A/N: This is officially the sequel to my other story, "Lost, But Never Forgotten". If you have not read that one, than this one may be very confusing. I suggest going and reading that one first! I am so excited to finally start this story! The plot bunnies have been eating at me for days, and I just now got the story outline written down on paper. So here goes nothing! Don't forget to review at the end and tell me what you think! Please? :)

Title: "Stolen Memories"
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairing(s): Zuko/Katara, OC/?,Sokka/OC, Aang/Toph
Rating: T/PG-13 (Some romance here and there. Some mild violence. Possibly, a tad bit worse then the show, but nothing drastic.)
Summary: It's been five years since the end of Fire Lord Ozai. All is well and peaceful, aside from Raven's spontaneous lapses in memory. But when sudden tragedy strikes, and a few important people go missing soon after, Zuko and the rest of the group are thrown into another adventure. This time, coming home alive may be their biggest problem.

Disclaimer: I own my OCs and the idea behind this particular story, not the actual A:TLA characters, plot, or settings. You've heard it before, you all get the idea. Blah Blah. This will be the only disclaimer.

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Chapter One.
" A Morning on the Beach "

"I'm sorry. You said you were who now?"

The Fire Lord sighed deeply. This may have been happening for years, but never did the frustration of having your best friend forget you ever go away. It wasn't her fault, oh no. It never was. If it weren't for the event that caused these constant lapses in memory, then neither of them would have been standing on this marble flooring. "Zuko. My name is Zuko."

The woman sitting in the red, velvet chair across from him frowned slightly and narrowed her mismatched eyes. She met his gaze briefly, only to break the eye contact and give the man a quick once-over. She looked back at him with a skeptical look in her eye. "And you said we're best friends?"

Zuko nodded wearily, having been through this conversation at least five times in the past month.

"Well then how come I don't know you? I think I'd know my best friend when I saw them!" She threw her arms up in exasperation.

"I would've thought so too." Zuko mumbled to himself. "Listen, Raven." He spoke now directly to her. "I have some work to go do, and it is getting sort of late, so why don't you sleep on this and talk to me in the morning?" He walked away from her and out of the door before giving the stubborn girl a chance to protest. As he shut the heavy wooden rectangle behind him, he took a deep, steadying breath and closed his eyes tightly shut. Through the door, he could hear Raven pacing back and forth, her hard-soled shoes clacking gently against the room's floor.

Come morning when he saw her in the dining room, she would greet him as if nothing had happened. He would have his best friend back for the time being and Raven wouldn't remember a thing of the night before.

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Ty Lee sat in the palace garden, legs folded underneath her body, leaning on the rocks surrounding the little pond. She gazed silently into it, a small contented smile on her face. It was so peaceful here now. Azula and her father had always made the palace grounds tense and worrisome, but now that they were gone and Zuko ruled, it had regained its previous calm atmosphere.

The brown-haired woman sighed happily as she flicked her hand through the pale blue water, watching the ripples move quickly away. It had been a total of five years since Aang had taken down Fire Lord Ozai. Five peaceful, content, calm years. The world outside wasn't much different then this garden, Ty Lee mused silently. Sure, every once and a while some birds may get into a squabble and squawk at each other in indignation, but sooner or later they settled the problem. Maybe someone would settle it for them. Fire Lord Zuko had seemed to take his role as the highest authority in the Fire Nation so easily. So much better than his father had used the title. Zuko didn't rule with fear or hatred, but kindness and justice. He was fit for the role. Ty-Lee, like so many others, admired the man for his fantastic job.

Speaking of the man, Ty Lee turned to face him as he walked up behind her. "Well hello there!"

He nodded in acknowledgement. "Evening, Ty Lee."

"Are you alright, my lord?" She asked, sensing that the man had something to say to her, but he hesitated.

Instead of answering, he frowned at her. "What have I told you about that?"

"Sorry, my lo- I mean…" She took a deep breath. "Sorry Zuko. You know it's hard sometimes to remember not to call you by your honorific. I get so used to doing it in public."

Zuko sighed. "You're like a sister, and you shouldn't even have to say it in public." He frowned again, and went silent.

"Um… Zuko?" Ty Lee waited until he looked at her before continuing. "Are you alright?"

She had a genuine concerned look on her face that Zuko couldn't ignore, no matter how much he wanted to. "She forgot again." He mumbled to the ground.

