AN: Hey all, how's it going. It's me again, back with another chapter. Admittedly it has been a while, but what can I say, I've been busy, unmotivated and distracted, a terrible combination. That said I do have a nice sizable update for you now, so I hope you enjoy. And I hope you've not forgotten too much about this story, as again it has been a while.
Either way thanks a lot for reading, and please leave a review if you feel like it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Avatar the Last Airbender.
( - )
(Last Time)
"Percy, Suki!" The familiar loud voice of Sokka called out, even as the Water Tribe boy, still in his faded blue garments and wearing his hair in a topknot, ran towards them. Both Katara and a now no longer disguised Aang running after him.
Coming to a stop in the middle of the street, Percy had to push back the desire to roll his eyes, even as the trio approached him.
A few minutes alone with Suki, that was all he had wanted, a few minutes in which they weren't training or fight, but instead just relaxing and talking, like they had done back on Kyoshi, before the Avatar had turned up and turned their lives upside down.
( - )
Chapter 12
( - )
(With Percy)
"Ah, it's you three," Percy replied with a nod and a half smile, his gaze roving over the younger trio of teens and pre-teen as they ran up to where he was standing with Suki. "This is an unexpected surprise."
Beside him, he could feel Suki sending him a look. He had no doubt that it was her 'behave' expression.
Feigning obliviousness to his, Percy instead eyed the oncoming trio, and weird flying lemur thing. All three of them looked exactly the same as they had the last time he had seen them, a few weeks ago now, just before they left Kyoshi.
Or at least all except Aang.
After all, the last time he had seen the young Avatar, he hadn't had a sheaf of hay wrapped clumsily around his head, nor a fake moustache either.
Not that the kid's eccentricities were the height of his concerns right now. After all, from how he recalled things, they hadn't exactly departed on the best of terms.
The girl, Katara, had been pissed off at him for not agreeing to throw aside his own desires, goals and commitments, so he could instead train the Avatar.
Aang had been annoyed about the death of Zuko, or what Percy's execution of the violent banished Prince.
As for Sokka, well from Percy's perspective they hadn't been friends, but they'd parted on good enough terms. Or at least they had gotten on better than he had with the other two.
Either way, that was his biggest concern right now. The last thing he wanted was for the three temperamental kids to make some kind of a scene, especially not after they had just entered a highly militarised city which was in the midst of preparing for war. Or at least that is what he suspected was going on, considering the recent run in with the Fire Nation patrol, and the rumours of the war spreading in earnest to this, one of the Earth Kingdom's largest, and most western cities.
"Be nice," Suki suddenly muttered, interrupting Percy's inner thoughts as she elbowed him in the ribs. Apparently she had noticed that he was avoiding her look of warning. "Aang, Katara, Sokka, I didn't think I'd be seeing you three here, how are you doing? It's been a couple of weeks since you left the island, I would have thought you'd be up at the North Pole by now, or at least close to it?" Suki instead continued, pitching her voice as she instead called out in greeting to the approaching group, a large smile spreading across her face.
Suki at least had gotten on pretty well with all three of them, or at least she had gotten on with them better than he had.
Hearing her greeting, Percy decided to hold his tongue as he saw the three teens come to a stop in front of them, and then start shifting about guiltily. Obviously they had all been goofing off again, no doubt off on some half-witted romp, ignorant of the chaos and war going on around them.
"Yeah, we're fine, but we did get kind of a little side-tracked…" Aang shrugged guiltily, the slender pre-teen awkwardly scratching his hay covered head as he looked between the two of them.
"Side-tracked he says," Sokka muttered rolling his eyes. Though he too looked distinctly guilty and embarrassed, even as he tried to feign cocky nonchalance.
"Hey!" Katara spoke up, her blue eyes stubbornly flicking from Suki, to Percy, and then back to her brother and friend, elbowing Sokka in the side as she did so, before she then put a comforting hand on Aang's shoulder. "We did some good too."
Percy cocked an eyebrow at that. He didn't disbelieve that they had been doing good, after all the three of them seemed to have good, and selfless, intentions. That was something he couldn't deny. Nor could he deny that they had left their homes, and set off on this journey for the good of the many.
But still, he had to question how they set their priorities, and whether or not they truly understood the big picture.
It was all well and good saving a couple of people on a micro-scale, when your lack of action in the grander scheme of things led to thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians dying daily the world over, due to the ongoing war. An ongoing war that had noticeably started to become more intense after a slow, quiet couple of years. A lull before a storm.
