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Awareness came slowly to Aang, and once it did, the burning pain in his chest and full body ache almost wished it hadn’t. He slowly sat up and his vision swam from the effort.
“What happened?” he wondered aloud.
The last thing he remembered was Katara needing his help, but he had turned away and tried to go into the avatar state. He remembered feeling the connection to all his past lives, he remembered knowing, suddenly, what he needed to do.
He didn’t remember anything after that.
He looked around at his surroundings and quickly realized that something was wrong. Where were Katara and the others? Why was there all this metal? He saw the banners strung up around the huge empty room.
Heart pounding, and body throbbing in time, Aang turned to look behind himself. The Fire Nation Crest loomed over him, dominating the entire wall.
“Oh no!”
He grabbed his staff and struggled to stand. Pain lanced through every part of his body and he leaned heavily on his staff so he wouldn’t fall. He stumbled to the door which was thankfully unlocked.
Had Azula captured them? What had happened to Katara?
He stumbled again, falling into the cold metal wall. Using both the wall and his staff to support every agonizing step he advanced slowly down the hall.
“You hear something?” A deep voice came from ahead of him he peeked around the corner and saw two Fire Nation soldiers decked out in full armor.
In a panic, he bent wind at them, hoping to knock them off their feet and buy himself time to escape. He didn’t have time to check and see if it had worked. He spotted a staircase just up ahead. He built wind underneath his feet to carry him up to the short staircase without issue and prepared to take off once he was clear of the door.
~~~
Zuko was scaling the stacks, per Sokka's request, to check them for damages. Thus far, he had found them all to be in perfect working order.
He paused in his ascent to listen, when he heard a commotion coming from below decks. He held on to the ladder by one hand so he could lean out and look down at the entrance to the galley where most of the noise seemed to be coming from. A familiar pair of bright yellow pants burst through the door with a mighty gust of wind. Directly below Zuko, orange glider wings opened up like an airship landing pad.
Aang already had wind under him and was rising quickly. In seconds he would take off and wheel away into the sky, away from his bison, his friends and end up who-knows-where. So Zuko did what he did best - acted on instinct and completely without forethought.
He leapt off the ladder, easily 20 feet or more off the ground. Aang was rising nearly at the same speed that Zuko was falling, and Zuko crashed hard into him.
Zuko’s trajectory and weight immediately overcame what lift Aang had managed to achieve and, as all things in the sky must do, they began to fall.
Zuko twisted himself to land under Aang as they rushed towards the hard metal deck. With the condition Aang was in, the last thing he needed was for a man in full armor to fall on him from 20 feet up.
Besides, if Zuko was great at one thing, it was falling.
~~~
The crash of Zuko’s armor against the metal deck rang out like a gong. The air in his lungs rushed out all at once, and his chest ached from the sudden collapse. He could think of nothing else but the suffocating sensation until he gasped and drew air back into his lungs. He was surprised to discover that his head did not ache from bouncing off the metal deck and thought he and his still-healing concussion likely had a last minute air cushion to thank for that.
Zuko slowly sat up, groaning at the immediate pain he felt in his shoulder that would almost certainly require Katara's attention, when she could next spare it.
“Zuko?”Aang groaned in turn.
Zuko turned and faced the wide grey eyes wrinkled up in pain but looking relieved nonetheless.
“Are we on your ship?”
Zuko tried to draw air in to speak, but as soon as the sharp sea air rushed into his lungs he was sent into a coughing fit.
“No” he finally managed to wheeze out just before Sokka's sturdy footsteps approached from behind him.
“Zuko, you finally caught The Avatar!” Sokka clapped him hard on his injured shoulder which both worsened his coughing fit and made him grit his teeth and growl to avoid crying out in pain. Katara and Toph quickly ran up to them, there, from below deck.
“Aang, you're finally awake!” Katara threw her hands around Aang's befuddled shoulders, the backs of his ears turned bright red in response.
“You’ll never guess who caught him!” Sokka cried gleefully. Zuko shot him a glare, holding his breath to try and stop hyperventilating.
“Did Zuko catch The Avatar?” Katara released Aang and didn't bother to mask the amusement in her voice. Zuko shot her a look that he hoped properly reflected his annoyance.
“Zuko caught The Avatar!” Sokka confirmed.
Zuko's face felt hot and fire flared in his chest, but he only huffed in annoyance instead of giving Sokka the satisfaction of reacting. Perhaps because of that, or simply because his attention was overtaken by Aang, Sokka finally let his joke drop and turned to pull Aang into a hug as well.
“Good to see you back with the living, buddy!”
Katara knelt in front of Aang and held his hands, sending his pallor right back firmly into Fire Nation territory.
