Disclaimer: AtLA is property is VIACOM and Nickelodeon. No profit is made from this story.

On the second day of the Fire Festival, Katara's small group both lost and gained a member. Sokka, who had seemingly contracted a small but painful bout of food poisoning, was confined to his room, but in the wake of his loss Zuko arrived out in the courtyard, to announce that the Fire Nation court members had allowed him a day of vacation, and would it be alright if he joined them for the day? Of course the answer was yes.

'So, where are we going first?' he asked as they walked down a crowded street. Even though it was daytime, there were still colorful lanterns hanging from buildings.

'First we're going to look at some of the mask stalls, and after that Akako wants to some of the firebending performances.'

'I doubt that there will be any of those today.' They continued walking past the houses with the lanterns. They passed one that was strung with only red ones – bright scarlet, like blood.

'Why not?'

'Usually,' said Zuko, 'to get into the spirit of things, one court member or another will find reason to challenge another to an Angi Kai. It's sort of the unofficial rule – even though it was never written down, the Agni Kais always happen. Everyone likes drama during the fire festivals.'

Oh spirits. 'And yours was the opening act, wasn't it?'

Several muscles in Zuko's jaws jumped. 'Sort of. Not quite.'

The two continued down the street in silence.

*

Katara didn't know what to think.

Zuko had fought in an Agni Kai – for her.

Really, it was simple. There was no need for her to be going over and over the facts in her head all the time. Zuko had fought in an Agni Kai for her, end of story.

But what did it really mean?

*

The masks were both horrifying and captivating. They were painted in traditional Fire Nation colors: red and gold. Some of them had grotesque, demon-like features with long, pointed teeth and narrowed eyes. Zuko told her that they were made for the summer solstice, when the spirits were able to cross over into the physical world – much the same to the winter one.

'Usually there is a play, and those are the masks the 'spirits' wear.' Zuko paused, looking down at several of the most gruesome-looking masks. 'There are dozens of plays performed, but they all have the same story.' He stopped talking, and went back to looking at the masks.

Katara cocked her head to one side playfully. 'So, what, I don't get to be enlightened?'

A faint smile crossed Zuko's mouth. 'Trust me; it's all blatant pro-war propaganda.'

'Too bad, you've got me intrigued. I want to know what happens.' Katara stifled a laugh. 'I won't let you leave this stall until you tell me.'

The corner of Zuko's mouth twitched. 'And how do you plan on doing that?'

She shrugged. 'I'm a master waterbender. I'm sure I'll find a way.'

Hakoda, who had been in the stall next to the mask one, entered – holding several small cakes in his hands. Like father, like son.

'So what have you two been up to?' he asked, looking down at one of the spirit-masks, recoiling in surprise.

'Zuko was just about to tell me about the summer solstice plays.'

'What?' spluttered Zuko. 'I just told you that it was all –'

'And I just told you that I didn't care about your silly Fire Nation propaganda,' interrupted Katara, crossing her arms for effect.

Zuko shot a pleading look at Hakoda, who just raised his eyebrows and shrugged helplessly.

He sighed dramatically. 'Fine. The spirits begin attacking seemingly innocent Fire Nation villagers during the solstice and so the Fire Lord sends out men to attack the spirits and although it appears that they will lost the Fire Nation overcomes the spirits with amazing strength because of their love and overall brute power of their nation. The end.'

Silence.

'What?' Zuko sounded slightly irritated.

'Oh nothing – you were right about the propaganda. I just didn't know you could talk so fast.'

'Argh!' Zuko's fist hit the wall. The stall owner looked up nervously.

'Or do such an excellent pirate impersonation.'

Hakoda started to laugh. Zuko began to turn red.

'Oh lighten up,' Katara smiled, taking Zuko's arm and leading him out of the stall, 'I was just kidding.'

'Can I tell you something?'

'Go for it.' Katara continued walking down the street, keeping an eye out for Koji, who she hadn't seen all day. She'd just assumed he was with those firebenders he had met on the first day of the festival.

