Here it is! (Finally) Seriously I don't know why these chapters are this long...

THANKS TO MY REVIEWERS! Knowing people are following this pushed me to write faster.

She shut the door behind her and plopped onto the welcoming dirt. She drove her feet into it, as much as to get a good feel of it as to be more acutely aware of the vibrations around her. She snapped her head back to lean it on the door and exhaled heavily. It was a long time till morning.

And she was bored.

Yes, when she had told Katara this, it was in fact true, and Toph was always grateful to be relieved of it and have something to do. Not that this was much of anything...

Personally, she would have rather slept in and just get rid of reality completely, but that was not something she could do. Not anymore anyway. She remembered what she had said. "...not even tired anymore." She scoffed. Yes, when she had told Katara this, she was in fact lying, and the problem didn't quite rest in the fact that she wouldn't sleep... she simply couldn't... not with Snoozles back there desperately trying to live past his title. She seriously should have called him 'The Snore Machine', they just kept right on coming.

Unfortunately, Sokka held a nasty habit of breaking Toph's sleeping time with his ceaseless noises, the night that he had finally been able to catch slumber fresh in her mind... for more reasons than one. Truthfully, she could march right through that door and earthbend a rock to stuff Sokka's mouth, but oddly enough, she didn't have the heart. She wasn't even supposed to be sleeping anymore so that wouldn't do her much good... besides help rid herself of the boredom. Anyway, Katara was probably already in dreamland again next to the human lightning rod back there, and basically...

Toph was simply too lazy, and if she were passing up a perfect opportunity to annoy the people she traveled with just to amuse herself, something was intensely amiss. Not that she didn't already know that, but it was just another painful reminder that somehow, nothing would be the same. Three months it had been since the runaway twelve-year-old had given up safety for freedom, confinement for joy. She shook her head in amazement. It stunned her how she felt now. Her friends could never understand the depth of her happiness after leaving those that loved her as a handicapped daughter and joining the friends that loved her as Toph.

Did that mean she had to miss out on priceless chances to laugh at them? No.

Did that insinuate that she'd rather have them hug her than use one of them as boulder target practice? Of course not. She loved them... in her own, very special way. Toph grinned.

The wind whipped by her face as she rested her arms on her knees and seemed to stare at a nonexistent object at the edge of the home's modest porch. How long had it been since they had been on the run from the Fire Nation? Already an entire day. A new record, she thought. That was what worried her the most. True, after the first week or so of constantly being on the run, they had seemed to relent on their forces. They were probably all heading to Ba Sing Se -- especially with the group of the Avatar out of sight for so long. She smiled in satisfaction as she remembered how they had all managed to make a clean getaway each time. It didn't hurt that the soldiers had also stumbled across the fiery remains of a village with a waterskin near four unrecognizable bodies huddled together in the corner of a room. Toph grimaced and she knew the others had done the same in sympathy. The leader of the town in which they stayed had told them that... along with Azula's victory speech from two weeks before in the Earth Kingdom capital. They were thought dead... an advantage. Would they have to give up that upper hand once they started traveling again? -- would they have it taken away once they were caught? That result would be inevitable if nothing changed. They had always had two nations to count on, one to run from. Now... who did they have?

Absolutely no one.

Their tactic had been 'gain trust with Avatar, fly in plain sight to Ba Sing Se.' Now it was: 'hide Avatar from everyone, run undercover to...' where? At this rate, they would be captured and all of their efforts would crumble beneath their fingertips. They needed a plan change. They needed to blend in with the scenery, so to speak. That had been the reason - among other obvious hinders - no one had bothered to shave Aang's head while he slept for so long. Truth be told, Toph had been positively apathetic about it, but Sokka seemed to have a riot as he laughed at the apparently short, new growth of hair on the other boy's head. One simple laugh had been a saving grace that day too... all of this tension was about to kill them from the inside out. Toph understood the need to change their plan of action... she just did not like where it was going...

She left change to the Water Tribes. Earth was perfectly fine how they were -- at least, that's what she could tell herself for the time being.

