going over. Sometimes her lessons got off track when her students asked her to tell stories about her travels with the Avatar, or unorthodox ways she'd used waterbending, like making clouds into shapes or bending her sweat to cut through wood. It really fed her ego to be appreciated for her skill this way. She thought if they stayed in the North too long, she might become as cocky and braggy as Toph.
She fell into a routine of spending mornings at the hospital, and afternoons at Pakku's school. After Katara spent a few days shadowing her in the hospital and demonstrating her skills, Yugoda took her into her office for a talk.
"You are an instinctive healer," the instructor declared. "I've noticed how you seem to start doing the right thing almost automatically. But you're also right to seek more knowledge. Sometimes the most soothing thing you can do for your patients is to give them information about their injury or condition, and if you can't answer their questions, that isn't very comforting."
"When Princess Azula's lightning shot him down, I brought Aang back from the dead with spirit water." Katara confessed. "I still don't know how I did it, or why it took him so long to wake up."
Yugoda appeared taken aback at the feat the younger healer had performed. "If he had truly left this world, then his delay in waking was probably far beyond your control. His spirit may have been off fighting somewhere, completing a quest that was necessary to allow it to return to the living, repairing the breach that the lighting had done to his spirit. You had done your part by applying the sacred water to his injury; he had to make his own way back from the spirit world. There was nothing you could have done to hasten that journey; it was out of your hands. I'm sure you did all you could to care for his body while his spirit was traveling. That was really all that was possible for you to do."
Tears sprung to the girl's eyes. It helped immensely to hear from this knowledgeable healer that she had done all that she could to help her beloved. "Thank you for telling me that. I feel so much better knowing my best was enough. That I didn't prolong his suffering because of my lack of knowledge. I wish you'd been there with me then, to tell me that. It would have really helped me."
"Sometimes healers take on their patients' pain unconsciously." The master healer said sympathetically. "That's why it's especially difficult to care for our loved ones."
"Yes, it is." She hadn't had a choice. She'd been the only one available to heal her friends and family during the war. She'd cared for each of them in turn—Aang's mortal wound, her father's laceration, Toph's feet, Sokka's leg, even Zuko's lightning burn. "It wouldn't be so hard if I were more confident in my abilities."
"Perhaps that is what we can help you with. Building your confidence. And as I just said, your background knowledge of the body, its structures and processes. We can make sure your time here is used well." Yugoda promised.
Early on one of the only mornings when Zuko didn't have the day booked solid with meetings, he woke to a knock on his door and found Sokka there.
"I said I'd take you ice-fishing, remember?" He held up his arms, laden with gear. "These Northern fishing holes can't be as good as the ones we have down south, but I guess you won't know the difference."
Zuko blinked. It took a minute for his sleepy brain to remember his Circle of Praise, when the Water Tribe boy had mentioned fishing as one of a few activities brothers apparently did together in the South, as if they would cement his status in his family. He smiled. "Uh, sure. Let me get dressed."
After a short ride in a small boat, the two were settled with fishing lines and warm drinks, watching the morning light sparkling on the icebergs. Every once in a while, they saw a whale walrus leaping in the distance, or a family of turtle seals sleeping together on some floating ice. Zuko couldn't believe he hadn't even noticed this beauty when he'd traveled in the North the first time. His all-consuming obsession had blinded him. It was yet another reason to be grateful for his new life and its freedom.
"So how's Mai?" Sokka asked. "You guys aren't fighting or anything?"
"No, she just didn't want to travel. And, well, her mom and dad just split up."
"Oh, that's too bad."
"Well, it's sad that it came to that, that her dad hasn't come to his senses. And now there's nothing holding him back from feeding his baseless resentments and getting in even deeper with the New Ozai Society. But the good thing about it is that now Mai can see her mom and little brother again. With me leaving town, and Iroh back in the palace to take the reins of the state, she jumped at the chance to spend the time with them."
"That sounds nice. How big is Tom-Tom now?"
"Almost as high as my waist. Mai was having the royal armorer make a set of blunt darts for him. She said it's the first step to learning to throw knives like she does."
"How adorable. A little baby assassin!" They laughed a little, then were quiet for a few minutes. The silence around them was profound, but welcome, calming. Zuko warmed the tea they'd brought and refilled both their flasks.
"So, uh, I heard about you and Suki. That's rough, buddy."
"Thanks, I guess."
"What happened? I thought you two were crazy about each other."
Sokka sighed. "She said it was because there was stuff she had to do on Kyoshi Island, but that wasn't the whole story. She heard about my first girlfriend, the one who turned into the moon, and she got jealous or something. She got an idea in her head that I preferred Princess Yue. That was her name. Suki thought I had idealized Yue and she'd never measure up. And the really sad thing is, she might have been right."
"Kind of ironic. You're the most logical, earth-bound guy I know, and you let your relationship fall apart because you're still in love with a spirit."
"The heart has no logic, my brother."
"Give yourself a break. From what you're telling me, it seems like Suki might have been unfair to you. I mean, did you do anything to make her think she was a consolation prize to you?"
"I didn't! She wasn't! Suki was my lifesaver. I never compared her to Yue. I didn't even tell her what happened in the North until she made me. Maybe that was part of the problem. I was keeping a secret. I was holding something back. Not just information, but, you know. Feelings."
"Hey, if she can forgive me for burning down her village, she can forgive you for having a lingering attachment to your first love."
"Good point. That gives me hope. But it might be too late. She might have moved on by now."
"Hmm." Zuko narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Can you remind me, what was the timeline of your relationship?"
"Well, I met her the first time just a couple days before your burned down her village. And then we saw her again months later on the way to Ba Sing Se. I guess you must have arrived in the city around that time too. And then you and I found her at the Boiling Rock."
"So she waited for you for months last year, and that was before you even slept together." Zuko summed up the story as he saw it.
Sokka was kind of taken aback. "When you put it that way, that makes it seem like it's really not over."
"I take it you haven't moved on yourself?"
"Nah. Not while I still have a glimmer of hope for Suki. Although, uh, Toph did try to kiss me."
Zuko raised his eyebrows. "That sounds like it might have been awkward."
"Surprisingly, not as awkward as you might think. I mean, she's great! If I were her age, I would be thrilled to kiss her. She's cute as hell, and hilarious. We'd have so much fun together."
"But she's just too young?"
Sokka nodded, smiling ruefully. "I can't get past it. Even if I'd never met Suki. And of course, since I did meet Suki..."
