Chapter 11 - Cracked Lips Damp With Ash (2/?)

Raven woke up like a smoldering black wick drowned in half-melted wax. There was a voice, somewhere far away, hauling her name through the ages.

"Raven. Raven— Raven."

The world was ice, and that wasn't a metaphor. Real, cold, blue walls surrounded her, those desecrated walls dripping or stained with blood giving way to the smooth single color, but for patches of glinting white. The edges of her sight swam, like there was something behind what she was seeing. The corners melted and re-formed. The walls, floor and ceiling all melding into one endless glacier. Her breath felt the cold too, still, just a little.

Her eyelids were heavy in a way that didn't feel like sleep, but like she'd taken a boot to the temple, although the pain was blessedly mild, and then faded away. It felt like she and gravity weren't on the same page.

"Why," she managed with only mild impatience, and the word scraped out of her throat like something dragged across stone, "are you yelling?"

She smiled without meaning to. The smile happened first, and her face caught up after, like it was late to its own expression. She felt very warm, and held. It was nice. She almost felt like she'd forgotten what it was like for some reason.

The voice choked.

A hand moved against her. It was shaking, cradled the side of her face as if it had been holding her together by force of will alone.

"Raven," Zuko said again, and it came out wrecked, not sharp. "Spirits, Raven. I thought you—"

His voice broke so hard it made the world tilt. Raven blinked, instantly getting a tiny boost of urgency from his tone alone, but still slow and dreamy, and the blue walls blurred away. The ice wasn't ice anymore. It was… light. Just colors. It was something her brain insisted was more real than whatever she was actually touching, so that touch was just a nice, happy dream she could enjoy. It felt a bit like a vacation, and she was happy to be there.

Zuko's face swam in front of her like a lantern seen through fog. Positively silly. 'What was he all pouty about?' she wondered. It was so cozy in bed, yet there were tears on his cheeks, and he wasn't even pretending they weren't there. There was nothing to cry about there. He hardly ever cried, though, didn't he? She took a deep breath, still blinking away that icy sheen, and figured she should probably make sure he felt better. They both didn't. They were tough together.

"I'm sorry," he said, so fast her heart jerked just a bit. But it just seemed silly again when he rattled off a lightning fast, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't want you to die in there! I just— I just needed you to calm down so we could talk. I didn't think—"

Raven tried to laugh, but it came out as a tiny, broken sound.

"You care about me so much," she croaked, completely genuine, even if a bit imperious still. She got to gloat, in her opinion. "You're so sweet. I'm okay..." she drifted off, honestly feeling fine.

She lifted her hand like the air was thick honey, and flopped it against his cheek in a vague attempt at a caress. She was really tired, apparently...

His skin was hot. Not fever-hot. Firebender-hot. The warmth sank into her palm like it had been waiting there specifically for her. It felt amazing. It was always hard to let go of him. Zuko froze like she'd slapped him. Weirdo. Raven giggled. He looked back like he'd seen a ghost.

"You're being silly," she whispered.

His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "You're… you're not mad?" he asked, gentle like a cough could blow her away.

Raven blinked again. The endless haze like an open sky holding over her vision was clearer now, moving fast, the color stronger and the glint brighter and brighter. She just looked to where his voice was coming from, his dumb cute face was somewhere in there, she could tell, and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to blink away whatever primordial uber-sleep had accosted her, apparently.

Zuko's breath hitched. He stared at her like he couldn't decide if he was allowed to touch her again. "Are you… back?" he whispered. 

She raised an eyebrow.

"To how you were?"

Raven smiled at him like he'd asked if she wanted dessert. Everything he said made her feel so wanted, he was crazy about her, and she couldn't ever get enough of it. She pushed him gently on the chest with one finger, a ridiculous little poke she blatantly stole from some girl in a silk robe at a party. It wasn't meant for a half-frozen prisoner in the belly of a warship, but that didn't cross her mind at all.

"You're the best," she said, in a tone so girly it was obviously put on, but she still meant it.

Zuko stared in disbelief. His tears kept falling even though she'd cleared up his silly notion. Weirdo. Then, carefully, like he was approaching a wild animal with a broken leg, he asked, "Then… what were you so angry about?" like he was trying very hard not to sound accusatory.

Raven's smile stayed in place, but her eyes drifted to the shifting colors, now volatile and flickering like a sky right up against her face, rushing past. It finally felt like she was really there, like the room and Zuko were real thing now. She tilted her head, genuinely confused.

"Was I angry... at you?" she asked, finally sounding awake.

Zuko swallowed. His throat bobbed hard. He glanced away, then back. His voice dropped into something rougher. "You kept… you kept saying her name."

Raven's blissful smile slowly faded, but she just stared at him.

"Asha," Zuko said, like the words were razor sharp on the way out and he had to be careful. "You kept making a... uh... reeeal big deal about her," and she gave a weird sort of shit-eating smile.

The warmth behind Raven's eyes evaporated. Expression like a curtain fell, closing herself off. The strange

Reality crowded in around her, suffocating and stealing her breath with all the certainty of a very tiny, very cold prison cell.

For half a heartbeat, she had no idea where she was. For the second half, she remembered a cell, cold metal floors, her wrists still hurt. She felt like her life was over, like she'd rather just die than feel that way. Then... Arzaya... why in the world did she show her that. How... did she get in Zuko's bed...? Her heart pounded, anxiety was like a knife in her lungs with her first deep breath. She'd forgotten something absurdly important.

And then, like the knife was ripping it's way back out of her, she heard it. A young, innocent voice so dear to her again, choking on emotion. The near faded away icy-blue sky briefly flashed bright, a burst like fireworks to snap her out of her brief insanity, and was gone. "Please, no! Please stop!" she heard. Her sister, shrieking in terror and panic. So desperate.

Her whole body locked, panic turning her muscles into binding ropes.

Asha.

Asha screaming.

Asha's last words, it hit her, and she breathed out in raspy, low moaning noise as she deflated, her head lolled like she was sick, and her fingers clenched the sheets. A real big deal, huh. She felt like she could melt right through the floor, into the ocean, and boil it away. She had to just sit there and breathe, or she'd just scream and never be able to stop. She twisted to pull away from him, but he was already gone.

Unblinking, she slowly raised her gaze, where she saw his naked back, just a sheet wrapped around his waist where he stood around like he was allowed to just keep existing and doing things how he pleased. Raven's gaze flicked down. His bed. His sheets. What the fuck was going on. He'd thrown her in prison... she was still on the ship, she could feel it rising and falling on the black midnight sea. She also felt another presence, a pulsing forge just beside her.

Arzayanagi.

Of course it was here. Of course it was. The smug son of a bitch had actually just left it there, propped up against the wall like a prize he'd won at a carnival and couldn't decide where to put it. Raven's fingers twitched.

"Uncle, this isn't the best—" Zuko started, too stricken with emotion to raise his voice to anger.

"Nonsense!" Iroh's voice came like a false apology, and she heard the rattling of porcelain. "Fresh hot tea should warm her right up!"

Zuko flinched like he'd sat on a hot coal.

"It's fine, she's awake," he hissed, scrambling, grabbing at the sheet around his waist and yanking it higher, not quite glancing back before barging forward to shove Iroh back in vicarious embarrassment. And he whispered, "she's not mad!"

A delighted and curious Iroh feared no prince, however, and he leaned at a slant to show off a solid two-thirds of a look of disbelief before Zuko forced him into the hall and around the corner.

"She's naked, you crazy old fool!" Zuko snapped, voice cracking on the word. "Get out!"

"Ahhh..." Iroh began as if to apologize, but instead said, "I am not sure if you two should be alone in there!"

Zuko's ears went red enough to qualify as a firebending.

"We didn't—uhh..." he started. He knew he couldn't make that sound believable, and narrowed his eyes like he was a clever boy. "We're not. Doing that." And he flung his hands up, only halfway, before they shot back to grab his sheet of many betrayals. "Who cares?! We're betrothed! You're not my dad!"

Iroh's eyes twinkled like he was the least bit hurt, but he still gave a soft chuckle. "You two are not married yet," Iroh added, the yet placed carefully like bait on a hook. "Not the best time for a scandal, I should remind you."

Zuko made a sound that wasn't a word as his entire body positively blinked red.

"Gah! Stop making it weird!" he bellowed.

The rattle of porcelain came in steady clatters back down the hall, and Zuko just hunched over and breathed, glanced around again, and pulled his sheet tight once more.

Ducking backwards into his cabin and slowly closing the sturdy metal door, he peeked once more to make sure Iroh wasn't lurking as he grumbled, "why'd he think I could give tea her while she's asleep anyway... that's just wrong."

Zuko twisted the door lock closed like he'd get in trouble if anyone heard—not really clear on why, and just breathed out, "okay..." as he turned around to face Raven again with his most surrendering gesture of fingers spread low at his sides.

