The group had been flying for what felt like years over endless amounts of water. Masami hadn't known there was this much water in the world. Masami laid with her back to everyone else, closing her eyes for a moment. She'd been tense for most of the trip; for being a waterbender this much water was still a little unnerving. She had her body curled in the direction she knew Aang was, though everyone else's locations were a, everyone else being Sokka and Momo; but as usually Sokka had something to say eventually.
"I'm not one to complain, but can't Appa fly any higher?" Sokka questioned, looking over the edge of the saddle, Masami rolled onto her back to be able to look at him as he spoke. She rolled her head back as she heard Aang get involved.
"I have an idea, why don't we all get on your back and you can fly us to the North Pole?" Aang shot back, before she could say anything; Sokka wiggled his butt in their direction.
"I'd love to! Climb on everyone, Sokka's ready for takeoff!" Momo was apparently ready to go as he jumped up on Sokka's back at the invitation.
"Stop it." Masami chided as she rolled back over onto her stomach to shield her eyes from the sun and glare coming off the glaciers. "We're all tired Sokka, even Appa. Let it go." She reiterated, her words muffled by the saddle.
"And for what? We can't even find the Northern Water Tribe. There's nothing up here." As fate would have it, every time Sokka opened his mouth, something happened. A loud sound spooked Appa as ice came from one side, aimed towards his head. Aang sharply steered the bison away from the ice but another sharp part caused the creature to loose it completely and spill himself and passengers into the water. Masami's back hit the water hard, and she felt get all the air knocked out of her as she did. Ice covered Appa, and the group was approached by people in boats. She shakily swam towards the ice surrounding Appa and pulled herself out of the water onto it.
Using her bending, she cracked some of the ice around the creature and braced herself for an impending attack; but as fate would have it for once it seemed unnecessary tension as Sokka shouted,
"They're waterbenders! We found the Water Tribe!"
After identifying themselves, the group was released from ice, and Masami had a plethora of warm clothing thrown over her and a mountain of apologies on top of that. She made noncommittal sounds in response to most of them. Sitting in the saddle as Appa swam with the waterbenders, Aang's excited voice got her attention.
"There it is!" He shouted, tired eyes looked away form her hands up to the walls of this great place, carved out of ice. It was like nothing Masami had seen anywhere. She knew in part, some of this place was something she could almost consider home since the last member of her family aside from Kali was from this great place.
Why he left was a real question to Masami now. How did Kyoshi even compare to this? Waterbenders here truly controlled everything. Masami smiled at that fact,
"I've never seen this many waterbenders." Masami through her smile, looking at Aang.
"We'll find someone to teach us no problem!" He returned with an excited smile. As they looked at each other, it seemed Sokka looked at someone in a similar way as a boat passed going the other way.
"It's beautiful here." Masami said, looking up at the buildings they passed as Aang waved at those around them.
"Yeah, she is." Sokka responded in a dreamy way that made Masami look at the boat that passed them with a curious glance.
They were at a port. Which meant Kali should have been ousted from the ship by now. But Zuko hadn't said anything yet and no one else seemed in a hurry to enforce his orders for him. Especially not on Music Night, since that was about as light-hearted as things got on this ship.
Kali had timed her work in such a way to ensure that she was now scrubbing the deck, so that she could at least be in the same place as the music. Unfortunately, she was rapidly running out of deck to scrub and the music had only just started. Fortunately, she had Uncle on her side. Sometimes she felt as though he'd always been "on her side."
"Kali, I must ask your assistance. I need you to dust this statue" -he indicated the statue he'd purchased from the pirates- "play the Tsungi horn (since my nephew will not), and provide your services as a dance partner. These are very crucial orders. Can you fulfill them?"
She smiled hopefully down at him.
"Of course, General Iroh."
She glanced back at the darkened doorway and Uncle smiled at her.
"Do not worry. I'm quite sure my nephew is too busy sitting in the dark of his room to object."
He winked at her.
