A/N: I only noticed as I was doing research for this chapter that the symbol on the wall of the Northern Water Tribe isn't the symbol of the Water Tribes. It's one that's unique to the Northern Tribe. And the king wears a special necklace with that same symbol on it, a detail I never noticed before. The people who made this show put so much work into making the fictional world realistic, even in ways that aren't obvious and that nobody would notice unless they were looking. I really respect that.

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After the Avatar explained that he was there for training and described everyone else as his friends, the waterbenders dispatched one of their boats at extra speed as a messenger. They then escorted Appa the rest of the way to the Northern Water Tribe. Aang and co. rounded the corner of a glacier and there it was: an enormous wall etched with a symbol that brought to mind the moon and the ocean. The wall was exactly as enormous as Sokka had predicted, and they could see guard towers on it. The waterbenders bent a portion of the wall into a tunnel, and Appa swam through. There was light in the tunnel, but it was a faint, eerie light that seemed to have no source. It had trickled through the ice itself. There was no more talking. They were someplace they had never been before, nor even imagined, and even Momo could not chatter in the face of such awesome things.

After the tunnel, they passed through a lock raised and lowered by waterbenders. After the lock, the water Appa swam in turned into a canal. He followed more boats through the canals, through more locks, towards the heart of the Northern Water Tribe.

The Northern Water Tribe had built their city in tiers. As soon as Appa cleared the first lock, they all saw that Sokka had been right again. In the distance, an icy palace rose against the backdrop of the glaciers. The locks also appeared to guide the division of the city; the first lock brought Appa to the outer stretches where people and working beasts were on watch but there were no houses, the second opened onto a series of canals lined with mansions, and the third… The third lifted them up into a completely different world. As the final icy wall fell, a city bursting with architecture rushed into their eyes. It was more than even Sokka had predicted. Nobody could have predicted the profusion of bridges, columns and ornate windows. There were even fountains, which was somehow both ironic and the complete opposite. As they got closer and closer to the palace, broad sidewalks faded and the steps of the buildings opened directly onto the water, suggesting that the upper-upper crust traveled entirely by boat.

They saw one such person now. A woman with snow white hair that shone in the icelight passed by. The sight of her made Sokka forget all about the architectural wonders that surrounded them. She was beautiful. He saw nothing else after that.

The boats led them to the foot of a large staircase leading up to the palace. Men of regal bearing and uniformed outfits were waiting. The Avatar's group was flanked by a four-man honor party that escorted them up the steps. Aang tried to greet them. "Thank you for meeting us. It's nice to meet you." But, true to their regal stature, none of the men replied.

At the top of the steps stood someone who looked very unremarkable, along with four others. He wore pretty much the same uniform as everyone else: a dark blue coat with white trim. The only special thing about his appearance was the large necklace he wore with the same crest as had appeared on the wall. It was easy to miss in this lighting. But he stepped forward as the honor guard stepped back, and addressed the Avatar. "Welcome to the Northern Water Tribe." He looked at Katara and Sokka, then at Zuko and Iroh. "Come, introduce yourselves," he told them, and turned away. Two of the honor guard and all of the four strangers stepped away and went with him. Aang and co. followed.

As they entered the palace, two of the guards stayed behind at either side of the door. The other four revealed themselves to be advisors, or relatives, or just people of very high position who also needed to know about the visitors. At the far end of the spacious room, flanked by an enormous mirrored gate and backed by a waterfall, were two steps, each of which had several seats. The king sat on the center seat of the first step, and the other four on the second step behind him. This was his audience chamber. Aang and co. remained standing before him, as there were no seats for them. The king extended his hand and nodded.

"I'm Aang," Aang began. "I'm the Avatar." He demonstrated his airbending, throwing blasts of air in two directions before blowing a gust over the king and his advisors. They all sat up and smiled, clearly pleased. Two of the advisors whispered to each other.

Katara raised her hand. "I'm Katara and this is my brother, Sokka. We're from the Southern Water Tribe." Sokka waved. The king smiled and nodded at them respectfully.

