chapter 5 – Uncertainty of Reality

After landing at the Jasmine Dragon, Aang, Tylee was greeted by Iroh "ah. Good to see you Avatar and bows to him and Aang bowed back

"pleasure is mine Iroh"

he said with a smile, then Iroh saw Tylee with Momo on her shoulder

"and Tylee, nice to have you here too"

and Tylee curtsied bow to him

"thank you Mr. Iroh sir"

and she walked up to him and handed Momo to Aang then asked Iroh

"um, do you have a bath? I need a bath"

and Iroh said

"yea"

looking at the dirty girl

"come with me"

and he looked at Aang

"are you coming?"

and Aang bowed

"sorry, I got to see the Earth King as soon as possible

and he hopped on Appa and flew off.

Landing at the stairway of the Earth Kingdom royal palace, Aang jumped off and made his way to the palace, it still felt weird that none of the guards weren't trying to stop him from visiting the earth king, despite visiting this place twice after the war. Aang was greeted by King Kuei, Bosko the bear (it was still a strange creature to Aang), and his royal procession of council men, and Generals

"Welcome Avatar Aang. What brings you here today?"

and Aang did a respectful bow

"thank you, Earth King. Sorry for the short notice but I've come to talk about Yu Dao, the other west most colonies, and the Harmony Restoration movement"

Kuei smiled

"that's great, we were assembling a meeting on that subject matter already"

and Aang puzzled

"how do you know?"

and Kuei answered

"we got the news in this morning's paper" and he held up a news article from a local newspaper called 'The Grounded Gossiper' with the head Article

"Fire Lord Zuko Torches Harmoney Restoration Movement"

and had a caricature of Zuko lighting a scroll on fire with his thumb while having a evil smile similar to Ozai's evil grin.

Iroh's tea shop was bustling with activity of the lunch hour rush, after most of the customers left after lunch hour was over Iroh thought he saw Katara sitting at a table in the patio but when he approached her, he found it was Tylee wearing the dress that Katara wore a year earlier, and her hair was down as apposed to her typical ponytail. Iroh looked at her and could see she was petting Momo who was sitting on her lap, Appa was sleeping next to her, and she was just staring at nothing in particular even though she had a copy of the 'Grounded Gossiper' in front of her. So, Iroh quickly brewed a pot of tea and sat next to her poured her a cup and offered it to her

"thank you"

she said then looked at Iroh with a smile and Iroh replied

"you are welcome"

and he pours himself a cup and took a gulp

"Tylee, if I may ask?"

and Tylee nervously replied in a nervously excited manner

"if its about the dress, my clothes were dirty and are soaking in the wash barrel, my spare outfit was in my bag on Appa's saddle and Aang took off before I thought to take it, so I went looking for anything else and it was soooooooo pretty I had to try it on"

she finished with a guilty smile, Iroh smiled and took another sip

"no objections here but that wasn't my question"

and he took another sip

"why are you traveling with the Avatar?".

Aang was still very aggravated by the difficulty of trying to get the Earth king to talk with anybody (let alone Zuko) was always difficult and that the news of Zuko's rejection of the Harmony Restoration Movement didn't help.

"we need to enforce Restoration!" one of the generals stated

"we can't rush this, lets negotiate!" a council-man said

"the Fire Nation needs to be punished!" another council-man shouted

King Kuai was sitting there confused and not too sure of what to do but he looked at Aang and got up.

"silence"

and everyone was quiet and the Earth King continued

"you have been to Yu Dao, Avatar?"

and Aang got up

"yes, I have and there is a lot more to this than just the occupation by the Fire Nation"

Sokka was in that hideout that the masked vigilantes took him to, noticing that nobody was around that wasn't asleep, he quietly made his way to the meeting room and found the map that Smeller-bee had shown earlier, looking around he found another map same size and location but no markers on it. So Sokka looked around he found a calligraphy brush but no ink. He looked at the blood stain on his shirt that he got from that rock hitting him and had an idea. He took some charcoal from one of the torches took a small bowl and crushed it into a powder, then pricked his finger letting the blood drip into the bowl along with a couple of spit balls and he mixed it making a paste, after bandaging up his cut he took the brush and copied the markers on original map onto the new one let it dry and he took it, then placed original back on its shelf and hid his make due ink.

Eventually several of the vigilantes were heading for the entrance and he followed them

"Ah, Sokka come to join us?"

Sokka thought for a second then replied

"um yea… sure"

and one of them went up to him

"great!"

and he looked around and grabbed a blue spirit mask from the shelf and handed it to Sokka

"better dress properly"

and Sokka put the mask on and went with them.

It was a very cloudy day, Sokka knew he couldn't just leave these guys, he wanted to know what their operation was all about. Eventually they came to a small farm, and the Farmer and his pregnant (7 months) wife noticed them, and the Farmer earth bent a small bolder from the ground.

