Chapter 15: The Quiet Before the Storm
Maybe it was just that Rinzen had gotten used to Zuko's constant company, but now that he was avoiding her like the plague, she was lonelier than she could ever remember feeling in her life. She found excuses each day to remain on the beach away from the house and the courtyard, where Zuko trained Aang in firebending before switching over to sparring with Sokka, using his broadswords and Sokka's space sword.
Katara spent most of her time by the ocean practicing her waterbending, which meant that Rinzen's retreats to the beach didn't go unnoticed for very long.
"So what did Zuko do to hurt you and do I need to kill him for you?" Katara offered mildly as she flopped down into the sand beside Rinzen three days before Sozin's Comet was scheduled to arrive.
"Nothing, and please don't, you two only just became friends," Rinzen answered wearily, brushing some sand off the leg of her pants. She had abandoned the clothes she had "borrowed" from Azula's trunk in the attic the moment she could, returning to her Air Nomad clothes since no one from town ventured near the royal house. "He's just not talking to me. And I don't know what I did, either. The last time he was this mad at me was in Ba Sing Se."
Katara raised an eyebrow. "What happened then?"
Rinzen shrugged one shoulder. "At the time, I didn't know if I could trust him yet. He was walking me home one night and I didn't want to lead him right back to where we were staying, so I asked him to leave when we reached the upper ring. He got mad that I didn't trust him and wouldn't talk to me for a couple weeks."
"I mean, that's a little more reasonable," Katara agreed, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Did you tell him that, though? That you were scared of Aang getting hurt?"
"Not really," Rinzen admitted and Katara rolled her eyes.
"Well, there's your problem." She paused expectantly, waiting for Rinzen to understand, but Rinzen just stared back at her, bewildered. She sighed heavily before explaining, "It's the problem you've always had, Rin. You never tell anyone anything unless you're forced to. Of course he's going to assume the worst if he doesn't know what's going on in your head." She reached over to squeeze Rinzen's knee gently. "Talk to him, okay? If you're honest with him, things will work out."
"Yeah. Okay," Rinzen agreed reluctantly. It was easier said than done, though, and the thought of talking to Zuko when he clearly didn't want to spend even five minutes in the same room as her left her feeling incredibly anxious.
She was distracted when she saw the rest of the group coming down to the beach from the house, noticing with both relief and disappointment that Zuko wasn't with them.
Katara glanced up as well, raising her hand to wave at them, and Sokka waved back, calling loudly, "We're taking a break! We haven't even had a beach party yet in all the time we've been here!"
Katara grinned as she climbed to her feet. "That's fair," she agreed, "We could use the break from the training we've all been doing."
"I don't know," Rinzen protested as she got to her feet as well, dusting her clothes free of sand. "Shouldn't we be focusing on getting ready to face the Fire Lord?"
Aang groaned goodnaturedly as he reached her, elbowing her side gently. "Come on, Rin, when's the last time we all just hung out and had some fun without worrying about training?"
Rinzen grimaced, but she couldn't protest when everyone else seemed on board, so she just shrugged. "Okay. Fine. I guess a little while on the beach can't hurt."
Within minutes, she found herself roped into helping Aang construct a large sand sculpture of Appa. Toph was busy digging her feet into the sand and practicing her sandbending while Suki lay on the shore soaking in the warm sunlight. Sokka was busy with his own sand sculpture - he refused to tell anyone what it was, but Rinzen suspected it was some form of blob monster - and Katara was surfing on a self-made platform of ice that she periodically melted underneath her feet before reforming it just in time to land on it as she coasted over a wave.
"It's a good thing you can waterbend now or this would take forever," Rinzen informed Aang as she watched him bend a stream of water from the ocean towards them to dampen some sand before grabbing a clump to pat it into place.
"Tell me about it." He leaned over from where he was sitting on top of the sand-Appa's head, smiling down at her. "This is nice. We've never done anything like this together before."
"Yeah, it is pretty nice," she agreed, scooping up a shell from the sand and pressing it into the sculpture's snout as a makeshift nose.
"It's a shame Zuko's not here to enjoy it, too," Aang added and Rinzen narrowed her eyes back up at him.
"Stop that."
"What?" He blinked back at her, although she knew him well enough to know when he was playing innocent. "All I'm saying is that it'd be nice if he joined us."
"I'm not going to go get him, if that's what you're trying to hint at," she answered, focusing on molding a paw for the sand-Appa instead. "He doesn't want to be here, and I'm not going to make him join us."
Aang sighed heavily, flopping back against the sand-Appa's head and accidentally crumbling the horn he had been in the middle of molding. "You have to talk to him eventually, Rin."
