"Avatar, you're heading too far north. We'll hit the desert at this rate."

"Yeah, that's where we're going."

Dark grey clouds streaked around them, hiding the sun and buffeting Appa with bouts of cold turbulence. The ground below was slowly breaking up from scrubland to sand and rock. It had been hours since the last outlying farms had vanished behind them.

"I thought we were going east," Zuko said.

"Right," said Sokka, "I forgot to tell you, we had a change of plans overnight. Which reminds me: can Fire Nation tanks go over desert?"

"No more than a mile or so. Sand fouls up the tracks and engine. Especially wet sand. Why are we going north?"

"Because the new plan is for Aang to train for a couple weeks. Once he has the basics down, we'll keep going to Ba Sing Se. I'm thinking, two earthbenders are better than one, maybe we can tunnel past a patrol or something. We should be safe in the middle of the desert for at least a few weeks, so, why not?"

"We should get a head start on Azula."

"Except she guessed ages ago that we'd go to Ba Sing Se. I bet you a thousand gold she's already there waiting."

I really wish we could take that bet.

"… I don't like sand," Zuko said instead. "It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere."

There was a beat, then everyone burst out laughing. Zuko narrowed his eyes and said nothing, waiting while it slowly petered out. Then they were hit by a bad gust of wind, and Appa dropped twenty feet before levelling out.

"I don't like sand!" Sokka crowed, and everyone started laughing again. Zuko rolled his eyes.

"Ah, man," Toph said, grinning, although she was green around the gills: flying didn't agree with her even when the weather was good. "Does he always say gems like that?"

"He's a national treasure," Sokka said. "Wait til you hear what he said about spinning."

"I don't see why you wouldn't like sand," Katara undertoned, smirking. "It sounds like you should get along famously."

Zuko tugged his eyelid and stuck his tongue out at her.

Looks like Azula's plans aren't foolproof after all. Well. She knows how to improvise. She'll think of something.

"So, speaking as someone who doesn't have a problem with sand," said Suki, "the land east of here is Earth Kingdom territory, isn't it? Why not train there?"

They ducked into the lee of the saddle as a particularly heavy gust of wind washed over them. It came with a spray of bitingly cold rain.

Aren't deserts supposed to be hot?!

"Because that's not good learning earth," Toph said. "It's all loam and silt, there's too much water and plant stuff in it. I can bend it, but a novice should learn on rock. There's basalt out this way, it's better."

Zuko had wondered about that. Whenever he fought Katara and his fire blasts vaporised her water, she apparently lost control of it, even though he would have thought steam was as much water as ice or snow, and she could bend those just fine; but if you thought of steam as fire-infused water, it made sense that she couldn't bend that, until the fire leached out and it could condense.

Appa shuddered and tilted, and everyone was thrown against the side of the saddle. Toph flailed wildly; Sokka grabbed and pinned her before she could fall off. Katara bent a rain shield over their supplies, but she kept losing her footing as Appa got thrown around, and sheets of icy water fell through. In moments, they were all soaked.

"This isn't getting any better!" Aang yelled.

"Take us down!" Katara shouted. The wind whipped her voice away, but Aang either got the gist or didn't need to be told. He yelled something back, but it was lost in the wind and rain. There came a dazzling flash of lightning from only half a mile away, and two seconds later, the thunderclap hit them hard. Everything went quiet.

Appa tilted downward. Zuko was sure he'd been knocked out somehow and was about to crash again, but it was a controlled dive: he dropped to a rocky outcrop and under an overhang. Zuko picked Toph up by the nape of her dress, hopped off, and threw her toward the rock.

She lost her footing, but smacked the ground and turned the motion into an earthbending move: the rock curved away, digging an instant cave for them, wide and deep enough for Appa to walk into. Everyone got off and crowded in, then flinched as Appa shook himself and sprayed a small tsunami out of his coat. Another thunderclap echoed through the walls.

"Is everyone okay?" Katara asked, once their hearing was mostly back. There was a general mutter of assent.

Zuko found a corner to himself and bent a generous fistful of fire: his fingers, which had been getting numb, immediately thawed into pins and needles, and his clothes began steaming. Sokka beelined over to warm up, followed closely by Aang and Katara.

"I thought you'd be too proud to accept a firebender's help," he said. He took off his hat, letting his hair out.

