Toph moved her stone tent over to Zuko's and Iroh's side. She allowed Zuko to toss her an extra blanket that he didn't need anymore. She also allowed him to pass her a cup of tea. Zuko was over the moon with joy. She trusts me! I told her that I wouldn't demand things from her, and she believed me! I'm not going to have The Nightmare tonight. The water spirit pulsed twice in agreement. Zuko checked in with his spirit, and discovered that he felt strong again. While they practice earthbending tomorrow, I can practice my spiritbending!

Meanwhile, Aang and his crew thought about what Zuko had said. They remembered how they had discovered for themselves that seemingly basic parts of friendship could be very difficult. Katara touched her necklace and reminded herself of who she wanted to be. There was no more conflict that night. Everybody went to bed in good spirits.

But then…

Toph threw the blanket off and scurried out of her tent. "There's something coming toward us!" she called.

Zuko was already out of his tent. He stopped and stared at her. "You can sense it too?"

"Wait, what? You're not an earthbender."

Everybody else gathered around them. "Zuko has a sixth sense that detects powerful firebenders," Sokka explained to Toph. "And you can feel something coming towards us. Translation: incoming Fire Nation attack. Everybody move!"

They all scrambled to pack. Toph helped without being asked. Appa was in the air in ten minutes. "Now that we're out of immediate danger, what'd you feel, Toph?" Sokka asked. "Lots of determined footsteps? The wheels of a catapult?"

"I don't know how to describe it," Toph replied. "It felt like an avalanche, but also not an avalanche."

"A war machine." Zuko pointed to a cloud of dust rising from the treads of some fast-approaching mechanical monstrosity. "It's heavy, it's metal, it's fast, and it runs on treads. That's what you felt."

"Zuko, tell us everything you know about Fire Nation war machines," Sokka asked. "Also, is that seriously the best you can do? Wow. Zero imagination."

"'War machine' is its official name," Zuko replied. "It's a machine designed to carry the…the aura of war with it." He grimaced. "Or the impression of war, or…or to remind people of what war is. The point is, that's what it's for. It's designed to be scary and intimidating. It has attack power, but its purpose is really to break people's spirits and scare them into giving up or retreating. They're a recent invention. My father had the idea for them."

"Who's your father, and why do you know so much about Fire Nation tech?" Toph asked.

"My father is Firelord Ozai."

Toph's jaw dropped. "You're the son of the big bad Aang's trying to beat?"

"Yeah. I know, it's weird. I rightfully should be on the side of the Fire Na -"

"That's great! With your insider information, we've got him beat!" Toph turned around with a grin. "Hey Aang, how'd you manage to turn the Firelord's son over to your side?"

"I didn't, actually," Aang replied from his seat on the back of Appa's head. "The forces of destiny did. But I don't think that's important right now. Zuko, why is the Fire Nation chasing us with something designed to be scary?"

"It's designed to make people surrender or retreat. We won't surrender, so it must be here to make us retreat. Which is exactly what we're doing."

"Why is it trying to make us fly away?" Katara asked.

"Maybe it's herding us in a specific direction," Sokka suggested. "Or maybe it's just a stalling tactic to keep Aang from learning earthbending before a strike team can get to us."

"Appa can fly faster than that thing, right?" Toph asked. Katara checked and confirmed that the war machine was out of sight. "Then what do we have to worry about?"

"My sister," Zuko muttered. "I don't know how she does it, but she always seems to have things prepared in advance. It's like she can see the future."

"His sister is a young girl version of the Firelord," Sokka told Toph. "They might have, like, spies or something set up along our route to keep the war machine on track."

Aang turned Appa sharply to the left. "Then let's go off course!" He guided Appa away from open rocky areas towards thick forest, thinking that the Fire Nation would expect him to head for a good training ground. They hovered over trees so thick that Aang had to leap out and blast a path through the branches before Appa could land. The ground was damp and bumpy with roots. "There's no way they could have predicted I'd go here. This place is terrible for beginner earthbending."

"I agree," Toph said. "It's fine if you know what you're doing, but a novice like you wouldn't learn a thing."

