Embers: Chapter Nine, Part I
Oct. 10th, 2025 07:26 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 post contains discussion of abuse and reference to rape and mind control.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, Vathara showed us how much she doesn’t like Jet, loyalty got even creepier, and we met Amaya and her disturbing penchant for going rummaging around in people’s heads at the drop of a hat, without their consent (and did we mention this woman is going to become Zuko’s beloved mentor and Iroh’s love interest, so we’re going to be seeing a lor more of her). Today, it’s time for Zuko to take a spiritual journey. This is also the first of the fic’s really long chapters – we’re going to get a lot of these in the relatively near future, as Vathara will get into a habit of increasing her chapter lengths to absolutely massive degrees, but once we get over a hump near the middle of the fic, they’ll start decreasing back to a more reasonable length again. All of which is to say, we’re going to be splitting this one, and many more thereafter, in two. Joining us today will be Zuko and Aang!
Chapter 9
Dark.
Zuko coughed, and rolled over, staring blearily up at a sky full of stars. No sign of the Crown or the Wheel among the constellations; couldn't be too far north or south, then. But I'm not in Ba Sing Se anymore. Am I?
Aang: …dreaming? The Spirit World? Bit of both?
Uneasy, he summoned a flame for a look around-
Nothing.
"That won't work here, you know."
Aang: …in that case, going to go with “Spirit World.”
That voice. He knew that voice, and that face, as the young man in a Fire Nation uniform stepped out of the shadows of a tree. But it wasn't possible.
"It's been a while, cousin."
The voice, and the smile. So much like Uncle's.
Zuko: I mean, as far as spirit guides go, I can think of far worse people I could have showing me around than Lu Ten…
He was crying as he hit outstretched arms, and for once - just once - he didn't care at all. "Lu Ten…."
"It's okay. It's okay, Zuko. I've got you. I won't let you fall."
MG: Hmmm; I like this moment in isolation, but I do have to wonder if Vathara hasn’t done enough to set up Zuko and Lu Ten’s relationship to make it feel earned? Obviously, it couldn’t be Ursa here because she’s still alive, but that’s the loss that defined Zuko’s early life. Lu Ten was his cousin, sure, but also a lot older than him, and we haven’t been shown that they were particularly close (even in the show, when the royal family receives the news of Lu Ten’s death, Zuko is shown to grieve, but his actual response is to focus on how this will affect Iroh). *shrugs* Maybe it’s just me.
Lu Ten let him cry himself out, rocking him gently. Waited until his breath hitched, and Zuko scrubbed his tears away. "How is he?" Lu Ten asked quietly.
Uncle. "He's okay. He misses you." Zuko swallowed hard. "He's going to be so angry at me. I promised to stay, I tried…." And I failed. Again.
Zuko: Okay, that’s a punch to the gut…
"Zuko!" Lu Ten gripped his shoulders. "Calm down. You're not dead yet."
"But-"
"You're here, yes. But you're not dead."
The Spirit World? Doesn't make sense.
MG: I mean, as far as we see in the show, while it’s possible for a human to become a spirit after death (Yue, the Painted Lady based on some of the creators’ comments, Iroh himself by Korra’s time, etc.) this doesn’t seem to be the standard afterlife (it’s not explicitly said that everyone reincarnates, not just the Avatar, but I think that’s the clearest interpretation). So I’m not sure why Zuko would assume “I’m in the Spirit World” to equal “I’m dead.” Then again, he’s probably not thinking particularly clearly right now, considering.
Uncle. It should be Uncle here, Iroh would understand why the world had gone crazy….
Zuko: Considering what sort of reaction that woman’s technique can apparently cause in firebenders, I’d say it’s sheer dumb luck he wasn’t!
Iroh should get to see Lu Ten. Not him.
Zuko: …and, there’s another gut punch.
"Zuko. Focus." Lu Ten bent a quiet smile his way. "Trust me, it's not your fault things turned out like this. You're stubborn; it runs in the family. You'll find a way out."
Here. Just where is-? Zuko swallowed, seeing the tree, the hill, the great wall in the distance. "This is your grave."
"Well, it's convenient. We're not tied to them… but it makes some things simpler." Lu Ten glanced around. "We need to get you back, and I don't think I can do it alone." Gold eyes fixed on his. "Do you know anyone else here who would help you?"
Aang: Uh, I know some spirits who probably wouldn’t be very helpful, but I don’t think that counts.
"Here?" Zuko managed. "I know a kamuiy who wants to tear my throat out, but-" He caught that hint of a smirk, not nearly as subtle as Uncle's. "You knew!"
"I did get to see that," Lu Ten admitted, grinning. "You two? Were fantastic." He ruffled Zuko's hair. "Who'd have thought the kid who was always tripping over himself could get that good? And what a show! Fire, drama, vengeance!" He winked. "And on top of all that, I got to hang out with a lovely girl."
"Ping," Zuko breathed. "Ping Lu Yu."
MG: Okay, okay, Lu Ten died years before Ping did and he obviously had nothing to do with what happened to her, but I can’t help but think that the girl who died because a Fire Nation soldier raped her becomes the object of affection for a Fire Nation soldier in the afterlife is a little bit… odd. Like, I don’t think it’s something that couldn’t be made to work at all, but just as an aside like this it’s kind of head-tilting for me.
The world shifted.
And they were walking beside a cairn of rocks, where an Earth Kingdom girl barely his age sat singing to a cooing, gold-eyed infant.
MG: Okay, there’s a lot going on here that I do not feel qualified to unpack, beyond feeling that there’s something… off… about how Ping as a victim of Fire Nation violence continues to be tied to both the Fire Nation and to the effects of her victimhood in the freaking afterlife, but I just want to register myself as wishing that Vathara had chosen not to revisit this plot point, for a variety of reasons.
She looked up at them, and smiled. "Lu Ten!" Her smile shifted, more bittersweet. "Hello, Lee."
He sat down beside her. It seemed like the right thing to do. "…I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault." Her smile was pretty, but sad. "Not everything is, you know."
Aang: Yeah, but it really can feel that way when you’re the one who supposed to fix everything, can’t it?
Zuko: *quietly* Yeah, yeah it can.
"I wish - I wish I could have been there," Zuko blurted out. "I wish I could have helped."
"You saved my mother," Ping said plainly. "You saved Asahi. The world is broken, but you've never stopped trying. That's brave, Lee. It matters."
"My name's not-"
"Isn't it?" She touched his lips for silence, and smiled past him at Lu Ten. "So. Someone's interfering?"
Zuko: *grousing* Yeah, someone like a certain waterbender who apparently nearly killed me through sheer recklessness and stupidity!
"Heavy-handed. But they probably figured this was the only shot they'd get," Lu Ten said wryly.
"Why? I'm not the Avatar!" Zuko growled. "Why do the spirits want to tamper with my life? Isn't it bad enough already- Why are you laughing?"
Still snickering, Lu Ten shook his head. "Zuko. You give spirits a headache."
Aang: …have you ever met a spirit? Other than the one from a few chapters ago in this story, anyway?
Zuko: …I saw that thing you and the Ocean Spirit turned into; that count? Otherwise, I’m just as happy to leave that side of things to you; living people are bad enough.
"What?"
"Sozin broke part of the world, and we've been paying for it ever since," Lu Ten said seriously. "He twisted destinies, and so ours have been twisted. And a lot of spirits were satisfied with that. They don't… really get humans, a lot of them. So long as we suffer, they think they've fixed the problem. And they don't understand why it keeps getting worse."
MG: Though we’ll later learn that there were certain spirits who were working with Sozin (and had kind of been responsible for every major bad thing ever for the last thousand years…) to bring exactly this about, though it’ll be awhile before we learn more… in any case, I do appreciate that Vathara at least tries to engage with the blue-and-orange morality of spirits, and make it clear they’re not human and don’t think like humans or want the things humans do, though I find her actual execution of that to be kind of… spotty, as we’ll see.
The Real Victims: 6
He smiled. "But you? You fight destiny. They throw something at you, it bounces off. Or you cut your way through it. Or it does stick, and you keep going anyway, until you walk it into the ground begging for mercy. You're Fire Nation. You don't quit."
Zuko: …I guess that’s one way of saying that the universe really likes kicking me when I’m down and I’ve had to deal with that.
Prince Stuko: 20
The Superior Element: 9
He looked about then, apparently considering something. "Sometimes you have to go back to go forward. We have Fire, and Earth." Gold eyes met his, sober again. "Who do you know in the Water Tribes?"
No one I'd want to meet here. Zuko had fought Water Tribe warriors, before he'd ever visited Katara's little village. North or South, they didn't care if his ship wasn't part of the war. It was Fire Nation, and that was all that mattered.
MG: …Vathara likes this idea, but I remain mystified by what way Zuko’s ship wasn’t “part of the war.” Sure, it wasn’t part of the proper navy or operating under the usual chain of command, but still – it was a Fire Navy ship, flying Fire Nation colors, under the command of two Fire Nation royals with a Fire Navy crew, carrying out a mission that had been assigned by the Fire Lord himself, which sometimes involved fighting the Fire Nation’s enemies. They were very much part of the war!
He'd fought, and he'd killed. His men deserved no less.
Zuko: …so I guess that bit earlier about me nearly getting kidnapped by a pedophile to explain why I had experience with killing was just completely pointless then, wasn’t it?
"There's no one who would help you?" Lu Ten said quietly. "No one who ever has?"
Katara.
Stones blurred into ice and snow.
This doesn't look good.
Not the small, igloo and tent village he remembered. This was a town; the ruins of one, still smoldering, once safe behind carved walls of ice. Not as grand as the North Pole, but it didn't look anything like where he'd found Sokka. And the Avatar.
Aang: And Katara? She was there too, though I guess you didn’t really talk to her that time. *beat* You did threaten her grandma, though?
Zuko: *sighs heavily* I thought you’d be a very old man, so I grabbed the nearest old person out of the crowd to demonstrate. I’m not proud of it, it just… seemed like the thing to do at the time.
"It wouldn't." A woman's voice, forbidding as an ice cliff. "You destroyed this place long ago."
He spun around, looking for the voice's owner. "I've never been here."
Blue and white furs stepped out of blowing snow. A dark-haired Water Tribe woman, about his mother's age, with pale blue eyes relentless as winter. "The Fire Nation was," she said coldly. "And you are the Fire Nation. Aren't you, Prince Zuko?"
MG: …and of course, our example of a spirit from the Water Tribes is Katara’s mother, who blames Zuko for all the crimes of the Fire Nation and won’t listen to (what Vathara says is) reason. Somehow, this is not surprising at all.
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 8
My throne. My country. My honor.
And yet…. "I didn't do this."
Zuko: But I did attack their village later on, so I think my other self isn’t going to get himself very far going on like this…
"There are many things you haven't done." Blue eyes flashed. "What have you done, besides hunt my children across the very world? You kill and burn and destroy; nothing stops you from getting what you want! Nothing but my children, who put themselves between the Avatar and harm. What makes you different from the rest of your murdering kind? What gives you the right to ask anything of me?"
Zuko stiffened, and glared right back. "Nothing."
Aang: That seems less like accepting she has a point and more like just being really stubborn about it and digging your feet in, which doesn’t really work with spirits, usually?
"Cousin," Lu Ten murmured.
Zuko shook his head. This is my fight. "If I hadn't hunted them, Zhao would have. Without anyone interfering.
