A/N: Zuko never finished reading Katara's letter. That's… kind of important.

Katara helped Aang settle in for the night, then grabbed her letter. She felt torn between wanting to read it as fast as possible and wanting to save it, to save his words forever. To keep them in reserve.

She opened the letter.

My daughter, it began and Katara felt tears pricking her eyes from those words alone. She snorted at herself. Getting emotional about two words when she still had the rest of it to get through?

She was still alternating between smiling and crying when she got to a line that struck her as… odd.

The Fire Nation prince was scarred. Badly. Near half of his face was burnt off. How he got it, I've no idea. Still… seeing a scar like that on a child. It was probably some sort of training accident, but there are so many- so many people who've been hurt. Burnt. This war… it's a hard thing.

The letter went on, but Katara felt it falling from nerveless fingers. She snatched it before it could get soaked, reading that line over again.

It couldn't be. There were surely more than two child captains of ships who had badly burnt faces… and old uncles…

It couldn't be him. Her father wouldn't have hired him to bring them letters. And there was no way he wouldn't have known who they were. Hakoda wouldn't have hired a Fire Nation crew to deliver their letters, no matter that they had, apparently, been able to do this at a ridiculously low cost.

Still… no. Just- no.

She firmly shoved that thought out of her head and continued with the rest of the letter. She wasn't going to show Sokka. He'd thought Aang was a Fire Nation spy and Aang was the Avatar. If he saw this…

She hid the letter.

…-…

"How are we supposed to end a war?" Zuko asked, running a hand through his hair.

Iroh hesitated for a long moment. This would also have to be handled… delicately. "Ozai's rise to become the Fire Lord was… concerning to many in the Fire Nation."

That was an understatement. The Fire Lord dead, Ozai's wife gone all in the course of the night? Especially right after Lu Ten? Iroh hadn't fought it- he'd been broken. He'd felt a measure of relief that his brother had taken over for him so he didn't have to. He hadn't truly thought about the circumstances behind Ozai's rise to power for… a very long time.

Then when he had thought about it- it all seemed to come together to form a picture he didn't really want to see.

By the time he'd realized that the rumblings had died down. If he'd tried right at first to take his throne he likely would have been able to with minimal effort. Now it would require something more drastic.

"We need allies among the other nations," Iroh said slowly, "We need people who are willing to vouch for the fact that we are truly interested in peace."

Zuko nodded slowly. "How're we going to convince father to make peace though?"

And this was for the delicate part. "Ozai doesn't want peace." Iroh said. That came out far blunter than he'd intended…

Zuko looked like he was going to protest, then he swallowed his protests back. Iroh let out a pained smile. "He wants the world." Iroh said, "And he's been sacrificing lives on every side to get it."

Zuko's face was pale but he wasn't arguing. That didn't mean he agreed. "Have you ever seen anything that would lead you to believe that he might consider making peace?" Iroh asked.

He'd intended this conversation to be a continuation of their other, with Iroh being delicate, leading, but never bluntly forcing Zuko to see. The words he was saying were true though, and they had not wanted to be contained.

Zuko swallowed. He closed his eyes, clenched his hands into fists. The anger drained from him a moment later as he slumped, shaking his head. "No." he whispered. "No."

Iroh sighed softly. He hadn't wanted to hurt Zuko, but sometimes the truth hurt. And the truth was that his father was a monster.

"I have some allies," Iroh said, "They could help."

Zuko simply looked at him. Iroh let his lips quirk up into a small smile. "The Avatar would also be a very useful ally. And I happen to know someone in the North Pole who owes me a favor."

Pakku would not be happy about this. Well. He would also be very happy that Iroh was finally going to agree to his mostly mad idea…

"Once we have our allies, I will return to the Fire Nation and challenge Ozai to an Agni Kai."

Zuko's head snapped up at that, eyes widening as a hand flew up to his face. Iroh held the anger that gesture created back with an effort. "Would you- would you win?" Zuko asked.

Iroh thought of lightning- going through him rather than into him. Him being a channel. He would need to test that… then again. If he was dead he was dead, no matter whose lightning was killing him.

"Yes." Iroh said, "I believe I would. First though, I have a contact in the North Pole. We can help the Avatar get there, or we can go alone, but we will need to meet up with him. If we are going with the Avatar we should meet him first. If not, we need to go to the Earth Kingdom. I have contacts there as well."

The tricky part would be when they stopped meeting people, stopped planning, and came out into the open to stop Ozai. The tricky part indeed.

…-…

Azula was hunting her brother and Uncle. They'd switched ships and… disappeared. They were now known as enemies- traitors. It was odd- she'd never thought Zuko would be disloyal. Stupid, yes. But never disloyal. His face alone was proof enough of that.

Azula watched the waves. Perhaps it was Uncle's fault- it would make sense for him to be the mastermind. Still- it wasn't as though it really mattered.