Glancing over at Katara, some of what he was thinking must have come across in his expression, as the younger girl frowned at him for a moment before speaking up again, her tone almost challenging now. "We helped free a town from the Fire Nation. The soldiers there had taken all the Earthbenders in the town and surrounding area prisoner, and they were holding them all on this metal prison out at sea. We freed them, and then helped them take back to the town so they could set up a resistance and kick the Fire Nation out of their homes!"
"Hey that's good!" Suki smiled warmly, her head reaching down and linking with Percy's as she gave it a slight squeeze. "You've been fighting the good fight! That's always something to be proud of."
At her words Aang seemed to perk up a little, a childish smile quickly spreading across his face for a moment. Only for it to then disappear just as quickly as he looked down at his feet. "Yeah, I suppose we did, but we also had to take a detour to the Fire Nation which wasted a lot of time."
"The Fire Nation?" Percy asked, genuinely curious now. From the kid's demeanour, he could sense that something bad must have happened.
"Yeah, Aang had a vision thing after he helped stop a wild, spirit panda thing from rampaging through a village, kidnapping people and destroying buildings!" Sokka chipped in, a slowly diminishing grin on his face too as he gave Aang a sideways glance.
"Oh, and what was this vision?" Percy asked gently. Having visions was something he could understand. Back when he had been in his old world he had had regular visions and dreams, some prophetic of what could come to pass, and others a warning of what was happening at the time. They could be both useful, and terrible in equal measure.
"Well, erm it was Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me, and his dragon." Aang began to explain, the younger boy shifting around uncomfortably as he spoke. His eyes shifted slightly as he looked between both Suki and Percy, as if unsure about which one he should be addressing. That or he wasn't entirely comfortable talking about this topic with either of them.
"You don't have to tell them, Aang." Katara cut in, her very blue eyes locking with Percy's as she reached out and put her hand on the young Airbender's shoulder. "It's Avatar stuff."
"Fair enough," Percy replied, waving her words away and burying his curiosity. Something serious or important must have happened, something that scared or worried the trio. Just what it was, he didn't know. But one thing he did know, was that he shouldn't try to push things and demand the information, after all that was a sure fire way of getting the kid to dig his heels in, and alienating him form Percy completely. "Your business is your business, you don't owe Suki or myself anything, so if you don't want to share, that's fine."
A slightly awkward silence followed this statement for a few moments, before Sokka broke it. "Yeah, besides, we've much more interesting stories than that. Did you know we ran into pirates a few days back?"
"Pirates?" Percy asked, a slightly amused smile on his face. Again this was something he had experience with, after all on his adventure to find the Golden Fleece, many years ago, he too had come across some pirates. Only these pirates had been mystically transformed into guinea pigs by an evil witch. But that was a whole other story.
"Yep, pirates." Sokka nodded smugly. "A whole punch of them, they even had a parrot hawk too, and ended up chasing us through town after somebody…" Sokka turned to give his sister a significant look at that point. The girl in question immediately flushing at the sudden attention. "…stole a Waterbending scroll from them!"
"Hey!" Katara shot back, her cheeks reddening as all of the attention was now on her. "They probably stole that scroll first! I was merely reclaiming Water Tribe property!"
"Uh-huh, of course you were sis…" Sokka muttered sarcastically. "It totally didn't have anything to do with you just wanting the scroll for yourself…"
"It wasn't just for me, Sokka. Both Aang and I used it!" Katara shot back, her brow furrowing as she and her elder brother turned away from Percy and Suki, and instead began to bicker.
Seeing this, Percy hazarded a glance down and noticed a scroll with the Water Tribe crest on the end of it in her satchel, the end of it just about visible if you really paid attention.
Aang meanwhile just groaned at the bickering and rubbed his face with his free hand.
"Does this happen often?" Suki asked gently, her lips curving up in amusement as she looked from the two squabbling siblings to the younger, and yet somehow in this moment at least, more mature pre-teen.
"Occasionally, it hasn't always been easy." Aang shrugged helplessly. "I mean there was this one time where we were in this forest, just a couple of days after we last saw you, and we met a bunch of freedom fighters."
Sokka and Katara stopped arguing at this, both of them tuning into the conversation again as they did so. The expressions on their faces tense. With Sokka clenching his jaw slightly, even as Katara winced and suddenly looked guilty.
