The following is a fanbased work of fiction. Avatar the Last Airbender is the property of Viacom, Nickelodeon, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Koniezko. Please support the official release.
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General Fong could not have been a happier man.
Sitting on the table in front of him was a letter, bearing the seal of the Fire Nation's Royal Family. The hawk that had been carrying this letter was trapped in a cage behind the general, having given him a very surly look as he had walked in the door.
Very intelligent animals, hawks. Fire Nation hawks, especially.
The General sat at the table, and rubbed his hands together. "This has been verified?"
The sergeant on duty nodded. "Yes, sir. That letter bears the royal seal and was on it's way to Prince Zuko."
"He was the one sent on the hunt for the Avatar," General Fong reminded the sergeant. "So whatever is on this letter has to be really, really good."
"As you say, sir," The sergeant replied.
General Fong gestured and a pair of serviceman came forward, carefully undoing the seal for the letter in case they needed to send the letter ahead for whatever reason. With the letter open, the General giddily started reading.
It was not often a hawk bearing communications of this magnitude was captured. In fact, General Fong could say that this was the first time he had ever seen it done. He could not wait to send out messages to the other generals.
What could the letter contain? Was the Prince being recalled to partake in some other military operation? Was he being given directives on where to carry out his search? Perhaps his sister was being sent out to assist in the hunt?
But General Fong found nothing of the sort on this letter. He read it again, and his giddy expression was swiftly changed to pensive reflection. He stroked his beard as he contemplated his next move.
"Sir?" The sergeant asked.
"Close the letter and send it on it's way," General Fong ordered. "There is nothing of military significance on it."
"Yes sir," The Sergeant responded with a bow.
"I want that hawk to be well fed and rested before it continues on it's mission in the morning," General Fong continued.
"Yes sir."
General Fong took a piece of paper out from under the table, grabbing the brush and ink pot and begun composing a letter to the other Earth Kingdom generals.
Fire Nation Royal Communication intercepted, The General wrote. Simply the Prince's sister asking him to complete his mission and return home. Only thing of interest is that Queen Ursa has been located, but we have found nothing to ascertain her location. Message has been sent forward. General Fong.
---
"We need to stop by Gaipan to get some more supplies," Sokka said, pointing at the town on the map.
"Sokka, we just restocked on everything in the Pier," Katara protested with a frown.
"Yeah, but then we picked up a new mouth to feed," Sokka replied, pointing his thumb at Zuko. "So we'll need a few extra packs."
"I appreciate that," Zuko replied idly. "But that town is under Fire Nation occupation. So if you want to go in, that's fine, but wear disguises. And I'm not going with you."
"You're not?" Katara asked.
"We do not want him to be recognized," Sokka deadpanned.
"Oh, well, then I guess I shouldn't go either," Aang replied, pointing to the blue arrow on his head. "Zuko could've gotten that scar anywhere, but there's only one person with these kind of tattoos."
"Sounds like a great excuse for more breathing exercises," Zuko said with a small smirk.
"Aw, come on, Sifu Zuko!" Aang whined. "We've been doing breathing exercises for days! Can't I bend fire? Just a little bit? Please?"
"Have you mastered Water and Earth?"
Aang folded his arms with an annoyed and surly expression. "No."
"There's your answer."
---
The bison flew relatively quickly when it wanted too. Zuko noted that Aang's irritation was causing him to push Appa harder than normal and it seemed too get worse with every single day.
It seemed that the perpetually free nomad did not like being told he couldn't do something.
But as they got closer to Gaipan's location on the map, Zuko immediately felt like something was wrong. Down below on the ground was a river, and a pretty large one at that, but it was only sliding along at an easy pace.
"Wait, did we miss the village?" Sokka asked with a frown, looking at the map. "It says that it's just outside of a lake, so maybe it's down stream."
Zuko looked down at the map. "Yeah, but the lakes on a cliff, so we just need to look for a dam and we'll find it."
Katara made a shocked sound, pointing. "You mean a cliff like that?"
Sokka looked at where she was pointing. "Yeah, just like that, except...there'd be...a dam..."
