disclaimer. at the end of this wildest, wackiest year, atla still doesn't belong to me
author's notes. happy holidays everyone! i have to admit, i was really nervous about backlash for the last chapter, so thank you so much for choosing kindness instead! we're entering the final act of the story, and well...you can't have endgame without infinity war, unfortunately. everyone has lost what they value the most, and it certainly looks dark indeed. but dawn is coming, even if our heroes can't see it yet.
warning that this chapter contains a character death, so please proceed with caution if you find this upsetting.
as always, feel free to follow me on tumblr at colourwhirled-writes for fic and general updates!
without further ado, i give you..
southern lights
chapter xlv. when all the heavens cried
the plastic face forced to portray
all the insides left cold and grey
there is a place that still remains
it eats the fear it eats the pain
"the day the world went away" / nine inch nails
The sun rises high in the midday sky, warming the cool wet air hanging low like a damp blanket across the palace grounds.
Mai pulls her cloak tightly around her, waiting patiently outside the training arena where the royal tutors held their lessons. The whooshing and crashing of bright blue flames illuminates the newly restored facades of the imperial palace, betraying the commotion within. She resists the urge to peek inside and instead forces herself to focus on the clouds wafting overhead, twisting in strange shapes and glowing golden in the weak winter sunlight.
It doesn't take long before Azula storms out, pulling her belt tight around her waist in a vehement motion. Mai doesn't catch the venomous mutterings the princess hisses under her breath, her hair neat in its topknot except for a few strands falling out of place.
"Lousy day?" Mai offers, catching up with Azula who only slows down marginally when she finally notices her.
But Azula snarls back, breathing blue fire into the air. "Lousy," she fumes, her hands clenching into tight fists. "It's almost as though the spirits switched my bending with that of my pathetic older brother's! I've never bent so poorly in my life!"
Mai shrugs, trying to navigate Azula's temper as though it was a bad summer storm. "So you had a bad day for the first time in your life. Big deal. You're entitled to one every now and then -"
"That's not good enough!" Azula whirls around, her fury crackling like lightning. "I've spent my whole life practicing for this, Mai. Every day, without fail, even if I was tired, or sick, or busy -" She tucks a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, glaring as it stubbornly falls back out of place. "I can't let Father down like this. I can't."
"So don't tell him," Mai suggests. "Honestly, he's too busy running the country, he's not going to care about one measly practice."
But Azula's face only turns paler. She presses her lips together in a tight line, saying nothing.
The remainder of their walk to the main palace passes by in a tense silence. Mai keeps pace with the princess easily, grateful for the rare silence as the guards outside the throne room part to allow them entrance.
By now, the entire room has been almost fully restored from its destruction the night of Lu Ten's murder. Someone had obviously tried to make the throne room appear more grand or imposing, but to Mai, the resulting renovation just made everything dark and austere instead. The cheerful red lacquer was gone from the walls and pillars, replaced with gleaming wood the colour of old blood. The gold dragon relief had been torn down from the wall behind the throne, and even Ozai himself was barely visible, rendered to a faint silhouette behind the tongues of flame sweltering along the edge of the dais.
A long, low rectangular table stretches along the ground before the throne. The members of Ozai's emergency cabinet are seated around it, accompanied by their aides and observers. Pages rush in and out of the room, running messages back and forth frantically.
Azula takes her place at the table and Mai kneels discreetly some distance away, somewhere between the princess and her own father, who pores over a pile of letters and only pays partial attention to the matter being presented before the cabinet.
She watches Interior Minister Fukio sweat through his fine red velvets as he stammers through his report. "...more airships scheduled for production, however the workers are pushing back," he squeaks, his fingers trembling so much, the paper in his hands begins to rattle. "After the massacre of Blood Bay last week -"
"Blood Bay?" Mai's own father cuts in, sounding amused. "Whatever are you talking about?"
"The riots along the Budo Harbour last week, when the civilians tried to storm the public granaries," Azula supplies, sounding bored. "Captain Asaka and his Imperial firebenders worked hard to suppress it. But the people look upon it as a dark day, due to the number of casualties who were women and children. They call it the massacre of Budo Bay...or Blood Bay, for those feeling particularly dramatic." She rolls her eyes, waving a hand for Fukio to continue.
"Um - um, yes," the Interior Minister squeaks, staring at Azula in growing fear, "exactly as the Princess said...and, uh, in - in solidarity with the victims, the workers are refusing their orders and, as of yesterday, we've been struggling to contain the riots at the Jang Hui factory -"
Mai doesn't miss the flash of recognition in Azula's eyes at the familiar name. In her mind, she can already picture the knowing smile spreading across Kei Ling's face at the news.
"So send in an armed squadron to crush them," spindly General Bujing cuts him off dryly. "Whatever are you waiting for?"
But Fukio only gulps nervously. "But - but with the entire navy and airforce off to invade the north, we have so few soldiers left -"
"What about the Imperial Guard?" War Minister Qin interrupts, staring coldly at the Interior Minister. "Surely they have someone to spare?"
"Yes, send in the Imperial Guard," affirms Ozai from his throne up high, his voice resounding past the curtain of blinding flame and echoing around the corners of the room. "Crush the revolt and bring back their leaders. We will show the rest of these workers exactly what happens to those who conspire against the motherland."
Mai watches the fractional lift of Azula's eyebrow at the exchange, and fights to keep her own face still. Kei Lo's mother might be a crass commoner, but she was definitely onto something, she reflects sourly. With a veteran courtier's seasoned eyes, she had spotted the weaknesses in Ozai's iron-fisted rule, and now they could only sit back and watch unrest consume the land, one riot after another.
But Azula remains silent, choosing only to frown as Interior Minister Fukio drops into a kowtow. The paper crumples loudly in his shaking hands. "As you command, Your Radiance. I...I will speak to Captain Asaka of the Guard at once."
A low murmur ripples from among the pages and attendants surrounding the table. Mai watches their faces blanch in fear or twist in distaste. "Asaka," someone hisses under their breath, barely loud enough for her to hear, "the butcher of Blood Bay."
Mai tries not to shiver. She had heard the stories for herself, of how the Captain of the Imperial Guard had cruelly slaughtered innocent women and children with his own hands. It was said that the waters of Budo Bay ran red with their blood that day. A dark ugly cloud of misery had hovered over the capital ever since.
But as long as Azula held her tongue, Mai couldn't say anything either. Instead, she watches silently, reluctantly, as Fukio hurries out of the room, trailed by his attendants and pages. One of them, a young boy barely in his teens, struggles to balance all the rolled up scrolls in his arms, dropping them and picking them up quickly, before dashing out to catch up with the rest of Fukio's party.
Apart from her, nobody else seems to notice the boy's clumsiness. The low buzz of conversation settles around the table, and Mai, seated where she is in the periphery, only catches snatches of it.
"What are things coming to?" she hears her father mutter under his breath. "This is the fourth revolt we've had to contain at that damned factory...to say nothing of the city itself! What's happening out there?"
"I'll tell you what's happening out there, Governor Ukano," Azula speaks up sharply, sitting up straight and tall as though she had something that she desperately wanted to prove. "Fukio was correct on one count. We took the entire navy and airfleet and sent them away from their homes to fight a battle they didn't want to fight. All before we gave ourselves a chance to consolidate our hold on the people." Her shoulders stiffen, square and rigid under the weight of all her royal finery. "Now, while we are left with only a token force to maintain order, the commoners sow their dissent. To maintain the illusions of sanctions against the Earth colonies, food shipments have been halted and the people go hungry. To meet our appetite for war machines, the people have been pulled from their livelihoods to work in factories that are polluting their rivers, day and night in unsafe conditions."
Mai fights to contain her surprise. She thought Azula would have summarily dismissed Kei Lo's mother with her customary tyrannical impatience. But clearly, the princess had been giving her words more thought than anyone had expected.
