A/N: Guys, I'm beside myself over the fact that this story has gotten so many hits in only a week and a day. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much! (Especially to those who have followed, favorited, and reviewed already!)

This chapter is longer, and if you haven't noticed yet, these two chapters (and this entire story) is/will be written in third person omniscient. It's just how I'm writing now, and I can't confirm future stories will be written in the same style. So if you're not the biggest fan of it, hang in there maybe, and if you love it, then Sam Smith "Stay with Me." If it's difficult to follow along in some aspects/in a certain part, let me know.

To the reviewers: Thank you all for pointing out the things that I've missed/forgotten about. Like they say, two heads are better than one and so on and so forth. I've appreciated the feedback and critique, and I would love more as I keep going with this.

With Toph not recognizing Zuko in the first chapter, as well as to why he was on 'death's door" with being burned, I hope I addressed your concerns correctly. I was planning on elaborating on those plot points with this second chapter, which I did, mainly concerned with really just set up in Ch 1. But, it's great to see/hear from such attentive Avatar fans.

DISCLAIMER: Peace and love Bryke always. I do not own Avatar nor any of these characters. I am merely writing about them because I love them.

Again, mild language and attempts of hitting the feels.

Keeping in mind they're all in the heat of battle, here we go...

Chapter Two – What the Avatar Drug Out of the Ground

"How'd you get in?" Zuko asked Aang as he helped him shuffle along.

"Toph made us our own way in," he explained. "It's not too far away..." He added as Zuko stumbled over his own two feet again, getting noticeably dizzier from standing up and walking.

"Come on. You can make it," Aang encouraged him, letting Zuko lean more on him if he wanted to. Zuko was touched. This was the kid that he had relentlessly, stupidly, haunted for almost a solid year, and here he was, helping him hobble to safety when he could have easily left him behind. He felt compelled to say something, at the very least, for the Avatar's compassion.

"Hey, listen. I'm, I'm sorry for ARGH!" He had stretched out his burn too far while trying to extend his left leg, mildly affected by his new sore spot. Zuko, not thinking, kneeled over, trying to snuff out the pain if he balled up, dragging Aang down with him.

"Sorry sorry!" Zuko murmured, trying to loosen his grip to prevent choking the airbender.

"Shh! Will you? We'll have soldiers on us in minutes if you keep shouting!" Sokka snapped at him, glaring at the two of them entangled. Toph snickered.

"Sorry about Sokka," Aang whispered to Zuko when they rightened themselves and Zuko was able to force himself to get up and continue on. "The invasion was his idea, and he's, well, feeling a bit too responsible and edgy right now."

"And I'm not helping," Zuko grunted as he tried to figure out a walking method.

"I wasn't going to leave you."

"Again?" He was getting a bit tired of the Avatar saving his ass.

"Yes."

Sokka turned to glare at the two of them over his shoulder.

"Don't get too friendly, jerk," Sokka spat.

"Aren't you supposed to be the lookout?" Zuko grumbled. Sokka growled, turning back to peek around corners and scope out their path. Aang shut up after that, not wanting to provoke anybody anymore than he already had.

Zuko, meanwhile, tried his best to breathe in and out and to calm his racing heart. Flashes of the last time he had been burned ran through his mind uncontrollably, not helping him keep a level head.

Now, both his father and sister had showed their dislike of him directly. Physically. Anger coursed through his veins, mixing with the adrenaline in his system, making him feel even more faint than he already was. He tried his best to stay upright and to not lean too much on the Avatar. Zuko had to force himself continue to move onward towards safety, when all he wanted to do was collapse and be miserable. (That damn mantra of his.)

"I'm glad I passed out after I was burned the first time," Zuko thought as he swooned again. "Because this is absolute hell…" He couldn't believe he was basically re-living his banishment. "What? Is it every time I leave I have to be given a parting gift?"

He couldn't help but think, though, if this hurt worse than the first time. His sister's blue fire had burned away the top layer of his skin on contact and dug down deep fast, making her work of him quick, but not necessarily painless, while on the contrary, Father's seemed to have sizzled for a bit, slowly eating away at him. He remembered passing out from the sheer trauma of it all while his father was addressing the crowd at the Agni Kai. That first fight had been way more emotionally charged than his scuffle with his sister had been, making it ten times as worse. But, Azula's blue fire and how proud of himself he was for denouncing his loyality to Father, only for he to be immobilized and captured, made it almost as equally awful and humiliating.

"Uh, Zuko? Are you OK?" Aang's voice said, cutting through the fog in Zuko's head. Zuko had been unconsciously starting to stagger a bit, getting too lost in his own good for absolutely nothing thoughts. He blinked a few times, snapping fully back into reality.