"That's not pride you're thinking of, that's stupidity," she replied tartly, bending water out of her clothes, then Sokka's, while Aang worked on his own. "I grew up in the South Pole, I know what hypothermia can do. Speaking of which, Toph, Suki, come on over."

Toph hesitated. Suki pointedly went over to Appa, pulled a towel out of the saddlebags, and set about drying herself the old-fashioned way.

Zuko gave an exasperated grunt. "Beifong, you look like a drowned goat rat. Get over here."

"Well when you put it that way," Toph said.

Katara gave him a look, Nice one, Sifu Charmbender.

You know I'm right, his face replied.

Here's how it's done, hers said. "Toph, come on," she said aloud, "you'll catch a cold."

"It's no big deal," Toph said. "It's just a little water."

"You don't want to get sick," Katara said.

"I'm fine."

"Come on, let us dry you off –"

"I said I'm fine," Toph snapped.

There was a beat. Katara avoided Zuko's gaze.

"You can do whatever you want," Aang offered, "but while we're waiting out the storm, can I ask you about earthbending?"

"Sure, what –" Toph said, and at that moment was drowned out by a deafening crack of thunder. She finally went over to them and pretended not to be glad for Zuko's fire. Zuko and Katara both looked at the ceiling. "Okay. So how much experience do you have?"

"None at all. I've never done it before."

She wrinkled her nose. "You couldn't have asked some random guy from literally anywhere in the Earth Kingdom to at least get you started?"

"The Avatar's supposed to master water before earth," Katara said defensively.

"Whatever. Shut your eyes, shut up, and listen. Focus on the earth. The other part of why I wanted to come out here is that this earth is how earth is supposed to be. The stuff in a city or a farm, it's beaten down. People tamed it, use it for whatever they want. This rock here? Hasn't been touched by humans in centuries, maybe ever. Earth is stubborn. It doesn't like to get pushed around. It's the most skilful element" Zuko and Katara scoffed "because every other element likes moving, but rock doesn't. If you want to do anything with it, you have to overcome it. You have to out-stubborn a rock."

Zuko met Katara's look.

Remind you of anyone? she mouthed.

Yes, he mouthed back, yes it does.

She smiled wryly. Kiss my blubber.

"You need to know your element, inside and out," Toph said. "Scoop up some earth and eat it."

"Er," said Aang, uncertain whether she was pulling his leg.

"Did I stutter? Eat it!"

Reluctantly, Aang reached down to the cave floor.

"Don't eat dirt," Katara said, appalled.

"Do I tell you not to drink water, or her not to breathe air?" Toph asked, indicating Aang with a head jerk at her.

"That's a good point," Sokka said thoughtfully.

"No it isn't!" Katara replied.

Zuko shut his eyes and tried to focus on his fire. I burn! But between the kids chattering away, and some seventh sense that told him that Katara kept sneaking glances at him, he couldn't focus enough to bend blue fire again.

Presently, the rain eased off to a drizzle.

"Hey, Sparky," Toph said. "This is too theoretical. Twinkletoes needs a demonstration, and you and I have a score to settle."

Zuko cracked an eye on Katara. "Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked. "Me fighting a prepubescent sounds like something you'd have a problem with."

"Never stopped you before," Sokka said, jerking his head toward Aang, who stuck out his tongue in return.

"Toph can handle herself," Katara said.

"There's a difference between being skilful and being able to take a hit."

"You're making excuses," Toph said. "You're scared."

"Is this the part where you taunt me, and my fragile male ego can't take it, and I get goaded into a fight?" Zuko asked. "Why not. But let's take this outside. Everyone else is going to want to stand back."

It was still dark out. Rainclouds blocked the sun, and the ground was slick and treacherous. Their cave was dug into a formation of dark grey stone with a pile of smaller rocks lying haphazardly around. Past that were sand dunes stretching into the distance, stained dark brown from the downpour.

Toph cracked her neck. "Ready to lose?"

"That depends. Hey, Katara, am I giving the new kid a pity win, or am I actually trying this time?"

"Yeah, maybe you should throw, jabroni," Toph said. "That way, when you lose, you can tell yourself it's just that you weren't trying, you could totally beat a twelve-year-old if you wanted."

"Take her seriously," Katara said. "She's not a pushover."

He smiled and breathed deep, preparing his inner fire for battle.

She's probably only used to fighting other earthbenders. She won't know how to deal with all-out offence. Not a great environment for us; lots of rock, too much water. Still. I BURN.

