Chapter two! Even though I only have two reviews, they really inspired me to write, because they said so many good things about this story. Again, even though it was only two, it's the best reception I've ever gotten. Thank you:

To.Be.Indeed and LilMizzStarx.

Disclaimer: I as of recently own a very fuzzy blanket, but no Avatar.

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Toph yawned and sat up. She crawled out of her earth tent and stretched, standing up. The sun caressed her skin, but she shivered with the chill wind that blew around their camp at this early hour of the morning.

An burning smell led her to the fire which was already going. Aang crouched by the side of the pit, staring into its depths. Toph bent and squatted next to him. "Why up so early, Twinkle Toes? Don't you normally sleep in?"

"Not when I'm excited," Aang pointed out, eyes not blinking as he watched the flames dance, in a sort of trance.

Toph rolled her eyes. "But you're not. What's up?"

Aang growled. She was very perceptive for somebody very blunt and often rude. "Well, I was just thinking about what Sokka was saying yesterday. It's true, isn't it? I'm just a burden to everyone else." His head hung low.

The earthbender snorted. "You're going to listen to Sokka? He was just hungry and tired. He'll be fine, don't worry. And you're needed. So don't be stupid, or I might just have to knock some sense into you."

Aang grinned in spite of himself. "Thanks Toph." He was particularly afraid of that warning.

She nodded to him and turned around. "Wake up, everybody!" she called at the top of her voice. The rest of their group sat up suddenly, looking around wildly, as though they were all being attacked.

"What's happening, what's wrong?" asked Katara, jumping up and pulling out her bending water. "I heard you scream, Toph,"

"Oh nothing," replied Toph, again sitting next to Aang. "I just wanted to get you guys up, sleepyheads. Were you going to sleep all day?" she asked, smirking.

Sokka turned around to judge the sun's position. "It's six in the morning!" he cried, outraged.

Toph shrugged as Aang chuckled. "The earlier we start, the farther we go," she pointed out to the water tribe boy.

"Oh, now I'm definitely am going to get up earlier every day," Sokka grumbled, slumping to the ground. "Where's the food?"

"I'll hold you to that," Toph grinned at him as Katara started to bring out their breakfast for the day.

"You guys ready for a game?" a voice asked. It thundered and made the trees shake, but there was no one there to have made such a noise. The voice was female, and sounded like she could only be a few years older than Sokka. Before any of them could react, it spoke again. "Doesn't matter. Come on," it said, and the four children in their group felt themselves sucked into a vortex was whirling colors and sounds. If they screamed, they couldn't tell, because it was already extremely loud, pounding on their eardrums.

Their feet all slammed into the ground and they toppled over, drawing deep breaths as they hadn't been able to breathe while traveling through that whirlwind of space.

"Have fun," the same voice said. Although this time it was much closer, and the children could tell that there was a distinct laughing note to it.

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The Earth King stared at the four smoking spots where their young companions had been sitting or standing just a moment before. His eyes were bugling, and he was frozen, unable to believe that anyone could disappear- just like that.

Uncertain, the man turned to the Guru, who was frowning unhappily. In answer to the unasked question, he said, "They're in the hands of the gods now." He gazed off into the distance, as though the old man could see something that the other could not. "I'm sorry,"

The Earth King shook his head slowly, staring off to where Guru Patik was, but not seeing anything. I'm going mad.

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"Up so early, Zuko?"

The voice slithered like a snake would, and Zuko lost his concentration, resulting in a fizzled out, depressing fireball instead of a large, powerful one like he had been trying to achieve.

The prince turned to his sister. "What are you doing here Azula?"

"Careful, brother," she let her nails scrape lightly against a green pillar, making soft scratching noises that caused the hair on the back of Zuko's neck to stand up straight, and shivers to crawl down his spine.

She added no more, but Zuko knew exactly what she was talking about. His chest heaved and sweat clung to his body. Zuko had been up even before the sun, practicing his firebending. It was the only outlet for his confusion, frustration, and even though he wouldn't admit it to himself, hurt, that he had.

"Would you care to join me for breakfast? I've noticed that you aren't eating anything lately. Afraid that it's poisoned? Or is something troubling you?" All the while she spoke, she drew closer.

Zuko felt himself stuck to the spot, even though his mind was screaming at him to back away as his feet wouldn't move. The siblings stood face to face, close enough to feel each other's breath on their faces, to feel the heat shedding from their bodies in sheets, as happened with all firebenders.

