Love of Fire and Water

by Yemoya

Book Two. Stealing to get by becomes necessary to Zuko. Never did he think he could make a friend like that. The waterbender Kilara seems to accept him like he is. But will Kilara stay on Zuko's side, after Ba Sing Se gets conquered? While standing on two sides of a war can their friendship survive? Or will Kilara fight for her nation's freedom? Izumi's mother fic, canon compliant

26. Chapter 26

Hey everyone!

So I hope you all figured out how to read chapter twenty-five, because this is chapter twenty-six, and you should have read chapter twenty-five to understand what's happening in this chapter. You'll find the content to chapter twenty-five in my one shot Hope Crushed, which is rated M due to scenes which describe physical and psychological torture.

I'm posting this earlier than normal, because I was busy writing this chapter in the last few days like a madman! I just really wanted to have this out of the way and done, because I really want to go on with the story!

No warning for this chapter, but I included the last two comics from the Lost Adventures. They are called "Game Time" and "Bumi vs. Toph - Round 1". Pretty hilarious in my opinion. "Game Time" is about the gaang minus Suki playing hide and seek at the summer house of Zuko's family. Sokka wears his detective hat and the binocular which he wore in the episode Avatar Day, where the village of Chin imprisoned Aang, because they think Kyoshi had killed the former leader of their village, Chin the Conqueror. That was probably 300 years ago, so way to hold a grudge. Anyway, Sokka and Katara tried to prove Aang's innocence, and Sokka pretended to be a detective. And I don't think that I really have to explain what "Bumi vs. Toph - Round 1" contains, only one thing that seems pretty obvious. It was all Sokka's idea.

I'm really grateful there's this person posting all the Avatar comics on Instagram or I would have had to go to the library each time and hope the book was not borrowed by someone else. So thanks, avatargraphicnovel! And you guys should really check this site out!

I hope you'll like this chapter! Let me know what you think!:)

I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor its characters. The only characters I own are my OCs.

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Part Two

Chapter Twenty-Six

Finally Meeting Again

Zuko

"You did what?" Suki asked, her face contorted in anger.

I snarled at her. "I was a refugee, okay? Azula was out to get me, the Earth Kingdom hated me, and I couldn't very well stay in one place and get a job!"

"Sounds reasonable," said Toph.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "The thing is, she stopped me and trapped me in ice. I didn't want to show her that I'm a firebender, so I stayed there for a while. Kilara understood that I wasn't a real danger and simply criminal. She packed me a sack of food on the condition that I should answer her questions. A few days later, we met again, because she had followed me to warn me about Azula's forces getting closer. She went back home, but we met in Ba Sing Se again. It was all a coincidence. She knew who I am, almost from the start." I shrugged. "But somehow…" My throat constricted, as I thought about how she had looked at me in Uncle's kitchen, her smile radiant and warm. She had asked me if we were friends, and I has said yes. "… I managed not to ruin it at once, and we became friends."

"Just friends?" Toph asked with an evil grin.

That annoyed me. It's not like I had wanted to just stay friends. "Yes," I gritted out. "Just friends."

Suki raised an eyebrow. "You were in love with her?" she asked, almost unbelievably.

"No!" I shouted, before I rubbed my neck. "I… liked her. Er, you know…"

Suki wrinkled her nose. "I really don't want to know. But if she was your friend, how did she end up in prison?"

I scowled. "I don't know! I left Ba Sing Se, when she… When she told me she didn't want to stay friends with me, okay?" I rubbed a hand over my face. "I don't know what happened to her after that."

"I liked her," Toph said lowly. "She was amusing."

"Zuko. I know you changed sides, but you're still the prince of the Fire Nation. There has to be something you can do!" Suki pressed.

I swallowed. "I could try to sneak into the capital and free her, but… If I get caught, who's going to finish training Aang?"

"But…" Suki objected.

"No, he's right," Toph said. "That's more important now."

Suki narrowed her eyes. "Then don't get caught. I could come with you!"

"You just were imprisoned," I pointed out, before I shook my head. "I know that our justice system works slowly, since the priority of the Fire Nation is the war. So, my father is busier planning the war, and it should probably take him a while to care about war prisoners. Kilara should be able to be okay until we defeat Ozai on the day of Sozin's comet."

Suki cast her eyes down. "Are you sure?"

"No. And I would totally go on a rescue mission, if it was anywhere else than the capital. I would go, if Sozin's comet was later, and if Aang was better at firebending already. But our prison break from Boiling Rock… We were completely lucky that we got out. I never really thought of the risks, but what if I had stayed a prisoner there? Or if Mai hadn't saved us? Aang needs me to teach him firebending. He needs to stop Ozai!" And I wouldn't be reckless this time. I wouldn't lose my head. Of course, this was terribly risky, and Kilara had to be incredibly lucky, but... She also had this secret power. If she was going to be executed, and I knew there never were many people around, as it was all done quickly and quietly, she should be able to control everyone's bodies and flee. "And if we defeat him, we also help Kilara."

"I know you're right," Suki agreed. "I was just raised as a part of a group, and we've been taught never to leave anyone behind."

Toph looked at me with a confused expression, which was actually kind of funny. Toph was a lone fighter like me. We didn't fight in a group.

But if it were up to me, I wouldn't leave anyone behind either. If I had betrayed my country on my own, if I was only the Blue Spirit causing trouble, trying to stop the Fire Nation by annoying them, then I would try to rescue Kilara. Without a doubt. But there were other people here who needed me. I wasn't alone anymore, and I couldn't take risks without thinking about anyone else anymore.

It sounded harsh, but it also sounded like I had learned something about responsibility.

We walked back to the others, who all kept looking strangely at us. The silence stretched, when we sat down, and the others interchanged looks of confusion and worry.

I rolled my eyes, as I picked up my food again.

"So, did I tell anyone about this awesome fight Zuko, Suki, and I were having on the gondola? Against Azula and that acrobat?" Sokka's voice cut through the silence.

"Oh, no, Sokka! I haven't heard it yet!" Aang exclaimed. "This sounds really thrilling!"

"Oh yes, Aang. Suki was amazing with her moves. Slish, slosh, woosh, punch, bang!" He made some motions with his arms and wiggled around in his seat.

"There was no bang," Suki objected softly.

Sokka kept on talking. "And Zuko was like heeeeooooo… duush! Woosh, pat-tow, woosh, hya!" I guess Sokka's arm motions were meant to look like firebending, but they reminded me more of a gull octopus which didn't know which arms to use for catching their prey.

I scowled. "I do not make sounds like that when I fight."

"Oh no, I know," Sokka said quickly. "It's just to show the others your moves. Woosh is fire bending of course, pat-tow is a kick, and hya is when you suddenly drop to the ground and attack from below like a mole snake."

I grimaced. "That sounds kind of disgusting."

"No. It's a really good move, and Azula definitely didn't see it coming. If we had kept on fighting, she would have boiled to death; I tell you that. Her fighting was more like weehhh, oh no, weehhh, what, oooohhhh weh!"

I kept staring dryly at Sokka for three seconds, then I got up and took my food to my room with me.

"What did I say?" Sokka asked the others in a confused tone.

Katara snorted. "You're an idiot, Sokka."

oOo

It became more difficult for me to stay awake. The last twenty-four hours had been pretty exhausting, and even though I had got some sleep on our way to the Southern Raiders, the emotional rollercoaster had been worse than I had thought. I hadn't expected to feel so... compassionate with Katara and angry at Yon Rha.

The way Katara had bent this man was different from how I remembered Kilara bending me. It hadn't hurt, and it hadn't felt so weirdly twisted and wrong.

I hadn't known that there were different ways of bending a person with water.

Katara hadn't said a word since we left Yon Rha behind. Her face seemed empty and void of all emotions, as if she wasn't bothered by anything.

After what Sokka had told me, I had kind of hoped we would get to at least beat this man up, but it was Katara's decision. Yon Rha was a horrible, weak coward, a filthy excuse for a human being, and I wished I had at least punched him once.

Leaning back on Appa's head I stared into the sky and thought about the outcome of our journey. It seemed like Aang had been right. Violence sure as magma hadn't been the answer for Katara. Killing Yon Rha would have been a waste of time, a waste of breath. He wasn't worth it for Katara to become a killer, definitely not at an age that young.

Still, that man had been sent out to kill the last waterbender in the South Pole. And someone had told the Southern Raiders there was one. Someone must have betrayed Katara. Someone must have been okay with a little girl getting killed, and Yon Rha must have been okay with killing children.

I knew what war meant, what happened to people, and of the horrors in theory, but this made me sick. I couldn't wait for us to finally end this bloodshed. This wrongness in the world.

Suddenly I felt weightless for a moment, and in a panic I grabbed onto Appa's reins, before I ran up his neck to peek into the saddle. Katara grabbed onto the saddle's rest, looking at me with wide eyes.

"Appa must have fallen asleep!" she shouted, her body lifting up into the air, as the wind rushed around her hair and clothes.

I quickly jumped back and pulled harshly on Appa's fur to get him to wake up.

He let out a rumble, before he pushed himself into the air again.

"We have to land!" I shouted.

"There's just water!" Katara objected.

"There's always an island close by in the Fire Nation!" Narrowing my eyes, I looked back up at the night sky and read the stars. We had to go east, Ember Island could only be about half an hour away. At least, I hoped so.

I pulled on Appa's reins to make him change the course and tried to calm him with steady strokes against his head. "Just half an hour. You think you can manage that, buddy?" I murmured.

Technically, I knew Appa couldn't really understand us, but maybe he felt what we meant. He let out a low rumble, as he pushed his tail harder to fly faster.

"Where are we going?" Katara asked, sitting at the front of the saddle now, frowning at me.

