Embers: Chapter Four
Sep. 5th, 2025 07:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterghandalfThis is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains some violence and discussion of abuse.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, Zuko practiced fire healing, fought a spirit that had been summoned by a rape and murder (but mostly the murder), got a new ostrich horse, came clean with Iroh about Ursa’s involvement in Fire Lord Azulon’s death, reenacted “Zuko Alone” in brief, and we learned all about how Fire Nationals die if they break their loyalty. Whew. Today’s chapter is, fortunately, rather less heavy, as we catch up to the events of “The Chase” and encounter the fic’s version of the Gaang for the first time. Joining us today, and finally giving Zuko a chance to rest for a bit, will be Azula and Sokka!
Chapter 4
A/N: If you don't see a version here, you can assume events happened as-canon.
MG: On the one hand, fair enough – no need to recap events where we already know what happened, after all! And I can certainly sympathize – a big fanfic project of mine from back in the day (one where I sadly think I bit off more than I could chew, and which ultimately fizzled out) was my “Lu Ten lives/Iroh is Fire Lord” AU, and I definitely wrestled with the problem of “how to deal with elements that really wouldn’t be changed by the AU, and therefore can be skimmed over, without messing with the flow of the overall story too much?” I do think it’s a bit ironic in hindsight, though, considering the fic will end up massively diverging from canon while still expecting us to believe that all of Book One and the Gaang’s side of Book Two remain in continuity (along with some bits of Book Three that I think really would have been affected by Vathara’s other changes). And it’s just further evidence that, despite what I’ve seen some of its fans try to claim, the fic does not stand on its own.
This is too easy, Zuko thought darkly.
Sokka: Oh, boy. Put it that way, you’re just asking for trouble – you’d think Zuko of all people would know that!
They were alternating riding and walking through the grassland; not the fastest they could have gone, but he wanted Asahi in shape to run if things went wrong. And he had a lot more practice tracking that flying fur rug than Azula did.
Azula: …the beast was in his shedding season. Tracking him was not hard, I promise you that!
He could cut loops off the trail, see in advance obstacles the bison would have soared over and the tank had to crunch its way around, and work out their own route, easier than hers.
Sokka: Look, much as I hate to admit, we were so sleep-deprived that night that Appa was literally falling out of the sky at one point! That wasn’t normal! *beat* Maybe Zuko thought it was normal for us? That must’ve made it even more embarrassing for him that we kept beating him all the time!
MG: Actually, Vathara thinks that Zuko losing to you over and over again is actually proof of what a badass he is… but we’ll get to that later in the fic.
And it was definitely Azula. Who else could divert a valuable war machine out here, where there were no strategic objectives to be taken? Given that - he'd take every advantage he could get.
Azula: Any command level officer, perhaps? I do recall a report of Zhao pulling the Yu Yan archers off their ordinary duties to go hunting the Avatar… of course, Zhao was dead by this point, so that would limit the options to command level officers who were actively Avatar hunting, and I don’t know of any who were at the time… then again, last I’d met Zuzu it was him (and Uncle) I was after; I only decided to go after the Avatar later.
But it was too easy. And that had nothing to do with the trail, and everything to do with the older firebender currently humming that bawdy tune about girls in Ba Sing Se.
"You should be talking me out of this."
"Hmm?" Currently riding, Uncle Iroh gave him a look of bemused surprise.
"We're outnumbered."
"That is very likely," Iroh allowed.
Sokka: Welcome to our life!
"She's in better condition than we are." Azula hadn't spent more than two months injured and hungry, count on it. "She has access to supplies. Probably better maps, too, and we're heading into unknown territory."
"All true."
Sokka: …I do love a good map.
Azula: As do I… hmmm, maybe you’re not quite the oaf you make out to be…
Sokka: *discretely scoots away from her* I’m also taken, so don’t go getting any ideas *muttering* not that you’re my type anyway.
Azula: *smirks*
"She's flushed them out of at least two camps," Zuko went on. "She's got them on the run. They're reacting, not thinking. Meaning the Avatar's lost his best tactical asset." That idiot Water Tribe boy might be annoying as all hells - Zuko knew exactly where he was going to jam that boomerang, if he got the chance
Sokka: I think that would be uncalled for *pats his boomerang protectively* then again, the first time I met Zuko wasn’t exactly my finest hour, but I still remember his expression when Boomerang whacked him on the back of the head – guess he’s still sore about that, huh?
Azula: *snorts* That story I have to hear.
- but he was the closest thing the Avatar had to a strategic planner. If he was too tired and shaken to come up with a plan, the Avatar's little gang was screwed. "Sooner or later the bison's going to get tired - sooner, if they don't start thinking - and it'll be all over… why are you looking at me like that?"
MG: Well, I can tell you why I’m looking at you like that. Because while Zuko venting like this in this context makes sense… it’s also a symptom of the way that Vathara is going to continue depicting these characters here on out, with the Gaang as the stupid kids in over their heads who don’t know what they’re doing (Toph and sometimes Sokka excepted), while Zuko is the mature and worldly one who knows what’s best; we’ll start to see some of that before this chapter is done, in fact. So I have a hard time reading this just in the character’s voice, and so I’m going to start a counter here as well.
He Has Much To Learn: 1
Iroh was smiling at him, hands folded on the saddle's pommel. "A teacher is always pleased to know when his student has mastered the lesson."
Mastered the- never mind, even if he asked it wouldn't make sense.
Azula: …Zuzu, Uncle is trying to teach you to think both tactically and strategically. As much as I may needle you, I know your mind works reasonably well when you choose to use it. Surely you’ve gathered this by now?
"Uncle, this is a bad idea."
"It is," Iroh nodded. "You have summed up the worst of it quite well. If this were only a matter of your honor, nephew - yes, I would object. But it is not."
Sokka: *is overcome by a fit of snickering remembering Zuko’s Ember Island Players portrayal* Sorry about that… what was going on, again?
Only my honor? Only my- Wait. "It's not?" Zuko asked warily.
MG: …although now I’m reminded that “firebenders being obsessed with honor” was something that was apparently already the butt of jokes in Kyoshi’s time, based on the bit partway through the first Kyoshi novel where Rangi starts explaining to the group of smugglers she and Kyoshi have fallen in with how she’s sworn on her honor to be Kyoshi’s companion and protector… and everyone immediately starts groaning and cuts her off there, since they do not want to hear it.
"No." Iroh frowned. "Fire Lord Ozai wishes the Avatar alive, which is wise. Why hunt among the Water Tribes, who still resist, if we do not have to? You know Azula's power, and you believe she can capture the Avatar. That may be true. But you also know the Avatar's power. Can she hold him, nephew? Without killing him?"
A whirlpool rising out of southern polar seas, sweeping sailors from his ship. A massive, glowing thing at the North Pole, blasting through the Fire Navy's might. "…No."
Azula: *sniffs* Try me.
"And will she be humble enough to admit that she cannot?"
Sokka: *shoots a very pointed look at Azula*
Azula: …well. One would think Uncle, of all people, ought to know when to admit he’s wrong?
Azula, humble? The two words didn't even belong in the same universe. Wordless, Zuko shook his head.
"And if she does slay him…. Avatar Roku's fate may be known to some among the Fire Sages, none can say for certain. And our nation conquers in the wake of that uncertainty. If it were to become known that the royal family killed an Avatar - there would be no chance for peace in our colonies while this generation lives." Iroh regarded him gravely. "We are loyal to the Fire Nation. We must not allow this to happen."
Azula: And sometimes, in war, you don’t have a choice. When I had a shot at the Avatar – a shot at ending the Avatar lineage forever, if the sages are to be believed – I took it. It’s not my fault the boy refused to stay dead.
MG: Okay, so again, in this point here, Iroh is clearly invoking a pragmatic reason for why Zuko, who still views himself as loyal to the Fire Nation, should want to keep Aang alive. But I do think it’s still part of a trend for the fic where the consequences of the war for the Fire Nation specifically are prioritized narratively over other concerns. Not giving a point for anything here because again, it makes sense in context, it’s just something to keep in mind.
My people. The colonies were as close as he'd come to home for three years. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be there, either… but all nations came to trade in some of those ports, and on festival nights when everyone wore masks, even he could go unnoticed. It was worth being no one, to taste fire flakes and listen to people who sounded nothing like the Navy. "What should we do, Uncle?"
"You have laid out our disadvantages well," Iroh said thoughtfully. "Please, continue."
"This isn't a tactical exercise, Uncle!"
Azula: *looks back at her earlier comments* Clearly, it is. Listen to Uncle, Zuzu – you might actually learn something this time!
"Is it not?" Iroh regarded him with mild reproach. "Remember, nephew. The warrior whose anger rules him has already lost.
Sokka: Hey, I think we all know somebody who was like that! *makes a loud cough that sounds suspiciously like “Zhao”*
We have time. They are not near. Calm yourself, and consider the situation for all its outcomes. Even, perhaps, victory."
Treat it like an exercise. His blood boiled, he wanted to burn something - but that would be stupid, here in the middle of flammable grass. Though they had used that to their advantage, earlier; the pair of them controlling a circle of flame to flush out enough vole-rabbits for their first hearty meal in days. Asahi hadn't minded roasted cricket-mice, either.
And Azula thought it was stupid to read stories about primitive firebenders- stop. Stop right there. She's the obstacle, remember? Just… try not to think about her. Much.
Azula: *sniffs* Please. You had best be thinking about me, so you can come up with a plan in case you meet me – it’s what I would do, in your position! And what is wrong about reading about primitive firebenders, exactly? It’s always worthwhile to know where you came from, after all… *may or may not have had childhood fantasies of herself as a pre-unification Fire Islands warlord*
"We've probably got surprise," Zuko said at last. "She doesn't know we're here, or we'd know it by now." By way of lethal blue fire; no, she couldn't know.
Sokka: *rubbing the back of his head* Yeah, ‘cause she and her friends were kind of busy with us at the time…
"And the Avatar probably thinks we went down with the fleet." If he thinks about us at all. And he was not going to let that make him mad. He wasn't. If the Avatar underestimated him - well, good. He could use another edge.
Sokka: Hey, last we saw Zuko, he’d gotten away after the fight with Zhao at the Spirit Oasis. We didn’t try to go after him… we had, ah, other things to worry about at the time *sighs sadly, glances up at the sky* but I don’t think we ever really thought he was dead. We practically kept tripping over him on our way north, after all – guy was persistent!
Besides, it wasn't like it was personal. The Avatar was a kid. He underestimated everybody. After all, the so-called link between the two worlds hadn't seen Zhao's plan coming either….
MG: Zuko, it’s not like you saw Zhao’s plan coming, either – nor did Iroh, who is both and experienced general and has firsthand experience of the Spirit World, until Zhao spelled it out to him! But of course, Aang is at fault for not knowing, despite having no plausible way of knowing.
He Has Much To Learn: 2
Zuko frowned, trying to pin down that thought.
"Surprise may help," Iroh nodded. "What else? You have thought of something."
"I'm not sure it helps, Uncle…."
Iroh raised an eyebrow. "I am curious, nonetheless."
"They don't know what they're dealing with," Zuko said at last. "None of them do." Azula probably thought, of the two Water Tribe siblings, it was the waterbender who was dangerous. And sure, she was - but not nearly as dangerous as she and the Avatar were with her brother's plans backing them up.
Sokka: At least somebody acknowledges who the guy with the plans around here is! Wasn’t expecting it to be Zuko, but I’ll take it!
And as far as what the Avatar thought about Azula….
"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?"
"Spirits," Zuko hissed, "please tell me he's not that stupid."
Sokka: …he’s not that stupid. Seriously, I don’t always agree with all of Aang’s ideas, but he never thought trying to befriend Azula was a good idea, if that’s what you’re getting at. Didn’t take a lot for all of us to realize she was bad news.
Azula: I’ll take that as a compliment. *taps her chin thoughtfully* Though, imagine if I could have had the chance to convince the Avatar to trust me… imagine what I could do with that kind of power at my disposal… oh well, no use crying over spilled fire flakes. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. He’d fought Zuzu and Zhao too many times already, by the time we met.
MG: In any case, this does seem the time to bring up something that’s going to be another recurring element in the fic. I think Vathara takes issue both with Aang thinking he and Zuko could be friends, and with them actually becoming friends in the second half of Book Three. At the very least, the idea that Aang and Zuko will never, ever be friends and Aang is stupid for thinking otherwise is something various characters are going to keep bringing up across the fic and, warning for vague spoilers, while by the end of this fic Aang and Zuko are no longer active enemies, I certainly wouldn’t say they’re friends in any real sense, either. And it’s hard to escape the feeling that Vathara thinks Aang isn’t worthy of Zuko’s friendship, rather than the other way around. So… it just feels worth bringing up here, is all. And it’s something else to keep an eye on for later.
He Has Much To Learn: 3
Even as he said it, he had an awful suspicion the spirits were laughing at him.
Sokka: *shrugs* Hey, it’s more likely than you think.
When they found the decoy trail, it wasn't a suspicion anymore. "Uncle?"
"Yes, nephew?"
"If those monks weren't dead, I think I'd kill them all over again."
"Prince Zuko-"
"Washed bison fur? Forget the Avatar - don't those primitive, hunting Water Tribe peasants know any tracker could tell the difference? A blind hog-monkey could see through this!"
MG: Ooof. Zuko, I know you’re frustrated, but wishing the victims of genocide back alive – a genocide your family perpetrated, mind you – so you can kill them all over again is, shall we say, not good. Nor is the completely gratuitous bit of anti-Water Tribe racism. And sure, you could make an argument that Zuko is speaking from a moment of anger, he’s an unreliable source, we’re not supposed to agree with everything he says… but the fic is going to keep coming back to these sorts of ideas about the Air Nomads and Water Tribes, in a number of contexts and in different ways and so no, I can’t really let this bit go unmentioned, either. So keep this bit in mind for when we’re going to need to talk about it more later, and we’re giving some points:
Detached From Reality: 1
Simple Rubes From the Water Tribes: 2
Dismounting, Iroh coughed into his fist, eyes suspiciously alight. "A pity that we will not be able to tell him so."