'I'm bad with people laughing at me because it was always cruel laughter – when I was a kid.'

'Oh.'

'It was always Azula – she would watch me firebending and just laugh and laugh and nobody would stop her. They didn't care. And then she'd just walk right up and do the firebending that I'd just spend hours trying to get right. She'd get it perfect first go.' There was a note of bitterness to his voice.

'I never meant to …' Katara trailed off, unsure of what to say.

'I know.' Zuko looked away. 'I just didn't want you to think that I was …' He seemed at a loss for words.

'No fun?' Katara suggested light-heartedly. Her attempt at humor seemed to do very little to lift his mood. Zuko moved as if to walk away, but she quickly grabbed his arm. 'Zuko, I don't know if this'll help, but you're one of the most powerful firebenders I know. You don't have anything to worry about.'

Zuko tried to smile. 'Thanks.' He paused, and then frowned. 'What exactly are we doing here?'

'I was looking for Koji. I haven't seen him all day, so I thought I should look for those firebenders he usually hangs out with.'

'You don't seem at all concerned.'

'Koji's a responsible kid. I'm sure he can take care of himself.'

'Katara, he grew up in the South Pole his entire life and you're not the least bit worried that he's been set loose in the Fire Nation capital?' Zuko cried out, exasperated.

'That's why we're looking for him.'

'We? But I never – but you just said –'

'Come on, Zuko. This is one big city we have to search!'

Zuko groaned loudly. Why did he even bother?

***

Ozai was standing at the door of his cell, gripping the cold metal bars. He could hear the sound of the waterbending witch's footsteps – she was ten minutes late. If anyone has had cared to be so liberal with his direct orders, Ozai would have had no qualms over killing them where they stood. However, Hama's talents could not afford to be wasted. So much depended on her and her bloodbending – killing her now would be pointless. The footsteps grew louder, and the time for thinking was gone.

Unlike the other people who knew what was happening, Hama did nothing to acknowledge Ozai. There was no bowing, no forehead pressed to the ground in repect, mingled with a healthy dosage of fear. If anything, she thoroughly despised Ozai and his people – he had seen the way she had addressed the guards, bloodbending them out of pure malice. But Ozai needed Hama – at least for the time being – and thus did nothing to stop them.

'You called for me?'

Ozai nodded once, slowly. 'For everything to go according to plan, you are to go to the Earth Kingdom. We cannot afford for you to be seen here or recognized – if you were to be found in the Fire Nation, it would be obvious to,' he deliberately avoided saying his son's name, 'everyone that you were seeking revenge. In the Earth Kingdom, you can claim that you escaped from prison and are merely trying to return to the South Pole.'

Hama scoffed. 'You expect me to know my way around the Earth Kingdom – a country I have never seen?'

'No. That is why I have arranged an escort for you.'

Long Feng stepped forward from where he had been standing, unobserved in the shadows. He bowed once.

'I am Long Feng, former Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se and head of the Dai Li. I have heard so much of you, Bloodbender Hama, and your legendary abilities. Because of my position, I have an intimate knowledge of the Earth Kingdom, as well as Ba Sing Se. I will be your escort.'

Hama made no response to Long Feng's greeting. She turned back to Ozai, her mouth twisted into a harsh scowl.

'And what shall I do once I am in the Earth Kingdom?'

'You will await instruction.'

For a moment rage flashed across Hama's face, she clenched her fist and Ozai again felt that ice-cold sensation, but it was gone in an instant. Hama wasn't going to kill him. They weren't so different after all – too much depended on keeping the other alive. For now.

'Fine,' snarled Hama through clenched teeth.

She left the row of cells – the guard on duty had been visibly shaken by her presence throughout the encounter, and was only too eager to unbolt the door and let her leave.

Only after several minutes had passed and Long Feng knew Hama would not be able to hear him, did he dare to speak.

'The waterbender … are the rumors true?'

