Chapter Twelve: Contents of a Spirit Monster's Stomach, The: A Rigorous Scientific Investigation, by Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe

Sokka was beginning to question his life choices. Specifically, the ones that had led to leaving the South Pole. More specifically, the ones that had let Aang anywhere near a map or navigational decisions, seriously, they should have been at the North Pole by now. Even more specifically, the ones that led to him learning that the inside of a terrifying black-and-white spirit-creature's stomach was some kind of swamp.

Yep. Sokka was in a spacious stomach swamp. That seemed to spread out infinitely far in all directions, with all kinds of trees and mossy root walkways and suspicious murky water and cheerful bamboo groves that he could walk towards until his legs fell off and still not reach. And he was wearing his parka for some reason, the same one he'd worn most of his life but had definitely left on Appa. And he had his boomerang and club, but not his spiffy new sword-and-fan combo from—sigh—Suki.

All in all, he was still piecing together the physics of stomach swamps, but he thought he was getting close. To something. Definitely. Though if Aang wanted to get him out before he finished his investigation, he wouldn't complain. And what was that glinty gold flash over that-a-way?

Sokka walked and walked and didn't get any closer but then he blinked and was there. 'There' being defined as running straight into a bundle of red-and-black robes and falling over in a tangle of silks and Sokka-limbs.

The silk robes squirmed, and punched him in the kidney.

"Get off!" That young-yet-superior voice was really familiar. Sokka sat up, and turned a critical eye on the very small and very angry fellow stomach dweller and/or stomach-induced hallucination. The kid was so Fire Nation it was physically painful. The robes said 'your annual village income equals a pair of my socks'; the eyes were wolf-bear gold and seriously since when did humans even have eyes that color?; the teenie-tiny top knot said 'we invaded your tribes, took everything you love, and couldn't even culturally appropriate wolf tails right'; the little gold flame-headpiece said 'little gold flame-headpiece.' It was about as subtle as the rest of their nation.

The kid was pinned under Sokka's superior body weight (and the layered stupidity of his own clothing). His glare was really expressive. On both sides of his face. Because the giant fresh scar Sokka was expecting wasn't there.

"Are you Zuko's twin, or something?" Sokka asked. "Please tell me you're the good one."

"If you don't get off me, Water Tribe, I will be forced to remove you."

Nope, this was definitely the regular Zuko. And crap, Sokka was recognizing children by their disfiguring facial features again, but to be fair Zuko's was pretty prominent and he'd never really questioned how the kid would look without it.

"How'd you get the scar, anyway?" Sokka was going to follow this up with and why don't you have it now, but he got distracted by all the snarling.

Zuko reminded him he had two kidneys.

Oww.

Fire Lord Ozai sat at his desk, slitting letters open like lesser men slit throats.

From Colonel Akio: —Regretfully, news of the former prince's banishment did not reach the 41st until after he had already departed. On behalf of my division, I accept full responsibility for the oversight that allowed him to move unchallenged within Your Majesty's territories. The occupation of Omashu is proceeding well—

"So," the Water Tribe teen said, once he was done sitting on Zuko. "You got eaten by a four-armed giant spirit monster, too?"

"I was looking for my uncle." Zuko rubbed at his head. He felt… weird. Like the colors in the world were really bright, and like he could see everything all crisp and clear and—

Like he could see from his left eye. Not the blurry color wash that had replaced the darkness under his bandages when they finally came off, but really see. He darted a glance at Sokka, then very casually not-at-all-obviously moved his hand to touch his left ear (which was whole) and, a little cautiously, the skin of his left cheek (which was smooth) and then he blinked (and it didn't hurt). What.

Also, he was wearing his palace robes. And he was pretty sure Uncle had given Engineer Hanako this shirt.

Uncle!

"The Earth Kingdom took him. I think there was a patrol, they attacked him and I found the tracks and I couldn't get him back myself because—" because Agni was still angry at him but Zuko was not apologizing, the sun god could go steam himself "—because, so I was running back to the ship and I ran into a… a…"

"A four-armed giant spirit monster," Sokka guessed.

"...Yes." Zuko dropped his hand away from his face. He rubbed his arms instead, because he was shivering. Which was stupid, because he wasn't any colder than he'd been a minute ago.

The Water Tribe teen rubbed at his own ribs, but that was mostly because of the new bruises. "Hey. I'm sure your uncle will be—"

"Did you hear that?" Zuko A) didn't need pity from the Water Tribe, and B) really had heard something. Having two good ears again was amazing, he even knew what direction it was coming from. He turned just in time to see the little slimy black thing poke its way out of the water behind them.

