A/N: Sorry for the shitty posting time. I'll do what I can to post on a daily basis. Things happened the last couple of days. Please forgive me.


The following morning, Aang, Zuko and Tara were sitting around in the open. Zuko was starting to show the basics of fire bending to Aang. Tara was just there to make sure Zuko doesn't do anything bad. It turned out to be more of a show me any amount of fire you can make and we'll work from there. Aang still can't produce his own fire. After a few attempts from Zuko learned that he couldn't produce his own fire either. After changing location, maybe that was the problem, Zuko still couldn't produce his own fire. Tara just sighed, as Sokka approached the small group. He claim he was just there to watch. That night he admitted that he could no longer fire bend. Katara laughs, and everyone's attention is focused on her. Zuko looks at the water bender with an annoyed expression. Aang suggested that he isn't using rage and or hate to fuel his bending. Sokka thought it would be a good idea to piss Zuko off. It didn't turn out well. Maybe he needed to find the original fire benders. The badger moles were the original earth benders, and sky bison's for air. The dragons were the original fire benders, they had to find the some dragons. Though there was one problem, apparently all the dragons were gone. There was always an option of finding the Sun Warriors. The civilization wasn't too far from where they currently were.

"More or less. Either I find a new way to fire bend, or the Avatar has to find a new teacher."

"I'm not teaching him." Tara said. "I'm not good enough to teach anyone."

No one seemed to question it. Everyone just understood why she said that. The following morning Zuko and Aang left to try to find the Sun Warrior civilization. Tara was offered to go with them but declined the offer. Whatever they learned they did offer to teach her. When they landed near the civilization, the fell for several traps that were hidden. Zuko was surprised that the traps were still working after all these years. They came across one picture. It was a carving of a person being surrounded by two dragons who are breathing fire at him.

"Zuko, something happened to the dragons in the last hundred years. Something you're not telling me."

"My great-grandfather Sozin happened." He paused for a moment. "He started the tradition of hunting dragons for glory. There were the ultimate fire benders. And if you could conquer one, your fire bending talents would become legendary and you'd earn the honorary title, Dragon. The last great dragon was conquered long before I was born, by my uncle."

"But I thought your uncle was ... I don't know, good?"

"He had a complicated past. Family tradition, I guess. Let's just move on."

Zuko starts walking, with Aang running to catch up to him. As the both come closer, Zuko stops walking, and Aang runs to the gates, drops his staff, and unsuccessfully tries opening the gates. Zuko rubs his head, and looks behind, before quickly going aside to show the sunstone from the column in front of the gates beaming light. He realizes something and takes a step behind, and looks at the position he stood at a moment before. There was one problem, it was a celestial light. Zuko came up that they may be able to cheat the system with his swords. After walking in, they walked into a room. Aang walks up to a statue and reads something on it. It says this is something called the Dancing Dragon. He places his staff to lean on the statue. He manages to get Zuko to do the dance with him. Once they completed it, a gemstone appeared in the middle of the room. Zuko picks up the gemstone much to Aang's complaining. Some kind of glue came out of nowhere and started filling the room. Both became stuck against a vent. After a while, Aang complains that he had to pick up the egg. Then starts screaming for help.

"Who is down there?" Someone asks

They were released from where they were and cleaned up by aardvark sloths. The guy who saved them was the Sun Warrior Chief. He was pretty pissed off that someone was stealing the gem. Aang and Zuko introduced themselves and begged to be taught the real way of fire bending. If they wish to learn the ways of the Sun, they must learn them from the masters, Ran and Shaw. Both have to be deemed worthy of the secret or be destroyed on the spot. Zuko and Aang had to bring a piece of the eternal flame to the masters to be considered. Zuko stares at the flame and brings his arms forward to take the flame. He looks at Aang, as shot cuts to the chief offering Aang the flame from the side. As they made their way up to where the masters were, Aang was timid the entire way. It risked putting the flame out. When they reached half way to the top, the Sun warrior Chief was there waiting for them.

"Facing the judgment of the fire bending masters will be very dangerous for you. Your ancestors are directly responsible for the dragons' disappearance. The masters might not be so happy to see you."

"But once they find out I'm the Avatar."

"Have you forgotten that you vanished, allowing the Fire Nation to wreak havoc on the world ? The decline of the dragons is your burden, too."

The chief rooting his staff on the ground. The other two Sun Warriors get into a kneeling position and the chief walks toward Zuko and Aang, takes a small portion of their flames and gives the flames to both of the Sun Warriors, who go to each of the sides. The chief turns back and walks. Once they reached the top, music starts playing. Aang's fire went out right before the dragon's come up. He starts trying to get some from Zuko. In the end it causes Zuko's flame to also go out. Then the two dragons came out and looked at them. Then started moving around. Aang realized that they should do the dragon dance with them. Aang and Zuko get into the first posture of the Dancing Dragon and change their postures to the next. Once they do the final move, both dragons were once again staring at them, growling. The dragons made their judgment and attacked them. It caused a vortex to form around Aang and Zuko.

