Zuko sat at the back of Appa's saddle and stared over the icy water of the north. He found himself thinking back to a moment several weeks before, when he'd been standing on the deck of his ship, looking out over a very similar ocean.
Except now, he was on the other side of the world, and his life had changed in so many ways he almost couldn't believe that had only been a few months ago. It felt like years.
They had been flying over nothing but ocean all day today. In some ways, Zuko was relieved to be getting closer to their destination.
But the closer they got to the North Pole, the closer Zuko got to having to let go of the ruse forever. Once they got to the Water Tribe, after all, he would have to admit that he was the Avatar in order to get training. He had no idea how that would go.
Something thumped to his side, and he jumped, pulled immediately from his reverie. Aang had plopped down beside him. He must've made the thump sound on purpose, because Zuko knew very well that Aang could be silent if he wanted to be.
"We're getting close to the Northern Air Temple," Aang said.
"Are we?"
"I think we should stop there for a day or two, at least. I mean… it's a real, actual Air Temple. Don't you think it'd be cool to see one in person?" He glanced toward Sokka and Katara on the other side of Appa's saddle, and dropped his voice to barely a whisper. "Besides, maybe it'll help with your…you know."
"I don't think the others will like that idea very much."
"The others won't, or you won't?"
"What do we not like?" Sokka's voice rang out.
Zuko didn't turn around, but Aang looked over in Sokka's direction.
"I was just telling Zuko that we're getting close to the Northern Air Temple, and I think it would be fun to stop by there for a few days."
"Fine with me," Sokka said, though he glanced at Katara.
She shrugged. "What do you think you'll find there?"
"I don't know," Aang admitted. "But I've never been to one of the old temples before, and I've always wanted to see one."
"You've never been to an air temple?" Sokka asked.
"No. Do you know many people who have?"
"Well…no. I guess I just thought, since you're an airbender and all…"
"Just because I'm an airbender doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about the old Air Nomads. They were…" He shook his head. "It's like asking an earthbender if they've seen every part of the Earth Kingdom. Or you guys, you're both Water Tribe, but we're on our way right now to a part of the Water Tribe you've never been to, right?"
"Sure, but you've never been to any of the air temples? Not one?"
Aang opened his mouth to speak again, though he was clearly becoming more and more uncomfortable with this line of conversation. Before he had to say anything, though, Katara elbowed her brother in the ribs.
"Lay off him, Sokka," she said. "I think going to the air temple is a great idea."
"You do?" Zuko only realized that he had said it at the same time as Sokka when Katara's eyes darted to him. Her face did something strange in that split second she was looking at him—Zuko could almost swear that she blushed, just slightly, though her emotions were impossible to decode.
Just as quickly as she'd glanced his way, she looked away, fixing her attention back on her brother, and whatever expression she'd let slip smoothed over. Regardless, that was certainly much different than the hard glares or silence that she usually gave to Zuko's remarks. Maybe their conversation from the other day had made a difference.
"Aren't you curious about the air temples, Sokka?" she asked. "We've heard so many stories about what they were like, don't you think it would be interesting to see one in person?"
"Probably like a bunch of crumbling ruins," Sokka said. "I've seen those before."
Katara shook her head and turned to Aang. "I think it's the perfect opportunity for Aang to connect with his culture. Don't you think so, Aang?"
Aang smiled awkwardly. "Well, yeah. That's mostly why I wanted to go, anyway."
Zuko didn't miss the way Aang's eyes darted his direction when he said "mostly," but he was grateful that Aang didn't mention the other reason why he wanted to go.
"Okay, let's go, then," Sokka said, though he clearly wasn't too excited about it. "Maybe there'll be something cool."
Aang glanced at Zuko one more time, raising his eyebrows. Zuko sighed and nodded.
Aang grinned and, jumping back down to grab Appa's reins, began to turn them in a slightly more western direction from straight north.
About an hour later, they began to see the icy, mountainous islands off the northern coast of the Earth Kingdom. As they approached, they could see that most of these peaks were barren, but one held a strange structure on it, which Zuko could tell, even from this far away, was man-made.
"There it is!" Aang cried about twenty minutes later, pointing to a nearby mountain peak. "The Northern Air Temple."
As they swooped up towards it on the back of Appa, Zuko found himself shifting in his seat uncomfortably. He was flitting through memories of the last time he was here, combined with worried about what he might find there now. So much had changed since then, even though it had only been a few years.
"Don't worry, Zuko," Aang said quietly to him. "You'll be fine."
Zuko nodded.
