Chapter 11

The crackle of the burning logs broke the morose silence in the camp. Sokka and Suki sat side by side on a log while their friends had seemed to have stopped where they were. Katara knelt by the fire staring at the stew pot simmering away on the flames. Toph and Aang had settled on the opposite side of the fire from Sokka and Suki, while Zuko had simply slid into a heap at the base of a tree just outside the circle.

"I should have brought Hawky," Sokka lamented. A couple of his friends jumped in surprise at the sound of his voice. He leaned forward with his arms resting on his knees as he stared sightlessly into the fire. Suki sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"He's all the way in the Southern Tribe. How could you have gotten him in time?" she asked. Sokka let out an impatient huff, but he rested his head on top of Suki's.

"Even if you had brought him, there was no time to teach him the way back to the capital," Katara reminded her brother. "We'd be in the same situation."

Katara's words hung in the middle of the circle. They had to make a decision quick, and they all knew they had come up with the same plan, but no one wanted to be the first to suggest it. Finally, Zuko sighed and stood up. He dumped his barely touched stew back into the pot and looked at his friends.

"We have to split up," he said gravely. "We need one team to go back to the capital and one team to keep after Ozai." No one protested.

"Who's going to go?" Toph asked.

"I'll go back to the capital," Aang offered. His friends exchanged glances and nodded.

"That's a good idea," Sokka agreed. "You'll have to take Appa. But someone should go with you."

"I say it should be Snoozles," Toph said.

"Me?" Sokka cried. "Why me? Is it because I'm not a bender?"

"Don't be an idiot," the blind earth bender scoffed. "But you are the tactician of the group. You can help Iroh and the generals figure out how to maneuver the troops so that all possible fronts are covered."

"She's right," Suki said. She kissed her fiancé's cheek. "They'll need you."

"And what about the rest of you?" Sokka asked. "You can't split up any more."

"We may not have a choice. We still need to find Ozai," Toph told him.

"Not in teams of two," Sokka insisted stubbornly. He looked at his friends sternly. "It was already a crazy idea for all of us to track Ozai on our own. We're going to be two down once Aang and I are gone. Even worse that we're taking Appa. You won't be able to cover as much ground. If you split into teams of two to track the troops, you're just asking for trouble. Promise me you won't do it."

"We don't know what will be necessary," Suki told him. "We can't make a promise like that." She held her hand up as Sokka tried to protest. "But we can promise not to make that choice until it's absolutely necessary." Sokka didn't look pleased with the compromise, but he knew it was the best he could hope for. With an irritated grunt of acknowledgement, he turned to Aang.

"We should get ready to go." Aang blinked at him in surprise, with his spoon dangling from his fingers.

"Are we leaving tonight?" he asked. Sokka nodded.

"The sooner we leave the better. We can be back at the capital by sunset tomorrow if we start in the next hour." Aang stood up with a sigh, and dumped the last of his broth on the ground.

"I'll check on Appa," he said. "If he's okay to fly without a break, we can get there in the afternoon." Katara stood up as well and clasped her hands together.

"We'll have to repack," she told the remaining three.

"Let's get to work then," Toph said.

The group worked quickly in tense silence. Soon Aang and Sokka were ready to go. With a quick round of hugs and goodbyes, they boarded Appa's saddle and took off into the night sky. The remaining four stared up after them for a long time. Finally Suki sighed and turned to her friends.

"We should set up for the night," she said. Toph made quick work on their shelters for the night, then Katara dragged her and Suki off to gather leaves to fill them with.

"Would you slow down?" Suki snapped once they were out of sight of the camp. She pulled her arm free of Katara. "What is your deal?" Toph settled on a large boulder with her legs folded under her.

"I bet I know," she said. "Something happened with Zuko."

"No, Toph!" Katara denied vehemently.

"Then why have you been avoiding him all night?" Toph challenged her. "It's like the Air temple all over again." Suki looked from Toph to Katara with interest.

"Something else happened?" she squealed in delight. Katara flushed miserably.

