A/N edited December 9th, 2019. 150 words added!

Chapter 4

Sokka needed to run faster. He was slow and awkward thanks to his broken leg and Suki and Toph were on either side helping him as they hobbled along the shore towards their eel hound. They had to get away. Ozai and his remaining troops would be upon them any minute and that was not a fight they could win. As they clambered up the animals back, he finally allowed himself to process what had just happened.

They had been able to see Aang and Ozai from the airships. The power Ozai had thanks to the comet and Aang wielding all four elements at once, watching them fight had been terrifying. It looked as if it might finally be over and they had all paused to watch Aang deal the final blow. Only he never did. His moment of hesitation was enough for the fire lord to kill him instead. Sokka had been worried about this exact thing. He knew that Aang's desire to end this fight without killing could have devastating consequences. He had never been more horrified to have been right. Watching Aang fall had been a slow motion nightmare that Toph had to rouse them from, "Come on guys, we have to get out of here!" Once the airship they were on got close enough to the ground, she had bent up a ramp of earth for them to jump onto. Now it was her turn to drag them along behind.

Sokka ignored the pain as he flung his broken leg over the back of the eel hound. Hoisting Suki and Toph up behind him, he took one last look at the high stone peaks where he'd last seen his friend. Gritting his teeth against the sting in his eyes, Sokka turned and drove the eel hound back towards the White Lotus camp. He prayed that General Iroh and the others had been more successful. If Ba Sing Se had been retaken they would at least have somewhere safe to return to. Sokka thought about his sister and Zuko and their plans to confront Azula. As the sun set and the comet sank below the horizon, he begged Yue to keep her safe.

oOoOoOoOo

Driving the beast as fast as it would go, it took only half the day to make it back to their camp. Master Pakku greeted them, walking up as Suki helped Sokka and Toph off the animals back. The old man wore a triumphant grin and it was obvious that he had instantly assumed their return meant they had met with success as well. Sokka might have felt guilty for having to share such devastating news if he wasn't so upset already. Coming around the side of the eel hound and taking in their grim faces, Pakku stopped in his tracks. His grin fell as he looked back and forth between them in confusion before finally speaking to Sokka.

"What is the matter? You three live so I assume your mission was successful."

Sokka let out a shaky sigh and limped up to Pakku, sagging as the older man braced his shoulders. He blinked back tears as he looked his new grandfather in the face.

"He fell, Aang fell. The Avatar is dead."

It was all he could choke out before his voice broke and he finally gave into the grief. Hanging his head and fisting his hands, he groaned and tried to will away the tears but they came anyway. It didn't matter that he was a man or a warrior. He had just watched his friend die. Not only had Aang died but in that moment, Sokka felt that he had taken all hope of an end to the war with him. What would they do now that Aang was dead? How could they possibly defeat the powerful Fire Lord without the strength of the Avatar? Taking several deep breaths to calm the sobs, he let Pakku help him to sit and relayed quickly to the older man what had happened since they had left. They had been able to incapacitate every ship in the Fire Lord's new air fleet, and even though he'd beaten Aang, Ozai had been injured and forced to retreat with the remains of his navy. Hopefully it would take them a few days to make it back to the capital, giving Katara time to get out. Thinking of his sister again, he gasped sharply in panic.

"Oh Spirits! Katara!" His head shot up and he stared wide eyed at the old waterbender. "She is with Zuko in the Fire Nation capital right now. They need to be warned, they need to get out of there before Ozai returns with his navy. Even without the comet there is no way they could hope to escape alive. If Aang is, well then Appa is too." He growled and shook his head in frustration and tried to stand. "They will have to travel so much slower. What if it's not enough and they are captured?"

Toph came up to him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to sit again before he could climb back on the eel hound to warn his sister himself. "If Sparky defeated his crazy sister they are probably waiting to hear from us. Calm down Sokka, freaking out isn't going to help anyone right now and you'll just hurt yourself more. They took out that deranged wanna be fire lord, I know they did."

Pakku put up a hand to stem the hysterics, " This is disturbing news indeed. Aang was key to our plans and a dear friend to you, but we are not helpless without him. We were able to retake Ba Sing Se and you three dealt the Fire Lord a mighty blow in destroying all of his airships. For now we must retreat to the city to regroup and plan our next move. I will send our swiftest hawk to alert Prince Zuko and Katara to the danger, Sokka. Stay here, I will send someone to help set your leg."

