Just as I thought, Toph too her role as evil overlord very seriously. We all waited in our designated hiding positions until Sokka gave the signal to go, allowing us all to move into action. Just like Sokka had explained, everybody moved with the exact timing he had stipulated so that everything would work perfectly, though the flaming rocks were a little extravagant and perhaps a little too realistic as Sokka was almost crushed by one. Everybody had to move fast in order to dodge though when came flying towards me I whipped out the water from my red pouch and sliced it in half. It split either side of me and I ran through the middle, circling around in order to get into position.

As Katara and Zuko fought off the flaming rocks that Toph manoeuvred around, I came up on the other side and froze the Melon Lord scarecrow, encasing the entire lower body in ice so that only the head was free and once I'd completed my task, Sokka yelled back towards Aang. "Now, Aang!" Propelling himself into the air with his staff, Aang flew forwards and lifted his staff ready to bring it down over his head, however before he could land the final blow he stopped, reaching the Melon Lord but froze in place.

"What are you waiting for? Take him out!" Zuko yelled as Aang slowly stood upright and shook his head.

"I can't." Everybody stopped the training round and Sokka stomped up the slope in order to berate Aang for not finishing the job.

"What's wrong with you? If this was the real deal, you'd be shot full of lightning right now."

"I'm sorry, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself." Aang tried to explain as I frowned. What's the big deal? It's just a melon. Irritated, Sokka drew his sword and sliced it with a clean cut through the melon, making Aang flinch against it.

"There. That's how it's done." Momo jumped onto the fallen melon in order to lick at the fresh fruit inside, completely unaware of the tension in the air around everybody. Sokka called it for the day, letting everybody relax and go back to the house where Suki and I prepared food for everyone, though even after everyone else had eaten, Aang's still remained untouched so I began to see that there was some kind of problem. Was it the melon? I'll ask him later when there's not so many people around.

"I have a surprise for everyone!" Looking up at Katara as she called out, we all saw the big scroll she had in her arms.

"I knew it! You did have a secret thing with Haru!" Pointing with her chopsticks, Toph grinned as Katara just looked at her blankly, none of us really knowing how to react or what to say in response to that.

"Er, no. I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this." Throwing the scroll out to unravel it, Katara showed us a portrait of a little baby, smiling and toddling along the beach. "Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute?" I laughed heartily, seeing the cute baby Zuko and wondering who the heck did he grow up to be so morose and forlorn. Just like now. "Oh lighten up, I was just teasing."

"That's not me." Zuko answered, making everybody shut up quickly in surprise. "It's my father." Oh…damn. Did not see that one coming.

"But he looked so sweet and innocent." Suki pointed out, looking at the baby who looked just like every other baby in the world. Cute, squishy and adorable.

"Well that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster, and the worst father in the history of fathers."

"But he is still a human being." Aang spoke up defensively, which was a little surprising.

"You're going to defend him?"

"No, I agree with you. Fire Lord Ozai is a horrible person and the world will probably be better off without him. There's gotta be another way." Was this what was bothering Aang so much? Taking out the Fire Lord? I guess before now all we'd said was that Aang needed to defeat him, but then all of a sudden it was about taking him out entirely. I guess that would be a little messed up and confusing. Zuko scowled, wanting to know how else we could take down the Fire Lord but Aang shrugged, unsure himself. "I don't know. Maybe we can make some big pots of glue and then I can use glue bending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore."

"Yeah. Then you can show him his baby pictures and all those happy memories will make him good again!" Clearly Aang was so hopeful that the idea would work, he totally missed the fact that Zuko was being sarcastic.

"Do you really think that would work?"

"No!" I glanced between them worriedly, setting aside my empty bowl of food in order to be ready to jump between them if things got a little too heated. Well, jump in front of Zuko. Let's be honest, he's the only real hot headed person around here who's liable to explode randomly.

"This goes against everything I learned from the monks. I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like."

"Sure, you can. You're the Avatar. If it's in the name of keeping balance, I'm pretty sure the universe will forgive you." Sokka brushed off, not really taking it seriously.

"This isn't a joke, Sokka! None of you understands the position I'm in!"

"Aang, we do understand. It's just..."

"Just what, Katara?! What?" Lashing out with anger at everybody who spoke now, Katara scowled at Aang in annoyance at his refusal to listen.

"We're trying to help."

"Then when you figure out a way for me to beat the Fire Lord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it!" He yelled so I quickly moved forwards, putting my arms between Katara and Aang in order to separate them.

"Then why don't you do just that?" I reasoned, making Aang frown at me, not catching on. "Why don't you just defeat him? Once he's beaten, it'll show that you're the most powerful person in the world and no one can defeat you. No one will argue if you say the war is over, and we can just make sure Ozai is removed from the throne so that he can't give out anymore orders? That way, no one has to die." I suggested, thinking that it fulfilled all the criteria but Sokka shut it down quickly with a rather forceful tone.

"Somebody like the Fire Lord is too dangerous to be left alive. If we defeat him and just lock him in jail somewhere, somebody could come along and break him free, then we'd be back to the start of all this. He's a figurehead for a whole bunch of fanatic fire benders out there. We can't risk letting him live and continuing the war. It won't end until he's dead."