"back away you thugs, I told you were not afraid of you!" but the gang continued to approach them while Sokka stayed behind. The leader looked at the woman who looked fire nation (porcelain skin, amber eyes, and black hair) and smashed the boulder into pebbles.

"then you need an education ash-bedder"

Sokka was confused at this statement, so he asked one of other guys of the gang what that meant and he replied with a tone of disgust, like the subject was too revolting to discuss.

"that is the brand of earth-kingdom folk who wed and bed with the ash-makers"

but then the leader pointed to the farmer

"Bind him to the tree!"

and two of them grabbed the farmer who struggled but they tied his arms and legs to a near by tree, then the one of them restrained the woman and forced her to watch and the leader just grabbed the Farmer by the chin and signaled everyone else and they started using their earth bending to reck the barn, tool shed, and they heard a the sound of a baby crying and the leader looked at the house and Sokka could see a smile on the leader's exposed part of his face and approached the house.

The woman crying and struggling pleaded

"please! Let me go! let me get her!"

and the leader looked at her and spoke a venomous tone

"so you can get away Ash-maker?"

then he turned to the house and Sokka feeling he had seen enough placed him self between the house and the leader.

"what are you…"

but Sokka pulled out his sword and pointed it at the man

"you have done enough, go now!"

He said with the fierceness of an alpha Moose-lion.

the leader and his fellow thugs looked at him then to each other then readied their weapons and advanced on him but then a blast of fire came out of the near by forest, nocking the leader of his feet, then a large rock came from the other direction hitting another one. Taking advantage of this unforeseen activity he attacked the third thug and subdued him quickly then he saw two men come form the direction their respective projectiles came from, they had a mixed assortment of Earth kingdom and Fire Nation armor pieces on and all three of them looked at the fourth thug and he released the woman who quickly went inside to get her baby then the men looked at Sokka.

"why did you turn on them, went they part of your group?"

and Sokka almost took his mask off but reframed from doing so but answered.

"I was never part of their group"

and he went up to the farmer and used his sword to cut the binds off him. The Farmer then asked the two men.

"who are you?"

the Men bowed "just two of many friends, friends to Fire-benders, Earth-Benders alike who wish to live and let live"

and all three of them looked at Sokka (still in his mask) so he replied.

"I'm the blue spirit" and he pointed his sword in the sky "and friend to people in general… wanting…" but he couldn't think of a way to finish his line.

the woman came out with her toddler

"oh, you saved the Avatar from Admiral Saow"

and Sokka just nodded

"yes mam" and he bowed to her

after binding the thugs in cords or stone cuffs, the men told the farmer to get the guards to apprehend them. Then they went up to and shook Sokka's hand.

"thank you for your help Blue Spirit" and he gave him small steel coin "and if you want to help us more, just find us"

as they left one of them talked to the other "funny, I thought the blue spirit had two swords"

Sokka looked at the coin it had some inscriptions on it, not knowing what they mean, he made his way to Yu Dao.

Toph's students were making leaps and strides in their metal bending in the two days after getting their black smith, they were now work with near commercial grade metal, they were flinging the coins faster and with greater accuracy, and Pinga kept make a whole assortment of metal shoes, the Dark one made all sorts of sculptures ranging from some guy thinking to trees with flours in them, and Hon Ton made some spheres and was having them orbit around him. Outside Yasuaki was teaching his students more advanced fire bending, Wang was using fire bending as a propellant to make him almost fly, Satomi was making balls of firefly in the forms of different animals, and Kyla was making small rings of fire in different colours, ranging from red, blue, pink, purple, green, and everything in between. Toph then went outside and talked to Yasuaki.

"I'm going to town to get some supplies for our black smith, need anything?"

Yasuaki then looked around then gave her a small bag of coins

"Mabe a lunch for us and our students"

and Toph smiled

"anything in particular?"

and Yasuaki shrugged

"not really, these kids will eat anything with meat in it"

Toph chuckled

"I'll think of what Sokka would want"

and she went to Yu Dao

After picking up supplies of metal and a big basket of an assorted meal of turtle-duck dumplings, orange chicken-pork, some vegies and rice. She smiled and said to herself .

"maybe I'm spoiling these kids, but they have made some great progress"

she then felt some familiar footsteps.

"Sokka!"

and she and Sokka hugged

"where were you?"

and Sokka rubbed the back of his head

"on a very scarry adventure… ill explain everything back at the school"

as they made their way to the school Toph could feel her one of her students running to her and she asked.

