"Why are we in the Earth Kingdom?" Sokka asks above the boisterous noise as they approach the dimly lit building. It is nearly dark; they have spent all day flying after waiting two hours in case Aang came back.
Zuko pushes open the door to the rowdy Earth Kingdom tavern to find it in an uproar, a full-scale bar fight. Two men break bottles on each others heads, while another knocks a man unconscious in a single punch. One woman, the only female and perhaps the youngest in the bar, with a skull barrette in her long black hair, shoves a man onto a table, which consequently breaks in half; the poor man collapses onto the floor, covered in dust, and the young woman throws back her head and laughs as the fight continues around her, as if no one else will dare cross her.
"That's why," Zuko says, pointing to the young woman, maybe in her early twenties. She looks the same as he remembers, majestic and venomous in the same manner as a snake. "June."
June the bounty hunter looks up in vague recognition as they stride towards her slender form, clad in black. A confident smirk stretches across her pale face, paralleled by her cunning dark eyes.
"I see you and your girlfriend got back together," she drawls.
"We're not together!" Zuko and Katara say hotly at the same time, and they each blush in turn under June's mocking grin of perfect teeth, a flash of pearly white in an aura that screams black.
"Yet you've come back, I see." she says to Zuko, her voice silky. "Got another job for me, lover boy?"
"As a matter of fact, yes."
June frowns and looks the lot up and down expectantly, suddenly down to business. "You have payment, I assume?"
Zuko's throat tightens. "We have no money, no."
June sighs dramatically, as if she honestly wishes she could've worked for them. "Then I guess my services won't be of any help to you." She begins to turn, and Zuko grasps at straws.
"Is saving the world a good enough payment for you?" Zuko demands, and June narrows her eyes. She steps close to Zuko so that they are nose to nose, close enough for Zuko to determine the scent clinging to her pale skin: rosemary and the faintest trace of bittersweet alcohol.
"I know exactly who you are, Prince Zuko." Her voice is a dangerous whisper behind a closed door. "So who's world are we talking about? Yours? Or mine?"
Zuko returns the cold stare. "Both," he replies, and June takes a step back. "It's the Avatar."
He watches a conflict clash in her face as she is torn between routine and prospering or heroism and justice. A girl that has only ever had to look out for herself, now trusted with the responsibility of thousands.
"Follow me" is all she says when the waged war is through, and they obey, slipping out of the unruly tavern and circling around the back. Her enormous Shirshu is tied up there, snorting and pawing at the ground in the same restlessness Zuko feels.
"Oh, Nyla!" she calls to it in a purr, stroking its hideous nose. "Who's my good Shirshu, sweet Snuffly-Wuffly?" She looks at Zuko, the over-the-top sweetness replaced once more by both a exotic seductiveness and a grim practically, a combination that is almost contradictive. "Give me something of the Avatar's for her to sniff."
"I have Aang's staff," volunteers Katara, and she places it in June's waiting hand. The bounty hunter waggles it under her prized pet's nose with a smirk. The creature inhales sharply, and Zuko prays for a direction, a north to his compass. The reaction, however, is far from expected. Nyla rears back onto its two back legs and bellows a half screech, half roar; June backs up hands in the air, palms facing the beast, and nearly collides with Zuko as the creature shakes it head as if in pain.
"What does that mean?" he questions the young woman, frustrated.
"It means your friend's gone."
Zuko notices Sokka gulp laboriously. "Gone as in dead, gone?"
"Nope." retorts June puzzlingly. "We could find him if he were dead. Your friend is gone gone. As in, he doesn't exist." June seems unfazed by the gawking, stunned expression on Zuko's face, and dubiously ignores those of the others. "Wow, that's a real head-scratcher. See you."
Frantically, Zuko grabs at June's retreating sleeve and she shakes him off, testy and cold, a whole unknown history in her eyes that Zuko can't even begin to sort. He is suddenly glad for the first time in weeks that his uncle is not there, an emotion that almost feels treacherous- June would surely abandon them then. Then he is practically struck down to his buckling knees by the subsequent idea, one that is terrible and desperate and beautiful and a game of chance.
"Wait," he begs June, and to his ultimate relief, she halts. He then turns to Katara, Toph, Sokka, and Suki. "We obviously aren't going to be able to find Aang right now. So we need a backup plan. There's only one other person who could possibly defeat my father besides the Avatar. I'll be right back with a smell sample." And he leaves them all gaping, they thrown by the twist in the story and Zuko by the twist in his stomach.
He approaches Appa, still uncertain about how he'd deduced this conclusion but all the same so confident about it. Why his Uncle Iroh, of course! Who else besides the vanished Aang even has the slightest prayer? Zuko distractedly rummages through his pack and finds it at the bottom, his quarry, a forsaken, old, lonely sandal that stinks with the most pungent of odors. If the Shirshu cannot track this scent, he thinks.