Zuko: Zhao found out about Aang from my crew! Who knows when or how he would’ve found out or what he’d have been able to do about it if we hadn’t been there at exactly the right time!
If I hadn't chased them - and I don't want to kill them, no matter how annoying your son is
Sokka: *from offscreen* Hey!
- someone would have wiped them out of the world with a fireblast months ago." Gold eyes narrowed. "But you don't care what I haven't done."
Zuko: Okay, I rescued you one time, Aang, but I really don’t see how me being out there in my one little ship stopped anyone else from trying to kill you! I followed your trail for months; I know you ran into lots of Fire Nation troops that weren’t mine or Zhao’s. So no, I don’t know what my other self is getting at, other than that I don’t think it makes much sense.
Prince Stuko: 21
"And I thought you were going to try to convince me." The tilt of her head was so familiar, he half-expected to be buried in ice.
I know you, Zuko realized. I know enough. "I don't have to convince you."
"A prince's arrogance." She gave him a dark look. "I'm not surprised."
Aang: I also don’t think she’s wrong?
"You're Katara's mother." It's not arrogance. Not if you're right.
Zuko: …why does that sound like something Azula or Dad might say?
"She does what's right. Even when it's hard. Even when she hates you."
MG: Which is honestly a better deal than Katara usually gets from this fic, I can’t lie…
He met her glare for glare. "I'm not supposed to be here."
"No. You're not." The cold wind died, and she looked him up and down. "But it won't help. I know what you're trying-"
You're ahead of me, then. Spirits!
"-You're one short. Who are you going to find?"
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 9 (for Kya being portrayed as being an obstacle for Zuko here in a way none of the other spirits he meets are)
Fire. Earth. Water. Air. Zuko swallowed, and shook his head. "I don't know."
"It's not an easy question," Lu Ten allowed. "But the past isn't as far away as people think. Not when there are those who still remember."
MG: *muttering* And when the fic is going to end up making so much of the fic not only about past generations, but about things that happened thousands of years ago…
If we'd known each other back then….
"Kuzon," Zuko breathed. "Kuzon of Byakko. He'd know somebody." He glanced at Lu Ten. "Where can I find him?"
"I can't tell you."
Laughter in gold eyes. Faint and rueful, but definitely laughter. "Can't, or won't?" Zuko demanded.
"Both," Lu Ten admitted. "I already told you; you're not dead. Some things, you just can't know."
MG: Spoilers – we’re going to find out why Zuko can’t meet Kuzon partway through the fic. But you can probably guess the reason, even if Zuko hasn’t yet.
So close. So close, and it was all going to fall apart. Like everything else he tried fell apart.
No. I am not going to die on Uncle. Not here. Not this way.
MG: Again, a good moment. I’d like it better if Iroh hadn’t partially gotten Zuko into this mess by letting Amaya work on him, though…
Reading the constellations above, he started walking north.
"Zuko?" Lu Ten, beside him easily as breathing.
"You were at Ba Sing Se. Ping was at her cairn. Katara's mother was at her grave." Knuckles white, he headed for the ocean. "I'm going to the Southern Air Temple." Even if I have to swim.
Ice-mist blurred, and he was standing on a windswept mountainside.
Aang: …yeah, the Spirit World is kind of like that sometimes.
Zuko: With my luck, I should probably just be happy that mentioning swimming didn’t land me at the bottom of the ocean somewhere…
Lu Ten's fingers brushed his hair, faint as a breath of wind. "This is as far as we can take you," he murmured. "Without someone to search for, you have to get there on your own."
Wind blew, and he was gone.
"Don't worry," Zuko muttered. "I'm used to it."
Eyes picking a way over sheer rock, he started climbing.
No gear. No backup. No plan.
Not like it was the first time.
Zuko: Yeah, but climbing a mountain in the Spirit World is a bit of a new experience for me.
For a world of spirits, it felt real enough. Rocks tore at him. Air got thinner, biting at his lungs. Muscles trembled and weakened, pushed to their limits.
Aang: I mean, it is real, it’s just not, like our version of real. It’s a different kind of real. Does that make sense?
Zuko: …I’ll take your word for it.
How did anyone ever live up here?
But every time he thought he'd made real progress up the slopes, the cliff fell away up, in an arc even the Avatar's lemur couldn't have climbed. Which was not like real mountains. At all.
Right. Not like spirits have to play fair.
Thunder rumbled, as if the sky itself smirked at him.
Of. Course.
He'd seen storms sweep up the mountains at home, he knew how fast they moved. It was still impossible. One moment, only the down-blast of wind. The next-
A flood of rain, weakening holds already slipping from torn fingers. Howling wind, prying his body away from ragged stone. Thunder cracked, lightning shattering a cliff near enough to shower him with stones.
"Is that all you've got?"
The storm darkened. Thickened, lightning flashing from cloud-top to cloud-top like the sky cracking its knuckles.
"Why stop there?" Digging his fingers into bare cracks, Zuko glared at the sky. "You've always thrown everything you could at me! Well, I can take it! Come on! Strike me! You've never held back before!"
Zuko: *confused* Why am I saying this now when I said it for real on a mountain in the real world, daring the storm to shoot lightning at me so I could try to redirect it (which looking back I realize was a really stupid thing to do)?
MG: …probably because Vathara wanted to move it to a context where it actually makes you look badass for defying the storm, I imagine. Because “Zuko is the most badass of them all” is one of the cardinal rules of this fic.
Prince Stuko: 22
Stations of the Canon: 17
The storm howled. Stones gave way, he was slipping-
Worn fingers caught his, and pulled.
"Gently, my young friend. You've had a busy day."
He sounded like Aang. Sort of. If Aang had made it to eighty and had some sense knocked into him. Zuko blinked, and looked up-
Aang: Wait a minute, is that… no, it couldn’t be… Gyatso?
MG: It is! Gyatso actually shows up a decent amount in the fic, whether in the form of spirit visions or just mundane flashbacks. And, like Amaya feels like she’s the Token Good Waterbender, I think Vathara has decided to make Gyatso the Token Good Airbender. Mostly, in this case, by just keeping him pretty close to his canon self (though there are a few… eyebrow-raising moments later on), which is a relief – though when you compare him to how she depicts most of the other airbenders, it does jar a bit. We’ll see what I mean as we go on.
Aang: …well, it’s better than nothing, at least?
A vaulted ceiling. No storm in sight. But we were just- Spirit World. Doesn't have to make sense.
Aang: No, the Spirit World actually makes a lot of sense! It just makes its own sense – you’ve got to learn how to play by its rules when you’re there.
Daring, he looked at his rescuer. Shaved head, long white mustaches, yellow and orange robe… airbender tattoos.
"A very long day," the monk chuckled softly. "But here you are. With love, compassion, and honor."
Zuko stared. Turned, and looked.
Behind him, Lu Ten winked back, one arm wrapped around Ping's shoulders. Beside them, the Water Tribe woman rolled her eyes.
Aang: Are we going to find out why Katara’s mom changed her mind and is here now, or…?
Unsettled, Zuko looked back at the airbender, in time to see one white brow go up in curiosity. "Friends and allies are the greatest of treasures," the monk said plainly. "What more could you need?"
"Truth," Zuko blurted out. "How do I get out of here? Why did I end up here in the first place?" He swallowed, mouth dry. "Why aren't you angry with me?"
"Should I be?" Under the mildness, gray eyes were sharp. "Have you broken your promise?"
Which one? "I don't think so," Zuko said warily.
"No, you have not," the monk nodded in satisfaction. "And as I recall, you never promised to be gentle. 'Drag him home by the scruff of the neck and make him apologize for scaring us like that', I believe you said."
What? "You're confusing me with someone else."
Zuko: *slowly* Yeah, that is not what I promised when Dad kicked me out… *remembers MG’s earlier comment about Kuzon* Oh… oh…
"That is possible," the airbender nodded. "Many things are possible. Even promises that last a lifetime, and beyond." A knowing wink. "Sometimes the spirits remember those. When it is to their advantage."
"You should play Pai Sho with Uncle," Zuko muttered. "I don't need koans. I need answers!"
"Ah. But to find your answers, first you must find the right questions." The monk smiled, waving off hints of imminent explosion. "But I forget how much need fire has for haste. I do not hate you. I would even say that I am greatly in your debt. I may have taught Aang to master air, but I also loved him. And some things, one who loves as a father cannot easily teach a young son. That the world can be cruel. That people may hate, without cause or reason. That evil can come in friendly guise." He met Zuko's gaze, stern as the mountains. "That even one who seems your most fearsome enemy, may act with honor, and justice."
MG: Hrm. This is another bit I probably would have liked in a vacuum, but in this fic specifically, it just feels like yet another beating of the “Aang sheltered and naïve, Zuko wise and worldly” drum, and in that context it’s really hard to not roll my eyes at it. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but it’s also not really a reaction I can avoid. Though I’d also quibble with some of the wording, in particular that Zuko was never really Aang’s “most fearsome enemy” – most persistent enemy, sure, but Aang has already met worse and more dangerous people by this point (Zhao, Azula etc.) and knows the Fire Nation can throw far worse than Zuko at him.
He Has Much To Learn: 11
Zuko stiffened, but held his ground. "I did what I had to."
"And that is a truth my young pupil had not faced," the monk said evenly. "It was not a kind lesson, nor one easy to watch. But I love Aang too much to deny that he needed it." White-wreathed lips quirked in a smile. "You may have detected a bit of… flightiness, in the boy."
"Never would have noticed," Zuko deadpanned.
Aang: …should I be offended by that?
Zuko: *stays very carefully silent*
The monk broke up in laughter. "I see your sense of humor hasn't changed!"
"I'm not who you think I am," Zuko insisted. "I don't know you!"
"Oh? Then it would seem my manners are lacking." He bowed. "I am Gyatso."
This is a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. But Zuko forced himself to return the bow. "My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa, and Fire Lord Ozai." And this is the end.
"Nephew of Iroh, and grandson of Azulon, among others," Gyatso nodded. "A fact someone has taken shameless advantage of, I think."
Zuko: Okay, at this point I’m starting to sympathize with my other self – can’t we stop dancing around all of this and just get to the point, here? Clearly something important is going on, and I can’t do anything about it if I don’t know what it is? How long is Vathara going to drag this out, anyway?
MG: Well, we won’t really be getting the whole story (as regards to your “real” identity and nature, who the other two big villains who’ve been working with Sozin, Azulon and Ozai are and what they want, why the Fire Nation “really” hates the Avatar, why the yaoren are so important, etc.) until… the late twenties and early thirties, chapter-wise? And some of the chapters between now and then are really long? Though more things will be teased until then. Anyway, the answer is “she can drag this out for a really long time.”
Zuko: *facepalms*
Moonlight shone through the vaulted hall, and she was there. "So he found you."
"Did you think he wouldn't?" the Water Tribe woman said dryly. "He's Fire Nation. They finish what they start." A bittersweet smile. "Or they try to."
Zuko: And sometimes trying to really, really hurts, but… why are you on my side now, again?
"It was a necessary risk." The white-robed princess almost touched the floor, white hair flowing like water. "Your uncle asked a question. There was division on the answer. It could not be decided. It is still undecided. The Avatar is human as well as spirit. He will do what he will do." She floated closer.
