Kanna felt numb while her fingers automatically went through the motions of sewing. Knowing that that wasn't a good sign and usually heralded fingers getting stabbed, she decided to stop for a moment and looked up at the other occupant in the tent.

Sokka, sitting across from her in the hut, was imitating her, hands flying with thread and needle.

Sokka.

And he wasn't just aping her, either. She was working on a tunic. He was working on pants. And he wasn't doing a half-bad job of it, from what she could see.

If this didn't convince her of their midnight-sun-induced story, nothing on this earth ever would.

"That child is really the Avatar?"

The teenager had his eyes focused on his task, clearly thinking about something else entirely, but he nodded his head absently, "Yep. The one and only."

Then he focused onto his grandmother, glancing up when he got to a stopping point and quipping with some humor, "But don't say that to anyone who comes by asking."

Then he was back at it again.

Kanna huffed at the boy's cheek, but segued into another question.

"And you know this because… You've already lived your life? You and your sister?"

"Yeah," came the short answer as Sokka navigated a tricky portion of the britches.

She was silent for a short while, absorbing that.

The young man stopped again, this time setting his work aside… the finished pants. To be fair, it was just one of Sokka's older pair of leggings being refitted for the twelve-year-old newcomer, but still.

Blue eyes twinkled, and he made a dry observation, "I think you want to ask a different question."

What happened to 'sewing is a woman's job'?

She had her work cut out for her to keep from exploding, "What... are you... doing...in here?"

Sewing? she wanted to tack on.

"Instead of Katara, you mean?" he asked shrewdly. He nodded towards the hut's entryway, indicating the outside, "She's a master waterbender, now. She's outside with Aang making new houses for everyone."

Sitting back at the profoundly sensible answer, Kanna shook her head, still unable to fully grasp the repercussions of this… second chance that Sokka and Katara were apparently granted.

"In your previous life… when did you learn… and why?"

He shrugged, "Well, when the wife is away and one of your kids tears a hole in their tunic, something's gotta be done, right?"

Old wrinkles that hadn't seen much use lately went up in a smile.

Then the young man pointed at her unfinished tunic, "You gonna do more, or should I?"

His grandmother wordlessly handed over the pile, and in no time Sokka was fiddling away with the thread.

Speaking again, "There is one thing you should know about."

"Oh?" she murmured.

"Everything will be fine. No more deaths will come of the war for the Southern Water Tribe. That's a promise."

That jolted her, eyes going wide in shock.

My goodness! It didn't even occur to me to ask about that! she wondered, thoughts racing and euphoria blooming within her heart.

"Please don't try to hug me. I'm holding a sharp, pointy object right now."

Jee listened to the others at the mess-hall table while he quietly ate his plain noodles.

Yao, komodo-rhino caretaker, was attempting to dispel the pall of cabin-fever that had fallen over most of the rest of the crew by talking. A lot.

"It was huge! I never saw a bigger one in my life!" he yammered. The hot potato-carrot jook in front of him sat untouched.

The ship's engineer, Xing, was humoring the chatterbox, nodding along while resting his head in his hand, elbow propped on the table next to Jee's eating mat. His bowl was also full of uneaten food.

"Uh-huh," he mumbled.

"That turtleseal just sat there looking at me for a minute, and then it gave a croak and started to waddle off towards the edge of the iceberg-"

Li-Wei, one of the crew's firebending seamen, was sitting across from Jee, shaking his head and muttering to himself in annoyance. He leaned over and smacked Yao on the back of the head.

"Hey! What was that for!"

"Stop talking, you moron. You're embarrassing yourself."

Sputtering, "What? What are you talking about? You think that I'm lying? I'm telling you, I saw it yesterday-!"

"Turtleseals live in the North Pole, meathead!"

That shut him up.

"... Really?"

"Yeah, Yao. Really really."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'."

"Well, why didn't anyone say anything!?" he cried indignantly.

Li-Wei made a mocking guess, "Because it was fun to watch you make a fool of yourself all day with your tall tales?"

The animal caretaker growled, before turning his accusing gaze to the person across from him, "What about you?"