It took a moment to process what he saw. Raven smiling. Not sweet this time. She was standing there with a posture of 'fuck you and the ship you sailed in on', also swaddled in nothing but a white sheet wrapped carelessly, and even more reckless with... Arzayanagi leveled over her head, as if to throw it like a javelin.

She didn't even remember deciding to. The instant no eyes were on her, she slipped out of bed, smoothing taking the sheet with her, and snagged the thing the overconfident asshole actually just left where she could get to it. He raised his hands ever so slowly, not even tense and cautious but just wide-eyed shock, like he was genuinely surprised she didn't just let it all go after a fuck and a nap in his freezer.

The complex geometry of the golden spearhead glittered in the firelight like it held diamonds between every twist and turn of its metal. They both knew she had him dead to rights. She knew she should have just hit him in the back, but she wanted him to know for sure she's the one that finally put him out of her entire family's misery.

His hands rose, slow. Point-blank as he was, it wouldn't matter what way he dodged. She wasn't even sure she'd be getting out of it unharmed at that close range, but she wasn't going to pass up a chance like that.

"A really big deal," she sneered, teeth bared.

He just blinked, apparently lost somehow. It just made her boil more.

Raven's voice came out low, ragged, full of acid. "In case it wasn't FUCKING clear. This is for killing my sister, you FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!"

Zuko clenched his teeth, reeling back, but his face twisted in confusion as Raven thrust so hard she stumbled forward a step. It was clean. Perfect. She knew the weapon, she'd used it, felt its fire surging just within, and how to get it to obey her. It was finally OVER.

...

It wasn't over.

They both stood there. Both glanced at the spear. He gave her a look like 'if this is a joke you're going back in the freezer', for just an instant, before it melted away to a pained sort of realization.

She gripped it harder, squeezing. She was doing it right, she was sure, but... Arzaya... didn't want him dead? He was just standing there. He wasn't taking advantage of her sudden complication. He should be dashing at her, wrenching it from her grasp, but he just... looked like he was going to cry again.

"Asha's… dead?" his voice cracked.

Raven froze so hard it felt like she might crack too. That was such real emotion in his voice. Zuko wouldn't... he couldn't... he never lied. That wasn't what he was supposed to say. That had to not be Zuko, but it was. That fit absolutely nowhere in the universe.

His fingers trembled as he cautiously lowered his guard, took a step forward, and when he blinked he didn't even hide the tear running down his cheek as he held one hand out to her. Raved stood there, mind obviously racing, and Zuko noticed her glancing at the spear again and again like it was bothering her somehow. Her eyes were wide, than scrutinizing, then wide again. Her mouth slowly opened and she stared at him like he wasn't supposed to be there at all, even in his own room. Like she hadn't seen him in years.

How long... had she been reading confusion as dismissal. Frustration... as cruelty. Raven's grip loosened. The sheet slid off her shoulder, forgotten. The cold air didn't even register. She lowered the spear in slow motion like it was a bomb, but jerking like it was too much to handle. Her eyes blurred, not with sleep now, but with something wet and hot that made her furious on instinct because she did not cry. She couldn't... not until she... but he... he...

Her whole body was shaking, but her lip quivered the most as she let out a breath. Zuko took another half-step forward, face like he was proud of her for lowering the weapon, and she suddenly felt like a fucking idiot. A fucking stupid idiot asshole who had no idea what she was doing at all.

Raven's jaw moved, but the only sound was a completely wrecked, "...fuck..." ending in a croaking barely audible, strangled sigh, and her fingers opened.

Like all the weight upon her went with it, Arzayanagi hit the floor with a hard, ugly clatter that made the whole cabin feel suddenly very watched to her. Raven sank down like her bones had been yanked out. She didn't bother gathering the sheet again, down on the floor with it. She didn't deserve it. Instead, unable to look him in the eye, she scooted backward, blind with moist eyes and pressing them against her pale knees in a curtain of brown hair, and she kept going until her shoulders hit the corner of the room. 

There she curled in on herself completely, knees drawn up, face pressed down, hiding like a child. Not from Zuko, really. More like hiding herself away, not to be a bother...

Zuko approached anyway. Slowly. Carefully. Every soft barefoot step closer another pin thrust through her heart, but she was the one holding the damned things. It wasn't that he just wasn't afraid. She could see it in his slow moves even if she couldn't bare to meet his gaze. He didn't know yet, not for sure, that he didn't need to be... not anymore. But how could she even tell him, when she could hardly breathe? She made a choking noise as he crouched beside her.

His hand hovered, then landed on her shoulder.

Warm. Steady. Real. Caring.

"I don't know what's going on," he whispered. His voice broke again, humiliatingly honest. "But I… I just want to make it better."

Raven's breath hitched, another crack in the dam. She looked up at him more, she had the audacity to let herself see his chin, at least. Then up more, inch by inch. Zuko's face was a mess. Tears. Fear. Relief. Confusion. All of it tangled together with the kind of devotion that made Raven want to bite her own tongue off. What the fuck had she done to him... how could he ever...?

He started to speak, and she could see it in him, the way he was about to forgive her automatically, like forgiveness was a reflex. Raven snarled, but the sound came far too thin to be convincing. She couldn't fake it either.

"Don't," she croaked. "Don't you dare just forgive me."

Zuko swallowed hard, blinking. More tears spilled. He didn't wipe them. He barely breathed before he whispered, "but I do." It was so final. So instant. So easy. What was WRONG with him. Why? Why would he? Her entire face twisted as she tried desperately to force it back where it belonged. But the bastard wouldn't give her a speck of scorn, and he said, "I… I just want it to stop, Raven. I forgive you. Please— please just be normal again. Please let this be... real."

Normal.

Real.

He might as well have punched her, choked her, and thrown her overboard... Raven's throat spasmed. There was nothing she could do.

Seeing her pain, his hand softly caressed down her back, and his brown clenched in hopeless hope as he softly asked, "is... is Asha really...?" But the words tasted like blood and bile, and sank back down his throat.

"...she's gone," Raven peeped, eyes glistening, and she finally looked him in the eyes dead on again. "She's... she's really gone."

The dam broke. She didn't sob delicately. You couldn't come back after that long without a mess. She made awful, animal sounds, like her body had been holding this inside for years and was now throwing it up like poison. A hoarse, horrible dying noise wailed out of her as she tilted her head back, stared at nothing and let steaming hot tears rush down her face, but then broke again, a whole second tragedy stabbing from the other side.

"I'm sorry," she choked, and then it turned into a slurry of apologies and self-hate. "I'm so sorry, Zuko. I thought—" and she paused, she didn't need to explain. "I'm a fucking IDIOT!" she shouted.

Zuko didn't flinch, nor recoil, nor tighten the corner of his mouth. He just reached forward, she shook her head like he should not better than to trust her, and he put his arms around her. She wasn't sure what he was doing with his hands wrapping around and under her body, but it's not like she was going to say no to him ever again for the rest of her fucking life. She yelped when suddenly she was airborne. She felt like such a stupid little kid as he lifted her up easily, and she scrunched up like she wasn't allowed to touch him back. Wide-eyed and frozen in place, he took her pale body back to the bed, set her down, and pulled their abandoned sheets back around them both, together in the double layer, as she just whimpered and moaned like a helpless fool. She WAS a fool, at least, that was for sure...

He did all the work, like always, and it just made her feel like even more of a jerk, but she wouldn't have it any other way, and he wrapped them together like a knot on the edge of the bed, like he meant to soothe her with as much contact as possible. Why... did he just. Keep. Forgiving. Her. She didn't think he knew ever. Either way, she'd never find the words he deserved to hear for it. They didn't exist.

Raven cried until her throat burned, and he just held her like he wouldn't dare let a hair on her head slip through the cracks now that he'd found her again. Zuko cried too, of course, just quieter, his tears soaking into her hair until it felt cool, but even that he noticed, wiping them away with the sheet and pulling over her head like a shroud to dry them further and keep her warm. Why was he like this... why was SHE like this... her chest just kept heaving, until it hurt to much to more than breathe.

The ship creaked around them, smoothly gliding as he let her just do what she had to, having all the time for the world for her there in his cabin. A slight wave slapped the hull, slightly rocking her into him, so she took advantage and buried her face against his chest. She didn't want to ever leave, and he pulled her up, closer, onto his lap as she just fell into him, giving up completely, and the raw edge dulled to only her heavier than healthy breaths.

Zuko's voice came again, rough with his own tight breathing. "Raven," he whispered. "What… what happened? To Asha? Why me…?"

Raven nodded into his chest, small and trembling. She felt him quiver, about to say something dumb, she just let him.

"Well it wasn't me!" he blurted, in the most Zuko way possible.

It was so unnecessary, so awkward, so him, that Raven let out a tiny, broken laugh through her tears. Why did her mind ever let her do anything but trust him?

She just breathed, shaky, and whispered, "I know."

