The river town had, for about three hours, been an exhausting parade of Raven refusing to discover what money means to normal people.
She'd stalked through markets and merchant lanes as "Lady Jade Beifong" with a stiff neck and a stiff smile, peeling off small pieces of her dad's twice-stolen loot like she was reluctantly picking more bits off a fancy cake and hoping it wouldn't go noticed, or at least couldn't be traced back her way. Before she could even haggle, poorer merchants blanched and surrendered to exquisite jewelry they'd have to sell their shop just to afford at a fair price, or she would withdraw with her nose upturned at the insultingly low offers they would make.
Eventually, they'd found a curio dealer with a ship moored at the docks. He'd been the first person all day who didn't look like he was about to faint at the sight of gemstones. He'd also been the only person willing to pay coin for something that would be impossible to sell locally, but the hundreds of gold coins the fancy matching jewelry sets would put him back, he had to admit, he simply did not have cash on hand for.
It was a clever substitute for good fortune when Katara awkwardly tip-toed around begging Raven to buy her a very highly priced ancient waterbending scroll. "Lady Beifong" was so fabulously wealthy, of course, that casually offering to take the scroll instead two-hundred of the gold coins she wanted for the set she was offering was a no-brainer for everyone involved, though Katara still couldn't quite believe it when she walked out of there, scroll in hand and paid for.
But as the sun slid lower and the town started to turn gold and then grey, Raven couldn't even enjoy Katara's soggy glee as she practiced some whip-like technique that wasn't altogether alien to her own.
Every time someone called her "Lady Jade," her stomach did a tight little flip. She'd managed to stop showing signs, but it was still there.
"Stupid ivory boar pin—PIECE of garbage—shoulda just, argh, why..."
It might as well have been a name tag, and unsurprisingly nobody in the ass-end-of-nowhere knew the real lady's face. She wanted out of those robes, out of that style, and to never hear the name Beifong again as long as she lived, so once trades were complete, she didn't waste a breath making for her cabin to escape it all. If the real Jade had to rot in a dungeon somewhere, the least she could do was rot in her room for bit too.
With Aang and Katara whipping each other silly, nobody was really paying any attention to Raven, and as soon as sh realized it, it felt like a stroke of luck. She'd heard soldiers talking. She knew Zuko wasn't far—even he wasn't bold enough to dock right at an enemy port, but he'd surely try something, and so suddenly she could to. Friendship, fun, and goblin closet hijinks could only distract her for so long. There was vengeance to be wrought, just over hill and ridge, scowling and marching around like it owned the place, surely.
"Spirits," she muttered, voice low and venomous, "so dumb..." and as she pulled on her most neutral and fit for combat greys and blacks, she stopped to flail her hands in mockery. "He has Arzayanagi, Raven!" And she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I bet Arzaya's real keen on helping HIM."
She stretched her back, rolled a shoulder in the mirror, made sure nothing was stiff or snagging, but most of all she smirked at the thought that Arzaya had healed her, for whatever reason. She felt as fit as ever, and that piece-of-charcoal-walking Zuko was still black-and-blue from their previous fights. There couldn't be a better time to strike.
* * *
Zuko knew he couldn't bring his ship in. Not without getting into a messy bloodbath all over the harbor. So he waited. He watched the tiny figure in the sky do two more graceful but incomprehensibly stupid loops, like he wasn't even trying to hide or escape.
After whatever in the world happened at the Fire Temple, he wanted to just put it all aside, focus on his mission and dance around thoughts of Zhao and his men exploding into bits, but it was impossible with nothing to do. It was maddening. The Avatar was RIGHT THERE. But he forced himself to wait for night. Surely he could take the boy without much fuss in his sleep.
When the sky was as dim and ruddy orange-red as Zuko's cabin with the lanterns low, he took it as the sign to prepare. Just a short time after everyone had gone to sleep, to maximize fatigue and confusion in the enemy. There couldn't be a better time to strike.
He was halfway into his darkest wrappings when Iroh's voice came from his door, soft and dread-heavy, like he was trying to talk Zuko out of stepping into a nightmare. "Zuko," Iroh warned, hands folded behind his back, "if you are captured, if you are separated… we do not have enough men to take this town. We would not be able to retrieve you."
Zuko yanked a strap tight with his teeth and tied it off hard enough to hurt his own fingers.
"I know," he snapped, muffled for a second by cloth. He shoved it down and glared at his uncle. "I'm not an idiot."