"She didn't have a chance."
"Not really."
"I'm a little surprised you survived turning Toph down. She's terrifying!"
"Nah, she was pretty cool about it. We joked about getting together when we're old and widowed."
"Are you sure about that?" Zuko raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I can imagine her getting more and more cantankerous every year, biting the head off of everybody who tries to approach her."
"Meh, I could probably tone her down." Sokka waved away his concern. "And it was a joke anyway. I started helping her write letters to a couple of King Bumi's great-grandsons. Ugliest dudes you ever saw, but I guess she doesn't care."
Zuko chuckled. "I missed this." The words slipped out before he could think to stop them, causing him to flush in embarrassment. He really hadn't spent all that much time with Sokka, but their few days together had been so intense that he felt closer to the young warrior than he ever had to another guy his own age. It was nice to have a friend.
"Me too." Zuko was relieved to see Sokka's lopsided grin. Apparently saying things like that was ok. "Hey, you have a bite!"
The Water Tribe boy showed the Fire Lord how to reel in his fish and clean it. They caught three more, and took their catch to Pakku's house, and hung out in the kitchen snacking and chatting while Gran-Gran prepared dinner. Pakku, Aang, Katara, and Toph joined them in their own time, and they all sat down together to eat.
"In your letter you promised me some stories about these two," Kanna reminded Zuko, her eyes twinkling.
Zuko smiled. Being welcomed in this house meant a lot to him. "Well, I'm sure Sokka already told you about how we broke his father out of the Boiling Rock prison, but there are probably some parts of the story he left out. Like how he initially wanted to travel there on Appa, without thinking about where he would keep a ten-ton flying bison while we infiltrated a prison inside a volcano."
"Appa's a smart bison. He could have figured it out," Sokka grumbled.
"Let's hear your version, from beginning to end," Gran-Gran suggested, and Zuko obliged, focusing on Sokka's foibles and strategizing, while glossing over Suki's role in the story. Then she asked for a story about her granddaughter.
"Hmm, what can I tell you that you haven't heard yet?" The young Fire Lord wondered aloud. "I guess Katara didn't tell you about the time she threatened my life?"
"What?" Aang burst out.
"When I first joined the group to teach Aang firebending, Katara didn't trust me, for good reasons." He repeated her threat, exaggerating his voice and making it into a joke. "She would have done it too. I've never been so frightened by someone I'm not related to!"
"Ha ha," Katara said sarcastically.
"You have to admit, it's pretty funny," Sokka said. "Sweet, gentle Katara the healer, threatening the big scary firebender."
"Have you met your sister?" Toph asked him, incredulous. "She is a lot scarier than Zuko, when she wants to be."
"She sure is!" Zuko agreed, then turned to Katara, who was scowling. "It's ok. We can laugh about it now, right?"
"I guess so," she agreed, still a little chagrined at her grandmother and Pakku hearing the story. "But only because you saved my life. Twice."
"Twice?" Gran Gran asked. "I remember hearing about the...Agni Kai..." she hesitated, unsure if she were saying the foreign word correctly.
"Yes, he jumped in front of his sister Azula's lightning attack at the Agni Kai battle on the day of the comet, and before that, he pushed me out of the way of a falling pillar at the Western Air Temple. Also caused by Azula." Katara explained.
"Oh! Well, you can have a double helping of dessert then," Gran-Gran said, as she began to clear the table. Katara and Aang got up to help.
"And then I want to hear about what these two got up to when they were little." Zuko teased his Water Tribe friends.
"Well, they quarreled a lot, as you may have guessed. And the older Katara got, the more her waterbending happened unconsciously when she was angry at Sokka. We had to repair the walls of our igloo several times." Gran Gran brought the moon peach pie to the table and started dishing it out. "I think the best thing for them was that war giving them a common enemy. That's how siblings are, fighting bitterly against each other, but united against the world."
Zuko looked down. For a while, when he had trusted Azula, he had thought that had described them: rivals cooperating for family and country. But it had been just another of her lies, one he now felt foolish for having briefly believed. Katara seemed to have read his mind, because when he looked up, she was looking at him with concern, a sad half smile on her face.
As they ate dessert, Gran Gran told how Sokka had painted his face and tried to join his father's crew when he left. Hakoda had entrusted him with the defense of the village, she said, since he was the oldest male left, not counting crippled Kajar. Zuko recalled the way Sokka had charged him as he descended the gangplank of his ship. It hadn't been a very skilled attack, but it had been fierce. Then he also remembered the story Sokka had told him about his mother's death, and what he had learned from Yon Rha. The boy may have thought the Fire Nation had come to kill his sister, the last waterbender. His respect for his friend increased exponentially.
"So that's why you attacked me. When I landed in your village demanding the Avatar. Just one kid, all by himself, running at me and my army of firebenders. You were trying to defend your people singlehandedly." He shook his head in awe at the selfless audacity.
"I know, it was crazy." Sokka looked sheepish. "And not very effective."
"Crazy brave, And your boomerang was effective enough!" Zuko rubbed the back of his head, recalling the sharp pain of the blow, and the resulting headache. "Again, I apologize." He looked imploringly at Sokka and Gran Gran.
"You're here, aren't you?" The older woman pointed out. "This is what peace looks like. Former enemies sharing a meal."
"Four nations at one table together. It is a new age indeed." Pakku looked around at the young people who had made such a wonder possible. "Your presence here does offer an opportunity for my students that they don't often get. Master Toph, would you like to teach them to defend themselves against earthbenders?"
"Sounds like fun," Toph smirked. "Does that mean I'd get to go to a place where the ground isn't totally covered with ice?"
"I suppose that would be necessary," Pakku nodded.
"You don't think King Keui is going to attack you all? Or that Chief Arnook is planning something….." Aang asked, a little worried. War between the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom would be a nightmare, and he wanted no part in any kind of preparation for violence.
"Oh, no, it would be purely a training exercise," the waterbending master assured him.
"Would you like me to teach them how to fight firebenders?" Zuko offered.
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"It's all right if you think it's inappropriate..." The young monarch backtracked awkwardly.
"No, it's a wonderful idea," Pakku assured him.
"Won't that cause you some problems at home?" Katara asked cautiously.
