Lol, did I leave you all hanging on the edge of that last chapter? I sure hope so. Well, here's the next one up for ya's. Thanks to everybody who reviewed – I give you all golden stars ^_^

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7. The Vision from the Spirits

He pushed her against the wall, kissing her almost violently, her hands pinned to the wall next to her head. She struggled so hard. He couldn't bring himself to let go of her, because he knew that if he did, he wouldn't be able to force himself to catch her again. Katara's body was tense, and suddenly, she seemed to stop moving. Was she giving up her struggling fight? That thought made Zuko's heart leap, but he knew that his hope was in vain.

Katara gently tried to ease her hands off the wall. As he kissed her, Zuko let her hands go, and she placed one on the back of his head and the other, at the bottom of his neck. Suddenly, she was kissing him back, but she was still crying. Her hands ran through his hair. He was wearing it loose today; he had been too lazy to do it this morning. His hands were holding her waist, his fingertips slowly and gently pressing into her skin. One hand slowly came up her back and held the back of her head – neither of them would be able to pull away from each other now. Katara wrapped her arms so tightly around him, and she pulled her body right up to his. His tongue was in her mouth and she was wrestling to get hers in his.

Flooding with relief at the thought that maybe she was forgiving him for what he'd been accused of, Zuko gently pulled her off the wall. She didn't let go of him and they didn't stop kissing each other. It only took two steps before they were at the bed, and Zuko pushed her down onto it and slowly got on top of her. His lips were harsh, but his hands and the rest of his body were gentle. She wasn't any different.

It wasn't until he felt her hand move away from the back of his head and reach out for the bedside table that Zuko realized that she was deceiving him. She made a sudden movement with her arm and suddenly, the Fire Lord could feel the cold pearl blade of his own dagger at the side of his neck. Their lips slowly broke apart and Zuko opened his eyes to see the way she gave him that icy glare as she slowly pressed the blade into his skin at his neck and he slowly sat up. She sat up with him, not blinking as she glared at him.

He frowned sadly at her. She was always such a smart girl and a good fighter. But he so wished that she could just see that he wasn't the enemy.

Katara didn't let Zuko get up. She herself stood, but she kept the dagger to his throat so that he couldn't. He stayed sitting on the bed, his eyes staring back into hers with tears of longing and sorrow, begging her to understand.

Her lips were trembling as she spoke.

"I never want to hear you say those words to me ever again," she whispered. "I'm leaving, Zuko." She slung her bag over her shoulder, keeping the dagger against this throat. "And I'm not coming back!"

Katara dropped the dagger on the ground as she left the room, and she slammed the door behind her. The slam echoed down the halls, in his room and in his head. The only other thing he could hear were her quickly fading footsteps and the replaying sound of his pearl dagger hitting the floor.

"Katara, Aang wasn't over at the units either!" Suki informed her when she rounded the corner into the corridor hers and Sokka's room was in.

The waterbender looked up at the girl with concern. "We'll find him," she said, lowly.

Suki nodded and scrutinized the girl in front of her, "Are you ok?"

Katara walked right past her and entered her brother's room without answering. The Kyoshi Warrior didn't mind; she had something important she needed to do anyway and it wasn't something she wanted to tell Sokka or Katara about.

"Are you alright?" Sokka asked when she walked in.

Katara nodded silently and sat on the foot of the bed while Sokka finished packing his stuff. Neither of them spoke for a long while, and when Katara finally broke the silence, her voice was hoarse.

"Has Suki already packed her stuff?"

Sokka stopped and straightened up in thought, the pair of pants he was just about to put in his bag still in his hands. He turned to her, still thinking.

"Um… I think so…" Suspiciously, he opened one of his wife's cupboards. Sure enough, it was empty. "Yep!" He shut the cupboard and went back to packing his bag.

Neither of them spoke again until Katara decided that she wanted to talk to Suki.

"I'll be back soon," was all she said.

After a moment, Zuko registered that there was a faint tint of blood on the very edge of his dagger. It was lying just within his eyesight. Shoulders slumping, Zuko gently put a hand to his throat, where the blade had last been pressed. He took his hands away, but there was no blood. He put his hands to the side of his neck where Katara had first placed the blade. She must have pressed harder there, because when he pulled his hand away, a small amount of blood was on his fingertips.

Zuko sighed as he bent down and picked up his pearl dagger. He carefully wiped the blood off the edge of the blade and put it back in its little cover. But instead of leaving it on his bedside table like he usually did, he stashed in inside his robes like he use to.

In his mind, he repeated the words he knew were inscribed on the blade.

