Zuko leaned on the railing and failed not to think.
The sea slid by under the cruiser's hull in long, grey-green bands, the surface choppy but not truly rough. Mist clung low and thick on the water ahead, turning the horizon into a white wall. Somewhere beyond that fog was Kyoshi Island – Iroh had said so, tracing a calloused finger over the chart – but from there it was like sailing toward nothing.
Waves slapped the metal in a steady rhythm. Steam hissed quietly from vents belowdecks. Behind him, his crew went about their duties with the subdued focus of men who knew better than to interrupt their prince when he was brooding.
He wasn't. He was doing something between daydreaming and remembering.
"You will treat Lady Raven Arza with the utmost respect."
Ozai's voice, calm and heavy as molten iron, rolled through his memory first. Zuko knew he must have been about ten, kneeling on the cold stone of the throne room, trying not to fidget in new clothes that pinched under the arms and made his neck itch. His father stood above him, flame-lit and distant, watching like discomfort itself was a test.
"It is important to the Fire Nation that you never wrong her," Ozai had gone on, eyes like a hawk's. Zuko's slightest dare to glance briefly upwards caused Ozai to instantly say, "you are too young to understand our nation's politics, just do as I command. Do you understand?" as if he already knew what question Zuko was going to waste his time with.
Zuko had swallowed, not at all understanding why this warranted a personal warning from the Fire Lord. "Yes, Father."
Later, Mother had explained.
She'd found him in the garden by the turtle-duck pond, kicking pebbles into the water hard enough to startle the birds into circling away, then right back again for the bread crumbs.
"It's already been decided," mother had said, smoothing his hair back from his forehead with that soft, worried touch he'd never admit he missed. "Your father and Lord Arza have agreed. When you're both older, you and Raven will be married."
He'd stared at her. "What? I-I'm betrothed?! To that crybaby?!" And he deflated instantly like he was under the weight of suffocating decades long marriage already.
Raven had been there a week. She'd cried—actually cried—because one of the palace guest beds was "worse than the floor," and had refused to stop until servants went across town to get a mattress she woud tolerate. Ty Lee had laughed and rolled around on both, always delighted at everyone's disbelief over how picky Raven could be. Raven then possessively hogged the entire couch—fit for four their size and with less than that present—less than an hour later when they were watching some important ritual function that Lord Arza and his father were taking very seriously. He wanted to take it seriously too, but Raven and Ty Lee wouldn't stop whispering and giggling like idiots right behind him, and his own father chastised him just for being annoyed by it.
"She's such a brat!" Zuko had said then, outraged. "She's loud and she talks too much and she and Ty Lee never stop giggling and Azula only acts like she likes her when they're bullying someone else together—"
"I know," Mother had said, and the faintest smile had tugged at her mouth. "She's also very loyal, and she's not trying to upset you." Her eyes had gone distant, something tight and sad in them. "I recommended against this, at least not so suddenly, but... Jinai commands many soldiers who answer to him before the Fire Lord."
"Who?"
His mother softly smiled, he remembered she never judged him even slighty. Never made him feel bad, except when he had it coming. "Lord Arza," she clarified as she squeezed his wrist. He remembered that very clearly for some reason, the way she said "it's okay, you're good enough" with every breath and movement. That feeling of elation quickly soured.
"This is… politically important, Zuko," his mother insisted. "Your father might not think it's important to tell you these things, but I do. It's important because, well, there's a real chance Lord Arza will rebel if we don't unite our families."
Zuko had been so full of frustration then, but it didn't really stay that way for long, he wistfully thought as he took a deep breath of the salty, languidly hanging air. He wondered if Lord Arza still wanted to declare war on his father, or if something drastically changed. Well, something clearly had drastically changed either way. It was obvious his father's forces under Zhao and Lord Arza's wanted nothing to do with each other.
A gust of salt wind tugged at his topknot, snapping him back to the present. The mist had crept closer; from here it was a solid sheet, beading quietly on the rail under his hands. The hull groaned as a low wave hit from the side, like wake with no vessel.
Behind him, boots scuffed lightly on the deck.
"If it were a clearer day," Iroh said, genial as ever, "we would be able to see Kyoshi Island by now. Its cliffs are quite dramatic. Ah, but fog has its uses too. The element of surprise is not to be underestimated." He came to stand beside Zuko, resting his forearms on the rail. "What troubles you, Prince Zuko?"
"Nothing," Zuko said automatically.
Iroh waited.
"…Raven," Zuko admitted, jaw tightening. "I don't—" He broke off, irritated with himself. "I shouldn't be thinking about it. It's a distraction."
"Mm." Iroh watched the mist for a moment. "Do you have any idea why she and Lord Arza are so angry with you?" he asked gently. "There was… no chance to ask, before tempers flared."
Zuko snorted. "I don't care," he lied. "I just need to capture the Avatar. Then I can worry about why Raven's crazier than usual. I'm not going easy on her next time." He gritted his teeth and rubbed the bruise he still had on his chest.
"I see," Iroh said mildly.
"I mean—" Zuko scrubbed a hand over his scarred cheek, scowling at the fog. "She's always been like that. When we were kids, she literally cried because the beds in the guest wing weren't perfect like the special one her asshole dad got her." The memory slipped out before he could stop it. "Like, bawled her stupid eyes out. Wouldn't shut up about it till they got her one."
Iroh's eyes crinkled. "Ah, yes. My brother was on a mission to make everyone in the palace less comfortable. I remember. The mattresses were very firm. Actually did my back some good, though." He chuckled. "You were all very young then. I am certain she is more mature now."
Zuko snorted again, softer. "She stopped crying and started yelling and hitting when we were older. That's not the same as mature." He shoved off the rail. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. She's somebody else's problem right now."
* * *
Raven was discovering Kyoshi Island did, in fact, have beds worse than the Fire Lord's guest wing.
"This is a bench," she said flatly, and narrowed her eyes at the already exhausted with her Kyoshi warriors that had to escort her and keep her out of trouble. "Are you trying to sabotage me?"
