Hakoda teaches Zuko more about hunting and fishing than any Fire Nation civilian has ever needed to know. They spend a lot of time on the water after Katara painstakingly fixes them with a look that begs to come with. Every day at the healing hut, she has to lie down for hours at a time while they work around her, and although they've soothed away her migraines, her body feels stiff from lying down in one spot without a break. She knows it's important to get her memories back, but she also appreciates being able to walk around and breathe sometimes. So, when Hakoda and Zuko both receive the death glare after dropping her off again, they whistle and walk away like nothing's wrong, Hakoda even dares to smile at her.

"It's helping," Hakoda told her over dinner. "You just have to bear with it a little longer."

"They think I'm ready for the Spirit Oasis," she said, shoving tentacle soup into her mouth. Zuko's barely made a dent into his.

"Oh?" Hakoda inquired. "Isn't that the place with the two fish?"

Katara rolled her eyes at his simplicity. "It's more than that. The water has special healing capabilities because of Tui and La, the Moon and Ocean Spirits."

"Right," he drawled out. He didn't get too in depth with Spirit World shenanigans, left those to the benders. There just weren't enough explanations in the world to describe what goes on regarding spirits, and he was a man of solid evidence and proof. Glad at least one child took after him, even if Sokka could be a little dense sometimes.

Before going to the Spirit Oasis, the healers warned Katara that it was going to be a very painful experience, but it was necessary to overcome the mental blockade. Katara was up all night the day before, tossing and turning in bed until Zuko finally lit a candle and talked her nerves out. Temporarily, that is. Hakoda swings by with breakfast the following morning to see them off.

On the way to the Spirit Oasis, her hand clings tight onto Zuko's, and he wants to run when he sees Hakoda's eyes dart straight to their hands. He rubs his chin thoughtfully, but doesn't comment, only to wish them good luck in her final process. Zuko bows, Katara's hand still in his, and thanks Hakoda again for the supplies and for taking that detour to be here. The healers are waiting for them, lined up in a circle around the pond, palms out and ready.

The main healer, an old lady Zuko never bothered to learn the name of, signals for Katara to enter the pond. With a squeeze, Zuko lets go and takes a step back, watches Katara undress into her undergarments. The air is warm here, despite being surrounded by blocks of ice, and Zuko takes full advantage of the warmth. He's a fire bender and has sorely been missing the heat.

Katara slowly lowers herself into the pond and the healers begin their work. The water glows underneath their hands and Tui and La don't seem to be affected by what's going on. She flinches like she's being burned, and Zuko resists the urge to pull her out, only gives her a sympathetic smile when she looks over at him, teeth clenched. Sweat drips down her forehead and her eyes are squeezed shut. After some time, Katara suddenly cries out, begs for him to be by her side.

Zuko rushes over but the main healer tells him he must stay away, or it could mess up the process.

"No," Katara grits out through her teeth. "He stays by me."

They exchange steely looks, stubbornness a running trait in the Water Tribe people. When Katara automatically grabs tight onto Zuko's hand anyway, the old lady lets it go with a click of her tongue and resumes her concentration on Katara's head. Tui and La circle the pond, never breaking their flow.

They sit in the pond for what feels like forever, and Zuko's worked up a sweat now too. Katara is in immense pain, and it shows when her knuckles strain and she leaves crescent shaped nail marks in his hand.

"You can do it," he murmurs, and it's almost like they're the only two in the room. "Just a little longer."

Katara winces, beads of sweat drip down into the water and when sunset hits, the healers do one last intense technique before the process is done. The water glows brightly and Katara's body becomes limp, falling into unconsciousness. They all stand up, finished.

"That's it?" Zuko asks, bewildered.

The old lady looks at him with disdain. "The rest of the healing takes place up here now," and she points to her head. "We've done all that we can. The spirits will guide her home."

And when they leave, Zuko stays with her, holds her hand, and makes sure her head is afloat. He doesn't remember falling asleep beside her, their hands still connected.

When he dreams, he dreams in blue, blue as the sky, the ocean, the moon. He hears laughter and he's in the Spirit Oasis, but everything seems translucent, even when he looks down at his hands. He tries to follow the sound of laughter, a girl, and feels like he's running in circles. A voice asks him what he wants.

"I want Katara to regain her memories," he says. There's nobody around him, not even Katara. She isn't in the pond where he last saw her. Yells, "Where is she?"

Lost. Nowhere to be found.

It sounds like the voice is inside of his own head and he looks around wildly for it. This must be the Spirit World, but why take him here now? If that's the case, Katara should be here too.

"She's here somewhere," he says. She must be.

She is not. The voice repeats, almost mocking. Zuko turns, and turns, and even investigates the pond again. It is an empty, bleak body of water with no fish and no Katara.

"Then, where is she?"

He feels a prick down his neck and can sense the motion of a shrug. Frustrated, he says, "Stop toying with me. I brought her here to make things better, not to play mind games with spirits."

You killed one of us.

What? No, that wasn't him, that was General Zhao. Zuko's hands begin to tremble and he shakes his head, denies it.

You are not worthy of the girl. It is your fault. Your honor and pride come first to you.

"I'm different now," Zuko says, hands splayed to no one in particular. "I've changed for good. That's why I'm here."

A chill creeps up his spine. You are here because it was your fault, again. You caused the mistake and you are here to fix it. You are here to restore your pride. Rather, what's left.

