Water
Preparations
"Everyone in rows," Master Taqqiq called over the noise of the class. "Pair up with whoever is across from you, and I'd better not see anyone switching places, is that understood? Anyone trying to avoid a sparring match with Katara is going to have to fight her twice."
Katara smiled, stretching her arms out as she took a place near the center of the line. She certainly wasn't the best in the class—not yet, anyway—but she was well aware that the boys didn't really enjoy sparring with her. Frankly, she took that as a complement. She didn't always win her matches, but she made it very, very difficult for the others to defeat her.
She probably had Zuko to thank for that. In order to make it through a sparring match with him, she had to be quick and adaptable and above all else, resilient. And the boys in her class, while certainly good at their bending forms, had never really been forced to think on their feet before. Katara couldn't always beat a series of refined, well-practiced waterbending forms, but the boys never knew what to do with her improvisation.
Of course, it was also possible that the boys didn't like the fact that they were being routinely bested by a girl, but Katara tried not to spend too much time dwelling on that. She was here to learn, not to worry about what other people thought of her. Sooner or later, she was going to surpass them all, and once she did, they would have no choice but to respect her. And if, in the meantime, she hit the most sexist among them a little harder than was strictly necessary, then she couldn't see anything wrong with that. They had to learn one way or another.
It took a little while, but eventually, a boy near Katara's age with three beaded braids woven through his wolftail gave in and took the place across from her. He didn't look excited about it, but he at least acknowledged Katara before turning to wait for the rest of Master Taqqiq's instructions. Hmm. Maybe she would go easy on him. Or easier, at least. She wasn't going to roll over and let someone else win just because he'd shown a shred of human decency.
Master Taqqiq gave an approving nod, then clapped once to get the class's attention. "First pair, to the northeast corner. Second pair, northwest. Third—"
From the corner of her eye, Katara saw motion near the entrance of the arena, and her attention pulled away from Master Taqqiq. Her heart skipped. Pakku. She'd been expecting someone to come for her now that Chief Arnook knew the attack was coming, but this seemed early. Very early. And Pakku, of all people—he had a class to teach. Couldn't they have sent someone else?
Pakku cleared his throat loudly. "I hate to interrupt, Master Taqqiq, but I need to borrow one of your students."
Looking surprised, Taqqiq turned around. "Who do you need?"
Katara's jaw tightened a little, and she pulled away from the row. She really wanted to stay here, to at least get through her sparring before she had to go off to a meeting with the chief and the council, but there really couldn't be anyone else he was looking for.
"Katara," Pakku answered, and he raised his eyebrows when he saw her already beginning to approach.
"I know what this is about," she said.
The boy she'd been paired up with for sparring sighed audibly and took a step back from the row. Jerk. Maybe she wouldn't go easy on him the next time she sparred with him.
She brushed past Pakku on her way to the street and found Aang waiting just outside the arena, bouncing on the balls of his feet and fidgeting nervously with his staff. He straightened up when he saw Katara emerge.
"Hey," she hissed, leaning in close. "Where's Sokka? I thought we were all going together."
Aang shook his head. "He went ahead of us. I saw some other guy pull him and Hahn out of lessons a couple of minutes ago."
"Hahn is coming to this?"
A shrug. "I guess so. I mean, Yue told us that his dad's an advisor. And if he's gonna be the chief someday, he should probably know what's going on."
She grimaced. "That doesn't mean that he's going to be helpful or—"
Pakku emerged from the arena, and Katara clamped her mouth shut. She could see that suspicious way that he was looking at her. She knew that the old snow goat was burning to ask her something after last night's mess, but she wasn't about to give anything away. Fortunately, there were enough other people milling around the street, several of them staring openly at Pakku, that even he couldn't pry very much. He settled for giving them both a tight-lipped glare before motioning them up the street.
"I don't like this," Aang hissed as they started after Pakku. "Everything is weird now."
Katara could only shrug. "It'll be okay, Aang. You know we're not doing this alone."
"I wish we didn't have to do it at all. Everything is always about fighting. I get it, we have to stop the Fire Lord eventually, but—you know. It would be nice if there was a different way to do it. I don't want to have to fight everyone."
"Then you are exceptionally poorly suited to your place in the world," Pakku said. He looked back over his shoulder, and his eyes briefly locked on Katara. "Perhaps the spirits would have done well to choose another Avatar for our time."
Katara's eyebrows shot upward. What? Had Pakku heard something? Did he suspect that she was—frowning, she glanced toward Aang.
Aang's mouth pulled off to the side. "That's convenient," he said under his breath.
"What was that?" asked Pakku.
"Nothing," Aang replied. "I didn't say anything."
