Just a reminder, Kya lost her girlfriend in chapter 1, it wasn't mentioned in a while, but it will be now.
Also last chapter we left off when the firebenders attacked the Northern Pole.
oooooooooo
Chapter 6
"No!" Sokka started, "We'll tell the waterbenders to build a big ice wall. We'll keep slowing them down."
"It won't work." Azula said, taking off her coat.
"It might." he grabbed her wrist when he realized she was already walking away, "There has to be another way. You don't have to do it."
"What other way?! We're in the middle of an icy wasteland! We're surrounded by civilians! Little kids…. It was a good plan, Sokka. I'm sorry it didn't work." she put a hand on his shoulder.
"They found us?" Bumi ran over with Izumi and Zuko.
"Yes, the Fire Lord and I will go and face them. In the meantime you need to keep the people moving forward in a quick and orderly fashion." Azula said, "There can't be a panic, or people will get hurt."
"Copy that." Bumi nodded and ran off calling over the United Forces solders to help him.
"But you know I still haven't managed to use the technique." Zuko said.
"I know, brother. You'll get it when the time comes."
"Dad, you can't do it and you're still going?" Izumi looked at her father in concern.
"Mom? What's going on?" Zari ran over with Su, seeing something was wrong. As they were running over they both noticed the firebenders in the distance.
"I have to go." Azula pulled her hand back from Sokka, "Zari, I need you to run and tell the Northern Chief what's going on. Go as fast as you can."
The Prince nodded and used his firebending to propel himself towards the head of the crowd.
"Zuzu, you stay back and concentrate for now. I'll go show them what they're up against." Azula said and took a deep breath before propelling herself towards the enemies.
"Chief!" Suyin called for her dad since he was just standing and staring into the distance.
"Sokka, please!" she ran close enough to whisper, "Dad."
"It should have worked!" he said.
"I know how much you didn't want us to stoop to their level. But fighting fire with fire is all we have now. You have to snap out of it!" she tried to pull him forward since the crowd started moving a lot faster and they were already standing alone.
"Let's go help, Su!" he finally got out of his trance.
oooooooooo
Tenzin sat across from Iroh on the floor and used his bending to make the toddler's blanket fly around like it was alive. The boy was enjoying this immensely and was letting the whole house know with his giggle. He got up clumsily to try and capture the blanket, but was unsuccessful thus far.
"Tez, would you stop screwing around and help me?" Lin peeked out of the kitchen.
"Let's go, Little Prince." he handed Iroh his blanket back, took him into his arms and walked to the kitchen. Once inside he saw Lin had taken out about a dozen containers with food inside them.
"I don't remember which one of those bowls of goo Izumi told us to feed him first." Lin gestured to the table.
"I don't think it matters as long as he eats." Tenzin was amused by how seriously Lin was taking all of this. He was about to say something when he was interrupted by Iroh's loud babbling. It sounded almost like he was speaking a different language, but he was clearly trying to communicate with Tenzin.
"I just don't want us to do something wrong. Izumi trusted us to take care of him and we have no idea what we're doing!" Lin was upset about a little more than just Iroh. When it came to their child, they were the ones that were supposed to know what to do. She kept waiting for some miraculous motherly instinct to kick in, but it just didn't happen. Maybe it never will.
"Hey, relax… This is easy-breezy. Nothing to worry about." he took one of the bowls of food and walked back to the living room.
Nothing to worry about?! Of course it was all easy-breezy to him! He didn't have another person growing inside of him! Spirits, she felt sick… She couldn't remember the last time she ate, but really who could blame her? Her entire family was in great danger. It would probably be days until she found out if they're alright. Her staying behind was supposed to give her time to think about things, but in reality she spent the whole time worrying about Iroh. Was this how it was going to be like from now on?
"Lin, check this out!" Tenzin called his girlfriend over to the other room where Iroh had just arranged a few pieces of fruit on top of each other, "He's so cute, isn't he?"
"Yeah, real cute. Why isn't he eating what Izumi left for him?" Lin sat next to the two of them at the table.
"Oh, he hates that."
"Then he won't mind if I take it." Lin reached over and started eating the yellowish goo. She didn't dare ask what was in that, but it tasted fruity. Iroh got a bit distracted by her joining them and couldn't take his eyes off her. Then he started reaching for her.
