"So what now?" Sokka pondered.

"Ninth time you've said that," Toph muttered in a singsong voice.

Sokka gave the blind girl a bored look as the four sat with a map in front of them. Looking at Sokka across from him, Aang said, "I still need a Firebending teacher."

On Aang's left, Katara said, "That's true. Do we have time to find Jeong Jeong again?"

The Avatar shuddered a bit, and Sokka intervened, "nope. Well…we dropped the Earth King off at the Eastern Air Temple, and…well…what now?"

"Tenth."

"Why are you keeping count?" Sokka said, frustrated.

Toph grinned, "Because I'm bored, and it's fun messing with you."

"She's got a point," Katara said. Aang and Toph chuckled.

Sokka crossed his arms, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that…anyway. Firebending teacher…do you really need one Aang?"

"What?"

"Think about it Katara. Aang has been able to do without Firebending fine so far. Maybe we can take down the Fire Lord with a good battle strategy. We could use the time we would be searching for a teacher to a good plan."

"A: Aang nearly died three days ago if you can remember past yesterday, and B: Maybe we should free Zuko's Uncle?"

"H…hold on Katara," Aang said, "I did die, but I came back to life. And…I don't know about Iroh. It would be really risky, and I don't know if I trust him yet."

"I understand, but he's helped us out at the Spirit Oasis and he allowed you and me to escape. We owe him our lives."

"He's a good person, Twinkletoes. He really helped me out when I had left," Toph interjected.

"I know, I know. I need some time, but I'm also worried about everyone's safety. I just don't want any of us to die like I nearly did."

"You said it yourself that you…"

"You know what I mean, right Sokka?"

The Water Tribe warrior nodded.

"I think Toph and I should infiltrate the underground catacombs of Ba Sing Se and find Iroh. Toph can dig us a tunnel and act as a detector, and I can be Toph's eyes." Katara explained.

"Woohoo! Some action for once!" the blind girl cheered.

"You can't be serious Katara. You think I'd let you put yourself in danger again?"

"Yes. I am serious, Sokka," the waterbender replied with a roll of her eyes.

"I almost lost you!"

"I'm here aren't I?"

"Well yeah, but…but, I just don't to see you hurt. That's all."

Katara sighed, "I appreciate it Sokka, but I need to do this. Besides I have Toph."

"I can feel those cowardly Dai Li miles away, remember? Seriously Snoozles, we need to do this. Iroh's the best chance we have for teaching Aang firebending. It's too good of an opportunity to pass up."

Sokka relented, and Katara gave her brother a hug.

Toph mumbled under her breath, "was that necessary?"

Sokka sighed pointing on the map, "okay. If we're going to do this we'll need a lot of stealth. Maybe we can land here behind this hillside and Toph can start digging there. Lake Laogai would be too obvious, and going through the main entrance…"

"I think we got that under control oh so smart one," Katara said nonchalantly.

"Toph?" Katara whispered as she gazed around in the catacombs, "is there anyone here?"

The green glow of the room magnified Toph's sightless eyes as she turned to Katara, "I'm not sure, but I can feel a lot of people gathering above ground."

"Have you found Iroh?"

"He's in front of us, but a little far away. As long as we keep going straight, we'll find him."

"Any Dai Li?" Katara asked as the pair continued trekking across the large room.

"Nope."

"Strange."

"It is…" Toph muttered and earthbent a tunnel.

Katara winced at the volume of the action, "can we be quieter?"

Toph shrugged, "frankly I could care less."

Katara smiled, "that's great and all, but let's not get killed. Okay?"

Toph paused, shrugged her shoulders, and bent the tunnel once more. An emerald light shone upon Katara's face after a brief exposure to total darkness in Toph's tunnel. Before the two girls was that sight of a concerned Iroh; his shoulders slumped with emotional anguish.

Katara felt a deep sympathy for the old man, and blankly stared as his eyes made contact.

Iroh smiled, "oh my. This is a pleasant surprise. Have you come to keep an old man company?"

