Zuko had been hoping he could get out of training today, but Yue decided they were going to do one last training session before they left. That was why he found himself now, early in the morning, reluctantly trudging a few steps behind Yue and Katara, who were talking excitedly about waterbending forms and ways that they could continue lessons once they got off the island.

Zuko was not particularly excited about the prospect of failing to waterbend one more time, but he knew there was no way they would let him stay with Aang and Sokka to help pack up. After all, he was the one who needed training the most.

Katara was still doing amazing. It had only been a week since they started, but to Zuko, it seemed like she had already practically mastered waterbending. He knew that wasn't true, of course, but compared to the zero progress that he had made, her skills were incredible.

They made it to the little pond that Aang had showed them to the first day. This was where they usually went to practice. Zuko was tired of looking at it after so many long hours spent standing nearby, trying desperately to feel any kind of connection to the liquid within it.

"Okay," Yue said, clapping her hands together as she stood in front of the pond, facing him and Katara. "Last lesson on the island, so let's make the best of it, right?" She met Zuko's eyes for a moment, and he nodded, trying his best to look confident and prepared. He didn't think he succeeded, based on the way she pursed her lips as she turned slightly away to address both him and Katara at once.

As she did, she fell into a familiar stance and pulled a stream of water from the pond behind her. She brought it around to float in the space between her and them. So easily, like it was nothing.

He supposed it wasn't, after years of practice. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have years to practice.

Still, as the lesson began, he tried to keep an open mind, like Katara had told him.

The problem was that doing that also left his mind open to think about all the stress in his life. His worry about Iroh, about the war, about what his father must be thinking about him at this very moment. About the deadline Roku had given him to learn the elements. About how far the knowledge of the Avatar's identity had spread. He may have accepted that he was the Avatar now, but he still wasn't sure how he would react when they left this island and ran into the first person who recognized him as the Avatar.

His father knew by now, of course. He had probably known within an hour of their escape from the ship.

All of these fears beat down on him, making it hard to focus. Zuko had never been a particularly fast learner. Azula may have been younger, but even though he was two years older, once she began her firebending training, she had surpassed him almost immediately, and he'd never been able to catch up, no matter how hard he tried.

How could he hope to master—or even become mildly proficient with—three more elements in less than a year, when he'd been working on firebending since he was old enough to walk and still hadn't mastered it? It was impossible.

Maybe Katara was right. Maybe the reason why he was struggling so much with waterbending was because part of him had already decided he couldn't do it.

He wished Uncle were here. Zuko had always found his words of wisdom annoying before, but now he longed for them. He'd know what to say, how to help. Instead, Zuko had to figure it out by himself. And he wasn't prepared for that.

"Zuko!" A voice shook him out of this line of thinking—and he did a double take, because he was expecting the voice to be Yue's, or Katara's, but it wasn't. It was Aang's, and he sounded panicked. "Katara! Yue!"

"What is it, Aang?" Katara asked with a frown as all three of them turned to see Aang running into their little clearing, holding his staff in one had, a wild expression on his face.

"We've gotta go," Aang said. "Now."

"What's wrong?" Zuko asked. "Did something happen?"

"My grandmother's had a couple lookouts posted around the island ever since we got here, and she just got notice that one of them saw a Fire Navy ship nearby."

"What?" Katara said.

"We can't let them get to the island," Aang said, and Zuko could see now that there was a little bit of wetness forming at the corners of his eyes. Tears?

"Let's go," Zuko said, and they all took off toward the tree.

It didn't take long to get up to the top of the tree, where they had been standing for the last few days, and there they found a nervous Sokka, as well as Aang's parents, Ceba and Gaden, and Jaya.

As they got there, Sokka was loading the last of their bags onto Appa's back and making sure the saddle was tightly secured. Jaya turned to them with a stern look as they all climbed up into the little clearing between the branches.

"Good, so Aang has told you the situation?" she asked.

Zuko and the others nodded.

"Then you know you must leave. Now."

Aang, Yue, and Katara all immediately began making their way toward Appa, climbing up onto his back, but Zuko paused.

"Maybe we should wait a second," he said, though he couldn't believe he was saying it.

"What?" Aang said. "You want them to come here?"

"Well, do you know for sure they were headed this way?" Zuko asked. "What if it's just a normal patrol, and we end up drawing more attention to the island by flying away from it on a very recognizable bison? The Fire Nation will know to look for Appa."

"That's true," Sokka said. He was already sitting up in Appa's saddle, and had been reaching down to help Yue climb her way up, but paused for a second at Zuko's words, and looked over. "Maybe it would be better to lay low for a little bit, see if they pass us by."

Aang looked dubious. He looked at his family, who were all staying silent, but who looked just as dubious as he did. "I can fly up and scout, I guess. See if they're headed here or if they're just patrolling. Jaya, do you know how close we are to the Earth Kingdom right now?"