"Really? Now you want it?" Lin asked the toddler. Tenzin couldn't hold back a chuckle seeing her glare at him.
"Here. Get up." Tenzin instructed her and picked up Iroh. Then he gently tried placing him in her arms.
"No, I- I don't know how-" her protesting stopped when she realized she was already holding the baby.
"Now give him the food with your other hand." Tenzin still stood close by in case there was a need for intervention.
As Lin managed to feed him a spoon of the yellow stuff she started thinking maybe this wasn't so bad. Maybe she wouldn't be the most horrible mother on the planet. Maybe she'd pick it up eventually.
"See? You're great at this." he added kissing her on the cheek, "And it's good practice, don't you think?"
"You had to ruin it, didn't you?" she asked. She could tell him now. It was a good time for it. They were alone. He just said she was great at taking care of kids. Maybe this would be the least painful time to break it to him. Maybe he could say something to her to make her feel better.
"Tenzin, I…" she started, but was interrupted by Iroh sneezing violently and setting fire to her sleeve. Well, there was something her mother never had to deal with.
oooooooooo
As Azula was nearing their enemies, one of them used his firebending to fly right to her. He landed a few meters away and aimed a rather large fire stream at her. To his great surprise Azula absorbed the whole thing and then took advantage of his confusion and jumped forward grabbing him by the neck. She looked straight into his eyes as she drained the life out of his body.
"For Mai." she whispered to herself before turning back towards the rest of the enemy army. They all stopped, seeing what she could do now.
"You came here, looking for a fight!" she started slowly walking over to them, purposely radiating heat as not to take on too much energy on her next attack. They all watched as snow melted around her with every step she took.
"Well, here I am!" she watched each of them carefully, trying to predict who'd be the one to strike first.
"You can join us." one of them said.
Azula snickered, "Maybe you missed it, I've just killed one of you."
"We have a rule about that. If you're pathetic enough to be taken out that easily, then your warmth is more useful than you are. We left the Fire Nation with three times this number. But sacrifices were made."
Be the monster. Be the monster. Azula kept repeating in her mind.
"What an alluring offer. There's just one thing. You broke into my palace and overthrew my brother. And I'm very possessive over my things."
Be the monster. Fire is life. Life is a fire. Snuff it out. You do it, so they don't have to.
She took a deep breath to feel the heat flow through her own body and then jumped forward to the first man. After a short dodging struggle she managed to slam her palm into his chest and drain him as well. After repeating that process two more times she unleased an enormous stream of fire on just one man, making him explode since he couldn't take on that much at once.
oooooooooo
"We need to help her. We need to do something!" Zari watched in horror as his mother fought off an entire unit of firebenders by herself.
"Maybe it's time, Izumi." Bumi said, "Your father went to help, but he'll just get himself hurt."
"Time for what?" Kya asked.
"I'm so glad Aang is not here." Sokka concluded seeing Azula taking down those men like they were nothing. Like they have no worth.
"We have no other choice." Su told him, "We can't hold them and we can't reason with them. They're sick. And Aang can't touch them to take their bending away."
"I don't know about you, but I'm going!" Zari started running towards the fire blasts in the distance.
"What are you doing?" Izumi asked when she saw Bumi unsheathe his sword.
"Making sure the lad doesn't kill himself. Spirits, help us…" he said and ran charging after the boy.
oooooooooo
"It's a good thing you called me." Mai said while Tenzin was helping her walk into the living room, "Is Lin alright?"
"I'm managing." they found Lin holding Iroh still in a stockpot filled with water. Tenzin and her had to improvise because the boy liked creating fire a little too much and Katara's big soup pot was the biggest thing they could find to surround him with water. Lin's shirt was clearly scorched and was exposing her shoulder, but she didn't appear burned.
"Oh, Spirits…" Mai sighed.
"Dunking him in water was the first thing that came to mind." Tenzin shrugged.
"Do they all start bending this early?" Lin asked, while gently washing Iroh's cheeks from the food. She couldn't help, but worry about their child being a bender. Earthbenders are easy, that was just a fact, but an airbender flying around every time he sneezes or a waterbender making a giant mess all the time would be a big pain in the ass. It's not like she could choose anyway…
"Not usually." Mai crouched down next to her grandson with great difficulty, "Ursa told me stories about Azula starting this early. I laughed, but then I had Izumi. I think she actually started earlier. Caught my hair."
