Once the meal was over, the dance music came on and people started to dance. Hei Won begged Aang to dance with her. He sheepishly agreed, giving Ty Lee an apologetic look.

Azula looked over. "Watch this. Embarrassment will happen soon."

She and Katara watched as Hei Won kept trying to press her body against Aang's. He kept trying to keep a polite distance between them. She was desperate, but he was a master airbender. He could always make a space between them.

Hei Won was confident that he would eventually lower his resistance. She had been drinking all dinner and it showed when she threw her arms around his neck and tried to kiss him. He airbended away, leaving her kissing the air in between her arms.

Any attempt to pretend that moment didn't happen failed when Azula laughed raucously. Her face turned red as she grabbed her stomach. Katara glared at her, but it was pretty funny.

"I just don't like you that way," Aang told her.

"It's that Fire Nation hussy!" she screamed before she stormed off. Everyone stared at her.

Aang was mortified. Azula wanted to keep laughing, but she was able to control the temptation. "Maybe she'll just go cool off somewhere."

"I would say this is karma, but that was pretty bad!" Toph said.

"Well, you know what they say," Haru said to Toph as they observed the debacle

"What?"

"Fire Nation girls to bed, Water Tribe girls to wed, Earth Kingdom girls to talk to."

"You asshole!" She smacked him.

"My dad told it to me." It was a war truism. The reasoning was that Fire Nation girls are easy, water tribe girls are nurturing and Earth Kingdom girls are interesting but not particularly easy or nurturing, so they were good for conversation.

Slowly, the other guests went back to what they were doing before Hei Won's outburst.

Aang didn't know what to do. "Did you want to look at the stars with me?" he asked Ty Lee.

"Sure."

They left.

"Already. She's not making him wait long," Azula whispered in Katara's ear.

"You're so bad."

"I thought that's what you liked about me."

"You're like a cactus."

"What?"

"Prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside, and you know how to make me go crazy."

"Let's dance."

Azula lead as they moved around the floor. Katara had learned a variety of formal dances as she attended many events with Aang, but Azula had a more modern number in mind. Her feet moved quickly, her hips moving in a sultry manner as she pulled Katara close to her.

Katara found Azula's shoulders, quickly trying to learn the pattern, so she didn't trip and fall.

"Just follow my lead," Azula whispered in her ear as she spun her around. She guided Katara back into her arms and kissed her sweetly. "I love you so much," she murmured before she went to kiss her again.

Katara froze, and then she stopped Azula with her hand.

"What's wrong?"

"You love me?"

"Of course I love you."

"You've never said it before."

Azula laughed as she kissed her hand. "Maybe not in those words but with every kiss, every touch, and every embrace," I say it.

Katara's heart started working overtime. She pulled Azula close and hissed, "I want you to ravish me tonight, like you did when we first …"

Azula covered her mouth with a kiss. "Consider it done."

"Why are you so tall?" Toph complained as she danced with Haru.

"Why are you so short?" Haru teased.

"I'm just small boned!"

He laughed as he put her on a chair. "Now, we're in the same frame."

"You're an ass!"

He surprised her with a kiss. Finally, she knew whom she was kissing!

Sokka eyed them suspiciously. "I don't trust him," he told Suki.

"Haru's nice," Suki told him.

"They're always nice, until they try to get in your pants."

"In that case, I don't trust you."

"What?"

"Why didn't you tell me Haru tried to get in your pants?" she teased.

"That's not what I meant!"

Aang and Ty Lee were on the roof of the palace. It was pretty warm out, and they pinched a blanket from a linen closet along the way to lie down on.

"They're so pretty," she said of the stars as she leaned against his chest.

She smelled so good. Aang leaned forward and kissed her jawline.

"Mmm!"

He kissed her again and again, tasting her sweet skin as he maneuvered on top of her.

He finally kissed her lips and when he did, he wondered how he had gone so long without them. She put her hands on his shoulders and pulled him closer. He had grown a lot from when she first saw him. He was taller, his voice deeper and his chest was strong. Her nails raked across his robes, tickling his back.

"I smell smoke," she said in between kisses.

Aang was about to kiss her again when he smelled it too. "FIRE!"