"I'm, uh, Lee, and this is my uncle…Mushi," Zuko said. Iroh shot him a look. "We're travelers who need help with a troublemaking water spirit."

One of the advisors looked skeptical. He was an older man with gray hair drawn up in a bun. But aside from briefly narrowing his eyes at Zuko, he said nothing. The king nodded at them too. "Welcome, all of you. In honor of the Avatar's presence in our great city, I declare a banquet." He rose and gestured for one of the four advisors, the one farthest to his right, to rise with him. "Tarao manages the royal houses. He will find you comfortable accommodations."

Sokka nearly melted at this news. "This guy and I will get along very nicely," he said, pointing to Tarao.

The rest were about to follow suit and make all the customary expressions of gratitude and deference, but Zuko interrupted. "Excuse me," he said. "That's something we need to discuss among ourselves. Can you give us a few minutes?" The king looked displeased to be talked to in such a manner. The advisor with the bun looked at Zuko again. "Your Majesty," Zuko belatedly added, bowing. The king, still frowning, gave his assent. Zuko led them to the side of the enormous room, far enough from both the king and the guards that they could speak.

"What's your problem now?" Sokka snapped. "That guy is about to take us to comfortable beds!"

"Separate housing?" Katara guessed. "I was already planning to request that."

"No," Zuko said. "Well, yes, but I want to talk about more than housing." He took a deep breath and looked at each of them. "Now that we've reached the Northern Water Tribe, there's no more reason for us to have anything to do with each other. This alliance is officially dissolved."

All of them were shocked. Even Katara couldn't speak for a moment. Yes, that had been the official plan from the start, but… They had never been people to adhere to rigid plans and rules. Running from the Fire Nation had made them into adaptable people who went with the flow and struck when there was opportunity. The flow was all wrong right now and opportunity was unstruck. Who would expect Zuko to bail out in the middle?

"But we still need to do something about the water spirit," Aang said.

"No. You don't." Zuko gave Aang an odd look that gave everyone else a bad feeling. It was the look of someone who had just decided to give up caution and race off a cliff. "I've been keeping secrets from you," he told them. "I've been lying."

"You can't lie," Katara whispered, suddenly very, very scared of where he was leading them.

"Yes I can," Zuko told her, a frightening look of triumph on his face. "I let you believe the water spirit was after us. It's not. It's only after me."

Sokka's jaw dropped open. "You mean that if we'd left you in the Earth Kingdom somewhere like I suggested, we never would have had a problem."

"That's right. That's why I didn't tell you. I needed you to bring me here first."

All of them were shocked, again. His words hit like an axe. Sokka recovered first and clenched his fists. "We almost died because of you! If you hadn't been there, we'd have been perfectly safe dodging rocks."

Zuko nodded.

"You nearly got us killed!"

Zuko nodded again. His face was fixed in that same dangerous, triumphant, let caution to the wind look. He showed no sign of remorse, no guilt, no shame, nor even concern.

Katara's mouth hung open. She struggled to speak. Her eyes filled with tears. "I was right. You were keeping dangerous secrets that could get us all killed. You couldn't be trusted." She blinked, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I can't believe it. I thought we had things in common. I thought we could understand each other. But I would never betray anyone the way you just did, and I don't want to understand someone who can." She took a step back.

"But you helped us," Aang protested, fear edging his voice. He didn't want to believe it.

Zuko's face remained fixed. He looked at Aang coldly, heartlessly. His lips twitched into a faint smile. "Of course I did."

Katara gasped in horror. "You accused me of being manipulative, but you - you hypocrite!"

Zuko gave her the same look. "I have a duty. I will do whatever I must in order to accomplish it."

Sokka looked at him with the purest disgust and contempt. "Wow. I was starting to think I was wrong about you. But I wasn't. I was right about you all along. We should have dumped you when we had the chance." He turned to Aang. "Come on, Aang. We need to ask for a place to stay far away from this jerk."

"But… What was all that stuff you said?" Aang asked Zuko.

"Meaningless," Zuko replied. "Haven't you gotten the hint yet? Even Brickhead over here knows by now. I. Don't. Like. You. I don't want you around. I don't care about you at all. I only needed you to get me here. Now that you've done that, I don't want to see your ugly little face again unless it's in chains. Go."