Iroh lifted his brows in a way that suggested he had a list of evidence, alphabetized.
Zuko pressed on anyway, voice hard. "Not taking the town. Just the Avatar. Quietly." And he held up specialized needle darts that definitely contained nefarious substances. "Gift from Mai. If I cover his mouth and get him while he's asleep, nobody will know he's gone till we're on our way back to father."
He slid one sword into place, then the other, checking the weight like it was the only honest thing in the room. Iroh watched him with a sort of face reserved for realizing your nephew is kind of scary.
Zuko took it as Iroh being worried about him, pulling a glove tight and wrapping it in place, he sighed, "if it gets hot, you'll know. The men will be on stand-by to start fires, cause chaos, and make themselves look like the real threat while I make off with the Avatar."
Iroh paused. Then, as if it annoyed him a little, he nodded and admitted. "That is… a solid plan. Very risky going on your own, though."
"You think you can keep up?" Zuko smirked.
"Ah..." Iroh kindly smiled. "Perhaps not."
Zuko's mouth twitched like he was forcing himself not to say something mean, carefully settling on, "And I trust my men to watch my back, not stand by my side. None of them are cut out for, ah... quenchwork."
Iroh leaned in with a narrow gaze as Zuko slipped a tightly packed but steely strong silken rope into his belt, briefly dismayed as he quietly almost accused, "where did you even learn a word like that?"
"Mai."
"Riiiight..." Iroh sighed, that did track.
"Wish she was here, she could keep up—Raven might actually listen to her, too..."
"Speaking of..." Iroh's gaze lingered, giving his nephew the chance to protest. "I am so glad your injuries seem to have improved?" he added, a little too lightly. "Almost miraculous."
Zuko went still. The corner of his mouth tightened, and he took a deep breath before saying. "Why I'm not worried about her meddling again. She could barely stand last I saw her. A stiff shout should topple her at this point."
He was overly hurried right after, clumsily stuffing bandages or maybe a gag—in a pinch—in a pocket.
Iroh was relieved, at least, that Raven's suffering brought his nephew no joy at all. He couldn't just let it all go, though. "You were still recovering when you struck that balcony. Very hard."
"Felt like a sizzlecake still in the griddle," Zuko muttered, last word hard, buttered in the irrational shame of being vulnerable to severe bludgeonings. "That got stepped on by a komodo rhino."
Iroh sighed. "Yes. That. Your armor was, ah, not easy to remove. I am shocked you did not die, honestly... spirits be praised for watching out for you?"
Zuko hesitated, grinding his teeth as he pulled tight a hood, and finally took up his blue mask. Then, like it hurt to admit anything that made Crescent Island feel real again, he said, "I… don't think spirits protected me."
Iroh blinked.
Zuko scowled harder, as if that would make the admission less humiliating. "The gold. That stuff on the floor. It smelled like… like really good gravy." And harshly added, "Zhao was annoying! I missed lunch!"
Iroh made a sound that was half cough, half choke, half spiritual regret.
"Zuko," he hissed, palm to his forehead, "I believe I know what that was, to EAT it was beyond reckless."
"Reckless?" Zuko snapped. "I felt better. Almost immediately. I think it still kept healing me, even after I uh... I feel like I might have died? Not long... something put me back together."
Iroh stared at him as if trying to decide whether to scold him, pray for him, or physically shake sense back into his skull.
Zuko's voice dropped, tense. But it all just spilled out, like it was his last chance and he had to, "it also explains why that spearman stabbing her—was that really Arzaya? Like, Raven's... goddess? How is she real, aren't they all just crazy?—whatever, her wound closed instantly." And he flickered up at Iroh like he just caught up with what he'd said. "Wait, you think you know what it is?"
Iroh's eyes went distant for a moment, like he was seeing the temple again. The mask. The darkness. The dead men who came up the stairs. He didn't think Zuko really looked at them, saw how wrong they were, but he didn't want to put anything else on the boy, so he let that part go, at least.
"Dragon's blood," Iroh said quietly, "and not just any dragon."
"Dragon's blood heals you... is gravy made of dragon's blood? Wait, no, gravy doesn't heal you, that's stupid. Uncle—"
"Prince Zuko."
Zuko shut up. For once.
