I Don't own Avatar the last air bender.

chapter 52

Katara would never admit it out loud, but Sokka was right. She really should have let it go and move on. Now there was this strange light shooting skywards from the iceberg and an unnatural glow all around them. To make matters worse, the kid moved out of his cocoon and looked at them with his eyes and tattoos glowing in a whitish-blue light. It was so alien and creepy.

It ended in seconds though, as the boy lost conciseness again and fell downwards to them. Luckily, Katara caught him before his head hit the hard ice. Sokka though still had his spear ready to pierce the boy's skull in case of danger. At least he didn't headbutt the poor boy.

"Argh…"

To say that Katara was surprised that the boy from the iceberg was alive was an understatement, and a look at her brother revealed that he shared the same thoughts. No, really, how was it possible? The cold alone would have killed him, not to mention the lack of air. It went against everything she knew about the human body, she wasn't sure even Zuko with whatever it was that goes on inside him, was that strange.

The boy opened his eyes and looked at her. "I need to ask you something…" His voice was weak, barely a whisper. Not surprising considering the situation.

"What?"

"Please, come closer…"

"What is it?" She leaned closer.

"Will you go penguin-sliding with me?" None of the weak and tired voice remained as the kid asked it quickly, catching Katara by surprise.

"Um, sure… I guess?"

"What's going on here?" The boy said as he got up with ease, looking around him in confusion.

"You tell us, how did you get in that ice? And why aren't you frozen?" Sokka poked the kid just to make sure.

"I'm not sure." The kid said.

Suddenly, a low growl was heard, like a big animal, and the kid jumped back to the iceberg with a smile.

"I think that he's insane." Sokka whispered to her. She didn't answer back, partly because she thought her brother was onto something. They then walked around the iceberg, as they didn't have whatever agility the kid had to jump on it, and were shocked to see the kid with some kind of a furry beast.

"What the heck is that?!" Sokka pointed his spear to the horned beast.

"This is Appa, my flying bison."

"Right" Sokka nodded. "And this is Katara, my flying sister."

Just as her brother said this, the beast sneezed and got green goo all over her brother. And they say karma doesn't work fast.

"Don't worry, it'll wash out." The kid said as Sokka rolled on the floor trying to clean himself. "So, do you guys live around here?"

"We-"

"Don't tell him anything!" Sokka interrupted her. "We don't know anything about him!"

"Sokka, don't be stupid."

"I'm not! The guy comes out of an iceberg as if it's fine and glows as bright as Zuko! That's not normal!" Her brother insisted. "To make matters worse, he has this ten-ton behemoth that can swallow a person whole. Do you really want something like that near the kids? It can lay to the side and crush about a dozen of them to death!"

"Hey, Appa will never do this!" The kid defended his pet. "He's gentle, and he's herbivore."

"Come on, Sokka, the big guy is obviously trained." Katara rebuked him. "Zuko let Xing play with kids all the time, and Xing is literally a carnivorous murdering machine."

"But we don't even know his name, for crying out loud!"

"Oh, right." Katara turned to address the kid. "I'm Katara, the paranoid one is my brother Sokka. What's your name?"

"I'm Aaa-" The kid began to make weird noises. "Aaachooo!"

With a great sneeze, the kid flew high upwards, then slid back to place by the ice wall. But the only ones capable of generating so much power through wind like that are… oh no."

"Katara, Get behind me!" Sokka pushed himself forward, no doubt reaching the same conclusion as she did. "He's an air bender!"

"Sure am!" The kid smiled, ignorant of the wight of the situation he is in. "My name's Aang, nice to meet you!"

"Are you working with Mi-Sha?!" Sokka still had his spear pointed at the now named Aang.

"Who?"

"Sokka, that's enough!" Katara stopped her brother. "He obviously has no connections to Mi-Sha."

"He's an air bender!"

"And so is Jasmine! She and Mi-Dved are literally his children, are they guilty as well?!" Her words seemed to halt her brother as he took a few seconds of deep breathes and self-reflection.

"Fine, But I'm going to report to dad about this." He turned around to get the canoe, only to learn that it broke from the breaking of the iceberg. "Great, now how do we get home?"

"I can give you a lift if you want?" Aang suggested, Sokka groaned in defeat.

