"Does someone want to explain to me what Prince Ponytail's doing in our camp?"

Zuko stared at the sky and tried to focus on his breathing, rather than the Water Tribe peasant who'd just woken up, apparently over his delirium. When he'd mastered firebending, Zuko had had to meditate under a waterfall, near the summit of an active volcano, and beside a steam engine, and yet none of those had ever been as distracting as Sokka's whining was now. Maybe it was just the lingering concussion, but there was no way to let it become a rhythmic thing and just shut it out. His voice was loud, over-the-top, and melodramatic, and he was just young enough that it still cracked every so often.

"He helped me out earlier," Aang said patiently. "And it's the Avatar's job to resolve conflicts, and what better one to resolve than one involving myself and a prince of the Fire Nation?"

"Fine, it's resolved. Now why don't we keep moving and leave him here?"

"I went over this again and again all day yesterday with Katara. Can you start by promising I won't have to say this more than once?"

"I don't know, can you promise what you'll say will make any sense at all?"

Zuko rolled onto his side, hoping they would be easier to ignore that way.

They'd stopped the evening before to make camp at the mouth of a tiny river, more of a creek, surrounded by light woods that the flying bison was stripping of foliage. It put them just out of sight of the sea and any patrolling ships, while they could watch through the trees to spot anyone approaching.

Sokka was still weak, but Katara was mostly recovered. When Zuko turned away from the boys, it meant he was now watching her. She had taken the opportunity to strip down to her bindings, wade into the creek, and … Zuko wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. If he had to guess, she thought she was practising a waterbending form, because water was bulging and moving with her, but it wasn't much to look at, in terms of either control or power. She could obviously tell it wasn't working, because she kept swearing under her breath.

Eventually, she slipped in the river mud and staggered. When she righted herself, she caught Zuko staring at her. She marched over and crossed her arms. "What do you think you're looking at?" she demanded, clearly looking to pick a fight to take her mind off things.

A girl who, I can only assume, doesn't realise what water does to the opacity of white linen.

Eyes up top, Zuzu.

"I was just wondering the same thing," he said.

She narrowed her eyes. "It's waterbending," she said, as though it weren't obvious. "That's a move called the water whip."

He blinked slowly. "I'm guessing you didn't learn that from a waterbender in person," he said.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" she asked, bristling. "You think I'm a novice? Not good enough for the great Prince Zuko?"

"No, I just think you're an idiot," he said. "That's not waterbending."

Katara spluttered with anger. "I'll have you know that move is straight off an authentic waterbending scroll!"

She pointed to the scroll, which she had open on a rock. Zuko glanced at it.

As a Fire Nation soldier, he had spent plenty of time scrapping with Earth Kingdom fighters, either soldiers trying to take him down or mercenaries willing to train their enemy for coin, and of course he'd learned against other firebenders. He'd fought waterbenders on one memorable occasion, and he was one of very few people alive who'd ever fought an airbender. That arguably made him a world authority on different bending styles.

"That's a fake," he declared, "made by a non-bender who'd probably never even seen a waterbender."

"What! No, it –!"

Aang walked up, attracted by the sound of Katara's inarticulate rage noises. "It's real," he said. "I can do the moves. Do you want me to show you?"

"Of course you can," Zuko said. "You're the Avatar, you can bend all four elements. The real move is the fire whip. You can tell it's firebending by the movements, they're exactly like mine, and nothing like trained waterbenders, who I've seen in action. The only thing I can't figure out is how a Water Tribe girl can do anything at all with it. It's not even a good scroll, it completely misses the breath work."

Katara was incoherent with fury by now.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Aang said. "If I could bend water with a fire form, I should be able to bend any element with any other. I could just use my airbending, and already be a master of all four elements. It can't be a firebending move."

Zuko rolled to his feet, stripped off his shirt, and stalked away from Katara and Aang. He checked the scroll again. The transcription was inane, completely missing key points of the real fire whip and adding irrelevant ones, but he could do it easily enough.

He followed the form, making adjustments where things were obviously off. Sure enough, he conjured a swirling, shapeless blob of fire in his hands, then snapped it out.

Katara's mouth dropped open. "But … that …"

The range and power are terrible with this body work.

It could be a learning form, as opposed to a proper combat move.

Maybe it's just our head injury? But I thought we were better.

"Whoever transcribed it had no idea of how firebending really works," he said. "Probably a non-bender conman who figured it wouldn't matter to an Earth Kingdom noble who couldn't do the move anyway."

He looked back. Katara was crying silently. His heart skipped a beat.

Stand your ground. She picked the fight with you.

Right.

Aang was by her side. "Don't cry, Katara," he said.

"It," she said, her voice breaking. "I thought I – my mother –"

Aang glared at Zuko, who glared back.

"Zuko's wrong," Aang said. "I can do the water whip, and what he did looked nothing like it. There was no weight to it, he wasn't moving his centre of gravity through the stances at all like the scroll says, and the breathing was … I don't even know what it was. Sure, he moved his hands along the same lines, but you use lines like them for airbending, too. There are only so many lines. He saw a waterbending move and tried to use the motions for firebending. That's why it's weak for him. It's a great waterbending move, but fire and water are opposites, so it's bad firebending."

