A/N: There's a notable change here. I went back and changed the spelling of the name of Ty Lee's executive officer, in order to emphasize that broad phenotypic and cultural similarities aside, "Asian" is a social construct relevant only to Earth humans that the people of this world will neither recognize or fall into line with upon sustained contact.

Also first encounters with bending.

Also I'm sorry I had to repost this. I decided to proofread all my previous chapters again, cleaning up awkward phrasing and generally poor scenes. I hope I did good. Though in the process I accidentally turned Chapter Eight into a duplicate of Chapter Seven.

"From the moment the first flint was flaked, this landing was only a matter of time."

-Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907-September 29, 1973), American poet. "Moon Landing."

Chapter Eight

This was a far different meeting from the last one she'd attended in the Earth Kingdom War Ministry, Katara thought. The last time she was in the open-air meeting area, with its panoramic view of the Upper Ring, it was to attend a meeting of the Council of Five, the Earth Kingdoms five most senior generals and admirals. The Council of Five was killed either resisting the invasion of Ba Sing Se or leading the three attempts prior to the Comet to retake Ba Sing Se themselves. Now six months later, Kuei (with the generous assistance of the Order of the White Lotus) was trying to clean house and reorganize, and a new one had yet to be appointed. So, she found herself sitting between Aang and Zuko around a table with Sokka and General Iroh.

She took a swig of the goblet of water next to her before sighing in frustration. It had taken twelve hours, but they had in fact managed to verify that the district containing the Jasmine Dragon had in fact been effectively occupied by an unknown force with totally unknown types of ships.

"I say we concentrate as many forces as we can against these people, whoever they are, and retake the district," Sokka declared, slamming his fist onto the table. "We can swamp them quickly, drive them back to wherever they came from."

"That's overkill," Iroh retorted from the far end of the table, just for a moment the portly retired officer and White Lotus Grandmaster becoming the Dragon of the West who had himself plotted and led the First Army Group's campaign against this very city. Only the death of his son, Major Lu Ten while (successfully) repulsing an attempt out of Omashu to turn his left flank caused a grief-stricken General Iroh (who was finally forced to question the legitimacy of his father and grandfather's war) to lift the siege of Ba Sing Se and pull back to his starting position. "From what we can tell there's only a few hundred of them, barely enough to hold the district. Plus, half the rumors suggest they're doing everything they can to help the people wondering around looking for help."

"The other half suggests they're dragging children screaming from their mother's arms," Sokka pointed out.

"Have you ever had to drag a screaming child from their dead mother?" Iroh asked pointedly. "It looks bad and feels worse. We shouldn't just go along with every rumor."

"I agree," Aang cut in suddenly from her right, "that's all they are at this point. Rumors. If they are helping the people of this city, and their abilities are even a fraction of what the rumors say, we should be trying to make contact with them peacefully, without treating them like an invading army."

Katara sighed and put his hand on her younger friend's shoulder. She was no more in favor of starting a fight with anyone who was just trying to help, too, but the point had to be said. "Aang, they are trespassing on Earth Kingdom soil without permission, which makes them an invading army regardless of their intentions." Not that I want to start a fight while so many of thousands of people are dead, and so many thousands more need help. Especially if they really are trying to help the people of this city.

"But their intentions do matter," Aang pointed out. "What if they were only passing through and are doing everything they can to help until they know who exactly they should talking too?"

"You're all right," Zuko said, leaning forward in his chair to stare all of them in the face. "So, since Kuei put me in charge of responding to this mess, I'm going to split the difference." He reached into his tunic and pulled out a folded scroll with the Seal of the Fire Nation hanging off the ends. "Uncle, this is a writ restoring you to active duty, effective immediately. You will take the royal liner to our Shu's Point base on the Ten-Mile West line and put together a force to both provide relief to this city and hold it as best we can. The size and composition are up to you, but I'll need you and whatever force put together back in this city as soon as possible. Also, hold the ship carrying the Water Tribe delegation, explain the situation to Hakoda and Pakku and tell them your force will escort them in. "

"I can't, Zuko," the older man protested, eyes widened in shock. "This city has seen enough of large Fire Nation occupation forces, and I'm still getting field hospitals set up."