"Ouch." Lin moved away to let Mai take Iroh.
"The thing is they love it when they figure out they can make fire. So they just keep doing it. The best you can do is just making sure they don't burn themselves or anyone else. They forget about it in a few days anyway. Then they discover it all over again." Mai took Iroh into her lap on the floor, "If they get too fiery, you can anyways pinch their nose. Forces them to change their breathing, but it makes them cry, so use with caution."
She demonstrated on Iroh.
"Also sometimes works with adult firebenders." the older woman smiled.
"Thank you, Aunt Mai. Really." Tenzin said.
"Please go to the kitchen and fetch any plates you can find. They're not flammable and don't heat up easily, so they're perfect for him to play with."
Lin was a little suspicious about this. She didn't know a lot about babies, but she did know you weren't supposed to let them play with tableware. But Mai knew best….
oooooooooo
"You're such a pathetic excuse for a Fire Lord!" one of the enemies yelled at Zuko, while he was dodging her attacks. Then he changed tactics and started aiming a fire stream at her, the largest he could manage with his conventional bending. He was trying to overload her, but he ended up just making her stronger. Just when he was feeling tired, Izumi and Zari ran out of nowhere and matched his stream with two of their own. The woman couldn't take it any longer and blew up.
Zari was looking at his mother, who didn't seem to have any problems fighting a few of these benders at the same time, so he had no idea there was a firebender behind him. Luckily, he was knocked out with a rock before he could touch the Prince.
"You're welcome." he saw Su smiling back at Zari.
"Su, get back to the crowd this instant!" Sokka came running to them.
"No way!" she took her bending stance and continued throwing rocks at their attackers.
Azula learned a lot of new things in this battle that the book didn't really talk about. For instance, she learned the quickest way to drain someone was to touch him as close to his heart as possible. Also, she learned that she didn't have to use her palms to draw energy out of a person. If she had enough power already inside her, she didn't really have to touch them at all. She was really causing the enemy some damage when something dragged her out of the frenzy she was in.
"Azula!" she suddenly heard Zuko yell. She looked over and saw one of the benders had Izumi in his hands.
"Surrender yourself or she dies!" he threatened, placing his hand around Izumi's neck.
Azula had no idea what to do and neither did Zuko. But before either of them could react, Izumi breathed in through her nose and at the same time sucked in all the energy from her attacker's body. He fell to the floor lifelessly while Izumi stood there, adjusting to the feeling of wielding all that power.
"What did you do?!" Azula asked.
"Zari and I practiced it in secret. We couldn't let you take on all of it by yourself." Izumi gestured by moving her hand and inadvertently made a huge fire blast. This terrified her. She already spent most of her childhood fearing her firebending might hurt someone. She couldn't do it again.
"Let's get you out of here, OK?" Bumi walked to the Princess and tried to take her hand, but she pulled away.
"No! I can't control it!" she screamed and started running back to Kya and the crowd of Northerners.
"Go, with her!" Azula yelled, "All of you! I can handle this!"
oooooooooo
After the battle was over they all came back to find Azula again. The crowd of civilians was far away now, but the threat was seemingly gone. They found the Fire Princess kneeling on the ground, surrounded by the dead army.
"Azula, I…" Zuko stopped since, as soon as he stepped closer to her he felt incredibly cold all of a sudden.
"Mom, we should get going." Zari ignored the cold and wanted to help her up, but she jumped from him.
"Don't touch me!" she was shivering violently and her voice showed it, "I don't want to hurt you. I just need a little time to… Calm down."
"Azula, I'm coming over." Zuko said and slowly reached for his sister while she put one of her hands around his neck. He helped her stand up and start walking after the crowd.
"We need to get back to our ships. We have to leave for the Fire Nation right away." she said.
"No, you need to rest. We'll meet up with Aang and the others first."
"You don't understand! There's no time! I need to get there now."
Zuko looked at his sister and could immediately tell how serious she was.
"We're going then. Taking the fight to them." he said loud enough for everyone to hear him.
oooooooooo
After radioing the Avatar in the Earth Kingdom, Zuko arranged for all of them to meet in the Fire Nation at dawn. That meant they'd have to spend the entire night sailing to have any chance of making it.
