AtLA fic: Airbender's Child: Fire 10/15
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: I want you to know I will be up all night finishing my work for the day because of this. Oh yes, I'm telling you all now, I happen to love the Lion Turtle. I can see why people think it's a cop-out, but I have certain biases about turtles that mean I am for them generally. I say, if a super-spirit-turtle tells Aang something, Aang should listen. But that's neither here nor there with this. I think the ending here is a little bit abrupt, but it's kind of where I want it to be. Also, the thing about where the Ember Island Players got their information from at the end of this? Totally my working theory about the play in both canon and this fic.
Zuko spent a good half hour reading the riot act to Appa about have gotten Shuga knocked up at such a dangerous time. After about ten minutes he heard Aang and Katara muttering together about how adorable sky bisons were and how babies were a source of light and hope in dark times.
He ignored them loftily and continued with his rant.
Twenty minutes in and Toph and Sokka were sitting together, laughing at his distress, while Katara and Aang were discussing the logistics of Appa parenting his children while Shuga would be earthbound at the nearest enclave they could find.
He continued, determined to impress upon Appa that what the bisons had done was wrong.
At the end of the half hour, Suki showed up, took one look at him, and asked, "What are you? Shuga's father?" When he turned to glare around at them all impartially, she added, "Are you pouting?"
He actually was, too. That was so embarrassing that Zuko just stomped off in a huff as a bid to save his dignity. Not that it worked, since he could hear the others laughing at him all the way to his room. As he lay on his bed, feeling his heart sink and knowing that Shuga was leaving him, he saw her head through his window. She rumbled inquiringly.
"Go away," he groused. "I know you're just . . . you're going to go and raise your babies and I'll never see you again because you'll be too busy with the little Appas to spend any time with me."
Agilely, she stuck her tongue through the window and managed to lick him. Then glared and rumbled in the demanding way that meant she wanted him outside, now.
"You can't make me," he told her.
"No," Aang said, "But I can."
"Aang-"
"No." Aang said. "Listen. I know that you're hurt, and that you don't want Shuga to go. She's your friend, I get that. But things change. If there's one thing all this has taught me, it's that things change."
Zuko sighed. "I'm sorry about before, Aang. I didn't mean to belittle what you've gone through. I can't imagine what it must be like to wake up and discover you've just missed a hundred years."
The airbender sat on the edge of his bed. "It's okay. I mean, at least I know everything I remember was real. You're still trying to figure out what actually happened."
Swinging his legs around, Zuko joined Aang on the side of the bed. "I can't remember what happened, just that . . . I just remember that Shuga was the only friend I had for so long, I don't know what I'll do when she's back with whichever enclave we take her to before the eclipse."
"I'd been hoping not to think about it," Aang admitted.
"I can imagine," Zuko said sympathetically. "Killing is never easy."
Eyes wide, Aang suddenly stared at him. "Killing? What are you talking about?"
The prince raised an eyebrow at the boy. "Uh . . . my father? Fire Lord Ozai? The man planning to take over the world by fire and force ring any bells?"
"But," Aang said, looking worried, "I just thought we'd . . . I dunno, capture him and put him in prison or something. Kill him?"
A sudden headache threatening, Zuko said, "Aang, we can't leave him alive to cause trouble. He's a very powerful bender, and there are a lot of people in the Fire Nation would rally behind the cause of the imprisoned rightful ruler." Aang shook his head stubbornly, and Zuko continued. "Think about it. With him as a focus, it wouldn't matter what we told people, they would ignore that and focus on the fact that a bunch of foreigners and the former prince had invaded and deposed their king."
"But, he's doing bad things," Aang protested. "If we just explained to everyone-"
Zuko interrupted. "Told them that everything they've been raised to believe is a lie? Tell them that the people they believe to be savages and monsters, the people who they've repeatedly been told are trying to destroy them and their way of life have chosen their king for them? Tell them that the man who has sat on the throne and made sure to protect them from the invading forces of the animals from the Water Tribes and the barbarians from the Earth Kingdom is now being imprisoned by those same savages? Tell me Aang, who is going to listen to any explanations you want to make?"
Aang flinched. "They really believe that?"
"Yes," Zuko said firmly. "As long as there is a rallying point, they will ignore anything we do or say. And there's going to be a mess to sort out once the war is over too. It'll be years before the Fire Nation has anything close to its current prosperity."