MG: Except that later on the fic will tease the idea that the Avatar Spirit is more a completely separate entity with its own personality and agenda that just piggybacks on the various Avatars rather than actually incarnating as them, in defiance of… basically everything else we ever learn about what it means to be the Avatar(and then do nothing noteworthy with that, because the back half of the fic teases a lot of ideas that don’t end up amounting to anything…)
"But you have acted to restore the balance. Even when you could have passed by. And so you have earned my answer."
Glowing fingers touched his forehead, and the ocean dragged him down.
Zuko: …if me drowning is the answer, I don’t want to know what the question is.
MG: Well, this is actually one of the most pivotal moments in the whole fic, though it’ll be a couple more chapters before the full ramifications of it are clear…
This cannot be happening.
Iroh was frozen on the floor, heart like stone within him as Amaya frantically tried to revive the boy in his arms. Mushi wrapped around his self like a sheath of cool silk, but he could not care. This could not be happening. Not again. They'd come so far. Tried so hard. The world could not be so cruel, not twice-
Aang: Would it be bad of me to say that you could’ve avoided this if you’d just not let Amaya work on Zuko at all, after you learned her technique is dangerous?
Zuko spasmed in his arms, coughing up water.
What in the world?
Questions later. He helped the boy twist, supported him as Zuko choked out enough liquid to drown an ostrich-horse. Much less an underfed teenager.
Zuko: *grating* Thanks, Yue. Or Amaya. Whichever one of you did that part. I really needed that.
"Tui and La!" Amaya breathed, blue eyes round. "How…?"
"Tui and La," Iroh said grimly, "indeed." Thumped Zuko hard on the back, helping him clear the last froth out. He could see the faint glow fading from the water as it lingered on the floor. "My nephew seems to attract the spirits' attention. And not in a pleasant way." He lowered his voice. "Lee?"
"Yue said… you asked a question." Zuko breathed harshly, ragged as if he'd been dragged up from deep water. "Not sure… I can live through another answer, Uncle…."
Aang: At least you’re in good enough condition to be grumpy? That’s a good sign, right?
Zuko *flat look*
"Yue?" Iroh frowned darkly, and briefly entertained the notion of a koi-fish dinner. That Zuko's life would never be easy, he could accept. That a spirit would strike his nephew to get at him - that went beyond even the spirits' stern justice, into cruelty.
MG: …much as I appreciate Iroh’s protectiveness of Zuko, considering that the show very clearly implied that killing just the Moon Spirit (much less both Moon and Ocean) would destroy the world, or at least damage it irreparably, and Iroh very clearly knew that, I find it kind of hard to imagine that he’d actively fantasize about eating them, even in a moment of exasperation.
Wait, he reminded himself sternly, as Amaya ran her hands over his nephew to heal the inexplicable marks of drowning in deep water. The spirits' messages are not always clear. Wait, and see what occurs.
The Deadly Depths: 3 (there’s a reason it plays out like this, but I’m still giving a point for Zuko’s magical almost-drowning-on-dry-land bit here)
"Ping thinks Lu Ten's cute…."
Iroh blinked. Shook his head, to clear his ears. He couldn't have heard what he thought he'd just heard. Could he? "Nephew?"
"…Don't go."
"I am right here," Iroh said gently, as Zuko's grip slipped into unconsciousness. "I will not leave you." Soberly, he looked at Amaya.
Zuko: Please tell me he told her to get out – I do not want to deal with her right now!
"He's resting," the healer said as she stood, still shaken. "This has never happened before, I-" She cut herself off, and bent to feel Zuko's forehead. "And now he has a fever. I don't know why!"
MG: I’d be more sympathetic if she hadn’t been trying to use a technique on him that a. is potentially lethal to firebenders and b. apparently tends to leave its subjects horribly traumatized even when it works right and c. never properly explained any of this before going to work on both of them!
"It is not a physical illness, I think." Iroh frowned at the ghostly dragons entwined around his nephew, snapping and snarling; a larger red, and a smaller, younger moon-white. Somehow, he wasn't surprised. He might be handling the not-quite-other that was Mushi, but he was older, more stable. He knew who he was, and what he wanted. Zuko was still trying to find out.
Zuko: What, is Uncle seeing my soul… fighting itself, after what Amaya did to me? Because of what Amaya did to me? And he’s just… standing there with her? What is wrong with everybody here, can’t you see how horrible this is!?
Reaching over, he tapped on misty scales. "Stop that at once, both of you."
Startled, they looked at him.
"Fight on, and one of you may win," Iroh said bluntly. "But he will have lost something precious to him. To all of us. Strive together, instead. Lean on each other. Learn from each other. You are not enemies. You are my beloved nephew. You always will be."
Zuko: ..well, at least Uncle’s doing something? I’m not sure what he’s doing, since I know he can see spirits, but this is… kind of different from that? And he’s still not calling Amaya out for doing this to me in the first place?
Abashed, the red dragon licked a wound on the white. Gold eyes closed, and they faded.
"I'm going to hate myself for asking," Huojin said reluctantly, "but - what just happened?"
Aang: …I think we all would really like to know that – thank you, Huojin!
"Lady Amaya's healing does touch the spirit," Iroh said frankly. "And my nephew was already divided against himself. I merely needed to remind him of the greater whole." He raised a gray brow. "That was the fever. As for the water - I have a tale you may wish to hear." He paused. "And you may not wish to be sober."
Zuko: I’m still waiting for an explanation for why Amaya thinks it’s a good idea to do this to people without getting their permission! I mean, from the way it sounds it went… especially bad for me (because of course it did) but doing this has hurt people before! And the fact that she knows it’s bad for firebenders kind of says some things, doesn’t it? Are we just… not going to talk about that?
Luli's going to give me a Look when I get home, Huojin thought ruefully, cradling a cup of tea in his hands as he pictured his wife's cheerful exasperation. Not that she'd be too angry; a Guard's hours were never straight from the clock, and the midnight-to-morning shift was one of the worst. She knew that, and they made it work.
Besides. The hair still hadn't settled back down on his neck since Lee'd… drowned, back down there in the basement. If some kind of trouble had just moved into the Lower Ring, he had to know about it.
Aang: I think you might want to have a talk to the woman who’s been brainwashing people? Katara told me all about what happened last time, and, uh, she was really not happy about that part.
Tucking Lee under a blanket on a borrowed futon, Mushi drew the screen closed around his nephew, shutting him into a corner of Amaya's small dining room. Sighed, and picked up his cup of tea. "Thank you, Lady Amaya."
Zuko: *muttering* She’s part of the reason we’re in this mess and doesn’t seem to have done much to help clean it up, but sure, thank her. Maybe “is inexplicably grateful to Amaya for doing this to me” is one of the things she mixes in that “healing” of hers – the Dai Li would approve.
"Amaya," the healer said plainly. "I have a feeling we may be seeing much of each other."
MG: You could say that again. Did I mention she’s going to be Iroh’s love-interest?
Zuko: *groans loudly and facepalms* I think I’d managed to make myself forget that part…
She sipped her cup. "I've never met another bender who could sense the spirits at work."
"It was an unexpected gift," Mushi said humbly. "And not always a welcome one. But we may be meeting for more than that." Crossing to a wall sconce, he pinched an oil-lamp alight, and brought it back to the table with him. "I believe my nephew left you somewhat bruised."
"Don't worry about it, I've had worse…." Words died in Huojin's throat, as Mushi moved his hands about the flame-
And fire changed.
Hands wreathed in burning green, Mushi bent to run fire over his aching knee. Warmth washed through the joint, washing pain away.
Sparks dying around his hands, Mushi straightened. "Lee is much better at this than I am." He regarded them both. "My nephew is not a waterbender. But he is a healer."
MG: And we’re starting to get to the point in the fic where I really wish Vathara had just left “Zuko learns fire-healing” as the point of divergence for this AU – because it really is an interesting idea all on its own! – and not decided to bury it under a whole bunch of other stuff too…
A healer. A firebender is a healer? Huojin thought, stunned.
Two firebenders. And how had firebenders managed to flee their nation, and survive?
Aang: …right. Creepy magic loyalty. Which somehow nobody ever tells anyone outside the Fire Nation about. Right.
Amaya looked as if she wished her tea had been spiked. "Perhaps you should start from the beginning."
Mushi inclined his head. "I have not been to war in many years, true. But - forgive me, Lady Amaya - it was known that I studied waterbenders. So when Admiral Zhao decided to invade the North Pole, where the Avatar had taken shelter… let us say, I was invited to come along."
"My tribe," Amaya whispered, pale.
"The Avatar?" Huojin got out. And didn't care if his voice squeaked. The Avatar was a myth, a story for children. No one had seen him. No one had seen him for a hundred years.
Aang: Uh, by this point I think people generally knew I was back – even in Chin Village, they actually managed to have a giant float that actually looked like me! *beat* And then they set it on fire and tried to boil me in oil because of something Kyoshi did, so… moving on!
"Yes," Mushi nodded. Bent a look of warm understanding on Amaya. "They took losses, but they survived. Zhao… overreached himself. He invaded, and did a great deal of damage, but his goal was more proud than that. More proud, and more evil." He drew a breath. "You may have noticed, when the moon went dark."
"Spirits." Amaya's hand pressed over her breast. "Tui and La…."
"Zhao found their mortal forms, and struck," Mushi said heavily. "I could not stop him, not in time. But the Moon had given some of her life to Princess Yue… and that brave girl, gave it back." He shook his head. "And the Avatar, together with the outraged Ocean, destroyed the entire Fire Navy fleet." A wry smile. "Lee and I spent three very long weeks on a raft, praying we would reach land somewhere safe."
MG: Frankly, I’m surprised we didn’t have an aside here about how terrible Koizilla destroying the Fire Navy fleet was (if this bit had come later in the fic, after… certain revelations about the effects of that, we probably would have).
If he hadn't already been sitting down, Huojin had a feeling he would have become forcibly reacquainted with Amaya's floor. Spirits. Spirits getting killed. The Avatar. A whole fleet sunk. That was- He shook his head violently, and concentrated on details. "Lee's too young to be a soldier."
"He is," Mushi agreed. "I snuck him on board. It was not safe for him to remain where we had been. Not that it was much safer for him with me," he allowed. "The Ocean Spirit appears to have very poor aim. When it took Zhao - well, I am grateful Lee is dedicated to his training. He ducked."
Aang: Okay, so I wasn’t really… myself… for most of that, but the Ocean Spirit absolutely did take Zhao specifically and had nothing against Zuko, so… I’m not sure what the point of that was? And while the whole thing kind of felt more like a dream for me than anything, destroying the Fire Navy was also something the Ocean Spirit was absolutely doing on purpose.
The Deadly Depths: 4 (for the implication the Ocean Spirit was clumsy and indiscriminate)
"Ducked," Huojin repeated numbly.
"I did mention some spirits are not fond of my nephew?"
"…Right." Sure, he knew about the small kamuiy that appeared in Ba Sing Se; the item-spirits, the two-tailed cat-owls, the other small creatures of mischief. But the Ocean and the Moon? When, exactly, had the world stopped making sense?
When you saw a teenager drown on dry land.
Zuko: Not to be too hard on Huojin, who’s having a very weird day, but the world stopped making sense a long time before that. Trust me.