"There are some people in the Fire Nation who would say it's treason for me to teach anyone from another country anything. To them, Piandao is a traitor for teaching Sokka the sword, and I'm already a traitor for teaching Aang firebending. I wouldn't bother trying to please those people, even if it were possible. Their view of patriotism doesn't allow for any cooperation or friendship between people from other countries, and mine is almost exactly opposite. I'd see it as a great opportunity to strengthen bonds between nations and ensure lasting peace."
"An admirable intention," Pakku commended him.
"If I'd thought of this before, I might have brought a different set of people to accompany me here. None of my guards or assistants are benders. Just me. I thought that would make the Northerners more comfortable."
"I'm sure the chief appreciates that thought, and he'll appreciate your educational efforts even more." Pakku assured him. "One firebender is plenty to teach my class."
"But you have two," Aang reminded him.
"Ah, yes, of course. You're invited as well, Aang."
Pakku brought his students away from the frozen city, to a nearby clearing where the ice was thinner than usual. He and Katara pushed aside the snow and ice so that Toph could stand directly on the ground, without snow muffling her 'vision.' It was still too cold for her to go barefoot, but she could still sense a lot more through her boots than she could through the ice.
Surveying the area, Katara knew they would have to be careful not to turn it into a giant puddle of muck. "When waterbenders and earthbenders fight each other, a lot of times the result is just a bunch of mud," she told the students.
"When have you fought against earthbenders? I thought the Earth Kingdom was on our side in the war?" One of the students asked suspiciously, as if he were afraid Katara had been fighting for the wrong side.
"The Dai Li in Ba Sing Se betrayed the Earth Kingdom and joined Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. They're elite earthbenders, some of the toughest opponents I've ever faced." Katara informed them. "But you're right, for the most part earthbenders have been allies to the Tribe."
"And when waterbenders and earthbenders team up," Toph told them, "they can use their combined bending to cause a landslide or make quicksand. You could also work together to bend mud, or slurry. We did that one time to blow up a Fire Nation drill that was trying to bore into the walls of Ba Sing Se."
"But today we're talking about how waterbenders can fight earthbenders. Two main topics: projectiles and immobilization." Katara started the lecture. "Earth is usually denser than water, so you need to shoot your water faster, with more force, to counter it. It can also help if you freeze if first, and hold your ice together at impact, so it doesn't just shatter. Hit me, Toph."
The younger girl smirked and punched a hunk of earth at her friend. Katara's water moved so fast it was almost invisible, stopping it cold. The students were visibly impressed at the speed of the master waterbender's counterattack.
"If you can't shoot that fast, you'll have to try to aim for one side of the stone to push it off course. Often you'll have more success knocking a rock projectile to the side than you will stopping it dead on. Or you could try to slice it in half. Hit me again."
Another chunk of soil careened through the air, and Katara cut it cleanly, so that two pieces landed on either side of her feet. The students were suitably impressed. "Try rapid fire."
Toph threw stone after stone at Katara, and she batted away each one so that they fell away, landing in every direction except that of the seated students.
"What happens if you throw ice at her?" A student wondered.
"Try it," Toph dared her friend.
Katara shot a flurry of ice daggers, which were blocked easily by the wall Toph pulled up.
"So how do you counter that defense?" Another student questioned in awe.
"You don't. You either go around it or above it. Toph will know where I go if I try to do that, but most earthbenders lose sight of their enemy when they put up a defensive wall. So you'll be able to surprise them. You can get around a wall faster if you skate." She coated the ground with ice and slid around the wall, squirting Toph in the face when she had a clear shot.
"I think that concludes the projectile portion of the lesson, unless you have anything to add, Toph?"
"I'm good," she said, with a flick of her hand that sent a bit of earth to hit Katara right on the butt. "Are we moving on to immobilization?"
"Yeah." Katara discreetly rubbed her stinging backside as she continued the lecture. "Both earth and ice can immobilize you. An earthbender with frozen legs can still attack you, but if you freeze her when her stance is off, she won't be able to do as much, if anything."
"How do you know when their stance is off?" One of the students wondered.
That was kind of hard for Katara to answer. "I guess I just know from seeing Toph and other earthbenders, the way they look when they earthbend well, and when they're not ready. You might not be able to tell without that experience. But I will say that usually earthbenders are crouched or squatted lower to the ground when they're in a good stance. So if you can catch them standing up straight, they might be stuck. Right, Toph?"
"Pretty much." Toph demonstrated some typical stances. "I learned from the badgermoles themselves, so my stances are a little different from the academy-taught earthbenders. They're more showy and stylized than me." She hit a couple poses, making a face to show that she thought the other earthbenders' moves were effete and affected.
In a transition between a couple of those moves, Katara caught Toph's legs with ice. "Gotcha." The waterbender quirked a smile. Then she spread the ice up her friend's body so that only her head and hands were free. "If you can freeze her arms as well, you've won." She told the students.
"Sure about that, sweetness?" Toph flicked a finger, and a pebble bonked Katara in the forehead. A few students laughed at her.
"Good one, Toph." She rubbed her head. "Your average Earth Kingdom soldier wouldn't be able to do that, though. Toph is, after all, the greatest earthbender of all time." It was the first time she'd used the self-proclaimed title. Toph grinned widely. Katara was glad to make her friend happy, but also felt the urge to undercut her ego. "That's why I need to freeze her hands as well." She stretched the ice to cover her friend's fingers, then immediately melted the ice prison to water, before her bare fingers could get too cold.
"Now earthbending immobilization. She's going to try to grab my legs with the earth. Skating on ice works well, because it puts a layer of ice between you and the earth. But the best defense is to keep off the ground, keep moving. Be quick and agile." Katara jumped and ran, even performing a roundoff, as Toph chased her footfalls with mounds of land grabbing for her toes. It wasn't until Toph had the idea to get ahead of her, predicting her landing spot and creating a hole just big enough for her foot, that Katara got caught. Once her foot was underground, the rest of her got sucked in, as deep as her shoulders.
"Gotcha."
"Yeah, you got me. Now explain to them how you were able to do that."
"I only see through vibrations in the earth, so I've learned to pay attention to footsteps, strides, and paces. I listened to Katara running around a while, figured out where her next step would fall, and made a hole to trip her."
"So would sighted earthbenders be able to trap me like this? Or is it one of your personal superpowers?" Katara's pride required that the students understand that it was only because Toph's abilities were so unique that she'd been taken down at all.
"In theory they could. But they're not likely to bother to learn how. They're usually too distracted by their eyesight to listen to the earth." She pushed her friend back up out of her hole. They'd finished the lecture and demonstrations.