Zuko's brow furrowed.

"How," he demanded, then softened immediately like he'd stepped on her foot. "I mean... how did... this happen?"

Raven liked it down there in the dim dark against his chest in the blanket cave he'd formed by pulling the red bedspread over them too, like more layers meant she had to stay longer before she went crazy again. She didn't need to look to feel Arzayanagi still there on the floor. The echo of more than just a feeling from Arzaya, in no uncertain terms giving her a, "it wasn't him, you stupid child." She couldn't even be mad. That one... she had coming.

She'd seen it. That strange blue light turning into fire. Asha screaming. In fact, it was twice now.

Her jaw clenched. A bitter, shaking anger rose up in her chest, not at Zuko. One that felt so much safer to hold, so much less painful than the anger at her father, at Arzaya, at her whole family's crazy religion or all the problems it caused, but all the things it brought her.

"Everyone thinks you did it," Raven flatly stated, not menace, but she felt him clench at the sudden new tone. "Your father's been telling people that's why you were banished."

Zuko jolted instantly.

"That's not why I was banished!" he snapped, instant outrage, but he just held her tighter like he might have scared her away.

Raven just stared into his chest, then rose to look him in the eyes. That was enough anyway, she wasn't going back to crybaby, that was for sure. Her lip twitched. "I know," she stated.

Zuko stared at her, then glanced around, like he needed a place to put his anger immediately, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be her.

Then he asked, voice forced to be careful, "Do you… do you know who did it?"

Raven's hands curled into the sheet. She was still devastated, but it felt so good to have someone she trusted be so mad about it. Of course he was. Why would she ever think he wouldn't be? That would be fucking stupid. She rolled her eyes, thankfully he wasn't looking. The answer sat on her tongue like poison she'd have to swallow, but she'd do that for him. She'd do anything for him... now. She took one deep breath.

"Azula," Raven uttered. Her blood curdled as she lowly spat, "and she pinned it on you," like that was the action of a dead princess walking.

Zuko went completely still. For a moment, he looked like the world had fallen out from under him, but his flat gaze told her he didn't struggle to believe that, not even a little. He didn't question it. He made no denials, searched for no alibis.

It was just the horrible, dawning click of finally finding the right key, only to unlock that your life is a lie.

* * *

General Iroh walked the corridor toward his nephew's cabin, in absolutely no hurry, not because he was old and tired of conflict—though he was—but because it was so hard to even wrap his mind around the insanity of the last few days, which all felt like the world was falling apart until the little Ray-ven of light broke through the grey skies of despair. Something had finally gone right, and it felt to him like a chance to turn it all around, but only if he said and did just the right things.

He could hear soldiers and sailors walking, coughing and muttering here or there with their own theories about what the hell had even happened at Crescent Island, but ignorance truly would be bliss for them, as they were in no position to do much but get swept away one way or the other when the time came, no matter what anyone told them.

He stopped at Zuko's door, where thin light showed the battered and bruised boy and girl likely weren't asleep, at least. But it was hard to tell without the expected shouting, breaking of furniture and death threats. There wasn't even any impatient pacing. Either Raven had finally killed his poor nephew or they were actually, really, truly getting along again. It felt like opening the door was the same as flipping a coin on the matter.

He slowed, stopping just before the door, and lifted one hand as if he was really going to knock and confirm which way the wind had blown, and he let out a long gravelly sigh, the worries had driven every thought of what he meant to say into hiding again.

"Alright," he whispered to himself. "First: Raven must inform her father of Zuko's innocence."

Second finger. "The Avatar. Who knows where loyalties lie now...?"

Third finger. "My fool brother will see Zhao's death as an act of war, even though Zhao started it... I think." He sighed through his nose.

Fourth finger. He hesitated a moment, like the words tasted old and scorched. "Raven must know much about Arzaya, and maybe Nagi and Koani. Those old ghosts can't just be left alone, I am sure of it."

He stared at his hand a second longer, hoping there'd just be more reminders so he wouldn't have to disrupt the fantasy that his nephew and his troubled betrothed were actually getting along, but not too well.

He couldn't think of a fifth thing. It was hopeless. Iroh balled that hand to a fist, and gently knocked. Three polite raps that always clanged too loud on the noisy metal of warship hulls.

Silence. But the door wasn't even fully closed, much less locked, and with a gentle encouragement it slowly opened, revealing the more than warm air—although it was nice in the frigid early morning air—and brighter than usual light. There was also a pressure in the air, like a face full of steam from a boiling pot you couldn't pull away from or cover. They still had Arzayanagi leaned in the corner against the wall and his fixed wardrobe, and it fueled every fire, and lit every excitable emotion within the room.

He listened for a moment before stepping in to see the full room. It briefly felt like an oven, oppressive even, but it seemed Arzaya accepted his presence and the edge of the heat and tingling in the back of his mind dulled almost as soon as it became a discomfort.

"Prince Zuko? Lady Raven?" he tried, softly.

No answer, but there was a generous helping of insane muttering coming from a roughly parabolic mound of sheets and blankets on the edge of the bed. Zuko and Raven were scarcely moving in there, facing the upright very assuming spear but apparently happy to be wrapped around each other somewhere in there. Iroh had to get within arm's reach, and lean down to figure out what muffled trouble was echoing in there, with just enough light to make out two pairs of eyes, one bright yellow and one hazel, which did at least briefly flicker to him—they weren't a total loss.

"Azula always lies... Azula always lies... Azula always lies..." he finally heard from them, not even quite in unison but close, as they ever so slightly rocked unevenly this way and that.

"Hmm, uh-" Iroh began, but everything he had meant to say had slipped away already, and he just smiled like a fool at them, not sure what else to do. "You haven't eaten, have you?" he defaulted to, and nearly facepalmed it was so far off from the important topics at hand.

There was a sigh in there somewhere, Zuko skipped half an "Azula always lies" but was back at full muttering force for the next. It was so weird it was almost funny. Not quite. Iroh's smile was one purely of nerves, and he wasn't sure if he hoped they could or couldn't tell. It seemed Lady Raven's cheek was pressed firmly against his nephew's shoulder in there, and that was, at least, strong evidence she had thoroughly dismissed all desire to turn him into charcoal.

Their eyes wouldn't move for long from Arzayanagi. Even motionless, the spear was making the lantern flames lean in, with pulses like it was taking breaths that caught only fire. Invisibly, it seemed to breathe in sanity too.

"Azula always lies, Uncle," Zuko murmured, stronger.

"Azula always lies, General," Raven echoed.

"Azula always lies, mmm-hmm," Iroh cautiously agreed, hoping to pass the deranged shibboleth.

"Azula always lies," they both nodded.

Iroh felt distinctly like he'd forgotten something, and he'd need to pop out and come back maybe in a little never, but he took a deep breath and risked setting off the unstable teens, and also possibly an ancient vengeful ghost.

"Uncle," Zuko suddenly stated, just as Iroh tried to speak, and he was caught frozen with his beard down.

"...yes?" Iroh dared.

"Azula always lies," Zuko whispered.

"Azula always lies," Raven whispered.

"Perhaps... you two should come out for some fresh air?" Iroh offered, unable to help but glance at the suspiciously iridescent gleaming of the spearhead, like Arzaya was just daring him to blame her for what was happening.

Iroh risked losing a limb, and gently tugged back on the red blanket hood, then the protective sheet underneath it, and finally the redundant identical security sheet below that, and the two actually looked charming and adorable with her all tucked up against Zuko like he'd turn to cinders the instant she let go. They looked up at him, corners of their mouths tightening, but they had no complaints, and apparently the muttering couldn't be sustained in better light.

Raven's right eye twitched as she hoarsely stated, "the princess must pay, General."

Iroh just gave first her and then his nephew a look, clear enough to come across as 'help me out here.'

Raven did look like she wanted to tell him, but her eyes went wide and her head tilted to the side, like it was just too much and too soon.

Iroh took a deep breath, and asked, "and what, precisely, did Princess Azula do?"

Zuko's eyes went wild for a flash, shooting over to Raven, and he tensed up so suddenly she gave a quiet high-pitched yelp, but finally he bared his teeth.

"Murdered Asha," he said, tone clipped or it'd be incoherent shouting. "Blamed me," and after a long pause like it really, really hurt but he refused to let it come out in his tone, he added, "dad knows."

The cabin suddenly felt very small. Too close, in fact far too close to that deadly spear and the fury within it, even unflappable Iroh was feeling an awful lot like a target of opportunity, but no such vengeance lashed out in response to that revelation.

"That," he murmured, "does… explain things."

That was when he really noticed how red the rims of her eyes were. Surely not from crying. Lady Raven Arza did not do that. She almost seemed to be in physical pain at the sheer force it took her to keep it that way in front of him. Iroh was happy to keep her secret either way. The lines on Zuko's face were so tired he looked like he'd turned from late teens to mid-thirties in the last few hours, and was getting a healthy head-start on a mid-life crisis.

