Next chapter coming up. We're going to visit a new place that will be a major part in the rest of the story.
And sorry for the two late updates in a row, as I told you guys last week, I did lose a lot of stuff so I have to go back and do more work than needed.
Chapter Forty-Six: Tower Republic
Needless to say the right there Katara felt a little left out.
Aang was the one who seemed to become distant to her that time around, and she could easily tell he wasn't playing around anymore. He knew that she was hiding something and he wasn't shy to show that he wasn't happy that she felt the need to hide things from him.
She quivered at the thought of the conversation she knew was inevitable. She had waited too long and now when she did tell him, it was going to messy.
She was left to steer for the last hour of the ride while she listened to Aang and Azula's conversation in the saddle. The two did seem to be becoming fast and close friends, much to Katara's dismay, and even though she knew nothing romantic would come from it, the friendship still didn't sit well with her for whatever reason.
"Katara, are we almost there?" Azula asked for the ninth time. Katara squinted her eyes in annoyance.
"For the ninth time, Azula, I don't know." Katara groaned. "We're heading in the right direction according to the map so when we see a giant tower I guess we'll be there."
"Just….hang tight and keep your eyes open, Azula." Aang told her gently and leaned over the saddle to Katara. "Hey…" He greeted oddly.
"Hey…" Katara sighed in greeting as well and watched Aang as he air bended himself over the edge of the saddle and sat next to her.
"You want me to take the reins?" He asked her. "You've been steering since this morning."
"I'll be fine….just make sure Azula doesn't fall out of the saddle." Katara teased and Aang snickered when he heard Azula told them that she had "heard that". Katara relaxed a little more, seeing he hadn't come to pick a fight or add tension and leaned her head onto his shoulder while he snaked and arm around her waist and pulled her closer.
"You okay?" He asked her softly.
"I'm alright…" Katara trailed in response.
"Katara," Aang sighed after a few moments silence before confessing: "I'm sorry…for yesterday. I really didn't talk to you much."
"It's alright, I deserved it."
"It's not about who deserved what….I'm sorry I got mad at you about the ride here." Aang said and turned to face her. "But, knowing that you're hiding something from me is kind of killing me."
"I know…I'm so sorry Aang, but….well…."
"Yeah," Aang prepped her, his eyes shining in anticipation.
"There's…..there's something you have to do…..something important…but-but I can't help you with it." Her eyes fell. "And I'll never be able to."
Aang's eyes went wide before he held the sides of her arms firmly. "Katara…." He echoed softly, pulling her close enough to him so that he could hear if she whispered.
"Aang…I-I love you, but I….I can't…."
"You….you can't what?" Aang shook her a little bit, feeling hysterical himself.
"Hey look! We're here!" Azula suddenly called out from over the saddle and smiled happily down at Katara and Aang, not even realizing that Katara looked near tears and Aang looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "…What?"
"Nothing Azula," Aang hushed her, we'll land now. Instinctively Aang grabbed the reins and steered Appa down to the visible tower.
Zuko had described Tower Republic as a majestic tower used for communicational purposes, but other than that and the light sketch he had seen on the map, Aang knew almost nothing about it. And it was nothing like Aang expected. In a way, the tower resembled and large cylinder with two disks on the top and bottom. A long stick seemed to come out of the top disk and had a tiny sphere at the very top. The tower sat proudly on a small island than didn't have much on it besides the Tower and a few other small buildings in the surrounding areas.
Nothing too special….but it was more than either Aang, Katara, or Azula had ever seen.
"It's….it's so…." Azula trailed as she stared at the monument before her.
"Tall." Aang finished.
"I've never seen a building this tall." Azula said. "And I've been a lot of places."
Aang had lived in the air temples, but apart from those, he had never seen a building top the structures of the temples, that is until he saw Tower Republic.
"What is this thing even for again?" Azula asked.
"Zuko said for communicational purposes." Aang told her.
"….Cool."
Aang took his time finding the perfect place to land on the island until he noticed that there was a group of people near the supposed front of the tower, guiding him to land Appa there. Aang followed suit, turning the reins sharply and coming to a clean land atop the sand of the island's beach.
There a strongly built man with a scar across the top of his nose was there to greet them with a proud smile.
"By the looks on your faces I'd say you're marveled by our tower?" he said as preamble.
"This is an amazing tower Mr…..uh." Azula started to compliment.
