Chapter 42: Education

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to seanbw, a great fanfic writer and friend from the Kataang Discord. Check out his story "Aang Alone."

"I have a project in mind I could use your help on," Zuko told his friends. "All of you." He brought them to a conference room with a large table piled with books. "These are the history textbooks used in the Fire Nation schools. I think the national curriculum needs an update. I'd really appreciate it if you all would look at these and tell me what you think." He left the room and shut the door.

"Why do I have to be here? I can't read." Toph crossed her arms.

"We could use another Earth Kingdom opinion," Katara pointed out. "And you probably have more formal schooling than Sokka and I do." She and her brother had read every book in their village, and the neighboring one too, but there hadn't been a lot available to them, and they knew there were a lot of gaps in their knowledge. That was why as soon as they left the tribe, they had dove in to programs of self-study, Katara in anatomy and healing, and Sokka in engineering, both in history.

"Private tutors." The earthbender shrugged. "I only let them work me as hard as I wanted to."

"Well, everything I ever learned is a century out of date." Aang pointed out wryly.

The teenagers spent a couple hours looking through the textbooks. They took turns reading aloud for Toph, stopping to remark on the inaccuracies and distortions, while the others paged and skimmed, looking for topics they were interested in. The longer they spent perusing the books, the more annoyed they became.

Suki and Aang were both particularly offended by the way Avatar Kyoshi was portrayed, as an uncouth, unsophisticated, and unfeminine bumpkin, who was inexplicably also a brutal, calculating warlord who gloried in gratuitous bloodshed.

"Well, that's bullshit," Toph said in her usual blunt way, when she heard her native province of Gaoling described as an uncultivated wasteland.

"And the stereotypes!" Sokka exclaimed. He picked up a book and read a quote. "'The typical Water Tribe man is stoic, laconic, unintelligent, and loves his moonshine.'"

Katara snickered. "And the women?"

"Passive and submissive, which makes them all the more beautiful." He showed her an illustration of a scantily clad brown-skinned girl gazing up adoringly at a Fire Nation soldier.

Her eyes widened in rage, and Aang had to put his hand on her shoulder to help her calm down. After a few deep breaths, she was able to respond. "It's infuriating." Katara agreed. "I'd be mad at Zuko for showing us this crap, except I think he wants to update these books and make corrections."

"What does it say about people from the Earth Kingdom?" Toph wondered.

"That you're unreasonably stubborn, and brainwashed by the Earth King." Aang summed it up.

"We're brainwashed?" Suki scoffed. "These books themselves are like…..mind soap."

"It also says you take up an entire huge, empty, fertile continent, and manage the land inefficiently." Sokka informed his girlfriend.

"Thinly veiled self-justification for conquest," Aang diagnosed. "At least your people aren't portrayed as flighty, lazy idlers. And, um, libertines."

"The way these books fetishize the Air Nomad orgies, it seems like the authors really wished they could have joined in," Sokka joked.

"Fertility festivals," Aang corrected, then sighed. "It makes sense, right? Of course this is what the Fire Nation thinks about the rest of the world. They wouldn't be able to stomach committing the atrocities of the last hundred years if they saw us as human."

"You don't think Zuko believes this, do you?" Katara asked uncomfortably.

"Nah. At least, not anymore." Sokka allowed. "He probably did back when he still had that ugly ponytail."

"That's true." Katara nodded. "Before he got to know any of us."

"Maybe that's the problem." Aang realized. "It's easy to believe in stereotypes when you don't personally know anyone from a particular group. So maybe the solution is just bringing people together so that they can make friends!"

"Do you mean some kind of exchange program?" Sokka remembered the program Zuko and Chief Arnook had collaborated to begin when he had visited the North. It was typical of Aang's idealism that he thought simple contact with people from other countries could end such deep-rooted prejudices, but Sokka supposed cultural exchanges would be a positive step. At any rate, they couldn't hurt, as long as the program was well-managed.

"Yeah! Wouldn't that be great?" The airbender enthused. "Everyone could have their own Team Avatar, with friends from all the nations of the world!"

When they met back up with Zuko and Mai for dinner, the friends proposed a completely new curriculum.

"Those textbooks are terrible, Zuko!" Aang declared. "We agreed that you need to throw them all out and start from scratch."

"Oh, I know." The Fire Lord acknowledged. "I hope you weren't too offended by them. I thought if you saw them for yourselves, you might understand…."

"Why your people are how they are and did what they did?" Sokka asked. "Yeah, it does explain some things."

