- Location
- Florida. Send help.
Isn't this the catchphrase for LOK?
Giving Up (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
- Thread starter Fulcon
- Start date
Isn't this the catchphrase for LOK?
- Location
- USA
Pretty much, yeah.
Great Greedy Guts
Ceterum censeo Vigilam esse delendam.
As far as I know, the executive meddling for LoK was mostly in terms of fucking over scheduling. Not just "when it aired" but also, like, they didn't know they'd get more than one season at first, so they tried to rush things to reach the conclusion (which the whole "make things up to Zutarans" love triangle didn't help with), then they found out they'd get a second season but not necessarily anything more (hence going big on spirit world stuff in S2 to try and wrap things up, again), and then they finally found out they'd get season 3 and 4... which then had some of the budget pulled, a clip show forced upon them (apparently staff were threatened with losing their jobs if they didn't do the clip show??? such was the scuttlebutt, at least), and just... yeah. If they'd known they might get more than one season, or come season 2 that it wouldn't be the last, they might have spread some of those two seasons' plots out a bit, which probably would've been better for both.
Plus there was the whole initial fight to even have Korra be the protagonist, because the execs were convinced that boys wouldn't watch a show that didn't have a boy lead, so they had to fight just to have her be a girl in the first place.
And, like, it being pulled from TV for the last season and done as an internet thing probably let them get away with more stuff than the network would've let them do on TV (especially the kiss), but still. The whole production history reads like "at least one exec had it out for the show" even though it's more likely a bunch just didn't care at all.
Wouldn't surprise me to learn that there'd been some of that with AtLA, too, though I don't know how far apart my three viewings of Great Divide were. Could've been bad timing in a regular "reair all the episodes in order" thing, or me only being able to watch one episode in a marathon, or something, too.
EDIT: Wouldn't surprise me if there was more meddling to Korra, as well, but the stuff I know is the scheduling/seasons stuff.
Plus there was the whole initial fight to even have Korra be the protagonist, because the execs were convinced that boys wouldn't watch a show that didn't have a boy lead, so they had to fight just to have her be a girl in the first place.
And, like, it being pulled from TV for the last season and done as an internet thing probably let them get away with more stuff than the network would've let them do on TV (especially the kiss), but still. The whole production history reads like "at least one exec had it out for the show" even though it's more likely a bunch just didn't care at all.
Wouldn't surprise me to learn that there'd been some of that with AtLA, too, though I don't know how far apart my three viewings of Great Divide were. Could've been bad timing in a regular "reair all the episodes in order" thing, or me only being able to watch one episode in a marathon, or something, too.
EDIT: Wouldn't surprise me if there was more meddling to Korra, as well, but the stuff I know is the scheduling/seasons stuff.
Frozen Frogs
- Location
- USA
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.
---
Zhao held the letter in his hands, a grin painting itself across his face until it morphed into a full-on smile, as he read the contents, Colonel Shinu reading over his shoulder.
"It appears that I have been promoted to Admiral," Zhao said, turning to the colonel while wearing his grin. "My request is now an order."
Shinu bowed.
Finally.
Zhao had been waiting for his promotion for months and now he had everything he needed to start pulling everything he could for his passion project, the one that got him promoted to the post of Admiral in the first place, in addition to all his loyal and competent service: The Invasion of the North Pole.
Zhao the Moonslayer. He could already see it now. The parades in his honor and for the honor of the men in his command. The Northern Water Tribe subjugated and beaten, their foul waterbenders in chains.
But still, he had two very important tasks to take care of before the Invasion could truly be considered foolproof.
The first, the capture of the Avatar and execution of his two friends.
The second, the safe return of the exiled Prince Zuko before he was delivered to the Northern savages or the Earth Kingdom.
Plus, if the Prince Zuko, now by all reports a calm, collected and spirits preserve them, dignified Prince of the Fire Nation caught the Avatar thanks to Zhao's efforts, the future Firelord would be in his debt.
If he were still that mouthy, cowardly child who earned the scar over his eye, Zhao wouldn't even consider helping him. The Firelord would have Zuko assassinated before he could take the throne because of the danger his rule would present to the Nation and possibly himself because they would apparently be 'close allies'.
"From the most recent reports, the Avatar was seen traveling in this area," Zhao said. "I want the Archers to go hunting."
It was time to capture this giant spanner in the works of his plan.
---
"He's got a raging fever," Katara said, holding the back of her hand against Sokka's forehead. "The tea hasn't worked, so he'll need something stronger."
"Can't you just, I don't know, bend the sickness out of him?" Aang asked with worry.
"I can try," Katara said, bending water out of her water skin and slipping it into Sokka's sleeping bag. Her face screwed together in concentration for a moment, before she gave up with a sigh. "It's no good. It's like his chi has been infected and I don't know how to clean it."
She replaced the water and Sokka started coughing in his sleep.
"Well, at least he's not muttering about how Appa can talk," Zuko said with a bemused smirk.
"Hey, Sokka's really sick so can you lay off the jokes?" Katara snapped.
Zuko just shrugged, and said nothing further.
"If we could get-" Katara began, only to be cut off by a coughing fit.
"You okay?" Aang asked, now very concerned.
"It's just a little cough," Katara replied with a fake cheer. "Nothing to worry about."
The two healthy members of their party were unconvinced.
"There's an herbalist institute not far from here," Aang said, extending his gliders wings. "At least, there was one a hundred years ago. If it's still there, they'll know how to treat you both. Zuko, could you look after them?"
"Sure," Zuko replied as Aang flew off. "Not like I can do anything else."
He looked up then sighed and started muttering to himself. "Alright, Zuko. Lets get some more tea going...going to need some more water..."
He grabbed the water skin that had been left on the stone floor of the ruins and turned to Katara. "Hey, I'm off to get more water. Try to take it easy, alright?"
"Alright," Katara nodded, coughing some more. She slid, slowly and carefully into her sleeping bag. "We'll be here."
Zuko was pretty disappointed. The ruins of Taku were always a great place to sight see; the old city had once been a vibrant city of commerce, transporting cargo trading, people going in and out on their ways out, before the Fire Nation had ransacked the city. The history of this place was thick enough to taste...and the two siblings had to spend the trip sick.
He had been here once before, so he knew that there was a stream that ran through the town where he could refill the skin. As he left their campsite, Momo hopped on Zuko's shoulder to accompany him, making the Prince pause for a moment before he continued on.
---
"But I need it now!" Aang shouted in exasperation.
"Ah ah, patience young man," The elderly herbalist lightly tapped the Avatar's nose with a small, wooden spoon. "Your friends will be fine and these things take time. Now, as I was saying..."
---
"Thank you," Katara croaked out as Zuko tipped the tea into her mouth.
"Don't mention it," Zuko replied. "I owe you one, remember?"
"No, you don't," Katara rebutted weakly. "We're supposed to look out for each other."
He just hummed in response, taking a seat by the fire and started to meditate, causing it to rise and fall in time with his breathing.
"Zuko?" Katara started. "I'm sorry Roku threatened you."
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked with a frown.
"When we first met," Katara clarified, starting to cough. "You didn't want to join the group and then Roku showed up and threatened doom and..."
She devolved into a full on coughing fit and Zuko set the pot of water on the rack above the fire. "It's fine, Katara."
"No it's-" Katara coughed again. "Not."
"Look, Roku threatening me wasn't the reason I joined you guys," Zuko replied with an annoyed grunt.
"It wasn't?"
"No."
"Then why did you join us?" Katara asked.
Zuko stoked the fire a moment, thinking. "Because I saw a way out."
"Of the Fire Nation?" Katara asked.
Zuko hummed before responding. "Yes...and no."
Katara grunted in confusion.
"When we met, I was stuck," Zuko continued. "I was floating without a real purpose or any way forward. It's why I lost my bending. I wanted to keep exploring the world, but news of the Avatar's return made that difficult, because the crew of my ship took the news of the Avatar's return as a sign that they might be able to return home. To finally finish their mission, go back to the Fire Nation as heroes. But I wanted nothing to do with it."
Katara blinked, but was listening.
"I wanted to see the world, keep learning about bending...but beyond that, I didn't know what I wanted." Zuko poured some more tea and moved over to Katara and feed her some more. "I knew I wanted the Fire Nation to lose, but I didn't want everyone to know I was a traitor. I didn't want to be tied to my crew anymore, but I didn't want to lose my Father's coin."
Zuko took the cup back and made sure she got it down. "But then I met you and you, well, gave me the ability to move on. You gave me the ability to see the world without my Father's coin and the ability to learn the other Bending arts. All at the cost of faking my death."
