"Hello the Navy!" sang out an unfamiliar voice from outside the shattered village, distracting Zhao momentarily from his fury. Who
precisely had bungled his plan to catch the village unaware, he was not yet certain, but there could be no other explanation for the fact that the place had
been evacuated before his force had reached it. The fact that one of his flanking forces had taken casualties subduing one lone woman, had markedly shortened
the fuse of his temper.
"Whoever that is, find out which sentry he got past and have him flogged," the Admiral ordered harshly, striding towards the
nearest breach in the village's wall.
What he saw was a young girl, details lost in oversized winter gear, arms pinned behind her back by a broad-shouldered young man in a water
tribe parka the hood thrown back to reveal a familiar but unexpected face. "Admiral Zhao," Zuko said calmly, as if there was nothing remotely out of
the ordinary about a royal prince emerging from a frozen wilderness with a captive child. "Your attack came at an opportune moment."
"How nice," Zhao replied insincerely. "I trust we didn't interrupt you doing anything important," he added with a nod
towards the girl.
Zuko's lips thinned at the implication that the older man was making, but he bit back a hot response. "I suppose that that would
depend on what priority my father places on capturing the Avatar."
Zhao's eyes widened. Killing the Avatar would win any man great renown in the court of the Fire Lord, but that would be as nothing to
someone bringing the Avatar before Ozai. After all, a dead Avatar would simply be reborn but a captive Avatar could be kept alive for decades, removing their
interference for at least a generation. And that was besides the enormous damage that the news would do to the morale of the Earth Kingdom. With the Earth King
a recluse inside his palace, the notion of an earthbender Avatar leading the war against the Fire Nation had captured the imagination of the remaining free
kingdoms. For the Avatar to be brought to her knees would have shattering effect.
"This is the Avatar?" he asked, feigning scepticism. "She doesn't look impressive."
"Well she would only be twelve," Zuko pointed out coolly. "And unless you have another idea how she could bend both fire and
ice...?"
"Far be it from me to cast aspersions upon your accomplishment," Zhao conceded. "I've set up my headquarters here until we
find the villagers." There's no way I'm letting this spoiled brat make a triumphal return to the Fire Nation on the back of capturing a
half-trained little girl. He gestured for Zuko to walk alongside him back into the ruined village, the younger firebender forcing Toph to stumble in front of
him, bent over
Zuko frowned. "Yes, I gather that you didn't manage to establish a perimeter to catch them?"
"One flank was intercepted by a defector," explained Zhao. "By they time they had her subdued, the villagers were past them.
We have a trail though, and they can't have made it far."
"Far be it from me to interfere in your hunt for water tribe peasents," Zuko assured him with a smirk, turning Zhao's words
back upon him. "I'm requisitioning one of your ships to return to the capital, so you may want to call in reinforcements. There must be almost a dozen
of them: I wouldn't want you to feel... disadvantaged. After all if one woman can cause so much difficulty for you, I hate to think what your losses would
be against ten times that many."
Zhao could almost imagine seeing Zuko through a film of red, temper provoked by the obvious taunt. "Well this was a very special young
woman," he told the young man. "A defector, as I said. It was obvious from the moment we got a good look at her that she was from the fire nation,
perhaps even highly born." His lips thinned. "No doubt her family will be disgraced when it is learned that she was fighting on behalf of the water
savages."
"Oh?" There was the faintest flicker of emotion on Zuko's face. "Do you know her identity?"
Zhao paused a moment. What led Zuko to hesitate? Did he know who the girl was? It would make sense if there were two Fire Nation nobles
somehow down here at the south pole then they might know of each other. Might even be leverage against each other. "Not yet," he said. "No one
has recognised her face. Of course, once she awakens we can simply extract the information. There are ways to loosen a woman's tongue." Definite
emotion. The little princeling had some scruples it seemed. How convenient. "We cannot allow treason of this nature, your highness."
"I am aware of that," Zuko confirmed somewhat hollowly. "Perhaps I should take a look: after all, I have met quite a number of
the nobility so I might know her face."
.oOo.
"Where's the Avatar?" Yue blurted the moment that Kuku settled to the ground next to the villagers.
Bato shook her head. "She turned back to look for sister. I couldn't exactly drag her..."
Yue's face fell. "That willful girl! Doesn't she listen to anyone?"
"Just her sister, I think," Bato admitted ruefully. "The fire bender went with her."
The waterbender hopped down from Kuku's back and began creating steps for the remaining children and their mothers to climb aboard. It
would take at least two trips to evacuate the rest of the village, but without Kuku walking with them, at least the trail they were leaving was less
remarkable. Bato had also led them off at an angle that did not lead towards the ice field he had picked out as a refuge. "I'm not sure if that's
good or bad: Mai knows him best and she has some serious doubts about his loyalties."
"The two of you talked about him?" Bato asked curiously. "I thought that women only did that about men that they were
interested in."
"Well he is a bit of a character..." Yue admitted and then glared at him. "Wait a minute! When you say interested, what
exactly are you implying?"
"Just... 'interested'," Bato said with a little smirk. He'd known Yue since she was a little girl, after all and while
she hardly told him everything, he was fairly sure he didn't recall her ever talking about a boy her own age before. And it was kind of amusing watching
her blush over the suggestion that she might be interested in the... Fire Lord's... son...
Okay, no, that wasn't amusing at all.
"It's a bit strange just talking to someone from the fire nation, much less one of their soldiers," he dodged. "I
don't suppose anyone from either of the water tribes has done that since the war began."