Zuko shook his head. "Your staff here can finish doing that, Uncle, and you can take over that work again once you get back. As much as we need field hospitals to treat all those wounded out there, we also need a force capable of defending this city as best we possibly can, under a commander of proven ability who's not going to be under the mistaken impression that I've decided to complete the conquest of the Earth Kingdom after all. One who has a reputation for honor and integrity that not even the most rabid Earth Kingdom revanchist can question. Please, Uncle," the young man who desperately needed his Uncle's help coming back out. "We need you."

Iroh took a deep breath, stood up and bowed formally before crossing around the table and taking the formal scroll. After a moment of reading it he pulled his nephew into a bear hug, that Zuko eagerly returned. "I'll see you in a few days," he said before heading to the stairs and walking down them without a word.

"Should we consider pulling Suki and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors out of Crater City? Redeploying them here?" Sokka said after a moment. "So far they haven't fired on any of our airships."

Zuko shook his head. "No. I need Colonel Suki and the rest of the reigment in the Capital defenses in case the Lightning Swords try something while we're busy dealing with this, and sooner or later they're going to try something."

"Is it that or are you convinced Suki is going to kill you for losing two of her officers?" Sokka pointed out.

Ty Lee and Mychiko were still unaccounted for after last night's flash, which worried Katara more than she would have thought possible only a few months ago. Surprise of surprises, she actually liked Ty Lee, and so did her brother, and neither of them liked not knowing what happened to their friends. There were only three possibilities. They died in the flash. They were injured either during the Flash or immediately afterward and were being taken care of by the newcomers, or the newcomers had killed them when they landed.

Zuko snorted. "Probably a little of both. At any rate, tonight, after twilight fades to night. We're going to go out there and gather some real information. Once and for all."

Katara felt a predatory smile break out on her face, one mirrored on Sokka and Aang's face. About fucking time, she thought, leaning back in her chair. It's a lot better than what happened before.

"When do we leave?" Sokka asked eagerly

"You're not going anywhere," Zuko said pointedly. "And neither is Aang. I refuse to risk the Avatar's life on an information-gathering mission and, to be frank, you're not the stealthiest human being alive."

Sokka rolled his eyes but didn't contest the point as she resisted her sisterly urge to laugh at her brother's annoyance.

"Katara will go with me," Zuko said, causing her to shoot up out of her seat in surprise…and not a little excitement. It's finally happening, she thought, resisting the urge to glomp onto Zuko in a bear hug then and there. I get to stop sitting behind a desk all day like a bureaucrat three or four times my age and actually do something. "As will Mai. Meet us downstairs, fifteen minutes after nightfall. We're going to find out who the enemy is. One way or another."

Captain Ty Lee sat in the small black chair in what was clearly the Enterprise's conference room, hands resting on the grated metal table, lit from below by a dozen of those too-bright lights ("fluorescent" as Doctor Phlox, the alien physician who'd described his species as Denobulan, had referred to them as). He had also provided them with new uniforms that looked exactly like the ones they'd been wearing when they nearly died.

In the aftermath of a disaster they could very well have caused, she thought, sourly. Though why would they deliberately wreck a city and leave plenty of rubble and strongpoints for a defending army to dig in around for an attritional slugging match that will inevitably favor the defender? And why stop to rescue a couple of junior officers whom they can't possibly know have any real information.

"Now remember, Mychi," Ty began softly. "They did save our lives, so were going to treat them with the courtesy of their ranks, and at least hear them out."

"And if they fail to convince us, or admit that they're here to conquer us, even if they at least intend to be honorable about it?"

Ty Lee closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She seriously doubted it, but then again, she'd genuinely believed Azula actually gave a damn about her and Mai. "Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

The door slid open, and her eyes widened as Captain Archer walked into the room. Next to her was a shorter, younger woman with brownish skin and eyes, still brown hair, and ears that came to pointed tips. She wore the same uniform as the Captain, albeit with one silver pip missing. And next to her…was a person. A man, she thought. With blue skin. And antennae.

You're staring, Ty, a voice chided her, and she turned to look at the Captain.

The Captain took his chair at the head of the table, while the other two sat in the chairs across from her.

"Captain Lee," Archer began. "Allow me to introduce my most senior officers aboard right now. This is my first officer, Commander T'Pol. She's from a planet called Vulcan. And this is my Operations Officer and liaison with Andorian Imperial Guard, Commander Shran."