He spun and kicked fire at her. She moved almost in perfect unison with him, simultaneously lifting a defensive wall and twisting the earth under his free foot to overbalance him. He turned it into a cartwheel-handspring-kick, then dashed around to punch fire at her from another angle.

She shot a barrage of rocks at him, too small and numerous to completely dodge or block, not large enough to do real damage, just enough to slow him down. He juked around to avoid them, and she pounced with larger rocks. He kicked one away, blasting it to bits, and the second caught him in the gut. She hit hard.

Father hits harder. I DESTROY.

He focused chi in his legs and leapt fifteen feet in the air. Toph threw another boulder at him, but she had no idea how high he could jump, and it went low. She realised this a split second later and slid backward ten feet, just out of his range.

He touched ground, still moving forward. She was ready: the instant he landed, she flicked a column of rock upward under his feet, sending him flying. He turned it into a controlled somersault, landed behind her, and kicked a gout of fire backward, at her unprotected back.

There was a crack: Katara had sliced a water whip through the air between them and caught his attack. The water flash-boiled and steamed off.

"Hey, what gives?" Toph asked indignantly.

"That's enough," Katara said, marching forward, her expression furious.

"We're not done," Toph said.

"Yes, you are. Come on," Katara growled. She seized Zuko's bicep and dragged him off.

She marched him out into the sandy desert, well out of earshot of the others, and rounded on him. "What's got into you?!"

"I don't know, do they have tapeworms at the North Pole?"

"You're supposed to be the responsible one! You're always saying we have to focus, stick to the plan, stay safe. And I – I appreciate it. I think it's extra important now, because Toph is … a great bender, but she's not as mature as she thinks she is, and she could do with a role model. I'd hoped you could help. So what are you playing at, using attacks that could put her in a hospital?"

"So what if I do?" he said glibly. "You are a hospital."

"I can't heal everything! You said yourself you didn't think she could take a real hit!"

"And you said yourself I should take her seriously."

"I assumed you had any amount of common sense, for some reason! You weren't this reckless even when you were still trying to capture Aang. And yesterday, you ran off with some girl you barely met. What happened to you?"

"She reminded me what it's like," he said, "to be around people who don't hate me from the first moment for no reason."

Katara frowned.

"I don't hate you," she said. "And if I did, it's not like there was no reason. The first thing I ever saw you do was manhandle Gran-Gran and threaten to burn my village's children so we'd hand over the Avatar."

"The way I remember it," he said, "the first thing was your brother trying to cave my head in."

Katara thought. "No, he got knocked down by your boarding ramp first," she said. "He only attacked you after you threw fire at us."

"Let's agree to disagree," he said. "If you want to tell yourself he went out with three weapons because he wanted to chat, I'm not going to argue."

"Well it's not like the Fire Nation never attacked us before!" she snapped, her cheeks turning pink.

"Port Tuugaq?" he guessed. "Trust you to hold a grudge over something from ninety years before you were born."

"No," she said, furious now, "I have a grudge over five years ago, when Fire Nation soldiers murdered my mother!"

He harrumphed. "It's not murder when a soldier is killed in action. It takes a lot of skill to capture an enemy combatant without hurting them –"

"She wasn't a warrior!" Katara yelled. "She wasn't a bender! She was a civilian, and you murdered her!"

Zuko considered this.

"Rubbish," he said.

Katara went very still, then, with a wide sweeping motion, swept out all the rain from the sand into a swirling halo and brought it crashing down on him.

He dodged the first strike and went on the offensive, punching fire at her, juking around her counterattacks, blasting the water to steam. She condensed it further into vicious ice shards that tore at him where he fumbled his defences.

I TEAR ASUNDER.

He bent an explosion that vaporised half her halo. Her eyes widened, and she desperately tried to pull up more water from the sand to protect herself. He kicked again and again, harder and harder, boiling the water faster than she could replace it. Blue sparks flew with his attacks, and even when she blocked the main blast, they blistered her hands. One or two more good hits, and –

no wait stop

– he stumbled, and quick as a snake, she switched from defence to offence: her water whip caught him about the ankle, flicked him up, and tossed him. He combat rolled to his feet and swept fire at the whip, chopping it in half.

please youll hurt her

How troublesome. Go back to sleep.

She was gasping for air, forming water into an ice shield. He axe kicked fire at it, and it shattered and dissipated. She formed the last fistful of water she had left into a pathetic handful of ice darts. He just gave her a look, You seriously think that's going to work?

