The bad feelings that had loomed between Zuko and Mai like a thick fog had all evaporated as they made their way back to the village together, not for the merry-making but because neither had eaten in a long while and in good conscious they should probably check on their feuding friends. Katara's formally dormant darker side was becoming harder to ignore than it had been on her initial voyage and Zuko didn't want to take any chances.

"You know," Zuko started, looking his again-girlfriend over from toe to tip in her leafy garb and lowered black hair, "I kind of like this new look on you."

"It's better than grungy prisoner uniforms anyway," Mai shrugged off.

"Nah, it looks nice. You make it look nice."

"Oh stop," she said back though not completely displeased, "you know flattery will get you nowhere. I've forgiven you…mostly. No need to waste your breath in-"

"Can't a guy compliment his girl when she looks pretty?" he asked though a large part his attraction to her was just the fact of seeing her again at all. Crude as the beetle itself might've been, its shell was a good comparison the swamp folk made to how her raven black hair shone under the moonlight.

It was a better analogy than he, "Mr. Smooth", could make in any right.

Any girl that lived and breathed in the four nations had some degree of vanity and although Mai's was not so high as her best friend Ty Lee's it didn't mean it was nonexistent. A content grin, always subtle on her, formed in her lips. Now that she'd permitted herself to talk to him again she did.

"Everything was so orderly back at the palace and now…all these changes. Ty Lee and I haven't really been alone before like we were when we were sent to prison, after we escaped. There were always reinforcements, food, and creature comforts."

"It takes some getting used to, I know," Zuko replied and he knew the experience firsthand from traveling with his uncle.

"I didn't like it, no I dreaded it at first," she continued, "but being in those sorts of unfamiliar situations it was strangely…challenging." The way she said it she may have enjoyed it in some minuscule way. "We hadn't had wilderness survival training so we had to adjust to fit the environment."

Zuko could see the girls managing well for themselves, even if it was scouring the woods for spark stones. "You stayed away from the berries, I hope?"

"Ty Lee wanted to eat the brightest, reddest ones there were."

"But something this pretty could never be poisonous!" Zuko squeaked in a high pitched voice in a horrible imitation of Ty Lee but the words were so dead on with what she would say that Mai's lips again turned up when they'd been beginning to return to normal.

"You've been busy yourself too," she said as they reached the outer ring of the party and sat down on a log. Dinner could wait. "You found your mother and you have another sister. I would've thought your mother would have stopped at her second."

"Keiko's not so bad," Zuko put simply.

"You know, I thought that search for the kid would've taken much longer than it did. With you as a babysitter I was honestly expecting to have to slice open some bog beast's stomach to get her back."

His former look of ease went long in humiliation. "Uhhh…"

Mai turned to stare at him with a flat look that could read it all from his expression alone. She looked away and blunt as could be stated that she wasn't leaving any of their children alone with him without a nanny present.

"C-children?" he stammered back, the only word he'd heard from her.

"Some day, yes," Mai replied logically. "There are no other guys I plan on being interested in and I assume it's the same vice versa. If it's all the same to you I would prefer one child: one "joy" of childbirth, no sibling rivalries after Iroh and Ozai, you and Azula." She paused when it all seemed like news to him. "Haven't you considered this at all? When another year passes we'll be of marrying age back home."

"Well yeah but-"

"Seventeen years hasn't been enough time to get to know me?" she said in her low voice, toying with him.

"It's not that."

"The Fire Lord must have heirs to carry on the bloodline. Be thankful, for it's only for that reason that I would undergo such a thing."

"Uh, Mai," he started, reasoning with how to state the obvious when their relations were so newly mended.

"Azula is next in line for the position, I'm well aware," Mai headed him off. Something glinted in her eye and it wasn't a glare or the like. "I think you might just make a better candidate than her."

She hadn't said the jist of it outright but Zuko got it right there. "Wait, are you saying-?"

"Loyalties can't be changed in a day, it's true," she said, quoting his earlier words. "Mine's always been like this so it isn't changing. I'm not going to sit this one out when you attempt another invasion. If I can help you regain your birthright than I'm going to do it."

