Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zuko has had many brushes with death. Some have been worse than others, but he can count the number of time he’s sincerely believed he was about to die using both hands, which is not exactly a comforting number.

This time, something about it feels different. As the lightning courses through his veins, he feels his body begin to shut down. He watches blearily as Azula and Katara trade blows, but he can’t bring himself to focus on the fight. It takes too much energy. As it is, he’s struggling to remain conscious at all.

He fears that if he loses consciousness now he will never regain it again.

He tries to pull on his own chi in a desperate attempt at controlling the lightning and getting it out of his system, but it only makes things worse. The pain increases tenfold, somehow, and he curls in on himself with a grunt of pain. He hears splashing from somewhere off to the side but he can’t even spare a thought for whatever Katara’s doing. He’s losing the battle with consciousness and all he can feel as the world seems to fade from his senses is fear. Fear, and then acceptance.

Zuko has had many brushes with death, but this is a little more than a brush. This is the real thing, he realizes.

He thinks of Aang. And Sokka, and Suki, and Toph. Off on their own, wherever they are. He hopes they win the day, hopes Aang makes a valiant return. The little airbender has a habit of showing up at the last second to swing the odds in his favor, and Zuko can only hope the same for this fight.

He thinks of his uncle. The old man had wanted him to take the throne, saying there needed to be a new, fresh leader. He hates to disappoint him. But he’d always believed Iroh would have been a better leader than him, and while he knows the man will be sad for a time, he also knows he’ll pull through it.

He thinks of Katara. She’s fighting Azula because he was too weak to stand up to her, too weak to keep Azula from going after the ones he cares about. Now all he can do is lie on the ground, writhing in pain and fighting for his life as Katara takes on Azula in his stead.

He doesn’t regret taking the bolt for her, though. Azula had broken the rules of the Agni Kai, aiming at her, and Zuko wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

Zuko lets out a gasp. He loses what focus he’d had on the battle and his thoughts turn inward as the pain seems to plateau. As nice as it is, he knows it’s a bad sign. The pain isn’t fading. He is.

He spares one thought for his mother. He never had found the closure he’d needed, especially not after his father had opened up old wounds with his cryptic statements. He hopes she’s alright, if she really is alive out there.

As the world fades around him he thinks on himself. He’s made so many mistakes, and while he had made steps to resolve them, he hasn’t done nearly enough. He had realized he had been taking the wrong path far too late, and while he had made the right decisions eventually, he’d spent far too long making the wrong ones. He’d caused too much pain.

And now he’s losing any chance of redemption. He won’t be able to help the Avatar bring peace, won’t be able to lead the Fire Nation into a new era, won’t be able to make up for all the harm he’s caused the world.

Zuko tries to take a deep breath. It hurts to breathe. His lungs aren’t working as they should. His limbs feel like jelly, and he can’t move them even if he tries. This is the end, he realizes. He can’t sense anything from the outside, only inky blackness. He wishes one last time he’d been able to do better sooner. He wishes so many things.

But he knows the universe never cared what he wished.

He lets out one last sigh, and his senses return for one fleeting second, just enough for him to hear his name being shouted, and, distantly, sobbing, but he has no more energy with which to recognize the voice. As soon as he hears it, it’s gone, and he’s lost in the nothingness.

Is this death, he wonders.

Yes, he reasons.

Not quite yet, Prince Zuko.

Zuko opens his eyes.

Chapter Text

The first thing Zuko smells is the stench of healing ointment. That makes sense, he thinks, considering - considering.

He really isn’t sure how he isn’t dead right now.

He steers away from his last memory and focuses instead on the world around him as his senses begin to flow steadily back in. Distantly, he hears the familiar and reassuring sound of his uncle’s voice.

He wonders how long he’s been out, if his uncle is back here with him.

He wonders if the others had won.

He hates to consider what would happen if they hadn’t, somehow. He hates to consider how his failure would have affected the outcome.

He tries to sit up, rubbing groggily at his eyes. His whole body hurts, which doesn’t surprise him. He grunts as something in his chest is pulled uncomfortably, and his uncle breaks off whatever he had been saying. Zuko’s eyes adjust to the dim lighting in time to see his uncle come in the room, face drawn in worry. He’s wearing Fire Nation armor, which Zuko finds a little strange. Maybe the war wasn’t entirely ended yet.

Iroh is by his side in a second, gently easing him into a sitting position. “I was so worried, nephew,” Iroh says, frowning gently at Zuko’s bandaged midsection. “When I saw the explosion, I didn’t know what to think. I was so scared.”

Zuko frowns. The only explosion he can remember would have come from his Agni Kai, but the way his uncle talked about it makes no sense to him. Hadn’t Iroh been in Ba Sing Se during the fight? He’d sent him and Katara off to stop Azula, so it made no sense for him to have followed.

“We can only be grateful you weren’t killed,” Iroh goes on, not noticing Zuko’s confusion. “And that no one else was on the ship when - of course, that’s my fault, I should have been there -”

Zuko tunes out his uncle’s fussing, frowning as he ran the old man’s words through his mind. Ship? What ship?

He glances around the room, hoping for some sort of clue. It’s barren, nothing like the Fire Nation palace healing rooms. In fact, it almost reminds him of the healing hut in the colonies where he’d woken up after -

After an explosion. On his ship.

Interesting.

Zuko has almost convinced himself this is a very strange memory dream when another shift of his body causes him to gasp out in pain. His leg had been cut open, he remembers, it had hit something when he was launched out of the ship and torn open and now - and now it’s in just as much pain as it had been back then.

Nothing makes sense, he thinks, looking down at the bloodstained cloth wrapped around his leg, exactly as it had been all those months ago. There is nothing this can be except a dream, but the pain feels far too real. Everything feels far too real. His subconscious surely could not replicate the exact smells, sounds, feelings of this moment.

As he ponders his situation, he remembers before. He remembers the lightning, and this time he lets the memory play out. Lightning, nothingness, and then - something. He had been sure he’d died.

And yet.

He’s never heard of anything like this before. He fears even contemplating the possibility. But there really is no other explanation he can think of as to why he is currently sitting on a bed in the colonies with his uncle living out the exact same scenario as when he’d narrowly escaped Zhao’s assassination attempt.

He sighs and his shoulders fall in defeat. He’s so far behind, now. The comet is months away, the end of the war, which had been right on the cusp -

But wait. He still has all his memories. All the time that had passed between the first time this had happened and the Agni Kai is still fresh in his mind. Perhaps there is a reason he’s here, at this moment in time. Perhaps there is a reason he’s waking up some time before the siege of the North Pole. Perhaps, armed with his knowledge of the future, he can change things for the better.

He sits up straighter. Yes, he still has parts of his past he’s going to have to atone for once again, but much less of it. No betrayal in Ba Sing Se. No combustion man. No attacking Aang at the spirit oasis.

He’s been given a miracle. A second chance. A way to make everything right. An opportunity to save so, so many lives and perhaps even end the war before the comet.

“Are you all right, nephew?” Iroh asks, concerned.

Zuko smiles. “Yes. I know what I need to do next.”

When his uncle is placated enough to leave him alone again, Zuko plans. He thinks for a second about telling his uncle what had happened, but quickly discards that thought. Any explanation would take too much time, and the siege is going to begin soon, he knows. Besides, he’s not sure how much Iroh is willing to believe. He trusts the man, and he knows his uncle is always willing to listen to him, but crazy time travel stories do kind of push the limits of belief. He can hardly believe it himself.

What he needs to do is get to the Avatar, and quickly. He needs to join up with them and guide the little team to the end of the war. Somehow. He doesn’t want to tell them, either, but it may have to come up. He hopes it doesn’t come to that. This is something he has to do himself.

As he ruminates on his goal and how to achieve it, Zuko realizes with a sinking feeling what he has to do. He’s going to have to find a way to stop Zhao from killing the moon. He’d like to stop the whole invasion, but he doubts he’d be able to achieve that much, as injured and disgraced as he is now. All he really has going for him is that Zhao is convinced he’s dead, and if he loses the element of surprise he’s done for.

What he has to do is confront Zhao directly, he realizes. He’d have to sneak on board his ship then somehow convince him to give up on his plans.

He knows Zhao would never listen, but then he remembers the great ocean spirit picking him up like a toy and dragging him down into the depths, and tells himself he owes it to the man to try.

He also remembers Zhao refusing his offered hand, at the end. The man is proud, too proud to give up, especially if a banished prince asked. But he still deserves a chance to be saved.

Zuko shakes his head. Aang had really done a number on his conscience. But he can’t find it in himself to be mad about that.

He approaches Iroh about the plan when the old man arrives with food. His uncle is wary, especially with his injuries, but he’s willing to listen. Especially when Zuko brings up the fact the Avatar is probably in the North Pole too.

He hates to pretend to be his old self, but he knows it’s necessary. He hates how easy it is, too, to fall back on the security he’d clung to for years.

Well. He is hunting the Avatar, that much is true at least. Except this time it’s to join him.

He hopes his uncle will be alright when he leaves, but then he remembers Pakku of the Northern Tribe had been with the White Lotus. Iroh will be fine, and he even has an ally in the North if he plays his cards right.

All too soon he’s trailing behind his uncle, playing the part of the lowly foot soldier with much less complaints than last time, as the old man approaches Zhao’s ship. His body still aches, but he quashes the feeling. This is far more important.

Zhao is happy to welcome Iroh, and the man’s explanation that Zuko is a boy from the colonies who’d heard about the siege and wanted to prove himself by joining up early satisfies the admiral. And just like that, Zuko and Iroh are on their way to the north.

That evening, Zuko slips into Zhao’s chambers. At first he thinks the man is gone, but a creak of the floorboard gives him time to duck as Zhao comes at him with a burst of flame.

“Why are you trespassing where you don’t belong?” the admiral barks.