"We also thought you should make another exchange program." Aang suggested. "The one in the North was for adults and professionals, Fire Nation engineers for Water Tribe healers, right? But what if you had similar program for teenagers and students?"

"You think parents from the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribe would want to send their kids here?" Zuko looked surprised. "I thought they'd be too scared of us."

"They might if you offered free education," Katara suggested. "Especially for people who wouldn't otherwise get the opportunity."

"You have the best universities in the world, right, Zuko?" Sokka reminded him. "I'm sure lots of people would love to come here and study. You could spread your technical know-how around the world."

"I like the idea," Zuko waffled, "but there are only so many spots at the university. My people see those positions as belonging to their own children, so they probably wouldn't like 'foreigners' coming in and taking those seats away from them."

"Yeah, but you were planning to expand the universities anyway." Mai reminded him.

"That's true." Zuko nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I knew you all would challenge me, and that's why I asked for your help. When we rewrite the curriculum, I was hoping to get scholars from around the world to work on it together, to include different perspectives."

"That sounds like exactly what you need. Maybe we can work on a pilot lesson and do a trial run to help get them started." Aang proposed. "I was wondering if I'd get an excuse to go back to that school….."

"Are you sure they'd want you back?" Katara asked, surprised. "Sokka and I had to pretend to be his parents because he got in so much trouble." She explained to Zuko.

"You enrolled in a Fire Nation school?" Zuko gaped in shock.

"Oh, yeah. We blended in really well." Sokka assured him. "Wearing red clothes, eating spicy food. Toph even wore shoes. Sort of."

"How did you….." Zuko looked at the airbender and gestured to his forehead.

"Oh! I grew my hair out and used a headband to cover my forehead." Aang explained.

"Huh." Zuko tilted his head to the side, bemused. "I'm trying to imagine you with hair…."

"He looked pretty great," Katara teased, which made her boyfriend blush.

"The best part was when we threw an amazing dance party in a cave," Aang went on, glancing at the waterbender shyly.

"Do I need to hose you two down?" Sokka rolled his eyes.

"What were you doing this morning, Zuko?" Suki asked, changing the subject.

The Fire Lord sighed. "The army and navy are fighting over funding and resources. I had to bring the major general and the commodore together and show them all the numbers at the same time. It took almost two hours, but now I think they both finally understand that the other branch is getting cut just as much as theirs."

"All in a day's work for Zuko the Peacemaker," Mai said sardonically.

"Congratulations, Zuko, what a great moniker!" Aang patted his friend on the back.

"It's not meant to be a compliment." The firebender informed him. "My critics think it's a way to call me a wimp."

"Peace is seen as….. a bad thing here?" Aang looked puzzled.

"You know real men fight, don't you?" Zuko admonished him sarcastically. "That stepping away from physical confrontation is basically admitting that you're a weak child? Or, worse, a woman?"

Aang looked dismayed. "I hate to insult someone's culture, but that sounds…toxic."

"I agree, and it's one of the things I want to reform. But changing hearts and minds is a lot harder than winning a war."

"It's hard because your people have been brainwashed by fire supremacist propaganda for decades." Aang explained.

"Yeah, like The Boy in the Iceberg." Katara reminded them all of the terrible play they'd seen in Ember Island in the days before the comet.

"You got to face it head on, Sparky. Beat the bad propaganda with good propaganda." Toph punched her fist into her palm. "Like crushing one rock with an even bigger, heavier rock."

"What if we wrote a new play? Like The Boy in the Iceberg, but the true story?" Sokka suggested.

"And with better actors, and better writers, and better costumes, and better effects, and just everything better." Aang enthused.

"That play was so terrible, it wouldn't be hard to do something better." Katara shook her head.

"Especially with such great source material!" Aang put in.

"I'll write the jokes!" Sokka volunteered.

"You've been writing the whole story," Suki elbowed him proudly.

Zuko stroked his chin. "My new press secretary has been suggesting that kind of thing to me for a while. I haven't wanted to do it because it seems so intimate, so personal, letting the whole country know what I went through."

"They already know the worst parts of it." Katara shrugged. "And it would let them get to know the real you."

"You could control the narrative and put it in your terms." Sokka pointed out.

"And they could get to know Mai too, and accept her as future Fire Lady." Katara said, then cringed a little at herself, afraid she'd put her foot in her mouth by discussing her friends' relationship this way, as if it were already settled.

