It's been a while guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was alway in China for winter break and didn't return home until the first week of January when school started. Sortly after Brianna and I had to beginning studing for our midterms and we just finished them this week. Anyway, the long awaited Bato of the Water Tribe chapter you've all been waiting for. Sorry for the wait.


((Brianna's P.O.V))

"I'm bored!" I looked over to Nyoko and crossed my legs on the huge rock I was sitting on. "Why can't these guys hurry and wake up," I asked while glancing over at my friends who were all fast asleep.

"It's not their fault that they can't wake up right when the sun rises" Nyoko's voice echoed in my head. I let out an annoyed groan and flopped on my back. I had been waiting about two long hours but sadly it was still way too early for any of them to be waking up anytime soon.

"I know that but still, I'm running out of ideas how to preoccupy myself." I ran the long list of things through my dead, trying to find something to do to make these lonely hours bearable. I looked back over at my friends, studying each of their peaceful faces. I was the most tempted to poke at Sokka because his mouth was wide open and I could hear his obnoxious snoring from far away. The only reason I didn't was because there was a trail of drool dripping down the side of his cheek and there was no way I was going anywhere near that! My sights landed on Rebecca, looking as cute as always. "Right I forgot," I said, recalling something she had said to me early yesterday morning. I got up from the rock and tip toed toward her. "Rebecca said I could play with her hair if I got really bored," I explained to Nyoko. I walked over toward Appa's tail, which is where she normally would sleep when we made camp, and gently lifted her silky long black hair.

"You sure about this," Nyoko asked cautiously. "You know she's not that much of a morning person" I nodded my head while slowly unknotting her hairs with my fingertips.

"She told me to make sure to wait until she was in a deep sleep before I did it," I told her as I began braiding her hair. I always enjoyed playing with hair, but I especially loved to style Rebecca's. Many girls in our school envy that they don't have her hair. I have even found myself a bit jealous of it from time to time, but that wasn't the only reason I loved her hair. It was one of the easiest to style because it would usually corporate with me more than others. The only bad thing about her hair was that it was thick but that could be both a good and bad thing depending on the situation. "Wee, I'm satisfied now" I said in a hushed whisper after I had finished braiding. I held onto the braid and ran my fingers across it, liking the feeling of its silkiness. I noticed Rebecca's hands move toward the center of her chest, close to her heart was. I stopped and placed her hair down because I thought it was because I had waking her up. Surprisingly it wasn't the case. When I gave her room I noticed two streams falling from her eyes and down her side of her face. She was clenching at her robe and her hands were trembling. I stared down at her, debating on whether or not I should wake her up. On the one hand I knew it would be better to wake her up from whatever she was dreaming, but the fear that she might beat the crap out of me was a keeping me from saying anything. I wanted to help her but at the same time I didn't feel like I was ready to die just yet. The sight of her crying was all too much, and I could feel myself getting depressed from just looking at her. I did make a promise to myself to protect her since our visit with Aunt Wu. I couldn't let myself let this go. "Okay, you can do this Brianna" I gave myself a pep talk. I took several deep breaths and exhale red hot fire. I felt myself gulp as I shook Rebecca's shoulder. "Rebecca, wake up" I said as I shook her once with a bit more force. "Rebecca, Rebecca" I called out her name repeatedly "come on wake up, Rebecca." Finally I saw a reaction from her as she shifted her body over and slowly forced her eyes open. A tear crept down her cheek and fell on her right hand. Rebecca stared down at her hand in silence, still absent minded because she was probably still half asleep.

"I was dreaming," she said in a dazed voice. She let out a heavy sigh as she placed a hand over her eyes. "God, for a minute there I really thought that it was really her."

"Who," I asked curiously. There was a short pause before she placed her hand back down to her side.

"Don't worry about it" she told me nonchalantly. Did she really think I wasn't going to worry about it! I waited growing more impatient by the second.

"You want to talk about it?" I asked her after a long silence. She didn't respond right away and just stared down at the ground. She flopped back down on Appa and just lied there with her head looking up at the bright orange sky.

"There's nothing really to talk about," she said in a low voice

"Rebecca," I practically screamed "tell me!"

"Goddamn it Brianna, do you want the others to wake up?" she scolded me.

"I don't care, if they'll help me get the answer out of you so be it!" Rebecca glared at me before rubbing the back of her neck, clearly annoyed.

"I mentioned her before," she mumbled. I raised an eyebrow and waited for Rebecca to continue. She let out another sigh, she looked really uncomfortable and would rather do anything than talk to me about this. "My childhood friend from middle school," she said in dismay.

