You know the drill… I shall own no ideas, and I shall earn no money. I am trying to focus a little more on the character interactions, so I will not be delving deeply into the field trips at this point.
Just after Sunrise… on an upper level of the Western Air Temple…
Zuko paced back and forth in front of his young charge. He was hoping to impress the importance of discipline into his student. Firebending is different from the other elements in many ways, primarily in that it does not rely on what already exists. While the most elementary firebenders can manipulate existing flames, the art of firebending lies in the creation of fire.
"I know you are nervous, but remember, firebending in it of itself is not something to fear", he explained to his charge. He pulled his hands behind his back as he paced.
"Okay, not something to fear. Not something to fear…", the Avatar repeated to himself, mostly under his breath.
Stopping his pacing directly in front of the monk, Zuko leaned in close to the Avatar's face, "But if you don't respect it, it'll chew you up and spit you out like an angry Komodo rhino!"
Whether out of fear or surprise, the young Avatar yelped audibly before jumping back. Zuko would have sworn he heard another voice gasp as well, but it was probably just the wind. He crossed his arms across his chest and stepped back. "Now show me what you've got. Any amount of fire you can make", the price in exile asked.
He watched through silent eyes as the young Avatar stood and took a stance. He could already see that his legs were not properly rooted. Inwardly Zuko groaned, 'This is going to take a while'. The Avatar raised his arm and held it out in front of him. Zuko watched him flinch as a tiny puff of smoke emerged from the Avatar's outstretched palm. 'Okay, maybe longer than just a while', he inwardly sighed.
The Avatar looked at his new sifu, inquiring, "Maybe I need a little more instruction. Perhaps a demonstration?"
Zuko warned, "Good idea. You might wanna take a couple steps back."
The Avatar retreated to the opposite end of the opening, all while keeping a keen watch on his instructor. Zuko drew in a deep breath through the nose, out the mouth. And another breath. He reached for the power that he has lived his entire life with. Something felt just a little off as he wrestled with his element. He drew both his arms back, elbow to hand parallel to the ground, fingers open towards the sky. With a powerful left foot step forward, he thrust his right hand toward the Avatar, channeling the energy into fire out his open palm. A tiny flame emerged before puffing into a tiny cloud of smoke that dissipated into the breeze.
"What was that?! That was the worst firebending I have ever seen. I haven't been this bad since I was eight years old!", he raged to himself.
The Avatar, ever the peacemaker, attempted to cheer up his new instructor, "I thought it was… quite nice."
Opting to ignore the optimistic student, Zuko continued through a basic pattern. Right step and left palm flame strike. A small puff of fire. Bring left leg to match right leg and open stance while pulling both arms back towards his sides, arm parallel to ground, fingers skyward. Double palm forward strike. Two tiny flames poofed out of existence about as fast as they appeared. He growled in frustration. Curling his fingers into fists, he punched left, right, left right. With each punch, the ensuing flame got smaller and smaller. He growled with frustration as he planted his left foot firmly in front of him at a slight angle, allowing the momentum to carry him forward. Springing into the air, he pushed every ounce of energy down his right leg toward his foot and he jumped into a side kick. The ensuing puff of smoke from his foot hovered in the air right where his head was at the end of the move.
"Why is this happening?! What is wrong with me!?", he demanded of the clouds. He stomped his way towards the Avatar, trying to determine how he is supposed to teach this kid how to bend when he couldn't even light up a dark room. A strange sound on the wind, almost as if the far pillars of the temple were laughing quietly at him drew him out of his thoughts.
"Maybe it's the altitude? We could go down to the fountain level?", the Avatar suggested.
"Yeah, could be", Zuko replied flatly. He did not genuinely believe that it was the altitude, since he had firebended himself half way across the fire nation in a war-balloon. Firebenders lived on the highest peaks of volcanoes. The altitude should be nary an issue.
They progressed down into the temple, passing the empty kitchen and the empty library. After a few more hallways, staircases, and empty storage rooms, they emerged onto the fountain patio. Zuko made to the middle of the open space while the Avatar wandered over to the fountain and sat cross legged with his back to the fountain side.