Azula clenches her hands together to stop their trembling, her knuckles glowing stark and white as she continues, "We can crush the revolts as they happen, but under these conditions, we can only expect more to follow. That is, unless we do something to cut out these protestations at their source -"
"Treason," Ozai interrupts coldly. Azula instantly falls silent, the blood draining quickly from her suddenly fearful face. "These people have been given a rare chance to serve their country. They should be honoured. Any who oppose will learn what happens to traitors under my rule. Now, General Bujing. I believe you have important news to share."
"Yes, Your Radiance," Bujing answers, unrolling a scroll with an unpleasant smile. Mai watches Azula swallow a sigh of relief, her mouth pressing into a thin line as she stares hungrily at her father, the wall of fire blocking him from direct view reflecting in her amber eyes. A very small part of her even manages to feel sorry for the princess before General Bujing continues gloatingly, grabbing everyone's attention, "I have news from the battlefront."
Everyone gathered around the table goes suddenly silent with anticipation. The crackling of Ozai's flames is the only sound in the entire throne room.
"Zhao writes that his siege has been successful," Bujing reads, smoothing the paper along the tabletop. "Thanks to his destruction of the dread moon spirit, the entire Northern Water Tribe has surrendered."
Mai can barely hear his next words over the thunderous applause that breaks out around the table, and the sudden roar of blood loud in her ears. "He has taken their princess and all their chiefs hostage in order to secure their cooperation. Zhao leaves Admiral Chan in charge of overseeing the occupation of the North, while he flies back with a most important prisoner." Bujing's face splits into a wide-toothed grin that sends chills down Mai's spine. "Prince Zuko."
"No," Mai breathes out, unable to contain herself. She bites her lip instinctively, glancing around furtively, ready to lash back against anyone who may have heard her.
But luckily, everyone else is too busy celebrating to notice her indiscretion. Her father chuckles at a joke someone cracks from across the table, while Azula steeples her fingers in her lap.
"What about Uncle?" she asks pointedly, and the clamour dies down.
Bujing scans the rest of the message, his smile hitching at the corners. "He still eludes capture," he admits, before rolling the paper up again. "But it is only a matter of time."
"Excellent news, General Bujing," Ozai says. "May Agni smile upon you...and to Admiral Zhao, for delivering us such glorious news. My brother, forced into hiding among that wasteland." Mai's breath hitches at the cold smile evident in the Phoenix King's voice as he continues, sneering, "and my only son, Iroh's so-called heir, delivered back into my hands at long last."
"What an example we could make of him," Azula mumbles to herself with a bloodless smirk. "Poor little Zuzu, strung out to dry while awaiting Father's justice."
"With the North fallen for good, only the Earth colonies remain," Ozai muses, stroking his thin beard thoughtfully. "The Dai Li hold the region for now, but with Sozin's comet returning...perhaps we can change that."
Mai swallows nervously as Ozai pushes to his feet and everyone bows respectfully before him. "General Bujing, Commander Mukai. You will present an invasion plan at our next meeting, to be deployed the day the comet arrives."
The men kowtow gratefully, as Ozai continues. "And Azula, my daughter." The flames dance in front of him wildly, illuminating the mad glow of his eyes. "You have the enviable privilege of devising an appropriate punishment for your traitor brother."
Azula's face splits into a delighted grin as she presses her forehead into the ground. "Thank you, Father," she purrs, licking her lips with anticipation. "I can hardly wait."
At first, the only thing Katara is aware of is the ache consuming every part of her body.
It starts in her head, drilling into her temples, as though someone had driven a spike straight through her skull. Then it lances down her spine to jostle nauseatingly in the pit of her gut, before radiating out to her limbs and every sore, bruised inch of her that remains.
She groans unintelligibly, pushing something soft off her as she struggles to sit upright. A bright pulsing light flickers through her slitted eyes, making her head hurt even more, and she scrunches them shut again. Wincing at the unbelievable throbbing in her head, and how everything around her seemed to sway.
"Katara -"
"She's awake!"
Hands reach out to grab her by the shoulders, and she recoils at the sudden pain flaring everywhere they touch.
"Sorry," apologizes Aang's voice, somewhere by her ears and far too loud. Her face crumples, she tries to shake her head but everything suddenly begins to spin too fast.
She slumps against him, wincing as his arm gently wraps around her shoulders and supports her back up. "How's that?" he asks, his concern trembling through his voice.
Fine, she tries to say. "Phm," is all she manages to get out before bursting out coughing. She clutches at her chest, at her head and the searing pain splitting through it.
"Take it easy, Sweetness," advises Toph, her voice almost unrecognizable for how soft it was, low and hushed and scared all at the same time. Her hand rests against the small of Katara's back, a solid supporting weight. "You were out for a really long time."
Her words swim through Katara's ears for a long moment before she finally understands them. Drawing in a shuddering breath of cold air barely warmed through by a small fire, she finally manages to crack an eye open, and take in the small fire illuminating the cramped rocky cave surrounding them.
Her breathing quickens into small puffs of mist clouding around her mouth. The splitting ache migrates from her skull, a glaring sense of wrongness that makes her dizzy and sets the world off-kilter the longer she tries to focus on the humble fire burning in front of her. Sweat collects along her skin even as the cold eats away at it, a frozen fire burrowing persistently through the layers of furs bundled around her.
Her fingers dig into her scalp, trailing through the matted fall of her unbraided hair. Memories surge through her, too many at once, all clamouring for her attention but only making the dull throb in her head worse. "What - what happened?" she croaks, alarmed at how hoarse her voice has become.
Toph holds a cup in front of her with a shaking hand. "Here," she says shortly. "Drink. You'll feel better."
Katara accepts it without protest. Tilting it awkwardly to her mouth, the water dribbles down her face, blissful and cool against the parched rasp of her throat. She wipes it away with the back of her hand, before gulping the rest of it.
"Where are we?" she asks gingerly.
Aang lowers his head as he plucks the empty cup from her hand. "Somewhere outside Nutjuitok," he tells her, setting it down on the hardened snow packing the ground. "It's right in the heart of the North Pole."
"Oh." She tilts her head, studying the small cave, its cragged rocky surfaces barely high enough for any of them to stand upright. A small fire burned at the very back, around which she could see a pile of animal furs and a heap of mismatched pieces of armour.
My armour, she realizes with a pang of sudden alarm. Instinctively, she runs a hand along her body and feels only the soft cloth and fur of her parka. "Did I hit my head or something?" she asks, clapping her hand to her forehead. "What happened?"
Aang and Toph both freeze, their coats rustling as they turn to her. "You don't remember?" Aang asks delicately.
She scrunches her face, trying to remember. "We were defending the beach together," she says slowly, the images flashing through her mind clearly. "The fleet had fallen, Admiral Chan was about to surrender…" The pounding in her head intensifies as she continues, but only the memory of agony remains. "Then...something changed. I don't remember what." A sudden alarm pulses through her at the realization, the wrongness of everything eating away at her like a hole fraying in the center of her awareness. Something was horribly wrong with her, something was missing.
She glances down at herself, surprised and relieved to see all four of her limbs still intact. She could have suddenly sworn that one of them had gone missing. "What happened?" Her voice rises, small and scared as she folds her arms across her chest protectively. "What happened to me?"
Beyond the mouth of the small cave is more snow and darkness. The arctic wind howls outside, screaming an elegy Katara can't hear until Aang's grip on her shoulder tightens. "It was Zhao," he says tightly, an edge entering his voice that makes him sound uncharacteristically gruff. "Somehow, he...he destroyed the moon."
"What?" Katara exclaims, lurching forward. Her head spins again and she slumps. Tries to recall the night of the battle, but only remembers pain and screaming.
"He managed to track down the mortal body of the moon spirit," Aang explains patiently. "It was part of his plan. He kept us distracted with the siege...meanwhile, he snuck inland and…" His voice shakes before he breaks off, shaking his head.
"I don't understand," Katara chokes out numbly. "The moon spirit...you mean it was real? All along?" Her mind reels at the unexpected revelation. "I always thought the spirits were just stories."