"Oh her," I said, now understanding why she was so uncomfortable. She glanced back down on the floor, probably thinking about that girl right now. I didn't know much about her, other than the fact that she had Rebecca were best friends in middle school before she moved to the neighborhood. About a year later Rebecca suddenly dropped all contact with. She rarely talked about her but the times that she did she was always seemed to be in pain. She didn't really tell me in great detail what kind of person she was, but I knew enough to be sure that I didn't like her. It seemed that she wasn't a true friend to Rebecca and in fact mistreated her verbally along with the rest of her classmates which is why Rebecca has such low self esteem now. She never defended or helped Rebecca when she was picked on by this one girl. Although I have told Rebecca countless of times that this girl was a horrible person, Rebecca defended her and said that she was a good person. Rebecca soon realized that she's just wasting her breath with me, because no matter how many good things she told me about her they weren't enough to make me like her. I hated that girl.

"Yeah it was really awkward," Rebecca said with a forced laugh. "I saw her and instantly ran." I stayed quiet while she thought back on her dream, while trying to make it seem amusing. "It was weird too, I saw Piper" I said with a smile. My mood changed almost instantly at the mention of my dog. I burst out laughing clenching my stomach and tried to force my voice down so as to not wake the others up.

"Piper, my Piper" I asked in a shocked.

"Yeah," she said with a small chuckle "she popped out of nowhere and bite me"

"Then there's no way that could have been Piper," I said without any doubt in my mind. "She too chicken to bite anyone," I criticized my dog.

"Yeah I kind of figured that out when she didn't run up to me, begging me to play with her. She always did love me more than you."

"Which isn't right, she's my dog!" I complained. Because Rebecca was looked as one of the family, Piper had categorized her as the second place next to my dad. My mom of course was Piper's favorite and can't be anywhere without her. This left me, sadly, as third on Piper's list of people she loved the most.

"Alright I'm going to try to go back to sleep. It's still way too early for me to be awake," Rebecca said and rolled back on her side, her back facing me.

"Okay goodnight then," I said as I walked back toward the rock. "And sweet dreams," I whispered while sitting back down, gradually feeling the boredom returning to me. It was luck for me that the sunrise was so beautiful or else I'd truly have nothing to do. Watching the sun rise was probably one of the only good things about waking up early. It's a breath taking sight and how I start each of my days. Every morning I'd wait for that giant star to rise from the horizon and into the sky to light up the world with its blinding flames.

((Rebecca's P.O.V))

"Well I certainly missed a lot," I said surprised after Sokka gave me the news about finding a Water Tribe's weapon then one of his father's fleet's ship.

"Yeah you did," Sokka said as he threw a root into the fire. "Who told you to sleep through the whole day? Poor Appa had to carry you the whole time." I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the absent minded Water Tribe boy.

"Stop it Sokka," Katara said, smacking his head. "Rebecca's not nearly heavy enough to weigh Appa down." I have let out a yawn and still feeling a bit drowsy. I had gotten too much sleep today due to my dreams of my former childhood friend. Each time I woke up I felt as if I had gotten enough sleep and went back to bed. It was only until I saw the sun set did I realize that I had to wake up or I would have literally slept a whole day away. I glanced over at Sokka and saw that his mind was slowly drifting off as he stared into the flickering fire. I looked over at Aang and Brianna, both of them fast asleep on the loveable snoring Appa. Even Katara was fast asleep beside me in her warm sleeping bag. Sokka continued to stare at the fire and got up from my spot to sit next to Sokka.

"Something on your mind," I asked him with quiet voice. He didn't respond right away and just continued to stare at the fire.

"Yeah," he said in just above a whisper. "I'm thinking about my dad."

"You miss him?" I asked and threw a thick twig into the flames and watched as it slowly caught on fire. "He must be really loved."

"Well isn't it normal to love your family?"

"Of course it is," I said stretching my legs out, closer to the fire.

"Then why are you making it sound like that rule doesn't apply to you?" Sokka asked me suspiciously. I sat there quietly and listened to the sound of the fire crackling. "Do you hate your family so much that you don't even miss them?"

"It's not like that," I said grabbed another stick. "You love your father right?"

"Of course, he's my dad" he told me.

"So, if he wasn't your father you wouldn't feel the same?" I asked as I broke the stick in half. "If you weren't family you wouldn't love him?"

"I don't understand what you're getting at," Sokka said confused. I threw the pieces of the stick into the fire causing more sparks to fly and crackle.

"That's why you might not understand my kind of love. I love my parents because they are my parents, nothing more." I glanced up at the sky and watched the stars shine. "I love them for what they are, not who they are. My mother is a hypocritical woman who will never learn to control her temper. My birth father is an emotional man who doesn't like to take responsibility and left my family for a different woman. My half sisters are both selfish brat children who know no such thing as respect or discipline. And finally my second father is a hard working man with a one track mind that ends up hurting his children." I closed my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "They are my family and I love them for that reason, nothing more." I looked over at Sokka and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "That is why I don't miss them like you miss your father."