"Never give up without a fight." So, does that mean when I've tried and failed that I'm allowed to give up? I've already fought! I don't have the will to keep going anymore. I don't want to hurt anyone, especially not Katara. And I don't want to hurt myself anymore.

He sat there thinking. He didn't want to lose Katara. But he didn't want to hurt her. If he went after her, would things end up alright without causing her anymore pain? Or would he just hurt her again and again? He'd already hurt her so much.

Never give up without a fight… never give up without a fight… never give up without a fight… never give up without a fight…

In frustration, Zuko pulled his dagger out again and unsheathed it. He needed to see the inscriptions for himself.

Made in Earth Kingdom, was the first thing he read. He sighed, thinking of the boy, Lee, who he had met long ago while travelling through the Earth Kingdom. Then he turned the blade over to the other side. For a moment, he thought the words he wanted – the words he needed – would not appear. He thought, for one terrible moment, that those words would not be there, and he felt abandoned. But they were there. Never give up without a fight.

Zuko let out a held breath and lay back on his bed, running his forefinger over the tip of the sharp blade. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine that he was somewhere else, somewhere where everything was perfect, somewhere he could escape from all of this unbearable drama and pain.

But he had the image of Katara's icy eyes glaring at him stuck in his head. No, she was crying. Then was hugging Sokka, and Suki was rubbing her back. She was yelling at him. Katara, please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you… I didn't even do it!

He ran his finger over the blade, pressing harder and harder.

I don't want to see you cry… please stop…

His finger was starting to hurt, but he kept running it over the blade.

Please… I'm sorry… don't go…

"Zuko…" But that wasn't his own voice calling him inside his head…

"Mum, what are you doing?" Azula asked as Ursa dipped her hands into the water of the well.

Azula stood and walked over. Yue joined them shortly and they both watched Ursa.

"Seriously, what is she doing?" Azula whispered to the Moon Spirit as her mother's eyes turned a pale, glowing blue.

Yue smiled knowingly as Ursa leaned forward until her face was submerged in the water.

"Zuko, listen to me." Wait, he knew that voice!

"Mum?" he asked, slightly uncertain.

"Yes, my Son, it's me. You must listen carefully now – what I'm about to tell you will help you greatly. Use this information wisely!"

"Mum! What's going on?! I'm so confused right now! I don't know what happened… I don't know how Mai and I ended up like we did the other night, but I know I didn't mean for it to happen! And no one but Toph, Ty Lee and maybe Uncle and Suki believe it!"

"Zuko, listen to me! Everything will be ok. There was a Water Tribe man at the wedding after-party who had been hypnotized by the Dai Li and sent to create a diversion so that Long Feng and Admiral Shang could take Aang. You and Mai were that diversion! He knocked you both out and put you in the bed together. It was neither of your faults!"

Zuko felt his heart stop for a second. So there was a perfectly logical explanation!

"So… it wasn't my fault… or Mai's?" he asked, hopeful but incredulous.

Suddenly, the black he could see from behind his closed eyelids changed. He wasn't in his room anymore and he wasn't lying on his bed, stroking the blade of his dagger with his forefinger.

His mother stood before him and the surroundings were pale, icy blue clouds. It looked strange and certainly supernatural, but he didn't care for any of that just then. All he cared about was finding out what his mother knew about his current situation.

She looked perfectly human in this strange world, and she smiled gently at him.

"Zuko, it's alright. It wasn't anyone's fault… not anyone good anyway. The Water Tribe man who was hypnotized to do this is a good person at heart. It is Long Feng and Shang that are to blame. Listen to me!"

Zuko tried to move closer to the woman. He needed to be near her. She was what he needed right at that moment. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get an inch closer to Ursa. Looking longingly at her, he nodded so that she would continue.

"Admiral Shang has taken Aang to Old Ba Sing Se. Do you remember where that is?"

"Yes, it's beneath Ba Sing Se itself. I've been there before," he said.

"Good. Shang and Long Feng are working together at the moment and they have Aang. They'll be at the underground any minute now and Aang will be stuck in there with them for them to do as they please with him. There's nothing you can do to prevent it! But you can save him."

"How do I save him, Mum?! I can't do this on my own. I need all of my friends to back me up and most of them don't consider me their friend at the moment!" he pleaded.

"You have to get them to trust you again! But be careful, my Son. Admiral Shang and Long Feng want more than just the Avatar in chains. They want to ruin everything so that the world will be at their mercy. They will strike again, and I fear they'll take more than one person this time. Keep yourself safe and watch over Katara – they've already toyed with your relationship with her once, they'll do it again!" Ursa warned.

