"We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die."

-W.H. Auden (February 21, 1907-September 29, 1973). American poet. The Age of Anxiety.

Chapter Twelve

Zuko resisted the urge to gawk at his surroundings as he walked into the bright lights of Enterprise's sickbay behind Archer, Hernandez, T'Pol and Shran. The circular room was perhaps the most brightly lit area he'd yet seen on the ship. I'm the youngest ruling monarch of the Fire Nation in five hundred years. I should at least try to look stern and imperious, not like some junior officer reporting to his first Captain. Though Hernandez does remind me of my first captain during my snotty cruise. He looked at Hernandez and Katara, both staring at the captured sergeant on the biobed with a mixture of pity and contempt and couldn't help but smile. Both women had clearly never learned to slow down for anyone in their lives. Much like a Commander Katara he'd served under as a midshipman when he'd been even younger than Aang.

One of the things the much younger Katara had been surprised to learn upon agreeing to serve in his government was that her name was fairly common among Fire Nation women. Which, given the Fire Nation's location roughly equidistant between both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, was hardly surprising. The first Katara he'd ever known had been a heavy cruiser captain on his first cruise as a midshipman. As per tradition, he had been treated as an ordinary midshipman, despite his exalted birth. Everything he thought he knew about commanding a ship he had owed to her. She died during Zhao's ill-fated campaign

He looked over and sighed at the older woman lying shackled to the narrow bed even as blue-uniformed personnel with green stripes or green undershirts fussed over her. On other beds, other healers were focused on tending to the other casualties their allies had inflicted on the people trying to abduct them. And if that was the Ilara whose name was on the War Ministry's disciplinary reports, then her aunt had died at the North Pole too.

One more Fire Nation soldier to lay at the feet of that madman, he thought, I mean he tried to kill the moon. Leaving aside the spiritual violation, it also controls the tides and smooths out our orbit just by being there. Complex life on this planet could very well have ceased to exist if Yue hadn't taken her place.

"Your Majesty?"

Zuko shook himself to see Archer and Hernandez staring at him. "Are you all right?" Archer asked.

Zuko opened his mouth to say something dismissive like "I'm fine." But then he stopped. He had meant what he said earlier, about the need to move forward as one human race into a new era. Which meant he need to start opening up to these people as he would have opened up to Katara or Aang or Sokka or Mai.

Yes, but you fought against and alongside them for a year, he thought. You know them as well as anyone can know anyone. You just met these people.

Doesn't make the thought wrong.

"I'll explain later," he said.

Archer gestured to the former sergeant in his Army. "Do you want us to talk to her first, or should you?"

Zuko sighed. "No, Captain, I'll do it. For the moment at least, she's still my subject. My responsibility."

Archer stood aside and Zuko strode forward to look at her.

"You know you're in a world of trouble, Sergeant," Zuko said.

Ilara sighed resignedly. "I raised my weapon to the legal Firelord, deserted my original unit, those are not exactly things that go without consequences."

"I don't have to hang you, you know," Zuko said with a sigh. "Give me something our nation and its new allies can use, and I may let you and your surviving men live."

The sturdy older woman harrumphed. "You'd have to offer me that and more if you expect me to give you anything. My brother dies before my eyes and the aunt who raised us is killed in Admiral Zhao's fleet, and you decide to make their sacrifices meaningless. Why-why did you have to do what you did the way you did? You wanted your father and sister off the board? Fine, that was for the best."

He heard someone that sounded suspiciously like Katara mutter, "Finally, something we agree on."

Zuko shot a glare at his friend's snark before turning back to the woman not looking in his direction on the biobed. "So why desert and join Medora's outfit? You weren't even a Lightning Sword! In fact, if memory serves the Lightning Swords investigated your corps for 'defeatism.' And it was just as bloody and arbitrary as their usual work. Most regular soldiers hate them. So why?"