"what happened?"

and Pinga huffing and crying

"some scarry guys in masks… they attack the fire-bending kids…"

upon hearing this, Sokka put the Blue Spirit mask back on and picked up Pinga and Toph mad a stone mound and they road it to the school.

when they got to the seen, they could see Yasuaki and the black smith bruised were tied down with rock cuffs, while the all the fire students were tied down with rope and the other students were sitting. One of the masked men then saw toph and greeted her.

"ah… master Toph Bey-Fong, it's a pleasure to meet…"

but then Toph yelled at him fiercely.

"What are you doing!"

and the man just calmly answered

"we are liberating your school."

and Toph took a step back

"what do you mean?"

and he continued

"we just want to remove the blight of these ash makers from your Metal bending academy… free of charge"

Sokka looked at Toph with unease but then Toph did a simple earth-bending action then asked

"what does that sign say" and one of the masked men went up to it

"Bey-Fong… Academy?"

and he looked around the sign to see if something went missing but found nothing but then Toph continued.

"this is my academy"

she then points to the fire bending students

"those are my students, just as much as the earth-bending students"

and she points to Yasuaki and the Black smith

"and they are my assistants, I wouldn't be able to run this academy without them"

then the masked man in a voice of anger

"what sort of joke is this! You blind wolf-bat! Don't you see what we…"

then Toph took her Earth-bending stance

"I will give you this one warning, leave or else"

the masked man looked at Yasuaki and he tried to earth bend a stone spire to stab him, but Toph sensed it destroyed it, then Sokka charged at the guys near the Fire-bending kids, then Toph told her students

"Fight them off!"

Hon Ton then got up grabbed one of the thugs near Yasuaki and tossed him away then the punched the other one while the dark one used his earth bending to break the cuffs and Yasuaki got up and used a fire dagger to free his students. After the initial chaos Toph, Sokka (in mask), Yasuaki, the black smith, and the six students were facing against ten masked thugs. Toph then smiled

"next lesson, round them them up"

the students worked together flinging the coins while the fire bending students set fire to the coins, Sokka was in hand-to-hand combat, Toph used some metal whips to tie down some of them, Yasuaki then used a interesting form of lighting-bending, but instead of coming from two fingers pointing in one direction, it came out of all ten fingers and he shocked five of the thugs.

soon enough all the thugs were died up by metal cords or rope, Sokka went and got some soldiers from town and had them arrested.

Toph and Yasuaki was talking with the six students who seemed to be in high spirits despite what happened and he spoke to her.

"you need to the students out of here"

both Toph and Yasuaki looked at him

"what, Why?"

and Sokka remembering his incident from earlier today

"they will be back and in greater numbers"

but then Yasuaki replied

"I could see my students but why her students?"

and Sokka sighed

"because, Toph and her students saved your fire-bender students, as far as these thugs are concerned that's as bad as being a fire-bender or ash-maker in their words"

then the students hearing this asked

"where will we go?"

then a captain of the guards overheard them and approached them

"I may have a solution, even if it's a temporary one"

Katara in the afternoon headed for the market, she had only been to Caldera city, when she went with Zuko to stop Azula from becoming fire lord, and Zuko's Coronation, never when Caldera city was itself and she wanted to it as itself, plus she wanted to make something special for Zuko.

The town was bustling with activity, merchants were selling this and that to their customers, children selling newspapers to who ever came across their path, Peddlers hiding their questionable merchandise under their robes. It still astonished Katara that this city alone has ten times the population of the entire southern water tribe, even after the men retuned to their wives (or quickly marring their girlfriends) and waisted no time having children, literally doubling the population. After Katara got all the ingredients she needed, and a news paper, then made her way to the palace.

seeing it was late she took a short cut, she made her way threw an alley and found it full of soldier, but they seemed different, their armour was broken, worn, and dirty.

they all were all laying about, and Katara moved through the alley she noticed they were all looking at her but with a tired gaze as she passed by. She tripped on something but caught herself but dropped her bag that fell in front of one of these soldiers, he felt around and picked up the bag, and all the things that fell out then held it up

"you dropped this?"

and Katara took it and noticed he had a bandage on his eyes

"yes… um thank you" and stepped around him and then looked back in the alley then back to the blindfolded soldier.

"Who are all these people?"

the soldier turned his head to her then back to the alley

"we are the soldiers whose usefulness has run out"

Katara looked at them

"is this because of de-militarisation?"

the Blindfolded soldier laughed

"no… many of use were here before Ozai took power. We are here because no one want's us, no one needs us."

and he lied down on his blanket

"now, leave me in piece" he said in an exhausted but polite tone.

Katara noticed he had a metal cup, and she placed a silver piece in it, said a silent prayer and promised herself that she would return to help these people.

