Silence stretched for a few seconds after Zuko's announcement, as he tried to put his thoughts back into a coherent pattern and Azula eyed each of his friends up and down carefully.
"Um," Aang said. "It's nice to meet you." It sounded like a question.
"Yes," Azula agreed, taking a step forward. "It is. And since my brother is being so terribly impolite today, may I know your names?"
Zuko shook his head at them from behind her back, and his friends all looked at each other uncomfortably. But they didn't have much choice, so finally, Katara stepped forward.
"My name is Katara, and this is Sokka and Aang. We're sorry, we didn't realize we'd be walking in on a family reunion today."
"I'm sure you didn't."
"What are you really here for, Azula?" Zuko demanded. "I know you didn't come here just to talk." The longer they stood there, the more annoyed he was becoming by Azula's smug expression. She was always so calm, so in control. She'd never been prone to flights of anger and passion the way he was.
And now was no different. She turned to him, her expression unchanged. "I came to bring you home, of course. I think you'll find that Father will be much more…welcoming of you now."
Zuko's heart clenched, conflicting emotions battling inside him as he digested those words.
"Yeah," Sokka muttered under his breath, "he'll welcome you into prison."
Azula shot a glare in his direction, then fixed her eyes back on Zuko.
Sokka was probably right, of course. His father only wanted him to lock him away. Still, he couldn't quiet that part of himself that still longed for his father's approval.
"Now that I'm the Avatar, he wants me back?" Zuko asked warily. He took a step back toward his friends, his hands moving once again to the swords at his side. His friends were tensed, too, expecting a fight any minute.
"There's no need for any of that," Azula said, waving a dismissive hand toward their battle-ready stances. "You succeeded on your quest, didn't you, Zuko? Father sent you out to find the Avatar, and you found him, just not in the way anyone expected. If you agree to come back home with me, you can still regain your honor in the eyes of the Fire Nation. What better boon could there be to our family and our country than having the Avatar alongside us, a member of the royal family, no less? Clearly, by choosing you, the spirits have decreed that our cause is just, have they not?"
Zuko thought of Hano and Kyin, the Earth Kingdom merchant couple whose wares and livelihood had nearly been destroyed by the whims of cruel Fire Nation guards. He thought about the earthbenders he and Sokka had encountered a few weeks before. He thought about all the towns they'd passed on their travels and how much fear the sight of a Fire Nation guard put into the villagers. He thought of his uncle after the siege of Ba Sing Se. Losing Lu Ten had changed him in ways that, even as a child, Zuko had been able to see clearly. He thought of the scar on his face, put there by his own father.
He thought of Teo's father at the Northern Air Temple, who'd handed him a glider and told him maybe there could be something better.
"Zuko." It was Katara who was speaking now. He felt her hand on his arm, and he looked up. "She's trying to get in your head."
"I'm trying to speak to my brother," Azula said, with venom in her voice. "You shouldn't presume to know him better than I do, Water Tribe peasant. I've known him my whole life." She met Zuko's eyes, and her expression softened. "Zuko, it's not just about you being the Avatar. Father has changed in the years since your banishment. He regrets his actions on that day, and wishes to make amends. He wants us to be a family again."
Azula always lies. It was his mantra throughout most of his childhood, and he tried to hold onto it now. But if this was a lie, it was one he wanted to believe so much it physically hurt. And, despite his better judgment, he felt himself falling for her honeyed words the way he had so many times when they were children. He pulled away from Katara's touch and stepped toward his sister.
"Father regrets?" he whispered. "He…wants me back?"
"Zuko, she's lying," Katara said. "We need to get out of here."
Azula said kept her eyes trained on Zuko. "Father sent me here to bring you home, Zuko. I was hoping you would come peacefully, but I'm prepared to do it by force if I have to."
"What, by yourself?" Sokka scoffed.
Azula laughed. "Of course not. I've got a few friends nearby, ready to help out if you try to fight."