"I'm guessing they were not the nicest bunch." Percy replied, his tone gentle now. "Desperate and scared people are capable of doing terrible things."
"Yeah, I know." Aang muttered, not looking Percy in the eye now. "They wanted to attack a town, and attempted to manipulate me and Katara into helping them."
"Ah," Percy winced. He could almost read between the lines about what happened next.
"We didn't though!" Aang spoke up quickly, waving his hands in front of him in denial as he did so. "But that was more because, well we couldn't. Jet wanted us to use Waterbending to make a river overflow, but…"
"But we didn't know how, neither of us were skilled enough yet to do it." Katara took over, a stubborn look on her face now as she scowled at Percy. "Jet didn't like that, and got angry. That's how we learned what he actually wanted to do…"
"Let me guess, he wanted to attack the Fire Nation in any way he could, regardless of who it would affect, and any collateral damage." Percy asked softly. He had no idea who this Jet guy was, nor just what had happened between him and the trio in front of him to make them all look so uncomfortable, but he could at least guess that things had ended messily. "War can make people do terrible things, Aang, remember that. It can twist even the kindest and gentlest of people, and make them into monsters. But still, that doesn't mean that everyone is a monster, nor that you should stop trusting and having faith in people."
Percy himself had done terrible things when he had fought in the war against Kronos. Most notably, he had purposefully blown up the cruise ship that Luke and his army had hidden on, killing most of the people and monsters on board, including some of his own family. Young Demigods that had been led astray, sometimes through no fault of their own, and whose only crime had been being on the opposite side to him.
War truly could make monsters out of anyone, himself included
But still that did not mean that he was an intrinsically bad person. No he was as flawed and fallible as the next person. No one was perfect, and no one was truly good, just as no one was unrepentantly bad. People came in shades of good and bad, everyone had sides to them, and negative aspects to their personalities.
As if sensing his inner thoughts, Suki's hand squeezed his a little tighter.
Looking over at her, Percy couldn't help but smile softly as his eyes met his lover's warm, supportive gaze, even as she gave him a soft smile too.
"Well it sounds like you three have had a hard time of it." Suki said gently looking away from Percy now, and instead over at the group of slightly younger teens, or at least Katara and Aang were younger, Sokka was probably around her age. "Have you sorted out a place to stay yet?"
"Not yet, no." Aang said, rubbing the back of his straw covered head. "We're not even sure if we're staying the night here. I mean I wouldn't mind staying even for just a night, as I used to visit here when I was young. But I'm not sure, we really just came here to resupply, before heading on."
"So no adventures planned then?" Percy replied, a smile on his face as he saw Aang, Katara and Sokka all give him vigorous shakes of their heads. It would seem they were all adventured out.
"That's probably a good thing. Still Aang, I have to ask, but is that supposed to be a disguise?" Percy asked amused, his attention turning to the straw wig now, his smile widening slightly at Aang's sheepish grin. "Well, it's not the worst I've seen. Anyway, how about you come with us, we were told of a good inn in the city, and we're more than happy to put you up for a night. As Suki said, it sounds like you've had a bit of a rough time of it of late, and like you could do with a proper bed and good meal for the night."
"Really, that's surprisingly generous?" Katara commented, an unidentifiable tone to her voice as she frowned at him, even as Sokka and Aang grinned and thanked the two of them.
"It's no problem," Suki smiled, waving off Sokka and Aang's thanks, and even getting a warm response from Katara, or at least she did once the girl tore her gaze away from him. "We've got plenty of coin at the moment, and we're going to be staying here for a few days anyway."
"Besides we do owe you one for dropping off that old man for us." Percy shrugged, his gaze shifting to Sokka now. "Speaking of, did everything turn out alright with that?"
"Yeah it was fine, he didn't struggle or resist when we dropped him off at the first town we found, and told them who he was. In fact he was actually kind of nice, he made great tea too!" Sokka grinned for a moment, before pausing as he remembered that the guy he was talking about was a Firebender, and had been with Zuko when the young Prince had attacked and tried to burn down Kyoshi Island.
"Not all Firebenders are intrinsically bad you know," Percy smiled, ignoring the slightly frown Suki sent his way. It would appear his lover was still angry, justifiably, about the attack on her village. "They are just people, like the rest of us. It is our actions that define us, not where we come from or what abilities we were born with."
