Something that they hadn't accounted for in all their planning was what to do with the FNS Salamander and Zuko cursed his lack of forethought. Despite the conflicted mess that his mind turned into whenever his thoughts turned to the dilapidated ship he'd spent so much of his life on, his primary focus had to be his busybody of an uncle who hadn't stopped grinning the moment they had expressed a goodbye to the other members of their newly declared unofficial alliance.
"Uncle, please stop grinning like that. We have plans to make," Zuko found himself saying after Iroh's third passing compliment of Katara, even if he privately did agree that Katara was a most pleasant character, and that her lovely eyes were quite expressive, and that her wit was sharp enough to rival a broadsword.
"Much-changed plans," Iroh agreed with an only slightly more serious air, his mind still clearly focused on his poor nephew's developing romance. Zuko found that tolerating his uncle's behavior came as easy as breathing, though. He had missed the sort of teasing Iroh had only rarely withheld from him.
"The avatar mentioned his bison, but we can't rely on the beast to carry us everywhere we need to go. If we're going to do this properly, we'll need a greater base of operations. The ship will function for the time being, though we will have to be cautious with the crew. What are your thoughts?" Zuko was not a fool. He knew that he hadn't always been the kindest to his crew, and that they had little to no personal loyalty to him. Many of them knew Iroh during his active military career, though, and had chosen to serve under the retired general as either a favor or to satisfy their own curiosity.
The fact remained that Zuko couldn't reasonably expect that the entire crew of the FNS Salamander would be prepared to throw in their lot as traitors to the crown. It wasn't as if they had been banished as well; they were free to return to the homeland, see their families, and carry on with their lives whenever they were dismissed or elected to leave service. It wasn't fair or safe for Zuko to drag every member of his crew along with their changed mission parameters.
Iroh went silent, and Zuko was gratified to see that he was taking his concerns seriously. Silence surrounded them until they had returned to the ship, moving with an unspoken agreement to the unoccupied war room in the command tower. It was there that Iroh turned to his nephew with a strange light in his eyes.
"The most dangerous foe is one who knows themselves," he advised with a hum. "Others view us as a superstitious people. Perhaps that is true, but there are many aboard this ship and at home who know our myths as histories."
Another Zuko might have demanded that his uncle speak more clearly and leave the proverbs at the pai sho table, but that boy grew up a long time ago. Zuko thought on what his uncle said and frowned, trying to pick apart the argument to divine the secrets of the lesson Iroh was imparting.
"The spirits," Zuko said slowly, piecing it together. Iroh nodded, a satisfied look in his eyes, and Zuko felt a surge of victory.
"It was not a secret amongst the crew that your condition was so serious, Prince Zuko. To have you healed so suddenly, and to have awoken stronger for it? The spirits have granted you a gift, and those that serve near you would be foolish to ignore the signs." Blue fire was a rare skill for firebenders. Until Azula was born, it had been largely regarded as myth, signifying a great and powerful bender that would control the fate of those around them. Azula's prodigious skill had seemed to confirm those whispers. It was normal to follow Azula, to fear her, because of her blue fire. But now Zuko existed to present a second option, just as blessed according to their tradition.
The two continued to speak and, over the course of several proverbs and two rounds of tea, a stratagem was born within the war room that might just lead to peace at last. Time seemed to move far too quickly as the first steps of the plan were carried out, but Zuko's gait was steady as he walked onto the upper deck of the ship to speak to the gathered crew.
The Salamander had a crew of twenty-seven men and women, most of whom were non-benders. Iroh and Zuko brought their number of firebenders up to a grand total of nine, but many of the crew members had served as sailors or soldiers in the military's efforts abroad. Zuko hoped that that might help his cause. He hoped that seeing the warfront might help convince these people that the war needed to be ended. Jee and Iroh were waiting for him at the edge of the small crowd, and Iroh gave a nod of encouragement when Zuko finally stopped before the assembly.
