Summary: What would've happened if Mike and Bryan had stayed with their original idea of having Zutara happen and having Zuko join the GAang during the crossroads of destiny?

Disclaimer: A:TLA belongs to Bryke and Nickelodeon

A:TLA Remakes: The Painted Lady

AN: I think you guys are gonna like what I did with the plotline. This one's changed a bit more from the original episode than the other episode have been.

Appa swam through a muddy polluted river while Sokka tried to catch whatever fish could survive in the brown nasty river and Aang was swimming in the river playing a game with Momo. Aang airbent himself back onto the saddle and was covered in lake muck.

"Hey guys I think this river's polluted" he said as he airbent the muck off of him and onto his friends. Toph stuck out her tongue and accidently tasted the lake muck.

"Ugh" she said as Aang blew a gust of wind at them taking the muck away and messing up their hair at the same time.

"Well that explains why I can't catch a fish around here because normally my fishing skills are off the hook" Sokka said holding up his muck covered fish hook, "get it? Like a fish hook"

"Too bad your skills aren't on the hook" Toph said gaining a laugh out of Aang, Katara, and Zuko and a scowl out of Sokka.

"It looks like we need to go somewhere else to get food" Katara said as a long piece of paper rolled out next to her, "Assuming that will fit into to Sokka's master schedule"

"Hm that's doable but only two potty breaks today" Sokka said looking at his mater schedule.

"Seriously man?" Zuko said giving Sokka a questioning look and Sokka sent him a small glare.

"I think we could find some food over there" Aang said gesturing to a town in the distance. The GAang left Appa and Momo on an island close to the town under some moss so no one would notice they were there.

"There now you look like a little hill with horns" Aang said to Appa as he settled the moss over him. The GAang walked to the edge of the island facing the small town.

"I don't feel anything where is this village?" Toph said staring blindly in front of her.

"It's in the middle of the river" Sokka said gesturing towards the tiny river village.

"Sure it is!" said a voice from below the group of travelers, "my name's Doc mind if I ask who you are?" Doc said smiling up at the GAang from his pontoon boat. The GAang gave each other wary looks and Zuko pulled his hood higher up over his head to cover his left eye. They couldn't risk anyone realizing who he was even though he looked quite different with his long shaggy hair.

"Uh we're from the Earth Kingdom colonies" Katara said gesturing to her friends.

"Oh colonials well hop on I'll give you a ride into town" Doc said gesturing for them to come down. The GAang got on the small boat and Doc rowed them toward the village.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked looking around the river.

"Because we're a fishing town, at least that's how we were before they built that factory" Doc said as they passed a large factory with a Fire Nation symbol painted on the front and heavy black smoke coming out of the top, "the army makes their metal there, moved in a few years ago and have been gunking up our river ever since. And now our little village has been struggling to survive."

The group soon reached the town and docked the boat. They thanked Doc for the ride and started to make their way around the town. All around the town were sickly looking people.

"Look at this place, it's so sad, we have to do something to help" Katara said looking around the depressing town. Zuko came up behind her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"No we can't waste our time here we have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own" Sokka said/yelled from behind his sister. Katara quickly became angry with her brother and ran up to him grabbing his shoulder.

"These people are starving! You're just going to turn your back on them? How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"I'm not turning my back I'm just being realistic we can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all when we take down the Firelord" he half shouted. Out of nowhere a pale hand was slapped over his mouth.

"Hey Loudmouth maybe we should be a little quieter when talking about taking out the Firelord" Toph said standing between the fighting siblings.

"Come on Katara be reasonable about this you know our mission has to come first"

"I guess so" she said looking down at the muddy river. Zuko who was still standing behind her put his hand on her shoulder again giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Let's just get what we need and go" Aang said from the other side of Katara. They walked through the town and up to a stand where a man that looked a lot like Doc just so happened to be working at.

"Hey Doc you work here too?" Sokka said after ringing a little bell on the counter.

"I'm not Doc I'm Shu Doc's my brother" the group of kids looked at him oddly.