"Oh, we will," Zuko snarled.
"He has his airstaff," Iroh observed, patting Asahi while she nibbled on spruce buds, apparently out of curiosity. "When he finishes laying his trail, he can simply fly away, without a trace."
"Which is why he won't," Zuko said grimly. "He's an airbender, Uncle. He thinks flying can get him out of anything. He's not going to do the smart thing, and retreat.
Azula: So the Avatar thinks flying away solves all his problems… and this is somehow why he elected to stand and face me? Surely the fact that he was sleep deprived and I’d been hounding him all night hadn’t convinced him he couldn’t escape and had to stand and fight, no, that would make sense. Sometimes I wonder about dear Zuzu’s logic…
He Has Much to Learn: 4
He's going to find a spot for an ambush, and he's going to wait. Only he's not going to ambush her. He's going to talk."
Iroh was silent a long moment, considering that. "Do not take this the wrong way, nephew… but I hope that you are wrong."
"…I know."
He wasn't.
MG: No, he wasn’t, because Zuko is the smart, worldly one in the fic, and so he must always (or almost always) be in the right.
Prince Stuko: 7 (giving a point here more on general principle)
"So, where is your nephew?"
Good question, Iroh thought, looking past the little blind earthbender.
Sokka: Oh, hey, Toph’s here now! I guess this is the first time she met Iroh, huh? Always did wonder how that one went down… and I guess we’re not getting any answers here, since we’ve dropped by in the middle of it!
MG: And while it’s not as bad as the “Zuko Alone” bits last chapter, I do think that it was important that when Toph and Iroh met and shared tea in canon, they were both on their own – Zuko had left Iroh, who was trying to catch up to him so he’d be there to help if he needed it, and Toph had stormed off from the Gaang in frustration. I always felt that context set up a lot of their dynamic, the way they befriended each other despite being on still-somewhat-opposing (Zuko and Iroh having left the Fire Nation but still doing their own thing and not on the Gaang’s side yet either) teams, and how they helped each other sort through things. I think it changes the dynamic a bit of Iroh and Zuko’s relationship is mostly fine right now, actually. It’s not terrible terrible, mind, just something that jumps out at me.
Stations of the Canon: 7
"Scouting ahead." Which had seemed best, one person alone on Asahi could retreat far faster…. "But he should have returned by now. I hope he has not run into something unexpected." Or worse, the one danger they did expect, that he had planned to face with his nephew.
Agni, let my nephew be sensible. Let him not try to take her alone.
Azula: *snorts* I’m sorry, but Zuko is not the sensible one in the family!
Assuming, of course, Zuko had a choice.
"Scouting?" Toph chuckled. "You make him sound like a whole army patrol."
Sokka: Ah, yes, because “scouting” clearly requires a whole patrol. Then again, from the way Fire Nation soldiers clomp around in all that armor, it doesn’t take a lot of them to sound like a patrol, am I right?
Azula: …not dignifying that.
Oops. "Ah, well. I was a soldier, a long time ago." And not long enough, sometimes. "Traveling… it brings back old memories."
"Huh." Her bare feet felt at the ground, like a fisherman absently knotting a net. "Well, I don't think there are any bad guys around here. Maybe he's just lost."
Azula: The earthbender brat knew I’d been chasing her and her friends all night. Either she’s lying to try and keep Uncle out of things, or she’s quite a bit more foolish than I’d thought and thought I’d given up already.
"Yes, he is. A little bit." Iroh smiled sadly. "Our lives have recently changed, and while I think much good may come of it, it has been difficult. My nephew has choices to make. Some, I did not even know he might have, when we began our journey. He doesn't know it yet, but he is trying to figure out who he is, and what he wants." He sighed. "It is hard, to even look down a path your father would not approve of." Belatedly, he remembered his guest. "Er, that is, I meant to say-"
"It's okay, I get you." Toph grinned, in a way he'd seen on some of the best firebenders in the service. Cocky, and with good reason.
MG: *snorts* Here’s how you can tell Vathara likes Toph – her very first scene in the fic has her be compared positively to firebenders! Okay, maybe I kid a bit on this specific thing… but not very much.
"He's an idiot, but he's your idiot. Want some help finding him?"
Hmm. Accept the aid of a young, if powerful, earthbender, and run the risk she'd turn them both over to the Earth Kingdom? Or refuse, and possibly find his nephew facing Azula?
Well. As he'd decided with the white jade, it wasn't much of a choice. "I would be honored to accept your assistance."
Sokka: …and he’d have been left feeling pretty embarrassed if Toph actually had been an Earth Kingdom spy (didn’t know they recruited them that young, but hey, guess they’ve got to start sometime). Someone had to say it!
"You're really worried," Toph said, not smiling. "What's wrong?"
Finishing his tea, Iroh sighed. "I believe there may be a small Fire Nation force nearby."
"What, here? In the middle of the kingdom?"
Iroh frowned. She didn't seem surprised….
Azula: *rubs her forehead* See my previous comment.
"Yeah, you do need help," Toph said decisively, dusting off green robes as she stood. "Let's go find some idiots."
Sokka: Why do I have a feeling Zuko’s not the only person she’s talking about there?
MG: Because Vathara is going to be portraying the three of you as idiots pretty consistently (well, you get off better than Aang or Katara, as we’ve seen a bit of… though that might not be better in the long run, considering what Vathara does to you when you get to the Fire Nation…)
Sokka: …and from that tone, I’m guessing it’s not gonna be another chapter in the Glorious Adventures of Wang Fire, War Hero, is it? *sighs, looks up at the sky* The spirits just really have it in for me sometimes, don’t they?
Azula: *shaking herself out of a stunned silence* I’m sorry, Wang Fire!?
"I would not say my nephew is an idiot," Iroh said judiciously. "Most of the time."
Toph snickered, picking up her bag as he packed away his teapot. "Your nephew's very lucky, even if he doesn't know it."
Iroh smiled ruefully. I doubt he would agree with you….
"Zuzu?" the Avatar laughed.
Sokka: Oh, great, now we’re just in the middle of this fight. Did Vathara just drop Azula on us without properly introducing her, even? Because, if so, wow.
It was like white-hot barbs under his skin. Don't let it get to you, Zuko seethed. Almost cursing himself for leaving his dao on Asahi. But Uncle had been adamant. Leave the swords - leave the very fact that skill existed - as a tile up his sleeve. Azula would never take him and sharp edges seriously, anyway. Unless he was trying to kill her. And he couldn't. Just - don't.
It wasn't helping. On one side of him, the living symbol of everything he'd fought for three years; the only thing between him and his honor, his throne, his country.
Father's love….
MG: Again, a pretty effective summation of Zuko’s emotions in the moment, and I like it… and I’d like it more if it weren’t for the fact that Vathara is going to be introducing the idea down the line that Zuko totally had an altruistic motivation all along for chasing Aang, and it was always as much about the greater good of the Fire Nation as it was about Zuko’s own personal need for his father to accept him. Which I think misses the point of Zuko’s arc entirely in favor of trying to make him look like a more conventionally heroic character… but again, more on that when it’s spelled out completely and explicitly.
On the other side, his nightmare. His little sister.
"You're a big brother," his mother had told him, over and over again, when he'd been especially bratty and jealous of an annoying little baby taking up his mother's attention. "It's your job to protect her. No one will ever do that like you will."
He'd believed it. He'd wanted to believe it. Agni help him, part of him still believed it.
Azula: *bored* Would it help if I told Zuzu I really, really don’t need his “protection” and never did? I could even be honest for once!
MG: Again, this bit is genuinely good stuff, and though I don’t much care for a lot of what Vathara ends up doing with Azula in this fic, I think she very quickly and effectively lays out Zuko’s complicated feelings here. Interestingly, it reminds me of another popular A:TLA fic I followed for a while – Morality Chain, I think? – which was an AU where there was exactly one change from canon, that Azula and Zuko had a genuine sibling bond of love and mutual loyalty. The interesting thing about it was that Azula’s characterization was entirely unchanged otherwise, so rather than just “good Azula,” we still have an Azula who is a terrible person and dangerous villain… but who has this one positive relationship in her life and the fic explores how that might affect her. I fell away from following that fic after awhile; not sure how it ended, if it ever did.
I love you, Mom. But who was supposed to protect me from her?
He had to try.
"This isn't going to work, Azula!" You don't have chains, you don't even have rope - you don't have a clue. "The Fire Lord wants him alive."
MG: Honestly, I suspect Ozai’s attitude towards Aang was probably closer to one of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s comments in the original Thrawn Trilogy than anything. “I want him alive, if possible. If not… I’ll understand.” He certainly seemed to consider the idea that Zuko had killed Aang in canon, when he believed that to have been what happened, to have been an outcome he was just fine with.
"Like the little failure knows what Father wants." Her smile was mocking as ever. Chilling to the bone. "I'm not going anywhere."
Zuko swallowed dryly. "Yes, you are." For Father. For my people. For me.
I have to get this right.
The smile spread, glinting white teeth. "Who's going to make me? Mom?"
Traitor. Poisoner. You'll die like she did, and no one will even care you're gone….
Sokka: So, I know Zuko’s mom apparently poisoned his grandfather so his dad could become Fire Lord – and I thought my family could get messy! – but is Zuko thinking of himself as a poisoner like his mother here? Who’d he poison, exactly? Just trying to get this straight.
Years of whispers, eating at him like acid. He knew what she was waiting for, and hated himself for it; the temper that would flare out of control, leaving him easy prey to her attack-
A memory of shaped warmth, bringing an absence of pain. Of a soft whistle, and feathers pressed gratefully against his hand. Of a firestorm, wreaking justice for an unmarked grave.
"Azula could not even attempt what you are beginning to master."
Zuko breathed, letting the whispers fade away. Not this time, Azula.
Azula: *rolls her eyes* Oh, yes, Zuzu, heal me to death. I’m sure that will work wonders.
Her smile faded slightly, and he couldn't quell a shiver. He knew that look. Azula had seen something she didn't expect, and was calculating how to fit it into her plans-
Blue fire.
"The best block, is not to be there."
Too bad Uncle's advice about fighting never quite seemed to catch up with Azula. He had to block, fended off her fire with a breath-stealing impact on dusty ground.
Faster than I am, better than I am, she's going to win-
"We do not need to win this battle, Prince Zuko. We simply must not lose."
Sokka: *shrugs* Yeah, when you’re fighting a stronger enemy, fair enough. If you can live to fight another day, and deny them what they want… that can still be a win!
My people. Fingers clenched, Zuko coughed, and got back to his feet, dimly surprised Azula hadn't finished him off-
She was chasing the Avatar. Of course.
"The wise warrior knows his limitations, and accepts them. If she is more skilled than you - how can we use that against her?"
Azula: Well, being less skilled than someone isn’t really something you can turn into a strength, unless you’re trying to get the to underestimate you and I wasn’t going to do that again after Zuko already slipped through my fingers once, but do go ahead and try your best. I’d love to see what you manage.
Good question, Uncle. Azula was punching blasts of blue fire at Aang, every one just barely a miss. She was faster, more skilled, more precise-
Precise. Control. Azula controlled everything and everyone around her, just like their father did. What they couldn't control, they destroyed.
Make her lose control. Make her angry.
Sokka: Hey, isn’t that just how Aang handled Zhao that one time…
Azula: Don’t. Compare me. To Zhao.
Azula chased the Avatar into a wrecked building. Zuko let her hear him follow - then whipped around, fighting down the impulse to chase as he raced back to open air.
Sure, chase him into a building. Airbender, Azula. He loves bouncing people off walls; I should know. He can head out a window and be gone.
Sokka: To be fair, Aang always said that one of his biggest advantages was that most people we fought hadn’t even seen an airbender before and didn’t really have a good idea what he could do. Since Princess Creepy-Blue-Fire wasn’t a hundred years old, same went for her.
Just outside the doorway, Zuko swept his arms in a deliberate arc he hadn't used in weeks, hands curling and ready-
Blasted fire into the main support beams, and felt them catch.
A superior fighter made the terrain his ally. Ghost town. Dry wood.
This isn't going to kill you, Zuko knew; not sure who he was thinking of, as he urged flames upward. Like a graceful, angry flow of dark hair and blue dress, fighting him to the last in a spirit-touched oasis. Like nothing Azula would have ever fought.
This isn't going to kill you. But it's definitely going to get your attention.
And no matter how deeply Uncle might be contemplating his tea, he'd never miss this.
MG: Somehow the juxtaposition of “contemplating his tea” and “he’d never miss this” led me to the mental image of Iroh somehow having a vision of the battle in his teacup. Weird.
Sokka: *shrugs* From what Zuko’s said, if anyone mastered the art of having weird mystical tea visions, it’d probably he his uncle.
Well, Azula thought coolly, clinging to the second-story ledge as flames rose around them, this is new.
Either this was a particularly desperate gambit on her pathetic brother's part, or little Zuzu had grown a ruthless streak while he was exiled.
Please. With his tea-drinking kookiness?
For a once-great general, Uncle was amazingly easy to fool about how she played with her brother. Just smile at the right time, and look oh so concerned about how hard Zuzu tried, wasn't it a shame he'd had to start a year behind her and just never caught up….
Azula: Oh, please. I knew Uncle had gone to seed, but I also knew he was great in his day. The last time we’d met before this fight, I’ll have you reminded that he bested and humiliated me, easily, with a technique I didn’t even know existed*. And I think he knew exactly what my relationship with Zuko was like – he just couldn’t prove I’d done anything, and Father would’ve taken my side if he’d accused me of anything. So why bother?
*MG’s Note: I presume. Iroh invented lightning redirection and was, before he taught Zuko, seemingly its sole practitioner, and I don’t think he’d have much occasion to show it off for anyone else – especially if, as I’ve seen suggested and tend to agree with, he devised the technique specifically to protect himself from Ozai.
MG: I’d also like to add that I think “The Avatar State” indicates that whatever childhood trauma Zuko had about Azula, Iroh still had the measure of her somewhat better than he did. I’ve run across some meta positing that at least part of Iroh’s hostility to and mistrust of his niece is that she reminds him too much of himself in his youth. I’m not sure I’d go that far… but I can see the logic.
