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Chapter Text

Iroh stands outside the medical wing of the palace trying to force himself to go through the door. His sweet, sweet, nephew has yet to wake in the week after the Angi Aak and while the healers say this is normal he is beginning to worry.

He knows his brother well enough that the burn will be the last of his nephew worries when he wakes and is struggling if his decision is wise

Realistically, he knows what is doing is right. His nephew is too kind, too fragile, and as much as he hates to say, too weak. His heart is too kind and leading this nation as his brother will require him to do will ultimately break him. He knows logically, Zuko cannot stay here.

Selfishly, he wants to keep Zuko here with him. He could keep an eye on him, teach him how to block his morals and to lead like the true king Ozai wishes he was born as. He knows this won't work, he has tried to keep Zuko spirit pure but look where that has led them. He could always leave with Zuko. They could start a new life together away from the fire nation. Logically, he knows this won't work too.

Ozai may be willing to let his son sneak away into the night, but his brother? It would be obvious that Zuko was alive if they both disappeared. He needs to stay and keep his brother from learning the truth and maybe in a few tears he could join his nephew wherever he decides to live his life, but that is just wishful thinking. The possibility he will never see, hear, or find him again is too high, but that's the goal. For no one to ever find him again so he will be safe, for that reason, he will stay.

He turns away from the door, if he lets himself see Zuko one last time he won't have the will to let him leave.

The prince will die tonight overtaken by a fever caused by an infection from the burn, and Iroh will never see Zuko again.

Chapter Text

Every morning since he's met Aang, Sokka awakes thinking the past few days have been a dream, that he's in his hut with his sister and grandma awaiting the freezing cold in the south pole and that no, the avtar isn't back, isn’t twelve, and that he doesn't spend most of his time 100 feet in the air on a flying bison.

Every morning, Sokka is wrong.

If you told Sokka a year, even two weeks ago, what his life is like now he would tell you you're crazy and you should get some serious sleep.

“Eww, get off me Momo,” he pushes the lemur that was just licking his face off him. Sitting up he releases a deep sigh. Maybe this is all still a dream, of course it is. Why else would a lemur be licking his face?

“Good morning Sokka! How did you sleep? I for one had an amazing dream last night and-” he can hear Aang yell at him as he runs around their makeshift camp retelling his nightly dreams and morning activities.

“Sokka, can you help me make breakfast?” Katara asks him over by the stream they set up by.

“Yeah sure,” he pushes himself off the ground and heads over.

During breakfast Aang tells them about his idea

“On this island there is this really cool fish called an Unagi that we can ride and the best part is its on the way to the Northern Water Tribes,” he states proudly.

“I don't know Aang do we really have the time” his sister starts, “Its so far to the North and we still have to stop for supplies-”

“I say we do it, it's not like we're in a time crunch or anything,” Sokka says.

“Sokka but is that the best use of our time?”

“I say we vote, all in favor we listen to Katara and don't go ride the weird fish?” Katara raises her hand

“All in favor we go and do Aangs idea?”

Aang raises his hand.

Sokka raises his hand.

“Welp Aang, lead the way.”

It's not uncommon Zuko finds himself on Kyoshi Island, out of all the places he's traveled in the Earth Kingdom, Kyoshi isn't the worst place he could be. The people are nice enough, they have supplies sold at a cheaper price than most places, and the best part? The fire nation usually stays far away from here.

Usually.
“The Avatar is in town,” the merchant tells Zuko,”Have you heard? Its an airbender too.”

“Hmmm,” Zuko thanks him for the food he bought before walking further down the market. He’s heard for years about the Avatar being back or how some new rebellion is brewing somewhere new with some good prospects that's sure to beat the fire nation. After a while, Zukos learned just to nod, smile, and be on his way. There's no point in believing and trying to follow every story he hears when most is just propaganda or people trying to keep hopes up for the war.

He keeps walking higher in the market looking at the supplies trying to figure out what is worth buying and what would be a waste when he hears yelling from around him. He looks at where people are pointing and running from when he sees a fire starting at the bottom of the mountain he's on. He looks further out and sees Fire Nation ships.

Just his luck.

“Why are they here? The fire nation usually leaves us alone,” Suki pants while running next to Sokka.

Sokka takes a deep breath, “There here for Aang, it has to. They probably had followed us from the North.”

He recognizes two of the men. One, when they were at the North Pole, was the nicer of the two. Short, gray hair, and a little on the fatter side, had told the other not to harm the village, that even if they didn't turn over the avatar they would all be unharmed. That they would be rewarded instead.

The second, with his ugly side burns, had a different approach. He threatened to burn the whole village to compliance, he said he would kill the entire village if the avatar wasn't turned over.

“Sokka!” He hears Katara from around the corner. Him and Suki run faster to catch up with Katara and find Aang already there.

“What are we gonna do,” Suki is panicking next to him.

“Well leave,” Aang whispers, “They're here for me they have to be.”

Aang already starts moving towards Appa when he gets tackled by Suki. He looks behind him and sees a tree catch on a fire. He looks the other way and finds sideburns with his fist stretched out obviously being the person to send the fire.

“Give me the avatar and no one else will be hurt. Fail to do so and watch the town burn.”

He takes a deep breath trying to calm his heart rate before standing up and pulling Suki with him. He's learned a lot from Suki these past few days and would hate to leave her in this mess before he has a chance to apologize to her. He gets into his stance with Suki prepping next to him already bracing for a fight and while he might not be the best fighter he is willing to give it everything he got.

Sideburns gives him a smirk before he as well gets into another stance. He pulls his hand back getting ready to shoot again when all of a sudden he is hit from something in the behind.

He stumbles and falls to the ground while Sokka stands in shock of the person behind him. It's a man, fairly tall, with a blue mask. He stands for a few seconds and for a short moment Sokka swears he's looking straight at him.

As fast as it came, the moment breaks, sideburns get up and start fighting the blur guy. Blue pulls out to swords and starts blocking the fire with the metal. Sokka stands shocked in shock at the fight, in all of how the guy in the mask transitions between the firebender almost like a fight is too easy.

“Come on Sokka we gotta go,” he hears Aang call out to him and looks to find him on the bison. He runs quickly and hops onto the bison before leaning down to talk to Suki one last time.

“I don't want to leave you guys with all of this,” he calls down to her.

“It's fine we can get the rest of them out with the help of this blue guy over here,” she leans up to him and he instantly leans down to meet her when she stops suddenly and pulls back.

“You guys should get out of here,” she says hesitantly.

He nods before climbing all they wall up the bison hearing Aang yelling and there off the ground. He watches as Aang jumps off the bison into the water to cool the town off watching as the fire nation leaves with the older of the two fire benders lingering towards the forest watching as the blue guy runs off deeper into the trees.

Iroh watches the blue spirit run into the woods wanting to run straight after him. It's been three years since he's seen Zuko and something deep in his heart tells him that's his nephew and while he knows the chance is slim, he can't let this opportunity slip past his fingers.

Reluctantly, he turns back onto the ship, a plan already forming in his mind.

Sokka has always had trouble with time perspective. Be spends an hour on one task next thing he knows it's been a whole day or he falls asleep on Appa from five hours but when he wakes up its only been five minutes. He will say he feels like he's been here for months.

He couldn't tell you where “here” is exactly, he remembers trying to help a village from a spirit, running out to help Aang and next thing he knows he is in this weird forest with weird things running around. Sokka starts shriving. Not because of the cold, he's used to below freezing temperatures in the south so this isn't that bad, but because he has an odd sense he's being watched, at least that he's not alone.

He stops when he hears a noise, almost like a creaking, as if someone has stepped on a twig nearby. He whips head in all directions frantically trying to see who or what had made the noise. After seeing nothing he continues forward.

His mind drifts to the past few days. He feels guilty for ever going to Koyish Island, if that blue guy was never there the island would have been burned down because of them. He doesn't know if he would ever be able to look Suki in the eye. When they had gone to see Aang's crazy friend, he still shudders at the thought that if Bumi had been anyone else, him and Katar prolly would have died in those crystals. Their lucky Aang knew that guy.

And Katara. She's been getting better at bending, Sokkas is so proud of his sister that he feels bad for saying sometimes he wishes they'd never left the south. They would both be safer there but at the same time Katara would be so unhappy. She's been able to help so many people like the Earth Kingdom village from the fire nation and her bending has improved so much. He knows that leaving was the best choice but it is easy to feel doubt when he may never see her again if cant get out of this dumb forest.

He hears another noise, this time behind him, and looks back trying to catch them before they leave.

It's a man, more like a boy, around his age. He's tall with black hair and earth kingdom clothes. Sokka can't see his face because he's facing away from him but has a strange feeling they've met.

