A.N.: I am truly ashamed that I let two years slip by without updating this! I thank you all so much if you're reading this for the first time, rereading it to get reacquainted, or have left reviews or added it to your favorites. I really do appreciate it! If you are rereading this, I have begun to rewrite this, to extend the details, and work out some errors that I made in the original form. I will be not only updating what is already here, but I will be adding new chapters, and concluding this story by the end of the year. Thank you again for your patience and I hope you are all still interested! This is the seventh chapter to be rewritten as of July 17, 2010.

Of course I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender or any of the characters except for Kelyin, Ren, Shaya, and the Outcasts. Though you will later find out, I'll make it clear now that everyone is 3 years older. Zuko was 16, now 19, Katara 14/17, Sokka 15/18, Aang 12/15, Toph 12/15. Also, the events of this story were written after the second season, so please disregard all events from the final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

/. /. / CHAPTER 7: The Cocoon and the Mammoth

/. /. / KYOSHI ISLAND

Her fingers carefully untied the knot in the thin piece of brown cloth tied at his waist. His shirt slid from his shoulders, falling to the ground behind him. Mismatched hands, one completely burned, the other half healed, enclosed on her wrists as she fingered the fastening of his pants. Brilliant blue eyes met tortured gold. He shook his head no.

"I have to, Silent. For it to work, you must be nude. The healing water has to reach every injured inch of your body. Every burned pore of your skin." He shook his head no again and tried in vain to push her hands away. He was still incredibly weak. "Please, Silent. I can't make the Cocoon if you won't let me remove your pants." His eyes were pleading. "I've seen naked men before, and I've already seen you." He looked away and his hands reluctantly slid from her wrists, hanging defenselessly at his sides. Moments later he stood, naked, in the middle of the stream, Kara positioned a few yards away.

"I need you to clear your mind, Silent. If you think about the pain, how you got the wounds, or any terrible memories, your mind will close to my abilities and your wounds will resist. Keep your mind open and clear. Let the water in and let it engulf you. Close your eyes and breathe calmly." Slowly, his eyes closed and he inhaled with difficulty, making a raspy wheeze. She took a deep breath and sank herself deep into her thoughts. 'The water, I am like the water. Smooth, flawless, steady. We are one. Let the water flow through me and wrap him in soothing waves and make him smooth, flawless, and steady, like the water.' She chanted in her mind. She lifted her arms. Water moved up her legs, winding around her stomach, flowing from her arms and reaching for Zuko in soft transparent ribbons, glowing with an eerie light.

The ribbons engulfed him. He breathed slowly, in through his nose and out through his mouth, doing his best to keep the flow of air steady. His mutilated body began to relax, the tense muscles unknotting, his weary arms and legs becoming pleasantly limp as the water slowly lifted him, turning him gently as it spun around him. His whole body tingled as the water sank into his every wound. It was the most wonderful thing he'd ever felt. The pain. That damned pain that kept him from functioning as a human being, kept him from getting a decent rest, kept him from walking without his whole body screaming in protest was actually dissipating. He couldn't feel anything now. He could hear Kara's silent chant as the water swirled around him. They were suddenly bonded in this beautiful moment, made one by the water. He didn't want it to end…

/. /. / KYOSHI ISLAND

Katara felt the water rush over him. She felt it as though she were touching him herself, running her fingers over each burn and each forgotten cut below the burns. A faint blush, hidden by the makeup, crept across her cheeks as the burns went away and she could feel the soft porcelain colored skin of his back, the fragile bones of his ribcage sheathed with that skin, the newly reforming muscles of his long legs.

Carefully she lowered her arms, bringing the sphere down, letting the healing water dissolve, becoming part of the stream once more. She watched in awed silence as Zuko slowly stood. He had turned while in the Cocoon and his back was now facing her. He was standing straight for the first time since she'd seen him back in the crystal prison. His painful hunched shoulders and stooped posture had disappeared, replaced by a tall, straight back, which was covered in vicious whipping scars, like those she'd healed on the first day. 'They must have been hidden under the massive burn.' she thought to herself as she watched him. She couldn't help but let her eyes roam over him. She'd never noticed, back when he was the enemy, what a perfectly shaped skull he had beneath the long diamond shaped lock of hair. His head was smooth and round, supported by a long, thin neck with a horrid scar across it from where it looked like his throat had been slit. It, like several other scars that he still possessed, had managed to resist the Cocoon. Another blush crept over her cheeks as her eyes followed down his back, taking in his slim waist and thin hips, as well as his naked buttocks. His legs were hidden by the water. She took a few cautious steps forward, but he didn't seem to hear her. He was looking down at his hands, two strikingly pale hands. He seemed lost in concentration, temporarily forgetting his whereabouts and company. She watched as she examined them, first the palms, then the backs, experimentally flexing his fingers. She looked at his hands as well from her place a few feet away. His fingers were long and slender, made more for playing an instrument, drawing, or sculpting, wasted in fighting. She wondered to herself, if he hadn't grown up during the war, perhaps born to the Water Tribes or Earth Kingdom during the old peaceful times, maybe he would have been a great writer or artist.

