Surprised as he was, Teo leaned into the kiss. Sure they were probably about to die but as hot and cold as Azula was, she had been the only woman in his life that took an interest in him. These were strange thoughts as he plummeted to the jagged peaks below, but he hadn't had time for a backup plan. All he could hope for now was that Aang got to him in time.
He unbuckled the belt that held him in his chair and grabbed the torn glider wings with one hand. He sent prayers to the Earth and the Sky as he detached the wings from his wheelchair. Teo clung to the wings with both arms as the heavy chair shattered upon impact with the jagged peaks below. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Azula speed away from him.
"Gotcha!" Aang wrapped an arm around Teo and pulled a hard loop, sending them upside-down and on a course back towards the temple.
Teo forced all thoughts out of his mind. Worrying about his fate would only make things worse. The flight back to the temple was short. As soon as Aang landed, he set Teo down on the paving stones of the temple courtyard. Katara was over in a flash, her eyes as angry as a stormy sea.
"What in the name of the moon do you think you were doing?!" Katara shouted. "You could have killed Appa!"
Not able to contain himself anymore, he looked up at Katara. "I'm not the one that started attacking! You didn't even give her a chance, you just assumed that she was a threat and attacked her! Last I heard the Water Tribe is the only nation that doesn't have a price on her head. Unless you've taken up bounty hunting since the war." He couldn't keep the icy tone from his voice as he sat haphazardly on the sun-warmed stones of the courtyard. He was still shaken from the near-fall and his chest felt tight as if his heart would burst.
The crowd from the dining hall formed a circle around them. As if this wasn't hard enough, now his friends and family were here to see him hit rock bottom. He could hear their whispering. He imagined them rejecting him as their leader, expelling him from the only home he remembers. He did not need the Earth King and Hei-Won to take the temple from him; he practically exiled himself for siding with the most wanted war criminal in the world.
"Who did you think you were dealing with, Teo? Do you know how many people she's killed?" Katara looked down at him, her fists planted on her hips.
"How many people have you killed in the war? I don't know about you, Katara, but I drove a tank into a line of Fire Nation soldiers during the invasion." He looked from Katara to Aang, who so far had been silent. "How many others did you pardon? She's not a threat if you don't treat her as one. She's been here for two weeks without a single incident."
"Why don't we take this someplace private?" Aang suggested, then looked down at Teo, seemingly at a loss for what to do.
Two men who had grown up with him stepped forward and knelt down beside Teo. "Thank you Rui, Josho." He whispered as he hooked an arm around each of their shoulders. The burns on his arms ached, but he refused to think about it. Slowly, he walked with assistance towards the meeting room he'd taken Azula to not two weeks before. At the end of the long journey, Rui and Josho helped him sit in the chair near the door and left, promising to be just outside.
Aang and Katara settled on the other side of the table. Aang opened his mouth to speak first. "Teo, why didn't you turn Azula in as soon as she came here?"
"Because she didn't want to hurt anyone. She came here to start over," Teo planted both hands on the table. The stress of the day was finally getting to him. He just wanted to sleep, pretend for a few hours that none of this had ever happened. If he could push the fugitive princess from his mind, he could have peace for just one evening.
"Azula always lies," Katara stated, her eyes narrowed.
"Katara please," Aang looked at her and she crossed her arms. "Teo, I know you just wanted to help, but she's dangerous."
"She hasn't hurt anyone!" Teo insisted, trying to keep his aching arms from trembling.
"Teo," Aang started, his tone sympathetic, "She cut your glider wings."
"She felt trapped. You both were gaining on us. That water whip almost knocked us out of the sky." At least Katara had the decency to look like she regretted almost killing him. "I defended myself. Azula… she probably figured that you would rather save me than chase her." As betrayed as he felt, he couldn't exactly blame her for choosing to leave him behind. He knew he would have slowed her down once they were on the ground.
"I sent messenger hawks to Zuko and King Kuei. They both need to know that Azula was here," Aang stated, trying to break up the tension between the two. "There will be an investigation and I'd like you to cooperate with us."
Teo felt as if he'd been slapped once again, "King Kuei has just been begging for a reason to try to take this land from us, Aang and now you've handed it to him on a platter. He will drill and mine these mountains bare."
"What do you mean? He can't take the land, it belongs to the Air Nation," Aang said with a perplexed expression on his face.
Teo drew in a deep breath, as much as he liked Aang, the man was often still thinking in ideals that existed before the war. "The Air Nation no longer lives here, Aang. Just like you and Zuko took the colonies from the Earth King, he has just been waiting to take these mountains from you."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Aang looked hurt by Teo's words. The Avatar pulled out a chair and sat down.
"I wrote you letters, Aang. I sent them everywhere I thought you might be. I tried to get my father to come home, but he couldn't." Teo knotted his hands in his hair out of frustration. He felt like a child in a room of adults that no one would take seriously.
"He's been doing great work in Yu Dao. His designs for Republic City and Air Temple Island are fantastic. We couldn't have gotten things done as fast without his help." Aang looked guilty, like he knew that he was keeping the Mechanist for his own pet project.