“I'm so glad you're awake.” She said.
“Are you sure?” He asked, looking blearily around at them all. Zuko understood the feeling.
“I feel like I'm dreaming. If this isn't Zuko’s ship then where-" Aang swayed dangerously, and Zuko eyed him with concern.
“Uh oh,” Toph said, alarmed “He's gonna faint!”
Zuko leant over quickly and caught Aang as he slumped sideways
“Let’s get him back below decks” Katara said “He still needs rest, and probably another healing session.” Zuko rose stiffly, lifting Aang along with himself.
“Did you seriously leap off the stacks to catch him?” Sokka fell into step beside them, graciously taking Aang’s weight off Zuko's shoulders.
“Yes.” Zuko offered gruffly, feeling his chest seizing and trying to start up coughing again, just from that much.
“Dude, we need to revisit Sokka's rules for self preservation, -
Rule one; your plans should never involve the great likelihood of your demise, -
Rule two; your plan should never be to permanently disfigure yourself.” Sokka counted off on his fingers, supporting Aang's limp form with his other shoulder, remarkably unconcerned about their resident airbender.
“Followed closely by Rule three; don’t jump off of high places onto solid metal if you don’t have an airbender to catch you.”
“I had an airbender” Zuko grumbled, to be contrary.
“You caught the airbender, that doesn’t count.” Sokka insisted.
“Rule 4; if you are going to jump off of a high place, don’t do it while you are also covered in metal.”
Zuko rolled his eyes and they all proceeded into the galley. Aang came to, just as they were passing through the threshold to their make-shift infirmary. Sokka helped him sit back down on his bed.
“Would you give us some space?” Katara asked. “I'm going to get started right away on his healing session.”
“Sure thing.” Sokka nodded and the last sight Zuko had of Aang as they left was through the doorway with him sitting on his cot, small and tired, dwarfed by the huge fire nation emblem on the wall behind him.
~~~
“So, what now?” Aang asked, a day later as they all sat on the deck, taking in the fresh air and enjoying some simple soup.
“We're working on a modified version of the invasion plan.” Hakoda told him.
Zuko had watched their introduction from a distance and been only a little hurt by how genuinely pleased Hakoda seemed to be to meet Aang, directly opposing how displeased he had initially seemed to meet Zuko. He couldn't blame him, of course, but it had still stung more than he'd expected.
“It's Sokka's invasion plan.”
Yikes, speaking of ‘sting’. Even after a few weeks of witnessing these kinds of interactions, Zuko's whole body still went tense, and his heart pounded every time Katara spoke to her father with such scorn.
“Yes. Sokka's plan.” Hakoda said, taking his daughter's hostility with the same good grace as he had all of the previous times.
Zuko hunched further into his armor. When would his patience run out? When? It had to, eventually… right?
“We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the Earth King's armies.” Hakoda continued explaining to Aang. “But the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable.”
“So, we're planning a smaller invasion.” Sokka took over. “Just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke.”
Sokka gestured over at Jet's freedom fighter pals – and hadn't that been awkward. At least they weren't still travelling with Jet by time Zuko had met him; that would have been a nightmare.
“Zuko told us that the Fire Lord will spend the eclipse in a bunker underneath the palace. Between his insider knowledge and the eclipse, we have every advantage we could ask for. And that’s not even the best part!
“We have a secret.” Sokka stage-whispered. Agni, he was a dork, why did Zuko even like him?
“You.” He finished off with unnecessary flair.
“Me?” Aang asked, the blanket around his shoulders was slipping, and Zuko wanted to pull it up for him. Aang shouldn't be expending energy to keep himself warm in the chilly ocean air, when he still didn't have much of it to spare.
“Yep!” Sokka said. “The whole world thinks you're dead! Even Zuko was convinced, and he was there! It's perfect!”
Zuko rolled his eyes. Aang's, on the other hand, had gone wide.
“The world thinks I'm dead!” Aang stood frantically and looked between them all. “How is that good news? That's terrible!”
“No, it's great! It means the Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore.” Sokka started explaining. “And, even better, they won't be expecting you on the day of Black Sun.”
“No.” Aang said. “You have no idea. This is so messed up!”
“Zuko!” Aang turned to him, and so did everyone else. Zuko had not been at all prepared for everyone's attention on him and he fell into parade rest to try and stop himself from fidgeting.
“What did Sokka mean that you thought I was dead? Didn't you see Katara heal me?”
“I was captured.” Zuko reported, voice coming out gruff. He cleared his throat. “I escaped later, but I didn't know you had survived until I met up with everyone else.”
