(1) Augmentum | Zuko

Chapter Twenty-Five

It is a beautiful day with lazy, puffy white clouds and sunshine as Appa flies through the sky, softly, gently. Not in a rush to go anywhere or to do anything. Rana stares up at the clouds as they pass over above them. There is a softer energy to this day. Relaxed and calm. Pichu bounces from person to person seeking attention from those that will give it to him. Aang is in Appa's driving seat, leaning back, enjoying himself with a reed in his mouth. Katara stretches out on her stomach looking over Appa's side, while Sokka whittles away at something.

"Those clouds look so soft, don't they?" Katara asks as she stares over the edge of Appa. "Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft cottony heap"

"Maybe you should give it a try" Sokka comments offhandedly with a smirk.

"You're hilarious" Katara comments and gives him a glare over her shoulder,

"I'll try it!" Aang counters and then just jumps right off Appa's side, laughing and hurtling down through the clouds with his staff. Rana, Sokka and Katara look over the side of Appa as he plunges through a cloud.

"How am I supposed to keep him safe if he's going to keep doing dumb stuff like this?" Rana asks as she cocks her head.

"If you're that worried" Sokka starts. "Go after him" She pulls a face and then shrugs.

"Nah" She leans back and lets out a breath. Sokka snorts.

"Not that worried then" He teases, she smirks and nudges him with her foot. They've come a long way since that initial meeting. With them travelling together, and in such tight quarters, plus she basically sacrificed herself for them to escape. He also kind of changed the way his mind thinks after spending time with Suki and the Kyoshi warriors. A moment later Aang lands next to them with his glider. He is soaking wet.

"Turns out clouds are made of water!" He tells them and then air-bends himself dry. Sokka and Katara eye him strangely as Rana smirks. Katara shakes her head and sinks back against Appa again, they all return to their previous positions. "Rah?" Aang asks, she hums. "Where's your book?" She looks at him and then to where he's holding her bag.

"Urm. Kind of lost it" She admits. "Well, no, not lost, I know exactly where it is...."

"Where is it?" Sokka asks her.

"On a Fire Nation ship" She answers, they give her a look to keep going, sensing more. "Oh, urm....Prince Zuko's ship. I passed out after I went all...." She motions with her hands. "You know....nine-tails....so he took me" She offers and shrugs.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Aang asks her.

"I didn't want you to worry about it" She counters and goes back to looking over the side of Appa.

"Did they hurt you?" Katara asks quietly.

"No" Rana assures her. "I just sat in a cell until I could reach Noi, I just forgot to grab the book on the way out" Suddenly, Katara turns and looks ahead.

"Hey, what is that?" She asks, they all turn to follow her direction to find that up ahead, the floor of the valley below around the river is black instead of vegetation green.

"It's like a scar" Sokka offers quietly, a sense of loss settling over the four of them. It's very clear something bad happened here.

...............

Rana touches Appa's leg as he lets out a small noise. They've landed in the damaged area to take a closer look. It's black. Everything has been burnt to a crisp. Burnt tree stumps dot the barren landscape.

"Listen, it's so quiet. There's no life anywhere" Sokka tells them, Katara watches Aang sadly as he moves through the burnt ground.

"Aang, are you okay?" She asks. Sokka crouches and examines the burnt ground.

"Fire Nation! Those evil savages make me sick!" Sokka then stops and looks at Rana who raises an eyebrow at him.

"No, no, keep going, I'm sure you're right" She assures him. Sokka then nods.

"Yeah, okay.....They have no respect for..." Katara shoots him a look to stop. He gives her an angry and annoyed look back. "What? I'm not allowed to be angry?" Rana moves forward to where Aang is clearly very upset, he sinks to his knees in the dust and sighs, he runs his hands over and through the burnt earth.

"Why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen?"

"Aang, you didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you" Katara tries to reassure him.

"Yes, it does" Aang counters. "It's the Avatar's job to protect nature. But, I don't know how to do my job" He whispers sadly.

"That's why we're going to the North Pole to find you a teacher" Katara assures him.

"Yeah, a water-bending teacher, but there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me" Aang argues.

"The Avatar before you?" Sokka asks as Rana looks around at the landscape. "He died over a hundred years ago, how are you supposed to talk to him?"

"I don't know" Momo jumps into his lap and begins to chitter. Aang pets his back comfortingly.

.........

Zuko is weaving his way through a wooded area looking for his uncle whose wandered off just as they were preparing to leave. Because of course, he has. But since when does his uncle make anything easier for him? He adjusts the strap of his satchel, Rana's tome sticks out the top of it. He's not risking setting it down anywhere in case he loses it, in case she pops out of nowhere and takes it back. If she wants it. She's going to have to face him.

"Uncle!" He shouts and then steps through the trees. "It's time to leave! Where are you? Uncle Iroh!" He looks up seeing a Fire Nation uniform hanging over the branch of a tree. Iroh is lounging in a hot bath, the tub made out of rock and it is fed by a stream coming out of the rocks behind it.

"Over here" He shouts back happily.

"Uncle?" Zuko asks and moves to where he can see Iroh. "We need to move on, we're closing in on the Avatar's trail and I don't want to lose him!" Zuko scolds him.

"Is it the Avatar that you are so consumed with?" Iroh asks with a sly smirk. "Or is there another....?" Zuko clenches his fingers into his palm and lets out an annoyed breath.

"That's not..." He stops and then shakes his head. "Enough" Zuko scolds. It's not his fault that Rana's stuck in his head. That she's all he can think about. He literally can't stop thinking about her. Even when he is reading reports, she is right there. Even when he meditates. She is still somehow there. He can't sleep without thinking about her. Without dreaming of memories and moments from his childhood. Haunting him. Taunting him. Stupid former friendship that won't leave his mind.

"You look tired, Prince Zuko" Iroh offers. "Why don't you join me in these hot springs and soak away your troubles?"

"My troubles cannot be soaked away. It's time to go!"

"You should take your teacher's advice and relax a little. The temperature's just right. I heated it myself" Iroh shifts position slightly, puts his hands together and breathes steam from his nostrils. Zuko swats the steam away.

"Enough! We need to leave now! Get out of the water!" Iroh begins to rise.

"Very well" Iroh counters. Zuko is quick to hold up his hand to block his view of Iroh who is completely naked.

"On second thought, why don't you take another few minutes, but be back at the ship in half an hour or I'm leaving without you" Zuko starts to walk away, heading back through the trees. Iroh leans back into the hot spring happily with a relaxed sigh.