This is… later than it should be. Well, I'm out of school… got out a few weeks ago actually… jeez, I'm sorry. (sitting in her corner of misery) I'M SO SORRY! Some shit has happened with my family… not like I got into an argument with them or anything, but health issues with my aunt and all. I'm not going to go into details, and I'm not trying to play the sympathy card, but yeah.

YES YES YES! You guys finally get to learn why Piandao gave up his daughter! (happy dance) Hopefully… it will be okay. I don't want you guys to be disappointed. YOU WON'T STOP READING THIS STORY EVEN IF YOU ARE DISAPPOINTED, RIGHT?! (shakes you by the collar of your shirt)

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or any characters thereof. Nickelodeon, and Mike and Bryan the proud owners of the fantastic show, while I am just a High School student and am writing this for my own amusement. I only own my own characters, and/or any plot twists that are caused because of them.

NOTE: VERY IMPORTANT: As of now, the reason Piandao gave Tora up has changed. He didn't give her away because she was distracting him from his duties, he gave her away for reasons that will be revealed in this chapter.

Avatar wiki states that Jeong Jeong left the army ten years before he met Aang. But in my story, he left the army two years before he met Aang. Avatar wiki also states that Jeong Jeong is 61, and I figure he joined the army when he was like, 18, so he was in the army for like, 41 years. Crap, he's old. Oh, well. So is Iroh, and he was in the army until he was like… jeez, I don't know. Let's just say that Jeong Jeong stayed in the army past the age he should have left.

If you want to see the logic I used for this chapter, it's at the bottom.

The REAL Truth Comes Out

"First," Jeong Jeong began. "You have to understand that I became apart of the White Lotus Society twenty seven years after I joined the army. By that time, I was already beginning to doubt what I was fighting for, but I still fought - because when I was young I always had a ridiculous sense of pride in my Nation.

"Young? You were like, forty-five."

"That's younger than how old your father is now!"

"Yeah, what is he? Like, fifty?"

"What does it matter? Stop interrupting or I won't tell you the story!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh, can't even ask a question around here…"

"You young people… I joined the White Lotus a year after your father and your mother came to the Fire Nation. As Pakku-"

"Wait, who's Pakku?" I interrupted.

"A member of the Order in the Northern Wat-" Jeong Jeong paused mid-sentence as he realized something. "I told you to stop interrupting!"

"Sorry!"

"Anyway - as Pakku had heard of Piandao's banishment from both Water Tribes, he informed me of the newcomer to my Nation - I suspect because he wanted me to keep an eye out for your father. I did so, mostly because I was curious as to why he was banished, but also because I didn't want him to be in my Nation if he had done something cruel enough to be banished from the Water Tribe. The Water Tribe was not the sort of Nation to toss their people out so casually, unlike the Fire Nation. I assumed that he was a monster, a murderer or something just as awful. But once I discovered that he had been banished simply for falling in love with your mother - his natural enemy - I decided to meet him, face to face." The Deserter paused to take a long sip of tea, while I clenched my fists and leaned forward.

He took another sip, and my eye twitched.

Another sip- "Put the tea down and continue already, damnit!"

Jeong Jeong's eyes met mine, and the slight twitch of his lips told me that he had done it on purpose, with the sole intention of irritating me. I scowled and leaned back, crossing my arms and looking to the side. I was not pouting. Not in the slightest.

I heard the faint clatter of the tea cup being placed onto the small wooden table Jeong Jeong had in front of him, but I still didn't look in his direction, keeping the corners of my mouth pulled down in a frown. "At first, when I wasn't on duty, I kept an eye on him from a distance, since he and your mother lived in the town I had grown up in. Piandao worked for the village blacksmith, who was not a firebender and preferred the natural way of creating weapons and such, over the use of firebending to heat the metal like so many firebending blacksmiths use."

"Yeah, I don't really care about that."

"You-!" He sighed, struggling to keep calm. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he continued. "Your father was wary of me at first, not just because I was Fire Nation, but also because I was an admiral in the war - naturally he wouldn't trust me at first. Your mother, on the other hand," I finally looked towards him and leaned in closer, eager to hear about my mother. "Was less wary of me, due to the fact that I knew what Nation your father was from and she knew I had no intention of telling anyone about him. It didn't take long before I became a regular guest at your parents homes - when I wasn't fighting in the war, of course.