The village elder's wife—a small, stooped woman with kind eyes and more wrinkles than teeth—smiled apologetically and gestured with both hands at the long, low slab of polished wood along the wall. "We already offered you the nicest bed—" she said.
"Don't call it that." Raven grumbled.
"Call what?" The least fortunate Kyoshi warrior breathed.
"That was a nest for creatures before you dragged it here, I won't hear it," Raven confidently stated.
"We don't have noble accomodations, Lady Arza. We are… doing our best, and only at the Avatar's request, mind you."
"Was that a threat?" Raven sneered.
"No, of course not!" the frustrated warrior shrilled.
The room smelled faintly of smoke and seawater and frying oil from the food stalls outside. Light filtered through paper windows in soft squares. The piece of furntiture in question was indeed quite hard and made of wood, usable as a bench, but functional as a bed, and the reed mats atop it were scarcely softer than the wood itself.
Raven stared at it like it had personally insulted her.
"I said," she enunciated, "that I was aching from your leader's entirely unnecessary assault on me, and that I needed to rest. How shall this arrangement of timber and weeds provide me rest, precisely?"
Two Kyoshi warriors stood at the door, impassive behind their painted faces and fans. They did not relax. Ever since Suki had agreed—grudgingly—to let Raven stay, the warriors had escorted her everywhere like she was a bomb with a hair trigger.
From across the street, through the open window, Sokka, Katara, and Suki could hear every word.
Suki pinched the bridge of her nose under her headdress. "I think," she said very quietly, "that I hate her on a deeply personal level."
Katara bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. She was in a dangerously good mood and she knew it; for once she had girls her age to talk to, not just her obnoxious brother. They'd spent the morning having a laid out feast of a breakfast by remote village standards, then casually gathering supplies and laughing about Sokka's earlier 'girls can't fight' commentary. It felt… nice.
"She's definitely really stressed—I don't know what that prince guy did, but nobody could be happy or act normal while they're that angry," Katara murmured, adjusting the strap on one of the baskets Suki was buying for their provisions. "I want to give her the benefit of the doubt that she's not usually this insufferable."
Suki let out a sigh with a quiet laugh. "You must be really desperate to want to make friends with someone like her," she said, and when Katara looked a bit taken aback she rattled, "uh, not saying you're bad at it, just isolated?"
"So isolated," Sokka breathed. "And I am super bad at girl talk."
"Hopefully not as bad as you are at fighting," Suki teased him, but he just shrugged. "You are improving quickly, though."
"Nah, my girl talk is still garbage," he said with a dismissive wave, not really looking.
"That's not what I—" Suki started, but saw the knowing look on Katara's face. "Very funny," she flatly stated. "Katara, would you mind if I steal him away again? It's feeling like a good time to throw him to the ground a bit."
"Oh? I don't mind." Katara said. She did. But it wasn't Sokka she would miss.
Inside, Raven had crossed her arms and was still glaring at the bench. "Do you people even know what a cushion is?" she demanded of the elder, who took it in patient stride.
"We have a few small ones for sitting at the shrine," the woman said. "For Avatar Kyoshi. They are not for sleeping," she added gently.
Raven made a strangled noise. One of the warriors at the door snorted before catching herself, earning a sharp glare.
"Ah, hold on one moment," Sokka held up a finger to Suki. He had been fussing with pulling something large and fluffy out of one of their traveling bags. "Crisis management," he explained, doing nothing to help the girls understand. "Before she incinerates that old granny."
He scooped up his feed bedroll and marched across the road, dodging a pair of waddling, giggling girls hunting for Aang.
"Sokka—?" Katara started, but he was already through the doorway.
The two warriors tensed, but Suki had told them to treat him as… a guest? An apprentice? A training dummy? It was unclear except that he was generally allowed. They let him pass despite not having even put all the makeup on yet.
Raven turned as he entered, eyebrow arched so high it might escape her forehead. "What do you want, water boy?"
Sokka plunked his bedroll down on the bench with a solid fwump and unfurled it in one dramatic motion. It was well used but frankly luxuriously comfortable given it was natural fur and very supple leather, but to a noble girl it looked off-puttingly rustic and tribal, so she wrinkled her nose.
"There," he said, dusting his hands off. "Oh stop, I just washed it before packing it up." And he suddenly reached down to bat a dried leaf off it.
Raven looked at the bedroll. Then at him. Then back at the bedroll, as if it might be a trap.
"If it stinks of boy sweat, you will regret this," she began, giving him a side-eye as she leaned down to inspect it, prodding with a finger, then several more times like she was checking for prickle snakes or other traps, until finally she dared get close enough to sniff it. What followed was the sight of her cautiously sitting upon it like it might leap up and snap in place like a bear trap.
Her shoulders eased as she turned to lay down and test it. Slowly, maintaining as much dignity as possible, she stretched her legs out and lay back, cloak pooling around her and arms crossed as soon as they could be.
"…acceptable," she declared, staring at the ceiling. "Better than expected." She flicked a glance at Sokka. "Very well. I will make every effort to avoid lighting you on fire."
As if that were a particularly generous vow.
Sokka brightened, then seemed to realize what he'd just traded. "Wait, just me specifically, or—"
Raven closed her eyes. "Don't push it."
Outside, Sokka shuffled back across the street, now bedroll-less, looking very pleased with himself despite that. Katara tried to arrange her face into something that wasn't a full-on grin, he legitimately solved the problem, but giving him credit bothered her for some reason, so she just didn't.
"You're confusing, Sokka," Suki told him frankly as he rejoined them. "You were a jerk when you got here—"
"Hey! Fair—but, hey!"
"—and started belittling girls," she continued over him, "but that was really nice of you, what you did there."
Sokka scratched the back of his head, cheeks coloring with no Kyoshi paint to hide under. "I mean… if we're not gonna fight her and she's gonna help keep those Fire Nation goons at bay," he muttered, and shrugged. "Might as well try to get along."
