A/N

The decision is no longer in my readers' hands. You wanted a speedy update, and when I gave you one, half of you complained about it being rushed. There is no question as to why. Please understand that quality takes this writer more time. Thank you.

I will also note that right now school is picking up faster than I expected. Please do not rely on quick updates from me. I will publish chapters when I can.

Plus- this fiction has been TOTALLY uninfluenced by any Season 3 episodes, spoilers, anything Season 3 of any kind! This plot was completely structured on April 3 of this year. Keep. That. In. Mind.

Characters belong to Avatar the Last Airbender, Nickelodeon Studios.

xxx

"You are all… alive…" King Wu said gravely.

Aang shook his head in the affirmative. "We have captured the Princess and her two comrades."

"We felled every balloon." Sokka noted.

"The Fire Nation generals are now surrendering." Iroh finished. "They are being escorted here as we speak."

Wu rose from his throne and stood looking down on the heroes in his hall. He threw out his chest.

"My city…" He boomed.

"Is saved." Aang smiled brokenly.

"… is ruined, Avatar!" King Wu growled. "It will take months- years to repair these damages, not to mention the civilian lives it cost-."

"Sir, we saved lives. And forget your buildings. Those can be rebuilt!" Katara admonished.

"It never would have happened if you hadn't been here in the first place, would it?" Wu sank back into his lavish chair. "I hold you solely responsible for the destruction of the city as well as," he held up a hand to the protests, "the capture of the princess."

Zuko leaned towards Sokka and mumbled. "Oh… So this is how it feels to be on the good side?"

"Not usually. We normally don't get any sort of credit." He replied haughtily.

"In conclusion…" The king continued. "As consequence for your actions… I cannot allow you to live in my palace any longer. You may leave now."

"Very well," Aang cut off his companions' attempted outbursts. "We'll go." He bowed stiffly. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"Do not mock me, Avatar, or I will throw you in jail with the rest of the Fire Nation believers."

Aang ushered his friends out of the hall so they could explode in their anger away from the king.

"That lunatic!"

"Doesn't he realize it would've happened sooner or later?"

"Throw us in jail? He can't do that! Without us the city would've fallen for sure!"

"Guys," Aang called. "Please… What's done is done. We have to move on now."

"Where will we go?" Zuko asked. "You still need to learn earth bending, and it's going to be even harder to find a teacher. We know Wu's going to send out propaganda against us."

Aang sighed. "I'll find someone. It'll just take-."

"Time," Sokka interrupted. "We don't have time, Aang. I'm sorry, but it's spring now. We need to speed things up."

"We, we, we, we…" Aang frowned. "There is no 'we'. We aren't learning earthbending and firebending. I am. We won't have propaganda sent against us. I will. You guys are taking blame that is entirely mine!"

"Well, we are your friends." Katara assured him. "And all of us care."

"I advise that this discussion continue once we leave." Iroh nodded down the corridor. "The guards look a little anxious."

xxx

The group moved about the apartment in slow, evident pain. No one really wanted to leave. The palace had been the closest thing to home any of them had come to in a long time. There was comfort in those walls- a gentle embrace that would be lost to them the moment they stepped outside of the city. The real world was cruel and true. The lie of peace was too easy to live in Ba Sing Se.

Aang finished packing first. His modest lifestyle allowed him only a single bag of effects. He slouched on the living room floor while he waited, Momo curling into his lap like a cat. Zuko joined his solemn companion on the rug a few minutes later.

"We did well." Zuko said softly. Momo leapt into his lap, and he stroked the energetic creature absently. "I didn't honestly think we could do it."

"We've been kicked out." Aang snapped. "This wasn't like we planned."

"Plan?" Zuko scoffed. "We had no plan. Look, considering Azula showed up at our door just this morning, I think we did a good job. The last siege on Ba Sing Se was six hundred days!"

"Exactly. It only took her a few hours to get in."

"She had air power."

"Make excuses all you'd like, but I failed." Aang shifted his leg upright and tucked his knee beneath his chin. "I know you don't like hearing it, Zuko, but we lost."

Zuko jerked his palm in the air so violently that Momo sprang away. "You know, a few months ago I would've agreed with you. Yet somehow I was suckered into this 'positive' way of thinking that you guys are so crazy about, and now I think you're wrong. We're all alive. Azula's in jail. Ba Sing Se is still the greatest Earth Kingdom stronghold in the world! Isn't that good enough for you?"

"No battle would've happened at all had it not been for me." Aang replied sharply.

Rising to his feet with a disgusted sound, Zuko barked, "You're right, Aang. It wouldn't have."

He stalked away from him- too furious to sit in the same room. Instead he knocked gently on Katara's door; she always had a way of calming him down.

"Come in," she beckoned from within the room.

Instantly more relaxed, he shuffled inside and sank onto the nearest piece of furniture. Katara flashed him a smile from her bureau.

"I heard you shout." She commented.

He sighed. "It's Aang."

"He'll be fine. He's a bit shaken- that's all. I mean, we're all a bit broken up by today." Her voice suddenly quieted, and her hands stopped in midair. "Oh, God. Zuko, I thought you were dead!"

He crossed the room in a flash and wrapped his arms around her. "You and me both," he whispered into her hair.

"We'll…" She took an unsteady gulp of air. "We'll all have to exchange stories…later, but…" Stepping away from him, she studied his face worriedly. "You're alright, aren't you?"

"Fine." He held her fingers to his lips. "And you?"