The truth of the matter makes him bite his tongue. "Is there something wrong in that? I want to fix my mistake."

If that is all you are here for, the girl will remain lost to you.

"It doesn't matter if Katara never remembers me if that's what you're getting at. I just want her to remember everything else." That's all that matters.

There's a slight hum in the air, what feels like thinking, and Zuko waits and waits for the spirit to say something else.

She needs something she cherishes the most.

Her mother. Zuko can only think of her mother, but she's dead. "I don't understand."

Take her there, through trials and tribulations. Face your weakness, and only then you will find her.

"I don't understand what any of that means!"

Suddenly, he's brought back to the mortal realm, still holding Katara's hand. The moonlight casts an ethereal look to the Spirit Oasis and Zuko doesn't think anything in the Fire Nation can compare. She isn't waking up, and the fish are back in the pond. His body feels too warm and his head pounds. He can't make sense of the spirit's words; her mother is dead, and he doesn't know what else Katara cherishes the most besides her family. She's been with Sokka for months and has finally reunited with her father. Aang and her friends couldn't do anything for her for the past five months, so what good could he do?

Stupid, he thinks, stupid of him to be the one doing this. Stupid of him to react carelessly in that accident.

He nudges Katara but knows deep down she won't wake up again, not until he brings her to something she cherishes the most. He pulls her out of the water and dresses her, brows scrunched up thinking of what he can do but growing more helpless every second. He rakes his brain to think of what Aang would do in a situation like this.

Aang. The necklace.

His hands scurry through his bag and grasp tightly onto the Water Tribe necklace her mother gave to her. With Katara propped against him, he clasps the necklace around her neck, and when it still doesn't wake her up, not that he thought something as simple as that would, he holds her in his arms and leans his head against her shoulder.

"What am I supposed to do?" he whispers. "Where am I supposed to take you?"

He doesn't realize her father has been standing just shy of the entryway, having witnessed Zuko place the necklace around her. Maybe it doesn't mean anything to those of the Fire Nation, but it means something significant to the Water Tribe. It was his wife's necklace, passed down from her mother.

But seeing Zuko embrace his daughter so gently, so careful, reminds him of holding Kya's body as she lay dying, filled with so much love and caution, as if something so fragile and precious was in his arms.

You don't find a love like that easily in a lifetime.

"Listen," Hakoda says to Zuko, after they strapped Katara into Appa's saddle. He scratches the back of his head, almost sheepishly. "I want to thank you for being there for my daughter."

"It's no problem, sir," Zuko says, solemn.

After Hakoda found the pair in the Spirit Oasis, he had waited for them to return to the hut before suggesting the idea that maybe she should go home. Her actual home. Zuko was on the same page as Hakoda, realized that this time he was going to have to make a long trip south with an unconscious girl this time. The air would be freezing cold and frostbite already threatened his fingers. The south will only be colder.

Hakoda couldn't come with. As much as he bowed his head to the Fire Lord boy and packed all the meals for them, he had to return to his crew and resume salvaging the world left behind. Zuko understood his guilt; this isn't the first time Hakoda has left his daughter.

"I know she's in good hands," he says to Zuko, pulls him in for a tight hug. It almost feels like a fatherly embrace he's never had, and Zuko didn't hate it. In fact, his throat held a lump too difficult to swallow down and he wondered if the temperature was so cold that his tears would turn into ice before ever leaving his eyes.

Once they're back in the air, Zuko throws an extra blanket over Katara, and struggles to keep himself warm during this long trip. It will be days before they make it to the Southern Water Tribe, and he'll be alone with his thoughts. Supposes he's used to it by now.

Memories of Mai slither into his mind and what he's left her with, what he's taken from her without intending to. It was her father; he wants to remind himself until so many hours go by that he only ends up cycling the blame back to himself. Perhaps he wasn't a good Fire Lord and should have read the papers more.

It was more than that though. Mai was his first love, the only girl of the Fire Nation who willingly sided with him even when he was cast out and made a fool by his own father. She was there to bandage the injuries Azula precisely marked on him during sparring practice, though it was never just practice for his sister. She needed every second, every opportunity to make sure he knew where he belonged. On the ground, writhing in pain underneath her.

Mai used to sneak into his room with alcohol, bandages, and ice packs. Lots of ice packs to try and get the purple bruises to go down, until she kissed him at the age of 13 because she had heard from Ty Lee that kissing makes everything feel better. It was awkward and stiff and came as a surprise until they practiced it enough after Azula's harsh training practice with him that it felt easy.

He wonders where it went wrong. He wonders when he started to take advantage of Mai's constant love.

It must have been when he joined Team Avatar.

Azula had roped Mai into her evil schemes through manipulation. The idea of being with him is what led Mai to ultimately committing bad deeds, turning her into something poisonous for a time until she realized she loved him more than she feared Azula. Even then, when she helped them escape the Boiling Rock, he should have been more loyal to her, but he was mostly concerned with Sokka's safety.

Because Katara's brother means everything to her, that's why.

Slowly, like the sprinkling of rain, what Katara found important started to become important to him. He's wanted to know what it was like to embrace her for a long time. He was envious of the people around her, the light she gave off and the love she freely gave.

He even liked all the times she was angry at him.

When he grabs her hand and looks at her sleeping face, he thinks that even if she doesn't wake up feeling the same as him, just having these moments with her was good enough.