Author's Notes: Three things - if you couldn't review the Interlude chapter, that's my fault! I ended up removing a previous chapter (the first Interlude that was just a "Story So Far" summary) and it messed things up so that if you previously reviewed a chapter the website thought you were trying to review it again.

In case you didn't reread the new version of "The Eruption," I had some minor changes there. One of them was the airbender Kherra's name, Aang's old friend from the Western Air Temple. She's now called Sangmu.

Also, I have made edits to the following chapters: "The King of Jie Duan," "The Spirit World," and "Avatar Kuruk." I was gonna do more but started getting a little burned out.

Book 3: Water

Chapter 1: Ozai

True to his word, Gyatso did come visit Aang at the Western Air Temple.

The nuns allowed Aang to take a break from his training to enjoy the day with his old mentor. Gyatso had wanted to show Aang a flower field he particularly enjoyed this time of year in the Fire Nation, and even though they originally planned to spend the day with just each other and their bison, Aang had insisted on bringing Sangmu along. He was certain his new friend and old mentor would get along great. Gyatso, of course, was delighted for the extra company.

The three airbenders on three separate bison departed for the Fire Nation in high spirits, racing whenever the wind blew harder and slowing to a lazy drift through the sky when it shifted to a gentle breeze. Gyatso caught Aang staring at Sangmu on more than one occasion and ribbed him mercilessly for it. When they landed among a field of fire lilies around a mountain, Sangmu had leapt off of her bison Minmin and spun in circles among them, laughing.

Aang sighed dreamily as he dismounted and Gyatso took a moment to nudge the boy forward with his elbow.

"Go say something, Aang. Compliment her."

Aang pushed his forefingers together. "What should I say?"

"Well, what do you feel?"

"Her hair is like… I dunno, an inky black paintbrush. And her eyes, well… her eyes are really nice." He smiled as she knelt among the fire lilies and picked one to put it in her hair. There were no girls at the Southern Air Temple so he didn't really know how to go about this.

Gyatso put a hand to his head and sighed. "A paintbrush? Oh, dear. You're good at a lot of things, but I am sad to say poetry is not one of them."

Sangmu ran over to them with arms spread wide as if she were still riding the wind. "What a wonderful island! Thank you for showing us this, Brother Gyatso!"

"I am glad you're enjoying yourself," Gyatso said, composed and smiling. He smoothed out his robes. "Now, I must admit my real reason for wanting to come here today - there's rumored to be a wild herd of dragon moose on this island."

Aang pumped a fist into the air. "Let's go find them!"

"Make sure you don't ride them over the flower field," Sangmu said, her voice stern. "I don't want to see these lilies get trampled!"

The ground rumbled and the bison groaned. Aang saw shapes moving at the treeline, the sounds of pounding hoofbeats coming toward them. "I think I found the herd!" he exclaimed, his voice high.

Gyatso swept his arm and pointed to the bison, sensing danger where Aang saw fun. "Quickly, to the skies!"

The children did as they were told just in time for the herd of dragon moose to rampage over the fields. From their altitude, they could see black smoke coming from the village in the distance.

"Gyatso, what's happening?" Aang asked, chest pounding. That herd got a little too close for his liking.

His gaze darkened and his voice took on a grave tone that Aang had never heard from his mentor before and it chilled him. "The local warlords are fighting over their territories. One of them has been driven to the south, into Sozin's lands." He averted his gaze from the village to regard Aang and Sangmu. "He has gotten quite old and they must think him weak. We must go back to the temple."

Neither of them questioned his orders, but as they flew back to the west, Aang could only think he had himself to blame. As the Avatar, he had to put a stop to this and accept his duty once and for all.


Aang and Mai spent the following three weeks in Ba Sing Se to help with the recovery effort. It was tiring, backbreaking work, made all the worse for their lack of any real progress or meaningful rescues. Earthbenders restructured and repaired and rebuilt the homes and streets that they could, but the groundwork had been disrupted and made unstable by the arrival of the Spirit Library. Anything immediately above and around the library had been sectioned off, which included the whole southwest sector of the Middle Ring and even parts of the Lower Ring.

There had been so many wounded and so many dead, Earth Kingdom troops and Water Tribe warriors alike. Aside from Mai, all of the Roku Warriors who fought in the city had fallen in battle. Aang had paid his respects to each of them in person, stood with Mai in silence to honor them. He understood Mai's pain. Compartmentalized it. Buried it, like she did. They'd been given a traditional Fire Nation funeral pyre, a ceremony to remember their names and their sacrifices. Aang hated himself for not bothering to learn their names earlier.

But for the most part, they didn't find any bodies. Anyone who had been buried in the collapse seemed gone forever, swallowed up in the void of underground tunnels now taken up by the library. Gone, like Toph and Yue.

Guilt pushed him forward. He didn't know what could have happened to Toph. He thought of her every time he dug his fingers into the ground, with every piece of rubble he lifted. He didn't know if she could even be saved or if she was even still alive without her face. But he had to do something, had to try. Working for three weeks straight numbed his mind enough to let him focus on his immediate objectives instead of weighing himself down with every mistake he made, with everything that had gone out of control. His decision to stay in this world doomed so many people but he kept telling himself it would be better for them all in the long run.

Before he left the city, he had to do his part to help. Appear to the masses. Comfort himself with the thought that he worked to save lives and rebuild. He worked with Wu and the Creeping Crystal to stabilize as much as possible, and though Kuei publicly revealed himself he did not yet take back his throne. When the Council of Five once again tried to arrest Wu, Aang heard that Bumi had soundly humiliated them and that was that. They never tried again and Aang never learned the details of what happened.

