That night, Aang sighed as he entered his new home. He stumbled down the steps and sat heavily on the thick, white carpet. Katara entered soon after, not looking any happier. She got out her sleeping bag and tossed Aang some sticks of dried seal jerky. He grabbed the end of a stick in his teeth and wrenched his head from side to side, trying to pull it free. His hands lost their grip and the rest of the stick smacked him in the face. Katara put a stick of it in her mouth and chewed several times, then bit it off easily. This was dinner.

After dinner, Sokka came back. "How's warrior training going?" Katara asked.

Sokka yelled and kicked his sleeping bag. "That bad?" asked Aang. Drat. He'd been hoping someone had good news.

Sokka lay down heavily and sighed. "No, it's Princess Yue," he snapped. "I don't get it. One minute she wants to go out with me, and the next she's telling me to get lost." He looked at each of them. "So how's waterbending training?"

Katara flopped down onto her sleeping bag. "Master Poop-head won't teach her because she's a girl," Aang explained.

"Why don't you just teach her, Aang?" Sokka suggested.

Katara raised her head. "Why didn't I think of that?" She stood up, suddenly looking alert and full of energy. She turned to Aang. "At night, you can teach me whatever moves you learn from Master Pakku. That way you have someone to practice with and I get to learn waterbending. Everyone's happy!"

Aang tried to say something supportive, but was cut off by a huge yawn. "Maybe starting tomorrow? I'm really tired. Today felt so long, like it was hours longer than it should have been."

"Yeah, we're going to feel like that for a few days," Sokka said. "We're out of sync. We arrived here in what we would consider late morning, and the banquet was only a few hours later, so it was lunch to us. The sleep we got last 'night' was just a really long afternoon nap. Then you stayed awake for the whole night, or what the rest of the world considers night, anyway. Here it was day. I'm confused and so are our bodies."

"Just one move," Katara pleaded. "It doesn't have to be very long. Please?"

Aang yawned again and stood up. He followed Katara out the tunnel-shaped opening that was their door. Tarao had found them a small, comfortable single-story building to stay in that was a moderate distance from the palace and located on the upper level of the city. The city was really two cities stacked on top of each other: on top of all the large, fancy buildings at canal level sat small homes like this one arranged in rooftop courtyards, complete with tiny rooftop fountains. Katara spotted an alleyway below that looked like a perfect spot for discreet waterbending practice. In order to reach it, they had to cross two bridges to a stairway where they could descend to ground level.

To keep himself awake on the walk, Aang asked, "Did you see Yagoda? How was it?"

"I went to see her." A pause. "It was fine. I learned how to use my waterbending to heal. That'll be useful."

Aang looked up at her. "You're leaving something out, aren't you?"

Katara kicked at a bit of ice on the ground. "Zuko showed up. He nearly got himself killed trying to fight the water spirit. The whole class had to stop to patch him up and take him to the hospital."

The mention of Zuko woke Aang up with a jolt. He blinked at the word hospital. Then he shook his head and looked away. "I'm sorry your class got interrupted."

"Yeah," Katara muttered. "I didn't realize until that happened how much everything revolved around him before. That's what he does: comes stomping in demanding that everyone cater to him and pay attention to him. We even had to watch what we said in our conversations for fear it would set him off. I'm glad we don't have to live like that anymore. I only wish we had listened to Sokka sooner."

"You said it," Aang agreed. "He never did anything for us. Honestly, now that he's gone, I've barely even noticed it." Katara nodded. Actually, Aang had caught himself several times during Master Pakku's lesson thinking of how important it was that he master the move he was learning so he could beat Zuko. He'd had to forcibly remind himself not to care. Master Pakku frowned at him when he did this; Aang thought it was because the master disliked him turning his focus away from the lesson. But Katara didn't need to know any of that.

They arrived in the alleyway. Aang lifted up a stream of water from the canal to begin the lesson.

.

That night, Master Pakku couldn't get to sleep. His after-dinner cup of tea failed to relax him as it usually did, and he tossed and turned. He found himself thinking of that girl who wanted to learn waterbending. She was bound to be trouble. He got out of bed and dressed himself, then went outside.

That girl. She was just another impetuous youngster who wanted the world to cater to her every whim. He was doing her a favor by teaching her how to obey and respect. But that assumed she heeded the lesson. Something about her told Master Pakku she wouldn't. He had met and spoken briefly with Tarao after lessons concluded earlier. He headed straight for the Avatar's lodgings.