"I understand." Zuko said

Moments later the vortex disappeared and the dragons went back into the caves. After they approached the chief, he told them that Iroh lied about destroying the last dragon. He was the last person to be deemed worthy and shown the truth. The chief almost didn't allow Zuko and Aang to leave, but in the end allowed them to but under one condition that they couldn't tell anyone. Once they returned to the Air Temple they showed the group the new move they learned while away. Zuko got the crap end of the stick when explaining the move. The following morningZuko is pouring tea to give to the members of Team Avatar.

"No one can make tea like Uncle, but hopefully I learned a thing or two. Would you like to hear Uncle's favorite tea joke?"

"Sure?"

"Well, I can't remember how it starts, but the punch line is "Leaf me alone, I'm bushed!""

Everyone just sat there and stared at him. It was almost like he didn't say anything. Katara mentioned something and everyone seemed to laugh. Zuko managed to at least smile at it, though he seemed slightly offended by the comment. When Zuko finishes pouring the tea, Sokka gets up.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?

"So, what's up?"

"If someone was captured by the Fire Nation, where would they be taken?"

"What do you mean? Who was captured?"

"When the invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken. I just want to know where they might be."

"I can't tell you."

"What? Why not?"

"Trust me. Knowing would just make you feel worse."

"It's my dad. He was captured too. I need to know what I put him through."

"It's not good, Sokka."

"Please."

"My guess is, they were taken to the Boiling Rock."

"What's that?"

"The highest security prison in the Fire Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It's inescapable."

After several more questions, Sokka wonders off leaving Zuko suspicious of something. Later that night. With everyone asleep, Sokka sneaks away from everyone. He sighs and almost steps on Momo, narrowly avoiding tripping over him and waking him up. He climbs onto Appa, who awakes. Appa goes back to sleep, as Sokka climbs on top of him. However, as he climbs up, he notices Zuko is already in the saddle with his arms crossed.

"Nothing huh?"

"Fine, you caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?"

"I'm never happy"

"Look, I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea, it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong. It's my mistake, and it's my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me, Zuko."

There was no real point in arguing though he understands why Sokka is doing what he is doing. Zuko suggests that they should take the war balloon sense it would be unsafe for them to take Appa. They left a note for everyone to find later on sense they are still asleep. When the note was finally found, Katara read it.

"'Need meat. Gone fishing. Back in a few days. Sokka and Zuko.' One more thing. 'Aang, practice your fire bending while I'm gone. Do twenty sets of fire fists and ten hot squats every time you hear a badger frog croak. Listen to Tara for any additional lessons. Zuko.'"

"Really? Zuko's putting me in charge. Such a bad idea. We all know my fire bending is complete and utter crap." She let out a laugh

"No its not."

Moments later a badger frog croaks. Aang groans before getting up and started doing what he needs to do. A laugh came out of Tara. Zuko was being really cruel in a sense with this and Tara was going to have a little fun with it. After Zuko and Sokka had been flying for a while they arrived at the boiling rock, and ended up crash landing on the island. Sokka managed to burn his hand, but held back his screams of pain. After getting off the balloon, Sokka kicked the balloon into the water. Zuko freaked out at what he was doing. The balloon was damaged beyond use and someone would notice it if they had just left it. The following morning, Zuko and Sokka have entered the prison, and come out of a supply room filled with reserve guard uniforms. Both of them wear prison guard uniforms. A series of guards run by moments later. One of them runs back and looks at them. He tells them that there something going on in the court yard and all guards are needed there. Both follow the other guards outside to the court yard. The two go to the yard. Prisoners are gathered in a circle as the guards move through to the inside. One of the guards was confronting a guy named Chit Sang because of behavior. The guard was more or less bullying Chit Sang.

"What did I do?" he asks

"He wants to know what he did." To Zuko and Sokka. "Isn't that cute?

"Uh very cute sir" Sokka finally says

After several more harsh words from the bully guard he walks away. But then, as he is leaving, he whips fire at Chit Sang. Chit Sang blocks it, and redirects it at him. The bully guard breaks the blast with a kick. Apparently prisoners who fire bend is against the rules and he was taken back to a cooler with the help of Sokka. After he is placed in a cooler the guard turns to Sokka.

"Can you believe this guy?"

"Prisoners? Am I right?"