"Yeah, yeah." She tossed a clump of sand back at him and he barely ducked in time to avoid it. "You're the one who wanted to get this sculpture done, so get back to work."
"So bossy," he complained goodnaturedly, but settled back down to start sculpting the sand again with a smile all the same.
Suddenly, Rinzen felt a flare of heat behind her and jumped back just in time to see a volley of fire destroy the sand sculpture they had been working on. Aang yelped as he fell off the sculpture, collapsing into the sand and scrambling to his feet. Rinzen looked up, following the trail of fire to Zuko standing on a higher ledge above them, his hands smoking and a scowl on his face. Rinzen felt a stab of panic for a moment at the serious expression on Zuko's face; had he decided to change sides yet again?
"What are you doing?!" Aang shouted and Zuko glared back at him.
"Teaching you a lesson!" He sent another blast of fire at Aang, who rolled out of the way and used a burst of air to push himself onto the ledge and run towards the house, Zuko taking off after him.
"What's going on?!" Katara demanded as she returned to the shore, Sokka, Toph, and Suki hurrying behind her.
"Zuko's apparently teaching Aang a lesson," Rinzen answered as she climbed up onto the ledge to follow Zuko and Aang back to the house. She felt a little relieved that Zuko was at least still on their side, despite how it must have looked to everyone else.
"Attacking him isn't a lesson," Sokka pointed out as he followed in Rinzen's lead.
"He could really hurt Aang," Katara added as she watched Aang leap onto the roof of the house from a nearby palm tree, Zuko jumping after him and sending another fireball at him.
"Aang can handle himself," Rinzen reassured her, although she could see the look of terror on Aang's face even as far away as she was from him as he slid off the roof and clambered into the house through an open window. Zuko broke a hole in the roof of the house before jumping down after Aang.
Only moments later, he was thrown out of the house by a whirlwind, skidding to a halt on the ground near the rest of the group and grimacing as he rubbed his head to stave off a bruise from the impact. Rinzen held a hand out and he hesitated before accepting it and letting her help him to his feet. She tried not to feel a pang of hurt when he released her hand like he had been burned as soon as he was upright.
"What's wrong with you?!" Katara snapped at him.
"What's wrong with me?" he retorted as Aang hurried out of the house to join them. "What's wrong with all of you?! You're out here having beach parties when Sozin's Comet is only three days away!" Everyone except Rinzen exchanged an uneasy look before turning to stare back at Zuko. "What? Why's everyone looking at me like I'm crazy?" he asked, frowning.
"About Sozin's Comet...I was actually gonna wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came," Aang confessed.
"After?" Rinzen echoed. She had never heard of this plan before, and apparently, Zuko hadn't, either, from the shocked expression on his face.
"I'm not ready. I need more time to master firebending," Aang insisted as he looked back at her, biting his lip anxiously.
"Frankly, your earthbending could use a lot of work, too," Toph deadpanned and Aang grimaced slightly.
"You all knew Aang was going to wait?" Zuko said, glancing between all of them in bewilderment, and Rinzen raised her hands slightly in surrender when he glanced at her.
"Don't look at me, I had no idea. I'd've told you if I did."
"Yeah, because you're so great at telling people things," he muttered.
She blinked, taken aback and feeling like she had been punched in the stomach. "I'm sorry, do you have something to say to me?" He shrugged one shoulder, but didn't respond, avoiding looking at her.
"What is going on between you two?" Aang burst out suddenly, frustrated.
"Yeah, I'd like to know that, too," Rinzen agreed, wishing she didn't sound as hurt as she did, and Zuko pressed his lips together firmly, ignoring her.
"In any case, the whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war, but they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse," Katara pointed out, effectively changing the subject, and Zuko shook his head as he glanced up at her.
"You're wrong. It's about to get much more worse than you could imagine." He scrubbed a hand through his hair, exhaling quietly. "The day before the eclipse, my father asked me to attend an important war meeting. It was what I dreamed about for so many years. My father had finally accepted me back." He hesitated before adding, "The war meeting was to plan the destruction of the Earth Kingdom. They're going to raze it all to the ground with the help of the comet's power, just like they destroyed the Air Nomads a hundred years ago." Rinzen felt icy shock flood through her at the thought. "I wanted to speak out against this horrible plan, but I'm ashamed to say that I didn't." Zuko stared at the ground, shuffling guiltily. "My whole life, I struggled to gain my father's love and acceptance, but once I had it, I realized I'd lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was."
"I can't believe this," Katara whispered bleakly.
