Sorry this took so long to update…My classes have not been nice to me. I know its a bit shorter than the last few, but the next chap is gong to be pretty major. Seriously. And then its done. One more chap and then an epilogue.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

It was to the sound of heavy pounding on my door that I jerked awake. With a frown, I rolled over and closed my eyes, willing my ears not to hear the offending noise. I just about succeeded, when my door was pushed open and a tentative head poked its way in.

"I'm not looking!" Sokkas voice cut through my cocoon of blankets and serenity like a knife. "Are you decent?"

I pulled the blankets down just enough to peek over and saw Sokka stumbling his way into my room, eyes closed and hands held out like a bling man in unfamiliar surroundings.

"Open your eyes, I'm dressed." I pulled the covers back over my head and tried to burrow deeper into the darkness my blankets offered me. Is this what hangovers felt like? If so, I was never touching alcohol. My head hurt and the light was too bright to stand it. All of this stress was going to kill me.

"Wakey wakey sleepy head!" Sokka was suddenly next to me, shaking my shoulder and attempting to pull my blankets off.

My iron grip wouldn't let him. "What time is it?"

"Just about eight."

I groaned and released my hold on the blankets. "Can't I just sleep in this once?"

"You did! You're the last one up." Sokka yanked, and the blankets flew off of me. "I saved you for last!"

I pushed myself into a sitting position and grabbed my comb from the bedside table. "Thanks, I guess. I had a rough night."

He smirked. "How did it go?"

"Didn't Aang tell you?" I asked, my words coming out in a mumble.

"No, him and Zuko were both gone when I got up."

I was suddenly reminded of their almost daily training. "I'd pay to see that."

"I'm sure you'll get Zuko to tell you all about it when they get back." Sokka winced as I yanked the comb through a particularly nasty tangle. "But since they are both gone, the responsibility falls to you."

"It was bad, Sokka." I smoothed my hair back and began my braid.

"I bet."

"He just wouldn't take no for an answer, said that I was put here for him. To be with him."

"Yikes."

"He said they wouldn't take me away from him. I'm not a toy! I don't belong to anyone!"

Sokka frowned. "He said that?"

"Yeah, and then he kissed me."

"He what?" Sokka's voice raised to a shriek. "I'm going to find him and-"

"Its fine Sokka, don't bother. If anyone is going to beat him up, it will be me."

We were walking towards the kitchen, the smell of freshly baked bread drawing us in. Iroh was an amazing cook, which surprised me in the beginning. You would have thought that being a Prince would make it so you never had to cook a day in your life, but it seemed that Iroh had picked up a few skills since Zuko's banishment.

Toph and Iroh had decided to gather around the butchers block island in the middle of the kitchen as they are their fresh rolls and drank tea. I reiterated my story to them and enjoyed seeing the shock on their faces.

"So he just kept shoving the damn necklace in my face, like that was going to make me accept him."

"Oh spirits, was he really?" Tophs loud bark of laughter brought a smile to my face.

"Well, he wasn't shoving it in my face exactly, but he was waving the thing around while he was yelling at me!"

"Hm…" Iroh looked thoughtful. "Maybe I should give him some advice, yelling is not the best way to impress a lady."

"Don't give Aang advice, please."

"Oh, young lady, I didn't mean for him to woo you, this advice would only be for his future pursuits."

I shuddered at the thought. "I don't want to think of him pursuing anyone."

Sokka made a gagging noise. "I second that."

"So then, like I said, he just leans in to kiss me. No warning, no build up. One minute we're yelling, and the next he is shoving his lips onto mine. So I pushed him away and stormed off."

"Ouch."

"Some part of me wants to tell you to go easy on him since he's just a kid, but the bigger part of me wants to give him a good old fashioned knuckle sandwich."

"I don't feel sorry for him." Toph piped in while Iroh remained silent.

"I heard once that sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind."

"Oh." Toph suddenly looked happy. "Zuko's coming, this is going to be good."

"Can you…I don't know, feel if Aang is mad or something?" I asked Toph, secretly hoping he wasn't with Zuko.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "But Zuko is alone, so I don't know."

My heart, which had been fluttering nervously, began beating wildly. "You don't think…"

"Of course not." Iroh's voice was confident, but his face betrayed a bit of uneasiness.

"I'm sure he just stayed behind to do some exercises, right Toph?"