She swallowed and got her breath. "Say it's true!" she yelled. "SAy iT!"

I told you things were going to change. Still. Why settle for winning a fight with no prize?

"Do you want revenge?" he asked quietly, and her eyes widened.


"Let me get this straight," Sokka said. "Zuko says he can find the guy who killed our mother?"

"That's … what Katara just said," Suki said, looking at him weirdly. "Verbatim."

"I'm just recapping," Sokka said defensively.

They were gathered in a circle just outside their basalt cave: Katara, Zuko, Sokka, Suki, Aang, Toph.

"You're not seriously considering this, are you?" Suki asked. "No offence, but … he's obviously trying to manipulate you into walking into the Fire Nation so he can hold you hostage and have leverage over Aang."

"We don't need to go to the Fire Nation," Zuko said. "Not the homeland, anyway. The only flotilla deployed against the Southern Water Tribe is the Southern Raiders, and that operates out of Ketu Harbour, near the ruins of Port Tuugaq. I stopped for repairs one time when the Avatar trashed my ship, I know my way around. There's a local archive; we break into that, we find who it was, we investigate, and if he really is guilty, we get justice."

"You could still turn her in to the garrison," Suki said.

"I could, kohai," he agreed. "If she's scared of me, she can say so herself."

Their eyes flicked over to Katara. She'd healed her blistered hands before anyone else could see, but she was still fiddling with them. "I'm not afraid."

"He's had chances to stab us in the back before," said Sokka, "and he hasn't. I trust him."

Huh. That's actually kind of sweet of him. Stupid, but sweet.

Suki frowned. "What do you get out of this, anyway?" she asked Zuko. "He's part of your army."

Zuko folded his arms. "During his reign, Fire Lord Sozin wrote Directive 42, which states that civilians and even combatants are to be spared wherever possible. That's the entire point. This war is about securing Fire Nation interests, and it's in our interests that colonies are taken intact. So if she's accusing him of murder, then she's also accusing him of treason, and we Fire Nation royalty take treason seriously. I don't for a moment think any of our men could be that stupid, she must have pulled a knife on him or something; but as a Prince, it's my duty to investigate."

"Even if this guy's telling the truth –" Suki began to Katara.

"What's your damage?" Toph asked. "Did he hand you over to a bounty hunter too?"

"He tried to burn down my village. We fought him off. – It's still a dumb risk. We're holding off going to Ba Sing Se because we're worried the Fire Nation might be in the way, and you want us to walk straight into a fortress?"

"In name only," Zuko said. "The southern front is silent. There's only one flotilla, under-strength, and most of the men are either screw-ups sent south as a punishment or old guys waiting to retire. I've broken into much tighter security before. And no, I don't want us there, this is between me and Katara. I'm not giving a guided tour of a military base to an enemy partisan. Let alone to someone who's taken the lives of fifty thousand of our men and counting."

"That wasn't me," Aang said for the hundredth time. Toph's mouth fell open. "And I don't think any of us should go. This isn't justice. It's revenge. The monks always said that's not a good path to go down. You have to learn to let go, and forgive."

Katara gave him a deeply unimpressed look and didn't reply for just a bit too long.

"That isn't going to happen, Aang," she said, very quietly and clearly.

"Why now, though?" Suki pressed. "Wait until after the war. It'll be safe to investigate then. You've waited this long, what's another five months?"

Katara folded her arms, mirroring Zuko. "She was the most important person in my life, and he took her away from me. I've had to carry that ever since. I'm not carrying it a day longer than I have to. When you lose your mother, then you can talk to me about waiting."

"This is too reckless," Suki insisted. "You're not thinking clearly. Back me up, Sokka."

Sokka hesitated.

"It's fine," Katara said. "I'm not stupid. If it gets too dangerous, we'll just turn around and come back. Sokka? You agree with me, don't you?"

"We have to do this," he said. "But she was my mother too. If you're going, so am I."

Katara gave him a grateful smile. Zuko considered, then shrugged. Aang and Suki exchanged unhappy looks.

"What about you, Toph?" Suki asked. "This is insane, tell them."

"It's kind of none of my business," Toph said. "I just got here. But if you want my opinion, it stinks. Are you guys always like this?"

"Running off on random side quests?" Sokka asked. "Yep, pretty much constantly."

"I mean the part where all of you were lying," Toph said.

There was an awkward pause.

"By 'all of us'," Suki said, "you mean Zuko?"