"In any event, we did reach territory held by the Fire Nation," Mushi went on. "We thought we had found safety. We were, unfortunately, mistaken." He paused a moment, obviously choosing his words. "You do not wish to know our names. That is likely wise. But I will tell you that for my actions against Zhao, I have been declared a traitor to the Dragon Throne, and Lee with me." Another pause. "And did they know what we are capable of, what Lee found himself capable of in our flight, there would be nowhere in the world we could hide."
"Because you can heal?" Huojin shook his head, appalled. He didn't hate his own people, he didn't, but the Fire Lord- spirits.
"Because of how they heal." Amaya regarded Mushi with interest. "You are not like other firebenders."
Aang: Well… yeah? Other firebenders can’t heal, so clearly they’re doing something different? Doesn’t that sort of… go without saying?
"The teachings of Fire Lords Sozin and Azulon are that fire comes from the darker emotions," Mushi said seriously. "Hate. Pain. Anger. All things that have twisted our nation, and our spirits. But to heal, one must care. And with that caring, one learns the fire can come from compassion. Love. Even righteous fury, that will defend the innocent to the death. True firebending, the teaching of the dragons, comes from life itself. What we can do, what we are… our very existence proves the Fire Lord is wrong."
MG: You know, maybe there’s supplemental material that contradicts this, but I’d never really gotten the impression that corrupted firebending drawing only on rage and aggression becoming the norm was, like, a specific set of teachings the Fire Lords imposed on everyone so much as it was just the natural endpoint of a society dedicating itself over the course of generations to nothing but war and conquest, and losing touch with its own roots in the process (with the Fire Lords encouraging this direction, admittedly). But I suppose that would imply there is a deeper social rot in the Fire Nation beyond “bad people are in charge and forcing people to be a certain way when they don’t want to,” so that’s not something this fic is particularly interested in exploring.
The Real Victims: 7 (giving a point for this being part of an overall trend where the fic prioritizes how the war has hurt the Fire Nation itself over other problems)
"And to defy the will of the Fire Lord, is treason," Huojin finished for him.
"Even so."
"So…." Spirits, there was no polite way to say this. "Why aren't you dead?"
Zuko: Because despite what someone wants you to think, it doesn’t actually work that way?
Mushi smiled wryly. "I was under the command of Fire Lord Azulon. After he died… you left the colonies at six? Then perhaps you do not know it is customary for those of noble blood to pay formal visits to the new Fire Lord, and assure him of their loyalty." He chuckled. "As my brother's loyalty is beyond question, Fire Lord Ozai neglected to see that I appeared."
There was more to it than that, Huojin could feel it. But I don't think I need to know.
MG: Based on what we see elsewhere in the fic, even with Iroh avoiding admitting that Ozai is his brother, this still isn’t true – Azulon was still alive when Iroh broke off the siege of Ba Sing Se and walked away from his command, and Iroh had his bout of loyalty sickness (which he obviously survived) then. Also, I have a really hard time imagining Ozai wouldn’t desperately want to force Iroh to swear fealty to him, especially in a fic where loyalty is a thing and Iroh could die for breaking it – having his older brother, the great Dragon of the West whose shadow he’d always lived in, under his power so completely seems like the sort of thing that Ozai would relish.
Still. There was something Mushi was leaving out that he did need to know. If his stunned brain could just focus on what.
"You've kidnapped the boy from his father," Amaya said levelly.
Ah. Yeah. That would be it.
"In a way, yes," Mushi admitted. Paused again; not in the calculated manner of a man choosing his words, but the silent ache of looking into painful memory. "Three years ago, my brother declared Lee a failure, and a disgrace. He has traveled with me ever since. Much as it pains me to say, the only reason my brother would care that Lee is with me, is that I am between the boy and those who wish him harm."
Huojin recoiled. "His own father?"
Zuko: *quietly* Yeah. If anything, Uncle’s downplaying how bad he was.
"The power of our nobles rests not merely on blood, but on bending," Mushi said seriously. "Most firebenders show their first sparks by four; five at the latest. Six is very late." A quiet sigh. "Lee did not bend a flame until he was eight."
"Not good?" Huojin asked Amaya. He might be Fire Nation by blood, but she knew bending.
Aang: Well, if six is late, and eight is later than six, and knowing Fire Lord Ozai… yeah, that would be pretty bad.
Zuko: You have no idea.
MG: I do think it’s interesting here that Vathara not only makes Zuko a late bloomer by firebender standards, but will also make firebenders in general late bloomers compared to benders of other elements, considering that in the novels, Hei-Ran (Rangi’s mother and, among other things, a famous firebending teacher) explains that the Fire Nation makes a point to identify potential benders very young, because as you can imagine, the prospect of an unattended toddler tossing sparks around is not something anyone wants to deal with.
"The Northern Tribe counts blood more than bending in its politics," she said, with a trace of old bitterness. "But no. It isn't. Four years, Huojin. Imagine a proud man, a proud firebender, who lives through four years of having his heir considered useless by those in power. Four years of whispers and veiled threats, by all the courtiers around him." She hugged herself, as if feeling a chill off polar ice. "I'm not the first woman of the tribe to flee the power games. I doubt I'll be the last." Forcing her arms straight, she glanced at Mushi. "But if Lee is your brother's heir…."
Zuko: …yeah, having a frank assessment of why my father may have been right to resent having me as his heir was exactly what I needed to hear today. Thanks so much, Amaya.
"There is another child."
"Of course." Amaya sighed, bitterness turning sad. "A stronger bender."
"That, I would not be so certain of," Mushi said thoughtfully. "Lee has always struggled with his bending, yes. He has spent years, learning moves others soar through easily. Only time, dedication, and unerring practice, has given him the skill he now possesses." Mushi paused. "In Sozin's style."
Huojin looked between them, as green met blue. There was something being said beyond their words. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what.
Amaya hmphed. "I haven't forgiven him for trying to kill me, yet."
Zuko: Considering what you do to people, I can’t say I feel very bad about it. *glances over at Aang* Sorry about that.
"I do not ask that you do," Mushi said seriously. And waited.
Minutes passed, and Amaya finally sighed. "A healer. And he can pass as a waterbender?"
"After a fashion," Mushi nodded. "It is more difficult to wring fire's strength from hot water, but Lee can do it."
"From hot-" Amaya's jaw dropped. Blue eyes darted toward the screen. "He can do that?"
"He can." Mushi smiled. "He thought of it when a man's life rested in our hands, and we dared not betray ourselves."
"He thought of it." Her voice was hushed, amazed. "Does he know?"
Aang: Okay, you’re clearly getting at something here – is this more stuff we’re going to be dancing around for a while, because we’ve had quite a bit of that lately and I’m kind of getting tired of it.
"I have been afraid to tell him," Mushi said quietly. "My brother's claim that Lee is a failure was very… convincing."
"Not a bender," Huojin pointed out, trying to sort out the sudden tension in the air.
"Huojin." Amaya shook her head, still stunned. "It would be as if - as if I bent water out of lava. It exists. It is possible. But to do it…."
Aang: I mean, I’ve met a bloodbender. And a plantbender. And a guy who could blow things up by looking at them. Some benders are really skilled, and some bending techniques can get really, really weird.
"I had feared it might be only an uncle's kind eyes," Mushi mused. "Thank you for the confirmation, Lady Amaya."
Huojin eyed the screen himself. "You mean, he's a lot stronger than his father knows."
"Strength has nothing to do with it," Amaya said firmly. "Lee has imagination. Will. Determination." Blue eyes all but glowed. "Not one bender in a hundred, not one in a thousand, has that tenacity."
Prince Stuko: 23
Mushi smiled.
"You," Amaya said, and it was almost a chuckle, "are a sly, conniving, scheming old firebender."
Mushi almost looked innocent.
Zuko: Well, it’s a kind of unflattering way to talk about Uncle, but it’s also not really wrong, at least some of the time…
"A healing firebender." Amaya did laugh, now. "Training him will be interesting."
Huojin checked that he was still sitting down. "You want to train him?"
Aang: Except Zuko’s not a waterbender? Just because two elements can do the same thing doesn’t mean they do it the same way – I mean, Fire Lord Ozai could fly, and when I was little Gyatso told me the story of Guru Laghima and how he learned to fly, but I really doubt they were using the same technique! Maybe there are some things Zuko could learn from Amaya, but I’m not sure how much “training” she could give him?
Zuko: Assuming I wanted to learn from the woman who nearly killed me – and I’m really not seeing why I would!
"If Luli tripped on a piece of jade rough abandoned in the mud," Amaya said wryly, "wouldn't she take it home, and wash it, and see what might be carved from it?" The healer smiled at him. "You're going to be late."
Well, yes. "You're sure you'll be-?"
"We'll be fine," Amaya said firmly. "Thank you for your help, my friend."
Which was an unmistakable see you later, don't worry about it. Huojin nodded, and made his farewells.
And made a mental note to swing by the clinic again in a day or so. Just in case.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Zuko: *sighs heavily* He’s not the only one.
MG: And on that rather Star Wars-y note, we end our sporking for today! Speaking of which, I do think a problem with a lot of the longer chapters in this fic is that they don’t hold together all that well – it feels like they’re multiple incidents only loosely tied together rather than a cohesive piece of the narrative. Part of me wonders if they would have been better off as multiple shorter chapters… and on the other hand, the fic is 91 chapters already (not counting “Theft Absolute”) and I’m not sure making it even longer would be a good idea!
Anyway, I feel like this chapter… doesn’t reach its potential. I like the idea of Zuko, on the edge between life and death, going through a Spirit World journey to get back to his body and be resuscitated, but the version we actually get feels very… paint by numbers. We mostly just see the Spirit World reflections of places in the material world, and none of the characters Zuko meets really seem to have as much depth or as impactful a role as I think they should have. I still think that Lu Ten and Zuko’s relationship as cousins needed to be set up better for this to have the power it should; I still side-eye Ping’s role in all this, though maybe it won’t bug other people as much as it does me; Kya is mostly just there to be hostile to Zuko (of course the Water Tribe character is the most unpleasant…) and then decides to help him anyway because Reasons; Gyatso and Yue are… fine, but their main purpose is to tease us with stuff that won’t be fully explained for a very long time (though we can probably guess some of it already) which is very frustrating to me. And of course we’re getting hit more with “Zuko is special,” which hasn’t yet risen to the level of being unsalvageable but is getting more and more noticeable to a somewhat distracting degree (especially knowing what’s coming) and we’re already getting the narrative priming us for a bigger role for Amaya and trying to assure us of how wonderful she is, which considering her showing so far I just… cannot get behind. Still, I’d say this chapter isn’t terrible so far, just kind of frustrating, and I really think the “Spirit World journey” part should have been more developed, and been the full chapter. Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time, we’ll see Zuko and Iroh starting to get settled in to life in Ba Sing Se. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Beware the Sugar Queen: 5
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 8
The Deadly Depths: 3
Detached from Reality: 6
Divine Right to Rule: 11
Elemental Determinism: 8
He Has Much to Learn: 11
Prince Stuko: 23
Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 1
The Real Victims: 7
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 9
Stations of the Canon: 17
The Superior Element: 9
The Ultimate Firebenders: 8
Warning: This post contains discussion of abuse and reference to rape and mind control.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, Vathara showed us how much she doesn’t like Jet, loyalty got even creepier, and we met Amaya and her disturbing penchant for going rummaging around in people’s heads at the drop of a hat, without their consent (and did we mention this woman is going to become Zuko’s beloved mentor and Iroh’s love interest, so we’re going to be seeing a lor more of her). Today, it’s time for Zuko to take a spiritual journey. This is also the first of the fic’s really long chapters – we’re going to get a lot of these in the relatively near future, as Vathara will get into a habit of increasing her chapter lengths to absolutely massive degrees, but once we get over a hump near the middle of the fic, they’ll start decreasing back to a more reasonable length again. All of which is to say, we’re going to be splitting this one, and many more thereafter, in two. Joining us today will be Zuko and Aang!