"There's an island not far from here. We can rest there and get the others later." I hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe we'll even be able to stay there until Sozin's comet arrives. No one would think to look for us there."

She gave me a critical look, but didn't object, as she settled into the saddle again.

Since I was not in the mood of being accused of turning Katara in, I made Appa approach Ember Island from the non-inhabited side. We flew over mountains and rain forest, until the cliff, next to which our old summer house is built on, appeared below us.

Appa landed in the courtyard and immediately plopped down, letting out a huff.

"Are you hungry?" I asked Katara, who looked around warily.

We jumped down from Appa and she followed me slowly to the door that led into the kitchen.

"Yes. Where are we? It looks so grand."

I sighed. "This house belongs to the royal family." I looked at her, waiting for her to explode on me.

But she merely raised an eyebrow.

"It's our summer house and is meant for happy family holidays. And given the current state of our family, there won't be anyone coming here anytime soon. Azula and I went to Ember Island last month, and we didn't even live in this house," I explained, before I managed to open the door.

Inside, we found dried fish, rice, noodles, and dried mushrooms, tomatoes, and some fruit. Katara simply put some rice, the fish, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a pot with water and let it simmer. I lit the fire and put some herbs into the pot, but it was a fast and not talking much meal.

We waited, her sitting on the kitchen table, and me on a chair. I wanted to lean my chin on my hands and close my eyes, but my stomach rumbled, and the food smelled already so good.

"You knew about bloodbending," Katara suddenly said.

I looked up.

"You asked me if I could do it when the Duke got sick. And you weren't surprised when I did it yesterday." Her legs dangled from the table, her hands supported her behind her. The pose looked young, but her thoughtful face looked way too old for her.

I suppose all of us kind of were too old for our age. I was almost seventeen, so I liked to think of myself as not so much of a child than the others, but I was still a teenager. And from an adult's point of view, I might also still be a child, too.

"And Suki said you knew her waterbender friend. Is this how you know about bloodbending?" She looked at me.

I sighed. "Yes, but I didn't know it was called bloodbending." I hesitated. "Did… Suki tell you about Kilara?"

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Not about how you know her. Only that you do."

I nodded slowly. "She bent me once."

She jerked back. "What? I thought you were friends!"

"We… were. But… the situation was complicated, okay? We stood on two sides of a war, and… I guess I scared her that day. I behaved like an idiot, and she didn't want to see me after that for a while." I thought for a moment. "She did apologise about bending me, but she didn't explain to me how she did it. Do you really just bend people's blood?"

Katara grimaced. "That, too. I'm not an anatomy expert, but I think it's more than just bending blood. Any liquid in your body, really. I think it's even the water in your flesh. I don't just feel currents, I feel water everywhere in a human's body. There's just more of it in some places, and less in other places."

I hummed thoughtfully.

"Was… was the fact that you had a waterbender friend also a reason for why you changed sides?" she asked tentatively, after a moment.

I raised my eyebrow at her. This was definitely the longest time we had ever talked to each other without her insulting me or sending me away. And what was more, we even talked about ourselves. It felt weird and a little unsettling, but I would take what I was given.

"Kilara… definitely had something to do with it. But it's also her fault that it took me so long."

I don't know why, maybe it were Katara's open eyes full of blue, or the way she seemed to pay attention only to me, or because she didn't seem hostile for once, but I ended up telling her everything about Kilara's and my friendship. Apart from the fact that I had developed feelings for her back then.

Maybe Katara also needed a distraction from what had happened earlier today, and maybe discussing the friendship life of her former enemy and now ally was just what she needed. I don't know, but she kept asking questions, and I kept answering her.

I even got Katara to laugh, when I told her about how Uncle had tried to play matchmaker with Kilara and me. I noticed how Katara seemed to find embarrassing situations for me extremely amusing.

I rolled my eyes, when she started to laugh at me, as I told her about how badly I had handled the situation at the library with Mai, Kilara, and Denzai.

"Why is it so amusing to you when I'm in an uncomfortable situation?" I snapped.

She stopped chuckling, but her eyes still shone with laughter.

The rice had finished cooking, and we were already sitting in front of two steaming bowls of food. She let her chopsticks sink onto the bowl.

"Well… All I've ever seen of you was this angry, firebending, Avatar hunting guy. In the beginning, you weren't even human to me. Just evil. But then I noticed you were human. In this abandoned village… And in Ba Sing Se. It's just that I never would have thought of you as someone who is so easily flustered or so often embarrassed about something." She shrugged. "It makes you more human, which is comforting, but it also ridicules that horrible image I had of you, and that's funny."

"Well, I'm glad my uncomfortableness serves some good then," I said dryly, and she chuckled again.

All the bedding had been put away, so the only place to sleep that we found was in one of the living rooms.

I chose to use Uncle's room, as I had spent most of my time as a child in there, anyway.

My throat constricted when I looked around, seeing all the furniture covered with white linen, but still memories surfaced quickly. This was the table, on which I had always practised drawing, and where Azula and Lu Ten had nagged me to do something more active with them. During the holidays, I had tried to get out of firebending practice, because I hadn't been any good, and Lu Ten and Azula always won against me when we played our games. In the end, it had still always been fun.

This was the fireplace, in which Lu Ten had made fire flakes and stick bread with us. We had been caught after a few nights, and had had to clean the whole house as a punishment.

There was the carpet on which I had vomited when I had come down with the fever of the tropical millipede mosquito.

This was the couch, on which I had held a baby Azula in my arms, who had smiled at me, and giggled.

This was the chair on which Lu Ten had made my top knots, before I had worn the phoenix plume.

This is where Uncle had sat and told us stories about spirits, princesses, and war heroes. Azula had always pretended not to be interested in these stories, but she had always listened quietly until the end.

Mother had rarely been in this room, but when she had been, she had always drunk tea with Uncle at this table, while Lu Ten, Azula, and I had been otherwise occupied.

I sighed. There was no going back, I had already tried. Without Mother and Lu Ten, it could never have been the way it was.

I pulled the white sheets from the two couches. One had been for Uncle's family, the other for Ozai's or Grandfather.

I turned around to Katara, who looked around the room with a strange expression on her face.

The moon shone through the windows, white and blue light illuminating the furniture and us.

"We can also sleep in Appa's saddle, if you're not comfortable here," I said awkwardly, rubbing my neck.

She gave me a determined look before she shook her head. "How should I be able to defeat the Fire Lord, if I'm too scared to sleep in his house?" She marched over to one of the couches, and I walked to the other one.

"This was Uncle's room. You sleep, where he and my cousin sat, not where Ozai sat, so don't worry," I told her.

She scoffed. "I did not worry. But it's nice to know that." She rolled herself together. "Your uncle helped us in Ba Sing Se. Is he…?" she trailed off.

"He's alive," I reassured her. "He was imprisoned, but he freed himself on the day of the invasion. I'm sure he's fine. He's one of the most powerful firebenders in the world."

Katara nodded. "He seemed like a wise man."

"Yeah," I breathed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends."

"Why did you let Yon Rha go?" I was almost sure she wouldn't answer me, I was prepared to get a snapped reply back, but she surprised me.

"It felt like a waste. When I saw him, I didn't see someone the world would be better off without. I had thought it would be some heroic act of mine, that we would find a man who might be a serial killer or someone who terrorises innocent people in some kind of way. But if I had killed him… I don't think I would have felt better." She sighed. "It's already a lot that I could confront him about it. That I looked him in the eye, and that he knows there's someone out there who would and could kill him. I know he wasn't sorry in any kind of way, but I think my mother wouldn't have wanted me to become a killer at fourteen. And it wouldn't have brought her back." Her voice sounded hoarse, full with emotion.

"I would have understood if you would have done it," I said.

"I know. And I wanted to. But in the end, it's not important if he lives or dies. He's just a selfish, little insect who doesn't even love his own mother," she said with a cold tone in her voice, but it wasn't filled with hatred, only with contempt.

I stretched a little on my couch. "I don't know if I could have let him go," I murmured.

Katara was silent for a few seconds. "I don't know that either." Her head turned towards me. "But I'm glad you let me let him go."

I locked my gaze with hers. "Of course. It was your decision."

She opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something else, but then she closed it again. "I'm going to sleep," she said instead.

I nodded and watched how she closed her eyes.

Before I fell asleep, my thoughts turned to Kilara as they had done every evening since Suki told me she had been imprisoned. I hoped she was okay. I hoped she would live until I had the chance to see her again. Until we defeated Ozai.

oOo

After I brought Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Suki back to the summer house on Appa, and was surprised by Katara's hug and acceptance of me in the group, things changed slightly.

I realised how much more pleasant it was when Katara liked you. I didn't have to walk on eggshells anymore, I was free to talk to her whenever I wanted, and I didn't tense up every time she entered a room or looked at me.

It was nice. And living in the house was, too.

Everyone had their own bedroom (except for Sokka and Suki, but I made sure to give them one far, far away from mine), there was a fully functional kitchen, doing laundry was easier, and there was a market in town, so that we didn't have to look for fruit trees on our own.

Behind the house, there was still the patch from which the servants had picked vegetables, but it had been overrun by weeds. I don't know why, but when I told Aang about it, he and Toph went back there to rip all the weeds out and grow new vegetables. I guess Aang just wanted to emphasise on being a vegetarian, and Toph liked mud, dirt, and earth. She drove Katara crazy, whenever she entered the house in this way, and Toph was either forced to bath or stay outside. She chose to stay outside and slept on Appa's saddle from then on. But that's how she started to reek of bison, too, and even Aang couldn't say anything pacifist, when we plotted to get Toph bathed.

Sokka wasn't that optimistic, as Katara had apparently already tried to bathe Toph quite often, and it had never worked.

