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Traitor's Face - Chapter 04
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Literature Text
The Everstorm
Zhao had been right about one thing, at least. The platinum badge he gave to Mai was enough to get her though the Navy Base's gates.
She had shed the disguise of the blue robe by this point, exchanging it for her normal crimson cape. Her luggage for her new life as a royally-sponsored fugitive had been waiting exactly where she had left it outside the mine's Research Center, and it was a simple matter to brush off the snow that had covered it while she had been off stealing industrial acids. She had everything she was taking into one of her flat cases that could hang comfortably on her back, folding her clothes tightly and arranging the objects with the same efficiency that she applied to the weapons hanging on her body. Then she had dumped every blade she could fit into the thing, more worried about quantity than keeping them nice. This left the case overweight, but she had strength enough to carry it through a quiet escape.
The only other thing she brought was Aang's staff. It was too nice to leave as a toy for Tom-Tom.
Mai stalked across the snowy grounds of the base, leaning on the staff, hood held against the wind and the flurries. She passed by the docks, confirming that the large cargo ship was finishing the last of its loading and would soon be able to depart on its mission. She moved on to the prison building, went right up and hammered on the front door, and when the eye-slit opened, she held her badge up. "I am a Weapon of the Fire Nation. Let me in, now." The eye-slit closed, and Mai leaned both the staff and her luggage against the wall beside the door. No point in taking them inside, where they would just be a liability. A moment later, the door unbolted and opened for her.
Mai stepped inside, brushed her hood off her head, made sure her hair was still nice, and then turned into a tornado of violence and blades. Every move she made came with an exhalation that transformed her Qi into sheer power and slammed it into each knife that left her hand. The overall effect was enough momentum to yank a heavily armored soldier of average height and weight off his feet and nail him to a wall by the sleeves of his uniform.
Multiply over the six soldiers in the prison's front screening room, and the end result mathed out to Mai having her run of the place.
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Daizi didn't like this storm. Not one bit. Being regularly stationed at the Navy base's eastern gate, he saw a lot of the weather, here in the South Pole. (Preferably through the windows of his nice, heated guardhouse, of course.) It snowed a lot down here as expected, but it hadn't been until they got word about the big victory over the Earth Kingdom that the snow stopped stopping. It had progressed to storming, to the point where they had the newbies constantly shoveling the base's walkways, until they brought the Airbender boy in the other day. Then it had calmed, ever so briefly, before the storm came back with a new strength.
It wasn't something that Daizi would want his commanding officers to hear, but his grandpop-pop had raised him to fear the Other Folk, back on the farm, and this stunk of Spirit stuff.
Motion outside broke through Daizi's glum thoughts. He poked his head out of the guardhouse, and looked to see a little Tribal child leaning on the bars of the gate. He squinted through the flurries, and recognized her as one of the half-breed urchins who sometimes came around looking for candy. This one was Shila; Daizi remembered her because she reminded him of his cousin, so long as he ignored her big ugly nose, but like his cousin, she could be annoying. He stepped out of the guardhouse and made some shooing motions with his hands. "Get out of here! We're... uh, running a drill, and the gate has to stay locked."
Shila stepped up to the gate and grabbed it in her mittens, staring over at Daizi with her big gold eyes. "Pleeease, sir? It's cold and I have nowhere to go. Can I just warm up in the guardhouse for a moment?"
"Get off the gate and get out of here!" When she didn't do as she was told, Daizi went and grabbed his spear. Conking her on the head with the shaft should teach her a lesson or two. He stuck the spear through the bars of the gate and was about to bring it down on the girl-
-when there was a blur of motion, and a larger figure in a blue parka grabbed the spear by the shaft.
Daizi instinctively tried to yank it away, but the attacker yanked harder, and the last thing Daizi saw before he lost conscious was the bars of the gate rushing forward to meet his face.
The fire went away before it could touch him, and the cold air rushed back in to beat at Aang's body. It sapped the heat from his skin and muscles before he could adjust his breathing to warm himself again, but by then he had already been hit by full-body shivers.
Aang sagged against his chains.
"Why don't we take a little break? To talk." Zhao ambled back and forth across the cell, hands clasped behind his back. "This can all end once you tell me the truth. You just have to confirm what I already know, that your Airbender tribe is trying to destroy my colony here."
Aang wanted to grit his teeth against the words, but he couldn't summon the energy. Even his interrogator didn't seem particularly interested. Aang thought about livening things up by spitting a burst of air to knock Zhao off his feet, but decided against it. What would be the point?
Zhao heaved an artificial sigh. "Very well, time to bring the heat back." He shifted his stance and brought his hands up-
-and went still when the cell door rattled loudly.
It burst open a second later, and Mai stalked inside with a tri-pronged blade in each hand.
Zhao said, "What are you-" and Mai threw one of the blades at him. It streaked through the air like a hummingbirdsnake, but Zhao flicked his forearms up and deflected the projectile with his vambrace. He punched out a fireball that Mai dodged by going into a spinning sidestep. Even while she was still in motion another knife came flying out from her, the blade catching the edge of the sash Zhao wore over his chestplate, and Aang was impressed when the force of the strike actually sent the Firebender stumbling backwards. Zhao hit the wall behind him and turned the momentum of his bounce into dash at Mai, once again throwing fire at her.
Aang watched her practically leap back from the flames, springing with one leg at a time to dance around the edge of the cell. She didn't react to the danger, but Aang's heart was pounding over how close the flames came to unprotected skin.
Then Mai glanced at him, offered a smile so fleeting it might not have been real, and threw something at him. Aang thought it was another knife at first, glittering in the dim light of the cell, but then it shattered like glass against the chain holding his right arm up and bursting into heavy mist. The links hissed and bubbled, spilling to the ground like liquid tarnish. Then the chain was broken, and Aang's arm fell to his side.
Free.
All of a sudden, finding the energy to do things didn't seem so hard anymore.
Zhao had time to look over in surprise before Aang swung out a palm strike that hammered him with wind.
As Zhao tumbled against the wall again, Mai threw more vials at Aang. Faster than he could perceive, her hands flicked in and out from her sleeves and more of the dissolving liquids burst against his chains. After only moments, Aang's legs and left arm were freed, and although they still wore the metal cuffs, he was finally able to move as an Airbender needed. Zhao threw one more punch, another fireball aimed at Aang this time, but it was a simple matter to raise his arms and snap out a wind strong enough to turn the flames into dying sparks floating back towards their maker. The air continued unabated through the fire, slamming Zhao into the cell's corner, and Aang added a few crosswinds to bounce him back and forth between the converging walls.
Zhao managed to stay on his feet. When he stopped swaying, he started to take another attack stance, but then a bolt of light flashed across Aang's vision to slam straight into Zhao's head. It was a knife, made of a metal that shined even in the gloom of the jail cell, and it struck Zhao handle-first right in the center of his forehead.
He groaned and fell to the ground.
Aang looked over at Mai. She went to retrieve the weapon, then met his stare with a look in her eye that sent a jolt through Aang's body, and said, "He gave me that knife. The metal is too soft for the blade to be any good, but he was right that it was perfectly balanced for throwing. But we need to leave." She was at Aang's side in an instant, grabbing him and yanking him along.
"Whoa, where are we going?!"
Mai didn't slow as they passed out of the cell and she slammed the door behind them. "There's a cargo ship about to leave the docks. I've arranged for it to have everything we need. We'll figure out where we go once we're aboard."
Wow.
He was right about Mai.
She was amazing!
Aang could only grin as he let himself be dragged. Mai had saved him, and did it without killing anyone. She was the greatest girl ever! They skidded to another stop in the prison's front guardroom, where were struggling against knives that held them fast. Aang had time enough to wave at them before Mai was hauling him outside and skidding to a stop where his staff and a long black backpack were leaning against the building's wall.
The return of a physical symbol of his heritage reminded Aang of something. "You made sure that Appa is on this ship, too, right?"
Mai didn't say anything as she hefted her luggage onto her back.
Wait, did she know how important Appa was? Aang hadn't really talked to her about it, and he knew from his old (don't think about maybe how old) friend Kuzon that except for dragons, the Fire Nation didn't really do Spirit Companions. "Wait, I need Appa!"
Mai shoved his staff at him. "No time."
"You don't understand, we can't leave Appa, he's my best friend!"
"There isn't any-"
"Don't worry." Aang gave her a reassuring smile. "I can find him really quick. Just wait here." Then he ran, calling the wind that was already there to speed him along. The snow beneath his feet flared up into the sky as he dashed across it, and buildings blurred past him as he twisted through the Fire Navy base. He just needed to find one with an entrance big enough to get Appa through, and then he could go back to get Mai and she could help him-
Fire flared in front of Aang, and he had to make a hard turn to escape it that left him slipping and tumbling through the snow. As he pushed himself up, he heard a gong starting to clang in quick, repeating pattern, and looked around to find Fire Nation soldiers running at him from all directions.
Oops.
On the proud cargo ship Abiding, Captain Lee frowned at the sound of the base's alarm gong. His crew had just finished loading everything for the Kyoshi Island mission, and with the snow coming as thick as it was outside of the bridge's windows, Lee could see that there was plenty of active Firebending going on across the base grounds. A battle of some kind was happening, but he couldn't see against whom it was being waged. Still, Commander Zhao had always been very clear that Lee's job was not to make decisions, but to do what he was told, and the sounding alarm meant that emergency procedures were active. All crewed ships were to lock down and await further orders.
Lee was just about to convey that to his crew when the helmsman pointed out the window and shouted, "Look, sir! A tug is pulling up in front of us."
Ah, that was either the regularly schedule crew, who needed to have the emergency procedures imparted to them by an officer of great wisdom, or carriers of further orders. Humming eagerly, Lee trotted out of the bridge and across the deck. He held onto his helmet against the roaring wind and leaned over the railing to shout down to the tug boat bobbing in the water. "Ahoy! What word?"
Belatedly, he realized that the tug's crew was all wearing blue. He didn't quite understand the reasoning behind that until he noticed that they were all holding long ropes tied pickaxe heads bent into right angles. Only after those makeshift boomerangs were being swung fast enough to blur into the snow did it dawn on Lee that his ship was under attack.
Then one of ersatz boomerangs struck him in the face before falling to hook onto the ships rail.
Aang really wished it wasn’t snowing.
Now that Zhao wasn't torturing him, the cold wasn't bothering him anymore, but the snow was falling fast enough to make using his staff's glider dangerous. The wings were fragile, and the driving wet snow would eat through them as fast as the fire that everyone was throwing around, so he was stuck running through the base while fighting off his attackers. Firebenders and soldiers with swords and spears were pouring out of all the buildings, but Aang refused to get pulled into a real fight. He still had to find Appa, then he had to find Mai again, and then they somehow had to get out of here. If Appa was rested enough to fly, then they wouldn't need that boat Mai wanted to stow away on, but if not, they might have a really big problem.
Aang ran away from the group of soldiers converging on him with another boost of speed that launched the snow beneath his boots into the air, and was just starting to gain some distance when he realized that a heavy fence was looming in front of him. Aang skidded to stop in the snow quickly enough to avoid a crash, but then fireballs were once again crashing down around him.
