Author's Note: Sorry about the prolonged hiatus... especially to all of those who are really devoted to reading this. It's just... my first year of high school, I'm at a new school, I have to make new friends, I'm involved in sports and after school programs, and I'm in mostly honors classes... there just hasn't been enough time to be working on this. But I've been hacking away at it slowly and it's finally finished. Since I worked on this through a long period of time and not a few days as is the norm there is probably a lot of errors such as the mood of the story changing abruptly and conversations ending too soon or not making sense. I'm sorry... I tried my best! I hope you all like it and that I didn't kill my story by taking such a long break!

"Toph, I've been meaning to ask you something."

It was nine o'clock and the two girls were heading once again towards the club that they had been to the night prior. A question had been itching at Katara's mind since that night and she felt obliged to ask it.

"And what would that be?" Toph asked.

"Well… about that guy at the gas station…"

"What about him?"

"Why wouldn't you tell him our names?"

Toph laughed. "Oh, that? Why, do you wanna tell him your name? I'm not stopping you."

"Toph!" Katara shouted. "That's not what I meant!"

"I know," Toph said. "I just didn't want him to know at first because I didn't know him and when I finally did… I just thought I'd keep it going. You never know if he's… like a spy or something."

"A spy?"

"Mmhm… or maybe a ninja."

"Toph," Katara started.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Toph assured her.

"But all jokes pushed aside," Katara bowed her head. "He's still a pretty nice guy."

"He is," Toph agreed. "But I don't think anyone else would ever know that."

"Why not?"

"Sugar Queen, when you're blind there is really no room for judging people."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Katara asked.

"We can't see what people look like," she explained. "We can't judge what kind of person they are by looking at them. We have the blessing and the curse to judge a person by what's in their heart and who they really are."

"That's true, I guess," Katara pondered. "There's no room for criticalness for us anymore."

"But I can tell by his voice and his vibrations that he's the type of person others don't want to hang around. It's that kind of person I like being around the most." Toph nudged Katara. "They make for a good conversation."

"HEY!" a deep voice bellowed out.

"Hey!" Toph called back and ran towards the person they had just been talking about.

"You guys gonna do some snoopin' today?" the man asked.

"Yup, we're gonna wait here 'til that lady shows up tonight." Toph responded.

"We'll you ain't hafta wait too long then, 'cuz the lady already inside."

"Really?" Toph asked, shocked.

"Yup, went in early tonight. Guess she's got a good date or somethin'."

"Thanks for telling us!" Toph acknowledged and grabbed Katara's wrist. "C'mon, let's go."

The two girls sauntered into the club. Their poor ears were met with the sound of blasting music of all the popular songs and a there was a putrid smell of beer and smoke. Forcing herself to focus all of her senses on locating a needle in a haystack, Katara planted her feet into the wood of the floors.

"Got her!" Toph announced. "She's… hanging out at the bar. Wait, she's moving!"

Toph once again grabbed Katara's wrist and ran. They shimmied their way through a great crowd of people, on and off the dance floor, and past the bar until they were met with a wall.

"Toph, we're at the back of the club," Katara pointed out.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Toph said sarcastically. "She's not here anymore. I think she left through a back entrance."

"A back entrance? Where?"

"Right… here," Toph pushed on the wall and sure enough there was a back entrance to the club.

"Come on," Toph ordered as she walked through. Katara followed and a soon as they shut the door all of the music and noise became silent.

"She's over there," Toph whispered. "I think she's near a dumpster or something…"

Toph and Katara snuck towards the source of the vibrating, covered by nightfall.

"I think she has company!" Katara whispered back in a high-pitched voice.

As they got closer, the sound of a voice became prominent.

"I think he was here… the little traitor just keeps getting away, doesn't he? Well, we will just have to be more precise next time. He can't run forever…"

Katara's heart beat faster. Was she talking about Aang? She inched closer to the voices, hoping to catch more of their conversation.

"There's five more days left… then he'll be ours for the taking. Nothing is standing in our way; I made sure to cover up the tracks."
Katara couldn't believe what she was hearing. She wanted to run away to someplace safer but keep listening at the same time.

"He's tricky but we have to remember, we're trickier. I'm not going to let him get away another time. Only get me again if you have important information. I can't keep coming here… it'll start to get suspicious."

Suddenly Katara heard a new voice. It was high-pitched and sounded cheery but at the same time scared and determined.

"Azula, what if something goes wrong? What if someone finds something out? We made a big mistake; it's going to be hard to pull this off!"

"Shut up!" the woman, Azula, yelled. "I'm not the one who made that mistake! You said he would be alone! You were wrong! Because of your error, the whole plan almost didn't work! You gave me false information! I'm no the one to blame!"