The Avatar shook his head. "I can't believe," he started. Then he stopped and sighed. "I guess I can. The things they teach in the schools . . . they're all like that, aren't they?"
Zuko nodded, then frowned. "How do you know about what they teach in the common schools?"
That led to Aang cheerfully telling him a story about being caught and forced to attend school because he'd been mistaken for one of the students. He'd just gotten to the part about Sokka and Katara having to pretend to be his parents when Toph joined up and declared, "Yeah. And Sokka and Katara told everyone their names were Wang and Sapphire Fire."
It took a moment for Zuko to process this, and then he was on the floor, howling with laughter. The sound brought in the others. By then, Toph and Aang were looking a little baffled at their friend's hysterics. "What's so funny?" demanded Sokka.
"You . . . Katara . . . Wang and Sapphire Fire!" Zuko managed to get out between bouts of laughter. He took a deep breath, controlling himself and said, "There's a popular set of scrolls out there in the Fire Nation. They're very . . . explicit. It's about a married couple and they're named . . . well . . . And there are some really . . . with the . . . pictures . . ." He burst into a fresh round of laughter.
Suki looked at Sokka. A grin began to play around her lips. "Wang Fire, huh? I wonder how many girls are aware of how your 'wang' does . . . fire." She joined Zuko in his hysterics on the floor.
The siblings both turned bright red and stomped off muttering, while Aang blushed and fled, most likely to Appa. Toph stuck around, grinning at them. "So Suki, does Sokka's wang fire?"
That stopped Suki cold. "I . . . uh . . ."
Toph wasn't done yet either. "The real question is whether Katara's gotten around to testing Zuko's . . . firing capabilities."
Zuko and Suki shared a look, and sprang at Toph. Together they picked her up and carted her off down the beach and tossed her into the water. "I was wondering," Zuko asked her, "I haven't had a good chance to practice recently. Would you like to spar?" He plucked his swords off his back where he now kept them all the time.
"Sounds like a plan," Suki told him, and they marched off, ignoring Toph's sputtered threats.
The sparring was fun, and Katara joined Zuko in his bed that night. She even let him tempt her into a few kisses, but she snuggled down and refused any more after that. He wryly admitted that, if she wasn't ready to go any further, it was for the best neither of them got worked up to begin with. He still woke up the next morning rather worked up, but he wouldn't trade that for anything.
The next afternoon, he was teaching Aang, Katara was watching (and he hoped she was leering at him, because if she was leering at Aang, he'd have a lot to say on the matter), Toph was stomping about, muttering about sand, bending and blurry things were and Suki and Sokka were doing something. Zuko really didn't want to know what. He was even less happy about it when they showed up cheerfully waving a poster around.
Zuko made a face. "My Mother used to take us to see them. They butchered 'Love Amongst the Dragons' every year."
That got everyone's attention. "Sokka, do you really think it's a good idea for us to attend a play about ourselves ?" Katara asked.
Sokka turned to Zuko. "Are you . . . I mean, would it upset you if we went?"
"Only inasmuch as they're a terrible company of players," Zuko told him.
That just perked Sokka right back up again. "Come on, a day at the theatre . This is the kind of wacky time-wasting nonsense I've been missing."
And it was decided.
They settled into the theatre and Zuko decided that, if the Ember Island Players lived up to everything he remembered about them, he was going to try to talk Katara into necking with him in the dark instead of watching. To that precise purpose, he deliberately tried to steer her to the back and into a corner. It didn't work.
The play started and the onstage Katara wore a fascinating parody of traditional Water Tribe wear that involved a low-cut top and thigh-high slits in the skirt. "I do not sound like that," Katara grumbled in response to the onstage version of her's speechifying.
Zuko glanced at the woman - women, actually, now that the 'Avatar' had joined in the show - onstage, and told her, "Don't worry about it. Although I'd bet you'd look better in her costume than she does."
She shot him a look. "Am I supposed to be flattered?"
"Yes?" Zuko replied. "Ow," he added as she hit him.
Zuko watched until all of a sudden, a parody of him stood in the prow of a ship, declaiming on the need to capture the Avatar to reclaim his honour. He turned to Katara, asking quietly, "Did that happen? At all?"
