A/N: Wow! Almost 300 reviews! That's amazing! Thank you guys so much!^.^ Anyway, I was told that I needed to add in some more stuff other than just the episode stuff, so I tried to do that in this one. If you read the other stories, you know I try to do that every once in a while, but I'm basically following the show here, so there's not much I can do. Especially with this story since Serenity and Zuko weren't together for all of it, and that's who I normally do the different stuff with. Anyway, this one is longer than the last one, so I hope you guys enjoy! Oh and for those of you wondering when Zuko and Sokka are gonna find out about Serenity, I've got an idea in my head, but I'm working out the kinks. It will be soon though! Like the end of this episode soon! So probably next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, just Serenity.


"Why would he try to fool us like that?" Katara asked, as I sat on a bench listening.

I still couldn't believe Zuko had shown up, and acted like he was on our side now. Did he really think we would believe him?

"Obviously he wants to lead us into some kind of trap." Sokka said, and I could hear the slight anger in his voice. Him and Katara had never liked Zuko, but after he broke my heart, they hated him even more.

"This is just like when we were in prison together in Ba Sing Se." Katara said, holding a sleeping bag. "He starts talking about his mother, making it seem like he's an actual human being with feelings. No offense Serenity."

I sighed and looked down. "None taken."

"He wants you to trust him, and feel sorry for him, so you let your guard down, then he strikes!" Sokka said.

"The thing is, it worked." Katara said, laying down her sleeping bag. "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."

She was right. Zuko had been confused and hurt back then. That had been right after he got over being sick, and I thought he was changed, and he actually wanted to make a life in the city. But as Katara said, when it came time for him to make a choice, he did.

"I kinda have a confession to make." Aang said, and I looked over at him. "Remember when you two were sick and I got captured by Zhao?"

"And you made us suck on frozen frogs? How could I forget?" Sokka said angrily. "I had a wart on the flap that hangs down from the back of my throat for a month!"

"Sokka I looked at it and I told you there was nothing there!" Katara said.

"I could feel it! Its my throatal flap!" he argued, and I sighed. He could be so stupid sometimes.

"Anyway, when Zhao had me chained up, it was Zuko who came in and got me out." Aang continued. "He risked his life to save me."

Of course I knew exactly what he was talking about, because I had gone to look for Zuko that night, since he hadn't returned. I had found Aang sitting with Zuko who was knocked out, and the boy had told me what had happened.

"No way!" Katara said angrily. "I'm sure he only did it so he could capture you himself!"

"Yeah, face it Aang. You're nothing but a big prize to him." Sokka added.

"You're probably right." Aang said.

"And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Appa free?" Katara said. "What a liar!"

"He wasn't lying." I said, not knowing why I was sticking up for him.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"I was there with him when he freed Appa. He wasn't lying about that." I didn't like to think about that time, since back then Zuko and I had been together, and everything had been starting to go right for us. And thinking about it brought on the pain.

"She's right. He wasn't lying." Toph said.

"Oh hooray!" Sokka said sarcastically. "In a lifetime of evil at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list!"

"I'm just saying that considering his messed up family and how he was raised, he could have turned out a lot worse." Toph said.

"You're right Toph. Lets go find him and give him a medal!" Katara said. "The 'Not as much of a jerk as you could have been' award!"

"All I know is, that while he was talking to us, he was sincere." The earthbender said. "Maybe you're all just letting your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly."

I stared at her, thinking maybe she had a point. Aang needed a firebending teacher, and Zuko had just offered to teach him. I wasn't sure if he was lying or not about everything, but my feelings were definitely playing a big role in my train of thought at the moment.

"Easy for you to say!" Katara said angrily. "You weren't there when he had us attacked by pirates!"

I stared at the ground thinking. I had been there for that….

"Or when he burned down Kyoshi Island!" Sokka added.

I was there for that too….

"Or when he tried to capture me at the Fire Temple!" Aang said.

And that….I guess Zuko did do a lot of horrible things while I was with him didn't he? What did I ever see in him?

But he was different around me. Sure he had attacked people and burnt places down, but whenever it was just the two of us, he had shown a softer side. And that's what I had grown to love about him.

"Why would you even try to defend him?" Katara asked.

