Author's Notes: I made edits to "The Firebending Scroll," so check that out if you want! Making my way through Book 1... Also, oof, this ended up turning into a long chapter.

Book 3: Water

Chapter 2: The Last Kyoshi Warrior

"The nuns are saying I'll be ready for firebending soon."

Sangmu fumbled with her slice of fruit pie and almost dropped it. "What? Already? But it feels like you only just got here!"

The temple's tree roots coiled around one of the ledges overlooking the foggy ravine, creating a sort of shelf for giving the airbenders a great view of the rest of the temple. Sangmu had shown Aang this spot after his first day at the Western Air Temple and it had become his favorite place, especially because it became their typical meeting point before they started the day's adventures. But even the thought of a fun day ahead with Sangmu did little to lift his spirits.

Morose and slumped over, with his legs dangling over the tree roots, Aang frowned as he watched the herd of bison fly by them. "I know! I mean, I already have my airbending tattoos but I thought they'd be teaching me more about what it means to be the Avatar, you know?"

Sangmu shared his frown but then nudged him and gave a hopeful smile. "Hey, what if Kuzon becomes your firebending master? Then we'd all still get to have fun together all the time!"

Aang looked at Sangmu with his own sad smile, but couldn't look directly at her face without blushing so he focused on her beaded circlet centered at her forehead instead. The beads had been arranged in a circle and were meant to display the light blues of a midday sky. "I wish… but Kuzon's not really a master yet. The nuns would never allow it."

"Don't be such a pessimist," she said. "We'll find you a great firebending master, not some stuffy old Fire Sage. And then we'll do the same for your earthbending and waterbending masters!"

"You're gonna come and help me find all my masters?"

She swung her feet back and forth as they dangled over the ravine. "Well… an Avatar needs companions, right? A family?"

Euphoria filled his lungs and for a moment he thought he'd float away from the temple. "Really? I'd love that!" But then he really considered her words and Aang tilted his head. "But don't you want to stay here and become a nun?"

Sangmu blanched. "What gave you that idea? I want to see the world!" She looked down into the swirling fog in the ravine and Aang had an inkling there was something else she wasn't telling him, but he didn't want to press it. Whatever was on her mind, it made her look sad. Wistful.

He decided that he didn't want her to look that way and a devious idea came to mind that gave him an impish grin. "Hey, do you want to do something with me that Gyatso always suggested for cheering me up? It involves fruit pies…"


Aang knew why his dreams now consisted of his other self's memories instead of his own. He figured it had to do with the connection they now shared - but it didn't mean he had to like it. Memories of airbenders long dead induced a sense of melancholy far worse than his own memories of home. Dreaming of his world and his friends helped solidify his sense of purpose and gave him the comfort of familiarity, even if it was a reminder of his failures. It was personal.

But he'd never met this Sangmu. To him, she was just another face among thousands that he'd failed by running away in his world. Why was his other self dreaming of her so much? Did he just miss her? It was almost embarrassing, in a way - it made Aang realize he was even worse about pining over Katara.

Sitting at the back of the saddle, he felt his gaze slide over to Katara, who was still shackled and spent most of her time looking at the ground far below them as they passed over the southern Earth Kingdom. He wondered if, like his Katara, she simply enjoyed the scenery.

Appa's saddle never felt so cold. Any time Sokka or even Zuko tried to make conversation Azula shot it down, too focused on monitoring Katara. Seeing the waterbender like this, Aang himself wanted nothing to do with her - even looking at her gave him the sensation of something slimy sinking into his stomach, as wrong and uncomfortable as having a peaceful conversation with Ozai the other day. But just thinking of Katara in that way made his stomach twist into knots, guilty that he even thought that of her. Sabi also gave her a wide berth, but Momo occasionally tried slinking up to Katara's side only to be shooed off, yet again giving Aang an inkling that this might've been the Momo from his world.

"Is it just me, or are we flying west?" Katara asked suddenly, looking at Aang, Azula, and Sokka, who sat in the saddle with her. "The Southern Water Tribe's eastern peninsula should be directly south of us. I get that your big, gross, smelly furball probably needs to rest, but we could stop at Kokkan Island on the way."

Said "big, gross, smelly furball" groaned at her words, as if taking offense. Zuko, at the reins, patted his head in sympathy.

Sokka paused his boomerang sharpening. "And give those stupidly dangerous samurai who live there the opportunity to capture us? No thanks."

"We are flying west," Aang confirmed. "We're going to stop and rest at Kyoshi Island first, and then continue onward from there. It's a more roundabout route but it gives you less of an opportunity to use wherever we land to your advantage. It was Azula's idea." Besides, he was familiar with Kyoshi Island. Kokkan Island was closer, but he'd never been there and had enough disadvantages to begin with.

"Thank you for the credit, Aang," Azula said, sitting back with a satisfied look on her face.

Katara made a show of shrugging. "I get it, you don't trust me. I'm hurt."

"That said, Kyoshi Island has its own dangers," Sokka said to Aang and Azula. "Just… be ready for anything."

Azula crossed her arms. "I always am."


Her body hurtled through the abyss, ripped between the currents that dragged her deeper and deeper or further upward and out or within or around or all at once. She lost any sense of time or direction, her movements sluggish and swift in equal measure. She should have drowned long ago and had long since stopped struggling, stopped fighting it, stopped floundering in the current in a feeble attempt to swim to safety.

She felt things brush against her occasionally. Things that felt wet even underwater and things with long, sweeping tendrils and things that made horrible squelching noises that made her realize she still had ears and wish she didn't. Things that felt prickly and things that felt rough and things that felt like coarse, grainy sand but couldn't be because she was still blind and she had no eyes or nose or mouth.

She wondered if everything avoided her because she was already dead.

The water or whatever it was rushed and pulled her along with it and the darkness hurled her up and then she felt a splash of something cold and weightless that she remembered to be air, and her stomach flipped as she met no resistance. She became reacquainted with hunger and fear and a dizzy sensation and felt her momentum decrease as she reached her apex and started to fall again. On her way down - because she felt fairly certain it was down - she crashed through something that felt like paper and something else that felt like spiderfly webs that slowed her fall until she stopped in midair and felt herself change direction in a disorienting swerve. A canopy of what might have been giant leaves slapped her and she got caught in a tangle of vines that finally made her stop, but she managed to wiggle free, afraid of what awaited her if she didn't, and then she fell again.

She landed face down (could she say that? No, she couldn't say anything) on something hard and flat. Awareness rippled through her body and through the earth beneath her and she pressed her palms flat against the soil. She would have cried if she could have, she would have choked in lungfuls of air, would have reveled in the confirmation that she still lived. For a long time, she didn't move, and instead pressed herself into the earth as if she meant to become part of it. It was her anchor.

A voice that sounded like her own - a distant memory, something impossible - rang out somewhere above her. "C'mon, dirt for brains! You're not gonna give up here on my watch!"

Toph Bei Fong clenched the soil in her fists and lifted her head. She could still bend. She didn't have eyes to see, but that never stopped her before.


Appa landed as far from Kyoshi Village as Aang could manage, but even under Sokka's cloud cover he felt exposed. This time of year, the spruce and pine trees around the island were the only ones that weren't bare, offering them little natural camouflage. But even many of those had been cut down, their stumps the only indication that there had been other trees here. When Aang asked Sokka about it, he suggested it was due to the need for lumber used in shipbuilding.

"We're not gonna stay here long," Aang told the others as they dismounted. "I just want to get some Water Tribe clothing so we don't stick out so much for the rest of our journey."

