Embers: Chapter Seventeen

[masterghandalf]

MG’s Note: Apologies to everyone for another later-than-usual post.

Warning: This post contains depiction and/or discussion of violence, deaths, mind-control and imperialism.

This is a repost from Das_Sporking2; previous installments of this sporking may be found here.




MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Vathara’s Embers! Last time, Toph went for a walk and made some new friends, and Agent Shirong got a lot of juicy intel on what his new friends were up to that he seems to be planning to do exactly nothing with. Today, it’s finally time to resolve that spirit plotline that’s been hanging around for the last couple of chapters (while laying the groundwork for a couple of upcoming plotlines)! Joining us today will be Zuko and Katara!

Chapter Seventeen

Too early for big sisters, Suyin thought grumpily, eyes half-open as she tried to work around the giggling girl at the wash basin.

MG: As someone who is very much not a morning person, I can relate, Suyin…

"Paddle my canoe!" Jia chortled. "Oh, the look on Madame Macmu-Ling's face…."

Katara: …wait a minute… that sounds like something Sokka told us happened to him while we were in Ba Sing Se!

MG: That’s because it is! I think I mentioned before that Jia is one of the girls in the poetry class Sokka, uh, crashed (or rather, crashed into); and yes, that is canonically the instructor’s name. Big city, but a small world, isn’t it?

Stations of the Canon: 27

Poetry class. Argh. Suyin got her face washed, stuck out her tongue behind her sister's back, and headed downstairs.

"I saw that!"

"So?" Suyin smirked, jumping off the last step with a flourish. To land in front of her mother's raised eyebrow. "Er… Mom?"

"Ooo, now you're gonna get it," Jia said gleefully, gracefully gliding down the stairs like a proper young lady.

Zuko: …considering what I had to deal with from my sister, this all seems pretty tame to me, actually.

"Suyin, be polite to your sister," Meixiang said firmly. Raised her gaze, and eyed Jia. "Jia, stop hogging the washroom in the morning, or you're going to have to start cutting your dates an hour shorter."

Katara: Well, it sounds like last night she was at a poetry class, not a date – unless she’s going on a date today?

"But, Mom-!"

"If you can't get out of the way fast enough in the morning, you obviously need more sleep. Or am I wrong?" She shooed them both toward breakfast. "Eat, eat; you don't want to be late."

Tea, Suyin thought gratefully, gulping it down before she attacked her morning rice. Chewed her way through half of it, trying to ignore the sullen steaming beside her. Jia'd deserved that, she'd been out late a lot-

But some of those times, she was out late when she would have been early. Only she was helping me with Jinhai. Suyin braced herself, and glanced at her sister. "So… something neat happened at poetry?"

Katara: *rolls her eyes* Ugh, if those girls are still talking about Sokka’s little misadventure, he’ll never let us forget it…

I am so going to regret this. Somebody probably scored something esoteric about stars and spring mists off somebody else in the linked verse competition, and I'm going to be so bored….

Katara: Since she was already talking about paddling canoes, I don’t think so! Or maybe Suyin just wasn’t paying attention?

"You'll never believe it!" Jia perked up, smiling. "A Water Tribe boy crashed the class!" She giggled. "And I mean crashed. He fell in wearing half the window!"

Zuko: …huh. I guess that does sound like the sort of thing that might happen to Sokka?

MG: Because it’s something that did happen to Sokka, but yes. And once again, Vathara is showing she can’t just let references to the events of the original show go without explaining them, because instead of a quick gag or easter egg we apparently have to have a thankfully fairly brief recap of Sokka’s vignette from “The Tales of Ba Sing Se.”

Suyin's jaw dropped. "Really?"

Okay. For once? Making nice with her sister wasn't so bad.

Jia launched into salacious details, including way too many about what Water Tribe tunics didn't cover,

Katara: *splutters* What!? And oh, Suki’s just going to love hearing about this…

and it was almost enough to make Suyin forget they were being watched. And why.

Something that eats waterbenders. Suyin tried not to shudder. At least her little brother was actually safe.

Zuko: …right. They’re being watched because the Dai Li are protecting them. And not because the Dai Li are what the people of Ba Sing Se need protection from…

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 31

But Lee's not.

For once, she hoped the Dai Li won. No matter what it took.

Katara: *flatly* And why, exactly, has this Vathara person felt the need to write a situation where the Dai Li are the side to root for?

MG: *sighs* Something something, hard men making hard choices and being badass, something something moral complexity.

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 32

-

There came a point in time, Smellerbee realized, shivering, where you were just too scared to scream. Even if there hadn't been rock wrapped around her mouth as a gag.

The Dai Li were so quiet.

Katara: Okay, yes they are, but considering what happened to Jet, I can’t imagine this is going anywhere good… except this author likes the Dai Li for some reason…

A few carried crystals that glowed soft green; just enough light to ease their passage through endless tunnels. Only an ingrained habit of defiance kept Smellerbee struggling against her bonds; even if she broke free, even if she by some miracle got Longshot and Jet loose too - where would they go?

Yell at us. Hit us. Look at us. Do something!

Zuko: *sighs* And somehow I’ve got a feeling the Dai Li haven’t actually reverted to form, and this is just part of their plot to lure out the spirit so they can defeat it, right? Can’t have them actually be bad guys or anything…

The Dai Li weren't even touching them. Just moving at a fast walk, the three bound freedom fighters carried on a rolling wave of stone.

I feel so dumb. Smellerbee squirmed again, useless or not. That Guard warned us. Amaya and Mushi, they told us Jet was asking for trouble. We were trying to talk him out of it! If it weren't for that - that thing….

She thought they'd gotten away from it in the alley. And two of them had. But Jet….

Part of Jet just wasn't home anymore. He kept seeing shadows where there weren't any, listening for a voice neither of them could hear. And at night - at night, he kept trying to get to water.

Katara: As opposed to what actually happened to Jet, where it was the Dai Li who brainwashed him and used him to lure us into a trap and then had him try to kill Aang – no, this time around it’s a spirit’s fault! Can’t have the Dai Li getting their grubby hands too dirty, I guess…

After she and Longshot had dragged him out of a well, she decided this was a bad idea. That all of Ba Sing Se was a bad idea, and she'd rather take her chances with the whole Fire Nation army camped outside the walls than stick around here anymore.

She'd told Longshot that. He'd nodded once, eyes sober. And they'd tried to get Jet and themselves to the Outer Wall and out.

They hadn't made it.

MG: *sighs* All of this would actually be effectively creepy, if the Dai Li were actually being their villainous canon selves and not engaging in a bit of monster hunting for the greater good… gah, I really hate what this fic does with the Dai Li…

Now, a pair of Dai Li parted stone like a curtain, and they were lifted into an ordinary room carved into rock, with real lanterns burning on a table by a pitcher of water.

One of the Dai Li did glance at them then, just for a moment. Barely interested; like they were a particularly stubborn boulder that hadn't yet split.

Turned away, and disappeared up stone stairs.

Look at us! We're here! We're right here!

MG: *sighs again* See? This is legitimately creepy stuff, but it’s all kind of poisoned by the fact that the evil secret police aren’t actually being allowed to be, well, evil!

Who knew how long later, footsteps came back down. And not alone. "Was it wise to send him away?" the Dai Li said neutrally.

"The sun is still up," Amaya observed, stepping into the light to regard them with sorrow, and grim determination.

Katara: Oh. It’s her. Why am I not surprised master “I rearrange people’s minds without their permission for their own good” is part of this?

MG: *winces* Oh, just you wait until Vathara has you meet Amaya in a few chapters – let’s just say we’re going to have words about how she handles that (and it’s a big part, in addition to the mind control, of why I really, really don’t like Amaya).

"He'll be safe enough with his uncle to look after him. And he may have done some hard things in the past, but this… even to protect those he loves, I would rather not ask this of him."

Never tick off a healer, her older brother had told her once; back when she'd still had an older brother. They know how to mess you up.

Katara: *coldly* Yeah, and you’re all (not the Freedom Fighters, everyone else) getting really close to making me mad enough that you’ll find out.

"You usually don't need my help to question prisoners, Agent Yunxu," Amaya went on, still with that same chilling sorrow.