And keep poking.

It wasn't so little.

"Huh," Sokka said. "It kind of looks like an elbow leech, except it's… ah…"

They both craned their necks up, and back, and up.

"Really big," the teen whimpered.

And suddenly Zuko's back felt heavy with the familiar weight of his swords, and he wasn't drowning in stupid palace robes it took three servants to put on, he was in his favorite sparring clothes. And he had two eyes and two ears and two swords and one smirk.

"Wait, we can change our outfits?" Sokka was not focusing on the same details Zuko was. Clearly.

"Keep up, Water Tribe."

From Commander Zhao: —Trying to find witnesses who will swear to the Banished Prince's presence, but there is a distinct lack of soldiers who will admit to having seen the prince prior to the fight. Colonel Akio's interference continues: he has delivered to me his sworn testimony stating that the prince was at all times on Earth Kingdom grounds. The absurdity of this lie is clear, given that the prince must have crossed Fire Nation territory to even get to the fight. It will not be long before I secure a witness attesting to such—

Fire Lord Ozai set this letter aside, before heated hands could turn to scorched fingerprints.

While witnesses to Zuko's arrival were traitorously scarce, there had been an overabundance of soldiers at the fight itself. Witnesses that Zuko had fought in single combat for the conquest of Omashu, and won. Worse, he refused to claim credit for the deed; all honor went to his countrymen and Fire Lord. A bloodless victory and a humble prince: the court was positively charmed. Ozai couldn't arrest him for this, no matter how many terms of his banishment he'd flaunted, no matter how many witnesses were found. The boy was, at least until the fickle nobles found some new gossip, popular.

Ozai expected these games from Azula, not Ursa's boy. What was Zuko playing at?

They were covered in black ichor. Well, the Water Tribe teen was. Zuko really didn't want to be, this was so far beneath a prince's dignity that he couldn't even contemplate it, and when he shook himself in disgust it all splatted off.

"...So why did you use swords for that?" Sokka asked, staring at Zuko's newly cleaned clothes with a mixture of surprise, curiosity, and eye-twitching resentment.

"Fighting the Avatar broke my fire," Zuko said, because it was easier to say than Disobeying my Father broke my fire.

"Huh," Sokka said, wiping leech blood off his parka. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you punched the World Spirit in the face. But seriously, is your evil dad evil-ordering you to pester Aang, or something?"

"I'm not pestering, I'm capturing!"

"Sure you are."

"And the Fire Lord is following the will of Agni."

"Sure he is."

"He is! Why else would he ban—send me to look for the Avatar? He'd been missing for a hundred years, but I sailed straight down to your miserable little village and found him. And everywhere I go he's there, even the places he isn't supposed to be."

Like the middle of a Fire Nation camp, neither of them said.

"I think… this is what the spirits willed. They guided my father's hand, and now they're blessing my quest so I can—" go home "—restore my honor. And save my people." From the Avatar. Obviously.

Zuko didn't notice that he'd touched his face, starting at my father's hand. Sokka did, and found himself—for the first time in his life—wanting to not know something. To make the suspicion of knowledge, this inkling he wanted neither confirmed-nor-denied, be gone. Because when he thought back on Kyoshi and his little buddy's totally unwarranted fireballs and some idiot saying Does-your-father-not-like-you-or-something, he'd like for Zuko to remain the villain in that memory.

From his sedentary sloth-slug of a brother, the former Crown Prince Iroh: —Hearing conflicting reports by now, I imagine. I am sure if you would simply return your son's letters, he would be delighted to tell you everything that has transpired since—

Sokka needed to unknow something. His go-to strategy: letting words flow out of his mouth so fast that hopefully they'd carry the poison out with them.

"So how broken is broken, with this fire of yours? Because I heard somewhere that benders can't bend it up in the spirit world. And I'm starting to think we might be there. It would explain the whole 'we can change appearance just by thinking hard' thing." Which Sokka was still working on. Seriously, parkas: not appropriate swamp attire, even before the leech blood. "So if you could try using some magic fire, we could test that theory."

"Why don't you try using some magic water," the kid said. He pointed at all the water around them, in sort of a big looping hand gesture that also meant you idiot.

"Umm. Non-bender?" Sokka pointed to himself, in a quick poking gesture meant to convey who's the idiot but which kind of failed because he was pointing at himself.

His little bu—nope, not going back to calling him that, tragic completely unconfirmed backstories did not make for stable friendships— Zuko paused. "Oh. I just figured you were as bad as your sister."

"Yeah, she is pretty bad."