The waterbenders could easily practice ice immobilizations on their own, and do sprinting and gymnastics drills to improve their agility, but they couldn't practice countering thrown attacks without an earthbender to chuck rocks at them. The students lined up in front of Toph and each got several turns attempting to deflect stone projectiles with water whips and blasts, while Katara and Pakku critiqued or praised their efforts.
After almost an hour of practice, Pakku concluded the lesson. "We had to leave the city and come here to have this lesson, because that was the only way to allow our earthbending master to show us her skill. That's why the best defense for us is to stay here in the North, where everything is covered with a layer of ice. Deprive the bender of his element and he can't use it against you."
"Worst place you'd ever want to go, as a waterbender, is the desert." Katara put in, shuddering at the memory. She thought also of the dry prison Hama had described to her, and shuddered again.
Pakku nodded at her and continued. "In our city of snow, earthbenders would only have whatever stone they bring with them to use as weapons, while you're surrounded by all of the water and ice you could ever want. As long as you're here, or on the sea, you're at a great advantage."
"Doesn't work with firebenders," one of the students remarked under his breath.
"That's true." Pakku answered. "Firebenders don't need materials outside of themselves to bend, like waterbenders and earthbenders do. They can create their element from nothing. That's why Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang will be with us tomorrow to teach defense against firebending."
Zuko stood with Aang in front of Pakku's class the following day in their normal arena. He started by addressing the awkwardness they all felt. "I know it might feel strange to you all to have me here. But please believe me when I say that my goal is to help our countries put our painful history behind us. As I see it, the best way to guarantee good relations between our peoples is to strengthen your defenses. So I want to teach you to fight against firebenders." He took a few paces to the side as he transitioned to his lecture. "Our elements are natural opposites. Water can extinguish fire. Fire can melt ice. The most effective defense any bender can use against a firebender is spraying his fire blasts with water, just as you'd spray water on a burning building. Let's show them." He turned to Aang, who took a ready stance. Zuko punched two fireballs at the Avatar in quick succession, which he countered with identically shaped balls of water, seemingly without much effort. "See how he diffuses the water over the entire area of the fireball." Zuko explained. "A concentrated spray won't stop the blast, but lots of small droplets can cover the whole fire and neutralize it. The water turns to steam, and it can still burn you if you're too close, but your goal is to keep the firebender and his fire at a distance anyway."
The two staged a mock battle, Aang using only waterbending. Zuko took the offensive, but Aang almost tripped him once with a water whip to the foot. They dodged and parried, enjoying a sparring partner with equal skill. Finally they bowed to each other. "Any questions?"
"What about ice immobilization?" One of the students asked. "Master Katara and Master Toph showed us that yesterday. Would that work against a firebender?"
"Yes. That works very well. Master Katara knocked me out and froze me thirty feet up a wall once, and left me there overnight." The students exchanged impressed glances. They hadn't expected to hear the Fire Lord admit he'd been defeated, especially by a girl. "But you can practice that on each other anytime. Same with water whips and other offensive moves you're used to using against other waterbenders. I won't be here in the North long, but I want you all to know how to extinguish a firebending attack before I go. More questions?"
One of the new female students raised a hand. "Avatar Aang, which is your favorite element to bend?"
"Air, of course. It's my native element. I was an airbender first, and it's still the element my instincts choose first and most often. It's a very versatile element. There's not much I can't do with it."
"What's your second favorite?" She pressed, smiling flirtatiously.
Aang glanced at Zuko. The girl seemed to be a fan. "Well, I'd have to say water, since I'm especially attached to my waterbending teacher. No offense, Zuko." The Fire Lord held up his hands as if to say, none taken. The student seemed unable to decide whether she liked that answer or not.
If the Q & A had descended into groupie territory, they were ready to move on. Zuko clapped his hands. "Let's practice."
He had the students split into two groups, one for each firebender, so that they could try the technique individually. Almost all of the students tried to get in Aang's line, but Pakku made half go to Zuko, and then switch when the time was halfway over. They were a little nervous at first, but found the Fire Lord an encouraging coach. It was empowering to have a strategy to fight their traditional enemy, especially for the ones who still had nightmares about the previous year's siege. A couple of the students appeared sullen and resentful of Zuko, and one even knocked him down with an unexpected water blast. Pakku made him sit on the sideline and watch for the rest of the lesson. When Zuko heard that the boy had lost a brother in last year's attack, he personally apologized to the boy.
He bowed low. "I'm sorry for your loss. And that my presence here is causing you pain. I intend only to strengthen your people's defenses so that nothing like last year's siege will ever happen again. I'll officially sign the peace treaty in just a couple days. You have my word that as long as I'm Fire Lord, your people are safe from mine."
The waterbender bowed stiffly, not quite as low the bare minimum required by politeness to an equal, much less to a monarch. "I appreciate that. But it doesn't bring my brother back."
"It doesn't," Zuko agreed. "Again, I'm sorry."
The boy walked away.
Zuko knew that he couldn't expect his efforts to be welcomed everywhere, and that there was a limit to how much he could to do to make up for the past. But every time he came up against that limit, it still hurt. He thought that was a good thing, though. It strengthened his determination to make sure he'd never do anything that would require such futile apologies and painful regrets, ever again.
After a long, but mostly uneventful morning in the maternity ward, Katara sat with some of the other novice healers to eat lunch in the hospital cafeteria.
"So, are you engaged, Master Katara?" One of the girls, a nurse named Sakari, gestured to her necklace, a knowing smile on her lips.
Katara's hand flew up to her neck. "What, this? Oh, no. It was my mother's. Well, it was my Gran-Gran's first, given to her by Master Pakku. I got it when my mother passed away."
The other women looked at each other in surprise. She supposed it was unusual in the North for an engagement necklace to pass through a family in this way, to mark anything but a woman's status.
"Don't you know she's dating the Avatar?" The most experienced healer of the girls, Kachine, nudged her friend. "He's a bit young, but I suppose he'd be worth waiting for."
Yes, he was, Katara thought to herself, but they had no idea how long she expected to wait.
"I hope he doesn't keep you in suspense as long as my Hekli kept me," said Sakari, fingering the necklace at her own throat.
"How long?" Katara asked gamely, glad to lead the group's attention away from herself.
"Almost two years!" She exclaimed gleefully, thrilled to tell her story. "I was getting so jumpy! Every holiday, every time we were alone together, I was sure it was going to happen. And every time it didn't, I got so sad and discouraged."
