Early the next afternoon the Gaang arrived at the mountainous base of the Southern Air Temple, their mood reserved and anxious as they studied their immediate area with tense suspicion.

Aang waited until everyone had nervously jumped down before bending down their supplies and Appa's saddle, and then sent the bison off to hide in the small cave he had made for him. The bison grunted, growled, and in general let his feelings of displeasure be known before reluctantly waddling into the dark space.

Katara joined him just as he was about to call Appa back out and caught his hand firmly. "He'll be okay."

Aang sighed, his face tense with worry. "You know how he hates confined places."

She nodded and watched the bison pout. "I know, and it's hard for him without Momo to keep him company, but we don't know if Jing Hua is coming from the sky or not and a giant white sky bison is pretty conspicuous."

"Yeah, better safe than sorry," he agreed sadly before turning to hold her hands in his. "I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next couple of days but just in case—''

"No, Aang, I won't even talk about it."

"Katara, you have to. Look at me," he said tilting her chin up, "if something happening to me Appa and Momo are yours, okay?"

"Aang…"

"They're yours. Everything I have is yours, I think you know it has been for a long time now, but just in case, now you know for sure. And I have a favor to ask."

Pain filled his heart as he watched her blink away the tears that were threatening to spill. "I want you to teach me waterbending again. If something happens to me, and I'm reborn into the next Avatar, I want you to be the one to teach me waterbending again."

She laughed halfheartedly as she lost the battle with her emotions and tears began to stream down her cheeks. "Of course. Of course I will. But you're not going anywhere that I'm not going remember?"

He wrapped his arms around her and brought her to his chest. "I remember."

"Is everyone ready?" Sokka asked as he rolled their map up and placed it carefully in his bag.

"Yes, Sokka, for the millionth time, yes, we're ready. Jeeze."

"Thanks for your enthusiasm, Toph," Sokka muttered sarcastically.

The team had discussed this part of their plan thoroughly both before and during their trip and had agreed in order to scout the mountain they would need to split up. While they had originally planned to split three and two, Azula had thrown a fit, insisting that two more seconds with any of them would drive her officially mad and because no one particularly wanted to test that theory they agreed to let her venture out on her own.

So, with the mid afternoon sun bright and high in the sky, the groups left their small campsite and Appa behind to scour the mountain for any sign of Jing Hua or his men.

Katara and Aang climbed together in tandem, both silent and simply enjoying each other's company, the warm sunshine, and the peace that being surrounded by nature brings.

Eventually they made their way to a small meadow where tall grasses and a few late autumn flowers decorated the landscape. Katara turned eagerly to Aang. "Snack time?"

He chuckled at her and nodded. Her appetite had increased markedly on their trip and he couldn't help but feel she was making up for the food she didn't have when she was held captive. He smiled as he watched her unpack their food. This woman, his wife, was truly beautiful.

_

Miles away Toph snickered evilly as she placed what was now the twelfth rock in Sokka's path. She kept thinking he would figure out it was her, but with his nose stuck in the map he was carrying 6 inches from his face it was no wonder he hadn't put two and two together.

Sokka's foot struck the rock so hard Toph could easily hear the "thump" of it, quickly followed by his howl of pain and crash to the ground.

"You okay Sokka?" she asked innocently.

"Yeah, I just keep running into things, it's like their just sprouting up right in front of my path!"

"Hmmmm" Toph said as she struggled to contain her chuckle, "Popping right up in your path, huh?"

"Yeah! It's crazy! It's just like how you—Oh. TOPH!"

This time she couldn't contain her cackles as he struggled up and limped over to where she was doubled over with laughter. "It's not funny! This is supposed to be a covert operation!" he exclaimed waving the beloved map in her face.

"Hello! Blind!" She said waving her hand in front of her useless eyes, "so I don't know why you're waving that thing in front of my face, plus, I could feel it if there were someone around us."

"Well Little Miss Feels Things With Her Gross Feet, what if they're in the trees?"

Toph paused suddenly unsure. "Umm…"

"That's right! So get it together and help me be covert!"

Toph scowled grumpily and gently tapped her foot on the ground which just so happened to be enough effort to force a small hill of rock under Sokka's foot causing him to tumble flat on his face.

"You asked for that one, but that's it, honest, I'm done. Initiate Super, Secret Scout Mode!"

Sokka lay face down, arms spread out in front of him after his vain attempt to catch himself and muttered bitterly, "I don't know why I even try."

