A/N: In canon, one of the things Katara asked Aunt Wu to predict was whether she should have papaya or mango for breakfast the next morning. Aunt Wu told her papaya, just to make her go away. Katara then admitted that she hates papaya.

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As Zuko was walking out of Aunt Wu's place of business, he paused. The white-haired helper stood outside. Zuko decided to talk to him, find out what his deal was. He walked up, trying to look friendly. He won't tell me anything if I look like I hate him. His attempt failed. He was very bad at looking friendly.

"Hi," he greeted the man.

"Hello." Unlike him, the attendant was capable of saying that in a perfectly neutral way, allowing nothing to show in his voice.

Great. I can't beat him at his own game, so I might as well make it my game. "Do you have any idea how suspicious you look?" he asked directly.

"Yes." Did one of the attendant's eyebrows twitch?

Even if he was making it his own game, Zuko thought it would be very bad manners to ask him if he was doing anything suspicious. Maybe try a more friendly approach. "Does it bother you?"

"Yes."

Zuko looked at him more sympathetically. I guess he didn't really choose to have white hair. "Why don't you...change clothes then?"

"It would not help," the attendant answered. "I am looked at similarly regardless of outfit. Besides, I happen to like black."

Zuko's scalp prickled where he had cut off his ponytail. He liked that hairstyle. And cutting it off actually does make people look at me normally and not like I'm a monster. He looked away, crossing his arms in shame. Had he really been about to interrogate someone just because they looked funny? "Sorry."

The attendant shifted slightly. "Does your scar bother you?"

Zuko's eyebrow twitched. His hand moved to rub at it before he restrained the traitorous limb. "No. I earned it."

"How?"

Zuko tried to answer, but couldn't. He could only shrug. "It doesn't matter. It just shows what was there before. Nothing new." Whatever. I don't know why I'm so weird, why I don't belong. It doesn't matter why. All that matters is that I am.

"Sorry."

Zuko turned away, feeling very unsettled. The man wasn't suspicious, but he had a knack for asking hurtful questions. "Thanks. Have a good day doing...whatever it is you do." And he left at great speed.

Now if only I can get Katara to talk to that guy, she might learn something. Zuko walked around for a while, but didn't see her, or any of the other ones. He found Iroh, though, sitting on the steps of the shrine and looking up at the clouds. "Uncle, where are the Avatar and his friends?"

Iroh chuckled. "The Avatar is busy attending to personal matters." He smiled and did not look up at the volcano as he spoke. "The other boy is with him."

"That's fine." Zuko realized he had much more important things to do anyway. "Uncle, I asked Aunt Wu for a prediction. I told her I was going to be doing something dangerous and asked how badly I was going to be hurt."

Iroh turned very serious. "What did she say?"

Zuko sat down next to him on the steps. "Same thing anyone could have predicted! She said I am going to get badly injured, with visible marks, but I'm not going to die. You could say that about almost everybody who ever gets into a dangerous situation."

"Then why did you ask?" Iroh looked at his nephew sideways.

"Because when she said it, I started thinking of all the reasons why that's so obvious a thing that anyone could have predicted it, and thinking that much about how most people don't die in dangerous situations was comforting," Zuko explained. "I also got to ask her what she uses the floating flowers for."

Iroh smiled. "Ah, Nephew. You have been getting wiser ever since the water spirit appeared."

"What?"

"It's true."

Zuko had no idea what his uncle was saying. As far as he could tell, nothing had changed. "Maybe you just didn't notice before, Uncle. Capturing the Avatar is simple. Figuring out, on my own, what do about the water spirit and how to do it is harder. That's all." He leaned back and looked up at the clouds like Uncle had been doing just a few minutes before. "What were you looking for?"

Iroh carefully banished all doubt-filled thoughts about how much he did not know about his nephew from his mind. "I wasn't looking for anything. I was simply appreciating their beauty."

"They're white. They're moving slowly. They're clouds," Zuko described in a bored monotone. "I don't even see any shapes in them. How did she see shapes in a bunch of cloud fluff? They all look pretty much the same."