He airbended towards the smoke. When he got to the fire, he bended the smoke out of his face, trying to see where the flames were so he could put them out.

Ty Lee climbed down to the ground and ran for help. She saw the alarm bell and rang it.

The guards came running from all directions trying to get to the alarm bell and secure the palace, which was immediately put on lockdown. The world leaders got shuffled into different rooms.

Zuko was kept in one wing, his sister in another.

"What are they doing?" Katara questioned.

"Splitting up all the heirs."

Sokka was kept in a different place than Hakoda. No one knew who was the target.

When Ty Lee said fire, the guards ran for the waterbenders. "We have a fire!"

Katara went to go help. Azula wanted to join her, but she was kept at a distance.

"It could be a distraction to attack the royal family."

"But I can wield back the flames!"

"The avatar's out there. He can do it."

Azula reluctantly held back.

The barn had been set on fire. Aang forced the flames away from the animals. "Appa?"

The sky bison had escaped his enclosure as it had been set on fire. The smoke was getting to him.

"Get outside." The other animals had scattered. Appa, however, refused to leave his master.

Aang waterbended all of the water he could reach, emptying every trough as he fought the flames.

Katara took water from the stream and sent it at the barn. It was hard to get the water to move this far, but she remembered when she threw Azula into the ocean. If she could get the princess from that far away, she could do this.

As the flames started to die down, Katara moved in closer. "Aang?"

"Katara. Someone set the barn on fire. Appa inhaled too much smoke."

They helped the ill sky bison out of the barn, and Katara immediately worked on healing him. Appa started to kick his feet in frustration. "I know this hurts, but we need to get some air in you. Aang, can you airbend into his lungs, gently."

Aang did as she asked, forcing the smoke out. Appa thrashed. Katara tried to ease his soreness with the water she had left.

"Who would do this?" Aang questioned.

Suddenly something pierced into Katara's shoulder. She collapsed.

"KATARA!" He pulled the dart out of her shoulder. It must have been poisoned.

"You'll always want her, won't you?" It was Hei Won.

"Why would you hurt her?"

"She had you, even when she didn't want you. When you said you let her go, I thought I had a chance. Do you remember that night by the spring?"

It was over three months ago, but Hei Won remembered it perfectly. Aang had been wondering around, wasted, which was the norm for him at the time.

The other girls were started to get concerned with his drinking habits, but none of them had the courage to confront him yet. They had gone to bed early, leaving Aang and Hei Won at the spring. When he sat down next to her, she kissed him. In his drunken state, he didn't care who he was kissing. He just wanted to be wanted.

You took my virginity. I thought you loved me, but then you called out her name when you came and then you passed out!"

Aang had no idea what she was talking about. "I must have been drunk. I'm so sorry."

"Not as sorry as you're going to be. I set Appa's stall on fire. I wanted you to lose something you loved, so you would know how I hurt, but then she came and saved him. Now, you'll lose her."

Hei Won slit her own throat before Aang could get to her.

Seeing her blood spill on the ground horrified him. He grabbed Katara and ran for the palace. "HELP SHE'S BEEN POISONED!"

Everyone could hear his cries. People ran past their protective guards and into the hall where he put Katara on a table. He tried to heal her with water, but the "poison's moving too quickly into her bloodstream. I don't know what to do."

The doctor had already run to get his tinctures.

Azula came and grabbed Katara's face. She started heatbending, trying to burn the poison out of her. "Don't die on me Tara." Tears filled her eyes as she tried to save the one person she couldn't live without.

The doctor came with his medicine, but "we don't know what she was poisoned with." Some of these antidotes could kill her.

"Hei Won killed herself," Aang told them. "I have no idea what she used. We don't have poison at the temple."

"We could really use a bloodbender right now."

Am old man came forward from the Northern Water Tribe. "I can bloodbend," he said.

Katara and Sokka had the same blood type. They drew blood from his arm and bloodbended it into his sister, while they drew her poisoned blood out. They knew the new blood would get infected too, but they hoped to bring down the concentration of the poison to something she could survive.

The waterbender purified the blood that came out of Katara and sent the newly cleaned blood back in. It was a slow process, which is why they took Sokka's blood and used it first.

"Are you sure that blood is clean?"

