A/N: And here's the final part of the episode – enjoy!

BOOK 3: FIRE
CHAPTER ONE: THE AWAKENING, PART II

They hadn't gotten much of a lead when the Fire Nation ship started after them and began throwing flaming rocks at them from their catapults. After the first few hit the water, Toph stomped over to the rear of the ship and took up a solid stance.

"Load the Toph!" she yelled at Pipsqueak, who brought a big stone Earth Kingdom coin from a pile and laid it in front of her. With a one-two step and a stomp, she raised the coin and shot it at the trailing ship. With remarkable accuracy for a blind earthbender, it hits one of the enemy's catapults head on and destroys it. As Pipsqueak tosses another coin in front of her and she fires it, the other ship take a moment to launch another fireball, but they collide in midair.

During all this, Sokka and Aang are hiding, safe inside the bridge of the ship, both hunkering down on either side of the doorway to outside. Aang makes a move to dash outside to help, but Sokka grabs his shoulders and slowly shakes his head, lightly shoving Aang back into his hiding spot. Aang, annoyed with the fact that he can't help, bangs his head against his glider a few times in frustration.

On the deck outside, the Fire Nation has finally closed to within ballista range. With an audible twang a huge chained steel bolt is fired at the captured ship, sinking into its hull. As the chain is pulled taunt by the other ship reeling it back in, it tears a huge hole in the side of the vessel. Katara rushes over to above the leak and pushes down a breath of intensely cold air, causing a path of ice to travel down the hull and seal the breach, at least temporarily. Turning to Zuko and her father standing nearby, she yells out at them. "I'm going to give us some cover!" With a downward thrust of her arm, she formed a miniature whirlpool directly off the port bow and a plume of mist rose from it, concealing everything within it.

Not ten seconds later, Zuko, Toph, The Duke and the two Water Tribe men were looking over the deck when a flaming boulder broke through the mist and headed straight for the deck. As they all threw themselves out of the way (with The Duke grabbing Toph), the boulder collided with their supply of Earth coins and the resulting explosion threw Pipsqueak across the deck.

Watching the smoke billow by, Aang finally got flustered. "I can't just stand by and do nothing! " he then rushes outside, dodging Sokka's extended hands.

"Aang! No! "Sokka yelled in vain, missing his shoulder. But he did manage to snag the end of Aang's glider. Bringing him in closer, he moved his hand farther up the staff. "You're still hurt, and you have to stay secret. Just let us handle this. "

Walking back towards the bridge, Aang moodily grabs his staff from Sokka's grip. "Fine!"

Sokka is rocked by a nearby explosion, and, as the the two ships leave Katara's cover of mist, the Fire Nation ship continues to rain fire down on it from its remaining catapults. One of the boulders had a glancing hit on one of the onboard motors, and Katara bent a large mass of water onto it as Zuko tried to bend the fire off and onto the water. With disturbed look, Katara asked Zuko where he learnt that.

"Did you think that I was only admiring you whenever I watched you practice? Uncle always told me to incorporate as many different techniques into my style as possible!" He allowed himself a small smile as Katara's look of confusion quickly spread into a grin.

"Stop flirting, you two!" Toph yelled at them "Sokka, how we doing?"

"Things couldn't get much worse." Sokka said with a grimace. All of a sudden, a huge spray of water appeared behind Sokka as the infamous Serpent of the Serpent's Pass made it's presence known. Coiling its muscular body over the water, it prepared to strike at the Water Tribe ship. "The Universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"

"That's 'cause you make it so easy, Snoozles!" Toph yelled, leaning slightly onto The Duke for support on the rocking deck.

The next volley of Fire Nation attacks came at them, but out of the blue one of the projectiles flew high and smacked the serpent right into the side of its mask, burning it. With a fierce glare at Sokka, the serpent dives back under the water. The mystery of why it left was soon revealed as it burst from the sea spray just off the starboard bow of the pursuing vessel and proceeded to wrap itself around the vessel. As Sokka, Pipsqueak and Zuko ran to the railing, the monster finished wrapping around it and began to roar and hiss at the Fire Navy crew. After a moment of stunned silence, Sokka gave the monster a quick bow and, with a huge grin on his face; "Thank you, The Universe". Their ship sailed away from the doomed Fire Navy one as they continued on their way to the Fire Nation.