“I’m here with a warning,” Zuko replies, dodging and weaving the attacks but making no move to retaliate. He realizes he had become so much better at firebending as he avoids a particularly nasty blow. He wouldn’t have been able to do this last time. Of course, he wouldn’t have bothered dodging back then, either.

He'd known Aang as a friend for a very short time, but even that seems to have changed him. Bettered him. He wonders what he'll be like after spending this time around as part of the group.

“I know what you want to do to the moon spirit,” he goes on when Zhao doesn’t relent in his attack. He notices the other firebender makes no move to call in reinforcements. He takes it as a sign the man is at least listening, despite how he keeps attacking.

Of course, just as he thinks that, Zhao stops. Something in what he’d said strikes a chord. “How do you know about that?” the man growls.

Zuko takes a step back in case fire starts flying again. “I know what you’re planning,” he says in lieu of any explanation. “And I’m here to tell you it won’t work. The ocean spirit is just as powerful, and just as vengeful. If you kill the moon, the ocean won’t hesitate to destroy you.”

Zhao lets out a bark of laughter. “You think I can’t fight off one lousy spirit?”

Zuko sees a flash of a watery hand, hears Zhao’s scream, sees his face drawn in resignation. “I know you can’t. Your pride will be your downfall.”

Zhao scowls. “I won’t change my plans for some fool who thinks he knows better than Admiral Zhao.” And then he’s coming at Zuko with fire again.

Zuko ducks under one of his arms and dashes off down the corridor. Now Zhao is calling for more guards. Great. Just when he’s leaving.

He makes it to the deck, but realizes quickly there’s no safety there. The ship is lightening up as the shouts of the guards searching for him wake people up. Any second now he’ll be surrounded.

He looks back at the hold and sighs. He’d tried to save Zhao, to stop this the way Aang would have.

Now it’s his turn.

Chapter Text

The towering wall of the Northern Water Tribe is just as impressive as the first time he'd seen it. Zuko gazes up at it from his stolen canoe, eyes wide. Now that he's not focused on sneaking inside, now that he's not fueled by anger and desperate drive, he takes the time to appreciate the expert craftsmanship. It really is quite the barrier, and would have easily held against anything the Fire Nation would have tried to throw at it eighty years ago, but Zuko remembers all too well how the modern catapults and iron ships had fared. The wall simply was not ready for their upgrades. 

He recalls his uncle telling him about a small Water Tribe force that had attempted to infiltrate Zhao's ship but whose uniforms had been so outdated no one had taken them seriously and had let them have their fun until Zhao dumped them unceremoniously back in the water. The outdated defenses, the outdated uniforms, the outdated knowledge of the Fire Nation in general… Zuko sees now that the Water Tribe had been woefully misinformed about their enemy and their victory was an impressive one considering how quickly they'd had to update their plans. Of course, the thing that pushed them over the edge in the end was their water spirit, pushed to action after Zhao's idiocy. 

Zuko shudders. For all the pain the Fire Nation had caused the world, it still made him sick to remember the decimation of the fleet, even the ships that had been retreating or surrendering. All the more reason to alter the outcome of this fight. 

Zuko glances back over his shoulder as if he'd be able to see Zhao's fleet in the distance. When he'd left the admiral had been waiting for the most distant of the navy to arrive, and after that his movement would be slow as he led the massive fleet. Zuko, alone in a small ship, had made great time, and so has somewhat of a head start to achieve his goals before Zhao arrives. He hopes it would be enough. 

He takes a deep breath and begins searching for a hole in the ice. If it had worked once, it would work again. He needs to get inside the city and start making things right.

He spots the hole easily enough. There’s nothing much else in the wide expanse of ice aside from the wall and the ocean. There’s no turtle-seals around this time, but he decides to take that as a sign the journey will be easier.

It isn’t.

The water is freezing cold, somehow even colder than he remembers it being. He can’t use the technique his uncle taught him, underwater as he is, and he realizes he’s grown too used to it now that he’s mastered it. It’s darker, too. The hole he’d chosen last time was softly illuminated by light from the entrance, but this one turns soon after he enters and he’s plunged into almost total darkness. He feels a stroke of fear. He can’t have almost died from his sister’s lightning, then come back to this time, only to die again. He refuses to believe the whole ordeal was for nothing. He’d grown and changed and learned so much; he refuses to die now, when the world around him still sees him as the misguided brat he once was. 

With renewed vigor, he pushes through the freezing blackness of the tunnel. He will not die here. 

Soon enough, he spots a speck of light and hurries toward it, lungs stinging. It’s an exit, just like he’d hoped - and this one isn’t even iced over. He pushes his way out of the tunnel and takes a second to heave air into his lungs. He’s crouched, eyes screwed shut against the brightness of the sky, savoring each breath.

He blames his most recent brush with death for distracting him from his usual awareness.

Zuko had come out of the tunnel, not in a secluded, shadowy corner like last time, but next to a pond in the central square. As he raises his head, he finally takes stock of his surroundings. The square is crowded, and everyone is stopped in their daily routine to stare at him. Women clutch their children protectively behind them and men have hands resting readily on their weapons.

Zuko thinks that perhaps emerging in the center of the Northern Water Tribe stronghold wearing Fire Nation armor may not be the safest position to be in.

He does the only thing he can think to do. He throws up his hands and shouts, “I surrender!”, and hopes to Agni no one decides to just kill him anyway.

He’s lucky once again, which tells him that sometime very soon, something very bad is going to happen to him. Two men grab him roughly by the arms and drag him past the gawking onlookers, jostling his injuries and throwing off his balance, but no one pulls anything sharp on him, and they take him right to the palace. He’s thrown unceremoniously to the ground in front of a surprised group of elderly men and one equally surprised young woman seated around a massive table. He narrows his eyes. She looks somewhat familiar. Now that he’s thinking about it, one of the old men does as well… 

“We found him in the main square, Chief Arnook,” one of the men who had taken him inside says. “He crawled out of a turtle-seal hole.”

The chief, Zuko assumes, stands up and rounds the table to peer at him. “Fire Nation, obviously,” the man muses. “But -”

He’s interrupted by another man running in from behind Zuko. “Chief!” He shouts, then seems to take stock of the situation and pauses, clearly unsure whether to go on.

The chief turns away from scrutinizing Zuko. “What is it, Khaar?”

Khaar only just now seems to catch sight of the Fire Nation armor and clearly forgets whatever it is he’s about to say, choosing instead to stare with blatant fear in his eyes.

“I’m dealing with him,” the chief says gently, stepping between Zuko and the Water Tribe warrior. “What is it?”

Khaar jolts. “My fishing crew - he’s just outside the wall, sir, we didn’t know what to - it’s the Avatar! He’s here!”

There’s murmuring at the large table. Isolated as they are, the Northern Water Tribe had likely not even heard about the Avatar’s return. 

Chief Arnook looks thoughtful. “Secure him,” he tells Zuko’s impromptu guards. “I’ll deal with him later.” He turns back to Khaar. “Let the Avatar in and bring him to me.”

Khaar hurries away, and Zuko is once again jostled around. The men don’t take him to any sort of cell, as he’d assumed. One of them waves his hand, and Zuko’s hands and feet are bound in ice and he’s forced into an uncomfortable kneeling position on the floor in a corner, away from the center of attention. 

The whole table is abuzz with frantic murmuring. Zuko catches a whiff of their conversation - they’re concerned about what it means that the Avatar has arrived, and only minutes after the first Fire Nation member in decades. They already don’t trust what side the Avatar is on.

Zuko sends a wry glance at the doors. Give Aang five minutes and they’ll be throwing their lot in with him just as they had the first time around. The kid was impossible not to find trustworthy. 

It hits him, then, that this is it, this is his meeting with the people who had rapidly become his friends not too long ago. Now, he was a stranger to them. Worse, he was their enemy. He remembers Katara’s soft smile, Sokka’s firm handshake, Aang’s tight hug - and his heart aches for Toph and Suki too, in the Earth Kingdom, unaware of the destiny that still lay ahead. He’d only lived with the group for a short time, but it had been enough. He - he really misses his friends. 

Then the doors open and Aang walks in, perky and awestruck as ever. Katara and Sokka follow behind, also looking around at the intricate ice formations with wonder. 

Aang is the one to spot him. The Avatar stops cold, face morphing into shock, then suspicion, then confusion as he notices Zuko’s restraints. Katara and Sokka notice his pause, and follow his gaze, then immediately get into defensive postures as they see what he’s looking at. The Water Tribesmen around them tense, sensing confrontation.

“What are you doing here?” Sokka demands, eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to destroy the Northern Tribe like you tried to do with us?”

“No!” Zuko defends himself quickly, eyeing the concerningly dark looks he’s getting from the Northerners. “I came to warn you. There’s - Admiral Zhao has the whole navy under him now and he’s -”

“Why should we trust anything you say?” Sokka demands.

Zuko opens his mouth to say something, anything, to try and convince him, but he catches sight of Aang’s expression. The kid looks thoughtful, like he’s actually considering Zuko’s words.

Zuko changes tactics. “Aang,” he says, more gently, and the Avatar jumps, surprised at being addressed by name. “You remember Zhao. You remember his fortress, his archers, all the things he was able to do. He has even more power now. He’s gathering all of the Fire Nation’s forces for an invasion of the Northern Water Tribe.”

Aang looks conflicted. Zuko hates to put so much on his shoulders, but he needs to get the message to the tribe. He needs to make sure they know, so the horrors of the invasion from his time don’t come about.

Katara puts a hand on Aang’s shoulder. “You were the only one of us who really saw what Zhao was capable of,” she says softly. “What do you think?”

Before Aang can respond, Sokka says, “Why would you even consider trusting him? This is Zuko, remember? The crazy guy who chased us all over the world! Why would he suddenly want to help now?”

Feeling like he’s losing ground, Zuko opens his mouth again, maybe to remind Aang of his offer of friendship, maybe to explain himself, but before he can say anything, one of the men at the table speaks up. “Did you say his name was Zuko?”

