We had been at sea for several weeks already, just over a month. It was rather unbelievable that we'd been getting away being on a stolen ship all this time, but it was working so I wasn't going to question it. We even picked up a couple of people that Sokka and Katara had come across whilst picking up supplies, The Duke and Pipsqueak. Apparently they had been a part of Jet's freedom fighters, and when I heard Jet's name I lifted my head. "Hey I know Jet, I met him on the ferry crossing when I first arrived at Ba Sing Se." I told everybody before frowning. "Then he attacked Zuko later when he found out he and Iroh were fire benders, and it just went downhill from there. But hey! Nice to meet you. I'm Kayo."

It was crazy that Team Avatar had met Jet and his gang too, what a crazy small world. Anyway, we got both of them kitted out with Fire Nation uniforms so that they could blend in too. I had a full uniform as well, which was kind of weird to wear since I wasn't used to wearing armour but I soon adjusted to it. There had still been no signs of Aang waking up, so when the little air bender suddenly burst out on deck and tried to make an escape on his glider, everybody was a little surprised. He looked thoroughly confused, his injuries keeping him from taking off and when he hit the deck, he looked up in confusing to see Momo hanging out on Hakoda's shoulder, who was dressed in Fire Nation uniform.

"Momo?" Excited to see Aang awake, Momo flew over to him and landed on his shoulder to lick his cheek happily.

"Twinkle-toes, that's got to be you." Toph said as she, Katara and I all rushed forwards to meet Aang who was still looking around him in a daze.

"Aang, you're awake!"

"Are you sure?" He questioned as he rubbed his eyes and looked around at us again as I reached up and took off my helmet, smiling and giving him a wave. "I feel like I'm dreaming." Quickly dropping to her knees in order to hug him, Katara was smiling broadly as she held him close.

"You're not dreaming. You're finally awake." After she let go, Sokka was next to give Aang a relieved hug, as chipper and cheerful as usual though Aang didn't seem to recognise him with the full face helmet on until he spoke.

"Aang, good to see you back with the living, buddy."

"Sokka?" Blinking a few times, Aang suddenly grew woozy, wavering on his feet and Toph yelled in warning that he was going to fall. Already seeing it happening, I'd dived forwards and stretched out my arm, catching Aang before he could hit the ground too hard and injure himself further. He collapsed against me, my arm supporting his upper body before I turned him over onto his back and held up his head as Katara reached him and took over. You know, I kind of like the little black fuzz Aang had going on. It was adorable.

It took a few minutes for Aang to come back around, but once he was opening his eyes and looked a little more cognitive, I handed him some water to drink. "Here, you're probably thirsty but take it slow. Your body is still recovering and you've missed a lot since you got hurt." I told him as he accepted the drink, gulping once or twice before handing it back to me.

"How come you're here? Aren't you with Zuko?" I started slightly, eyes widening before I looked away with hurt, not wanting to think about Zuko anymore than I already did.

"No. I…I left him." Clearing my throat, I forced myself to smile at him, wanting to push on forwards. "But it's good that you're awake now, we were starting to get worried." Aang just blinked and looked around him, still unable to process anything.

"Why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one out of it?" Seeing that he was getting worked up and agitated, Katara soothed him as someone brought Aang a red cloak to wear as a disguise.

"You need to take it easy, okay? You got hurt pretty bad." Deciding that it was probably best if I left all the explaining to Katara, I backed up then walked away to join the others who had also given Aang some space to catch up with everything.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

"Sure he will, he's the Avatar. He's as tough as rocks." Sokka waved off, totally at ease with everything. "He survived getting shot with lightning, right? He just needs some time to get his head straight that's all." I rolled my eyes at Sokka.

"I meant when he finds out that the world thinks he's dead. Besides, he's still not recovered from that injury. No matter what Katara and I do, we can't straighten out the messed up energy in his body. It's like his chi path has been blocked." Of course knowing absolutely nothing about what I was talking about, Sokka looked at me blankly so I clicked my tongue. "Basically, it's bad."

"It'll be fine! With both you and Katara working on it, he'll be healed in no time." Considering just how laid back Sokka was being, I was starting to understand just how annoying I must have been for Zuko to deal with. Katara took Aang inside for a healing session which took about an hour before bringing him back down for food, all of us eating my food which I had cooked for everyone on the ship. Sokka took the time to tell Aang everything that he'd missed, from joining up with his dad and the Water Tribe warriors, the Earth King choosing to travel the country with his pet bear and capturing this ship which was now our disguise as we sailed through Fire Nation occupied waters. "Since then, we've been traveling west. We crossed through The Serpent's Pass a few days ago. We've seen a few Fire Nation ships, but none have bothered us."