"By all of you, I mean all of you. I can feel your breathing and heartbeat. When people lie, there's a physical reaction."

Oh, shoot. Uh … Just – just don't say anything with her around until I give the go-ahead.

"And all five of you lied just now," Toph continued. "Yours was when you said you fought Sparky off."

"Well, we did fight …" Suki said.

"You didn't win, though. Did you run away? Surrender?" Toph wrinkled her nose. "Collaborate?"

"No! Nothing like that," Suki said, turning pink. "We beat his men, but couldn't bring him down. Even when Aang punted him through a wall, it only made him angry."

"Angrier," Sokka supplied.

"Then Aang ran off," she continued, "and he got his men out and chased after. We didn't beat him, he just left. But it's not really a lie. I just don't like saying it."

"A lie's a lie, Honey."

"Well," Suki said, "if we were all just saving face … it doesn't really matter …"

The reason she trailed off was that nobody was meeting her gaze.

"I think," Sokka said, speaking slowly, as he did while thinking very fast, "I know what everyone's lie was, except Zuko's. If I'm right, they're all harmless."

"Lie," Toph said.

He winced.

"Wrong choice of word," he said. "Look, we have here people from all over the world. We disagree about things. But we still work together, because we all want the war to end and we all want everyone to make it home in one piece."

"We do?" Suki said, eyeing Zuko.

Sokka made a so-so gesture. "None of our lies was about that. We just have our own personal stuff to worry about. Maybe they're not exactly harmless, but none of us wants to harm anyone else here, or any of our friends."

"Truth," Toph said.

"Except, I don't know what Zuko's lie was," Sokka went on. "If I'm not going to say anyone else's, you shouldn't have to confess yours, but can you at least promise us this is safe?"

"Of course it isn't," Zuko said, "we're breaking into a fortress. If you mean, am I trying to double-cross you: no, I won't turn you or your sister in, it's not a suicide mission, and I'm confident we can get in and out safely. My lie was about a piece of military intelligence there's absolutely no way I'm telling you here, but it doesn't put any of you in danger."

"Truth," Toph said. "And just so you know, I can usually pick out things like half-truths, exact words, and lies of omission. He was completely sincere just now."

They considered this.

"I still say this is a bad idea," Suki said.

"Me too," said Aang.

"That's fine," Katara said, "because neither of you is going. Aang and Toph, stay here and start your earthbending lessons. Suki …"

"Avatar Kyoshi ordered me to protect Aang," she said. "So I'll do that. And so should you. You're not the only one with things they'd like to do. I want to look for the other Kyoshi Warriors, but the Avatar is more important. Good soldiers don't abandon their posts."

"I'll be back soon," Katara said. "Aang, can we borrow Appa?"

"Would it make a difference if I said no?" Aang asked.

"Yes," Zuko said, "it'd mean we wouldn't be back soon. It's a day's flight from here, longer if we have to walk back to Gaoling and buy ostrich horses."

Aang wasn't angry, just sad. He gave Sokka a look of Bring them back safe.


Appa liked Sokka best, so he was up front minding the reins. Zuko and Katara sat in the back, both brooding. The storm clouds were gone, the sun now bright and hot. Zuko lay on his back and lifted his shirt up, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on his skin; proper sunlight, not that tepid glow they had up north.

"Hey, Zuko," Sokka called at length. "What are we up against this time?"

Talking tactics was easier than talking emotions. "Not much," he said. "A flotilla is nominally six thousand men; but the Southern Raiders have more like two, only about one in ten are combat troops, and half of those will be out on patrol. And the ones there will all be trash. Being stationed at Ketu is only half a step up from being banished, it's where you go if you annoy a higher-up not quite enough to get court-martialled or volunteered for a suicide mission. There's no way to get promoted or any booty or anything, it's just a frozen wasteland."

Katara sniffed.

"Any nasty surprises like the Yuyans?" Sokka asked.

Zuko shook his head. "Elite specialist units get deployed with our best troops, not the worst. If we put them with formations like the Southern Raiders, they'd sooner get themselves set on fire by accident than do anything useful."

At that moment, Appa crested a rise, and they saw a trail of smoke leading into the sky.

"… I was joking," Zuko said.

