Maybe it had been when he bound her to a tree, helpless, but she stood proud and defiant against him anyway.

Maybe it had been any number of times he had seen her fighting in defense of her allies, even when they both knew she was outclassed.

Maybe it had been when he realized that maybe she wasn't so outclassed after all, and had only won the fight in the oasis by a rare streak of luck and the light of the sun.

Maybe it was when, the very next time he saw her, despite everything, she offered to heal his uncle.

But later, he would reflect, it hadn't been until she'd offered to heal him and placed two, soft, warm fingers on his ruined red face that he had really begun to notice her.

When Azula had thrown him into this underground jail cell, the last person he had expected (or wanted) to be stuck with was the girl. The first half an hour or so had been uncomfortable and tense—long silences interspersed with harsh words and wounded feelings. But then, this girl, this…

Katara, that was her name, he remembered. Though his specific knowledge of her was not vast, it had accumulated and morphed in little bits and pieces through every encounter:

She was a Water Tribe peasant.

She was an accomplice to the Avatar.

She was an annoyingly proud and defiant girl.

She was an unexpectedly skilled bender.

And more recently, he had also discovered this:

She was absurdly compassionate.

She had lost nearly as much as he had because of his nation.

And… she was actually rather pretty, in an exotic sort of way.

That last piece of information didn't help with much of anything, but he couldn't deny it under the cold emerald glow of their mutual crystal prison.

She was even attractive when his eyes had slid shut, breath caught in his chest from the feather-light contact on his skin. Her voice, rich and melodic, murmuring soothing promises to heal, to fix, trickled past his ear like the element she controlled so well.

But in his mind, he heard an additional promise whispered in her words.

Redemption, redemption, redemption…

His scar. It was his mark of shame, of disgrace, he had told her. 'The Mark of the Banished Prince.' And she had offered to remove it, to lift it from his face forever.

He held no delusions to the extent of her offer, though. Removing his scar wouldn't make him any less of a fugitive or traitor. It wouldn't undo his disgrace. It wouldn't return his father's approval and love, if he had even had it in the first place. It wouldn't give 'Prince Zuko' his life back.

But maybe that was okay. His life as a prince hadn't been very pleasant, anyway.

But 'Lee'… being Lee had been nice…

Never forget who you are…

His mother's words, so comforting in the past, now tore at him. Could he really forsake everything he was, just like that? Would removing his scar change the person underneath?

No.

But hadn't the person underneath already changed anyway? He certainly didn't feel the same as the Prince he knew and hated…

Maybe he felt more like… the Prince he had forgotten about. The boy he had been when his mother had actually given him those fervent words of guidance, before… everything happened. Maybe that was the 'who' he was supposed to be true to, not the banished Prince questing for his honor.

But then, was he really that person again? Was he really still himself? What did all of those words even mean? What was he, the Prince, 'Zuko', made up of? Who was he supposed to be?

Confused, frustrated, his thoughts swarmed and chased each other in circles around his mind, refusing to settle and give him any definitive answers. Abruptly, Katara's hand withdrew from his face and he opened his eyes again. She continued speaking—had it really only been seconds that his eyes were shut?—and though his mind was like a swarm of vulture-wasps, he fixed himself upon every word she spoke.

She had reached down into her shirt and, reverently, withdrew a small blue and white vial capped with a cork decorated with a crescent moon.

"This is water from the Spirit Oasis," she informed him, and his mind instantly traveled back to that unlikely place, where soft green grass had somehow grown in the middle of the frozen tundra, and two great spirits dwelt in tiny, mortal forms. Where the girl before him had frozen him to a wall, where he had just barely eked out a victory against her, where he had finally snagged the Avatar's unconscious body and then had nowhere to go.

Where he had woken up in the Sky Bison's saddle, hours later, knowing that the Avatar must have saved him—again—and at the time, had only thought of how foolish it was for the boy to make the same mistake twice.

With a muted 'pop', Katara uncorked the vial and coated her hand in a thin film of water. It glowed blue.

