A/N:I included all three of the transitional comics in my timeline: Going Home Again, It's Only Natural, and The Bridge, as well as Escape From the Spirit World. You can find them all as motion comics on youtube, or as transcripts on the wiki. This is the only one I rewrote - and I mean, like, almost completely rewrote.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. This comic originally written by May Chan, Aaron Ehasz, Katie Mattila, and Alison Wilgus.

Book 2: Earth; Chapter 27: Going Home Again

Iroh sat in his prison cell in the Earth Kingdom, meditating to process his grief and loss. He could hear the soldiers talking outside his cell.

"I can't believe General Iroh is a prisoner now. A member of the royal family – Fire Lord Ozai's own brother!" the first one said.

"I know," a second guard added. "I served under his command during the first siege, he was a great leader and a great man ..."

The second guard trailed off as Zuko's voice dominated theirs. "You two don't know what you're talking about," he said angrily. "General Iroh is a traitor to his country!"

"Please forgive us, Prince Zuko," the second soldier said. "I –"

Zuko interrupted the man by punching a flame towards his feet. "Get back to work!" he commanded. The guards quickly retreated, and Zuko turned and made his way to the Earth King's throne room, now occupied by Azula.

"Zu-Zu. What a pleasant surprise," she drawled. "I've finished the arrangements for our trip back to the Fire Nation – we'll be gone by tomorrow night."

"But you're the leader of Ba Sing Se now," Zuko argued. "You would really give up control of this whole city?"

"Don't worry, dear brother. I've found the perfect person to leave in charge. Someone who will execute the Fire Lord's will mercilessly and without question. Supreme bureaucratic administrator Joo Dee!" She gestured to the glassy-eyed brainwashed woman to her right who was holding a bowl of buttermints.

"The Earth Kingdom humbly accepts this opportunity to serve the great and powerful Fire Nation," she intoned. "Care for a mint?"

Azula looked smug and self-satisfied. "Ba Sing Se will be safe in her care, and we can personally deliver our uncle, the traitor, back to the Fire Nation."

...

Zuko entered his and Iroh's old apartment, intending to pack his few personal effects for the trip home. Home. What exactly was home, anyway? And what had he done? Looking around the apartment at the remnants of his life with his uncle as a lowly tea server, Zuko felt waves of regret, frustration, and anger. How could Uncle have ever thought this life could be enough? I must have been crazy to be happy settling for this – deep down I knew it wasn't where I belonged. I belong in the Fire Nation. I belong to the Fire Nation. I did what I had to do; there never really was a choice. Unable to sift the truth from the lies warring in his mind, Zuko pushed them all aside. He packed his things into a knapsack and turned to go, only to see Mai standing in the doorway.

"You followed me?" he said, surprised.

Mai shrugged noncommittally, "I had to make sure you weren't running out on us," she deadpanned. Zuko did not reply. He wasn't sure if Mai's comment was meant to be a joke, or if it was her way of saying that Azula assigned her to surveillance duty.

"So," she ventured, "is this city as boring as Omashu? I was so glad when Azula came and got me. There was nothing to do in that palace, and their weird old king gave me the creeps."

"Ba Sing Se is a prison," Zuko replied. "No one is allowed to even speak of the war, or at least, they weren't before the coup. The people are separated into tiers by social class, and they are not allowed to move up from one ring to the next without some sort of promotion."

"Well, that's one way to keep the peasants in check," Mai said, almost admiringly. "It'll be easy to maintain order if the people are already used to that kind of control."

"How could you say that?" Zuko exclaimed, with a little more hostility than he intended. "People in the lower ring are refugees who come here with nothing, only to discover there is almost no hope of advancement. They come to make a better life, and wind up living in squalor."

Mai rolled her eyes. "I guess banishment has made you sympathetic to the plight of the poor."

Zuko stewed in silence. Has she always been this insensitive? He hadn't noticed before. Zuko hadn't had much chance to explore the upper ring of the city, but he knew well the markets and shops of the middle ring. They weren't opulent, but they were clean and well-ordered. And he recalled the beauty of the firelight fountain Jin had shown him. He'd like to see the fountain one more time before their departure; perhaps Mai wouldn't mind the middle ring.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "There's a noodle place in the middle ring of the city that's not too bad."

"Sure," Mai answered, brightening up a bit and slipping her arm through his. "You can show me how you made this place bearable while you were stuck here with your uncle."

