Chapter Twenty – five:

-Zuko-

"You guys first" I demanded. I wanted to know what exactly took them so long to find Katara while she was left in the woods with that other fire bender for over two months. "Why was Katara separated from you?"

The Avatar sighed. "After the siege of the Northern Water Tribe it took us a while to leave so I could move on to find an Earth bending teacher. One night we were camping and we were attacked. Toph wasn't with us yet; this was about a week after we had finally made it to an Earth Kingdom base that we left shortly afterwards."

"Who attacked you?"

"I honestly don't know who they were. All Sokka and I can remember are these three teenage girls came out of nowhere and attacked the three of us. We didn't have time to gather all of our things and climb onto Appa so I sent him ahead of us into the forest so they wouldn't be able to find him as easily, as the three of us defended ourselves long enough to make a run for it. Eventually Sokka and I made it away from the three girls, but we didn't realize until too late that Katara wasn't behind us. Immediately we went back to see if we could find her, but there was no sign of her…except for her water pouch and a small amount of blood we found on a huge rock" he sighed sadly. "We knew it was Katara's." Must be how Katara lost her memory.

"We've been looking for her ever since" Sokka added growling. "Not a day went by for me wondering if I would ever see my little sister again. So don't you dare imply that I don't care!"

"Did I say you didn't care?" I growled back. "I just want to know what happened and why it has taken you until now just to find her."

The Avatar spoke up again. "We tried to track down those three girls figuring Katara was still with them, but it was as if they vanished. Then we would ask around at every village we stopped at hoping someone had at least spotted her. We were in Gaoling when we met Toph."

"I think I'll take over from here Twinkle toes before you bore him to death with your super long explanation" Toph interrupted. I had to stifle a chuckle. Twinkle toes? With that she left Sokka's side and came to sit by me. "We haven't been formally introduced yet. Toph Beifong, also known as the Blind Bandit and I am the greatest Earth bender ever so don't forget that."

"Nice to meet you" I held out my hand unthinkingly. She didn't respond. "Oops, sorry. Um, if you don't mind my asking, are you really blind?" Instead of speaking she slowly lifted her hand and waved it in front of her face so I could see that her eyes did not follow the motion. "Then how can you earth bend and how could you tell I wasn't lying?"

"Those questions will be answered at a later time. I may be blind but I can already tell that Snoozles is about to blow a fuse." The Avatar is now Snoozles?

"Alright enough with the formalities already" Sokka bellowed. Oh so he is Snoozles? Now that I have to laugh at. "Oh, snicker all you want angry jerk! Bottom line is that you've had my sister all this time. You hired those three girls to track us just so you could get your hands on Aang! But when they brought you Katara instead you took the opportunity and brainwashed my sister so she is completely dependent on you!"

"What part of me shouting in your face 'she doesn't know who you are' was so unclear?!"

"Zuko what are you talking about?" The Avatar asked carefully.

"Listen Avatar-"

"Aang." I raised my eyebrow questioningly. "My name is Aang."

"Sorry. But you need to realize that you truly scared the living daylights out of Katara because she literally doesn't know who you are. The blood on the rock you found is most likely from her head injury, which caused her to have full blown amnesia."

Aang and Sokka seemed to stop breathing whereas Toph nodded her head as if to confirm what I had said. "Finally beginning to make sense Snoozles? Twinkle toes?"

"No wonder she was so scared" Aang sighed. "Oh, man now I really need to apologize when she wakes up again. Plus, I can't believe I'm actually saying this but, thank you Zuko. Thank you for finding and taking care of Katara." He held out his hand for me to take.

I took it and said, "Your welcome." This is really weird. I never thought I would actually have a civil conversation with the Avatar – Aang – of all people. How many more things are going to change?

"You know this still doesn't explain why Katara is with you in the first place" Sokka added.

"I found Katara in the woods last month after she…ran away."

"Ran away from whom?"

"I don't know."

"Why do I get the feeling you are hiding something" Aang whispered.

"What happened to my sister?" Sokka once again growled.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?!" they shouted at the same time.

"One, it's not mine to tell and two," I stopped myself to breathe quickly, "You honestly don't want to know."

"Yes I want to know what happened to my sister!"

"Trust me! You don't!" I slowly emphasized the 'don't' part.

It was slowly starting to sink in for Sokka. He gawked at me wide eyed with his mouth dropped down in horror. "What happened to my sister?" he whispered. His eyes were rimmed with tears that were threatening to spill over at any second.

"Hey boys I think Katara is going to wake up any second now" Toph interrupted us.