But now there were Suki and I on the team, and we were stealthy warriors, so Katara thought we had a chance. But no one can sneak up on Toph, and since she wasn't hesitant to punch, kick, and throw with rocks, everyone was severely bruised, when we finally threw her into the bathtub.

Katara used her bending to wash Toph, who loudly complained and tried to get out of the bathtub.

When Toph was finally clean and dry, we were the ones wet and full of dirt.

The rest stayed the same. I woke up with the sun and practised. I had begun to practise even harder and expect more of myself. The comet was less than two weeks away, and Kilara needed us to hurry up with defeating Ozai. The earlier before the comet that we defeated the Fire Lord the better. For her and the Earth Kingdom. And the balance of the world, of course.

I had started to wake Aang half an hour earlier, and we worked on getting him to put more power into his shots. He needed to breathe more deeply, but he had such a tiny chest, and probably tiny lungs. And he was still reluctant to do anything in a violent kind of way, even if he was only punching air.

Sometimes, he still whined that he had to practise so much, or complained about needing a break, and that really made me snap.

"You think Ozai is going to give you a break when you fight him?" I snapped and shot a fireball at him.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed and quickly dodged. "Zuko, come on. I know he doesn't do that."

"You think Ozai will understand, if you mess up the first try? You think he would stand there and wait for you to try again?" I snarled, jumping and kicking a fireball in Aang's direction, advancing on him with the move.

He met the ball with his own fire, letting it dissipate. "Well, no…"

I darted towards him, went all on the offensive, until I pushed Aang back, who stumbled and fell on his back. He rolled away, then he supported himself on his arms and glared up at me.

"Well done, Avatar. You're dead. The world falls to the Fire Nation, and there won't ever be balance again," I said sarcastically.

Aang jumped up. "What's your problem?"

"Zuko, try to loosen up a bit," Katara said from the side. She sat on the steps to the archway leading from the main house to the servant's house, a glass of water in her hands.

I rounded on her, my hands clenched to fists. "I'm sorry, I'm trying to prepare Aang to win and not die!"

Katara frowned at me, as Aang spoke up again.

"I understand, Zuko. It's just that I'm tired. If I train too much, I will be too exhausted to face the Fire Lord. We can gradually progress so that in a few days I won't need a break anymore."

I glared at him, then held up two fingers. "You have two days with a break."

Then I stalked off.

The others seemed to have heard of this little argument, as everyone else (except Toph) kept their distance from me that day, and didn't even once say anything to tease me. Sometimes, it wasn't so bad to scare little children.

But sometimes I also got a bad conscience. Like the next day, when Sokka had the brilliant idea to play hide-and-shriek. I had never heard of it, so I didn't know the rules, but I thought the name already explained it pretty well. Sokka wanted us to play a game to relax a bit and do some team activity together, and I simply agreed, because I thought this could be turned into a battle exercise later on. First of all, I had to know how exactly the game was played.

Of course, I didn't tell anyone that this was my intention, as then everyone would have come up with an excuse why they suddenly didn't have any time at all.

So I simply grumbled "I hate games," while I watched Sokka convincing the others.

I noticed that Suki wasn't here, as it had been her turn to get some food in the village. Now I also knew why Sokka was bored, as he normally spent any free second with his lips or hands glued to Suki.

It was disgusting.

I ran along the artificially laid out park, which had flora from more temperate climate zones instead of the tropical plants from the jungle behind the house. In these grounds, the probability of getting bitten by anything poisonous was a little less high than in the jungle, so I dived into a bush and waited.

I crouched down, observed the path through a gap in the leaves and waited for Sokka to arrive. He would get the shock of his life. I would so win hide-and-shriek.

It took him a while to show up. He wore a weird, blue hat with flaps at the side and a binocular, with which he inspected some leaves on the grass. Momo was with him, sniffing the leaves. They crept closer towards my bush and I just waited for the right moment to strike.

I tensed, jumped up and let out the most terrifying roar I could manage, while forming claws with my fingers to get the right amount of shock out of Sokka.

His face was absolutely hilarious. His eyes were wide, his teeth bared and his throat tensed, while he let out a very high pitched shriek. He tripped over his own feet and fell on his butt.

"What was that?" he asked dumbfounded.

I grinned, as I pointed at him. "Ha! Got you! I win hide-and-shriek!"

Sokka sighed and gave me a dry look. "It's hide-and-seek, Zuko. I got you."

I stiffened. Surely, I had misunderstood. He hadn't actually won against me. I was still a little pissed because of his boomerang from last week.

I crossed my arms, shaking my head. "That's completely impossible. There only is hide-and-explode for firebenders and hide-and-shriek for nonbenders. Who would want to play something called hide-and-seek? It sounds lame."

Sokka got up from the ground and dusted off his clothes. "That's because you grew up in a stiff and militarised nation and have no idea what fun is. Hide-and-seek is played by normal kids."

I glared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to crumble and admit that I was right and that I had won, but he just gave me a pointed look, and then he even raised an eyebrow at me!

With a grumbled "I really hate games!" I turned around and stalked off towards the house.

Aang and Katara had probably lost, too, because they were practising waterbending in the courtyard.

I couldn't see Suki anywhere, but I figured she must either not be back already or be in the house.

However, this was a great opportunity. Since I had got nothing out of hide-and-seek, I thought a little training could probably lighten my mood.

"Hey guys. I have an idea for your practice."

Katara and Aang dropped their water into the fountain and looked questioningly at me with curious faces.

I pointed at Aang. "You fight against Katara and me. You try to use firebending against her and waterbending against me." I turned towards Katara. "What do you say?"

She smiled. "That's a great idea. We've never worked with water and fire together before. As they are two opposites, and none of them is your original element, it should be quite interesting, right, Aang?"

He didn't look excited at the prospect.

"Make an effort," I reminded him, as I took my stance. "Or there won't be any break for you tomorrow," I added evilly.

Aang looked grim now and determined. Good. I hope this feeling would last.

It did.

He was panting heavily in the end, but a wide smile was stretched on his lips, when we ended our practice with bowing to each other.

I gave him a smile back. "That was good, Aang. Keep that up, and you'll be able to defeat Ozai."

His smile stretched into a grin.

Katara laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'm proud of you," she said.

He blushed.

oOo

How much of a child Aang was became evident to me again, after we returned to the summer house from watching that horrible play about us.

I had just been about to change into my night clothes, when it knocked on the door to my room. Sighing, I walked over and opened it.

Aang stood there, his hand in his neck, looking sheepish and determined at the same time. It was a strange look.

"What do you want?" I asked.

He looked around. "Can I come in?"

I stepped aside and closed the door behind him. For a few seconds I let him look around my room, before he turned his gaze back on me.

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you want?" I repeated.

"To ask you something," he replied, wringing his hands. "You see, I can't really ask Sokka about this, because he's Katara's brother, and you're the only other boy in our group, and you're older than me, so I guess you have more experience, and Sokka told me you already had a girlfriend. So you, er…"

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, beginning to think that this was the beginning of a very uncomfortable, and very cringe worthy conversation.

"I kind of have two questions," Aang said, turning his foot on the floor.

"Fine," I grunted, before I sat down on my bed. "Just spill it."

Aang's eyes widened hopefully, before he sat down in a chair facing me. "Okay, so, er, my first question is: Did you kiss Katara?"

My eyes widened in surprise and shock. "What?"

"Well, in Ba Sing Se, I mean. Or lately. Ever, I guess," mumbled Aang.

"No," I answered.

Aang stared intently at me, as if he tried to figure out if I was lying by simply looking at me.

"Why are you asking me that?" I probed, before I grimaced. "Does she think I want to kiss her?" Well, I wouldn't be completely opposed to the idea. Katara was pretty, and I was a heterosexual teenager, but I didn't really feel attracted to her. I still had feelings for Mai, although our non-existent relationship was pretty complicated right now. With me leaving her, locking her into a prison cell, and her fighting Azula off to save me... I guess she was now in a prison cell again.

"Just…" Aang sighed deeply. "That play, it… It made me insecure. I mean seeing your actors together."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Aang, that was only a play. It's fiction. It's not real. The writer simply invented that between me and Katara for the story."

"But it makes sense, you know," he pouted.

I frowned. "What?"

"Well, the two of you together. You're taller than her and older, and you bend opposite elements, and Katara's first boyfriend had messy hair like you and fought with two swords, too…"

I immediately recoiled. "Are you talking about Jet?!"

Aang slowly nodded.

"Gosh, no. He and I have nothing in common!" I made a very denying cutting motion with my hands.

Aang shrugged. "Anyway, I'm just like a little brother to Katara. I'm not taller, and not older, or way too old, it depends on how you look at it. And she never actually showed any interest in me, I guess… And we never talked about things, and then she said she was confused…" He bent his legs and hugged his knees, let his chin sink onto them.

I grimaced. Wow, I wasn't really the one he should be talking to. I sighed. "First, simply because I'm the only one here taller and older than Katara who is not her brother doesn't mean we automatically feel attracted towards one another. Maybe it makes sense to you, as an observer from the outside, but attraction and love rarely make any sense at all," I quoted Uncle. "Secondly, what exactly did Katara say to you?"

"She said it was bad timing, because of the war. That she's confused."

I frowned. "Yeah, but… This might be the only time, because it's war." I rubbed my hand over my face. "I don't know what to tell you, Aang. I don't know Katara the way you do."

Aang perked up at that and smiled a little. "Well, yeah, that's true. But what would you do if you were in my place?"

