It was hot and everyone was tired already from all the walking. I could only imagine what poor Appa must be feeling, still dressed fully in his armour with all his fur underneath as well. Everybody was thoroughly miserable, the heat and tiredness not helping as I carried The Duke on my shoulders, holding his legs as he hung over my head for a rest, having been unable to walk any further on his own. "This is humiliating." Katara sighed as she walked alongside her brother.

"Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation, or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" He questioned, earning an unimpressed look from his sister before she turned away.

"Both."

"Sorry guys, but Appa gets tired carrying all these people." There was quiet for a while longer until Teo wondered aloud what had happened to the rest of our friends and troops after they got captured.

"They're probably on their way to a prison. Seems like my dad just got out, now he's going back in."

"I miss Pipsqueak." The Duke sighed sadly so I reached out and rubbed his shoulder with an encouraging smile as Haru looked at me.

"Do you know where they might have been taken? My father and the others?"

"Sorry, I know I'm Fire Nation but that doesn't mean I know where all the prisons are, or where they're likely to be taken." I apologised, knowing it must be hard for them to walk with someone wearing Fire Nation clothes considering it was my people who had put them through all this in the first place. "But, they're all strong and got a sensible head on their shoulders. They'll be able to manage whatever is thrown their way." Accepting my reassurance, Sokka complained loudly.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet." Jeez, he can be such a baby sometimes. Suddenly Toph stopped walking beside me, making me halt too as she lifted her head up.

"Hey, we're here. I can feel it." Looking around, I could still see nothing but a blank wasteland of dead rock. Nothing behind us but earth and nothing in front but the edge of a cliff and a thick layer of mist.

"Uh, I think your feet need their eyes checked." Katara said to her in confusion, none of us knowing what she meant until Aang smiled.

"No, she's right, we are here." It didn't become clear to us until Appa flew us all down below the cliff to reveal that the temple was actually underneath the rock's surface, upside down pagodas all built into the cliff face which made everyone stare in awe and wonder at the architectural marvel that was the Western Air Temple.

"Amazing…" I breathed, unable to look away. When Appa landed everyone was eager to jump down and get exploring, Haru and I helping get Teo down before we all looked around this amazing temple. I bet Iroh would love this kind of place, or maybe he's already been here before? I think I remember him mentioning that he'd gone to all four temples with Zuko during the first few weeks of his banishment.

"It's so different from the Northern Air Temple." Teo admired as he looked all around him. "I wonder if there are any secret rooms."

"Let's go check it out." Haru waved his arm to signal for everyone to follow him as I rubbed myself down, tired and achy from all that walking before I smothered myself over Appa.

"You poor guy, you must be exhausted. How about we get this armour off you, hm?" I fussed, scratching at his fur as he groaned pitifully, seeking more fuss so with a laugh I started to get him unsaddled by using the water from a nearby fountain to pull it off before beginning to go around unbuckling everything whilst Katara made Aang stay behind so that we could all talk.

"You guys go, I think we need to talk about some things." Teo, Haru and the Duke all ran off, leaving the rest of us behind to discuss things. "Kayo? Can you hear us over there?"

"Yep, I can hear you. Talk away." I waved as I continued working on Appa, Momo helping me once he understood what it was I was trying to do.

"Why can't I go?" Aang complained, wanting to go explore just like everybody else.

"We need to decide what we're gonna do now, and since you're the Avatar, maybe you should be a part of this." Reluctantly accepting Katara's reasoning, Aang put his glider aside in order to sit down with a petulant look on his face.

"Fair enough. So, what's the new plan?"

"Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan." Sokka reasoned cheerfully, being as upbeat and comical as usual. "You just need to master all four elements, and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."

"Oh, yeah, that's great. No problem, I'll just do that." Fidgeting and playing with a pebble as he spoke sarcastically, Katara looked at him quickly.

"Aang, no one said it's gonna be easy."

"Well, it's not even gonna be possible! Where am I supposed to get a fire bending teacher?" He demanded angrily, though my ears perked up. That's right, Aang still needs to master fire bending. Hold on, I'm almost done getting all this off Appa, just wait a second guys!

