Disclaimer: I don't own.
Author's Note: Well last chapter was mostly a filler chapter I guess. Here's the next chapter.
Moon willow: Thanks, I actually typed this in like an hour since something popped up and BOOM le chapter is out.
QuietShadowz: Your welcome. I think I fixed it but if not here: the group goes to ba sing se. after them being there a while, azula mai and ty lee go on with azula's plan which has kataras plan incorporated into it. Azula will capture them and throw them in the catobombs and stuff like she did in the show. Azula will fight zuko and katara, and they let her capture them (part of the plan) and after they are 'captured' Katara will send out a messenger hawk explaining that it's allpart of a plan that she created. Ill fix it and stuff in the morning. Its 2 am atm so im kinda zoinked out.
Jesjessiejessica: thanks and I am sorry the chapter is late tho :P
"Azula why are we heading back to the Fire Nation for?" Ty Lee questioned. Azula smirked at Ty Lee's curiosity.
"I have news to tell my father." Mai and Ty Lee shared a look before nodding their heads. The trio wasn't that far away from the Fire Nation and they were to arrive the next day. They sat around in the air ship for the whole day, and they arrived late in the afternoon right before dinner was to be served. The Fire Lord summoned Azula to the throne room as soon as she arrived at the Palace.
"Rise Princess Azula," Azula stood up and smirked as she looked at her father.
"What news do you have?" Azula grinned and stood up.
"I have plans to take Ba Sing Se and to take Uncle and Zuko. It will only involve Ty Lee, Mai and I. I have already planned it but they don't know what I have planned." Ozai grinned maliciously and walked down from throne. He paced around Azula and nodded his head.
"You may leave now." Azula nodded curtly and left the room silently. When she was in the comfort of her chamber's she grinned at the plan they've created to help her get out of this situation.
The next morning, Katara was up and about when Zuko woke up for his daily meditation. She was standing near the fire stirring something in the pot. Zuko laid there for a while and watched her. After mixing what was in the pot, she sat down on the ground, crossed her legs, and began to meditate. Zuko walked over to where she was and sat opposite of her, crossing his legs and began to meditate.
"Good Morning Zuko." Katara said, startling Zuko slightly. Zuko breathed a sigh of relief.
"Agni Katara, don't do that you almost gave me a heart attack." Katara chuckled slightly and cracked a small smile at Zuko, eyes still closed in meditation pose. Half an hour after their encounter, Lu Ten, Iroh, and Ursa awoke and meditated just as Zuko and Katara did. Toph then awakened from all of the vibrations that they were giving off.
"Spirits people, can you be louder?" Toph yelled as her earth tent shot down with a scowling Toph.
"Toph, It's two hours til noon. This isn't even early anymore," Katara crossed her arms and glared at Toph. Aang woke up from all of the yelling and Toph dragged him into the forest.
"We're training. Now." Aang nodded his head and followed her without saying a word. They entered a clearing.
"Stance now." Aang moved his feet apart, and bent his knees.
"LOWER TWINKLE TOES." Aang bent down lower, but to no avail, was in the correct stance.
"If you want to be an earth bender, you have to be stubborn. Think like an earth bender, not an air bender. NOW GET IN STANCE TWINKLE TOES," Toph growled. Aang groaned, and moved his feet into the correct stance. Toph clapped her hands, before walking over to him.
"Took ya three tries Twinkle Toes." Aang nodded his head and yawned loudly.
"And now, we're going to try to move a rock. Get in your stance, and push your arms forward." Aang did as he was told and groaned.
"Maybe if I go at this angle…." Aang muttered. Toph encased Aang up to his neck in stone and stomped forward.
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT! THINK LIKE AN EARTH BENDER TWINKLE TOES. You're an earth bender, you cannot think like an air bender. Now drop down and give me twenty." Aang looked at her like she was crazy.
"What?" Toph groaned and fell to the ground groaning into her hands.
"Oh Spirit's your stupid. Pushups you dolt! Drop down and give me twenty pushups. You need to build up your strength. When you do that, you will have a higher chance of actually earth bending. Aang groaned but dropped to the ground. Rather slowly, the pushups passed and Aang flopped to the ground and groaned.
"Now what?" Toph grinned and pulled him up.
"Breakfast time. This was just a warm up. You're going to be building your strength all day today twinkle toes." Aang groaned and walked back to the campsite.
"Hey Aang, Toph." Katara greeted warmly as she smiled at the two 12 year olds.
"So Katara, what's for breakfast?"
"So far rice, and some dried Zuko and I had left over." Toph nodded her head and grabbed the apple Katara held out for her.