Toph sighed and put down her tea. "I can't see the whole island, you know."

"So you don't know where he's at?"

"Nope, but that doesn't mean much."

"What do you mean?"

"Most of this island is sand. It's hard to see through that stuff."

"Well…he's not here, is he?" I looked around nervously, determined to leave if he was close.

"No. I would have told you earlier if he was."

Sokka huffed. "You can't avoid him forever."

I dropped my head into my hands just as Zuko entered the room. "Yes I can."

"Whats wrong?" Zuko asked.

Everyone was quiet for a minute.

"You didn't happen to, I don't know…kill aang and then leave his body in the forest for lion-vultures to peck at until he is no longer recognizable as a human…" Sokka's voice trailed off in embarrassment.

I glanced up at Zuko's face and almost laughed at his confused expression. Well, that answered that.

"No. As a matter of fact, I did not." Zuko's eyes found mine and he frowned. "Why would I do that? I know I chased everyone around for almost half a year…but…"

Toph snorted. "This is lame. I thought, given everything that happened last night, we would at least get a little entertainment…"

"This isn't funny!" I growled.

"Last night?" Zuko asked, his frown deepening.

Iroh spoke slowly, unsure. "Yes, after what happened between Aang and Katara last night. Did Aang not tell you?"

Zuko's eyes fell back to mine and I felt my face heat up in embarrassment. "What happened?"

"Look at the time! Wow, it's getting late. I better go and practice…uh…my boomerang throwing!" Sokka practically sprinted from the room.

Iroh stood up as well. "I must get ready to start the day." Thankfully, he made a b-line for Toph and pulled her to her feet, despite her protests that she wanted to witness this.

"Is everything ok?" Zuko's look of concern brought warmth to my heart.

I held out my hand and when he grasped it, pulling him into the seat next to me. "Aang proposed to me last night."

I felt, rather than saw, Zuko jerk as if a jolt of electricity shot through him. "Excuse me?"

I nodded and leaned into Zuko. "He had a necklace and everything. Thought I'd say yes. He was quite surprised when I didn't."

His head was shaking. "I can't believe this. I know we didn't make this obvious or anything, but I've never see you give him any kind of encouragement!"

"I never did. I swear."

He kissed my forehead. "I know, I believe you. I'm just shocked."

"I am too." I let go of a frustrated sigh. "He said the spirits sent me here for him."

"For him?" He laughed. "I know you're here for a reason, but even the spirits wouldn't be that cruel to you…"

I let out a very unattractive snort of laughter and whacked him on the arm. "You're horrible."

He smirked in return. "Listen, I'm not under the impression you're here for love or anything like that. You're here to teach and to learn. I am glad to have found you though and I'll miss you when you're gone."

A smile slowly formed onto my face. "Who knew you could be so charming?"

He nudged me with his shoulder. "Now that that's out of the way, would you like me to hunt him down and kick his ass?"

"No!" I laughed loudly. "The invasion is soon, and we need him to be in good shape."

"Ok then, I'll just have to be even more unpleasant than normal then."

I laughed again. "I can't believe Aang held it in all morning! I half expected him to try to fight for me!"

"I'm glad I know ahead of time then, when I see him I'll be ready to fight for your honor."

"It's just so strange, the way Aang stormed off last night…I thought he would have wanted to at least talk to you."

"Well, he didn't. Maybe he just grew up a bit."

Something didn't feel right, I had this nagging sensation of wrongness and it was worsening as the seconds ticked by.

Finally, something clicked in my mind. "You haven't seen Aang yet this morning, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't. He didn't meet me at sunrise for our morning meditation."

My heart was pounding in my ears. "We all thought he was with you."

"I thought he was here. If he isn't, where is he?"

"We need to go find Toph."

It was with a feeling of dread that we went off in search of wherever Iroh had dragged Toph.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Aang was gone. A day and a half before we would take part in a battle that would decide the fate of the entire world, and Aang had vanished without a trace.

Everywhere had been searched, from the shoreline to the many naturally formed caves of the island. It was both absolutely unbelievable, and totally my fault. If I hadn't been so blunt with him, maybe he wouldn't have abandoned us. For all I knew, he could have gotten frozen into another iceberg and wouldn't surface again for one hundred years!