"Why didn't you just propose yourself?" Katara asked sensibly.
The other women looked at each other and burst into hysterical laughter.
Sakari explained it to her as if she were a child who didn't understand adult relationships. "My Hekli is so shy. He's a go-with-the-flow kind of person. Very non-confrontational. If I'd proposed to him, he would have said yes just so it wouldn't start a fight, even if he didn't want to marry me at all! The only way I could ever know Hekli really wanted it, that he wasn't just going along with what I wanted to please me, or only to avoid a fight, was by waiting for him to be the one to ask."
That…..actually made a lot of sense, Katara had to admit to herself. She couldn't help seeing Aang in Sakari's description of her fiance. He hated arguments and would do almost anything to avoid one, especially with her, perhaps up to and including participating in an unwanted wedding. She certainly didn't want him to marry her just because she'd browbeat him into it. No, she decided, she could only do it if he came up with it himself, wanted it badly enough himself to ask for it, and knowing his background, that would never happen. It must be nice to be pursued like that, she imagined wistfully. But, no, that wasn't fair. Aang had pursued her. He had kissed her first, and made his feelings clear to her before he'd known they were returned, and kept showing her in his gentle way that he cared for her and wanted to be with her, even after she'd put him off. She should think about that. That was all that it was proper for her to think about anyway. She should appreciate what they had. She shook herself and brought her attention back to the conversation.
"So how did you get him to finally ask?" Kachine asked Sakari.
"I got very busy." She winked. "For some mysterious reason, I just wasn't available as often. And then I took a trip to visit some cousins in Arviat Village. Instead of hanging all over him every day, like I'd done for the previous two years, I gave him a chance to miss me. To realize how much he needed me around. When I came back from my trip, Hekli was finally ready to make things official."
"Wasn't that just punishing yourself?" Katara asked. She hated the idea of staying away from Aang for any reason, much less to try to get him to propose. She would miss him too much, and besides, it sounded so manipulative.
"It wasn't easy, but neither was being taken for granted." Sakari justified herself, a little huffy.
"Oh. That's certainly understandable." Katara allowed. That explained why distancing herself from her boyfriend had been the right choice for Sakari, but would be the wrong choice for Katara. Aang didn't take her for granted at all. If she tried to do what Sakari had done, it would be like sending them back to the time in their relationship where he pined after her and she was unsure about her feelings. It wouldn't solve any of their problems and would only make Aang's insecurity worse. It would hurt him. No, her instincts told her that purposely making herself unavailable to Aang was just a recipe for heartache for both of them. What was keeping her awake at night were questions about whether their cultural differences could be reconciled, whether they had any mutual understanding of the meaning of relationships and intimacy, and whether their desires for their futures were compatible. Teaching him a lesson on appreciating her (one he didn't need) would do nothing to answer those questions.
Kachine called Katara back to the conversation. "So are you thinking of using the Sakari plan on the Avatar?" She smiled suggestively at her. "Taking a strategic vacation so that you can come back to an engagement necklace?"
"Oh. No." She shook her head emphatically. She didn't want to disparage the other girl's relationship by comparing hers, so she just stuck to the easiest explanation. "Like you said, he's too young anyway. We're both too young. We're happy with things as they are now." She assured them, and herself.
When Aang came out of the council building, he saw that Katara was waiting for him.
"I wondered if you had some time before dinner," she said shyly, "I feel like we haven't had any time to ourselves, and we can't really be alone at Pakku's house..."
He fell into step beside her on the walk by the canal. "That sounds great. Did you have anything in particular in mind?"
"A ride on Appa? He probably needs some exercise."
"Perfect." He appreciated how she thought of his bison, cared for and made time for him. Appa was much more than a pet, and not everyone understood that, but she did. He was also grateful for the way she sought him out, and made sure they got to spend time together, even though they were both keeping very busy, between her lessons and hospital shifts and time with her grandmother, and his endless meetings. It was one of the things she did that gave him hope that her feelings for him might be growing, that Sokka was wrong and she might want to spend her future with him after all. It felt a little silly to hold her hand when she was wearing mittens, but he did anyway.
They found Appa in the stable where he'd been sleeping, and the bison seemed thrilled to see his favorite human, as always. After attaching his saddle and calling "Yip yip," the couple floated above the frozen city. They settled into their usual cuddle position, backs against the saddle's lip, his arm around her, the leg closest to her stretched out, her knees pulled in and leaning toward him. She pulled off her mittens and put her hands on his chest under his cloak. He was always so warm.
"The meetings are going well?" Katara asked. She always felt the need to talk a little first, to reconnect and touch base, to keep up a bit of a pretense. Though they didn't acknowledge it aloud, they both knew the real purpose of little flights like this.
"I think so." Aang answered. "It's only details they're quibbling about, really, at this point. Things like what the exchange program should be called, and how much the participants' stipends should be."
"Zuko's doing a good job, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he's turning out to be a good Fire Lord so far. He knows what he's talking about in the meetings and the old guys actually listen to him."
"Do they listen to you too?"
"Yeah, but I haven't had to say much." Aang admitted modestly. "And when I do speak up or have to answer a question, often I don't really know what I'm talking about, because I haven't done my homework, but Zuko has. He understands this stuff better than me."
"Did it bother you, hearing that I threatened him?" Katara asked. She felt a little worried that the revelation may have changed her boyfriend's opinion of her.
"Well, I'm certainly glad you didn't follow through…." Aang began warily.
"I'm more glad he never gave me a reason to." She couldn't feel remorse for being willing to kill to protect him, for intimidating someone who had terrorized her. As much as she cared about Zuko now, she wouldn't take that moment back or change it. As she saw it, her promise of merciless retribution had been a necessary part of his initiation to their team, a demon he had to face in order to prove his sincerity and earn his place.
Aang raised one eyebrow at her. "I guess it's nice that you wanted to protect me. You know I feel protective of you, too. I guess the difference is that I don't make threats, I just go into the Avatar state if anyone ever tries to hurt you. I don't know if that's better or worse. We might...feel differently about violence, but that's probably ok. I'm hoping since the war is over we won't be faced with any situation where that matters."
"Me too." The world was at peace and she was with her Aang. He made her feel so safe. Reassured, she scooted even closer and brought her face next to his. The conversational preliminaries completed, they began what they'd come to the sky for—kissing.