A few friends. Could that mean… Mai was nearby? Zuko's eyes darted around the courtyard, but the place seemed completely deserted aside from his friends and Azula. That didn't mean anything, though. Mai and Ty Lee didn't become the Fire Nation princess's closest friends by accident. They were some of the most talented nonbenders the Fire Nation's noble houses could offer. Azula wouldn't associate with anyone but the best. It was why she'd never liked hanging out with Zuko when they were kids.
He caught Azula looking at him, the barest hint of a smile on her face, and he knew she could tell who he was looking for.
"Well, Zuko?" she asked as she walked back to the icy throne and sat down on it. "You're coming home either way, but it's up to you whether you want to do it as a hero or a traitor."
"I…" Zuko glanced back at his friends, whose faces were all practically screaming, NO! Then he looked at Azula, with her carefully neutral expression, and the promise of a father who maybe didn't hate him quite as much as he thought. The promise of a chance to change the Fire Nation from the inside, to finally do good.
Azula always lies.
Zuko forced himself to meet his sister's gaze. "I'll go with you," he said, "but my friends go free."
"Hm." Azula pretended to consider this offer, then shook her head. "Unfortunately, that won't work, Zuzu. You see, your friend there—Aang, was it?—he may not be the Avatar, at least according to Uncle, but by all accounts, he does seem to be the last airbender, and Father is very interested to find out how he managed to escape our notice for so long. I'll need to bring him, too. And your Water Tribe friends have been major players consorting with the Avatar to undermine the Fire Nation's goals up to this point, so they need to be there too. I can't allow any of you to leave this place."
"If this is about family, you shouldn't need them."
Azula sighed. "I should have known you wouldn't understand, Zuko. It is about family, but it's also about politics. You of all people should know that in our circles, they're one and the same. Will you come with me freely, or not?"
The anger of betrayal rose in his chest, and his face stung where his scar lay, almost as much as the day he'd first gotten it. "I can't let you take my friends. They're not a part of this."
Azula sighed again, more heavily this time, and she seemed to be genuinely remorseful. "So be it." She waved a hand—and the courtyard burst into action.
Assailants seemed to materialize from the walls and ceilings, and it was far more than just Mai and Ty Lee, though Zuko did see them, stepping out from behind the two empty thrones to either side of the one Azula was sitting in and falling in at her side.
Zuko backed up to his friends, forming a little square with them, back-to-back. He forced himself not to look at Mai, instead scanning the dozen or so people who had appeared from their varying hiding places. They all wore the blues and whites of the Northern Water Tribe soldiers he'd seen thus far, but a quick glance told him that most of them were certainly not Water Tribe. They had the same lighter beige skin tone, dark hair, and gold or brown eyes of Fire Nation natives.
Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee didn't act just yet, though Azula did stand up from her throne, her arms crossed. For the moment, they seemed content to watch while the soldiers attacked. But Zuko knew that wouldn't last long. He kept them in his peripheral vision, even as he turned to face his attackers.
His brain clicked into a different gear, one he hadn't had to use in a while, but it wasn't rusty. As the soldiers fell into a formation and assaulted them from all sides, he drew his swords and assumed a familiar stance.
It was like airbending, Zuko realized. He was in tune with the air around him, with the movements and sounds of his friends. He noticed and categorized all of it in seconds, while keeping his primary focus on the soldier before him.
The first man was there, swinging at him with a sword, and Zuko deflected it out of the way in the blink of an eye.
Several other enemies were forming a line, raising their fists to shoot fireballs. Zuko started to run toward them, but Aang jumped between their group and the firebenders, spinning his staff above his head. With a loud whoosh, a circle of wind began rotating around their group, pushing away the melee combatants and deflecting the fire blasts out of the way.
"Go!" he shouted. None of them needed to be told twice. They ran, and Aang ran with them, spinning his staff above his head with blinding speed.
But he couldn't keep it up forever. They'd managed to get most of the way across the main courtyard when Aang gasped, "Zuko, help me!"
The wind wall around them was starting to lessen. Zuko slid his swords into their sheathe and was starting to pull his own staff from his back when he heard a familiar crackling sound and an arc of blue lightning smashed into the ground directly in front of them.