Azula put her hands on her hips and scowled. "I don't want to wear a big, gross, smelly parka." She had the same tone that Katara used to describe Appa earlier and Aang guessed that Azula probably didn't even realize it.

Sokka pulled his hair back and tied it up into his signature warrior's wolf tail. "We'll be sure to find you something nice and fashionable. And maybe we'll even get you some perfume."

Aang frowned at him. "Sokka, don't start with the sarcasm."

"Whatever."

"What do you mean, anyway?" Azula asked. "I'm coming."

Aang made sure the sword that Ozai had given him was fixed to his belt before answering. "I'm trusting you to stay here and keep an eye on Katara," he said. "You're strong enough to handle her if things go bad."

Katara looked over the edge of the saddle at everyone down on the ground, pouting. "Hey, I don't need a babysitter." They all ignored her.

"Well, fine, when you put it that way," said Azula, who shrugged and began unpacking.

"I'll stay here, too," said Zuko, picking up an armful of their cooking implements. "Someone's got to make sure they don't kill each other."


Aang resorted to theft so he could wear something to town, but he and Sokka planned to avoid trouble by purchasing everyone else's clothing at the markets. He'd managed to snag a tunic not unlike Sokka's, but instead of a plain white trim it had a border with a white and purple geometric design. His pants felt thick and heavy, made of a darker fabric than the tunic and tucked into sealskin boots. To hide his arrows, he found a dyed blue leather fur-lined hat shaped roughly like a curved funnel, curling to a point at the top of his head with flaps that covered his ears. He had to keep brushing the brown and grey-dappled fur out of his eyes. Fingerless gloves concealed the arrows on the backs of his hands, since he chose not to wear mittens for ease of bending.

He didn't want to think about how his ancestors probably frowned upon him for how many animals he wore, wherever they were.

The village itself was almost unrecognizable, and many of them that had previously dotted the island in unconnected hubs had now expanded and connected to each other, uniting them under Water Tribe rule. Aang chose the one he was most familiar with - Suki's old village - as his destination, situated close to the bay where he had once ridden the elephant-koi.

The main thoroughfare still meandered up a slope to the top of the village, but the previously gabled roofs had now been rounded and elongated in a Water Tribe style. One longhouse had Sokka nearly drooling for the smell of smoked meats emanating from it while another had a much fouler smell that Sokka said was for harvesting whale and seal oil to make lamps. At the village square, where the statue of Avatar Kyoshi used to be, Aang instead saw fishery stalls set up on beds of ice to preserve the day's catch. Several fishmongers carved into the carcass of a golden elephant-koi that had been dragged all the way up from the bay. Its blank gaze felt like it stared at Aang and it made his stomach churn.

"I used to ride those," Aang said to Sokka under his breath. "They were once considered sacred."

"Well, now they're just meat," he said. His eye darted up and down the street, constantly on watch, and seeing that made a thought occur to Aang.

"Won't anyone recognize you?" Aang asked. "Y'know… because of your eye?"

Sokka twisted his mouth into a thoughtful frown. "Not really. It's pretty common back home - a symbol of weakness, or failure as a man. The spirit Sedna had one eye, so they say, so it's meant to be a comparison to how she was inferior to Seiryu, her husband. It's done to men who lose duels, or who can't provide for their families." He tapped his chin. "Well, it's common for pirates too, but that's unrelated."

"Seiryu? The old emperor?"

"No, the sea dragon spirit."

Aang had never heard of Seiryu the sea dragon. "Wow, you guys really like to hammer home the idea that men are stronger than women, huh? I'm not one to say bad things about other cultures, but…"

Sokka's eye closed for a moment before he gathered himself and Aang wondered what circumstances led to the removal of his left eye. But now was not the time to ask. "I personally think all that spirit stuff is the stupid part, but either way, it happened to me. I don't care about the why."

Even back home, Sokka never cared for spiritual matters, so his familiar skepticism was comforting. "Do you still think that 'spirit stuff' is stupid?" Aang asked him.

"I didn't put much stock in them before," he said. "I knew spirits were always real but it never affected our lives before. But I'm also not someone to deny the evidence of it right in front of my face. If I was, I wouldn't be here now."

Aang tugged his new hat lower. He wanted to ask if Sokka had visions of his other self, but the warrior still knew too little about Aang's circumstances. Now was not the time to tell him the truth. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you are."

Sokka made a grunting sound that sounded like a scoff and they arrived at the market stalls, their boots crunching over the light dusting of snow that coated the ground from earlier in the morning. Villagers from the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom crowded the markets, arguing over wares like fruits imported from northern shores and jewelry from Aniak'to. The two of them stocked up on parkas and underclothes sold by a mother-son pair, paid with the money that Bumi had given them, and kept their heads down. Sokka convinced Aang that any self-respecting Water Tribe warrior had a shark tooth necklace of some kind, but Aang settled for an amulet made from a circular polished blue shell with a fang curled around it like a crescent moon.

Aang saw warriors everywhere. Unlike the Fire Nation soldiers he knew, who would be stationed in cities with rigid guard and patrol duties and wouldn't do much else, these fighters doubled as fishermen or merchants, shipbuilders and loggers, hunters, and spiritualists. Every able-bodied man held a weapon or wore face paint of some sort, waterbender or not, and all would be ready for war at a moment's notice. Aang forced himself to keep a level head, to stifle the fear that someone may recognize their prince.

"That much for a handful of golden elephant-koi scales? You must be mad!"

"Sorry, Thod - this was the only catch today."

"Next you'll be telling me that I can't have its eyes!"

"Well, uh, actually…"

"Do you realize what kinds of properties these scales have? I can grind it into a powder and melt it down with quicksilver to make a mixture that strengthens your waterbending! It's also a necessary component in the endeavor to change base metals into gold!"

Aang's eyes were drawn to the commotion brewing between the elderly Water Tribe man and the fisherman. The elder, Thod, had an air of importance about him, accompanied as he was by a trio of men in blue robes and black silk hats that looked vaguely familiar. Thod, despite his advanced age and missing teeth, yelled at the fisherman without stopping for breath.

The fisherman, apparently, had enough, and brandished his cleaver at Thod. "Can it, you old coot! I can sell these eyes for much more than you'd offer me!"

"What use could someone else have for those eyes? This isn't the same as regular old elephant-koi! Do you even know who I truly am? Do you, lad?" Thod drew himself up to his full height, the top of his bald head gleaming in the sunlight while he stroked his long white beard. "I am Head Seeker of the Aniak'to Alchemical Institute! And I insist on buying those eyes as they are used in many different kinds of purification rituals!"

"Head Seeker? Pah!" An old woman - ancient, even - stomped her way over to the two arguing men. Much smaller than either of them, she squinted at them through heavy wrinkles as she stomped over in her green kimono. With how short and slight she looked, the weakest breeze looked as if it could knock her over. She waved her bony fingers at the two men, but something held in them reflected golden light. Her voice came out as coarse as a boar-q-pine pelt. "D'you think that makes you sound important, boy?"

Thod bristled so much that Aang thought the braids in his long hair and beard quivered. "You dare to call me 'boy?' Do you know to whom you are speaking?"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time! Thud? Clod? Those sound like earthbender names to me! And you're much younger than I am, so respect your seniors!" Hunched over a gnarled wooden cane, her wispy grey hair fell in a plait over her shoulder. "It's people like you who are driving the sacred golden elephant-koi to extinction! They used to be respected and sometimes even worshiped, but now any old coot like you thinks they're a delicacy or some precious commodity!"