"After a year or so, Piandao took over the forge and became the new blacksmith. It didn't take long before he was well known for his incredible skill with sword making - and sword fighting as well. Once he could, he moved your mother to a magnificent mansion - the mansion you grew up in. He gained his apprentice and his servant, Fat, when you were born, and soon after he gained another servant, named Lao."

"Wait, he had two servants?" I interrupted, frowning. "I thought he always just had Fat. I've never heard of any other."

"There is a reason for that. Lao worked for Fire Lord Azulon, as a spy. His job was to find evidence of people of other Nation's living secretly in the Fire Nation, and report them to the Fire Lord to be imprisoned. He was quite good at his job, too. More than fifty people were put into jail or executed as a result of his actions. Unfortunately - for Lao, anyway - your father gave him no hints or reasons to think that he was from the Water Tribe, despite his dark skin. Lao, however, was convinced Piandao was Water Tribe, and therefore stayed for as long as he could to try and get evidence of illegal immigration. But he found nothing. Your father had nothing other than a few small trinkets to prove that he was once apart of the Water Tribe. And those he kept very well hidden, so Lao never found them. But he never needed to."

I was two seconds away from opening my mouth, and apparently Jeong Jeong realized it because he continued very quickly before I could say anything. "Because when you became three years old, just a while after your mother died, you began to show signs of waterbending - and that was all the proof Lao needed to know that you were not full Fire Nation blooded. He planned on capturing you and bringing you to the Fire Lord, with the intention of having your father come after him and revealing that he was from the Water Tribe. Killing two birds with one stone, if you will. However, Piandao discovered Lao's identity as a spy, and fought him. He gave Lao such injuries that when he actually managed to get away, nobody thought that he would survive for very long."

"But he did?" I asked.

Jeong Jeong nodded. "He did. The injuries were so grievous that it took him months to fully recover, but he survived. Lao moved on from your father and you, and left you both alone - until almost three years ago." He looked at me meaningfully then, as if trying to make me understand that the words "three years ago" was supposed to mean something to me. What did he expect? Of course it meant something to me. Three years ago I was abandoned by my father. How could that not mean something to me? "When Lao returned to your hometown, with the intention of doing what he had foolishly attempted to do ten years before. However, he caught you firebending as well as waterbending - and he knew that you weren't just an illegal immigrant who could be killed so foolishly. He reported you to Fire Lord Ozai as soon as he could."

"Why'd he do that?" I asked, wrinkling my nose.

Jeong Jeong sighed a bit. "I assumed you might have read something in your father's library about this. Either you did not, or Piandao took all scrolls about the topic and hid them from you." He looked up and stared at me with a grave look. "There are myths and legends and such that state that people with the ability to bend two elements grow to have immense powers that come close to nearly rivalling the Avatar's."

I raised an eyebrow at this. As cool as it would be to have "immense powers that come close to nearly rivalling the Avatar's", I kind of doubted it. Wouldn't I have heard something about that before, from - well, anyone? Everyone knew about the Avatar, so wouldn't someone that had almost the same level of power be well-known? "What does this have to do with me, again? Besides me bending two elements?"

Another sigh - why does he keep sighing whenever I ask a simple question? "Because you're asking questions that should have obvious answers!"

I blinked at his sudden outburst, before realizing- "I said that out loud?"

"Yes, you did!"

"Oh, sorry." No, I wasn't. As incredibly - and somewhat annoyingly - detailed his story was, I was going to continue being angry with Jeong Jeong until he got to the point of the entire thing. And unless he gave me an incredibly good reason to not be, I would continue to give him grief.

"Anyway," Jeong Jeong pinched the bridge of his nose - He keeps doing that! Why does he keep doing that? - before he continued. "Fire Lord Ozai discovered your bending from Lao, and immediately started planning. He knew I was friendly with your father, and called me in to ask me what I knew of Piandao. I, not knowing what awaited both you and your father, told Ozai that Piandao was a good man, protective of you and would sacrifice himself to save you without a second thought. However when Ozai asked about you, I asked him why he was curious. Surprisingly, he told me his plan - he had heard of the abilities of benders such as yourself," Jeong Jeong gestured to me. "And when he found out from Lao about your bending, he planned to have you taken away from your home and trained by Ozai himself to become a ruthless weapon of the Fire Nation."