"If I remember the legends, what you tasted was the blood of Fire Lord Nagi, last dragon king of our nation in ancient times—of a line of great and terrible beasts who were more spirit than man or animal!" Iroh emphatically regaled, but took in a seething breath after. "Known for his blood that heals wounds, but..."
Zuko leaned in, eyebrows raised. "What? Come on. What's the catch? Like I get I shouldn't be able to even stand up after... that." And he darted his gaze over to his rather compacted armor still in pieces on the floor.
"But the slightest overdose is poison, and INSTANTLY lethal!" Iroh shook his head, jaw hanging in disbelief. "I believe, my nephew, that Arzaya did you a favor when she smashed you to bits on the balcony. If she hadn't... killed you." It hurt him immensely to even say, such that he had to stop.
Voice caught in Zuko's throat, but he gravely nodded, before whispering, "the blood would have." And he stood up, taking a deep breath. "Sheesh. Well, that's over with. Let's stop talking about it. Avatar. Go capture Avatar."
No wise words of caution would stop Zuko from reaching the deck outside, where the night wind bit at soldiers at attention... who saw the dark figure with swords and a blue mask and instantly leveled spears with a sharp, frightened bark. "A spy!"
Zuko's voice cut through them like fire through paper. "It's ME, you idiots!"
The spears wobbled, then lowered with awkward hesitation.
Zuko shoved past them, furious. "Do you think my uncle takes evening strolls with spies?" Turning back like he meant to really lay into them, but he say the least bit of disappointment on his uncles face, and he cooled ever so slightly, choosing to merely dismissively throw up his hands before letting it go.
"Good. Everyone's here." Zuko pointed at the ramp, jaw tight, but had to shoot a glare at a spearman loudly yawning. He sharped up when he met the prince's eyes, snapped shut with a click. Zuko began again. "Good. Everyone ashore. Stay on HIGH ALERT." He demanded, leaning in very deliberately towards the yawning one.
They hesitated only a fraction.
Iroh stepped forward. "You will obey your prince," he said, calm as a stone.
Zuko's glare did the rest.
One firebender cleared his throat cautiously, and like he didn't think anyone would want to, he asked, "sir… are we engaging with the Earth Kingdom forces? Are we meant to retrieve you if—"
"Don't get cut off," Zuko snapped. "Don't get trapped in town. If they rally and face you in force, retreat immediately. The only body I want out of this is the Avatar's, and alive, so just make noise and fire to distract them if I signal. I can handle myself."
That confidence, sharp and ugly, shut the man up. But Zuko scanned them, like he was daring anyone to question him again.
The same firebender swallowed, finger lifted a bit timidly, but honestly he was the only one willing to ask, "and… the lady of House Arza, sir? If she's there…"
Zuko let out a vicious, humorless laugh. "Just step around the dumbass, she could barely stand before," he said, and his voice had teeth. "She won't be a problem."
He stepped onto land like a shadow given weight. Silent and precise, followed by the raucous clatter of armored spearmen and firebenders, making due with mere candlelight in the at least not-quite-moonless night. By the time the men were assembled on the beach, Zuko was already invisible amongst the shadows, speedily hurrying through the brush and trees towards a ridge that largely led right to the town, the just on its far side to stay out of sight—just in case. He reminded himself again and again that he had to maintain absolute discipline, and not firebend unless it was the last possible option, for as soon as the town's night watch saw flames springing where they did not belong, they'd be on high alert and the mission would be a bust.
"ZUKO!" raged his betrothed. "HYAAH!"
Zuko's head snapped, eyes wide behind the mask, and a huge blast of flame erupted around him, lighting brush instantly. But he rolled hard, dirt and ash scraping his arms, but swords in hand as he hopped up with a bounce, ready to bend aside the powerful but predictable second blast, which glanced off to bathe the brush around them in lasting orange.
The ridge was bright as a bonfire. Smoke curled. Leaves hissed.
Stealth? Dead.
Plan? Dead.
Patience? VERY dead.
Raven? Doomed.
Zuko sprang up, furious, and screamed into the crackling brush where her gone mad face loomed, floating in and out of sight in the flickering. "RRR-AHHH!! How did you even KNOW it was ME?!"
Raven's silhouette shifted through firelight, already in a stance, circling and already grinning like she'd been eagerly waiting all day to ruin his. "I've been watching you since before you came ashore," she called back, smug and lethal.
Zuko's rage spiked so hard he almost choked on it. "You RUINED everything!" he shouted. "Now the whole town is going to be on alert!"
