Everyone thank Kimberly T. for this chapter, it was her thoughts that put my lazy butt into action. though if you hate the chapter, hate me and not Kimberly T.


Wind whirled around Aang as he felt himself being pulled. Power flooded his body as his tattoos began to glow. With a yell he ran for the two remaining men, circling them with all of his might. The dirt began to spiral upward as Aang circled the men. The leader pulled out a column of rock and began pelting pieces of it in Aang's direction.

"I think we should help." Toph overheard Jay's mother.

"You mean…" Tam turned to her.

"Not all the way." Jay's mother said softly. They both walked away from Toph leaving Jay alone with her.

"This is really cool," Jay whispered. Toph felt like throwing up, the vibrations were still erratic around her, though not as bad as before. She turned and placed her palms on the ground to feel for Tam or Jay's mom. Maybe they have something in their carts to make the pain go away. She frowned as she realized that neither of them were near her. She strained herself. Where did they go.

"What the-" She heard one of the earthbenders yell. She turned and felt dirt flying into the air. Aang's feet left the ground.

What's going on?

Aang was nearly smashed by a rock when he looked up to see the two airbenders. It took him a moment and a near death experience to make him concentrate on the task at hand. Aang wasn't entirely sure what they were doing but he quickly followed Tam and the woman into the air. It was as if they were making a cyclone by circling the two men, but there was a different pull. He looked down at the men and saw their eyes widen at the air benders.

The lanky man fell to his knees holding his chest. Aang stared at him confused as he circled. The leader now began to hold his throat, his face turning blue.

It's a vortex.

Aang looked up to the other benders who were concentrating very hard on their circling patterns. Aang frowned and parted from the vortex, flying for Toph. Have my people changed that much? As he hit the ground he turned to see the leader hitting his knees. He looked back at Toph who seemed dazed, blood in her palm. He didn't look back.

He felt the air rush to where they were and just knelt down beside Toph. Aang brushed the hair out of her face. He sighed as he saw the bits of hair that had come loose with his attack on her.

"You hit me with an air blast didn't you?" Toph frowned.

"It was that or you getting decapitated." Aang felt the air still.

"What did they do?" Toph nodded behind him.

"They sucked the air out of them." Aang said quietly.

"Well they sure did a piss poor job of it." Toph sighed. She squeaked loudly as Tam and Jay's mom landed a few feet from them.

"Are they dead?" Aang asked quietly as he kissed Toph on the forehead.

"No, just unconscious." The woman smiled. "My name is Tia."

"What are you doing here?" Aang looked at Tam. Tam blinked at him and then turned to look at Toph. Toph took that moment to throw up into the dirt.


Zuko poked his finger into the giant hole in the wall, letting his finger drag around the edges.

"Zuko?" Katara's voice came from the doorway.

"Do you love me?" Zuko asked quietly.

"Of course I do." Katara walked up to him and stared at the hole. "What happened?" "My dad was behind the assassination attempt." Zuko said quietly.

"Which one?" Katara snorted.

"The one you saved me." Zuko sighed. "I don't even know why I'm surprised."

"You're surprised?" Katara looked at Zuko. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"I am." Zuko said quietly. "And I shouldn't be, you're not even surprised."

"How could he be behind the attempt?" Katara frowned. "He's behind bars."

"I don't know." Zuko sighed. "We've attempted to squash out all of his followers but they still exist, and we don't know what someone's thinking."

"You think his guards did something?" Katara eyed the hole.

"Possibly…And my father knows secrets that could lead to my death." Zuko looked at her. "Easily."

"Like what?" She asked.

"The secret tunnels that lead straight to my room." Zuko frowned.

"It wouldn't accomplish anything, if you die-"

"My uncle gets the throne, what about after him. After you?" Zuko turned to her. "You think these assassins care how many people die?"

"Zuko…" Katara reached up to cup his face but he pulled away.

"I just need to be alone." he stared at the ground. Katara nodded sadly and walked to the door. "I love you." Zuko said quietly as she left.


"Oh, be mad all you want." Toph held the back of her head. "I just made Twinkletoes quicken his pace is all."

