There came the clatter of footsteps, and Sokka ran up, out of breath.
"Hey guys," he panted. "We've got a problem."
"I wonder what it's like having one of those," Zuko undertoned.
"I don't, I've met you," Sokka said absently, "but this one's actually a threat. A settler's spotted smoke clouds approaching, they're saying it's some sort of Fire Nation vehicles called tanks. The army's caught up to us."
Zuko blinked. I thought you needed supply lines for those.
Fun fact: the Mechanist lives here. Fun fact: inventors need supplies. Zhao probably got them the same place he does.
"Did they follow us?" Aang asked, flipping to his feet.
"I don't think they had to," Sokka said. "You're an Air Nomad and you were spotted near an Air Temple; this is literally the first place anyone would look."
Aang strode forward and gripped his staff purposefully. "I won't let them hurt anyone here."
Zuko rolled to his feet and grabbed Aang by the nape of his robe, lifting him off the ground for a moment. "This isn't Ba Sing Se. We can't take on the entire Fire Nation army."
"Walk and talk," Sokka said, motioning them along the corridor. "I already talked to Katara and the Mechanist, and we have a plan. The settlers have their flying machines, so they can just evacuate and hopefully make it most of the way to Ba Sing Se, but there's a catch. They don't have enough machines for everyone, so they'll have to build more. They've started stripping down their other stuff for parts, which the Mechanist thinks will take a few hours. The problem is, the tanks will also be here in a few hours. We'll probably have to hold them off for a while, before we escape on Appa."
"Hang on," Aang said indignantly, "this is my people's homeland. I'm not going to leave it to Zhao! It's bad enough all this – this this –" he indicated the pipeworks and other bits and pieces of machinery "– but Zhao'll probably blow it up just to stop us from coming back here!"
"I know," Sokka said. "But Zuko's right, we can't fight the entire Fire Nation army. The only thing that matters is getting you to the North Pole."
"The entire Fire Nation army doesn't fit on a few tanks," Aang said stubbornly. "Whatever they are."
"No, but they can walk, and the longer we stay in one place, the more reinforcements he can call in. Remember Kyoshi Island?" He indicated Zuko.
"I'd completely lost track of you then," said Zuko. "You probably would have lost me forever if you hadn't stayed there so long. What were you even doing there?"
Aang and Sokka exchanged glances.
"Avatar stuff," Aang said.
"Training," Sokka said.
"Avatar training stuff," Aang said. "Anyway, we can't leave, Appa's hurt. He needs more time to rest before he can fly."
"Katara's, uh, had a pretty good idea about that, actually," Sokka said. "Don't worry about Appa."
Aang frowned, looking for another excuse to stay.
"Fighting here is stupid," Zuko said. "The longer we stay, the more chances Zhao has to surround us. So why do you want to do it at all? We should leave right now and keep ahead of him."
"Because of the settlers," Sokka said, with a Wait are you being deliberately obtuse or were you literally not listening? look.
"What about them?" Zuko said impatiently. "I'm not the only person who's ever thought the Avatar might return to an Air Temple someday. Patrols come around about once a year. The Fire Nation knows about this settlement, and" is extorting weaponry from it "and if we were going to shut it down, we would've shut it down years ago. These people haven't seriously helped the Avatar; Zhao'll yell at them for a bit, but he has no reason to do anything to them."
Aang and Sokka exchanged sceptical glances.
"Yeah, no," Sokka said, "I don't think we can trust the Fire Nation to leave conquered civilians alone."
"When have we ever been anything less than perfectly honourable about accepting surrender?" Zuko asked, affronted. "Remember when Aang surrendered at the South Pole, and I left your tribe alone? Even after he broke parole and ran away?"
"Remember when the Fire Nation murdered my entire civilisation?" Aang asked testily.
Ooh, yeah. I can't believe we forgot about that one.
It's not murder if there's a battle. That's justifiable homicide at worst.
That maybe isn't the most convincing argument.
"Okay, but aside from that," he said.
"When we found that earthbender prison rig –" Aang began.
"What are we supposed to do, just put up with getting boulders shot at us?"