But Toph only lets out a dark laugh. "Oh, it was real all right, Sweetness. Real and in the flesh, mortal and everything." She hurls a stick onto the fire and it flares suddenly, illuminating the scowl twisting across her face. "And Zhao murdered it."
Katara blinks as everything goes quiet. A strange buzzing sound seems to echo in her ears as she stares at Toph blankly. "That's not possible, Toph," she insists, feeling more and more lightheaded. "I mean - even if it was real, it's a spirit. You can't kill a spirit…" She frowns with confusion, the possibility filling her with more alarm. "Can you?"
Aang swallows, seeming to choose his words with great care. "It seems that the moon spirit was one of those that crossed over into our world and gave up its immortality." He lowers his head mournfully. "When Zhao killed it, he destroyed the moon for good."
"But -" Katara stammers, horrified, "but that would mean -"
She closes her eyes, breathing suddenly too quickly. "The moon went red that night," she remembers, her heart hammering so fast it makes her feel sick. "It - it bled. And then..."
"Katara -"
"He killed it. He destroyed the moon," she realizes, her eyes widening as she suddenly, immediately understands what exactly had gone missing that night.
Her stomach churns as she stares at the snow with tears brimming in her eyes. With a gasp, she tries to pull on it, realizes that a part of her has been trying to call out to all the water around her, all this time...and failing.
She clambers onto her knees, jerking with her wrists. A simple motion, just to pull the snow upward, a child could do it, come on…
But the snow remains stubbornly packed onto the ground, heedless of her straining motions.
"Katara," Aang repeats softly, "Katara, you'll hurt yourself."
She slams her fists into the snow, screaming in despair. Then a hand suddenly covers her mouth and she recoils in shock.
"Sorry," Aang apologizes, removing his hand sheepishly. "I know it's a lot, Katara… But you have to be quiet. Otherwise, you might give our location away."
"Give our location away?" Katara echoes incredulously. "To who?"
But Aang glances cautiously to the mouth of the cave, and Katara follows his gaze with a sudden plummeting of her heart. Because if Zhao had destroyed the moon that night, then it wasn't just her who had lost the ability to waterbend. It was everyone - the entire tribe.
Her heart shrivels at the thought of so much loss. "He won," she stutters in disbelief. "Zhao won. I can't believe it - he actually won?"
Aang nods mournfully. Toph punches the cave wall with the side of her fist. "Yeah. Once all the waterbenders couldn't bend anymore, he made quick work of the defenses. It was all the rest of us could do to get away."
Katara shakes her head numbly. It was like a nightmare made real. It shouldn't have been possible, and yet the entire Northern Water Tribe had broken like a house of glass under Zhao's deadly stroke. "What happened to everyone?"
She doesn't miss the sudden stricken look that crosses Toph's face before she lowers it, unable to say anything. Aang glances at her with sad eyes before he answers carefully. "The Air Nomads and General Iroh's men did what they could to protect and rescue as many waterbenders as they could. But Katara, there were too many to save, and the invaders weren't backing down." A tear trails down his cheek and he wipes it away vehemently. "We had to take who we could and run, before Zhao's men took us prisoner too."
"That's why we're here," Katara whispers, staring at the tiny cave with horrified understanding. "It's...it's the only place we could hide from Zhao's men."
Aang nods again. "It's far enough inland that Zhao's men won't bother following us. But we still have to be careful. They've occupied the cities and the villages, and if they find any sign that we're here…" He trails off unhappily.
Katara stares at him wildly, unwilling to believe it. It was too terrible to be true, and yet here they were, all alone and abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Then she stares at Toph, at the small fire, and it hits her then, what else was missing. "Where's Zuko?"
Aang remains so still, she wonders if he even heard her question. Until she sees another tear slide down his face, and then another.
"Toph," she says, her heart hammering with still more dread, "where's Zuko?"
But Toph only punches the wall again, and then again, over and over. Gravel scatters ominously from the ceiling.
"Toph," Aang admonishes, wiping his face absently, "you're going to cave us in. Stop that."
But the blind girl only covers her face, her knuckles dark with dirt and blood, and doubles over, her shoulders shaking violently. "He's gone!" she cries and with a crashing shock, Katara realizes that Toph is sobbing inconsolably, "Sparky's gone, that stupid idiot threw himself at Zhao's men so we could escape, and now he's gone!"
"No," Katara whispers. Everything suddenly goes cold and quiet. "No, he can't…he can't be -"
"It's true," Aang says in a breaking voice, and to her dismay, he's crying too. "There were too many of them. Zuko sacrificed himself to save us…"
Katara shakes her head, clenching her teeth together to stop them from chattering. This can't be real, this can't be happening.
"Bodhi said Zhao took him prisoner," Aang continues in a shaking thread of a voice. "They put him onto the first airship back to the Fire Nation."
She stares from Aang to Toph and then to the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave, half-expecting Zuko to step in any moment, windswept and covered with snow but still very much here.
But the small cave opening still remains empty, except for the wind shrieking with a ferocity that echoes the tumult crashing inside her chest. She wipes at her eyes, surprised to still find them dry. Perhaps it was a pain that went beyond tears.
She doesn't realize that she's gotten to her feet until the world sways unsteadily around her, the roof of the cave scraping against the top of her head as she stands up on weak, shaking legs. She staggers, almost losing her balance before grabbing on to one of the cave walls, leaning against it to propel herself forward.
"Katara," Aang says urgently, somewhere behind her, "Katara, what are you doing?"
But she pushes forward, the tiny cave seeming to close in on her, clamping around her so tightly that it becomes impossible to breathe. Tottering out into the night, the exposed arctic tundra yawning open around her, an endless expanse of rolling white slopes studded with humble tents pitched quickly and glowing weakly with tiny fires. The wind cries harder, as though unleashing the emotions choking in her throat and burning saltwater in her eyes, freezing where they manage to spill onto her cheeks.
She marches forward a few steps before tripping on a lump of snow and collapsing. Pushing herself roughly back onto all fours, she stares up desperately, the sky an uninterrupted mass of black. The darkness settles on her like a shroud, making the cold north wind feel even colder, the world seem suddenly so much bigger, vast and cruel and ready to crush her on a whim.
Then the others scramble next to her, kneeling beside her. She tries to brush them off before lunging to her feet again. But her legs protest and she struggles to find her balance, swaying unsteadily with each step.
But it didn't matter. None of it mattered. She might be frail and unsteady and unable to bend, but she was still free. And that meant she could still do something, anything, to get Zuko back.
"Where are you going?" Aang calls after her, easily keeping pace with her staggering footsteps.
"I don't know," Katara mumbles, studying her surroundings with increasing desperation. The tundra rolled on for miles, with a faint glow in the distance that marked a city. Every now and then in the distance, the low roar of a passing airship cut across the darkened sky. But the rivers, the sea, the pulsing lifeblood of the tribe, were nowhere near them and her heart sinks. "If only we could find a boat -"
"A boat?" Aang repeats incredulously.
" - we could find a boat, capture it, and sail back to the Fire Nation," she continues, now turning around, searching desperately for water.
She barely catches the way Aang's face crumples in the dim firelight. "Katara, do you even hear yourself? Where are we supposed to find a boat?"
"I dont know!" Katara marches forward another step, her head spinning so hard it makes her dizzy. "But we have to try, Aang, we can't just stay here like this! We have to save him, we can't just give up…" Her legs suddenly buckle beneath her and she collapses onto her knees, the tears suddenly pouring down her face. "We can't give up on him like this."
The snow crunches gently under Aang's feet as he kneels down next to her. "Katara," he says softly, laying a hand gently on her shoulder, "Katara, he's been captured. Even if we got a boat and sailed after him, it wouldn't be enough. There are no tides anymore. By the time we got to the Fire Nation -" He breaks off, overcome.
