#🌊 ‿ RIVER's announcements | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

heavensenthearty · 5 years ago

Text

Secret heroes (The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady)

~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~

Because nothing says “bonding” like dressing up as spirits and destroying a factory. A re-telling of the events in The Painted Lady featuring Zuko/The Blue Spirit.

@zutaramonth

Also avaliable in AO3

~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~ 🌊 ~ 🔥 ~

Zuko

“Aang, get out of the water! The Jang Hui is the most polluted river in the Fire Nation!”

I wonder if he can hear me underneath the surface.

Then he airbends himself and Momo up to Appa’s saddle, both dripping in mud and suspicious-looking substances next to me: “Hey, guys, I think this river’s polluted.”

“No joke, detective Avatar,” I say dryly. And I suppose I deserve the mud his airbending splatters into me for saying it. “Puag! Plag! That got inside my mouth! Puag!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, friends,” he says before using some more airbending for taking the mud off from Katara, Toph and me, and send it back into the river.

“Well,” Sokka says, “that explains why I can’t catch a fish around here, because normally my fishing skills are off the hook!”

I sigh. (Not this again.)

“Get it?,” he continues, “Like a fishing hook?”

“Too bad your skills aren’t on the hook.” Toph, Aang, Katara and I laugh at Toph’s own counter joke.

“I think we’ll have to get food somewhere else,” I observe looking down to the greenish brown waters.

“Assuming that’ll fit into Sokka’s master schedule,” Katara points out while Sokka unrolls his trusty scroll until it almost falls off from Appa.

“Hmmm… It’s doable,” he agrees, “but that means only two potty breaks today.”

“Hey, maybe we can get food there!”

Aang points to a mysterious archaic village on river.

***

“Why is this village in the middle of a river, Zuko?” Katara asks me once we approach the border of a hill for a better view.

“I don’t know,” I admit, “I didn’t even know there was a village around here.”

“You mean you don’t even know your own country?,” she retorts.

I frown at her. “Well, forgive me for not ordering a palanquin ride around these parts.”

“Where is it exactly?,” Toph asks.

“Right in the middle of the river,” Sokka points to it.

“Sure is!”

We all look down at the sound of that last mysterious voice. I, on my part, better accommodate my dark hood over my face.

“My name is Dock,” an old, raggedy man standing on a ferry introduces himself to us, “Mind if I ask who you are?”

“We’re… um…,” Katara stutters, looking at the rest of us for a possible getaway, “from the Earth Kingdom colonies.”

“Wow… Colonials!,” the man is in awe of us, “Hop on, I give you ride in the town.”

***

So far Mysterious-Village-Which’s-Name-I-Never-Even-Knew doesn’t seem to have the Fire Nation’s standard rich quality of life. It’s baffling. It remembers me a little of the Lower Ring in Ba Sing Se. Or even worse because not even there the majority of the people walked around semi-undressed.

It’s disappointing.

“Why does the village looks so poor?” I ask Dock while we look around the deteriorated houses.

“Hey, where are your manners?,” Katara scolds me. (She lives for scolding me.) “That’s not something nice to ask!”

“It’s alright,” Dock concedes. “We were a fishing town, until the factory moved in,” he points to the Agung Factory not so far in the distance. I recognize it immediately, I used to hear about it all the time while at the Palace. “Army makes their metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river. Now our little village is struggling to survive.”

Even with all of our “butting heads” ever since I joined the group, Katara and I can’t help but exchange a sad look at that last line.

Katara

“Well, that’s all for the tour,” Dock announces, “Go have fun around! Make sure to buy something to eat at the market!”

“Thanks for the tour, Dock,” Zuko says from besides me with a smile that even I have to admit looks very nice.

“No problem, love-birds,” Dock tells us, “Make sure to buy something for your girlfriend on the store, buddy!”

(He called me Zuko’s what now?)

“He’s not my – !”

“She’s not my – !”

“See you later, colonial friends!” Dock exits waving at us.

Urgh!

We walk around the town a bit more, getting a look at the poorly kept surroundings.

It’s almost cringe-worthy to step on these floors of such rotten, wet and smelly wood covered by fungus; and I don’t think said wood can hold much weight on this conditions. All of the houses are on the brink of falling apart, but it doesn’t looks like people actually sleep on them. Or at least not in all of them. Apparently they gather in the cleanest houses to sleep without exposing themselves too much to the unhealthy conditions.

And all of the people just looks so frail and malnourished and…

I embrace myself, “Look at this place. It’s so sad. We have to do something to help.”

“No,” Sokka is the one to answer me, “we can’t waste our time here.”