"Two days ago, we were sailing through the southern seas in search of a sign of the avatar, and there was a bright light that reached into the sky. You are all aware by now that, for reasons unknown, that light reached out to me." Zuko began to pace slowly, trying to gauge the reactions of the crew even as he was searching for the right words. "You all know that my mission from the Firelord is to capture the avatar and deliver them to my father. But I was shown a different path, a better path, that we can follow."
The deck of the ship was silent as Zuko stopped short. With deliberate movements, he raised his hands, clasping them together before slowly pulling them apart. A rose of blue flame bloomed between his hands, growing and brightening as he pulled his hands further apart. As the flame grew, it seemed to suck all of the oxygen from the area and hardly anyone so much as breathed as Zuko continued to carefully foster the fire. Stopping his hands, one at his shoulder and the other at the opposite hip, Zuko abruptly ceased feeding the flame and it dispersed in an instant.
"I see a destiny that ends this war, that stops the meaningless sacrifice of our countrymen, and restores the honor of our nation. A destiny where we help the Avatar restore the natural balance of the world and restore peace." There were twenty-seven soldiers and sailors before him. Zuko was ashamed to admit that, even with three years spent alongside him, he didn't know all of their names. Still, he bowed his head before them. They each had a choice to make, and he was merely here to present their second option. "I understand that it is not what any of you expected when you left home. It's not what I expected either. But I will fight to stop this war, and it would be my honor to have you fight with me."
Each word was a fight as Zuko spoke, and it was almost a relief when he ran out of words to say. The relief was short-lived, however, as silence reigned over the ship. A shiver ran down his spine as a tension rose up that Zuko could feel and he was unable to identify whatever was shifting wordlessly through the crew. Panic rose up as a terrifying new worry dawned on Zuko: the worry that this is what a mutiny felt like, moments before the surge. Before the cannibalization that would swallow him whole.
The first crew member moved—Jee—and Zuko nearly flinched as the lieutenant approached. He and Jee had a turbulent history as Zuko remembered it. It was only their joint efforts to save the life of the helmsman—a life that had been endangered by his own carelessness—that had begun to smooth over the ruffled feathers and bruised egos that the two shared. Jee stopped just a few steps from the banished prince and the tension stretched, taut and dangerous like the strings of a piano.
And Jee knelt.
The tension snapped and the lump that had begun to build in Zuko's throat melted away. The hush over the gathered group shifted and Zuko stared dumbly forward as, one by one, the men and women serving on his ship took a knee. With a quiet sense of fulfilment building in his chest, Zuko laid a hand on Jee's shoulder. The man looked up, eyes set with a determined steel, and Zuko found himself smiling at the man he'd once had such a difficult, adversarial relationship with.
"The avatar is back, but not as any of us expected. He has mastered airbending, but he is young and otherwise untrained. Our immediate concern is his protection. It will take some time for him to master the elements, but we will keep him safe until he is prepared to face my father."
Sozin's Comet would still return by the end of the next summer, but—as the crew of the Salamander slowly rose to their feet—there was an optimism in Zuko's chest that refused to falter.
As Zuko was speaking to his men, Katara was preparing to leave. No matter how the situation on Zuko's ship was resolved, she would be saying goodbye to the South Pole until the war's end. There was a tension in the air, but the weight of it was familiar to Katara as she packed what she needed. It wasn't the suffocating grief or terror of the days after Sozin's comet finally faded, but it reminded her of the tenuous hope that had filled her when she and Zuko left the outskirts of Ba Sing Se to face Azula. That sort of hope was a dangerous, heady thing that hinted at the great reward that awaited them if only they could get through the next fight. Katara breathed it in as she finished rolling her sleeping bag, ready at last to resume the fight.
There was a shuffle of fabric—the hanging on the door being pushed aside—that pulled Katara's attention towards the newcomer. She was unsurprised to see Aang letting himself into her room with a hesitant smile.
"Hello again," he stated awkwardly. He had so many questions for her, but he had no idea how to even begin asking them. Aang knew that girls were supposed to be confusing, but the waterbender in front of him—who had begun smiling at him in greeting—seemed determined to push 'confusing' to intimidating heights. "I—Uh, wanted to apologize again."
"For what?" she asked. Aang looked at her oddly, wondering if she'd somehow forgotten that she'd gotten horribly sick when they met, but forced himself to press on.
