Alright everyone here's the next chapter!!! Yay!! So…yeah. Thanks for all the reviews everyone. I really appreciate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender, because if I did, then I wouldn't want you to know what will happen in the third season X

That morning, Sokka had kept his promise. Very early he went throughout the room he and the others had been staying at, banging his boomerang and machete together, yelling, "Wake up Team Avatar!! Time to go!! Up, up, up!"

Katara water whipped him.

Toph through a boulder at him.

Iroh was up drinking tea.

And Aang was with him.

After several minutes getting packed of the things that they had and getting food from the vendors down the main street of Kyoshi, they were ready to leave.

Suki and Oyaji appeared from another building. Suki walked over to Sokka and Oyaji walked over Aang.

"Avatar," he said, "on behave of the entire island of Kyoshi we would like to give you a special gift." He clapped his hands together twice and six men carrying a huge saddle came walking from around a corner.

The saddle was a dark brown and it was leather. It had two arm holes and straps for the luggage that the gang might have.

It was a saddle for Appa.

The gang grinned.

"Thank you," Aang said, shaking Oyaji's hand. "Oh, thanks very much."

After many minutes of setting up the saddle onto Appa's back, the gang was waving goodbye to the small island of Kyoshi Island.

After the island disappeared from sight, Katara crawled over to Toph saying, "Okay, it's time we get the makeovers started."

Toph opened her mouth to protest but then stopped. She would have to do this sooner or later. It was better just to get it over with.

Katara undid Toph's hair so her long, ebony hair was thrown into the wind. After a good few strokes with the comb that Suki had let Katara borrow, Toph looked totally different than what she did not five minutes before.

"Don't forget the clothes," Sokka insisted sitting by Aang on Appa's head. Katara nodded saying she hadn't.

"Toph," she said in her most serious voice, "Take off your belt and your vest. Suki, could you hand me that bag right over there—yeah the one with the belt buckle—ah, thank you."

For a few minutes Katara dug through the bag until she pulled out a different cream colored vest that was just a bit too girly for Toph's taste, in Katara's opinion. But they were trying to look different. This would look different indeed.

It had a v-cut neck and it would go past Toph's waist.

"Put this on," Katara said slipping it over Toph's head. And then, the waterbender backed away to look at her work.

Toph was very, very different. And yet, in a way, she looked beautiful. Her hair was long and thick and the outfit looked great on her. Katara smiled sweetly and whispered, "Beautiful."

Next was Sokka. He wasn't too hard. All Katara had to do was get rid of his "warrior's wolf tail," and he was pretty much done.

And then she did Aang. His hair was just long enough so you couldn't see his tattoo. She removed his red-orange vest that he always wore and opened up his dark yellow shirt just a bit and he was done. Perfect.

She didn't have to do much with Suki. The only person (besides the group itself) that could pick her out in a group would be Azula. So, Katara told her to let her hair grow out and not wear the Kyoshi makeup or parts of the uniform (which didn't matter because Suki hadn't packed a uniform and wasn't wearing one either.)

Then she did the Earth King. She removed the layers of jewelry he was wearing and helped him just dress down to a simple pair of green pants and brown robe that had been tucked in. They got rid of his crown too.

The entire time, Iroh had sat on the side of Appa watching the way the Avatar's group functioned. They were so carefree even though they had the weight of the world on not only Aang's but all of their shoulders.

When Katara walked over to Iroh she said, "I don't think we'll have to do anything to you. You don't really look like Fire Nation anyway. You look more like a refugee. Well, one that is a firebender anyway."

Iroh chuckled and replied, "That's fine with me."

Katara had saved herself for last. She took out her braid her hair loops and let her hair, like Toph's, run free in the wind. It always felt nice to have her hair down. After days with her hair up like that, it made her head hurt.

She walked over to her bag and pulled out another shirt that Kyoshi Island had given to her. It was a lot like Toph's only it was white with a beautiful design of the moon and the Water Tribe's symbol on it.

She took off her shirt and pulled the white one on quickly. After all, they did have new men in the group. It made her uncomfortable to dress and undress in front of them than it would if she just had Sokka and Aang in the group.

The makeovers were finished around lunch time. So the gang pulled out some of the vegetables that they had received at Kyoshi also (Sokka complained that there wasn't any meat….Of course.)

"Are we there yet?" Toph whined as she stretched her legs out in the center Appa's saddle. "We've been flying for like a billion hours."

"Actually," Sokka said turning to face the blind girl, "it's only been six hours and no we're no where close to Eastern Air Temple, according to my maps."

"Oh, sorry Sokka, Master of the Maps," Toph replied sarcastically.