She sank completely onto the ground, laying her head back atop her intertwined hands. With her fingers flush with the floor, she could easily feel the vibrations coming from the forest on the other side of the relatively wide town. She'd had plenty of practice, she had to say, what with constantly doing this day in and day out ever since she woke up the morning after landing on solid ground. It grew tiring, but it was worth it; without her, the group wouldn't have lasted a day while on the run. She slowly relaxed her breathing while letting the fast-moving events of days ago catch up with the girl in an even faster-paced band of fugitives.

Finally. Relaxation...

--------------------

Those were the exact words of Toph Bei Fong as she hit the dirt in a none-too-graceful belly flop. The abrupt jarring of the passengers' weary bodies had signaled the termination of the long ride and eyes jerked open from their half-open droop at the realization that for the first time in who knew how long, earth was once again at their feet. Obviously, this did not go unnoticed by one ecstatic bender as she gratefully embraced her native element. Sokka followed her as he slid to the ground from Appa, carefully watching his sister. He opened his mouth to speak, but Toph beat him to it.

"Finally. A place that's nothing but land for miles around."

Katara paused in her slow steps. "Wait, no rivers?"

"Uhn uhn."

Katara's shoulders immediately slumped. Sokka walked up to her. "Katara?"

She turned around, revealing an unconscious boy in her arms and a long, tired expression. Sokka almost did a double take at her face -- he had known she was exhausted, but she looked absolutely sick; her lips were chapped and she appeared to be shaking and drowsy. He approached her to place a hand on her forehead. "Are you alright? You look like you have a fever." Katara's eyes widened for a moment but she shook her head and pushed his hand away.

"I'm fine. I just need a place to put Aang..."

The warrior looked at Katara quizzically. Why was she so adamant about keeping him away when it came to her well-being? It had been this way during the latter part of the trip into this forest. "Are you sure? I hope you're not coming down with something."

Katara looked surprised at the statement of his fears but then she visibly relaxed. "No, no it's okay." She smiled. He nodded. Katara sadly looked down at the body that she carried, with his arm around her neck and her own around his waist as she supported his dead weight... she gulped. 'Dead'...

Sokka turned and walked a few steps to Appa. "I'll go get him my sleeping roll," he told her, before Katara reached out to pull him back. He turned to catch Katara shifting Aang's position in her arms.

"Sokka," she sighed, "It's alright. Go get mine -- it's not like I'm going to be sleeping anyway."

He frowned. What? Now she wasn't even going to sleep? She looked horrible. "Katara, you have to eventually. You'll never last --"

"I'll get rest as soon as he gets better, I promise," Katara said firmly. Her face relaxed, then. "Please."

Sokka exhaled. "Fine." He spun on his heel and climbed the white beast. "But I better not find out you've been up all night!" he called over his shoulder.

"I won't, don't worry."

Toph lay face first on the other side of the clearing and let sleep consume her tired being, vaguely aware of Sokka joining her later. "Mmm sleep." She was much too far gone to catch the other girl's lie.

-----

Katara gently lay Aang onto the blue fabric, taking care to ease the pressure that came upon his back. Katara readied her hands into a waterbending pose in front of him, but paused. She looked around their campsite to see Sokka and Toph fast asleep a few meters away from each other. Toph's lips mumbled something into the dirt and Appa lay at their heads, also sleeping. Good. No one watching. There was no fire, in order to not attract attention to themselves, but the early summer night was warm in any event.

Losing concentration, Katara let her hands drop to land on Aang's torso. She pulled her hands away, suddenly shocked -- she felt as if she'd been burned. She touched his head. Aang was running a fever.

No. He would have been fine.

The realization that his wound had become infected came over her. She needed ice and had no medicine to help him. The forest's vegetation was foreign, all she could do was suppress the heat that seemed to radiate off of his body in pulsing waves. He had been fine not five minutes ago... who knew how long this rapidly appearing sickness would last? Aang suddenly twitched and began to shiver violently, a prelude to beginning to moan in pain.

Water. She needed water.