"Wait a minute," Toph cut in. "Something else?" Suki turned to Toph and filled her in.

"Something happened while they were out last night. Katara won't tell me what it is, but I know it's something. And earlier, when she went to get the water for dinner, Zuko followed her." Suki turned to Katara with a smirk. "I noticed even if Sokka didn't."

"So, what happened?" Toph asked. When Katara set her jaw stubbornly and began gathering the leaves, Toph pressed, "You wouldn't have dragged us both out here if you didn't want to tell us."

"No, actually, I brought you two along so Zuko wouldn't follow me again," Katara admitted irritably.

"Fine," Suki said. She stooped to gather leaves with Katara. "So tell us what he said to make you want to avoid him." Katara froze and her blush deepened.

"…Nothing," she answered. Her friends were unconvinced.

"What did you say?" Toph asked. Katara sighed miserably. With her free hand, she rubbed her forehead, leaving behind a streak of dirt.

"I don't want to talk about it," she told them plainly. Her limbs were suddenly heavy. She leaned against the side of the boulder where Toph sat. "I just can't…" Suki and Toph stopped their teasing and regarded their friend with real concern.

"Are you okay?" Suki asked. Katara shook her head.

"I said something really stupid and… and I think I may have just ruined our friendship." Toph reached over and placed a hand on Katara's shoulder.

"I doubt it," she assured her. "Your friendship has survived you trying to kill him. And then kissing him. And you two both being just generally stubborn and stupid. I'm sure it'll survive whatever you said to him. I mean you didn't threaten to kill him again, did you?" Katara shook her head slowly, as if the motion itself were tiring.

"No," she sneered. "I did not threaten to kill him."

"So what happened?" Suki asked again. This time concern, not curiosity, was behind it. Katara rolled her head back onto the boulder. She had just decided to tell them, when they heard rustling into the woods. Suki and Katara were on guard instantly. Toph just rolled her eyes and glared at the gap in the trees where Zuko emerged a moment later. Suki and Katara relaxed from their fighting stances, but Zuko could still feel the tension in the clearing.

"Um…." he started awkwardly. "You were gone for a while. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"We're fine, Sparky," Toph told him. "But my question is, if you're here, who's keeping an eye on the fire?"

"We're not that far," he said, shifting uncomfortably. "It's fine." His eyes swept over his friends, and landed on Katara's for a split second before he dropped his gaze. His face was suddenly bright red.

"Someone needs to watch the fire," Toph said. She slid off the rock and walked over to Zuko. "I'll keep you company while you do. Sugar Queen and Kyoshi can handle this without me." She grabbed the young man's arm and dragged him off towards the camp site, ignoring his protests. Katara breathed a sigh of relief when they had gone.

"Let's get the stuff and go," she said. Suki watched Katara thoughtfully as she gathered the pile of leaves and twigs that lay discarded at her feet.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Suki asked. Katara looked up at her in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Katara furrowed her brow.

"I mean that we're down to the four of us," Suki explained. "We're going to have to count on each other if things go bad. If things are so bad between you and Zuko that you can't work together-"

"It won't be a problem," Katara assured Suki firmly. "I can separate my feelings from all of this." Suki nodded.

"Good," she said. "But I guess Toph and I should stop giving you a hard time about it."

"Definitely do that," Katara agreed. She shot Suki a pointed look. It held more than a bit of annoyance. Suki had the grace to be embarrassed.

"I'm sorry." Suki stooped to gather an armful of leaves. "I know that Toph and I have really been on your case about Zuko. It's just a distraction from…well, everything. But I'm sorry if we've made you uncomfortable." Katara smiled wryly at Suki.

"It's fine. It distracts me, too. Not always in a good way… but as long as you don't talk to anyone else about it, especially not Zuko-" Katara suddenly shot up and turned back towards camp in horror. "Toph!" Suki gasped and stood up next to Katara.

"She wouldn't!" Katara wavered.

"Let's not give her too much of an opportunity." The girls hurried back to camp. Zuko and Toph were sitting by the fire with bowls of stew in their hands. Zuko looked up in surprise and worry when they crashed into the clearing.