The kid looked like he recognized something in Sokka's tone. "Sisters are awful," he offered, like a truce.

"They really are." Truce accepted.

And if the sliding scale of awful in their relative family trees was a little different, neither of them thought about it just then.

From Zuko: —Uncle kept us anchored while I had dragon pox, but we've got a new heading on the Avatar now and I'm sure—

The boy had moved from simple incompetence to willful rebellion. This was the closest Fire Lord Ozai had ever been to feeling he had a son.

"So you just want something and then it appears?" Sokka tried to drop his spirit-parka into the spirit-muck they were trudging through, but it spirited itself right back onto his shoulders when he blinked. Solution: shove it off again, and never blink.

"How is this so hard for you to grasp," his little temporary-truce-founded-on-awful-sisters buddy grumped. "Do peasants not want things hard enough? Is that why you're still peasants? When I want something, I just—"

The kid stumbled. And hugged his arms over his chest. And started turning the most interesting shade of red. Sokka's eyes watered from the not-blinking, but he was pretty sure he was seeing this right.

"...Is there a particular reason you're hiding a plushie Appa under your shirt?"

"I'm NOT."

Sokka summoned his inner Gran-Gran, and gave the prince a look. Said prince blushed down to his collarbone.

"It's not mine, it must be yours." He shoved the toy into Sokka's chest and stomp-sloshed off.

Its fur was the softest thing Sokka had ever imagined. His heart actually melted a little, just touching it. He blinked, and wasn't even mad when his parka came back, because the fuzzy-wuzzy Appa in his hands was just so soft.

"You are going to be very disappointed when you touch the real Appa."

"I don't want to pet your smelly bison!"

"Uh-huh. You realize I can never take you seriously again, right little buddy?"

The Appa had a squeaker, Sokka was delighted to find.

Squeakers attracted giant elbow leeches, he was less enthused to discover.

Ozai dipped a quill, and inked another letter to Zhao.

Zuko stumbled out of the bamboo grove and back into the real world, too busy wiping off spirit slime that no longer existed to shove Sokka back into the swamp behind them. Which Sokka deserved. Ten times over, he deserved it.

"Ugh, that was worse than unagi vomit," Zuko said.

"Wasn't that just salt water?" Sokka asked, beating at a leech that was no longer wrapped around his arm but he could still feel it eww eww eww.

"It came out of an unagi's stomach."

"Didn't really look like it came out of its stomach. I don't know where it came out of," Sokka said. Which didn't make it better. At all. Both of them let the subject drop.

Which was good timing, because Sokka's awful sister was here.

"What happened in there?" she demanded, looking back and forth between the two of them, her expression somewhere between confusion and looking like she'd touched a giant elbow leech.

Zuko looked at Sokka who was looking at Zuko.

"...Don't remember," Zuko said.

"Got to use the bathroom!" Sokka said, and literally ran away from this conversation.

The waterbender was staring down at Zuko. She seemed murderous and a little nervous, like Azula on those two times Zuko figured out a firebending move before her. Also, the Avatar was standing on the tallest rooftop in town—when had Zuko gotten to a town?—and preaching peace and friendship and Could we please not light any villages on fire this time, please? down at the masked firebenders below. They hadn't surrounded his position. They didn't look like they were even trying to.

"Sir," one of them said. It as the kind of Sir that said This is not how I imagined my evening going.

"Lieutenant Jee," Zuko acknowledged. And swallowed. "Where is—?"

"General Iroh is back at the ship, sir."

There was a lot more in those words, too.

Zuko took the reigns of the offered komodo-rhino, and didn't even look at the Avatar again before he left. Which he regretted when he got to the ship, and Uncle was fine. He was smiling and chuckling and Zuko resigned himself to a hug that he definitely didn't want as he stepped within grabbing range.

One of the crewman brought in a pot of tea. And poured.

Uncle's smile was a little strained as he looked down at Zuko, and did not even try to reach for him.

"Sir," Lieutenant Jee said, and he wasn't talking to Zuko.

"Ah, well. The spirit world and giant elbow leeches were a much grander adventure than mine. Perhaps I could tell you, while we drink? I will require… some assistance."

Uncle let his sleeves slip back.

"Your hands." Zuko stared down at the thick white bandages. He thought a lot of things all at once, like When I'm Fire Lord I'm going to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground and This wouldn't have happened if I had my fire and I'd have my fire if I listened to Father and Who's going to fix the clasp on the waterbender's necklace now?

Uncle clearly needed a hug but was being too stubborn to ask. Zuko gave him one anyway.