Aang's mouth hung open. Everyone's did. The room was dead silent, the kind of silence that rings in the ears. Nobody spoke. The archivist eventually raised one elbow and jabbed the scribe in the ribs. The young man jumped and began to write.

After his opening statement, the king had paused to gauge their reaction. Aang had intended to ask what he was talking about. But before he could, Zuko broke in. Zuko sounded like he was talking to no one. No, that wasn't quite right… He sounded like he was talking to someone nobody else could perceive. Maybe he had been talking to the water spirit. He must have; how else could it have known to appear in the flesh and take him away to the spirit world?

Katara checked one of Zuko's eyes. "Yup. Spirit world."

"Proof enough?" one of the advisors asked. Aang didn't look to see who. Another advisor muttered something back.

"I…did not expect it to be that easy," the king said.

"Expect what to be that easy?" Aang asked. "What did you want to test him for?"

"I wanted to find out if he was a twospirit or not," the king replied.

"A twospirit? Seriously? That's the most original name you could think of?" Sokka blinked. "Wait, there are other people who hang out with two elemental spirits on the regular?"

The king narrowed his eyes. "You traveled side by side with him, but didn't know what he was? How could you not know something so important about one of your own companions, Avatar?"

"I, I, I thought I knew everything important about him," Aang stammered. "He didn't tell me he was some kind of…"

"That's because he had never heard the word before," said Master Pakku. His gaze was locked on Iroh. "Why hadn't he heard the word?"

Iroh shook his head slowly. "I didn't recognize the signs. I was blinded by my closeness to him."

"You said you'd realized he had some kind of important destiny just like Aang's. Is this what you meant?" asked Sokka.

"What is a twospirit?" Aang asked.

"Right now, we've got more important things to worry about," Katara cut in. "Can someone get blankets? With his fire spirit away in the spirit world, he needs them."

The king and most of his advisors looked very disappointed. One of them muttered, "How is he going to save the world if he can't even recognize a spirit talker right next to him?" Aang blushed. He watched Katara and Tarao go off to get blankets. She'd been the closest of any of them to understanding what Zuko was, and she knew exactly what to do. Sokka seemed to have recovered from his initial shock. He was telling Iroh in no-nonsense tones that this changed nothing about how he felt towards that jerk. He had his role, and he also knew exactly what to do. But what was Aang supposed to do? Aang thought hard. He was the leader of their trio. He decided where to go next, what they should aim for, stuff like that. What would a leader do?

He had no idea.

Katara and Tarao returned. Katara turned Zuko's ice clothes to water and got rid of them, and then she and Tarao wrapped him in blankets. At the archivist's command, they carried him to the side of the room and out of the king's way. Sokka exclaimed in anger, then stormed up to Master Pakku and asked how long he had known. The advisors broke up, some going off to their own business and some staying to watch. The king came down from his seat to ask the archivist something. Everyone was in motion, asking this or doing that. In the middle of them all stood Aang, motionless, watching everyone pass by.

He had questions. He had things he wanted to try. But the only person he wanted to talk to or try things with was currently unavailable. Nonetheless, he had to do something. So Aang walked over, avoiding all of the people, and sat at Zuko's side. Zuko looked so peaceful when he was unconscious. Aang looked down at his scarred face and thought of how unfair it was that they were made to be enemies just because of how they were born. Aang was starting to see how within each person lay a universe of possibility. Born into another place, another family, another life, who knew what could happen? If the Avatar cycle had turned just a few more times and Aang had been raised in Ozai's Fire Nation, what might he have become? Aang stared down at Zuko's face and thought of all the times they had been cruel to each other, though it was obvious now that there had never been anything but the best intentions on both sides.

"Avatar, what are your thoughts?" Aang looked up to see the archivist and his young apprentice looking down at him. The scribe was poised to write. Anything Aang said now would be recorded for all foreseeable future.

Aang looked back down at Zuko's face. "I was just thinking about how much we have in common. He's so different from me, but also the same. I have as much in common with him as I have with my own past lives. The monks used to say that all difference is illusory, that every creature in the world is one. I think I'm starting to understand what they meant."

