Instinct's Info: This story is getting revisions done as are most of my other ones in preparation for me beginning to write again. Feel free to critique or leave any other comments you want via a review.

Chapter One: Revelations

Appa screamed through the air; the only thing he knew was that he had to go fast. No one had been at the reigns for nearly half an hour now; they were all watching Katara trying to heal Aang, with the exception of Toph who was tapping her foot nervously. It had been a couple hours since they had left Ba-Sing-Se and Aang wasn't doing much better. He would be awake one minute, groaning with pain, and then out the next, his face contorted with great pain even during sleep. Sokka tore his eyes away because he knew Katara was going to need more water to keep going. He also knew that she was drained, but she wouldn't take a brake until Aang was stable. He'd tried asking her about it once and she had made it clear that she wouldn't.

Sokka started looking off the side of Appa, down to the dark ground below them. At the pace Appa was flying, he found a lake in no time and jumped to take the reins that had been left unattended. Appa responded to his steering and plummeted down through the air. After hours of what amounted to sprinting through the sky, he was ready to collapse.

They landed without a bump and Toph struggled down off Appa with Sokka's help and stamped her foot. A second later the water was flowing right to next to Appa through a little stream. Bosko jumped off of Appa and somehow landed on his paws. The Earth King followed suit and landed on Bosko's cushy back.

The King slid off his back and tried to get some of his questions answered, "What are we going to do now? The invasion plan is finished!"

"No, not exactly." Sokka started rubbing his chin in an attempt to look thoughtful.

"All we needed for the invasion was an army. We were in already in the Earth Kingdom and Ba-Sing-Se was the only stronghold left, if you don't count what Long-Feng tried to do of course. There's still one nation that hasn't fallen: the Water Tribes. If we can reach my dad at Chameleon Bay we might still be able to use the invasion plan." Sokka concluded with a sombre voice.

Now that they had a plan and a destination he climbed back up onto Appa to check on Katara and Aang. Katara's hands were glowing with the water and Aang was awake again. Katara had a ring of ice around the spot Azula had blasted him.

"What's the ring for?" Sokka asked his sense of curiosity never sated.

Before Katara could answer Aang did in a much healthier sounding voice, "It dulls the pain. If I'm awake she can get the more serious stuff done faster because I know where the damage is the worst, although it's not too hard to tell." His shoulders sagged when he said this. He was all too aware of the chunk missing out of his back.

"We're going to head for Chameleon Bay and meet up with dad. There are probably some other healers there that can take over for you."

"Thanks, I could probably use a break."

"You know, with the ice, I'm probably going to be fine for a bit. You should get some rest." Aang offered, knowing how much she needed a break.

"As soon as the ice melts you're going to be even worse than before! I'm not resting until you're in better condition. Where's does it hurt the most now?" Her determination brooked no argument.

"Center of the back," he answered, "a little higher." He added when she started again. He knew there wasn't any point arguing with her. Katara refilled her water skins and they took off, much to Appa's dislike, again with Toph sitting comfortably in one corner of the saddle with one hand tapping to no particular rhythm on it. She still didn't like flying all too much and it helped take her mind off it.

By the time they reached Chameleon Bay Katara was ready to pass out and she was almost out of water again. When they landed a small group of people ran out of a cluster of tents to greet them. Sokka jumped down to get their message out quickly.

"Are there any healers here?" His voice betrayed the urgency and a couple people sprinted back to the tents and came back with three. Katara and Aang were carried off of Appa and Katara barely made it to a tent before she was out like a light.

Aang was carried on a stretcher to another tent and was flipped onto his back and the healers began trying to do what Katara had been trying to do for hours. They were faster because of their numbers but Aang had to tell them about the ice ring and they weren't as good about placing it so once and a while he would slip back into unconsciousness.

Sokka walked through the rest of the camp, looking for Chief Hakoda. His tent was the one nearest the water and was hard to discern because it was identical to the others around it. Sokka probably would have skipped it if he hadn't seen his father walk into it.

Sokka ran up to the tent and asked tentatively at the flap, "Dad?"

Hakoda came through the opening and threw his son into a warm embrace, "Sokka! What are you doing back here! Why didn't someone tell me you were here?"

Sokka would have loved to just say hello and start talking about his exploits, but his voice was dead serious and he hated telling his father about their failure, "There was a coup in Ba-Sing-Se. Azula headed it. She shot Aang with lightning during the fight so we had to leave. Without him there was no way we could win."

"And you came here so he could be healed. How is Katara doing, she'd have been fighting with him too right?"