It took them a minute to get on the back of Appa. Katara had to admit that Appa was a very big animal, all three of them could camp on his saddle if they wanted to.

"Appa, yip-yip!"

The beast just grunted, but did nothing else.

"Amm… was something supposed to happen?" Sokka asked.

"Appa's just tired." Aang explained. "Once he rested and had a good meal he'll fly in no time."

In the end, Appa ended up swimming. Katara was concerned about the freezing water, but Aang promised her that Appa's fur and skin were enough to resist the cold. The siblings guided Appa to their village, in which a crowd already waited for them. In the head of said crowd was their father, and he did not look amused.

'Thanks again, Sai.' Zuko said in his head as he rested in his cabin inside his ship. 'I don't know what I would have done without you.'

"Probably still sailing aimlessly in some wasteland in search of the avatar. Most likely with the crew seriously considering munity." It replied. "But think nothing of it, it's literally my job. If anything, I am the one at fault here for putting you in such a dangerous situation. I knew that your sister would try something, but not right away. Nor did I anticipate that she would get a hold on such a weapon."

'Yeah, what was the deal with that thing? I mean, obviously it was my mistake to not wear you, but you're usually on the top for such things.'

"The knife was baptized by tears of a certain spirit. Anything that is soaked by those tears is invisible to me. Sight, sound, touch, and any other sensor I have, nothing can sense it. It's not even a blind spot in the environment."

'That's… problematic.'

"Very." Sai agreed. "But also extremely rare. The only source is a single river made by one spirit, there is limit to its volume. In addition, this spirit is located at the very center of the spirit world near Vaatu's prison. Needless to say, it's extremely difficult to get there."

'But can't it move somewhere else?' It was only logical. 'Then we'll have a bigger trouble.'

"She would leave, she'll stay exactly where she is."

'So she's trapped?' She was next to the most dangerous prisoner in existence, it made sense.

"...In a way."

Okay… strange.

'So what's her name?'

"Not important."

'What?! She can literally make invisible weapons to kill us! Of course she's important!'

"She's no one, absolutely no one. And this knife is probably the only thing left, there is no reason to dwell in it."

'You don't know that! I almost died because of this, I have the right to know!"

"I have protocols to follow, and one of them is to never say her name. Please, don't push the subject."

Okay, wow. Something is definitely off. Even when Sai talked about gods, being that the mere saying of their names causes you to be under their attention, didn't grant such a response. Zuko really wanted to push on, but it was clear that Sai wouldn't budge on this. In the end, Zuko decided that maintaining a good relationship with Sai is more important than his curiosity, so he let it slide.

'Fine, but you owe me one. So what's the plan anyway?'

"We sail to the south pole at full speed. The avatar had shown signs of action."

'What?! You should have started from this!'

"To be fair, there was a good chance that your heart would have literally stopped working from the news, and afterwards we were occupied with different topics. Rest assured, we are going there in most haste. Prepare to meet your destiny."

'Finally, after all those years I will regain my honor and birthright. I will see home again.'

"But are you sure you want that?"

'what do you mean? Of course I do!' Why didn't Zuko sound as sure as he should have.

"To a father that maimed you and wants you dead? To a sister that belittles you and literally stabbed you?" Zuko didn't have answers for this. "When I was inside your sister's head, not a nice place to be by the way, I managed to copy the memories of your mother that the Mother Of Faces inserted there. Would you like to watch while I heal your body? I warn in advance, none of this is pleasant."

'Memories or healing?'

"Both." Zuko took a deep breath.

'Bring it on.'

The crew members acting as guards outside the prince's chamber expected a more or less boring shift.

"I'll kill him! I'll freaking kill him!"

Never mind. It seems that his highness has awakened.

"Should we…" One of the guards gestured with his head towards the door.

"No." His partner stopped him. "We heard nothing. No calls to murder the fire lord, nada."

"You will pay for this! You hear me?! I will gut you like a fish YOU PATHETIC WORM!" That change of voice couldn't be healthy, or normal. Honestly, it was scary.

"You're right." The first one agreed. "We probably should wait a bit."

"Kids, you better have a good explanation." The man who was most likely Katara's and Sokka's dad said, and he didn't sound happy to Aang. "You said that you went to train, not bringing strays and strange right to our village."

