Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Ba Sing Se fell, the war was practically won.

Ozai’s own children had infiltrated the impenetrable city and destroyed the last obstacle in the Fire Nation’s way. The world was his now. He just had to come claim it—and it would be done. Ozai would end the war on the same day his forefather Fire Lord Sozin had started it on, using the power of the comet named for his grandfather to rebirth the world with him at its helm—him as its Phoenix King.

As for Azula and Zuko, he had plans. Zuko had not brought the Avatar to him, but had slain it while Ba Sing Se crumbled, and that was an incredible feat. Ozai had restored his honor and allowed him a place at his right hand, where he’d be complacent, obedient, and helpful. That was part of the reason Ozai had dared to invite him to another war meeting after his egregious slip-up three years ago. It was a test; Ozai needed to know if he’d made a mistake letting Zuko back here, but Zuko did not speak out of turn, and when he spoke, it was to give information on the Earth Kingdom and nothing more. He could make for a fine Fire Lord, given a few more years to readjust to the Fire Nation way of life.

Azula had been a key part in the capture of Ba Sing Se, which Ozai had not overlooked. Azula had always been precocious. It hardly came as a surprise that she tore down the Earth Kingdom’s final chance, and she’d done it at fourteen years. Ozai’s own brother, the now-treacherous, once-great General Iroh couldn’t achieve what his daughter had in six hundred days. It hadn’t even taken Azula a week. Many would see his daughter as a source of pride—the opposite of what Zuko had been, the bandage to cover the wound Zuko had afflicted on his family—but where they saw a worthy successor, Ozai saw a threat. 

Ty Lee, one of his daughter’s childhood friends, talented in the art of chi blocking, knelt before him now. He’d sent for her via messenger hawk a day or two ago, and she’d come quickly. She’d been there when Azula took Ba Sing Se, so certainly she would understand her Fire Lord’s concern, if one could call it that. “Ty Lee. You helped my daughter cull the city of Ba Sing Se. I applaud and thank you for your assistance. You have played a substantial role in spreading the Fire Nation’s greatness. You may rise.” Ty Lee did as she was told, rising from her bow to face the Fire Lord. “You’ve seen my daughter’s excellence firsthand, so hopefully you’ll understand where I come from. Azula is a threat to my reign. She must be apprehended and… dealt with.”

Ozai watched the realization strike—fear slid into Ty Lee’s expression, and even though she didn’t say anything, Ozai knew what she was thinking. Azula was her lifelong friend—how could she possibly let that happen? And Ozai knew how to deal with it. He wouldn’t give her a choice.

“I understand your reluctance. She’s been your friend her whole life. But, if you continue to aid her, you will be committing treason against the Fire Nation, and I have no reason to let you live.” Ozai stared down his nose at Ty Lee, a sardonic grin tugging at his lips. The red-orange flames circling the throne illuminated his face in a way that could only be described as malevolent. “I suggest you listen closely to my next words.”

Conversing with Azula is like playing an elaborate game of pai sho, except she’s always one step ahead. The game starts when she enters the room, but it doesn’t end when she leaves. Ozai would be ashamed to admit he was outsmarted by his own daughter if it hadn't happened before. Ozai sent his wishes to Agni. If his plan worked, it would be an act of providence—proof that he, alone, is the Fire Lord. Proof that the world is his.

“Father? You’ve summoned me at an odd hour. I was just getting ready for bed.” Azula began. This was not one of her elaborate lies—her hair fell over her shoulders in the same way Ursa’s used to, and Ozai knew from her servants that she never slept with her hair up.

“I’ve come to a decision. By taking down Ba Sing Se, you’ve shown excellence in strategy and battle. You’ve shown unwavering loyalty.” Azula’s brow quirked slightly at that, but Ozai had no clue as to why. “When I ascend my station and become Phoenix King, I have decided that you will take my place as the Fire Lord. Your brother is not ready, but you’ve been ready since before you can remember. I trust you with this position.”

“What inspired you to revoke Zuko’s birthright, Father? He killed the Avatar, not me.” Azula responded, words smooth, and Ozai hated how he couldn’t tell what she was getting at—hated how he couldn’t tell who, exactly, was losing this game.

