Summary: This is a long one. It also took me longer to right than any past chapters. I feel good about this one. As always, I love you reviews, please do so, and thanks for reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. If I did, the original show would still be going.

Chapter 7: Two Way Chase

Zuko stood in his fighting stance directly across from his opponent, about fifty feet apart. Both wearing just their pants, preparing for the heat of battle. Taking deep breaths, he felt the fire burn within him as his opponent did the same. After a brief stare down, the fight began.

"Fight!" declared Iroh

Zuko sent a fire blast directly at the boy who quickly dissipated the blast and sent a blast of his own back. The blast was dissipated by Zuko as he advance towards Aang, who started advancing as well. Zuko swiped his right arm in a semicircular motion, creating a wall of flame ahead towards the Avatar. Aang reset his stance, both feet pointing towards Zuko, and pushed the flames around himself. The distance between the two fighters now being fifteen feet. Zuko now began to send a fury of blast and kicks towards Aang who began to skillfully duck and avoid the attacks. Similarly to Admiral Zhao, Zuko was lacking patience and finesse, especially after getting frustrated with his failed attacks. Aang was now making an idiot out of Zuko by nearly touching him as he spun around Zuko, easily one step ahead of the attacks. Aang propelled himself about fifteen feet away from Zuko with fire from his fists, turning to his opponent.

"You having fun yet?" Aang questions while giving a cocky grin, throwing his arms out to his sides in a questioning motion.

Zuko was now panting heavily and grunted in frustration. Sweat trickled down his face and chest as his chest heaved up and down. "Ahhh!" He punched a massive fireball in Aang's direction. Aang easily avoided it by ducking below the attack, using his hands to support himself low to the ground, Aang kicked in a circle, sending flames out around him at about ankle height. Too tired to react, Zuko was knocked down by the attack, dazed. As he opened his eyes, Zuko saw a smiling airbender offering a hand, which he gratefully took. Zuko noticed how strong Aang had gotten, most likely from the combination of earth and firebending training. He had more defined muscles in his arms and chest; he also started to develop toned abs as well. Zuko had never seen a now thirteen year old boy develop muscles this quick. But Aang was no ordinary boy, he was diligent and dedicated, which Zuko found inspiring.

After pulling away from his thoughts, Zuko returned the smile and turned to see his uncle approaching.

"Well done, Aang. You demonstrated excellent patience and skill." He turned his eyes to Zuko, "And Zuko, you lack the patience aspect. Learn from Aang's technique of testing your opponents abilities mentally and physically, and use that information to form an attack."

"Yes, Uncle, I understand."

Firebending is much like the other bending arts." He looked between the both of them. "You must feel the energy flow through you, much like waterbending. You must have a solid base in your stance, much like earthbending. And as you both have found out today, and as Aang demonstrated, you must have the patience and grace of an airbender." He smiled at Aang.

Aang smiled and bowed, "Thank you, Master Iroh."

"Now, I will teach you a technique I invented after studying waterbenders." He began to set his stance. "Now that Azula will be hunting us, you both will need to know how to redirect lightning."

Both of the students eyes widened in shock as they glanced at each other and back to Iroh. "How?" They both questioned in unison.

Iroh took his stance and demonstrated the technique. His fingertips flowing down his chi path of one arm, into his core and out the other side. He repeated the motion in the other direction. "Much like waterbending, you must control the flow of energy, but do not fight it. If you flow the energy through your chest and past your heart, you will likely die." He paused to look for some understanding in the faces of his students. Once he saw it there, he continued the motions of the technique. "Follow my lead and feel you energy flow." Zuko and Aang began to practice the motions. "You've got to feel the flow." Exclaimed Iroh, moving his arms in the form of a wave.

The three practiced these movements for nearly an hour until Iroh was certain they had the technique down. Once they finished, they sat down for some calming Jasmine tea as the sun began to set. The sat down in lotus position around the fire. It was quiet until Zuko raised a question.

"Why can't you teach us how to generate lighting?"

"Yeah, why?" Aang agreed.

Iroh sighed and shook his head. "You two are not ready, for reasons I will not delve into. I can see that these...limitations...with go soon enough." He took a sip. "Now Aang, when did you receive your arrows?" He quickly changed the subject.

"When I turned twelve. I am the youngest ever to receive them."

"Wow! So you haven't had them long I take it? Or a hundred years depending on how you look at it." Iroh chuckled

"A year." Aang responded dryly.

"Wait, when was your birthday?"

"Four days ago." Aang sighed. He knew what was coming.

"Why didn't you say anything? We would have celebrated." Asked Iroh, looking to Zuko, who smiled and nodded.