"– I promised myself I wouldn't abandon people who needed help. Not again. You're not the only one who has honour to worry about."
Unh. I hate it when he makes sense.
Zuko glowered and folded his arms. "You promised you'd surrender to me, and you can't do that if you get yourself captured by Zhao first. You can fight, but no exposing yourself. Stay behind the walls and use long-range airbending only."
"Fine," Aang said. "I'll stay safe. You have my word."
"You – you stupid, arrow-headed – idiot!" Zuko screamed in inarticulate rage, as Aang snapped out his glider and jumped off the parapet, toward the approaching Fire Nation army.
He was atop the temple wall, wearing his mask. Katara and Appa stood anxiously nearby. She had apparently somehow used waterbending to heal Appa's feet; she had no explanations of how, but he seemed fine. They'd loaded him with bombs to transfer to the more gliders. Opposite them, the Fire Nation army was advancing up the mountain, marching directly toward the temple. Most of the settlers were hard at work assembling gliders inside one of the Mechanist's workshops, but their best pilots and worst craftsmen had instead grabbed what gliders they had, and were descending in formation for a bombing run on the army. Aang angled in to form up with them.
"I think he's brave," Katara said.
Zuko rounded on her. "You're not surprised. You knew he'd do this!"
"I knew he wouldn't hesitate to do everything he could to help people," Katara agreed. "He's like the anti-you."
"He didn't even blink when he lied to me," Zuko fumed. "It's like he's a bald, male Azula. So you're right, the anti-me."
"I don't know who this Azula is," Katara said, "but I have the feeling she and I would get along famously."
Yeah, right. Azula would never stoop to associating with a barbarian peasant.
Then again, they might bond over their shared love of tormenting you.
Ugh. Let's stop imagining those two collaborating and focus on something more cheerful.
Like that ominous thumping sound?
He turned and drew his swords.
The temple was atop one of the highest, steepest mountains in the range, intended by the original Air Nomads as another layer of defence. The Fire Nation army was advancing from the south west, where the incline was gentlest and there was some approximation to a path, with liberal use of grapnels and other climbing gear. The thumping was coming from the north, where the incline was semi-literal murder. Zuko cautiously approached the wall, then leapt back as a giant monster vaulted over the parapet.
It was the size of a war rhino, something like a wolf mole, except without eyes, and with weird, fleshy tentacles around its nose, twitching constantly. A rider sat on its back, a dark-haired, tattooed woman with a whip in hand. The monster snuffled toward Zuko, growling.
"Heel!" shouted the rider, cracking her whip. The monster snarled but stood its ground. "Hey. Mask Boy. Do you have a scar under that?" She placed a hand over her left eye.
Who the heck is this?
She looks Earth Kingdom. Is there a price on my head now?
Must be big, to be worth running into a battle. Maybe Father heard about us and the Avatar?
Katara had her skin water out, flowing around her hands. "Who are you?"
The woman looked her up and down, apparently unimpressed. "Name's June. A fat, old, incredibly annoying man said his nephew was lost, asked me to find him and bring him home."
"Uncle!" Zuko said, brightening.
"He said you had a scar," she went on, nodding. "He also said you might resist, but if I have to put you down first, it'll be a whole lot of hassle getting you back down the mountain in one piece. So, you know, I'd really appreciate it if you'd come quietly."
He raised his mask for a moment. "I want to get back to him, don't worry. I just have to bring someone else with me."
The woman frowned irritably. "This is a battlefield. We don't have time to waste."
Zuko turned back to the battle to follow Aang. "We were just about to leave …"
The crippled settler boy was swooping down to drop a slime bomb in the middle of a knot of soldiers. When he was close, past the point where he could pull out, a volley of arrows flew up. Pairs of arrows were connected by fine wire, so that when one went slightly ahead of the glider's wing and one went slightly behind, the wire went taut and sliced the wing clean off. The boy corkscrewed out of the sky and ploughed into the snow, slime spattering all around. Soldiers converged on him.