Aang was even less tactful. "Then you wouldn't have fan girls and aristocratic moms after you all the time, if everybody understands how happy you two are."

Zuko glanced at Mai. "All right, I'm convinced. Let's put on a play!"

The school looked a little different from the way it had when Aang had briefly attended. There were no giant posters of Fire Lord Ozai in every room. Zuko had ordered such things taken down, but instead of replacing them with his own face, he had directed schools to display the Fire Nation symbol, or instructional or inspirational materials, such as maps or landscape paintings.

The lesson began with the newly rewritten Fire Nation oath, which was also displayed on the wall, since the students had only been saying it for a few months: "My life I entrust to my country. With my hands I work for worldwide harmony. With my mind I seek ways to better my country. With my feet I walk a path of peace and justice."

Then the teacher introduced the guests stiffly. "At the request of Fire Lord Zuko, we welcome these guests to share their perspectives about world history."

Sokka began the lesson with a plea for the students to give them a chance. "It might be hard for you to understand and accept all that we've got to say about the past hundred years, since you've been learning something completely different your entire lives, but I really hope you can keep an open mind and hear us out. Here's a story. My sister Katara and I fought a lot when we were kids. Well, we still fight sometimes. Most of you probably have siblings; you know what it's like. Our parents would always ask us what happened when we were fighting, and each of us had a totally different story. My story made me look good, and her story made her look good. So mom and dad had to try to figure out who to believe. Usually they just punished us both. But that's kind of what your history lessons have been like. Except you've only ever heard one story. Have you heard the saying, 'history is written by the victors'? For the last hundred years, your country has been winning, and writing the history to make it seem like you deserved to rule the world. Any other perspectives on the war have been suppressed, or" he glanced at Aang, "completely wiped out. Almost completely. I'm just asking you to be receptive to the idea that maybe you've been lied to. Maybe the Fire Nation isn't so perfect, and maybe the other countries are not that bad."

Then the rest of Team Avatar presented their people's histories to the class. Katara told them about the raids on the Southern Water Tribe. Toph and Suki detailed the effects of colonization on the Earth Kingdom, and corrected a few myths about their home continent and its people. Finally, Aang described his people's peaceful way of life, and the way they had been attacked and slaughtered.

One kid in the back, who seemed to enjoy being 'edgy' for the attention it got him, spoke up. "The airbenders just lost because they were weak."

A tense silence followed those words. Aang's friends moved closer to him; Katara touched his arm. The Avatar's head turned to the side a little, and he raised his hand slightly, indicating to his friends that he was able to respond calmly enough. His voice was soft but intense as he replied, focusing on the disaffected teen in the last row.

"If you really think that, then you don't understand either airbenders, or true strength. But that's to be expected. I'm the only airbender you've ever met, and your ideas about what it means to be strong or weak have been poisoned by fire supremacist ideology. If we're talking only about brute power, the Air Nomads would easily have been strong enough to defeat even Sozin's comet-powered army. I might be biased, but I think air is the most powerful and dangerous of the four elements. Not because I can use it to fly, but because we all need it to survive. I suppose you didn't know that all master airbenders have the ability to suck the air out of your lungs, suffocating you instantly." The face of the boy in the back paled. Aang went on. "But, of course, now that you know that, you'll want to know why the airbenders didn't use that ability. You'll say that their choice not to use it was what made them weak. Ozai thought that." He shrugged nonchalantly. "You know what happened to him. But in order for me know if you're even capable of understanding that choice, I'd have to ask you: Do you believe in anything? Enough to die for it? Do you love anyone? Enough to die for them?"

He paused. The boy shifted uncomfortably. He wasn't sure if he was expected to actually answer. Aang raised his eyebrow, and he saw that he did need to speak. "Uh, yeah."

"Good." Aang nodded curtly. "That means you're not irredeemable. I just told you that the airbenders were ambushed, taken by surprise. The children and old ones were held hostage, so that those who could have fought surrendered to save them. And then the Fire Nation commanders didn't have enough honor to keep their word and let the hostages go. They massacred them all. You think it takes strength to kill someone who's already surrendered? I say it just takes cruelty, and soullessness. True strength recognizes that there are things worth dying for, and that certain kinds of life are not worth living. We believe that killing another taints your spirit, so that the rest of your life is haunted and cursed. But even if you don't believe that's true, or that it's not true during war, surely your own culture's notions of honor are violated by the situation I just described. If you really think it's weak to give yourself up to save the life of someone you love, then you don't understand the value of love or life or anything, and there's nothing I have to say to you."