Raven's gaze pulled involuntarily back to Arzayanagi.

With Zuko getting it out there, her voice came to her, roughened as it was. "Used Arzayanagi to do it," and her jaw near split off her face she clenched so hard, and she breathed, "Arzaya's... so angry she's out of her mind." She swallowed, her voice becoming a croak. "Who wouldn't be?" And she tilted back like she was going limp, but Zuko held her up, firmly in place.

Iroh looked to the spear like it was going to give its thoughts next. At least it dispelled a lot of the questions he had, so he wouldn't have to get them straight in his head again.

"My nephew," he said gently. "If the Fire Lord knows, then I must ask: are you intending to side with House Arza?"

Zuko's head snapped up so fast the blanket slid off one shoulder. No one present needed it explained this meant fucking war. Not just a few battles and skirmishes to redraw borders. Fucking total war. There was no talking your way out of that kind of casus belli. A lot of people were going to die. That was inevitable. One does not simply cover up the murder of Lord Arza's youngest daughter and avoid needing to commission several war memorials afterwards.

"Yes," he said immediately, like he was pissed off his uncle had to ask, and he shot to his feet, knocking Raven aside; she curled up and pulled the sheets close as he pointed his finger and bellowed, "AND SO ARE YOU, OR YOU SWIM HOME."

Iroh raised both hands, palms open, a placating gesture that was also, very subtly, a reminder that he was not there to argue with anyone.

Zuko flopped back down, not even looking to drag the red blanket over Raven just in case. There wasn't exactly a change of clothes for her on his cruiser. He just stared. He couldn't get himself to say sorry, but Iroh appreciated that it seemed like he wanted to.

"Easy," Iroh soothed. "I am with you, wherever you go, Prince Zuko." His eyes softened. "Even when you make it difficult," he chuckled, only slightly pained.

Zuko's rage sank, and then his face, and he looked up at Iroh with the most intense expression of guilt and shame he'd ever seen on the poor troubled boy's face. It wasn't like he'd been hunting his uncle down for unjustified vengeance, but the parallel misdirected rage was hard to miss.

Raven's pouty expression was peering from a now tightly wrapped sheet hood, clenched with her fists under her chin as Zuko soothingly caressed her thigh. She managed to formally say, "thank you, General Iroh." Not that it was necessary.

"It is a difficult time," Iroh gently said. "And I understand."

Raven straightened in the sheets like it was time for spine stress testing, and she swung upwards with an intense look on her face, not even noticing Iroh's sudden wide-eyed panic as Zuko's hand moved like lightning, pulling the sheet up to wrap around and cover her. "We need to find my father's fleet," she stated directly, and like it was a fully accepted plan of action already, she resolutely went on, "I need to tell him right away it's all a lie. He needs to capture Azula and throw her in the goblin closet at the earliest opportunity." Her mouth twisted. "That bitch doesn't get to die easy."

Iroh's gaze flicked, carefully, to Arzayanagi again. But he gave Raven the oddest look. "The what...?" he wondered.

Raven froze, all the stern focus shattering, and she pulled the sheet over her face, and turned away in shame. "Throw her to Arzaya, I mean."

Iroh chose not to comment on the furious girl's demand that his niece—guilty as she seemed to be—should be handed to a mass murdering ancient spirit of an insane cult leader, but by his mildly taken aback face, it could be gathered he would prefer a more diplomatic solution. He saw that Zuko also winced at the notion, but he too wasn't going to argue with Raven over that, certainly not in that moment. They could at least wait for her to find clothes first. Raven read Iroh's glance at the spear as particularly meaningful.

"I know..." she said immediately, sharper, defensive. "I know we shouldn't stay this close to it." And as if to prove someone else's point she exhaled with a puff of smoky cinders out her nose, and between her lips. "But... I have to talk to Arzaya. Just... building up to it." And with one quick glance seeing Iroh's curiosity. "I might have been, uh, a little harsh with her last time?"

Zuko was going to let Raven just do whatever she wanted with the thing, so Iroh inclined his head.

"If it would help," he said carefully, "then… do so."

Raven swallowed like she was about to stick her hand in lava on a dare. She reached down, tapped her fingertips to register hostility, and the lanterns sputtered around him. Finally she grasped it again, leaned forward with a mildly exasperated Zuko staying dedicated to the task of leaving the exact nature of his betrothed's uncovered chest to his uncle's imagination.

"I'm sorry," she instantly said. "I was lied to." A quick breath, then as if to prevent response, she rapidly went on, "you still can't 'borrow' Aang, that's weird and gross, please don't bring it up." She blinked hard, apparently not receiving any immediate protests, and her tone broke to almost fearful and pleading like the stress might break her. "But... do you know where Dad is? He has to know, right? Please don't yell at me right now."

She went still, listening. It wasn't quite anger, something more like conflicted hurt, in response to her ancestor.

"Please don't scoff at me either," she said, voice cracking. "Come on..."

Zuko and Iroh shared the exact same look of empathy at Raven struggling to get along with her family, ancient and removed by many generations as Arzaya was.

As if interrupting Arzaya, she suddenly stood, requiring more deft work by Zuko, and she demanded, "and why did you show me that weird vision?" Almost tearful again, she quietly croaked. "That was… horrible. Are you trying to make it impossible for me to ever sleep again, or what?"

She froze again, listening. Her face shifted, clearly genuinely surprised, and her eyes darted to Zuko and Iroh, like she wished she could confirm with them what she was hearing, until her mouth opened and hung for a moment.

"O-oh," Raven breathed. "I guess so..." she trailed off, not sounding convinced of something.

Then almost conspiratorially quiet, eyes away like she was looking north—she wasn't, but no frame of reference—she gave a quiet and compliant, "Northern Water Tribe? Alright... I'll bring you to Dad."

She lowered Arzayanagi as if it had gained weight while she held it, then set it down gently, respectfully, like putting a sleeping monster back into its cradle as she set it in the corner of the wardrobe and wall again. Raven's hands lingered on her knees and clenched the sheets, and her breathing stopped for a moment, before she urgently stood again.

"Damn it, Raven!" Zuko gasped and sighed, standing up with her to wrap her properly in the sheet.

Iroh may have caught a half-second of one-sixth of a nipple in there somewhere, but he wasn't going to say.

She either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Come on," she hissed, tugging Zuko along as he scrambled to bring a sheet for himself too. "Fresh air sounds nice."

She first almost lunged for the door, then swept around the corner, only to shuffle slowly the instant she was in the corridor, Zuko instantly at her side, both still wrapped in the sheets like stubborn royal trauma burritos. But he still stuck out and kept a hand on her at all times, and she kept on appreciating it. Iroh followed them out, cautiously closing the cabin door, and just a few more feet away the pressure of Arzayanagi faded completely, at which point Raven's expression went from serious and tired to frantically twisted, and she took the weirdest shuddering breath.

Instantly on a tirade without context, Raven hissed, "she doesn't know I know!" with the energy of a mad drunk believing he'd just discovered he was really a robot clone. And she puffed up her chest immensely to wag a finger and blurt, "for one, she's a fucking airbender. I think the fire is all Nagi! HOW. DOES. NOBODY. KNOW. THIS?!"

Zuko blinked, brain clearly struggling to keep up.

Iroh's brows knit. "Lady Raven," he began carefully, "who—"

"You do NOT want to be on her bad side, either of you!" Raven barreled on, steamrolling right over sanity with something close to a grin. "Holy fucking just kill me, what the FUCK. That bitch is CRAZY, you have NOOO idea."

"Uhh..." was the best Zuko had.

Raven grabbed at her own hair like it was trying to escape her head, then pulled the sheet hood tight again, and focused on Zuko for a long while like it was already too late for him.

"I can't fucking believe she's not the one that sent me that... vision," Raven whispered, horrified. "Where did it COME from?! Did she even send the other one?! I... am I going crazy?!" And Raven made a full suite of strangled, rancorous noises that could never be voluntarily produced until she had no choice but to take a deep breath, and bellow out, "AAAAAAAHH!" which may or may not have helped. And she turned to Zuko, snagged his sheet where a collar might be, and stared unblinking in his patient but confused yellow eyes. "She was this psycho when she was AANG's age, gah! Aang was right about her! What is WRONG with her?! Even I wasn't that crazy..." she trailed off. Finally she saw the blank, slightly agape look on Iroh just behind Zuko, and gave a quiet, "er... Arzaya, I mean." But built up again a very genuine warning like they better confirm they heard it, "seriously. DON'T piss her off." And she took one last deep breath, just to shudder and stand there.

Iroh gave a dry, bewildered, "ahh, I will avoid that, Lady Raven."

Zuko just shrugged. "She blew up Zhao, she's fine with me."