Aang's legs wobbled. His wide eyes filled with tears. Momo's fur bristled as he hissed at Zuko. Aang wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "I…" He took a second look at Zuko. "I hate you too." He turned away. "You're right, Sokka. Let's go." They left.

Zuko watched them go. His expression remained unchanged. His body stayed exactly as rigid and his breathing exactly as deep as it had been before. Meanwhile, Iroh took the risk of getting back on his own two feet. He had been propping himself against the wall for the past several minutes for fear he would faint. "Nephew," he asked in a trembling voice, "what did you just do?"

Zuko looked at him. "What I must." Iroh looked in his eyes and did not recognize who he saw there. His heart pounded. What had happened to his beloved nephew? What had this stranger done to him?

Zuko looked across the room and saw Tarao glancing up at him. "They better not have revealed me as a firebender," he muttered. "He would get in serious trouble for admitting to having brought an enemy firebender behind the wall under false pretenses. Come on, Uncle." He strode across the room extremely steadily, his footsteps never faltering or changing at all. Iroh followed, because what else could he do? For the second time in his life, he felt completely and entirely powerless. The first time had been when he'd returned to the Fire Nation for good and seen his younger brother as Firelord. Correction: when he saw the man who used to be his younger brother. His brother was gone, and now a hard and ruthless stranger had taken his place. Iroh felt sick to his stomach, nauseated and cold. He remembered that Aunt Wu had predicted a critically important decision in his future, and plunged into a sea of despair. Whatever the decision was, he'd made the wrong one. He had somehow failed and lost the nephew he loved as a son the same way he had lost his brother. Iroh struggled to maintain his composure as long as they were still in royal company. It was a struggle he was well practiced at.

Tarao had clearly been told they were not on friendly terms, but not that Zuko was from the Fire Nation. He gave them the same brisk and practical treatment he might give anyone whose personal situation was relevant to their housing. He stood between Aang's party on his right and Zuko on his left as they descended the stairs, and pointed to the right when they reached the bottom. "I have a specific building in mind for you that way," he told Aang. He then turned to Zuko and pointed to the left. "And for you, one that way." They all nodded, turned and walked in the indicated directions.

Iroh noticed it when one of Zuko's steps stopped short. He suddenly realized that Zuko's constant and unchanging appearance ever since the breakup was abnormal and could not be natural. He glanced up. Zuko took another deep breath, but it was labored. He struggled to draw breath into his lungs, as if… As if he was in great pain! Iroh could have wept from happiness. All was not yet lost! He still had a chance.

Iroh watched Zuko, who he now recognized, like a falcon from then on. He needed to wait for the perfect moment, then strike. All was not going to turn out well in the end. If he didn't act, he would lose Zuko to a fate worse than death. He drew hope now from Aunt Wu's prophecy. Perhaps the decision had yet to happen. When it did, he would make the right choice.

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Zuko did not wonder if he'd made the right choice. He knew he had. Yes, his entire chest area ached, and Katara's words stung relentlessly, and his vision was wavering from side to side and he felt hot and wasn't sure how far he could walk. But that was normal. The cost of doing the right thing, the good thing, the proper thing, had always been some degree of pain to himself. It would wear off eventually. If anything, the amount of agony he was in now was proof of the supreme rightness of his actions. If nothing that brought him happiness was proper or right, then surely everything that brought him unhappiness was? The mental voice praised him. Look at you, making the hard choices. Perhaps you are starting to grow up after all. It sounded more like his father's voice than it usually did.

Tarao returned from showing the Avatar to his new home. "This way," he said. There was no trace of concern in his voice, no sappiness. Just dignity and purpose and the doing of what must be done. Zuko admired that. That was the kind of person he should be, the kind of person his father was. Hopefully shredding his relationship with the Avatar to little tiny pieces was the first step towards becoming such a person.