"So, what now?" Aang questioned, still having refused to eat as of yet which I did not fail to notice.

"We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan." Hakoda spoke up, but Katara quickly interjected with an irritated, biting tone.

"It's Sokka's invasion plan." Yep, she was still mad at him. Poor guy, he looked so hurt and unsure of what to do.

"Yes, Sokka's plan. We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the Earth King's armies, but the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable."

"So we're planning a smaller invasion. Just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and The Duke." Sokka gestured to our new friends who were both eating rather ravenously.

"Good to see you again, Aang."

"And the best part is, the eclipse isn't even our biggest advantage." Sokka continued excitedly before lowering his voice to a whisper, as if someone outside would hear the big secret which we already knew. Sometimes, Sokka was just too goofy for his own good. "We have a secret. You!"

"Me?"

"Yep, the whole world thinks you're dead! Isn't that great?!" From the look of horror and shock on Aang's face, I guess it wasn't all that great in his eyes. Way to go Sokka. Grabbing him by his uniform, I dragged him back down into his seat before he could say something else to make Aang feel terrible.

"Probably shouldn't have just come out with it like that, Sokka."

"The world thinks I'm dead? How is that good news? That's terrible!" Panicking, Aang looked around at us all hoping that someone would dispute it, but unfortunately it was true. Each time I'd gone ashore to help resupply, it was all anybody talked about. The Avatar was dead, the war was over. All hope was lost, that kind of stuff.

"No, it's great. It means the Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore, and even better, they won't expect you on The Day of Black Sun." Sokka corrected but Aang just gripped his head in despair.

"No, no, no…you have no idea. This is so messed up!" Before any of us could try to comfort him, the loud blaring horn of another ship sounded, cutting off the conversation and everybody leaped to get into position but before we could move too far, Aang stood up proudly with a determined look on his face. "I'll handle this. The Avatar is back!" He banged his staff on the ground to open up the glider, but in doing so the movement caused him severe pain which forced him to clutch his side.

"Hold up! Not so fast." I quickly interjected, grabbing hold of Aang's arm as Katara joined me.

"Aang, wait. Remember, they don't know we're not Fire Nation." She paused. "Well, everybody but Kayo." I grinned at her before hurriedly putting on my helmet, bumping fists with Sokka before we rushed to get into position.

"Everyone just stay calm. Bato and I will take care of this." Hakoda instructed as he and Bato put on their helmets too. The Duke and Pipsqueak covered Appa with the large tarp to keep him out of sight and I quickly whistled, calling for Momo who flew down to my outstretched arms and quietly hid with me as I kept out of sight with him, making sure that he wouldn't be spotted by the enemy ship. When the ships became parallel to one another they pulled to a dead stop and a drawbridge was extended to connect the two, allowing the officers from the other ship to board.

"Commander, why are you off course? All Western Fleet ships are supposed to be moving toward Ba Sing Se to support the occupation."

"Actually, we're from the Eastern Fleet. We have orders to deliver some cargo." Hakoda answered, sticking to a simple explanation. Since I'd already instructed everybody on the makeup of the Fire Nation military, it was fairly easy to bluff our way through these kind of conversations. Thank the spirits for Lieutenant Jee, Iroh and even the few things I learned from Admiral Zhao just by listening in on his meetings whilst we'd travelled north all those months ago.

"Ah, Eastern Fleet. Well, nice of Admiral Chan to let us know he was sending one of his ships our way."

"I am sure Admiral Chan meant no disrespect, sir." Bato supplied, keeping a respectful tone all the while.

"I mean, how hard is it to write a quick note and send a hawk our way?"

"Next time, we'll send two hawks to be sure you get the message." Finished with the trivial conversation and report, the two parties bowed to one another and I relaxed, stroking Momo's head as Bato and Hakoda walked off the ramp back onto our ship, though I watched as the two officers turned around and whispered to one another. I grew suspicious and quickly looked over to Toph who was listening closely, sensing their breathing and pulses before suddenly leaping up and pointing.

"They know!" Quickly using her newly developed metal bending, Toph twisted the causeway and made it buckle, throwing the officers into the water as I let go of Momo and rushed to the side of the ship with Katara where we both mirrored one another with our water bending movements, pulling up a huge wave of water before we pushed it against the opposing ship to thrust it away from us and wash as many of the soldiers overboard.

"Go! Fire up the engines, let's get out of here!" I yelled before tossing down instructions to the engine crew to get this ship moving at full speed. It didn't take long for the other ship to get all it's crew and officers back on board and in hot pursuit, launching fireballs at us to try and take us out of the water. "Watch out!" Bending a wall of water, I then launched it at the fireball to block it, flinging it aside with a strained yell from the effort. That was close, it almost hit our hull. "Toph! You're up next!"