"Air Nomads don't celebrate birthdays and I don't like talking about getting my arrows." He sighed, looking down. He remembered when he got his arrows and found out his status as the Avatar, his friends avoided him and treated him differently. "I'm going to go to bed now." He stood up and walked a little ways away and formed an earth tent to sleep in. Once inside, he laid down to fall asleep, except he couldn't. He was thinking about his thirteenth birthday. In truth, he did want to celebrate it. Turning thirteen was a major milestone in his life, but he wanted to celebrate it with not just Zuko and Iroh, but Sokka, Toph and especially Katara. Katara...He missed her, but he had no time to be upset. He had to find them. Eventually, the thoughts of his friends lulled him into a blissful sleep.

Meanwhile,

"Why does Appa keep shedding?!" Exclaimed Sokka as he climbed his tail to pack their supplies for the travel ahead.

"I don't know. Maybe because it's Spring." Katara replied, teasingly.

"Well, tell him not to stop. It feels SO soft." Toph stated. She was sitting against a rock with her hands tucked behind her head, sitting on the fur, relaxing.

"It does make a great wig." Sokka said cheerfully. He now had an uneven matt of hair on his head.

"I think it's gross. It just gets everywhere." Katara just shook her head at the two of them. She has nearly had it with her fellow travelers as she climbed atop Appa. "You ready to go Toph?"

"Yeah yeah, just relax Sweetness." Toph stood up and began to walk towards Appa. She paused a moment before running to Appa and taking Katara's hand. "We need to go! Now!"

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know, but it sounds like a avalanche, but also not an avalanche."

"Your magical powers of perception are frightening."

"Let's just get out of here."

"Yip. Yip." Appa took flight after Sokka's orders. As they flew over the surrounding forest, they noticed a cloud of billowing, black smoke moving in their direction.

"What is that thing?" Katara asked no one in particular, not expecting an answer.

They continued to fly on for the rest of the day until they reached a large clearing along a river. The full moon was just beginning to rise. A large path led to the clearing from the direction they came from and opened up wider until it reached the shoreline. Once one the ground, Toph made a staircase of earth so Katara and Sokka could get off more easily. They quickly unloaded their supplies and set up camp. Katara started a fire and began cooking while Sokka went to the river to fish. Once Sokka was out of earshot, Toph bent a small chair of earth near the fire and spoke to Katara, who was now stirring some sort of soup.

"How are you fairing, Katara?"

"What? No 'Sugarqueen' or 'Sweetness.'" Katara responded sarcastically.

"Not when I'm going to talk to you about this particular subject." She responded with a seriousness and care that Katara had not seen from the blind earthbender.

Katara was bewildered. What subject is she talking about? Toph, however, could feel the tenseness in the air after a few moments. "Aang."

Katara's eyes went wide and her shoulders slumped in defeat. She tried not to think about Aang too much because of how much she misses him and...loves him. I am in love with Aang. At this thought, her heart sped up and she stood straight up again. She missed his quirky personality and calm demeanor. She missed his deep gray eyes and cheesy grin. She missed how much he cared for everyone around him, how much he sacrificed for...her. He loves me too! Now a deep blush spread across her cheeks and her heart rate increased more, if that was possible.

"Calm your stupid heart down!" Toph commanded firmly. "I guess I don't need to ask now, but I will anyways." She paused. "How are you doing with Aang gone?"

Katara sighed, slumping her shoulders, "I miss him a lot...painfully a lot, but I have to be strong so we can find him." She wanted to cry but she couldn't, not now.

"That's all I wanted to hear." Toph stated then looked extremely confused. "What the?"

"What?"

"SOKKA! Get over here now!" Toph yelled. Sokka quickly came up to the two girls.

"Toph, what is going on?!" Katara asked, slightly exasperated at Toph's evasiveness.

"That thing is back. But it's close and I don't know how I haven't felt it until now."

"We need to leave." Katara began to move to pick up camp.

Toph grabbed Katara's hand, stopping her, "No time. We have to stand and fight." Katara nodded in reply.

They waited a few moments until a giant metal 'thing.' Katara formed water around her arms while Toph took an earthbending stance and Sokka readied his boomerang. Three teenage girls stepped out of the 'thing' and stood calmly across from them.

The girl dressed in fire nation red rolled her eyes, "What have we here? A blind girl with her two watertribe peasants."

"What do you want?"

"Simple. You hand over the Avatar and I don't kill you."

"He's not here. We got separated three weeks ago." Katara replied, not being able to avoid a slight crack in her voice, though she didn't know where it came from, it just happened.