At the questioning tone in his voice, Xing jumped a little, "Huhwhat?"

"You just want me to look dumb? That why you let me talk while you're sittin' there?"

Xing stared at him like he was speaking gibberish, "... What?"

Yao, who looked like he was about to launch into a tirade, clammed up at the unexpected nonresponse, blinking.

Li-Wei simply raised an eyebrow.

The engineer narrowed his own eyes, this time asking more pointedly, "What? There somethin' on my face?"

Jee set his bowl down, looking at his neighbor in concern, "... Are you alright?"

Xing moved out of his resting pose, sitting upright, giving the Lieutenant a sidelong glance, "I'm fine. Why?"

"You seem kinda… out of it."

Interjecting, Yao guffawed, breaking out of his funk with his voice warbling like he was about to weep, "You weren't even listening in the first place!? You guys are the worst!"

Thoroughly vexed by the peanut gallery, Li-Wei did not afford the pathological liar any leeway. He cracked his knuckles, and brief jets of fire blew from his nose as he growled, "Shut up, you, or I'll knock your block off."

"Hey," Jee interrupted, eyeing the two of them, "Settle down. I don't deal with that kind of roughhousing on this ship. You screw around like that and you're in the brig, you get me Li-Wei?"

The Lieutenant's word was law, being the third in command after General Iroh and Prince Zuko.

A pink tinge colored the firebender's cheeks, but he held his superior's gaze.

"Yes sir."

"And you," he directed towards the animal caretaker, "If you don't want to get into trouble, don't lie to everyone's faces all day long and then whine and moan when you find out that some of them have learned to pay no attention to you. Understand?"

Cowed by the much bigger man, Yao settled down, nodding contritely.

Awkward silence followed, interrupted by a cough from Li-Wei. Everyone else at the table looked to him.

Then he gestured at the table, giving a significant look towards Xing, "You haven't touched your food since you sat down… And you haven't been motormouthing like hay-for-brains."

Yao looked like he was about to say something about that, but glanced across the table and slowly closed his mouth while Jee kept a steady gaze on him.

Xing sighed in answer to all the poking and prodding, "I'm just thinking about something… weird… that happened earlier today."

"Sounds riveting," Jee commented, switching from looking at Yao to directing an inquiring look at his seating partner, "What was it?"

Eyebrows lowered in faint consternation, "Prince Zuko came down to the engine room earlier."

The first thing that Shi did after walking dazedly into the roadside tavern was immediately order a round for everyone there. He had the money for it; the metalbender looted the Rough Rhinos' unconscious bodies, and the money she found was gifted to him for that exact purpose of gossip, because there existed no better way to get the benevolent attention of all within earshot. He didn't question how apparently a twelve-year-old girl was aware of this. He just did what the extremely scary earthbender told him to do.

He was also warned that the area to the north was full of bounty hunters, and that he really should turn around yesterday and head to Gaoling… for health reasons. When he asked why he couldn't just head northwest through the Plains or go east to the Misty Palms Oasis, the girl had said something to the effect of, "Only if you wanna hang from a tree, hon." and, "The mercenary capital of the Earth Kingdom has a sucky tourist industry.", respectively.

People must really hate Fire Nationals around there, he had thought with some sarcasm, I wonder why?

So here he was.

"Hey, everyone! Drinks on me!"

And everyone cheered.

The second thing he did was tell his story. That wasn't hard. Every detail of the encounter was burned into his mind. The little lady specified that she wanted to get a reputation as a larger-than-life heroine.

Wish granted.

He was only alive because of her, after all.

Thankfully, the blind girl told him that he was free to throw out any details implicating himself, for which he was most grateful to the Greatest Earthbending Mistress In The World.

"So there I was, minding my own business on the road from Gaoling, when suddenly… the Rough Rhinos showed up!... and then…"

"... but when I thought I was gonna die, the fire went out and the captain screamed!..."

"... there was a girl… No, you idiot, a little girl, she was a kid!..."

"... Somehow, she bent the metal in the guy's piercings and… oh spirits…"

"... she was blind. Blind! She said that… she was a Blind Bandit."