Zuko: Okay, so we have Yunxu – that’s the guy who’s all into the mindbending, right? – and Amaya, and they’re questioning prisoners, and the prisoners are Jet and his Freedom Fighters? This is going to be bad, isn’t it?

"Time is critical," the sleepy-eyed Dai Li said plainly. "And the one most affected," he nodded, ever so slightly at Jet, "isn't behaving… rationally."

"So you want me to heal him enough to talk." She sighed. Looked over them all, and inclined her head. "I am sorry. But what they're after will kill those I care for, if it is not stopped."

No, no, Smellerbee thought, frozen. Get away….

Katara: I’m with Smellerbee on this one. How about this, I’ll heal people and then not turn them over to the Dai Li for questioning! In fact, what are they even expecting to learn from Jet, anyway? They know what kind of spirit they’re after and what it does, right? He only encountered it briefly – what does he know that they don’t? What actually justifies this?

"The water-spirit almost took Lee's mind and spirit," Amaya went on quietly, advancing on Jet. "It will try again. And I will not let that happen. No matter what it takes."

Zuko: And I guess keeping me safe justifies torturing Jet, then? Because even after Jet attacked me, even at my angriest I wouldn’t want something like I’m pretty sure this is going to end up being for him!

"The Fire Nation took our homes! The Fire Nation took our families!" Jet had said that, raid after deadly raid. "We have to fight them wherever they are, whoever they are! No matter what it takes!"

Facing it from the other side, Smellerbee was very, very sorry.

MG: Because… leading a guerilla campaign against the Fire Nation and… whatever it is the Dai Li are doing here… is somehow the same thing? Like, yes, Jet was obsessed with fighting the Fire Nation. Yes, he crossed a line when he became willing to kill innocents and even destroy a whole town to drive them out, as the show is very clear on. But Jet was, fundamentally, a victim of the war, continuing the cycle of violence after he, as a child, lost everyone and everything. The Dai Li are either the dominant force running a dictatorial regime over a large city (in canon) or ruthless but badass monster hunters (in the fic) and that’s not really the same context either way… and I’m realty not sure why Amaya couldn’t just sit Smellerbee and Longshot down (Jet’s probably too out of it to consent to anything at the moment, from the description) and explain what she’s going to do, that she’s going to try and help Jet, and the Freedom Fighters have a chance to help find and stop the thing that did this to their leader and keep it from hurting anything else. I think for a chance to defeat the spirit and heal Jet, they’d probably agree to that, without Amaya having to act like a creepy torture master slash amoral medic alongside Yunxu the mind rapist. But I guess Vathara didn’t feel like going for that, so we get this really, needlessly creepy and menacing scene instead…

-

"Nothing," Yunxu frowned.

"Nothing?" Amaya arched a brow, still queasy. Though she'd be damned if she'd let this man know it. Shirong, she might have; a faint light of compassion, of regret, still burned in the man, like stars seen through mist. She couldn't fault Zuko for being drawn to him. Like called to like, and she knew what wounds Shirong had suffered.

Yunxu… the light was gone. If it had ever existed.

MG: …this would be a lot more effective if Shirong wasn’t much more representative of how Vathara writes the Dai Li overall than Yunxu is, I must say – it makes Shirong feel less like the token good teammate, and more like Yunxu is just an individual bad apple. Also, we’ve seen before that Shirong has zero compunctions hanging out and working with Yunxu – he doesn’t seem to like the man much, but not enough to actually, you know, act on it in any way. Which kind of kills the point Vathara is trying to make; Shirong is still complicit in what the Dai Li are, even if he’s not the one actively torturing and brainwashing children. And so’s Amaya, as their apparent on-call healer, for that matter.

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 33

"Nothing we didn't know."

Katara: Oh, yeah, we didn’t see that coming!

Yunxu let his gaze linger on the re-gagged children. "We'll take them now."

"Why not just let them go?" Amaya said levelly, glancing at the terrified girl out of the corner of her eye. "They were trying to get out of the city. Surely, that would be best for everyone."

MG: The answer – so Zuko can play big damn hero for them later. And no, I’m not kidding.

Zuko: *groans and facepalms*

Faint hope lit Smellerbee's eyes. Longshot held himself still-

"And what if it decides to follow a victim that got away?" Yunxu said dispassionately. "A waterbender is a more attractive target, but we can't take the chance."

"Then you could just hold them until the spirit is dealt with," Amaya suggested.

Yunxu looked at her, and silently looked away.

You can't save everyone, Amaya told herself, heartsick. People are dying.

Katara: You don’t really seem to have tried at all, and you’ve been helping the Dai Li do this all along, so sorry if I’m not really that sympathetic right now.

"I think I could use some air."

Somehow she wasn't surprised that Yunxu followed her out to the garden. He didn't trust her. Hadn't for years. She was too valuable to drag under Lake Laogai without proof… but Yunxu was sure she was up to something.

MG: *rolls their eyes* And thus we know that Yunxu, unlike Shirong, totally is a bad guy – because he doesn’t like the wonderful Amaya! Which doesn’t seem to stop him from working with her, or her with him, in the slightest, mind you…

Which, of course, she was.

I wish I were up to a bit more, Amaya thought, sitting by her pond to watch flashes of gold, crimson, and blue molly-guppies, flickering through light cast by one of Zuko's lanterns. Thoughtful, careful young man; he'd hedged iron and glass in with stones to be sure none would trip over, and refilled all the oil reservoirs before he left-

The pond rippled as if blown by wind, a thin sheet of water lapping over the edge. Upwards.

Lantern-light hissed out.

Have to get back, get away-

Katara: Well, at least the spirit is going after someone who might actually deserve it this time? But, uh, the Dai Li are supposed to be guarding Amaya’s house, did they… not see this coming? Or are they just not very good at their job?

"Amaya…."

Blue robes trimmed with white fur, her mother held out a damp hand. And… there was something wrong about that. But she'd been so lonely, so long, and she'd done so many awful things to try and save those she could from the war….

Zuko: *muttering* The part about doing awful things is right… have we mentioned recently that she nearly killed me by being reckless and stupid? Because she did!

"I forgive you," whispered a voice of waves and water-weeds.

Yunxu never had a chance to scream.

Katara: Okay, so that’s why he got to actually be evil – so we wouldn’t feel bad for him when he got eaten by an angry spirit. Does that about sum it up?

MG: Unfortunately, I think it does.

-

Shirong stared at a Fire Nation wanted poster, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Pohuai Stronghold, indeed.

Zuko: Oh, for the spirits’ sake… *buries his head in his hands* Now he puts it together! And from a wanted poster that the Fire Narion army distributed all over, and a few of them probably found their way to Ba Sing Se already! Not really being very impressed by the Dai Li here!

The Army always kept the best intelligence for themselves, but a fair amount did eventually end up where a Dai Li could get to it. You had to know what rumors you might need to squash, after all. And which groups of refugees would be the most trouble.

Katara: Okay, that last part does sound like the Dai Li (and makes me wonder again why we’re supposed to like these people!) but the first part? Not so much! The Dai Li ran the city. Which meant they basically ran the whole Earth Kingdom. Long Feng told us outright the military answered to him, not the king! Sure, General How ended up helping us, but only after Long Feng was out of power. So… why is the army keeping intelligence from him?

As for the intelligence available on the stronghold and Taku…. Given the last herbalist hanging on up there had a habit of talking to her cat, anyone might be forgiven for thinking her tale of advising the Avatar to look for frozen frogs was - well.

Zuko: …okay, but it seemed to me like that lady had been up there by herself for years, so just how often does the Earth Kingdom even think to go check on her, much less ask her questions?

But when you put that together with reports of localized whirlwinds, Yu Yan mobilization under a recently-promoted Admiral Zhao, and the absolute chaos that had apparently broken out in the stronghold that night….

Spirits, no wonder Lee's paranoid. That's no small string of cash on his head.

Zuko: And Shirong’s figured out I’m the Blue Spirit. So, uh, is he going to do anything about that, or…?

And put together, the reports explained much more. That crushing sorrow and guilt, like a blanket of stones. The fierce determination to learn healing from Amaya first, when Lee was a fighter through and through….

He freed the Avatar. And how did the boy repay him? By slaughtering untold thousands of his countrymen.