"Alright, here we go again!", Zuko called out as he stepped in to repeat the same basic form. Right palm strike, left palm strike, double palm strike. Left punch, right punch, left punch, right punch. With each passing move, the fire only seemed to mock the bender with a dwindling life. He stopped dead still for a second to gather his thoughts. "Just breathe. In, out. In, out. And …", he coached himself before stepping into another open palm left strike. Another wimpy flame licked out from his hand before disappearing into the wind.
The Avatar stood up and approached his flustered master. "That one felt kind of hot?", he offered weakly.
"Don't patronize me! You know what it is supposed to look like!", Zuko snapped back.
The Avatar hung his head, "Sorry, Sifu Hotman".
This statement only served to infuriate Zuko further. He raised both palms to his head and rand them down his face. He flapped both arms again into the air before snapping them back to his side in frustration. He snarked back, "And stop calling me that!"
Sokka's room in the Western Air Temple, just a few minutes earlier…
He woke up as he normally did, hungry. His stomach growled as he stood up and gathered his things. It was a great day to sharpen space sword and to polish boomerang. Emerging from his room into the inner hallway, he could tell from the ambient light that it was still early in the morning. A quick pass down the hallway confirmed that his sister was still sleeping.
"Why, Katara, must you sleep so late. I am hungry already", he asked her closed door. It did not respond.
He headed into the kitchens, hoping to find something edible. Everything was covered in dust. There were three sets of foot prints through the floor. One set he recognized as his sister's. They went all over the room. 'She must have been inspecting the cooking area yesterday', he mused to himself. The other two sets of foot prints were next to each other, and both ended at a cabinet before turning around. Judging by the gait and the size of the prints, the larger ones belonged to either Haru or Zuko. The smaller ones were probably Aang, judging by the occasional skip in step.
Curiosity got the better of him, and Sokka wandered over to where all three sets of tracks converged. He opened the cabinet and found a small basket with apples in it. He bent down to pick one up and noticed a small note sitting next to them.
'Sokka, I know you will be in here before I am awake. These are the last apples. Do not eat them all just because you are hungry.'
He rolled his eyes at this younger sister, but obliged by only grabbing one fruit. He emerged from the dusty kitchen and decided to head to the fountain to start with the maintenance of his weapons. As he walked, he took a bite out of his apple. It wasn't meat, but at least it was foo.
As he got close, he could hear the sounds of training, or more accurately, Zuko sulking about and Aang trying to cheer him up. Sokka still wasn't too sure about the firebender's intentions, but Sokka did understand that Aang needed an instructor. 'It can't hurt to watch them.', he thought as he rounded the corner to go outside.
As he emerged into the fountain courtyard, he saw Aang was standing near the fountain while Zuko was pacing and muttering a couple of meters away. Sokka took another bite of the apple as he approached.
"Hey, jerks. Mind if I watch you two jerks doing your jerkbending?", he joked as he made towards the fountain to sit down. He hadn't made three steps when prince jerkbender yelled back, "Get out of here!", and pointed towards the door.
Sokka turned on his heel, tossing the core of the apple behind him. "Okay, take it easy. I was just kidding around. No need to be so serious", he laughed as he left them alone. To himself he chuckled, "Ha, jerkbending. Still got it."
He wandered around through the temple for a while before coming to what appeared to be a library. Sunlight shone in though the stained glass ceiling, sparkling across the dust in the room. The wooden and stone shelves housed countless books. Many were strewn across the floor. Tables and chairs made of wood were partially rotted away. He made his way to the sturdiest looking chair and table and sat down.
Unsheathing his sword, he thought back to his days under Piando. 'A warrior must always keep his instruments as sharp as his wit', Sokka recalled as he set about wiping his blade clean.
Sokka wasn't one for formal meditation, but when he cleaned his weapons, it was about as close as he got. The process of cleaning, oiling, sharpening, and recleaning his black sword cleared his mind to ponder the questions of the world.