The third and final thing Shi did that night was skip the sake and go straight to drinking the local supply of cactus juice until he was bombed out of his gourd.

"Did he drink that thing before or after he started talking about metalbending?"

Shrugs all around.

They were all gathered outside of the newly restored village walls.

The Avatar stood away from the main group near the flying bison's head, giving the Water Tribe siblings some space. The clothing he wore did its job; he was the very image of a member of the Southern Water Tribe. He wore a blue parka, for now, but when they got away from the cold and started getting further north, he'd start wearing clothes more appropriate for warmer weather. Bandages covered his (for now) bald head to cover the tattoo.

Sokka and Katara stood in front of the small crowd of women and children with their grandmother.

"We love you, Gran Gran," Katara offered warmly, drawing the little old woman into a hug, "We love you so much. We'll be back; we'll see you again."

Then she pulled back to look at her in the eyes.

"That healing session I gave you should help with the aches you've been having. Try and exercise a little bit each day; a walk around the village should be good. Also, remember that when you eat meat, try to stick to freshwater fish. Eat lots of sea prunes. When we get to the North Pole, we'll send healers so that you can get a regular physical therapy, too, okay?"

Kanna nodded to indicate that she understood the directions, and what they implied about herself. She knew what was coming; she'd seen it claim many elders in her time. Ordinarily, waterbending healing was enough to flush out the toxins which caused arthritis, but there hadn't been any such waterbenders in the South Pole for decades. Obviously, in Katara and Sokka's first life, they had to deal with their grandmother falling ill, and were now pre-empting the disease's onset.

Clever children, she thought fondly as Katara stepped away.

Then Sokka stepped forward.

When he got close… close enough that the other villagers wouldn't hear, Kanna realized…

"We missed you, you know," Sokka whispered, "We will miss you."

It's been decades since we've last seen you. But we're leaving again.

Stepping forward, she gathered both of the (not?) children in her arms, and they both returned the gesture.

She tightened her hold of her two amazing grandchildren.

"I'm so proud of you two, and… " she tried to say what she was feeling, but she lacked the words.

"We know," Sokka assured. And for a while they stood together.

Then one of the children in the group by the village entrance - a girl, Buniq - rushed forward with a cry and latched onto Katara's legs. The three of them were jostled out of their embrace.

"Don't go!" came the first muted demand.

Then she turned her head towards the airbender child, Aang, who was still standing further away, and looked back up at Katara, before switching her gaze to Sokka, pleading, "Don't go, I'll miss you."

Clearly, those eyes were too much for the Avatar to handle, because he leaped forward and swept the girl into an embrace with a wide smile, and she gave a surprised laugh. He looked over at the crowd of kids who were fidgeting ever since one of their number had been brave enough to break ranks.

"Come 'ere! One last big hug!"

And there was a small avalanche of children rushing forward. The Avatar gave an 'oof' as he was tackled beneath a pile of little bodies, laughing.

Kanna watched the interaction with no small amount of wonder.

He's perfect.

Katara's voice caused her to jump, "... I know."

Did I say that out loud?

The old woman turned her attention her granddaughter… and wasn't sure what to make of what she saw.

She looked sad. Frowning slightly. Something tired in her eyes as she watched the world's last hope for peace tell the only children left in the South Pole that everything would be fine and he'd be back, just to see them. The young woman watched this… and, to Kanna's mystification, there was only exhaustion in her frame.

Katara waved from the back of Appa's saddle at the receding crowd of cheering villagers calling out goodbyes and well wishes.

When they were gone from sight, she lowered her hand and turned around, closing her eyes and sighing.

"Are you sure that there's no way to reverse Gran's aging just a little?"

Her eye twitched, "Yes, Sokka." She knew. She tried. Hundreds of times. "The technology to extend her life just doesn't exist yet."

"But-"

"Look," she opened her eyes and glared at her brother, "Every life, we have this conversation. The answer isn't changing. She's too old. My regenerative healing doesn't work when the HM is too deteriorated. I didn't magically come up with a solution to that problem in the four months between your death and mine."

Sokka didn't lean back at her suddenly aggressive demeanor. He didn't react to her speech at all. He just looked at her. Serious.

