"You know what the worst part about being born over a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with. Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of the best friends I ever had, and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you. If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?"

Zuko lay on his back and took stock. Here he was, having just rescued the Avatar from the now-Admiral Zhao, possibly on the run from the Fire Nation if his disguise didn't hold up as well as he thought, and with a splitting headache.

Focus. We just have to get the Avatar. Fireball him, we could take him out in one shot. His guard's down.

I don't feel so good.

Weakling. Just do it.

Zuko inhaled for the attack, then promptly rolled over and threw up.

"Oh!" said Aang. He took a step forward uncertainly. "Uh, um, there's a stream nearby …"

He got Zuko's arm over his shoulder and lifted him, and they began walking. Zuko had the presence of mind to be impressed that Aang was strong enough to support him.

There was mental slow clapping. Bravo, brave Prince of the Fire Nation. Bravo.

I think we might be in really bad shape. I don't remember getting out of Pohuai.

Fine, talk to him, try to get his trust and hit him once you've finished your little fainting spell.

Fine.

…

What do monks talk about?

I don't know! Just say anything.

"… So," he said. "Nice frogs."

Oh my god.

Aang blinked. "Thanks? I guess? I needed to give those to my friends to suck on."

Zuko stared, rolling the sentence around his mind to try to eke some semblance of meaning out of it, but without success.

"They're really sick," Aang elaborated. "At first, Sokka had a cough, and he got worse, and then Katara was coughing too, and …"

"And you wanted to finish them off?" Zuko concluded.

"What? No! This crazy old herbal medicine lady said that sucking on frogs will help them get better. But only if they're frozen, otherwise they don't work."

I don't have any idea how to respond to that.

I'd be concerned if we did.

They came to the stream. Aang lowered Zuko, who washed out his mouth and drank some. Now that he was a little revived, he could try to centre himself, ready another attack. He just needed a minute.

"She wasn't all that crazy," Aang said defensively.

And this, this right here, this is the kid that's been running rings around you for weeks.

"You treat fevers with water, warmth, and rest," Zuko said. "Not with frogs."

"They were doing really bad," Aang said. "I was worried they might …"

"Healthy teenagers can handle a fever," Zuko said, "unless you do something stupid like leave them alone without water."

"I left them resting with Appa," Aang said. "And Momo can bring them … um."

"Momo …?"

"He's our lemur," Aang said. He sweatdropped. "He's, uh, he's pretty smart for a lemur."

Zuko stood, then staggered, his head spinning. He pressed a hand against his temple, and the pain spiked.

We must have taken a hit to the head last night; that's the only explanation for the headache and memory blank.

I choose to believe we hallucinated the frogs and at least part of this conversation, too.

"Are you sick too?" Aang asked.

This'd be easier if he were being a jerk. Do I really have to backstab someone being so nice?

You were injured breaking him out of prison; him getting you water still leaves him in your debt. But you tell me, do you want to spend the rest of your life as a failure, hated by the whole world?

"I'm fine," he lied, edging closer and trying to get his breathing stable. He was still shaky, but one solid hit was all it would take. "How long ago did you leave them?"

"Well, it was yesterday, so …"

Zuko inhaled for a fireball.

For the first time in years, out of nowhere, he heard his mother's voice. If you mess with their babies – chomp! – they're gonna bite you back!

Get your head in the game, Zuzu. Mother's gone.

Yeah.

…

… Those Water Tribe babies don't have a mother either, not here. All they have is a kid with a tunic full of frozen frogs, and we're supposed to take that away from them too?

That's a hallucination. Mother's gone.

I know.

You have your duty.

We've waited years. We can wait another hour.

"So get moving!" he shouted. He straightened, forcing down a wave of nausea and dizziness. "How far away are they?"

"From here, I think only a couple of miles?"

Zuko pressed his hand against his forehead, hoping it just looked like frustration.

"I'm coming with you."

Aang didn't question this, he just nodded, smiled, and led the way.

Zuko followed at a jog, the best he could manage with his head spinning. He was clearly slowing the Avatar down a lot, but there was only so much value in him getting back faster if he was going to spend that time stuffing frozen frogs down his companions' throats. Then there was the fact that Zuko himself needed water and rest, and the question of how he'd explain his absence.

He'd hoped to be back at the ship before dawn and that his excursion would go entirely unnoticed, but it was almost mid-morning by now, he would've been missed for sure. Zhao's spies would know he was out at the same time as the Blue Spirit, a highly trained firebender proficient with swords, with Zuko's same height and physique, and with an interest in the Avatar. The Blue Spirit was knocked out, somehow, and Zuko had an obvious concussion.

