A/N: Okay, after the prologue the rest of this story takes place at the end of the book of Fire- so suppose that Zuko and Iroh have already joined up with Aang and company. Aang has also gotten over his fear of Firebending. Since Zuko has been with them for a while now, he and Sokka are more comfortable around each other than they otherwise would be. Got it? Good!
Chapter 1: Battle PlansSokka dumped the sticks he'd gathered by the fire with a slight scowl. He looked at Katara as she sat swirling water in a pot to make it boil faster.
"Why is it," he asked his sister as he crossed his arms over his chest, "that I'm the one that has to pick-up Aang's chores when he's practicing as well as doing my own?"
"Who do you suggest do them then, smart guy?" Katara said without looking up.
"Iroh could," Sokka said, pointing to where the man in question was lounging on Appa's side taking a nap.
"So, you want to pawn your chores-"
"Aang's chores."
"Off onto an old man?"
"He's not as old as he'd like you to think," Sokka muttered, pulling his boomerang out of its sheath. "I'm going to get Aang and the royal pain-in-the-butt."
"Play nice, Sokka," Katara said, more out of habit than concern for anyone's well being. Sokka didn't respond, but walked toward the meadow where Aang and Zuko had earlier been working on the Avatar's Firebending.
He didn't see them immediately, and so was understandably surprised when flame shot out of the tree above him and toward his head. He dropped to the ground and rolled, coming out of his maneuver facing the tree and in a battle ready position.
"Oops. Sorry, Sokka," Aang yelled, dropping down next to him. "I thought you were Zuko."
"Well I'm not," Sokka responded, a bit agitated by the attempt on his life. He looked around, but saw no trace of the exiled prince. He scowled as he turned to face Aang again. "Where's his majesty anyway?"
Aang opened his mouth to answer, but he didn't have to as Zuko dropped out of a tree and knocked Sokka to the ground.
"Never turn your back on an enemy, peasant."
"I hate you," Sokka said, not bothering to get up just yet. "What were you two doing anyway?"
"Playing a game," Aang said happily.
"Training," Zuko said quickly at the same time.
Sokka smirked as he got up, dusting himself off. "Right. Well, Katara says that dinner is nearly ready, and…"
"Food!" Aang said, using his airbending to zoom back toward camp and leaving a trail of dust in his wake.
"You need to wash up." Sokka finished.
Zuko closed his eyes and shook his head solemnly. He looked at Sokka with a small frown on his face as he spoke, "and he's the one destined to save the world?"
"Tragic isn't it?" Sokka said, his tone just as serious, as he started to walk toward the river. Zuko followed him, and the two were quickly washed up for dinner. They entered camp to find Iroh already happily eating his possum-chicken stew while Aang ate the steamed plants Katara had been preparing when Sokka left her.
Sokka took his bowl eagerly from his sister and launched into his dinner with much gusto.
"It's not going anywhere, peasant," Zuko sneered as he took his bowl as well. Sokka stopped his eating to scowl at him.
"Hey, I worked hard today. I caught the food, skinned it, and got the firewood. I deserve to enjoy it. You…all you did was play a game."
"We were training," Zuko growled.
"Since when is hide-and-seek a training tool?"
"It wasn't hide-and-seek," Zuko snapped, but he was unable to come up with anything else to say. Sokka grinned in triumph and began to eat again.
"Right," Aang spoke up in a way that made it obvious he thought he was being helpful. "It wasn't hide-and-seek. It was tag."
Sokka snorted into his stew, inhaling a great deal of the broth as he started to laugh. Zuko scowled at Aang and looked tempted to throw something large and heavy at the young Avatar.
"I'm glad to hear you two where working so hard," Katara giggled, giving Momo some of the leaves from her stew.
"Running is an essential part of fire-bending training," Iroh said seriously, though a smile tugged at the corners of his moth. Zuko shot him a last scathing look as he tilted his head back to look at the now dark sky.
The giggling had subsided by the time Zuko looked down again, his face in a deep frown now. "Uncle," he said softly, looking over at his relative. "You can see it."
"See what?" Aang asked as Iroh looked up, frowning as well.
"Sozen's comet," Iroh answered in an angry tone. Sokka, Katara, and Aang all looked up at the sky anxiously.
"I don't see anything," Katara said after a moment.
"Right there," Zuko said, pointing. Sokka followed his finger with his eyes and squinted up into the endless plain of stars. If he hadn't had Zuko to point out the small smear of white, he never would have seen it himself.
"How long until it's close enough for you to use?" Sokka asked gravely, looking away from the sky and over at Zuko. The exiled Prince looked at him evenly, his face and tone betraying nothing.
"Two weeks. Three at best."
Sokka's jaw dropped as both Aang and Katara looked over at Zuko in shock.
"What!"
"No way!"
"Only two weeks?"
Zuko just nodded at them, and a solemn silence settled over the small group for several long moments.
"Well," Aang said with forced cheerfulness, "I've almost mastered all the elements, and all our friends have promised to fight with us. We're ready to fight the Fire Lord!"