I twisted my body around to see that Katara was starting to stir in her sleep. Then without warning Sokka had come up behind me and pushed me right off the edge of the bed onto the floor so I was sprawled out on my back right next to the Ava—Aang. Lucky for me he was kind enough to help me sit up. I only nodded my head in thanks to him and then turned my glower onto Sokka who had taken my spot next to Katara. I didn't get a chance to yell at him for Katara had started to moan in her sleep before she slowly opened her eyes.

-Katara-

I can't remember much of what happened after I ran back to Zuko. I mean the girl with the two boys just starred at us the entire time taking in what was happening. Honestly she looked to be more in tuned with what was happening then I was; even more than Zuko. The younger boy looked like he was about ready to fight with the way he was holding that – staff? The older boy was in a yelling match with Zuko. After that everything started to blur and their voices just mixed together, my heart and head were pounding to the point that I felt like I couldn't breathe, until everything went black.

Finally my body seemed to relax enough for me to wake up again. At first all I heard were muffled noises. Then once I was able to open my eyes the figure hovering over me was extremely fuzzy. My vision started to clear up and I could see that this person was clearly not Zuko. It was that tanned boy that had been yelling just about every five seconds. 'Where is Zuko? Where is Zuko?' kept running through my head as I felt my eyes widen and I let out a terrified scream. Then before I could stop myself, I found my fist making connection with his jaw.

"Oww! Oww!" he shouted and jumped away from me holding his jaw. I sat up in my bed and held my hand to my chest with my knuckles throbbing slightly. Then Zuko made his appearance known when he came to sit by me.

"Serves you right" he commented to the tanned boy before he turned his attention back to me. "Katara are you alright?"

"I think so" I answered him, my breath still rather shaky, "but now my hand hurts."

Zuko smirked. "That hard of a jaw huh?" I nodded looking back at the older boy standing by the young girl still holding his jaw in his left hand. "Don't worry about him. He heals on his own."

"Hey! A little courtesy would be appreciated thank you. Not to mention Katara can-"

"Whatever you're thinking I'm telling you right now forget it. You've done enough as it is." My eyebrows furrowed together but Zuko just shrugged his shoulders. "Here let me look at your hand." I held out my hand and he carefully examined my hand with his fingers just barely brushing against my knuckles. "Well nothing is broken."

"Still hurts though" I groaned.

Zuko nodded as he continued to look over my hand. Suddenly he seemed to get an idea. "I think I know how to help." With that he brought his hands together and blew a small flame into his hands.

"What are you going to do burn my sister's hand off?!" the tanned boy shouted at him.

Suddenly I remember them shouting at one point how this boy was supposed to be my brother shortly before I fainted. Upon further examination I noticed just how much he looked similar to me; same skin tone, same shade of brown hair, and same blue eyes as mine. "Zuko, is he really my brother?"

All three boys turned to me. "Yeah Katara I'm your brother" the tanned boy spoke up.

"You're extremely annoying, older brother if I may add" Zuko snickered. The youngest boy grimaced as the older boy glowered at Zuko and began absent – mindedly rubbing his jaw again. "Now may I fix your sister's hand or are you going to interrupt every time?" With that he turned back to me, his hands folded together to keep them warm. "Um, Katara you're going to have to remove your glove." I immediately shook my head no. I didn't want these strangers to see the rope burns on my wrists. "Katara it's the only way to fix your hand properly. It will only take one minute I promise." There was no point in arguing with him.

"Ok" I conceded. I slowly took my glove off so as not to move my throbbing knuckles too much. I heard both of the boys inhale deeply and I knew that they saw the mark on my exposed wrist. Looking down I felt Zuko take my hand gently in his and start to massage my knuckles carefully. The warmth from his hands radiated into my knuckles and the ache dulled until it almost went away completely. When he was done I slipped my glove back on. "Thank you." Zuko nodded and I turned my attention to the three new comers. "So if he," I pointed to the tanned boy that looked like me, "is my brother then are the other two related to me as well?"

"No I'm just good friends with you and your brother. And you have never met Toph until today." The younger boy stated.

My head started to spin uncomfortably again. "I am more confused than I was before I fainted."

They all turned their attention to me again. "Well," Zuko began, "these two boys know more about your past so maybe they could clear up some things and maybe you'll be able to regain your memory better. If you're up to it?"

It had been a while since I worked on my memories and I really would like to remember at some point in my life. Plus I know now that these three strangers do not mean any harm so I don't have to be scared. With that I shrugged my shoulders. "Let's get to work."