Today he started by considering the sharpening tool that was in his hands. Toph had eagerly helped him create it using some of the spare space rock. What was strange was how eagerly she was when he had approached her for help. She didn't even punch him, not even when he made that great pun about how she rocked.
'Ha, that was a good one too', he recalled with a smile.
He knew that Toph was trying to teach Haru some of the finer points of earthbending. Sadly, the thought of Haru brought Sokka's thoughts to the day of Black Sun, and the crippling failure he had been that day. He was the architect of it all. He was the leader, the guide, and the failure that led to the capture of most of their forces.
He thought of his friends from the Foggy Swamp tribe, his idol the Boulder, Jet's freedom fighters, Teo and Haru's fathers, and his own father. He was the reason they were all captured. And for what, to be humiliated by Azula? As much as he despised the fire princess, he would be the first to admit, she was a master strategist. He wondered where they all were taken. Some prisoner of war camp in the fire nation? The thought of it all was too much and he stood up from sharpening his sword. It was sharpened enough. He wiped it clean of the small metal shavings and sheathed the sword. He could polish is boomerang tomorrow. It's not like there would be anything interesting going on around here anyways.
Later that day in the Western Air Temple…
Toph wandered aimlessly through the halls of the temple. Her feet were still hurting, and everything was fuzzy, so she tried to keep a hand on the walls. It wasn't as clear of a picture, but it was enough to function. It was disorienting and difficult to make anything out. She had to really focus to bring the pictures together.
'Time for some payback', she thought to herself. Her sightless eyes sparkled as she broke into a trot towards where she felt two presences. One was larger and stomping about, so she assumed they had to be sparky and twinkles. Mustache was probably still sleeping, Wheels and The Little Duke were no doubt off exploring somewhere. She couldn't tell where Snoozles and Sugar Queen were, but it really didn't matter. Her victim was upstairs.
The stone steps of the temple were grueling, as she couldn't tell where they were. Her already burnt feet added further pain as she kept kicking the steps. As she got closer, their images faded into more perspective. She could hear them now. Zuko was grumbling and Aang was trying to be nice.
She emerged into the courtyard, feeling the sun beat down on her face. "Sparky", she demanded, "It's time for you to start your payback. You owe me. Big. I'm feeling hungry. Take me to the kitchen for some food."
Without a hand on a wall or the ground, she really couldn't see anything, but she could hear. Zuko snarked back at her, "I don't have time for this. Get out of here!"
She snorted before replying, "As if. That might work on the others, but I am not afraid of you. I know more than you think. You won't do anything to me. And obviously whatever you were doing, you can take a break. I didn't hear any fire anyways. Plus, it would be dishonourable to not…"
Sighing in defeat, Zuko acquiesced, "Fine. Aang, fifty hotsquats and thirty sun jumps before you leave this courtyard".
She heard Aang sigh in disappointment. Suddenly, what little feeling of the temple she had was gone. The only thing she could feel was a pair of strong hands setting her on his shoulders.
"Mush, Sparky, Mush. I'm hungry. Let's go to the kitchen and see if Sugar Queen has cooked up anything yet!", she prattled cheerfully to her charge.
Letting out a grunt, Zuko began to walk. It was strange for her to not know where she was or where she was going. To fill the time she asked her current ostrich-horse stand-in a question, "Sounds like Twinkle Toes is coming around nicely. And I know you have good intentions. Made any inroads with Snoozles or Ice Queen?"
He grumbled back, "No."
Curious, she asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No", he replied.
"Fine then, be that way. But don't come crying to me when they won't accept you", she snarked back at his one word answers.
"Like I care. Of the two people on this planet that accepted me, one was lost to me years ago, and I stabbed the other in the back", Sparky replied.
"Really?", she asked with a strange morbid curiosity. She could feel his shoulders drop and he slowed his walking as he replied
"No, but I may as well have. He would hate me just the same. After he cared for me for all those years, I just …", he faded out from speaking as she assumed he got lost in thought.
"One thing at a time. Firebending with Twinkles first, then amends with your past second. The only thing squeezing the past will do is tire you out. Learn from it and set it free. Let it guide your future rather than ruin your present", she offered.
