Hello, readers! Thanks for all of the positive comments, as well as the many reviews encouraging me to 'let her know that Zuko is the Blue Spirit'. But here's my question.

What makes you so sure that Zuko is the Blue Spirit?

Chapter Six
The Visitor

She trudged up the stairs, moaning quietly as her muscles screamed in protest. She had gone soft after a couple of years, and getting tackled by a fully grown drunkard had shown her just how much work she had to do. Her arms already felt like uncooked squid, and she thought she might have pulled a muscle in her back when she was trying to whip Ju Huan.

But it didn't matter, she was home now. It was dark outside, she had no clue what time it was, but at least she could go undress, crawl beneath the covers and sleep for the next three months. Katara was just beginning to feel better when she came to the top of the stairs… and saw a light coming from her apartment, the door cracked open.

Ice flooded through her veins- she always locked the door, always. The wind couldn't have blown it open, because the door was sheltered. Someone was inside her home without her permission. She heard a low voice, and stiffened, pulling water from her pouches as venom dripped through her thoughts. She wouldn't ask questions.

She heard a high voice shriek, and gasped. Lani was inside the house.

"No!" she whispered vehemently, then moved forward, her fingers tense with the weight of her water, ready to attack whoever put the little girl in danger.

The door opened, and Lani poked her head out, a big smile on her face. "Katara, come inside! You'll never believe who's here!"

"Shh!" she hissed, looking around for any open windows. But it was late, and her neighbors seemed to be asleep- she'd kept her identity a secret, and she'd told Lani never to call her by name. She thanked the spirits that the girl was smart enough to comply (usually) and had been happy to get her a job downstairs in the tea shop. She'd been working for two weeks, and already was earning more money than she was from all her healing. Katara had sent a letter to Iroh as soon as she had shown up, asking if the girl could come live with him.

She stepped inside the room cautiously. Lani was clever, but too many people were manipulative- and that made all the difference. Her hands were still in front of her, and she saw a man facing the opposite wall.

She barely had time to register the blue tattoos before he turned around with a wide smile and catapulted himself at her, wrapping her up in a bear hug and lifting them both into the air with a delighted shout. "Katara!"

"Aang?" she gasped when he put her down, "What are you doing here? How did you find me?" He sat down as she collapsed onto the couch, and leaned back to take her in.

"It wasn't easy. You really worried everyone… but I found you," he added when she looked down in guilt, "and that's what matters."

She looked at him in fascination- he'd grown up so much since the last time she'd seen him- then again, he'd been about to turn fifteen at the time, and now he was seventeen. He'd sprouted up, and was taller than her for the first time. He was still bald, but had grown a chestnut goatee on his chin, and the planes of his face had widened and matured, giving him a manlier look instead of seeming as childlike as he acted.

And from what she could tell, his vegetarian diet and the work he'd been doing on the temple was doing his body good.

"What have you been doing for the past two years that required you going underground, Katara? You have no idea… we all thought you were dead until we finally got your letters." She shifted in her seat, wondering how much to tell him.

"I'm sorry I worried you guys… I just had some things to figure out, and I knew some of you might not understand. Azula's ruined everything. Zuko was getting the nations together, and wanted people to be safe and happy, but all that little brat wants is money and power. Everyone is afraid of her, but no one is willing to help each other."

"Until you came along as the Painted Lady, that is," he said with a knowing smile. She felt her jaw drop, and stared at him in disbelief. "I've been in this city for almost two weeks searching for you, and just a couple of days ago I heard some ladies talking about the mysterious healer called the Painted Lady. I figured it had to be you, so I told someone I had a deadly disease and they told me to come here!"

She raised her eyebrow. "What kind of deadly disease?" she wondered aloud, and he pulled up the sleeve of his orange tunic, displaying oddly familiar dots which spread out like stars along his skin.

"Remember when we went to Omashu and used the pentapuses- pentapi- whatever, to make it look like there was an epidemic? I just did that again!" He grinned widely, then jumped a bit and started rifling through a worn leather pack lying on the floor by his feet. "I almost forgot, here are some letters from everyone!"

