The sun blazed over us as we walked on the dry ground. I was walking next to Sokka. Everyone was tired and downcast.
"This is humiliating," I said.
"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka asked.
"Both," I replied.
"Sorry guys, but Appa gets tired carrying all these people," Aang said.
""I wonder how the other troops are," Teo said.
"They're probably on their way to a prison. Seems like my dad just got out, now he's going back in," Haru said.
"I miss Pipsqueak," The Duke said.
"I miss not having blisters on my feet," Sokka complained.
"Hey, we're here! I can feel it," Toph said happily.
We all stopped and looked along the cliff side. Nothing was there.
"Uh, I think your feet need their eyes checked," I suggested.
"No, she's right, we are here," Aang said.
"Wow, it's amazing," Toph said.
We jumped onto Appa and Toph helped Teo up.
"Yip, yip," Aang said.
Appa flew down the cliff.
"Wow, it's incredible," I said.
When we landed, we helped Teo off. He and Haru stared at the fountain in awe.
"It's so different from the Northern Air Temple," Teo said. I wonder if there are any secret rooms.
"Let's go check it out," Haru said.
The Duke, Teo, and Aang ran over to follow him. I stopped Aang in his tracks with his staff.
"You guys go… I think we need to talk about some things," I said.
The three boys ran off and Aang looked at me a little disappointed.
"Why can't I go?" he asked.
"We need to decide what we're gonna do now. And since you're the Avatar, maybe you should be apart of this," I said.
Aang walked over to a bench and sat down. He crossed his arms.
"Fair enough. So, what's the new plan?" he said.
We all sat on benches. Toph sat on a stone column.
"Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan," Sokka told us. "You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."
"Oh, yeah, that's great. No problem, I'll just do that," Aang said sarcastically flicking away pebbles.
"Aang, no one said it was gonna be easy," I said.
"Well, it's not even gonna be possible. Where am I supposed to get a Firebending teacher?" he demanded continuing his little tantrum.
I thought for a moment.
"We could look for Jeong Jeong," I finally suggested.
"Yeah right," he said lying down on the bench, "like we'll ever run into Jeong Jeong again."
"Who's- Oh, never mind. If it's important, I'll find out," Toph said.
Aang stood up with his staff in his hand.
"Oh well, I guess we can't think of anybody. Why don't we just take a nice tor around the temple?" Aang said and jumped over Sokka's bench.
Momo followed him and they both took off.
"What's with him?" Toph said.
"There's got to be someone who can teach him Firebending," Sokka said putting a hand to his chin.
Toph and I looked down dejectedly. I heard Toph sigh. She jumped down from the pillar.
"Let's give him a break. He couldn't fight the Fire Lord and we just lost a battle. We all need rest," I said.
"I guess so," Sokka said.
"You Water Tribe people must be real softies," Toph said.
"Excuse me?" I demanded rounding on her. "What did you say? 'Softies'?"
"Don't you see? Twinkle Toes is procrastinating. He doesn't wanna deal with the Fire Lord or Firebending so he's making excuses to get out of it. We need to hop on Appa, and tell him he needs to listen… now!" Toph said.
Sokka jumped onto Appa's head and Toph and I climbed into the saddle. We caught sight of Aang and Momo flying through the air. I stood up.
"Aang! Can we talk about you learning Firebending now?!" I called through the wind.
"What? The wind is to loud in my ears. Check out this loop!" he said.
Aang preformed the loop and Momo followed him.
"Aang! I think we should be making plans about our future!" Sokka called.
Aang landed on the platform. Appa landed with him. Sokka, Toph, and I descended from the bison.
"Okay, we can do that while I show you the giant Pai Sho table. Oh, you're gonna love the all- day echo chamber," he said excitedly.
"I think that'll have to wait," Toph said.
We looked at her confused. She pointed behind her and Appa moved aside to reveal… ZUKO!? What was he doing here!? All of our expressions turned from surprise to anger.
"Hello, Zuko here," he said raising his hand in greeting.
We all got into our fighting stances to face our enemy. He wasn't attacking. Appa growled but then licked Zuko. Aang lowered his staff slightly. Appa licked Zuko again. He wiped the slobber off his face.
"I know you must be surprised to see me here," he said.
"Not really, since you've followed us all over the world," Sokka pointed out angrily.