They stood like that for what seemed like an eternity before Zuko pulled himself out of the pools of molten gold that were his sister's eyes, and stepped away. As soon as he did, she smirked. She had won that one.

"Come on Zuzu, or the food'll get cold. Mai and Ty Lee are waiting." And she strode out, purposeful, like she was with everything else she did.

When Azula was gone, Zuko found his voice. "No, I don't want to join you," he murmured, but no one heard him.

After a few more moments wasted contemplating, he followed back into the room where they had had dinner just last night. True to her word, her friends were already there, and their lavish breakfast was laid out on the red tablecloth.

The prince sat down slowly and stared at his empty plate, his appetite still eluding his grasp.

Azula's observations were correct; he had not been eating, and was losing weight quickly, something that did not need to happen. In the back of his head, voice that was constantly there wondered whether it had been the right choice to join his sister.

Of course! He snapped to himself. Control slipping out of his reach for a second, he stabbed the knife into the table and stared at it, his breath heaving again as it had just minutes before when he had been training.

Ty Lee and Mai stared at the knife, taken aback. The low chatting that had taken place up until then died out, and there was no smile on the acrobat's face anymore. Mai remained impassive, although it was clear that she was surprised as well.

Azula, however, was gazing at her brother's face. He had schooled his features, but just before there had been an ugly, twisted look on his face, and his gold eyes had shone maniacally.

Before she had time to say anything, a loud, powerful voice echoed around the enormous hall, "You guys ready for a game?" it was clearly a girl's voice. All four of the kids jumped, and spun around, but no one was there. "Doesn't matter. Come on," it continued, and the kids were pulled backwards into a spinning whirlpool of color and sound. The noises pressed upon their ears, and although they tried to fight it, they couldn't do anything about it.

Their feet hit the ground all of a sudden, and their knees buckled, making them collapse onto the ground, gasping for air, as there had been none in the vortex.

"Have fun," that same voice said. It was clearer, louder, and very obviously laughing at them.

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An agent of the Dai Lee walked silently into the room, his head bowed as he headed to where he knew the princess and her three helpers to be eating their breakfast. He chanced a glance up, and stopped in his tracks.

There was nobody there. A few smoke tendrils curled up towards the ceiling, but otherwise, nothing.

He searched every corner of the room, knowing that Azula was very clever and sneaky, but he could find no one. He contemplated calling aloud for her, but decided against it. A slow grin spread across his face. It was clear that the city had at least a few days to itself, and he was going to make the most of that.

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Katara wobbled to her feet, clutching at the nearest thing to her, which happened to be her brother. She felt her stomach heave, and stumbled to her knees again, emptying the contents of her gut onto the ground. She could feel the others trying to get away from her quickly, but they were having trouble moving too.

Sokka was the next to give into the inevitable; Katara heard retching noises from somewhere behind her as she struggled to stand up again. When she did, she turned around to see whether her friends were okay.

Toph look pale, and was clutching her at abdomen as though in pain. Her legs looked like jelly. Sokka was still on the ground, head hanging over the pile of vomit pooling there. To stop from puking again, she quickly looked away.

Out of the four of them, Aang looked the best off. He leaned against a nearby tree, knuckles white. Toph was now throwing up, so Aang was the last of them. He stood, taking deep, steadying breaths to calm his heaving intestines, and smiled shakily at Katara. She did not return it.

Spinning slowly on the spot, the waterbender took in their surroundings. As she was doing this, she spotted four other bodies on their knees very close by. Squinting, Katara realized that she knew these people very well, and wasn't at all happy to be around them again.

The one in pink bounced up first, although without her usual vigor. She spotted Katara and started, large brown eyes taking in the rest of her friends who were now all standing up, including Sokka. She smirked slightly.

The other three closely followed their friend, and Katara's worst suspicions were confirmed. There was Mai, the scary dagger throwing girl, Azula, the dangerous blue lightning lady, and Zuko the insane fire prince who had chased them around the world.

The two groups just stared at each other, both feeling too sick to make any move towards the others. But their eyes burned into the others, and growls and snarls rose from most of their throats.

"If you aren't going to toss up your cookies again, why don't you turn around?" It was that voice again. The teens complied and what they saw took their newly regained breath away.

On thrones of different materials sat many men and woman looking too real. They sat looking down at the humans, all with different expressions on their faces. There were old men and women, young ones, tall, short, beautiful, not-so-beautiful, and everything in between.