“I spoke with a friend of yours. Ty Lee,” he called, gesturing to where Ty Lee now strode forward to stand at Azula’s side. She bowed with the sign of the flame, low and long, and when she rose she looked everywhere but Ozai or Azula. “She testified to your greatness. And, of course, there’s the war meeting. Zuko offered good intel on the Earth Kingdom’s people, but you had a plan. That’s what makes you a better Fire Lord than him.”

Ty Lee’s eyes settled and Ozai met them. He tapped his middle finger once on the arm of his throne, and Ty Lee moved, a pink blur in the red room. Azula, to her credit, noticed this and acted almost immediately, but Ty Lee had known her since before her flames burned blue and she anticipated this. It was almost mesmerizing watching them dance. Blue fire flickered at his daughter’s fingertips, but with a few quick jabs, Ty Lee blocked the flow of her chi, and the flame sputtered into smoke. She fell, eyes wild, face a mess of rage.

“Such a shame. You didn't have a plan this time.” Ozai sneered down at her. Oh, she looked so much like her mother, but Ozai wouldn’t grant her the mercy of banishment—she would be slaughtered somewhere secret, like her mother, the wretched whore she was, should’ve been. “Don’t worry. Your death will be quick and painless.”

Azula did not say anything. She just glared at him, and Ozai knew she wasn’t the same coward Zuko had been, because Zuko never carried such a look in his eye. Ozai knew she was already speculating, forming a plan in that horrible mind of hers. But he'd known this would happen long before she had. His plan was already in motion. Ozai caught Ty Lee before she could leave. “Ty Lee, you will accompany the guards and make sure she stays like that. Powerless.” There was fear in her eyes when she turned back to her Fire Lord.

She bowed again. “Yes, Fire Lord Ozai.” And even when she dropped the sign, she did not look up. Not when the guards came and grabbed Azula by the arms. Not when she followed them. Not even as the doors closed.

Ozai found Zuko the morning of the next day. From the information Azula had brought from Ba Sing Se, the Avatar’s worthless little friends were planning an invasion today, during a solar eclipse. It was smart, but Ozai’s forefathers had seen eclipses before, and there was already a bunker for the most important firebenders to hide in. Zuko was looking for his sister when Ozai found him, wandering the halls aimlessly, looking too much like a lost child. Ozai couldn’t believe he’d ever thought Zuko was a good fit for Fire Lord. No, even if it was his dying wish, Zuko would not have his title. There would be no Fire Lord when he became Phoenix King.

“Father. Have you seen my sister?” Zuko asked as he bowed, and even though Ozai had welcomed him back and restored his honor, it gave him an evil sort of satisfaction.

“No. Why don’t you go ahead and burn her stuff for me, my son? We won’t see her again.” Maybe it was the tone of his voice or the way he said it or perhaps even both, but Zuko understood. His lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes widened, though he quickly got ahold of himself.

“Yes, Father.” Zuko said, and then rushed off. Ozai knew he was planning something (he really was a terrible liar), but he’d never had the same strategic charm as his sister, so the Fire Lord was hardly worried.

And later, Ozai saw the smoke from the fire, long extinguished, drifting skyward before he was led to his room in the bunker. He spoke with the Dai Li his daughter had brought and shifted their loyalties. Azula was dead by now. They had no reason to cling to her ghost. His servants brought him tea.

Now, he sat rather comfortably, and waited. The eclipse would start soon. As he sipped his tea, warm and heated by his bending, Ozai thought that the only thing capable of making his day better was dead revolutionaries.

Chapter Text

That Fire Nation man was lying.

The eclipse had begun. This was their only chance— Aang's only chance—at beating the Fire Lord before the comet came, and the elderly Fire Nation man they'd bumped into was lying.

“Uh, for the Fire Lord's hideout, I'm noticing a distinct lack of Fire Lord.” Sokka said somewhere to his left. Aang released a breath and let his arms drop back to his side, still holding his glider, white-knuckled, in his right hand. Sokka followed his lead and sheathed his space sword. Toph, unsurprisingly, didn't relax.