That had to be Azula—but she hadn't been able to bend lightning the last time he'd seen her. Clearly she was still Father's little prodigy.
Zuko tried to stop, but it was too late. The blast of lightning kicked up a miniature explosion of dust, ice, and snow. Debris slammed into his face, and he could do nothing but hold up his hands to keep shards from gouging out his eyes. The icy crystals cut into his flesh and found their way into his nose and throat.
Coughing and hacking, Zuko and his friends were forced to slow, and Aang's wind blockade fell away.
When Zuko managed to get his bearings, Ty Lee was standing in front of them in the doorway.
She waved, smiling brightly. "Hi Zuko. I've missed you a bunch. Sorry we had to meet each other like this."
"Who the heck are you?" Sokka demanded. "Get out of the way!" He pushed past Zuko and Aang and tried to muscle his way past her.
"Sokka, don't—" Zuko began, too late.
Ty Lee giggled, and with a couple of quick, precise jabs, Sokka was on the ground in front of her, practically immobilized. Aang and Katara stared at her, aghast, and even Zuko was amazed by how easily she'd taken Sokka down. Like Azula, she'd improved her craft quite a bit in the three years since Zuko's banishment.
"You can still come peacefully, you know," she said, in that sweet, innocent way of hers. "We really don't want to hurt you."
"Speak for yourself," a monotone voice said from behind Zuko and the others. Zuko didn't need to turn around to know who that was, or to know that she was glaring directly at him.
He turned around anyway. Of course, there was Mai, her hands poised to flick blades at them, and Azula stood next to her, looking totally calm and put together. Behind them, the Fire Nation soldiers were approaching and circling their group.
It was hopeless. Zuko looked around at his friends, who were looking at him.
This was a fight they couldn't win. Not now.
Zuko started to raise his hands in surrender, knowing that was the safest course of action. But then he met his sister's eyes, and the look of smug superiority that he saw hiding behind her neutral expression made his anger flare up hotter than ever before.
Instead of raising his hands above his head, he pushed an open palm forward, blasting a fireball directly at her face.
Of course, she simply sidestepped it, but Zuko threw another fireball, and another, screaming even as Fire Nation soldiers surrounded and subdued his friends and finally himself.
They put up as much of a fight as they could, but with Sokka down, there was no way they could escape fast enough, not if they had to carry him with them. Before Zuko knew it, he was in chains, and Katara, Sokka, and Aang were in chains, and they were being marched down a long hall and out a secret back exit of the Northern Water Tribe's palace.
There waited a secluded harbor where dozens of small skiffs and boats waited. They didn't look like Water Tribe ships, but nor did they really look Fire Nation. There were no prominent Fire Navy emblems, and the ships were all clearly designed for speed and stealth, painted in colors that would let them blend in easily in this icy landscape.
Zuko could clearly see, even from here, that the people on those ships, and the people walking around the numerous tents set up all around, were Fire Nation soldiers. Unlike Azula and her friends, they were not dressed in Water Tribe blues and whites, but in the traditional black and red armor of the Fire Nation military. Most likely, these troops were waiting here to seize the Northern Water Tribe as soon as they left.
And these were only the troops Zuko could see. If Azula had been here for weeks, who knows how many ships of troops could be waiting beyond, preparing and hiding.
So not only had Zuko doomed everyone he cared about to death or life in a Fire Nation prison, by coming here, he'd also ensured that the Northern Water Tribe would fall. What a stellar Avatar he was shaping up to be.
He should've just agreed to go with Azula. Then at least he could've been going home with an advantage. Now he was nothing but a prisoner, and his father would never trust a word he said again.
Prince Zuko—he heard his uncle's voice in his head, repeating words he'd said during their last firebending lesson—pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. He had let his pride get the better of him, and ruined any chance they had of getting out of this on top.
They were led onto one of the small boats. Azula didn't even look at him when they got to the ship. She ordered that Zuko and his friends be brought belowdecks—"to join the others," is what she said. What others?
He supposed he would find out soon enough. The soldiers led him and his friends below.