As they got closer to the temple, they began to see strange shapes floating around the outside of it. It was hard to tell exactly what they were, but they seemed to fly out from the temple itself, spiral around or fly back and forth for a few minutes, and then head back down to land on the temple ground again.
"Are those…people?" Katara asked. She and Sokka had both joined Zuko at the front of Appa's saddle behind Aang's seat, and she was leaning over the edge of the saddle, squinting as she strained to see better.
Zuko squinted, too, and realized that they did seem to be vaguely humanoid.
"It can't be," Sokka said. "They look like they're flying."
"It's an air temple, dummy. What if they're airbenders?"
At that, they all looked at Aang.
He was staring at those floating figures in confusion. He didn't seem to notice that everyone was looking at him expectantly until Katara nudged him. "Um, Aang? You okay?"
Aang shook himself. "Sorry, what?"
"Do you think those people over there might be airbenders?"
"I… That shouldn't be possible."
"How do you know?" Sokka asked. "You said yourself you've never been to one of the air temples. Maybe they've all got airbenders hiding out on them."
Aang was shaking his head ever so slightly, wide-eyed and pale-faced, like his whole world was being turned upside down. He didn't respond, just looked back and forth between Sokka and the flying shapes.
"I don't think so," Zuko said, shaking his head. "One of the first things I did when I started my hunt was search all four air temples. It didn't seem like anyone was around when I came then."
"Then who are these people?" Sokka asked.
Zuko shrugged. "No clue. If the place is populated, though, it could be dangerous for us to go there. Maybe we should just head on to the North Pole."
Katara glared at him. "But what if they are airbenders? Aang, don't you want to find out? This is your people, after all. You should make the choice."
"Let's just get a little closer," Aang said. He ushered Appa forward, but slowed their pace a little.
As they approached, it became clear that the shapes flying around the temple were definitely people, and they were using gliders that looked very similar to the one Aang had. Zuko was ready to believe that they really were airbenders, but Aang pulled on Appa's reins, bringing him to a stop, and slumped back.
"What's wrong?" Katara asked. "They're benders!"
"No." Aang shook his head. "No, they're not."
Sokka crossed his arms. "How can you tell?"
Aang waved his arms vaguely in their direction. "Look at the way they move! They're gliding around, but they're not airbending."
The rest of them exchanged dubious glances. Zuko couldn't see any noticeable difference between the way those people were moving and the way Aang moved when he rode his glider, but he supposed Aang was the expert.
"Do you want to go, then?" Sokka asked.
After a moment of glaring toward the temple, Aang finally sighed and shook his head. "No, I still want to see the temple. Let's go, buddy, yip-yip." He shook Appa's reins a little and, with a grunt and a flap of his tail, they were off.
As they started to come into the view of the people around the temple, more of them disappeared from their places flying around outside, probably landing because they didn't know who was coming.
And as they approached, too, Zuko could see them more clearly. None of them looked much like Aang, but he supposed that didn't necessarily mean they weren't airbenders. At the very least, he could tell that they weren't traditional Air Nomad monks who had somehow escaped the Fire Nation's notice. None of them were bald or tattooed, and none of them wore the yellow robes Air Nomads were said to have worn (then again, Aang also didn't wear those, so that didn't mean much, either). They were a wide range of ages and genders, and based on skin tone and dress, they appeared to be from the Earth Kingdom. Why or how a bunch of Earth Kingdom people had wound up in an Air Nomad temple, Zuko had no idea, but he supposed he was about to find out.
While most of the flying figures had descended and landed, Zuko saw one launch itself from the side of the temple and swoop up toward them. As it approached, he could see that it was a young boy, definitely of Earth Kingdom descent, who was in a wheelchair equipped with a specially-fitted glider attached to it. He looked like he was around Aang's age, maybe a little older.
"Who are you?" he asked as he came in to fly next to them.
The four of them all looked at each other.
"Travelers," Katara called out after a beat of silence. She gestured at Aang. "Aang is an airbender, and he wanted to see one of the old temples."
Sokka elbowed her. "Katara, what are you doing?"
"What?" she asked. "It's not like it's a secret."
The boy wasn't paying attention to their little aside, though. He had turned to look at Aang with wide eyes. "You're an airbender?"
"Uh, yeah." Aang launched himself into the air on his glider and did a spinning barrel roll plus backflip combo before swooping back to land on Appa's head. A little unnecessarily, but the kid seemed impressed.
"Wow, my dad would love to meet you! Come on!"
He swooped away, back toward the temple grounds. After sharing another look between the four of them, Aang nudged Appa down.