They rode in silence for a while until Aang asked a single question, "Why are we even going to the Eastern Air Temple again?"

"Because," Sokka said, "you have to learn how to master the Avatar State with the Guru or whoever you said you had to meet there, while we were in Ba Sing Se."

"When Appa was stolen?"

"Yes."

"Toph," Aang said, turning around, "can you tell me about the story how Appa was stolen?" Toph groaned. "Please," he added sweetly.

"It'll pass the time away," Suki urged.

"Yeah," Katara added, "go ahead Toph."

Toph Bei Fong glared at them both before sighing and replying, "Fine."

"Well," she started sitting up and holding on to one of the arm holes in Appa's new saddle. "We were in the middle of the dessert because Sokka wanted to go to this mysterious library to get information on the Fire Nation.

"And when we found it I stayed outside. I don't like libraries"—

"Why?" Aang asked.

"Gee I wonder," Toph replied coldly. Aang's face fell and he kept silence mumbling his apologies. "Anyway, while I was waiting outside for you guys I was talking to Appa about how I see and stuff when the ground shook. I looked around and realized that the library was sinking! So, I jumped up and ran over to the library's tower and a grabbed it, trying to make it slow down so you guys could get out.

"And then I felt another vibration. There were several of them actually and they felt like men. Like the men we had saw earlier that day. Sandbenders. I tried to earthbend them away from Appa but the sand made my vision blurry. So, I continued holding the library up to save you guys. They stole Appa.

"And when you guys came out, you asked me where Appa was, and I just shook my head. I was so shameful. I let Appa be taken away…and I couldn't do anything about it."

Toph finished and expected Aang to have the same reaction he had on her before, since when she was telling her story about her and her parents, he had the same reaction then.

But he didn't. Aang just sat there and listened contently to the story. He didn't say or do anything.

"I'm sorry that I overreacted," he said, "I was probably just upset that I lost my first and only friend when I found out that I was the Avatar."

Toph shrugged.

And then they were silent.

Until nightfall the group sat in silence. They didn't talk because there was nothing to talk about and they were all caught in there own thoughts.

Katara continued to think about Iroh and what he had said about the Blue Spirit. The man had saved the old general but Iroh had been a fugitive of the Fire Nation. He should have been sent back. But then again, if they didn't have Iroh, Aang wouldn't have a firebending teacher. She had to give the Blue Spirit credit for that. But, why had she seen him in the woods? Was he following them? Or was he just passing through? Katara didn't know.

Sokka thought about his plan. Every aspect, every angle, every part of it couldn't fail. They had to find the Guru so Aang could master the Avatar state. They had to get rebels from Haru's along the other three towns by Ba Sing Se to take back the Earth King's kingdom. Nothing in Sokka's plan could go wrong. Nothing. Because it was all they had.

Toph thought about Twinkle Toes. She wished that he had his memory back; it wasn't fair for him or any of the other group members that he didn't remember anything of spring. And it was especially unfair for Toph. She hated telling stories, and especially telling stories to a guy that didn't and couldn't even remember her. But, in her own special way, Toph knew that Aang was her best friend. He had given her a chance to escape the life she dreaded and so, it would seem, it was time to pay him back for that.

Aang thought about the desert. He didn't like the fact that he had yelled at Toph. He knew that it wasn't her fault. And she had saved his life, he owed her some credit. But then again, Appa had been his best friend through all the times where he couldn't play with the other kids because he had Avatar training or the other kids didn't want him to play because he was the Avatar. He was so lonely back then, that he was glad to have an animal companion like Appa. So, he couldn't really blame Toph for the incident but, he understood why had gotten so mad.

Iroh thought about his nephew and the man in Zuko's mask. If that man that had saved him wasn't his nephew then who could it be? And why had he saved Iroh and that boy from the ferry? It didn't make any sense. He also wondered about where his nephew even was right now. He didn't trust anything Azula had said at all. He didn't think that she was just sending Zuko home, no, she had to be lying. She never told the truth after all.

The Earth King thought about he war and how he never knew about it. Growing up as a small boy in the palace he had always wondered why his father was always so agitated and worried about something. But he never figured out what it was. Until the Avatar and his three friends had confronted him in his palace. And then, Kuei knew that he would have to be the best king that Ba Sing Se had ever seen when they took back the kingdom. And that scared him.

Suki thought about the job Sokka had given her. It was such an honor to be able to teach those people that they would meet swordsmanship. It would be almost as if she was the head Kyoshi Warrior again teaching her pupils that would grow to be her best friends, even sisters. And that made her very, very happy to be able to do what she loved to do along with helping the world. And Suki knew that her deceased friends would want her to continue on with what she did.