"I can't believe he left…" I whispered to Zuko as we stood side by side watching Sokka cycle through being states of being nearly comatose, and yelling things at the sky. "And all because of me."

"I don't think it's your fault. He may be a child…but- I think unrequited love seems like something trivial in comparison to what our goal is here. He would have thought- at least I hope- that an unreciprocated crush wasn't worth dooming the entire world."

I groaned. "I don't know what to think. If he disappeared for a different reason, then it was horrible timing."

"Yes, bad timing." He agreed with a nod. "But to just leave…I didn't think he had it in him to abandon his honor like that."

"Honor…" I repeated, barely listening to him while my head swirled with worry. "I don't even know what we can do at this point."

"We have to do something. If we don't, the Earth Kingdom will fall."

I grasped his hand and he threaded his fingers through mine. "So many will die."

Sokka was staring at the ceiling, his mouth wide open and his brow furrowed. He had been like this for ten minutes, blinking was the only movement he made, and even that didn't happen as often as it probably should have. We were stuck here, waiting for Iroh and Toph to get back from the market. They had left two hours ago to gather information and search for clues. The idea was that he probably stopped in the market to get supplies before he took off, but I wasn't so sure. If Aang didn't want to be found, then I doubted he would be leaving behind clues.

"We need to snap Sokka out of it. We need to plan."

"Is there any use?"

Zuko's golden eyes rooted me to the spot. "Don't say that. Don't you ever say that Katara. This isn't your world, I know that, but this is my world. I'm not going to just stand by while the fire lord destroys everything!"

I flinched under his intense stare. "You're right I'm sorry."

Zuko visibly relaxed. "No, I'm sorry."

I squeezed his hand and leaned into his side. "I know this isn't my world, but I wish it was. I would love to stay here, to be able to be with all of you and to see where this life could take me." That is, If we didn't die trying…

Zuko sighed. "I know that."

We paused for a moment, watching Sokka's chest rise and fall with breath (the only sign of life he was currently showing). "What if we wake up tomorrow morning and Aang is back. We'll find out it was all one big misunderstanding, and he just wanted to take a break from the stress and clear his head."

He was silent beside me. "That is one of the outcomes I've imagined."

"Whats the most likely?"

"I don't know if I should say it out loud."

I bit my lip. "You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think he-"

"I don't know Katara." He ran his hand through his hair. "But that's what we need to plan for."

I stared back at Sokka. "We need to get our mastermind up."

Zuko scoffed, but moved forward to shake Sokka softly.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

We came up with two separate plans. One of them relied on Aang sulking back into camp tomorrow morning with his tail between his legs and a good scolding to look forward to. The other, relied on divine intervention. We decided that we were going to go through with the plan and pray to the spirits that Aang would remember what we were here for and come back in time to fulfill his destiny and destroy the Fire Lord.. The idea that he might be out there somewhere, seriously injured or dead, was briefly discussed, but if that were true it would only be a matter of time before we were all dead as well. The question was whether we were going to run and try to survive for as long as we could, or to go through with our plan and hope for the best. It was a unanimous decision to go out fighting.

To be talking so freely of the possibility of death was strange. I had always thought that I would die at the ripe age of eighty five in a retirement home surrounded by my children and grandchildren, but to go down in a blaze of glory…that definitely held a certain charm. I no longer really cared about returning home. I would rather die here, fighting for my friends, than return to a home where I never really felt like I fit in.

With the plans for what I had started referring to as 'The final Battle' finalized, we were basically left to our own.

Sokka choose to sit in a quiet area of the house and pen a letter.

"Who are you writing to?" I asked curiously.

"Dad and my girlfriend." He replied.

"Oh." I rubbed nervously at the back of my neck, unsure of what to say. I had never really given much thought to our father, and I wasn't sure whether I should feel guilty about that or not. He was my father, it would have been nice to meet him, but that obviously wasn't in the cards. Either I would die fighting, or I would be sent back to my universe with no memory of the man. I didn't want to know about him…the less attachment, the better.

"Do you need my help writing your letter? You wouldn't want her to find out how illiterate you are." I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He looked affronted. "I'll have you know that I am quite proficient in the written word."

My eyebrows rose nearly into my hairline. "So, this girlfriend of yours…what's her name?"

Sokkas face took on a dreamy appearance as he forgot all about my little jibe. "Her name is Suki."

"Are you sure she exists?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"And this Suki, does she know you exist?"

