This is the final chapter, but there will be an epilogue at some point. Thanks for reading if you followed this little story!

Katara tiptoed around the edge of the cabinet, her ears pricked for any distraction. "Sokka," she hissed. "Toph!" A brief scuffle somewhere high above her head alerted her to a presence, and soon the two of them came lumbering down.

As soon as her feet hit the floor, Toph stretched her springy joints and ran a little lap around the cabinet. "Aah! Solid ground."

Sokka ran towards Katara, his expression falling when he saw her lone figure.

"It's okay!" Katara said preemptively. "We got him!"

Just as Sokka opened his mouth to reply, Zuko trudged around the corner, tattered robes and all, with Aang hauled onto his back and tied in place with Katara's whip.

Sokka's jaw practically reached the floor. "What… what happened to you?"

"We'll explain later," Katara said quickly. Her brother's eyebrows drew together with yet more confusion at the lightness of her tone. She stifled a smile as she caught Zuko's eye.

How good it felt, to know she'd been so wrong about him. Katara could hardly believe it. She turned back to Sokka, suddenly recalling the crash they had heard. She threw her arms around him. "I can't believe the boomerang worked!"

Sokka returned the hug but Katara could tell he was rolling his eyes. "Of course you can't," he said. "But he'll be occupied for a while," he puffed his chest out, "we've got plenty of time to make our escape."

"Technically," Toph began, "it didn't work. It didn't come back, did it?"

Katara snorted and Toph bumped her shoulder with a grin.

"Hey!" Sokka put his hands on his hips. "You should be thanking me, not–"

"Guys."

They all turned. Zuko was simply standing there, posture deadly serious. Katara's excitement and relief were dampened when she noticed how he was hunching slightly under the weight of Aang. "Zuko–"

"It's still not safe for Aang to be here like this," he said promptly. "Let's go."

Katara and Sokka awkwardly glanced at each other. Zuko was adamantly not joining in on their celebrating, ready and poised to leave. She didn't blame him – she certainly had never given him the impression that he could.

Luckily for Katara, Sokka took the lead and nodded. "Right. About that…"

They all knew what they had gotten into by coming here. Now came the hard part.

Katara scrubbed her face with her hand. This was the part they hadn't planned, the part she had hardly dared to think about when the possibility of losing Aang forever had stood before everything else. How on Earth were they going to get home? She watched Sokka and Zuko exchange doubtful looks, both trying to mask their uncertainly with their determined expressions. She felt a pang of affection – for both her brother and Zuko, strangely in the same instant.

The dubious silence was broken by Toph clearing her throat. "I have an idea," she said, striding forward. "But first we need to go outside."

With no other plan, the others obliged. Katara glanced around the shop to check their position one last time before following her friends out of the door.

Outside, night had settled in almost completely. Katara squinted, struggling to see Toph's outline in the purplish darkness. She brought them a few paces away from the shop before stopping by a bush at the side of the road. There were few cars on the road now, and the streetlights were few and far between. The eerie silence bore down on Katara, and she felt a pressing need to get herself and her friends to the safety of the toybox as soon as possible.

Toph patted down the grass at the edge of the lawn. "Okay," she said lightly, and promptly put her hands to her mouth and blew out a loud, shrill whistle. All three of them winced and Katara covered her ears. Even Aang stirred suddenly before falling back into unconsciousness, a movement that greatly alarmed Zuko. Before any of them could ask what that was about, a giant creature came bounding out from behind the bush.

Its body was long, grey and sleek. Katara stepped out of its way instinctively, and Zuko's eyes widened like saucers next to her. The creature used its prominent snout to sniff the air curiously before lowering it in a friendly gesture next to Toph.

Affectionately, Toph rubbed the bristly fur over its eyes. "My mole will take us home!"

Katara was brimming with wonder. She had never seen a wild animal up close.

A sputtering sound behind her made her turn around. Sokka was standing at the very edge of the sidewalk, almost toppling onto the road. His eyes bulged. "Um, Toph?"

"Yeah?"

"That– that's not…"

"What?"

