Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.

Sorry I haven't updated in like a week, I was going to put this up the very next day, but, of course my computer breaks down.

I forgot to mention it, but we'll say this takes place just before the episode where Zuko goes on a date with what's-her-name. The trio is in the house they were given just like in the show, as they wait to see the King. If you like, you can imagine Zuko still has his ponytail-cuz we all know he was hotter that way!!

CHAPTER ONE:

"Come now, Prince Zuko, don't you want to brush up on your moves in case your date asks you to dance?" Iroh begged his nephew.

"No."

"It will be fuuun!"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Will it make you shut up?"

"Will you promise to put some effort into it?"

"Sure."

"Oh, thank you, nephew! I'm sure your going to have a wonderful time!"

"Whatever."

So here Zuko was, in the middle of the forest, walking around trying to find a place where he could practice his dancing alone. He stumbled across a small clearing, with a circle made of marble in the middle of it.

"What's this?" He thought as he knelt down beside it to examine it.

The marble had engravings on it; they were of the four different elements; one quarter of the circle dedicated to each one. Zuko stood up and notice tiger lilies grew just around the outside of the circle, so that Zuko had to step over them to get inside. He knelt down again and noticed another smaller circle in the middle of the larger one. Inside this circle was a pool of water, that seemed to be running even though there was no where to go. It was clearer than any water he had ever seen, and had a mysterious glow to it. Zuko blinked in shock as he saw a picture begin to appear on the surface of the water. It was of two people, one who looked to be from the Fire Nation, and one from the Water Tribes; they were dancing, in a beautiful garden that also had tiger lilies throughout it.

Still in a daze, Prince Zuko stood up and noticed something around the edge of the larger circle. There were words written on the marble, an ancient prophesy that all the peasant Earth peoples knew about, but few ever spoke of.

Only a love both honest and true,

May conquer the evil so ancient, so new.

As they fight to uncover what secrets they share,

And see in their journey how painful is care.

Only with this will the war come to an end,

To show that true love has no end.

Zuko read the words aloud as he walked around the circle. A strange idea came to him… maybe he should dance here, on this magical circle of marble. Well, it was worth a shot, and what did he have to lose?

So he began his dance (feeling rather akward, needless to say), starting with a traditional Fire Nation dance he had learned when he was a young boy. But as he stepped onto the part of the circle dedicated to Fire, the Fire Insignia lit up, and the floor gave way and split in two, causing Zuko to drop through. He tried to grasp the edge of the wall, but his fingers slipped and he fell, for what seemed like forever, and finally landed in a cavern much like the one Katara had been in.

"Where am I?"

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It was early in the morning and Katara had just fallen asleep a few hours ago, after thinking about the garden all night.

"Katara!"

"Mmgmhhmgm." she grumbled angrily at him. How dare he wake her up? She had barely gotten any sleep at all!

"What?"

"I'm asleeeep, go awayyyy."

"You're obviously not asleep if you're talking to me."

"I'm sleep talking. Now leave me alone."

"Katara, I'm serious. Wake up."

Sokka… serious? Hah, as if that's possible.

"FINE! What do you want?" She sat up angrily.

"Geez, someone's a little grumpy, today. Anyway, I'm going into town to buy some food, I'll be back about around noon, OK?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." she sighed.

Katara couldn't go back to sleep now that her brother had woken her up, so she figured she'd go ahead and get to the garden before he got back and went on another rampage. She packed some food, though she doubted she'd need it; there was plenty of fruit in the garden, her waterskin, and a knife, just to be safe.

This time she found her way to the cave below the cliff with ease. Entering it, she found the river and bended the water as she had before. She followed the same routine as yesterday and entered the garden with a happy sigh. This was her favorite place in the world when she was little, and she had missed coming here. Of course, she had always had her mother with her, and it did bring back some sad memories. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful place and Katara loved it.

Gazing around her, she didn't know what to do first. She could swim in the crystal clear river while practicing her bending, pick some fruit from the trees, go on a walk on the pathway to see where some of the secret passageways led, or just sit here and enjoy how beautiful and relaxing it was in her garden. She decided she'd do all of it.

Katara dipped her toe in the river, discovering it was cool and refreshing, and took off her parka so that she was wearing only her undergarments. Stepping completely in, she bended the water into several shapes, the symbol of water she had made earlier being one of them. As she looked into the water she noticed it was rippling oddly, and an image appeared on the surface and Katara nearly jumped out of the river in shock.

"What the…what IS that?" she thought.

A closer look revealed to Katara that it was two people, a man clad in Fire Nation attire, and a woman in Water Tribe attire. They were dancing… here, in her garden.

"Why would the river want me to see this? Maybe it's from the past… or maybe it's the future…"

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Zuko stood up abruptly and rubbed his bottom, which was rather sore from the fall. As he looked around he noticed that he was in a long hallway of stone, much like a cave, with windows lining the walls. Inside these windows were red candles, glowing brightly. They were so bright he could barely look at them. He continued on down the hall and came to a dead end, with more candles and the Fire Nation insignia on the wall. Absent-mindedly, he touched the symbol and the wall moved to the side, revealing a set of stairs.

Climbing up these stairs, Prince Zuko's eyes widened as he took in what was before him. It was a small garden, just like the ones in the palace back home, with all sorts of Fire Nation plants and flowers, and a Fire Nation-style gazebo in the middle of it. He followed a long pathway that started at the little gazebo, and noticed several other pathways, but decided to stay on the main one.

After almost an hour of walking, Zuko was getting ready to turn back, but he realized that he had come to what seemed to be the main portion of this mysterious garden. What stopped the Prince dead in his tracks was what, err… who, he saw in the river in this garden, staring intently into the water.

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Katara blinked as the image in the river floated away and down the waterfall, disappearing as it crashed over the edge. Maybe she would come to understand the image in time. She stepped out of the river and began to bend the water out of clothes when she heard a rustling from the bushes just up ahead.

"Who's there?" she asked, trying to cover the fear in her voice. There was no way she was going to let some stupid trespasser intimidate her. This was her garden, her territory.

Prince Zuko figured there was no way he could stay hidden forever, but he wasn't exactly excited about letting the Water Tribe girl(What was her name? Kata? Katava? Kathera?) know he was there. He definitely wasn't up for a fight after walking for over an hour and he could tell by the look in her eyes that she definitely was up for one. Well, he'd have to get it over with eventually.

So, Zuko stood up, in plain sight. The look on Katara's face was almost priceless when it registered who was standing before her. He saw her expression change from shock to anger to frustration to confusion and back to just plain shock.

"Prince Zuko?"

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Poem borrowed from the book The Sight, by David Clement-Davies, but I changed the words a bit. It's an excellent book; I suggest anyone who enjoys fiction reads it. Let me just point out that if you're reading a story from you probably like fiction. Just a theory, though.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

R

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V

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W,

PLEEEEEASE!!!!!