"But we just saw you you're even wearing the same clothes the only difference is your hat" Aang said gesturing to the man's head.

"Doc works at the docks that's why we call him Doc and I work in the shop that's why they call me Shu" the eccentric man said smiling at the group of kids in front of him.

"I don't get it"

"Me either" Shu said before disappearing under the counter and popping back up with a box in his hands, "what can I get you?" he said putting the box full of strange looking dead fish things on the counter, "hey I'll give you a special deal if you but three fish I'll throw in a clam for free." Katara, Sokka and Aang peered into the box and Sokka poked one of the clams and muddy water came out of it making Aang and Katara pull away from the box in disgust.

"We'll just take the fish" Sokka said grabbing three fish out of the box, "would you mind telling your brother that we need a ride back to the shore?" he asked as Shu wrapped up the fish and handing it to Katara before he disappeared under the counter again. He popped up wearing a different hat.

"Hey there colonials Shu says you need a lift" Doc or was it Shu said before jumping over the counter and leading the GAang back to the docks. A little boy ran up to Katara and gently grabbed her arm.

"Can you spare some food?" he said looking up at Katara with pleading eyes. Katara unwrapped the fish and handed the little boy one of their fish.

"I wish I could help more" Katara said as the little boy bowed respectfully before running off in the other direction. She watched as the little boy ran to his sickly mother and sat next to her. Later that night the GAang was back with Appa and Momo and Aang was bending the mud out of the river water to make it clean and throwing it over to Katara who put it into a pot that was sitting on a fire Zuko had created.

"Our detour into town has completely thrown off our schedule it's gonna take some serious finagling to get us back on track" Sokka said looking at his calendar and taking a cup of water from the pot.

"Finagle away oh schedule master" Toph said as the all went over to look at the calendar.

"Well for starters we need to wake up 43 minutes earlier everyday"

"43 minutes?" Zuko said giving Sokka a weird look.

"Look we only have a few weeks to get to the Firelord in time for the invasion and the eclipse which by the way only lasts eight minutes and we just lost a whole day so if we wanna make up the time and stay on schedule we have to wake up early"

"Well I'm not waking up early" Toph said lying on the ground.

"Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks" Sokka said crossing his arms over his chest. Making his friends yell out in refusal, "I got it how about this from now on we'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time" Sokka said feeling like a genius but made the others look at him like he had just grown Momo's ears out of nowhere.

"Hey it may be gross but it's efficient. Either way we have to leave here first thing in the morning" Sokka said rolling up the schedule and walking away. The next morning Katara was with Appa who looked like he was in pain.

"What's wrong with Appa?" Aang said as he and Toph walked over to Katara and the bison.

"I think he's sick"

"WHAT!? Appa's sick? That's awful!" Sokka said shooting up from the saddle.

"Wow Sokka I didn't realize you cared so much" Toph said rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Of course I care I might as well just throw our schedule away now!" Sokka yelled pulling the schedule out of his shirt. The others looked at him with disgust, "and I'm concerned because my big furry friend doesn't feel well" Sokka said running up to Appa and stroking his fur.

"He must've gotten sick from being in the polluted water"

"He doesn't look sick, you ok buddy?" Aang asked petting Appa's nose, Appa opened his mouth to reveal a very purple tongue, "his tongue is purple that can't be good, Katara can you heal him?"

"It looks like he needs some medicine, maybe we can find the right herbs in town" Katara said looking at Appa's tongue. The GAang traveled back to the depressing town.

"Is it just me or does this place seem different" Toph said as they walked through the town.

"Yeah are the people happier?" Aang said as a little girl ran by them throwing a ball in the air. They walked over to Shu/Doc's stand, "hey Shu what's going on with everyone today?"

"Something amazing happened last night; food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person, The Painted Lady"

"The painted who now?" Katara asked leaning on the counter.

"The painted lady, she's part of our town's lore they say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend, until now" Shu said putting a figurine of a woman wearing a hat and robe with paint streaks marking her face.