"Yes, she's the one that got Aang out of there. She's been trying to heal him, but hasn't made much progress. Aang got hit right through the chest." Sokka paused for a moment, phrasing his next question, "Dad, there's another reason we came here. When Ba-Sing-Se fell, the Earth Kingdom fell. There isn't another army to stand against the Fire Nation except this one."

"Sokka, this isn't an army! We got hit badly last week. We have a few hundred left. That's nothing compared to what the Fire Nation has!"

"It doesn't need to be. Remember the invasion plan I mentioned?"

"Somewhat, you were kind of sketchy with the details."

"We learned that a solar eclipse is coming and it will knock out all fire bending. If we invade then, we'll catch them off guard and we'll be able to strike them right at their heart! Aang should be healed by then and with our help he can take down the Fire Lord!"

"It's a great plan Sokka, but you're missing a couple things. Even without fire bending, a force this size is going to be hard pressed to get to the capitol. You're also forgetting that if Princess Azula orchestrated the coup then she probably knows about your invasion plan. There's also the possibility that the Fire Nation already knows about the eclipse so they would be ready for it."

"We have to at least try. Sozon's comet will arrive soon and then no one will be able to stop the Fire Nation."

"Then we'd better move fast. If they don't know about it then Azula would tell them so our first step has to be stopping her from getting back."

"That might be a bit harder than you think. She has this crazy blue fire and she can shoot lightning!" Sokka had started trying to act out the fire and lightning, much to Hakoda's amusement.

"As you said last time, but we have to try right?" Hakoda answered, using Sokka's own reasoning.

"I was just warning you dad, it's going to be difficult." Sokka said with a smile. The short time he had been with him before going back to Ba-Sing-Se had been some of the best times of his life and now was no different.

Katara's eyes opened slowly at first then snapped open when she remembered what had happened. She dashed out of her tent and crashed right into Sokka, making him spill his boiled sea prunes.

"Oh man, that was going to be my lunch!" he whined.

Katara was too focused on how Aang was doing to actually notice though, "Which tent is Aang in?"

Sokka recovered from the loss of the sea prunes and answered her, "Relax for a minute, he's fine. The healers pulled an all nighter. He's doing way better now. He's in the tent closest to the cliff if you want to check on him. Find dad once you're done, he didn't get to see you yet. And you owe me a bowl of sea prunes later!" He added as she dashed off to see Aang.

Hakoda had been busy for most of the night, getting the ships ready to go, but once he was done that he had gone to sleep outside the healing tent because he figured that Katara would go directly there once she woke up, and had fallen asleep there.

As he woke up he saw Katara sprinting towards the tent and opened the flap for her to go in. He could wait to say hi a little longer. She had a few tears in her eyes as she ran up and he was left to wonder who they were for: seeing him after so long or her worrying about Aang.

Instead of going into the tent she gave Hakoda a flying hug and almost knocked him over, "I missed you so much dad!"

Evidently the tears had been for him, "I missed you too, more than you'll ever know."

"You're not leaving us again." Her tears were flowing more freely now and Hakoda tightened his hug promising the same.

After their reunion Hakoda swung the tent flap open and Katara stepped into the tent. Aang was asleep, though without the contorted face of the night before. She felt so relieved her knees almost fell out from underneath her. She knelt by him initially thinking about checking him over for any problems. Shortly after that she began to suit there for no real purpose other than the fact of being thankful for him surviving.

When all the preparations were done Hakoda gathered his men together and left the beaches. Sokka stood by his side and Hakoda tried to start up a conversation, he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his son.

"You know, it's kind of a shame what happened in Omashu. The pentapox epidemic they have made the city next to impossible to rule. When everyone moved out the government thought they got rid of it but it just keeps coming back!"

Sokka couldn't believe his ears, "Dad, we're the ones that started that. The whole epidemic was a hoax! The people in the resistance must be using it to shield their actions!"

"Wait; weren't you ever immunized for pentapox?"

"There's no such thing! You stick a pentapus on your cheek, tickle it, and it pops off! It just makes you look like you're sick!"

"So, we could go and retake Omashu right now?"

The idea stopped Sokka cold and it took him a minute to respond, "We should still try to take out the ship Azula's on before we try that." Hakoda nodded his agreement although he still shared the giddy feeling Sokka had right now.

When they came to the exit of the bay and turned towards Ba-Sing-Se they got a nasty surprise. A fleet of Fire Navy boats was steaming along in the opposite direction of Ba-Sing-Se

Sokka was fuming, "Why does her entourage have to be so big? Heck, you're the leader of Southern Water Tribe and all you have are these ships!"

"Well, with the information she has, I can see why they put her in a fleet."

"Guess we go to Omashu now, right?"

"Unless you want to try and take that on?"

"You are really going to like Bumi if you keep talking like that." Sokka said as he laughed at his dad's absurd idea.