"It was a metal-based poison. See, it sank to the bottom." At the bottom of the beaker was whatever Hei Won used to poison Katara. If Hei Won weren't dead, Azula would have killed her after she got her to reveal the poison.

The other acolytes were horrified. She had been their friend, but their friendship was fracturing because of her obsession with Aang.

The Avatar blamed himself. "If I hadn't been so selfish, I would have realized how much help she needed." He didn't see it at all until it was much too late.

As the doctor and the bloodbender worked on Katara, the others could only wait until morning to see if she survived.

Hakoda had left the room. He couldn't watch them play around with Katara's blood like that. He lost his wife because he came too late. Now he was here, but he was still hopeless. He asked the spirits why him? Why couldn't he be enough to keep his family safe?

Chief Arnook came to check on him. He knew the pain of losing a daughter, and he hoped his friend wouldn't ever have to learn it.

"Our daughters are a lot alike. They will always help, no matter how dangerous." Katara knew it was likely some kind of trap. No one would risk breaching the palace security just to kill some barn animals, but she came to help anyway. She just didn't think she would be the target.

"I should have gone with her."

"She got poisoned with a dart to the back. Even if you had been there, you wouldn't have seen it coming with no light."

Hakoda tried to argue, but Arnook continued. "I blamed myself for Yue's death. If I had a stronger group of warriors, if I had gotten some kind of protective shield for the spring, I thought of all kinds of ways I could have tried to save her, but some things are out of our hands, no matter what we do."

Hakoda understood, but he still felt like a failure for not protecting his daughter. If this was out of his hands, he just felt like he should have had bigger hands so he could handle it.

He thought the worst feeling was when he came back and found his wife dead. He was starting to realize that waiting helplessly was even worse.

Katara woke up to see a face she hadn't seen in over a decade.

"Mom?"

"Yes Honey."

"Am I dead?"

"No. You're in a suspended state of consciousness."

"What?"

"You were poisoned, but your are not dead."

"How (can I be here)?"

Kya didn't tell her. "There were so many things I wanted to teach you, but my time came too early. I always wondered what kind of people you and Sokka would grow up to be. A mother always wants to know that she raised her children to be good people, and I couldn't be more proud of you two.

Aang needed you and you were there. You needed Sokka, and he was there. I know that you both will find your way and when you need a little help, look to the stars and you'll find me."

Aang went into the spirit world. If Katara was in there, he was going to bring her back.

He didn't see her, but he did see a familiar face.

"Koh," he said coldly.

"My friend Aang. Here for your little girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," Aang refused to show emotion, "and you're bluffing. You don't have Katara."

"I don't," he said with a laugh. "But she isn't who I meant."

He showed Hei Won's face. He had tricked her.

"It was easy to control her. I promised her you would be hers if I gave her a little help. She seduced you that night, not that you remember, but you wouldn't let the waterbender go.

I think it broke her heart, but she carried on. When Katara and Azula's relationship became public knowledge, she figured she might have a second shot at getting you, but then Ty Lee came and stole you in a flash. I think it was too much for her. She lost it."

"You did this on purpose?"

"I just wanted a face. I wasn't too picky about whose I got. The waterbender's would have been a nice touch, but Hei Won's would do just as nicely."

"Give her back."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you would rather have a chance at getting mine."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm challenging you to a battle of wits. If I win, you give Hei Won back, and free her of whatever you did to her. You win, you get me."

Koh laughed. "Oh this is too good to pass up, my friend."

"I am not your friend."

"Oh but you will be."

Koh thought of all of his faces as his friends. If they could decide for themselves, they would likely disagree.

Ty Lee guarded Aang's body while he went into the spirit world. This was so unfair. Everyone was having fun, and now this. The avatar's job truly never ends.

Mai came to check on Ty Lee. "Where did he?"

"He went to see if Katara was in the spirit world, and if so, to bring her back."

"Want some company?"

"Sure."

This was really awkward. What do you say to a girl whose boyfriend is trying to rescue his ex-girlfriend who got poisoned by another girl who was obsessed with him?

"Is it wrong to say I'm glad Hei Won's dead?" If she was this mad over Katara, she might have tried to kill Ty Lee too.