……

It was sunset before anyone even saw the Eastern Air Temple. When they did, the group cheered. It had been a long day, and they were glad to finally reach somewhere safe from the Fire Nation and get to train; Suki with Sokka; Katara, Toph, and Iroh with Aang.

The temple was white and very fragile looking. There was a balcony not far from where the group was floating so they landed there and looked around. There wasn't anyone else there except for the group itself.

"Hello?" Sokka called out. "Hello, any one there?"

"I'll go look," Aang said and made himself an air scooter and took off throughout the temple.

When he came back, there was a disappointed look on his face. "There's no one else here except us and some ants."

They stood there awhile too shocked to say anything. Sokka's plan was already failing. Then, they heard the groan of Appa. They all looked his way and Aang ran over to see what the problem was.

"What it is it, buddy?" he asked running over to the wall that Appa was staring at. Aang looked at saw a piece of parchment wrapped up in a tie. He picked up the paper and unraveled it.

"Hey guys!" Aang said calling the rest of his group over. "Look, it's a letter." After his friends had reached him he handed the letter over to Katara.

"What does it say?" Toph asked.

Katara read:

I knew that you would return to me Aang. But now, as the fall of Ba Sing Se worsens to other, more devastating problems, I can not teach you anything unless you agree to play a little game with me.

You must, answer the riddle on the bottom of this letter and three other riddles until I can teach you once more. I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Good Luck,

The Guru

It is called life, existence.

You see the ones you love, lost, or haven't met.

Everyone stood dumfounded. Sokka broke the silence. "WHAT!!?" he screamed walking away from the group.

"I have to solve these riddles?" Aang asked taking the letter from Katara's hands. She nodded.

"Sokka," Katara said walking to her brother. "It's not that bad. There are only four of them. And…and…" she trailed off thinking of nothing else to say.

"Sokka, quit complaining," Toph said. Everyone looked her direction. "The riddles aren't even hard. Didn't Twinkle Toes say something about a magic swamp you guys went to? Didn't you say that you saw the people that you've lost or people you love, or something like that?"

Sokka and Katara exchanged excited glances. "THE SWAMP!!" they yelled in unison. Sokka ran over to Toph and pulled her up on her feet.

"Toph," Sokka said taking her over to Aang. "You have to go with Aang because you can solve those puzzles."

"What do you mean?" Toph asked.

"We have to split up," Sokka explained. "You go with Aang and Appa and solve his riddles. He needs to learn earthbending anyway."

"True," was all Toph said and stayed by Aang's side.

"What about firebending?" Aang asked.

"I'll write some of the basic techniques on a piece of parchment. I'll put step by step procedures. Don't worry Aang," Iroh said, "I've got you covered."

Aang smiled.

"Iroh," Sokka said running over to the general. "You go with Katara and you two travel to the two cities on the right side of Ba Sing Se." Iroh nodded.

"And Suki and I will travel together," Sokka said stealing a glance at the Kyoshi Warrior, who blushed in return.

"What about me?" the Earth King asked.

"Oh," Sokka replied. "Well—uh—you can go with Katara and Iroh."

"Oh no," Katara said. "I don't think so. Sorry your highness but you should go with Sokka and Suki"—she shot Sokka an I-know-what-you're-up-to look, which Sokka replied with an innocent one—"Suki could teach you a thing or two about swords and I'm sure Sokka can help too."

The Earth King shrugged and walked over next to Suki, with Basco trailing behind him.

"Okay," Sokka sighed. To everyone he said, "Okay, I guess we're splitting up, which might have had to do anyway eventually. So, tomorrow Appa can drop Suki, the Earth King, Katara, Iroh, and I off at the edge of the Earth Kingdom and we'll split up. My team will go on the left side of Ba Sing Se and we'll get rebels from those two towns. Katara's group will go the right side of the city and will go to Haru's and the other town. And at the end of three weeks, we will meet at the wall of Ba Sing Se. Okay Team Avatar?"

"I have a question," Toph said. Sokka looked her way. "Why are you still using that "Team Avatar" stuff?"

Sokka glared.

Okay another chapter down. Mmm, getting these chapters done is really easy when you've been riding in a car for nine hours. Okay, review people!! The story is starting to speed up don't worry. Bye!

P.S. Taangers, if your wondering when the Toph/Aang moments are coming up, I'll give you a clue. "You see people you've lost, people you love, and people that you haven't seen before." AKA, in the next chapter.

Oh, and before I forget Blutara fans, he is coming up in the next chapter or so also.

Yay for romance!!

See ya'll!!