AtLA fic: Airbender's Child: Earth 8/12
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story, in fact a lot of the dialogue will probably be cadged straight from the show itself, which means I own even less.
Author's Notes: Yes, Yes I know Iroh bounces back and forth between "Prince Zuko" and just "Zuko". It's a matter of situation. Most of the time, he's formal. When Zuko needs snuggling, whether emotional or literal, he sometimes degenerates to just the name, because he's being affectionate. Okay? Logical? Please don't harangue me about it? Yes, this is much shorter, but I thought I'd reached a good, if evil, stopping point. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Things were going too well, and Zuko felt suspicious of it all. Aang had continued to pick up water apace, and after Toph's stunt with trying to get Sokka killed by sabre toothed moose lion, he'd finally found his line to understanding earth and was picking that up quickly too. More, when Sokka had declared they needed to figure out a strategy to deal with the Fire Lord, his uncle had stepped in, providing the information they needed to invade the capital. There was a solar eclipse set to happen in a couple months, which would be the perfect time to take on Ozai.
Iroh had expressed his pleased surprise at Sokka's grasp of strategy and tactics, and the two had taken to playing pai sho in the evenings as they talked sieges, attacks and enemy lines. Iroh's understanding of the deployment of Fire Nation troops, along with the information he had on the eclipse, were invaluable in coming up with a plan to bring to the various forces along the front lines.
While all this training went on, Zuko had kept busy helping Katara with running the campsites, Sokka with his blade training, Aang with his meditation in advance of teaching him firebending, getting into regular fights with Toph where they both cheerfully tried to kill each other, then made faces at Katara's back when she asked why they were so intent on it. His uncle, meanwhile, had begun to teach him the secrets to handling lightning.
"Lightning is a pure expression of firebending, without aggression. It is not fuelled by rage or emotion the way other firebending is. Some call lightning the cold-blooded fire. It is precise and deadly, like Azula. To perform the technique requires peace of mind." His uncle was sitting beside him on a rock, while Zuko listened avidly.
"Without aggression?" He asked sceptically. "Azula's nothing but aggression," Zuko objected.
His uncle smiled, wryly. "But the emotion fuelling it is not aggressive. Azula feels nothing personal in those attacks. She is aggressive because it is her natural state. It has nothing to do with her personal feelings."
Zuko opened his mouth to object, then suddenly stopped. In his mind's eye, he could see Azula, and his uncle was right. There were no feelings behind her attacks in any of her fights. Unlike himself, she never got frustrated or angry, she just . . . bended. He leaned back, frowning in thought.
Iroh continued with his lecture. "There is energy all around us. The energy is both yin and yang; positive energy and negative energy."
"Like the Water Tribes' Ocean and Moon spirits?" Zuko asked. "The whole, 'push and pull' . . . philosophy?" He recalled those two koi, one black, one white, forever circling each other in the small pond of the Spirit Oasis.
"Exactly," his uncle declared with a smile. "In waterbending the motion to take a blow converts that block into an offensive move and back again. They are one and the same motion, yet different parts of that motion achieve different purposes."
"Okay," Zuko nodded his understanding, fascinated by the way in which his uncle was describing this most advanced technique of firebending. It had been aggravating when he was a child, but now that he had more technique under his belt and a better understanding of bending as a whole, it was opening a whole new understanding of how to bend he'd never had before.
The older man continued. "Only a select few firebenders can separate these energies. This creates an imbalance. The energy wants to restore balance and in a moment the positive and negative energy come crashing back together. You provide release and guidance, creating lightning."
His uncle was, thanks to Katara's near-magical healing skills, fully well again, and he demonstrated the movements to form lightning with all the vigour he'd ever had. Zuko watched him carefully, running through the form a few times to prefect the motions before he took a deep breath and said, "I think I'm ready."
Iroh stepped back with a nod, watching attentively. Zuko took a deep breath. Peace of mind. Calm. Cool. Think of nothing but the energies. He centred himself, then began. At first, moving through the form he saw nothing, no results, but he firmly quashed his disappointment. It had taken time to perfect the rest of his bending and this was no different. Suddenly though, he had a brainwave. The pinpoint accuracy of Jeong Jeong's cauterisation technique, his own perfected control of his inner fire to create winds - if he just took those techniques, that concentration, and focussed on the pure energy of the bending . . .
Before his unbelieving eyes, a small blue-white spark crackled into existence at his fingertips. So fast he almost thought it was his imagination. Then another, and another. Soon there was crackling lightning following the motions of his hands, and Zuko felt exultation roar through him. He'd done it!
That moment of internal celebration lost him his focus, however, and suddenly it wrenched itself out of his control, hurtling through the air.