Almost as soon as they had landed, the boy came up to them with a man at his side. He had a crazy beard and hair that was half-gone but still stuck out in all directions like he'd just gotten struck by lightning, and his eyebrows were patchy, as if they'd been partially singed off and never grew all the way back in.
The man was staring at Aang in awe. "My son tells me you're a real airbender?" he asked. "I've heard some rumors floating around of an airbender traveling this way. Are you, perchance…the Avatar?"
As he always did when this question was asked, Aang looked a little uncomfortable, but he smiled and said, "I'm Aang." Not technically confirming or denying, but most of the time people took it as a confirmation, and now was no different.
"Wow, it's an honor to meet you, Avatar Aang!" the man said, giving Aang a deep bow. When he rose, his eyes moved from Aang to the rest of them for the first time. "Who are your friends?"
"Oh, I'm Katara." Katara stepped forward. "And these are Sokka and Zuko."
Zuko forced himself not to wince. Maybe they should have discussed fake names. "Zuko" was pretty obviously Fire Nation.
But neither the man nor the younger boy seemed to think anything of it.
"I'm Teo," the boy said. "And this is my father. He's an inventor. He's the reason we can all fly around here, even though we're not airbenders."
"Really?" Sokka, who clearly hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation up to this point, leaned forward, suddenly interested. "How'd you do that?"
"It was quite simple, really," the mechanist said. "This place was already well-suited to gliding. When we found it, we discovered strange flying machines left here by the Air Nomads. I added some piping to increase the winds in the area so even us non-airbenders can use them to fly."
"That's so cool," Sokka said. "And you designed Teo's chair-glider, too?" He stepped closer to Teo. "Can I take a look at it?"
"Of course!" Teo said with a grin. He wheeled himself around so Sokka could get a better angle.
"Yes, I did," his father said, smiling adoringly at his son.
"Like I said, my dad's an inventor. He designed lots of other cool things too!"
Sokka was immediately engrossed in examining the glider, and the mechanist started talking animatedly about the things that went into designing it, and the mechanisms that pumped wind around the temple. It was making Zuko's eyes glaze over, and after about fifteen seconds of this, he couldn't handle it anymore.
"Yeah, that's great," he said. "But we came here to see the temple. Could we maybe get on to that?"
"Oh, of course!" the mechanist said, as Katara and Aang shot Zuko grateful looks. "Come on, I'll take you on a tour. We've really made this place work for our needs."
And so Teo and his father took them on a tour of the temple. It was still just as grandiose as it had been when Zuko first saw it, but now, the intricate wall carvings and frescoes were pockmarked with crude metal pipes that twisted around the outside of the temple—probably those were the things that were pumping air out so people could glide. Once-serene meditation pools stunk of industrial waste, and parts of the temple seemed to have been remodeled entirely.
Zuko was surprised that these people had managed to change the place so much in just the three years since he'd been here last. But as they walked, he couldn't help but notice that Aang's expression became more and more sour by the second.
Aang wasn't the kind of person to get angry easily. Zuko couldn't remember a single time during their entire travels where he'd legitimately been upset. But now, as they walked through a temple that was supposed to celebrate his heritage, he seemed positively livid. He glared at the mechanist's back as he chattered happily about all the changes that had been made to the space.
Sokka didn't seem to notice Aang's preoccupation. He was ahead of the rest of them, walking next to Teo and the mechanist, listening intently and asking questions as they walked. But Katara did, and she fell into step on the other side of Aang from Zuko.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked. "I'm sure this isn't…quite what you were expecting from your first air temple visit."
"How could I be okay?" Aang pointed at a nearby wall painting of an Air Nomad monk, which had a metal pipe jutting out right where its face would be. "Everything here is ugly, and it smells. This can't be the way the monks would've wanted it."
"There have to be some parts of the temple that have been left alone," Katara said.
As it turned out, Katara was right, though barely. It would've taken far too long for the mechanist and Teo to take them everywhere in the temple, but they took them through a lot of it, and nearly everything seemed to have been touched by the mechanist's inventions in one way or another. But there were two places that seemed mostly unscathed.
One was a room with a closed door in the very center of the central tower's bottom floor. A long, elaborately decorated hallway (also untouched aside from the natural wear and tear of age) was the only path to it, and it ended with this door. The door appeared to be made of some sort of wood—though if it was, Zuko would have thought it would show some signs of rot after so many years—and was decorated with a raised swirling design that looked similar to the symbol of the Air Nomads, except it had extra filigree around the outside that curved around and ended with two large bell-like openings at the bottom on either side.
When they came to this door, Teo explained, "It can only be opened by an airbender, so the inside is completely untouched."
"Aang?" Katara asked. "Do you wanna take a look?"