“And it was messed up, right?” Aang pleaded.
“Uh…” Zuko looked around at all the Water Tribe warriors around him and swallowed thickly. He did not want to be talking about his grief over Aang's ‘death' in front of all of them.
“Ship approaching off the Starboard Bow, captain!” Altouk called from his lookout post.
“I'll handle this.” Aang pulled his glider out and unfolded it. “The Avatar is back.”
His declaration was shadowed somewhat by his flinch of pain and the way his face instantly turned ghostly from his overexertion.
“Aang, wait.” Katara darted forward, hands outstretched to pacify him. “Remember, they don't know we're not Fire Nation.”
Aang folded up his glider stiffly and with some difficulty.
“Everyone, just stay calm.” Hakoda said, and Zuko found himself calming down, against his better judgement, and looking to Hakoda, awaiting his orders.
“Zuko, you come with Bato and I, we'll deal with this.
A cold wind blew in and made Zuko shiver as it cooled the sweat that had broken out on the back of his neck. He forced himself to remain calm. What did Hakoda need him for?
Sokka grabbed his shoulder as he turned to follow the two men, halting him in his tracks. He thrust his helmet with the full-face plate at Zuko.
“Wear this so they don't recognize you.” He instructed. “You remember all that correspondence I made you read to me, right?”
Zuko took the helmet from him with lightly trembling hands and took in a deep breath before he put it on. He was practically blind now. His hearing was muffled from the metal encasing his head and what little grayscale shapes he still could make out with his left eye were banished into darkness. His peripheral vision was nonexistent, and all he had to go on was the narrow field of view offered by the eye hole on the right side
“You can do this.” Sokka grabbed his upper arms in a steady reassuring grip. “Just act exactly how you would if you were still on your ship. Just not… you know... you.”
Zuko inhaled deeply and eased himself back into the role of a captain.
“Then get your hands off me, Lieutenant.” Zuko commanded, batting Sokka's hands away. He marched forward after Bato and Hakoda, coming to stand next to them in parade rest.
The other ship signaled its intention to board, Zuko raised a hand up to signal his own men to be prepared for hostility. There was no reason for them to be boarding the Wani -The Kazekire- right. It was perfectly within their boundaries for them to be here. The other ship might have imposters on board flying false colours to get closer to their ship. This notion almost made Zuko break character, considering that flying false colours was exactly what The Kazekire was doing.
~
“What does that signal mean?” Katara whispered to Sokka where they crouched in the galley stairway.
“No idea.” Sokka whispered back. “Maybe it's a Fire Nation thing?”
~
The plank settled neatly on their port side and the captain and two of his lieutenants began to cross. Zuko realized, with some surprise, that he recognized the commander. Not from any of his time in the Navy, but from before that, at banquets and poetry readings that he'd been forced to attend as a child.
“Commader Hao~ is the day treating you, so far?” he realized, almost too late, that he shouldn't reveal that he knew him. Commander Hao would want to know how they knew each other, and then Zuko would have to lie, and he could never do that convincingly.
“Very well so far, Commander, yourself?” Commander Hao replied, apparently not taking any note of Zuko's near miss.
“It has been unseasonably warm.” Zuko said the only thing he'd noted about today. Warm weather in these waters usually meant a storm was coming. “Hopefully we make port soon.”
“Afraid of a little squall? Is that a reason you've gone off course? All Western Fleet ships are supposed to be moving towards Ba Sing Se to support the occupation.” Hao was needling him for information under the guise of being polite. Zuko remembered that tone well. If he also remembered Hao's old colours correctly, and had the timeframe right, then Hao was also long overdue for a promotion and probably looking to change that.
“Of course not.” Zuko dismissed his taunt without being overly rude “We've recently been reassigned to the Eastern Fleet and haven't yet had a chance to change our markings.”
Commander Hao offered a dry laugh, suddenly seeming much more relaxed. “Ah, working you all to embers too, huh? Would it kill them to give us shore leave once in a while?”
“Wars aren't won by taking breaks, Commander.” Zuko replied stiffly. He watched Commander Hao's body language close up again and reconsidered his instinctive admonishment.
“Of course, Commander.” Hao said before Zuko could consider backpedaling for too long. “Nice of Admiral Chan to let us know he was sending one of his ships our way. How hard is it to write a quick note and send a hawk? What business do you have in the western sea anyway?”
“Delivering cargo.” Zuko reported. “I'm sure Admiral Chan meant no disrespect, Sir, perhaps the message got lost during his preparations for leave.”
He remembered the missive he'd read for Sokka early into his stay on the Kazekire that notified the captain that the Admiral of the Eastern Fleet -a strong supporter of his father's- was on leave at Ember Island.
