A/N: Hi everyone Hope you all had a lovely summer. I'm so sorry for how long this has taken to come out, I was meant to post a new chapter every week of August but work took over. Had a day off today so thought to get this out. Thank you to everyone who has been reading and being patient with me. And thank you guest readers and member readers for your lovely reviews.

Aang's POV:

"You've got to be faster than that Twinkletoes!" Toph hollers at me as I pant heavily and wipe the sweat off my forehead. I close my eyes visualising the blind earthbender behind me but as soon as I turn to aim a shot at her she disappears. I look around me frantically and soon enough I find myself back on the ground again for the 16th time today.

"I swear you didn't use to be this fast." I grumble whilst clutching my bruised head. Soon enough Toph emerges out of the ground to stand in front of me with hands on her hips.

"And I swear you weren't this slow, but here we are. It's a wonder you've managed to survive till now." I growl and slam the ground with a fist, hoping to catch her off guard but she merely jumps out of the way just before the earth pillar is erected. Sighing I flop back onto the floor.

"You know, I'm starting to think the same thing." I mumble disgruntledly. Toph blows her bangs from her eyes and offers me a hand. I take it and I'm swiftly pulled up to my feet.

"If it's any consolation you are definitely better then you were 3 days ago." I raise an eyebrow at Toph's offhanded comment.

"Is that a compliment I hear?" I ask, my eyes dancing with mirth. My sifu snorts.

"Hardly." Just as I open my mouth again I sense the hurried footsteps of Sokka.

"Sokka? What are you rushing for?" I question in concern as I take note of Sokka's tense posture.

"The reinforcements are here along with General Fong. We're holding a meeting now." All sense of easy-going atmosphere dissipates with those words and together we hurry back to Suki's hut.
The general looks up when we open the door. He rises from his seat and nods in greeting.

"Avatar Aang. Chief Toph. It's good to see you, though I wish I wasn't the bearer of bad news." I blink in puzzlement.

"Bad news?" I echo as my eyes stray towards the grim faces of Zuko and Katara sitting beside the general's vacant seat.

"Our intel tells us that a fleet of Fire Nation ships are being prepared for departure. If we head off now we should make it in time to the Fire Nation before they leave and keep the battle on their turf." My jaw drops open in dismay.

"Wouldn't that just give them the home field advantage?" The blind earthbender asks.

"Better that than have them on our soil; we don't want civilians to get hurt. We've also found that Azula is leaving herself unguarded, presumably she's still extremely paranoid and doesn't trust anyone. This would give us the chance to fly in undetected and drop on her at once." I raise a sceptical eyebrow at this.

"My sister might be paranoid but she's not dumb, she's cunning and devious. I'm sure she'll have some other measures put in a place." Zuko explains despondently at which the general nods.

"True, but options are slim at the moment, it's the best strategy we have. Another thing we've found is that the rebels are after the Avatar. If he makes an appearance they will all be targeting him. I apologise Avatar Aang but you must not be seen, preferably you shouldn't come with us at all." I widen my eyes at this suggestion but quickly get over the shock. I feel the hard stares of everyone in the room and I shake my head stubbornly.

"I apologise General but I can't just not fight. I've been fighting against them for years so I'm the best shot you've got to tackle them."

"From what I understood that might be the problem. As much as I admire what you did at the North Pole 4 years ago, I have a suspected feeling you wouldn't be able to pull off a feat like that again." A flash of anger courses through me at his comment.

"And what makes you say that? If anything I should be more powerful." I state seriously.

"Should being the key word. You haven't been well from what I hear. You are mentally, emotionally and physically drained." I take a step back in shock, 'how on earth does he know that?' Sokka quickly jumps in between us and shoots a glare at the General.

"If I were you General I would mind your own business and watch your tongue. Remember your place." The ponytail warrior growls out with a fierce fire burning in his eyes, but the general merely raises an eyebrow in amusement.