It was too much to ask of her, of anyone, to change all that they had been raised to believe to do what was best not just for any one nation but the world as a whole. Given the same time and experiences Zuko had had may have opened Mai's mind to the plights of the other nations but as it was she was joining the resistance for him and him alone and he couldn't ask any more of her.

"Mai, I-" he started, the incredible gratitude he felt reducing his grasp of words less than usual.

She laid two long fingers to his lips before he could say more. "Don't go getting soppy on me, Zuko. We're back together so I think I deserve a nice meal. Go fetch me something without pincers or eyeballs and please make sure that it's good and dead."

Zuko saw her off with a peck to the cheek and left to do that very thing.

While she waited Mai killed time by talking to some of the middle-aged women, more calm, mature, and of her wavelength than the younger ones friendly with Ty Lee. It didn't take long and her eyes were darting between their faces and their plates. Where was Zuko?

"Excuse me," she said, nodding her head to the women and rising to her feet.

The party hadn't wound down even two hours in and she had to fight her way through the crowd, scan through for any sign of maroon amongst a field of leafy green. Mai found him in the midst of a group of hunters looking uncomfortable, trying to smile.

"Heh, sorry," Zuko said nervously, knowing he deserved the irritated expression she wore, offering a full plate to her in condolences. "The storyteller wanted something new to tell tonight and they'd heard I've traveled the world from Ty Lee and-"

Mai didn't care to hear the rest of his excuses of how he'd been pressured into divulging his misadventures or how he hadn't the spine to just flat out refuse after one of theirs had exorcized him. She just grabbed him by his good ear and pulled him out.

"I just want something to eat," she scowled, shifting her grip on him from ear to sleeve so they wouldn't get separated again. "Dinner and bed, it's not asking much, I just-"

The noisy, busy crowd was the perfect cover and in that they were further not paying attention the two were both at once seized unawares and yanked backward right into where Katara, Toph, Ty Lee, Ursa, Keiko, and Momo were waiting and had been for some time. Ty Lee, who had grabbed Mai, pulled her to sit in the place she'd saved just for her while Toph wasn't quite so ready to relinquish her hold on Zuko, hugging him around the waist in only the way a young girl could in that their group was together again at last.

"Welcome back to the family, Zuko!"

Most of the mismatched group pulled faces at that, some uglier than others.

"Our dysfunctional, oddball family that I wouldn't have any other way!" Toph further clarified and she patted the ground for him to take a place beside her and Keiko. "So how'd you manage with the squirt? Is his hair any grayer, Katara?"

"Things went fine."

"Did everything go fine?"

"Yes," Zuko came back and he didn't want to get into the details that reflected less than well on him or made him look weak in a demon gaining control over him. Keiko was in one piece after all and he'd even gotten her to like him out of it. He saw that proof when Keiko took Toph's lead and toddled over, prying open a spot between him and her for a place to sit.

"Cheater!" Toph remarked to the baby. "I marked your names on your reserved seats and everything! You're messing up my arrangements!"

Keiko didn't care as they knew she wouldn't but she took it one step further by ignoring the wily earthbender and latching hold of Zuko's leg.

"I won't train anyone that doesn't give me due respect!" she barged on but then changed tenses a second after. "Ha ha, come back to Boom-Boom, Kei, and let the guy eat."

"Boo-boo," Keiko said, reaching back for Toph.

"I know 'M' is one of the harder letters to say, squirt, but don't go getting lazy on me," Toph said as if the toddler could understand her. "Although…I probably do hand out a whole lot of boo-boo's too. Eh, either or."

Since the two had joined their circle Katara's attention was not peeled on either Ty Lee or Mai for attack but on Zuko and as the minutes passed she couldn't stay silent anymore.

"Don't you notice anything different!?" she demanded of him, insulted when he wasn't. "Anything at all!?"

Mai looked up from an opossum-chicken wing to her. "You've lost your precious hair beads, peasant?"