They approached the fort, a collection of square warehouses behind thick walls studded with watchtowers, all around a port that normally hosted a handful of steamers. Now, though, the warehouses were smoking, one was still on fire, the port was full of wreckage from destroyed steamers, and they were crowded with wodden sailboats. There were dark-skinned men bustling around; Sokka and Katara cheered, and as soon as Appa swooped down to ground level, they jumped off and started hugging one of them.

"Dad!"

"Sokka! Katara? What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story. We didn't know you'd started attacking Fire Nation ports!"

"Most of the fleet here was drawn off, and we heard rumours it had been destroyed. This place was practically undefended."

Zuko hopped off Appa. He was surrounded by Water Tribe warriors. Most of them were watching Appa curiously, so they saw him and did double-takes, trying to decide whether he was Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom. Katara and Sokka were with one, a tall man with an indefinable but unmistakable air of Command.

"Who's this?" he asked.

Katara glanced over her shoulder at him. "This is Zuko," she said. "He's a … it's complicated. Friend? Zuko, this is our dad, Hakoda."

"Zuko," Hakoda said, thinking.

It wasn't a common name.

"Prince Zuko," Zuko confirmed.

Hakoda considered this, and some of his men's hands crept toward weapons.

"He's a friend," Sokka said emphatically. "Also, the Avatar sent us. Sort of."

"The Avatar?! You met him too?"

"I'm going to start searching the records," said Zuko, rather than stand around awkwardly while they had their family reunion. He turned slowly, because it felt like some of the surrounding warriors might attack if he made any sudden moves; Hakoda gave a small gesture, and they stood down and let him pass.

He'd seen the records building from the air, and unfortunately it had been set on fire. Whatever defenders had been there must have tried to destroy the archives, but luckily, they'd flubbed it. Some files were gone, but most were intact, with only a little charring here and there. It still took him a long time to find and cross-reference everything.

Here are the battle reports. Time: five years ago, call it three to seven, her timeline is probably unreliable. Location: Wolf Cove City. Why's it called a city, anyway, that place was tiny.

There were a few battles there, five to six years ago. An informant claimed a waterbender girl was seen at the city; our side launched expeditions, attempting to locate and neutralise her, but the non-bending defenders put up stiff resistance. Raid repulsed without success … raid repulsed …

How'd these idiots keep losing? The Southern Water Tribe doesn't even have any benders! And considering how many women there were, there couldn't have been more than fifty men at that village. I'd've handled it before breakfast.

These reports claim hundreds of defenders. That has to be inflated.

here it is, five years ago this summer. Casualties: one enemy waterbender eliminated.

Eliminated? You're supposed to capture them. If the objective isn't secured properly, there's supposed to be a debrief explaining why, but there's nothing here.

How do you make commander without knowing how to write a report? And what about Central? You have to send copies there, their clerks should have picked it up.

It might not have been processed? That was about the same time Uncle marched on Ba Sing Se, everything got backed up then.

Here's the order of battle. 'The Divine Wind' – what's that, the flotilla's flagship – 'was engaged by Water Tribe soldiers, and deployed marines. Meanwhile, Commander Yon Rha infiltrated enemy lines, entered the village, identified the waterbender, and eliminated her. With this, he signalled an orderly withdrawal.'

'Identified the waterbender'. No, he didn't. Unless she and Katara were both benders, and Katara never knew? Surely not. But how do you misidentify a bender? This doesn't make sense. Is this report forged? Or falsified?

And then there's the use of lethal force. The report doesn't say she engaged him, with or without bending. Although, it's sloppy enough that maybe the writer just forgot.

Sloppy's too kind. His tactics were just as bad. What was he playing at, a commander going alone behind enemy lines? What if there were still men in the village, they could have got him! Even we took an honour guard with us whenever we left our ship, after that one time. And that means he left the flagship under the command of a mere captain! How'd this idiot ever make commander? When we're in charge, there are going to be some changes around here.

Presently, Katara, Sokka, and Hakoda came in.

"So this place wasn't too badly burned?" Hakoda asked.

"The garrison here clearly didn't know the first thing about arson," Zuko said superciliously.

Hakoda glanced at Sokka and Katara: Does he think that's a bad thing?

I honestly couldn't tell you, Sokka shrugged back. Then his eyes alighted on a charred but intact world map tacked to a wall; his face broke out into a grin, and he set about getting it down.

"Dad's men have them tied up in another one of the buildings," Katara said. "I looked to see if I recognised any. I didn't, and I checked them all. He's not here."

"Obviously," Zuko said, stacking his scrolls into a neat pile.

"Obviously?"