Slowly, all of Appa's passengers caught sight of the burnt wooden debris along both shores of the river, violently strewn about as if they had been caught in an explosion. They followed the water a little ways down and saw yet another place where wooden debris was strewn about. It looked similar, except all the wood looked like it had been blasted downstream.
"Aang, I think that was Gaipan," Sokka said.
"What?" Katara cried.
"I'll take us down," Aang said. "Maybe we can find survivors."
Zuko thought that was optimistically naive.
On the ground, their look of the situation only got worse. Instead of it just being wooden debris, there were bodies. Two, in particular, and only torsos clad in scarlet armor, as they had been stuck on the rocks that stuck up out of the water.
"The dam broke," Sokka said hollowly.
Katara gasped, her hands on her mouth.
"No!" Aang shouted, falling to his knees.
Zuko frowned and started examining his surroundings. Off in the distance, he saw a figure. "I see someone, over there."
"Maybe he knows what happened," Katara said.
"Maybe he's a survivor!" Aang said, getting on his glider and flying off toward him.
Sokka and Katara ran off after him, while Zuko walked, taking one more glance at the bodies stuck on the rocks, frowning deeply as he made his way there.
---
Aang brought himself in for a landing to look at the survivor. The survivor's eyes matched his and Aang felt a shiver run up and down his spine like a chill-wind.
He was obviously around Sokka's age, maybe a little older, but it was hard to tell. His right eye was swollen and black, as was his jaw, which was surrounded by dried blood that had leaked out of the sides. One of his arm, which was clearly broken given how red it was, was wrapped around his stomach with a hastily improvised sling. The other arm held a shovel, which he was using to pat down the dirt on a freshly filled grave. His voice was rough and quiet as he forced words through a mouth that would barely open. "Who are you?"
"I'm Aang," Aang replied, pointing to himself. "I'm the Avatar. How can I help?"
The survivor let out a low, guttural growl and went back to his work. "You can't."
"Wow, you are really banged up," Sokka said as he finally caught up. "You should take a rest and tell us what happened here."
"It'd give us a chance to help with those injuries," Katara pointed out.
The survivor groaned. "Alright, fine. I guess I could take a break."
"Great!" Aang said.
"I'm Katara, by the way," Katara introduced herself with a hand on her chest. "This is my brother Sokka and this is..."
"Lee," Zuko said quickly, interrupting her. "And you are?"
"Jet," He finally said, hefting his shovel beneath his shoulder as an improvised crutch as he started limping toward the tree-line on his good leg. "Come on."
---
"You know, I heard from my Uncle that Waterbender's can all heal with their bending," Zuko said conversationally.
The five of them, including Jet, were all now sitting around a fire. Jet's camp was, well, quite sparse, with only a bedroll on the ground to sleep on.
"Wait, really?" Katara asked with interest. "I've never heard that."
"It's part of why the Fire Nation hasn't been able to take the North Pole," Zuko confirmed with a nod. "If you can't take the entire squad out, they'll just heal up and then come at you fresh. The Water Tribe always wins attrition."
"That, and all the ice and snow stops them in their tracks," Sokka pointed out. "Firebender's always lose a good snowball fight."
In spite of Zuko's best efforts, that got a chortle out of him. Katara and Aang also laughed, but Jet stayed silent, haunted eyes staring into the fire.
"So, you think I should try too..." Katara started, pointing at Jet.
"If you think you can do it," Zuko said. "I mean, putting a little water on a wound never hurt, did it?"
"Alright, uh..." Katara started. "Jet, can I…?"
Jet was unresponsive.
After a moment of hesitation, Katara put her hands down near her water pouch and, gingerly withdrew a stream of water. With a smooth, even caress of her hands, the stream moved onto Jet's leg, who started and almost fell over, only to be caught by Zuko.
"What are you doing?" Jet demanded.
"We're checking to see if Katara can bend your injuries away," Zuko replied.
Jet groaned. "Fine. Just ask first."
"We did," Sokka pointed out.
Jet growled but said nothing further.
Katara licked her lips and started again, pulling the water out of Jet's pant-leg and applying it, trying to get something, anything to start working. But as she focused on the water, something came to her attention. Through the water, she could feel something like rivers flowing through his leg. It felt like water, but also, not. But the flow in his leg had nearly been stopped, like the channel had been bent. So it was almost instinctual when Katara pushed her own chi through the water to the channel and set it right.