"I'm Captain Ty Lee. Commanding officer, First Company, Kyoshi Warriors." She looked at Mychiko, who couldn't seem to take her eyes off either of them. She kicked the other woman in the shin, causing her to glare at her. "And this person who has to know she's being rude to people who saved our lives right now is First Lieutenant Mychiko Kurorsawa, my first officer."

Archer put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. "I understand. Seeing nonhumans for the first time can be overwhelming to people who haven't had sustained contact with them."

"Even so," Mychi said, shaking herself. "I am sorry if I gave offense, sir."

"None taken," the Andorian man, Shran, said.

"Now," Captain Archer began. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"I have a whole list of questions," Ty began, leaning forward in her chair, "For starters, what was that disaster that wrecked Ba Sing Se? The name of the city you d-I mean you found us in." Careful. You don't know they did this on purpose. Or at all.
Archer apparently heard what she was about to say as he looked her dead in the face, and said. "We did not attack your city."

She didn't correct him on the fact that it wasn't technically her city. That was on the other side of the planet. One, she didn't know if she trusted this man enough to give him more detailed information on the state of her world's geopolitics, especially the existence of a certain thirteen-year-old Avatar. Two, it was largely semantic. They were, for the moment, the only people of their world on the ship as far as she knew so, for all intents and purposes it was her city.

"Then who did?"

"We don't know if it was an attack at all," Archer responded. He tapped a button on the table in front of him and the glowing screen behind him changed. Not for the first time, her eyes widened, as a map of the inner system showing the orbits of the planets appeared on the screen.

"It may take me awhile to get used to that," An awed Mychi said from behind her. "And I want one."

Archer smirked at Mychi's comment before turning to face the screen. "Not long after we entered your system," Archer began.

"So, let me get this straight," Ty said a few minutes after Archer finished his presentation on the screen and it returned to the strange blue and green symbol on a black field it had started on. "You entered this system, having no idea what to expect here, and not long after, a Klingon freighter in distress enters the system and blows up in orbit, sending debris raining down on us."

"Yes," Archer said nodding. "That's about the size of it."

"Entirely coincidentally," Mychiko said skeptically. "Sounds like a stretch."

"I agree the timing is suspicious," T'Pol said. "Especially considering our mission out here."

Now we come to it? "And what is that mission, sir?" Ty asked levelly, barely containing the anger that bubbled up in her. "And would it by any chance have anything to do with how one of your weapons came into the hands of soldier from a disaffected military unit and used to try to assassinate my sovereign and decapitate his government? Even though you claim you had no idea that there was a world full of humans out here until today? And I'd like an explanation of how you, Mychiko and I can be the same race yet you're far more advanced then we are?" She put her hand up, as she fought to get herself back under control. "But that can wait until later. Start with the first thing."

"We're still trying to piece that together ourselves," Archer said. "One of our freighters was carrying a shipment of weapons to one of our outlying colonies, in this region of space as a matter of fact, when it was attacked by pirates. Our orders were to try to recover those weapons and get them back before anyone got hurt. I see we were too late."

"I see," Ty Lee began. "And what proof do you have that this isn't a convenient cover story used to hide your own plans to conquer us?"

"Well we have two entire cargo bays full of dead civilians of all ages," Archer bit out, his temper clearly getting the better of him. "Would you like to see them?"

She and the older man stared at each other for a long moment, trying to bore into each other's souls. Unless this person was a sociopath on par with Azula, that was not the response of someone sticking to a prepared cover story. "No, sir," she said after a minute. "I believe you. Even if this Captain Hernandez of yours brings back reinforcements, it makes no sense that you would deliberately make your admirals and generals job harder for some reason. Especially I would have launched a targeted strike at the Royal Palace and not a belt of farmland. And since I believe you, I'm going to be honest with you." And pray to every spirit and past Avatar there is that this isn't a mistake.

"I'm not from Ba Sing Se," Ty Lee continued. "I'm not even Earth Kingdom. I'm Fire Nation, from the country that had until recently conquered this city and most of that continent down there," she said, gesturing to the window with it's view of her world below that had so transfixed her for several minutes when she was first put in there. "But my sovereign is in that city right now, and for the moment, I command his personal guard. If anyone can convince him, it's me. And if anyone can convince his opposite number and the Avatar, it's him."

"The Avatar?" T'Pol asked from across the table.