At Aang's request, Bumi had also taken Sokka and Katara under his protection at Lake Laogai. Aang knew that they'd both need to answer for what they'd done, and the people of Ba Sing Se would not suffer to see Sokka up and about and helping with the relief effort. So they'd been hidden away - Katara under careful watch and in handcuffs - and eventually taken out of the city altogether. Aang also knew that it was wrong, that his selfish desire to keep them from facing true punishment was out of his previous friendship to them. But he couldn't bring himself to leave them to their fate and rationalized it by telling himself that he needed Sokka to be his waterbending master and Katara was too dangerous to leave behind alone. Zuko and Azula brought them to Chameleon Bay a week earlier to help their father's troops hold the area, so Aang and Mai planned to rendezvous with them there.

He would finally have to face Ozai in this world.


Eventually, Aang had to continue on his journey. Leaving the city in Bumi and Kuei's capable hands, he departed for Chameleon Bay with Mai and Appa.

The Fire Nation encampment had been arranged in neat, orderly rows of cloth tents enclosed in a ring of torches with a blazing bonfire in the center. Bolts of black and red and gold lined the tent openings like streamers, their martial grandeur giving a sense of permanence that other war camps lacked. Guards stood at the perimeter of the encampment wearing early versions of Fire Nation plated armor Aang knew from his world - an elongated gorget with pointed shoulders with layered leather and iron scales covering the rest of their bodies. They bowed in reverence to Aang as soon as they recognized his arrows and his bison and Aang only nodded back, his eyes focused on the largest tent in the center of the encampment. The administration tent, he assumed, for war meetings.

Ozai would be inside. He hesitated in front of the tent flap, sweat beading on his brow despite the sea breeze coming in from the bay.

Mai put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her, questioning. "Go on," she said. "Zuko and Azula are likely in there, too. Maybe even your friend Sokka. And I'm with you." It was the most she had said to him in days.

He gave her a grim smile and, feeling heartened, he took a deep breath and prepared to open the tent flap when arms clamped onto him from behind and a shrill exclamation pierced his ears. "Aang!" Momo shrieked, just as alarmed as he was.

Aang almost attacked the person as a reflex but he grasped her arms when he recognized the voice. "Ty Lee?"

She let go of him and he turned around to face her, gaping. She looked the same as ever, all pink and braid and smiles. "You finally made it! I'm so glad to see you!"

He beamed right back at her - she was a symbol of something he had done right, representing that he could change things this time around. He didn't think he'd be so happy to see her and then felt a pang in his heart when he remembered that Yue had vanished along with Toph. "What're you doing here?" he asked as Momo skittered to the top of the tent.

"Well, after making sure the Golden City was back on its feet, I decided to make my way to the Earth Kingdom and help out with the war here. I don't wanna be a princess who just sits around, y'know? I mean, like, nothing wrong with that, obviously, but it's not really my thing. But we snuck around the Water Navy blockade and got here a couple weeks ago! And Ozai turned out to be Zuko and Azula's dad and then they showed up! Unbelievable, right?"

Aang was about to get a word in but she continued.

"But then we got here and we found out that Jie Duan had fallen," she said, pulling her braid over her shoulder and tugging on it while she bit her lip. "So in a couple of days we're preparing to head back and fight there. But I'm glad I got to see you!"

She grabbed his hands and smiled again and he couldn't help but smile back. "Me too," he said. "Really."

Mai put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. "So you're Ty Lee." It was a statement that suddenly made Aang both very nervous and intrigued to see how the first meeting between the two of them would go, especially in light of what Mai knew about their friendship in his world.

Ty Lee took a step away from Aang and put her hands behind her back as if intimidated. "Um, hi! Gee, your aura's really, really grey. Actually, Aang, yours is too now, come to think of it…"

"Ty Lee, this is Mai," Aang said, cutting her off before she could go on that tangent. It felt strange to introduce them to each other.

The acrobat's eyes lit up. "Oh! You're Zuko's new girlfriend!"

Mai's response came out dry. "Is that how he described me?"

Ty Lee made a show of examining her closely from all sides to Mai's growing agitation. "Okay, you pass."

"Pass what?"

Zuko, Azula, and Sokka came up behind Ty Lee after she passed her judgment on Mai. All three looked distinctly annoyed but Aang felt air rush into his lungs when he saw them together, united even if at Ty Lee's expense.

"There you are, Ty Lee," said Azula, scowling. "You insulted one of my father's lieutenants. She's looking for you."

She whirled around to face them. "I did? How?"

"You said her headpiece was 'cute.'"

"Well, it was! It had this little swirly fire design that looked like a face…"

"Go apologize."

Ty Lee groaned. "Ugh. Okay, see you later, Aang and Mai. Zuko, I approve of your new girlfriend. She's really something special." She trudged back toward the other tents after waving goodbye, taking her order as if Azula was the princess instead.

Zuko scratched the back of his head, blushing. "Yeah, thanks. Uh, hey, guys."

Momo jumped from the tent to Zuko's head, where Sabi had coiled around his neck to sleep and woke up at the other lemur's arrival, blinking blearily.

"Glad to see things are going well here," Aang said. It felt almost strange to see them again. It had only been three weeks but felt like so much longer, and part of him wanted to hug them but thought better of it since Sokka was there.

"As well as they can be," said Azula, putting a hand on her hip. She scrutinized him as if looking for something wrong that he had done during their time apart, but her face softened. "Are you all right?"

"Huh? Of course," he said, unable to glance at Ozai's tent. They still stood in front of it.

"He's not in there," Zuko said, reading his discomfort. "He went out on a patrol. He'll be back later."

Aang sighed with relief.

"Well," said Sokka, drawing out the word and turning around. "I'm gonna go check on Katara in the prisoner tent before your reunion gets too sappy. I'll catch you guys later."

Aang watched him go, frowning. "How's he, uh… doing?"

"The soldiers don't particularly like him or Katara," said Azula, crossing her arms. "But he's made himself useful and keeps himself respectful around my father. They tolerate him. Jet and his lackeys are here somewhere, too, and I'm honestly surprised they haven't taken him out in the middle of the night yet."

Zuko held out his arm for Momo to perch on it and scratched him under the chin. "He mostly keeps to himself, though. We've done some sword training together, but aside from that he's been pretty quiet. He's only helping us because he sees the bigger picture here. I don't think he really… likes us, or anything." He shrugged.