Toph had already told them that this land was nothing but flat, dry dirt... at least until they reached the desert. That meant nothing to drink, nothing to heal with. The others didn't mind so much -- they'd had enough to quench their bodies' thirsts the day before. Her, on the other hand... Spirits, her mouth was dry. She'd need a lot to help Aang, but she'd just have to settle with the little she had. There was nothing else to use... Katara grit her teeth.

It had to be done.

Here goes nothing...

--------------------

A high-pitched, strangled scream emanated from in front of the house. Katara, oblivious as she slept with her head on the edge of Aang's bed, heard nothing. More voices came from outside.

"Augh, Snoozles, I'm the blind one here, ya know..."

Sokka looked at the girl on the floor with a grimace on his face as he watched her clutch her stomach in pain. "Sorry, Toph. I, um, didn't see you there. Did I hurt you?" Real smart question, Sokka. As if it isn't obvious...

By this time Toph had stood up and began to glare at him -- he wondering how she could possibly manage to put so much disdain in her blind eyes. "No, Sokka, you only stepped all over me," she retorted, still rubbing her abdomen. "What are you doing out here at this time of night anyway?"

"I was gonna take over for Katara... but I guess I'll take over for you instead. I thought she was taking watch."

Toph nodded as she lowered her body to sit down. "Yeah, she was, but she got kinda sidetracked before she even got outside." Sokka looked back through the open doorway to see the vague outline of his sister with the waning moonlight of early morning. "Aang said something when she was leaving, so she stayed. I found her there and told her I'd do her job instead."

"I didn't see her." Sokka absently smiled at Toph's slight kindness and sat himself next to her. Slowly he looked up to watch the crescent of light descend behind the dark treetops.

"Why do you like the moon so much?" Toph asked, then said, "I assume that's what you're looking at."

Sokka murmured affirmatively. "It's a long story."

"Care to share? I've got time." Toph knew she was taking a slight risk delving into other people's business. It appeared to really affect him and she half-expected a response to brush her off. To her surprise, he agreed. He sighed.

"It all started a couple months before we met you. We had to find Aang a waterbending master at the North Pole..."

--------------------

As soon as the sun shone upon her face in the early morning hours, Katara opened her eyes and stretched. The window of the wall on her left gave an only slightly obstructed view of the blooming dawn and the pungency of dewy flowers from the nearby woods filled the room. Katara closed her eyes and deeply inhaled the aroma of the bright, cloudless morning. Today would be a good day, she thought.

Something was amiss, however. The very feel of the room was warmer, unlike the cold, gray dirt walls that pervaded the usual Earth Kingdom homes. She opened her eyes at the nagging discomfort in the back of her mind. Abruptly, she sucked in a breath.

Why were the ceilings red?

Katara burst up and looked about her surroundings. Was she so tired the night before that she didn't see the blaring Fire Nation insignia hanging above Aang's body? Her senses were screaming for her to run -- get out of sight of the mocking red walls that seemed to place death upon all they encountered. She could still see Azula's fiery eyes that held a murderer's pure malice. With a flickering expression of pain, she forced her eyes shut to rid herself of the memory... if only it were easier to shut the eyes of her mind.

Katara looked up again and began walking to the entrance of the door, only to find it already ajar. Why was the door open? Where was everyone? She glanced at Aang's peaceful body for reassurance of his safety before opening the door uncertainly. Sokka lay with his arms sprawled behind him and Toph was lying face down into the dry dirt -- in a moment of worry, the other girl started at seeing her friends' bodies, but, soon relaxed at the sound of her brother's sudden snore.

"Guys," she whispered harshly. She needed to ask them what the group was doing in the midst of a Fire Nation town, or perhaps, more specifically, she just needed Sokka. She bend down and shook his arm. To her amazement, he immediately got up and peered at through foggily narrowed eyes.

"Toph?" he asked groggily. "Oh, Katara."

"Sokka," she began, still eyeing her surroundings warily, "why aren't we still in the Earth Kingdom?"

"We ar--" but then he stopped, realizing what she wanted to know. "Well, a few days ago, we would have been, but the Fire Nation just took this town." Katara seemed bemused.