Ty Lee gave a huff. "That's a briefing in and of itself, sir."

"Which we can hear later," Archer said. "Phlox wants you and your first officer in sickbay again for another IV of antibiotics. And he and I both feel that you in particular should get a chance to eat, and rest before you go down there."

Ty Lee nodded. "When can I eat, sir?" She asked, hoping that she was succeeding in keeping the petulance out of her voice. "That noodle dish with the red sauce you're steward delivered to Mychi looked really good, and I could eat an entire riding lizard right now."

"Phlox feels it would be safe to feed you your first meal this evening your time," Archer continued. "And it will be somewhat bland. Sorry, but pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce isn't going to be on the menu for you for a few weeks. You did just take a gut injury, and that has to be reintroduced slowly."

Ty sighed. She had a feeling he was going to say that, and it made sense, but it didn't make the fact that her best friend could sample the cuisine of Archer's world and she couldn't any easier to swallow.

"Yes, sir," Ty continued. "I understand. Keep in mind though, every minute we're not down there helping is another minute some idiot will decide to start a fight."

"My men and women won't start a fight," Archer began.

"And my men and women are going to have trouble seeing your mere presence on our world uninvited as anything other than a provocation," Ty pointed out. "I believe you're here to help us, but if you want to avoid a costly attack against your positions that will probably just get most of my people killed, you'll put me back there as soon as you can."

"Which will be as soon as we finish the run of antibiotics," Archer continued. "That ends at the end of one of my world's days, whatever happens afterwards. Our relationship with your people won't be helped if we return you to them and you still develop a life-threatening infection."

Ty pursed her lips. Damn it all if you're not right.

She took a deep breath, silently praying to every spirit she could think of, including all the previous Avatars that, no one tried to start a fight before she could get back.

"The street's awfully empty for the Middle Ring," Katara whispered as she, Zuko, and Mai moved through the street. The street was mostly empty. In the hour they'd been walking since they left the Upper Ring starting point, they'd only seen at most five people and it was hardly that late.

"Most of the people who live and work in these buildings either died in the blast, at the field hospitals, or, if they weren't hurt that badly, trying to get some rest," Mai whispered from next to her. "Not even Azula did this to this city."

"Of course not," Zuko said from ahead of them. "The whole point of occupying a city is to have a functioning political and economic center to generate resources out of. You can't tax a wasteland. If Sozin's grand plan for a new human union under my family's dynasty hadn't degenerated into what it turned into, the seat of government would have almost certainly been transferred to this city. It's the largest and most prosperous city by almost any measure. Or was, at least."

"One way or another we'll find out what happened," Katara said, memories of her childhood growing up in the ruins of her civilization causing her to clench her fists so hard, her fingernails dug into her skin. "And if it was deliberate? We'll make whoever was responsible pay for it."

"Damn straight, Kat," Zuko growled back fiercely.

"And I'm not going anywhere, either," Mai responded fiercely. "Azula's not here to separate us this time. No matter how tonight ends, we'll face it together." She looked over at her, a slight, knowing smile on her face. "All of us, on the same side as we should have been from the beginning."

Katara couldn't help the smile on her face as she put a comradely hand on both their shoulders.

They continued on together into the darkness.

An interminable time later. She saw something up ahead. A bright white light illuminating the gap between two ruined buildings. A light much brighter than any torch or gas lamp she'd ever seen. She and her friends stared at each other and moved bounded forward, pressing themselves against the corners of the two buildings, looking in.

They were looking at one of the large, spacious public squares that were everywhere in the Middle Ring, complete with the broken stumpy remains of a fountain.

"Oh, spirits," Katara said softly.

Lying on what was clearly every spare cot, camp bed, and blanket everyone could find was a mass of humanity, of all ages, carpeting the square. As she stared out over the square, she lost count of how many were wearing bandages or some sort of leg or arm brace. Men and women in blue uniforms with green undershirts moved among them. Some of them seemed to be feeding some sort of soup, others seemed to be changing dressings. Also, she noted were clearly locals who were also helping to change bandages and feed this mass of suffering humanity as best as they could.

"Agni!" Zuko whispered. "Look."

"What?" Mai and Katara whispered simultaneously, tiptoeing over to look at what she was looking at.