"What's wrong?" he asked. He set aside his bowl and rose into a defensive stance. A matching blush rose on Suki and Katara's faces. Katara laughed nervously.

"Nothing," she said. "We…er…we just got sidetracked- talking, you know- and we…um…"

"We realized how late it was getting," Suki jumped in. "And we figured that we should all talk about…um…"

"...What we are going to do tomorrow," Katara finished.

"O-kay…" Zuko stared at the pair strangely, but sat back down and continued eating his stew.

"Geeze, Sugar Queen," Toph snorted. "The way you rushed in here, you'd think we were under attack. What's the matter? Afraid Zuko and I were talking about you?" Katara glared at Toph and muttered something under her breath.

"I think we're all just a little tightly wound," Suki offered in explanation. She fixed herself some stew and sat next to Toph.

"So we obviously have to split up," Toph said. The protests were immediate and loud. Toph stomped the ground and shook her companions in their seats. "Would you listen first? Geeze!"

"Okay, fine," Katara huffed impatiently. "Why don't you tell us your bad idea then?" Toph sniffed haughtily in Katara's direction.

"I never have bad ideas," she said. "I'm not suggesting we confront anyone, but I think tomorrow we should follow each group of soldiers and see if we can pinpoint where Ozai is. We'll go as far as we can in one day and meet back up to compare notes."

"And then what?" Suki asked. "We don't have Appa. How do we get word to the capital?" Toph held up one of the bags of coins that Iroh had sent with them.

"We buy a boat," she answered simply. She turned back to Katara. "Still think it's a bad idea, Sugar Queen?" Katara folded her arms, and drummed her fingers agitatedly.

"I do," she snapped. She looked from Zuko to Suki. "What do you think?"

"It's risky," Suki said hesitantly. "Still… it's no riskier than coming out here in the first place. I hate the idea of splitting up any further, but it's only temporary."

"I think we should do it," Zuko jumped in. "This way we can do recon on both groups." Toph nodded in her self-satisfied way and then drew everyone's attention back to Katara. The young woman didn't look happy with the idea.

"It's dangerous," she reminded them. "Maybe too dangerous to make it worth the risk. How will we know if one of our teams needs help? Somehow I don't think Sokka's F.L.A.R.E.S. will be much help in the middle of the woods."

"There won't be any way of getting word to each other until we meet back up," Toph acknowledged. "But I don't think that makes it less worth it to split up. We came out here so that we could tell the army how to find Ozai. If we're not going to explore every lead, then we may as well have gone back with Sokka and Aang." Katara was unwilling to come out and say that Toph was right. She dropped her arms onto her knees and leaned forward, staring into the fire.

"I don't like this," she said. Suki nodded sympathetically.

"None of us do. But Toph has a point. We need to be able to give as much information as we possibly can." Katara looked around at her companions and saw the same determination in all of their faces. With a humorless laugh, she shook her head.

"Well, so much for Sokka not wanting us to split up," she muttered. "Okay, so we're doing this."

"We'll need some ground rules," Zuko said. Toph rolled her eyes.

"Here we go," she muttered.

"Yes, here we go," Zuko retorted firmly. "Katara's right. This is going to be extremely dangerous."

"What are you thinking?" Suki asked.

"Stay out of sight," Zuko told them. "If you get seen, don't fight; run." He turned a pointed gaze to Toph. "I mean it."

"Yes, Dad," Toph snorted.

"Keep talking back to me and I'll ground you," Zuko warned with a smirk. That got a weak chuckle from his companions. "We'll leave from here in the morning, and meet back here at sunset the next day."

"We're only tracking them for a day?" Toph demanded. "What if they've gone farther than that?"
"Tough. We'll have to head back to the capital with whatever we manage to get. The further we go, the better the chances of getting caught, and that won't do anyone any good."

"I agree," Suki said. "Besides, both groups probably have too many people by now to move very quickly. Anything we find out tomorrow will probably be plenty."

"Fine," Toph agreed gracelessly. "Who's going with who, then?"

