when it rains, it pours | zuko

four ; the fire nation

"The day we have feared has come, the Fire Nation is at our doorstep," Chief Arnook continued to address the members of the Northen Watertribe.

Raiu stood leaning against a pillar in a dark corner. War was upon them, and some of the faces he saw that day would perhaps be the last. He thought back to the mundane days he had complained about, and sorely wished he had cherished them more, along with the people in it.

Many people had stepped up to volunteer, but he stood there. It was a given that Raiu would fight, maybe alongside Master Paku. He wasn't sure, but he knew for certain that he'd tear apart every Fire Nation warship and tank and even its people if it meant keeping his tribe safe. But even then, the Northen Tribe would no longer be the haven he had wistfully wished for.

Raiu noticed Sokka walking up to the raisd stage and get his warrior's mark and his longing glance at Yue. He felt sorry for the two lovebirds, and yet envied their capacity to feel love so strong for one another — even despite the unfavourable circumstances.

After that, Raiu made his way to Master Paku — his gaze firm, "Master, take me with you. Let's protect our home together."

Paku revealed a rare, once in a blue moon, smile of endearment at Raiu, "Your place isn't with me, Raiu. Go join the avatar, and fight the people who threaten our home. Don't worry about your old man, I'll hold up the fort here."

Silence filled the air for a minute, as both waterbenders regarded each other with warmth in their eyes. Raiu averted his gaze, "See you after the battle then, take care." He quickly walked away — blinking away the moisture in his eyes as tears pooled. He didn't know why he felt this way, but the dull aching pain in his heart that seemed to throb with every step he took was ever so familiar.

★

Raiu caught up to Katara and Sokka who were standing at the edge of the entrance, directly facing the ocean which accommodated — from what he could see — at least twenty Fire Nation warships. And those, he could only imagine, had hundreds of firebenders on board, more than prepared to lay waste of his home. Aang was no where to be seen, most likely off trying his best to take on those ships.

But in the end the avatar was just one person, and a kid at that. Aang had his limits too.

Another sphere of fire shot towards them, it's blazing heat and glaring brightness cutting a straight path to the solid ice fortress's gates.

"Katara!" Raiu didn't have enough time but he trusted the fledgling waterbender could read his mind and adapt. With a single glance exchanged between the two, both Raiu and Katara simultaneously executed the same move together — locking their wrists as they drew up their arms, drawing a wall of water from the ocean and freezing it right as the fireball rammed into it.

"Wow you guys really got that waterbending telepathy down," Sokka commented, in awe of their raw power.

"I've got another trick coming." With that, Raiu drew a circle with his arms, once, twice — and then he stopped, sharply bringing one raise arm down whilst clenching his fist at the end. At that point, a whirlpool had formed beneath one of the first few warships just a kilometre away from them — but no one had expected that the moment Raiu's fists clenched, the ship would sink beneath the waves, swallowed up by the treacherous waters that sung the end for them.

Sokka and Katara regarded him with wide eyes. He sunk a ship! Sokka still in a daze, excitedly exclaimed, "Y'all saw that right. Katara I'm starting to doubt you bested him before this."

"That's amazing! You have to do it again!"

"Sorry darlin, the rest of the ships are too far out and even more so after that one sunk? Besides, I need to save up my fuel for the bigger fight ahead." Raiu flopped back into the snow after saying that in one breath. To the naked eye, he did seem exhausted, but after he — mind you — sunk an entire battalion ship, loaded with weapons and soldiers, one would doubt it... 

Aang flew back to them a few minutes later just as Raiu's eyes fell shut for a quick power nap on the soft, pillowy snow — forcing him to attention again.

"I can't do it guys, I'm sorry. I'm just one kid." Aang bemoaned, dispirited from facing off against the sizable army. The rest tried to encourage him, but the poor boy was just drained.

"Don't worry Aang, we got your back. The Northen Tribe isn't one to back down so easily." Raiu sat up in the snow and steadied his gaze on the bald kid, "So don't put too much pressure on yourself. Chao might think he's writing history, and he is, but he won't be the main character here, it's you."

"It's Zhao actually." No one spared a glance at Sokka for that.

"Thanks Raiu," Aang lit up. "I know what I can do! We need some spiritual help!"

"I know just the place, let me take you there," said Yue with a pleased look.

As the gang started following Yue, they turned to look back at Raiu, "You're not coming?"

"You guys, go ahead. I'll catch up," Raiu waved them away with a slight smile which didn't match the glint in his eyes.

When they left, he continued observing the waters near the walls of the fortress. Night had fallen, but the tiny little canoe headed for the fortress hadn't escaped his sight even in the dark. There weren't any shores that led up to the fortress, but there were countless ice bergs floating about beside — home to a colony of turtle seals. He gleefully watched as the canoe was ditched at one of the glaciers and its inhabitant dived down into the water hole used by the seals.

Well, now he had to go externminate a rat.

★

Raiu was awfully familiar with all the entrances that led to within the Northen Watertribe fortress, even the most hidden ones, ones people didn't use. And he knew just which location the hole would open up to, the only problem was that there were two places. The two route of the holes didn't really differ much, and whilst underwater it was hard to even conceive which way one was going, much less which one was better.

Raiu pondered over this for a while and thought about recruiting the help of another water tribesman, but seeing them slumped over trying to stay awake made him soft. So he just flipped a coin and went to one of the spots, just below the concave of a bridge. He did have a good feeling about this, but as the minutes passed and no man popped up, Raiu realised his absolutely shitty luck.

He sighed and made a dash for the second location, the snow and icy ground not aiding him in any away. Fortunately, he caught the intruder slinking off in the dark just in time. With a wave of his hand, ice encapsulated the intruder's feet.

"Stop right there. Who are you?" Raiu regarded the intruder dressed in a cloak warily. It was fairly dark and the man's face was enshrouded in the shadows. The voice that emerged caught him off guard though.

"Don't get in my way," the intruder — who he now recognised is a boy — roughly said and escaped the icy hold, shooting a burst of fire his way and turning to run.

Raiu summoned water from the river beside to shield and continued to pursue the boy, at times slowing down to bend water and ice to capture the boy. But the whole time, Raiu had specifically been allocating a route for the intruder to run through, one that directed him away from the avatar — who Raiu had no doubt the one he was after.  At an alleyway, he determined it was a good enough distance away from Aang's location and gathered a column of water which shot a jet stream at the hooded guy, and then proceeded to freeze the residue, once again encasing the guy in ice against the alley wall.

Raiu dusted his hands of the frost and took his time to walk over to the intruder who had his head down and hood covered. Lifting his chin with a finger, the guy didn't resist — out cold — as Raiu lifted the hood away from his face, revealing a young teen. He seemed to be around Raiu's age, and sported a killer burn scar on his left eye, with tensed eyebrows.

"Hey, you're kinda easy on the eyes-"

Hot fire rushed towards his face, effectively blinding Raiu and causing him to bend water in a defensive manner — shielding himself. It took him a while to recover his senses and realise his face was still in tact, thank god. But when he got rid of the shield of water, the teen was gone.

But he was quite the looker, scar and all.