Katara sniffed. She tried to say something, but her voice gave out, and she ran off.

"Katara!" Aang called after her, but she didn't stop. He rounded on Zuko. "You see what you did? You made her cry!"

Zuko scowled. "You're not the only one who knows about different bending styles. Those moves were more than just similar lines."

Aang moved his hands and abdomen, and a tongue of water whipped out of the creek and smacked Zuko in the face.

"First of all, I can't do that with fire," Aang said. "I don't even know how to make a spark. Second, she already knew some waterbending when I first met her. Don't you think she'd've noticed if the scroll was completely different from what she knew?"

Surely water and fire bending can't really be that similar. They're opposites. Air and earth bending look nothing alike. And the waterbenders we saw that one time … Oh.

They used icebending. Fire and water flow; ice doesn't, so of course the movements would be different. Maybe they really are that similar, at least when it's liquid water?

"Well it's still not my fault she can't do the move," Zuko said sulkily, rubbing his face.

Aang's expression twisted into annoyance. "She didn't cry because you showed her up," he said. "You've been training for years and she's never had a teacher, of course you're better than her. She cried because she's lost her tribe. Waterbending is the only way she can feel close to them now, and you made her think that's all been a lie."

"," said Zuko.

His mother's face flashed in his mind's eye. Oh. Damn it.

"Is her mother a waterbender?"

"I think so," Aang said. "Bending often runs in families, right? She never talks about her mother, but she does about her father, and she never said anything about him being a bender."

Zuko looked down. "I didn't realise."

Look at you. Feeling guilty about some peasant's feelings, instead of capturing the Avatar like you're supposed to. How long are you going to keep using that concussion excuse?

Shut up. I've already got him right where I want him, and there's no point dragging him off until I figure out a way to smuggle him past Zhao.

With your brains? I'll get comfy then.

"My mother wasn't a bender," he added.

And I never feel further from her than when I'm bending.

Maybe that explains why you're so much worse than Azula. She was always Daddy's little girl.

Speaking of familial benders, we have to get a message to Uncle somehow, let him know we're safe, and hopefully get some advice. If we had a messenger hawk, maybe from a nearby colony …

Then the Yuyan would intercept it.

We need a plan to deal with those guys. They shut down too many options.

"Oh," said Aang. "Did something happen to her? I'm sorry."

"I don't want to talk about it."

He walked back to where he'd been lying and put his shirt back on. He kind of wished he still had his armour, but it wasn't really that useful anyway. Fire Nation armour was mostly designed to counter earthbending, it was great at catching shrapnel from boulders that missed and broke apart, and it was good against weapons, but it was dead weight against any other kind of bending.

"That's okay," Aang said. "But you should be nicer to Katara."

Zuko glared at him. "Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself? We might have a truce for now, but I'm still going to capture you sooner or later. Even if you get away from me the next time, or the time after that, I only have to win once."

"Actually, I was thinking about that," Aang said, and he was smiling again.

How can that kid always be so happy?

He doesn't have any living family.

"You have to capture me to regain your honour," he went on, "whatever that means, and I'm going to … well, I have to go to the Fire Nation eventually anyway. What if we help each other out? You let me keep training for, say, one more year, then I surrender to you, and you take me straight to Caldera City."

Zuko blinked. He couldn't possibly be that stupid.

Then again, the frogs …

"You can't be serious," he said.

"Why not?" Aang grinned. "Who better to take me there than the Crown Prince himself? If you don't, I won't know the way, I'll have to fight my way through the entire fleet, and you'll keep trying to capture me the whole time."

"So why shouldn't I just capture you right now?"

"Because I kicked your butt the last, like, three times you tried," Aang said cheerfully. Zuko glared, which only made Aang smile even wider. "And I'll play you and Zhao off against each other, and I'll tell everyone that you were the one who broke me out of his prison, and I'll keep trying to escape. Pinning down a master airbender is hard, and that's without me even using the Avatar State. But if you give me one year, I promise I'll be the perfect prisoner. Avatar's honour."

Zuko frowned. "How stupid do you think I am? You'll just run off."

"I already told you, I have to go to the Fire Nation, and you're the best chance to get me there."

"And why do you have to go to the Fire Nation?"

Aang's smile finally slipped. "I have to confront the Fire Lord," he said. "It's the only way to end the war without any more people losing their lives. I don't want to … I won't hurt him too much. I'll just … beat him, and we can have a peace treaty. I'll do my duty, you'll have done yours. Everyone wins."

Wow. He's clearly never met Lord Ozai.

That's his lookout. Our lookout is that it isn't in the spirit of our quest to wait and do nothing while the Avatar masters three more elements. Father won't restore our honour for escorting an unstoppable assassin to his doorstep.

Father is a grandmaster firebender with a lifetime's experience, and Aang's a kid. Avatar or no Avatar, one more year or not, it won't be close. He'll lose.

And then all will be forgiven. But what about the Avatar State?

Call it even, assuming he uses it. He doesn't always, I don't know why; maybe it has some sort of restrictions? But if we want to plan against that, we need more information, say, from studying him closely for a year.