"No," she muttered back. "I mean, they sort of got the part at the beginning right, I mean, where I accidentally found Aang, but the other stuff, no. "
"She always does this," moaned Sokka. "It's how we found Aang. She made the glacier explode and just decided to rescue the weird guy with the tattoos who showed up in a big glowy ball of ice."
"Seriously?" Zuko asked.
"If my sister weren't crazy, the avatar would still be locked up in a glacier," Sokka affirmed.
Zuko hissed as a raft of memories wrenched themselves into place in his head. Katara and Aang both looked at him in concern. "Are you okay?" they chorused quietly.
"Yeah," Zuko murmured back. "I just . . . I think the play's helping me remember. Sort of."
Immediately a soft glow erupted around Katara's hand and she slipped it up to rest on the back of his neck. "Better?"
"Yeah," Zuko told her, smiling a little.
Sokka's outraged voice hissed from behind them, "Katara! Do you want to get us caught?"
She stopped. "Thanks," Zuko leaned back to tell Sokka. "Now she's been told without being mad at me."
Katara hit him, somehow managed to whack Sokka on the shin too, and then pouted as Suki and Aang snickered.
The incident with the pirates happened and Sokka, Katara and Aang all expressed confusion and disbelief about it. "Where's Zhao?" Sokka groused. "He was the one following us."
Zuko glanced at his girlfriend who had suddenly quietened down. "Maybe whoever gave them the information was trying to make Zuko seem faithful to the Fire Nation for some reason," she said.
"Propaganda," Zuko added, nodding as it suddenly made sense. "I don't know yet what they're doing, but I have a feeling this is partly to paint me in a particular light."
"Is this more of your big picture, fancy-pants, rich people, boring stuff?" Sokka asked.
Rolling their eyes, Katara and Zuko quietly chorused, "Yes," just in time to watch Stage Katara's dramatic scene with Stage Jet. The flooded village that had never actually happened was treated as a testament to the carelessness, stupidity and general badness of the Avatar and friends.
They ranged back and forth, Zuko managing to get Jet to lose one of his hooked swords, so they were both working with half a set. Then Zuko stumbled on a stone, Jet got in a lucky strike that sent Zuko stumbling back, accidentally kicking his own fallen blade over the edge of the cliff.
If the swords hadn't been so important to him, if they'd been just another set of weapons, Zuko wouldn't have done it. If it hadn't been such a sore point with him all the things his own family had done to the world, he wouldn't have done it. If he hadn't spent the last day being shunned on Jet's orders he wouldn't have done it. It was one thing too many, though, and Zuko whipped around, the form of his roundhouse kick perfect, and sent an arc of fire into the other teen.
Zuko felt himself lurch again. The missing memories placing themselves back in their proper places like one of his uncle's pai sho games. Gaps were filled, rearranged, and suddenly he could see the pattern of those memories laid out. Whereas before he'd been having to work through his memories of Sokka to figure out what must have been happening at any given time, now he could recall the timeline.
During the scenes at the Northern Tribe, however, he was forced to clap both hands over his mouth and rush from the theatre. Down the hall and outside, he was on his knees, clutching at his head, feeling the sensation of the fire against his skin all over again.
When he finally no longer felt like he was dying, Zuko found his head in Katara's lap, Sokka hastily explaining to all and sundry that his poor friend suffered from a terrible illness that gave him painful fits and Suki and Aang were trying to wave people off. It worked and Zuko managed to pull away and lean his back against the wall. "I'm sorry," he said to them. "I just . . . I remembered, at the Northern Tribe, my face . . ." He trailed off.
Sokka was on his knees beside Zuko a moment later. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously. "I mean, I remember you screaming when Zhao dragged you into the Oasis. If that was anything close to that, I can't even imagine how bad this had to have been."
Zuko smiled at the best friend he'd ever had. "I'm okay now. I think we'd better go back in," he told them. "I don't know how or why this is working, and I don't care. It's clearing up a lot of things. Like the enclave at the Northern Tribe."
Aang smiled a little tremulously. "Do you think they'll like me a little better now that I get why they don't remember any Nomad traditions?" Aang asked.
"I think the girls would love to have someone teach them bending," Zuko said, sighing. "Of all the things they had to pick up from the Tribe, they had to pick up that silly prohibition against girls fighting."