Everyone's eyes went wide as they watched the water glow blue and then...stop.
"How do you feel?" Katara asked.
Jet slowly extended the leg with wonderment. "It feels...better."
"Did you just get that on the first try?" Sokka asked with a shocked expression.
"Yeah," Katara replied with a shocked and almost giddy voice. "I did! I did it! First try!"
"How did you learn how to do that?" Sokka asked, completely nonplussed.
"I guess I," Katara started, sounding a little embarrassed. "Always knew?"
"You always knew?" Sokka repeated. "Where were your magical healing powers when I fell into the greaseberry bramble! Or that time when I got two fishhooks in my thumb?"
"Can you two bicker later?" Zuko asked with a raised eyebrow. "Katara still has a patient."
"Sorry," Katara said, bringing her water back up.
After nearly an hour of work, going over Jet's many injuries, gradually, the young man was restored to perfect health and in Katara's opinion, he had a very handsome face. Did the fire somehow make his face more mysterious, or was that just her?
Jet stretched out his mouth after Katara was done. "Finally, I can talk!"
"So what happened?" Aang asked.
Jet let out a breath. "The dam broke. Washed away the town and took everyone with it, Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom."
He started looking into the fire again. "...greatest tragedy I've ever seen."
"But you still got caught in the river though, right?" Sokka asked with an analytical expression. "That's why you got so banged up."
"Yeah," Jet nodded. "My friends all...left, after the dam broke so now it's just me. Burying the bodies of the Earth Kingdom."
"You lost your friends too?" Katara asked with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"No, they weren't in the town when the dam broke," Jet replied. "They just left."
"Oh."
"They left you like that?" Sokka asked. "Some friends."
"Yeah, I sure know how to pick them," Jet replied with a grumble. "Not that I blame them, in all honesty."
"Why not?" Sokka asked.
"We weren't just friends, we were freedom fighters," Jet replied. "We'd been fighting to get this valley free from the fire nation for a while now. When the Dam broke, their reason to fight, well, died."
"I can see that," Zuko said. "Everything you were striving for goes up in smoke and suddenly you don't want to do anything anymore."
Jet was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Exactly."
---
"Do you need anything?" Katara asked.
"No," Jet shook his head. "It's been nice talking to you, but like your brother said, you got to go."
"Alright, well, maybe we'll see each other again," Katara said. "You know, after-"
"Katara!" Sokka shouted from Appa's back. "Come on!"
"I'll be fine," Jet said with a smile. "You guys get to the north pole, alright?"
"We will!" Katara said, jumping up Appa.
"See you, Jet!" Aang said with a wave. "Appa, yip yip!"
As the bison rose into the air, Jet let out a sigh of relief, allowing himself to fall into his thoughts.
It was fortunate that the Avatar was on such a tight schedule, or he might've started poking into what had happened. He didn't need that headache right now.
Jet knelt down and picked up his shovel, moving to the shore. On the shore was a line of bodies, bodies that had to be dragged from the shore and partially reassembled, but bodies that Jet had wrapped in cloth and tarp from the towns wreckage.
The young man started to dig, the wet earth proving easy to move, cutting an already all day affair down to the entire morning and part of the afternoon.
He set his shovel down and picked up one of the bodies, the small wrap hiding the smashed body of a child that couldn't be any more than seven.
Smellerbee was right; he was a monster.
And this body proved it.
As he held this tiny body in his arms, he knelt beside the grave he had dug with tears in his eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
---
Commander Zhao was starting to rage.
This river had not been here a week ago. It wasn't on any maps and it certainly hadn't connected to the ocean so his steam-powered dingy could swim up.
He had been sent by his Admiral, the man who Zhao would be replacing thanks to his well earned retirement, to check on the town. There was supposed to be a shipment of supplies arriving to Port Rozu to support the invasion. The port was a days travel, so a delay was looking more and more unlikely. What's more, the Avatar's bison had been spotted in this area which put the men in this region in a very precarious situation.
Zhao's worst suspicions were confirmed when he came to a pair of fire nation suits of armor caught on the rocks.
"Move the ship ashore," Zhao ordered. "And fish those armors out of the water."
