I wake up to screaming, and discover that it's my own. Zuko is shaking me to wake up. He sleeps without a shirt, so I get a nice look at his well-defined upper body muscles.

"Are you okay?" he asks, handing me a cup of water.

I sit up on the bed, adjusting my pillow. "Yeah," I answer after I take a drink, "just a nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

I close my eyes for a moment and think back to the waves crashing down on me, the earth trying to swallow me, the air alternately suffocating then leaving me. The only thing that felt safe was the warm flames through the attack of the other elements.

"Here," Zuko hands me a towel to mop up my sweat.

"Where did you get that?" I ask, but take it anyway. It's soon soaked through.

"From your pack," he explained. "I hope you don't mind."

I think back to the dream with my mother. What had she said about my backpack? I snatch it from Zuko's hands and search through it. There are dry clothes, fresh food, and water bottles galore. I yank out my favorite pajama pants and a fresh shirt. I could almost cry with relief. No more itchy dresses!

"I thought that was empty earlier?" Zuko asks.

I smile, think back to what my mother had told me. "It was," I tell him. "But it's filled now because it's my link to my world." He looks confused, so I explain further. "I'm a Time bender. I have to teach Aang how to Time bend after he masters Fire, and this backpack gives me what I need from my time. I'm from the future." I'm almost giddy with the knowledge. I'm not insane! I'm supposed to be here!

"So you can freeze time?" Zuko asks, mulling something over in his mind.

"Yes," I think back to yesterday. "I accidentally did it when we first arrived at the temple, because I was afraid."

Zuko says something under his breath.

"What?" I ask.

"It's just that…time stopped for me, too. I was thinking about what to say to your group, and then the fire and the stream just…stopped."

That doesn't make any sense. If I had stopped time, why wouldn't Zuko have frozen? I should've been all alone…

"And just now, when I came in to wake you, Katara was frozen in the hall, running to see what was wrong."

"What?" I'm frazzled. "Time is stopped now?"

"Yes," he says, "I thought you knew."

"But you didn't freeze this time either," I mutter, almost to myself. I quickly move my arms and that purple mist settled over everything again as Katara burst into my room.

"Is everything okay?" She had her water floating in front of her, but when she sees that I'm okay, she puts it back in the pouch. "Oh, it's just Zuko."

"Are they attacking?" Sokka crashes into his sister, boomerang ablaze, still half asleep. Aang is close behind.

"I heard you screaming," he says to me. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I tell everyone, "just a crazy dream."

Suddenly, my backpack feels warm and a distinct smell is coming from it. "No way," I breathe. I reach in, and sure enough, there are BigMacs, enough for the whole group.

"More than fine," I say with a smile. "How do you feel about a late night snack?" I hold up the yellow wrappers for the whole group to see.

"No way!" Sokka grabs one. "You had meat and didn't offer it to any of us earlier?"

I pass the rest of the burgers around to everyone, including a VeggieMac for Aang. I quickly tell them about my dream with my mom and just what I'm doing here.

"Oh great," Sokka groans around his third BigMacs, "just another element for you to master."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Aang retorts. "I can learn Time bending at the same time as Fire bending."

"Are you sure you'd want to do that?" Zuko asks, but Katara speaks over him.

"And besides," Katara adds, "the comet is still two months away."

Sokka yawn and throws his wrapper in the trash can I pulled out from my bag (I don't even know how it fit in there). "Whatever," he says, "as long as we can end this war by the comet. Night, you guys, I'm going to bed." With a half wave, he left, taking two BigMacs for Toph.

"I think I'll be getting back to sleep too," Katara agrees. "Are you sure you're okay, Starr?"

"Yeah," I smile at her. "All better."

As soon as she's out of earshot, Aang bombards me with questions about Time bending. I soon realize that even though he's supposed to save the world, he's still a kid. A kid who never really got to live his life.

Soon enough, he's yawning and backing out the door, still asking questions. Eventually, he leaves Zuko and me alone once more.

Just as he gets up to leave, I grab his arm. "Thanks," I tell him.

"For what?"

"For waking me up. It was kind of nice to not experience the end for once."

"Don't your parents wake you up at home? Surely they can't sleep through the noise."

I bite my lip as Zuko sits back down on the bed. "My mom died three years ago," I say quietly. "And then my dad kind of fell apart. He used to wake me up, but soon he got tired of it. He started sleeping with earplugs to tune me out."

"I'm so sorry," Zuko says. "I lost my mother too. About six years ago. I don't know what happened to her, or even if she's still alive."