Suki's eyes went wide. "Prohibition against girls fighting?" She turned to Sokka. "Is this why you were such a jerk when we met?"
Katara took his arm, giving him a little support without it looking like she was doing it, while Aang took Zuko's other side, giving him another subtle bit of support. They followed Sokka back in, watching him be harangued by Suki and Toph the whole way. They got back to their seats just in time for the start of the next act.
"What about Omashu?" grumbled Sokka, "I was brilliant."
In spite of his headache, Zuko snickered. "That was fun."
Aang smiled hesitantly. "It was kind of neat."
"Boys," Katara muttered.
Suki and Toph turned to look at them. Well, Suki turned and looked, Toph just turned. "What are you talking about?"
"Pentapox," Zuko chorused with Sokka. "Shang's mother was the most annoyed shambling dead person I could ever imagine."
"Really?" Sokka asked.
"Mm-hmm. Probably the only one to ever mutter she was going to box everyone ears."
Sokka grinned back at him while Katara made more disgusted noises.
"This you gotta tell me," Toph said.
Then their attention was pulled to the stage where a hulking great man stood, apparently filling in for Toph's role. "My name is Toph because it sounds like tough. And that's just what I am," declared Stage Toph.
"I bet he smells as bad as you do, Flower Petal," Zuko told her. "Actually, now that I'm thinking of it, was that how you beat the Boulder? You stank him into submission?"
"When we're back outside I'm gonna beat you so hard," Toph snapped back, "Your grandkid's'll feel it, Weepy."
"Bring it on girly-girl," Zuko muttered back.
Katara tried to mock Toph's actor, but, as Zuko had thought, the earthbender thought it was the best casting ever.
Even as the action on stage seemed to only partially follow what had actually happened, Zuko felt his memories returning. The meetings with his sister and mother reclaimed their space, pushing away his false memories of empty days in the palace, endless daily cycles of waking, training and failing to improve, constant belittlement from his father and the pervasive loneliness of it all.
Now memories of Sokka, Katara, Aang and Toph supporting him as his mother tried to make him feel like a monster all over again. The warmth he'd felt when Katara had threatened Aiko if she so much as looked at him wrongly. All those hours, days and weeks of friendship, support and confidence made those false memories disappear like the nightmares they were.
The scene in the cavern made him cringe though. That was what had happened in a way. Katara had been looking at him, happy to see him, expecting his support and help. After everything she and the others had done for him, all the things he could now remember, he had turned on them and helped the sister who had never done anything for him but mock him, lie to him and try to make him into less than he was.
The curtain came down, and he took himself and his headache out of the theatre to get some air. As he sat there, Suki joined him. "You smell? They really don't think much of your language skills, do they?"
"Ha. Ha."
Sokka leaned against the wall on his other side. "You're not really impressing me with your skills of elocution right now."
"Why would I try?" Zuko asked, shooting a weak grin at his friend. "I'm not sure you'd understand all the big words as it is."
Sokka's eyes narrowed. "I'm going to show you how much I understand later. Me and my space sword'll be showing you that."
"Hey," Toph said, arms crossed over her chest. "I get first dibs on Weepy here."
"No fair," Sokka whined. "You guys're always exhausted when you're done trying to kill each other. I wanna fair turn."
Suki looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Are you whining?"
"No," pouted Sokka.
"Yes," Toph and Zuko denied at the same time.
Suddenly Sokka perked up. He turned to Suki. "Suki, what are the chances you can get me backstage ? I got some jokes I want to give to the actor me."
"I'm an elite warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth. I think I can get you backstage."
The pair sauntered off.
"Jeez," Toph said. "Everyone's getting so upset about their characters. Even you seem more down than usual and that's saying something."
He sighed. "You don't get it. It's different for you. You get a muscley version of yourself taking down ten bad guys at once and making sassy remarks."
"Yeah, that's pretty great."
"But for me, it takes the mistakes I've made and shoves them back in my face. My uncle, all of you. You were all there for me. My uncle taught me so much, Sokka, Katara and Aang chose to be my friends, Aiko was finally willing to be my sister and you're like the sister I wish Azula was. How do I repay you all? With a knife in the back. It's my greatest regret and I may never get to redeem myself." His head drooped in shame. "Ow!"