"Yeah, but still the guy was part of the raiding party that attacked our home, unprovoked, and attempted to slaughter everyone on Kyoshi." Suki spoke up, a bit of heat entering her words now.
"Yes he was, and now he is going to be spending time in an Earth Kingdom jail, for his crimes, whilst his leader rots in the ground. But still in the end he was just a soldier following orders, and fighting for his homeland. Yes he is partly responsible for what happened as he took part in it, but still, he was just a soldier doing what was commanded of him." Percy winced. It was quite difficult to justify attacking a small village of innocent civilians, and the whole 'just following orders' shtick never went down well.
"He did seem pretty regretful about what happened, and not just because he lost." Katara chipped in, a conflicted expression on her face too as she saw the prominent scowl on Suki's face.
"Yeah, I don't think he was a bad person. He just got brought up in a bad place." Sokka shrugged, trying to put into words his own conflicting feelings.
"So you say," Suki replied evenly. "But if I never see him again, I'll be happy."
"Well hopefully we don't," Percy said, squeezing her hand now. "And hopefully this war comes to an end sooner rather than later too, so shit like what happened in Kyoshi never happens again."
No one replied to that, instead a silence filled the gap in the conversation as the five of them looked awkwardly at one another, even as soldiers and civilians continued to wander past them, going this way and that as they went about their daily lives, and duties.
"Anyway…, let's find an Inn and get some food. I'm guessing it's been a while since you three had a proper meal." Percy continued loudly, turning now as he began to head for the place that had been recommended to him early in the day.
"Yeah okay, and while we're there you can tell us what you two have been up too!" Sokka nodded, the rest of the group following after Percy as he headed off, deeper and deeper into the city.
( - )
(With Azula)
"Princess Azula, we've had to pull back our scouts." The captain said, standing at attention before the Crown Princess as he gave his report. "There has been a big increase in Earth Kingdom forces in the area."
"Yes, I suspected that might be the case." Azula muttered, not looking at the captain as she instead looked over the maps of the area, including the surrounding forest, nearby port town, distant city of Omashu and the long and winding coastline. "No doubt the Avatar's caravan has already made it to Omashu now, and have warned the city guard. We're now on a time limit."
"Should I pass on the order to prepare the ships for a tactical retreat?" The captain replied.
"Retreat?" Azula mused, her gaze still tracing over the forest, taking into the identified military outposts on the maps, and last known positioning of the Earth Kingdom forces. "I don't think we need to do that, or at least not just yet anyway."
She was by no means a military expert. Nor was her father either for that matter. It was why they tended to leave the brunt of the military tactics and strategic planning to the generals and admirals. It was not the royal family's duty to plan out the minutiae of war.
No, their job was to lead, to make the decisions. To analyse the information and plans set out in front of them and come to a sensible conclusion.
"Our reinforcements will be here soon, and our position is fortified and well manned. Furthermore it looks like they have not pinned down just where we have set up our base, the peasants are still scrambling around trying to find us." Azula pressed on, pursing her full lips as she traced the path the Earth Kingdom patrols were following.
"As you say, Princess." The captain nodded.
"What we need is a distraction, a way to keep the Earth Kingdom soldiers occupied until we are ready to engage them." Azula continued, her gaze travelling down to the larger, walled port town of Quinlan.
Her reinforcements would be here soon. Twelve more battleships, and one thousand more foot soldiers, including three score Firebenders, and accompanying artillery and cavalry. On top of which her two closest companions would be accompanying them, both of whom were skilled warriors in their own rights. It would be more than enough to take Quinlan, and to pose a real threat to the city of Omashu.
Soon enough their foothold here in the western Earth Kingdom would be solidified, enough so that the Earth Kingdom would need to divert significant forces and resources from the war effort in the south, to maintain their control of the region, and protect their supply lines.
Furthermore, the surrounding cities and towns would be put under more pressure as she exercised the tried and tested Fire Nation tactic of 'slash and burn'.
Set fire to the agricultural fields, scorch the orchards, burn down the forests, the small towns and the villages, and drive the peasantry to the big cities. It was the ideal tactic when it came to fighting a nation as large and populated as the Earth Kingdom.
The fleeing refugees would fill the cities, spreading disease and panic, even as they put more demand on resources such as fresh food and water. Resources that would become scarcer as the Fire Nation army rampaged through the land, burning farms and woodland. Brutal and ruthless, yes. But also very effective.