Aang saw this little excursion as a bit of a research opportunity. As a part of his efforts to be the best boyfriend ever, he was working to become a better kisser. He had started making a more conscious, systematic study of kissing technique, hoping to improve his skills from good to excellent. He was paying attention to which moves and touches seemed to get the biggest reactions from Katara, and trying to remember and repeat the best ones. He thought if he really made her enjoy his kisses, if he made her shiver with pleasure, then she'd be sure to fall in love with him.
He tried a few different things. Did she like it better when he sucked gently on her top lip, or bottom lip? Did she prefer his arm around her shoulders or waist? When she made that little sigh, was that because of what he was doing with his hand or his mouth? He'd been kissing her a while, focusing on her minute reactions, when she pulled away unexpectedly.
"Am I doing something wrong?" She questioned, the skin between her eyebrows pinched.
"What? No! This is great!" He insisted, afraid his experiment had been ruined, or, worse, that his experiment had somehow ruined them.
"You're not making any sounds like you sometimes do." She was almost pouting, and there was a slight edge of impatience, or even frustration in her voice. "Your breathing is all regular, not shaky or hitched or anything. Like you're not into it, not caught up the way you usually are."
He felt sheepish, realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry. I guess I was concentrating on getting you to make sounds. I was too busy trying to make you feel good."
She giggled. "But my favorite thing is when I make you feel good."
He blinked and a slow grin made its way across his face. How did he get so lucky? He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers. "Same here. But if you insist, you can have your turn doing your favorite thing first." He gave himself over to her ministrations, and made sure that she knew exactly how much he enjoyed them.
When it was his turn, he decided to bring her in to his little project. "Do you like this?" He murmured between kisses. "Is that the right spot?" The questions themselves seemed to excite her, and her answers (almost all nonverbal) helped his skills reach a new level much more quickly. But, apparently, it wasn't his skill or his understanding of her preferences, but his ability to lose himself in her kisses, his willingness to show her how delicious he found her every touch, that she appreciated most. When he relaxed and did what came naturally, he found he could make her very happy indeed.
The party that Chief Arnook threw to celebrate the new treaty was much larger than the welcome party. Pakku's students, Yugoda's healers, Zuko's attendants, and everyone important in the city were all in attendance. Katara found herself standing off to one side of the party with Zuko, observing the crowd.
"So the diplomatic mission has been a success?" She asked him.
"Entirely." He grinned. "Treaty signed, ambassadors approved, building sites for embassies chosen, exchange program founded. Of course there are going to be some who will consider these successes as failures because we haven't conquered anyone. Either way, I'm not going to make policy decisions based on trying to please those kinds of extremists. But maybe after the increased trade leads to more prosperity, after Water Tribe healers start saving Fire Nation lives, maybe they'll come around."
"I'm happy for you. And for the Fire Nation, and the Water Tribe, and the world." She felt proud of him, too, but it seemed awkward to say that, as if she were taking some credit for what he'd accomplished.
"The council refused help rebuilding the areas that got damaged in the siege, saying they don't hold me responsible because they know I didn't personally have any part in the attack on the city, which is only true on a technicality. Obviously I didn't push it because it seemed a point of pride for them. To be honest, saving the money will help me do more reparations projects in other places that need it more."
"That sounds great, Zuko." A bright head of hair caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. "Oh, no."
"What?"
"Look at that girl approaching Sokka." She pointed discreetly across the room. "That's Eskina. She's the chief's niece. She tried to get his attention at the welcome party, but it didn't work, so it looks like she dyed her hair!"
"It doesn't look very natural."
"It's not! It's kind of pathetic. She's trying to look more like Princess Yue."
"Princess Yue's hair looked like that?"
"No, not at all. Hers was pale white, an effect of the moon spirit saving her life when she was a baby. I don' t think artificial dyes can create that color, especially not in people with hair like ours. That's why Eskina's hair looks more yellow and kind of fried."
"It's not a good look."
"No. It looks like it did get Sokka's attention, but not necessarily in a good way." They watched as Sokka did a double take, then turned away pointedly, speaking to the general seated on his other side.
"Good for him," Zuko nodded approvingly. "She seems desperate."
"She just turned 18 and still doesn't have a betrothal necklace," Katara shared the gossip in a stage whisper.
"Is that unusual?" Zuko asked.
"In the North, for a girl closely related to the chief, yes."
"Is the South different?"
"Things are less formal in the South. And a little more egalitarian."
"You like it better that way, I guess?"
"Of course! I would hate to be forced into an engagement by my parents at sixteen, like Princess Yue was! That's only a few months away! Weeks, really."
"Sokka and Yue were engaged?" Zuko was confused. Surely if they'd been engaged, Sokka would have said so…..
"No, her parents had fixed her up with this other guy. And then she and Sokka met and fell in love. It was very dramatic."
"I bet it was. So…..what happened to the other guy?"
"I heard he had a falling out with the chief after Yue passed away. Apparently, when he heard what she had done, his reaction was kind of callous. Insensitive, at least. He was more upset about losing his chance to marry into the chief's family than about what happened to Yue herself. He got kicked out of the army and blackballed from most decent jobs in the capital."
Zuko made an appreciative face. "That surprises me a little about Chief Arnook. He hasn't been vengeful at all concerning my country's attack on his, but I guess family matters are different. He is not a guy to cross. I'll remember that." Hearing the details of his friend's star-crossed love story made him curious for more. "So, uh, what did you think about Sokka dating a girl who was engaged?"
"I liked Yue. She was sweet. But I couldn't see where Sokka thought it was going with her." Katara shook her head in confusion. "We weren't planning to stay in the North for long, and she couldn't come with us. When I heard she was engaged, I lost some respect for her, I have to admit. I thought she was stringing my brother along, and that she was a coward for not standing up to her parents and ending the engagement, since she obviously didn't want it. But in the end, I felt bad for thinking that way, because she certainly did not lack courage."
"I don't have a high opinion of arranged marriages either. My parents' marriage was arranged, and it certainly didn't work. But then, Mai's parents' wasn't, and it didn't work either."
"They broke up?"
He nodded.
"How's she doing?"
"She's taking it better than she did when her dad joined the New Ozai Society and told her she had to break up with me."
"Sounds like Mai has courage too."
"Of course she does. She stood up to my sister, and her dad is a cream puff compared to Azula."
"Is she still in that asylum?" Katara asked gently.