I choked.

What?

The Fire Lord was - and I was - I could have - what?!

I could have been trained to become a weapon? I could have become a murdering monster, like the monster I became in the massacred village? All because I could bend two elements?!

"Because of myths that benders like yourselves would reach full power at the age of sixteen, Ozai had to act as soon as he possibly could. Naturally, as both a friend of your fathers and a member of the White Lotus I had to warn your father about this as soon as possible. So I called for a meeting at your father's home, consisting of any White Lotus members in the area, and told your father about Ozai's plan."

"Is this the meeting where he decided to send me away?" I asked. The serious expression on my face practically dared me to chastise me about interrupting him.

"Yes, it is." He stated bluntly. "Your father, naturally, stated he would defend you against anybody who attempted to take you away, but I told him that Ozai wouldn't give up so easily. The Fire Lord himself told me that he would either kill Piandao and take you, kill the both of you, or tell you that if you wouldn't come willingly, Piandao would die. Your father knew he wouldn't be able to hold off Ozai's advances forever, and therefore decided to give you your best chance. It was my idea to have you sent somewhere else, but it was your father's idea to send you to the Southern Water Tribe. Ozai wouldn't bother Piandao if you weren't in the Fire Nation anymore, as even though you were somewhat important, Ozai could get along in the war without you. Your father knew you wouldn't be accepted there immediately, but you would have a better chance there than in the Earth Kingdom - both because you were half firebender, and also because he himself came from the Southern Water Tribe.

"He took the path any parent would take - he'd rather have you leave him forever than have your freedom and safety threatened. And that," Jeong Jeong looked up at me, staring directly into my eyes. "Is the end of my tale."

I felt like I had been punched in the gut, and it must have shown on my face, because Jeong Jeong then got to his feet. "I should go see how Aang is. I'll leave you alone with your thoughts." He passed by me on his way out, but I barely noticed him.

For… for the longest time I had thought my father had abandoned me… that he didn't care anymore.

To find out, two years later, that it was all a lie… that the very reason he had abandoned me was to protect me, because he cared about me - loved me? - was… a bit of a shock, to put it mildly.

I was barely aware of the fact that I had suddenly tipped over onto the ground, landing on my side. I stared at the candles, just inches away from my face, feeling like I couldn't breathe.

How am I supposed to take this? I wondered to myself, moving my left arm so my head rested on it like a pillow. What I believed for a little more than two years was wrong. It was like a mirror had shattered before my eyes.

It took a moment before I realized that there was wetness on my cheeks. You've gotta be kidding me… tell me you're joking, please. But it wasn't a joke. Tears were sliding out of my eyes and wandering sideways down my face, before they fell to the ground. I raised my right hand to my face, and as I rubbed my eyes, a small sob escaped. Spirits, no, don't start.

Apparently, for once in my life, my whatever-it-was-in-my-body-that-made-tears decided to listen to me, because only a few tears managed to escape before I stopped them. It took a few breaths, but I managed to stop them.

So what now? I thought, absentmindedly beginning to draw spirals in the dirt with my finger. What am I supposed to feel about my father? For a little more than two years I had despised him as much as I could - I didn't hate him as much as Jeong Jeong, though I didn't quite know what my feelings towards Jeong Jeong were at the moment - and then I discover the reason I was angry with him in the first place was wrong? How was I supposed to take that?

He still could have told me what he was doing. I thought, closing my eyes and rolling onto my back. He could have told me the truth.

Then I let out a groan. No, he knew that if he told me the truth I would insist on staying. Even back then I wouldn't willingly leave my home and leave my father deal with the wrath of the Fire Lord.

I stared at the ceiling of Jeong Jeong's hut for what felt like hours before throwing one arm over my eyes, giving another frustrated groan.Spirits, I'm so confused… Maybe any other person would be relieved to know that their father didn't hate them, that he actually cared about them, and that the fact that they cared about them was the reason they were abandoned by them. Not me. It seemed too… twisted, in my opinion. In order to protect someone you cared about and show them you cared about them (I refused to say the 'L' word), you had to make them think you hated them? How in the world did that work? How could the person forgive you for making them hate you, even if everything you did to make them hate you turned out to be in order to protect them? Twisted, that's what it was. Utterly twisted.