“What?” Commander Hao exclaimed. “Why doesn't anybody ever tell me anything?
“Of course, Admiral Chan got approved for leave” He began grumbling under his breath. “No good brown-noser.”
Zuko tried a laugh, it sounded alien and strange. “Yes, well, that is the way it goes, is it not?”
Hao made eye contact with him again and offered a commiserating look.
“So, it is. Maybe you'll have a chance to do repairs and maintenance while you're in the capital.” General Hao bowed respectfully and Zuko returned it.
~~~
Back in the galley stairway, Toph listened to the whispered conversation of the enemy crew as they took their leave.
“There's something about that captain's voice…” the enemy captain was murmuring. “I could swear I recognized it.”
“He sounded pretty young to be a captain, too, didn't he?” One of his lieutenants said.
“Yes. Maybe a nobleman's son? Which would explain why I recognized the voice but… I can't remember any Noble families that have sons of the right age. The closest would be the Late Prince himself, but… hmm.”
“What should we do, Commander?”
“Wrong colours, no notice… too many things aren't adding up. Let’s get safely across the ramp, and then we'll sink the ship.”
“They know!” Toph yelled, bursting up from the galley stairs. She bent the metal of the deck to take out the ramp before they could warn their ship.
~~~
Zuko, senses dulled by his helmet and coming back from the parley, did not have the awareness to react swiftly to the ground crumpling underneath him. He stumbled and started falling back. He felt his foot catch on what felt like a coil of rope, and then the back of his knees on what his spatial awareness assumed was the rail on the deck. He tilted back and the loose helmet fell off just in time for him to get an eyeful of the beautiful blue sky above him.
“Zuko!” Two pairs of arms caught him around the forearms and hauled him forward. Bato and Hakoda were leaning precariously far over the ledge to reach him.
Between the two of them, they had no trouble pulling him back from where he'd hovered over the unforgiving ocean. As soon as they were on deck again, one of them shoved Zuko down to meet it, offering them all more stability for when Katara pulled the sea up between the boats and shoved them apart.
“Gun it!” Sokka's voice yelled and Zuko looked frantically up to see the tribesmen on coal shoveling duty sending large batches of fuel into the furnace hatch. Their efforts allowed the person steering the ship -Tulugaqq, Zuko thought- to push the ship to its full speed away from the other ship.
Zuko looked around himself at the forms of Hakoda and Bato. Bato was reaching out a hand and saying something to Zuko, while Hakoda was rising quickly to his feet and dancing across the deck to go where he was needed.
Zuko couldn't make out what Bato was saying. His heart was pounding in his ears and his hands trembled. He didn't know why he was reacting like this. He'd surely fallen into the water in more dangerous situations, although, maybe never while wearing full armor.
Bato was still trying to speak to him, but Zuko couldn't make sense of the sounds coming out of his mouth. In the distance he heard the mechanical clacking of a trebuchet. He attempted to stand, but a mighty splash of the lit projectile hitting the water rocked the boat and knocked him down before he had gotten his feet under him.
Another projectile hit its mark on their port side. Despite the unsteadiness, Zuko finally found his footing and turned just in time to see Toph flinging a slab of stone at the same velocity of the best Fire Nation trebuchets. He followed its progress across the sea behind them and saw it destroy one of the enemy trebuchets.
She fired another to collide mid-air with a flaming projectile. Zuko took a deep breath to center himself and felt the fire in his stomach respond. He maneuvered across the deck to join Toph's catapult party. As pipsqueak laid her next stone down, Zuko splashed some oil over it and lit it aflame.
She sent it careening onto the deck of the enemy ship, causing some of the sailors to scatter. Zuko heard a ballista firing and looked over in a panic, but Katara had it neatly handled. She sent cold mist down the side of the boat to freeze any leaks solid. No wonder the Fire Nation Navy had seen nothing but failure until they had finished stealing the waterbenders from their people.
Zuko turned his attention back to their Tophapult and lit the next projectile. She fired it off right before fog rolled up from the sea and completely masked their ship.
Zuko listened carefully while everyone else stood stock still. They were all afraid to move when they couldn't see more than a few feet in front of them, and those few feet could be right off the ship.
He heard the crackle of flame and the faint whistling of a projectile through the air. Based on how the noise was travelling through the air, and the speed a trebuchet should fire at…
“Get out of the way!” Zuko grabbed Toph and yanked her towards him, away from the pile of ammunition. He pulled her tight against his body and lunged across the deck to get them out of the blast zone.
A tumultuous crash behind him told him that he'd moved them both just in time. He released Toph and turned to extinguish the flames with a wave. There was nothing he could do about the fact that all their rock slabs were destroyed.