Aang opened his mouth but Azula cut him off. "And before you ask, Katara's been fine. Tried to escape once. Her hands and feet are both shackled now. You're being foolish for keeping her here. She should have stayed in Lake Laogai."

"I know," Aang said. "That's why I'm thinking of letting her just go."

Zuko frowned and Azula scoffed at him but Mai put her hands in her sleeves and spoke. "I know you're concerned about leaving her in Ba Sing Se, even with Bumi. But if you let her go, the Water Tribes will know that Sokka turned against them. And we lose our opportunity to use his new allegiance to our surprise advantage."

Aang's shoulders slumped. "I know. But we can't just leave her here or bring her along to the South Pole, either. She'd hold us back or outright get in the way. If we let her go, I'm not worried that she'd be a direct threat to us or anything. She'd be on her own. Suki and that sandbender Ghashiun are still missing so she'd probably just go home. Before you guys left the city, Sokka said they'd be disgraced for their failure to take Ba Sing Se. Katara especially. The Water Emperor might just keep her at home."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Relying on Water Tribe sexism, are you?"

"It's not right, obviously! But my main concern right now is rescuing Toph." The other three fell silent at Toph's name, so he continued. "This isn't like when I took Sokka against his will. She tried to attack Ba Sing Se, failed, and now she's stuck with us. What would you guys do?"

"And the leader finally deigns to ask his troops for their opinion," Azula said, sighing with only a tinge of melodrama. "I say lock her up in Lake Laogai. You care about her wellbeing. I get it. But that is the best option available to us. And if you even think about asking Sokka for his opinion I'll hit you. He just joined the group, he doesn't deserve to be in the decision-making circle yet."

Zuko crossed his arms when Momo flew off of him. "You'll just hit him? That's a pretty basic threat, coming from you."

"Well, someone's got to be the boorish one since Toph isn't here."

"Let's just kill her." All three of them looked at Mai when she made her deadpan proclamation, Aang with horror. She put her hands up. "Ugh, that was a joke. I say go with the original plan and bring her along."

Aang looked to Zuko next, who just shrugged. "If we let her go Katara wouldn't just give up and go home. She's a fighter. Maybe we could… leave her here with my father?"

Aang groaned.


Sokka stood at the rear of the prisoner tent, staring at the crimson folds and layers of fabric separating him from his sister and the golden pennant above. It would be easy for a waterbender to cut through it to freedom. There were only two guards stationed at the front of the tent with occasional rounds from other soldiers through the encampment. He could let her go, but that would require facing her first.

He'd told the Avatar and his friends that he wanted to go check on Katara, but in truth he couldn't do it ever since he turned against her in Ba Sing Se. As much as he'd tried to twist it otherwise, he had betrayed her and his nation, even if it was for the greater good. If he didn't do something to help the Avatar, spirits would continue to ravage the world. Even if preventing that was normally some kind of Avatar business, he had to do his part to rescue Yue.

Even his Gran had acted with the bigger picture in mind.

Facing his sister would require revealing that truth to her. In light of everything that happened, he couldn't predict how she would react.

"What're you doing lurking around here, waterbender?"

Sokka inclined his head toward the source of the voice but didn't face Jet. "You ask me that every time you run into me," he said, sighing and shrugging. "It's not always a lurk. Sometimes I stroll, amble, or loiter. And I've been at this encampment for over a week now. I'm helping."

Jet gripped him by the shoulder and spun Sokka around, a wolf-like snarl on his face. "I don't believe you for a second. Don't think I forgot how you were behind the attack on the city. It's your fault all those people are dead."

"If you weren't unconscious the whole time you'd know that it was actually because of a giant spirit owl that all those people are dead," Sokka shot back, eye narrowed. Smellerbee and Longshot stood with him. "Too afraid to confront me on your own, are you?"

"Unconscious because of your sister!"

"Whatever, whatever," said Sokka, putting his hands up in a motion of surrender. "But I'm on your guys' side now, so leave me alone."

"Aang might buy that for whatever reason," Jet said. He stomped on a seashell, perhaps to enunciate his point. "But I don't. I'm not gonna stop watching you."

Sokka scoffed. "Ooh, I'm quaking in my boots. Hope you enjoy the view." He pushed past them to walk toward the surf, tired of dancing that dance with Jet time and time again. He wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of rising to his bait and fighting back. Even so, he walked with his hand on the hilt of the meteorite sword that the Avatar had given him, which he strapped to his back with his other weapons.

He didn't think he would ever be able to forget the sight of the monstrous owl. He saw the ghostly white face in his dreams and in the night sky. He used to pride himself on being someone that was unafraid of spirits and superstitions, but he wasn't stupid enough to deny the evidence right in front of his face. Wan Shi Tong was a very real threat, and if the Avatar was to be believed, more were on their way.


Since they came to no solid conclusion about what to do with Katara, Aang isolated himself atop a rocky precipice overlooking Chameleon Bay to meditate on it. He'd gotten used to the silence over the past few weeks with only occasional company from Mai or Bumi so it felt more comforting to think on his next course of action on his own, for now. Part of him considered the idea of leaving them all behind with Ozai's troops while he went ahead to the South Pole alone.

He almost leapt from the precipice when Azula called out to him, so lost in thought that he didn't hear her coming.

She came up the ridge and sat alongside him without him prompting her. "Oh, there you are. Jumpy today, aren't we?"

He relaxed back into his lotus position and let out an exhale. She wore her hair in a partial topknot, letting it fall in loose curls to the center of her back. The volume in her hair made him think Ty Lee might have had something to do with it. "I guess so."

She scoffed. "Don't tell me you're becoming all broody again."

"Can you blame me?" he asked, frowning. "I was enjoying my brooding in peace." He didn't mean it to come out that harsh and felt his chest tighten as soon as he saw the hurt flash across her face before her expression changed and she rolled her eyes at him and moved to stand. He held out his hand. "Wait, I'm sorry. Stay, please."