Sokka falters. “Uh - yeah. Well, I call him Angry Ponytail Guy, or That Jerk With a Ponytail, or -”

The man stands up. Zuko swears he recognizes him from somewhere, but he can’t quite place it. Was it the last time he was in the Northern Water Tribe? Was it after the invasion? Wait, could it have been -

“Do you mean to tell me,” the man says, interrupting both Sokka’s rambling and Zuko’s train of thought, “That this Fire Nation soldier here is Prince Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozai?”

Zuko has the wild thought of trying to claim he was some other random Zuko, but he knows it’s hopeless. He’s doomed now. If he’d thought being a captured enemy soldier was bad, it would be nothing compared to what would happen to him as the son of the enemy’s leader. 

He can only hope for a painless death. 

At least he’d gotten his message out, in some form. He hopes Aang, at least, will at least consider the possibility. 

“That’s him!” Sokka says cheerfully as he signs Zuko’s execution order.

Chief Arnook turns to look at him, face grave. “This certainly changes things,” he says. He turns to the guards. “Lock him up. When I’m done here, I want to - “ he glances at the Avatar - “ask him some questions about how he got inside.”

“What about what he was saying, about the invasion?” Aang asks worriedly. 

The chief frowns. “I don’t think there’s any such thing. No one would be stupid enough to try to invade the tribe.” He makes the mistake of meeting Aang’s eyes, and sighs. “But I will ask. Now, come, tell me about your journey, Avatar.”

Zuko strains to listen as Aang starts talking to the chief, as excited as he had been when walking in, but the guards drag him roughly down the hall. He strains for one last glimpse of his friends as another set of guards close the massive doors, but can’t catch sight of them. The doors close with an ominous boom, and Zuko is left to his fate.

He hopes he’s made at least some difference.

Chapter Text

Zuko is thrown into a cell of ice. In the corner sits a bed covered in furs, but that is the only decoration, and there are no windows. 

Despite the fact he's regulating his temperature, Zuko shivers. So this is where he meets his end, this time. 

He sits on the bed and stares at the door, which is nothing more than a slightly off-colored blotch on the otherwise smooth ice wall. 

He doesn't have to wait too long before the door opens again. 

It's the chief. He stands above Zuko with his arms crossed and a stern expression, flanked by two guards, who stand ready to waterbend at the slightest provocation. 

"I had half a mind to send you out on the ice immediately," the chief says, "but the Avatar convinced me to at least hear you out. So here I am. What will happen to you after this depends entirely on what you tell me." 

Zuko feels a surge of relief. He knew he'd been right to try and appeal to Aang. The little airbender had come through for him once again, likely without even realizing the full scope of what he'd done. 

"I was on Admiral Zhao's ship," Zuko begins. No sense in derailing his only chance at survival with the lengthy tale of how he'd gotten there. "He's bringing the whole navy together for an assault." At the chief's skeptical frown Zuko hurries to add, "But it's all a ruse! He's just using the invasion to distract you from his real plan - killing the moon spirit!" 

The two waterbenders reel back in shock, but the chief only looks sour. "Pakku mentioned hearing something about that, but that's ridiculous. No one is that stupid. And no one is stupid enough to try to invade us, either, not after eighty years." 

Zuko jolts at hearing the name. Pakku. Katara's waterbending master, and a member of the White Lotus. He'd clearly heard from Iroh about Zhao's plans and tried to pass them on. If a master waterbender hadn't gotten through to the chief, what luck would the someone so clearly from the Fire Nation have? 

"That's why I escaped and came here," Zuko says in a last minute effort to make his case. "I was trying to warn you." 

The chief looks down at him. "How did you get here? How did you get in the city? If what you say is correct, and I'm not saying I believe you, but if it is, how would they go about invading?" 

Zuko shifts on his bed of furs. "I swam in through a turtle-seal hole. I doubt anyone else will, it's not easy. The Fire Nation - uh, we, I guess, we have catapults that can take down your wall." 

A waterbending guard snorts. The other one discreetly smacks him, but he's barely concealing a grin himself. 

The chief shakes his head. "Nothing your nation has can penetrate our wall." 

Zuko clenches his fists. "These will." 

The chief is looking distinctly angrier. "I don't know why you broke into this city to tell your tales, but our walls have kept your nation out for eighty years and they won't fail us now." 

"This invasion will happen," Zuko replies, getting angrier himself. "Why can't you see that? While you've been hiding behind your wall the Fire Nation has been building new machinery, improving, and they will come and they will break right through, and there's nothing you can do to stop it because you won't believe me -" 

Zuko cuts himself off as his limbs are suddenly encased in ice. A threat. 

The chief looks furious. "You are an enemy of my people and everything I hold dear. All you've done since breaking into my city is cause me trouble and tell me tall tales. I am a merciful man, though. You will be left here tonight, to pray to whatever spirit you firebenders pray to, and tomorrow I will return to inform you of your fate." He turns to go. 

Zuko realizes he has one last chance to save his own life. "Wait," he cries. "Tell Pakku - ask Pakku - please, let me talk to Pakku -" 

Zuko is thrown against the wall and ice encases his mouth as well. 

The door closes solidly behind the chief and his guards. 

Thankfully, the ice around Zuko's body melts after the door shuts. He sinks to his knees. After all he'd been through, after all he'd fought for and sacrificed, he's to die here, in the Northern Water Tribe, all of the progress and the differences he'd made erased in one implausible time jump. 

Zuko thinks on his uncle, on Zhao's ship, now the only one who can stop his plans. He'd never gotten the chance to truly connect with his uncle this time around. The last memories his uncle has of him before the explosion in the ship are him being as rude and abrasive as he always had, these days. 

He thinks Aang will be sad, for a while at least. The kid was always the best of them. He doubts this Katara or this Sokka would spare him much of a thought, as he'd only ever been their enemy. Suki, too. Toph would never have even known him, and that thought, more than the others, somehow, hurts him. 

Zuko is so focused on his inner turmoil he barely even notices the door opening. His head snaps up to see the white-haired woman who'd been sitting at the table in the main hall. She looks unsure, almost scared, and she hurries inside and shuts the door with an unease of someone who very much is not supposed to be there, and isn't sure if they want to be there themselves. 

She looks up, spots Zuko watching her, and jumps with a soft noise. Then she composes herself, straightening her skirts and her posture. "My name is Princess Yue," she says. Her voice is clear and her face void of emotion despite the obvious uncertainty that lingers in her posture. 

"Zuko," he responds, because that's all he can think to do. Without any title, because he hasn't thought of himself as a prince for a while now. 

Yue glances at the bed, but seems to judge it too far from the door, and so remains standing. 

The silence stretches between them, awkward. 

"I wanted to talk to you myself," she says eventually. "I saw you - heard you in the mail hall, talking about how you risked your life to warn us about the invasion." She takes a deep breath. "My father doesn't believe you. He thinks our wall will hold as it always does. But - but the Avatar believes you. And - and I - and I do as well." 

Zuko blinks in surprise. "You do?" 

She nods stiffly. "I want to know how it's going to happen." 

Zuko leans forward, feeling excited again. This is the chief's daughter - she can surely pass along anything that needs to be done, and likely even see it done. She's his salvation. "Zhao is after the moon spirit." 

Yue gasps in shock. "What?" 

Zuko nods. "He thinks killing it will stop waterbending. Which - well, yes, but it'll hurt everyone else too. It's just - it's just wrong." 

Yue's head is buried in her hands. "This is awful. What are we supposed to do?" 

"Tell Pakku," Zuko replies. "He'll know what to do. Tell him - tell him I know about the White Lotus." 

Yue blinks up at him through the tears that had started to gather in her eyes. "What?" 

"It's -" Zuko pauses. "He'll know what it means." 

Yue worries her lip between her teeth, but she nods. She glances behind her at the door, considers it, then strides across the cell and sits herself on the bed. "Everyone is at the party," she explains. "I'll speak to him after." 

"Party?" Zuko asks, after a long, awkward pause, just to have something to say. 

"For the Avatar's coming." Yue blushes. "Also - also my birthday." 

Zuko nods, unsure what to say. They lapse back into awkward silence. 

"So what's it like?" Yue asks suddenly. "The Fire Nation, I mean." 

Zuko blinks. "Uh. It's. It's hot?" 

His answer is not satisfactory. She pouts.

"Uh - we have lots of really nice beaches," he goes on hurriedly. "In the summer we spend most of our time in the water, since it's so hot." 

"Tell me about the beach. What's it like?" 

Zuko takes a second to remember. Not the beach as he'd been to it with Aang and the rest. That would raise too many questions if he slipped up and mentioned one of them. He settles on an early memory. "The sand is always very warm, you have to keep moving or else your feet burn. And - the water's always cold, it's always refreshing. Everyone in the Fire Nation knows how to swim from a young age so there's always half the nation out there in the summer, enjoying it. We used to play games, too, like this one - "

He doesn't mind talking about the Fire Nation to Yue. He likes it, even. He feels a little better, knowing someone would pass on what he'd said to Pakku, at least, so he wouldn't die in vain. If he even died at all. He's always hesitant to get his hopes up, but Yue may be the key to saving his life. He doesn't have anything better to do until the next day when he finds out his fate, so he may as well spend it reminiscing about some of the only happy times in his life. 

"You have a sister?" Yue asks, and Zuko realizes he's accidentally mentioned Azula. He'd been talking about the turtle-crabs he would  pull from the water, and had let slip how his sister used to throw them back in when his back was turned. 

Zuko glances to the side. "I - yes." 

"Tell me about her." 

Zuko swallows. "She - she's a prodigy. The best firebender in the Fire Nation, besides the Fire Lord, they say. She was trained by the best -" 

"She was trained?" Yue asks, a shine in her eyes. 