"That won't MATTER when you're DEAD!" Raven snapped back, and then she moved.
She jumped, kicked one leg up, then the other in rapid succession, sending sweeping waves of flame skimming along the ground. The fire raced toward Zuko, then burst up in hungry columns meant to catch him from below.
Zuko recognized the move. He didn't retreat.
He lunged forward instead, sprinting straight into the gap before the flames could rise beneath him. The heat chased his heels as a great inferno erupted where he stood, blasting the whole uneven and precarious arena at ridge's edge with an almost evening light.
Raven was not shocked. She met him close-range with steady flood. Her palm open, she leaned far into it. Her grey attire, not far off in style from his own, turned a steady dull yellow-orange as her shadow stretched thrice her height into flame-licked leaves.
Zuko answered with his own sharp thrust, trying to break her stream as he'd done before. But she was a quick study. As his flat hand jutted to disperse her flamethrower blast, she was already spinning away, straining her shorter legs to send her lunging as far around and behind him as she dared with loose gravel around. Whip in hand before her stream's last flicker faded, she desperately wrenched her body, throwing every mote of force into the lash. It was all in a split second, but adrenaline pumped, and her heart lurched. Please hit! She screamed to herself as she felt her balance go, and knew she had to roll or she'd faceplant.
The thin blade of searing light found his sword, glanced off, and caught the side of his mask, shattering it to smoke-trailing bits as he cried out. She grinned instantly with glee at his pain, preparing to lunge again, crouched low, but the bastard barely flinched as smoke caught on and rushed in streams around his nose and brow. He was the one lunging at her, head shaking off his smoldering and flame cut hood, she couldn't believe his speed with how exhausted he ought to be.
All she could do was meet him and pray, even Arzaya could help, she didn't mind. Their flames collided and bloated into a smoky, sooty burst that slapped both of them back and filled the air with stinging ash. But...
Raven coughed, blinking fast, eyes watering, and her vision spun
Zuko cricked his neck, snorted smoky flames and simply ate the pain for dinner as his swords found their sheathe and he barged up to her like she was a misbehaving child and she was in deep shit this time.
Somewhere down the ridge, Zuko's soldiers raced along the edge of the town, igniting anything in sight, and chasing anyone out late to make them scream for the guards, exactly as planned, not that anything was left of Zuko's to save. Either way, he sneered as he glared unblinking at the impossible girl, it would buy him plenty of time to put Raven down for good.
Raven had lost sight in the stinging smoke, she panicked, backing up and stumbling on that damned gravel. She threw wild flames, defensive bursts that ignited more brush and did nothing to stop him closing the last few feet.
She got lucky, a bit. She struck his face with a sharp crack, but the flames were lost somewhere over his shoulder. She turned his cheek aside, but she saw his eyes locked on her, utterly focused as bits of porcelain dust felt from his now full head of short black hair. Her heart skipped.
Raven gagged. Her throat ached. Zuko had slammed her back against a tree, bark sputtering a hundred candle flames, his forearm to her neck, pinning her hard enough that she couldn't get the breath to firebend properly. It felt like an iron collar, sizes too small.
Raven snarled and thrashed anyway, furious even while trapped. Her boots scuffed the gravel, she tried to claw at him, was batted away, and found her arm locked back painfully, making her strain and rasp out a cry as she writhed against him.
"Fine, then," he growled, looming over her as she gnashed, but she halted at his voice, staring back in brief silence. "Fine. The Avatar can wait. You wanted my attention. Well you GOT IT."
Her face twisted up she wrenched against his grip. She could barely move, she could barely glower at him as he pressed harder, and she gagged again, her fire sputtering, with only a wisp of smoke through her teeth. It seemed maybe, perhaps, for just a moment, she had gone loose, she'd stopped struggling.
Up close, soot on both of them, firelight pulsing on their faces, Zuko leaned in and spat the words like poison. "YOU ASKED FOR THIS, DUMBASS!" he roared. "IS IT EVERYTHING YOU WANTED?!" And he slammed his weight against her, leaving not even an inch for her to slip away as her chest ached, her lungs screamed for air, breathless from the fight as she already was, and he relented just a bit with his choke-hold.
Raven's eyes were wild. Her grin was feral. She could be startled, for sure, but she didn't look scared at all, face to face with might well be her death.
"It's... GREAT!" she gasped, voice ragged with fury and wheezing. "I... LOVE... IT!"