She dropped back to his side, staring out over the bay. "You were thinking about going to the South Pole alone, weren't you?"

He blinked in surprise. "How did you know?"

"Aang, don't insult me."

His shoulders relaxed and he gave her a soft smile. For a moment, he thought he smelled some plum blossoms. "You're right. Nothing can get by you."

"And don't you forget it." She smirked at him and Aang knew with complete certainty that she would remain at his side even through an inhospitable icy tundra whether he liked it or not. She didn't need to ask him about his feelings or talk about what was on his mind to make him feel better, but whatever she did, it worked.

He looked over the bay again and down at the soldiers below, marching in formation and going through their drills as a figure - likely Zhao from the size of his mutton chops - oversaw them. Anxiety gripped his stomach as he wondered when Ozai would return from his patrol. Forcing both Zhao and Ozai out of his mind, he pulled at a shrub that poked obstinately through the cracks in the rocky precipice. Instead, his mind wandered to Azula surrounded by fireflies, and her two confessions to him. "Azula… we need to talk."

Her voice cut through the air with all the precision of a swallow in flight. "Absolutely not," she said. "There's nothing that needs to be said."

"But…"

"I said no," she said, her voice curt. She stood and that told Aang her stubbornness would win out; there was no use in trying. "Come on, I want you to meet my cousin."

"Your cousin?"

"You forgot? Well, I wouldn't expect you to remember. I never had a reason to mention him much." She inspected her nails. "He's my Uncle Iroh's son."

That rang some bells - Aang first learned of Iroh's son some time ago and was mostly just surprised to learn that Iroh had a son to begin with. He nodded to her and she led him back down to the encampment on the beach. By the time they came down the overgrown slopes, the soldiers had finished their weaponry drills and firebending forms. They approached a figure wielding a pair of recognizable dual broadswords as he removed his helmet and shook the sweat from his hair. Zuko had donned the soldiers' armor even though the elongated shoulderpads seemed a little too big for him.

"Ugh, Zuko," said Mai, who'd been sitting at the edge of the barracks tent in the shade and watching. "Gross."

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"Zuko," Azula said, her voice snappish. "Where has our cousin gone?"

"Your favorite cousin is right here," said a voice Aang didn't recognize. A young man emerged from the barracks tent wearing an easygoing smile, a helmet tucked under one arm and a blade sheathed at his belt and a guan dao on his back. He wore a prim and proper topknot, with a neatly trimmed chin beard and a round face that Aang compared to Iroh's. His eyes were the same shade of gold as Zuko and Azula's, but full of mirth that was more like his father and made him look handsome. "What can I do for you, Toadietail?"

"I thought I would introduce you to the Avatar," she said, but she scowled at him. "But then you called me that and now I'd rather bury your head in the sand. I outgrew that ridiculous nickname ages ago."

"Nah," he said, beaming. "You'll always be Toadietail to me."

Aang snickered. "What's 'Toadietail' from?"

He could have sworn that Azula simmered in response, smoke coming out of her ears from either embarrassment or anger. "It's nothing important."

Zuko bit his lip to keep from laughing and had the good sense not to say anything, but their cousin had no such restraint. "A few years back little Azula wandered out into the jungle alone and stumbled into a salamander-toad nest."

"They're harmless, but kind of gross," Zuko explained for Aang and Mai's benefit.

Azula pinched him in the arm. "You shut your mouth."

"I went out to find her," their cousin continued, an animated grin lighting his features. Azula tried in vain to silence him but he pushed her away. "It was pretty easy, with all the screaming. So anyway, by the time I find her, she's in the middle of this tangle of tree roots and there's salamantoads all over her. And just as I got there, one of them jumped right into her open mouth! Nothing but its wiggly tail was sticking out. You should've seen her face."

Azula dragged a hand down her face, scowling as Aang tried to hold back his laughter. Her face was such a deep shade of red that Aang thought she'd breathe fire. "And to think I was going to say nice things about you!"

"Aww, Toadietail, it's all in good fun," their cousin responded, nudging her with his elbow. "But you were gonna say nice things? Like what?"

"Something about how you are the best but probably most annoying swordsman in the village, perhaps even in the whole archipelago," she said, pushing him away. "But I take it back. You're unbearable, Lu Ten."

"Wow, that's really nice of you!" said Lu Ten, holding his arms wide. "I wonder what I did to deserve that praise." He brushed a fist against Zuko's shoulder. "But I dunno, Zuko might be giving me a run for my money now! Traveling with the Avatar? How cool is that?"

Zuko shrugged but couldn't help but smile back. "I guess so. This is him right here."

Azula crossed her arms and tried her best to regain her composure. "If you'd stop acting like a buffoon, I'd introduce you. Lu Ten, this is Aang. Aang, this is our cousin Lu Ten."

Aang had never seen Azula get so flustered like this and he decided that he liked Lu Ten. "Nice to meet you," Aang said, grinning.

Lu Ten gave him a formal Fire Nation bow, fist under palm, gathering up all his professionalism. It was as if he had turned into a completely different person and he smiled at Aang. "Likewise, Avatar. It is an honor and a privilege."

Behind Lu Ten, Aang saw Zhao approach with his characteristic saunter, briefly bowing once he reached them. His armor had a bright sheen in the sunlight from the lacquer used to cover the scales, and aside from that he stood out from the rest of his soldiers thanks to the crimson cape draped over his left side. "If you kids are done fooling around, I thought I would let you know that Lord Ozai has returned from his patrol of the bay and his boat will be docking shortly. I am sure he'd be expecting to meet the Avatar."

"I don't know if we have time for that," said Aang, turning to Zuko, Azula, and Mai. He ignored the fact that Zhao had forgone a proper greeting. "We should get going. We've got to get to the South Pole."

Mai averted her eyes and Aang thought she had been about to say something but Azula spoke instead. "I suppose you're right."

