A fireball blasts pasts past Aang and lands on the emblem of the Water Tribe, destroying it. The city shakes. Men yell as they are thrown back from the impact. Yue is in the palace. The others went to fight. Even Katara. Yue is making herself useful, setting up cots in the palace for when —if— the healer's huts overflow. She grinds up herbs so that they are ready and fresh when the wounded arrive. She calls for people to bring blankets if they can spare any, for those who might have infected wounds and start fevering. Her hands are not allowed to shake when a fireblast rattles the city. She might fall off the earth but her hands must not shake.
The first to be wounded seems almost ashamed as he is brought in with a shattered leg and scrapes all over. He was too close to a blast and got pinned and had to wait until some waterbenders had a moment of free time. Yue stands by patiently as the more experienced healers work. She paid close attention to what they did as she knew she would most likely be pushed out of her comfort zone and knowledge before the siege was done. Even her attendants, usually there only for her, were scurrying around whenever something had to be done for anyone.
Within an hour, the cots are all full. Many will be out fighting again the next day, whether they should or not. At two hours, they have to make more pastes and poultices. At four hours, Yue's feet are sore and her brow tired from worrying. The men start asking for her to be there since they know she has been blessed by the moon spirit. At eight hours, they whisper she is a spirit herself of healing and will ensure that they survive. Yue doesn't think that they might survive her attempt at setting shattered bone and sewing up bloody, ragged-looking bellies. She worries about Mrs. Huemodo, who is rolling bandages around wounds instead of rolling out dough is tense, with a kind of fierceness in her eyes that makes Yue worry. At ten hours, Katara appears and drags the princess out of the room. The others push her out as well, saying that they've all taken breaks as well. Yue admits she could use the fresh air.
The air smells like soot, smoke, and fire. The ground still shakes, and she can hear the distant shouts and screams clearer. Yue can see houses that have been utterly destroyed. She looks away before she sees bodies dismembered in the snow.
"How are you doing?" Katara asks.
"It doesn't matter. I'm doing what I can to help them."
"Yue, how are you?" Katara insists.
"I'm... managing. It's hard."
"Yeah, fighting like this... at least I can make a difference this time." Katara's eyes lower and Yue feels guilty. From what Sokka told her about his tribe, it seemed like they needed help badly and still do. She made a mental note to talk about it with her father later if they survived this. And if they still had enough resources to travel that far and give aid.
"You must be making all the difference now. You look like you've been fighting hard."
"Thank you."
Yue doesn't answer as she realizes the fireblasts that have been punctuating their words have stopped.
"They've stopped firing." She looks upwards and sees Appa and the Avatar, Aang swoop down and land in front of them. They rush down the steps of the palace to them.
"Aang!"Katara shouts as Appa slumps down onto the ground.
Aang slides down Appa. "I can't do it." He puts his head in his hands. "I can't do it," He repeats.
"What happened?" Katara asks.
"I must have taken out a dozen Fire Navy ships, but there's just too many of them. I can't fight them all."
"But, you have to!" Yue blurts out before she can stop herself. "You're the Avatar!"
"I'm just one kid," Aang says, and Yue feels incredibly guilty for saying what she did. He didn't ask for this world. None of them did. And he was the one who had to fix it. Katara sits down next to him and places an arm around him.
Zuko hooks the canoe onto the rope that will lower it down with his supplies: rope, and some food. Water was abundant. His armour lays back in his bunk where he left it. Zhao had just called off the attack for the night. Zuko remembers his uncle telling him that the waterbenders draw power from the moon. That night was to be full, so they would be at the height of their power. The door behind Zuko opens and closes. Zuko knows it is his uncle.
"If you're fishing for an octopus, my nephew, you need a tightly woven net or he will squeeze through the tiniest hole and escape." Iroh offers.
"I don't need your wisdom right now, Uncle." I just need the Avatar.
"I'm sorry, I just nag you because, well, ever since I lost my son..." Iroh looks away. Zuko feels a pang of guilt echo through him.
"Uncle, you don't have to say it," Zuko tells him.