“Hello?” he calls out to the stranger, “Do I know you? Or do you at least know where we are?”

The stranger turns his face towards Sokka so he can see one half of the man's face. Sokka's breath catches in his throat. He's looking at the most beautiful face he's ever seen with a strong jaw and high cheek bones. The man has the most captivating eyes Sokka has ever seen, He's at a lost for words not wanting to breathe. The stranger blinks while Sokka's eyes seem unable to, even though his eyelashes are pretty, long and full, framing the already perfect eyes. Sokka wants him too badly to turn around fully so he can see all his face, not just half when the stranger turns around and starts walking the opposite way.

“Wait!” he starts running as fast as his feet will carry him towards the man but even as he's sprinting and the man seems only to be walking. The distance keeps growing and growing before the stranger turns a corner and just seconds later when Sokka turns the same way, the man is gone as if he was never there in the first place.

Iroh has been trying to find information on the blue spirit since he left Kyoshi. Zhao is becoming impatient with him saying that he is spending more time being lazy, drinking tea, and playing pai sho with the crew than focusing on finding the avatar. He would be right. Had no intention of being any help to Zhao in finding the avatar and simply wanted an exude to leave the fire nation.

His brother has kept close tabs on him ever since Zuko “died” from a rebel group that broke into the palace and killed the prince that was too weak to defend himself because of his infection.

Every time he mentions going anywhere outside the fire nation Ozia has some excuse why that's unexplainable and unrealistic. When Zhao said he would find the Avtar for the firelord and request the help of the Dragon in the West, Ozai had no realistic excuse as to why he couldn't go.

While he wasn't expecting to actually find the avtar, now that they have his intentions are still the same, find Zuko.

The blue spirit is just too similar to his nephew for him to pass up the off chance it could be him. He has heard of the blue spirit in the fire nation as a mysterious figure who frees towns from the fire nation, raids fire nation ships, and inspires uprising in the earth kingdom. Ozai has never seen it as a problem so foolishly neither did he.

After seeing him in person, he has no doubt in his mind that it is Zuko. From how he fights to the way he carried himself it reminds him of a more confident version of his nephew.And while it might not be his nephew it is his only lead. During his research, he finds that many believe the spirit to be real while others believe it's a man in a mask. Either way Iroh will find the Blue Spirit, whoever it may be, and if it's not Zuko, ask him for help in finding him.

Chapter Text

Zuko looks down at the letter in his hands, wanting nothing more than to light it into flames but knowing that would ultimately blow his cover. He feels so much inside and nothing at all. His face burns and itches under the wrapping with only one eye left to see and one eye left to hear he has never felt more disconnected.

Reading the letter he could understand his uncle's thought process in sending him away but cant see why he dint at least wait for him to wake. It's been Three weeks since the Agni Kai, its been 2 since he's been home, and it's 3 hours since he has awakened from a coma.

He's in a nice earth kingdom town, simple, small, quiet, with a waterbender healer who has been taking care of him and his burns for the past two weeks. He has so many emotions but they all lead to the same conclusion, he needs to leave.

On one hand, he's happy to be away from his father. Ever since his mother died he has gotten rougher, meaner, rarely ever spending time with him besides to discipline and yell at him. So yes, he could say he's happy to be away.

On the other hand, he's furious. He cant see the turtle duck pound anymore, he cant see Mai, he cant practice dual blades anymore (while he does have the blades with him why would a simple earth kingdom boy have those blades?)He can't see Azula, even though they have a rocky relationship with his sister. He can’t see uncle (not that he wants to), he doesn't have money, he doesn't have influence, he has nothing of his own besides his anger.

The healer he is staying with said he is welcome to stay for as long as he likes, but uncles letter says he might not want to stay in one place for too long and while Zuko is quite upset with his uncle for making this decision for him, he can't lie that his uncle is nothing short of brilliant and leaving is the best choice.

He will probably stay for dinner, tell the healer good night, and run off with his swords and some supplies leaving some of the money his uncle left for him in the envelope. He will stuff the supplies in his bag his uncle was kind enough to supply for him and disappear into the dead of night.

Chapter Text

I’m telling you I saw a guy in there with me.”

“No I believe you think you saw a guy in there with you I don't believe he was real,” Katara rolls her eyes at brother.

“He WAS real and he WAS there, why would I lie about that,” Sokka retorts.

“I believe both of you,” Aang says brightly.

They both stare at the airbender.

“No, I'm being honest. I saw Avatar Roku’s dragon and he was there but that doesn't mean he was real, so in a way both of you are right”

They both seem to ponder about it for a moment before Katar speaks first, “So I was right, He wasn't real.”

“Thats not-”

“He just said he was.”

“Nuh uh.”

“Yuh hu.”

“Nuh uh.”

Aang sighs before leaning his back against Appa, this was going to be a long flight to the fire nation.

Zuko's been helping out a small town on the coast of the earth kingdom for a few days now. There's been an uprising in the town after all the earthbenders were sent to go work on a mine ship, tho there all back. The avatar apparently rescued them.

He would have taken all of this as mass hysteria in times of war if he wasn't on Kyoshi Island himself just a couple days ago and saw the avtar himself.

It took him a while to believe it, he will admit, how can that 12 year old, a child, be the Avatar, an airnomad no less. If he had only seen the kid he would still believe his hysteria theory. Then he saw Zhao.

Zuko could lie and say he has always liked Zhao, but that would be a lie. He has never liked Zhao, not even a little bit. He has always been too arrogant, too loud, too boastful, too honest, and now that he is an admiral and has the honor of capturing the Avatar his ego is probably too big for his head, not that it wasn't already.

And then his uncle.

Zuko would like to say he is no longer angry with him.That he's moved past his childish grudge and can confidently say he is grateful to him for getting out of the fire nation, because Zuko is better for it, but that would also be a lie.

It would also be a lie to say he hated his uncle, that he has no love for him. His feelings are complicated but he does love his uncles, he just would never like to see him again, much like Azula.

Zuko had plans to follow the Avatar, seeing his intentions. Is he a good person? Is his goal to defeat the fire nation? How does he plan to do so at such a young age? But the minute he saw his uncle standing next to Zhao any feeling he thought he was over, any progress with his anger he has made, all came running in and he knew pursuing the Avatar with his uncle pursuing him as well means their paths are bound to cross and Zuko cannot let that happen.

He is happy with his life. Traveling from one town to another, freeing some towns here, stealing from the fire nation there, and then disappearing as if he has never existed in the first place. It's fun, exhilarating at times, the fact no one knows him. When he sees the reward for his capture steadily going up, when he goes to market and hears stories of a spirit coming out of nowhere to save families, he does enjoy it.

There are things he does miss. He tries not to think too much about it tho. He is Lee, a simple earth kingdom civilian with no family that travels alone, never staying in one place too long and at night the blue spirit, a mystery among men.

He can't just give that up. No matter how curious about the Avatar he is or how badly he wants to see his uncle again.

“So this guy.”

“Avatar Roku.”

“Wants you to learn all 4 elements before the end of the summer, and defeat the Fore lord?”

“More or less,” Aang sounded exasperated.

“And this guy-”

“Avatar Roku”

“Avatar Roku, said we need to find the “Blue Spirit"," Sokka does finger quotes,”And a water bending master and a fire bending master to teach you the elements.”

“Yep,” Aang has his eyes closed and is leaning back against a rock looking dead on his feet.

“Avatar Roku said to find an earth and water bending teacher, but he didn't say you needed a fire bending teacher?” Katara sounds as tired as Aang looks while he nods, “That makes no sense.”

“And who is the Blue Spirit?” Sokka asks.

“I don't know,” Aang sighs again.

“Did he tell you where to find him?”

“I don't know,” Aang drops his head into his hands and groans.

“Okay, how about we all go to sleep, get some rest and focus on that water bending teacher. We will go north just like we planned and find you and Katara, a teacher. Okay?” Sokka can tell they all are in need of a serious nap after that temple trip.

They both nod and start to set up camp for the night. Putting his own mat down Sokka lays to sleep, running the past few days in his head, first the guy in the forest, the guy in blue on Kyoshi, and then this blue spirit. He really hopes he sees the first guy again, but he can't lie and say curiosity is getting to him about the man on kyoshi. Instead of pondering for a few more hours Sokka decides to get some rest and falls asleep.

Ever since hearing the news from the past Avatar, Sokka has never seen Aang so anxious. He was practically bouncing off the trees, talking and talking and talking about this deadline, how we need to hurry, how he's already behind.

When Katara offered to show him some water bending and took him to the water Sokka felt bad for being so relived. He loves Aang and Katara but sometimes listening to them talk for hours upon hours with no time to himself can be a little draining.