After ensuring Izumi was alright for the time being, Zuko retired to his quarters. He wanted to stay by her side, but Bumi was there and he still didn't like seeing him with his daughter. Before leaving Mai begged him to act civil around the boy, but he didn't have to stay there and watch them together. Zuko knew his wife was right, as always, about their daughter being old enough to make her own decisions, but it still annoyed him.
He went to bed early, but even after a couple of hours sleep still eluded him. Between his hurt wife, his traumatized daughter, his missing half-sister and well… Everything that was happening with Azula, he couldn't find peace. Sometime after midnight he'd had enough of lying in the dark, so he dressed and went outside to the deck.
After a few moments of staring into the starry sky, he realized he wasn't alone.
"Couldn't sleep?" he directed his question at Azula who was sitting on a bench facing the sea, crawled up in a ball with her hair down, "How are you?"
"I had to kill over a hundred people with my bare hands. Your question is stupid."
"Sorry." he walked over and sat by her.
"How's Zari?" she asked, having a really hard time pronouncing his name without getting upset.
"Fine. I went to talk to him. He's a strong young man. A little scared for you maybe. As am I." he diverted his glance from the dark sky, to her, "Are you seeing things again?"
"No! Spirits, can everyone stop asking me that? Believe me, my mind can only think about one thing right now."
"It's that bad?"
"It's like all I can think about is how to get more. Like all I want to do is burn this ship so I could feel the heat of it. And it feels like I'm dying when I try not to take in anything. Like now." she showed her trembling hand.
"You shouldn't have to do that. At least not alone!" Zuko rubbed his forehead, "I should be helping you! I tried, but I'm just not one of the people that can do it. It's not my destiny. I wish-"
He was interrupted by Azula laughing hysterically.
"Are you laughing at me? I'm trying to have a moment here." he complained.
"You're ridiculous, Zuzu. That's all mother talking, you know… Darling, you're so bad at things, but that's why I love you. She wanted so much for you not to be like Father and me, she held you back. The truth is, you have the same impressive ancestry I do. You're an amazing firebender, I've seen it. The only reason you've always been told you're bad is because everyone's been comparing you to me."
"Az-"
"And another thing, leave that silliness about destiny be for once. This technique is about taking what you want. So stop wondering if you're meant for something and just do it."
"Copy that, Sifu." he said sarcastically, "I swear you're the most protective little sister out there."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm your big brother, I should, you know… Take care of you. Not the other way around."
"Who taught you that macho nonsense? It's like a game of Pai Sho, Zuzu. Every piece has a part to play. You're good at ruling. I'm good at conquering. We take care of each other."
He nodded and looked into the horizon again, turning the left part of his face to her, making his scar more visible.
Azula just started at it for a few moments, before speaking up: "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" he turned around with a gentle smile on his face.
She answered by putting her hand at the spot he had his scar on her own face.
"Oh, that."
"I know I didn't do it. But I did nothing. I laughed at you. I was such an ignorant child then!"
"Hey, when you came back we said we're not going into this. It's not good for either of us."
"It just baffles me that I understood so much, could manipulate people into almost anything and yet I completely missed everything that was happening in my own head. Dad was pulling my strings and I let him. He weaponized me." she finished and looked over to Zuko. She wasn't expecting to find tears draining from his eyes.
"So did I today." he said, looking at the floor rather than her face.
"Oh, brother." she kissed his cheek and hugged him, "You could never make me do anything I don't want to. This, what I'm doing, is my choice."
Zuko was surprised, no, shocked at this sudden show of affection. When he found his sister five years ago he couldn't even imagine how essential she would become to him. He couldn't imagine the real family they had now.
"I need to ask you something." she pulled away, "About my son. If I don't make it back tomorrow, would you-"
"No, Azula, I'm not having this conversation!"
"We knew this was a one way trip when we started this."
"No! You're not dying tomorrow!"
"You don't know that!" she paused after yelling, "Listen, if I die before finishing this, don't fall apart, please. Don't retreat. I need you to finish it with Izumi. She's strong enough, she knows she is. I'll get you as far as I can. I know you're used to being the heart while I was the head, but you'll need to be both soon."
"You can't expect me to just stand there and watch you die!"
"That's exactly what you'll do. As your advisor I forbid you from going into the fight while I'm still alive."
"Then I'm firing you." he said, causing her to roll her eyes, "I just wish there was a way to end this without killing all of them."
"Wishes are for children. We looked at this from every angle and there is no other way. These people are addicted to taking others' energy. They'd never stop, you can't reason with them."