Not that Zuko ever could catch up. He worried about people. Cared what they thought; as if what weaklings thought mattered to the royal family. He had no focus.
Azula: I’ll have you know that just because people are beneath me, that doesn’t mean it’s not important to know how they think. Do you think I could have outmaneuvered Long Feng, or the Avatar and his friends, or Zuko himself if I didn’t know that? Like I once said, I’m a people person.
Sokka: …yeah, well, I can remember some pretty big tricks you missed, princess, so maybe that hits a little too close to home?
Azula: *sniffs dismissively*
So. Had to be desperate, then. Not that it would work. She was the prodigy, after all. The best. Keeping a bit of over-enthusiastic fire from singeing her was easy.
Though it did split her concentration. Which was annoying, when the Avatar was so close-
Well. Look at that. Trembling, sweating, even the ball of air fizzling out from under him… the little airbender was afraid of fire.
Oh, poor Zuzu. You're such a good brother.
Such a good fool.
Sokka: Actually, pretty sure Aang was afraid of fire for a while because of how he lost control and burned Katara the first time he tried firebending. Zuko had nothing to do with it. ‘Course, Azula has no way of knowing that, but hey, what can I say, I like having the chance to prove stuck-up Fire royalty wrong.
…Ow.
He was in the street. At least, Zuko thought he was in the street. He'd been fighting Azula for control of the fire, she'd made some kind of twist in the midst of the flames….
After that, everything was fuzzy.
I can't be dead. I hurt too much. He blinked, and faded brown resolved. "Uncle?"
"Get up!"
He grabbed Iroh's hand with trembling relief. Uncle was here. He'd promised, and he was here.
MG: …yeah, I can’t help but think that Iroh showing up like he did was a much bigger deal when he and Zuko had been separated for several episodes and their last interaction involved Zuko throwing Iroh’s attempts to give him advice back in his face and storming off, as opposed to here, where… they never split up, Iroh was there all along, and Zuko knew it. I get what Vathara is going for here, mind, I just think the show did it better.
No. You can't collapse. Not yet. "Need at least two benders to make that work," Zuko observed, world still spinning.
About to speak, Iroh blinked instead, and raised an eyebrow at the structure crumbling into flames. "Azula was in there?"
Fire-blasts and wind-bursts echoed through the streets. "Was," Zuko said grimly.
They ran for the fight.
Zuko? Katara thought, dazed, water at ready.
Of course Zuko. Why not Zuko? Miss crazy blue firebender had chased them all the way from Omashu, why shouldn't their very own personal bogeyman show up again?
Sokka was right. We should have let him freeze….
MG: And here, we get our first taste of Vathara’s Katara. It’s… surprisingly not terrible, considering that in the back half of the Ba Sing Se arc she’s going to start opening fire on the character with both barrels and not holding back until she seems to decide Katara’s had enough and turns her attention to bashing Aang instead. I can actually hear this thought process in Katara’s voice, at least, which is always a good sign. The bad news is that this is also where we’re getting our first taste of something that I think is going to be a recurring theme in the fic’s handling of Katara – that Vathara takes Katara’s Book Three anger at and distrust of Zuko as if it’s her default resting point, rather than a direct response to Katara having tried to hold out her hand to Zuko in “Crossroads of Destiny” and getting it slapped away in the worst way possible. It’s not terrible here, yet, but the fic is going to go on to treat Katara as if she just has an irrational hatred for both Zuko in particular and the Fire Nation in general, and basically build her whole characterization off of that (she tries to justify it psychologically in a more complicated way than that – we’ll see what I mean when we get there – but this is essentially how it actually comes off in practice). Again, this is a Katara in a highly stressful moment, and we’re a ways away from the worst of it starting… but we are seeing here the very first glimmers of what will become one of the fic’s more notorious and divisive issues.
Beware the Sugar Queen: 1
Except crazy as it was - and Sokka was right about lack of sleep making you crazy, not that she'd ever admit it - Zuko didn't seem interested in Aang at all. He was totally focused on the girl in Fire Nation armor, backing her into a corner right along with the rest of them.
He's… helping us?
Sokka: Yeah, what’s it they say in the Earth Kingdom? Don’t look a gift ostrich-horse in the beak? I think at the moment we were all less concerned that Zuko might turn on us and more concerned that Azula actually was trying to kill us.
He was with the old firebender, the one who'd tried to save the Moon Spirit from Zhao. Fire Nation, her enemy - and he'd still tried.
But this is Zuko. It's got to be a trick. Somehow. I don't know how, yet, but-
Gold eyes didn't even flicker, before blue fire flew. Not toward Aang. Not toward them. Toward….
Fire Nation, but he was trying to help, and - he's an old man, how could she-?
Azula: *shrugs* It was a simple tactical choice, really. Uncle was the oldest and slowest person there. If I wanted to hit someone to have a chance to break out of that ring, he was the obvious one (not that Vathara has done a good job of explaining the actual situation, in my personal opinion). And, I’ll note, it worked.
Sokka: *points at Azula, acts like he’s about to say something, then sighs and lowers his hand* I hate you.
Azula: *smirks* I know.
He didn't cry out. But Zuko….
Katara hadn't heard anyone scream like that since-
Mom.
No one deserved to suffer like that.
MG: And here we have a rare moment of Vathara not only writing Katara with some empathy, but actually having her show empathy to Zuko! Considering how she’ll have her acting later on, it’s kind of amazing, honestly. Treasure this moment, everyone.
Not even Zuko? the same surly, malicious voice that had picked a fight with Toph sniffed.
MG: …I’d be a lot fonder of this moment if Vathara wasn’t going to be portraying that “surly, malicious voice” as Katara’s default state for much of the fic, ngl.
No. Not even an arrogant, high-handed, spoiled prince of an enemy… what in the world was he doing to that fire?
Flow with the flame.
Forget knots of copper instead of gold threads; part of what he was working with was charred, and too much just blackened ash. He had to dig in, pour in the fire and his own strength, somehow clear what couldn't be restored out-
"Katara! Don't put out the fire!"
The Avatar. Serious, for once. And damn right. He needed that fire. Uncle needed it, and while he'd never tried to seriously hurt the Avatar's little band of renegades, if they got between him and Uncle now….
Sokka: Renegades!? I am a proud warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, thank you! All of us were fighting for our homes and our peoples. “Renegades” just makes us sound like those stupid pirates – the pirates Zuko hired, if you’ll remember – or worse.
MG: Honestly, that phrasing just puts me in mind of in LotR how when Sam overhears the orcs talking in Cirith Ungol they call the Free Peoples “rebels” very dismissively. I somehow don’t think that’s what Vathara was going for…
Something cool slipped in under the flames, laving away ashes.
The waterbender. I should-
But the water didn't push. It just flowed around his fire, working at knots he hadn't touched. Or had touched, and couldn't - quite - unravel.
Azula: I have no idea what’s happening, but I hate it.
MG: I actually rather like how it portrays Katara’s and Zuko’s healing techniques as different but complementary. Which, sadly, won’t stop Vathara from consistently associating creepy or dangerous things with deep water over the remainder of the fic… Though I do have to note that in canon, Zuko furiously refused to let Katara even try to help Iroh when she offered. I’m not sure if this is just Zuko being a healer now himself having more appreciation for what she’s trying to do, if he’s too focused on his own work to have the attention left over to try and chase her away, or if it’s Vathara deliberately removing a moment of Zuko behaving less than heroically in a moment of stress and grief. *sighs* Probably, all of the above.
Why is she helping?
Sokka: …because my sister’s a decent person and none of us liked seeing an old man get shot like that, even when he was on the other side?
Didn't matter. Worry about it later. Just keep working, keep healing, and damn Azula….
"Don't push too hard. You want to work with the body, not against it."
He tried. Panic was the enemy. Uncle needed him to be thinking, not crying. Definitely not driving off a healer who seemed to know what she was doing, no matter how much he wanted to scream his fury to the skies.
How could she? How could she?
Azula: *rolls her eyes* Do I need to explain the tactical situation again? Because I can, if it would help.
Sokka: Yeah, I really don’t think that’s the issue here.
"It's okay, you're doing fine… whoa, that's a weird thing to say. Okay, just listen. Move around me, all right? I'm going to get the tricky parts. Just back me up, and everything's going to be fine."
Just because you're after the same goal, doesn't mean you're allies.
Sokka: Fair enough. But I guess they’ve not heard “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in the Fire Nation?
Some of the screaming in his head - you're helping the Avatar! - finally went quiet.
Azula: …no you’re not. The Avatar’s pet waterbender *she ignores Sokka’s death glare* is helping you help Uncle. You’ve gotten in backwards, Zuzu.
MG: To be fair, I don’t think Zuko is supposed to be entirely rational at the moment.
She's a healer. She's helping Uncle. Which is going to help me, and the Fire Nation. I don't have to like her. I just have to use it.
Azula: Hmmm. Perhaps he can learn after all.
Better. Much better. As was the feel of Uncle's pulse under his hand when he ventured to touch healing skin; still fast, but steady.
Water retreated, and he let the fire go. She uses a waterskin, Zuko thought suddenly. So even when there's no water near to grab…. I wonder… didn't one of Uncle's scrolls say something about firepots…?
Sokka: Isn’t one of the big advantages fire has over the other elements that firebenders can just… make their own and don’t need to carry it around with them? Or was I wrong about that and you all have been carrying tiny little torches up your sleeves the whole time and I just never noticed?
Azula: …no.
MG: I’d assume the advantage here is that carrying a small firepot around is less conspicuous than making your own fire (though it does put me in mind of one of the many bad decisions from the Movie That Shall Not Be Named). Although, the previous chapter already described Zuko as using “a little pot of fire” for his healings (and having to be careful to keep people from paying too much attention to it) so… shouldn’t he have experience with the idea already?
Grimacing, Zuko tried to gather his scattered concentration. Fire or no fire, he'd really overdone it this time.
I need sleep. Soon.
But not yet. Not until- Gathering his courage, he looked at the awful wound. Cloth was charred, still tainted with the awful scent of roasted flesh, but….
Letting the little earthbender help him sit up by way of a raised rock, Uncle smiled at him. "Well done." And lifted an expressive brow.
I know, Uncle. I know. Rising to his feet - he was not going to wobble, damn it - he ignored the rising babble from the two boys. And bowed to the waterbender.
Katara. You owe her that. And more.
MG: Again, all of this is kind of amazing in hindsight, considering that this is the same fic that’s later going to claim, in an AN, that Katara is scarier than Azula (and not in a complimentary way)…
Sokka: Wait… what!?
Azula: *crosses her arms disdainfully* She most certainly is not.
"I owe you," Zuko said roughly, rising. "And I pay my debts." He skewered the airbender with a look. "Azula's going to kill you."
The Water Tribe boy snorted. "You've got a real funny way of-"
"Let him talk, Snoozles!" The earthbender stamped a foot on the ground for emphasis, dropping the boy, boomerang and all, into a sudden sinkhole. "This is important."
Sokka: *pointedly* I would like to point out that was uncalled for. Also, I think I would have been able to tell that Zuko was giving a warning, not a threat.
MG: Alas, Toph is Vathara’s favorite of the Gaang, so she has to be the first to be willing to hear Zuko out.
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 1
"Toph!"
"He's just talking, Sokka." Katara's voice was hard, but level. "Let him."
Amazing. Someone in the little bunch actually had sense.
Sokka: *bursts out laughing* I’m sorry, but Prince “I’m going to kidnap Aang and drag him off into the North Pole into the middle of a blizzard and see what happens!” Zuko is in no position to talk.
"Azula's not an exile," Zuko went on. "Fire Navy ship, Yu Yan, fresh mounts, tanks - if she asks for it, she'll get it."
"Zhao had all that," the Avatar started, "and-"
MG: Which is true. Azula is smarter than Zhao, but literally everything Zuko just described (with the arguable exception of fresh mounts, which Zhao was never really in a position to need, but could presumably have gotten if he wanted) Zhao did have to throw at Aang. But of course, Aang is supposed to be quiet and let Zuko explain the way of the world to him, so we can’t acknowledge he had a point.
"Zhao just killed people when he didn't get what he wanted," Zuko bit out. "Azula is worse."
"Oh yeah?" Sokka challenged, up to his chin in dirt. He should have looked ridiculous, except for the determination in blue eyes. "And how, exactly, do you get worse than death?"
Sokka: *flatly and uncharacteristically seriously* I lived my whole life under the shadow of Fire Nation raids. They killed my mom. I had to watch as my dad and all the tribe’s warriors left home to go fight them, never knowing when they’d come home, or if they ever would. Katara and I had to basically take over as adults when we were still kids because our parents were gone and Gran Gran needed all the help she could get. I had to stand there and watch as Zhao killed the moon, one of the two spirits that watches over my culture, and nearly destroyed the world and then the girl I loved had to turn into the moon to put things right, which wasn’t the same as dying but from my perspective might as well have been. I think I know how bad things can get in life, thanks.
"She finds what you love, and she takes it away." No. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have….
Sokka: And clearly, none of us here have any idea what’s it like to lose something – or someone – we love. Oh, no, we need Wise Prince Zuko to tell us all of this! *sighs heavily* I can’t believe this story is making me miss when he was just the angry jerk with a ponytail.
But he had. And from the way the airbender flinched, something had finally, finally gotten through that shaved, tattooed head.
Use it.
"She'll track you," Zuko went on harshly, standing his ground. "I did it by asking questions and following what I could see; you think it's a hundred years ago and sky bison are everywhere? They're not. People notice. And maybe some of them wouldn't talk to me because you're the Avatar, but believe me, they will talk to Azula. Because she smiles, and she knows how to make people want to trust her - and if they don't talk, someone will disappear. Maybe their wife. Or their friends. Or their children. And if they're lucky, they'll get a body back. She broke her neck. He drowned. They got buried in a landslide. Oh, what horrible accidents." He had to stop, and breathe, smoke curling up from clenched fists. "She'll say it just like that. And smile. And ask again." He stared into gray eyes, trying not to shake. "She's trying to kill you. She won't stop until she catches you. Any of you." Another breath. Spirits, he was going to kill something. Or throw up. Maybe both. "Do you understand me? Didn't any of those monks tell you what real people are like? We're not all worth saving, you idiot!"