He leans his back against a tree and allows his thoughts to wonder. Unsurprisingly they go back to his favorite three topics; The Blue Spirit, the boy in the forest, and the man on Kyoshi.

His thoughts have surrounded the three ever since he learned about them. He circles them in his mind in a constant rotation and every time becomes increasingly more agitated with how little he knows about all.

The man on Kyoish fights with two swords, wore all black, a mask, and could hold his own to sideburns (he learned his real name was Admiral Zhao but no way is he calling him that). He helped them not asking for anything in return and disappeared as quickly as he appeared. If it wasn't for Suki, Katara and Aang all seeing him, Sokka would think he was imagining the whole thing.

The boy in the woods tho, Sokka probably imagined him. He had the most striking eyes he's ever seen. Not quite brown, not quite hazel, but a perfect mix Sokka would describe it better if he could but he just needed to see them again. He looked tall from what he could see but Sokka has a feeling they might be the same height. He had black, shaggy, hair and wore plain earth kingdom clothes. He had only seen half his face and mourns the fact he may never see him again or if he is even real.

The Blue Spirit is the biggest mystery. It gives him some satisfaction knowing he will see this one if he sticks with Aang because Aang needs this spirit to beat the Fire Lord. He wonders if it is a spirit at all or if it's a metaphor or place?

He takes a deep sight content to keep wondering for a few more hours, day dreaming it up in lalaland. When Katara comes stomping back to him with Aang trailing behind.

She angrily explains how an over eager Aang whipped all their supplies and how he doesn't listen and how he needs to be more painter and she cant believe he let this happen.

Aang, poor guy, looks lost. He keeps opening and closing his mouth like he's going to interject before thinking better of it. Sokka looks over at him and raises his eyebrow. Aang starts giggling and that sets Katara off even more. She continues to berate both of them while Sokka and Aang avoid eye contact, not trusting the other not to release into a fit of laughter when Sokka decides enough is enough and intervenes by saying they'll go to the town nearby and replenish supplies. Satisfied, Katara finally walks always and Aang and Sokka burst out laughing.

“I’ve lost my Pai Sho Tile,” Iroh announces to Zhao as he is talking to the soldiers aboard their ship.

Zhao gives him a look,”Okay? What do you want me to do about that?”

“Oh nothing, I just wanted you to know I will be getting off at the next port to find one in a town nearby.”

Completely discarding the soldiers on board with him, Zhao fully turns to Iroh, “You're leaving now! We are looking for the Avatar to bring Honnor to the fire nation and you're worried about a missing tile?”

“Well it's not just any tile, it's the white lotus tile. With out it the game-”

“I don't care about the game!” Zhao is waving his hands now with anger, “I care about the Avatar.”

“Well Zhao-”

“Admiral Zhao,” he huffs.

“Admiral Zhao, I had never said you had to come. You are welcome to keep looking for the Avtar or to come with me but either way I am getting off at the next port to find my tile.”

Zhao huffs loudly before storming off deck. Iroh could care less if he is happy or not about Iroh leaving, Iroh has an important plan to enact at the next port.

They had just left the store with pirates, more like they ran out and decided to keep shopping at the market nearby. Katara was talking to an old lady about some fruit and Aang was talking to a wood carver. Sokka hates shopping with a passion, he wants to be made at Aang for losing their supplies but he is just a kid and Sokka probably would have done the same thing if he could water bend.

Instead of paying any attention to the shopping, he decides to do his favorite activity and people watch. He sees a mother with her baby trying to calm the child down, he sees two men arm wrestling with a woman standing by them, he sees a store clerk trading some fruit for a knife with this guy who kind of looks like the guy from the forest.

Sokka does a double take and sure enough, he sees the side profile of his mysterious boy from the forest. His breath catches in his throat and his hands get sweaty. He takes a few breaths to ground himself but they all end up too shallow to do any good. He’s not crazy. He's real. He's also 30 feet in front of him.

The boy gives a small smile to the fruit seller and Sokka makes up his mind and starts walking towards him as the boy turns his back and starts walking away. Sokka picks up his pace to follow him when Katara runs in and grabs his hand, dragging him away.

“Katara!” He pulls back on her, determined to follow the guy but js struggling to find him in the crowd.

“No time to explain, just know there are some pirates that aren't too happy with us,” she keeps running to catch up with Aang as Sokka sees him running ahead. Sokka hears yelling behind him with some more banging and footsteps and feels compelled to run faster instead of looking back.

They keep running till there deeper into the trees in the nearby forest where they camped last night till they come upon the river Aang and Katara were originally when Aang lost his stuff.

Panting to catch his breath Sooka speaks first in shorten gasps, “Why were they chasing us?”

“I don't know,” Katara says fast and turns away from Sokka. He stays bent over himself for a couple more seconds before standing straight and putting his hand on a tree. He takes deep inhales and deep exhales trying to calm his heart. While Sokka is trying to breathe, Aang and Katara seem to be in another argument. They look to be arguing on who gets to hold a piece of paper.

“What is it now,” he asks them, they both stop to look at him as if they've been caught in a horrible act.

“Katara she-.”

“Dont tell him!” She yells at him again, reaching to grab the paper that is now in Aang's hand. Sokka grabs it from Aang before she can reach him again.

He looks at the paper, which is actually a scroll, looks back at Katara, back at the scroll, and back at Katara.

“Are you serious!” He will admit he shouldn't have raised his voice.

“Sokka-”

“You're telling me we got chased by pirates because you wanted a stupid piece of paper?”

“It's not stupid, it's a water bending scroll from the south pole, they stole it from us,” she defends herself.

“Two wrongs don't make a right.”

“I saw she keeps it,” Aang says, “It's not like she can return the thing, we might as well learn from it.”

Sokka looks down, “I am sorry for yelling. I am not mad about the scroll, not really, I am mad because I saw the guy from the forest again and it was my one chance to talk to them and it got ruined, but that's not an excuse. I shouldn't have yelled.”

“I’m sorry to Sokka,” Aang says softly, “but there is nothing we can do about it now.”

Sokka grinds his teeth and looks away.

Zhao is having a bad day.

He is very unhappy at the moment. He is stuck with this useless crew, useless ships, useless soldiers, and useless benders because how can he not even be close to capturing the Avatar? He's twelve.

He stopped at a town for supplies and the only other company person on the ship is leaving to get a game piece. These people can not be real. The old fat man is already happily skipping across town sticking up conversions with obviously uncomfortable locals.

He starts walking by himself trying to reason that having Iroh here is important. That he invited him fir a good reason and he should continue to help Zhao with his task. He gets to a group of what appear to be pirates and decides to ease the drop. They are talking quite loud so it's not like it's hard. He hears the main man, the leader he assumes, talking about how frustrated it is to be robbed by a bald kid and his two water tribe friends.

Maybe this day isn't so bad after all.

Chapter Text

Zuko has always been unlucky. Recently, he is starting to feel less unlucky and more luckless. He had two goals since leaving Kyoshi.

1. Avoid the Avatar
2. Avoid his Uncle

Easy enough? The odds of either of them being in a small coastal town far enough from Kyoshi is low. It wasn't luck that brought him here, it was skill, understanding patterns. They had left Kyoshi going south with uncle following them so Zuko went north.

Zuko hates luck because he never has it.

He heard noise, running and shouting, and sure enough he looked over his shoulder and saw that avatar and his two little friends being chased all over this small town before they disappeared into the woods. Zuko wasn't too upset when he saw them, at least goal number two is going strong.

He saw uncle shopping in the market not even ten minutes later.

He goes back to the family he's staying with, a mom and her three kids, father left to fight in the war, who were kind enough to him to stay with them as long as he takes care of the weeds out back and cleans after himself when he was supposed to leave in a few days. Zuko will probably leave in the middle of the night if the Avatar is here though. The longer he stays the more dangerous it is for him and the family. He will take care of the weeds first.

Walking back towards the house he hears all the familiar voices. Zhao and the man that was chasing the avtar are in a loud conversation in the middle of the market, quite rudely. Zuko decides this is none of his business and continues onward when he hears them talk about capturing the avatar yet again with help from the “pirates.” He's lost sight of his uncle while Zhao talks about how his partner is too useless to help because he is too busy looking for a game peace which sounds like uncle. He was just going to go to the house take care of the weeds and leave but it's been awhile since he's done anything interesting so he might have to do a small detour before leaving.

Besides if you didn't want someone to overhear you, don't talk in loudly in the street.

The Avatar is painfully easy to find. He just followed the yelling until he found all three. She keeps berating the kid Zuko starts to feel a little bad for him when the boy turns to, who Zuko assumes is his sister and says something he can't hear from his spot in the trees. She turns back to the avatar with a bit of regret looking on her face and the rest of the conversion goes unheard to Zuko, He tries to turn his head to have his good ear facing them but his hearing is still skewed.

