43 Undercurrents

The sun was setting over the horizon and small snowflakes fell over the land as a gentle breeze blew from the east.

A big flying bison could be seen flying above the blue ocean below, which had a few icebergs every ten miles or so. Yet as the beast flew north, fewer and fewer Icebergs could be spotted.

"That was… Horrible!" shouted Sokka with an exhausted expression while he guided Appa as they flew on the large bison's back.

"I can't believe it either…" said Katara, sitting on the saddle that rested over the back of the creature, tending to a bald boy's wounds. "To think that they managed to push the Avatar to such a sorry state…"

"Ouch! Katara!" shouted the bald boy covered in wounds, half of his body was purple and swollen.

"Oh! Sorry…" Katara showed her tongue like a brat, and recoiled meekly "I am not that good at nursing wounds, luckily you were just beaten and nothing too serious."

Sokka stared at her with a deadpan face. "Yeah… Nothing serious… He was just treated like a punching bag! I mean seriously… What kind of food do these Fire Nation people eat to make them so strong?! Can't they share a bit with us?!" he exclaimed.

"Ouch!" a shout of pain interrupted the talk again.

"I am done Aang," said Katara "You just need to rest now…" She concluded and covered him with a thick blanket.

"Well, on the bright side, we managed to escape!" said Aang with a bright smile that didn't fit very well with his half-swollen face. "But… man… that teenager really managed to beat me black and blue…" Shivers ran down Aang's spine when he remembered the fight he had to endure to miraculously escape the ship.

Sokka leaned back on Appa's neck and poked his nose with his pinky finger. "Well… at least you managed to glow blue and escape…" after flicking the nasty goober that he managed to excavate from his nose he continued "Imagine how hard it would be for us, people who can't glow…"

Drifting below, on the calm southern sea waters, a single metal ship could be seen following the trail of the flying creature.

BANG.

A loud sound echoed from one of the chambers of the ship.

"I can't believe he managed to escape!" shouted Zuko in anger, oh and how angry he was! Not only was he angry but also incredibly dumbfounded, utterly dumbfounded. 'How did that happen?!'

"Relax, Prince Zuko," said a calm old voice from the side of the room.

"Uncle! How can you be so calm right after having the Avatar escape our grasp like that?!" shouted Zuko.

The old man simply shrugged and finished pouring tea into his cup. "Well…" he took his time drinking the first sip before finishing with a smile and a nod, a delay which pissed off Zuko even further. 'Can't you finish your damn words first?!'

"Ahh... Good tea!" said Iroh, but upon noticing his nephew's eyebrow twitching aggressively he simply coughed "Ahem… as I was saying… There's no need to be like that, anger will not make the ship sail faster, and through this experience not only did you manage to learn that the Avatar is indeed back, but we also got his trail…"

BANG

Another sound echoed as Zuko, once again, punched the metal wall of the ship in anger.

"On top of that.." said Iroh cheerfully, "How many people can claim to have beaten the Avatar that bad, hm? You sure achieved something that only a few across history managed to do, Prince Zuko."

"And who cares?!" Zuko shouted back. "He is but a child, his airbending skills are quite impressive, but on the other hand… he is AWFUL at fighting, and yet he managed to escape! How can I face Teacher after such shame?!" he asked as he stared at the black kimono with red clouds that was placed on the wall as an adornment, right below his beloved twin scimitars.

The old man caressed his beard with a thoughtful expression. "I believe he would be quite impressed that you managed to beat the Avatar to such a state by yourself…" Those words brought a tinge of happiness to Zuko's angry visage, but the next words made him shiver so hard that he had to sit down and take a breather "…either that or he would step up your training…"

Iroh had to use all of his willpower to not beam or overreact toward his nephew. 'Zuko didn't talk about honor, or his father's acceptance, his first worry was Mr. Uchiha's reaction!' he took a sip of his tea to cover his growing smile. 'Oh, my dear nephew… I am so happy!'

The night passed quickly, and as the first rays of light spread through the horizon, the three kids on top of the flying bison woke up. Sokka slowly walked towards the edge of the saddle, turning to his sister and speaking with a sleepy voice, "Katara, turn to the other side."

Without waiting for any reply, he untied his pants and relaxed "Ahhh…"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" shouted Katara with anger and embarrassment, which startled Aang and made him look toward Sokka as well.

"Morning stuff… you know…" Sokka replied nonchalantly as he was taking his time.

""THAT'S SO GROSS!"" Shouted both Aang and Katara, which in turn startled Appa, who started to move a bit erratically, almost throwing Sokka off his back.

The event quickly passed, although Katara was no less angry, and Aang was no less grossed out by it.