"That's true," agreed Yue. "Apparently the fire nation are taught that they started the war to share their prosperity and
culture with the rest of the world. Did none of them think that it might be better to do so through talking, rather than waging war?"
"I don't claim to understand them," Bato shrugged. "Perhaps that's what the Avatar is here to do."
The two of them looked at each other and tried to envisage Toph as a diplomatic bridge between the water tribe and the fire nation. The image
did not come naturally to either of them.
"Perhaps not," Yue said. "And she may never fulfill her destiny if she dies out there."
Bato shrugged his shoulders and helped the last child up the steps. "Yue, how do we know that going out there isn't
Toph's destiny? Assuming that she has one and isn't just muddling through life one day at the time the way the rest of us do?"
"Bato, she's the Avatar! Of course she has a destiny."
"So was it the Airbender's destiny to abandon us all for forty years and allow a hundred years of war?" Bato asked. "Or
was the war the punishment levied for his refusal to face his destiny? It seems a little extreme."
Yue stared at him. "It was his duty, his destiny, to prevent the war," she declared. "He turned away from that: we cannot
allow Toph to make the same mistake."
"Well at least she's heading towards a fight," quipped Bato and waved the now much diminished column - almost exclusively the
old now - to start walking again.
"But will she manage to walk away?" Yue wondered out loud, and then yipped to urge Kuku into the air once more.
.oOo.
Mai looked up from the post she was tied to when Zhao returned to her field of vision. Ironically, the pole had been part of the same tent
that she had rested in earlier. The Fire Nation soldiers were unfortunately thorough: they'd stripped her of dart launchers and almost every knife on her
person. Only the fact that stripping her completely would have killed her too fast for the Admiral's liking had allowed her to still hide a pair of small
knives and neither was somewhere she could reach while bound. As such she'd forced herself to relax, to preserve her strength for what opportunities might
arise.
The procession that followed Zhao made clear just how important those opportunities would be: he was escorted by four soldiers but it was the
other two figures that caught her attention. Zuko, forcing Toph before him, fingers cruelly tight about her wrists. Zuko just barely caught the slightest
movement betraying her surprise - Zhao, not knowing her so well, didn't.
"Well here's our traitoress," he boasted, glaring down at her. "You've earned yourself a traitor's death, girl.
And I may pass you around my men, in repayment for those you injured."
"She's familiar alright," Zuko observed. "One of my sister's schoolmates... one of her especial cronies in fact...
Have you offended Azula lately, Zhao? I wouldn't put it past her to have arranged this to get an assassin close to you."
Zhao shrugged. "To the contrary, your sister and I are on excellent terms, " he protested. "And the girl was stripped of all
weapons when she was captured."
"Are you sure of that?" asked Zuko and pushed Toph towards the Admiral. "Hold onto the larger prize for a moment,
Admiral." He waited until Toph was securely held before striding over to Mai and thrust one hand boldly into her clothes.
Involuntarily, Mai gasped in anger and fought down the urge to use her limited mobility to try to kick him. She didn't have the reach or
the leverage and she knew it. It would be undignified to fail. Masked from sight by Zuko's torso her eyes widened perceptibly as she felt the last of her
knives moving in their hiding place.
A moment later, Zuko removed his hand, holding one of her remaining knives. "Perhaps your men are less diligent than you expected,
Admiral. Intentionally perhaps?"
Zhao examined the weapon in Zuko's hand. "Perhaps. A fortunate escape for someone. I seem to be having a day of mixed fortune. All
things considered, the good outweighs the ill perhaps. Particularly, as you put it, the greater prize." He tightened his own grip upon Toph and she broke
the sullen silence she had maintained so far with a pained gasp. "My prize."
"Your prize?" Zuko snapped, dropping the knife. "Remember your place, Admiral. The Avatar is
mine."
"You think I'll let a dead prince take the credit for this?" Zhao sneered. "Secure him," he ordered the soldiers.
"I wasn't sent here to rescue you, your highness," he explained as the four firebenders. "Just to punish those who had killed you. I
don't see any reason to confuse the issue by having you return from the dead. Tidier to let the water tribe take the blame... and to take the credit for
capturing the Avatar myself."
Zuko spread his feet and glanced around the four soldiers spreading out around him. "You think you can simply murder the Fire Lord's
only son? Are you insane?"
"Are you protesting or quoting some line from a second-rate romance scroll your mother read to you as a boy?" Zhao asked him.
"I think your next line would be: 'You'll never get away with this, Zhao'? Try it out, see if you like saying it."
"I will kill you," Zuko grated, shifting postion to try to keep the four soldiers in view. Mai reached for the last knife. Zuko
snatching the other had moved it just enough that she could touch it with the tips of her fingers. Carefully she teased it towards her grasp.
Zhao smiled smugly. "Now now, don't be like that. You wouldn't want -" he twisted Toph's arms cruelly and she cried out
again. "- the Avatar to get hurt, now would you?"
"So this is the great Admiral Zhao," Zuko snarled derisively. "Hiding behind a little girl. Disgraceful." He turned and
so deliberately that it didn't occur to anyone to stop him, hurled a powerful blast of fire into the soldier working around his left side, hurling the
stunned man back through the wreckage of one of the tents. "You're going to need more soldiers," the prince advised grimly.