It was two women, of middling height. Both had brown hair and eyes, fairer skin then hers. One she noted had the fair complexion and the white and brown tunic and trousers common to both women and men in the Western Earth Kingdom. The other, sitting up on a cot was in a tattered green tunic and skirt, with slightly darker complexion, though not by much.

"Is that Jin?" Mai whispered.

"Jin? That girl you went out on a date with once while you were here as a refugee?"

Zuko nodded. "The woman tending to her is Song," Zuko said. "I…stole her riding bird."

Katara couldn't help the eye roll she felt coming on. You are the most impulsive human being alive, you know that?

"She must have come here as a refugee at some point," Zuko continued. "Or because she got bored of her little village, or something."

"Get back!" Mai whispered furtively, and Katara shoved herself against the wall, peering over Zuko's shoulder.

"What-," Katara began, but she never finished. "Oh," she finished softly, her eyes widening.

Walking forward was a dark-haired, brownish skinned young woman, not that much older than either of them, in a gray, white and brown mottled tunic and trousers. The young woman carried herself with the unmistakable poise and gait of a combat soldier, and in her gloved hands was the exact same kind of weapon as that Lightning Sword bitch she'd killed.

"Well," Zuko said, his voice hardening. "We were wondering when the people behind giving the Lightning Swords those weapons were going to make an appearance. It seems like they just did."

"Hold on," she retorted. "If they were ruthless enough to arm extremist dissidents, and ruthless enough to devastate this city, why put all this effort into helping these people? None of whom, I might add, appear to be held here against their will."

"I don't know?" Zuko bit back. "Maybe they're like Sozin? Trying to build some sort of human empire, but at least are trying to be honorable about it?"

"Maybe," Katara whispered. "You said it yourself. You can't tax a wasteland. Seems to me a straight up attempt to storm this city would actually have proved less devastating then," and she gestured at the wreckage and shattered lives all around them, "whatever happened."

"I still say we should go in there, separate them from the rest of the group and try to talk to them, at the very least," Zuko pointed out.

"So, the girl you ran out on during a date and the girl who's riding bird you stole are just going to take the time out to have a friendly chat with you in the middle of an occupied district?" Mai whispered. "And that's assume at least one of them doesn't hit you on sight, which could very well start a fight with those soldiers?"

"Out of everyone in that square," Zuko pointed out, "I know them the best. If we're going to accomplish our mission and seriously, decisively, answer this question, we need to try."

Katara wiped some of the sweat that had been forming on our brow off. "Damn it, if you're not correct. I just wish Toph were here. Both to help cover us and because she can sense lies."

"I need Toph the same place I need the bulk of Suki's forces," Zuko reminded her. "In Crater City. Out of all of them they stand the best chance of at least blunting a Lightning Sword offensive against the city."

"Fine," Katara said, trying hard to suppress her anxiety. "If we're going to do this, let's just do this."

Katara stepped forward into the light, half expecting it to blast the three of them into carbonized bone chunks on the spot. She scanned the square, looking for soldiers to keep an eye on. She saw a knot of them, about eight in all, standing in front of what she by now recognized as the ruins of the Jasmine Dragon. She took a deep breath and set about trying to keep them in her field of vision without making it obvious she was watching them.

"Jin? Song?" Zuko half-whispered.

The two women's heads shot over to them. "Lee?" They both said in unison.

"Wait," the two of them said together. "You know him?"
"I should," Song said, a note of bitterness on her voice. "You stole my riding bird."

Jin's eyes widened in shock and anger. "You stole her riding bird?!" She half shouted.

"I'm sorry," Zuko said with a sigh. "I'll buy you a new one."

"And I'll feed it where?" Song pointed out. "I live here now. And considering you were poor enough you had to steal mine, what in our history together makes you think you're even capable of affording it?"

"Because my name's not Lee," Zuko declared. "My name is Zuko. Firelord Zuko. The man who came here to finally make peace and end this pestilential war. Or was until whatever the fuck happened, happened. Now I'm working to try to alleviate it, and in order to do that, I need to know what exactly is going on here?"

Song suspiciously cocked her head. "Prove it."

Zuko raised his fist and caused a burst of orange-yellow flame to surround it, before releasing it in a whoosh of flame and smoke

The two women stared, poleaxed, at him. The one on the bed, Jin, recovered first.