Uncle had been teaching her for a little while how to play the Tsungi horn, mostly during the time of day when Zuko regularly meditated. She wasn't the best but she could play the basics at least. She played a few songs, while Uncle sang or played the pipa. Then the crew decided to work on her dance moves. Adar and Obi were particularly good dancers. Adar had been teaching her a more advanced dance before Zuko had banned her from Music Nights. It was a beautiful but very complicated dance which seemed to be a ritualistic duel between two dancers. It had taken her a while to pick up and he had been forced to show it to her in slow steps. Now, Adar asked her to try it all the way through with him and she worried she'd do it wrong. She hadn't practiced in a while after all. Jee played the pipa in a lively fashion while the drums were beat with much vigor. They took their positions across from each other and, at the right moment, swung into action. Rapidly, they danced, gracefully flipping and twirling and lunging. Kali felt herself getting caught up in the dance. It felt like fire. Then, as quickly as it'd begun, it seemed to be over. Adar caught her in his arms, smiled down at her, and the crew clapped. She came back to reality.
Music Night was coming to a close and she sat watching as Hadji and Balbo danced to Uncle's singing. It had been a wonderful night, even though she'd have to spend the rest of the night working instead of sleeping if she wanted to dare hoping she'd get to keep her place on board. Uncle was in the middle of his song when suddenly the music stopped and all grew still. The crew stared as from the darkness an ominous figure with very prominent sideburns walked onto their ship.
Once the group reached the Palace, they were escorted inside. Masami was pulled by a group of older women away from the boys and she looked back over her shoulder with a bit of an alarmed expression.
"No need to fear us child, you'll return to your friends before long." She pulled on the ends of her hair, a nervous gesture, and found them hardened together at the ends, starting to freeze. She figured this probably was part of why they were taking her; she hadn't exactly been dressed overly appropriately given how she'd ended up with the group. Sure, she had a coat but nothing like the size one she probably should have had for the trip up here.
After being escorted into a room, she was placed by a fire, and then they brushed out her hair after the fire melted the ice. She allowed them to do as they would since they were clothing her when they didn't have to. They separated the top layer of her hair into two smaller sections, pulling from the top and making one side into a textured braid that met the other in the middle of the back of her head and then separated into another textured braid on the other side. Her natural curls started to come out too as her hair dried and it was something once it was done. Where the braid tapered off at the end, she felt them wrap something around the ends, she guessed to hold the braid better. She was then placed into an outfit very similar to that she'd seen Katara wearing, but the color was lighter. The jacket came to her ankles and she was put in pants under that and boots over the top. She was given gloves as well, and then she was set to rejoin her group. As they women left her back with Aang and Sokka, she bowed and thanked them once again.
As she turned around, she found Aang's eyes on her and it seemed they refused to leave her. She dropped her own, and fought a smile from breaking out on her face.
Soon after she was brought back to them, they were ushered to a long table up front of a banquet hall and they were apparently dining with the King and his family. She was glad she was dressed appropriately now.
"Tonight, we celebrate the arrival of our brother from the Southern Tribe, and with him he has brought a sister from the island of Kyoshi and they have brought with them someone very special, someone whom many of us believed disappeared from the world until now." He paused, motioning to Aang, which brought a cheer from the crowd. "The Avatar! We also celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday. Princess Yue is now of marrying age."
The princess made her way towards the table, Masami looking over her shoulder to see her, she was very pretty. Unique looking with her white hair, Masami liked how it was styled.
"Thank you, father. May the great Ocean and Moon Spirits watch over us during these troubled times." She said before sitting down towards the end of the table, next to Sokka of all people. Masami wondered how soon the princess would regret that decision.
"Now, Master Pakku and his students will perform!" Masami and Aang looked up as an old man and some of his students took the stage before them. All the students were male? That struck Masami was unusual, but all the same she watched them with rapt attention as they passed a large water whip back and forth between them. Chancing a glance over at Aang, she found he was looking at her as well. Excitement passed between them as they looked back over to see the last of the performance, clapping as it finished. She glanced down the table to see Sokka leaning on his elbow, obviously trying to impress the Princess. Typical.