"Silent?" She spoke softly. He slowly looked over his shoulder, turning a bit to face her, seemingly embarrassed by his deep stupor. His face was still marred by the horrible mark from his father across his left eye and over his ear, but besides a few of the older burns from the beginning of his torture, his face was healed, along with his scalp. His chest and abdomen were almost completely healed besides the random burns in the shape of fists. "Can you speak?" He timidly opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. "Come with me." She led him to the stony bank. He moved to where his clothing lay and pulled his pants back on. Kara spread a blanket on the ground. "Lay here on your back with your head in my lap." He gave her a questioning look. "Just please, come and lay." He cautiously obeyed, laying on his back in front of her. She guided his head to lay in her lap.

Cool, gentle hands wrapped in water closed around his throat. She could feel him flinch slightly as she concentrated the water into the wound. It was incredibly stubborn and unyielding. "Just relax and try your best to take deep breaths." She focused everything she had on the wound. He breathed in slow, shallow, rasps. She could feel the bitter wound dissolving, taking her energy with it. His breath became deeper and quiet, healthy and full. She could feel him breathing, struggled and shallow. Slowly, it deepened, becoming free and normal. After a moment, she removed her hands. The scar was still there, but merely a faint remnant of what it originally was. "Try speaking again, tell me your name." She was suddenly weary. The cut across his throat had stolen more energy than all his other wounds combined.

He softly touched his throat and opened his mouth to speak. "… Lee…" His voice was still sore and raspy, but it was very much audible. She smiled, exhausted.

"Nice to meet you, Lee…" Her eyes unfocused and she tipped backwards as her overwhelming weariness took over.

"Katara!" was the last thing she heard before hitting the ground.

/. /. / ON THE CLIFFS, A FEW MILES FROM THE BEI FONG ESTATE

Longshot helped Toph dismount the ostrich horse. Once on the ground, Toph could feel the vibrations of heavy foot falls approaching, sending the foggy silhouetted image of a mammoth man in her minds eye.

"Someone followed us!" Toph shouted, flexing her arms to levitate two boulders from a few feet away. She threw her arms toward the giant man, sending the boulders flying.

"Hey! Watch it!" His voice was husky and baritone, a horse rumble issuing from deep within his throat. It seemed to come from far above her.

"No one followed Ms. Bei Fong, I'd like you to meet our friend Ren Nokura," B spoke, "and Ren, this is Toph Bei Fong." Toph held out her hand.

"Good to meet you." A large calloused hand shook hers.

"Little jumpy there with the attacks, aren't you?"

She yanked her hand away. "Do you blame me? I felt the earth shake with your approach, like an avalanche. How tall are you?"

"6'7, and I'm guessing 5 feet even for you, short stuff."

"What, did you aspire to be a mountain when you were a kid?" She grinned and took a step back. "I bet I'm still stronger than you." She lowered her hands toward the ground.

"Oh no you don't." B grabbed her hands. "We're on a cliff, remember? No bending here. You and Ren can fight it out later, where we know that no one will fall to their deaths."

"Well, shouldn't we get going then?" Ren's voice rumbled.

/. /. /

A figure, as still as a statue watched from behind the rocks several yards away as the group with the kidnapped child advanced toward the edge where the giant air bison floated lazily. Her hair was jet black, falling over one eye. Her face was white as snow with blood red lips and heavy grey makeup circled her cold dark eyes.

"This bounty will be like taking candy from a baby." She smiled cruelly.

/. /. / POST SCRIPT AUTHORS NOTE:

P.S.A.N. : For those of you that have already read this story before, there will likely be some brand new content in the next chapter. In this rewrite, 106 words were added, mostly in the descriptions of Zuko. Speaking of Zuko, if you want to see an amazing painting of Zuko and Mai, or just Zuko alone, go to missbennetdeviantart (don't forget to add the www and the .com as well as the period between missbennet and deviantart.)

Isn't that beautiful? Seeing Zuko look so real, and that attractive… yeah, it's a really good painting…. then I look at Dev Patel and get depressed. Zuko fan girls everywhere went to see 'The Last Airbender' and went "… oh…"