Sighing he, sits back against the truck and kicks his foot against the branch softly, careful not to make noise and keeps an eye on the trio and with the angle he's sitting at is able to view a path between where they are and where the town is just in case Zhao decides to take the easy way towards them.

By nightfall Zhao has still not come and Zuko is beginning to question if he heard right. The three have fallen asleep below and Zuko is starting to become a bit restless with the lack of Zhao. Just when he is about to fall asleep and hope that the noise if Zhao comes will wake him he hears the girl get up slowly and grab the scroll form the avatar without waking either of them up and heads to the lake. Zuko could follow her or he could stay watching the other to sleep.

Getting up from the tree he slowly clumps down and carefully follows her. She goes to a nearby river and starts reading the paper before walking in the water. Wanting a better view Zuko climbs a nearby tree and watches from above.

She's trying to bend Zuko. Struggling with whatever it is she's trying to learn he almost feels bad for her as she increasingly becomes frustrated. She kind of reminds Zuko of when he was learning fire bending.

After a few minutes he hears noises coming from behind him and when he turns around he sees Zhao and the Pirates running towards her. Zhao manages to grab her and tie her to a tree before talking to her. Zuko still can't hear their argument but he sees Zhao has something in his hand. After a few more minutes Zhao grabs the paper in her hand and lights a fire in his hand and turns to the pirates. He yells at them and Suko can finally make out some words. He hears Avatar, go, burn, bending, most notably. Before the pirates start walking in the woods leaving Zhao and the girl.

Making his decision, Zuko decides to stay in the trees just a few minutes longer. He trails close behind, jumping from tree to tree, following at a reasonable distance when Zhao catches up with the other soldiers and the pirates.

He sees the Avatar with the pirates on one side and Zhao on the other. Zhao and the captain continue to argue when the boy speaks up.

Its times like this when Zuko really wishes he wasn't half deaf.

Zuko is quite surprised when Zhao throws the first flame. The two groups start fighting while the Avatar and the other sneak away before running towards the dock. Seeing as the group escaped onto the pirates boat while they were too busy fighting each other Zuko decides that his time here is up.

He goes back to the town and is bitter sweet about not getting actions but happy that he can get back to his rules but with a little update.

1. Avoid the Avatar
2. Avoid Uncle
3. If he sees the Avatar follow him until he is relatively safe
4. If he sees uncle, leave as fast as possible.

“Admirall Zhao! I was wondering where you had gone too,” Iroh greets him as he stomps back to the ship.

“I had found the Avatar but he has yet again left my grasp,” he grumbles, “Did you at least find your game piece.

“No, it was in my sleeve the whole time, isn't that funny, but I did find this wonderful tea pot. I mean look at the engraving on the side.”

Zhao hates this guy.

As they pull from port Iroh keeps his eye on the land for as long as he could. He did find what he wanted, he thinks as they pull from port his eyes locked on a boy in the nearby village with a burn on the left side of his face.

Chapter Text

Sokka hates a lot of things but he really hates this guy. Part of him thinks it's because he is obviously flirting with Katara and as her brother he needs to hate him on principle. Even if he didn't flirt with her he probably still wouldn't like him. His instinct tells him there's something off about this “Jet”.

Katara says his instinct sucks and that Jets a good person and while he has yet to be proven wrong about him being weird he still doesn't trust him.

He listens in on the celebration happening in the trees tonight while Katara continues to gawk at this guy while he stews in his anger. He really hates this guy.

“So what brings us to our neck of the woods,” Jet asks, chewing on his stupid piece of straw. Sokka swears he asked the question earlier but just likes hearing the sound of his own voice.

“We are heading to the Northern Water Tribe to try and find me and Aang, a water bending teacher. Then, we are going to go to the earth kingdom and find him an earth bender teacher, and we are looking for the blue spirit, "Katara eagerly explains to him with stars in her eyes.

“The Blue Spirit? Why do you need to find him?”

“I don't know. The past Avatar told me to find him but I have no clue where to even start, I mean how do you even find a sprite,” Aang answers honestly.

“I can help you with,” Jet smirks, "I've met him.”

“Really?” Katara has moved closer to him while Sokka continues to stew.

“Yeah, the best part is it's not a spirit. It's a boy, around me and Sokka's age in a mask.”

“Wait, how do we know he's telling the truth?” Sokka finally speaks up.

Jet shrugs, “You don't but I might as well tell you so when you are looking for the guy you at least have something to go off of.”

“Thanks Jet,” Katara bats her eyelash while Sokka struggles not to gag.

“Okay so the blue spirit is an earth kingdom legend, he goes around freeing Villages from Fire nation, he raids ships and everything. He got the nickname from traveling but he told me he never picked it. His real name is Lee.”

“And how did you meet this legend?” Sokka questions.

“Let him finish,” Katara scolds.

“Thanks Katara, anyways I met him when he was traveling to the nearby village. He stayed with us for a while before leaving. This was a year ago, he left after we had gotten into a light argument, but he said he was planning on leaving anyway because he doesn't like to stay in one place for too long.”

“What was the argument?”

“Sokka stop being so noisy,” Katara says to him before turning back to Jet, “You can continue when you wish.”

Jet smiles down at her, “He wears all black as the spirit but wears simple earth kingdom clothes usually. His mask is blue and white with a smile permanently etched onto it and white tusks in the mouth and two horns.

“I feel like I know that from somewhere?’ Aang wonders.

“It's the guy we met on Kyoshi!” Sokka exclaims. “If Jets telling the truth-”

Katara interrupts him, ”He is telling the truth.”

“Then we've already met him.”

“Your right Sokka thanks Jet,” Aang says.

“I'm glad I could help that reminds me of the time I-” Sokka decided to ignore him after that. Sokka is glad to have found out the blue spirit and the guy in the blue mask are the same person because it narrows his three problems down to two. Now all he needs to know is how that guy was in the woods.

Chapter Text

Ch. 5

“Didn't you hear?” The avatars were finally captured. Zuko drops the glass he was holding. He was staying in a tavern in a small town meaning that the Avatar has been captured for at least a few days for news like this to travel. Zuko feels sick to his stomach listening to the conversion next to him

He continues to eavesdrop, glad that at this angle his good ear is facing them.

“Some fire nation archers came to the bar I work at to go day drinking to celebrate in capturing him today! You know that prison, stronghold thing? He's in there.” He hears the guy tell his friend.

Oh.

This happened today meaning the avatar is close enough that Zuko can do something. It would mean that Zuko didn't have to break his third rule and he could free him.

But that's just wishful thinking. He's in the Pohuai Stronghold. One of the strongholds with the cleanest record of no escapes. It's almost impossible to get the kid out.

Almost.

Sokka feels horrible. He's been talking to Appa for what feels like days now, logically he knows Appa can't talk back but this conversion is surprisingly two ways.

He also knows he's sick and probably hallucinating but you know a talking Bison won't be the craziest thing he's ever seen. He looks to his left and sees Katara and looks to the right expecting to see Aang but finds him missing. Confused, he gets up to find him before he gets pushed down by his shoulders.

“You need rest,” he hears a smooth voice, most definitely male.

“What-” he groans trying to sit up again.

“Rest,” the man pushes further on his chest.

Sokka opens his eyes more but everything is still blurry. He can make out a face, pale, black, hair, with a red blotch on his face.

“Rest,” he hears the voice soothes him as he drifts back to sleep.

Aang has been quite bored for the past couple hours. Locked away with no windows to know what time it is and not able to move his limbs he has been going in out of being spaced out or trying to find an escape. He is not being successful with the latter.

He hears the door open again and expects to find Zhao when he looks up but is shocked by the Blue Spirit. Lee, if Jet was telling the truth, but Aang's not too sure if he trusts him.

The Blue Spirit walks towards Aang, grabs a key from behind him and starts unlocking his restaurants.

“Hey, thank y-” his mouth is covered by a black gloved hand. He is now face to face with the spirit with Blue crouched down slightly to be eye level with him. Aang is looking at the black eyes and can't tell if it's a mask. The hand covering his mouth moves so that the spirit can put a single finger in front of his smiling mouth, a signal to keep quiet.

They sneak out his cell and start walking down the halls of the strong hold. Aang keeps sneaking glances towards Blue in curiosity trying to figure the guy out. He wants to ask him so many questions. Why did you save us at Kyoshi? Why are you saving me now? Why did Roku tell me to find you? Is your name actually Lee?

