Surprise! Another Double Chapter. I hope you enjoy 3

CH 33 | Healing and Hurting [PART 2]

Weeks prior, Zuko had found himself blinking awake on the ground of a chilly forest, surrounded by strangers, attempting to grasp the adulthood that had consumed him during the time he'd spent cocooned deep within his mind.

Six years.

Six years ago, his father had left him on life support in a nondescript Caldera hospital. The edges of it all were fuzzy, as though his memories were not his own. He remembered the burning, his un-naming. He remembered pieces of the first weeks of recovery—Iroh's visits and, for a time, Azula's dogged guarding of his bedside. He remembered a point when she no longer visited and (vaguely) how he'd slipped away, folding into his own thoughts and memories like a warm hibernation.

Now he sat, quietly regarding his captors seated on the other side of their campfire. For they must be captors—it was the only explanation that made sense to Zuko. The waterbender who'd assaulted his mind had promised him his sister and failed to deliver. When they called Azula, her line was very conveniently dead. The supposed Avatar claimed she must have blocked his number.

They were able to show him his uncle…and Mai. Whether they were truly safe, Zuko refused to trust until they stood before his own eyes.

"How do I…how do I turn this on? Enable the Face Time. It's FACETIME!" Iroh yelled at his phone. "You have to hit the flip camera button, Iroh." Aang tried to explain. "It's not working!" Iroh complained, smashing number buttons on the screen. "Oh, for spirits sake—give me that!" Mai seethed, snatching the phone, and correcting it.

Her face was even paler than usual. "It worked? Where is he?!" The Knife Master demanded. Zuko's heart was pounding. Mai sounded older, but it was undoubtedly his Mai. Aang handed the phone to the mop-headed young man, whose hands trembled as he grasped and tilted his face into view. "H-hey. Hey Mai." Zuko's voice rasped hoarsely from disuse.

Mai, overcome, slammed her hand over her mouth and burst into tears. "Zuko! My Zuko!" She mumbled before hiding her face into a heavy black sleeve. Iroh too, was instantly overwhelmed, tears streaming down over his shuddering lips. Zuko wasn't sure what to say, but he too felt his jaw begin to tighten, his throat ache with sudden emotion.

"I thought we'd lost you." Iroh managed to whisper. "No. I'm here." Zuko croaked. "Azula?" Iroh shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Zuko. We think she returned to Caldera with your father."

That was days ago. This group had since promised they would deliver the disenfranchised prince to Iroh and Mai at a rebel's gathering. The ideas confused the young man deeply—that the Avatar was challenging his father came as no surprise. Zuko had been schooled from his earliest years to know that if an Avatar returned to the world, he would be an enemy to the Fire Nation.

This particular Avatar seemed to be a disturbingly capable liar—claiming he spent years travelling with his sister when Zuko knew full well that Azula would be the first person to drag an Avatar home in chains if she had truly been the one to discover him. Yet, Aang presented himself as a cheerful, rather toothless young man. He sat with Zuko every night, beginning their conversations with "How did today feel, Zuko?"

"Better." Zuko would insist, every time.

He watched them. He knew the closer he stayed, the more they would slip in front of him. They made no pretense hiding their fighting training from him and seemed to welcome his assimilation as they worked. Good.

An evening came when Zuko decided to gauge his standing with the Avatar. "How did today feel, Zuko?" Aang began as usual, handing Zuko a bowl of stew. The firebender accepted the food cautiously, reminding Aang of a stray animal. "I want to ask you something" he rasped. Aang's brows flew up, surprised. "Anything" he agreed, leaning a bit closer to Zuko.

"You said Azula trained you in firebending" he began. Aang nodded silently, his shoulders almost immediately moving from squared to shifted. "I want you to train me." Zuko insisted. Six years of solitude had done little to humble his command presence. Even so, he found the Avatar immovable. Aang shook his head. "You shouldn't jump back into bending so soon, Zuko. You need to be centered, controlled, with fire. You know that."

Aang noted a flash of anger in Zuko's eyes—he realized the former prince wasn't used to being told no. "I need to be able to defend myself. Especially if I'm travelling with—" he cut off and pivoted. "Especially if we're going to fight my father."

Aang considered this for a long time. Silence passed between the two men, full of weight as they measured each other's motives. "No. Not yet, anyway. This is a conversation you need to have with Iroh, first. I'm going to go check on Katara. Let me know if you need anything else though, Zuko."

As Aang retreated, ducking out of the ring of firelight, Zuko believed he had his answer. He was a prisoner.

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After freeing Zuko, Aang had caught Katara when her knees buckled out of sheer physical exhaustion. "I've got her" Aang reassured Sokka. "Can you stay with Zuko while I get her to rest?" Though she hadn't yet seen the fruits of her labor, Katara felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her chest after Aang had helped her settle into her tent. It was a weighted grief she'd become so used to carrying, she'd forgotten what it felt like when it was gone. Her breath came easier, and she smiled. After she accepted the water he'd handed her, Aang knelt in front of Katara and lovingly tucked some wild hair behind her ear.

"Katara, you are so incredible." Aang murmured, and his eyes shone with deep admiration. "You've probably altered the course of history tonight. But even more amazing, you saved a man's life. You did something I don't know if anyone else has ever done. You brought him back from that? You are…" Aang swallowed hard, looking up to the top of the tent as his esteem for her threatened to spur tears. Unable to articulate, he simply laced his hand into hers and squeezed while he beamed.

Katara thought about her mother's final night, but the crush of pain that normally accompanied the memory was somehow changed, more nuanced. "I'm a bloodbender." She finally said out loud to Aang. Her eyes darted, then widened when she saw no change in his countenance, continued. "Mom was near the end when she asked me t-to…to—" her eyes darted again. Aang squeezed her hand again reassuringly. "It was a full moon like tonight. And his head…it felt like hers. Like her tumor, I mean. Being able to fix this…" she shook her head and stole a deep sigh. A breath of air more rewarding than she'd had in a year.

"It feels like a gift."

Katara leaned into her boyfriend's embrace as he enveloped her, rocked her, and kissed the top of her head. It was the start of something new for the waterbender, understanding now that swirling form of energy her mother had once espoused.