"You're a man who successfully led the last real battle in the South Pole," he said. "What do you think happens to you?"

"You get promoted?" Sokka guessed, putting a stool down so he could pull out the fasteners at the top of the map.

"You get requisitioned. By Admiral Zhao. He needed every warm body he could muster, even my ship and crew; no way would he pass over men with actual experience at pitched polar battle. He took practically everyone here. No wonder your father's men could finish off the remainder, even without any benders."

"You mean," Katara said, going still. "He's already …?"

There was a thud, as Sokka's stool slid sideways and dumped him to the floor.

"I thought you might help me look into things," Zuko said. "Or at least convince the Avatar to lend me his bison, so I could look myself. I also thought the Avatar already gave you all the justice you were getting, one life among thousands. I was wrong." He waved a paper. "This is his personnel file. Commander Yon Rha. He retired four years ago. Zhao never had the authority to take him. It also lists his last known home address. In the homeland, not a colony."

"That's that, then," Sokka said, rubbing his rump and stuffing the map into his tube, with the air of a hunter who just brought down a particularly dangerous quarry. "We can't get at him."

Zuko sat back. "The Avatar invited me to travel with you," he said, "because I know how to get past Fire Nation border security. I can get in, and once we're there, as long as we don't draw attention to ourselves, we'd actually be pretty safe. Compared to sneaking into a fortress, at least. If you want to keep going, we can."

"Aren't you supposed to be banished?" Sokka asked.

Zuko shrugged. "We're hunting a high-ranking alleged traitor. It's my duty, and I should be fine as long as I keep a low profile. These files don't prove anything either way about whether he committed treason. I want to hear what Yon Rha himself has to say."

Sokka and Katara exchanged glances.

"If I may," Hakoda said, "I'd like a word with you in private, Prince."

Katara and Sokka scooted over to read Zuko's files, while Hakoda and Zuko walked out of earshot.

"Prince Zuko," Hakoda said.

"… Chief?" Zuko tried, realising he didn't actually know what titles Water Tribesmen used, or whether it was acceptable to use his name.

Hakoda evidently didn't care. "My children told me a bit about you," he said. "I'd like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind."

His intonation made it clear it wasn't entirely a request.

"I hear you have an arrangement with the Avatar," he went on. "But that you still serve the Fire Lord."

"I'm loyal to my country," Zuko said. "If you're thinking I'd make a good hostage, you're overestimating how much my father cares."

"Don't insinuate I'd abduct my children's companion," Hakoda said sharply.

Well you were thinking it, weren't you?

"This," Hakoda said, gesturing around the room, "is how wars should be fought. Men meeting at the battlefield and sorting things out, then going home. It shouldn't involve civilians, women, children. You're on the other side, but you have enough restraint not to attack the Avatar, or his companions, including my children. You show honour; I'll give you the same."

"… Chief. Your daughter said her mother wasn't a waterbender. Could she have been mistaken about that? Could she have hidden it, so as to keep from being targeted?"

"No," Hakoda said. "I would have known. We were both astonished when Katara had the gift."

It's not hereditary, it's spiritual. But if everyone spiritual were taken in the raids, you wouldn't know that. That was the point. You can't stop benders being born, but you can break the chain of lore, keep them from having teachers.

"If she didn't know who she could trust, she could have hidden it from you too …"

Hakoda shook his head. "One day, you'll fall in love, and you'll understand," he said. "We were one soul in two bodies. There were no secrets. She wasn't a bender."

Zuko suddenly saw Iroh in Hakoda's place; remembered how he'd fallen apart after Lu Ten died, how he'd vanished for years and then returned a changed man. Softer, more thoughtful, none of his old ruthless streak or drive for conquest. How he'd swapped training for pai sho and tea, and fallen to fat.

Weak.

Hakoda had fallen the other way. Before that battle, the southern front had been dead silent; after, he'd rallied the other Tribes under his banner and returned to the war with the Fire Nation. Without benders, they were barely a nuisance, but Zuko couldn't deny they had guts.

"What do you intend for my children?" Hakoda asked.

"Nothing," Zuko said. "My mission is to secure the Avatar. Once that's done, they'll be free to go. I assume they'll go back home."

"What do you think of them personally?"

Zuko tried to stay stoic, but he couldn't help but fidget a little. Hakoda wasn't scary like his own father was, but he still had presence. "I don't. This is a business arrangement. Anyway, they and the Avatar go off and do their own thing half the time. I mostly keep to myself."