"I'm sorry," Katara croaked out.
Zuko shook his head. "I didn't ever want to go back anyway."
"But you didn't want your Mom to know," Katara coughed out. "Right?"
"Right," Zuko replied with a nod.
It was at this point that Katara fell asleep, her eyes falling closed as the conversation had taken its toll on her. Zuko looked down and shook his head.
"But now I'm wondering which one is worse..."
---
"What happens when they thaw?"
"They're useless!"
---
With both Sokka and Katara asleep, Zuko had decided to practice his water forms. With the campfire lit and licking the teapot suspended over the campfire with heat and smoke, Zuko took the flames and bent them in rings around his shoulders, flipping it around his arms and between his legs in one smooth motion.
But he wasn't just practicing just for a sake of it, he needed to understand something.
When you performed Waterbending, you were joining the flow of water and redirecting it. It 'obeyed' you and went where you wanted it too because that's where the current was flowing and for all intents and purposes it was going over there anyway, and there just happened to be in your best interests.
If this idea of 'current' could be applied to fire and lightning, what else could it affect? Could it affect the way a person's life turned out? Could it change the outcome of a series of events? Could this finally be the thing that gave Zuko control over his own destiny?
Destiny.
That old albatross around his neck, the manacle he couldn't dislodge, his Uncle's favorite word as of late. Zuko honestly couldn't think of a worse pestilence of filth and disease hanging over his head than the thing that ruled his every move. Even Avatar Roku had claimed destiny when he told Zuko to join Aang.
Or at least very close too it.
It aggravated him, now that he was thinking about it, but getting angry could wait.
If destiny was a current, if life was a current, it had an ending. A river or an ocean or a puddle that it would flow into. A conclusion that happened at the end as a result of the actions that he had taken or been forced into. So what was the end of this road Zuko was on?
He would go on adventures with the Avatar, meeting members of the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom. He'd go on making friends, possibly close friendships with members of each group and teach Aang Firebending when he was ready. Then, when Aang had defeated his father, there would need to be a new Firelord. A Firelord who desired peace, who had diplomatic connections to the other nations and could be trusted on both sides of the negotiation.
That person would be Zuko.
His Uncle even said it was his destiny to become Firelord.
Zuko took a deep breath, the fire circling his body flaring out in strength and power.
Now that he saw where the current led, he needed to know how to change it. Of course, the way to do that was obvious.
He had to separate from the Avatar.
Zuko fed the fire back into the flame pit and pulled out another stream.
But the problem was that he wanted to teach the Avatar Firebending. He did. Aang seemed like an eager student with a lot of potential and if anything, the Avatar was the perfect person to see if anything he was learning about bending actually held water. Eventually, Aang would be teaching him Water or at least Earthbending.
What he wanted now versus what he wanted in the future.
The same dilemma he was in when he met Aang.
He now had the drive but not the means to accomplish all of his goals and it was maddening.
Besides, if he left now and the Fire Nation came to their campsite with Sokka and Katara too sick to do anything, he would be kicking himself until the end of time.
So he'd bide his time until the opportunity came to change the current came along. Besides, he needed to get good at changing currents first and he'd hate to mess this up.
---
Aang hated being jailed.
He couldn't tell what was worse, being contained in a box or having all of his limbs chained to posts so he couldn't bend.
The door in front of him opened and in entered a Fire nation guy, with sideburns so thick he wondered if they could be considered tiny jungles growing on the sides of his face.
"Well, well. The Avatar," Sideburns said, glaring down at him. "When I sent the Yuyan Archer's out to hunt for you, I didn't think they'd just magic you out of a hat."
"I guess they're just that good," Aang snipped, glaring up at him. "Who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Admiral Zhao. And while I'd love to sit here and bicker with a child all night, I have important things to do. Where is Prince Zuko?"
"Oh, uh," Aang started, looking around the room while he tried desperately to recall what they did. "Didn't he die in the, uh, explosion?"
Zhao smirked. "I'm afraid your trick with the Dragonlily juice failed. I know you kidnapped him. Now answer the question, Avatar. Where is he?"
Aang's eyes went wide. "I don't know!"
"You don't know," Zhao repeated, decidedly unimpressed. "Why not?"
"Because," Aang began. "We dropped him off with the Earth Kingdom after we left the pier. I don't know where he is! You'll never find him!"
Zhao's eyebrow raised in irritation. "Is that so?"
"Yeah!"
"When did you drop him off?" Zhao asked.
"Uh," Aang stopped. "I don't remember?"
"Perhaps we can jog your memory?" Zhao said, frowning deeply and glaring dangerously down at the twelve year old.
Whatever the Admiral had in mind was stopped dead in its tracks when a frog hopped out from the inside of Aang's collar. Then another. And another. "What? No, no! Please! Go back to being frozen!"
Zhao blinked, looking at the frog and then at Aang.
"What are the frogs for?"
"My friends are sick!" Aang started to plead. "Please, they'll die if they don't suck on those frogs!"
Admiral Zhao had used stranger remedies. "Is that so? Well, I'll offer you a deal, Avatar. You tell me where Prince Zuko is, or give me every possible detail you can remember to lead to his safe retrieval as well as the location of your camp, and I'll send a detachment of troops out to retrieve some frogs for them. They'll even deliver."
"But-" Aang started.
"I wouldn't take too long to decide," Admiral Zhao said over his shoulder. "I imagine those frogs won't be frozen during daylight and as you so poignantly pointed out, your friends don't have much time."
The Cell door shut behind Zhao and Aang was left to his thoughts.
He hated being locked up.
Aang tried to meditate, but the sound of the croaking frogs only drove the message that he needed to escape into his skull, forcing him out of his trance each time he tried. A frog leaped out of his collar, another out of his sleeve.
"Wait! No! Stop!" Aang pleaded with the amphibians as they jumped around the cell, croaking and dragging their frozen arms and legs on the ground. "Go back to being frozen! My friends need you!"
This continued until Aang had no more frogs.
He couldn't just tell the Fire Nation where Sokka and Katara were. If Zuko didn't fight them off, he'd just get captured.
The boy monk froze in his binds.
Katara is going to die.
Then the Avatar's cell filled with light.
---
It had happened so quickly.
First, the explosion. Cries of panic and war as the garrison rallied to contain the threat.
Then, the hurricane winds billowing through the fort, blowing dust and dirt in cyclones, ripping the Fort apart like knives were cutting through the air. A tidal wave broke through the southern wall and in the center of the chaos floated the Avatar.
His tattoos glowing with spiritual energy. His clothes whipping and snapping in the wind. His twelve year old face twisted to show wrath that was older than time itself.
Just as quickly as it started, it ended.
Fort Pouhai was in ruins. The walls were completely destroyed and the main tower with them.
At his feet, the wooden ruins of the fort where strewn about to the treeline. With a roar of anger, the debris was set ablaze. With a roar of rage and frustration, the flames became an inferno.
Zhao felt like he should have seen this coming. He had seen it before, after all; at the Fire Temple on Winter Solstice. He had assumed that invoking the power of past Avatars was a one time thing, something he could only do at places of high spiritual power.
But of course it stood to reason that the Avatar had a defense mechanism. The cycle would've been broken long before Firelord Sozin was even a thought if it hadn't.
Zhao allowed the flames to die down, even as his fists were still trembling with rage.
He should have seen this coming.
What use did a force of nature have for bargains?
This was his fault.
At that moment, the Admiral vowed that he would not make this mistake again.
He turned on his heel and came face to face with Colonel Shinu. "Start looking for survivors! I want the wounded to get treatment immediately!"
---
"Zuko!" Aang shook his instructor awake.
Zuko was awake immediately. "Aang? About time! What took so long?"
"I got captured," Aang said quickly. "But listen, they know you're not dead."
"Wait, what?" Zuko asked, alarmed. "How?"
"The Admiral there, Zhao," Aang spoke quickly. "He saw through the dragon-lily juice."
Zuko blinked. "Zhao's an admiral?"
Aang nodded.
"Okay then," Zuko said with some dismay. "So the Fire Nation knows I turned traitor after all. That...isn't good."
"Well, not exactly," Aang replied. "They think we kidnapped you."
Zuko froze, then busted out laughing. "Oh wow...well, it's better than nothing."
He looked up from his impromptu resting spot against Appa and saw Sokka and Katara...with something in their mouths. "What are they sucking on?"
"Frogs!" Aang said cheerfully.