Zhao frowned. "Are you not going to see Lord Ozai first, Avatar? You'd disrespect him by not showing yourself to him in his own camp? We've already been slighted by the Creeping Crystal only sending children to us when we petitioned for aid…"

"The Freedom Fighters have been a great help around here," Zuko said with a furrowed brow. "You should probably show them some more respect."

Even now, Aang felt a measure of disgust just from speaking with Zhao. Some things just didn't change. "We really need to get going," he said. He tried to tell himself that his haste had nothing to do with the prospect of meeting Ozai.

Mai set her lips into a thin line. "And did you decide what to do about Katara?"

Aang twisted the toe of his shoes in the sand. "Sort of."

Azula scoffed and fixed him with a narrow-eyed glare. "Despite asking for our opinions you're just going to go with your idea, aren't you?"

Aang just lowered his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. "Can you guys get Appa ready for me, please? And find Sokka?" He turned to go to the prisoner tent before they could respond, knowing that they'd never truly understand his reasons. Katara may be a foe in this world, but he couldn't just continue to keep her in chains. It made things more difficult for everyone involved. Even if he did ship her back to Lake Laogai under Bumi's careful watch, he couldn't be sure of how her gaolers would treat her, the princess of the enemy nation. But she could be dangerous even in chains, and might threaten the life of even Bumi himself if they weren't careful. And that kind of "care" involved limiting her access to water, binding any kind of movement. Treating her like a wild animal.

He knew it was stupid. But he also knew he would never have the heart to do that to any person, let alone Katara. It made him think of the bloodbender Hama, of all people, who spent years of her life rotting in a cage. And probably the end of it, too.

A pair of guards stood sentinel in front of the prisoner tent, who passed when Aang said he wanted to see Katara.

"Wait, Aang."

He turned back to see Zuko jogging up to him and Aang hesitated from going into the tent. "What is it?" Aang asked.

Zuko gestured to the side of the tent, away from the guards where they could speak in relative privacy, so Aang followed him there. "You're avoiding some things, aren't you?" he asked. "Like… speaking to my father. But you're a tough kid. You can do it."

It almost felt patronizing but Aang couldn't blame Zuko for it. "You don't understand."

"Well, talk to me, then," he said. He shuffled his feet and averted his eyes. "Listen, it was hard for me to face my father, too. I don't think my relationship with him is anything like the other Zuko's, but it's still difficult. Still distant. When Azula and I met him again for the first time in years we didn't hug or have a big, happy reunion or anything. We… we just bowed to each other. Caught up over a short drink of tea. I had the chance to tell him I'm a firebender now, that maybe he could have the same high expectations of me that he does for Azula, but I couldn't bring myself to say it."

"You… you want him to have high expectations for you?" Aang asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Zuko chuckled, but rather than humorous it seemed disbelieving. "Crazy, right? But it's better than none at all. And then I wondered if there was even a point in telling him. Because I don't know if I could handle it if he learned I was a firebender and it didn't end up changing anything at all."

"He doesn't get to decide your worth," Aang said, gripping his friend's shoulder. "The other Zuko took a long time to learn that, but in the end he restored his own honor."

Zuko smiled. "Thanks for telling me that. But I, uh, didn't mean to make this about me. You should take your own advice, too. My father is different from the man you faced in the past. He's kind of intimidating but you shouldn't have anything to worry about."

Aang glanced back to the prisoner tent. "He's not the only person on my mind right now."

"Well, whatever you decide to do with her, I'll support you," Zuko said, following his gaze. "And if you do decide to let her go, I made sure to let my father know that everyone here should listen to what you have to say. And one of the guards, Ming, is really kind. She'd do it without question, if you told her to."

"Thanks, Zuko," he said, offering a smile. He turned back to the prisoner tent, nodded again to the guards, and stepped inside.

As soon as he opened the tent flaps he felt like he had walked into a wall of heat. The inside of the tent was small, cramped, and uncomfortably hot with an open flame that made it feel dense and smoky. There was an opening at the top of the tent to provide some ventilation, but mainly the purpose was to prevent Katara from drawing moisture out of the air. She had been shackled to the tent post in the center, her arms bound behind her while she sat on the ground. The dry lumber crackled as it burned and most of the cloth inside was red and black, which made it seem even darker than it was.

"Even with all of these precautions, imprisoning a waterbender on a beach just seems pretty stupid, don't you think?" Katara asked him, looking up once he entered. The firelight reflected a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"You can't waterbend if you can't move your arms or legs," Aang said.

She shrugged. "How sure are you about that? You have no idea what my bending is capable of."

He kept his face impassive. "I know that even your bloodbending has limits."

"Does it? What if I learned to do it with my mind?"

"That's impossible."

She smirked at him through half-lidded eyes. "Only because I haven't done it yet."

He sat down across from her. "You won't intimidate me," he said. "You can't. Not anymore."

"Oh, so I used to?"

"I'm not arrogant enough to deny it."

She chuckled. "I didn't think Air Nomads were capable of arrogance at all. Aren't you a monk?"

"I used to be," he said.

"You know, I've always wondered," she said. "Could you monks have girlfriends? In my culture the Water Sages are all women but they're forbidden from taking husbands. Even free from certain customs the men still put restrictions on them."

He stared into her eyes, wondering if he could pick out any of his Katara in there. "If they chose to, yeah," he said.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Avatar?"

"...No." He thought of his Katara when she asked him that, but forced down the lump in his throat.

She leaned forward as far as her shackles would allow. "Did you ever want one? It can be a secret just between us."

For the first time since he entered the tent, he frowned. "Where are you going with this?"

"I see the way you look at me sometimes," she said, looking anywhere in the tent but in his direction, as if being coy. "With love in your eyes. And hurt. It's okay if you have a little crush… I'm not going to lie and say I haven't thought about it myself. But I'd let you down easy."

He shook his head and moved to stand. "This was a mistake."

She smiled. "I do still intimidate you, don't I? I just had to figure out how."