Towards his uncle.
"No!"
There was no block for lightning. No one had yet made one. His uncle didn't flinch or turn away for a moment. He moved his hands and arms in what looked like a waterbending movement (why waterbending?) and the lightning struck one hand, seemed to vanish and reappeared, flying out the other straight up into the sky.
Zuko was next to his uncle a moment later, patting him down, checking him for injury and panicking so badly he didn't even hear his uncle's reassurances that he was fine. It took the combined efforts of the whole gang, including Shuga, who kept licking him in reassurance until he was soaked, and Appa, who blocked him from doing anything stupid by threatening to sit on him, and even Momo, who sat on Zuko's head, effectively distracting him long enough for everyone else to get through to him.
Katara was forced to repeat to him until she was almost blue in the face that she'd checked Iroh over, and he was showing no signs at all of having been struck by lightning. He wasn't sure what repetition she had been on when the sense of what she was saying finally penetrated his panic-stricken mind. "You're sure?" he asked.
Her eye may have twitched in annoyance, but she remained remarkably calm when she said, "He's fine. Whatever he did to stop the lightning worked."
Finally able to look fairly objectively at his uncle, Zuko finally saw what the others had been trying to tell him. His uncle really was fine. "You really feel okay?" he asked.
"Yes, Zuko," his uncle said, gently. "I am fine. I suppose I should not have been showing off like that so soon after my last injury from lightning."
Sokka's annoyed voice cut in. "Now that you're actually paying attention, and you know he's okay, can I go back to my lunch? Seriously, L- Zuko. You have to get over this panic thing you do."
"When you get over the meat obsession."
"I'm not obsessed with meat!"
"Yes, you are," chorused the other kids.
That started the others talking and they gradually wandered off, except Katara, who had stayed to monitor Zuko's condition, since, as she put it, "You're pale, clammy and I can see your heartbeat from the fluttering vein in your neck. I'm staying here until you stop looking like you're going to pass out."
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Zuko. "Uncle, there's no block for lightning, and when Azula hit you in that deserted village you didn't . . ." he stopped, unable to bring himself to say the word. "You were just very badly hurt," he continued. "And just now, when I lost control, you . . . what did you do?"
"I redirected the lightning," Iroh told him with a smile. "I was unfortunately distracted when your sister attacked and I failed to complete the movement properly. It is a technique I developed from watching waterbenders."
"Really?" Katara said, interestedly. "Zuko redirected lava once by waterbending badly," she offered.
Iroh turned back to his nephew. "That is most interesting, Prince Zuko."
He flushed. "Fire's just heat," he offered. "So I just . . . bent the fire in the rock."
"It was really impressive," Katara said.
"And very clever to think of it," Iroh added.
Zuko, embarrassed by what felt a little unwarranted in terms of compliments, said, "So how do you redirect lightning?"
His uncle stood, gesturing as he spoke, to match his words. "If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it. You must create a pathway from your fingertips up your arm to your shoulder and down into your stomach. The stomach is the source of energy in your body. It is called the sea of chi. Only in my case, it is more like a vast ocean." He grinned, sharing his joke with them. Katara smiled back, but Zuko sighed and rolled his eyes. One thing he hadn't missed were the silly jokes at his uncle's own expense the man insisted on making.
He also didn't miss the look of commiseration his uncle and Katara shared over his refusal to find it funny.
"You direct it up again and out the other arm. The stomach detour is critical. You must not let the lightning pass through your heart or the damage could be deadly. You may wish to try a physical motion to get a feel for the pathway's flow. Like this." Iroh stood, pointing up and to the left with both arms, then took his right arm, drawing it down, across his body, tracing the path he'd described, then extending that arm out in the opposite direction.
Zuko hopped to his feet and joined his uncle, imitating the gesture. Katara watched a moment, then said, "I can't stand it!" and hopped up, not to join them, but to fuss over their technique. "You know," she commented, in between forcibly dragging their arms around to create a 'proper' fluid motion, "I've never really understood why other bending types don't replicate each other more. I saw Zuko doing his imitation of waterbending to manipulate the lava, so it's not like the techniques can't cross over."
"Well, I wouldn't want to be redirecting fire too much," Zuko said as she grabbed one arm at the wrist and pulled it through the path she wanted to follow.
"Why not?" she inquired.
Zuko sighed with relief as he finally performed the movement up to her standards and promptly sat back down. "Do you remember when I was redirecting the lava and I breathed fire?"
"Clever," his uncle commented.
"Yeah," she said. "I wondered why at the time. You didn't need to show off for anyone."