With a scowl, I sat up - ignoring the black spots that appeared in front of my eyes as I moved too quickly - and stared at my black-booted feet, trying to focus my thoughts. "So it turns out my father, who I thought didn't care for me at all, did everything he could in order to protect me. Jeong Jeong, who I thought had been the one to bully my father into doing what he did, did so to help my father protect me. What other shocking and somewhat painful things could happen to me today?"

Literally seconds after I said that, a loud cry of pain coming from directly outside caught my attention. A cry of pain that sounded incredibly familiar.

"Katara!" I leapt to my feet and nearly got tangled in the curtain as I charged out the doorway, already forming the largest fireball I could make in the palms of my hands, ready to destroy whatever had hurt her.

Imagine my shock when I saw flames dissipating in the air, Aang with both his arms stretched out with fire still flickering a bit around the palms of his hands and a horrified expression on his face, and Katara crouched on the ground, holding her hands against her body and breathing in and out heavily, like she was in pain.

It took me the timespan of exactly one second to figure out what had happened.

"Katara!" I yelled again, now rushing over to her. My fire vanished from my palms - she most certainly did not need any more fire at the moment - just as I reached her, and I knelt down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as gently as I could. "Are you alright?" Stupid question, of course she isn't alright.

"Katara! Oh, spirits, I'm so-" Aang exclaimed, now standing over both of us, stretching his hand out to the crying waterbender with the intention of touching her shoulder in a comforting way - only to have his hand slapped away by me as he came just a little too close. I was suddenly furious with him - he should have known fire wasn't an element you should mess with! And know Katara had been hurt by him! How dare he try and touch her?

"You've done enough damage!" I snapped, not really registering the affect my words had on Aang - and not seeing the hurt expression that crossed his face.

"What happened?" Sokka yelled, appearing. Apparently he had heard Katara's scream and had come running. He looked from Katara, who was still crying - of course she'd still be crying, her hands were burned, for Agni's sake! - to Aang, who looked almost close to tears himself. "What did you do?" Suddenly, the normally calm, snarky, and sort-of-almost laid back sixteen year old boy had an expression that could have rivalled any angry firebenders, as well as possibly being capable of scaring away a full grown saber-tooth moose lion.

"It was an accident!" Aang tried to explain, despite his stuttering and growing panic. I kept my arms wrapped around Katara, glaring up at Aang. "Katara, I'm so, so sor-" He made the mistake of trying to touch Katara again, only this time before I could do anything, Katara yanked herself from my embrace and took off into the woods, and the Avatar found himself tackled to the ground by Sokka.

"I told you not to mess around with fire!" Sokka yelled into Aang's face. "Now look what you did! You burned my sister!" Meanwhile, I had risen to my feet and was about to go after Katara, when Sokka yelling at someone else caught my attention. "This is all your fault!" I looked over my shoulder and spotted Jeong Jeong standing a short distance away from where Sokka still had Aang pinned to the ground.

The Deserter looked at the ground with his eyes shut for a moment, looking almost remorseful. "I know. You must leave, now!"

Despite the fact that the whole reason we had stayed with Jeong Jeong for as long as we had was so Aang could learn firebending (and prove to Jeong Jeong that he was perfectly capable of doing it, which clearly he was not), I couldn't find it in myself to argue with Jeong Jeong at that point. Sokka let out a furious huff before storming off, presumably to find Appa and saddle him up - and to get away from Aang, judging by the somewhat disgusted expression he wore - while Aang sat up, looking around desperately like he was trying to find someone that would listen to him. My mind kept screaming at me to go after Katara, but for some reason I stayed where I was standing, watching Aang carefully. He looked so… so heartbroken, so desperate, so…

So childish.

It had never really occured to me until then that Aang, the Avatar who was destined to save the world, was nothing more than a twelve year old with no control over his abilities as the Avatar. But, boy, did it hit me then. Like, "June's shirshu had flattened me", hit me.