"I do not pay attention to the island's route, no. It goes where it whims."

"I'll fly up. You guys wait down here, and I'll let you know if we need to get out. Hopefully if it is coming here, seeing us leave will convince it to follow us instead of coming to the island."

"Well, for all they know, this place is just an abandoned island, right?" Sokka asked. "They would have no reason to come here unless they think we're here."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Zuko asked. He was already reaching for the glider that was tied to Appa's saddle.

Aang tapped his glider on the ground, and the wings shot out. "Sure. But we have to stay low. If the ship is looking for us, we don't want them to see people flying around the island."

Zuko nodded. He tapped his own glider on the ground, and those beautiful red and gold wings emerged.

The two of them flew up carefully through the tangled branches of the massive tree, until they made it to the very top of the canopy and alighted on the highest branch. In a normal tree, of course, the branches at the edges of the canopy were the weakest and thinnest, and could not hold the weight of a person. This tree was no normal tree, however, so even the smallest branches were easily wider than Zuko's entire body, and they held both him and Aang with no issue.

Zuko scanned the horizon. All around them was endless ocean, no land anywhere in sight, but he could see that there was indeed a single Fire Nation ship, still far away, but it was hard to miss that distinctive trail of black smoke rising from the central tower, and the metallic sheen of the ship as it reflected the midmorning sunlight.

It was too far to tell for sure which direction it was going, but Zuko began to doubt that it was a patrol. What was there to patrol, out here in the middle of the ocean?

Zuko retracted the glider, slung it on his back, and wrapped one hand around the branch for balance, looking over at Aang. "What do you think?"

"The ship is still far away. Maybe if we leave now, we can get out stealthily, and it won't know we were here."

"That's a good idea," Zuko said slowly, "unless whoever is on that ship already knows we're here, and is coming here anyway. Then it would come here after we've left, and your family would be in danger."

Aang slumped against the branch, sagging with the weight of the emotions running through him. He kept his eyes trained on that ship on the horizon, never looking over to meet Zuko's gaze. "I never should have brought you guys here. All it's done is cause trouble."

"It doesn't have to," Zuko said. He reached out with his free hand and placed it on Aang's shoulder. Aang just nodded.

After an awkward beat, Zuko turned his attention back to the ship and removed his hand from Aang's shoulder. "We should wait here for a second, watch the ship to see if it's getting closer."

"And if it is?"

"Then we'll have to deal with it."

"Deal with it? You don't mean, like…kill the people there?"

"Well… ideally, no. Ideally, we'd lead it away from here. But if we have to…yes, I would kill them. We can't let anyone on that ship bring back the knowledge of this island and who lives here to my father."

"What if it's Azula on there? And her friends, what did you say their names were, Mai and Ty Lee? There's no way we can beat them."

Zuko bit his lip. "It's…probably not them."

"How can you know that?"

"I…don't." Zuko sighed. "Look, Aang, this is your people. Whatever you think we should do, I'll go along with it. I'm just trying to give you options."

Aang closed his eyes for a moment and sagged even more heavily against the branch. After a few seconds, he shook himself and opened his eyes. "You stay here and watch the ship to see if it's getting closer. I'm going to fly back down to the others and tell them to start making sure any sign of life is hidden, and then I'm going to come back up here. If it looks like it's heading for us, we're going to try to draw it away from the island."

Zuko nodded, and crouched down against the branch, keeping his eyes locked on that distant ship while Aang made his way back down through the tree's branches to the place where they had left their friends.

Aang swung down off the lowest branch and landed with barely a sound in the center of the assembled group, who were all still waiting down below.

"So, what's the verdict?" Sokka asked. "Are they coming here?"

"It's hard to tell," Aang said. "The ship is still really far away. I think for now what we should do is make sure everyone comes back to town and hunkers down." He looked at his grandmother. "We have to make it look like the place is abandoned, so if they do make it here, they won't see anything notable. Call everyone back to the tree."

Jaya looked dubious, but she nodded. "You are not leaving?"

"Not yet. Zuko thinks we should wait a little bit, try to determine if they actually are coming here, and if they are… then we'll take off on Appa, make it obvious that we're leaving, try to draw them away from the island if we can."

"And if that doesn't work?" Katara asked.

Aang shifted uncomfortably, looking back and forth between the ground and his friends. "Then we'll have to handle it. For now, just go make sure there are no signs of life anywhere. I don't know how much time we might have."

With that, they all broke off, abandoning the task of loading up Appa and disappearing to sound the alarm. Luckily, this sort of thing was not an entirely unfamiliar occurrence. Jaya was constantly paranoid that they would be found out. It was why they'd built their home inside a tree in the first place. All throughout Aang's childhood, they'd done drills every few months, practicing for what Jaya saw as the inevitable day when the Fire Nation or someone else would discover the island.