“Waste of our time?,” I cry out, disbelieving at my own brother’s insensitivity.

“We have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on,” he says. “These people are on their own.”

“How can you even say that? These people are starving! How can you be so cold and heartless?”

“I’m just being realistic, Katara. We can’t go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into.”

“Well…” Zuko cuts in, still studying the poor buildings, “Maybe not every town, but we could make an effort to help this one.”

“See that, Sokka?” I say, raising my chin triumphantly, not even caring that Zuko – of all people, for Spirits sake! – is my only backup. “Zuko’s on my side!”

“We’ll be helping them by taking out the Fire Lord.”

“Hey!” Zuko calls out at the mention of his father.

“Listen, loud mouths,” Toph comes along with him, “Maybe we should be a little quieter when we talk about ‘taking out the Fire Lord’. Though, I’m sure Sparky would prefer to take the hood off his eyes to stop crashing against stuff.”

“I have gotten better at that,” Zuko defends himself. Before turning around and crashing against a poll.

Sokka takes the chance to continue to dissuade me, “Come on, Katara, be reasonable about this. You know our mission has to come first.”

“I don’t want our mission to come first if that means we have to give our back to the people that needs us!”

“Katara, this is not about what we want. It’s about what we have to do. You remember the whole ‘stopping the war, saving the world’ thing, right?”

“Ugh! Whatever!”

I stomp away from my thoughtless brother, not even caring where am I heading to in an unknown village.

Is not like I have many chances of getting lost, the village is just too small.

And Sokka doesn’t let us help them!

He’s an idiot! He’s a jerk! – (No, Zuko’s a jerk.) – Then Sokka is dumbass! All men are the same!

I only stop my dramatic exit when I get to the shore at the opposite side of the town, and I sit on the border with my legs hanging down. Still careful to not let my feet get dirty with the sludge-covered water, of course. (Stupid pollution!)

“Katara?”

I turn at the sound of my name.

And turn back frowning when I see who it is.

“What do you want, Zuko?,” I ask.

“We have been looking for you. We already bought the food that we need, it’s time to go.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Sure. Leave this village behind with their problems. I already heard Sokka’s plan.”

“Maybe he has a point in all of this, you know. We’ll help the village more by defeating the Fire Lord and stopping the war.”

“And in the meantime they will be starving,” I conclude for him. “Great plan. Not.”

“Katara, be practical in this...”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

“Okay.” He raises his hands in surrender.

I turn away again, just glancing at him shortly through the corner of my eye when he sits next to me.

“So what’s your plan then? Staying here brooding until we agree to stay help the village?”

“Yes,” I admit.

“I see. And how, exactly, are we going to solve the problems in here? We don’t even have a way to reestablish these people resources.”

“We could share some of the other food that we have with them,” I offer. “We always save fruits and vegetables for Aang’s vegetarian meals.”

“But we don’t have all that much food ourselves to be sharing with many people,” Zuko argues. His voice surprisingly understanding, so much that I can’t bring myself to be angry at his (valid) claim.

“What about if we simply look for more ways for them to get food? There are miles of open fields around here, we could show them how to plant their own food.”

“Yeah, but this place is already polluted, I don’t think the earth is all that fertile. And even if it was, the plants would die with the heavy smoke of the factory and the dirty water of the river.”

I look at said factory like it has personally wronged me. The conduits continue to cough dense, heavily black smoke even in front of the force of my stare.

“Why is an army factory in these fields anyways?,” I wonder.

“Because the grounds of this area are very rich in natural resources like iron and copper. Since the army found out, they have been exploiting them for weapons and armors for the war.”

I glare at Zuko. “Oh, so you have been exploiting it.”

He yanks his hood off from his face for looking me in the eye. His own golden eyes are bright with anger and annoyance. “It’s them. You can’t possibly blame this one me, too.”

“Forgive me for relating the war with you, son of the Fire Lord.”

I can hear the letters of my name coming out through his clenched teeth. “Katara…”

“Weren’t you on my side in this just a moment ago? You could prove so by fighting harder for us to stay aid this town. A good way of winning my friendship would be supporting me on things like this.”

“So now you want me to buy your friendship.”

“It’s not ‘buying’, it’s earning. Trust is something you earn.”

“By doing what you want.”

“You’re not listening to me!”

“Really? I’m not?”

“Forget it!,” I stand up hurriedly. “Where’s the ferry?

“Katara, wait,” Zuko stands up too to follow me.

I just told you to not tell me what to do, I think at him but say nothing, I get the feeling that the less I talk to Zuko, the better.

