Wow, how long has it been, guys? I mean I kinda just dropped this for a bit, huh? And right after a cliffhanger, too! I am sooooo sorry! I don't even know what's wrong with me... I'm horrible. K, well, whatevs, here the chapter is:

_Tara_

I did my best to keep myself from shaking as the guard brought the flame close to my face. I pulled away as much as I could with his viselike grip painfully clenching my shoulder. He started to bring the fire closer to me again and I started to panic.

"Let me go!" I cried, nearly breaking free of his grip. With an angry grunt he shoved me back into the chair and moved his hand from my shoulder to my neck. He squeezed my neck so hard that I could barely breathe and reduced the fire in his other hand to a thin stream of bright fire.

"Shut up and quit struggling!" he barked, "That's exactly what put you into this mess, anyways!"

I began to struggle harder, nearly hyperventilating from panic. I pulled my head as far away from the flame as I could, but still he brought it closer until I could feel it burning my skin. I bit down hard on my tongue, desperate not to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

Finally the searing pain was too much and I let out a tortured cry. The guard laughed cruelly and I suddenly picked up the sound of footsteps banging down the hall. The guard let go of me and turned to face the door just as Zuko stopped in the hallway just outside the door and slipped into a bending stance.

"Well, well," the rebel sneered, "If it isn't the brand new Fire Lord. Just so you know, you suck."

Now, I probably could have just let them fight it out, but I was impatient to get somewhere where I could actually breathe, and I wasn't exactly excited about the fact that a stray ball of fire could maim me quite painfully. So, instead, I focused on summoning up all the strength that I had left. I stood up and gripped the back of the chair, swinging it upwards and straight into the back of the rogue firebender. He fell over with a grunt and his head fell against the floor with a loud slam that didn't sound comfortable at all.

I tried to take a step forward but all I accomplished was the loss of what little balance I had managed to maintain. I swayed, and Zuko caught me just as I started to fall.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

"Um… maybe?"

He sighed and bent down to pick me up. He began to carry me out into the hallway in a somewhat annoyed manner.

"Well, this is humiliating," I muttered quietly. Zuko didn't respond, and we walked the rest of the way in silence. When we finally reached the entrance of the cave, I heard Anya gasp sharply.

"Oh, no!" she cried out, running over as Zuko set me down just outside of the wet puddle surrounding the cave entrance.

"Tara, I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!"

"Yes, yes it is," I said in a feeble attempt at humor. I winced, placing my hand over the scar on my cheek. I focused on healing it, and after I finally managed to focus the last of my strength on the scar, I leaned back against a tree behind me.

"Is everyone here?" Zuko asked, and, as if in response, an angry looking Katara stormed out of the cave entrance followed by Aang. Her braid was messed up, and she was furiously undoing it so that she could fix it. Sonset was already napping, and looked to be in much better health than I was. Toph nodded in response to his question.

"Yep, the others went to bring Appa."

Anya kept apologizing until I finally waved my hand dismissively and said, "Anya, it's fine. I'm fine. On top of that, I'm alive, and I don't blame you. Well, I don't completely blame you."

My second attempt at humor also failed, so as she continued apologizing I snapped, "Anya, it was a joke. I'm exhausted, I haven't eaten in who knows how long, and I don't want or need to hear your apologies. Everything's okay, including me, and, assuming I even blamed you in the first place, I forgive you. Are we done here?"

I'd been harsher than was necessary, but I'd achieved my goal. Anya nodded solemnly and backed off, and I closed my eyes. An Ming gently shook me awake when Appa landed later, and practically everyone was helping pull me or push me up onto Appa. It was actually really embarrassing that I really needed that much help, but I appreciated it anyways.

I was handed some of the seal jerky that Sokka had insisted on grabbing the last time we'd visited the southern water tribe and I wolfed it down hungrily. I don't actually like seal jerky that much, but it was one of the few foods we had that didn't require cooking.

I snatched my canteen from where I had left it in Appa's saddle and gulped it all down in four swallows. I wiped my mouth and leaned back into the saddle to go back asleep. I tried to figure out how long it had been since I had eaten. Considering that the sun was just setting, I figured that I had only been down there for the day. I had been too tired to bother with eating the night before, and I had been waiting until the fire was warm enough to adequately cook a meal in the morning. I figured I'd probably been underground for eight hours, and it had probably been eighteen hours before that since the last time I'd eaten, that meant that I hadn't eaten in about twenty-six hours. No wonder I was so starving.

When Appa landed by the shore we started another fire and cooked some soup, this time not even caring about how the weak fire caused the soup to take longer to cook. I eagerly ate three helpings and then filled my canteen with melted snow.

Sokka, Dai, Toph, Aang, and Zuko all climbed onto Appa, leaving Anya, Katara, An Ming, Sonset, and I to go to shore in ice boats. Katara and Sonset fashioned the water into boat shapes and then froze them, and Katara, An Ming and I climbed into one boat while Anya and Sonset boarded the other. No one spoke much as Katara and Sonset propelled the boats through the water towards the Earth Kingdom mainland.

The boats, being made of ice and all, were, well, freezing, but, even as cold as I was, it felt refreshing after being in the stuffy underground tunnels of a volcano. However, it took a while for us to reach the mainland, and by the time we did, the cold boats no longer felt good, they just made me uncomfortably cold. As soon as the boats touched the shore, I jumped out with my bag, my teeth chattering.

Appa had reached the shore ahead of us, and the others had all already climbed off of him. Just as we began to walk over, I noticed an Earth Kingdom messenger scurrying over to Zuko. After he took the scroll from the messenger and opened it, I saw his face tighten. The farther he got into the letter, the more stressed he looked. No one else seemed to notice, but when I reached him, I asked, "What does it say?"

The others all turned and looked also, and Zuko finished reading and rolled up the scroll. His expression was grim, and I knew I wasn't going to like his reply.

"It says Azula has escaped from her asylum."

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