"You even sound like him", he said, thought Toph had the feeling he was talking to himself. He did address her a moment later, "Looks like we are here. Kitchen. I'll set you down now. I'll be out here when you are ready. Hurry along now so I can get back to practice", he instructed.
"Don't you want anything?", she asked.
She could hear his stomach rumble in disagreement with the words he spoke, "I don't want anything. I don't need to go in there anyways."
She felt him set her down, and the haze of the burnt world returned. Putting her hand in front of her, she felt the door and pushed it open.
"Sokka, I already told you, dinner isn't for a few more hou… Toph. I see you finally decided to wake up", Katara called out.
"Glad to see you too Sweetness. So, how long until that dinner. I'm starving", Toph replied.
"You are just as bad as he is. Like I said, at least two hours. If you didn't seep too late, you could have eaten breakfast with all of us. Or even lunch. But noo. Someone had to sleep in", Sweetness began to rant.
Toph cut her off, "Hello, burnt feet. Resting. Your orders?"
Sweetness let out a sigh of defeat before shuffling around, "Fine. I'll get something for you to eat to hold you over. Who brought you here?"
"Sparky. He owes me. He is outside. He is hungry, thought he told me he isn't", Toph offered back.
"Oh, well sounds like he is in control of everything. No food for him. Here's an apple. Tell Aang not to over do it if you see him.", Sweetness's tone of voice turned sour for her reply. Her words were forced and rushed.
"Ugh, if you didn't want us down here, why didn't you say that in the first place", Toph huffed in reply.
"Not you, him", Sweetness replied with a sharp barb.
Toph gratefully took the bowl of porridge and stumbled out of the kitchen.
"Sparky?", she called.
"MMhm?", he grumbled in reply.
"Whatever you did to Sweetness, boy oh boy is she pissed. Like really damn mad at you. You are in the polarbear-dog house for sure. I'd be careful around her if I were you", she chortled as he picked her back up.
"You don't know the half of it", he muttered softly under his breath. Toph was too engrossed in eating her porridge. Sugar Queen had neglected to give a utensil to Toph, so she was slurping it directly out of the bowl. Occasionally, it would drip down onto Sparky's head.
"Look, I have important firebending I need to do to prepare for the Avatar's lessons. Where should I drop you off?", he asked with an edge to his voice.
"The library, I suppose", she replied.
"The library?", he asked, confusion evident.
"Yeah, Snoozles is almost certainly there. He likes books. I just don't get what all the hype is about", she joked back. When he didn't reply, she followed up, "Come on, that was funny. At least try a little", To which more silence was the reply.
When she was set down in front of the library, she still had a little food left in the small wooden bowl. She heard his stomach rumble again as he turned to leave. "Hey, Sparky?", she called.
"Yeah", he replied
"Here. I'm not so hungry anymore. You can have this", she replied as she offered the bowl to the firebender.
Silence filled the air for a moment before she felt the bowl leave her hands.
"Thanks", came his reply, softer than he had spoken before.
The Fountain Courtyard in the Western Air Temple, Dinner Time…
Zuko mused to himself over a lot of things. His firebending, Aang's firebending. His current loss of firebending. Toph's odd behaviour this afternoon. It was a lot to handle. He knew he would have to address his companions; he just wasn't sure how.
He sat off to the side, outside the range of the fire's heat. The rest of the group was sitting around the fire, eating dinner. His bowl sat empty next to the cooking pot. He could tell there was a fire there. But when he reached out to it, it was non-responsive. As if it wasn't. The fire itself seemed to resist his direction.
He stood with a sigh and approached his humiliation. He got to the outside of the circle, standing behind Toph and Sokka.
Zuko leaned back onto a pillar and spoke, "Listen, everybody. I've got some pretty bad news. I've lost my stuff."
"Don't look at me", exclaimed the little earthbender, arms flying into the air. "I didn't touch your stuff", she finished with a strange emphasis on I. Toph folded her arms across her chest and looked backwards over her shoulder at Zuko.