And then it hits her, the full weight of everything that had happened. She had lost her bending. The entire Northern Water Tribe had fallen to the Fire Empire and Zuko was gone beyond their reach or help.
And she hadn't even had a chance to apologize to him properly...
Guilt racks away at her with the memory of their last interaction haunting her. How he'd risked his hard-won alliance with Hahn to get her out of trouble, and then in turn, how she'd screamed at him and pushed him away. How he'd backed away from her, slowly, his need for her always tempered by his respect for what she needed for herself.
"I want him back," she says stupidly, her voice thick with tears. "Aang, I want him back."
Aang's head settles against her shoulder and his arms wrap tightly around her, his grief meeting her own. She closes her eyes, her mind suddenly cramming bright with images, too many of them. Zuko grabbing her forearm to steady her before she fell, the relief in his eyes as they stared at each other, stunned after bending steam in battle. The strength in his arms when he held her tightly, the night Hahn had announced her betrothal to Imnek. Was that really the last time she would ever hold him again? The heat of his body curled up behind her under the animal skins in his tent, the fleeting softness of his smile. All burning bright like precious gemstones in her memory...lost before she even had a chance to consider their worth.
The piercing feeling in her chest twists deeper and deeper. She wonders if this was how Zuko had felt the night she pushed him away, like her heart was breaking in two and she would never be whole again. If so, she deserved it, every bit of the pain tearing fiercely through her.
"We didn't even get to say goodbye," she chokes out, covering her face with her hands. "Aang, what are we going to do? How am I supposed to go on without him?"
"I'm so sorry, Katara," Aang breathes with a mournful sigh, his hand stroking the fall of her hair consolingly. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"
Katara freezes, before staring at him in shock. The searing wind turns the wetness on her face to ice, and threatens to peel her skin off, the way Aang's observation just had.
"Love?" she repeats thickly, her entire body juddering with the word. Was that what it was? Was that what made Zuko her shelter from the ugliness of the world, the one person who unflinchingly saw her for who she truly was? Was that why she felt like she had now lost the very best and brightest part of herself, with no way to get it back again?
She bows her head, leaning against Aang as the sobs shudder through her. "Does it count if I only figured it out after I lost him?" she whispers forlornly.
He hugs her back, letting her burrow her face into his chest. "Of course it counts," he tells her with a tenderness that makes her feel utterly wretched. "He must have known."
"How could he?" Katara croaks. "I barely even realized it myself." She sniffles pathetically, wiping her nose with a frozen hand. "Aang, I miss him so much."
"I miss him too. We all do." Aang's hands settle on both her shoulders, steadying her as she sits back on her haunches. She stares blankly at his face, still mottled from crying but hardening resolutely. "But we can't let his sacrifice go to waste. He gave up everything so you could be free. Don't squander that, Katara."
"But -" she chokes, her mind racing with sudden fear of what lay in wait for Zuko, "they're taking him back to the Fire Nation as a prisoner. Back to his family, his dad -" Her breath hitches in her throat, turning sickly cold with dread. "They're going to kill him. If they haven't already."
Aang hangs his head, a shadow crossing his face. "It's out of our hands now."
The sound of closely approaching footsteps cuts through the screaming of the wind. Katara pulls away from Aang, wiping at her tearstained face with the sleeve of her parka. Takes a deep shaking breath to try hold herself together as she glances up squinting in the darkness to see Toph drawing near with Gyatso and - her heart plummets - General Iroh.
Aang clears his throat, perhaps sensing the awkwardness before it has a chance to settle. "General Iroh," he greets, his voice still raw from crying, "you're back already? What's going on out there?"
But Iroh only bows his head without saying anything.
"From what we could tell, Zhao's men have established a presence in all the major cities and villages across the North Pole," Gyatso supplies, stepping in delicately when it becomes clear that Iroh wouldn't answer. "They took Princess Yue hostage, and Hahn and the other band chiefs as well when they finally surrendered. We've heard Admiral Chan has been left in charge up here, while Zhao is already en route to the Fire Nation."
"Couldn't we go after him?" Toph asks desperately, her hand tight where it grips Iroh's. "You guys could all get on your sky bison and take out his airship -"
"Even if we could, we don't have the numbers to defend against their occupying force," Gyatso replies heavily. "Without the waterbenders, our ability to fight back is very much limited."
"So that's it?" Katara spits acidly. "We just let them win?"
"I didn't say that," Gyatso answers, kneeling to face her directly. "Our resources are limited, Master Katara. But we still have most of our Air Nomads and sky bison, enough of Iroh's soldiers, a handful of Water Tribesmen we were able to rescue from the front." He pauses, his pale eyes shimmering in the encompassing darkness. "And you three."
Katara huffs, thinking of Zuko flying back to the Fire Nation all alone. "What little good that is. I'm not a master of anything anymore." She holds her hands out helplessly. "Without my bending, what good am I? And the rest of the tribe - how are they supposed to fight back?"
"There are other ways to fight," Gyatso says, clasping her trembling hands with his knotted ones. "Or have you learned nothing from your time among your tribe?" He regards her with a piercing stare that reminds her uncomfortably of Iroh. "We will find a way. Until then...we will wait. We will endure. And we will resist." He pauses to glance up at Iroh's shadowed face. "However we can."
Katara nods, her throat closing up alarmingly at the thought of the daunting task ahead. To survive and find the strength to fight back when simply standing upright felt like an immense effort. "And Zuko? How do we help him?"
"We cannot." This time it is Iroh who answers. "My nephew is now far beyond our help, I fear."
"So we just give up on him? After what he did for us?" Katara demands hotly. Her temper flares wildly as she whirls on Iroh in desperation. "He's your nephew, your heir - how can you of all people say that? How can you just stand here and abandon him like that?"
But Iroh meets her eyes with his grief-ridden ones, silencing her with a stare. "I fear for his life as much as you do, Sifu Katara. He is the son I chose."
With a sickening lurch, Katara suddenly remembers that it hadn't been so long since Iroh had lost Lu Ten…
"But Zhao and my brother are arrogant, unpredictable men. There is a chance they may keep him alive as a hostage, to gloat at their victory...or to make an example of when they feel the time is right." Iroh lets out a heavy sigh. "Zuko may yet find a way to navigate that den of viper-foxes. It will be the hardest thing he has ever done. But we must believe that he can do it"
He takes a halting step toward her and Katara tenses, but when his hand rests on the side of her face, it is comforting and warm. "In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength."
Katara stares at him, suddenly overcome and unable to speak. Even after every hurtful thing she had said and done, Iroh was still comforting her. Did the man have no self-respect, or was his heart simply that big?
She only manages to duck her head in acknowledgment before he backs away testily. "You should go inside. It is too cold to be out on a night like this. And keep your fires low. The airships patrol these parts every now and then, and we cannot risk being spotted."
"Got it," Aang answers, taking Katara's hand in her own. "Come on, Katara, let's go inside…"
Katara allows herself to be pulled to her feet as Iroh turns to the rest of them. "We can discuss more in the morning. Get some rest, if you can. A good night's sleep can make even the tallest of problems seem small." His gaze lingers on Katara's face, before he lets out another sad sigh. "It is good to see you back on your feet, Sifu Katara."
Katara chews guiltily at her lip as he trudges away, saying nothing more.
In his dreams, he always ends up back at the edge of the water.
He peers into its surface, his heart hammering a panicked rhythm. Fearing the truths he might see reflected back at him in its undisturbed mirror. But though he sees the sky, cloudy and grey and completely obscuring the sun, the muddled dark green of the grass and vines and stunted ugly trees surrounding him….his own reflection is blank, absent, an empty space peering back up at him.
Lee scrambles backward, swaying unsteadily and gasping for breath as though he had just been dangling over the edge of an abyss. The invisible emptiness stretches out before him, an omniscient terror materializing into the shape of the swamp, constantly haunting his visions with its looming eerie presence.