Her head whipped around, pure venom in her eyes…and more than a little fear. "Better her than continuing to fight for a man who throws away the sacrifice of generations of his own people's soldiers."

Zuko glared at her, pure seething anger welling up in him in a way it hadn't in literally months. "I did nothing of the kind," he growled venomously. His fists quivered as sheer anger…and no small amount of shame. He turned and stormed away from her, pushing through his friends and their new allies to slap the button on the panel next to the door so hard his hand stung and leave the bright lights of Enterprise's sickbay behind him.

He stopped in the, hull-metal gray corridor, working through his breathing exercises, trying to get his seething rage under control. He heard the door behind him open and close. "Zuko," Mai said.

His former girlfriend regarded him with a cool but concerned look in her amber eyes. "You know, I expected Katara to be doing this."

"She was going to," Mai replied. "But you and I are Fire Nation by birth, I have a somewhat better understanding of what the Sergeant's thinking than someone who only became your subject when she became your First Councilor and vassal a few months ago."

Zuko sighed, fighting back tears. "There is not a single family in the Fire Nation that hasn't lost at least one member over the course of the last three generations to this war. Putting all that work, all that sacrifice into something makes people want to hold on to it, because anything less admits that maybe everything, they sacrificed wasn't…worth it. And people can say all they want about how the trauma we inflicted on the rest of the world is our fault so we should just sit there and shut up. But that's not how being human works. Trauma and sacrifice are trauma and sacrifice no matter who experiences it. I was a fool to think I could do this without something like this happening."

"I don't think that's it. At least not entirely," Mai said. "The fact remains that the united world Sozin claimed he wanted is inevitable now. The vote down in the council chambers proved it. Even if he was just deluding himself, or even if the real reason for all of this was to seize control of the resources of the entire rest of the world for our benefit. Given many people believe that this world is ours to do with as we choose by divine right, Ilara's one of those who actually has good intentions, as far as she understands them. She, like a lot of people, felt and still feel that we're the only ones with the mechanisms and the institutions to make a united world happen. Everyone else is too insular or too hopelessly divided for any kind of united, concerted action. The Avatars are still only human, with all a human's flaws. And the only way to force the world to act in its own best interest and keep it there is a unified political system with laws no one can just bypass whenever it suits them. There was a time, like her, that I believed we had to force that on a world that would thank us later when things like bandits and illiteracy became things of the past. I don't anymore. I believe that needs to be something that the world chooses together. Like we did today."

"I believe what we did there is the best path forward for our people too," Zuko said pointedly

"So why not just throw that bitch in there in prison if you don't want to hang her, and move on?" Mai asked, spreading her hands out in a gesture of confusion. "She's not going to talk. And I lost what little taste for torture I had earlier this year. Maybe someone else in that sickbay will be a little more flexible."

"Maybe, but the odds of someone else knowing anything goes down the lower in rank they go. If anyone knows anything useful it's her. Fuck, I'll call it even if she just gives up the location of her safehouse in Ba Sing Se."

Mai sighed. "Maybe. But for now, we should probably tell the others what happened."

She turned to go back in but Zuko reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Wait."

Mai turned back to face her, that prettily sharp face staring back at him. "I'm sorry, if I hurt you earlier."

Mai smiled wistfully. "I wasn't hurt. In fact, if you hadn't said something I was going to."

Zuko cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Zuko," Mai said, "It has been obvious for a while you didn't really have time for us. Your reign is young. You need to focus on stabilizing it and leading it down the new path we've created. If the choice is between being your girlfriend or your Firelady in a stress-strained relationship, or being the friend who will always have your back in a fight then I choose the latter."

"You know," Zuko said, "one of those stabilizing duties has always been providing an heir."

Mai nodded. "Yes. And maybe we wouldn't have had to take a step back from each other if you and I approached the world a little more like each other. There's a reason you've got such a strong, close relationship with Katara and Aang. On a fundamental level you see the world much the same way they do. You prepare for the worst, but you expect things to work out. I…do not. We get on each other's nerves…a lot. That little incident in Chan's beach house wasn't the only blowup we've had. It's not healthy."

