"Avatar Aang grows ill," the princes' father, Chief Nanuq spoke to his younger son over tea. "The news reports an internal illness, but no one really knows. It's likely the century he spent in ice took a greater toll than people realize."

Unalaq eyed his father skeptically. Since when did he ever care about Avatar Aang or any other affairs outside the Water Tribes?

"I've written to Master Katara. I told her I would send you to Air Temple Island to provide assistance," Nanuq sipped politely on ginseng.

The prince couldn't hide his shock. "Why would you promise such a thing? I may be a healer, but I'm no Katara."

"No, of course not," Nanuq agreed with a single nod, "But what you can do with spirits and people's spiritual energy is unlike anything she's ever done. Perhaps, you might be able to see things from a different angle."

Unalaq had no idea what he could do that hadn't already been done for the aging Avatar. Mournfully, his mind pictured the time when his bending was unable to coax the newborn child's spirit to remain within the frail, premature body it arrived in. If he couldn't save someone who was meant to live, how was he supposed to save someone who was meant to die? "His spirit has nothing to do with-"

The crashing open of ice door cut through Unalaq's words.

Father and son jumped to their feet and were greeted by two Water Tribesmen, one with his fists raised and knives attached to his belt, the other with hands raised in floating water.

"Stand down, men!" Nanuq shouted.

Unalaq noticed that these men were dressed in military uniform. Were they protecting them or preparing to attack them?

"We will not," the nonbender growled before lunging for the white haired chief.

Unalaq pulled water from the icy floor with both hands, wrapping it around the nonbender to the neck. Just as he was about to freeze it, the water around the nonbender turned to ice spikes and shot out at both royals.

"Get close to me!" Unalaq swept his arms out, reforming the ice spikes into water droplets, then a single water stream, before directing it back at both assailants.

Just as Unalaq's attack landed, the floor underneath the two men melted, dropping them through it to the story below.

Unalaq whirled around to face his father who was rising from a kneeling position.

"I'll find your mother, you find Tonraq!" Nanuq commanded.

Unalaq wanted to protest, but he was in no position to refuse. With a resolute nod, he made his exit and hoped his father found his mother.

…

Tonraq found that training green sixteen year old cadets was always a tedious task but necessary evil. However, he took solace in the fact of the Hundred Year War being fifty years behind the world and no violent conflict had emerged since.

His only job was maintenance, to ensure the Northern Water Tribe had a functioning military if necessary. Often times, that involved developing and implementing various exercises of attack by both domestic terrorists as well as foreign nations, but other times, his days involved simple conditioning, bending combat, or nonbending combat.

Today was one of those days.

While many - even his dad - wondered why he personally saw to the training of the youngest cadets, Tonraq considered his personal involvement as a morale booster; cadets get excited when they get to meet one of the highest generals as well as the crown prince to the throne. More often than not, their motivation or fear of failure in front of him pushes them to do even better than they normally would. That, and he was determined to have no weaklings in the ranks, trusting nearly no one to properly get teenage boys - some still rather waifish - into good physical condition.

One particular sparring pair caught his eye. Nuka and Sirmiq were both waterbenders and some of the top cadets who constantly surprised him, but right now, Nuka was breaking through every one of his partner's defenses.

Sirmiq was taking his advice a little too literally, relying too heavily on firebending style punching and kicking, and tiring himself out while Nuka stood firm and patiently waited before relaxing and redirecting everything.

"Cadets," Tonraq called as he approached, wanting to catch them while they both were still standing.

The teenagers instantly straightened and gave tight, fisted salutes over their chests, "Sir."

"At ease," Tonraq instructed, turning to Sirmiq. "I appreciate the zeal in applying what I said about other bending styles, but remember, you're still a waterbender."

"I was trying to take advantage of his stance, sir. He was a sitting turtle-duck and I figured I could knock him down," Sirmiq acknowledged with a sheepish smile and a darting glance at his partner.