When we beat Zhao at Agni Kai, he tried to murder us. I don't think he'll take having the Avatar snatched out from under his nose much better.

The Blue Spirit is a pretty solid disguise.

So? Zhao's not a civilian judge, he doesn't need solid proof. Heck, he doesn't even need suspicion, he can just order his men to arrest us. Or dump us in a ditch somewhere. He's mad enough to want to do that to someone, and he already hates us.

Think we can take them?

Signs point to no.

He hadn't thought of anything useful by the time Aang led him to a temple. Sokka and Katara were wrapped up in their Antarctic-grade bedrolls, lying against the gigantic flying bison. For some reason, random junk littered the floor around them. Sokka was giggling at something only he could see.

"Wa-ter," Katara croaked.

"I'll be right back," Aang said. He grabbed a waterskin and was off in a flash.

It occurred to Zuko to be envious. Firebending could technically be used for flight, but that was a top-tier technique, available only to the likes of his sister and father. It wasn't like every other element, which had entry-level mobility moves with no risk of blowing up oneself or the person standing behind you.

"Oh, hey, Zuko," said Sokka. "When did you get here?"

Zuko swayed, fought for his balance, and fell to his knees. Running so far on a concussion maybe wasn't his best idea ever.

I don't know, 'Zuko's best idea' is right up there with 'tastiest mud cake made with literal mud'.

"Sokka," he said. They'd never been introduced, but whenever he asked peasants on the roadside if they'd seen the Avatar, some of them mentioned his companions. Sokka's body language was all over the place. He was obviously hallucinating badly.

"Yeah," he said. "Did Aang capture you? Man, sweet. I can't wait to tell Momo." He kept giggling, barely seeming to notice as Zuko sat down opposite him.

So this is our life now. Captured by a boy who thinks frogs are medicine, a girl who I think's just passed out with fever, and a boy in full delirium.

At least it can't get any worse than this.

Appa turned to look at him, inhaled, and sneezed a thick spray of snot onto him, enough to physically bowl him over. He didn't bother trying to get up, he just lay on his back and stared up at the sky, feeling the slime seep into his clothes.

"This is just my ninth birthday party all over again," he said aloud.

"Why, what happened then?"

Either that was very fast, or Zuko had passed out at some point. Aang was by the flying bison, carefully giving Sokka water.

"Ngh," Zuko said, sitting up with difficulty and wiping off the worst of the snot. "You didn't tell me they were hallucinating. This isn't just a fever, this is pneumonia."

"Should I go back and get the frogs, then?"

"It'll either cut recovery time by half a day, or kill them, depending on how crazy that herbalist was," Zuko said. "And there are probably soldiers waiting at the swamp."

"… Let's try your way. How do you know so much about medicine?"

Zuko didn't feel up to talking about himself. "Give them lots of water, then fill up more skins. I'll heat them, and you can hold them to their chests. It'll help burn out the infection." Iroh would tell him off for firebending with a head injury, but it couldn't be helped.

"What about you?"

"I'm fine."

"That's a lie."

Zuko scrunched up his face. The treatment for concussion was rest and not having to think too hard, which included social interactions and, presumably, planning elaborate cover stories to explain said concussion to Zhao. "Did something hit my head last night?"

"I couldn't really see, but I think one of those crazy archers shot you. It was a good thing you were wearing that mask."

The Yuyan Archers. This might be a problem.

I could maybe take one or two regular troops, but a Yuyan? Or five or six of them ambushing me? And they're crack trackers, and if Zhao has them, he could have other special forces that I don't know about.

"I just need rest," he said aloud.

"Okay," Aang nodded. "Lie against Appa for now. Don't worry, he won't hurt you."

Appa replied that yes, he very much would hurt him.

"Don't worry, boy. Zuko helped me escape."

Appa considered this, then grudgingly agreed, but Zuko had better not try any funny business. Aang helped Zuko onto Appa's back; Appa grumbled, then went back to sleep.

"I'm going to get more water and look around," Aang said. "Look after Katara and Sokka."

"Stay out of sight," Zuko said.

Appa was a thick pile of warm fur with a strong animal musk. His belly rose and fell with his breaths, which tickled a memory below the surface of Zuko's conscious mind. He wanted to say it was like being on the ship, but it didn't really fit: there was no hard metal, none of the ubiquitous stink of burning coal, no salt spray.

"Z-Zuko?"

It was Katara. She broke into a hacking coughing fit. Zuko found the waterskin and held it to her lips; she drank half of it before pulling back, wiping her lips, and coughing some more, but she sounded much revived.