Whatever he was going to say died on his lips as Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Sato came down the corridor. The sickbay doors opened and Archer, Hernandez, Aang, Katara, Ty Lee, and Mychi stepped out into the corridor.

"What is it, Trip?"

Tucker handed Archer the padd. "We have a problem. These are the orders we pulled off the communicator we captured. Hoshi translated them."

Katara looked at the screen, then flinched as though Archer had struck her across the face, her face paling as much as it could as her blue eyes widened in shock.

Archer turned to Ty. "Get Katara's boyfriend in my ready room, Major. Now."

Chan couldn't help but gawk like an idiot as he was led into the Enterprise's brightly lit, circular bridge. If he was here for any other reason he would ask every question he could think of. But he also wasn't stupid. Captain Lee and two of the gray-uniformed Earth soldiers had just materialized in front of him and made it clear that he didn't have a choice about going with them. He also wasn't sure how he felt about that transporter they used to bring him back. It hadn't hurt, particularly, but it was still more than a little jarring, being in the Earth Kingdom Palace one moment and on the Enterprise the next.

He was still trying to wrack his brain as to why though.

Relax, he thought, if you committed feats of evil enough to warrant being dragged before the Captain of one of the newcomer ships, I think you would remember it.

Ty pressed the button on the panel, and the door slid aside to reveal an alcove with a set of two small stairs lit from below with another door on the far wall. Without being prompted he walked down the stairs, with the other soldier behind him as Ty Lee pressed another button and the door slid open.

He followed Captain Lee into what was unmistakably, a private office space. Charcoal drawings of various ships hung on the wall over a sofa which sat the Firelord, the Avatar…and Katara.

His eyes flew to her like metal filings drawn to a lodestone. It was all he could do to keep from breaking protocol and going to her to ask what was wrong.

He tore his gaze off her and looked at Archer, who sat at what was presumably his desk, as his first officer T'Pol and Hernandez, the Captain of Enterprise's sister ship Columbia leaned against the wall. Both women regarded him coolly.

He squared his shoulders, coming to attention. "Lieutenant Chan, reporting as ordered, sir."

"I'm sure you're wondering why we came and sent armed guards to pick you up, Lieutenant," Archer began simply.

At least he doesn't go out of his way to make me squirm like a certain Kyoshi Warrior company commander I'm attached too. "The thought had occurred to me, sir."

"They pulled the written orders on the communicator," Hernandez continued. "There were specific orders to capture Major Lee in them, and you. The rest of us were just a bonus. Now, given the Major's history with the enemy commander and her current position, that is perhaps understandable. What we don't quite understand is why you specifically are listed as someone to be taken alive. Now, that can be explained by your position as Katara's former bodyguard and that you're an admiral's son. You could be a mole and the orders to 'capture' you were just a ruse to extract you for debriefing."

Chan felt his nostrils flare and this time he glared at Hernandez, propriety be damned, his fists balling at his side. "I'm not a traitor, sir!"

"Maybe," Firelord Zuko said standing up. "I'm willing to say almost certainly. You clearly care deeply about Katara. But quite a few of the Dai Li got away too. It would not have taken much to get you alone for a day or two and you wouldn't even be aware that you had been…modified."

"Then why am I not trying to murder all of you because I've been identified as a mole. The security briefings made it clear that was part of their brainwashing package." Then he thought about it. "I suppose that they could have done something more complex in order to not immediately expose their involvement." He looked at Katara, who had an expression of mingled anger, affection, and no small amount of concern on her face.

I'm still me, Katara, he thought, wishing he could touch her, reassure her, without, he was sure, immediately getting shot at. I can be a dick sometimes, but I'm still me.

"I'll admit, it's not much to go on," Archer said. "But given you had a hostile relationship with Firelord Zuko in the past, you being a mole, secret even to yourself, cannot be ruled out."