Chapter 9
Dark.
Zuko coughed, and rolled over, staring blearily up at a sky full of stars. No sign of the Crown or the Wheel among the constellations; couldn't be too far north or south, then. But I'm not in Ba Sing Se anymore. Am I?
Aang: …dreaming? The Spirit World? Bit of both?
Uneasy, he summoned a flame for a look around-
Nothing.
"That won't work here, you know."
Aang: …in that case, going to go with “Spirit World.”
That voice. He knew that voice, and that face, as the young man in a Fire Nation uniform stepped out of the shadows of a tree. But it wasn't possible.
"It's been a while, cousin."
The voice, and the smile. So much like Uncle's.
Zuko: I mean, as far as spirit guides go, I can think of far worse people I could have showing me around than Lu Ten…
He was crying as he hit outstretched arms, and for once - just once - he didn't care at all. "Lu Ten…."
"It's okay. It's okay, Zuko. I've got you. I won't let you fall."
MG: Hmmm; I like this moment in isolation, but I do have to wonder if Vathara hasn’t done enough to set up Zuko and Lu Ten’s relationship to make it feel earned? Obviously, it couldn’t be Ursa here because she’s still alive, but that’s the loss that defined Zuko’s early life. Lu Ten was his cousin, sure, but also a lot older than him, and we haven’t been shown that they were particularly close (even in the show, when the royal family receives the news of Lu Ten’s death, Zuko is shown to grieve, but his actual response is to focus on how this will affect Iroh). *shrugs* Maybe it’s just me.
Lu Ten let him cry himself out, rocking him gently. Waited until his breath hitched, and Zuko scrubbed his tears away. "How is he?" Lu Ten asked quietly.
Uncle. "He's okay. He misses you." Zuko swallowed hard. "He's going to be so angry at me. I promised to stay, I tried…." And I failed. Again.
Zuko: Okay, that’s a punch to the gut…
"Zuko!" Lu Ten gripped his shoulders. "Calm down. You're not dead yet."
"But-"
"You're here, yes. But you're not dead."
The Spirit World? Doesn't make sense.
MG: I mean, as far as we see in the show, while it’s possible for a human to become a spirit after death (Yue, the Painted Lady based on some of the creators’ comments, Iroh himself by Korra’s time, etc.) this doesn’t seem to be the standard afterlife (it’s not explicitly said that everyone reincarnates, not just the Avatar, but I think that’s the clearest interpretation). So I’m not sure why Zuko would assume “I’m in the Spirit World” to equal “I’m dead.” Then again, he’s probably not thinking particularly clearly right now, considering.
Uncle. It should be Uncle here, Iroh would understand why the world had gone crazy….
Zuko: Considering what sort of reaction that woman’s technique can apparently cause in firebenders, I’d say it’s sheer dumb luck he wasn’t!
Iroh should get to see Lu Ten. Not him.
Zuko: …and, there’s another gut punch.
"Zuko. Focus." Lu Ten bent a quiet smile his way. "Trust me, it's not your fault things turned out like this. You're stubborn; it runs in the family. You'll find a way out."
Here. Just where is-? Zuko swallowed, seeing the tree, the hill, the great wall in the distance. "This is your grave."
"Well, it's convenient. We're not tied to them… but it makes some things simpler." Lu Ten glanced around. "We need to get you back, and I don't think I can do it alone." Gold eyes fixed on his. "Do you know anyone else here who would help you?"
Aang: Uh, I know some spirits who probably wouldn’t be very helpful, but I don’t think that counts.
"Here?" Zuko managed. "I know a kamuiy who wants to tear my throat out, but-" He caught that hint of a smirk, not nearly as subtle as Uncle's. "You knew!"
"I did get to see that," Lu Ten admitted, grinning. "You two? Were fantastic." He ruffled Zuko's hair. "Who'd have thought the kid who was always tripping over himself could get that good? And what a show! Fire, drama, vengeance!" He winked. "And on top of all that, I got to hang out with a lovely girl."
"Ping," Zuko breathed. "Ping Lu Yu."
MG: Okay, okay, Lu Ten died years before Ping did and he obviously had nothing to do with what happened to her, but I can’t help but think that the girl who died because a Fire Nation soldier raped her becomes the object of affection for a Fire Nation soldier in the afterlife is a little bit… odd. Like, I don’t think it’s something that couldn’t be made to work at all, but just as an aside like this it’s kind of head-tilting for me.
The world shifted.
And they were walking beside a cairn of rocks, where an Earth Kingdom girl barely his age sat singing to a cooing, gold-eyed infant.
MG: Okay, there’s a lot going on here that I do not feel qualified to unpack, beyond feeling that there’s something… off… about how Ping as a victim of Fire Nation violence continues to be tied to both the Fire Nation and to the effects of her victimhood in the freaking afterlife, but I just want to register myself as wishing that Vathara had chosen not to revisit this plot point, for a variety of reasons.
She looked up at them, and smiled. "Lu Ten!" Her smile shifted, more bittersweet. "Hello, Lee."
He sat down beside her. It seemed like the right thing to do. "…I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault." Her smile was pretty, but sad. "Not everything is, you know."
Aang: Yeah, but it really can feel that way when you’re the one who supposed to fix everything, can’t it?
Zuko: *quietly* Yeah, yeah it can.
"I wish - I wish I could have been there," Zuko blurted out. "I wish I could have helped."
"You saved my mother," Ping said plainly. "You saved Asahi. The world is broken, but you've never stopped trying. That's brave, Lee. It matters."
"My name's not-"
"Isn't it?" She touched his lips for silence, and smiled past him at Lu Ten. "So. Someone's interfering?"
Zuko: *grousing* Yeah, someone like a certain waterbender who apparently nearly killed me through sheer recklessness and stupidity!
"Heavy-handed. But they probably figured this was the only shot they'd get," Lu Ten said wryly.
"Why? I'm not the Avatar!" Zuko growled. "Why do the spirits want to tamper with my life? Isn't it bad enough already- Why are you laughing?"
Still snickering, Lu Ten shook his head. "Zuko. You give spirits a headache."
Aang: …have you ever met a spirit? Other than the one from a few chapters ago in this story, anyway?
Zuko: …I saw that thing you and the Ocean Spirit turned into; that count? Otherwise, I’m just as happy to leave that side of things to you; living people are bad enough.
"What?"
"Sozin broke part of the world, and we've been paying for it ever since," Lu Ten said seriously. "He twisted destinies, and so ours have been twisted. And a lot of spirits were satisfied with that. They don't… really get humans, a lot of them. So long as we suffer, they think they've fixed the problem. And they don't understand why it keeps getting worse."
MG: Though we’ll later learn that there were certain spirits who were working with Sozin (and had kind of been responsible for every major bad thing ever for the last thousand years…) to bring exactly this about, though it’ll be awhile before we learn more… in any case, I do appreciate that Vathara at least tries to engage with the blue-and-orange morality of spirits, and make it clear they’re not human and don’t think like humans or want the things humans do, though I find her actual execution of that to be kind of… spotty, as we’ll see.
The Real Victims: 6
He smiled. "But you? You fight destiny. They throw something at you, it bounces off. Or you cut your way through it. Or it does stick, and you keep going anyway, until you walk it into the ground begging for mercy. You're Fire Nation. You don't quit."
Zuko: …I guess that’s one way of saying that the universe really likes kicking me when I’m down and I’ve had to deal with that.
Prince Stuko: 20
The Superior Element: 9
He looked about then, apparently considering something. "Sometimes you have to go back to go forward. We have Fire, and Earth." Gold eyes met his, sober again. "Who do you know in the Water Tribes?"
No one I'd want to meet here. Zuko had fought Water Tribe warriors, before he'd ever visited Katara's little village. North or South, they didn't care if his ship wasn't part of the war. It was Fire Nation, and that was all that mattered.
MG: …Vathara likes this idea, but I remain mystified by what way Zuko’s ship wasn’t “part of the war.” Sure, it wasn’t part of the proper navy or operating under the usual chain of command, but still – it was a Fire Navy ship, flying Fire Nation colors, under the command of two Fire Nation royals with a Fire Navy crew, carrying out a mission that had been assigned by the Fire Lord himself, which sometimes involved fighting the Fire Nation’s enemies. They were very much part of the war!
He'd fought, and he'd killed. His men deserved no less.
Zuko: …so I guess that bit earlier about me nearly getting kidnapped by a pedophile to explain why I had experience with killing was just completely pointless then, wasn’t it?
"There's no one who would help you?" Lu Ten said quietly. "No one who ever has?"
Katara.
Stones blurred into ice and snow.
This doesn't look good.
Not the small, igloo and tent village he remembered. This was a town; the ruins of one, still smoldering, once safe behind carved walls of ice. Not as grand as the North Pole, but it didn't look anything like where he'd found Sokka. And the Avatar.
Aang: And Katara? She was there too, though I guess you didn’t really talk to her that time. *beat* You did threaten her grandma, though?
Zuko: *sighs heavily* I thought you’d be a very old man, so I grabbed the nearest old person out of the crowd to demonstrate. I’m not proud of it, it just… seemed like the thing to do at the time.
"It wouldn't." A woman's voice, forbidding as an ice cliff. "You destroyed this place long ago."
He spun around, looking for the voice's owner. "I've never been here."
Blue and white furs stepped out of blowing snow. A dark-haired Water Tribe woman, about his mother's age, with pale blue eyes relentless as winter. "The Fire Nation was," she said coldly. "And you are the Fire Nation. Aren't you, Prince Zuko?"
MG: …and of course, our example of a spirit from the Water Tribes is Katara’s mother, who blames Zuko for all the crimes of the Fire Nation and won’t listen to (what Vathara says is) reason. Somehow, this is not surprising at all.
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 8
My throne. My country. My honor.
And yet…. "I didn't do this."
Zuko: But I did attack their village later on, so I think my other self isn’t going to get himself very far going on like this…
"There are many things you haven't done." Blue eyes flashed. "What have you done, besides hunt my children across the very world? You kill and burn and destroy; nothing stops you from getting what you want! Nothing but my children, who put themselves between the Avatar and harm. What makes you different from the rest of your murdering kind? What gives you the right to ask anything of me?"
Zuko stiffened, and glared right back. "Nothing."
Aang: That seems less like accepting she has a point and more like just being really stubborn about it and digging your feet in, which doesn’t really work with spirits, usually?
"Cousin," Lu Ten murmured.
Zuko shook his head. This is my fight. "If I hadn't hunted them, Zhao would have. Without anyone interfering.
Zuko: Zhao found out about Aang from my crew! Who knows when or how he would’ve found out or what he’d have been able to do about it if we hadn’t been there at exactly the right time!
If I hadn't chased them - and I don't want to kill them, no matter how annoying your son is
Sokka: *from offscreen* Hey!
- someone would have wiped them out of the world with a fireblast months ago." Gold eyes narrowed. "But you don't care what I haven't done."