"It has special healing properties," she told him, staring calmly at her hand, then his face. She reached towards it, and his breath caught again. "I can—"

But before he could decide anything, before she had time to heal him, before she even had time to finish her explanation, their conversation was cut short and the moment was ended.

"KATARA!" The water instantly flew back into its container and Katara jumped back guiltily from him at the sound of her name being yelled. Zuko turned to see the Avatar and his Uncle, of all people, come walking through a gaping hole in the wall that hadn't been there a second ago.

At the moment, the waterbender and the monk had eyes only for each other as they rushed to meet each other in a reunited embrace. Zuko, however, was busy voicing his surprise.

"Uncle?" The man in question merely gave one of his trademark mellow grins and strode regally over to him.

"Ah, Prince Zuko. I am happy to see you are well. I—"

"Wait! Uncle, what—"

"—is HE doing here! ?" Two voices yelled in tandem. Zuko turned to glare at the source of the other voice, and the Avatar met him with equal anger.

"What am I doing here?" Zuko asked incredulously.

"Yeah, what are you doing here with her?" Suddenly his eyes went wide and he snapped around to his companion. "Katara, what are you doing here with him?" Zuko's shout drowned out Katara's angry "What?"

"WE were both thrown into this PRISON CELL, you halfwit! Do you think I chose to be trapped in a cave like this? How can you even blame—"

"Children," Iroh's calm voice, laced with authority, cut across the room and resonated deeply in the cave. Zuko felt a pang of embarrassment and shame at the term, though his Uncle didn't always need to address him as such to make him feel like a child. "Please, don't argue. We do not have the time for such petty things right now. We need to focus on first, getting out of here, and then finding a way to stop Azula from taking over Ba Sing Se. And the best chance we have at doing that is if we all work together."

Us work with them? Zuko almost voiced the thought, but in a rare moment of restraint, decided against it. Hadn't he been ready just seconds before to accept aid from Katara?

Across the room, the Avatar sighed and nodded. "You're right—I don't think we have any other choice." His face was grim, but accepting. Zuko scowled. Working with the girl was one thing, but the Avatar… He finally grunted his approval in the direction of his uncle, who smiled.

"Excellent. Now then, if our earthbending friend would be so kind as to lead the way out of here…?" Iroh trailed off in a half-question. The Avatar nodded and turned, leading them to the opposite side of the cave. Katara threw one, brief look over her shoulder at Zuko, then followed right behind the monk. Zuko sighed and kept pace beside his uncle.

It felt so… wrong, somehow, to be working together with the Avatar instead of chasing him. He didn't like this. Not at all. If everything he had done up to this point hadn't made him a traitor against his country, this certainly would. But what other choice did he have?

~o0o~

As it turned out, he did have another choice, but it hadn't been presented to him until he was already caught up in the heat of battle—not exactly the best time to make a decision of any great magnitude, but he managed to boil it down into simple terms in his head:

The Avatar and his Uncle…

…or Azula and his country.

He dodged a flying fist of rock and sent a volley of flame in return. Jumping in the air to avoid an erupting pillar of stone, he turned halfway in the air and sent a flaming kick towards a Dai Li's head. He landed a little unevenly, but managed to right himself just in time to duck another stone glove sent his way. Growling, he sent out three quick, successive bursts of fire at the bender sending the gloves at him and managed to clip him on the arm. The man stopped for just a second to pat out the flames with an earth-coated fist, but a second was all Zuko needed. Another burst of fire, and the man was down.

Zuko took the momentary reprieve in battle to look around him. Azula and the Avatar were fighting one-on-one. Or rather, Azula was shooting huge blue jets of fire every half-second and the Avatar was dodging them. To most people it would have appeared as though the monk was losing, and badly, but Zuko knew first hand just how good the little baldy was at evasive maneuvering.

Katara was fighting by the pools, surrounded by at least ten Dai Li. And she appeared to be holding her own, if not winning. And Uncle was doing the same, fighting at least twice that many.

Zuko just barely avoided the Dai Li agent that exploded out of the earth in front of him, and threw a reactionary punch at the man's gut. And, unfortunately for the earthbender, that fist was also coated in fire. Dropping the man and darting away to a more defensible position, Zuko readied himself for another attack.