"For the spirit sickness," he explained. There was a concerned frown tugging his lips down as he considered the questions rampaging through his mind. "The monks never said that anything like that was possible. I don't know much about being the avatar, but I've never heard about anything like that before."
"I think it was unique," Katara said as calmly as if she was commenting on the weather. She hesitated for a moment and Aang watched as something dark flitted behind the waterbender's eyes before it cleared. She nodded to herself, eyes shifting back to her pack. "You're the avatar, so you've lived thousands of lives before. You just don't remember them. That's what the sickness felt like. It felt like I remembered a whole other life, one that my body hasn't lived. But instead of a life in the past, it was a life of the future. A life of what would happen if the war continued like it is. I saw you in that life. You and I were friends. Best friends. I was the one to teach you waterbending."
"Really?" Aang had never heard of anything like that before, but the premise was too enticing for him to do anything but lean forward, drinking Katara's words in as if he were dying of thirst.
"Zuko was there, too. I think he saw the same things that I did." Despite the absurdity of the situation, that made perfect sense to Aang. Katara's reaction to the firebenders hadn't made any sense to him, especially considering how her brother behaved. She acted as if she knew them. And Zuko had been the same, treating Katara with a sort of awed respect that had seemed to surprise his uncle.
"Really? Were we friends too?" Aang hoped with a strange desperation that they were. The firebender had seemed a bit odd and a touch dramatic, but he also seemed good. When he'd spoken to Aang, he felt honest and genuine and patient. He was older and clearly even more mature than his actual age, but he hadn't talked down to Aang like so many adults he'd known. He felt appreciated, important, seen. In some unfathomable way, Zuko reminded him of Gyatso for a fleeting moment.
And Katara laughed. It was a quiet, wry noise that grew until it rushed and bubbled out of her and it only caused more questions to battle for space in Aang's overcrowded head. If he had hair, he might have tried to pull it out from the frustration of it all.
"He was," she promised when she was recovered enough. "It had been a rough start, but he was."
"And you two…" Aang's voice drifted off, but he hoped that the significant glance and nod of his head would translate properly to Katara. And you two… were involved? He didn't know why that was the question that seemed to take priority. There were a million other things that he so deeply wanted to know, but of course Katara's romantic prospects had taken center stage. Aang didn't know many curses, but he wondered if there was an appropriate one for the mortifying moment as he realized that one of Katara's eyebrows rose with an unvoiced but clearly teasing question.
"Enough of that. It wasn't... That's not important right now." She said it with finality, closing the subject. "What's more important is that we make plans for what's next."
"I want to go home." The words were out of his mouth before he could school his tongue into behaving and he nearly winced. It sounded childish even to his ears, but Katara didn't move to tease him. Instead her eyes darkened with something sympathetic and she nodded. "The Southern Air Temple. It's—It's not far from here."
"You can go wherever you like, Aang. You've got Appa," she reminded him with a gentle smile. Another dark look passed over her eyes—one that Aang was beginning to associate with Katara deciding if she should say something or not—and she took a deep breath. "I know that this is not what you wanted. I know that none of this is what you expected, but I really liked being your friend. I'd like to be that again, and friends are there for each other. Wherever you go."
"You'd come with me? But what about the South Pole?"
Katara looked very pointedly at her packed belongings and Aang's mouth went dry, a warmth blooming in his chest. He found himself staring at the waterbender with a desperation he couldn't name. She had known him, in this unlived life of hers, and they had been friends. To be friends with someone who knew you so well—even if that him was one he didn't know yet—was powerfully attractive to the boy who had run from his destiny. She wasn't like the council of elders who had sat down and told him what his duty was. She stared at him with her bright eyes and promised him that she would follow him as he figured out his fate. And he believed her because she'd already done it once.
Aang found himself nodding. He found himself idly wondering if it'd be weird for him to reach for her hand and confirm that she wasn't some unusual hallucination his brain had invented to help him process this alien new world, but his thoughts were interrupted by Katara suddenly catching him up in another tight hug. His arms rose up to hug her back and he found himself breathing easier than he had since he'd woken from the ice.