After picking at food for a while; most of what was presented Masami wasn't sure what somethings were, so she ate what she could identify rather than asking. She could ask Sokka later so she could know better what she was eating next meal, she looked up as the Chief took Aang to talk to the Master she had seen perform earlier, she cocked her head as she saw them speaking and Aang looked rather put out. Oh well, she supposed; maybe the Master believed in tough love.
She would find out soon enough that she wasn't exactly wrong.
Admiral Sideburns had come aboard to announce that he was going to launch an assault on the Northern Water Tribe in order to wipe them out once and for all. Personally, Kali wasn't a fan of wiping out entire civilization, but he seemed quite enthused. Thus, he would be recruiting Zuko's crew members to assist in the invasion. He'd also offered Uncle a chance to join him as his adviser, which the latter had respectfully declined. As the rest of the crew left, dismayed, to pack, Kali had looked over at Uncle, somewhat at a loss for what to do. She was part of Zuko's crew but she wasn't officially a Fire Nation soldier or even considered a citizen. For all intensive purposes, the world saw her as a citizen of the Earth Kingdom. Zhao had looked down at her and raised an eyebrow, frowning as he seemed to recognize from her clothing that she wasn't a regular part of the crew. Her dusty, entirely black outfit didn't really define her as anything.
"And who might this be, General Iroh?"
Uncle had looked at her uneasily then put on a smile as he looked up at Zhao.
"This would be our cook. She's not actually a part of the regular crew. Our former cook left and so we had to take on a new one from the Earth Kingdom."
Zhao had furrowed his brow then looked down at her as though he were inspecting her for defects. She forced herself to look him in the eyes firmly.
"Hmm. Well since she apparently sees fit to become a part of the Fire Nation crew, it stands to reason that she should be just fine with joining the Fire Nation navy as well. Did she have any weapons when she joined your already notably ramshackle crew?"
"Well, she had a pair of swords…but they were confiscated by our ramshackle lieutenant for safety reasons."
"A pair of swords. Hmm…see that those confiscated swords are passed along with her. She will be watched carefully to ensure her obedience."
Kali had bit her lip, glancing from one man to the other. Zhao'd raised an eyebrow.
"Unless she'd prefer to become a prisoner. After all, I can't afford to take a chance on a person with no allegiances to the Fire Nation having inside knowledge on the Fire Nation's plans or equipment such as our ships."
She'd clenched her fists and looked down.
" I'm…at your service, Admiral Zhao."
She'd forced herself to do a slight bow of respect then looked back up. He smiled.
"Good. Perhaps you'll be able to serve as a cook as well. Breakfast is just before dawn tomorrow. Be sure you aren't late to serve it."
Now, Kali glanced around at the few members of the crew still packing. Nearly everyone was ready. She wondered if they'd survive the invasion. If she would. She thought of Adar and his hopes for a promotion. This would be a good chance if the Fire Navy won and he lived. She watched Balbo, who she worried was getting a little old for this sort of thing (along with Garrow), finish packing and stop to wait for Hadji and Kahn. How was Kahn supposed to keep his head on straight in the middle of a battle? He had enough trouble thinking straight as it was. She thought of Garron and Obi, who half the time seemed to treat her almost like a little sister. She'd probably never see them again, with their pranks and their cat. She froze. Their cat! Where was Fireball? Who'd take care of him once they were gone?
She rushed to find Obi.
"Obi! Where's Fireball?"
He looked back at her, his face worried as well. "I don't know! I was just looking for him. I need to take the little fella off the ship and find him a decent home," He looked up anxiously towards the upper deck, "But the admiral's men are waiting and we've all got to report up on deck soon or else they'll come find us."
"You go on up. I'll find him. Where have you looked so far?"
"Most of the rooms and I've called up most of the vents. No luck!"
She sighed and thought of the one place she knew he probably hadn't checked, "Have you looked in the prince's room?"
His face changed as he grimaced. "No."
"Don't worry," she placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'll find him. Now go on up before you get into trouble."