"Aang," she asked, looking through the scrolls with urgency, "how did you get these?" He didn't answer, and she looked up from the letters to see him staring contemplatively at her. His grey eyes searched her own, and she felt a tug of affection for the boy she'd freed from the iceberg so long ago. He put his hand over hers, and she flinched.

"Katara, I've been looking for you for the past year." She hadn't expected that, but he went on, "About a year after you disappeared, I got tired of waiting for you to resurface- I had to know if you were okay. I went to all the places we'd been, the South Pole, Ba Sing Se, even Hai Bai's forest, but you were never there and no one remembered seeing you. I never thought you would still be here, not after Zuko… well, after Azula became Fire Lord. But I saw Iroh not too long ago, and he said that there might be some records of your whereabouts in the public offices of Ember Island. I was already there when I got a black ribbon letter from Iroh.

He said he got a letter from you, and that it was from your old address in Caldera. I knew you had to be here, so I came to look for you. I knew you were okay, but…" he looked into her eyes once more, and she felt a rush of sympathy for his struggles, "I had to see you."

She blushed, and pulled her hand away from his. She looked at the letters instead- there was one from Sokka and Suki, a larger scroll from her father, another from Toph and two from Iroh. She ripped open the smaller one and read Iroh's fine handwriting- if she sent Lani to Ba Sing Se, he would train her and look after her. He also added that his offer of help still stood, and that if she ever wanted to reminisce with an old man, his door was always open. She blinked back tears, overwhelmed with a longing for company.

She'd given up so much- a house with a view, a position as an ambassador in court, and most of all, her friends and family. She'd left them waiting, and she knew it.

"Aang," she said quietly, "I'm sorry."

He gave her a hug and then leaned away, not knowing the boundaries anymore. She could tell he was yearning for what they'd had, but she was a different person now. She couldn't pretend anymore.

"What I don't understand is why you had to hide, Katara. I get that you wanted to help people, but why couldn't you have come to the temples with me, or gone with Toph? Were you just tired of us?"

She gasped and looked at him, incredulous. "What? That's crazy! I just needed… I knew Azula would make everything worse, and I just couldn't leave these people to fend for themselves. Toph was helping her people, you were helping yours, and-"

"You were helping yours?" The words were like a slap to the face, and she was right on the brink of snapping back defiantly- yes, they are, Aang- when he said, "You left your people, Katara."

"Don't give me that," she retorted. "For an Avatar, you aren't making me feel as if we're all connected or whatever that spiritual stuff means. All this talk about yours and mine, it's…" She sighed, and suddenly all the anger just left her. "I'm sorry. I don't want to fight with you; things have just been really… hectic."

He nodded and smiled hopefully, letting her know she was forgiven. He always forgave her, it was who he was. "What's been so hectic?" he asked, and she hesitated a moment.

"Do you know how Zuko died?"

He frowned, thinking it over, then shaking his head. She thought for a moment. "Neither do I. And come to think of it, no one else does, either. I still have Mai's letter- she just said he died, no details or anything. And it was never mentioned in any announcements, or books. All I could find was a speculation about him maybe dying in a shipwreck. But I talked to someone from the crew, who told me he didn't remember Zuko at all- it was like something was blocking his head, he got really agitated and-"

"Like Jet?" Aang asked, and she fell silent, her eyes going out of focus as she was taken over by memories. He'd been confused and panicky. He'd shown disorientation, and strange behavior. Jet had been brainwashed to forget everything about Lake Laogi.

"Spirits," she gasped out, then ran to the door, wrenching it open and fleeing to the banister, taking deep breaths as her head swirled sickeningly.

It was Azula, it had always been Azula. She'd brought the Dai Li in to make the crew forget about Zuko. Some were imprisoned- maybe the ones who didn't cooperate. Some were killed- maybe the hypnosis was wearing off. Ju Huan, she thought, where are you?

"Katara, are you okay?" Lani stood in the doorway, soon joined by Aang. They wore matching expressions of concern.