"Yes. I visited weekly for a while, but eventually cut back my visits because they never got any better. She's just….mean." He put it mildly. They both recalled her vulgar insults as they took her away in chains. "The good days are when she simply ignores me. Then I can just talk and pretend she's listening. Mai goes more often than I do. She feels some responsibility for Azula's breakdown, although I tell her she shouldn't."
"You don't visit your father, do you?" The idea gave Katara a chill, thinking of what Aang had said he'd seen in Ozai's soul when he'd taken his bending away.
"No. I told him everything I needed to on the day of black sun, and considered our relationship over from that day. I have no desire to see him. And Aang told me not to. He also gave strict instructions for his guards to be changed regularly, so that he wouldn't have a chance to manipulate them."
"That's good. I'm sure it's best for you to stay away from him. But I hope Azula gets better someday, for your sake." Katara said carefully, trying to be generous and supportive, and also true to her own feelings. "Although I don't think I ever want to see her again, unless she's so reformed she actually apologizes for killing Aang. And I have a hard time imagining that."
"I do too. It's natural that you should feel that way. There's no reason you should ever have to see her if you don't want to." He assured her.
"Now I find it hard to believe you two are even related sometimes." Now that she knew Zuko better, she could sense a warmth in him that was completely absent from his sister.
"I'll take that as a compliment, I guess."
"Good. That's how I meant it." She looked away from his smile, gazing around the party. It was wonderful to see her friends as honored guests at such a fancy, prestigious, joyful gathering. There was Toph, filling her plate and chatting with some of the waterbending students they'd trained. Aang sitting comfortably with Pakku and some council members, fitting right in with the wise old men. And the chief's niece staring at her brother's back. Uh oh. "Want to go rescue Sokka before Eskina decides to try again?" She proposed.
"It's clearly our duty to avert an international incident." Zuko agreed.
On the night of the full moon, there was a memorial service planned for the anniversary of Yue's passing. Katara's training session with the new women waterbenders ended early, so she headed to the spirit oasis, hoping for a peaceful moment alone in the sacred place. She was surprised to find Zuko there, and guessed he was also there to attend the service.
"Oh, I, uh, didn't know you were coming." She greeted him awkwardly.
"Yes. I wasn't sure if it was the best idea, but Chief Arnook insisted. He said something about making it public that he didn't blame the Fire Nation, or me, for...what happened to his daughter. He's really been wonderful. Not just with the peace talks and the embassy negotiations, but...personally. He's been welcoming. And kind. I think it helped that Pakku and Uncle are friends, and he spoke to the chief for me. And maybe our training sessions as well." Zuko realized he was rambling nervously. He took a deep breath and admitted, "Still, it feels strange...to be here again...with you."
"Yes, it does." She agreed. They looked around at the site of their battle. The wall she'd frozen him to. The spot where she'd fallen. "I don't blame you for what happened to Yue either. You and Zhao were barely on the same side."
"He felt more like an enemy to me than Aang ever did." Zuko reflected. "Especially here. He was so defenseless, in his spirit trance. It felt unfair, dragging him away like that. It was the closest I ever came to capturing him. Which might have made it the worst thing I ever did."
She could see that Zuko was feeling regretful. That made her want to cheer him up with a joke. But at the same time, the vivid, visceral memory of their fight, and the image of Zuko dragging Aang away, stirred some anger she'd thought she'd let go of. She remembered how bereft and guilty she had felt, coming to with a headache and her best friend, whom she'd failed to protect, gone. Those warring impulses found expression in a petty joke with an edge of justified meanness, delivered in a bright tone that was intended to soften the blow, but had the opposite effect. "Hm, what was the worst thing you ever did? I guess there are quite a number of offenses to consider. What about the time you tied me to a tree?"
The blood fell out of Zuko's face, whitening it. He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.
"You were kind of creepy about it." She reminded him, arms crossed in front of her. "Taunting me with my mother's necklace."
"I know. Sorry." Zuko cringed with embarrassment at the image. "Aang was right when he said I was playing a part. Sometimes during those months, when my conscience bothered me, I would pretend to be someone else, to kind of dissociate myself from what I was doing. That time I was being the Dark Water Spirit, the villain from Love Amongst the Dragons. There's a scene where he kidnaps Noren's girlfriend and questions her, then uses her as bait."
She didn't know if that made it better or worse. In this particular case, it sounded almost kinky. "Did you tell Mai about that?" She wondered, her voice skeptical.
"She saw the play." The Boy in the Iceberg, he meant.
"Oh yeah." She recalled. "That was why she thought you and I might have...had a thing, and so she asked me about our history."
"Sorry about that." He wouldn't look at her. "She grilled me particularly hard about...the bondage scene, as she called it."
Katara sighed and rolled her shoulders, putting it behind her for good. He seemed plenty humiliated now; maybe that was penance enough. "Well, I guess I can laugh about it now, if you can. Besides, your uncle was right. It was my own fault that you caught me. It was not my finest hour either." She burned with shame, recalling how she'd snapped at Aang, jealous of his quick progress learning her element, and the way her drive to master it had led to her capture, and her friend's as well.
"No, that's ridiculous. You didn't tie yourself up." He couldn't let her carry any guilt for his misdeed.
"That's true. But still, I remember I was even more mad at myself than I was at you. I think back then I saw you as this impersonal malevolent force that was trying to take Aang away from me."
"Well, when you act like an opera villain, you can't expect anyone to see you as a person." Zuko shrugged. "Except for Aang, I guess."
"He's amazing that way." Just the mention of her boyfriend made her light up inside, the firebender noticed. It was charming. "You know he insisted we save you from the blizzard? Sokka would have left you behind."
"I would have frozen to death, with only myself to blame. Uncle was so mad at me for not thinking ahead, for not having a plan to escape. The whole thing was a terrible idea from the beginning. And if I hadn't taken Aang away from this place, if he had been here to protect the sacred fish-" It was only now, with hindsight informed by hearing the story from multiple perspectives, that he understood how much his determination to earn his father's love had cost others.
"It's useless to think like that. It was meant to be. I know Aang would say that. He says that about a lot of things."
Zuko shook his head decidedly. "What Zhao did could never have been intended or fated by any benign spirit. It was an abomination."
"It was." She agreed solemnly. They were quiet a moment, remembering the sick red light of the moonless sky, the unnatural way color had drained from the world. Finally, Katara wondered, "Whatever happened to him? And to you? We forgot about you, tied up in Appa's saddle, and then you were gone."
"I went after Zhao." The firebender's voice darkened with remembered hostility. "Chased him through the streets and canals. We fought. I was winning. Then the water rose up and grabbed him and dragged him under. I never saw anything like it."