A while later Zuko and Sokka caught up. Neither knew it who the other person was at first. Zuko mentioned that he had some news. It wasn't great news but his father wasn't here. Moments later Sokka finds someone he knows, Suki. He didn't have a chance to go to her because all the prisoners had to go back to their cells. It didn't stop Sokka from finding her cell and going in. She nearly beat the crap out of him when he walked in but became happy once she knew who it was. None of the other warriors were here, according to Suki. They were being held somewhere else. Outside the room, Zuko was standing guard when a female guard came up and demanded in. Once Sokka came out, he and the female guard had to arrest Zuko because she assumed he was a fake for the way he was acting. Sokka leads Zuko away, followed by the female guard. Later, Zuko, now in prison garb, is in an isolated room. The door opens, revealing the warden. He was surprised to see prince Zuko. The warden was the uncle of Mai. Zuko found that sort of awkward. After their little meeting, Sokka find Zuko and Suki mopping the floor near a set of stairs. The three of them started working on a plan to escape from this place. Though their plan was overheard by Chit Sang. He and a few people he knew wanted in on it. Sokka only agreed to keep him quiet. But by that point that had one problem. They still needed to pull a cooler out from the inside, seeing as it was bolted from the inside. Chit Sang had an idea on how to get someone inside.

He and Zuko started fighting and when Zuko bended, he was arrested and put into a cooler. After some time passes, Sokka tells Zuko that he can return him to his cell if he's learned his lesson. They overhear that some new arrivals were coming in the following day. That next morning, Sokka and everyone else who was in on the escape plan was ready to go. The cooler was all ready to go near the water. Sokka decides that he wants to wait and see if his father shows up that day. Suki and Zuko stay with Sokka while Chit Sang and his friends leave. Chit Sang blows their cover when he decided to paddle and burns his hands. He's arrested and thrown into another cooler that was secure. The warden calls a lock down until further notice. After Chit Sang was placed into a cooler, Sokka and them noticed the Gondola moving and made their way to where it would unload but kept hidden for most of it. After what appeared to be all the people came off the gondola with none of them being Sokka's dad there ended up being one more person. He refused to come off at first but when he did, it was Sokka's dad. Sokka looked happy to see him.

The new prisoners were lined up and Sokka made his way closer claiming the warden needed him. The warden starting giving a speech to the new prisoners and when he got in front of Sokka's dad, he demanded that he look up. Hakoda refused and was forced to the ground. When he got up, he looked at the warden, though he was not happy about it. After all the prisoners were taken to their cells, Sokka found his dad's and went in. He almost beat the shit out of Sokka, but became happy to see his kid.

"Yeah, I ran into that problem earlier"

"So where's Bato? Where's everyone else from the invasion?"

"The others are being held at a prison near the Fire Nation palace. They singled me out as their leader and sent me here. But before I left, I met some young women who said they knew you. The ... Oshinama Fighters?"

"You mean the Kyoshi Warriors?"

"Yeah"

"Their leader Suki is here. She's helping us escape"

"That's good."

"And you know Prince Zuko?"

"I know of him. Don't know him personally."

"Well he's here too."

"Sounds like a problem"

"Actually, he's on our side now. I know. I had the same reaction. After all he's done, it was hard to trust him. But he's really proven himself, and I never would've found you without his help"

After that both create a plan on how to escape. Sokka finds Zuko and tells him the plan. Though they were slightly being watched by other guards who needed to take Zuko somewhere. The guards gave Sokka a minute alone so he could discuss the plan. After that he finds Suki and tells her the same thing. Right after telling Suki the plan, he was taken to see the warden for something. It ended up being a lineup of several guards for Chit Sang to tell the warden who came up with the cooler escape idea. Chit Sang ended up picking the bully guard from earlier as the person who came up with the idea. When everyone was dismissed, Chit Sang told Sokka he wants in on the next escape attempt and that's why he didn't pick Sokka. Sokka then precedes to the guard in charge of the door system and tells him that the warden demanded that everyone go to the courtyard. The guard questions it but Sokka mentions that the warden is in a bad mood and doesn't want to piss him off more. The guard does so and lets everyone into the courtyard. Sokka and everyone else catches up in the courtyard to start their plan. It took a few minutes to actually start the riot but once that started they had another problem, grabbing the warden. Suki managed to get on top of that and climbed the walls up to him. She managed to get him tied up as everyone caught up.

They made their way to the gondola after that. Zuko starts the gondola and kicks the handle a few times attempting to break it. He sees the guards rushing toward him and kicks the handle again and breaks it. He jumps toward the gondola while dodging guards fire blasts. Sokka grabs Zuko's hand and helps him into the gondola. Then they noticed another problem, Zuko's sister and her friend showed up. Ty Lee leaps up and climbs the line. Azula takes a pair of handcuffs from a guard. After elevating herself to the line with a fire blast, she uses the cuffs to attach herself to the line, and blasts up it. Suki looked ready for this rematch. No one seemed to notice that the warden pulled the gag off and screamed for the line to be cut. He was re-gagged after that. The guards put a stop to the gondola by jabbing a sword at the cable wheel. The force sends Sokka to the edge of the gondola, but Zuko pulls him in at the last moment. Ty Lee jumps up to the top of the wire to see what is happening. Azula and Ty Lee jump off the gondola they were on to the one heading to the prison. While at the same time Mai appears and stops the line from being cut. People were shocked that she was saving the guy who dumped her. Once the gondola reached the end, everyone got off but they left the warden. His record was officially broken according to Hakoda. They managed to escape the island with Azula war balloon, though they were leaving her behind. No one seemed to care about that. Back on the island, Azula became pissed that Mai saved Zuko.

