Zuko's arms and legs are sore. The half day march on it's own would have been fine, the climbing down the rope to the Western Air Temple on it's own would have been fine. Both together calls for a tired body though. Add to that a sore and bruised back and he's having a fantastic day. Now Prince Zuko stands in the middle of the courtyard looking at the abandoned buildings around him. They're built into the underside of a cliff and all built upside down with what would normally be the roofs pointing towards the river far below. Looking over the edge gives him a wave of nausea. There's no doubt about it that this place was once home to air benders. No one else would think that building something like this is a good idea!
He glances at the men behind him, there's something different about this trip and they can tell even if they don't know what yet. Somehow Iroh has managed to handle to walk and even the rope climbing with grace and is smiling through his deep breathes. How the old man climbed down is a mystery. Zuko paces for a moment, still unsure that he really wants to do this. He was here two years ago when first searching for the Avatar but he wasn't paying attention to anything that didn't move back then. There could be something here and that would mean the Fire Nation was right all along and he can go along doing what he's doing. If there's nothing here, well then he's been lied to by the people he calls his own, more specifically by the man he calls his father. He takes a deep breath, stopping at the fountain that still runs after all these years. "Men, today we're not searching for the Avatar." Most of the eyebrows in the group raise. It's obvious that they aren't looking for the little boy but for Zuko to come out and say it is surprising. "Today we're looking for the truth. Many of you were taught I'm sure that the Air Nomad Army attacked the Fire Nation first, starting the War of Enlightenment." Jee and Hyeng, the oldest there look confused, shaking their heads a little. Zuko notices. "We're here to find any traces of military that the Air Nomads left behind. Spread out and bring anything that isn't Fire Nation military back here." The soldiers begin to fan out, some pairing up with friends and others striking off alone. Zuko motions the two older soldiers over.
"Ah, Lieutentant Jee and Chief Petty Officer Hyeng, I'm so glad you were able to join us today," Iroh happily greets them as though they hadn't just spoken ten minutes ago.
"I saw both of you shaking your heads a moment ago. Why?" Zuko is abrupt as usual.
Neither of them really wants to answer but Jee ends up responding. "We were taught that the Air Nomads were forming an army and planning an attack so the Fire Nation struck first."
"What?" Jee nods and Zuko slumps, sitting heavily on the fountain. "Uncle what were you taught?" Iroh is the oldest there and Zuko is afraid of what he'll say.
Iroh exhales slowly. They're here, he might as well tell the truth. "My education as a child was supplemented by Azulon on matters like this. I was raised to believe that every other nation was inferior but as I was heir to the throne I got information that not even your father Ozai was given." He pauses, knowing that his nephew's view of the world is about to change. "The Air Nomads had no army and weren't planning anything. They weren't even expecting an attack but once Avatar Roku died the attack was almost immediate." Jee and Hyeng stare wide-eyed. Zuko's head falls into his hands before he yells, fire streaming out of his open mouth and erupting from his fists. "Prince Zuko! Do not take my word for it." The fire falters with these words and begins to fade. "Don't learn from me the same way you learned in school. Go out and look for yourself. To find the answers you need to search."
"I don't want to search if there's nothing there anyway."
Iroh stares at the depressed, confused boy until he throws his hands up, "Fine, okay! I'll go look in the stupid ruins!" Iroh smiles until Zuko turns away, then the smile drops.
"So you're saying we've been lied to our entire lives?" Hyeng questions, clearly annoyed. Iroh nods sadly.
"What else have we been lied to about?"
"Oh my dear Hyeng, you don't want to ask that question."
Zuko picks his way over rubble. He's already come across the skeletons of three air benders - jewelry still moderately intact - and one fire bender - the armor giving that away - and he's barely inside the temple. He wanders farther down the hallway looking at the old scorch marks that show the battle. Nature has reclaimed a decent chunk of the temple, thankfully obscuring several of the skeletons. There's nothing to make him think that the Air Nomads had anything warlike at all, there are no swords on the hips, no sharpened staffs to be spears, nothing. His heart sinks, there's nothing here. He walks along more corridors, his shoes clicking on the stone floor, echoing around the temple that became a tomb. How could he have been lied to so completely? How could he have believed that! The prince finds a large room that leads out to yet another courtyard. In the corner a skeleton sits. The pendant hanging from vertebrae is a carving of the air elemental symbol. Orange robes hang loosely, the breeze blowing right through the many moth holes. Around the skeleton are a dozen others all with Fire Nation armor. Finally, something that shows the Air Nomads were vicious! No, upon closer inspection he sees five arrows propping the skeleton up from where the bender's lungs used to be. Maybe the air bender deserved it? Maybe the air bender attacked first?