"I'm fine," she forced out, going back inside and struggling to stay calm. Azula had killed her brother for the throne. She'd brought Azula back from the edge of insanity. It was her fault that Zuko was just a pile of ashes. She whimpered and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to swallow the hole inside.

She couldn't tell Aang why she'd stayed in Caldera- Zuko was still real here. She could wander the streets and remember talking with him, laughing with him. She could look up at the palace and remember long meetings followed by quiet moments by the turtle duck pond.

But now, she wasn't so sure the city was her paradise. It had become a cage in a matter of seconds, and Azula was the one who had put the bars around her. She had to fix things before they got worse, it was the only way.

"Aang, I need to talk to you- Lani, please go to bed, it's too late. Sleep on my bed tonight, I'll be there in a bit." The girl nodded and hugged her waist before running into the bedroom and closing the door. Katara sat down and told Aang everything that had just passed through her mind about Azula being the one to orchestrate her own brother's death. His expression grew somber as the night wore on.

"We need to get her off the throne, just tell everyone what you've discovered!" he said, but she shook her head.

"It's not that easy! She hasn't left behind any evidence at all, even if we manage to trace this to the Dai Li, they could have been acting on their own or something!"

"The three year anniversary of the end of the war is coming up next week, Katara, people have endured enough already and-"

"Don't act like you know how it's been here!" she cried, "You've been in the temples meditating and teaching On Ji and Longshot and spirits know who else how to connect with their religion!" An aching silence followed her words, and he wouldn't look her in the eye.

"That was out of line, I'm sorry," she muttered, and he just nodded. She pressed on, "I need to find out exactly how he died, and I need to tell as many people as possible, try to get Azula off the throne. Maybe Iroh will come back until someone can find another heir…"

"I'll stay with you," he said gently, "I left On Ji in charge of the temple, and I really trust her. She's a beautiful person." Something changed in his tone when he talked about her, and Katara felt herself begin to wonder if she'd imagined the longing in his eyes earlier.

"She's nothing compared to you, though," he said, and nuzzled her shoulder teasingly. She wrapped her arm around him as a blue demon masked flittered through her mind's eye.

"Aang…?" she started, and heard him mumble something. There was a pause, and she sighed. "Nothing, never mind. We should get to bed." He sat up and nodded, then put his arms around her and hugged her again, holding the water bender into his chest and burying his face in her hair.

"I'm so glad I found you, Katara. I missed you." She felt tears brimming in her eyes, and bit her lip, hugging him tightly, marveling at how he'd grown. The worst feeling in the world was knowing he felt so strongly for her, and knowing she couldn't give it back.

"Good night," she whispered, and left the room, feeling his eyes on her back as she closed her bedroom door behind her and leaned against it, holding back the whimpers until she was sure she could silently cry. The tears slipped down her cheeks as she undressed and got into bed with Lani, wearing her white sleeping shift. The girl mumbled something and rubbed her face with a small hand before turning over and putting her sweaty palm against Katara's neck.

"Mama," she murmured, and Katara stiffened, then relaxed and shushed her gently, letting the girl fall back asleep. She stroked her brown hair as she thought about what she'd just done- it had been the perfect opportunity to tell Aang about the other reason she stayed in Caldera- the Blue Spirit.

But she hadn't. Maybe she didn't want him to worry about her being stalked by a masked vigilante. Or maybe she just wanted to keep the man to herself- a little secret, something she could cherish alone. There was something about the enigmatic man who guarded her, the mystery which surrounded him. And when he'd fought her for the swords, she'd come closer to him than ever before- she couldn't stop thinking about it.

She thought about telling him of running after the man in the market who had looked like Zuko, but she thought it might be going too far- it was just a delusion, one that was best kept close to her heart. She heard a soft knock on the door and lifted her head to see Aang poking his head in.

"I know you're trying to get to sleep, but I think that we should go see Azula. She still has to be civil to us- maybe we could trick her into giving something away." Her stomach plummeted.

"That's a risky plan. Are you sure you want to go through with it? You could always go back to the other people in your temple. You don't have to go with me." His gaze softened, and she saw the love light up his eyes. She knew she was going to have to hurt him, and the thought alone was enough to make her tear up again.

