-1"When Elements Collide."

A prophecy as old as the beginning of time.

Two bender's.

One born of fire.

One born of water.

Opposites.

Yet they are destined.

Destined for great things.

They must combine to save themselves.

And the world.

It is destined.

That the

Elements will combine.

Katara woke up when she heard yelling but she didn't open her eyes. It was probably just Toph complaining about being to far away from the ground, or Sokka yelling because Momo had taken his last bit of seal jerky, Momo screeching because he had tried to hit Momo with his boomerang, or it could be all three with Aang laughing his head off.

She sighed and thought about what had happened in the past few days. Azula was after them again, which made them quickly take off on Appa. They had been on Appa for four days and part of the night. Katara silently sighed as she tried to think of something to do. She could mend clothes. Nothing to mend at the time. She could talk to the others. Nope. Toph was a grouch when she was off the ground and Sokka and Aang couldn't hold an intelligent conversation for more than a minute. She could eat. Not hungry. She could sleep. She had already slept too much. There wasn't much that you could do on a flying bison that was flying. She could have watched the sights but there was nothing to look at. Just water all around them. She had almost forgotten what land looked like.

"HEY KATARA!!!" Sokka yelled, making Toph cringe. She was blind, so her other senses were higher than a normal persons. "ARE YOU AWAKE YET???"

"If she wasn't before, she would be now." Toph said. "Hey twinkle-toes." she said to Aang. He turned his head towards her a little. "Could you yell in my ear to see if I can still hear out of it?" she jokingly asked. But Aang didn't get the joke and he yelled in her ear. She screamed a threat to throw him off the bison if he ever did that again.

"Calm down, Toph." Katara said as she crawled out of her sleeping bag. "If we did, who would defeat the Fire Lord?" Toph rolled her eyes and turned her back to all off them.

"Its about time you woke up!" Sokka cried.

"I told you to wake me up if I fell asleep." she irritably said. Sokka and Aang shrugged.

"We tried. But you hit me in the arm and you punched Sokka in the eye." Aang explained. Katara looked at Sokka and sure enough, there was a black bruise forming around his eye.

"Sorry." she said. Toph sighed.

"Are we near land yet?" she asked. Aang and Sokka sighed.

"How many times is that, Sokka. And the answer, again, is no." Aang answered in an exasperated voice. Katara guessed that she had asked before.

"I think that it is……15 times." Sokka said after counting on his fingers. Aang sighed and Toph snickered. Sokka shook his head and turn back to watch the ocean. Soon he gasped and leaned forward. Katara quickly moved and grabbed his pants before he fell off.

"Sokka! What are you doing?" she cried. He excitedly pointed out to a blob on the horizon.

" Isn't that land" he said. They all quickly turned their heads and cheered. Appa quickly turned and sped off towards the land.

(Dream)

"Where am I?" he asked the darkness. He was alone. He turned around and around, trying to find some light in the darkness. Suddenly a blast of reddish light came from behind him. He spun around, ready to welcome the light, but he froze. The light was coming from a giant wall of fire. He turned to run but only found that the wall was behind him too. He frantically looked for an opening, a way out, but there was none. He was trapped.

The fire seemed to tease him, to laugh at him. Parts off it jumped off the wall in spikes and arches.

"STOP IT!" he cried out, but that only seemed to fuel it. He sunk to his knees and screamed. "JUST STOP IT!!!" the fire started its laughing again, enjoying seeing him in agony. But suddenly it went silent. He lifted his head and his eyes went wide. Standing in front of him was a man, no, a giant, made out of flames. He desperately tried to stand, to run away, but the feeling had gone out of his legs. The giant smiled evilly at his struggling. It reached its hand out and a fire ball appeared in front of it. The breath caught in his throat when he tried to scream. The giant thrust its hand forwards and the fire ball went flying at him. His eyes went wide and contorted in pain when it made contact. "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!" he screamed as the flames spread over his body. It didn't consume him, as he had thought it would. The fire wrapped itself around his arms and legs, bringing him as much pain as possibly. The giant laughed evilly before fading away as the wall replaced it. But before it completely disappeared, it said one thing.