Zuko shook his head. "I wasn't showing off. Firebenders work with their own inner flames, unlike all the other elements that are working with things outside themselves. If we do too much with fire from the outside, our inner flame scorches us from the inside."
Katara's eyes were wide. "You were breathing fire because otherwise you'd burn to death?" she asked, sounding horrified.
"Yeah."
"You knew it could happen and you did it anyway?" she asked.
"Yes," Zuko said, wondering where she was going with this.
Suddenly he had an armful of waterbender, hugging him. "Thank you."
He patted her on the back, muttering that it was okay, she'd've done the same thing and then he noticed his uncle grinning at him. "Katara," he murmured. "Uncle's getting romantic notions. Please stop." She looked up to see that gleam in his uncle's eyes Zuko was starting to fear. She squeaked, backed away and ran off.
"Zuko!" said his uncle disapprovingly. "What did you say to the poor girl?"
"That you were getting ideas," he replied, a little grouchily.
His uncle sighed in disappointment and led him off to practice more with lightning. Once Zuko got the hang of it, they stopped for the day, heading back to the main camp. They'd been on the move, travelling some every couple days, in order to keep ahead of Azula. Now, however, Sokka had a specific plan. "I think we need to start getting in contact with people about the eclipse," he said. "The nearest stronghold to where we are is Ba Sing Se."
"You wish to speak to the Earth King and convince him to put troops to the invasion?" Iroh inquired.
Sokka nodded emphatically. "We need to get in to see him and start organising. We're not going to win this war if we just sit around and train."
"Fair enough," Zuko said. "We've certainly gotten a lot closer. If we cut across the Si Wong Desert here," he pointed at a section of the map, "We can save some time, too." They had been skirting the desert for days, rather than actually crossing it, but now that they had a destination, they would brave the desert as a shortcut.
There was some discussion after that, but it was agreed, and they started out the next morning, heading for the Earth Kingdom's greatest city. They were almost across the sands, the green of the land beyond the desert visible from the air, when they were attacked. A whirlwind of sand flew up, sending the surprised bisons flying off course and tumbling to the ground. Within moments they were surrounded by people in ragged, sand-coloured clothing.
Shuga was protesting loudly as she reacted to the threat by violently bending air at their attackers. They were outnumbered, but Toph was picking up how to bend sand quickly, Sokka was tearing his way through these desert people, Aang was angrily tossing them about like children's toys, and Zuko found himself fighting back-to-back with his uncle, keeping Katara safe, considering she was at such a disadvantage in the dry environment. The bisons were watching each other.
For a moment, Zuko just fought, letting battle fever carry him off. Then a scream cut through his concentration. It wasn't a human scream, it was Shuga. He whipped around to see something embedded in her tail. She was curled into a ball, desperately trying to get her teeth around the thing, and Appa was standing over her, snarling at any of the desert men who got too close. "Shuga!"
Everything went red. Zuko wasn't even sure what he'd done, only that the desert men had run off, dragging the singed bodies of their comrades with them, and he was panting, sparks flying from between his lips with every expelled breath. "Zuko!" Katara shouted. "I need you over here!"
He hurried to her side, seeing the gaping wound in Shuga's tail. "What do you need?" he asked.
Katara looked like she was trying not to cry. "I can't heal her," she said. "I've used all the water and I think I've stopped the worst of it, but I can't, and I can't stop the bleeding. I need you and Appa to keep her calm while we get this bandaged."
"Right," Zuko said, hastening to her head. "Hey, girl." He scratched at her head on the places he could reach, trying to keep her calm. Appa joined him, rumbling encouragingly at her. Shuga shifted a few times, clearly in a lot of pain, and Zuko buried his head in her fur to hide his tears. She was hurt because she'd been travelling with him.
When Katara finished, Shuga seemed to relax a little, nuzzling the girl when she came around to apologise for not healing the bison more. "You have done the best you could," Iroh assured her.
"I know. I just . . . I don't know enough about bisons," Katara said miserably. "I'm not even sure I healed everything right."
Aang, who had been consulting with Sokka, said, "Then Sokka, Appa and I are going to go looking for the Ba Sing Se enclave. We need help, and they're the best ones to give it."
"Okay," Katara said, sounding a little shaky. "We'll follow on foot, you guys just give us a decent heading to follow to get out of the desert."
It was decided, and the two boys climbed onto Appa, who reluctantly left Shuga after much nuzzling and rumbling, and hurried off to find help. Zuko looked back at the others and suddenly felt everything catch up to him. "We should probably just settle in for the day," he said. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired, and we should probably wait until the worst of the heat is over before trying to walk anywhere."
They all agreed, and curled up together against Shuga for shade. Then they waited.
Prologue Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12
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