Chapter 25, my friends!!!! Hope you enjoyed the last one. I've received requests for some Taang fluff, more firebending, and some secondary character re-appearances, so I'll work on it. Thank you for all of the reviews! This'll be a big chapter, so I hope your eyes are up to the task. Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar except in my dreams, so let's all be nice and not sue me.

Chapter 25

Another night of flying, of taking shifts keeping Appa awake, another day in the saw- toothed mountains they were crossing. Sokka had said that they would reach Katsu come several days, so now there was really nothing to be done. It amazed Aang that they hadn't come across one single person this whole time, not a wanderer, a tiny village, nothing. It was a little unsettling, at least for him.

He rolled over on the ground next to a sleeping Appa, keeping his eyes shut and trying to block out the first rays of the morning sun as they raced over the ridges. A bird gave a maddened laugh somewhere in the trees, and he took a breath of the crisp air. If only he could sleep, wake up, and find out that the world wasn't falling to pieces, he would be content.

He would also be content if that little foot would stop kicking him in the ribs…

Aang peeked one eye open, and discovered Toph standing over him, looking very serious and authoritarian. Kind of like she always did. He knew what was coming and grumbled softly.

"Up and at 'em, Twinkletoes. We have work to do: you've been spending so much time firebending that I'll be shocked if you can make a rock bounce."

"Oh, that's not true. Come on, I've been training really hard."

"Quit complaining, would ya? I picked out a good spot."

How long had she been up for, anyway? Aang scurried after her, looking back at his still- sleeping companions. Katara and Sokka, flopped down with Suki in between them, Iroh snoring with his back also against Appa, and Zuko lying by himself. Sort of. Momo had come to rest on the firebender's chest, and twitched an ear. The boy was so much warmer than all the others!

Looking over at him, Aang was still in a bit of a daze about Zuko actually joining them for dinner last night. Of all weird things! He was impossible to figure, that was all Aang could think.

He chased after Toph as he heard her small footsteps plodding away.

They arrived at the rocky arena, dusty and fringed by the sturdy, scruffy trees the mountains harbored. The gold of the eastern lights painted everything a softer tone, and highlighted the fine stone that Toph kicked up as she walked over to stand opposite him and banged a chunk of rock out of place.

Before she sent it flying his way, she paused, and asked him:

"So, Twinkletoes, I can see you're feeling better. What brought that on?" She cut clean through the rock and hurled the slivers at him one after the other.

Aang ducked the first, and rooted himself in his stance.

"What makes you think that?" he asked, over the crashes as he cut down the missiles of earth with his own.

"I have my ways. But still, I gotta ask what was bugging you in the first place."

She focused and heaved another storm of earth towards him.

Aang abruptly extended his arms and halted the next rocks that were headed his way: their progress stopped as though colliding with a wall, and they dropped from the air with dull thuds. He leapt lightly over the rubble, to land a few feet from his earthbending teacher.

He cleared his throat.

"Ya know, Toph, if you just want to talk to me, you can do it. You don't need earthbending as an excuse."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she snorted, but had already rested her hands at her side and pulled out of her stance.

"You know what I mean."

He had her there. She blew a strand of jet black hair off her nose and put her arms akimbo.

"Really, why were you so down?"

Aang also had to wonder why his anxieties were lifting, why he was any better at all. Things hadn't changed, had they? He still needed to let go of Katara, somehow. Katara, whom he had been avoiding ever since that day. Could she tell? Letting go…which still made no sense to him, even after Guru Pahtik's explanations.

"Just…um…stuff the Guru told me. About being the Avatar."

"Oh."

Toph sensed the discomfort in his voice. She wanted to dig farther into the matter, but something in her worried that Aang would just walk off and leave her if he really didn't want to respond.

"Being the Avatar, huh? Must be a pain," she finally shrugged, making a snake of rocks follow her foot as she traced patterns in the ground with it. Aang had to agree some. Why had he, over all the other airbenders, been chosen?

"Pretty much. If everybody wasn't out to kill me, things would be a little easier."

"Hmm. Yeah, that would be a problem." Toph looked down at the rocks, and offered out a strange question. "So what's it like to be an airbender?"

Aang thought. Toph certainly had been coming to him with strange questions lately, and it brought to light that he was the only person in the world who could answer that question; the question which struck Aang as being harder than the color one.