"How can I get them to trust me?" Zuko asked.

"That's something you'll have to find out for yourself. I don't know the answer."

A sudden wind came from nowhere in particular and Ursa's form began to fade away.

"Mum! What's happening?!" Zuko called out to her, once again trying to reach her. Ursa just looked at him and gave him a sad smile.

"I can't stay here – I'm being pulled back into the Spirit World and you're being pulled back to the Mortal World," she explained quickly.

"But I need your help!" Zuko shouted, as he felt himself falling. His mother was getting further and further away from him. "Mum!"

"Don't worry Zuko! I'm always watching you! Just remember – never forget who you are!" she called to him.

She faded from sight and the eerie blue world of clouds that surrounded him fell away and he was in blackness again.

Zuko sat up with a gasp. He was back on his bed in his room in his world. His mother and the icy blue clouds of the world he'd been in were all gone and the first thing he noticed about his was that he could feel a sharp pain in his forefinger there.

Frowning, he looked at his finger. He'd run it along the sharp blade of the dagger too hard and he had a deep cut. Blood trickled down his finger and pooled in the palm of his hand as he examined it. The blade of his dagger was red with the liquid too.

Zuko sighed in frustration and suddenly, there was a knock on the door. He quickly stuffed his dagger and bloodied hand under the covers of his bed.

"Who is it?" he asked quickly.

"It's me," sighed the unmistakable voice of Mai from the other side of the door.

"Oh…" he slumped glumly. "Come in."

The door creaked open and the gloomy girl stepped inside and shut it behind her, "You sound overjoyed to see me," she smirked sarcastically.

He shrugged, "Well… ya know…"

"Yea, I know."

Mai sat on the bed next to him and brought her knees up to her chest. Then she looked at him.

"Maybe we should just stop trying," she shrugged.

Zuko frowned. "What do you mean "stop trying"?" He raised his eyebrow at her.

"I mean…" She didn't make eye-contact with him. It took her a while to finally give him the answer. "I mean maybe we should just stop trying to make them trust us again or believe our story or anything like that."

"Are you crazy?! If we do that they'll probably take that as "ok, yea, we're a couple of whores!"!" Zuko shouted, jumping off the bed so quickly that he accidentally ripped back the covers. By the time he'd realized his mistake, Mai had caught sight of the dagger and the blood.

"Zuko –!" she gasped.

"Mai! It's not what it looks like!" he said quickly. "I didn't mean to cut myself… it just sorta happened. I was thinking and running my finger along the blade and then… I guess I just pressed it to hard. Well, it sure brought me back down to earth!" He tried to laugh and plaster a smile on his lips. But Mai looked blankly at him, unconvinced.

"Zuko –"

"Mai, I didn't do it to myself on purpose!" He spoke quickly and made sure he was louder than her. He didn't want anyone to think he cut himself! It had been an accident; a mistake. It wasn't on purpose.

Mai looked into his eyes, hoping to find proof that his words were true somewhere within them. But if she found anything or not, all she did was sigh.

"Promise me you won't do something like that," she murmured.

Zuko nodded, but did not answer in words. Mai raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak again when there was another knock on the door.

"Who is it?" they both asked at the same time.

"It's me, Suki!" the Kyoshi Warrior whispered from the other side.

Mai's eyebrows suddenly jumping to her hairline was the only thing that told Zuko that she was surprised. But the Fire Lord wasn't so shocked… more relieved in fact.

"Come in, Suki," he sighed.

The door opened and Suki quickly stepped into the room and shut it behind her. She pressed her back against it for a moment before she looked at them or said anything.

"Ok, I…" She trailed off immediately when she saw the blood on Zuko's hand and the dagger lying in the bed and Mai sitting next to it. "…Um…"

"Don't worry, Suki, it's nothing!" Zuko quickly claimed. "I didn't mean to do it, I just pressed my finger against it too hard…" he chuckled slightly and showed Suki his finger.

The Kyoshian nodded before she continued. "Alright, listen here! I don't know what happened last night, but I do believe that there is more to the story than me, Sokka, Aang and Katara know," she said looking between them. "I want to hear your sides of the story."

"It's pretty simple to tell, but not so easy to understand," Mai shrugged. "I went for a walk with the Water Tribe guy who had been friendly with me and he had to leave me for a moment. Before he got back, someone knocked me out or something and when I woke up you, Sokka, Katara and Iroh were in the doorway and Zuko was on top of me."

