Before we know it, we've been on the island for a week. Zuko decides to test Aang in a duel to see how far he's advanced. We all gather to watch.
Aang throws a wall of flame, which Zuko not so easily deflects.
"More ferocious!" Zuko yells as he flips backwards. "Imagine striking through your opponent's heart."
"Who wants a nice, cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara holds up two tiny melons.
Aang leaps towards the Water bender. "Me, me!
"Hey, your lesson's not over yet!" Zuko yanks his shirt back. Aang tries pulling with all his twelve-year-old might to get to Katara.
"Come on, Zuko, just take a break," I say as I loll against the steps, time bending the leaves that pass. "What's the big deal?"
Zuko glares at Katara, but he lets Aang go. He makes a beeline for the juice. "Fine," Zuko snaps. "If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail-sloths all day, then go ahead."
"Maybe Zuko's right," Sokka comments after Zuko stalks off. "Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy. I know just the thing to change that." He stands and rips off his clothes. "BEACH PARTY!"
We all run to the sand and surf and have a blast. Katara freezes herself a surf board right from the water and shoots around on the water. Suki and I work on our tans. Sokka gathers seaweed and buckets of water to play in the sand.
"Check out my giant Appa sculpture!" Aang calls to us.
Toph crosses her arms with a smirk. "Not bad, Twinkle-Toes, but I've been working on my sand bending. You're going to love this!"
She shoves her hands to the ground and the sand melts away to form a miniature city in the hole left behind.
"Not bad, Toph," I take off my sunglasses to admire the miniature houses and people. "Is this the Ba Sing Se I've heard so much about?"
"Wow," Aang breathes. "You've even made a little Earth King and Basso!"
"Try and top that, Sokka!" I call over my shoulder. My eyes bug out as he unveils his masterpiece.
"Ta-da!"
We stare at it for a moment. It's really just a mound of sand with seaweed slapped on top, two depressions for eyes, starfish nose, and shells for a bucktoothed smile.
"Is that supposed to be…?" I start, but trail off.
"…a blubbering glob monster?" Aang guesses.
Sokka looks as if we've personally offended him. "No! It's Suki!"
Aang's jaw drops while Toph and I roll in the sand, laughing.
"Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this," Toph gasps between giggles.
"I think it's sweet," Suki smiles. Sokka plants a big kiss on her cheek.
"But it doesn't even look like—" Aang is cut off mid-sentence by a giant fire-blast destroying Sokka's sculpture, shooting sand in every direction. We look up to the source and see Zuko leaping off the cliff overlooking the beach. He's shooting Fire at Aang, causing the kid to run in terror. They run across the beach, destroying all of our sand art.
"Zuko!" I shriek.
Aang pokes his head around Sand-Appa. "What are you doing?"
"Teaching you a lesson!" Zuko fires a blast at the Avatar.
Aang Air bends himself to the top of the cliff and Zuko skillfully climbs after him. Just as they disappear, Katara comes in from the water.
"What happened?"
"Zuko's gone crazy!" Sokka storms, trying and failing to put his 'masterpiece' back together. "I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it!" He digs through the sand for a moment. "Oh, and he's attacking Aang."
I shoot him a glare before chasing after the fighting Fire benders with the rest of the group on my heels. We find them on the roof of the beach house, a trail of Fiery destruction in their wake.
"Get a grip before I blast you off this roof!" Aang is shouting at my boyfriend.
Zuko's face is set. "Go ahead and do it." He shoots the biggest fireball I've ever seen at the boy. Aang leaps away, evading and hiding like on the beach. Katara and I bend some water from the ocean to put out the fires leading to and on the house respectively.
"What has gotten into him?" I wonder out loud.
Katara looks murderous. "Whatever it is, he'll be dead before he hurts Aang."
Just as I get my footing on the uneven roof, it shakes and rumbles. I see something shoot out of one of the walls and into the weeds below. I deftly Air bend myself to the ground and join Suki, Sokka, Toph, and Katara cornering Zuko.
"What's wrong with you?" Katara screams. "You could've hurt Aang!"
"What's wrong with me?" Zuko storms back. "What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's comet is only three days away?"
We all stare at him. Even I can see his logic—where does him attacking Aang come in?
"Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?" Zuko asks.
Aang steps forward. "About Sozin's comet…I was actually going to wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came."
Well this is news to me. "After?"
"I'm not ready," Aang admits. "I still need more time to master Fire bending."
"And frankly, your Earth bending could still use some work, too" Toph adds.
I nod. "Not to mention your Time bending. But you all knew Aang was going to wait?"
Zuko looks hurt. "All of you?"
"Honestly, if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord right now, he's going to lose," Sokka explains. He sees Aang's dejected face. "No offense."
"The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the Comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war," Katara says. "But they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse."
"You're wrong," Zuko and I say at the same time. I gesture for Zuko to continue.
"It's about to get worse than you can even imagine…The day before the eclipse, my father asked me to attend an important war meeting. It was what I dreamed about and wanted for so many years. My father had finally accepted me back—"
"Enough about your precious honor, get on with it!" Toph explodes.
Zuko glares at her, but continues. "The general announced that Ba Sing Se, while under our control, was still rebelling. The fighting had prevented them from achieving total victory in the Earth Kingdom. He recommended after the eclipse was over and the invasion completed, pulling all their resources in attacking the City. My father asked me personally if I thought adding more troops would stop these rebellions. I'm ashamed to say I gave him what he wanted.
"I said that the people of the Earth Kingdom were proud and can endure anything as long as they have hope. It gave my father the idea to destroy their hope. Azula recommended taking their hope and land and burning it to the ground. My father decreed that the Comet would be used to destroy the Earth Kingdom like it was last used to wipe out Air Nomads.
"I wanted to speak out against this horrifying plan, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't. My whole life I struggled to gain my father's love and acceptance. But once I had it, I realized I lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was."
Katara had collapsed to the ground. "I can't believe this."
"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil," Sokka remarks.
Aang looks crushed. "What am I going to do?"
"I know you're scared and you're not ready to save the world," I pipe up, "but it looks like you don't really have a choice."
"If you don't defeat the fire Lord before the comet comes, there won't be a world to save anymore."
Instead of breaking down, Aang gets angry. "Why didn't you tell me about your dad's crazy plan sooner?"
"I didn't think I had to!" Zuko snaps right back. "I assumed you were still going to fight it before the comet. No one told me you decided to wait!"
"This is bad," Aang puts his head in his hands and moves a bit away from us. "This is really, really bad."
"Aang, you don't have to do this alone," Katara says.
"Yeah, if we all fight the Fire Lord together, we've got a shot at taking him down," adds Toph.
"All right!" Sokka cheers. "Team Avatar is back! Air" —he pointed to Aang— "Water" —Katara— "Earth" —Toph— "Fire" —Zuko— "Time" —and me. He slung an arm around Suki. "Fan and sword!"
Aang rises from the ground. "Fighting the fire Lord is going to be the hardest thing we've ever had to do together. But I wouldn't want to do it any other way."