He paused for a moment, then nodded and headed upstairs. She rushed over to Zuko's room and would have gone in had she not heard Zhao speaking. She stopped then moved back down the hallway and looked for a place to hide if she needed to. There was a closet. Hearing Zhao's voice grow louder (he was talking about the Blue Spirit), she ducked into it and waited silently as he passed by. A moment later, she could hear Zuko exploding while Uncle tried to calm him down. She looked down as something moved against her leg. Fireball!
"Mew?"
She picked him up and shushed him. Unable to think of any other way to get him off the ship without Zhao's men noticing, she put him in her bag and hoped he'd keep quiet long enough for her to get off the ship and let him go. Then she hastened upstairs, stopping only to grab what was left of Fireball's milk from the pantry and put it in her bag as well.
The following morning, Aang and Masami got up before the sun, eating quietly and dressing so they could go meet Master Pakku but not wake Sokka. They walked in silence, neither overly excited at being awake this early it seemed. Aang was a tad bit more awake than Masami and as they reached the training grounds, he spotted their teacher.
"GOOD MORNING MASTER PAKKU!" Aang screeched, startling the Islander to his side, her face contorting into a grimace at the slightly shrill sound. The other man's shoulders tensed, and he dropped the water he had been working with.
"No, please, march right in, I'm not concentrating or anything." As they approached the older man, his eyes fell on Masami in a look that she couldn't read.
"Uhh... this is my friend, Masami, the one I told you about?" Aang seemed trying to placate the situation. Masami bowed lightly, bringing her arms in front of herself, holding onto right elbow with her left hand. Her eyes followed the man as he made an ice chair fro himself in front of them.
"I'm sorry. I think there's been a misunderstanding. You didn't tell me your friend was a girl. In our tribe, it is forbidden for women to learn waterbending." Masami felt a mix of emotions behind her eyes. She wanted to cry over that blatant show of disregard for her feelings but she was also livid that this was really happening.
"I mean no disrespect, but I don't care about your customs. I care about helping my friends, which I can't do without your help." Masami tried to be reasonable. She was no warrior like Sokka, nor the Avatar like Aang. She had bending, and she needed to learn how to use it, surely the man could listen to reason.
"No." The man said simply, looking at her with a condescending smile on her face. "Female Waterbenders in this tribe learn healing from Yugoda, I'm sure she would be happy to teach you too."
"No." Masami said back in his face, her temper starting to flare.
"No?" Pakku returned, his face slightly confused, she supposed he didn't expect her to answer him again; maybe it wasn't lady like here in the north pole to speak without being addressed first.
"That's right, no. If you won't teach her, you can't teach me either." Aang chimed in before Masami could say anything else, "Come on Masami." He said turning to go. The gravity of this situation sinking in with her, Masami bit the inside of her cheek as she looked away from Pakku,
"Aang, wait." She gave the old man another look as she moved away from him to catch Aang's shoulder. "Don't give up a good chance for me. I'll go learn healing, and you can learn from the real master. Once you master Waterbending, you can teach me too." She tried to reason with him, on the inside she was extremely upset; but she knew he needed to learn from the best there was for the sake of the world; not throw in the towel for the sake of her. Once she got a nod from her friend, she squeezed Aang's shoulder before walking away from the training area, looking at her feet as she did.
Moving back through town, Masami considered just going back to their room but she decided against it. She had to ask around a bit, but she found the right place, the school for girls. Her head hurt from unshed tears at Pakku's words as she entered the tent.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but are you Yugoda?" She asked with a quiet voice. The older woman turned towards her,
"Are you here for the healing lesson?" She asked with a kind voice, Masami only nodded. "Then welcome." She said again, returning to her body model before her as Masami folded her legs under herself and sat slightly away from the other students.
Kali had let Fireball go not too far from the main Fire Nation encampment. It had been the first chance she'd gotten to let him go without anyone noticing. She'd left his milk with him too, open so that he could have the rest of it. She was in the middle of insisting to him that he stop following her when she heard the explosion. Other soldiers gathered around her as they all tried to get a look at where it had happened. The docks.