"I think of you as my own." Iroh lets the words out. Zuko turns, concerned for him. "I know, Uncle." He bows to him. "We'll meet again." He promises. Iroh rushes forward and embraces the young prince. Zuko longs to stay in his embrace but is scared to do so and steps away from his uncle. "... After I have the Avatar." Zuko climbs in the canoe and begins to lower himself down.
"Remember your Breath of Fire! It could save your life out there!"
"I will."
"And put your hood up, keep your ears warm!"
"I'll be fine."
Zuko glides through the water, silently paddling through the icy water, hiding behind tiny icebergs that protected him from the guards at the top of the outer wall of the Water Tribe. He quietly scrapes onto the ice shore at the base of the outer corner of the wall. He walks along the wall, hoping to find something when he notices the turtle seals disappearing beneath the ice.
"Where are they going? They're coming up for air somewhere..." Zuko squints as he sees that they are diving into a hole in the ice. Determined, he takes a deep breath and plunges into the deep.
"The legends say the moon was the first waterbender. Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides and learned how to do it themselves." Yue looks out over the city. The air has settled. The healers had caught up with the injured and were now finding greater success with the moon overhead. The patients still asked for her, and she did her best to spend time with each one.
"I've always noticed my waterbending is stronger at night," Katara comments.
"Our strength comes from the Spirit of the Moon, our life comes from the Spirit of the Ocean. They work together to keep balance."
Aang springs up. "The spirits! Maybe I can find them and get their help!"
"How can you do that?" Yue wonders if this is some strange Avatar thing.
"The Avatar is the bridge between our world and the Spirit World. Aang can talk to them!" Katara informs her brightly.
"Maybe they'll give you the wisdom to win this battle!" Spirits know that what she had been meditating on.
Aang spread his arms. "Or, maybe they'll unleash a crazy amazing spirit attack on the Fire Nation!" Silence meets them as Yue isn't quite sure what to say to this very... spiritual and wise Avatar.
'Or wisdom. That's good too."
"The only problem is, last time you got to the Spirit World by accident. How are you going to get there this time?"
Yue knows exactly how she can help. "I have an idea, follow me." She leads them to the back of the palace, to a courtyard directly behind it. She stops in front of a small wooden half door. She doesn't know where the wood came from, as trees are rather scarce in an arctic wasteland, or why the door is only half size, but she likes to think the wood is from a special spiritual place and the size of the door is so that you must bow to the spirits before entering their space.
"So is this the way to the Spirit World?" Aang asks, skeptical.
Yue laughs. "No, you'll have to get there on your own. But I can take you to the most spiritual place in the entire North Pole." She swings the door open to reveal the—
"Grass!" The Avatar shouts and runs to the grassy patch over a small bridge. To the back of him is a large waterfall. In the grassy patch, there is a pond, that held to koi fish that always circled each other for as long as Yue knew. And she had the sense that it had been that way for all of eternity, but she couldn't know for sure. Besides, Koi fish didn't live that long, did they? A paifang is erected behind Aang.
"I never thought I'd miss grass this much!" The boy lays on the grass fondly. The flying lemur, Momo, seems to appreciate as well, in much the same way. Katara takes off her overcoat.
"It's so warm here! How is that possible?"
"It's the center of all spiritual energy in our land." Yue smiles. The smoke and soot and fire hadn't tainted this place yet. But Momo was about to! The lemur tried fishing in the pond for the koi fish. Yue and Katara glared down disapprovingly at the poor creature and he scampered off to some other mischief.
"You're right, Yue. I can feel...something...it's so...tranquil." The boy sits down cross-legged in front of the pond with the koi fish. He closes his eyes and places his two fists together. Yue recognizes the hand position as a more obscure one used for meditation. Perhaps it was more popular a hundred years ago? Or maybe with the air nomads? Was he even meditating?
"Why is he sitting like that?" She whispers to Katara.
"He's meditating — trying to cross over into the Spirit World. It takes all his concentration."
"Is there any way we can help?" Yue asks.
"How 'bout some quiet!" Aang twists around to glare at them. "C'mon guys! I can hear every word you're saying!" Yue presses her lips together and tries to be as quiet as she can.