"Where is my brother?" Katara said with mock incredulity. "Actually, they can keep him. I like you better," she said as she finally felt like he'd earned having her smile at him again.
Suki huffed out a laugh despite herself. "If we're all going out of our way to get along with her, I guess she's a little funny," she conceded, glancing back toward the house. "Don't push it," she qouted, shaking her head. "Pretty sure she has a sense of humor somewhere in all that snooty sass. I hope. She was joking, right?"
Katara and Sokka both just shrugged.
* * *
As soon as Katara had the chance, she gathered a wide array of mostly just fish upon a wood platter, squared her shoulders, and marched into the little house where Raven was quartered.
Everyone was being nice, and it seemed to be working, so she was going to swoop in for the kill.
Inside, the air was dim and warm compared to the bright street. Someone had lit a small brazier; it scented the room with faint incense over smoke and salt which almost drowned out the village's permeating aroma of fishmongering. The benchy bed lay under the window, unfit for torture with Sokka's fluffy bedding atop it.
She looked like a very large, very lumpy cocoon, if she was still in there, and if she hadn't yet transformed into a giant moth.
Sokka's bedroll was enough to swallow relatively tiny Raven whole. Fur and leather were heaped into a long burrito of Water Tribe craftsmanship, cinched once around the middle with Raven's burgundy cloak for good measure, and propped halfway up the wall in the corner, likely so she could see the whole room without needing to leave the nest. The only sign there was a person inside at all was a single small dark gap near what must be the "head" end.
Katara stopped in the doorway and blinked. One of the Kyoshi warriors at the door coughed into her fist to hide a smile.
"Um," Katara ventured. "Raven?"
From inside the cocoon came a few awkward snorts and sniffles before a muffled, hoarse reply. "If you are here to take this back, prepare to perish."
Katara snorted before she could stop herself. "No repossession, I promise. I brought food. I hope you like fish?"
"I don't."
"Oh. Well, there's these things..."
She lifted the simple wooden tray in her hands. The village had a vast assortment of fish prepared in various ways, but there was a set of four spicy looking golden-brown rice balls that smelled richly of roasted poultry. There was a pause, a yawn came forth from the cocoon, clicking shut along with some mildly crazy sounding grumbling. The fur finally shifted a little as Katara leaned in close enough that it felt weird.
Katara noticed that the warriors were finally eased back against the wall. They just gave her a look like it wasn't their problem, until finally pale, delicate fingers with more than a little dirt under the otherwise polished and manicured nails emerged from the dark hole near where Katara suspected Raven's head should be. Raven gingerly plucked one of the golden fried balls and it was taken into the darkness, never to be seen again, then she took the rest rather quite rapidly.
"I take it you had a rough day, or week... or month, maybe?" Katara said, not wanting to pry but wanting to sympathize at the very least. She crossed the room, set the tray on a low stool near the bench, and sat cross-legged on the floor just in front of the beleaguered noble girl.
Raven just let out a crestfallen little chirp.
"I can go away if you want, I won't be upset," Katara offered, although it wasn't entirely true.
"No, no. Everything hurts," Raven muttered from within the roll. "Climbing, fighting, falling, being elbowed by that bi—." She briefly paused, and sighed. "Nngh. Too tired to think of something nicer to say. That bitch put a bruise on me that feels like it goes all the way to my core."
"Er... that's awful, but she did think you were trying to kill her friends," Katara nervously tried to defend Suki, but not too emphatically.
"I know... I'm just mad. All the time. Even when I dream, I'm so angry," Raven deflated as she spoke, and leaned forward enough that Katara could see the moody overcast light from the window glinting off her hazel-green eyes in a single stripe.
"Oh..." Katara quietly offered, but took a deep breath and darkly said. "I know what that feels like. It's horrible. Just remembering how it felt hurts."
The cocoon was very still.
"If you ever want to talk about it—" Katara started, but didn't feel the need to say more.
There was a tiny, put-upon sigh. "You and your brother are lovely people," Raven said like it was an admission. "I've decided to avoid lighting you on fire as well."
Katara gave a single laugh. She wasn't really glad that she was so correct about her assumption that Raven wasn't just wild violent maniac, but hurting terribly. At least that's how it seemed to her.
"Those crunchy things weren't awful," Raven admitted.
The tension in the room had ebbed away, with the warriors listening openly now, fans put away entirely, and by their faces Katara could tell they were at least a little affected by how miserable Raven sounded, despite her minorly injuring two of their comrades. Katara wrapped her arms around her knees like she needed to give herself a hug.
"I wanted to thank you properly," she said quietly. "For what you did at my village. Even if you had... other reasons. If you hadn't driven those soldiers away, I don't know what would have happened. I wish—" Katara's emotions took away her speech for a moment. "I wish someone like you had been there the last time we were raided too."
There was a long silence inside the bedroll. When Raven spoke again, her voice had lost some of its lazy dryness.
"He probably would have killed you," she said. "He's not the type to show mercy, especially not to lovely girls like you."
Katara's fingers tightened, and she wouldn't admit it but properly shivered all over at the thought of being captured and executed by some ruthless Fire Nation soldier. She knew all about that sort of thing. "I'll keep that in mind," she could only scarcely whisper.
Katara thought of Prince Zuko on the ice, shouting, fire roaring around him. She also thought of him turning his back on Sokka rather than finishing him off, really being much less than lethal with her brother when he didn't have to be, more than once.
"He could have killed my brother," she offered. "But he didn't."
"I don't know why he did that," Raven said in a tired tone like she just didn't really want to hear anything approaching support of her betrothed.
Katara stared at the woven floor mat she was sitting upon for a moment, jaw clenched. "I don't want to leave you behind," she said. The honesty surprised even her. "Not with someone like him coming. If it gets bad, I hope you'll come with us."
For a moment there was no sound at all from the fur roll. Even the brazier seemed to crackle more quietly.