She couldn't keep looking at that. Letting out a breath, she shook her head, "Sokka… sorry, you're right. I'm just… irritated. Someday, I'll probably come up with something. Someday. You know how it is. Anything's possible when… when you can research something forever. Just… not this time. Sorry."

Her brother looked down into his criss-crossed lap, "It's okay. I get it. And when you figure it out… well, it'll probably just extend her life by a decade or so, right? Just… don't give up hope, okay?" he gave a scoff, and looked up at the sky in disbelief at himself, "I'm giving the hope speech," he muttered. He turned his head so that one eye was on his sister, "You're supposed to be the hope speech giver."

Katara giggled at his attempt at humor.

She glanced away, looking towards the front.

Aang sat on the crown of Appa's head, reins in hand. She knew that he could hear what they were saying. But he hadn't said anything.

… Aang…

The air between them wasn't clearing up. It still felt heavy. Too weighted-down with time.

… We're tired.

The thought came unbidden, but it wasn't a surprise when it came.

Jee went still at that news, but Li-Wei leaned forward in interest.

"What? Sounds bizarre already. What would that brat be doing in the engine room?"

Xing brought a hand up to scratch his beard, "Well…"

"Fireman Xing!"

It was a good thing that his shovel hadn't been laden with coal, otherwise there would've been an unholy mess to clean up.

Prince Zuko!?

As it was, he dropped what he was doing with a start before whipping up and around to a rigid attention.

"Sir!" nervously shouted.

What's he doing here!? Oh, spirits… his eyes darted over to the wall next to the doorway that the Prince was entering through. It was covered in some… very unflattering caricatures of the illustrious captain of the Huoling. Involving komodo rhinos and various anatomically impossible positions.

You've got to be joking! he screamed in his mind.

In nearly three years the brat had never set foot down here; it was supposed to be a Zuko-free zone! He looked away from the crude drawings out of self-preservation, as it wouldn't do to draw the kid's attention to them.

Oh, who was he kidding?

I'm dead.

As if he could hear his internal pronouncement, the prince smiled. "At ease," he said, holding up a placating hand.

Xing tried to relax out of attention, but he was too stiff with existential fear. As had been usual for the last couple of days, the engineer's attention was drawn not to the giant scar, but to the prince's conspicuous haircut. His ponytail/phoenix plume/whatever… gone. It was still completely weird. The first time he saw it, he almost didn't recognize him. If it weren't for his other extremely distinguishing feature, he bet that he wouldn't have.

… just… why? his muddled thoughts pushed forward, before his attention was snagged by the captain taking a further step forward into the engine room.

"What is the status of things down here? Everything running smoothly?"

… What?

"Er… the engine…?"

"Yes, fireman. The engine. Give me a full diagnosis."

While it was customary for the captain of a ship to ask such things on occasion… not on this ship. Usually, Xing gave such reports to the Lieutenant, who'd report to General Iroh, then he'd say something to his nephew if something was urgent… because they were the ones who actually cared about the day-to-day functions of the crew. The princess was typically being a brat somewhere up on deck, pouting about his avatar or flinging fire around at one or two of the soldiers.

… not now.

He quit trying to analyze the situation and just rolled with it.

Half an hour later, the prince was nodding and humming as the engineer finished with the engine check.

"So, it looks like we're going to have to purchase some more fuel at our next stop, but otherwise, everything looks fine?"

Untangling himself from some of the pipes, and without turning away from the machine, Xing gave a stiff shrug.

"... yes, sir," he affirmed, still trying to figure out what this was all about.

"Alright, if it is as you say, we will buy some more coal at Whale Minor. Good work," Prince Zuko's voice said.

It was the prince's voice, but the engineer felt that he ought to check. Turning around in bewilderment, he could only look at the young captain, eyes wide.

The kid calmly returned his look, that strange smile still on his face.

He's serious.

"Keep that up. The ship is depending on you," he finished, before turning around and freezing.

Xing recoiled.

Oh, COME ON-!

But, instead of turning back and reaming him the way he expected, the young man… walked forward and out the door.