"Wow Sokka, subtlety really isn't your strong suit, is it?" I drawled as Aang grasped his staff tightly before he turned and walked away, wanting to be alone for a while.

"Aang, don't walk away from this." Starting to take off after Aang, Zuko stopped her and told her to let him go.

"He needs time to sort it out by himself." Clicking his tongue, Sokka helped himself to more food, completely at ease and not seeming to care one bit about how Aang was feeling.

"I don't get the problem. All Aang needs to do to end the war and save millions of lives is to just snuff out one person's life. Isn't the lesser evil always the better option?" He questioned, looking around at us all to see if we agreed.

"Don't forget Sokka, Aang is still just a kid. He's twelve years old, and you all want him to take somebody's life. Even grown men can't always kill another person because it goes against their consciousness." I reasoned, wanting them to at least try and see things from Aang's point of view. "Moreover, Aang is a gentle and compassionate person. He doesn't have a mean streak in him, and even though he knows that killing the Fire Lord will solve everybody's problems, it's hard to go against your nature."

"I guess so, I hadn't really thought about it like that." Katara's shoulders slumped, looking slightly ashamed as Sokka also turned his head away out of guilt. "But what else can we do?" I shrugged.

"Beats me. I thought the glue bending was actually a pretty good idea. Benders aren't threatening when they can't bend, at least Ozai wouldn't be able to rule through fear." Having nothing better than glue bending as our backup, we all decided to take a break and get some rest to be up early and on the move in the morning. I didn't feel like going to sleep yet, so I ended up staying awake with Zuko for a while since he was stressed and pacing.

"If Aang doesn't defeat my father then we can forget about this war ending peacefully. The Earth Kingdom will never be able to forgive the Fire Nation if we burn down their whole country, not in a million years!" He ranted as he paced, stomping back and forth as I lounged on the couch he was using as a bed, stretching out casually before getting properly comfortable. "How are you so calm?!"

"Because there's nothing I can do about it right now, and the Fire Lord isn't my problem, it's Aang's, and I trust that he'll come up with a solution that satisfies everyone." I answered simply before waving Zuko over. "Come here, you're getting yourself all worked up. You need to calm down a bit." Pausing a moment Zuko then came over to the couch and sat down next to me, allowing me to pull him down so that his head was resting in my lap and I could massage his head. "Fire Lord or not, Ozai is still your dad. Are you really okay with everybody saying he needs to die?"

"He's a terrible person and an even worse father. I don't care." He answered me stubbornly so I sighed, knowing that he was lying.

"Be honest with me Zuko. Despite everything he'd done to you, and to everyone else, you still can't bring yourself to hate him, can you?" He looked away, turning his head so I pointedly made him sit still and look upwards so that I could continue massaging his temples and head.

"I don't know how I feel." Well, at least he was honest about it. "Although he scarred me for life and banished me, I still remember a time when we were all happy, a family. I should hate him, I shouldn't care what happens to him because it's been my uncle who's been a real father to me, not him."

"At the end of the day, he's still your father, and there was a time when you loved each other as father and son. That's normal Zuko, don't beat yourself up over this so much." I told him as he started to relax. He looked up, tilting his head before his hand reached for my face and started to brush against my cheek as I blinked, not expecting this kind of affection from him.

"Why do you worry about me like this? It's like you can always tell when something's on my mind and you come to try and help me talk it out." Momentarily stumped, I somehow managed to pull an answer together though I blushed slightly and couldn't look at him as I spoke.

"Call it a gift, I'm just good at reading you that's all."

"Thank you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you being here."

"Well, after we end the war and your dad is dethroned, you could always reward my help with a title or something." I joked, making us both smile and laugh lightly as I leaned my face down in order to touch my forehead against Zuko's and just stayed like that for a little while. In the silence I began to wonder what was going to happen, and if everything would really turn out alright in the end. The thought of going off to fight the Fire Lord and all his troops terrified me. Quite honestly all I wanted to do was run and hide, but I knew I couldn't do that. I had an obligation to the world, and that meant using whatever strength and ability I had to try and make things right in whatever way I could, just like everybody else.

"You're trembling, are you cold?" Zuko suddenly asked me with concern, sitting up and turning over in order to touch my arm, feeling for goose bumps but it wasn't the cold that bothered me, but I lied anyway.

"Yeah, it's a little chilly." Without a word Zuko reached across and pulled up a blanket in order to wrap it around me, bundling me up like a dumpling before he put his arms around me in order to lay down together.

"Stay like this and you'll feel better." I wondered if Zuko perhaps knew I was lying but had chosen not to say anything, instead just held me in his arms to comfort me as I took slow, measured breaths.

"Zuko?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't let anything happen to you. Okay?"

"Okay. You too, Kayo. Don't worry about anything else except getting through this alive and safe. Nothing is more important than that." I hummed with a smile, closing my eyes as I snuggled a little closer into his chest, enjoying the feeling of his arms around me as my pulse quickened with a jolt before gradually began to settle. "Kayo?"

"Hm?"

"There's something I want to tell you."

"Okay…" I murmured sleepily, yawning and struggled to open my eyes, blinking dreamily up at him. "What is it?"

"I…" He faltered, looking at me for a few moments as his gaze flickered before he shook it off. "Never mind, it can wait. Goodnight Kayo."

"Sweet dreams, Zuko…"