The old man spit on the ground in front of her. "Will anyone collect this senile old woman?" The crowd that had formed around them watched and did nothing - made up of both Water Tribe and Kyoshi islanders, but Aang had a hard time telling the two apart.

"I know her," Sokka hissed under his breath to Aang. "That's Mizuka… she used to live at the palace in Aniak'to! I didn't know she moved back here."

"Should we step in?" Aang asked, noticing that no one came to the old woman's aid.

As if in answer to his question, Thod raised a hand to strike Mizuka, but her hand snapped to his wrist and diverted his attack away. She otherwise didn't move. "Who do you think you are?!" he shouted at her, voice hoarse.

"The last Kyoshi Warrior," Mizuka said, jutting her chin out proudly. "Which is a title much grander than yours."

A pair of warriors shoved themselves between the two as if to prevent a street brawl from breaking out between the seniors. Mizuka limped away without another word while Thod stormed off after one last glare at the ancient woman's back.

Sokka crossed his arms. "The last? What did she mean by that?"


"C'mon, keep walking. If you give up you'll never get outta here!"

Toph dragged her feet forward, spreading her awareness out further with every step. She could bend the earth in the Spirit World perfectly fine, but even with both feet firmly planted on the ground she couldn't muster the energy to do more than walk. Something about the ground beneath her felt softer than normal earth, less dense. It also changed. She could sometimes feel things moving around deep underground, like fossils that had come to life or great tunneling worms and other things she wished would never surface. Sometimes the earth she walked on felt suspended over nothing. Sometimes great chunks of stone would float away or disappear.

Her companion was the only person she trusted to guide her through this - her other self, the one from Aang's world. But the other Toph was not truly there - she did not know if her doppelganger even had a physical form, because the voice shifted often and sometimes came from above and sometimes from her side. Wherever or whatever she was, the other Toph did not walk upon the earth and she wondered if the voice was a spirit. Spirit-Toph. How did she see, then? It wasn't like Toph could ask.

"You're slowing down again! Pick up the pace, weakling!"

Toph didn't know where they were going and suspected that Spirit-Toph had no idea, either. But her other self knew the right words to spur her into action, and that was enough.

She walked through a forest with trees bigger than anything she had ever come across. Wide enough to comfortably hold several houses in their trunks and so tall that Toph couldn't sense the tops even after pounding the earth and the bark, they made her feel smaller than she had ever felt before. She only knew that they were trees to begin with and not enormous wooden monoliths because she felt their roots tangling together underground for as far as she could sense, holding entire ecosystems in their depths. It made her glad that she wasn't alone anymore, even if her only companion was her own disembodied voice.

Maybe if she wasn't dead, she had gone crazy.

The trees stood far enough apart that she could conceivably walk in any direction with no underbrush to block her way. No part of the ground was trodden upon more than the others, which would have indicated a path for her. But they had no guidance, no aim except continuing forward. The only time her pace changed at all was when she came across a screaming bird of some sort and ran away from it.

The edge of the forest came up without warning. First it continued on into an endless void and then it just stopped. She could sense nothing ahead at all.

"You have to jump forward," said Spirit-Toph from above. "It's just a little gap. Honestly you could probably even just take one really big step."

But she didn't move. She couldn't sense anything beyond the forest. Even the ground below her felt shallow and empty, as if it had eroded away. How could her other self see when she couldn't? She hated how everything here shifted and changed with none of the stability that real earth had.

"I know, you can't see ahead. But you're gonna have to trust me on this. I can't see, either. I can't even bend like this. I just know. I guess it comes with the territory."

She wanted to hit something. Wanted to punch her other self. Wanted to shout all of her problems away, as she always did. But she felt so exhausted, so helpless. So hungry, yet she couldn't eat. Couldn't shout.

"C'mon, Toph! You got this! You can trust me."

Toph braced her legs and reminded herself who she was - the Blind Bandit, the greatest earthbender in the world. Aang's earthbending master. Azula and Zuko's friend. The ground, as flimsy and unfamiliar as it was here, was a part of her. With those feelings in her heart, she stomped the earth with just enough force to propel herself over, and then she felt nothing.


"With waterbending, you've got to be adaptable. Resourceful." Sokka paced in front of Aang with his hands folded behind his back, occasionally gesturing to the snowmelt that dripped off of the fir trees. "Water is everywhere. Water is life, but a flood or a tsunami are also more dangerous than most other natural disasters. It changes, y'know? We draw our power from the moon - its push and pull on the tides… even if we're not currently in the ocean right now." He scratched his head. "The tides have nothing to do with the snow melting all around us into water. That's because of the heat of the sun. Which, speaking of, a bunch of Water Tribe astronomers theorize that moonlight doesn't actually exist at all! It's just reflected off of the sun. Crazy, right? So does that mean we're like firebenders? Uhh, oh! Yeah, water's adaptable, because it changes between water and ice and snow, so you've got to be prepared to use it for any of those things. But sometimes it's just fun to clobber your enemies with a club, too."

Aang straightened from the stance that Sokka had told him to take. Both of them had been unprepared for the impromptu first waterbending lesson, but Zuko had the idea of foraging for as much as they could before they ventured to the South Pole where resources would be scarce. Aang figured Appa could use the extra rest anyway. "But Sokka, I don't have a club."

Sokka shrugged. "Oh. Yeah. Whatever. Feel the tides, feel the flow, feel the push and pull. That's how my father and Gran taught me."

"Your father taught you waterbending?"

"Yeah," he said, getting a distant look in his eye. "When I was really young."

Aang shuffled his feet. His voice came out low even though they had picked a secluded spot in the forest far from camp and away from Katara. "You do realize…"

"Yeah, yeah, teaching you waterbending will indirectly contribute to you trying to take him down," he said, waving his hand at Aang dismissively. "I know. But this will also help you prevent the Spirit World from blowing up this world, right?"

Aang had been curious to learn what kind of bending teacher Sokka would be, but so far all he seemed to do was ramble on about the theory behind it and demonstrate a move, and then repeat himself. If Aang didn't know any better, he might have said Sokka was nervous.

Maybe this Sokka had more in common with the one from home than he thought.

He focused on the snow at his feet and tried to feel the water, the back and forth of the tides, like Sokka said. He didn't understand why he had trouble grasping it now when waterbending came easiest to him back when he first learned with Katara. "Maybe I should focus on actual water first instead of snow?"

Sokka's shoulders fell. "Uh, yeah, maybe. I dunno, I'm not used to this whole 'teaching' thing."

They found a frozen pond that Sokka melted and Aang tried practicing the push and pull on that, but it didn't bend to his will and both of them started getting frustrated. "Why am I not getting this? Waterbending should come easy to me! I first learned the basics from Pakku ages ago and I could at least freeze and melt ice a little bit!" Not to mention the fact that he took to it like a fish when Katara first taught him back home...

Sokka shrugged. "Maybe if you ask Katara really nicely she could teach you instead?"

Aang shook his head. He knew that wouldn't go anything like the way Katara originally taught him in his world. "No," he said. "It has to be you. I want it to be you - you can do this." Any time the Sokka he knew felt down about something he just needed some encouragement. He just hoped this Sokka would respond to it the same way.

Sokka lifted a stream of water and coiled it around himself and across his shoulders. "Well, if you're sure… Your movements are too fast-paced and aggressive, though. And when you're rooted to the ground - which isn't often enough, you know - you're too rigid about it."