"We could look for Jeong-Jeong?"

"Yeah right, like we'll ever run into Jeong-Jeong again." Toph started to ask who this unknown guy was but changed her mind, decided she'd find out later if he was important. Getting up to end the discussion just as I managed to get Appa's helmet off so I could pull the covering off next, Aang started to leave so I hurried it up, calling out to him but he ignored me. "Oh well, guess we can't come up with anybody. Why don't we just take a nice tour around the temple?"

"Aang wait!" He took off before I could call him back, making me roll my eyes. "I was going to tell him that I can teach him some fire bending." Everybody stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "What? My mother is a fire bender and she teaches others to dance with it. She also taught me a lot growing up to try and help my water bending come along. I can teach Aang some basics at the very least, though it won't compare to a real fire bending master." I explained to them as I started to pull unsuccessfully at the covering, grunting as I tried to pull it off Appa. "What did you do Sokka, glue this on?"

"Hang on, I'll help." Getting up, Sokka joined me with Toph and Katara to get everything off Appa and the moment he was free, he shook himself off with a cascade of fur which made us all cough and wave it away as he groaned, rolling onto his back in order to rub and itch he had. "So you were saying you could teach Aang fire bending?"

"Well, there no harm in trying." I reasoned logically as I dusted off my hands then began to use the fountain water to douse Appa so that he could cool down from being sweaty and overheating for too long. "I won't be able to demonstrate things, obviously, but I can teach him how to at least create fire and the fundamentals of how it works. I also watched Zuko train for a long time, and Iroh is perhaps the greatest fire bender around. I picked up a thing or two. It pays to be a good listener." I grinned at them all as Sokka and Katara shared an anticipative look. "But I'm still no real teacher! Aang will need someone else eventually, but I can help him get started."

"That's great, it's something at least. Let's go find him and let him know." Katara said excitedly but I waved her off.

"You go ahead, I'm dying for a nap." Leaving them to it, I found somewhere comfortable and quiet to curl up with my blanket in order to sleep, having tired myself out carrying the Duke for so many hours and needing some time to reinvigorate myself. I woke up several hours late to find nobody about, so I got up, stretched, had a drink of water before going to look for everybody. I followed the sound of voices I eventually heard, moving towards them until I realised that one of them wasn't a voice I'd heard in a while, in fact, it was the last voice I expected to hear.

Holding my breath with a pang in my chest, I rushed forwards and hid myself behind a pillar as I saw the back of none other than the Fire Lord's son, Prince Zuko, standing in front of the others and talking with them. He was here. Why was Zuko here? Holding myself back and ignoring the pain in my chest and stomach, I listening to what he was saying, wanting to know his purpose and intention. "I know you must be surprised to see me here." He was saying, to which Sokka responded bluntly as everybody held their defensive stances in a line.

"Not really, since you've followed us all over the world."

"Right...well uh...anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed, and I uh, I'm good now." He began to say, making me blink and stare at him. He's changed? I'll admit Zuko was acting pretty weird and not like I expected. He looked more relaxed than I'd expect, though he was shifting uncomfortably form the awkward situation he found himself in. I couldn't help but start to cry slightly as all the emotions I'd been blocking began to hammer away inside me, trying to break free all at once for seeing him again. "And, well, I think I should join your group. Oh, and I can teach fire bending...to you. See, I uh..." Giggling silently to myself, I smiled affectionately at his back. You're such an awkward guy Zuko, I told you that you needed to work on your people skills.

"You want to what now?!" Toph yelled in disbelief as Katara, probably the most reluctant and defensive looking of them all, glowered at him darkly.

"You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?"

"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang." Her brother agreed as I continued to remain out of sight, listening to everything with my back pressed against the pillar.

"I've done some good things." Zuko tried to point out, taking a step forwards as he then gestured with both hands to Appa who was standing right next to him, something I found curious. "I mean, I could've stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free. That's something." As if to validate what Zuko was saying, Appa licked him fully, making me giggle again. Well if Appa feels comfortable around him, then I'm willing to bet that Zuko was telling the truth on that one, and Toph seemed to feel the same.

