"Well," Sokka said dryly. "That was a total disaster."

Zuko glanced behind him, where the ruins of General Fung's base grew smaller on the horizon. It turned out that forcing a child to tap into his uncontrollable superhuman abilities was not a good idea, which General Fung had learned the hard way. Zuko had initially thought Fung's idea was a clever one; it would have ended the war quicker and, most importantly, killed his father faster. But he had never seen Aang go into the avatar state. Once he had seen it with his own eyes he was in agreement with Katara.

She was right all along, of course, and Zuko wished they had listened to her before she was used as bait to trigger Aang. General Fung was lucky he got away with just a destroyed stronghold. If he had the chance, his dao would have found themselves in Fung's gut. Even Aang, who had not let go of Katara since they got onto Appa, wouldn't have objected to that.

"We didn't need the General anyways," Azula said. "We should have gone straight to Omashu."

"Hey, I agree." Sokka shrugged. "But the mountains between us and Omashu are crawling with Fire Nation soldiers, and Pakku thought we would need a guard."

Katara sat up, which looked difficult due to Aang still clinging to her. "Speaking of Fire Nation," she turned to Zuko and Azula. "Zhao knew who you were. The Fire Nation probably knows you're both alive now."

Zuko exchanged a glance with Azula. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss it yet.

"You never really told us why they think you're dead," Sokka pointed out. "And you were pretty vague about the details of your dad trying to kill you."

"You don't need to know everything." Zuko snapped. "Our father tried to kill us. He killed our mother. We escaped. That's all you need to know."

"Hey!" Katara placed her hand over Sokka's mouth. "We didn't mean it that way. I know that stuff is hard to talk about, and you don't have to tell us about it. But it is a little weird that you escaped and were still declared dead."

That was true. He and Azula used to wonder why, but it definitely made things easier for them. They weren't going to look a gift ostrich-horse in the mouth. Surviving in the Earth Kingdom was hard enough without the Fire Nation hunting them down.

"Our father probably told the Fire Lord we were dead to save his reputation." Azula said. "A Fire Nation prince who couldn't kill two children wouldn't have a chance at the throne." She smirked. "The Fire Lord hates being lied to. I'll bet that Father was roasted alive for deceiving him."

Sokka nodded slowly, eyeing Zuko's scar quickly before looking away. "What will happen now that they know?

Azula shrugged. "Perhaps they'll put some wanted posters up. But it doesn't change anything."

Zuko nodded in agreement. "We were wanted as the Blue Spirit before anyways. The only reason we hid behind a mask was because we would have been hunted down by ourselves. But now we have you guys, and Appa, so it doesn't matter anymore."

"And Father won't be too happy to know that we're working against him." Azula added. "I want to make him as uncomfortable as possible before we defeat him."

Zuko grinned. That definitely was an added bonus. Sure, they could be recognized now, but traveling with the Avatar already put a target on their back. And it could be beneficial to let others in the Fire Nation know that not everyone stood with the Firelord, even his own family.

It was an intensely hot day, with Agni shining brightly overhead and no clouds to shade them. Aang had insisted on giving Appa a chance to cool down in the river. Katara and Aang began a waterbending lesson, although it looked like they were just splashing around, and Sokka was floating lazily on a large leaf.

Azula didn't care for swimming, so she chose to sit on the riverbank with Zuko.

"This is a waste of time," she muttered irritably.

Zuko stretched beside her, the burns on his arms almost mocking her. She averted her eyes and firmly pushed down the guilt that crept in whenever she saw them. "Aang does need the training." He said with a shrug.

"I don't think they're training," Azula replied, watching as Aang splashed around as an octopus. "He hasn't even mastered the firebending basics." Her proposal to drill Aang on fire blocks this morning was vetoed. Apparently Aang had been under too much stress lately and required some relaxation.

"Not everyone is a prodigy like you, Zula."

She opened her mouth to retort, but paused when a man's voice floated towards them.

"Don't fall in love with the traveling girl." The man sang. Behind him wandered four others, who swayed and danced as they walked. "She'll leave you broke and brokenhearted."

Nomads.

Azula exchanged a tired look with Zuko. They had encountered a fair share of nomads during their travels, but this bunch looked especially fried.

After a few minutes of mindless back and forth, Azula found herself sitting beside the others as the nomads fawned over Appa. She supposed a six legged bison would be interesting even to someone who wasn't high as a kite.

Jerking back suddenly, Azula whipped around to glare at Sora, who had been unashamedly braiding her hair. "Your hair is so pretty," she said with a dreamy voice, pulling it out of her phoenix tail despite Azula's efforts to lean away. "But you should really have some flowers in it."

Azula pulled away, quickly undoing the braids Sora had managed to sneak in. "Don't touch my hair." She snapped, ignoring Katara and Aang's giggles. Nobody had touched her like that since Mother died. It wasn't something she wanted from a stranger. She hurried to sit next to Zuko.

"Sounds like you're headed to Omashu," Chong was saying. "You know, there's an old legend about a secret pass right through the mountains."

"The cave of two lovers?" Zuko skeptically. "That's just a legend, we read about it as kids."

"Oh, it's a real legend," Chong insisted. "And it's as old as earthbending itself." He strung his lute and began to sing. But he didn't actually know the lyrics. Azula huffed as he skipped parts and overdramatically sang the chorus. It was an insult to Oma and Shu's story! Did he not read the manuscript? Or at least see the play?

"That's not how it actually goes." She interrupted exasperatedly. "Did you forget the part where everyone who goes in dies?"

Sokka smacked his forehead. "Yeah, I think we'll just stick with flying. We've dealt with the Fire Nation before, we'll be fine."