It does not take me long for finding Aang, Sokka and Toph, with Zuko close behind me and I’m received with a “Do you mind carrying this?” from Toph, who then puts a basket with putrid fish spilling mucus on my arms.

“What is this?,” I cry out in this disgust.

“Our food,” Sokka looks disgruntled. “At least they look better than the clams. Now let’s go catch up with Dock – Xu – Whatever his name is.”

As soon as I walk to follow the others, I feel a tiny hand yanking my elbow.

“Excuse me,” a raggedy little boy with a scar on his shoulder says to me. “Can you spare some food?”

Immediately I give him one of the semi-healthy-looking fishes in the basket. “I wish I could help more,” I admit, both to him and to myself.

He looks content with only the fish and bows to me respectfully before running away to one of the higher levels of the town, where a young woman, but with grayish skin is resting.

“That was really nice from you, Katara.” I recognize Zuko’s voice next to me.

I just hum dignifying and walk past him.

Zuko

One time, Azula tried to wake me up with a Tsugi Horn out of tune... it still sounded better than Appa’s groans this morning.

Aang, Toph and I run to him and Katara, who’s watching over Appa as he cries. “What’s the matter, Katara?,” Aang asks.

“I think Appa’s sick.”

Sokka wakes up with a start from Appa’s discarded saddle. “What? Appa’s sick? That’s awful!”

“Wow, Sokka,” I exclaim, “I didn’t realize you cared so much.”

“Of course I care!,” he counters, “I might as well just throw our schedule away now!”

As he pulls out and studies his schedule, I take a glance at the group looking at him. “Um… Sokka?”

He only lifts his gaze enough to see Katara, Aang and Toph giving him the evil-eye. “And I’m concerned because my big, furry friend doesn’t feel well!,” he says as he nuzzles at Appa’s side.

“Nice save, pal,” I mutter.

“Appa must have gotten sick from being in the polluted water,” Toph deduces.

“He doesn’t looks sick,” Aang says thoughtfully as he studies Appa. “Are you okay, buddy?”

Appa groans once more opening his mouth wide open, enough for us to see his massive tongue colored purple. A little grossed out and only slightly bewildered by my own actions, I pull it out to the light. “What kind of illness turns bison’s tongues purple?,” I wonder.

“This can’t be good,” Aang looks defeated, “Katara, can you heal him?”

“It looks like he needs some medicine,” she says, “Maybe we can find the right herbs in town.”

“Then let’s get going,” I say. Before stopping Momo from licking Appa’s tongue. (This “having pets” thing is not what I imagined it to be.)

***

“Is it just me, or this place seem different?” Toph asks as soon as we get into town.

“It’s not just you,” I say, looking around at the people suddenly smiling and laughing. Pole vaulting themselves from one house to the other. The little kids are playing and practically partying around.

It’s all in the good sense, but it’s difficult to imagine this was the same quiet, discolored place that we visited yesterday. The town is still a worn out, but more like a melted candle that still has light to burn.

We all follow a little boy bouncing a ball past us, and I catch a glance of Katara smiling a little too pleased, and a little too proudly.

“Hey, Xu,” Sokka greets Dock’s weird, apparent twin brother once we get to the market. “What’s going on with everyone today?”

“Ah, something amazing happened last night. Food was delivered to our village by a mysterious… and wonderful person. The Painted Lady.”

“The Painted who now?,” Katara asks.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about that!” I reminisce out loud, clasping my fingers. “That’s a folk legend from this part of the Fire Nation, right? About a river spirit that watches over the Jang Hui.”

“That’s right,” Xu takes out a miniature statuette from under the counter. It kind of resembles a real human woman with reddish marks on her face, a loose cloak covering her shoulders, and a wide hay hat. “She’s part of our town’s lore. She’s the spirit of the river who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend. Until now.”

Sokka turns to Katara. “See? We don’t need to help these people, they already have someone to help them.” He turns back to Xu. “All we need is medicine for our sick friend.”

“Medicine?,” Xu parrots skeptical, “Sorry, all the medicine we have goes to the factory. That’s why there’s so many sick people in our village,” he sulks at that last part.

“Looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest,” Katara informs and Sokka sighs.

“I guess you’re right. You got any more food to sell, Xu?”

Xu quickly gets out two fishes from under the counter. “Would you like the one-headed fish, or the two-headed fish?”

I think I’m gonna vomit.

“Mmmmm… Two-headed!,” Sokka exclaims taking the gross thing in his hand. “What?,” he says once he turns to our disgusted faces, “You get more for your money that way!”