"Right… Well, uh… anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed, and I uh, I'm good now. And, well, I think I should join your group. Oh, and I can teach Firebending… To you," Zuko said. "See, I uh…"
"You wanna what now!?" Toph said.
"You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are!?" I yelled.
"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang," Sokka agreed.
"I've done some good things!" Zuko argued. "I mean, I could've stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That's something!"
Appa licked Zuko again. Seriously, what type of idiot would fall for this charade?
"Appa does seem to like him," Toph pointed out to us.
"He probably just covered himself in honey so that Appa would lick him. I'm not buying it," Sokka said.
"I can understand why you wouldn't trust me, and I know I've made some mistakes in the past," Zuko began.
"Like you attacked our village?" Sokka interrupted.
"Or when you stole my mothers necklace and used it to track us down and capture us!?" I agreed.
"Look, I admit I've done some awful things. I was wrong to try and capture you, ad I'm sorry that I attacked the Water Tribe. And I never should've set that Fire Nation assassin after you. I'm gonna try and stop him-," Zuko said.
We widened our eyes and Sokka interrupted Zuko and unsheathed his boomerang.
"Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us?!" Sokka demanded.
"Well, that's not his name but-."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to insult your friend."
"He's not my friend!"
"That guy locked me and Katara in jail and tried to blow us all up!" Toph yelled.
Zuko turned to Aang.
One false move Zuko, just one, and you will be blown off the cliff, I thought.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Zuko asked Aang. "You once said you thought we could be friends. You know I have good in me."
Aang lowered his head, thinking. He turned to us. We were all still ready to attack. Sokka shook his head. Aang turned to Zuko.
"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. We'll ever let you join us," Aang finally said.
"You need to get out of here, now," I ordered.
"I'm trying to explain I'm not that person anymore!" he begged walking toward us.
Sokka thrust his boomerang at the prince. Zuko stopped and took a step back.
"Either you leave, or we attack," he said.
"If you won't except me as a friend," Zuko said kneeling, bowing his head, and offering his hands, "then maybe you'll except me as a prisoner."
"No, we won't!" I yelled.
I drew water from my pouch and bended it towards him. It pushed him and he rolled on the ground. He stopped and stared at us, soaking wet.
"Get out of here and don't come back. And if we see you again… Well, we'd better not see you again!" I snapped.
Zuko closed his eyes in defeat and left us.
--
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--
--
We were standing near doors of the chamber that evening. I was still pretty steamed about Zuko even showing his sorry face around here.
"Why would he try to fool us like that?" I asked the others as I walked into the chamber.
"Obviously, he wants to lead us into some kind of trap," Sokka said picking up his sleeping bag and tossing me mine.
"This is just like when we were in prison together in Ba Sing Se. He starts talking about his mother, and making it seem like he's an actual human being with feelings," I said.
Maybe that was a little harsh to say. But Zuko has done nothing but try to kill us! What do you expect?
"He wants you to trust him and feel sorry for him, so you let your guard down, then he strikes!" Sokka said punching his fist out.
I sat kneeled and put the sleeping bag down.
"The thing is, it worked. I did feel sorry for him. I felt like he was really confused and hurt. But obviously when the time came, he made his choice, and we paid the price. We can't trust him."
I stood up.
"I kind of have a confession to make. Remember when you two were sick and I got captured by Zhao?" Aang said.
Sokka threw down his bag in outrage.
"And you made us suck on frozen frogs!? How could I forget!? I had a wart on the flap that hangs down from the back of my throat for a month!" he yelled.
Sokka opened his mouth and pointed inside.
"Sokka, I looked at it and told you there's nothing there!" I said.
"I could feel it! It's my throatal flap!" he argued.
"Anyway, when Zhao had me chained up, it was Zuko who came and got me out. He risked his life to save me," Aang continued.
"No way, I'm sure he only did it so he could capture you himself," I said crossing my arms.
"Yeah, face it Aang. You're nothing but a big prize to him," Sokka agreed.
"You're probably right," Aang said shrugging.
"And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Appa free? What a lair!" I said.
"Actually, he wasn't lying," Toph said.
"Oh, hooray! In a lifetime of evil, at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list!" Sokka said sarcastically throwing his arms up.
"I'm just saying that considering his messed- up family, and how he was raised, he could've turned out a lot worse," Toph replied.
"You're right, Toph, let's go find him and give him a medal! The 'not as big of a jerk as you could've been' award!" I said sarcastically.