He knew he should wipe his mind of all but the fight before him. He knew he shouldn't be thinking of stupid things like destiny and purpose when his life was on the line. But his racing thoughts just would not let him go.

It almost felt as if everything he had lived through—survived, really—in the past three years had been leading up to this moment. He knew, just knew, that the outcome of this battle would determine his fate. He even knew what two fates he had to choose from.

The problem was, he had no idea which one to take.

The Avatar. Uncle. Katara. Redemption. Treachery to his country, his father, and his birthright.

Azula. Father. Redemption. His country. His honor. Treachery to his Uncle.

Either way, he would end up a traitor to someone. Either way, he would turn his back on his blood. Either way, he would lose some part of himself that he valued.

Each choice felt wrong.

Each choice felt right.

He didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at that moment.

He could really never win, could he?

But, if that was true, then could he lose, either?

Yes, his mother's voice whispered in his head. He could lose himself. Remember who you are. Not the Prince of the Fire Nation, not the banished son, not 'Zuko' or 'Lee', but him: what choice would he make? What choice was right?

"Zuko!" Azula shouted. The Dai Li had ganged up on the Avatar, and his sister had shifted over to fight the waterbender, who had driven off or incapacitated all of her other opponents.

"With your help, we can defeat them! You can still redeem yourself in the eyes of our father!" And she lunged for Katara with two blue daggers of fire.

Azula always lies…

Remember who you are…

It was the perfect opening: both girls were faced away from him, Azula attacking, Katara defending.

And he didn't have some great, glowing epiphany, some moment of enlightenment—he just felt for the very core of his being, and grabbed onto it. He just remembered who he was.

And he chose.

He sent a ferocious blast of flame towards the girl, and she dodged neatly, a feminine squawk of surprised outrage flying from her lips, followed closely by a yelled accusation.

"YOU!"

There was no going back now.

~o0o~

A great peal of thunder crashed down around them. It sounded like screeching metal, as if two Fire Navy ships had somehow collided at great speed.

But they weren't on the ocean, or even by the shore. They were up in the air, soaring away from Ba Sing Se as fast as the giant bison could carry them. They were fleeing—both from the storm behind them and the conquered stronghold.

It seemed to Zuko that running was all he did, these days.

"Everyone in the saddle, now!" The water tribe boy, (Sokka, he thought,) commanded. "We need to get out to sea before this thing catches up with us." Zuko was already there, as were the Earth King and his odd pet. The little earthbender girl hopped up first, relinquishing her place at Sokka's side and crawling over to sit at his right, a few safe feet away from him. Then, carefully, Katara came next, still cradling the small unconscious monk in her arms. She sat down across from him, but did not look at him. It might have been the few drops of rain that had just started to fall, but he thought he saw her crying.

Sokka stayed seated on the bison's head, and urged the creature into doubletime. The stormy air around them was tense, and thick. Zuko's mind clouded over darkly.

He had made his choice. He had, without thought, aimed a blast of fire at his own sister. He had made it clear which side he would be fighting on—his uncle's side, the Avatar's side.

And then they had lost.

Congratulations, Zuko, Azula's snide voice mocked him in his head. You threw away your very last chance for redemption. I guess the life of a peasant and a traitor were just too appealing for you. But, it's not as if I expected anything less from a failure.

Had this really been right? What had he done, really, in choosing this side? How could this be right when he felt so angry, so depressed, so ashamed at losing?

Don't worry, Zuzu. You won't have to live with your shame for long—I will hunt you down and end it for you.

Yes, he thought bitterly. I'm sure we'll be seeing her again very soon.

What had he done? Was he crazy or something? He had just thrown away everything he had ever strived for! And for what? So he could be hunted down alongside the Avatar instead of hunting for him? Because his life had just been too good to stay that way for long? Because fate decided that he would always be on the losing side?

"This is insane…" he muttered to himself, but the earth girl must have had really good ears, because she replied,

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But once you're with us for awhile, you'll get used to it." Zuko blinked, then shook his head.

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?" He asked heatedly. The girl just gave a lazy shrug.