An uncomfortable silence settled over them all as they made their way toward the palace, passing an unusual number of staring eyes along the way. Katara wished that she were surprised by that. She wished that she wasn't quite so acutely aware of how strange they probably looked making their way toward the palace in a silent, solemn cluster—a bit like the first day that she and the boys had arrived at the North Pole, only this time, they weren't being treated as prisoners. Katara just felt a bit like a prisoner thanks to the way that Pakku was acting.
He led them up the palace steps and down the corridor to the same council room where they'd been taken on their first day in the city. Today, though, it was different. Today, the council platform was more full than it had been before, and this time, there were a small cluster of fur cushions arranged on the floor for her and the boys. At least this time, they weren't being made to feel like such complete outsiders.
Chief Arnook nodded at their entrance. "Welcome, all of you. Have a seat, Avatar Aang and Katara. I believe that our final member will be joining us very shortly."
They obeyed, Katara taking the place beside Sokka while Aang perched on her opposite side. Once they were seated, the council platform seemed to tower over them all, and Katara could sense by the way both boys squirmed on their cushions that they were wildly uncomfortable with this new arrangement. Katara wasn't thrilled with it either, but at least she was making an effort to maintain her composure. Straightening her shoulders, she surveyed the council. Chief Arnook sat in the center, flanked on one side by Yue, then Hahn, Siqiniq, and a roundish, balding man who appeared just a bit older than Arnook. On the other side, Pakku occupied the seat next to Chief Arnook, and three men who Katara didn't recognized filled out the rest of the row, leaving a conspicuous empty space at the far end.
She inhaled slowly. This shouldn't be too bad. At the very least, most of the council appeared reasonable. Pakku, of course, wore his habitual scowl, and Hahn alternated between boredom and glaring at the three of them like he was personally offended by their presence, but the rest of the men seemed perfectly content to sit and wait for whoever was coming to take the last seat.
Aside from the fact that it seemed a little ridiculous that it was all men here aside from her and Yue, Katara couldn't have asked for much better. Sure, Hahn was going to make a nuisance of himself, and Pakku was going to have lots of questions that she couldn't really answer after last night, but that couldn't possibly take up the entire meeting. She was at least passably confident that they could spread the word about Zhao without giving away anything else.
The silence, however, was becoming a little more difficult to bear. Yue was right there, and there were a million things that Katara wanted to tell her, a million questions she wanted to ask, and none of them were fit to say in front of the council. The longer she had to sit here in silence, the harder it was going to become to keep from blurting out something for the whole council to hear.
Maybe after the meeting, she told herself. Once the council knew what was coming and took over the preparations for the attack, there ought to be a little time to relax. A little freedom to slip away from the group and fill Yue in on all that had happened last night.
After another minute or two of waiting, Yugoda arrived, smiled reassuringly at Katara and the boys, then took the final remaining spot at the far end of the platform.
"Thank you for coming, Master Yugoda," Chief Arnook said. "With luck, we will have no need for your healers' assistance, but it's best to be prepared."
Hahn rolled his eyes. "Maybe if we had anything to be prepared for," he grumbled.
Yue shot him a warning look.
If Arnook heard the grumbling, he gave no sign of it. Instead, he sat just a little straighter, and his voice deepened into a booming rumble that carried easily across the room. "I regret that we have to meet under these circumstances. For many years, we have been fortunate enough to enjoy the peace that our isolation has brought us. Now, it appears that we have no choice but to face the world once again." He paused long enough to check that he had the rest of the council's attention. "Since the Avatar and our esteemed visitors from the South Pole brought the news back to us along with my daughter, I ask that you all grant them your attention."
Though the council seemed torn on who to pay attention to—about half turning to Yue, and the other half toward Aang—Katara could feel the weight of Sokka's, Aang's, and Yue's eyes all on her. Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath, then began.
As much as Sokka wished that he could keep Katara out of the whole defense planning process—as hard as he tried, he couldn't forget what had happened the last time they'd come up against the Fire Nation, and all of his big-brother instincts told him that the best way to prevent that happening again was to hide Katara away—he was actually grateful to have her here now. Explaining things to Chief Arnook last night had gone fine. Not spectacular, but fine. When it came to the whole council, though—they needed to be careful and precise with their words. And of the three of them, Katara was by far the best at that.
"We can't be sure when the fleet is going to set off," Katara said, drawing toward the end of her explanation, "but considering the size of it, there can't be much time left. A few weeks, if we're lucky. If we're not, then they could be here in just a few days."