"Like an airbender, firebender, and earthbender," Aang said. "So I wouldn't have had this problem if I mastered the elements the other way around?" Since coming to this world, he didn't put much thought into the natural order of the elements and how it had been reversed from what he knew. He just accepted it as a normal fact of life here. What made the order of the elements "wrong" or "right"? Up until now, he hadn't had any issues learning them in the opposite order from what he originally learned.

"Beats me," Sokka said with another shrug. "But c'mon, let's keep practicing."


Zuko stepped into the saddle where they kept Katara even while at camp, holding a flat plate that he handed off to her. Her lunch consisted of steamed meat buns and pine nuts, which he foraged from the island. "Here," he said.

She no longer made comments about how difficult it was to eat with her hands shackled together, which he found to be a relief. "How kind of you."

He sat across from her while Azula tended to the cookfire. Before Aang and Sokka went off to begin their waterbending, they had stopped at camp and dropped off everyone's new clothes. Zuko found the tough leather uncomfortable, and the heavy parka still too hot for Kyoshi Island, so he wore a simple warrior's tunic wrapped tight around his torso with a leather thong slung across his back for his broadswords. Three short ermine tails hung from both of his shoulders. He tried to avoid tugging at the bone choker around his neck too much, which felt too tight and stiff.

Sokka tried to convince him to shave the sides of his head and put his hair up in a warrior's wolf tail, but Zuko flatly refused.

Katara glanced up at him after she plopped the meat buns into her mouth. "So are you just gonna sit there and watch me eat, or…?"

Zuko shook his head. "I already ate. And I wanted to ask you something."

"Ugh, here we go…"

"When we spoke to each other in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se, I mentioned a voice. Something inside your head, like a conscience." He rubbed his shoulders, remembering how the last time he mentioned that she had gripped his entire body with her bloodbending.

She glared at him and Zuko had no doubts that she wanted to react the same way she did the last time. "It's not just 'a voice in my head.' It's something else, isn't it? And you have it too, don't you?"

"Kind of," he said. He watched as Appa rolled over and rubbed his back against the needles of a pine tree, his thoughts wandering. He knew now, without a doubt, that she had the Katara from Aang's world latched onto her somehow, just like Prince Zuko was to him. And if she was as kind as Aang always said, then he hoped that they could bring that aspect of her out.

"It's a spirit or something, right? Because of everything that's happening with the Avatar?" She sat up straight again after finishing her food. "I want it out. It's distracting. Or is it something the Avatar did to me in an indirect, cowardly attempt to defeat me?"

"Well, it isn't so simple," said Azula from outside the saddle, shooting a glare at them. She leaned back from the fire and her voice came out in clipped tones as she crossed her legs at the ankle - she still wore her regular boots and had not yet changed into the clothes Aang had bought. "You think you have it tough? Just because you hear a voice that occasionally speaks up to get you to do something good for once in your life? You don't know how easy you have it."

Katara pulled against her shackles as if to remind them that they were there. "Good? You don't know me, so don't pretend like you do. You're the ones who are traveling to my home to defeat my father and uproot the ways of our tribe. Our way of life. And you say that you're the good guys?"

Azula snapped to her feet. "Oh, pardon us for trying to end a one hundred year long war that your people started!"

"My people have suffered for hundreds of years, confined to the unforgiving tundra of the North and South Poles," she said, and when she spoke it felt as if a cold breeze passed through their campsite. "My great-great grandfather united all of the clans for the first time ever in order to give us the combined strength to be on the same level as the rest of the world. To take what we deserve, what has been denied to us for all these years."

Zuko crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "But even you've pointed out that you don't like the ways of your tribe. The way you treat your women."

"I can be proud of my lineage and question some of its ways," she said, huffing. "I'm not going to blindly accept the way it is. Because of my love for my tribe I want to make it better."

Azula bristled. "And we're fighting to make the world better. The Water Tribes have the rest of the world living in fear. Even in Ba Sing Se, your warriors brutalized the city before Wan Shi Tong arrived."

"It's a show of strength," Katara retorted. "But once we conquer, we do our part to improve it."

"Do you?" Aang entered the clearing with Sokka at his heels, frowning at Katara. "Even when you ruin the environment with waterbending? And what about all the Kyoshi Warriors your people wiped out? And Omashu?"

"It's a necessary part of war," said Sokka. Aang, Zuko, and Azula whirled on him. "What? Did you forget I'm Water Tribe too? It's an unfortunate consequence, obviously, but it can't be avoided. And you just saw a village conquered by us. Did the people seem hungry? Afraid? Did anyone rush to Mizuka's defense when she spoke out against the Water Tribes? No, because they're content."

"They live in fear," Aang said, setting his jaw. "I know fear. I know what people are like when they live through it. Your people crushed a rebellion here not long ago, didn't they?"

"Because people are unable to swallow their pride, their connection to their home nation," said Katara, who looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow. "Wait, Sokka, did you say Mizuka?"

Sokka nodded. "I did. And you haven't seen Aniak'to yet, or any other towns in the South Pole. It's the center for science and learning. We've got inventors and seafarers and explorers, Seekers who practice alchemy with knowledge derived from all the nations…" He counted off his fingers.

"And the North Pole has the best healers in the world," Katara continued for him. "Not to mention scholars and sages who study the Spirit World and all of its mysteries. The whole world thinks we're senseless barbarians but it couldn't be further from the truth."

Azula rolled her eyes. "Well, in either case, I'm glad to see you two getting along again."

"Oh, no, I'm still holding a grudge against Sokka," Katara said offhandedly.

Zuko felt his face get hot with anger as he pictured his mother's face and he slammed his hand down on the side of the saddle. "I can't believe you two would justify everything your nation has done all these years. When you've been in a position to spread peace and all you do is continue to wage war." He noticed Aang, who sat down on the earth and stared down at his clenched fists. "Aang?"

It made him wonder if Aang had ever had this same kind of conversation with people from the Fire Nation in his world. Perhaps even with Zuko himself. Or maybe Prince Zuko and Princess Azula had never even tried to justify their evil deeds, and that could be why Zuko had redeemed himself - he couldn't reconcile with what he had done anymore.

As they were now, Zuko wondered if that was even possible for Katara or even Sokka.

Aang shook his head. "Let's stop this. I don't want to talk about this anymore. We should get going - we've already wasted enough time."

"Mizuka is someone who lived under the rule of my nation all her life. Even in the palace at Aniak'to," Sokka said, putting a hand on his hip. "Maybe we can ask her what it was like and put your worries to rest. And besides, I want to ask her what she meant before."

"Good luck," Katara said, leaning back against the saddle now that the arguing had passed. "I think she's a few sea prunes short of a stew nowadays."


Aang and Sokka's walk back to the village was done in an uneasy silence, punctuated only by Sabi's occasional chattering as she poked in and out of Aang's tunic. His thoughts centered on the conversation they'd all just had at the campsite - at Ozai's camp, he had thought briefly that maybe Sokka would be able to get along with Zuko and Azula. But the fact that he still believed in his nation's imperial rule - and not only believed, but justified and defended it - kind of put a damper on that.

He wondered what would happen after they saved Toph and Yue. Would they go their separate ways? Become enemies again?

"Do you ever hear any voices?" Aang asked, stepping around the muddy path to the village. He had to ask Sokka while they still had time alone. "Like… in your head? Telling you what to do? Or any weird dreams?"

Sokka peered at him with the eyebrow over his good eye raised. "Voices? That's crazy talk."