"That's not the point, Nephew." Iroh put a hand on his shoulder and pointed up at a cloud. "What do you see in that one?"

"It's a cloud."

"But what is it besides that?"

Zuko tried to think about how he would describe the cloud to someone who couldn't see it. "It's a really generic cloud. It looks almost exactly like those clouds children draw that are just huge lumpy ovals, except it's a little flat on the bottom. It's completely white, except for a little blue-gray in the flat part at the bottom. I guess it's a little whiter at the top where the sun shines off it; the rest is really dull. It is the most boring cloud in this entire sky, Uncle."

Iroh sighed. "What is it doing, Zuko?"

"Not moving much."

Iroh sighed again and removed his hand from Zuko's shoulder. "You still have a long way to go, I see." He looked up at the cloud himself. "What I see is an example we should all imitate. As you say, it is self-contained, not blown around into streaks by the wind, and not torn up. It sits securely, patiently, without hurrying. Everyone could learn a thing or two from the patience of that cloud."

Zuko felt almost offended by that. "I'm not an earthbender, Uncle. I don't sit patiently, and I don't want to. I'm not going to learn how to be something I'm not."

Iroh looked at him, eyes wide. "Do you understand the importance of what you just said?"

Zuko crossed his arms. "I'm not a patient person, and there's nothing wrong with that, and I don't need changing."

Iroh chuckled quietly. "In time, you will understand why your words are so important."

Zuko looked up at the volcano, which was much more interesting than the clouds, and yawned.

.

Sometime later, just as Zuko decided that the volcano was too boring to stare at all day, a flash of orange suddenly appeared at the top of the volcano. It descended like a bright ember falling against the green of the volcano's side. "That's the Avatar's glider," Iroh said. "Why does he feel the need to come down so fast? He didn't climb up that way."

Zuko looked up. "Uh, Uncle? That's a volcano."

"It is." They both stood up.

"There's only one really good reason why anybody would come down from the top of a volcano that fast, Uncle."

"Agreed." Iroh's eyes were wide. "They must be looking for the waterbending girl. Quickly!" He and Zuko raced off to Aunt Wu's place.

They found her standing outside trying to be let in. "Can you believe she won't let me in?" Katara complained.

"Probably because she's resting," Zuko said. "She was exhausted when I saw her just a little while ago."

Katara turned a little red and looked down. "I wanted to apologize..."

"Well, too late," Zuko snapped. "Aunt Wu's tired and the volcano's about to blow."

Katara's head snapped up. "What?"

The Avatar and the nonbender boy arrived. "Finally!" the other boy said as he hopped off the Avatar's back. "Katara! Aunt Wu was wrong about the volcano!"

Katara narrowed her eyes at the both of them. "You two tried to convince me Aunt Wu was wrong before. It's going to take more than that to change my min -" She was cut off by the ground shaking beneath their very feet. Everyone except for Iroh, who already had a habit of making his footing stable at all times, swayed. The volcano now sported a huge plume of smoke.

"Like that?" Zuko asked. Katara weakly agreed. Really? What kind of person has to see a natural disaster in the making before they'll change their minds? Zuko glared at a wall.

The Avatar and his friends looked at each other and, without exchanging words, ran off in the same direction: towards the market square. Zuko and Iroh stayed where they were. Zuko looked at his uncle. "Uncle, I know I've been in exile for three years, but even I know why that's a bad idea."

Iroh stroked his beard. "Let's test your knowledge, Zuko. Why is that a bad idea?"

"Because they already know who has the power to change the villager's minds," Zuko stated. "But they're ignoring her. They're running to the footsoldier instead of the general."

Iroh nodded. "Good! But how do we get the general to listen?"

Zuko looked at the smoking volcano, then turned to the door. "She wouldn't let the waterbending girl in, but I wished her well earlier. Maybe she'll let me in. She'll definitely let you in. And if there's anybody in town who won't believe what Aunt Wu says, it's Aunt Wu herself."