Ty Lee had to strain to hear the words clearly, but when they registered, her look of concern increased ten-fold. The lapses in Raven's memory had been occurring since she returned with Zuko those five or so years ago. After using so much power to fight off Azula, being in some sort of coma for two weeks, and then waking up not remembering the night of the fight- or the people included, Zuko had almost given up hope completely. But the day he was planning on leaving the South Pole again, Raven had suddenly been enlightened with remembrance, and returned with Zuko to the Fire Nation, both of them ecstatic.

A month after their return, Raven and Zuko- along with a few other semi-important people, had been having a fancy dinner. In the middle of dessert, Raven had suddenly stopped moving, staring off into space and dropping her fork onto her plate, causing a large clang and drawing everyone's attention to her. In the silence that came after, Zuko had worriedly grabbed her shoulder and asked her what was wrong. The teen had jumped in supposed fright, looked at Zuko in confusion, and asked him back:

"Who are you?"

Zuko hadn't heard the uproar from the others, and could only stare at his oldest friend in a mixture of concern, confusion, hurt, and disbelief. The incident at dinner was only the first of many memory losses to occur in the next few years. It happened at the most random times, and as the months passed, they progressed to last longer, happen more often, and become more dangerous.

The memory loss tonight would make three in the past two weeks.

Zuko had been devastated, especially when, the morning after that first dinner, Raven had walked up to him in greeting without any recollection of night before. It had been as if nothing had happened to her at all.

Now that the woman was used to having them, she understood that the big blank spots in her memory were the lapses she often had. She could now quite accurately tell when it was she had had them, but still could never warn of when the next was going to happen.

And as of late, Raven had been forgetting things from her past. Little events that had happened when she was little. Completely.

Now, even she was beginning to worry. And that, in turn, affected Zuko more than anything else did.

"Zuko…" Ty Lee trailed off, not quite knowing the words to say. Everyone always supported him and tried to make him feel better with consoling words. 'She'll get better soon.' 'It will all turn out alright.' And so on. Ty Lee knew none of them really helped. Instead, they merely reminded Zuko to put on a smiling face for the public, no matter how fake that smile was.

So Ty Lee switched the subject a bit as smoothly as possible, hoping to cheer the man up as much as she could. "She'll be herself tomorrow, then. That's what's important."

The corner of Zuko's mouth turned upwards in an almost-there smile. "Right. I suppose that's true. Her lapses never happen so close together. Not two days in a row."

"And never overnight." Ty Lee smiled. Mission accomplished.

Zuko looked at the brunette happily. "Thank you." He whispered to her after a moment's consideration. Ty Lee just nodded. Zuko turned and walked towards his sleeping quarters, with a slight smile that wouldn't seem to go away. "Good night, Ty-Lee."

"Good night, Zuko."

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He awoke to a feeling of invasion. Invasion of his personal space, that is.

"Ah!"

"Shush!"

Zuko struggled slightly with the hand that placed itself over his mouth, effectively cutting off his yell of fright. His sleep laden eyes finally focused on the figure above him, and he froze. Raven had a wide smile on her face, eyes sparkling with mirth and her free hand poised with her pointer finger in front of her mouth, making the universal quiet down sign. Amber eyes narrowed at her, emitting a quiet laugh from her throat. She stood, climbing off of him, and extended a hand to help him up in turn. Zuko, instead of taking it, rolled over in his bed and groaned.

"Oh come on, you lazy butt. It's your birthday!"

"What kind of birthday surprise wakes me up this early?" Zuko mumbled from the pillow.

"The kind that guards don't need to know about." Raven whispered back.

This made the Fire Lord sit up. "You're kidding." Raven shook her head. "What is it?"

"Well, that wouldn't make it much of a surprise now, would it?" Zuko frowned in stubbornness. Raven sighed. "Alright, fine." She paused and looked out the window of his room. It had a beautiful view of the water beyond, the early morning light just now shining off of it and giving a stunning glare. It highlighted the colors, a truly magnificent sunrise. Still looking at the view, Raven continued. "When was the last time we went to the beach?"

"We can do that with guards, you know…"

"It's not the same. You didn't have guards when you were little. We used to go there every day! Just the two of us…" She glanced back at him, excitement in her eyes and that contagious smile on her face. "The beach was our place. The memories we have there! Shouldn't we take the opportunity to make some more? I have to be all proper around you when you have your guards." She made a disgusted face at the word 'proper', making Zuko laugh slightly.