"Eh, the constant flying, being chased down by crazy Fire Nation Royalty, fighting against terrible odds—now that you're on our side, you'll get your fill of all of that and more." She narrowed her eyes, and, still facing somewhat away from him, jabbed her finger in his face. "Why, what were you talking about?" He scowled and carefully pushed her arm down from his face.

"Yes, I meant this. All of this" and he waved his arms around, though even he wasn't quite sure what all he was referring to, "is insane! What was I thinking? Why did I… we lost, and now we're running away, and Uncle…" he trailed off quietly.

It had all happened so fast. One minute, he and his Uncle had been waiting to serve tea to the Earth King, and the next, he was fighting his sister and way too many earthbenders, and then the Avatar had fallen—just like that, Azula could beat him, even in the Avatar State—and then they had been backed into a corner and Uncle had told them to Run! I'll hold them off while you escape! And they had left him. He had left his Uncle in the clawed hands of his sister—to be captured or worse—while he ran off like a coward. He had abandoned him. Again. Only this time, he knew there was a very good chance he would never see him again.

"Hey," the earthbender's voice, softer than before, cut into his thoughts. "Don't worry about your Uncle. He's tough. He'll be alright." She wore a mysterious little smile, but her eyes were still blank. And he realized, with a start, that she was blind.

"You're blind," he blurted out before his mind could catch up with his actions. Annoyance flitted across her features before changing to surprise.

"Wait, what? I'm not—" she waved her arm in front of her face and her mouth dropped open in mock horror. "OH MY GOSH, I CAN'T SEE! SOMEBODY HELP, I'M BLIND!" Zuko snorted and crossed his arms across his chest, and the blind girl dropped back down into her seat and gave him a brittle smile.

"Never gets old," she told him.

"Ah, yeah…" What did he say to that? How could she be so cavalier about their situation? Had she just been trying to lighten the mood? Well, if she had, it hadn't really worked. Looking around the saddle, the Earth King still looked extremely uncomfortable, the bear was asleep, Sokka hadn't even turned around during their whole exchange, and Katara was just casting wary glances at the two of them in between staring helplessly at the boy still cradled in her lap.

Zuko's philosophy was, 'if you can't think of something to say, don't say anything at all'. So he didn't, and after a long moment of silence the girl just shrugged and turned her blank gaze away from him to stare at, literally, nothing.

It was quiet then for awhile after that, despite the storm raging just behind them. Everyone appeared to have lost themselves in their own thoughts, and Zuko was no different. He just kept asking himself, what now? but could never think of any definitive answer. He almost felt like he shouldn't, yet, not until his mind was calm and he could make a clear decision. Hadn't his Uncle just been telling him that he needed to think things through?

His Uncle…

He couldn't help but wonder if the earthbender's reassurances were true. Would his Uncle really be okay? No, he found himself immediately thinking. Azula has him now…But, then again, it was just so hard to imagine the man actually losing, to anyone. Even if he was captured, his Uncle had already proven he was more than capable of handling himself.

But, then again, again, this was no troop of earthbending soldiers—this was Azula, his sister, the prodigy.

And, this time, Zuko wouldn't be there to stop Iroh's hands from being crushed.

"Toph," Katara's voice was choked and rough from crying, and Zuko was startled out of his thoughts by the sudden sound. The earthbender—Toph, he now knew—perked up and turned her head in the waterbender's general direction. Katara cleared her throat and started again. "Toph, it's starting to rain harder. I need you to take Aang and wrap him up in some blankets—keep him warm." Her eyes flickered over to Zuko nervously for just a second, so quick that he almost thought he had imagined it—but then her focus was back on Toph. The blind girl shifted forward on her hands and knees towards Katara, who carefully transferred the Avatar off her lap and into Toph's grasping hands. "I'm going to try and bend the rain away from us, okay? We can't have anybody getting sick like last time." Toph cocooned the sleeping monk in a swath of blankets, then wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't worry, Sweetness. I'll keep Twinkletoes warm." Sweetness? Twinkletoes? He felt a smile working its way onto his face despite himself.