"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just evil," Sokka agreed bitterly.
"What do I do?" Aang said helplessly, sinking down to sit on a nearby rock, and Zuko closed the space between them to place a hand on Aang's shoulder.
"I know you're scared. But if you don't face the Fire Lord before the comet arrives, there won't be a world left to save anymore," he said quietly.
"Way to cheer him up," Sokka deadpanned as Aang shrugged Zuko's hand off his shoulder and got to his feet again, rubbing a hand over his face agitatedly.
"Why didn't you tell us about your dad's crazy plan sooner?" he demanded.
"Well, how was I supposed to know you weren't going to fight him before the comet came? Nobody told me you were planning to wait," Zuko pointed out dryly.
"This is awful," Aang bemoaned, but Katara stepped forward then, smiling reassuringly.
"You know you don't have to do this alone, Aang," she pointed out as she placed her hand on Aang's shoulder.
"We've all got a shot of taking him down if we work together," Toph agreed, sidling up to Aang to elbow his other side.
"Alright!" Sokka cheered. "Team Avatar is back!"
"For the last time, that name is never going to catch on," Rinzen sighed, but Aang was smiling as he nodded.
"Fighting the Fire Lord's probably the hardest thing we've ever had to do together, but I wouldn't want to do it any other way."
"Aww." Sokka drew Aang into a headlock, Katara, Toph, and Suki following in his lead and wrapping their arms around each other in a group hug. Aang peeked out from within the sea of arms expectantly at Rinzen and she rolled her eyes fondly before closing the space between them to slip one arm around Toph's shoulders and another around Aang's, nestling herself within the embrace.
"Get in here, Zuko," Katara added over Rinzen's head and Rinzen hid her grimace into Aang's shoulder. After what Zuko had said, she wasn't sure if he even wanted to be near her. "Being part of this team means being part of group hugs."
After a moment, Rinzen felt Zuko pressing in beside her, his hand resting gently on the small of her back as he was enveloped in the embrace as well. She lifted her head just enough to peek up at him, but felt a pang of hurt when she saw him carefully avoiding looking at her. Thankfully, the moment was effectively ruined as Appa lumbered over and knocked everyone off their feet by attempting to nose his way into the group hug.
"Oh, gross, Appa," Sokka complained loudly as the bison attempted to lick all of them at once.
It was a relief to find a way to be included in training again, as Sokka set up an elaborate obstacle course to simulate their battle with the Fire Lord. He and Suki were tasked with drawing fire from the Fire Lord while Zuko, Katara, and Aang were on the offense, leaving Rinzen and Toph to collectively act as the Fire Lord, or more appropriately, "the Melon Lord," as Sokka declared as he placed a large melon on top of a headless mannequin.
"So all we have to do is chuck flaming rocks at them?" Toph asked excitedly upon hearing their task and Rinzen shook her head at the enthusiasm in the earthbender's voice.
"Try not to sound too happy at the thought of attacking our friends," she deadpanned as she focused on coating boulders in flammable grease while they waited for everyone else to set up.
"Come on, it's not every day we get to pretend to be the bad guy," Toph complained. "I wanna make it look like tiny comets raining from the sky!"
"Well, considering the angle we're at, that's not gonna happen," Rinzen pointed out dryly. "We'd need to be on a bigger cliff to get that much height and speed on these boulders."
Sokka mock-sniffled from a few feet away, where he was setting up a few bowls of fire for them to use to ignite the grease-coated boulders. "You're using actual physics. I've never been more proud of you, Rin." She obediently leaned over to high-five him with a small grin before taking the Melon Lord mannequin and seating it in front of the fortress she and Toph had built for themselves to act as the Melon Lord's forces.
"Just give us the signal when you guys are ready to start," she answered.
Sokka nodded as he climbed to his feet and headed for the starting point of the obstacle course, taking his place beside Suki and drawing his sword. Zuko and Katara stood just behind them, Katara keeping a hand on the waterskin at her hip readily, while Aang stood on the cliffside above them, his grip on his staff tight and his face pale with nerves. Rinzen felt a pang of sympathy for him, knowing it would be difficult for him to deliver a final blow to anyone, but knew that it was necessary to end the war once and for all.
"Is he giving us the signal yet?" Toph asked eagerly, already bouncing on the spot in her excitement.
"Not yet," Rinzen cautioned her, but then Sokka pointed his sword forward and he and Suki took off at a run. "Okay, now!"
