Disclaimer: the characters and places in the following work of fan-fiction are the intellectual property of Nickelodeon and, as such, they reserve the right to remove this story at their sole discretion.

This story is the twelfth in a series, so please read the other eleven before continuing!

Previously on Avatar

"I have a son, just about Prince Zuko's age." Huo paused and frowned before adding, "Last week he received his conscription notice."

"Conscription?" asked Jee dubiously, "I thought the age for that was-"

"Eighteen," Huo finished for him, "it was."

"I think…I think I saw my mother here in Kazimizu," admitted the prince uncertainly.

Whatever ulterior motive Iroh was expecting to hear from his nephew, it wasn't this. And the retired general couldn't help but be skeptical about what Zuko might have really seen.

"Zuko," he warned seriously, "Ursa has been missing for almost ten years. No one is even sure if she-"

"I'm aware of that, Uncle!" snapped Zuko. "But…if there's a chance…if it really was her…Uncle I have to know," he finished with a look of desperate pleading in his eyes.

"Hey, just because I'm not a bender doesn't make me useless," Sokka snapped irritably.

Tanha turn an innocently puzzled face toward the teen.

"Doesn't it?"

"Azula killed me in Ba Sing Se," Aang stated calmly, "and even though the water from the Spirit Oasis brought me back, I still died while I was in the Avatar State."

"The Cycle isn't completely broken and the other Avatars are still in the Spirit World, I just…can't tap into their power." Before anyone could let out a sigh of relief, however, he continued. "But if I die before I can find a way to reconnect to my past lives, then there won't be any more Avatars after me."

"How do you 'reconnect' to your past lives?" asked Sokka uncertainly.

"I don't know," the air bender sighed.

Zuko stood for some time in the Spirit World grove, mulling over the strange visions he had seen and trying to make sense of them. His thoughts began to swirl in a tempest of whispers and memories.

Don't think of them as separate. It was almost as though…

Your destinies are intertwined. All that time…

Your fate is tied to his. He was being pulled along…

…By a Thread…

Zuko's eyes snapped open with the shock of epiphany as he gasped.

"We're connected!"

Book Three: Fire

Chapter 12: Casualties of War

A soft shudder in the ground woke Sokka from his sleep, jolting him upright with a string of drool still dangling from the corner of his mouth. Bleary-eyed and half-panicked, he looked around as the earth trembled again. Turning in the direction of the noise, he relaxed when he spotted Toph and Katara sparring across the nearby stream, and on the hillock just above them Aang was practicing his fire bending with Iroh.

Sleepily, he took stock of his surroundings. They'd left the jungles behind two days ago, and were now in the hilly region not far from the coast. It was a nice area actually, warm but not hot, with cool breezes sweeping up the mainland from the sea. And in the color-washed hues of morning, it was truly lovely.

At the moment, however, Sokka was feeling too depressed to enjoy it. Instead, he let out a dramatic sigh, only heard by the old rhino that pulled their cart, resting nearby.

"Well, it looks like everyone went off to train," he bemoaned, "and no one bothered to wake me…again."

If the comment had been directed at the beast of burden, it didn't take notice, and Sokka glumly turned his attention back to his surroundings. When a plate of food caught his attention, however, he perked up slightly and hurried over to it.

"But they did leave me breakfast," he remarked to himself before shoveling in a mouthful. As soon as the food hit his tongue however, he frowned. "Aw…it went cold," he complained to the empty camp, his lips drooping in a sad pout.

"I know!" he exclaimed cheerfully, "I'll just get Aang to warm it!"

Before he could carry out this plan, however, a stray blast lit up a bush over where Aang was practicing his fire bending. With a shout of dismay, Iroh rushed over to intervene, controlling the blaze to prevent spreading while the young air bender tried unsuccessfully to help.

"Or…maybe not…" mused Sokka dolefully. Dejectedly, he opened his mouth to take another cold bite when a shout from Toph made him nearly drop the plate.

"Whoa! Heads up, Snoozles!"