My hand lifted to tap my chin, while I was thinking. "Well, I guess I would just tell her how I feel, and that I feel like it's now or maybe never, because there's a war going on that might kill all of us, and that I wouldn't want to live with the knowledge that I missed my chance because of cowardice. Then I'd tell her to think about it and tell me her answer, when she's ready." I took a deep breath. "Because no matter how pressing the circumstances, if you press a girl who doesn't want to be pressed it becomes uncomfortable for you. Very uncomfortable, and more often than not, you lose the girl completely," I told him.

Aang's eyes were huge. "Wow, that sounds sensible. You really must have a lot of experience."

I snorted. "I certainly do not."

"So if you never pressured a girl, how do you know it gets uncomfortable?"

I grimaced. "Because I've seen it with Uncle quite often. He's a ladies' man. And because I know Katara that well. She'll bite if you press too much."

Aang seemed to think about this very hard, before he lifted his head to smile at me. "Thanks, Zuko. I think you helped me quite a lot."

"Good." I stretched. "Because I'm very tired, and you…"

"No, but…!"

"What?"

"There's this other question I have…" Aang pressed the tips of his fingers together in a nervous manner.

I scowled at him. "Hurry up, I'm tired!"

"Okay, okay. Well, how do girls like to be kissed?"

Why, oh dragons, oh why did I have to have this conversation with him? I just hoped he wouldn't ask me about the blossoms and the butter bees, too.

After I told Aang what I knew about kisses (which was: prepare, draw the moment out to heighten the suspense, or give her the opportunity to move away, if it's not a kiss with your girlfriend; and surprising kisses are welcomed by girlfriends (at least by Mai)), he finally didn't have any more questions. I guess he had quite a lot to think about now.

And I could finally change into my pyjama and fall into bed, only to worry about Kilara again, before sleep finally got me.

oOo

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my plan with Sozin's comet," Aang said lowly behind me.

I sighed, as I stopped my kata and turned around to look at him.

"I just thought you'd be disappointed and angry. Because I'm still too weak to defeat the Fire Lord. I know you gave everything up to help us, and I didn't want to disappoint you, Sifu Hotman." Aang bowed to me in traditional Fire Nation style.

"I'm not disappointed you don't feel like you're ready, Aang. I'm disappointed that you didn't trust me to react sensibly." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I get why you feel unprepared. It's why I didn't tell you about my father's plan. I didn't want to increase the pressure on your shoulders."

"We will be able to do it, though, right? Together, I mean." He perked up and gave me a hopeful look.

I tried to smile. "Together, I'm sure we'll manage. There's something that I think will help you to finish him off, though."

Aang winced.

"He will definitely shoot lightning at you. He might expect it from you, since he knows I'm teaching you, but he doesn't know how it works."

"Lightning?" Aang asked, perplexed.

"There's one technique you need to know before facing my father. How to redirect lightning."

oOo

We were halfway across the ocean, when I went back from Appa's head to the saddle. Toph never slept in Appa's saddle, because she didn't feel comfortable enough, but she should really get some sleep. I trusted Appa to know how to fly to the Earth Kingdom.

"Toph?"

"Hm?"

I sat down across from her and cleared my throat. "Sorry for… earlier."

She looked away from me, and didn't say a word.

I sighed. "Look, I'm not good with friends, and listening, and sharing and stuff. I tend to focus on larger things. Like finding Aang. Now, and for the last three years. That's probably why I never had any friends, until I met Kilara. Or you guys. But even now, finding Aang and defeating the Father Lord are the most important things to me. But I'm sorry if I was mean to you."

She huffed. "You weren't mean, you cat squirrel. You're such a softie, you can't possibly be mean."

I raised an eyebrow. Okay, that was a first. Not even Azula had ever said that to me.

"You annoyed me, that's all," Toph added.

I nodded slowly. "Well, then I'm sorry for annoying you. I must actually say I admire you."

She perked up, turning her head towards me. "Really?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "Your parents tried to turn you into someone you weren't, and you fought against that from the beginning. You're always so sure of who and what you are, of what you deserve that you didn't even hesitate to leave your home and follow Aang. I wish I could have had that sureness and courage a bit earlier."

She punched me in the arm. So I guessed everything was alright between us.

oOo

"Zuko?" Katara shook my arm.

Growling, I turned on my other side to see her sitting on Appa's other leg in front of me. "What?"

"I wanted to ask you something," she whispered, biting her lip nervously.

"What is it?"

"It's about Aang."

Had he told her what I had told him about girls and kisses? Oh, please not.

"Well, you always thought he should kill Ozai. You didn't even bat an eye. And you're his son. Is he really so awful that you wouldn't mind having him dead?" Her eyes were wide, and she looked worried, but it was hard to tell why. I was also so tired that I couldn't even really focus on her face.

"Yes, he is awful. That awful." I sighed, before I turned on my back to look at the stars. They always had something calming. "I'd prefer if he wouldn't die, I think. But it would be better for the world and Uncle if he'd die. Leaving him alive would always pose a threat to peace and Uncle's reign as Fire Lord. The father Ozai once was, and he was never really loving, but maybe… less cruel. That father is already gone for years. I wouldn't actually lose anyone if he'd die."

"So you think Ozai deserves it?"

I turned back to look at her, lying on my side. "He killed his own father. He would have killed the rest of his family, too, if it meant to get the crown. So, yes."

She shivered, before she started tugging at a strand of her hair. "He sounds awful. I hope Aang will be okay."

I blinked. Oh no. I probably had made her worries even worse!

"Aang knows how Ozai is. Aang is smart, and he's determined," (sometimes), "He's the only one who can do this." I didn't know what else to say. I really believed Aang could defeat Ozai, but I didn't know for sure if Aang wouldn't hesitate to take a life. And that moment would be all Ozai needed to take Aang's.

oOo

Seeing Uncle again had been… probably the most wonderful moment of my life. This is going to sound sentimental, but for the first time in a very long time had I felt real love in my heart again. I had felt comfortable, safe, and home. I had felt loved. And I knew that I was never going to betray Uncle again. He was more of a father than Ozai had ever been, and I would spend the rest of my life showing my gratitude and love towards him.

His scent was still the same, and even his hair was still the same. I was glad it hadn't become whiter or thinner. He looked strong, and that lifted a bit of my guilt for putting him in prison.

I had told him everything about my time at the palace, and how I had followed Aang to the Western Air Temple to teach him firebending. I told him about how I had met dragons, about how Sokka and I had been the first people to sneak into Boiling Rock and escape again, about searching for Yon Rha, I even told Uncle about the play The Boy in the Iceberg, and how we had played hide-and-seek, and that I hadn't known that game. Uncle listened, asked a few questions, nodded often, complimented me on the choices I made, and said about nine times that he was proud of me. My heart felt like it glowed every time he said that.

I still couldn't believe he had just forgiven me like this. But I was insanely happy that he had.

"The sun comes up in two hours. Why don't you sleep for a while, Nephew? We will have a lot to do in the morning," Uncle suggested.

I nodded. Now, that the adrenaline had left me and I felt comfortable, I realised just how tired I was. "But I first have to see how the others are doing."

"I'm sure someone showed them to a place where they can rest," Uncle reassured me.

I frowned. "Still. They are… they have a knack for getting into trouble," I said in an annoyed way.

Uncle let out a bellowing laugh. "I had always thought I would only hear you talking like this once you have children of your own!"

I sighed. "Well, it feels like I'm a babysitter sometimes." I stood up. "Do you want to come with me?"

Uncle nodded. "If they are still awake, I'd love to get to know your friends!"

I smiled.

Outside of Uncle's tent, I wanted to look for a member of the White Lotus, instead I found Katara still sitting there. Her forehead lied on her knees, and she had hugged her legs. Was she asleep?

I cautiously walked towards her. "Katara?"

She jerked up. "What? I'm awake! Zuko! How did it go?" She scrambled to her feet, yawning.

I raised my eyebrow in an amused way.

"Master Katara!" Uncle exclaimed and stepped around me. "I am delighted to see you again! And especially under the circumstances of officially fighting on the same side." He bowed lowly to her.

I blinked in surprise.

Katara looked at me questioningly.

I gave her a small smile and nodded.

A bright smile lightened up her face, and she returned Uncle's greeting. "General Iroh. I am also pleased to meet you. Officially now."

Uncle grinned.

A White Lotus member whom I didn't recognise showed us to the tent that was given to Suki, Sokka, and Toph. We peaked inside and noticed that they were all fast asleep. They had taken Katara's and my bag with them, which both lied in a corner.

"You two should get some sleep," Uncle said. "This tent is quite full, though. How about you take a smaller one for some privacy?"

I face palmed, and Katara tensed up. Why did Uncle say that? First Aang had thought there was something going on, then June, now Uncle?

"Uncle," I hissed through clenched teeth.

"What?" he smiled innocently.

I couldn't believe that it was mere hours that we had seen each other again, and he already tried to play matchmaker.

"We'll sleep in this tent," I said. "With our friends," I added tiredly.

Katara tried to hide herself behind her hair, as she bid Uncle good night and entered the tent.

I wanted to follow her, but thought again, and gave Uncle another hug.

"Sleep well, nephew," he said.

When I crawled around Sokka, Suki, and Toph to get to my bag next to Katara, she wouldn't look at me.

I grinned. "It's not so funny for you when you're part of an embarrassing situation for me, right?"

She scowled at me, then murmured "Ha ha, shut up," and turned around.

I chuckled, before I laid my bedroll out and closed my eyes.

"Good night, Zuko," said Katara. "I'm glad your Uncle forgave you."

I smiled. "I'm glad, too. Good night."

Two hours later, the sun woke me up and I went outside to do some firebending practice. Uncle and Jeong Jeong seemed to think the same thing and invited me to come with them. First, we did breathing exercises.

