Sooooo... It's been a while...

I did say that this might happen, but I never expected to be away from a story for so long. Unfortunately, Applying for uni and trying to get through my final year of school has been extremely difficult at the moment. Things just took higher priority for a while, and they certainly will again, I'm afraid.

I love writing for this story, but I really need the motivation to do it. A huge thank you to everyone who has given reviews for this story, your support is everything to me.

But enough of my rambling, on with the chapter!


They wouldn't stop staring at him.

Zuko, at another point in his life might have found this extremely uncomfortable, but by now, he was used to it. Showing up out of the blue in random areas around the Earth Kingdom with his kind of appearance and the multitude of various weapons that he liked to keep on him was bound to draw some kind of attention every now and again.

Yet, with the full attention of the Avatar and his friends upon him, he couldn't help but try to subtly avert his gaze due to the sheer awkwardness of the situation. At least, it was awkward for him, considering that he knew exactly who all of them were before he'd even met them.

Yeah, it's probably best that he doesn't mention that.

While many parts of his memory were still filled with gaping black holes, it was extremely clear to Zuko that his first actual meeting with Aang, Sokka and Katara was not friendly in the slightest. Nor were many of their meetings afterwards, either.

This one didn't seem to be going all that great either, to be honest.

After the initial 'thanks for saving my friend' and the 'please don't get eaten alive', the villagers around them seemed to regain their senses and begin to panic again due to a corrupted spirit living in their lake. Not that they really knew about the 'corrupted' bit. Some of them believed that this new spirit had fought the old lake spirit, and was now trying to keep anyone from wandering into its newly claimed territory.

But no. Shui was just throwing a hissy fit. A really big, slightly understandable hissy fit.

The warning had gone out to any who had somehow not noticed the dark spirit that they were not to go anywhere near the lake, no matter the reason. The crowds eventually began to disperse, with the young healer dragging Katara back to the small clinic. Zuko had also decided to slip away with the crowd, hoping to find a corner where no one would come looking for him. He made it about five seconds before realising that Aang and Sokka were following him.

Shit.

Instead of turning around, he simply decided to walk faster, hoping they would get the hint that he did not want to talk right now. Give him a hundred years and Zuko might actually be prepared to have a conversation with anyone from the past. Just… not now.

Unfortunately, the speed walking did not deter them, and actually seemed to spur them on more. Deciding that drastic action needed to be taken, Zuko quickly manoeuvred his way towards the tavern. Though not a particularly large village, Fengkou was in a good spot for traders and travellers to stop for a while, thus allowing for such an establishment.

While Sokka certainly might try and follow him in here, Zuko was certain that Aang would not. Surely the monk would never dream of entering such a place.

Quickly making his way inside, Zuko waved to the bartender, Ju, and made his way to his usual spot in the corner. While people would still try and approach him here, it was a rather difficult spot to see unless you were looking for it. Sighing heavily, he leaned his head back and closed his eye.

When he had first started to regain his memories, Zuko felt disoriented, like the world had suddenly shifted. He had felt it first when the Avatar appeared again, hearing the whispers and echoes of the world coming alive again. He had ignored it at first, passing it off as something completely unrelated to him. A stupid way of thinking, really. It was in the middle of chasing down a particularly troublesome Tengu that everything started coming back to him.

It started with Agni, because of course it did! Give it to the Sun Spirit to go and screw up Zuko's life again. Were he and Agni already on bad terms, they certainly would be now. He remembered bits and pieces of his first conversation with the Sun Spirit, and he wanted to go kick his past self for being so awed for being in the giant lizard's presence.

"So be it."

The words were extremely ominous and made it sound like Zuko had made some sort of demonic pact with Agni. And, damn, he hoped that wasn't the case. Life was hard enough as it was without the suspicion of having sold his soul to someone and not even knowing why he did it. He sincerely doubts that is what actually happened, but you can never entirely rule everything out when spirits are involved.

Things only got weirder when he started to remember things before that, like spending three years in exile on a boat for some reason, or swimming in the waters of the North Pole. Past him had done some very stupid things, and they just kept getting worse.

It was the day when he finally found the stupid Tengu that Zuko fully remembered his entire childhood, and it immediately erased all previous sadness he might have had about being removed from that life in this timeline. He was so pissed off about the whole situation that he barely even hesitated to take it all out on the corrupted spirit. And really? The bird kind of deserved it anyway.