How to describe such freedom? To not be tied down to the earth, to be able to ride the wind's back like that? He knew Toph loved freedom and independence: being confined to your home all your life can do that. But he wondered…..

And then he got an idea, standing there and watching Toph fiddle with the rocks.

One quick leap had him on her other side, behind her, and he reached out tentatively.

"Twinkletoes, what are you…."

"Hold on!" He laughed, snatched her under the arms, and lifted them into the air on a gust of wind. Toph yelped in surprise and grabbed at him, gasping as the ground vanished under her feet when Aang cut them loose.

She had flown on his glider before, on Appa countless times, but it wasn't quite like this, this floating upwards, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Her body felt so unconstrained, light, free, her heart rushing from the surprise. Why was she not scared, as the earth's vibrations fell away under her feet? Why was she not taken back to the ice as a child, lost and blind, unable to "see" anything around her? But Toph pressed closer, and realized that she could still hear Aang's heart, the beating wings of a tiny bird, his soft vibrations still surrounding her. And she wasn't afraid.

Not at all.

She trusted him.

"What was that for?" she commented, when they landed.

"Oh, I thought you wanted to know what airbending was like, so, I dunno….."

"You coulda' dropped me, Twinkletoes," she tried to frown, to not let on how fun it had been. But the smile was impossible to contain.

"Like I would ever let that happen," he smiled back.

He thought about his next course of action, and then noticed that a yellow butterfly was fluttering around Toph's head. Her hair, upset by the leap upwards, was sliding from its confinements.

He gave a light puff of air that carried the butterfly dancing upwards gently, surprised Toph, and finally loosed the emerald and yellow ribbon she wore wrapped there, sending a burst of ebony spilling down her shoulders. It amazed Aang by how long it was, reaching down her back, a thick mane of it. She pushed it away from her face, frowning again and walking over towards him.

He had never seen her hair down like that, nor gotten as clear a view of the smoky green, sightless eyes.

She's pretty, he thought suddenly.

"Now help me find my ribbon, Aang," she sighed, trying to find where it had fallen. It was very light and drifting, she couldn't really feel it resting on the earth….

Aang picked it off the stem of a shrub where it had been blown, handing it to Toph. Their hands brushed: it had always surprised him, how rough her finger tips where. It was fitting, though. Tough as the rest of her.

She started to gather up her thick, dark hair, to put it back again. "Mother always wanted me to leave my hair in braids or something, leave it down. So I always pulled it back."

That was too bad.

Aang sighed, relaxing his shoulders and feeling much more at ease. Once he had gotten the hang of earthbending, it had been the most fun in some ways (after airbending, of course): waterbending felt very smooth and calming, but it made him think of Katara, which threw him into a fluster or confusion. Firebending still intimidated him, as funny as Zuko's uncle was to practice with, as important as it was for him to learn it.

But earthbending with Toph? He felt so familiar and comfortable around her: even if she was yelling at him, he knew enough to recognize that that was just her way. He would have been upset if she didn't shout, in fact.

He thought of something.

"You know, I guess there are good things about being the Avatar."

"Like what?" she asked in a light and curious tone, fixing her hair into place again with a yank of the green ribbon.

"I get to learn all these different bending styles…. and I get to have all these different friends."

Toph smiled toothily again.

"I like it too, Aang."

And she turned and went back to camp, the sound of the airbender's real name lingering on her tongue.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Jin poked her head out into the streets, glancing around in the morning light before sweeping the dust out of the door and promptly shutting it.

She had known that she could not bring the escapees to her own home: the palace guard would figure that out soon enough. So she had, instead, with Gen's cooperation, moved the whole family into an apartment on the other end of the massive city. Let the Dai Li hunt: it was finding a needle in a haystack. But although her reward of seeing Qiu throw himself into his father's arms had been more of a reward than she had ever expected, she was still at a hiatus. What was she going to do now?

She walked in through her home, opening drawers as she did.

Jin collected the supplies she needed and went slowly up to the small room above the apartment. She passed Smellerbee, throwing knives at a small target she had drawn on the already ruined wall, talking to Longshot, who didn't reply. Jin felt sorry for them: it must be terribly boring to just sit in here.