"I never expected this from you. The thing I don't understand is "Why?". Why would you do it? You know the consequences."

"I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."

"No, you miscalculated! You should have feared me more!"

She goes and tries to bend but before she could, Ty Lee chi blocks her so she couldn't bent at all. Her and Mai almost left but were imprisoned. Nightfall hits the Western Air Temple. The ship is returned. Zuko and Sokka exit, standing in front of Toph, Aang, and Katara. Questions came up why they have a different war balloon.

"Did you at least get some good meat?"

"I did. The best meat of all. The meat of friendship and fatherhood."

Everyone else walked off the balloon. Katara started crying because she finally got to see her dad again. Everyone kinda agreed that it was nice to see them again and to be making new friends in a sense. Toph was slightly upset that no meat was brought.

A few morning's later everyone was still asleep when Aang finally wakes up. The birds suddenly fly away as a bomb is launched their way, splashing through the waterfall fountain. He air bends the bomb away. The explosion wakes everyone up. After several more bombs were thrown at the gang, one was headed straight for Katara. Zuko managed to get Katara out of the way before it exploded. She became upset that she was saved by Zuko. Tara rolled her eyes at Katara and thought that she should just thank him for what he did. He didn't have to go save her like that. Toph and Haru have created the exit way using earth bending. Everyone tried to get into the cave but Appa refused to go inside. The airship appears and it was Azula and her gang. Zuko got on top of the airship where Azula was, while it gave everyone else had the chance to escape. Katara, Aang, Toph and Tara made their way on Appa while everyone else took the stolen airship. Katara was upset that they were separated again, but this time it wouldn't be for very long. Zuko and Azula face off. Zuko makes the first move. He jumps toward Azula, who sends columns of fire at him, which he responds to with more blasts. The two attack each other several times. Appa was dodging fire blasts, as Katara deflects several large whips of fire with her water bending. Tara used her fire bending and started attacking the ship or deflecting fire blasts. The group rises above the airship to avoid more fire.

Back on the airship. Azula and Zuko are evenly matched until they both hit each other with fire-packed punches, launching them both off the airship. Zuko is caught by the team, but Azula is left falling. Everyone thought she was going to fall to her death but used her fire bending to launch herself back onto the air ship. After flying for a while they landed and decided to camp out where they were. Everyone started thanking Zuko for saving them. Well except for Katara, she just got up and walked away. Several people raised their eyebrows at that. Zuko went after her to figure out what happened. All she really mentions was that he should bring her mother back and storms off. Back at the campsite, Zuko accidentally runs into Suki on his way to confront Sokka. She leaves, claiming she was at the wrong tent. Zuko walks into the tent and asks Sokka what happened to their mother. Their mother was killed by the Southern Raiders when Sokka and Katara were little. The next day, Katara emerges from her tent to find Zuko waiting outside, sitting on a rock.

"You look terrible." She said angrily

"I waited out here all night."

"What do you want?"

"I know who killed your mother, and I'm going to help you find him."

Katara casts him a look of shock, which soon turns to a look of anger. Later in the day, Aang is feeding Appa hay. Sokka fiddles around with a flower necklace. Katara and Zuko approach the bison, Zuko carrying a sack slung over his shoulder.

"I need to borrow Appa."

"Why? Is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?"

"Yes, it is."

"Oh. What's going on?"

"We're going to find the man who took my mother from me."

"Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it and I know how to find him."

"Um... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?"

"Ugh, I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Wait! Stop! I do understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do think I felt about the sand benders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?"

"She needs this, Aang. This is about getting closure and justice."

"I don't think so. I think it's about getting revenge."

"Fine, maybe it is! Maybe that's what I need! Maybe that's what he deserves!"

"Katara, you sound like Jet."

"It's not the same! Jet attacked the innocent. This man, he's a monster."

"Katara, she was my mother, too, but I think Aang might be right."

"Then you didn't love her the way I did!"

"Katara!"

"Katara, I get how you feel. I lost both my parents and my brother because of his father. Not to mention I had to witness it. I want revenge too for what happened. But I understand that revenge isn't always the answer to things."

"The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself."

"Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness."

"That's the same as doing nothing!"

"No, it's not. It's easy to do nothing, but it's hard to forgive."