Tam rolled his eyes. They were ahead of the rest of the group and their conversation couldn't be heard.

"I thought…" Aang trailed off.

"So did you go after her or us?" Tam turned to the Avatar.

"…." Aang turned red.

Toph frowned. She shuffled her feet along the road, a part of her wanting to vanish.

"Considering I thought that my girlfriend left me, what do you think?" Aang frowned. Toph blinked in surprise.

"Teenagers." Tam mumbled. "I'm trusting teenagers."

"Sex starved teenagers at that." Toph grinned. Tam stopped short and immediately Aang ran into him.

"Sorry," Aang turned bright red.

"Are we there yet?" Jay skipped up to them.

"We should get there in a few hours." Toph felt the ground. "Though the mountain is just past this forest. Jay jumped off the ground. Oh great I have just signed my life over to living with a bunch of idiots I can't see half the time.

"I SEE IT!" Jay's voice came from above, his toes touched back to the ground lightly.

"Will we make it before dark?" Aang looked up at the sky.

"Just barely, if we hurry." Tam quickened his pace.


"What a surprise another visitor." Ozai turned to see his son. Zuko dropped a cloak next to the door, he was wearing dark clothes and his hair was down. In his hands was a platter of food and a cup. Ozai raised an eyebrow at the food in his hands.

"I heard what Uncle did to you." Zuko said sadly. "He shouldn't have."

"And so you've brought me a steak dinner." Ozai laughed. Zuko could see the blisters around his throat.

"You want me to have that healed for you?" Zuko tilted his head in question.

"By the new whore?" Ozai snickered. Zuko's eyes fell to the ground. He sighed and pulled out a key to the door.

"They did a good job on this," He said quietly as the door opened without even squeaking.

"So you've come to talk to your old man because of what my brother did." Ozai raised an eyebrow at the food; steak, potatoes, a roll, and rice. The aroma of ginseng tea floated up.

"Something like that." Zuko sat down on the dirty floor in front of his father, the door was still open. "Do you mind?" Zuko picked the roll off of the plate and took a bite.

"I guess it wouldn't matter if it did, now would it." Ozai sneered, his eyes darted to the door again. "Is this an oppurtunity?"

"No." Zuko took another bite. "I just want to talk."

"I think I prefer being choked." Ozai popped a potato into his mouth. "You're still horrible at cooking."

"You would think you would have shown me how." Zuko frowned. "But then again I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Ozai looked up at him.

"You've always hated me." Zuko frowned, his eyes full of sadness. "Always. I used to be able to lie to myself and say that maybe you used to love me, maybe you used to care, that maybe I had just done something wrong."

"You did do something wrong." Ozai smirked as he cut up his steak. "You were born."

For a moment there was only the sound of knife cutting through meat.

"And yet I was surprised when I heard that you tried to end my life, which is quite an interesting feat." Zuko's voice cracked slightly.

"You'd be amazed how easily it's done. All I need to do is tell the people standing outside my door all the little things I know," Ozai laughed. "I do love how you interchange them. It may stop them from conspiring with me but I can still plant ideas."

"Apparently so." Zuko said quietly.

"You think the people are on your side?" Ozai snickered. "They just follow the big man of the mountain. The second I am able to take control again, they will bow before me."

"You're right." Zuko sighed. "But it's kind of hard to do in here, isn't it?"

"If I still had my bending then I would be out of this godforsaken hell hole."

"If you hadn't tried to anhilate the world, you would still have your bending."

Ozai lowered his cup. "You should have let the Avatar kill me instead."

"Aang would have never done it." Zuko let out a hollow laugh. "He believes in preserving life."

Ozai popped another potato in his mouth. "You used too much garlic."

"Sorry." Zuko looked down at his tidy nails and looked back to his father.

"You should have let the cook make it, but again you tried too hard just so you could fail." Ozai frowned.

"It was the though behind it." Zuko said quietly.

"Next time think about making the cook make it." Ozai said sourly. He took another swig.

"Has mom been to see you lately?" Zuko said quietly.

"I think you may have actually become meeker." Ozai scoffed. "Your mother won't."

