Chapter Text
It was a cold night at the northern tribe. It had been snowing all week. Yakone led his children through the emptiness. This was a special night. The one night in the month when they could practice their bending. The infamous criminal marched towards the chosen spot cursing under his breath. He cursed the day that this became his life. He cursed the day that he lost the thing that put the fear of him in everyone he met. He remembered that damned day when he met the bald idiot with a god complex and the blind witch. She dared to call his bending unnatural. She who made metal bend to her will thought that blood bending was unnatural! He went over that fateful day every time he closed his eyes. Every time he blinked the glowing eyes of the Avatar were there to remind him of his failure. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night, feeling like he had been trapped in that rock again, motionless, unable to do anything as a part of him was taken away forever. That damned brat might as well have cut off his head. That would be a more merciful outcome compared to living as a disgrace who can’t even bend a little stream of water, forced to live in a hut in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t matter now though. Now, he could get his revenge. He could pass his mastery to his offspring. He could make sure that the mighty bloodbenders lived on. Yakone sat down near the rock formation where they had set up camp. The infamous criminal stared into the fire as the deafening sounds of the snowstorm went on. He took a mighty breath and began his monthly speech.
“We are bloodbenders.” The gangster began. “Bloodbending is the strongest type of bending.” The reflection of the fire in his eyes seemed to grow as he said these words. These might have been the only words that cared for, the words of endless bragging, words that reminded him of his past glory.
“Come on, the same speech every month!” Young Noatak spoke up.
He had seen and received a lot of abuse from their father and though he was angry, he kept silent for both his brother’s and his sake. Yakone was a powerless old man, but he seemed to have a chokehold on his kids nonetheless. Both of them could kill him without even breaking a sweat but didn’t because of how scared they were of this man. For so long they trembled at his sight, but today was different somehow, the hypocrisy, the superiority talk and the disgusting behaviour had finally gotten on the teen’s nerves enough for him to act.
“And how is blood bending the strongest?! The Avatar took away your bending!” Noatak went on, standing up to face his father.
“Listen here you little!...” The bloodbender stood up as well and raised his hand, but quickly stopped himself. Even he had a sense of self-preservation.“It isn’t my fault that coward Katara outlawed bloodbending!” Yakone defended himself as he sat back down, urging his son to do the same. Tarrlok just sat there, motionless, too scared to move.
“That’s the interesting part, Katara wasn’t the one who insisted on making it illegal.” A deep voice echoed from behind Noatak as a silhouette of a tall man slowly appeared.
At that moment Yakone’s blood froze. He watched as the tall, slim figure got closer and closer. Every step the mystery took made the gangster more worried. The man’s stride was unchanging, unbothered by the blizzard that broke cliffs. The only thing that the storm seemed to affect was the man’s cloak. As the guest got closer and closer the color of his satin robes became clearer. The blazing red satin waved around like a flag on victory day. The cloak was like made Yakone’s emotions twirl and mix inside him. One half took it like a bull took a red cloth, ready to tear anything in its path. The other half knew who was dressed in these clothes and wanted to run, hide, do anything to avoid the man in the satin robes. The criminal was too scared to even act. He just stumbled backwards as he thought of what to do next.
“It was Zuko. Katara’s rage left quite an impression on him.” The man finally got close enough for all to see who he was.
Tarrlok and Noatak stared at the bald man as they mumbled under their breath. Yakone stared into the eyes of the newly arrived Avatar as his thoughts raced inside his suddenly grey head. What was he supposed to do? He was an old man, with no bending to speak of. Taking on a peace-loving and forgiving man shouldn’t worry a man like him, even without bending, but a voice in his head reminded him of what the peace lover did to deserve his title and reputation. Fighting a man that went up against a war-crazed Firelord during the Sozin’s comet arrival and winning was a gamble no man could hope to win. The only option he seemed to have for a second was to run away, run away in a storm on a flat plane of ice. Yakone had to admit, he was cornered. He could do nothing, only see what the future held for him and hope that lady luck would smile in his direction, but he had a suspicion that she wouldn’t be so kind.
“What the?!...” Noatak stared, dumbfounded as the Avatar placed his hand on the teen’s shoulder and sat him down.
“Nice place you chose. I approve.” The air nomad said as he brushed off the snow and sat down in between the kids. “I presume these are your children. They look nice. Hope they aren’t too much like their father.” The Avatar joked.
The monk looked Yakone in his eyes as Noatak stared at the blue tattoo on his forehead. This was a strange day for the teen. There he was, sitting next to his hero, the most powerful man alive. The Avatar was the symbol of hope for people. He heard the villagers talking about him, praising him, almost praying to him. This was the man that saved the world, ended the war, the protector of the innocents and the weak. The man who could split the earth in half and make it breathe fire and yet remained a pacifist. Noatak wished to meet him for so long and here he was, helping him with his other wish. The boy was tired sick of Yakone’s abuse and wanted it all to end. He couldn’t stand watching his brother get hurt and being forced to sit idly by as it happened. His wish was coming true. The Avatar was here and he would arrest their father, send him to the pit where he crawled out of for the rest of eternity. If all of that was true, why was he scared? Why was he feeling sorry for his father, even for just a millisecond? What was wrong? The world didn’t stand still long enough for the boy to think of an answer. Aang spoke once again as Yakone mumbled and cussed.
“I must thank you, Yakone.” The spirit bridge said looking up at the sky. “I wanted to visit this place for a while now and you allowed me to. I got to visit some old friends and make new ones.”
