Chapter Two: The Avatar Returns. . .For Cookies

Part One

A/N: And so begins the second episode of "Life Is Peachy" And just in case anyone thinks anything has changed since the last section and now, I'll let you know that I still do not own Avatar.

Since it was the second episode of the show, that meant Roku got to do a voiceover.

"Ahem. . .previously on Avatar. . .

"Now, I'm just going to copy and paste the past three sections. Okay. . .control c. . ."

Aang walked into the room. "Come on, Roku. They all just read it." And the two Avatars began to argue.

It seemed they would be arguing for a while. Katara sighed. She liked it better when she did the voiceover.

Aang and Katara trudged back to the southern water tribe village in shame. Partly because of the flare they had set off on the ship and partly because they had just demolished the fourth wall, and they would have to pay for repairs.

"Oh, it's about time you got here!" Sokka snapped. Apparently the whole village was waiting to watch Sokka chew out Aang and Katara, probably because they had nothing better to do. Entertainment was scarce on this frozen chunk of ice. "I guess you decided your little date didn't have enough flair, so you decided to set off a flare."

Then Sokka chuckled at his little pun. There was no response from either of the two benders; they just glanced at each other and Katara shrugged.

"What? Nothing?" asked Sokka "You guys are hard to please, and I spent the past two hours on that one."

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but we'd better get going now. . ."

Aang and Katara tried to sneak away, but Sokka yelled "Oh, no, I've got a few words to say to you Mr. Alien."

"For the last time, I'm an air–"

"Yeah, I don't really care what you guys call yourselves. Point is, you signaled the Fire Nation, 'Aang'. . .if that is your real name."

"Aang didn't mean to!" Katara yelled

"Yeah, we were exploring that forbidden ship and there was this booby trap and–"

"You went on the forbidden ship? Why do you think we call it that?" asked Gran Gran

"It was fun. . ." said Aang, then, when noticing all the glares, said "I mean. . .it was totally Katara's fault. All her idea."

"Alright, that's it, you're banished." Sokka pointed to Appa and said "Now get that ridiculously majestic creature and yourself out of here."

"Wait, Aang–" Katara tried to run up to the young air nomad, but Aang knew when he wasn't welcome.

"Fine. I was just leaving anyway." Aang strutted over to his bison and leaped onto his head. "Alright," he whispered to Appa "We're going to fly, now, so don't make me look bad in front of Katara."

Appa roared, which meant. I'll do whatever I want.

All that majesticness could really go to a bison's head.

"Yip yip." Aang yelled. Appa roared and walked away with swagger in his step.

"Fine! Good riddance!" Sokka yelled after him.

"Sokka!" yelled Katara, running up to her brother. "Now how am I going to get a waterbending teacher?"

"Go teach yourself!"

Katara sighed. "Come on, Sokka. Since when has banishment solved anything?"

Meanwhile, in the Fire Nation palace, Firelord Ozai sipped his tea and thought, Boy, things are definitely more peaceful without Zuko around. Though he was sitting in a perfectly normal lounge room, his face was obscured by a mysterious dark shadow. Ozai sighed. He would have to get that fixed. After this short break.

"Daddy!"

Ozai looked up to see Azula standing in the doorway.

"Can't you see I'm busy?"

"You're just drinking tea."

"I'm very busy planning to rule the world."

"You promised you were going to give me a firebending lesson."

"I did not."

"You pinky swore!"

Ozai sighed. He was not in the mood. "Just go. . .kill someone or something."

Azula's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Yay!" Azula grinned like Ty Lee in a plushie store. She skipped away.

Appa, the majestic flying bison, was frankly glad to be rid of the town with its stinky children that seemed to think it was fun to us him as a playground.

He gave a low, rumbling growl, which was bison–speak for "We should ditch this frozen wasteland and take a vacation on a tropical island."

"Yeah. . .I missed her, too." Aang sighed.

Appa growled again, which meant. "Instead of wallowing in self pity, you should forget about the puny mortals and meet a real waterbender."

"You're right. . ." Aang said

Appa roared, which meant "I knew you'd come around."

"I should go back and apologize." Aang grinned. "You give good advice, Appa."

Appa made a low, rumbling noise, which was probably the bison equivalent of a sigh. There were obviously communication problems between them. He'd have to work on that later.

Aang saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned around. He gasped when he saw the Fire Navy ship. Now that he was perfectly aware about the war against the Fire Nation, he figured it was bad news.

He glanced in the direction the ship was headed and said "Oh, no, the village!"

Appa grumbled "Good riddance."

"You wait here, buddy. It's Avatar Aang to the rescue!"

Aang glanced around the icy plains, wondering how he could make the most dramatic entrance. He spotted a couple of penguins and smiled. Perfect. . .

Meanwhile, Sokka had put on his war paint, grabbed his weapons, and stood outside on the wall, facing the misty sea.

Everyone else was cowering behind him.

Suddenly, Sokka heard a rumbling sound, and the town began to shake. Everyone cowered in fear. Sokka wished to cower along with them, but no. He was a man.

