Her mother? What does that have to do with anything? Sokka is her brother. Maybe he'll know what she's talking about. No, he will know. I have to go talk to him. I walk back to the campsite. Suki bumped into me. "Oops, sorry!" she said, kind of quickly.

"Are you going to Sokka's tent too?" I asked.

"Uh nope! Not me! Nope!" she walked away quickly. She seems nervous about something. I enter Sokka's tent. My jaw drops as I see Sokka with his hair down, with a rose in his mouth. There are candles surrounding him. "Well, hello..." Sokka started, "uh, Zuko!" He dropped the rose. Of course, why would I be expecting someone else!" he said nervously.

"What's up?" Sokka asked.

"Your sister, Sokka," I replied. "She hates me! I don't know why! I care what she thinks of me!"

"Nah, she doesn't hate you, Zuko. She doesn't hate anyone. Just some people in the Fire Nation." I glance at him. "Uh, I mean, not all people in the Fire Nation. People who used to be bad-I mean they are bad. They will never be good. Never."

"Nice save," I muttered. I sighed. "I want to know what happened to your mother. I know it seems like out of nowhere-"

"My mother?" Sokka asked. "Why?"

"Katara mentioned it before in Ba Sing Se and again when I was talking to her. I think it's connected to her anger towards me," I replied.

"It's not something I like to remember," Sokka said. "But I'll tell you. We were having a snowball fight. I was winning, of course, but the fight never finished. I saw ash from the sky. Many people in our tribe, the warriors, knew what it meant, a Fire Nation ship raid. Katara ran to go find mom.

"We were outnumbered, but somehow, we battled them off. They left pretty fast. I was so relieved when they left. But I didn't know what actually happened. They took mom."

"Can you remember the details of the raid ships?" I asked.

"Yeah, it said 'Sea Ravens.'"

"That's the symbol of the Southern Raiders," I said. "Thanks, Sokka." He pushed me out of the tent. "Thanks for stopping by, Zuko!" I started walking away. "Suki!" Sokka called from inside the tent. I watched as Suki entered. I quickly walked away. I walked back over to the cliff to talk to Katara again. I couldn't find her.

"Aang, have you seen Katara?" I asked as he walked past.

"Uh, yeah, she went in her tent," he said, pointing a thumb back towards camp.

"Thanks."

"What's up?"

"I just need to talk to her."

I walked over to her tent. I reached for the door, but paused. Katara is too mad right now. She might blow up on me and not listen to what I have to say. It's best if I wait. I backed away from the door. Once Katara calms down, I'll talk to her. I sat down on a rock in front of her tent.

She'll calm down eventually. She has to. She can't be mad forever. In fact, she might be happy to find out. I might it take off her back. Wait. That's not Katara. She's going to want to go. She's going to want to get revenge. If that's going to be the case...I have to come with her. She needs this. She needs to get this off her back. It'll be better that way.

"You look terrible," Katara's voice said, waking me from my sleep. I quickly recovered and stood. "I waited out here all night," I said.

"What do you want?" she asked. She still sounded a bit upset. "I know who killed your mother," I said. She stopped. "I'm going to help you find him."

"You...you do?" Katara asked. Her glance changed to anger. "How do you know?"

"I talked to your brother last night," I replied. She continued, grabbing her hair brush. "He told me what happened with your mother and told me what the raid ships were. I'm going to help you."

"Help me?" she asked. She didn't look at me. "Help me with what? Help me learn that violence isn't the way? Help me learn that I should forgive people instead of taking revenge? What else did my brother tell you?"

"I, uh..."

"Did he tell you that mother gave me this necklace?" she asked, pointing at her necklace. "Did he tell you that mother was taken to protect me? Did he tell you why the Fire Nation was there in the first place?"

"Katara, please..."

"Did he tell you that my world shattered because of what the Fire Nation did? Do you want to go so you can show your true colors?" She changed from her mother to me. Her mother's death must be affecting our relationship. "Katara, look. I'm sorry the Fire Nation raids took your mother. But, I can't change what has already happened."

"What, did you lead the raid?" Katara asked, ignoring me.

"Katara, I was like, ten. Do you really think my father would let me do that? He wouldn't even let me lead raids now!"

"Oh, so you're blaming your father now?"

"Katara, just listen to me!" Katara huffed and turned around, but she didn't walk away. Now she's listening. "Katara, I'm sorry your mother died. But it's in the past now. We can't change that. I know you want revenge. I'm going to help you do that! You just need to calm down and trust me! Can you do that?" Katara didn't answer for a little bit. She finished brushing her hair and took a deep breath.

"Fine," she said, turning. "We're on a temporary truce. But don't think about doing anything funny! Otherwise, you'll be next." Katara walked away and smacked me with her hair as he did. "We'll leave later. Be ready or I'm going without you."