***

Appa still doesn’t feels well the next morning, so we all travel back to the village to get more food. (Though, I’m starting to think eating something else from there will make us all get even worse than Appa.) But apparently everybody else around is only feeling better and better, as the villagers are now running around, jumping and dancing, partying to the fullest in the middle of the street. I stare at the giant statue they are raising in the town square, a much larger version of the little statuette Dock… Xu… whoever showed us yesterday.

Katara stands next to me, looking at the statue like it was the actual Great Spirit worthy of reverence, her blue eyes sparkling like this river would have been in another time. “Can you believe how much an entire village can affected by just one lady? – I mean, Spirit.”

“You seem pretty fond of this legend, Katara,” I muse.

She turns to me with a look of superiority that is just slightly softer than all the other self-righteous stares she has given me since I joined the group. “It’s not a legend, Zuko. Haven’t we been proven that she is real?”

Sokka approaches us from the market stall. “Well, I hope she returns every night. Otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was.”

“Why would you say that?,” Katara demands, annoyed, “Look how much better off these people are.”

“Yeah, now,” Sokka reminds us, “but without her they wouldn’t be able to fend for themselves. If she really wanted to help, she would use her spirit magic to blow up that factory. Something like…” And then he proceeds to make some waving, ghostly sounds that – I suppose – attempt to mimic spirit magic.

“Spirit magic doesn’t work that way, Sokka,” Aang intervenes, “It’s more like…” And then he starts with his own imitation.

I’m not an expert in spirit magic, but I would dare to say none of this is all that accurate.

They continue to perform their poor sound effects even at the more-annoyed-by-second look that Katara is giving them, before storming away with loud steps from the heels of her sandals.

People always calls me paranoid, but I’ve learned to not let the small details pass, and there’s something in Katara’s look that I don’t like… so I follow her up to the edge of the dock, the one with a full view of the Agung Factory, and she stares at it intently. Like she could tear the whole edifice down with willpower alone.

“What are you thinking about?,” I ask from beside her, a little unnerved at the force of her eyes.

“Nothing,” she says calmly, still staring rabidly at the factory. “Nothing at all.”

Katara

What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t just leave the village behind like they were! And maybe disguising myself as an ancient spirit was too much, but the Painted Lady gives these people hope, I was just trying to bring them that hope! And now I’ll give them freedom from that awful, awful factory.

I wait enough past midnight to make sure the rest are sound asleep. Then I take the pile of dried grass that I’ve been using to cover up for me in my sleeping bag, and go to put on my costume. (I wonder if Suki would be proud of how well I apply my makeup!)

Alright, I’m ready! Now, let me just –

“The Painted Lady, I assume.”

“Ah!,” I scream, and then bend a strong wave of water from the river to knock down whoever the person in front of me is against the rocks, before realizing it is…

“That’s a pretty good way to scare a girl!,” I cry out.

“That’s a pretty good way to break a guy’s neck!,” Zuko says from the splashed floor, “But don’t change the subject!” He stands up. Faces me. I have to lift my chin a little to look him in the eye. “What do you think you’re doing? You faked Appa’s illness?”

That does me feel a tad guilty. “Well… He must have a little stomachache for all the purple berries I’ve been feeding him, but other than that he’s fine.”

Zuko opens his mouth like he’s about to protest. Then closes it, and settles for facepalming himself and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I see,” he says with a sigh, “So what’s your plan then, you’re going to give the village more food? How did you find so much food to spare them in the first place?”

“I went to the least polluted areas of the river and got some fish out of there. And then I took some berries and fruits from around here… and from our supplies… and then… gave it… to… them.”

Well, that does sounds a bit unintelligent, right? Giving away the few supplies that we have for ourselves. Like Zuko told me we couldn’t do. (Ouch. So much for my pride.)

Zuko himself gives me a flat look. “So your plan is still giving away our food? Without consulting us?”

“For your information,” I say, matter-of-factly, “I’m planning on a more permanent solution.” I glance at the factory in the distance.

As if reading my mind, Zuko asks: “You’re planning on destroying the factory?”

“How did you guess?”

“I knew you were up to something earlier today.”

“I didn’t have you as the most observing one, Zuko!” I pull out an awed expression to back up my sarcasm.

“And I didn’t have you as the one that fakes bison’s illnesses, so I guess that we are even.”

I bristle. “Well, if you excuse,” I don’t bother in making my fake politeness less mocking, “I have stuff to do tonight.”

I walk past him, muttering I hate you, hate you, hate you under my breath.

“Katara, wait.”