"I have more soldiers," Zhao returned. "RALLY ON ME!" he roared and commotion arose through the camp as fire
nation soldiers rushed to obey. The knife finally came close enough for Mai to grasp and she started working at her bonds, careful to keep the motion hidden
from the two opposing firebenders.
The three soldiers already on the scene converged upon Zuko, who took to the offensive, jumping forwards to kick the one between him and Zhao
firmly in the face. The metal mask probably saved the hapless soldier from losing several teeth but he went over like a skittle and didn't stand up.
Landing on his hands, Zuko whipped his legs around and smashed a wave of fire into the other two soldiers: not enough to fell them now that they were alerted
but buying him time to flip to his feet. Grabbing the collar of his parka, he used the sharp dagger to slash through the thick material, creating a rent along
the front. A savage yank tore the bulky garment open and he shrugged free of it. He'd need his mobility if he was going to survive the coming
battle.
Zhao prepared to back up with his prize when the Avatar suddenly shifted in his hands, pulling her knees up against her legs. Her body
pivoted on her shoulders and he barely recognised what she was doing in time to release her, rolling with the impact as she jack-knifed, driving her soft-soled
boots back into him. His armour protected him from serious injury, in fact the strike barely pushed him back a half-step but the much smaller Toph almost
rocketed forwards, driving herself face-first into the ice at Zuko's feet.
"Graceful," Zuko noted, backing up to give her room to stand. Behind him, Mai felt the ropes part and tested her
freedom.
"Shove it," Toph spat, climbing to her feet. "So, are you over your conflicting problems yet or does Zhao need to drive the
nail in further?"
"You're the one who claims to be the great judge of character," he said. "You tell me."
"Tell us," Mai said shortly, rising to her feet and joining them as more soldiers closed in, forming a rough circle around
the three of them. She was gratified to see Zuko flinch when she moved closer, then turned her back upon him, watching the encircling troops and wishing she
had more than just the one knife.
Toph grinned. "You're with us," she said confidently. "Not very flattering that it took a death threat to get you to pick
a side, but I'm feeling generous." She swept an arm around to indicate the soldiers. "Speaking of which:" the earthbender raised her voice.
"If you boys turn around and run away right now, we might spare your lives."
Zhao laughed. "I know you're only a child," he replied. "But surely you know how to count. Look around you - I have you
outnumbered twenty to one."
Toph waved her hand across her face. "Blind," she explained. Only Mai noticed how the hand-gesture distracted attention from the
way that Toph was moving her feet, or the way she was balanced.
The Admiral's eyes went wide. "You have a talent for lost causes, your highness," he called to Zuko. "First you
actually imagine that you're a rival for your sister and cousin in the succession, and now you throw in your lot with a blind Avatar? How
humiliating."
"You're forgetting history, Admiral," Mai told him, not looking back from where she was watching for the first moves of attack
amongst the soldiers at their backs. The three of them would have to react instantly and aggressively for any attack, for a passive defense against firebenders
was suicidal: they would be bathed in fire from all directions. "It took three entire armies to bring Avatar Kanna to bay, and three Fire Lords to bring
her down. And you're no Fire Lord."
"That may change," Zhao told him. "Your sister may be in the market for a consort after all. But enough about me." He
took a firebending stance. "Your young Avatar is a child, blind and half trained. What took the supreme effort of the Fire Kingdom was a fully realised
Avatar, quite a different matter."
"You're right," Toph admitted candidly, lowering her face. "I'm not Kanna. And this is different." She shuffled
her feet.
"Toph..." Zuko said, trying to think of some encouragement to give her. This was no time to crack up.
"Kanna was all a waterbender. They're all about retreat and counterattack," Toph continued. "I'm an Earthbender... my speciality is
neutral jin: to wait and to listen for the right moment." And then she crouched suddenly, slamming both palms into the ice either side of her.
For a moment nothing happened.
And then forty Fire Nation soldiers disappeared into the ice with startled cries, the ice sheet collapsing into deep pits beneath them,
frigid arctic waters surging up the holes to meet them. Weighted down by their armour, they sank rapidly. Toph rose smoothly into a wide-legged stance and as
her hands lifted, the ice closed over the soldiers, condemning them to their icy graves.
Fear swept elation from Zhao's face and in that instant, Zuko hurled himself forwards at him. Mai also leapt forwards, towards the
nearest soldier than Toph hadn't caught in her ambush, having already identified the weak spots where even her small knife could pose a lethal
threat.
For her part, Toph remained where she was. Her smile was chilling. "Who else wants some?" she asked quietly, barely audible as the
fight erupted around her. One of the soldiers took a step towards Mai's back and Toph's finger lunged to point at him. "You, well
volunteered." She stamped her foot and a boulder of ice literally leapt out of the ground in response. A thrust, starting at the hips and ending with her
hand sent the boulder hurtling into the soldier, who was smashed from his feet by the deadly projectile.
"Next?" she asked in a little girl voice. Most of the fire nation's soldiers were made of sterner stuff than to flee even this
threat, but two younger men proved to be exceptions, racing for the edge of the village nearest to the three ships. "Wrong answer." The perimeter
wall of ice flowed - first closing the breaches and then growing taller and thicker - as Toph concentrated upon her bending.
.oOo.
Zhao allowed Zuko to push him back. Even to himself he refused to admit that the younger firebender was proving a challenge. No, this was a
tactical move. Clearly the young Avatar was a formidable opponent and it would be best to take her measure via his more expendable soldiers (and compared to
himself he couldn't think of any of them that weren't expendable) and wear her down a little before he faced her.