"All I know is that when he was talking to us, he was sincere. Maybe you're all letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly," Toph pointed out knocking her fist against her head to show us.
"Easy for you to say, you weren't their when he had us attacked by pirates!" I said.
"Or when he burned down Kyoshi Island!" Sokka said.
"Or when he tried to capture me at the Fire Temple," Aang added.
"Why would you even try to defend him!?" I said to Toph.
"Because Katara, you're all ignoring one crucial fact," Toph said walking over to Aang and jabbed Aang in the chest. "Aang needs a Firebending teacher. We can't think of a single person in the world to do the job. Now one shows up on a silver platter, and you don't even think about it!?"
She stopped her feet and the ground shook slightly. She bared her teeth in anger. I looked at Aang.
"I'm not having Zuko as my teacher," Aang said.
Toph's expression turned to surprise.
"You're darn right you're not, buddy," Sokka said.
"Well, I guess that's settled," I said.
Toph groaned in frustration and stalked off.
"I'm beginning to wonder who's really the blind one around here!" she screamed.
Sokka shook his head. Aang looked downcast.
"Aang, cheer up. It's Zuko we're talking about!" Sokka said. "He's caused us nothing but pain and misery for the longest time!"
"You do know you're exaggerating? Right?" I said.
"I'm just making a point," he said and spread out his sleeping bag.
"Toph will come to her senses," I said to Aang.
"I guess," Aang said.
--
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--
The nest morning, I was serving everyone a bowl of rice. I handed The Duke a bowl and looked around. Toph was missing.
"Has anyone seen Toph?" I asked them.
"I haven't seen her since she stormed off yesterday," Sokka said.
"Maybe she's just exploring the Air Temple," Haru suggested. "There are some pretty fun spots to practice Earthbending."
"I think we should go look for her," I said getting worried.
"Oh, let her have fun with her rocks. I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again," Sokka said.
"We can go check for her," the Duke said.
"Yeah, I wanna ride that tunnel down the hall of statues again. It'll work a lot better now that I fixed my brakes," Teo said.
He, Haru, and the Duke ran off leaving the three of us alone. We flinched after we heard a large rumble and crash. We turned to see a large cloud of dust. I ran over and the boys followed me. Toph fell out of a hole with grunts of pain.
"Toph! What happened?!" I said running over.
"My feet got burned," Toph said.
I examined her feet.
"Oh, no! What happened?" I said.
"I just told you, my feet got burned," Toph said.
"I meant how."
"Well, I kind of went to see Zuko last night."
"You WHAT!?" Aang yelled.
"Zuko!?" I exclaimed.
"Ugh!" Sokka cried.
"I just thought he could be helpful to us. And if I talked to him, maybe we could work something out," Toph explained.
I bended water onto Toph's feet.
"So… He attacked you?" Aang said.
"Well, he did and he didn't. It was sort of an accident," Toph said.
"But he did Firebend at you?"
Toph sighed in defeat. "Yes."
"See, you trusted Zuko and you got burned… Literally," Sokka said.
I bended the water away from her feet and back into my pouch.
"It's gonna take a while for your feet to get better. I wish I could've worked on them sooner," I said.
"Yeah, me too," Toph said.
Aang and Sokka picked Toph up together.
"Zuko's clearly to dangerous to be left alone. We're gonna have to go after him," Sokka said.
"I hate to go looking for a fight, but you're right. After what he did to Toph, I don't think we have a choice," Aang said.
"He's crafty, but we'll find a way to capture him."
"Maybe just invite him back here. He's already offered himself as a prisoner once," Toph suggested.
"Yeah… Get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner. Then we'll jump him and really make him our prisoner! He'll never suspect it!" Sokka said walking off with Aang and Toph.
I followed them.
"You are a master of surprise, Sokka," I said.
The boys carried Toph over to the fountain. They set her down and Toph sank her feet in the water.
"Ah, that's the stuff. Now I know how the rest of you guys feel. Not being able to see with your feet stinks," Toph said.
"Aang, do me a favor," I said.
"Sure, what?" he replied.
"Grab me one of the towels for Toph," I said nodding in the direction of the towels.
Aang walked over and grabbed one. He handed it to me. Suddenly, a blast hit a beam over the fountain. It was Combustion Man! I shielded myself from the falling rocks. I stood up and grabbed the towel. Aang and Sokka grabbed Toph. We stopped in our tracks when we heard Zuko.
