Zebradonkey: All those decisions, so little time. Mai could kill Zuko again.

Aryck1095: Choices, choices. Yes it is almost over. I'd say 4 more and I'm done. Maybe less.

my trancey inspiration:Welcome back. I read a lot on my phone. I get what you're saying. Untwisting is posing quite a problem. What a compliment - that it could almost been seen as animated. I'm still pondering that. Thank You!!

Faithful Kataanger:That was such a high praise. I try really hard to keep the ocness out. I want a realistic reaction so I'm glad I've achieved it. Yes it may actually...still torn.

dhygn: Confusion reigns in this fic. I'm confused.

86thetomato: Welcome, Hi! Thanks for loving the story, its become my baby. I was pretty bad towards Katara but I detest cheaters and well one reaps what they sow. She now truly understands what its like when someone throws you aside. Zuko was looking for Mai but...it will be explained in later chapters.

I have one question though... Have Mai and Aang been intimate? That was a totally blunt question loved it.

skyhigh18:I love Mai too. Zuko will get his chance to grovel. I am definitely leaning towards Maang with tints of Kataang. Haha- I don't think Aang would mind two beautiful girls with him at all times but i don't want to corrupt him too much.

doctor anthony:Thanks. Glad you're sticking it out.

Sifu arizony: You bring up so many interesting points that it would probably take a whole chapter to answer them all. I'm very pleased that all the emotions are coming through all right.

Sironblood1: Aang hasn't found out about the spies yet. That should be fun. Sokka is a little tramp, I can totally see your point.

Well starting to wind it down. All the tough choices will have to be made. Most of the answers will be in the next chapter with the last ones as epilogues.

Enjoy

Zuko took several rickety breaths, his lungs becoming accustomed to the air filling them. Katara watched anxiously. Zuko had yet to open his eyes.

"He'll be fine. He did die, Katara. In a couple of hours he'll be his usual surly self." Aang yawned.

Katara tucked the sheet around the unconscious Zuko, addressing Aang. "I know. I've dealt with dead benders before. You took more than a few hours to wake up."

Aang's was brought back into wakefulness by her reproachful words. "I'm sorry you had to deal with that. If I had done my job and mastered what Guru Pathik had told me, maybe none of this wouldn't have happened."

He tried not to wonder about how things would have turned out if he had not been shot down in Ba Sing Se.

"We wouldn't have needed Zuko's help because the Firelord would have been defeated at Day of Black Sun and we wouldn't have had to spend so much time at the palace, giving you and Zuko and excuse to grow so close together."

"Is that what you think caused this? Zuko and I just growing together?"

"Isn't it. Isn't that what you told Mai? That you were lonely because I was gone." Aang retorted.

Katara shifted uncomfortably, "Well yes…"

"I'm tired, I'm going back to bed." He shuffled to the doorway intent on getting back to his room.

"With Mai," Katara had not meant for him to hear it.

"What do you want from me, Katara?" Aang said, his body was drained and he didn't think he had it in him to have this conversation with Zuko present. Unconscious or not.

"I've been trying to talk to you for a while but every time I try you walk away." Katara had hoped that maybe they could finally clear the air but he was being difficult.

'It was time we come to a decision.' The time for talking and explanations was long past due but she kept chipping at him. Exasperated he told her, "I don't want to spend my life like this. I want a clean break, a new beginning. I'm done with the shadows of our past hanging over me. I want peace, Katara."

"I do too. This isn't any easier for me you know." Katara paced the room. 'If she kept up her anger then maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad, she could get through this. She had to.'

"Like tonight, it rips me to shreds to see you with her. To hear about all the things you did together here in this temple. To see her wear the robes that were intended for me. Robes that Toph had to talk you into buying for me but that you made for her in less than a year."

It finally happened the dam burst and that the things they had bottled up inside came rushing out.

"Because having to visit you in your new home was such a wonderful experience for me right?" he shouted, for once he let go of his anger and directed it to its source. "Or how about learning from Mai what the hell you been caught doing in the war room. That was our place Katara. That was ours and you sullied it with him."

"You don't even know what happened. Just what Mai told you. How do you know what she told you was accurate, Aang. Did you ever bother to ask me." she cried.

"I did, at camp. You dodged the question. Well go ahead, Katara. Prove Mai wrong, what really happened with Zuko. If you didn't sleep with him how far did you go?" He almost never lost his temper but this was still a raw wound for him. Her continued denials only leading him to believe more had happened.

"I came close ok. We did everything but. Are you happy is that what you wanted to hear? I messed around in the war room because I got carried away in the moment. I wish I had never let him touch me, I wish you had never touched her."

Katara took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her ears. "I've been honest. How far have you and Mai gone?"

"Don't ask me that." Aang rubbed his head stalling for time.

What she had heard as Mai interrogated the spy was still haunting her, "I need to know."

"Why do you need to know? Why? I don't see how this has anything to do with us." He snapped his patience completely eroded.

"It has everything to do with us. Why can't you answer me?" Katara stepped up to him, her angry blue eyes boring into his equally angry gray ones.

"Because I don't want to hurt you," he turned his back to her but he could practically hear the wheels turning inside her head as she processed his response or lack of.