MG: Okay, on the one hand… in a vacuum, I like this monologue. Both in how it builds up the actual horror of how Azula operates, through the lens of someone who grew up with her and has firsthand experience of how dangerous it is, and how it ends up accidentally(?) slipping into Zuko’s own trauma and sense of self-loathing at the end. It’s genuinely powerful stuff. Except that it’s not in a vacuum, it’s in this fic, and it’s part of a trend that’s going to recur through the entire fic until close to the very end, of the Gaang (sans Toph and occasionally Sokka) as the stupid, naïve children who have no idea what they’re doing and need the seasoned and worldly Prince Zuko to sit them down and explain the way life really works. And in that context… yeah, this ends up rubbing me the wrong way. Not the worst thing in the world, and indeed I do like the monologue itself, but I still see it as yet another sign of worse things to come.
Prince Stuko: 7
Aang swallowed hard, but met him gaze for gaze. "I don't believe that, Zuko." He shook his head. "I can't."
Zuko saw pure, blinding red. "Then you're going to die-!"
MG: …it’s also always very clear whose side Vathara is on in these little talks, and it’s never Aang’s.
"Nephew."
Enough. Just enough, to catch him before his temper teetered over the ragged edge. Zuko forced clenched fists open, dissipating daggers of flame.
"Go find Asahi," Iroh directed, golden gaze worried and sympathetic. "We will need to move swiftly."
Yes. They would. Zuko nodded to the old general, and took off down the street, leaving the whole infuriating band behind.
MG: The “old general” being his uncle? Who just nearly died? That just seems like a very strange way to refer to him, especially in this particular context…
Iroh sighed in relief as his nephew vanished around a building. Now, to deal with-
"Did you see that nut?" Sokka sputtered as Toph bent him back out of the ground. "Don't do that again! We were about to have crispy-fried Aang-"
"My nephew," Iroh said, in a voice that had cut across parade grounds at need, "was trying to help. Difficult as that may be to believe."
"Oh, sure. Chase us all over the world, and now he's on our side?" Sokka shook his head, wolf-tail whipping fast enough to catch him on the ear. "Ow!"
Azula: I’d thought you were smart enough to recognize that though you’re not on “the same side,” you had a common enemy – me – at the moment. Clearly not. What a pity.
"No, he's not," Aang said firmly. "He was helping Katara."
"Who, me?" the waterbender said skeptically. "Just because I- um."
Sokka: Because both Katara and Zuko were helping Iroh? *shrugs* It’s not that hard.
"Even so," Iroh nodded graciously. His shoulder was still sore, and likely would be for some time, he imagined. Still, he had no complaints.
That was meant to be a deathblow. Long, lingering, and painful.
Oh, Azula. Have you fallen so far, to please my brother? Or were you always this cruel, and we were all blind?
Azula: *sighs* No, I was surrounded and shooting Uncle was the easiest way out I saw. Do I need to keep repeating myself? I wasn’t trying to kill him, though I wasn’t trying not to kill him either; I could have lived with it if he died, it just wasn’t my first priority at the moment.
MG: And I’ll note that Zuko patched up Iroh fine with regular first aid in canon. Unless Azula’s fireblast were more deadly in this AU for some reason?
All, save Ursa and Zuko. Why had he never truly believed the boy?
It was too horrible, Iroh admitted to himself. My nephew had already lost his mother. It only seemed reasonable that he would be angry, and blame his rival for Ozai's love. As Ozai felt I was, for our father's. Only… expected.
MG: Yeah, no, I’m not buying this. Iroh knew what Ozai was, and he knew what Azula was, and he clearly knew as soon as Azula showed up in the show that it was a bad sign, even when Zuko let himself be taken in by her promises.
"Honor's really important in the Fire Nation," Aang was saying. "That's what Kuzon always said."
MG: Which just reminds me of another bit from the Kyoshi novels. In The Rise of Kyoshi, the story takes place almost entirely in the Earth Kingdom, and for long stretches of it Rangi is the only firebender or Fire National around, and her uptightness, proud warrior race girl attitude and fixation on personal honor mostly come across as a personal quirk, something that marks her out as foreign in an almost quaint way compared to the more pragmatic Earth Kingdom people and gets a lot of gentle (and not-so-gentle) ribbing from her companions. Then in the sequel The Shadow of Kyoshi, we got to the Fire Nation itself and Kyoshi has to deal with the fact that here, people – especially the Fire Lord’s court – take this stuff very seriously in ways she, who hasn’t been raised in this environment, can’t really understand or easily navigate. And suddenly it’s not so amusing anymore, but something extremely serious with very real consequences. Needless to say, I think it handles culture clash quite a bit better than Embers – which tends to default to “everyone else should be quiet and listen when the Fire Nationals are talking” – does it.
So you do not know why. Iroh hid a grimace. And why should you? Roku was an Avatar; he was not bound by a firebender's loyalty. Avatars serve the world, they cannot serve their own clan. How Sozin must have ached, knowing one born as his dearest friend was as foreign to him as an airbender in the wind.
Sokka: Oh, boo-hoo. Sorry, but from what Aang said, Sozin ended up leaving Roku to die for being inconvenient to him. And that’s not even getting into what he did after that. But yeah, I’m going to be feeling really sorry for Fire Lord Mass Murder because his best friend wasn’t exactly like him.
MG: So… this is a thing the fic is going to be coming back to. Several things, actually. First off, while Vathara never portrays Sozin as not evil, she does… soften him a bit, I guess? Making him, or trying to, a bit less evil and more sympathetic than his canon counterpart, including having characters (like Iroh here, and others later) randomly feeling sorry for him at various points (and was also at least in part motivated by love for one of the fic’s major big bads, though this is yet another thing we’ll discuss in more detail when it’s explicitly laid out for us). And, like Sokka, I have a hard time bringing myself to care overmuch, because again, this is a man who went on to commit mass genocide of his own free will, and before that let his best friend die because he was in the way of his plans for conquest. So whatever sympathy I might feel for Sozin is… limited, to put it very mildly. Second, we have the idea that the Avatar isn’t subject to loyalty (or other influences of their element, depending on which nation they’re born to) and therefore isn’t “really” part of their birth nation. Which, I’ll add, directly contradicts part of the moral of “The Avatar and the Fire Lord,” that Roku and Sozin were equally Fire Nation. But Vathara really doesn’t like Roku, and the fic is mostly going to present him as a useless waste of space, failure as the Avatar and traitor to his people, though he still doesn’t get it as bad as Kyoshi does. And I can’t help but noticing that Iroh seems to be using an airbender as his example of the most alien thing it’s possible to be… there’s a reason for that, and we’ll also be seeing more of that later.
Detached from Reality: 2
Elemental Determinism: 3
He Has Much to Learn: 5
The Superior Element: 4
Still, the past was done. These children needed his mind on now. "Kuzon of Byakko?" Iroh asked.
Azula: No, Kuzon of the Ember Island Players, best known for getting himself stuck in a malfunctioning Koh the Face Stealer costume for over sixteen hours, forcing the play to be called off until he was successfully extracted. It was a common name a century ago, wasn’t it? But of course, the Avatar has to have been friends with the same Kuzon Uncle has heard of. It’s a small world, apparently.
"Yeah!" Exhausted as they all were, Aang still brightened. "Did you know him? Is that how Zuko healed you? I saw Kuzon doing something with green flames once, but he'd never show me. Even when I asked him a lot of times-"
MG: It’ll be a while yet before we get the full story, but here’s another piece of the whole “Kuzon was special and important” bit – I think I’ve already mentioned why I don’t care for it.
"There is no time."
The Avatar's face fell, and Iroh almost regretted his brusqueness. Almost. "Azula will return, and she will not be alone. You must not be here when she does."
"And what about you, Uncle?" Toph asked, jabbing a finger into his unwounded shoulder. "You'd better not be here, either."
Uncle. Iroh smiled at the strong little girl. I do not think I would mind another niece. One who would at least give my nephew a chance to be himself, without always watching for pain. "Zuko and I have eluded her before. We will be all right."
Azula: …please don’t tell me Uncle is considering adopting the earthbender.
MG: No, but the idea that Toph and Zuko have a unique and powerful bond is going to be something the fic is going to get a lot of mileage out of.
"Whoa, whoa," Sokka was waving his arms in disbelief, "you're running from her?"
Sokka: Oh, no, of course I just assumed that after Azula shot Iroh and nearly killed him, they were the best of friends! Clearly that’s just good old-fashioned Fire Nation family bonding time! Let’s all try to kill each other, won’t that be fun?
"Did you not hear her call us traitors, young man? Which is quite unfair to my nephew. He has always been loyal to the Fire Lord." He gave Aang a piercing look. "He still is."
"So… I guess we should get moving," Aang said reluctantly.
"It would be wise," Iroh said dryly.
"But… you helped us. And I really, really need a firebending teacher-" Aang saw his look, and gulped.
"Avatar Aang," Iroh said, with deliberate finality, "I hope, when next we meet, you will know why what you have asked is cruel."
MG: So, fair warning – Zuko is not going to become Aang’s firebending teacher in this fic. Vathara is going to go out of her way to make sure we all know this is impossible, in fact. Actually, I’m pretty sure Aang never actually learns any significant firebending in Embers… which is kind of ironic, considering what element and nation this fic focuses so much on.
"I'll say," Toph grumbled. "Don't worry, Uncle. I know enough about the nobles to clue Twinkletoes in." She clapped dust off her hands. "Come on, slowpokes!"
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 2 (Toph still gets to be the knowledgeable one)
Divine Right To Rule: 3 (Toph is knowledgeable about important things because she’s from a noble family)
"Wait," Katara said hurriedly. "Uncle… what did Azula take from Zuko?"
Azula: Do you want the short list, or the long?
Iroh closed his eyes, wrung by grief too worn for tears. "More than you will ever know, child."
Sokka: Not to sound like a jerk here, but I think Katara and I know exactly what that’s like, actually. Not the Azula part, obviously, but… Zuko’s not the only person in the world to have lost their mom to someone from the Fire Nation.
"But-"
"Katara, come on!" Sokka hissed. "Creepy ladies. Blue fire. Sleep!"
Footsteps faded, and Iroh breathed a sigh of relief.
"They're gone."
Iroh started, looking about guiltily. Pain distracted one from the stillness needed to feel another firebender's fire,
Azula: For the record, that’s not how it works.
and his nephew was silent enough; that Asahi could almost match him for stealth was a bit unnerving. "Trying to take them would have been-"
"You're wounded. I'm exhausted. And Azula wants us both. I'm determined, Uncle. Not stupid."
Sokka: Sometimes you can be. North Pole, Aang, blizzard? Ring any bells?
Yet tired as he must be, Zuko didn't look angry. Or even resigned. In fact, if Iroh didn't know better…. "And what has you in such a good mood, my nephew?"
Openly smirking, Zuko dropped a hand-sized patch of familiar scales in front of him, one side still raw and bloody. "Guess who's going to be walking in an hour?"
Mongoose dragon scales. The rear thigh, if he remembered their patterns correctly. "But how…?"
"Who's a sweetheart?" Zuko crooned, scratching under a black-feathered beak.
If Iroh didn't know better, he would have sworn Asahi's trill was a chuckle.
MG: And the chapter ends there, with no Author Note today! This chapter was pretty straightforward, especially compared to last time, and I liked it a lot better. Much as Sokka and Azula were heckling the fight, it’s still a solid action scene, and we actually got to see a surprisingly decent characterization for Katara here, compared to where the fic is going. And we got some good moments like Zuko and Katara working together to save Iroh, or Zuko’s warning about Azula, and some good moments of Zuko characterization in general. Unfortunately, it also highlighted some issues that are going to be bigger down the line – the fic’s handling of Roku and Sozin, characterization of Aang and Toph, and, of course, “Zuko knows the ways of the world and the Gaang would be much better off if they just shut up and listened to him,” which is present but not terrible here, but will be getting worse as the fic goes on and more and more obviously takes Zuko’s side. And there’s also the fact that this chapter really doesn’t stand on its own – you need to keep “The Chase” in mind to have any idea what’s going on here (and the fic goes out of its way to follow the plot closely, even when I think Zuko and Iroh’s side ought to have diverged more). Which, again, wouldn’t be a problem if “forget canon, let the fic stand on its own” wasn’t a defense for Embers I’ve seen people make, and which I just don’t think works. Still, on its own merits this is a solid chapter with some good moments, albeit also some warning signs of things to come. Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time, everyone decompresses from the fight, and Toph gets to explain some things to her friends, as more of Vathara’s issues re the Gaang start to rear their head. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Beware the Sugar Queen: 1
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 2
Detached from Reality: 2
Divine Right to Rule: 3
Elemental Determinism: 3
He Has Much to Learn: 5
Prince Stuko: 7
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 2
Stations of the Canon: 10 (one point for Zuko and Iroh still getting separated, one point for Toph and Iroh’s meeting mostly playing out as in canon, one point for Zuko’s and Iroh’s roles in the fight being essentially the same despite the changing circumstances)
The Superior Element: 4
The Ultimate Firebenders: 4
Warning: This chapter contains some violence and discussion of abuse.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, Zuko practiced fire healing, fought a spirit that had been summoned by a rape and murder (but mostly the murder), got a new ostrich horse, came clean with Iroh about Ursa’s involvement in Fire Lord Azulon’s death, reenacted “Zuko Alone” in brief, and we learned all about how Fire Nationals die if they break their loyalty. Whew. Today’s chapter is, fortunately, rather less heavy, as we catch up to the events of “The Chase” and encounter the fic’s version of the Gaang for the first time. Joining us today, and finally giving Zuko a chance to rest for a bit, will be Azula and Sokka!