A blur of motion in the corner of his eye captures his attention. Snapping around, he spots someone racing through the low brush covering the grassy knolls of the swamp. A woman, perhaps, someone he can barely recognize, a flash of blue and white moving fast.
He chases after her, something in his chest tightening as the ground beneath his feet grows soft with mud. "Hey!" he shouts, trying to close the distance between them and failing, his quarry remaining just out of reach. "Hey!"
Ducking under a low-hanging branch, he rounds the corner to see the woman stumble to a halt at the edge of a watery pool, one of countless others studding the swamp with their still surfaces and hidden depths. Blinking, he sees her illuminated in a stream of shifting light - a woman he barely recognizes, his age or maybe younger, with striking blue eyes and hair as white as moonlight. She gives him a sad smile as he approaches cautiously, his mouth running dry with foreboding.
"You came back," she says in a hollow, ringing voice. "At least I got to see you one last time."
She takes a step back and Lee finds his voice. "Don't!" he yells hoarsely, starting for her again, "Get away from the water!"
But no matter how quickly he ran, it was already too late. In a smooth, unearthly motion, the water rises up, swallowing the woman in a longing, hungry motion.
By the time he reaches the spot where she had once stood, only the sound of her voice remains. "Goodbye," it breathes, echoing a dizzying knell in his ears, "I will always be with you..."
Lee awakens yelling, with his heart hammering and cheeks wet with tears.
He wipes his face with the back of his hand. He didn't remember the girl from his dream any more than he could remember his old life, and yet part of him feared losing her. Or had he already lost her? Would he ever see her again or, with a sudden pang, had he already begun to mourn her?
Then, the abrupt sound of something crashing loudly outside his prison cell tears him from his thoughts.
He rubs his head in confusion, the unsettling visions still fresh in his mind when a loud moan echoes through the bars of the heavy metal door.
"Hello?" he calls, jumping up from his corner of the squat stone cell. "Hello, who's out there!"
The moaning continues, growing steadily louder. Lee furrows his brow, vaguely recognizing it as a man's voice. Shaking his wrists, he trudges as close to the door as the clinking chains around his legs would allow. Squinting into the dank green light of the corridor outside, he peers through the slitted window to see a man in a Dai Li uniform crumpled on the ground.
"Arrluk?" he asks, recognizing the waterbender curled onto his side. "Arrluk, are you okay?"
The Water Tribe man doesn't answer, or seem to hear him at all. His shaking fingers clutch at the sides of his head. His conical metal hat topples to the floor with a hollow metallic clang.
The sounds of more groans resonate from down the hall. Lee tilts his head, struggling to see with his narrow tunnel of visibility. His heart races as he glimpses more of the uniformed waterbenders, collapsed on the ground and writhing in agony.
"Haru!" he yells as loud as he can, his palms suddenly slick with sweat. "Haru, something's wrong with the guards! Now's our chance!"
He doesn't even hear Haru's muffled response from the cell next door before the floor rumbles beneath his feet. Spinning around, he spots the wall separating their cells sliding slowly downward. A relieved smile springs across his face as he spots Haru and Ty Lee, ashen and grimy in the faint murky light, but still alive and otherwise unharmed.
He holds out his hands as Haru raises a jagged rock and smashes the chains locking his wrists and ankles. The broken metal links clang dully as he shakes them out, willing the feeling back into them.
"Lee!" He nearly loses his balance as Ty Lee jumps on him with a big hug. "Thank Agni you're okay!"
He stumbles backward, awkwardly patting her back. "It's good to see you too." He peers over her shoulder at the earthbender making quick work of the shackles on his feet. "Haru, we've got to move quickly. Can you get us out of here?"
"Not a problem," announces Haru, already turning to face the door. With the hollow swish of chains slicing through the air, the stone wall around the door splits through the middle, making an archway leading straight into the corridor. "Come on, let's go!"
The three of them dash through it, gaping at the sight that greets them outside. The guards outside both their cells are contorted and screaming, barely even noticing their escape. Ty Lee pauses, glancing at them nervously. "What do you think happened to them?"
"I don't know, and I'm not about to wait to find out," Haru declares, already scanning the rest of the hallway. "We need to find Suki and get the hell out of here."
Lee spots another guard collapsed in front of a large barred door further down the hallway. "There! She must be in that one!"
They race toward it, sidestepping all the waterbenders convulsing on the ground. Lee shudders with unease at the sight of all them, even as the ceiling rattles warningly with the approach of more Dai Li earthbenders.
With a yell, Haru bends an opening into the wall. Lee squeezes through it and nearly gets pulverized by a boulder flying straight toward him.
"Haru! Ty Lee!" he screams, ducking just in time. The boulder whizzes over his head and crashes into the ground next to the prone waterbender huddled outside the cell.
In a soaring blur of pink, Ty Lee somersaults through the room, leaping off the corners of the walls before landing on the sole Dai Li agent still standing. With a flurry of jabbing motions, the earthbender crashes to the ground, paralyzed.
Hearing Haru rushing in behind him, Lee tears his eyes off Ty Lee to take in the dimly lit cell opening around them. It was slightly larger than the one he had been trapped in, with the same rough stone walls and low ceiling boxing around its sparse occupants. His blood chills at the two cots shoved against the back wall, its occupants tied to them in full body restraints. The lone earthbender remains motionless at Ty Lee's feet. More figures wearing Dai Li uniforms are collapsed on the ground around the cots - waterbenders, he surmises, mysteriously incapacitated in the same way as the ones outside.
And then as he takes another step forward, his heart plummets. Everything turns cold.
The faint glow of the glowing stones embedded into the walls throws their faces into cold relief. Suki on one cot, and Jun on the other, both appearing ghostly white in the pale green light and still as death.
"Suki!" Ty Lee's cry reaches his ears from a million miles away. He barely registers her scrambling over to the Kyoshi warrior's side. Leaning over, she fumbles with the restraints tying Suki to the cot, until she pulls them free and they hang limply over the sides. "Suki, wake up!"
Suki's head flops listlessly as Ty Lee shakes her. Guilt bores into the pit of Lee's stomach as he stares at her, the war paint smeared along her face and only accentuating the bloody bruises blooming on the bare skin underneath. Tearing his gaze away reluctantly, he instead rushes over to Jun's side and slices her restraints free too.
"C'mon Jun, wake up," he says, slapping her cheek. "I'm not about to let those bastards get the better of you now."
But the bounty hunter doesn't stir. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he grabs at her shoulders, shaking her violently. "Jun, Jun, wake up!"
Her head lolls from one side to the other. He stares at her in mounting horror, staring at the slight part of her mouth, the waxy sheen of her skin. She's unconscious, he thinks frantically, trying to slide his arm under her and brace her weight, just unconscious, she can't be -
Behind him, someone lets out a gasp and a sudden yell of pain.
"You're awake!" Ty Lee cries, sounding tearful and overjoyed at the same time. "Suki, Suki, it's okay - you're okay!"
"Fuck! My leg!" Suki curses suddenly, her voice tired and hoarse but still hers, and something rises marginally in Lee's chest at the sound of it. "Those bastards broke my leg!"
"Here, let me help you - Haru, get over here and help me get her down!"
Lee glances over his shoulder, catching Ty Lee and Haru working together to hoist Suki off the cot and standing upright on trembling legs. He stares in shock at the injuries lining the Kyoshi Warrior's entire body, visible in the dim light as vivid dark bruises and bumps peeking through the rips in her armour. For a brief moment, her eyes meet his and horror lances down his spine. Then her mouth tightens into a stoic grimace.
"I've got you," Ty Lee says, hooking her arm around Suki's shoulder. "Just lean on me, we'll get you fixed in no time…"
"Lee, come on!" Haru calls, flanking Suki's other side.
"I'm coming!" Lee yells back, turning back to Jun with growing desperation. "Jun, come on, snap out of it, you have to -"
But to his dismay, she doesn't make a sound.
Growling, he tries to pull her upright. But her skin is ice cold to the touch and, his heart racing furiously, deathly pale all over.