"You've been intimate, that's why it's so hard to answer. That's why this is your home now. Because she is here. I don't understand you said you never wanted to live in the temples because of the memories."

Katara's hand froze in midair, his back was hunched. He was already withdrawing from her and if she was to have any shot at reconciliation she had to be smart. Her hand dropped to her side, waiting for him to break the tense silence.

"She's erased a lot of the bad memories." His next words echoed in the chamber, "we were at this temple because I couldn't bear to be on the island." He queried, "you remember the island don't you?"

She bit her lip, "Of course I remember the island---"

He interrupted her, "the home I built for us to be and grow old together in. Where we would raise our children and teach a new set of airbenders or waterbenders."

She looked at him with shame plastered over her face.

"…you forgot didn't you?" His ire died at her downcast expression. "I always had every intention of getting those robes. Traditionally in my culture you only made them as an betrothal present."

Katara covered her mouth with her hands, bitter tears leaking out of her. 'What had her actions set into motion. '

Aang had not wished to distress her further but she had wanted the truth and he was complying with her wishes. "I was trying to give you time. You had told me you were not ready to be married."

His heart was shattering again, he'd always been so in tune with her that her pain was like his own. "I was willing to wait because I loved you."

"Loved me?" she echoed.

Aang removed her hands from her face, "why didn't you tell me how you felt? I thought we were friends first. I confided everything to you. Why didn't you do the same?"

"You already know. So much was riding on you fathering children. Everybody knows that all airbenders sire nothing but benders. I wanted to marry you but I didn't want to be the future of the air nation. I didn't want that responsibility. I needed to be a woman who could be in love with her man without any expectations from the rest of the world."

"We would have had children at some point." He reasoned, not understanding why this had driven them apart. He tried not to imagine the beautiful combination of him and Katara showcased in a child.

"That's true but it would have been when we were ready. Honestly, you wouldn't have left me alone if I had become pregnant." Katara said her hand reaching out for his. "I didn't want you to have to choose between your duty and me. I couldn't do that to you."

He looked down at their entwined hands and it dawned on him how much of himself he had lost along the way. "I wouldn't have to choose, you're right. I would always pick you first. You've always been first in everything I do. We still could have made it work."

"I loved you so much that I tore our relationship apart in the worst way imaginable. I was trying to protect you and broke us in the long run." She snorted at the irony. "Its too late for us, isn't it?" she asked sadly.

"I can't love you the same. There will always be something between us. I forgave Zuko at the Spirit Oasis and I forgave you as well as myself. That doesn't change that he has a piece of you I can never claim just as Mai has a piece of me," he answered as honestly as he could.

She sighed but it was a sigh of defeat. "I thought at first that maybe you just fell in with her because you were united in heartache. I really believed that I might have another chance with you."

She would have done anything to go back to the time when he gazed at her in adoration. Her face the only one in his mind. "You really love her. She'll be good to you right? Tell me she'll love you better than I did," she whispered her face now buried in his shoulder.

"Nobody will ever love me like you did." Her laugh was watery making Aang tighten his arms around her. "Nobody will ever love you like I did," he said and she removed herself from his arms.

"Can we still be friends?" Katara asked. Because being friends with him would be better than nothing.

"Always. Katara. I will always be there if you need me." Aang replied. He stretched and popped his neck. "Are you going to be ok?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. Go back to sleep. We're going to need your energy to clean up the mess all four of us did to the temple." Katara said laughing lightly.

Aang saw through her facade. She was hiding behind a pleasant mask, but if that was what she needed he wouldn't begrudge her that. "Sokka's whole room needs to be repaired. I guess I'll have to be more careful in the future." he chuckled.

Katara's smile lifted a little when she saw his trademark grin. It had been a long time since he'd been that happy. Their talk seemed to have lifted a large burden off him, revealing the goofy kid he would always be.

"Night, Katara."

"Night, Aang." Katara waved.

Her mask crumbled when he was gone from view. She sunk to her knees in front of Zuko and clutched at the blanket hanging off him. She wailed into it, her slim body trembling with her anguish. She didn't resist as Zuko's hand rested on her back.

He couldn't give her what she needed. She had deluded herself and now he was all she had left. She didn't fight him but she didn't seek him either. His hand just kept patting her.

She knew that her happiness now depended on Mai.

Aang's room -

Aang slowly opened the door into his room. Its members were still asleep completely oblivious to the carnage that had happened a few rooms away. He left the safety of the doorway and approached her. Mai was still on her side, her breathing steady.

He tiptoed in as quietly as he had tiptoed out but he'd forgotten she was a light sleeper. "Aang?"

He shushed her and adjusted himself on the bed. She was a little stiff but her body instantly softened into his. Her face was still averted towards the wall, curious he turned her to face him. The trail of tears glistened in the pale light emphasizing her heart shaped face. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head causing her hair to obscure her face from his. "Mai, please don't hide from me. I've had enough secrets to last a lifetime."

She didn't respond at first just shaking head over and over. She just clutched him as if he was going to disappear again. In a soft voice she said, "I thought... I'm glad you came back."

Understanding what she had been through, he held her letting her cry out her fears. Once she was calm, he stroked her hair. His fingers trailed through its dark strands, "I'm yours as long as you want me."