Ok, ok, before I start I have to begin with an apology. I am so sorry I haven't written in a while. This is one of the three stories I'm highly committed to right now and it's kind of gotten thrown under the bus for a while. However, now it's back and I promise I will try to write more often. Thank you for all your reviews. You guys are amazing! Also, I'm a little rusty with these characters so forgive me if this isn't one of my best chapters. Ok, that's it. I love all you guys. Keep up the reviews and the love.

Why am I doing this? Why am I going back to the place where I messed up so many times! I thought as my wings beat the air. Max, My mind told me. I nodded mentally. Max needed me.

When I had told the rest of the flock my plan they hadn't been optimistic. I didn't blame them. However, when they faced the reality of Max's situation they agreed. With Fang staying behind with her and Nudge in a cave we'd found, the rest of the flock had followed me back through the dark portal.

And know we were flying over the trees of an earth kingdom forest. "Zuko! Where are we?" I heard Gazzy call.

"The Earth kingdom," I told him. He didn't say anything else but I knew the three of them were confused. Suddenly, a sent caught my nose, the sweet, silky scent of jasmine mint tea. I shot towards the scent, excitement fueling my actions. I heard Angel calling after me but ignored her. My uncle was down there and I needed to see him.

I landed in the woods and saw uncle look up from his tea. "Hello?" He called. I pulled in my wings and slowly began to walk into the clearing.

I heard Iggy, Gazzy and Angel land quietly behind me. "What are you doing?" I heard Angel breathe. I ignored her.

Uncle saw me. "Wh-?" He began. However as I stepped completely out of the trees, my hair flapping slightly in front of my eyes, his face rang with recognition. "Oh, Zuko, good you're back. I figured you'd fly off while I was gone."

I had to remind myself time hadn't passed while I was gone so he hadn't noticed my absence. I looked down at the ground and then back at uncle. "Actually uncle, I've been gone for about two days." Confusion crossed his face so I took my time to explain. When I got to part about the flock I waved the other guys forward. As they came into our clearing uncle's eyes widened a mile wide.

"Amazing," I heard him whisper.

"So you believe me?" I asked him.

He nodded. "How could I not, the proof is kind of right in front of me." I smiled and sighed with relief. Not that I didn't think uncle would believe me…it's just that, it's pretty hard to believe.

"Well, why have you come back?" Uncle asked.

"We have a problem," I told him. I then explained how we had to find someone who could heal.

Uncle eyes shifted, as if he were thinking. "Well, you don't know this. I heard it from a man in the market. He's heard the water tribe girl traveling with the Avatar can…" I cut him off.

"No! I'm not getting them involved. I left all that here."

"Look, Zuko. I haven't heard anything about more healers. If you really want this girl to be okay you need to track down the Avatar and his friends and convince him to save your friend!"

I groaned and turned and hit a tree in frustration. Suddenly, I felt something warm on my leg. I was about to flick whatever it was away but when I looked down I found Angel hugging me. "Please find the healer Zuko. We need to save Max. We can't survive without her." I looked over at Gazzy and Iggy and they nodded solemnly. I looked back at Iroh and he shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my neck. "Fine, let's go," I said and without another word I ran across the clearing and jumped into the air.

I have to admit, it's a lot easier finding the Avatar when you have wings. Uncle told me, once I had landed with the reality of needing a plan, that the group had left Ba Sing Se after it had fallen to the fire nation. Apparently, Azula had kidnapped the healing girl and imprisoned her in the old catacombs under the city. Aang, the Avatar, had gone to save her but was shot down. The last anyone had ever heard of them were that they had fled the city.

I rubbed my forehead, trying to think. "They need a mode of transportation. Something the fire nation won't shoot down or become suspicious of," I said, thinking. "They wouldn't have taken the sky bison and they couldn't travel on foot with the Avatar hurt." A moment of silence followed my speculation. "Water. That's the only way out of the city. They probably stole a fire nation ship and are sailing under false pretenses." I looked over to my uncle. He was nodding his head.

"That is quite possible. They will probably sailing toward the fire nation. They'll be looking for a fire bender to teach Aang." I nodded.

"Let's go," I said, longing to be back in the air. "We'll just look for a fire nation ship sailing away from Ba Sing Se. Any other ship will sail toward it under orders." Everyone nodded.

"Do you want to eat before you go?" Uncle asked. Iggy turned toward his voice.

"It would be smart," he said, hesitantly.

Angel nodded as well. She looked over at the setting sun. "We could also wait for the sky to darken. We could fly out in the open without anyone seeing us."

I groaned and clenched my fists. We need to save Max, I thought desperately. However, I also knew they were right. Turning back around, I agreed that we wait until dark. So we all gathered around Uncle's warm fire to wait out the light.

Finally, after what seemed like a millennium of waiting (really it was only an hour) we took flight to search for the Avatar. Like I said, I wish I had wings before now. We flew just below the clouds, raking the ships with our eyes for evidence of the Avatar. Most ships were sailing back towards Ba Sing Se.

We had probably been flying a few hours when Angel complained. "Zuko, I'm tired. When will we call it a night?" I have to admit, I was getting pretty tired myself.

"Ten more minutes," I called back, surging forward. I heard groaning behind me but ignored it. Please, please, please. I thought frantically.

Suddenly, I saw something. Something I'd seen before. Something that usually caused a fire of hate to flare up in me but now it caused happiness to grow in me. "There!" I cried and dropped clean out of the sky toward the ship slowly making its way toward the fire nation, a large bulky animal sitting on the main deck of the ship.