"Suki and Zuko should take the lead," Katara said. "You two are our best trackers." Toph sat up, outraged.

'Excuse you?"

"I said what I said." Katara waved her off. Suki could see Toph gearing up for an argument and cut her off.

"Toph, I want you to come with me," she announced. Katara's eyes went wide and the blood drained from her face. Suki threw her a quick apologetic glance and explained, 'I'm the only non-bender. Toph will be able to sense an ambush before I can and I'll need the advantage."

"That makes sense," Katara conceded reluctantly. She cleared her throat and got her emotions under control.

"I'm fine with it," Zuko told them. "Katara and I already know we fight well together.

"So, it's settled," Katara said, standing up. "Suki and Toph; Zuko and me. We should divide up the supplies. It's going to be a long night."

As Katara predicted, it was about four hours before sunrise when the team finally laid down to get some rest before they set out. They were up again as the sun reappeared over the horizon and after a quick, silent breakfast of jerky and dried fruit, they went over the details of their separation once more.

"We'll meet back here by the morning after tomorrow," Zuko said. "Will you be able to find your way back?" Toph snorted.

"Will you?" Zuko smirked and ruffled her bangs.

"Okay, I'm a little worried about you."

"That's Sugar Queen's job," Toph reminded him. "You're supposed to be the fun parent." Zuko shrugged and grabbed his bag.

"I'll do better," he promised. To the rest of the group he said, "If either team isn't back in two days, the other team has to get back to the capital."

"Wait, we're supposed to leave each other behind?" Katara yelped. Zuko gave her a rare stern look that didn't invite a debate.

"If one of us is captured, we don't have enough people to rescue them," he told her. "The safest thing to do is go back to the capital and bring troops." Katara didn't look happy about that, but she didn't protest. She nodded reluctantly and shouldered her own bag. She hugged Suki and Toph quickly.

"Be safe," she told them. Then the group split up. Katara and Zuko were to follow the larger group of soldiers north while Suki and Toph went west.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

For the first few hours of their trek the silence between Zuko and Katara was intentional. They had discussed everything that needed to be discussed about their mission with Suki and Toph as they broke down camp. They didn't dare talk about anything personal, and neither one was much in the mood for small talk. As the day wore on, and the mountains frew steeper, the silence became more of a necessity. Zuko managed to make keeping his breath steady and quiet look easy as he set the pace, and Katara, though struggling a bit more, kept up with him with minimal huffing.

"We can rest here for a while," Zuko said when the sun was high overhead. Katara nodded trying to hide her relief.

"I've never realized how hard mountain climbing was," She commented as she set her bag down. "We usually just rode Appa."

"It's not really mountain climbing," Zuko told her. "It's more like hiking."

"Oh." Silence fell over the pair once again. Katara cleared her throat and pulled a canteen out for a drink, while Zuko dug through his bag, trying to decide what to pretend to be busy finding. Katara glanced over at her companion a few times. She desperately wished she had something to say to diffuse the tension, or the courage to say something that would finally bring it to a head, but after a few minutes nothing occurred to her. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. Then she froze. Zuko noticed the change and immediately jumped to his feet, his hands reaching for his twin swords.

"What is it?" he asked, peering into the trees. Katara lowered her arms and answered distractedly.

"There's water nearby. A lot of it. And it's fresh." She spun back towards Zuko. "I think we're close." Zuko blinked in surprise.

"Because of water?"

"Think about it," Katara said. "Of all the things you want if you're gathering a lot of people in one place, the main thing is water."

"That makes sense." Zuko nodded in agreement. He went through his bag again for the map of the Northern bases and spread it out on the ground in front of him. There was a faded blue spot indicating a mountain lake. Zuko circled three places around the lake with a bit of granite.

"If you're right- and I do think you are- then these are the likeliest places for them to be." Katara examined the places Zuko had marked and made a rough guess of how far they were from the lake based on its pull on her.

"We may not have time to search all three, but we can at least narrow it down before it's time to head back tomorrow," she said. "The lake is probably another two or three hours walk from here."