Jeong Jeong smiled at me and said that other than Aang I knew how to breathe. Uncle said I had definitely improved my technique. I told them that Aang had actually helped me. He had never been a big fan of fire mediation, but sometimes I had sat with him when he meditated in the Air Nomad style. Feeling the air feeding my fire had become easier for me.

Uncle said again that he was proud of me and that I had improved immensely since we had last seen each other. I smiled widely at him.

I did my stretching and muscle training then, and Uncle showed off his new muscles. He grinned proudly and said he had done all of this at the prison. His belly was sure gone.

After breakfast, Uncle invited me to a round of pai sho, and even though I really didn't want to play pai sho, I really couldn't say no. Toph was still asleep, and Katara had excused herself to go to the creek nearby for waterbending practice.

Uncle, however, had actually not wanted to teach me pai sho, but a few codes of the White Lotus. Master Pakku from the Northern Water Tribe was there, too, and they showed me some moves on the pai sho board which all meant different things to a member of the White Lotus. It almost seemed like a completely different language, when suddenly the ground shook violently.

"What's happening?" Master Pakku asked, sounding shaken.

I frowned. Earthquakes in this region weren't very common. Maybe earthbenders? But why should any earthbenders cause such a ruckus?

The pai sho tiles skidded to other places and Uncle smiled delightedly. "Looks like I won."

My eyes narrowed. I thought… Never mind. I would never understand pai sho.

Jumping up, I walked outside to be met with Master Piandao who had just wanted to enter the tent. "Are we under attack?" he wanted to know.

I felt my blood freeze over. Shit, what if we were under attack? What if the fire military had seen Appa and sent someone after us? Of course, bombs would be able to make the earth shake like this, too.

Master Jeong Jeong came running at us. "Where are the kids?"

I had just seen Sokka and Suki outside with Bumi. Toph had to be awake already, but Katara… She was all alone at the creek!

"I'll find them!" I growled and started running towards the sounds of battle. "I just hope I'm not too late!" I murmured, while I ran past tents and finally through the woods. It was right in front of me, I could hear it. The sounds became louder.

It weren't bombs, though. It simply sounded like earth. Maybe some Ba Sing Seans didn't want the White Lotus here. Or it could be Dai Li agents who defended the Fire Nation.

If it were Dai Li agents, I didn't know what I could do. I trusted Toph and Suki to hold them off. But Katara wouldn't have much water over there. And the rocks of the Dai Li could simply splash through the water. And Sokka had his sword, and he was smart, but what if they bent the earth under his feet?

There was a cliff behind the forest and the sounds came from the gorge underneath. I carefully made my way down. I had to pay attention, and only saw what was going on when I was almost on the ground.

Bumi was earthbending. Toph was punching through his rocks. They both had huge grins on their faces. There were rocks lying around everywhere, and I was fairly certain the gorge hadn't looked like this before.

"What the…?" Then I spotted Sokka, Suki, and Katara.

No Dai Li, hostile earthbenders, or fire military in sight.

"Explain yourselves!" I barked at Sokka.

He raised one fist in the air. "It's the ultimate earthbending showdown! Two opposing styles! Two opposing age groups! One winner!"

I came to a halt in front of them. Suki smiled and shrugged hopelessly. Yeah, we all knew how Sokka could get.

Master Pakku, Master Jeong Jeong, Master Piandao, and Uncle had arrived now, too.

Katara had her hands on her hips and looked very much like a discontent teacher, while she was throwing glares at Sokka. "He had the brilliant idea to make them duel each other, because they both think they're the best earthbender in the world!" Katara explained to me in a cold, biting tone, kicking Sokka lightly in the shin.

I groaned and face palmed. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Go Bumi!" Uncle shouted. "Old people represent!"

I glowered at him.

"We thought there was an attack! I thought you were all captured or hurt!" I snarled at Sokka.

He just waved at me dismissively. "Relax. Everything's under control."

"I don't think this bending battle is such a good idea," Master Pakku said. "It could give away our location."

My eyes widened as I realised he was right. Sokka could be such an idiot sometimes.

"Yeah, aren't we supposed to be hiding?" Master Jeong Jeong remarked.

Sokka put his chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Hmm… You have a point." He held up a tiny gong and began to bang it. "The ultimate bending battle is officially over!"

I could barely see Toph or Bumi, there were so many giant rocks flying around, causing earsplitting noises.

"I don't think they can hear the bell," Sokka realised with a frightened look on his face.

"Oh, really?" said Katara sarcastically.

I looked over at Uncle. He should have an idea.

Master Pakku looked at him with a grim grin. "I guess we'll have to stop it, bender style!"

The masters all nodded at each other, and I looked from Uncle to Katara, who gave a grim nod back.

We darted forward into battle. I had to jump out of the way of several rocks, I got once flung in the air, when the ground under me formed into a rock, and I jumped onto another one which was flying from Bumi to Toph. She crumbled it, but I used my firebending to push me up, before I landed in front of her after the rock had covered the earth. I rolled up and darted forward, grabbing Toph's wrist.

She might have not realised I was there, because she stiffened shortly, still in a bending pose.

"Alright! Break it up!" I shouted.

Uncle had raised a fire wall between us and Bumi, and Master Piandao was cutting through all still flying rocks.

Katara, Master Pakku, and Master Jeong Jeong had Bumi surrounded with water, fire, and lots of steam, until I couldn't even see him.

"Hey!" Toph complained. "Why are you all stopping us?"

"Because this ruckus could draw our enemy's attention to our camp," Master Piandao explained.

"Oh." Toph nodded. "Right. Well, I guess that's okay. I wouldn't have wanted to humiliate an old man anyway." She turned around and walked up the hill back to camp.

"Who're you calling an old man, you baby?" Bumi shouted from behind the steam and came running at Toph.

I quickly went between them.

"You. That's who, pops," Toph answered nonchalantly.

"I understand that you're disappointed you lost against me, little girl, but…" Bumi began in a patronising tone.

"Lost?" Toph bellowed. "I clearly won, you tottery grandpa!"

Bumi started to laugh. "Well, it seems you've never won before if you think that was a victory."

"I'm an Earth Rumble champion. Of course, I've won before. I just guess your senses have become dull with age. But I'll be considerate of this, of course. So that your old ears can hear it: YOU LOST!"

"In your dreams," Bumi replied.

Toph threw a pebble at him, and before they could start hauling larger rocks at each other again, I brought my arms out to keep them apart from each other.

Bumi stuck his tongue out towards Toph.

"You both need to start acting your age!" I snarled at them.

"Phpthh," Bumi snorted.

Toph pushed her sleeves up, as if she was ready for another round.

"So who won anyway?" Suki asked Sokka in front of us.

I glared at him. I was not in the mood for another petty fight. Besides, we had more important things to worry about. We still didn't know where Aang was, and we still had a Fire Lord to defeat.

"As referee, I have to say it was a draw," Sokka answered. He laid an arm across Suki's shoulders.

Just now did I realise how destroyed the camp looked. It really looked like the battle had been here, or as if there had been a very strong earthquake.

Katara stood at the side, watching the chaos, and shooting disapproving glances at Sokka, Bumi, and Toph.

"We'll just have to have a rematch later," Sokka went on.

"Sweet!" Toph pushed her fists in the air.

Bumi chuckled.

I stared after them, shocked and completely speechless. A what? A rematch? Were they completely out of their minds now?

Katara face palmed.

oOo

After the fight with Azula, the fire sages came to Katara and me and bowed down. They proclaimed me to be the next Fire Lord. They said the coronation could be later, looking at my torn and burnt clothes, but said I already held all the power to rule the Fire Nation in my hands.

That's the moment I blacked out.

When I woke up again, I was in my old room, lying in my bed. On one side of me lied Katara, on the other side the crown.

The fact that the crown was mine, even though it hadn't been put in my head yet, meant I was Fire Lord, even though not officially. I took a few deep breaths to calm down, but felt that my chest hurt too much for very deep breaths. I tried to sit up, but I could barely lift my head.

Katara stirred next to me, and immediately pressed her glowing water hands against my chest again. "You should have woken me up."

I swallowed. "I'm also only awake for seconds."

"You're definitely not going to die," she said reassuringly, but her forehead wrinkled with worry. "But only if I'll constantly heal you for some time. I managed to put the energy of the lightning into the centre of the scar, but it would try to reach out if I'm not pushing it back every few hours."

My eyes widened.

Katara looked up from her hands at me. "You realise you were burning from the inside out, right?"

I blinked at her.

She sighed. "Well, when the lightning hit you, it burnt your insides. It left you again, but you kept burning up, the energy had messed up your own energy, and your chi paths. Until I have completely righted your chi paths, it will still hurt you, and the negative energy in the middle won't go away completely. I can reduce it, but like I said, I'll have to push it back quite often."

I nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Katara."

She squeezed my hand. "Of course." Then she looked around the room. "I hope it's okay that I stayed here. I just thought I'd better notice you waking up, and then I can heal you again."

"Sure. I'm actually glad I didn't wake up alone," I replied.

She smiled shortly, before she got up. "Do you feel like eating? Or maybe drinking some tea? There are still some servants at this palace left, and they were all too eager to help you." She grinned.

I grimaced. "I doubt that. They are not big fans of the royal family with how we treated them."

"Oh, I don't know. I talked to a lot of them, and they all say that you were the friendliest of all of them. Apparently, even your punishments were nice." When Katara said that, it sounded like she was teasing me.

My heart started to beat faster. Servants had been a very uncomfortable thing for me, after I had been back here. And I had thought that I had been horrible to them. Really horrible. I mean, I had yelled quite often at them, or snapped, or been difficult in any other way, and then there had been that girl begging me, after I had punished her, just because she had forgotten I didn't want any tea. Dragons, I was disgusted with myself. I felt embarrassed, too. I knew I hadn't been in the best place back then, but I hoped I would be able to stop letting my frustration out on others.