He didn't know how she had seen through him so easily and he hated it, hated how she managed to wrangle an advantage out of him. "I don't have any feelings for you," he said, and he meant it. "I came here to tell you that I'm letting you go."

"Literally or metaphorically? You're going to have to be a little clearer."

"You'd be free to go back home or wherever it is you want to go. Just don't fight us," he said.

"Now why would I do that?" she asked. "You're going to the South Pole, right? Take me with you."

He blinked in surprise. "What? You want to come with us?"

She shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, yeah. Yue's my friend too. You've got some plan to rescue her, don't you? I want in." She jingled the shackles. "And you can even keep me chained up. I'd understand."

Aang shook his head. "No way. We could never trust you to help."

"So what's your plan, then? Just head south until you hit the South Pole? Sure, Sokka could probably guide you there, but that'd take you right through Aniak'to. Where my father lives. And you'd' never make it, going that route. Do you have a map on you?"

"No," he said. "But I can get one."

"Ugh, okay," she said, and she closed her eyes as if to envision it. "There are forty or fifty clans that make up the Water Tribes, split between north and south. Almost all of them would cause issues as you pass through their lands. But if we go down there from the Water Nation's eastern peninsula we'd pass through lands belonging to clans that aren't allied with my father." She opened her eyes again. "And I know that peninsula better than Sokka does. I've been there, but he hasn't been home at all in two or three years and clan relations have changed since then. I'd be able to guide you."

He considered her words and tried to envision a map of the southern continent himself, but the only time he had ever been there was when he first met Sokka and Katara after he came out of the iceberg, and a brief visit after the Comet, so he'd only seen their village. "Say we do let you come along," he said. "What's to prevent you from betraying us? How naive do you think I am?"

"I don't know if you're aware, but it's a pretty inhospitable land," she said. "If I betrayed you I'd basically leave myself at the mercy of the landscape. We'd be passing through perilous mountain passes. Below freezing temperatures. Vicious beasts and clans hungry for war. There's even a rumor of a clan that lives in those mountains that's made up of cannibals. If I betrayed you it'd be suicide. Winter is coming and I'm sure your bison wouldn't be able to handle the intense cold in those skies the whole journey so we'd be forced to do some of it on foot."

"And you'd go through all of that just to help your friend Yue?"

She pouted. "And to watch out for my dear big brother. I'd worry about him."

"Somehow I doubt that," he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I've been disgraced, anyway," she said, her brow casting a shadow over her face. "The only woman in our tribe's history to lead a campaign against Ba Sing Se - or anywhere, for that matter - and I failed. I'm nothing but an embarrassment to my father now. So it's not like I can just go home and everything would be sunshine and daisies."

Aang let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The others wouldn't like this.


"Absolutely not. How foolish can you be?"

After his conversation with Katara, he gathered together all of his friends - Sokka, the Freedom Fighters, and Ty Lee included. He'd told them his plan and Katara's idea to take the eastern peninsula route to the South Pole, delaying their departure just a little bit longer. Luckily, while he had been in the prisoner tent, Ozai had arrived and retreated into his command tent to administer orders to his soldiers. But as Aang predicted, Azula raised the most objections about bringing Katara along.

"Azula, he's clearly put some thought into this," Zuko said, handing out bowls of noodles to everyone around their circle in the sand.

"Could have fooled me," she said, rolling her eyes. "We can't trust her. Honestly, I barely even trust Sokka yet."

"Right back at you," said Sokka, slurping his noodles loudly. "I don't really like it either, but she has a point. I don't know the eastern peninsula well, or any of the clans that live there."

Azula frowned at him. "If you don't know your own lands what's the point of us bringing you in the first place?"

"For my good looks," he said, winking at her. She blanched at him in return.

Jet and Mai both shot glares at him. "Shut up," said Jet, his voice deep. "The only reason I haven't cut you down yet is because I'm respecting Aang's decision long enough for him to save Bandit."

"We need them," Aang said. "Sokka's going to teach me waterbending. Katara knows the best way to the portal and Sokka can use bloodbending to keep her in line. And prevent her from bloodbending us."

Sokka lowered his noodle bowl to his lap. "Wait, I am? I didn't sign up for that."

"Yeah, so stop antagonizing everyone," Aang said.

Ty Lee tilted her head. "I missed a lot, huh?"

"There's no way I'm going along with you if those two are the ones guiding us," Jet said, crossing his arms. "I'm not putting my life in the hands of pond scum." Smellerbee and Longshot sat at his side without a word.

Aang glared at him over the rim of his bowl. "I never invited you along. Sokka's done more for me to trust him than you have."

Jet leaned back. "Whatever. There's two portals, right? I'm gonna head to the North Pole and save Bandit my way."

"That's suicide," Azula said. "At least we'll be able to rendezvous with the invasion force in the south. It's going to be our distraction and escape method once we pull Toph and the others out. There's no invasion planned for the north."

"Why not?" Jet asked. "This war has two fronts. Both of them need to go down."

Ty Lee looked back and forth between Jet and Azula, a single noodle hanging from her mouth.

"Our forces aren't strong enough," Zuko said. "The Golden City is going to be too occupied with defending the Fire Nation. We'll need all of Ba Sing Se's strength to attack the south."

"We won't need an invasion," said Mai, speaking up suddenly and with conviction. She hugged her fur-lined shawl closer around her shoulders. "We'll sneak in and assassinate High Chief Arnook ourselves while you fight the war in the south."

"What?" Zuko asked, turning to Mai as if she'd struck him. "What do you mean?"

Aang frowned. He didn't realize how much he had come to rely on Mai in the past few weeks. "You're not going to come with us?"

She scowled at him. "How can you ask me that?" She pointed at Sokka with all the sharpness she used to throw her knives. "How can you ask me to travel with him and Katara? Seeing him here has been hard enough. Their men killed my warriors. It'd dishonor their memory if I worked alongside the Water Tribe."