"Oh, forgive me," The man laughed. "I am Commander Hazuki and welcome to Progress Island and the Tower Republic!"
"Very nice to meet you, Commander Hazuki." Azula bowered respectively and Hazuki bent down and kissed her hand.
Aang smiled a little watching Azula become so sociable around the commander, but he supposed she was used to meeting people like Hazuki. Suddenly though Aang remembered the conversation he had before the tower's interruption and looked over to Katara who seemed to be sitting in the same spot, staring determinedly down at her folded hands. He bent down to meet her hung over gaze, her saddened blue eyes locking with his almost instantly.
"I'm sorry but we're going to have to talk later." Aang told her softly and kissed her lips gingerly before helping her down off of Appa.
"Okay…." Katara said. "Later sounds good." In a way, she was happy and sad at the same time. She was so close, so close to just telling him, but then she was happy that she didn't have to deal with his reaction thousands of feet in the air with Azula closely in tow.
The two held hands as Aang walked up to Commander Hazuki, who seemed deep in conversation with Azula.
"Ah, Avatar Aang and his Lady Katara." Hazuki greeted with a smile. "So glad you could make it."
"Thank you for inviting us to the tower, it really is a great structure." Aang tried to sound as political as Azula was, but felt he didn't quite measure up. "Are the other members of the team here?"
"Yes, they should be in the emergency quarters. I'm sorry we don't have proper living quarters for all of you, but Tower Republic isn't exactly built to have extensive guests."
"It's alright, we'll only be here a day, and after camping for so long any bed is good bed." Aang told him and Hazuki lead the three of them to the living quarters while the other men escorted Appa over to a proper facility for him. Momo seemed to be giving Appa some sort of goodbye before flying and landing atop Azula's shoulders, seemingly getting used to another shoulder to lean on.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"This is only Tower Republic's third full month of being in sync with the rest of Gan Mo's inventions, and it's certainly making a huge leap in communication." Hazuki explained as he gave the three a tour of the tower.
"So….how exactly doe s it help communication?" Aang asked, since he was on the tour, he might as well get the answers to his many questions about the tower. Still holding Katara's hand firmly Aang gave it a light squeeze before turning his attention to Hazuki.
"Well," Hazuki started before leading them all into an elevator of some sort, though it wasn't a stone elevator operated by earth benders like all of them were accustomed to, the elevator seemed to be steam operated and was raised by heat. Aang remembered, though, seeing similar technology used when him, Katara, and Sokka visited the Northern Air Temple.
"Located at the top of the tower is the signal that is used to pick up communicational waves from other smaller towers just like this one located all over the world." Hazuki told them. "We're also able to contact any of the air ships, steam boats, and locomotives traveling to warn them of any trouble or conflicting schedules beforehand."
"A tower this big must have a lot of people to run it?" Aang mentioned as the elevator finally stopped and the four stepped out to the top floor of the tower. Inside, as many of the other floors, were rows of chair and desks of people working at their stations. They seemed to all being wearing some sort over heavy covering over their ears as they pressed their fingers quickly and precisely down on keys of another sort. Aang, Katara, and Azula stared at the people before them. Located in the center, though, seemed to be the tall signal pole that was seen at the top of the tower, it perturbed through the center of the room, causing anyone who wanted to get to the other side to walk around the giant signal.
"Does this answer your question, Avatar Aang?" Hazuki smiled.
"Well, kind of."
"Yes," Hazuki began to monologue again triumphantly. "Tower Republic has twenty floors of teams working around the clock on making sure the other smaller towers can get our messages."
"Do they talk to each other on telephones?" Aang asked.
"Some floors do….and others use a little something we liked to call Mo Code." Hazuki answered.
"Mo code?" Azula echoed and snickered a bit.
"Yes, it's a form of code invented by none other than Gan Mo that we use instead of talking on the telephone."
"How do you send it?" Azula asked as she looked at everyone and everything.
"As you can see our Mo Code team is typing in the codes onto these typewriters and the messages are transferred to whatever tower the code is sent to."
Aang looked over at the typewriters and saw the characters that the people were typing. They didn't look familiar.
"I don't recognize these characters." Aang said.
"That's because these are Mo Code characters," A woman working on the writer answered Aang instead. "They're simplified to make the sending and typing process easier."
"Oh," Aang smiled and walked back over to Hazuki, regaining Katara's hand while listening to Hazuki rant on and on about how much the tower would better the world in so many different ways. He squeezed his girlfriends hand again and Katara offered him a sad smile.