She grasped the ladder leading up, listening for any shifting from their third guest. But he heard her coming and settled down himself, meeting her eyes as she appeared in the attic.

"Hi" she smiled.

"Hi," Jet mumbled back monotonously, sitting on the floor and staring at a lantern's light. Of all the Freedom Fighters to keep in confinement, he was the one who was bothered most by it.

He noticed the wrappings Jin was carrying and grumbled some more, undoing the armor he insisted upon wearing and letting the shirt drop, to reveal a torso already wrapped neatly in white bandages. At least he cooperated.

Jin walked over and quickly unbound them, revealing a whole network of ugly bruises. Smellerbee had failed to mention the second beating the boy had gotten shortly after they were arrested, previously. There was actually a lot she wanted to ask him, like about being a Freedom Fighter. How he had gotten here. Why his dark eyes carried such a fire-eaten look. Jin was very tentative to question the brooding boy about it, and instead decided to ask him something that had been haunting her for some time now.

"Jet, I wanted to ask you…."

"Yeah?" He stiffened as she began winding the fresh bandages around him, trying to hold everything in place until it healed.

"When you were imprisoned…."

Her voice rose and fell, and Jet looked back at her, wondering what was wrong.

"….was there ever a boy there? A boy with his old uncle? Did they get arrested?"

A dark sensation crept into Jet's heart, but his face stayed taciturn. He shook his head. No, it couldn't be. After all, how many countless boys were in the city with some sort of uncle or another? But what Jin said next did nothing for him.

"He's got dark hair, with a really big burn scar over his left eye……"

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Ozai had been bothered by the strangest of dreams lately, as he tried to wash the weariness from his eyes, disgusted by how cumbersome the whole thing was. He walked down the hall, to a meeting in the war room with the generals. Several were missing, having gone to Ba Sing Se. They had probably arrived by now.

And so he would sit and plan: the maps in his possession had filled up, the Fire Nation spread to every corner of the globe, with the exception of the North Pole, of course. Zhao had failed at that miserably at it. Those who had survived the strange spirit battle had claimed to have seen him dragged to the depths.

But an invasion of the last free kingdom seemed a fitting way to close out this war, fire and water. Was the Avatar a problem? Of course he was: his grandfather had always pointed out how crucial the Avatar's death was, in their quest for power. But it was nothing that Ozai couldn't repair, nothing he couldn't contest.

He was reminded of his dream as he opened the door, greeted by a sweeping of bows as he passed. Success was so close at hand, and he didn't feel the slightest bit uneasy now, compared to how he had felt in the dark last night.

The dream was ragged around the edges, foggy in his waking memory, but he could recall enough of it to serve his purposes, although he would never tell a soul about it.

The latest one, which had awoken him last night, that had been strange. Meaningless, but strange.

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In his mind, Ozai had been walking into the throne room, striding through thick shadows despite the fire surrounding the dais. He moved amazingly slowly, as if the darkness was clawing at him: he was wearing battle armor, and could hear a scuffling against the metal as the shadows clustered. A scattering of golden pinpoints, all trained upon him as he progressed ever so gradually. A ghost of dark laughter.

But Ozai was not bothered by it, not at all.

When he finally reached the dais, the throne of the Fire Lord had not been empty, as he could see through the wall of blaze. Someone else was in his place, with a dragon coiled around him. A red one, guarding and protective.

"Bow, Ozai," came a soft yet strong voice from the shadows. And out of them pulled Ursa, as pale and beautiful as the night he had killed her, the same deadly gleam in her eyes.

"To who?"

"Why, your son, of course."

Yes, he could see the face now, the sharp nose and the marring scar. The golden crown upon his firstborn's head. Ozai's face darkened.

"Come down from there, boy, and renounce what is not yours."

"I already have," his son laughed back, his voice nothing like the sniveling whine of the fourteen year old boy Ozai had banished. "Your love, my birthright, my honor. None of those were ever mine to begin with, father. It was all an illusion."

"Then come down here and kneel as you should, child."

Zuko shook his head quickly, and a storm of flame burst to life in Ozai's hand. "You insolent…."

"I'm coming, father," Zuko said suddenly, standing and stepping right through the blaze. And as he walked through the flame, like a trading of marks, the scar vanished, and….. Ozai realized he was looking into his own face, and that he was suddenly kneeling on the hard stone, pushed there by the living shadows. But it wasn't really his face, he had to think.