Iroh nodded, and joined him in knocking on the door. "Aunt Wu?" Iroh called. "I think there's something very important to talk about."

It took a couple minutes, during which they could hear shuffling inside, before Aunt Wu opened the door. "Hello," she coyly greeted Iroh. She still looked tired, but temporarily eager to put that aside. "What is it?"

Zuko grimaced in disgust. "That," he said, pointing to the volcano. Iroh turned in the same direction. Aunt Wu followed his gaze, and her eyes widened at the sight of smoke billowing from the top of the volcano. "The Avatar was just up there, and he saw it," Zuko said. "The volcano's going to go any second. The people here are in danger, but they won't listen to the Avatar. They'll only listen to you. You have to tell them they are in danger!"

"But how could the clouds be wrong?!" Aunt Wu slouched, crumbling in sudden doubt. Maybe she was too old, losing the ability to reliably predict even things of great importance. She'd thought it would be safe enough to continue making predictions for another few years before retiring, but -

"Maybe they weren't," Zuko told her. "Do the clouds predict whether the volcano will erupt, or whether the village will be destroyed? I don't actually remember which one you said, but they're different predictions! The volcano definitely is going to erupt, but if you talk to the people quickly enough, maybe the village won't be destroyed."

Aunt Wu straightened. "May be," she said. "Yes, that has to be it!" She turned and led them in a run to the market square. "My village cannot be destroyed!"

The people of the square were scattering and the Avatar and friends despondent when Aunt Wu arrived. Everyone was startled when she ascended the shrine herself and told the villagers some story about having a dream while she was resting, and a figure in the dream telling her exactly what Zuko had said, and warning her that it was wrong to conflate the volcano's activity with the fate of the village as if they were the same. She pointed to the billowing smoke and said that the dream figure was very wise and surely right.

Zuko, knowing the reality of how she had found out about the volcano, glared at her back at first. This made-up story was proof that she was a liar! She hadn't gotten her information through mystical means; she'd gotten it the same way anyone else could have!

But then he stopped glaring. Even if she was making up a story, she was doing it because she really cared about the people of the village and was trying to warn them as fast as possible, in a way that nobody would question. I thought she was just a fraud making herself look good, but she really is trying to help people. Even if everything she said was guesswork and stories, did that matter when the main service she provided was really only comfort and guidance? If she found out about the volcano the same way everybody else did, did it matter how she got people to do something about it? If he pointed out that she did not have mystical powers, that would only ruin her ability to influence the people, and the people desperately needed influencing right now. "Starting to see why you like her, Uncle," he murmured. This was exactly the sort of dilemma Iroh loved to think about.

The Avatar cheered, and he and his friends leaped up onto the shrine by Aunt Wu's side. "Aunt Wu's right! The village doesn't have to be destroyed!" yelled the Avatar. "If we act fast, we can still save the village! Sokka has a plan!" He gestured to the nonbending boy.

"The lava's going to flow downhill to this spot," the boy said. "If we dig a deep enough trench, we can channel the lava away from the village to the river!"

The Avatar raised his hand. "Anyone who's an earthbender, come with me!"

"Everybody else, grab a shovel!"

Zuko elbowed his uncle sharply, and they both ran out of sight behind some buildings. "What is it, Nephew?" Iroh whispered.

"We're firebenders." Zuko looked up at his uncle. "I can use my firebending to put out fires, to control them. Can we do the same to lava?"

Iroh shook his head immediately. "That's too dangerous! You couldn't get close enough to the lava to do that without being burned!"

"Well I don't want to be stuck with a shovel!" Zuko snarled. "There has to be something else!"

Iroh looked at him sternly, as close to a glare as he ever gave his beloved nephew. "Zuko. Sometimes, you can't do something big and glorious. Sometimes, all you can do is pick up a shovel. You have to learn to be happy doing what you can, even if that means not doing what you would like."

"But it feels like there is something more I can do, Uncle! I just can't think of it right now, like it's on the tip of my tongue," Zuko protested.