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

Hours later, Aang is resting on his bed as they slowly dock at a small merchant port in the Fire Nation. As he's sitting there, doing nothing, his door creaks open to reveal his friends and Zuko as they step into his room.

With a smile on her face, Toph tells Aang their plan. "Hey, Aang, we're going into town to find some dinner."

With a grimace, his own stomach growls and e grabs at it in an attempt to quiet it. "Well, I am pretty hungry. Maybe dinner's a good idea."

Looking at Zuko, Sokka asks him for a headband. With a knowing smile, Zuko reaches into a pocket and grabs a thick red headband and hands it to Sokka. Sokka then gives it to Aang; "Here, tie this around your head. It'll cover your arrow."

With a shocked and angry look on his face, Aang slaps aside Sokka's hands. "I'm not going out if I can't wear my arrow proudly." He then turns and lies down on his bed, back facing the door and his friends.

Sokka tries to plead with Aang, begging him to listen. "Aang, come on: be practical."

Concerned, Katara puts a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "You guys go ahead without us. We'll catch up with you." With that, Sokka and Toph leave the room. Zuko proceeds to follow, but before he steps out, he raises his eyebrow at her.

"You sure? I mean we wouldn't mind waiting for a bit…." He look slightly awkward, and Katara, amused, smiles at him.

"Yes, Prince Zuko, I'm sure. Now go – with Sokka's appetite, he won't wait for you to catch up. Nodding, Zuko pulled up his hood to disguise his scar and he hurried off down the corridor after Sokka and Toph.

With the smile quikly dropping from her face, Katara sits on Aang's bed and places a hand on his shoulder. "I think I understand why being a secret bothers you so much. You don't want people to think you failed."

Moodily, Aang responded to her prompt. "You're right, I don't. But the problem is, I did fail."

Katara, slightly annoyed, tried to comfort him: "Aang, that's not true."

Sitting up, Aang began to raise his voice slightly. "It is true. I was in Ba Sing Se. I was there, but I lost." Getting off his bed, he walked over to his glider as he kept his back turned towards her. "And now, the Earth Kingdom has fallen for good." His head fell slightly at the weight of his words.

Following his lead, Katara also got up off his bed. "Remember, there's still an invasion plan."

Aang angrily whirled and faced her. "And I hate the invasion plan, too! I don't want you or anyone else risking your lives to fix my mistakes." Ripping the Fire Nation tapestry from above his bed, he throws it onto the ground in a fit of pique and knocks over his glider. "I've always known that I would have to face the Fire Lord, but now, I know I need to do it alone."

Walking over to his side of the bed, Katara couldn't help but feel her maternal instincts rise in her heart. "Aang…"

Stopping her with a hand before she got too close, Aang spoke out:" Katara, please. Just go. Please."

As Katara sadly walks to the door, she stops on the threshold of the room, right at the door. Leaning on it for a second, she tries to appeal to him one last time. "Is there anything you need?"

Closing his eyes and looking at the floor, Aang answers the only way he know how. "I need to redeem myself. I need my honor back."

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

An hour or two later, Katara softly hums to herself as she carries a tray holding a bowl of rice and a small dish of vegetables. Entering the room, she calls out: "I brought you some food." Looking around the small room, it's deserted, and Aang's glider is nowhere in sight. Her senses freeze up. "Oh no" she says as the tray drops from her nerveless fingers. She dashes out of the room.

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

As Katara runs out onto the deck, she sees Zuko talking with her dad and Bato. Seeing tears in her eyes, Bato lays a hand on Zuko's shoulders and pulls him back.

"We'll leave you two alone for a bit" With a concerned look her way, Zuko agrees with a slow nod, not wanting to leave Katara in such a state. Why does it bother me so much that she's crying? Zuko thinks to himself.

As him and Bato walk away down the deck, Katara walks up to her father.

"What's wrong Katara?" Hakoda asked, not liking the tears in her eyes anymore than Zuko.

Katara raised her tear filled eyes to meet her father's: "He left."

With a look of mild confusion on his face, he looked at his daughter: "What? What do you mean?"

Frustrated, Katara began ranting. "Aang. He just took his glider and disappeared. He has this ridiculous notion that he has to save the world alone. That it's all his responsibility."

After a slight hesitation, he answered: "Maybe that's his way of being brave."

Now angry at her father's response, she began nearly yelling at him. "It's not brave. It's selfish and stupid. We could be helping him. And I know the world needs him, but doesn't he know how much that we need him too? How could he just leave us behind?"

