The fight has raged for only a few minutes, but Zuko is already sweating.
Admittedly, he is throwing fire with more speed and desperation than normal - practice bouts with his peers never proved this exerting. The fearsome girl is a prodigy, performing moves he's never seen with an ease of mastery Zuko has only seen before in Uncle.
He's not worried, however, because of who is at his back.
Sokka and his partner are on a sidekick with knives. He tries not to get distracted in admiring their form and single-minded focus. The two make the knife-wielder work for every gloomy inch.
Zuko can't look at Aang, who is a flurry of movement trying to avoid the gymnast. Toph is backing him up, solid, trying to trap those fluttering feet in earth.
He cuts down the leader's plume of fire and wishes they'd hurry up.
Katara is at his side, pulling water from her skins and the earth, as the ocean is just a bit too far away for quick access.
In one moment of fury she steals the sweat from his brow and slings it at their opponent's face. Zuko throws flame at the same time, and smiles when she dodges his fire right into the flick of water.
There's a crunch of sliding stone, and then a gust of air shoves the leader back towards the trees.
Zuko ducks under Katara's water whip, risking a glance towards Toph, who has the gymnast secured up to her neck in stone. The earthbender has turned her attentions to the gloomy knife wielder, who suddenly glances at him and blushes.
He ignores her sudden show of feeling to kick fire out at his encroaching opponent, lest she forget she's outmatched here.
Earth moves again, and Sokka's triumphant cry let him know there's only the leader left.
His lips curl in a smile. It's one against six - odds even a prodigy can't beat when she only held her own against two. The fire in his palms is as elated as he as he pushes her back to the tree line, ready to end the threat.
Katara's voice is suddenly in his ear - "Duck!" - so he lets the bloodlust die, ducking under her sudden pull of a wave from the ocean.
The water washes over him, slamming into the girl, and Zuko rolls towards Katara, realizing they're all fleeing. He hears ice crackling behind him, and then a gust of air sends Katara flying past him into the air bison's fur. Aang leaps over the two of them to set down in the saddle.
He jumps to his feet and runs forward, reaching out, and Katara - now secure on the bison herself - catches his hand and pulls him up.
As the waterlogged leader comes back to her feet, the air bison is safely on its way towards the horizon.
"So who was that?" Zuko begins, when everyone's breathing has evened out and there's no sign of pursuit.
"Azula, Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, heir to the throne, and, from all accounts, daddy's little girl," Toph begins. "The others can tell you a little more about recent encounters with you, but I can tell you all the gossip from merchants. She's been the favorite child from birth, so her older brother disappearing was just too convenient to be believed. When Ozai finally gets around to kicking the bucket, the Fire Nation's reputation is going to be destroyed if they let a fratricidal princess take the throne."
"Of course," Sokka cuts in, "that's if her brother doesn't come back from the dead."
Zuko laughs. "I practice firebending with dragons and even I know people can't come back to life. Azula? She's the kind of girl that will kill someone if she can, and wants to." He shifts slightly. "Why this sudden exposition?"
"Zuko, pull your hair back," Sokka requests, staring steadily at him.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Into a topknot," Suki adds, with a glance at Sokka.
"I fail to see what this will accomplish," Zuko replies, as he reaches up to pull his shaggy locks back and up. Everyone is silently watching, even Aang has turned around and rested his forearms on the saddle. His hair gathered on his head in an approximation of a top knot, he offers an awkward smile. "Does this help?"
Suki nods, slowly, amazed. "You could be her brother."
"That's insane," he retorts, dropping his hands to gesture wildly. "I've lived with the Sun Warriors as long as I can remember."
"And how long can you remember?" Katara asks, quietly, her hand touching his knee. Zuko glances down, then follows her arm up to her eyes.
"Not much," Zuko answers, just as quiet, to Katara alone even though all the others can hear.
Toph slaps her knee. "Well I'm convinced and I can't even see him. I felt your movements in that fight back there. You may have all the grace of the Sun Warrior's blending style for bending - I can have dull history books aloud to me, thank you very much - but your feet have the same precision Azula does. You developed as a bender under this style, but you started training as an Imperial Firebender."
"I kept that training, too," Zuko replies, turning his gaze towards the blind bender. "My uncle's drills were always different from class."
"So," Sokka begins. "We have the perfect revolution brewing here. The Avatar, lost for a hundred years, back and better than ever, and the presumed dead heir to the Fire Nation throne, a dude who is a hell of a lot more sane than his sister and father. This is good. We can remove the problem and provide a solution."
Suki beams at her boyfriend, and the Avatar, still watching silent, smiles, too.
Zuko just sits there, quiet, as his world crashes down around him, unable to escape and process alone. There's a whole life he can't remember, a life where he was someone important and he can't remember. All the pain and joy that made him is gone. Who will he be if he remembers that life?
The pain, the sense of being adrift centers in on one devastating point: Uncle remembers; Uncle knows.
His fingers curl around the clothes that suddenly feel too small, too wrong, as he tries not to explode. Sokka is now lying half out of the saddle as Aang pilots, and through the white noise Zuko can make out strategy and plans being tossed back and forth. Toph has stretched out to sleep, while Suki has taken to cleaning her and Sokka's weapons.
The hand on his knee is his anchor in the waves of grief.
There's a slight skkkkkritch as Katara scoots closer. Now her hand is on her knee, her shoulder presses into his, there's more touch, more anchors.
"Hey. Are you okay? Are you going to be okay? If not, I can make Aang land somewhere. We've island hopped before. Or, just say the word and you and I will go over the side. Yeah, it's a far drop but the ocean's at my command. We'll ride the waves to shore and relax on the beach while we wait for them to find us. Mmmm. I can imagine it now - you and me, reclining, tropical drinks in hand while you sunburn and the rest of the group frantically looks for us. I'm sure Momo will miss you terribly."
"Momo?"
He glances at her, and her eyes are alight with concern and victory. "The flying lemer." She gestures to the animal asleep on Toph's torso.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asks, leaning a little more into him. Not invasive, but steadying.
Zuko looks at her, at how Suki is casually stropping the boomerang, how Toph's snores are soft and not enough to cover conversation. "No," he begins slowly, willing his fingers to uncurl and relax. "I'll be fine."
"Then I will take a nap. Do you mind if I use you as a pillow? You're very comfortable."
"By all means," Zuko replies, taken aback but sitting very still as she wiggles into the gap between his arm and his side. She hums contentedly as her eyes close.
"Thank you. You're a big help."
You're a big help. He wraps that around himself like armor. He may be a missing prince or just a boy with the misfortune of looking like one. Maybe he'll never remember who he was, but he himself now is helpful, and they appreciate him. He fought against their enemies without question; he's sheltering, basically, one of their own, and they accept him.
Zuko leans his own head back, finding a position where he can sleep himself without disturbing Katara. If he stays awake, he will remain distracted by a beautiful girl, and his mind is such a mess he needs a nap.
When they land, he'll find somewhere quiet to fall apart and put himself back together, where not even good-hearted waterbenders can find him.