Chapter 4
A/N: If you don't see a version here, you can assume events happened as-canon.
MG: On the one hand, fair enough – no need to recap events where we already know what happened, after all! And I can certainly sympathize – a big fanfic project of mine from back in the day (one where I sadly think I bit off more than I could chew, and which ultimately fizzled out) was my “Lu Ten lives/Iroh is Fire Lord” AU, and I definitely wrestled with the problem of “how to deal with elements that really wouldn’t be changed by the AU, and therefore can be skimmed over, without messing with the flow of the overall story too much?” I do think it’s a bit ironic in hindsight, though, considering the fic will end up massively diverging from canon while still expecting us to believe that all of Book One and the Gaang’s side of Book Two remain in continuity (along with some bits of Book Three that I think really would have been affected by Vathara’s other changes). And it’s just further evidence that, despite what I’ve seen some of its fans try to claim, the fic does not stand on its own.
This is too easy, Zuko thought darkly.
Sokka: Oh, boy. Put it that way, you’re just asking for trouble – you’d think Zuko of all people would know that!
They were alternating riding and walking through the grassland; not the fastest they could have gone, but he wanted Asahi in shape to run if things went wrong. And he had a lot more practice tracking that flying fur rug than Azula did.
Azula: …the beast was in his shedding season. Tracking him was not hard, I promise you that!
He could cut loops off the trail, see in advance obstacles the bison would have soared over and the tank had to crunch its way around, and work out their own route, easier than hers.
Sokka: Look, much as I hate to admit, we were so sleep-deprived that night that Appa was literally falling out of the sky at one point! That wasn’t normal! *beat* Maybe Zuko thought it was normal for us? That must’ve made it even more embarrassing for him that we kept beating him all the time!
MG: Actually, Vathara thinks that Zuko losing to you over and over again is actually proof of what a badass he is… but we’ll get to that later in the fic.
And it was definitely Azula. Who else could divert a valuable war machine out here, where there were no strategic objectives to be taken? Given that - he'd take every advantage he could get.
Azula: Any command level officer, perhaps? I do recall a report of Zhao pulling the Yu Yan archers off their ordinary duties to go hunting the Avatar… of course, Zhao was dead by this point, so that would limit the options to command level officers who were actively Avatar hunting, and I don’t know of any who were at the time… then again, last I’d met Zuzu it was him (and Uncle) I was after; I only decided to go after the Avatar later.
But it was too easy. And that had nothing to do with the trail, and everything to do with the older firebender currently humming that bawdy tune about girls in Ba Sing Se.
"You should be talking me out of this."
"Hmm?" Currently riding, Uncle Iroh gave him a look of bemused surprise.
"We're outnumbered."
"That is very likely," Iroh allowed.
Sokka: Welcome to our life!
"She's in better condition than we are." Azula hadn't spent more than two months injured and hungry, count on it. "She has access to supplies. Probably better maps, too, and we're heading into unknown territory."
"All true."
Sokka: …I do love a good map.
Azula: As do I… hmmm, maybe you’re not quite the oaf you make out to be…
Sokka: *discretely scoots away from her* I’m also taken, so don’t go getting any ideas *muttering* not that you’re my type anyway.
Azula: *smirks*
"She's flushed them out of at least two camps," Zuko went on. "She's got them on the run. They're reacting, not thinking. Meaning the Avatar's lost his best tactical asset." That idiot Water Tribe boy might be annoying as all hells - Zuko knew exactly where he was going to jam that boomerang, if he got the chance
Sokka: I think that would be uncalled for *pats his boomerang protectively* then again, the first time I met Zuko wasn’t exactly my finest hour, but I still remember his expression when Boomerang whacked him on the back of the head – guess he’s still sore about that, huh?
Azula: *snorts* That story I have to hear.
- but he was the closest thing the Avatar had to a strategic planner. If he was too tired and shaken to come up with a plan, the Avatar's little gang was screwed. "Sooner or later the bison's going to get tired - sooner, if they don't start thinking - and it'll be all over… why are you looking at me like that?"
MG: Well, I can tell you why I’m looking at you like that. Because while Zuko venting like this in this context makes sense… it’s also a symptom of the way that Vathara is going to continue depicting these characters here on out, with the Gaang as the stupid kids in over their heads who don’t know what they’re doing (Toph and sometimes Sokka excepted), while Zuko is the mature and worldly one who knows what’s best; we’ll start to see some of that before this chapter is done, in fact. So I have a hard time reading this just in the character’s voice, and so I’m going to start a counter here as well.
He Has Much To Learn: 1
Iroh was smiling at him, hands folded on the saddle's pommel. "A teacher is always pleased to know when his student has mastered the lesson."
Mastered the- never mind, even if he asked it wouldn't make sense.
Azula: …Zuzu, Uncle is trying to teach you to think both tactically and strategically. As much as I may needle you, I know your mind works reasonably well when you choose to use it. Surely you’ve gathered this by now?
"Uncle, this is a bad idea."
"It is," Iroh nodded. "You have summed up the worst of it quite well. If this were only a matter of your honor, nephew - yes, I would object. But it is not."
Sokka: *is overcome by a fit of snickering remembering Zuko’s Ember Island Players portrayal* Sorry about that… what was going on, again?
Only my honor? Only my- Wait. "It's not?" Zuko asked warily.
MG: …although now I’m reminded that “firebenders being obsessed with honor” was something that was apparently already the butt of jokes in Kyoshi’s time, based on the bit partway through the first Kyoshi novel where Rangi starts explaining to the group of smugglers she and Kyoshi have fallen in with how she’s sworn on her honor to be Kyoshi’s companion and protector… and everyone immediately starts groaning and cuts her off there, since they do not want to hear it.
"No." Iroh frowned. "Fire Lord Ozai wishes the Avatar alive, which is wise. Why hunt among the Water Tribes, who still resist, if we do not have to? You know Azula's power, and you believe she can capture the Avatar. That may be true. But you also know the Avatar's power. Can she hold him, nephew? Without killing him?"
A whirlpool rising out of southern polar seas, sweeping sailors from his ship. A massive, glowing thing at the North Pole, blasting through the Fire Navy's might. "…No."
Azula: *sniffs* Try me.
"And will she be humble enough to admit that she cannot?"
Sokka: *shoots a very pointed look at Azula*
Azula: …well. One would think Uncle, of all people, ought to know when to admit he’s wrong?
Azula, humble? The two words didn't even belong in the same universe. Wordless, Zuko shook his head.
"And if she does slay him…. Avatar Roku's fate may be known to some among the Fire Sages, none can say for certain. And our nation conquers in the wake of that uncertainty. If it were to become known that the royal family killed an Avatar - there would be no chance for peace in our colonies while this generation lives." Iroh regarded him gravely. "We are loyal to the Fire Nation. We must not allow this to happen."
Azula: And sometimes, in war, you don’t have a choice. When I had a shot at the Avatar – a shot at ending the Avatar lineage forever, if the sages are to be believed – I took it. It’s not my fault the boy refused to stay dead.
MG: Okay, so again, in this point here, Iroh is clearly invoking a pragmatic reason for why Zuko, who still views himself as loyal to the Fire Nation, should want to keep Aang alive. But I do think it’s still part of a trend for the fic where the consequences of the war for the Fire Nation specifically are prioritized narratively over other concerns. Not giving a point for anything here because again, it makes sense in context, it’s just something to keep in mind.
My people. The colonies were as close as he'd come to home for three years. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be there, either… but all nations came to trade in some of those ports, and on festival nights when everyone wore masks, even he could go unnoticed. It was worth being no one, to taste fire flakes and listen to people who sounded nothing like the Navy. "What should we do, Uncle?"
"You have laid out our disadvantages well," Iroh said thoughtfully. "Please, continue."
"This isn't a tactical exercise, Uncle!"
Azula: *looks back at her earlier comments* Clearly, it is. Listen to Uncle, Zuzu – you might actually learn something this time!
"Is it not?" Iroh regarded him with mild reproach. "Remember, nephew. The warrior whose anger rules him has already lost.
Sokka: Hey, I think we all know somebody who was like that! *makes a loud cough that sounds suspiciously like “Zhao”*
We have time. They are not near. Calm yourself, and consider the situation for all its outcomes. Even, perhaps, victory."
Treat it like an exercise. His blood boiled, he wanted to burn something - but that would be stupid, here in the middle of flammable grass. Though they had used that to their advantage, earlier; the pair of them controlling a circle of flame to flush out enough vole-rabbits for their first hearty meal in days. Asahi hadn't minded roasted cricket-mice, either.
And Azula thought it was stupid to read stories about primitive firebenders- stop. Stop right there. She's the obstacle, remember? Just… try not to think about her. Much.
Azula: *sniffs* Please. You had best be thinking about me, so you can come up with a plan in case you meet me – it’s what I would do, in your position! And what is wrong about reading about primitive firebenders, exactly? It’s always worthwhile to know where you came from, after all… *may or may not have had childhood fantasies of herself as a pre-unification Fire Islands warlord*
"We've probably got surprise," Zuko said at last. "She doesn't know we're here, or we'd know it by now." By way of lethal blue fire; no, she couldn't know.
Sokka: *rubbing the back of his head* Yeah, ‘cause she and her friends were kind of busy with us at the time…
"And the Avatar probably thinks we went down with the fleet." If he thinks about us at all. And he was not going to let that make him mad. He wasn't. If the Avatar underestimated him - well, good. He could use another edge.
Sokka: Hey, last we saw Zuko, he’d gotten away after the fight with Zhao at the Spirit Oasis. We didn’t try to go after him… we had, ah, other things to worry about at the time *sighs sadly, glances up at the sky* but I don’t think we ever really thought he was dead. We practically kept tripping over him on our way north, after all – guy was persistent!
Besides, it wasn't like it was personal. The Avatar was a kid. He underestimated everybody. After all, the so-called link between the two worlds hadn't seen Zhao's plan coming either….
MG: Zuko, it’s not like you saw Zhao’s plan coming, either – nor did Iroh, who is both and experienced general and has firsthand experience of the Spirit World, until Zhao spelled it out to him! But of course, Aang is at fault for not knowing, despite having no plausible way of knowing.
He Has Much To Learn: 2
Zuko frowned, trying to pin down that thought.
"Surprise may help," Iroh nodded. "What else? You have thought of something."
"I'm not sure it helps, Uncle…."
Iroh raised an eyebrow. "I am curious, nonetheless."
"They don't know what they're dealing with," Zuko said at last. "None of them do." Azula probably thought, of the two Water Tribe siblings, it was the waterbender who was dangerous. And sure, she was - but not nearly as dangerous as she and the Avatar were with her brother's plans backing them up.
Sokka: At least somebody acknowledges who the guy with the plans around here is! Wasn’t expecting it to be Zuko, but I’ll take it!
And as far as what the Avatar thought about Azula….
"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?"
"Spirits," Zuko hissed, "please tell me he's not that stupid."
Sokka: …he’s not that stupid. Seriously, I don’t always agree with all of Aang’s ideas, but he never thought trying to befriend Azula was a good idea, if that’s what you’re getting at. Didn’t take a lot for all of us to realize she was bad news.
Azula: I’ll take that as a compliment. *taps her chin thoughtfully* Though, imagine if I could have had the chance to convince the Avatar to trust me… imagine what I could do with that kind of power at my disposal… oh well, no use crying over spilled fire flakes. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. He’d fought Zuzu and Zhao too many times already, by the time we met.
MG: In any case, this does seem the time to bring up something that’s going to be another recurring element in the fic. I think Vathara takes issue both with Aang thinking he and Zuko could be friends, and with them actually becoming friends in the second half of Book Three. At the very least, the idea that Aang and Zuko will never, ever be friends and Aang is stupid for thinking otherwise is something various characters are going to keep bringing up across the fic and, warning for vague spoilers, while by the end of this fic Aang and Zuko are no longer active enemies, I certainly wouldn’t say they’re friends in any real sense, either. And it’s hard to escape the feeling that Vathara thinks Aang isn’t worthy of Zuko’s friendship, rather than the other way around. So… it just feels worth bringing up here, is all. And it’s something else to keep an eye on for later.
He Has Much To Learn: 3
Even as he said it, he had an awful suspicion the spirits were laughing at him.
Sokka: *shrugs* Hey, it’s more likely than you think.
When they found the decoy trail, it wasn't a suspicion anymore. "Uncle?"
"Yes, nephew?"
"If those monks weren't dead, I think I'd kill them all over again."
"Prince Zuko-"
"Washed bison fur? Forget the Avatar - don't those primitive, hunting Water Tribe peasants know any tracker could tell the difference? A blind hog-monkey could see through this!"
MG: Ooof. Zuko, I know you’re frustrated, but wishing the victims of genocide back alive – a genocide your family perpetrated, mind you – so you can kill them all over again is, shall we say, not good. Nor is the completely gratuitous bit of anti-Water Tribe racism. And sure, you could make an argument that Zuko is speaking from a moment of anger, he’s an unreliable source, we’re not supposed to agree with everything he says… but the fic is going to keep coming back to these sorts of ideas about the Air Nomads and Water Tribes, in a number of contexts and in different ways and so no, I can’t really let this bit go unmentioned, either. So keep this bit in mind for when we’re going to need to talk about it more later, and we’re giving some points:
Detached From Reality: 1
Simple Rubes From the Water Tribes: 2
Dismounting, Iroh coughed into his fist, eyes suspiciously alight. "A pity that we will not be able to tell him so."
"Oh, we will," Zuko snarled.
"He has his airstaff," Iroh observed, patting Asahi while she nibbled on spruce buds, apparently out of curiosity. "When he finishes laying his trail, he can simply fly away, without a trace."
"Which is why he won't," Zuko said grimly. "He's an airbender, Uncle. He thinks flying can get him out of anything. He's not going to do the smart thing, and retreat.
Azula: So the Avatar thinks flying away solves all his problems… and this is somehow why he elected to stand and face me? Surely the fact that he was sleep deprived and I’d been hounding him all night hadn’t convinced him he couldn’t escape and had to stand and fight, no, that would make sense. Sometimes I wonder about dear Zuzu’s logic…
He Has Much to Learn: 4
He's going to find a spot for an ambush, and he's going to wait. Only he's not going to ambush her. He's going to talk."