Later, in the middle of the night, she was summoned from her ratty cot to serve Zhao tea. She wondered if he was going to go out of his way to make things harder for her the same as Zuko had. Didn't an admiral have anything better to do? She rose irritably and readied the tea quickly in the makeshift kitchen the soldiers had set up. She made ginseng, wondering if she'd ever see Uncle Iroh again. She'd never really gotten the chance to properly thank him for all of his help over the months. Probably not, she thought sadly.
Thus, it came as a surprise to her when she arrived in Zhao's tent to find him deep in conversation with none other than Uncle. He smiled at her, then sniffed the air as she approached them.
"Aaaaahh! Ginseng tea! My favorite."
She smiled slightly at him. Zhao ignored her and picked up his conversation again.
"As I was saying, I'm devastated to hear about Prince Zuko. Just devastated."
Kali froze for a moment in the act of pouring Uncle's tea, then resumed pouring as Zhao gave her a look. It was no Prince Zuko, but it was still a menacing enough look.
"The Fire Lord will not be pleased when he learns who was responsible," Uncle said sadly.
"You know who was behind the attack?" Zhao asked, a bit too tensely, Kali thought.
"Yes," Uncle slammed his fist down, almost knocking over his tea, "Pirates! We had a run in with them awhile back. Thank you, Kali," he added as she steadied his tea. Her eyes shot to Zhao's face as she spotted the slightest trace of a smile. "They wanted revenge," Uncle finished. Zhao sipped his tea and Kali realized she was expected to leave now that her services were complete. She set the tea pot down on the table somewhat shakily and slowly walked out of the room.
"So have you reconsidered my offer?" she heard Zhao ask.
"Yes," she heard Uncle reply, "It will be an honor to serve as your general. To the Fire Nation!"
"To victory!"
Kali couldn't sleep that night. And, despite her best efforts, she couldn't hold back a couple of tears. He hadn't been her friend. He'd practically been her enemy in some ways. But they'd been stuck in that ship together long enough that, try as she had not to, she'd started to care about him a little. And now, he was gone.
As the lesson progressed, Masami learned in theory how to do healing. But it was not something that made a lot of sense to her once it was her turn to actually try. It felt like she was missing something? Maybe it was a lesson she hadn't attended, or maybe it was the will to actually do this. She knew she should have been trying harder but her heart just wasn't in this. She wanted to help in a difference sense, not just sit on the side lines and fix injuries. She did listen though, because one never knew when knowing how to do this could come in handy.
As the lesson ended, she thanked the woman and started to leave. The other implored her to stay for a minute, she apparently had some questions for Masami, though Masami assumed they would be about Aang. She didn't want to refuse the older woman though, she had just given her a lesson after all. Beside the classroom was another room with a small table and a fire place; like an office almost. Yugoda put some tea on as Masami took a seat on the far side of the table. She folded her hands and sat quietly as she did.
"If any of these questions are too personal, feel free to tell me as such; but we don't get many visitors up here so I'm extremely curious about a few things." Yugoda informed her as she set a kettle over the fire to boil. She sat on the other side of the table and folded her hands on top of it. Masami nodded, smiling slightly.
"You travel with boys who are not related to you, how did you find them?" The question could have been patronizing, but the tone was not.
"I was with my sister; but we got separated and Aang's group found me while I was alone and let me stay with them. Sokka's sister was with us, but we found other people from the Southern Tribe, and she went with them to find their father; so I stayed with Aang and Sokka." She replied simply. The questions continued in this fashion, ranging from why are your eyes the color they are to how it was she was a waterbender. Once the tea was done, Masami got the courage up to ask a question of her own. Pulling her glove off, she drew a symbol in the snow; a fish with a set of spears behind it.
"Does this mean anything to you?" She asked, Yugoda looked at the markings and smiled lightly and nodded.
"It's the mark of a gifted game hunter, or fisherman as the case seems here. Once you've been given this it means you made a great contribution to the tribe in a time of need. This one I have not seen in a long time, fisherman are harder to come by shockingly than hunters. Fishing for many is slightly more ambitious than hunting for many since hunting yields more food generally. Where did you see this?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.