"They came within an hour of the blast," Jin said, breathlessly. "They claim it was space debris, and that they were just passing by and decided to help. I can't believe I kissed the Firelord," she said, her mind clearly still in disarray.

"The Firelord stole my bird," Song said softly

"Focus!" Zuko said sharply. "Both of you! Have they been-,"
"Hey!" A male voice shouted, and Katara started, swearing to herself. She'd been focused on listening to their conversation and forgot to keep an eye on the soldiers. The entire section, eight soldiers, were now muscling their way through the crowd towards them.

Maybe coming in here, dressed in dark clothing like we've clearly been skulking around was a bad idea, she thought as she reached out with her hands towards the water in the fountain. The still water suddenly bubbled as it responded to her commands and she had the water splashing out in a small wave. Six of the eight men and women kept running, and one of them slipped, taking three more down with him. The rest of them deployed into some sort of formation, some kneeling on the ground, and others remaining standing as they pointed their weapons at them.

"Let's go!" Katara shouted, backing off. "We can't afford a fight in here, not with all these civilians around!"

One of the soldiers squeezed off a shot, the blue blast flying over their heads to impact in the wall of the building behind them. Zuko still backing off, fired several shots off at them. The soldiers split, tumbling and moving to get out of the way of the balls of fire.

Huh, Katara thought even as she ran. It's like they've never encountered firebenders before. They scattered in shock, not just to get out of the way of the balls of fire.. Which is something I can figure out later, she thought, as she ran off back into the dark, hot on her friends' heels.

Captain Ty Lee sat at the table in the ship's darkened guest quarters, surrounding by the cups and bowls of the meal she'd been fed (not exactly as bad as she feared, but boring), instinctively feeling down her abdomen, feeling the thread running down it. He wasn't precisely sure what they did, but gist of it was that they had apparently cut her open, sowed the stabbed intestine back together, washed it, and then sowed her abdomen closed like she was one of her dolls as a kid. And did the same for Mychiko. She'd heard of such procedures being performed of course, but they always seemed terrifying prospects to her. Where they had to get you drunk just to be able to do it, and you remained, drunk out of your mind but conscious, the whole time.

But the way they explained it, they had both remained unconscious during the whole procedure, and aside from a brief moment of confusion where she'd apparently thought they were trying to steal her blood, woke up without a hitch.

Whatever they did, she thought wonderingly, I can't argue with results. Considering we're both still alive.

Ty Lee looked up at her exec, staring out the window at the blue-green marble of their planet as she leaned against the window.

"You've been staring out that window since we arrived," Ty said softly. It is a beautiful sight, she thought. She'd gravitated to it herself when they'd stuck the two of them in there and then brought her food.

"It's beautiful, sir," the older woman responded. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it'd almost be worth throwing our lot in with them if they were here to conquer us, if it meant we got access to the ability to see this more often."

"It is spectacular," Ty said, pushing back from the table and moving to stand by her friend, staring at the blue-green sphere of their world below. I'm amazed at the quirk of fate, she thought. That allowed two women who've, quite frankly, made some questionable decisions in the past, to make contact with the representatives of not one, but three other worlds. One of them apparently the true homeworld of our entire race.

"I've thought about what our being here means, you know?" Mychiko said softly. "The girl who helped Azula conquer Ba Sing Se, and the girl who just had to spend one night in the bed of that dashing innkeeper's son in the neighboring village while my husband was on a fishing trip, and wasn't there when..."

When pirates overran your village, burned down half of it, and carried a quarter of the entire population into slavery, including your own daughter, she thought with pained sympathy, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"And why us? Why would any spirit allow us to be the ones to take this step on behalf of our entire world? No offense, but neither of us is the best humanity has to offer."

I wouldn't be so certain of that, at least when it comes to you, Mychi, she thought. "Perhaps it's the universe's way of saying there are always second chances?" she said aloud, "Even for people like us."

A loud beeping sound suddenly cut through the air, causing them to start before they remembered that was what they used to request entry into a room.

"Come in," Ty Lee said quickly.

Archer walked in, an irritated look on his face. The kind of look superior officers gave junior officers when something went sideways, and they blamed you.

"What's happened, sir?"

"This," Archer said simply as he walked over to the computer monitor on the desk. He tapped a few of the glowing squares and the screen abruptly changed. She had gotten used to the idea of "video recordings" during her debriefing earlier. This one however, was clearly the square in front of the Jasmine Dragon. It had been converted to some sort of triage area, where people were being assessed. Then her stomach started to do somersaults as though it was trying to tear apart the stitches holding her intestine together.

