She first awoke to the rhythm of the mongoose lizard as it moved across the ground. That distinct canter pounded itself into her body as she lay across it, her eyes still closed. She ignored her body's pleas to remain still and instead raised her head.
"Azula!" a voice right above her squeaked out. The beast beneath her slowed and stopped. "Mai!—Mai, stop! She's awake!" The previously unnoticed sound of movement ahead halted as well.
She opened her eyes and saw that she was indeed laying across the saddle of a mongoose lizard, with Ty Lee holding the reins. The girl's usual pink outfit was dirty and her tight braid haphazard after…after…
"Zuko," Azula croaked, hating how unrefined her voiced sounded. The fight—no, his betrayal—came back to her, vivid to the last memory. Ungrateful. She had been doing him a favor, giving him a chance at redemption and he threw it back in her face. No, even worse, he had tried to turn her against Father, against their nation. Better he had died there than if his words ever made it back to the Palace.
"Do you…" Ty Lee whispered, "remember what happened?"
"Of cour—" She cleared her throat and tried to sit up, but had to—spirits, curse her—get Ty Lee's help to do so— "Of course I remember." Good. Her voice didn't seem as weak as it had been.
Mai jumped down from her own stead ahead of them, brushing past some of the tree branches that reached across the worn path they were taking, and stood beside Ty Lee's leg that straddled the lizard. Her appearance was also disheveled but, unlike Ty Lee, her voice remained as cool as ever: "We've only been riding for a few hours. North, to the port. We can't afford to stop and lose them." She nodded towards the setting sun as late afternoon came around. "We'll have to ride through the night."
"You really should see a healer or someone—" Ty Lee began.
But Azula shook her head. Waving her hand dismissively, she replied, "I'm fine. I didn't expect my uncle to fight underhanded as he did. For a man who says he believes in honor…well, I suppose even the lowest vermin can sink lower." She had readied herself against him, knowing her lightning was faster than anything he could attack her with, yet somehow he was faster. The last thing she remembered was that she was sending lightning at him before everything went black.
"Is he dead?" she asked. Hopefully something good came out of that encounter.
"General Iroh is not," Mai replied. Then, eyes flashing, she asked, "Or were you talking about Zuko?"
"Don't mourn that traitor. He didn't help us when given the chance."
Her comment made the line of Mai's mouth grow even thinner. "We need to keep moving if we're going to catch up with the Avatar and the others," she replied.
"I'm not stopping you."
Mai turned, her long sleeves catching in the wind, and climbed aboard her mongoose lizard. She sped off without looking back.
Ty Lee checked that Azula had a proper hold on the saddle before snapping the reins as well. They settled into that familiar rhythm again. North. They needed to head west but didn't have the dirty, flying furball the Avatar had access to cross the ocean.
Azula quickly ran through her memories again, eventually coming back to the present, and she confirmed that Mai had not seen what exactly happened to Zuko nor why he deserved what he got. She may have her suspicions but that was all. Unless Ty Lee had said something; she was terrible at explaining things.
No, Ty Lee knew her place—so did Mai, for that matter. Azula would explain what happened to him and that would be the end of that: Zuko was dead and rightfully so.
-o-0-
Zuko and Aang stood facing each other on the deck of the Fire Nation frigate. The sky was a washed-out blue and cloudless save the trail that sprang from the smokestack onboard. The ship's bow was cleared of the cargo to make room for the training that was happening—or was supposed to happen.
"Aang," Zuko groaned in frustration—and not for the first time that day, "you have to concentrate. You need to keep your focus if you want to remain in control."
Aang had been performing his firebending forms well but stopped midway through to ask, once again, about when he was going to learn firebending. He stepped out of his firebending stance. "But I'm not controlling anything. I'm either breathing, or standing, or doing forms. We didn't have time for this when I was with Jeong Jeong, and we definitely don't have time now—when will I be able to firebend?"
How did he not get it? "This is firebending," Zuko corrected, doing his best to maintain his patience. "It's all connected. You know this: if you want control, you have to master the basics."
"But I don't have time. Day of Black Sun is only a few weeks away."
"You think I don't know that?" Again, he forced himself under control. "I don't want you to move onto more advanced moves if you aren't able to do these easy ones. That won't help anyone. Trust me, okay?"