Zuko: Okay, I rescued you one time, Aang, but I really don’t see how me being out there in my one little ship stopped anyone else from trying to kill you! I followed your trail for months; I know you ran into lots of Fire Nation troops that weren’t mine or Zhao’s. So no, I don’t know what my other self is getting at, other than that I don’t think it makes much sense.
Prince Stuko: 21
"And I thought you were going to try to convince me." The tilt of her head was so familiar, he half-expected to be buried in ice.
I know you, Zuko realized. I know enough. "I don't have to convince you."
"A prince's arrogance." She gave him a dark look. "I'm not surprised."
Aang: I also don’t think she’s wrong?
"You're Katara's mother." It's not arrogance. Not if you're right.
Zuko: …why does that sound like something Azula or Dad might say?
"She does what's right. Even when it's hard. Even when she hates you."
MG: Which is honestly a better deal than Katara usually gets from this fic, I can’t lie…
He met her glare for glare. "I'm not supposed to be here."
"No. You're not." The cold wind died, and she looked him up and down. "But it won't help. I know what you're trying-"
You're ahead of me, then. Spirits!
"-You're one short. Who are you going to find?"
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 9 (for Kya being portrayed as being an obstacle for Zuko here in a way none of the other spirits he meets are)
Fire. Earth. Water. Air. Zuko swallowed, and shook his head. "I don't know."
"It's not an easy question," Lu Ten allowed. "But the past isn't as far away as people think. Not when there are those who still remember."
MG: *muttering* And when the fic is going to end up making so much of the fic not only about past generations, but about things that happened thousands of years ago…
If we'd known each other back then….
"Kuzon," Zuko breathed. "Kuzon of Byakko. He'd know somebody." He glanced at Lu Ten. "Where can I find him?"
"I can't tell you."
Laughter in gold eyes. Faint and rueful, but definitely laughter. "Can't, or won't?" Zuko demanded.
"Both," Lu Ten admitted. "I already told you; you're not dead. Some things, you just can't know."
MG: Spoilers – we’re going to find out why Zuko can’t meet Kuzon partway through the fic. But you can probably guess the reason, even if Zuko hasn’t yet.
So close. So close, and it was all going to fall apart. Like everything else he tried fell apart.
No. I am not going to die on Uncle. Not here. Not this way.
MG: Again, a good moment. I’d like it better if Iroh hadn’t partially gotten Zuko into this mess by letting Amaya work on him, though…
Reading the constellations above, he started walking north.
"Zuko?" Lu Ten, beside him easily as breathing.
"You were at Ba Sing Se. Ping was at her cairn. Katara's mother was at her grave." Knuckles white, he headed for the ocean. "I'm going to the Southern Air Temple." Even if I have to swim.
Ice-mist blurred, and he was standing on a windswept mountainside.
Aang: …yeah, the Spirit World is kind of like that sometimes.
Zuko: With my luck, I should probably just be happy that mentioning swimming didn’t land me at the bottom of the ocean somewhere…
Lu Ten's fingers brushed his hair, faint as a breath of wind. "This is as far as we can take you," he murmured. "Without someone to search for, you have to get there on your own."
Wind blew, and he was gone.
"Don't worry," Zuko muttered. "I'm used to it."
Eyes picking a way over sheer rock, he started climbing.
No gear. No backup. No plan.
Not like it was the first time.
Zuko: Yeah, but climbing a mountain in the Spirit World is a bit of a new experience for me.
For a world of spirits, it felt real enough. Rocks tore at him. Air got thinner, biting at his lungs. Muscles trembled and weakened, pushed to their limits.
Aang: I mean, it is real, it’s just not, like our version of real. It’s a different kind of real. Does that make sense?
Zuko: …I’ll take your word for it.
How did anyone ever live up here?
But every time he thought he'd made real progress up the slopes, the cliff fell away up, in an arc even the Avatar's lemur couldn't have climbed. Which was not like real mountains. At all.
Right. Not like spirits have to play fair.
Thunder rumbled, as if the sky itself smirked at him.
Of. Course.
He'd seen storms sweep up the mountains at home, he knew how fast they moved. It was still impossible. One moment, only the down-blast of wind. The next-
A flood of rain, weakening holds already slipping from torn fingers. Howling wind, prying his body away from ragged stone. Thunder cracked, lightning shattering a cliff near enough to shower him with stones.
"Is that all you've got?"
The storm darkened. Thickened, lightning flashing from cloud-top to cloud-top like the sky cracking its knuckles.
"Why stop there?" Digging his fingers into bare cracks, Zuko glared at the sky. "You've always thrown everything you could at me! Well, I can take it! Come on! Strike me! You've never held back before!"
Zuko: *confused* Why am I saying this now when I said it for real on a mountain in the real world, daring the storm to shoot lightning at me so I could try to redirect it (which looking back I realize was a really stupid thing to do)?
MG: …probably because Vathara wanted to move it to a context where it actually makes you look badass for defying the storm, I imagine. Because “Zuko is the most badass of them all” is one of the cardinal rules of this fic.
Prince Stuko: 22
Stations of the Canon: 17
The storm howled. Stones gave way, he was slipping-
Worn fingers caught his, and pulled.
"Gently, my young friend. You've had a busy day."
He sounded like Aang. Sort of. If Aang had made it to eighty and had some sense knocked into him. Zuko blinked, and looked up-
Aang: Wait a minute, is that… no, it couldn’t be… Gyatso?
MG: It is! Gyatso actually shows up a decent amount in the fic, whether in the form of spirit visions or just mundane flashbacks. And, like Amaya feels like she’s the Token Good Waterbender, I think Vathara has decided to make Gyatso the Token Good Airbender. Mostly, in this case, by just keeping him pretty close to his canon self (though there are a few… eyebrow-raising moments later on), which is a relief – though when you compare him to how she depicts most of the other airbenders, it does jar a bit. We’ll see what I mean as we go on.
Aang: …well, it’s better than nothing, at least?
A vaulted ceiling. No storm in sight. But we were just- Spirit World. Doesn't have to make sense.
Aang: No, the Spirit World actually makes a lot of sense! It just makes its own sense – you’ve got to learn how to play by its rules when you’re there.
Daring, he looked at his rescuer. Shaved head, long white mustaches, yellow and orange robe… airbender tattoos.
"A very long day," the monk chuckled softly. "But here you are. With love, compassion, and honor."
Zuko stared. Turned, and looked.
Behind him, Lu Ten winked back, one arm wrapped around Ping's shoulders. Beside them, the Water Tribe woman rolled her eyes.
Aang: Are we going to find out why Katara’s mom changed her mind and is here now, or…?
Unsettled, Zuko looked back at the airbender, in time to see one white brow go up in curiosity. "Friends and allies are the greatest of treasures," the monk said plainly. "What more could you need?"
"Truth," Zuko blurted out. "How do I get out of here? Why did I end up here in the first place?" He swallowed, mouth dry. "Why aren't you angry with me?"
"Should I be?" Under the mildness, gray eyes were sharp. "Have you broken your promise?"
Which one? "I don't think so," Zuko said warily.
"No, you have not," the monk nodded in satisfaction. "And as I recall, you never promised to be gentle. 'Drag him home by the scruff of the neck and make him apologize for scaring us like that', I believe you said."
What? "You're confusing me with someone else."
Zuko: *slowly* Yeah, that is not what I promised when Dad kicked me out… *remembers MG’s earlier comment about Kuzon* Oh… oh…
"That is possible," the airbender nodded. "Many things are possible. Even promises that last a lifetime, and beyond." A knowing wink. "Sometimes the spirits remember those. When it is to their advantage."
"You should play Pai Sho with Uncle," Zuko muttered. "I don't need koans. I need answers!"
"Ah. But to find your answers, first you must find the right questions." The monk smiled, waving off hints of imminent explosion. "But I forget how much need fire has for haste. I do not hate you. I would even say that I am greatly in your debt. I may have taught Aang to master air, but I also loved him. And some things, one who loves as a father cannot easily teach a young son. That the world can be cruel. That people may hate, without cause or reason. That evil can come in friendly guise." He met Zuko's gaze, stern as the mountains. "That even one who seems your most fearsome enemy, may act with honor, and justice."
MG: Hrm. This is another bit I probably would have liked in a vacuum, but in this fic specifically, it just feels like yet another beating of the “Aang sheltered and naïve, Zuko wise and worldly” drum, and in that context it’s really hard to not roll my eyes at it. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but it’s also not really a reaction I can avoid. Though I’d also quibble with some of the wording, in particular that Zuko was never really Aang’s “most fearsome enemy” – most persistent enemy, sure, but Aang has already met worse and more dangerous people by this point (Zhao, Azula etc.) and knows the Fire Nation can throw far worse than Zuko at him.
He Has Much To Learn: 11
Zuko stiffened, but held his ground. "I did what I had to."
"And that is a truth my young pupil had not faced," the monk said evenly. "It was not a kind lesson, nor one easy to watch. But I love Aang too much to deny that he needed it." White-wreathed lips quirked in a smile. "You may have detected a bit of… flightiness, in the boy."
"Never would have noticed," Zuko deadpanned.
Aang: …should I be offended by that?
Zuko: *stays very carefully silent*
The monk broke up in laughter. "I see your sense of humor hasn't changed!"
"I'm not who you think I am," Zuko insisted. "I don't know you!"
"Oh? Then it would seem my manners are lacking." He bowed. "I am Gyatso."
This is a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. But Zuko forced himself to return the bow. "My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa, and Fire Lord Ozai." And this is the end.
"Nephew of Iroh, and grandson of Azulon, among others," Gyatso nodded. "A fact someone has taken shameless advantage of, I think."
Zuko: Okay, at this point I’m starting to sympathize with my other self – can’t we stop dancing around all of this and just get to the point, here? Clearly something important is going on, and I can’t do anything about it if I don’t know what it is? How long is Vathara going to drag this out, anyway?
MG: Well, we won’t really be getting the whole story (as regards to your “real” identity and nature, who the other two big villains who’ve been working with Sozin, Azulon and Ozai are and what they want, why the Fire Nation “really” hates the Avatar, why the yaoren are so important, etc.) until… the late twenties and early thirties, chapter-wise? And some of the chapters between now and then are really long? Though more things will be teased until then. Anyway, the answer is “she can drag this out for a really long time.”
Zuko: *facepalms*
Moonlight shone through the vaulted hall, and she was there. "So he found you."
"Did you think he wouldn't?" the Water Tribe woman said dryly. "He's Fire Nation. They finish what they start." A bittersweet smile. "Or they try to."
Zuko: And sometimes trying to really, really hurts, but… why are you on my side now, again?
"It was a necessary risk." The white-robed princess almost touched the floor, white hair flowing like water. "Your uncle asked a question. There was division on the answer. It could not be decided. It is still undecided. The Avatar is human as well as spirit. He will do what he will do." She floated closer.
MG: Except that later on the fic will tease the idea that the Avatar Spirit is more a completely separate entity with its own personality and agenda that just piggybacks on the various Avatars rather than actually incarnating as them, in defiance of… basically everything else we ever learn about what it means to be the Avatar(and then do nothing noteworthy with that, because the back half of the fic teases a lot of ideas that don’t end up amounting to anything…)
"But you have acted to restore the balance. Even when you could have passed by. And so you have earned my answer."