The one who had spoken smirked at them with brown eyes that were so dark they could be black. Her hair lay flat on her shoulders, cascading down in a golden-brown waterfall. Her face was pale, and there was a twinkle in her eyes that told you not to mess with her.

"Know who we are?" she asked, and all of the new additions to the spirit world flinched, covering their ears. That voice was never meant for human ears.

"Tone down the volume, won't you?" asked Sokka, looking up at the people through narrowed eyes.

She laughed but complied, and when she next said something, they found that they could listen without a need to have some very strong ear plugs.

The question was repeated. Sokka snorted and was about to reply with a defiant "No!" when his eye saw a princess sitting on one of those chairs. Her hair was white, her eyes were blue, and he knew her very well from before.

"Yue!" he exclaimed, running forward. He stopped right in front of her, looking at her with a mixture of wonder and awe.

The other's heads snapped around to where Sokka was standing. Yue shifted a bit uncomfortably by being looked at like that by her former friends. She smiled softly. "Hello Sokka,"

"But you're the moon spirit!" he told her, as though she didn't already know. The warrior stepped back to look at all of the other people there, who were staring between him and Yue curiously. She nodded and rolled her eyes. This was the Sokka that she had known.

Aang was the first one to come to a conclusion. "You're gods!" he exclaimed, taking a half step back and looking more closely at everyone who was there. Toph and Katara followed his lead, mouths hanging open.

A large, old male in the center said in a ringing voice, even though it was "toned down", "Who would like to do the honors for our guests?" he looked around before his eyes settled on a young woman on his far left. "Kaia?"

She nodded and stood up. "You eight are here to prove the purity of the human race," she told them, and Toph raised an eyebrow. Purity? Talk about cheesy. But she waited and listened.

Yue shook her head slowly, "Liar," she whispered, tears in her eyes. Sokka's head whipped around, but she shook her head, indicating that she would tell him later. He raised his eyebrows, but stepped back more and listened to Kaia.

"You will be put through many tests. If you all pass them all, then you will be allowed to go back to earth and live in peace," she smiled at them, and Zuko shivered. Her smile was like Azula's.

"Wait, why are we here?" Aang spoke up bravely. He had never dealt with any real gods before, and was nervous.

Kaia rolled her eyes. "You humankind are idiots for starting a war that might end up killing you all. But," she put up her hands as though in defeat, "if you can prove that you are worthy to live, then we'll let you."

Mai looked at her in disgust. "We have to prove that we should be allowed to live?" she drawled, fingering a dagger.

The girl who they had all first heard rolled her eyes in a very un-godlike way. "Are you all deaf? Yes!" and she grinned at them, the twinkle intensifying.

The man in the center stood, towering above all of them. "This forest," he gestured around them, "will be your home for now. Make yourselves comfortable, but not too much so, because you will be starting tomorrow,"

He dismissed them with a flick of his hand, and Yue speedily stood up. "I'll show you guys," she told them. "Follow me," the moon spirit walked hastily into the forest, not saying anything to any of them until they were out of earshot of the other gods.

"Yue, what's going on?" Sokka asked, keeping pace with her. They were already in a clearing, a cool place where the light filtered through the leaves and made the atmosphere green. A clear stream tinkled merrily as it wound by.

Yue turned around and looked at them. They were all still feeling too sick to care about being near their enemies, and sat down heavily. Katara put her face in her hands, and Zuko crossed his arms.

Aang looked like he was about to say something, but Yue shook her head fiercely. "None of you speak- I'm going to tell you what's going on around here. Everything." She began to pace, wondering where to start.

"The war is going to be over soon, all of us know that, even though we don't know how it's going to end." She had barely begun when she was interrupted.

"What do you mean? You're a goddess," Ty Lee told her as though she didn't know, the second time in five minutes someone had said something like that to her. She took a deep breath and turned to face the happy girl.

"Gods aren't all-knowing. In fact, a lot of the time I have absolutely no idea what little things are going on in the normal world. There's only one goddess who can do that, and that's Kaia." She made a face as though she had just eaten a lemon. "She's not my favorite. Anyway, she's the knowledge goddess. Huge responsibility."

This didn't seem to have sunk in. "You're a goddess," Zuko repeated Ty Lee, the first time he had spoken. "That's impossible. You've got to know."

"You guys have strange notions about gods," Yue told them. "There are rules. There are jobs. If one of us did everything we'd explode. And we can't interfere with things like free will, although we can influence."