"Just more Avatar stuff," he replied, shrugging. He wasn't sure if that was Sokka's signature skepticism, denial, or just the truth. But if even Phoenix King Ozai had tried to interfere in this world, why wouldn't Sokka? "Forget I asked."

Sokka raised a finger. "And I do have weird dreams all the time, but I have an overactive imagination and a natural curiosity about things."

After asking around, they managed to pinpoint Mizuka's residence up the mountain trail on the outskirts of the village after receiving directions from woodcarvers who worked on a canoe made out of a single tree. Based on the villagers' reactions to her and the size of her residence, Aang had been able to surmise that Mizuka was a highly respected figure in the village, if considered a bit of an eccentric. But she lived alone, and the only company she kept were her neighbors who occasionally went to check up on her.

As soon as Sokka knocked on her door, Aang's eyes widened when a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Sokka," he said. "If you knew her isn't there a chance that she would know you, too? What if she recognizes you?"

Sokka glanced at him through the corner of his eye and tensed his shoulders. "Uh, good point. But it's not like we knew each other well. Maybe she… forgot?"

Aang was about to remind him that he was a prince, but they heard a voice shouting something to them from behind the door.

The tiny old woman opened it from inside and peered up at them. Up close, Aang had to guess that she was nearly a century old, with missing teeth and barely any vision. "Eh? What did I forget?" Now that Aang knew who she was, he recognized her green kimono as part of the Kyoshi Warrior uniform, just without the armored portion. "Wait a minute. I know you, boy!"

Aang and Sokka exchanged nervous glances. "You do?" Sokka asked.

"Yes! I've lived at that dreadful palace in Aniak'to for most of my life, and I don't forget a face!" She pointed a bony, shaking finger at Sokka's chin. "You're that servant boy! The one who always forgot to retrieve my dirty plates!"

Sokka blew air between his cheeks. "Yup, that's me. Forgetful servant boy. Sorry about that."

"Can we come in?" Aang asked. "There are some things we wanted to ask you."

Mizuka turned away without closing the door or opening it wider for them, hobbling across the wooden floor with her cane. "Yeah, I guess so."

Aang entered into a wide entry hall that took up most of her house. One of the few buildings that still looked traditionally Kyoshian, it was wider than it was deep, with mostly empty space on the inside. To his left, he saw a stand atop a slightly raised platform that held a Kyoshi Warrior uniform on full display in a seated position. The golden headdress rested on a rack above it and the fans lay extended across its lap. A sheathed blade and retractable shield hung on the wall behind it, making Aang think it was a ghostly warrior who sat and prepared for a battle that would never come. He didn't see a speck of dust on her.

On the opposite side of the hall, he saw a shrine to Avatar Kyoshi. Her wooden head rested at the center, a brand new paint job giving her a fierce glare. The Avatar's boots - bigger than any other Avatar - rested next to the head, while a wall scroll depicting Kyoshi forming the island hung behind it. Other than the shrine and the armor, the entrance hall held only a tea table, while sliding paper doors only hinted at the rest of the residence. The hall had the vaguely sweet smell of rice wine and ink, the latter of which he saw coating a brush on the tea table, still wet from use.

"Admiring Avatar Kyoshi's boots?" Mizuka asked Aang, coming up to his elbow without him even noticing. "Quite impressive, wasn't she?"

"You were allowed to keep all this?" Aang asked, gesturing to it all.

Mizuka gave him a wily smile. "Not officially. Besides, all this was already here - this used to be the dojo. But what're they gonna do, raid a ninety-five year old lady's house?" Her cane tapped on the floor as she walked over to the tea table and lowered herself to one of the cushions. "That's not a battle any warrior wants to face, no matter how brave they think they are. Anyway, what did you boys want to ask me?"

"We're, uh, interviewing former residents of the palace at Aniak'to," Sokka said, rubbing the back of his neck. "After I quit being a servant I decided to become, uh… a detective."

Aang had been moving to sit at the tea table when Sokka's words made him slip and bang his elbow on the wood.

Mizuka tapped her chin. "A detective? What are you investigating?"

Sokka stroked his chin and leaned in close to the old woman. "A murder… that took place at the palace itself just the other day!"

"Well, I had nothing to do with it," she said, crossing her arms and neatly shutting down his flair for the dramatic. "I've been here for nearly five years now! Are you sure someone didn't just slip on the ice?"

"Yes, of course," Sokka said. "But a lady like you who's been all around the palace for so long, you're bound to have picked up on things that no one else did. All I'm trying to do is discern a motive. So… Lady Mizuka, tell me about your time spent as the representative for Kyoshi Island."

Mizuka scoffed. "Representative? How about prisoner? Or hostage? Ever since I was a little girl and the island first started getting raided by the united southern tribes, I fought and I fought until my people finally bent the knee. High Chief Aniak - or was he calling himself 'Emperor Seiryu' by that point? - personally picked me to come live at the Southern Water Tribe as leverage to hold over my people. A trophy, more or less. They allowed me to sail home once a year, if only to prove to the villagers that I yet lived in captivity."

Sokka frowned. "But you lived there in comfort, didn't you? They gave you servants. Your own chamber. Food and warmth and anything you needed."

"It was a gilded cage," she said. "And I expected to live out my days there, when I should have been a warrior at the height of my life! But they took that all away from me. I had one friend there, Lady Kanna, but she could not stop the massacre of my people when Hakoda put down the rebellion." Her shoulders fell. "And now I'm the only one left."

Sokka shook his head. "But you're not. There's at least one more - Suki! You trained her yourself!"

For the first time, Mizuka relaxed her face into a gentle smile. "Ah, the girl. I do miss Suki - she was my one last light there. But she is no true Kyoshi Warrior. She did not live and grow up among our people, never got to fully become part of our culture and learn our ways. And I could not teach her too much, or else she would not have survived as a woman raised by the Water Tribes."

Sokka finally joined them at the table and hung onto every word. "Why do you say that?"

"Emperor Kvichak called them 'dance lessons.' That was the only way her training was permitted. Emperor Hakoda knew the truth, sure, but he turned a blind eye to it as long as it wasn't flaunted or spread further. A woman, learning to fight? Learning our traditions? If she learned our true purpose, the reason why we were founded in the first place, she would have fought back and she never would have endured life in that palace. Not without the rest of the sisterhood." Despite her tiny, frail form, the old woman looked stronger than Aang had even imagined. "Suki became Water Tribe to survive."

"But she was part of our family," Sokka said, almost to himself. "Right?"

"You're the only one left to keep your culture alive," Aang said to Mizuka, his voice low. "I can relate." He stared at Sokka, who met his gaze with his mouth slightly ajar. He didn't know what thoughts passed through Sokka's head, but now that the waterbender had been confronted with the evidence Aang hoped it actually got through to him.

Sokka collected himself with a deep breath. "You're the last successor to a proud warrior tradition," he said. "I get that. But it can't die with you. Not after all of that."

Mizuka put a hand over her chest. "If Suki made it out of that horrible place, I would like to see her again before I'm gone."

"I don't know where Suki is now," Sokka admitted. He put his hands on his knees, his gaze resolute. "But what if you taught me? And then I passed it onto her?"

The old woman scoffed. "No man has ever been admitted to our order. Much less an outsider - and one of our oppressors, to boot! Don't make me laugh."

"Why not? If you don't, your traditions will all die," he said. "I'm already a great warrior. It's not like you have to start from scratch."

She rapped him on the forehead with her knuckle. "But I do, you oaf! You know absolutely nothing! You're too direct, too bullheaded to be a Kyoshi Warrior. Our style is all about redirecting and using our opponent's force against them - not unlike waterbending, actually! Ironic, eh?"