A wave of murmurs washed over the council, and concerned expressions dominated the platform. Sokka scanned up and down the row. Good. The people who seemed to matter—the chief, Pakku, Siqiniq, Yugoda, and the rest of the old guys—all seemed to be taking this fairly seriously.
But then, of course, Hahn had to spoil things by opening his stupid mouth. "Why should we believe any of that?"
Siqiniq gave him a warning look.
"I was there with them, Hahn," Yue interjected, voice low. "I saw the fleet with my own eyes."
"Fine, then. Even if the ships are real, why should we care? She just said that the fleet isn't moving. Who says that they're going to come here when they do move?"
Somehow, that question irritated Sokka even more than the first. Possibly because, at least on the surface, it was somewhat reasonable.
Katara visibly stiffened. "Because firebenders are a lot of things, but they're not stupid. They know that they're in Water Tribe territory. There's nothing for them up here if they aren't planning to attack." A pause. "And we've met the man who's commanding this fleet. The fact that he said that he was gathering forces for a secret attack just a few weeks ago seems like a pretty clear sign of what he's planning to me."
Hahn's upper lip curled into a sneer, but even he was smart enough not to argue.
"Who is this commander?" Chief Arnook asked.
Sokka spoke up this time. "His name is Admiral Zhao. Apparently, he's a real big shot in the Fire Nation. We ran into him for the first time a couple of months ago at this big Avatar temple, and he was a real barrel of laughs."
"He's sort of been following us ever since then," Aang added. "I thought we'd lost him for a while after he blew up Zuko's ship, but I guess we were all going to the same place anyway."
Pakku narrowed his eyes, frowning directly at Katara. Sokka shot a glance her way too. Fortunately, she didn't seem at all daunted by the staring. Which, considering what she'd told them about her run-in with Pakku last night, was less impressive than it was baffling. Why wasn't she more worried about Pakku? To Sokka at least, it sort of sounded like he had an inkling of what was going on. Like he might very well get suspicious and start poking around and looking for Zuko if they weren't careful.
"And Zuko? Who is he?" Chief Arnook asked.
"Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. The Fire Lord's son." Katara's voice was still even, like she wasn't being stared down by an old prune-faced waterbender, like she hadn't been out in the city with Zuko last night. "He was banished and sent out on a mission to capture the Avatar. He was holding me prisoner on his ship when Admiral Zhao tried to kill him."
Pakku raised an eyebrow. "And what became of this Fire Nation prince?"
"He—he figured out what Zhao was planning before it happened. He made sure that I got out safely." Katara paused again, and when she resumed, her voice was just a tiny bit higher, a tiny bit more strained with the lie. "All I know is that he survived the explosion. I haven't heard from him since."
"So you didn't kill the Fire Nation prince?" Hahn asked. He scoffed. "What a fucking waste of an opportunity."
Sokka wasn't the least bit surprised when Katara, Yue, and Aang all bristled—Katara had that weird, near-friendship thing going with Zuko, Yue was so nice that she didn't like the idea of anyone being harmed, and Aang was—Aang. What was surprising was the fact that Pakku looked positively incensed. What in the world? Why did he care?
"If you're trying to prove how little you understand about the world, then you're doing a fantastic job," Katara snapped. "Firebender or not, Prince Zuko saved my life. And at the South Pole, we don't repay the people who've helped us by turning around and killing them."
"Nor do we," Chief Arnook interrupted, voice uncharacteristically harsh. He stared hard at Katara, then at Hahn. "This is not the time for argument. If this is the sort of petty squabbling I am to expect from you, then I will ask you to leave."
The last part was directed squarely at Hahn, who darkened a few shades. But rather than looking shamefaced, Hahn turned his glare on Sokka instead. What the hell? Sokka wasn't involved in this.
Chief Arnook didn't seem to notice any of that. "Does this Prince Zuko have anything to do with the attack that is coming our way?"
"No!" Katara answered a bit too quickly.
"Possibly," Sokka said. Then, "Ouch." He rubbed the spot on his ribs where Katara had elbowed him. Apparently, she'd run out of diplomacy to spare. Ugh. If she wasn't getting all weird and friendly with Zuko, then that wouldn't have been a problem. "Not directly. Even that idiot isn't dumb enough to cooperate with someone who tried to have him killed. But indirectly—" He gave her a significant look.
Katara raised an eyebrow back at him like she couldn't fathom what he meant.
"Ugh. As far as we know, Admiral Zhao thinks that Zuko's dead, and since Katara was on the ship when it happened, we're pretty sure that he's telling people that the Fire Nation prince was murdered by the Water Tribe." Another significant look toward Katara. "Right?"