"A distraction, Princess?" The captain asked.
"Yes, take ten Firebenders, and two dozen soldiers. Head deeper into the forest, as far away from here as you can safely and reasonably go, avoiding or dealing with patrols as and when you can. Once you find a place, start setting fires, and a lot of them." Azula replied, walking to the window of the manor house, or rather two storey shack, she was currently residing in. Her gaze roaming over the forest that surrounded the fortified logging camp, before she then focused on the one hundred metre killing field they had created in front of the palisade. A large area bare of trees and brush, cover that might once have been used by attackers. An area which also came in use as a perfect firebreak.
"You want to start forest fires?" The captain clarified.
"Yes, it will create a useful distraction, and buy us the time we need for reinforcements to arrive. Plus it may draw the Avatar out onto the field, a bleeding heart weakling like the Avatar could never just stand by and watch as the people suffered, and the world around him burned." Azula smiled, not looking at the captain now. After all was that not the whole reason she was here, to find and capture the Avatar. Putting pressure on the Earth Kingdom, and aiding in the war effort was just a side benefit, a bonus that would garner her more support and political capital once she returned home, the conquering hero.
"I'll see it done, Princess." The captain said, giving her a low bow as he did so, before he turned to leave.
"Oh and captain. I want these fires to be the largest this nation has ever seen, I want the clouds of dark smoke to be visible from as far off as Ba Sing Se." Azula called after the man, her smile widening as she thought of the message such an act would send out to her Nation's enemies.
( - )
(With Percy)
"So," Percy asked, laying down his spoon and sitting back from the table as he did so. Comfortably full now after just finishing off a nice meaty stew, a cob of freshly baked break and a mug of ale. "How is the Waterbending going?"
Across the table from him, he saw Aang hastily swallow the remainder of his weird nutty, fruity dish - apparently the kid was a vegetarian, before he washed it down with some water. "It's going ok, I suppose…"
Percy nodded at that. The conversation thus far had been flowing reasonably enough. After securing two rooms at the Inn, one for him and Suki, and the other for the other three, they had headed down to the main room, grabbed a table and had some lunch/ dinner. The conversation mostly revolved around what he and Suki had been doing for the last few weeks, along with a few more details on the trio's more positive adventures.
It had been nice, if somewhat meaningless. It was basically small talk, with there being little of import discussed between the five of them.
Something which became more and more noticeable as the meal wore on, with both Aang and Katara becoming noticeably more impatient. They both looked like they were on the verge of asking or demanding something, only for them to keep holding off, either because they didn't want to offend, or because they weren't sure how to broach the topic.
"He's learned as much as I can teach him." Katara chipped in, a note of defiance in her tone as she met Percy's gaze levelly.
"Ok, and how much were you able to teach him? I remember you mentioning that you were not skilled enough to draw water from the ground yet?" Percy pressed, genuinely curious now. He had never seen a proper, fully trained Waterbending Master in action yet. So far he only had secondary accounts of what they were capable of, and what little he had seen Katara pull off back on Kyoshi.
"I taught him what I was able to teach myself back in the South Pole, and what we were able to learn from the Waterbending scroll we… found." Katara said, her tone still holding a hint of defiance to it. As if daring Percy to judge her.
"She was a really good teacher too!" Aang nodded with a grin, oblivious to Katara's tone of voice as he instead grinned at Percy. "I can now create large waves, and water blasts. Oh, and I can do the water whip too!"
"Some basic stuff then," Percy nodded, before giving Aang a smile. "That's important. You need to have the basics mastered before you try something harder."
"Like turning water into ice?" Aang asked.
"Yeah, altering the composition is pretty advanced, changing water from a liquid to a solid, or to a gas, can be tricky." Percy nodded, a smile on his face. "So too is pulling water from other sources."
"What do you mean by that, pulling it from other sources?" Katara spoke up, her tone one of curiosity now.
"Well you know, instead of just relying on water already being there, you instead draw it from other things." Percy shrugged, his brow furrowing as he thought about how to explain himself. "So take plants and trees, they are filled with water, water that you can draw on if you need to. It's the same for the earth beneath you, and the air around you, unless you are in a desert or a very dry place, there is always moisture around you, and with sufficient control you can draw on that moisture and coalesce it into something you can use and manipulate."
"That sounds pretty useful," Sokka mused, ignoring the sideways glance Katara shot him. "I mean at the moment, Aang and Katara need to carry around water with them if they want to use it, that or they have to be in places where there is a lot of it. Which kind of sucks if you think about it."
