masterghandalf

Chapter Eighty-Five

We open with Aang muttering about how much trouble he’s in; he’s better off than he was when Azula shot him, but he’s still not in great shape. He also can’t stop hiccupping, which makes him remember Gyatso explaining to him why hiccups happen, and how for a hundred years in the ice he wasn’t breathing at all – and he wonders if the Fire Nation trying to take over the world isn’t kind of like a hiccup on a much larger scale. He starts thinking that if holding the world’s breath doesn’t work, maybe a big scare would… then is distracted to realize that not only aren’t his clothes wet, they’ve not even salty. He finally forces himself to confront what’s really bothering him – there were people on those balloons he was blasting. If he thought otherwise, he was lying to himself, and that makes him feel awful. The truth is, there’s no way he could have brought that fleet down without killing people, and he doesn’t want to kill anyone – even Ozai. Especially since not all of Ozai’s crew are necessarily bad people. He thinks about how he’s always imagined Ozai as more of a monster than a man – something even worse than a bad person like Azula, Zhao or Long Feng. But somehow, he’d never imagined Ozai would blast him with lightning. Maybe that’s because he doesn’t really remember being hit by lightning the first time, but he tries to force his thoughts back on track. He remembers how Iroh was willing to use lightning to kill General Gang, and Iroh’s a good person – Ozai is evil, so maybe he really didn’t care about blasting through his own men to get at Aang. That bothers Aang, but he thinks it’s so air to try and skip ahead to a better future where everything is already fixed. He needs to balance all the elements, which means he needs to focus on the here-and-now – and now he knows he can’t just look Ozai in the eyes and kill him. He’s not even sure he should try; Ozai is a human problem, not a spirit problem. The only spirits involved are little spirits defending their own territory, like Hei Bai or the Painted Lady, or the great spirits pulling strings from the shadows, almost like Hama… or Koh. Frustrated, Aang wonders whose butt he has to kick to fix everything if not Ozai’s, and at last he climbs up some of the nearby trees to get the lay of the land.

Looking out over the water, he realizes the waves don’t look like – they’re a wake, but he’s on an island, and islands don’t move. He wonders if an earthbender as powerful as Toph could move a whole island, but that doesn’t feel right, and somehow the island doesn’t feel like earth. Running back down to the shore, he finds that the water is just as cold as it should be in the northern seas, but somehow the air directly above the moving island is tropical. He tries to get into the water to swim but gets sucked into a weird current and is forced to return to shore. Slowly it dawns on him that the island is alive, and he knows what it is, even though no one has seen a live one in a thousand years, since Yangchen died. Then again, there are airbenders in the Earth Kingdom, firebenders in Ba Sing Se, and waterbenders on Kyoshi Island – just because people don’t notice something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Aang ice-surfs around the island, then dives into the water and finds himself face-to-face with an enormous head; a huge paw takes hold of him and slowly lifts him out of the water, and all Aang can say is “hi.” The Lion-Turtle rumbles that it’s been a long time since anyone sought his counsel. The Avatar is the incarnation of the World Spirit, and the Lion-Turtles were the World Spirits firstborn children, so he and Aang are distant kin. Aang asks if the Lion-Turtle was around when all this mess got started; the Lion-Turtle muses that he saw Kesuk die, and that might have been the beginning. The Avatar is a human, and humans can go mad – and the Avatar is a spirit, and when spirits are angry, there is a price. Aang thinks that people had to stop Kesuk, and the Lion-Turtle agrees – but there is always a cost, even when you do the right thing. Aang wonders what he has to do – Kyoshi stopped Chin, but Chin was only one man with an army. Aang has to deal with spirits, not Ozai or the Fire Nation. But all the Fire Lords since Sozin have been trying to conquer the world, and that’s what’s put the world out of balance… Suddenly, Aang realizes that if the problem’s been going on that long, Ozai isn’t the real issue. Even so, Aang still has to stop him from destroying the Northern Water Tribe or a lot of people will die. The Lion-Turtle tells Aang that the World Spirit is a source of life, but it gestures with its free paw and tells Aang to find his answers here. Aang looks where it’s pointing and sees that they are approaching the Northern Water Tribe.