"Teo!" Katara exclaimed. She glanced at Appa. "Shoot, where's Sokka …"
Aang, seeing Teo get shot down, pulled a hairpin turn, dived after him, and landed, blasting air in all directions and throwing soldiers back. This kicked up too much snow and slime for Zuko to see at this range, but he could see past them. Officers were sending hand signals back and forth: Priority target that way. Encircle and engage.
"Just let them take the kid," Zuko muttered. "He'll be fine."
"Sure," Katara said, "and why don't the rest of us surrender, while we're at it?"
"Feel free," June said with a yawn. "Mask Boy, are you coming, or not?"
"Give me one minute."
Infantrymen were advancing on Aang, who was blasting them back, but the soldiers just got back up and kept coming. Meanwhile, the Yuyan archers were getting organised, flanking him and climbing onto boulders and other vantage points. They couldn't get a bead through all the snow either, but they could chase off the other gliders.
"I'm going," Katara said, clambering up onto Appa.
Zuko frowned. "They'll just shoot you down too."
"Aang needs help," Katara said curtly.
"And you have to promise to help my friends, too, if they're in trouble."
It doesn't count if they put themselves into danger!
So are you just going to stand there?
"Stay. Here," he said, and leaped down and off the wall.
The Fire Nation being mostly tropical, he'd only seen snow on a few occasions. Where he'd pictured himself doing a perfect combat roll leading to a sprint, instead he crashed through the snow crust, tripped, and rolled halfway across the battlefield. He got his feet under him, fixed his mask where it had gone askew, vaulted over a tank, crunched through the snow up to his calves again, and made it to Aang and Teo. He staggered past Aang, caught a speartip with his swords, and snapped it off.
Aang barely spared him a glance. "Can you move Teo?"
Teo was awkwardly tangled up in the wreckage of his glider, groaning, but it could've been worse. Zuko tore the glider apart, pulled at Teo, slipped, and got him over one shoulder. All around him were blasts of fire, which kicked up snow and gave them about three feet of visibility. Between them and the blinding snow, he could barely hear any further. He pointed back toward the temple, but Aang was already looking away, blowing air at a big soldier. Another came up out of the veil of snow, swinging a sword; Zuko parried, slipped, and fell back into the snow, dropping Teo. The soldier kept coming; Zuko kicked his sword away and booted him in the chest, and he fell out of sight somewhere.
As he fell, the snow cleared for a moment, reminding Zuko of the tank that was still between them and the temple. Above and beyond that, though, was a gigantic balloon in Fire Nation red.
"Aang!" he shouted, hoping no-one else was close enough to hear his voice. "Move it!"
Two tanks were looming up from below. Aang flipped both back with air blasts; two more came past to take their places, and the first two righted themselves and kept coming. Soldiers kept pace, using the tanks' bulk to shelter from the wind and snow and get close.
There came a wet, squelching crash, and a colossal amount of sticky green slime sprayed out across the row of tanks. The slime cleared the snow out of the air, and Zuko could see that Sokka and the Mechanist were the ones piloting the balloon. They tossed more bombs out, gumming up more tanks and taking out a knot of Yuyan. Katara took the opportunity to take Appa out and join the balloon.
Zuko lifted Teo into a fireman carry and took a few steps back toward the temple, Aang covering him from behind. A few Yuyan had escaped Sokka's bombardment, and they took shots at his balloon, peppering the envelope with holes. Katara and Appa pulled up alongside, Appa swishing his tail to create turbulent blasts of air and scatter the next volley of arrows, and Sokka and the Mechanist scurried over onto his saddle.
As Appa turned to leave, Sokka threw his boomerang: it arced through the air, slicing the ropes connecting the balloon's envelope and gondola. The gondola plummetted to the ground. Zuko had been under the impression the fire bombs were relatively small and probably wouldn't actually work very well, certainly not against firebenders, but for whatever reason, when the gondola crashed, together with however many bombs were left over, the flash was far too bright.
"Was that … Zuko?"
"The Mechanist told me earlier that there was explosive gas leaking around here. One of the bombs must have ignited it. Or maybe just a firebender bending."
"No, I mean … did he … block that explosion?"