Seeing Sokka almost getting eaten by the thing didn't help its case.

To take his mind off of the sheer craziness which was now his life (and certainly to not run away from all of his problems), Zuko did everything he could to steer clear of any rumours of 'Fire Nation' and 'Avatar'. It proved to be very difficult, as those were the only two things people seemed to be talking about right now.

So, he left for Fengkou, found a dark spirit in the lake and subsequently came face to face with Aang and co. all in two days! Yeah, he's pretty sure someone cursed him.

The scraping of chairs being pulled out made Zuko's face scrunch up with frustration. He knew exactly who was sitting right in front of him right now. He sighed and opened his eye to see the squinting, suspicious face of Sokka and the far too happy grin of Aang.

He should have realised that, when on a mission and with Sokka by his side, Aang would probably go anywhere if he needed to.

You should have known better than that, Sparky! A voice that sounded suspiciously like Toph yelled in his mind. Shut up, Toph.

Sokka leaned in. "Huh."

Zuko glared at him. "Yes, of course, by all means, you can join me at this table. I don't mind at all."

Aang gave out a nervous laugh, but Sokka's frown deepened. "I feel like… I've seen you somewhere before."

Shit. "Yes, a few minutes ago when we were outside, actually."

Spirits, he hoped he was good at being subtle, otherwise things are going to go wrong very quickly.

{~}

Zuko was terrible at being subtle.

Aang internally grinned as Sokka continued to splutter as he sat back down in his chair, sending another glare at the occupant at the other end of the table.

After Bao had finally managed to wrangle Katara back into the infirmary and subsequently prevent Sokka from being strangled to death by his sister, the remaining two had decided to go and bother their saviour.

Who had completely vanished from view.

Not one to let frustration get to him too often, Aang decided to take a page out of an old friend's book, and chose to chase Zuko all around the entire village until he gave up running away. Oh, Aang certainly realised the irony of that statement as soon as he thought it. The only consolation that the Airbender really got from it was that Zuko had better hair this time.

Sokka had been right in thinking that Aang was looking unwell from Katara's injury, but that hadn't been the only thing that was bothering him since the run-in with the Fire Sages and the (wrong) Fire Nation royals. At least Zhao had still been ther- Oh, spirits! Did he seriously just think that?

But it wasn't the presence of any Fire Nationer that disturbed him, whether they should have been there or not. No, in fact it had been when he was in the Avatar State that things started to make sense… in a manner of speaking. He remembered things that have happened and have yet to happen. Things that now will never happen. Bayu, it was all so confusing that just thinking about it gave him a headache.

Out of all the small visions that had come to him, only three stood out as 'important' to him. The first had been of a girl with snow white hair, dressed all in blue. Another had been a pond with two koi fish swimming in harmony together. The last had been a boy with golden eyes and a scar on his face. The boy had appeared to Aang as an enemy in his visions, but in his mind, the Avatar could only hear the word 'friend'. The thoughts had both excited and saddened him. If this person was to be his friend, then where was he? Why was he replaced by two strangers who really didn't give off friendly vibes?

That was part of the reason as to why he was currently chasing after this (soon to be?) friend- Zuko- and not simply leaving the poor guy alone. The other reason was Sokka shouting "weapons guy!" and running off in a random direction. Aang liked to believe that, with Katara out of commission for the moment, it was his responsibility to keep Sokka out of trouble. He was also still denying that he was in denial about being ninety-nine percent of the reason why they are almost always in trouble. He doesn't need to deny what isn't true.

It took Sokka all of five seconds to catch up to Zuko, and Aang wasn't quite sure of it was due to the older boy's tracking skills or sheer dumb luck. The fact that Zuko's black clothing stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the various browns and greens probably had something to do with it.

Sokka had barely even hesitated when he followed the dark haired boy into the local tavern, and Aang only stopped for a moment before plastering a huge smile on his face as he entered. Tavern's, he had been told when he was younger, were to only be entered when absolutely necessary. Aang had never been told why, and he never was able to ask, so he simply told himself that 'this is for a good cause' and continued his way on in.

The barkeeper was very helpful, pointing to a table in the far corner when Sokka asked where "the weapons guy had run off to." The glare that greeted them when they sat down at the small table did not deter Aang nor Sokka in the slightest, serving to, in fact, encourage Sokka further. Aang had no idea what his friend knew or if he remembered anything at all. He hoped so, if only that he didn't feel so confused on his own. Sokka's insistence that they had met before did spark some hope within Aang, although the Airbender couldn't be sure if that was just Sokka being Sokka.