Something told me that stupid incident was going to come back to bite me in the ass sooner or later. I was really hoping for later.

"Sir," he said aloud, turning to face Archer. "Surely with all this advanced technology and arcane alien knowledge from beyond the stars, there must be something we can do to settle this."

Archer turned and looked at his first officer. The older woman with a strange green tint to her skin nodded silently.

He tapped a panel on his desk. "Archer to Ambassador Soval."

"Yes, Captain," the deep voiced representative's voice said echoing through the room.

"We could use your assistance in an urgent matter. Could you join us in the ready room, please?"

Aang tapped his feet, staring at the young man Katara had gone and lost her mind over. To his shame, part of him had been disappointed he hadn't triggered into a homicidal rage like Jet had. And from the way he looked at Katara, he clearly cared for her. He was also clearly confused as to why they'd called Soval.

The door was open and the brown-robed vulcan official stepped into the room. "Ambassador," Archer said, "this is Lieutenant Chan. We have concerns that he may have been brainwashed and reprogrammed as a sleeper agent. The way I understand it there's only one readily available way to be sure whether or not he actually has."

Comprehension dawned in the older man's eyes. "You want me to meld with him. Determine if his psyche shows any signs of invasive mental conditioning."

"Can you?"

"Excuse me, meld?" Katara cut in sharply.

"In our language it is kash-nohv," Soval said. "The union of minds. I touch my hands to the katra points under his eyes and on the side of his head and my katra, my spiritual energy or soul, can touch his. We become one mind, and I can know for certain whether or not he has or has not been tampered with."

Aang leaned back, nodding. There were chakra points right where he said they were as a matter of fact. "Okay, then," Aang said nodding.

"It's either this," Archer said, "or we relieve you of duty time is a factor here."

Chan stared at Soval, eyes wide with unmistakable fear.

"Lieutenant," Soval said, "I understand your concern. If you have been, as the humans say, 'brainwashed' then there is a considerable risk to both of us. If necessary, I can forcibly remove any conditioning I find, but it would likely cause you significant neurological trauma. However," and he gestured for the floor. "Under the circumstances I agree we have little choice."

Chan sighed, shot another look at Katara, dropped to his knees, and closed his eyes. Soval dropped to his knees as well, his fingers flowing out into a curve, tips touching spots under his right eye and on the side of his head.

"My mind to your mind," he intoned. "My thoughts to your thoughts. Our minds are merging."

Chan's eyes abruptly opened, and Aang's hands gripped on his staff as he looked for all the world like Dai Li conditioning had been triggered after all. However, he made no violent moves. "Our minds are one," the two of them intoned at the same time.

Aang leaned forward on the sofa, his curiosity getting the better of him, as the two men remained perfectly still on the floor of Archer's office. On the sofa on the far wall, he saw Ty and Mychi also staring at the scene below them as though they couldn't look away. The only movement from either of them was the rise and fall of their chests as they breathed.

Abruptly, Chan twitched and Soval removed his hands from his head. Chan shook himself, a bewildered expression flashing briefly across his face. He hauled himself up off the floor

"I find no evidence of tampering, Captain," Soval said, standing up. "He's a young arrogant human man, but he is himself."

Aang let out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding.

"Then we have a problem," Zuko said from Katara's left on the sofa. "

"We've 'had a problem' for weeks, Zuko," Ty said dryly from the other sofa on the other wall. "Technically we've 'had a problem' for the last year and a half."

Aang didn't need to see the glare on his older friend's face to know that it was there. "Fine," Zuko said, "we have another problem. If he's not a mole, then why give specific orders to take him into custody?"

"You mentioned he was the son of an admiral," Soval said. "It's logical to assume this has something to do with that."

"Where is your father assigned, Lieutenant?" Archer asked softly.