The dark smoke from the explosion cleared around them just in time for Zuko to see Aang and Sokka on deck, each with a hand on Aang's staff. He saw Sokka lay a hand on Aang's shoulder to settle him, but his attention was quickly drawn elsewhere when another projectile slammed into the deck. He rushed over to bend the flame before it could spread.
They outstripped the fog and Zuko watched in horror as another projectile launched straight towards the coal bin. It went up in flames before Zuko could get to it. Katara started bending water at the quickly spreading flame and Zuko hurried to assist. He inhaled and took control over the coal fire. With two quick swipes, the flames fell and obediently smothered themselves on his exhale.
The boat rocked strangely underneath his feet, and the shriek of something not quite of this world deafened out all noise around them. A huge, terrifying, and elongate creature rose out of the water. It was green in the way only poison-dart frog-snakes and limes were green.
Just when it seemed the Serpent would sink their ship, one of the enemy's projectiles slammed into the side of its head. Its head was whipped to the side by the force, but it seemed completely unharmed. The Serpent turned its sights on the enemy ship and dove again, rocking their ship as it passed underneath the Kazekire. It shot up out of the water and coiled its body around the enemy ship, stopping them dead in the water.
“Thank you, the Universe.” Zuko heard Sokka mutter from nearby. He rolled his eyes.
---
Zuko stood on the prow of the Kazekire as the harbor of Nagaki slowly grew on the horizon. They were stopping for repairs and a short shore leave before continuing further into Fire Nation waters.
“Hey, Zuko?”
Zuko turned to face Aang. They kept him below decks as much as they could, especially this close to the mainland, but no one really wanted to keep him cooped up down there. The compromise seemed to be that he was being watched very carefully from all sides. It reminded Zuko of his first few days on the ship, although it was for a very different reason.
“Yes?” Zuko prompted him and congratulated himself on not just demanding ‘what do you want?’ which had been his first instinct.
“Can I ask you something?” Aang looked very nervous and Zuko feared whatever he was about to say, but he nodded anyway.
“You thought… that I was dead, right? That I had failed.”
Zuko had not expected this line of questioning at all.
“I saw Azula shoot lightning at you. I didn't know about the spirit water, so I thought there was no way you could have survived.” Zuko explained.
“Were you mad at me? When you saw me fail?” Aang couldn't meet his gaze. He seemed to want something physical to occupy his mind but quickly abandoned an attempt at bending that left him wincing and touching his bandages.
“No.” Zuko told him. “Of course I wasn't. There was no way to…”
Zuko sighed, trying to figure out what he wanted to say.
“It has always been too much to expect one person to solve 100 years' worth of war. Even if that person is the Avatar. Especially when the Avatar is just a kid.” Zuko told him. “Anger and disappointment were the last things on my mind when I thought Azula had killed you.”
“What did you think? Aang pressed.
Zuko looked at him, leaning heavily on his glider to stand, shivering slightly in the cold air.
“I grieved.” Zuko admitted, remembering a dark cell and nothing to do but give up. “I couldn't see any next steps. I lost hope.”
Zuko glanced at Aang and saw he looked even more troubled than he had before he came here. Shit, Zuko was really not good at pep talks. Where were Sokka and Katara?
“But I remembered there were people fighting out here who never knew you’d been back and certainly didn’t know you were gone, so I decided I needed to fight too. Do my part.” Zuko tried to salvage the conversation. Aang certainly looked more determined, Zuko hoped that was a good thing.
“No one should be fighting just to fix my mistakes.” Aang said.
Zuko was so taken aback by his words that he couldn't respond before Aang was retrieved and ushered back below decks. He was… he was furious with what Aang had just said and he couldn't figure out why. How could he have responded to that? Why was he so mad?
He was turning it over and over in his head as the port grew on the horizon ahead of them. He realized finally, what had pissed him off so much about Aang's declaration.
They weren't fighting to fix Aang's mistakes. They- he was fighting for himself. He was fighting for what he wanted and what he believed. Aang was a beacon of hope that made Zuko feel like maybe they might actually have a shot at winning, but he couldn't just fix all their problems for them. It was still too much to expect of one person, and Aang couldn't do it alone. He needed their help and they- Zuko was going to Agni-be-damned help him.
~~~
Below decks, Katara was trying to help Aang too.
“I did fail!” Aang turned his head into the pillow and away from her.
“Aang, that's not true.” Katara insisted, trying to reassure him with a comforting hand.
“It is true!” he rolled away from her and stood. “I was in Ba Sing Se. I was there, but I lost and now the Earth Kingdom has fallen for good.”