Zuko had used stranger remedies. "Well, they're going to be in for a shock when they finally wake up..."
---
Author's Note: This takes place in the same timeline as The Blue Spirit in canon. In this case, Zuko actually didn't have his blue spirit gear, having left it with his Uncle in the Pier. Actually, we haven't seen Iroh in a while. Hm.
Also, this is the last chapter in the backlog. A while ago, I was inspired to actually write this story by another fic that had Aang be captured and then have Zuko's infiltration gambit work, bringing Aang to the firelord. I thought 'oh, this is cool but...wouldn't the Avatar State have gotten him out of jail?' so...here we are. Where the Avatar State got him out of jail. Updates are going to be sparse from now on, or at least as often as I can get out.
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, Russel Beatrous and Richard Whereat. Thank you for your continued support.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon
---
Zhao held the letter in his hands, a grin painting itself across his face until it morphed into a full-on smile, as he read the contents, Colonel Shinu reading over his shoulder.
"It appears that I have been promoted to Admiral," Zhao said, turning to the colonel while wearing his grin. "My request is now an order."
Shinu bowed.
Finally.
Zhao had been waiting for his promotion for months and now he had everything he needed to start pulling everything he could for his passion project, the one that got him promoted to the post of Admiral in the first place, in addition to all his loyal and competent service: The Invasion of the North Pole.
Zhao the Moonslayer. He could already see it now. The parades in his honor and for the honor of the men in his command. The Northern Water Tribe subjugated and beaten, their foul waterbenders in chains.
But still, he had two very important tasks to take care of before the Invasion could truly be considered foolproof.
The first, the capture of the Avatar and execution of his two friends.
The second, the safe return of the exiled Prince Zuko before he was delivered to the Northern savages or the Earth Kingdom.
Plus, if the Prince Zuko, now by all reports a calm, collected and spirits preserve them, dignified Prince of the Fire Nation caught the Avatar thanks to Zhao's efforts, the future Firelord would be in his debt.
If he were still that mouthy, cowardly child who earned the scar over his eye, Zhao wouldn't even consider helping him. The Firelord would have Zuko assassinated before he could take the throne because of the danger his rule would present to the Nation and possibly himself because they would apparently be 'close allies'.
"From the most recent reports, the Avatar was seen traveling in this area," Zhao said. "I want the Archers to go hunting."
It was time to capture this giant spanner in the works of his plan.
---
"He's got a raging fever," Katara said, holding the back of her hand against Sokka's forehead. "The tea hasn't worked, so he'll need something stronger."
"Can't you just, I don't know, bend the sickness out of him?" Aang asked with worry.
"I can try," Katara said, bending water out of her water skin and slipping it into Sokka's sleeping bag. Her face screwed together in concentration for a moment, before she gave up with a sigh. "It's no good. It's like his chi has been infected and I don't know how to clean it."
She replaced the water and Sokka started coughing in his sleep.
"Well, at least he's not muttering about how Appa can talk," Zuko said with a bemused smirk.
"Hey, Sokka's really sick so can you lay off the jokes?" Katara snapped.
Zuko just shrugged, and said nothing further.
"If we could get-" Katara began, only to be cut off by a coughing fit.
"You okay?" Aang asked, now very concerned.
"It's just a little cough," Katara replied with a fake cheer. "Nothing to worry about."
The two healthy members of their party were unconvinced.
"There's an herbalist institute not far from here," Aang said, extending his gliders wings. "At least, there was one a hundred years ago. If it's still there, they'll know how to treat you both. Zuko, could you look after them?"
"Sure," Zuko replied as Aang flew off. "Not like I can do anything else."
He looked up then sighed and started muttering to himself. "Alright, Zuko. Lets get some more tea going...going to need some more water..."
He grabbed the water skin that had been left on the stone floor of the ruins and turned to Katara. "Hey, I'm off to get more water. Try to take it easy, alright?"
"Alright," Katara nodded, coughing some more. She slid, slowly and carefully into her sleeping bag. "We'll be here."
Zuko was pretty disappointed. The ruins of Taku were always a great place to sight see; the old city had once been a vibrant city of commerce, transporting cargo trading, people going in and out on their ways out, before the Fire Nation had ransacked the city. The history of this place was thick enough to taste...and the two siblings had to spend the trip sick.
He had been here once before, so he knew that there was a stream that ran through the town where he could refill the skin. As he left their campsite, Momo hopped on Zuko's shoulder to accompany him, making the Prince pause for a moment before he continued on.
---
"But I need it now!" Aang shouted in exasperation.
"Ah ah, patience young man," The elderly herbalist lightly tapped the Avatar's nose with a small, wooden spoon. "Your friends will be fine and these things take time. Now, as I was saying..."
---
"Thank you," Katara croaked out as Zuko tipped the tea into her mouth.
"Don't mention it," Zuko replied. "I owe you one, remember?"
"No, you don't," Katara rebutted weakly. "We're supposed to look out for each other."
He just hummed in response, taking a seat by the fire and started to meditate, causing it to rise and fall in time with his breathing.
"Zuko?" Katara started. "I'm sorry Roku threatened you."
"What do you mean?" Zuko asked with a frown.
"When we first met," Katara clarified, starting to cough. "You didn't want to join the group and then Roku showed up and threatened doom and..."
She devolved into a full on coughing fit and Zuko set the pot of water on the rack above the fire. "It's fine, Katara."
"No it's-" Katara coughed again. "Not."
"Look, Roku threatening me wasn't the reason I joined you guys," Zuko replied with an annoyed grunt.
"It wasn't?"
"No."
"Then why did you join us?" Katara asked.
Zuko stoked the fire a moment, thinking. "Because I saw a way out."
"Of the Fire Nation?" Katara asked.
Zuko hummed before responding. "Yes...and no."
Katara grunted in confusion.
"When we met, I was stuck," Zuko continued. "I was floating without a real purpose or any way forward. It's why I lost my bending. I wanted to keep exploring the world, but news of the Avatar's return made that difficult, because the crew of my ship took the news of the Avatar's return as a sign that they might be able to return home. To finally finish their mission, go back to the Fire Nation as heroes. But I wanted nothing to do with it."
Katara blinked, but was listening.
"I wanted to see the world, keep learning about bending...but beyond that, I didn't know what I wanted." Zuko poured some more tea and moved over to Katara and feed her some more. "I knew I wanted the Fire Nation to lose, but I didn't want everyone to know I was a traitor. I didn't want to be tied to my crew anymore, but I didn't want to lose my Father's coin."
Zuko took the cup back and made sure she got it down. "But then I met you and you, well, gave me the ability to move on. You gave me the ability to see the world without my Father's coin and the ability to learn the other Bending arts. All at the cost of faking my death."
"I'm sorry," Katara croaked out.
Zuko shook his head. "I didn't ever want to go back anyway."
"But you didn't want your Mom to know," Katara coughed out. "Right?"
"Right," Zuko replied with a nod.
It was at this point that Katara fell asleep, her eyes falling closed as the conversation had taken its toll on her. Zuko looked down and shook his head.
"But now I'm wondering which one is worse..."
---
"What happens when they thaw?"
"They're useless!"
---
With both Sokka and Katara asleep, Zuko had decided to practice his water forms. With the campfire lit and licking the teapot suspended over the campfire with heat and smoke, Zuko took the flames and bent them in rings around his shoulders, flipping it around his arms and between his legs in one smooth motion.
But he wasn't just practicing just for a sake of it, he needed to understand something.
When you performed Waterbending, you were joining the flow of water and redirecting it. It 'obeyed' you and went where you wanted it too because that's where the current was flowing and for all intents and purposes it was going over there anyway, and there just happened to be in your best interests.
If this idea of 'current' could be applied to fire and lightning, what else could it affect? Could it affect the way a person's life turned out? Could it change the outcome of a series of events? Could this finally be the thing that gave Zuko control over his own destiny?
Destiny.
That old albatross around his neck, the manacle he couldn't dislodge, his Uncle's favorite word as of late. Zuko honestly couldn't think of a worse pestilence of filth and disease hanging over his head than the thing that ruled his every move. Even Avatar Roku had claimed destiny when he told Zuko to join Aang.
Or at least very close too it.
It aggravated him, now that he was thinking about it, but getting angry could wait.
If destiny was a current, if life was a current, it had an ending. A river or an ocean or a puddle that it would flow into. A conclusion that happened at the end as a result of the actions that he had taken or been forced into. So what was the end of this road Zuko was on?