The boy hung his head. "Okay."
He nodded. "Good. Now, go into Bow-Arrow stance." Aang stepped forward into a deep lunge. "A little wider… Turn your knee in a little more for protection… There." Zuko let him stay there until his legs started to shake. "And…back to neutral."
While Aang recovered, Zuko explained, "These forms ground you, so you have to be comfortable with them. Uncle always told me we need to feel the energy flow through us to the ground like how the sun warms the earth. If you aren't grounded, you're off-balance and it could cost you the fight. It's how I defeated Zhao in Agni Kai, actually."
This piqued Aang's interest. "You fought him?"
"A while back," he said. It was not the time to be distracted by telling stories.
Voices sounded behind him, and Zuko turned to see Katara and Toph emerge from below deck. He nodded to them and told Aang, "Keep flowing to Bow-Arrow, hold for ten seconds, then back to neutral until I return."
"Yes, Sifu Hotman," Aang replied when he turned his back.
"Make that fifteen seconds," he called back and received a tired groan in response.
The girls walked to meet him, and Toph asked, "Whipping your student into shape?"
He replied with a dry chuckle and rubbed his face. "Something like that. I don't know who's whipping who. Did you two have as much trouble getting him to pay attention?" Toph's snort and the smile that crept up on Katara's face were enough of an answer for him. "So? How'd you get him to focus?"
Katara went first: "I found that he responds well to gentle instruction and guidance. Encourage him for the small victories."
"He did well enough when I didn't baby him," Toph responded, crossing her arms with a satisfied smile on her face.
That doesn't help me. He sighed. "I'm going to have to find my own way, I guess." As with everything else. And, not for the first time, he wondered what his uncle would do.
Zuko looked back at Aang, who had his brow furrowed in concentration as he, surprisingly graceful, slid into the proper pose. To Zuko's further surprise, the airbender even did the correct pairing hand movement—something Zuko hadn't tried teaching yet. It wasn't anything extravagant, but the small twist of his wrist was not something one did by accident. "Catches on quick, though," he added.
Katara replied, "Sometimes annoyingly fast," just as Toph said, "Yeah, it's nice."
He chuckled. "Okay, Aang!" he called and motioned for him to come.
Aang raced over to the group. "Hey, Toph! Hey, Katara! Did you see me doing those forms?" Before either one could get a word out, he continued with a slight whine to his tone, "Zuko says I need to do those before I can do firebending—I mean, real firebending. What do you think?" He was looking from Katara to Toph like he expected them to say something.
Katara commented in a neutral tone, "I thought your form looked pretty good."
"Do I look like a firebender?" replied Toph. "Zuko will know when you're ready to move on."
Zuko hoped she could sense his expression when he smiled gratefully at her and Katara.
"And speaking of things I look like," Toph continued with a grin, "We should train some more today. We can work on your seismic sense. C'mon." She jerked her head toward the door that led below deck.
"Toph!" Katara reprimanded. "Zuko's not done training yet. You can't just take him."
Rubbing the back of his head, Zuko said, "No, that's okay. We'll start again tomorrow."
The earthbender left and Aang trailed behind her. "I'll catch up with you," Katara said to Aang as he passed her.
Katara met Zuko's gaze. A question seemed to form behind those two ever-searching eyes of hers, but not one Zuko knew. He raised an eyebrow, inviting her to say whatever seemed to be on her mind.
"So, how's your first week of training gone? I know it may not be perfect but…do you think he'll be ready?"
Letting out a breath, he said, "Honestly? I don't know. I mean, you've seen how training's gone: we get a few minutes into a lesson and he finds some way to get distracted. Especially that spirit's-cursed air ball of his that he flies around on. I almost hate it more now than I did be—" The corner of Katara's mouth had turned up in a smile. "Sorry. It sounds worse than it is…" he scratched the back of his head. "…I think."
She laughed. "No, no, you're fine. He was like that when we were in the North Pole. He prefers games over drills."
But that was the way future fire lords and princes and generals were taught. He shook his head. "He's right, though: we don't have much time. But I also don't want give him too much too fast."
"I don't think you are. Like you said, he learns quickly."