The image was focused on two women and a man, in dark clothing, having a conversation with two other women. Katara, black haired and blue eyed was clearly trying to inconspicuously keep a lookout while Zuko and Mai talked to them.

"Oh, Kyoshi and Agni, no," her second said softly.

"Hey!" A soldier shouted from off-screen before an entire section, eight in all, all armed with what Archer had described as phase rifles ran in. Katara immediately slid into a waterbender's stance and caused the water in a fountain to flow out in front of them, careening three of the soldiers on their backs even as the other soldiers brought their weapons to bear. She noted approvingly that they waited while the soldiers who had slipped managed to roll out of the line of fire before opening up.

Zuko immediately unleashed a barrage of fireballs on them, causing them to scatter, before the five of them, Katara, Mai, Zuko, and the two women they were talking too, ran off-screen."

"This was taken by one of our recording devices we have monitoring the area," Archer said pointedly. "You should probably have told me that people on your world could manipulate water and shoot fireballs out of their hands. Not that I would have believed you if you had."

Ty Lee stared at him, shocked by the apparent non sequitur. He can't be suggesting what I think he's suggesting, can he?

"Wait," the young company commander said aloud, "are you telling me that no one on your world can do anything like that?" An entire planet of non-benders?

"Not outside the myth, legend, and works of fantasy fiction," Archer continued. "Our vulcan and andorian allies can't either."

"There have always been people who can do this on our world," Ty said. "Estimates go as high as one in forty, other estimates go as low as one in one hundred. I personally tend to go with the higher number. Neither of us can do it, and no one in my company or the wider regiment can do it, but they're there. More to the point, what kind of bending is prevalent in each region is different. My nation is called the Fire Nation because that's the kind of bending prevalent in that region, though by no means the only type. The city you've landed in is Ba Sing Se, the capital and largest city of the Earth Kingdom. I'm pretty sure you can guess what kind of bending is prevalent there."

Archer's nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. "I'm sure," he said after a moment.

"Incidentally," Ty Lee continued. "That guy is Zuko. Firelord Zuko, as in my sovereign I told you about earlier. Who came to this city to make peace and end a war that his great-grandfather started, and he helped overthrow his own father and his sister with the help of the Avatar to do it."

"The Avatar," Archer repeated. "You mentioned him before."

"Yes, sir," Ty Lee nodded. "You see…"

Zuko stopped in the alleyway, breathing heavily, as he looked frantically up and down the darkened street. Well we're in it now, he thought. Even if they were here for peaceful reasons, we've exchanged fire. "I don't think they're following us," Zuko said after a moment.

"Good," Katara said between heavy breaths herself.

Zuko turned to look at Mai, only to find her, Jin and Song. Mai, who was clearly in more shape then the other two was breathing heavily, but normal for her exertion. The others were already sitting against the brick wall, taking down gulps of desperate air.

"What are you two doing here?"

"You were bending fireballs and those soldiers were shooting…something," Song said defensively. "I…guess we panicked."

"And stayed with us the entire run?" Zuko asked pointedly.

"You are technically closer to being our people then they are," Jin said defensively, her breath leveling out. "Even if they did save our lives."

Abruptly, a strange rumbling filled the air, and Zuko looked up to see a strange boxy shape, with wings floating above them in the alleyway. Zuko winced his eyes shut as a bright white light burst out of the bottom of the strangely shaped craft, filling the alleyway.

How? How'd they reestablish contact so quickly? Zuko thought, pushing himself up off the wall and igniting the air around his fists even as Katara slid into a waterbender's stance.

Then stopped as three columns of shimmering light filled the air. He stood there, stunned and rooted to the spot, as the three columns of light coalesced into three people. One was a tall man in his forties, with fair skin and brown hair and eyes that carried himself like an officer. The other two…

"Zuko, Katara," Captain Ty Lee said, in her full undress uniform, her sword buckled around her waist, and her fans sticking out of the fold of her double-breasted tunic. Mychiko was there too, similarly dressed the same way as when he'd sent them out to the Jasmine Dragon the previous night. "This is Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise," she said. "I think all of us, and the Avatar, need to sit down together and discuss the situation like adults."