Well, actually he was a teenager who's voice still cracked on occasion, but those were just minor details.

The watchtower behind him crumbled once more. Sokka sighed "Oh, man." He had spent another two hours of his life rebuilding the watchtower, and he'd thought he'd done a good job of it, too.

Then he looked up and saw the ship looming over him. Then he realized he had bigger fish to fry.

Then thinking of that idiom made him hungry.

Meanwhile, Katara sighed and started to lead everyone away to safety. If Sokka was going to be the one protecting their village. . .Well, melted igloos were supposedly all the rage these days anyway. . .

What Katara knew the town needed was a real hero. A hero who she was certain would be in the form of that alien with the blue tattoos. She wondered where Aang was and if he was going to save them.

He has to be. . .Katara thought, with hope.

Aang threw himself at the unsuspecting penguin seal. The penguin waddled just out of reach.

Aang sighed and airbent himself to his feet. He turned to Appa, who was lazily watching him.

"Well. . .you know what they say. Third time's the charm." he scratched his bald head and sighed. "Or maybe in this case, twelfth."

He leaped after the penguin seal. Again, it waddled just out of reach.

Appa roared, which basically meant "That village is screwed."

The Fire Navy ship had plowed right through the wall in front of the village. The front started to open, at it came down with a crash just inches from Sokka.

Sokka was beginning to rethink this whole "I am a man" thing.

Every single one of the villagers somehow got out of hiding and were standing a few feet behind Sokka to watch. It was really amazing that the village had survived for this long.

Some Fire Nation soldiers marched out, one of them being Prince Zuko. Sokka knew this was his opportunity to be the hero for once.

Or, it would have been if the firebender hadn't easily knocked him into the snow when he picked up his club and charged, screaming, at him.

Zuko looked around and saw that his ship had ran straight through the wall. He sighed, saying "Sorry. . .damn GPS. . ." before reverting back to his bad attitude. "Where are you hiding him?"

No one answered.

Zuko reached into the crowd and grabbed Gran Gran's parka, dragging her to the front. "He'd be about this age? Master of all four–"

"Don't hurt Gran Gran!" Katara yelled

A little kid piped in, saying "Yeah! She makes the best cookies in the tribe."

Zuko's eyes narrowed, and he said "Really?"

"Yeah,"

"Can I have some?"

"What? Of course you can't!" Katara shrieked. Zuko's eyes narrowed under that stupid helmet.

"If I can't have those cookies, then no one can!" Zuko pushed Gran Gran back into the crowd, and fire erupted from his fists.

"So. . ." Sokka said, standing up and brushing the snow off him "You think you're. . .hot stuff, huh?"

The villagers groaned.

Sokka sighed, then grabbed his club and charged at Zuko, who easily knocked the club out of his hand before blasting a fireball at Sokka.

Sokka rolled out of the way before throwing the boomerang at him. Zuko just barely dodged it, and the boomerang went spinning away.

It was at that point Katara decided she couldn't watch any more of this and covered her eyes.

One of the kids wasn't done watching the fight and tossed a spear at Sokka, saying "Show no fear!"

Sokka caught it and charged at Zuko, who snapped it in half, grabbed it from Sokka, and bonked him in the head with it.

It was at that point in Sokka's life that he truly learned the difference between courage and stupidity.

Then, out of the sky, Sokka's trusty boomerang hit Zuko in the head.

Sokka laughed, yelling "Ha! Boomerang always comes back, you stupid–" Zuko straightened up, a snarl on his face, and Sokka gulped. "Katara. . .I think I got the firebender mad."

Zuko picked up the boomerang and said "You're not getting this back until you learn to stop throwing your toys at people."

"It's not a toy." Sokka huffed.

Of course, more humiliation was in store for Zuko, because it was then that he was run over by a bald kid riding a penguin.

Everyone cheered, and Aang skidded to a stop, grinning, "I guess thirty fifth time was the charm."

The penguin bucked him off and waddled away. Aang turned to Zuko. "Looking for me?"

"You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?" Zuko asked, incredulous.

"Aang?" asked Katara

Sokka said "No way. . .He's an alien, not an airbender, moron!"

Aang and Zuko got into attacking stances. "I've spent years preparing for this encounter. . .training, meditating. . .you're just a child!"

"Well, you're just a teenager."

"I am a man!" Zuko yelled, shooting fire at the young airbender. Aang easily was able to shield himself from the puny mortal fireblasts, but the villagers were not quite so lucky. They backed away from the flames, screaming.

Aang slammed his staff onto the ground, saying "If I go with you, will you promise to leave these people alone?"

Zuko nodded, but said "On one more condition. . .your Gran Gran needs to bake me a plate of cookies. . .and they'd better be the best cookies I've ever tasted."

"Deal."

"But Aang–" Katara protested, but it was too late. Aang was already being led onto the ship by Zuko's soldiers.

Aang gave Katara a reassuring smile as she caught a last glimpse of him and Zuko munched on a cookie.

To be continued. . .

A/N: Don't forget to review. If you do, I'll give you one of Gran Gran's legendary cookies. . . * holds plate of cookies tantalizingly under nose *