"But you used it too and you are still you."
"But for how long?" Azula sighed and stood up to walk away.
"I'll take care of Zari, if it comes to it. He's my nephew." he said suddenly, "Just try not to die."
oooooooooo
"No. Eat your food." Lin pushed the bowl of goo closer to Iroh, trying to distract him from what she was eating, "Just because Tenzin lets you eat whatever you want don't expect the same from me."
They had just a few days with Iroh, but she could swear Tenzin was already spoiling him.
Iroh just stared at her blankly for a few seconds and then dug his little hand into his bowl, bringing a little bit of his food into his mouth.
"Good." Lin nodded and returned to eating her own food, which was prepared strictly according to Kya's orders. Vitamins and protein for the baby. Blah.
Lin woke first as always, but this time she wasn't the only one. She heard Iroh fussing in his crib so she decided to take a crack at looking after him alone. So far it's been a trying three hours. He wasn't crying or anything, he was just incredibly picky and impossible to please. In other words, he was a baby.
He went quiet for a few minutes and Lin got lost in thought, not at all suspicious to why he was silent. Before she could react he pushed his bowl of food onto the floor.
"Do you have to be watched every single second?!" she raised her voice for a second before calming down, "Yeah… Yeah, you do. Here."
She decided to cut her food into small bits and give him some too. He wasn't her kid. The important part was that he ate.
"You like that don't you? Just because it's not for you…" she cracked a small smile, "You know, the only reason I have to eat this is because I'm gonna have a baby too."
"I don't even know why I'm telling you this, but it's not like you'll tell anyone. You're already a better choice than Kya." she continued as Iroh stuffed his face with bread and looked at her like he was listening intensely.
"I was supposed to have all this figured out by now, but it's been three days and I've decided nothing. And telling others hasn't helped. Kya is just overly excited about being an aunt, but she is right that Tenzin would be so happy… But your mother told me having a child is really hard and not for everyone…" she smiled awkwardly, "No offence."
"And I'm like the furthest thing from a mom. I can't even get you to eat… I mean, OK, you are eating now, but generally. And even if I do someday want to be a mother, I can't do it like my mom. And I can't get stuck with a kid too young, like your mom… No offense."
"I don't even feel that sick anymore, maybe all of this is for nothing. Maybe Kya just isn't as good of a healer as she thinks she is. Eighty percent…"
"Of what?" Tenzin walked into the room lazily rubbing his eyes, "You two having a gossiping session?"
"You have no idea…"
"Good morning." he stopped while passing her to plant a quick kiss on cheek, "Why didn't you wake me? I could have helped you with him."
Lin saw Tenzin was having bad dreams again that night. He finally calmed down after dawn so she couldn't bring herself to wake him.
"We managed without you."
"As much as I love seeing you with him, which is very, I have a surprise for you." he gestured to Mai standing in the doorway.
"I'm much better now." Mai started, "I don't need my hand to take care of my grandson. You two should go and help your parents out."
"Isn't it great, Lin? I wasn't really sleeping in, I radioed Dad, and they said we can make it in time. Oogi is ready to go. What do you say?" Tenzin was smiling ear to ear.
"Oh, well, that's really…"
"I noticed that you were a little absent the last few days. I'm thankful you stayed behind because of my leg, but it is really better now, so there is nothing stopping us from going to fight alongside our parents."
"Tenzin… I…" she frowned.
"What? I thought you'd be happy. I thought that's what's been bothering you… If you don't want to…"
"No! I do want to." Lin looked around and realized Mai had left the room with Iroh to give them some privacy.
Lin breathed in deeply and took Tenzin's hands into hers. This was perfect. She should tell him. He deserved to know.
"Then we should leave since everyone is waiting for us." he added.
"Wait, they're waiting for us?"
"They said that if we leave immediately we'll make it just in time." he started walking through the house towards the stables, "My dad sounded really concerned. He said Azula can't take much more by herself. They could really use us there."
"We have no choice then." she followed him. She couldn't even reconsider telling him after hearing their parents were in trouble. Su was there. There was no way Lin could live with herself if she sat that one out.
oooooooooo
"Alright, now, Su, just let me do the explaining and look really apologetic, like you're really learning a lesson out of all of this." Sokka instructed his daughter as soon as they made port in the Fire Nation. They were both taking a walk around their military camp.
