AN: Yea, I'm back as yours truly! Sorry it took so long, but here it is! Chapter 3: The Firebending Master. This chapter includes mild Sokka/broccoli moments. Don't worry, when you read it, you'll understand. There's a twist in this chapter. It has to do with someone. I'm not telling you, you'll find out. It's one of the major plot twists, so pay special attention to it.


Previously, on Avatar…

"Well look what we have here? The Avatar. Welcome back."

Standing in front of them, was Azula and the Dai Li. "There's nothing you can do now. You're surrounded Avatar, and frankly, you cannot escape."

Katara looked at Azula angrily.

"Dai Li, eliminate the intruders."

-cut to the group in the caves-

"He escaped!" Sokka threw his machete on the floor. "This can't be for nothing."

Toph stepped forward. "It isn't Snoozles. He escaped, that means our job just got easier."

"We're too late."


The gang was on the side of another forest and they blasted their ideas back and forth.

"I-I can't believe we missed him.", Katara shook her head sadly, "There's no way we could've. We planned our entrance so accurately, unless…"

Aang stepped forward. "…Unless he already knew."

The group looked at each other curiously. Toph heard their sighs and felt their questioning glances. There was something amiss, but no one could figure it out. She thought hard.

"If Iroh knew, then what did we do wrong?"

"Toph," Sokka said, "Azula must have spies all over, if she knew that we were going to Ba Sing Se, than she does. The news must have leaked out to Iroh."

"That makes sense. Since that Fire Nation attack almost a week ago, she must have figured us out."

The wind rustled in their faces. Confusion and anxiety filled the mood. Then, a strange sensation stuffed into each of their noses.

Toph crinkled her nostrils. "What the..? What's the weird smell?!", she screamed.

"It's a smoky sensation!"

Everyone turned to stare at Sokka. All of them raised their eyebrows and asked, "HUH?"

"What did I do this time?" That was typical Sokka, always the clueless one.

Katara spoke sarcastically, "What ever do you mean by a 'smoky sensation', my oh-so wise big brother?"

He just starred oddly at his sister and quickly took a whiff of the purple and yellow flower standing next to him. As the tip of his nose touched the petals, everyone freaked out…again.

"YOU IDIOT!", bellowed Katara, "You do know that those are Tenako Flowers! THEY MAKE YOU DELUSIONAL!"

"…eh?" Her "beloved" brother looked up and he started to massively drool. Katara rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe we have to relive the whole desert thing again."

Toph didn't dare to smell that flower; she knew that Sokka, yet again, did something incredibly stupid.

All of them turned around when they heard a loud crashing noise. In the background, was the source of the mysterious smoky sensation. A humungous grey cloud of smoke rose in the air. Katara and Toph swiftly turned to Sokka because they knew what was about to happen, since Aang wasn't there for the wonderful show in the desert.

Toph stared blankly at Sokka. "Let me guess, you think you see a giant fungus and think that it's friendly?!"

He just responded like there was nothing wrong with him, of course, while his mouth still overflowed with saliva. "There's nothing wrong with a mushroom being friendly! And besides, it's a giant vegetable, not fungus this time!"

"Oh, like what, a fat bulk of cauliflower?"

"NO! But you're close, it's…it's….BROCCOLI!"

Katara slapped her forehead. "Well I guess this so-called broccoli of yours is rotten because it's gray. Now shut up and let's find out what's going on! And no asking the circle birds!"

The earthbender giggled at her comeback while Aang just was utterly confused. He swiveled around when he heard the crash again.

"You guys, the sound is coming from over there!"

Katara yelled, "SOKKA! Stop dripping all over the ground and c'mon!"

But he tugged on Momo's tail as it was passing by and laughed insanely. "EHEHEHE! Momo, do you know what's happening to the giant gray broccoli?"

Toph pulled Sokka away from him and was completely disgusted when he started to drool all over her footsteps. Besides her and Sokka, the rest ran straight toward the smoke.

-

Ba Sing Se was a mess. Frantic people sprinted from place to place. Something was wrong. In the outer wall of the city, an artificial wall was close by that was greatly scarred in the middle. Azula's mark hadn't left it.

"Princess, the prisoner escaped and Prince Zuko is no where to be found." A Dai Li agent timidly told Azula. She looked especially angry today.

"Well, then I suppose you should FIND HIM!", she screamed at the top of her lungs. "The prisoner will be taken care of accordingly, in the meantime, find my brother and make sure he doesn't…interfere."

"Yes, Princess."

-

In the midst of the forest was a hoard of Fire Nation soldiers and Dai Li agents. And who was fighting them, none other than Iroh himself.

"See? I told you our job just got easier," said a clearly tiring Toph. After all, she was literally dragging along the "life" of the group.

Aang and Katara shared a glance as they attacked using water from the two rivers on each side, in a synchronized pattern. With the soldiers not noticing them while fighting the firebender, the two just smiled. Both of them gathered the water into their arms and slowly backed up. Then they turned around quickly with the water bursting forth as a whip. The foes were completely unaware of their attackers as they flew and collided into each other oddly.

