As Katara sat overlooking the room, the Council of Five debated their invasion strategy for the Fire Nation. Her friends had decided to take it in turns to deal with the planning of the invasion; today it was Katara's turn, so Aang could carry on mastering Earthbending with Toph and Sokka could do... something, she wasn't sure.

"The Fire Nation's troops currently rampage throughout our countryside", General How said. "It is unfortunate that they continue to ravage our lands like this, but there is a plus side. If they are here, invading the Earth Kingdom, they are not there defending from us trying to do the same thing to them. However, we won't have the luxury of attacking the countryside; the eclipse lasts for a few minutes and so we will have to hit them hard and hit them quickly. We will have to go straight for the throat, attacking their capital directly. We estimate we will be able to raise an army of 20,000 men for this task."

As he said this, he manoeuvred a clay figurine representing an Earth Kingdom army across the map of the world they were all sitting around using his earthbending.

"How will we get them there though?" Another of the Generals spoke up. "The Fire Navy has total naval superiority. We don't have much of a fleet, and we can't build one without potentially tipping off any Fire Nation spies in the city and giving away the element of surprise."

"We don't have many Earth Kingdom built ships, it is true. I propose we begin a policy of capturing Fire Nation ships as a way around this. If we can do this without being noticed, then they will not know we're hostile on the day until it's too late, and if they do realise what we're up to then the fire nation ships should stand up well in any naval battle."

There was some grumbling around the table; relying on stealing enemy ships was a gamble; there was no guarantee that they would be able to get as many as they needed by the date of the invasion. Still, it was the best plan they had for the moment. The clay figure representing the invasion force moved over the water on the map towards the Fire Nation, where it was attacked by a flying lemur- Momo had taken a shine to it.

"Maybe we should just set Momo on them!" Katara said, laughing at her own joke.

The rest of the room looked at her without laughing. Katara suspected that some of them hadn't forgiven her and her friends for the mess they had made of their troops, but apart from anything else they just didn't find the joke funny.

"Oh, never mind, carry on", Katara muttered sheepishly.

"Once in the Fire Nation," How resumed, shooting Katara a look," the Earth Kingdom army will land and push towards the capital. To do this we will have access to new Tanks; our engineers took inspiration from those Fire Nation designs they recently deployed, and our own versions are nearing completion. The only way up into the capital is on a relatively thin and treacherous path, but we are Earthbenders. We should have no problem reshaping the landscape to allow ourselves easier access. Once in the capital, we will allow the Avatar to go after the Firelord while we secure the capital. With any luck, with the Firelord dead and their capital in our hands, the Fire Nation should surrender. The war will finally be over."

With that, How finished. He gestured to a scribe, who had been writing the whole thing down, and the scribe handed him the scroll. He then handed it to Katara, and told her to take it to the Earth King.

As Katara left and made her way towards the Palace, she passed three people, one of them giving a sales pitch to the other two.

"...Total creative control! You'll be able to name it whatever you want, just as long as you keep making that tea you've become so famous for!"

One of the others, a grey-haired man, now spoke. "It's a tempting offer, but to be honest making tea is it's own reward."

Katara froze. She knew that voice. Its owner seemed harmless enough, but if he was here that meant the person standing next to him was...

Zuko.

The other boy turned his head slightly, giving Katara a glimpse of his distinctive scar and confirmation. "For you maybe, but some of us have loftier ambitions."

Katara had seen enough, and she ran before either of them noticed her.

She burst into the throne room, where she saw Suki and her three warriors talking to the Earth King.

I have the details of the meeting, Your Majesty!", she called, not really caring about them at that moment. She thrust them into the Earth King's arms and began dragging Suki away.

The Earth King looked like he was going to protest, but he thought better of it at the last minute. Once they were out of earshot Katara hissed "Suki, Zuko's here!"

"You mean that Fire Prince who burnt down our village? What are you going to do about him?"

"I'm going to confront him. Alone. I don't want to tell Aang because he'd insist on coming and I don't know what Zuko would try to do to him. Maybe I can put a stop to his attempts to capture the Avatar... for good."

"Then I'm coming too," Suki replied. "I have a score to settle with him."