Azula noticed Katara's cracking voice, "Ah yes. I remember now. I thought that he would be with his bison, but I saw him back in Omashu without it; silly me. Too bad you weren't there to say hello." She turned and began to walk back to their vehicle, looking over her shoulder and waving her hand dismissively, "I will be sure to say 'hi' for you before I torture him." The next thing she new, she was whipped on the back of her head. She turned around with an angry glare with blue flames in her palms. "So, the little peasant wants to play."

Katara was growing extremely angry; her fists clenched, her muscles tightened and her eyebrows furrowed. " . NOT. LET. YOU. HURT. AANG!" She yelled commandingly.

"Very well. Mai, Ty Lee, take care of the other two. This one's mine." Azula and Katara now glared at each other, the former making the first move by propelling herself forward on fire skates. She closed in on the waterbender, noticing that her opponent was smirking. Before she knew it, Azula was face first on the ground with her feet frozen.

Meanwhile, Mai and Toph where in a fight of their own. Although, it was just Toph holding up a rock wall, rapidly punching rocks out of it at her opponent, while the latter was avoiding the stones and throwing knives in her counter attacks. Toph had decided to take a defensive approach since she couldn't feel the knives in the air. Instead, she relied on punching rocks out of her defensive wall and stomping the ground, causing pillars to shoot up at Mai.

Sokka and Ty Lee were fighting near the river, although it was rather one sided. Sokka swung a punch at his opponent until he felt his arm go limp from a jab from Ty Lee. He swung another punch at her with his other arm, which also went completely limp from a jab. Sokka paused, wondering what to do now until he attempted to kick her. Again, she paralyzed his leg with a jab. Frustrated, Sokka moved to head butt her which was quickly met by a jab, but to no avail. She cringed at the pain as Sokka smirked. "Nice try, but no."

At this point, Katara had gripped Azula's legs with water and slammed her into the ground. Azula had underestimated her waterbending opponent, especially under the power of the full moon. After gathering herself from the violent attack, Azula sent a whip of fire which was quickly doused by the water. Frustrated, Azula yelled, "You dirty peasant, let's see how you like this." Azula began skating towards Katara again, this time, sending a stream of blue flame in Katara's direction. Katara quickly formed a giant wave from the river behind her and sent it Azula's way, picking her up and freezing her in place.

Katara walked towards Azula's panting form, "Now. Tell me where Aang is!"

Azula looked up to her and smirked, "I don't answer to peasants." She quickly melted the ice at her feet and sent flames at Katara, burning through Katara's leggings and singing her skin on one of her legs. She fell to one knee as Azula now stepped forward. Katara's pain easily shown on her face as Azula kicked Katara in the chest, sending her back to the river. Toph and Sokka were there too as they were now losing their own fights. Cornered at the river with Momo, Appa, Sokka, and Toph, Katara struggled to stand up as a shooting pain ran through her leg.

"Toph..." Katara moaned. "Bend an earth tent over yourselves."

"Why?" Toph responded, still fighting in the same style as earlier.

"Just do it!" Katara practically cried out. Toph did as she was told, leaving Katara outside of the earth-tent alone, watching as the three girls approached her.

"What have we here? A peasant ready to beg for mercy?" Azula asked.

Katara ignored her comment. "Do you know why you never back a waterbender into a river at night?" Katara snapped back.

"Please, humor me." Azula stated plainly.

"Very well." At this, Katara lifted an enormous wall of water, draining the river, and sent it down on her enemies, pushing them, and their transportation into the woods. The massive flow of water nearly knocked down the trees within the forest. Once her attack was finished, Katara quickly collapsed on the ground in exhaustion and pain as Toph retracted her giant earth tent. Sokka ran over to his struggling sister.

"Come on sis, we have to get out of here." Sokka picked her up and carried her onto Appa with Toph following suit. Once on Appa, Sokka set down Katara, "Heal yourself and get some rest." Katara nodded with a cringe as Sokka commanded Appa to take off.

Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai watched as the sky bison flew away. "Well, are we going to follow them?" Ty Lee asked.

"No. They are no immediate threat to us, and they are not with the Avatar. Right now, we must go after my uncle and brother. The Avatar is with them."

Two days later,

Aang, Iroh and Zuko had just made a plan to catch the secret ferry to Ba Sing Se, however, they would have to cut through the Si Wong desert. They hoped they could make it to a village just North of Gaoling. Things were going well within their little group, other than the fact that they had to walk everywhere. Aang was learning firebending, Zuko was starting to be friendlier with Aang, and Iroh was happy to see his nephew change for the better.