Zuko's lungs burn for air as he finally surfaces. The rest of him is cold, too cold. He uses his Breath of Fire to warm himself up. Slightly warmer than before, he rises up and looks around the cavern. Turtle seals are barking nonstop.
"Be quiet!" He yells. They momentarily stop as he shoves past them, angrily pushing their heads aside. The resume as soon as he is past and Zuko is still feeling the burn of his lungs so he doesn't yell again. Besides, he could alert the Water Tribe warriors to his presence. A tunnel that is gushing water seems like a safe bet. He climbs in, fighting to keep a grip on the slippery walls. He finally reaches a pool of water and swims to the top to find a small pocket of air. After regaining his breath, he swims down another tunnel. His lungs start to burn even worse than before so when he sees what looks like an exit his swims as fast as he can towards it. Running into ice again, he growls and heats his hands up. He places them on the ice that is just thin enough that he can break through and breathe in sweet, sweet air. He had made it into a tunnel that opened right into the Water Tribe city. The Avatar is here...
The Avatar begins to glow! Well, not all of him. Just his tattoos. Yue gasps.
"Is he okay?"
"He's crossing into the Spirit World. He'll be fine as long as we don't move his body. That's his way back to the physical world."
Yue nods but is still concerned. "Maybe we should get some help?" Surely a few guards would be helpful in case anything happened.
"No, he's my friend. I'm perfectly capable of protecting him." Katara says confidently.
"Well, aren't you a big girl now?" A voice rings out across to them. Yue doesn't recognize it but Katara seems to.
"No!" She shouts at a young man who is stalking towards them across the bridge. He is dressed in grey, with a determined look in his eyes. He wears his shiny black hair in a high ponytail. A burn mark covers his left eye. Yue had seen too many burn marks that day.
"Yes! Hand him over, and I won't have to hurt you." Yue glances at the Avatar, so helpless in his current state. Katara assumes a fighting stance and Yue decides to run to get help. The young man doesn't stop her. She hears fire behind her as she bursts through the wooden door.
Yue runs through the courtyard and around to the front of the palace. Sokka is rushing out and they grab each other's arms.
"Yue! What's wrong? Your father told me to guard you."
"Sokka! Aang needs help!"
"What wait!?" Sokka asks, eyes wide.
"A firebender showed up after he crossed over to the spirit world and is fighting Katara!" She hurriedly explains the situation. The pair run to grab Appa. Yue hauls herself up into the sky bison's saddle as a single "yip yip" launches them into the air. Adrenaline rushes through her veins alongside an icy fear.
It takes them what feels like ages to land behind the palace, next to Katara. Aang is nowhere to be seen. Katara groggily opens her eyes with pain apparent on her face.
"What happened? Where's Zuko?" Sokka asks as they slide down onto the ground. Zuko. That must be the young man's name. They must have encountered him before. Yue wonders who he is.
"He took Aang. He took him right out from under me." Katara stares at the grass where Aang had just been a few minutes ago.
"Where did they go?" Sokka asks. Katara can't answer, but there's only one place he must have been trying to take Aang.
Avatar draped over his shoulders, Zuko trudges through the deep snowdrifts and howling wind above the Water Tribe city. The snow is so cold they feel like tiny knives attacking his skin. He doesn't know how the Avatar was walking around in only his thin monk clothes. It was almost too easy to capture him from the Water Tribe girl. But he knew that the other would be bringing reinforcements soon enough. Probably the boy and the bison. Zuko didn't recognize the young woman that ran off. She seemed important, certainly better dressed than the others. She was also the first person he had ever seen wear purple, or be so obviously young with snow-white hair. Odd. He stumbled as his right foot sank in a softer pile of snow. Huffing, he pulled it out and carried on.
Crack! The ground beneath them splits open. Zuko jumps forwards and begins running as fast as he can as the ground collapses beneath them. He barely stays ahead of the splintering ice.
"Shelter!" A cave ahead of him seems promising and Zuko manages to reach it, throwing the Avatar in ahead of him. Zuko pants as he is finally on solid ground. Sighing, he stands and grabs the young boy's shoulders and puts him into a more comfortable position leaning against the wall.