Katara looked at the rest of the group. "You know, it's pretty ironic that there's always a water source nearby."

There was more clashing as the battle pursued. With Sokka's delusional attitude, he drooled everywhere, making the enemy army slip and fall.

"I seriously can't believe that Sokka is useful," the blind earthbender calmly said as she knocked out some nearby Fire Nation soldiers with a moving rectangle slab.

Aang used his air scooter to glide along the sides of the battle ground and he used his earthbending to create a circular wall around everyone. Iroh jumped to his side and shot two fire balls out of his fist and foot. In both directions their foes blasted off into the newly built wall. The Dai Li attacked using their earthen gloves once again. They punched toward Aang but when he blocked with airbendending shields, one got through and caught his shirt, causing him to be pulled back.

Toph felt his vibrations and forcibly thrust her fists toward her, destroying the hold on him.

Currently, Sokka was inching like a worm on the ground and his sister, well, she was clearly annoyed. While her brother scared all their enemies away by his odd movements, Katara swept each incoming intruder with a crashing of a wave.

As she sliced her hand, discs of solid ice began to slash through the air and the soldiers fled from them.

With Dai Li surrounding her every side, Toph raised her arms and sunk each person around her into the earth. Their plan was beginning to ensue to make the soldiers retreat. When each member of their team looked at each other and the earthbender felt the vibrations, she knew the queue.

There was a rumbling in the ground. Everyone that was not on their side shot off the ground on top of a giant rock ledge. They flew out of the circular wall around them that Aang had created, and by the time they were gone, only the gang and Iroh were left behind. The Avatar jumped out from behind the wall and again used his air scooter and earthbended another wall around the soldiers who were just starting to get up. With their faces terrified, he went back inside the smaller enclosing.

By then, Katara was ready. She lifted the water from the two rivers and filled the outer wall with the liquid. The Fire Nation soldiers and the Dai Li floated to the surface, struggling to swim out. But the team just smiled. Aang and Katara were preparing for the final strike. Both of them sucked in their breath and released it over the top of the water and it froze. The Fire Nation soldiers used firebending, if they could do so, and broke out of the ice.

"I guess we never really thought about that, now did we?", Aang said to Katara.

They started to get out of their icy prison.

"Hello! Over here!" A slightly delirious Sokka spoke up. Although practically everybody knew that what he would say would be useless, it was nice to hear his "normal" voice again. So they turned to him.

"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted, except Iroh.

"AHAHAHAHA," they raised their eyebrows, "Heh. I'm sorry, still a tiny bit delusional. Okay…as I was about to say, hello? Water…fire, COMPLETE OPPOSITES!"

Katara rolled her eyes at him. "Ugh. We're not that stupid Sokka."

He pointed his finger at her and started to say something as a snappy comeback, but was rudely interrupted when Toph yelled, "Enough talking! More running!"

They looked at her with confused expressions, but when a fiery ball landed in front of them, they looked up and got into action. A strike of flames came at them. Iroh redirected it toward the soldiers.

Quickly thinking, Aang blew on his bison whistle and in just a few moments, Appa came roaring to their group.

"TOPH," Katara called to the blind girl, "We need cover!"

As she heard her, she made the ground burst out with smoke and the enemies could not see. There was screams of fear and terrified yells, but no one did anything about it because they desperately needed to escape their undetermined clutches. Everyone climbed onto Appa as quickly as possible when the flying beast did land. They flew out of the walled area and shot into the sky.

-

"Iroh," Aang stated toward the oldest (with the exception of Aang), but yet the newest member of the group. "Why did you leave Ba Sing Se?"

The old man looked fondly at the Avatar and wisely responded, "I knew that if I stayed, Azula would figure out that you were looking for me. Then she'd either have to kill you or be rid of me. I really had no choice. I knew that if I escaped, you'd find out. But I also faced the fact that Azula would try to find me. So, when I was found, I just fought and made sure that a lot of smoke rose in order for you to find me better. After all, you couldn't have gotten that far from the outer walls of Ba Sing Se."

Aang nodded. "That makes sense."

Momo chattered on top of Sokka's shoulder and the warrior spoke. "Yea. That was about the time when I smelled that flower."

"…You have to admit that it was pretty stupid of you to do that," a grinning waterbender responded to her brother.

"Oh would you just shut it. You're chattier than a hyper lemur that hasn't eaten for a week!"

"That doesn't even make any sense! You're the one that smelled that Tenako Flower. Now you explain how that isn't an extremely stupid thing to do."

"It's not stupid; it's called an accident, my clearly not-as-wise younger sister. I repeat, younger sister."

"Who cares if I'm younger than you? At least I'm the one who has that brain!"

"Well I'm the one who comes up with the plans!"