“I guess he lied,” Aang huffed, shifting on his feet. A feeling of shame welled up somewhere inside him, mocking how easily he'd trusted that man when he was Fire Nation, and then it was shot down because why would he lie in that situation? And then something else followed that, and Aang wished he could be back in the iceberg for a split second, because he wouldn't be feeling all of this. “We need to keep looking. There's still time. Toph, can you feel anyone?”

Toph stomped her foot, the ground below her heel cracking. There was a ripple in her expression, the tiniest splash of shock, and then stone hands were flying and walls were pulled from the floor. “It's the Dai Li!” She shouted. “A little help here, Twinkle Toes!”

The determination he'd conjured to fight the Fire Lord swelled larger now. “On it!” He affirmed, and turned just in time to blow more rock-hand things out of the air with a swipe of his glider, where they snapped back on to the Dai Li's wrists before hitting the floor. There was the sound of earth against earth and crumbling rock and, for a few horrible seconds at a time, nothing at all, and Aang chalked that up to Toph's incredible earthbending.

Sometimes, Aang would hear Sokka's sword, cutting clean through stone and flashing black in the dim orange light, and he'd feel grateful for that, at least, because it meant not every angle had to be covered by Aang (Sokka would probably make a pun out of that, he thought) or Toph. The fight felt agonizingly slow; the Dai Li were good , even if Aang had no clue why they were working for the Fire Nation now, but with both Toph and his earthbending together, they reached the doors and spilled out into the hallway. As soon as they slammed shut, Toph metalbended the doors together with a horrific screeching sound, and the Dai Li were sealed in temporarily.

“So,” Sokka breathed, one hand on his knee and the other tilted towards his face, clutching an object the size of his palm. The Mechanist's clock ticked on and on, an incessant drone, reminding Aang that if he didn't confront Fire Lord Ozai, he might not have another chance. “We've lost four minutes. We have to find the Fire Lord, now. Preferably before the Dai Li remember they're earthbenders.”

Toph walked up to a wall and pressed her palm flat against it, listening to what the earth told her, feeling where they needed to go. And then she drew back and punched the wall, forcing a tunnel to carve itself out of the earth. “There's two people in this direction. You think it's that fire-happy princess?”

That raised some new questions—where was Azula? Normally, she would've dropped in and ruined everything by now. “It could be Zuko?” Aang suggested over the rhythmic thumping of Toph's fists against stone and the constant grinding of the tunnel sealing behind them.

“Yeah, but we should assume it's Azula, because she's definitely the smarter of the two,” Sokka added. “Okay. We just have to defeat the Fire Lord and his crazy daughter in… three minutes.” Aang could hear the enthusiasm leaking from his words as he kept talking, but he felt the hopelessness. The Sun would re-emerge in three minutes. They had three minutes to fight the Fire Lord and maybe-Azula. Aang had three minutes to fix his failure at Ba Sing Se. 

You know, he thought he was over that particular insecurity. He knew he couldn't save the world all alone. He knew Ba Sing Se wasn't his fault. He knew this, but the thought of failing had returned from its burrow in the back of his mind and began leeching off of him again. Even with Toph in front of him and Sokka behind him and Katara waiting for him—even with the echoes of Katara's reassurances lingering in his head, he couldn't smother his shame and his guilt.

“No, wait. It's definitely Zuko. Azula's heart never races.” Toph warned, and then the final stretch of stone crumbled away, a stealthier movement than before. After Sokka-stepped-but-really-stumbled out, Toph closed the rest of the tunnel and stood in front of the doors. “So. What's the plan? Break in there and bust some Fire Nation heads?”

“Two minutes left. I'm sure that's enough time. Zuko and Fire Lord Ozai are powerless, and Aang's the Avatar. This should be easy.”

“Weren't you just losing hope, Snoozles?”

“I was in a dark tunnel! That doesn't count!” 

A memory rushed back to Aang, though he wasn't sure that was the best way to describe it—he'd never really forgotten. “Zuko has swords. He's not powerless,” he blurted, and Sokka looked at him.