"I know, I know. It's just—It's too important to get wrong. I don't want him to be like me."
"Zuko…" she said, quietly reproving him.
He eyed her and said, "You know what I mean. It's—He has so much power within him, but if I don't teach him to control it, he might…I don't know." There were too many possibilities to consider. "I know he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but Fire will free itself if you don't have complete control over it." Sometimes it'll do exactly what you want, even if you don't know what that is.
Katara touched his arm, bringing him out of his dark thoughts. "You're the right teacher for him. It's your destiny."
He gave her a faint smile. There was hope to be found in it, but destiny never promised happy endings.
They walked across the deck together, she talking about the various tides and their effect on their ship's path (which Zuko was already familiar with but enjoyed listening to nonetheless), and he, in turn, giving her details about the frigate and what some of the different mechanics were—at least the ones on deck.
Besides the short time he was down there to heat the boilers before they pushed off from shore, he had not crossed back underneath. While he knew in his mind that it was not the same as the prison in Ba Sing Se, something almost physically stopped him from spending more than five minutes down there in the dark, musty belly of the ship. When he tried, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end and the darkness seemed to seep in from every corner, threatening to consume him.
Instead of traveling below deck to the rest of the crew's quarters, they took the steep, almost ladder-like steps up the tower that neighbored the smokestack. Even there, the walls felt as if they would turn in and trap Zuko if he paused his climb.
They reached the next floor which opened up into a room, large by the ship's standards. There was enough room for five cots to cover the floor as well as a raised table to eat from. The key feature was the wide and numerous portholes facing the bow and stern that allowed sunlight to fill the room and beat back the darkness.
"You know you all don't have to sleep up here with me," Zuko said. He'd said it almost every day to at least one of them, letting them know it wasn't like he needed them because he was scared or couldn't be left alone. "I know Aang likes being with Appa. And there's more room in the quarters below."
Continuing with their ritual, Katara replied, "I sleep better when we're all together. Doesn't matter where we are."
"Hmph." But as it always did when the others included him in the "we" that was their team, his heart leap with joy and his mind rested easy. He sat down on his bed, rested his back against the wall, and looked back at Katara. Why do I keep doubting that they want to be here with me? Some half-formed thought answered, but it remained vague enough that he couldn't put it into words and he brushed it aside.
Katara remained standing. "Is there nothing I can do to help with…whatever it is that bothers you about the boat?"
"You've done more than enough already." Tapping his temple, he said with a note of irony, "Can't heal this." Katara furrowed her brow. He let out a breath and added more seriously, "But thank you. Really."
"'Really' what?" Sokka appeared, stepping through the doorway into the room. "Really late? Really seeming like you're avoiding me? Don't think I didn't see you sneak off here."
"We weren't sn—" Katara started.
"Just getting ready," Zuko replied as he stood. He then bent down and grabbed the two swords that lied on the shelf built into the wall beside his bed. The frigate had a serviceable armory, but since the Water Tribesmen were both unfamiliar with the weapons and not inclined to use them if they did, most of them had been left untouched.
He nodded to Sokka. "Ready."
"Let's go." The boy disappeared from the doorway then reappeared a second later. "And, hey," he said to Katara, "Can you get me Appa's measurements?"
"Sure, why—" Before she completely finished, Sokka had turned and eagerly started down the steps that he had gone up only a minute ago.
Zuko followed him, giving Katara another small smile before passing her on his way out.
-o-0-
Finally! After Sokka had discovered the weapons room and Zuko claimed two swords as his own, and after days of begging and pleading, he was finally going to learn Fire Nation sword fighting!
Sokka waited at the foot of the stairs for Zuko, weapon already in hand. Before the firebender finished his climb down, Sokka was already talking: "So? What are we going to start with first? Slashing? Blocking? Stabbing?"
Holding up one hand for silence, Zuko said, "Wait. First, I want to ask, do you have any experience with swords—metal swords like these?" He lifted his own to show.
"We have machetes that are kind of like that."
"The shorter, flatter blades, right? Now those are a bit different than this. This," he held his sword at the base of the blade, "is a dao. The most important difference is this, the guard." He tapped the part between the grip and blade. "When you block—parry—an attack, it stops someone from sliding their blade down yours and cutting off some fingers." Sokka winced at the thought.