Ozai said nothing. Better to let the man live in uncertainty.

*

It was hot.

Hot, hot, hot.

How had she even contemplated the idea of the South Pole, her homeland, being too cold? Cold was good. In the icy days of winter you could bundle up in a tent, wrapped around and around with thick furs, with your friends and family. You could curl up into a ball and wait for it to pass. You could eat hot soup every day.

But in the Fire Nation … it was always hot. You couldn't sit down, curl up, or do anything because it just made you sticky. Staying in one place quickly became uncomfortable, and it was nearly impossible to stay cool – Katara had drunk too much watermelon juice, and now had a headache.

Every backstreet had been walked down; every stall-owner had been asked if they had seen Koji. Nobody had.

'When I find that kid …' It was really too hard for Katara to be bothered to elaborate.

Zuko nodded once. 'I'll hold him down.'

*

'Zuko?'

The firebender lifted his gaze.

'I just realized something.'

He blinked.

'We never checked the palace, did we?'

*

If not for the fact that they were both covered in sweat and felt completely disgusting, the scene at the palace would have been almost amusing.

Sokka was sitting on a chair, stuffing his face with what looked to be some sort of exotic Fire Nation fruit – seemingly over his bout of food poisoning. And seated together in the corner of the room were Iroh and Koji, the former teaching the latter how to play the Tsungi horn.

'Remember, Koji, breathe from the –'

'Still gonna hold him down?' murmured Katara out of the corner of her mouth.

Zuko shook his head once. 'Not while Uncle's around,' he said out of the corner of his mouth. 'Later. While he's sleeping.'

'Which one? Koji or Iroh?'

'Both.' At this, Katara snickered.

Sokka looked up. 'Oh, hey, you guys are back. We were all wondering where you two went.'

Zuko growled and stepped forward, but Katara quickly grabbed his arm and jerked him back a step. 'Oh, we were searching for Koji – it's actually quite funny, really,' she forced herself to smile, and gripped Zuko's arm until he did the same, 'I thought Koji had got lost in the city and so Zuko offered to help me look for him. We never thought that he would be in the palace.'

Koji looked up. 'Oh. Sorry about that.'

'No problem,' said Zuko through gritted teeth. He then stalked out of the room.

Sokka looked up from his nearly-demolished fruit. 'What's with him?' When nobody replied, he simply shrugged, and went back to the fruit.

*

The rest of the day passed reasonably uneventfully. Sokka felt well enough to rejoin the group, and from then on they continued walking around the streets, although later – as Zuko had predicted – there was an Agni Kai.

'I can't believe,' said Sokka, who was sitting next to Katara, 'that people in the Fire Nation do this for fun.' He glanced at Zuko. 'No offense.'

Zuko shrugged one shoulder. 'None taken. A part of me wants to abolish the whole Agni Kai system for good,' Katara's eyes drifted to his scar, 'but …' Zuko paused. 'They're a tradition that dates back to before Avatar Zura,'

- At this, Sokka's forehead creased in confusion –

'He is the first officially recorded firebender Avatar, it's thought he was the twelfth,' explained Zuko quickly, 'but that's not really the point.'

'So what is?' asked Sokka. As if on cue, a blast of fire illuminated the Agni Kai arena, heating up the spectator's faces.

Zuko turned away, his shoulders slightly slumped. 'It doesn't matter.'

'Okay then.' Sokka returned to watching the Agni Kai.

Katara sighed, and glared at her brother. 'Zuko, of course it matters. What were you going to say?'

He looked up at her. 'I just … don't want the Fire Nation to lose sight of itself. I mean, of course it has to change, but –'

'- And that completely makes sense –'

- Katara hit Sokka on the thigh to shut him up–

And Zuko laughed.

*

The group made their way to their respective bedrooms for the night, Katara stopping at Akako's to see how she was doing. The waterbender was sitting on her bed, bent low over some scrolls. She looked up when she heard footsteps, and smiled, putting the scrolls down.