"I do not wish to offend Avatar Aang. But there's an urgent need of caution. We can't risk him being captured and used as bait against us or worse be killed." I look on speechless, my jaws remaining clamped together, and fortunately Toph comes to my rescue. The blind earthbender marches up to the general and grabs him roughly by the collar.

"I suggest you keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you or else I'll make you." At this threat the General pulls away from Toph's grasp and rights his clothing, looking weary of the Master Earthbender.

"As you wish, I've already made my point anyway. It's up to you all to decide. We should depart now. I'll be on the ship while you grab any supplies that you may need, but we leave within the hour." The General states in a tone of finality and exits the house. As I watch him leave I become aware of everyone's eyes on me.

"What?" I ask in annoyance as I start to feel self-conscious. Katara gets up from her seat to stand in front of me, her eyes soft with concern as she places a hand on my shoulder.
"Are you alright?" The Master Waterbender questions as her eyes pierce through me. I shrug her hand off.

"I'm fine." I mumble and walk out to my room.

Katara's POV:
I sigh softly at Aang's attitude, not even finding it in myself to be hurt by his actions. I turn to face my brother whose worried expression is written clearly on his face.

"What do you guys think? As out of line as General Fong was, he does have a point. We're all worried about Aang as it is." Sokka points out.

"Nothing will stop him from going, not even us." Toph declares as she folds her arms over her chest and leans against the wall.

"I have to agree. Besides the choice in the end is Aang's. Since we can't stop him then we should just support him." Zuko explains calmly. "Now everyone get packed and we'll meet on the harbour." The Firelord ends with a tone of finality as he walks out of the door followed closely by Toph. I shake my head at Zuko's very 'diplomatic' instructions. As I start moving towards the exit, Sokka stops me in my tracks with a hand on my shoulder. I look at him questioning.

"Could you go and check on Aang, make sure he's ok?" My brother requests meekly. I raise an eyebrow at his request.

"Do you think that's a good idea? He probably wants to be left alone. I don't want to push any boundaries." I ask in a half-worried tone.

"Please Katara?" I sigh at my brother's plea, but nod my head regardless. He releases his grasp on my shoulder and with an encouraging smile he exits the room. I bite my lip as I make my way to Aang's room, finding his door closed. I hesitate briefly before finally knocking on the door. A faint 'Come in' drifts from the other side and I open the door agar, just enough to peek my head through to see Aang holding his staff tightly in his hands.

"Katara?" He questions in a semi-suspicious manner. 'He probably thinks I'm here to persuade him out of going.' I take a step into the room, leaving the door slightly agar behind me.

"Are you alright?" I question gently as the young Avatar shrugs.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be?" Aang states slightly miffed. I take a few steps towards him until I'm a less than half a metre away.

"Because that general was way out of line." The Airbender gazes at me critically to make sure I don't have some other hidden agenda. When he notices my intentions are genuine he sighs and takes a slumped seat on the edge of his bed.

"No, he wasn't. He's actually right." My eyes widen slightly at Aang's confession as I take a seat beside him. "I am drained in every sense. But I'm still going, I have to." The young Avatar adds strongly.

"I understand." I watch as Aang's eyes widen in surprise at my words.

"You do?" I nod, allowing a small smile to works its way up my face.

"If there's one thing that hasn't changed, its your stubbornness." I throw out offhandedly at which he chuckles softly. I get up from the bed, take a few steps towards the door and turn back to Aang whose still sitting with expectant eyes.
"We're going to do this together, just like we used to. Now come on, we don't want them to leave without us." I say encouragingly and the young Avatar is soon by my side and we walk out of the house in a more confident manner.

On the ship:
A burst of fire erupts from my palms as I hit each target.
"Again!" Zuko shouts from behind me and I strike the target with more ferocity, watching as it goes down in flames. "That's better." I turn to face Zuko who shoots me a small smile as he claps my shoulder with his hand. "You're back to where you were. I think that's enough training. We should head to bed as we'll be arriving on Fire Nation shores at the crack of dawn." The Firelord finishes as he releases his hold on me and takes a step away from me.