"Not anymore! You're just the one who makes things harder for us. Like today, when you smelled the ugly flower thing and Toph had to drag you everywhere all because you didn't think before you smelled! You disgust me! All you ever did was drool all over the place and did the worm while the rest of us were actually fighting."

Sokka rolled his eyes at his sister. "And I repeat, younger sisters. They're so naive."

Toph was getting annoyed. "WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP SNOOZLES?! I have a life too and you and Sugarqueen fighting in a brotherly sisterly fashion so do not help! Just please forgive each other and we can all get on with our lives."

Appa roared when Aang flicked the ropes attatched his horns. "Well, it is my job as Avatar to try and settle feuds…"

Toph turned to his general direction. "Just settle the stinking feud."

"Okay, I guess. Katara, Sokka, forgive each other. The smelling of the flower was an accident and Sokka did make soldiers slip with his saliva. So, technically, he did help out with the battle."

The two siblings looked at each other.

"Come along now," Aang stated. "Anytime…the clock is ticking."

"Oh, what the heck? I forgive you." Sokka and Katara shook hands.

Toph sighed happily and leaned back on the new saddle of Appa. It was just a plain brown one with no designs. It would be a long night before the next day. Time was getting short and they needed a landing place, but they also needed to get as far away from Ba Sing Se as possible. The sun began to set on the horizon and set an orange glow across the skyline.

-

The next morning, the gang awoke on the ground. Aang had landed everyone on a clearing he found in the middle of the night and all of them had fallen asleep fairly late. They were tired of fighting, but knew all the same that they had a time limit before the solar eclipse; the only little problem was that Aang still needed to learn firebending. Well, today was the day.

"…And now to begin your training." Iroh said to a clearly very sleepy Avatar. "Step back a little."

The group was up early but all of them were very tired from their busy day before. They were watching Aang and Iroh in their first firebending lesson in an enclosed area very near the water but far away from trees.

Aang did as he was told and backed up.

"Now, I want you to practice to breathe. Not for long of course, but breathing is key in this type of bending. Take deep breaths. In and out. Make sure to feel relaxed and feel the sun's heat upon you. The sun is important to firebending that is why, when the solar eclipse arrives, no firebender will be able to firebend. But on you, you might. The solar eclipse might not last as long as we need, that is why you need to master this. In and out. Don't be distracted by any other element, including air."

He sucked his chest in, then out for 10 minutes before he was finally told to stop.

"Very good. Now, I want you to stand in the river in a horse stance. I am going to give you this leaf and I want you to keep my flame from reaching the edges."

Aang looked at him worriedly. "I-I can't."

The memories of burning Katara were entering his mind and the waterbender could see his sadness. She got up.

"Iroh, if I may…"

"Of course," he responded and extended his arm toward his new pupil.

The Avatar bowed his head and he and Katara walked over into the forest while everyone else just looked their way, curious.

"Aang, don't let this block you from learning a new element. The world needs you to learn it. I need you to. Please."

"I'm sorry Katara," Aang sadly responded, "But, it's just too painful."

She stared at him. "Nothing is too painful. This whole thing just brings you bad memories, but that is all in the past now. Please do this Aang. Learn the last element. Don't hold back. I'll be fine, and because of your past mistake, I learned how to heal and I greatly thank you for that." Her smile shone through his wicked thoughts of that day.

"Remember, Aang, that is what had been, think of what is."

His eyes widened. "Those words…they remind me of, Gyatso…"

Katara lowered her head. She knew that this was a difficult situation for him and thought of what to do. At last, she figured out what needed to be done.

She peered at him and said, "Just remember Gyatso when you firebend. Remember him and all the good things that happened like when…"

Aang finished his sentence. "…like when I met you."

Tears formed in her cerulean eyes and she wiped them away with the edge of her hand. They both smiled at each other.

"Come here. You need a hug."

-

The group waited. When the two came out of the tree infested area, they seemed excited. All of them were happy that things were finally back to normality. But no one noticed when Katara and Aang blushed.

"As I was saying," Iroh nodded to Aang, "Keep the fire from reaching the edge."

-

Zuko rode on his ostrich horse across the barren landscape. He knew where he had to go and he knew what he had to do. How was he to pursue it? He wasn't sure. All he definitely knew was that he was not with Azula.

The animal squawked with it's every movement. Zuko knew for sure that he couldn't go to Full Moon Bay. When the idea struck him, he was already at the Misty Palms Oasis in the desert. Zuko went straight to the White Lotus Society hide out and when he knocked on the door, he simply got a calm reply.

"Ah. Welcome back."

He looked at the two eyes staring at him with determination.

"I need a way to get to Omashu."


AN: And there you have it. There's more Kataang to come and that was just a little. Why do you think they blushed?

I really like the water/earth concept, so you might see that a lot.

Oolala. Zuko's doing something, but what? I know what. BUT YOU DON'T! MUHAHAHAHA! Man, it's great being the author.

The next chapter is supposed to be The Armies of the World. The only problem is, I'm thinking of making it a two part chapter or more. What do you guys think?