"Pain and suffering, boy, Pain and suffering." then it was gone. The walls also disappeared with it, leaving him alone in his pain. He yelled and screamed at the pain that consumed him. He pulled his legs up to his chest and curled himself into a ball. He still screamed and tears started rolling down his face.

"Just stop it. Please. Make it stop." he said quietly to himself over and over again. Right after he said that, the flames started to flare up. He let go of his legs and started flailing around, effortlessly trying to put the flames out.

"Nephew." a voice said. He felt a pair of hands shaking him. But he didn't open his eyes, afraid of what he would see.

"No." he moaned trying to get away. He couldn't move again. His legs and arms felt like they were pinned down. He kept trying to get free, to run.

"Nephew." the voice said again. He just kept struggling. "I sorry that I had to do this…" he heard the voice say. He tried to get away, not wanting to know what the voice was going to do to him when…….

(End dream)

SPLASH!! Zuko shot up as he felt the cold liquid hit his skin. His uncle was standing over him with an empty bucket in his hands.

"Sorry, but it was the only way that I could wake you." Iroh said. "You were yelling out and flailing around on your sleep. Another bad dream?" he asked. Zuko sighed.

"The one with the walls made of fire and the man." he quietly said. Iroh took that as a yes and didn't go into it. He knew how the dreams plagued Zuko's sleep. They plagued his, too. "I'm going back to sleep." Zuko tiredly said. Iroh nodded and Zuko was asleep before his head even hit the ground. Iroh didn't go back to sleep. He sat by the fire and thought. They couldn't keep going like this. They were constantly on the run. If it wasn't fire nation, it was earth kingdom. They were wanted every where. They needed some real food and a lot of sleep. Zuko was up at the crack of dawn and didn't go to sleep until late. Even then. He was plagued by nightmares. Some were about his Agni Ki and his banishment. Other were about losing everyone who ever cared about him. His mother, his uncle, the only family he had left. Iroh sighed and looked over at Zuko. His breathing was uneven and every so often he mumbled out an incoherent word. Iroh stood up and walked over to his sleeping mat and laid down to try to get some sleep.

Katara sighed as she sat the dying fire. It was very early in the morning, the sun had barely risen. She hadn't slept since they had landed because she had gotten enough sleep on Appa. All of the other were asleep. She smiled and walked over to her brother. He turned in his sleep and smiled.

"Yue." he breathed out as he turned on his side. Katara's eyes widened when she heard that name. Her and Aang had thought that he was over her by now. They hadn't really talked about the North Pole around Sokka since it was a touchy subject. They had hoped that he would get over it but the heart doesn't heal easily. Katara knew how it felt.

Please, Yue. she thought as she looked at the fading moon. Watch over Sokka and Aang and Toph. I have a feeling that I won't always be here to look after them. Please Yue. You care about Sokka as much as I do…. she jerked her head up when she heard a loud crash in the forest. She crept to the side of the cliff they had chosen to rest on and gasped. The fire nation was also here. She spun around and say that the soldiers had already surrounded their camped. They smiled evilly as they silently walked out of the forest. Katara let out a scream, waking the others, and preparing for the battle ahead.

"Zuko." Zuko moaned as he brought himself back to consciousness. He squinted and saw his uncle standing over him. He also say that it was still early in the morning.

"What is it, Uncle? Can't it wait?" he groggily asked.

"No it can't. Get up and prepare for battle." he said. That got Zuko's attention. He shot up.

"Did they find us?" he quickly asked as he stood. Iroh shook his head.

"No, but they found someone else." Iroh said as he pointed to a nearby cliff. There was smoke rising from it and Zuko noticed that he could feel small tremors in the earth. "Hurry. We must help." Zuko was about to say that they should run away, but Iroh glared at him. He shut his mouth and quickly followed him towards the cliff and to his fate.