Toph grinned wickedly as she nudged one of the boulders over the fire, igniting it before sending it flying. Rinzen enforced it with a burst of air so that the boulder landed right in front of Sokka and Suki. Suki leapt nimbly over the burning rock, somersaulting neatly back onto her feet before taking off at a run again to kick down a rock soldier Toph pulled up from the ground.
"Watch it, Toph!" Sokka shouted as he scrambled to his feet where he had fallen inches away from the flaming boulder.
"I am not Toph! I am Melon Lord!" Toph screeched back, cackling madly, and Rinzen rolled her eyes as she lit another boulder on fire for Toph to throw.
"You're getting way too into this," she scolded. Toph shrugged mildly before throwing the boulder at Zuko and Katara next, who dodged the boulder easily before taking on the group of rock soldiers Toph brought up from the ground to impede them. Katara threw out a whip of water to decapitate several of the soldiers while Zuko attacked the remaining ones with a wave of fire to disintegrate them.
"Now, Aang!" Sokka shouted and Rinzen looked up to see Aang leaping down from the ledge, raising his staff over his head with a determined expression on his face. Halfway down, his expression shifted into one of unease suddenly and he landed neatly in front of the Melon Lord mannequin, his staff inches away from the melon head.
"What're you waiting for?!" Zuko snapped at him as the rest of the group joined them. "Take him out!"
"I can't," Aang said helplessly.
"If this was the real deal, you'd be shot full of lightning right now," Sokka pointed out.
"I know," Aang answered in frustration. "But it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself."
Sokka huffed angrily before slicing his sword through the melon, which fell in pieces onto the ground. "There. That's how it's done." Aang winced at the sight, shutting his eyes when Momo scrambled over to start licking at the melon juice that had spilled onto the ground.
Rinzen frowned as she climbed over the fortress, resting her hand on Aang's shoulder. "Maybe we should try again," she offered. "You might be able to do it this time."
"No. I'm done for today." He shrugged her hand off his shoulder and turned to head back to the house. Rinzen glanced back to find everyone looking at each other uneasily.
"He'll get there," she reassured them, but none of them looked convinced. Zuko still refused to meet her eyes.
"I have a surprise for everyone," Katara said, trying for a cheerful tone to clear the tension between everyone that night as they ate their dinner on the steps of the courtyard. She clutched a scroll in her hands, bouncing slightly on the spot in her eagerness to show them what it contained.
"I knew it!" Toph said as she sat up suddenly. "You did have a secret thing for Haru!" Everyone stared at Toph, who didn't seem perturbed by the eyes on her.
"Uh, no," Katara said slowly, taken aback. "I was in the attic looking for cooking pots and I found this." She opened the scroll to reveal a painting of a chubby dark-haired baby on the beach, his smile wide and his eyes crinkled with laughter as he played with a pile of sand. "Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute?"
Aang, Sokka, and Suki giggled, but Rinzen noticed that Zuko's expression had grown stormy as he set his bowl down. "That's not me," he said quietly. "That's my father."
The revelation effectively killed the mood as Katara closed the scroll again, looking unnerved. "But he looked so sweet and innocent," she said.
"Well, that sweet and innocent kid grew up into a monster," Zuko snapped back. "And the worst father in the history of fathers."
"He's still a human being, though," Aang said suddenly, getting to his feet, and Zuko turned to glare at him.
"You're seriously defending him?"
"Of course not. I agree with you," Aang reassured him. "Fire Lord Ozai is a horrible person, and the world would probably be better off without him, but there's got to be another way to defeat him other than taking his life."
"Like what?" Zuko raised an eyebrow expectantly and Aang wrinkled his nose in thought.
"Maybe we can make some big pots of glue, and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore," he suggested after a moment and Sokka snickered at the idea.
"Yeah, and maybe we can show him his baby picture and all those happy memories will make him good again," Zuko answered sarcastically.
"You think that'll work?" Aang said hopefully and Zuko scowled back at him.
"No."
"This goes against everything I learned from the monks," Aang sighed as he began to pace. "I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like."
"Sure you can," Sokka piped up, smirking. "I'm sure the universe would forgive you if it's in the name of keeping balance."
"This isn't a joke!" Aang burst out, wheeling around to glare at him, and the grin on Sokka's face vanished immediately. "None of you understand the position I'm in!"
"Of course we do," Rinzen said quietly as she sat up slightly against the pillar she was leaning against. "But-"
"But what?" Aang glowered at her, surprising her with the intensity of his anger. "Of all people, Rin, I thought you'd get it, being raised by the monks!"
"I wasn't raised the way you were, Aang," she pointed out. "Yes, I was taught that all life is sacred, but I was also taught to do what was necessary to keep you safe."