Katara would be with him when he went to the Southern Air Temple. Whatever he saw—and he had a creeping, horrible feeling that his darkest fears would be realized—could be worked through. She'd be there with him, ready to hug him when he found himself unable to ask and able to heal his hurts even if he couldn't give them voice.
He hugged her tighter, thanking the spirits for giving him this unexpected gift. Destiny was a dreadful burden, but they'd given him someone who could help him shoulder the load. Mind shifting to Sokka, who Aang knew wouldn't stand to be parted with his sister, and Zuko, who might have known him in that awful unlived world, Aang allowed himself to relax into Katara's touch. He wasn't alone. He wasn't alone.
They left the Southern Water Tribe with little fanfare, all climbing aboard the Salamander after saying their goodbyes to Kanna and the rest of the village. Katara's eyes were red with tears as they were all introduced to the crew, but no one dared comment. They continued to keep their silence when it was time to assign rooms to the new members of their party and Katara's rooms were just two doors down from Zuko's. It could be excusable, of course; there were few unoccupied rooms on the ship and most of them were in the command tower. Aang was given the room closest to Zuko, which was of course a strategic move to keep the avatar between the fire prince and the strange waterbender that had captured his attention.
Jee recovered admirably from the surge of respect he'd felt for the young prince, and Zuko was somewhat irritated to know that the entire ship seemed to whisper about how he was smitten with Katara less than two hours after they'd set sail for the Southern Air Temple. It was undoubtedly true, but to know that his crew were gossiping about him in earshot of Sokka was going to result in someone being hurt. Knowing Katara as he did, he could safely assume that neither Sokka nor Zuko were going to escape that confrontation unscathed.
There were benefits to having Jee firmly on Zuko's side that couldn't be ignored. Jee was a figure greatly respected by the crew, having shown a dedication to them and possessing an honorable record of service for his country. When Katara expressed a desire to get to know the crew better, Jee acted as an intermediary for the strange, passionate girl who swiftly memorized everyone's name, face, position, and birthday without batting an eye. For Jee, it was an intriguing thing to watch as hardened soldiers of the Fire Nation became wrapped about Katara's fingers just as surely as Zuko himself was.
Sokka's transition to being on the Salamander was… less smooth. In the days it took the ship to sail from the South Pole to the Southern Air Temple, he only allowed Katara out of his sight to sleep or use the bathroom, and only the former because she had angrily frozen him to one of the hallway's walls when he'd attempted to barge into her room the first night. He loomed in her shadow like a bodyguard, glaring suspiciously at each member of the crew that his sister interacted with though everyone became aware that he held a special animosity for Zuko. The only person with which he could be truly civil on the ship aside from his sister or Aang was, to no one's surprise, Iroh. While the Dragon of the West had been horrified at first to learn that they didn't have pai sho in the Southern Water Tribe, he had aimed to rectify that grievance immediately by teaching Sokka the strategy game. Sokka took to it like a koalaotter to water and, while he only allowed himself to play it so long as Katara was in the room and therefore out of harm's way, he and Iroh played together frequently, bonding over their troublesome relatives and love of food.
Aang was surprised by how at ease he felt on the Fire Nation ship. After all of Sokka's scary stories and Zuko's quiet clarifications, he knew that everyone on the ship had been raised to think of him as the enemy. He was, according to the Fire Lord, the only thing that stopped the Fire Nation from glorious victory. None of the crewmembers treated him like that. Most of the time, they hardly even treated him like the avatar. Sure, he was a respected guest and everything, but that was where it ended. For the first time since the council of elders had told him that he was the avatar, there were people that weren't looking at him to fix everything. The crew members weren't in a mentality to ask him to stage any sort of attack on their own homeland, and they knew that he wasn't a fully realized avatar. He certainly had the potential to be a powerful figure, but for now he was just a kid. It was a comfortable liminal space for all parties involved.
The crew had a slightly more mixed reaction when it came to Appa. Although Aang and Katara both insisted that the flying bison was a sweetheart, there were few crew members brave enough to approach. After the first one that was convinced did so, only to be immediately covered in bison saliva, no one else was willing to try.