Iroh was silent a long moment, considering that. "Do not take this the wrong way, nephew… but I hope that you are wrong."
"…I know."
He wasn't.
MG: No, he wasn’t, because Zuko is the smart, worldly one in the fic, and so he must always (or almost always) be in the right.
Prince Stuko: 7 (giving a point here more on general principle)
"So, where is your nephew?"
Good question, Iroh thought, looking past the little blind earthbender.
Sokka: Oh, hey, Toph’s here now! I guess this is the first time she met Iroh, huh? Always did wonder how that one went down… and I guess we’re not getting any answers here, since we’ve dropped by in the middle of it!
MG: And while it’s not as bad as the “Zuko Alone” bits last chapter, I do think that it was important that when Toph and Iroh met and shared tea in canon, they were both on their own – Zuko had left Iroh, who was trying to catch up to him so he’d be there to help if he needed it, and Toph had stormed off from the Gaang in frustration. I always felt that context set up a lot of their dynamic, the way they befriended each other despite being on still-somewhat-opposing (Zuko and Iroh having left the Fire Nation but still doing their own thing and not on the Gaang’s side yet either) teams, and how they helped each other sort through things. I think it changes the dynamic a bit of Iroh and Zuko’s relationship is mostly fine right now, actually. It’s not terrible terrible, mind, just something that jumps out at me.
Stations of the Canon: 7
"Scouting ahead." Which had seemed best, one person alone on Asahi could retreat far faster…. "But he should have returned by now. I hope he has not run into something unexpected." Or worse, the one danger they did expect, that he had planned to face with his nephew.
Agni, let my nephew be sensible. Let him not try to take her alone.
Azula: *snorts* I’m sorry, but Zuko is not the sensible one in the family!
Assuming, of course, Zuko had a choice.
"Scouting?" Toph chuckled. "You make him sound like a whole army patrol."
Sokka: Ah, yes, because “scouting” clearly requires a whole patrol. Then again, from the way Fire Nation soldiers clomp around in all that armor, it doesn’t take a lot of them to sound like a patrol, am I right?
Azula: …not dignifying that.
Oops. "Ah, well. I was a soldier, a long time ago." And not long enough, sometimes. "Traveling… it brings back old memories."
"Huh." Her bare feet felt at the ground, like a fisherman absently knotting a net. "Well, I don't think there are any bad guys around here. Maybe he's just lost."
Azula: The earthbender brat knew I’d been chasing her and her friends all night. Either she’s lying to try and keep Uncle out of things, or she’s quite a bit more foolish than I’d thought and thought I’d given up already.
"Yes, he is. A little bit." Iroh smiled sadly. "Our lives have recently changed, and while I think much good may come of it, it has been difficult. My nephew has choices to make. Some, I did not even know he might have, when we began our journey. He doesn't know it yet, but he is trying to figure out who he is, and what he wants." He sighed. "It is hard, to even look down a path your father would not approve of." Belatedly, he remembered his guest. "Er, that is, I meant to say-"
"It's okay, I get you." Toph grinned, in a way he'd seen on some of the best firebenders in the service. Cocky, and with good reason.
MG: *snorts* Here’s how you can tell Vathara likes Toph – her very first scene in the fic has her be compared positively to firebenders! Okay, maybe I kid a bit on this specific thing… but not very much.
"He's an idiot, but he's your idiot. Want some help finding him?"
Hmm. Accept the aid of a young, if powerful, earthbender, and run the risk she'd turn them both over to the Earth Kingdom? Or refuse, and possibly find his nephew facing Azula?
Well. As he'd decided with the white jade, it wasn't much of a choice. "I would be honored to accept your assistance."
Sokka: …and he’d have been left feeling pretty embarrassed if Toph actually had been an Earth Kingdom spy (didn’t know they recruited them that young, but hey, guess they’ve got to start sometime). Someone had to say it!
"You're really worried," Toph said, not smiling. "What's wrong?"
Finishing his tea, Iroh sighed. "I believe there may be a small Fire Nation force nearby."
"What, here? In the middle of the kingdom?"
Iroh frowned. She didn't seem surprised….
Azula: *rubs her forehead* See my previous comment.
"Yeah, you do need help," Toph said decisively, dusting off green robes as she stood. "Let's go find some idiots."
Sokka: Why do I have a feeling Zuko’s not the only person she’s talking about there?
MG: Because Vathara is going to be portraying the three of you as idiots pretty consistently (well, you get off better than Aang or Katara, as we’ve seen a bit of… though that might not be better in the long run, considering what Vathara does to you when you get to the Fire Nation…)
Sokka: …and from that tone, I’m guessing it’s not gonna be another chapter in the Glorious Adventures of Wang Fire, War Hero, is it? *sighs, looks up at the sky* The spirits just really have it in for me sometimes, don’t they?
Azula: *shaking herself out of a stunned silence* I’m sorry, Wang Fire!?
"I would not say my nephew is an idiot," Iroh said judiciously. "Most of the time."
Toph snickered, picking up her bag as he packed away his teapot. "Your nephew's very lucky, even if he doesn't know it."
Iroh smiled ruefully. I doubt he would agree with you….
"Zuzu?" the Avatar laughed.
Sokka: Oh, great, now we’re just in the middle of this fight. Did Vathara just drop Azula on us without properly introducing her, even? Because, if so, wow.
It was like white-hot barbs under his skin. Don't let it get to you, Zuko seethed. Almost cursing himself for leaving his dao on Asahi. But Uncle had been adamant. Leave the swords - leave the very fact that skill existed - as a tile up his sleeve. Azula would never take him and sharp edges seriously, anyway. Unless he was trying to kill her. And he couldn't. Just - don't.
It wasn't helping. On one side of him, the living symbol of everything he'd fought for three years; the only thing between him and his honor, his throne, his country.
Father's love….
MG: Again, a pretty effective summation of Zuko’s emotions in the moment, and I like it… and I’d like it more if it weren’t for the fact that Vathara is going to be introducing the idea down the line that Zuko totally had an altruistic motivation all along for chasing Aang, and it was always as much about the greater good of the Fire Nation as it was about Zuko’s own personal need for his father to accept him. Which I think misses the point of Zuko’s arc entirely in favor of trying to make him look like a more conventionally heroic character… but again, more on that when it’s spelled out completely and explicitly.
On the other side, his nightmare. His little sister.
"You're a big brother," his mother had told him, over and over again, when he'd been especially bratty and jealous of an annoying little baby taking up his mother's attention. "It's your job to protect her. No one will ever do that like you will."
He'd believed it. He'd wanted to believe it. Agni help him, part of him still believed it.
Azula: *bored* Would it help if I told Zuzu I really, really don’t need his “protection” and never did? I could even be honest for once!
MG: Again, this bit is genuinely good stuff, and though I don’t much care for a lot of what Vathara ends up doing with Azula in this fic, I think she very quickly and effectively lays out Zuko’s complicated feelings here. Interestingly, it reminds me of another popular A:TLA fic I followed for a while – Morality Chain, I think? – which was an AU where there was exactly one change from canon, that Azula and Zuko had a genuine sibling bond of love and mutual loyalty. The interesting thing about it was that Azula’s characterization was entirely unchanged otherwise, so rather than just “good Azula,” we still have an Azula who is a terrible person and dangerous villain… but who has this one positive relationship in her life and the fic explores how that might affect her. I fell away from following that fic after awhile; not sure how it ended, if it ever did.
I love you, Mom. But who was supposed to protect me from her?
He had to try.
"This isn't going to work, Azula!" You don't have chains, you don't even have rope - you don't have a clue. "The Fire Lord wants him alive."
MG: Honestly, I suspect Ozai’s attitude towards Aang was probably closer to one of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s comments in the original Thrawn Trilogy than anything. “I want him alive, if possible. If not… I’ll understand.” He certainly seemed to consider the idea that Zuko had killed Aang in canon, when he believed that to have been what happened, to have been an outcome he was just fine with.
"Like the little failure knows what Father wants." Her smile was mocking as ever. Chilling to the bone. "I'm not going anywhere."
Zuko swallowed dryly. "Yes, you are." For Father. For my people. For me.
I have to get this right.
The smile spread, glinting white teeth. "Who's going to make me? Mom?"
Traitor. Poisoner. You'll die like she did, and no one will even care you're gone….
Sokka: So, I know Zuko’s mom apparently poisoned his grandfather so his dad could become Fire Lord – and I thought my family could get messy! – but is Zuko thinking of himself as a poisoner like his mother here? Who’d he poison, exactly? Just trying to get this straight.
Years of whispers, eating at him like acid. He knew what she was waiting for, and hated himself for it; the temper that would flare out of control, leaving him easy prey to her attack-
A memory of shaped warmth, bringing an absence of pain. Of a soft whistle, and feathers pressed gratefully against his hand. Of a firestorm, wreaking justice for an unmarked grave.
"Azula could not even attempt what you are beginning to master."
Zuko breathed, letting the whispers fade away. Not this time, Azula.
Azula: *rolls her eyes* Oh, yes, Zuzu, heal me to death. I’m sure that will work wonders.
Her smile faded slightly, and he couldn't quell a shiver. He knew that look. Azula had seen something she didn't expect, and was calculating how to fit it into her plans-
Blue fire.
"The best block, is not to be there."
Too bad Uncle's advice about fighting never quite seemed to catch up with Azula. He had to block, fended off her fire with a breath-stealing impact on dusty ground.
Faster than I am, better than I am, she's going to win-
"We do not need to win this battle, Prince Zuko. We simply must not lose."
Sokka: *shrugs* Yeah, when you’re fighting a stronger enemy, fair enough. If you can live to fight another day, and deny them what they want… that can still be a win!
My people. Fingers clenched, Zuko coughed, and got back to his feet, dimly surprised Azula hadn't finished him off-
She was chasing the Avatar. Of course.
"The wise warrior knows his limitations, and accepts them. If she is more skilled than you - how can we use that against her?"
Azula: Well, being less skilled than someone isn’t really something you can turn into a strength, unless you’re trying to get the to underestimate you and I wasn’t going to do that again after Zuko already slipped through my fingers once, but do go ahead and try your best. I’d love to see what you manage.
Good question, Uncle. Azula was punching blasts of blue fire at Aang, every one just barely a miss. She was faster, more skilled, more precise-
Precise. Control. Azula controlled everything and everyone around her, just like their father did. What they couldn't control, they destroyed.
Make her lose control. Make her angry.
Sokka: Hey, isn’t that just how Aang handled Zhao that one time…
Azula: Don’t. Compare me. To Zhao.
Azula chased the Avatar into a wrecked building. Zuko let her hear him follow - then whipped around, fighting down the impulse to chase as he raced back to open air.
Sure, chase him into a building. Airbender, Azula. He loves bouncing people off walls; I should know. He can head out a window and be gone.
Sokka: To be fair, Aang always said that one of his biggest advantages was that most people we fought hadn’t even seen an airbender before and didn’t really have a good idea what he could do. Since Princess Creepy-Blue-Fire wasn’t a hundred years old, same went for her.
Just outside the doorway, Zuko swept his arms in a deliberate arc he hadn't used in weeks, hands curling and ready-
Blasted fire into the main support beams, and felt them catch.
A superior fighter made the terrain his ally. Ghost town. Dry wood.
This isn't going to kill you, Zuko knew; not sure who he was thinking of, as he urged flames upward. Like a graceful, angry flow of dark hair and blue dress, fighting him to the last in a spirit-touched oasis. Like nothing Azula would have ever fought.
This isn't going to kill you. But it's definitely going to get your attention.
And no matter how deeply Uncle might be contemplating his tea, he'd never miss this.
MG: Somehow the juxtaposition of “contemplating his tea” and “he’d never miss this” led me to the mental image of Iroh somehow having a vision of the battle in his teacup. Weird.
Sokka: *shrugs* From what Zuko’s said, if anyone mastered the art of having weird mystical tea visions, it’d probably he his uncle.
Well, Azula thought coolly, clinging to the second-story ledge as flames rose around them, this is new.
Either this was a particularly desperate gambit on her pathetic brother's part, or little Zuzu had grown a ruthless streak while he was exiled.
Please. With his tea-drinking kookiness?
For a once-great general, Uncle was amazingly easy to fool about how she played with her brother. Just smile at the right time, and look oh so concerned about how hard Zuzu tried, wasn't it a shame he'd had to start a year behind her and just never caught up….
Azula: Oh, please. I knew Uncle had gone to seed, but I also knew he was great in his day. The last time we’d met before this fight, I’ll have you reminded that he bested and humiliated me, easily, with a technique I didn’t even know existed*. And I think he knew exactly what my relationship with Zuko was like – he just couldn’t prove I’d done anything, and Father would’ve taken my side if he’d accused me of anything. So why bother?
*MG’s Note: I presume. Iroh invented lightning redirection and was, before he taught Zuko, seemingly its sole practitioner, and I don’t think he’d have much occasion to show it off for anyone else – especially if, as I’ve seen suggested and tend to agree with, he devised the technique specifically to protect himself from Ozai.
MG: I’d also like to add that I think “The Avatar State” indicates that whatever childhood trauma Zuko had about Azula, Iroh still had the measure of her somewhat better than he did. I’ve run across some meta positing that at least part of Iroh’s hostility to and mistrust of his niece is that she reminds him too much of himself in his youth. I’m not sure I’d go that far… but I can see the logic.
Not that Zuko ever could catch up. He worried about people. Cared what they thought; as if what weaklings thought mattered to the royal family. He had no focus.
Azula: I’ll have you know that just because people are beneath me, that doesn’t mean it’s not important to know how they think. Do you think I could have outmaneuvered Long Feng, or the Avatar and his friends, or Zuko himself if I didn’t know that? Like I once said, I’m a people person.
Sokka: …yeah, well, I can remember some pretty big tricks you missed, princess, so maybe that hits a little too close to home?