Azula still continued to marvel around her as she walked around the signal to the other side of the room and hoisted on the wall was a circular device that ticked. There were three long poles coming from the center and though two of the poles didn't seem to be moving as Azula stared at it, the third pole ticked and moved every second. The other two poles seemed to be pointing to the numerical characters she already new.
"Amazed by out clock, princess?" Hazuki smiled.
"C-clock?" Azula stuttered. "I recognize the numerical characters, but I don't understand what it's supposed to be saying.
"Well we figured if we added up just how many hours are in a day we get 24 hours," Hazuki explained. "So why not have an accurate reading of exactly what time it is? Besides, Tower Republic is on a very tight schedule all day long and we need to be precise about timing."
"So, what does it say now?"
"It's exactly four o`clock." Hazuki told her.
"Four…o`clock."
"Yes."
"….But there have definitely been more than four hours in this day." Azula countered.
"Yes, but we only measure the time up to twelve, then we start over again."
"Well, what's at twelve?"
"Twelve can be either twelve at midday or twelve at midnight."
"This is so complicated." Azula sighed, still staring at the device intently and finding little to make the "clock" make more sense to her.
"We're ever working on making these clocks pocket sized." Hazuki decided to add.
"Pocket sized?" Azula echoed.
"Yes, indeed, but we can discuss that later….we have plenty of more floors to see."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It seemed like an eternity later when Hazuki finally gave Aang, Katara, and Azula a moment's piece and finally lead them over to the emergency living quarters in the first building outside the tower.
It was well into the early evening—which Hazuki seemed to call six o`clock—when they finally got a chance to get into their rooms and settle down after flying all day long.
In the living quarters they met up with all the other arrivals to the tower.
"So you survived Hazuki's speeches, huh?" Toph snickered when she bumped into the trio, Yuexi not far behind.
"Well, he sure can talk," Aang smiled and hugged his friend dearly.
"Where's Sokka?" Yuexi asked sadly, looking for the older water tribe boy. It wasn't too much of a surprise that Yuexi and Sokka had gotten a long rather well after Zuko, Mai, and Azula set off for the capital. Even though Yuexi was a tad older that Sokka, the two seemed to hit it off well, and Sokka was saddened when Yuexi and Toph finally went back home.
"He's back home," Katara answered, and Aang was surprised to hear her voice. She had been so quiet since they had arrived. "He needed some time to himself."
"Anything from Suki?" Yuexi asked as well.
"Nope, not that I know of," Katara answered for him, her bitterness towards Suki for breaking her brother's heart coming through her every word.
"Well, we were just about to head for dinner, you guys coming?" Toph asked.
"Yeah!" Azula exclaimed, feeling hungrier and hungrier by the second, and Toph, Yuexi, and Azula went to the mess hall to receive some dinner while Aang told them they'd catch up after Aang and Katara moved their things into their room.
The rooms were small and rather cramped, but it was only an overnight stay, so they didn't need anything too comfortable.
"Are we both going to be able to fit in this thing?" Katara asked Aang when she started at the futon carefully placed on the floor. "It seems kind of squished, doesn't it?" Aang walked over and looked over at the futon as well, squinting.
"Yeah," he agreed. "It is kind of small." He walked over to their luggage and then turned back to face Katara. "Well, I know you packed some extra blankets, so I can just sleep on those and you can take the futon." Aang told her and Katara smiled at his selflessness walking over to him and hugging him from behind; the jump his body made when she placed her arms around him told her that he was surprised by her motions.
She kissed his neck softly while Aang placed his hands over hers at his waist and smiled, leaning back against her for a moment.
"Do you want to talk now?" Aang asked her and Katara immediately pulled away, a gesture which Aang wasn't surprised by.
"Maybe before we go to bed?" Katara smiled nervously and Aang turned towards her, crossing his arms.
"Katara….." Aang sighed.
"We can talk before we go to bed, okay?" She repeated and kissed his cheek. "I'm getting hungry now." She told him and pulled him with her out the door.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
After a dinner while Katara and Toph gushed on about something while Yuexi and Azula seemed to be in conversation Aang took Katara's hand gently and pulled her back into their room after saying goodnight to everyone.
They would wake up early to get their team together and get the transportation needed to go to their first stop, but for the moment everyone was sleeping. That is, except Aang who, after saying goodnight to Appa as well, had surprisingly convinced Katara to finally talk to him about the conversation they had started on that afternoon.