The days it took for the ship to reach the shores of the Southern Air Temple passed by with a speed that wasn't entirely welcome. To keep his mind off of what was coming, Katara began to teach Aang the simplest waterbending forms she knew. It felt good to waterbend freely, even if Sokka had asked very pointed questions as soon as they were 'out of enemy earshot.' On their first day out, she had even convinced Zuko to spar with her so that Aang could have an idea of what to look forward to through training, although she did have to promise to shield Zuko from Sokka's wrath. Sokka had been less than pleased to hear Katara readily agree. Aang laughed all the while.
On the night before the sixth day, Katara slipped into Zuko's room as soon as she could hear Sokka's snoring echoing through the metal halls of the ship. She wasn't surprised to see light shining through his door's window, and when she opened the door it was to see him meditating over a set of candles.
"Katara." He didn't need to look in her direction to know it was her. For a moment, his mind endeavored to romanticize the thought—perhaps he knew it was her because she had sensed that his mind was troubled, and she had appeared like always to soothe his thoughts—but the reality was that there was no one on the ship who would have dared opening his door without knocking or announcing themselves in some way.
She shut the door behind her quietly before moving to sit beside him, leaning her head against his shoulder without a word. He looked away from the candles as she approached, studying her movements as she clambered to a seated position, and frowned. How many times had he craved the ability to read her thoughts? He was sure that just a few minutes in her mind would be all he'd need to understand all the minute fears and worries that pulled at her.
"We'll reach the Southern Air Temple tomorrow," she said after several minutes of silence. Oh. Zuko blinked before frowning to match Katara. He had an idea of where she was going with that line of thought and, while he was sure he agreed, he didn't like it. "I—I think you should come with us."
"What?" That had not been what he had expected. He couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice and, though Katara didn't lift her head from his shoulder, Zuko's eyes were wide as he stared down at her. "You want me to be there when he finds out that the Fire Nation killed all of his people? Katara, have you lost your mind? You said yourself that he went into the avatar state when he first found out. You really think that I should be there? He'll throw me off the mountain!"
"I don't think he will… Something's different in him now. He's changed. Before, when Sokka and I tried to explain to him that they were gone, he didn't believe us. This time… This time it's like he's looking for confirmation that they're gone instead of proof that they aren't."
Zuko's mind hastily displayed the scattered puzzle pieces it had picked up, rummaging for clues through his few conversations with the airbender, searching for evidence that invalidated Katara's theory. The search ended as he reconsidered the tone Aang's voice had taken when he'd first talked to Zuko, though.
Is it true, then?
Zuko knew why Aang's voice had sounded so wrong. It sounded hollow. He had noticed that Aang had been reserved and guarded, but he'd been wrong when he guessed that he himself was the cause for Aang's uncharacteristic reticence.
A burning desire flooded Zuko all at once as Katara slowly lifted her head to look at him, eyes shining with a single question and Zuko could only nod. The Southern Air Temple wasn't about him. It wasn't about what made him comfortable or happy. It was about trying to give closure to a child who had everything ripped away from him at once. Zuko would be there, to support him, to be his punching bag, to be his friend, so long as Aang would have him. But for tonight—
"Stay." Zuko's voice cut through the muffled noise of the ship as she moved to stand up. He promised to stick close to Aang's side throughout the ordeal that the morning would bring, but Zuko wasn't sure if he'd survive the night thinking about it. His hand caught Katara's, but she didn't attempt to break the contact. Instead she stepped closer to him until she overwhelmed his senses and he wasn't sure if the smell of salt in the air was from the sea outside or from her hair. She raised her head, murmuring always against his lips, and Zuko found his eyes closing as concerns for tomorrow began to melt.
When she fell asleep in his arms, a bleary goodnight passing from her lips, Zuko found sleep beckoning him as well. Tomorrow would be an impossible day, but Zuko was certain of one thing. If anyone could accomplish the impossible, it would be the waterbender in his arms. If he was very, very lucky, he might be close enough to weather this storm with her.
Published 23:12, 7.25.21