After a moment's consideration of what she said, Hakoda opened his mouth. "You're talking about me too, aren't you?"

Katara's tears redoubled as more salty tears traced their way down her face. "How could you leave us, Dad? I mean, I know we had Gran Gran, and she loved us, but...but we were just so lost without you." Turning away from him, she brings her hands to her eyes and sobs into the heels of her hands. Unexpectedly, Hakoda put s a firm hand on her shoulder and turns her towards him.

"I'm so sorry, Katara" He says, looking into her eyes. With only a second's hesitation, she throws herself into his arms and sobs onto his breastplate as he holds her close.

Hakoda can barely make out what she's saying between the sobs. "I understand why you left. I really do, and I know that you had to go, so why do I still feel this way? I was so sad and angry, and hurt."

Holding her tighter for a second, Hakoda tried to answer her. "I love you more than anything. You and your brother are my entire world. I thought about you every day I was gone, and every night when I went to sleep. I would lay awake missing you so much, it would ache."He closed his eyes and laid his head atop that of his daughters'.

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

"Okay, men and women, we have a problem." Hakoda walked into the bridge, where he had assembled everyone. "Aang is missing, and it's our job to find him"

"What? Where could he have gone?" Sokka asked, stroking Momo like a cat owl.

"We don't know that yet, but Katara thinks that he may have gone after the Fire Lord alone." Hakoda said in a worried tone of voice.

"But that's just stupid!" Cried Toph "Aren't we supposed to train him, or something? I mean, he hasn't even started learning firebending from Sparky, yet."

"Going up against the Fire Lord in his condition is suicidal! I know that better than anyone. I've seen his power, and right now, Aang is no match for him. I mean, the Avatar can barely stand without being in pain!" Zuko said, now getting worried "I mean, how could he be so stupid?"

"Exactly, Zuko. And Toph, too, of course. But Aang seems to think that by doing this, he's being brave." Katara said, thankful that people were seeing things her way.

"Brave? No, he's just being stupid! He's being an ignorant child!" Zuko was really ranting now.

Sokka came up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Zuko, I know that you're worried. We all are. But we have to keep faith that we'll find him in one piece."

With a resigned sigh, Zuko nodded and agreed with Sokka, making the other warrior give him a tight smile.

"Alright, then, men, here's the plan." Hakoda started, bring attention to himself and a rather large map spread out on a table in the room. "Here we are" he indicated, pointing at a small iron ingot shaped roughly like a ship. "you kids should take Appa and search every island in a 30 mile radius. That means…" Hakoda trailed off and used a piece of string to figure out which islands were within the specified radius. "So you'll be checking out these three islands here: Half Moon Island, Iron Island and New Moon Island. I'd suggest leaving New Moon Island for last, because it's going the opposite direction from the Fire Nation capital. If you can't find him on any of those three islands, come back and I'll hopefully have a new battle plan drawn up. Now move out!"

The Gaang rushed out to get Appa and prepared to get flying. Zuko grabbed an extra cloak as the others made sure that Appa was ready to go. Mounting up, Zuko looked on with some trepidation at the storm brewing on the horizon, but shrugged it off when Katara called him over. Soon enough they were on their way, with Sokka directing Appa, Toph holding on tightly to Zuko as he looked over Appa's right and Katara looking over the beast's left, with Momo curled up in her lap. As they made their way to the closest island, Half Moon Island, they couldn't see anything on its blasted shores. As they came closer, Zuko yelled at them to make him heard over the wind: "In this area of the Fire Nation, a lot of the islands are small, and volcanically formed. There's little to no life on these islands, so the worry of Aang being found by anyone other than is slim to none! It also means that we should have no trouble spotting him if he is on this island!"

Nodding in acknowledgment, Sokka took Appa a bit lower. After a full circuit of the island, Sokka turned back to the others. "See anything?"

When they both shook their heads, he nodded and commanded Appa to head to the next island – Iron Island. As they flew on in silence, Toph snuggled up closer to Zuko. As Katara gave her a slightly odd look and a drawn out "Toph?...." Toph glared in her general direction and told her off. "What do you want, Sugar Queen? It's cold with the wind and all up here, and Sparky's warm." With a hesitant hand, Katara reaches over to touch Zuko, but she holds her hand back and decides against it.

"Not quite that comfortable with him yet" she thought to herself, when an inner voice that sounded a lot like Toph cackled wickedly in her ear.