He quickly leaves the room.
Zuko walks out onto the courtyard, catching his breath. This can't' be real. There has to be something deeper down inside the temple, there has to be! He keeps going forward, almost in a daze. Soon he'll be at the bottom of the building and he's found nothing yet. He steps into another room and his breakfast rises and before he can stop it it's out on the ground. He looks up then pukes again. After a moment he regains control over his stomach even if it's only barely. His uncle had told him once, a long time ago that this is the women's temple. He'd forgotten it but the skeletons here remind him of that. He can almost hear the screams of the women and little girls. It's a dormitory and a pile of Air Nomad skeletons lies in the corner haphazardly. Two skeletons are clutching each other, arrows through their skulls. The rest of the skeletons are on beds regardless of the size of the skeleton. His blood is rising. How could they do something like this! These were helpless women and children! There are no weapons in here! No one deserves to die like this, huddling in fear or asleep or left after being violated, unable to do anything! The fire inside of him, the intense anger, boils over and spews out of him with an animalistic roar. He only sees red.
Eventually General Iroh finds him kneeling in the middle of an empty room, ashes in the corners and fresh scorch marks on the walls.
Zuko is sobbing.
. . .
Katara stares up at the sky, wishing they were already at the North Pole or at least doing something. All the free time is leaving her opportunities to think and she doesn't want to do that. She's carefully avoided any sober free time until now. She traces where the cuts on her arms were absentmindedly and forces her thoughts away from self-pity and towards her friends on the ship. Zuko would be studying or sparring right now, probably sparring. Iroh - Uncle would be sipping tea and gossiping. Jee, Hyeng, and Yoro would be doing who knows what, they never really told her what they did on the ship. Asoko, Kuron, and Akina got transferred over to Zhao's ships. Lian would most likely be making dinner and adding copious amounts of spice to whatever it is. She presses the back of her head further into the padded robe that serves as her pillow.
Sokka despises that robe and has considered 'accidentally' dropping it off the side of Appa's saddle, into the fire, any number of things, over the past few days. His sister still has the red dress they found her in too but he has no idea why. He's been watching her as they fly towards the Northern Water Tribe. She practices her bending every night until she's asleep standing. She whimpers and sometimes screams in her sleep. No one has tried to wake her since the incident with Bato, instead opting to cover their ears until the screaming stops and the whimpering begins again. All of that bothers him but he can deal with it. The one thing he can't stand is when she calls out for Zuko then falls back to deep sleep with a sad look on her face. Sokka will still skin that stupid jerk the first chance he gets. She can say whatever she wants about him, but Sokka still hates the guy and believes firmly that it's all his fault.
"Hey guys, I see a village down there, let's get some supplies there," Aang calls from his perch at Appa's head.
Katara nods and Sokka nods violently. "We need food! Other than Katara's not-jerky we're practically out!" Sokka may hate the Fire Nation but he loves jerky so he had tried it earlier. He spat it out and began ranting about how it was a disgrace to all jerky, the spices were too strong and how it was overcooked. Katara suspects his dislike of it has nothing to do with the actual meat.
Appa begins to slow down, loosing altitude. They land in a clearing just large enough for the flying bison and disembark. "Ok Appa, stay here and don't worry. We'll be back soon." Momo chatters angrily. "Yes, you have to stay too."
They traipse off as Sokka empties the last of a food bag into his mouth. "Okay, okay now we've gone from practically out to completely out."
"Really Sokka?" Katara berates.
"What, I'm hungry," he defends. She rolls her eyes. A quick five minute walk brings them to the village on the edge of the forest. "Shit," Sokka mutters. Fire Nation banners hang proudly on display from every window. Red rice litters the street and a large gold banner reads out 'The Fire Days Festival'. "We're leaving."
"Sokka you just ate all of our food! We have to buy more supplies. Besides, the festival might actually be fun."
He grumbles, "We're not staying long and we have to disguise ourselves. And no, the festival wouldn't be 'fun'" he makes air quotes around the word.