Katara: *outraged* They were in the process of trying to slaughter my countrymen! It’s not like Aang unleashed the Ocean Spirit into the middle of the Fire Nation capital while they were all minding their own business. And for that matter, the Ocean Spirit was kind of directing that too, and it wanted revenge for the Moon Spirit, which Zhao had just killed. Does… does Vathara think Aang’s duty to Zuko outweighed his duty to protect the Northern Water Tribe from being invaded? *she glances over at Zuko* Sorry. No offense.

Zuko: None taken. And we were on opposite sides of the war at the time, so… yeah, I can’t say I was very surprised or betrayed when Aang fought for the Northern Water Tribe against the Fire Navy.

Prince Stuko: 68

The Real Victims: 27

Exact numbers were hard to come by, but reliable accounts placed the invasion fleet at hundreds of ships. Many of classes that would carry a hundred, even a thousand men. Wrapping his mind around the potential casualty count alone made Shirong shiver.

Even if Lee had abandoned the Fire Nation, the boy had a heart fierce as any waterbender's. Every death must have cut like a knife.

Zuko: Yeah, there’s some truth to that. But you know who I mostly blamed for their deaths? Zhao. He’s the one who led them into that nightmare, and he’s the one who stirred up the spirits against the fleet. And like Katara said, they were an invasion force in the middle of an attack – that’s kind of the definition of a valid military target!

The Real Victims: 28

And he's probably convinced himself it's all his fault, Shirong thought bleakly. No wonder he doesn't want to trust anyone.

Zuko: …not really? Like I said, I mostly blame Zhao. Who also tried to have me killed not long before that, so I wasn’t really inclined to cut him much slack.

After all, legends said the Avatar was the defender of the world. If you couldn't trust him to do the right thing, who could you trust?

Except the Avatar doesn't defend your world. Not if you're Fire Nation.

Katara: *folding her arms* Gee, I wonder why that is!

MG: And this is where we’re about to get our first taste of what Vathara thinks the relationship between the Fire Nation and the Avatar is really like. Per canon, Aang only opposes the Fire Nation because they were the ones launching an aggressive war of conquest against the rest of the world. He had nothing against the Fire Nation people in general (as he points out to Zuko himself in “The Blue Spirit,” he used to visit the Fire Nation all the time and one of his best friends was from there), it’s just that the Fire Nation as a state is being an active threat to everyone else, so preserving the balance of the world – the Avatar’s duty – requires stopping them. Even just from flashbacks during the show’s original run, we can see that “fighting tyrants” is a reasonably common thing for an Avatar to do (even tyrants from their own nation – see Kyoshi vs. Chin). And on the Fire Nation’s end, it’s mostly presented as them fighting the Avatar because the Avatar is an obstacle to their plans (though I’m sure every Fire Nation schoolchild is taught how the wise and just Sozin sought to bring Avatar Roku in on his plans, and how Roku cruelly slapped his hand away). But Vathara instead seems to think that the Avatar has been at odds with the Fire Nation for centuries, for at least the past three Avatars, and it’s deeply ingrained in Fire Nation culture that the Avatar is their enemy and can never be trusted. Which mostly seems to exist solely for the reasons of taking some of the shine off the Avatar as a concept, and making it seem like the Fire Nation hating the Avatar is more legitimate and justified than it is in the show. So I can’t help but side-eyeing the whole thing, hard.

The Real Victims: 29

Or so one Fire Nation petitioner had claimed, centuries ago, crying for justice against Kyoshi before the Earth King himself.

What was her name? Tama? Temun? Something odd….

MG: *grimly* It’s Temul. And trust me, we’re going to be hearing a lot more about her A lot more. And she’s a central player in one of the more WTH subplots of the latter half of the fic, despite being long dead, so be warned about that.

Katara: …why am I suddenly shivering at that?

The Real Victims: 30

He'd tracked down as much as he could of the original record, hungry to know if there was actually a reason behind a century of war against his people-

Zuko: *flatly* Because Sozin was the sort of person who thought the best thing for the world would be if he was in charge of all of it. And because he was ambitious and wanted to expand the Fire Nation’s power, and I think he kind of wanted to show up Roku, too. And because we needed resources to fuel our industrialization. It’s all pretty horrible, once you take the glow our history books put on “The Great March of Civilization” away, but it’s not that complicated.

MG: …but are we really surprised that budding Fire-boo Shirong felt the need to do actual research to see if maybe the Fire Nation’s war of imperialism against the kingdom he serves might actually be justified? Seriously? Also, to bring in some real history, iirc Alexander the Great used Persia’s invasion of Greece to justify his own invasion of Persia… but the Persian Wars were almost exactly a century and a half before Alexander and his actual motivation seems to have mostly been power and glory for himself and Macedon. Just saying that “avenging crimes committed centuries ago” isn’t much of an actual justification… but makes a great excuse for imperial campaigns you already wanted to do.

The Superior Element: 44

Temul. That was her name. A firebender.

A very odd firebender, from what he could cudgel out of memory. Who'd sworn the Avatar had wronged her people, bitterly, and that all the world would suffer for it.

The darkest day in Fire Nation history. I wish I knew what happened.

MG: So… yes, all of this is true. And all of this is going to become relevant, though not for a while (we’re still a couple of arcs away from the full “Fire Nation backstory according to Vathara” getting dropped on us, but it’s a doozy). And it’s all probably the fic’s most notorious element, and why I wanted Kyoshi and Rangi for sporkers. It’s going to be… quite a lot.

The Real Victims: 31

Professor Tingzhe Wen would know, probably. But speak face to face with a man he might one day have to disappear? No. Not if Shirong could avoid it.

Katara: So, what, Shirong’s conscience extends as far as not wanting to disappear people he actually knows? As far as morality goes, that’s not much!

Besides. I already know what I need to. The Avatar isn't always fair. Temul didn't even get a hearing.

Katara: So… Temul didn’t get a hearing before the Earth King, and that’s somehow the Avatar’s fault? The Earth King isn’t the Avatar, and doesn’t always do what the Avatar wants! I’m pretty sure Kyoshi created the Dai Li in the first place because she didn’t approve of the Earth King at the time! Aang is the Avatar, and he didn’t get a hearing before the Earth King until we broke into the palace and forced him to listen to us!

And that was Kyoshi. A grown woman who knew that justice required consideration, as well as decisiveness, and that nothing in life was either fully good or evil.

MG: Ironic, considering that later events in the fic will turn heavily on Kyoshi having been very racist, thinking in very black and white terms, and being pretty indiscriminately murderous, so… Shirong being wrong, or characterization marches on? You be the judge!

Rangi: *scream incoherently from somewhere out of sight*

Katara: *concerned* Is… is she going to be okay?

Zuko: *sighs* Wouldn’t bet on it.

This Avatar is twelve years old. And the people he trusts are barely older. Shirong shook his head. I don't like it.

I want him out of my city.

The agent sat up straight in his chair, the ramifications of that thought sinking in. The generals surely had a plan for the Avatar's power. Long Feng must have a plan, or he wouldn't order the bison confined-

Katara: Not really? As far as I could tell, he mostly just wanted to make sure we stayed out of his way. And since we were already separated from Appa, that was the leverage he used. Not really that complicated!

But if the Avatar had his bison, he wouldn't have to be here. They could still plan. He could visit. Why keep the animal from him?

Katara: …uh, we didn’t come to Ba Sing Se for fun. We were here to see the Earth King! Remember him, Shirong? The person you’re supposed to be working for?

Shirong couldn't think of any good reason. But he could think of a reason. A horrible one.

Zuko: Think Katara’s already got you covered, buddy.

Back the Avatar into a corner. Trap him, so you can aim that power at your enemies.

Like he was trapped at the North Pole.

No!