Chan, comprehension, and anxiety dawning in his eyes. For a long moment he stared back at him, eyes wide, hands shaking.

"Answer him, Chan," Katara prompted softly.

He took a deep breath. "He's the liaison between the Ministry of War and Admiralty House."

That would give him, or someone on his staff, access to what the Lightning Swords would have needed to get past our security that first night," Katara said softly. "Guard schedules, deployment patterns, everything."

"I think," Archer said, standing up and looking out the window, "we've let what happened in Ba Sing Se distract us long enough. We're here to figure out how humans got to this planet and stop whoever is trying to make trouble out here."

"I agree," Sokka said from the far wall, "this mystery will require us to go all over the planet so let's deploy our-your-ships on that basis. One of your ships should reposition so she can cover the Fire Nation and the Southern Water Tribe, the other should remain here. That way she can continue to support relief efforts as needed, as well as respond to anything that happens in the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Tribe."

Archer leaned back in his chair. "Good idea."

Aang suddenly remembered something Archer said earlier. "I thought you said earlier that your science team wanted to do something to find out for sure where we came from.."

Archer snapped his fingers. "That's right I did. Let's reconvene in the conference room in two hours, give everyone a chance to rest before we start throwing new sciences at you."

Ty Lee stared around the conference room, watching the stewards lay out fresh food on tables that had been set up against the far wall. The delicious smell of cooked meats and vegetables made her mouth water. She really, really wanted to start shoveling food into her face. But then, she was supposed to be an officer now and doing so would be an affront to her officerly dignity.

Officerly dignity my shapely ass, she thought sullenly. I haven't had a decent meal in over a week. The last thing I ate was a ration bar that some Starfleet corpsman a year older than me shoved into my hands. It tasted like drywall.

"They'll be done in a few minutes," a deep male voice with a curious accent she couldn't quite place said from behind her. She turned to see a man, about seven to nine years her senior, with tawny skin, brown eyes and straight black hair. He wore a Starfleet uniform with green division color and the silver pips of a Lieutenant.

Taking note of his rank tabs, he glared at the albeit handsome older man suspiciously. "You're not one of Phlox's minions, are you?" Or here to make a pass at me. Then again, reappraising his dark, well-muscled physique, I probably wouldn't mind.

"In an emergency, yes," the lieutenant said, "but not right now. I'm Lieutenant Adrian Ramirez," he said, introducing himself."I'm the physical anthropologist running the human origins portion of this meeting."

"Honored to meet you, Lieutenant," she said, "I suppose if anyone can answer that question, it's you." That was always one of my favorite non-military topics back in school.

I'll certainly try," he said, the easy smile on his face reminding her disconcertingly of an older Sokka. "And I usually try not to disappoint beautiful women."

Ty's face heated, and she turned away, pretending to be extremely interested in the precise details of watching them set the table. Not that she was entirely pretending. She had been on her feet the entire night and most of the morning.

The door slid open, and Archer, Hernandez, T'Pol, and Shran entered the room.

"Since we all haven't eaten much today, I decided to provide some food while we sit through Lieutenant Ramirez's presentation." He gestured at the screen. "Lieutenant?

"Sir," Ramirez began, taking a deep breath. "Who among you is the most well-versed in the natural sciences?"

"That would be me," Ty said. "And believe me, there are questions that I and the people who study such things for a living would dearly like answered. We can trace some the evolutionary history of many of the species on our world. But humans and a few other creatures: wolves, wildcats, some species of birds, just seem to appear out of nowhere in our fossil record. One of those damned Sokka smiles appeared on Ramirez's face. "You understand basic evolutionary theory, then."

"Of course," Ty Lee said. "And a little about heredity-enough to know that offspring carry traits of both parents, though not exactly how that information gets from one generation to the next. "We have a place to start then," he said before tapping a button on his padd. The screen came to life showing what could only be described as slightly curved sticks.

" Every cell in the body-you know about cells, correct?"