At that moment a thought went through Tarrlok’s head. It struck him like lightning. This was who the Avatar was. A man who could find good anywhere, in any situation, in anyone, even in his father. He admired that ability. He envied it. All he could think of was all the bad things he had done, his brother had done, his father had done. A question remained, however. What will the Avatar do now? What should they do now?
“Will you arrest me now, Avatar?” the criminal asked, straightening his posture and brushing his hair with his palm.
He knew what would happen. There was no escape, but he wanted to bluff just a little more, even if just for entertainment. This was all he had left, his reputation, his image. No bender could hope to stand against the Avatar, much less a nonbender with nothing more than a flaming stick as his weapon, but Yakone had an ace up his sleeve. Emotions are what drive people, always have. One thing Yakone could rely on was the image he created for himself. He was the devil incarnate to his enemies. The mention of his name would make the police run for safety. That image was still there, he was still who he was. He was the most dangerous mastermind in the world. The Avatar taking his bending away was proof of his power. He was the strongest. He could use that, he could try at least. He glared and smiled creepily at the monk in front of him. Doing everything he could to get in his head.
“I have no choice, Yakone, but before I take you, I want you to know one thing.” Aang said with a serious face. “You still have your bending. I didn’t take it away, I just sealed it away, it would come back when you met a demand, a simple demand. Yet you failed to even come close.” He shook his head as he said the words that would cut the criminal down to the very soul.
“A demand?! A fucking demand?! You couldn’t even give me the honor of being punished properly?! You coward! You couldn’t just be a man and kill me?! Fuck you!” Yakone’s calm exterior soon turned to anger.
All he believed to this point was suddenly revealed to be a lie. He didn’t even get the honor of being given the ultimate punishment from the Avatar. He had nothing. He sulked for years about his bending when he could’ve gotten it back. It was just an arm's reach away, but he couldn’t even see that. Yakone was fuming, ready to tear everything apart. He jumped up after hearing the Avatar’s comment and approached him. Before he could even make a step towards the air nomad a steel rope plunged itself between the two opposing parties.
“Toph, what do your men think they are doing?!” The Avatar jumped up and cut the rope as he looked up at the sky. He seemed angry, genuinely angry. The man who treated his enemy, the man who almost took his life, as an old friend was now angry. This scared the children like nothing else.
“Sorry!” The man answered back sheepishly.
“We should hurry. The balloon can’t stay for long.” Another dull and low voice shouted down from the clouds.
“He is right, twinkle toes!” A female voice tore the air from above the group.
Soon, in just a split second, steel ropes pierced the ground around the camp. Men dressed in metal armour descended from the sky and a woman followed suit. Everything was moving fast, too fast. The calm conversation turned into a battlefield. The kids didn’t even know what to think. All of what they believed to be true about their father was being turned on its head and on top of that, they were seemingly under siege. Noatak and Tarlock looked at the Avatar for comfort almost instinctually. They didn’t know why but he seemed to be radiating some sort of warm, engaging, safe feeling. It took Aang a few milliseconds to fully realise what was happening. As soon as he processed everything he lunged at the kids and wrapped around them for protection. The kids shut their eyes as Aang whispered comforting chants to them.
“Everything’s fine, kids. Don’t worry. Everything is fine.” The man whispered over and over.
The kids tried to believe him. Not long after the chaos the dust had settled. Aang loosened his grip on the children and turned to face the woman with grey eyes. The kids opened their eyes slightly, Tarrlok had the unfortunate luck of looking upwards and seeing his father being lifted into the blimp as he thrashed, losing the last remains of his dignity. As the child looked away in horror and disgust he looked at the lady's bare feet, just standing on the snow like nothing. Both of the children ignored the small conversation that the two adults were having, choosing to instead try and muster up an explanation of how the hell either of the adults was not frozen.
This seemed like the most logical thing to discuss at the moment. Noatak did have a nagging thought and anger about not having any emotions about his father in the back of his head, but he stuffed it down. Tarrlok did the very same. At that moment neither of them knew quite what happened. They knew it as a fact, but no emotions were yet associated with this fact. As they tried to search their hearts for any signs of feelings, they came up empty. Tarrlok worried that he had become a monster like his abuser, while Noatak shed an invisible tear, deciding that he had been punished by the spirits for his sins. The elder brother hugged the youth and hung his head, awaiting something. At this point, he could only go with the flow. “What a pathetic saying for a waterbender.” he briefly thought to himself. The boy cursed and shook his head realising just how much of the bastard's genes were in him. These torments were interrupted however as the voice of the spirit bridge got louder.
“What are you supposing we do with them, leave them here?!” The man whisper yelled.
“I don’t know! You’re the wise hundred-year-old monk. Figure something out!” The woman yelled back. She was living proof that not all your senses enhance when you lose one. The Avatar mournfully turned to the duo and asked a question with a stern face.
“Mother?” He asked, hoping that the kids would understand.
“Last year.” Noatak replied. He needn’t say more. Aang turned back to his friend. His expression must have been familiar since the police chief didn’t even need to hear his proposition before voicing her protest.
“Twinkletoes, no! Just no! The water witch will have my head for this!” She yelled turning her head so as to not face the wide-eyed children or the puppy-eyed Avatar.
“With me and you have the cool Aunt status.” He said as if she could understand him. She in fact did.
“I will regret this, but who am I to disobey the will of the great Avatar.” The policewoman said in a sarcastic voice. The man in the satin robes jump-turned to the children whose minds were racing, trying to piece together the conversation that just took place. They didn’t have much time, however, as a life-changing question was asked.
“Kids, how would you like to come live with me in Republic City?”