Kyoshi took a while to return from wherever she was. Long enough, in fact, for Yun to gather up his strength and be led out of his bed, downstairs, and to the kitchen to eat breakfast at noon.

Of course, he wasn’t allowed the mercy of privacy. They might have left him alone while he was unconscious, but now that he was waking, he was a threat. Kyoshi hadn’t summoned a militia or an army to fight him- only a rag-tag group of companions. It only meant that the people who watched him eat his congee were more powerful than military force.

There were two of them who watched him eat- two people who Rangi had left him with, explaining to them (not to him) that she needed to check on Jinpa and see if Kyoshi was returning. Yun didn’t recognize either of his two new guardsmen, other than from the battle he had just waged against them. They were Kyoshi’s new friends, people she could trust and rely on. And he didn’t know anything about them.

That was a lie, or at least an over-exaggeration. There were some things he could tell about each of Kyoshi’s companions by their appearances alone. Opposites in features and dress, they were criminals. They had to be- their vagabond fighting styles and mix-matched attire told Yun all he needed to know about their lifestyles. He wondered how Kyoshi had gotten caught up with such individuals, and laughed at the thought of Rangi willingly working alongside them. They both wore piercings that told different things about each of them- bone white jewelry on the woman, shimmering gold on the man. They glared at him from across the table, as if they were just waiting for him to make the first move.

“So….” Yun set down his spoon and made eye contact with both his guards.

“Move and you’re a dead man.” The woman hissed, her hand suspended over the waterskin at her waist.

Yun threw his hands up in surrender. “Whoa! I thought you guys weren’t killing me. Guess I was wrong.”

“Kyoshi spared you, but she also left us in charge.” The man said, his voice low and monotonous. “Which means if you step out of line, don’t be surprised if you lose a few digits.”
“Fine, fine.” Yun shrugged and returned his hands to the table. “Don’t worry about me though. I have no intention of hurting anyone here.”

After they had carefully watched his movements, the two daofei returned to whatever silent conversation they were having between side-glances and expressions. As far as Yun could tell, they were two of only seven people residing at the mansion. The airbender- Jinpa, he assumed- was being kept in the infirmary to recover from his injuries, under Sifu Atuat’s careful watch. Rangi had gone to check on him, and Kyoshi was off doing… something. The situation left a loose end. “Say, do either of you know where Rangi’s mother might be- Headmistress Hei-Ran? She’s Fire Nation, the spitting image of her daughter, kind of intimidating?”

The two criminals exchanged a glance that told Yun everything. They knew where Hei-Ran was, they just weren’t telling him. Of course.

“Why would we tell you?” The man asked. His heavy brow furrowed.

Yun shrugged. “Common courtesy?” In actuality, he hadn’t been expecting an answer. He expected much better of Kyoshi’s friends than to tell Hei-Ran’s location to the man who had tried to kill her.

If either of Yun’s guards had anything else to say, they didn’t get the chance to say it before being interrupted by the kitchen’s heavy door opening, letting in light, wind, and Kyoshi.

The Avatar had freshened up since Yun had last seen her. Instead of her heavy battle robes and chain-mail armor, Kyoshi had donned a simple tunic better suited to the warm weather and had cleaned her face of the dust and blood that had covered it. She held her head high, with the confidence only the Avatar could muster.

“Wong, Kirma.” Kyoshi nodded to her friends as she named them, and smiled when they returned the greeting. She turned to him. “Yun.”

“Kyoshi.” He returned her greeting with a nod.

Kyoshi glanced back at her friends, silently dismissing them. The recently-dubbed Kirima and Wong sent Yun glares as they left, but filed out of the kitchen without complaint. After she watched her friends disappear out the door, Kyoshi turned to Yun and sat down across from him. She rested her hands on the table, letting Yun see the lightning scars running across them. He didn’t know where she had gotten the scars.

“Are you feeling better?” Kyoshi asked. She raised an eyebrow.

“I- I think so. Yes.” Yun sputtered. The words fell out of his mouth before he could think them over. He couldn’t look Kyoshi in the eye, so he looked at her hands.

“Atuat really is a miracle worker, isn’t she…” Kyoshi mused, leaning back even though there wasn’t a chair back to support her. “I’m only thankful she was able to get here quickly, or else we might’ve lost a life.” She didn’t specify whose.

“You have scars over your hands.” Yun said. He couldn’t stop himself from saying it. Kyoshi wasn’t supposed to have scars over her hands, not ones he didn’t recognize. She had left him, like everyone did.

“Yes… I do.” Kyoshi drew her hands underneath the table, to hide them from his view. “You have scars on the soles of your feet.”

“I do.” Yun said, becoming painfully aware of the past wounds covering his feet. Covered now by cloth slippers lent to him by Rangi, the bleeding had taken weeks to subside after he had withstood the initial wound. If his memory was right, he had only fully healed when… when he left the mansion. Of course, Kyoshi now knew about that, meaning all his past efforts had been a waste. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kyoshi sighed.