"Zuko." I call out suddenly. The firebender turns back to face me with an inquiring raised eyebrow. I drop my eyes to the deck floor in sudden indecision, but after a moment I raise them back up to meet the Firelord's eyes. "I want to say thank you for sticking with me for all these years. You didn't have to, but you did. And...well I appreciate it especially when everyone else took it so hard." I say in a rush wanting to finally tell him of my gratitude yet feeling a sudden difficulty of doing so at the same time. Zuko's expression is incomprehensible as he moves back in front of me.

"It's the least I could do. Remember you still accepted me in your group after all I did to you." I shake my head at him in disappointment.

"Zuko, I already told you that I forgave you for all that. The situation was difficult and I get that. We're friends now." I smile genuinely.

"Yeah we are friends. And friends are always there for each other. I..." The Firelord trails off and his eyes stare at the dark night sky.

"You what?" I ask unsurely, having a feeling I know what he wants to say.

"Sorry. I'm sorry for what happened that caused you to leave. I know this whole mess is my fault. I would do anything to..." I put a hand on Zuko's shoulder, stopping his words in their tracks.

"Zuko, it's in the past. We can't change it, we just learn from it and move forward."

"It's not that simple and even you know that. What I did was the root of everything that happened. You would've told us what was going on and we would've helped you. That's what was meant to happen."

"How do you know I would've said anything?" I ask surprised at his correct deduction.

"I'm not dumb Aang. You wanted to tell us something really important that day. You were awkward, tired, kept starting and stopping your sentences. It was obvious. We all thought it was because you knew about Katara and I, so we thought to tell you properly. If we hadn't assumed then you wouldn't have left. Since we assumed you knew, we thought you were reasonably ok with it. Imagine our shock when we saw your reaction as if..."

"I didn't know." I finish Zuko's statement off glumly. "If you were able to deduce that, why not Katara? Does Sokka know?" I question seriously as I watch Zuko run his hand through his hair.

"Sokka has always had his suspicions that something was going on, but I guess his hurt blinded him from putting the pieces together. Now though? I'm pretty sure he knows, he's a bright guy. With Katara, I think deep down in her heart she knows, but she keeps denying it to save herself from the guilt it will bring. I'm assuming Toph knows since you didn't ask about her?" Zuko asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I told her or more like confirmed her suspicions. She's persistent." I say with a shrug at which the Firelord nods.

"She is. If only I had asked for her help in nagging you. I feel we would've got results much sooner and this tower of bitterness wouldn't be so high. I still can't believe you were able to hide this for so long." I shrug again, feeling uncomfortable with this probing analysis.

"Toph is more sensitive then she lets on. Everyone was hurt and this whole thing got way out of proportion. As I said there's nothing we can do about it except heal." I pause, a nagging question coming from the back of my mind. "What did you think was going on with me?" I inquire as my curiosity gets the better of me.

"At the beginning I just thought you were heartbroken which made sense. But after a year you still weren't the same and I started wondering whether there was something else when you started missing meetings or you looked half asleep a lot of the time. It wasn't until your long absence 18 months ago that I finally realised something was very wrong and when you showed up you winced a lot. I figured someone must have hurt you especially when you were so adamant about wearing long sleeves all the time even in the dead of summer. But assassins? That never crossed my mind. Maybe it should have. I, after all, had the same issue in the beginning of my reign." I sigh when Zuko finishes his explanation.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I hid it too well. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you." I eye the sky before focusing on Zuko again. "Go and sleep while the night is still dark." Zuko nods at me and starts walking off. He turns back to look at me with a question in his eyes. "Don't worry about me." I say but the Firelord sighs in response and waves me goodnight as he disappears inside the ship. I shake my head and grabbing my glider I fly to the top deck. Putting my staff beside me I rest my arms on the railings and decide to just stare at the open ocean, knowing I wouldn't be getting much, if any, sleep tonight.