"Is that really something to be proud of?" His comment made me chuckle which made him all the more confused. I brought my knees into my chest and drew in the sand with my right index finger.

"Perhaps to someone like me who is heartless," I joked.

"Hey, you're not heartless" Sokka said shoving my shoulder. "You try and hide it but you're not. If anything you're too kind hearted. You train yourself everyday in order to get stronger to protect us all. You purposely get yourself hurt to shield us from danger. You almost never think of yourself and worry for others." I let out another yawn making Sokka poke my forehead. "See, you over exhausted yourself yesterday didn't you." He pushed my head back before messing with head. "Yeah you definantly don't care about us," he said sarcastically with a smile. An image of my friend flashed into my head making me all depressed again.

"You sure about that, I can be pretty selfish" I said, hugging my legs. "Maybe one day you and the others will find me so unbearable that you'll regret befriending me." There was a long awkward silence and I could feel Sokka staring at me, but I didn't dare check. I had become emotionally unstable because of the dreams. There was no way Sokka didn't catch that and he's probably worried now.

"Rebecca…" Sokka said, reaching out to me, but was cut off from the sound of footsteps approaching us. "Who's there," Sokka asked, both of us jumping up from the ground. I spotted a shadow figure coming closer to us. It was only into he stepped into the light did I realized that the man was not a threat to us. A tall tan man wearing Water Tribe clothing and bandages covering his chest stood across from us looking to be surprised.

"Sokka," the Water Tribe warrior said with disbelief.

"Bato," Sokka said with just the same amount of disbelief but was about ten times louder than Bato causing Aang and Katara to wake up.

"Who the what now" Aang asked in a confused voice and rubbed his eyes.

"Bato," Katara called out happily the warrior's name as she scrambled out of her sleeping bag and ran to him.

"Sokka Katara," Bato said with an overjoyed voice as the two ran into his arms. "It's so good to see you two! Oh you've grown so much." The three of them embraced each other while Aang and I watched them from where we were. It took us several seconds before we collected enough of our composer to get up and walk toward the happy three to interrupt their little moment. Aang took the first step toward them and bowed to the stranger.

"Hi, I'm Aang this is Rebecca" he said while motioning towards me then back over at Appa "and over there is Brianna."

"Where's Dad?" Sokka asked Bato, too excited about the reunion to even acknowledge the fact that Aang and I were completely isolated from the conversation.

"Is he here?" Katara asked just as excited.

"No, he and the other warriors should be in the eastern Earth Kingdom by now" Bato told them making the two of them a bit depressed at the news. A sudden cold wind blew past us making our bodies shiver to try and keep warm. "This is no place for a reunion," Bato said as he placed his arms behind Sokka and Katara and led them forward. "Let's get inside." As the three started making their way Bato turned around and motioned the rest of us to follow. Aang and I glanced at one another before shrugging and called Appa over. As Aang went on ahead to follow the three I stayed behind and led the sleepy Appa by holding his reins, while a certain brunet and monkey slept soundly on top of him. With nothing but the moon to guide our way, I carefully watched the shadow figure of Bato and the rest of the group until we entered the entrance to the village Bato must have been was staying at. Once we made it through the entrance I led Appa toward the nearest shelter which had large piles of hay inside. After Appa got comfortable inside I climbed onto his back and carefully placed Brianna's arm over my shoulder and slid her off of Appa. When I got to the ground Gin summoned himself from my choker and waited for me to place the sleeping girl on his back. When we were sure she was secure Gin and I made our way toward the others, as Momo flew over us to Aang's shoulder.

"Perfume, maybe we could dump some on Appa? Because he stinks so much! Am I right?" We both grew stiff when we heard Sokka's attempt at a joke with only the sound of Brianna's soft snoring in the background.

"You have your father's wit," Bato said keeping a straight face.

"Question is if that's a good thing," I said to myself aloud. Aang and Katara laughed to themselves while Bato tried to stop himself from chuckling, but was too amused by my comment. Sokka on the other hand wasn't so pleased and just glared at me. I just looked away from him and stared up at the night sky again. Was she going to haunt me tonight as well?


Okay, for all my Rebecca Zuko fans (or as some of you call it Reka) I have a favor to ask. Recently on Deviant Art someone has asked me to join their group and also participate in a contest they are having. The theme is Valetines Day with any anime/manga theme that could also include OC's. Yes, it means that I'm going to be submitting a picture of Zuko and I, the only thing is I'm not sure which one I should do. I have a poll with four choices on my profile, I need you guys to vote for the one you think I should draw. The one with the most votes wins, the deline for votes is on February 10th. I won't accept anything after that. Thanks guys.