Zuko ignored their whispered conversation. He held his Blue Spirit mask in his hands, or at least, what was left of it. Even with his fire shield, the gas explosion had knocked him off his feet and shattered the mask. He'd barely kept it from cooking Aang or Teo.
Speaking of which …
"Dad!"
Once the dust had settled and it was apparent the Yuyan had either been scattered or found cover, Katara and Sokka had swung round to pick up Aang, Zuko, and Teo, then took them back to the temple, which had somehow survived the explosion. Aang and Sokka helped Teo off Appa and into his father's arms. June was waiting patiently in the background, leaning against Nyla, whip in hand.
"Hey, uh, I hate to cut this short," Sokka said, "but I can see more soldiers down below. And if that avalanche has aftershocks, this entire temple could come down. We need to get going."
"Yes, of course," said the Mechanist. "The last gliders are just getting finished up right now. We should be done well before another wave can climb this high. Teo, let's go and get ready."
"Thanks so much," Teo said to Aang. "You really helped us out."
"It was kinda our fault the Fire Nation was here in the first place," Aang said. "They're chasing me."
"That's dumb," said Teo. "If they weren't attacking us here, they'd be attacking someone somewhere else. At least you helped fight back. And who knows, if the army at Ba Sing Se likes Dad's inventions, we might make a real difference."
"I guess," Aang said.
"Actually," said the Mechanist, "it isn't your fault the Fire Nation was here. I always knew that someday, they'd decide to attack this temple." He gave Zuko a meaningful look. "And because of that, because I couldn't bear the thought of this temple being lost forever, I drew up complete schematics of the temple as it was when we first arrived. After the war is over, if you'd like, we can rebuild it. Down to the last tile. It won't be the same place, but it will be something. Perhaps someday, the Air Nomads could still return."
Aang thought about this.
"I'd like that," he said.
They exchanged their goodbyes. A brawny settler had come with the Mechanist; he scooped Teo into a bridal carry, and the three of them set off for the flight deck.
"Wait," Teo said. "Zuko … thank you too. You really saved us down there. You're all right."
There was a pause.
They're waiting on you. To respond? Like people do when thanked?
With what? "Gosh, it sure is nice that we're friends now"?
"Mm," he said.
Teo glanced back to his father and shrugged: It's not my fault he's a jerk. They left.
"For what it's worth," Aang said to Zuko, "thanks from me, too. I was thinking. Between this and that time at the fortress, we make a pretty good team."
Zuko considered the idea. He'd made a good team with Azula in their group spars.
"We're both strong benders," he said.
"You two can kiss it out later," Sokka said. "We need to get going."
June moved forward. "About time," she said. "Tch, you look like hell," she added to Zuko.
It's a good thing I know better than to be vain about my looks. He glowered anyway. He'd blocked the blast, but heat and pressure had still got through and seared blister lines along his face and arms.
"Oh!" Katara said, starting forward. "Zuko, I can help with that. I think it should be easier with a human than an animal, our chi's more –"
He pushed her hands off. "We need to leave," he said.
Katara backed off, frowning. She turned too look over the parapet, and he followed her gaze. Far below, they could see Fire Nation soldiers, methodically digging or melting the snow, rescuing buried troops and the tanks. The gas explosion had triggered an avalanche and dislodged what felt like half the mountain. It was a miracle the temple had survived. The only other part of the mountaintop that had emerged unscathed was a little teardrop-shaped patch where Zuko had jumped in front of Aang and Teo and shielded.
"Where are we going?" Sokka asked June.
"Izumihanto," she said. "You know it?"
"I know of it," Zuko said. To Sokka, "Uncle's there, he'll know what to do. For all of us."
"Uh," Sokka said. He exchanged sibling-glances with Katara, and normal, much less information-rich glances with Aang. "Sounds good. Let's go."
AN: I hate to forgo the happy-go-lucky "save the village of the week from the Fire Nation" plotlines – they were a big part of Season One's charm – but divergence stories that don't actually diverge are boring, and the plot never made much sense to me. You do realise the FN can just come back as soon as you leave, right?
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