"It was on a weapon my grandfather owned. Like a knife made out of bone, I would show it to you, but when I lost my sister I lost most of my things." Masami was sad about that, she had loved that dagger; despite not being very handy with it. She knew though Kali would take care of it.
"What was your grandfather's name?" Yugoda asked.
"Nanuk." The look she gave Masami afterwards seemed like she knew something about that name.
"We always wondered what happened to him, his fiancée died and then he was gone. Most of us assumed the worst, went out fishing and never was heard of again; his sister was devastated." Masami had never heard that story, she never knew anything about his life before Kyoshi except where he was from.
"Is his sister still alive?" She asked tentatively, getting a nod from Yugoda.
"Can I meet her?" She rolled her fingers into her coat, waiting for a response which was another smile and nod. For the first time since that morning, Masami felt excited about something.
After a sleepless night, Kali had come to the conclusion that she was either in denial or she was brighter than Zhao. She wanted to believe it was the second. Admiral Sideburns, she was pretty sure, had something to do with the explosion of Zuko's ship. It seemed a little too convenient that the pirates had blown up the ship right after all of the crew had left and right after Zhao had been there. It was known well enough Zuko and Zhao didn't get along after all
What gave her hope that the plan hadn't worked was Uncle. She couldn't picture him taking Zuko's death so lightly. Nor did it seem like him to join Zhao's mission immediately afterward. She clung to these ideas for hope as she rose and helped prepare breakfast with the other cooks while the rest of the soldiers took down the camp. She spotted Balbo and Hadji taking down a tent briefly as she passed through the camp on her way to Zhao's tent.
She took a deep breath, composed herself, and strolled into his tent with breakfast for him and his war council. Silently, she set it out for all of them as they continued their discussion of their plans as if she didn't exist. She looked at Zhao's smug face and imagined slamming his plate into his face, eggs and all. Instead, she poured him his morning tea then moved on to Uncle. She looked into his eyes, looking for some sign of reassurance, but he just gave her a sympathetic smile and kept his eyes difficult to read.
After she'd served them, she helped serve the rest of the navy (among whom she found Jee, Kahn, and Balbo again), then packed up her tent along with the other cooks she'd shared it with. She barely had time to gulp down her own breakfast before they began boarding their ships. Kali, to her dismay, was assigned to Zhao's ship as a cook and soldier. She was provided with a worn set of clothes and armor which were too big for her and sent aboard. Her only consolation was knowing that Uncle would be on board the ship as well.
Once Yugoda got her to the house of her family, she was warmly welcomed by the Great Aunt she never knew she had, her name was Zyanya and she reminded Masami greatly of her Grandfather. They spent the afternoon getting to know one another, and Masami promised to bring her friends by before they were to depart the North Pole.
Leaving early in the evening, Masami made her way back towards the house they had been given use of, meeting Aang as she did. They closed the door behind them, and shared stories from their day. Aang's training had not gone as well as Masami would have hoped, but he was extremely excited to hear about her Great Aunt.
As they chatted, Sokka came in and threw himself between them dramatically.
"How was training?" He asked from his place on the bag between them.
"Master Poophead won't teach her because she's a girl. So I'm teaching her at night myself." Aang declared, Masami smiled.
"I'm having to learn healing which I'm not good at, but I'm trying." She said with a small voice.
"Glad to see everyone here is happy but me." He grossed.
"You're never happy, Sokka. Come on Masami, let's go practice." Aang retorted, grabbing Masami's hand as he pulled her out of the hut.
Aang led Masami back to the training area she had left that day, and they began passing a waterwhip back and forth like they had done so many times before.
"Master Pakku said this move is all about sinking and floating." Aang told her as they passed the whip back and forth, as Masami caught it, it was taken from her and whirled around her body. Her eyes looked up as she caught sight of Pakku standing on a walkway above them.
"You have disrespected me, my teachings, and my entire culture. You are no longer welcome as my student." Masami felt her hands shaking with anger, she wanted many things right now but she primarily knew she needed to fix this for the world's sake.