Aang couldn't bear to look at Mizuka anymore, who had stood firm by her culture and her traditions as the last practitioner of them when Aang couldn't do the same for his own people. How long ago did he start eating meat? When was the last time he shaved his head? It made him ashamed to even think to compare with her. "She's not going to give in, Sokka," he said. Not like I did.

Sokka rubbed his head where Mizuka had struck him and scowled. "What if I spar with him?" he asked her, gesturing at Aang. "What if I showed you how serious I am about becoming your student?"

"Spar with him? He has none of the grace of a Kyoshi Warrior either! Oh, no, my dear - I'd expect you to spar with me." A stick of something gold came out of her sleeve and she flicked her wrist, opening up a golden fan.

Sokka leaned back, surprised. "What? No, I…"

Mizuka snapped her fan shut again. "Just as I expected. Too cowardly to fight an old master, or too proud to fight a woman. Either way, it proves that you could never be my student."

Aang moved to stand. "C'mon, we should get going," he said. He furrowed his brow. "Why are you so intent on becoming her student, anyway?"

"Because I don't want my people - my father - to wipe out the last part of this culture," he said, standing alongside Aang with clenched fists. "I want to make up for what we've done. It's sad, okay? I don't want to admit that maybe, just maybe, you and your friends were right about this. My dad talks about incorporating the cultures of the people we've conquered into our own nation, but … it's wrong. The way it's done is wrong. And, well… I care about Suki. This hits close to home, okay?"

Aang looked at Mizuka again, who remained seated, and hoped that she didn't piece together what Sokka said about his father. She crossed her arms and squinted up at Sokka. "Fine, you want to help?" she croaked. "Bring the unagi back to our waters. It had been scared away many years ago by the Water Tribe ships - because things that are bigger than the unagi are the only things it's scared of. That's the only way to prove to me that you're serious. The unagi will keep all those fishermen away from the golden elephant-koi and it will prevent overfishing so they don't all get wiped out."

"Doesn't the unagi eat elephant-koi?" Aang asked, scratching his head.

Mizuka smirked. "Not the golden ones! Never knew why, but it leaves those alone!"

"How do we do it?" Sokka asked.

She flicked open her fan again and looked at him over its blade, hiding most of her face behind it. "Oh, I don't know, but now it swims among the Chuje Islands, perhaps near Kokkan. Good luck. And I hope you solve that murder case."


"How're we supposed to get a whole giant sea monster from one island to another?" Aang asked Sokka as they made their way back to camp. "It's an unreasonable request."

"That was the point, I think," Sokka said, rubbing his chin. "How big can it really be, anyway? Maybe Appa could carry it."

"Have you ever met the serpent of the Serpent's Pass?"

"Oh."

Aang stepped over a fallen tree branch in the path and his eyes followed Sabi as she found Momo and both lemurs swooped through the air above them. "Maybe we could get a giant fishing rod? Or… oh! You could waterbend a big wave that'll carry it all the way here."

"I dunno, my waterbending isn't that good," Sokka said. He hummed to himself and then chopped his hand into his other open palm. "I've got it! You kind of had the right idea, but it was a little too direct. We're gonna lure the unagi back here with some of its favorite food."

They beamed at each other as the plan came together, and Aang couldn't help but think it felt just like old times.


After the giant forest, Toph found herself wandering into an open steppe. The plains rolled and carried a faint breeze that tickled her skin, and for the most part it almost felt like she'd found her way back to the real world. But the air still felt warm, almost electric. Unnatural, like each breeze was a breath that pulled parts of her away with it. Spirit-Toph warned her whenever a spirit flew by above them, so she ducked low to avoid notice. It wasn't hard - she didn't feel like anything about her was noticeable right now anyway.

She felt the ground stirring far ahead of her, vibrations that indicated rapid, heavy movement. At the epicenter, she focused her senses, trying to grasp its meaning through the shifting earth of the Spirit World. But it felt like trying to talk with someone underwater or through a wall, the ground's language garbled by distance and unfamiliarity.

"There are people over there!" Spirit-Toph exclaimed. "They're being attacked by spirits! C'mon, lily liver, you've got to go show 'em what you've got!"

Her words energized Toph, gave her purpose, and she summoned the earth underneath her to hurry to the rescue. As she neared, she recognized the familiar movements of another earthbender, a young woman who had physically entered the Spirit World just like Toph. A swarm of insectoid spirits circled around them, beings with six legs and pincers that snapped at the two fighting from the center. The second fighter sliced at them with a long katana. Toph knew them - she couldn't place their names even though she tried her hardest to grasp at them, but she felt certain she had met them before.

She jumped off of her earth wave and let it ride ahead of her to bowl over the spirits. The insectoids shifted their attention to the newcomer, hissing out a challenge, but Toph raised a fist and slapped one away with a slab of earth. As they all swarmed toward Toph, they burrowed under the ground and came at her from below, so she raised her hands and pinpointed all of their locations. She pressed down, sinking them deeper and deeper until they fell out the bottom of the ground into the void below.

She supposed the weirdness of the Spirit World did have some benefits, after all.

"It's you!" the other earthbender exclaimed, pointing a finger at Toph. A sandbender, Toph remembered vaguely. "Uh… two of you? You're okay!" Well, if they could see Spirit-Toph, she supposed that proved she wasn't going crazy yet.

"Toph, right?" the one with the katana asked. She curled her fingers under her chin and tilted her head. "How fascinating… did your spirit get separated from your body somehow when Koh stole your face?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Spirit-Toph said. "What happened? How do we get outta here?"

The sandbender looked to her companion. "I'm not sure. I know Yue's technically the enemy, but… right now we have to work together. She is very knowledgeable about spiritual matters. It is the only way."

Yue. Toph remembered her now - she was one of the Water Tribe friends of Sokka and Katara.

Spirit-Toph's voice drifted in a circle around them. "I don't really care what side anyone's on."

"I am just glad we all found each other. I don't think I could have done this alone. So thank you, Nagi." Yue clasped her hands together. "I remember being dragged here by the Face Stealer, but something happened to the connection between the two worlds, I think. It caused us all to lose each other. I don't think Suki or Zuko or that other boy you were protecting got taken, so I hope they are all right."

Jet, Toph remembered. She had been protecting Jet.

"Nah, none of them are here," said Spirit-Toph. "But we should get moving before Koh finds us again. Is it possible to get me my face back?"

"I don't know," Yue admitted, and Toph could hear the sympathy in her voice. It made her feel something like anger, dim and distant as it was. "I'll try my best to remember all the stories about Koh. There might be a clue in them."

"Well, whatever happened to the connection between worlds it made us lose Koh and Wan Shi Tong, so I am thankful for that," Nagi said. "And we are already one step ahead of them because we found each other again, if they even deign to continue hunting us down. But those insect spirit monsters reminded me a little too much of the Face Stealer to my liking, so I would rather not take any chances."

"The first step is just to survive," Spirit-Toph said. Toph got the feeling that she lived by those words in another world. "Take one step at a time and everything else after that will fall into place."


A few hours later, Aang and Sokka set out for Kokkan Island on Appa's back with three smelly chum buckets, purchased from town and filled with bait for the unagi. They didn't tell Azula, Zuko, and Katara about their plan or about their meeting with Mizuka, knowing that they'd get told off for being reckless and getting sidetracked even further.