"Yes sir."
The craft hit the beach and the small crew disembarked. The crimson suits of armor were just torsos, the soldiers having been dashed to pieces on the rocks. All around them were pieces of wood, thrown and embedded in the sand by some great impact. Zhao's eyes followed the river up and saw a great chasm, two cliff-sides facing each other and on either side, was more wood.
Zhao's frown devolved into a snarl. "Yeoman, come with me. The rest of you, start fishing Fire Nation bodies out of the river and construct a funeral pyre."
"Yes, sir."
Zhao and the Yeoman, a young man with a long, black mustache, walked up the river. As they grew closer, the Commander's eyes scanned every piece of blackened wood that was sticking up out of the sand, every splinter he could see.
"There was a dam here," Zhao pointed out as they came to cavern. He knelt down and picked up a splinter of wood, the front and sides charred from a blast of some kind.
"Do you think this was the Avatar, sir?" The Yeoman asked.
"No. The black, charred marks on the wood tell me that this dam was destroyed by blasting jelly," Zhao responded. "There were civilians in that town and the Avatar is a pacifist."
The Yeoman blinked in surprise, but didn't question it. He had long since gotten used to Zhao saying things that defied what they had learned as children in school...only for the Commander to be correct and for his school teachers to have been ignorant fools.
"But the Water Tribals?" Zhao asked with a deep frown. "I could see them doing this. Setting up explosives on the dam while the Avatar was away and then rigging them to detonate after they left. They have no reason to care for the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation is the enemy. Destroy the outpost of an enemy with very minor collateral damage, it's almost genius really."
"But sir, you hate civilian casualties," The Yeoman pointed out.
"In some situations, yes," Zhao slowly nodded, still looking at the wreckage. "If civilians are dying, that's a workforce going down the drain and makes holding onto the captured territory harder. But if you're not trying to keep anything? Then a scorched earth strategy is perfectly acceptable."
The commander looked down at the mud that stained his boots and stuck to his heel. "Or, in this case, drowned earth."
"Of course, sir," The Yeoman agreed.
"Wasn't it a shipment of blasting jelly that was being routed through Gaipan?" Zhao asked with a frown.
"Yes sir," The Yeoman nodded.
Zhao grunted. "Then we've found where it went."
The Yeoman looked up at the tattered remains of the dam in silence.
"Those tribals are starting to vex me," Zhao seethed, turning on his heel and moving back to the ship.
The Yeoman, naturally followed him. "Sir? How do you know that the Avatar is a pacifist?"
"Because all of the Air Nomad's were pacifists," Zhao replied without breaking stride or even looking at him. "They didn't even have an army."
"How do you know that?" The Yeoman asked before he could stop himself.
"I am a very well-read man, Yeoman."
The Commander was always right.
The sailors had assembled a hasty funeral pyre and had begun fishing whatever shattered and broken bodies wearing red they could out of the water. After two hours of this, they could not wait any longer to return to their post, and Zhao hoped that the spirits of the dead soldiers would understand that they were only able to get half of the platoon.
The bodies were burnt, the smell raking Zhao's nose and singing the hairs within. He found himself absentmindedly grinding his teeth and clenching his fists.
These men would have justice.
Once they were done, they climbed back onto the ship and sailed off. On the shore, Zhao saw a young man come out from the trees, shovel in hand. He was digging a series of graves along the shore, only for him to stop and meet the Commander's eyes.
Even from here, he could see that the eyes staring back at him belonged to a dead man.
"Commander, do you have orders?" One of the men asked. "Do you want us to go ashore and apprehend him?"
No matter the nation, it was important to show the proper due to the dead. Made movements through captured territory easier. Still, he couldn't fault his men's zeal.
"Leave the boy to his work."
---
"So, how did you do that?" Zuko asked with interest. "How do you heal?"
They were all sitting around a table in the upper common room of an inn that Zuko was able to simply pay for out of pocket.
"I kind of just did it," Katara replied.
"But what's the process?" Zuko pressed. "What does it feel like?"
The three of them noted that there seemed to be a fire in the Prince's eyes that wasn't normally present. A fire and intensity that had almost seemed dead when they had first met him back in the Pirate's ship.