"Well, yes." Zuko remembers Katara raging about sexism in the Northern Water Tribe. "Um - everyone is trained in combat in the Fire Nation, no matter their gender." 

Yue glances at her hands, clasped prettily in her lap. "I have nothing but respect for our traditions, but sometimes I wish -" She sighs deeply. "Never mind. Tell me more about the turtle-crabs." 

Zuko shakes his head. He's done talking about the Fire Nation of his past. "Tell me about you. What do you wish for?" 

Yue wrings her hands together. Zuko waits in tense silence. 

"I don't want to be married!" she says suddenly, then looks shocked at her own admission. 

"Married?" Zuko echoes. 

Yue nods, tears gathering in her eyes. "I'm betrothed to Hahn - one of our strongest warriors. He's - he's nice, I suppose, to me, at least, but -" She shakes her head. "I don't - love him. I know it shouldn't matter, I know I have to do this for the tribe, but I -" 

Zuko remembers the brief period he'd been home, after his cowardice at Ba Sing Se and before joining the Avatar. His father had talked about finding him a bride to continue the line. That had been one of the many, many things that pushed him over the edge, in the end, the realization that his love life was only a means of adding to the line of succession. 

Yue lets out a harsh breath. "I love my tribe, I love everything about it, but sometimes I just wish I could change some things. Just a few things." 

"Why can't you?" he asks. 

"Because I'm a woman," she replies. Before he can respond, she goes on, "No matter what I say, no one will ever listen to me. When my father dies, Hahn will become chief, and I'll just become his wife. The most I can do is raise my children well, and hope that one of them will change the way things are done." 

Zuko remembers Katara, eyebrows drawn together in anger, arms flailing, retelling her time in the Northern Water Tribe with so much raw anger he'd felt as if she were blaming him for their norms. He also remembers what she'd done about it. 

"It doesn't have to be that way," he begins cautiously. "I think - you shouldn't wait for someone else to take a stand for what's right. You should do it yourself even if it's hard." He realizes he was talking about himself a little, there. 

But Yue doesn't seem convinced. "The tribe is my whole life. If I stand up to them, and they reject me -" 

Zuko shifts. He tries to think of something intelligent to say, but he's clearly run out of intelligent thoughts. 

Yue suddenly looks thoughtful. "The southern girl," she says, quietly, as if to herself. "I wonder." She turns to Zuko with a grin, much brighter than she'd been a minute ago. "Thank you," she says. "For wonderful company, and a wonderful talk." 

"Uh - no problem," Zuko says. Then, "Happy birthday." 

"Thank you." Yue stands, drops into a low curtsey, and is back out the door before Zuko can even think of bowing back. 

He pulls himself onto the bed, his back numb from sitting against the ice as he had. The bed is still warm from Yue sitting on it. 

He hadn't really noticed her the first time around, and had only learned about her through the accounts of others. This is the girl whose bravery his uncle had lauded, whose beauty and kindness Sokka had missed deeply, whose loss the whole tribe had felt keenly. Talking to her now, Zuko thinks she seems somewhat lonely. 

He finds himself hoping she comes back. 

Zuko settles himself into the bed, but finds he can't fall asleep as the impending decision by the chief looms ever nearer.

Chapter Text

Zuko is awoken from an uneasy sleep by the sound of the door opening. He sits up hurriedly, blinking the tiredness out of his eyes. Standing in the doorway is the chief, and behind him stands the man who had recognized Zuko’s name the day before. There are no guards. 

Zuko isn’t sure whether that is a good sign or not. 

“I spoke to the other elders about your story,” the chief says with no preamble, “And we have come to the decision that, whether or not what you say will come to pass, you truly believe it will. That being said, your mere presence in this city is a threat in and of itself.”

He pauses for a breath and Zuko feels his body tense. Surely that doesn’t mean… 

“You will remain imprisoned until the invasion comes. If it does, we will decide what to do with you after it ends. If it does not…” He trails off and gives Zuko a significant look. He can fill in the blanks. If there is no invasion, he will be killed. But there will be an invasion, he knows that well, and he will be trapped in the Water Tribe prison for the duration, it seems. Beyond that, he’s not sure, but if the Water Tribe intended to kill him, he thinks they would have done it by this point. 

Zuko sags in relief. This is probably the best outcome he can get, considering the circumstances. The chief turns and heads out of the cell, his message received. The other man remains behind.

“You asked to speak with me,” he says. 

Zuko looks up, confused, then remembers his previous conversation with the chief, and, later, with Yue. “Pakku?” He asks. As he thinks it over, his memories become clearer. He’d only briefly met the waterbending master in the White Lotus camp, which is why he hadn’t made the connection before, but now it all comes rushing back.

“Master Pakku,” the old man corrects with a distinct hint of annoyance, then goes on, “I was not aware your uncle had told you about the Order. I would have advised against it.” He shakes his head. “No matter, what’s done is done.”

Zuko shifts. Now that he’s no longer directly facing the possibility of death, he isn’t sure what to say to Pakku - Master Pakku, he supposes - anymore.

“I wrote to Iroh,” the master goes on, sparing Zuko from having to come up with something. “When he gets here, I’ll let him in, and he’ll break you out.”

Zuko opens his mouth to thank Master Pakku, but he’s cut off with a stern glare. “I am not doing this for you ,” he says coldly. “I am doing this for my tribe. You clearly don’t pose a threat, but as it is, keeping you would be more trouble than it would be worth. When Iroh gets you out, you will leave with him, and get out of the city, and leave the North for good.” He narrows his eyes. “Am I clear?”

Zuko nods, not willing to say anything, not willing to risk the good fortune he’s somehow acquired. 

Pakku leaves and Zuko lays back on the bed, hoping to use the chance to get some sleep, since he hadn’t had much in the night.

It hits him, then, that he has nothing else to do until the end of the invasion. He hates the thought that he won’t be able to do anything to stop Zhao, but, stuck in prison as he is, what can he do?

Had he been in any other circumstances, he would simply escape and go on helping as he liked. But, now, he has his uncle to think about. His uncle would be deep in enemy territory to get him out, and he has to stay, for his uncle’s safety. The last thing he wants is for his uncle to get captured trying to break him out of prison, only for him to be somewhere else entirely. 

He thinks about Yue, then, and his conversation with her the night before. She had seemed to believe him when he’d warned her about the invasion, about the spirits. He can only hope she’d be able to do something, or at least get Aang to do something. She’s his only hope right now. 

The door opens again and a guard places a bowl in the cell. It’s only then that Zuko realizes how hungry he is. He hasn’t eaten anything since some rations on his little ship on the way to the North. He eats ravenously, despite the salty, bland taste of the sea prunes. 

He remembers Katara had made these, once. They’d found sea prunes in the market on Ember Island. He hadn’t volunteered an explanation as to why they had been there and, thankfully, Katara had thought better than to ask. She’d simply bought them and they’d brought them back to the house. The rest of the group had been decidedly less than pleased at her choice of food, but they had all understood the importance the dish held to Katara and had diligently eaten them.

Zuko had, surprisingly, found he’d liked them. They had been far from the level of spicy he normally prefers, and he doubted he would choose them off a menu, but they weren’t altogether unpleasant. 

These, on the other hand, were far, far too salty, and soggy, too, in a way Katara’s hadn’t been. He keeps eating, though, because he doesn’t know when his next meal will come. 

Zuko decides to spend the day keeping up his strength, after that. It’s not like he has anything better to do. He spends some time meditating, steadying his breathing and building up his fire, shaking off the never-ending cold. He'd been able to dry his clothes somewhat with bending the day before, but he was still chilly in his armor. He peels off some of the heavier pieces, no longer needing them to stave off the cold, and spreads a fur on the ground. He uses it as a crude mat, stretching and doing what strength exercises he can think of in the small room. He’s reminded a little of his time in the Boiling Rock. He’d done the same thing there, during those long stretches of time when all he could do was wait and hope Sokka wasn’t captured, or hurt, or worse.

He realizes, then, that he should probably stop getting arrested.

While he works out, he wonders what his friends are doing. Aang is probably training with Pakku, that's a given. Has Katara challenged him to a fight yet? He isn’t sure, exactly, when that had gone down, but he knows Katara wouldn’t wait to correct injustice. Sokka - he takes a second to think on that one. Last time, he thinks, Sokka had spent what time he could with Yue. Are they together now? Sokka had always been hesitant to talk about her, so he isn’t sure when they had met or what they had done. Either Sokka is with Yue now, or he's training with the other nonbending men, Zuko reasons. Either way, Sokka is happy. 

Zuko finds himself smiling, imagining Sokka waving his boomerang around, trying to show off for his northern brethren. Sokka has always had a competitive streak. In his time, that had meant match after match of sword fighting as Sokka built his skills until he could cleanly beat Zuko, which had taken a while, but not as long as Zuko had expected. Sokka was much smarter than people tended to give him credit for, on the battlefield, and off it as well. After the Boiling Rock, Zuko had found himself confiding in Sokka when he needed someone to talk to. 

Although he fully understands why it had happened, it had hurt to see Sokka so suspicious the day before. He feels like he’d just gotten through the barrier, like the two of them had just been becoming close, and now here he is, back at the beginning. 

He’s startled out of his musing by the door opening again. It’s Yue, which surprises him. Sure, they’d gotten along well enough, but he’d answered her questions, and hadn’t thought she needed or wanted anything more from him.

She’s holding a bowl, this time with a soup-like substance that smells better than the sea prunes had. She holds it out with a soft smile.

“How was your day?” she asks as Zuko takes a seat on his bed to eat.

He looks up, eyebrows drawn together. He’d been in prison the whole day, so he doesn't really have anything interesting to report on that front. “Fine,” he settles with. “And yours?”

Yue breaks into a broad grin. “I went down to see the Avatar train today,” she says.

Zuko leans forward. “How is he?”