Aang was already starting to shake his head, but before he could say anything, the mechanist piped in—in a slightly nervous tone—and said, "We don't really have time for that right now. Much to see!" And he began heading back down the hall.
Aang followed, saying, "I'd rather leave it as is. At least that way I know something in this place is the way it's supposed to be."
The other place that was mostly untouched seemed to be that way only because the mechanist couldn't figure out how exactly to use it. It was smallish courtyard at the edge of the temple grounds that ended in a steep cliff which seemed to go all the way to the mountain's bottom far below.
The courtyard was roughly circular, and at the far side of the circle, butting right up against the cliff edge, was a raised dais containing a few dozen closely-packed fan-like pillars that spun constantly in the winds that whipped around the outside of the mountain's peak.
The mechanist didn't pause to discuss this place, and in fact they didn't even pass through it, just walked near it on their way to another spot, but when Aang caught sight of it, he grabbed Zuko and pointed. "That's one of those things I was telling you about before. Where the monks used to train."
"On the edge of a cliff?" Zuko asked. "I'm glad you didn't have me do that."
Aang just laughed. They continued on to follow the others, but Zuko had a feeling he would be returning here not too long from now.
Eventually, mercifully, the tour came to an end as the sun was starting to go down, and Teo and his father showed them to a place where they could sleep for the night.
Zuko was more than ready to sleep, even if he did wish he could do so in a place other than this Air Nomad temple, and he passed out within seconds of lying down.
But sleep wasn't something he was lucky enough to get on this night, because it seemed like no time passed before he woke to the feeling of a hand shaking his shoulder and Aang's voice whispering, "Zuko, get up. We've gotta go to that spot with the fans."
Zuko groaned, cracking his eyes open—it was fully dark in the room now, though Aang was holding a little candle in one hand, keeping it close to his body to shield the light from the rest of the chamber as much as possible. Zuko could hear Sokka snoring on the other side of the room.
"Right now?" Zuko asked—a little too loudly. Aang waved his free hand frantically in a downward motion, as if to say, Hush! Zuko rolled his eyes but continued in a quieter voice: "Can't this wait until morning?"
"You're the one who wanted to keep your"—eyes quickly darting to the side of the room where the others slept—"airbending block a secret. Plus, if we wait till morning one of the villagers might see you bending and start asking some questions. Come on."
Zuko sighed. He pushed himself to his feet, slipped on some shoes, and began following Aang as quietly as possible toward the place where they had seen the training area.
When they got there, Zuko realized just how terrible of an idea this was. The courtyard was outdoors, so it wasn't quite as dark as it could be, but it was still pretty dark. The moon, though nearly full, was partially covered by clouds so there was very little to see by other than faint starlight and what small amount of moonlight could find its way through the cloud cover. Aang's little candle had blown out as soon as they'd stepped outside, of course.
"You can't be serious," Zuko said as he surveyed the scene. "You want me to go through the fans now? In the dark, right next to a cliff?"
"You've already done this before," Aang said. "It should be easy for you now."
"Not on the edge of a cliff in the dark." And not with real fans, either. Zuko was pretty sure getting hit by those things would be a lot worse than the air spouts pushing him around like they had in the clearing on their first lesson. And that had been bad enough.
"If it'll make you feel better, I can go first."
It wouldn't. But Zuko nodded anyway.
Aang grinned. He stepped around Zuko and positioned himself on the right side of the dais. He studied the swirling fans for a moment, tilting his head as if listening to a distant symphony, and then, with an expression of pure focus, stepped into the maelstrom.
As usual, Zuko was in awe of Aang's skill. He spun through the fans, always seeming just a half-step away from getting hit by one and knocked off course, but he never did. He anticipated each erratic movement of the fans and moved with them, finding his nonlinear path through them until he emerged on the opposite side.
No matter how good of an airbender Zuko became, he was certain it would never come as naturally to him as it did to Aang. Aang's bending was an integral part of almost everything he did, like it was another limb.
Was that the way it had been for all the Air Nomads, or was it a side effect of Aang having been forced to learn everything on his own? Zuko couldn't know.
He didn't have much time to ponder it, either, because Aang hopped over to him and gave him a little shove forward. "Now it's your turn."
"How exactly is this supposed to help my problem?" Zuko asked as he made his way over to where Aang had started and stared at the fans dubiously.
"I don't know." Aang had gotten up onto one of the pillars that dotted the perimeter of the courtyard and was looking down at Zuko. "I just thought maybe training in the place where the old Air Nomads used to train would awaken something in you. It's worth a shot, right?"
