Author's Note: Just a warning for all you Zuko, espicially Zutara, fans. You will all deeply hate me by the end of this chapter. Sorry. It's just my take on it all. Sorry.

Chapter 4

The trip to the North Pole was taking a little longer than Sokka had expected. They'd gotten more flying done with Aang than they'd remembered. They evening of the day Sokka had expected them to arrive, they were only about half way there. Over the flying time so far, they'd gotten some news of the war. Ozai had kept a fierce hold over Ba Sing Se. The eclipse and the comet had came and went, and the neither the gang nor fire nation had used them at all. (Since Zuko never came back home, Ozai had never discussed the stop of Ba Sing Se's rebellions, so burning it to the ground had never occurred to him.)

There was news of another comet in about a year: "Ran-Chi's Comet" It had famously been the...sort of 'training wheels' for the first human firebenders. Ran-Chi had been the first person to try firebending with the strength of the comet helping him. He then showed everyone around him how to try to do it. Anyway, Ran-Chi's Comet came even rarer than Sozen's Comet: every hundred and fifty years. Sokka suspected that this comet would be just as dangerous as the other one, so he made it their goal to have Kura master all four elements in a year. She had barely started waterbending, but because she had a bit more time, Sokka was confident it would work out.

However, this delay was making him a little nervous. Katara suggested that maybe they could stop and start a little waterbending now, but he just insisted that would take longer. Kura thought maybe Sokka could take the reins for a while and Katara could teach her a little in the air, and he consented to try it. But this just ended up in a wet, and very irritated, Toph. After this, they all decided to just wait the extra couple days for Kura to start waterbending.

When they finally reached the North Pole, they were welcomed both with excitement, and sadness. They received many apologies about Aang, especially from Yue's father. He threw them another feast in mourn for Aang, and also in celebration of his reincarnation into Kura. Katara and Sokka introduced everyone to Kura, Toph, and Zuko. Everyone was quite surprised about his change of heart, and the fact that he was now dating Katara! Being there made Sokka very sad, for some reason. When Kura asked Katara about it, she told her to ask Sokka about it herself, not wanting to share a story he might not want going around. Now that was two stories she had to ask about: Zuko's past evilness, and Sokka's sadness about the North Pole.

After the feast, they all went to bed. Katara, Zuko, and Kura slept in one room (Katara and Zuko on one bed, Kura on another) and Sokka and Toph slept in another room (on two separate beds). When Kura woke up the next morning, she saw Zuko just leaving the room. She pulled on her slippers and quietly followed him. He went into the room where the feast was, munching on some left-over party food, and it was then that he noticed Kura.

"Good morning, Kura." he said.

"Good morning." Kura responded, "Um, I was just wondering about something..." Zuko nodded for her to continue, but Kura hesitated. "Well, I'm not really sure how to say it. It's...well, it's kind of awkward.

"You're wondering about me, aren't you? My past?" Zuko guessed, almost sadly.

"Yes...Well, that is – only if you want to talk about it." she added.

"No, it's alright. I can understand why you might want to know. You may have noticed people's surprise about seeing me with you." he replied.

"Yup. But, if it's not something you want to talk about, I would understand." Kura said. Well, she would understand, but she wouldn't exactly be happy about it...

' "It's fine. I'll tell you. You see, I am actually...well, I'm really the Fire Prince." he said, uncomfortably.

"You mean the Fire Lord's son?!" Kura exclaimed, jumping out of her seat.

"Yes. But, please, don't be scared. My father and I have never really seen eye to eye, not since the incident." Kura sat back down across from Zuko to listen.

"When I was sixteen years old, I went to a war meeting in my father's war room. I spoke out of turn, for a good reason, mind you!, and my father was furious. He told me I must battle an Agni Kai, which is a firebender battle, as punishment. I thought it would be against the old general which I spoke out against, but it turns out it was against my own father. I obviously didn't want to fight him, but he wasn't letting me get away with it. He left me with a horrible scar. I still have a picture of it if you want to see it, but later. Then, by refusing to fight, I had disrespected him, so he said.

"So, he banished me to find the Avatar, which was Aang, but he was still frozen then. After three years of searching, he thawed out and I found him in your village. I followed him around the world for close to a year. Then, Katara and I were put into the same prison by my evil sister, Azula. I expect you'd know of her." Kura nodded. "So, she of course went on and on about how horrible I was, and she told me about how the fire nation killed her mother. And I told her that the same thing happened to me, technically. They didn't kill her, but they banished her. And that was around six years before I'd been banished. Anyway, after I said that, she started warming up to me. Then the conversation got around to my scar. She said that she had water from the Spirit Oasis here, and it had special properties. So, she used it to heal my scar.

"My whole life, I felt like it marked me as the banished Fire Prince. And once it was gone, I no longer felt tethered to that identity. I was so grateful to Katara, and right about then, I noticed how beautiful she really was. And I think she was looking at me differently too. Then...we kissed. It was very romantic, and just...perfect. And then...well you can guess the rest. Aang got shot, and Katara didn't have the Spirit Water to heal him. But she never blamed me for it, only herself. It took me a good while to cheer her up. Then you were born, and I knew she'd have an important bond with you, as she did with Aang. They were almost in love, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Kura said coldly, "No offense to you, but I feel like her...with you...well it's like she's betraying him."

"Yes, I think I've heard that from Toph. But believe me, Katara was devastated that he died, so it's not like she completely forgot him." he said. His eyes suddenly widened. "You – you won't tell him about us...will you?"

"I dunno. Why does it matter?" Kura said, not seeing the danger. Zuko chuckled with a 'because I can do whatever I want to you' look on his face. Kura wasn't liking this.

"Well, let's just say it wouldn't run well with him." His expression suddenly got sadly sweet. "And it was break Aang's heart! You wouldn't want to do that to him, would you?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's something he should really know about." she replied, not taking her eyes off Zuko. He got up and walked around the table and went behind Kura. He was literally standing over her.

"That's not very nice of you. You would purposefully make your own past life horribly sad? Tsk Tsk. That would devastate him! Which might then turn to anger...toward me. Spirits are very powerful. He might do something bad to me." He leaned down next to Kura as he said, "But I am powerful too. We wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you!"

Now Kura's eyes widened. "Are you...threatening me?!" she asked nervously.

"Well, I wouldn't call it that." he said, putting his arm around her. Kura didn't dare push it away, but it made her very uncomfortable. "I'd say it's more like...insurance. To make sure you don't get an all-powerful spirit angry with me. So, if I were you, I wouldn't go telling Aang about me and Katara. In fact, I wouldn't go telling Katara about this conversation, either." he said. Then, he kissed her cheek, and got up and walked out of the room. "I'm going to got dressed and wake up my girlfriend." he said.