“Oh, joy. We're doomed.” Sokka sighed, watching the seconds tick by in his palm. Aang wasn't holding the device, but he still felt the time slipping away, falling between his fingers like sand.

“You're both puss- pushovers,” Toph amended when Sokka elbowed her. “You have the world's best metalbender right here.”

“But you're the world's only metalbender,” said Aang.

“Twinkle Toes gets it. I say we go in there, I get rid of Sparky's swords, and then Aang kicks Loser Lord sky high.” She planted a fist in her palm to emphasize her point, a smirk pulling at her lips.

“Can we really do that in two minutes? What if we take too long and they get their bending back?” In hindsight, Aang wasn't sure where this random bout of fear came from, because he came down here ready and he'd been hyping himself up the whole time and the Fire Lord was powerless, and he knew he wouldn't give up even if the eclipse ended mid-fight because he wouldn't keep running.

“You're the Avatar, Aang. If we can trap them before the eclipse ends…” Sokka trailed off, looking down at the timing device, “which is in a minute now, we'll be fine.”

“A minute ?” Aang squawked and was almost embarrassed by the way his voice cracked, and then Sokka was shushing him and Toph took up a defensive stance and Aang hadn't noticed the dull lull of conversation drifting through the doors until it stopped. Everything went horribly still, still in a way Aang wasn't used to, still in a way the Air Nomads never were, still in a way he couldn't airbend. 

Sokka pointed at the device, and then his sword, and then the door. Toph widened her stance slightly. Aang adjusted his grip on his glider, adrenaline coursing through his veins and creating a buzz that reached down to his bone. Standing here, outside of the Fire Lord's room, felt much like waiting for the first strike of lightning during a storm and Aang was sure his hair would be standing on end if he hadn't cut it. Curiously, the thunder came first—a crash down the corridor, out of sight but distracting nonetheless. Even Toph faltered, tilting one of her feet so it was angled towards the noise, and she made an aborted gesture with one of her fists, as if she were going to sandwich someone between two slabs of rock but thought better of it. Aang hoped they ran, and that's why she'd stopped.

And then she crushed her hand into a fist and there was the sound of grinding rock and Aang thought the perpetrators of the original noise must've been the Dai Li, and Toph had crushed their rock gloves around their hands. It was kind of impressive, how she did it on an enemy she couldn't see—and then Aang remembered she wouldn't have seen them anyway, so maybe out-of-range made more sense. 

Lightning was a fitting metaphor. Aang, for a fleeting moment, considered the possibility that the Dai Li just wanted to draw their attention, keep them distracted for the remainder of the eclipse. And the worst part—it worked. By the time they burst through the doors, lightning crackled, uncontrollable, in the air and Fire Lord Ozai's face was haunted ghoulishly by the blue-white light, and Zuko was also there, stumbling backwards, fingers outstretched like that would help and then it did. The lightning funneled into his fingertips and he pulled it through his body, bracing and struggling and determined, and fired it back at Ozai.

There was a flash of shock in his eyes when he turned and saw them, and then it settled, again, into stubborn determination. Something hopeful bubbled to life inside of Aang—maybe Zuko was good now—and there was that question at the back of his mind, a hushed do you think we could have been friends too , and then reality came crashing in like it always did. Of course he wasn't good now. He'd had his chance at Ba Sing Se, hadn't he? This was just survival.

Zuko was the first into the hallway. Aang thought he would just keep running, but he stopped, turning to wave them out after him. Fire Lord Ozai made an angry noise somewhere behind them, and it was really hard to hold on to grudges with an enraged, able-to-firebend Fire Lord behind them, so they ran. Zuko led the way. Sokka brought up the rear. There was no time to close the doors, so Toph brought up a wall of stone to buy them some time. 

“Hey, aren't we running towards the Dai Li?” Sokka huffed. And Aang was pretty sure he was right. And Aang really wished he wasn't.

“The agents from Ba Sing Se?” Zuko barely had time to ask, because then there were rocks everywhere again. Zuko blasted three slabs to dust with fire, and Aang knocked the last into a wall. Aang was really starting to dislike underground bunkers. 