I pulled out of my sharp dive and landed on the deck. A man turned and saw me. "Who?" He asked. I folded up my wings as best I could and stepped forward. That's when he recognized me. "Intruder!" his deep voice rang out over the silence of the night. I was about to tell him I come in peace or something but, before I could, I felt a deep pain in my head, and then everything went black.

Sokka's point of view

I dragged Zuko slowly towards the brig. Why was this horrible murderer here, I didn't know. I figured he would be heading back to fire nation or something. However, right then, all I cared about was getting him some place he couldn't hurt anyone.

A yawn broke through my lips. I looked up at the bright moon, high in the sky. It was still really late or really early. I groaned in annoyance but continued dragging the unconscious body forward. All of a sudden, I felt the body move. "Great," I muttered. Zuko groaned and I resisted the urge to kick him.

When I finally reached the brig, I opened a cell door and threw him in making sure his head hit the wall hard. He gasped and held his skull. "Why are you even here?" I spat at him. He shook his head and looked up at me.

Then suddenly, he jumped forward at the bars. I gasped and drew my club. "Please," he said. I frowned at his tone. He sounded so pleading, so sad. "Please, I need to speak to your sister. She has healing ability right?"

I knit my eyebrows. Why did he want to see Katara? "I'll pass on the message," I said roughly.

He widened his eyes in desperation but eventually spoke. "I'm not the same person who chased you before."

I scoffed at him. "Prove it!"

He looked at me and stood up. All of sudden, long dark black wings protruded out of his back. I gasped and backed up slightly in shock. "What the…?" I exclaimed.

"I was sick…I grew wings," he said, "I don't know how."

"Why do you need Katara?" I asked, suspiciously. He rolled his eyes and rubbed his neck in annoyance.

"Can't I talk to her?"

I shook my head. "Tell me!"

He glared at me but finally said, "There's a portal. It goes to a different world. I met more teens like me…with wings. The leader…she's beautiful! She got injured…she could die! I need to save her. I can gain her trust and she could like me back. Please, help me!"

I stared at him. The story sounded true enough but I was reluctant to help him. He obviously saw this and cried, "Have you ever been in love?" I paused, Yue and Suki crossing my mind. "What if she was going to leave you, would you do anything for them?" I turned so he couldn't see my face. I tried to save Yue, but I failed. I turned back and sighed.

"Fine, I send for Katara." With that I turned and went to find Katara.

Zuko's point of view

Not long after Sokka had left, Katara appeared. "What do you want?" Her tone was annoyed and I didn't blame her. I quickly explained what was going on and that I needed her. She stared at me for a while but finally groaned. "Why should I help you? Your people killed my mother!"

I stared at her and finally said, "Well, that's something we have in common." As she looked at me I told her about my mother. She looked down and then walked closer.

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed. I stepped closer and smiled.

"Could you please help her? Please?" I begged, taking her hands through the bars. She stared into my eyes, biting her lip. Finally, she nodded.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" I cried, hugging her, sending us both slamming into the bars.

"What the…?" We turned and saw Aang standing there, wrapped in bandages. Katara quickly explained that she would go to Max with me and be back within a few days. Aang, however, wasn't okay with this. "I'm coming with you!"

"I'll be okay, Aang," Katara insisted. But Aang wasn't hearing this.

"No! I don't trust you with him. I'm coming with you!"

"We're all going with you." We turned to find Sokka and the little earth bending girl walking toward us.

I groaned. However, taking everyone was the only way I'd get back to the flock…to Max. I bit my lip and nodded. "They can go," I told Aang. "We'll all go." Aang seemed content with this so they let me out of the brig, much to Sokka's annoyance.

"We can take your bison through the portal but we have to keep it hidden. It'll get you to our hidden cave and then we won't use it."

"Ok," Aang said, annoyance radiating off his words. "His name is Appa, he's not an "it". I'll do it, though. It's a good idea." I smiled slightly and nodded.

Suddenly, we heard a scream coming from the deck of the ship. "Angel!" I remembered and sprinted up the stairs. I found Angel, Iggy and Gazzy in the hands of water tribe men. They were struggling but couldn't shake them.

"Let them go!" Sokka told them. The three fell to the ground, scared. I quickly explained to them what happened and what we were going to do. They agreed rather quickly. With a plan in our minds, we were assigned rooms and fell asleep.

It worked as well as we expected it to. We left around dawn, flying towards the sunrise. The wonderful, familiar feeling of flying sent tingles down my spine and a smile on my face. We reached the portal and led Appa down the tunnel. He resisted at first but Aang eventually got him to follow us and into the portal.

In the other world the sun had barely risen so Aang was able to fly Appa up above the clouds, out of sight, safely. The closer we got to the cave, the more anxious I got. What if Max was worse? What if she had gotten better? What if going to all this trouble had been a waste? What if she was already…No! I couldn't think of that.

Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore. I jumped from Appa's back and flew ahead. I reached the cave and gasped. Nudge lay on the hard rock, fast asleep but her face was contorted in pain. She wasn't, however, who I was worried about. Max lay feet away, her fists clenched, and her body tight. An amateur bandage had been quickly applied to her side but it was still bleeding. Her breathing was raspy and uneven. I looked for Fang, waiting for him to be pacing, waiting for me or maybe holding Max's hand telling her to hold on. However, he sat on a rock beside her. His eyes were shut tight, as if blocking out the world. His fists were at his cheeks, his elbows on his knees. He looked up and saw us. As he did, a single, small tear fell down his cheek. I gulped and gasped for air, holding down my own tears, because I knew what this meant.

It was hopeless!