Sokka yawned. "Great. We're safe. Now let's get some rest."

"I feel off…" Zuko muttered. "Like sparks are dancing in my chest."

"The fire spirit," Katara said. "That's how you sense powerful firebenders! Your connection to Fire in general lets you sense when someone else with a strong fire spirit is near."

Zuko put a hand on his stomach. "Why is it still dancing around if we've escaped?"

"Everybody stop talking," Toph called. She got down on all fours and focused hard. Everybody else held their breath. "I can feel some faint vibrations, but there are always some of those. My own heartbeat makes vibrations. If it's still after us, I can't hear it over the sound of you guys freaking me out." She stood up and faced them all. "I need some answers. I joined this group so I could teach Aang earthbending. But now, I'm finding out that I can't teach him anything because we've got an evil princess on our tails! Why did nobody mention that before I joined?"

"I've always had the Fire Nation after me. Everyone knows that," Aang answered.

Sokka groaned. "Can we please get some sleep? The fire spirit could be jumpy for any reason. If Toph's not hearing anything, then I think we're safe. Let's just go to bed."

"And what's up with this fire spirit?" Toph asked. Sokka flopped down onto the ground and buried his face in the mud.

"The short story is, the elements are alive. They have spirits just like people do. In order to bend, your spirit has to be entangled with theirs. You have an earth spirit bonded to you, Katara has a water spirit, my sister has a fire spirit, my uncle has a different fire spirit, etcetera etcetera," Zuko said.

"You can feel spirits, which lets you feel benders," Toph said.

"No," Zuko replied. "They have ways of communicating with each other. The only fire spirit I can connect to is my own, but my fire spirit can talk to someone else's fire spirit."

Sokka lifted his face out of the mud. "Hey, that's a great idea! Why don't you ask your fire spirit to yell at your sister's fire spirit, like you did with Zhao? Then her firebending will go away. Problem solved."

"Zhao was an angry, hotheaded idiot who insulted Fire in general by giving it a bad reputation. My sister isn't an idiot. She makes Fire look smart. It won't object to that."

"Shut up, Sokka," Toph snapped. "I'm still confused. How exactly does your sixth sense work? What makes it go off?"

"It goes off whenever I'm in danger from some powerful firebender approaching me, about to catch me," Zuko said. "It didn't go off when I was eating dinner with my father, or in a meeting with him, but if I was fooling around in the garden and he was looking for me it would go off in time for me to clean myself up."

"So, your sixth sense doesn't tell you where they are. It tells you what they're about to do. Sounds like you're a psychic."

"They're entangled with the spirits of their humans," Zuko shot back. "They know everything. Your thoughts, your feelings. Everything."

Toph put her hands on the ground. "I'm not any calmer, but the background noise is louder. You were right. Your fire spirit's dancing around because it knows that she knows some way to find us. She's not close, but she's still after us."

"How?" Sokka asked. "I'm not saying I believe in psychics, or in weird spirit stuff, but I'd like to be prepared just in case."

"This is the last place I would ever go for earthbending training," Aang said. "How is she following us?"

Everybody turned to look at Zuko. "I can only know what it knows if I merge with it," he said. "I don't want to do that with a fire spirit in the middle of a forest."

"Maybe we can spot something from the air," Toph said. "I can feel its avalanchey-ness now. We're definitely being followed."

With much groaning from Appa, they took to the air again. "Let's fly in a giant circle," Aang suggested. "I'll get out of sight, then loop around and come back here."

"Then keep looping around until you've followed its tracks," Zuko suggested. "See if it stops anywhere."

They proceeded to do just that. While they flew, Iroh spoke up for the first time all night. "I'd like to take the time to point out something that deserves mention. You all are working very well together, coordinating your resources and abilities with hardly any conflict. You're behaving like mature young warriors, and you should be proud."

Katara smiled. "Thank you, General Iroh. Oh, Toph, that's right. Zuko's uncle is General Iroh, the Firelord's brother. He led a siege against Ba Sing Se."

Toph's eyes widened. "I've heard all about that. Wow. What a compliment." Iroh smiled.