Jeong Jeong apparently didn't see it that way, because he looked down at Aang with an expression that could pretty much be summed up in one word - disappointed and ashamed. Without a word, the firebender then walked off, following Katara's path.

I nearly went after him. I wanted nothing more than to comfort Katara when she was hurt - but I made the mistake of looking back at Aang. He looked like he was seconds away from bursting into tears, but at the same time trying desperately to force them back.

With hesitant steps, I approached Aang, before crouching down next to him. I began awkwardly patting him on the back. "Hey, it's okay." I said, trying to sound as gentle as possible - which wasn't easy, considering I was still angry with him for burning Katara. A little less than Sokka was - which made sense, since Sokka was Katara's elder brother, and nobody messed with his little sister without getting their faces bashed in, and I suspect the only reason Sokka hadn't done the same thing to Aang was because Aang was his friend and hadn't meant to hurt Katara - but still angry. And my anger was coupled with the feeling of awkwardness in the air. I had never actually spent that much time with Aang, just the two of us. There was always Katara and Sokka with us, so Aang and I didn't have that much reason to interact with each other, just one-on-one. The only times we had actually talked alone was the time we had left the Southern Air Temple, and yesterday night before the festival when he had accused me of being the Mononoke.

"Tora, I - I didn't mean to hurt her, I just…" he sniffled, obviously struggling to not burst into tears right then and there. "I just-"

"Lost control?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. At his nod, I bit my lip, trying to think of comforting words to say. With the exception of giving my father a minor scar on his arm when I had accidentally shot an ice dagger at him when I was ten (bored, playing with water, he startled me, instincts took over and the next thing I knew he had a rip in his sleeve and a thin red line beginning to show up on his bicep), I had never exactly lost control over my bending. Well, not to the extremities that Katara and Aang seemed to be prone to, anyway. (Katara had destroyed an iceberg in her rage just a few months ago for Spirits sake - which was how this whole adventure had gotten started.) "Um, I'm sorry about hitting you." I said, suddenly remembering what I had done.

"No, it's alright." Aang sighed, rubbing one eye with the palm of his hand. "I deserved it."

"No, no you didn't - alright, maybe you did, just a little bit." I began, before backtracking upon seeing the skeptical look Aang gave me. I put my pointer finger and my thumb together to prove how much he had deserved it.

"But I just loved the feeling the firebending gave me - I mean, I had done that! But then… Katara screamed, and then I realized… what I had done. It was like the fire had taken control of my mind or something." Aang said quietly, wrapping his arms around himself.

"Now, that I understand." I sighed. "Firebending has a habit of making us - or me, anyway - forget about everything around us, unless we absolutely need to focus on one thing in particular. Most of the time it affects beginners, like you or me." I scowled a bit at calling myself a beginner, even if I was one. "People who have a grip on the basics tend not to let it happen to them, but there are still times when you lose control… especially if you never had control in the first place."

"I hate it." Aang's sudden dark statement caught me a bit off guard. "I hate not having control. It's like when I enter the Avatar state… I hate it!"

"You're going to have to do it eventually." I pointed out, frowning. "And then, when you're ready, you're going to be great at it. I can tell." I shot him a grin, trying to give him some confidence, but it faded when he didn't return it. I sighed. "Well, today hasn't been very good, has it?" I muttered, mostly to myself.

"What happened to you today?" Aang asked, somewhat sullenly.

"Oh, nothing, I just found out the reason my father abandoned me more than two years ago was because he was trying to protect me from the Fire Lord. That's all." I sighed again, rubbing my hand over my face.

"Wait, what?" Aang stared at me, looking incredibly confused.

"I'll explain in more detail later on, alright? You don't need to hear any more depressing things right now."

There was a pause, before Aang asked, "Aren't you going to say something like, 'it wasn't your fault'? That's usually what people would say right about now."

"Nope, I'm not going to." I picked up a small rock and held it between my fingers, inspecting it casually. "Because it was your fault." Aang flinched. "I mean, you didn't mean to do it, but it was your fault. So I can't tell you that it wasn't your fault, because it was, and I don't exactly enjoy not saying what I'm feeling. You were the one who took firebending too far, even after Jeong Jeong told you it was a dangerous element, and Katara paid the price. So, yeah, even if you didn't mean to do it, you still did it, and it's still your fault." I paused and glanced sideways at Aang, who was staring down at his hands with a look of complete horror. "That doesn't mean nobody will forgive you, because they will, but I'm just saying…" I looked to the left, hoping Katara would show up soon. I wanted to go and comfort her, yet at the same time I needed to stay with Aang…

… who was apparently thinking something along the same lines that I was. "You can go to Katara if you want to. I want to be alone for a while." Aang said, standing up and walking away from me. Myself, I was too taken aback by his sudden departure to really protest too much.