MG: Yeah, I really don’t think Long Feng was aiming for anything like this. General Fong was trying to figure out how to weaponize the Avatar State, but Long Feng is a lot less reckless than Fong, and certainly never actively used the leverage he had from holding Appa to force Aang to do anything other than stay out of the Dai Li’s way. He was even willing to try and lay a false trail to lead Aang out of the city on a wild goose chase, which doesn’t make it seem like his plans required him to be around. And I will note that I find it interesting that Shirong’s first thought on this is that it can’t be allowed to happen, because as far as we see in canon, Koizilla was entirely a positive outcome for the Northern Water Tribe, single-handedly defeating the invasion. It was the Fire Navy that took casualties from its rampage. So, I can’t help but feel that this is another instance of Shirong seeming to almost instinctively side with the Fire Nation… the people waging an unprovoked war of aggression against the kingdom Shirong serves, in other words. Which I find to be telling. But I think all of this is kind of a moot point, because Aang only became Koizilla by fusing with the Ocean Spirit. While we have occasional references to “earth spirits” in canon, we have no indication the Earth Kingdom has a powerful individual patron like Tui and La are for the Water Tribes (Vathara puts Guanyin in the role, as we’ve already had mentioned briefly… but iirc there’s never any indication in the fic that she has any sort of manifestation in the city for him to commune with the way the Northern Water Tribe had the Spirit Oasis and the koi fish), and of course the Ocean Spirit only bonded with Aang after being enraged at the Moon Spirit’s death. So I’m really not seeing any plausible way for something like that to happen in Ba Sing Se.

The Real Victims: 32

Hands clenched on paper, crinkling it; Shirong made himself let go, glad he never used his rock gloves to read. He could imagine the walls of this archive studded with stone from that sudden, soul-deep fury.

I am Dai Li. I've done horrible things to protect my city. I'll probably do a lot more. But this….

I am Dai Li, of the order formed to protect Ba Sing Se from its own spirits. By Avatar Kyoshi herself. And this horrible thing, I will not do.

MG: …I also find it telling that this is where Shirong draws the line – using the Avatar as a weapon against the Fire Nation (even if he thinks it would backfire, we’re given no reason why he would have reason to think that). Not any of the other horrible stuff the Dai Li do on a regular basis. And, of course, Kyoshi founded the Dai Li to preserve the culture and social order of Ba Sing Se (which she seemingly grew to very much regret) not to fight spirits. But we knew that.

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 34

Shirong had to take a moment just to breathe, shaken. He'd be out of step with his comrades. He'd be potentially disobeying Long Feng….

I don't know what effect that horror at the North Pole had on the spirits, and I don't want to find out here. Ba Sing Se doesn't deserve that. My people don't deserve that. Lee sure as hell doesn't deserve that.

MG: Well, it will turn out that Koizilla did objectively have negative effects… eventually. I wonder if it took Vathara a while to decide on exactly what those should be. But it does rather undermine the “Zuko is an unreliable narrator and biased and that’s why he thinks Koizilla was bad” bit, doesn’t it?

And a twelve-year-old boy who happened to be the Avatar didn't deserve it either.

Katara: …glad you finally got around to that part.

Shirong had read reports on the Ba Sing Se Zoo incident. For all his awesome power, the Avatar was a child. An impulsive, happy, optimistic child.

It's wrong. If I'm right… what they're planning to do is just wrong.

Katara: Well, good for you that’s not what Long Feng seemed to be planning… though what he did do was bad enough.

Not to mention lethally short-sighted. Eventually that boy would grow up, and have all the power legend said Kyoshi and Roku had wielded. Did the Earth Kingdom really want someone that powerful knowing they'd been used as a weapon?

Zuko: In that case, you really don’t want to hear some of the things I’ve heard Azula suggest we should do if the next Avatar was born in the Fire Nation, and how to make sure they serve the throne. Trust me.

No. Oma and Shu, no.

I have to do something.

Do something? Do what? Go against Long Feng's direct orders? Not to mention the purely practical aspect of the number of fellow Dai Li who'd be between him and any attempt to free the bison. He was a reasonably skilled earthbender and agent. He was not the Blind Bandit.

Toph: *sticking her head in* No, he is not.

MG: And I still can’t get over how Shirong is having his crisis of conscience now, about this, something he’s made up in his head that he has no proof his superiors are even trying to do (and, IMO, pretty clearly weren’t in the show) rather than, you know, any or all of the awful stuff the Dai Li did get up to. It just seems like a very odd writing choice, in more ways than one.

I need help.

Almost against his will, Shirong glanced at the poster again.

There's a big difference between a fortress on a cliff and a labyrinth underground.

Zuko: …I’ve broken into both. Sure, they’re different… but they’re both pains in the butt to get in or out of.

Still. Pohuai Stronghold. Who in the Army had ever broken in there?

He's fast, smart, and sneaky. He may have less than a month training his waterbending, but those moves he does know, he has cold. And he has years of training in firebending forms.

Most important of all… no one would see it coming.

Valid points, Shirong thought. But will he do it? He has no reason to love the Avatar.

Zuko: I still went after Appa even in the real version of this – not that I had any idea what to do with him once I had him, as Uncle reminded me. But “better I have him than the Dai Li do” wasn’t that hard an idea to hit on, and seemed like a good idea at the time.

But Lee did love his uncle. And cared about Amaya. Not to mention the numerous other people he'd apparently gotten mixed up with. The young man cared.

Katara: That makes it sound like Shirong is going to threaten Iroh and Amaya to make Zuko do what he wants. Which is probably what a real Dai Li would do, but I kind of doubt Vathara is going to let him sully his hands with it.

And he's practical. Even if he hates the Avatar, and I couldn't blame him if he did… he'll do what he believes is right.

Zuko: *winces* Getting my sense of right and wrong untangled after years of propaganda and my miserable upbringing… that took a bit more work.

Still. If Lee agreed, and that was an if, he'd need an earthbender's help to get in-

Running feet; Shirong had just enough time to stuff the poster out of sight before Quan hit the doorframe hard enough to shiver rocks.

"Our agents at the clinic missed their check-in," Quan said grimly.

Amaya.

Katara: Oh, boy. Because of course she’s got to be so important to everyone… here we go.

-

"Perhaps we should just go home, nephew," Iroh suggested, as they climbed the steps to Amaya's clinic. "If she believed it was better for you not to be here…."

"She was going to do something she didn't want to do, Uncle." Zuko's face was grim. "I've seen that before."

Zuko: “Helping the Dai Li question prisoners,” you mean…

And what that might be, Iroh feared to know. Especially if the Dai Li were involved. "Even so," he said gravely, "she may not be pleased if we interfere."

"I'm - not planning to interfere," Zuko admitted quietly. "If she feels she has to - I know what that's like." He glanced at his uncle. "But I thought, if it's over… we could be there. If she needs somebody."

Katara: Considering how Amaya treats people she’s supposedly trying to help, I really can’t say I feel too bad for her? Here’s a hint, Vathara – if you want us to sympathize with a character, don’t have our first impression of them be that they regularly do really dangerous, awful things to people’s minds without permission!

Iroh raised gray brows, and nodded. "That is very thoughtful, nephew. But let us be polite, as well. If she tells us she wishes us to go, we will-" He cut himself off, as Zuko held up a warning hand.

"What do you hear?" Zuko asked, half a whisper.

Focused, Iroh listened. People in the streets, shopkeepers calling their wares before closing for the night, the outraged squawks of an ostrich-horse a street away….

From the clinic, nothing.

The pair traded glances, and his nephew went through the door fast and hard.

Silence.

MG: …I can’t help but feel this might have been more effective if we hadn’t seen the spirit attack Amaya just a couple of scenes ago. We know it was here, and we can gather it took her, so there’s not really a lot of mystery or suspense here – less than there could have been, at least.

Iroh shut the door quietly behind them, and lit a flame in his palm for more light. "Only one lamp lit," he observed, as they passed through the entryway into the main clinic. "It could not have happened too long after dark…."

The smell reached them then, and Iroh saw his nephew pale.

Seaweed. And blood. "Call a fire."

"Uncle-"

"We will make explanations later," Iroh said darkly. "If there is anyone still alive to explain to."

There wasn't.

Katara: …but I’m going to assume Amaya isn’t dead, because I’m pretty sure Vathara intends to keep her around for the whole story and keep inflicting her on us, right?

MG: That’d be correct! And we’ve already mentioned that you’re going to be meeting her in just a couple of chapters, so there’s that to look forward to!

One agent lay lifeless in a cold red pool just inside the screen to Amaya's garden, throat ravaged as if by the Unagi's teeth.

Zuko: Comparing something to a sea monster I saw what, one time? That’s… really specific.

Another had fallen face-first in the pool, drowned and gone when they turned him over. A third was all but entombed in ice against the wall where he'd tried to flee, hands raised before his face in futile defense-

Not futile, Iroh realized, as they came closer and Zuko swore under his breath. "He kept an airspace open. Quickly!"