"Well, you see…" Sokka tried. "He was trapped inside an iceberg with his flying bison and Katara released them with her water bending. Then there was this bright light and our boat was destroyed and then…"

At his father's unamused gaze Sokka quit and turned to Katara. "You know what? You deal with this. It was your idea in the first place, and I told you that it will cause us trouble." Katara in her part just rolled her eyes.

"As much as it sounds like Sokka has the white night madness, it actually happened. We found Aang trapped in an iceberg and I released him."

"As much as I want to call bull, that lightshow could be seen from the fire nation." Hakoda concluded and turned his attention to Aang. "Which brings us to the question of who are you, boy?"

"I'm Aang." He greeted. "From the southern air temple."

It was apparently the wrong thing to say, because people around him started whispering among themselves, and their tones were not kind. Strange, air benders were usually greeted with indifference at worse. More than a few gave him nasty looks as well. Just what is going on here?

"You admit of being an air bender? In the open? And in front of me no less?" The man looked at him. "You are either completely out of touch, a complete fool, or completely insane."

Ah… what?

"I think that we should probably go to a more private setting." A pretty woman rested her hand on the chief, she looked similar to Katara so she must have been Katara's mom.

"Maybe we should." The man agreed.

…

"Some penguin seal stew?" The mother, Kia offered Aang as they sat at the table at their house. Meat filled stew, to be precise.

"Eh… I'm full, thanks." Aang didn't want to offend his hists, but as all other air nomads, he was a vegetarian and considered all life scared.

"I'll have some if he doesn't want." Sokka said near him.

Across the table sat six people, Aang, Katara, Sokka, their father the chief Hakoda, their mother Kia, and Hakoda's mother Kanna. They seemed nice enough, although Hakoda still treated him with suspicion, the problem besides the atmosphere was that the food on the table was… meaty.

"Dear, please eat something." Kia pleaded. "You can't sustain yourself on seaweed salad alone, let alone without anchovies. You're a growing boy, you need to eat."

"It's fine! The salad is actually tasty this way." It really, really wasn't.

"Is it because all this 'no eating meat' the air nomads have?" Sokka asked. "I personally can't imagine life without meat."

Aang said nothing, but his embarrassed expression told everything.

"No meat?" Kia asked her son.

"Yes." Kanna spoke for the first time. "I remember hearing in my time that air nomads used to be vegetarian, not that there were any left to prove the stories."

Any left? What did she mean by that?

"Let me guess, the prince told you this?" The old woman addressed her grandson.

"Yeah, he was very knowledgeable in all kinds of trivia, said it an important thing for an avatar hunter."

Avatar… Hunter…?! Just what did Aang get himself into?! And who would want to hunt him!

"Enough." The chief said and the table went silent. "We're here to talk about our guest, who he is, how he got here, and what's he's planning to do now. Some come, entertain us. Tell us about yourself."

"Well…"

Aang told them about his life in the air temple, about Gyatso, about the pranks. He told them about the storm that caught him and Aapa mid-flight, obviously without the reason why he flew away in the first place, and then that the next thing he remembered was Katara and Sokka.

"I see… and what year did it happen again?" Hakoda asked.

"I don't understand."

"Humor me, kid."

"3894 AN."

"AN?" Katara sked in confusion.

"It's a short for 'After nations', meaning after the formation of the four nations." Gran-gran explained. "It used to count years before the start of the war and a genocide of the air nomads."

"War?! Genocide?!" What was Aang hearing right now?!

"It's settled then" Hakoda looked at Aang. "You have been frozen in ice for the last hundred years, right before the start of the war. Avatar."

"A hundred years?!" Then something else clicked. "W-why do you think that I'm the avatar?"

"Kid, you are an air bender, your kind hadn't been seen since the start of the war a century ago. As for the avatar thing, I'm not stupid, kid. A regular person doesn't just come out of the ice after being frozen for a century as if nothing happened, and don't think that I didn't saw you flinch when we mentioned the avatar."

"Aang… is that true?" Katara asked. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"It's… it's because I never wanted to be…" Aang admitted sadly. "I'm sorry for lying to you, I was just scared."