Zuko catches up with me, placing himself in front of me again to avoid that I run off. “Listen, maybe I’m not with you in everything about sharing food we don’t have, but I do want to help this town, too. Let me help you with the factory.”

“You will help to destroy a Fire Nation factory?” I arch a skeptical eyebrow at the Prince of the Fire Nation.

“This village is part of the Fire Nation, too,” he answers simply.

Oh. That’s actually… really noble from him.

“But don’t you need to hide yourself? What about if someone sees you and recognizes you?”

He takes out a blue-and-white mask that kind of resembles a dragon-like creature with dark eyes and puts it on to cover all of his face. “Hided.”

“You have your own spirit costume?” (I did not see that coming.)

“It is for… um… emergencies,” he explains, sort of. “Shall we get going?”

***

It was predictable that the factory would have guards on every corner, but we need a distraction for them if we want to get in, and then fully damage the machinery. Zuko doesn’t waste time and climbs through one of the building’s side walls, (rather graciously and effortlessly, may I add) and uses his swords to create an avalanche from the rocky hills that surround the place. He slides down as the rocks fall to create a loud, discordant symphony, and we both use one of the walls as a cover from the guards who run to investigate. Rather agilely as well, Zuko takes off the keys from one of the passing guards with the large blade of his sword.

Once we get in with the aid of the keys, we skip more of the vigilance and Zuko goes around creating more troubles for the guards with his swords, and positively knocking some out to get them out of the way. Whoa, who could have known that he was so good at these things?

I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know that he is good with the swords and that he’s strong and agile for all the training that he does. Maybe it is for all of his sword practice that he got such muscly arms. And such a broad chest. Which is hugged by the tight dark shirt he’s wearing. Not that I’m paying much attention to that fact.

We finally get to the machinery room, filled with glowing magma, and we split to work on our respective areas. I use a water tentacle to cut the metal hooks hanging some barrels of magma, Zuko pierces each of the conduits in the pipe system. He then climbs up to the control room and uses the panels to command the mechanic pulley system to overturn some of the bigger barrels of magma, positively destroying all of the equipment in the lower part of the room. Ultimately, he overheats the controls for them to explode irreparably.

I, on my part, stand in front of the only windows in the room. I concentrate in the water flowing at the other side of the walls, I can feel it. I direct it to rise and break through the crystal, flooding the place. The water mixed with the magma does nothing but overwhelm the machines around causing them to explode one after the other. It’s a beautiful sound. It is only interrupted by the steps of a pack of guards coming our way. Zuko and I exit through the backdoors.

“That was fun,” he says, taking off his mask once that we have already reaches close enough to our campsite.

“You said it!,” I agree, jokingly bumping my shoulder with him. “I didn’t know you knew how to drive heavy machinery, Zuko.”

“I grew up surrounded by those kind of things,” he reminisces me, smirking jokingly as well, “Military is kind of a big thing in the Fire Nation, remember?”

“Well, thanks for using that knowledge to help me up with this. I don’t know if I really could have done it just by myself,” I recognize.

“You would have,” he announces, “You’re an amazing waterbender, you would have flooded that place in seconds.”

I blush. “You think I’m an amazing waterbender?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t everyone?”

“You could have also destroyed the factory by yourself,” I point out, “You’re the greatest firebender around here.”

He smiles. “Thanks, I appreciate the compliment.”

“But you haven’t yet told me why the mask and stuff?”

He looks down, a bit ashamedly. “It’s sort of for a secret identity that I used to have. The Blue Spirit. I didn’t pick up the name,” he adds upon my light snort, “I just used to mess with the army a lot while I was still chasing Aang around, I wanted to make sure nobody captured him before me. So I disguised myself, and then I wore the mask whenever I needed to go on a secret mission. Villainous secret mission.”

I bump my shoulder with him again for cheering him up, “Hey, you changed that today. You wore the mask for a heroic secret mission. We are both like secret heroes!”

“I suppose,” he smirks again.

“Speaking about masks,” I say, taking off my hat and wiping away some of my makeup. “I think I should take off my costume.”

As Zuko observes, I bend some water from the river for creating myself yet a new mirror, and I wipe away the paint from my face and shoulders with a piece of cloth from the old robe that I’m wearing. “Ta-da!,” I announce once I’m done. “Normal Katara.”

Zuko smiles. “For whatever it is worth, I think having normal Katara is much better than having the Painted Lady.”

I duck my head as I blush in a poor attempt to hide my own smile.

We both walk back to the camp together.

#zutara #zutara month #zutara month 2020 #zutara fanfic #zuko x katara

36 notes · View notes