"Want me to pass any messages to her?" Zuko asked.

"What is this? You want to act like we are fine? Like I'm not in prison and you're not living it up in the palace?" Ozai growled. "I don't want anything to do with that bitch or you!"

"I just thought-"

"You don't think, that's your problem; you don't think and you trust people too easily." Ozai scoffed. "You thought I was going to sit in this dark god forsaken hole and not talk? You were dead wrong!"

"I've learned." Zuko frowned. "I've learned that you can't trust even the people closest to you."

Ozai snorted into his tea.

"Each day I have to watch my back, check my guards, notice any minute detail that could possibly lead to an assassination. Even Uncle has been teaching me not to trust him," Zuko paused. "And yet I still think I can trust you to keep these secrets."

"I have raised an idiot." Ozai laughed.

"You didn't raise me." Zuko growled. "The man I should be calling father-"

"Is your idiot uncle." Ozai sighed. "I've heard this all before, are we done?"

Zuko stared down at the ground. "He's taught me not to even take food from him without checking."

"As if he would do anything." Ozai sighed.

"In our family, I'd believe anything." Zuko glared at his father.

"You know what your problem is?" OZai growled. "You-" Ozai closed his eyes to the sudden wave of dizziness. He opened them back up, one of them twitching.

"You?" Zuko asked, his voice cracking slightly.

"I knew you didn't know how to cook." OZai grabbed his stomach as a wave of nausea hit him.

"I've learned." Zuko said quietly. "I'm not the best, but when you're stuck cooking your own meals because the cook wants you dead…"

Ozai grabbed his head as his vision went black and came back. "wh-" he looked up at Zuko.

"You can't trust anyone in our family." Zuko said quietly.

Ozai's eyes widened.

"That's a lesson I learned from you." Zuko glared at the man.

"You son of a bitch!" Ozai grabbed the knife on his plate and lunged for his son. Zuko grabbed Ozai's fist that clenched the blade. Ozai's vision began to shift, the room dimming and then getting brighter. He began punching toward his son. "I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Ozai swung at Zuko.

Zuko rose to his feet and sidestepped the swing. He watched as his father fell to the ground. Ozai began to clutch his stomach and begin to retch.

"I should have slit your throat!" Ozai coughed as his vision dimmed even more.

"I can't let you hurt the ones I love anymore." Zuko whispered.

"I HATE YOU!" Ozai roar turned into a sputtering cough. "I hate you!" He coughed as he rolled onto his stomach.

"….I'm sorry." Zuko's voice cracked as he backed up against the wall.

Ozai's clawed at the ground. "I hate…you."

Silence filled the room. A steady drip of water could be heard coming from the other side of the room.

Zuko stared down at the body on the ground, a hollow coldness filled him. Zuko swallowed the lump in his throat. He kneeled down next to the still body looking into his father's lifeless eyes. He closed his eyes. My father is dead. He opened them again. My father is dead, because I killed him. Zuko closed his eyes again and felt a tear roll down his cheek. a sob escaped him and he held his face in his hands. I killed my own father. Another sob escaped him.

For a moment, Zuko cried, tears streaming down his face. He looked at the lifeless body and took a deep shuddering breath. Raising up to his feet he went to the prison door, he walked out of it pulling it to and then locked it. He grabbed the cloak he had left beside the door and pulled the blue mask out of his pocket. He glanced back at the body and then listened at the door. After a moment he put on the mask and opened the door, swiftly running to the end of the hall. He paused at the corner.

"-just saying, someone should bring it up to him." A guard grumbled.

"Jee has already said something. The Fire Lord said he needed extra guards for the visiting nobles." the other guard answered.

"Maybe if he would let us spread out and take a hall by ourselves…"

"If you want to be picked off one by one, then do it on your own time." The guard said angrily.

Zuko waited until their voices were out almost out of earshot. Ozai's lifeless eyes flashed in his mind. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had to get out of here now. He took another shuddering breath and ran.