Ty Lee nodded and waved him on. "So, each cell carries two copies of the instructions for growing another living being, one from each parent. Those instructions, or genes, change slowly over many generations, responding to changes in the environment.

Ty Lee found herself nodding. It certainly made sense. Her world's scientists had observed internal eggs, of course, in both humans and other creatures, but they were still debating their role in heredity. "We can determine the relatedness of different groups of humans and other organisms by comparing these genes to see how much change has occurred.

"This is the continent that is today called Africa. It is just over thirty million kilometers square, it constitutes twenty percent of Earth's land surface, and six percent of Earth's total land area. It is also the birthplace of humanity. Every species related to or directly ancestral to modern humans had its origins, in part or in full, here. Between five hundred and fifty and seven hundred and sixty thousand years ago, the branch leading to modern humans, Homo sapiens in our scientific nomenclature, diverged from another branch of the same species. That branch migrated into Eurasia and became what we call the Neanderthals, or Homo neanderthalensis, a separate species from humans but related species. While in Eastern Eurasia, a branch of Homo neanderthalensis diverged, and that would one day become Homo altaiensis or what used to be called Denisovan. Over the next three hundred thousand years, this species, throughout the whole of Africa, transitioned into Homo sapiens. We became relatively more gracile than the thicker, stockier, stronger Neanderthals and Denisovans, with thinner bones, and teeth. By three hundred thousand years ago, human faces fell within the range of variation for modern humans, even if the backs of our skulls still had archaic characteristics. By one hundred thousand years at the very earliest, we had become anatomically modern humans. We were dark-skinned with gracile bodies compared to the ones that came before us. We had all the cognitive characteristics we recognize as being consistent with modern humans, as well. And that's where the story starts to get a little fuzzy. The fact that we're all sitting in this room together, and three of you have extraphysical powers is proof of that. On my world, modern humans spread out from East Africa into Eurasia, Australia, and eventually the Americas. We succeeded in driving our near relatives to extinction, I can't say the same for you. At all. Not yet, at least. But I propose we find out."

"How?" Aang asked from down the table.

"All we need is a saliva sample," Ramirez said, leaning forward in his chair, with an excited look on his face that made him look more like an excited boy. Or Sokka. "A saliva sample, and we can process that sample and read the genetic code of everyone in this room. We can compare it to the genetic data we have on humans from Earth. From there, we should be able to tell from what population on Earth yours diverged from and when. If I had to guess, you diverged from the same East African population that gave rise to the rest of my world's population at about the same time. Still, the only way to really be sure is to do the analysis. I would need to gather samples from a wide variety of people to truly answer some questions. Where humans on your world first settled, for example, and the precise details of how you spread across your world But even with just the saliva samples collected from you and your friends, sir," he said courteously, "We can at least answer the question of how you relate to us, and probably have a place to start figuring out what gene variants are involved in your 'bending' abilities. This isn't a proposal you have to make a decision on right away. But I strongly urge you to think about it."

Ty Lee tapped her fingers on the table, resisting the almost overpowering urge to say "yes" right then and there. While she doubted anyone would think less of her if she did, she would. While she was sure they wanted to know how they got here and why as much as she did, they were her friends. She had known Aang and the others a lot longer than Archer and his people. She didn't want to risk alienating her hard-won friends by rushing to agree to Ramirez's proposal if Aang and the others wanted to take the time to think about it. Leaping to volunteer could also hurt their ability to cooperate with Archer on the question of the Lightning Swords and what mysterious alien race was providing them with support and why.

"I understand you wanting to give us time to think about it," Aang said softly, a look of anxiety and confusion on his face, "I do. But we, I, have been in the dark for weeks. If you can provide any answers, on anything, then do so."