Throughout the exchange, however, Aang had noticed that Zuko had eventually become so tense, he looked ready to bolt at any moment. Aang quickly decided to change the subject before their potential new friend could dash off.

"So," the Avatar leaned forward. "Spirits."

Zuko shifted back in his seat, visible eyebrow raising with suspicion. "Yes? What about them?"

"Uh, well…" Aang really should have thought this conversation through first.

"You just shot one in the eye." Sokka deadpanned, thankfully interrupting.

"What of it?" Aang tried not to let the smile slip off of his face. Getting this guy to talk was one of the biggest challenges they had come across all week. Luckily, Aang loved challenges.

"Well, it's not everyday you meet someone who can fight off something like that so easily…" Aang prayed to all the spirits he knew that Zuko would give in and have a normal conversation with them. Surely he must have realised by now that they weren't giving up?

Today was, of course, not Aang's lucky day. "...I guess not."

The situation might have been rather hilarious to Aang had he not felt the irritation radiating off of Sokka.

"Listen, buddy-" The water tribesman started.

"Don't call me 'buddy'." Cam the dry response.

"Argh, whatever! Look, you might as well stop-"

SLAM!

The tavern door burst open, revealing a villager leaning against the door, panting heavily. All conversation in the area stopped, anticipation hanging in the air.

"The well," the villager breathed. "There's poison in the well!"

{~}

Katara was helping Bao clear away the medicinal herbs when Healer Rong quickly entered, accompanied by Haoran who was carrying a young pregnant woman in his arms.

"Clear some space!" Healer Rong called as he grabbed some bottles from the shelves. "Quickly now."

Careful not to move her injured arm, Katara helped Bao remove the rest of the equipment off of the floor, allowing the young woman to be placed there. Her skin was sickly pale and her eyes were barely open. There was dried blood at the corner of her mouth. Haoran, the man who had burst in earlier, had still not cleaned the blood off of his robes, only seeming to have accumulated more.

Bao kneeled next to the young woman on the floor, touching her forehead before quickly moving his hand away with a hiss. "Brother, what in Enlai's name-"

"It's the well." Healer Rong interrupted, joining Bao on the floor next to the woman as he spread various bottles on the table beside him. "Something's happened to the water in it."

Katara felt dread pool within her. With the lake already gone bad, the well was the only source of water the village had left. "How long has it been since it went bad?"

Haoran looked at her with confusion, as though he had only just registered her presence. "I… not long. It was fine earlier, we've been using it this whole time. It was only after Li Ken passed out again did I notice."

"And when was this?" Katara had a feeling that she knew exactly what had caused this.

"A-after the commotion at the lake."

Bao huffed. "Of course it was. Do we know of anyone else who might have had the water?"

"Not that I know of." Healer Rong shook his head. "But if they have symptoms similar to Li Ken, then I believe we will be finding out soon."

The young woman- Li Ken, Katara assumed- began to cough harshly, and Katara knelt down beside her and lifted her head. The woman was heavily pregnant, and it couldn't be too long until she was due. If she remembered correctly, earlier when Haoran had first rushed in, he said that she had fallen sick 'again'. If this is the second time that she has fallen so sick in such a short amount of time…

"Miss Katara," She regained her focus after hearing her name being called by Bao. "the water beside you, can you check if it's clean?"

"I-yes! Of course." She dragged the small bucket that Aang had previously brought in towards her, using the ladle to scoop a small portion out. It looked clear enough, and she felt nothing off about it when she prodded it with her bending. Tentatively, she brought the ladle to her lips and took the smallest of sips. After a few moments, she declared: "It's clean!"

"Thank goodness." Healer Rong breathed. "Pass it over here, then, and I shall see what we can do."

She did so, careful not to let any of the water spill over the sides. She returned to look at Li Ken, whose face was scrunched up in pain as her breathing became more laboured. She understood Bao's earlier reaction when she placed her hand on the woman's forehead, feeling only scalding skin.

Bao looked at her from where he was grinding herbs together. "That fever is dangerously high. I'm going to need to make something to bring it down."

Katara furrowed her brow and positioned herself to sit just behind Li Ken's head. "There's no need, let me handle that."

She was silently thankful that Sokka had remembered to fill her waterskin back up for her when they first landed. It had come from a pond, so it wasn't exactly the greatest water she could use, but the healers needed the rest of the clean water leaving Katara to make do with what she had.

