A/N: SEASON TWO!

"Welcome, Avatar Aang!" said General Fong as they approached the Earth Kingdom base. "I am General Fong. And welcome, to all of you great heroes! Appa, Momo, brave Sokka, mighty Katara, intelligent Natasha…"

I like how that sounds, Natasha thought, smiling.

There was a burst of fireworks, launched by the soldiers using Earthbending.

"Not bad, not bad," Sokka said as they watched the fireworks.

They were escorted inside, where they had a discussion.

"Avatar Aang, we were all amazed at the stories of how you singlehandedly wiped out an entire Fire Navy fleet at the North Pole," General Fong said, "I can't imagine what it feels like to wield such devastating power. It's an awesome responsibility."

"I try not to think about it too much," Aang said casually.

"Aang, you're ready to face the Fire Lord now."

"No he's not!" Natasha said. "He still needs to master all four elements!"

"Why? With the kind of power he possesses, power enough to destroy hundreds of battle ships in a matter of minutes, he could defeat the Fire Lord now!"

"Look, if we're going to defeat the Fire Lord, we're doing it Aang's way. Aang?" Natasha looked at Aang.

Aang hesitantly nodded.

At nighttime, Natasha was occupied by her thoughts.

It's been two months, Natasha thought, Is that how much time has passed in my world? I wonder if any time has passed at all…

Natasha's eyelids became heavy, and she fell asleep on her stomach.

o.O.o

This flashback was much different. She was back at the Southern Air Temple, this time as an 11-year-old, Aang as a six-year-old.

"I wonder what learning Firebending would be like," Natasha said. "Or Waterbending. Or Earth! Man, I can't wait to watch you master all four elements, Aang!"

Aang just nodded and said, "Yeah,"

"If I had a sky bison," Natasha said, "I would travel all over the world!"

"Uh-huh," Aang said, not really paying attention.

"Of course, I'd have to finish my Airbending training. So would you. But you're pretty close to mastering it, Aang! I don't know why I can't do it as well as you…"

"Well, you kind of have some attention problems, Tasha," Aang said.

"I do not have—Oh, look! A butterfly!"

Aang shook his head. "Yeah, you need to work on that."

o.O.o

"Natasha, wake up,"

Natasha opened her eyes. "Aang,"

"Um, no. Try Sokka,"

"What?" Natasha's vision cleared up and she saw Sokka looking over her.

Sokka burst out laughing. "You actually thought I was Aang…!" He couldn't control his laugher. He thought it was so funny.

"Sorry, I just… I was having a dream…"

"About Aang? Ooh, you do like him!"

"No. Sokka, that's gross." Natasha said. And it was true, now that she knew Aang was her brother. "He's just a friend,"

"Sure…"

"Sokka, get out of my room or I'll—"

"You'll whack me with a fan. Yeah, that'll work out great," Sokka said sarcastically.

"No, I was going to say I'd—"

"Guys!" Katara looked in through the door. "Breakfast!"

"FOOD!" said Sokka and Natasha in unison.

o.O.o

After many unsuccessful tries to get Aang into the Avatar State, General Fong resulted in battling Aang to trigger it.

"Stop!" Natasha yelled at the General. "Someone could get hurt—AAH!" A boulder shot straight at Natasha, but she ducked just in time. "STOP!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath Natasha's feet began to pull her in. No. No. No! She caught a glimpse of Aang's tattoos glowing before her head was pulled under the sand.

Suddenly, she was pulled out of the sand. Aang was in the Avatar State, destroying everything in his path.

"Aang!" Katara yelled. "Aang, look! She's okay!"

Natasha let Katara deal with calming him down. After Aang exited the Avatar State, Natasha breathed a sigh of relief.

o.O.o

A few days later, Katara was teaching Aang some Waterbending moves in the river. Natasha laid on the beach tanning while Sokka floated on a large leaf.

"You guys going to be done soon? We have a lot of ground to cover if we're going to make it to Omashu today."

"What? Like you're ready to go right now, naked guy?" Katara said.

"I could be ready in two minutes. Seriously, whenever."