Fortunately their accommodations weren't far. Iroh thanked Tarao for his guidance. Zuko nodded along. They went inside. Zuko shuddered and sank to the floor, gasping for air. Iroh sat across from him. Before he could say anything, Zuko mustered the air to say, "I'm fine, Uncle. I'm okay."

"I've heard too many men dying of fatal wounds to believe that," Iroh said. His voice was harder than usual. Sterner. Zuko internally groaned. Oh no. He's not going to get in my way, is he?

"It's not fatal. I'll get better," Zuko said. "It just took a lot out of me to say those things."

"Then why did you say them?"

He's definitely going to get in my way. Zuko decided not to tell Iroh any more. He looked up and summoned his own sternest look to match Iroh's. "Because I had to. You know this, Uncle."

Iroh looked eager to argue. If he did, Zuko was prepared to argue back. He challenged Iroh relentlessly. Iroh closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I will get our pack from the bison," he said, "and make tea. Stay here and rest."

Zuko stretched out on his belly on the carpeted floor and moaned. There were pelts already hanging on the walls, but he was in no shape to bring them down and make a bed out of them. He let his eyes roll around the room and take in what they could. The building had multiple floors, and the far right corner from the door was a spiraling staircase. The ground floor was one giant room with a firepit in the center. He knew by now that that was exactly what one should expect from a Water Tribe house. He let his eyes roll closed and shivered. A mental image of the Avatar looking sad on that rooftop in the air temple flashed before his eyes, making him wince. The things he said to the boy weren't true, not yet. They were aspirations. Hopefully saying them enough times would make them true. He wanted, more than anything else, not to care. "You hypocrite!" Katara's words made him cringe. She might as well have plunged a dagger into his chest multiple times. He didn't know what miracle of strength had allowed him to maintain his facade through that.

I'm doing the right thing, he told himself. The pain will go away eventually and be replaced with pride. If I can show my father I've changed, become the son he needs me to be, he'll let me come home. If I can just hold on, I'll go home and be honored again. I just have to hold on. He had no doubt that he could. It was what he'd spent his whole life doing. Holding on, and never letting go.

Iroh came back with their pack and their tent. He knelt and took Zuko's temperature. "You shouldn't have done that," he said. "Being so cruel is against your nature. That's why you're sick now."

Zuko shivered. "I'll be fine, Uncle."

Iroh let the matter drop. He unrolled their blankets and bedrolls and placed one next to where Zuko now lay. Zuko crawled on top of it. Iroh made his bed in the far left corner. Between their two beds was a chest, Zuko noticed. Iroh opened it and looked inside. He smiled for the first time since they'd left the palace. "Whatever else might happen, we won't stink!" he said, holding up toiletry supplies. He dug deeper and found a bottle. "Lotion?" He opened the cap and sniffed it. "Mmm… It smells wonderful. I'll have to try it!"

That was the last Zuko heard before passing out.

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The banquet was super awkward. Aang sat at the king's table, on the king's left. Zuko and Iroh sat on the king's right. Zuko looked trashed and still half asleep. Aang averted his gaze. He shouldn't bother with Zuko anymore. He'd thought they had a connection. He'd thought Zuko was cool. He'd thought they could be friends. He'd thought Zuko secretly felt the same way. But now he knew it wasn't true and never had been. Zuko had played on his wishful thinking for his own ends. Aang tried to see the best in everyone, and he had been told that was a good quality. But now, he wasn't sure if he would be able to trust a firebender ever again.

The king announced his brother and sister from the Southern Water Tribe, who had brought two guests with them, as well as someone very special: the Avatar! The people there clapped and cheered. Aang put on a smile and waved at them, but his heart wasn't in it.

Sokka choked on his food. The beautiful white-haired girl from before came up to them! The king turned to his visitors and introduced her to them. "This is Princess Yue, the light of the Northern Water Tribe. Her sixteenth birthday is in a few days. I'll have to hold another banquet then, because on that day she will become of marrying age." He smiled at his daughter as warmly as Hakoda ever had. "It's a day that every father cherishes."

"Please, Father," Princess Yue said, blushing. "It's an honor to meet you, Avatar." She went around them and took the empty seat next to Sokka, who hurriedly swallowed his food.

