"Why can't I come to Ba Sing Se?" The red-faced boy crossed his arms over his chest.

Zuko let out an exasperated sigh. "We've been over this, Arik. There's the wedding and parties and dinners and meetings. It's all boring grown-up stuff."

"But everyone else is going! I don't want to stay here by myself!"

"You'll be here with Jin. She'll take care of you while we're gone."

"I don't need anyone to take care of me!"

"Fine. Then, you need to focus on your training. Lady Za Je is the best. She was my teacher when I was your age."

"But she's so mean!"

"She's not mean, she's strict. And maybe it's time you took your firebending lessons more seriously."

"Whatever." Arik rolled his eyes.

Zuko was beginning to understand why his mother disliked that gesture. His patience was growing thin. "Are we done here? I need to finish packing."

"But I promise I'll be good. I won't get in the way. I'll behave," Arik pleaded.

Zuko made a noise of frustration. "Arik, there is no one to watch you. Not all the time."

"I can take care of myself. I won't get into any mischief."

"Ba Sing Se is a huge city. It wouldn't be safe."

"But I've never been there!"

"Ask Jin about it. She's from there, and she can tell you all about it."

"Not the same. It would be so cool to visit!"

"It's not… cool. It's—"

"This is SO UNFAIR. I'll show you… I'm just going to stow away. And you won't be able to find me to stop me."

Zuko pointed a scolding finger at the boy. "Arik, don't you dare! You STAY HERE and do what Jin tells you!"

"She's not my mom… and you're not my dad, you can't make me—"

"But I CARE about you, OK!? People just… disappear in Ba Sing Se. Bad things happen there. My cousin was killed there, my mother lost her mind there, and every time I go there, I feel like something bad is going to happen. I won't let anything bad happen to you... I can't…" Zuko's eyes went wide as he realized how emotional he'd become.

Arik raised his hands in resignation. "OK, OK, I'm sorry. I won't go." He sighed and looked down at the floor. "You're right. If my parents were here, they'd make me stay, too. I'm… sorry I was… disrespectful."

Zuko flattened out the fabric of his tunic as if to signify regaining his composure. "Your parents would kill me if anything happened to you. I've already had two assassination attempts on my life this year, you know."

"I… I'm sorry."

"Look, Arik, I don't want to… parent you… or whatever. I'd make a lousy father anyway. But I won't apologize for looking out for you. It's what friends do."

"We're friends?" Arik lifted his head to meet Zuko's eyes.

"Of course, you dolt." It was then Zuko's turn to roll his eyes.

"OK, then, as a friend, I'm telling you that I think you're wrong."

"What?"

"You'd make a great father."

"Whatever."

"Are you and Miss Katara gonna have kids?"

A few different thoughts ran through Zuko's mind. Why am I talking about this with an eleven-year-old? Does the kid even know where babies come from? And of course, we'll have kids… the prophecy says so, doesn't it?

"Yeah. Someday."

"Cool. Can they call me Uncle Arik?"

Uncle? Zuko then realized that he did think of Arik more like a brother than a friend.

Katara poked her head inside Zuko's office. "We're leaving soon. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm looking for something. Be there in a minute." Zuko waved a dismissive hand at her.

Katara normally wouldn't tolerate such a gesture from her boyfriend. She liked to remind him that she was above him exercising any Fire Lord status with her. However, she still had some last-minute packing to do herself, so she let him be.

"Where is it? Where is it? Dammit!" Zuko shuffled through the piles on his desk and opened and shut every drawer in search of the lost item—a wedding present. He had been admiring the craftsmanship just the other night before carefully wrapping it, so where did he put it?

He stopped abruptly when he opened the drawer that contained Dr. Wang's journal. In the recent busyness of setting his affairs in order before leaving for Ba Sing Se, he had forgotten about it. He couldn't say why, but a pang of insatiable curiosity tugged at him just then. Perhaps he had time to read one excerpt before it was time to go.

Interviews with Iroh
By Dr. Wang
Session 2

Today General Iroh serves ginseng and continues to speak about the relationship between his father and brother. It is interesting to be sure, but I don't know why it is relevant. Iroh will succeed Azulon as Fire Lord. Ozai is insignificant. However, this is Iroh's story.

"To say that my brother was troubled as a teenager is an understatement. To say that his relationship with my father was strained is even more inadequate. Whenever I came home from the warfront, I felt like I entered another war zone altogether. I tried my best to restore the peace between them even though I knew my efforts were futile.

I remember one day I came home to find my father in such a rage that he told me I had to be the one to deal with Ozai. I knew better than to remind him that I was always the one to deal with Ozai. My brother had been suspended from the Academy. My father didn't know why but was simply livid at his son's act of insubordination. I pointed out that suspension wasn't expulsion, but he wouldn't hear of it. It was still failure in his eyes.