And first he'd deal with the upstart princeling, he decided, punching out towards Zuko, who ducked aside from the fire that flowed out of
Zhao's hand. Not that stopped the young man from focusing his fire into a whip and sending it crackling through the air to snare for an instant one of
Zhao's ankles. The fire was too diffuse at that distance to scorch through the larger man's books, but it brought his retreat to a sudden halt as he
was yanked from his feet. Rather than resisting the fall he threw himself into it, rolling to his feet and facing his enemy.
"You're a fool Zhao," Zuko spat. "You're a perfect match for the pit of vipers that father keeps around him and
you're equally worthless. If the high command didn't waste their energy fighting each other we'd have conquered the world in my grandfather's
day!"
"It's you that's a fool. Conflict makes us strong," asserted Zhao, catching his breath. "A man who fights his way to
the head of the Fire Nation's army will find it easy to defeat mere earth or water benders!"
Zuko shook his head. "If you'd been able to resist the urge to bite at me just once, the Avatar would be a prisoner, not carving her
way through your men. Tell me that you think that that is an improvement!" He raised his fists. "Alright. Enough talk. We'll do it your
way."
Zhao easily brushed aside the burst of fire that the prince threw at him. "Your sister has mastered blue fire. And even lightning. You?
Was that all that you can do?" He hurled his own attacks forward and Zuko twisted his upper body to avoid them, letting the heat flow past him into the
air. Vaporised ice was beginning to form a mist of steam within the confines of the walls as the remaining firebenders amongst Zhao's men drew upon their
fire to combat their three opponents.
The two continued exchanging blows, fire marking their blows. Zhao relied on his greater mass and experience to break apart Zuko's
attacks while the younger man chose to rely more upon his agility, staying clear and refusing to commit close enough to allow his larger opponent to land any
telling strikes.
Of course a side effect of this difference in styles meant that Zhao's relatively static position was warming up nicely since all the
heat from attacks he broke up had to go somewhere, while Zuko who let them go past him, was still relatively cool despite his exertion. As a result there was
an actual shine of sweat on Zhao's forehead despite the cold.
"Are you a firebender or an airbender?" the Admiral taunted. "I thought you were going to fight me, not dance around like a
lemur."
Zuko said nothing, instead throwing himself into a wheel kick that hurled trailers of fire, no more than a nuisance to Zhao who batted it
away with trivial ease, extinguishing it in the slushy ice at his feet. "Take this seriously!" he roared and gathered his strength, raising walls of
fire either side of Zuko forcing the flames to sustain themselves from his chi in the absence of any fuel. Penned in, Zuko held his ground and with a deep
breath raised his own line of fire behind Zhao, creating an open-ended box around the Admiral with himself standing at the open end.
They paused for a moment, silently wrestling for control of the intersections where their two fires met. Zhao was pleased to finally find
Zuko committing his strength to the contest... but he was less happy to find that the Prince's strength sufficent to seize control of the corners and bend
them into a semi-circle around the older firebender. In response Zhao brought the ends of his own walls together, closing the circle behind Zuko. Fire
surrounded them and Zhao then filled the gap between them with more fire, controlling the walls with his hands while he kicked out, hurling a ball of fire at
his adversary.
Zuko hurled himself into a forward somersault, fire gathering at his feet and then hurtling towards Zhao as he kicked his legs out. For an
instant the Admiral thought that the younger man had mistaken his timing, unleashed his fire when he had rolled too far, the flames crashing down short of
Zhao. And then, too late, he realised what struck the ice was not only Zuko's fire, but also his own, hurled back by the greater fury of the prince's
flames.
Before his feet could hit the ice Zuko thrust his hands down and fire roared downwards, hurling him upwards and over Zhao's fire wall
like a rocket. And inside the circle of fire the ice melted, dropping Zhao waist deep in tepid water. Fearing the same water grave that had welcomed his men,
Zhao lowered his guard to wade desperately for the edge of the ring.
In that opening, Zuko came down on him like a meteor, fire roaring around him. It was the sort of overly dramatic move that only an amateur
would risk - and therefore the last thing that Zhao expected. He was smashed flat against the bottom of the water pool, air driven from his lungs and replaced
by water as he gasped reflexively. Almost as debilitating was the water that flooded through his clothes - submerged completely - soaking him to the
bone.
Zuko sprang forwards out of the water, his leap driving Zhao harder against the ice, and rolled through the guttering fires of the encircling
walls that were now collapsing without the attention of the firebenders. He drew on his inner fire to heat himself as much as he dared, almost scorching his
legs as he bent the remainder of the fires that the two of them had generated to dry his trousers and boots before the cold could cause him injury.
In the water, coughing and choking, Zhao was unable to match the feat. Wet clothes and armour dragged him down and the water was already
beginning to solidify around him. Unable to breathe properly, he could not fire bend.
Looking around, Zuko could see no obvious threats to concern himself. Two fire nation soldiers were in view but neither looked particularly
threatening, lying unmoving on the ground. Judging by the bloody snow beneath the neck of one of them, they might never move again. The massive walls of ice
around the village continued to rise, indicating that Toph was not only still active but apparently felt so unthreatened that she was playing to test the
limits of her recovering strength. As the village was now almost covered by a dome of ice easily forty metres across, it wasn't clear if she had
any.
Zhao stared up at the prince he had belittled, now the only person who could possibly save him. He would not beg. Not even if it meant his
death.