Completely ignoring the filthy cartoons that were in plain view.

For a long time, he just numbly stood there, before something occurred to him.

That smile he had on this whole time… was normal, he realized. On anyone else, it would've looked normal.

Prince Zuko wearing a normal smile was not normal.

Shaken, the engineer stumbled forward, picked up a rag and started furiously scrubbing away at the charcoal marring the wall.

Yao was clearly stunned by the conclusion of the story, giving his head a shake and staring harder at the engineer across from him.

"No way."

Arms folded and leaning back in his chair, Li-Wei frowned.

"That… is really weird. Do you know why…?"

"I have no idea," holding his arms up in a defensive posture, "It just… happened. He came in, asked how I was doing, wished me well, and left. I mean… just that would've been okay, I guess. I might have been able to swallow that the prince was scolded or something by the General, and was forced to do something nice or something… but… what happened at the end… no. Just, no. I don't believe it."

Narrowing his eyes, the soldier was blunt, "Me neither… I mean," he said quickly, seeing how that might've been taken differently, "I believe you, I do! It's just… what? Where did that come from?"

Looking across the table, Li-Wei noticed that the Lieutenant was a bit pale, and immediately knew that his superior had some idea of what was going on, "Hey, you know something! Do you know what's going on?"

Feeling uncomfortable, Jee reached up to tug on the collar of his uniform, "Uh… yeah. Maybe."

Yao pounced, "What? You know? Wait, is any of this related to… to Zuko's…" he gestured at his own skullcap to indicate the prince's new hairstyle.

Sighing, the officer affirmed, "I think so. And I might know something about what's going on. But," he held up a finger to forestall any more gossip digging, "The General very specifically made me swear an oath to Agni not to speak about what happened."

Looking around at the other three, making eye contact with each person, "I'm serious. I'll take it up with the General and see if he's changed his mind, but I can't say anything. Understood?"

Old Xing was looking at him intently, "What can you say?"

Jee eyed him cautiously. He didn't want to leave the rest of the crew unprepared if something more off happened, but he was a loyal soldier and wouldn't break an oath to Iroh, "I can say that… something happened to Prince Zuko. Earlier, while we were further south. And that it might be why he's acting strange now. And that you probably should be careful," he stressed, wanting to get that point across, "But that's it. I won't say anymore."

With that, the Lieutenant stood up and headed towards the barracks, leaving a table of spooked sailors behind.

"Nowr dat…*hic* wash a gret shtoreh."

"Hear hear!"

Everyone agreed that it was a excellent story, and it wasn't just the flow of free alcohol talking.

The bartender absently rubbed a clay mug with a dirty rag while he listened to the others in his bar rehash the tale.

"That Shi fella sure does have a way with words."

"Best thing I heard all month!"

The bartender was in agreement with that sentiment. It was very well told, and the man who stumbled in for a strong drink was obviously a gifted orator.

There was only one complaint that most of the bar patrons felt was deserved criticism: The story was far too fantastical to be believed.

"Sheesh. Dry that out and I could fertilize the whole farm!"

"Eh, sure, he did lay that on a bit thick, didn't he? Give 'im a break, though, yeah? It was good."

Yes, it was certain that the man needed to tone down the exaggeration; it was clearly overkill. No one would believe it.

Except, well:

That was how everyone felt until the news came in.

The doors to the saloon slammed open.

"Have you guys heard!? Someone beat the hells outta the Rough Rhinos!"

All of the patrons in the building froze. This resulted in several mugs getting emptied onto chins and down shirts.

The bartender set down his washrag.

"... Who did it?"

The man who announced the shocking development was unsure what everyone's reaction meant, but he answered the question after only a small hesitation, "You're not gonna believe this, but… people are saying that it was some… earthbending child. A girl."

And then the man laughed a little, shaking his head at what he was about to say:

"And that she can bend metal. But, well, that's not true… Uh… guys?"

Every head in the room, with the exception of the person who just entered, turned to look at the pile of limbs and smelly clothing sitting in the corner.

"... Well," the bartender uttered faintly, "Yeah. We mighta heard something about that."