Fire in their hands, breathing steam, they cracked the agent free. He fell as dead weight into their arms, pale as ice….

But Iroh had studied waterbenders, and taught his nephew well. A cold body might only seem dead.

MG: After all, That is not dead which can eternal lie / and with strange aeons even death may die.

Zuko: *bemused* I don’t even want to know.

Ear by the Dai Li's mouth, Iroh felt the faintest whisper of a breath. "Bring him inside. Build up the fire!"

Hot rocks wrapped in blankets around the man, they propped him by the stove and kept working. Heating water on top of the stove, Zuko wreathed his hands in flame and worked over icy skin. Iroh timed faint breaths, and blew out gentle steam so the agent could breathe in warmth as well.

"Bon," Zuko kept saying as he worked, "Bon, it's Lee. You're at the clinic. We found you. You're going to be all right, just hang on…."

MG: We saw Bon at the training exercise a couple of chapters ago, if you’ll recall. He’s going to be reasonably important down the line, as well.

Finally, the agent began to shiver.

Iroh glanced at his nephew, who nodded and released the fire back to the stove, wrapping his hands in hot water instead. "Agent Bon?" Iroh asked. "Can you hear us?"

"Father?" Bon whispered, teeth chattering. "No… can't be… you're dead…."

MG: Again, I can’t help but think this would be creepier if we hadn’t already been told how the spirit snares its prey, and/or if Bon hadn’t conveniently spelled out for us why what he’s hearing is impossible.

"Bon!" Zuko said sharply. "It's gone. I can't feel it anywhere. It's gone, and people are dead, and Amaya- Wake up!"

Bon's eyes snapped open. "…Lee?"

Iroh arched an eyebrow, intrigued. Earthbenders didn't usually respond to a firebender's force of will.

Katara: *blanches* Oh, spirits… is that what I think it is?

MG: *brightly* Loyalty, you mean? It is indeed! Which means that yes, Zuko didn’t just get Bon to wake up by shouting at him, he actually, like, had a psychic impact on him (not unlike a certain spirit, in fact… which sort of just occurred to me, but now I can’t get the parallel out of my head…) and yes, this is both a sign that the Dai Li have something of a “firebender attitude” (taking an off-the-cuff line of Azula’s from canon and twisting it into something it was clearly never meant to be!) and also foreshadowing for a couple of future plot developments.

All Sporkers: *facepalm*

The Superior Element: 45

"We have not found Healer Amaya."

"It took her. Through the water…."

As he'd feared. "Stay with him, while I get help," Iroh directed, rising.

"Not staying here," Bon gasped, trying to sit up before Zuko shoved him back down. "It killed Dai Li, can't let it get away-!"

Zuko: Riiight, it killed Dai Li. It’s been killing people for at least a week, but when it kills Dai Li, that’s when you just have to have your revenge. Real noble of you.

"Stay. Down." An order, that crackled in the air as Zuko glared the agent into going limp.

MG: …considering the context, I’m going to assume that Zuko’s glare literally carried enough force of will to actively cause Bon to go limp. Which isn’t unsettling at all.

The Superior Element: 46

"You did your duty. You told us what we're up against. Now stay put, so Uncle can get help to keep you alive while we go kill this thing."

"Kill it?" Bon managed through shivers. "But - you're a waterbender…."

Katara: *folding her arms* It’s not like earthbenders have a great track record against this thing so far. Maybe letting someone from its own element have a try might get better results, have you thought of that? Maybe it’s been killing waterbenders because they’re dangerous to it! I don’t know if that’s true, but it might be worth checking out.

"I am." Zuko's gaze went to the lanterns. "Which is why it's never going to see this coming."

-

One remains who would challenge us.

MG: And we all know who that is (and it’s not the Avatar, hint, hint!).

Prince Stuko: 69

Curled in endless cold, Amaya tried not to think. But the water and the power and the hunger were all, and she couldn't help but see green eyes under black hair; green that burned to gold….

That one. Hunger, and a chill contempt. Thief. Disrupter. Prey. Yes, we know him….

Thief? Zuko had never-

Zuko: Come on; Vathara’s the one who keeps talking about how good at sneaking I am! Besides, Amaya, you’ve known me barely a month. You don’t even know who I really am, so maybe don’t act like you know all about me!

And she was breathing in storm, she was the storm, fixed on the fires of mortal lives on the frail metal vessel. Born of fire; born enemies. Too dangerous to approach in calmer seas; too dangerous to lure, almost always. Which would make their despair all the sweeter. She felt the lightning building… strike!

No!

The Superior Element: 47 (for the spirit’s fixation on firebenders as prey)

Fire-in-flesh had seized the lightning; parried it, away and into the waves. The life dangling so temptingly from twisted metal was grabbed by other lives, hauled away from danger. Unfair, unfair; it hungered, they could not deny it….

But the storm was still strong, the metal hull damaged. The fire-lives would fall. They would. Curses breathed around the mortals, two above all, and Agni had no power here. And no other spirit would deny its feasting. The mortals' own hate and obsession would make them prey-

"Let him go. We need to get this ship to safety."

Impossible! That blood could not ignore its curse. It existed; that alone disrupted what-should-be. It could not deny destiny. It would fall, and be destroyed.

Yet the mortals gained the sunlight at the heart of the storm, and it was powerless.

MG: So… yeah. The spirit was in the storm in, well, “The Storm,” and in acting to preserve the lives of his men, Zuko “cheated” it of its rightful prey. Which means it’s literally here in Ba Sing Se for him in the first place. Because of course it is. And also… it’s not as bad as loyalty, but I don’t care for it? Zuko acting to save his men rather than pursue his obsession with the Avatar is a very important moment, a reminder that Zuko still has the compassionate youth who spoke up against the generals’ callousness and cruelty in the war room in him and a turning point in his relationship with his crew, one of a number of crucial moments in the first book that remind us that he’s not truly an evil person and has it in him to be something more than what he’s been so far… and throwing in “oh, and he thwarted an evil spirit by accident at the same time” just overcomplicates things and muddies the waters, IMO.

The Deadly Depths: 24

Prince Stuko: 70

You cannot rob me of my prey!

But they had. For a time. As another bright fire had, years ago and far away; gold and green and violet burning between water and delectable flesh. It could taste the sand of that warm-water shore, even now.

But that fire-life was well defended, and these more recent thieves had headed north, into waters too chill for comfort. And the hunger would not be sated by anything as petty as waiting. Death and disruption called; and here, the feeding had been good.

There was still need for caution, of course. The Bridge was near, and it was always wise to avoid such great power, no matter how young. The Bridge might not understand what belonged to it by right.

Katara: Okay, so we have confirmation that the reason we never met this thing, even in this version of the story, is that it was actively trying to avoid Aang… but what makes me think Aang is still somehow going to get blamed for not dealing with it, even though both the spirit itself and the Dai Li made sure he didn’t know about it?

And anything it could take, belonged to it.

As you do. A susurrus of waves. He is the last? And he is coming to us.

Twice he escaped. Fire-born. Enemy. Thief. Once by fire. Once by sun.

The sun will not scorch again for hours. And as for fire….

Water crushed her, and she had no strength to weep.

Zuko: Sure is lucky this thing decided to monologue about its evil plans to Amaya for our convenience. I wonder if it took lessons in villainy from the same place Zhao did – that might explain some things.

-

Think, Zuko told himself. Don't jump in. Don't panic. Think. He tugged the reins of his hastily-borrowed ostrich-horse

Zuko: At least I didn’t steal this one?

Katara: You what!?

to aim for a distant stretch of sandy lakeshore between water and towering cliffs. Uncle was matching him pace for pace, still tching a bit about their mounts' hapless owner, who had not fully appreciated the seriousness of their request.

The nerve jabs would wear off. Eventually.

Zuko: …okay, I guess I kind of did steal this one.

"The plan is clear?" Iroh called to him.

"Yes!" I hope. "Just tell me why this monster isn't going to do the smart thing, hide on the bottom of the lake, and laugh at us."

"Three reasons!" The retired general sounded grimly cheerful. "First, if it did that, we would have no chance to rescue Amaya. And that would simply not be fair."

Katara: Funny how it never seems to have given any of its other victims the chance to be rescued, huh? Maybe the simple answer is the best – it just wants to taunt you and lure you in.