They walked down to where Zuko trained with Aang minutes ago. "What I want to start with is something similar to what I'm doing with Aang," continued Zuko. "I want you to first master the basics before moving onto anything more complex."
"Makes sense," replied Sokka, trying to temper his excitement. No crazy fights on the first day.
Nodding, his friend said, "Good. Let's start with some lunges and steps. You can set down the dao for now; you won't need it."
"I thought this was supposed to be sword fighting," he said sarcastically, but Zuko lifted his eyes and gave him a look which said he ought to be careful about what he was going to say next.
After setting aside his sword without another word, training commenced. "The best way to learn your footwork is repetition and forms," Zuko said, and proceeded to go through a form made up of thirty steps, each step having a unique foot movement. "We'll start with footwork and go from there."
Once Sokka was able to stumble his way through the form enough to practice on his own, they moved onto a second, more complex form, and then a third. Each was nothing like the one prior to it except the feeling of awkwardness as Sokka worked his way through them. When will I use this when I'm fighting? he thought, but kept quiet.
That was until he didn't have his toe pointing the right way for the hundredth time. "If your toe is wrong, do you automatically surrender to your opponent?" he said, grinning though he knew Zuko wouldn't. "I'm just wondering since you're kinda obsessed with it."
"This is how it's supposed to look like. If you don't want my help, just say it."
"I do! But don't you think it's a little weird that we're here, people are trying to kill us, and you're more worried about where my feet are than anything to do with a sword?—dao…whatever."
"This is how the best tutors in the Fire Nation teach. There was one tutor I had—the one for dao, actually—that didn't teach me this way—"
"Well, why don't—"
"I didn't try teaching you that way," Zuko said, eyeing Sokka, "because it's, well, unconventional and involves a bit of pain."
Sokka imagined some shadowy figure standing over Zuko, whip in hand. "How much pain?"
"Before forms and stances, he fought me, a kid who thought he knew everything about fighting—except I realized all I knew was firebending which was, of course, not allowed in his training."
"So you lost."
"A lot. He gave me bruises up and down my body, criticized my footwork—which I didn't know—and corrected my attacks—which I didn't know either. It didn't matter to him. Forms came second to experience and he was determined to give me experience. Once I told him I didn't know what I was doing, he finally lightened up."
Sokka remarked, "Knowing you, that much have taken a while. Sounds unconventional, alright."
"I thought you'd rather want to avoid that," said Zuko.
He was right, but that wasn't quite a solution. It was unconventional means, but no one could deny Zuko was a good sword fighter. Still, getting beat up all day for weeks didn't seem much of a path either.
"Now, let's get back into it."
As Sokka went to continue his forms, he thought, Maybe we need a little unconventional.
-o-0-
Once practice went on long enough for the afternoon air to begin to cool, Zuko released Sokka and the two parted ways. Sokka left to return his sword to the armory below deck while Zuko went up to the tower to return his own swords.
Entering the room where he had left Katara, he found her again, still sitting beside one of the windows that looked out across the deck. Turning to him, she said, "I was watching you with Sokka," and gestured to a pile of clothing on the bed beside her.
He picked them up. "Thanks. You were?"
She nodded. "Hopefully he wasn't too much of a pain."
"He was fine, actually. He's a good student, and it feels like I'm actually helping." Not that he wasn't helping in other ways. Zuko had attended meetings with Hakoda and the rest of the strategists for most of the day, providing any and all information about the Fire Nation, its navy, and the Capital, and, after a quick lunch, went through firebending forms with Aang for three hours.
But there was a difference between that and teaching and training Sokka. The fate of the world didn't rest on the decisions he made there with him—or did they?
Not now, he thought.
"I'm glad you were able to get something done. I've been sitting around all day. Dad doesn't want me to do anything." Katara peered out the window and Zuko followed her gaze. Hakoda was below, helping some men carry a bulky network of ropes strung together. "He thinks everything is just like how he left it," she said. Zuko noted that her voice had a touch of bitterness to it.
He sat on his bed opposite her so she was only an arm's length away. "When did he leave?"