"You are very strange," Raven said at last. "You barely know me. I could be lying about everything. I could be leading you into a trap."
"You could," Katara said. "But my gut says you are not. And my gut led me to freeing the Avatar a couple days ago, so I'm not ignoring it," she went on almost flippantly like she knew it sounded silly, but still believed it.
Raven let out a soft huff that might have been a laugh. "My plan does not go much further than: find Zuko, make him pay for what he did, and—" Her voice turned thin around the words, as if she was holding back more than she was saying. "I don't even want to think of what happens after that. My father will be furious. At least he's too busy right now to notice I'm gone." And she finally slid partially from the cocoon, languidly freeing her head but letting her cheek drift and press awkwardly against the wall.
"So," Katara said, seizing on something lighter before her chest got any tighter, "I really like your hair."
Raven just stared off into space, not quite at Katara. "Mmm," she possibly affirmed, but glanced briefly at her too. "Yours is weird but I like it."
"Uh... thanks?" Katara couldn't help but chuckle.
There was another pause, a different sort of quiet this time as Raven let her face distort further while she slowly slid down the wall, lips parted like it was too much work to close them before she finally forced herself to say, "why are you all being so nice to me?" and for the first time there was no arrogance at all in it, only wary bafflement. "I was taught the water tribes were... uh... brutish, uncivilized, dimwitted. You raid each other for women, eat only raw meat, beat people for using fire just to cook. That sort of thing."
Heat flared in Katara's cheeks. "What?!" she snapped before she could stop herself. "All the Fire Nation does is attack us then sail away again. How could they know what the Southern Water Tribe is even like?!"
Raven raised an eyebrow at how steamed Katara immediately was, and felt no desire to defend what she had been taught, "Nobody back home has ever been as nice to me as you're being now. Honestly I don't care if you're really cannibals or whatever."
"We do not EAT people!" Katara very deliberately told Raven, utterly aghast.
Raven shrugged before taking a very deep breath, trying and failing to calm herself before quietly saying, "you know, you remind me of someone dear to me." And her voice cracked as all the light that remained drained from her.
Katara opened her mouth, ready to ask more, when the door banged inward hard enough to rattle the frame.
Suki and Sokka skidded in almost on top of each other. Suki's fans were already in her hands; Sokka was rapidly searching about his person before producing his boomerang to silently smile with glee that he hadn't lost it yet. Both were breathing hard, Suki's face dead serious.
"Katara!" Sokka blurted. "And Raven in particular! We have a problem."
"The fog," Suki cut in, eyes flicking around the room, already counting bodies and exits. "It was too thick to see, but we heard the engines. A Fire Nation warship just grounded on the beach. Soldiers are already advancing on the village."
The bedroll flung into the air, actually splatting against the ceiling briefly as any sign that Raven was exhausted vanished. Landing in a crouch on the floor, she stood slowly, trying not to emit any flames on accident as she gritted her teeth. Her hair was a messed halo around her face, her eyes wide and suddenly very awake.
"Where?" she demanded, already reaching for her boots. "From the north cove or the harbor mouth?"
"Straight at the main harbor down the road," Suki said. "Couldn't get a good look, but definitely Fire Nation."
Raven's jaw set. The tired, complaining girl from a moment ago was gone. All that remained was hard, bright intent. "Good," she said. "Then he will not be hard to find."
* * *
Lord Arza's office in the family's capital city manor looked like it had conquered three other offices and put their gilded remains on display.
Red silk banners embroidered with gold spearheads hung between tall windows. Shelves sagged under the weight of jade carvings, porcelain vases, and enough lacquered scroll-cases to drown a librarian. The desk was the worst offender: a monstrous slab of blackwood with clawed legs, gilt edges, and a polished surface that reflected every flicker of firelight.
It currently also had Lord Arza's face firmly fixed to the surface.
He lay folded over the desk like a felled tree, cheek mashed against an open ledger, one hand still holding a brush that had leaked ink across important-looking figures. His fingers drummed on the lacquered wood, the only sign he was still alive.
"I don't care if it's 'unladylike' or 'unseemly' or whatever other stupid words you want to hide behind!" Raven was saying, pacing tight circles in front of the desk. Twelve-years-old, furious, and heating up the entire room. "Zuko is competing! Azula is competing! She's ten! Ten, Father!"
"You are not Azula," Lord Arza mumbled into the paperwork.
"That's the point!" Raven threw her arms up. "She's the Fire Lord's daughter, she's younger than me, she's a whole PRINCESS, dad!" She stared at him in disbelief. "She's allowed to go out and fight in front of people, but I can't?!"
Outside the half-open door, Zuko pressed his back to the wall and tried not to breathe too loudly. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop. He'd been sent by his mother to spend time with Raven, which he begrudgingly agreed to, and she had insisted he be nice to her, which he begrudgingly agreed to. He was aware it was probably his father telling her to make him go, but it still felt like a bit of a betrayal.
He should have wasted more time on the way over, apparently.
"Mmm-hmm," Arza replied, voice slightly clearer as he shifted his forehead to a new patch of desk. "Please stop shouting so loud, pumpkin."
Raven spun on him. "It's not bare-knuckle brawling, it's a fancy firebending tournament for nobles! And if I can't do it because of 'House Arza's honor' then maybe House Arza's honor is some dumb garbage!"
Brush bristles creaked under Arza's forehead. "You're not ready, Raven..." he muttered, too low for Raven to catch as she went over to the unfortunately open window to scream at servants and soldiers below that the manor was full of garbage that needed to be tossed out, but he was exactly loud enough for Zuko to hear.
Zuko flinched. He thought the same thing, honestly. He wasn't even sure he should be going to the tournament, but the thought of his ten-year-old sister going when he stayed home was just too embarrassing, and Raven wasn't bad, but she definitely wasn't as good as him. He also knew saying that to her face was tantamount to a declaration of war.