The scribe wrote that down. "Twospirits are defenders, but also teachers," the archivist said. "It sounds like he has taught you much already."

"I don't understand what it all means yet."

"Take as much time as you need," the archivist said. "That's all you can do anyway."

"Are twospirits and Avatars linked?" Aang asked. "Ever since I met him, I've had this feeling like our destinies are tied together."

"Past twospirits often got along well with the Avatars of their time," the archivist agreed, "but I've never heard of a spiritual linkage between them."

"Maybe it's just me and him," Aang said. "We were forced together by the war, and we won't be able to have nothing to do with each other until the war's over."

"Sure we will," said Sokka, walking over. "As the guy in charge of keeping us safe from predictable dangers, I declare this guy to be a predictable danger. He can figure out his destiny on his own."

"I don't know, Sokka…"

"He was only chasing you because he thought his destiny was to capture you to make his country proud. Now that he has a new destiny, no reason to chase you." Sokka cleaned his hands of imaginary dust.

"I agree with Sokka," Katara said, "but I also don't feel right about leaving him alone. Maybe we can find a compromise."

"Why are you two willing to go to so much trouble for this jerk?" Sokka asked, shaking his head.

"Because he's a brother to me."

Everyone turned to look at Aang. Aang set his jaw. "I lost my entire people. Everyone who raised me and ate the same foods as me and played with the same toys and had the same culture is gone. I'm an orphan." He looked down at Zuko. "And so is he. He doesn't have anybody who sees the world the same way and talks with the same spirits and wears clothes made of ice. He's alone too. He understands what it's like to be different from everyone around. He's the closest thing I have to family." Aang looked back up at Sokka with tears in his eyes. "You understand family, don't you?"

Sokka did. He said nothing.

"We'll talk about the future later," Katara said. "Right now, we need to learn what a twospirit is and what it means." She turned to the archivist. "Will you tell us?"

The king stood by the archivist's side. "Yes. He will."

.

The archivist began by explaining what a twospirit was. He started off with the obvious details, like that they could bend two elements, then said that wasn't really important and explained to them what was important. According to him, being able to bend two elements was just a side effect. The actual purpose of having two elemental spirits was to strengthen their spiritbending.

Aang raised a hand. "Why is that necessary? He practiced his spiritbending with a human teacher, and came up with a whole program for teaching someone with no experience at all how to spiritbend. Learning from spirits isn't the only way."

The scribe asked Aang to describe the entire training session in as much detail as possible. It took a while for Aang to completely recall Jeong Jeong's training and what Zuko had said about it later. The king and remaining advisors looked very interested. The scribe was still scribbling furiously as the advisor resumed telling them about twospirits. "Anyone could theoretically learn how to spiritbend," the old man said. "But that's very different from doing it. Spiritbending requires a powerful spirit. It's just like using your muscles. Without strong muscles, you can't move a heavy load no matter how well you understand how to push."

He then explained what spiritbending was used for. All three kids froze. "I've had dreams of spooky shadowy things," Aang said. Sokka agreed. Katara couldn't recall any specific dreams, but said the concept sounded eerily familiar.

Their education on the nature of twospirits was concluded with an explanation of what Zuko's life would look like from now on. It would involve traveling, educating others about the true nature of the elemental spirits whenever he wasn't fighting shadow monsters, and basically the sorts of activities that Aang performed right now. "That's our best guess, anyway," said the archivist. "Past twospirits have led all sorts of different lives. But people nowadays are in danger of forgetting the roots of their bending. The last one chose to be a teacher and we suspect he will too."

There was a pause after that. It became clear the archivist had finished. "Excuse me," the scribe said. "I need to know something important for the records. Erm, what is his name?"

"It's Zuko," Katara said. She looked around. Nobody seemed to react to that name.

"I will need to know about his early life, of course," the scribe added. "But later. I understand you're busy now."

"Yes, we are," Katara said. She turned to the king. "What does this mean in solid terms, right here and right now?"

The king said, "He and his uncle will remain in their current living situation. He will continue his current activities. He will be required to meet with Master Pakku at least once, and I may have a need to speak with him in the future. It was a good thing, Tarao, that you placed him so close to the palace."