"See we don't need to help these people, they have someone to help them. All we need is medicine to help our sick friend"

"Medicine? Sorry all the medicine we have is given to the factory, that's why there's sp may sick people in our village"

"Looks like we need to stay an extra night so Appa can rest," Katara said turning to face her brother.

"Ugh I guess we have to. You got anymore food to sell?" Sokka said turning back to Shu. Shu dove under the counter and came back up holding to different fish.

"Would you like the one headed fish or the two headed fish?"

"Two headed!" Sokka said reaching over to take the fish. The others eyed the fish oddly, "what you get more for your money this way" Sokka said pushing the fish towards the others making them walk away in disgust. That night a mist was coming from the river and the painted lady was approaching the village. She went into the sick people's ward and started to heal all of them, a blue light emanating from the building. The last person she healed was the little boy Katara had given the fish two the day before. The boy woke up and looked at the painted lady as she walked out of the room.

"Thank you Painted Lady" the little boy said before the Painted Lady disappeared in the mist.

The next morning Doc was cleaning his statue of the painted lady when Sokka and the others came up to his stand.

"Hey Doc is Shu around?"

"Let me check" Doc said walking behind the stand and came back as Shu, "hey there back again are you?"

"We need more food our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better" Toph said shoving Sokka out of the way and putting coins on the counter. Shu too the coins and placed a plate with the odd clam looking things on the counter.

"Well that's too bad maybe if you're lucky the painted lady will visit you in the night and heal your friend"

"Yeah and maybe she'll make us a midnight snack and we'll all have a sing-along" Sokka said sarcastically as he picked up the plate.

"Maybe, last night she visited us again and healed most of the sick folks"

"Is that why this place seems so festive?" Aang said gesturing to the happy people running toward a bunch of men putting up a statue of the painted lady in the middle of the town.

"Yup it's all because of the painted lady"

"Can you believe how much an entire visit can be affected by one lady, I mean spirit" Katara said looking happily at the people of the village.

"Well I hope she returns every night otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was" Sokka said almost immediately making Katara mad.

"How can you say that? Look how much better off these people are"

"Yeah now but without her they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. If she really wanted to help she would use her spirit magic to blow up that factory" Sokka said making lame ghost noises and hand gestures imitating an explosion.

"Spirit magic doesn't work that way Sokka, it's more like…whoooooo" Aang said making less obnoxious sounding ghost noises. This made Katara even angrier and she walked away fuming with Sokka and Aang still making lame ghost noises. Katara walked up to the edge of the town and looked over at the factory. That night when everyone was sleeping Katara got out of bed and became the painted lady once more. Momo saw her running off and jumped on Zuko to wake him up.

"Ugh what is it Momo?" he said sitting up. He saw the painted lady running off in the distance, "it's her," he said getting up and running toward her. He called out to her and she turned for a second before running even faster. Zuko began to run after her and quickly caught up to her using his jets of fire and kept calling out to her. She was approaching the Firenation factory and he tried to be as fast as she was but it was becoming difficult. Katara looked back at the town and thought she was alone until she turned around and saw Zuko standing there.

"Katara I know it's you" Zuko said crossing his arms over his chest. Katara looked at the floor sheepishly.

"How'd you figure it out?"

"The way you were so affected by the depressed people of the town and how you wanted to help so much and how you had so much faith in the painted lady"

"I wasn't her at first but I just wanted to help the village but since everyone thought that was who I was anyway I guess I just kind of became her anyway" Katara said dropping the veiled hat onto the ground.

"So is Appa even sick?"

"He might be sick of the purple berries I've been feeding him but other than that he's fine. I'm sorry I had to lie to you"

"It's ok Katara you're doing a good thing for these people" Zuko said walking closer to her and wrapping an arm around her, "and if you don't mind I'd like to help you" he said smiling down at her. She looked up at him returning his smile.

"Of course! But you're going to need an alias"

"Don't worry about that I've got one stay here I'll be back soon" he said before running back towards the town. It took a bit of time but he came back decked out in all black with a mask in his hand. Katara looked over at him as he put the blue spirit mask on.