We cut to Zuko, looking from Lieutenant Sadao to the White Lotus loading materials onto one of the Water Tribe ships. He mentally runs over everything they’re going to need to prepare to defend Dragons’ Wings, worrying about what will happen if Ozai’s fleet drops a bomb in just the wrong place. Finally, he demands to know just where he’s supposed to be going, and when, and why. Sadao protests that it was very sudden, and Zuko mutters that he’s sure it was. Nearby, another soldier mutters about how there’s nothing worse than messed up chains of command; Zuko definitely thinks someone messed up and wants to march onto the White Lotus ship to yell at Pakku, only refraining because he knows that’s where Iroh wants him to be. That hurts him – he knows Iroh isn’t like Azula but now he can’t ignore the similarities. He finally asks if Iroh’s on that ship, and when Sadao says he is, tells him to pass a message with full military formalities that he’d like to meet with him. Iroh himself suddenly appears, saying there’s no need and asking if they can discuss this over tea – Zuko can’t help but remember Azula trying to lure him into a trap with false hospitality. He calms himself down, focuses on acting like a great name, and tells Iroh that it would be inconvenient if his ship left while they were discussing this. Iroh thinks Pakku wants to leave with the tide, but they have plenty of time for a conversation. Zuko flat-out says he’s not leaving. He explains that Sokka told them Ozai will stick to the high wind road; Iroh says they don’t know that and points to other supply bases he might stop at. Zuko insists Iroh doesn’t know that, and he always taught him to cover all his bases. Iroh and the other masters can go north, but up there Zuko would be just one firebender. But if the fleet comes here, his people will need him. Iroh reminds Zuko that he has rather more experience in these matters, but Zuko points out that no one has experience with airships except the people who built them – and Sokka, who at least has experience in aerial combat. Iroh reminds him that amateurs study tactics while professionals study logistics, which Zuko hears as condescension. He thinks Iroh is just angry that Ozai found an opening he didn’t. Iroh says there is no opening, but Zuko thinks there is – with the high wind road, Ozai can hit Dragons’ Wings, the Northern Water Tribe, and the Earth Kingdom all in one day.

Iroh reminds Zuko that he left the Fire Nation as a child, but Iroh knows his brother’s temperament and his training, and thinks he will focus on the single most important target, the North, first. But they will be there to stop him – Sozin’s line will not fail the world again. Zuko thinks Iroh still sees him as a child and asks if atoning for Sozin’s sins is really the most important thing to him. Iroh says he knew Zuko would understand, and Zuko does understand – that his people need him, and Iroh has interfered with his chain of command. He calls for Sadao and tells him to make sure Iroh and his people have everything they need to depart. Iroh is stunned, and Zuko tells him he’s not Lu Ten – he’s not going to sacrifice his people to help Iroh atone for his own sins. Iroh’s convinced himself his son’s death was part of a greater plan, but he’s wrong – the spirits don’t care. Iroh says Zuko has no right to say such things, and Zuko agrees – he’s an exile and disinherited. Which means he can’t repay any penance Sozin’s bloodline owes. Nothing he does will count. All he can do is be the great name of Dragons’ Wings, and he won’t abandon his duty. Iroh says he can’t abandon his duty to the spirits, but Zuko says the White Lotus isn’t in charge here. He is – and he can’t abandon Asagitatsu, and he thinks to himself that he has to do what Azulon and Ozai failed to do and pin Iroh’s loyalties down. He tells him that he can be either loyal to him or to the White Lotus – and he has to choose, now.