"Load the Toph!" Already in her earth bending stance, Pipsqueak prepared a load of earth disks for Toph who shot them at the enemy ship, demolishing the trebuchet and as I leaned over the edge to look, I punched the air with a whoop.

"Yeah! Nice shooting Toph!" Between the two of us, Toph and I were able to keep any fireballs from hitting our ship with water and earth as our countermeasures. Keeping a close eye on the ship, I noticed one of the flaps opening and a pronged projectile aiming towards our hull. "Incoming!" Yelling out in warning, I jumped forwards and raised the ocean, causing a wave to slam against the side of their ship then froze it over the ballista opening, causing a malfunction when they tried to fire it and it only just scraped against our hull, leaving no damage. Phew. That was close. Seeing that we weren't going to outrun them, Katara quickly pulled up some cover by creating a thick fog, allowing us to start to make our escape.

Only thing was, since they couldn't see us, we also couldn't see them, so when a glowing light suddenly burst into view as a huge fireball, I yelled and quickly thrust out my hands with flat palms, anchoring myself down as the water responded to me and several massive spears of ice shot upwards at an angle from the water, piercing the fireball but also tipping the ship due to the angle. The ice quickly broke from the weight of the fireball and the movement of the ship so I washed it away, leaving the ship with very minimal damage as Katara helped me on the last part. "You're really getting good at this. I'll make a master of you in no time." She said to me, impressed as I wiped my brow with a heavy laugh, slightly exhausted.

"It's because I have an excellent teacher." When the ship jolted we both yelled, losing our balance as we were hit in the rear. Damn it, and we were doing so well! Taking another hit, Katara and I were thrown at one another so I grabbed on and covered her head when debris flew our way, holding on until the shuddering stopped. A fire broke out so we quickly doused it, dealing with any immediate problems as everyone raced around doing their part.

"How we doing?" Toph asked as Sokka came up beside her.

"Things couldn't get much worse." Without warning, almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, something erupted from the water and screeched in a horribly high pitched voice, huge serpentine body slithering up out of the water to loom over us. Oh great, a sea serpent. For the record, I totally blame Sokka for this one. "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"

"You make it so easy!" Before the monster could strike, however, it was struck in the back of the head by a fireball from the other warship, redirecting its attention and with a screech, it dove back into the water before emerging in order to wrap its body around the entire ship. It crushed the trebuchets and now, the Fire Nation had their own problem to deal with, allowing us to escape.

"Thank you, The Universe!" Sokka yelled as he waved goodbye as we sailed away from danger.

"You know Sokka, sometimes I think you have a gift." I said to him as I slumped down to let my legs rest for a bit. "Comedic timing and everything, I'm impressed you pull it off, but then I remember you're just a total goofball." Rubbing his head after pulling off his helmet, Sokka shrugged at me.

"Hey, it takes skill to be this hilarious, and The Universe and I are old pals." Lightning and thunder flashed in the sky, rumbling deeply as thick clouds began to gather on what had previously been a nice, perfectly clear day. I deadpanned him.

"Yeah. Real chummy." Let's just make sure Sokka stops talking for now, before he accidentally tempts The Universe to just sink us right here and now. Getting up in order to see what the damage to the ship was, I informed Hakoda that we'd need time to make repairs and it would be best to stop in a port somewhere, so we anchored at a merchants' pier in order to fix the engines and any breaches on the ship. The work took me all day, but once things were underway I was able to wash my hands off from all the grease and oil before joining the others in order to go eat. "Hey, where's Aang? Isn't he coming?" I questioned, noticing that he and Katara weren't with Toph and Sokka.

"Katara's talking to him, they'll catch up to us. Let's go eat! I'm starving and I really need some meat."

"Me too." Toph agreed so with a shrug, I followed them off the ship to go look for food in town. We chose a place that smelled delicious and were not disappointed with the food. I ordered several helpings all to myself, stuffing my face with everything I could possibly get my hands on. I was halfway through my third bowl of noodles when Katara came running up to us in a panic, making us all pause and look at her.

"I finally found you! We have to hurry, there's a huge problem." For a moment none of us moved, Sokka still tearing through his meat as if he hadn't even heard his sister until Toph and I got up. Seeing the look on Katara's face, I guess it was a problem with Aang so as I walked around the table, I left plenty of money as well as a little extra to apologise for the mess then grabbed Sokka's collar.

"Hey! I'm not done yet!"

"Duty calls, grab what you can whilst you can, because we're leaving." Pulling him along with me, Sokka whined as he desperately grabbed at all the meat, dumplings and food he could possibly reach before with a final tug, I dragged him away from the table and followed Katara back to the ship. Once we were out of earshot of anyone else, she explained that when she'd brought Aang some food from the kitchen, he'd taken his glider and left.