Aang hung his head, feeling his chest tighten. "You're right. I'm sorry. But I can't ask you to go to the North Pole. It's too dangerous."

"I understand what this means to you," Mai said, her stoic mask returning. "But I can't follow. And I can't just sit here and wait for the invasion. I'm going." She turned her head to Jet. "And before you ask, it doesn't mean I'm joining your stupid gang."

"Hey, it's all good," said Jet, shrugging. "I'll be glad to have you."

They finished their meals and discarded their ceramic bowls to the side. Aang wondered if vengeance was at the core of Mai's motivation. It made him ache, and part of him felt compelled to stop her from going, but the other part of him knew that motivation well. Saving Toph probably had little to do with her and Jet's reasons for going north.

"Mai…" Zuko tried reaching for her, but she turned away from him.

"Don't you all need to get going?" she asked. "You're wasting precious time. Toph needs you."

"You're right," Aang said, standing. "Everyone, go say your goodbyes."


Aang stayed far away from the center of the encampment, preparing some last minute things with Appa and the lemurs for their journey. Bumi had given them Water Tribe money and Ozai's soldiers had given them supplies. Aang attached a set of manacles to Appa's saddle - at least for the beginning of their journey, he wasn't going to take any chances with Katara. He owed that much to Zuko and Azula. After he did that, he sat down to meditate while he waited.

"Avatar Aang, here you are," said a voice coming from the shore behind him. Chills went up and down his whole body with so much force that it made him quiver and his breath caught in his throat. "I was afraid I had somehow done something to disrespect you, that you would not announce yourself at my camp or come to visit me."

He forced himself to turn and face Ozai. The face of his greatest enemy looked exactly the same with his piercing gold eyes, thin beard, and distinguished air of the Phoenix King. But that was where the similarities ended. Instead of regal robes or imposing armor, he wore the same scaled armor pieces as the soldiers down at camp with a curved broadsword like Zuko's sheathed at his hip and a second straighter blade that Aang never thought looked so out of place. In contrast to Zhao's crimson cape, Ozai's was black. His hair had been pinned up in a partial topknot, but he had no formal headpiece to signify his status. But from everything he knew of this Ozai, this was not a humble man by any means.

Aang gulped down his fear and stood at attention. "Ah, no, sorry. I thought you were away on patrol."

Ozai folded his hands behind his back, his posture perfectly straight. Even without an evil gloat coming out he still intimidated Aang. "I see. I had not meant to interrupt your meditation, but there was a matter on which I hoped to speak with you."

Aang forced himself to stay in place. Every part of his fight or flight response flared, a visceral need to do something, anything, to remedy the wrongness of this situation. Of talking calmly with Phoenix King Ozai. "Uh, no, it's fine. Um… what is it?" He hated how he stammered over his words - he wanted to appear strong for this unexpected interaction.

Ozai lowered to his knees at the edge of where the sandy beach met grass and gestured for Aang to sit next to him. His voice came out gravelly and it occurred to Aang that on the few occasions he heard Ozai speak in his world, it was always shouting or taunting or threatening. But Ozai actually gave him a hint of a smirk. "After I learned Zhao had met you and somehow offended you I expected you to regard me the same way, as his superior."

Aang scratched the back of his head and hesitantly lowered into a seated position, tense and ready to spring up at any moment if he had to. Thinking back, he supposed he had been overly confrontational to Zhao when they had first met. But now he exercised all of his restraint not to do worse to Ozai. The thought of Zuko and Azula, untouched by his cruelty, helped to calm him. "Oh, uh… sorry."

It was a strange feeling to sit with the man who was the source of all his pain and misery and to have him worry about Aang's opinion.

Ozai looked to the sea and inhaled the salty air, the perfect picture of composure. "But that was not what I had intended to speak with you about. As the Avatar, you have more knowledge than most about spiritual matters, correct?"

Aang pursed his lips into a frown, curious about this turn in conversation. He expected talk of war, or the recent tragedy at Ba Sing Se, or even the fact that he had been reunited with his children. "Kind of."

Ozai peered at him with something like amusement. "You are a man of few words. I respect that. Azula gave me a different impression, though." He gave a low chuckle and continued. "In recent weeks, something strange has happened to me and I have told no one else. But you, the most powerful being in the world, ought to know the reason for why this is happening."

Becoming Ozai's confidante was the last thing he expected. "What's happening?"

Ozai held out his hand, palm up, and took a deep breath. When he exhaled, a fire sparked to life in his grip, a dancing orange flame that Ozai stared into as if transfixed before clenching his hand and extinguishing it. "I never used to be a firebender. And I know everything about this camp. I know the business of every man and woman who passes through it. It has happened to no one else."

Aang furrowed his brow and his heart pounded with the implications of what he had just seen. It was just like what had happened to Zuko. Ever since Aang had learned that Princess Azula whispered into this Azula's ear, he asked Zuko if the same happened to him, and if he could somehow contact the Zuko that Aang knew. But the connection did not seem to work at will. If the same was happening to Ozai… The thought gave him chills again. "Have you… had any visions or anything?"

Ozai tilted his head and it was as if a mask had been lifted away and Aang could see the exhaustion in his eyes. "I've been visited by a spirit. A dark thing that wears my face and tries to make me partake of his power."

Aang stood and backed away from him, his fists clenched and feet digging into the earth. "Don't listen to it," he said, the harshness of his voice surprising even Aang. Knowing that both of his greatest enemies could see him, that they could try to influence things in this world to harm Aang or the people he cared about terrified him. "It's evil. Pure evil."

Ozai scarcely reacted to his words and just looked out to the sea again. "Evil, is it? What makes it so? If it is giving me power, shouldn't I use it? With all the power that you have - all the power in the world - what use is 'good' or 'evil' to you?"

"It's how you use that power that makes you good or evil," Aang said, narrowing his eyes. "I've met people who think firebending is evil just because of what it is, but I know that isn't true."

"So you, who stands above us all, think I could use this power, this spirit, for good?"