"Yeah actually it might," Katara counters. "You're always up for a challenge, you might like fire flakes and I heard about performers who can -"
"Katara, we shouldn't stay longer than necessary because we don't want someone to see Aang."
"Yeah, plus I don't really want to stay all that much," Aang adds.
"Oh," her shoulders drop and she doesn't say anything as Sokka swipes a mask from an unsuspecting vendor and puts it on Aang. It takes all of half an hour to get supplies and then Sokka is leading them out of the village and back to Appa. Fireworks light up the sky as they make camp.
. . .
Zuko stares numbly into the fire, unsure of what to do with his newfound knowledge. All of the other soldiers sit around in similar states of shock, anger, and annoyance. Every now and then one will cry out in frustration and the fire will spike. Jee and Hyeng told everyone what Iroh had said and the complete lack of air bender military equipment back that up. They've all been lied to. The country they swore to protect, the country they love so much had lied to them.
Eventually Sho, a man in his mid to late twenties speaks up, looking from the prince to the old general. "So what now?"
Zuko jolts back to reality, "What do you mean?"
"I mean we've been lied to our entire lives and you're our prince. What are we supposed to do?"
Iroh looks to see how Zuko will handle this. He just interlaces his fingers and thinks for another moment. Right then Iroh doesn't see a boy but perhaps the man he'll grow into even though Zuko's nerves are frayed and he's close to breaking down. "We need to go back to the Capitol City and confront them. The only way our ship can get into Fire Nation water without getting fired on is with the Avatar so the plan is the same as it's always been. We capture the Avatar and go home." He looks into the dancing flames, hoping he's doing the right thing. "Then we start telling everyone the truth."
The men slowly begin to nod, mulling the plan over in their minds. "They won't listen," one soldier comments. "I had to actually see this for myself or else I wouldn't have believed."
"Well, if I come back an honored prince they'll believe me. Hopefully." The doubt is a very real possibility but what can they do? Katara's voice whispers through his mind telling him again to try and talk to his men. "Do any of you have ideas?" he asks, forcing the question out before his pride swallows it.
"Nope."
"No."
"Sorry but I've got nothing." No one has a better plan and so they'll go with his.
"We can't ignore this. The Fire Nation attacked this temple unprovoked and then lied about it to it's own people! Everything we've been taught, everything we know could be a lie. This war has to end and it has to end now," Zuko's voice is thick with emotion and he's not sure when he stood up. "This isn't right. What they did is dishonorable and we have to fix it. There's no one but us, we have to do something."
Yoro looks at the man on the other side of the fire. Honor, he can fight for that. He can fight for real honor, to stop what his ancestors started so long ago. "Everyone is tired of the war and our prince is showing us a way out. If he talks like that then the people will follow." There are nods of agreement and they fall into a thoughtful silence.
One by one -mostly - his men wander off to various parts of the courtyard to sleep. Zuko walks out to the edge, careful not to get too close, and stares out at the empty sky. The moon shines brightly among the glittering stars. He's been lied to his whole life. He feels hollow right now, just empty. How much of his life has been a lie? His honor suddenly doesn't seem as important to him, his father is dishonorable, his whole country is dishonorable. There was nothing here except proof of the Fire Nation's aggression. The only weapons were Fire Nation. The only armor was Fire Nation. The scene in the lower room floats in front of his eyes. How could his own people behave like that?
Iroh watches Zuko and remembers his own long experience of finding out the truth. He knew the Fire Nation had started the war but he had believed it was justified. Wasn't the Fire Nation the superior nation? His views on that had changed when he led a raid on a small Earth Kingdom village. He remembers the fear in their eyes and the panic. He'd helped kill dozens of the men and had moved onto burning the homes. Several women had lunged out of doors with knives but they only nicked his armor. Five earth bender women were quickly disposed of. Iroh had just begun to set another house on fire when a child came screaming out of it. The boy's mother followed shortly behind and when she saw the Fire Nation soldiers she plunged a dagger deep into her little boy's back. 'You won't get him, you can't hurt him now,' she had spat at Iroh before turning the blade on herself. That was when he had truly began to realize that they weren't seen as liberators but as monsters. His nephew is starting to realize the same thing. It's a long process and this is only the first step, but often it's the worst one to take.