Glowing fingers touched his forehead, and the ocean dragged him down.
Zuko: …if me drowning is the answer, I don’t want to know what the question is.
MG: Well, this is actually one of the most pivotal moments in the whole fic, though it’ll be a couple more chapters before the full ramifications of it are clear…
This cannot be happening.
Iroh was frozen on the floor, heart like stone within him as Amaya frantically tried to revive the boy in his arms. Mushi wrapped around his self like a sheath of cool silk, but he could not care. This could not be happening. Not again. They'd come so far. Tried so hard. The world could not be so cruel, not twice-
Aang: Would it be bad of me to say that you could’ve avoided this if you’d just not let Amaya work on Zuko at all, after you learned her technique is dangerous?
Zuko spasmed in his arms, coughing up water.
What in the world?
Questions later. He helped the boy twist, supported him as Zuko choked out enough liquid to drown an ostrich-horse. Much less an underfed teenager.
Zuko: *grating* Thanks, Yue. Or Amaya. Whichever one of you did that part. I really needed that.
"Tui and La!" Amaya breathed, blue eyes round. "How…?"
"Tui and La," Iroh said grimly, "indeed." Thumped Zuko hard on the back, helping him clear the last froth out. He could see the faint glow fading from the water as it lingered on the floor. "My nephew seems to attract the spirits' attention. And not in a pleasant way." He lowered his voice. "Lee?"
"Yue said… you asked a question." Zuko breathed harshly, ragged as if he'd been dragged up from deep water. "Not sure… I can live through another answer, Uncle…."
Aang: At least you’re in good enough condition to be grumpy? That’s a good sign, right?
Zuko *flat look*
"Yue?" Iroh frowned darkly, and briefly entertained the notion of a koi-fish dinner. That Zuko's life would never be easy, he could accept. That a spirit would strike his nephew to get at him - that went beyond even the spirits' stern justice, into cruelty.
MG: …much as I appreciate Iroh’s protectiveness of Zuko, considering that the show very clearly implied that killing just the Moon Spirit (much less both Moon and Ocean) would destroy the world, or at least damage it irreparably, and Iroh very clearly knew that, I find it kind of hard to imagine that he’d actively fantasize about eating them, even in a moment of exasperation.
Wait, he reminded himself sternly, as Amaya ran her hands over his nephew to heal the inexplicable marks of drowning in deep water. The spirits' messages are not always clear. Wait, and see what occurs.
The Deadly Depths: 3 (there’s a reason it plays out like this, but I’m still giving a point for Zuko’s magical almost-drowning-on-dry-land bit here)
"Ping thinks Lu Ten's cute…."
Iroh blinked. Shook his head, to clear his ears. He couldn't have heard what he thought he'd just heard. Could he? "Nephew?"
"…Don't go."
"I am right here," Iroh said gently, as Zuko's grip slipped into unconsciousness. "I will not leave you." Soberly, he looked at Amaya.
Zuko: Please tell me he told her to get out – I do not want to deal with her right now!
"He's resting," the healer said as she stood, still shaken. "This has never happened before, I-" She cut herself off, and bent to feel Zuko's forehead. "And now he has a fever. I don't know why!"
MG: I’d be more sympathetic if she hadn’t been trying to use a technique on him that a. is potentially lethal to firebenders and b. apparently tends to leave its subjects horribly traumatized even when it works right and c. never properly explained any of this before going to work on both of them!
"It is not a physical illness, I think." Iroh frowned at the ghostly dragons entwined around his nephew, snapping and snarling; a larger red, and a smaller, younger moon-white. Somehow, he wasn't surprised. He might be handling the not-quite-other that was Mushi, but he was older, more stable. He knew who he was, and what he wanted. Zuko was still trying to find out.
Zuko: What, is Uncle seeing my soul… fighting itself, after what Amaya did to me? Because of what Amaya did to me? And he’s just… standing there with her? What is wrong with everybody here, can’t you see how horrible this is!?
Reaching over, he tapped on misty scales. "Stop that at once, both of you."
Startled, they looked at him.
"Fight on, and one of you may win," Iroh said bluntly. "But he will have lost something precious to him. To all of us. Strive together, instead. Lean on each other. Learn from each other. You are not enemies. You are my beloved nephew. You always will be."
Zuko: ..well, at least Uncle’s doing something? I’m not sure what he’s doing, since I know he can see spirits, but this is… kind of different from that? And he’s still not calling Amaya out for doing this to me in the first place?
Abashed, the red dragon licked a wound on the white. Gold eyes closed, and they faded.
"I'm going to hate myself for asking," Huojin said reluctantly, "but - what just happened?"
Aang: …I think we all would really like to know that – thank you, Huojin!
"Lady Amaya's healing does touch the spirit," Iroh said frankly. "And my nephew was already divided against himself. I merely needed to remind him of the greater whole." He raised a gray brow. "That was the fever. As for the water - I have a tale you may wish to hear." He paused. "And you may not wish to be sober."
Zuko: I’m still waiting for an explanation for why Amaya thinks it’s a good idea to do this to people without getting their permission! I mean, from the way it sounds it went… especially bad for me (because of course it did) but doing this has hurt people before! And the fact that she knows it’s bad for firebenders kind of says some things, doesn’t it? Are we just… not going to talk about that?
Luli's going to give me a Look when I get home, Huojin thought ruefully, cradling a cup of tea in his hands as he pictured his wife's cheerful exasperation. Not that she'd be too angry; a Guard's hours were never straight from the clock, and the midnight-to-morning shift was one of the worst. She knew that, and they made it work.
Besides. The hair still hadn't settled back down on his neck since Lee'd… drowned, back down there in the basement. If some kind of trouble had just moved into the Lower Ring, he had to know about it.
Aang: I think you might want to have a talk to the woman who’s been brainwashing people? Katara told me all about what happened last time, and, uh, she was really not happy about that part.
Tucking Lee under a blanket on a borrowed futon, Mushi drew the screen closed around his nephew, shutting him into a corner of Amaya's small dining room. Sighed, and picked up his cup of tea. "Thank you, Lady Amaya."
Zuko: *muttering* She’s part of the reason we’re in this mess and doesn’t seem to have done much to help clean it up, but sure, thank her. Maybe “is inexplicably grateful to Amaya for doing this to me” is one of the things she mixes in that “healing” of hers – the Dai Li would approve.
"Amaya," the healer said plainly. "I have a feeling we may be seeing much of each other."
MG: You could say that again. Did I mention she’s going to be Iroh’s love-interest?
Zuko: *groans loudly and facepalms* I think I’d managed to make myself forget that part…
She sipped her cup. "I've never met another bender who could sense the spirits at work."
"It was an unexpected gift," Mushi said humbly. "And not always a welcome one. But we may be meeting for more than that." Crossing to a wall sconce, he pinched an oil-lamp alight, and brought it back to the table with him. "I believe my nephew left you somewhat bruised."
"Don't worry about it, I've had worse…." Words died in Huojin's throat, as Mushi moved his hands about the flame-
And fire changed.
Hands wreathed in burning green, Mushi bent to run fire over his aching knee. Warmth washed through the joint, washing pain away.
Sparks dying around his hands, Mushi straightened. "Lee is much better at this than I am." He regarded them both. "My nephew is not a waterbender. But he is a healer."
MG: And we’re starting to get to the point in the fic where I really wish Vathara had just left “Zuko learns fire-healing” as the point of divergence for this AU – because it really is an interesting idea all on its own! – and not decided to bury it under a whole bunch of other stuff too…
A healer. A firebender is a healer? Huojin thought, stunned.
Two firebenders. And how had firebenders managed to flee their nation, and survive?
Aang: …right. Creepy magic loyalty. Which somehow nobody ever tells anyone outside the Fire Nation about. Right.
Amaya looked as if she wished her tea had been spiked. "Perhaps you should start from the beginning."
Mushi inclined his head. "I have not been to war in many years, true. But - forgive me, Lady Amaya - it was known that I studied waterbenders. So when Admiral Zhao decided to invade the North Pole, where the Avatar had taken shelter… let us say, I was invited to come along."
"My tribe," Amaya whispered, pale.
"The Avatar?" Huojin got out. And didn't care if his voice squeaked. The Avatar was a myth, a story for children. No one had seen him. No one had seen him for a hundred years.
Aang: Uh, by this point I think people generally knew I was back – even in Chin Village, they actually managed to have a giant float that actually looked like me! *beat* And then they set it on fire and tried to boil me in oil because of something Kyoshi did, so… moving on!
"Yes," Mushi nodded. Bent a look of warm understanding on Amaya. "They took losses, but they survived. Zhao… overreached himself. He invaded, and did a great deal of damage, but his goal was more proud than that. More proud, and more evil." He drew a breath. "You may have noticed, when the moon went dark."
"Spirits." Amaya's hand pressed over her breast. "Tui and La…."
"Zhao found their mortal forms, and struck," Mushi said heavily. "I could not stop him, not in time. But the Moon had given some of her life to Princess Yue… and that brave girl, gave it back." He shook his head. "And the Avatar, together with the outraged Ocean, destroyed the entire Fire Navy fleet." A wry smile. "Lee and I spent three very long weeks on a raft, praying we would reach land somewhere safe."
MG: Frankly, I’m surprised we didn’t have an aside here about how terrible Koizilla destroying the Fire Navy fleet was (if this bit had come later in the fic, after… certain revelations about the effects of that, we probably would have).
If he hadn't already been sitting down, Huojin had a feeling he would have become forcibly reacquainted with Amaya's floor. Spirits. Spirits getting killed. The Avatar. A whole fleet sunk. That was- He shook his head violently, and concentrated on details. "Lee's too young to be a soldier."
"He is," Mushi agreed. "I snuck him on board. It was not safe for him to remain where we had been. Not that it was much safer for him with me," he allowed. "The Ocean Spirit appears to have very poor aim. When it took Zhao - well, I am grateful Lee is dedicated to his training. He ducked."
Aang: Okay, so I wasn’t really… myself… for most of that, but the Ocean Spirit absolutely did take Zhao specifically and had nothing against Zuko, so… I’m not sure what the point of that was? And while the whole thing kind of felt more like a dream for me than anything, destroying the Fire Navy was also something the Ocean Spirit was absolutely doing on purpose.
The Deadly Depths: 4 (for the implication the Ocean Spirit was clumsy and indiscriminate)
"Ducked," Huojin repeated numbly.
"I did mention some spirits are not fond of my nephew?"
"…Right." Sure, he knew about the small kamuiy that appeared in Ba Sing Se; the item-spirits, the two-tailed cat-owls, the other small creatures of mischief. But the Ocean and the Moon? When, exactly, had the world stopped making sense?
When you saw a teenager drown on dry land.
Zuko: Not to be too hard on Huojin, who’s having a very weird day, but the world stopped making sense a long time before that. Trust me.
"In any event, we did reach territory held by the Fire Nation," Mushi went on. "We thought we had found safety. We were, unfortunately, mistaken." He paused a moment, obviously choosing his words. "You do not wish to know our names. That is likely wise. But I will tell you that for my actions against Zhao, I have been declared a traitor to the Dragon Throne, and Lee with me." Another pause. "And did they know what we are capable of, what Lee found himself capable of in our flight, there would be nowhere in the world we could hide."
"Because you can heal?" Huojin shook his head, appalled. He didn't hate his own people, he didn't, but the Fire Lord- spirits.