"Here!" he calls to June as he races back, breathless. She takes the shoe with a wrinkled face, and by the very edge of her long fingernails, painted black, she waves it under Nyla's snout. Almost immediately, the Shirshu points a direction and June leaps on its back and bounds away.
"Wait!" Zuko yells, he and the others running for the bison. They stumble onto Appa, and while Katara shrieks "Yip yip", Zuko calls out again into the dark trees.
"June! Wait for us!"
She doesn't, unsurprisingly, but Zuko and the others know Appa is capable of catching up quickly.
"Who are we after, Zuko?" Sokka asks him, brow furrowed as he manages to settle into his seat.
Toph, on the other hand, seems to know already. "It's your uncle, isn't it?"
Zuko nods before remembering she cannot see it. "Yes." he croaks out. "He's the only one who stands a chance if Aang doesn't show up soon."
"But Aang will show up," Katara insists. "We aren't giving up on him."
"Of course not," amends Zuko. "But Uncle's our only backup, and we need to start planning." He looks down off the bison into the fir trees below, and finds a swift but stocky silhouette.
"Spirits, June!" Zuko scolds the young woman loudly, and June laughs at the furious look on his reddened face.
"Is that supposed to be scary, lover boy?" she calls over the ferocious roar of the wind, a gale smelling of a heavily wooded night and the depths of summer.
Sokka peers at her over the side of the saddle. "Do you know where we're going?"
"Not a clue," admits June gleefully. "Why don't you ask Nyla?"
The group assesses Nyla again, taking in his coarse fur and barred, sharp, yellow teeth, and almost immediately Sokka says, "No, that's okay." His voice cracks almost imperceptibly. "I like surprises."
When Zuko and the others arrive at the crumbled ruins of Ba Sing Se's great wall, he thinks there must be a mistake. Surprise, indeed.
"Why would my uncle be here?" he questions Katara softly, but he is one step away from speaking to himself. "Why would he come here, to the very site of his greatest failure?"
Katara just looks at him. "Because he is able to face his mistakes."
All the same, Zuko hops off Appa and glances at June inquiringly. "Are you sure we are at the right place?"
"My Shirshu doesn't lie," replies June. "Your creepy uncle is right beyond there. So I guess this is where I leave you, correct?"
Zuko shuffles his feet. "That would probably be best."
"And no payment?"
"Not if you don't include saving the lives of hundreds."
"I don't" is her stout reply. "But I guess it was a duty that had to be done. But if nothing happens tomorrow, you're a dead man, Prince Zuko." She circles behind him, then rests her cold hands on his tense shoulders, a feeling both intoxicating and unsettling. Zuko has no idea what she is doing until he hears a loud tearing of fabric. June waves the stripe of rusty red cloth from his collar like a prize as she strides back to her mount.
"So I can find you," she explains, and then, without a deeper explanation, leaps onto Nyla and disappears into the night. Zuko watches her go, still slightly confused, then turns back to the destroyed wall where the others have gathered.
Katara doesn't looks away quickly enough, and he has no idea why their expression are like the way they are, full of deeper meanings he cannot fully interpret. He walks over to join the group and ends up just staring and standing at the foot of the wall, the place home to both his and his uncle's greatest failures.
Suddenly, a barrier of fire erupts around them, menacing and flickering. The startled group crowds together in a sudden burst of shock and terror, but the flames a die as quickly as they begin, extinguished almost regretfully.
"Well, don't these faces looks familiar!" cackles a voice, but only Katara and Sokka show recognition at it.
"King Bumi?" Sokka asks in disbelief. The entire company glances up at the source coming from the top of the crumbling wall- a stooped old man with a mad glint in his eyes, flanked by a white-haired man in Water Tribe clothes, a male with stark white hair that stands in spikes, and lastly, a face Zuko recognizes, one that belongs to an older man with streaks of gray in his dark hair, a sword hanging at his side.
Master Piandao? he wonders, just as Katara yells "Paku? Jeong-Jeong?" and Sokka screeches the very name Zuko has just thought.
"Wait," he says to Sokka, suddenly halting everything, because this, it seems, is the most confusing part of all this. "You know Master Piandao?"
"You mean he taught you?"
Zuko gestures to the broad swords at his back. "When I was very young. You, too?"
Sokka waves his space sword. "He actually helped me make this."
"Guys!" interrupts Katara. "Catch up later!" She looks at the man she called Paku as the four old masters join the teens on the ground. "What are you all doing here, Master Paku?"
"Actually," corrects the white-haired man in Water Tribe garb. "I think Grandfather Paku would be more appropriate."
Katara's eyes shine. "You mean, you and Gram-Gram found each other? That's so great!"
"Ahem." Toph clears her throat, then repeats, "Catch up later."
"Wait!" the man called King Bumi, king of Omashu, yells suddenly. "Someone very important is missing from your group!" He gets right in an uncomfortable Sokka's stunned face. "Where's Momo?"
Zuko almost laughs as Sokka stutters his response. "He's gone…and so is Aang."
"Well it sounds like you have a lot to tell us. Come on," says Piandao. "We'll take you to our camp."