"For example, there was this one girl, she was almost raving about you," Katara added, and I heard the evil tone in her voice.

"I'm injured," I said. "You can't make fun of me."

She laughed, before she came back into my vision. She had probably fixed her hair, because it was in a plait now. "No, seriously. You've been out for almost twenty-four hours. Aren't you hungry?"

I frowned, while I tried to listen to my stomach. It didn't tell me anything. I took a few breaths. My inner sun was still there, but was I hungry?

"I don't think that I can eat," I replied. I bit down on my lip, hard. It hurt. It felt like the lightning was still in my chest, burning my flesh away, burning around and down. It made sense what Katara had told me.

"You can't?" Katara asked and sat down next to me. She leaned closer over me to look me in the eye.

I swallowed. "I think it will hurt."

"And since when do you care about a little pain to survive?" she shot back. "You've got to eat something! Or at least drink some water! It's important you stay hydrated. Or I will bend water into you!"

I really didn't want to feel that. "Okay. I can drink something."

oOo

Later that day, a fire hawk arrived, meant to inform us that Ozai… was defeated.

As Katara read that out loud, I saw tears welling up in her eyes. Two letters came in. One from Uncle and one from Sokka.

Dear Katara and Zuko,

I hope you managed to kick Azula's butt, and that you showed her her place.

Hopefully, you are both fine. We are fine. Well, I broke my leg, but nothing else happened to us.

Oh, and Aang showed up. He waited for Ozai at the coast line, and they battled, while we destroyed the fleet. That was pretty cool.

Well, Ozai and Aang fought, and then Aang went into the Avatar state and pulverised Ozai, but he still didn't want to kill him, so he just bent Ozai's energy and took his bending away.

"What?" I tried to sit up, but Katara pushed me gently back down.

"Sh."

We took one of the airships, put all the soldiers in the brig, and are now on our way to you. If Azula won against you, we're going to save you.

Sokka, Aang, Toph, Suki

Katara pressed the letter to her chest, as tears fell down her cheeks.

"Wow," I said lowly. "They made it."

Katara smiled. "Yes! Your uncle was right, Zuko. Destiny was our friend."

I scoffed. "I don't believe in destiny."

She frowned. "Er… you're the one who said it's your destiny to help Aang restore the balance to the world."

"Yeah. But that was a choice. Destiny feels like someone is controlling us. And how could it have been destiny that the world was at war for a hundred years? That so many innocent people died, and that…," I stopped. That my father was the worst person on earth. How could this all have been predetermined? It sounded wrong.

Before I had left the Fire Nation, I had always believe in destiny. It was my destiny to serve my country. Then it became my destiny to lead our country one day. Then it became my destiny to capture the Avatar and win this war. But now I had made a choice that had led to the end of the war. Nothing had forced me to leave the capital, no divine power, no spirit telling me that I had to go. I'd made that choice. I had made the choice to change sides. Of course, someone could say that changing sides had been my destiny all along, but then did I even have a free will?

Urgh, that was a little too deep for me, when I was still suffering from a lightning burn.

Katara looked a little sad, maybe compassionate.

"Er…" I cleared my throat. "Well, anyway, Aang won. And he could energy bend. That's crazy."

Katara took the topic change without hesitation. "I always knew he could do it."

I raised an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I know he has his moments, but from the moment on that he destroyed your ship, I knew he was powerful. He was the only one who could have done this."

I nodded. "Yes. It's like Uncle said. Only like this, could the war end peacefully. And what does his letter say?"

"Dear Nephew, dear Master Katara,

I hope this letter finds you in well shape, although I'm sure that the two of you together defeated Azula.

We have managed to fight the fire military in Ba Sing Se and to reconquer the city in the name of the Earth King. Most of the military gave up, after we defeated them and said they would like to go home to their families. Some also exclaimed the wish to continue to serve our nation, even in times of peace. This made me very happy.

The Earth Kingdom people begin to trust us, and I was able to prepare the Jasmine Dragon for the grand reopening. Maybe an old lady friend of your will show up...

Please be crowned soon, Nephew. I am sorry that I won't be able to see it, but the throne can't stay empty for long. There are still people in the Fire Nation who support Ozai. Please be careful and act smart, Zuko.

I am so proud of you.

Uncle

oOo

It took two days for me to be able to sit up. That was when Aang, Sokka, Suki, and Toph arrived here. I was glad I didn't have to see my father.

Apart from the servants and fire sages, no one else who was loyal to me was in this palace. I knew Katara was afraid of a coup. Me, too.

I hated not being able to move and fight.

But no one else entered the palace. The whole city seemed like a ghost town, as there were actually a lot of families which had retreated to their country houses when Azula had ruled. Apparently, she had begun to banish people, and everyone had been afraid they would be next. There were no Dai Li agents left and no soldiers. Just normal people.

When I slept during the day, Katara sometimes went into the city to look after the people. She told me what they did and what they talked about. It wasn't very informing, though.

So Katara and I felt great relief, when the others arrived. We weren't alone in this anymore. And what's more, the Avatar was here, and with him the evidence of the defeat of Ozai's regime. An attack at the palace would be harder now.

Ozai was put in a cell in the dungeons, and Toph locked it with her metalbending. So she was the only one who could open his door or bring him food. Before she did so, she always bent chains from the floor to his feet and hands, making sure he couldn't move much. I was glad that she was so cautious. Toph could talk big, but fortunately, she still had her common sense.

But Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Ozai weren't the only ones who arrived. They also brought the soldiers with them.

Katara gave me something against the pain, healed me again, and then we made our way to the throne room. When I stood in front of the throne, she healed me again to make sure I would be able to survive the next minutes, as I wasn't really strong enough to stand. Since I wasn't officially crowned, I refused to sit down in the throne.

Sokka, Toph, Suki, and Aang brought the soldiers in. Most of them were part of the imperial guard, Ozai's private guards, others had been soldiers of the air force. All the engineers and navigators hab been put in the dungeons for now. I would see them after seeing the soldiers.

I held the crown in my hand. It was the sign of my new power in front of these people.

I started to sweat.

There were probably eighty or even more people cramped up in the throne room. I knew most of them were firebenders, and they could easily overpower me, so I had to show them how powerful I was. In a different way than Ozai. I had not had the opportunity to practise for this yet, so I needed to speak from my heart.

"I am Prince Zuko," I introduced myself. "And I am your future Fire Lord. Ozai's reign of terror, anger, and war is over. All of you are welcome to quit your service to the military. The Fire Nation won't need such a large military in the future. You are, however, also welcomed to stay. No one will force you into anything." I took a deep breath. "But the times of war are over, and if you won't be able to accept this, there'll be consequences. A lawsuit will be started against every member of the fire military. If you always acted according to our law, and didn't use unnecessary violence or hurt innocent people, then you have nothing to fear. You will be able to leave, go to your families. I understand that some of you must be angry that I decided to end the war. But I hope that with time you will see the ugliness of it, and will admire the beauty of a simple and peaceful life. I hope that I'll be able to send every one of you back to your families and loved ones. I also hope that you will all find your place in this new world, and that you won't give me a reason to take any moves against you. You will be given the opportunity to take an oath to the crown again after your lawsuits." I widened my stance, as the pain in my chest became worse. "I would also like to assure you that the war's end doesn't mean that the Fire Nation lost. This is a victory for all the nations, and we will work together as equals in the future. I will not let the Fire Nation get undermined by the others, but we will also pay the rightful and a sensible price to the other nations for all the suffering that we caused them. My first concern is, however, the wellbeing of the Fire Nation. I hope that with time you will be able to see my reasoning behind this. That is all."

They rose to their feet, and I was glad not to see helmets, but faces. I think most of them looked just confused, but I really didn't look intently at them, as I only cared about the fact that they should leave fast so that I could sit down, or lie down and have Katara give me pain killers or heal me again. Honestly, I didn't care, as long as it was something.

When the last person finally left the room, I sank to my knees and back on my butt with a painful groan.

"Zuko! Is it bad?" Katara asked, as she knelt down beside me, her water gloved hands now pressing against my chest again.

"I don't think I'm ready for standing," I hissed, as I leaned back to lie down.

The water healing calmed the negative energy again, that felt like a beast which wanted to eat me from the inside out.

I sighed deeply, when the pain became less.

"There's one group down, Zuko. Not that many from the airships are left," said Katara.

oOo

Sokka brought up the issue of the war prisoners that evening. He thought it was more important to free them than to look into the crimes of the military.

I thought it was bad to have an innocent man sitting in a prison, whether they were a war prisoner or a Fire Nation soldier. We couldn't favour one group over the other, though. I was responsible for my people now, I couldn't favour other nationalities over them. But I also had a debt to pay to the other nations.

Besides, I wanted to search the prison near the capital at first, because maybe Kilara was still here. We already knew that she not in the dungeons.

Since I could barely walk, I wrote some letters to the wardens of the prisons of the Fire Nation. I let them know what happened, that the Avatar had taken Ozai down, that this had ended the war, and I would be their next Fire Lord. They would have to send me every war related document.

In the meantime, Katara was almost always around to look after me. Sokka found that funny, because apparently Katara acted like my mother. That made her very angry and she started to whip Sokka's butt with water.

Aang hung out in my room pretty often, too. He told us everything about the fight with Ozai in detail, and when we interrupted him rather rudely to want to know why he had disappeared in the first place, he told us the weirdest story about a lion turtle.

While travelling around with Aang, I think the others had just accepted at some point that weird things simply happened to Aang, because he was the Avatar. While chasing them and being part of their group for a while I had to agree. After Aang ended his story, I just felt like 'Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?', but I kept my mouth shut and nodded simply.

