We should be there soon," Harry said, putting away the map.
"Can't Appa move any faster?" Sokka complained, "this is taking forever."
"Yeah, you're right, the bison that has been carrying us for days should move faster." Harry glared at Sokka.
"Look, all I'm saying is that this is taking a long time." Sokka shrugged.
"I have an idea! Why don't we all get on your back and you could fly us to the North Pole?!" Aang demanded angrily, the boy had a few triggers, and insulting Appa was one of them.
"It's alright guys, we're all just a little tired and cranky from the long flight but it's like Harry said, we'll be there soon," Katara spoke up.
"Great," Harry rolled his eyes. "long flights with a ponytail to landing in a place where everybody wants to kill me."
"I don't think everybody will want to kill you," Katara said hopefully.
"Nah, he was right the first time," Sokka replied. "everyone there will want to kill him."
"You're as brilliant and understated as always," Harry said sarcastically.
"Look, Harry, it'll all be fine," Katara told him in a confident voice.
"Hmm, 'It'll all be fine.', they said. 'It'll all be alright.' They said." Harry grumbled as he looked around and thought about the situation he found himself in.
They had indeed found the Northern Water Tribe, though it, unfortunately, did not go the way that Katara had predicted. Instead, it had ended up becoming just like how Harry had predicted. Right now Harry was currently standing in the middle of what appeared to be a courtyard made entirely of ice, rope tied his hands behind his back and to make things even harder, they had covered his hands to his wrists in ice.
'Guess they don't know how good I am at waterbending.' Harry thought to himself, it was true that the world knew he could waterbend but nobody really knew the full extent of his abilities, though he supposed that the small amount of waterbending he could do could be easily dealt with. Surrounding him was a large group of warriors, some with spears and swords, while others were bending water and looked ready to attack. All civilians had been moved away from the area, leaving only those that can fight.
Walking towards Harry was two men that were followed with Aang, Katara and Sokka, the three were currently doing their best to convince the men that Harry was not a threat to them. Harry took in the appearance of the two men, the first was a man with a black goatee and black shoulder-length hair. He walked with his chest out and his head held up but there was also a nervousness to him that he did his best to hide. Alongside the man was a thin, grey moustache and a thin grey goatee, he was bald on the top of his head and the rest of his hair was the same grey and fell down to his shoulders. He was walking in a similar manner to the first man but seemed less nervous.
"So, the 'Emerald Dragon'." The first man spoke as they stopped a short distance away.
"No, I'm just his devilishly handsome twin." Harry gave him an innocent smile, he didn't look impressed with Harry's response, nor did the man next to him.
"This man is Paku, our tribes best waterbender," The first man gestured to the second. "I have no doubt that even you would struggle against him."
"Hmm," Harry hummed but didn't say anymore, giving Paku a thoughtful look.
"And I am Arnook, chief of this tribe." The first man announced.
"A pleasure," Harry gave him a short nod. "now, I was hoping that we could get rid of this rope and talk about this like civilised human beings."
"And you would call yourself civilised?" Paku glared at Harry.
"I've never tied up a visitor who means no harm, so yeah." Harry shrugged.
"Harry, not helping." Katara sighed before turning to Paku and Arnook. "Listen to us, please, he really is a good guy. He's been helping us."
"It's true," Aang nodded. "he's helped me practise my bending, he told me he'd teach me firebending once I mastered the other elements, he helped us fight against..."
"Forgive me for the interruption, Avatar," Arnook spoke up. "perhaps all you said is true and not some elaborate trick to gain your confidence, but that does not erase the fact that this boy is our enemy and has cost us countless lives."
"Right, because you guys never ever killed any members of the Fire Nation," Harry drawled.
"We're in a war!" Arnook growled at Harry.
"Exactly," Harry nodded in agreement. "wars are horrible things and lives will be lost, but it doesn't mean that..."
"We're not interested in whatever excuses you may come up with," Paku cut him off. "I feel like we should put him on trial and let him face Water Tribe justice." There were many roars of approval at that.
"No, wait!" Aang butted in. "Yes, he did bad things in the past, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't offer him the chance to make things right. He's trying to help us, he's on our side and..."
"No, he's not!" A female voice yelled, a second later a furious looking girl with black, braided hair stalked forwards. She looked roughly about the same age as Harry.
"Kia, get back," A man, that was likely her father, spoke but the girl clearly ignored him in favour of walking forwards and stopping in front of Harry, close enough that she could reach out and slap him, and it looked like she really wanted to.
"You're not a good guy, you're a monster!" The girl hissed angrily.
"Clearly, now what did I do to you?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You don't know?!" The girl demanded. "I'll tell you what you did, asshole! You killed my brother! Years ago, on a Fire Nation ship!"
"Let me guess, he was one of those men that tried to capture the Fire Nation princess?" Harry asked, the girl didn't respond but her silence was good enough for Harry. "In that case, I want to let you know that I would do it again." Harry's words earned gasps from his friends along with a lot more glares, growls and insults from the tribe. "Your brother was part of a group that snuck up on a ship and killed people in their sleep."
"They were firebenders!" The girl argued.
"They were still human," Harry pointed out. "humans with family and friends. Your brother and the other guys with him killed them, right before they tried to kidnap Princess Azula. You call me a monster? Fine, but what about those men that killed people and tried to kidnap a girl?"
