The herbalist’s was on the opposite side of town from the courthouse, secluded in a dense cover of trees and shrubs. Kyoshi explained that the vegetation had been grown to provide a stable income of healing herbs (a fact she cited from one of the many healing textbooks she had read in the temple’s library), but Yun didn’t care. He had read the vary book she describes front-to-cover back in their golden days, back when he still believed he had the power to accomplish the tasks described in the book.

The hut itself was small- only one floor high with a metallic roof and painted yellow walls. If Yun were to guess, he could assume the town’s entire medical center was comprised of only a few rooms, including the village herbalist’s living quarters. Even Yokoya had better infrastructure than Makapu. It made the entire valley look bad. If Yun had any compassion or want of connection for his hometown, he would’ve been ashamed of it’s sorry state. Then, it’s a good thing I hate this place.

A small bell by the wooden door rang when Kyoshi pushed it open- prying the door open with her foot to keep from dropping Yun. As she brought him into the dry interior space, Yun found himself at ease among the sun, yellowish light and the heavy scent of herbs. The place almost reminded him of the storerooms at the mansion in Yokoya- yet another common memory he shared with Kyoshi.

“Madame Lao!” Kyoshi called behind her as she set Yun down on a wooden bench, one lined with only minimal padding. When he leaned his head back, he was hit by the frond of a nearby ficus.

“I’ve brought the patient.” Kyoshi continued, explaining the dilemma to a short, plump, middle-aged woman who hurried into the room with a basket of pungent roots. “He broke his leg, but I don’t think there’s much more damage.””

“And you can heal, yes?” The woman, whom Yun could only assume was Lao, looked up at Kyoshi.

“Yes. I’m only accustomed to the basics, but I’ll do what I can.” Kyoshi nodded. Yun noticed- for the first time that morning, or at least since he had reawoken- that her headdress was gone. Kyoshi’s forehead was bare. She looked almost the same.

He had to shake his head to stop himself from getting lost in his own memories.

“Now, let’s get to work fixing the boy.” Lao cracked her knuckles before putting her hands over Yun’s leg to examine it. They were always calling him by some name nowadays- the accused, the patient, the boy. It was as if he didn’t have a name. No, it was as if they knew his name, but were too afraid to speak it, like he was a spirit they might summon. Like the spirit he defeated. The one he consumed.

“We need to remove his clothes.” Lao declared, and started to unravel Yun’s sock. After an awkward, potent glance shared between Kyoshi and Yun, the woman huffed. “Children, I swear. You might be Avatars and criminals, but at the end of it all you’re just immature children.” She turned to Kyoshi. “We need to expose his skin, for you to heal it. I’m no waterbender myself, but I know enough about the craft to guide you.”

“Alright.” Kyoshi nodded with the determination of a university student and assisted Lao in removing the layers of cloth covering Yun’s shin. He was grateful only of both women’s gentleness with his injury, certain that the treatment wouldn’t last.

Once his skin was bare, Lao turned to face him, but not before producing a dried root from her basket. “Chew on this.” She offered. “It will ease the pain.”

With nothing else to do, Yun took the root. The trusting motion felt strange, and wrong. He knew better than to accept random roots or plants from people he didn’t know. It was one lesson he knew by heart even before he met Jianzhu.

Lao nodded and looked over him as he chewed, her eyes stopping over his stained hand. “Do we need to treat that too?”

Yun shook his head and took the root out of his mouth. “Oh, no-“

“We’ve tried, we can’t.” Kyoshi finished. “It’s permanent. It doesn’t hurt though, right?”

Yun shook his head.

“Hmph. Alright. Less work for me.” Lao shrugged. She turned to Kyoshi. “You. Start healing- there’s a bowl of fresh spring water beneath the table- not that we need it with all this rain. I’ll be in the back of the shop making a salve for your boy.”

“Alright.” Kyoshi nodded. She watched Lao disappear into the back of the shop before turning down to pull the water from the bowl.

The water was clear and sparked in the dim light, and was cool when Kyoshi applied it to Yun’s leg. While it definitely wasn’t his first time being healed by a waterbender, it had certainly been a while since he had seen the fluid, rolling motions in person. And it had never been Kyoshi doing it to him.

“You use fluid motions, like you’re shaping clay.” Kyoshi explained, noticing his interest in her actions. She caught herself. “Well, I don’t mean you necessarily, I-“

“Don’t say that.” Yun sighed. He leaned backwards. “Everyone gets it. Wow, you’re the Avatar. You can bend whatever you want. Good for you.”

