a bit of a short chapter, sorry. hope you like it.

Zuko's P.O.V.

I sat in the living room with everyone else. I was anxious to go back into the room to see what was going on, but it wouldn't do any good. The front door opened and Iroh, Sokka, Suki and my mother came in. I stood up as my mother walked over to me. She threw her arms around me. "I'm glad you're ok." I pulled away. "How's Malika?" She asked.

"She had her brain washed, but we got her memory back. She's…talking to Raiku right now."

"Well, as long as she's ok."

I smiled. "I guess." I turned around towards the stairs. "I just hope she can keep calm while up there."

Malika's P.O.V.

Raiku grabbed my arm. "You don't have a single right to talk about me that way."

"Oh, I don't? Hm, I guess that's why you were left out of your family. They didn't love you. They never wanted you. They let you go out on the streets without caring. All of their attention went to your little sister. She loved you, but she also loved the attention so they forgot about you."

His grip tightened on my arm. "Shut up, ok? Just shut up. You know nothing about me."

"I know everything about you."

"No you don't," his hatred filled eyes turned taunting as the corner of his lip turned up. "but I know about you."

I narrowed my eyes and clenched my jaw. "Don't…even go there." I said through gritted teeth.

"Your mother was trying to do the best for you, but you knew she wasn't. She made your life miserable. You ran away because you thought you didn't love her. You thought that if you ran away everything would be better."

"Everything was better without her and I know I don't love her. You know what she did to my life."

"Yes, I do know. She was only trying to show you how much she loves you."

I grabbed his right hand and took it off of my arm. I stood behind him and brought my leg back so he tripped and fell on his back. "You know nothing about my history with my mother." I walked toward the door, but Raiku grabbed my leg and made me fall. He turned me over on my back and held my arms above my head. "Get off of me."

"Will you ever forgive her?"

"What?"

"Will you ever forgive your mother?"

I stopped struggling for a brief second as I looked in his eyes. I turned my gaze away and tried to get him off of me, but got nowhere. "No, of course not. Why should I?"

He ignored my question. "I forgave my mother. I know why I was left out of my family. My little sister was only four years old and she needed all of the attention she could get so she wouldn't end up like me. A temper-mental kid who can't bother to find a way around his problems. We all solve our problems differently. You solve yours with either violence or avoidance. Or at least try to solve your problems."

"Will you please get off of me?"

"You won't drop this will you?"

I scoffed. "You know me."

His grip tightened around my arms. "Can we just drop the subject and we can forget this happened? I don't want to hurt you."

"Get off of me already!" I moved my arms from his grip and pushed him off of me. I stood up and so did he. I grabbed for the door, but Raiku grabbed my arm and pushed me against the wall. He held my arms over my head again. It's always the best thing to do when holding down a water bender. It makes it harder for them to water bend at you since water bending is all in the wrist. I could fire bend at him, but it would be an indirect hit. I was helpless. "Let go of me. This won't solve anything."

"I'm not letting you go until you promise to never bring this up again. This stays between us."

I stared in his eyes. "You nearly fought me just to make sure I don't tell anyone?"

He leaned in closer so our faces were at least an inch away. I felt uncomfortable with him this close to me. The last time he was this close to me was about a year ago and I wasn't used to it. My heart rate picked up as did my breathing. I couldn't calm myself down with him being this close. He leaned in close to my ear. I shuddered, unable to prevent myself from doing so. "I know you. You would probably tell someone."

I shook my head. "I won't." I whispered. He pulled back to look at me. His forehead touched mine. I know he was tempted to kiss me, but if he did he'd most likely be killed by Zuko. I searched his eyes. I saw hurt and confusion.

"Do you promise?"

I nodded. "I promise. This stays between us." Our gazes met each other and a feeling ran through me. A feeling I haven't felt around him in a long time. I most likely had the same temptation he had to kiss me, but I knew I couldn't I couldn't kiss him. Thankfully, just as I was about to close the gap between us, the door opened. We looked towards the door to see Zuko standing there. Raiku let go of me and backed away. I dropped my arms.

"What's going on here?"

I shook my head and looked away. "Nothing, we were just finishing up." Raiku said as he walked out of the room.

I looked at Zuko. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"Nothing happened, I swear."