Zuko stared down at the admiral he had brought low, wondering if the man would ask for aid. And if he would offer it if it was
requested.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
precisely had bungled his plan to catch the village unaware, he was not yet certain, but there could be no other explanation for the fact that the place had
been evacuated before his force had reached it. The fact that one of his flanking forces had taken casualties subduing one lone woman, had markedly shortened
the fuse of his temper.
"Whoever that is, find out which sentry he got past and have him flogged," the Admiral ordered harshly, striding towards the
nearest breach in the village's wall.
What he saw was a young girl, details lost in oversized winter gear, arms pinned behind her back by a broad-shouldered young man in a water
tribe parka the hood thrown back to reveal a familiar but unexpected face. "Admiral Zhao," Zuko said calmly, as if there was nothing remotely out of
the ordinary about a royal prince emerging from a frozen wilderness with a captive child. "Your attack came at an opportune moment."
"How nice," Zhao replied insincerely. "I trust we didn't interrupt you doing anything important," he added with a nod
towards the girl.
Zuko's lips thinned at the implication that the older man was making, but he bit back a hot response. "I suppose that that would
depend on what priority my father places on capturing the Avatar."
Zhao's eyes widened. Killing the Avatar would win any man great renown in the court of the Fire Lord, but that would be as nothing to
someone bringing the Avatar before Ozai. After all, a dead Avatar would simply be reborn but a captive Avatar could be kept alive for decades, removing their
interference for at least a generation. And that was besides the enormous damage that the news would do to the morale of the Earth Kingdom. With the Earth King
a recluse inside his palace, the notion of an earthbender Avatar leading the war against the Fire Nation had captured the imagination of the remaining free
kingdoms. For the Avatar to be brought to her knees would have shattering effect.
"This is the Avatar?" he asked, feigning scepticism. "She doesn't look impressive."
"Well she would only be twelve," Zuko pointed out coolly. "And unless you have another idea how she could bend both fire and
ice...?"
"Far be it from me to cast aspersions upon your accomplishment," Zhao conceded. "I've set up my headquarters here until we
find the villagers." There's no way I'm letting this spoiled brat make a triumphal return to the Fire Nation on the back of capturing a
half-trained little girl. He gestured for Zuko to walk alongside him back into the ruined village, the younger firebender forcing Toph to stumble in front of
him, bent over
Zuko frowned. "Yes, I gather that you didn't manage to establish a perimeter to catch them?"
"One flank was intercepted by a defector," explained Zhao. "By they time they had her subdued, the villagers were past them.
We have a trail though, and they can't have made it far."
"Far be it from me to interfere in your hunt for water tribe peasents," Zuko assured him with a smirk, turning Zhao's words
back upon him. "I'm requisitioning one of your ships to return to the capital, so you may want to call in reinforcements. There must be almost a dozen
of them: I wouldn't want you to feel... disadvantaged. After all if one woman can cause so much difficulty for you, I hate to think what your losses would
be against ten times that many."
Zhao could almost imagine seeing Zuko through a film of red, temper provoked by the obvious taunt. "Well this was a very special young
woman," he told the young man. "A defector, as I said. It was obvious from the moment we got a good look at her that she was from the fire nation,
perhaps even highly born." His lips thinned. "No doubt her family will be disgraced when it is learned that she was fighting on behalf of the water
savages."
"Oh?" There was the faintest flicker of emotion on Zuko's face. "Do you know her identity?"
Zhao paused a moment. What led Zuko to hesitate? Did he know who the girl was? It would make sense if there were two Fire Nation nobles
somehow down here at the south pole then they might know of each other. Might even be leverage against each other. "Not yet," he said. "No one
has recognised her face. Of course, once she awakens we can simply extract the information. There are ways to loosen a woman's tongue." Definite
emotion. The little princeling had some scruples it seemed. How convenient. "We cannot allow treason of this nature, your highness."
"I am aware of that," Zuko confirmed somewhat hollowly. "Perhaps I should take a look: after all, I have met quite a number of
the nobility so I might know her face."
.oOo.
"Where's the Avatar?" Yue blurted the moment that Kuku settled to the ground next to the villagers.
Bato shook her head. "She turned back to look for sister. I couldn't exactly drag her..."
Yue's face fell. "That willful girl! Doesn't she listen to anyone?"
"Just her sister, I think," Bato admitted ruefully. "The fire bender went with her."
The waterbender hopped down from Kuku's back and began creating steps for the remaining children and their mothers to climb aboard. It
would take at least two trips to evacuate the rest of the village, but without Kuku walking with them, at least the trail they were leaving was less
remarkable. Bato had also led them off at an angle that did not lead towards the ice field he had picked out as a refuge. "I'm not sure if that's
good or bad: Mai knows him best and she has some serious doubts about his loyalties."
"The two of you talked about him?" Bato asked curiously. "I thought that women only did that about men that they were
interested in."
"Well he is a bit of a character..." Yue admitted and then glared at him. "Wait a minute! When you say interested, what
exactly are you implying?"
"Just... 'interested'," Bato said with a little smirk. He'd known Yue since she was a little girl, after all and while
she hardly told him everything, he was fairly sure he didn't recall her ever talking about a boy her own age before. And it was kind of amusing watching
her blush over the suggestion that she might be interested in the... Fire Lord's... son...
Okay, no, that wasn't amusing at all.
"It's a bit strange just talking to someone from the fire nation, much less one of their soldiers," he dodged. "I
don't suppose anyone from either of the water tribes has done that since the war began."