'Sorry about the Agni Kai,' said Katara, 'I was hoping that we could train later today, but I sort of got roped into it.'

'Doesn't matter, I practiced by myself. Who won?'

'I don't know,' admitted Katara as she walked across the room, 'some Fire Nation guy.'

Akako laughed. 'That really helps.'

'It was pretty short – it was called off by the officials before anyone actually got hurt. Apparently the Agni Kais during the festival are only for show. You didn't miss anything.'

Akako sighed, but it wasn't an unhappy one. 'I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow,' she said. 'It feels like I only just got here.'

'You're not alone – it was always like that for Sokka and me when we were traveling with Aang. One day we were at Omashu, next I was busting out prisoners on a sea barge, then there was the North Pole and …' She trailed off.

'But seeing all those places must have been great, though,' said Akako eagerly. 'I mean, Sokka said you two got to see all of the Air Temples!'

'I suppose we were lucky, but we were also never in any place long enough to really get to know it properly – apart from Ba Sing Se, we were there for a few weeks, but even then there were places that we weren't allowed to go.'

'Like what?' asked Akako.

'Oh, there was this creepy lade named Joo Dee who kept following us around. If Sokka wanted her to show him to, I don't know, the king's palace, instead she'd just take him back to the house we were staying in. In the end we sort of had to fight our way in.'

'Sokka told Koji and me about that once. He said you were actually apologizing to the guards.'

Katara laughed. 'Yes, that was me. I felt almost sorry for them – after all, it wasn't their fault they were guarding the palace. I felt really mean waterbending at them.'

'But they were stopping you guys from seeing the Earth King. You had to get there to tell him about the Day of Black Sun – you didn't have any other options,' protested Akako.

The corner of Katara's mouth twitched. 'Just how much has Sokka told you guys?'

Akako shrugged, 'pretty much everything.'

Before she could say anything in response, there was a loud thumping sound on Akako's bedroom door. Toph. The earthbender walked into the room without waiting to be greeted.

'Sweetness, you need to get into the conference room. Now.'

'What's wrong, Toph?

Toph grabbed Katara's wrist, dragging her out of the room and down the hall. 'Not what. Who.'

'Has someone important come here or something?' Toph was pulling at her too fast – Katara stumbled after her friend, trying not to fall over her feet.

'Something like that.' They'd arrived at the entrance to one of the conference rooms. 'Get inside. He wants you there.' Toph let go of her wrist.

'Wait – who?' But Toph had already left.

A little unsure, Katara opened the door and entered the room. At least twenty faces turned to look at her. For a second, Katara thought that nothing was out of the ordinary. Maybe Toph had misinterpreted something Zuko had told her. But then she saw him.

'Is is an honor to have you here, Miss Katara,' said Admiral Nasou, his voice smooth.

Katara nodded, almost in shock, while trying to find Zuko in the crowd. There he was – he looked almost as stunned as she felt – seated at the head of the table. At his side was Iroh, there was an empty chair to his left. She took it.

'Now, Admiral,' said Zuko, 'what was the news that was so important that you had to tell us?'

Nasou cleared his throat. 'It appears,' he began, 'that, in regards to the factory that exploded, there were extenuating circumstances that were not looked into at the time. It appears,' he paused for a moment, 'that the Fire Nation was not entirely to blame for that the explosion, and that the factory owners had not taken the appropriate safety precautions when the building was built. Until an official investigation has been made, the Fire Nation,' his eyes darted to Iroh, 'cannot be held to blame for the incident.'

There was silence. Katara couldn't believe it.

Did he just – did Nasou just admit – wait, does this mean - ?

It seemed as if everyone else in the room was thinking along the same lines as Katara, the voices in the room rose. She heard fragments of sentences – 'this cannot be true', 'conspiracy!' – but nothing complete. The voices ran like a flowing river, bubbling and murmuring, with no beginning and no end. They grew louder and more indignant, until Nasou very suddenly stood up, and every mouth in the room instantly shut. A second later, Zuko rose too.