“It's not for good.” Katara reminded him, hoping it was true. “Remember, we have a plan? The Invasion.”
“I hate that plan!” Aang lashed out, grabbing the tapestry over his cot and throwing it to the floor in his anger. Katara was a little shocked by the rare display of anger from him.
“People shouldn't be risking their lives to fix my mistakes! It should be up to me to clean up my own mess! I don't want you or anyone else getting hurt!” Aang fumed. “I always knew I would have to face the Fire Lord, but now I know I have to do it alone.”
“Aang-" Katara tried to reach out to him, but he wouldn't face her.
“Katara, please just go.” Aang pleaded quietly. “Please.”
Katara knew a thing or two about needing alone time to sort out one's thoughts, so she stepped back. “Do you need anything?” She extended one more offer.
“I need to fix this.” Aang said, which was something neither of them could do right now, so she gently closed the door behind her.
“I need to redeem myself.” Aang said aloud to himself. He looked down at where his glider had fallen. People out there thought he was gone for good, and either they had lost all hope and given up, or they were fighting harder to try and fix his mistakes and he didn't want them doing either of those.
He needed people to know that he was alive, that he was here to fix this, and that he hadn't failed again. His failure in Ba Sing Se meant that his closest friends were risking their lives to help him reach the Fire Lord. They had no back-up, and little advantage. He wasn't going to keep hiding and let them take all the hits for him. Not this time, not like Gyatso and all the other monks. He couldn't stand it if… if he was alone after all of this, again.
“I need my honor back.”
~~~
When Katara brought Aang food from the town, his room was empty.
She dropped her tray in her haste and ran out of the room. The Avatar was missing, and if there was one person on this ship who knew how to catch him, Katara knew exactly who it was.
Katara threw open the door to the Engineer's quarters without knocking and found Zuko sitting on the bed, leaning close to her brother. Good, she could tell them both at once.
As soon as the heavy metal door slammed against the wall it was set in, Sokka flung himself, flailing, away from Zuko.
“La's Sake, Katara! Learn to knock!” He glared at her. She ignored him.
“Aang's missing!”
“What?!” Zuko stood immediately and fixed his clothing with a few sharp tugs, leaving Sokka on the floor where he'd tumbled. “What do you mean, he's missing?!”
“He's gone!”
Zuko strode past her and started making his way directly to Aang's room.
“I should get Toph to search the ship.” Katara started thinking out loud.
“Don’t bother. If he's running, he'll be doing it in open air, not down in the ship.” Zuko shoved open Aang's door. “And look."
He pointed at a space near the bed. “He's taken his glider.”
“How do you know?” Sokka had just caught up to them and was peeking in to the room as well. Zuko was looking at him with a dumbfounded expression that went well past rude.
“Because that's where he keeps it.” Zuko told him. Katara had a far away and fleeting thought about whether or not Zuko knew where all of them kept all of their things, but it was quickly overrun by another far more chilling thought.
“Oh no.” She fretted out loud. “Aang can't be flying in weather like this. There's a huge storm coming in.”
“Sokka, get the most accurate map your father has of this area. Katara, come with me.” Zuko barked out and strode up to the deck. Katara bristled a bit at his imperious tone, but she tagged along behind him, nonetheless.
The wind on deck whipped around so strongly that Katara could barely hear the men calling out to each other while they secured the ship. Zuko lifted his face to the sky like a polar bear dog sniffing the air for the nearest penguin seal, eyes closed and all.
“Can you feel which way the current is going?!” Zuko yelled over the winds.
In the North Pole, feeling the current was a dismally undertrained skill. Katara had chalked it up to the fact that they hadn't left the relatively calm waters directly outside of the city in close to 80 years. Fortunately, in the South Pole, it was one of the few skills that had been described enough to the average sailor for her to have learned it from description.
She exhaled and felt the way the water was moving against the hull of the ship, how it swirled and tugged below the surface, churning in response to the storm.
“Yes!” She yelled to Zuko. Sokka ran up with the map just in time for Katara to see Zuko grab it and pin it under some weird contraption on a nearby table so that it was spread out, and not going to escape into the tumultuous winds.
A hand landed on Katara's shoulder, and she turned around, bending water to her command on instinct. The hand retracted and her father stepped back.
“Why are you all above deck!?” He yelled over the howling gales. “It's just a storm, it will pass!”
“Aang is out there!” She yelled back at him.
“Are you sure?!” Hakoda looked up at the sky, looking as panicked as he had the time Sokka had fallen off a ridge and broken through the crust of the drift below.
“He took his glider and disappeared.” Katara told him. “He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone, that it's all his responsibility.”