Turing a corner Aang finally remembers why he left Katara and Sokka in the first place, “My frogs!” He exclaims before Blue slams him into the wall next to them right before the corner. He gives a quick glance to Aang before turning the corner leaving Aang dazed. He hears grunting and quite rustling around the corner while he tries to center himself.

When he manages to recover from getting slammed he turns the corner to find Blue standing over three fire nation soldiers. His mouth is wide open while Blue lifts his finger to his mouth again telling him to keep quiet.

The entire time him and Blue are sneaking around Zhao has been talking quite loudly in the center court yard. He only is partially listening, only being able to hear things like comets and avatar. When Zhao stops talking Blue grabs his hand and starts sprinting down the halls as more yelling continues.

When they get to a wall Blue has him start to climb a rope before someone cuts it. They are becoming more and more surrounded. He feels trapped and starts to panic that he's going to be caught again when Blue taps him and points one of his swords towards the gate. They start sprinting towards it as they get chased.

After a few seconds he turns to look for Blue but sees him a few paces behind engaged in a fight with about 10 soldiers. Seeing a soldier running towards him he uses airbending to knock them backwards into a wall before grabbing his spear, flipping to the blunt end, and running to help Blue by pushing the end of the spear into the spiders to create distance between them.

Once at a suitable distance between him and the soldiers he uses airbending to push the rest of the soldiers out. Grabbing blues hand he starts running towards the gate. Right before they make it an arrow comes down and lands in between him and Blue.

He looks up to find them completely surrounded. He takes short shallow breaths knowing they're surrounded and now of them will be captured he doesn't even realize Blues moving.

He's being pulled into a chest when two swords come to cross at his neck. He can feel the top of the mask setting on his head. He looks to see Zhao make a hand signal as the gate opens and he and Blue slowly back out. Despite having a blade near his neck he doesn't feel threatened at all.

Once they made it behind the walls they both broke into a sprint. Almost ten yards outside he hears a gasp from Blue, the first noises he has heard him make. He sees an arrow logged into his back and blue struggles to get off the floor from where he's fallen. He sees them being advanced on and creates a dust cloud to give them cover before turning to Blue.

Zuko comes to attention slowly. He hears noises of the natural world around him as he slowly sits up allowing his eye to adjust to the brightness.

“Hey,” his eyes snap to the voice that belongs to Avatar as the events from last night come rushing to him.

“Ummm, here's your mask,” the boy says nervously, passing it to him.

“Thanks,” he says, taking it without bothering to put it back on since the avatars have already seen his face.

“I’m Aang.”

He responds wanting to say Zuko for some reason beyond him as he hasn't gone by that name in years when the avatar, Aang cuts him off.

“Your Lee, right.”

“Yeah, I’m Lee,” he says dazed, “How do you know that?”

“I met this guy, said he knew.”

Zuko stays silent at that. After seeing he wasn't going to talk Aang fills the silence.

“I’m really glad you found me, I mean I was looking for you or I would be very soon, but this saves me so much.”

“Why would you be looking for me?” This conversion is leaving him more and more confused. Aang then explains to him about the past avtar and needing to find him.

“I’m sorry I think you have the wrong guy,” he says getting up from the floor.

The Avatar stands with him quickly responding, “I don’t. Don't ask me how I know it's you I just do. I was supposed to find you and you were supposed to find me.”

They stay looking at each other for what feels like an entirety when Aang talks again, “You should come back with. My friends are sick, but frogs are supposed to cure them or something, anyway you'd like them.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t.”

“But why?” He's asking more forcibly, “You're supposed to help me which means you should come.”

“Thats not a good reason.”

“Sure it is. You've already helped so many times and we just keep running into each other. You should just come with me.”

“Thats confidence."

“Thats destiny"

Zuko has spent most of his life thinking about destiny that sometimes she thinks he has no idea what it is. He knows for sure it's not this, “Lets make a deal. If we ever see each other again, that's destiny and I'll come with you and your friends, but not now.”

“Thas not fair,” Aang whines reminding Zuko how young he is.

“If it's destiny we will see each other again, if it's coincidence this is goodbye.”

He can see the kid thinking it over in his head, “Fine, then we'll be seeing you later.”

“Thats not what I meant.”
“But it is destiny,” Aang's smile grows as he talks, “And destiny will bring us together once more.”

“Okay kid, your friends are okay by the way.”

“What?”

“When I was looking for you I found them in a cave, sick but otherwise okay,” he didn't even mean to find them but once he did he put a towel on each of their foreheads before the boy woke up and Zuko put him back to sleep.

“Thank you,” Aang thanks him. They look at each other for a few moments longer.

“I guess I'll be going,” Zuko says.

“Same I have to find frogs.” Aang rescinded. Zuko decides to ignore that knowing if he respond shell be in another conversion he doesn't want to have time for.

“So I guess this is goodbye,” he says instead, turning away.

He hears Aang call behind him, “Not goodbye. See you soon!”

“I can't believe you made me suck on a frog,” Katara grumbles.

“Hey you're okay aren't you,” Aang retorts.

Sokka keeps thinking about the guy he had met while sick. He could've sworn he was real but he was really sick. He asks Aang, “So you make any new friends?”

Aang smiles brightly, “Yep! And you'll never guess who.”

Chapter Text

Ch. 6

Katara, as rough as it was for her to start, finally has a teacher, so does the Avatar .

Sokka meets Yue.

Yue is engaged.

Iroh and Zhao advance on the Northern Water tribes.

Iroh tells him to turn back.

Zhao says no.

Iroh puts a hold on finding Zuko.

Iroh tells Zhao what he's doing is wrong

Zhao kills the moon spirit.

Aang attacks the fire nation ships with the help of the water spirit.

Yue gives life to the spirit.

Sokka watches her die.

Iroh leaves to find Zuko.

The Northern Water tribe has won against the Fire Nation.

“Azula, do you know why I called you here?”

“No father.”

“Your brother is alive.”

Chapter Text

“One hair out of place.”

Azula knows her form is perfect, she has been perfecting it for years. It's been perfect for when she's safe behind the closed doors of the Fire Nation Palace. But she is not there anymore. She is hunting the avatar, her traitorous uncle, and her brother.

For the first time in three years Azula has hope.

She stands straight and sets her shoulders. She's angry and with sharp moments undo's her hair and puts it back into place tighter than before. She can feel each strand pull at her face making her features sharper.

“Again,” she raises her hands into the sky and sets back into place.

“I accepted the general's offer.”

Aang informs the pair of siblings when he walks into the room that morning.

“What,” Katara asks confusedly as she pulls herself groggy out of bed.

“We don't have much time and it's like a shortcut,” Aang sounds like he's trying to convince himself it's a good idea.

“You were just saying how scared the avatar state scared you know you want to willingly go into it?”

“Yes, Katara! We have been at war for far too long, maybe a shortcut is needed.”

“Sokka, tell him it's a bad idea,” Katara turns to her still half asleep brother.

“I think it's a good idea,” he says, softer than he usually does.

“It's a shortcut!” Katara yells at the both of them, “You're taking the easy way out!”

“Well maybe we need an easy way out.” he still is speaking uncharacteristically soft, “Some many people have died in the war, because of the fire nation. Maybe it's time to stop playing by the rules and actually fix things.”

Katara grunts and storms out of the room leaving Aang and Sokka behind.

“So the Avatar States a bust,” Sokka is lying on his back on top of Appa.

“Sokka,” Katara starts to scold him.

“What?” he sits straight, “It's true, so now it's time to go back to Plan A.”

“Plan A?” Aang asks.

“Find you an Earth bending teacher! That's the next element in the cycle right?”

“Yeah, so we just fly around asking people to teach Aang?”

“I already have a teacher!” Aang excitedly says, turning around from where he was sitting on Apps head, “Bumi!”

“So lets go to Omashu and on our way lets keep an eye out for that Blue Spirit!"

“Do you think it will work?” Katara asks quietly to Aang and her brother as she holds the toddler in her hand.

“It has to,” Aang answers while staring straight ahead.

Three girls start to advance on the trio with King Bumi in a metal cage behind them.

“We come to trade!” Sokka raises his voice while simultaneously lowering it to sound older, ”The King for the child.”

The girl with the knives from earlier begins to walk towards them when the one on left with dark brown hair pulled back puts her hand out and stops her.

“A king for a toddler?” she speaks in a condescending way as she looks to be pondering about the deal, “Mai does that seem fair?”

The knife girl stops and Sokka can see the flicker of an emotion on her face that came too fast for him to be able to place it before it goes back to her neutral stare, “No it doesn't," she raises her voice, “Deals off!”

Bumi starts to rise from behind them as Aang shouts and leaps into the air using airbending. The force from his jump causes the hood on his head to fall back revealing his arrow. Sokka quickly turns to the three girls and sees the one with her hair up in a bun step forward and jump in the air before whipping her leg around sending fire towards Aang.