I give his arm a squeeze. "That's worse than mine." We sit in silence for a moment. I finger my pajamas gathered in a heap on my lap. "Would you mind leaving for a sec while I change?" I awkwardly blurt. Sure it's an odd time to ask him to, but this dress is driving me bananas.

"No problem." He avoids my eye as he stands outside the door, but I can hear his quiet crying just outside.

I quickly throw Katara's dress into a corner and pull on my own clothes. As I'm enjoying the feel of actual cotton on my skin, I rifle through my backpack. I find my iPod, which is a relief. If I set the sleep timer and fall asleep to the music, the nightmares tend to stay away. I motion to Zuko that he can come in again.

"So what happened?" I ask motioning to the scar covering his eye. "Sounds like a twisted story there."

He smiles. "It is kind of twisted, especially when you throw in everything from the time I got it until now." He's quiet for a moment as he gathers his thoughts.

Then he begins his tale.

"I was—or I am—the crowned prince of the Fire Nation. My father is the Fire Lord, and my younger sister, Azula, is the princess. My father was in a war meeting with his generals, so I asked if I could join in. It was about a year ago, when I was sixteen." He blinks as he says the words, as if amazed how many things could change in a year. "At the meeting, one of the generals' strategies was to sacrifice a new band of recruits, many of them my friends. I spoke out of turn against the general. That's forbidden in the Fire Nation. My father sentenced me to an Agni Kai."

"What's an Agni Kai?" I ask as he pauses.

"It's like a duel between Fire benders. Usually to the death or until one person forfeits. I thought I was going to have to duel the general, but when I turned around, it was my father facing me. I immediately begged for forgiveness." He paused again.

"And…?"

Zuko's tears are coming again. "And he would have none of it. He commanded me to stand and fight. He said I was dishonoring my family and myself. When I still didn't stand, he decided I should be taught a permanent lesson."

"He burned you?" I asked incredulously. "His own son? But you were only sixteen!"

"And he is the Fire Lord," Zuko falters. "His word is law."

"So how'd you wind up out here and not in the Fire Nation?" I ask through another silence.

"After my father burned me, he banished me from the Fire Nation until I captured the Avatar. He thought I would be gone forever, since the Avatar hadn't been seen in over 100 years. Ever since then, it was mission to track Aang down.

"But my father decided I was taking too long. He sent my sister out to capture the Avatar, and me as well. He thought I had dishonored the Fire Nation again by not being able to capture a mere boy. One of my sister's guards let it slip to my uncle, who was traveling with me, that we were prisoners, not being welcomed home like Azula wanted us to think. My uncle and I barely escaped. From then on, we were on the run from our own family.

"We were beggars in every town we passed through, until we reached Ba Sing Se. There, my uncle's tea had made him famous, so we were invited to live amongst the nobles in our own tea shop. Soon, though, I was arrested and sent to an underground prison with Katara.

"I was confused, but when the time came to fight, I sided with Azula, hoping for one last shot to make it home and earn my honor back from my father. Azula blasted Aang with her lightning bolt, and we were welcomed home as heroes. My father finally spoke to me again, and I thought I had my life back. My honor, my father's respect, even my friends.

"But then my father invited me to another war meeting. It was about Sozin's Comet, and what they were going to do with the attack. I had changed so much by then that I couldn't stand by while my father slaughtered innocent, good people. After the meeting, I wrote a letter to my girlfriend, Mai, that I was leaving the Fire Nation."

"That must've been so hard," I whisper. "You left your whole life behind."

Zuko chuckles. "But this one is better so far. I can say what I want, do what I want, no people telling me how to behave or what to do when. It's relaxing."

"It can be," I admit. I think back to my own father. After mom died in the fire, he fell apart. I became responsible for everything except the bills, which he somehow managed to pay with his job as a janitor at the local hospital. I had to get food when we ran low, clean the house when it came to be a pig sty, and manage to keep my grades up. The only way I was getting into NYC was through a scholarship at that point. "But it can be a burden too."

Zuko and I stay up into the morning, talking about everything. I show him my iPod and how it plays music, but he shies away from the rap, leaning more towards the ballads. He shows me his Fire bending, and a painting of his mother, his only sentimental object he took when he left. I start to ask about his girlfriend (Were they done? Was he over her?), but the look in his eyes tells me everything: they're done, but he still felt protective of her.

When I finally begin to feel sleepy, it's five in the morning—according to my iPod. But we're so wrapped up in our conversation that we don't even say good night. We keep talking until I drift off on his shoulder.