“Maybe that's his way of being brave.” Hakoda said.
“It's not brave.” Katara snapped. “It's selfish and stupid! We could be helping him, and I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much we need him too?”
The wind dried the tears on Katara's cheeks before they could fall, leaving them dry and stinging with salt.
“Why did he leave us behind?”
Hakoda's face fell at the same time Katara realized she wasn't just talking about Aang anymore.
“You're talking about me, too, aren't you?” Her father concluded.
“How could you leave us, dad?” How could he have just left them there to take care of themselves? Didn't he realize how much they had needed him?
“I know we had Gran-gran and she loved us, but we were just so lost without you.”
“I'm so sorry, Katara.” Hakoda reached for her as she turned away, but she wanted him to just make it all better so badly that she gave in and let herself be held for once.
“I understand why you left. I really do. And I know that you had to go, so why do I still feel this way? I was so sad and angry and hurt.”
Her mother had left when she was a little girl, and it wasn't her fault at all, so Katara couldn't blame her. Then her father had left, and she knew why, but he'd still chosen to go and leave them behind. Now Aang was gone again after she had just gotten him back, and she didn't know how they would find him.
“He's going to land about here!” Their resident Avatar catcher's voice carried over the wind and Katara pulled away from the hug to look.
Zuko was pointing to a small crescent of volcanic islands on the map Sokka had gotten for him. Sokka himself was leaning over the map with a furrowed brow.
“How can you know?!” He asked, chewing his lip.
Zuko looked at him sidelong. Katara had gotten used to it by now and understood that it wasn't meant to be rude, which, of course Sokka had figured out long ago.
“We're here!”
Zuko pointed at another part of the map. Katara leant over and saw he was pointing at the middle of the ocean. She was a bit ashamed to admit she knew little about large-scale navigation, and had left it mostly to Sokka and Aang before this. Hakoda had followed her over and nodded at Zuko.
“That's right.”
“The wind is going that way-” Zuko drew his finger along the map “I figured out Aang's speed on the glider, before, and by knowing that, the current wind speed and the direction of the storm currents, I have a pretty good guess where he's heading!”
Katara was, honestly, a bit impressed. From their perspective, Zuko had always just kept showing up. She had never thought about how much effort was being put in on his part to keep up with them.
“Once we're there” he continued, turning his sidelong gaze to her. “you'll have to check the ocean currents so we know where the water swept him when he crashes! I don't think he can make it far enough in his condition to find land on his own!”
Katara felt her heart speed up in her chest. Would Aang get trapped in another iceberg for 100 years if he crashed too far out to sea?
“We'll need Appa!” Katara left Zuko's side and followed the sound of Appa's terrified lowing across the deck. She had untied one half of Appa's covering when she looked up and saw Hakoda had followed her.
“You won't be coming back after you find him, will you?” Hakoda asked.
Katara didn't know, but she also knew trying to keep Aang tied down on this boat, impotently waiting until the eclipse was going to be nigh on impossible. They'd have had to leave sooner or later.
“We have to meet up for the Invasion.” She offered. Hakoda reached out for a hug and she gladly went into his arms.
“I love you more than anything.” Her dad's voice rumbled through his chest and she had missed it so much. “You and your brother are my entire world. I thought about you every day I was gone, and every night when I went to sleep, I would lie awake missing you so much it would ache.”
---
They were packed and ready to go in 10 minutes. The storm was steadily getting worse. Sokka was packing the last of the maps up and securing them on Appa. His father stood a little ways back, preparing to say goodbye. Sokka finally stopped finding busy work and turned to face him.
“We'll see you at the invasion.” Sokka said lamely. Despite them having some differences of opinion lately, he hated to have to say goodbye again.
“We'll gather the other reinforcements.” His father replied, he stepped forward and pulled Sokka into a hug. Sokka squeezed him tightly, realizing he could almost reach all the way around his dad now.
“Be careful out there.” Hakoda said as they drew apart. “Thank you for taking such good care of your sister and the tribe while I was gone. You've grown so much. I'm not sure I will ever forgive myself for how much of it I missed.”
Sokka felt the smallest wave a guilt roil through his stomach at the things he’d said to his father during their argument, not so long ago. Hakoda hadn’t deserved that.
“I love you both so much.” Hakoda continued, meeting Sokka's eyes before he looked somewhere over Sokka’s shoulder. Sokka turned his head to follow his father’s gaze and saw Katara feeding Appa some of his favourite treats to calm him. Sokka's gaze tracked the Bison's side until he found Zuko near the saddle, giving Toph a boost up.