"That's true," agreed Yue. "Apparently the fire nation are taught that they started the war to share their prosperity and
culture with the rest of the world. Did none of them think that it might be better to do so through talking, rather than waging war?"
"I don't claim to understand them," Bato shrugged. "Perhaps that's what the Avatar is here to do."
The two of them looked at each other and tried to envisage Toph as a diplomatic bridge between the water tribe and the fire nation. The image
did not come naturally to either of them.
"Perhaps not," Yue said. "And she may never fulfill her destiny if she dies out there."
Bato shrugged his shoulders and helped the last child up the steps. "Yue, how do we know that going out there isn't
Toph's destiny? Assuming that she has one and isn't just muddling through life one day at the time the way the rest of us do?"
"Bato, she's the Avatar! Of course she has a destiny."
"So was it the Airbender's destiny to abandon us all for forty years and allow a hundred years of war?" Bato asked. "Or
was the war the punishment levied for his refusal to face his destiny? It seems a little extreme."
Yue stared at him. "It was his duty, his destiny, to prevent the war," she declared. "He turned away from that: we cannot
allow Toph to make the same mistake."
"Well at least she's heading towards a fight," quipped Bato and waved the now much diminished column - almost exclusively the
old now - to start walking again.
"But will she manage to walk away?" Yue wondered out loud, and then yipped to urge Kuku into the air once more.
.oOo.
Mai looked up from the post she was tied to when Zhao returned to her field of vision. Ironically, the pole had been part of the same tent
that she had rested in earlier. The Fire Nation soldiers were unfortunately thorough: they'd stripped her of dart launchers and almost every knife on her
person. Only the fact that stripping her completely would have killed her too fast for the Admiral's liking had allowed her to still hide a pair of small
knives and neither was somewhere she could reach while bound. As such she'd forced herself to relax, to preserve her strength for what opportunities might
arise.
The procession that followed Zhao made clear just how important those opportunities would be: he was escorted by four soldiers but it was the
other two figures that caught her attention. Zuko, forcing Toph before him, fingers cruelly tight about her wrists. Zuko just barely caught the slightest
movement betraying her surprise - Zhao, not knowing her so well, didn't.
"Well here's our traitoress," he boasted, glaring down at her. "You've earned yourself a traitor's death, girl.
And I may pass you around my men, in repayment for those you injured."
"She's familiar alright," Zuko observed. "One of my sister's schoolmates... one of her especial cronies in fact...
Have you offended Azula lately, Zhao? I wouldn't put it past her to have arranged this to get an assassin close to you."
Zhao shrugged. "To the contrary, your sister and I are on excellent terms, " he protested. "And the girl was stripped of all
weapons when she was captured."
"Are you sure of that?" asked Zuko and pushed Toph towards the Admiral. "Hold onto the larger prize for a moment,
Admiral." He waited until Toph was securely held before striding over to Mai and thrust one hand boldly into her clothes.
Involuntarily, Mai gasped in anger and fought down the urge to use her limited mobility to try to kick him. She didn't have the reach or
the leverage and she knew it. It would be undignified to fail. Masked from sight by Zuko's torso her eyes widened perceptibly as she felt the last of her
knives moving in their hiding place.
A moment later, Zuko removed his hand, holding one of her remaining knives. "Perhaps your men are less diligent than you expected,
Admiral. Intentionally perhaps?"
Zhao examined the weapon in Zuko's hand. "Perhaps. A fortunate escape for someone. I seem to be having a day of mixed fortune. All
things considered, the good outweighs the ill perhaps. Particularly, as you put it, the greater prize." He tightened his own grip upon Toph and she broke
the sullen silence she had maintained so far with a pained gasp. "My prize."
"Your prize?" Zuko snapped, dropping the knife. "Remember your place, Admiral. The Avatar is
mine."
"You think I'll let a dead prince take the credit for this?" Zhao sneered. "Secure him," he ordered the soldiers.
"I wasn't sent here to rescue you, your highness," he explained as the four firebenders. "Just to punish those who had killed you. I
don't see any reason to confuse the issue by having you return from the dead. Tidier to let the water tribe take the blame... and to take the credit for
capturing the Avatar myself."
Zuko spread his feet and glanced around the four soldiers spreading out around him. "You think you can simply murder the Fire Lord's
only son? Are you insane?"
"Are you protesting or quoting some line from a second-rate romance scroll your mother read to you as a boy?" Zhao asked him.
"I think your next line would be: 'You'll never get away with this, Zhao'? Try it out, see if you like saying it."
"I will kill you," Zuko grated, shifting postion to try to keep the four soldiers in view. Mai reached for the last knife. Zuko
snatching the other had moved it just enough that she could touch it with the tips of her fingers. Carefully she teased it towards her grasp.
Zhao smiled smugly. "Now now, don't be like that. You wouldn't want -" he twisted Toph's arms cruelly and she cried out
again. "- the Avatar to get hurt, now would you?"
"So this is the great Admiral Zhao," Zuko snarled derisively. "Hiding behind a little girl. Disgraceful." He turned and
so deliberately that it didn't occur to anyone to stop him, hurled a powerful blast of fire into the soldier working around his left side, hurling the
stunned man back through the wreckage of one of the tents. "You're going to need more soldiers," the prince advised grimly.
"I have more soldiers," Zhao returned. "RALLY ON ME!" he roared and commotion arose through the camp as fire
nation soldiers rushed to obey. The knife finally came close enough for Mai to grasp and she started working at her bonds, careful to keep the motion hidden
from the two opposing firebenders.