"Exactly," Percy nodded with a smile.
"Like he says, it is pretty handy not to be reliant on having a large source nearby." Suki tagged on. "It's why he was able to fight off those Firebenders we ran into on the way here."
"You tend to develop useful tricks like that as you learn." Percy shrugged. "It's an experience thing. When I first started off when I was around your age, Aang, all I could do was throw around waves and blasts of water. But over the years I've learned new tricks, like how to change water into mist or fog, or into ice, or even into acid. On top of that I learnt how to make water boil, and turn into steam. Hell, I even learnt how to manipulate the atmosphere and make it rain…"
"So you're entirely self-taught?" Katara asked suddenly.
"Mostly," Percy shrugged. "I always had a natural affinity for controlling and manipulating water, both on a large scale and in very fine ways, so most things came easily to me through a little trial and error, and a lot of fighting. That said I did have some help every now and then from my father, and from my step-brother too occasionally."
"Wait, you have a brother?" Suki asked, her brow furrowing.
Seeing this, Percy gave her a tired smile. "Yeah, I have quite a few, but none that I am really close to. Save for one I suppose, Tyson my younger brother, but even then I never really knew him that well. The brother who taught me a few tricks was my oldest brother, Triton, and he was a complete arsehole. In fact more often than not I swear he was trying to kill me as opposed to helping me."
"Your family sounds complicated…" Sokka said with a weird smile. "I have one sister and that's enough."
"Yeah, well luckily I never met most of them." Percy chuckled hollowly, before glancing sideways at Suki. The girl looked slightly saddened. "Hey, don't worry about it. My father was a really irresponsible dick, he has had hundreds of sons and daughters. The only reason I never mentioned them is because I am not that close to most of them, hell I haven't even met the vast majority; either because they're dicks, they're dead, or they don't even know I exist, that or I don't know they exist…"
Suki looked incredulous at that, as too did the rest of the people at the table.
"What can I say, my family is fucked up beyond all belief." Percy grinned, reaching out and taking Suki's hand as he did so. "It's why I'm glad I met you. You're the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time."
Her incredulous look, gave way to a smile at this statement, even as she threw caution to the wind and leaned forward and stole a quick kiss from him.
From across the table, the other three shifted about awkwardly.
Noticing this, Percy leaned back in his chair. His hand still holding Suki's hand, even as she, now quite red in the face, did the same.
"Sorry about that," Percy smiled. "Now what were we talking about?"
"We were talking about Waterbending." Katara said, her gaze locking with his. "And how you were going to teach both me and Aang what you know!"
"I don't remember that bit…" Percy replied dryly. "In fact I remember you broaching this topic already, back in Kyoshi."
"Wait, she did?" Sokka asked with a frown, before he turned to look at her. "So is that why you were so angry, I just thought that… well…" Sokka shifted awkwardly and resolutely looked away from his now scowling sister.
"You thought what, Sokka?" Katara asked coldly.
"Erm, never mind…" Sokka replied nervously, locking eyes with Percy now. "But anyway, Percy, why won't you teach Aang Waterbending?"
Katara narrowed her eyes at this evasion, but didn't say anything, instead she eyed Percy again.
"It's a big commitment." Percy finally shrugged. He didn't like being put on the spot like this. "And I have neither the time, nor the inclination needed to teach him. Besides, I thought that this is why you were heading to the North Pole, to get taught traditional Waterbending, by a recognised Master."
Suki sent him a look at that. She was clearly able to read between the lines, even if she hadn't quite worked out just why he was so unwilling to give up everything, and put his life on hold, to teach some brat how to wield water like a Demigod son of the sea.
"Well if you spared even a few days, it would help out a lot." Katara muttered.
"Percy," Suki said, biting her lip slightly as he turned and met her gaze. "Surely it wouldn't hurt just to show Aang a couple of tricks?"
"Hmm," Percy grumbled, looking around at the four people now focusing on him. "I suppose I could give you an hour or so of my time."
A large grin spread across Aang's face at that.
"In return for a lift further north." Percy cut in before anyone got too ahead of themselves. He wasn't giving up his time for nothing, he wasn't a charity. Nor did he entirely approve of the whole Avatar thing, and Aang being the one person expected to bring balance to the world. Having been in a similar situation, he could resolutely say that the whole thing was bullshit. Prophecies, fate, destiny, he wanted nothing to do with it.