"Two years ago." She met Zuko's eyes for a moment before breaking away. "I know it's not that long, but so much has changed. I've changed. The world has changed since he's been gone."
Zuko nodded. "It has."
Katara continued, "I love him, I do, and I was happy to see him when he helped rescue us, but…" she trailed off. Then she continued, her energy returning, "I'm just so…I'm so angry at him." She looked at him for something, maybe an answer to an unspoken question, but Zuko didn't have one. Looking down at her hands, she shook her head. "You didn't need to hear that—with your Uncle gone…sorry."
"It's okay." He offered her a small smile.
Katara returned it half-heartedly before turning her gaze back out the window. Hakoda and the others had disappeared.
Yellow light of late afternoon was starting to flood the room. "I should go." She stood and added, half-joking, "I'll see if I'm still allowed to help with dinner—if Dad doesn't think I'm going burn myself making stew. And don't forget to change before dinner." She gestured at the clothes in his hands he hadn't yet put on.
He gave her a look and she held her hands up defensively. "O-kay! Remember, I've been living with Sokka and Toph for months. It's a chore to make sure they have clean clothes to begin with."
"I'm former royalty," he reminded her. "I know how to dress."
She looked him up and down, and Zuko remembered the somewhat ragged and sweaty tunic he wore. "Never would have guessed," she replied with a rare smirk before turning on her heel and leaving.
Zuko watched her go, his mind scrambling and failing to come up with a clever response—any response—to what she just said. Instead, he found himself staring at the empty doorway.
Though the nights were warm, the breeze carrying the ocean's spray gave a much-needed reprieve from the intense heat during the day and brought Zuko out of his stupor. He mentally shook himself and changed into the heavier outfit Katara had given him.
After pulling the black shirt over his head, he went to the window that overlooked the ship's bow. Activity on the deck had slowed and the sun was turning the clouds in the western sky a blood-orange, and, to the east, a rusty red fading into mauve.
Zuko looked down and spotted Appa laying on his side, watching Toph and Aang stand completely still about ten paces from one another. Aang was blindfolded but crouching like he was readying for something. To Toph's right was a pile of rocks that reached her hip, each rock about as big as her head.
With a slide of her foot and an upward movement of her arms, Toph bended one rock up from the ground so that it was at about shoulder height. After a few seconds—it looked like she was talking to Aang—she punched and sent the rock directly at him.
The airbender turned and punched as if the rock were, in fact, a face that could be punchable without breaking a hand. When the rock hit, it broke into three pieces—one of which flew back toward Toph and above her head. Not just an airbender anymore, Zuko reminded himself.
Knowing it wouldn't be long before dinner was called and their practice ended, Zuko made his way down to the main deck to get a closer look. Maybe he could figure out what Toph did to get through to Aang.
Climbing down the steps and exiting the tower, Zuko strode over toward Appa, intending to watch from afar and out of Toph's way. As he passed behind her, Toph commented without turning around, "Whatcha doin', Smokey?"
Aang started to pull down his blindfold. "Zuko?"
"Ah! Ah!" Toph chided. "Put that back on! You should have felt him coming and known it was him. Now," she continued, "what are you doing here, Zuko? Jealous of my student?" Finally turning to him, she flashed a grin.
Momo flew from his place on top of Appa's head and perched on Zuko's shoulder. "I'm just here to see Appa."
"Seriously?" She crossed her arms and tapped her foot a couple of times.
Why did he always forget about that? "I wanted to see Aang's progress," he amended. At least that was partly true.
"Hm," she grunted, though a smile still lingered. "Stay there, don't move, and be quiet. How 'bout it, Twinkle Toes? Let's show him what you know."
Following that was an impressive yet unnerving display of earthbending from both Aang and Toph. While there was no doubt which of them was the master and the student, Aang held his own, building stone shields, carving rocks to serve as sharp projectiles, and holding a sizeable rock under one arm while he redirected others sent his way. Apparently Toph was confident enough in Aang's ability to send those stones straight for him without care. There were some close calls, but Aang always would, at the last moment, dodge or block them. Every few seconds, Toph yelled at him to fix his stance, or to "be unyielding"—and other things Zuko wasn't quite sure she was expecting Aang to do.