* * *

The wet blanket of a morning scarcely made an effort to let the sun dispel any of the gloom hanging over the still smoky town after the inexplicably ineffective Fire Nation raid. The streets were still lined with buckets to douse fires that never really came, from firebenders that just tangentially poked the most remote structure available, only to evidently flee at the mere sight of sleepy militiamen wandering about and yawning at the night.

Someone's curtain had actually caught fire from drifting embers, but it went out on its own before anyone noticed. Nevertheless, several of the actual professional soldiers from a nearby garrison, who arrived just moments ago, were crowded around it like it was worthy of a deep discussion.

Aang sat cross-legged on a crate, one of the very few of the every single one of them that survived the unambitious flames, and sharply nodded his head at a moderate and regular pace, taking a deep breath every four beats, and releasing it after another four. Bong Li and Bao were not cross-legged because they were respectively shapeless and inflexible, but they did their best to pretend.

Bao breathed out through his nose, "damn, this Avatar kid knows his stuff," he said gruffly, and he warbled out an inexplicably lyrical, "and I feeeel yoooung agaaaain…"

"Ooh, yeah, how's that work? Haha-hoo, I feel it!" Bong Li perked up and excitedly asked.

"Yeah-yeah, uhh, see I think my friend said it was… like… vapors from the root get stuck up in your nose, or maybe your brain? Something like that," Aang explained in a wandering and bubbly tone. "Morning after: you can shake it loose and get a second ride for free! Otherwise you blow it out your nose or ears or whatever and miss out."

"Your friend sounds amazing," Bao flatly stated.

"Yeah… he was," Aang said, just a bit sad, but he opened his eyes and hopped up to his feet to say, "ya know, he only ever gave me a little bit at a time, but it's way more fun when you just stuff the whole root in your face, hahaha!"

Bao and Bong Li both happily laughed along.

Katara really had better things to do than berate Aang for being an absolute clownmaster about unregulated hallucinogens, but she still hung her head in disappointment and let her fingers dangle limply to blow in the wind in response to Aang's very suspiciously comprehensive drug knowledge.

While out of earshot with her, Sokka casually suggested, "maybe Avatars can just handle it better or something?" invoking an instant death.

But the execution was cancelled again at how important and loved Sokka had made her feel back at the goblin closet, so instead of beheading her idiot brother with her bare hands, she simply twitched an eye his way.

"You're right, you're right…" he backed off, hands up.

"I'll talk to him about it after we leave. I don't have time for this. I cannot believe he is doing this when Raven-" she started, and clenched her teeth, having to look away to the ocean.

Sokka stood a few steps away with his arms folded, keeping out of range of her guillotine grasp, and actually sounded like he was trying not to annoy her for once as he suggested, "it had to be that Zuko guy. Like some other firebender that good just popped out of the woods and jumped her?"

Katara paced like a caged animal that had been given damp bedding, and barked, "Sokka!" before her eyes widened, and she stopped herself to lower to a hush, "she was practically naked the scouts said, and you saw those weird looks they gave, there's something they left out! That's… really bad!"

"We watched him not kill her when he probably should have, like ten times, Katara, they probably just burned each other's clothes off. Again," he suggested.

Katara gave him a look like he totally missed what she meant, but threw her hands up and almost wailed, "that's not even the only problem! We're such… stupid jerks! I have to convince people that wasn't really Lady Jade!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow, clearly not following.

"There's a real Lady Jade? Like you said? Kidnapped by Raven's psycho dad?!" she hissed as she stomped up to him, sticking her nose to actually just barely touch his.

Sokka slowly nodded. "Hmm… yeah, they're super not gonna ever look in the right place for her."

Both of them jumped at a high-pitched voice just behind, "Real Lady Jade? Jade Beifong? Kidnapped you say?" Lo Pei asked with an unreadable wide smile that was so bright and charming it almost distracted from his unkempt wispy whiskers and perpetually mismatched attire.

"Yes!" Katara blasted at him, but he didn't even flinch as he held up a piece of parchment. "She's on the Glittering Isles! But we sort of kind of—completely actually—tricked everyone into thinking Prince Zuko kidnapped her! I need to find someone in charge."

"Wassat," Sokka scowled at the parchment.

Lo Pei appeared delighted to be asked, and said, "Lady Raven left it for me," and he turned it around so they could read it to confirm. "She… left us a writ of passage, so we can wait for her at House Arza's private and highly secure estate without being turned into skeletons—her wording—and I believe…" he trailed off as they read, nodding, and both gave each other a look like "oh."

"Lady Jade would totally be there, wouldn't she," Sokka flatly said, and Katara rapidly nodded. "Okay yeah, that's like fate, right?" he went on.

"Hey Bao!" Lo Pei suddenly called out, loping his lanky self over to the blissfully on-the-root pile of tanned muscles. "Want to go break a noble lady out of an Arzayan dungeon?"

Bao slowly turned to look at him, and gave a wary, squinting stare. "How noble," he demanded.

"Beifong," Lo Pei said, like it was worthy of worship.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bao demanded again, this time like his captain was an idiot, and he was already on his feet, grabbing an unloaded barrel of supplies or maybe somebody else's fish and hustling back on board.

Katara glanced between Lo Pei and Bao a few times before letting out a nervous, "really?"

"I bet I could capture the Avatar better than those guys last night," Aang said to Bong Li, who gave him a dopey smile that conveyed no information. "Wait… hahaha… hahahahaha!" he burst out laughing, Bong Li chuckling in high pitch along with him.

"Aang… please run out of that horrible stuff," Katara grumbled, fingers running down her face in frustration at the Avatar's just garbage timing on a sudden apparent interest in recreational substances. She took in a breath, getting that look like it was all up to her as usual, and lowly said, "I'm still going to find the commander of those soldiers. Glad they want to help, but I don't trust Raven's crew to even find the Glittering Isles, much less manage a prison break."

Sokka nodded. "That is totally fair."

* * *

The commander of the local Earth Kingdom forces had appropriated an abandoned house near the river; it was in good condition but many people had already fled for Ba Sing Se, of course. Two spearmen stood outside it, leaning on their weapons like the night had wrung them out and left them to dry, which was at least reasonable, since they had a forced march from the nearest garrison the instant word reached them.

"That cute Water Tribe girl sure was loud," one of the commander's guards sighed. "I was almost asleep… why are the pretty ones always so annoying?"

The other yawned. "Weird raid, too," he muttered. "What'd that curtain do to offend the Fire Lord, ya think?"

The other one snorted. "He seems to take anything not being on fire as a personal insult. But was it even real? Maybe it was an accident? Mistook a wildfire for a raid?"

"It was Fire Nation," the first insisted, rubbing at the soot on his cheek. "People saw soldiers, and someone out at night got captured?"

"But not the Avatar," the second said. "Who's just… wandering around like nothing happened."

The first spearman tilted his head. "This town is weird. I wanna go home."

Then Katara came stomping back into view, her hair looser than a moment ago, strands swaying in front of her face as she inefficiently pushed them back with a balled fist. She was half their size, but the raw energy of her caused both men to stand straight at attention for a moment, easing back down from the fatigue a breath later.

She didn't greet them, and instead thrust both hands forward, such that they almost thought they were about to be knocked over the fence behind them with a gush of waterbending, but she merely showed them two things, like they were her badge and warrant for their arrest.

Katara hefted the ivory pin carved with the Beifong flying boar motif, the kind of jewelry that screamed 'wealth.' "Tell me one of you lazy jerks at least knows what this is?" she growled.

"Nice earring," said the guard closest to her hand that held Shyu's Arzayan holy symbol.

"Those look different!" Katara barked, and did not elaborate.

The other spearman had to stare for a moment, but did finally admit, "looks like Beifong, I guess."

Katara's jaw clenched. "Yes," she snapped. "It is. Let me in! Some people don't have the luxury of lazing around all day like useless drunks!" And they reeled back, blinking at their blinding lack of context, and she wasn't in a sharing mood but said anyway, "I need to catch up with my friend! Who was dragged off by the Fire Nation Prince, who doesn't have Lady Jade Beifong, but the Arzayans do, and they're a freaking crazy cult!" And she raised her hands in frustration, causing matching fountains to burst forth from two water barrels and freeze into honestly impressive matching decorative spines of ice, especially since she didn't even look… or seem to notice.

The two exchanged a hasty glance, and stared at the new ice sculptures now exhaling a haze of scintillating mist in the bright sun.

"Uh… please calm down, young miss," one of them gulped.

"If someone else gets hurt by that crazy old witch because you won't let me see your boss…" Katara menaced, and swiftly moved her hands to her sides, on instinct sliding her feet into a balanced stance. "I'm coming back for you."

The two men were stiff as boards.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

She took in and let out one deep breath, and the sinister sculptures vanished into mist in an instant, drifting away down the road and wasting the emergency water for fires entirely.

The two men nodded quickly, and shuffled aside.