"So, what, you'd kill someone for me?" Aang's expression shifted into horror at the thought and Rinzen grimaced.
"If there was no other way around it, then...yeah. I would." The moment she said it, she wished she hadn't as he turned away from her, unable to look at her.
"We're just trying to help," Katara offered pleadingly, trying to calm Aang down, but he shook his head.
"Then when any of you figure out a way to beat the Fire Lord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it," he said bitterly as he stormed into the house.
"Don't walk away from this, Aang," Katara called desperately after him, but Zuko got to his feet, grabbing her wrist to keep her from hurrying after him.
"Let him go, he needs to resolve this on his own," he cautioned her. With a heavy sigh, Katara gave up, helping Rinzen clear up the empty bowls after their dinner.
"You said the right thing," she reassured Rinzen, catching the expression on her face. "He needed to hear that."
"Did he?" Rinzen answered quietly as she stacked the bowls for Katara to begin washing. "Because all I think I did was convince him that I'm a terrible Air Nomad."
"You're not," Katara insisted. "You were just raised differently than he was."
"Yeah, which means I was raised as a terrible Air Nomad," Rinzen pointed out dryly, surprised at how much the realization hurt as her eyes stung sharply. She dabbed at her eyes quickly before Katara could see, but a quiet shuffling made her look up to see Zuko lingering in the doorway to the courtyard. Silently, he tilted his head towards the beach, and she nodded back, startled that he was even acknowledging her. He turned and disappeared down the path to the beach and Rinzen looked back to find Katara watching her with a small smile.
"Go ahead and talk to him. I'll finish cleaning up." She squeezed Rinzen's hand briefly. "Don't beat yourself up too much."
Rinzen managed a weak smile back at her. "Thanks." She set the bowls in her hands down before following Zuko down to the beach, finding him sitting at the edge of the water with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees. He glanced up at her when he heard her footsteps, managing a tiny smile as she sat down beside him.
"Hey."
"Hi." She drew her knees to her chest, imitating him as she kept her eyes fixed on the rolling ocean waves in the distance.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly after a moment, startling her into looking back up at him. "I've been overthinking some stuff lately, and I shouldn't've taken it out on you."
"Like what?" she asked, bewildered.
"Like...I don't know." He scrubbed his hand over his face, attempting to gather his thoughts. "Like when we were on the balcony of the theater the other night, and you were just...looking at me weird. And I couldn't tell what you were thinking, and at the time, I assumed you didn't want me so close to you."
"That's not-" she began to protest.
"I know it's not what you were thinking," he reassured her quickly. "But even now, I don't know what you were actually thinking. You're not as easy to read as you seem to think you are. And when you look at me like that, it's just - I don't know what you want from me." He dropped his gaze away from her, focusing on the sand between them.
"You really should know by now that I'm the worst at talking about what's on my mind," she pointed out and he glanced back up at her, cracking a smile.
"Yeah, I've noticed. Not like I'm much better at it myself." He covered her hand with his own, squeezing her fingers gently. "But we've got plenty of other things that are complicated in our lives. This - you and me - shouldn't have to be one of them."
"I know." She hesitated before shuffling closer, nestling her head against his shoulder, and he readily slipped his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. You need more time to sort things out, I know that." He pressed his cheek against the top of her head and she curled into his side, soaking in his warmth. "Sorry I lost my temper."
"It's fine, I'm used to that by now," she teased back and he huffed a chuckle, elbowing her lightly as she nudged him back with a grin. "So are we okay?"
"I hope so, because avoiding you is awful." Zuko pulled back enough to give her a wry smile. "You looked like a kicked turtle-duck every time I left the room."
"Shut up, I did not." She shoved him away from her, rolling her eyes, but his expression was soft and fond as he climbed to his feet, grasping her hands to help her up as well.
"Come on, we should get some rest if we're going to start heading for the edge of the Earth Kingdom tomorrow before the comet arrives."
"Yeah, okay." She glanced up at the sight of a flickering light near the top of the house, recognizing Aang meditating on the balcony with a few candles laid out in front of him, and Zuko followed her gaze before frowning.
"Leave him alone," he cautioned. "He needs to figure it out himself."
"If you say so," she conceded reluctantly, allowing him to lead her back into the house. She figured she could wait to talk to Aang in the morning before they left for the Earth Kingdom and hoped that he would make a decision on how to defeat Fire Lord Ozai by then.
Dun dun dun.
Also, no, I couldn't have Rin and Zuko fighting for very long, especially considering they're about to go into the final battle. The fluff just kind of wrote itself near the end. ;A;
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!