'However,' said Nasou, 'before the Fire Nation can be cleared of its debt, I ask that the Fire Lord visits Sho Lei to see the factory for himself, to understand the extent of the damage caused. Perhaps then,' the admiral's eyes narrowed, and he smiled, 'he will not be so eager to abandon his nation's debt.'

Of course Nasou would ask Zuko to go with him when, of course, there was no other option. Nasou's words, smooth as silk and seemingly as harmless, were actually steel, and there was no escaping it. If Zuko refused, it would look as if he didn't trust the Earth Kingdom, or simply didn't care for the plight of its people.

'Very well. I will go.' Because, of course, it wasn't as if Zuko was able to mull over the decision.

And so, Fire Lord Zuko agreed to accompany Admiral Nasou of the Earth Kingdom to Sho Lei – along with fifty of the Fire Nation soldiers. Just in case.

Of what?

*

After everything had been settled, the meeting quickly broke up. After all, it was nearly dark, and all the Fire Nation court members were eager to return to their respective homes. Fortunately, for Katara, hers was in the same building, so it only took her a minute or so to reach her bedroom.

'Katara?'

She turned around. It was Zuko.

'I just wanted to say …' for someone who should be looking happy – well, as happy as Zuko could be – he looked almost nervous, 'thank-you. For your idea of melting down stuff – it was really helpful.'

'Oh. Okay.' Katara wasn't really sure what to think. 'It was nothing, really.'

There was a pause.

'So,' said Katara, 'I suppose you'll be leaving for Sho Lei soon, right?'

'Yes.' Zuko reached up to rub the back of his neck. 'Actually, that's sort of what I wanted to ask you about.'

'Okay.' Katara took a step closer to Zuko.

'Will you go with me? I mean, Uncle is staying behind in the Fire Nation because I want someone that I trust,' an edge of bitterness rose in Zuko's voice, 'in charge.'

'Well that's understandable,' said Katara, 'but, Zuko, I'm meant to be leaving for the South Pole tomorrow.'

Zuko's eyes dropped to the ground. 'I know,' he said. 'But I thought that we could ride ahead on Appa with Akako and Koji and Sokka, drop them off at the South Pole, then meet up with Nasou and his troops at Sho Lei.'

A cool breeze touched the back of Katara's neck, she turned to look out of the window. The sky was purple-blue, several stars already out in the sky. For several seconds, Katara said nothing. Then:

'Okay then.'

As if there had actually been a decision involved.

AN: Sorry for how ridiculously long it took to get this up - before throwing rotten fruit at me, remember why you love Now and Then, right? Also, everyone seemed to want longer chapters so I tried ... whatcha think of this one? And, just for the record, I AM so going to finish the story, no matter how long it takes me to write chapters. Because the epilogue I've got in mind is freakin' amazing - or at least in my opinion :)

Also ...

Avatar Zura - when I say 12th Avatar, I mean 12th as in Air, Water, Earth, Fire ... not the 12th firebending Avatar, just the 12th - if that makes sense. Might write more of him into the story, if I get the chance.

Iroh teaching Koji the Tsungi horn - What? Zuko always refused to ...

Was Aang actually dead during CROD? I've got the ep on my ipod - don't laugh ... - and I was watching it, trying to figure out if Aang was dead or not. I've noticed that, when Katara first catches him his mouth is open, but during the shot where Zuko and Azula are walking forward - I'm-gonna-kill-you style - his mouth is closed. So, what do you think?

Ooh, before I forget, Akako is Japanese name for 'red', which is why it's Toph's nickname for her. Don't ask how Toph knows - she's just cool like that. I'm putting it here now because I always forget to xD

Next chapter will be set at the South Pole, which means more Suki and Saika! *yay*

Please review!

(And, while you're waiting for Shantih to write another chapter, go read Another Brother by AvacadoLove. It's completely and utterly AMAZING. However, this story is rated T, so read at your own discretion.)