"So…?" Aang started, swinging a sleeping shirt over him and slipping under the blankets he had laid out for himself next to the futon Katara was sleeping in. He placed his had onto Katara's hip for reassurance.
"So…" she trailed.
"Katara…."
"Yes?"
"You know what."
"I already told you at least some of it."
"That there's something I have to do that you can't help me with….that's pretty vague and scary at the same time, Katara." Aang told her, a little harshly.
Katara winced. "It's not easy to tell, Aang."
"Are you afraid I'll get mad or something?"
"…Well…I know you won't be mad, it's just I won't like the result of this situation."
"Maybe if you tell me the result will change?" Aang smiled innocently, trying desperately to pull the confession out of her. Katara just shook her head, laughing sadly.
"I wish….but it'll never change."
"Well, at least let me help you." Aang told her, hugging her tightly, not caring if the positioning was a little awkward. "Please Katara."
"It's just that….well, I can't….I mean….there's something wrong with me."
"Something like what?"
"Like….some that you need me to do and I can't do it."
"Katara," Aang yawned. "You're not making any sense." He let go of her and flipped over on his back, realizing how tired he suddenly was. "Now what can't you do?"
Katara was silent, she looked over at him, yawning and looking so adorably perfect wrapped in his blankets while he let her have the futon and leaned over to kiss his cheek.
"Go to sleep Aang." Katara told him softly. "You're exhausted."
"Oh no," Aang told her lazily. "You're not getting out of it that easily." Katara just laughed and took him in her arms giving him one last peck before she saw him smile and realized her girlish charms had snaked her out of yet another almost-heart attack.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Although Aang was extremely tired something within him woke him up and told him to actually take some of Zuko's advice. Before he had even noticed what had happened he realized he was asleep and was still just as in the dark about Katara as he had been before they talked. He sighed and sat up, trying very hard to remove Katara's locked arms around his waist without waking her while he got up from his blankets.
"Either be patient or snoop around until you find out what she's hiding" is what Zuko had told him a few days ago and he decided that maybe reckless invasion would quell the fact that he was dying to know her secret.
He tip-toed through the room began rummaging through their luggage before Aang realized he just couldn't do it. He couldn't completely invade Katara's privacy and go through her stuff looking for answers because he couldn't be patient.
He was about to make his way back to his blankets before he bumped his foot against the luggage for he couldn't see in the candle-less dark and with his thump and he knocked over the bag and the clothes that were within fell out. Aang quickly put everything—though not at neatly—inside until he realized there was an odd small book wrapped in worn leather, he was about to toss the book aside when some papers fell out and with every intention of putting them back and casting the book aside but before he made a move he realized there was suspicious writing over the papers.
Office of Doctor Peng
Diagnostic 12…..prolactin level 72%
Office of Doctor Peng
Diagnostic 3….prolactin level….high
Office of Doctor Peng
Diagnostic1…..patient has hyperprolactinemia.
"What in the world….?" Aang said to himself. "Hy…hyperprolactinemia?" he sounded out. "What is that…..and why does Katara have so many doctors' notices in her bag?"
"Aang?" Katara's voice suddenly broke through his thoughts.
"K-Katara?" Aang jumped up and stuffed the paper into her bag quickly. "How long have you been awake?"
"I heard noise and I saw you were up….is something wrong?"
"N-No…nothing's wrong, why would something be wrong this late at night?…..That would be silly."
"Um, okay…well come back to bed."
"Alright." Aang shivered and crawled back into the blankets beside her. She turned over and smiled a lovingly at Aang that was even seen in the darkness of the room.
"I love you." She whispered.
"I love you too." He told her before turning over.
Aang bit his lip in nervousness before he went back to sleep. Now not only would Katara's unknown secret keep him awake but now he knew something he wasn't supposed to.
If Katara's secret and this mysterious doctor's diagnostic of having hyperprolactinemia were somehow related then Katara's issue was really what she had been hinting at. Something was wrong with her….so wrong what she had to see a doctor multiple times. But until he knew what this illness was, he was still clueless on how to help or even how to approach the problem.
All he wanted to know, for the moment at least, was how she managed to keep the fact that she had routine doctor's check-ups going on a secret from him?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The next morning everyone had to say goodbye to the Tower Republic, but before then they had to meet their teams.