The thing, wearing Ozai's face but seeing through pale, blazing gold eyes, smiled. "Look for Zuko. I'll be coming soon as well, and then we can settle this at last. Oh, and after so long. Reunited, how nice."

"My son is a traitor and a failure," Ozai tried to snarl, but only managed to choke it out.

And he heard a swarm of voices then, clamoring for his ear, all dark and full of a blackened joy.

"Poor fool, poor mortal!" one hissed in his ear. "And you have stolen so much of our darkness into yourself, just as your ancestor did. We couldn't get your son, so you'll do."

"Take him instead, then. Take Zuko," Ozai had growled in his sleep, trying to turn off the voices, pulling against the blackness and burning back the darkness. A pair of eyes lit up next to him.

"We have no claim on your boy anymore: he has cast us off and allied himself with our foe…but you haven't."

"Ah, the price of power," said another one.

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Hakoda quickly purchased the maps in the port town shop, reviewing the course they still had to take. They were at the bottom of the Earth Kingdom now, planning on curving around and going up its west coast. He sighed, wondering how long it could take: certainly, the Fire Nation ship, which he had left several miles down the shores as so not to have it be spotted, was much faster than a Water Tribe ship.

He didn't like it, though. All the metal and machinery, it severed him many times over from the ocean he had long made friends with as a boy. Not the best way to travel, but it was what he needed.

The Water Tribe warrior's thoughts returned to Katara and Sokka, where they always were, wondering how things were faring with the firebenders. Hakoda didn't share his son's hatred for the Fire Nation people in general, but he did carry much of the mistrust. Katara and Sokka can look out for themselves; he had to keep telling himself...he walked out of the shop with his map under his arm, turned to go down the street, when he heard a chorus of shouting.

Fire soldiers, of course. They were everywhere: Hakoda made a note to purchase Earth Kingdom garb, it would make sneaking through a crowd easier. His hand went to the knife he carried in his belt, expecting an attack……

When he realized that those "Hey you!" cries weren't directed at him, but another man who was going in the same direction, who looked older than Hakoda himself.

"You! I'm talking to you!" roared the captain again, summoning a flame into his hands.

The man ceased, and turned to them, thoughts running over his face. Curse the bad luck, really. And all he was doing was passing thorough.

"Can I help you?" he asked coldly. Hakoda could tell that this man was obviously not planning on helping anybody.

"Ha! You can come with me, for starters, fugitive. You're under arrest, wanted by the Fire Nation for treason, desertion…."

And the captain made to move forward on the man. Hakoda sighed: anyone against the Fire Nation was, while not his ally, worth protecting. The defiant ones were just so hard to find these days.

The Water Tribe leader finished the act of pulling his knife free, and hurled it. A flash of white bone, it cut the air and struck the Fire captain in his outstretched arm, which he clutched at in a howl of pain.

The man turned to Hakoda for a moment, and noted the rush of fire racing towards him, thrown from the hands of the accompanying soldiers.

And to Hakoda's shock, the stranger stepped over, twisted down into a fighting stance, spread his hands wide, and parted the sea of fire as it danced in tides around him, pushing upwards. The banner of flame spun into itself and disappeared, and the man turned and sped away, Hakoda not too far behind as the shouts rose in the streets.

"Thank you," Hakoda called to the man as they ran down the water's edge, bowling people over in their haste. "I'm in your debt."

The man didn't say anything for a moment, turning to sweep a river of fire out at their pursuers, and shouted something over the roar of the blaze. Hakoda suddenly spotted something coming down the coast, something black and surprisingly welcome lumbering towards the dockyard. His men had decided to meet up with him after all. The traitor firebender took in the sight.

"Where are you headed, Water Tribesman?"

"North Shore, to meet my children and their friends." It was amazingly easy to talk, considering that the two were still running, reaching the end of the docks as the battleship was brought about, probably at the adept hands of the Earth King.

"My children Sokka and Katara," he grinned. A proud father.

The man's eyes, although preoccupied, widened. A thin set of scars ran down one of them, Hakoda noted.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

So the day began with earthbending, and it would end with firebending, as Katara and Suki loaded Appa up for another night's ride. Aang walked over to Iroh, ready to ask him, as he watched the sun set once again. Another lesson, another worthwhile struggle. He had to keep in mind his greater motives, even if it was hard. Think about the ones you're protecting.