“He’s fine.” Yue’s eyes are shining. There’s clearly something else that had captured her attention, more so than the airbender. “But Katara, the girl from the Southern Water Tribe, was told she couldn’t train with him. That she had to learn healing, because she’s a woman.”

Zuko smiles softly. There she goes. “How did she take that?”

“Not well!” Yue seats herself right next to Zuko on the bed, smiling excitedly at him, seemingly unaware that she's closer to him than she'd allowed herself to be the night before. “She challenged Master Pakku to a fight!”

Zuko had known this was coming but still waits for Yue to finish the story, watching the princess look off into the distance as she recalls the events of earlier in the day. 

“She was so amazing,” Yue breathes. “She fought so well, too. Some of those moves I’d never even seen before!”

“Did she win?”

“No,” Yue replies sadly, and Zuko is suprised. If she’d lost, then how - “Master Pakku agreed to train her anyway, though.” She turns to Zuko. “She had a necklace - her grandmother’s, she said. That's why Master Pakku agreed. I had never heard this story before, but apparently long ago Katara’s grandmother had lived here, in the Northern Water Tribe, but had left because she wanted to do what it was said women couldn't do.” She shakes her head. “It saddens me, you know, to think of how little has changed here since then.”

“You can do something about it,” Zuko suggests, “When you’re in charge. Or now, I suppose, even. You can do something, at least.”

Yue looks thoughtful. “Katara told me that as well. If you both think that - perhaps I will!” She gives Zuko one last smile and stands. “I must go now, my father won't be very pleased to hear I came to visit you again.” She takes his now empty soup bowl. “I - perhaps I will come back soon. It must be lonely here, for you. And -” She looks uncertain. “As strange as it is, I find I like talking to you.”

Zuko blinks. She likes talking to him? He would never have suspected the daughter of the chief of the Northern Water Tribe would enjoy his company. 

He thinks of his friends. He’s had stranger company, he supposes. 

He’d spent so long after coming to this time lamenting the loss of his friends and wondering when and how he would be able to connect with them again, he had never expected he would make a new friend along the way. 

He remembers, then, what had happened to her in his timeline. He had already been planning to alter this event, but now he renews his focus. He refuses to let anything bad happen to Yue. 

Zuko’s days are spent working out in his prison of ice, but at night Yue comes to visit. She brings with her stories of the Water Tribe, funny little things she’d seen that day, and brings him news of how Aang is doing in training. Her favorite subject, though, seems to be Katara. She returns each day with a new incredible feat she had seen Katara complete, and her eyes shine in awe every time. She tells Zuko about how she’s started waiting for Katara to be done with training, and how the two of them walk to get something to eat together, talking. When Zuko asks what they talk about, she blushes and gives a non-committal answer. 

Zuko notices that Yue never seems to talk about Sokka much. She mentions him in passing once or twice, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that their paths rarely cross. 

Zuko wonders if it’s something he’s done, some way he’s altered the timeline so that Sokka and Yue never had their crucial meeting, or if the meeting doesn’t happen until later. He doesn’t want to think that this may be his fault, but he can’t shake the possibility. He feels like he’s betraying the Sokka he knows, a little, but he sees how happy Yue is and can’t bring himself to feel too bad. 

Yue goes back to asking him questions about his home, too. Some things he prefers not to speak about, like his family, not anymore, and she graciously changes the subject when such things come up. He’s happy, though, to tell her about the mundane facts of the Fire Nation. It is his home, still, after everything. Yue delights to hear about the beaches, the small fishing towns, all the little things, and he’s glad to talk about them. They remind him of the home he’s fighting so hard to save. 

Zuko isn’t sure how long he spends in the cell, the days seemingly bending together with only food and Yue to break the monotony, but he guesses it’s about a week into his stay when Yue appears, looking far more haggard than he’s ever seen her. Her hair is disheveled, and her face looks drawn with worry. He knows instantly what she’s about to say before she says it.

“The Fire Nation - they’re here.”

Chapter Text

Guards gently pull Yue away before she can say anything else, all looking as worried as she is. They close the door tightly behind her. 

Zuko tests it, gently, just to check. As he'd suspected, it's sealed tighter than before. The whole tribe is on edge and no one wants the rogue firebender to get any ideas, it seems. He can respect that. 

Zuko settles back on the bed but he can't relax. He had seen the initial invasion from the other side, the last time around, had seen the catapults launch balls of fire that shattered the Northern Water Tribe's wall like it was nothing. He'd seen the Avatar and the valiant Northern soldiers take out as many ships as they could with all everything they had, but had also seen how they'd barely been able to make a dent in the massive Fire Nation Navy.

Now, sitting in his cell, Zuko shivers. So many of them had died, but the Zuko of the past had barely spared them a thought, all his focus on sneaking out to find the Avatar. The Zuko of the present fears for the lives of the nation he's only seen glimpses of. No one should have to die for this stupid power play of Zhao's, not the Fire Nation nor the Water Tribe. 

Zuko is shaken out of his thoughts as the walls seem to shake around him. It's begun, he realizes. He hopes beyond hope that his advanced warning had helped in some way, that the tribe had been able to prepare, but he's no fool. No matter how much the North prepared, they still face an enemy they have woefully outdated information about, and are fighting an invading force for the first time in generations. His warning may have helped some, but he fears it isn't enough. 

The walls continue to shake as the Fire Nation's barrage carries on. 

Zuko is unable to tell time in his windowless cell, and he receives no meals, his guards likely elsewhere helping the battle. 

He tries not to think about how the battle is going, what he could be doing to help. He needs to wait for his uncle, and besides, what good would he do from the city against the Navy? He doubts anyone would let him near enough a boat to help the strike team, or even tolerate him long enough to get out a combat tip. Despite the fact that he's not being sentenced to death, he's still a Fire Nation soldier and he's in enemy territory. Even if he does break out, his uncle's safety notwithstanding, he wouldn't be any good to anyone. He'd only be an unwelcome distraction. 

After a time, the attack suddenly seems to cease. Sundown. It's the night before the full moon and he knows Zhao isn't stupid enough to continue attacking through that waterbending power boost before he can get to the moon spirit, if only because it was what he had done last time. 

Zuko knows now he has until the next night if he's to do anything about Zhao's plan. He may be a hindrance in the main battle, but surely he'd be able to do something here. He had tried to warn the chief, had warned Pakku and Yue, but… 

He looks around his cell. As bad of an idea it would be, he doesn't like the thought of just sitting back and hoping someone else would take care of things. That's never been how he operates. He's learned to trust in others, to trust that they will get things done, watch his back, but not to the point that he'd sit back and leave things to chance. 

Zuko is notoriously unlucky. He has never left anything to chance. 

Path set, Zuko sets to work figuring out how to get out of his cell. It's not that hard, once he spares a thought to it. The door and all the walls are made of ice, and there are no guards. 

The door takes some time to melt because of its thickness, but no one comes to stop him, confirming that the area is cleared of Water Tribe members. 

Zuko glances back at his cell and sends an apology to his uncle. Iroh will be fine, he reasons, he hopes. He's got Pakku, if it comes down to it. 

Zuko has to try, at least, to change things for the better. 

The corridor his cell was in leads to the main hall where he'd been brought originally. Zuko finds it a bit strange that the prison and the main gathering area are so close, but maybe there's some strategy to it. He decides not to judge. 

He makes his way through the icy hallways in search of the door to the oasis where the spirits had been, trying to remember the way from his last time here. He'd been coming up from the canals then, whereas now he's heading down from the center. He knows it's near the palace, which he deduces is close by. 

He stays as stealthy as he can, although he quickly realizes there's no one to catch him. It's deserted, which is eerie. He would have expected some people, especially now, during the respite. Perhaps everyone is still sheltering, or building up their outer defenses. 

He doesn't want to think of any other alternative. 

Zuko chances a look out of a window, and sees the whole of the Northern Water Tribe stretching out below him. There’s the wall in the distance - noticeably higher and with less holes than he remembers, and he breathes a sigh of relief. One thing has gone right, at least. Perhaps even some lives had been saved. If just one more person is alive that hadn’t been in his time, Zuko thinks, then this whole crazy adventure is worth it.

Closer to his position and securely surrounded by the elaborate city structure is a large building, the only one illuminated. He sees people moving in the glow of the fire. This is their safehouse, he realizes. It seems sturdy enough, the walls thick enough to repel all but the most determined firebenders, and only those able to bend continuously with no interruptions. 

Zuko turns away and heads further into the complex he’s found himself in. He thinks the entrance to the oasis is closer to his location than the safehouse, which is good news, because it means he doesn’t have to risk an encounter. 

He’s just reached a back stairwell that seems promising when he hears the sound of running feet. He swings around, hands coming up in a defensive posture, only to see -

“Sokka?”

The man in question looks bewildered for a second, then jabs a finger at Zuko, stomping towards him. “You have a lot of nerve, jerkbender. The chief took me off the mission to go babysit you, which is a waste of my talents, first of all, and then, when I show up at your cell, you don’t even have the decency to be there. ” 

By the time he gets to the end of his spiel, he’s face to face with a surprised Zuko, finger poking him right in the chest, looking quite peeved.

Zuko blinks. “Uh… Sorry?”

“You should be sorry,” Sokka replies, settling back on his heels. “I missed out on my chance to impress Yue by taking out Zhao. She’s been spending all her time with Katara, and I’ve had no chance to talk to her. But now I’m here watching you instead. And I know exactly what you’re trying to do, too.”

Sokka’s stance shifts and his facial expression turns serious. One hand reaches towards his back, where his boomerang lies. “You wanted to use the invasion to get to Aang, didn’t you?” he goes on, eyes narrowing. “You came here, convinced everyone to believe you, told them all these things about this massive invasion that you, prince of the Fire Nation, had nothing to do with. Then you waited until we were all busy fighting your countrymen to bust out and catch Aang. Well, I won’t let you.”