"And that makes being here so much better because..."

"The leader of the village can't fight back, but he's on our side. He knows we have the Avatar" -- Katara's eyes widened -- "and gave us this place on the outskirts of the town so it's out of the way of any wandering people."

"What if the solders come? What if they're here already and are just waiting to --" Sokka clapped a hand over his sister's mouth.

"You worry too much." He lay back down with his hands behind his head. "The leader's coming by to give us some robes and another bandage. He told me he'd do it as soon as he could without arousing suspicion."

Katara nodded slowly. "Don't the other citizens know we're here though? I mean, they're going to notice something."

"They've been told that we're the first new Fire Nation settlers. We can walk around town without attracting... well, we would but we have a problem with our clothes. We'll deal with that --" Sokka yawned "-- later."

"Right..." Katara began to walk back in. "Um, Sokka, don't you think you could stay awake just in case... because Toph is still asleep..."

"Think again," Toph muttered. "You have no idea how irritatingly loud you two are." Sokka bit back a remark, while Katara just looked down staying silent. She stood there, then walked inside the house unnoticed.

--------------------

I'll figure it out later, he told himself, even though the pestering voices in his head told him there was no turning back after this. He'd already made his choice, however - what possible harm could waiting do? - and unexpectedly, his friend's teary gaze and smile tore through the numbness of his heart and his former, hopeful dream took hold of him tightly once again. The pleading screams in his ears came to a halt... if it were because they were satisfied or resigned because of his fate, he would never know.

Reality slowly faded into the blackness that would be his home for long after, a place where time was irrelevant and memories were abandoned once he'd leave it. His eyes would open eventually, but not before he'd forget his grave decision... that just might decide to haunt him again one day. His senses faded with his awareness and he lapsed into the nightmares that threatened to become reality, a danger that went unnoticed by the wounded soul of the sleeping Avatar. Pain was distant, as was his destiny, so he let it go to succumb to the hands that pulled him down...

...watched by curious eyes from afar who had made their decision as well. And, just like him, there would be no turning back.

--------------------

No one was inside the house, save for a lone waterbender in the far corner of the room. For some reason, the brightness of the early summer wildlife could no longer penetrate through the room's thick atmosphere. Light seemed to dim as soon as its shafts hit the partly curtained window, causing it to halt stagnantly in the air. Tiny dust particles floated by, highlighted by the rays that never quite reached the far, dark recesses of the room... a single stool in the center of the floor crossed the shine of the light... the looming symbol of fire on the wall across from the door was shrouded in darkness.

Katara sat with her legs crossed beneath her, next to the entrance of the room, the other feature which was not touched by the sun. her arm slowly rose and lowered above the wooden basin which carried a small amount of water. The tiny stream followed her hands as her eyes stared ahead, frozen in the memories of yesterdays that had happened not too long ago. The stillness was barely broken by the muted sound of falling water.

She couldn't bear to watch the contorted face of her companion as he twisted his way through his maze of nightmares -- she couldn't deal with the present just yet. It was strange that in one of the most haunted visions of her past, there were no screams of fear, no howls of pain... instead, the vicious images encumbered only silence.

Just like now.

A distinct chill went through her and she shivered. The bowl was pushed back to its position under the table next to her and Katara sat staring at the crimson panels of the home. Everything that the dreaded nation touched became red, it seemed.

The red banners across the fallen Omashu.

The very red haze that followed wherever the Fire Country happened to spread.

The life of people rapidly flowing out of their bodies as they are struck down by sneering faces. Red trailed them there too.

A light moaning in the space near her did not completely register in her brain -- it was only another sound from outside, deadened by the stifling oppression. But then it sounded again. Katara's ears perked up at a voice she hadn't heard in so long.

"I... can't..." The mumblings faded off incoherently.

Jumping up instantly, the girl rushed to the other side of the room to the body of Aang.