But as Iroh had gotten to his feet, looking rather tired from the little sleep that their group had gotten, another voice had spoken over him.

"Uncle, you rest. I'll do it."

Iroh couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, but he nodded to his nephew. Even if Zuko looked reluctant himself.

Aang concluded, then and there, that Zuko had been replaced by someone else at one time or another, and tried his best not to stare at the exiled prince as they walked out to the same spot that Toph had taken him that morning. Nothing to catch fire, at least. Katara stood there, looking on, with her water at her side: for whatever purpose she may need it.

The clearing looked very different at sunset: the soft light now threw sharp shadows, casting dark and lengthy replicas of the two benders out over the rocks. Zuko called Aang to his attention.

"Avatar, what has my uncle taught you so far?"

"Pretty basic stuff. You know, fire balls, intercepting attacks…."

"It's the basics that are most important: you need a strong base to build on." He had learned that the hard way, in his brashness and impatience. Uncle had always said that, and Zuko had never believed him. But now, as he stood opposite the little boy who was to save the world, he thought he understood.

"Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"What else? Attack me. We'll see how you fair."

"Um, sounds good." It did not sound good, but Aang wasn't going to let Zuko know that. He closed his eyes to take a breath and start the process, when the gray eyes snapped open again.

"Zuko?"

"What?" he said back harshly, taking his own defensive stance in preparation. He did not expect much of the boy, but he was the Avatar. And after that first day, so long ago, when he saw the avalanche of ice come crashing down upon his ship, he had learned not to underestimate the boy's power.

"What made you decide to teach me, all of a sudden?"

Zuko froze for a moment, and then replied calmly. "My father is ruthless: my uncle goes far too soft on you." Zuko knew it was because his uncle couldn't bear the idea of hurting Aang. The airbender nodded.

Aang found his center, learning to speed up the process, and expelled a quick wild shot of fire that burned the ground five feet from Zuko. He looked dismayed for about a second, and then that expression changed to fear as Zuko rushed him, blaze coiling up his arm as he reached out.

Katara's back straightened slightly, a jerk of her hand.

Aang's first instinct was to duck, leap, dodge, but he would need to stand his ground in his fight with the Fire Lord, and so he may as well start now. Face it down like an earthbender would.

With another huge breath, Aang let go a much larger flare of fire directly at the oncoming blow, which Zuko turned through and pushed aside, kicking a blast of it upwards at Aang. The airbender dodged left, right, a punch of flame blocked by his teacher's hands. He ducked low, kicking Zuko's feet out from under him, which sent his opponent crashing down for a brief few moments before he leapt up again.

Zuko now wielded a long -burning stream of blaze that knocked aside the boy's consecutive blows, using it like a shield before pushing it outwards. Similar to a waterbending move, actually.

Aang dug into himself farther, pushing the chi outwards with each breath, wondering if it had been the dragons that the firebenders had first learned from. The dust they were kicking up was ridiculous in the dying light, but Aang could get a clear view of his sparring partner.

Dragging the golden energy up, he stretched and lengthened it, pushing and pulling at it like a water whip, amazed by how willingly it submitted to him.

Katara smiled, glad her lessons had carried over into something else.

The Avatar twisted the whip tightly as it cracked in the air, meeting and striking against Zuko's own, until Aang's fire whip found an opening and seized it, snatching the blaze from the prince's hand and making it vanish. Golden eyes widened: he had just been disarmed by the child.

But he was determined not to loose now. A swell of heat growing in his chest and pressing on his heart, frustration and anger building as the fire appeared and began to whirl about him, a growing inferno….and Zuko saw the danger rising. He muzzled it, pushed it back, with another breath, sweeping away the flames.

Zuko lay his hands down by his sides.

Aang, after a moment, did the same, noting the very unhappy expression that had tramped itself across Zuko's face. It made him think of Katara, actually, who also used to hate when she was upstaged.

"Very good," he said finally.

Katara breathed a sigh of relief, and also noted how Zuko had somehow managed to check his temper there. What brought that on?