After a long moment of quiet solemnity, a brave girl raised her voice. "Why didn't you take revenge on the Fire Nation? Do to us what was done to your people?"

Aang shook his head. He sounded tired and resigned. "Because I know that ordinary people like all of you are good at heart, and that even the soldiers who killed my people were just following orders. It's the leaders I blame, like Sozin. Or Azulon, he's the one who ordered the raids on the Water Tribe that killed Katara and Sokka's mother." He gestured to his friends. "And now that Ozai is no longer in power, and the Fire Nation has a good leader, I'm content knowing that there will be peace. And so I can just enjoy getting to know people like you."

"But how do you keep from being angry all the time?" The girl pressed.

Aang took a deep breath. His voice was soft and reflective as he answered. "I've been angry, but I've tried to sit with that feeling and let it pass. My people's philosophies, and our meditation practices help me with that. Sometimes when I calm my mind, it's like they're reaching back through time and helping me survive losing them. Now I'm more sad than angry. My grief doesn't ever go away. Sometimes it almost knocks me down out of nowhere. The chime of bells, the sight of a mountain landscape, or the scent of a fruit pie baking…..It's been a hundred years, but for me it feels like less than two, since the Air Temples were bustling with thousands of people with bald heads and tattoos just like mine. I miss them every day. If it weren't for my new family, I don't know what I'd do." Katara's hand touched his shoulder, and he covered it with his own, sharing a small smile that thanked her for helping him to be strong.

The class was silent. A few girls had tears openly streaming down their faces, while a couple guys tried to hide their sniffling.

"I mean, I thought I was sad when my fire ferret died," one of them muttered.

"My great-great-grandfather served in Fire Lord Sozin's army, and our family has always been so proud of him. We have a portrait of him in our house, and he's wearing all these medals." A boy admitted uncomfortably.

"Well, now you know what he did." Sokka replied flatly. "How do you feel seeing that portrait now?"

"Queasy."

"You can't control what your ancestors did, but you can control how you see them and their legacy, and what you do with it." Aang answered. "Your nation's leader is a perfect example of that. His ancestors have more responsibility for causing the war than anybody, so he's making it his job to fix their mistakes, as best as he can. Part of that was sending us here, so you all could start to learn the whole truth."

"What Fire Lord Zuko has done in his home is cover up the paintings of his father, grandfather, and great grandfather." Katara shared. "He didn't destroy them, but he doesn't want anyone to have to see them. He doesn't want to honor them anymore. Just an idea."

The teacher stood up, ready to end the lesson for the day. "Any other questions for our guests?"

A boy looked at Aang with narrow, suspicious eyes. "Have you ever played hide and explode?" He asked.

Aang's eyes lit up. "As a matter of fact, I have. I wondered if you'd recognize me, so I brought this." He pulled a red cloth out of his pocket and tied it around his forehead, so that the triangular yellow symbol on it pointed down, in imitation of his arrow.

A gasp went up from the students.

"It's Kuzon!"

"No way! That kid is a legend!"

"The Avatar went to our school?"

The history teacher gaped. "He was there a hundred years ago."

A tall boy with big shoulders in the back row laughed loudly. "Hey, that means I fought the Avatar!" He put up his arms in victory. "I fought the Avatar and survived!"

The boy's classmates jeered at him:

"He's a pacifist, you idiot."

"Of course you survived, he wouldn't even kill Fire Lord Ozai."

"I saw that fight; you couldn't even land a punch, Hide."

"That's enough," the teacher broke in. "Let's thank our guests."

"Thanks for welcoming me and my friends back to your school!" Aang bowed to the class as they were dismissed.

As the gang got ready to leave, a girl with blunt bangs approached the airbender shyly. "Kuzon- I mean Av—"

"Hi, On Ji. You can call me Aang."

She blushed at his recognition. "Thanks for coming back to our school. I was going to ask you if you could teach us some more dances."

"Yeah, that was part of the plan," he told her, grinning. "We already talked to your principal about it. We're going to hold a dance in the school gym tomorrow night. Not a secret one in a cave this time. I know it's less fun, but we have to be all official and get parental permission and everything, since we're here representing the Fire Lord."

"You know Fire Lord Zuko?" Her eyes widened in starstruck wonder.

"Um, yeah, we do," Katara stepped in, taking Aang's hand with a hint of possessiveness. "We also know his girlfriend Mai. They're really serious."