"Because of how they heal." Amaya regarded Mushi with interest. "You are not like other firebenders."
Aang: Well… yeah? Other firebenders can’t heal, so clearly they’re doing something different? Doesn’t that sort of… go without saying?
"The teachings of Fire Lords Sozin and Azulon are that fire comes from the darker emotions," Mushi said seriously. "Hate. Pain. Anger. All things that have twisted our nation, and our spirits. But to heal, one must care. And with that caring, one learns the fire can come from compassion. Love. Even righteous fury, that will defend the innocent to the death. True firebending, the teaching of the dragons, comes from life itself. What we can do, what we are… our very existence proves the Fire Lord is wrong."
MG: You know, maybe there’s supplemental material that contradicts this, but I’d never really gotten the impression that corrupted firebending drawing only on rage and aggression becoming the norm was, like, a specific set of teachings the Fire Lords imposed on everyone so much as it was just the natural endpoint of a society dedicating itself over the course of generations to nothing but war and conquest, and losing touch with its own roots in the process (with the Fire Lords encouraging this direction, admittedly). But I suppose that would imply there is a deeper social rot in the Fire Nation beyond “bad people are in charge and forcing people to be a certain way when they don’t want to,” so that’s not something this fic is particularly interested in exploring.
The Real Victims: 7 (giving a point for this being part of an overall trend where the fic prioritizes how the war has hurt the Fire Nation itself over other problems)
"And to defy the will of the Fire Lord, is treason," Huojin finished for him.
"Even so."
"So…." Spirits, there was no polite way to say this. "Why aren't you dead?"
Zuko: Because despite what someone wants you to think, it doesn’t actually work that way?
Mushi smiled wryly. "I was under the command of Fire Lord Azulon. After he died… you left the colonies at six? Then perhaps you do not know it is customary for those of noble blood to pay formal visits to the new Fire Lord, and assure him of their loyalty." He chuckled. "As my brother's loyalty is beyond question, Fire Lord Ozai neglected to see that I appeared."
There was more to it than that, Huojin could feel it. But I don't think I need to know.
MG: Based on what we see elsewhere in the fic, even with Iroh avoiding admitting that Ozai is his brother, this still isn’t true – Azulon was still alive when Iroh broke off the siege of Ba Sing Se and walked away from his command, and Iroh had his bout of loyalty sickness (which he obviously survived) then. Also, I have a really hard time imagining Ozai wouldn’t desperately want to force Iroh to swear fealty to him, especially in a fic where loyalty is a thing and Iroh could die for breaking it – having his older brother, the great Dragon of the West whose shadow he’d always lived in, under his power so completely seems like the sort of thing that Ozai would relish.
Still. There was something Mushi was leaving out that he did need to know. If his stunned brain could just focus on what.
"You've kidnapped the boy from his father," Amaya said levelly.
Ah. Yeah. That would be it.
"In a way, yes," Mushi admitted. Paused again; not in the calculated manner of a man choosing his words, but the silent ache of looking into painful memory. "Three years ago, my brother declared Lee a failure, and a disgrace. He has traveled with me ever since. Much as it pains me to say, the only reason my brother would care that Lee is with me, is that I am between the boy and those who wish him harm."
Huojin recoiled. "His own father?"
Zuko: *quietly* Yeah. If anything, Uncle’s downplaying how bad he was.
"The power of our nobles rests not merely on blood, but on bending," Mushi said seriously. "Most firebenders show their first sparks by four; five at the latest. Six is very late." A quiet sigh. "Lee did not bend a flame until he was eight."
"Not good?" Huojin asked Amaya. He might be Fire Nation by blood, but she knew bending.
Aang: Well, if six is late, and eight is later than six, and knowing Fire Lord Ozai… yeah, that would be pretty bad.
Zuko: You have no idea.
MG: I do think it’s interesting here that Vathara not only makes Zuko a late bloomer by firebender standards, but will also make firebenders in general late bloomers compared to benders of other elements, considering that in the novels, Hei-Ran (Rangi’s mother and, among other things, a famous firebending teacher) explains that the Fire Nation makes a point to identify potential benders very young, because as you can imagine, the prospect of an unattended toddler tossing sparks around is not something anyone wants to deal with.
"The Northern Tribe counts blood more than bending in its politics," she said, with a trace of old bitterness. "But no. It isn't. Four years, Huojin. Imagine a proud man, a proud firebender, who lives through four years of having his heir considered useless by those in power. Four years of whispers and veiled threats, by all the courtiers around him." She hugged herself, as if feeling a chill off polar ice. "I'm not the first woman of the tribe to flee the power games. I doubt I'll be the last." Forcing her arms straight, she glanced at Mushi. "But if Lee is your brother's heir…."
Zuko: …yeah, having a frank assessment of why my father may have been right to resent having me as his heir was exactly what I needed to hear today. Thanks so much, Amaya.
"There is another child."
"Of course." Amaya sighed, bitterness turning sad. "A stronger bender."
"That, I would not be so certain of," Mushi said thoughtfully. "Lee has always struggled with his bending, yes. He has spent years, learning moves others soar through easily. Only time, dedication, and unerring practice, has given him the skill he now possesses." Mushi paused. "In Sozin's style."
Huojin looked between them, as green met blue. There was something being said beyond their words. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what.
Amaya hmphed. "I haven't forgiven him for trying to kill me, yet."
Zuko: Considering what you do to people, I can’t say I feel very bad about it. *glances over at Aang* Sorry about that.
"I do not ask that you do," Mushi said seriously. And waited.
Minutes passed, and Amaya finally sighed. "A healer. And he can pass as a waterbender?"
"After a fashion," Mushi nodded. "It is more difficult to wring fire's strength from hot water, but Lee can do it."
"From hot-" Amaya's jaw dropped. Blue eyes darted toward the screen. "He can do that?"
"He can." Mushi smiled. "He thought of it when a man's life rested in our hands, and we dared not betray ourselves."
"He thought of it." Her voice was hushed, amazed. "Does he know?"
Aang: Okay, you’re clearly getting at something here – is this more stuff we’re going to be dancing around for a while, because we’ve had quite a bit of that lately and I’m kind of getting tired of it.
"I have been afraid to tell him," Mushi said quietly. "My brother's claim that Lee is a failure was very… convincing."
"Not a bender," Huojin pointed out, trying to sort out the sudden tension in the air.
"Huojin." Amaya shook her head, still stunned. "It would be as if - as if I bent water out of lava. It exists. It is possible. But to do it…."
Aang: I mean, I’ve met a bloodbender. And a plantbender. And a guy who could blow things up by looking at them. Some benders are really skilled, and some bending techniques can get really, really weird.
"I had feared it might be only an uncle's kind eyes," Mushi mused. "Thank you for the confirmation, Lady Amaya."
Huojin eyed the screen himself. "You mean, he's a lot stronger than his father knows."
"Strength has nothing to do with it," Amaya said firmly. "Lee has imagination. Will. Determination." Blue eyes all but glowed. "Not one bender in a hundred, not one in a thousand, has that tenacity."
Prince Stuko: 23
Mushi smiled.
"You," Amaya said, and it was almost a chuckle, "are a sly, conniving, scheming old firebender."
Mushi almost looked innocent.
Zuko: Well, it’s a kind of unflattering way to talk about Uncle, but it’s also not really wrong, at least some of the time…
"A healing firebender." Amaya did laugh, now. "Training him will be interesting."
Huojin checked that he was still sitting down. "You want to train him?"
Aang: Except Zuko’s not a waterbender? Just because two elements can do the same thing doesn’t mean they do it the same way – I mean, Fire Lord Ozai could fly, and when I was little Gyatso told me the story of Guru Laghima and how he learned to fly, but I really doubt they were using the same technique! Maybe there are some things Zuko could learn from Amaya, but I’m not sure how much “training” she could give him?
Zuko: Assuming I wanted to learn from the woman who nearly killed me – and I’m really not seeing why I would!
"If Luli tripped on a piece of jade rough abandoned in the mud," Amaya said wryly, "wouldn't she take it home, and wash it, and see what might be carved from it?" The healer smiled at him. "You're going to be late."
Well, yes. "You're sure you'll be-?"
"We'll be fine," Amaya said firmly. "Thank you for your help, my friend."
Which was an unmistakable see you later, don't worry about it. Huojin nodded, and made his farewells.
And made a mental note to swing by the clinic again in a day or so. Just in case.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Zuko: *sighs heavily* He’s not the only one.
MG: And on that rather Star Wars-y note, we end our sporking for today! Speaking of which, I do think a problem with a lot of the longer chapters in this fic is that they don’t hold together all that well – it feels like they’re multiple incidents only loosely tied together rather than a cohesive piece of the narrative. Part of me wonders if they would have been better off as multiple shorter chapters… and on the other hand, the fic is 91 chapters already (not counting “Theft Absolute”) and I’m not sure making it even longer would be a good idea!
Anyway, I feel like this chapter… doesn’t reach its potential. I like the idea of Zuko, on the edge between life and death, going through a Spirit World journey to get back to his body and be resuscitated, but the version we actually get feels very… paint by numbers. We mostly just see the Spirit World reflections of places in the material world, and none of the characters Zuko meets really seem to have as much depth or as impactful a role as I think they should have. I still think that Lu Ten and Zuko’s relationship as cousins needed to be set up better for this to have the power it should; I still side-eye Ping’s role in all this, though maybe it won’t bug other people as much as it does me; Kya is mostly just there to be hostile to Zuko (of course the Water Tribe character is the most unpleasant…) and then decides to help him anyway because Reasons; Gyatso and Yue are… fine, but their main purpose is to tease us with stuff that won’t be fully explained for a very long time (though we can probably guess some of it already) which is very frustrating to me. And of course we’re getting hit more with “Zuko is special,” which hasn’t yet risen to the level of being unsalvageable but is getting more and more noticeable to a somewhat distracting degree (especially knowing what’s coming) and we’re already getting the narrative priming us for a bigger role for Amaya and trying to assure us of how wonderful she is, which considering her showing so far I just… cannot get behind. Still, I’d say this chapter isn’t terrible so far, just kind of frustrating, and I really think the “Spirit World journey” part should have been more developed, and been the full chapter. Anyway, that’s all for today! Next time, we’ll see Zuko and Iroh starting to get settled in to life in Ba Sing Se. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Beware the Sugar Queen: 5
The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 8
The Deadly Depths: 3
Detached from Reality: 6
Divine Right to Rule: 11
Elemental Determinism: 8
He Has Much to Learn: 11
Prince Stuko: 23
Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 1
The Real Victims: 7
Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 9
Stations of the Canon: 17
The Superior Element: 9
The Ultimate Firebenders: 8
Ping and her war bastard baby
Date: 2025-10-10 01:13 pm (UTC)...I can't give any good quotes at the moment, but there are a LOT of stories where women assaulted by a conquering force feel intensely protective of the resulting offspring, and are compelled to defend their unplanned children from relatives and neighbors who are justifiably Not Happy about the living reminder that enemies came to their lands and did as they pleased.
However, Ping showing a similar attitude to one such enemy is just... wow.
Re: Ping and her war bastard baby
Date: 2025-10-11 10:18 pm (UTC)That doesn't really surprise me, tbh. It does, however, make me wish yet again that Ping was an actual character and not a plot device who existed primarily to die tragically.