"Yeah! If anyone should be defending him its Serenity! And she's not saying anything!" Sokka said, pointing to me.

I glared at him. "Why would I defend him?"

Sokka stared at me shocked. "Well….because you…"

"Because I what?" I said, feeling my anger growing. "Because I traveled with him? Because I realized he's not as evil as you all think? Because I was stupid and fell in love with him only to have him break my heart?"

I stared at everyone's shocked faces, as my anger started to fade away. I could feel the tears in my eyes, and knew I had to leave. I didn't want the others to see me like this.

"Serenity…" Katara said, taking a step towards me, but I stopped her.

"I'm fine Katara. I just….need to be alone." I said, before turning and walking off. I needed time to think about everything, and I needed to do it alone.


I began walking through the woods, finding some sort of peace surrounded by the trees. It was a relief to get away by myself for a little bit, so I could think about everything that had happened recently. And most recently today.

I still didn't understand what Zuko was playing at. Was he being serious? Toph seemed to think he was. But I had my doubts. As Katara had said, he had a chance to join us, and defeat Azula in Ba Sing Se, and he didn't.

I didn't realize how long I had been gone until I looked ahead of me, and saw what looked like a campfire through some trees. I had been gone a while now, and it was getting dark. I figured I should probably head back to the others, but I wondered who had made the fire.

Then again, I had a pretty good guess. I glanced around, wondering if I wanted to chance it. But my curiosity got the better of me, as I began to walk forward.

I walked out of the trees into the clearing, to see a man-made tent across from me and a fire in the middle.

"Who's there? Go away!" Zuko yelled, shooting fire at me.

Quickly I pulled the water from my pouch and blocked it, glaring at him, before turning to walk away.

"Serenity wait!" he yelled, and I heard him run over to me, as he grabbed him arm stopping me.

That one touch sent a million emotions running through me, and my heart began racing. It had been so long since he had touched me, and it took all my control to not turn around and wrap my arms around him. I was still angry at him, and I wasn't going to give in yet.

I thought he felt what I did, because I felt him stiffen behind me. "Serenity please… I didn't know it was you!" He said.

I yanked my arm away from him, and turned to face him glaring, not saying anything. I could see he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the right words.

"I….I'm really-"

"Don't even say it." I said angrily, knowing full well what he had planned. "I told you before, sorry doesn't cut it this time."

Zuko sighed and looked down. "I know…."

It was then I remembered something, which made me even angrier. "You sent that third eyed freak after us?"

"Um…well, he was after Aang…" he said nervously.

My glare hardened. "He didn't have a problem hurting anyone else in the group to get to Aang, but when it came to me, it was like he didn't want me hurt. Why was that?"

Zuko looked down again. "I told him not to hurt you. I thought it was the least I could do, after everything I put you through."

"So you think its okay for him to try to kill my brother and sister?" I asked, my anger growing by the second.

Zuko watched me, obviously not sure what to do. After a few seconds, he spoke. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"Because I had nothing to say to you." I said with as much hatred in my voice as I could muster. "Just like now. I have nothing else to say."

"Serenity wait!" Zuko said, grabbing my arm as I started to leave, but again I yanked away from, and continued walking, leaving him to think about what I said.


Katara and the others hadn't asked me where I had been after I got back, which was a good thing. I didn't want them to know I had run into Zuko, and I definitely didn't want to talk about that if they found out.

When we woke up the next morning, I was still kind of mad and upset about yesterday, and I guess it was showing, because Haru walked over to me, looking worried.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Just….thinking about some things."

"You mean that firebender?" he asked, and I looked at him shocked. "Katara told me. Sorry, she said mentioning him hurts you. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No…its fine." I said looked down sadly. "That is kind of what I was thinking about."

"Well I don't think you should worry about him. He's a jerk for hurting you like that." Haru said, and I smiled at him.

"Trust me I know." I said. I hated Zuko for what he did to me, but then again, I also still loved him. I couldn't help that.

"You still care about him though, don't you?" he asked, as if reading my mind.

I gave him a shocked look, before smiling slightly. "Is that bad?"

Haru smiled. "No. If you love someone as much as your sister said you do, even after they hurt you so much, then I don't think you should give up on them."