"Yeah...Yeah, I'm fine…" Zuko trailed, grimacing at the pain that shot up through the left side of his body whenever he tried to step with his left foot. He tried his hardest to focus on moving forward one step at a time, instead of how light-headed and Jello-limbed he was, how he wanted to just collapse and pass out like he did the first time, how his irrational side craved to give Azula and Father a taste of their own medicine…

"Barely OK," Toph thought as she moved behind them, monitoring the Fire Prince and on the lookout for any approaching opposition or obstacle. Zuko, according to her feet, was having a serious anxiety attack and arguably hyperventilating a bit, and she was surprised he hadn't just, you know, up and lost it yet.

After they had found out Zuko was the one that had been shot down and decided to take him with them, Toph remembered who he was. This was Iroh's nephew, or "the angry jerk," according to Sokka, that had apparently chased Aang, Sokka, and Katara all over the world before she had joined up with them.

Toph remembered "meeting" him once, when they were all fighting Azula in that abandoned desert town deep in the Earth Kingdom. How he felt now compared to then, though, was starkly different. Toph couldn't tell if it was because he himself was in pain, but when Azula had struck his Uncle with lightning, he seemed pretty traumatized then too, but his baseline feel seemed now a lot more, calmer, instead of raging all over the place, threatening to go off at any minute over something or other.

"Uh oh, guys. We have a problem," Toph said, pushing her way past Aang, Zuko, and Sokka, sensing trouble ahead. She rounded the corner just ahead of them and stopped at the edge of the lave lake that they had had enough trouble passing over without an injured hitchhiker.

"How are we supposed to get across that?" She asked.

"GEEZ!" Sokka exclaimed, looking like he was seriously considering ripping his hair out or attacking a stalagmite or something. "Aang! Can you cool a bridge across?"

"The lava will just fountain over," Zuko said, looking just as defeated as Sokka did. He knew they couldn't get across that easily with him now.

"Toph! Can you earthbend a bridge wide and high enough across?"

"If there's enough solid stone available, sure." She took her stance and made to raise a bridge out of the molten rock. Slowly, painfully, piece by piece a sufficient bridge took shape in front of them, eventually cool enough to walk on and tall enough to avoid being burned from the lava bubbling up.

It had taken all of Sokka's patience and effort not to yell at Toph to hurry up or to convince Aang to drop Prince Pouty and help, afraid that any second they spent as sitting turtle-ducks was another second a platoon of firebenders was given to find them.

They crossed quickly, thankfully with no one seeming to tail them, and not long after finally came to the hole in the ceiling where Aang, Sokka, and Toph had entered. Toph raised them up and out into the sun now shining brightly overhead and into their next pressing problem of escaping the Fire Nation.

Appa roared happily at seeing his favorite airbender and his companions come out of the ground alive. Momo chittered excitedly, soaring over to greet them. He landed on Aang's shoulder, but leaned over to sniff at the new addition in the form of Zuko.

"Hey Momo!" Aang exclaimed, smiling. "Appa! I'm glad that you two are OK!" Aang helped guide Zuko over to the giant, armor-clad beast, Zuko faintly noticing the bison's protection.

"Impressive…" Zuko wheezed, the mild temperature of the beginning of the summer causing him to begin to overheat even more.

"Thanks," Sokka said, climbing on board and not bothering to fully appreciate the complement. Toph bended herself, Aang, and Zuko onto Appa, Aang helping ease Zuko onto the back of Appa's saddle. He made to sit next to him.

"No, Aang. You drive, and head off Katara. I've got Zuko," Sokka said, sitting down next to the older boy, who was trying to find a comfortable position on the saddle. Aang nodded, and moved to sit on Appa's neck.

"Yip yip!" Aang called. The bison lurched, and was suddenly soaring. Zuko sighed in relief, now out of the immediate danger of his sister and father. He thought better of it, though. There was Katara, the rest of the invasion force, and foot soldiers, the predicament of his…

"Uncle!" He suddenly thought. "No, no no!" Zuko turned to look behind them. The capital city and the palace were a good couple hundred feet below them now, and in the distance, on the horizon, the second caldera that housed the jail.

He was supposed to have gone and bust his Uncle out of his prison cell! And all of his supplies and the war balloon…Zuko turned back around and slumped against the saddle.

"What's wrong? Do we have company?" Sokka asked him, turning to look behind them as they began to slowly descend.

"No…" Zuko grumbled. "My original plans…My Uncle…" So much guilt that had built up inside him over the past few weeks washed over him quickly, threatening to make him loose it, but he dared not cry in front of the Avatar again.

The bison was approaching ground quickly now, where the sounds of fighting and shouting and firebending were almost deafening. The palace guards were trying to push the invasion force out of the caldera itself and force them onto the pathway leading back down to the beach.

"What about your Uncle?" Sokka shouted.