_

Azula grumbled wordlessly to herself as she pushed through a particularly thick bramble patch and thought about how comfortable she would be if she were still at the palace. Comfortable and bored.

She may strongly dislike (hate was a word her counselors were steering her away from) every single person in their small, little group, but this was the first time in the last three years since their adventure to find Ursa, that she had felt alive.

True she had some issues, and a lot of them she was mostly likely born with, but things had not been easy for her growing up, and while everyone found it easy to forgive Zuko his trespasses, for her it was always a struggle.

She felt so angry, so frustrated all the time because people could not understand her, not matter how hard she tried to explain herself. To her love was something you desperately begged for or tried to buy some simulation of with power and money.

But all in all, she was at least a little crazy, she thought as he lips curled in a sneer and fire bloomed in her hands. It was like this that she nearly stepped on the small female body that lay naked and curled into itself on the ground in front of her.

Instantly on guard, Azula, shifted her stance so she crouched low to the ground, one hand alive with blue flames, the other reaching for a pulse point on the cold thin body.

There. Faint, thready, but there. Azula pursed her lips, contemplating her choices. Alert the potential people who left the girl out here, or save the girl's life by calling for help. Valuable seconds passed but she made her decision. Moving her hands and arms gracefully she separated her chi and called lightning forth from her body shooting it upwards and into the sky. It spread, the blue flickering light of it casting an eerie glow to her skin and eyes before disappearing leaving her fingers lightly smoking.

She looked down at the girl for a moment before pulling off her own cloak and draping it over the abused and neglected body. Moments later she had a fire burning bright in an attempt to the warm the girl when suddenly the leaves at her feet were blown up into her face and her hair was whisked back.

Aang slid to a stop just feet from her with Katara securely held in his arms and looked at her with confusion evident on his face before he saw the body.

Katara gasped and struggled to get down. "Ai! Oh no, Ai!"

She ran to the girl's side drawing water from her canteen as she kneelt beside her. She moved the blanket back, the water glowing blue in her hands, and examined Ai thoroughly, healing the many abrasions and cuts as she moved down her body.

Ai groaned and stiffly tried to open her eyes. "Katara?"

"Ai! Oh thank goodness, you're awake. Here, you need water, drink this." She bent a small bubble of water into Ai's mouth and waited for the girl to swallow. "Just a little more, we need to start slow, too much will make you sick when you're this dehydrated."

Ai nodded, but then looked behind Katara, noticing Azula and Aang for the first time. She gasped in fear, wrapping the cloak around her shoulders tightly as she began to tremble.

Katara looked behind her to find Aang both confused and alarmed while Azula was awkwardly staring at the tree tops. She waved them both back. "Just give us a little space, guys, okay?"

Aang nodded and motioned for Azula to follow him. "We'll be right here if you need us."

Katara smiled at him before turning back to her patient. "It's okay, Ai, that was Avatar Aang, my husband and Princess Azula of the Fire Nation."

"No, no, no," Ai started to murmur, "She'll kill us."

"It's okay, she's on our side now. I know she did a lot of bad stuff, and hurt a lot of people, but she's here to help."

Ai's eyes were wide with shock, but she remained still and relaxed a little. "Here," Katara held out a small biscuit, "you need to eat something."

Ai eat without speaking, staring off into space, her eyes wide and unblinking. As soon as she was finished Katara gave her another drink of water and then reached out for her hand. "I'm so sorry. We tried to find you. We went back early the next morning and searched most of the day, but we couldn't find you anywhere."

Ai remained still, unblinking, but spoke softly, "I ran, like you said, ran and ran, but they caught me."

"I'm not good for breeding they said, barren most likely, so they were hoping to use me as a bargaining chip against you and the Avatar," her eyes filled with tears as she continued, "but I couldn't let them do that, so once we were away from everyone and landed here I…I killed them."

Katara moved closer and hugged her friend as sobs began to wrack her body. "I killed them, I'm a murderer."

"No, no, Shhhhh, you're not. You were defending yourself and protecting us. You're not a murderer."

"Please take me with you, I can't bear it if they take me again, I'll kill myself before I let them," Ai sobbed.

"Of course you'll come with us, you won't be alone. We're all here for you now, we'll protect you."

Katara held her friend close with her head turned into her chest so she couldn't see Ai's slow malicious smile, or notice the excited glint in her eyes. She didn't realize that she had just cemented Jing Hua's first step to capturing the Avatar and overthrowing the Fire Nation's government. Things were playing out just as Jing Hua said they would.