"I don't stand above anybody. And I don't think you should use that power at all."

"That isn't what I understand of the Avatar."

"This isn't what I understood of you," Aang said, surprised at himself for letting those words out. But even in this world, he didn't expect an Ozai who could be like this, who elevated the Avatar to such an extent. But did he ever understand Ozai?

"What have Zuko and Azula told you of me, I wonder?" Ozai asked, folding his hands in his lap. Aang realized that Ozai had misunderstood his words, but that was probably for the better. "Did they tell you that I am cold? Harsh in my way of cultivating their unique strengths? And I understand that you have met my brother as well - did he tell you that I stole away his son to the war?"

Aang frowned and finally allowed his shoulders to relax. Gulls cawed as they flew over the bay. "They didn't really tell me much about you at all."

The man actually laughed out loud. "Ahh, I see. That makes sense. They've been nothing but distant to me since we reunited. It's for the better."

Ozai's outburst of laughter, of all things, made Aang see the similarity to the Phoenix King the most. Oddly enough, it gave him the courage to sit down alongside him again. "Is that really better? For them?"

He looked Aang squarely in the eyes, all mirth gone from his face. "I would sacrifice any relationship with my children if it means saving them from the pain of loss again. To make them strong enough to stand on their own. Just in case something were to happen to me."

"I don't agree," Aang said, frowning again. He thought of the burn scar over his old friend's eye and the thought that this Zuko could have what the other lacked made him ache. "You should treasure the time you have together. I'm sure they want their father to show he loves them."

Ozai shook his head. "It's too late for that. Besides, they have their uncle." He scoffed. "You know, it isn't often that a man is courageous enough to disagree with me. The Avatar really is something."

"It's not because I'm the Avatar," Aang said. "I've seen worse than you."

He chuckled again and Aang thought that this was perhaps the most unexpected conversation he ever had since coming to this world. "I see. Well, I should be glad that I have you to protect my son and daughter. Zuko tells me that you've trained in the way of the sword but you gave yours to that Water Tribe whelp." He unbuckled the thinner, straighter sword from his belt and handed it off to Aang. "Take this. It's been handed down my wife's family for generations and supposedly once belonged to the wife of Avatar Roku."

Aang blinked and took the sheathed blade, gaping. Ozai gifting him a weapon from Avatar Roku was the only fitting capstone to a conversation like this one. The sheath was black and depicted a serpentine dragon threaded with gold. The hilt, covered in gold plate, had been inlaid with a ruby at the pommel. "What? Really?"

"Zuko prefers broadswords, like me. And Azula never had a taste for martial weapons."

Aang unsheathed it, revealing a blade the color of pearl that reflected the orange sunlight when he held it up and cast an iridescent ray of color onto the ground. "I… I don't know what to say."

"Use it as you must," he said with a wry smile. "Not for good or for evil. But for something above those petty notions."

Aang sheathed the sword again, and for the first time, he set his face into a grim smile for Ozai. "I'll try my best."


Aang, Zuko, Azula, Sokka, and Katara left later that evening, leaving Mai to make her own preparations for her journey. With no sky bison, it would be much slower, but she'd manage. Jet and his Freedom Fighters had fire within them, and they'd help to get her to Agna Qel'a - the Northern Water Tribe city - but once she was there she planned to leave them. None of them were trained in stealth or assassination like she was.

They would presumably go on to the northern portal. But her only intent was revenge with fear as her weapon, honed to a sharp and deadly point. She knew fear intimately, and fear would help to end this war. The fear of her enemies and the fear of losing anyone else important to her would drive her further than any inner fire.

The sun set beyond the mountains to the west, but the sound of bells ringing echoed across the bay. Mai turned her gaze out to the water, spotting a plume of black smoke coming from the mouth of the river leading to East Lake and the Serpent's Pass. Coal burning engines from a Fire Nation ship, she realized. Troops lined up along the shoreline to receive them. As they came closer, Mai recognized the insignia of a volcano on their flag - the burning earth of Jie Duan.

The ship anchored out in the bay and a smaller rowboat lowered and paddled to shore. From this distance, Mai could see only a trio of men on board, and as they neared Ozai stepped forward to welcome them. She made her way closer to watch and listen.

An older man, partially balding, stepped onto the beach and saluted Ozai. "We are part of Jie Duan's Coalition," he said, and he gestured to a younger man who stood at his side. "My name is Tyro and this is my son, Haru. We've managed to escape the Water Navy blockade and come here for solace."

Ozai introduced himself in turn, but looked past the father and son to the third occupant of the rowboat. "I can't believe it," he said. "Is that you, brother?"

The third man bore a torch in his hands, but when he stood Mai got a better look at him. Wearing a red cloak with pointed shoulders and a lowered gold-trimmed hood, he joined the other men on the beach and stuck the torch into the sand. "It has been a long time, Ozai," he said. He folded his hands over his potbelly and stretched his legs. "Let me tell you, it's been so long since I've used my seafaring legs!"

"I didn't expect to see you here, Iroh. I hope you're well."

"Father?" a voice called out from the crowd. Lu Ten pushed his way to the front, his face lighting up in a huge grin. "What're you doing here?"

Iroh paused his stretching and froze when he saw his son, tears brimming in his eyes until he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the younger man in a tight embrace. He wept openly, his shoulders shuddering as he squeezed Lu Ten with seemingly no intention to let go.

Lu Ten smiled and laughed and awkwardly patted the old man's back. "Father, what's wrong? I'm happy to see you too, but you're embarrassing me!"

"I've missed you, Lu Ten," Iroh spoke through his tears. "My brave soldier boy…"


Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long compared to the others, but my free time from COVID has ended because my job has me going back to working full time. Also, this chapter changed a whole lot as I was writing it - I'd originally intended to open with Aang's conversation with Ozai!

Minor spoilers for Shadow of Kyoshi - the canonical name of the Northern Water Tribe city is actually Agna Qel'a, as revealed in the novel!

Please review!