Of course, one did not get to be an old master without learning to be mindful. Pakku wondered why he was so infuriated by this girl. Perhaps she reminded him of something or someone else. He stopped and closed his eyes, remembering Kanna. She, too, had chafed under expectations. She had wanted to make a name for herself in the community instead of settling down in marriage at a young age. And in the end… Pakku opened his eyes. That desire had driven her from her home and broken the hearts of those who cared for her. All going your own way did was create disaster and pain. Really, he was trying to save this new girl from a danger she couldn't see coming. He wasn't so much infuriated by her as protective. As usual, he would probably receive no thanks for his efforts. No young person could ever show proper gratitude to their elders these days.

From a distance, he saw her and the Avatar leave. Immediately he suspected he knew what they were up to. He followed them, his blood boiling. He watched from above as the Avatar taught her a fighting move. His fists clenched. The girl learned the move much faster than the Avatar had. She exclaimed happily, proud of herself.

Pakku wasn't sure why he chose that moment, in the midst of her happiness, to wrench her water away from her. They looked up at him in shock. The delight fell from her face, replaced by fear. Pakku narrowed his eyes. Good. That should show her.

The Avatar tried to justify himself. Pakku cut him off. "You have disrespected me, my teachings, and my entire culture," he said. "You are no longer welcome as my student." He then turned and walked away. Was that harsh? Yes. Sometimes one needed to be harsh. Pakku was able to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Something inside him that had been itching was now pacified. He returned to his bed and was able to get some sleep.

Unusually, he had the same dream two nights in a row. It had always been sporadic before. But now he found himself again in that same ice canyon, unable to find his way out. He searched and searched, but could not find a clear path. Suddenly, in the distance, he saw her. The girl who would be a warrior. She disappeared. He ran to the spot where she had been standing and looked all around - this part of the canyon was a dead end on all sides - but didn't see her. Where had she gone?

Had she somehow escaped?

.

The internal screaming continued for as long as it could. When Zuko finally drifted to the surface of consciousness, many hours later, he was bone tired. His entire body felt drained in a way it never had before. He passed hours in a semiawake state, sometimes thinking and sometimes dreaming. His thoughts were formless and he didn't remember them, while his dreams were unusually vivid. He started to gasp for breath. He was having a nightmare about being covered in indestructible ants. He forced his eyes open to drive it away. The sensation of crawling insect legs faded, but he realized how deeply exhausted he was. He sighed. I would rather be covered in ants. Almost.

He stared up at the darkness of the ceiling. So tired. His eyes began to drift closed. As soon as they closed, a vision of the pond flashed before him. His eyes flew open again. If every muscle in his body had not frozen in fear, he would have screamed. He couldn't stop. He couldn't rest, couldn't give in. Giving up meant death!

Zuko turned onto his right side so he wouldn't be tempted to sleep again, and tried to think. He had attacked the water spirit and lost. Master Pakku was right; it was too powerful. Before he could follow that thought to any kind of conclusion, another intruded. He remembered what the fire spirit had done. It stopped my firebending. He then remembered dreams he had that featured painful burning sensations, and one time where he had tried to hold a secret conversation with a candle when nobody was watching, and grass whistles, and… It was a long time before he was able to rein in his thoughts and return to the present moment. It stopped my firebending. Because it is my firebending. With a quick movement of his left hand, he made a small burst of flame that disappeared as quickly as it came. The warmth he felt in his hand was mild, easily missed. The heat he felt in his belly was strong, distinct, and didn't usually move. They didn't seem connected, but they were. Zuko stared at the flame long after it had gone out. I thought my belly was only the point where we were linked. But actually it's like a, a doorway. They can send their power through. My bending isn't my bending. It's the fire spirit's bending.

The discovery did not immediately shock him. It seemed unreal, remote. He stared at the place where the flame had been and thought about other things, things which drifted through his mind as quickly as the wind. Nothing seemed real or important to him at that time.

His eyes started to drift closed again. He was so tired. But he forced them open out of a conviction that he must not give in. He had no idea why not, but he obeyed the conviction anyway. He tried to catch his breath. He was also very cold. Cold like the water spirit. Hey, if the fire spirit's my firebending, what about the water spirit? He lifted his hand. It took a lot of effort. While he was doing that, a foreign sensation that he had never felt before trickled down his arm, into his hand. It felt like a stream of cold water running through his veins. He knew. Before trying, he knew.

He tried anyway. Zuko exhaled, a cold and watery feeling having settled around his throat too. The ice next to him turned to water. He reached out with his hand and picked up the water, lifted it into the air, a stream of water waving back and forth. This was the water spirit's power. But also, it was… It was inside him, so it was really the same as the hands-free firebending he had done once, he was just moving the power out of his belly into his hands so he could control it better…

Thinking so hard drained the last of his energy. His hand fell to the ground. The water splashed. His eyes closed and he slept. Beside his head, the water turned to ice and made itself look just like the floor around it. Nobody need ever know.