"This isn't a spirit-tale, Uncle!" The hero doesn't always win. As if we were ever heroes.

"Is it not?"

"Better reason!"

"Young people…. Second - this is a kamuiy, not one of the great spirits. It is surely hungry, and cunning. But I would imagine it is not too bright."

Zuko: Right, because Uncle of all people would make the mistake of thinking that intelligence and power are the same thing. Not buying it.

Okay, he could work with that. Though dumb opponents could be some of the most dangerous. You never knew what the idiots would do. "And third?"

"Well, I am certain that is more than enough…."

"Uncle!" Zuko cast him a brief glare. "We're risking our lives. We might be risking the whole city! I need to know!"

Iroh gave him a look askance. "Nephew. I have great confidence in your ability to irritate anything."

Katara: *snickers* Well, he’s got a point!

…Okay, maybe he didn't need to know.

Zuko: *sighs heavily*

Oh hell, it's a talent. Use it. Which was what their plan meant to do-

His mount shied, as earth erupted. "Stop right there!" an unfamiliar voice ordered.

Dai Li. Wonderful. Zuko halted his mount, searching under night-shadowed hats for any hint of a familiar face. "Agent Shirong! Amaya's in the lake!"

"You're sure of that, are you?" Shirong's stance was subtle, outwardly relaxed, and unmistakable.

He thinks it got me again. Damn it, we don't have time-!

Katara: …because “the Dai Li are protecting their secret base” would just be crazy talk.

"We are not," Iroh stated, voice carrying through the night. "Agent Bon said it took her, and her body was not at the clinic. We hope she is there. And that it has not yet fed."

Zuko: Which I guess we’re just sort of taking on faith, then?

"Bon?" the agent apparently in charge echoed darkly.

"Probably feels like he went for a swim at the North Pole, but he was lucid," Zuko bit out, staring at calm, dark waters. "We left him with the Guard-"

Oh no.

"Down!"

A push froze the leading edge of the wave as it roared overhead, held back the bulk of the water long enough for everyone to bolt clear. But even that light touch of bending swamped him, cold and hunger and death pulling him under….

No.

I am Prince Zuko. Son of Ursa, and Fire Lord Ozai.

I've faced fire, and betrayal, and the Avatar himself.

Exile didn't kill me. The North Pole didn't kill me. Azula didn't kill me.

One of us is going to die here. It's not going to be me!

MG: Okay, Zuko getting a chance to pit his sheer stubbornness and grit against a more powerful enemy, and getting a chance to make a badass boast (with shades of the one from “Zuko Alone”) while he’s at it? No matter what I think of the rest of this scene, or Vathara’s handling of Zuko in general… this is a good Zuko bit right here.

Night snapped back into focus, and Zuko bared his teeth at towering wet shadows. Pulled up a ball of water between his hands, flattening it between circling palms until it steamed with glints of green and gold. Swirled it into a globe again, and lashed out-

He lost the sphere as soon as it hit shadow-water, with a wrench like someone tearing away a fingernail. But that was fine. Better than fine. Because fire-laced water made it scream, and in the brief moment shadows cleared at the impact-

Amaya.

Suspended in water, limp; eyes open and aglow like nothing the Dai Li had ever seen before. He could tell that from the gasps, the scrambling huddle of fear behind him.

Katara: Oh, look, the great spirit hunters have never seen a possessed person before! Are you people actually any good at this?

But I've seen it before. And I don't care.

Zuko smirked, and knew Shirong thought he was crazy. "Was that supposed to scare me?" he taunted surging black water. "You'll have to do better than that!"

Zuko: *notices Katara looking at him* What? Growing up with Azula you kind of get used to being randomly horrified every now and then.

Shadow-water roared, swirling into a scaled dragon-horse whose head lunged for him, fangs leading.

A duck, a roll, and he laughed in its face. "Too slow!"

Let's see just how mad I can get you.

MG: Hey, this isn’t really that different from Aang’s tactic against Zhao in “The Deserter” – enrage your enemy until they lose control and you can turn their own power against them. Maybe sporker!Zuko was onto something about them being old classmates (and wouldn’t that be a sight) … they clearly follow the same school of cliched supervillainy.

-

"He's insane," Shirong said numbly, standing by Quan in terrified shock. The other two Dai Li had raised a low wall to break oncoming waves, and stood ready to bend it higher. If that would do any good. He'd read about haima-jiao, certainly; they all had. But the reality….

We've found it. Now what the hell do we do with it?

Zuko: Okay, not really the expert here, but I’d think that’s the sort of thing you should have figured out before going after the dangerous spirit? Especially since you both are supposed to be experts?

"No, only focused." Mushi seized both of them by the shoulders, just long enough for a determined shake. "He is buying you time. Think! It draws strength from the water, and from Amaya. How can we best weaken it?"

Katara: …are you really sure you want someone to say the obvious answer to the way you asked that?

"How long can Lee even keep standing?" Shirong shot back. "It's pulling from the whole lake-"

"Lee is not drawing his water from the lake," Mushi said firmly. "Look!"

Mist, was Shirong's first thought. Followed hard by, Why is mist just there, near Lee's feet-?

Katara: *confused* What, are you just pulling water straight out of the air? I can’t really do that unless it’s very cloudy or misty already and, no offense, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have (and had better teachers…)

Zuko: *shrugs*

Sweeping feet, shifting from stance to quick stance as Lee led the monster on a mad chase across the beach. Feet that circled, and whirled, as Lee spun himself back upright after a lash of water knocked him down by the sheer force of displaced air….

Firebending! Shirong realized. Those are firebending stances, the kind they use to gather energy to strike-

Zuko: Wait a minute, you were just thinking earlier this chapter that you know I’ve been trained in firebending forms for most of my life, so why is it surprising that I’m using firebending forms?

But Lee was pulling up water. Out of the shore itself.

Water from the shore is water of the shore, Shirong knew, heart racing. Not the lake. Not the land.

And shores were boundaries, in-between places, like the moments of dawn and dusk. Places spirits roamed freely; yet at the same time, places a human could fight a spirit, even one with the strength of a murdering sea.

Katara: Uh, North Pole? That battle took place near a shore, and it sure didn’t seem to help the Fire Navy much against the Ocean Spirit!

MG: I’m actually pretty sure this is foreshadowing for a concept related to the yaoren that’s going to get introduced much later in the fic, so stick a pin in it for now.

Fight, yes, Shirong knew, still shivering. Win?

Mist spun into another small globe, glowed, flung-

An inhuman scream, and the haima-jiao lunged once more.

"So long as he is not bending the same water, it cannot seize him," Mushi said fiercely. "You are earthbenders! Cut away its strength!"

Zuko: So, wait, was every waterbender it seized bending the “same water?” Including Amaya? What about Jet – he’s not a bender at all, but it nearly grabbed him. I’m just… not sure this holds up.

Quan gave the gray-haired tea-maker a narrow look; then nodded, flinging a subtle gesture at Shirong before gathering the other two and arcing a long wall into the lake.

Gee, thanks, Shirong thought dryly, grabbing Mushi right back. "You couldn't know we'd be here. You must have had another plan-"

"Ah, yes." Reaching around, Mushi took a roll of pine-dark cloth and a capped skin off his shoulder. A full skin, that sloshed, and didn't smell anything like water.

Katara: *arching her eyebrow* What, was the backup plan to get the spirit drunk or something? Which doesn’t seem like it would be any less useful than what the Dai Li have been doing so far.

"…Remind me to never, ever get you mad at me," Shirong said faintly.

Mushi's smile was wry, and bittersweet. "Do you know spirit-mazes?"

Shirong nodded. That, and every other nasty spirit-trick he could hunt down in the archives, plus anything he could persuade out of people from beyond the Wall.

Zuko: And it’s clearly done no good at all against this spirit. Vathara, you can make the Dai Li experts at fighting spirits, or you can make them all completely ineffective against a spirit, but you should probably pick one or the other!

"Then let us give this creature a night it will never forget."

-

Let me die.

MG: *very pointedly doesn’t say anything*

She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see. She didn't want to feel the cold, cruel pleasure of hunting Zuko across the shore with waves and water-whips and fangs-

"Amaya!"