There were only three of them, and they moved awkwardly, their hands missing their gloves and painted a bruised red-pink. Injury inhibited their performance, but not by much. Still clad in their rock shoes, two of them glided on the walls until they were behind Sokka, bringing up pillars of rock to seal them in.

“I'm really getting tired of these guys,” Toph groaned. She thrust her fists outward and their rocky prison exploded. Aang jumped into the air and whipped up a cover out of the dust, which was ultimately pointless, because the Dai Li still didn't stop. Zuko started running again, only to be confronted by the third agent, who managed to get a good hit in on his ribs before having to jump out of the way of more fire. Aang saw the silver flash of his dual dao before he spun around—Toph had forced one of the agents into one of the support beams and effectively trapped him with metalbending, while Sokka faced another with nothing but his sword. Earthbending beats sword, apparently, because a rock struck Sokka’s shoulder and Aang saw his face crease with pain as he shifted his sword to his other hand. Aang made his move now; he widened his stance and swung his glider, a ripple in the air throwing the remaining Dai Li agents against the walls of the caverns. One took a rock to the temple and crumpled, unconscious, while the other had to dodge two consecutive strikes of Zuko’s swords before catching his breath. Aang reached out with earthbending and pulled the Dai Li agent halfway into the floor before he could hurl another rock. It wouldn’t hold him for long, but Aang hoped they’d be long gone by the time the Dai Li recovered.

This time, he took the lead. He hurled a “Come on!” over his shoulder and took off down the corridor. Zuko was quick to comply. Toph and Sokka lingered for merely a second before Aang heard their accompanying footsteps. When he glanced over his shoulder, he noticed how pale Zuko was, and how Sokka tried to run without jostling his arm, and how Toph’s expression was deathly still, and it finally hit him that they lost. 

Ozai was still Fire Lord. The war was still going on. The invasion had failed. And all of his friends, his family, Katara , were in danger. Aang couldn’t mess up next time (if there was a next time, and there had to be). With Toph and Sokka’s footsteps behind him and Katara somewhere above him and even Zuko, who had chased him all over the world, breathing erratically over his shoulder, Aang realized the last time he’d had so much to lose was before the monks told him he was the Avatar.

“I told you, I’m fine .” He insisted for what had to be the eighty-seventh time. Seriously, why did everyone keep asking him if he was okay? Sokka’s shoulder was only a little dislocated. He could wait until the Western Air Temple, even though pain raced up and down his arm like an energetic Momo, and he couldn’t move it without cursing the Spirits. Toph had asked him before, right after the fight with the Dai Li, and he’d said the same thing. There were bigger things to worry about, and his dislocated shoulder wasn’t the only elephant koi in the pond, because his dad was on his way to a Fire Nation prison with the rest of the men and the invasion had failed and Sokka had disappointed everyone. 

Katara looked at him, the set of her brow showing just how little she believed him. “Sure, tough guy. You definitely don’t blanch whenever you move your arm. Toph?” She consulted. Sokka felt incredibly betrayed.

“Yeah, he took a rock to the shoulder. Pretty sure I felt the pop. Sorry, Snoozles,” Toph added, though she couldn’t see the glare he was giving her. Katara sighed and leaned forward, reaching for his arm. He yanked it away and immediately regretted it—the pain made everything look funny for a second, and the vertigo that struck him was so intense he almost forgot he was on the back of a flying bison and not in freefall. There was Katara’s hand on his back, steadying and soothing, and he sucked in a pained breath as the initial shock wore off in waves.

“Sokka?” Katara said, the frustration on her face melting away into worry he didn’t really deserve. “I should be able to pull some water from the clouds. It should be enough to heal you.”

“Magic water sounds really good now, actually.” He resigned and shifted, slightly, not enough to disturb his arm, to allow Katara easier access. She raised her hands to the sky—Aang took notice and steered Appa higher—and coerced the water out of the clouds until she had enough to cover the insides of her hands. She pressed both to his shoulder, and Sokka noticed an immediate reduction in the amount of pain, though it still hurt a lot . Sokka did what he did best and talked to distract himself and fill the silence. “You know, we didn’t see Azula at all. I thought she’d be waiting for us somewhere, but nope,” he started, popping the p. “So. I guess the Fire Lord’s family is falling apart.”