--------------------

Light. Light was everywhere... the first thing his shot senses could distinguish. He felt numb, the only thing he noticed was the gradual darkening of his surroundings after becoming accustomed to the sudden brightness. Obviously, something bad had happened to him, but he didn't bother trying to remember what... he slowly tried to move his fingers hoping that the same fate had not befallen his friends. Next, sound came to him; as the stiff board beneath him revealed the toll it had taken on his back, a soothing voice filled his ears and his tense muscles relaxed. For the moment, the past had no hold on him, sweet bliss was all that mattered... until the black and scarlet scenes of a nameless battle raged within his memory. Immediately, his eyes opened widely, but they could see nothing more than ethereal blurs of blue and red with blackness trying to cloud the edges of his sight. He struggled against the blurred visions, screaming for his friends -- what if that nightmare he'd had were real? He could see his own bloodied hands as Toph and Sokka stood in between him and Katara. Her body lay on the floor, lifeless, but he could do nothing as he watched her figure be thrown into a black ocean. She drifted aimlessly through the tides, sinking toward the ocean bottom. He had reached out, but was only pushed farther away from her. No...

"Without the Avatar State, balance will never be restored."

"I... I can't..."

He was forced to watch his friend drown in the inky sea. The sea that she had loved so much claiming her as its own.

"You must embrace it... before we do it for you. Not that you have a choice..."

He desperately tried to understand the messages that these menacing images were conveying, but stopped. There was... something else... another voice that seemed to echo from the dark depths of his mind. It was so soothing... if only he could make it out...

The dark wispy view reappeared before him. The voice gently called to him again...

-----

"Aang."

She looked down intently, enraptured with the face that twitched and frowned through a myriad of emotions before focusing its eyes on the girl above. Cloudy gray met shining blue in a shared, awed gaze. She gaped at the scene before her.

He opened his eyes... he's okay...

Two weeks of sheer stress had ignited the worry and extinguished the hope in her heart. A bubble of joy rose up from within her.

"K...Katara?" a soft voice finally managed to choke out.

She grinned, elated. "You're awake!" Katara stared, trying to adapt to the change in him -- especially getting used to the fact that now, when she watched him, there were bright, alive eyes that were looking right back. She yearned to take him in her arms in her ecstasy, but refrained from doing so as she saw his slight cough. "Let me get you some water." Aang nodded through the powerful sleep that still tried to take him back.

Hastily making her way to the other side of the room, she left the Avatar to muse at his environment and contemplate his situation. The redness of the room was foreboding... he had barely managed to see Katara's face yet as he sorted through his muddled view. When he finally succeeded, he sat up tentatively, the black and red poster above being the first thing to rivet his gaze.

A small yelp from behind caused Katara to turn around in time to catch Aang recoiling from the sign on the wall. Grabbing her water pouch, she hastened to walk over and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. He placed a hand on his lower forehead to quell the lightheadedness from his quick reaction and Katara steadied him with her arms.

"Don't worry, Aang. We're safe... we have people on our side trying to help us." Katara paused to watch his blank face. "Aang... are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," he croaked, wincing at the sound of his hoarse words. He watched as she sat by his side and stared at him.

She could feel energy returning to her with the knowledge that her hope had finally awakened... and that it would live. She couldn't believe that after all this time, he had actually woken up... she'd begun to wonder whether he ever would. Words could never fully capture her happiness, her relief. She hesitated, then reached down to pull him into a warm embrace. "You have no idea how worried I was..."

Why was she so worried? What had happened?

But for now, he just cared about feeling the tender arms of Katara around him as a temporary assurance that things would turn out fine... if only for the moment.

Katara clung to him and felt his weight against her increase as fatigue reclaimed him. Through the smoky scent and unexpected turn of events, all that truly mattered was Aang. She could say in her mind, without a doubt, that today was in fact a good day.

A/N: Originally, the chapter wasn't supposed to end like this... after I saw the Book 3 trailer (drool September 21 CANNOT come quickly enough), I made it darker, but I had to put a lighter part in there first. I'd put the rest, but it was getting waay tooo loooong... The speed of the story is also gonna pick up a bit after -- or possibly in the next chapter. But there's gonna be a lot of background in the first few chapters before the real plot sets in.

Enough rambling.

Review please!