After a few minutes, they heard singing in the distance. "Don't fall in love with the traveling girl. She'll leave you broke and brokenhearted—"

Sokka fell off his leaf into the water and Natasha sat up.

"Hey, river people!" said Chong, the leader of the nomads.

"We're not river people," Natasha said.

Chong looked puzzled. "You're not? Well then, what kind of people are you?"

"Just… people." Aang said.

"Aren't we all, brother?"

Sokka walked over to them. "Who are you?"

"I'm Chong and this is my wife, Lily. We're nomads, happy to go wherever the wind takes us!"

"You guys are nomads?" Aang said, "That's great! I'm a nomad!"

"Hey, me too!" Chong said.

"I know… you just said that."

"Oh," Chong noticed Sokka, "Nice underwear…"

Sokka, realizing he was wearing very little in front of complete strangers, grabbed Momo to block his underwear and backed away.

After speaking with the nomads for a little bit, they rested beside Appa while making wreaths out of flowers.

Aang, wearing a flower wreath, said, "Hey, Sokka, you should hear some of these stories. These guys have been everywhere!"

"Well, not everywhere, Little Arrowhead. But where we haven't been, we've heard about through stories and songs." Chong said.

"They said they'll take us to see a giant night-crawler!" Aang said excitedly.

Moku, a somewhat chubby man who was also a nomad, said, "On the way, there's a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow!"

"Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara and Natasha are busy I guess it's up to me,"

Natasha, who was braiding Lily's hair and Katara, who was braiding Natasha's hair, both glared at Sokka.

"We need to get to Omashu. No sidetracks, no worms, and definitely no rainbows!" Sokka demanded.

"Wow, sounds like someone has a case of destination fever. You're worried too much about where you're going." Chong said.

"You need to focus less on the 'where' and more on the 'going.'" Lily said.

Sokka impatiently said, "O. Ma. Shu!"

"Sokka's right. We need to find King Bumi, so Aang can learn Earthbending somewhere safe." Katara said.

Chong said, "Sounds like you're headed to Omashu."

Sokka smacked his forehead in frustration.

"There's an old story about a secret pass right through the mountains," Chong said, making arm motions.

"The Cave of Two Lovers!" Natasha blurted out.

"The Short-Haired Girl knows it!" Chong said.

"Hey, my hair's long enough to braid now! It's not that short!"

"Anyway," Chong said, "It's a legend as old as Earthbending itself." He began strumming the lute and singing, "Two lovers, forbidden from one another, the war divides their people and the mountain divides them apart! Built a path to be together—yeah, I forgot the next couple of lines, but then it goes—Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Through the mountains! Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel!"

Sokka was unamused. "I think we'll stick with flying. We've dealt with Fire Nation before. We'll be fine."

Attempting to fly to Omashu, they were attacked by Fire Nation. They landed back by the nomads, and Natasha said, "Secret love cave, let's go,"

o.O.o

"How far are we from the tunnel?" Sokka said impatiently.

"Actually, it's not just one tunnel. The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth!"

Sokka, in shock, said, "Labyrinth?"

"I'm sure we'll figure it out," Chong said casually.

"All we need to do is trust in love… according to the curse." Lily said.

"Curse?!" Sokka and Natasha said in unison.

"Hey-hey! We're here!" Chong said, "The curse says only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever."

"And die," Lily added.

"Oh yeah, and die. Hey, I just remembered the rest of that song!" He took his lute and sang in a deep, ominous voice, "And die!"

"That's it! There's no way we're going through some cursed hole!" Sokka declared.

Moku pointed at a large smoke trail a few miles away. "Hey, someone's making a big campfire!"

"That's no campfire, Moku," Katara said in a serious tone.

"It's Fire Nation," Sokka said, "They're tracking us."

"So all you need to do is trust in love to get through these caves?" Aang asked.

"That is correct, Master Arrowhead."

Aang looked at Katara, whose back was turned to him. Then he looked at Natasha, who was looking ahead at the cave. He loved both of them, but both in different ways.

"We can make it," Aang said, smiling.

A/N: So, that was mostly leading up to the events inside the cave. DUN DUN DUN! Alright, thanks for reading :D