Raven stormed back over and slammed both palms down on the desk. "You just think I'm an embarrassment!"
Lord Arza just sighed.
"I've been practicing every day! Zuko's seen—"
"That's great, sweetie..." he grumbled.
Fire flickered at Raven's fingertips. "You're treating me like a child!" she accused.
"You are a child," he flatly stated.
Zuko saw it happen in slow motion.
Raven's jaw clenched. Her eyes went shiny, just at the edges. Pride strangled whatever she'd been about to say, and all that emotion had to go somewhere.
It went into her hands.
A sheet of flame roared up over the desk surface.
Lord Arza moved without looking like he'd been expecting exactly that. His arm swept wide, grabbing the fire, pressing it down and away; it rolled in a molten wave that spilled harmlessly into the hearth and sent sparks up the chimney. Ink boiled, then sizzled out on the accosted ledger. A few scrolls curled at the edges, but perhaps only an hour's work writing was lost.
For the first time, Raven looked uncertain.
After lifting his head slowly like he was some slumbering ancient titan foolishly disturbed, Lord Arza looked truly done with her.
He stared at the wisps of smoke rising from his deeply expensive desk for a long heartbeat. Then he stood up very slowly, towering over his daughter, and said in a voice that made Zuko's shoulders lock from across the hall:
"Raven."
She swallowed. "Yes, Father?"
"Go to your room."
"No," she stated with far too much certainty for her own good.
Something like shock, or maybe just disbelief, flickered in his eyes. "No?"
"No," she repeated, throat tight but gaze steady. "If you won't let me compete, I won't—"
That was as far as she got before six and a half feet of very large, very tired noble lord decided he'd had enough debate for one day. Zuko yanked himself back and stood flat against the polished wall, half afraid of being seen, and half just not wanting to watch his betrothed be turned into sizzle-crisps.
The sounds Raven made became incoherent out of sight, from words to yowling as the rush and fluff of firebending could be heard, followed by a brief but chaotic struggle ending in a shriek. Lord Arza stepped coolly out of his office, didn't even look Zuko's way as he held Raven upside down by her ankle aloft over his own head, and had both her wrists clasped in his other hand to keep her from fussing as her dress fell over her face and blinded her. Her hair hung in a dark curtain a foot off the floor.
From Zuko's vantage point, Raven looked distressingly like a thrashing wild animal.
"Put me down!" she yowled, wriggling so hard she swung in a small arc. "What about my dignity, huh?!"
"Out," he grunted, and actually tossed her—but at least on the long carpet and not the stone floor.
Zuko flattened himself even harder against the wall, not wanting to get dragged into it.
For a fraction of a second, their eyes met: Lord Arza's tired and furious, Zuko's caught between horror and hysterical laughter, not wanting to make father or daughter any more angry. A strange, fleeting camaraderie passed over Arza's face, as if to say, you see what I live with?
And he slammed the door. A breath later, white hot fire crawled around the frame with a hiss as he welded it shut from the inside.
Raven stared at the door, fists trembling.
Zuko pressed his lips together so hard they hurt.
"Don't you dare," she hissed without looking at him.
"I wasn't going to," he managed, voice strangled.
"Yes you were," she accused.
"Nuh-uh," he poorly lied.
For a long moment they just stood there, the muffled sounds of Lord Arza moving around on the other side of the sealed door filling the silence.
"Come on," Zuko said at last, awkwardly. "Let's find something to do... not near your dad."
She puffed up her chest, but turned on her heel and let him fall into step beside her, stomping down the corridor like she wanted to break anything and everything.
"I could drop out," he offered after a bit. "If you're not going, I don't really want to either."
She cut him a sidelong look. Some of the heat in her shoulders eased. "…liar," she said, but without venom.
"I can just say I lost interest," he tried. "Or had plans with you or something?"
"You still want to go, though."
He winced. "…a little."
"Then go," she snapped. "Don't be an idiot just because my dad is one. I'll just… save up my fire for next year."
Zuko let himself smile, small and honest. "That's not how bending works," he laughed, knowing she knew that.
For a few steps, the tension between them thinned. Then, like an absolute fool, he opened his mouth again.
"I mean, I barely think I'm good enough to compete now," he said, frowning thoughtfully. "I think he just wants you to wait. Next year you'll be stronger and—"
Raven stopped walking.
"You barely think you're good enough," she repeated, very quietly.
He realized what he'd just said a heartbeat too late. "That's not— I didn't mean—"
"You're calling me weak," she said flatly.
"I'm not! I'm saying he doesn't want you to get hurt—"
"Because you both think I'm weak," she bit out. "Say it."
He threw up his hands. "Fine! You're weaker than me right now, so what? We're both weaker than your dad, or mine!"
Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Says the boy who gets his butt kicked by his little sister and cries," she said, voice sugar-sweet and deadly.
Heat flared in Zuko's cheeks. "Are you serious?!" he snapped. "Hey, remember how you used to cry about EVERYTHING? Like not even a year ago?! Did I make fun of you for crying then?!"
Her breath hitched. For a flash of a second he saw hurt, raw and unguarded. "Not to my face," she downright pouted, but refused to go back to how she was.
"Actually I liked you better when you were a crybaby and not such a... a brat!" he blurted, and immediately wanted to drag the words back into his mouth. His composure faltered and he slightly stammered, "I was just trying to make you feel better, and you—"
"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," Raven snarled. "Let me show you."
She took a step toward him, shoulders set, hands curling.
Zuko set his own stance without thinking, heat rising in his chest. "You're not as strong as you think you are," he threw back. "You should know your place."
Something in her expression snapped, and things were about to get very tantamount.
* * *
Fire swept clean the moist dead leaves and twigs on the dirt road in front of Zuko. It raced along the damp earth in a bright, crawling thin line, licking over roots and stones before jetting straight up under his Komodo Rhino's front claws.
The beast let out a deep hiss, rearing, massive head tossing. Zuko grabbed for the reins as the world tilted; his ribs screamed protest as the saddle lurched under him.
