Sitting on the roof of his comfortable accommodation in Ba Sing Se, Aang was miserable.
It had been a punch to the gut when he, Sokka and Katara had escaped from the sinking library in the desert only to find his most loyal companion for life gone, and when he had caught up to the sandbenders who had taken him the rage had been so intense it had triggered the avatar state.
As time went by though, that anger had dulled, to be replaced by misery. Though they had tried everything they could think of to find Appa, they had been unsuccessful. Although Aang would never have admitted it to himself, a part of him was beginning to despair of ever seeing the bison again.
That wasn't their only problem either. They had come to Ba Sing Se with the intention of enlisting the support of the Earth King for Sokka's masterplan to invade the Fire Nation on the day of the next eclipse, but their efforts were repeatedly frustrated by Long Feng and the Dai Li. They were up to something. Aang wasn't sure what, but something.
Aang felt a hand on his shoulder. It made him jump initially, but he turned around and found it was only Katara.
"How did you get up here?" Aang asked. Katara wasn't an Airbender. Then he noticed the large column of ice behind her. "Oh".
"Are you all right?" Katara asked. "What with the Appa situation and the Dai Li and the whole saving the world by the end of summer thing, you've been spending more and more time alone up here and we're worried about you".
Aang considered. He didn't know how he felt himself. He turned away from the city and
turned to face Katara.
"I...don't know. Sometimes I think I can manage it but other times I miss him so much it almost physically hurts!"
He didn't get time to say much more than that before Katara pulled him into a hug.
Aang did not know how much time passed like this before he heard Katara gasp. He pulled away from her.
"What is it?"
Katara was staring into the sky.
"Aang, you may want to look over there!"
The Airbender obliged, and as he took in what he was seeing his heart leapt in a joy it had not truly felt in a long time.
Soaring over the city in the distance was the distinctive form of a Sky Bison.
In an instant, Aang had grabbed his glider-staff and leapt off the roof, taking off towards his friend. As he got closer he saw seven people riding Appa, impressive since he didn't have a saddle any more. Four of them wore the distinctive green uniforms and white face paint of Kyoshi warriors, and he recognised the headdress of their leader Suki. Much more concerning were the other three riders:
Azula, Mai and Ty Lee.
Aang was about to shout in alarm when he noticed that they were tied up; clearly they weren't the ones with the power in this situation.
Suki noticed him and began waving jovially. Aang flew alongside, and gestured for them to follow him. As the sky-bison and the glider came down in front of their house, Katara used an ice slide to come down from the roof and Sokka and Toph ran out from inside.
The Kyoshi warriors helped Azula dismount, and she straightened herself haughtily.
"Avatar, so we meet again at las..."
She was interrupted by two joyful reunions. Sokka sprinted over to Suki, and the two began hugging each other.
"It's been ages!"
"It's been two weeks!"
"Exactly."
Aang, meanwhile, was less interested in the show of bravado from the Fire Nation Princess than he was in happily playing with Appa; the sky-bison gave him an enormous lick before Aang sat down and hugged his snout for a very long time.
"I'm so happy to have you back, and I will never, ever, let us be separated again." He really meant it too. He had tasted life without Appa and had decided it was not for him; he did not know what he might do if they were ever separated again. Appa just leaned against him and shut his eyes contentedly, at peace for the first time in a while.
This went on for another five minutes before finally a rather bored sounding Azula cleared her throat.
"Yes, yes, how touching."
Aang finally tore himself away from Appa.
"How did this happen Suki? We only saw you recently and now you come back with both Appa and these three?"
So Suki told them everything, from finding Appa in the cave to cleaning him up to fighting, and defeating, Ty Lee, Azula and Mai.
Sokka cheered enthusiastically and hugged Suki again when she recounted knocking out Azula with her sword hilt. Azula herself merely rolled her eyes.
"...So we decided that we needed to deliver Appa to you and these three to the Earth King, and here we are," Suki finished.
Aang was brought crashing back to reality with this comment. "Suki, I don't think that's going to work. We haven't seen the Earth King at all since we got here. There's this shifty official called Long Feng who won't let us anywhere near him. From the sounds of it the King doesn't even know there is a war on."
"How could he not know?" Suki sounded confused. "He's the head of state of the largest country on Earth, one ravaged by war, and he doesn't know that war is happening?"
Toph stepped forward "Well I say we go and enlighten him!"
"Toph, we would love to, but we aren't going to do it peacefully and there is a very large palace guard who would try to stop us doing so by force!" Katara replied.
"And?" Toph snapped back. "We have the Avatar himself, a waterbending master, the Greatest Earthbender to Ever Live..."
"Showoff", muttered Mai.
"...Hand to hand fighters so good that they beat Azula, and Sokka", finished Toph, pointedly ignoring Mai.
"Hey!", protested Sokka, but he too was ignored.
Katara considered.
"When you put it like that, it does sound doable. Someone will have to stay behind to guard them though", she said.
"My warriors will do that. Is there some cellar we can put them in while we are gone? With any luck we can move them somewhere more secure when we've spoken to the Earth King." Suki asked.
An hour later, Azula, Mai and Ty Lee had been placed in a cellar, the three Kyoshi warriors Suki had brought with her were on guard duty, and the newly expanded Team Avatar were on their way once again. They were going to speak with the Earth King, and nobody was going to stop them.