He would go on adventures with the Avatar, meeting members of the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom. He'd go on making friends, possibly close friendships with members of each group and teach Aang Firebending when he was ready. Then, when Aang had defeated his father, there would need to be a new Firelord. A Firelord who desired peace, who had diplomatic connections to the other nations and could be trusted on both sides of the negotiation.
That person would be Zuko.
His Uncle even said it was his destiny to become Firelord.
Zuko took a deep breath, the fire circling his body flaring out in strength and power.
Now that he saw where the current led, he needed to know how to change it. Of course, the way to do that was obvious.
He had to separate from the Avatar.
Zuko fed the fire back into the flame pit and pulled out another stream.
But the problem was that he wanted to teach the Avatar Firebending. He did. Aang seemed like an eager student with a lot of potential and if anything, the Avatar was the perfect person to see if anything he was learning about bending actually held water. Eventually, Aang would be teaching him Water or at least Earthbending.
What he wanted now versus what he wanted in the future.
The same dilemma he was in when he met Aang.
He now had the drive but not the means to accomplish all of his goals and it was maddening.
Besides, if he left now and the Fire Nation came to their campsite with Sokka and Katara too sick to do anything, he would be kicking himself until the end of time.
So he'd bide his time until the opportunity came to change the current came along. Besides, he needed to get good at changing currents first and he'd hate to mess this up.
---
Aang hated being jailed.
He couldn't tell what was worse, being contained in a box or having all of his limbs chained to posts so he couldn't bend.
The door in front of him opened and in entered a Fire nation guy, with sideburns so thick he wondered if they could be considered tiny jungles growing on the sides of his face.
"Well, well. The Avatar," Sideburns said, glaring down at him. "When I sent the Yuyan Archer's out to hunt for you, I didn't think they'd just magic you out of a hat."
"I guess they're just that good," Aang snipped, glaring up at him. "Who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Admiral Zhao. And while I'd love to sit here and bicker with a child all night, I have important things to do. Where is Prince Zuko?"
"Oh, uh," Aang started, looking around the room while he tried desperately to recall what they did. "Didn't he die in the, uh, explosion?"
Zhao smirked. "I'm afraid your trick with the Dragonlily juice failed. I know you kidnapped him. Now answer the question, Avatar. Where is he?"
Aang's eyes went wide. "I don't know!"
"You don't know," Zhao repeated, decidedly unimpressed. "Why not?"
"Because," Aang began. "We dropped him off with the Earth Kingdom after we left the pier. I don't know where he is! You'll never find him!"
Zhao's eyebrow raised in irritation. "Is that so?"
"Yeah!"
"When did you drop him off?" Zhao asked.
"Uh," Aang stopped. "I don't remember?"
"Perhaps we can jog your memory?" Zhao said, frowning deeply and glaring dangerously down at the twelve year old.
Whatever the Admiral had in mind was stopped dead in its tracks when a frog hopped out from the inside of Aang's collar. Then another. And another. "What? No, no! Please! Go back to being frozen!"
Zhao blinked, looking at the frog and then at Aang.
"What are the frogs for?"
"My friends are sick!" Aang started to plead. "Please, they'll die if they don't suck on those frogs!"
Admiral Zhao had used stranger remedies. "Is that so? Well, I'll offer you a deal, Avatar. You tell me where Prince Zuko is, or give me every possible detail you can remember to lead to his safe retrieval as well as the location of your camp, and I'll send a detachment of troops out to retrieve some frogs for them. They'll even deliver."
"But-" Aang started.
"I wouldn't take too long to decide," Admiral Zhao said over his shoulder. "I imagine those frogs won't be frozen during daylight and as you so poignantly pointed out, your friends don't have much time."
The Cell door shut behind Zhao and Aang was left to his thoughts.
He hated being locked up.
Aang tried to meditate, but the sound of the croaking frogs only drove the message that he needed to escape into his skull, forcing him out of his trance each time he tried. A frog leaped out of his collar, another out of his sleeve.
"Wait! No! Stop!" Aang pleaded with the amphibians as they jumped around the cell, croaking and dragging their frozen arms and legs on the ground. "Go back to being frozen! My friends need you!"
This continued until Aang had no more frogs.
He couldn't just tell the Fire Nation where Sokka and Katara were. If Zuko didn't fight them off, he'd just get captured.
The boy monk froze in his binds.
Katara is going to die.
Then the Avatar's cell filled with light.
---
It had happened so quickly.
First, the explosion. Cries of panic and war as the garrison rallied to contain the threat.
Then, the hurricane winds billowing through the fort, blowing dust and dirt in cyclones, ripping the Fort apart like knives were cutting through the air. A tidal wave broke through the southern wall and in the center of the chaos floated the Avatar.
His tattoos glowing with spiritual energy. His clothes whipping and snapping in the wind. His twelve year old face twisted to show wrath that was older than time itself.
Just as quickly as it started, it ended.
Fort Pouhai was in ruins. The walls were completely destroyed and the main tower with them.
At his feet, the wooden ruins of the fort where strewn about to the treeline. With a roar of anger, the debris was set ablaze. With a roar of rage and frustration, the flames became an inferno.
Zhao felt like he should have seen this coming. He had seen it before, after all; at the Fire Temple on Winter Solstice. He had assumed that invoking the power of past Avatars was a one time thing, something he could only do at places of high spiritual power.
But of course it stood to reason that the Avatar had a defense mechanism. The cycle would've been broken long before Firelord Sozin was even a thought if it hadn't.
Zhao allowed the flames to die down, even as his fists were still trembling with rage.
He should have seen this coming.
What use did a force of nature have for bargains?
This was his fault.
At that moment, the Admiral vowed that he would not make this mistake again.
He turned on his heel and came face to face with Colonel Shinu. "Start looking for survivors! I want the wounded to get treatment immediately!"
---
"Zuko!" Aang shook his instructor awake.
Zuko was awake immediately. "Aang? About time! What took so long?"
"I got captured," Aang said quickly. "But listen, they know you're not dead."
"Wait, what?" Zuko asked, alarmed. "How?"
"The Admiral there, Zhao," Aang spoke quickly. "He saw through the dragon-lily juice."
Zuko blinked. "Zhao's an admiral?"
Aang nodded.
"Okay then," Zuko said with some dismay. "So the Fire Nation knows I turned traitor after all. That...isn't good."
"Well, not exactly," Aang replied. "They think we kidnapped you."
Zuko froze, then busted out laughing. "Oh wow...well, it's better than nothing."
He looked up from his impromptu resting spot against Appa and saw Sokka and Katara...with something in their mouths. "What are they sucking on?"
"Frogs!" Aang said cheerfully.
Zuko had used stranger remedies. "Well, they're going to be in for a shock when they finally wake up..."
---
Author's Note: This takes place in the same timeline as The Blue Spirit in canon. In this case, Zuko actually didn't have his blue spirit gear, having left it with his Uncle in the Pier. Actually, we haven't seen Iroh in a while. Hm.
Also, this is the last chapter in the backlog. A while ago, I was inspired to actually write this story by another fic that had Aang be captured and then have Zuko's infiltration gambit work, bringing Aang to the firelord. I thought 'oh, this is cool but...wouldn't the Avatar State have gotten him out of jail?' so...here we are. Where the Avatar State got him out of jail. Updates are going to be sparse from now on, or at least as often as I can get out.
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, Russel Beatrous and Richard Whereat. Thank you for your continued support.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon
Last edited:
- Location
- Elsewhere
What abomination of medicine does the fire nation even employ for this sentiment to be so prevalent?
- Location
- USA
It's more a statement about how both are so well travelled that they've had to use some pretty ridiculous medicine to stay alive at some point.
Still, you made me laugh. Have a cookie.
The Fortune Teller
- Location
- USA
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.
---
The moon hung over the starry sky like a coin of water tribe silver. Surrounded by a blanket of stars and shadow, she watched over the earth beneath as sentinel, calm and to the great frustration of those below her, silent.
Beneath her, working at the stream and impatiently fuming, was Katara.
"C'mon, Moon! Work with me here!" She shouted, holding her hands up like she were entreating the heavenly body to bestow great wisdom upon her.
Watching her trying to learn on the shore was Aang, who looked concerned, as well as Sokka and Zuko, who were both trying to avoid laughing. Sokka was biting his finger. Zuko was letting little dark clouds out the side of his mouth, like he was smoking a pipe.
Katara stood again, and tried to perform the water whip. The water emerged from the stream and once again, slapped her across the face. "Why are you like this?"