She isn't breathing, he realizes, struck by her unnatural stillness.
He prods her wrist, her neck, desperately searching for a pulse.
"Lee!" someone calls in the distance, through the growing rattle of more footsteps approaching in the hallway. "Lee, hurry -"
Come on, he pleads silently, willing the skin under his fingers to move as the moments stretch out in a breathless eternity, come on Jun, wake up, please -
" - they're coming, we have to go, quick -"
"She's gone." Everything goes suddenly blurry. Lee blinks and hot tears slide down his cheeks. Jun's motionless body slides back into focus. Deathly still, waxy pale under the remnants of her makeup, all the arrogant quirks smoothed from her face into a bland, lifeless mask. Jun, but not really Jun.
Not anymore.
"She's gone," he repeats, choking on the words as he stumbles backward. The walls seem to close in on him, the air in his chest seems to turn to lead. "Jun - she's dead, she...they…"
Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to run away, but Jun's body lying before him seems to anchor him to the spot. He turns to face the others, but the sight of Suki slumped between Ty Lee and Haru, barely able to support her own weight on her broken leg only makes him feel worse. Your fault, the snide voice in the back of his head reminds him, all your fault.
He whirls around, away from Jun, away from Suki and the others. A shrill roar fills his ears, drowning out the various other sounds swirling around him. The voices of his friends clamouring in shock, the thumps and thuds overhead from what must have been every last guard manning the underwater fortress, headed straight their way.
And the cries, the piteous whimpers of all the waterbenders collapsed on the ground outside...
Lee straightens, wiping his face as his vision focuses like a searchlight upon the two waterbenders huddled by the cots. He isn't even aware of marching straight toward them, only of the fury surging through him like fire in his veins.
He reaches blindly for the nearest one, a woman appearing not so much older than himself, crouched in agony and leaning against the foot of Jun's cot. His hands close around the neck of the dark green robes, the bright circular insignia emblazoned on the chest flashing in his eyes.
"You killed her," Lee croaks. His anger flares wilder as the waterbender gasps in shock, as though noticing him for the first time. Bright blue eyes blink in confusion, staring wide and fearful into his own. With a snarl, his fingers tighten, yanking the woman up by her neck in a swift, violent motion. "You killed her!" he screams into her face.
The woman's eyes scrunch shut again, her face lined with distress. The swell of her throat moves up and down as she gulps, nervously. "It - it was an accident!" she squeaks, in the same accent that grates at his nerves with its maddening familiarity. "I didn't mean to -"
"She's lying!" Suki snaps from the other side of the room. Lee glances at her, surprised as she gingerly shifts her weight. Her face mottles angrily as she stares at the waterbender hanging limply in his hands. "They knew exactly what they were doing, and they didn't care!"
"That's - that's not true," the woman whispers, clutching at his wrists with viselike fingers. "We - we told Shen Hai to stop, Iluak and I…" Her eyes flick over to the Dai Li earthbender crumpled unconscious in the middle of the cell, at the other waterbender struggling to clamber onto his hands and knees by Suki's feet, before pleadingly meeting his again. "We told him he was going too far, that it would go beyond our ability to heal, but he wouldn't listen…"
"Oh," Suki spits, biting back a gasp of pain as she jostles her broken leg. "I suppose that makes you a real hero then. My mistake."
"We let it go too far, it's true!" the woman pleads, and Lee is repulsed by the tears welling in her horrified eyes, "but we had always been able to heal them from whatever Shen Hai inflicted upon them...until...until -"
"Until what?" Lee demands, his fingers tightening around the woman's neck. "You just got sick of it and let my friend die?"
"Until something took our bending away!" the woman bursts out in tears. "I don't know what, or how, but - it happened to us, all of us, and now we can't heal! We couldn't heal her, we couldn't save her…" She trails off, her entire body racked with sobs of regret.
Lee's fingers loosen despite himself, his eyes flitting between the two waterbenders in the cell. Thinks of all the collapsed ones crying for help in the corridor. "All of you?" he asks incredulously. "How could you all just lose your bending like that?"
"I don't know!" cries the woman, shaking her head. "I don't know, nobody does -"
"How awfully convenient," he snarls, throwing her down to the ground with a loud thud. He stares at Jun's body with a rising swell of fresh anger, the waterbender's explanation offering no closure or comfort at all. "You expect me to believe all that mumbo-jumbo?"
"Look for yourself," the waterbender whispers, pointing with a shaking hand at the other waterbender in the cell, at the gaping hole carved into the wall and the space beyond it. "If we could save her, we would, believe me. We're not killers, we're not...we're not -"
"Save it," he tells her bluntly. "You're going to pay for what you did to Jun! I'm going to make you pay -"
"Lee!" Haru's yell cuts him off. "Lee, they're coming, we have to go!"
He directs one last ferocious glare at the waterbender cowering before him. But as he turns on his heel to catch up with the others -
Bang!
The ground snaps beneath his feet. He yelps as he tumbles over, the rock springing up around him like teeth gnashing out from below.
Glancing up, he spots another Dai Li agent framed in the archway carved into the wall. Struggling to regain his balance, he watches as though in slow motion as Haru lunges forward. The ground bubbles up beneath the enemy agent, threatening to knock him over.
The Dai Li earthbender leaps into the air with a swish of rippling dark velvet. In a smooth motion, he lands with the force of a small earthquake. Shockwaves radiate outward, and the world sways warningly around Lee before he falls over again.
Haru grits his teeth, deflecting the worst of the blows. Suki lets out an agonized yell as the sudden movements jostle her broken leg again. Ty Lee grips her more tightly, torn between supporting her friend and jumping into the fray.
Finding his balance briefly, Lee reaches for his belt. His hand closes around the trusty boomerang, its solid presence comforting as an old friend. Then, he lets it fly.
The whirring metal strikes the enemy agent right in between the forehead. The world rights itself, going suddenly still as he collapses, suddenly unconscious.
"Good one!" Haru crows as Lee dashes in the hallway to retrieve his weapon. "Come on, Suki - can you walk?"
But as Suki mumbles a bleary response, another swaying motion catches Lee in alarm.
Grabbing the boomerang, he manages to clutch at the wall for support just as the ground slides out from beneath him. Cursing, he peers down the hall to see more uniformed earthbenders, maybe half a dozen left in the entire fortress, advancing toward him.
He tries to call out for help, but a rock shaped like a hand whizzes straight toward his face. He ducks and it smashes into the wall behind him, crumbling into a shower of pebbles to the ground.
Gasping in relief, he charges down the corridor, straight toward the enemy benders marching over the sprawled waterbenders without pause. Praying that Haru and Ty Lee were behind him, somewhere, before a solid wall springs up right in front of him.
He smashes into it and falls back along the ground. Blinking stars out of his eyes, and feeling the air knocked out of him, he manages to fling the boomerang again. It flies at a low arc, bypassing two of the agents charging toward him on a rock slide, before it curves back sharply and takes out a third with a strike to the back of his head.
"Help!" he finally cries, scrabbling to his hands and knees. "Haru, Ty Lee, help!"
The ground splits beneath him and he screams. His hands fly out, clinging with all his strength to the edge of the pit yawning below him. He scrunches his eyes shut, trying to ignore the frantic pulse of his heart and focus instead on dragging himself out.
But through the sounds of the scuffle unfolding behind him, he manages to hear the nearing footsteps of an enemy bender. His eyes snap open fearfully. His legs kick helplessly, trying and failing to find solid ground. He cranes his neck upward, taking in the uniformed Dai Li agent towering over him, the soles of his boots inches away from where Lee's fingers dig painfully into the dirt.
He gulps, staring into the shadowed depths beneath the sloping metal hat, hiding the agent's face from view. If he could see a face, Lee imagines it would be smiling ferally at him, savouring the feeling of squashing him like an inconsequential stick-bug, dangling helplessly within his grasp.