As she drew the water out with her bending and checked to make sure it was cool enough before placing it on Li Ken's forehead, her thoughts wandered to Sokka and Aang. She couldn't imagine the trouble they might have found themselves in now, especially since the last time she left them alone, they somehow managed to incur the wrath of a vengeful spirit. Again.

She shook her head and concentrated on her bending. No, she would trust them this time. Fengkou was a small village, thus only holding very few chances for Sokka and Aang to go looking for trouble.

Just as Li Ken seemed like she was waking up, a familiar ear splitting screech tore through the small infirmary, leaving all occupants cringing at the horrid sound. When the noise ended, various shouts and screams could be heard from the village outside, accompanied by various roars from the lake spirit.

Katara groaned. I should have known…

{~}

After the villagers' exclamation, Aang and Sokka had both rushed out of the tavern, following everyone else to see the well for themselves. All thoughts of that went out of the window, however, when the familiar shrieking of Shui started up again.

"Oh, great!" Sokka shouted. "What pissed him off this time?"

Aang didn't even cringe at Sokka's choice of words, instead narrowing his eyes at the gathering of villagers near the water's edge, on the opposite side to where Shui was currently screaming their head off. In their hands were various items, which Aang quickly realised were crudely made weapons.

Ignoring Sokka's shouts to stay back, Aang rushed forward on a gust of wind. "Stop! What are you doing?"

One of the idiots turned to glare at him, but her gaze was less sharp when she saw who was shouting at them. "Avatar. This creature is the reason why our water has been poisoned, killing it will restore our village!"

"Avatar…" Spoke Shui's thousand voices. Strangely enough, unlike before, the spirit was not attacking anyone, choosing instead to move the water around violently as it occasionally let out another loud screech. The villagers launched a volley of makeshift arrows from their poorly made bows, few actually hitting their target. None of them made a single wound in the spirit's physical form. "Avatar!"

Aang watched as the villagers stepped back from being swallowed by a large wave. "Wha- Can't you see you're making it worse?"

This time, they ignored him.

"They could at least learn to aim before shooting those things." Sokka muttered from beside him.

"It doesn't matter how good they are with those bows, they're absolutely useless against a corrupted spirit." Zuko's raspy voice made them both jump, neither noticing his presence beside them.

"Dude," Sokka glared at him. "Don't do that!"

Zuko gave him a dry look that said 'what are you going to do about it?'

"Why?" Aang asked.

The older boy gave him a confused look. "'Why', what?"

Sokka huffed. "He means, why won't their weapons work? Yours did!"

Zuko shook his head. "That doesn't matter right now-"

"Then why'd you bring it up?"

"-What does matter is trying to get that spirit to calm down."

Aang had only ever dealt with one spirit like this, and that was Hei Bai. The young Avatar believed that it was going to take more than a couple of acorns to get Shui to calm down.

"Is there any way I can talk to them? Shui, I mean." He elaborated when the other two shot him confused looks.

Zuko hummed. "Not unless you entered the Spirit Realm. That way you can speak to them in their true form."

Sokka looked at him. "Do I want to know how you know that?"

"No."

"You-"

Aang interrupted them. "How do I get there?"

Zuko hesitated for a moment. "You're the Avatar."

"Yeah, and?"

Zuko continued, speaking slowly. "You're the Avatar, and you don't know how to get to the Spirit Realm?"

Aang grinned sheepishly. "No? I mean, I've been there before! It's just, I've had help all those other times…"

"You…" The golden eyed boy sighed, suddenly looking absolutely exhausted. "The best place to start would be the spirits shrine."

The Avatar brightened up immediately. "Great! Can you show me where it is?"

"Uhhh…"

Not even waiting for a reply, he turned to look at his blue-clad friend. "Sokka, do you think you can stop the villagers from attacking Shui?"

The water tribesman squinted at Zuko a bit longer before grinning down at Aang. "I can do that and-"

"Brilliant!" The Avatar cheered, not even letting Sokka finish as he grabbed Zuko's hand, dragging the taller boy away despite his protests.

"Wha- Aang wait! You're going the wrong way!"

The Airbender only had one thought on his mind. I get to go on my life changing field trip early!


Please comment your thoughts! If there's something you want to ask, I'm also on Tumblr by the same name. If there are certain things you might want to see later on in this story, please don't hesitate to say, I'll see what I can do.