Sokka lost it, braying like a mule and clutching his stomach. Zuko accidentally swallowed the smoke he had been exhaling and dissolved into a coughing fit, but recovered fairly quickly.
"Uh...Katara?" Aang asked. "Are you okay?"
"No! No, I am not okay!" Katara fumed, storming up to the camp from the shore. "I don't care what that sage said, the Moon is not a teacher!"
"Maybe you're just a poor student," Zuko snipped, grinning from ear to ear.
"A poor student?" Katara repeated with all the wrath of an offended goddess. "Now listen here you stupid little fire-flake, how is anyone supposed to learn from a giant, inanimate object flying through the sky that doesn't talk to anyone?"
"I have no idea," Zuko answered, still grinning.
"Then how am I a poor student?" Katara demanded, her face scrunched up like Momo's when Sokka played keep-away with the berries for too long.
"Katara?" Aang tried to butt in, calmly and politely.
"You keep making the water smack you in the face," Zuko pointed out, trying to avoid laughing again.
"That's not my fault!" Katara retorted. "I just haven't even been told how to do the technique properly!"
"Katara?" Aang tried to interject.
"The Avatar's been showing you how to do it since you met me," Zuko replied, an arched eyebrow joining his newly subdued grin.
Katara threw her hands up in the air and growled in rage before storming off.
"Katara?" Aang tried a third time.
Katara whirled to face Aang. "WHAT?"
Aang blinked and took a deep breath. "We need to meditate."
"What good would that do?" Katara barked.
"You can't receive spiritual instruction when you aren't centered," Aang started to stand just a little straighter. "If you're letting yourself get frustrated and angry, then it becomes really hard to get in tune with the spiritual aspect of bending. So let's go back down to the river and meditate. Okay?"
Katara let out a petulant breath. "Fine."
They both walked down to the river bank and Zuko had a thoughtful look on his face.
Sokka looked up at his fire bending compatriot with a curious look on his own face. "Whatcha thinking about?"
"What Aang just said," Zuko said with a shrug. "About anger getting in the way of the more spiritual side of bending."
"What about it?" Sokka asked.
"Firebending, for the grand majority of the fire nation now, if fueled by anger," Zuko explained. "But if anger just gets in the way, then it makes sense why there's fewer benders in the fire nation."
"I don't get it," Sokka replied, confusion coloring his face.
"Well, bending is inherently spiritual in nature," Zuko continued. "So if anger just gets in the way of spirituality, and the fire nation is fueled by anger and hate, then there's less spirituality and then, less benders."
"But if anger just gets in the way of spiritual mumbo-jumbo," Sokka pressed, looking annoyed as he tried to figure it out. "How does it fuel fire bending?"
"Well, the pure fuel of fire bending is drive," Zuko explained. "Anger and hate bring a kind of drive. The drive to hurt someone, see them suffer. But it's not as good as pure drive."
"Then why did it take over as the fire nation's bending fuel?" Sokka asked.
"Because a spiritually aware fire nation isn't a fire nation that would fight a war against the whole world," Zuko replied. "Which adds yet another reason to see Sozin's war burn."
"Did you need another?" Sokka asked with a smirk.
"Well, you can't really have too many, can you?"
"Point."
Down by the river, Aang and Katara were sitting on their knees in the soft sand.
"Deep breath in, deep breath out," Aang said. "Just let your mind empty. Everything is okay. Feel the air around you. Hear the river course along. Just take a deep breath. Let the mind empty like a pitcher of water."
Katara took a breath.
Then exhaled.
She took another breath.
Then exhaled.
Yet another breath.
Her snarl of frustration startled Aang.
"Just forget it," Katara said, standing up and walking back toward the camp. "It's not working, I'm not getting anything."
"Katara," Aang entreated.
"I said forget it!"
Zuko blinked in annoyance, but figured it was useless to try to talk to her right now.
"A fortune teller?" Aang asked, sounding kind of excited.
The group was gathered over Aang's map, with Zuko's additions added in charcoal marks.
"Yeah," Zuko replied. "I thought about seeing her when I was feeling desperate."
"Why didn't you go see her at all?" Aang asked curiously.
"Because I had eyes, ears and a brain," Zuko replied, deadpan.
"See, that's what I'm saying," Sokka said, animatedly gesturing toward the map. "It's a load of platypus bear droppings. You can't possibly predict the future."
"I think it sounds fun," Katara said, looking like she was feeling better since last night. "Let's go, get our future read and see if any of her predictions come true!"
"Anything she gets right would just be a lucky guess," Sokka argued. "Seriously, you can't predict the future. That whole thing is just dumb."
"Well, if people than bend the elements through spiritual mumbo jumbo," Zuko began, echoing the water tribal's words right back at him. "Then telling the future can't be that far fetched."
"Everything can be explained through rational and intelligent observation," Sokka argued.
"And fortune telling," Katara snipped with a smug grin.
"Hey, no! No!" Sokka snapped in annoyance. "All fortune telling is just a bunch of generalized predictions couched in vague suggestions and sometimes fancy pyrotechnics."
"Sokka, is there a reason a fortune teller makes you this upset?" Zuko asked curiously.
"Their frauds!" Sokka snapped with a huff.
"I heard Old Man Jarko played a prank on him and some of the other kids by pretending to be an evil spirit that would roam through the village at night," Katara explained. "He had them going for a whole week before our dad stepped in and put a stop to it. Since then, he's never believed a word about spirit stuff."
"Hey, he didn't fool me," Sokka denied with all the passion he could muster without screaming. "I knew it couldn't have been an evil spirit because I kept calm and examined the facts. Everything can be explained by scientific examination. Including bending."
"That scientific examination points to spiritual mumbo jumbo," Aang said with a bright, mischievous smile.
Sokka groaned, getting right up in Aang's face and tapping his chest with a finger. "You are not helping."
"Besides, if it's all fake, then what can it hurt?" Zuko asked, shrugging. "We can all use a good laugh."
Sokka sighed in defeat. "Fine!"
The fortune teller was an old lady, called by the name of Aunt Wu. Uncle Iroh would've liked her, she was old and full of wisdom that she preferred to cloak behind a veil of mystery and mysticism. And, if he understood correctly, she had a reliable way of predicting the weather by watching the clouds.
Zuko was the last of the group to go see her. Aang had apparently gone to eavesdrop on Katara's meeting and came back looking smug and triumphant, but wouldn't say why. Sokka's reading had taken place at their first meeting, and to Zuko's delight, she had said that Sokka was someone heading for disaster, and it would be all his fault.
Zuko adjusted his seat in the dark room, the only light being the fire directly in the center.
"We cast the bone into the fire and watch the cracks," Aunt Wu explained, holding a femur. "Those will tell us how things are going to turn out."
"Go ahead," Zuko said with a nod. He had no idea how that would actually work, but there were a lot of things that Zuko didn't understand how they worked. Metallurgy, Tai Lee, the machinations of the royal court; but he didn't need to understand them to accept that they existed.
Aunt Wu did so. Zuko watched closely as the bone started to crack down the middle, forking to two separate paths.
He could guess what those paths were. He sighed at the triteness of it all.
"You have a very set and defined road ahead of you," Aunt Wu said. "Interestingly, both paths lead to royalty and family. See the crown at the end of both of them? Combined with the tree crack."
"I'm afraid I don't," Zuko replied diplomatically.
Aunt Wu hummed. "Well, the first path you are already on, because it's crack starts before the other. It's a good one, relatively straight forward. You are traveling with the Avatar, but the alternative path will open it's doors to you soon. It is marked, if I'm reading this right, by betrayal."
"Why would I betray the Avatar?" Zuko asked with a frown.
"Given how thin the crack is, I don't think it's likely, but the start of the break has the Family Tree," Aunt Wu said, pointing at the crack. "So, if you do decide down that path, then it will be due to family."
Zuko rolled his eyes. "But both paths lead to Royalty?"
"They do," Aunt Wu said. "You don't don't sound surprised."
"I don't want the crown," Zuko replied. "I don't want the crown. Or my family, even. Is there a way to change fate?"
Aunt Wu hummed. "Many in my profession would insist that there is no way to change your fate. But they would be lying. Fate can be changed. But it is a difficult thing, simply because so many forces are hurrying you along this path."
"Like swimming against the current," Zuko said, his frown deepening.
"A good metaphor," Aunt Wu replied with a nod of approval. "Young man, fate is what we make of it. It is the long term consequences of our actions and behavior over a long period of time. Right now, your actions and behavior are setting you on this path. The reason fortune telling works, to a point, is because people don't usually change."
"You sure?" Zuko asked flatly.