The three soldiers already on the scene converged upon Zuko, who took to the offensive, jumping forwards to kick the one between him and Zhao
firmly in the face. The metal mask probably saved the hapless soldier from losing several teeth but he went over like a skittle and didn't stand up.
Landing on his hands, Zuko whipped his legs around and smashed a wave of fire into the other two soldiers: not enough to fell them now that they were alerted
but buying him time to flip to his feet. Grabbing the collar of his parka, he used the sharp dagger to slash through the thick material, creating a rent along
the front. A savage yank tore the bulky garment open and he shrugged free of it. He'd need his mobility if he was going to survive the coming
battle.
Zhao prepared to back up with his prize when the Avatar suddenly shifted in his hands, pulling her knees up against her legs. Her body
pivoted on her shoulders and he barely recognised what she was doing in time to release her, rolling with the impact as she jack-knifed, driving her soft-soled
boots back into him. His armour protected him from serious injury, in fact the strike barely pushed him back a half-step but the much smaller Toph almost
rocketed forwards, driving herself face-first into the ice at Zuko's feet.
"Graceful," Zuko noted, backing up to give her room to stand. Behind him, Mai felt the ropes part and tested her
freedom.
"Shove it," Toph spat, climbing to her feet. "So, are you over your conflicting problems yet or does Zhao need to drive the
nail in further?"
"You're the one who claims to be the great judge of character," he said. "You tell me."
"Tell us," Mai said shortly, rising to her feet and joining them as more soldiers closed in, forming a rough circle around
the three of them. She was gratified to see Zuko flinch when she moved closer, then turned her back upon him, watching the encircling troops and wishing she
had more than just the one knife.
Toph grinned. "You're with us," she said confidently. "Not very flattering that it took a death threat to get you to pick
a side, but I'm feeling generous." She swept an arm around to indicate the soldiers. "Speaking of which:" the earthbender raised her voice.
"If you boys turn around and run away right now, we might spare your lives."
Zhao laughed. "I know you're only a child," he replied. "But surely you know how to count. Look around you - I have you
outnumbered twenty to one."
Toph waved her hand across her face. "Blind," she explained. Only Mai noticed how the hand-gesture distracted attention from the
way that Toph was moving her feet, or the way she was balanced.
The Admiral's eyes went wide. "You have a talent for lost causes, your highness," he called to Zuko. "First you
actually imagine that you're a rival for your sister and cousin in the succession, and now you throw in your lot with a blind Avatar? How
humiliating."
"You're forgetting history, Admiral," Mai told him, not looking back from where she was watching for the first moves of attack
amongst the soldiers at their backs. The three of them would have to react instantly and aggressively for any attack, for a passive defense against firebenders
was suicidal: they would be bathed in fire from all directions. "It took three entire armies to bring Avatar Kanna to bay, and three Fire Lords to bring
her down. And you're no Fire Lord."
"That may change," Zhao told him. "Your sister may be in the market for a consort after all. But enough about me." He
took a firebending stance. "Your young Avatar is a child, blind and half trained. What took the supreme effort of the Fire Kingdom was a fully realised
Avatar, quite a different matter."
"You're right," Toph admitted candidly, lowering her face. "I'm not Kanna. And this is different." She shuffled
her feet.
"Toph..." Zuko said, trying to think of some encouragement to give her. This was no time to crack up.
"Kanna was all a waterbender. They're all about retreat and counterattack," Toph continued. "I'm an Earthbender... my speciality is
neutral jin: to wait and to listen for the right moment." And then she crouched suddenly, slamming both palms into the ice either side of her.
For a moment nothing happened.
And then forty Fire Nation soldiers disappeared into the ice with startled cries, the ice sheet collapsing into deep pits beneath them,
frigid arctic waters surging up the holes to meet them. Weighted down by their armour, they sank rapidly. Toph rose smoothly into a wide-legged stance and as
her hands lifted, the ice closed over the soldiers, condemning them to their icy graves.
Fear swept elation from Zhao's face and in that instant, Zuko hurled himself forwards at him. Mai also leapt forwards, towards the
nearest soldier than Toph hadn't caught in her ambush, having already identified the weak spots where even her small knife could pose a lethal
threat.
For her part, Toph remained where she was. Her smile was chilling. "Who else wants some?" she asked quietly, barely audible as the
fight erupted around her. One of the soldiers took a step towards Mai's back and Toph's finger lunged to point at him. "You, well
volunteered." She stamped her foot and a boulder of ice literally leapt out of the ground in response. A thrust, starting at the hips and ending with her
hand sent the boulder hurtling into the soldier, who was smashed from his feet by the deadly projectile.
"Next?" she asked in a little girl voice. Most of the fire nation's soldiers were made of sterner stuff than to flee even this
threat, but two younger men proved to be exceptions, racing for the edge of the village nearest to the three ships. "Wrong answer." The perimeter
wall of ice flowed - first closing the breaches and then growing taller and thicker - as Toph concentrated upon her bending.
.oOo.
Zhao allowed Zuko to push him back. Even to himself he refused to admit that the younger firebender was proving a challenge. No, this was a
tactical move. Clearly the young Avatar was a formidable opponent and it would be best to take her measure via his more expendable soldiers (and compared to
himself he couldn't think of any of them that weren't expendable) and wear her down a little before he faced her.