Zuko just looked at him for a few seconds, making sure that his expression showed his disapproval. Then he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried to recenter himself. He opened up his senses, listening to the whooshing of the wind all around, feeling the way it pulled at his clothes and hair and skin. This should be easy, right? Aang was right; he'd done this before.
Opening his eyes, Zuko stepped into the maze.
As soon as he got in, he could tell this wasn't going to go as smoothly as he'd hoped. The sound of the fans spinning was overpowering, making it hard to focus, and when he took a misstep, they smacked into him, hard, and it hurt. Just one mistake was enough to end the whole attempt, as the fans began to batter at him, and it was impossible to fall back into a rhythm with them.
They smacked him around until he found himself teetering on the precipice, staring down into darkness, but he knew that if he could see, the drop would be too far to even fathom.
You're an airbender, Zuko. Trust the air.
But he'd never really done that, had he? He thought he had, he'd even convinced himself of it. He was close friends with the air by this point. He liked it, even relied on it at times.
But sometimes there were secrets even between the closest of friends. And truly trusting the air, to him, meant letting go of everything that made him who he was, the good and the bad—and as a fan smacked him one more time, just enough to send him toppling over the edge, he realized he couldn't.
With a yelp, Zuko kicked out his feet, flailed his hands, and the elements responded—but not air. Fire blasted from the soles of his shoes, lighting up the midnight sky as bright as day and giving him just enough backwards propulsion to grab hold of the ledge. Slowly and carefully, still teetering on the edge of certain death, he crawled to a portion of the ledge that wasn't next to the fan dais.
Aang, who had hopped off his pillar when Zuko fell and ran across, grabbed hold of his arm and helped him climb back up onto solid ground.
Zuko glared at him despite himself. "Thanks for the help."
Aang was staring at him, wide-eyed. "I'm—"
"I think I'm done here," Zuko said. He was already halfway out of the courtyard.
He expected Aang to follow him, to call out after him. But he didn't. He simply watched in silence from his place by the ledge. Zuko could swear he felt Aang's eyes on him long after he had disappeared around the corner.
He didn't go back to the chamber they'd been given to sleep in. He didn't want to be around people right now, not even sleeping ones, and so instead he found himself drawn upward. He climbed staircases and ramps, making his way up through the central tower until he reached a room near the very top.
It was a large circular room that may have been a bedroom. If the monk (or monks) who'd lived here had kept any keepsakes or decoration, they had been looted or withered in the hundred years since, and now it was just a simple chamber with one window, a couple of alcoves that may have held beds built into the walls, and an empty stone table in the center.
Zuko looked around the room for a moment, then made his way over to the window—it had no glass, nor any other kind of barrier, and was easily big enough for at least two people to stand up in it side by side. Zuko suspected that when the monks had been here, this room was probably most often accessed through this window and not the path he'd taken.
He sat down on the sill and stared out over the darkened temple grounds.
He didn't know how long he sat there, just looking and thinking, but after what might've been hours or mere minutes, a voice behind him said, "Do you mind if I join you?"
Naturally, Zuko nearly leaped out of his skin. He sprung to his feet and spun around so fast he almost got dizzy, but fell immediately into a defensive stance.
That stance didn't relax much when he saw who was there. Standing in the open doorway, with a lit lantern in his hand and a strange, oblong pack over his shoulder, was the mechanist who had shown them around today.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said with a little chuckle. "I just wanted to talk."
"Talk," Zuko repeated. It was halfway between a question and a statement.
"You're not what you appear to be, are you?" the man said. "I saw what happened in the courtyard down there. Your group came here claiming that Aang was the Avatar, but that's not true, is it? It's you. And that's not all, either. You're Fire Nation."
Zuko didn't know why that was what made him relax his defensive stance. The words were accusatory, but the tone was matter-of-fact, and for some reason that dichotomy put him at ease. He lowered his fists, studying the mechanist's face for a moment, and finally nodded. "I am."
"May I join you?" he asked again, and this time, Zuko nodded. He sat back down, cross-legged on the windowsill, leaning against the side of the window, and the mechanist made his way into the room and sat down on the edge of the central stone table. He slid his strangely shaped pack off his back and held it in his lap.
"What is that?" Zuko asked, and the mechanist smiled a little.
"That's not important right now. I'm far more interested in your story, young man. An Avatar from the Fire Nation, while the Fire Nation is at war with the world. It must be a heavy burden."
Zuko sat up straighter, tilting his head slightly as he studied the mechanist. "You don't seem angry."
"Why should I be?"
Zuko narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "I lied to you."