Right before Aang could enter Jeong Jeong's hut - why he wanted to go in there, I had no idea - he turned and looked back towards me. "Hey, Tora?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks… for what you said." He gave me a small grin, before disappearing behind the curtain.

"Well, I don't know what you're thanking me for." I muttered, pulling my knees against my chest. "Considering I didn't really say anything helpful."

"I'll be the judge of that!"

I let out a small shriek and jumped as Sokka's voice came out of nowhere. My friend had apparently walked up behind me without me realizing it, and then proceeded to take advantage of the situation and scare me. With a punch to his shoulder, I snapped, "Why'd you do that?"

"Because I could." Sokka flashed me a grin, before glancing towards Jeong Jeong's hut and scowling in its direction.

"You know he didn't do it on purpose." I said, crossing my arms.

"I know, but he still did it!"

"Sokka-"

"Katara's my sister, Tora, what do you want me to do? Forgive him instantly because he didn't 'mean to do it'?" He made air quotes around the last four words. "Yeah, he didn't mean to do it, but it still happened, and I can't forgive him instantly, can I?"

"I don't really expect you to, but still, you're being kinda harsh with him."

"Says the person who slapped his hand away when he tried to touch Katara."

"Said the person who literally tackled him to the ground."

"Said the person who-"

"Sokka! Tora!"

Both of us looked to the side at the same time, and spotted Katara running out of the forest towards us. She looked better than she had looked just a few minutes ago - as in, she wasn't kneeling and crying anymore. Sokka gripped her by her shoulders as she reached us, looking panicked. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine." She said calmly, not looking rattled by her brother somewhat amusing panicked look. "Where's Aang?" Sokka's expression dropped, and he pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the hut. Katara ran past us both and disappearing into the hut, leaving Sokka and me alone.

"So, why'd you come over to me?" I asked, casually tossing my hair over my shoulder.

"I wanted to tell you to get your stuff on Appa, so we could leave."

"Ah, and the reason you couldn't do that yourself?"

"I'm not your slave!"

"Of course you're not."

"Exactly."

"If you were my slave, you wouldn't be talking back to your master the way you do." And with that, I walked away from him heading for Appa, strutting like a peacock with my nose in the air.

~~Water~~

"All I'm saying is that you carried my stuff for me in Omashu."

"That was under special circumstances!"

"Which were…?"

"The guard guy was going to throw us off a cliff! And Aang said that I was your fiancee, and the guard told me to carry your things - and I carried Aang's things too, and he does things for himself all the time!"

"Yeah, I haven't taught him very well."

"You're awful."

"Thank you~"

"What are the two of you arguing about now?" Katara asked, staring up from the ground to where Sokka and I were bantering back and forth in Appa's saddle.

"Tora refuses to carry her things!" Sokka said, pointing at me accusingly.

"Sokka refuses to carry my things for me!" I said at the same time, pointing right back at him.

"Alright…" Katara let out a small sigh. "Look, we don't have time for you two to argue right now, we need to be ready to get out of here as soon as Aang comes back."

"Arguing is kind of a harsh word." I said, before the second part of what she said sank in. "Wait, what do you mean, 'comes back'?"

"Zhao showed up on the river-"

"Are you kidding me?" Sokka yelled, startling both Katara and me. "That guys starting to get almost as bad as Zuko!"

"And Jeong Jeong was captured by him!" Katara finished.

"WHAT?!" I screeched. "And you didn't tell me this earlier, because?!" I had every intention of leaping off Appa's saddle and charging down to the river where Zhao and Jeong Jeong were, before Katara stopped me by just crawling into the saddle and putting a hand on my shoulder.

"Aang is already dealing with it, don't worry, alright?" She said comfortingly, though she looked worried at the same time.