If he wasn't so stressed, Zuko might have found her antics almost amusing. But, stressed he was, so he continued on with his sarcasm, "I'm talking about my bending. It's gone."
Haru and Sokka turned around to look at Zuko. Teo readjusted his chair to face the firebender while The Duke sat up from staring at the stars. The half full bowl of food that had been resting on the young boy's belly was now ignored upside down in his lap. It was the sharp glass cutting laugh from the group cook that freed Zuko from the silent gaze of his companions. Only Aang remained looking at Zuko. Toph continued to stare blankly off into the distance. Everyone else looked over at Katara.
Without a hint of sincerity or remorse she began, "I'm sorry. I'm just laughing at the irony. You know, it would have been nice for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago"
Trying to scrape the last remnants of his dignity together, Zuko replied, "Well, it's not exactly gone, per say. It's just… weaker… for some reason."
Katara reached over to the cookpot and added another scoop of watered down rice into her bown before glaring back at Zuko, "Maybe you are just not as good as you think you are."
Zuko felt a sharp punch to the leg as he heard Toph joke, "Ouch, that's gotta hurt."
A short silence fell over the group as Zuko ruminated further on his situation. As he watched his old enemies turned companions he had an inspiration. "I bet it is because I changed sides!", he offered almost cheerfully.
"That's ridiculous", Katara countered before an ungraceful slurp out of her bowl.
"I don't know. Maybe it isn't. Maybe your firebending comes from rage and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it the way you used to", piped up the Avatar from his spot next to Katara. She looked over at him as if the Avatar had just spouted a third hand and a second arrowless head.
Before Zuko could notice the interaction between the Waterbending Master and the Avatar, he felt a sharp jab to the gut that could only be described as the hilt of a sword being driven into his stomach. He looked down to see Sokka had started jabbing him in the belly with the butt end of his black blade.
"Sooo, all we need to do is make Zuko angry. Easy enough.", Sokka mused with delight, all while jabbing Zuko with his blade's hilt.
Toph laughed deeply before looking over at Sokka, "Sometimes I wonder if you have a brain in there…"
Zuko looked over at the annoying warrior, "Okay, cut it out! Even if you're right, I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way…"
He thought to himself, 'Uncle would have known another way', as he sat down and dropped his head into his hands.
Toph spoke again, "You're gonna need to learn to draw your firebending from another source. I recommend the original source". After a moment of silence, she went back to eating.
Sokka, curious, asked, "What, how's he supposed to do that? Jump into a volcano?"
A self-satisfied smirk passed across the resident waterbender in response to Sokka's statement. Meanwhile, Toph replied, "I duoon. For earthbending, the original benders were the badgermoles.
Zuko zoned out in his own thoughts, just barely keeping up with the conversation. 'Yeah, don't worry. My family took care of that. The original firebenders are gone. Courtesy of my own dear family.'
The Avatar's voice brought him back to the group, "… can give me a lesson sometime, buddy"
Zuko replied though his hands, still in front of his face, "Well, this doesn't help me. The original firebenders were the dragons. And they are extinct."
A confused look crossed the Avatar's face as the rest of the group leaned in towards Zuko. The Avatar spoke, "What do you mean? Roku had a dragon. There were plenty of dragons when I was a kid?" The confusion was plain on the Avatar's face.
'Just another black mark on my family…', Zuko mused. A little gruffer than intended, he replied, "Well, they just aren't around anymore."
The Avatar waved his hands in apology, "I'm sorry. I didn't know".
Silence fell over the companions as Zuko thought to himself. After a few minutes of only hearing the sounds of the younger boys eating, Zuko sprung to standing. "I know! The Sun Warriors were the first people to learn from the dragons."
The Avatar replied, "The Sun Warriors? I've never heard of them. They weren't around when I was a kid."
Zuko replied, "No, they died off thousands of years ago. But their civilization isn't too far from where we are now. Maybe we can learn something from poking around in the ruins!" A sliver of hope returned to the elder boy's face.