"Well, it might slow Appa down a bit, having two more people on him, but we can take you further north." Aang nodded eagerly, his smile still very much present.
"Welcome to the team!" Sokka tagged on, a larger smile on his face now as he stood up and gave Percy a big thumbs up.
"Nope," Percy shot back, cutting Aang and Sokka off before they got too enthusiastic, and Katara off too, as the younger girl also looked to be on the verge of saying something as well. "This is a temporary, one-time thing. We're not joining your team or anything like that, we're just exchanging some Waterbending lessons for a lift, and that is it."
Suki rolled her eyes at this. "Well aren't you a buzzkill."
Katara meanwhile, looked satisfied, even as Sokka and Aang exchanged a confused look.
"Maybe, but I don't want to get tied down to just following you lot around. I want me and Suki to have our own adventures, and want us to do our own thing." Percy replied, sending Suki a guilty look as he did so. The relationship was still new, he didn't want to be overstepping here.
Suki however just sent him a cheeky smirk, and a wink.
"But you'll still show me some stuff, like how to create ice and like whirlpools and stuff?!" Aang piped up again, breezing past the previous conversation as he focused back on what Percy had to offer. "How about that stormy, lightning thing too, you know the one you used against Iroh?"
Percy narrowed his eyes at this far too innocent statement. "Stormy, lightning thing…?"
"Well what else would you call it?" Aang asked.
"Atmokinesis." Percy replied, a slight smile spreading across his face as he saw four confused faces staring back at him. "I can control more than just water, I can control and manipulate the weather too, or at least elements of it."
"Cool…" Aang muttered, his grin, if possible, growing even wider.
Katara however frowned. "Is that because you can somehow control more than one element?"
The atmosphere around the table suddenly became tense at that question, as the trio all stared at him again.
Percy seeing this, looked at all three of them, mulling over what to say next as he did so. Before, with a sigh, he just shrugged. "Yes."
( - )
(Elsewhere at a Fire Nation Naval Base in the south west of the Earth Kingdom)
Smiling slightly as he rolled up the recently arrived missive from the capital. The newly anointed Admiral looked around at his commanders, his smile turning slightly smug as he then looked down at the map of the northern sea, and the icy defences within which lay the North Water tribe's capital.
"The Firelord, after reviewing my plan alongside the war council, has given his full support for the invasion of the Northern Water tribe." He announced grandly. His words brought a round of muttering and nodding from his assembled commanders. "Prepare your marines, and your ships, we've got a lot of preparation to do, and a long journey ahead of us."
With that said, he turned away from his commanders as they quickly delved into fresh discussions about the logistics of gathering the needed supplies, troops, and artillery necessary for a large scale, winter siege.
Instead his gaze trailed down to the bottom of the scroll, to the small part that was written in the Firelord's own hand.
"Seek out what you believe to be the source of the Waterbender's power, and then destroy it."
The Firelord, just like him, understood the importance of the information he had found in that accursed underground library.
This was going to be the most decisive victory in Fire Nation history, greater even than Firelord Sozen's conquest of the Air Nomads. Soon enough, the name Admiral Zhao was going to go down in history as the greatest military commander, and patriot that the Fire Nation has ever known.
( - )
(On the outskirts of a small Earth Kingdom town)
Pushing back his matted, sweat soaked grey hair, an old man continued to hurry through the forest. He could already hear the shouts of his pursuers behind him, but fortunately they were growing more distant by the minute.
He had waited and grieved long enough. No longer did he want to wallow in misery, he'd already done that for too long.
No, he was done waiting around.
It was time to go out, and get vengeance, both for his lost nephew, and for his lost son.
( - )
AN: So what did you all think? I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Not got much to say about it, it was more of a relaxing lull before the storm, as the last arc came to an end and the current one looks to be heating up. With a shit storm well and truly on the horizon.
That said I did enjoy writing this chapter. After all it let me plot out and look into the changes that are already starting to happen in this story when compared to canon, some of which are very noticeable, like the obvious Azula issue, whilst others are more understated. I'm curious if you can figure out what some of those changes might be?
Other than that, thanks for reading, and I'll catch you later. Next thing to be updated will probably be either the Last of his Kind (Elder Scroll/Danmachi), or The Oncoming Storm (PJO/DC). Have a good one, and stay safe out there.
Greed720.