"You should know better than anyone, Katara. I'd go to the end of the earth for you." And with that, he was gone, leaving her to fall asleep with the weight of the world pressed down on her heart.

The next morning dawned too early for her to comprehend. Lani shifted beside her and mumbled something about tea, and she sat up, shaking the girl gently.

Finally she opened her eyes, staring up at Katara blankly. "Time for you to get down to the tea shop, honey," she said, and Lani yawned. "But I wanted to talk to you about something. You told me you want to be a firebender, right?" She nodded sleepily, and Katara went on. "How would you feel about going to live with my uncle Iroh? He's a… family friend, and a very powerful bender. He's a master, and even had a reputation as being the Dragon of the West."

Lani's eyes widened. "You mean the ex-prince of the Fire Nation? The one who put a siege on Ba Sing Se but stopped, and then freed it after the war? Him?" She nodded, and Lani rocketed up with a squeal of joy. "How do you know him? My papa used to talk about him all the time, before…" she trailed off, looking uncertainly at Katara. "Is this because you don't want me around?" she asked, and Katara smiled gently, hugging the girl close.

"It's not that at all. I just want the best for you, and if you want to learn how to firebend, Iroh is willing to teach you, and give you a job in his tea shop." Lani agreed with a little grin, and rushed off to tell Aang, who'd become her new best friend over night.

"Remember to wash your hands before you go down to the shop!" Katara yelled after her, knowing she sounded like her mother and not being able to stop the smile from spreading across her face. All those years of looking after Sokka had paid off. She put a robe on and walked out of the room, bundling her brown hair around one shoulder and greeting Aang good morning, somewhat awkwardly. She wasn't used to having people around, and even though she'd known him for a long time, she was dreading the moment he brought up his feelings for her.

She saw Lani run out the front door, shutting it with a bang as Aang chuckled. "How old is she?" he asked, and Katara sat across from him at the rickety little table.

"She's seven. She got into a little trouble on the streets, and I saved her. She's been with me for a couple weeks, but I'm sending her to Iroh for an education."

He nodded, then leaned forward, blushing and rubbing the hair on his chin. "Katara, we need to talk. I looked for you for a long time, and now that I found you, I-" He broke off as the door slammed open to reveal Lani, trembling and pale faced. She rocketed forward and Katara caught her as the girl started sobbing.

"What is it? Lani, are you hurt? Tell me!" she begged, and the little girl looked up into her eyes, her whole body shaking and terror visible in her tears.

"There's a dead man outside," she whispered.

"Stay in the house," she heard herself command, and looked to Aang. He nodded wordlessly, scooping the girl up and taking her into the bedroom, talking to her in the low voice she remembered him using with Appa when the bison was startled. She raced out of the house, only just recalling the need to put on her cloak before people recognized her.

She could see a crowd gathering at the bottom of the stairs, and pushed her way through until she saw what had scared Lani so bad. She retched on the spot, looking into the faraway eyes of the dead man.

Ju Huan had been stabbed through the stomach and left to die. The red liquid had congealed around the wound, and pooled around his body. It was too big to be a knife wound, but it wasn't from bending, either- no burns, no crushed bones from earth bending. And she was the only water bender she knew of in town.

She looked at the crowd of people, wondering if they knew who the man was, but they showed nothing but horror and disgust. They couldn't have killed him.

Something caught her eye, and she zeroed in on the shadowed alley across the tea shop she stood in front of. There had been just the slightest glimmer, but she'd seen it. Her eyes strained to see through the darkness, but soon something stepped forward, throwing the figure into relief.

The Blue Spirit stared impassively at the scene- no, at her. His body was still, and his swords glinted off a rare beam of sunlight for just a moment before he drew back into the shadows, effectively disappearing. She felt rooted to the spot, horrified.

"What have you done?" she whispered, her words lost in the chaos of the murder.

What are your thoughts? Who do you think the Blue Spirit is? And what do you think will happen when Aang and Katara go see Azula? Review!

-Aleina