When every last stone had been destroyed so that only pebbles remained, Toph said, "Looks like you killed them all," and Aang fell over into a sweaty heap, breathing hard. She turned to Zuko with a proud look on her face. "Whatcha think?"
-o-0-
"What did you think?" Katara whispered to Zuko. They sat cross-legged around the dinner table while he recounted Aang's training.
Except for two lookouts and a helmsman, everyone was gathered for the meal prepared by Katara and the tribe's designated cook. They ate in a low-ceilinged room on the main floor of the tower, the only place Katara knew Zuko felt comfortable being bedsides the deck itself.
She felt Zuko watching her, evaluating her reaction as he responded to her question: "I think the training is dangerous, of course," he started, and she nodded.
It wasn't an accident that she had missed Aang and Toph's training recently. Whenever they practiced, Katara couldn't help but imagine how—if he misses a block—how hurt he could get. Yes, she could heal him, but she was far from a skilled healer on her own.
Zuko continued, "It's dangerous but also necessary. Toph is a tough teacher and she pushes him, but I never got the feeling she gave him more than what he could handle." He reached out and helped himself to more sea prunes. A tiny part of her wanted to smile since it was she who had made it. "I wish I'd had someone like that when I learned firebending," he finished as an afterthought.
"Didn't your uncle teach you?"
He paused to look at her while he brought the spoon to his mouth. Taking another moment to swallow and think, he finally said, "No and yes. He wasn't the one to teach me when I was growing up, and even when I was older he was almost always busy on another campaign, but after I was banished, he stayed with me and…" Zuko's eyes went from hers to the other faces at the table. There was little privacy to be had. "…Helped me."
She touched his knee to bring his attention back to her. Giving him a smile to show she understood, if not the reason behind his desire for privacy at least his hesitancy in the presence of the lack of it, she said, "Whatever he did, he did something right."
His expression that was so easy to read showed a mixture of appreciation and a hint of pride, either for himself or Iroh, and Katara found herself hoping that it was the former.
"…hit him!" Sokka's voice sounded from the other end of the table, followed by several hearty laughs. Katara leaned over to see what was going on. Sokka's face was red, but he smiled as he talked. Dad sat across from him, listening and laughing along with the rest of the men nearby.
Katara raised her voice over the din of conversation: "What are you talking about?"
Sokka's attention swung over to her, but Dad answered, "Your brother's been regaling us with stories from his lesson today."
She nodded without another word and leaned back again. Before he disappeared from view, she noticed, though she tried to convince herself otherwise, that Dad's face fell a little.
"Hey, maybe tomorrow I can see how you and Aang work together?" Zuko said, offering to change the subject.
It was her turn to give him an appreciative smile. "Sure. I'd like that. That'll give you a chance to see how he does in a…less stressful environment." It wasn't particularly funny, but they both chuckled.
Movement caught her eye, and one of the lookouts passed opposite of her towards Dad. She leaned over again and saw the man bend down to say something to him. Sokka must have overheard something because his eyes shot over and met hers. That one look allowed the heart of the message to travel to her unsaid.
Katara nodded and Sokka whispered something to Toph who threw a piece of food at Aang to get his attention.
"What's wrong?" Zuko asked, sensing a change and looked around the table again.
Keeping her voice low, she replied, "Trouble."
Those that had not felt the energy of the room shift glanced up when Dad stood. "There's a Fire Navy cruiser requesting to board. Let's get everything ready for them. We'll get everything covered," he said to Aang, "just make sure your air bison and you stay out of sight."
Aang nodded and got to his feet, followed by Sokka and Toph. Katara and Zuko stood a second later as everyone else did. There was a concerted effort to exit the room at once, each person carrying out their already known assignments. Katara stayed back and let them stream by, her assigned mission known as well: hide. It had been that way back in the Southern Water Tribe, and, for Dad, it would not be any different.
But he was wrong. "Aang!" she called. The men moved respectfully out of her way to let her by. "Can I help you with Appa?"
"Of course!" He nodded and gestured to follow him.
She took a step and then looked back at Zuko. Raising her voice, she asked, "Where are you going to go?"
The firebender moved toward them, replying, "Probably stay up in the tower. I need to stay out of sight too; I don't want to be recognized."