"How is looking apologetic going to help with Mom? She can't even see it." she said.
"You're right. We're doomed," he paused, "It's finally going to happen. She'll strangle me with my own boomerang… I always knew this is how it was going to end."
"Oh, relax… I do tones of bad stuff all the time. She doesn't care. I never listen to her."
"Well, sweetie, she's slightly less lenient with people she didn't create. Oh, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do…"
On the other side of the encampment Zuko greeted the Avatar and his wife who've just returned from the Earth Kingdom.
"Any luck?" the Fire Lord asked.
"Not really," Aang said disappointedly, "The King refused to let any of his troops leave his Kingdom. We'll just have to fight with what's left of the United Forces."
"We'll have to fight," Katara corrected him, "You're staying right here in this camp."
"I agree with the Mrs, Aang." Zuko said, "It got real ugly out there. We shouldn't risk it."
"How is she, Zuko?" Katara stepped forward.
"She's in the tent, you can check on her yourself." he pointed, "But not well. And I haven't exactly been able to help."
"You'll get it, Zuko. I know you will." Aang put a hand on his shoulder to show support, even though he wasn't really hopeful about their odds.
"I'll go talk to Azula." Katara made her way into the big tent.
oooooooooo
Toph was walking around, giving out orders when she sensed a gentle walk not far from where she was standing.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
"Sorry, Mom." Su said.
"What did I tell you about letting me handle this?" Sokka looked back at her while she just shrugged.
"You are unbelievable!" Toph walked over to them, making the ground shake with every step.
"Mom, I-"
"Enough! I'll deal with you later." she turned to Sokka, "You! How could you bring her here?! Why didn't you bring Iroh, too? Maybe he'd like to help!"
"Listen, I'm sorry…"
"Mom, I made him. It's all me." Su stood between them trying to defuse the situation. She really didn't think about this when she asked to come.
"You need to grow a spine already!" Toph yelled at Sokka first then moved on to her daughter, "And you… We don't have a lot of rules in our house and somehow your entire life's purpose is to break them all."
"So we have a rule about always leaving me behind? You wanted Lin to come…"
"Lin is an adult and a police officer. You couldn't even bend on the armor yourself."
"You were younger than me when you went to war."
"Don't you compare me to my parents!" Toph yelled, "Now, march into that tent and I don't want to hear from you for the rest of the day. You're not going to battle! Go man the radios or whatever it is non-benders do…"
Suyin sighed angrily and obeyed, dragging her feet towards the tents. Toph was glad she was leaving since they were attracting a lot of attention with all the yelling and the ground shaking. Just as she was about to start giving Sokka a piece of her mind she felt a large group of people coming their way.
They weren't expecting reinforcements. His Daintiness, the Earth King, made that incredibly clear. But that didn't change the fact that she felt earthbending in the distance.
"Oh, this day just keeps getting better…" Toph said as soon as she recognized one of the men leading the crowd. People could change a lot about how they looked, but it never worked on her.
"What's happening, Mom?" Su stopped walking away and came a bit closer to look at the arriving soldiers. Their armor also signaled they were Earth Kingdom.
"I think Aang was looking for you, Sokka. You should go see what he wants." Toph turned the earth below him so that he was facing the other way.
"You called me Sokka? What's going on, Toph?" he turned back around and recognized the man leading the unit of Earth Kingdom soldiers, "Is that Kanto?"
"Who's that?" Su cut in.
"I'll handle him, you both leave!" Toph ordered, but they both just took a step back as the soldiers were really close now.
"That's Lin's dad." Sokka whispered to his daughter while Kanto took off his helmet and walked to Toph.
"Oh." Su's eyes widened. Now that she knew, the man did kind of remind her of Lin.
"We aren't supposed to get any help from you ladies." Toph said instead of a greeting.
"How do you know the old fool didn't change his mind?" Kanto asked.
"Did he?"
"No. He's a pompous ass, like he always was. That's why I forged his signature and got my men over here to fight."
"He's not the only pompous ass."
"Easy… You told the King your firebending miracle needs back-up, well, here we are." he smirked, "Truth be told, I thought you'd want to hit me with a rock on sight. Well, not sight-"
"There's still time."
"So where's Lin?"
"She's not here."
"And even if she was," Su spoke up suddenly to everyone's surprise, "She wouldn't want to have anything to do with you…"
"So you're the other daughter?" Kanto took a step towards Suyin, but Sokka immediately appeared in his way.