"Aang?" I jump at the sound of my name and turn to face Katara standing behind me with a hand holding her elbow.

"Katara? Shouldn't you be asleep?" I question and then I widen my eyes in sudden realisation. "How long have you been out here?" I ask wearily. Katara seems hesitant to move closer and remains in her spot.

"A while. I couldn't get to sleep with everything that's going on, so I thought to come up here and get some air and then I saw you and Zuko talking." Katara states with a straight face, not giving away anything. A soft 'oh' escapes from my mouth.

"What did you hear?" I ask, my voice small and worried. Katara seems to sense my discomfort and walks over till she's standing beside me, her hands on the railings and her face looking ahead into the darkness beyond. A soft sigh leaves her lips.

"Nothing I didn't know before." The Master Waterbender states quietly, her tone despondent. I refrain from dropping my jaw open and I choose to remain silent and let Katara steer the conversation. "For the first time in my life I don't know what to say. I know sorry isn't good enough and I know you don't want to hear us blaming ourselves for everything that's happened, even though it is our fault. Sometimes I wish you weren't so perfect, because your perfections just ends up highlighting our imperfections." This time I can't help the automatic action of dropping my jaw open and I snort at Katara's preposterous thinking.

"Katara I'm hardly perfect. In fact I'm anything but perfect. I don't know what makes you think that I am." This time she turns to face me, her wide eyes piercing straight through me.

"If it were anyone else in your position, they would've gone for revenge, hatred, anger, but you went for forgiveness and self-blame." I shake my head at her.

"Katara I lied about you all on a worldwide scale. I hurt you all. I've made tons of mistakes in the past like hiding the map to your father and burning you."

"We both know why you did all those things and the last one was just an accident." I blow a puff of air out of my mouth.

"Katara don't make this harder than it needs to be." I say tiredly.
"Aang why won't you just admit to me that it's my fault that you left?" Katara asks pointedly at which I feel a burst of frustration rise through me.

"Why do I have to admit it if you already know it?" I turn to face the Master Waterbender whose expression is neutral. "Fine, the day I found out about you and Zuko was the day I was going to tell you all about the assassination attempts. I finally plucked up enough courage and the attempts were wearing me down. But when I found out...I felt so hurt and betrayed. So I left. The end. Does that make you feel better?" I bite out in a rush but upon seeing Katara's eyes watering at my harsh attitude I bite the inside of my cheek so hard that I draw blood. I take a step closer to the Master Waterbender but I freeze when I start to raise a hand, and I end up letting it flop down by my side.

"Do you still feel hurt?" I blink in surprise at the question and looking ahead I shake my head.

"No, it's in the past. Whoever you want to be with has nothing to do with me." I state stonily and an air of silence descends on us.

"I know you're lying." Katara finally settles on saying. I bite my lip and look away, knowing her piercing gaze is directed at me. I hear a shift of movement and soon a warm hand rests on my cheek and gently forces me to look back at her. I close my eyes briefly before opening them again.

"Can we not talk about this please?" The master Waterbender's face seems conflicted in giving in to my request. Her eyes gaze into my own and brush over to an area next to my collar. She sighs and lets her hand drop from my cheek, allowing the cold night air to brush my face instead. I watch as she nods at me and I let out a small breath of relief that I hadn't realised I was holding.

"Can I ask you something?" I frown slightly at this change of events and look back to the ocean.

"Sure." I settle on saying.

"Why didn't you go to sleep after talking to Zuko? You chose just to come up here instead." Despite the question I can't help but find the corner of my mouth twitching up into a small smile. 'This is familiar ground.'