"Zuko," Sokka called from farther up the table with Dad, "can you come here for a second?"
Katara shrugged when Zuko looked questioningly back at her, but he obeyed. When he came to the two men, Dad said something more to Sokka, nodded to her and the rest of them, and left with the last of the tribesmen.
"Katara." She turned and followed Aang outside. Sure enough, in the distance was a ship. It was hard to tell how far away it was, but it couldn't have been more than twenty minutes away. The ship's features were dark against the last bit of light provided by dusk, but the fires dotting the metal deck revealed enough of its exterior to identify it as Fire Nation. She only stopped for a second to observe this before Aang said, "C'mon!" and she ran with him to Appa.
Thankfully, the air bison had already landed and was simply munching on his haybales for dinner. "Buddy!" Aang yelled. "We gotta hide you for a little while." Appa looked up from his meal and tilted his head. "Katara, can you open the cover?" He pointed at a grated portion of the deck.
The grate's openings were large enough to allow her to slip her fingers through and grab hold. It shifted only slightly when she gave it a pull. Letting go, Katara ran to the edge of the ship, the side not facing the Fire Navy, and bended some water so that a good amount flowed over the deck towards the grating.
She felt the water's contact with the surface of the deck and how it long to flow, flow, flow, always flowing, finding the break in the construct that longed to contain it, to stop it from flowing and going and ever-changing. As soon as the water found the grate, its break from the hard surface, it fell through, urging the rest of itself to follow. But Katara cooled the water, calmed it until it hardened into ice, and with a sweep of her arms, lifted the grate away.
"Thanks!" Seated on Appa above her, Aang urged the air bison slowly forward. "This won't be hard," he called to her. "You should ask your dad if he needs help."
"Oh, he doesn't want it." She smiled as she said it, but couldn't help the annoyance that crept into her words. "I'll stick around here and help you."
He nodded and urged Appa forward again since the air bison had taken the opportunity to stop when Aang's attention was drawn away. This time, though, Appa didn't move forward. The cargo hold was several paces away and the bison seemed to be transfixed by it.
"C'mon, Appa!" Aang scooted forward like his bodyweight would prompt the stubborn animal to move. He glanced back at Katara. "I might need your help."
-o-0-
"It's not going to work." Zuko crossed his arms. He wasn't trying to be difficult; it was just the reality of the situation.
"It will," Sokka insisted. "A Fire Nation soldier on a Fire Nation ship? No one will question it."
"I'm going to get recognized."
"We need you there in case they try something."
"They will try something when they recognize me."
But Sokka seemed unfazed. "And I'm telling you they won't—recognize you, that is. You just need to wear the face shield…mask…thing."
"Only guards and crew wear face armor, and really only when officials visit or on official guard."
"Then it's settled: you'll be a guard! I'll grab the uniform. You stay here." Sokka left without another word, leaving him as the last occupant in the mess hall.
A second later, Katara entered. "Good, you're still here. Can you help me?"
He didn't hesitate. "Sure."
They came upon Aang on the deck, pulling hard on Appa's reins. "Appa, boy! C'mon! You've gotta go in there!"
The air bison remained where he was.
"What's going on?" Zuko asked.
Katara replied, gesturing to the opening in the deck. "You heard Dad. We need to hide Appa. This is the only place that works, but he's being stubborn."
Zuko walked to the edge of the pit—No, it's just cargo space—and looked in. Yes, it would hold him but… The hairs on the back of Zuko's neck stood on end. "He's scared. After Ba Sing Se…"
Realization dawned on Aang and Katara. "Oh, buddy. I'm so sorry." Aang pet his friend's head. "I know you're scared, but you need to trust me. You trust me, right? I'm not going to lock you up."
Appa grunted and shook himself.
"Right." He patted Appa's arrow. "Let's go." Taking a tentative step forward, Appa took his time but he made it to the edge of the hold and looked down. "C'mon, boy," Aang called.
His front feet fidgeted and, as if he wanted to go before he lost his nerve, he jumped in and landed with a crash. "Good boy!" said Aang.
Katara added her encouragement: "Good job, Appa."
Ignoring their words, Appa strained and stuck his head out the top of the hold to look back at them, his eyes wild and wide.