"STOP! I don't want you hunting the Avatar anymore!" he shouted.
Aang looked up in shock.
"Aang! You're gonna get blasted into one million pieces, if you don't move! Let's go!" I said.
They ran over and we ducked behind a wall. We needed to fight. I looked and saw Zuko getting blasted off the cliff. So much for help. Aang ran to the fountain and he did a spinning back kick, Airbending and picking up the dust around him. He jumped up and Airbended a tornado at Combustion Man, who leaped into the air, dodging the tornado and blasting at Aang. Aang back flipped away and next to Sokka and I. I ran forward and bended a huge wave in between Combustion Man and I. Then I jumped up, bringing my arms down and crossing them. The wave matched my movements and turned into ice and flew at Combustion Man. He blocked them with his metal arm and leg. I ran back over to my friends. Another blast was sent over.
"He's gonna blast this whole place right off the cliff side!" Toph said.
I peeked out from the wall but ducked when a pillar was destroyed. I turned to the others.
"I can't step out to Waterbend at him without getting blown up. And I can't get a good enough angle on him from down here," I said.
Sokka snapped his fingers. "I know how to get an angle on him!"
He gently pushed me aside and pulled out his boomerang. He pressed his back against the wall. He peeked out from the wall ad two blasts came our way and destroyed a pillar. Sokka measured the trajectory. He figured out the angles and raised his boomerang.
"All right buddy, don't fail me now," he said.
Sokka tossed his boomerang and it flew through the air. We watched as it hit Combustion Man in the forehead, square in his "eye". The boomerang flew back to Sokka. He grinned and ran over. Sokka jumped and caught it triumphantly.
"Yeah, boomerang!" he said happily.
We smiled and looked up. But our smiles disappeared as Combustion Man got up.
"Aw, boomerang," Sokka moaned.
We rushed back behind the wall. Suddenly, there was another explosion, but this time, we ran out to see. Combustion Man had exploded. Aang, Sokka, and I looked at each other, speechless as the pagoda fell. We looked up to see Zuko climbing a vine and pulling himself up. He walked over to us. Toph sat on a rock while the rest of us stood up. Aang was the first to speak.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but… Thanks Zuko," he said.
"Hey, what about me? I did the boomerang thing," Sokka said holding up his boomerang.
Zuko moved toward us.
"Listen, I know I didn't explain myself very well yesterday. I've been through a lot in the past few years, and it's been hard. But I'm realizing that I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow, my father could return it to me. But I know now that no one can give you your honor. It's something you earn for yourself, by choosing to do what's right. All I want now, is to play my part in ending this war. And I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world," Zuko said.
Then he turned to Toph and bowed.
"I'm sorry for what I did you. It was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild. So as a Firebender, I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally," he finished.
Aang thought for a moment.
"I think you are supposed to be my Firebending teacher. When I first tried to learn Firebending, I burned Katara. And after that, I never wanted to Firebend again. But now I know you understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love. I'd like you to teach me," Aang said bowing.
Zuko smiled warmly.
"Thank you. I'm so happy you've accepted me into your group," he said.
"Not so fast. I still have to ask my friends if it's okay with them. Toph, you're the one who Zuko burned. What do you think?" Aang said turning to her.
"Go ahead and let him join. It'll give me plenty of time to get back at him for burning my feet," Toph said with a grin.
"Sokka?" Aang said.
Sokka shrugged.
"Hey, all I want is to defeat the Fire Lord. If you think this is the right way to do it, then I'm all for it," he said.
Aang turned to me.
"Katara?"
I looked at Zuko and frowned. I closed my eyes then I looked at Aang.
"I'll go along with whatever you think is right," I finally said.
Aang smiled and nodded.
"I won't let you down, I promise!" Zuko said excitedly.
We turned ad walked away.
--
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--
--
That evening, Sokka showed Zuko to his room. Aang and I followed him. I needed to have a quick word with Zuko before he goes any farther than this. After Sokka and Aang left I walked into Zuko's room. He turned to me. He was about to something but I started before him.
"You might have everyone else here buying your 'transformation'. But you and I both know you've struggled with doing the right thing in the past," I began.
I walked right up to him and leaned forward threateningly.
"So let me tell you something right now. You make one step backward, one slip- up, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang… and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore. Because I'll make sure you destiny ends, right then and there… permanently," I finished venomously.
Zuko's eyes were wide as I left him to ponder my words.