"Don't sass me, young man," Aunt Wu replied, a smirk betraying her wry amusement. "A person may grow, their old wounds may heal and they might transcend their weaknesses, but their fundamental character remains the same. They are who they are."
"So if someone changes, they didn't really change," Zuko said, reflectively staring into the fire. "They just grew."
"Exactly," Aunt Wu's smirk grew to a smile. "A cunning gardener who cares for a tree may want their tree to grow a specific way and they be able to carry out their vision; but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot ignore the roots, or how the tree has already grown."
"So I'm doomed," Zuko said, glaring at the bone. "At least, that's what the bone says."
"No, no, no," Aunt Wu shook her head. "Have you not been listening? Changing fate is possible. You just need to take charge of how you grow."
Zuko's glare toward the bone intensified.
Aunt Wu hummed in thought. "What does a Gardner do with a tree with branches that are growing out of line?"
Zuko shrugged, having not even the slightest idea.
"They prune them," Aunt Wu replied. "By pruning branches that have grown out of line, the tree flourishes because it is able to put its energies into the growth of the trunk."
"What if the trunk is the thing I don't want to grow?" Zuko asked.
"A crown is not a trunk," Aunt Wu replied, waving that off without so much as a pause for consideration. "It's only a station. A profession. Something that you may be well suited for, a place where you may spare the world a great deal of pain and devastation, but merely a station. The thing about stations is that there are always multiple candidates for the position."
Like Uncle Iroh, Zuko thought with a smirk. Then a thought occurred to him. "Do you know which crown we're talking about?"
"From the scar, I guessed," Aunt Wu said. "But don't worry, young man. Your secret's safe with me."
Zuko just shrugged, and glowered down at the burning bone. "It's just a scar."
"Indeed," Aunt Wu agreed.
"So...Zuko?" Aang began. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"No, I'm not going to show you how to make sparks by snapping your fingers," Zuko droned with a thoroughly bored look at his bald pupil.
"No, no, no!" Aang rapidly shook his head in agitation. "That's not what it's about. It's well...I don't know. Uh...are you, I don't know um...how do I say this?"
Zuko placed his hands behind his back and waited.
"Are you...do you have a girlfriend?" Aang asked.
"Is this about your crush on Katara?" Zuko asked trying and failing to keep the smirk off of his face.
"Not so loud!" Aang said, rapidly looking around in embarrassed fervor.
"Okay," Zuko replied, indulging his student by lowering his volume. "But is it?"
The answer was strained, like it had to be forcibly wrung out of him like filth from a wet flag. "Yes."
Zuko hummed. "Well, no. I don't have a girlfriend. There was a girl back in the fire nation, but I haven't seen her in years. And I'm not looking, anyway."
"You're not looking," Aang repeated, relief washing the worry off of his face like a tsunami.
"Yeah. Not looking," Zuko replied. "I'm really not in a position to be dating someone and honestly, it'd just be a distraction."
"Whew! Okay," Aang said with a grin. "Thanks, Zuko!"
"Why do you ask?" Zuko asked with a crooked eyebrow.
"Oh," Aang froze, looking straight to the side. "No reason. I just, uh...wow, it's getting late, isn't it? I need to go grab some-"
"Aang," Zuko pressed, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop him from leaving.
"Look, it's no big deal," Aang deflected, shaking Zuko off. "I was just curious because she talks about you a lot. There's no way she really likes you or anything."
Zuko blinked, taken aback. "Huh. Okay then."
That made a strange amount of sense, but it didn't change anything. Zuko still wasn't interested, he had things to figure out.
"So, uh...see you!" Aang said, jumping away.
Zuko blinked, staring at him as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop like a flying lemur.
When it came to an erupting Volcano, Zuko was surprisingly disappointed. Not in the Volcano, watching it spew fire and molten death into the sky was the greatest thing that he had ever seen, but rather in himself; he had been completely unable to do anything.
There was a common misconception, Zuko had found, that fire benders could bend lava. He didn't know if that was actually true, but what he did know was that he couldn't do it. So the best he could do was watch his three friends turn away the very destruction that had claimed the life of Aang's predecessor so long ago.
He could not assist the town's earth benders as they dug a trench to redirect the lava currents. By the time he had found out about the disaster, Aang and Katara had formulated a plan to use the clouds to fool Aunt Wu.
Zuko couldn't assist the Earth Benders as they dug a trench around the town. He couldn't bend the lava away. They didn't even have enough shovels for him.
Not for the first time, Zuko felt like an extra. A parasite.
Like he didn't belong.
Even with his bending back, Avatar Aang wasn't ready for instruction. Katara's infatuation, if it actually existed or if Aang was merely imagining it, was causing a division in the group. Though, frankly, Aang was only hyper focused on her because she was a very pretty girl who would regularly talk to him.
Zuko wasn't entirely sure that a tribal girl whose main worries were taking care of her village would do well permanently adopting the nomadic lifestyle of the Avatar. She might've, but he doubted it.
"Zuko, what are you thinking about?" Katara asked.
He had been sitting in the little lobby outside of all their rooms, and Katara had sat down beside him. Sokka had his door open, sketching on a piece of paper as a way to pass the time until Katara went to bed; very sly of him, Zuko noted. Aang had hid behind a corner in the shadows in a surprisingly well executed maneuver. In front of him was a small candle, which he had been planning to use for meditation, but that had gotten away from him.
Zuko looked straight ahead. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You can trust me," Katara said with a small smile.
He very nearly snapped at her for ignoring what he said. But that would be bad. How to handle this diplomatically? "Katara. I appreciate that you want to help. Thank you. But I...do not want help. If I want help, I'll tell you, alright?"
Katara frowned like he had just hurt her feelings. "Are you sure? I can tell you're upset about something."
"You're right, I am," Zuko said with a nod. "And if I need help handling it, I'll ask for it. But until then, I want to handle it myself."
Katara sighed in disappointment. "Alright, fine I guess. I'll go to bed."
She stood up and walked off toward her room, muttering to herself. "Boys."
Zuko looked down and started focusing on the candle wick.
With a breath, it grew brighter and taller.
With a breath, the room was plunged into darkness.
Author's Note: So, I demonitized. I want to take the time to thank everyone who ever supported me in writing, it means the world to me. But...I fell below the bar, and didn't deserve the support. Here, let me post what I did in my post that explained why I did so.
Before I go into why, I want to thank everyone for their support. Don. Darkama. Chris, Melodychii, Niluka Satharasinghe, Sackthananban Kounlavong, Tlavoc, Zeroharm, Megrisvernin, Miu, Chris, Raven Uzushi, A Person, Nex19, Paloswag, Cole Deucalion, Jacob A Bridgewater, ladiciusevol, Steelcondor, Anonymous, Perseus Red, Trashmage, Ryan, Axodique, Vladtheinhaler, PostLifeSyndrome, Juane Pendragon and Samuel Reed as well as the Super Patrons Melden V, Anders Kronquist, Ray Tony Song, Volkogluk, Aaron Bjornson, iolande, Martin Auguado, Julio, Hackerham, Tim Collins-Squire, Maben00, Ventari, PbookR, ChristobalAlvarez, Apperatus, EPiCJB19, Seeking Raven, Handwran, Russel Beatrous and Richard Whereat. Thank you all so much for your continued support, it helped me out a lot. Words cannot describe my gratitude toward you and my love to you.
The reason it's gone is because, well, I've fallen below the bar. My writing schedule has fallen to pieces. I haven't updated weekly in months and I felt like I was letting everyone down. To say nothing about how I never wanted to make money off of my Fanfiction in the first place. I firmly believe that trying to profit off of my fanfiction did more damage to my writing than I will ever be able to quantify. I will never make this mistake again. If I want to monetize, it will be original fiction and I will do it by designing and selling shirts or something. That way the people who love the fic will be getting more than just a spot in the credits and I won't feel like I'm begging anymore.
Anyway, I hope this chapter was entertaining. It's a difficult time in the world right now and it was a terrible time to take a break...but I had too. Thanks all for your support.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon
---
The moon hung over the starry sky like a coin of water tribe silver. Surrounded by a blanket of stars and shadow, she watched over the earth beneath as sentinel, calm and to the great frustration of those below her, silent.
Beneath her, working at the stream and impatiently fuming, was Katara.
"C'mon, Moon! Work with me here!" She shouted, holding her hands up like she were entreating the heavenly body to bestow great wisdom upon her.