"Easy! EASY!" he snapped, more at himself than the animal, his witless mind stuck fast on that mad girl or he could have bent it all away.
The rhino crashed its front claws back down half on, half off the narrow road, skidding in the mud into the shallow ditch. A panicked sidestep slammed its armored flank into a tree with a deafening thunk. Branches rattled, leaves rained down, and the poor creature ended up snorting, stamping, and utterly done with today.
Zuko swung free of the stirrups and hit the ground running just before his mount could squash him by mistake.
Fog boiled away where the fire had gone. Out of the thinning white came a small, fast-moving shape. Burgundy cloak snapping, boots hammering down the slope, carrying muscular but feminine legs all too familiar.
Raven.
Her landing stance from that first double kick flowed into another move, flame already blooming around her hands. She'd been charging before his men even began sweeping the fog; he could see it now, see how she'd timed her attack to their first breath of visibility. It was annoyingly smart of her, given how much of an idiot she was. He barred his face, then tossed away her flames, hopped back from a second burst, and side stepped the third while forcing her to stop advancing with his wicked-fast arc of flame sent like he meant to bisect her, but she was able to part it around her with both fingerless gloved hands blocking—and steam burst from the moist black leather on her palms.
Of course she'd gotten ahead of him. Of course she was already in his way. It didn't make any damn sense since he was licking the Avatar's heels to Kyoshi Island, but complaints were going to be ignored, that much was clear.
"Again?!" he bit out, half to her, half to the universe. "Ice bath not enough to cool your head?" And he didn't even think, it was like in sparring where he'd keep her dodging by chasing her every footfall with fire, each rapid punch straight and purposed.
Around him, the rest of the squad did exactly what they'd been ordered to do: they pushed fire into the mist, weak but wide, clearing a ring around the vanguard so they wouldn't stumble on an ambush. Fog recoiled in great ragged curtains. The wooden houses, spindly trees, and fishing nets of Kyoshi Village surfaced out of the white like a shipwreck dragging itself up from the bottom, but only flickers of sandals and flapping cloaks could be briefly seen, retreating up hill into thick white soupy air.
Raven tired of dodging, timed a perfect mid-air kick, and Zuko's eyes widened as her heel cracked sparks that shot like arrows in a distracting firework, followed instantly by an almost lightning fast counter bend that lanced off half his helmet's flame emblem, and he nearly crushed his teeth from the tension. She smoothly landed in a sprint downhill toward him, narrow hazel eyes locked on his wide yellow.
"Like my new trick, asshole?!" she gnashed with equal rage and wicked glee. It was a pretty cool trick, but he could feel a headache starting right between his eyebrows.
Broken clock, twice a day and all, he figured, because she closed too much as she put her heel to his armored chest, deadly point-blank, but painfully obvious. He deflected past his melting emblem, twisting her foot and forcing her to cook dry the damp road as her momentum forced her to spin backwards right in front of him and nearly tumble on her face. With a loud crack on her backside, her growl lost to a comically girly shriek, but she managed a somersault Ty Lee would be proud of as she spun back to face him on her feet with the deepest offense ever witnessed in history or myth.
Her fingers tapped her mildly stinging butt. He was pulling his glove tight on one raised hand, zero patience on his face. He didn't even bend, the reprobate! All she could do was stare at him and scoff in disbelief, never more thrown off in her life.
"Are you done?" he breathed.
"How dare you!" she was obligated to shout, but it took the steam right out of her, at least for a moment.
"Raven. Get out of my way. Right now."
There was a cough beside them. Five spearmen with the most awkward expressions stood there, speechless until they caught his gaze.
"Uh, Prince Zuko... should we-"
"If you gawkers tell ANYONE about this after I kill him I will shove Arzayanagi right up your—" she was cut short by Zuko keeping an eye on her as he swept flames to force her to back off.
"Find the Avatar! I'll deal with her! Take the town if you have to!" He quickly bellowed orders over his own rush of bending as he kept Raven moving away, off the road, and into the withered brush.
Her bitter grin gave, "you'll regret saying that!" as his flamethrower sputtered out and gave her an opening, which she took with a lunge.
There was a bewildered moment, but his soldiers peeled away as ordered, boots thudding on packed dirt. Komodo rhinos fanned out, snorting steam; the fog swallowed half the squad again as they pushed toward the clustered houses, though it buffeted out ahead with blast after blast of widespread flames.
Zuko set his stance. "Not this time," he muttered as he struck narrow flames, palm flat and fingers forward, that quickly made a gap in her unusually mighty burst. He felt the heat sting his shoulders as he pushed through with that hand, then just as the waves of heat cleared he struck his other palm forward, advanced his step as far as he could. Raven was struck dead center—he didn't hold back, but there was no strong bend in that stance. It still knocked the breath out of her, sending her sliding back, but she stayed on her feet after a scramble.
There was genuine surprise on Zuko's face as she looked up at him, gritting her teeth and shook it off, but he saw flakes of her cloak falling away as ash—mostly burned through but not quite. A fire resistant cloak, and an expensive one. He deflated a breath, having figured that would put her out of commission.
Her barrage came back as a storm of quick, snapping kicks and punches, each one flinging tight bursts of fire meant to punish his arrogance. She'd gotten better, he noticed right away. Sharper footwork, stronger kicks. Still not in his league, and she should know better after that finishing blow he just knocked her back with, but for a real cheap cheat in what she claimed to be an Agni Kai—tradition demanded no such protection be used.
He met her fire with his own, palms sweeping, redirecting, grinding his teeth as each impact was no trouble to disperse, but his ribs ached more and more—all her fault too, of course.
"Is this it?" she demanded, flames coiling around her knuckles. "You just cower and block and mock me?!"
"Are you serious?! Look at your smoking hot chest, dumbass!" And an eyebrow raised before her eyes flickered down and she saw flames flickering and spreading on her insulated but not fire proof garb beneath her cloak. She yelped with surprise and bent it away with a quick swat, as he menaced, "you won't bounce back after another!"