Sokka yelped and barely had time to duck as a rock came hurtling in his direction, sailing over his head to crash and shatter against the cliff face a short distance behind him. The ragged old rhino balked in alarm at the sudden disruption then turned a baleful eye on the warrior.

"What?" protested Sokka, returning the animal's hard glare with indignant innocence, "it wasn't me."

"Sorry, Sokka!" called Katara apologetically from across the water.

"Good save, Sweetness," Toph remarked as the two girls returned to their match, stone and water colliding between them. "For a second I thought I had you that time."

"Ha! You wish!" retorted the water bender cheerfully while absorbing a chunk of rock with a wave and hurtling it back at her sparring partner, who dodged it effortlessly.

Moving to a safer location away from any potential line of fire (or rock, or water), Sokka resumed eating his cold meal, forlornly watching his companions train. Upon finishing, and suddenly having nothing to do, he turned to the old rhino.

"Sooo," he drawled casually, "wanna spar?"

The rhino merely snorted lazily in reply.

"Yeah," the warrior sighed, dropping his chin into his hand, "that's what I figured."

The hills overlooking Kawa'Gin were still and silent in the early dawn mist, save for a singular, methodical, repetitive click echoing through the treetops. Azula's finger tapped restlessly against the brass pommel of the saddle, the tiny ticking noise dampening even Ty Lee's usual cheer.

"Maybe it wasn't really him," offered the acrobat helpfully.

There was no reply; only the steady clink of a perfectly manicured nail against polished metal.

The princess had been like this ever since they intercepted a messenger hawk on its way to the capital, stating that a young man matching Zuko's description was in custody. But after a frantic two-day ride to Kawa'Gin, they arrived only to discover that he had escaped. After questioning every citizen in the town, the only lead they had was from a tavern server, which had brought them to this dingy little shack in the hills.

"It was Zuko," Azula finally stated confidently. "That idiot of a constable was certain of it."

"But what would he want with silver wire?" wondered Ty Lee aloud.

"It's Zuko," scoffed the princess, "who knows."

The tapping stopped as Mai came into view once more, coming around a bend in the overgrown pathway leading up to the house, and Azula fixed a questioning glare on the somber noblewoman.

"Well?"

"There's no one there," Mai informed her dully, climbing into the saddle of her mongoose-dragon. "The place looks likes it's been empty for days. But there are wagon tracks leading north-west through the hills," she added, pointing in that direction. Then, turning back to the princess, she asked, "What do you want to do?"

There was barely a pause before Azula spurred her mount toward the northwest.

"We follow them."

Morning sunlight shone brightly across the coastal plains, dancing on the ocean in the distance, as a lone wagon rolled over the windswept hills.

A particularly large bump rattled the cart violently enough to jostle Zuko from an uneasy sleep, and it took him a moment to shake off the remnants of his disturbing dreams enough to make sense of his surroundings. But as the sound of an off-key song reached his ears, the events of the past few days came flooding back.

After fleeing the town of Kawa'Gin, Zuko had made straight for the hills to find Junjie, the old miner he'd been told about by the girl in the tavern. Initially, Junjie had seemed to recognize Ursa from the drawing Zuko had shown him, as well as the pattern woven into the bracelet. And the old man had insisted he knew where the woman lived (although he couldn't remember her name). So when he had offered to give Zuko a ride to the port city of Mokushi where she supposedly dwelled, the prince decided it was worth the risk.

Halfway through the first day of their trip, however, the prince began to have his doubts. The serving girl had said Junjie was the only one stubborn enough to continue delving into the hills for silver. But what she should have said was that he was the only person crazy enough to do so, because that's what the old man truly was…a raving lunatic.

However, he was a kind lunatic, and senile enough that Zuko felt relatively safe traveling with him. Junjie's memory was lax at best, and the prince was reasonably sure that in a few days, the old codger wouldn't even remember this journey….he certainly couldn't remember much of anything else.