Still. At least it was worth a try. He thinks of Jun's body back in the cell and the defiance burns like a small fire in his gut. Maybe they'll kill us quickly, that'd be nice -
But then a sudden thunk smashes across his thoughts. Blinking stupidly, he expects excruciating pain and falling, but finds himself still holding on to the edge desperately.
The enemy agent suddenly crumples before him. His body slams into the ground, the sloping hat ringing like a shrill metal gong as it hits the earth.
And, hunched over his body, clutching a large rock in his hand, panting heavily in agonized exhaustion, is Arrluk.
Lee gapes at him, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly as the waterbender flings the rock aside, pausing to stare contemptuously at the unconscious agent. Then, to his surprise, Arrluk grabs him by the forearms and yanks with all his strength.
Together, they manage to haul him out of the pit. Lee wheezes with relief as he clambers back onto solid ground. "Thanks," he chokes out.
But Arrluk's expression only darkens as he glances over his shoulder down the corridor. Lee follows his gaze. His fragile hope plummets as the remaining Dai Li earthbenders crush toward them in a leering menace.
"That was very foolish, Arrluk," one of them intones in a chillingly monotonous voice. "Long Feng will be displeased when he finds out. You should have known better than to turn against us."
They pause in a formation, each sliding into an offensive earthbending stance. The agent leading them cocks his head with what looked like amusement. "And with your bending gone too. What use are you and your brethren to us now?"
But Arrluk's face twists in anger. "No, you are the foolish ones," he snaps. Through the waves of pain battering him, he still pushes unsteadily to his feet. "You should have known better than to harm someone from the Water Tribes."
The sound of the Dai Li's raucous laughter fills the corridor. It echoes in Lee's ears, making the inside of his skull throb unforgivingly. "Was that a threat?" the lead earthbender sneers, taking a threatening step forward. "What could you possibly do without your bending?"
Arrluk smiles grimly, but says nothing. Lee watches him in rising dread.
Then, just as the earthbenders dip in unison, pushing the earth up around them, something else moves in the dim green light.
Lee blinks in the chaos as more figures charge toward them. Figures dressed in the same green uniforms but staggering as though they had just lost a limb, or a sense.
He tries to move but shock roots him to the spot as the remaining waterbenders tackle the few Dai Li agents. He can only watch open-mouthed as they pin the earthbenders to the ground, their arms ruthless and unwavering even as their enemy struggles in their grip. One goes limp, another gets a rock to the head.
"What did you think would happen if you threatened me?" Arrluk demands, clutching at the side of his head. His eyes blaze like bright blue fire in the dim green light. "We may have lost our bending, but we are still of the Southern Water Tribe...and we protect our own."
By the time Lee staggers to his feet, it was already over. The last of the Dai Li earthbenders litter the ground of the underground corridor, dark green silk sprawled over unconscious bodies. The rest of the waterbenders stand upright, though it was still clear to Lee that they were still deeply affected by the mysterious loss of their bending.
He tears his eyes away from the gathering waterbenders and back toward the large cell. To his relief, he spots Haru and Ty Lee climbing out through the hole in the wall, supporting Suki between them.
"You're okay!" Ty Lee cries as he dashes toward them. Her exhausted face still splits into a relieved smile. "Thank Agni."
"I am. Thanks to those guys," Lee retorts, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder. His friends peer curiously at the waterbenders, though Suki scowls at the sight of them.
"What are they doing?" Haru whispers, as though afraid to be overheard.
"I'm not sure," Lee answers with a shrug. "Team meeting, I guess." Against his better instincts, he turns back to face the double cell behind them. Jun still lay in there, he thinks to himself dully. They had broken out of their prison, and the waterbenders had lost their bending and somehow turned against the Dai Li...and none of it mattered.
None of it could help her now. She would never walk out of that cell ever again. They were free to leave, but she would always remain here.
A ferocious argument tears his thoughts back to the present. He frowns as the rest of the waterbenders close in on Arrluk, who leans against the wall for support. "Why did you do that?" someone demands in a high-pitched panic. "We already lost our bending! Once Long Feng finds out we turned on him -"
"Who says he has to find out?" another man cuts in urgently. "There's still time to fix this, if we get the prisoners back in their cells, we could maybe -"
"No," Arrluk says firmly as Lee tenses, bracing for another attack. "I refuse. I won't go along with any more of this."
A surprised silence hovers tentatively in the air after Arrluk speaks.
"Don't be ridiculous," someone scolds him, "you may be young, but you know we can't do that."
"Why not?" Arrluk counters. "You saw what they're making us do, how can you keep going along like this?"
"It's the price we pay for freedom, Arrluk," another woman reminds him wearily. "The Empire marked us as fugitives, so now we must fight them in the only way we can -"
"You think we're fighting the Empire?" Arrluk interrupts with a scornful laugh. "Check again! Last I heard, Long Feng is working with Ozai! We're not doing anything...except the Dai Li's dirty work!"
A hiss of several scandalized outbursts rocks the corridor at the young waterbender's pronouncement.
"That's not true!"
"Long Feng would never lie to us!"
"It can't be!"
Arrluk breaks through the commotion, grabbing at the slanting hat dangling loosely off his neck, and flinging it away. It bounces off the rocky ground with a loud hollow clang, silencing his compatriots instantly. "Lying is what he does!" he shouts. "Why else would he keep us cooped up down here? He only needs us to brainwash and torture Empire spies, who by the way, aren't even spies! Just innocent civilians he wants to control!"
A horrified silence greets his words, broken by the low groan of one of the Dai Li earthbenders stirring by Arrluk's feet. Without hesitation, the young waterbender kicks the agent in the head, and he slumps back to the ground, unconscious again.
"Think about that!" he continues as though nothing had happened. "Ruska and Iluak, you didn't murder an Empire spy, but an innocent woman! And that boy over there -" Lee flinches as Arrluk points directly at him and dozens of eyes land on him with the intensity of a spotlight, " - he's probably one of ours too! He could be Hakoda's son, and we wiped his mind just like the rest of them!"
"Hakoda's son," someone mutters, shaking their head, "that can't be possible -"
"He told Arrluk and I that his sister was a waterbender named Katara," the woman who had failed to save Jun whispers. "That can't be a coincidence, Kiraun."
"And even if he isn't," Arrluk barrels on, unable to contain himself, "how much longer can we keep doing this? We're more than just brutes, we're more than what the Empire did to us!"
"The boy speaks sense," an old woman admits reluctantly, and the familiarity of her voice sends chills of fear prickling down Lee's spine. "But this is more complicated than it seems. Whatever his motives, Long Feng harboured us when no one else would. To turn on him now would be an irreparable stain on our honour."
"Actually, Atka, it's not complicated at all," Arrluk counters, smiling mirthlessly. He nudges the unconscious earthbender with his foot. "You heard the man. Once Long Feng finds out we lost our bending and he has no more use for us, do you honestly think he'll keep us around?"
"He's got a point," Haru mutters, clearly as captivated by the discussion as Lee was himself. "If they think Long Feng won't toss them into the deepest, darkest cell there is and try to bury their dirty secret, they're bigger fools than they realize."
"It'd be more than they deserve!" Suki grits out. "Do you have any idea how many times they broke my leg? I don't think it'll ever be the same -"
"But it wasn't their fault," Lee speaks up, surprising himself. "You heard them, the Dai Li were using them too."
He nearly wilts under Suki's glare. "They killed your friend," she growls ferociously. "Jun died because of them, and you still want to take their side? Are you kidding me?"
The accusation seems to flay his skin with the sharp edge of his guilt. "I'm not taking sides," he tries to explain without flinching. "We can get out of here with or without their help -"
"Then let's get out of here," Suki finishes, her eyes flashing dangerously. "Now."
Lee sighs, glancing at the waterbenders over his shoulders for one last time. Arrluk meets his eyes tentatively, and he falters despite himself.