"That's a BADGER!"

Toph tilted her head in genuine surprise. "Really? I thought he was a mole. Though, I guess I don't really know anything about what animals look like. I heard moles live underground, so…"

Sokka moaned in disbelief, but Katara noticed with a smirk that he had straightened out now, approaching the group again in a belated attempt to maintain his dignity. He'd never been an animal guy – he was firm in his belief that they were at best a high-level threat to the existence of toys. Katara remembered how once, Jia's friend had visited with her cat. She'd never seen Sokka so unwilling to be detected, let alone picked up and played with.

"Lemme guess," Sokka said. "You just happen to know all the badgers in this neighbourhood."

"Well, of course," Toph said. "They're my friends. Don't tell me you thought you guys were my only friends?"

Katara and Zuko looked at each other in astonishment.

"Didn't think so," Toph continued, oblivious. "Well hop on, we haven't got all night. We have to get back before Jia notices that you guys are missing."

Zuko considered himself to be a toy who liked adventure, but he came to the conclusion that a nighttime badger ride through town was a little beyond him. When they arrived back at the house, the toys were windswept and unsteady on their feet. Toph bade her badger goodnight and retired for the night, after making them promise to bring Aang out in the morning so she would know he was okay.

Zuko's stomach twinged with guilt. Even now that they'd got him back.

He put Aang down carefully in Jia's trunk while Sokka gave stern warnings to the other toys not to disturb him. Toys were hardy, but Aang absolutely needed to rest. Once they had ensured that Aang was lying securely – with the help of a colourful roll of washi tape from Jia's art drawer - Zuko carefully unwound Katara's whip and handed it back to her. Sections of the cord were frayed from the ordeal, but he couldn't imagine Katara cared.

Nevertheless, the idea occurred to him that he would replace it – or repair it at least, whenever he went to get some new clothes. Toph would surely know some toy or other who could help on that front.

They had decided to wait until morning to screw Aang's battery port back together. It was going to be a long and arduous task, as they had discovered earlier, so it was best to leave it until Jia would be at school and her parents at work so that they could work uninterrupted. And now they were home, he and Toph would be able to scrounge up some tools that were more suited to the task than Zuko's sword was.

For now, he sat with Katara under Jia's bed, leaning hidden against the edge of the toys' trunk. Most of the toys decided to stay put away as Jia came ambling in and out of the room between doing her homework, but it was clear that Katara, deep in thought, wasn't going to budge, so he didn't either.

They had a conversation to finish, and it was long overdue.

"Look," Zuko began, looking awkwardly down at his own hands. There was one thing they had to be clear about. "You have to know I had nothing to do with Azula's plan. I would never hurt Aang. Or any of you."

Katara looked up, her eyes earnestly wide. "I believe you, Zuko. I'm sorry I doubted you when everyone and everything was telling me that you'd changed."

Zuko nodded. He swallowed as Katara continued to watch him expectantly. "About that…" This was the part he never wanted to relive, but he knew he owed her an explanation if they were ever going to be friends like he and Aang were. "...I was scared. I didn't have a home, Jia didn't want me and neither did her dad. All I had going for me was my price tag, and I panicked and I used it against you." He snorted, derisively, but the action made Katara frown and put her hand over his. "I didn't even know you were secondhand until Toph told me but by that time I was too ashamed to show my face again."

Katara spoke up, her tone uncharacteristically soft. "When my first owner abandoned me, I didn't even have a fancy price tag to cushion my ego. And then Jia got me at a jumble sale."

"But she loves you more than any other toy. Price means nothing." He was still trying to wrap his head around that. It was hard to believe that something so antithetical to what he used to believe, what Azula, his only family, based her entire existence on, could be so false. That Katara was so patently kind and likeable made it a slightly easier pill to swallow.

Katara sighed, then playfully flicked a tangle of torn threads at his shoulder. "I guess now we're not that different, you and I." Her tone was deliberately light and Zuko found his mood lifting. "Aang and Toph and even my brother seem to love you despite your price tag."