Their meal at the noodle house was mostly uneventful. Zuko asked for extra chili sauce to lend a more Fire Nation flavor to it all, and Mai kept her complaints to a minimum. The conversation was almost as awkward, though less entertaining, than his date with Jin. Mai and Zuko had everything and nothing to say to one another. Zuko was glad that he didn't have to conceal his identity with Mai, and it was nice to have someone to really talk to. But could he really talk to her? She hadn't yet asked him anything about himself or his time away from the Fire Nation – maybe she didn't want to hear it. He had asked her about her life since he last saw her though he knew most of it already, from her move to Omashu to running around with Azula, but he wanted to give her a chance to share how she felt about it all. To Zuko's disappointment, Mai's answers to his questions were short and matter-of-fact. Either she remained closed-off from him, or there really wasn't much else there to begin with. Zuko always felt there must be a depth of thought and feeling that Mai kept concealed, but maybe she was more shallow than he thought. Maybe there really wasn't much beneath the cold and bored exterior. He knew she'd had a crush on him when they were kids, before he was burned, when he could still at least pretend to be the perfect prince. How did she feel about him now? And was it him she liked, or his royal status? Zuko was still unable to tell, but she was the closest thing he had to a friend in the Fire Nation, so he'd take what he could get. It was nice not to be utterly alone.

After dinner, they walked around the market, heading toward the firelight fountain. Mai looked around at the stalls and her eyes settled on a booth of frozen whole fish.

"Ugh," she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Do people actually eat any of this?"

"It's not so bad," Zuko defended, "once you get used to it."

Suddenly a female voice came from behind them. "Lee!? Is that you?" As she came closer, Zuko recognized Jin's bright eyes and friendly smile. He hadn't seen her since he ran out on their date, right through this very market. "Lee, I can't believe it! It's been so long."

Mai smirked at Zuko. "Lee?"

Jin gestured toward Mai. "Who's this?"

"Oh … hi, Jin … um … er …" Zuko stammered, completely flustered. "This is just my friend, my friend from … the circus. Yeah, she's the knife thrower." He hoped desperately that Mai would not blow his cover.

Your friend, huh? Mai thought, with a twinge of annoyance.

"Really?" Jin was saying. She looked at Mai with admiration.

This was too good an opportunity for Mai to pass up. She spotted the fountain nearby, and knew exactly how to have some fun with this.

"Here, I'll show you," she said to Jin. Then turning to Zuko, "Go stand over there, Lee," she instructed, pointing toward the fountain.

"Hah!" Jin laughed. "I hope she's better at throwing knives than you are at juggling!"

Mai looked at him discerningly. "Hmm," she said, "Still not quite right..." She grabbed a frozen fish from the market stand and plopped it on Zuko's head. "Better." Mai broke an icicle off the fish case and took careful aim. "You see it's all in the wrist, really," she said casually, and then flipped the icicle toward Zuko, spearing the fish atop his head.

Zuko fought to settle the competing thoughts in his mind. The scenario Mai was setting up was not lost on him – he clearly remembered that incident years ago when Azula set an apple on Mai's head, and both he and Mai wound up tumbling into the fountain. But he'd also kissed Jin in this very spot, and he'd had ice shards flying at him from another source, and now memories of fighting Katara, and thoughts about kissing, were turning in his mind along with memories from childhood. That train of thought threatened to take him down an entirely different road, so he pushed the thoughts away and forced himself back into the present.

"Wow!" Jin exclaimed. "That was amazing!"

"You wanna try, Jin?" Mai invited her wickedly.

"Oh! No, I couldn't possibly," Jin started to say, then, to Zuko's dismay she said, "Well, maybe just one." Mai handed Jin and icicle and she threw it at Zuko with much less precision.

Zuko dodged the icy spear, but, still fighting to keep his head in the game, slipped and splashed into the water fountain.

Mai leaned on the fountain and smirked at him triumphantly. "Now we're even." Zuko could not deny that Mai was beautiful when she looked at him like that.

Minutes later, they were running down a side road, back toward the gate to the upper ring.

"Ha ha!" Mai laughed as they ran.

"Are you crazy!?" Zuko called after her. "You could have gotten me killed!"

"Whatever, Lee," Mai teased. She knew Zuko was a capable warrior; there was no way one rogue icicle coming his way would actually harm him, even without using his bending.

Zuko caught her by the arm. "Just stop … for a sec!" They were both flushed from running, and Zuko felt a blush creep onto his cheeks as he noticed her chest rise and fall. "You finally seem to be enjoying yourself. I've missed seeing this side of you."

"Well," Mai replied, "a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face." She reached a hand to the unmarred side of his face and pulled him in closer. "But not everything's changed."

He kissed her then, knowing that she wanted him to. As she kissed him back, he welcomed the tenderness of her embrace and affection. It felt nice to be with someone, to hold her close.

The next day, they walked onto the Fire Nation ship hand-in-hand, right passed Azula and Ty Lee.

"Awww, look," Azula mocked. "The two lovebirds have gotten together."

Ty Lee gleefully clapped her hands together. "They are like, totally adorable," she gushed.

"Just ignore them," Mai intoned as she and Zuko boarded the ship.

Just then, Zuko heard the rattling of chains and turned to see Iroh in shackles and manacles, escorted up the gangplank by Fire Nation soldiers. A pang of emotion stabbed through his stomach, demanding he sort through the turmoil raging inside him, and suddenly he knew that he needed to be alone.

"I'll catch up with you in a bit," he said gently to Mai. "I'm going to get settled in my cabin." And with that, he turned into the ship's hallway, finding and ducking into his assigned cabin and bolting the door behind him.