She was impressed. "I don't know whether he deserved that or not, and I guess it doesn't matter. But the world is better off without him in it."
"Agreed." Zuko shifted uncomfortably. "When I joined the group, we talked about how my betrayal at Ba Sing Se made it hard for you to trust me. But we kind of passed over my earlier sins. I don't think I ever apologized to you for what I did here, or with the pirates..."
Suddenly Katara felt bad for giving him a hard time. "Not specifically. You didn't present an itemized list. But I knew your apology was all-encompassing. I mean, I know that now." She assured him, taking his gloved hand in her mittened one and giving it an unexpected squeeze. "And that's how my forgiveness was too. Wholehearted."
She could see his shoulders relax, his burden lifted, and dropped his hand. Behind him, she noticed some people coming into the oasis. She recognized the chief and his wife, Pakku, Aang, and Sokka. She moved to join them and Zuko followed her.
The crowd was small; Zuko was probably the only one there who hadn't been close to Yue. They formed a circle around the calm waters where the fish swam eternally, connecting over the two small bridges. The chief and his wife spoke about their daughter's short life, which had begun and ended in this same blessed place, about the joy she had given them, and their pride in her sacrifice. A shaman led them in a chanted prayer. Katara and Sokka spoke the words, hesitating only a little when there were slight variations in the version of the prayer they had learned as children. Aang and Zuko kept a respectful silence. Then everyone listened to a musician play a favorite song of Yue's on a harp. The short service ended with everyone gazing at the full moon in silence.
"So, if I want to talk to Yue, what do I do?" Sokka turned to Aang as the small crowd dispersed.
"Well, you're already in the right place, and the moon is full," Aang reminded him. "That should make it easier. All you have to do is just sit there and quiet your mind and think of her and start talking to her."
"You make it sound so easy. But I've never been the kind of guy who can, like, pray and meditate. My head just won't stop thinking about random stuff."
"The monks called that monkey brain. I used to get that too. Emptying your mind is hard, an acquired skill." Aang sympathized. "But maybe you don't have to do that. Fill your mind instead. Fill it up with Yue, everything you can remember about her, and focus on her. That might kind of call her here."
Listening, Katara got a little worried. She hoped her brother's spiritual failings wouldn't keep him from accomplishing the goal of this trip, as she saw it: allowing him to move on and resume his relationship with Suki. She added, "And even if she doesn't appear, you know, the way she did when she passed away, you can still tell her whatever you need to and trust that she heard. This is her holy place, she's always here."
"Right," Sokka said doubtfully. His sister gave him a hug, and his friends left him alone in the warm, peaceful clearing.
He walked slowly over the wooden bridge to the spot in front of the pool where the two fish swam in their eternal circle. The spot where he'd last held Yue, where he'd cradled her lifeless body until she dissolved into spirit. He took his parka off and sat on it, his knees in front of him. He tried to picture Yue clearly in his mind, to remember what she looked like, how her voice sounded. He kept his eyes closed as he spoke.
"Yue, are you here? It's me, Sokka. I came to see you. I-I'd really like to talk to you."
"Sokka. It is good to have you here in my oasis."
He opened his eyes and there she was. The spirit's beauty was as dazzling as he knew it would be, but it didn't have the effect on him that he'd feared. He wasn't struck dumb or beguiled; instead he saw how otherworldly she was, how different and alien. He swallowed, determined to say what he'd planned to say.
"Yue, I came to talk to you because I need to break up with you. You told me that you would always be with me, and that made me feel like I was being unfaithful to you or to your memory when I fell in love with someone else. There's another girl I want to be with, and she shouldn't have to share me. I want to cut all ties with you so that I can be totally hers, if she'll still have me."
The spirit's head tilted to one side, a human gesture that was disturbingly incongruous when performed by a floating, ethereal being. "Sokka, when I told you that I would always be with you, I meant only to comfort and console you, for I knew you would mourn me, and I see you have. Now I am one with all life, in a way that is both more intimate and more impersonal than any human connection. This was the kind of continuing relationship I offered you. I am always with you in the same way that I am always with every other man, and every woman, child, animal, and spirit. I am thankful that because of you I had a small taste of human love, but that love died with my human body. For you to persist in an attachment to me that interferes with your love for a human woman is foolish."
"Yes, I see that now." He might have been embarrassed at how he'd misunderstood her words, giving himself undue importance, but his relief was so great it overpowered any chagrin he might have felt. "I feel dumb that I needed to hear you say that, but I did. I guess I didn't understand how this spirit thing worked. I'm not a very spiritual guy."
"You are the same rational, loyal boy I fell in love with when I was a girl. That girl would have been touched by your devotion, but she is gone. The moon has no need of such exclusive attachment. I will always be in the sky watching over you, but this is the last time I will appear to you in this way. Even if you seek me here, in my most sacred oasis, I will not speak to you again."
"Yes, I think that would be best. Talking to you like this is wonderful, and I'm very grateful you came because I really needed this little chat, but I also need it to be our last." He took a deep breath. "Thank you, Yue. Thank you for loving me, and for giving your life to save the moon and the tribe. Thank you for helping me get over you so I can love again."
"Thank you, Sokka, for your love. Thank you for making me laugh and taking me flying and kissing me. My human life was complete because of you. I wish you happiness with the woman you love. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
She didn't lean down to kiss him this time, but when he reached his hands out in farewell, he felt...something on them. Some touch, or pressure, or presence. As if she had held and squeezed his fingers in hers for just an instant. Then she faded, until there was only the moon, far away, shining down on him with the same disinterested benevolence as always.
The next day, as they packed Appa's saddle, Katara asked her brother how he was feeling.
He smiled broadly and spread his arms wide. "I'm free."
She hugged him, relieved. She didn't think she'd seen Sokka so buoyant since Kyoshi Island.
"Let's get going!" Toph grumbled. "The sooner we're away from this frozen wasteland the better!"
"Katara, may I have a word?" Master Pakku pulled her aside. He held up a crystal phial on a ribbon.
"More spirit water?" She asked, dismayed. "But the war is over..."
"You travel with the Avatar. Your dangers may never be completely over. And there are still old wounds that fester. I trust you will know where healing is needed most."
She nodded solemnly, hanging the phial around her neck. She prayed she would never need to use it. But its presence next to her heart felt like a curse, guaranteeing that she would.
Author's Note:
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