We cut to Jee as he watches from a distance, thinking that no one walks away from that kind of ultimatum without violence. Iroh stays silent, and Jee thinks that Zuko is word-lost in rage and if Iroh tries to press him now things will go very badly. At last, Zuko turns and stalks away and Jee thinks they need to get Teruko to sit on him until he can speak again. But there’s a bigger problem – Zuko will just simmer or break things until he calms down, but Iroh is now running around with unclaimed loyalty. Jee goes over to him and politely but firmly tells him to leave. We cut to Pakku as he tells Iroh that he told him Zuko wouldn’t leave. Iroh tells Pakku not to speak to him, and Pakku is wise enough to agree.

We end with an author note: A/N: I haven't been able to track down a more technical term for it than the "Joan of Arc advantage." In short, when a new technology is introduced on the battlefield, young officers and amateurs are likely to be able to use it to walk all over experienced generals who've never used the stuff before. This was one of the reasons Joan was so effective; cannon were a recent introduction on the battlefields of the Hundred Years War, and she used them to devastating effect.
Iroh is an experienced general. But he's an experienced general who's never used airships to fight. While Sokka has flown on Appa since the start of winter, and faced Ozai's use of airships on the Day of Black Sun. It's not only possible that Sokka has a better read on the upcoming fight than Iroh, it's likely.
On top of everything Iroh doesn't know about airships in combat, he's now reached the moment he's prepared himself for since he broke the siege of Ba Sing Se. Seven years of dedication, of turning the darkest day in his life into a hoped-for triumph. When something you want that badly is in your reach, you tend to lose sight of everything else; witness Zuko chasing Aang. And under stress, people tend to fall back on old habits. Unfortunately, even in canon, Iroh has a habit of manipulating Zuko for his own good. Mix that with Zuko's reflexive paranoia (if you can call it paranoia, when everything really is out to get you), and boom.
And there's nothing uglier than a serious fight between two people who love each other.

MG’s Thoughts

Oof. First off, Aang meets the Lion-Turtle. I’m not sure I’d call it a Stations of the Canon moment, if only because the Lion-Turtle clearly didn’t find Aang by accident in either version. On the other hand, I’m not sure how much the Lion-Turtle actually helped here, beyond giving Aang a free ride to the North. And I must say, when the fic has spent so long talking about dragons and kadzhait and yaoren and spirits, having canon’s actual godlike precursor species put in an appearance with almost no foreshadowing feels a bit weird (and yes, I know the Lion-Turtle kind of came out of nowhere in canon too, but Embers has put a lot more emphasis on the Avatarverse’s prehistory and supernatural creatures, or at least Vathara’s take on them, than canon did). Aang’s wrestling with the idea that Ozai is a man and not a monster isn’t… bad, exactly, but it also feels like something canon already did with Katara finding Ozai’s baby portrait, and like it’s reading too much into the show’s framing of Ozai as a shadowy, ominous figure for dramatic effect (remember, we see Ozai as a faceless sinister figure even in Zuko’s flashbacks, and Zuko actually knows his father). It’s also a bit of a moot point, since, spoilers, Aang won’t be facing Ozai again during the rest of the fic. I’d also be of the opinion that yes, the roots of the war started long before Ozai, but he’s the one responsible for prosecuting it now so stopping him and putting someone else on the throne is still a necessary step for peace.

The Zuko and Iroh confrontation – yeah, it really rubs me wrong, beyond the obvious discomfort of seeing the two of them fight. For one, I feel like Iroh is making entirely reasonable arguments for most of the conversation, but of course the fic is set up so that Zuko will be vindicated, he’ll be right, and Iroh will be wrong. For another, the fic still persists in depicting Iroh’s faith as wrong and misguided, even outright delusional – a grieving man trying to make sense of his son’s death and ignoring reality to do it (and part of me can’t help but read Zuko’s “I’m not Lu Ten” as “I’m not your son,” which considering their canon relationship… oof). Beyond that, I disagree with the AN that this is Iroh manipulating Zuko for his own good – instead I feel like Vathara is writing Iroh as trying to work for the abstract greater good of the world and to atone for his own sins at Zuko’s expense, which is much worse and much more out of character. Once again, it overall feels like Iroh is being torn down so Zuko can be propped up, and I still hate it.