"I'll—," she paused. "Wait, what?" and she almost laughed.
Zuko frowned wondering what she was on abo—oh spirits, he hadn't meant it to sound like that at all. Twice even... he shook it off. "Shut up, I didn't mean—whatever! Just go away!" he raged as he aggressively advanced on her. Raven's eyes went wide, lit up bright yellow as she barely tilted back to avoid it, then rolled into something else Ty Lee taught her that put her back on two feet to properly slash away his follow up blast. It was hot. Hotter than before. He was getting very impatient, and Raven flickered her eyes to see if the Kyoshi warriors had attacked yet.
Raven's eyes widened. She threw both arms up, bending his sudden blaze away as best she could, but it still grazed close enough that he heard her hiss in pain. She threw herself into a desperate roll, cloak taking most of it and smoldering at the edges as it fell off of her in scraps, boots skidding in the churned dirt. Her heart skipped a beat—sense struck her for a moment when she couldn't deny that would have been it for her if she was slightly slower.
"Give up," Zuko snarled. "Do you wanna die?!" But all she saw was how spent he was after that excess, hunched forward and breathless, sucking in air and open...
The fire-whip leapt into being with a vicious crack, followed a split-second later with a shriek of metal echoing in the fog.
He jerked his helmet aside by instinct, taking the hit on metal instead of flesh. A perfect strike of the tip of her whip laid a glowing-orange stripe right across the red metal, with a hefty chunk coming loose, clinking off his shoulder. Instinctively he flung the compromised half-molten helmet off, but the world rang like a gong inside his skull; white sparks burst behind his eyes as the heat began to sting on his cheek.
"AH—!" he seethed.
The smell of burnt lacquer hit his nose, causing him to blink, so he had to guess. He barely yanked down in time as the whip whistled back for a second pass, his ponytail flew up as he dropped prone, and went its own way, severed and smoldering near the base.
There was a horrible, suspended second where neither of them moved.
Raven's mouth twitched.
"Was tacky anyway," she sneered.
Something in Zuko's temper gave up, tried to retreat, but he choked it back down. However...
All up the main street, Kyoshi Village woke into chaos.
Fire Nation soldiers were struck by green-and-white blurs, launching from cover or roofs. Kyoshi warriors touched ground with scarcely a sound, fans spinning back into guarded stance. A spearhead came loose, two men toppled over screaming and grabbing bleeding leg wounds that surely took them out of the fight, and several others reeled and clutched less serious wounds.
The metal tip of Suki's fan stuck square on a firebender's mask, putting a dent to make your skin crawl as he let out a gravelly gasp, turning to a sputter as he toppled off his Komodo Rhino, knocked senseless and with a fun brand new shape of nose.
They were quick. Very quick. And they were fighting like people who had one village, one home, and absolutely no backup. Even so, it was like trying to dam a river with silk. The remaining firebenders replied instantly, palms out from their mounts and scattering the Kyoshi warriors, with only Suki confident enough to just fan aside the flames meant for her.
"Naeko, left!" someone shouted.
She pivoted, tried to reach and turn aside the blow, but she'd dodged right into the lucky spearman, at least too close for the bladed end. The metal-tipped base cleanly swung, caught her square in the temple. Naeko flopped aside like a ragdoll into the grassy ditch. She didn't move.
"Naeko!" a fellow warrior cried, trying to reach her, fire forced her back, and took most of her sleeve with it as she yelped and batted it out.
On the far side of the street, Suki was hand-to-hand with one of the armored troopers, using her fans to turn aside his strikes. She had him staggered, open, but she sensed trouble and jumped aside, scarcely escaping becoming a Kyoshi kebab as a deadly spear thrust from behind. Suki clenched her teeth, expecting the attacker to follow up, but with a loud clang she saw his helmet sail one way, then a crack and his head snapped back the other. He was sent dazed and face first in the soil. Sokka looked very disappointed in the man as he hefted one of their own blackwood spears.
"Sokka!" Suki cheered, but snapped attention back to everyone else trying to kill her. "I could kiss you for that!"
"Really?! No take-backsies!" He instantly shot back as he scrambled wide-eyed away from the out flattened spearman's vengeful firebending comrade, slipping into an alley to escape the flames. He could still be heard shouting, "and sorry I didn't use fans, I'm just better with spears still!"
"I forgive you!" Suki shot back as she hopped aside to a cart and with the extra height up to a low roof to dodge back out of sight, but paces away in the fog her comrades weren't all faring as well.
A few of the Kyoshi warriors ended up surrounded, spears tightening as a firebender freely blasted them in smaller and smaller space, and their fans failed finally when one of the young women ignited with a panicked scream.
Katara hadn't been sure what to do until then.
She grabbed at the fog around the Kyoshi warrior, instinct reaching for wetness: mist, breath, sweat, anything! To fail was too awful. The air condensed in a sudden, heavy sheet that swaddled the enflamed warrior as she helplessly batted at flames all the way up one side of her dress, and she was out instantly with a puff of steam. It left the four cornered warriors slick with moisture, but that was an advantage at the moment.
Both Fire Nation soldiers and Kyoshi warriors stared over at her like she had done something inappropriate.
"Uh," Katara said faintly. "I don't know how I did that!"
Then one of the soldiers yelled, "A waterbender!" and the street exploded back into motion, Katara yelping as she booked it into the fog, but it broke away half the circle to chase her, letting the Kyoshi warriors slip away.
Zuko saw almost none of that in detail; just a chaotic mess of leaderless soldiers doing their best. It registered only in quick flashes between their exchanges, but his men seemed to be holding their own at least, and they wouldn't be caught off guard a second time.
But then a soldier in his peripheral vision going down all on his own, then another. Tripping on—was that ice? For a moment, half the front line wobbled like drunks on a frozen pond, several smacking the butts of their spears to break the ice catching their boots in place. Katara stood there holding an empty bucket from atop a roof she'd scrambled up to, eyes wide in shock at how effective that had been, and Kyoshi warriors freely took strikes at the beleaguered men.