"It's as good a plan as any other we have."

"So, a quick lunch and then we head out." Zuko agreed to Katara's plan. To their relief, some of the awkwardness seemed to have dissipated for the time and they even managed some nervous jokes as they ate their lunch of jerky and dried fruit.

"I've almost forgotten what actual food tastes like," Katara complained. She forced herself to take another bite of water bison jerky and made a face.

"I miss actual steak," Zuko sighed. "The first thing I'm going to do when we get home is order a steak dinner. With a vegetable noodle meal for Aang, of course."

"Of course," Katara laughed. "That sounds amazing. Can we have custard tarts for dessert?"
"Anything you'd like." Zuko leaned against a tree stump and laid his head back. He shut his eyes against the sun. Despite he relaxed posture, Katara recognized the rigidity in his shoulders and the way his head was tilted to the side. He was as nervous as she was about running into Ozai's soldiers.

"Be careful what you promise me," Katara warned. "Unless you want a banquet of stewed sea prunes." Zuko grimaced.

"Blech!" Katara chuckled at that. She tossed the rest of her jerky in her bag and stood up.

"Well, I can't eat another bite," she announced. "Are you ready to head out?" Zuko didn't answer right away. He opened his eyes slowly and pursed his lips.

"What did you mean," Zuko questioned hesitantly, "when you asked if the kiss meant anything?"

Katara froze. She bent over the straps of her bag, and tried to keep her voice nonchalant as she replied.

"I didn't mean anything by it, Zuko." The skin on the back of her neck prickled under his gaze.

"Did it mean something?" Zuko pressed. Katara sighed and spun around.

"This is so very much not the time or place for this. We have way too much going on to talk about something so... We could be going into a fight or a …"

"It has to be now," he insisted. "Things are weird between us. We've been avoiding each other ever since... We can't keep ignoring this." Katara felt the air growing warmer. It was getting harder to breath. To her annoyance, she felt the beginning of tears behind her eyes. Angrily, she turned away from Zuko.

"You already said it didn't mean anything," she reminded him. "So it didn't." Zuko's eyes widened. He reached out for Katara's hand. He wasn't sure himself why.

"I only said that because I thought..." Katara looked at him expectantly. Zuko lowered his eyes to their hands. Katara pulled away first.

"I shouldn't have brought it up. There's no point in talking about it now."

"We talk about everything," Zuko said quietly. Katara stopped fastening her bag and let her shoulders slump forward. She was so tired.

"Not this," she told Zuko. She sighed and shook her head. "I can't have this conversation with you now."

"It did mean something to me," Zuko confessed. Katara looked up at Zuko her eyes wide. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of something to say.

"I…Zuko, I…"she struggled. "I think we should get going." Katara put her bag on her back and hurried off into the woods. Zuko stared as she left.

"Nice going, Zuko," he muttered angrily at himself before he took off after her.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

"Can we please stop for a bit?" Suki asked. Toph snorted and slowed the earthen sphere to a halt. Suki could hardly wait for Toph to release them to the surface before she scrambled out of the stone seat Toph had made for them.

"So flying on Appa you can handle," Toph said, joining Suki on the open surface, "but underground and strapped in makes you queasy?" Suki glared at the younger girl, still fighting the remains of motion sickness.

"Appa doesn't travel at breakneck speed," she snapped. "And I think my shoulders are going to be bruised for weeks thanks to your straps." Toph had secured them to their seats using harnesses made of hardened mud that crossed down their fronts and fastened to the stone bench between their legs . Suki checked under the neck of her tunic and sure enough, there was the beginning of a wide bruise.

"You'll live," Toph insisted. "Besides, this was way faster than Appa. We're almost right on top of the main group of troops and it's not even noon yet." Suki looked around sharply.

"Is there anyone in the area?" she asked. Toph shook her head.

"Nah. We're about five miles from their main camp. But do you hear that?" Suki closed her eyes and listened. A moment later her eyes flew open and she looked at Toph, startled.