"Stupid circles," Zuko muttered. He leaned over the side of the saddle, staring down at the dark forest.

"Hey, what's wrong with circles?"

"They're the water spirit's favorite shape. I can't not notice them. It's like the world is shoving them in my face."

"How would you know what water spirits like?" Toph asked.

Zuko sighed. "Uncle, can you explain?"

Iroh shook his head. "No. It's your identity. You must learn to own it openly."

Zuko closed his eyes. "So, Toph… There's this thing called a twospirit. It's a person bonded to two opposite elemental spirits. In my case, fire and water."

There was an expectant pause. "And…?" Toph said when it became clear he wasn't going to continue.

"And what?"

"And why are you like that? The Avatar exists in order to keep peace between the elements. What's your special job?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Time out," Sokka called. "We agreed to let you ride with us again on the condition that you opened up. No more keeping secrets."

"Your uncle told us some things, but I don't fully understand," Katara said. "What is your special job, Zuko?"

"I'd also like to know that," Aang said. Momo chattered loudly and raised his ears. Everyone was in agreement.

Zuko growled in frustration. He turned around and leaned against the side of the saddle with his arms crossed. "I don't know."

"Then what's there to not want to talk about?" Toph asked.

"The water spirit told me a story about using my special abilities to save the world. It was very inspirational and it got me moving just when I needed to move. But that's all it was."

"What?" Katara leaned forward. "Water itself, one of the four elements, told you something and you doubt it? How could you accuse an all-knowing spirit of lying to you? That's the most arrogant thing I've ever heard!"

"If there's one thing I've learned from the water spirit, it's that there are multiple kinds of everything," Zuko shot back. "Including truth. There's literal truth, and then there's the truth that I really needed a push back then. It probably decided that giving me hope was the more important one."

"Guys, we're going to have to continue this talk some other time," Aang said. "I think I can see our campsite."

Zuko pronounced the area clear, so they landed to investigate the war machine's tracks. "Oh, fishsticks," Sokka exclaimed. Everybody looked where he was looking, and fell silent.

"What's going on?" Toph asked. "I can't feel anything."

"It's Appa's shed fur," Aang told her. "That's how they're following us." Bits of white peeked through the churned-up mud as far as they could see.

"How long is Appa going to be shedding for?" Zuko asked. "Can we wash all the loose fur out, or is he just going to drop more?"

"By the time he gets around to leaving a trail, most of the fur's loose," Aang said. "Cleaning him will work for a few days."

"We just need one," Sokka said with a yawn.

"That's probably why she's using a war machine," Iroh said. "She knows that Zuko is with us, and look how tired you're getting. Making everyone tired and cranky is sure to provoke conflict."

"But luckily for us, Toph already provoked the conflict, so we have it all out of our systems!" Katara said. "And Zuko, of course. If he hadn't spoken up, we'd be powder kegs by now."

"See, Nephew?" Iroh said while proudly putting an arm around Zuko's shoulders. "Owning your feelings is important! Even if they are unpleasant, hiding them away is never the solution."

"Yeah, those are very wise words, Uncle," Zuko said while slipping away. "Can we get moving? We've got a giant bison to wash."

They took to the air again, this time looking for low ground, hoping to find a river or lake. There were none nearby. The sun rose. It did little to perk up the party, who all had bags under their eyes. "Gotta find water," Aang repeated to keep himself and Appa awake. "Gotta find water." He thought it was a mirage when he eventually found some. But then he blinked his eyes clear, realized it was no mirage, and whooped for joy. "Look! Just up ahead, there's a river!"

That woke everyone up. Appa roared and sped toward the river. When he landed, everybody grabbed a piece of luggage and leaped off. Aang tossed bags down without looking, trusting his friends to catch them, then used airbending to lift the saddle off. "Into the river, Appa," Katara commanded. "Sokka and Iroh, grab a brush. Toph, keep watch. Zuko…" She hesitated. "I know you don't like to think about it, but we really could use another waterbender right now."

"I have zero training in the sort of bending you people do," Zuko snapped. He regretted snapping almost immediately. "But maybe I can spiritbend the water."