I found Ozai shooting angry fireballs in the training arena. When I asked him what happened, he said the kid had it coming, and next time he wouldn't hold back—he would teach the kid a lesson in respect. He had challenged a fourth year student to an Agni Kai for mouthing off to him. Not only are Agni Kais forbidden for Academy students, but my brother was four years older than his opponent. Ozai reemphasized that he had no regrets and would do it again if he had the chance. I told him he would NOT do it again or else risk expulsion or worse—our father's wrath.

The Fire Lord's wrath then rained down on us in waves of white hot fire. Before I knew what was happening, our father had shoved Ozai to the ground, pinning him down with one hand while raising the other in a fiery fist above him. He had spoken to the master at the school, Kuyon. Father asked Ozai if he liked it when someone bigger and stronger challenged him like this. He asked him if he wanted to fight. Ozai said no. My father then kicked him in the ribs and demanded that he stand and fight for his honor, that he needed to learn respect, and suffering would be his teacher.

I saw the fire ignite in Ozai's eyes, and I knew he would fight our father regardless of his slim chances at winning. I could not see this ending well at all, so I intervened. I stepped in between them, and they both warned for me to move aside or else join the fight. That was the day that I beat my aging father and my sixteen-year-old brother in a two-on-one fire duel."

"Zuko?" Iroh leaned against the door frame. "It's time to go. We're waiting for you."

Zuko quickly shoved the journal back into the bottom drawer. "OK, Uncle… I was just looking for King Kuei's present. I can't seem to find it."

Iroh stepped just inside the office and picked up a neatly wrapped package from one of the cabinets that flanked the door. "You mean this present?"

Zuko made a noise of frustration and nodded.

"Nephew, I see you have your crown secured to your topknot for a change, but is your head secured to your shoulders?"

Zuko rolled his eyes, took the package from his uncle, and put it in his bag. "OK, fine. I'm ready to go."

But Iroh continued to stand in the doorway, blocking his exit. "Zuko, are you OK?"

"I'm fine." It was half-true. He felt better these days with the full nights of sleep he had been getting. But there was always the fragile state of things—peace in the world, his mother's emotional well-being, and the haunting of his dark family past.

Iroh pulled him into an embrace, and Zuko lost it. He had no idea his own emotional well-being teetered on the edge of instability. Just when he thought he had gained some control and finally found his footing, he felt like he was falling again.

"Uncle, I thought I lost you," he murmured into the man's broad chest.

"Don't worry, nephew. It would never be tea that would take me down."

Zuko knew, however, that if it hadn't been for Katara's healing abilities combined with the spirit water, then the tea would have claimed Iroh's life despite his uncle's boasts. "I can't lose you. I won't… make it. I can't endure that kind of pain," he whispered.

Iroh shifted so that he held Zuko's shoulders and looked him square in the face. "You know that's what sets you apart, don't you? Your ability to endure great pain, yet overcome it. You face it and become stronger. You heal from it and become better."

"But I can't do it—couldn't have done it without you."

"I'm not saying that you have to do it alone. That's the other thing that's different about you, Zuko. You care for other people AND you allow others to care for you. Whenever you don't have me anymore, I think you'll find there is someone else you can turn to."

Unwilling to entertain the notion of losing his uncle any more, Zuko redirected. "You keep saying I'm set apart and different. From what, exactly?"

"Not so much the what, but the who. There's a cycle of abusive, self-seeking, destructive relationships in our family and you, Zuko, have broken it."

The words were comforting since Zuko had already come to realize there was a cycle, and he'd be damn sure to do whatever he could to break it. But had he really already broken it? "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"Zuko, I've seen the way you are with Katara. You love her so selflessly… almost too selflessly, sometimes. And you rule our nation with integrity, listening to everything from your top advisors' rants to the lowest peasants' petitions. You are not prideful, you are humble. And if you will let it, that same humility will replace your feelings of shame."

"I… used to feel shame, but I don't as much anymore. The things that I felt ashamed about weren't really about me anyway. But that other stuff, my responsibility to Katara and my job as Fire Lord, that IS about me. Sometimes I still feel like I did back then… lost at sea. Like I know what I want, I just have no clue how to get there. That's why I can't lose you, Uncle. I need you now just like I did then."

Iroh laughed. "Nephew, it's not anything like it was back then. You're not lost at sea anymore. You're on solid ground now. Granted, we are on an island, therefore surrounded by water. Perhaps you will feel unsettled for a while, like the tide is rising and falling around you. But look to the moon because she guides the tides. And look to the sun, because each day is a new beginning. And when you feel really lost, look for the horizon, because there is always hope out there somewhere."

Zuko smiled and hugged his uncle again. He wouldn't have expected his advice to be delivered any other way.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Iroh said, "But today we will not be on the ground or at sea. We take to the skies! The airship is ready… let's go!"