No! She didn't want to hear her student plead, she didn't-

"Amaya, damn it, wake up! It's lying to you!"

That… didn't sound like pleading.

Zuko: *shrugs* Guess it depends on what you mean by “pleading?”

"It feels like it's angry, but it's not! Not like you and me. It's just empty. A hole in the water. It eats and eats, but it can never fill that hole up. That's why it hates us!

The Deadly Depths: 25

"It makes you feel empty. That's how it uses you! It makes you alone, and scared, and lost. Makes you feel like you can't get angry, like that's giving it what it wants-"

Katara: Okay, that is pretty creepy…

MG: Feels kind of like Vathara is making the spirit a metaphor for depression or despair, honestly.

A flicker of vision, as the strength of the lake seemed to shrink. Zuko dodged a spray of ice daggers, vanishing in a cloak of steam. Fire in water confounded the sense of fire-in-flesh; made her tormentor slow, like a lull in the storm.

"It's lying." Zuko's voice was low and dangerous as he stalked out of the fog, glaring defiance into dripping fangs. "You think your tribe faces off things like this by community, by water. That's what the other waterbenders thought! That's why they died!"

Katara: *coldly* Because it’s not like waterbenders might possibly know how to fight a water spirit. But I guess that’d just be stupid, right?

The Deadly Depths: 26

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 23

No, get back, get away-! Helplessness washed over her, and she felt a contented snarl.

Thin mist blocked some of the next wave, but not all. Water yanked Zuko from his feet, fangs tore-

Shredded brown cloth, as Zuko kicked free of his over-robe and rolled to his feet, dagger in hand. "You beat it because when you care about your family, you feel," Zuko panted. "And feeling is fire, Amaya! Get angry!"

Zuko: So, wait. Water is all about family, but if you care about your family that’s emotion, which is fire… it’s almost like attributing everything to just one element or the other doesn’t actually make any sense! Imagine that!

Elemental Determinism: 45

What-?

You are alone. Outcast from your tribe. Condemned by your own hands; who would take back one who has served their enemies? You are mine!

Katara: Well, this waterbender is a bit more concerned about all the mind control. And, oh yeah, nearly killing one of your patients because your technique is potentially deadly to firebenders and you just started work without asking first! But I guess Vathara doesn’t care about that, so the spirit doesn’t either.

But she'd never done it to serve anyone. She'd done it because… because….

Huojin.

Just a little boy, lost and crying on the streets. An innocent young troublemaking scamp, like Jinhai was now, who'd done nothing to deserve the death hunting him.

I did it because I had to. Because he needed me. He needed someone, and I was there, and how could I call myself a healer if I let a child die when I could do something….

Zuko: That makes it sound like you just adopted Huojin or something, which would’ve been fine. But you went in and rewrote his mind and gave him a whole new name and identity, and then you kept doing it to people, and if how you handled Uncle is any indication, you did it without their consent or even telling them what you were going to do to them first! And it could be deadly if you got it wrong, which I know because you did it to this story’s version of me and I nearly died! So you can stop acting like you’re just this kindhearted woman who just wants to help people she feels sorry for, because we’ve seen what you’re help’s like, and it’s kind of awful, except your writer won’t admit that.

Loneliness pounded her like a tsunami, driving her down-

No.

No, I won't let you.

I have a family. It's not my tribe. It's small and hidden and broken. But it doesn't give up. Not now. Not ever.

Katara: This would be a lot more heartwarming if it wasn’t for what Zuko just pointed out, not going to lie.

You should have settled for me, haima-jiao! That's my student you're trying to kill. And you can't have him!

A hiss of waves; a torrent of images, all the pain and aggravation and fear for the rest of her hidden folk Zuko had brought home to roost. Hate him! Hate, and destroy!

Zuko: So, just asking – are her “hidden folk” just me and Uncle, Huojin and his family, and the Wens? Because it sounds like there should be more than that, but Vathara hasn’t really shown us some sort of hidden underground Fire Nation community in Ba Sing Se, just a couple of individual households. I guess I just wish we could have seen me building a relationship with this community and finding a place there, instead of spending all my time hanging out with the Dai Li. I think it would’ve made this scene work a lot better and, well… the person I was at the time I think really could have benefitted from finding a Fire Nation community that wasn’t with the Fire Lord. Better than getting talent scouted by the Earth Kingdom’s secret police, anyway.

And it was all true - and all lies. No, Amaya thought, and felt shattered boundaries of herself draw together, hardened by growing anger. You hate us, because you envy us; because we are warm and breathing and alive, in a way you can never be. I could never hate Zuko. I am angry with him, for doing something so stupid and wonderful and brave….

Katara: I don’t know, some of the spirits we’ve met seemed pretty lively. Or is that just the haima-jiao that’s like this?

The Deadly Depths: 27

And he'd done it for her. She knew that, clear as she could suddenly see the beach, the Dai Li raising walls to cut the strength of water, Mushi's intent discussion with Shirong as they moved sand in subtle patterns. Surely they had a safer plan. Surely, they could have waited.

But Zuko had put himself on the line, here and now. To get her angry.

Give up, bastard, Amaya thought, focusing all her will on one hand. If she could win that back, even a twitch of her fingers…. You're going to die!

Foolish little life. None here are strong enough to defeat me!

Zuko: Oh, come on. Everybody knows what happens as soon as you start boasting “you can never defeat me!” Forget the Academy, someone needs to set this spirit down for a week of all those old plays Mom used to love so much. It might learn some things. Even just make it watch the Ember Island Players for a while; I think it probably deserves that.

Water surged, and stone shattered.

MG: After some deliberation, I’m going to go ahead and give a couple of points for Zuko and only Zuko figuring out how to effectively fight the spirit and release Amaya from it, even with some actual supposed spiritual experts on hand.

Prince Stuko: 73

-

No time to think. No time to ask if Mushi had a plan B. Only a moment to stomp and thrust-

MG: I’m going to just assume “plan B” is a bit of translation convention and move on.

Shirong felt something more solid than water hit his raised wall; Lee surfaced through the grasping waves, gasping for air.

Flinging his gloves, Shirong grabbed, and yanked.

"Owe you one," Lee managed, dripping on sand as rock flew back to Shirong's hands.

"We'll settle up later," Shirong said plainly. "Don't drip on the lines." More trenches in the beach than lines, but still….

Zuko: Shirong, I’m sure you’re real proud of your little art project but I don’t think now is the time or place… oh, right. Spirit maze. Carry on.

Lee's smirk would have looked right at home on a dillo-lion. "Uncle?"

"A few moments more," the older man stated, digging and pouring. "Fortunately, it is distracted by breaking the walls-"

Ice slashed like razors, and Shirong knew it hadn't been distracted enough.

Oh. Red, so red; why was everything red when the world was so cold? That's going to hurt….

Katara: I’m going to go with “red with blood,” actually.

-

For some, war slows the world.

Iroh felt his pulse stretch into slow beats, as Zuko spun to their falling ally and renewed walls of stone ground glacier-slow out of the lake. He was closer to the shore than his nephew and Shirong, closer to danger….

Which was precisely where he wanted to be.

Zuko: *smirks* Okay, Uncle. I’ve had my turn, but you can show it what a real master firebender can do.

Wait.

Fangs lunged for him, slow as thread unraveling.

Wait.

A scaled foot of water drifted down, crossing sandy trenches-

Now!

A breath, and flames roared up from poured lamp oil, will pushing them ever higher. Just high enough to conceal the sphere of fire Iroh breathed and shaped around himself, stepping through stunned water until one hand touched chilled, struggling flesh-

He snapped open the firethorn robe, wrapping it about Amaya in one swift swirl. Breathed, and stepped….

Out of the water. Out of the maze. Fire still blazing behind them.

Old smoke, indeed.

Zuko: See? What’d I tell you? If there’s one thing I learned traveling with him for three years, it’s that when the pai sho tiles are down, you do not bet against Uncle Iroh. And I guess we know what that liquid he was carrying earlier was, too.

-

Lost!

Flesh gone, waterbender gone, lake's strength being sliced away by stone. It writhed in the maze of flames, bewildered. Prey… prey did not do this….

Prey.

One still touching water, touching its power; blood and fear and alone slinking through its defenses….

Mine.

-

"Zuko…."