Toph only came to my room to complain about something, and Suki just to check on me or bring me something she had taken away from a servant whose job it had been to bring me that thing. I guess she also waited for news about Kilara.

When the documents finally came in, she begged me to let her look through those from the capital.

"You need help, Zuko," she stated. "You can't do this all on your own, that's for sure. It's too much. And you want to be a responsible Fire Lord, right? Not favour someone over all the others? It just makes sense for you to give me those documents. I'm a leader, too, and I'm able to look through them, while determining their punishments as rightful, too strong, or too weak. I won't neglect the fire people in favour of the other nations, either. Pleeeeaaaase!"

"It makes sense, Zuko," said Katara.

"Yes, as future Fire Lord, you should approach this more neutrally," Sokka agreed.

"Fine," I snapped and handed Suki the documents from the capital prisons.

"Thanks!" she cried out and ran off.

The first people to free, which was a very easy decision, were the forces of the invasion. It were less people than I had thought, though.

We would be able to put them all in the guest quarters, which gave the servants quite a lot to do. They weren't enough, though, as Azula had fired or banished some of them. The head of the servants, a man in his fifties named Dairu told me about this issue.

"Do you think the banished or fired servants would like to come back?" I asked him.

He seemed a little nervous, and I thought that no royal had probably ever invited him to sit, while they spoke to him. He fidgeted around in his seat and often looked back at the door.

"I think so. It is an honourable job to do, and I'm sure most of them haven't found any others yet. They need the money."

I nodded. It had become easier for me to sit, and I hoped I would be able to walk around normally soon. I couldn't look so weak when I was going to be the new Fire Lord.

"Do you maybe know how to contact them?"

He nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. There's a register in which all their addresses are written down. I can see to it that they will all get invitations to serve in the palace again."

I frowned. "I would prefer if the register would be sent to me. I can write the invitations."

Dairu's mouth formed a little o, but he was fast to get a grip of himself. He bowed his head. "Of course, Your Majesty."

The new title was still weird, especially since I wasn't officially Fire Lord yet.

The fire sages arrived the next day and told me it was important to crown me soon. I couldn't keep not being officially the Fire Lord, as it was a weakness for the country not to have a Fire Lord sitting on the throne. They had read the stars, the sun, and the ocean, and had decided that I was best to be crowned in two days. The same day on which the war prisoners of the Southern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom from the day of the invasion were bound to arrive here. Aang thought it was great, but I wished they could arrive here earlier. I didn't want to have to do with so many things on one day only.

Many servants arrived at the palace as answer to my invitation, and were promptly loaded with the tasks for the preparation of the coronation.

Dairu shooed the servants around, as they tried to clean everything, and embellish everything. Dragon banners were pulled out of ancient chests, and the whole palace became decorated with flowers. Aang and Katara had volunteered to help Dairu pick a theme.

I thought this was a bit too much, but then they insisted on an after party, as every coronation demanded a banquet and a buffet (Sokka's words). I also thought it would be a good moment to introduce myself to the court and nobles, who were all invited. I couldn't really leave anyone out, but I knew I would fire some of the ministers or advisors after I would be crowned.

The only nobles I was glad to see after my coronation were Mai and her family. Well, and Ty Lee, although only her mother and her sisters had showed up. I had never before seen all of Ty Lee's sisters, but it was… disconcerting. It highly unnerved me, because it felt like there was a Ty Lee everywhere in the room.

On the day of my coronation, my wound had healed well enough so that I could walk again and stand for a long amount of time. It was uncomfortable and sometimes it felt like I was stabbed over and over again, or like the little beast in my chest moved around to make its bed like a deerdog, but it was bearable. Katara said I shouldn't take any pain killers anymore.

I was sad that Uncle couldn't be here, but apparently, he held now the command over Ba Sing Se, and couldn't simply leave. Master Piandao and Master Pakku arrived instead. I was pretty sure Master Pakku had only volunteered to come along to see Katara and Sokka.

Mai, Toph, and Katara barely left my side during the whole party, claiming they would protect me from the disapproving guests or any assassination attempts. Between these three girls, I knew nothing could hurt me.

Aang was busy entertaining the guests, and Sokka tried to talk to everyone at the same time. He was quite set on learning as much about this court as possible. He also made quite a lot of sarcastic comments insulting the nobles.

Suki was mostly with her warriors, as she hadn't seen them in a long time.

And I had to talk to everyone. Regardless of their nation, it was uncomfortable. I was met with suspicion, distrust, disapproval, and downright contempt from most of them. The only people apart from my friends or girlfriend being nice to me were Hakoda, Teo's father, and Pipsqueak.

Hakoda, Teo, the Duke, Haru, and Chit Sang had hid close to a Fire Nation town with a military base, so that they were able to hear any news. When they had heard we had won the war, and I would become Fire Lord, they had immediately packed their things and come here. It was a lucky coincidence that they had arrived here today.

But I was happy to see that some Fire Nation guards, servants, nobles, and even a few ministers seemed genuinely happy to see me be crowned Fire Lord. Almost every one of them said they were happy it was me and not Azula. Just the thing about ending the war, and having Water Tribe, and Earth Kingdom people, and the Avatar here today was met with uncomfortableness and suspicion. Quite a few ministers warned me about not letting the Fire Nation fall into the hands of the enemy. I told them they were not our enemy, but that I had no intention whatsoever to give the other nations any power over the Fire Nation.

At the end of the party, there were fireworks.

And I must say, when my father had been crowned Fire Lord, no one had laughed, there hadn't been any smiles, no one had been amused or entertained, and no one had looked happy.

So, in the end, I was glad we had made this party. I was happy that I had started my reign very differently from how father had started his.

oOo

After I was officially Fire Lord, I was able to send out word of the war ending to all military bases of the Fire Nation, ordering all soldiers and military forces to come back to the homeland. I also sent a letter to Uncle with an official offer of peace for the Earth Kingdom. Katara wrote letters to her grandmother and the chief of the Northern Water Tribe to tell them that Aang had defeated Ozai, and that I, a late ally of their group, had become the new Fire Lord.

It was really a lot of work. I just had to do paper work mostly, and I was very glad that Katara, Suki, Sokka, and Aang helped me in the beginning. Toph was a little annoyed, because she couldn't really help with paper work, but she had good ideas sometimes.

Sokka tried to make me lists with the Fire Nation politicians I could trust or not trust. We tried to work out how to determine who was trustworthy, and how to get rid of the not trustworthy people without making them angry.

I also had to form a plan about what to do with the soldiers who returned from the Earth Kingdom. I didn't think our society would just take a wave of work searching people in stride. There would be thousands of people coming home, thousands looking for a new job. I really hoped most people would quit their military service, as I didn't know what a soldier's job should contain in times of peace.

My idea about the trials was to start with the lower ranked soldiers. They had never been considered first, and they were the majority of the military, most of them had been forced into the army. I wanted them to be the first people for once, at least.

Suki, however, said that it would take way too long to have all of them stand trial and then get on to the higher ranked military officers. There were around a hundred people in the military who were higher ranked than a common foot soldier, of which we had thousands of them. So we decided on starting with the lower ranking soldiers, but having one higher ranked officer each day, too. It was good to have a plan, although it would still take weeks before they would arrive here.

In the meantime, I had the rest of the war prisoners from the prisons stand trial. There weren't a lot of war prisoners in Fire Nation prisons, but quite a lot in the Earth Kingdom. Those from the Earth Kingdom would be brought here, too. I was fairly sure they would all get freed and proved innocent, but I knew there could be some real assholes on either side of the military. And I didn't want a soldier who had acted dishonourably or brutally freed, simply because their whole nation was deemed to be the victim. And as long as the Earth King didn't start arguing, I would do that. They were still prisoners of my nation.

Suki hadn't found Kilara in any of the documents, but she had marked every Earth Kingdom rebel leader, all of those were imprisoned at the prison in the capital.

There were twenty-seven of them. But there were no ages noted, nor genders. With some of the names, I had no idea what person to expect.

With every one of them I hoped it was Kilara. Every one of them could be her. But they never were. They were all adult men, all non-benders, as the prisons for earthbenders were only at the sea.

During the half of the trials, Uncle sent a letter asking for help in searching the Earth King. Sokka immediately got a guilty face, and told me it was him who had encouraged the Earth King to be off and travel the world. Since he had started this, he was also going to solve this problem. Suki went with him, of course, and since they needed Appa, Aang came along, too. He left Momo with Katara so that she would have something of his. Her eyes went wide at this, and she blushed a little.

She and Toph stayed here, though. Toph didn't want to leave yet, and she hated flying, and Katara still needed to tend to my wound. They also had started to sleep on my couch or in my bed, saying my guards were useless, and I should be thankful for their protection. I was very thankful, but I didn't like being treated like some weakling. And I barely got any sleep, as Toph snored, and Katara kicked and punched in her sleep.

But just to prove them right, a warrior group, sent from House Ueda, attacked me during the first night Katara and Toph slept in my room. Without them, I would be dead.

In a way, it had been good, though, that House Ueda had attacked me, as I had looked for a reason to get rid of Count Ueda. He had been the general I had disrespected during the fateful war meeting three years ago. And I didn't want to work with anyone who would send untrained soldiers into sure death. But now, I simply accused him of treason. It was better that way, especially for my reputation, but it also meant more paperwork.

In the morning, I worked on forming a just punishment and accusation for Count Ueda, as he would still stand trial. And from the late morning on, the trials of the war prisoners began.

My chest had started hurting again, as it was late afternoon now, and I had listened to the accusations to five rebels today. Those all seemed to be pretty exaggerated, and the former rebels all told me their story in a more realistic light. Until now, none of them seemed to have behaved dishonourably before or during their imprisonment. They had simply done what everyone would have done. Protecting their homes.