Katara made her way to the palace, used the kitchen to make Sizzle crisps and packed them in a basket, with some fruit, a couple of pouches of water and the news paper. She made her way to Zuko's office.

once she got there the door was wide open, but Zuko wasn't in it. Looking around she asked one of the guards

"um do you know where Fire Lord Zuko is?"

and the guard seeing it was Katara

"he is outside the city, doing his morning training" and he gave her directions on a map to the training grounds.

she made her way to the area the guard told her, and she started to the sounds fire bursts, kicks, and other forms of fire bending that she now recognizes, she even saw three fire balls fly over the horizon fallowed by a large fire swipe and she recognized that as one of Zuko's sets. Then she heard a pop, pop, pop, then BOOM! a sound that Katara instantly recognized as Combustion man

"oh no!"

fearing that another assassin managed find Zuko she quickly ran in the direction the sound came from. After stepping over she readied her water pouch and looked around for the Assassin but couldn't see one so she looked at the field and could see Zuko in a field with broken statues, empty suits of armour, and even a tank with a broken track. She put the water back in her pouch and just sat on a near by stump and watched him.

After he set up some suits of amor and propped up some of the statues he started fire bending them, taking different stances, his three fire balls knocking down three targets in sequence, he then did a spinning kick thing that looked like a air bending move and knocked down several targets, he then clapped his hand together, there was a small burst of flame between his hands and a shock wave erupted from this knocking over several suits of armor, then he turned to the tank.

He takes a couple of breaths, and even does that fire bender meditation stance, then he takes the position of lighting bending, and did the circular action his fingers pointing outward, taking in breath at the same time with, but there was no electricity, but then as he pointed at the tank he let his breath out in a similar way to combustion man and launched a similar projectile but from his pointing fingers instead of his forehead and it did that pop, pop thing until it went into the hole on the turret and then the Tank exploded, launching the turret over a hundred feet in the air and landing near him.

Zuko still pointing at the now destroyed tank Zuko took a few breaths, then wiped his head and stood strait up and smiled.

Katara just sat there in shock, he definitely has been improving his bending combat in the past year. He noticed her and smiled and waved at her and she waved back, then she remembered why she came in the first place and waved at him to come to her which he did.

"so, this is how you relive stress?"

Katara asked as she took a bite of a moon peach

after swallowing the sizzle crisp, Zuko nodded

"I'm use to this and after dealing with politicians. Combat training is a day at the spa by comparison"

Katara chuckled "considering current events, I can understand"

she then leaned against him laying her head on his shoulder then and he put his arm over her shoulders and they looked at the seen in front of them, the city buildings and palace peaking out of the walls of the caldera, with the clouds gently crossing the sky partly blocking the setting sun, with oranges, purples, blues, and many other colors.

After a half an hour or so, Zuko thought he should get up and head back to palace but then noticed that Katara had fallen asleep, not wanting to wake her up, he gently lowered her head on his lap and took his fire lord cape and placed it on her like a blanket and she immediately held it tightly, he gently stroke her hair. He thought to himself, about this growing relationship between him and Katara, and about his past relationships with Mai and Jin. Then realized that this whole evening he hadn't thought on politics, Yu Dao, Earth Kingdom, Fire nation bureaucrats, Katara managed to take his mind off of all that, not even his training was able to do that.

He then looked at the bag Katara brought and saw the top of a news paper peeking out and took it (still stroking Katara's hair with one hand) and looked at it using the moon light and the headline that read

"Imminent Wars?" and could see a cartoon depicting him and King Kuei sitting on the same powder keg with the wick labeled as Yu Dao, the earth king holding two pieces of flint behind his back and Zuko a lit torch behind his. After reading stories of violent masked thugs, harassing people of fire nation origins regardless of their bending, militias forming to fight said thugs, conspiracies of both sides ranging from the credible to the insane, and finally how no matter what happens a war of some sort is inevitable.

looking at Katara, still vast asleep and he smiled with a tear in his eye, then he looked at the prison just peaking over the horizon. The dread he felt about that prison couldn't be described with words, but he remembered Iroh's teaching of the four elements and how one especially a leader needs to take knowledge from as many sources as possible.

After a couple of hours, Zuko took Katara back to the palace and led her to her guest room and she walked in, with his cape wrapped around her.

once he knew she was in the relatively safe room, Zuko went to his room to get out of his fire lord armor and got into his travel cloths and cloak, then he went to the kitchen and gathered a tea pot, a couple of cups, some tea packs (made by Iroh), a water pouch full of water and placed them in a container.

He left the palace gates and one of the guards noticed him and asked

"my Lord?"

but Zuko just told him to not worry and to stay at his post and he continued.

he made his way to the prison, went to his father's cell, poured him some tea and without a word, Ozai took it and Zuko in a reluctant plea said

"... I need your advice… Father."

Ozai took a sip and looked at his desperate son with a maniacal smile.