"Nephew!"

Zuko flinched from the sharpness of that tone. It was a one-word scolding. "Okay, fine. I'll try to think of what it is while we're shoveling."

.

Hours later, the volcano's rumblings were constant but thankfully minor. It was clear that it was building up to something, but not there yet. The trench was mostly finished. Zuko and Iroh were covered in dirt and thankful for every minute of physical training they had put in over their entire lives. Once they began digging, the frenzied pace had prevented Zuko from thinking of anything beyond the next shovelful.

They took deep breaths as the workload began to ease up. Their section of trench was mostly dug; the earthbenders were the ones who had to work the most now, clearing out the ground between each section and joining it all into one huge trench. Zuko stopped for a few seconds and wiped his brow. His sleeve came back with wet dirt stuck to it in new and interesting streaks. The same was likely true of his brow.

"Have you thought of anything, Nephew?" Iroh asked. He, too, was panting.

"No."

"Oh, well. We've done valuable work; the trench is almost done." Iroh smiled at him proudly. Zuko felt a little better. Even if he hadn't done what he thought of, he had done something helpful. He resumed digging with renewed vigor.

By the time the earthbenders cleared the trench, it was almost too deep to climb out of. The earthbenders helped everybody down in the trenches out of them, and the evacuation started. Zuko and his uncle were caught in the stream of fleeing people for a few seconds before Zuko pulled them both out of it. "Wait, Uncle!" The Avatar and friends were up at the head of the trench where the lava stream would meet it, and there was no way anyone deserving of the title of Firelord was going to let them be at the forefront of a disaster while he ran. I am no coward!

Darkness had descended, but the forest glowed as if in daylight. For a minute until everything turned black and crumbled to ash, anyway. Then, even the ash was obscured by the shifting air, rippling like the ocean, distorting their view. Zuko covered his nose and mouth as ash flakes rained down on them. The heat built until it was almost searing, but they all held their ground.

The lava came into view. It followed the road people used to travel up to the volcano, which was a lucky thing. The five of them stepped back as the lava reached the edge of the trench. The trench hadn't been dug very wide, and the heat was almost too much. They put up with it in order to watch the lava flow in, filling the trench. Zuko's eyes widened as he saw a problem with this plan. The lava wasn't going to flow down the trench fast enough for all of it to drain. It was going to pile up!

"Uncle!" Zuko stepped forward and used his firebending to push away the burning heat of the lava. "Avatar! Use earthbending! We have to clear the trench!"

"I don't know how to earthbend yet, but I'll try!" The Avatar stretched his hands out as if grabbing the lava, then threw them to the side. The lava shifted noticeably, but not fast enough.

Zuko and Iroh kept repressing the heat with their firebending. A dark gray skin began to form on the surface of the lava. Rock! It's turning to rock! "Wait," he panted. "Rock."

Iroh nodded. "What if we cooled the lava instead, making a wall of rock?"

Without a word, the Avatar leaped up into the air. He swung his arms out, gathering all of his airbending in one huge burst. Zuko and Iroh cooled the lava enough to form a skin across the entire width of the road into town, then leaped aside. The Avatar came down and threw air at the built-up lava, forcing it back. A miniature gale came out from around him, nearly blowing everyone else away with its power. In addition to scrambling for stability, everyone else had to close their eyes, because it was a hot gale and the heated air was intense. Zuko's entire mouth ran dry and his throat closed in self-defense, leaving him choking. He heard others doing the same.

Then, just as quickly as it came, the heatburst ended. Zuko sensed, even through his closed eyes, that it was darker. His arms shook as he pushed himself to his feet. There, the Avatar stood heroically, still outlined by a faint glow from lavalight shining over the wall of stone.

How did I capture him once? Zuko doubted his hands would be tied after this. There was clearly no need to. The Avatar, despite being only twelve, was insanely powerful. He pushed rock aside with air! With air! I didn't know air could push hard enough to do that!