And first he'd deal with the upstart princeling, he decided, punching out towards Zuko, who ducked aside from the fire that flowed out of
Zhao's hand. Not that stopped the young man from focusing his fire into a whip and sending it crackling through the air to snare for an instant one of
Zhao's ankles. The fire was too diffuse at that distance to scorch through the larger man's books, but it brought his retreat to a sudden halt as he
was yanked from his feet. Rather than resisting the fall he threw himself into it, rolling to his feet and facing his enemy.
"You're a fool Zhao," Zuko spat. "You're a perfect match for the pit of vipers that father keeps around him and
you're equally worthless. If the high command didn't waste their energy fighting each other we'd have conquered the world in my grandfather's
day!"
"It's you that's a fool. Conflict makes us strong," asserted Zhao, catching his breath. "A man who fights his way to
the head of the Fire Nation's army will find it easy to defeat mere earth or water benders!"
Zuko shook his head. "If you'd been able to resist the urge to bite at me just once, the Avatar would be a prisoner, not carving her
way through your men. Tell me that you think that that is an improvement!" He raised his fists. "Alright. Enough talk. We'll do it your
way."
Zhao easily brushed aside the burst of fire that the prince threw at him. "Your sister has mastered blue fire. And even lightning. You?
Was that all that you can do?" He hurled his own attacks forward and Zuko twisted his upper body to avoid them, letting the heat flow past him into the
air. Vaporised ice was beginning to form a mist of steam within the confines of the walls as the remaining firebenders amongst Zhao's men drew upon their
fire to combat their three opponents.
The two continued exchanging blows, fire marking their blows. Zhao relied on his greater mass and experience to break apart Zuko's
attacks while the younger man chose to rely more upon his agility, staying clear and refusing to commit close enough to allow his larger opponent to land any
telling strikes.
Of course a side effect of this difference in styles meant that Zhao's relatively static position was warming up nicely since all the
heat from attacks he broke up had to go somewhere, while Zuko who let them go past him, was still relatively cool despite his exertion. As a result there was
an actual shine of sweat on Zhao's forehead despite the cold.
"Are you a firebender or an airbender?" the Admiral taunted. "I thought you were going to fight me, not dance around like a
lemur."
Zuko said nothing, instead throwing himself into a wheel kick that hurled trailers of fire, no more than a nuisance to Zhao who batted it
away with trivial ease, extinguishing it in the slushy ice at his feet. "Take this seriously!" he roared and gathered his strength, raising walls of
fire either side of Zuko forcing the flames to sustain themselves from his chi in the absence of any fuel. Penned in, Zuko held his ground and with a deep
breath raised his own line of fire behind Zhao, creating an open-ended box around the Admiral with himself standing at the open end.
They paused for a moment, silently wrestling for control of the intersections where their two fires met. Zhao was pleased to finally find
Zuko committing his strength to the contest... but he was less happy to find that the Prince's strength sufficent to seize control of the corners and bend
them into a semi-circle around the older firebender. In response Zhao brought the ends of his own walls together, closing the circle behind Zuko. Fire
surrounded them and Zhao then filled the gap between them with more fire, controlling the walls with his hands while he kicked out, hurling a ball of fire at
his adversary.
Zuko hurled himself into a forward somersault, fire gathering at his feet and then hurtling towards Zhao as he kicked his legs out. For an
instant the Admiral thought that the younger man had mistaken his timing, unleashed his fire when he had rolled too far, the flames crashing down short of
Zhao. And then, too late, he realised what struck the ice was not only Zuko's fire, but also his own, hurled back by the greater fury of the prince's
flames.
Before his feet could hit the ice Zuko thrust his hands down and fire roared downwards, hurling him upwards and over Zhao's fire wall
like a rocket. And inside the circle of fire the ice melted, dropping Zhao waist deep in tepid water. Fearing the same water grave that had welcomed his men,
Zhao lowered his guard to wade desperately for the edge of the ring.
In that opening, Zuko came down on him like a meteor, fire roaring around him. It was the sort of overly dramatic move that only an amateur
would risk - and therefore the last thing that Zhao expected. He was smashed flat against the bottom of the water pool, air driven from his lungs and replaced
by water as he gasped reflexively. Almost as debilitating was the water that flooded through his clothes - submerged completely - soaking him to the
bone.
Zuko sprang forwards out of the water, his leap driving Zhao harder against the ice, and rolled through the guttering fires of the encircling
walls that were now collapsing without the attention of the firebenders. He drew on his inner fire to heat himself as much as he dared, almost scorching his
legs as he bent the remainder of the fires that the two of them had generated to dry his trousers and boots before the cold could cause him injury.
In the water, coughing and choking, Zhao was unable to match the feat. Wet clothes and armour dragged him down and the water was already
beginning to solidify around him. Unable to breathe properly, he could not fire bend.
Looking around, Zuko could see no obvious threats to concern himself. Two fire nation soldiers were in view but neither looked particularly
threatening, lying unmoving on the ground. Judging by the bloody snow beneath the neck of one of them, they might never move again. The massive walls of ice
around the village continued to rise, indicating that Toph was not only still active but apparently felt so unthreatened that she was playing to test the
limits of her recovering strength. As the village was now almost covered by a dome of ice easily forty metres across, it wasn't clear if she had
any.
Zhao stared up at the prince he had belittled, now the only person who could possibly save him. He would not beg. Not even if it meant his
death.
Zuko stared down at the admiral he had brought low, wondering if the man would ask for aid. And if he would offer it if it was
requested.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.