Relenting, Sokka watched the old man stalk off in search of a messenger hawk. Suki came and knelt at his side, running a hand gently up his thigh as she inspected the damaged leg. It was not a bad break; the skin had not been punctured and he was handling the pain fairly well, though as the adrenaline wore off that would likely change. He did not have long to wait before he was gritting his teeth as the soldier Pakku had sent was forcing the bones in his leg back into place. Behind him, Toph and Suki both cringed as he cried out at the sudden sharp pain.

After his leg was set and bound and he had been given something for the pain, Sokka leaned forward. Holding his head in his hands, he could not stop thinking about his sister. Toph flopped down beside him on the ground and seemed to read his thoughts.

"Katara is going to be ok Sokka. I know you don't like to think about it and you refuse to believe us but, ole Sparky's got it bad for your sister. There's no way he'd let her get hurt if he could help it. Not that she can't take care of herself. You'll see."

Looking up from his hands with a wry smile and seeming to appreciate her attempt at levity under such a crushing amount of doubt and grief, he rose to the bait.

"I don't care what you two say, my baby sister has not been sneaking around with the junior Fire Lord. Your feet," he said to Toph before turning to Suki, "and your 'womanly instincts' are both wrong. I like the guy and all, but there's no way I'd miss that."

Suki chuckled softly before bringing up the painful-to-watch flirtation and constant shared chore duty. He simply ignored them.

"They are just really good friends now that they got to go on a field trip together too. Just like Zuko and me."

They all laughed at his self imposed ignorance before lapsing back into tense and contemplative silence. Eventually Master Pakku came back, having sent his message. They would stay at the camp only long enough to hear back before heading to Ba Sing Se.

oOoOoOoOo

Katara and Zuko were making good time. Barely an hour after Yun Sui left them, Ming had arrived to help them get out of the palace. She had ended up traveling with them until they were safely outside the caldera. Apparently she didn't want to be the only servant around when the Fire Lord returned. It would have been suspicious if she didn't know where Zuko had gone or anything about his sister. Not wanting to take her chances, she had decided to flee the city as well. Katara couldn't blame her. Ming was hopeful she would be able to get her job back eventually once the Fire Lord returned in case she could be of any use relaying information. They thanked her for her help and her loyalty, and headed on to the coast.

By the time they parted ways, it was well past dark but Katara didn't want to stop so close to the city. Zuko was as comfortable as was possible, tucked away in the simple carriage so she felt no need to stop. She didn't know where Yun Sui had found it, it had obviously seen better days. However shabby it was, it provided as comfortable a ride as could be had and was certainly forgettable. Their clothes had been exchanged for shabby and unremarkable as well. Wrapped in a tattered red cloak, Katara drove the dragon moose on through the night. It was nearly dark again the next day before Zuko had woken up and convinced her to stop. A drawn out argument over the necessity of their haste, and whether or not she would in fact be of use to them if she collapsed from exhaustion had them finding a place to stay for the night in the next village. It had taken Zuko questioning how well she'd be able to fight in her current state that had finally won him the argument.

Thankfully, after nearly two full days of resting, Zuko was at last walking for short stretches by himself. It had been another minor argument to remind her that she needed to eat too. She still had no appetite from all the worrying and stress. Not that he was any better, hardly picking at his own food as he brooded over his father's fate and what it meant. He pointed out that he had done nothing but rest the last two days while she had pushed herself to her limit to get them this far. Upon realizing how relying on her to such detriment to her own health must have been bothering him, Katara begrudgingly relented and ate everything . He was right anyway, she hadn't eaten more than a few mouthfuls of food in three days and she'd be damned if she was going to survive a battle with Azula only to now die of self imposed starvation.

Later that night, as she lay staring up at the ceiling of their cramped room beside a restless Zuko, she finally allowed herself to feel everything she'd been holding back. Her breathing hitched and came in gasps as her mind reeled at the loss of her friend. For no matter how awkward things had gotten as his interest in her became more obvious, Aang had been that. Two years together since they'd found him in the iceberg, she loved him like another brother and his loss left a painful emptiness in her chest. Katara couldn't stop herself from imagining all the ways he might have died, if it was painful or quick. Fat tears rolled down the sides of her face and into her hair, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she wondered what they were going to do. How could they ever hope to bring an end to a hundred years of war without Aang. The Avatar was the great balance bringer. Without him to stem the hatred and violence that had raged for the last century, everything they'd done and lost until now was in vain. As she wept and shook from her grief, she didn't notice that Zuko had woken until she was in his arms. He offered her no empty words of comfort, only holding her to his chest as she cried until she had nothing left. She buried her tear dampened face in the front of his shirt and thought over and over again of her loved ones that still lived as she fell into a fitful sleep.