Fine, forget running. He planted his staff into the snow like a flag, and then dodged another fireball while he pushed together and molded a little cyclone of air in his hands. He ushered some of his Qi into it to form a ball of swirling winds bigger than his head. Aang ducked under a thrusting spear, and then hopped on his globe-shaped cyclone to finalize the Air Scooter move that had earned him his arrows. It took concentration to balance on top of it while keeping the ball going, but there was no better way to travel on the ground.
No faster way, either.
Aang grabbed his staff and just before he took off through the formation of Fire Nation soldiers, swerving around each one without so much as brushing them, the air scooter's movements as nimble as any circle-walker. Aang passed through the crowd and put on another burst of speed that kicked up enough snow to cover every single soldier, and he made himself laugh as he glanced back at their dejected and slush-covered faces. He cornered around one of the larger buildings, dismissing it as the same prison the he had been stuck in for the last few days, and tried to use it to orient himself. He had already gotten a good look at most of the buildings on the west side of the base, and should really check the east side as well. He passed in front of the docks-
-and caught sight of Mai at the center of a ring of fire, desperately trying to deflect the spears thrust through the flames at her with nothing more than a pair of knives. Why didn't she throw some of them like she did in the prison? But Aang realized that there were a lot of soldiers around her and she was moving slowly with that pack on her back-
-a fireball exploded just short of him and threw him off of his air scooter, sending him crashing and tumbling into the snow. He had to spit slush out of his mouth, and all the weariness from back in the prison was once again weighing down on him. The sounds of boots tromping in the snow grew closer, and his skin complained about the heat of the flames that streaked around him.
This-
This wasn't going well.
Mai might die.
Appa might not even be in the base.
And Aang would get sent back to that prison, and Zhao would bring back the hot and the cold-
-the snow fell around him-
-the world exploded into light, and Aang found the storm waiting for him in the glow like an old friend.
The good news for Mai was that the ring of fire around her went out, and none of the soldiers were giving her any more attention.
The bad news was that the snow and wind suddenly decided to become a storm so big that it broke her imagination.
All visibility was lost. Wind hammered at her and yanked her hair like Azula in a bad mood. Mai crouched to the ground, trying to reduce her exposure. She tightened the ties of her backpack to make sure it wouldn't be blown away, and wrapped her cloak around her body. She began crawling as swiftly as she could to get away from her last known position, in case any of the Fire soldiers decided to take a blind shot. The cold bit through her clothes, but it found no purchase on her concentration. She looked around, hoping for at least some sign of where she was, and found nothing but a sea of flickering gray. Even the cargo ship, previously in sight, had completely disappeared.
Then Mai looked up, and found a beacon in the storm.
Literally.
There was a bright blue glow in the sky above her, of a shade and intensity that she had seen before. It was the same light unleashed from the iceberg that began her adventures here at the South Pole, the same light that heralded Aang's arrival.
There was no doubt that Aang was the Avatar, now.
Mai called to him, but her voice was lost in the wind.
Sokka shielded his eyes from the wind and snow, and watched as the last of the Fire Navy soldiers were thrown over the side of the cargo ship. He would have liked to participate in what was probably his people's most daring strike against their crabby oppressors in decades, but he knew he was a warrior in name only, despite his new hair style. The Fire Nation didn't allow anyone in the Tribe to own a weapon, and Dad's lessons from before they left the wilderness hadn't included combat.
Sokka knew his place: watching and hoping he'd be able to do better next time.
The group of miners that Bato had assembled, though, had real veterans amongst them. They moved through the snow, up the ropes from the tug boat that Bato had captured, and across the deck of the cargo ship to attack the crew with their converted mining tools. Sokka knew all those miners; they had been warriors alongside his dad, and they were the same people who had called him names when he went to work in the Research Center. They were the same people Sokka knew that Bato would bring together to hear his message. They were the people who Sokka found he couldn’t bring himself to address, once they were all gathered away from the Fire Nation’s guard patrols. Bato had given the speech that rallied those men to Sokka’s plan.
There weren’t many of them- no more than three dozen- but they were the men who pledged to help free the Avatar and sail away with their families to safety.
The plan was simple. They had taken out the soldier in the closest guardhouse and climbed the fence. From there, the plan was to steal a tug boat, seize the cargo ship that was ready to go, and ride them both away from the South Pole completely. They would escape with the Avatar, and start a new life with the supplies on the vessel. The plan was crazy, but it had been the only way to leave to go look for Katara and keep his family and friends safe. It was the only way to keep them alive if he really did end up finding and freeing Katara.
Of course, compared to tracking Katara down and finding her alive and healthy, this might be the easy part. Sokka pushed that anxiety out of his mind as Bato jogged over. "That's the last of the soldiers. The ship is ours."
Sokka wanted to be happy, but another burst of wind hammered him with snow. "What about this weather? Can we sail in it?"
"The waves are high, but the tug can handle them. Once we're clear of the bay, this is a big and heavy ship, so if we can pull ahead of worse weather, we should be okay. Better than staying here, anyway, and it will give us some cover from anything Zhao tried to send after us." Bato looked out at the Navy base, or rather, the big blur of snow where the base used to be. "What about the women and children? How will they see our signal in this? And what of the Avatar and the traitor woman?"
"I think the Avatar is the big blue flying thing that caused the storm to get worse, so I'm hoping he can handle himself. As for our families..." Sokka knew what he had to do. "I'm going to go out and bring them here. I really hope they all remembered to stay together and stay safe."
"Wow, I've never seen so much fur in one place before!"
The monster shuffled to the back of its cage as Shila led the other kids into the stable. The building was mostly empty, since the South Pole was too cold for most of the mounts used by the Fire Navy's marines. Only a pair of yaks chewed whatever it was that yaks chew on the far side of the stable. Shila's bootsteps echoed in the vast space, but the monster grunted and blew a burst of air out of its massive nostrils, drowning out all other noises. The other kids jumped back, but Shila was no scaredy pony-cat, so she kept moving forward.
The monster rose up to its full height, standing on its back two legs, and then flopped back down with enough force to make the ground shake and send hay flying all around the stable.
Once the echoes died down again, Naklin hissed, "He gonna eat you."
Shila shook her head. "Sokka said he belongs to the Airbender Avatar, and Airbenders don't hurt people. Or didn't used to." She finally reached the cage, and the monster snorted at her, whipping her hair like stormwinds, but she reached for the latch and unhooked it, letting the front of the cage swing open.
The monster stomped out of the cage, and stared down at Shila.
Shila stared back.
The monster's eyes were brown, but there was a golden shine to them that reminded Shila of her own eyes, so different than everyone else's in the Tribe.
Then the monster licked her with a tongue bigger than her whole body.
While Shila tried to decide if she was delighted or completely grossed out, the monster flapped its tail and rose up into the air. Shila heard the other kids gasp, but could only watch as it angled to face the ceiling, and then flapped its tail again to launch itself right through the roof and into the stormy sky outside.
Wow.
Shila was still standing there, staring and dripping, when Gran-Gran shuffled into the stable. "What are you kids doing in here? Come on, the storm's gotten worse, and we need to find the boat.
"...Shila, why are you a mess?"
Aang was lost in the light, lost in fury, lost in fear, lost in the storm.
He was a fountain of power, filled with so much energy that it was bursting from his body in the form of light and air. He could feel that it was enough to wipe the entire South Pole off the map, but it was still nothing compared to the power of the storm that he had awakened.
The storm had been lurking out there, tickling Aang with its presence whenever he had meditated in his jail cell, but now that he had unleashed his own inner light, the storm had responded with darkness that threatened to drown Aang and sweep him away. His own power was unending, but it couldn't push back against the storm's momentum. It had been waiting for eons in the heart of the South Pole, building its strength, and now it was spilling out to unleash its fury on the rest of the world. It wasn't limitless like Aang's power, its spread would have to halt eventually if it was to survive, but within its borders, nothing could stand against it.
Not even the Avatar.
All Aang could do was float in the focal point of the storm's fury, his own despair reflected in the howling of the frigid winds and the raking of the flying ice, and wonder if he would ever be himself again.
Then Appa called out to him, and Aang remembered who he really was.
The blue light in the distant sky above faded out, and Mai half-expected the storm to immediately die down and everything to be okay. Sadly, it seemed that there was still an optimistic part of her that needed to be put out of its misery as soon as possible. Her other half, the realistic one, noted that the storm was very much continuing. It also noted that a sky bison was falling head-first out of the sky, with Aang sitting bonelessly on its forehead.
Both halves of Mai wondered was what going on.
The wind kicked up, but in a completely different direction from the rest of the stormgusts, and Mai found herself- and Aang's stupid staff with her- suddenly lifted up from the snow into the air. The sky bison swooped down below her, and Mai tumbled butt-first into the giant saddle on the beast's back.
Aang sat up and caught his staff. "You okay?"
Mai blinked at him. "We're flying." She clutched at the saddle's side, not liking the way bison's turns made gravity change directions.
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
"We're flying." Mai swallowed against the way another movement made her weight increase, and then suddenly decrease until she was almost floating.
"Yup!"
"We're flying." Mai turned away from the wind that wouldn't stop slapping her face and yanking her hair. She had never given much thought to being in the sky, but traveling by boat across half the world had given her the opportunity to imagine being alone in a vast, bottomless ocean, and flying was worse.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure my reality is ready to handle this." She scooted close to the center of the saddle, and kept her hands splayed out for support. The sky bison was solid enough, and she just had to focus on that.
"Okay?"
Mai swallowed again. "I can't see the ground in this storm."
"That's fine. So long as we keep track of up and down, we'll be okay." Aang turned around again. "Whoa, up, Appa, up!"
The wind roared over Mai's ears as the beast swooped upward, and her stomach moved in a way she had only ever experienced the time Ty Lee convinced her to try jumping from the roof of her house. She decided that she didn't really need to know how close the sky bison had just come to crashing. Right now, she had to figure out what should come next. Yes, that would be a good thing to focus on. With the weather like this, could they still sneak aboard the supply ship? Would Zhao still allow it to leave? Perhaps if they could take a hostage...
Mai shook her head. Azula always said that making plans without information was pointless, so information was needed. She pushed aside her air-sickness, telling herself that falling to her death at least wouldn't be boring, and made herself move back to the saddle's edge to peer out into the storm. She had to find something that would tell her what to do.
Kanna, known to most of the people in her life as Gran-Gran, had been in worse spots, but not in over sixty years.
The journey from her birthplace at the North Pole down to the Southern Water Tribe had been full of so many adventures that she couldn't even remember them all anymore, but back then she had been blessed by a workable combination of youthful naiveté and ingrained stubbornness. Now, Kanna knew how easy it was for people to die, having seen her family's next generation murdered by the Fire Nation. She knew how easy it was to disappear in the world, having seen her granddaughter taken away beyond her Tribe's reach. That was why she cared for the kids of the Tribe, even the ones who weren't fully of the Tribe's blood- life was too precious, and Kanna knew how to survive.