"Knock an earthbender off their feet?" Tonraq said with a light chuckle. "That's exactly what they're trying to avoid, more so than any other type of bender," his eyes narrowed as he spoke, noticing a frantic waterbender gliding across the snow.

"Brother!" the waterbender was Tonraq's brother, cutting sideways into the snow to stop himself.

"Chief Unalaq," both cadets greeted with a bow.

Unalaq ignored the cadets as he raced to Tonraq. "Father and I were attacked by men in military attire. They were everywhere in the capital. I don't know who I can trust."

Military attacking his father and brother? The capital? Tonraq bristled. How could he have missed any radicals talking of assassination?

"Cadets," Tonraq called sharply. They needed to act fast before any terrorist assassinated his parents and harmed anyone else.

"Sir," they saluted together.

"Nuka, bring everyone here, now," Nuka wasted no time in propelling himself off on a board of ice. "Sirmiq, go into my tent and bring whatever paint you can carry here."

…

The battle was intense, but they had won. None of his cadets - all painted in distinct patterns by Tonraq and Unalaq to separate them from the terrorists - faltered in pushing the terrorists out of the capital, past the outskirts of the city, and into the forest.

Tonraq wished it was over, but the traitors, all older and more experienced than the young teenagers he had taken with him, lied in wait. What the general did have on his side, however, was that all of his cadets were benders and many of their attackers were not.

Without words, he instructed the cadets to draw the water from the trees and leaves, thinning the foliage in which to hide. Using the water in tandem, they slammed it back down around the bushes and debris. They withdrew water from the central pool and repeated this motion again and again, until nothing moved.

But the crown prince was no idiot. Despite being completely unprepared, he had his cadets hunker down just outside the forest and sleep on two watches.

They hunted from the tundra surrounding the forest and remained grounded for another night.

Not a single traitor emerged from the forest either night.

Tonraq and the teenaged cadets returned home, the former relieved to discover that his entire family survived the attack. Unalaq had returned to the city to protect their parents, but it wasn't completely necessary since their mother was a bender and their father a trained warrior. Both held their own just fine, the crown prince learned at dinner the night he returned home.

Safe and warm in his own bed later that night, Tonraq couldn't sleep.

The forest haunted him. He left it in shambles. All the flora was completely dead, stripped of its life source and chopped into pieces from the fight. Any fauna present must have scattered just as the terrorists tried to.

They emptied the sacred pool as an extra water source against them.

Wait a minute… sacred pool?

Oh, spirits, what did he do?

How had the spirits not struck any of them dead? Chasing the traitors into that forest of all forests!

But the spirits hadn't struck any of them dead. Surely, that was a good sign. Tonraq forced himself to close his eyes, waiting for sleep to claim him quickly and hoping he would see all his cadets in the morning.

The prince found himself lying awake again. Yue had moved positions from what he could see through his window, telling him that maybe a couple of hours had passed.

Despite the new moon, though, it was not dark outside. Nor quiet, he realized as he heard loud crashing and the distinct sound of waterbending.

Tonraq shot out of bed and grabbed his nearest trousers. Had they failed? Approaching the window, he was relieved to find he did not fail, but his fears had come true.

Spirits, tall, translucent spirits were attacking the capital now!

One of the walking purple giants froze in its tracks. Tonraq held his breath and didn't dare move to even swallow the lump in his throat. The spirit turned, baring what looked like its face to him, but the second it did, it lunged one of its limbs through the window. Tonraq tumbled away further into his room, only barely avoiding being struck.

If he made it to morning, he was very curious if any of the cadets had been singled out.

He rounded up ice from the floor and whipped the spirit with melted water. It held out its arm again but just as Tonraq was about to create some distance with a well placed tornado, glowing yellow water began to encircle the entity.

Tonraq's chest heaved and he released the breath he had been holding.

"Brother?" he called, knowing Unalaq to be the only person who could bend this way, but he received no response.

Flabbergasted and relieved all at once, he let his face drop into his hands, thankful that Unalaq had been there.

...