"It's fine, Aang. I understand that it's a lot to take in." Katara reassured him. "But now you can stop the fire nation and end the war."

"But I don't understand. I have friends in the fire nation, and they're some of the nicest people I have ever met. Why would they start a war? They looked pretty content with what they had."

"They may have, but fire lord Sozin certainly did not." Gran-gran said. "The leaders that lead the nation not always care for the state of their people, too many times their greed overwhelms their duties. It's especially so with fire, without something to hold it back a flame will consume and grow in an endless cycle until there is nothing left for it to consume. And then, it will die and leave an empty world."

"But maybe I could talk to the fire lord?" Aang suggested. "I'm the Avater, he'll have to at least hear me out, right?"

The others looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"We're so screwed." Sokka finally said.

"Avatar, the current fire lord is a man who scared the face of his own son because said son disagreed with him." Hakoda said, much to Aang's bewilderment. "He is not a person to talk to. Which leads me to the next question, what do you plan to do now?"

"Now?" Aang didn't understand, although it appears that he didn't understand a lot of things

"You need to be a fully realized avatar in control of all four elements to face the fire lord and his army and bring peace once more, from your story you have mastered only air bending. Which, I admit, is impressive for one so young, but is still a step in a long journey."

"I can learn water bending here. You have water bending masters, right?"

"I'm afraid that the fire nation took all of our water benders as well, young one." Gran-gran spoke with a sad tone. "If it's a water bending teacher you seek, then you must travel to the north pole on the other side of the world."

"But Katara is a water bender." Aang noted. "And a pretty good one from what I've seen."

"Thanks, but I know that I'm not that great." She said a little embarrassed. "I didn't have any formal training, and what training I did have come from questionable sources. I'm not feat to teach."

"And she's the last water bender of the south pole." The chief said. "But even if we could have found someone to teach you, you can't stay."

"What?! Why?!" Katara asked, offended on his behalf. "He's done nothing wrong!"

"It has nothing to do with wrong." Hakoda merely shook his head. "When the fire lord will hear about this, and you can be sure that this lightshow hadn't gone unnoticed, who do you think he'll send?"

Aang visibly saw how Katara's skin became paler and paler, her expression turned from indignation to confusion to horror. "No…" She whispered, to which her father only nodded.

"It's a matter of survival." He stated. "The longer the avatar is within our walls, the more we risk the fire nation raiding our shores once more. Only this time they will be spearheaded by prince Zuko himself, and I don't fancy our chances in this case. The tribe had his fill of battle, I will not damn it to another."

"You will have the day to rest and restock." Hakoda addressed Aang. "But you will have to leave tomorrow morning."

"I understand sir, I will not endanger your people." And he meant it as he bowed to the patriarch. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"By the way, your… flying bison, was it? How many people do you think it could carry for long distances?"

"I don't know, it least eight. Why?" Aang was confused.

"Then I wave a favor to ask, avatar." Hakoda bowed. "Will you allow my kids to accompany you in your journey to the north pole? And take care of their safety?"

"Sure, the more the merrier." Aang asked without thinking about it too hard.

"WHAT?!" It seems that the rest of the family wasn't involved in this decision, only the grandmother sat silently.

"Would you mind giving us a few minutes of privacy, avatar? I apologize for the discomfort." Hakoda asked him.

"Sure, I should check on Appa anyway." Aang said as he walked outside. He had no reason to get involved in what is clearly a family matter.

"Husband, what was that just now?" Mom addressed dad, and Katara agreed. In return, dad only sighed.

"I lake it as much as you do, dear, trust me." Dad replied as he tiredly rubbed his face. "But as I see it, we don't have many options. Katara still needs an actual water bending teacher, something that she can't get here. Heck, we don't even know if Zuko managed to get the fire lord off Katara, not to mention the random glory seekers who would go after the last water bender of the south. For all we know there is a taskforce like that heading our way right now."

That… made a lot of sense, hate as she was to admit it. So because of her water bending she had to be robbed again from mom and dad, after only a short time of reunion. She will never say that she hated her gift, but it was the cause of many of her troubles.

"But there are other reasons as well." Dad continued.