So she's a fire bender.

“Sokka, take the kid,” Katara hands the child to him before he has a chance to protest before she's running at the bending girl. Thankfully when he looks up he sees Aang on top of Bumi's cage. He turns around looking for Appa. Spotting him he calls the bison over.

Turns around to see Katara clutching her arm, Sokka scans it for injuries but it seems fine but Katara has a look of shock and horror on her face he starts to assume the worst.

The girl in pink starts running at him as he attempts to move away with the child. She stops in front of him and holds out her hand.

“Pass me Tom-Tom,” She makes a grabbing motion with her hands.

“Uhhh,” Sokka tries moving backwards when he sees Appa from the corner of his eye, “Sure.”

He quickly passes the kid to her before jumping on the bison. The girl looks at the kid for a second, smiling and coding before she seems to snap back and look around for him. He looks at Katara still clutching her arm and sees the knife girl bringing her arm back. He grabs his bomb range and throws the knife from her hand. He then signals to Appa to hit the platform knocking both girls off. He then grabs Katara's arm and holds her on the bison.

“That freak did something to me,” She pants climbing above, “I can't bend.”

Sokka is stunned. He's at a loss for words. He's never heard of such a thing and he doesn't know how to confront his sister. He doesn't bend so he doesn't know what that's like to be cut off from a core part of you.

He hears a drop from above and sees Bumi and Aang now on the floor with the fire bender dropping gracefully as well. He hears Aang yelling and can tell he's frustrated. He then turns and starts running toward the fire bender when she bends at him he jumps into the air and air bends onto the bison. As soon as he lands, Sokka signals to Appa to move, leaving the fire bender staring up at them from the platform.

“We need to leave.” Azula informs the girls the minute she walks into the palace.

“Are you finally going to tell me the reason you decide to drag Ty Lee here?” Mai asks with her monotone voice.

Azula steps in front of her friends. After her brother died she asked for her father to send them away. She hated spending time with either of them when she could be focusing on being a better fire bender. She hasn't seen either of them since her brother died, but now speaking to them doesn't put an uncomfortable feeling in her throat like the thought of it used to.

“Zuko is alive.”

“An earth bender who listens and waits,” Katara says. She has her hands in front of her bending a small ball of water. Ever since her bending came back she has been bending non stop.

“How are we supposed to find an earth bend like that?” Sokka asks, ”Just fly around till we see one?”

“No, we are going to fly to Ba Sing Sa, they have millions of earth benders, one of them has to be the one.” Aang speaks in such a positive attitude that it lifts the trio's spirits, slightly.

After a beat Sokka speaks up, “Do you guys feel that?”

“Feel what?” Katara stops bending and sitting up.

“We are getting lower.”

Aang looks over and sees the bison slowly descending. He looks back to see Sokka telling the bison to fly higher when he looks back down. He closes his eyes and feels a pull in his gut.

“No.”

“No?” Sokka snaps his head to him confused,” What do you mean “No?” We are going to crash!”

“It's calling to me.”

“Yes, let's crash because the 12 year old wants to look at some trees.”

“Sokka!” Katara scolds.

“No it's fine,” He turns to face the group but his eyes are on the trees, “We can leave.”

“Thank you,” Sokka says.

“Guys,” Katara starts.

“I mean what are we even gonna find in the swamp.”

“Guys we should really look-”

“Trees, swamp water, more trees.”

“GUYS”, She yells right when they feel himself get swept into the air.

“I told you guys we should've landed.”

“Hey, Katara is quick to defend herself, “I never said we shouldn't.”

“Yeah, yeah, you're perfect and of course agreed with the bald kid.” Sokka sasses.

“I mean the swamp showed me a vision.” Aang said.

Katara goes quite looking down, “Me too.”

“What did you see?”

“My mother,” She keeps her eyes downcast while Sokka looks away uncomfortable.

“Well I saw a girl and a bison, she was running away and when I tried to catch up with her I saw the blue spirit again but then they both disappeared.”

“Maybe this girl is important?” Katara asks.

“Maybe, what did you see Sokka?”

They both turn to him and he shifts uncomfortably.

“I saw the spirit guy again and,” he trails off.

“What else?”

“Nothing,” he thinks about white hair and beautiful eyes, “I saw nothing.

Chapter Text

It's quite often that Zuko finds himself in Gaoling. While it's against his own code to visit towns and villages more than once he does visit more often then likes. He goes to the earth bending fights. He likes watching Toph win.

Toph is the closest thing to a friend he has since living in the earthkingdom. They met outside one of the rinks she cornered him and after talking for about five minutes she demanded he go to her next fight. He refused.

Three months later and there he was. I wasn't her next one but they have come to an agreement that he goes to some, not all.

He comes for the last fight only, sits in the back, and leaves right when she's done fighting. He then goes to her house and waits by the gate when she sneaks out to see him. They have been doing it for about a year.

Today's like no different, he walks in during a guy named the boulders fight, sits in the back and watches Toph win. The first time he watched Toph he hated her. Another prodigy bender, like his sister, but the next day he was walking by the Beifongs house and saw a familiar blind little girl.

She wins against the Border, like always, and they ask if anyone else wants to fight her. Usually one or two say yes but after she wipes the floor with them it ends quite fast.

He hears a familiar voice and looks down to see a twelve year old enter the rink.

You got to be kidding him.

He looks around and sees the familiar pair of siblings in the stands as the Avatar goes to fight Toph and something that hasn't happened in the year he knows Toph happens.

Toph lost.

She storms out and Zuko gets up and walks out as he sees the Avatar try to follow her.

Later he is waiting by the tree on a hill near her house when he hears loud footsteps behind him before they drop next to him.

“Out of all my fights you show up to lose at.”

“It wasn't your fault.”

“Shut up Lee I don't want you pity,” She titles her head to the sky, “I’ve never fought someone like that. I couldn't get a single hit on him. I could barely sense his earth bending.”

“That's because he wasn't."

“Excuse me?”

“Get this Toph,” he moves closer to her like he is about to tell her the biggest juice ever, "That's the Avatar.”

“Shut up Zuko no it wasn't," She shoves him.

“Okay, I guess you don't want to hear how I broke him out of a fire nation prison.”

“Okay but why would he be here?”

“Maybe he is looking for an earth bending teacher and decided to find the “Blind Bandit”.”

“Shut up Lee and tell me that story.”

Toph is going to kill Lee. He jinxed her because why else is she sitting at a table with the Avatar and her parents while he tries to explain that their little blind daughter is going to teach the Avatar to bend.

After dinner she sneaks outside to sit on the grass outside her home when the Avatar sits beside her.

“I can’t teach you.” She doesn't look at him, “They would never let me.”

“Why don't you show them,” He pleads with her, “Take them to your match or something.’

“It doesn't work like that.”

“Why not?’

“Becasue it doesn't! I wish it did but they would never believe. They would never believe me even if it was right in front of their face.”

“I can’t believe they won't let her come,” Katara groans as they pack Appa for the night. Toph is amazing at bending but her parents still refused to see her their blind little girl.

“I mean she did tell us she wouldn't be able to come,” Sokka says in Momo's fur from where he is holding the lemur.

“I just don’t know where I’m supposed to learn earth bending,” Aang jumps onto the bison, “It was supposed to be her.”

“We can find you another teacher,” Katara tries to smooth..

“Not like her.”

The group stays silent for a few minutes knowing that the Toph could teach Aang things that no ordinary bender could.

“We should leave,” Sokka speaks up, “We still need to find the Blue Spirit and if Toph can’t teach Aang we need to find him a teacher.”

Aang looks back at the town, lingering with his eye before turning back, “Appa, yip-”

“Wait!”

The trio looks down and sees Toph running towards them with a small bag on her shoulders.

“Toph!” Aang excitedly says jumping down from the bison, “What are you doing here, did your parents change their mind?”

She stops in front of Aang, “No, they didn't, but,” she takes a deep breath in, “I can’t let them control my life. I want to do this and I know I can.”

Aang grabs her hand, “Welcome to the team!”

Chapter Text

Since hearing that her brother is alive Azula feels like a weight has been lifted off her chest. She can confidently say that she was never that close with Zuko but she also knows that she is not that close with anyone.

Growing up Azula remembers picking on her brother and getting him in trouble but like all siblings do that. She remembers once that she was practicing fire bending while Zuko was reading a book under a tree when she tried to fire a blast at him. Zuko surprisingly ducked causing the tree he was under to catch the blaze and set it on fire.