Despite keeping his life, Tonraq would never find out if his cadets were safe.

His father called him and Unalaq to his throne room the second the younger prince returned, not giving his brother a second to remove his parka or breathe.

"Do you realize what you've done?" his father roared, not bothering to wait until Tonraq had closed the door behind them.

Tonraq closed his eyes. He knew exactly what his father was referring to. Put two and two together and the connection was clear; the destruction of that stupid, sacred forest and then the hostile spirits seeking revenge. The only question, was could his father put that together? "Father, the tribe is safe," he said carefully without telling an outright lie.

"What a pitiful, spineless answer!" the chief said poisonously. "I know you are the cause of this destruction!"

"Father-" Tonraq tried to speak. Oh how he could be as good with words as his brother, right about now.

"Silence!" his father boomed, his eyes icy on his eldest.

"You used that forest as your personal waterskin," he spat the words, disgusted. "Do you deny this?"

"I do not," Tonraq answered quietly. There was no use in lying when all the evidence against him stacked up perfectly.

"After tonight, you brother made me aware of the sanctity of that forest" Unalaq's neutral expression faltered under the stares of his father and brother, but immediately, his father turned back to Tonraq and added, "Before all this happened, I was going to discuss it with you and tell you to never do such a foolish thing again."

"Father," Unalaq spoke up. "The tribe is safe and the spirits have safely returned to the forest."

"Only because you were there," Nanuq pointed out. "We'd probably all be dead otherwise."

Right. Unalaq had been the first responder for both attacks. First, he warned against the terrorists and held them off with their parents, and then, he saved everyone from the angry spirits.

"I accept any punishment," Tonraq bowed his head, whatever he had to do to get his father's anger to cease.

Nanuq's breath hitched in anger, he descended the steps and stopped only inches away from Tonraq. "Do you have any shred of regret?" he asked in a voice barely over a whisper.

Tonraq looked up to meet his father's eyes. He knew he should suck up and agree in order to get all of this to stop, but something inside him ticked and screamed at his father to be a little more grateful that he was able to eliminate a terrorist threat with a group of barely trained teenagers. "No. I'm grateful Unalaq was there to calm the spirits, but I don't regret doing whatever I had to do to save you, mom, and the rest of the tribe."

"Is that so?" Nanuq asked dangerously. "You don't regret not thinking things through? Did you know Unalaq was supposed to leave for Air Temple Island yesterday?"

"What?" Tonraq blurted. For what?

Unalaq held his arms across his chest, obviously uncomfortable with the spotlight.

"To assist Master Katara in diagnosing Avatar Aang's illness. You talk of wanting to protect everyone, but do you realize we all would have been killed if Unalaq had left as planned?" Nanuq's voice rose as he spoke, his rage breaking loose once more.

"But I didn't, father," Unalaq offered cautiously, throwing Tonraq an apologetic glance. "We shouldn't waste time debating the could have been's."

"Not another word out of you," Nanuq hissed. "Your brother is a man. He can defend himself."

"I shouldn't have destroyed that forest. I didn't realize it was home to spirits but neither did you until Unalaq told you." If Unalaq hadn't told their father about the forest, this conversation wouldn't even be happening.

Unalaq frowned at the implication. "I didn't realize it wasn't common knowledge."

"Silence, both of you!" Nanuq yelled over his sons.

Once they were both quiet, Nanuq focused on Tonraq and continued, "What you did was barbaric. We have no idea who attacked the tribe or why, and we'll never be able to find out. We have no idea if there's more of them out there who'll do it again. We'll never be able to prepare… When did you ever learn how to behave like an uncivilized assassin?"

Tonraq felt himself clenching his teeth together. What did his father want from him?

"Answer me!" his father snapped.

Tonraq sighed, recalling his moments of not thinking, only sending Nuka and Sirmiq away to enact his plans. "When Unalaq told me you two had been attacked by men in military attire, I didn't think. I just acted. But they were military, father. They'll be easy to track. News spreads and I'll be able to talk to anyone who knew them, find out why they dare even so much as think of assassinating the royal family."