"So we are technically gonna go fishing," Sokka explained to him as the snowy island came into view. "We'll lure the unagi with chum and fly just a little bit ahead back to Kyoshi Island, but you're gonna use waterbending to push and pull the chum in the water so that the unagi keeps following us."

"Me?" Aang asked. "But I can barely waterbend anymore! What about you?"

"I've got to maintain our fog cover," Sokka said. "If someone sees us the whole plan could be ruined. You just have to be careful not to let the unagi eat all the chum or we'll run out before we reach Kyoshi Island, but let it get close enough to still be tempted."

Aang sighed. "All while we avoid being eaten ourselves. Great."

Sokka slapped the bottom of the saddle. "Well, I hope your big smelly bison friend can at least do that part on his own, since we'll both be occupied. It's not a perfect plan, but it's the best we can manage. And I think you can do it."

At his words, Appa let out a low moan as if to tell him that yes, of course he could handle that.

Sokka pulled up a veil of fog that covered Appa and much more besides. "All right, Avatar, chum us up."

He dumped one of the buckets into the water, careful not to get any of the mixture of fish parts, bones, and blood on him. The rotten smell stung his nose. "Okay, so… push and pull?"

"Yeah," said Sokka. "Let it churn a little bit so the unagi can smell it. Now we're gonna play the waiting game."

Aang remembered how dangerous the unagi was from his first encounter with it. "This is crazy," he said, but settled down at the edge of the saddle to wait. He concentrated on the feel of the tides under his grip, the push and pull. He remembered this. Mizuka had said he had no grace, but for waterbending he needed that - needed to hold his roots like an earthbender but bend with the tides instead of meeting them head on. In his world, he always thought Katara was the epitome of grace.

Was Sokka right, in that he had lost that connection to water in his training to master firebending and earthbending? Pakku tried to teach him waterbending first, like the way it was in Aang's world. Again, he wondered if the order of the elements truly mattered or if it was all just a matter of the bender's mindset and tradition.

Water was healing and life, too. He had to remind himself of that. He had forgotten that all of the elements were capable of the same thing, in one form or another, in his years of war and fighting. He needed to reconnect with who he used to be - not with who Katara was, or who Sokka was, but with the boy who mastered waterbending under Katara's tutelage all those years ago. The bending arts were not simply weapons to wield.

Roughly a half hour later, a shadow rippled under the water's surface. Sokka shouted out a warning and Aang pulled the chum away just as the unagi's jaws breached and snapped at empty air. Appa roared and flew higher as the unagi screeched its own challenge in return, pursuing them as Aang tried his hardest to hold onto the chum in the water. He thought - stupidly, in hindsight - that it would be an easy drift back and forth, push and pull, but right now it was all pull.

The unagi pursued what it thought was an easy meal, but this was not like when he was one airbender alone in the sea anymore. He had his bison and a master waterbender with him, his two best friends.

The fog followed them, nearly enough to obscure his vision of the unagi, but Aang persisted. At one point, the unagi drew back and Aang was reminded of a similar incident in the past. "It's gonna shoot water at us!" he shouted to Sokka.

"What?" he shouted back. "It can do that? That other serpent couldn't!" The unagi opened its maw to unleash a jet of water and Sokka stood to help Aang. "Redirect it to the side! Don't block it head-on!"

Aang leapt off of Appa's back to cut the jet stream in half with his staff while Sokka spread it to either side of Appa in his wake. Aang unfurled his glider and circled around back to the saddle, but the unagi dove toward the water and devoured the chum that Aang had been pulling along. "It got the chum!" Aang exclaimed.

Sokka went back to Appa's head, where he gathered the fog back to cover them. Even over open ocean, they couldn't take the chance that a Water Tribe patrol would spot them. "Next bucket!"


Mizuka tottered down to the bay in full Kyoshi Warrior regalia, proudly displaying her golden headdress, makeup, and armor for all to see. Whispers followed her and Water Tribe warriors discussed her as she passed, too stunned over her brazen display of disobedience to stop her directly. "Let us revive the tradition of leaving offerings for the unagi," she told a few villagers she recognized as she made her way through town. "For the great eel will make its return! And we will do what we must to make it stay this time."

Many of them dismissed her words as the inane ramblings of an old woman well past her prime. But she knew it to be true, as certain as she was that the boys who visited her earlier today would succeed in bringing the unagi back. They were the Avatar and the prince, after all. The gait of a master airbender, firebender, and earthbender was unmistakable, and she had never forgotten the prince's face. If the prince had thrown his lot in with the Avatar, then perhaps things would finally change.

The bay looked nothing like it did in her youth, with the docks that had been erected to turn the conquered Kyoshi Island into a port town. A pair of warships hewn from wood and ice and leather and whalebone bobbed near the shore, empty of occupants except for two warriors standing guard at the docks. Marines patrolled the shore, but by the time she arrived they scurried back and forth with such haste that they did not pay her any mind.

"Our patrols spotted a giant sea monster swimming toward the island! They barely noticed it in time because of the fog rolling in..."

"It's the unagi!"

"It's returned! Warriors, to your stations! We'll have to scare it off!"

By that point, Mizuka had planted herself on the dock on the way to the warships, her fans unfurled and cane dropped to the ground. With the two guards behind her and a whole troop of warriors rushing to the ships at her front, she faced them down without flinching.

One of the warriors stepped forward, brandishing his spear. "Move it, old crone!"

She took a stance, one fan at her front and one ready at her side. "I will not," she said. "I am here to keep you from preventing the unagi's return. If it sees your ships sailing out toward it, it may just turn around and never come back, and I will not let that happen."

Laughter rippled among the crowd in front of her and the first warrior lowered his spear. "C'mon, grandma, don't make us force you."

In answer, she leapt backward, spun around, and struck both of the first two guards with each of her fans, knocking them both into the water in one fluid movement. "Maybe some of you will be the first offering to the unagi," she told them, her war paint stretching into a ferocious smile.

The warrior who spoke first rushed at her with his spear, but she danced around the point and disarmed him, sweeping his balance out from under him with a kick to push him off the dock. After that, they began their attack in earnest, rushing her two or three at a time but never more than that, as the dock was not wide enough to accommodate that many. She wove between their spears and kept moving, spinning and slicing with her fans to deflect and disarm and push them into the bay.

"All this, for the unagi?" one of the warriors shouted, attempting to throw himself at her in a tackle. "Have you completely lost your mind, Mizuka?"

"Far from it," she said, twirling around his lunge. "The unagi protects our waters and the golden koi from you brutes."

The waterbenders came next. Waves rose up on either side of her, but she rolled between the legs of a warrior and dodged to safety just as the waves crashed down on the docks, the wood snapping and splintering. Now on solid ground, she had lost her advantage of a narrow battleground but did not let it stop her. With the dock destroyed, it took many warriors with it, but she felt confident even that would delay them from reaching their ships.

Because of the Water Tribes, she had not been able to fight alongside her sisters when they rose in rebellion eight years ago. Now, she fought with their spirits alongside her, guiding her fans and her blade. They lost her in the scuffle, unable to keep track of the green and gold blur with the demon's face that disarmed and defeated warriors and waterbenders by the score. One had managed a lucky shot with his sling, shooting a bola that tangled around her ankles and made her fall. But she slid on the ground and cut herself free with her sword, pushing herself to her feet and panting with the exertion. Her chest felt like fire and her knees and hips and wrists screamed in protest, but she persisted.

If this was to be her final stand as the last Kyoshi Warrior, so be it.

When she stood, her headdress askew and a mad grin on her face, a few warriors actually turned tail and fled back to town. Despite the pain, she stood and continued to face them, daring any of them to be the next to fall to her onslaught.