"O-Of course not!" the other voice stammered. "I'm sorry, Azula. I spoke out of place."

"Yes, you did. Don't forget that I'm a Raikou and my family can dispose of you whenever I please."

The voices became hushed for a moment and Katara feared they had been spotted.

"It's getting cold out. Let's go back," Azula suggested. The other agreed and the two women began heading back to the entrance.

Once the door had closed Katara was able to let out a long-held breath.

"Did you hear that?" Toph asked.

"Hear what?" Katara asked.

"We got her name!"

"Yeah, so?"

"We can look her up in a phonebook and find where she lives!"

Katara's eyes widened. "Toph you're a genius!"

Toph shrugged, "I know."

The two girls rushed back to their hotel room. Toph snatched a phonebook from the nightstand.

"Wait, how are we going to read it?" Katara asked. "Ugh, being blind can be so inconvenient!"

"We don't have to read it," Toph answered as she headed out the door.

Katara looked at her strangely. "Wait for me!"

Down at the main lobby Toph casually walked over to the front desk where one of the hotel workers stood.

"Excuse me? I need some help. I'm supposed to meet my cousin at her house in an hour. I came all the way from California and I forgot to ask her where she lives! As you can see, I'm blind and I really need to know where she is. Can you please tell me where Azula is in this phonebook?" she handed the confused man the thick book.

"Of course, ma'am," he obliged.

Katara bit her lip as she heard the man flipping through the pages. It wasn't a foolproof explanation but no hotel worker with half a brain would question a guest.

"Could I have a last name, please?" the man asked.

"Raikou," Toph offered. "Azula Raikou."

"Here it is!" the man announced. "She lives on 12 Fyre Place."

"Thank you for your assistance," Toph said as she took the book back.

"It was my pleasure," the man assured her and parted with them.

Once he was out of ear shot, Katara burst with joy.

"So now we know where she lives! Do you think Aang will be there? When should we go? How should we get there? Should we go now?"

"Stop!" Toph shouted. "Calm yourself, Sugar Queen. We should wait until tomorrow when this girl will be at the club again before we go. Then we can break into her house without running the risk of her being inside."

Katara groaned, "I hate waiting for her to go into the club! It's been so long already! We have a time limit, remember? We've already used up a lot of time!"

"Katara, we have three more days left! It'll be okay! If we go now, she might already be at home!"

"But tomorrow's our third-to-last-day! I can't go back home empty-handed!" Katara sounded panicked and desperate.

"Stop acting like we're running out of time!" Top yelled. "We can do this!"

"Toph, I'm just being reasonable! We need to go now or we might never get another chance!"

"Hey, don't blame me that we only have three days left! You're the one who made that stupid deal with your dad."

"It was the only way I could get him to let us go!"

"Then be thankful we're here, at least. Stop being so eager to break into someone's house… we're doing something illegal because you think Aang's still alive. We could get put into a crazy house for this, Katara! I'm dragging myself down with you because I care about you and I'm not going to allow you to do this on your own! So quit acting like you need to find Aang because he was the only person who ever cared about you! You have me, a nervous wreck of a father back at home, a doting brother, and irreplaceable friends who have your back! It's not the end of the world!"

Katara was speechless.

"We got into a fight again," she laughed; but it was the bitter, humorless kind of laugh. "This journey isn't doing much good for us, is it?"

"How long did it take you to figure that out?" Toph asked.

"I just felt like my whole life was being ripped apart when everyone told me Aang was dead. But they didn't have proof so I didn't believe it."

"Good old, stubborn Sugar Queen," Toph laughed. "You're life isn't being torn apart. It's just a little ripped at the seams. That's why I'm here with you now… it's like a healing method. I'm helping you sew it back together."

"So this whole trip is just a cheesy way to help me feel better?" Katara smiled.

"Pretty much," Toph sighed. "But on the slight, and by slight I mean almost nothing, change that we do find Aang that would probably work even better."

Katara clenched her fists. "We will." She affirmed.

"Good," Toph punched her friend. "That's the Sugar Queen I know!"

Katara rubbed her arm. "Yeah, thanks for that reality check, Toph."

"No problem," Toph assured. "Just get me whenever you need another!"

Katara made a mental note to herself to never ask Toph for a reality check.

Author's Notes: dun dun dun! For all of you who guessed Azula in their reviews: You are so good! I didn't think anyone would be able to guess. ;) Especially since I didn't decide until right before I did that chapter who actually ran into them... but you guys are really good! Congrats to all of you... and please review! I like criticism, especially on tough chapters like this! Let me know what you thought of it!

P.S. Raikou is Japanese for "lightning". ;) I thought it fit.