“Stay safe.” Hakoda said. “And take care of your firebender. He’s a competent man, but I fear things are only going to become harder for him from here on out.”
Sokka thought about the very likely –potentially imperative- possibility that Zuko was going to be Fire Lord of a war-torn, warmongering nation when they defeated Ozai, and could do nothing but agree. But his father couldn’t possibly know that, could he? Surely, he would have mentioned something if he had figured out who Zuko was, right?
“How much control do you guys have over the bison?” Zuko’s voice carried from where he was questioning Katara. “If we can fly him at about 30 degrees off the direction of true wind, we might make up a bit of ground on Aang.”
“Speaking of competent-” Hakoda murmured to Sokka, while Katara answered Zuko’s question “- and I want to be clear, I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, but-
“How did Zuko never catch us?” Sokka finished for his father, to spare him from the awkwardness of bringing it up. “I have no idea. Like, I'm a genius and all, and he didn't have a lot of support from the rest of the Fire Nation, but…right?”
“He's like, basically got superpowers” Sokka kept whispering “Super observant, not to mention the lifetime of combat training, and we're just a bunch of kids, how did he go wrong?”
“For one thing, I foolishly assumed you would follow any kind of logical navigation pattern.” Zuko cut in, proving Sokka's point about the superpowers, considering that he should not have been able to hear them over these winds from that distance. “And I have my suspicions that Uncle may have been actively sabotaging me whenever I got too close.”
“Ouch. Doesn't that bug you?” Sokka left his father’s side and joined the others in climbing onto Appa.
“Not especially.” Zuko growled. “If he hadn’t, we'd certainly never be here, and if it wasn't him doing it, then I have to assume it was the Spirits, which is somehow worse.”
“I don't have that problem.” Sokka said cheerfully. “The Spirits love me!”
“You did used to date one of them.” Zuko grumbled, doing some insane ninja leap to get onto Appa while still maintaining the epitome of grace.
“He did what with a what now?” Hakoda called from below them.
“Sorry dad, can’t hear you from up here!” Sokka said, you know, like a liar. “See you at the invasion, we’ll be careful, love you, bye!”
“Appa, yip yip!”
Appa, who had been anxiously shifting from foot to foot to foot while they loaded him up was all too happy to lurch quickly off the ground and rise into the sky, naturally taking on the best angle to the wind to catch up to Aang as quickly as possible.
The Kazekire shrunk and disappeared beneath the sheets of gray rain as they all flew deeper into the maelstrom.
---
When they passed, unnoticed, over the barricade, Katara's heart started to hammer in her chest.
Zuko shook his head at her, looking calm and assured.
“I already accounted for that.” He said. “It was in the correspondence.” He trailed off and his eye widened as he looked at something behind her.
She turned to look but didn’t immediately see it. Then the flash of orange caught some moonlight. Aang's glider.
“Okay, Katara, now’s the point where I need you to read the currents.” Zuko called back over the wind.
Katara was chewing her lip, but it was already raw, “Do you think he’s hurt?”
“He'll be okay, Katara.” Sokka tried to reassure her. His confidence soothed her, although logically she knew he could have no better idea than she had about what condition Aang was in.
They steered Appa down close to the water and Katara concentrated on the way it swirled, deep down beneath the surface, and also how it tossed and turned from the wind of the rising storm. She felt the push and pull inside herself, mimicking the movement of the ocean.
“I know where to go.” She announced and they continued to fly Appa close to the waves, following the pull. The spray of the sea blasted against their skin, leaving them all cold and wet, but they continued flying through the storm and well into the morning and finally, they spotted him.
Momo flew ahead, and had woken Aang before they all touched down.
“You're okay!” Katara cried, running across the wet sand toward him. The others followed behind her. She embraced him, followed quickly by her brother, Toph, Appa, and even Zuko laid a comforting hand on Aang's head.
“You don't listen.” Zuko grumbled. “I told you that you can't do this alone.”
“We're here to help.” Katara added on.
“There's so much to do.” Aang mumbled, sounding exhausted. She was sure he was – both physically and mentally.
“Well, you’re not getting out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation.” Toph goaded him. Katara could see a small smile quirk his lips.
“What about the invasion?” He asked Sokka.
“We'll meet up with my dad and the rest of the invasion force on the day of the eclipse.” Sokka explained.
“Hey, what's-” Toph reached behind her and pulled up a bent and broken piece of wood. The glider had managed to float here after them.
“Oh.” Toph handed it to Aang, who took it.
“It's okay.” He said after a moment of contemplation. “If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now if no one knows I'm alive.”
Aang bent himself halfway to the precipice of the volcano and planted his glider in the ground and it instantly caught aflame.