Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything associated with it except my fanfiction.

Katara sat down heavily on the chair, her composed face betrayed by the shock and disbelief in her eyes. "Days... weeks of my life... gone... what was I even doing?"

Nobody looked at her. Although they had agreed to tell her everything else, an unspoken contract between the group was to never speak of what she almost did to Aang. It would have been the last straw for her to realize she had almost took away her soul mate by her own machinations, even if they were done without her free will.

Especially without her free will.

Finally Sokka was the one to break it to her. "I hate to say it, but... you were kind of a super loyal spy to Azula." Sokka's eyes widened as he realized something. "Wait a minute. Besides working for Azula, wasn't Katara also the one that came up with the plan to protect Kuei? And wasn't she also the person that checked on Hakoda just before he died? A-and Dad's last words. I thought it sounded like Azula, but was he really trying to say Katara? Does that... mean... my... sister... did..." He couldn't finish, but he didn't need to. Everyone else's eyes widened at the memories and the implications. "Oh Spirits..."

"Wait... what plan? Did something happen to King Kuei? What happened to dad? Did I hurt someone? Have I killed someone? Did I kill Dad?" Katara frantically asked with mounting dread. The downcast looks on everyone's faces was all she needed to know. "No..." she whispered before the tears came down in earnest. "What have I done?" She bawled out, more for her own anguish than anything else. "How could I?"

Before she knew it, everyone was wrapping their arms around her, embracing her tightly as she cried her heart out for the suffering she must have caused for everyone... for her friends... for Aang.

Aang...

She suddenly stopped crying. "Wait. You said I was working for Azula while I was..." she didn't want to say it. It was too painful. "Did I do anything to... Aang?"

They all cast each other furtive looks, which made Katara worried. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when they turned to her and thoroughly reassured her that she had not done anything bad to her boyfriend.

"Good," she whispered in a strangled voice. "If I'd done anything to him..." She couldn't speak anymore with the lump at her throat.

Aang picked her up with his arms - he had grown stronger and taller since she last saw him. Months ago... she thought bitterly. "I'll carry you to bed, Katara. What you need most now is some sleep. We can talk later."

"But..." Katara's protest was cut of by a yawn. She cuddled close to Aang's body. "Hmm," she purred. "Maybe a little sleep would be nice... so long as you're there with me, love."

"Katara, are you sure about?-" Aang stopped when he saw that his love was sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly. He sighed and kissed her, twice on the forehead and once on the lips. For the first time since since that day in Ba Sing Se... he thought ruefully.

"Don't worry Katara. I will never leave you. Ever again."

Then Sokka stood over Aang, clearing his throat.

Aang's face turned red, and he sighed. "Bring blankets and a pillow. We'll take turns guarding her."

Ty Lee, not having said a word the entire time, gracefully grabbed what Aang had requested and then, suddenly, pecked the Avatar on the cheek. "She's back to normal," Ty Lee chirped. "You two are good for each other. Remember that." And she skipped away to the others' bemusement and amusement, except for a thoroughly annoyed Sokka, whose forehead now bore the same mark as it did when he exited the Cave of Two Lovers.

Katara sat in blank shock, gripping Aang's hand like she never wanted to let him go.

She started crying as soon as Sokka dully recounted what she had done under Azula's influence, but after hearing that she had been the one to kill her father, her body went numb and she glazed over everything afterwards.

What... what have I done? Why don't I remember anything? Why couldn't I stop myself? Why didn't I have any control over myself? How could I let this happen to me?

"Uh... Katara?" she whipped her head around to look at Aang. "I think... my arm... might be hurting..."

She looked down to see that indeed, her nails had dug into Aang's sking, and blood was currently flowing down his arm. Her heart shattered, despite the fact that it was already broken over the sorrows of others. Because Sokka and Aang were all she had left. "I'm so so so so so sorry Aang!" she blurted. "I didn't mean - "

"It's okay, Katara. You did it, but you didn't mean to, and that's all that matters." Aang's smiled melted her heart and reconnected its seams.

She couldn't hold it anymore. She leaned in and kissed her soulmate, the first real kiss they had in too long a time.

Sokka for his part didn't object. He was just glad that he had his real sister back, even if she was giving him oogies at the moment. He figured revenge on Aang could always come later.

But then they started getting a lot more intimate, and to spare himself - and his poor eyes - Sokka cleared his throat. Aang and Katara jumped to opposite sides of the room, faces blushing furiously. At least that wouldn't ever change, and what's more, he actually had a really good reason to break them apart this time! But back to business. He cleared his throat. "So, uh... do you remember... anything about how you got captured and what happened afterwards?"

Katara thought for a moment. "I remember checking out the tofu in the Ba Sing Se market - you know, for Aang," she added to Sokka's face of disgust. "Can't have a vegetarian eating meat now, can we? So anyways, I was perusing the food, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of green."

"The Dai Li," Aang hissed. Katara was taken back by the ferocity that existed now in her boyfriend's expression. Aang saw her face, and apologized. "Sorry, Katara. It's just that we've been on the run... and so much has happened - "

"I know, I know, the world is about to fall, blah blah blah, but I can't remember any of it!" Katara was frustrated that she let this happen to her. How in the world was she taken over so easily? The one thing she prided herself on was her free and independent spirit. Even if she had to sometimes resort to demeaning ways, at least she had the ability to choose to take those actions. With Azula breaking her will... it was as if everything that made Katara who she was disappeared. As if Katara was no more. If she hadn't just cried all of her heart out, she would have broken down into tears again.

Aang reassuringly squeezed her hand. "Katara. It's okay. You're back, and that's the most important thing."

"Hey! What about our invasion plan?" Sokka got hit with a snowball, except Katara wasn't the culprit. He looked aghast at Aang. "Even you too?"

"Our plan to take down Azula is secondary to the fact that your sister and my... uh..." he blushed "love... is back, and that we know everything now. We can always find out where Azula's hiding later."

Sokka facepalmed himself. "Alright, alright, but the two things are kinda related Aang! That's why we're asking my sister all these questions, so we can put a stop to this madness and get on with the rest of our lives!"

Aang's tattoos started glowing, and Katara hugged him. When Aang finally calmed down enough to listen to reason - which wasn't very long, seeing as he wasn't the one recovering from an awful experience he wasn't aware of, she told him, "I hate to say it, sweetie, but my brother is right. Look at what Azula's done to us. She made me kill my own leader, my own father, to make us all suffer. We have to stop this as soon as possible, to prevent things like this from happening again, even if it means revisiting difficult, even painful, memories."

Aang relaxed, although his enmity towards Sokka did not go unnoticed. "Alright, alright... go ahead, Katara."

Katara winced at the memories. "Anyways, like Aang said, I saw the Dai Li symbol on someone's back. I wanted to get a closer look, but the person started running away. I chased after him, then got into a dark alleyway. I started searching for any traces when suddenly someone spoke to me from behind. I turned around, and the last thing I saw was black.

"Then I woke up in this room with a lamp... it was green and dark and looked like it was underground and..." understanding dawned in Katara's eyes, as it did in Sokka's and Aang's. They faced each other. "Looks like we're booking a vacation to Lake Laogai," said Katara with narrowed eyes.