"HEY!" He heard a guard roar. Fuck! Zuko tried to run faster, footsteps following close behind him. At least I know they're doing their job. "He came from Ozai's! Go check!" The guard yelled to the other as he ran trying to catch up with ZUko. As Zuko ran down the hall, a guard walked around the corner and Zuko easily side stepped him. A few moments later he was running into the night with four guards chasing him. He darted behind several rocks and skidded down the incline of the hill.

"YUN! RO! TAIO! RIN!" A guard screamed into the night. Zuko heard the guards stop and then run back toward the screaming guard. As Zuko ran for the palace he threw off the cloak and the mask.

The mask fell with a clatter in the hardened dirt. Zuko didn't turn back. There was no longer a need for the blue spirit. All the wrongs had been righted. The blue spirit was no longer needed after this. He had restored the balance of things with this night.

As he neared the palace, Zuko slipped into an entrance near Katara's room, he quietly stole his way to her.

"Zuko?" Zuko turned to see Sokka standingwalking toward him. "Can you attempt to not try to jump my sister's bones at every second?" Sokka sighed. "Don't you have better things to do?"

Zuko looked toward Katara's room and then sighed. "I have paperwork to do." Zuko turened and Sokka saw his red eyes, his deeper than usual frown.

"Dude, are you okay?" Sokka frowned. "You look…"

"I'm fine, it's just been a rough few days," Zuko's voice cracked at the end. "I'm fine."

"Ok." Sokka watched him as he walked toward his office. "If you say so."


Toph sighed as she felt his footsteps approach. Even with thirty or so airbenders walking around she could still tell his light footsteps from the rest.

"Can we talk?" Aang asked.

"Isn't that what we're doing now?" Toph shifted her weight to rest on her hands as she sat.

"Why did you leave?" Aang stayed standing.

"Why do you think?" Toph turned her head in his direction. "Do you really think I was just going to stand around and watch you pine for her? Please, I have more respect for myself than that."

"Does this mean…are we…do you not want to be my girlfriend?" Aang's voice cracked a little.

Toph turned her head. He really cares about me. Now that she's out of the picture.

"I'm sorry…" Aang said sadly as he turned to leave.

"I'll give you one more chance." Toph sighed. "But I swear to god if I have to listen to you weep over Sugar Queen's wedding then I'm gone."

Toph could feel Aang walk back with lighter steps, he sat down beside her. "When Zuko left to save Katara, Roku pulled me into the Avatar state." Aang began. "He thinks the reason I have issues with letting people go and move on may have to do with me knowing and having to be the Avatar at such a young age."

"Aang-"

"I'm not making an excuse." Aang cut in. "But I do want to try to fix it. I don't want it to be the reason I lose you." He kissed her on the forehead.

"What do stars look like?" Toph asked quietly, changing the subject as she blushed profusely. Aang turned his head to her. "Jay wouldn't shut up about them but he didn't do a great job of explaining them."

Aang grinned and moved close to her, then he brushed his nose over hers. Toph blushed even more and smiled. "It's something that seems so small but makes you feel good inside."

"I like stars." Toph smiled.

"Me too." Aang whispered as he kissed her lips.


"Fire Lord Zuko." A guard bowed at Zuko, who had his back turned tooking out the window. The moon lingered overhead.

"I know that you are understaffed." Zuko sighed. "I will sort out the problem tomorrow."

"It's not that sir," The guard took a breath. "Ozai is dead."

Zuko stilled. He had been waiting for the words but they still stung, still took his breath away. It seemed so much realer to hear someone else say it. An image of Ozai's still face flashed in his mind.

"We believe he was poisoned…" The guard said quietly. "We have a suspect though, The Blue Spirit was seen running from the scene."

"Are you sure?" Zuko's voice cracked.

"Taio, worked for Zhao whenever the Blue Spirit had taken the Avatar, he said there was no denying it." The guard stated.

"If he's seen, I want him alive." Zuko said quietly. "Go."

"Yes Sir." The guard made a hasty retreat.

"Ro?" Zuko turned his head.

"Sir?" the guard stopped.

"Please keep this to yourself, and have the other guards to do the same."