"Then why was he holding you against the wall?" I saw his fists clench and anger pass in his eyes. "No reason, Zuko. Swear. You don't need to know. Just…forget what you saw."

"Should I forget what I saw? Because I think seeing my girlfriend being held against the wall by her ex-boyfriend is something that I shouldn't just drop."

I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. Night had fallen. I looked at Zuko. "Did Aang ever come back?" I asked. His eyes widened. We both ran out of the room.

Zuko's P.O.V.

I had forgotten about Aang, but when Malika brought him up I began to panic. We ran into the living room where everyone was. Katara stood up. "What's wrong?"

"Why hasn't Aang come back?" Katara's eyes grew wide. We all ran outside into the night. We looked around, but didn't see Aang running towards us.

I saw Malika run towards Appa. She got on his head and grabbed the reigns. "Are you guys coming or not?"

Toph, Katara, Sokka, Suki and I all got on. "Yip, Yip!" I said. Appa then took off into the night sky and towards Lake Laogai. I moved onto Appa's head and next to Malika.

She didn't meet my gaze. "If you're going to ask me more questions about what happened between Raiku and I, I'll only give you the same answers."

"I wasn't going to ask any more questions."

"Of course you weren't." She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the necklace. "So," She looked at me. "what am I gonna do with this?" She asked.

"It's your decision."

She sighed and put it back in her pocket. "After all we've been through so far, here in Ba Sing Se…I'm still deciding."

I nodded and looked away. I looked down as we were passing over Lake Laogai. "Does the lake look…drained?" I asked.

Everyone looked down. "It must've been Aang. He said he was gonna flood the place so…Lake Laogai seems smaller." Katara said.

"At least it will be until it rains." Sokka said. Appa landed. We all got off of him.

"It's way smaller if you ask me." Toph said.

"How small?"

"I can't feel the headquarters anymore. It's completely flooded, but now I can see farther away now that the lake has been drained. It's much more shallow."

I looked around. "I don't see Aang anywhere." I said.

Sokka stepped forward. "We should split up. Toph, you go with Zuko and look around the shore. Katara, you and Malika can look out on the lake. Suki and I will go the opposite way." We all nodded. I went with Toph to the left, Malika and Katara created an ice platform that they got on and went out on the lake and Suki and Sokka went the other way.

Malika's P.O.V.

Katara and I used our bending so we could look out on the lake. Toph was right, it was really shallow. Just standing on the shore you could tell when you felt the cold, damp earth beneath your feet. "Katara, down there!" We stopped bending and looked down in the water. There was a giant hole. "It must be where Aang flooded the place. He broke the ceiling, or in this case the bottom of the lake, and the water poured in."

"That's why it's super shallow and why we can see so clearly down there."

I looked at her. "Should we check the place out?" She nodded. I jumped off of the platform we made and stood in the water. It was just past my waist. Katara jumped down too, unfreezing the platform as she did so. We stared down into the hole. We both bended water around our heads so we could breath when down there, and then we jumped in.

We swam down deeper and deeper and finally came to the underwater headquarters. Chunks of rock were scattered all over the place and some bodies of the Dai Li agents were floating around as well. We swam out of the huge room and into the hall.

"This place is even creepier underwater." I said.

"Where do you think Aang could be?" Katara asked. I stopped swimming. "What is it?"

I shook my head. "This place is too big. We need to split up. It's the only way." She nodded. I pointed down a different hall. "You go that way. I'll go this way." I swam the way we were going and Katara went the way I told her to go. "Aang!" I yelled out. I knew my voice would be muffled because of the water that surrounded me, but it was worth a try. I swam into a large room and looked around. I didn't see him anywhere. "Aang!" I swam out of the room and continued. I stopped when I came to different paths.

"Huh?" I turned around to see something on the floor. I swam towards it and picked it up. I brushed off the mud that was caked on and I admired it. It was a blue and white Oni mask. "What's something like this doing down here?" It had a weird type of smile with canine teeth sticking out on each side. My finger traced it all around. It was strangely familiar. I snapped my head up when I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I held on to the mask and continued to swim.

A/N: That last paragraph is pretty obvious, huh? ^^ oh well. wasn't going for clueless or anything. review please