Arrluk, the only guard who had been kind to him. Arrluk, who was from the Water Tribes like the rest of the guards under Lake Laogai. His last link to a past barely within reach. A past he needed to remember...
"Wait," someone says softly.
The old woman steps forward from the group of waterbenders, undoing the straps holding her sloping metal hat in place. Lee flinches with reflexive fear as he finally recognizes her lined face and her low, fierce voice.
Atka. The woman who had subdued and unravelled him mercilessly, the day they were all captured.
But the leader of the Southern waterbenders pauses before them, wringing her knotted hands tentatively. Lee finds himself transfixed by the movements of her fingers, spidery and trembling, somehow powerful and helpless at the same time.
"Let us help you," she says finally, to the shock of everyone.
Lee isn't sure if the choking sound is coming from him or from his friends huddled behind him. "What?" he chokes out, rubbing his ears to make sure he had heard correctly.
But a scuffling sound breaks out behind him, before Suki yelps and curses in pain. "That's rich!" she spits venomously. "You think after what you did to Jun and I, you can just come crawling back to us now that your masters have no more use for you?"
"The fortress is poorly guarded," Atka answers in a voice of maddening calm. "We can help you escape here undetected." The lines on her face softens as she meets Suki's accusing stare. "Once the Dai Li realizes what has happened here, it will not be long before they find you. And you will not go far on that leg."
Suki tries to lunge, only to be held back tightly by Haru and Ty Lee. "And whose fault is that?" she bellows.
"Long Feng made us do unspeakable things," Atka answers flatly. Her long grizzled braid flops over her shoulder, jingling hopelessly. "If what Arrluk says is true, then he fooled us all. He took advantage of our trust, our rage, our vulnerability...just so he could use our skills to his benefit." She closes her eyes and shakes her head violently. "But that is our burden, not yours. Another...but we will bear it."
Suki laughs harshly in the stunned silence that follows. "Oh, and you expect us to feel sorry for you now? After everything you did to us?"
"We expect nothing," Atka replies, opening her eyes. In the dim green light, they glimmer with remorse and it strikes a chord somewhere inside Lee's chest. "We know that we hurt you, and your friend, the bounty hunter -"
"Jun," Lee says, his voice echoing all around the subterranean corridor. His hands curl into trembling fists. "Her name was Jun, and you killed her."
Atka hangs her head with the weight of his accusation. Lee breathes heavily with dull fury, the back of his throat constricting tighter with every passing second.
"We did," she confesses bluntly. "And she was not the first, either. We have done terrible things to survive in this world. To learn that Long Feng had us inflict such cruelty on innocents…" Her voice chokes up, shaking with an intensity that Lee feels to his core. "He has much to answer for."
"And so do we," Arrluk speaks up. The youngest of the Southern waterbenders marches forward, placing a hand on Atka's wizened shoulder. "We know you will never forgive us, but at least give us an opportunity to atone for our actions."
"You?" Suki demands disbelievingly. "You've done enough. Now leave us alone."
"Suki," Lee tries to reason with her, even as he flinches at the uncompromising edge in her voice. "Suki, they were at the heart of the Dai Li brainwashing scheme. Their intelligence could be vital to the rebellion."
He tries not to shrivel under the outraged glare she throws at him. "I can't believe you could even think of that!" she accuses, her jaw tightening stubbornly. "They tortured me, they killed Jun, how can you forget that?"
"I haven't," Lee answers solemnly, holding her gaze without wavering. "I won't ever forget. But you seem to have forgotten why we came down here in the first place." He glances at Haru entreatingly for support. "We wanted to find out more about the Dai Li's operation down here, remember? We needed to find a way to dismantle it." He gestures at the group of waterbenders gathered behind Atka and Arrluk, watching them cautiously. "They might have done awful, unforgivable things, but now they want to help us fight back against Long Feng. It's the only way our mission down here has a shot of success -"
"You want me to forgive my torturers just for the sake of your stupid mission?" Suki explodes.
"I want Jun to not have died for nothing!" Lee bursts out. The wave of guilt he's been struggling to hold back suddenly crashes over him with all its force. "She's gone...she's gone, Suki, and holding a grudge against these people won't bring her back. But at least this way, it'll have meant something." He dashes at his eyes with the back of his hand, before pleading, "I know she would have wanted to go down fighting. To stick it to the Dai Li. Can't we do that, for her sake?"
A stricken expression crosses Suki's face, before she finally turns away from him. She scowls darkly, but remains ominously, seethingly silent.
Lee exhales sharply. Jun had been a fighter, one of the most stolid, indomitable forces of nature he had ever encountered. It was impossible to think that this mission had gotten the best of her. That would always stay with him - his idea, his fault.
But if he broke down now to wallow in her memory, he knew she would personally haunt him until the end of time. So, he buries the hurt that rises up at the sight of Suki's anguish, squares his shoulders, and turns back to face Atka and the rest of the Southern waterbenders.
"Suki's right about one thing," he says, his voice somehow steady and cold. "We don't forgive you for what you did to us, and to Jun."
Arrluk bows his head, his shame apparent. "Fair enough," he answers softly. "I...I don't think I could, either."
"But," Lee cuts across, his heart hammering somewhere in the back of his throat, "if you come with us, at least our mission won't have been a colossal failure." He grits his teeth, forcing himself to stay composed, the way Jun would have if she was still with them. "We might not want you, but the resistance will."
A ripple of something that resembled relief flutters across the group of waterbenders. Lee clenches his teeth at the sight of it. Atka glances up at him in surprise, even as Arrluk marches up to him and grabs his hand.
"Thank you," he chokes out, overcome with feeling. Tears well in his bright blue eyes. "We'll do anything - anything - to help."
Lee swallows the retort rising in the back of his throat. Instead, he jerks his head toward the end of the corridor, and the stairs leading up to the exit. "Let's get out of here," he says with a sigh. "The bigger head start we have, the better."
Atka barks something in her sharp, guttural language. A flurry of motion breaks out among the group of waterbenders. The rustle of velvet, the clang of metal hats hitting the ground one by one, a discordant percussion that fills the underground hallway with its ringing echoes.
"And your friend?" Arrluk asks gently. "How do you want to honour Jun?"
Lee looks at him sharply, but the waterbender's face holds no guile, only remorse.
A hand finds his shoulder. He glances over to see Haru's somber face. "We can't just leave her," he says thickly. "Not without saying goodbye, at least." A tear trails down his cheek.
Lee says nothing, but only nods curtly.
They don't linger for long. Amid the low buzz of clipped, urgent conversations taking place in the waterbenders' foreign tongue, Lee finds himself back in the double cell that now serves as Jun's tomb.
A funereal silence settles like a shroud over the four of them as they stare at the bounty hunter's body stretched out on the ground. Now that the threat of the Dai Li had momentarily vanished, Lee thinks her face appeared almost peaceful. A serenity that she had never shown in life.
"I'm sorry, Jun," he finally whispers, kneeling over her. "We'll give them hell for you. I promise." He isn't sure what possesses him to reach into her belt and pluck the whip still coiled at her side. "And uh...thanks for everything." His fingers tighten around the handle. "You were a good friend. I could always count on you."
This time, he doesn't stop the tears that slide down his face. He doesn't know how long he remains frozen in place, crouched over her broken body, but he's grateful to the others for their silence.
But when the moment finally comes, he steps back, watching as the earth swallows her body without another word. But in his heart, he already knows that her spirit wouldn't rest until they drove every last Dai Li agent out of these halls for good.
He owed her that much, at least.
"Come on," Haru says after a moment that passes too slowly, too quickly. "Let's get out of here."
Lee tears his eyes from the undisturbed ground where Jun lay. He glimpses the congregation of waterbenders lined up beyond the door, the shocked sadness in Ty Lee's face. The intense anger blazing in Suki's eyes, the way she averts her face, unable to even look at him in her fury.
Then he tucks Jun's whip into his belt decisively, and determination blazes through him. "Let's get out of here," he makes himself say. "Arrluk, lead the way."