"Are you alright nephew?"
Zuko groans, "Did I do the right thing, Uncle?"
He pats him on the shoulder. "We never know the right thing until the choice has long since passed us by."
"A lot of people are depending on me. I can't let them down."
"And you won't, I believe you're doing the right thing."
"I hope so," the prince puts his head in his hands and sighs. He doesn't want to be the one in charge he doesn't like the way the men looked at him earlier for guidance. He doesn't want to know that his father lied to him. He just wants to go back to the life he used to have but he can't ignore the pain of so many people. He can't ignore that the war is unjust.
. . .
Sokka didn't want to stop. Now he's stuck listening to some old coot go on and on with a silly 'air bender' story while Katara picks absent mindedly at her pants and Aang listens in rapture. The storyteller ends with a flourish, "So travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look, it might not be a giant parrot but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!"
Katara's eyebrows raise, "Was that realistic? Was that what it was really like back then?"
"Yeah! I laugh at gravity all the time," He starts giggling. "Ha! Gravity!"
The hat that the storyteller had been wearing is shoved under their noses. Sokka reaches into his pockets, already knowing that they're empty. Lint comes out but no coins. "Sorry dude."
The man sneers angrily, "Cheapskates, the lot o' you!" He walks away and begins hounding the other audience members for gold.
Aang zooms up to the old man, "Thanks for the story!"
"Try telling it to the cap kid." A copper piece falls to the ground and Momo rushes to pick it up. "Much obliged little bat thing."
Momo scampers back to Aang. "Thanks for the air bender stories, it means a lot to hear them. It must have been a hundred years ago since your great grandpa met them."
"Huh? What are you prattling about eh? Great grand-pappy saw them just last week!" A crazed old man waves at the story teller. Katara and Sokka raise their eyebrows and Aang just reels.
. . .
Zuko stands at the railing of the ship. "That Avatar is going to the North Pole, that's where we'll meet him."
Jee stands on one side, Iroh on the other. "Have you considered sending a letter to the Avatar, Prince? If he understands that you want to end the war then -"
"No, I've been trying to capture him fore the past few months, he won't listen."
"Perhaps Miss Katara will listen then," Jee replies.
"Somehow I doubt that she will."
"Explain that you only need him there until you get to the capitol and then you'll help him escape once you've been formally reinstated. I know it's a long shot, but it's worth a try."
. . .
"Okay so we're almost to the Northern Air Temple! They held the championships for sky bison polo here. I only got to see it once but it was amazing! Do you think we'll find actual air nomads there?"
Sokka looks up from picking his nails. "Do you want an honest answer or do you want me to be like -" He almost says like Katara but she hasn't been quite as optimistic as she used to be lately. "Like you, Aang?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just saying you're an optimist, I'm a realist and it's realistic that -" Katara kicks him sharply, sending him a withering glare.
Aang stops paying attention instead focusing on the sight in front of him. "Look guys, look!" He starts pointing wildly.
The Water Tribe siblings peer over Appa's saddle. A temple stands against the horizon, perched on a tall snowy mountain. Towers reach to the sky but harsh black smoke rises from them. Gliders float around the spires, hovering lazily. Sokka's jaw drops and Katara grins widely. "We found more air benders! I can't believe it, we found them!"
"No," Aang's smile has slipped off his face. "Those aren't air benders."
"What do you mean? They're flying!"
"Gliding, not flying, there's a difference. You can tell by the way they move. They're not air bending, they have no spirit," Aang pouts before leaping off of Appa leaving Katara grasping for the reins.
Appa whines as Aang and Momo fly away from them. Katara jerks his head back towards the temple. "Sorry Appa but I want to land." It takes a few minutes for her to land the giant flying bison but eventually he settles onto one of the many platforms on the temple.
Aang is racing around in the sky, it looks like playing tag with a kid in a glider. "Go Teo! Show the bald kid how it's done!" A child shouts. The two chase each other through the clouds, neck in neck. Aang breaks off and runs down the side of the temple but the kid in the glider counters with releasing a burst of smoke that propels him into loops and twirls in mid-air. Teo lands with a screech on the platform with the crowd of children and Katara, Sokka, and Appa. Aang lands behind him, a sour look on his face.
Teo's glider is something to behold. The boy is wheelchair bound but still manages to sore through the sky with his glider. "Wow! That glider chair is amazing," Sokka crows.