"Yes, because telling me a twelve year old is dealing with it is very helpful." I groaned, slapping a hand over my eyes. A thought suddenly occurred to me. I seized both of Katara's wrists and turned her hands over, searching for some sign of a burn - but found nothing.

"Wait, what happened to your hands?" Sokka demanded, grabbing one of Katara's hands and inspecting it carefully. "How did this happen?" He held it cautiously, like he was scared of hurting her.

"Long story, but I'll explain later! We need to get down to the beach, now!" Katara ordered, standing up and heading for Appa's head, where she sat down and took the reins. "Yip, yip!" With a groan, Appa took flight, and then we were in the air - sort of. Appa's toes were skimming along the treetops, and we were more gliding than we were flying. But it didn't really matter, because in just seconds we were landing on the riverbank, and we all saw something rather… interesting.

There were three or four ships in the water, all of them Fire Nation - and all of them completely engulfed in flames and slowly sinking into the water. Zhao was standing at the front of one, looking utterly perplexed - which I think amused all of us. Aang then popped out of the water, just about a meter away from us, and yelled, "Have a nice walk home!" Sokka yelled for Aang to get onto Appa, which he did, and after taking his place on Appa's head we took off into the sky - for real this time.

"What happened to Jeong Jeong?" Aang asked, looking back over his shoulder at us.

"They all disappeared." Sokka said, sounding surprisingly calm. I blinked, before looking over the saddle towards the ground. We were passing over the campsite for the rebels - and I could see it was completely deserted. The Deserter deserts his hideaway. I thought, slightly amused by this.

Aang abandoned his place on Appa's head and got into the saddle with us, sitting with his legs crossed. I noticed Katara's eyes narrowing slightly. "Aang, you're burned."

Aang looked down at his arms and his eyes widened a bit when he saw that there were rips in his clothes, and angry red marks on his arm where the fabric had been torn. I noticed him wince slightly at the sight of them, and instantly I was at his side. "Did Zhao do that to you?" I demanded, not really noticing his somewhat confused expression when he heard the darkness in my tone.

"Probably." He shrugged. "It's not really a big deal - they don't hurt that much."

I scoffed at this. "Let me see them!" I took his hand and pulled his arm closer to me, inspecting it with narrowed eyes. "That bastard…" I muttered. How dare he hurt Aang! Without realizing I was doing it, I began making plans in the back of my head to violently murder Zhao in his sleep - or not. Maybe if he was awake it would hurt him more… I'd have to see about that.

"Let me help." Katara said, reaching towards her water pouch. She uncorked it and bended some water out, and wrapped it around her hand before she put it against Aang's burn. katara breathed in and out, eyes focussed in concentration - I swear the water was glowing white. When she pulled her hand away, the burn was gone.

"Good water!" Aang said, grinning at her.

"How'd you learn to do that?" Sokka demanded, wide-eyed.

The waterbender grinned and shrugged. "I guess I've always known."

"You're a healer!" I said in realization. "That's so cool! I haven't met a waterbending healer since Amaya, back at the Freedom Fighters!"

"Can you do it too?" Aang asked, looking back at me.

"I'm pretty sure I can't." I wiggled my fingers a bit, making flames appear. "Probably something to do with the fact that I can bend fire - the fire inside me probably takes away any ability to heal." I added with a wink.

"Wait, so let me get this straight-" Sokka held both his hands up, frowning at us. "Katara, you have the ability to heal people. Tora, you do not. And Katara, you've always known about this ability?"

"I guess so." Katara shrugged, neither of us seeing where Sokka was going with this.

Sokka huffed in annoyance, leaning backwards against the side of the saddle. "Oh, well then, thanks so much for all the first aid over the years. Like when I fell into the grease briar bramble, or that time I had two fish hooks in my thumb!" He showed us his thumb to accentuate his point - in the process, giving us a thumbs up, which I readily accepted.

"Two?" Aang repeated with a confused expression.

"How did he manage that?" I asked, grinning. I had been there when he fell in the grease briar bramble, but not the time with the two fish hooks - something I was now regretting. "How have I not heard this story before?"

Katara rolled her eyes, but smiled. "He tried to get the first fish hook out with another fish hook. And he swore me to secrecy after it happened."