The mechanist laughed. "Everyone lies. You're not the only one who has secrets, my boy. I've done things I regret, things that I can never tell anyone, and things that dig at my conscience even to this day. But all of those things—every single one of them—I did because I wanted to make sure the people here—and especially my son Teo—could survive and thrive, and that Teo could grow up to be the great man I know he will one day be. I don't care so much about the lying as I do about the reason why. So what's your reason?"
Zuko shifted his weight and looked away. "My reasons aren't nearly as noble."
"Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"
Zuko bit his lip as he turned his head back toward the mechanist. The man's expression was full of nothing but open and honest curiosity and concern. Even though this man knew Zuko was the Avatar, his eyes held none of the weighty expectations that title carried. Right now, as he looked at Zuko, he wasn't looking at him as "the Avatar," the one who was supposed to bring balance and save the world and all that. He just saw a boy.
He was looking at him the way his uncle always had. Not as the prince of the Fire Nation, not as the Avatar, not as the one person who could fix all of the world's problems, but as Zuko.
He hadn't realized how much he relied on that, and how much he'd been missing it ever since his uncle left. His friends were great, and for the most part, they treated him like he was a regular person. But even with them, Zuko sometimes felt the weight of their expectations in the way they looked at him, the way they acted around him. He felt like he was constantly failing to live up to how the world wanted him to be.
His uncle had always been one of the few people with whom Zuko felt like himself, one of the few people who didn't make him feel like he was a failure.
That look, the feeling of being regarded as just another human being, made all of Zuko's walls crash down at once, and he found himself pouring out everything to the mechanist. The Avatar ruse with Aang, his doubts, his recent struggles with airbending, his complicated feelings about his new and old identity, his family. It all came out in a wash of words that jumbled and contorted in strange and sometimes not entirely coherent ways.
But through all of it, the mechanist simply listened attentively, not offering commentary or insight or advice, just being an ear for his woes.
When Zuko had finished, a beat of silence followed—one that stretched long enough that Zuko's walls started to creep back up, and he started panicking. Why had he said all of that? He didn't know anything about this man. What if he was a spy, or an assassin? What if he'd come up here to tease out all of Zuko's secrets and then throw him out this window and let him bleed out on the rocks far below?
Before he went too far down that train of thought, though, the mechanist finally spoke.
"You know," he said, "when I came here with Teo and the rest of the villagers a few years ago, we'd been on the run from the Fire Nation for years—most of Teo's life, in fact. Many of us had lost everything. I had lost my wife, Teo's mother. The attacks had left Teo badly injured and unable to use his legs. Many others who we brought with us had suffered similar fates. We found this place empty and abandoned, but filled with traces of the battle that was fought here long ago, and unfamiliar architecture and strange devices whose purpose we couldn't figure out at first. It was like stepping into an alien world, and it was both scary and beautiful at once. Slowly, we started to adapt to this place, and the place began to adapt to us as well. We forged a new identity, not rejecting where we came from or who we were before, but weaving those old things in with the new."
"What are you trying to say?" Zuko asked.
"You said you're worried that embracing your nature as the Avatar means turning your back on your people and your identity—but I don't think that's true. The beauty of the Avatar is that, in a way, they belong to all the nations, including the Fire Nation. You don't have to let go of that part of your past if you don't want to. Instead, you can create something new that incorporates all the different facets of who you are. And I think I have something that might help you start."
As he spoke, he was unwrapping the oblong package he'd been holding in his lap this whole time. When he was done, he held it out to Zuko.
"The reason why I didn't immediately follow you up here was because, after seeing what happened in the courtyard, an idea struck me. I spent the past few hours before coming up here working on this. I had a feeling it would be perfect for you."
Zuko stood up to take it from him. It was a very long wooden staff, at least two feet taller than he was. Zuko recognized it, of course, as the same kind of staff as the one Aang carried—an airbender's glider. This staff seemed to be a little more high-tech than Aang's, though. It had several joints along it that allowed it to be folded down into a more manageable length that could be carried in a pack like the one the mechanist had brought it in.
Also unlike Aang's, this staff was made of a dark, dark wood—almost black. Zuko shook the staff the way he'd seen Aang do, and when the glider's sails popped out, he gasped. The fabric was a deep red, and the wood that made up the wings' scaffolding was the same ebony color as the body of the staff, but the real stunner was the gold trim that ran along the inner and outer edges of the sails. It glimmered faintly in the dim light coming from the mechanist's lantern.
Red, black, and gold. The shades weren't exactly right, but it was almost…Fire Nation colors.
Weaving together the old and the new.