Right now they were resting and eating lunch in an open area surrounded by rocky hills. Iroh had brewed some tea, and Aang was drawing symbols in the dirt at the edge of camp as he sat in a lotus position. Curious, Zuko walked over and sat next to him and looked at the drawings. They were very good, but he was curious to why he was drawing what he was. The symbols of the four nations were perfectly drawn out around each other.

"You never told me much about the Air Nomads." Aang took a shaky breath at Zuko's comment. Zuko took notice, "I mean...you don't have to if don't want, I know it's a sore subject with what my people did."

"It's ok. I should try to celebrate their lives and remember the fun I had rather than mourn them."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be, it wasn't your fault." Aang sighed.

"So, what was it like?"

"It was amazing. We were always having fun, especially once I completed my training." Aang said, gleefully. "Monk Gyatso and I would always make fruit pies and through at the elders."

"So, what was Monk Gyatso like?"

"A lot like your uncle actually. Powerful, wise, and always having a fun time."

"Sounds like a great man."

Aang sighed, "He was. He really was." A tear ran down his cheek."

"It's ok. He would be proud of you." As Zuko said this, a large explosion rocked the area. Bothe he and Aang stood up and ran over to Iroh.

"What happened?" Aang asked, but he didn't need an explanation as he saw three girls walk up in front of them.

"Why Zuzu, you hair has gotten quite long."

Zuko grumbled. "Why are you here?"

"What? Has helping the Avatar made you an imbecile?" She asked sarcastically. "I have come to take you three back to the Fire Nation as...trophies for my father."

"Enough of this! We will defeat you!" Aang yelled, rather angrily.

"Such strong words from such a weak boy." Azula stated, crossing her arms.

"I am stronger than you think."

"Your waterbending friend doesn't seem to agree, she told me you abandoned her. Too bad you can't apologize if you won't come with me."

"What have you done to her?!" Aang screamed, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, the usual; torture, slavery." She smiled. Aang clenched his fists. "And many have my men haven't seen their wives in years." She said suggestively, shocking everyone around her. Though it was a lie, she had everyone convinced.

Her eyes went wide at the sight in front of her. Aang's eyes and tattoos glowed a bright blue as he now looked her dead in the eye. The piercing glare of his glowing eyes was even enough to frighten Azula. He then spoke with the voices of all the past Avatars behind it, "You will pay for what you've done!" He then rose above the ground in a swirling torrent of air and sand.

"Zuko, we need to get out of here." Iroh exclaimed, grabbing his nephew and running to a safe distance and taking cover behind a rock.

Azula watched as the Avatar's anger was unleashed. She shot a bolt of lightning directly at him, however, with his newfound knowledge he was able to redirect it directly at his three enemies. Surprised, they all still managed to dodge the counter attack. As Azula brought herself up to a kneel, she looked up to see the Avatar slam into the ground, unleashing a tsunami of earth in her direction. None of them could react as they were launched hundreds of feet back.

Mai got up and started to walk away, looking back at the destruction. "I'm not about to die today." She stated dryly.

"How dare you give up!" Azula exclaimed tiredly.

Ty Lee got up, "Azula, we need to leave. He will destroy us in this state."

Azula was frustrated, "I will not run away from a child!"

"If we run we can capture him another day when he is in a weaker state." Ty Lee added.

Azula grunted, "Very well, let's leave." She got up and followed her friends out of the area, ready to fight another day.

Aang was now standing in the midst of the rubble, still in the Avatar State, when his own spirit was pulled from his body. He soon realized that he was riding on a dragon with Roku.

"It's time you learned." They fly higher above the dusty clouds. Cuts to side shot of the dragon, many small figures seen floating in the distance. "The Avatar State is a defense mechanism, designed to empower you with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars." He paused. "The glow is the combination of all your past lives, focusing their energy through your body. In the Avatar State, you are at your most powerful, but you are also at your most vulnerable."

"What do you mean?" Aang asked.

If you are killed in the Avatar State," Roku started as Aang noticed a line of Avatars appear next to him, Roku at the closest point. "the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist." Aang saw the line of Avatars begin to fade away in succession down the line.

Aang was shocked and worried until Roku spoke again.

"Also, you waterbending friend, Katara, is fine. The princess lied in order to get to you. Although, I assume she did not expect you to go into the Avatar State." Roku stated with a calm reassuring smile before he disappeared. His dragon flew straight downward and into Aang's body, causing him to collapse on the ground, exhausted.

Iroh and Zuko ran over to him. Iroh knealed down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You drove them away and we're safe." Iroh paused. "We should keep moving towards our destination and we can rest once we get there." Iroh helped Aang up as the latter dusted himself off. They continued their journey, hoping they could get to the security of Ba Sing Se, and fast.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review. See you next chapter!