Marching herself away from the training area, she approached the Palace where they had eaten the night before, and asked for audience with both Pakku and the Chief. Once they were both in attendance she spoke, "Sir, I know you don't agree with women learning what you teach, and I'm sorry Aang and I didn't think about that before we started training. You have to teach Aang; him learning waterbending is more important than your pride and mine." She crossed her arms as she spoke, not liking to admit defeat; but it seemed this time she would have to.
"Is than an apology, child?" He asked, his tone snide. Her hands shook as she glanced down at the floor. Do it for Aang. She told herself, but as normal; her mouth and her brain were working apart.
"No; it's not. I will never apologize to an asshat like you." She growled, her voice lower than it normally was. "If you think for a minute that I'm intimidated by an old man like you; you're wrong. When you're ready, I'll be outside to show you exactly how afraid I'm not." She finished, turning her back to him and the rest of the council as she made her way outside.
Kali burned to question Iroh about what had happened and whether Zuko was really dead or not, but she had no way to do so discreetly. Zhao, who seemed to have taken an instant dislike to her, kept her nearly as busy as Zuko had and had her watched carefully by the crew she worked among. This time, she had no crew to sympathize with, no kitten to play with, and no uncle of her boss to get her off the hook occasionally. The crew was rigid, disciplined, and had no interest in chatting with someone who was basically just an Earth Kingdom captive in cook's clothing. Zuko's apparent death hung over her and her thoughts drifted often to Masami, wondering if she was okay and what she was doing. The Avatar was apparently at the North Pole, which was a major reason for why Zhao had decided to invade the Northern Water Tribe now. She resolved to do whatever she could to find Masami and her friends during the invasion, wishing she had some way to warn them. She sighed as she opened the closet and pulled out…a mop. Always, a mop. Then she heard Uncle's voice.
He apparently was whispering to someone. She tried to sneak closer, curious. As she did so, she heard Uncle whisper hastily, "Someone's coming!" followed by words she didn't understand. She heard footsteps approaching and hastened back to mopping. She saw the pointy shoes and lower armor of a firebender costume and kept quiet, biting back the impulse to urge the firebender to be careful, lest he slip like Zuko always had.
The firebender hesitated where she was working, causing her to look up at him out of the corner of her eye. She squinted hard at the skull-like mask staring down at her and tried to make out the eyes but to no avail. Finally, as he stood there still silently, she assumed he must be waiting for her. Well, why didn't you just say so then? she thought, scowling and shifting further to the side.
She would later explain what happened next to herself as the universe's version of a sense of humor. As the man started to walk past her, he brushed the edge of the bucket and caught the handle, leading him to stumble and, oddly, to his foot being trapped in the bucket. Thus, when he put his foot back down with the bucket on it and leaned down to get it off, his foot slipped. And, of course, he fell backwards into Kali. The mask held fast but with his face now just inches from her face, just like not-so-old times, she could see his eyes clearly. She could also see his scar.
"Masami, this probably isn't a good idea." Aang urged as he followed at her heels.
"He's right, he's a really good waterbender, and you're not bad! But you're not a master either." Sokka was tried to reason as well.
"This isn't a good idea and you're right; I'm not. But I'm not going to sit around and listen to him be a jerk anymore." She pulled her coat off; leaving her just in the light blue dress, her hair falling to the sides as she reached behind her head to tie it back and out of her face.
As she turned to look behind her, she found Pakku leaving the palace as well. She narrowed her eyes at him, not speaking as he walked passed her. She assumed he would make good on her offer to fight but he did not.
"More of a coward than I thought you were." She hissed as he passed her.
"Go back to the healing huts with the rest of the women where you belong." He replied, causing the last little bit of restraint Masami had to slip. She pulled water from the snow beneath her feet, refroze it into something resembling a dagger, and threw it at the side of his head, slicing his face open as she did. She brought her hands up in front of her, readying herself for the attack she assumed would come next.
