Katara's heart raced as she lay on the ground, unable to move from the pain as her blood mixed with the water leaking out of her pouch. Zuko's scream split the sky when an arrow took Iroh in the neck, and all at once, the air grew still.

Then, as Katara watched, Zuko's eyes burst alight, and the air around them became violent, sending Fire Nation soldiers and archers flying. A ring of flames rolled out from his feet, lighting grass and leaves and clothing ablaze.

She could see the fire raging and hear the winds buffeting around her. She knew that they should be throwing her around, too, but they didn't seem to affect her the way they did the soldiers. It was like she had a bubble of calm all around her body. Nor, she realized, did they touch Iroh, Sokka, or Aang, other than to rip away the net pinning Sokka down.

Even more strangely, Katara realized she was starting to feel better. Her head, which had been fuzzy with pain, was clearing. She looked down, surprised, at the wound in her side. Water was leaking out of the slit in her pouch where an arrow had grazed it, pooling under her body, and where the water touched the wound, it glowed with a blue light. It was...healing her wound. She was healing her wound.

Sitting up, she pulled the arrow out with a gasp of pain, then formed a glove of water around her hand and held it to her side experimentally.

To her surprise, as she concentrated, the water began to glow blue in the same way, and the wound closed. Elated by this new revelation but not having time to waste, she did the same to the one on her shoulder, then stood up and, Zuko's raging winds still ignoring her—he was floating dozens of feet in the air now, surrounded by a ball of wind and fire—she rushed over to his uncle.

Iroh was barely breathing, and blood was leaking fast out of the wound in his neck, despite the arrow that should have helped stanch the flow. It had hit an artery. She needed to work fast, or he would die.

Ignoring everything she'd ever been taught about treating arrow wounds, she ripped the arrow out of his neck and pressed her water-gloved hand against the wound, closing her eyes and forcing all the power she had into it. She didn't open her eyes, but she could feel the bleeding slow and the skin begin to stitch itself back together. When she heard Iroh sigh in his sleep, she knew he would be okay.

She stood up, opening her eyes just as a gust of wind blew dust up into her face. She coughed and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. The winds were so loud she could barely hear herself think, but she turned, looking around.

Sokka was getting to his feet, staring up at Zuko in shock. He didn't seem to have been hit by any arrows, just knocked down by the net. Where was… there. Aang had gotten to his feet too, but he was cradling one hand with the other. He'd already taken out the arrow itself. Katara went over to him.

"Let me help," she said, reaching out to take his wounded hand with her water-gloved one. She noticed the way his cheeks blushed slightly pink at the touch, but focused on breathing as she sent her power into the water. It glowed for a moment, the wound closing up quickly—it hadn't been a particularly bad one.

"Wow," Aang said, "since when do you know how to do that?"

"I guess I always knew." Katara shrugged.

Aang grinned at her. "See, I told you you could make your own moves without scrolls to help you."

Katara smiled back, but turned away quickly. They had more important things to worry about at the moment. Like Zuko, who was still hovering in the air.

Thankfully, it seemed like Zuko's raging winds had started to die down, and the three of them watched as he began to sink back down toward the ground, the glow in his eyes beginning to fade.


Exhaustion consumed Zuko as he opened his eyes, and he nearly fell over, but someone grabbed his shoulders. He was back on the path where the battle had taken place, but the field looked different. A perfect circle a few feet in diameter around him had been left completely untouched, but for hundreds of feet outside of that circle, trees had been snapped in half or torn completely out of the dirt, and the limp bodies of Fire Nation soldiers and Yuyan Archers littered the ground. Were they...dead?

What had… what had happened? He looked over at the person who had caught him. It was Katara, and Aang and the Water Tribe boy that was probably Katara's brother stood behind her. But… she'd gotten an arrow in her side! How could she stand, much less keep someone else from falling? He looked down at her side, but there was no wound there. Even the arrow was gone.

"You… I saw… the arrow." Zuko was so tired he couldn't figure out the words, but she just shook her head.

"Later," she said. "For now, we need to get out of here."

"My—my uncle," Zuko gasped, his eyes going wide. He spun around, the sudden movement making him dizzy, and Katara's grip on him tightened to keep him from falling. There was his uncle, lying unconscious on the ground, but the arrow that had been in his neck was gone, as if it had never been there at all. Zuko blinked, confused.

"He's fine," Katara said. "We're all fine."

"But we won't be soon if we don't leave," the Water Tribe boy said. "Come on." He knelt next to Iroh and, with a grunt, lifted him. He must be a lot stronger than he looked, because Iroh was heavy even when he was awake.

Dazed, Zuko allowed Katara and the others to lead him away.


An hour later, Zuko was riding on a sky bison's back with Katara, Aang, Iroh, and Katara's brother, whose name, Zuko had finally learned, was Sokka.

Iroh had awoken half an hour before, looking a little sore but still very much alive.

Katara filled Zuko in on what happened while he was out, and Zuko told the others about his vision, though not in much detail. He just said he'd had a vision of the past Avatars and that they'd told him about his father's plan to use Sozin's Comet to end the war.