Oh, everyone has nicknames, Zuzu. It's just part of being a family. His smile changed to a scowl. If he couldn't even get away from his sister in his own head, how was he supposed to avoid her in the real world? (He also briefly wondered if this meant he really was crazy, but decided that that particular avenue of thought might not be very healthy at the moment.)

Meanwhile, Katara had positioned herself near the center of the saddle. She stood up on her knees as tall as she could go, and began slowly weaving her hands through the air. The rain suddenly stopped falling on him, hitting the air a foot above his head and then just sliding off around them, over the side of the saddle.

It looked like tedious work—she just kept moving her hands high above her head in slow, twisting motions, repeating the same movements over and over. Sweat beaded at her brow, and she grunted a little as she shifted her legs to get more comfortable. The very tiniest hint of pink stuck out of her mouth, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she concentrated. He watched, mesmerized, as her hands seemed to push at the sky, to bat away each individual raindrop with her slender brown hands.

And when her eyes darted down to check on all of the occupants of the saddle and landed on him, he realized—too late!—that he had been caught staring.

"Ah!"

"Ack! Katara!"

"Hey! What's the big idea?"

Shouts of indignant surprise came from all over the saddle as the rain suddenly fell on them again, now harder than ever. Zuko broke his gaze away from the waterbender—but not before she could send a nasty glare his way—and he tried to make the sudden guilty movement look like he was flinching from the rain. He looked pointedly away from her, and the rain lifted from them seconds later.

"Oops! Sorry guys. Guess I got a little distracted." Her words were dry and sharp, and Zuko told himself that his now-burning ears were just from the sudden cold of the rain, and nothing more.

But instead of making everyone more depressed and grumpy than they had been, the dump of cold water seemed to liven the dark mood that had settled over them.

Or, he supposed, it could have had more to do with the words Sokka shouted just a minute later.

"Look! There's the coast! I think I can see Dad's fleet!" Katara turned carefully, still bending the rain away, and squinted at the horizon.

"I don't know, Sokka," she said doubtfully. "I don't see anything. I think it's just the light reflecting off the water." Sokka rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in the air, then pointed with both arms towards some distant speck on the water.

"No, look! Right there, see? See that little bump waaaaay out there? It's him! It has to be!"

A few drops of rain began leaking through Katara's barrier as her concentration wavered. "Hmm… no, I still don't see…"

"Wait!" Toph piped up, and leaned forward to stare excitedly out at the ocean. "I think I see it!"

"See?" Sokka started triumphantly. "I'm not the only one who—oh." His face fell into a flat glare, which he directed at the now grinning earthbender. Zuko himself had to hold back a chuckle, and he saw Katara smile for the first time since the crystal cave.

Sokka muttered grumpily and turned back around to work the reigns. "You know, one of these days, I'm not going to fall for that." Toph just stretched out beside Aang again and smiled.

"Don't count on it, Snoozles."

Idly, Zuko wondered if he would get a nickname, too.

~o0o~

"See? I told you! I told you! Never doubt a warrior's sharp eye!" Sokka crowed as, twenty minutes later, the speck that none of them could see eventually grew closer and took on the shape of about twenty or so small Water Tribe vessels that were, Zuko noted with some worry, surrounding a Fire Navy ship.

Katara just rolled her eyes, and Zuko had a feeling that it would be a long time before Sokka let anyone forget about this.

"That's great," Toph drawled, "but it's your sharp brain that we've been worried about."

Sokka dropped the reigns and turned around with an indignant look plastered on his face.

"What's that supposed to mean? !" He screeched. Toph just feigned indifference—(surprisingly easy to do when you were blind)—and picked her teeth with her fingernail.

"Well, if you can't figure it out, then I guess we've got more to worry about than I thought." Before the heated—and in Zuko's opinion, amusing—argument could go any further, though, Katara intervened.

"Look, guys, we're almost there!" She smiled brightly, her face lighting up at the prospect of shelter, or perhaps seeing her father again.

Zuko, on the other hand suddenly felt very, very nervous. It wasn't as if he hadn't known where they were going, but he hadn't really thought about it, his mind too occupied with other things.