Zuko blinked hard, because he felt tears beginning to pool up in his eyes, and he was not going to cry over a stupid glider. But he met the mechanist's eyes, and his voice did crack despite himself when he said, "Thank you."
"My pleasure. Now, do you think you'll be okay? It's very late, and these old bones need their beauty sleep."
Zuko nodded, and watched, dumbfounded, as the mechanist patted him on the shoulder.
He turned and began to walk out of the room, but paused at the door to look back at Zuko. "Oh, and don't worry, your secret is safe with me. If you still wish to keep it." He smiled.
Then, without waiting for a response, he continued around the corner, moving with a casual air, as if he hadn't just shaken Zuko's entire world.
Zuko sat back down in the window, clutching his new glider. He was certain he'd never be able to calm down enough to go back downstairs to sleep.
He was half right. He didn't go back to the chamber downstairs, but he did eventually fall asleep right there, leaning against the wall with his brand new glider in his hands, staring over the darkened temple grounds.
The next morning, Katara woke to the sound of frantic voices.
Sokka and Aang were already up, and as far as Katara could tell, they seemed to be destroying the room.
"What's going on?" she asked, sitting up and looking around in confusion.
"Oh good, you're awake," Sokka said, turning away from where he was glaring at Aang. "Aang thinks Zuko might have run away again."
"What?" Katara was on her feet immediately. "What do you mean?"
"I took Zuko out for a little training last night while everyone was sleeping," Aang said. "He—he's been having some trouble recently, and I thought maybe doing a lesson in a place that was designed to train airbenders would help unlock something. It didn't work, though, and he got frustrated and ran off deeper into the temple. I figured he needed to cool off, so I came back here and went to bed, thinking he'd come back at some point during the night, but he's still not here."
Katara frowned in annoyance. It was just like Zuko, to fly off the handle like that. "Well, he has to be in the temple. We're at the top of a mountain. Where could he possibly go?"
"Is Appa still here?" Sokka asked.
They all looked at each other, concerned, then rushed off toward the bison stables. If Zuko had taken Appa, it would mean they were all going to be stranded here, unless the villagers here had some way of getting down. Surely even Zuko wouldn't do something like that.
To their relief, though, they found Appa exactly where they had left him the night before. He raised his head as they approached and made a sound of greeting.
"Hey, buddy," Aang said as they approached, relief coloring his voice. He walked up and began petting the fur on Appa's head. Appa's eyes half-closed, and he leaned into the touched with a contented murmur. "You haven't seen Zuko around, have you?"
Appa shook himself in a way that indicated no, he hadn't.
"He's gotta be somewhere in the temple," Katara said. "Maybe one of the villagers saw him. We should go ask around."
"Maybe we should split up," Sokka suggested. "We'll find him faster that way."
As it turned out, they didn't need to do any of that, because as soon as they exited the bison stables, the mechanist was there.
"Good morning, everyone!" he said cheerily. "I saw you three rushing off so hurriedly toward the stables, and I worried maybe you were planning on leaving already. Is everything okay?"
"Uh…" Aang glanced back at Katara and Sokka. "No, we're fine. We were just concerned because our friend Zuko wasn't in the room with us when we woke up. You haven't seen him, have you?"
"Not since we spoke last night, I haven't."
Aang's eyes went wide. "Not since you spoke…last night?"
Sokka's expression immediately went from neutral to a glare as he stared at Aang's back. Katara elbowed him and shook her head.
"When did you two talk last night?" Katara asked. "He was with us until we went to sleep."
"I think perhaps we should go to a more private place to discuss this," the mechanist said, looking around. There were a handful of people walking nearby, possibly close enough to hear their conversation. "Come on—I've been wanting to show you my workshop anyway."
Before any of them could protest, he turned and began making his way back up the path to the central tower. The three of them looked at each other uncertainly, but they didn't have much choice but to follow, so they did.
As Katara walked, though, she scanned around, on the off-chance that maybe she could see Zuko hiding somewhere off the path. She wasn't expecting it to work—which was why she was so surprised when she looked up toward the top of the tower and saw a dark speck that seemed to leap from a high up window and begin to plummet.
Now—that wasn't necessarily an unusual sight around here. These people could fly on gliders like airbenders, but from what she had seen, they mostly did that by leaping off of platforms located at the edges of the temple grounds. Plus, this person—or whatever it was—didn't look like they were gliding, they were falling.
"Sokka. Aang," Katara said, slowing down and pointing upward. "What is that?"
She squinted her eyes, trying to get a better idea—it was certainly a person, she realized. Not just a person. It looked like Zuko.
Sokka had raised his head and, shielding his eyes against the sun, was squinting toward the figure. "Is that Zuko?" he asked.