"She was a princess of our enemy nation, of course, we were going to try and kidnap her!" Kia snapped. "She was a firebending..."
"She was six years old!" Harry snapped loudly, causing the girl to step back and for everybody else to tense. "You accuse me with one breath before defending your people in the next, despite the fact that you would call their acts monstrous if they had been Fire Nation."
"Okay, this is getting a bit out of hand," Sokka interjected. "look, Harry is an annoying massive jerk with a shit ton of issues. Like, a real jerk."
"I'm sorry but who are you trying to help right now?" Katara glared at Sokka.
"But he's also helped us out, a lot." Sokka continued. "Without him, we would be just a trio of kids trying to fight a war. But thanks to him..."
"We're a better trio of kids plus a dragon!" Aang chirped.
"Not what I was going to say, but thank you, Aang." Sokka nodded to the young monk before turning back to the Water Tribe. "Look, the point is, that no matter what he did before, he's trying to help us now and he is doing his best to make things right. He's on our side."
"That might be the case, but how can we know for sure?" Arnook asked, shaking his head slightly. "How do we know that he hasn't just been trying to just gain your trust so he can later trick you as part of some elaborate trap? How can we trust him when he's done so much against us?"
"Perhaps the fact that I haven't tried to harm any of you since I got here?" Harry suggested.
"Like you could." Kia snorted, staring hatefully at Harry. Harry narrowed his eyes at her just before the ice around his hands turned into water, it had barely dropped halfway to the ground before Harry's shields activated, cutting through the ropes. Harry moved forwards as his shield changed back, his wrist blade came out of his right arm and stopped just short of Kia's neck while the water that used to be around Harry's hands had formed a dagger that Harry caught in his free hand and pressed against Kia's body. The other waterbenders, those that hadn't frozen in shock, quickly adopted fighting stances, water rising up next to each of them while the others held their weapons tighter.
"If I wanted you dead," Harry's voice was colder than the very ice they stood on, "then you would be dead." Harry retracted his wrist blade before he turned the ice dagger back into water and allowed it to splash harmlessly against the ground. He took a step back and looked around at all the waterbenders. "I really don't want to fight any of you, you'd probably win given your home advantage and numbers, but is that really going to be worth the amount of you I'd take out?" He looked around and saw that - despite his words - many were still considering attacking him.
"Enough!" Aang said, his voice holding a surprising amount of firmness and authority for a twelve-year-old monk. "There will be no more fighting! We're all on the same side! Harry is my friend and I will not let you all attack him!"
The waterbenders blinked and stared at their chief in the hope that he would tell them what to do, it was one thing when they were surrounding one of their most hated enemies. It was another thing entirely when the Avatar himself was defending him so passionately.
"Avatar Aang," Arnook spoke up after a few moments of silence, his voice calm and respectful. "it is out of respect for yourself and your past lives that we will not attack the Emerald Dragon. However, it cannot be denied that he has harmed a great many members of my tribe and many others while he served the Fire Nation. Besides you and your friends, there is not a single soul here that believes him to be trustworthy. The Emerald Dragon will stand trial for his crimes."
"Trial?" Katara dumbly repeated. "But he..."
"He is a murderer," Paku cut her off, looking quite unimpressed with her. "he should be thankful he even got a trial in the first place." Paku glared at Harry, Paku recalled General Iroh telling him not to judge the boy so harshly, but Paku couldn't help it. He had trained the very warriors that the Emerald Dragon had killed, and each one of their deaths had hurt him greatly.
"But..." Aang began but was interrupted by Harry.
"Aang, it's alright," Harry said in a gentle voice before turning to Cheif Arnook. "I will go peacefully under two conditions."
"You have conditions now?!" Kia blurted out, having finally regained her voice.
"Reasonable ones, or at least they are to me." Harry turned his attention back to Chief Arnook. "First of all, you will start having the Avatar trained in waterbending as soon as possible. The quicker he learns the elements, the quicker we can act against the Fire Nation." Harry ignored the whispers from the other members of the tribe and focused his attention on Arnook.
"Very well," He agreed after a short pause. "what is your second condition?"
"You let me out right after Avatar Aang has finished his waterbending training," Harry answered, earning various looks of disbelief.
"Let you out?" Arnook repeated, he sounded really unsure about if he had heard that right.
"Yeah, I got things to do, Fire Nations don't defeat themselves you know." Harry shrugged. "I've got to train the Avatar, keep him alive, fight a war, I'm just swamped, really. Besides, I'll be out of here one way or another. You could peacefully let me out, or I fight my way out, either way, the end result is the same."
"We will think about it." Arnook ground his teeth together in an effort to stop himself from glaring at Harry.
"Fair enough." Harry nodded, seemingly unaware of the reactions he was getting from the angry Water Tribe people.
"Harry, are you mad?!" Katara blurted out.
"Yes," Said Harry, answering honestly before he turned to Aang. "practise your waterbending, get it right."
"Hold up!" Sokka blurted out, his eyes wide as realization hit him like a fire blast. He quickly rushed forwards and began whispering in Harry's ear. "You planned this, didn't you?" He asked.
"Might have," Harry smirked.