“Uh-huh. What about Zuko? Did you find him?” Katara question. Her expression was downright venomous. Sokka was pretty sure it could’ve killed the Fire Lord.

“Yeah. He actually helped us escape. We would’ve been shot full of lightning if he wasn’t there to redirect it,” he shrugged with one shoulder. The pain in his other shoulder had gone from feeling like it’d been trampled over and over again by an ostrich-horse to feeling like it’d only been trampled once or twice, which was an improvement in Sokka’s book.

“D’you think Sparky’s sister being gone… means anything?” Toph said. Sokka looked at her.

“Like what?” He asked, and now it was her turn to shrug. “I doubt anything will change. The Fire Lord might send her after us again, but we’ve been there, done that. What makes you think otherwise?”

“I don’t know. Just a hunch.”

Chapter Text

Zuko couldn't believe this was the guy he'd been obsessed with finding. Aang was seriously the goofiest person he'd ever met, which was weird, because he was also the Avatar, and this particular opinion had only been cemented each hour he spent with the self-proclaimed “Team Avatar”. When Aang wasn't practicing his bending, he was using airbending to mess around with his lemur, or seeing how far he could carry Sokka's boomerang without him noticing. If Aang was trying to distract himself, Zuko had to say it was working. He was certainly distracting.

Right now, Zuko was running through a set of katas. Ever since he'd met the Sun Warriors and learned from the dragons, he made sure to practice. A lot. Zuko had to make slight adjustments in his original techniques, rounding out the edges of certain maneuvers to rely on breath and not muscle, like Uncle had told him, and he had to make room for a couple more sets. It definitely improved his bending, but it was hard to focus over the sound of Sokka trying to teach Aang how to throw a boomerang, and the former’s subsequent rants when Aang's elbow was too low. So he finished his set and resigned to watching Sokka scream when Aang threw his boomerang and it swung out of view, falling somewhere into the space below. Zuko snickered.

And then there were footsteps behind him, and for one of the first times in his life, he wasn't scared, but maybe a little cautious, his shoulders bunching slightly. It turned out to be the earthbender girl (he didn't remember her name, but he'd never admit that, of course, because she packed some mean punches). They hadn't spoken one on one since Zuko burned her feet, and that was hardly a conversation—Zuko was dazed by sleep and fight-or-flight, and the earthbender left as soon as she came.

“Hey, Sparky. Whatcha doing?” She said casually, dropping to sit next to him. She was the only one who hadn't cared if he joined or not, even though he'd injured her. Probably because he hadn’t chased her around the world very much. “Because it feels like you're doing a whole lot of nothing.”

“I guess I am.” He shrugged, because he didn't really have a better response. Zuko rolled his head on his shoulders to look at the earthbender. She had black hair, bangs that fell over milky green eyes and—was she blind?

That would explain a lot, actually. Zuko wasn't sure how he didn't notice sooner.

“So. Your crazy sister,” she said, and Zuko almost choked on his own saliva. He'd been avoiding the topic of Azula the best he could, running circles in his head to avoid thinking about the fact that Fire Lord Ozai had ordered her execution. “What's her deal? Where'd she go? She wasn't at the invasion,” the earthbender said, finger buried so deep in her nose that Zuko was really starting to wonder where Aang found her. Maybe in a box.

“Azula is…” gone? Dead didn't feel appropriate. Zuko doubted the Fire Lord could get rid of her that easily, but there'd been absolutely no sign of Azula since, and Zuko still had no clue what, exactly, had unfolded before her disappearance. He settled on “Somewhere.”

The earthbender flicked some freshly mined nose gold away from Zuko, thank Agni, and hummed as if in thought. It kind of reminded him of Uncle, though Uncle was full of sage wisdom and tea facts, and this was a twelve year old who picked her nose regularly and possessed a particularly profane vocabulary, so the similarities ended there. “Sure. But what actually happened. Sorry, Sparky, but I don't think she just disappeared.”

He squinted at her, mind foggy with memory.