Sokka gave me a look. "Yes, I'm sure. I'll have you know I am quite the ladies man."

I smiled. "Oh, really? Did you leave a string of broken hearts from city to city?"

He smiled back. "As a matter of fact, I did. I've had two girlfriends just this year alone."

"What was this other girls name then, and before you say anything…Gran Gran doesn't count."

His glare was only halfhearted. "Oh very funny. For your information, I dated a princess."

This was actually surprising. "Really?"

"Yes, her name was Yue and we met when Aang was training in the South Pole."

"I'm impressed. Did you two break up when you and Aang left?"

Sokka's face fell. "No."

I didn't really know how to react to the sudden change in emotion, so I changed the subject. "So…Suki. What do you like about her?"

After a moment, Sokka smiled again. "Suki is beautiful. She's just so-" He made a gesture with his hands and then folded them under his chin. "And she can fight better than I can and her eyes are so…" He finished off with a long sigh.

I had to cover my mouth to stifle my laugh. "Where did you two meet?"

"Kiyoshi Island. It was the first place Aang and I went together."

"Lucky you." I took the place next to Sokka on the love seat and rested my head on his shoulder. He didn't seem to mind, so I sat with him in silence as he continued to write to Suki.

My eyes wandered guiltily to his letter.

Suki,

I can't begin to explain what I'm feeling right now. I miss you. A lot. And I'm not sure when I'll be able to see you again. I would love for you to be here with me right now. I feel like we would stand a better chance at what is to come if you were here. Please tell me that no matter what happens, you won't forget me. If we survive all of this, I don't know when I'll be able to see you again, but know you'll never be far from my mind. I will send

Who knew that Sokka, who couldn't talk himself out of a paper bag, was so eloquent in the written word? There was more, but I couldn't bring myself to continue reading such a personal letter.

"I feel like I should be writing a letter too, but I have no one to write to."

"Write one to a fiend you miss."

"I won't remember anything when I leave, I doubt they'd let me keep a letter for someone."

"You don't have to actually give it to them…"

"So it would be therapeutic?"

"Exactly."

"Well, I don't really have friends to write to."

Sokka put down his letter. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "I never really felt like I fit in. I guess now I know why."

Sokka's arm snaked around my shoulder and squeezed. "Was there no one you connected with?"

"There were a few people I was on good term with. They would invite me to things, but when we got there they would kind of go off and do their own thing. Most of the time I just ended up alone and uncomfortable. It's not that I was shy or anything…but there was no one I really 'connected' with. There was a guy named Bobby that I knew pretty well, but I never really…I don't know, it's hard to explain. I would give them all up in a heartbeat for one of you."

My brother smiled and gave me another squeeze. "I love you too, you big sap."

I laughed and untangled myself from him, "Write your letter Sokka, I'll go and find something to keep myself busy with. And you better not use my line in your letter to Suki…"

He muttered to himself as I walked through the kitchen and out the back door. The waterfall was calling me and I wanted nothing more than to freeze myself a nice block of ice and then sunbathe on it, so that was exactly what I did.

My life had changed so much in so little time. A few months ago, if someone would have told me that I was going to be fighting in a war in another world, I would have called the police. To think that I was shown this land, with all of these strange people, and now I was going to be taken from it just as I found my place here. A place I had been searching for…

The worst part was not knowing when I would be ripped away. One minute I would be here, and the next…well, the next I would go back to being Kat, a girl who was missing a piece of herself. Good for Aang if he thought he could argue me into staying with him, but I know they wouldn't let me, and I knew I wouldn't put up much of a fight. There was no point. Sprits like that didn't care what I thought. I wasn't even a part of their world. I didn't even know they existed until a few months ago, it wasn't like I had a lifetime of worshiping them that I could use to sway them. They weren't going to pity me.

Pity.

That was what it would take to stay. But it wasn't that simple, I had met them two times and from what I've seen, I didn't stand a chance. They had a lot more on their plates than a stupid teenager and her inability to fit in at her school. The literally had a whole world to keep from turning to chaos. I was probably the last things on their mind.

I shouldn't have become so connected with everyone, I shouldn't have forged friendships, created bonds…fallen in love. But I did. And now everyone was going to miss me while I forgot all about them and went on with my life without ever thinking about them at all.

I was going to be all alone.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o