A/N: I don't own Avatar...if I did,I'd be fired for not getting things done sooner.

Once Again,sorry for making all of you wait. The semester hasn't been kind to me. Sorry it's so short too...more to come over the weekend. Promise.

This chapter was inspired by the episode "The Desert" enjoy...

Chapter 15

Sokka

I can't even imagine what's going on in his mind right now. The pressures of being Fire Lord only add to the pressure of caring for a family, and at our age, he shouldn't even have to do that yet. But here he is, keeping up a front of the strong guy bent on making things right again. That's Zuko for you though...I can't say that if Katara were in Azula's place I wouldn't be right where he is trying to find her.

So we walked, and I explained the situation about the dream weaving and all that I could try to understand of it. All the while he just nodded and stayed silent.

"The desert...oh how I've missed it." I broke the silence with my amazing wit.

"You've traveled through here before?"

"Once...and let me tell ya, it was something else..."

"Where did Ty Lee say Azula would be?" Zuko interrupted me.

"All she said that she was near the desert somewhere..." I honestly wasn't sure.

"In it? Or near it?"

"Near it, I think, so I thought we would check along the outskirts of it, around where Ursa found Ty Lee to begin with..."

"I can't believe it..." Zuko sighed.

"What?"

"My mother...its been so long...so many years...and now this..."

"You wanted something more than this?" I assumed this reconnection with his mother would take to him better. I guess I assumed wrong.

"I wanted everything." Zuko shook his head. "Answers mostly...it used to be me and her, you know, I never got along with my father the way I did with Mother. Yet here I am, avoiding the chance to see her just to find the sister I've despised for so long."

"So why are you doing it?"

"You'd do it for Katara...love or hate, she's still your sister...and love or hate...Azula is mine...I just hope we find her soon so we can get out of this place...is there any more water?"

He seemed to be out of himself, the heat was doing it to us both. It hadn't been long since the sun started coming up and we were close enough to the desert by this point that the humidity was finally getting to our heads. Pulling out our shared pouch of water I tossed it to him, he took a small drink and handed it back so I could take mine.

"That's all of it..." I looked down at the empty pouch.

"We better find her soon..."

Azula

I'm thirsty. Oh Agni I am so thirsty... I keep saying that in my head but why don't I get up at all? Why do I stay here waiting for Father to pull out of this sleep state?

There is an oasis somewhere nearby, but its hard to find because it's a little less than a mile into the desert, I passed it once in my travels, I'm pretty sure it's the place...but quite frankly, I'm not even sure of anything anymore...

His orders were clear...stay here and wait for him to wake up. Would he notice if I left? Would he stir if I stepped a hairline out of place? I've never disobeyed him before...but I am so thirsty...what good am I to him if I'm dead?

So going against my fathers wishes, for once, I waited the day out and when night fell I got up, keeping my eyes on him for the moment, and stepped out of the cave to find the Oasis....Feeling Paranoid, I looked back into the cave and waited to see if Father would wake up. Closing my eyes for a moment my ears picked up on the sound of someone running, instinctively looking to the cave I saw nothing, but when I turned to walk off I was viciously mauled by something.

"How did you escape?!"

"GET OFF OF ME!" I growled at the person, throwing their pathetic form to the ground.

I lost balance and fell over onto my back, when I looked up I saw two shadowed figures standing above me...and they had me backed into a corner...

Zuko

Even with the evening stars out this area of the Earth Kingdom still felt the wrath of the sun.

Time passed faster than I had imagined, the night that I had ventured out into soon turned to dawn and the sun rose more quickly than I anticipated. This wasn't my smartest move, I considered that when I started getting into desert territory.

"Sokka, how much water do we have left?"
"None...we'll need to find a way out of here...we're not too far in so we should be ok..."

Looking around for some other form of life beside myself and Sokka all hope seemed to fade away until I saw a lonely plant standing alone. Are my eyes playing tricks? Approaching the thing, and touching the tip of one of its pointed extensions...

"A cactus!" I laughed, pulling a blade from my pocket and slicing through it, and with that I took a long, hard drink.

"Zuko! Don't!" Sokka took the plant from me. "Great...now we definitely need to get out of here."

"Relax." I assured him. "They're full of water, water we need."

"Cactus juice is crazy..."

"It quenches."

"Yeah...It's the quenchiest...been there..." Sokka waved it off.

He was going to die of thirst, I did him a favor when I sliced a chunk of it off and handed it to him.

"If you're not going to drink on your own, I'll make you do it myself. Your choice."

Reluctantly he took a drink, not as great as mine, but I'm glad he had something. I took his empty pouch and filled it with the cactus juice and we moved on. That drink held on strong, I wasn't thirsty for what seemed like hours after that and there was this amazing breeze passing around us. Sooner or later I noticed that the sun went down again, this whole day felt like it wasn't happening at all..like a dream...

"Wow..." I said... "I'm the fucking Fire Lord..."

"Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuko...." Sokka drew out my name for a long time, I didn't mind though. "You're scar..."

"What about it....?" I reached around the side of my face, touching the old scar.

"Its like...gone man..."

"Scars don't go away..."

"Yours danced away..." Sokka's head kept bobbling back and forth.

"Wow...that...is...wow..." I wasn't sure how to answer him. "You think Azula might want some water?"

"I think Azula needs it..."

"Where is she man..." I felt my whole body collapse into the sand as I sat down.

"Let's ask the Giant Slug..." Sokka pointed to something behind me.

I looked and despite his insane level of thought there was actually a...giant slug...just a bit into the distance. It wasn't moving, and it was on the ourskirts of the desert, how long were we walking? Where the hell were we? Looking a bit closer as we walked towards this creature I realized...it was a cave...and there was a light inside...Someone was home...and now...squinting my eyes I could see someone stepping out of the cave. Dressed in red and black, long dark hair....small figure...could the search have been any easier, could this person be true? Azula...have I found you at last?

"Hey look...that Slug threw up your sister!" Sokka said before taking off into a full blown out run.

"Sokka! WAIT UP!" I trailed quickly after him.

He's a speed demon that water tribe guy...He ran full speed to the entrance of the cave and completely pounced on Azula. Like any attack, Azula immediately fought back and sent Sokka flying into the ground, she fell over herself soon after. Catching up, I ran to Sokka and helped him to stand and then we went over to Azula.

"Azula...?"

"Who are you?!" She backed herself against the wall of the cave then shot a flame at us to make us back up.

"Azula it's me!" I waved the smoke of the flames away and held her arms. "It's Zuko!"

"Zuko...?"

I must have been out of my mind from all of that cactus juice, because instead of striking at me, she fell over onto her face. Sokka and I stared down at her for a while and he gave her lifeless form a small kick.

"Dude...is she dead?"