Zuko laughed. "I think Aang was the first person who approached me and didn't care about my background."

"Not the first person."

Zuko realised his mistake and reddened, but he realised Katara was only teasing. Still, he felt guilty when he met her eyes again. "I can see why you two get along so much."

At this comment, Katara's expression twisted into a sad smile. "You know, I had a feeling before that he was an Avatar," she said. "I didn't want to tell him in case it would make him leave us…"

"I'd hate that," Zuko said bluntly.

Katara smiled. "Yeah, me too. Hanging out with him is the most fun I've ever had."

Zuko nodded. "For the record," he added, after a while. "Hanging out with you guys is the best time I've ever had. I think leaving the dollhouse was the best decision I've ever made."

Now that made Katara grin.

Aang had had enough rest. Almost a week had passed since he had been kidnapped. He still felt a little dizzy when he ran around too much – right now, he much preferred it when Jia would come and play with him, and he'd get all the adventure but none of the trouble of actually moving around. There were some changes that were permanent, too. His eyes probably weren't going to be able to light up anymore because the electrical wires connecting them to the battery were messed up.

He had to admit he was a little dismayed. That was his special Avatar feature. Even if Jia was apparently heedless of all that, he had been looking forward to getting hold of some new batteries so he could do the trick for his friends.

In the grand scheme of things, however, that didn't matter much – at least he had his friends. Sokka, Zuko and Suki had been taking turns buddying up with him when he was alone to make sure he didn't come to any harm while he recovered. Even if it was a little stifling, Aang could feel nothing but warmth at their efforts.

A collector's toy like him, looked after by so many friends? He was well aware of how lucky he had gotten. Not to mention, Zuko had told him as much as he knew about Avatars, and they were planning to go see if they couldn't find the mysterious Avatars that Li supposedly owned, according to Azula. The thought made Aang nervous as well as excited – not in the least because it would involve returning to the study – but other than that, he was content. Finally being sure of his origins had settled the unease that plagued him ever since he woke up in that classroom. And a near-death experience certainly helped that along.

Katara had been busy with Jia all week, to Aang's admitted disappointment, as the family had taken her along to visit Jia's grandparents out of town. She had only just got back, and to celebrate, she and Aang had convinced the whole gang to go see Toph and get on one of her badger-mole-thing rides. He couldn't believe he had been unconscious all the way through that the first time around.

Aang soaked in the sun and watched his friends chatter. Toph was leaning against her bucket, patting a humongous, furry creature that was curiously nosing under it. Aang was instantly reminded of himself and Appa and that endeared him to the badger-thing already. Sokka paced with a worried look. Katara was attempting to convince Zuko to ride with her, his arguments becoming increasingly unconvincing.

"Come on!" Katara urged, tugging his hand. "Don't tell me you're scared of getting a little dirt on you." Her eyes glinted with mischief.

Zuko frowned, looking for a way out. "I– we can do something else? Badgers aren't exactly my thing. We can go ziplining from the clothes' line!"

Katara crossed her arms. "Nope. That's too similar to the glider."

Zuko looked pleadingly towards Aang. "Aang, help me out. Ziplining is more fun, right?"

Thankfully, Toph interrupted their increasingly unproductive conversation. "Let's go, guys! I don't want to keep my buddy waiting!"

Zuko tried again. "I'm your buddy too. I should get a say in this."

"Huh, you have a point." Toph stroked her chin, "Though I never expected you to call yourself that. Feels weird because of your, uh, gold plating." She glanced towards the tag on his shoe.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "It's not even gold. I was too early for the trend. Azula's the one with the gold alloy."

"Is that why she's so grumpy all the time?" Sokka interjected. "Under all that weight?"

Aang, Toph and Katara sniggered, but Zuko crossed his arms. "We're getting away from the point."

"The point, Zuko," Aang said, smiling, "is that we're all going for a ride!" He leapt towards the creature, who easily let him onto its back. Toph whooped in agreement, while Aang helped a delighted Katara up behind him. "Today, if possible. Before Jia notices we're gone!"