Wow. My reason for not updating this time? I honestly thought the second chapter has been up for ages. Seriously. I was shocked when I realized it wasn't. Currently, I'm almost finished writing Chapter 3.

Wow. Pathetic. But, anyway, this is the newest installement. Before the next one, however, I think I'm going to put up a few background oneshots. I mean, how did the Water Tribe know Sokka and Katara were with the Avatar? Why didn't Hakoda rush over there to meet Aang as soon as Appa landed? Why did he let Sokka go without him?

Read and review. You know the drill.

The night was solemn, even as the campfire crackled, breaking the dusk.

"What are you going to do, Hakoda?" Bato took a seat beside him as Hakoda turned a stick over in the fire.

"I don't know. Katara – it's so confusing. She says the Avatar died, but he seems alive…to me."

Bato was quiet for a moment, thinking his way through the obscure comment. "What happened down there?"

"I don't know." Sokka appeared from the shadows, his wolftail down, an uncharacteristically solemn look on his face. "Katara won't say, and obviously Aang isn't in shape."

Hakoda lowered his head, mourning something. The Avatar's death, the Avatar's loss, or the Avatar's injury? The loss that his family went through? He couldn't fathom it himself.

"I'll tell you." The short Earthbender sat herself between Sokka, leaning against a tentpole, and Hakoda, heading the fire. She leaned toward the flames, rubbing her hands over her arms to get rid of the goosebumps that had erupted there. As she did so, she brushed her hair to the side, revealing open, blank, mist-colored eyes. Hakoda almost drew back, realizing that one of the companions that his children had chosen to travel with was blind.

"There was a coup, to overthrow the Earth King. The Dai Li-" as she spoke, a bear lumbered over, drawn to the sound of her voice, nuzzling against her. Absently, she patted his neck slowly, and his king was not far behind, listening intently. "Are a group of Earthbenders, loyal to Long Feng, and when we got him arrested-"

Hakoda started. His children had gotten a very important Earth Kingdom man arrested? He leaned closer, drawing his eyebrows together in concentration, wondering how they had gotten into this. All he had heard for months and months was silence, then a rumor of destruction at the North Pole. Once the Avatar – and his rumored two Water Tribe companions from the South – had landed in the Earth Kingdom, news had been coming quicker. General How. The Drill. And now, this.

"The Fire Nation Princess took over. She was impersonating some of our friends, and she took control of the Dai Li. They kidnapped Katara. I was tricked by some bounty hunters my dad hired-" Hakoda noticed she said this ever so casually, leaning back, some, even, disconnected, "Into thinking my mom was in Ba Sing Se. They trapped me in a metal box." Here her voice took on some pride. "I busted out. Aang was at the Eastern Air temple, trying to learn from a Guru how to master the Avatar State." What in the world could she be talking about? Hakoda saved his puzzlement and listened harder. "Sokka was with you. Aang found out because of his special Avatar magic Katara was in trouble, got Sokka, and ran into me. Sokka and I were going to warn the Earth King about the coup, and Aang went to get Katara with a friend of mine, the Fire General Iroh. But he's retired now. Nice guy," she added conversationally.

"Apparently the whole Dai Li was down there, with the Fire Nation Princess and the Prince, who's been tracking these guys all over the world for the past few months." She jabbed a thumb at Sokka, toward the tent where Katara and Aang were sequestered. "The big hole in Aang's back is from lightning – Azula. He'll live. Probably."

She paused, then seemed to convince herself to say, "He's tougher than he looks, actually."

"You can say that again," Sokka muttered.

"The Fire Nation prince has been following you, Sokka?"

The Earthbender blew at her bangs, and his son said, almost patronizing that his father didn't know this clearly important fact about his life, "Yeah, dad. He attacked the village at the North Pole, and followed us for months. Then, (because he'd been banished, or something) him and his uncle got kicked out of the Fire Nation again because of the Moon-" the offhanded telling grew softer, and Sokka paused for the barest of moments before he continued. "So they went to Ba Sing Se, where we found them. Zuko's been trying to capture Aang for a while now, to take him to the Fire Lord to regain his honor."