Ramirez nodded. "Forgive me, sir, but while I respect that you speak for all of your friends, ethically I am required to seek the consent of every participant in a study such as this individually." He tapped a console on his padd and sent it across the table. "This is a consent form outlining my study and authorizing me to seek a sample. It is written in the language we deciphered from the materials we analyzed upon landing. Each of you will have to read and sign the agreement individually via thumbprint for it to be valid under the ethical guidelines of my profession and Starfleet regulations."

"What would happen if you took samples and analyzed them without each of us reading this and signing it?" Aang asked.

"I'd be kicked out of the Society for Applied Anthropology as a civilian and face general court-martial as a Starfleet officer. To put it bluntly, these rules are designed to prevent us from doing whatever the fuck we want, regardless of standards of decency or ethics."

"I can't read," Toph said, "I'm blind."

"Having it read to you by someone you trust is acceptable," Ramirez responded.

"Then let's get started," Aang said, even as a huge smile began to break out on Ty's face. "I'll go first."

Zuko looked around what had briefly been his guest rooms in the Jade Palace as he folded his clothes to prepare to be transported to the Enterprise. She would shift her orbit, so she was orbiting in line with the equator below Crater City. Columbia would stay in the same position in relative to Ba Sing Se. There she would continue to support the relief efforts as well as looking for anything. More than that, that Klingon freighter that exploded in orbit and caused such damage to Ba Sing Se had a crew in the low hundreds. Ty and Mychi had killed three of them, and while it was possible that they would turn out to be the only survivors, no one was willing to bank on that.. More than that, there was a better than even chance that something called a "black box" had made it to the surface. Something that recorded every aspect of a ship's operation in the event it was destroyed, and the authorities had to figure out why. The entire concept seemed ridiculously simple, but the fact that it was a good two generations ahead of what his people could do galled him. Not that they were going to have to wait two generations to understand the basic concepts and begin using them.

He looked down at the assembled collection of luggage bunched on his floor. He grabbed the communicator on the bed and flipped it open.

"Zuko to Enterprise," he said. "The last of my luggage is ready."

"Standby," a voice on the other end said. The stack of chests and boxes that came up to his chest seemed to glow from the inside before breaking into separate particles that faded into nothingness.

"I am going to have trouble getting used to that," a familiar voice said from behind him and he turned to see Song, staring, eyes wide at the spot where his luggage had just been.

"Come in," Zuko said, resisting the urge to look away from the younger woman. She had taken him in, treated his injuries, and in exchange he stole the only really valuable possession she had, her riding bird.

"So, you were going to sneak out on me without saying goodbye again?" There was a noticeable lack of bite to her barbs. Even so, Zuko's face flushed.

"I really am sorry for how I treated you that night," Zuko said, "I was…a different man."
"You were never an 'evil' man, even then," Song offered, "just…lost. I'm glad to see you've been found. Not that what you did didn't hurt terribly. I mean a handsome guy with a scar and a mysterious past shows up needing help. You invite him into your home, and he steals your family's riding bird."

Zuko's face flushed with embarrassment.

"Losing the riding bird wasn't even the worst part," Song said, looking at the window, at the smoke that still hung over the city of walls and secrets.

"What could have been worse?" Though he had a feeling he knew. Azula had taken advantage of him throughout his life.

"The worst part of being played," Song said, "is losing your dignity. It's like a bottle of wine that never runs dry, you can reach for it, over and over and over."

"Worse feed it for too long, you start to love it. You become as toxic and as dangerous as you think you deserve to be."

"So how did you put that bottle away?" Song asked. "You clearly did."

Zuko smiled wanly. "I don't know. You just do. You just have to decide not to be toxic. Today. And then the next day. And the next. And then you're helping the Avatar."

Song smiled. "And he brought us hope, just as I said he would. Maybe you could tell me more about it sometime?"

"I'd be glad to but we're leaving," Zuko pointed out. "I'm going home to help prepare my country for what's coming and to help solve the mystery of how we got into this mess in the first place."

"And I'm coming along," Song said pointedly. "That alien healer on the Enterprise, Phlox?"