The boy laughs, "You should see the other stuff my dad designs. But you, you're a real airbender!" He turns to Aang with a look of awe. "You must be the Avatar! I've heard stories about you!"
Aang laughs and the sour look turns into a smile. "Oh cool."
"Here, you guys want to meet my dad?"
"Sure!" the group follows the paraplegic boy into the temple. Aang stops every now and then and rests his hand on something, an old relic of his past or stares just a little too long at a mosaic. Katara finally puts an arm around his shoulder, comforting him. They walk into the main room and Aang sags. Everything is covered in a thick layer of grime and soot. Black smoke belches into the air from pipes and statues that were once gorgeous works of art are now obscured by dirt.
"This is unbelievable," Aang mutters, his heart in his feet.
"Yeah, it's pretty great isn't it?" Teo's beaming.
Aang replies flatly, "No, just unbelievable." Teo's smile falters and he wheels off to explain everything to Sokka. The entire place runs off of hot air and Sokka is overjoyed at all of the technology around him. Aang isn't. He walks over to the wall where an intricate painting once was. Now the colors are dull and covered and many of the faces of the monks are destroyed by pipes bursting through the stones. "This was supposed to be a history of my people. Now look at it." Katara reaches out but he shrugs her off and walks over to what once was a fountain. It depicts an ancient sky bison holding an air orb but the water has long since stopped running and the pool is now filled with a green ooze. Smoke coughs out of the statues mouth and Aang jumps, tears coming to his eyes. "It wasn't supposed to look like this." He can feel the anger in him started to bubble.
"Come on Aang," Katara leads him away. "I'm sure that there are parts of the temple that have remained the same."
They walk along quietly, each lost in their own thoughts. Aang fumes at the changes to the temple. Katara is torn between disgust at how the temple is treated and wonder and how inventive these people are. She tries a few times to engage him in conversation but each one fails. The further away from the main hall they go the cleaner it gets. Walls turn from grime covered to just dirty and finally to simply dusty. Aang breathes a sigh of relief when they reach the old hardly touched halls. The pair walks into a courtyard and Aang walks over to pay his respects to a statue, "That's Monk Gyarat if I remember correctly. He -"
"Lookout!" A voice calls before a huge wrecking ball smashes through the wall and into the work of art, obliterating it. Katara and Aang jump back, avoiding the falling debris. A man walks up, a monocle in one eye and half of his hair singled. "What the heck! Don't you kids know to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse."
Aang's eyebrows shoot up and he jumps into an air bending stance, the air blowing harder in the room. "Do you have any idea what you just did! You just destroyed something sacred, something that has been around for centuries and is part of my culture for some stupid bathhouse!"
The man shrugs and waves his hand in front of his nose. "Well, the people here are starting to stink."
"No, this whole place stinks!" With an angry slice Aang blows the wrecking ball and all of it's paraphernalia off the edge of the temple.
It takes a few hours for Aang to calm down but eventually he and the man - the mechanist - come to terms. He's still angry but at least now he's being civil - barely. Sokka wanders off into the bowels of the temple with the mechanic as Aang pouts and Katara goes to look through the large library a kid told her about, looking for more bending scrolls. Teo rolls up to the sulking, angry avatar and holds out his hand. "Hey, I want to show you something Aang." He leads the other boy down the hallway and they look at the mosaics and old paintings on the walls. Along the way the crippled boy scoops something up.
"I just can't get over it. There's nothing here that's the same."
"Aang," Teo hands him a little black and white striped hermit crab that scuttles around. "The temple might be different, but the creatures that live here now are probably direct descendants of the ones that lived here a hundred, two hundred, or even three hundred years ago."
"I suppose you're right."
"Besides, I want to show you something that hasn't changed at all." Teo leads Aang down darker corridors and deeper into the building finally stopping before a massive door. Wood swirls over the frame and two long horns extend to about arm level.
Aang gasps, "It's just like the one at the Southern Air Temple!"
"Yeah, it's completely untouched, just the way the monks left it. I've always wondered what it's like in there."
"I'm sorry," Aang steps back. "Thank you for showing this to me, it means a lot, but I won't open it. I want this part of the temple to stay the same."
Teo smiles in understanding. "It's fine, I just wanted you to know that it's here."