"I have a new boyfriend too," On Ji volunteered. "Not Hide. I dumped him after your dance party. I probably have you to thank for that. He was way too controlling, and a bully too."

"I'm glad you found somebody better than that jerk. You should bring him to the dance! We'll see you there!" Wrapping his arm around Katara's shoulder's, Aang waved goodbye to On Ji.

The dance was a hit, of course. The Fire Nation students were excited to recreate the previous year's epic party, and dressed to impress. Aang wore his regular draped tunic, but his friends put on their Fire Nation red clothes. A group of boys gathered around Toph, who was showing off her metalbending with her meteorite bracelet. Sokka continued his lecture on what he called 'multiple historical perspectives' to a few admiring girls, while Suki looked on in amusement. The traditional Fire Nation dances that Aang and a hired dance instructor taught the students involved many couples turning and spinning in formations, changing partners and changing back.

Aang and Katara danced as a couple, and in a larger group of students for almost two hours, before the waterbender had to insist on leaving the dance floor.

"Can we take a break? I need a drink!"

"Sure." He followed her to a table where cups of water were set out, and they found a seat on a bench nearby. "We don't have to dance every single song, you know."

"You know how much I like dancing with you." She squeezed his hand. "Ever since that night, we've made a point of taking every opportunity we can to dance."

"Not quite every opportunity," he disagreed.

"When have we not danced?" She wondered.

"We only dance when there's music. Or when we're at a party. We could have danced every single day. Before the comet, after the comet, morning, noon, night….."

She remembered Zuko saying something like that a long time ago. "Are you saying you'd like to dance more?" She asked.

"I certainly wouldn't mind."

"Me neither." They shared a smile. Then Katara broke eye contact and looked around the room at the happy Fire Nation students. "It's strange to be with these kids again. But nice. They're nice kids. And it's fun to remember our first dance. That night you made it clearer than you ever had up to that date, how you felt about me."

"You did to me too." Aang pointed out. "You took my hand, and I could tell that you enjoyed dancing with me. You even gave me a kiss on the cheek."

"You say that like you remember each one."

"I do. The ones before the comet anyway. For a long time that was all I had."

"Whenever we talk about that time, it makes me feel bad for keeping you in the friend zone. For stringing you along."

"I'm sorry, I don't want to make you feel bad. I like thinking about it. It makes me even more happy and grateful that we're finally together. And the friend zone is a great place to be! Being your friend is amazing! You never strung me along. You genuinely didn't know how you felt, and weren't ready for a relationship. It was completely valid."

"But it caused you pain," The skin between Katara's eyes was pinched in sympathy.

"I don't know if pain is the right word for it." Aang corrected her. "Sometimes that longing was kind of delicious."

"Really? Because you knew someday I'd like you back?"

"Not necessarily. I mean, I tried to keep faith. It just didn't make sense to me that I would feel so strongly for you without you feeling anything in return. But I could never be certain." In some ways, he still wasn't sure. But he didn't say that; it would have been pressuring her.

"Then how does that work?" She questioned, not understanding. "How can that uncertainty feel good?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just feel that way in retrospect." He admitted. "If I'd had to watch you go off with some other guy, I would not have enjoyed that. But caring about somebody is always good. I liked noticing you, paying you that kind of attention, even without you noticing me." He laughed. "It's a good thing I liked it because I couldn't help it!"

"I think I know what you mean about that. Like that evening on the balcony in Ba Sing Se, I just had to kiss you. And I did notice you before that, I just…..held back. I was scared." Katara looked down. "I'm….still scared."

"I can understand that." Aang answered slowly. "This, between us, it's…..big. Strong. But I'm more scared of the alternative."

"What do you mean?"

"Scared of losing you. Or making some big mistake that hurts you. Or just failing to appreciate you."

"You appreciate me plenty. Aang, I….."

"Aang?" They looked up and saw On Ji, her smile fading as she saw that she'd interrupted a private moment. "I'm sorry, I'll—"-she turned around.

"That's all right. What is it, On Ji?" The airbender asked, facing the Fire Nation girl, but keeping his girlfriend's hand in his.

"Um, we wanted you to lead us in another dance. I forgot the steps….."

Aang looked back to Katara, as if ready to ask her whether she wanted him to go or stay, but she was already brushing herself off and standing.

"Let's go, sweetie. I want to learn the dance too."

Author's Note: Please leave me a review! Hit follow so you can get an email when I update! I post new chapters every Friday.

Next week: Kataangst in a fountain