ZW 2017 Day 4 : Icarus

.

.

.

Turning Tables

Zuko had always been told he'd been lucky to be born, and Azula was born lucky. For the first time, he thinks this might have been a good thing.

The orange in the sky looks like a second comet, but Zuko knows better. "Come on. We have to go."

"What? Why?" Katara looks up at him, lines etched across her forehead.

Zuko shifts his weight, trying to take some off of her shoulders, but the fresh lightning wound burns as the new skin stretches. "My father is coming home." He points to the glowing eastern sky, though his hand shakes from exhaustion.

Katara takes a shaky breath before slowly shifting out from under his arm. "I'll get Appa."

Sighing heavily, Zuko turns back to his sobbing sister as Katara disappears into the shadows. "Father is coming," he says. "What do I do with you?" She doesn't answer, but then he isn't sure he expected her to. Golden child, jewel in their father's crown, born lucky; she doesn't seem so lucky now. By now, any illusions he had about his father have evaporated like the fog at sunrise on Ember Island. "I guess you got too close to the sun."

He is answered then by incoherent screaming that brings Katara running back, Appa groaning behind her. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Let's go."

Katara nods. "How do you want to move her?"

Zuko pauses his hobble toward Appa. "Katara, we can't take her with us."

She looks at him like he's the one screaming on the ground, then puts her hands on her hips. "And why not?"

"Did you not see her shoot me with lightning?"

"Sokka loves prisoners. Besides, what will your father do if he finds her like this? Your uncle said he's not the forgiving type."

Zuko feels his fingers lightly brushing the ridges of his scar. "No. He's not."

"They she has to come with us. I could never leave Sokka like this."

"That's different. Sokka is…Sokka. Azula just tried to kill you. We can't trust her."

Katara looks at him steadily. "We don't have time to argue about this."

"Fine. Keep her hands chained. Can you waterbend her up on Appa?"

Katara nods sharply. Zuko runs as best he can for Appa, the freshly knitted skin stretching painfully under the strain. They escape the capital, Azula out cold in the back of the saddle-Did you have to hit her?-and Zuko at the reins. They are nothing but a dark speck against a brilliantly red-orange sky when the Phoenix King's airships descend upon the city.

"Something happened to them," Katara murmurs as they approach the battlefield. The Wulong Forest is shattered; rock pillars have been destroyed, and the shards have gone in every direction, but everything is quiet.

"It must have been Aang. How else would this have been destroyed?"

Katara surveys the wreckage. "So he did come back." But her brow is furrowed, and her knuckles are white as she grips her skirt.

"So then what?" Zuko wonders.

Katara jerks up and points at a ruined airship, still smoking where it lies against a cliff face. "Zuko, look."

He follows her gaze to a small blue boomerang stuck deep in the hull of the ship. "Sokka." He breathes deeply. "Do you think they captured him?"

She doesn't turn to look at him, fixed as she is on the weapon and the smoke. "I don't know." Her face has paled, the turmoil in it twisting her mouth. "We should check the ship for survivors."

Zuko exhales smoke. He won't be Fire Lord today, but if Sokka is gone, he suspects he'll soon be de facto leader of their little group. "We'll look quickly, then go to the rendezvous point. Odds are he escaped with Toph and Suki. You know Toph wouldn't let herself be captured if she can help it, and there's rock everywhere. And if they're hurt, they'll need you."

Katara nods but still doesn't look at him. "Take us down."

.

.

.

"There! Under the airship!" Katara breaks into a sprint, sliding under the airship and sending pebbles and dirt spraying around her as she dives for the Water Tribe blues huddled beneath its shadow. "What happened?" She pulls her bending water out of its pouch, intent on Sokka's freshly splinted leg.

"Aang never came back," Sokka spits. "He's gone. We destroyed a few of the airships and impaired more, but half the Earth Kingdom is on fire."

Joining them under the ruined hulk, Zuko stares at the little group he's so recently joined. The Avatar disappearing a second time wasn't something he had bargained for. He looks over his shoulder at Appa, the saddle that contains his sister barely visible through the torn airship bulkhead. Hot air escapes his nose, though he tries to contain it. "Your sister brought Azula with us."

Sokka's tanned skin goes deathly white. "Katara-"

"We had to, Sokka," she interrupts. "Zuko was wounded, and the Fire Lord is back at the palace. We couldn't stay to fight him and we couldn't just leave her there."

"Sure you could've!" Sokka squawks. Toph and Suki nod in agreement.

"I'm fine, thanks," Zuko grumbles. "Where is the White Lotus?"

"They were victorious in Ba Sing Se," Suki volunteers. "Your Uncle sent a message. He wants us to meet at the Jasmine Dragon."

Zuko winces. "So he did reconquer his tea shop."

"Everything went according to plan except Aang," Katara murmurs.

"We can figure that out later," Sokka snaps. "What are we going to do about Azula?"

"General Iroh will know," Toph offers.

Sokka's jaw drops, and in any other situation it would be comical. "You want to take her to Ba Sing Se?"

"Well I don't want to just leave her here," Toph replies.

Sokka makes a strangled sound. "Zuko, do you know where a guy can get some quality rope around here?"

Zuko rubs his wounded chest absently. "Handcuffs would be better. She'll burn through rope in seconds. If Toph can bend some-"

"Way ahead of you," Toph says, levitating a collection of sturdy loops of metal between her hands.

Katara comes up behind Zuko as he watches Toph climb Appa and then metalbend around his sister's wrists and ankles. Azula sleeps through it, out as only those struck firmly in the back of the head can be. "She probably needs this, Zuko. She looks like she hasn't slept in days."

"Do you think she's lucky?" Zuko asks.

Katara absently rubs the space between his shoulder blades. "I think you learned that you could choose your own path. Azula didn't. That's not luck, it's just…" She trails off, not certain what to say.

"My father always said she was born lucky," Zuko says.

"I think," she says, treading carefully, "that maybe the Fire Lord isn't the best judge. You're the one who's learned from your mistakes, and you're a better person now."

Zuko frowns. "We're losing this war."

Katara ponders this for a moment. "I'd rather lose with you than win with Azula."

"For so long, I wanted my father's love and acceptance. I'm starting to wonder if it's better that I never had them."

Katara reaches for his hand and squeezes. She looks like she might say something, and then there's a shadow overhead. Aang lands in front of Appa, none the worse for wear, Momo chattering on his shoulder.

"You'd better go talk to Aang," Zuko mumbles. "Sokka looks like he's going to take his head off."

Katara shakes her head. "Sit down, Zuko. You need a healing session before we leave."

Zuko feels as though he's at the second crossroads of destiny. The last time the Avatar had burst in, and Katara had followed the boy out. This time, it's the Avatar who has betrayed her, and Zuko who has felt lightning rip through his skin.

Everything is upside down and backwards today, and, in a moment of total abandon (lunacy?), Zuko looks at the girl in front of him and wonders if he has a shot.

If Azula can go down in the middle of a comet and the Avatar can be the outsider of the group, anything can happen.

A/N: I feel like this would be interesting to expand. Aang's redemption arc, anyone?