"You're gonna want to eat up Twinkle Toes, you're gonna need the energy," Aang groaned at the command from his teacher, but ate a full bowl of rice and a couple pieces of fruit.
"Hey what's with all the racket?" Sokka exclaimed, his sleeping bag still wrapped around him and he yawned loudly.
"It's an hour til noon big brother. Eat up, this is brunch. Sokka grabbed the bowl and dug into heartily.
"This is good Kat." Katara flushed and thanked her brother.
"So Sugar Queen, was the Sparky's sadistic sociopath sis?" Sokka and Aang looked at Katara with confused looks on their faces, but nodded her head anyways.
"What did y'all talk about?"
"Nothing that you need to know right now, royal matters." Toph glanced at her direction wearily, but didn't point out the half-truth. She planned on questioning her later anyways.
"Come on Twinkle Toes, your training starts now." Toph and Aang left the campsite to begin his training.
"Now drop down and give me 100 Twinkle Toes. Then I want 100 jumping jacks, and 100 squats." Aang groaned loudly, but listened. On the opposite side of the campsite, the remaining member's of the group listened to thumps and groans from the earth bending training.
"Hey anyone wanna spar?" Lu Ten asked as he stood up. Katara and Zuko did, and they followed him to another clearing near a stream.
"I'll spar winner." They two firebenders boys nodded their heads and they began.
Zuko and Lu Ten began to circle each other, fire in their hands. Lu Ten attacked first, punching a fire ball towards Zuko. He ducked, reflecting it easily, and backed up more. Lu Ten punched a series of fireballs at him, and Zuko managed to avoid most of them, but the last few. Two burn marks were on Zuko's arm, but Zuko ignored them and created two fire whips.
"Is that all you got Lu Ten?" Zuko taunted, and threw another round of fire balls at his cousin. Lu Ten deflected all of them, and created an inferno, directed headfirst at Zuko, who extinguished it head on, and smirked.
"Well cousin, I guess I have to try now." Lu Ten taunted. Zuko narrowed his eyes and watched Lu Ten wearily before bumping up the heat of his flame. He deflected the series of blows his cousin sent towards him, and he sent an array of bright blue fire daggers at his cousin, who successfully, avoided them all. Lu Ten sighed dramatically, before taking a deep breath and turned his head towards Zuko. Zuko, however did not expect the large flame to appear from his mouth, and nearly got burn. With his advantage, Lu Ten leaped forward and knocked his cousin to the ground, tackling him, holding a fire ball to his throat.
"Yield Zuko." Zuko tapped his hand on the ground three times and Lu Ten stood up and grinned. He offered his arm to Zuko who grinned widely.
"That was pretty good Lu Ten. It's been a while since I've sparred against someone good, other than Katara." Lu Ten shrugged, but continued to grin. Katara watched the exchange between the family members. Lu Ten walked up to Katara and looked her in the eye before a wide grin crossed both of their faces.
"So, water or fire?" Lu Ten shrugged.
"Water, it'll give me a challenge. I've never sparred a water bender before." Katara nodded.
"Oh, if I start fire bending it's probably out of reflex." Lu Ten nodded his head in understanding, and bowed down to Katara, who bowed back in retaliation before looking up and grinning at him.
"So Katara, when's the last time you've sparred with someone other than Zuko, who was a fire bender?" Katara grinned.
"Since I've seen the Palace, so at least 6 years." With Katara distracted, Lu Ten sent a wave of flames towards Katara, who slid out of the way and arched an eyebrow at Lu Ten.
"Really Lu Ten, you're gonna hold back? Must I even question your motives?" Lu Ten groaned and looked up towards Katara. He twisted, and kicked out a small, but powerful flame at Katara, who met him in the middle with a jet of water. She gathered the water from the steam that was created, and formed ice shackles around his feet, making him trip over. He melted them by heating up his body and rolled over from the attack. He hopped up and sent large flames at her, who ducked quickly and covered herself in an ice suit. Lu Ten ran forward and started twisting his arms, creating a high speed wheel of fire directed at Katara. Inside her ice suit, she felt the heat coming towards her and sent a pillar at it, which distracted Lu Ten. Lu Ten didn't notice the ice shards she exhaled and one launched in his arm.
"Yield!" Lu Ten exclaimed loudly. Katara dissipated the steam, and threw her ice suit to the ground in the form of water. She immediately rushed over to Lu Ten.
"I'm so sorry!" Katara bent the shard out of his arm and began to heal it. The water turned bright blue, and glowed a few moments before dripping back to the ground. The remaining adults from the group rushed forward to see what all of this fuss was about. Katara grinned sheepishly at them and began to explain things to them.