Ever the skeptic, Sokka asked, "So what? Maybe you'll pick up some ancient Sun Warrior energy by standing where they stood forever ago?"
The small spark of hope dwindling, Zuko replied, "More or less. Either that, or the Avatar needs to find a new firebending teacher".
The Western Air Temple courtyard, a couple hours after Sparky and Twinkletoes have set off for skies unknown…
Her feet were mostly better by this point in the afternoon. Well, they weren't great, but they were good enough to kinda see again. She really couldn't feel details yet, but she could at least walk without bumping into anything. Anything major that is. But she could tell that Sparky was nervous. She had spent the most amount of time with him out of their little group except for Twinkle Toes, but that was only training. She had come to know a little about him. He really did feel bad for hurting her. He is very sincere about joining up with the group. He is afraid to let them down.
Truth be told, she was starting to miss prince stick up his ass. He could be funny, and she didn't mind annoying him. Katara had been too uptight since his arrival. She had tried teaching Haru some basic metalbending, but that only ended with the older boy fleeing in terror. He now avoided her most of the day, especially when there was down time.
'Mustache has a ways to go before he is a proper bender', the Earth Rumble champion mused to herself.
She wanted to talk about Sparky to someone, but she wasn't sure who. Wheels and The Little Guy were both still afraid of Sparky. Mustache Boy was hiding from her. Ms. Cranky Ass wasn't a good choice either. That just left Snoozles.
Finding him wasn't hard. He was again in the courtyard, polishing his weaponry.
She wandered up behind him, quietly enough so he couldn't hear. "Ya know, I could do that for you. Metalbender and all", she offered rather loudly, making the boy jump from his seat.
"Toph, you, umm, I didn't know you were there", he said with a slight stutter.
"Just admit it, I scared you, Snoozles", she replied.
"Did not. You just caught me unawares", he rebutted.
"Did too, but that's beside the point. I'm here to talk about Sparky. I know everyone doesn't trust him, and I understand you have history. But I just think it is time for a change. Ya know. Bygones and all. But Sugar Queen. Sheesh. She really has it out for the guy", Toph stated plainly while sitting down next to the warrior.
"Yeah. I'm not so sure I trust him, but I suppose we do need him. And he hasn't done anything too bad yet. He keeps to himself. I know Katara really hates him, but she'll come around. Just like she did with you", he replied while returning to sharpening his blade.
"I really hope so. He has been helpful and all. Carrying me around. Entirely his fault though", she replied in jest.
"I know you can see again enough to walk", he replied.
"I know that, and you know that, but Sparky and Sugar Queen don't need to know that", Toph demanded.
"I get that you aren't done getting back at Zuko, but why Katara?", he asked confused. He stopped his work to look over at her.
"Because Sparky has been doing all those stupid chores Sugar Queen assigned to me. As well as his own", she replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Come to think of it, I think he even did some of my stuff the other day while I was in the library", Sokka mused to himself.
"Books", Toph swore to herself.
"Come to think of it, Katara hasn't yelled at me for not doing my chores the last few days. I think I'll have to look into this strange behaviour", Sokka concluded.
"Yeah, whatever. Just don't ruin it for me. Got it?", she reminded him with a sharp punch to the arm.
The Western Air Temple, a few days later when Zuko and Aang returned…
Sokka had just finished asking The Duke about his chores assigned by Katara. He had already asked Haru and Teo. Sokka was surprised to learn two things. The first was that Katara barely asked them to do anything, despite the fact that they were all at least as old as Toph if no older. Secondly, he learned that most of the time, the boy's chores were always done before the assignee went to complete the task. None of the three were curious enough to look the gift ostrich-horse in the mouth and never questioned it or asked.
All of this was running through his head while he watched the Fire Prince and Aang show off their newest forms of jerkbending. Apparently they had met the original jerkbenders. Dragons, the big jerks.
As he heard his sister antagonize Zuko, "And what is this ancient and sacred form called?", Sokka thought, 'He's not that bad a guy.'
Sokka heard the reply as he watched Zuko drop his head in embarrassment, head in hands, "The Dancing Dragon"