"Thank you," the Avatar mumbles.
. . .
Zuko dreams of dragons. They twist and writhe around him, one red and one blue, whispering promises and schemes into his ears. The blue one's voice is sweet and dripping honeyed words the same way his little sister used to do. "Oh Fire Lord Zuko, how nice it is to see you sitting on your throne. You really do deserve to be here."
"Yes," he replies, "I know."
"Would you like to hear the news about the war? We're conquering Ba Sing Se. After all, you brought the Avatar here and now he can't leave to help the Earth Kingdom scum."
The red dragon with a voice so like his uncle's cuts in, knocking the blue one aside. "Zuko, don't listen to her."
The blue dragon glides in. "You've got your honor back, your glory. Your father loves you for bringing the Avatar to him. Now you can rule together. You sit on the throne, all the power in the world is in your hands. Just bring me the Avatar."
"No Zuko! You have to end the war. You saw what they did, you saw how your father lied to you."
"I'm sure he had a reason," Zuko mutters, entranced by the crown the blue dragon holds.
"Will you let people continue to die for an unjust cause?"
"Let people die?" Chang flashes before his eyes.
"Oh Zuzu, don't listen to that red dragon, he's a fool. This isn't an unjust cause, the Fire Nation deserves the world. You deserve the world."
"If you don't stop the war now when you know the truth, the new victims and dead of the war will be on your head. Can you live with yourself knowing that?" The red dragon is right. Chang's bones snap under his foot, his toes kicking deeper and deeper into tissue. "Stop the war. Return honor to your people."
. . .
Katara is terrified, but ultimately she's in control and so she pushes herself to do it, a way to make up for the times she's been scared and unable to do anything. Facing this fear will make the others easier she thinks. "Are you ready?" Aang asks, standing right beside her.
"Not really, but let's go!" The water bender jumps off the building, clinging for dear life to her green glider. Screams rip from her throat as the wind engulfs her whipping her braid back and filling up the wings of the glider. This can't be real! The clouds are around her and she can hear Aang and Teo talking but can't make out the words, adrenaline pumping loudly through her ears. She has got to be crazy for doing this. A gust of wind pushes her upwards and for a second she's afraid she'll collide with the building. Shifting her weight to the left changes the gliders course and soon she's flying through the air like a pro, laughing the whole way. Currents toss her around but she enjoys the freedom, from up here she can see everything, she can feel everything. There's water in the clouds around her, there's heat in certain pockets of air. It's over way too fast as the glider slowly looses altitude and Katara has to land. She steers for a courtyard. How does this thing slow down? They didn't tell her how to land, oh no! The ground is rushing up at her and - a pillow of air catches her fall. Aang glides as she detaches herself from the contraption. Her fingers and practically frozen to the handrail. Teo flies in a moment later.
"That was a great job Katara!"
"Thanks. Teo was right about the air, all I had to do was trust it. It's terrifying but really neat."
Aang grins. "You know, even though you're not an air bender Teo, you have the spirit of one. If you really want to see what's in that room, why don't we go look now?"
"Really!"
"Sure!" The boys fill Katara in on the door and their earlier chat while they walk down to it.
"This is awesome!" Teo's glowing with anticipation. "I've wondered about that room my whole life!" Aang takes up an air bending stance and stands in between the two horns that lead up to the locks. One concentrated blast from each hand into the horns starts the lock clicking. Pieces fall into place. The large swirls begin to rotate and click as they come to right position. The massive doors swing open and a deep bell begins to toll.
The sight inside is breathtaking and heart-stopping.
"This is a nightmare," Aang feels like he's been punched in the gut.
Teo just sits confused and repulsed.
Katara looks away and panic floods her system, clenching around her lungs and making it hard to breath.
Inside the Air Nomad Temple's Sanctuary, the holiest place, atrocities of the Hundred Year War sit. Death traps and iron maidens sit beside other cruel devices. Gears and levers seem to control machines that pump smoke and steam into pipes that power small tanks and wheeled buildings. Everything is painted blood red with black Fire Nation symbols shining on them. Katara retches. Footsteps pound down the corridor and the mechanic almost runs into them, panic in his eyes at the sight of the open door. "You don't understand, I can explain!"
Aang's blood is boiling again and every ounce of self control goes to stopping the Avatar State. "You're building weapons for the Fire Nation!"