"His. Honor." Katara's scoffing voice could be heard, and she moved aside a tent flap. She must have been listening the whole time, realized Hakoda. One of the Avatar's feet was visible, the one with the ruined sole was resting in her lap. Every so often it would move, as if aching to run, or perhaps doing it, in the spirit world.

Her metallic blue eyes were glowing with spite and malice and pain, leaning up against the tent pole, her whole aura different because of her ragged, down hair. Women in the South Pole never wore their hair down, it was too dangerous. It would catch things, and if its lengths got wet ice would form and could be deadly.

"The next time I see him, he's going to have better things to worry about than his honor."

Suddenly Katara's voice broke. "He said – he said the Fire Nation took his mother away from him. I – I told him about Mom. He said – he changed. And then he turned right around and fought on her side!"

Her eyes were flashing, angry tears streaming down either side of her face. "I – I trusted him, and he betrayed me! I even-"

She couldn't hold herself up. Hakoda wasn't close enough to catch her, but her elbow collapsed and she braced herself by one long, bare arm in the sand.

"I even offered to heal his scar." Her voice was raw, ragged, and so hurt, so traumatized Hakoda couldn't look at her. "With my spirit water."

"Well, I guess that was a good thing," said Sokka reasonably. "I mean, if you wasted it all on him, Aang would be-"

Katara's head came up, and she turned quickly, unfastening the tent flap and letting it fall back to conceal herself and the Avatar. "Don't. Say. It."

"Don't worry," mumbled the Earthbender. "He won't."

Hakoda didn't know what to think, say, or do. It was obvious that he was no longer a part – big or small – in his children's lives, and he didn't know how to help them. The Avatar – Aang – was in grave condition, and his daughter was the only person qualified to help him. It was obvious that they were going nowhere soon, and he gave the order to erect more tents for his son and his friend.

"Actually, that won't be necessary," the friend grinned, the first time he'd seen her smile since Aang had reacted to the healing. She straightened up, cocking her head as if listening to something no one else could hear. She then flexed her fingers and settled into a semi-upright Earthbending stance. It only took a moment, and he had barely registered that her arms had moved before another tent of rock had shot up into existence behind her. "Don't trouble yourselves."

Hakoda blinked. Whatever he was, he wasn't prepared to see, and deal with the fighting styles of his son's companions – even though one of them was his daughter. He was already waiting anxiously for when the Avatar would wake up, meaning that he'd be witness to even more spectacular displays of bending.

"Waterbending was bad enough," grumbled his son. "And then we had to find a little Airbender! And now he's a Waterbender! And then this one joined up and taught him to play with rocks, too!"

Hakoda chuckled. Perhaps everything indeed would be all right if his son could joke around again.

A second later, perhaps, Hakoda was forced to acknowledge that he probably wasn't joking, as Sokka was catapulted to his feet, and he rubbed his backside indignantly. "Hey! What did Aang say about bullying me?"

The blind Earthbender grinned. "Oh, really? I thought you didn't like to have 'The Avatar' intercede with your problems with Katara and me? What was all that about 'A real warrior stands his ground against Firebenders, so I can stand my ground against you?"

"Ehmphernelsohnlkkmph!" Sokka crossed his arms and looked pointedly the other direction. "Just because you're the almighty 'Blind Bandit' doesn't mean-"

"Hey!" shouted the Earthbender, real anger crossing her face now. "I thought we were done talking about that, okay?"

"You're not the only one who's got parent issues, you know," mumbled Sokka, gripping his arm, staring at the ground. "Don't think too highly of yourself, Toph."

They seemed to have forgotten Hakoda was there, and she was silent, waiting for Sokka to continue.

"The important thing is that Aang's going to be okay," Toph said cautiously when it became clear Sokka wasn't going to say anything else. Instead, he was sitting with his knees to his chest, his face illuminated in the moonlight, looking very thoughtful and sad.

Hakoda was silent.

Suddenly, the flap to the earth tent swung open, and Katara's face was visible, tears of relief sparkling. "He's going to be okay! He's out of danger now. He's not…exactly going to wake up for a while, because he needs time to rest. But – he's definitely going to live."

"I am so, so proud of you, Katara," Hakoda said lowly, reaching toward her face, but his daughter drew back sharply and didn't reply.