This was the first time Aang knew of that it hadn't just been a drill, though.

He took a deep breath and wandered over to Appa for a moment, who was of course the only one still left up here. Appa nuzzled him as Aang walked up, and for a few seconds, Aang let himself enjoy the comfort of his oldest and closest friend, before he finally sighed.

"You ready, buddy?" he asked, and Appa grunted in an affirmative way. Aang smiled. "Well, that makes one of us."

Then he started to make his way back up through the branches to Zuko. As he did, though, he heard a thud from below, and glanced back down to see the trap door swinging back open, and through it came Jaya.

"Aang?" she called to him. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

Aang bit his lip, but nodded and dropped back down. "Of course, Elder Jaya."

She grimaced. "No need to be so formal, Aang."

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I worry about this plan you've laid out. You say that the Avatar suggested it? Suggested we wait to see if the ship gets closer before acting?"

"It was Zuko's idea, yeah."

Jaya nodded, then didn't speak for a few seconds, her eyes casting about as if she was trying to figure out how to phrase her next words. "Aang… how certain are you that we can trust him?"

The question was like a smack. He didn't know what he had been expecting from this conversation, but whatever it was, it wasn't this. "Of course we can trust him."

"He is Fire Nation."

Aang couldn't believe they were really talking about this. "He's the Avatar. And he's my friend. I've been traveling with him for months now. He's come a long way."

"How can you be certain this is not some kind of trap? Perhaps he is working with the Fire Nation, and that ship coming here is part of the plan. The Avatar is not infallible, Aang. They are still a person, just like any of the rest of us, with their biases and their flaws."

Aang felt a flash of annoyance. "I know that, Jaya. But like I said, I have been traveling with Zuko for months. I know him. I've seen his struggles and his failures, and I've seen him working to move past them and become better. I trust him. If you're not willing to do that, I hope that you will at least trust me?"

"Aang…" Jaya sighed. "I trust you."

"Do you?"

"Of course I do."

"It didn't seem like it the other day, when you told me I was reckless and threatened to make me stay here."

"Aang, I don't think now is a good time to be having this discussion."

"When is a good time, then, Jaya?" Aang asked. "My friends and I are supposed to be leaving today, one way or another, and I don't know when I'll be back."

He felt familiar tears pooling up in his eyes again, and blinked hard to keep them from spilling over.

Jaya didn't respond for a long moment, just studied him, her expression impassive. Eventually, though, her eyes softened, almost imperceptibly. He probably wouldn't have noticed it at all if he hadn't spent his whole life learning how to read her.

She took a few steps forward, bringing her closer to him, and reached out to take his hands in hers. Aang flinched at first, but didn't pull away. He couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze, though.

"When I said that, it was not because I don't trust you," Jaya said. "It was because I was—am—worried about you, and worried about the wellbeing of our people."

It was, of course, no different from what she'd been saying Aang's whole life. Insisting that they needed to stay right where they were, not leave, not try to find out what was going on in the wider world—for their own protection, she claimed.

"That's what I'm worried about too," Aang said. "I want our people to be whole again, and we can't be while we're stuck here on this island. I left because I want to help get us to where we're supposed to be."

Jaya let go of Aang's hands. Her expression changed subtly again, and he could see a little bit of exasperation in her eyes. "This island is the only reason why our people are still alive, Aang. And now that's been put in jeopardy because you decided to leave and reveal yourself to the world, then directed its attention here."

Aang shook his head. "This island is a prison. In the old days, our people traveled the world, Jaya. We're supposed to be nomads. The island may move, but we do not. Our people have spent the past 80 years since Avatar Aang died sitting in the same place, too scared to leave." He finally forced himself to meet her gaze. "I'm sorry that I may have brought the attention of the Fire Nation here, and I will do everything in my power to keep everyone from being discovered, but I won't apologize for leaving in the first place. If we want to truly become Air Nomads again, we have to be willing to take some risks. And no one here has done that in a very, very long time."

Jaya's eyes narrowed, but she did not speak for a long moment. Finally, she just said, "I need to go and prepare our people. I will speak to you later."

And with that, she left, climbing back down the ladder into the tree.

Aang stood there for a few more seconds after she was gone, emotions brimming under his skin, and tried to calm himself down. Eventually, he began to climb back up to where Zuko waited.

He hated the way her words always got under his skin. Her disapproval of his choices, her distrust of Zuko and maybe even the rest of his friends. He'd put on a confident face while talking to her, but now that she was gone, her words made him doubt himself, made him wonder if he really was doing the right thing.

Maybe it would have been better if he'd never left at all. At least then his people would be safe.

It was too late to worry about that now, though, he supposed.