Katara: Considering it’s Zuko, who Vathara loves, and the chapter is almost done, I’m really not too worried about him.

Fire around his hands; Agni, let Uncle be distracting the others, there was no way he could explain this, he was too tired to use water and he couldn't let Shirong die-

"Zuko." His mother's voice, warm and sweet as smoke-sugar. "Come home."

No. You're not real. Yet he couldn't stop himself from rising, and walking toward her.

No! Damn it, you know it's lying! Shirong is bleeding and you have to-

But it wasn't just his mother, it was her and Azula; and his sister was smiling, glad to see him, and he wanted it so much, he would have given his heart if it had been real….

Zuko: …okay, that hurts. But at the same time, I learned a long time ago that a smiling and happy Azula who’s glad to see me is very, very bad news. Honestly that bit alone should probably have shocked me out of the spirit’s influence. And it would kind of make sense? That it dragged up my memories and wishes without really understanding them, and so I could tell when it was throwing up obviously fake images and reject them?

Fire is passion.

Love and rage and fire slammed home, steel sinking in to the hilt.

Never give up without a fight.

Zuko: Or I guess I could just stab it. That works, too.

Elemental Determinism: 46

-

"You got him," Shirong whispered, as the black jelly of a dying sea-kamuiy slid off white-hot steel. "Good job."

Katara: Wait, you actually killed it and didn’t just banish it? I… I’m not sure I knew that was possible, except for cases like the Moon and Ocean Spirits taking mortal forms…

Prince Stuko: 74

We all did a good job, the agent knew, feeling the cold creep back in. He should care about that, but he was so tired….

Not a bad way to go. My city is safe. My people….

Weren't safe. Not yet. He hadn't told Lee, he had to tell Lee-

"Shirong." An exhausted sob; Lee's hands grabbed his, hot as embers. "Do you trust me?"

Silly question to ask a dying man. But he tried to nod.

"Don't give up. Just- don't give up…."

Darkness. And light. And something burning inside, he couldn't bear it, he'd be nothing more than ash and smoke on the wind-

Don't give up.

Like breaking through a crust of lava, and still somehow breathing. The fire was everywhere, burning….

Easing. Like banked coals, warming winter-chilled skin. Shirong took a soggy breath, coughed-

And kept breathing.

…Huh. Didn't see that coming.

Zuko: So, I guess I just used fire healing. On the Dai Li agent, one of the worst possible people in the world to know my secret… then again, he clearly wasn’t bothered by me and Uncle making plans behind the Dai Li’s backs last time, so I guess we’re just going to continue to trust that he isnt’ going to do his job at all.

Daring, he opened his eyes. "You look like hell."

"Thanks," Lee muttered, ghost-pale and shaking. "Sorry about the reports."

"Reports?" Shirong echoed, confused. But just for a moment. That's right. I'm alive. Which means I have to write up what happened. Damn.

Zuko: *groans* Oh, now he remembers!

"Are you trying to kill my will to live?"

Zuko: …and it was just a setup for a “paperwork is boring” joke and not, you know, that he’s going to have to report everything he’s learned about me and my abilities and my plans, which is a lot, to one of the most dangerous people in the world. Because I guess we’re just ignoring that part. Again.

Lee smirked at him. Turned a little, creaky as an old man, to look Quan in the eye. "Anybody else hurt? Please tell me there's not…."

"Bumps and bruises. We'll keep." Quan crouched beside Shirong, face almost blank with amazement as he took in the healing scars raking the agent's chest. "Damn. I was sure you were…." He whistled. "Healer Amaya's a good teacher."

Katara: And I guess Quan can’t even tell fire-healing from water-healing. *shakes her head* Wow, I guess we were really too worried about how dangerous the Dai Li are, huh?

"Yes, she- Master Amaya!" Lee tried to jump to his feet; staggered, would have fallen if Quan hadn't caught him. "Uncle- Uncle?"

Eyeing the tea-maker whispering sweet nothings in the drenched healer's ear - and her desperate clutch on his robes - Shirong raised an eyebrow.

"…That's just not fair," Lee managed.

Zuko: *folding his arms* Well, it’s not. Uncle can do so much better than Amaya the Brainwashing Healer.

"Indeed," Shirong stated wryly. "The hero's supposed to get the girl. You know, the handsome prince, or the injured, bleeding common bender who saved the day in the nick of time? It's a fundamental law of the universe!"

Katara: So, wait… Shirong’s obviously the “injured, bleeding common bender,” so does that mean he’s figured out Zuko is a prince and is not-so-subtly pointing it out? And wait a minute, does the girl get a say in this?

Mushi lifted his head enough to smile at them, mysterious as a cat-owl. "And what makes you think the hero did not?"

Lee clapped a hand to his forehead.

Zuko: Well, much as I hate this whole relationship, Uncle did rescue Amaya and did pull of some pretty fancy bending to do it…

Shirong snickered. And couldn't stop. "Oh, Oma and Shu… don't make me laugh, it hurts…."

But it was a good hurt. Pain meant he was alive.

We're alive, and it's dead… and I'll be able to tell Lee about the bison. Soon.

Katara: And is there someone else you should be telling about this too? You know, Long Feng, older guy, green robes, dark heart, your boss? Remember him?

MG: Well, in any case, the chapter has now come to a close, and without an Author Note this time! Thank you to both Katara and Zuko for your help! Now, this chapter is a pretty important one. We finally get the haima-jiao that’s been hanging around for the last few chapters dealt with. It’s a decently creepy monster, though I kind of have to roll my eyes and some of its cliched villain dialogue. And the fight scene is pretty solid as well, for what’s basically a monster-of-the-week, especially Iroh’s part. On the other hand, there’s a very big problem with the entire sequence, and that’s Amaya. The entire thing really depends on the reader feeling a lot of investment in Amaya and her struggles and her fate, and… I just don’t. I know I keep harping on this, but I still think her introductory scene – with her casual use of mind-control, her shocking lack of medical ethics, and nearly killing Zuko with her technique – is an absolutely rancid introduction to a character who is supposed to be a loving mentor and team mom, and no matter how far we get into the story, I just can’t get it out of my mind. Not helping is that we’ve gradually established how Amaya is a willing and trusted collaborator with the Dai Li, and the chapter opens by having her actively aid them in an interrogation – and no matter how bad she feels about it, she’s still actively aiding the Dai Li in an interrogation (though it does feel rather convenient that Yunxu, one of the only Dai Li OCs who acts like an actual Dai Li and is rightly treated as a bad person for it, gets killed off this chapter so the story doesn’t have to deal with him anymore). And even when the spirit is forcing Amaya to confront all her insecurities and inner darkness, none of this stuff ever comes up. So it all just comes together in a way that I find extremely off-putting and it detracts significantly from the whole fight sequence. And, of course, we make the Iroh/Amaya ship official this chapter (and they’ll be staying together for the rest of the fic). Sigh.

And of course, Shirong’s sequence in the middle of the chapter raises some of the issues regarding the Fire Nation and the Avatar that is going to be going some very infamous places before the story is through, and sets up some of the “the Avatar hates the Fire Nation” and “the Fire Nation is all alone against the world” themes that I suspect we’re all going to be heartily sick of, along with some rather remarkable leaps in logic regarding what Long Feng is planning and why it would be bad that I don’t think hold up in either canon or Embers. Though really I can’t shake the feeling that it’s all just the next step in Shirong’s development into full-on Fire-boo. And I still think the Dai Li were rather shockingly ineffective at what they’re supposed to be best at so Zuko can have a chance to show off instead. At least the bit with Jia talking about Sokka at the beginning was kind of funny? Anyway, next time we wrap up the first part of the Ba Sing Se arc as Amaya recovers and learns more about what’s going on and just who her new boyfriend and student really are, and we get a bit more backstory. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:

Beware the Sugar Queen: 7

The Blind Bandit Wins Again: 12

The Deadly Depths: 28 (giving another point for the spirit fight in general)

Detached from Reality: 11

Divine Right to Rule: 43

Elemental Determinism: 46

He Has Much to Learn: 23

Prince Stuko: 74

Protectors of our Cultural Heritage: 34

The Real Victims: 32

Simple Rubes from the Water Tribes: 23

Stations of the Canon: 27

The Superior Element: 47

True Guardians of Balance: 1

The Ultimate Firebenders: 19