Azula: *sniffs dismissively*
So. Had to be desperate, then. Not that it would work. She was the prodigy, after all. The best. Keeping a bit of over-enthusiastic fire from singeing her was easy.
Though it did split her concentration. Which was annoying, when the Avatar was so close-
Well. Look at that. Trembling, sweating, even the ball of air fizzling out from under him… the little airbender was afraid of fire.
Oh, poor Zuzu. You're such a good brother.
Such a good fool.
Sokka: Actually, pretty sure Aang was afraid of fire for a while because of how he lost control and burned Katara the first time he tried firebending. Zuko had nothing to do with it. ‘Course, Azula has no way of knowing that, but hey, what can I say, I like having the chance to prove stuck-up Fire royalty wrong.
…Ow.
He was in the street. At least, Zuko thought he was in the street. He'd been fighting Azula for control of the fire, she'd made some kind of twist in the midst of the flames….
After that, everything was fuzzy.
I can't be dead. I hurt too much. He blinked, and faded brown resolved. "Uncle?"
"Get up!"
He grabbed Iroh's hand with trembling relief. Uncle was here. He'd promised, and he was here.
MG: …yeah, I can’t help but think that Iroh showing up like he did was a much bigger deal when he and Zuko had been separated for several episodes and their last interaction involved Zuko throwing Iroh’s attempts to give him advice back in his face and storming off, as opposed to here, where… they never split up, Iroh was there all along, and Zuko knew it. I get what Vathara is going for here, mind, I just think the show did it better.
No. You can't collapse. Not yet. "Need at least two benders to make that work," Zuko observed, world still spinning.
About to speak, Iroh blinked instead, and raised an eyebrow at the structure crumbling into flames. "Azula was in there?"
Fire-blasts and wind-bursts echoed through the streets. "Was," Zuko said grimly.
They ran for the fight.
Zuko? Katara thought, dazed, water at ready.
Of course Zuko. Why not Zuko? Miss crazy blue firebender had chased them all the way from Omashu, why shouldn't their very own personal bogeyman show up again?
Sokka was right. We should have let him freeze….
MG: And here, we get our first taste of Vathara’s Katara. It’s… surprisingly not terrible, considering that in the back half of the Ba Sing Se arc she’s going to start opening fire on the character with both barrels and not holding back until she seems to decide Katara’s had enough and turns her attention to bashing Aang instead. I can actually hear this thought process in Katara’s voice, at least, which is always a good sign. The bad news is that this is also where we’re getting our first taste of something that I think is going to be a recurring theme in the fic’s handling of Katara – that Vathara takes Katara’s Book Three anger at and distrust of Zuko as if it’s her default resting point, rather than a direct response to Katara having tried to hold out her hand to Zuko in “Crossroads of Destiny” and getting it slapped away in the worst way possible. It’s not terrible here, yet, but the fic is going to go on to treat Katara as if she just has an irrational hatred for both Zuko in particular and the Fire Nation in general, and basically build her whole characterization off of that (she tries to justify it psychologically in a more complicated way than that – we’ll see what I mean when we get there – but this is essentially how it actually comes off in practice). Again, this is a Katara in a highly stressful moment, and we’re a ways away from the worst of it starting… but we are seeing here the very first glimmers of what will become one of the fic’s more notorious and divisive issues.
Beware the Sugar Queen: 1
Except crazy as it was - and Sokka was right about lack of sleep making you crazy, not that she'd ever admit it - Zuko didn't seem interested in Aang at all. He was totally focused on the girl in Fire Nation armor, backing her into a corner right along with the rest of them.
He's… helping us?
Sokka: Yeah, what’s it they say in the Earth Kingdom? Don’t look a gift ostrich-horse in the beak? I think at the moment we were all less concerned that Zuko might turn on us and more concerned that Azula actually was trying to kill us.
He was with the old firebender, the one who'd tried to save the Moon Spirit from Zhao. Fire Nation, her enemy - and he'd still tried.
But this is Zuko. It's got to be a trick. Somehow. I don't know how, yet, but-
Gold eyes didn't even flicker, before blue fire flew. Not toward Aang. Not toward them. Toward….
Fire Nation, but he was trying to help, and - he's an old man, how could she-?
Azula: *shrugs* It was a simple tactical choice, really. Uncle was the oldest and slowest person there. If I wanted to hit someone to have a chance to break out of that ring, he was the obvious one (not that Vathara has done a good job of explaining the actual situation, in my personal opinion). And, I’ll note, it worked.
Sokka: *points at Azula, acts like he’s about to say something, then sighs and lowers his hand* I hate you.
Azula: *smirks* I know.
He didn't cry out. But Zuko….
Katara hadn't heard anyone scream like that since-
Mom.
No one deserved to suffer like that.
MG: And here we have a rare moment of Vathara not only writing Katara with some empathy, but actually having her show empathy to Zuko! Considering how she’ll have her acting later on, it’s kind of amazing, honestly. Treasure this moment, everyone.
Not even Zuko? the same surly, malicious voice that had picked a fight with Toph sniffed.
MG: …I’d be a lot fonder of this moment if Vathara wasn’t going to be portraying that “surly, malicious voice” as Katara’s default state for much of the fic, ngl.
No. Not even an arrogant, high-handed, spoiled prince of an enemy… what in the world was he doing to that fire?
Flow with the flame.
Forget knots of copper instead of gold threads; part of what he was working with was charred, and too much just blackened ash. He had to dig in, pour in the fire and his own strength, somehow clear what couldn't be restored out-
"Katara! Don't put out the fire!"
The Avatar. Serious, for once. And damn right. He needed that fire. Uncle needed it, and while he'd never tried to seriously hurt the Avatar's little band of renegades, if they got between him and Uncle now….
Sokka: Renegades!? I am a proud warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, thank you! All of us were fighting for our homes and our peoples. “Renegades” just makes us sound like those stupid pirates – the pirates Zuko hired, if you’ll remember – or worse.
MG: Honestly, that phrasing just puts me in mind of in LotR how when Sam overhears the orcs talking in Cirith Ungol they call the Free Peoples “rebels” very dismissively. I somehow don’t think that’s what Vathara was going for…
Something cool slipped in under the flames, laving away ashes.
The waterbender. I should-
But the water didn't push. It just flowed around his fire, working at knots he hadn't touched. Or had touched, and couldn't - quite - unravel.
Azula: I have no idea what’s happening, but I hate it.
MG: I actually rather like how it portrays Katara’s and Zuko’s healing techniques as different but complementary. Which, sadly, won’t stop Vathara from consistently associating creepy or dangerous things with deep water over the remainder of the fic… Though I do have to note that in canon, Zuko furiously refused to let Katara even try to help Iroh when she offered. I’m not sure if this is just Zuko being a healer now himself having more appreciation for what she’s trying to do, if he’s too focused on his own work to have the attention left over to try and chase her away, or if it’s Vathara deliberately removing a moment of Zuko behaving less than heroically in a moment of stress and grief. *sighs* Probably, all of the above.
Why is she helping?
Sokka: …because my sister’s a decent person and none of us liked seeing an old man get shot like that, even when he was on the other side?
Didn't matter. Worry about it later. Just keep working, keep healing, and damn Azula….
"Don't push too hard. You want to work with the body, not against it."
He tried. Panic was the enemy. Uncle needed him to be thinking, not crying. Definitely not driving off a healer who seemed to know what she was doing, no matter how much he wanted to scream his fury to the skies.
How could she? How could she?
Azula: *rolls her eyes* Do I need to explain the tactical situation again? Because I can, if it would help.
Sokka: Yeah, I really don’t think that’s the issue here.
"It's okay, you're doing fine… whoa, that's a weird thing to say. Okay, just listen. Move around me, all right? I'm going to get the tricky parts. Just back me up, and everything's going to be fine."
Just because you're after the same goal, doesn't mean you're allies.
Sokka: Fair enough. But I guess they’ve not heard “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in the Fire Nation?
Some of the screaming in his head - you're helping the Avatar! - finally went quiet.
Azula: …no you’re not. The Avatar’s pet waterbender *she ignores Sokka’s death glare* is helping you help Uncle. You’ve gotten in backwards, Zuzu.
MG: To be fair, I don’t think Zuko is supposed to be entirely rational at the moment.
She's a healer. She's helping Uncle. Which is going to help me, and the Fire Nation. I don't have to like her. I just have to use it.
Azula: Hmmm. Perhaps he can learn after all.
Better. Much better. As was the feel of Uncle's pulse under his hand when he ventured to touch healing skin; still fast, but steady.
Water retreated, and he let the fire go. She uses a waterskin, Zuko thought suddenly. So even when there's no water near to grab…. I wonder… didn't one of Uncle's scrolls say something about firepots…?
Sokka: Isn’t one of the big advantages fire has over the other elements that firebenders can just… make their own and don’t need to carry it around with them? Or was I wrong about that and you all have been carrying tiny little torches up your sleeves the whole time and I just never noticed?
Azula: …no.
MG: I’d assume the advantage here is that carrying a small firepot around is less conspicuous than making your own fire (though it does put me in mind of one of the many bad decisions from the Movie That Shall Not Be Named). Although, the previous chapter already described Zuko as using “a little pot of fire” for his healings (and having to be careful to keep people from paying too much attention to it) so… shouldn’t he have experience with the idea already?
Grimacing, Zuko tried to gather his scattered concentration. Fire or no fire, he'd really overdone it this time.
I need sleep. Soon.
But not yet. Not until- Gathering his courage, he looked at the awful wound. Cloth was charred, still tainted with the awful scent of roasted flesh, but….
Letting the little earthbender help him sit up by way of a raised rock, Uncle smiled at him. "Well done." And lifted an expressive brow.
I know, Uncle. I know. Rising to his feet - he was not going to wobble, damn it - he ignored the rising babble from the two boys. And bowed to the waterbender.
Katara. You owe her that. And more.
MG: Again, all of this is kind of amazing in hindsight, considering that this is the same fic that’s later going to claim, in an AN, that Katara is scarier than Azula (and not in a complimentary way)…
Sokka: Wait… what!?
Azula: *crosses her arms disdainfully* She most certainly is not.
"I owe you," Zuko said roughly, rising. "And I pay my debts." He skewered the airbender with a look. "Azula's going to kill you."
The Water Tribe boy snorted. "You've got a real funny way of-"
"Let him talk, Snoozles!" The earthbender stamped a foot on the ground for emphasis, dropping the boy, boomerang and all, into a sudden sinkhole. "This is important."
Sokka: *pointedly* I would like to point out that was uncalled for. Also, I think I would have been able to tell that Zuko was giving a warning, not a threat.
MG: Alas, Toph is Vathara’s favorite of the Gaang, so she has to be the first to be willing to hear Zuko out.
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 1
"Toph!"
"He's just talking, Sokka." Katara's voice was hard, but level. "Let him."
Amazing. Someone in the little bunch actually had sense.
Sokka: *bursts out laughing* I’m sorry, but Prince “I’m going to kidnap Aang and drag him off into the North Pole into the middle of a blizzard and see what happens!” Zuko is in no position to talk.
"Azula's not an exile," Zuko went on. "Fire Navy ship, Yu Yan, fresh mounts, tanks - if she asks for it, she'll get it."
"Zhao had all that," the Avatar started, "and-"
MG: Which is true. Azula is smarter than Zhao, but literally everything Zuko just described (with the arguable exception of fresh mounts, which Zhao was never really in a position to need, but could presumably have gotten if he wanted) Zhao did have to throw at Aang. But of course, Aang is supposed to be quiet and let Zuko explain the way of the world to him, so we can’t acknowledge he had a point.
"Zhao just killed people when he didn't get what he wanted," Zuko bit out. "Azula is worse."
"Oh yeah?" Sokka challenged, up to his chin in dirt. He should have looked ridiculous, except for the determination in blue eyes. "And how, exactly, do you get worse than death?"
Sokka: *flatly and uncharacteristically seriously* I lived my whole life under the shadow of Fire Nation raids. They killed my mom. I had to watch as my dad and all the tribe’s warriors left home to go fight them, never knowing when they’d come home, or if they ever would. Katara and I had to basically take over as adults when we were still kids because our parents were gone and Gran Gran needed all the help she could get. I had to stand there and watch as Zhao killed the moon, one of the two spirits that watches over my culture, and nearly destroyed the world and then the girl I loved had to turn into the moon to put things right, which wasn’t the same as dying but from my perspective might as well have been. I think I know how bad things can get in life, thanks.
"She finds what you love, and she takes it away." No. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have….
Sokka: And clearly, none of us here have any idea what’s it like to lose something – or someone – we love. Oh, no, we need Wise Prince Zuko to tell us all of this! *sighs heavily* I can’t believe this story is making me miss when he was just the angry jerk with a ponytail.
But he had. And from the way the airbender flinched, something had finally, finally gotten through that shaved, tattooed head.
Use it.
"She'll track you," Zuko went on harshly, standing his ground. "I did it by asking questions and following what I could see; you think it's a hundred years ago and sky bison are everywhere? They're not. People notice. And maybe some of them wouldn't talk to me because you're the Avatar, but believe me, they will talk to Azula. Because she smiles, and she knows how to make people want to trust her - and if they don't talk, someone will disappear. Maybe their wife. Or their friends. Or their children. And if they're lucky, they'll get a body back. She broke her neck. He drowned. They got buried in a landslide. Oh, what horrible accidents." He had to stop, and breathe, smoke curling up from clenched fists. "She'll say it just like that. And smile. And ask again." He stared into gray eyes, trying not to shake. "She's trying to kill you. She won't stop until she catches you. Any of you." Another breath. Spirits, he was going to kill something. Or throw up. Maybe both. "Do you understand me? Didn't any of those monks tell you what real people are like? We're not all worth saving, you idiot!"