Water wraps around Katara's hands before forming spikes of ice. Sokka runs up behind the mechanic, stopping cold at the sight. Teo wheels around to face his father. "Explain all this! Now Dad!"
The man slouches at his son's face. "Teo, please understand! It all happened about a year after we moved here! Fire Nation soldiers found us and they were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I pleaded, I begged for them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer so I gave them the only thing I had, my services. You must understand, I did this for you!"
Teo turns away but Aang points his staff at the mechanic's neck. "When are they coming again? The Fire Nation, when are they coming again?"
"Soon, very soon." The man starts to move but sharp ice shards hover in front of his face.
"Take us to wherever you meet with them. We want to hear this."
The mechanic slinks back to his office with the group following, Teo lags sadly behind. The door shuts behind them and they're ushered to the corner out of sight before Teo's dad goes back to his desk, putting the final touches on a little figurine of a balloon. A small bell tinkles and he stands, sighing. He pulls a lever and cogs begin to turn quickly, a trap door opening with a hiss of steam. A Fire Nation soldier rises up through it and stands imperiously in the workshop. Katara restrains Sokka as Aang is held back by Teo.
"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so I can be on my way." The mechanist doesn't say anything, just looks down. "Well? Is there a problem?"
"No," he whispers. "Right this way."
Aang erupts from the corner, Teo had let go as soon as he saw his father about to help the Fire Nation man. "The deal's off!"
The enemy hisses, "The Avatar!"
"Aang please!" The mechanic pleads.
"If I don't get what I came for, I'll burn this place to the ground."
Air whips across the man's face and knocks him backwards onto the trap door. "You're leaving empty handed!"
"Then the destruction of your precious temple will be on your head boy!" With that the soldier pulls the lever and descends into the floor.
Katara finally lets go of Sokka. "Why did you let him go? Now he's going to tell everyone and -"
"If the guy hadn't returned the Fire Nation would have sent an even larger force to come look for him Sokka, you know that. At least this way if we have to defend it the soldiers will be outside the walls instead of in them," Katara reprimands. She hates the idea of hurting the men out there most of whom are just following orders, but she's not about to let her sentimentality hurt her brother, Aang, or the people living here. "So," she looks at Aang, "What are we going to do? How can we keep all of them away?" There has to be a way to do it without killing and if anyone can find a bloodless solution it's the air bender.
"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't, air power! We control the sky, they can't even dream of that. We can win!"
The mechanic sidles up, glancing at Teo for approval. "I want to help."
"Good, we'll need it!"
. . .
Zuko has tossed and turned all night and most of the day, drenched in sweat. Iroh offered him water but tried to drink the whole bucket instead of the cup full. He's burning up. "A crossroads" Uncle's voice fades in and out. "Choices - worried - right and wrong - lied to," the words swim around in his head.
Zuko dreams of a water bender with bright blue eyes and her hand on his scar. That water bender is tied and bleeding. One of his men did that.
Skeletons dance from leather strips bound by their wrists. His own people did that.
Zuko wakes up puking.
He sees red engulf his face.
Dragons undulate around him.
Zuko dreams of the girl working muscles in his back, asking for scrolls on the energies inside the body. His are messed up terribly. She wants to help.
The Fire Nation took his mother away and the image of her pulling the hood over her long black hair and walking away haunts his sleep. The Fire Nation lies. The Fire Nation lies. His little sister's laughter echoes in his dreams at the news of their mother's disappearance. The Fire Nation lies. Azula lies. Azula always lies. Azula always lies. "You'll never be good enough Zuzu, not even mother wanted to be around you." Azula always lies.
. . .
"They're coming!" A little girl shouts.
"Are we ready?" Teo is nervous.
"As ready as we'll ever be." Katara looks around. "Where's Sokka and the war balloon?"
Aang jumps down from Appa. "We'll have to start without him" Aang's glider opens. Teo pulls his goggles down over his eyes. Katara give Teo a good push and they're off. Katara climbs onto Appa and they soar into the sky, handing smoke, slime, fire, and stink bombs out to the gliders that come nearby. The gliders swoop into formations after Aang and Teo, the two best fliers. They dive-bomb the soldiers coming up the mountain and dodge streams of fire and arrows shot their way. One glider's wing catches fire and starts to spiral out of control. Another kid grabs the inhabitant and drops her off in the courtyard. Aang jumps off his glider and in front of the infantry, zooming around on an air scooter. Heaps of snow and ice fall onto the troops. The avalanche grows, swallowing people in it's wake as Aang leaps back into the sky. Katara hands out more bombs. "These people are the enemy," she whispers.