"What about the doctor?" a grey-haired advisor with his hair tied back in a bun asked.

"Kalika knows everything," Iroh said. "I'm sure my nephew can still benefit from her guidance. And he has talents that are useful to the hospital."

"No change, then," the king said. He turned to his advisors. "How should we distribute this news?"

"It's already distributed," Iroh said. "The people are eager to gossip about him."

"It sounds like everything is already as it should be."

"Yes. It is. It took us far too long to recognize that."

.

Iroh was invited down to the archives to share everything he knew of Zuko's early life. Aang's group, having nothing to do, left the palace and tried to go about the rest of their day. "He didn't really answer my question," Katara snapped. "What do we do, right here, right now?"

"We're going to have to figure that out ourselves," Aang told her. "Sokka, you're the practical guy. What do we do?"

"Absolutely nothing."

It was too cold for crickets, so nothing chirped. "That's all we can do," Sokka clarified. "We can't do anything about shadow monsters or spirits or whatever. It makes no difference to us."

"I guess that's technically true," Katara said. "Master Pakku's probably going to hold the afternoon lesson like normal. We'll have lunch and go learn. Like we do every day."

That was exactly what they did. They resolutely did not discuss the future, not even as far ahead as that night. Sokka imagined slashing at shadow monsters with every sword stroke. Aang and Katara made leaps of progress, even more than they had in the past couple days. It wasn't strange anymore to think of Water as a person. Katara quietly told Master Pakku that it might be a good idea to have the rest of his students meet the water spirit in the flesh - er, ice. He agreed immediately, which surprised her. Had he already thought about it?

Zuko awoke in the archives. The archivist was delighted to learn the name of the long-ago twospirit, and showed Zuko all of the records about him. The scribe confirmed with him everything that Iroh had said. Zuko initially seemed to be glowing with joy, but as they talked about his past, his smile faded. He said he did not remember his earliest encounters with the water spirit, nor anything about the incident when he was 3 that he had not already shared. Iroh noticed that his voice didn't sound quite right. Was he still hiding something?

.

That night, the two sides did not meet. Aang and Katara didn't even suggest it. Aang wanted to see Zuko very badly, but avoided him for that same reason. They had a peaceful dinner where not much was said.

Katara could not sleep afterward. How did everything fit together? Twospirits, medical-grade identity disturbance, her necklace. The dare. Find me if you can. And, too, the prophecies. There were so many things to remember and reexamine. She didn't get much sleep that night.

Meanwhile, Kalika came over like usual. Mushi had told her they would be meeting the king in the morning, but nothing else. Was Lee still her patient? What was going on? She was relieved to find out that yes, everything was going to continue like normal. Lee was relieved, too. They went upstairs for their usual private session. "I've been thinking," he said. "Now what?"

For the first time ever, they discussed his future. He had only ever made vague references to it, she realized. Now he made real plans. His destiny? "To teach. After the war's…dealt with, I'll return here and stay as long as I can. When the first darkness arrives, I'll leave and spend the next few years traveling around, teaching and stuff. After that, I'll come back and make a home here. Then we'll see what happens." How was he going to do that? "Same way the Avatar does it. I'll use the water spirit as a flying mount. Since I'm only one person, I won't need as much saddle space or possessions." Speaking of the Avatar… "I should make plans that don't rely on him at all. If they do anything to help me, which would be crazy after the way I betrayed them, it'll be a bonus." What about his father? "...I hope I never see him again." Sister? "*groan*" Did he want to be a parent someday? "Definitely. I'd like… 3 kids that are related to me, and a bunch that aren't." What kind of house did he want? "Like this, but smaller. With spaces where I can hang out by myself, and multiple exits. At least one upper floor window."

Kalika took her beads from her pocket and silently handled them. "It's time to talk about the others. How do they fit into your plans?"

"The Blue Spirit gets the upper floor window. The nice, caring part of me will adopt kids no matter what, so I'm planning for that. The part of me that runs from danger gets plenty of hiding places and a flying mount I can hop on at any time. I've thought of everything."

Everything?

"Everything."