Once Yolanda, Hakara and Jin left, Katalina got out of bed and ready for the day. They had gone to work for the rest of the day, but she wasn't feeling up to it. So instead she headed for her secret spot.

When she got there, she followed the same procedure as always. She sat down and meditated, and then returned to her feet and began firebending. Again, she kept her eyes closed and just moved in every which direction. She didn't pay any mind to the space around her. Until she was suddenly stopped by another hand as she sliced it through the air. Her eyes shot wide open and she was expecting to see Jet standing in front of her.

It wasn't him.

"I feel like firebending with your eyes closed is how you burned your fingers in the first place," the Water Tribe boy said. The hand he had grabbed was the hand she had injured. "Am I right?"

She pulled away from him. "Sokka, right?"

He nodded. "Are you okay?"

"How did you find this place?"

"I may have followed you," he admitted.

"Well, don't tell anyone about this place," she replied. "The only other person who knew about it was Jet."

"Don't worry, I can keep a secret."

"Why did you follow me?"

"As Zuko's friend, I wanted to talk to you."

"I'll tell you now that you're wasting your time." She turned away from him.

"That's what you think. But I'm actually a very easy person to talk to." He smiled at her.

Katalina couldn't help but to laugh. "Well, I'm not easy to talk to." She leaned against a wall and slid down it with a sigh.

Sokka sat beside her. "What's wrong?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm fine!"

"Are you?"

"Yes! I'm just a little stressed out…and maybe a bit confused."

"What are you stressing about? What's confusing you?"

"There's just a lot going on in my life right now." She paused. "I feel as if there's still a waging war, but it's inside me."

"That's rough," he replied.

"Don't pity me."

"I'm not. Please, I don't pity anyone. I am not a pittier."

"That's not a word."

"No? Oh." He shifted his eyes for a moment. "So is this all because of what's been going on between you and Zuko?"

"You two are that close?"

"Well, he didn't really care about talking to Iroh privately; he would just talk about everything in front of us all. So they would talk, Iroh would give his advice, and then Zuko and Mai would fight."

"They would fight?"

"Yeah, something tells me Mai isn't very fond of you."

"She's not. Ty Lee was the only one I ever got along with. Azula and Mai couldn't stand me."

"It's understandable as to why Azula didn't like you," he stated. "But why didn't Mai like you?"

"Because Zuko and I were so close and she was jealous of that."

"So is her anger now still just jealousy?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps." She sighed. "Tell me about yourself and the others," she then changed the subject.

"Well, Katara and I are from the Southern Water Tribe. Katara was actually the last waterbender from the southern tribe."

"Wow! That's a true honour."

He nodded. "It is." He paused. "I, on the other hand, am a swordsman. I learned from Master Piandao."

"Yeah, he mentioned that he had trained one of the Avatar's friends."

"Yeah, I was that friend." He smiled proudly.

She laughed again. "That's an honour as well."

"Master Pakku is also mine and Katara's grandfather. It's a pretty recent thing, though."

"That's cool." She paused. "What about the two Earth Kingdom gals?"

"Suki is a Kyoshi Warrior," he started.

"Zuko told me that Ty Lee became a Kyoshi Warrior."

"She did," he confirmed. "Suki stayed with us, though, so I guess you could say that Ty Lee replaced her. Either way, she's an amazing fighter."

"And the other one?"

"Toph? She's a blind earthbender. But she's the best earthbender I've ever seen. She has this ability to send the vibrations in the ground—"

"—with her feet," Katalina finished for him. "Surprisingly enough, I've heard of that before. Never actually thought someone could learn the ability, though." She shrugged her shoulders. "Guess I was wrong."

"Well, you can't always be right," Sokka pointed out.

"No shit," she muttered. She shook off the rising emotion. "Oh, so how did you guys meet Jet?"

"When we first met him it was only Aang, Katara, and me. He was also a jerk when we first met him."

"Was? He still is a jackass."

He laughed. "He was worse, then. There was a small Earth Kingdom town near where his hideout for the Freedom Fighters was and it had been invaded with Fire Nation soldiers. So he and his Freedom Fighters were planning on blowing this dam near the town to wipe out the soldiers. The only problem was that it would've wiped out the townspeople, too, and Jet didn't seem to care about that."

Her eyes widened a bit. "What happened?"

"He blew the dam," he answered. Her eyes now widened completely and her jaw dropped. "I had gotten everyone out of the town just in time, though," he added, a triumphant smile spreading across his face.

She breathed in relief, her facial expression returning to normal. Then she smiled back at him, "Well, aren't you the little hero?"

He continued to smile. "It was nothing. I just did what I knew was right, even if it meant helping some Fire Nation soldiers as well."

"I really respect that, Sokka. I mean, you were willing to help your enemies in order to protect the ones that deserved safety."

"Well, it's not that I was willing to help them, but I do know what you mean." He cleared this throat. "How did you meet Jet? All I remember is you mentioning something about saving his life."

"Right. I met him within my first week of being here in Ba Sing Se," she began. "I had yet to meet the girls, so I was still on my own. I mean, Ozai and my parents shipped me here just to get rid of me. So it's not like I had anyone waiting for me or anywhere to go." She sighed. "Either way, I was out late one night sliding fliers into the homes of all the citizens who could help me form the Resistors—"

"Wait," Sokka interrupted, "how did you know who could help you and who couldn't?" he wondered.