Hmm. And Sozin's Comet is coming in about a year, half our military strategy revolves around that date. If we could time it right …

"Fine," he said. "I won't try to capture you or otherwise get in your way. I'll even help you deal with Zhao if he or his men get near you again, which means I keep an eye on you. In return, you'll surrender and give me full credit for capturing you. Whatever it takes to restore my honour."

Aang extended his hand. "It's a –" He stopped short. "And you have to promise to help my friends, too, if they're in trouble. And you have to be nicer to them."

"What?" Zuko asked. "I'm a prince, I shouldn't have to kowtow to –!"

Aang crossed his arms. "This isn't negotiable."

Burn him! Burn him for the insolence!

You say that about everything. Come on, after everything else, this is nothing.

"… Whatever," Zuko muttered.

"And you'll start by apologising to Katara," Aang added. "And you have to mean it."

That isn't nothing. We're royalty, we have pride, and …

Zuko crossed his arms right back at Aang, which happened to press his hand against one of his pockets. He reached in and pulled out an object he'd almost forgotten about.

and royal pride has no opinion on random pieces of Water Tribe junk. Maybe we can get some use out of it after all.

"Will this do?"

Aang's face lit up. "Her necklace! She's been missing that for weeks!"

Zuko tossed it to Aang. "Why don't you give it to her. I'm sure she'll appreciate it more that way."

"… Yeah," Aang said. "Look, I know she's upset right now, but once you get to know her, she's great. You'll see. You just have to give her a chance."

Zuko could think of four cutting responses to that, but he chose to go with, "Sure."

"I'm going to go find her," Aang said. He spun his staff into its glider form, then ran and took off. Zuko watched him go, then slumped back onto the ground.

You're not even going to try? Pathetic.

We'll get him with no risk if we bide our time.

Imagine that, a twelve-year-old boy feeling so sorry for you he'll give you a, what, a pity capture? It's like that time with Mai and Azula when you were eight.

Sokka walked up, holding a fish. "Hey, Jerk," he said. "Where are the non-jerks?"

Zuko pointed vaguely in the direction of the forest.

Sokka snerked. "You answered to Jerk."

"That's because I don't respect you enough to care what you call me," Zuko explained.

"… Well played," Sokka said, and he sat down to clean the fish. "… Jerk."

All of Zuko's teachers had stressed that mixing fire and head injuries was a good way to have a bad time, but he was in no mood to care, and presently he got up to do a firebending kata. He picked one based on simple non-bending kickboxing: the two basic punches and two basic kicks, drilled endlessly. He could hear Uncle Iroh's lecturing: Remember, Prince Zuko, you can only perform one technique at a time, so better to have one technique perfect than ten thousand techniques sloppy. Focus on your basics.

At length, Aang and Katara came back. Zuko finished the combo he was on (three roundhouse kicks, one snap kick, double-jab cross) and looked at them out of the corner of his eye. Katara had her necklace on, and she'd wiped her face clean; she glanced at him, then looked away, expressionless. Aang was more interested. He said something to her and bounced over.

"Hey, cool moves," he said. "Like this?"

He threw a series of kicks and punches that were, indeed, like what Zuko had been doing, when he was four years less experienced and twenty kilos of solid muscle lighter.

"So how do you make fireballs with it?"

Zuko narrowed his eyes, but Aang seemed impervious to his glower. "You don't. Unless you want to blow yourself to bits."

Aang gave him a questioning look. Zuko tutted.

"First of all, that's not a learning kata. Those are combat forms for a warrior who can already control fire. Second, the Avatar isn't supposed to learn firebending until after he's mastered earthbending, even I know that. Third, even if you did know earthbending, you personally aren't ready. Firebending isn't like airbending. When you make a mistake, the result isn't just a mussed hairdo."

"Not a problem," Aang said brightly, patting his scalp.

"A wardrobe malfunction, then," Zuko corrected, rolling his eyes.

His eyes happened to roll onto Katara, who was still wearing only her wrap, which was still damp, translucent, and clinging to her body like paint. She narrowed her eyes at him.

Abort! Abort!

"Uh, what I mean is that firebending isn't a game," he said hurriedly. "If you lose control for even a second, you can burn your clothes, your flesh, and anyone around you."

"Is that what happened to you?" Aang asked, indicating his eye.

"… You told me not to hurt your friends," Zuko said. "Fine. That means no teaching you techniques that you'd lose control of and hurt them with. You don't have the discipline to firebend."

"I'm disciplined," Aang said, standing stiffly like a soldier at inspection, weight evenly on both legs, hands at his sides, staring directly ahead unblinkingly.

"Don't we have somewhere to be?" Zuko said pointedly. "Where are you going, anyway?"

"The North Pole," Aang said, resuming a more relaxed pose. "The scroll's a start, but we need to find a waterbending master to teach me and Katara. I just thought, while we were travelling …"

"There is absolutely no way," Zuko declared, "that I will ever help train you to defeat my own father."

"The monks used to say you should never say never," Aang said. "Nobody knows their own destiny."

"I know mine," said Zuko.

8