"Wow. Sometimes I forget how powerful a bender that kid is," the nonbender boy muttered.

"W-what?" his sister asked.

"Oh, nothing. I was just saying that he's a really powerful bender." For some reason, Katara looked as if the statement had been important, rather than just an obvious fact.

"Indeed." Iroh's eyes were wide.

Zuko studied the wall of rock. If my father had known the Avatar was this powerful, would he still have sent me to capture him?

.

The next day, Zuko woke up very sore. Every muscle ached, especially all over his back. Maybe he should have learned to use his legs more, after all. He went out for a stretch, and overheard Katara muttering, "I think I'll have a mango instead," as she went off to get breakfast. Instead of what? But he didn't care enough to ask.

The nonbender came out and stretched, too. He groaned. "Ugh. If I'd known all that digging was going to hurt like this, I would have come up with a different plan."

"Stop whining," Zuko told him. "You're getting on my nerves." Sokka glared at him and stomped off. Zuko continued working through all the stretching exercises he knew, feeling just a little bit smug that Sokka was going to feel so much worse than him in a couple of hours.

Just one hour later, the nonbender boy was already looking unhappier. Iroh took pity on him and tried to show him proper stretches, but he was too stubborn to accept. Zuko smirked from the doorway. Then they left their rented lodgings, heading to the market square, where the Avatar and Katara had already gotten the bison ready for travel.

Katara sat holding the reins while the Avatar waved. Sokka hauled himself into the saddle painfully. Iroh smiled at Aunt Wu, then climbed in. Zuko glanced at the white-haired attendant briefly before looking away decorously. He really wasn't the one to worry about, after all. Nobody was. Looking strange doesn't make him bad. I knew that already, so why did I judge him?

The villagers were all surprisingly calm as they waved their thanks. They all looked happy, as if they hadn't been minutes from burning fiery death the night before. The nonbender boy groaned when one of them explained that Aunt Wu was right after all, her prediction had come true, so this proved that there was no need to worry. Zuko winced even though he was the one that had given Aunt Wu that argument. If all she did was provide comfort, that only made it more important that the villagers develop their own thinking skills, not less! They were completely misguided, and if Aunt Wu really meant to help them the right thing to do would be for her to step down. He no longer envied the villagers for never having to feel like they were being assaulted by forces outside their control. Even if they didn't feel it, they were. The helpful thing to do would be to step aside and let them figure out how to deal with it.

Zuko went to Aunt Wu and told her all this in a whisper so nobody would overhear. Aunt Wu turned away from the crowd so nobody could see her nod. "My powers have been fading," she confided. "I'm sure I would have predicted such powerful and influential people as yourselves just a few years ago. Decades ago, I could have foreseen my own future. I've been planning to retire in a few years."

Zuko nodded. "After an eruption that big, the volcano will need time to recharge. A few years is fine." Aunt Wu smiled sadly, but in a relieved way, too. Zuko felt good in an odd sort of way as he climbed into the saddle. I've never seen a smile like that before…

The Avatar waved one last time, and they set off, rising up into the air and leaving the village behind.

For a time, only the quiet sounds of rushing air and wisps of passing clouds were around. Even the Avatar and his pet monkey-thing were quiet. Zuko shifted back and forth, feeling his sore muscles relax. It was very soothing.

After he was settled, Iroh moved next to him. "Zuko," he whispered. "Did you remember what it was?"

"What?"

"That idea you had last night."

Zuko thought for a moment, and it came, as easily as if he had always known it. "Yeah. It wasn't really very good. I'm glad for the shoveling."

Iroh smiled. Zuko turned away, narrowing his eyes and glaring at nothing and everything. He was not settled now. The opposite of settled. His idea really had not been good at all. It was a terrible idea! Maybe the water spirit could have brought the river to the volcano instead of the other way around. And maybe, just maybe, the fire spirit could have cooled all the lava. But would they really? They don't care, and they don't listen. I can never trust them with anything at all! I would rather dig a thousand trenches by myself than have to entrust them with my life.