Don't worry, my nephew, he imagined his Uncle laughing, a lovely girl is just taking you to meet her father. Just be a gentleman and I'm sure everything will be fine.

Zuko groaned, which earned him an inquisitive look from the 'lovely girl' in question. Somehow, he didn't think any amount of politeness would make the Water Tribe warrior want to kill him less, even if Zuko wasn't interested in his daughter.

Oh, so you're not interested in her? Could've fooled me.

He didn't know what frightened him more—the fact that those words rang true, or that he couldn't tell whether it was his or Azula's voice the thought had come in.

He rubbed his forehead in agitation. He didn't have time to be worried about stupid things like that right now—he had bigger problems at hand.

Like figuring out what he was going to say when a small army of angry Water Tribesman asked what the crown Prince of the Fire Nation was doing on their ship. Well, ex-prince, anyway. But he didn't think that they'd care much for semantics. Or anything else he had to say.

But still, he needed to come up with something to tell them. He needed to give them a good, solid explanation as to why he had switched sides, and why it would be in everyone's best interest not to throw him overboard, or stick his head on a pike.

He drew a blank. Growling, he thumped his head onto his knees. Why was he always so horrible with words? Hell, he didn't even have an answer for himself when he tried to figure out why he had done what he did!

Breathe, Zuko. He reminded himself. Calm.

Okay. So, in a nutshell, he had been given the choice to fight with his sister against his uncle and the avatar, or vice versa. He chose his uncle, and then he lost. And then he had come with the Avatar's group because… well…

It was the right thing to do?

No, that was a stupid answer. And he wasn't even sure if it was true, if he was being honest with himself. He still wasn't sure how he felt about any of this, let alone if it was right or wrong.

Which wasn't good, because he knew that if he was anything less than convincing in his pleas, he wouldn't be allowed to remain with them.

Wait. Why did he want to stay with them again?

Safety in numbers, the enemy of my enemy is my friend…

Those were definitely some good reasons, but they weren't good enough to win over the Water Tribesmen. They weren't even really good enough for him—he had always preferred to do things alone.

So why stay then? He couldn't really think of one, really good reason to stay, but maybe he could think of it from a different angle: if he didn't stay, what would he do?

Run? Run where? He was a wanted fugitive now, in every nation. And even if he did find somewhere to hide, what then? Would he hide out in some teashop for the rest of his life? He scowled.

No. No more teashops for him.

Then what did he really want to do? What was his first priority?

Uncle. His fists balled tightly. Yes, rescuing his uncle was definitely at the top of his list. And having the help of the Avatar and his allies would certainly make that task a lot more feasible.

But after that? After his Uncle was safe?

He didn't know. He sighed. Well, he had done pretty well so far flying by the seat of his pants, all things considered. He decided he would stay with the Avatar at least until he rescued his Uncle, and wing it from there.

Okay, so that covered his reason for staying. So now, what would be their reason for letting him stay?

"Sokka…" Katara began nervously, and Zuko's train of thought derailed. The warrior in question just shot a grim look at her, then focused back out on the bay.

"Don't worry, Katara. It's… look, there's only one ship, and it's surrounded… and I don't see any fighting, so Dad must have captured it, or something."

"Wait, what?" Toph perked up, confused. Obviously, she could not see the Fire Navy ship they were approaching.

"It's captured," Zuko spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him. He had to swallow past the lump in his throat to continue. "The engine is shut off, which they wouldn't do if they were surrounded by enemy vessels. Not to mention, if they were fighting, we'd be able to see it from here." To punctuate his statement, he lit a small fire on the end of his finger and flared it.

Sokka gave a small frown, but his face loosened as he turned back around to work the reigns. Katara also looked relieved, although the expression didn't develop until after he'd snuffed his fire out. Toph developed an odd, calculating look on her face.

"So, wait, we're landing on a Fire Navy ship, right?" Katara looked towards Sokka, who gave a hesitant nod.

"Right. We should be landing in a few minutes," Katara reassured her, though she herself looked nervous again for some reason. Toph slowly began to grin.

"And those things are made of metal, right?" Zuko frowned. He couldn't see where she was going with this.