"Appa does seem to like him." Unconvinced, Sokka sliced out his arm in rejection, still not believing a word that was coming out of Toph's mouth.

"He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would lick him. I'm not buying it."

"I can understand why you wouldn't trust me, and I know I've made some mistakes in the past." Now I couldn't see his face, but I saw Zuko hang his head and his tone sounded full of shame, like he genuinely regretted what he'd done even as Sokka and Katara listed off his past mistakes. I wish Iroh were here, he'd know what was going on in that dumb prince's head. I can barely make heads or tails of it.

"Like when you attacked our village?"

"Or when you stole my mother's necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?"

"Look, I admit I've done some awful things. I was wrong to try to capture you, and I'm sorry that I attacked the Water Tribe, and I never should've sent that Fire Nation assassin after you." He WHAT?! "I'm gonna try to stop him."

"Wait, you sent Combustion Man after us?"

"Well, that's not his name, but..." His name doesn't matter Zuko, you dumbest dummy that ever lived! Smacking a hand to my face, all my silent encouragement and hope that Zuko would do well in trying to apologise to everyone were clearly doing no good. He was floundering now, and it wasn't looking good.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to insult your friend."

"He's not my friend!" Jeez, this guy really was hopeless when it came to people, wasn't he? Part of me wanted to help him out but the other part of me…was kind of enjoying this. I was still a little hurt and angry over him choosing the wrong side in Ba Sing Se, so I had no problems letting him suffer a little more.

"That guy locked me and Katara in jail and tried to blow us all up!" Seeing that it was no use trying to apologise and make the others change his mind about him, Zuko turned to Aang, looking at him since the air bender had been silent this entire time.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You once said you thought we could be friends. You know I have good in me." At this point, I wasn't sure what I wanted to happen. It was great that Zuko seemed to have suddenly flipped and decided to do the right thing, but I was still suspicious. He seemed to have changed before, that time he recovered from that awful fever, and look where that got us. Quite frankly…I wasn't sure I could trust him, and I was not going to risk any danger coming to Aang and the others. Not even for Zuko.

"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done." Aang finally decided, and surprisingly I felt a flash of pain in my chest, disappointed. I looked downwards and touched the area over my heart, wondering why it was still beating so fast. "We'll never let you join us."

"You need to get out of here, now." Ordering him to leave, Katara continued to maintain her angry glower at the prince as I turned my head to the side, listening intently to everything that was happening and watching out of the corner of my eye from my hiding place.

"I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore. If you'd just let me talk to Kayo, she'll be able to tell you." My head jolted up so quickly I smacked my head against the stone pillar, making me gag on the pain as I gingerly rubbed the back of my head. "Where is Kayo? Is she here?" I could tell Zuko was looking around for me but I stayed put, not quite ready to face him yet.

"She's not here." Toph answered him bluntly, making Zuko all the more desperate. He tried moving towards the group but Sokka thrust out his boomerang threateningly, warning him to leave or they would attack him, making Zuko resign himself to his final option.

"If you won't accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as a prisoner." He was serious. I moved slightly, staring as Zuko knelt on the ground and offered his wrists to be bound but Katara rather strongly objected, refusing to have anything to do with him.

"No, we won't!" With a powerful and fast strike, she water bended at Zuko and flung him backwards away from them all, making me flinch and look away. "Get out of here and don't come back, and if we ever see you again...well, we'd better not see you again!" Rising to his feet soaked in water, Zuko looked utterly defeated and seemed to have lost all hope for a chance to redeem himself. It hurt, seeing him like that. It hurt more than it should, and more than I expected it to. I really didn't understand my own feelings. I should hate him, he's technically my enemy now, but I just couldn't bring myself to feel that way. I hung my head, unable to pull my thoughts into order until I heard Toph speak.

"Kayo you might as well come out now. I know you're there." Sighing, I stepped out from behind the pillar to reveal myself, hand resting against the stone as everyone looked at me.

"Well, what do you think?" Sokka asked me as he put his boomerang away. "You know Zuko the best out of all of us. Do you think he was telling the truth?"