"I think I have an… idea of what might have caused that to happen," Zuko said, recalling his vision dream thing with his mother. "But first, I'll tell you my side of the story."

"I thought you said you didn't know anything!" Mai suddenly shot at him.

"I'll explain in a sec!" Zuko shot back, slightly annoyed. Then he turned back to Suki. "I went for a walk in the gardens and someone snuck up behind me and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was on top of Mai and you and the others were standing in the doorway."

Suki frowned, but she nodded. She didn't know whether to believe the stories were that simply complicated or not, or if she should just dismiss them like everyone else did. There was no logical explanation from either of their stories! So, how did all that stuff between them happen last night then?

"Alright Zuko," Mai prodded him in the back with a finger. "What do you know that you haven't told us? What's this idea you have and why didn't you say something before?!" she demanded.

"Mai stop it!" He pushed her away from him, back down on the bed where she huffed. He turned back to Suki. "While I was in here a minute ago before either of you came in and before I cut myself… I'm not so sure what happened. I shut my eyes and… I don't know if I fell asleep and dreamed it or if I had a vision or if I'm going psychotic or whatever, but I saw my mum and she told me that some guy from the Water Tribe came and knocked us both out and put us in bed together as a distraction. The distraction was so that guy, Admiral Shang, could get Aang!" he explained, trying to ignore the strange looks he was receiving from both girls.

"Are you serious?" Mai asked blankly after a minute.

"Yes! I am serious! I wouldn't joke about something like this – it's too serious!"

"What else did this… vision thing tell you?" Suki probed. She didn't believe a word of it and was unlikely to be convinced until Toph came by and told her he wasn't lying, but she still wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Um…" Zuko tried to recall the memory. But the vision was slipping from his mind like a bar of soap would slip from his fingers. "She told me that Shang was working with Long Feng and…" He shut his eyes, trying to get a clear view of his mother's face as if it would help him to remember what she had said. "And they're in Old Ba Sing Se… and she said that they would attack again and that we should all be careful because he might take someone else too!"

Mai stared at him, her expression unreadable. Suki looked unimpressed and had one eyebrow raised.

"You guys don't believe me," he remarked bluntly. The two girls looked at each other and then back at him. He sighed. "Forget it!"

He pushed past Suki and left the two girls in his room, slightly shocked. Mai was thoroughly confused, although you couldn't have told, and Suki was just disbelieving. She wanted to believe Zuko, but how could she be sure he wasn't lying? Still, she could smell a rat about what had happened last night. Before she left the room, she turned one last time to Mai.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't know what happened?"

Mai sighed, "As I said, I know nothing more than what I told you."

Suki nodded and left the room to go and find Sokka and Katara.

"Hey Firefly," Toph greeted him as he came and joined her by the turtle-duck pond again.

"Hey."

"You sound depressed and… hey, what happened to your finger?" she asked, not sounding particularly worried.

"I just accidentally cut myself on my dagger. It's nothing but… I have something I need to talk to you about."

Toph sat up and turned her blind eyes on him, "Firefly?"

Had he been hiding something from her after all? Or had he found something out? Maybe there was something else going on that he just realized might be connected to last night!

Zuko sat down next to the blind earthbender, "Toph, Katara packed her things and she and Sokka are leaving. I think Suki will be going with them too. But after Katara left the room, I was lying on my bed with my dagger in my hands and I had this weird vision."

Toph's expression was unreadable. It wasn't a blank expression like Mai's had been or doubtful like Suki's, but he couldn't tell if she believed him or not.

"In the vision," he continued when she said nothing, "my mother was there. And she told me what happened to Mai and I last night and why we ended up together like that. There was some Water Tribe guy who knocked us both out and put us in there together. It was to create a diversion so that guy, Admiral Shang, could come and take Aang. And from the looks of it, he's succeeded. He attacked while we were all confused and not thinking clearly," he retold her, gravely.

"And Shang… he's that jerk who Azula was about to get married to when we came to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, right?" she asked.

He nodded, "And in the vision, my Mother told me that he was probably going to strike again… she thinks that it might be Katara next."

"This is bad," she commented.

"Yep," he confirmed.

"We're screwed."

"Thanks…"

Gotta love Toph… yep, she's a star at boosting the self-esteem… not. So what did you all think of that? Was it good? I sure hope it was cuz I liked it :D What did you think of the vision and what Ursa told Zuko? Dun dun dun, what will happen next?! Seriously, guys, I'd love to hear your predictions… So why don't you tell me them in your reviews? : ) That'd be a really great idea, don't ya think?

Remember, four reviews or no update.

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