"So we go after him, right?" Toph reasoned as we all boarded the ship where Bato and Hakoda were waiting for us, Momo flying over our heads before he landed on my shoulder.

"Of course we go after him! The weather's getting worse and he's all alone. Ugh! He's so stupid! Why does he think he has to handle everything by himself?!" Katara worried as we all gathered together.

"Because he's hurting." I answered naturally, tickling Momo's chin as I fed him some treats I'd picked up for him. "And when someone's hurting, you naturally push them away as a defensive mechanism, both to protect yourself and others so they don't know just how bad you feel." Everyone blinked at me, making me look at them. "What? I spent the last year with Iroh, the wisest guy in the world. You pick up things." Moving on, we quickly planned out what we were going to do.

Sokka and Hakoda arranged that they were going to meet up together on the day of the invasion, though Sokka quickly wrote down a bunch of places and people to look for to give to his father so that he could gather more people to help with the invasion before he then hugged his dad tightly, Katara joining them. We gave Hakoda some privacy with his kids, waiting for them to say goodbye properly whilst the rest of us said our goodbyes to Pipsqueak and The Duke.

"Alright! Let's go find Aang!" Sokka punched the air, taking the lead and gathering everyone together though I took a moment to run up to Hakoda.

"If you happen to come across a travelling performance group called the Golden Dragon Birds, that's my family. Tell them that I'm alive and I'm okay, and if you need any help they'll give it to you. They won't agree to fight in a war, but if there's anything else they'll do it, and if you see my mother…" I broke off, not knowing what to say. "I know it's unlikely, but I just…"

"I'll tell them. Don't worry. You just take care of yourself and the others for me, and we'll all see each other again soon." Nodding my head, I took a deep breath before rushing back to Appa, rubbing his head quickly before climbing up onto his back before we all took to the skies in search of Aang, hoping to find him before it was too late.

The weather only got worse but we continued searching, heading west further into the Fire Nation since we figured that Aang would be trying to reach the Fire Lord in order to defeat him by himself. It was a good guess and by day once the rain had passed, we saw something lying on the volcanic ground of an island that looked like a crescent moon, lava riding down the mountainside. Momo squeaked and took off, flying down so I pointed, calling out to Sokka who was steering. "Down there!"

"Aang!" Katara immediately leaned over, seeing the same orange dressed shape as I did and when we landed, she immediately rushed over to him as he started to get up, Momo having licked him awake. "You're ok!" Toph, Sokka, Appa and Momo all joined Aang and Katara's hug, relieved to have found him but when Sokka realised that I'd stayed separate, he reached out his and towards me.

"Come on, get in here."

"Really? It's just I'm still so new to the group and I figured you might still not have totally accepted me yet and I didn't want to intrude…"

"Just get over here and join the hug will ya?!" Laughing after recovering from my surprise, I jumped in on the hug and Appa pointedly licked me with an affectionate groan, making me giggle as he slobbered all over me. Gross, now I have to wash that out. Once we'd all shared in a reunion hug, Aang broke away and looked down at his feet almost shamefully.

"I have so much to do."

"I know, but you'll have our help." Katara assured him with a smile.

"You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you?" Toph questioned, punching her fists together.

"What about the invasion?"

"We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse." Feeling something bump against her foot, Toph lifted her head before reaching down to grab something out of the water.

"Hey, what's…? Oh, it's your glider." As we all got to our feet, Toph handed the broken glider back to Aang who looked at it sadly before his shoulders relaxed a little.

"That's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." Having finally accepted reality, Aang jumped from rock to rock before driving his staff into the rolling stream of lava, leaving his staff behind to burn and erase all evidence of it. I felt bad for the kid, so when he came back to us I rubbed his hair gently then brushed the back of my hand against his cheek, removing the trace of a tear before anyone else saw it.

"It's not too late to change things, Aang. You're alive, and although the world doesn't know it yet, you haven't given up on them. The people don't need to know that you're still fighting for them, the fact that you're doing it regardless of who knows means that you haven't failed. We've got time, and we've got a plan. Everything's going to work out perfectly." I told him confidently before smiling. "How about when we find somewhere to stay for a while, I brew some of the most famous tea in Ba Sing Se? It'll make you feel better."

"Thanks, I'll look forward to it. I'm glad you're here Kayo, you're like the wise old woman of the group." I started.

"Old? Hey you little punk, I'm only five years older than you! I'm not old. Toph, do you think I'm old?" She grinned at me.

"Ancient."

"Agh! You guys are so mean! If I'm old, then Sokka is old too!"

"What? Hey I'm not old!" With a cheerful atmosphere having surrounded us, the younger kids laughed as Sokka and I berated them for being rude as we set off into the skies.