Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.

As you all may know, during the second half of Book 3: Fire, Zuko goes on a trip with every main character. Every main character except for Toph. So I decided to write one in which he adventures with Toph. Both of them have issues with their families, so I decided to set that as the major theme of my story. I wrote the story similar to the way a regular episode of Avatar would be. There's two chapters (two episodes) split into three parts each (for the commercial break). Other than the voiceover in the beginning and the recap, the entire story is told in narrative form.

This story is canon and set in the universe of Avatar. The only thing that would be different if this scene were included would be that there would be none of Toph's mentioning of going on a life-changing field-trip with Zuko in "The Phoenix King."

These two episodes are set after "The Boiling Rock: Part 2" and before "The Southern Raiders."

Oh, and before I forget, I changed some scenes from the "Boiling Rock: Part 2" in order to set the premise of this story.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy reading. Reviews are welcome.

Secrets of the Fire Nation

Voiceover:

Katara:

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
Long ago, the Four Nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
Only the Avatar, master of all Four Elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.
A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe... Aang can save the world.

Previously, on Avatar:

The Runaway:

Toph: Katara, I need your help.

Katara: What is it, Toph?

Toph: I need you to write some things down for me. I want to send a letter to my parents.

Zuko Alone:

Ursa: Zuko, that's what mom's are like. If you mess with their babies, they'll bite you back.

Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse

Fire Lord Ozai: Don't you want to know what happened to your mother‌?

Zuko: What happened that night.

Fire Lord Ozai: My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son. And I was going to do it. Your mother had found out and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne and she proposed a plan. A plan in which I would become Fire Lord and your life would be spared.

Fire Lord Ozai: Your Mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished.

The Boiling Rock Part 2: (Added on and made up for the sake of the story)

(Zuko is in the huge airship that transported Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee to the Boiling Rock. He is outside the cockpit listening to the pilots talk.)

Pilot 1 (Talking to co-pilot): (Points to a chart hanging on the wall of the cockpit.) I heard that after the Boiling Rock, the Princess is going to take us to an secret location that only royal family members and a select few know Fire Nations soldiers.

Zuko (Looks through the cockpit door. His eyes widen a bit and he whispers to himself): Could it be?

After leaving via the airship, Zuko recovers a map that the pilots were going to use to take Azula to the undisclosed location. Zuko believes that his mother is being held there.

(Fades to white.)

Secrets of the Fire Nation: Part 1

The Mechanical Octopus

Act 1:

The Western Air Temple. It's the night after Sokka and Zuko returned from the Boiling Rock. Suki is preparing tea, Hokoda and Chit-Sang have gone into the forest in search of food, and Zuko is in his room pondering over his girlfriend's final moments at the prison. Everyone else is listening to Sokka retell his version of the magnificent escape from the Boiling Rock

"So there we were, surrounded by Fire Nation prison guards. They whipped their whips out and lit them on fire with their firebending. The Warden came up and shouted, 'You may be a darn fine warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka, but even you cannot escape from my prison.'" Everyone listened intently to Sokka's recount of the Boiling Rock escape. "Zuko shivered a bit and I grabbed hold of his arm. I told him, 'Don't fret, Zuko. I got you into this mess, and I can get you out.' I drew out my black sword, turned, and yelled, 'You're so proud of your record, Warden huh? Well guess what? You haven't met my space sword, then!' I threw my space sword at him, and it sliced his hand clean off."

The entire groups' eyes widened. "Wow… did you really do that Sokka?" Aang asked.

"What, he had my girlfriend wrapped around in a headlock. I had to save her somehow."

"I didn't know you were the cutting type." Katara said.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Sorry to disappoint you, everyone. I didn't cut his hand, rather I pierced his clothes and pinned him to the balcony wall. Sure, I embellished my story a bit, but that's what good raconteurs do."

"Embellish, huh." Katara rolled her eyes. "More like distort."

"Just get on with the story," the Duke asked.

"All right, hold onto your buffalo-horses, guys. I knew I needed a distraction, so I could sneak up to the warden without the guards seeing me. I was fast and stealthy, but not that fast and stealthy." Everyone giggled. "So I punched this prisoner in the guts. He winced, screamed, and firebended in my direction. I dodged it, but the fire hit someone else. In no time, there was firebending all over the place! Dust was everywhere, and I had my cover."

Everyone nodded as they listened intently to Sokka's story. Everyone except Zuko and Toph. The former was resting in his room, while the latter was just disinterested. She just sat there. Usually, she would have shot down his exaggeration or lies, but that night she wasn't in the mood. No one else complained either, for although Sokka wasn't as great a storyteller as he was a joker, the details of all that occurred at the Boiling Rock were too intense for anyone to ignore.