The guards came rushing over as well as their father. He was furious with her for setting the tree on fire and not having enough control to stop it when Zuko spoke up. He said he was the one practicing and because he was (is, Azula reminds herself, Zuko’s still alive) horrible at bending he was the one to cause the fire. That night Azula remembers hearing screams from her brother.

While she and Zuko didn't always have the most conventional relationship he was the closest person in her life and she would never admit it but his death ruined her.

When they told her Zuko was “dead”. She remembers how she found him dying by infection suited him because it was a boring way to die that suited her boring brother. She was unbothered by it, she didn't cry, she didn't mourn, to her it was like he never existed in the first place. She told Mai and Ty Lee to grieve and be with their families but otherwise she was unbothered. Her plan was to give them a week then invite them back to the Palace. After three days since Zuko died she was practicing bending with her father and she accidentally burned a carpet they had in the room. Her father was furious about her lack of control and ended the leason short. She walked calmly to Zuko's room like she always did after a bad lesson and walked in the room ready to irritate him to take her mind off the day. When she walked it was uncharacteristically clean with no sign her brother had been in there for days reminding her that Zuko was dead. That day was the only day Azula let herself mourn and cry about her brother.

Her mood has been better than it has in years as she stood with her friends who she hadn't seen in the same amount of time as they looked at a river with the fur from the Avatars bison floating down stream and another trail leading out the forest.

“Which way should we go, Azula?” Ty Lee asks while she picks up some fur.

“You and Mai follow the one in the water and take the other path.”

They both nod before heading up stream. Azula sets her shoulders and starts the other way.

This old guy keeps staring at Toph and it's making her uncomfortable. He asked her if she wanted tea after she stormed off from the group. Realistically she knows she's kinda in the wrong but Katara is messed up too.

Toph cant see his face but she can feel him stubbly shift to look at her every few seconds. She tenses her shoulders more.

“Why do you keep looking at me?”

The old man stops, “I’m just trying to see what type of tea I think you would like.”

Okay, this man is crazy, “What does looking at me have to do with that?”

He stops responding instead grabbing a pot from the fire near them and pours her a cup. She takes it from his hands, taking a small sip.

“Why are you out here by yourself?” He moves to sit across from her pouring his own cup.

“I’m not,” she defended, “I’m tracking with some friends but took a walk after an argument.”

“What were you arguing about?” Noisy old man.

She debates telling him, normally she just sits in her frustration until she sees Lee again and then she vents to the guy and since Lee isn't here she might as well tell the oldie, not like she'll ever see him again.

“They keep wanting to do things for me and have me help out, but I can take care of myself. I don't need them to do anything for me.”

“I can see you can take care of yourself.”

“Please, you won't even let me pour my own tea.”

“I poured your tea because I wanted to. If I didn't want to I wouldn't have but sometimes it's nice to do things for others.”

“Yeah I guess,” she sets her tea down, “Why are you out her old man? Isn't it dangerous for you to be here too?”

“Yes, but I'm looking for someone.”

“Who?”

“The Blue Spirit.” Toph freezes. She knows that Lee doesn't have a lot of friends who could be looking for him and this guy seems nice but one can never be too careful, best she plays dumb.

“Isn't that a myth?”

“I’ve seen him in person, very real,” well not much more she can do about that, “I think I know who is under the mask.”

“Who?”

“My Nephew.”

Now Lee is tight-lipped about almost everything about himself. Toph knows only a few things about the guy that don't have to do with fighting and Toph remembers the one time she asked about his family.

My family wants me dead. I’m part fire nation and they don't agree with my adventures. It's better if they think I’m dead.

She should direct him elsewhere if she can, she knows Lee is heading towards Ba Sing Se and she needs to make sure this doesn't follow, “When was the last time you've seen your nephew?”

“Three years ago.”

Toph met Lee two, "Where are you going next?”

“Whenever I see the Avatar he is usually nearby so I will probably follow him.”

Perfect, “I heard the Avatar is heading to Oma Shi.”

“Really?” He asks curiously.

“Yeah,” Toph stands from her spot, “Thanks for the tea and the advice. I hope you find your nephew.”

“Thank you as well.”

This girl is good, Aang thinks as he jumps onto another roof of the abandoned town and dodges the blue flames at him again. He tries to make another jump when he sees in the coroner more fire and he air bends it away, falling to the ground.

He groans rolling onto his back when he sees the girl smile at him and bring her hand up for another attack. Just when she appears in her hand she gets pushed by water and Aang turns his head to see Katara.

“Katara!” He shouts happily as ever to see her. She smiles at him and gets back into stance as he stands. The girl recovers quickly and sweeps her leg across the floor sending fire towards the both of them that Aang tries to avoid by jumping and Katara uses water to put out.

The girl smiles and stands in another position when red flames come towards her from the right that she bends away. Aang looks towards the flame and sees the general from the north pole. The one that fought with Zhao.

“Uncle!” Uncle? “Just who I was looking for.”

“Azula, stand down,” the man says, getting into another position.

She smiles again, almost manically and raises her arm and then is hit by a small bolder.

“Toph!” Katara yells at the blind girl, “I’m sorry about earlier and-”

“Can it sugar queen, we can talk later.”

The girl backs into an alley and the four of them surround her. She raises her hands, “It's okay, I know when I’m beat.”

She surveys the group for a few seconds when she brings her hands back and shoots forwards, sending lightning at the old man. He screams landing on his back causing the group to look and run towards him. When Aang looks back the girl is gone.

“I need water,” Katara directs him as she starts undoing his robe. In the distance Aang sees Sokka land with Appa running off the bison. Toph is already by him in seconds grabbing more water from Sokka.

“What happened?” He asks running up to the two of them kneeled by the man.

“I’ll tell you later,” Aang whispers to him.

“We need to leave, the girl could come back with more people any minute now,” Toph says as she fidgets from where she's standing.

“Alright help me get him on Appa.”

Katara has been periodically healing the old guy for hours as Toph and Aang retell the events. Sokka's a little conflicted. On one hand, he helped save Aang and defend them in the North pole, on the other, this guy is a general for the fire nation.

Sokka has tried to understand his motives but every interaction sets his thinking back. He knows a few facts about the man. 1) He is a fire bender 2) He is a fire nation general 3) He worked with Zhao but never hurt any of them 4) He helped them in the North 5) He helped them back there.

Hopefully he wakes soon so Sokka can ask him a few more questions on his motives, Katara has been periodically checking on him and said it should be any minute now so Sokka just has to play his favorite game and wait.

As impatient as he is, Toph seems worse.

For some who “listens and waits” she’s quite restless. She keeps looking at him and biting her lip as she paces around camp. Sokka has only known Toph for like a week but she doesn't get nervous. He should ask her but every time he opens his mouth to ask she sprints the other side of camp to keep pacing.

“Hes waking up,” Katara calls them over and Toph jumps out of her skin as Aang rushes over to sit across crossed by Katara. Toph and Sokka slowly walk over to see the man slowly open his eyes, smiles and sits up.

“Did you heal me?” He asked, looking at Katara.

“Yes,” Katara hesitated before asking, “That girl shot lightning at you, I didn't know fire benders could do that.”

“Yes, it's a very advanced technique but Azula is a bender well beyond her years.”

“Azula?” Sokka speaks up.

“Yes, Princess Azula, my niece.”

“Your niece!” Aang spoke.

“Yes, it's a long story. I can explain it to you but may I have some water first? My throat is quite dry.”

Katara checks more of his wounds while Aang grabs water. Sokka just stares at him and Toph goes back to pacing. When he's hydrated the group sits around him and wait for him to start.

“My name is Iroh, my brother is the fire lord, Azula is his daughter,” Sokka's even more confused, wouldn't the fire lord's brother be more pro Fire Nation and less save the water tribe?

“I disagree with a lot of the fire nations doing but what happened in the north pushed me over the edge a bit. I’m considered a traitor and Azula is probably under orders to kill me. She is a very talented bender and I bet she was tasked with finding you as well,” He looks at Aang.

“But she's your niece, why would she kill you?” Katara asks.

“Because my brother told her to.”

“Why would you brother want you dead?” Aang questions sound equally as confused.

“In the fire nation treason is death no matter who and what I did in the North and what I have been doing is treason.”

“What have you been doing,” He asked, noticing Toph is still quiet.

“Tracking you partially, but not to kill.”

“Why are you following Aang?”

He takes a deep breath, “The Blue Spirit has a habit of showing up near where you do, I have a personal interest in finding him.”

Toph becomes more fidgety with her hands when Katara talks, “Why do you want the Blue Spirit?”

“I believe him to be my nephew.” Toph is looking everywhere but the man now.

“Your nephew? Like Azula's brother,” everything Sokka knows about the Blue Spirit proves to him that the Spirit can't be fire nation royalty.