"C-commander!" one yelped, and jerked at her sudden glare, eyebrow raised. "Uh… chief's daughter f-from S-southern Water Tribe! Here! To see you!" And he quietly whispered to Katara, "…right?"

She just kept an eye and finger pointed at him as she stormed her way up the short flagstone path in the overgrown grass, and the instant she was through the door, they both finally breathed out.

"More like bitch queen of the ice wolves, what was that?!" the other guard whispered, flailing his spear towards the still steaming barrels.

"Commander Wei, right?! You know what this is, right?!" she started ranting before so much as saying hello, storming past an older man in robes writing some kind of orders, and nearly knocking him off his stool.

Inside the appropriated central living room cleared of all but a large wooden table for spreading out maps and documents, Commander Wei's gaze dropped immediately to the ivory pin in Katara's hand, and his expression changed from a shade of patriarchal exasperation to focused and serious in an instant.

"Where… did you get that?" he said sharply.

"An Arzayan," she firmly stated, not wanting to implicate Raven, so she held her tongue for a moment as she brought out the golden spearhead trinket. "...Lord Arza took Lady Jade Beifong, at sea. They're holding her at the Glittering Isles, I'm sure of it." 

Commander Wei accepted both from her, turning the pin back and forth to quickly be satisfied it was genuine, then peering closely at the golden trinket, holding it just before his olive eyes.

"And… you're a chief's daughter?" he cautiously asked, turning to a world map like she should point out the precise tribe.

Katara slammed her finger down at her home. "Chief Hakoda! Yes! My name is Katara. And we're helping you against the Fire Nation, so please listen to me?" She started angry, but was desperate by the end.

Commander Wei quickly pulled a few other documents and another map, running his fingers along as a lieutenant stepped into the room with a hot cup of tea, saw a pair of 'get outs' in their eyes, and he smiled, and slowly stepped back out.

Then his eyes lifted to her. "Checks out." And he quickly glanced her up and down, searching for something, until pausing on her rather fancy and finely crafted choker. "You look the part, at least. That's not peasant jewelry. Lucky guy, I'm sure."

Katara just blinked at him, and figured he must have meant her father?

"And you said…" he began, hoping for clarity.

"It's… complicated. A friend of mine was taken by the Fire Nation—she was just joking…" Katara trailed off, and almost looked lightheaded she was so fed up with herself, "we were being stupid, I'm sorry, and she was just pretending to be Lady Jade, so when people saw the Fire Nation take her, people thought…—anyway, I'm with the Avatar, we're going after my friend, but the real Lady Jade really was taken by Lord Arza! He's a total monster!"

Commander Wei's brow furrowed. "Lord Arza, huh," he repeated slowly, as if the name was something he'd heard in passing and never expected to matter.

Katara's anger cracked, and she sniffled as she put a palm on the table, and squeezed her eyes shut. "I couldn't do anything to stop her! I didn't even know she'd left!" she said in a failing shot, talking about Raven, of course, but that was hardly clear. Then she outright cried, "I finally made a friend, and now she's gone, and it's like nobody even cares but me!"

The commander, a very tall and wide man with a thick black beard, raised up his weathered hands to calm her once he saw a tear run down her cheek. "I care! I care!" He insisted. "Chief Hakoda has been a great help to us, but I am no naval commander."

She gave him the most pleading puppy eyes in the world, like he better not dare say he won't help.

Clenching his teeth and trying to sound nice, he clumsily offered, "uhh, the Beifongs are rich and powerful, Katara. They're not going to just roll rocks around in their fancy gardens if I send them this and tell them who has Lady Jade." And he tapped the ivory flying boar pin twice.

"...really? You'll make sure?" Katara peeped, sniffing again and rubbing her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, I was really worked up… I'm so mad at myself. I'm really sorry."

Commander Wei nodded, then sharply turned his gaze to the front door swinging open with a gust of wind, loudly rattling against the wall, followed by a hopelessly smiling bald twelve-year-old and his current unqualified handler.

Katara didn't even have time to tell Aang to shut up and go away before he blurted out, "IT WASN'T ME! I DIDN'T LEAVE THE GOBLIN CLOSET OPEN! IT WAS SOMEBODY ELSE!" And the instant he saw her, he gave a totally calm, "oh, hey Katara!"

"Hi, Aang," she flatly replied, deflating so far she crumpled onto a chair that Commander Wei barely got under her butt in time. Her head lolled towards the commander, and she said like it was just absolutely breathtaking, "the Avatar…" and she sighed. "He's usually not like this… I've been saying that a lot lately, though."

Wei still gave a respectful bow. "The Avatar, I am honored," he said.

Sokka swatted Aang atop the dome, which he barely noticed, and he said, "c'mon Aang, nobody knows about the goblin closet."

"Right, right…" Aang went on. And he stood there smiling like an idiot just long enough that both Sokka and Katara started to try and say something, but he spoke over them. "Somebody tell the big guy about the goblin closet."

The poor man just gave Katara a look like, 'help.'

It wasn't long before Katara was shoving Aang and Sokka back outside, and only a few minutes later before she got the idea across that: 1. Crescent Island bad; 2. Arzaya bad; 3. Avoid both.

And after the put-upon really-not-that-high-ranking commander promised to send letters of warning to anyone he thought would listen, Katara had a spur of the moment idea to add a finishing touch of apology or maybe respect when she saw a half full cup of probably room temperature tea.

"That's everything, thank you for your time, sir, and really thank you for listening…" she trailed off a bit as she held her hand open and towards the abandoned tea cup, where she almost touched the surface of the liquid before bending it with a flick to pull up into a tiny swirling shape much like the curved claws she had brought forth from the tops of barrels before without even realizing it, and it froze into a slightly more opaque but tiny replica, which let off an aesthetically pleasing fine mist.

Commander Wei gave it a look, impressed but uncertain. "Of course," was all he said.

"A uh, traditional… Southern Water Tribe, sign of respect," she almost said like she had any idea what she was doing. "Ow!" she peeped, having touched the most needle-sharp edge of the thing by mistake.

Wei's expression barely flickered, and he gruffly stated, "appreciated."

Katara wasn't having any embarrassment or blushing, it wasn't allowed. So she backed away, didn't even come close to tripping over the bunched up rug, really, and gave an oddly emphatic gesture that seemed to signal mission complete, don't test me, and she was out the door.

Where she immediately screamed.

"AANG! Where are your pants?! Sokka you were supposed to watch him! STOP. CHEWING. MILKROOT! AAAAHH!"

And there was a sound of panicking guards backing into and causing the catastrophic collapse of their emotional support fence.

* * *

The forest they'd been forced to land in was the kind of place that looked like it had been painted to better hide soldiers wearing Fire Nation colors, but that was still better than flying over and having it be a guarantee they'd be spotted, reported and chased by an army. The trunks were unbelievably massive, old enough to seem above the troubles of war, and Sokka really wished that he could get Katara to stop storming around and appreciate it, what with their very limited access to trees growing up in the Southern Water Tribe. The canopies were so far above them that they blocked no sight at ground level, but the house-sized trunks were many and thick, keeping even Appa largely invisible from more than a hundred feet away. Which was good, as there wasn't much underbrush where they were, making every step a touch less than cozy. There were definitely patrols out there—they'd seen the boot prints.

Katara was adding to them as hard as she possibly could, like each step was meant to punish the ground for forcing her to walk across it. Hair loose, eye regularly twitching, thoughts racing—blood pumping like it had somewhere to be, she had as much fire as the missing Lady Raven about her.

Rubbing his bald head as he trudged as quickly as he could, Aang muttered, "I am so wired but everything huuuurts…"

Freezing in place, Katara swung around. "Well, gee! I wonder why THAT's happening, Aang?!" she barked.

Aang groaned. "Stop shooouting, aaaaggh…" And he started leaning on his glider like a geriatric for emphasis.

"And stomping," Sokka flatly added.

"When he stops munching roots like a total jerk! When I guess just my friend is kidnapped!" Katara snapped without even looking back again, right back to her stomping, elbows out and fists clenched. "Stupid Fire Nation! Rrrgh! Stop taking people!"

All Sokka had was an uncertain, "Er…" and he stifled a yawn as hard as he possibly could.

"I can't even have a firebender that I somehow like? They take that too?!" Katara downright flipped out, eyes a bit moist.

Then a blast of fire hit her square in the back.

Back arched, her body pitched forward as if kicked, Sokka and Aang could only stare in horror as she went flying, then slammed chest-first with a thud on leaf litter, smoldering black trails rising from flickering embers on her right shoulder, where it appeared her clothes had been burned through instantly.

For a heartbeat, the forest was silent as their stomachs dropped.

Then a Fire Nation voice barked, sharp and triumphant, "Hah! Attack! Don't let them escape!"

Soldiers surged out from between trunks and behind roots, and the cover they'd been using wasn't even that good. Katara had been such a staunch anti-stealth loudmouth it called all attention, friend or foe.