"Yes," Zuko said, still nonplussed.

"He wants someone to help him understand the herbs and other substances we use for healing in the western Earth Kingdom. Plus, from what I understand our rulers and the Avatar have agreed to unite our world with theirs. If we're going to fight whoever devastated this city, they're going to need as many of those damnably efficient corpsmen as they can get. I'd like to become one."

Zuko nodded, this time smiling in approval. This was, after all, what he wanted. It was the only real way forward for all the peoples of his world, not just his own. "You'll make a good one."

"Jin's coming along too, by the way," Song said. "Her entire family died in the blast. There's nothing keeping her here anymore, and she wants to go somewhere, anywhere, where she can feel useful. I think she'll end up signing on with this Starfleet of theirs too, when the time comes. Though I think she's more…martially inclined. She joined you on your escapade of the rooftops, she's hardly what I would call risk averse."

"Huh," Zuko said, nodding, his face flushed. "I was impressed by that."

Then all at once it occurred to him. What he and Song had just got done talking about…might actually work.

"Song," he said, quickly. "Are you and Jin ready to go?"

Song nodded vigorously. "Yup, so's Jin. The last of both our stuff was beamed to the Enterprise a few minutes ago."

"Good! Get her and come back. We'll beam back together." He put a hand on her shoulder. "And thank you, Song. You may have just saved seven lives."

Ilara stared up at the bright lights in the room's ceiling. The naval infantry guards had moved her from the ship's infirmary to what was clearly the ship's prison hold, and it was like nothing she had ever seen. The thick metal bulkhead surrounding the heavy metal door that had to be manually opened and closed was gone. It's not as though these Earthers didn't have those kinds of doors, she'd seen more than one on her way to this cell. But this opened and closed automatically and there was a window of some sort of glass. It didn't seem overly thick, but she had a feeling she'd break before it did.

Part of her was still screaming that this was some sort of trick. That they were just trying to manipulate the Zuko faction into believing their good intentions and putting Azula on the throne and giving them the world as their local vassals. But anyone who could build these ships didn't need to play games of manipulation with local politics to get their way. They could have just dragged all of the three surviving nations into their empire without breaking a sweat.

Which meant that everything that had been reported in the summit was true. The weapons she had been using were stolen by someone else. She had been set up. Her nation had been set up. Her world had been set up.

The door on the other side of the window abruptly opened and the Firelord walked into the room. He pressed a button on the panel on the glass wall.

"I understand how you feel," the Firelord said softly, his voice amplified by the device he was speaking in. "Being played. Being manipulated. My sister did it to me my entire life. And whoever gave you those weapons did it to Medora and through her, did it to you. And I think you know it."

"You may be right," she said softly, fighting back the tears as she thought back to her aunt. "I'm willing to go with you're probably right. But that doesn't change the fact that everything we went through had to have been worth something."

"Nothing good can come from lies, Sergeant," the Firelord said. "And despite the rhetoric, I think we all knew they were lies. Firelord Sozin didn't leave his best friend to die and wipe out the Air Nomads to secure a new brighter future for all humanity, even he had to know that somewhere deep inside. What I, what the Avatar is doing, I believe really will lead to that brighter future for us all. The future men and women like you and our parents and grandparents suffered and died to achieve. But we don't need to be the ones to do it for them. I would die for any one of my friends, and they would die for me. And I didn't force them. I believe our nations can do what my friends and I learned to do. To work together in common cause. You and your men and women can still be a part of that future, Sergeant. All you have to do is help us, give us something, to begin to stifle the plans of those who would still play into the hands of our real enemies."

She looked out of her cell, at the cell across from her behind Zuko. The survivors of her people were in there, staring intently at both her and Zuko with mingled hope and pain in their eyes.

Your next words will decide their fate, she thought.

She closed her eyes. "I'll give you our safehouse in Ba Sing Se. You'll find stuff you can use there. You have my word on what's left of my honor. Your Majesty."