"It is not as simple as you think," Iroh said calmly, sipping the broth of his stew.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean?"
Iroh looked at them, his face as grim as they had ever seen it. "There is still one more thing you need before you will be able to defeat the Fire Lord completely."
"One more thing?" Aang groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"Why did no one mention this before?" Sokka demanded, scowling at the old firebender. Two weeks was certainly not enough time to do whatever it was they were going to have to do.
"Because it has been a secret well-kept by my family for many years," Iroh said, setting down his bowl. "Before you can defeat my brother, you need to find the child born of the Ocean Spirit."
Looks of confusion were exchanged around the fire. Even Zuko didn't seem to have any idea what his uncle was talking about. Noting this, Iroh sighed and sat up straighter in preparation to tell his story.
"My grandfather took the appearance of the comet to be a sign from the Sun Spirit that the Fire Nation was destined to rule over the other nations just as the comet ruled the stars. For fifty years, we believed this to be true as there had been no sign of the Avatar and many victories.
My grandfather was a very old man when a well respect seer entered his court. I was fifteen then, and my brother just five years old. She came in and Sozen about a dream she had had the night before. In it the Avatar had returned as an Airbender, and with him- she said- a child born of the Ocean Spirit. You see, according to legend, the Ocean Spirit was the only one to have beaten the Sun Spirit in the past, and she said that with help from the moon he would do it again. She told how, with their combined strength, the two had overthrown the Fire Lord and restored balance to the world.
That was when Sozen resumed his search for the Avatar, and swore all those who had heard the warning into secrecy. If the public found out that he had failed in his attempt to destroy the Avatar, they would denounce his war and possibly attempt to overthrown him. He also began a search for the Ocean Spirit Child, and attacked the water tribes with more energy than before."
"That's nonsense," Sokka said after he had had time to process this information. "No one can see into the future."
"Maybe not," Iroh allowed, "but Ozai believes it fully- especially now that the Avatar has been found. That is why he was so eager to attack and conquer the North Pole. If the Avatar does team up with this child, he knows he is doomed. If you show up without, Ozai will believe he will be victorious and thus much harder to destroy."
"That's why I'm the only Waterbender in the South Pole, isn't it?" Katara asked in a frightened whisper. "He had all the other Waterbending children killed."
Sokka looked away as Iroh nodded.
"For many years, both my father and Ozai ordered attacks on the Southern Water Tribe to kill any Waterbending children they found there."
"Don't hurt him! He can't bend! He's of no threat to you!"
Sokka closed his eyes tight, trying wordlessly to force the sound of his mother's voice out of his head. He could feel Zuko's eyes on him, and he didn't want to look weak in front of the other teen.
"All those children," Katara whispered in a trembling voice, and Aang put a gentle hand on her wrist for comfort.
"He's just a child, please. If you must kill someone, kill me."
"How are we supposed to find this child in two weeks?" Zuko demanded, pulling Sokka back to reality. The water tribe teen scowled as he threw another stick on the fire.
"We can't," he said angrily. "Even if this child existed he wasn't at either pole. He would have shown himself at the attack on the North Pole if he'd been there, and the only Waterbender back home is Katara. That leaves every other water bender in the world, and they're to scattered for us to locate them all in time."
"Then what do we do?" Katara asked. Aang and Zuko looked down, both thinking.
"We pretend we've found him," Sokka said darkly, picking up another stick.
"How does that help?" Aang asked.
"Look, the only reason we even need this kid is to fool the Fire Lord, right? To fool him, it doesn't necessarily have to be the right person. We just need to pick a Waterbending boy from all the people have promised to help us fight and ta da, we have what we need."
"But don't you think we should at least try?" Katara demanded.
"Well, where do you suggest we look?"
"There's a village a few days walk down the coast," Aang said. "Bumi once told me there were a few waterbenders there. Maybe we could go look?"
"We don't have time to waste on such useless tasks," Zuko said angrily.
"Besides, someone needs to get to Ba Sing Se and tell them that we don't have much time left."
"That wouldn't take all of us," Katara shot back reasonably. "It only takes one person to find Appa. The rest of us could go down the coast and see if anyone in the town might know about the child. We could meet at the town in five days."
"You're suggesting we split up?"
"Yes."
Sokka and Zuko exchanged doubtful looks, but Aang sat up hopefully.
"I think that's a great idea, Katara. We're going to need all the help we can get in this battle, and if there's any chance of finding someone who can help me…"
"Alright, fine," Sokka said, holding up his hands in defeat. "So, who is going to go all alone to Ba Sing Se then?"
"I will go," Iroh said happily. "I would only slow you down anyway."
Zuko made a noise of amusement, but Aang just nodded.
"Okay, then it's settled."
"Great," Sokka muttered. "We get to go on yet another wild goose chase. Do these never end?"
"Nope," Katara said, crawling toward her sleeping bag. "But lets try and get some sleep. We're going to want to start out early tomorrow morning."