"I still think it'll be funny to make him hang out for the festival." Sokka grinned. "Just imagine, a frozen Fire Lord."

"He would firebend." Hakoda grinned.

"And he would melt straight through the ice." Sokka snickered. "Come on we have annoy him somehow."

"We could always tell him to ask for stewed sea prunes." Hakoda laughed.

"But those are delicious." Sokka frowned.

"Apparently it's an acquired taste. I've watched many an earthbender throw up from just the smell." Hakoda laughed.

"And I bet Zuko would try to please her and ask for seconds." Sokka snickered.

"Or at least I won't have to worry about grandkids from them for a while." Hakoda grinned.

"Yeah that should piss her off…Hey Zuko!" Sokka grinned as he saw the Fire Lord walk past. His smile faltered as Zuko turned his head.

Hakoda frowned. The crease in Zuko's brow and the determined anger in his eyes made his hair stand on end. Or was it sadness?

"Are you okay?" Sokka asked. The phrase felt stale as he recalled last night.

Zuko's mouth opened but he shut it and tuened to look down the hall. He took a look back at Sokka before walking again toward his approaching mother and sister.

"That was…" Sokka frowned

"Strange." Hakoda finished for him. Zuko stopped in front of the two women and began to talk quietly. Ursa sipped her tea while Azula looked bored.

"Is he mad about what happened with his uncle and his dad?" Sokka asked.

"Iroh said he took it rather well." Hakoda frowned.

"That could mean anything." Sokka watched as Ursa frowned while Zuko looked down at the ground, he was mumbling something.

"He was more upset about something his father did than what Iro-" Hakoda turned as he heard glass shatter. Ursa had her hand to her mouth while Azula had her eyes closed, her fists clenched. Ursa's cup lay in pieces on the ground. Ursa's hand slipped to her heart, sadness on her face, She turned her head away from Zuko. Azula's eyes flickered open and anger surged. She slapped Zuko across the face and turned on her heel.

Zuko turned to his mother, sadness in his eyes. She pulled him into a hug. For a moment they stayed that way, until Zuko pulled away and after a moment of talking he turned to leave.

"I think this would be a good time to talk to the inlaws, don't you?" Sokka turned to his father, who nodded. They quickly made their way to Ursa who was helping a maid pick up the shattered pieced of her glass. She turned the second they came into range.

"Ozai's dead." She told them, sadness was still evident on her face.


Iroh looked up as Zuko closed the door to the tea room. He gave Zuko a warm smile but it was returned by red eyes and a frown. Iroh sighed and continued to write the letter out to his staff back at the Jasmine Dragon. For a few minutes, all that could be heard was the simple brush strokes.

"Ozai's dead."

Iroh looked up, eyes wide. "….Did I?"

"No." Zuko said quietly.

"Did he do it himself?" Iroh set down his brush.

"He was murdered." Zuko said simply. Iroh breathed in and let the words sink into him. He looked up to see Zuko watching him closely.

"Zuko we will catch the man who did this, mark my words he will be brought to justice." Iroh sighed. He began to rise to give Zuko a hug but Zuko stepped back.

"My guards are on it." Zuko's voice sounded ragged.

"Zuko, I know your father was a horrible man." Iroh frowned. It's one lie, a simple white lie to make him feel better. "But deep down he did love you."

Zuko's laugh sounded almost cruel. "He hated me." Iroh could see tears in his eyes. "He cursed me to the end."

"You don't know that." Iroh frowned.

"I just wanted you to know in person." Zuko took another step backward. "So you didn't think that you had done it or anything." Zuko turned to leave. His hand was on the door when Iroh spoke again.

"Do we have any idea who did it?" Iroh asked.

"Yes." Zuko opened the door and turned to look at his uncle. "It was the blue spirit." Iroh's eyes widened as the door shut behind Zuko.


So….I'm sleepy yet again. and I'm debating on writing or studying or sitting on my butt and watching tv. the next chap has to do with Zuko and Katara and coming to terms with his actions because…it's freakin Zuko! so review. tell me what I did wrong because I did try to keep him in character as much as possible. PLEASE REVIEW! love every single one of yall that do!