Aang moved first, airbending a jump that snapped him into an arc before anyone could line up a shot on him. He was between the onrushing spears and Katara in a blur, and stubbornly swept his glider hard. As the formation of soldiers scattered, flung back and slammed into trees or the ground, Sokka lunged on pure instinct, his throat squeezing painfully as he reached to drag his sister out of harm's way.

"Aang! Hold them off!" Sokka's voice cracked.

Aang was way ahead of him, swept his arm up. The air answered, a huge blast swept across the dusty, leaf-covered ground, and pulled all the debris into one upward burst, killing visibility. Further spearmen stumbled and skidded back, leaves exploding up around their boots and grit in their eyes, while orange streaks of misplaced fire criss-crossed the first imploding, then rapidly expanding cloud.

But their captain pushed through the chaos, decorated mask gleaming, armor sharp-edged enough to slice a leaf or two on the way in. His rapid series of thrusts sent fire right at Aang, despite the cover, and the boy spiraled away to the side on a current of wind, unfortunately clearing out the area right around him. He was spinning his glider before his toes touched the ground, scattering the captain's instant next streak of flames from a follow-up kick. Along with two other firebenders, the captain aggressively advanced, forcing Aang to pivot, deflect, reposition, and dodge farther and farther away from Katara whether he liked it or not.

"Sokka, look out!" Aang still snapped, catching a glimpse of a spearman catching sight of him, while he pulled his sister back by the wrists—no time for a more graceful carry.

A spear thrust for Sokka's ribs, but Sokka dropped into a roll the instant Aang called his name, like it yanked him by a rope. Not only did the spear miss by a mile, but Sokka smoothly spun into solid stance to grab the shaft and yank with every ounce of his strength.

The spearman flew forward, face-first, with a growl of frustration and pain right beside Katara, so Sokka did not waste time being nice. The enemy was spinning onto his back to stand, but didn't see it coming at all when the butt of his own spear smashed him in the jaw, sending a tooth down his throat, and him down for a nice nap to digest it.

"Thanks, idiot!" Sokka almost chuckled at the weapon now in his hands after protective instinct wore off, like he couldn't believe it worked, then snarled, "who's next?!!"

Beside him, Katara made a weak sound and pushed herself up.

Sokka risked a glance. "Katara!?" came out desperately, what with the smoke still rising.

She was getting to her knees on her own, shaky, breath coming tight, back still bare and sooty where the blast had hit. The fabric there really was charred through in places, but extinguished as he noticed a hazy fog, not just smoke, had rolled in. She winced hard, jaw clenched like she was trying to bite the pain into behaving.

"Someone's going to regret that," she rasped, then swallowed, and glanced back at Sokka with murder in her eyes, but it softened as she quickly added, "It stings, but I'll live."

Aang didn't get to participate, because the captain and his benders were greedily demanding all of his time.

"Leave the Avatar to us! Kill the others!" the apparently very ruthless captain shouted, not breaking off his endless barrage for a second, being expert enough to realize that's all it would take for an airbender to escape.

Somewhere in the flurry of leaves and dust, Sokka was shouting like he was trying to spear something, and Appa finally had enough. A massive wall of wind blasted across the entire chaotic engagement, with Sokka and Katara ducking low enough to miss most of it, but every Fire Nation soldier was thrown off balance at once, with those still trying to stand getting knocked over again. Good timing, too, as it pulled more than one spearhead off its dangerously close trajectory for either sibling. Although it did expose the entire fight again.

"How dare you do that to Katara!" Aang shouted, actually furious. "Cowards! At least all attack the AVATAR!"

Expert as he was, the captain was too off balance to react, and the giant spiraling cone of dust and leaves pulled back into the air Appa had just cleaned struck him squarely in the chest, sending him spinning back to slam against a tree, closely followed by his two firebender comrades who took it even harder.

Sokka's eyes went wide and furious. "Seriously! Who targets the girl FIRST?!" he shouted, voice cracking with sheer disbelief. "You guys SUCK!"

Rolling her shoulder with one last wince, Katara barked, "guys, I'm FINE!" And then glowered at the men scrambling back to their feet and grabbing their weapons. "But they're not," she growled, like she'd been waiting to take out her anger on someone who has it coming.

Immediately followed by her shrieking yelp as a fourth firebender they all hadn't really noticed struck out his fist with gusto and forced her to duck or radically change hairstyle.

"Don't let them regroup!" the firebender captain bellowed over the confusion as he dragged himself and his two close-by firebender comrades back to their feet.

Aang had an exhausted and bothered look about him. "Oh, come on!"

But Aang had to immediately bend, his glider staff extended and ringing with motion to punch back the three flaming bursts sent his way. His hand snapped back, all three foes had planted a foot to sweep their boots, sending arcs of deadly fire high, middle and low. Aang was forced to leap, back-flipping to a massive tree trunk, scorched with three black slashes as his toes touched bark. Kicking off to the side, their follow-up bursts were way behind where he was going, and Aang slid through the kicked up leaves as he landed, but didn't delay his own next strike at all, sending a arc of wind stronger than the three flames combined but with nothing to counter it.

The captain and the two had their legs kicked out from under them, and slammed hard on their chests with a heavy whump and clatter, just like they'd done to Katara, and groaned at their new collection of bruises.

Sokka, meanwhile, was not done having a furious protective older-brother moment.

Not every Fire Nation spearman toppled by Appa's burst had scrambled to his feet in record time, and Sokka took the opportunity to not let him, thrusting his stolen spear into the man's exposed calf, and he cried out, toppling back down, but only very briefly before he too lost teeth to the metal plated butt of spear, and fell limply back on the forest floor.

Light suddenly burst in Sokka's face, and he felt weird streaks of hot and cold, seeing steam, snowflakes, and tiny embers floating in front of his face as he blinked. The fourth firebender had aimed right for his face. He glanced aside, and saw Katara, unblinking, having blocked the attack for him.

"Nice shot, wow Katara!" He praised her, breathlessly.

Katara was already making a wide, swirling motion with her arms, like gathering and collecting something. "Pay attention, Sokka!" she yelled, and through the streams of misty fog rushing past his cheeks in a chilly wind, he saw the rest of the spearmen had some misgivings about what he'd done to the other two, and they all charged him at once.

Across the settling and thrown up again dust, the swirling moisture pulled right out of the air, and the increasingly crushed and burn leaf litter, Aang could tell the captain's two buddies were struggling to keep up. Despite being tossed around and slammed about, the captain was ignoring the pain quite vigorously, and he charged forward, stomped his steel boot deliberately on a jagged rock—sparks jumped, each became a tongue of flame, arcing up towards Aang. Aang was forced to get above it again, feeling the heat singe his chin as he ran up a trunk, airbending for dozens of feet of height in a breath, but this time he couldn't safely jink the to side, as the other two benders were filling the air with fire.

Aang saw Sokka in a mess of spear thrusts, barely twisting and dodging deadly strike after strike, but he wouldn't last forever, and there were way too many for him to counterattack. Aang's feet placed firmly on the trunk as gravity forgave him for one brief moment at the peak, and he had to take the captain out. It was only a matter of time before Sokka was skewered.

"Stay…" Aang breathed, and like the glider staff was his own spear, he braced it, and didn't merely kick off, but full on leapt as hard as he could. "DOWN!" he bellowed.

The captain had no recourse. No time to react at all. The other two firebenders watched in shock and awe as the sideways tornado struck him square in the chest. Aang hit him like a missile, his helmet sailed into the canopies, a boot came loose, some of his coat tore away, and he hit the ground so hard it left a visible dent. That time, he didn't get up again. He didn't even groan.

The sheer force of the attack flung the captain's two benders off their feet anyway, where they groaned, at least, but weren't too keen on getting up in a hurry.

Aang pivoted right off the captain's cracked breastplate to leap towards Sokka and Katara, and his eyes darted around, looking for the right move.

Oddly, however, he saw that the last firebender was already flat on his back, arms limp where they fell, with his mask smashed in by a rough chunk of ice that bled steam as if trying to keep up with the man's crushed nose.

As he skidded on his feet towards the line of spearmen trying to corner Sokka, he was ready to bend, but didn't have to.

Katara was slamming her hands down, harsh and brutal, for some high stance, and a slanted, giant claw-like arc of ice shot from the mist she'd gathered. It sheared so close to the men's faces that they felt her breath like a cold wind, some lost whiskers, and all their spears snapped like twigs from the force.

"Whoa…" Aang breathed out, genuinely amazed.

The Fire Nation soldiers halted, wide-eyed, looking down at their broken weapons, to the left at the massive blade of ice steaming profusely from where it was embedded a full arm's length into the massive tree trunk, and then to their right at Katara… who was already forming another. Instinctively, many were already reaching to draw their swords.