He remembered confronting his father and he remembered what he'd said. “She's still out there, I think. My fa–the Fire Lord, he thinks she's dead. He had someone kill her.”

“And you think she survived. Fair enough,” she itched her face. Zuko was getting more and more uncomfortable as the silence stretched on, until it reached a point where he couldn't handle that on top of everything else.

“Why do you ask?” He said awkwardly and reached up to mechanically scratch at the back of his neck, waiting for her response, still tightly coiled with his mind recalling the Day of Black Sun, Fire Lord Ozai's words echoing in his mind (“Your sister? I thought I told you, she's gone.” and “I killed her like I should've killed your mother,” and he remembered feeling hollow at that because maybe his mom was alive, but Azula wasn't, and she'd scorched and lied to and manipulated him her entire life but, in some distant way, she was still his sister.)

“‘Cause I'm bored. I tried talking to Snoozles about it, but he says it doesn't matter unless she’s actively chasing us.”

“Whose… Snoozles?”

“Seriously? You don't know? You've been around here for what, a week, and you don't know my nicknames ?” The earthbender sat up, a grin tugging at her lips. “Do you even know my name?”

“...Yes?” He tried to lie, and then he remembered that she can detect lies because what couldn't she do, and any hope of not humiliating himself was quickly thrown into the ravine below, just like Sokka's boomerang (he was hovering near the edge watching Aang dart around with his glider, searching for the lost boomerang).

“Hah! You don't!” She cackled, beaming with some sort of sadistic satisfaction at his suffering. Zuko wasn't like this when he was twelve. “Oh, wow. Should I start calling you Goldfish-shrimp, then? Is it hollow up there?” She accompanied that with a knock on her own head, and Zuko hoped she could feel the force of his glare.

“Goldfish-shrimp actually have pretty good memories,” he responded, and she snorted, and Zuko's scowl deepened.

“I didn't know the Fire Prince knew so much about sea life. Is that why you can't remember names? Because your memory is full of fish facts?”

“No! I just forgot!” She continued to laugh at him. Zuko continued to glare at her. When she didn't talk again, maybe to, you know, remind him of her name, he groaned. “Are you going to tell me your name? Or just keep laughing at me.”

“Both. Name's Toph, Sparky. Don't forget it again.”

“Whose Snoozles?”

“Sokka.”

He stared at her. His scowl melted away into a look of disappointed bewilderment. “ Sokka? Really?” Something fuzzy inside him thought that Sokka was too, he didn't know, interesting for a nickname like Snoozles, but he squashed and ignored it as quick as it came.

“Yep. Aang's Twinkle Toes. Katara's Sweetness, and you're Sparky. See?” Toph listed. Not for the first time, Zuko wondered why, exactly, Aang had chosen her as his earthbending teacher. Who would want to work with someone who called them Twinkle Toes? He supposed he'd worked with firebending teachers who called him much, much worse things, but he didn't have a choice, so that didn't count.

Zuko sighed and looked back at Sokka. Aang was standing next to him, now, his glider folded and held at his side. Apparently, Aang hadn't found the boomerang, because Sokka made a noise of anguish so loud Zuko winced.

“Sheesh. What happened?” Toph asked.

“Sokka lost his boomerang.” He dutifully reported.

“Yup. That checks out,” and then she stood, made a pulling movement with her hand, and a rock thumped Zuko on the side of his head. He certainly did not squeak, and Toph did not snort. “Come on, Sparky. Walk with me. I want to talk about noble things away from these commoners.” She jabbed a thumb in the direction of Sokka and Aang. Zuko didn't know what she meant by commoners, since her behavior was decidedly not indicative of a noble upbringing. But Zuko had gone from hunting the Avatar to dancing with Aang, so he supposed anything could happen.

So Zuko stood. Rocks hurt. He didn't look forward to this walk.

Once Sokka and Aang were out of view, they passed Katara, who was sitting at a fountain and idly waterbending, clearly deep in thought. She dropped the water to look at them as they approached; her eyes went from Zuko to Toph to Zuko. Katara gave him a glare fierce enough to rival his own, and he had sixteen years of practice. It followed him until Katara couldn't keep her eyes on him anymore.