"No, Tonraq," his father voice was cold and final. "Your recklessness put the entire tribe in danger. It's one thing to throw yourself into stupid situations, but another to risk hundreds of thousands of lives. What kind of chief will you be if you need your brother to clean up after your thoughtless mistakes?"

Tonraq's eyes widened at the mention of chief. Was this conversation going where he thought it was? He wanted to know but wisely knew better than to ask such a question.

"While I'm still alive, I can't put the tribe at risk like that ever again. To ensure it stays safe after I'm gone, I am banishing you from the Northern Water Tribe," his father's voice hitched and by the end, Tonraq swore his own jaw was on the floor. Even Unalaq, who had been silently watching the exchange was astounded, staring at their father with wide eyes.

"Father, I can fix the damage, learn-" Tonraq said all at once.

"No," Nanuq quietly cut him off, "I cannot take it back. Perhaps, you may learn a bit of temperance."

Banished? He had never even left the north! Where would he go? Would he be allowed to take anything with him or was he going to be forced out onto a canoe with only the clothes on his back?

"How long will he be banished?" Unalaq asked softly.

"Permanently. You may stay until the morning," Nanuq whirled around and stalked out of the throne room without another word.

The two brothers' eyes landed on each other and a suffocating silence filled the room. Unalaq still looked massively uncomfortable, his eyes jumping from Tonraq's to the wall past him, his arms wrapped tightly around his leaner frame.

Just like that, his father hated him and he was being thrown out of the only home he ever knew, all thanks to his brother's stupid mouth.

"Why did you wait until now to tell him about the forest?" Tonraq asked sharply.

"I didn't know you went there until the spirits walked themselves back there," Unalaq's face turned softer, "It was awful, Tonraq. The forest… it was horrible. How could you cause so much destruction?"

Tonraq tore his eyes away. He didn't think at all, that's how. All he wanted to do was eliminate the threat and make sure his family and tribe were safe.

He wished the ground would swallow him whole. He wished he could take everything back. If he had even considered interrogating the terrorists, then none of this would be happening; he wouldn't have put everyone's lives in danger again and he wouldn't be losing his birthright and the only life he's ever known.

"Brother," Unalaq moved to stand closer to him.

"Don't," Tonraq winced slightly when Unalaq abruptly stopped in his place; the command came out sharper than the prince - former prince - intended. "Please. I don't need the pity. I brought this on myself… If only I had taken two seconds to actually think…"

"You were caught up in the heat of the moment-" Unalaq tried to comfort him, but there was no comfort for a banished prince.

"You wouldn't have been!" Tonraq snapped, making Unalaq jump. "Father knows it, I know it, and you know it."

His brother's silence confirmed it.

"Since I'm going to be homeless come tomorrow, I'm going to bed. Goodnight," there was no emotion in his words because Tonraq had no idea what to feel.

A hand caught his shoulder and Unalaq spoke, "At least let me help you find a place to live. Perhaps the south?" he asked as he removed his hand from Tonraq's person.

"I'm pretty sure I'm banished from both tribes."

Was Unalaq even allowed to help him or would he get banished for that too? Helping the impulsive imbecile was now a crime punishable by banishment…

"He didn't say both," Unalaq sounded certain of this, "Please," he begged his brother, offering a hand.

Tonraq glanced between his brother's eyes extended hand. While he was sure he would be allowed to take his possessions, he wasn't so certain about his money. But still, he was a grown man. He didn't need handouts from anyone, either. Even though he was a prince who had wanted for nothing his entire life, the thought of taking anyone's charity repulsed him.

But the stricken look on Unalaq's face when father declared his banishment and the pleading look now made it impossible to say no, so he took Unalaq's arm and the brothers embraced.

...

AN: Yeah, the last scene is my favorite. I wasn't too sure where I was going with this except not making Unalaq a complete asshole even though most of this ended up in Tonraq's pov.