"I was supposed to go and free him from prison! And all my supplies! My war balloon…"

"Well, we can drop you off and you can crawl your way through your original plan, if you want to!"

"Sokka! Enough!" Toph yelled at him. "Don't make me come over there!" She didn't feel it fair that he had to be ripped on by Sokka, when he had just been deep-fried by a member of his own family. Having family problems of her own, she understood partially Zuko's angst. She even went as far as to imagine herself in his shoes, but with the added pressures of being the prince of the nation that was bent on world domination and strength and power, and being a traitor to that type of society.

Toph didn't have the opportunity to get in between the two boys, though. Appa landed next to Katara, Hakoda, and some of the other members of the invasion force before Sokka could retort.

"Why are you back so early?" Katara asked, scanning their apprehensive faces, trying to read them. "What…" Katara's gave fell upon Zuko in the back.

"No," she breathed, switching from concerned to furious in an instant.

"Katara! I can explain!" Aang started, trying to block her off from Zuko as she climbed on board.

"Sugar Queen, let's not do anything rash here…" Toph said, moving to get in her way too.

"No! Get out of my way!" Katara yelled, barreling her way past Aang and Toph. She drew out and solidified the water in her pouch around her forearm to make an ice dagger.

"Katara, stop!" Sokka exclaimed, trying to rein her in. She shoved her brother aside, grabbed Zuko by the collar of his tunic, and placed the ice dagger to his neck all in one swift motion. She immediately drew blood. Zuko, slick with perspiration and getting more anxious by the minute, especially now with the presence of Katara, howled in pain, cringing from the sudden disruption of the sweet spot he had found to sit comfortably in.

"Oh shut up! It's just a tiny cut!" Katara exclaimed, exasperated, thinking he was reacting to her. She hadn't noticed, in her flight to grab for him, his greater injury. "But I can make it bigger, if you want!" She threatened him.

"Katara, stop!" Aang, Sokka, and Toph all shouted at once. She refused to move away from Zuko though, determined to keep her dagger in place and her glare trained on him. Katara wished suddenly that she was a telepathic and that Zuko was too so that he could hear all the vile things she was thinking about him, but she could settle for how it made her slightly satisfied to see him reacting in the way he was to her move on him.

Zuko shook from an unhealthy combination of fever, his burning side, anxiety, and the raw force and persona of Katara.

"Why are you here?" Katara demanded before she noticed the rattling sound of the shackles still attached around Zuko's wrists.

"Good," she snarled. "Sokka should have gagged and tired up your feet too, though."

"Katara, that was Azula," Aang started, attempting to peel her off and away from Zuko. "She attacked him, burning his side pretty badly. We need you to heal him."

"What?!" She exclaimed, bewildered at what she was hearing. She melted her ice dagger and let Zuko drop down onto the saddle. She turned to face Aang.

"We ran into him and Azula when we were leaving. I wasn't going to leave him behind," Aang explained. Katara valued Aang's reasonings as the Avatar and as her friend, but sometimes, sometimes they were just straight up crazy.

"And you were just going to forgive him, bring him along, endanger everyone, and expect us all to be OK with that?! After everything he's done to us? After Ba Sing Se?" She snapped at him, a bit flushed from everything that was currently transpiring.

Aang's scar on his back and foot prickled on cue.

"Katara," Aang started. "Stop. No, I'm not overly thrilled about, well, Zuko, but he needs healing Katara."

"Yeah. Sparky over here is going to have a heart attack soon or burst into flames…" Toph trailed. "Maybe even both…"

"And hey! It's three benders and a Water Tribe Warrior against one crippled firebender. I think he's smart enough not to cause any trouble on purpose," Sokka added.

Zuko could feel himself sigh inwardly. He knew, well, 'he' wasn't going to go over well as soon as the Avatar and his friends showed up. But, he would take this interrogation and questioning of loyalties any day over a fairly similar situation with his father and sister.

He saw Katara shooting him dirty looks.

"Fine. But we have our eyes on you," Katara said.

Zuko nodded in understanding, his side sending another jolt of pain throughout him and not helping with his overall condition and situation.

"So, you will heal him?" Aang asked, searching Katara hopefully. She studied the airbender carefully, trying to figure out where he got this idea that she would just cave in to his every wish, and then turned to Zuko.

And there's chapter two! I had a hell of a time trying to edit this down and out initially, and I just had to come back and revise again. Chapter three hopefully soon...

So Zuko's tired of Aang saving his ass...well, there was the Blue Spirit episode where Aang and him escape Zhao, the North Pole, Ba Sing Se...

Ahh! Cliffhanger! The Devil's struck again! Katara Katara Katara...I had her a bit more violent originally, and I watered her down a bit. (Haha, crappy pun.) I'll get into Katara's dual feelings over someone being hurt in the beginning of chapter three, I promise you.