Back in the Spirit World, Aang walked up a giant tree, seeing the entrance to the cave Koh can be found in. Aang stared and slightly stepped toward the cave hearing creepy noises. He glanced to his left noticing that the noise wasn't coming from the cave. Aang sighed in relief.
"You're just a curly tailed blue nose." Aang said.
The monkey turns its head toward Aang, exposing that he had no face.
Aang was Startled. "Aaahhh!" Aang took a deep breath and spoke with his and Avatar Roku's voices combined. "Show no fear. Show no emotion at all."
Aang stepped into the cave with a straight face. "Hello? I-I'm looking for a spirit named 'Koh'."
As Aang said the spirit's name, some "roots" on the ceiling began to move. Aang looked around, sensing movement, but saw nothing. A moment later, a white face appeared with gray patches around its eyes and luscious, blood-red lips. It smiled. Aang's face remained emotionless. Suddenly, a huge centipede-like body arced around Aang and appeared in front of his face. The white, clown-like face of Koh was inches away from Aang. Around the spirit's face were eight additional legs.
Koh spoke Creepily, circling Aang. "Welcome!"
Aang kept his face straight. The spirit hung from the ceiling in front of Aang, who bowed with his hands clasped in front of him in a gesture of honor.
Aang spoke Emotionlessly. "Thank you."
Koh wheeled around Aang to look at him from behind. His voice was low and melodic, almost purring. "My old friend, the Avatar. It's been a long time."
"You know me?" Aang said.
Koh looked away from Aang. "How could I forget" He switched with a "winking" effect, as if some sort of membrane closed briefly over the old face to reveal a new one, to a mad face of a middle-aged, mustached man with thick eyebrows, long mustache, and beard; angrily. "you? One of your previous incarnations tried to slay me! Nearly eight or nine hundred years ago."
Aang was Confused, yet seriously. "I didn't know that. Why did he, or I, try to kill you?"
Koh Switched to Ummi's scared, sad face. "Oh, it was something about stealing the face of someone you loved." Koh's face turned malicious and switched to a baboon's while laughing. Aang kept a straight face while not taking his eyes off Koh as he circled around him. "Of course, that's all behind us. Why should I hold a grudge against you for something in a past life? After all, you're a different person now." Koh Spoke into Aang's ear from behind. "You've come to me ... with a new face."
Xxx
Aang closed his eyes and took a deep breath to the words into his ear, crossing the scene to the real world, Zuko seeing his breath.
"Guess we'll be here awhile." Zuko said.
"Yes..." Khione leaned back against the cave wall. "You know, Zuko...when I first saw you during the Agni Kai with your father, I felt connected to you due to my cruel grandmother."
"You...did?" Zuko's eyes met hers in interest. "What did she do to you?"
"My Grams isolated me and kept me in the palace." Khione said. "Like a caged dragon." She laughed.
Zuko chuckled too, remembering how she had appeared to him as a dragon.
"She was about to engage me to the worst, cruelest person she could find, when I..." Khione hesitated.
"What?" Zuko's hand touched hers in comfort.
"I wished, ever so fervently, for her death." Khione said. "That woman died the next day."
Zuko was shocked.
"I have long wondered if I was responsible for her death." Khione admitted, then leaned against Zuko. "After that I built the Spirit Hearth above the Spirit Oasis; and I began to connect to you. Seeing you was the only thing that made me feel true happiness, as in becoming Queen...I only traded one gilded cage for another."
Zuko wrapped an arm around her in comfort.
Xxx
Outside the cave, Appa was in the blizzard.
Don't worry, Zuko can't be getting too far in this weather." Sokka said.
"I'm not worried they'll get away in the blizzard. I'm worried that they won't." Katara said.
"They're not going to die in this blizzard. If we know anything, it's that Zuko never gives up. They'll survive, and we'll find them." Sokka said comfortingly.