"I snuck into the palace and found files on all the citizens in the city."

"Impressive!"

She smiled smugly. "I know. Anyway, while I was sliding fliers under the doors, I noticed a silhouette in the distance. The figure took a few steps toward me before falling to the ground. That's when I rushed over to the figure. It was obviously Jet and when I asked him what had happened, all he said was someone's name and that he was badly injured and had been for a while."

"What name did he say?"

"Long Feng."

"Yup. That's the guy."

"Why? Who is he?"

"He was the leader of the Dai Li before Azula took over the city. He was practically treating the Earth King like his puppet until we told the Earth King the truth about the war against the Fire Nation and whatnot."

"What do you mean you told him the truth?"

"Oh, when we first came here to Ba Sing Se the war was not spoken of within the walls. At least the citizens knew about the war, though; the Earth King had no idea there was even a war waging." He shook his head. "It was bad."

"Wow, that's kinda scary. I couldn't imagine begin such an ignorant citizen with such a horrid war going on."

"No kidding. It reminded me of when I first met Aang. He had been asleep for a hundred years so he had no idea a war had started." He let out a heavy sigh. "So what happened after you found Jet?"

"Right. Well, like I said, he was badly injured. So I planned on helping him, but I had nowhere to go. Because of that, I went door-to-door again, knocking, hoping that someone would be kind enough to also want to help. Finally, a young girl answered her door. It was Hakara. She let us in without asking any questions and she made some healing remedies to tend to his wounds. The next day we met Jin and Yolanda. Then we all sorta took turns taking care of Jet. And once he was better he just sorta…took off. The four of us stayed together, though, and worked more on forming the Resistors. That's how we met Shion, who was one of the only other members around our age. But then Jet came to one of the meetings. And he came to another and another until he finally stayed behind after one to thank us for helping him. By this time I had had my own place in the city and he didn't have a place so he ended up moving in with me. And we didn't necessarily get along at first, but—"

"Because you're from the Fire Nation?" he assumed, cutting her off.

"He actually didn't know about that until the Day of Black Sun. None of them knew."

"How was that the day they found out?"

"I was in hand-to-hand combat with one of the colonials when the eclipse ended and fire suddenly shot out of my hands when I threw a punch," she explained. "I had already gained the trust of the Resistors, though, so it didn't bother them too much. Of course they were still caught off guard, but it wasn't a problem."

"That's good, then."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Either way, like I was saying, Jet and I didn't necessarily get along at first, but we actually became closer once he found out I was from the Fire Nation. Don't ask me how, but something just clicked once he knew."

He chuckled a bit. "I would say that that doesn't sound like the Jet I know, but then I don't really know him well enough. I mean, we ran into him a second time here in the city once Toph had started traveling with us. We managed to put the past behind us and teamed up with him to find Appa, Aang's flying bison. Then we had a run-in with Long Feng and that was when Jet got injured. He told us to leave him, so we did. Honestly, we all thought he was a goner. Apparently he wasn't, though."

"Well, apparently he was strong enough to last as long as he did," she pointed out. "I mean, I hadn't come across him until the Colonies had settled in the city. But he must've been so hurt, still, because he hadn't gotten the chance to heal properly. And the thing is that I could've gone and passed out those fliers any night, but I chose that night because it just felt right. Then I ended up being able to help and possibly even save a life."

"Looks like we're both heroes."

She smiled. "We are indeed." She paused. "Now back to Suki. When did she start traveling with you guys?"

"Not too long ago, actually. I mean, we met her before we met Toph, but she didn't start traveling with us until after the fall of Ba Sing Se. Zuko and I found and freed her from the Boiling Rock and that was when she stuck with us."

"The Boiling Rock?" she repeated. "You broke their record?"

"The hell we did," he stated.

"Now that's what I call impressive." She chuckled. "So when did Zuko join you guys?"

"After the Day of Black Sun."

"Right, right, I think Iroh did mention that, actually. Or Zuko told me. I don't even remember." She shook her head. "Aang must've been relieved to finally have a firebending master, though."

"He was afraid to firebend at first, but he eventually got over that fear."

"I'm not surprised. Fire is a difficult element to command. I mean," she looked at her burned hand, "even I still lose control sometimes. And don't even get me started on Zuko. Then again, I haven't seen him bend since he was thirteen."

"He's much better now."

"I would hope so."

"Do you wanna head over to the teashop?" Sokka then questioned, changing the subject.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Zuko's not there, if that makes you feel any better."

"It shouldn't, but it does," she admitted.

"Why does it, then?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I'll keep asking about it until I get an actual answer."

She sighed. "There's a chance I may have…deeper feelings for him," she finally told him.

He nodded. "Everything makes sense now. Seriously." He laughed.

"It's not funny," she denied.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Thank you for telling me."

"Whatever." She paused. "Either way, I guess we could stop by. I can't stay too long, though."

"Why not?"

"Just because."

"That's not a reason," he denied.

"Let's just go," she said back. She got to her feet and looked down at him. "You coming?"

He smiled and jumped to his feet as well. "All right, what are we waiting for?" he asked in reply.

"I'm waiting for you."

"Well, I'm up now. So let's get moving!"

With that, Katalina and Sokka made their way to the Jasmine Dragon.