Toph laughed and Katara smiled. "We have a favor to ask, sir," the Water Tribe girl asked, "we're in dire need of a firebending teacher for Aang. We were hoping you'd come with us. You're our only hope right now. The only other firebender is Jeong Jeong and we don't have time to find him."

Iroh's smile grew, "Jeong Jeong excels at his job. Such a good man; he was very smart and true to his heart with his decision. My brother's reign needs to be halted. I would be happy to join you…"

Katara smiled in deep gratitude.

"But…"

Katara's gratitude faltered a bit.

"But," Iroh continued, "I would like to find my nephew, and play a game of Pai Sho. That boy and his insane sister need to be set straight and…I miss Pai Sho."

Toph smiled, "that's fine."

Katara was about to protest when Toph continued, "I hope you understand if finding your nephew takes too much time then…"

Iroh nodded, "I understand. I believe he will be actively searching for someone. I have a feeling our paths will cross in the near future."

"Well," Katara said, stifling her uneasiness, "should we go now?"

"Please," Iroh laughed, "this cell was beginning to smell like things from the Fire Nation Military I wished I had forgotten."

"I don't wanna know," Toph commented as the trio casually walked into their tunnel. As Toph closed the tunnel behind them she paused, "you guys can't see anything can you?"

"I can fix that," Iroh said politely and lit a small flame in his hand.

Katara seemed to be a little on edge, the old man casually noticed. "If I may ask, how is the Avatar's health?"

Katara sighed, "he's getting better but he's still weak…Th…thank you for your help."

Iroh smiled, "you are very welcome. I must apologize about my nephew's behavior. He is a very confused young man right now."

"I noticed," Katara said.

"I did notice that you seemed to have a good influence on him though. I appreciate that very much," Iroh commented.

Katara looked away, growing a little red in the face, "it was…weird. Nice…but a little weird."

Iroh and Toph chuckled, and Katara smiled as the continued uphill. A thought hit her after a brief silence, "Um…I don't mean to pry, but how did Zuko get that scar?"

"Hm?" Iroh's eyebrows rose.

Katara blushed again, "I'm sorry, it's a stupid question."

"I do not believe there is such a concept as a stupid question, but I'm afraid you will have to ask him. He will explain when he is ready."

"What scar does he have, and what exactly is a scar again?" Toph asked quietly.

Katara raised an eyebrow at Toph's unusual tone, "your parents didn't tell you?"

"Sheltered. Remember?"

Katara blinked, "Oh yeah. Sorry, I had a Sokka moment."

Toph burst into laughter and Iroh smiled. Katara's mirth slowly lessened and she began to explain, "a scar is basically a part of your skin that looks and feels rough because you were wounded there. They're usually not nice to look at."

"My nephew was burned on the left side of his face. It covers his eyebrow and reaches back to his ear as well," Iroh continued a little sadly.

"What do burns look like?"

"They're smooth but also deformed. Zuko's skin looks like it sags a little where he was burned. It's discolored too. So it's very obvious to see because his skin is light."

Toph blinked, "you remember that I can't see right? I think I got the picture though. But there's one more thing I was wondering. My parents never told me this; they just cried and felt sorry for me. Anyway…what are colors?"

Katara and Iroh stopped, and Toph followed suit. Katara looked at her a little sadly, "I'm sorry Toph. I have no idea how to explain that to you."

"It will be hard to describe every color in between, but I can at least tell you about the color black," Iroh pondered. "Black is the absence of color, and black is where light cannot reach. Colors are caused by light, and where there is no light there is black. Do you understand so far?"

"I think so," Toph said as the trio began to move again, "Since I can't see I can't see light. Right?"

"Precisely."

"So then if I could see colors, I'd be seeing black right?"

"You are very perceptive. Yes you are technically seeing the color black."

"I don't like it. It's too much like a void or emptiness."

"I understand how you feel," Katara muttered, "I'd feel lost too if I were in a pitch black room."

"What do you mean by pitch black?"