"Like what?" Her brother asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We need people." Dad said plainly. "Half of our men are gone, foreigners as our shore, the war always looming at the horizon, we can't go on like this. We need a stable and self-sustaining community if we want to rebuild ourselves, and for that we'll need more people. I need you two to be our embassy in the north, you will be also tasked with anything that may benefit the tribe. You have my full authority to do what you must. Use your connection with the avatar as a leverage, those frats are extremely traditional."

That's… that's a lot to take in.

"Shouldn't someone more qualified deal with this?" Sokka asked. "You know, an adult?"

"It's the best we can do." Dad explained. "I trust my men with my life, but I also know that the vast majority of them isn't up to a task like this, and those who do I can't let go. In addition, the avatar should interact with his own age group, I'm afraid that his air nomad worldview will clash with our warrior's more jaded one."

"Besides." Dad chuckled. "You sell yourself short. You two have achieved much in such a short time, and you have a few things that those wall dwellers will never have."

"What?" Katara asked.

"Outside experience and understanding, the willingness to change and improve, actually facing your problems, and ego smaller than an iceberg." The last two things were said in a tired voice. "Can I trust you? The two of you are free to disagree and I'll drop the subject."

She and Sokka looked at each other, they saw the determination in the other one's eyes. "We'll do it." They said together.

"Love?" Dad turned to mom, who let out a sigh.

"I wouldn't lie, I don't like it. And I'm pissed at you for not consulting me." She admitted. "But I do see your point. If the kids agree then I'll allow it."

"Mother?" Dad addressed Gran-gran.

"You're the chief, you stupid boy! You don't need the permission from some old woman!" She yelled at dad, but there was no heat in her words. "But the two of them are the ones who found and brought back the avatar to the world, it has to mean something."

"It's settled then." Dad declared. "I'll go to inform the tribe."

Zuko looked at his now once again healed face, not a trace of the scars had been left. Burnt out, all of them. Literally in this case. His eyes were equal in size, face perfectly symmetric, and hair in a short haircut. A "lady-killer", as both Sai and Jasmine told him.

The mention of the female air bender caused Zuko to grimace as her absence, her presence had grown on him, and it was strange to not have her around. No matter, it was only temporary. Sure, it irked him to leave her in that den of snakes, and the less said about Mi-Dved the better, but he coped with the fact that Azula will ensure Jasmine's safety. The bluff Sai made will buy them some time.

"Are you ready, your highness?" Sai said in his head. "There is no turning back from here."

"Turning back wasn't an option a long time ago." Zuko spoke aloud. He didn't even care if someone may overhear him. "I was just too deluded to see it."

The thing in question was something Zuko would have never dreamed of even thinking to do, an outright usurpation, treason of the highest order. Any hesitation is gone. Zuko is going to kill his father and take the throne, by force if necessary. Having seen his mother's memories was the final push Zuko needed to fully embrace the idea. The fact that Ozai didn't ever care for him and saw him as nothing more than a tool he could somehow swallow, but everything he put mom through crossed the line.

He looked to his left, Xing was sleeping there peacefully. The hellhound returned earlier that day from wherever he was at. Honestly, Zuko was glad that Xing hadn't been during the trail, things would have been much more complicated otherwise. Although Xing did have some nasty bite marks and scratch marks on his neck and back, as well as burn marks on his lower belly as if it was subjected to random uncontrollable blasts of heat. The fracture in his pelvis that looked like it was made by a trauma of multiple hits of a medium weight object in rapid succession also needed a look.

Still, Xing returned with a stupid grin on his face, so Zuko decided that all was well. He wouldn't lie, Azula did give him a scare when she told him about Xing.

Taking a deep breath, Zuko fixed his new armor one last time before opening the door and walking dramatically. He walked to the deck and stood up the podium. Towering, fierce, imperial, Zuko couldn't mess this up.

"I know all of you wonder why you are all here." Zuko said, noting the uncertainty his crew had. "But first I will give you all a choice. What I am about to say will not leave this ship, if any of you wants to go back under-deck, now it's the time."

None of them moved.

"I will say it short and simply, I'm planning to commit treason of the highest order." He saw them look at each other with uncertainty. "Ozai is a sadistic monster that must go, his acts of cruelty and crimes are known to all. He used and abused me my entire life for his own ends, he scared and banished me for defying the slaughter of new recruits, he even wants to end my life. But those are things I can overlook, the next ones aren't!"