The king held out his hand. "Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!"

Aang and Katara perked up. This was what they had come for! They watched intently as a man with a long goatee who wore the same dark blue coat as the royal house lifted up an enormous ball of water. With his students, they guided their balls of water around in patterns, fusing them into a large ball that went in a large circle, in smaller circles around each person, over their heads. The coordination was incredible. Multiple people were bending the same water, but it worked because they were bending it exactly the same way with no conflict in their movements. They must have practiced this routine for ages. Maybe they had already been scheduled to perform for the princess' birthday.

With skills honed by years of meditation, Aang cast all thought of firebenders from his mind and immersed himself in the performance. He barely noticed when Katara snorted and said something about princes. He had eyes only for Master Pakku. His hopes grew higher and higher. This was the man who would teach him to be a master waterbender!

Forget about spiritual connections. This was what he needed to be focusing on. Bending power would allow him to defeat the Firelord and save the world. He didn't need to waste his time on an unfriendly jerk. He needed to spend it training. Power was all that mattered.

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After the performance, Master Pakku waited on the stage. He knew what was coming, and he wasn't happy about it. Teaching was fine, he would say. It was the best way for him to contribute to his tribe. But all his plans for the next week were ruined because the Avatar would surely run him ragged. It was like once you earned the title of master, you weren't allowed to have leisure time anymore. Always having to be at the beck and call of young people who had no idea what they were talking about. He didn't get to be this old without learning how to swallow frustration and put up with things, but that didn't mean he had to pretend to be happy about it.

The king brought the Avatar up onto the stage. "Master Pakku, meet your newest student: the Avatar." The boy bowed respectfully to him. Yeah, like that was going to last. Master Pakku knew his type instantly. It was the type he liked least.

"Just because you're destined to save the world, don't expect any special treatment," he told the boy.

The Avatar looked halfway serious for a moment. Then he went back to his youthful blind enthusiasm. "My friend and I can't wait to start training with you, after we relax for a couple days."

Master Pakku's gut sank. That one sentence alone exemplified everything he hated about teaching. The Avatar was lazy, blindly optimistic, and planned to inflict someone else on him, too. Hopefully his friend was a little more dedicated. The world was probably doomed. "If you want to relax, then I suggest visiting a tropical island. If not, I'll see you both at dawn. Good night." He turned and walked away. A looooong night of sleep awaited.

"Hey." But before he could get any, Master Pakku found himself accosted yet again. Iroh's nephew stepped in front of him rudely. "You look like you'd know something. I have a problem with a water spirit. I need to get rid of it. How do I do that?"

Master Pakku was prepared to brush him off out of hand for his rudeness. But when he heard the term "water spirit," he stopped. Knowing nothing else about the spirit in question, the term alone reminded him of things he had learned long ago, ancient wisdom about the world that was difficult to find nowadays. Elemental spirits. He took a second look at Prince Zuko. As it happened, there was a special kind of person that had two opposite elemental spirits associated with them, and one of those people was supposed to have been born in the Fire Nation and be present in the world right about now. So that person was also the prince… Heh, what an amusing coincidence.

In that case, he owed him a response, regardless of rudeness. In Master Pakku's opinion, the role this young man was destined to play in the world was vastly more important than the Avatar's. "I do know things about water spirits," he said. "You can't get rid of it. The spirit of water is too powerful to fight. You'd best learn to cooperate with it instead."

"What?!" The young prince was not happy to hear that. "Ugh. You don't know anything useful. I'll find someone else." He stomped away.

"I'll attend your funeral," Master Pakku called after him. Fighting destiny. Really! Only a fool fought so hard to change the facts of life. He yawned and resumed his bedward journey. Like it or not, he had new students to teach. He swallowed all the complaints he had about that and just hoped it would be over soon.

He had once more a dream that he had often had over the years: trying to find his way out of an ice canyon, but running into endless walls. No matter how he backtracked, he could never find a clear path. His hand clenched over his bedroll. That was how life was, it seemed…

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A/N: The next two chapters, at least, will be released on a weekly basis with no delays. I know this because they are already written. See you all next week.