He got up and smiled at his friend. "Fine."

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It took awhile to sneak past the guards on watch around the palace gates, but they made it through quick enough to have ample time to relax. Raven ran out to the shoreline, teasing the waves with her bare toes, and grinning in satisfaction. She turned to look over her shoulder at Zuko, who had sat down on a log some distance away. She walked over close to him and fell back to lie in the sand, side by side with the log.

She stared contentedly up at the sky. He looked wistfully out over the water. The two of them sat like that in a peaceful silence for a little while, until Raven looked over a Zuko's face, noticing a bit of sadness beginning to creep into the features there.

"You're thinking about her."

Zuko huffed and smiled gently. "Am I really that obvious?"

"Yes." She stated right away. "You know she'd like to be here. It's too bad she couldn't make it this year. I was starting to tolerate her snobbish attitude."

"Katara is not that snobbish."

"Not to you… she loves you. To everyone else, though, she comes on a little too strong. She's overprotective."

"She just cares." Zuko defended his girlfriend.

"Too much." Zuko glared at her through his peripheral vision. "Hey, hey." Raven held up her hands in mock surrender. "She loves you, you love her, and I won't stand in the way of that. As long as you're happy, I wouldn't give a damn if she was a crazed murderer." She paused. "Well, okay that's a lie, but you get my meaning." They both laughed.

They were quiet again after the laughter died out. The waves of the ocean and the occasional sound of a bird the only things breaking the silence.

"I had another lapse last night, didn't I?"

Zuko was silent, his happy features turning down into concern and sadness as he looked at Raven. "Yes." He mumbled.

"Can I tell you something?" Zuko nodded. "One of the main reasons I wanted to come out here was to make sure that I didn't forget the memories of this place. I don't know what I'd do if I forgot this." She looked about ready to cry, and Zuko deeply hoped she wouldn't. He didn't cope well with tears. He didn't know what to say in return to that, anyway.

As if reading his mind, Raven spoke again. "You don't have to answer to that. I just wanted to get it out." She stood, traces of sadness disappearing as she looked into the water. "I have an idea!"

Zuko watched in confusion as Raven suddenly ran towards the water's edge and began waterbending. As the water hit the dry sand, it froze, becoming ice. When he realized she was making some sort of ice sculpture, he jumped up and ran closer, examining it as it began to take shape.

"Is it a person?"

"Yup. It will be." She answered.

After a few more minutes, it became clear to him who exactly it was. "Katara…?" He guessed, holding back a chuckle.

Raven nodded, laughing. "It's supposed to be.." The shape was vaguely human form, wearing a quite accurate looking parka for the cold down in the South Pole. The hood was down, and 'Katara's' hair was pinned in its usual way, the rest flowing down her back. The face, however, was badly misshapen. The eyes were here and there, the mouth and nose twisted in an abnormal way, and her ears were very large.

"If she saw this… she would be very mad." Zuko chuckled, unable to hold it back this time.

"That was sort of the point." She walked over and grabbed the sculpture's chin. She looked at Zuko and made a kissy face. "Come on! Who wouldn't want to kiss this face?"

Zuko joined into the laughter. "We… should probably… head back." He struggled to speak through his laughs. "They may be looking for me already."

Raven nodded, and the two walked side by side back to the palace.

"So… twenty-one years old, huh? How's it feel to be so old?"

"I'm the same age as you. You just called yourself old, you know."

Raven laughed. "I've accepted my age… just trying to see how long it will take you to accept yours. You're getting older!" She paused. "You're two years older than Katara, now. She goes for older men, huh?"

Zuko shot her a withering glance, but it had no outright affect on her. "Very funny."

"You're lucky she does."

"…Yeah. I am."

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A/N: Wow. I finished this a lot quicker than I thought I would. Other chapters should be a little longer. I think. But none will be near as short as the first few chapter of Lost, But Never Forgotten were. *Shudders* I can't believe I wrote those. Haha…

Anyway. I shall be making no promises on updates like those that I made last time. I just get too wracked with guilt when I can't live up to the promise, and I know I disappoint my readers. So I'll just say that you'll be seeing me again soon :) Hope you liked. Real plot will come in the next chapter.

Review?