Given the circumstances, he couldn't focus enough to make the water scrub Appa's coat. He simply raised and lowered it, rinsing away surface layers of fur. Aang and Katara used targeted waterbending to dislodge the fur while Sokka, Iroh and Momo used brushes. Eventually, the full-body rinsing failed to show any more wisps of white. Zuko fell to his knees, too exhausted to even moan. Iroh helped him get to his feet and stay on them. "We're not done yet," Iroh reminded them all. "We have to get far away. Then we can relax." He sighed longingly, no doubt dreaming of a nice, peaceful game of Pai Sho. Katara bent water out of Appa's fur and Aang blew him mostly dry. Appa's fur stuck out at all angles, making him look like he'd been neglected for weeks. Nobody cared. They put the saddle back on, piled their stuff in it, found spaces to sit among the bags, and flew away. They found a nice, peaceful mountaintop filled with broken crags that would hide them from sight. They landed among the crags, threw sleeping bags and blankets over the side, collapsed onto them and slept like logs.

.

When the trail ended at the river, Azula's eyebrow started to twitch. She snapped at Mai and Ty Lee, who fled from her on lizardback. They came back to report traces of fur washed downstream. They then stayed absolutely silent, not even asking for their next order, because they had self-preservation instincts.

"Back to the war machine," Azula commanded. They obeyed. As she watched her allies go, the horrible itching in Azula's chest grew and grew until she was forced to electrocute the entire river. Something had gone wrong! Her plan had failed! How could it fail? No plan of hers ever failed. She had accounted for everything she could have. She hadn't done anything wrong or been negligent in any way. It was perfect. It should have worked.

How was she going to explain this? She'd been so confident. Mai and Ty Lee had seen her confidence, and they'd also personally witnessed her failure. She would have to be extra harsh on them to ensure they did not dishonor her.

Azula took deep breaths and reminded herself that every mission, whether successful or not, was a learning experience. What had she learned? Clearly, there was some unexpected factor in play. Chaos had not broken out, and the Avatar's crew had figured out what was going on rather quickly. They were cooperating. Perhaps Zuko had fully changed sides, not just performed his usual flip-flopping. More likely, they had already gotten sick of him and stranded him in the Earth Kingdom, dumping him off so quickly that Mai and Ty Lee hadn't noticed it. Azula's gut soured. She'd made the same mistake her father had. She had believed in Zuko, trusted him, when she shouldn't have. He was no use at all, not even as a living bomb. He really was good for nothing.

Azula tried not to, but she thought about her brother as the war machine packed up and the pilots set a new course for the nearest Fire Nation base. Her gums itched and she couldn't sit still. What was his purpose? Why did he exist? Family was supposed to be what you could count on. For all their differences, they were still family, and it had been sort of nice to be able to count on him. Ah, Zuko: good ol' reliable screwup. But now, he wasn't a reliable agent. Nor was he a reliable screwup. He wasn't a reliable anything.

Azula felt hurt, betrayed, abandoned.

She packed up her feelings and put them aside as the war machine got moving again. She would simply have to inform Father that Zuko was no longer part of their family. She was her father's only child now. That would make her heir to the throne, so really, Zuko had done her a favor.

She repeated that thought to herself over and over again, drowning out her own pounding heartbeat. She refused to pace, and she took her lunch like usual despite her stomach's complaints. Nothing was wrong. Everything was going well. With Zuko out of the way, there was nothing in between her and her father's stern regard. Nothing…at…all.

.

A/N: I have some stuff going on in my personal life right now. I'd like to try something I've never done before. I'd like to try taking a monthlong hiatus. I've always been afraid to do that, fearing that my own procrastinatory tendencies would take over, turning one of my own stories into yet another sad statistic about "dead fics." But now, after years of diligent writing, I'm confident that my relationship to my own stories is strong enough that I would never allow them to die. So I will take a 4-week hiatus on this fic. 4 weeks from now, on October 3rd, I will resume posting. I guess that makes the length of the hiatus only 3 weeks, but that's still longer than anything I've had before, so I'll try it. Hopefully it helps.