Katara gasped for breath as she pulled more water up the cliff. This general, Cho, was strong. Aang was having a little bit off trouble beating him. Even his soldiers were strong. They had been fighting for an hour. Sokka had been knocked senseless and Toph had a large cut on her arm, Aang didn't have any cuts but he was starting to tire. So was Katara. She had already knocked out more men then she could count but they just kept coming. She had a long cut running up her arm and another on her leg.

"Got you now, kid!" General Cho said. She glanced over and saw that Aang was clutching his arm in pain. The soldiers saw that she was distracted and they attacked. She gasped as the flames flew around her and she involuntarily back up. Soon she was on the edge off the cliff and the soldiers were surrounding her. They prepared to strike and she closed her eyes, not wanting to see her own death but it never came. She saw a bright blast of light in front of her eyes and she peeked one of them open. All of the soldiers were gone. She looked to the left of her and her eyes widened. Standing in a fighting stance was the retired dragon of the west, Iroh. The one that had always traveled with Zuko!

"Are you alright?" he asked as he turned to her. She hardened her eyes and took a fighting stance. He stared at her for a minute before sighing. "Young lady, I'm not here to fight. Does it look like I am with them?" he asked. She took a good look at him. He was wearing earth kingdom clothes and his ponytail was gone. His clothes were dirty and it looked like he hadn't had a decent bath in weeks.

"Sorry." she said as she drooped her stance. "Its just that you guys chased us all the way to the north pole so….." she trailed off, not sure off what to say. Iroh smiled at her.

"Its okay. But we're not her to talk, now are we?" he said. She looked up and saw her friends still fighting.

"Right." she said. Iroh ran up the hill to help the others and Katara said there and fought the soldiers that never seemed to stop coming.

Zuko ran up the other side off the hill, staying in the forest. He started to run faster when he heard a shrill shriek of a girl. He burst out of the forest and saw that the water tribe girl standing on the edge of the cliff, surround by soldiers. The others hadn't heard her scream. He ran forward and hit the closest soldier on the head knocking him unconscious. He ran through them and stood in front of the girl.

"Why are you here?" she spat out. She hadn't forgiven him yet,

"My uncle is helping, so why can't I?" he said as he fought the soldiers. The girl came forward and started fighting also.

"Your uncle didn't attack my home, or Aang. Your uncle also didn't chase us all the way to the north pole." she said as she used a water whip on a soldier.

"People change." he said. They continued fighting but more and more soldiers kept coming. Soon they were both too exhausted to bend anymore. The soldiers smirked at them. Zuko thought that they were going to use flames to kill them but they didn't. A few soldiers drew their swords and Zuko's eyes widened as he realized what they were going to do. He also saw that they didn't have enough time to run away. Katara screamed as they struck the swords in the ground, breaking part of the cliff off. The others heard her scream and looked over. But they were too late. All they saw was Katara's and Zuko's terrified faces as they disappeared over the cliff and all they could do was scream. Sokka, Toph, Aang. And even Iroh screamed as they disappeared.

Katara tried to scream but her breath caught in her throat. She felt something wrap around her waist but she didn't care. All she could think was I gonna die, I'm gonna die.

"Don't worry. I won't let you die." Zuko said from behind her. She realized that he was holding onto her waist. "We will survive." She nodded. Then she screamed as the rock fell down on their heads. She heard Zuko groan and felt his grip on her waist loosen. She turned her head and saw that he was out cold. She turned and grabbed onto him and felt her necklace come off. But she didn't care. Right now, all she wanted to do was save herself and him. She just had enough time to take a breath before they hit the water. She almost cried out when her leg caught on a submerged rock. She was quickly caught up in the current and they were pulled away. Just as it felt like her lungs were about to burst, they were tossed onto the shore. She lay gasping for breath. She looked over at Zuko and saw that he was still unconscious. Thankfully he was still breathing. But he did have a bad gash on his forehead. Katara tried to stand to heal it but she couldn't move. She fell back on the sand next to Zuko and let the sun warm her body. Her eyelids grew heavy and she feel asleep next to Zuko, her old enemy.