"Is that the ocean?" she asked. Toph nodded smugly.

"Sure is. Top that, Appa!" Suki was impressed despite herself. She looked up at the sky. The sun wasn't much higher than it was when they left camp. They had been underground for a little less than two hours, by Suki's guess.

"If we had known you could do this, we could have stuck together," she pointed out. Toph shrugged.

"I wasn't really sure if I could," she said. "I've never done it before." Suki froze.

"You've never done that before?" Suki stared at Toph in horror. "What if it had gone wrong?"

"It's better than what Ozai's troops will do to us if they catch us." Toph shrugged again. "Look, now's not the time to freak out over nothing. You aren't dead. You're fine, and we can get in and get out before anyone even knows we're here."

Suki flushed bright red and opened her mouth to retort when a rustling from the woods caught their attention. The blood left Suki's face and she grabbed her fans from her belt.

"I thought we were away from the camp," she hissed at Toph. Toph's face set grimly and she opened the ground beneath them. It closed over their heads just as two Fire Nation scouts cleared the hill. They were still close enough to the surface that they could hear the conversation over their heads.

"See? I told you there was no one here," said a cranky sounding man.

"I know I heard something!" his companion insisted. "I'm getting really sick of your attitude, Shota."

"You're paranoid. You always have been. Who could have caught up with us already?"

"The Avatar," the unnamed soldier reminded Shota. "Someone said they saw his Bison in the area." Suki glanced at Toph nervously. The blind earth bender pursed her lips and listened harder.

"That was a rumor," Shota snapped. "And even if he was, so what? We've been traveling mostly underground. If the little brat has been trying to follow us, we've surely lost him by now."

"Yeah? Well what about the girl?"

"Which girl?" Shouta asked. "You know the kid has a whole harem."

"The earth bender. They say that she can see using the dirt."

"They also say that she was raised by badger moles and the spirits of Oma and Shu taught her to bend." Toph snickered to herself. "She's a spoiled little rich girl whose parents probably paid the Avatar to give her a role in his…what do they call it? A council?"

"I believe they call it the Gaang. Like the Avatar, Aang." Shota snorted.

"Bunch of snot nosed brats pretending at war," he muttered. "It was only because of the Lion Turtle helping the Avatar that Ozai was defeated."

"I suppose you're right," the other soldier said. "I'm jumpy because we're so close to the final attack. The waiting is the worst part." Shota grunted in agreement.

"It's going to be a long two days," he said. "Don't know how the other team's dealing. They have a whole week ahead of them." The voices started growing fainter, and Toph could see they were leaving the clearing. Once their footsteps were far enough away, she brought herself and Suki back to the surface.

"At least we know we're dealing with idiots," Toph said, scowling in the direction of the soldiers. " 'Spoiled little rich girl' my-"

"They said two days," Suki cut in, stopping Toph's tirade short. "We have to get word back to the capital."

"Definitely," Toph agreed. There was a mischievous gleam in her eye. "And while we're here, we could slow them down a bit." Suki narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"What did you have in mind?"

"We wait for sun down, break some things, and be back at our rendezvous before breakfast."

'We don't want Ozai's soldiers to know that we're on to them," Suki pointed out. "I think smashing their camp with rocks will tip them off."

"So we'll be subtle," Toph countered.

"I didn't know you even knew that word." Suki crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "What do you suggest then?"

"A broken rudder here; a few animals raiding supplies there," Toph said, shrugging nonchalantly. "Make it look like some bad luck so no one's the wiser. It'll give us more time to get back to the capital." Suki nodded slowly.

"Alright," she said. "But no theatrics." Toph held one hand up and placed the other over her heart.

"On my mother's grave," she vowed solemnly.

"Your mother's not dead," Suki reminded her. Toph shrugged.

"She will be someday. She keeps saying my antics are going to send her to an early grave." Suki rolled her eyes. Sometimes Toph's sense of humor could be so….morbid.

"Alright," she said. "Let's make ourselves scarce." Toph grinned wickedly.

"No problem." Then the earth swallowed the two young women whole.