But when the next prisoner arrived, it was a stranger procession than all the others. The prisoner was not in shackles. Instead, they were hauled over the shoulder of a guard, looking incredibly small and thin, like a child.

My throat constricted.

Next to the guard, was an interrogator, one of these who only worked for prisons. They weren't well seen in the Fire Nation, as they were mostly used to beat the prisoners up, provoke them, or simply annoy them.

The guard put the person down so that they knelt on the floor, their head hanging down. I thought it was probably a boy, as they had short, tousled hair. Then the guard and the interrogator knelt down, too. I couldn't see any anger in their faces towards me, which was a good sign.

I glanced over at Katara, who stared at the prisoner in a shocked way.

None of the others had looked so fragile.

"You may rise," I said to the interrogator and the guard.

The interrogator cleared his throat. "Your Majesty, this is war prisoner 17. She was a rebel leader, caught just about over a month ago. 17 played a major role in the rebellion of the Armadillo Lion in Ba Sing Se. She's who they call the Lioness."

Prisoner 17 was called Liwei. I remembered that name from the document. When I had read it, I had wondered if this person knew Kilara, as they must have been part of the same rebellion. Maybe they had led it together. But I hadn't thought she was a girl.

I swallowed, trying not to get my hopes up too much, and nodded. "Continue," I said.

"There were rumours and even a full report from Ba Sing Se about some astounding powers of 17, which could be useful for our nation. While she was imprisoned, we've been trying to control these powers." He swallowed. "She can… make people move the way she wants to."

Impossible.

I knew there couldn't be that many coincidences.

There couldn't be two bloodbender girls in their teens, leading a rebellion in Ba Sing Se.

I almost fell over my feet, as I got up and walked down the steps to them. I didn't pay any attention to the interrogator and the guard, as I simply stared at the person kneeling on the ground.

Nothing about her reminded me of Kilara. But I couldn't see her face. Her clothes didn't fit, and were torn at some places. She was clean, though. The other prisoners had all looked way filthier.

As I got closer, I noticed her hair wasn't evenly cut, but the colour… The light from the lamps shone onto light auburn hair, which almost looked like it had the colour of a wildfire itself, in this light.

I saw her hands. They had the right shade, the right size, but the nails were too short. Still, her hands looked clean and unhurt.

"Stand," I said, hoping my voice wouldn't shake.

She shifted her weight to her hands.

I frowned.

"Y-your Majesty, she is not in her right mind," the interrogator said. "Her powers are dangerous to us, as long as we can't control them, so she has to be drugged. Her body can't respond well to her mind, which works slower than normal. We used a concentration of the smoke poppy's juices. So it's not addictive."

I shortly glanced at him, then back at the imprisoned girl before me, who still knelt on the floor. I bent down to sit in a crouch, my elbows on my knees. Oof, that made the negative energy in my chest flare, but now I had to endure it.

"Can you look at me?" I asked softly.

She could. She lifted her head, slowly, and I noticed her hairline had been burnt. The skin was a pale rose, almost white, but there was still already new hair growing, although it looked as stubby as a man's beard. Half of her forehead was coloured in the same way, and then the only things I could concentrate on were the turquoise eyes. A perfect mix of green and blue, the colour of the ocean at the White Beach on Ember Island.

Kilara.

Kilara

I blinked and realised that Ozai couldn't really look so much like Zuko. He couldn't have the scar, and he definitely couldn't still look like a teenager.

My mouth opened a little, as I wanted to say his name.

Zuko.

How was that even possible?

---

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!:) Please leave reviews!:)

That's the misunderstanding I was talking about in the author's note at the beginning. And my subtle hints in the last chapter were that Ozai's voice sounds young, and once soft, and that he wears black pointed boots and a cape. Ozai always wore the long, formal robes, but Zuko only wore that for his coronation. Well, maybe some fo you haven't read the comics, but in the comics, Zuko always wears pants with his boots, and an armor with a cape. Well, the other hints were the hands untouched by age, and the fact that Ozai looked exactly like Zuko. I mean, they do look pretty alike. They have the same eyebrows, eyes, nose, and I guess the rest, too, but it's difficult to see with Ozai's goatee. But I really meant exactly. Scar and all.

So, Kilara was actually imprisoned that long, because Ozai didn't have any time to deal with war prisoners, and it was not his top priority, so all of you who feared what might happen to Kilara in Ozai's presence, Kilara is not and has never been in Ozai's presence. I never wanted her to meet that horrible man. She suffered enough. Let's give her a break.

And I've got to say I'm just so happy that we're finally at this point! I hated making Kilara suffer, but it felt unrealistic to me not to do that. But now, she's surrounded by some of our favourite people from Avatar! She'll be safe, and I'm very happy about that myself!

When Zuko became part of the gaang in here, I promised you I would make him find out that Sokka is sometimes a bit nuts. I think I did that already, but I also mentioned that I would make Sokka say the same things to Zuko about his fight with Azula in the Boiling Rock 2 as he says to Aang after the fight with Ozai. That Zuko was just like hyaow! Rackadackdish! Badang! And Azula was more like weeeh, meeeh, weehhh. Well, I forgot that in the last chapter, so I tried to include it in here, after they're back from Boiling Rock, and Sokka tells the others about the fight on the gondola.

It was a little hard for me write about Zuko and Katara as just friends, and have Katara react to Aang with blushing, but this is canon compliant. However, I also quite loved to write about Zuko and Katara as friends. I think in non-Zutara fan fiction, those two never get enough time with each other. And I'm not only talking about some Kataang people who sometimes make them dislike each other. I only ever read one fic in which that was not the case, but I would have never really called them close in that fic, either. And in a world in which Katara and Zuko weren't meant to be endgame, I still would have wanted them to be friends, at least. And I hate how we were robbed of that in the comics. Or how they never met in LoK. With Toph, of course, too. Actually, Zuko's only friends from the gaang in the comics seemed to be Sokka and Aang and that's ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

The reasons Aang listed for why it made sense for Katara and Zuko to feel attracted to each other are sadly most of the time the main reasons for Zutara fans to ship them. There are way better reasons, in my opinion, as the reasons Aang mentioned are completely superficial, and Katara and Zuko are not superficial people. And what Zuko answered is, in my opinion, right, that love doesn't always make sense. I, for one, still like when it does. Espacially in books, series, or films. In real life, it doesn't have to make sense, but when you can't see how two people fall in love with each other in a series, that's quite frustrating. It was like this to me with Katara and Aang. She was his crush, then he suddenly thought he loved her (he's twelve!), then they had one moment, in which Katara liked his advances, then nothing happened again for weeks, Aang kissed her twice, she rejected him, and suddenly she likes him that much to kiss him! I mean, yes, in real life, these things sometimes happen. But series should show us a why and a how. There was quite some time between Zuko's coronoation and the scene in Ba Sing Se, so I think that's when Katara changed her mind, but we didn't get to see that. We also never got to see how Zuko and Mai became a couple. Only Sokka's relationships made sense to me.

I also would like to add that the vehemence with which Zuko and Katara insist that they're not a couple in the series doesn't show that they're only friends. It doesn't show that there's nothing between them. If I would be asked if a good friend of mine and I were a couple, or it would be assumed that we were one, I would laugh. I'd just be like "What? Him? Hahhahhahaha, good one.". But the way Katara and Zuko reacted always seemed more like they were afraid of someone finding out they liked each other. Or that they were trying to convince themselves that they didn't like each other. Same with the Ember Island players. When it would happen between two friends, they would start laughing, not grimacing and distance themselves from each other. Only if they really couldn't stand each other, and it's quite obvious that they at least liked each other as friends. So I tried to cool the vehemence down when Aang and Iroh thought there was something going on between Zuko and Katara. I didn't make them laugh, however, because it wouldn't have fit with the other moments in which people thought something was going on between Zuko and Katara.

It was very important to me to make Zuko apologise to Toph for being rude during their 'field trip'. He was kind of right, they had to find Aang, but still, Toph is only twelve, and I think she thought she could bond with Zuko over having not so great parents and being forced to be someone they weren't. And he rejected this. Zuko can be such an ass, sometimes. Well, I made him apologise, also because I think he would have done it.

I added some direct speech within the comic scenes, because sometimes it seemed like there had to be something else between the panels.

Answers to reviews:

I'm answering here the reviews I got for Hope Crushed, since the readers left their reviews at that story and not at chapter twenty-five of this story.

To Vosck: Hey, I'm glad you liked the last chapter, and it's always nice to read a review by someone new! I hope you liked this chapter, too.

To uchihaNaruto247: Well, as you see, you don't have to worry about Kilara being in Ozai's presence:D Yeah, their excuses for joining the nonbender club were weird, but Zuko was there because of the pai sho tournament, and I had to work with that. How he got dragged in there, and how Katara caught him was invented by me, but when Aang caught him, that was in the comic. I guess the comic was just from Aang's POV, so I had to come up with a few things to tell it from Zuko's. Suki getting tortured by Azula did not happen in the show. I think that would have been too brutal for a kids' show. And it's not really my original twist, as I read it in several fanfics already. I always thought it didn't make sense, and why would Azula even visit Suki? But then I remembered how Azula told Sokka about her 'favourite prisoner' in the invasion episode, and that Suki always mentioned Sokka. And why would Azula come to the Boiling Rock? She couldn't know that Zuko was there. I still feel like it's weird, but in the moment when I wrote about Kilara at Boiling Rock it made sense to me. But Azula would prefer psychological torture over physical, I think. We also later got to see Suki in a bikini, and she hasn't any scars, so whatever happened to her, it couldn't be that bad. More of a mental damage, I'd think.