Katara and I walk up to Aang. "I need to borrow Aapa," Katara said. Aang gave Aapa a chunk of hay. "Is it your turn for a field trip with Zuko?" he asked, laughing a little.

"Yes, it is," Katara said. Her voice was serious. "Oh. What's going on?"

"We're going to find the man who took my mother," Katara said.

"Sokka told me the story. I know who did it and what happened," I explained.

"Uh...what do you think this would do for you?" Aang asked.

"I knew you wouldn't understand," Katara said. She turned around. "Katara! Wait!" Aang called. She stopped. "I understand! You're feeling a lot of pain. It's the same feeling I had when the Sandbenders took Aapa. It's the same way I felt when I found out the Fire Nation took out the air nomads. I know exactly how you feel!"

"Aang, she needs this. It'll help her," I said.

"I don't think so. It's about revenge, isn't it?"

"Okay, well, what if it is?" Katara asked. "Maybe it's what he deserves!"

"Katara, you sound like Jet," Aang said.

"Jet attacked the innocent!" Katara said. "This is different!"

"No, it isn't," Aang said.

"Katara, she was my mother too but I think Aang's right," Sokka said.

"Then you didn't love her the way I did!" I never seen her so mad before. "Katara, the air nomads used to tell me that revenge is like a double headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're poisoning yourself."

"That's cute, Aang, but this isn't air temple preschool," I said.

"Now that I know we can find him, I feel like there is no choice," Katara said. "Aang, I have to do this."

"Katara, you do have a choice. You just have to forgive him," Aang tried.

"That's the same as doing nothing!" I replied.

"No, Zuko. It's not. It's easy to do nothing. It's harder to forgive," Aang said.

"It's not just hard," Katara said, "it's impossible." Katara walked away. "I wonder if she's going to actually do it," Sokka said.

"I don't even know what's going on but it sounds rough," Toph said.

Katara decided to try again later. She told me that I don't have to come, but I need to. Katara needs this. Katara seemed more upset when Sokka begged her not to go, but she brushed him off. She doesn't seem to want to talk to anyone right now.

Katara and I packed again, except this time, we used dark clothes. Katara wanted it to be a stealth mission, in and out. "So you're just going to take Aapa anyway?" Aang asked from behind a rock.

"Yes," Katara said.

"It's okay. I forgive you," Aang said. He paused. "Did that give you any ideas?"

"Don't try and stop us," Katara said gruffly.

"I wasn't going to. You have to do this," Aang said. "But when you do get there, please don't choose revenge. It's not good. Just forgive him insted."

"Okay, we'll be sure to do that guru goody-goody," I replied.

"Thanks for understanding, Aang," Katara said, hopping onto Aapa's head. "Aapa, yip, yip."

"We need to find the Fire Nation Navy control tower. All Navy's movements are tracked with the tower. They keep them updated constantly," I said once we got far enough from camp.

"So once we find the tower, we bust in and find what we need," Katara said.

"Not quite," I replied. "We need to make sure no one spots us. If we are caught, they'll warn the Southern Raiders pretty quickly. They'll be at the tower before we can get inside."

A nearby island came into view. "We should stop here. Aapa will get us caught," I said. Katara landed Aapa and we hopped off. She created a boat of ice in the water. "Hop on." We travel in silence until we get to the tower. We sneak up some rocks and wait as two guards walk out the door.

We enter the door and travel through ventilation shafts. We stop above a room with the locations. Except there's a guard. Katara pushed past me and bended the ink on her desk onto her hands. Clever.

She stares at her hands for a second before leaving. "Well, that's weird," she muttered as she left. We quickly exit the vent and onto the floor. Katara raids the right half of the desk so that leaves me with the left half. I pull out a scroll from a drawer. It's labeled 'Southern Raiders'.

"Okay, Southern Raiders," I said, opening it. "Here, on patrol near Whaletail Island," I said, pointing at the map.

"Whaletail Island," Katara said, looking at the map, "here we come."

"All right, let's get out of here." We close the desk and climb back into the vents. Once again, we take the ice boat to Aapa and take off.

I woke up the next morning to see that we're still flying. She didn't sleep. Not good. "You should get some sleep," I said. "We'll be there soon. You need all your strength."

"Don't worry about my strength," Katara replied. "I'm not the hopeless little girl I once was."

"Katara..."

"I remember his eyes," she said. "They looked menacing. They looked as if he was ready to kill anyone, even me. I was lucky that day that he didn't kill me too. Mom told me to go find dad. So I ran as fast as I could. I warned dad. He left the battlefield to help her. But we were too late. When we came back, the man was gone. So was mom."

"Your mother was brave," I said, trying to make her feel better.

"I know," Katara said. "I'm not sure what they were doing there, but all I know is that mother protected the village. They left the rest of us alone once they had her."