"Fine, you want to learn to fight so bad, study closely." He turned to face her, pulling the water from the pools beside them to make a large barrier of water surrounding them both. He moved his hands in a way that brought them towards each other, and she had very little room to move herself which was letting her know how much movement she wasted while she bended sometimes. So, she was learning something from this even if it was about to turn unpleasant. He moved the water from around them both to just incase her, and she learned quickly that she couldn't breath. She was not off the ground though, so before she brought on a full panic she moved her feet like she often saw Aang do, side stepping in a way and she was able to free herself.
As she gasped for air, she had little time to recover because he was on her again; really apparently fighting her and she was sure she had bitten off more than she could chew this time.
She pulled herself up and he started whipping the ground where she knelt, and she rolled from side to side trying to get away from him. Hitting her a few times was enough to let her know she had to get back on her feet. She managed to snag on of the whips as it hit her again, using the technique similar to how she managed to catch water when Aang sent it her way, she broke off part of the whip and used it to surround herself like he had done to her previously, though this time she was using it defensively, warding off the whip he still had.
"So, you can learn how to follow someone else's lead; impressive enough for a woman." He sneered, and she felt her composure break a little more. She advanced on him, raising the water in front of her in a still defensive like stance but not as strong of one as she had had. She launched the water at him in the moved that practiced with Aang the first day they met; and she managed to hit him though not as well as she would have liked. He pulled the water out of his clothes and he used it to wrap around her middle and brought his open hand to create another whip that wrapped around her neck, pulling him towards his feet.
As he did, a voice caught them both off guard; apparently as this was happening; Yugoda had sent someone after Masami's Great Aunt who was extremely put out by Pakku's behavior.
"Pakku! Enough. Nanuk would have been disgusted with you for this; terrorizing a helpless child; more than once I've been told now! Shame!" She chided, advancing on the older man who actually looked upset about what she was saying. He dropped the whips that had been holding Masami, and she coughed lightly; the one around her neck had tightened when her aunt had appeared.
"What does he have to do with anything, Zyanya? He's long dead."
"Apparently not so long; the girl you're trying to choke is his granddaughter and I think the treatment you've shown her since she's been here shows how little your mentor actually meant to you." Mentor? Masami was confused. Aang and Sokka came to her side, pulling her up as they did. The group listened as Zyanya spoke again.
"Master Pakku here learned as all young men in our tribe do, to hunt or fish. He learned for Nanuk as a child, and always said he wanted to be a fisherman worth of the Nalunailiwok, that symbol you showed me. But, your grandfather's fiancée died and he left, as you know. Then shortly there after Pakku's own faincee left, and he was alone. Apparently instead of moving on with his life, he took to beating little girls to assuage his hard feelings."
All eyes were on Pakku, and the group had nothing else much to say at this point.
Kali blurted out the first thought that crossed her mind.
"You have terrible luck, you know that?"
He half-groaned, half-growled and picked himself up before muttering, "I don't need luck."
She stared up at him, taking in the fact that his continued existence in this world was now official. Then, she picked herself up and said quietly, "I...I'm glad you're alive. Even though you tried to fire me…and made a pretty awful boss in general. I was…worried when General Iroh joined the invasion."
Zuko looked awkward then tried to pretend he hadn't looked awkward.
"I take it you're sneaking about pretending to be a soldier so you can get to the Avatar first when we get to the North Pole?"
"Yes."
Silence. She could tell he was trying to gauge what she would do. She wasn't sure whether to wish him a sarcastic good luck or inform him that was a stupid plan. In the end she went with "Well you'd better keep going wherever you're going then so you don't get caught."
She went back to mopping and waved a dismissive hand at him. He turned, leaving without a word.
The following morning, Masami rose with the sun; though slightly sore. She looked around to see Aang already gone and Sokka still snoring. She pulled her clothes on and rushed out of the hut. She was running later than she planned. Turning corners she learned to cut down on time, she rushed up to meet the group already assembled.
"Sorry." She mumbled, looking at the balding man standing before her.
"What do you think you're doing? It's after sunrise." He said with a slight smile, which she returned; readying herself for the hard lesson it seemed he might have in store for the group.