"Damn it... hold on!" he shouted over the roar, annoyed to be pulled away as he had Raven backpedaling again. He dashed towards the battle, legs sweeping low as he landed.
A low, wide wave of fire rolled down the road, hot enough to melt the sudden treacherous sheen on the packed earth, not focused enough to cook his men's toes in their pre-frozen boots, but the warrior women had to leap away, although Naeko was dragged away to safety by villagers in the brief respite from the Fire Nation's advance.
Something whistled.
Zuko's instincts screamed; he twisted just as the boomerang came out of the fog. It clipped him between the shoulder blades instead of the back of the unhelmed skull, which was an improvement, but still drove the breath out of him and sent him stumbling forward.
"Ha!" a too-familiar boy's voice cheered somewhere in the mist. "Get him, Raven!"
Zuko windmilled, catching himself on one hand, ribs blazing with pain, halting his breath.
Raven cackled with glee, and did not waste the opening.
He heard her before he saw her: the slap of boots, the sharp inhale, the rising crackle of fire. He looked up just in time to see her silhouette against the somehow painfully bright gray, both feet leaving the ground in her textbook double-kick, flame wreathing her legs in a clumsy move meant to finish a foe too stupid or staggered to dodge.
She put everything into it.
Weight, rage, bending... some mounting embarrassment... all focused dead at his chest. "Just die!"
If he hadn't already been off-balance, if he'd had even half a second more, he could have turned, redirected, used her momentum against her with such a blatant attack. As it was, all he could do was throw his arms up and shove back, hope he could strike the core of her blast.
Flame met flame point-blank in perfect counter.
The explosion was less a sound to them, more a churning reverberation: a flat, concussive whump that turned the world white to them but shot a cloud of dark smoke in a surprising plume. It punched every thought out of his head. Heat slammed into him from the front, cracking his lips; the ground ambushed him from the back; his ribs lit up like they'd been struck with metal pitons.
"Aaagh—" he could only wheeze and sputter.
Raven hit wall, then hit the ground, smoking and motionless. Her boots where blown out, soles blasted away, and smoke rising from her reddened heels.
When the ringing in his ears faded enough, the first thing he heard was his own breathing, thin and ragged. The second was the crackle and rush of new fires bent from his soldiers hands as they retreated to his position, dragging the wounded away from the village after giving each other mutual bloody noses.
He rolled onto an elbow with a groan, spitting soot and black slime. Every muscle protested. His hands were raw and throbbing from the backlash.
For a sick instant, Zuko's stomach dropped at the sight of her.
Then he saw her chest rise, shallow but steady, and he could breathe too. But he didn't have time to process what he felt as hands grasped and pulled him up.
"Raven!" Katara's voice warbled in terror. That waterbender girl for some reason risked dashing close to his men, she put her arms under Raven's, and small as the knocked senseless girl was, Katara was no heavyweight herself, scuffing through the mud to slowly pull Raven away from the fight. "Suki! Help me!"
"But—" Suki started, but a glance at Raven made her curse under her breath and dash to Katara as spearmen drew dangerously close. With the two they sped off with her, and Zuko could only watch as he coughed out puffs of smoke. Something about all of it bothered him immensely, but he just didn't have time for whatever wild nonsense Raven was up to.
Raven's eyes fluttered at the jostling; she managed a low, furious noise and a helpless attempt to bat them away.
"No… not finished… let go—"
"Shut up, you crazy, crazy girl!" Katara hissed, and sniffled, more scared than angry. "That could have killed you!"
Then the sky itself dropped on the Fire Nation forces.
A wall of air pushed men back, flung some off their feet, sent rhinos bellowing and stumbling sideways; spears clattered to the ground. Zuko stayed in place sheerly through the fortune of still being on a knee.
He didn't need a clear view to know who that was.
"The Avatar—agh!" He strained to yell.
The glider cut down through the last shreds of fog blown far away like a stroke of paint, orange and yellow bright against the gray, dusting the ground with a spiraling flurry of smoldering leaves and soot from the battle, but looping back up above the tree tops.
It was the first time Zuko had seen him clearly. He was airbending—he had to be the Avatar—but he was just a boy. It wasn't what he expected, and the kid looked horrified for some reason.
"Uh, that's right! Chase me! I'm the Avatar!" Aang shouted, voice warbling with a bit of emotion. "No reason to stay here!"
And Aang swooped down along the evenly sloping hills to the beach, leaving an open tunnel in the fog behind him. Zuko instantly started back down the dirt road, but halted after one step. It wasn't long. Half a breath, a crack in his focus, not worthy of consideration.
What are you doing? He snarled at himself as he moved again. She tried to kill you. Twice. She's crazy! Suicidally crazy! She attacked you in front of your own troops. She attacked you here. She is nothing but a distraction and a painful memory—he wobbled in place, vision blurring for a moment as his heart felt like it lurched, surely just pain from the impact against his already angry ribs.
He hated that he wasn't sure. But he had a mission. Zuko seized that hatred, welded it to his purpose, and let it burn everything else out. The pain was nothing, that blast was nothing, Raven's distractions were nothing. Flames jetted out of his nostrils as what was left of his ponytail fell loosely in a mess. A soldier tried to hand him his damaged helmet. He swatted it aside.
"Leave it! All that matters is catching the Avatar! Let's go!" he commanded, crushing out the sound of pain with rage.
"But is Lady Arza in the hands of an enemy...?" a firebender who should know better asked.
"I don't know what she's doing, I don't care! We're leaving! Now!" he bellowed as he approached his Komodo Rhino. It had an annoyed vibe about it, but took one look at Zuko storming towards it and it scurried back onto the road, obediently ready to be ridden again.
Zuko refused to look back to see those girls disappear into the fog with Raven's head lolling between them.