"Zuko you're the blue spirit?!" she asked in shock.

"I was I didn't think I'd have to become him again but I found this mask at one of the villages we docked at and grabbed it"

"So it was you that saved Aang from Zhao?"

"Yeah it was"

"But you were against us back then what happened?"

"I didn't want Zhao to get credit for capturing the Avatar" he said shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm just kind of in shock does Aang know it was you?"

"Yeah he actually said when he found out that he hoped we could be friends one day. He was right" he said smiling under the mask, "so what is our next move Painted Lady?" he asked rhetorically he already knew what she was planning. The Blue Spirit and The Painted Lady ran toward the factory.

"So how exactly do you plan on destroying this place?" Zuko asked looking over at Katara and then at the muck flowing out into the river. Katara led him inside and together they started emptying all of the buckets with molten iron hanging from the ceiling and destroying the pipes with their bending. Katara summoned a large wave using her bending and it crashed through the windows. The factory started exploding left and right until there was nothing left but debris and smoke.

Zuko and Katara stood on some of the rocks a few hundred yards away from the factory. Zuko turned towards Katara and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Looks like we were successful Painted Lady" he said pushing the mask to the top of his head with his free hand. Katara smiled and snuggled up to him wrapping one of her arms around him so they were half hugging.

"I think we were Blue Spirit" she said before leaning in to give him a light peck on the lips. The couple walked back to the camp after stashing away their costumes and trying to be as quiet as possible. But of course they weren't that lucky. Sokka Toph and Aang were standing there waiting for their return.

"Oh hi guys we were just out on a morning walk" Katara said attempting to make up an excuse.

"Oh really a morning walk!" Sokka half yelled holding up Katara's sleeping bag and emptying out the grass she had filled it with, "I know you're the painted lady and I know that you've been sneaking out at night and I know you've been lying about Appa and feeding him purplizing tongue berries!" Sokka yelled gesturing to Toph who stuck out her now purple tongue and holding up a bag of the purple berries, "Katara what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy we're leaving right now!" Sokka said crossing his arms over his chest. Katara and Zuko started to walk back to the camp to get their things but Zuko was stopped by Sokka.

"And how long did you know about this?"

"Only since last night" he said before walking away.

Back at the destroyed factory a man with a winding scar across his face glared at the small town plotting something evil in his head. Back at the camp Sokka and the others were packing their things when they heard the roaring sound of jet ski looking things riding towards the village.

"What's going on?" Toph said as she joined her friends who were watching the Firenation soldiers go towards the town.

"Firenation soldiers are heading towards the village"

"What did you do!?" Sokka yelled at Katara who sat there looking at the ground.

"I kind of destroyed the factory…"

"YOU WHAT!?"

"It was your idea!"

"I was joking I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises!" he said face palming, "did you even think this through!? The army's going to blame the villagers they're headed there right now to get revenge!"

"Well what was I supposed to do?!"

"Leave! Do Nothing!"

"NO! I will never EVER turn my back on people who need me! I'm going down to the village and I'm going to do whatever I can" she said standing up and walking away.

"I'm going with her I helped her with all of this I need to help the village" Zuko said standing up and following Katara. Sokka watched as they ran off toward the village, after a few seconds of heavy thinking he got up and ran after them.

"Wait! I'm coming too!"

"I thought you didn't want to help" Katara said narrowing her eyes at her brother.

"But you need me and I'll never turn my back on you"

"Oh Sokka you really do have a heart" she said hugging her brother as Toph and Aang walked over to them.

"He really does have a heart doesn't he?" Aang said wiping his tears and turning to Toph who in turn shoved him over for being a pansy. The GAang looked over at the town where the soldiers had just arrived.

"I thought we could live together as neighbors in peace but I guess I was wrong. You steal our food and our medicine and now you've destroyed our factory" the head soldier guy said as the villagers sat and listened.

"We didn't do any of that!" Doc said popping up from the crowd.

"Yeah the painted lady brought us the food and she's the one who healed our sick not your medicine" Shu said popping up from the crowd.