Except here in the middle of this storm, in the middle of this battlefield, in the middle of the Avatar's Return, Kanna thought she might not survive this time. She had the children gathered around her, with more women of the tribe following behind her, and she needed to get them all to the cargo ship, but none of them could see anything in the pounding snow. Every new step could just as easily bump them into a Firebender as bring them to their goal.
This was no ordinary storm. Kanna knew the legends of the Spirit’s Everstorm, which was supposed to have raged since the beginning of the world over the center of the South Pole, and she also knew that the weather lately had been worse than usual, bad enough that the Fire Nation had sent a new governor to take over in what was something like an emergency situation. And it had struck its hardest now, that the Avatar had revealed his power. Was it truly the Everstorm? Had it moved to seek out the remnants of the Tribe?
Would it now rage over Kanna's adopted home forever?
She pushed on through the wind, in the direction she thought she had last seen the ship, and wondered if perhaps the Fire Nation's reprisal against Sokka's actions wasn't the only thing their group might be fleeing.
Another step allowed a streak of black and crimson to resolve in her vision, and realized that she had failed. A Firebender had found her. She moved to stand wide in front of the children, in case the enemy hadn't seen them yet, and prepared to join the rest of her family in the Long Hunt.
Then a giant fur monster fell out of the sky, and a boy in the colors of the dawn appeared to strike the Firebender with the wind itself.
Ah.
This would the Avatar and his bison, then.
The Firebender was lost from view again, but another shape in the same colors approached out of the snow. Kanna tensed again, but the Avatar child moved to support the figure against the wind, as they got close, she realized that the newest arrival was a young woman. She was of obvious Fire Nation stock, and her eyes were bewildered as she said, "What are you people doing out here?"
Kanna nodded. "You must be the young lady who corrupted my grandson into a rebel."
"I did what?"
"My grandson is Sokka. He came up with a plan for me and most of our friends to escape together, on the cargo ship, so that the Fire Nation can't punish us for all this trouble."
The young lady's eyes scrunched closed, and Kanna's old ears were used enough to the sound of wind to hear a mumbled, "I knew that guy would be trouble." Then the Fire Nation woman looked up again. "All right, then, what's the plan? And how do we get it done fast?"
"A group of the miners should have taken the ship by now. We just need to find it."
The Avatar nodded. "Everyone, grab hands. I'll go first, and do what I can with the winds ahead of us. Appa will go last to make sure no one gets left behind!"
The Avatar had a little wisdom, at least. Kanna lined the women and children up and got them holding hands, then took the young Fire Nation lady's hand in her own mitten-covered grasp. "My grandson never got your name."
"Ugh. I'm Mai. Nice to meet you or whatever."
Well, not the most polite girl, but then, that was probably the Fire Nation upbringing. Kanna let it go as the group began moving forward. Mai held on to the Avatar's shoulder, and he walked while twirling his staff like one of the Fire Nation's mechanized propellers. The snow falling in front of him blew away, creating some visibility, and Kanna's old eyes were able to resolve something like a red star shining in the distance.
Once they were close enough, she could see that it was Sokka himself, holding a flare above his head and waving frantically.
He was always an excitable boy, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise.
The Avatar led the group up to Kanna’s grandson and said, "Hi, I'm Aang. You're Sokka?"
"Yeah. Need a ride out of here? I have a brand new captured ship I'm dying to try out."
"Wow, just like pirates! Can you take Appa? He can fly, but he's not fond of doing it in giant snowstorms."
"I guess we can take on fur monsters, too." Then Sokka hunched a bit, the same way he used to when he realized he was in trouble with his parents. "There's something I want your help with, but we'll talk once we're out of here. For now, nice to meet you, Avatar Aang."
Kanna had been on ships before, but later when the stolen vessel pulled out of the dock with her little bit of the Tribe aboard, she thought perhaps that it might be her best voyage yet.
They were saying that the Airbender was the Avatar. No one else had a history of glowing.
Zhao’s fury was such that he almost couldn’t feel it.
The first to spread the word was Captain Sheng, who had trained to be a Fire Sage in his youth until he somehow wound up joining the Navy. Sheng was the kind of devout that had him handing out little books titled 'The Call of the Flame' to everyone who didn't claim to already have one, and he was the closest thing they had to a spiritual authority in the South Pole. He was telling everyone that the boy's powers matched all the signs, and the return of the long lost Avatar.
To think that Zhao had the Avatar in a cell until that faithless little brat had decided to make trouble-
Warm again in his own office, surrounded by aides and staff, Zhao pushed the fury back down again. He wouldn’t prove his old teacher right by exploding in front of his subordinates. He turned to face the reporting officer. "And have you been able to confirm who exactly is on that ship?"
"Uh, we're not sure, sir. We're doing a headcount as fast as we can, but we do know that at least a score of the Tribals are missing. They either walked off their jobs or didn't report at the start of their shifts, and their homes are empty. We've found no evidence of an existing plot, so it's possible that Avatar or Lady Mai somehow organized this themselves on short notice, but neither can we rule out an unrelated action with very bad timing."
"An unrelated action." Zhao shook his head. "The Avatar breaks out with the assistance of the Governor's daughter, a cargo ship is stolen, and this freak storm strikes at us all at the same time, and there's doubt of coordination? You're hereby demoted a rank. Do you contest?"
The officer's eyes went wide, and then narrowed in anger. Zhao stared back, projecting as solid a presence as he could command, and waited for the answer. Of course, the officer eventually bowed his head. "No, sir."
"Good." Zhao raised a hand, summoned a bit of flame, and then smacked the demoted officer across the face. The man took it well, not crying out, and quickly returned to a stance of attention despite the burn that streaked from below his left eye to his nose. The modern ways freed warriors from having to fight an Agni Kai over every insult, but the military still demanded symbolic acknowledgement of a loss of honor. "Dismissed."
Once the man was gone, Zhao turned to his assembled aides. "New orders: I want a task force prepared to give chase. We'll need provisions enough to get to the Southern Islands. We won't be able to keep this quiet, not with Lady Mai involved, so I want wires sent out to all points. Say that the Avatar was found, attacked our base here, and escaped with other fugitives. Charge Lady Caldera Yu Mai with treason for helping him, and put out an order for her death, with a request that the Fire Palace confirm it. Also communicate that we intend to pursue, and claim priority because it is crucial to our mission of resolving the issues with the storms here." Zhao stroked his chin. "That won't keep the rest of the military from trying to steal our glory, but it should give us an edge if I outrank whoever gets in our way."
One of the staff broke protocol to ask, "You're going after them?"
"Of course.” Zhao smirked. This was why he liked having an audience; it gave him a chance to look brilliant. “I'm not going to let the Avatar out of my grasp, especially not when this colony has been effectively shut down. Unless this storm abates, even all the technology of the Fire Nation won't stop the mines from being buried in snow in a month. Let Governor Ukano waste his time getting as much platinum out of here as he can, and then he can return to the Fire Nation in time to watch his daughter's execution." Zhao couldn't help but see that girl's ugly, blank face before him, challenging him in his own prison. She would regret undermining him, and he would make sure that regret was as public and painful as possible.
Now, he just had to catch her. And the Avatar, of course.
From the bow deck of the newly renamed Sea Change, Aang looked out over the still ocean, and saw a streak of color at the very line where water met sky, a color that recalled the hues of his own tunic.
They had left the South Pole. The sun was rising.
He turned back to the others, to the Water Tribe boy who had made all of this happen: Mai's friend Sokka. "I'd be happy to help you find your sister. Do you have any idea where to start?"
Sokka shook his head. "She could be anywhere in the world. Probably not the North Pole, but who knows?"
The other Water Tribe leader, the tall man named Bato, added, "The Fire Nation has stolen our Waterbenders for generations. All we know is that they take them to a special prison, or maybe one of many by now." He rubbed a hand over tired eyes. "Everything they do is one of many, these days."
The others- the old Lady Gran-Gran, the kids, the women, and the crew who weren't busy- all nodded. Aang's notions of isolated pirates couldn't survive against the weariness these people all showed every time someone said something about the Fire Nation.
He didn't want to think about that right now. If he tried to imagine what was out there in the wider world, he'd break his brain. It was just too big. But these Water Tribe people all expected him to want to do something about it. Aang was starting to realize what exactly his job as the Avatar was supposed to be about. He shook his head and couldn't help but say, "How does a nation take over the whole world?"
By working at it for a hundred years. Apparently.
Sokka leaned forward. "That's why I think this is a good thing, for all of us. You help me find and free my sister, and in the process you can learn all about the Fire Nation and what they do. It's not like you have to go beat up the Fire Lord right now, since he's already won. Yeah, it's a bad situation, what with the whole crushing-the-world-under-his-heel thing, but you have to be smart with how you handle it. You need to gather intelligence, and fight only once you know how. Strategy!"
"If he needs intelligence, then why would he team up with you?" Everyone turned to look at Mai. She was leaning against the rail, looking at the same sunrise that Aang had been enjoying a moment ago, but she didn't seem very happy about it. She had been quiet ever since the ship got away, except when she was saying something mean or sarcastic, and Aang couldn't figure out why she was upset. Hadn't they gotten away with a bunch of new friends and no one hurt? But she had left her family behind to save him, so maybe she was just missing them. Well, Aang would be there to support her, and make her happy again. He wanted to see her smile, to see that beautiful curve of her lips, just as much as he wanted to fix the whole rest of the world.
So Aang hopped over to her and smiled. "That's where you come in! You know all about the Fire Nation, so you can help guide us and give us all kinds of information while we look for Sokka's sister. I won't know what I need to know until I need to know it, so we'll go out as a team and find the need to know that I need to... uh... know?"
Mai sighed. "I feel better about this already."
Aang decided to take that at face value. "We'll need some supplies, but we don't want to take too much away from the rest of you."
Sokka's Gran-Gran gave a thin grunt. "We know how to live off the land and the ocean. We just need enough to see us to a place where the Fire Nation won't find us. Katara is out there waiting, and we won't leave a member of our Tribe abandoned. And you have your own needs if you're going to someday free my people."
Everyone nodded at her words, and Aang bowed in acknowledgement of his responsibility.
So they made up packs that were loaded on Appa's saddle. Once everything was ready, Sokka gave his Gran-Gran a big hug, and then he went over to the kids who followed her around and got on his knees to let them climb all over him. Aang laughed as Sokka struggled to extricate himself, and then led the older boy over to Appa. The rest of the Water Tribe people began cheering as they walked, and Aang looked over to see Sokka quickly wipe at his eyes.
He smiled, and decided not to say anything.
Mai was waiting beside Appa with crossed arms and her own case of luggage hanging from her back. She watched with obvious wariness as Sokka bounded up to grab some of Appa's fur and lift himself up to the saddle, and then turned to Aang. "Is there a way I can get on top of that thing without climbing like some kind of monkey?"
"Sure!" Aang swirled his arms, and a cyclone sprouted around Mai to lift and carry her smoothly into the saddle. He grinned at her stunned expression, and leaped up onto Appa's head. Appa, for his part, gave one of his eager rumblings. Everyone was ready to go. "All right! Where's our first stop?"