Zuko holds out his hands, trying to placate Sokka as much as he can. “It’s not like that at all! Zhao’s the one behind all of this - I had nothing to do with any of it! He’s the one who got the Navy - he’s the one using the invasion to get to the moon spirit.”

Sokka’s stance doesn’t falter, but he frowns, curious. “The moon spirit?”

Zuko nods. He’s repeating himself once again, but clearly Sokka is out of the loop, poor guy, and, well, it might make the difference between taking a boomerang to the head and not. “He wants to end waterbending. Permanently.”

Sokka shudders. “That - that’s crazy.”

“Yeah. Which is why I have to stop him. I stopped chasing the Avatar, even, that’s how much I mean this.”

Sokka’s eyes narrow. “If there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you don’t stop chasing the Avatar. Not for anything.”

Oops.

Sokka lunges forward with a punch Zuko dodges easily. He tries again, to much the same results. This Sokka is nowhere near the level of the Sokka Zuko had sparred with, but he can see the beginnings of techniques he recognizes in the man’s movements. He recognizes the early stages of Sokka’s signature style, unrefined but still there, and it only helps him keep out of the way. Zuko doesn’t want to hurt him, so he tries to keep on the defensive, but unlike Zhao before him, Sokka fights up close and personal, and Zuko is forced to trade blows before long. 

Using the confines of the hallway, Sokka is able to hold his own for a time, but Zuko inevitably manages to slip through his attack and runs, heading back the way he’d come. If he can lose the guy, he’d be able to make a clean break to the oasis without hurting him.

Zuko hears the faint sound of something being thrown behind him and ducks instinctively, glancing behind him. Sokka is standing with his hands on his hips, looking triumphant.

Zuko only has time to think not again before the boomerang hits him in the back of the head and he knows no more.

Chapter Text

Zuko awakes freezing cold.

He blinks his eyes open against the pain in his head. He tries to pull an arm over them to shade them against the glaring light, and it’s only then that he realizes his arms and legs are tied up. 

He shifts against his bonds. They’re tight, but not uncomfortably so, but most importantly, they’re secure. Whoever had tied them clearly knows their way around knots. 

As the glare fades to a more manageable luminosity, Zuko takes in his surroundings. He’s back in his cell - or maybe one exactly like it, there hadn’t been much in the way of identifying marks - and lying on the cold ground, with nothing but his thin under armor outfit between him and the ice. Sokka is sitting on the bed, looking bored, huddled in the furs.

Zuko tries to think the best of his friends, but he well knows Sokka can be a real asshole when he wants to be.

He takes a deep breath, warming himself up, and Sokka jolts to attention as a lick of fire escapes Zuko’s mouth. “What in Tui and La was that?”

“I’m cold,” Zuko says in explanation. “Ice is cold.”

Sokka huffs. “Serves you right, jerk. That’s what you get for breaking out to get Aang.”

“I wasn’t -” Zuko sees by Sokka’s skeptical look that he’s going to get nowhere arguing like this. He sighs dejectedly instead and rolls over, shifting his aching joints and trying to find a comfortable position on the floor. 

The room shakes suddenly, and Zuko realizes with a sinking feeling he’s been out for some time. The battle has begun again, and he knows today is the ground assault. Today Zhao makes the play for the moon spirit. 

Sokka glances at the closed door, as if that would offer any updates on the battle raging outside. He scowls. “I promised the chief I’d watch you,” he says as if reminding himself of his mission. 

They lapse into an uncomfortable silence. 

Zuko lets out a huff of frustration. This is worse than the day before. He’s managed to convince himself that he needs to be out here stopping Zhao now, so he can’t sit tight and just listen to the sounds of battle without feeling a pressing need to do something, never mind that he wouldn’t be able to help with this fight, either. 

Sokka seems twitchy, too, and Zuko reasons he’s probably feeling the same way. 

“I just don’t understand you,” Sokka says suddenly, breaking the tense silence. “One day you’re following us, being your usual crazy stalker self, and then suddenly you’re at the Northern Water Tribe before us, babbling about an invasion. I just -” He looks at Zuko. “I just want to understand you. Zhao’s on your side, right?”

“He is not on my side,” Zuko growls, then manages to get a grip on his temper. Sokka is finally listening, he can’t waste this opportunity. “He’s just here for glory, for destruction. All he cares about is looking good for the Fire Lord, and he’s willing to do anything to get it. Even blowing up my ship.”

Sokka’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “He what? But - why target you? I mean, prince, right?”

Zuko sighs. He doesn’t want to get into this, not right now. It had been bad enough telling the others back when they were friends, he isn’t in the mood to do it again here, in his cold cell, with an invasion raging outside and the moon spirit in immediate danger. “I was banished,” he says simply. 

“Banished?” Sokka echoes quietly. 

Zuko wants to leave it at that, but Sokka looks so lost and confused. He remembers the Sokka of his time, how kind he had been when Zuko told this story, how understanding. “That’s why I was chasing the Avatar. Because I was banished three years ago, barred from the Fire Nation. The only way I could get home was by capturing him, but that wouldn't have mattered anyway, in the end, because I was never supposed to go home, so now I’m here, because stopping Zhao from killing the moon spirit is the only thing I can do, but I can’t even do that, because I’m in this stupid cell.”

He lets out a breath. He’d only meant to tell Sokka a little bit, just enough to get him to understand why Zuko had been on his insane quest and why he is now changing his objective, but all the emotions had come rushing back. He’d opened up, by his standards, at least, to Sokka quite a bit in his time, and being with him again, even a suspicious past version, made him comfortable enough to let it all out.

This is why he doesn’t talk about his past when he can avoid it.

Sokka’s mouth is a small ‘o’ of surprise. “That’s…” He trails off. Then he stands, looking determined. He pulls a knife from inside his coat. Zuko thinks for a second that he’s going to kill him, but to his surprise, the man just cuts his bonds. 

“I still don’t trust you,” Sokka says with a frown, “But I think I might just believe you. You were right about the invasion. I’m willing to bet you’re right about the spirits, too. And all that other stuff - I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. But I don’t think it matters what I think. I -” He takes a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I believe you, that you’re not trying to capture Aang anymore. At least for now.” He takes a step towards the door, then hesitates. “After this is over, after the moon spirit’s safe…”

Zuko stands up himself, shaking out his wrists and ankles. He looks up and meets Sokka’s gaze. “I’m done. I’m out. You won’t have to worry about me chasing you any longer.”

Sokka eyes him as if he still doesn’t fully believe him, then sighs. “Okay. Then let’s go.”

“Together?” 

The Water Tribesman lets out a bark of laughter. “If you were trying to get to the Spirit Oasis last night, you were going in the complete wrong direction. I know how to get there.” His eyes shift from amused to determined. “And you’re not fighting Admiral Sideburns without me.”

This is closer to the Sokka he knows, the Sokka who had been his friend, sparring partner, confidant. Zuko finds himself smiling.

Sokka takes the lead and they head out of the complex, in the opposite direction to the one Zuko had taken last night, just as Sokka had said. There are still no people around, but the sun is nearly gone and there seems to be no end to the sounds of battle. Just as Zuko had feared, the ground invasion is in full swing. 

Sokka takes them down a side staircase and through a deserted alleyway, and suddenly they’re in front of a small wooden door. Zuko recognizes it, vaguely. The Spirit Oasis. 

Sokka frowns at him, hand on the rope that serves as a doorknob. “If you betray us, if you go after Aang, if you were lying,” he says coldly, “I will kill you.”

Zuko nods, understanding. He wouldn’t expect Sokka to trust him again just like that, not after one sob story and a common goal. He has the chance to earn the man’s trust, though, and he intends to take it. He will never again hurt the friends who trust him.

Sokka nods back and pulls the door open. The two of them jump through the opening.

Zuko notices a few things very quickly. 

The sun is fully set, and where the scene should be bathed in the light of the full moon, everything is tinted a bloody red. Aang and Katara stand in ready stances, faces a mixture of horror and determination. On the other side of the oasis stands Zhao, triumphant, one arm wrapped around Yue, holding her in front of him like a shield, likely the reason Aang and Katara haven’t knocked him senseless by now. Her face is set in a determined frown, but Zuko can see the fear just below the surface. 

In Zhao’s other hand he holds a wriggling bag.

The moon spirit.

Zhao smirks. “You’re too late, Avatar. I have defeated the Water Tribe. My name will go down in history, and this silly little village will disappear forever.”

The bag bursts into flames.

Chapter Text

Zuko watches the bag begin to smoke and the spirit inside wiggle faster and feels the cold feeling of failure begin to overtake him. This can’t be how this ends, he can’t have come back like this only to change nothing, only for Yue to die again, no, no, no, no no, “NO!”

Everyone turns to look at him.

“Zuko!” Yue cheers, looking pleased.

“Zuko?” Aang asks, looking hopeful.

“Zuko?” Katara asks, looking confused.

"Zuko," Zhao hisses, looking surprised. His grip on Yue loosens in his shock.

Yue twists in Zhao’s now-slackened grip and delivers a solid right hook directly to his face.

Her form is a little clumsy but her punch lands true, and Zhao is so startled he loses his grip on the bag, which falls into the snow. The flames go out. Yue yanks herself away from Zhao, sends a kick at the bag that launches it back into the pond, then sprints over to Aang and Katara as the moonlight returns to its natural hue.

The assembled group lets out a collective sigh of relief. 

Zhao lets out an angry yell, clearly angered at losing his prize. “You got a lucky hit, but it won’t happen again. I will defeat you.” 

He turns back to the pond, but is knocked away with a water wave from Katara, who freezes it, trapping Zhao against the wall of the oasis. The Admiral’s personal guard appear from where they had been out of the way of the initial action, but with the immediate threat to the moon spirit removed, Aang and Katara have no problem knocking them out. Sokka, Zuko, and Yue watch, Sokka and Zuko in ready stances and feeling pretty redundant. 