"Right," she said, tone flat. "I overheard a few things when I was trying to escape after the explosion. But Zhao thought that I was dead too, so I didn't think anything would come of it. Why would he try to get revenge for something that he knew I didn't do?" There was a pause, and her shoulders curled the tiniest bit inward. "But the fleet is out there now. A revenge mission makes as much sense as anything else."
Siqiniq finally spoke. "How can we be certain that this is the same fleet you've dealt with before?"
"One of the ships was covered in Zhao's banners," Aang said. "Either it's him, or it's someone pretending to be him."
"Yeah, he's not subtle." Sokka pulled out his now extra-smudgy drawing from where he'd stowed it down the front of his parka and sprawled it out in front of him. "This emblem here marks Zhao's ship. No, wait. This one, here." His finger slid partway down the page. His handwriting wasn't half as bad as Zuko had made it out to be yesterday, but the charcoal wasn't holding up quite as well as he'd hoped. "And all the others are unmarked, so it only makes sense that Zhao would be the one in charge."
Pakku narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "What on earth is that disaster meant to be?"
Sokka let out an affronted squawk. "I went through all the trouble of writing down everything we could figure out about the fleet, and this is the thanks I get? Here, look." He leaned over his drawing again and pointed to a smudged drawing of a gunship. "This right here is a gunship. There's about twenty of them, all reinforced to cut through ice." He had to squint a little as he moved farther down the page. "And this—nope, the other one—that's a carrier. And none of the carriers we could see were reinforced the way the gunships are."
"Yeah!" Aang piped in. "From what we could see, we think that they're planning to send their gunships in first to break up the ice for the carriers, break through the city walls, then send all their soldiers in once the gunships have done enough damage to the city."
Sokka glared at him. "Way to steal my thunder, buddy," he hissed.
Aang shrugged. "Sorry. It looked like you were having a hard time reading what you wrote down yesterday."
Rude. Sokka was surrounded by rude people, and he'd done nothing to deserve it. He jutted out his chin. "Anyway. Yeah, what Aang said. And since we have at least a couple of days before they get here, I think we need to focus on stopping them before they ever get anywhere near the city."
"Do you have a suggestion about how that could be accomplished?" Chief Arnook asked.
At that, Sokka could only shrug. How was he supposed to know that? He hadn't had enough time to sit and think about it yet, and he wasn't even completely sure what the Northern Tribe was capable of yet. What if he thought that sending a bunch of waterbenders riding on trained turtleseals up to the fleet was the best way to go, huh? What was he supposed to do when Chief Arnook shut that idea down because it was dumb and turtleseals couldn't be trained?
Wait. That actually was a dumb idea. Spirits, Sokka really needed to find someone to hang out with other than Aang. Otherwise his brain was going to turn into crazy monster-riding mush before a year was out.
"If we can send out a team of waterbenders who can approach the fleet from below," Yue said, "we may be able to do significant damage without any losses on our side. A small amount of sabotage could leave a large number of the ships stranded on that island, away from the battle."
Damn. She was brilliant.
Which made Sokka resent Hahn even more than usual. That idiot didn't even come close to deserving her.
Chief Arnook considered it. "Perhaps. We will be sending out a reconnaissance force as soon as possible to determine whether there are any clear options for us. If it's safe, sabotage may be a possibility." When the rest of the council nodded their approval, he continued, "Sokka, I understand that you have more details of their ships' strengths and weaknesses."
Sokka nodded. "Yeah. When you've seen as many as we have, it's kind of hard to miss that stuff."
"Good. Then if you don't mind, I'll ask you to meet with Master Pakku and Siqiniq to share that information as soon as we're through here. Master Yugoda, if you could work with Pingasut and Sisamat to ensure that the healing huts are fully supplied and that emergency rations are prepared in case of an evacuation, I will begin discussions with our other divisions to prepare our defenses." He gave a long, weighty pause. "And if that is all, we will adjourn until there is new information to be shared."
As the council dispersed, breaking off into groups to begin their preparations for facing Zhao, Katara found herself—along with Aang—being shuffled off to the side. Almost like they were in the way. Like they weren't the entire reason why anyone knew that there was an incoming threat. Like they didn't matter anymore just because they'd finished telling their side of the story.
It made Katara itch. She couldn't actually think of anything that she could be doing to help at the moment—and none of the groups breaking off to prepare for battle particularly appealed to her—but she couldn't escape the feeling that she should be doing something.
Aang seemed anxious too, but if anything, he seemed more interested in leaving than in getting involved any farther at the moment. Katara couldn't quite wrap her mind around that. As far as she was concerned, the more involvement, the more control they had in the Northern Tribe's response, the less frightening the whole situation would be. For all of them.