"Hello everyone," Aang greeted. "I'd like to thank all of you for agreeing to be a part of the Fire Lord's help and rescue team."
"There will be three teams," Aang continued. "And I'm sure you all know you're teams based on the letter you received from the Fire Capital council….I hope to hear positive reports from all of you and once you are done with your assigned territories your team is to report back here at Tower Republic for your next assignments."
"I hope you all have enjoyed your stay here at the Tower Republic and I hope you enjoy your complimentary Gan Mo Progress pocket clocks!"
With that Aang stepped down from the podium he was on and rejoined his team, smiling as his team members greeted him.
"It's good to see you again Avatar Aang." Ren—the second in command and now leader of the Kyoshi Warriors—greeted Aang properly. Aang just shook his head to Ren's formal titles and bowing.
"I already told you, Ren, you can just call me Aang." Aang told her cheerfully and Ren just smiled at the boy.
"Alright….Aang…..it's good to see you."
"Good to see you too."
Just as the greetings between the Kyoshi Warriors, Aang, Katara, Azula, Toph and Yuexi continued a few more familiar voices came into the scene.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Avatar himself….long time no see." Aang heard Jojo's voice call out to him he turned around, smiling rather childishly and hugging her all the same. Jojo just embraced the boy back, patting his head and leaning down so they were eye to eye.
"How have you been doing, kid?"
"Well….I'm engaged." He whispered to Jojo, even though Katara could hear every word he was saying.
"Congrats!" Jojo exclaimed. "I always knew you'd grow up to be a lady killer."
"J-Jojo…please." Aang hushed her when Katara raised a brow to their conversation.
"Well, I guess I'm doing alright for myself too." Jojo told him.
"Are you sure…last time I saw you…." Aang trailed, remembering very well that Jojo had gone off with the group of people to see if the remaining loyal Black Jade members were going to reboot the rebellion and how she had suffered a bad injury during the final battle.
"…was months ago and I'm fine." Jojo finished for him. "I told you, I've had to endure worse scars."
"Alright, alright." Aang laughed before he noticed that there was another person behind Jojo, standing quietly. "Um…hello?" Aang said to the boy behind Jojo.
Jojo just rolled her eyes and pushed the boy from behind her. "Stop being so anti-social…this is the Avatar here, show a little respect."
"I-It's okay…." Aang waved his arms, trying not to intimidate the boy even if Aang was younger than him.
"Aang, this is Henai." Jojo introduced for the shy boy. "You two have actually met before, at least that's what Henai says."
"Really?" Aang questioned drawing a blank on ever meeting he boy before that is until he got a better look at him and his eyes widened.
The last conversation he had with this boy was on the battle field when the White Lotus and the Black Jade were at war.
Henai and him were on the same combat team and used to spar regularly when at the Black Jade and Aang remembered how betrayed Henai felt upon finding out that Aang was actually a spy and the Avatar to boot. That same battle, though, Aang could've sworn he saw Henai switch sides and fight against the Black Jade by the time it was all said and done.
"I was very inspired by you're bravery and what you did with the Black Jade Avatar Aang." Henai finally spoke up, bowing gratefully to the younger boy. "It's made me want to make a difference in this world as well."
"Glad to hear that." Aang smiled. "And you can just call me Aang."
Across the room, Toph and Yuexi were just standing against the wall, talking quietly while everyone else mingled.
"Will you stop that," Toph groaned when Yuexi stepped behind her and pulled her back against him, nuzzling his nose into her hair.
"Stop what?" Yuexi teased and only pulled her closer.
"Yuexi…." Toph laughed before she felt old yet familiar vibrations coming towards her. "Oh no…" Toph muttered under her breath and before she could push Yuexi away the Duke was already running up to her.
"Toph!" He called out happily.
"The Du-" was all she could get out before the younger boy crushed her in a tight hug.
"Toph I missed you….I can't believe we're on the same rescue team!" He told her and only hugged her tighter before Toph was able to push him away gently.
"I…uh…I missed you too The Duke." Toph told him and The Duke's smile only widened. In the background, though, Toph could feel Yuexi's eyes burning through her back….and not pleased eyes either.
"Who's this?" Yuexi asked, trying to sound friendly and failing.
"This is The Duke, he's a…uh…he's an old friend." Toph answered slowly.
"Hi…are you a friend of Toph's?" The Duke asked.
"No, actually, I'm her-"
"Yes…he is." Toph cut him off. "He's my friend Yuexi."