Zuko's jaw twitched, rage and something else colliding in his chest like a bad idea. He knew he wasn't going to let her go. She was NOT going to get another shot at this, she would never meddle in his affairs again. But getting yourself to choke a girl unconscious? Even the most annoying idiot in the world? Easier said than done. At least for him.
So they froze for one breath, the world narrowed to heat and smoke and the rough scrape of bark behind her shoulders.
His forehead nearly touched hers, his eye twitched, if she just provoked him, one last stupid whiny bratty outburst, and he wouldn't let up again. He knew it. Suddenly she jerked forward, his grip tightened, expecting her to try to wriggle free, but...
"Nnghmmph!" wide-eyed Zuko tried to gasp.
Her lips... were on his. Soft, warm, just like he'd remembered, even though they'd scarcely had the chance for such things before. Utterly frozen he was, as she stayed locked on him, her eyes closed, even squeezed shut after a breath like she knew she was out of her mind, but she didn't stop. For just long enough to register, he was out of his mind too, and kissed her right back, forearm still pinning her throat to the tree.
Zuko finally flinched. He staggered back, like she'd slapped him.
"What is WRONG with you?" he snarled, and in that split second his grip loosened without him noticing. "HOW are you TURNED ON right now?!"
Raven was free, he'd lost track of everything, and he cringed, expecting it was a ploy, but she just stumbled aside, glancing him up and down, stark white and rigid, horrified with herself, but she forced it all down with a twisted grimace, and took a single step towards him, not in a bending stance, but bold nonetheless.
She caught his beet red face, and scoffed hard, "Hah! Don't act like you aren't." As if that absolved her.
"I WASN'T—AGH! I'm NOT!" Zuko shouted, stepping forward, pointing at her like it was an accusation that could physically injure her. "YOU are OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND! Do you want to kill me or not?! What is this?!"
Raven scoffed again, because scoffing was her shield. "This is all YOUR FAULT!" As if he ought to know better.
"YOU kissed ME!" Zuko roared. "You DUMB. ASS."
"That's not—" she started. Momentary confusion struck, her mind raced, and her gaze narrowed. "You SLAPPED my ASS, you...!" Raven roared back.
Both hands gripping his head, ready to rip out his newly grown hair, his jaw hung open, then gave a bellowing, "that was DAYS AGO!"
Amongst their just yelling, fight on intermission, soldiers of the Earth Kingdom bravely rushed towards the flames. The ones down in town, as they caught only the armored backs of Fire Nation raider. To Zuko, it was nostalgic, their fight turning into an argument with the flames still in the background. Just a normal day being the unlucky boy promised to the crazy bitch. And then it was over.
Raven first by an inch, they fell back into stances again, circling, breathing hard, soot-streaked and furious.
Raven's voice dropped, grim. "I'm still going to kill you."
Zuko's shoulders sagged with tired confidence. "Not in a million years, you little brat."
The word hit Raven like a spear. Her face twisted. Her teeth bared. She lunged. She didn't even see his smug grin.
He waited until her momentum committed her body, then pivoted and threw her, using her rage like a lever. Raven's scream ripped out of her as boldly as a split-second late burst of flames, and she... went sailing right over the ridge, with enough time to feel like an idiot mid-air, wildly throwing another orange jet back up at his firelit silhouette, his pitiless gaze briefly lit and unflinching.
She crashed down through treetops below in a flailing, furious tumble of branches and curses.
Zuko stalked to the ridge and peered down into the dark, breathing hard, hair wild without the mask. There was silence just too long.
"You still alive, idiot?" he called lazily.
"FUCK YOU!" Raven's voice came back, strained and pained, followed by a bolt of fire that shot up and fell short, sputtering into the brush. "Don't... agh! Don't you DARE run!"
Zuko's mouth curled, dark and satisfied. "Don't worry," he called down. "I'll be right back."
Raven's answer was a wounded, furious shriek of incoherent insults, ending in a sputtering cough. She tasted blood, just a drop, but that was never ideal. She watched, and Zuko turned away from the ridge, already scanning the dark for the right shape of metal corners and and straight lines.
"Just need something that doesn't burn," he muttered to himself, voice cold. Ropes fit for the Avatar would only be fuel to her. By the sound of it, she maybe broke a bone down there. He hurried, just as much as he wished he'd brought manacles, but most of all, he was furious at himself for being worried about her, despite her best efforts.