"So now, we had a riot going. However, there was still a problem." Sokka raised his finger. "A big problem actually. We needed a hostage—not any hostage. Zuko suggested we take a prisoner, but I replied, 'No, you pansy. We need to take someone valuable. Someone like the warden.' He asked how would I round him up. This was the crux of our plan: capturing the warden. Fortunately, I was an adept jumper. I climbed up a wall and began jumping on the prisoners' heads."

"Head hopping, that's cool!" Aang burst. "Monk Gyatso taught me some of that back at the air temple." Every one turned and looked at Aang. "What?" he shrugged, as if assuming that head hopping was a normal. "Hey, how else do I learn pole-hopping for airball indoors?" He turned back to Sokka. "So, how'd you do that without airbending? With your weight and lack of lightness of jumping, wouldn't you have fractured some skulls?"

Sokka scratched his head. "Um…"

"And by the way, where was Zuko the whole time?" Katara asked.

Sokka finally rebutted. "Zuko was with his girlfriend. You know, that gloomy girl." Everyone's jaws dropped open.

"But you said he was outside fretting—" Aang cut in again.

"Hey, but that's not the point! The point is, I hopped over the heads, scaled up the wall, and ran toward the warden. I unsheathed my sword and—"

"You threw your sword at him already," Haru interjected.

"Oh…um… I'm talking about this sword I took from the guards back there…"

"Don't the guards firebend?" Aang asked. "After all, they've been firebending the whole time in your story."

"So where are we at?" Suki asked, carrying bowl of tea for everyone on a tray. She had spent the past half an hour brewing tea for the gang.

"We were just at the point when Sokka took the Warden hostage and saved you from him."

Suki turned at glared at him and gave Sokka the you-are-such-a-big-liar face. Sokka gulped. "Hehe… What I meant was… and saved the most beautiful women of my dreams from him…" He nudged Suki and gave her a wink. Suki smiled a bit and sat down. "Well, though your story might contain some inaccuracies, at least I'm enjoying it." Suki sat down next to Sokka and lay her head on his shoulder.

Toph, however, couldn't stand it. She knew that Sokka was lying through his teeth, but that wasn't the aspect that annoyed her. She enjoyed how it made him seem so much more daring and courageous. What she didn't enjoy was his mentioning of Suki. Suki, Suki, Suki! Ever since she came back from the Boiling Rock, Sokka couldn't stop talking about her. (Well, when he wasn't talking about himself at least.) What's so special about her? Anyone can use a fan. It takes real skill to be an earthbending prodigy! Fed up with the story, she stood up and left the fire. Too engrossed in Sokka's story, which now involved Azula's and Zuko's rocket blast mid-air fight, no one realized Toph had gotten up and left.

She walked underneath an arch. She didn't know how, but she could feel that it was a beautiful night. There were stars littered across the sky and they begged to be seen by a romantic couple. She, however, knew that she would never be with the person she wanted to spend the night with. She didn't know whether it was the fact that she was further from the fire or not, but she felt colder with every step.

Her train of thought was broken when she heard the flapping of a bird. The sound become louder and louder and she soon realized who was approaching. Extending her arm, she shouted, "Hawky! You can keep me company, right?" Hawky perched on her arm and shook around restlessly. She sighed. Even the delivery bird didn't want to be with her. She soon realized that it was shaking because had a message in it. She felt for the back of the bird and took out the letter from the canister, which was rolled up into a scroll. She felt around the very fine paper and found the string that bound scroll. She recognized the insignia on the string: a boar with wings—her family's emblem.

She thought for awhile what could have been detailed in the letter. An angry tirade? They're probably mad and amazed that I managed to elude my captors. She laughed. Then she thought: Deep regrets? Perhaps I finally touched them with my last letter. Though she knew that the contents were going to be overly sentimental either way, which she detested, she preferred reading the letter to returning to the story. She took the seal off and ripped open the scroll. It was at that instant she remembered that she was blind.

Her first thought was to find Katara. After all, she was the one who wrote the original letter. However, she wanted to avoid the gang as much as possible. There was only one person she could turn to: Zuko.

Upon entering his room, she realized he wasn't there. What would he be at this hour? Could he have deserted just as Katara predicted? Unlikely, Toph told herself. He did save Sokka's girlfriend and father. He wouldn't leave us right now. And if he did revert back to his old ways, he would have attacked Aang already. She kneeled and place her hand on the ground to sense where Zuko went.

Scene Switches

"I can sense a lot of emotions stirring within you. Although you know you've finally chosen the right path, inside, you still feel greatly troubled, for finding the path has cost you so much: You're love, your family, your nation… I can feel this turmoil raging."