"But he's needed here! I can't do this by myself anymore, I'm not a politician or a tactician, and I can't keep fending off these attacks without backup. You've never responded to any of my letters, only sent Hei-Won here, who keeps hindering our progress! I'm tired of this, Aang. Really tired." He took a deep breath and met Aang's gray eyes. "Either you give us this land officially and we secede from the Earth Kingdom, or kick us out and keep the land for yourself. We are tired of being on the verge of losing our home."
"I-I… need time to think about this." Aang hesitated, averting his eyes.
"Bring my father home, Aang. He needs to know what's going on."
"Of course. I'm going to have to arrest you though." Aang said gently.
Teo let out a humorless laugh. "Where am I going to go? And how will I get there?"
Katara and Aang shared a worried look before they let the two men inside to assist Teo up to his room. As a precaution, Katara followed them.
The journey to the tower was tense and silent. Teo felt defeated. He failed to protect his people from the growing storm and he failed to keep Azula safe. All he wanted to do was curl up in his own bed and hide until his father was home to tell him that everything would be all right.
Rui and Josho helped Teo into his bed and he thanked them, telling him he'd call for them if he needed more help. He shrugged off his jacket and deposited it on the floor, the effort making his shoulders ache from the still healing burns. Katara stepped forward, but hesitated.
"Before you met us outside, your people said you'd been injured," she sounded uncharacteristically shy.
"I was burned when Azula had an episode," he said dryly. Lying was of no use anymore.
"And you still defend her?" Katara stepped forward, her healer's demeanor showing again. "She's crazy and selfish, she'll do anything she wants if you let her."
"She needs help." He carefully unbuttoned his shirt and vest for Katara to look at the burns.
The waterbender slowly pulled off Teo's shirt and examined him. "They've been well tended to."
"Once she realized I wasn't a threat to her, she helped me." Already he felt his eyes dropping, the excitement of the day wearing off.
Their conversation stopped as Katara's cooling hands touched the blistered skin. He felt instant relief and let himself fall back against the bed as soon as she removed her hands. "You should get some sleep."
Katara averted her eyes as Teo pulled off his shoes and put himself to bed. She waited until his breathing evened out before leaving the room. She had to leave the room so that he wouldn't realize how unnerved she was around him. With her waterbending, she knew the extent of his injuries and could do nothing for them. It both angered and saddened her to think that a friend could suffer so much due to a cruel twist of fate.
Outside, she sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. She felt uncomfortable leaving Teo completely alone, especially with tensions running high between the temple dwellers and Aang.
"So much for a quiet vacation, huh?" Aang sat down next to her, leaning his staff at his feet.
"Are you okay?" she asked, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Already she could see the lines of stress in his face. They had all been blindsided by this turn of events and she knew he felt guilty for putting off reading those letters. She suspected he knew exactly where they were; sitting quietly on the corner of his desk as they were when one of the Acolytes gathered them all together for him.
"I sent a message to Sokka and Toph to find the Mechanist and bring him here. One of the council members showed me the correspondences between Teo and Kuei and from the Mechanist to Teo. It's… a nightmare. I can't believe I neglected them so much." He leaned against her, sighing sadly.
"Hey, you're only one man. You can't be everywhere at once." She hugged him tightly.
"But I should have at least looked at Teo's letters. Checked in with Hei-Won more," he pulled away from Katara.
"Have you spoken to her yet?"
Aang shook his head. "No, not yet. I wanted to get the temple dwellers' take on things first. None of them suspected that Azula was dangerous."
"Teo seems so different," Katara remarked, toying with the hem of her long skirts, "I can't imagine him of all people being taken by Azula. They seem like the least likely people to ever meet."
"I know, right? And what would make her come here of all places? I just don't understand what he sees in Azula that we don't. I'm all for second chances but… for her…" he suppressed a shudder, still haunted by the memories of death by lightning.
"All we have to do is wait. Zuko and Kuei's representatives will be here soon and Sokka and Toph will bring the Mechanist and we can sort all this out." Katara wrapped both arms around Aang, giving him what comfort he could.
Footsteps from the lift drew Katara's attention. Hei-Won carried a large tray full of offerings from the kitchens. She knelt down in front of them and set the tray on the tiles. "I thought you might be hungry since lunch was… interrupted."
"Thank you Hei-Won," Aang sat up and picked up a bowl of rice and fried vegetables.
"Can I see him?" the Acolyte asked Aang, her eyes respectfully diverted as she bowed slightly.
"No," Katara said quickly before Aang could answer.
Hei-Won looked up sharply, though this wasn't the first time that Katara had to assert her place beside Aang to the Acolytes.
"It has been a long day for us all Hei-Won. We'll need to discuss what's been going on here in the morning. Until then, just go back to your room. We'll keep an eye on him." Aang said more gently than seemed possible. But he always had a soft spot for his fan club.
"Yes, of course." Hei-Won bowed again and left them alone. Katara couldn't help but notice the hurt look on the woman's face as she left them.
As soon as Hei-Won left them, Aang spit out the bite of food he had in his mouth. "This food is terrible!" he whispered, then buried his face in Katara's sleeve.
Despite the situation, Katara laughed and swatted at him. "I'll go down to the kitchens myself and bring something up."