Watching her trying to learn on the shore was Aang, who looked concerned, as well as Sokka and Zuko, who were both trying to avoid laughing. Sokka was biting his finger. Zuko was letting little dark clouds out the side of his mouth, like he was smoking a pipe.
Katara stood again, and tried to perform the water whip. The water emerged from the stream and once again, slapped her across the face. "Why are you like this?"
Sokka lost it, braying like a mule and clutching his stomach. Zuko accidentally swallowed the smoke he had been exhaling and dissolved into a coughing fit, but recovered fairly quickly.
"Uh...Katara?" Aang asked. "Are you okay?"
"No! No, I am not okay!" Katara fumed, storming up to the camp from the shore. "I don't care what that sage said, the Moon is not a teacher!"
"Maybe you're just a poor student," Zuko snipped, grinning from ear to ear.
"A poor student?" Katara repeated with all the wrath of an offended goddess. "Now listen here you stupid little fire-flake, how is anyone supposed to learn from a giant, inanimate object flying through the sky that doesn't talk to anyone?"
"I have no idea," Zuko answered, still grinning.
"Then how am I a poor student?" Katara demanded, her face scrunched up like Momo's when Sokka played keep-away with the berries for too long.
"Katara?" Aang tried to butt in, calmly and politely.
"You keep making the water smack you in the face," Zuko pointed out, trying to avoid laughing again.
"That's not my fault!" Katara retorted. "I just haven't even been told how to do the technique properly!"
"Katara?" Aang tried to interject.
"The Avatar's been showing you how to do it since you met me," Zuko replied, an arched eyebrow joining his newly subdued grin.
Katara threw her hands up in the air and growled in rage before storming off.
"Katara?" Aang tried a third time.
Katara whirled to face Aang. "WHAT?"
Aang blinked and took a deep breath. "We need to meditate."
"What good would that do?" Katara barked.
"You can't receive spiritual instruction when you aren't centered," Aang started to stand just a little straighter. "If you're letting yourself get frustrated and angry, then it becomes really hard to get in tune with the spiritual aspect of bending. So let's go back down to the river and meditate. Okay?"
Katara let out a petulant breath. "Fine."
They both walked down to the river bank and Zuko had a thoughtful look on his face.
Sokka looked up at his fire bending compatriot with a curious look on his own face. "Whatcha thinking about?"
"What Aang just said," Zuko said with a shrug. "About anger getting in the way of the more spiritual side of bending."
"What about it?" Sokka asked.
"Firebending, for the grand majority of the fire nation now, if fueled by anger," Zuko explained. "But if anger just gets in the way, then it makes sense why there's fewer benders in the fire nation."
"I don't get it," Sokka replied, confusion coloring his face.
"Well, bending is inherently spiritual in nature," Zuko continued. "So if anger just gets in the way of spirituality, and the fire nation is fueled by anger and hate, then there's less spirituality and then, less benders."
"But if anger just gets in the way of spiritual mumbo-jumbo," Sokka pressed, looking annoyed as he tried to figure it out. "How does it fuel fire bending?"
"Well, the pure fuel of fire bending is drive," Zuko explained. "Anger and hate bring a kind of drive. The drive to hurt someone, see them suffer. But it's not as good as pure drive."
"Then why did it take over as the fire nation's bending fuel?" Sokka asked.
"Because a spiritually aware fire nation isn't a fire nation that would fight a war against the whole world," Zuko replied. "Which adds yet another reason to see Sozin's war burn."
"Did you need another?" Sokka asked with a smirk.
"Well, you can't really have too many, can you?"
"Point."
Down by the river, Aang and Katara were sitting on their knees in the soft sand.
"Deep breath in, deep breath out," Aang said. "Just let your mind empty. Everything is okay. Feel the air around you. Hear the river course along. Just take a deep breath. Let the mind empty like a pitcher of water."
Katara took a breath.
Then exhaled.
She took another breath.
Then exhaled.
Yet another breath.
Her snarl of frustration startled Aang.
"Just forget it," Katara said, standing up and walking back toward the camp. "It's not working, I'm not getting anything."
"Katara," Aang entreated.
"I said forget it!"
Zuko blinked in annoyance, but figured it was useless to try to talk to her right now.
* * *
"A fortune teller?" Aang asked, sounding kind of excited.
The group was gathered over Aang's map, with Zuko's additions added in charcoal marks.
"Yeah," Zuko replied. "I thought about seeing her when I was feeling desperate."
"Why didn't you go see her at all?" Aang asked curiously.
"Because I had eyes, ears and a brain," Zuko replied, deadpan.
"See, that's what I'm saying," Sokka said, animatedly gesturing toward the map. "It's a load of platypus bear droppings. You can't possibly predict the future."
"I think it sounds fun," Katara said, looking like she was feeling better since last night. "Let's go, get our future read and see if any of her predictions come true!"
"Anything she gets right would just be a lucky guess," Sokka argued. "Seriously, you can't predict the future. That whole thing is just dumb."
"Well, if people than bend the elements through spiritual mumbo jumbo," Zuko began, echoing the water tribal's words right back at him. "Then telling the future can't be that far fetched."
"Everything can be explained through rational and intelligent observation," Sokka argued.
"And fortune telling," Katara snipped with a smug grin.
"Hey, no! No!" Sokka snapped in annoyance. "All fortune telling is just a bunch of generalized predictions couched in vague suggestions and sometimes fancy pyrotechnics."
"Sokka, is there a reason a fortune teller makes you this upset?" Zuko asked curiously.
"Their frauds!" Sokka snapped with a huff.
"I heard Old Man Jarko played a prank on him and some of the other kids by pretending to be an evil spirit that would roam through the village at night," Katara explained. "He had them going for a whole week before our dad stepped in and put a stop to it. Since then, he's never believed a word about spirit stuff."
"Hey, he didn't fool me," Sokka denied with all the passion he could muster without screaming. "I knew it couldn't have been an evil spirit because I kept calm and examined the facts. Everything can be explained by scientific examination. Including bending."
"That scientific examination points to spiritual mumbo jumbo," Aang said with a bright, mischievous smile.
Sokka groaned, getting right up in Aang's face and tapping his chest with a finger. "You are not helping."
"Besides, if it's all fake, then what can it hurt?" Zuko asked, shrugging. "We can all use a good laugh."
Sokka sighed in defeat. "Fine!"
* * *
The fortune teller was an old lady, called by the name of Aunt Wu. Uncle Iroh would've liked her, she was old and full of wisdom that she preferred to cloak behind a veil of mystery and mysticism. And, if he understood correctly, she had a reliable way of predicting the weather by watching the clouds.
Zuko was the last of the group to go see her. Aang had apparently gone to eavesdrop on Katara's meeting and came back looking smug and triumphant, but wouldn't say why. Sokka's reading had taken place at their first meeting, and to Zuko's delight, she had said that Sokka was someone heading for disaster, and it would be all his fault.
Zuko adjusted his seat in the dark room, the only light being the fire directly in the center.
"We cast the bone into the fire and watch the cracks," Aunt Wu explained, holding a femur. "Those will tell us how things are going to turn out."
"Go ahead," Zuko said with a nod. He had no idea how that would actually work, but there were a lot of things that Zuko didn't understand how they worked. Metallurgy, Tai Lee, the machinations of the royal court; but he didn't need to understand them to accept that they existed.
Aunt Wu did so. Zuko watched closely as the bone started to crack down the middle, forking to two separate paths.
He could guess what those paths were. He sighed at the triteness of it all.
"You have a very set and defined road ahead of you," Aunt Wu said. "Interestingly, both paths lead to royalty and family. See the crown at the end of both of them? Combined with the tree crack."
"I'm afraid I don't," Zuko replied diplomatically.
Aunt Wu hummed. "Well, the first path you are already on, because it's crack starts before the other. It's a good one, relatively straight forward. You are traveling with the Avatar, but the alternative path will open it's doors to you soon. It is marked, if I'm reading this right, by betrayal."
"Why would I betray the Avatar?" Zuko asked with a frown.
"Given how thin the crack is, I don't think it's likely, but the start of the break has the Family Tree," Aunt Wu said, pointing at the crack. "So, if you do decide down that path, then it will be due to family."
Zuko rolled his eyes. "But both paths lead to Royalty?"
"They do," Aunt Wu said. "You don't don't sound surprised."
"I don't want the crown," Zuko replied. "I don't want the crown. Or my family, even. Is there a way to change fate?"
Aunt Wu hummed. "Many in my profession would insist that there is no way to change your fate. But they would be lying. Fate can be changed. But it is a difficult thing, simply because so many forces are hurrying you along this path."