"He killed his own father!" Zuko declared, savoring the surprised gasps of his crew. "He raped his own wife into poison fire lord Azulon! Only to fake the will that placed him as the next fire lord, knowing his brother was too full of grief to do anything! He is a fake lord! A false idol! I will rid the world of his presence!"

"But most of all, his crimes and cruelty over the people he swore to protect are too much! Burning left and right! Indiscriminate slaughter! He is a beast that needs to be put down! When I'm fire lord, no one will have to suffer like this ever again! I will bring prosperity to the fire nation like never before! I will bring an end to this war with a total fire nation victory and unite all of humanity under one banner!"

"Now, are you with me?!"

There was a silence for two seconds, before Mi-Dved raised his fist to the air. "All hail fire lord Zuko!"

The others were quick to follow. Soon enough, all the crew chanted it. Zuko noticed only one person who didn't join, his uncle. The old general only stood there in disappointment. It hurt, Zuko will admit it hurt very much.

Never mind. There was a fire lord to overthrow and a world to conquer, there was no time to wallow in his deuterating relationship with his uncle.

Hakoda and the rest of the tribe bead goodbye as Sokka, Katara, and the avatar flew away on the avatar's flying bison. That will not get any less weird to say it.

"It seems like the kids are leaving the nest." His wife said from his side.

"It seems so."

"You know that I'm still mad with you for this, right?" She said as she continued waving goodbye.

"I know." He did the same.

There was a moment of silence.

"I want another one." She said suddenly. "The nest feels too empty."

"Yes, ma'am." He knew better than argue, especially when threatened with good time. "Mother will be with her friends for the rest of the day, so the house will basically be only the two of us for the day."

"Sounds like a plan." She agreed as the two walked back to their home.

"I'm still worried about the kids." Kya admitted. "There are just so many things that could go wrong, and that's excluding the usual worries of a mother."

"I will lie if I say that I have no worries of my own." Hakoda admitted. "But I trust the two of them to watch each other's back. Besides, the avatar will keep them safe, and if worst comes to worst, they will always have a ten-ton behemoth to the rescue. Somehow, I don't fear for their safety."

It was a lie. He had no illusions about what will happen if Zuko faced the avatar as he is now, the prince will tear the boy apart. He at least hoped that Appa's sheer size was enough to deter Xing, but he had his reservations since even that monstrosity at the tunnels didn't. Of course he told nothing of this to his wife.

"Good." She smiled as they were now in their home. "So without further ado~"

As they began their preparations to fulfil his wife's will, however, they were interrupted by two scouts barging into his home with terrified expressions.

"Boys, if it's not a life or death situation, I'll make it one!" Hakoda said enraged.

"S-sorry for the interruption, but-"

"Out with it, boy!" He had no patience for this now.

"It can be!" The other scout yelled. "For the entire village!"

He looked at his wife, who merely sighed in kid frustration. "Go deal with whatever it is, I will stay here in any case." He kissed her cheek before following the two soon to be waste-men for the next mouth.

"You better have something really good there." He addressed the two.

"It's better that you take a look yourself, chief." The first one handed him a far-eye, which Hakoda grumbled as he took.

"Okay, what was so important that I had to see? All I see is ice, snow, and look at that, more ice." The wind howling in his ears didn't make him feel any more comfortable. "The only thing out of ordinary is that the wind howls stronger than it should and that the ice is breaking apart faster than before.

"I don't think it's the wind sir." The man that handed him the far-eye shook his head, nor the ice."

"What are you on about?" Hakoda said as another iceberg broke, the thing made the local heard of beasts run in fright. Strange, they usually are more accustomed to icebreaking, they shouldn't run like that.

"Look at the herd." The second man said. "You'll understand soon enough."

Hakoda watched as the ground underneath the herd shook. Then, in a scene that he will remember forever, the single largest thing he ever saw rose up and swallowed whatever poor creatures were running above. It was big, it had bone white armor and too many legs to count. Did he mention it was big? Because that fact couldn't be understated.

"Is that an ice centipede?" Hakoda asked. "They aren't supposed to be this big. Screw that, nothing's supposed to be this big."