"Zuko," In Katara's tone he could see that he'd better stop eating and find out what it was that vexing her and find it out five minutes ago. He didn't dare ask what but looked round the group, each of their faces illuminated by the campfire in the center, to find the answer.

His gaze ended on his mother.

From there Zuko stared her down more intensely than he would have normally, seeing that something wasn't right with her and only her. She saw the world from a different set of eyes, just like he had under the red glare of the kuwanji.

His hand flashed and a pointed stick from the fire, glowing orange with ember, was pointed square at her chest.

"Get out of her now."

Zuko didn't need to raise his voice: it chock-full of quiet ferocity, anger as passionate as his days chasing the Avatar in that he ever had to raise a weapon to his own mother.

He would never harm her even to save her but the spirit using her body didn't know as much.

"It's nothing to worry about, Zuko," said Katara and she liked to think she'd have noticed much sooner had the same happened to her father. "Avatar Yangchen only needs to borrow her for a little while. I just wanted to make sure you knew."

"That's pretty bad," Ty Lee for once more sober than sunny.

"I haven't seen her in years here and I was kind of occupied!"

"It's still bad."

"What's another Avatar doing around here anyway?" he ran with, trying to veer the conversation off his lacking intuition. "I have enough trouble with one as is."

"She's the one who brought us here to pick up the girls," Toph supplied happily. "Yangchen also says that there's still Air Nomads left out there somewhere and the stuff she knows, the stuff she's seen, man-"

"She wrecked our balloon!" Zuko interjected. "None of those things will matter if we don't make it back to the Western Air Temple in time for the comet! Did it slip your mind, Avatar, this hundred year war that's been going on!?"

All this while, ever since she and the girls had made contact with the tribe, Avatar Yangchen had felt no need to speak, preferring to observe than interact, and had not been jarred from that in being directly addressed until now.

"I've not forgotten, Prince Zuko." She addressed him by his proper title to more so establish the difference between her and Ursa when they spoke with the same voice. "I have nothing in mind but the best interests of you all."

"This-" – Zuko threw his hands high to the swamp – "is not helping!"

"You wouldn't speak to your mother with such a tone," Yangchen said, a hint of scolding in her voice at not being shown proper respect.

"You're not her…no matter how much you look it."

Yangchen decided to overlook the comment; her mere presence appeared distressing to both the woman's children. "I've had this all mapped out for some time, that you happened to become separated from the others was not my plan but you all are here together now. I've done what I intended and I think that it's time that you were sent on your way."

"Then you have a way for us to get out of here?" Katara asked, leaning closer with longing.

"Naturally."

"Then point us in the right direction and get out of my mom's body." Zuko had trouble keeping the upset out of his voice but for good measure he added, "Please. We're on a tight schedule."

"Yes, I'm aware," And Yangchen was short in her reply. "There is one more thing that I would like to help with before you leave, something that won't take long, I assure you."

"What's up?" asked Toph.

"I wonder if I might take a look at the baby for a moment. I believe she is of mixed heritage, yes?" Yangchen was given an affirmative as she knew she would be. "Any advantage should be seized, even if her abilities are only potent enough for a distraction if worse comes to worse."

"We're not bringing her into battle!" Katara exclaimed, offended and Ty Lee seconded that.

"I should hope not but hiding in the Fire Nation itself is always a risky venture. There are eyes everywhere, you can see as much in the ease with how the Fire Lady was apprehended for execution. If you give Keiko to me," Avatar Yangchen said and ears were only for her, "I can tell you which element resides more strongly within her, which element to discard."

Some of the group was surprised, others dumbstruck. A few seconds passed where they could only stare at the past Avatar but among them only Toph found her voice.

"You can do that?"

Yangchen nodded. "It is an uncommon task to come upon but yes I can."

"She's right," Katara said and she walked to Keiko, scooping her up in her arms. "Any advantage we can get we need to take." But once she'd come within an arm's length of Ursa the baby suddenly went from calm on latching onto her front like a leech.

"No! No!"