"You've been travelling together for months, and you've never had any one-on-one time with either of them?"

He remembered the martial arts training with Katara, and then taking her to the Spirit Oasis; going with her, and talking with Sokka, at the circus; a dozen odd moments when Katara had taken him aside for a word.

She does that a lot, doesn't she?

"… A little," he admitted.

"And what did you think?" Hakoda pressed.

"It …" Zuko trailed off.

Hakoda gave him a moment.

"It sounds like you want to say you don't like them," he said, "but you don't think I want to hear it."

It was like trying to read Mai, the complete lack of clues as to what he was really thinking. Even worse: at least Zuko knew her well enough to guess at some of what she thought, and she liked him enough to want him to. Hakoda could have been thinking anything.

"No," Zuko said. "It was – nice." He looked away. "But the three of them were friends first, and I was an enemy. I'm still loyal to my country. They'll always choose each other over me."

"I see," Hakoda said. "Thank you for this talk." He jerked his head back to Sokka and Katara, and he and Zuko walked over to them. "What do you think?"

"I still want to go after him," Katara said.

"I don't," Sokka said. "A day trip to a half-empty fort is one thing. But this is the Fire Nation itself. You said you'd turn around if it was too dangerous. This is too dangerous. We go in once, with everyone, after Aang's mastered earthbending."

"I only said that to calm Aang down," Katara said. "I don't care about the danger! That man, killed, our mother! I thought you understood!"

Ah. I was wondering what her lie was.

"Called it," Sokka undertoned, then, aloud, "I'll be honest. Back at the desert, I said we had to do this. We don't. We can just walk away. Yeah he's evil, yeah he deserves it, but he's not worth risking our lives over. I thought, if we could prove it to you," this to Zuko, "you might help us more. We get our butts kicked whenever we get taken by surprise; maybe you'd relax your need-to-know policy if we proved the Fire Nation army is as bad as we say.

"But no-one's even got close to the homeland in a century. And what about the others? They only have a few days' food, so we'd have to go back and get them supplies first, and there's no way Aang would let us take Appa into the Fire Nation without him. And we'd be gone for ages, and what if Azula or the Fire Nation has some way of crossing the desert that Zuko doesn't know about, and Appa's gone when they attack?"

"Would you be able to get into the Fire Nation without Appa?" Hakoda asked Zuko.

"It'd be easier without him," Zuko said. "The moment anyone sees him, the entire country will be on maximum alert. Without him, we could just walk into a colony and take a ferry. Once we're in, we'd be able to move around freely, as long as no-one recognised me."

"Then why don't you and Katara keep going," Hakoda said, "while Sokka takes Appa back to the Avatar with more supplies?"

"What?" said Sokka. "Dad – this is a crazy risk! There are so many things that could go wrong! And for what?"

"For justice," Katara said.

"We don't need justice! We need to survive!"

Hakoda held up a hand for a moment to think. Zuko was again reminded of Iroh, who used his tea to do the same thing.

"I don't think it's as dangerous as all that," he said. "You said there were times when Katara was in danger, and Zuko defended her. You trust him, and your trust paid off; that means I trust him."

"Yeah, but –"

"Second, do you remember when I told you wars usually don't end with a funeral?"

"… Yeah," Sokka said grudgingly. His eyes flicked from Katara to Zuko and back. "But couldn't it be anything but this?"

"From what you told me," Hakoda said, "you trust both Katara and Prince Zuko to take care of themselves. Being a man means going where you're needed, even when that takes you away from the ones you love. I should know. You'll see her again."

Sokka had a sucking-on-lemons expression, but he nodded.

Katara looked between them. "What's this about funerals?"

"Something that came up while we were out hunting, years ago," Hakoda said. "War isn't about knocking out all the enemy men, it's about achieving objectives. One of our objectives is justice for Kya. Another objective is getting a peace agreement. We aren't ever going to conquer the Fire Nation; we'll need to talk sooner or later. Right now, the Fire Lord won't listen to us. But if I extend his heir the courtesy of trusting him around my daughter, perhaps one day he will."

You really don't know our father, do you.

"Right now, our countries are poles apart. Someday, someone has to start treating the other like human beings, not monsters. We are those people, and now is that time. And besides," he added to Katara, "I get the feeling you'd run off with my blessing or without it."

She squirmed a bit at that.

"So go. Get justice. And come back to me."

17