"Oh, right the mysterious painted lady did it" the general said holding up a small figurine of the river spirit, "and I suppose she drew the army emblem on your containers too" he said throwing the statue at one of the pot making it shatter and spill its contents, "this is a town of thieves and liars" he yelled before shooting fire at one of the buildings, "where's your painted lady now? We're going to cure the world of your retched village" he said as his soldiers began tearing down structures and destroying the village. They started to light flaming rocks but a gust of wind kept blowing it out.

"Where's that wind coming from?" one of the female soldiers asked her partner.

"I don't know but something strange is going on" he said as steam started coming from the river toward the village.

"It's the painted lady. She's coming" the little boy said in a kind of ominous voice.

"There is no painted lady" the general said. Little did they know that the noises they heard was Toph slamming a rock into the ground, Appa noises and Sokka was blowing into a flute.

"What's that sound?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Maybe it is her" another soldier said. In the distance you could barely see the figure of the painted lady and suddenly she started towards the village. She walked onto the deck of the village and the soldiers just stood there dumbfounded.

"Do something!" the general commanded pushing the soldiers towards the painted lady. They approached her swords in hand but a gust of wind that came from under them via Aang freaked them out and they ran the hell away.

"Stand Your Ground!" the general commanded as she approached them. She threw their jet ski things into the air using her water bending and threw them against the mountain. The soldiers got on the remaining jet skis and fled, "I'll take care of you myself!" the general shouted at Katara as he took a fighting stance. He blasted fire at her and Aang set a gust of wind up that shot Katara up into the air and sent another gust toward the general knocking him into the river. The painted lady came up from behind him, "Leave this village and never come back!" she said to the general who started swimming in the other direction to one of the soldiers on a jet ski. Sokka paddled one of the pontoons back to the village with Toph and Zuko on board. The villagers stood on the decks cheering as Katara returned to the village.

"I knew you would come" the little boy said smiling at Katara.

"Thank you Painted Lady you're the best!" the villagers called out.

Me and my brothers owe you a lot" Doc said coming up to Katara, "hey wait a minute I know you, you're not the painted lady you're that colonial girl!"

"Yeah you're that lady that gave me a fish"

"You've been tricking us you're a waterbender!" the villager started yelling at her and calling her a liar.

"Ok so she is a waterbender but she was just trying to help you!" Zuko said standing in front of Katara to protect her, "because of her that factory won't be polluting your river and the army is gone! You should be down on your knees thanking her!"

"It's okay" Katara said taking off her hat and walking up to the villagers, "I shouldn't have acted like someone I wasn't and I shouldn't have tricked you but I felt like I had to do something it doesn't matter if the painted lady is real or not because your problems are real and this river is real and you can't wait around for someone to solve your problems you have to fix them yourselves"

"She's right but what should we do?" Doc asked.

"Maybe we can clean the river" Toph said form the crowd disguising her voice.

"Yeah, we can clean the river" Doc said and the villagers cheered in agreement.

"Thank you, you know you aren't so bad for a waterbender"

"You wouldn't mind keeping that a secret would you?" Sokka asked.

"No problem keeping my mouth shut is one of my person specialties. My brother Shu on the other hand, he's a blabber mouth" Doc said making Sokka slap hi hand on his forehead.

"So Doc will you help us clean?"

"No ma'am I'm going to get my brother Bushi he loves cleaning" Doc said before taking off his hat, "Ok I'm Bushi! Let's get some river cleaning done"

"Ah Ha I knew you were the same guy. The shop owner and the boat guy" Aang said walking up to Bushi.

"Oh you must be talking about my brothers Doc and Shu"

"No I just saw you. You switched hats and called yourself a different name."

"Oh you know who does that my brother Doc he's crazy" Bushi said laughing. The others stared at him dumbfounded. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the river and soon enough it was blue again. That night Katara walked to the edge of the island and stared at the water. Suddenly a figure appeared floating from the water. Katara looked up to see the actual Painted Lady standing before her.

"Thank you" The Painted Lady said to Katara before dissapearing.