And what else was there to do? This bizarre little man was the only lead he had on finding Ursa. Besides, even if it turned out to be a false hope, at least Zuko had managed to get a ride halfway to Port Shukumei, and that was worth something.

A chattering trill from Momo sitting on the back of the carriage seat interrupted the badly sung tune, and the old man turned to watch as the lemur flitted down to land on Zuko's chest, nuzzling against the teen's cheek with obvious affection.

"Sorry 'bout the bumpy ride," cackled Junjie happily as Zuko struggled upright and rubbed his eyes.

"Did you drive all night?" wondered the prince sleepily with a tone of slight dismay.

"Nope," replied the old miner with a crooked-toothed grin, "but ye' looked so comfy there last night when ye dozed off, I jus' left ye in the cart. Ye' don't seem the sort who gets enough sleep," he added with a stern wag of his finger, "and a man needs his rest."

Zuko blinked at the familiar admonishment, and wave of longing for his uncle swept over him like a tidal wave, hardening into a solid lump in the back of his throat. It passed swiftly however when Junjie held up a small bag of dried meat, the smell of which caused the teen's stomach to complain loudly.

"Come on up and get yerself some breakfast," Junjie offered cheerfully.

Gracefully climbing into the seat beside him, Zuko took the proffered bag, pulled out a piece of lightly spiced jerky, and bit into it hungrily before breaking a morsel off the opposite end and handing it to Momo. Chewing thoughtfully on the tender meat, Zuko couldn't help but muse to himself that Sokka would love this stuff.

Of course, no sooner had the thought crossed his mind, another wistful pang stabbed through him. He wondered where the others were right now, what they might be doing. How was Aang's training coming along? Was Uncle Iroh going too easy on him?

The prince's eyes grew distant and unfocused as memories glimmered across his senses: Aang's exuberant laugh, the caustic barbs and teasing from Toph, Katara's ever-present sense of order and pragmatism, and even Sokka's lame jokes. He could almost hear the endless banter that had once irritated him so, and found that now that he was away from it, he craved that sound more than he ever thought possible.

So lost was Zuko in his pining, that he barely registered Junjie's voice when he spoke.

"Ye miss 'em dont'cha?"

"Yeah," whispered the prince before he was aware of what he was saying. But the moment the word left his lips, the sudden realization of his admission snapped him out of his reverie with alarm, and he quickly looked at the old man, stuttering in shock. "Wha-…How did-"

Junjie chuckled softly before answering.

"Ye live as long as I have, m'boy, and you learn to recognize that look," Junjie confided with a disquieting sense of lucidity. His gaze lingered out over the rutted wagon-path as he added softly, "It's the look of a man who misses his family."

Zuko stared mutely at the old man, completely at a loss for words. Then, as suddenly as the moment of sanity had appeared, it flickered away again, and Junjie turned a zany grin on the young fire bender.

"How's about a song!" he crowed joyfully, and without waiting for an answer, he began belting out an off-key tune as the wagon rattled slowly across the hilly plain.

"Oooo-Oh! Don't fall in love with a traveling gal, she'll leave ye broken, broken-hearted…"

Author's note: I am SO sorry it took so long to get this up. With the Thanksgiving holiday, and a nasty cold running rampant through the household, I've been hard pressed to find time (and energy) to write.

I said at the end of my last story that from there on out, I would be picking one reader per 'episode' and letting them decide what scene from my stories I would illustrate next.

I had a ton of great reviews to go through for my last story (almost 360! OMG!), trying to pick one person as the 'winner' of their choice of scene. It took me two days to narrow it down to three people, and two more to come to a final decision.

But in the end, I decided to give it to Steamboat Ghost because I always look forward to his input when i post each new chapter. He prolifically shares his reactions, yet he never holds back when he feels a critique is in order. These are the two qualities i appreciate most in a review.

So congratulations to Steamboat Ghost! The scene he asked for will be posted at the first commercial break.

As for the rest of you, please speak up and let me know what you think: be yourself and be honest. And I in turn will show my gratitude for your input by drawing for one of you any scene you'd like.