Before any of them could say anything else, Aang had already pulled out his glider and taken to the air.
Katara's heart climbed into her throat, her eyes glued to that dark speck, getting steadily larger as it fell. Aang swooped toward it, but there was no way he'd get there in time. No way…
The speck's downward motion slowed and then stopped. Despite herself, Katara gasped and ran to the edge of the path, her hands gripping the low barrier wall.
Aang, who had already gotten halfway to Zuko, stopped, hesitating, and Katara heard his laugh get carried away on the wind before he began to come back in their direction.
But her gaze was fixed on the figure, Zuko, as his form became larger and more defined. He was soaring on the air toward them, holding a glider like Aang's, but made of wood so dark it was almost black, and dark red fabric trimmed with glistening gold to form the sails.
Katara stared as he passed above them, then spun in the air and came to a graceful landing in the center of the pathway. In that moment, he looked like the Avatar she'd spent her whole life wishing for, and he looked like the prince he'd been raised as. More than that, he looked truly confident in himself, for the first time since Katara met him. He was beautiful and powerful, with windswept hair and golden eyes that sparked with joy.
Katara forced herself not to look awestruck, not to smile, but she couldn't help the warmth that darkened her cheeks even as she put on a frown and crossed her arms.
"Where did you go?" she demanded. "We've been looking everywhere for you."
"I needed some time to figure a few things out," Zuko said, and she hated how the light in his eyes dimmed when they met hers, and how quickly he turned away to face Aang. His smile was present, but half-hearted now. Because of her.
"I think I did it," he said to Aang.
"I'd say you did!" Aang was making no attempt to hide how impressed he was. "You just flew."
"Yeah." Now Zuko's cheeks reddened, and he brought his hand up to run it through his messy hair. "I guess I did."
"Well," Sokka said after a beat, "do you think you found what you came here for?"
Aang looked at Zuko, and Zuko looked back. Something passed between them that Katara couldn't decipher, but then they both nodded.
Behind him, the mechanist had turned to watch—and Katara realized that several other people had stopped to look as well, looking both impressed and confused by the display. Zuko seemed to notice the attention as well, and his cheeks reddened a little more, but he stood tall and gave a nod to the onlookers. Then he turned around to look at the mechanist and bowed.
"Thank you for your gift, and your advice," he said as he rose.
"I can see that you took it to heart," the mechanist said with a smile.
"Um, what's going on?" Sokka asked.
Zuko looked over at him. He shook the staff, and the glider wings retracted back into an unassuming black staff. He folded it at some cleverly placed joints along its length and tucked it under his arm. "Tell you later. It looked like you guys were going somewhere?"
"We were going to the mechanist's workshop," Katara said. "He'd said he talked to you."
Zuko and the mechanist shared a quick look, then Zuko said, "Well, let's go then."
They went to the workshop, which was filled to the brim with all kinds of gadgets, most of which were only partially constructed. The mechanist pushed some scrap metal and other odds and ends off of a table and motioned for everyone to sit down around it.
Once they had, he and Zuko tag-teamed telling them the story of how the mechanist had seen Aang and Zuko sneak out last night and had followed them and saw the disastrous training session, then saw Zuko storm off up to one of the upper floors of the tower. After heading back to the workshop to do some frantic building (or "adjusting," as he claimed he'd had the basic prototype of the glider down and it just needed some aesthetic alterations), the mechanist had followed Zuko upstairs, and they'd chatted for a while.
They didn't go into much detail about what exactly the conversation had been, but gave broad strokes.
Zuko ended by saying, "This whole time, I've been afraid to accept my role as the Avatar because I thought I'd be turning my back on my country. But now I realize that I can be both Fire Nation and the Avatar, because the Avatar belongs to all nations. I can weave the different parts of me together to make something new, and maybe even help my people in the process." As if to demonstrate his point, he shook his staff again, causing the wings to pop out.
Katara had to admit it was a striking sight. An Air Nomad's glider decorated with the Fire Nation's colors. Once, she would've found such a sight repulsive, but now it just seemed beautiful and appropriate.
"That's great, Zuko!" Aang said.
"I wouldn't have made it to that conclusion without help," Zuko said.
Sokka and Aang both looked at the mechanist, but Zuko's eyes met Katara's across the table, and she knew that he wasn't just referring to the conversation he'd had with the mechanist last night. She flashed back to the conversation they'd had by the river, when she'd told him about her mother and he had told her about his.
She'd assumed it had meant nothing to him, but apparently, she had been wrong. Despite herself, she smiled at him, and he smiled back.
They both looked away before the others noticed.
