I guard Zuko's cooler for the remainder of his 'punishment'. A few other guards walk by, on their way back from breaks, but none glimpse inside the cooler. From the heat I feel on my side of the door, I can tell that Zuko's started a fire to keep himself warm. After a few hours, I open the door.

"I can take you back to your cell if you've learned your lesson," I say for the benefit of some guards who are walking away.

Zuko breathes out a small ball of flame. "Yes, I have," he responds, pulling his arms away from his shirt to show me all the bolts he has undone. "Completely."

I smile. "Sokka got Suki and Chin Sang out of their cells a few minutes ago," I whisper. "They'll be waiting for us at the shore."

"Someone's coming!" Zuko grabs my shoulder and pulls me into the cooler. We pull the door almost closed.

"Yeah, new arrivals coming in at dawn."

"Anybody interesting?"

"Nah, just the usual. Some robbers, a couple traitors, some war prisoners…though I did hear there might be a pirate!"

The guards' voices fade as they walk away. Zuko and I share a look.

"War prisoners," Zuko repeats.

"It could be Sokka's father," I agree. "I know."

"Well, what should we do? Are we going ahead with the plan, or are we waiting another night?"

I close my eyes to think. "I don't know. We should get to the shore and tell Sokka—it's his dad."

Zuko nods, and we quickly leave the cooler. We make our way out of the prison and onto the rocky shore, where we climb up the boulders to get the cooler. We yank it out of the wall and try to quietly roll it to where Sokka said we would meet.

"Took you guys long enough," Chin Sang mutters. He gestures to the other man and woman waiting with them. "This here's my girl and my best buddy; they're coming too."

"Fine," I grit my teeth.

When the cooler is finally sitting on the sand, I pull Sokka aside to tell him what we heard. "So what do you want to do?"

Sokka stares at me with wide eyes. "I don't know," he finally admits. "Is it right for me to risk Suki's freedom—all of our freedom—on the slim chance that my dad is going to show up?"

"It's your call," I tell him. "You said you wanted to redeem yourself. Rescuing your father is your chance."

"Your dad?" Suki asks as she walks up. Chin Sang and his friends are already in the cooler.

"If I had just cut my losses at the invasion, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess," Sokka says. "Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail."

"No," Zuko pipes up. "It's not. Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out—"

"That's supposed to make him feel better?" I interrupt, but Zuko plows ahead.

"—even though you will probably fail over and over and over again—"

"Seriously," I whisper, "not helping!"

"—you have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail."

"Hey," Chin Sang cuts in, "Can we get a move on?" He gestures to the make-shift boat.

Sokka closes his eyes and breathes deep. "No, I'm staying." Sokka turns to Suki, Zuko and me. "You guys go. You've been here long enough."

"I'm not leaving without you, Sokka," Suki says, putting a hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"We're staying too," I add for Zuko and myself.

"Not me," Chin Sang counters, "I'm out!" With a shove of the cooler, he leaps in and floats away toward the opposite shore.

"We just gave up our only chance of escaping," Sokka realizes. "I hope we didn't just make a huge mistake."