"Like swimming against the current," Zuko said, his frown deepening.
"A good metaphor," Aunt Wu replied with a nod of approval. "Young man, fate is what we make of it. It is the long term consequences of our actions and behavior over a long period of time. Right now, your actions and behavior are setting you on this path. The reason fortune telling works, to a point, is because people don't usually change."
"You sure?" Zuko asked flatly.
"Don't sass me, young man," Aunt Wu replied, a smirk betraying her wry amusement. "A person may grow, their old wounds may heal and they might transcend their weaknesses, but their fundamental character remains the same. They are who they are."
"So if someone changes, they didn't really change," Zuko said, reflectively staring into the fire. "They just grew."
"Exactly," Aunt Wu's smirk grew to a smile. "A cunning gardener who cares for a tree may want their tree to grow a specific way and they be able to carry out their vision; but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot ignore the roots, or how the tree has already grown."
"So I'm doomed," Zuko said, glaring at the bone. "At least, that's what the bone says."
"No, no, no," Aunt Wu shook her head. "Have you not been listening? Changing fate is possible. You just need to take charge of how you grow."
Zuko's glare toward the bone intensified.
Aunt Wu hummed in thought. "What does a Gardner do with a tree with branches that are growing out of line?"
Zuko shrugged, having not even the slightest idea.
"They prune them," Aunt Wu replied. "By pruning branches that have grown out of line, the tree flourishes because it is able to put its energies into the growth of the trunk."
"What if the trunk is the thing I don't want to grow?" Zuko asked.
"A crown is not a trunk," Aunt Wu replied, waving that off without so much as a pause for consideration. "It's only a station. A profession. Something that you may be well suited for, a place where you may spare the world a great deal of pain and devastation, but merely a station. The thing about stations is that there are always multiple candidates for the position."
Like Uncle Iroh, Zuko thought with a smirk. Then a thought occurred to him. "Do you know which crown we're talking about?"
"From the scar, I guessed," Aunt Wu said. "But don't worry, young man. Your secret's safe with me."
Zuko just shrugged, and glowered down at the burning bone. "It's just a scar."
"Indeed," Aunt Wu agreed.
* * *
"So...Zuko?" Aang began. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"No, I'm not going to show you how to make sparks by snapping your fingers," Zuko droned with a thoroughly bored look at his bald pupil.
"No, no, no!" Aang rapidly shook his head in agitation. "That's not what it's about. It's well...I don't know. Uh...are you, I don't know um...how do I say this?"
Zuko placed his hands behind his back and waited.
"Are you...do you have a girlfriend?" Aang asked.
"Is this about your crush on Katara?" Zuko asked trying and failing to keep the smirk off of his face.
"Not so loud!" Aang said, rapidly looking around in embarrassed fervor.
"Okay," Zuko replied, indulging his student by lowering his volume. "But is it?"
The answer was strained, like it had to be forcibly wrung out of him like filth from a wet flag. "Yes."
Zuko hummed. "Well, no. I don't have a girlfriend. There was a girl back in the fire nation, but I haven't seen her in years. And I'm not looking, anyway."
"You're not looking," Aang repeated, relief washing the worry off of his face like a tsunami.
"Yeah. Not looking," Zuko replied. "I'm really not in a position to be dating someone and honestly, it'd just be a distraction."
"Whew! Okay," Aang said with a grin. "Thanks, Zuko!"
"Why do you ask?" Zuko asked with a crooked eyebrow.
"Oh," Aang froze, looking straight to the side. "No reason. I just, uh...wow, it's getting late, isn't it? I need to go grab some-"
"Aang," Zuko pressed, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop him from leaving.
"Look, it's no big deal," Aang deflected, shaking Zuko off. "I was just curious because she talks about you a lot. There's no way she really likes you or anything."
Zuko blinked, taken aback. "Huh. Okay then."
That made a strange amount of sense, but it didn't change anything. Zuko still wasn't interested, he had things to figure out.
"So, uh...see you!" Aang said, jumping away.
Zuko blinked, staring at him as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop like a flying lemur.
* * *
When it came to an erupting Volcano, Zuko was surprisingly disappointed. Not in the Volcano, watching it spew fire and molten death into the sky was the greatest thing that he had ever seen, but rather in himself; he had been completely unable to do anything.
There was a common misconception, Zuko had found, that fire benders could bend lava. He didn't know if that was actually true, but what he did know was that he couldn't do it. So the best he could do was watch his three friends turn away the very destruction that had claimed the life of Aang's predecessor so long ago.
He could not assist the town's earth benders as they dug a trench to redirect the lava currents. By the time he had found out about the disaster, Aang and Katara had formulated a plan to use the clouds to fool Aunt Wu.
Zuko couldn't assist the Earth Benders as they dug a trench around the town. He couldn't bend the lava away. They didn't even have enough shovels for him.
Not for the first time, Zuko felt like an extra. A parasite.
Like he didn't belong.
Even with his bending back, Avatar Aang wasn't ready for instruction. Katara's infatuation, if it actually existed or if Aang was merely imagining it, was causing a division in the group. Though, frankly, Aang was only hyper focused on her because she was a very pretty girl who would regularly talk to him.
Zuko wasn't entirely sure that a tribal girl whose main worries were taking care of her village would do well permanently adopting the nomadic lifestyle of the Avatar. She might've, but he doubted it.
"Zuko, what are you thinking about?" Katara asked.
He had been sitting in the little lobby outside of all their rooms, and Katara had sat down beside him. Sokka had his door open, sketching on a piece of paper as a way to pass the time until Katara went to bed; very sly of him, Zuko noted. Aang had hid behind a corner in the shadows in a surprisingly well executed maneuver. In front of him was a small candle, which he had been planning to use for meditation, but that had gotten away from him.
Zuko looked straight ahead. "I don't want to talk about it."
"You can trust me," Katara said with a small smile.
He very nearly snapped at her for ignoring what he said. But that would be bad. How to handle this diplomatically? "Katara. I appreciate that you want to help. Thank you. But I...do not want help. If I want help, I'll tell you, alright?"
Katara frowned like he had just hurt her feelings. "Are you sure? I can tell you're upset about something."
"You're right, I am," Zuko said with a nod. "And if I need help handling it, I'll ask for it. But until then, I want to handle it myself."
Katara sighed in disappointment. "Alright, fine I guess. I'll go to bed."
She stood up and walked off toward her room, muttering to herself. "Boys."
Zuko looked down and started focusing on the candle wick.
With a breath, it grew brighter and taller.
With a breath, the room was plunged into darkness.
* * *
Author's Note: So, I demonitized. I want to take the time to thank everyone who ever supported me in writing, it means the world to me. But...I fell below the bar, and didn't deserve the support. Here, let me post what I did in my post that explained why I did so.
Before I go into why, I want to thank everyone for their support. Don. Darkama. Chris, Melodychii, Niluka Satharasinghe, Sackthananban Kounlavong, Tlavoc, Zeroharm, Megrisvernin, Miu, Chris, Raven Uzushi, A Person, Nex19, Paloswag, Cole Deucalion, Jacob A Bridgewater, ladiciusevol, Steelcondor, Anonymous, Perseus Red, Trashmage, Ryan, Axodique, Vladtheinhaler, PostLifeSyndrome, Juane Pendragon and Samuel Reed as well as the Super Patrons Melden V, Anders Kronquist, Ray Tony Song, Volkogluk, Aaron Bjornson, iolande, Martin Auguado, Julio, Hackerham, Tim Collins-Squire, Maben00, Ventari, PbookR, ChristobalAlvarez, Apperatus, EPiCJB19, Seeking Raven, Handwran, Russel Beatrous and Richard Whereat. Thank you all so much for your continued support, it helped me out a lot. Words cannot describe my gratitude toward you and my love to you.
The reason it's gone is because, well, I've fallen below the bar. My writing schedule has fallen to pieces. I haven't updated weekly in months and I felt like I was letting everyone down. To say nothing about how I never wanted to make money off of my Fanfiction in the first place. I firmly believe that trying to profit off of my fanfiction did more damage to my writing than I will ever be able to quantify. I will never make this mistake again. If I want to monetize, it will be original fiction and I will do it by designing and selling shirts or something. That way the people who love the fic will be getting more than just a spot in the credits and I won't feel like I'm begging anymore.
Anyway, I hope this chapter was entertaining. It's a difficult time in the world right now and it was a terrible time to take a break...but I had too. Thanks all for your support.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon
- Location
- USA
- Location
- New York
This is really good