Mai straightened her hair before speaking. "If they took this Katara away from the South Pole completely, then she must have passed through the Southern Islands. There's a large military base on Kyoshi Island. They have a 'processing center' there that all the prisoners in the sector have to pass through. That's where captives are evaluated and assigned either to a labor job that suits their skills and danger level, or a prison that can handle them. The center keeps records of everything."
Sokka punched his fists together. "That's it! Or, you know, a likely lead. At least."
Aang unrolled one of his maps, and held it out for the others to see. Sokka pointed out an island not far from the Earth Kingdom coast. "That's Kyoshi Island. Looks like it would have been one of the first islands down here to be colonized."
Aang couldn't help but notice that the Southern Air Temple was on the way from their current position. A Bender wasn't supposed to be ruled by fear, but the dread he felt at the idea of going back home was a physical pain in his stomach. There had to be Air Nomads still living there, but if not- and if there were Airbenders there, would they be mad at Aang for running away? But he had to know, one way or another. Otherwise, the fear would never go away.
Besides, something strange had happened back at the South Pole, with what Sokka’s Gran-Gran called the Everstorm. It was Spirit-weather, the legends said. Somehow, it had been drawn to Aang's Avatar Spirit, but why? There was a chamber back at the Temple, that might hold answers, and Aang needed to know those, too. One way, or another. "I have our route all figured out."
Sokka shuffled over to one of the handholds at the side of the saddle. "So this thing flies. For real?"
Mai sighed. "Fair warning: I may throw up on you."
Aang just grinned, made sure his passengers could see it, and then said, "Yip, yip!"
Appa launched into the sky.
"This thing flies! It’s flying!" Sokka practically hopped in his excitement, and Aang couldn’t help but laugh. He looked back to see Sokka forcing himself back down and swallowing what looked like a big grin. “It's- (ahem) you know, fascinating phenomena. Nice speed, too."
Mai groaned, and they all flew on to adventure.
It took the bounty hunter three days to find Zuko.
Azula had arrived on the Colonial Continent to find word waiting for her of the Avatar's return and the treachery of Mai. She considered making a show of cursing Mai's name or something dramatic like that, but quickly decided against it. It would be undignified, and the rabble expected their royalty to be composed even in the face of the greatest setbacks. So Azula put all her natural acting skill to use with a pursing of her lips into which she put volumes of betrayed expression, and then got on with her day.
The woman, June, was waiting as ordered at the port, and overcame Azula's bad first impression of her (really, wearing leather that tight could only impede her maneuverability) by getting down to business immediately, confirming that a scent sample was available and going straight to a stable where a truly ugly mount was waiting. The creature, a "shirshu," seemed to be part mole and proved to be June's preferred method of tracking. One sniff of Zuko's old crown, and the creature was eager to chase. It was an overall pleasing experience for Azula, despite the displeasing need to ride behind June in the beast's saddle while it bounded across the land like a rhino with its tail on fire. Azula took her saddle soreness with the grace appropriate to a princess, because Father would want it that way.
On the third day, the beast arrived at a small village. It shoved its way through the streets with a directness that Azula truly loved, shouldering people and vehicles and all manner of obstacles aside in its single-minded quest to find the source of the scent. The village itself deserved no better, being so small and ramshackle that it didn't even merit a Fire Nation administrator. The buildings looked fragile enough that the shirshu could knock them right over, and only Azula’s dedication to her mission kept her from asking June to give it a try.
The shirshu stopped at the entrance to an alley that ran between two of those ramshackle structures, and Azula wound up looking at Zuko for a full minute before she realized that it was actually him.
She turned from the huddled mass lying at the far end of the alley to glance at June, and the bounty hunter smiled in an almost insubordinate way as she said, "Found him, as commissioned. But I never guaranteed his condition."
Azula shook her head and dismounted from the shirshu. "His condition is his own fault." At the sound of her voice, the huddled figure shivered in its oversized cloak. Ah, so he was awake. And he remembered her. She approached, noting with dismay that he smelled (and not in a pleasant way). "Zuzu? Is that you? Your dear sister has come to take you home."
The hood lifted, but his face was left in shadow. "Azula?"
"Ah, you remember my name. How heartwarming."
"Wh- what do you want?"
"To take you home, dum-dum. I just said that."
"Can't."
"You presume to tell me what I can and cannot do?"
"...hn. You haven't changed. At all." The hood lowered again. "Can't go home. Leave me."
"Ah, as dramatic as ever. Very well, then. Let's do this dramatically." Azula flung her hand above her head, and summoned the flame in her heart. Blue fire- unique in all the world- sprung into existence in her hand, casting the whole alley in harsh, cold light. "Prince Zuko, the Avatar has returned. I call upon you to fulfill the terms of your banishment, and win the right to return home by bringing the Avatar back to the Fire Nation as your prisoner. Rise, and remember who you are!"
Azula wanted to laugh at the ridiculous words, but Zuzu actually responded to them as though they weren't complete nonsense. The hood rose again, and hands emerged from the robe to pull it back and reveal the face of her long-lost older brother.
The flame faltered, and Azula had to work to hide her disgust. She knew about Zuko's injury, of course, and had amused herself many times by imagining his disfigurement-
-but she hadn't expected him to be missing his left eye.
His face was marred on his left side by a burn scar that tapered back over his ear. Long, greasy hair fell to hide most of it, but it couldn't conceal the missing gold of the eye that was supposed to be at its center, or the deep shadow of the empty socket cast by Azula's flame.
Well, she'd simply have to help him learn how to fight without depth perception, then.
Zuko rose, and looked at Azula with something like a trace of his old stature. "The Avatar is back? It’s not a lie?"
"It’s not a lie. My old friend Mai found him- you remember her, I’m sure- and tipped us off. Father wants you back, and sent me to make sure you exploit this opportunity to the fullest. I will get you in fighting shape, and June here will assist in the hunt. She's quite professional, despite her attire."
Zuko was as still as a statue. "Father... wants me back..."
"Yes, I don't understand it either, but I have my orders, and I will see them done."
She waited while Zuko processed that. Given his living conditions, and the smell that was no doubt affecting his ability to think, he likely needed some time to remember how to communicate effectively with other humans. Azula had no hopes of anything approaching a 'thank you.'
Eventually, Zuko met her eyes again with his one. "What do I need to do?" His voice was strong and crisp.
Azula grinned. "Good boy."
TO BE CONTINUED
Zhao had been right about one thing, at least. The platinum badge he gave to Mai was enough to get her though the Navy Base's gates.
She had shed the disguise of the blue robe by this point, exchanging it for her normal crimson cape. Her luggage for her new life as a royally-sponsored fugitive had been waiting exactly where she had left it outside the mine's Research Center, and it was a simple matter to brush off the snow that had covered it while she had been off stealing industrial acids. She had everything she was taking into one of her flat cases that could hang comfortably on her back, folding her clothes tightly and arranging the objects with the same efficiency that she applied to the weapons hanging on her body. Then she had dumped every blade she could fit into the thing, more worried about quantity than keeping them nice. This left the case overweight, but she had strength enough to carry it through a quiet escape.
The only other thing she brought was Aang's staff. It was too nice to leave as a toy for Tom-Tom.
Mai stalked across the snowy grounds of the base, leaning on the staff, hood held against the wind and the flurries. She passed by the docks, confirming that the large cargo ship was finishing the last of its loading and would soon be able to depart on its mission. She moved on to the prison building, went right up and hammered on the front door, and when the eye-slit opened, she held her badge up. "I am a Weapon of the Fire Nation. Let me in, now." The eye-slit closed, and Mai leaned both the staff and her luggage against the wall beside the door. No point in taking them inside, where they would just be a liability. A moment later, the door unbolted and opened for her.
Mai stepped inside, brushed her hood off her head, made sure her hair was still nice, and then turned into a tornado of violence and blades. Every move she made came with an exhalation that transformed her Qi into sheer power and slammed it into each knife that left her hand. The overall effect was enough momentum to yank a heavily armored soldier of average height and weight off his feet and nail him to a wall by the sleeves of his uniform.
Multiply over the six soldiers in the prison's front screening room, and the end result mathed out to Mai having her run of the place.
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Daizi didn't like this storm. Not one bit. Being regularly stationed at the Navy base's eastern gate, he saw a lot of the weather, here in the South Pole. (Preferably through the windows of his nice, heated guardhouse, of course.) It snowed a lot down here as expected, but it hadn't been until they got word about the big victory over the Earth Kingdom that the snow stopped stopping. It had progressed to storming, to the point where they had the newbies constantly shoveling the base's walkways, until they brought the Airbender boy in the other day. Then it had calmed, ever so briefly, before the storm came back with a new strength.
It wasn't something that Daizi would want his commanding officers to hear, but his grandpop-pop had raised him to fear the Other Folk, back on the farm, and this stunk of Spirit stuff.
Motion outside broke through Daizi's glum thoughts. He poked his head out of the guardhouse, and looked to see a little Tribal child leaning on the bars of the gate. He squinted through the flurries, and recognized her as one of the half-breed urchins who sometimes came around looking for candy. This one was Shila; Daizi remembered her because she reminded him of his cousin, so long as he ignored her big ugly nose, but like his cousin, she could be annoying. He stepped out of the guardhouse and made some shooing motions with his hands. "Get out of here! We're... uh, running a drill, and the gate has to stay locked."
Shila stepped up to the gate and grabbed it in her mittens, staring over at Daizi with her big gold eyes. "Pleeease, sir? It's cold and I have nowhere to go. Can I just warm up in the guardhouse for a moment?"
"Get off the gate and get out of here!" When she didn't do as she was told, Daizi went and grabbed his spear. Conking her on the head with the shaft should teach her a lesson or two. He stuck the spear through the bars of the gate and was about to bring it down on the girl-
-when there was a blur of motion, and a larger figure in a blue parka grabbed the spear by the shaft.
Daizi instinctively tried to yank it away, but the attacker yanked harder, and the last thing Daizi saw before he lost conscious was the bars of the gate rushing forward to meet his face.
The fire went away before it could touch him, and the cold air rushed back in to beat at Aang's body. It sapped the heat from his skin and muscles before he could adjust his breathing to warm himself again, but by then he had already been hit by full-body shivers.
Aang sagged against his chains.
"Why don't we take a little break? To talk." Zhao ambled back and forth across the cell, hands clasped behind his back. "This can all end once you tell me the truth. You just have to confirm what I already know, that your Airbender tribe is trying to destroy my colony here."
Aang wanted to grit his teeth against the words, but he couldn't summon the energy. Even his interrogator didn't seem particularly interested. Aang thought about livening things up by spitting a burst of air to knock Zhao off his feet, but decided against it. What would be the point?
Zhao heaved an artificial sigh. "Very well, time to bring the heat back." He shifted his stance and brought his hands up-
-and went still when the cell door rattled loudly.
It burst open a second later, and Mai stalked inside with a tri-pronged blade in each hand.