“There wasn’t a reason to.” Yun shrugged. There wasn’t much else he could say. It was hard to remember past justifications for simple acts, after everything that had happened. He didn’t want to recall his past self, and the lie it had all been.

“Rangi told me that you two spoke.” Kyoshi said, cautiously. Of course, she already knew about that. Of course.

“Why did you spare me?” Yun asked, ignoring what Kyoshi had said before. The room had been quiet before, but it silenced after he uttered the last syllable.

“You don’t deserve a final judgment, at least not by me, one individual, in the heat of battle.” Kyoshi declared.

“So you’re handing your Avatar duty to a tribunal so they can decide my fate?”

“I’m not abandoning my duty, I’m embracing it. The Avatar is not meant to be the supreme moral judgment of the world.”

“There are people who would disagree with that statement.”

“Their opinion doesn’t matter about it. Mine does. And it’s my opinion that I alone cannot judge the weight of your actions.”

“Mhm.” Yun looked away from Kyoshi and took a spoonful of his congee. It was cold and unpleasant. He swallowed the bitterness and set his spoon on the table. He found himself longing for something he had longed for years before- the ability to firebend. Except now, it wasn’t an inevitable goal he just hadn’t reached yet, but a mocking impossibility.

"Yun, I want to give you a chance.” Kyoshi’s voice softened. “Because I believe you deserve it. You have the potential to grow and change, just like the rest of us do. You just have to embrace it.”

“Grow and change into what?” Yun scoffed, looking up into Kyoshi’s eyes for the first time that morning. “We can’t go back. You, of all people, should know that. I won’t return to that… that lie.”

“I’m not asking you to. I wouldn’t ask that of anyone. I just want you to be safe, healthy, and happy. We don’t have to return to the past to repair our relationship.”

Yun didn’t reply. He couldn’t muster up an answer that would satisfy Kyoshi.

“Yun, what do you want? What’s the point of all this?”

“I already told you.” Yun sighed. “I want justice. I was wronged, and I want retribution. It’s simple. I’d think you’d want the same, after everything.”

“I- that’s not the point.” Kyoshi put her hand over her temple. “Is that what you really want?”

“What else is there for me to want, that I physically can achieve. There are things I want, things I know we both want, but we can’t reach them. Justice is the one thing I can achieve.”

“It sounds moe like what you want is vengeance.”

“Call it what you will, I don’t care. Justice, vengeance, payback. I’m righting what wrongs have been committed against me. It’s not that hard to understand.”

“If you saw Hei-Ran right now, would you attempt to kill her?”

“Maybe.” Yun paused. “Maybe not.”

“You wouldn’t hesitate? You wouldn’t hear what she might have to say to you?”

Yun crossed his arms. “Any apology she could give me wouldn’t fix the damage she’s done.”

“She was willing to sacrifice herself to you, you know. She was willing to die to you, even if it was for a reason separate from your own goal.” Kyoshi said.

“Really?” It was the first Yun was hearing of anything like it. “Why?”

“She believed that if she died, your bloodlust would be satisfied Is that true? If Hei-Ran were to die, would you stop there?”

“I don’t know.” Yun sighed, leaning over the table. “I don’t know. Hei-Ran wasn’t the only one who wronged me.”

“Bloodshed isn’t the only way to make amends.”

“It’s the most efficient. And you’re a hypocrite- you helped me kill Jianzhu.”

“I’m- it’s not like that. Not everyone is Jianzhu. Lives have meaning, and weight. You can’t just go around picking who lives and who-” She cut herself off before she said anymore.

“When I kill someone, I’m final about it.” Yun scoffed. “I don’t spare their life and play games with them before sending them off to be executed by decision of the jury.”

“Your trial will be fair, I assure it.” Kyoshi ran her fingers through her hair, threatening to pull it all out. “And I’m hoping you aren’t sentenced to death. I’m hoping you’re able to grow.”

Yun didn’t answer, studying the distress painted across Kyoshi’s face. It was as distinct as her mask of white and red.

“I need you to make me a promise.”

Yun raised an eyebrow.

“Hei-Ran is here, she came with Atuat. She doesn’t know that you’re here yet, or that you’re even alive. I need you to promise not to kill her, or anyone else while we’re here.”

“I mean, you have your new friends watching my every move-”

“When they aren’t watching you.” Kyoshi snapped. “I need you to keep good morale, even when you aren’t being watched. Can you promise me that?”

“Do I really have a choice?”

“You tell me.”

“Fine. I won’t try to kill her. Or anyone else. That doesn’t mean I’ll be civil and pleasant with her.”

Kyoshi sighed, in weariness or relief. “That’s not what I’m asking of you.” She paused. “But, thank you. It’s a start.”