"Yes," he answered. With the arm that wasn't wrapped around the Avatar, she punched the air.

"AWESOME! I hate wooden boats! I can't see anything on them!" Zuko just blinked.

"But, you can't see anything, ever," he told her. She scoffed and lifted one of her legs, exposing her bare, dirt-crusted foot.

"I'm an earthbender. I see, well, I feel things through the earth with my feet." She dropped her leg and leaned back in the saddle. "But a wooden boat isn't made of earth—I can barely see when I'm on it at all."

"But, metal isn't earth either," he said, still confused.

"Sure it is," she shrugged, "it's just really refined." Zuko raised his only eyebrow.

"If metal is still earth, then why can't you bend it?" She smiled broadly.

"I can," she told him proudly. His eyebrow went up even further.

Suddenly, rain was falling on them again, but they were far enough away from the storm now that it was only a few drops. Katara had whipped around to face Toph, astonishment written all over her face.

"Wait, really? Since when?" Toph cracked her knuckles.

"Since yesterday." Katara leaned in, excited.

"So how did you do it? Have you been working on it, or did it just, come to you?" Toph's smug grin dimmed a little, and she chuckled nervously.

"Well, remember how I got that letter from my parents to go and meet them?"

"Yeah," Katara frowned.

"Well, apparently, they had decided I needed to be dragged back home. So when I walked through the door of the place I was supposed to meet them, a big, giant metal trap sprung up around me. They weren't even there—just the two blockheads they sent to capture me!" She finished angrily.

"Your parents put you in a cage?" Katara shouted, unbelieving.

"They sent bounty hunters after you?" Zuko questioned. That was something he could relate to, at least.

"Wait, so that was why you were way out there when Aang and I found you?" Sokka had turned around in the saddle, his eyes wide.

"Yes, yes, and yes," Toph huffed, waving her hand to dismiss their concerns. "But I busted out, and now I have a sweet new bending technique, so it's really not a big deal." Katara's face softened and she put a comforting hand on the blind girls' shoulder.

"Toph, I'm so sorry…" Toph squirmed under the contact, looking uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about it, Sweetness. Like I said, it's not a big deal." Katara frowned.

"But your parents—"

"—are stuffy, selfish, narrow-minded jerks that don't know how to take a hint. They can just keep wasting money sending people after me for all I care—I'll just fight 'em off. I'm never going back." Toph crossed her arms and lowered her head, signaling that there would be no budging her on this. Katara sighed and dropped her hand, then, looking out over the ocean to gauge how close they were to the ship, drew the Avatar into her lap.

And they were close. A minute later, the Sky Bison had come upon the ship, and the Water Tribe warriors were waving them down. As soon as they landed, everyone but Zuko jumped—or tumbled, in the bear's case—off the saddle and a flurry of greetings and questions and embraces ensued. The firebender just tried to sink into the saddle, praying that no one had seen him yet.

But, as always, luck frowned upon him, and he heard a deep, male voice question:

"Who's that still up in the saddle?"

"What? Oh! Get down here, Zuko!" Of course Katara had shouted his name. His, very obviously, Fire Nation name. Loud enough for everyone on the ship to hear. He sighed.

Well, here goes everything.

He threw a leg over the saddle and hopped down into a group of people. And it was only then, surrounded by dozens of suddenly very angry men with spears and clubs, that he realized he still hadn't come up with a reason they shouldn't gut him.

~o0o~

A/N – I think I'll play around in the ATLA universe for awhile, so I don't get burned out on Naruto.

I was going to break this up into a prologue type-thing and the first chapter, but… it wasn't really long enough to. Anyway, I've always loved Avatar, but just recently got into its fanfiction. And boy are there some great pairings… (This story will almost certainly be Zutara/Taang/Sokki)

And before anyone asks, yes, I know that I didn't write the cavern scene or the fight scene as it happened in canon, but that was intentional. It would be completely pointless to transcribe the events of the show word for word and blow by blow with just some added fluff. But don't worry, I won't be trashing all of the lines and events from season three—some of the jokes are just too witty to get rid of—but I will try to avoid writing anything that you couldn't get from just watching the show.

Leave me love!