But Katara bitterly commanded, "run away now, or this one takes your heads!" And the edge gleaming sharp ice formed in spindly lines within the mist cloud.

Some paused, some noticed their captain flattened on the ground, some realized they were fresh out of benders, but they didn't break and run easy.

"What, are you stupid?!" Sokka strode up to them, the only guy who still had a spear. "She's not even the Avatar!" He clarified, in case they were slow. Each man shifted back an inch, at least.

"Just run away already!" Aang barked, aiming his glider like a spear too.

With that… they didn't stick around.

The very instant it was clear the fight was over, both boys dropped their ready stances, and practically flailed their way over to Katara in a mixture of hope and horror.

"Katara?! Are you okay?! That hit looked really bad!" Aang downright panicked.

Sokka was already there, hands hovering, as panicked but better at hiding it. "Let me see it. Turn around. Katara, turn around!"

Katara tensed up, all that aggression and resolution shattering at once. Her eyes went wide and fingers flew up in confusion over the fussing, letting her half-formed ice-claw collapse into a pile of crumbles in the leaves and dust.

"Wh-whoa, I think?" she peeped as Sokka outright snagged her and yanked her around.

He carefully—but quickly—brushed away flakes of burned clothing and soot, and he and Aang leaned in to stare at her bare back as she was crumpled under them, making awkward strained bird-like noises from the sudden intrusion.

"Huh…" Sokka muttered.

"Great!" Aang cheered with relief.

There was redness, sure, and soot smudged around it, but the sun had done worse to her before. No blistering. No cracked, blackened skin with eye-watering bright red beneath, as expected. It looked like it hurt a little at least.

"It doesn't hurt that much," Katara insisted, breath still shaky. "I put it out right away. I pulled the fog right into it."

Sokka pressed two fingers gently against the bare skin where the fabric had burned away, testing. Katara stared up at him, gaze flattened.

"Why do you look mad that doesn't hurt me?" she grumbled.

"I don't! I'm not?" Er…" Sokka floundered, but his brow furrowed deep. "But Katara," he said slowly, suspicious and awed at the same time, "you don't look burned… like hardly at all. That's like… a miracle? That hit knocked you off your feet."

Aang gaped at him. "Well I, for one, don't mind Katara being unhurt at all!"

"I don't mind!" Sokka snapped back. "I'm glad! I don't get it!" Then his eyes flicked to the ice blade still stuck in one of the huge trunks nearby, curved like a claw, buried a foot deep. "And where did you learn to waterbend ice like that?!" he demanded, realized how accusatory it didn't need to sound, and Aang and Katara both watched as his face reset in apology and he gave instead, "it was amazing!"

Katara blinked at him, genuinely confused by the question. "I dunno," she said, like that was obvious. "I just… did it."

Aang had no reservations at all, giving Katara on the still clothed side of her back as Sokka 'let' her stand again. "That spear cutting was legit one of the coolest things I've seen, not gonna lie," he praised her.

For a moment, all the fury and focus Katara had blinked away. She had the biggest, genuine smile for a moment before it went smug. "It was, wasn't it!" And she giggled with delight.

The three stopped to stare at the rapidly evaporating ice, for whatever reason sublimating rather than melting, and with a crackle it came apart, largely sliding out of the ginormous gouge into the tree trunk.

"And you're not gonna question how she did it?" Sokka flatly stated to Aang, arms crossed.

Aang twiddled fingers awkwardly, and gave Katara a smile he obviously picked up on clearance. "Well…" he started, and she looked like his word choice was about to be very important. "Ahh… I wanna know how, 'cause I wanna do it too?" he sheepishly asked.

Katara gazed down at him for one heart-stopping moment, then said, "okay, yeah, that's fair." And all that puffed up chest fell out of her. She stood and thought for a moment, having to silently bat back Aang's and Sokka's stupid faces as they loomed awkwardly close in too much interest. "I just—!" she began, but looked a bit lost, then slowly said, "I… pulled water out of the air back on Kyoshi, it hit me to try anything, so I did? I've been thinking about it. When I got… uh… hit, I reacted instantly, I guess? After I put the fire out, it struck me I could just, like… do that whenever I want?"

Katara blinked innocently with her most girly smile, like that would explain it all. She really was doing her best.

Aang nodded along like he was following.

"Okay, I see where you're coming from," Sokka astutely stated, looking to the last of the mist drifting away where her ice had crumbled. "So you pulled the water to a spot, not a person or fire? That's how you made the big slicey-icy with no water around?"

"Ooh, good name, slicey-icy!" Aang said with wide eyes.

"No," Katara stated, and by her tone it was final. But faltered. "Er, yes that's how, no we're not calling it that. I want it to be cool!"

"Riiight… because it's ice," Sokka nodded, like that made perfect sense.

"Slicey-icy has ice in it twice, what's not cool about slicey-icy?" Aang protested. "When I do it, I'ma call it slicey-icy."

Katara and Sokka both looked at him like he'd gone at least a little insane.

He shrugged, "eh, I said it too much, now it's weird. Nevermind."

"Okay, good, I wasn't going to teach you otherwise," Katara said in a tone that made it not quite half-way clear she didn't really mean it. "How about… something like… 'Spearbreaker' style?"

Aang and Sokka had to let a few leaves gently blow past on that one. It was very quiet except for Appa's breathing, that was close enough to stir their hair and clothing, like he was the only one suggesting they maybe move on from where they beat the snot out of a Fire Nation patrol, but they ignored him.

"Hmm… I du-" Aang started.

"Katara," Sokka stated very seriously, and gestured to the huge gouge her bending had made. "That would put a hole in a Fire Navy warship. Just because you broke some spears, doesn't mean-"

"How 'bout 'Icewolf' style?" the three heard from beside them.

"Ooh, that's REALLY cool, and cool!" Aang brightened. "Who are you, though?" he said with a big happy smile ready to meet a new friend.

"Jet," he said. "And niiiice bending."

Sokka instantly chortled a laugh. "Was that on purpose?" he quickly peeped. "The pun?" But then held his appropriated spear ready. "Pun or not, who the heck are you, dude?"

Katara stared silently and blinked too much.

The boy had two swords, was maybe a year older than Sokka, and had a smooth and charming vibe about him that actually made it not cringe that he was chewing on a shaft of wheat even as he spoke. But just barely. He'd have to watch himself.

"I was leading those guys you stomped into an ambush, but then they ambushed you… and you won anyway?" Jet calmly said, but a little 'impressed' leaked through. "Like damn, you really are the Avatar, aren't you. Whole thing was over before I came back to check on all the noise and fire that wasn't, uh, supposed to be happening yet."

"Oh… glad we could help, I guess?" Katara happily said, still riding on the joy of having seriously kicked some ass like she never had before. "Also, totally using 'Icewolf style', you nailed it, Jet-the-new-guy."

He looked like he already knew she was going with his suggestion.

Aang was a little busy batting Appa away so he'd stop sharing the intense stank of partially digested grass with them quite so generously, but he still managed to ask, "so, did you need something?" And he flickered a gaze to Katara, who already looked pensive at the notion. "We're in a bit of a hurry, though."

"Unfortunate, but way more Fire Nation soldiers have entered the area in the last couple days. After you all, probably? We've—I lead a band of freedom fighters, we're trying to drive the Fire Nation away—anyway, we've been really boxed in," Jet said, striding over to the gouged tree to kneel down and inspect precisely how deep it had gone.

"Oh… sorry," Aang quietly said.

Sokka snorted, though. "Don't be. They won't have to fight much longer, Aang. I'm Sokka, by the way, that's my weird sister Katara."

"Hey!" Katara barked.

Jet shrugged. "I like weird."

"Oh…" she blushed.

"But what do you mean?" Jet pressed.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Aang insisted.

Sokka's mouth tightened. "Aang, come on. With what happened on Crescent Island? You think the Fire Nation is going to lock down the woods?"

"Ohhh… hmmm…" Aang drifted off into thought.

Katara gasped. "That's right! Raven's closet goblin blew up a bunch of Zhao's warships!"

Jet stared at them all, having no idea what they were talking about, but it sounded like good stuff.

Sokka sounded as confident as ever as he wagged a finger at Jet. "You can bet on it, Jet-the-new-guy. I'm guessing you've never heard of the Arzayans?"

"Who?"

"Yeah, well, important parts: One—they're part of the Fire Nation. Two—they hate the Fire Lord as much as we do. Three—the really, really crazy lady leading them, Arzaya—we call her the closet goblin because Aang is a legend—anyway, she attacked the Fire Navy and they're like… so at war now? Or about to be?" Sokka managed to explain rather succinctly, and as Jet took it in, he pondered for a moment and added. "Just give it a week, Fire Nation'll probably clear out on their own."

"Huh…" Jet considered, leaning against the gouged tree. "You sound pretty sure of all that." 

He glanced at Aang and Katara.

They both nodded, confirming Sokka had it right.