But you want to be….. Blushing profusely, Katara quickly turned out towards the open sky before anyone saw her.

"Well, not that I don't but… it's Zuko! I can't imagine a relationship with him…."

Think about it…. He's a Prince, come to take you back his palace…. And have you SEEN him firebend without his shirt? I mean come on girl, he is ripped!

"Okay I won't deny that he is, but- wait, what am I saying? Am I seriously saying that the Prince of the Fire Nation is hot?

Well, he IS rather fine, wouldn't you say?

"Just shut up you" she scolded the voice in her head. "No more thinking about…. that in relation to Zuko. Even though I've got to know him, and he's not a bad guy, surely he doesn't think of me like that… does he? And even if he did, we just have him here long enough to train Aang and rescue his uncle, then he'd head off to be Fire Lord.

You could join him in the Fire Nation…. I'd bet that he wouldn't refuse you….

"Enough of these…. Ridiculous thoughts. I refuse to entertain them." Katara said to her "Inner Toph", although perhaps, she admitted to herself, that the brooding Fire Prince wasn't THAT bad looking….

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

As they approached Iron Island from the sea, Zuko thought that he spotted something orange on the southern side of the island. "Sokka! Fly lower! I think that I see him!"

Katara looked on in hope, as she caught sight of the orange flash. She remembered that Aang was still wearing his orange monk pants the last they saw him, and Zuko said that these islands were uninhabited, so…. With a start, Momo leapt out of her lap and flew down towards Aang's body as Sokka landed Appa as close as he could.

Aang awoke to something rough and damp on his face. Opening his eyes, he sees a big, friendly lemur face right in front of him. As he groans, Momo leaps off of him and Aang sits up. From not too far away he hears a familiar voice.

"You're ok!" Aang is quickly engulfed in a hug by the motherly waterbender, and she is soon joined by all the others, except Zuko who stays back by Appa, who landed not too far away. After a moment of family togetherness, Aang breaks away from the throng of limbs

"I have so much to do…" Aang trails off as he thinks on the obstacles ahead.

With a warm smile, Katara comforted him. "I know, but you'll have our help."

Toph gave him a friendly punch in the arm. "You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you? When I'm done with ya, Sparky here gets a shot at you. We got you a firebending teacher"

With a sad look on his face, Aang asked about the invasion.

Sokka gave him a grin. "Don't worry about it. We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse."

Just then, something hit Toph n the back. "Hey, what's…" she picks it up and shows it to everyone – it's Aang's burnt and broken glider. "Oh…. It's your glider." Handing it to him, they all join Zuko in standing.

"That's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." Turning around, Aang performs a minor airbending trick and leaps up the volcano. Looking out with a solemn look on his face, he spins his glider above his head and plunges it into the relatively soft volcanic rock bottom first. He jumps back down with his friends and they all get on Appa and fly away. As the island disappears into the horizon, the glider slowly burns up until nothing remains but ashes.

--- --- --- oOo --- --- ---

A/N: Aaaaaand that's it. That turned out longer than expected. Did it bother anyone else how Aang had to let go of Katara to enter the Avatar State, yet right after that he suddenly goes back to pining for her as soon as he wakes up? I mean, come ON. HE LET HER GO. I'll try to reflect that. No, even though Toph IS indeed glomping Zuko, this'll be a Toko FRIENDSHIP fic. No romance intended there. The reason Zuko hung back at the group hug is because although he's comfortable around the rest of the Gaang, he's not really all that comfy 'round Aang. I intend on maybe doing a few one-shots where Zuko meets important people (like the Gaang, Hakoda, the Earth Kingdom allies, etc…). Anywyas, don't ask me to pimp your fics, but here's a few that I really recommend reading because of their pure awesomness:

1) Warmth, by Armor of the Gods: Awesome fic, where it's cold in the WAT, and Katara finds that Zuko's always warm… but can it override her hatred of him?

2) Nighttime Sparring/Warrior's Connection, by SpralHax: Actually a pair of Zuki (Zuko/Suki) fics, they're actually pretty awesome. They bond over sword-fighting and the fact that they're both "outsiders" from the gaang.

3)What I Don't Like about You, by Trombe: Possibly one of the Best Zutaras out there, this fic is an AU past the WAT, I believe, with a decidedly heavier Zutara focus (plus, Katara sneaks away with Sokka and Zuko to the Boiling Rock! Oh no!)

Anywyas, until next time.