Zhao said, "What are you-" and Mai threw one of the blades at him. It streaked through the air like a hummingbirdsnake, but Zhao flicked his forearms up and deflected the projectile with his vambrace. He punched out a fireball that Mai dodged by going into a spinning sidestep. Even while she was still in motion another knife came flying out from her, the blade catching the edge of the sash Zhao wore over his chestplate, and Aang was impressed when the force of the strike actually sent the Firebender stumbling backwards. Zhao hit the wall behind him and turned the momentum of his bounce into dash at Mai, once again throwing fire at her.
Aang watched her practically leap back from the flames, springing with one leg at a time to dance around the edge of the cell. She didn't react to the danger, but Aang's heart was pounding over how close the flames came to unprotected skin.
Then Mai glanced at him, offered a smile so fleeting it might not have been real, and threw something at him. Aang thought it was another knife at first, glittering in the dim light of the cell, but then it shattered like glass against the chain holding his right arm up and bursting into heavy mist. The links hissed and bubbled, spilling to the ground like liquid tarnish. Then the chain was broken, and Aang's arm fell to his side.
Free.
All of a sudden, finding the energy to do things didn't seem so hard anymore.
Zhao had time to look over in surprise before Aang swung out a palm strike that hammered him with wind.
As Zhao tumbled against the wall again, Mai threw more vials at Aang. Faster than he could perceive, her hands flicked in and out from her sleeves and more of the dissolving liquids burst against his chains. After only moments, Aang's legs and left arm were freed, and although they still wore the metal cuffs, he was finally able to move as an Airbender needed. Zhao threw one more punch, another fireball aimed at Aang this time, but it was a simple matter to raise his arms and snap out a wind strong enough to turn the flames into dying sparks floating back towards their maker. The air continued unabated through the fire, slamming Zhao into the cell's corner, and Aang added a few crosswinds to bounce him back and forth between the converging walls.
Zhao managed to stay on his feet. When he stopped swaying, he started to take another attack stance, but then a bolt of light flashed across Aang's vision to slam straight into Zhao's head. It was a knife, made of a metal that shined even in the gloom of the jail cell, and it struck Zhao handle-first right in the center of his forehead.
He groaned and fell to the ground.
Aang looked over at Mai. She went to retrieve the weapon, then met his stare with a look in her eye that sent a jolt through Aang's body, and said, "He gave me that knife. The metal is too soft for the blade to be any good, but he was right that it was perfectly balanced for throwing. But we need to leave." She was at Aang's side in an instant, grabbing him and yanking him along.
"Whoa, where are we going?!"
Mai didn't slow as they passed out of the cell and she slammed the door behind them. "There's a cargo ship about to leave the docks. I've arranged for it to have everything we need. We'll figure out where we go once we're aboard."
Wow.
He was right about Mai.
She was amazing!
Aang could only grin as he let himself be dragged. Mai had saved him, and did it without killing anyone. She was the greatest girl ever! They skidded to another stop in the prison's front guardroom, where were struggling against knives that held them fast. Aang had time enough to wave at them before Mai was hauling him outside and skidding to a stop where his staff and a long black backpack were leaning against the building's wall.
The return of a physical symbol of his heritage reminded Aang of something. "You made sure that Appa is on this ship, too, right?"
Mai didn't say anything as she hefted her luggage onto her back.
Wait, did she know how important Appa was? Aang hadn't really talked to her about it, and he knew from his old (don't think about maybe how old) friend Kuzon that except for dragons, the Fire Nation didn't really do Spirit Companions. "Wait, I need Appa!"
Mai shoved his staff at him. "No time."
"You don't understand, we can't leave Appa, he's my best friend!"
"There isn't any-"
"Don't worry." Aang gave her a reassuring smile. "I can find him really quick. Just wait here." Then he ran, calling the wind that was already there to speed him along. The snow beneath his feet flared up into the sky as he dashed across it, and buildings blurred past him as he twisted through the Fire Navy base. He just needed to find one with an entrance big enough to get Appa through, and then he could go back to get Mai and she could help him-
Fire flared in front of Aang, and he had to make a hard turn to escape it that left him slipping and tumbling through the snow. As he pushed himself up, he heard a gong starting to clang in quick, repeating pattern, and looked around to find Fire Nation soldiers running at him from all directions.
Oops.
On the proud cargo ship Abiding, Captain Lee frowned at the sound of the base's alarm gong. His crew had just finished loading everything for the Kyoshi Island mission, and with the snow coming as thick as it was outside of the bridge's windows, Lee could see that there was plenty of active Firebending going on across the base grounds. A battle of some kind was happening, but he couldn't see against whom it was being waged. Still, Commander Zhao had always been very clear that Lee's job was not to make decisions, but to do what he was told, and the sounding alarm meant that emergency procedures were active. All crewed ships were to lock down and await further orders.
Lee was just about to convey that to his crew when the helmsman pointed out the window and shouted, "Look, sir! A tug is pulling up in front of us."
Ah, that was either the regularly schedule crew, who needed to have the emergency procedures imparted to them by an officer of great wisdom, or carriers of further orders. Humming eagerly, Lee trotted out of the bridge and across the deck. He held onto his helmet against the roaring wind and leaned over the railing to shout down to the tug boat bobbing in the water. "Ahoy! What word?"
Belatedly, he realized that the tug's crew was all wearing blue. He didn't quite understand the reasoning behind that until he noticed that they were all holding long ropes tied pickaxe heads bent into right angles. Only after those makeshift boomerangs were being swung fast enough to blur into the snow did it dawn on Lee that his ship was under attack.
Then one of ersatz boomerangs struck him in the face before falling to hook onto the ships rail.
Aang really wished it wasn’t snowing.
Now that Zhao wasn't torturing him, the cold wasn't bothering him anymore, but the snow was falling fast enough to make using his staff's glider dangerous. The wings were fragile, and the driving wet snow would eat through them as fast as the fire that everyone was throwing around, so he was stuck running through the base while fighting off his attackers. Firebenders and soldiers with swords and spears were pouring out of all the buildings, but Aang refused to get pulled into a real fight. He still had to find Appa, then he had to find Mai again, and then they somehow had to get out of here. If Appa was rested enough to fly, then they wouldn't need that boat Mai wanted to stow away on, but if not, they might have a really big problem.
Aang ran away from the group of soldiers converging on him with another boost of speed that launched the snow beneath his boots into the air, and was just starting to gain some distance when he realized that a heavy fence was looming in front of him. Aang skidded to stop in the snow quickly enough to avoid a crash, but then fireballs were once again crashing down around him.
Fine, forget running. He planted his staff into the snow like a flag, and then dodged another fireball while he pushed together and molded a little cyclone of air in his hands. He ushered some of his Qi into it to form a ball of swirling winds bigger than his head. Aang ducked under a thrusting spear, and then hopped on his globe-shaped cyclone to finalize the Air Scooter move that had earned him his arrows. It took concentration to balance on top of it while keeping the ball going, but there was no better way to travel on the ground.
No faster way, either.
Aang grabbed his staff and just before he took off through the formation of Fire Nation soldiers, swerving around each one without so much as brushing them, the air scooter's movements as nimble as any circle-walker. Aang passed through the crowd and put on another burst of speed that kicked up enough snow to cover every single soldier, and he made himself laugh as he glanced back at their dejected and slush-covered faces. He cornered around one of the larger buildings, dismissing it as the same prison the he had been stuck in for the last few days, and tried to use it to orient himself. He had already gotten a good look at most of the buildings on the west side of the base, and should really check the east side as well. He passed in front of the docks-
-and caught sight of Mai at the center of a ring of fire, desperately trying to deflect the spears thrust through the flames at her with nothing more than a pair of knives. Why didn't she throw some of them like she did in the prison? But Aang realized that there were a lot of soldiers around her and she was moving slowly with that pack on her back-
-a fireball exploded just short of him and threw him off of his air scooter, sending him crashing and tumbling into the snow. He had to spit slush out of his mouth, and all the weariness from back in the prison was once again weighing down on him. The sounds of boots tromping in the snow grew closer, and his skin complained about the heat of the flames that streaked around him.
This-
This wasn't going well.
Mai might die.
Appa might not even be in the base.
And Aang would get sent back to that prison, and Zhao would bring back the hot and the cold-
-the snow fell around him-
-the world exploded into light, and Aang found the storm waiting for him in the glow like an old friend.
The good news for Mai was that the ring of fire around her went out, and none of the soldiers were giving her any more attention.
The bad news was that the snow and wind suddenly decided to become a storm so big that it broke her imagination.
All visibility was lost. Wind hammered at her and yanked her hair like Azula in a bad mood. Mai crouched to the ground, trying to reduce her exposure. She tightened the ties of her backpack to make sure it wouldn't be blown away, and wrapped her cloak around her body. She began crawling as swiftly as she could to get away from her last known position, in case any of the Fire soldiers decided to take a blind shot. The cold bit through her clothes, but it found no purchase on her concentration. She looked around, hoping for at least some sign of where she was, and found nothing but a sea of flickering gray. Even the cargo ship, previously in sight, had completely disappeared.
Then Mai looked up, and found a beacon in the storm.
Literally.
There was a bright blue glow in the sky above her, of a shade and intensity that she had seen before. It was the same light unleashed from the iceberg that began her adventures here at the South Pole, the same light that heralded Aang's arrival.
There was no doubt that Aang was the Avatar, now.
Mai called to him, but her voice was lost in the wind.
Sokka shielded his eyes from the wind and snow, and watched as the last of the Fire Navy soldiers were thrown over the side of the cargo ship. He would have liked to participate in what was probably his people's most daring strike against their crabby oppressors in decades, but he knew he was a warrior in name only, despite his new hair style. The Fire Nation didn't allow anyone in the Tribe to own a weapon, and Dad's lessons from before they left the wilderness hadn't included combat.
Sokka knew his place: watching and hoping he'd be able to do better next time.
The group of miners that Bato had assembled, though, had real veterans amongst them. They moved through the snow, up the ropes from the tug boat that Bato had captured, and across the deck of the cargo ship to attack the crew with their converted mining tools. Sokka knew all those miners; they had been warriors alongside his dad, and they were the same people who had called him names when he went to work in the Research Center. They were the same people Sokka knew that Bato would bring together to hear his message. They were the people who Sokka found he couldn’t bring himself to address, once they were all gathered away from the Fire Nation’s guard patrols. Bato had given the speech that rallied those men to Sokka’s plan.
There weren’t many of them- no more than three dozen- but they were the men who pledged to help free the Avatar and sail away with their families to safety.
The plan was simple. They had taken out the soldier in the closest guardhouse and climbed the fence. From there, the plan was to steal a tug boat, seize the cargo ship that was ready to go, and ride them both away from the South Pole completely. They would escape with the Avatar, and start a new life with the supplies on the vessel. The plan was crazy, but it had been the only way to leave to go look for Katara and keep his family and friends safe. It was the only way to keep them alive if he really did end up finding and freeing Katara.
Of course, compared to tracking Katara down and finding her alive and healthy, this might be the easy part. Sokka pushed that anxiety out of his mind as Bato jogged over. "That's the last of the soldiers. The ship is ours."
Sokka wanted to be happy, but another burst of wind hammered him with snow. "What about this weather? Can we sail in it?"