"Keiko, it's okay." Katara wrapped her arms around the little body as Keiko buried her face into her breast to look anywhere that was away from her fake mother. There wasn't anything to be done; no explanation simple enough to give that would make her understand. Katara didn't like what she had to do but she pried Keiko off and handed her over, struggling and whining, to the Avatar.

Another person might have unhanded a toddler in such obvious distress and on the brink of crying but Yangchen kept a firm but gentle hold over her radiating nothing but kindness as she scanned the baby much deeper than a human eye could penetrate.

Not a full minute had passed and Yangchen had seen all that she'd needed to see. When she looked away she found that attention was still for nothing but her, not even a whisper had passed for fear of distracting her.

She took in them all on the edge of their dirt seats, waiting for her to speak, every one except for Mai but even she could not feign a total lack of interest. This one revelation was pivotal in how the life of one young bender would unfold.

Avatar Yangchen shut her eyes and even the baby seemed less inclined to struggle.

"She will be a magnificent waterbender."

Wound up so tight for the news, Katara and Zuko's faces shattered like a stone to glass but once Toph and Ty Lee heard a very contained fit of chuckles from Yangchen's direction they understood.

Airbenders had always been known for their sense of humor.

Toph and Ty Lee couldn't contain themselves. They burst out laughing at how she'd played them so well and how they'd never expected through her calm demeanor. Their laughter escalated so that it was hard to speak when they saw that Katara and Zuko were still frozen in place.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Ty Lee sputtered out, nearing losing her balance but falling over Zuko to steady herself. "You…you should've seen your face! Yeah – yeah-" she breathed, looking at him and seeing it unchanged, "it looked like that! Ha, ha, ha!"

"Poor Katara," Toph chuckled and she smooshed her friend's cheeks into a fish face, "her face is stuck like that forever!" She kept playing with Katara's face like it was mask of clay and Katara didn't say a word against it.

The two laughing girls fell back from teasing Katara and Zuko for their bellies had begun to hurt and in that they could both appreciate a good joke they tried gripping each other just to keep balanced. Everything was fine until Toph threw one of her friendly punches.

"What're you hitting me for!?" demanded Ty Lee, not expecting it. Her hand drew back dangerously. "We're supposed to have a truce!"

Toph too was caught off guard when her arm suddenly went limp and dead and she wouldn't take that sitting down. Their war of earthbending versus pressure points went down with no small amount of noise and bickering and only then did Katara and Zuko begin to collect themselves. They turned and saw Toph flat on her back, paralyzed, and Ty Lee buried up to her head in a great dirt mound just like Toph had threatened to do earlier that night. Neither had yet consented to defeat; Toph could still move her toes and Ty Lee her head and the two struggled for any way they could use that as the others were merely content to watch.

Finally, after much straining and pulling, Ty Lee managed to secure a pebble in her teeth. Taking careful aim, she spat it and it connected flat-on with Toph's nose.

"Ha! I won! I won! And with your earth too!"

"Best two out of three!"

"Would you two knock it off!?" Zuko didn't bother trying to conceal his overwhelming annoyance when there were more important things to consider. He dug Ty Lee out of her earthy prison and ordered her to restore Toph plain and simple, no gloating. He turned back to Yangchen.

"Forgive me," she said, getting out the last of her chuckles. "You were all just so…I couldn't resist."

The Avatar stepped to her feet with the baby of two nations held out before her and her serene expression held no more false answers. Toph felt with her right foot and Zuko looked to his left side.

They were the only two left standing: the two potential teachers.

Avatar Yangchen stepped forward, the direction of her next step determining all.

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Bwahahaha! This is positively the most evil cliffhanger I've ever posted and probably will ever post again! I've been looking forward to writing this chapter ever since I'd conceived this story and here it is finally.

Who will be Keiko's new teacher? I think I know who I'm going to give her to but feel free to try convincing me otherwise and I just might consider it! Keiko's still going to be able to bend both elements until she's like two. They're just going to exclusively train her in either earth or fire to make the most of her abilities until the weaker one dies out like it would have anyway.

You may or may not change the course of this story with your reviews! Send them in!

Arual-san