One of them pointed past her, into the bay. "It's the unagi! It has returned!"

She did not look as she heard the great eel roar behind her, far out in the water, but as it came closer more of her opponents ran away in a panic. She let them go, instilling the fear of the unagi and hoping they would remember her with the monster at her back to the end of their days.

When the last waterbenders and warriors gave up the battle, Mizuka at last turned to the bay and grasped at her chest. Every part of her body ached, but as she watched the shadow swimming through the bay and an oddly shaped cloud flying toward the island, she could only cry tears of joy.


By the time Aang and Sokka made it back to Mizuka's residence, they found a small crowd that had gathered on her front steps and inside the entry hall. Their triumphant grins faltered as they picked up on the mood of the islanders who looked as if they were attending a funeral.

A middle-aged man stopped them as soon as they entered Mizuka's house. An islander, Aang guessed, by the style of his clothing. "Who are you boys?"

Aang feared the worst. "We came here to see Mizuka. What happened? We only just saw her a few hours ago and she was fine."

"Let them through." It was Mizuka's hoarse voice from behind a cluster of people, which parted to reveal the old woman in full Kyoshi Warrior armor and face paint. She lay on a sleeping mat below the shrine to Avatar Kyoshi, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths while her eyelids fluttered. "I know these boys."

"By all accounts of the Water Tribe, she fought some warriors down at the docks," the man said. "We found her walking through town after it all happened, and she collapsed."

"'Some warriors,' they say," one woman said. "It looked like a whole platoon of them from what I saw!"

Sokka lowered to his knees at Mizuka's side. "Why did you do that? The unagi's back."

"I know," she said, breaths wheezing. "But now it needs to stay."

"And it will, Mizuka," said another woman, who held her hand on Mizuka's other side. "We will leave offerings to the unagi in secret, like you said."

"So you're just gonna let yourself die because of the unagi?" Sokka asked, brow furrowed.

"Not just for the unagi," said Mizuka. "For something greater. Let me tell you… what you must pass onto Suki." Sokka leaned closer and she continued. "You will never be one of us. Do not mistake my words as an invitation. But even so, you must know this. Avatar Kyoshi formed our sisterhood when she saw rowdy men mistreating the women of her village. She wanted them to learn to fight for themselves, because she could not protect all the women of her village alone. From the beginning, that was all it was - a form of self defense, a symbol of women protecting women."

"But in the Water Tribes, men can protect women just fine," Sokka said, frowning. "It's expected of us."

Mizuka drew in another rattling breath. "And sometimes we just need to protect ourselves, or even the men of our own village, such as when the waterbenders came." She lifted her arm and pointed at her face. "Symbolism is important to our order. The white… symbolizes treachery, suspicion, and the willingness to visit evil deeds upon those who deserve it. This… is what I have already taught Suki, the face we show to outsiders. But she does not know that the red symbolizes our honor, heroism, and loyalty."

His gaze fell. "I never knew any of that."

She held up her arm toward Sokka and spoke as if reciting a sacred oath. "The golden insignia on my sleeve represents the honor of a warrior's heart. And the silk thread is the brave blood that flows through our veins."

"But I still don't get it," Aang said, feeling the weight of melancholy all around him. "Why all of this, just to bring the unagi back? To protect the golden koi? The Water Tribe is still here. They still occupy your island."

Mizuka smiled at him. "The unagi keeps the dream of a free Kyoshi alive," she said. "My golden headdress… it is forged from the scales of the golden koi. We used to dive deep to the bay's floor and pick them from the sand." Her gaze turned to the wall scroll of Avatar Kyoshi and she let out a sigh. The painted scene told of a happier time, when the Avatar taught her first disciples. "I… still remember… when I first swam for my golden scales. I will now… entrust our legacy to you, Suki."

With those words, the last Kyoshi Warrior let out her final breath, leaving this world with triumph in her heart.


Hours later, Appa flew from Kyoshi Island with Sokka at the reins for the first time because he wanted to be alone. Both Aang and Sokka returned to camp without a word to their companions, leaving Azula, Zuko, and Katara confused as to what had transpired on the island.

Katara stayed chained to the saddle as always, staring off into the horizon. Once again, Aang had to wonder if she had a plan for them, and if he would regret consenting to bring her along. But that would be a worry for another time. How would she have reacted to Mizuka's sacrifice? Would it have changed anything, like it seemed to with Sokka? He took the Kyoshi Warrior's words to heart, ready to deliver to Suki in case they ever saw her again.

He worried for what awaited them ahead in the South Pole. He worried for Mai and Jet in the north. He worried for Toph and Yue most of all, and he felt no closer to coming up with a way to rescue them or get Toph her face back.

"You're having doubts again," Azula told him, sliding over to sit at his side. "Don't let them eat you up from the inside."

He forced a smile for her. "I won't." He hadn't noticed until now, but she had changed into her new clothes. She wore dark blue leather on her torso, lined with white fur around her collar, shoulders, and sleeve cuffs, the last of which ended right before her elbows. She wore fingerless elbow gloves underneath to cover the rest of her arms. Around her waist, she wore a white polar bear pelt, cut asymmetrically, over her heavy slacks and brown leather boots. He tugged at his own collar, feeling heat rise to his face. "You look… you look great, Azula."

He almost expected to see a betrothal necklace around her neck, and a distant part of him thought it would have looked nice. "I didn't think this look suited me," she said, rolling her eyes and turning away from him. "But thank you."

Most of all, he noticed how she had done her hair. Instead of her usual topknot, she had a bun that held some of her hair and let the rest of it fall free, with beaded strands hanging from the bun. He had thought she would tie her hair up in loopies, especially if Katara suggested it, but he found that he liked this look better on her.

"What're you staring at?" she asked him, biting her lip.

Aang hugged his knees and shrugged. "Oh, uh… nothing." Both of them looked away from each other while Katara scoffed.

He ignored Katara and looked straight ahead at Sokka, wondering again how much his encounter with the last Kyoshi Warrior would change him, and where Suki could be now.


The walls of Agna Qel'a gleamed in the sunlight, formed of pure ice and carved with the Water Nation insignia. After escaping from Ba Sing Se, days of traveling on foot to find a Tribe outpost and weeks of sailing, Suki and Ghashiun had finally made it to the North Pole.

Her companion had mostly stayed silent the whole journey, which suited Suki just fine. He only came along with her anyway because she had an idea of who to ask to save Yue and Nagi, his sister.

She just hoped High Chief Arnook, said to be the most knowledgeable man in the world regarding the spirits and the spiritual leader of the Water Tribes as a whole, would accept an audience with her. She had never met the man, but it was well known that he loved his only daughter, and Yue only ever spoke of him favorably.

Suki looked at her reflection in one of her golden fans. With Sokka betraying them and Katara captured by the Avatar, it fell to her and Ghashiun to save Yue from her fate.


Author's Note: Thod is a character who appears in the North and South comics, so I don't own him. We'll see him again! For a little while, I did actually consider having Sokka train with Mizuka, just like he did with Suki in the canon episode. If I did that, this chapter would've been called "Sokka's Master" ;)

Ahh, I just love how Aang and Sokka collectively share one brain cell whenever they're together. Some things never change.

For reference, Zuko's wearing something like Sokka's outfit in episode 2 of the series, when he dressed like a warrior to confront the Fire Nation attacking his village. Azula's outfit draws inspiration from what Korra wore in the South Pole in Book 2 of her series. Anyway, please leave a review!