They were all looking at her like she was crazy, so she just shook her head and continued. "So, the war is going to end, and there is nothing for us to do now. Absolutely nothing, Kaia has checked multiple times. They came up with this idea that kids would be brought here and we would put them through tests for fun." Disgust was apparent on her face, and the moon spirit looked miserable.

"But she- Kaia- said that-"

"Who says gods can't lie?" asked Yue harshly, spinning to face Toph. Then her face grew softer and she sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just so uptight. I think it's wrong. They chose you eight because you're affecting the war, and it might give us something else to do after you're returned." She shook her head. "But I can't do anything about it."

"What do you mean?" asked Aang, eyes wide. "What do you mean you can't do anything about it?"

"I can't go against the other gods, that's impossible! All of them against me- no contest. Especially because I'm new." Yue stopped pacing and faced them all. "I'll try to do everything I can to help you, but it won't do much good."

"Can't you send us back or something?" asked Sokka hopefully.

"No, weren't you listening?! There are rules; I don't have the power to do that sort of stuff." She sat down and put her head in her hands.

Mai was looking at her with something that could be disgust, but it wasn't clear. She leaned closer to Azula, trying to be as far away as possible from the unhappy goddess.

"Well, why didn't they bring Aang like the way he does when he's trying to contact the Avatar state?" asked Katara, having witnessed this a few times. Yue had been there once, too.

"Because then Aang could leave whenever he wanted. His whole body wouldn't be here, and he could find a way to save you." She bit her lip. "I don't really see any way out of this except to win."

That didn't sound very appealing to any of the teens, and they looked despairingly at each other. Then, there was a rustle to their left, and out stepped a man. He saw Yue there and went over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Sokka stiffened and glared at the man.

"Yue, they're looking for you. You have to go." She looked up at him and nodded, standing up and reluctantly walking out of the clearing, waving goodbye to them before she disappeared. Over her shoulder she called, "That's Tui; he's on our side."

Azula lay on her back, relieve that her stomach had decided to settle. "So that's the moon spirit, huh? No wonder Zhao tried to kill her." She smirked.

Tui gave the princess a sharp look. "Are you saying that because you're a firebender? If so, you should meet Dezo; he's a creep." Tui stood before them and sighed.

"I don't know what to say. I want to help you, but there's no way I could overrule all of the other's powers combined. I'm so sorry," he looked at all of them in turn, sincere. "I've seen some of these tasks… no one should have to be put through them. Ever. I don't know if you'll all survive them."

"Thanks," said Toph, leaning against Katara. "You're really making us feel better about this." Tui laughed, a soothing sound.

"I just came here to give you some advice. I wanted to tell you about the gods; then you might be able to tell what kind of challenges they'll give you. You should have fair warning about some of them."

After a pause, he dove right into it. "Kaia's sugary on the outside, but she can be spiteful and cruel. Be careful.

There's a man, you'll recognize him. He's small, curly brown hair. He's Jo Nui, god of weather. Cheery and unfeeling.

Next is a woman who has vines in her hair and pretty much everywhere else. Terzia, goddess of nature. She's blunt and sharp.

Dezo, lightning and fire. He's very cruel, and doesn't mind pain as long as it's not directed to him.

Ouranos, god of the sky. Wise and strong.

Karhani, she's the trickster goddess and minor goddess of choices." He smiled at the thought of her. "She's the one you first heard speak. She makes fun of everyone, and loves a good joke. She's sly, so be cautious with her.

Gaia, goddess of the earth. She's wise like Ouranos, but gentler. They both came first.

Saneo is the god of air and major choices. Last but not least, me as the ocean and Yue as the moon." He sighed again. "There's more, but I don't think you'd be able to remember." At a groan from Sokka who was clutching his stomach he added. "Also because you're sick. You'll be feeling like that for a while, because of the way we brought you here. Sorry," he stood up. "I have to go. Good luck tomorrow."

They watched him leave as well and all fell onto their backs. Mai voiced everyone's thoughts, not to anyone in particular. "Gods are weird."

They were all in agreement, and fell asleep to escape their predicament for now. Maybe when they woke up, they would find out it was all a dream.

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Author's Notes:

Is it just me, or did it look like I put a little Zucest in there? It was not intended, although if you like it, great!

This was a long chapter, because I wanted to get them interacting and finding out at least part of what was going on. Sorry if you liked the shorter chapters better.

Oh yeah, rating upped because I just remembered some of the things that I want to put in here, and it's a bit disgusting, I don't know how I come up with this stuff. I will warn you when a chapter like that is here, so you can skip it if you want, although you might miss something important.

Please read and review!