"You don't talk to her." he said.
"Oh, I see. You finally stepped up and got the girl. Sonna, was it?" Kanto was obviously enjoying taunting him.
"You must remember me, Kanto… I'm the guy that kicked your ass last time you were in Republic City."
"Enough!" Toph waved her hands and moved the earth under the two of them to separate them, "I could take both of you! Kanto, you did say you were here to help…"
"Of course," he put his helmet back on, "I doubt you'd be willing to convey anything to Lin for me."
"You got that right." Toph said.
"Well, in case you change your mind… Tell her… Tell her, I don't want to be as useless a person as I was a father. So I'm here to make a difference."
"The King will want your head for this."
"Just let him try…" he said and turned to lead his unit into battle.
"Not a word to Lin, are we clear?" Toph said after the earthbenders were all far.
"Definitely." Sokka said, "I'll go tell Aang we got some help with holding them off for Azula."
As he was leaving he saw Zari walking in the opposite direction.
"So that's where Lin gets that attitude..." Su joked.
"We're not talking about this. And your sister is nothing like that man." Toph snapped before noticing Zari.
"Suyin, your sister's on her way here." he said.
"What? Why would Lin be coming?" Toph asked.
"The Avatar just told me Tenzin and Lin left some time ago and are coming to help as well." he stopped, seeing the two of them weren't exactly happy about that, "I thought you'd want to know."
"We do. Thank you." Su blushed, but luckily for her Zari already left so he couldn't see it.
"You didn't tell me you liked Azula's kid." Toph smirked. She might not have seen her daughter blush, but her heartbeat gave it away even sooner.
"Mom… Spirits, could you be any more embarrassing?" Su rolled her eyes.
"You know I can sense these things. Literally."
"Well, it doesn't even matter. Can we drop it?" Su tried walking away, but her mother caught her hand.
"Trust me, you want to hear this last thing." she paused, "He likes you, too."
"You can't know that." Su suddenly became interested.
"Hearts don't lie, Oma."
"So what? I should… Like, tell him?"
"Well, I don't know what you want to do. I just didn't want another Tenzin situation. Those two waited years to tell each other, since I didn't want to get involved."
oooooooooo
"You wanted to see me, Dad?" Kya found her father sitting in his meditating position in the grass.
"Yeah, sweetie," he got up and invited her to take a walk with him, "I wanted to talk to you about what happened at that festival. I would have done it sooner, but I've been a little busy."
"I'm not sure I want to talk about it."
"This war could soon be over. But that's where the real struggle begins. That's when you need to deal with what you've lost and what you've done."
"Oh, I know what I've lost. I can't forget even if I wanted to." tears streamed from her eyes, "I loved her, Dad. And just like that she's…"
Aang pulled his daughter into a hug, "I know."
"We were planning on visiting the Island after the festival. I wanted all of you to meet her. Bumi would have loved her…" she pulled away and wiped her tears.
"It's alright to grieve, Kya. But you mustn't let it consume you. Seeking revenge will not bring you peace."
"I'm not going home, Dad! I'm here, I'm helping."
"I know I can't ask you to leave it all and just go home, even though, Spirits know, it'd make me feel a lot better. But I can ask you to think about why you're doing what you're doing. Are you fighting these people to help us stop them from hurting anyone else, or are you here just to make them feel what you felt?"
"Why can't it be both? I thought you of all people would understand…"
"I do understand. I went through it, your mother went through it, and we both came out of it stronger. It's as important to let your anger out as it is to let it go."
"Well, I'll admit, at first all I wanted was to take all my anger out on them. And I did, in that first battle."
"And did it help, Kya. Did you feel happy after?"
"No…" Kya shook her head, "I felt worse. More lost than ever."
"That's because darkening your own heart is never the path to happiness."
"I get it now, Dad. This time, I'm only fighting to stop the killing. Nothing else."
oooooooooo
Alright, this chapter was a bit long… Phew…
The Oma nickname is a reference to Oma and Shu – It's like Toph called Su Juliet. I know Su ended up with Baatar and they're goals, but she is allowed crushes before that, I mean… And Zari is kind of a sweet little nerd and that's Suyin's type, we all know that.
Battle for the Fire Nation next chapter. Might also end up being a long one.
Reviews are very appreciated :)