"Wait!" Zuko yelps in the midst of the old masters' tents. "The Order of the White Lotus? Is my uncle here?"
"General Iroh is the one who called this meeting to order," says Jeong-Jeong, and Zuko's eyes widen.
"Can I see him? Is he with you?"
Piandao smiles slightly, then points to the camp's very last tent. "Your uncle is through there, Prince Zuko."
It seems like his heart stops as he runs to the tent; his uncle is now just five feet away, separated from him by a thick flap of canvas. He wants to run and hug his uncle like a child, wants to get down on his knees and plead for forgiveness. However, Zuko cannot force himself to take a step. So instead, he crouches down just outside the tent, and buries his head in his hands.
"Why aren't you going in?" a voice questions softly, and Zuko chances a look up to find Katara standing there, worried.
"What if he doesn't forgive me?" Zuko voices his greatest fear; it tumbles past his gaping lips and into the night air.
Katara helps him up almost soundlessly. "He will."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because you are a better person now, Zuko," she says quietly, and with these words Zuko finds the strength to step inside the cozy tent.
Only to discover Iroh snoring loudly.
With a small smile, Zuko settles cross-legged on the ground and waits for his uncle to stir. After all, it is the least he can do.
The minutes pass, seep into hours, and the sun begins to rise in a splotch of burning color, symbolic of the mixed feelings that Zuko contemplates inside him as his uncle begins to wake: terror, in case his uncle is incapable of forgiving, joy, at the very sight of the only family member he has left that he is proud to claim, love, because his uncle was there to be the father Zuko always wished he had, and finally shock, if only because it was really happening.
"I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me here." Zuko starts the phrase strongly, but further along begins to break, sadness seeping through the syllables. "And I…just wanted to tell you how sorry I was. I am so…s-sorry, Uncle, for e-everything." Before he even realizes, tears are streaming down both cheeks, tears for his uncle, his mistakes, and the person he used to be. "And I-"
He is halted by Iroh's arms encircling him suddenly, holding him tightly in a way only he can get away with. And Zuko knows this is more than he could've hoped for, everything he wouldn't even dare to dream of. A reunion as if he had never left, never betrayed the trust or screamed the angry words, never blamed him for his unhappiness. All the misgivings leave him then as he hugs his uncle back; there is only this moment of reconciliation, this elation that is building alongside the shock.
"What?" Zuko manages, not even trying to stop the trickle of tears. "How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be angry."
"No, Zuko," Iroh says, and the sound of his voice makes Zuko happier than he has been in ages. "I was never angry. I was sad, because you had lost your way." Iroh pulls out of the hug and beams proudly at his nephew, tears pricking at both their eyes. "But you've found it again." Zuko attains a sad smile through the trails of tears left on his face, one his uncle no longer sees as scarred, as his uncle continues, "And I am so happy that you have found your way here to me."
"It wasn't that hard, Uncle," Zuko croaks, hugging his uncle again. "You have a pretty strong scent."
"What do you mean, no?" Zuko demands of Uncle Iroh later that morning, nearly exasperated, spilling his breakfast onto the grass. "No one knows where Aang is, and you are the only one who can defeat the Father Lord!"
"Fire Lord," Toph corrects abruptly.
"What?"
"You said 'Father Lord'."
"Oh."
"Zuko," Iroh says to his nephew gently, "Even if I did defeat Ozai- and I'm not saying that I could- it would not be right. History would see it as a brother killing a brother over a crown. The Avatar must be the one to restore balance to this broken world."
"But you will be there to take the throne, right?"
"No, Zuko. It must be you."
Zuko's heart pounds wildly. Him, Fire Lord, the very hope he gave up on the day of the eclipse? "Me? Wha- why…?"
"It is rightfully yours, and you must be there at the climax of the battle to claim it. But Azula will be there, waiting for you, and she will be quick to disagree, for Ozai has given her the responsibility while he takes a higher title of the Phoenix King. And you may need help to face her."
Zuko barely has to consider. He looks at the fierce waterbender sitting beside him, the one with whom he has progressed with the most. "Katara?" he asks. "Would you help me face Azula?"
Katara frowns for a second, and Zuko knows she is picturing Aang fighting Ozai without her. But then her common sense gets the best of her protectiveness, and she nods. "Yes. I'd be glad to help you."
"And we will do whatever we can to stop the Fire Nation fleet from destroying the Earth Kingdom," Sokka says, gesturing to him, Suki, and Toph.
Zuko turns back to his uncle. "But what are you going to do?"
"The Order and I are going to take back Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth Kingdom."
"And after all this is over?"
"I believe I am going to reopen my tea shop, and play Pi Sho every day!" He rises to his feet along with the circle of teens. "Today, destiny is our friend. I know it."
I must admit- not my best chapter. Feel free to contradict me hahaha. I don't think I did the reconciliation scene justice; but, you know, I tried. I've already started on Part 3, though, and I think that chapter's a lot better. So stick around.