"The waves are high, but the tug can handle them. Once we're clear of the bay, this is a big and heavy ship, so if we can pull ahead of worse weather, we should be okay. Better than staying here, anyway, and it will give us some cover from anything Zhao tried to send after us." Bato looked out at the Navy base, or rather, the big blur of snow where the base used to be. "What about the women and children? How will they see our signal in this? And what of the Avatar and the traitor woman?"
"I think the Avatar is the big blue flying thing that caused the storm to get worse, so I'm hoping he can handle himself. As for our families..." Sokka knew what he had to do. "I'm going to go out and bring them here. I really hope they all remembered to stay together and stay safe."
"Wow, I've never seen so much fur in one place before!"
The monster shuffled to the back of its cage as Shila led the other kids into the stable. The building was mostly empty, since the South Pole was too cold for most of the mounts used by the Fire Navy's marines. Only a pair of yaks chewed whatever it was that yaks chew on the far side of the stable. Shila's bootsteps echoed in the vast space, but the monster grunted and blew a burst of air out of its massive nostrils, drowning out all other noises. The other kids jumped back, but Shila was no scaredy pony-cat, so she kept moving forward.
The monster rose up to its full height, standing on its back two legs, and then flopped back down with enough force to make the ground shake and send hay flying all around the stable.
Once the echoes died down again, Naklin hissed, "He gonna eat you."
Shila shook her head. "Sokka said he belongs to the Airbender Avatar, and Airbenders don't hurt people. Or didn't used to." She finally reached the cage, and the monster snorted at her, whipping her hair like stormwinds, but she reached for the latch and unhooked it, letting the front of the cage swing open.
The monster stomped out of the cage, and stared down at Shila.
Shila stared back.
The monster's eyes were brown, but there was a golden shine to them that reminded Shila of her own eyes, so different than everyone else's in the Tribe.
Then the monster licked her with a tongue bigger than her whole body.
While Shila tried to decide if she was delighted or completely grossed out, the monster flapped its tail and rose up into the air. Shila heard the other kids gasp, but could only watch as it angled to face the ceiling, and then flapped its tail again to launch itself right through the roof and into the stormy sky outside.
Wow.
Shila was still standing there, staring and dripping, when Gran-Gran shuffled into the stable. "What are you kids doing in here? Come on, the storm's gotten worse, and we need to find the boat.
"...Shila, why are you a mess?"
Aang was lost in the light, lost in fury, lost in fear, lost in the storm.
He was a fountain of power, filled with so much energy that it was bursting from his body in the form of light and air. He could feel that it was enough to wipe the entire South Pole off the map, but it was still nothing compared to the power of the storm that he had awakened.
The storm had been lurking out there, tickling Aang with its presence whenever he had meditated in his jail cell, but now that he had unleashed his own inner light, the storm had responded with darkness that threatened to drown Aang and sweep him away. His own power was unending, but it couldn't push back against the storm's momentum. It had been waiting for eons in the heart of the South Pole, building its strength, and now it was spilling out to unleash its fury on the rest of the world. It wasn't limitless like Aang's power, its spread would have to halt eventually if it was to survive, but within its borders, nothing could stand against it.
Not even the Avatar.
All Aang could do was float in the focal point of the storm's fury, his own despair reflected in the howling of the frigid winds and the raking of the flying ice, and wonder if he would ever be himself again.
Then Appa called out to him, and Aang remembered who he really was.
The blue light in the distant sky above faded out, and Mai half-expected the storm to immediately die down and everything to be okay. Sadly, it seemed that there was still an optimistic part of her that needed to be put out of its misery as soon as possible. Her other half, the realistic one, noted that the storm was very much continuing. It also noted that a sky bison was falling head-first out of the sky, with Aang sitting bonelessly on its forehead.
Both halves of Mai wondered was what going on.
The wind kicked up, but in a completely different direction from the rest of the stormgusts, and Mai found herself- and Aang's stupid staff with her- suddenly lifted up from the snow into the air. The sky bison swooped down below her, and Mai tumbled butt-first into the giant saddle on the beast's back.
Aang sat up and caught his staff. "You okay?"
Mai blinked at him. "We're flying." She clutched at the saddle's side, not liking the way bison's turns made gravity change directions.
"Yeah, isn't it great?"
"We're flying." Mai swallowed against the way another movement made her weight increase, and then suddenly decrease until she was almost floating.
"Yup!"
"We're flying." Mai turned away from the wind that wouldn't stop slapping her face and yanking her hair. She had never given much thought to being in the sky, but traveling by boat across half the world had given her the opportunity to imagine being alone in a vast, bottomless ocean, and flying was worse.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure my reality is ready to handle this." She scooted close to the center of the saddle, and kept her hands splayed out for support. The sky bison was solid enough, and she just had to focus on that.
"Okay?"
Mai swallowed again. "I can't see the ground in this storm."
"That's fine. So long as we keep track of up and down, we'll be okay." Aang turned around again. "Whoa, up, Appa, up!"
The wind roared over Mai's ears as the beast swooped upward, and her stomach moved in a way she had only ever experienced the time Ty Lee convinced her to try jumping from the roof of her house. She decided that she didn't really need to know how close the sky bison had just come to crashing. Right now, she had to figure out what should come next. Yes, that would be a good thing to focus on. With the weather like this, could they still sneak aboard the supply ship? Would Zhao still allow it to leave? Perhaps if they could take a hostage...
Mai shook her head. Azula always said that making plans without information was pointless, so information was needed. She pushed aside her air-sickness, telling herself that falling to her death at least wouldn't be boring, and made herself move back to the saddle's edge to peer out into the storm. She had to find something that would tell her what to do.
Kanna, known to most of the people in her life as Gran-Gran, had been in worse spots, but not in over sixty years.
The journey from her birthplace at the North Pole down to the Southern Water Tribe had been full of so many adventures that she couldn't even remember them all anymore, but back then she had been blessed by a workable combination of youthful naiveté and ingrained stubbornness. Now, Kanna knew how easy it was for people to die, having seen her family's next generation murdered by the Fire Nation. She knew how easy it was to disappear in the world, having seen her granddaughter taken away beyond her Tribe's reach. That was why she cared for the kids of the Tribe, even the ones who weren't fully of the Tribe's blood- life was too precious, and Kanna knew how to survive.
Except here in the middle of this storm, in the middle of this battlefield, in the middle of the Avatar's Return, Kanna thought she might not survive this time. She had the children gathered around her, with more women of the tribe following behind her, and she needed to get them all to the cargo ship, but none of them could see anything in the pounding snow. Every new step could just as easily bump them into a Firebender as bring them to their goal.
This was no ordinary storm. Kanna knew the legends of the Spirit’s Everstorm, which was supposed to have raged since the beginning of the world over the center of the South Pole, and she also knew that the weather lately had been worse than usual, bad enough that the Fire Nation had sent a new governor to take over in what was something like an emergency situation. And it had struck its hardest now, that the Avatar had revealed his power. Was it truly the Everstorm? Had it moved to seek out the remnants of the Tribe?
Would it now rage over Kanna's adopted home forever?
She pushed on through the wind, in the direction she thought she had last seen the ship, and wondered if perhaps the Fire Nation's reprisal against Sokka's actions wasn't the only thing their group might be fleeing.
Another step allowed a streak of black and crimson to resolve in her vision, and realized that she had failed. A Firebender had found her. She moved to stand wide in front of the children, in case the enemy hadn't seen them yet, and prepared to join the rest of her family in the Long Hunt.
Then a giant fur monster fell out of the sky, and a boy in the colors of the dawn appeared to strike the Firebender with the wind itself.
Ah.
This would the Avatar and his bison, then.
The Firebender was lost from view again, but another shape in the same colors approached out of the snow. Kanna tensed again, but the Avatar child moved to support the figure against the wind, as they got close, she realized that the newest arrival was a young woman. She was of obvious Fire Nation stock, and her eyes were bewildered as she said, "What are you people doing out here?"
Kanna nodded. "You must be the young lady who corrupted my grandson into a rebel."
"I did what?"
"My grandson is Sokka. He came up with a plan for me and most of our friends to escape together, on the cargo ship, so that the Fire Nation can't punish us for all this trouble."
The young lady's eyes scrunched closed, and Kanna's old ears were used enough to the sound of wind to hear a mumbled, "I knew that guy would be trouble." Then the Fire Nation woman looked up again. "All right, then, what's the plan? And how do we get it done fast?"
"A group of the miners should have taken the ship by now. We just need to find it."
The Avatar nodded. "Everyone, grab hands. I'll go first, and do what I can with the winds ahead of us. Appa will go last to make sure no one gets left behind!"
The Avatar had a little wisdom, at least. Kanna lined the women and children up and got them holding hands, then took the young Fire Nation lady's hand in her own mitten-covered grasp. "My grandson never got your name."
"Ugh. I'm Mai. Nice to meet you or whatever."
Well, not the most polite girl, but then, that was probably the Fire Nation upbringing. Kanna let it go as the group began moving forward. Mai held on to the Avatar's shoulder, and he walked while twirling his staff like one of the Fire Nation's mechanized propellers. The snow falling in front of him blew away, creating some visibility, and Kanna's old eyes were able to resolve something like a red star shining in the distance.
Once they were close enough, she could see that it was Sokka himself, holding a flare above his head and waving frantically.
He was always an excitable boy, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise.
The Avatar led the group up to Kanna’s grandson and said, "Hi, I'm Aang. You're Sokka?"
"Yeah. Need a ride out of here? I have a brand new captured ship I'm dying to try out."
"Wow, just like pirates! Can you take Appa? He can fly, but he's not fond of doing it in giant snowstorms."
"I guess we can take on fur monsters, too." Then Sokka hunched a bit, the same way he used to when he realized he was in trouble with his parents. "There's something I want your help with, but we'll talk once we're out of here. For now, nice to meet you, Avatar Aang."
Kanna had been on ships before, but later when the stolen vessel pulled out of the dock with her little bit of the Tribe aboard, she thought perhaps that it might be her best voyage yet.
They were saying that the Airbender was the Avatar. No one else had a history of glowing.
Zhao’s fury was such that he almost couldn’t feel it.
The first to spread the word was Captain Sheng, who had trained to be a Fire Sage in his youth until he somehow wound up joining the Navy. Sheng was the kind of devout that had him handing out little books titled 'The Call of the Flame' to everyone who didn't claim to already have one, and he was the closest thing they had to a spiritual authority in the South Pole. He was telling everyone that the boy's powers matched all the signs, and the return of the long lost Avatar.
To think that Zhao had the Avatar in a cell until that faithless little brat had decided to make trouble-
Warm again in his own office, surrounded by aides and staff, Zhao pushed the fury back down again. He wouldn’t prove his old teacher right by exploding in front of his subordinates. He turned to face the reporting officer. "And have you been able to confirm who exactly is on that ship?"
"Uh, we're not sure, sir. We're doing a headcount as fast as we can, but we do know that at least a score of the Tribals are missing. They either walked off their jobs or didn't report at the start of their shifts, and their homes are empty. We've found no evidence of an existing plot, so it's possible that Avatar or Lady Mai somehow organized this themselves on short notice, but neither can we rule out an unrelated action with very bad timing."