"We don't know, sir. We called you the moment we here sure we didn't go mad. That thing will eat the entire tribe if it gets near us."

No jokes about that. The biggest creature Hakoda ever faced was , and he didn't as much fight as he endured until others took care of it. Even then, he lost half of his men in the process. This thing looked like it could swallow whole. Yeah… fighting was out of question. The usual strategy of fending off ice centipedes by creating strong vibrations was also off the table, Hakoda was pretty sure any vibration they make will be more akin to a dinner bell than anything else.

How did this thing even appear in the first place, and why now? Wait… a sinking feeling made place in Hakoda's stomach. A gargantuan ice centipede bigger than anything else, a creature without equals on land and under it. It sounded suspiciously like the Apex his kids told him about, a creature beyond measure that Zuko trapped deep underground.

"We need to go, now."

He and the other two turned tail before the thing could notice their presence.

"What's the plan, chief?"

"Gather the rest of the adults, we are having a meeting."

When they finally went back to the village, there were cheers of celebration. Just what happened in the half an hour he was gone?! Which is exactly what he asked the nearest person he asked.

"It's a miracle, chief!" the person said. "Hamma, one of the water benders that were taken during the raids, have finally returned!"

This was either a very good thing or a very bad one, especially with what lurks underneath. Now he only needed Zuko to arrive and then it will be truly the worst timing ever... and he just jinxed himself, didn't he.

AN

Hey, sorry for the late update.

First of all, wow that was a lot of review. Happy to know that people care for this story so much. Secondly, soon exam season starts, so I don't know when the next update will be.

now for the reviews:

FF8cerberus :

Acknowledged. An oversight on my part, I admit.

02cjd :

You're welcome!

Zuko already made changes, and will continue doing so. By now, he's fully committed to murder his own father, something he was never ready to do in the show.

Sorry, no ice powers, besides machines that copy similar affects. But it will always be sub-par to a master. I need to balance the power scaling.

As for Xing, he returned from his vacation and near death by snu snu. Something that will bite Zuko later on.

Seran58 :

Thanks!

To be fair, I want to keep it T rated, so filter accordingly. I have to admit that maybe it's just a problem in me, but It's hard for me to write such intense things as even half of what Aerys did. Let's agree that the more gory things happen offscreen.

Engineer1869 :

Thank you!

Oh, Sai's connection with the knife, and more importantly the spirit behind it, is much deeper than that. And it's something we'll meet again when Aang will learn more about just how much the world have change as well as the threats he has to face. Notice how protective Sai sounded when the subject came, this relationship can be summarize in a single sentence: "I will forget her, regret is a sin."

All according to plan, things will ger real hot after the siege on the north.

Yep. Zuko's own actions released demons from their bottles, the Apex would have stayed deep in the underground if Zuko didn't disturb it in the first place. And actions of different overlords in the past have slowly rang in the senses of the comet until Aang's return was the strew that broke the camel's back.

I took your suggestion for consideration.

Annartlan Reach :

Thanks!

I took your suggestion for consideration.

That was the plan with Zuko, yes. Of course, no plan survives contact with the enemy and Raava the avatar is the closest thing to a prophet this world has. So the two would have two strong powerbases with the fire nation for Zuko and the earth kingdom and water tribes for Aang, and there will be a centest between them in the colonies.

Xpparda :

Thanks! sorry for the worry, it's just life being life.

Understand you completely, a missed opportunity. Unfortunately, I already had my hands full and decided ultimately that the trail arc had gone long enough. I wanted to end the chapter with Aang's release.

Aang will behave in the start as he did in the show, in his case there weren't too many changes from cannon. But he'll have to mature faster then he did in canon, this Zuko is much more competent than the original. And that's not mentioning Sai or the literal world ending threat that's literally above their heads.

I will follow the canon timeline but it may very well change as the writing goes, I'm very dynamic it those things. I will certainly skip some events and put new ones, otherwise why write a story if you can watch it on the show.

Yue will Zuko, but I'm planning het to be with Sokka, so any YueXZuko shippers, I apologize in advance. I already took Suki from him as a love interest, our boy deserves some happiness.

the tasmanian :

All hail emperor Zuko!

deniswanheda :

Hey!

I see that your comets here finally appeared!

Thanks for the update