"Where there is light there is a range of color," Iroh explained, "so with black, there is a range of how black the color is. Pitch black is the deepest black. Pitch black is where there is no light."

"If I were in a pitch black room, I'd basically be blind," Katara finished.

"So what I basically see is pitch black?"

"Yes," Iroh replied.

"So if black is darkness then what is the color of light?"

"That's a little harder to explain," Katara said, "light can be any color except black. There are a lot of colors out there, but the one color that is the opposite of black is white."

"White is the lightest shade of any color. With each range of color there is the dark end, and the light end. The closer the range gets to the dark side, the closer the color looks like black. In the other direction, the color becomes more and more like white. White is a pure color, and when white becomes too concentrated it can become blinding. Just like if one were to stare at the sun. The sun is a source of heat, like fire, but it is so intense that the sun is white. Fire is red by the way, a color almost exactly in between black and white."

"So that heat I feel on top of me when I'm outside, during the day, comes from the sun?"

I wonder why she's so curious…she's not usually like this, Katara pondered, it's almost scary.

"That is correct," Iroh answered.

"It doesn't feel that strong."

"That is because it is very far away from us," Iroh explained, "the sun is much much larger than our planet but appears much smaller because of its distance away from us."

"How do you know?" Katara couldn't help but wonder.

"In the Fire Nation we have had a revolution in thought and we are studying things through a non-spiritual method. We call it science. The Fire Nation is studying the way the habits of the stars as we speak. And just recently, a man named Xian De Jong figured out that our planet revolves around the sun. He explained that is that it takes one year for one full revolution around the sun. This is why the moon has cycles as well."

Katara stared at the man in awe, "I…I always wondered about that. But, well, is it true?"

Iroh nodded.

"How?"

"Xian De Jong published a book recently, but I do not know its full details. From what I was told, Xian De Jong wanted to figure out how the eclipses worked. Now you must understand, we originally thought the sun and the moon revolved around our planet. He didn't believe it because that idea could not explain why it took much longer than a full day for the moon to complete its cycle. It also could not explain why we have eclipses."

"Okay," Katara nodded.

"When Xian De Jong saw the last eclipse he began to think. He thought that something is moving for the eclipses to occur. He wasn't sure if it was our planet, the sun, or the moon. He found that the sun never changed its intensity in light and he could not see the sun change. The moon, on the other hand, did change. There was a darkness on the moon that seemed to get larger and larger until the moon was covered in black for one night, and then the blackness would slowly go away. Looking at the moon is easier and doesn't hurt the eyes much. Xian De Jong thought that maybe the darkness on the moon was really a shadow. The scientists in the Fire Nation have already concluded that the moon is the closest object to our planet, so Xian De Jong took a step further and said our planet was creating the shadow."

"So if our planet was the shadow," Katara said, "then the light is coming from the sun?"

Iroh nodded, "Yes. This basically proved that the planet circles around the sun, but he also went a step further from that. He noticed that the moon was sometimes visible during the day, but the sun was never visible at night unless a lunar eclipse was occurring. This basically gave him the idea that the moon was also moving. So since he came to conclude that our planet revolves around the sun, then the moon may revolve around our planet as well."

"Wow, that's…that's amazing," Katara said.

"Yeah," Toph said in equal awe, "it sure is."

"Serious…hey! Are you mocking me?"

Toph laughed, "of course not. By the way, we're going to be coming up to the surface soon…and, so…what does that whole talk about the sun and the moon mean to us in, you know, taking down the Fire Lord?"

"Oh," Iroh chuckled, "right now, it means absolutely nothing!"

"Seriously?" Toph said.

Iroh shrugged, "this is a monumental discovery, and perhaps this knowledge it may help later."

"I don't know, but at least it was interesting," Katara said thoughtfully.

Iroh smiled as he began to see light creeping around a corner, "As I once told your friend Aang. We may not see things while we are in life's tunnel. But if we keep moving, we will come to a better place."

"Zuko, where the hell are we?"

"A better place? I don't know Azula, would you just shut up."

"Great, you're lost."

"We are not lost!"