"Aw come on! Everyone pees in the morning, it's natural and healthy, perhaps we should get a bucket for you…" said Sokka while sitting on the saddle and munching some dry meat, the provisions they prepared for the trip.

Katara, who was on Appa's neck guiding him since the bison refused to let Sokka sit there after that little event, turned towards her brother. "Gross…sometimes I wonder if we are really siblings, you know… "

Sokka, deciding that his breakfast was more interesting than that talk, simply waved his hand dismissively and kept munching his food.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, the girl turned to the bald boy. "By the way, Aang, how did you do that yesterday? We were in such a hurry and worried, that we couldn't really sit and talk about it… That waterbending that you did to escape…"

Quietly, slightly downcast while sitting on the opposite edge of the saddle, Aang replied "I don't know. I just sort of… Did it."

"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?"

"Because…" Aang avoided his gaze, his expression saddened "I never wanted to be.."

After quite a long pep talk, the trio decided that Aang should learn the element of Water first, then Earth, and finally Fire. Ironically this was the same thing that the Monks told Aang and it still felt weird for him to suddenly be seen as the Avatar instead of just an ordinary airbender.

The final destination was settled, the North Pole. Katara was way more excited than Aang about such an adventure, though, the poor girl didn't even know how much crap she would have to endure… sigh… ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

"And Sokka. I'm sure you will get to knock together some Firebender heads on the way!" cheered Katara.

Gulping his water Sokka just stared at his sister with a deadpan expression. "If they fight like that guy… I think I should learn how to flee first and strike second…"

Aang's smile cracked as he remembered the beating he received, but he resolved himself to never be beaten like that ever again! Ohh, you poor bastard, you don't even know…

After another day of flying, they finally could see land on the horizon as a huge mountain range came into sight, although very blurry due to the distance.

The Avatar was more cheerful than before, he believed that the Air Nomads were still there but just hiding, Katara was staring at him worriedly, while Sokka instantly thought that the booger he removed from his nose was incredibly interesting to stare at.

Down below, in the southwestern location of the Earth Kingdom, Zuko's ship finally docked in a Fire Nation naval base known as Ketu Harbor, which was the closest outpost to the Southern Water Tribe that the Fire Nation had, and since the ship needed to be repaired and resupplied, Zuko had no choice other than this place.

'Damn Avatar not only managed to escape but also damaged my ship quite a bit…' sigh "Ah, Teacher would beat me up so hard if he knew…" Zuko hung his head low as he walked down the hatch towards the harbor, with Iroh on his tail.

They already had a talk on the ship, and no word about the Avatar's return should be said, if that news was to spread, the Prince's chances would diminish exponentially, so they came up with the idea of crashing into an Earth Kingdom ship beforehand.

Iroh was just humming and eating some snacks while following his nephew, an old man needs to enjoy his retirement after all.

"Prince Zuko?" a solemn deep voice came from their right, and when the duo turned their heads, they spotted a tall man with sideburns dressed in a Fire Nation uniform.

The man walked with his head held high, almost like he was looking down on his new guests, while taking long strides with his hands behind his back.

Zuko used all his willpower to hold back his emotions, partially he had contempt and dislike for this man, but on the other hand… after spending half a year with his teacher and hearing what this man was called by him… he had to hold back to not chuckle as well.

"Captain Zhao." Deciding on a neutral response, Zuko tried to keep his emotions in check.

The man smirked with a scowl on his face "It's Commander now." He turned to Iroh and bowed slightly. "General Iroh. The great hero of our nation."

Iroh bowed back. "Retired General."

"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcome guests anytime. What brings you to my harbor?"

"Our ship is being repaired," said Iroh while pointing towards the ship "and resupplied as well."

"That's quite a bit of damage, what happened? Did you find an enemy of the Fire Nation that I should be aware of?" Zhao asked with contempt.

"Just an Earth Kingdom ship crashed into us," said Zuko with his eye slightly twitching, yes, he improved but he was still kind of a brat, there was no way that just six months of Madara would fix all of his shortcomings.

"Really?" Zhao narrowed his eyes, staring at the Prince with a smug smirk, he too felt what happened yesterday, this was too much of a coincidence. "You must regale me with all the thrilling details." His words were more like a command than a request at this point, and he could see how nervous Zuko was just by staring at his eyes, which made his smirk grow even crueler.

"Join me for a drink?"

Zuko was losing it, that smirk on Zhao's face gave him flashbacks that he really wanted to avoid, but suddenly he remembered something, calmed down, and smirked back, which was instantly noticed by Zhao.

"It's not really that thrilling, out of nowhere a ship appeared and crashed into us… You know… " his eyes narrowed and his smirk grew wider. "Like a Ghost…"