"Zuko," she repeated. She sat up and narrowed her eyes at him. "What are you doing here? Where's Aang?" she added, panicked.

Zuko slumped back against Appa. The one thing his headache didn't need was a girl screeching in his ear from two feet away, but it was probably coming. "He's fine," he said. "Don't want to talk about it."

"Why are you here?" she asked again.

"He wanted to feed you frogs," he said.

"… ?"

"I really don't want to talk about it," he said.

"Well," Katara said. "When he gets back, you should – you should go back to your ship and just leave us alone."

"I don't think I can," Zuko mumbled.

Aang and the flying bison could fly over the Yuyan's range. Maybe we could talk him into letting us pretend to capture him and the bison, and then we could fly back to the ship and tell everyone that we had taken him off the Blue Spirit, and let him escape until the Water Tribe kids were better? And once that's done with, we can capture him again, for real this time?

Only about a million details missing, such as why were we looking for an infiltrator we couldn't have known about that Zhao's entire army couldn't find in a restricted area that we were specifically told to keep out of.

"Why not?!" Katara asked. She coughed again and took another pull of water. "Just go find someone else to bother. We've had enough of you."

The phrase 'restricted area' jogged his memory of the time when he'd chased the Avatar into Fire Nation waters, and Zhao had almost sunk his ship on the high seas.

Zhao might just bomb the ship, either as punishment for trespassing, or just to vent his anger. When you put it that way, if we go back at all, it could put Uncle Iroh and the crew in danger. What if we hide out here for a few days, hope no patrols find us, and …

And what?

And when we're a bit better and the alert level's gone down, we sneak back at night, stow away on our own ship, and escape Zhao like that? Ambush a soldier, steal a standard-issue uniform …

Sounds good, but strip naked and set yourself on fire first. It'll increase the odds of success.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

Zuko blinked. He'd heard the sound of her talking at him, but it hadn't registered as language, more like the babble of a creek. He wasn't doing well.

"Let him sleep, Katara." It was Aang again, carrying more water. "He helped me escape from the Fire Nation last night, and he was hurt."

"Aang, he's the one from the Fire Nation we keeping having to escape from. Whatever happened, it was probably an ambush or a trick or …"

"I don't think so," Aang said. "I was in chains, and he broke me out. He could've just, you know, not broken me out."

"I'm not who you should be afraid of right now," Zuko tried to say, but it came out as a mumble. He swallowed and managed on his second try. "Admiral Zhao. He has an entire fleet, and the Yuyan Archers. They're master trackers, they'll be here soon."

"Why should we trust you?" Katara asked.

He glared at her. "If he's the one who captures the Avatar, my honour's gone for good."

Katara and Aang exchanged glances.

"I mean," Aang said, "they ambushed me only a couple miles away. Even without tracking, if they just fanned out from there and looked for landmarks, it'd only take an hour or two to get here, and the sun's been up almost that long. We should move anyway. Hey, Mister Zuko?"

"Mister?" Katara muttered incredulously.

"If you and Zhao are enemies, then if the Yuyan capture you, they'll throw you in prison, right?"

"Something worse for me," Zuko said. "I don't get to reincarnate. And he knows that."

"Right." Aang paused. "Well, I owe you one. Is there some way we can give you a ride back to your ship, without the Yuyan spotting?"

"No," Zuko said, too tired to explain.

"Hmm … if you were in better shape, you could sneak past on your own. Why don't I look after you for a bit? Three's no harder than two."

Zuko gave him a flat look.

"Aang, he's the enemy," Katara croaked. "We can't bring him with us!"

"We can't just leave him here," Aang said. "Look at him, he's almost as sick as Sokka. There's no way he can hide from the Yuyan."

"I don't need your help!" Zuko said indignantly. He stood up to stalk off, but then he overbalanced and fell on his face.

"This is stupid," said Katara, "and reckless, and –"

Aang set his jaw. "I'm the Avatar," he said. "It's my job to help people. And also I'm the only one here who doesn't have pneumonia delusions or a head injury –"

"What about those arrows?" Sokka asked.

Aang glared at him and put his hand over his head tattoo. "– so I'm in charge, and I say we're nursing him back to health, and that's final. Come on, Momo, help me get everyone into the saddle."

PSA: Getting knocked out, especially from a blow to the head, is a big deal. See a doctor. Also, never try to knock anyone out, unless you're willing for it to be the kind of sleep you don't wake up from.

PSA 2: Don't suck on frogs. Not that I mean to imply you would.

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