"I had thought Ozai might take advantage of the comet," Iroh said.

Zuko stared at his hands, which he discovered to his embarrassment, were shaking.

"What's so special about this comet, anyway?" Sokka asked.

"Fire Lord Sozin used it to start the war a hundred years ago," Zuko said hollowly. "When he… well, you know." He glanced at Aang and winced. "Anyway, it gives firebenders immense power. They'll be practically unbeatable."

"You mean Ozai is planning on wiping out another nation?" Aang asked. His voice was very small.

"Maybe. Roku didn't say. He just said my father would use it to end the war. But I imagine… yes. Or if not that, then at least cripple the other nations so much that they no longer have any choice but to submit to Fire Nation rule."

Silence fell over the group, and inside it, Zuko kept hearing Roku's voice in his head. You must avenge our shared lives, and redeem me.

He would have to fight his father and win. His father, the Fire Lord, the most powerful firebender in the world. How could Zuko ever hope to beat him?

But, he realized, he was determined to try. He'd been teetering for a while, questioning his decision to turn himself in, but after feeling the pain of the previous Avatars' deaths… He couldn't do it. He couldn't be so selfish.

Even if it would be much easier that way.

Just three of the thousands of lives that have been cut short by an endless war, Roku had said.

Zuko turned to his uncle and said, "You were right, Uncle. There is no honor in turning myself in. I have to… I have to fight him."

Iroh smiled and patted his shoulder. "Eventually, yes. But first, you must train. You've already started fire and air, but you must learn water and then earth as well. Only once you are proficient in all four will you be a fully realized Avatar, ready to face your father."

"I'll start your lessons back up," Aang said, perking up. "And we were already planning on heading to the Northern Water Tribe anyway, so Katara can learn waterbending. I can train you in air on the way, and once we get there, you guys can learn waterbending together!"

Zuko looked at Katara, whose sour expression told him that she didn't like that idea very much, but she didn't meet his gaze. He turned back to Aang with a shrug.

"Great, so it's settled!" Aang said. He spun around and made as if to leap from Appa's saddle onto the bison's head.

"Actually, it's not," Iroh said.

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"I cannot go with you," Iroh said.

"What?" Zuko said. "Uncle, I need you. I still haven't finished my firebending training!"

Iroh shook his head. "You are already a proficient firebender, Zuko. The only skills you have yet to learn are very high-level ones, and there will be time for that later, if necessary. You should focus your energy on learning air and water for now."

"But I still don't know anything about lightning," Zuko protested, "and I'm definitely going to need that when I face my father."

"Hold on—lightning?" Sokka asked, causing both Zuko and Iroh to look at him. Zuko felt his face warm. He'd kind of forgotten the other three were there.

"High-level firebenders can bend lightning," Iroh explained calmly. "Ozai, for example. And myself. But it's an exceedingly rare skill that few firebenders ever master. Many Avatars never learn it." He said that last part with a pointed look at Zuko, who sighed.

"Well, this just got a whole lot scarier," Sokka mumbled, glancing up at the cloudless sky as if he was expecting lightning to shoot down and burn him to a crisp right then.

Zuko met his uncle's gaze. "Don't you think it might be helpful for me to at least have an idea of how it works?"

Iroh clasped his hands together. "I suppose I can try to teach you a little before I leave," he said, though he was obviously reluctant.

"I still don't understand why you can't just come with us," Aang said.

"Rumors have been growing for a while about the Avatar's return," Iroh said, "and with Zuko's, ah...incident today, those will only become stronger. I plan to return to the Fire Nation and try to throw the people searching for you off your trail."

All four of them stared at him, then looked at each other, then back at him.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Katara was the first one to speak.

"None of this is safe," Iroh said, "but in order for us to succeed, we must keep Ozai from realizing the Avatar's true identity for as long as possible. Luckily, Aang has already provided a solution."

Aang frowned. "Uh...how exactly does that help any of this? Won't it make it even harder to keep Zuko secret?"

"Wait," Zuko said. "You mean the rumors about an airbending Avatar?"

"You heard them too? Great." Aang's expression was a strange mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. "Yeah, that was an accident. Evidently just because no one's seen an airbender in a hundred years, everyone assumes that any airbender they see must be the Avatar."

"It couldn't have worked out better for you, honestly," Sokka grumbled. "We've had firebenders at our butts for weeks, all because everyone thinks Aang's the Avatar. Made it a ton harder to try to look for you because we had to be careful not to get caught."

"But now," Iroh said, "I will do my best to plant rumors of bison and airbender sightings in places far from the North Pole. And I will try to send you any bits of useful information I can find."

"So you're gonna be an undercover spy," Aang said, grinning. "Sounds cool."

"It sounds very dangerous," Zuko said, frowning. "Are you sure about this, Uncle?"

"Yes." Iroh met his gaze steadily, and Zuko bit his lip. "Don't worry, Zuko, I'll be fine."

Zuko didn't see how that could be true, but he nodded solemnly.

"Now," Iroh said, "Aang, could you bring us down? I believe my nephew requested a firebending lesson."