“Why did you bring me out here?” He asked, and it was less a genuine question and more an attempt to fill the silence, though Zuko can't deny the hint of suspicion in his voice and he's sure Toph picked up on it too—she could drop him into the ravine below or crush him and nobody would hear or care except maybe Aang, because they were far enough that Zuko couldn't hear Sokka's exaggerated whining anymore and that was impressive.

“What, think I'll crush you? I might if you don’t lighten up,” Toph said. Zuko believed her, and in the back of his mind Sokka's voice whispered a pun. “You're going to take me to interrogate some Fire Nation losers. I want to know what really happened to Princess Crazy and where she went if she didn't die. Nothing's ever that convenient.”

“We won't find her.” Zuko immediately responded, almost too quick, unnerved by the thought of chasing his sister when it was usually the other way around, and unnerved by what he might find. Maybe father wasn't lying. “The best we can do is wait for her to find us. If she isn't dead. Or maybe you don't care, and just want to know if she left via boat, so we can keep an eye out,” he speculated, because he wasn’t completely dense. Toph's brow quirked slightly.

“There you go, Sparky! Maybe it's not so empty up there after all,” she said with false enthusiasm, and Zuko wanted to ask her why she needed him on this field trip because he'd rather stay behind, but she beat him to it. “ You have to come with me because I can't read. You already went on a life-changing adventure with Twinkle Toes. And I’m bored, so it's my turn.” She added. “I'm getting kind of sick of this place.”

As much as Zuko was really wanting to leave now—their conversation was stilted; he supposed that was fair, considering, but it didn't make it easier to bear with—there was, unfortunately, another obstacle. “What's the plan?” He asked. Toph just shrugged, which was thoroughly unhelpful.

“Iunno. Sokka’s the plan guy. I just throw rocks,” she said, casual as ever. “All I came up with was going back to the Fire Nation and asking around. Who knows, I might get to kick some Fire Nation ass.”

Zuko sighed, a long, suffering exhalation. “Let’s think about this. Uncle always told me to think things through before committing to them. If the Fire Lord believes Azula is dead, she wouldn’t stick around the Capital. She’s too smart for that.” Maybe Zuko only knew this because he'd been victim to many of her plots before, and maybe he didn’t because Azula was about as predictable as the tides during a storm and perhaps even more lethal.

“She got a ship?” Toph suggested like it was obvious. It… probably was, to be fair. This was why Sokka liked to call him dense.

Nonetheless, that had been where Zuko’s train of thought was leading. “She must’ve, right? So that’s where we’ll start. We can ask around the coast, but that’s probably the deepest we can go without getting caught.”

“Great. We can go, what, tomorrow? Sounds good, Sparky. I’m going to go help Snoozles find his boomerang so I don’t have to deal with him stomping around like that. Don’t tell anyone. I don’t need any mother-henning.” And Toph was gone. Zuko was sure he’d be severely reprimanded for such an improper dismissal back in the Fire Nation, but this wasn’t there (he kept reminding himself) and, as far as Zuko knew, Aang found Toph involved in some illegal scheme, so it wasn’t really fair to compare the two. 

Zuko didn’t linger for long. He’d finished contemplating his current predicament, because there was no way Toph will simply let him back out of it (and part of him wanted to find out what exactly happened to Azula, just in case, even if he wasn't sure what he was preparing for), and started down the path Toph had taken. The second he saw the fountain again, Katara was there, too, standing in front of him with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed.

“If you hurt Toph again, so help me, I will make sure you never see the end of the war.” She hissed, voice as venomous as a prickle-snake. The threat lingered in the air for a moment longer than it should’ve, and he knew she must have overheard their conversation. Katara, though shorter and smaller than Zuko was, seemed to loom over him in that moment. Zuko couldn’t will himself to respond, to snap back in his own defense, because she had every right to be suspicious—Zuko had burned Toph before, and even though Toph had forgiven him, Katara still had not. Zuko doubted she ever would. 

Katara stepped aside and let him pass. Her glare followed him as he sculked away, and somehow, there was more weight to it than before, like fate had its eyes in him too.