I gave my sister an annoyed look from across the room. "Katara sure has a big mouth."

He laughed, and I turned to him. "Don't blame her. I kind of asked her about your relationship."

"What?" I said shocked.

"Yeah well….I wanted to know if you were seeing anyone, and she said no, but you weren't really over the last guy you were with." He said, as casually as if we were talking about the weather.

"Oh…" I said, not knowing what else to say. So wait….if he asked Katara about my love life, then did that mean he….liked me? "Well….she's right. As she probably already told you, it didn't really end well."

"Yeah I know." he said smiling. "And I can tell you still really care about this guy, so I won't try to get in the way of that."

"Thanks." I said smiling, as Katara finished cooking some rice.

"Has anyone seen Toph?" she asked, as she handed out breakfast.

"I haven't seen her since she stormed off yesterday." Sokka said stretching and yawning.

"Maybe she's just exploring the air temple." Haru said. "There are some pretty fun spots to practice earthbending."

"I'm sure she's fine." I said, leaning against a pillar.

"I don't know….I still think we should go look for her." Katara said worried.

"Aw let her have fun with her rocks." Sokka said, sitting across from her. "I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again."

"We can go check for her!" The Duke said smiling.

"Yeah! I wanna ride that hollow tunnel down to the hall of statues again." Teo said. "It'll work a lot better now that I've fixed my breaks."

Haru waved bye, before running off with the other two to try to find Toph. I wondered where she was. Maybe she was just training. But I had the feeling something else was wrong.

Suddenly there was an explosion, and the four of us looked over at the wall, to see Toph crawl out of the newly formed hole.

"Toph! What happened?" Katara asked shocked, as we all ran over to her.

"My feet got burned!" she said, as Katara ran behind her to check out her feet.

"Oh no! What happened?" Katara asked again.

"I just told you! My feet got burned!" the younger girl said again, and my eyes widened. Wait….her feet were burned? There was only one place around here where I knew a fire to be.

"I meant how!" Katara said.

"Well, I kind of went to see Zuko last night." She said, and we all stared at her shocked.

"You what?" Aang asked.

"Zuko?" Katara said shocked.

"Eegh!" Sokka said grossed out.(A/N: I don't really know how to write what he did there…lol ;P)

"I just thought he could be helpful to us." Toph argued, as Katara pulled out water and began to heal her feet. "And if I talked to him, maybe we could work something out."

"So he attacked you?" Sokka asked.

"Well he did, and he didn't." she said and I watched her confused. "It was sort of an accident."

"But he did firebend at you." Aang said.

Toph sighed, defeated. "Yes." I was shocked at how much she was on Zuko's side.

"See? You trusted Zuko and you got burned. Literally!" Sokka said.

"It's gonna take a while for your feet to get better." Katara said, putting her water away. "I wish I could have worked on them sooner."

"Yeah me too." Toph said.

"Zuko's clearly too dangerous to be left alone." Sokka said thoughtfully. "We're gonna have to go after him."

He glanced at me, and I sighed. "Do whatever you want. I don't care anymore." I said, crossing my arms.

"I hate to go looking for a fight, but you're right." Aang said. "After what he did to Toph, I don't think we have a choice."

"He's crafty, but we'll find a way to capture him." Sokka said, looking at me. "Serenity! You go and seduce him, and when he's caught off guard, we'll ambush him!"

"Go jump off a cliff!" I said angrily, punching him.

"Ow!" He yelled, holding his arm. "It was just a suggestion!"

"A stupid one." I said glaring at him.

"Maybe we could invite him back here?" Toph asked, as Sokka and Aang picked her up. "He's already offered himself up as a prisoner once."

"Yeah…" Sokka said, obviously thinking this was a good idea. Better than his first one, in my opinion. "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!"

"You are a master of surprise Sokka." Katara said as I sighed, and the two of us followed the others as they walked off.


A/N: Yay! I love doing this episode its so much fun! As I said before, I'm still trying to figure out the whole thing of how Zuko and Sokka(and Aang, cuz he still doesn't know either) find out about the pregnancy. But it will most likely be during the next chapter. So anyway, please review and let me know what you think and I'll try to get the next one out soon!