Sokka found that he had been regarding the situation, and all the involved parties, with a touch more righteous suspicion than any of his party members had. His sister was kindness made flesh, and trusted Iroh personally because of some water spirit mumbo-jumbo that had largely taken place whilst he had been occupied protecting Yue. While she made no effort concealing her thoughts of Zuko, in Iroh she saw no danger.

Toph seemed to get a kick out of it, like she did with most things. She and Sokka could agree on one thing: that this unsteady alliance was an explosion waiting to happen. The difference was that she wanted to be in the front seats to witness it.

And Aang had been quiet. It was probably more universal balance nonsense at work, and he was presently away fetching Appa from where they had left him by the river, where the mighty beast had fallen asleep and had proven quite massive and unwilling to budge for a creature that was otherwise swift and light as a cloud. While Aang was perhaps not comfortable with it, he was not going to take action.

So, by the unofficial line of succession, the duty befell Sokka to make a point about trust. And Iroh, just back from the dead, laying a finger on his sister: that was a crossed line, clear and simple.

"Not today, General!" he yelled an octave higher than he had intended, and shoved his body between the two. Iroh took a step back, and he heard Katara groan behind him, but neither alleviated his suspicions in any way.

Iroh shushed him with a worried look. "Quiet Sokka, Zuko may still be within earshot."

"Nope," Toph said flatly.

"So you're not with him?" Sokka's hand, clenched around his club, relaxed the tiniest bit. "What are the flowers for?"

Iroh folded his hands, and lowered his voice. "Stories all agree that the plant will lift your spirits, even if they disagree on whether those are of the metaphorical or the physical type. Well, 'physical', as a matter of speaking. For us, the flower served to escort my nephew away from us, allowing me the privacy to talk to you all, about him specifically."

"Please tell us, what is Zuko up to?" Katara asked, but Sokka held up his hand.

"And just like that, we accept his word? I think I want to know more about you first, general."

Iroh was serene as ever, and not the least bit discouraged by the disrespect. "Well, what do you think I should tell you about myself? A record of my military accomplishments? That would serve only a Fire Nation biographer."

"Or an Earth Kingdom enthusiast?" Toph yelped, putting Sokka at further unease. Between her small size and disinterested posture, it was easy to forget she was participating in the conversation.

"Young lady, you should be proud of your personal feats of strength – but not of war. War is a beast, which brings distress and disease to myriads of innocent people. It is summoned to bring about a greater purpose, but that is rarely worth the sacrifice.

"Many a citizen of the Fire Nation support the war. They feed the beast with their own hate, and do not see the damage it is causing. Even a soldier will trust his superiors to judge the morality of his unit's actions. But I went beyond that. As a general, I had no superiors. I brought violence to peaceful places, caused death and demolition: all that happened by my personal command.

"The more I witnessed of this immense damage, this pain, that the war was causing – the more I ached to end it. I pushed harder and harder to take city after city, even conquered up to the outer reaches of Ba Sing Se, so that they too could be brought under one banner and the bloodshed would finally be over.

"I and the biographers agree that Ba Sing Se is the site of my greatest failure. But, it was not my failing to conquer it, but my failure to see that in order to end the suffering, my side could not be the victor. I could not see that, until it was too late. Until, selfishly, it was personal loss that drew me to that conclusion, despite all that I had encountered before."

It had gotten quiet. No bird or lizard had dared interrupt the elder, and even now they preserved a respectful silence. Sokka eyed Katara, who seemed touched, and Toph, who at least was at least not trying to say anything witty.

"Of this path I walked down," Iroh continued, "Zuko has taken a few steps himself. That is why I desperately need to talk to you – I need to ask you to help him. Help him get the Avatar obsession out of his system, by showing him the care and dignity that he has been missing for such a long time. You would lose an enemy, and gain an ally, a friend."

Sokka snorted. "I'm sorry sir, a friend? Do you know what he has been doing, personally, to us? He hasn't been following orders, or feeling regret over them as far as I can tell."

Katara shook her head. "I respect your advise, but Zuko has yet to show a sign of basic humanity. Beyond whether he can change or not, I do not think I want someone capable of such hatred anywhere near us."

"Aha – but there you have made yourself a conundrum!" He chuckled. "If Zuko were not human, then why would he ask you to take care of me, in spite of his hate of you? Unless of course he does not actually harbour any hatred for the Avatar and his associates. Either of your assumptions must be false."

Toph folded her arms and nodded, whereas Katara rubbed her forehead.

Sokka was still unconvinced. "I do not trust him not to put a fire dagger in my back, the first instance I turn it to him. Whatever his motivations, his actions speak volumes."

"Zuko's actions were always to capture the Avatar. With but a worn-down ostrich horse to his name, he clearly cannot do this now: where would he even stow him?"

"I'm sure he'll figure something out. He is not lacking experience."

"And I promise I will do my best to halt any plan of his from coming to fruition. And in the meantime, I could teach the Avatar how to bend my element, if he wishes to learn it. Surely that would be in his best interest as well?"

-OoOoO-

Crouching behind a sandy knoll, Zuko observed an enemy of the Fire Nation munching on the blue leaves. "This small lizard has", he whispered, "by deciding to nibble on the Jiade flower, taken a side in the hundred year war. Thus he has chosen for his own demise at the hands of Prince Zuko, who would never shy from serving his country by summarily executing this traitor."

He chuckled wryly at the thought of keeping up the patriot act until Iroh's health was secured. The Avatar, now temporarily the master of his uncle's fate, needed a sympathetic interpretation of their hostility if he was willing to lend Zuko a favour, and jingoism would do. It was also easy enough to mimic, from all the true loyalists who had been around him for years, filling the halls and every meeting with vainglorious rhetoric about what they were doing it all for.

Zuko concentrated, and folded his hands together, extending both his index and middle fingers. He aimed the four digits at the little reptile, breathed in, and fired. A single golden bolt, the size of an arrow and as hot as the sun, arced slightly downward as it travelled to its target. It pierced the creature's chest, and two half lizards dropped from a flower that had remained pristine, save for the bite marks.

Of course it was a falsehood based on further falsehood. A mimicry of mimicry. No officer of rank he knew of actually thought the country was worth dying for. Though extremely eager to orate pledges of allegiance to the Fire Lord and his domain at the tip of a pointy helmet, the well-recited ritual was just one of the many ways to gain respect and favour from those who might be deceived by it; including the Fire Lord himself, they hoped in vain. Obviously Ozai knew just as well as Zuko that anyone with a brain was in it for themselves, and he would not hire any other. The trick was putting their personal ambitions in line with his own.

He stepped forward and examined the fallen enemy of the state. Both pieces still wiggled, like bay leaves in a boiling pot. The war engine was a sum of arrogant parts, most of which could never hope to control the direction all by themselves. The bare hope that had guided Prince Zuko for two years, ten months and a day; the chance of family, honour and success: the one and only deeply personal objective he had ever thought within reach to achieve, among the millions of factors he had no control about; that was easy enough to forget about and leave himself an affable fool.

Until the opportune moment.