"You've got to keep your head in so we can close these," Aang told him and Katara was readying the grates to close over Appa and Aang. The air bison began stamping his feet nervously and bucked his head.
"Don't," Zuko said, his tone closer to an order than a suggestion. Both Katara and Aang looked at him, and he added more gently, "Please."
"He needs to be covered, Zuko," Katara told him. Noticing something in his expression, she added, "But would a tarp be better?"
"I—I don't know. It's just that he was trapped once before and closing him in like that—"
"It would be like trapping him again," she finished, nodding.
"…Yeah."
"I'll see what we have." Katara rushed off into the darkness faintly lit by the glowing lanterns mounted along the deck and tower.
He looked off the starboard side. The ship was much closer and men moved across the deck, also lit by their lanterns' light.
"Zuko!" hissed Sokka as he came up to Zuko with his arms full of Fire Navy armor. "I told you to stay put!"
"Katara needed my help. I can't keep everyone happy."
"Well, it doesn't look like she needs help now. Put these on." He thrusted the clothes forward into Zuko's arms. "They're getting close!"
"Okay!" Zuko replied, exasperated. Does he think I can't see the massive ship heading for us?
"Meet us by the tower entrance in five minutes."
"Where are you—" he began, but Sokka ran off again.
Ever since they came aboard the ship, Sokka had stuck close to Southern Water Tribe chief. With the exception of their practice earlier that day, Zuko had only interacted with Sokka during invasion strategy meetings and whenever he stumbled into their sleeping quarters late at night after, presumably, more meetings.
As he ducked into the empty mess hall he had been in minutes ago and changed into uniform, Zuko found himself thinking about how much Sokka was the perfect heir to Hakoda: he had the mind for strategy—his ideas during meetings with Hakoda and other experienced warriors were evidence of that; and, most importantly, he knew (usually) when to be quiet and listen.
And he had someone good to listen to. Just as Sokka was the ideal heir to Hakoda, it seemed like Hakoda was the ideal teacher and predecessor to Sokka: he tempered his son's enthusiasm when it became unhelpful, focusing his mind, and encouraged others to listen when he spoke. It was no wonder that Sokka followed him around everywhere.
Placing the helmet on his head and the armor over his face, Zuko felt a sense of déjà vu. He had been pretending to be someone else then, too.
Walking outside and to the tower, Zuko spotted Sokka already waiting around the entrance. "I hardly recognized you," the Water Tribesmen said.
"But you did recognize me."
"I was expecting you. No one on that ship will think you'd be a guard on a Fire Navy ship since you're banished—or dead, if your sister and her friends have told anyone yet."
Zuko nodded. That was true, but, "It still seems like an unnecessary risk."
"You sound like Katara." Sokka grinned at him.
He felt the corner of his mouth turn up. "It's caution in the face of a risky plan."
"It's a good plan. Let's go."
They took the steps that lead them up the tower, past their sleeping quarters, and into the control room where Hakoda, Toph, and Bato were. Everyone with the exception of Toph was wearing Fire Navy uniforms. Unprompted, Toph said, "Don't worry, Smokey, no one will see me."
Hakoda spoke to Sokka: "Did you tell the men to keep the lantern light to a minimum?"
Sokka nodded once.
"Good. We don't want them seeing more than they need to. And is the bison hidden?"
Zuko answered, "He's in the hold. Katara was finding something to cover him with when I left."
"Thank you." His eyes flicked over to Bato. "The men are ready?"
"They've had more than enough time to be," the man replied.
"Of course." He nodded and looked down at his clasped hands, then closed his eyes and frowned. "We should be okay," he seemed to say to himself. "But if we aren't…" he opened his eyes and looked at his son, "…and something happens, you take your sister and the Avatar and you run. Okay?"
Sokka frowned. "But back home you always said—"
Setting a hand on his son's shoulder, Hakoda said, "I know, but that was back home. You can't run anywhere else if your home is destroyed so you stay and fight. Here is not home." He removed his hand and lifted his head so he looked straight at Sokka more like a chief to a warrior than a father to a son. "If something bad happens, you run. Understand?"
Zuko watched Sokka swallow hard and reply quietly, "Yes."
"Good. Now, let's get down there and welcome our enemies."