Kyoshi answered in silence. Even though Yun wasn’t looking at her face, he could almost picture it- the furrow of her heavy brow, the slight parting of her lips, the glint in her deep, endless eyes. He put his had over his eyes. “What do you want, Kyoshi?”

“What do-what do I want?” The Avatar sputtered. Despite her apparent surprise, she maintained the bubble of water suspended above his injured leg. “What do you want?”

“I’ve made it very clear what I want.” Yun frowned. He paused, if for nothing but emphasis. “I want justice. Or revenge, if that’s what you want to call it. I want to right the wrongs done upon me.”

“Is that what you really want?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I don’t know, because there’s more to life then bathing in the blood of your own brutally slaughtered enemies and burrowing yourself into your hatred for the world? I’m giving you a chance to move on, Yun, I-“

“A chance to move on?” Yun let out a laugh so loud, it might’ve shaken the walls. “What chance? You’ve given me nothing!”

“I’m giving you a choice to make.”

“You’re giving me an execution date. That’s what you’re giving me.”

“Execution? Who said anything about execution?!” The water under Kyoshi’s grasp grew warmer under her pressure.

“I killed a hundred people! They’re going to execute me!” Yun put his hand over his chest- no, his heart. “These people might not remember me, but they won’t be merciful to me. I’m heading to the gallows no matter what happens.”

“No. No.” Kyoshi shook her head. “It’s a fair trial. I won’t let them kill you, after I put in all the effort to keep you alive in the first place.”

“You said, and I quote, ‘I will respect whatever decision is made by the court’.”

“I was talking about prisons to send you to, not your life!”

“Your girlfriend wants me dead. She’s been very clear about it.” Yun didn’t want to say her name, it’s meaning fading to obscurity in the back of his mind. What Rangi said or did now had no real impact, anyways .

Kyoshi took in a breath. “It’s not Rangi’s decision to make.”

“Then who’s is it? Because you’re certainly not acting like it’s yours.”

“I’m- I’m just trying to make the right decision. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t…. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Despite the waver in her voice and the tremble in her hands, Kyoshi’s grasp over the water remained steady and strong.

“You know you can’t do that. You know it.”

“What?”

“You can’t prevent everyone from getting hurt.” Yun shrugged. “Either you spare me and risk me killing… I don’t know, a hundred more people, or you kill me and live with your own guilt, probably for lifetimes to come. Seeing as you’re the Avatar and everything.” He paused and leaned back, letting the leaves of the plants around him cover his view. “Quite the moral dilemma, eh?”

Kyoshi didn’t answer. Her hands froze.

“What do you want from this trial, Kyoshi?” He lowered his voice. “What- what were you planning to happen to me? You have to have something in mind. You can’t just-“ Yun cut himself off before he could say any more.

“I don’t- I can’t-“ Kyoshi’s hands moved slowly from Yun’s leg to her own cheeks, gently wiping away the tears running down her face. “I just want you to be safe and happy. Why-why can’t you move on? We’ve all moved on and you’re- you’re murdering Hei-Ran?! You aren’t a killer, Yun! I know you aren’t.”

“Move on? You want me to move on?” Yun shouted. His voice bounced off the stone walls of the apothecary. “How can I move on from that? From any of it? It’s in my eyes and veins and the very essence of my being! It’s painted across even the most mundane of my memories! It’s tattooed across my arm! I can’t- I can’t escape it!”

“But you’re not even willing to try.” Kyoshi begged. The water once under the Avatar’s control had fallen into its natural, liquid state and stated seeping into the fabric of the seat below Yun. “Look. You’re not the only one who was affected by what happened. All of us were. Rangi, Hei-Ran, myself- especially myself. There’s no one more afflicted by what happened than you and me. We need to work together, though, to move through it.”

“Oh, sure.” Yun scoffed. “Of course you can move on. You, who went home with the power and the glory and the Avatarhood. You, who is seen as the world’s savior. You, who won. You came out of this as the Avatar. I came out of it as a fraud.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then what’s it like?”

When Kyoshi couldn’t give an answer, Yun took initiative and pulled himself off the wooden bed. Despite being an amateur, Kyoshi’s healing had worked, at least well enough to allow him to walk with only a slight limp. He could feel the Avatar’s gaze on his back as he slowly made his way through the shop. For whatever reason, she didn’t stop him.

Yun only looked back at Kyoshi when he reached the door, taking not of the fear painted across her features. She didn’t move, as if he had frozen her in time.

“I’m leaving.” Yun declared as his hand rest on the doorknob. Kyoshi didn’t answer but for giving him a wounded gaze, like spooked animal. He opened the door and walked into the storm outside. The bell chime near the entrance rang as he exited, but Yun couldn’t hear it once he shut the door behind him.