Sokka continued as if he hadn't heard us. "Oh, and the time that big snake bit me! Thanks for healing that up. That was great. Really helpful."

"We get it, Sokka." Katara said dryly.

"Hey, Tora?" Aang asked me, suddenly turning to face me. "What is it that you and Jeong Jeong were talking about earlier? In the hut?"

"Oh… yeah." I turned away, looking at the sky. "About that… as it turns out, my father sent me to the Water Tribe because the Fire Lord was going to try and turn me into a weapon of the Fire Nation. Because apparently, people who bend two elements become extraordinarily powerful."

That caught everyone's attention. Both Water Tribe siblings turned towards me at the same time, while Aang's eyes went wide.

"What?" Katara said, a look of confusion clear on her face.

"How long have you known about this?" Sokka demanded, obviously not having heard Aang say the part about Jeong Jeong and I discussing it in the hut earlier that day.

"Just since before Katara got burned." I shrugged. "I asked Jeong Jeong why he would insist on sending me away and why my father would agree, and he told me. My father sent me away to protect me."

"So… is that good or bad?" Aang asked. "I mean, it's great that your dad does care about you, but… well… if he sent you away because he cared about you… that's not exactly good."

I stared at him for a moment, rather surprised that he managed to sum up my feelings about the whole thing in just a few sentences. Then I shook my head, sighing. "I don't know, Aang. I just… don't know."

Katara and Toph and Sokka and Aang had to pretend to be apart of the Fire Nation when they went there (Aang for obvious reasons). And if it wasn't against the law for people of other nations to be there, then why did they pretend to be from the Fire Nation? It makes sense to me that it would be punishable by execution.

I have no idea what age most benders begin to show their bending abilities, but in my world the normal age is around three. Zuko showed his abilities at age five, Azula showed hers at age three, Katara at age three, Aang at age two (since he's the Avatar, and it makes sense to me that he'd show bending abilities at an early age), Toph at five, and Tora at age three.

Hey, you know what? I've noticed something about my writing.

When I'm writing for Tora, my writing is sort of… "jagged" and blunt, and I'm not describing things the way I normally do in my writing. Like, go back to chapter 30, "The Wolf Returns", and compare how I wrote the beginning, with Aang and Katara and Sokka, to how I write for Tora. It seems different, right? Like the parts that don't have Tora seem smoother or more descriptive, or "flowy", if you wanted to call it that. So I guess when I'm writing Tora, I slip into the way she thinks of things without realizing I'm doing it. She doesn't think of things very… smoothly. She thinks of them bluntly. (I can't figure a good way to describe this!)

Or maybe it's just me.

Random response to a guest review:

Guest: I know, I'm a terrible person for not updating for so long. Ah, well. I have loads of time on my hands but I usually struggle with beginning a chapter and then figuring out how I want it to work out (because I'm an idiot who doesn't plan out her stories very carefully except for little tidbits no one cares about) and then once I finally sit down and force myself to write it I can actually focus… and then everything is smooth sailing from there. And then it starts all over again at the next chapter.. ^^; And as to your question about Tora's swearing: well, she's just that sort of person. You know that person who swears a lot, even if she doesn't have a reason? That's the kind of person Tora is. ^^;

~How I keep track of things~

Jeong Jeong is 61 by this time

He joined the army at 18

He joined the white lotus when he was 45 (when Piandao was 34)

Piandao is 50 by this time

Tora is 15

Piandao came to the Fire Nation when he was 33, two years before Tora was born

Tora was born when he was 35

He joined the White Lotus when he was 37, when Tora was 2

I just had a random thought: Why is it, with fanfictions, it's the ones with the OC's that get the most hate? I mean, there are stories with people falling in love with their rapist and people don't start shouting at the author about it! No, they go, "oh, that's so cute, it doesn't matter if they raped each other, they're in love!" I've never seen a fanfiction without an OC get a harsh critique - for example: My Immortal has gone through several critiques, Twila da girl who wuz in love with the vampir, the same. Terrible examples, I realize that, but still… why do OC's get so much hate? I don't get it.

I'm gonna be in Vermont for the next two weeks or so, visiting my grandmother - I'm gonna try and write down some stuff for the next chapter so it won't take as long to update… okay?