"Zuko is a terrible liar. He can't lie to save his life because he makes it too obvious." I admitted with a shrug, walking towards them as I hugged myself uncertainly. "As to whether he really meant that he'd changed? I don't know. I want to believe him, I really do, but…"

"See? Even Kayo doesn't believe him. There's no way we can ever trust him." Katara spoke over me, alarming me momentarily before I recovered, surprised by the extent of her bitterness towards him.

"Hold on, it's true I'm not sure about Zuko, but I know he wouldn't be here unless he was prepared to sacrifice everything, give up on everything he'd always wanted before. Maybe I should go talk to him." I suggested, looking around behind me after where Zuko had gone. "If I talk to him, I might be able to understand what happened to him to make him change his mind."

"No, no way!" Katara sliced out her hand in a strong emphasis of her feelings on the matter. "You can't go anywhere near him, Kayo, he is not your friend anymore. If you go looking for him, then maybe you can't be trusted either." Aang looked at Katara in surprise as she folded her arms and turned away. "You made your choice to join us and we took a chance trusting you which was risky enough, we can't take any more chances."

"Katara, that's a little unfair. Kayo was never the one chasing us and trying to capture me. In fact, I'm pretty sure she was just tagging along for the ride." Aang defended softly, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at me as I shrugged in agreement. Well, what can I say? It was true.

"I'm just saying, Kayo spent all that time with Zuko, maybe she can't forget him and now that he's back, she'll go running back to him and it'll be just like before." Whatever had gotten under Katara's skin, it was really starting to piss me off and it was beginning to show on my face. "If you're one of us, then you have to prove it. Stay away from Zuko."

"You don't get the right to judge me, Katara." I spat out in a barely contained fury, feeling my anger rising. "I'm not going to go running back to anyone's side. I've always been on my side, following what I felt to be right, which is exactly why I'm here with you guys right now." Katara turned her back, signalling that she wasn't listening as Sokka placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Katara juts means that at the end of the day, you were raised Fire Nation. It's understandable if you felt some regret in leaving to betray your nation, we're just worried that you might overthink things and go back with Zuko if he's here to try and separate us and make us weaker so that he can capture Aang again." Sokka explained, though he did it very badly because it only made me angrier. With a slice of my hand, the water from the fountain burst and sloshed over its boundaries, eyes flaring like liquid blue flame as I yelled.

"I sacrificed everything to help you all! I could be out there right now searching for my mother and family but I'm not. I'm here. I fought beside you, protected you. I cooked your food, sewed your clothes, healed bruises and scrapes, gave you advice and comfort, and when all you guys wanted to do was claw each other's' throats out, I was there to help maintain the peace!" I felt a little hurt that they would question me like this, it stung like crazy and I couldn't think of any other way to express how badly it hurt than to shout at them. "Yes, I'm from the Fire Nation, but that doesn't make me one of them. I'm here because I chose to be, because I know that what my people are doing is wrong and I want to stop them before it's too late."

"Kayo, Sokka and Katara didn't mean it like that. We're just all a little unsettled because Zuko showed up so suddenly." Aang mediated, trying to calm me down as Sokka looked down guiltily though Katara kept her back turned on me. "You're our friend, we trust you."

"Yeah? Well according to Katara, I'm not worthy of being trusted. I guess I'm just someone convenient you guys brought along to do all your chores. Well fine. Cook your own damn food for a change. I'm going to find out what that stupid prince is up to, just so you know in case you think I'm running off and joining him or something." Storming away I flung my hands up in the air in frustration. That was totally uncalled for and unexpected. I guess I should have known that they'd never really think of me as one of them, and after all those things they said before the invasion as well. I thought…

Wiping away my tears angrily, I went looking for Zuko, following the path that led up the cliff from the direction he'd left in order to look for him. I ended up in a forested area, pushing my way through thickly clustered trees and stepping over bushes whilst grumbling to myself until I forced myself to take a deep breath and calm down. It took a few minutes, but after some meditative breathing exercises I at least didn't feel like levelling this entire forest out of spite. Stepping a little more quietly, I noticed a clearing through the trees and headed towards it for more open terrain, only to see a camp had been made there, and in the centre of it, was Zuko.