"We've got them on the run! We need more slime," Aang hollers and Katara complies, handing out more slime than anything else. Giant harpoons shoot into the sky, narrowly missing Appa. They sink into the mountain face as more and more attach, chains hanging off the ends. Metal groans and the chains strain as tanks come into view, using the chains to haul themselves up the side of the cliff. Each tank gets bombed multiple times but they just continue scaling the mountain, quickly reaching the small plateau at the foot of the temple. Flames burst forth and gliders have to dodge sharply to avoid the columns of fire. Slime bombs don't make a dent. Aang blasts the tanks away but it's no use, they flip over and continue the trudge towards the temple on the spiked wheels and treads they're on.
Teo flies in next to Katara and she shouts, "Those things are unstoppable!"
"I think I know how they work. I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. It's something to do with water, I guess it works great."
"Water?" She grins, "Get me close to them, I can stop them!" She hops onto the back of his wheelchair and they zoom towards the fight. She lands in the center of it and immediately starts bending. Ice forms around one tank and pulls it into the ground. The wheels fall off. Four more to go. She takes another one out with the same technique, this time throwing a wall of ice up in response to the flames shot in her direction. Aang disposes of another few fires. "Shit," seven more tanks arrive. The wheels fall off of another one. Appa lands in front of the pair, roaring. They scramble onto his back and take off, leaving the tanks behind.
They land gracelessly in the courtyard. Teo zooms up. "We're out of bombs!"
Katara swears, "Where's Sokka and the war balloon? We need them!" As soon as the words leave her mouth a giant red blimp rises from the temple. A dark Fire Nation insignia contrast with the red. She whoops with every other person there in excitement as they drop their bombs on the tanks below. The infantry is completely washed away. The tanks keep coming. The cheering dies as the bombs stop. They must have used them all up. After several seconds that feel entirely too long another bomb drops but not onto the enemies, into a deep crevice in the mountain.
The explosion knocks the tanks off the mountain, snapping their chains and even knocks the people in the courtyard back a few steps. Appa snorts angrily. Black smoke rises. "Look, they're retreating!" All the kids start to shout and holler, happy to be alive until the giant war balloon rushes through the smoke and into view, going down at a frightening pace. Aang jumps onto his glider and Katara scales Appa, both racing towards the falling balloon.
Sokka's boomerang with a rope attached catches Aang's foot and he and the mechanic are pulled clear of the wreck. Aang lowers the onto Appa's back and Katara guides the sky bison under them. They land safely amid shouts and cheers and songs. They flop against Appa, completely drained but overall feeling good about the day's victory. Katara and Sokka ignore that people died, Aang doesn't even really realize it. The Avatar goes over to Teo, a huge smile on his face. "You know what, I'm really glad you guys live here now. It's like the hermit crab you showed me. Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this old empty shell and made it your home. Now you protect each other. I'm sure the monks would have been happy to have you here."
"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you."
"Aang, you were right about air power! As long as we control the skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run!"
. . .
Zuko's sweating has gone down. His fever has broken and finally for the first time in days he wakes up with the sun. He begins to write a letter that's destined for the North Pole.
. . .
And next the Northern Water Tribe! This chapter doesn't have a lot of Katara's inner turmoil but in reality the depression and the self-loathing would come and go. For a person like her she would push herself until she breaks then pick herself back up and push herself until she breaks. For some people it swallows them for a long time, for others it's a come and go, I always imagined Katara's would be more off and on.
Angel Swimming, I plan on speeding up over some parts but putting detail in others, it really depends on how close to the show that part is or how important it is. I'll be trying to go through each episode though - or at least the ones that still fit into this universe. I might spend little to no time on them like I did with the deserter in this chapter or I might go into depth with them like Bato.
Again, thank you all for the wonderful reviews and the views and favorites, it really helps push me to do more and keep writing!
2019 edit: really, the reviews make a difference. The reviews and the fact that I knew I'd left people hanging is what made me start this again. It would have lain forgotten without you.