"An unrelated action." Zhao shook his head. "The Avatar breaks out with the assistance of the Governor's daughter, a cargo ship is stolen, and this freak storm strikes at us all at the same time, and there's doubt of coordination? You're hereby demoted a rank. Do you contest?"
The officer's eyes went wide, and then narrowed in anger. Zhao stared back, projecting as solid a presence as he could command, and waited for the answer. Of course, the officer eventually bowed his head. "No, sir."
"Good." Zhao raised a hand, summoned a bit of flame, and then smacked the demoted officer across the face. The man took it well, not crying out, and quickly returned to a stance of attention despite the burn that streaked from below his left eye to his nose. The modern ways freed warriors from having to fight an Agni Kai over every insult, but the military still demanded symbolic acknowledgement of a loss of honor. "Dismissed."
Once the man was gone, Zhao turned to his assembled aides. "New orders: I want a task force prepared to give chase. We'll need provisions enough to get to the Southern Islands. We won't be able to keep this quiet, not with Lady Mai involved, so I want wires sent out to all points. Say that the Avatar was found, attacked our base here, and escaped with other fugitives. Charge Lady Caldera Yu Mai with treason for helping him, and put out an order for her death, with a request that the Fire Palace confirm it. Also communicate that we intend to pursue, and claim priority because it is crucial to our mission of resolving the issues with the storms here." Zhao stroked his chin. "That won't keep the rest of the military from trying to steal our glory, but it should give us an edge if I outrank whoever gets in our way."
One of the staff broke protocol to ask, "You're going after them?"
"Of course.” Zhao smirked. This was why he liked having an audience; it gave him a chance to look brilliant. “I'm not going to let the Avatar out of my grasp, especially not when this colony has been effectively shut down. Unless this storm abates, even all the technology of the Fire Nation won't stop the mines from being buried in snow in a month. Let Governor Ukano waste his time getting as much platinum out of here as he can, and then he can return to the Fire Nation in time to watch his daughter's execution." Zhao couldn't help but see that girl's ugly, blank face before him, challenging him in his own prison. She would regret undermining him, and he would make sure that regret was as public and painful as possible.
Now, he just had to catch her. And the Avatar, of course.
From the bow deck of the newly renamed Sea Change, Aang looked out over the still ocean, and saw a streak of color at the very line where water met sky, a color that recalled the hues of his own tunic.
They had left the South Pole. The sun was rising.
He turned back to the others, to the Water Tribe boy who had made all of this happen: Mai's friend Sokka. "I'd be happy to help you find your sister. Do you have any idea where to start?"
Sokka shook his head. "She could be anywhere in the world. Probably not the North Pole, but who knows?"
The other Water Tribe leader, the tall man named Bato, added, "The Fire Nation has stolen our Waterbenders for generations. All we know is that they take them to a special prison, or maybe one of many by now." He rubbed a hand over tired eyes. "Everything they do is one of many, these days."
The others- the old Lady Gran-Gran, the kids, the women, and the crew who weren't busy- all nodded. Aang's notions of isolated pirates couldn't survive against the weariness these people all showed every time someone said something about the Fire Nation.
He didn't want to think about that right now. If he tried to imagine what was out there in the wider world, he'd break his brain. It was just too big. But these Water Tribe people all expected him to want to do something about it. Aang was starting to realize what exactly his job as the Avatar was supposed to be about. He shook his head and couldn't help but say, "How does a nation take over the whole world?"
By working at it for a hundred years. Apparently.
Sokka leaned forward. "That's why I think this is a good thing, for all of us. You help me find and free my sister, and in the process you can learn all about the Fire Nation and what they do. It's not like you have to go beat up the Fire Lord right now, since he's already won. Yeah, it's a bad situation, what with the whole crushing-the-world-under-his-heel thing, but you have to be smart with how you handle it. You need to gather intelligence, and fight only once you know how. Strategy!"
"If he needs intelligence, then why would he team up with you?" Everyone turned to look at Mai. She was leaning against the rail, looking at the same sunrise that Aang had been enjoying a moment ago, but she didn't seem very happy about it. She had been quiet ever since the ship got away, except when she was saying something mean or sarcastic, and Aang couldn't figure out why she was upset. Hadn't they gotten away with a bunch of new friends and no one hurt? But she had left her family behind to save him, so maybe she was just missing them. Well, Aang would be there to support her, and make her happy again. He wanted to see her smile, to see that beautiful curve of her lips, just as much as he wanted to fix the whole rest of the world.
So Aang hopped over to her and smiled. "That's where you come in! You know all about the Fire Nation, so you can help guide us and give us all kinds of information while we look for Sokka's sister. I won't know what I need to know until I need to know it, so we'll go out as a team and find the need to know that I need to... uh... know?"
Mai sighed. "I feel better about this already."
Aang decided to take that at face value. "We'll need some supplies, but we don't want to take too much away from the rest of you."
Sokka's Gran-Gran gave a thin grunt. "We know how to live off the land and the ocean. We just need enough to see us to a place where the Fire Nation won't find us. Katara is out there waiting, and we won't leave a member of our Tribe abandoned. And you have your own needs if you're going to someday free my people."
Everyone nodded at her words, and Aang bowed in acknowledgement of his responsibility.
So they made up packs that were loaded on Appa's saddle. Once everything was ready, Sokka gave his Gran-Gran a big hug, and then he went over to the kids who followed her around and got on his knees to let them climb all over him. Aang laughed as Sokka struggled to extricate himself, and then led the older boy over to Appa. The rest of the Water Tribe people began cheering as they walked, and Aang looked over to see Sokka quickly wipe at his eyes.
He smiled, and decided not to say anything.
Mai was waiting beside Appa with crossed arms and her own case of luggage hanging from her back. She watched with obvious wariness as Sokka bounded up to grab some of Appa's fur and lift himself up to the saddle, and then turned to Aang. "Is there a way I can get on top of that thing without climbing like some kind of monkey?"
"Sure!" Aang swirled his arms, and a cyclone sprouted around Mai to lift and carry her smoothly into the saddle. He grinned at her stunned expression, and leaped up onto Appa's head. Appa, for his part, gave one of his eager rumblings. Everyone was ready to go. "All right! Where's our first stop?"
Mai straightened her hair before speaking. "If they took this Katara away from the South Pole completely, then she must have passed through the Southern Islands. There's a large military base on Kyoshi Island. They have a 'processing center' there that all the prisoners in the sector have to pass through. That's where captives are evaluated and assigned either to a labor job that suits their skills and danger level, or a prison that can handle them. The center keeps records of everything."
Sokka punched his fists together. "That's it! Or, you know, a likely lead. At least."
Aang unrolled one of his maps, and held it out for the others to see. Sokka pointed out an island not far from the Earth Kingdom coast. "That's Kyoshi Island. Looks like it would have been one of the first islands down here to be colonized."
Aang couldn't help but notice that the Southern Air Temple was on the way from their current position. A Bender wasn't supposed to be ruled by fear, but the dread he felt at the idea of going back home was a physical pain in his stomach. There had to be Air Nomads still living there, but if not- and if there were Airbenders there, would they be mad at Aang for running away? But he had to know, one way or another. Otherwise, the fear would never go away.
Besides, something strange had happened back at the South Pole, with what Sokka’s Gran-Gran called the Everstorm. It was Spirit-weather, the legends said. Somehow, it had been drawn to Aang's Avatar Spirit, but why? There was a chamber back at the Temple, that might hold answers, and Aang needed to know those, too. One way, or another. "I have our route all figured out."
Sokka shuffled over to one of the handholds at the side of the saddle. "So this thing flies. For real?"
Mai sighed. "Fair warning: I may throw up on you."
Aang just grinned, made sure his passengers could see it, and then said, "Yip, yip!"
Appa launched into the sky.
"This thing flies! It’s flying!" Sokka practically hopped in his excitement, and Aang couldn’t help but laugh. He looked back to see Sokka forcing himself back down and swallowing what looked like a big grin. “It's- (ahem) you know, fascinating phenomena. Nice speed, too."
Mai groaned, and they all flew on to adventure.
It took the bounty hunter three days to find Zuko.
Azula had arrived on the Colonial Continent to find word waiting for her of the Avatar's return and the treachery of Mai. She considered making a show of cursing Mai's name or something dramatic like that, but quickly decided against it. It would be undignified, and the rabble expected their royalty to be composed even in the face of the greatest setbacks. So Azula put all her natural acting skill to use with a pursing of her lips into which she put volumes of betrayed expression, and then got on with her day.
The woman, June, was waiting as ordered at the port, and overcame Azula's bad first impression of her (really, wearing leather that tight could only impede her maneuverability) by getting down to business immediately, confirming that a scent sample was available and going straight to a stable where a truly ugly mount was waiting. The creature, a "shirshu," seemed to be part mole and proved to be June's preferred method of tracking. One sniff of Zuko's old crown, and the creature was eager to chase. It was an overall pleasing experience for Azula, despite the displeasing need to ride behind June in the beast's saddle while it bounded across the land like a rhino with its tail on fire. Azula took her saddle soreness with the grace appropriate to a princess, because Father would want it that way.
On the third day, the beast arrived at a small village. It shoved its way through the streets with a directness that Azula truly loved, shouldering people and vehicles and all manner of obstacles aside in its single-minded quest to find the source of the scent. The village itself deserved no better, being so small and ramshackle that it didn't even merit a Fire Nation administrator. The buildings looked fragile enough that the shirshu could knock them right over, and only Azula’s dedication to her mission kept her from asking June to give it a try.
The shirshu stopped at the entrance to an alley that ran between two of those ramshackle structures, and Azula wound up looking at Zuko for a full minute before she realized that it was actually him.
She turned from the huddled mass lying at the far end of the alley to glance at June, and the bounty hunter smiled in an almost insubordinate way as she said, "Found him, as commissioned. But I never guaranteed his condition."
Azula shook her head and dismounted from the shirshu. "His condition is his own fault." At the sound of her voice, the huddled figure shivered in its oversized cloak. Ah, so he was awake. And he remembered her. She approached, noting with dismay that he smelled (and not in a pleasant way). "Zuzu? Is that you? Your dear sister has come to take you home."
The hood lifted, but his face was left in shadow. "Azula?"
"Ah, you remember my name. How heartwarming."
"Wh- what do you want?"
"To take you home, dum-dum. I just said that."
"Can't."
"You presume to tell me what I can and cannot do?"
"...hn. You haven't changed. At all." The hood lowered again. "Can't go home. Leave me."
"Ah, as dramatic as ever. Very well, then. Let's do this dramatically." Azula flung her hand above her head, and summoned the flame in her heart. Blue fire- unique in all the world- sprung into existence in her hand, casting the whole alley in harsh, cold light. "Prince Zuko, the Avatar has returned. I call upon you to fulfill the terms of your banishment, and win the right to return home by bringing the Avatar back to the Fire Nation as your prisoner. Rise, and remember who you are!"
Azula wanted to laugh at the ridiculous words, but Zuzu actually responded to them as though they weren't complete nonsense. The hood rose again, and hands emerged from the robe to pull it back and reveal the face of her long-lost older brother.
