There was something wrong going on there, it didn't take a genius to figure out.

Of course, things had been going wrong ever since the war meeting that he and Azula had snuck into a few days earlier, but something about the Water Tribe siblings was off...

No, they weren't being suspicious. But the way they watched him and Azula with wary eyes did not sit right with him.

Fine, Azula had given them more than enough reason to be cautious of her, what with threatening Aang's death. But the way they looked as if their entire world had given way beneath their feet when Aang mentioned that Zuko was the avatar made Zuko's heart drop.

Azula and Aang noticed too.

Aang glanced between the two Water Tribe siblings with his brows drawn and a frown.

"I-I don't get it," He said, "What's going on here? Why do you look like that?"

The siblings looked at each other but said nothing, and Zuko spared a glance at his own sister.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the brother and sister. Her gaze was calculating, like she was trying to put together the same puzzle that he was.

"Out of curiosity," She said, "Do you happen to know who the current Fire Lord is?"

The girl scowled at her.

"Azulon has been ordering attacks on our people for years," She snapped, "Of course we know who he is."

Azula cast an uncertain glance at Zuko, who swallowed hard.

"Um." He said, "And before him?"

"What-- Why?" Said the boy, pointing his spear at him, "What's your game?"

"Can you maybe just tell us?" Said Aang, "We really don't know."

There was a beat of silence, and then the girl answered.

"It was Sozin," She said, "But-- Shouldn't you know that?"

"Shouldn't they know that?" the boy interrupted, gesturing between Zuko and Azula, "You two are literally royalty."

They ignored him.

Azula turned to Zuko, and he met her eyes, swallowing hard.

"Father started that war he wanted," Azula said, darkly.

Zuko nodded slowly, trying to control his emotions despite the panic growing in him with every passing second.

"And we've been in that iceberg for a lot longer than a couple days," he concluded.

"Wait," Said the boy, "Firelord Sozin was your father? That's not possible, he died like 60 years ago."

Zuko felt the color drain from his face, and felt like he had to sit down. He watched Aang stumble back in surprise, and even Azula looked distressed.

"60 years?!" Aang exclaimed, "No-no, that can't be right."

Azula stepped up to the Water Tribe boy and grabbed him by the front of his parka, ignoring his sister's protest.

"Peasant," She said, "How long has this war been going on?"

"What? A-a hundred years," Said the boy, stumbling on the words as he worked to free himself from her grasp, "Let me go!"

Zuko's legs gave out beneath him at the news, and he stumbled to the ground.

Azula released her grip on the Water Tribe kid, and her features contorted into an expression of murderous rage. She spun quickly on her heel towards Aang, and Zuko tried calling out for her to stop as she called upon her flames, but he knew it was no use trying to calm her fury.

"A hundred years?" She seethed, "I've been in that fucking iceberg for a hundred years?!"

She threw the flames at Aang, who jumped high in the air to avoid being burnt.

"Zuko, help," He said, landing behind him, "She might actually kill me."

Azula stalked up to the two of them, pushing past the siblings who had devolved into an argument of their own.

"Zuzu," Said Azula, "Surrender the Airbender, and I won't have to be the second family member to burn you."

Zuko scowled at the comment, but had to ignore it.

"Come on Azula, it's not his fault."

"Yeah, technically it's Zuko's fault too!"

Zuko whipped his head around to glare at Aang, and called upon his own fire to his finger tips.

Aang stumbled away from the flame and grinned at Zuko sheepishly.

Azula rolled her eyes.

"You're both to blame" She hissed, "But I'm not going to harm my brother when he's already in such a pitiful state. You however," fire sprung to life from her palm, "Well, I couldn't care less."

Zuko scrambled to his feet, yelling for her to stop, but before he could do anything himself, Azula and her flames were doused in water.

"That's enough!"

The water tribe girl stormed towards the three of them, and shoved Azula away from Aang.

Zuko inhaled sharply as he watched the scene unfold. He admired the girl's courage for standing up to Azula for the second time that day, but he also knew that she was getting in way over her head by confronting someone like his sister.

Zuko crept up behind Azula, and against his own sense of self-preservation, he put a placating hand on her shoulder.

He risked a glance at Azula's face and knew that the chances of an actual fight breaking were very likely.

She was looking at the Water Tribe girl in the same way she did her fire bending tutors when sizing them up and poised to attack.

"Um, Azula…" He said, drawing her attention, "Maybe you should dry off… You'll freeze if you don't."

Azula glared at him and grabbed his wrist, heating her hand up just enough to burn. Zuko hissed and pulled his hand away.

"Keep your hands off me, and that won't happen" She snapped, "I'm done with you all. I'll be with the bison."

Zuko watched her stalk off, and waited till he could see the steam rising off from her body before he was satisfied that she wouldn't freeze to death.

Then he turned back to Aang.

"Um. Sorry about Azula, she's just a little, uh, surprised… She gets testy, I think."

"No shit," Said the Water Tribe boy.

The girl was staring at him.

"She burnt you."

Zuko shrugged. "Fire benders don't really burn easily, she might as well have just slapped me."

"But still, that's not--'

"Are you really the avatar?"

Zuko looked wearily at the Water Tribe boy who had interrupted.

"Did you not just see me bend water?"

The kid ignored him.

"And you and her," He gestured, in the direction of where Azula had stomped off to,"You're Fire Lord Sozin's children?"

Zuko nodded.

The boy threw his hands up in the air.

"Well, that's it. We're all doomed."

Zuko scowled.

"What does that mean?"

The boy scoffed, "It means, you and your little sister are going to run back to the fire nation and try to use your little avatar powers to win this war for them. Well, good luck finding any water bender or earth bender to teach you, cause that's never gonna happen."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Said Zuko, "Azula and I have been gone for a hundred years. I have yet to even see this war. Maybe I'll be against it."

The Water Tribe kid stopped dead in his tracks, and looked thoroughly taken aback, clearly not expecting him to have said that.

The Water Tribe girl looked to Zuko with wide eyes.

"Do you mean that?" She said hopefully, "Would you stop the war?"

Zuko blanched, "Woah, woah, woah," He said, "I-I never said that. I just meant that I wouldn't blindly support some war, but I can't just end it. I'm 14, I only just learned I was the avatar a couple days ago."

"Technically it was 100 years ago," Aang said helpfully.

Zuko flicked sparks at him.

The siblings recoiled at his open use of fire bending, and Zuko felt sick. These two were afraid of fire bending. Not even real fire bending, sparks. What had the Fire Nation done to the world in the time that they'd been gone to make them so afraid? What was the extent of this war?

Then he remembered listening, terrified, behind a curtain with Azula in the war room as they spied in on his father's war meeting.

What was it his father had said he planned to do? Share the fire nation's prosperity with the rest of the world? Had he succeeded? Is this what he had done?

Zuko felt dizzy.

"I think," He said, grappling with the words "I need to uh--"

Zuko's vision swam.

"Hey are you okay?"

He nodded, "Yeah, yeah... I'm fine," He said, "I just, I just gotta lie down real quick."

And then he passed out.