“I know it sounds crazy but I have to try. My nephew is considered dead in the fire nation but I know he is alive and the coincidences are to similar.”

“Like what?” Toph asks so quietly, the softest Sokka has ever heard her talk.

“My nephew “died” three years ago, the blue spirit appeared two months later in a small earth kingdom town, he fights with dao blades and my nephew was very proficient in the craft of the perfect blade and his mask is from a popular fire nation play, it was my nephews favorite as a child.”

The silence that follows after is heavy. It's barely anything but the man seems almost desperate to find his nephew so that Sokka pities him.

“I know it's not much and you and your friends have no reason to trust me but if you were to allow me to accompany you on your way to Oma Shu just to try I would be in your debt for a lifetime.”

“A lifetime debt? Just to help you find someone who maybe is your nephew?” Katara says confused.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but Zuko was probably my biggest. I need to apologize and any chance I have I must take it.”

Sokka can tell Aang and Katara are falling for this man's plan but Sokka's a little skeptical and the thought that he has been following them since the north makes him a little uncomfortable plus one things not adding up, “We aren't going to Oma Shu, who told you that?”

“Your friend did,” He looks at Toph who is pointedly looking at the wall next to her, “When I spoke with her earlier today.”

“Toph never said we were going to Oma Shu,” Katara says.

“What!” Toph's voice is so high pitched she actually sounds like a twelve year old little girl, “I swear you did.”

“No we didn't," Aang speaks calmly compared to Toph's obvious freaking out.

“Well that's crazy,” She sounds like she's trying to take in more air to see if that will help her lie.

“Toph, what are you hiding?” Katara accuses her.

“I’ve met the Blue Spirit and that's not your nephew I promise,” she blurts.

“How do you know that?” Iroh asks.

“Why did you lie to him?” Katara still pushes.

“You’ve met the Blue Spirit?” Sokka asks to silence the group.

She stays quiet but after a few moments silently nods.

Chapter Text

Toph never had friends growing up. Her parents refused to let her leave the house and making sure their daughter was social was not the top of their priority list. Lee is her first friend and for a long time, her only friend.

Lee is also a horrible liar. When they first met his heart was going so fast when she asked for his name and when she asked if he could bend she thought he was dying with the way his heart kept getting faster and voice had a small stutter as he told her no, (even though when Toph later touched him he felt like he was burning alive), but Toph has never had friends and Lee had no family.

They don't talk about family. They talk about fighting and Toph’s bending and he tells her stories from being the Blue Spirit. She only brings up her parents off handedly and he doesn't ask. He never brings up his family and she asked once.

She already knew he was from the Fire Nation, colonies (lie), and he was estranged from them. He told her they tried to kill him and if any of them found out that he was alive they would come back to finish the job.

So while this guy may seem nice, if what Lee said was true (and Toph always knew when he was lying) then this man has to think that his nephew is dead.

Now the chances of the dead prince of the Fire Nation being Lee is small, Toph would never forgive herself if she got her first friend killed.

“He is from the Fire Nation but the colonies,” lie, “He is half Earth, from his mothers side,” Toph has no idea if that's true, she’s never seen him before, “and his name is Lee,” lie.

“How did you meet him?” Sokka leans closer and Iroh looks a little lost in thought.

“Lee came to one of my shows and then found me after the Blue Spirit, he thought I was being trafficked to fight.”

“That's so cool!” Aang yells, “So you guys are like friends?”

“I guess.”

“So that means he is not your nephew,” Sokka asks gently to Iroh, bringing a hush to the group.

“I guess not,” he sounds disappointed, “But I will not give up hope, Zuko is alive and I will meet him again, since I have no reason to follow you. I guess this is goodbye.”

He leaves the next morning with a promise to take it easy on his injuries and the group pushes forward.

Until Appa goes missing.

Toph has never been happier than when they left the dessert. Her vision has never seemed clearer and her mode has significantly increased. The group keeps asking her about Lee and she keeps dodging where she can. They tell her about all the times they've met him which she already heard from Lee himself and new information about some spirit, past avatar, bull crap that Toph pointedly ignores. If Toph knows one thing about Lee, he hates people who ask a lot of questions and this partially group Lee would hate so maybe it's better they never meet again, but Toph would like traveling more if Lee was here.

Sokka asks the most, then Aang. Toph tries to dodge all of them and give short answers trying to get them to take a hint. Katara understood after a day and now tries to get the boys to lay off but they are both kinda dense.

They are on their way to a furry that will take them to Ba Sing Sa when Toph's wishful thinking runs out.

The minute she walked into the station she knew he was there. He walks in a way that is light and silent on his feet but Toph can feel the vibrations of his height with every step. He is talking to a couple about 20 yards from her and the group.

The farry people wont let The couple on and Lee, uncomfortable talking to people, is trying to offer to escort them on the Serpents Path. Realistically, Toph could get Aang and the siblings on the boat with her passport, but Toph also misses her friend. He would hate traveling with a group but Toph would love traveling with him.

In the end, Toph gets what she wants.

“Toph where are you going!” She starts walking towards Lee when Katara yells after her. She feels them following behind her as she navigates through the crowd towards him. She stops behind him and waits for the group to catch up. Aang told her that Lee said the next time they meet he will come with him and who is Toph to disagree with a spirit's will.

He is talking to a couple offering to take them through the path, not that he want to go but he will feel guilty if something happens to them when could've stopped it, when a rock hits the back of his head.

“What the- Toph?”

She is standing sweetly behind with her hands behind her back rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Hi Lee.”

He looks behind her and sees the Avatar and his friends. Shoot.

After breaking the Avatar out of prison he has done pretty good on avoiding him and his uncle. The closest call was in Gaolin when he visited Toph but he managed.

Now he sees a girl with brown short length hair looking confused at him, the water bender having shock on her face, the Avatar bouncing similarly to Toph on his heels. The other boy is gaping at him, mouth open, looking at his face.

He clenches his jaw, “What are you doing.”

She grins at him, “I felt you on the other side of the room talking to a couple and as we got closer realized that you were offering to transport them through the Serpent's Path and I thought maybe you could use some help.”

“No, we should be fine.”

“But come on, Aang’s the Avatar he can one hundred percent help these people,” she's baiting him.

“You're the Avatar?” The man asks.

“Yes!” Aang skips to stand by the couple, “And me and my friend would be happy to escort you.”

In the end, Toph wins. Zuko pointedly ignores looking at her but he can just feel her grin in the back of his head. He is walking ahead of everyone trying to ignore them the best he can but he can feel each one looking at him.

Suki, the one with the short hair, is one of the Kyoshi warriors. He doesn't really recognize her but he didn't spend too long on the island. She is talking to the couple trying to keep their oblivious nerves down. It's nice she is here because honestly Zuko sucks at calming people.

Katara (as he learns her name) and Aang kept attempting to speak to him. Katara, wanting to know about some of his journeys, if he is planning on coming with them, and other things while Aang excitedly catches him up on what has happened since their little prison break. Zuko doesn't talk to people that often so their questions were a little overwhelming but they both quite after Toph told them he wasn't good with people (and hit them with a rock).

The other boy, Sokka, is an ass. He keeps staring at him. When they met and even now after they left. He didn't even introduce himself to Zuko, just let his sister answer for him. He keeps taking glances at his face and logically, Zuko knows the scar is bad and always makes people stare but dang he still hasn't gotten used to it. It's like every two minutes he has to look at Zuko to make sure the scare is still there and ugly and then when Zuko catches him in the act he looks away quickly and pretends to do something else before the cycle continues.

Then they get to the Serpent’s Path.

Zuko can set his pride aside and say he wouldn't have gotten the couple across if it wasn't for Toph's friends, with them guiding them though the flooded area and fighting the serpent they helped the couple arrive safely and with as little nervous break downs from the two of them as possible which he considers a win. Also if Katara and Suki weren't here when the wife's water broke he probably would have had a breakdown.

The girls are in the hut Toph made with the couple while Aang, Sokka, and him stand outside. About three minutes into the labor Toph joins them. He stands on one side of the hut awkwardly leaning against it trying to look busy so they wont talk to him and Sokka stands on the other side trying to hide his staring again. The Avatar and Toph are standing in the middle.

“So, are you ready to come with us?” Aang says, bouncing on his feet.

He wants to say no, but he made a promise so instead he huffs out a sigh.

“You said if we see each other again that it's destiny and not a coincidence and you'll come.”

“I know, I’ll come with you guys.” A promise is a promise.

“Really!” He nods

Later after the group has taken shelter for the night and Toph bends small rocks at him when he is not looking, Katara berates her by the fire and Aang talks his ear off when he’s trying to sleep. Maybe this isn't too bad.

Sokka still an ass.