The flame faltered, and Azula had to work to hide her disgust. She knew about Zuko's injury, of course, and had amused herself many times by imagining his disfigurement-
-but she hadn't expected him to be missing his left eye.
His face was marred on his left side by a burn scar that tapered back over his ear. Long, greasy hair fell to hide most of it, but it couldn't conceal the missing gold of the eye that was supposed to be at its center, or the deep shadow of the empty socket cast by Azula's flame.
Well, she'd simply have to help him learn how to fight without depth perception, then.
Zuko rose, and looked at Azula with something like a trace of his old stature. "The Avatar is back? It’s not a lie?"
"It’s not a lie. My old friend Mai found him- you remember her, I’m sure- and tipped us off. Father wants you back, and sent me to make sure you exploit this opportunity to the fullest. I will get you in fighting shape, and June here will assist in the hunt. She's quite professional, despite her attire."
Zuko was as still as a statue. "Father... wants me back..."
"Yes, I don't understand it either, but I have my orders, and I will see them done."
She waited while Zuko processed that. Given his living conditions, and the smell that was no doubt affecting his ability to think, he likely needed some time to remember how to communicate effectively with other humans. Azula had no hopes of anything approaching a 'thank you.'
Eventually, Zuko met her eyes again with his one. "What do I need to do?" His voice was strong and crisp.
Azula grinned. "Good boy."
TO BE CONTINUED
Woo! Fight scene! Fight scene fight scene action action action!
Previous: Meetings and Minds
Next: Going Home Again
Soundtrack:
Star Wars: A New Hope- The Tractor Beam/Chasm Crossfire
Star Wars: A New Hope- "Here they come!"
Previous: Meetings and Minds
Next: Going Home Again
Soundtrack:
Star Wars: A New Hope- The Tractor Beam/Chasm Crossfire
Star Wars: A New Hope- "Here they come!"
© 2015 - 2024 Loopy777
Comments10
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I like Mai's packing priorities. 
As for bringing Aang's staff, right, you keep telling yourself that Mai. Maaiang is back in the lead! 
Once again, I like how you connect Mai's knifey abilities with her ki. Makes a lot of sense.
Oh Daizi, you knocked yourself out. 
I was skeptical of Sokka pulling that off until I learned that there were others involved.
Zhao is quite calculating. I like his spur of the moment insight into dealing with Aang's abilities. I also like it because it gives Aang some real adversity...well, besides feaing that his people are dead.
I really liked this action scene. It interrupted suddenly, and didn't let the tempo falter.
I like how Aang is worried about Mai getting fried (I didn't intend that but I will take credit for it). And I love how you described Mai's smile. Her cold (not cold, really, more like jerky) attitude mixed with a softer side. It's not quite Tsundere. I had to look it up. Kuudere. (An anime/manga slang term for a character that is cold, blunt, cynical, and pretty much doesn't care if her beloved dies. That's what she is on the outside but she is actually caring and nice on the inside. ) Mai is Kuudere, and like a cat, makes one want to work to see that side more often.
At first I thought she was throwing the acid on his cuffs, and I thought that was really reckless, but it was on the chains. Ok, carry on.
Two on one is hardly fair, and that's how I like it! 
Although I did think for a second that you killed Zhao! For about that half of a sentence. Oh snap, and nice callback on the metal being too soft! It threw well, and conked him out!
Nice point about Mai not killing anyone. I like how the one who is most likely to kill someone, the one who throws knives, works the hardest to avoid it. Not pointlessly, but because she doesn't want to deal with the weight of taking a life. Everyone who urged Aang to kill Ozai didn't really have that pressure. I am really like this (potential) Maiaang. Of course, I am not getting my hopes up. (As I order a box of Maiaang shirts printed. )
Uh oh, a wrench in the ship. Where's Appa? I am liking the contrast between Mai's cool professionalism (take me now ) and Aang's optimistic heroism.
I like how you give background characters pov scenes. It switches it up, and doesn't give away the direction.
I laughed with Aang at the image of the soldiers left in his wake. Oh man, Mai's in trouble. And now Aang's down, and Appa's still nowhere to be found. Perfect time for...The Avatar State!
“The bad news was that the snow and wind suddenly decided to become a storm so big that it broke her imagination. “ Such a great line.
“Then Mai looked up, and found a beacon in the storm. Literally.” Another great line.
Ha! Sokka's sitting on the sidelines again! (What do I have against this guy? Even I don't know. ) I like how even though they are escaping thanks to Sokka, some things don't change like flipping a switch. It's also a nice callback to the Day of Black Sun Invasion.
I was a little worried about the soldiers thrown over the edge of the ship, but I figured, who better than firebenders to be tossed into the arctic sea? (Not in a dismissive way, I believe they will survive. [And before you even try, I will not entertain the notion that they weren't all firebenders, or that their armor might make swimming difficult, or that they were unconscious when thrown overboard. I've dismissed those possibilities into the void. ])
I am impressed with the scope and success of Sokka's plan. But then, he didn't carry it out, did he? Oh man, where are the women and children?
Awww! Cute kids and airbison scene! I like that there were no adults in that scene. (What is it about kids adventures that require no adults? I guess kids wouldn't be having adventures if there were adults. ) And Shila got slimed.
Nice reflections on the Everstorm. It is an interesting phenomena. Did LOK fully explain it? That seems so long ago. And Appa brings him back.
Mai, you need to get onboard with this hero's rescue! Stop wondering about things like a flying bison and an unnatural storm and flying through the sky yourself. ...Ok, take a moment to wonder about those things, then focus!
Aww, Mai's reality isn't ready to handle this. Aang, let Appa take the wheel, and get back there and comfort her! Rookie mistake.
I love the near crash, and how it's brushed under the rug. I would be seeing my life flash before my eyes, and be praying God to forgive my sins and prepare to accept my soul.
I second my interest in Kanna Gaiden. Damn, they're in a tight spot! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dg6Dp…
Two women who see each other as the problem, connected by the original problem. Sokka himself.
I approve of Aang's handholding idea, and Kanna's approval of Aang.
I also approve of Kanna's mild disapproval of Mai. I love Mai, but hey...
Mai hanging onto Aang's shoulder! (I'm reading too much into this? No you're reading too much into this! )
I love Kanna's old lady viewpoint on everything. I want an adventure told from the viewpoint of an old person. The closest I think I've seen is the parts of Howl's moving castle where the heroine is turned into an old lady by a spell.
Uh oh, I can see that Aang is getting a wholly unrealistic idea of Sokka. Sokka, you stay away from him! Don't try to corrupt him!
Uh oh, poor Zhao. (Btw, I LOVE Captain Sheng. ) I'm glad that Zhao is able to stick it to the insufferable Jeong Jeong by keeping his cool. You show 'em, Zhao!
Sensible to lessen the frequencies of Agni Kais, but to replace it with a burn? I'll never understand the military.
Oh man, I love it when Zhao talks business. Squee! Ahem, I mean... He doesn't keep the news of the Avatar's escape to himself, partially because it would get out (wise) and yet gives himself a claim on it, knowing that it won't stop anyone, but might give him an edge. Gotta take any inch you can find. So cool!
And oh man...I know that it is intended that Zhao sees Mai as his foil, the one who lost him the avatar, and isn't attractive (to him) and he wants to end her. Having said all that, I find his obsession with her SO HOT.
Of course Aang would help find Katara. I'm glad. I just hope they find her ok (well, relatively speaking).
OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!! MAI WITH AN AGNI KAI LEVEL BURN!!! SOKKA IS LOOKING LIKE ZUKO RIGHT NOW!!!
“He wanted to see her smile, to see that beautiful curve of her lips, just as much as he wanted to fix the whole rest of the world.“ Be still my shipper's heart!
Be careful what you ask for Mai, as she gets blown into the saddle. Azula mostly let you keep your composure (at least from what we saw...) but that won't be possible with this group. I am also struck by Mai's real mission. I hope that doesn't cause trouble. (I actually do hope it causes trouble. )
Uh oh, first stop Southern Air Temple. (I am really enjoying this fic, and it is also increasing my admiration for the show. I need to go back and watch it again. )
No Mai, don't throw up on Sokka, throw up on Aang! (What am I even-? )
Azula and JUNE?!!! Be still my shipper's Heart!
I love Azula's inner drama queen! She's such a perfectionist that I wouldn't put it past her to actually be a great actor, but I love how she thinks it through. She really is trying to be what she thinks she is supposed to be, rather than what she is. (And I don't mean that she is naturally bad, but she is unique. I think part of her problems stem from thinking that she is flawed, and trying to hard to be someone else.)
Ok, is Azula protesting too much? I could see her actually not liking June's tight leather getup () or riding behind and having to hold on, but I want her to like it. That's ok, I think they have enough common ground anyway. She likes June's business-like attitude and her shirshu pushing people aside. ( I loved the secret pleasure Azula took in that. And her desire to have it knock over the buildings! She is so bratty. )
Once again, liking June and Azula's dynamic. June thinks Azula is a prissy princess, and Azula thinks June is a hot mess. (June for dangerous ladies! ) I also like how Azula differentiates between smelling, and smelling nice. I wonder what she likes to smell? (I just had the image of an Azula dating game. “What are your favorite smells, Princess Azula?” “Your burning flesh!” She replies as she torches the asker. “...And if I had to say, orchids.” )
The Azula/Zuko dynamic is fascinating to me. Azula superficially plays the part of the little sister. (Superficially because that's not who she really is.) She only competes with him because it's winner take all for their father's love. But aside from that, she doesn't seem to bear him any ill will. (I want to see an Onii-san type story about Azula and Zuko. [What is with me today?] )
Zuko looks like he has given up. I like how even though Azula doesn't believe in it, she manages to inspire Zuko with what he needed to hear. (Also more evidence for Azula's inner Drama queen. )
I can't tell how much Azula feels for Zuko's wound. I wonder if she even knows. Though, her intent to train him to overcome it shows something. Azula doesn't waste her time.
Also, how did Zuko get the burn in this one? DUNH DUNH DUNH!!!!
What's with that jab at Mai? I wonder how much they've interacted. Mai did seem to have a home fire burning for him.
Azula once again complimenting June. I think Azula is just a sheltered child that doesn't know what to make of her. (She feels she shouldn't like it. )
You know, as blasé as Azula is being, I don't think Zuko would react well to sympathy. I guess it could go either way. He could secretly want to be babied, or he could become enraged by what he perceives as pity. So Azula treating him like old times could be for the best.
ZUCEST FTW!!! Sorry, that final line. They are made for each other, in that Lannister way. I can't get over that.
Great chapter. We are finally out of the cold snow (good riddance! ) and onto the real adventure. We have the beginnings of the Gaang, and their antagonists(?). (And Zhao) I can't help feel that there is still a big bad to be found. (I hope it's Ozai, but no need to spill. ) Whence Katara? What of Toph, Ty Lee, Suki, etc., Jin? Jk, about that one. (Seriously, you leave her alone you monster! ) Is Yue still around in this one? Anyway, those are not serious questions, but I look forward to seeing where this goes. Keep up the Good work, Loopy!