"Nightmares have been plaguing my sleep. So I just thought I'd stay awake." I say casually with a shrug but I don't need to look at Katara to know that a deep frown has settled on her face.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Katara voices softly.

"It's just about the death of my people. And a few of the assassination attempts. Sokka thinks I've been lonely which is why I dream about the former." I say putting the word 'lonely' in air quotes. The Master Waterbender remains silent fot a moment.

"Wait here. I'll be back in a minute." I blink twice at the strange command but before I can even ask why. I find Katara has already gone. A couple of minutes later she returns with two sleeping bags. I raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why do you have sleeping bags? There are rooms with beds in the ship you know." I clarify in case my old Sifu was somehow unaware of this but Katara rolls her eyes at me.

"Of course I know that." Frowning I shake my head.

"So why...?" I trail off and give a pointed look at the sleeping bag.

"We're going to sleep out here. It's not meant to rain so we should be alright. I was thinking that it might help if you have a friend nearby while you slept to remind you that you aren't alone and hopefully keep the nightmares away." Katara explains and upon hearing that I feel my heart warm up at her thoughtful gesture. But at my silence the master Waterbender starts to become self-conscious and holds her elbow. "I mean if you don't want to that's fine I just thought..." I shake my head vigorously.

"No! I mean that's a good idea. But erm you won't be cold?" I ask hesitantly to which my old sifu smiles.

"I live in the South Pole. I think I'll be ok." Katara answers as she bends down to roll out the two sleeping bags on the deck. I nod mutely and go over to the sleeping bag on the right and carefully lower myself down onto it while my Sifu does the same with the other one. I gaze up at the night sky and watch the stars above us. "You know all we need is Sokka and Toph and it will be just like old times." Katara whispers to me and I nod in agreement.

"Yeah. After this mess is over, we definitely need to go camping together." I reply with a sense of hopefulness. But for some subconscious reason I force my eyes open despite the obvious feeling of drowsiness overcoming me. Katara must have sensed my internal battle as a moment later I feel my hand being enveloped with her warm ones.

"Aang, it's safe to sleep. Nothing will happen to you while I'm here. I promise." Her reassurance is somehow enough to comfort me and I squeeze Katara's hand briefly in response.

"Thanks Katara." I mumble out and soon I drift off for some much needed sleep.

Katara's POV:
I watch as Aang's eyes flutter to a close and his breath evens out as he falls asleep. I roll over till I'm resting on my side to face Aang properly whilst still keeping a hold of his hand.
'I really wish you wouldn't close up every time I ask you about your feelings, but I suppose I deserve it.' I shift closer to the young Airbender and gaze at him. My eyes can't help but return to the small mark on his collarbone, mostly masked by the collar of his attire. I reach out my free hand which hovers over the young Avatar in a moment of hesitation, before I finally touch the scar gently with my fingertips. Aang's even breathing stops suddenly and I hold in my breath in worry that I've woken him, but he just shifts and snuggles deeper into the sleeping bag, his even breathing returning.

I let out a breath and concentrate on the raggedness of the deep mark. I sigh in sadness and return my hand back to my side. 'Oh Aang how many of those scars are you hiding from me?' As soon as I voice that silent question in my mind I see Aang's eyebrows scrunch up tightly. 'He must be having a nightmare.' I move even closer to the Airbender and after a pause of hesitation I embrace him in a gentle side hug as to not wake him and begin murmuring words of comfort. Soon enough the tight expression on his face fades and is replaced by a small smile as he subconsciously sinks deeper into my embrace. I feel my heart jump into my throat at his action and hold him tighter. 'Aang you have no idea how much I missed you. If I could turn back the time and restart all of this over again, I would in a heartbeat.' Finally sleep sweeps over me and I drift off into a dreamless haven.

A/N: Word was being a pain with the spacing so I apologise that it doesn't look as it usually does. Let me know what you think of this chapter. Hopefully it wouldn't be long till the next update. Thanks again everyone.

7/9/19