“That was kind of disappointing, for a final battle,” Sokka comments idly. “All that time being chased by Zhao, we have our final face-off here, and he gets taken out in one hit by my little sister.”

“We saved the moon spirit,” Zuko reminds him.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t that cool of a battle, is all.”

The two of them head over to the larger group. Aang looks like he’s about to say something, but cuts himself off as Yue launches herself over to Zuko, grabbing his hands and grinning wildly. 

“I knew you would come,” she says excitedly. “Thanks to you distracting Zhao -” She takes a breath and calms herself, grin fading into a soft smile. “Thank you.”

Zuko shakes his head, a small smile on his own face. “No, that was all you.”

“Where did you learn to throw a punch like that?” Sokka asks from Zuko’s shoulder.

Yue lets out a laugh, turning to him. “It was Katara who taught me, actually!”

The woman in question steps up to Yue’s shoulder and frowns at where the princess’s hands are still joined with Zuko’s. “I wasn’t aware you two knew each other,” she says, her voice neutral and betraying none of what she felt about that. 

Yue drops Zuko’s hands and clasps Katara’s instead. “We spoke a few times, yes. He’s the one who inspired me to seek you out! He’s been a wonderful friend to me.”

Katara levels a sidelong glance at Zuko, thinking it over. She doesn’t look pleased, but she doesn’t look angry, either. He takes that as a victory.

Sokka jumps over to the women. “Wait a minute, are you saying you’ve been hanging out with Zuko? Is that why I haven’t gotten the chance to talk to you yet?”

“I’m glad you came!” Aang pipes up, bouncing up to replace Yue in front of Zuko and ignoring the princess and the siblings bantering off to the side. “I knew I was right to trust you about the spirits!”

Zuko finds himself smiling in the face of Aang’s familiar joy. “I -”

Whatever he had been about to say is cut off by the sound of the door to the oasis opening. The five spin around in unison, falling silent and getting into battle stances. 

It’s Iroh. Zuko relaxes his stance, but he’s the only one.

Iroh surveys the unconscious bodies around the oasis and the two fish circling peacefully, and a look of surprise crosses his face. When he turns to see Zuko standing in file with the Avatar, the two Southern Water Tribespeople, and Princess Yue, his look of surprise softens into a proud grin. “Well, nephew,” he says, “It seems you’ve been busy since you left.”

“Um, aren’t you that old man who was always with Zuko when he was chasing me?” Aang asks.

Iroh laughs. “Yes, I’m normally with my nephew, but this time he snuck out on his own without even saying goodbye.” He shakes his head. “Always reckless, that one.”

“Are you about to try to capture Aang now?” Sokka asks.

“Or are you here to finish what Zhao started?” Katara adds.

Iroh holds his hands out. “No, no, nothing like that. I came to stop Zhao.” He glances at the Admiral, still unconscious and encased in ice. “It seems I’m not needed."

“You didn’t go to the prison?” Zuko asks. For all that he understands the moon spirit was the more urgent of the two, he can’t help but feel a little hurt that his uncle hadn’t come for him right away. 

Iroh gives him a soft smile. “I know you well enough by now, nephew, to know that you would have been right here, in the middle of the action. It seems I was right to trust my instincts.”

Zuko lets out a sigh, and feels his lips twitch into a small smile. His uncle is right. If his mad quest for the Avatar had taught his uncle anything, it was that Zuko wouldn’t let anything so simple as a prison stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Even after all he had been through with the uncle of his time, he still isn't used to someone caring enough to know so much about him they can predict what he'd do so well. 

Iroh turns to Aang. “Young Avatar,” he says gently, “You’ve had quite the victory here, but there’s still an invasion outside.”

Aang slaps his own forehead. “Oh! Right!” He hurries over to the pond. “I was in the Spirit World, and I met all these crazy spirits,” he narrates to the assembled group. “I couldn’t find Tui or La, though.” He steps into the pond and the water begins to glow, as well as his airbender tattoos. “That’s because they were right here the whole time.” The glow grows stronger and, after a brief pause, the water begins to twist, wrapping around Aang’s half-submerged body. 

Zuko finds himself rushing forward and grabbing onto Aang’s arm. He hears Sokka shout from behind, but all his focus is on Aang, who turns to face him, eyes and tattoos glowing in the eerie light of the Avatar. 

“Please,” he says, not sure if Aang is even listening. “I - I know it’s a lot to ask, I know it’s an invasion, I know you need to save the Water Tribe. But just - the soldiers aren’t at fault. It’s Zhao, it’s the Fire Lord, it’s everyone who started this stupid war. Please - please have mercy on the rest of them. They’ll retreat, just -”

The Avatar’s hand comes out of the water and pulls Zuko’s hand off his arm. “I will do what I must,” he says, voice layered with power. He turns back to the pond, where the water latches onto his limbs and begins to attach itself to his body. “But I will try.”

The Avatar disappears into a massive, glowing creature of water that emerges from the pond. Its features are not nearly as exaggerated as they had been the last time Zuko had seen this beast, and it almost looks like a man. It isn’t crackling with murderous energy, either. It seems almost calm as it sweeps into the city.

Iroh and the rest rush to watch it make its way through the streets, but Zuko lingers behind in the oasis. Iroh stops at the door, looking back for a second. The two match gazes.

Zuko isn’t quite sure what his uncle sees in his eyes, but he looks proud, and then he’s gone. Zuko turns back to the pond, watching Tui circling alone, and lets out a deep breath.

The moon spirit, alive and well. The water spirit, calm and even, with the Avatar at its helm. He thinks, this time around, the Fire Nation will make it out of the battle with a loss but not with their numbers decimated, not like last time. Hopefully.

The crackling of ice is Zuko’s only warning before he’s dodging a fireball. 

"You are supposed to be dead!" Zhao roars, angry. 

“It takes a bit more than that to kill me,” Zuko replies. He sends a fireball of his own at the Admiral and runs towards the door. He needs to get Zhao away from the moon spirit any way he can. 

Zhao takes the bait and lunges after Zuko, who jumps nimbly through the door away from the swing. The two trade blows out into the city, unnoticed by the soldiers covering the streets. The Water Tribesmen are untouched, staring up in awe as their spirit protects their home. The Fire Nation soldiers are running in fear as the ocean spirit picks them up with its hands - and deposits them on their ships, still stuck where they’d rammed into the wall.

Zuko spares a second to sigh in relief before he’s back to fighting Zhao. The man is just as ruthless as always, but Zuko is calm, and manages some good hits of his own. 

He’s still taken off guard by a particularly solid kick to his injured leg, which had been healing well enough until now, and he crumples to the ground, gasping.

Zhao stands above him, gloating and victorious. Zuko looks up, on his hands and knees, eyes wide, and thinks that this is a situation he never wants to find himself in again.

All of a sudden, a massive, watery hand wraps around Zhao. The Admiral struggles and yells as he’s lifted clear off the bridge. The creature turns a darker blue, more angry, more murderous. The same sort of creature that had swept the Fire Nation to their deaths the first time Zuko had lived this day. 

Zuko jumps to his feet and reaches out a hand. After all this, he still doesn’t want Zhao to die. He can’t even blame this one on Aang, he’d done the same last time around.

He’s never wanted to kill anyone. He’s never wanted to watch anyone die, not if there’s anything he can do about it. 

Zhao refuses his hand, just like last time. 

He sinks beneath the waves, just like last time.

Zuko lets out a deep, shuddering breath. It is only natural the ocean spirit would want revenge on the attempted murderer of the moon spirit, at least, even if it had not come to pass. Still, he regrets not being able to save the Admiral. Perhaps some things are meant to be.

He’s jolted out of his musings when a blue hand wraps around his own body. He looks up in shock to see the glowing eyes of the creature looking right at him. 

The world goes white for a second, and when it clears he’s standing ankle-deep on an empty beach, sand and water stretching around him into the distance. The sea is perfectly calm and the sky is an empty gray color. He’s certainly not in the Northern Water Tribe anymore.

“Prince Zuko.” Where there had once been nothing around him, a man now stands in front of Zuko, standing effortlessly on top of the water. He’s clean-shaven with long dark hair pulled into a simple braid, two strands framing his face, tied together with white beads. His outfit, too is all white. He’s wearing a fur coat in a very old Water Tribe style.

Zuko can guess this is La, and that he’s in the Spirit World. Why, he isn’t sure. 

“You are covered in the power of the moon,” the man says. 

Zuko blinks. That’s strange. If anything, he would have guessed he’d be covered in the power of the sun, of Agni. 

“The Moon has brought you here to this place, to this time which is not your own,” La goes on. “Things must become truly dire if she chose to take this measure.”

“So it’s happened before?” Zuko asks. Finally he can get some answers. “Why send me, though? Why send me back to right before the invasion? What am I supposed to accomplish?”

La frowns. “The disruption of the time stream by way of humans is something we can do, but have never before had cause to. You were sent by the Moon but -” he narrows his eyes. “It is strange. Tui clearly sent you, there is no other possibility, but the energy is different. It is not my Tui’s energy.”

“Yue,” Zuko breathes, understanding. 

“Yue?” La echoes. 

“In my time, last time this happened, Zhao succeeded in killing the moon spirit,” Zuko explains. “Yue - She had been given life by the moon spirit when she was young, and she - she gave it back.” He hadn’t been there to watch Yue die the last time, and she wasn’t dead this time around, but he hurts just thinking of the woman he now knows and the sacrifice she had been forced to make in another world. “She became the moon spirit.”

La nods. “I see.” He sighs. “This means I cannot answer your questions. As this terrible event did not come to pass, the Yue that became the moon spirit and sent you back is gone.”

Zuko nods. He had hoped to get some sort of explanation, maybe even some sort of goal, but this is probably the best he’s going to get. He may as well continue trying to end the war early, since that seems to be working well enough. 