"Nice to meet you." The Duke bowed to the older boy before telling Toph he'd catch up with her later and running back to Pipsqueak.
Immediately Toph turned in Yuexi's direction, frowning an already anticipating that she was in some kind of trouble.
"Look…Yuexi, I-"
"Save it Toph…I'm not stupid, I can put two and two together."
"Oh yeah and what's that supposed to mean?"
"You have an ex-boyfriend that you didn't tell me about."
"He wasn't my boyfriend, Yuexi, I swear."
"Whatever."
"Oh grow up." Toph yelled when Yuexi began to walk away.
"Well apparently you go for younger guys now." He yelled as well and left the room.
"Yeah…well….!" Toph trailed but realized she was only yelling to air.
She sighed….that hadn't been her best move…but she didn't want to break The Duke's heart by telling him that everything they went through meant nothing….
And with that, Aang's rescue group was off, a group consisting of a small number of only fifteen was escorted to their first destination: the earthquake shattered town of Mien.
Some super character drama will be happening next chapter so stay tuned. Katara's secret is slowly coming to the forefront now and the Duke is back and has his sights set on Toph (I smell a The Doph/ Toexi conflict coming). Jojo's back! And for those of you who don't remember Henai, you can re-read the battle portion of chapter 34, which was the only chapter he was in and mentioned in.
As for the Tower Republic, yes, it's a 20 story communicational tower, which, to us, isn't really that tall, but in the Avatar world I'm sure a 20 story building is very spectacular. And their usage of "Mo Code" is in relation to Morse code. I figure that the Avatar world already has some sort of multi printing system due to the fact that in the episode "City of Walls and Secrets" it was shown that Ba Sing Si has newspapers an in the episode "Lake Laogai" Katara and Aang were able to go to a printer and get posters made. So sending communicational messages via typing shouldn't be too much of a stretch….I hope. And the clocks are something I fell the Avatar World should've had a long time ago. We got to see a little something close to a clock in the episode "The Northern Air Temple", but the actual invention of a mechanical clock is actually pretty old. The Avatar World already seems to know of months and hours and whatnot, so why not have clocks? But, there aren't actually numbers on these clocks, you can look up the ancient Chinese numerical characters to see what would actually be on the clock.
Review Responses:
Kataang4ever14: Thank you, and will do!
Dcp1992: So many questions….but unfortunately questions I can't answer. No spoilers….
Winnow: Haha….I always love reading your reviews….but I can see where you're coming from with the whole "why is Katara keeping it to herself for so long" kind of thing. I just always try to remember that Katara still is only 15 and is prone to overreact about certain things, especially something like this. She's not really worried that Aang will leave her, she just doesn't like the reality that Aang will have to have children from someone else. But I believe most of it is just teenage denial.
Private LL Church: Glad you're liking the Katara/Azula friendship, and as for Aang and Katara, you're right, Aang would have to be a total jerk to just up and get pissed at her from something like this, which we all know Aang is not a jerk.
Katsumara: Thanks! I think the new nice Azula is finally starting to grow on people, cause I know it's definitely growing on me. I know when I start writing another story it'll be hard to write for evil Azula again, I'm so used to her being nice now. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, glad you're liking the chapters though.
Kimjuni2: thanks, glad you're liking it, awkward and all!
Nicol D. Hayward: Awwww, thank you so much for the compliments, I'm glad you like my story so much, it means a lot. And as for Katara and Aang, I guess we'll all just have to wait and see how it all will turn out.
Kataanger476: Yay! 600th review! Typically I reward the 100th reviewers the present of being able to ask me any question about the story and I'll answer it for you, you can take advantage of it or just let it pass if you rather not be spoiled, but I always offer. Either way, I would actually like to thank you! I went on your profile and saw how this story was on your recommendations list and I was seriously touched, thank you so much for saying such lovely things about my writing and my story!
Destiny321: Yeah, awkward it definitely was, I'm glad you liked Aang and Zuko's phone conversation, it's been an idea that was stuck in my mind for too long and I finally got to use it, go figure.
RhiannaRobbins: Don't worry, there will be some more Maiko later on in this part, and as for "Azula getting a man", that issue will actually be addressed further within the next few chapters, so good call. And I'm sure this chapter answered your question on what Toph and Yuexi have been up to.
Thanks for all of your reviews guy and gals! I'm past the 600th review mark, so you all rock 600 times more!
Next Chapter: Broken Festival