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

So it was his turn now, to keep the first vigil as the little band of peasants flew onwards. The whole idea was stupid: there wasn't a soul in this entire mountain range to speak of. It was almost desolate, actually. The forests and the moonlight, that was all there was. He sighed, sending a plume of fire and smoke out his mouth as he did so.

He heard a shifting of cloth behind him.

"You shouldn't do that, or you'll scare Appa," came a hushed voice. He turned to look at the blue eyes of the waterbender.

"Do you ever sleep?" he remarked, clearly unwilling to be drawn into a conversation.

"I've been doing it less and less lately," she sighed, rolling her eyes and crawling over to pat the sky bison behind the ears.

They were very quiet, with Zuko contemplating his match with the airbenders as they flew, leaving the water girl to her own thoughts. The boy was an amazingly fast learner, he had to admit, in some miniscule corner of his mind, far enough from his pride as so not to damage it. Was that because he was the Avatar, or was he the Avatar because of such qualities?

"I always hated losing to Aang when we trained."

"What did you say, waterbender?"

She looked at the sleeping form of the Avatar. "I got really mad when I first started training with him, because he was so much better at it than me to begin with. Don't lie, you were mad about what happened earlier." Was she being annoying? She wondered.

"My reactions are really none of your concern, waterbender."

Waterbender? What had happened to "peasant"?

"But you know what?" she continued, fiddling with the charm she wore at her throat, "it changed. After teaching him for this long, I'm just happy when he learns it. It's like I'm succeeding along with him, and when he does well, I do too, somehow." She was babbling, and she knew it.

But that connected feeling wasn't unfamiliar. Her mother had cried only a handful of times in the seven years of Katara's life before her mother's death, but when she did, it was terrible. Because Katara would always start crying as well, for no other reason besides that Mom was hurting. Same with Sokka, really. When he was happy, she was. If he was sad, her heart hurt along with it. Aang, Toph. They were connected, really.

So here was the connection being extended to Zuko. She wondered if he would accept it.

He made no remark about that, but his eyes were drawn to the pendant.

He recalled her anger when he had tried to bribe her with it, knowing only that it may have meant something to her as he held it out to her. "My mother's necklace…"

It was strange that Zuko had never thought about those words prior to sitting here, above the world, but it clicked quietly as he remembered her crying down in the caves. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me…"

The last thing she had of her mother's, and he had stolen it. Treated it as a bargaining chip. Was this guilt which was again settling in him, that strange sensation? Yes, he told himself. And justly so. Which was why the girl's next words shocked him.

"I forgive you, by the way." It took a lot of effort for Katara to say it, but she did, with a big breath of air. Did it even matter to Zuko? Probably not, but she wanted to say it anyway.

"Why is that, waterbender?"

"Just…remembering something my mother told me once." Look out for others, Katara. Never give up... "Saving Sokka from drowning himself and helping Aang learn to firebend helped." She smiled, to which Zuko did not smile back. This was frustrating.

Then Zuko turned to her again, watching the smooth pendant in the moonlight for a fraction of a second.

"So it's a betrothal necklace? That's what the woman in Geming called it." He was slightly curious: the look in his eyes betrayed him.

"Wha? Oh. Yeah, it was given to my grandmother when she was in the Northern Water Tribe. A future husband will spend hours carving it before he presents it to his wife to be."

"Sounds like a waste of time."

Katara frowned, wondering how much more of this her patience would endure. She had thought it was nice, actually. A token of love for one another.

"Well, how does it work in the Fire Nation?"

"A man will present the woman's father with some sort of good. A sword, livestock, fine pottery, silk. And then the father will decide whether the exchange is fair, and if her dowry is worth the man she'll marry."

Katara wasn't sure she liked that, being bartered, but nodded.

"So then what are the weddings like?"

And that was how it went on, for some time until Katara offered to finish the watch for him. Discussing their cultures, the stories of their people, keeping their opinions just below the surface. Normal, intelligent conversation which both gleaned something from.

Before Zuko went to sleep, he contemplated why he felt so satisfied, suddenly. There was something about knowing one is forgiven that lifts the spirits that way.

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A/N: Thaaaaat's all, folks. Thank you for all of the reviews, I hope this satisfied you guys. The little suggestions really help me add to the story. Okay, see you in Chapter 26, where they should finally get to the second city. Have a good day!!!