“Good luck in your quest, Prince Zuko,” La says, and the beach begins to fade. “I look forward to your progress. I will be watching you closely.”

As Zuko returns to his aching body in the real world, he can only think, That’s certainly a lot of pressure.

The massive spirit begins to fade, its body shrinking to reveal a still-glowing Aang. The glow fades quickly and Aang sways on his feet. Without thinking Zuko rushes forward, and he’s steadying him as Sokka, Katara, and Yue appear on the bridge. 

The three rush to him and surround Aang, who groans and rubs his head. They all look excited, babbling about how they had seen him sweep away the invading soldiers with ease. 

“You did it!” Sokka cheers. “That’ll be the last we see of the Fire Nation for a long time!” 

“I killed him,” Aang says quietly, staring down at his shaking hands. “I killed him.” 

The mood falls instantly. Sokka shifts. “Well, sometimes in battle -” 

“But it wasn’t a battle.” Aang clenches his hands into fists and turns to face Zuko, tears gathering in his eyes. “He couldn’t - he couldn’t fight back, even if he’d tried. And - I wanted to do it. I wanted to kill him for what he tried to do to the moon. That goes against - the monks used to say -” 

Zuko meets Aang's gaze and tries to look as comforting as he can, which is quite the feat. “You saved the lives of all those soldiers, the innocent ones, the ones who had no choice, on both sides. Zhao had a choice, and he chose evil, every time.” 

His reassurance has no effect. Aang is clearly still torn up about this, and the others clearly have no idea what to say, either. No one is really sure how much Aang had control while fused with the ocean spirit, but clearly he thinks he would have been able to make another choice. 

Privately, Zuko isn’t particularly upset that Zhao ended up dying anyway, but he knows better than to say it. 

The three Water Tribe members gather closer to Aang and pull him into a tight embrace. Zuko itches to join them, but turns away, a pain in his heart. He'd only just been invited into group hugs, and now he's excluded again. 

Zuko turns away. As much as it hurts, it’s time for him to leave.

Chapter Text

Zuko finds his uncle back in the Spirit Oasis, gathering the bodies of the unconscious soldiers and tying them up.

"It's over, then, I take it?" the old man asks. 

"For now," Zuko replies. 

He doubts any other invasion will come, not without Zhao's madness to force it, but he doesn't know for sure, now. So many Fire Nation soldiers are alive that hadn't been, last time. 

All the more reason to end the war soon, he tells himself. 

Iroh finishes tying the last knot and turns to face Zuko. His eyes are swimming with pride. "I see you have made some new friends." 

Zuko shrugs. "I wouldn't quite call us friends…" 

Iroh winks at him. "You will be soon enough, I expect. After all, you want to travel with them, do you not?" 

Zuko blinks in surprise. "I -" He hadn't really thought about his immediate plans after the invasion, but he had generally assumed he would do the most good with Aang. He hadn't expected his uncle to say it outright, though. 

Iroh places a hand on Zuko's shoulder, still smiling softly, eyes still shining with pride. "I know, nephew. I know something had changed in you the moment you opened your eyes in that healing hut. I know you do not want the Avatar as you once did. I know you, nephew. You have changed, but you are stronger now. I see it in your eyes. You are more sure of yourself. You know what you want out of your life, and you are no longer chasing your father's empty promises." He shakes his head. "I do not know what brought this change. Honestly, I do not care. I am just proud of what you've done here tonight, and I am proud of you."

Zuko feels a slight burn in his eyes as he fights to hold back tears. His uncle pulls him into a hug and he finds himself hugging back as tightly as he can. He can't quite believe that his uncle, this uncle, had been so in tune with his old, bratty self that he had noticed a change immediately, and he can believe even less how little the old man seems to care about an explanation. 

He's simply happy for Zuko. Zuko doesn't quite know how to process someone being happy for him with no strings attached. 

Iroh gently pulls away and starts to make for the door. Zuko hurries to follow. 

"What will you do, uncle? How will you get out of here?" 

Iroh sends him a faint smile. "I'll be fine, nephew. There are a few prisoners of war here, I expect I'll join them. I want to make sure they are being treated well, after all." The look in his eyes turns mischievous. "As for my eventual escape, well. I have my ways." 

Zuko's mouth quirks into a smile. Pakku. He can't imagine the man will be very happy about having to deal with Iroh's capture, but he's glad his uncle has someone watching out for him in the middle of enemy territory. 

Zuko and his uncle make their way across a short bridge to find Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Yue huddled around Appa. 

Aang is the first to see them. "Zuko!" he cries, grinning. It's not as big a grin as usual, he's still clearly torn up about Zhao, but it's progress. 

The others look up. Yue seems delighted, the siblings markedly less so. Appa doesn't seem to have an opinion, one way or another. 

It's then that Zuko notices the bags of supplies resting on and around Appa's saddle. "You're leaving?" he asks. He'd been under the impression Aang had stayed in the Water Tribe to complete his training for the duration of time he and his uncle had drifted on their raft, but perhaps he had been mistaken. 

Aang rubs the back of his head, suddenly nervous. "Well, we - I, I guess - were thinking, I dunno, that you were coming with us? I mean, Sokka told me about your ship, and you're uh - this isn't exactly the best place for Fire Nation right now. Unless you wanted to stay, I mean! No pressure! Uh, Yue can probably keep you safe or -" 

"No, I -" Zuko cuts himself off, realizing he'd just interrupted Aang. He hadn't been able to help it, he's stunned at the gesture of friendship Aang had been so willing to extend so quickly. 

Aang blinks at him with a hopeful smile, so he goes on. "I do. Want to go with you, I mean. Um, if you're all okay with it. I guess." He shifts his gaze to Katara and Sokka. 

"You know how I feel about it," Sokka says with an unreadable glint in his eyes. He had been given a chance already, and had taken it. Sokka still doesn't fully trust him, but he's getting there, and that's all that really matters. 

"I trust Aang's judgement, and if he says you've changed, I believe it," Katara says, with a soft smile. "I saw you in the Spirit Oasis. You were different from before, not as angry, not as desperate. I'm willing to give you a chance to prove yourself." 

Zuko feels a weight fall of his chest. Katara had been the last to trust him, in his time, and she'd had every right to doubt him. She'd been quick to trust him in Ba Sing Se, too, and look how that turned out. This time, he isn't going to betray her trust, not for anything. 

In his lowest moments at the palace he had thought it naive to trust as easily as she had him. It had been only after that he realized it takes strength to put your trust in an enemy and be open to the possibility that they may no longer be your enemy. Katara had done that for him twice - three times now, technically. This time he respects her strength. He will take her chance, as he had taken Sokka's, and prove to them that he can be trusted. He doesn't want to even think about the possibility of causing them pain by breaking their trust. 

He bows to all three of them. "You will not regret it," he says, promises. 

Yue clasps his hands, pulling him to face her, an excited grin on her face. "Please write!" 

"Of course," Zuko agrees immediately. 

"I will be helping to pull together the Tribe - we lost a few of our brave warriors, and the city itself needs rebuilding, too." She turns her attention to Katara, still grinning. "I will show them the leader I can be." 

She releases Zuko's hands and goes to Katara. She moves as if to clasp her hands, but changes direction at the last moment and cups her face instead. "You have helped me see how powerful I can be," she says, looking deeply into Katara's eyes. She pauses there, seemingly unsure. 

Katara leans in first. The kiss is soft, gentle. It's a goodbye and a promise, all in one. 

The two women break away, smiling at each other. 

"Aw, man," Sokka grumbles. Aang lets out a whoop. Zuko looks away in embarrassment at having watched such an intimate display, and Iroh chuckles softly. 

"Ah, young love," he muses. 

Aang turns, seemingly reminded Iroh is there. "Thanks for your help too! Are - Are you gonna be okay here? Do you, uh, need a lift?" 

Iroh shakes his head. "I will be fine, young Avatar, do not worry about me. You and your friends have quite the journey ahead of you." 

Aang bows to Iroh, and the old man returns it. Satisfied, Aang turns back to Appa and tosses up the last bag into his saddle. 

Zuko turns to his uncle. He opens his mouth, but his throat tightens. He's leaving his uncle in enemy territory, unsure of when they'd meet again, and he doesn't know what to say. He isn't sure if he's even doing the right thing. 

Iroh clasps his shoulder. "I will be fine, nephew. You will be, as well. The Earth Kingdom is vast, but I want you to remember this." His gaze turns serious. "You have allies in the strangest of places." 

"I know, uncle," Zuko replies softly. 

Iroh's eyebrows rise in surprise, but he doesn't comment. 

He turns instead to Yue and holds out his hands. "I believe you have caught a Fire Nation soldier wandering your city." 

Yue giggles and takes the rope Katara hands her, tying it gently around the old man's wrists.

The two stand back as Katara and Sokka climb up Appa's fur and Aang launches himself up through airbending. Zuko steps forward to join them then stops, suddenly unsure. 

To his surprise it's Sokka who leans over the edge. The Water Tribesman reaches a hand down. Zuko takes it, feeling some kind of emotion. It's warm, whatever it is. 

"Next time you're getting up on your own," Sokka says, but he's smiling. 

Momo peeks his head out from where he had been asleep among the camping supplies, assesses the situation, gives Zuko a calculating look, then goes back to sleep. Zuko smiles at the little lemur. 

Appa takes off with a puff of air and a groan, and Zuko looks back over the edge of the saddle. Yue and Iroh wave from the ground - Iroh doing the best he can with his restraints - and he waves back. At his side, Katara is doing the same.

When they're too far away to see clearly, Zuko turns his attention to the front. The sea opens up before them, empty of the husks of Fire Nation ships of his time, wide and full of possibility. 

He looks to the future, a new future, a better future. 

He smiles. Everything will be better now, he tells himself. His friends won't have to suffer as they had, his people won't have to suffer as they had. He'll change everything for the better. 

It's at that moment that Momo bites him.