She'd hit him. "I'm taking the Water Tribe route here, Weepy. I'm gonna hit you until you stop saying stupid things."
"Toph-"
"No," she said very definitely. "You'd been brainwashed by the Dai Li, and the moment you knew you left them and came back. You haven't done anything wrong and the fact is, you broke into the unbreakable-out-of prison with Sokka to get his and Katara's Dad back out, not to mention taking Katara on that stupid trip to kill that guy that you didn't even kill. You did all that to make up for something you didn't need to make up for."
"But - ow!"
"No buts," Toph warned him, then pulled him to his feet.
A young boy, dressed up as Aang came running by just then. "Wheeeeeeee!" he yelled, clearly pretending he was an airbender.
"That's just so weird," Zuko said, watching the kid. "Why do people dress up for these things?"
"Who knows?" Toph said dismissively, dragging him back to their seats. "Now come on. Do you want to miss whatever else they've done wrong?"
They joined Sokka and Suki, and Zuko found himself being regaled with the stories of what he'd missed, including Sokka's brief apprenticeship to Piandao. "Really?" he asked Sokka in surprise. "He only takes on the best. I'm really sorry I missed that, but I'm glad you had the chance."
"Yeah," Sokka said. "I mean, Dad had started training me to be one of the Tribe's warriors, but when he left, there wasn't anyone else to teach me." He looked at Zuko. "I want to thank you, by the way. I mean, you're not Piandao, but if you hadn't been there, I'm not sure I'd've been good enough to get his attention to start with."
Zuko shook his head. "You had the potential, Sokka," he said. "Anyhow, I know exactly how you feel. It's how I felt when I finally got those last advanced lessons from Jeong Jeong."
"Like you could finally call yourself a proper . . . well, warrior's not the word, but-"
"Yeah. I finally started to feel like I could maybe call myself a master bender someday."
"Yeah."
They turned back to the play just as Katara and Aang got back, and Sokka quickly filled Katara in on where they were.
Soon enough they were at what could be termed the present, and the play wasn't over. Zuko shook his head in disbelief over the actor pretending to be his father and the stilted dialogue as the Stage Ozai went to face Stage Aang, and Stage Azula went her way to fight Stage Zuko. When he went out, screaming about honour, Zuko shook his head. "Now I get it."
Katara's voice was a little grim and a little ironic from beside him as she said, "So that's what happens to traitors to the Fire Nation? They get burned to death by Princess Azula?"
"Apparently."
Then Stage Ozai defeated Stage Aang, and the audience roared to their feet to applaud the Fire Nation's final dominion over the world.
They all left, shaking their heads over the mind-numbing awfulness of the play, its players and the whole experience. Well, Toph was enjoying her reputation as a hulking great beast of a man, and her good mood eventually infected the others.
It was much later that evening, Zuko pulled Suki aside. "There's too much that they knew that they shouldn't have," he told her. "I'm going back tonight to see if I can find out who their source was."
Suki raised an eyebrow, then asked, "Are you asking me to come along?"
Zuko nodded. "They're just players, but I don't want to take any chances, and I'd rather a warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth to have my back." He shot her a small smile.
"Flattery will get you everywhere. I'll meet you back here in a minute or two."
They snuck into the offices the company kept all their documents, plays, scripts, and other papers in. Sure enough, Zuko found what he was looking for. "I was right," he told Suki once they'd gotten out. "My father commissioned it. It's got enough truth in it to seem real, and enough lies in it to make him and the rest of the Fire Nation nobility look good."
Suki nodded. "He would have the resources to find out what happened, too."
"Exactly."
They made their way back to the vacation house, Suki going to climb into bed with Sokka, while Zuko headed to his room to find Katara waiting for him. "Hi," she said. "I've been waiting for my stuffed tiger seal."
Zuko slipped into bed, carefully manoeuvring so that she wouldn't think to kiss him. The whole thing felt awkward now. He could remember everything, and the one thing that was clear to him was that he'd been effectively forcing himself on her for weeks now, ever since he'd rejoined them. Katara had been treating him as a platonic friend, and he'd been pressing her for something she might not have ever felt.
Promising himself he'd talk to her soon, Zuko settled down to sleep.
He still wasn't able to stop himself from kissing the top of her head though.
Prologue Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Eleven Part Twelve Part Thirteen Part Fourteen Part Fifteen
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