It was almost like this was the first time any of them had truly seen him alive.
"Well," Katara started. "I put the water on someone and then I get...a connection. I can feel the way their chi is flowing, I think. Like, when I was setting Jet's leg, the chi flow was all wrong, like it was completely dammed up. So I set the flow back to where it was supposed to go."
"You pushed the bone back into place using his own chi?" Zuko asked with a blink.
"Yeah, actually!" Katara nodded with a huge smile. "I gave his chi a better way to flow and his body kind of just fixed itself."
Zuko stopped. "So you forced his chi to flow properly for a second."
"I wouldn't say forced," Katara argued. "More like I...guided it. Using water as the medium."
Zuko fell quiet, cupping his mouth and lips with his fingers as the fire in his eyes disappeared as he retreated into his own mind. She guided it.
Katara made to reach across the table, but she was gently stopped by Sokka, who simply shook his head. "Let him think."
"Yeah, he's good at that," Aang said with a frown.
"Aang, I know you're frustrated that you haven't really been firebending," Katara began. "But it's just until you've mastered Water and Earth. I really think Zuko has a point about wanting you to do them in order."
"But all this time I could be learning Fire and I could be ready weeks or even months before the comet comes," Aang said. "It takes years to master even one element, what if by the time I've mastered Water and Earth, it's too late and the Comet's already here?"
"It could be worse," Sokka pointed out. "You could be at this point and not have a master at all."
Guided it. Why does that sound familiar?
"I know," Aang groaned in frustration. "But...still. I can't save the world if I don't master all the elements, so I feel like he's just stalling."
"It seems like a good idea to wait until you can be trusted to not burn a forest down," Sokka replied.
"I'm not going to burn down a forest," Aang protested with a pout.
Sokka hummed with doubt, folding his arms and leaning away with a small shake of his head.
"Sokka, enough," Katara stated with finality. "Aang, Zuko said he doesn't want to teach you real Fire Bending until you've mastered Water and Earth but I think he just wants to make sure you're disciplined enough to not cause problems, so if you prove you're really disciplined then..."
"Then he'll teach me Firebending!" Aang said with a huge smile. "Thanks, Katara! You're the best!"
Well, she's right, but Aang's got a long way to go, Zuko thought...anyway, guided. Guided. Guided...guided. Oh, that's bugging me. Where have I heard that before?
It was then that lightning metaphorically struck.
When you bend the lighting, you do not control it. You are merely it's humble guide.
Zuko's hands fell to his lap.
Water and Lighting act similarly. That's why Uncle was able to develop the technique to redirect lighting by watching Waterbenders. So when I'm firebending with Water forms, I need to treat that fire like it's lightning. Only instead of killing myself if I make a mistake, the fire dies.
"I got it!" Zuko threw his hands into the air in celebration.
The three looked at each other, then at him.
"Got what?" Katara asked curiously.
"I'll show you tomorrow," Zuko said, standing up. "I'm going to bed. Also, Aang? Fastest way to prove you've got discipline is by mastering Water and Earth. Good night."
---
Author's Note: I apologize that this is so long in coming.
I am not back, but I had some chapters, as some of you already know, on the backlog. Sadly, I burnt out on writing. I haven't been able to so much as write a word until about a week ago. I apologize for keeping you all in the dark regarding this, I just wanted to spend some time recovering the will to write. I could barely go on the websites themselves.
I do want to say that I appreciate everyone's well wishes and concerned PM's. Thank you all. I understand that given current events it was a really bad time for me to go dark but...that's how the dice rolled.
Updates are going to be sparse once I've gone through the backlog. It will be a while before I can return to my weekly schedule, if that ever happens again. I just needed and still need a break. Thank you all for your patience and I hope you're doing well in these troubled times.
Have a cookie.
Shout out too Melden V, Anders Kronquist, Ray Tony Song, Volkogluk, Aaron Bjornson, iolande, Martin Auguado, Julio, Hackerham, Tim Collins-Squire, Maben00, Ventari, PbookR, Seij, ChristobalAlvarez, Apperatus, EPiCJB19, Seeking Raven, Handwran and Russel Beatrous. Thank you all for your continued support!
Until the next time!
~Fulcon