Zuko turned around. All he saw were shrubs. Zuko's face lit up. "Uncle, is that you? Is this where you ran off to?" Only Uncle understood his feelings entirely. Though the words certainly sounded like they came from his Uncle's lips, but the voice was a lot higher. Then heard a loud burst of laughter.

"Haha! You should've seen your face, Sparky! Priceless!" The voice was now a lot higher and a lot more feminine. "Reading people's hearts is awesome!"

"Toph, what are you doing here?" Zuko was shocked by her appearance and even more dumbfounded by how well she understood his feelings.

Toph walked out from the shrubs. "Just making sure you get meat this time, Sparky. I would really like some real meat this time. So I'll make sure you don't drag another group of people into our gang."

"This isn't a quest for you. It's really dangerous, and I don't want to get you involved."

"Quest? Dangerous? Sounds exactly like something I need to get out of this depression I'm in. Besides, I've been getting a bit lazy, staying at the temple every day."

"No, I don't want to get you involved! This is something I have to settle by myself and I can't risk your life. If I don't make it back and you disappear along with me, everybody will think I betrayed them again!"

Toph was indifferent to Zuko's outburst and pretend she didn't hear him at all. "What's so important that you would deny the help of the greatest earthbender in the world?"

Zuko sighed. "I'm in the search of my parents… my mother specifically."

Parents? Toph couldn't believe what she was hearing. Zuko was risking his life and the Avatar's success just so he can met his mother? But then Toph finally understood that it was the loss of his family that was causing his inner-turmoil the most. Then, she remembered her letter. "Actually Zuko, I have a similar quest. Let me tag along…"

Zuko groaned. However, he knew that he could trust Toph… After all, she was the only one to believe in him when he first arrived at the Western Air Temple. More importantly, he knew that Toph was the most stubborn earthbender there was. "All right," he waved his hands. "Come along…I hope you know what you are getting yourself involved in though."

"Oh yeah! Can't wait." Toph whispered to herself excitedly as she rubbed her hands together in anticipation.

As they walked, Toph finally threw out the question of why his mother was so important that he had to find her immediately.

"Despite all the trials and tribulations I had to face, there was one thing that kept me going. My mother's love. She saved my life." Zuko knelt down. "You've never seen my scar, have you?"

Toph shook her head. Sure, she has heard of it, but she couldn't sense the scar's shape through the vibrations.

"Feel it," Zuko said. "I don't mind."

She placed her hand over the burn. "Wow…" she said. "You've been hurt pretty badly."

"If it weren't for my mother, I wouldn't have this scar. But I also wouldn't have my life." Zuko then moved on to tell how his father had intended to kill him in order to appease his father, Azulon. However, his wife Ursa intervened, killed Azulon, and vanished. "At first, I thought she died. It was fairly ironic then because this scar is all I have to remember her by." He laughed a little. Zuko stood back up. "Now, however, I know that there's more I can do. I'll find her, and I'll save her. This is why I have to rescue my mother.

"Wow…I didn't know your mother…"

"It's ok, Zuko said. You wouldn't expect the firelord's wife to be so caring, would you? Especially since you met my sister and heard of my father." Zuko had read her mind. Well, it's time we got going.

"Got going?" Toph asked.

"Yeah. The location is on a Fire Nation island. Just let me get this war balloon started."

Balloon? Toph had a bad feeling. Wait a second…

"Didn't your war balloon get destroyed during your excursion at the Boiling Rock?"

"Yeah," Zuko replied. "However, the airship had a spare engine that I could use for the balloon. I also found some tarp in there and a map, which I believe will lead me to that location."

"Wait." She paused out of hesitation. "Are you telling me that we are going to fly in something you designed?"

"Yep. Is there a problem?"

Ugh., We're going to be flying…in a rickety war balloon. Sokka, despite his quirkiness, was a master craftsman. Zuko, she wasn't so sure of. She wanted to tell him that she couldn't come, but she had already agreed to tag along. If there was one thing Toph Beifong wasn't, it was a quitter. Come on, Toph, you've flown many times before no need to be scared… "But this one is likely fragile!" She reasoned with herself. Well, you won't have to lose face… Zuko doesn't know…you know… that you are scared of flying. "You're right," Toph told herself. "He doesn't. Just stay calm, Toph. You can do this." She climbed into the balloon and they took off.

Zuko felt a bit strange that Toph, such an independent and rebellious girl was holding his arm for the entire duration of the trip. They finally arrived at the island. Zuko hid the balloon behind a few trees. Afterward, they began traveling on foot.

After a short walk, Zuko whipped out the chart he found in the airship he stole from Azula. He consulted it for awhile. "We're here," Zuko said.

"Are you sure?" Toph asked. She could definitely feel something was strange.

He put the map back into his pockets, looked up, and saw a decrepit observatory perched on the mountains. "I'm positive," Zuko replied.

(Fades to black.)