On the other side of the room, Yue and Hahn had been left behind as well. Hahn seemed to be doing his best to engage her in conversation, but Yue was pointedly ignoring him. The instant that there was an opening, she hurried across to Katara and Aang.
"Thank you both so much for being here," Yue said, pushing them gently toward the door. "I can't imagine how much more difficult this would have been without your help."
"I barely said anything." Aang said.
"You were very helpful last night. And it's a great reassurance to have the Avatar close at hand in a situation like this." Yue paused and dropped her voice "Both of you,"
Katara smiled. She wasn't accustomed to this yet, but it was nice to be acknowledged as the Avatar. She thought that she could get used to that.
Yue led them to another room—similar to the council room, but smaller and empty—before she stopped and spoke again. "How did everything go last night? Did sending the message go okay? Did we learn anything new?"
That was a lot to answer all at once. The best Katara could do was shrug. "It went okay. Pakku almost caught us, but I froze Red to the wall, and it ended up being fine."
Yue's jaw dropped. Okay, that definitely wasn't the best way to phrase things.
"It's okay," Katara repeated. "He's fine. We sent the letter and made it back to the lake without getting caught. He wasn't even grumpy about it for very long."
Yue didn't seem particularly reassured by that, but she did at least nod. Then, "The message? How much were the two of you able to say? And do you know when we might see a response?"
Another shrug. Katara shot a quick glance toward the door to be sure that they were still alone. "Two days at the soonest, he told me. Probably longer. But we made it look like the general—the other one, the bad one—was writing to Red's uncle. We're sort of counting on the fact that any censors watching the mail will be too scared to mess with it, and we said as much as we could."
Yue sighed, deflating just a little, and she looked away.
"Are you okay, Princess Yue?" Aang asked.
She gave a halfhearted smile. "Yes, I believe so. I'm just worried. I've never been in a situation like this before. I'm not used to hiding things from my father." She paused. "Of course I do understand why it's necessary. It's just—rather uncomfortable."
"I know Red appreciates it," Katara said quietly. "It may not really show, but—believe me, he'd be a lot more difficult to deal with if he didn't trust you a little."
Yue smiled faintly. "I'm glad." Then, taking a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders. "Will you be visiting Red later today?"
Katara nodded. "As soon as we can, I hope."
"Do you want to come with us?" Aang asked. "That might be a good idea."
"I would like to join you," Yue conceded. "But—considering our current circumstances, I'm not certain that it will be wise. If security is increased around the palace, I don't want to risk his safety by—"
"There you are," Hahn said loudly from the doorway. "Chief Arnook asked me to make sure that you weren't wandering off with the rabble, Princess Yue."
Katara's temper flared again, and Yue looked a little uncomfortable. "I doubt that my father would have said anything quite like that."
"Close enough." Hahn tried to fling an arm around her shoulders, but Yue deftly sidestepped him, somehow managing to make it look like she was simply giving him more space to join the group.
Katara clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress a laugh, and beside her, Aang turned a bit pink with the effort of hiding his smile too.
Hahn stumbled just a little, then glared at Katara, then at Aang. "You know these two are keeping secrets, don't you, Princess Yue? They're probably going to put the whole tribe in danger."
"How would we do that?" Katara demanded. "We just warned everyone about an enemy fleet that's going to attack. If anything, we're protecting the whole tribe."
"Yeah, but it's obvious that you know more than you're saying." Hahn loomed a little closer. If he wasn't such a pompous blowhard, then it might have actually been intimidating. "I know what you're hiding, Avatar Aang."
Aang looked a little nervous, and Katara decided to call Hahn's bluff. "If you're so sure about that, then spit it out. You wouldn't want to endanger anyone by keeping a secret, would you?"
Hahn smirked. "One word. Red."
Her heart skipped, but Katara did her best to hold her expression steady. Sokka had warned her about this. She could handle it. "You mean the secret pet they've been keeping? I already know about that. It's not a secret anymore."
That was all it took to poke a hole in Hahn's bravado. Reddening, he jabbed a finger accusingly at Katara. "You tried to humiliate me in front of the chief!"
She couldn't help it. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Tried?"
"You little—"
"Hahn." Yue grabbed his arm. "I think we should go." She steered him for the door, pausing just long enough to look back. "Please let me know if you learn anything new."
Katara nodded. "Of course. Thank you, Yue."
Author's Note:
Hahn's trying to cause trouble!
I really don't have much else to say on this chapter - between working on editing this, some oneshots, and the I&S podfic, AND preparing for the Big Bang, my brain is turning a little squishy. But I'll be back in two weeks with another update, and in the meantime, reviews are appreciated as always!