"I'm fine, too… I never even stopped to think. It never even occurred to me to believe them that you were dead. And Sokka… they said something about him. I don't even remember."

"You've never been in battle, have you?"

"No. Well, I can't exactly call you bursting into the South Pole a battle-."

Zuko chuckled nervously around his flushed cheeks.

Katara continued. "And at the North Pole, the men kept me pretty busy elsewhere. Guarding the princess and yada yada."

"I doubt this will be your last experience." Zuko said heavily.

"I do too." She shook her head. "I just want to get this over with."

"That time will come sooner than you'd think." He picked up a folded blanket on her bed and refolded it- a sloppier remake. "Time is never on your side…. Months seemed to crawl back on the ship. Even days were sluggish."

"And so are you guys." Sokka chimed. "C'mon! We need to leave."

Zuko looked skeptical. "You're already packed?"

"As a matter of fact, I've been packed for about fifteen minutes."

"You fit all of your new 'weaponry' into bundles?" Katara folded her hands on her hips.

"Well… I meant clothes-wise I was packed. I haven't started on everything else."

"Then, c'mon!" Zuko mocked. "We need to leave!"

xxx

The five of them stood outside the palace, looking up in its silent grandeur as awed as they had been on their first day. They had finished loading their supplies into Appa's saddle. Dawdling seemed their only option to delay leaving.

"We'll come back." Katara promised them. "When we've defeated the Fire Lord, we'll come back here and celebrate."She looked to Aang for his backup. "Right?"

He jerked his gaze away and said numbly, "Let's go."

xxx

The flight over the city was eerie and gloomy. The buildings were stooped inward, broken and leaning towards the proud heart of Ba Sing Se- the palace: the only unflawed edifice the gang could see from the air. They could see people shifting in the dust, raising their tired heads to see the bison fly over them.

No royal official had seen them off. Appa had simply been loaded up, and the five expressionless people had climbed up onto him and took off into the sunset.

"I don't think I minded skipping the formalities of a royal sendoff." Zuko said sarcastically. He and Katara were curled together at the end of the saddle.

"At least they let us keep the money." Sokka added. He had a small gold pile between his legs, counting and figuring how long they could make it last.

"And the tea," Iroh concluded. "It's so expensive these days."

"Appa won't last long in the air like this. The load's too heavy." Aang shouted from Appa's lead. "We'll land in a couple hours."

"That's the most I've heard him say all evening." Katara muttered.

Time overtook them slowly. Flashes of pink and purple slashed the orange sky above them. Each hue was attempting to steal domination of the dying sunlight. As they watched, the purple quietly engulfed every color until the globe was covered in that dark, soft shade. Just as the first star poked its brilliant head into their midst, Aang lowered Appa to the ground to make camp in the familiar woods outside of Ba Sing Se.

"I'd hoped I'd never have to see this place again." Sokka scowled at the surrounding trees. "Nothing but bad memories."

Zuko and Katara exchanged pleasant grins. "It's not so bad," she remarked.

"Huh! How about Haru? Doesn't that bring to mind some horrible memories?"

Zuko groaned. "I wish you wouldn't mention him."

"I can't even recall these woods." Iroh scratched his head. "I must have slept through the whole thing."

"You're lucky." Sokka unrolled his sleeping bag onto the dry leaves. "I wish I could not remember."

"Would you please be quiet?" Aang demanded. "I'm trying to focus!"

"I liked it better when he didn't speak." Sokka grumbled. "What's your problem anyway?"

Aang held up a palm and wriggled his fingers. "I'm putting my hand," he knelt, "on the ground… to see if there are any other people around. So stand still and be quiet!" He glared at Zuko and Katara. They stopped giggling immediately.

"Oh, yeah. Another thing: you two aren't sleeping next to each other." Sokka pointed at them.

"Sokka-." Katara started.

"Shut up!" Aang screamed once more. The air around camp swirled threateningly.

"Aang," Iroh said calmly. "We have nothing to be afraid of. There are four experienced benders here and one brave, talented soldier. We will be fine."

Sokka puffed out his chest. "Yeah. Brave… Talented-."

"Talk to us, Aang." Katara pleaded. "What's wrong?"

"Last time I let my guard down, every one of you almost died." Aang shook his head roughly. "It's not going to happen again."

Iroh put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What happened in Ba Sing Se was unavoidable. If not Ba Sing Se, then another city. But you are forgetting- Azula was captured. She can no longer threaten anyone, and for that, you should be rejoicing. If every soldier hung onto his defeats, he would no longer be able to face even the simplest routine task. You have to let go of the King's verdict and accept what you have now."

"You're right," Aang admitted reluctantly. "I just have to learn from my mistakes and move on."

Katara sighed. "That's the healthy thing to do, Aang. And think of what you did right, too! Azula is-."

"In jail. I get it."

"It'd be a good idea for us all to go to bed soon. We've had a long day." Sokka noted.

Katara turned back to Aang. "We'll talk in the morning."

"Sure," he said. His voice sounded hollow. "I'm sure we can get everything resolved."

She pulled him into a hug. "I am proud of you, you know. You were amazing today."

"Thanks," Aang muttered. He bit his lip.

Katara grinned at him and began to walk towards her pack.

"Hey," Aang called her back. "I'm proud of you, too."

xxx

A/N

My dang backspace key is… wonky. I have to hit it in just the right spot or it makes this clunky noise. URGH.

So now I'm going to get into the real, original stuff that's not become the common theme (or maybe it has?) for Season 3 fictions. PLEASE understand that this Season 3 fiction was not influenced by anything save what was in Season 2.