"I never said I was lost," Azula chided, "I'm never lost. You on the other hand…"

"Be quiet and start walking," Zuko sneered as he sat on a rickshaw with a cage built into the back.

Azula put her hands to her hips as she glared at him. Chained to the rickshaw, Azula responded indignantly, "Oh come on now. What am I some sort of beast of burden?"

"Yup."

"Die."

"Shut up and walk. We have a lot of ground to cover."

"Do you even know where you're going? You have no clue where the Avatar went, do you? Your old tactics of roaming the country and praying to Agni that you'll find the Avatar is not going to work."

"Shut up, slave!"

"Make me."

Zuko opened up a small chest on his side and reached for a whip, "I'm not going to ask again. Shut up…and keep moving."

Azula slapped her forehead and stared at the heavens, "Why, beloved Agni, why is my brother so lame? Why is it that he cannot ever issue a comm-ow!! You jackass!"

"Your disobedience disgusts me!"

"What…is it supposed to please you?"

Zuko lashed his sister once more, "walk!"

With a huff, Azula began pull the rickshaw, "Where are we going oh wondrous navigator?"

Zuko briefly clenched his fists, and the urge to carve a river-system of pain into Azula's back grew. "East…We're heading east. Southeast actually. Let's pay that stupid island a visit."

"There are a lot of islands southeast of here you freakin'…"

"Enough! You will stay silent!"

"Meh, whatever you say master," Azula responded with utter contempt.

"To answer your question, slave, I think the island was named after Avatar Kyoshi. Know how to get there?"

"You're the one who's already been there."

"You're giving me a headache."

"Not my problem."

"I intend to make it your problem. Stop the rickshaw."

Azula sighed and ceased her movement, great…more delays. "Why are you wasting so much time?"

"This is not wasting time. You need to learn your place you insolent whore," Zuko said as he stood.

Azula turned around, "I'm a virgin. Remember how I'm supposed to keep my virginity for a future husband? Or maybe you've forgotten your nation's customs in your absence!"

Zuko blinked without emotion, "take off your blouse."

"Gross Zuzu! Why would you want to see your sister naked? Are you that lecherous that you…"

Zuko decked Azula in the face, "take it off now so you can get the lashing of your worthless life!"

"Psh," Azula sneered, "you're one to talk about worthlessness." However she shed her clothing down to her brassiere.

A silent rage fiercely clawed its way to freedom from Zuko's mental restraints, and he told her to turn around. With her back to him, his rage was released with a flurry of cracks in the air.

Azula shut her eyes and grit her teeth in silence as little streams languidly rolled down her assaulted back. Her eyes brimmed and she let out a small breath as the impacts ceased. She sat and her recently unbound hair covered her face.

Zuko glared at her mangled back and quietly said, "we're stopping for today. Sunset will be soon."

He reached into the same chest and grabbed a key and an extra pair of handcuffs. Fire-resistant handcuffs, he thought to himself, what will we think of next? She's even unable to bend with those things on her hands and feet. I never thought we'd have defenses against our own people…

Azula saw him kneel next to her out of the corner of her eye. He grabbed her wrist, locked a second handcuff to it and attached the other cuff to a bar of the cage. Unlocking the handcuffs that bound Azula to the front of the rickshaw, he ordered her to get in the cage.

She gave him the nastiest glare of his life; a sign to him that she would extract vengeance ten-fold upon him if and when she escapes. As Azula Confined herself within the uncomfortable cage Zuko slammed the metallic door in her face.

Her back stung greatly and she winced as she watched Zuko walk towards a nearby forest.

Better place my royal ass, Azula thought bitterly.

Zuko felt numb as he gathered a small amount of firewood; frowning in guilty despair, Uncle…what have I done?

I'd like a general consensus. Are the characters believable in this story so far? If not, please help me out with their traits. If so, please talk about it more. In general, I'd like to see some more reviews. I'm not interested in self-gratification, and I'd like to know ways to make the story better.

Please Review. I really appreciate it.

Thanks.