"We were sparring and Lu Ten wasn't paying attention, and I accidentally lodged a shard of ice in his arm. I already healed it up." The last part was spoken to Ursa, who wordlessly walked over to her nephew, gathered some water from the ground and rechecked her work.
"It's fully healed. You did a good job Katara. Plus you barely managed to miss any major muscles." Katara nodded her head and mumbled another apology at Lu Ten.
"It's fine really," Lu Ten muttered. He walked away from the clearing towards Toph and Aang's earth bending training. The rest of the group followed him and heard multiple groans in the distance.
"What are you doing Toph?" Lu Ten questioned as she looked at the Earth Bending Master and her student.
"Building up his muscle. He can't even move a small pebble. His strength needs to be built up, namely in this arms. Being an earth bender you have to be stubborn as a rock and you have to be physically strong as well." Lu Ten nodded his head and plopped down on the ground and watched the two benders. Everyone else stood behind Lu Ten and watched the training as well.
"Quit watchin us! Get back to doing whatever you were doing before." Toph growled, pointing to namely, everyone else in the group.
"There's a creek nearby, why don't we go swimming, and cool off?" Everyone shrugged, and went to go change into something more comfortable for a swim. A few minutes later, everyone coming from different directions came back and met at the campsite.
"Come on, it's this way," Everyone followed Katara as she led them to the creek that was near their campsite.
"CANNONBALL," Sokka ran forward from the edge of the small cliff, and flopped in. Everyone was soon soaked from the water and was glaring at Sokka, who was grinning sheepishly.
"What, it's hot out. The water feels great!" Katara rolled her eyes, but walked over to the water edge. She had a smirk on her face and Zuko's eyes widened.
"Oh, oh no. I'm not helping you with whatever you're planning! No way," Zuko pointed an accused finger at Katara, who pouted.
"Don't give me that look 'Tara," Zuko walked over to the creek bed and watched as Katara swam into the deep water and watched as Sokka was floating on his back. All of a sudden he was pulled underneath the water and Lu Ten and Zuko burst into a fit of laughter. Kya glared at them.
"How is that funny boys?" Zuko tried to stifle his laughter, but wasn't able too.
"Katara did that to us all the time when we would go to Ember Island. She wanted me to help her but I refused because I knew she would eventually do it to me too. I knew that she was going to do it to Sokka so I just opted to watch it because it would be really funny." Kya cracked a grin at the explanation and smirked.
"She always did that as a child, except she would do it in snow." Zuko snickered and looked at the two water tribe siblings.
"Sometimes I wish mine and Azula's relationship was more like that when we were children…" Zuko trailed off.
"She missed you while she was banished you know." Zuko turned his attention to Kya.
"When she would get back from her training she said she wishes zu-zu was here to help her with something, she would say things like that." Zuko's face softened.
"Ozai trained her ruthlessly. He would burn her if she couldn't master a move correctly, therefore she would nearly get burned every day, because the day before she is too sore and her body was physically exhausted from all the strain he put on her," Zuko explained.
"Really late at night, she would come to my room and I would help her deal with the burns. I would put some really top notch burn salve on it and help bandage her up. I had to do this for years because she was in so much pain. She's littered in more scars than I am, but it's all covered up from the heavy armor that she is always forced to wear." Kya nodded her head and continued to watch her children goof around.
"Go join them." Zuko sighed but stood up from the creek bed and swam over to Katar quietly. Sokka noticed Zuko but Zuko motioned for him to shut his mouth. He swam underneath the two and grabbed Katara by her ankles, dragging her down into the creek with him.
"Spirits Katara," Sokka sputtered, grinning like a fool, "Your reaction was priceless," Sokka fell over in the creek bed holding his stomach from the laughter he was trying to contain. Katara stood up and crossed her arms, and glared at Zuko who grinned goofily.
"That's for all the times you sinked us when we were at Ember Island." Katara narrowed her eyes.
"Not the best idea to mess with a Master Water bender in her own element Zuko." Zuko was soon soaked to the bone from the wave Katara sent at him. He looked up at her and saw her smirking smugly.
"Oh it's on Princess," Zuko smirked.
"No bending allowed though." Katara's jaw dropped.
"That's no fair!" Zuko raised an eyebrow.
"Oh really now. Only mom can water bend aside from you and no one else can. This makes it more fair for us. Deal?" Katara huffed, but slowly shook Zuko's hand.
"It's on."
Sorry it's so late, we had computer issues, i had writers block, and most importantly i felt like crap. Anywho, do you guys think you can get me between 60 and 65 reviews? I'll try to make the next chapter longer if you manage to make it over 60 :3. Anyways, enjoy and once again sorry for the super long wait.