"It's probably better for her that she is. Azula only would have tortured her to learn the type of poison she used."

Mai's eyes got large. "There is that."

"How is she?"

"I've never seen her like this." No one has. Her mental breakdown was one thing, but she was literally in pieces right now. For a girl who always wears a confident face, she was breaking like a vase that got hit with a mallet.

"She's not alone is she?"

"No, Zuko's with her."

"I can't lose her," Azula cried as her brother held her.

"I know." He couldn't say she'd get better. What if he was wrong?

"I told her I loved her tonight."

What?

"She said I never said it before. I should have said it every day."

"I'm sorry."

"When are you going to marry Mai?"

"Do you really want to talk about that now?"

"Stop putting it off! What if you run out of time? What if I'm already out?"

Zuko didn't really have an excuse. It has been four years. "I promise, I will marry her next summer, but if Katara wakes up, you don't put it off either."

"I won't."

Zuko knew that Azula and Katara were happy together, but he didn't realize until tonight, how much Azula loved her. She had a way of shielding her emotions, presenting herself as cool or in control. Before the war ended, he would have assumed that Azula was incapable of falling in love. As selfish as it sounded, he needed Katara to live. He didn't know what Azula would do if she didn't.

Sokka watched his sister in the hospice. He was only 10 when their mother died, but he wished he had been older, so he could have tried to save her. Now, he's 20, and his sister is lying helpless in a bed.

What did his family do to deserve this?

Suki took his hand. "This isn't your fault."

"How did you?"

"I know you. You did everything you could."

"How could this even happen?"

"I don't know." She really had no idea how Hei Won could be so crazy. How could no one have known? Sure she had an unrequited crush, but who didn't at one point? No one else here had turned to murder to resolve it.

"But I do know how strong your sister is. She's a fighter. She'll make it. She has to."

Iroh sat in the corner of his room. Katara has been put in the hospice. Her family was trying to get sleep. Hakoda and Sokka took shifts, so someone would always be with her in case her status changed.

He couldn't believe that the girl hysterically crying was his niece. He didn't know what had possessed her to start dating Katara. He didn't think the girl was capable of falling in love. She had always been so cold and so calculating. He had trouble reconciling the girl who had been in front of him with the niece who had always made him uneasy.

He knew the pain of losing a wife. He knew the pain of losing a son. He knew how Azula and Hakoda were both feeling right now, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to either of them. Iroh's way of moving on had been to suppress his pain. Even though he understood what they had been going through, he didn't know how to talk to them without being overwhelmed by his own losses. His medicine made it easy for him to forget, so that's what he did. He took out his pipe and started to smoke.

His inner demons started to float away as the opium coursed his veins. Happy memories started to replace the ones that had filled his mind when Aang carried a limp Katara into the palace.

When Iroh's wife died, he didn't realize how sick she was. She had just had Lu Ten, and the doctor said women often got sick after childbirth. He thought it was just a cold, but when he woke up, she was dead.

He had to raise Lu Ten alone. At first, he thought it would be impossible. He was in the military. He had a responsibility to the country, to his father, but Lu Ten became his greatest joy. When he took his son with him to Ba Sing Se, he thought they'd share his greatest honor, but instead he lost his son. He had forgotten that his boy was more important than any honor he could have received, and because of it, he's dead.

He could have saved his wife if he had known. He should have protected his son, but he had forgotten. He didn't talk about them because it was too painful. Instead, he stayed in his room and held on to the happy memories he had when they were alive, choosing to forget what happened after.

Koh had three chances to stump the Avatar.

"I'm thinking of something that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs in the evening."

"Man. I'm not 12 anymore."

Koh hissed. "The next one will be harder." Koh thought for a minute. "What is black when you get it, red when you use it and white when you're through with it?"

This one took Aang longer to figure out, as he hadn't heard it before.

If it goes from red to white, it sounds like it burns and turns to ash. "Charcoal."

Koh purposefully chose two easy ones to start, hoping the Avatar would be overconfident.

He told him the last one.

"What does man love more than life,

Fear more than death or mortal strife

What the poor have, the rich require,

and what contented men desire,

What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves

And all men carry to their graves?"

Aang didn't answer. Koh waited for five minutes before declaring Aang was stumped.