MG: Okay, on the one hand… in a vacuum, I like this monologue. Both in how it builds up the actual horror of how Azula operates, through the lens of someone who grew up with her and has firsthand experience of how dangerous it is, and how it ends up accidentally(?) slipping into Zuko’s own trauma and sense of self-loathing at the end. It’s genuinely powerful stuff. Except that it’s not in a vacuum, it’s in this fic, and it’s part of a trend that’s going to recur through the entire fic until close to the very end, of the Gaang (sans Toph and occasionally Sokka) as the stupid, naïve children who have no idea what they’re doing and need the seasoned and worldly Prince Zuko to sit them down and explain the way life really works. And in that context… yeah, this ends up rubbing me the wrong way. Not the worst thing in the world, and indeed I do like the monologue itself, but I still see it as yet another sign of worse things to come.
Prince Stuko: 7
Aang swallowed hard, but met him gaze for gaze. "I don't believe that, Zuko." He shook his head. "I can't."
Zuko saw pure, blinding red. "Then you're going to die-!"
MG: …it’s also always very clear whose side Vathara is on in these little talks, and it’s never Aang’s.
"Nephew."
Enough. Just enough, to catch him before his temper teetered over the ragged edge. Zuko forced clenched fists open, dissipating daggers of flame.
"Go find Asahi," Iroh directed, golden gaze worried and sympathetic. "We will need to move swiftly."
Yes. They would. Zuko nodded to the old general, and took off down the street, leaving the whole infuriating band behind.
MG: The “old general” being his uncle? Who just nearly died? That just seems like a very strange way to refer to him, especially in this particular context…
Iroh sighed in relief as his nephew vanished around a building. Now, to deal with-
"Did you see that nut?" Sokka sputtered as Toph bent him back out of the ground. "Don't do that again! We were about to have crispy-fried Aang-"
"My nephew," Iroh said, in a voice that had cut across parade grounds at need, "was trying to help. Difficult as that may be to believe."
"Oh, sure. Chase us all over the world, and now he's on our side?" Sokka shook his head, wolf-tail whipping fast enough to catch him on the ear. "Ow!"
Azula: I’d thought you were smart enough to recognize that though you’re not on “the same side,” you had a common enemy – me – at the moment. Clearly not. What a pity.
"No, he's not," Aang said firmly. "He was helping Katara."
"Who, me?" the waterbender said skeptically. "Just because I- um."
Sokka: Because both Katara and Zuko were helping Iroh? *shrugs* It’s not that hard.
"Even so," Iroh nodded graciously. His shoulder was still sore, and likely would be for some time, he imagined. Still, he had no complaints.
That was meant to be a deathblow. Long, lingering, and painful.
Oh, Azula. Have you fallen so far, to please my brother? Or were you always this cruel, and we were all blind?
Azula: *sighs* No, I was surrounded and shooting Uncle was the easiest way out I saw. Do I need to keep repeating myself? I wasn’t trying to kill him, though I wasn’t trying not to kill him either; I could have lived with it if he died, it just wasn’t my first priority at the moment.
MG: And I’ll note that Zuko patched up Iroh fine with regular first aid in canon. Unless Azula’s fireblast were more deadly in this AU for some reason?
All, save Ursa and Zuko. Why had he never truly believed the boy?
It was too horrible, Iroh admitted to himself. My nephew had already lost his mother. It only seemed reasonable that he would be angry, and blame his rival for Ozai's love. As Ozai felt I was, for our father's. Only… expected.
MG: Yeah, no, I’m not buying this. Iroh knew what Ozai was, and he knew what Azula was, and he clearly knew as soon as Azula showed up in the show that it was a bad sign, even when Zuko let himself be taken in by her promises.
"Honor's really important in the Fire Nation," Aang was saying. "That's what Kuzon always said."
MG: Which just reminds me of another bit from the Kyoshi novels. In The Rise of Kyoshi, the story takes place almost entirely in the Earth Kingdom, and for long stretches of it Rangi is the only firebender or Fire National around, and her uptightness, proud warrior race girl attitude and fixation on personal honor mostly come across as a personal quirk, something that marks her out as foreign in an almost quaint way compared to the more pragmatic Earth Kingdom people and gets a lot of gentle (and not-so-gentle) ribbing from her companions. Then in the sequel The Shadow of Kyoshi, we got to the Fire Nation itself and Kyoshi has to deal with the fact that here, people – especially the Fire Lord’s court – take this stuff very seriously in ways she, who hasn’t been raised in this environment, can’t really understand or easily navigate. And suddenly it’s not so amusing anymore, but something extremely serious with very real consequences. Needless to say, I think it handles culture clash quite a bit better than Embers – which tends to default to “everyone else should be quiet and listen when the Fire Nationals are talking” – does it.
So you do not know why. Iroh hid a grimace. And why should you? Roku was an Avatar; he was not bound by a firebender's loyalty. Avatars serve the world, they cannot serve their own clan. How Sozin must have ached, knowing one born as his dearest friend was as foreign to him as an airbender in the wind.
Sokka: Oh, boo-hoo. Sorry, but from what Aang said, Sozin ended up leaving Roku to die for being inconvenient to him. And that’s not even getting into what he did after that. But yeah, I’m going to be feeling really sorry for Fire Lord Mass Murder because his best friend wasn’t exactly like him.
MG: So… this is a thing the fic is going to be coming back to. Several things, actually. First off, while Vathara never portrays Sozin as not evil, she does… soften him a bit, I guess? Making him, or trying to, a bit less evil and more sympathetic than his canon counterpart, including having characters (like Iroh here, and others later) randomly feeling sorry for him at various points (and was also at least in part motivated by love for one of the fic’s major big bads, though this is yet another thing we’ll discuss in more detail when it’s explicitly laid out for us). And, like Sokka, I have a hard time bringing myself to care overmuch, because again, this is a man who went on to commit mass genocide of his own free will, and before that let his best friend die because he was in the way of his plans for conquest. So whatever sympathy I might feel for Sozin is… limited, to put it very mildly. Second, we have the idea that the Avatar isn’t subject to loyalty (or other influences of their element, depending on which nation they’re born to) and therefore isn’t “really” part of their birth nation. Which, I’ll add, directly contradicts part of the moral of “The Avatar and the Fire Lord,” that Roku and Sozin were equally Fire Nation. But Vathara really doesn’t like Roku, and the fic is mostly going to present him as a useless waste of space, failure as the Avatar and traitor to his people, though he still doesn’t get it as bad as Kyoshi does. And I can’t help but noticing that Iroh seems to be using an airbender as his example of the most alien thing it’s possible to be… there’s a reason for that, and we’ll also be seeing more of that later.
Detached from Reality: 2
Elemental Determinism: 3
He Has Much to Learn: 5
The Superior Element: 4
Still, the past was done. These children needed his mind on now. "Kuzon of Byakko?" Iroh asked.
Azula: No, Kuzon of the Ember Island Players, best known for getting himself stuck in a malfunctioning Koh the Face Stealer costume for over sixteen hours, forcing the play to be called off until he was successfully extracted. It was a common name a century ago, wasn’t it? But of course, the Avatar has to have been friends with the same Kuzon Uncle has heard of. It’s a small world, apparently.
"Yeah!" Exhausted as they all were, Aang still brightened. "Did you know him? Is that how Zuko healed you? I saw Kuzon doing something with green flames once, but he'd never show me. Even when I asked him a lot of times-"
MG: It’ll be a while yet before we get the full story, but here’s another piece of the whole “Kuzon was special and important” bit – I think I’ve already mentioned why I don’t care for it.
"There is no time."
The Avatar's face fell, and Iroh almost regretted his brusqueness. Almost. "Azula will return, and she will not be alone. You must not be here when she does."
"And what about you, Uncle?" Toph asked, jabbing a finger into his unwounded shoulder. "You'd better not be here, either."
Uncle. Iroh smiled at the strong little girl. I do not think I would mind another niece. One who would at least give my nephew a chance to be himself, without always watching for pain. "Zuko and I have eluded her before. We will be all right."
Azula: …please don’t tell me Uncle is considering adopting the earthbender.
MG: No, but the idea that Toph and Zuko have a unique and powerful bond is going to be something the fic is going to get a lot of mileage out of.
"Whoa, whoa," Sokka was waving his arms in disbelief, "you're running from her?"
Sokka: Oh, no, of course I just assumed that after Azula shot Iroh and nearly killed him, they were the best of friends! Clearly that’s just good old-fashioned Fire Nation family bonding time! Let’s all try to kill each other, won’t that be fun?
"Did you not hear her call us traitors, young man? Which is quite unfair to my nephew. He has always been loyal to the Fire Lord." He gave Aang a piercing look. "He still is."
"So… I guess we should get moving," Aang said reluctantly.
"It would be wise," Iroh said dryly.
"But… you helped us. And I really, really need a firebending teacher-" Aang saw his look, and gulped.
"Avatar Aang," Iroh said, with deliberate finality, "I hope, when next we meet, you will know why what you have asked is cruel."
MG: So, fair warning – Zuko is not going to become Aang’s firebending teacher in this fic. Vathara is going to go out of her way to make sure we all know this is impossible, in fact. Actually, I’m pretty sure Aang never actually learns any significant firebending in Embers… which is kind of ironic, considering what element and nation this fic focuses so much on.
"I'll say," Toph grumbled. "Don't worry, Uncle. I know enough about the nobles to clue Twinkletoes in." She clapped dust off her hands. "Come on, slowpokes!"
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 2 (Toph still gets to be the knowledgeable one)
Divine Right To Rule: 3 (Toph is knowledgeable about important things because she’s from a noble family)
"Wait," Katara said hurriedly. "Uncle… what did Azula take from Zuko?"
Azula: Do you want the short list, or the long?
Iroh closed his eyes, wrung by grief too worn for tears. "More than you will ever know, child."
Sokka: Not to sound like a jerk here, but I think Katara and I know exactly what that’s like, actually. Not the Azula part, obviously, but… Zuko’s not the only person in the world to have lost their mom to someone from the Fire Nation.
"But-"
"Katara, come on!" Sokka hissed. "Creepy ladies. Blue fire. Sleep!"
Footsteps faded, and Iroh breathed a sigh of relief.
"They're gone."
Iroh started, looking about guiltily. Pain distracted one from the stillness needed to feel another firebender's fire,
Azula: For the record, that’s not how it works.
and his nephew was silent enough; that Asahi could almost match him for stealth was a bit unnerving. "Trying to take them would have been-"
"You're wounded. I'm exhausted. And Azula wants us both. I'm determined, Uncle. Not stupid."
Sokka: Sometimes you can be. North Pole, Aang, blizzard? Ring any bells?
Yet tired as he must be, Zuko didn't look angry. Or even resigned. In fact, if Iroh didn't know better…. "And what has you in such a good mood, my nephew?"
Openly smirking, Zuko dropped a hand-sized patch of familiar scales in front of him, one side still raw and bloody. "Guess who's going to be walking in an hour?"
Mongoose dragon scales. The rear thigh, if he remembered their patterns correctly. "But how…?"
"Who's a sweetheart?" Zuko crooned, scratching under a black-feathered beak.
If Iroh didn't know better, he would have sworn Asahi's trill was a chuckle.
MG: And the chapter ends there, with no Author Note today! This chapter was pretty straightforward, especially compared to last time, and I liked it a lot better. Much as Sokka and Azula were heckling the fight, it’s still a solid action scene, and we actually got to see a surprisingly decent characterization for Katara here, compared to where the fic is going. And we got some good moments like Zuko and Katara working together to save Iroh, or Zuko’s warning about Azula, and some good moments of Zuko characterization in general. Unfortunately, it also highlighted some issues that are going to be bigger down the line – the fic’s handling of Roku and Sozin, characterization of Aang and Toph, and, of course, “Zuko knows the ways of the world and the Gaang would be much better off if they just shut up and listened to him,” which is present but not terrible here, but will be getting worse as the fic goes on and more and more obviously takes Zuko’s side. And there’s also the fact that this chapter really doesn’t stand on its own – you need to keep “The Chase” in mind to have any idea what’s going on here (and the fic goes out of its way to follow the plot closely, even when I think Zuko and Iroh’s side ought to have diverged more). Which, again, wouldn’t be a problem if “forget canon, let the fic stand on its own” wasn’t a defense for Embers I’ve seen people make, and which I just don’t think works. Still, on its own merits this is a solid chapter with some good moments, albeit also some warning signs of things to come. Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time, everyone decompresses from the fight, and Toph gets to explain some things to her friends, as more of Vathara’s issues re the Gaang start to rear their head. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Beware the Sugar Queen: 1
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 2
Detached from Reality: 2
Divine Right to Rule: 3
Elemental Determinism: 3
He Has Much to Learn: 5
Prince Stuko: 7
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 2
Stations of the Canon: 10 (one point for Zuko and Iroh still getting separated, one point for Toph and Iroh’s meeting mostly playing out as in canon, one point for Zuko’s and Iroh’s roles in the fight being essentially the same despite the changing circumstances)
The Superior Element: 4
The Ultimate Firebenders: 4
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Date: 2025-09-08 09:45 am (UTC)Yeeeikes.
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Date: 2025-09-10 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-17 06:06 pm (UTC)Which is one reason I've got mixed feelings on the whole Kuzon thing.
I like parts of it but man. It drastically over-matures Zuko and completely changes his character. And while some of the changes are still fun... he's so much less Zuko afterwards.
Also more of the bloodlines and spiritual essentialism weirdness...
but the fic is going to go on to treat Katara as if she just has an irrational hatred for both Zuko in particular and the Fire Nation in general
For me, the worst part of Katara and Aang's treatment in Embers wasn't how hard the fic chewed them out, it was the way they kept backsliding and having to learn the same lessons over and over again.
Okay sure, that might be "realistic". In the real world people often fall into old habits and need practice to really think in new ways and change.
But god it's frustrating in a fic, especially when it's concentrated on specific characters. Especially when their struggles and growth aren't the core of the story like Zuko's are.
but… Zuko’s not the only person in the world to have lost their mom to someone
Which I think is why Vathara doesn't let Iroh explain, here. If Katara knew now, while she was in this state of openness to sympathy with Zuko. With the sight of Zuko being grief-stricken and caring fresh in her mind... it would destroy all those (repetitive) clashes later, undercutting them before they even start.
And Vathara wants Zuko to struggle with being misunderstood by the Gaang.