They were not fine. As soon as they reached the mountain, the sky was filled with fireballs. All they could do was scream and hope that Appa avoided them all.

Defeated, they walked back to the nomads.

"He didn't even know the rest of the song!" Azula was ranting. Zuko nodded grumpily. "It's an insult to performing arts!"

"It doesn't matter. The secret love tunnel is the only way for us to go." Sokka said, rubbing the scorch marks off of his arms.

"It's not just a tunnel, though." Zuko said. "If it's anything like the song then it's a whole labyrinth of tunnels. That's why nobody ever comes out."

They reached the nomads, where Lilly clearly heard what they were saying. "All you need to do is trust in love… according to the curse."

Great, so now there was a curse. Sokka couldn't believe that this was their only option. Everyone continued walking, which probably showed how desperate they were. It was either dying to the Fire Nation, or wandering around under a mountain hoping to find the other side.

"Hey, here we are!" Chong gestured dramatically at the cave entrance.

Sokka stared at it apprehensively. "So what exactly is this curse?" He was asking Zuko and Azula, but Chong answered instead.

"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves. Otherwise, you'll be trapped in them forever."

"And die." Lilly added unhelpfully.

"Oh yeah, and die."

"We're not going to die." Azula said firmly.

Moku pointed out the smoke behind them, which he naively thought was a campfire.

"It's the Fire Nation, they're tracking us." Sokka rubbed his eyes wearily. "Looks like the cursed hole is our only option."

"So all we need to do is trust in love to get through these caves?" Aang asked, looking at Katara with shining eyes. Sokka resisted the urge to smack his forehead. Aang was so caught up in his crush that he didn't even notice Katara making heart eyes at Zuko after he said that.

"Everyone into the hole." Sokka commanded, leading the way. The moment they entered the Fire Nation tanks arrived, collapsing the entrance and trapping them inside.

"We'll be fine." He said. Katara comforted Appa as he pawed at the rubble. "All we need is a plan. We have two firebenders and plenty of torches. And I can make a map to keep track of where we're going."

"That's smart." Azula said, sounding almost surprised. "Then we can solve it like a maze."

Sokka preened slightly, pulling out a scroll and some charcoal. "I have my moments."

Unfortunately, they were not making any progress.

"Sokka, this is the tenth dead end you've led us to."

"This doesn't make sense," Azula said. She was standing beside him and frowning at the map. "We've come this way before. You must have written it down wrong."

"I did not!" The map clearly showed that they walked through this tunnel before, but now it was a dead end. "There's something strange here. There's only one explanation. The tunnels are changing."

The moment was already dramatic enough, but maybe the spirits just really hated him. At that moment the tunnels started shaking.

"We never should have come here!" Chong wailed. "It must be the curse!"

"Look!" Moku pointed into the darkness. "It's a wolfbat!"

Zuko punched forward, sending a streak of fire towards the glowing eyes. A wolfbat leapt out, growling menacingly. Sokka placed himself in front of the nomads, who were now cowering against the wall, and waved his torch back and forth to scare it away. But that just made things worse. A few cinders flew off of his torch and hit Appa, startling him and sending him careening around the tunnel.

Everyone panicked as the tunnel started to collapse around them. Sokka tried to get to Katara, but Aang pushed him to the other side of the tunnel with the nomads. He grabbed Azula to stop her from throwing herself under the rocks to get to her brother. They caught a glance of Katara pulling Zuko with her before the rocks blocked their view.

There was a moment of stunned silence, everyone holding their breath as the tremors settled back down. Sokka did a headcount, relieved to find everyone safe.

"Zuko!" Azula threw herself at the cave-in, desperately digging through the rubble. The rocks shifted, threatening to collapse on her.

"Azula, stop!" Sokka pulled her away. "You're going to get yourself killed."

He was surprised at how much she was shaking. This was Azula, a powerful bender and ruthless killer, who wouldn't hesitate to stab someone in a disagreement, but at that moment she was just a little sister afraid for her brother. He wrapped his arms around her, unsure if it would work but giving it a shot anyways. It always helped Katara, but she was less prickly than Azula.

Her shaking seemed to lessen slightly. "They're fine." He said soothingly. "We saw them get away."

"You don't know that!" He was forced back as she shoved him roughly. "He could be buried under there, or hurt, and I need to find him."

"Katara's with him, too, you know." Sokka frowned.

"I don't care about her." Azula snarled, turning away and clenching her fists. Sokka sighed deeply, strangely reminded of his own little sister when she was feeling especially cranky.

"Now I know you don't mean that." He said gently. "You're just worried. I am, too. I know we're going to find them again. But we can't do that if you push us away." There was no response. Sokka placed his hand on her shoulder. "He's okay, Azula. We both saw them get away from the rocks."

She nodded, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. "I've never been away from him since… since we left home." She said quietly. Her tone suggested she regretted yelling at him, but there was no apology. That was fine. Sokka understood.

"It's probably a good thing we were separated," Sokka took a gamble with a joke. "Did you see the way she blushed when Zuko took off his shirt this morning? Maybe they'll finally stop mooning over each other and kiss already."

It didn't make her laugh, but her lips twitched and he wasn't immediately lit on fire.

Aang picked up the one torch that wasn't buried. "We better get going. We only have one torch left and we don't know how long it will take to get through these tunnels."

"Aang." Sokka said slowly. "You can firebend now. You and Azula are our torches."

"Maybe I don't want to be a torch." Azula grumbled.

This was fine! It was going to be great. Sokka could get them through this.

"Don't let the cave-in get you down," Chong began to strum his lute. "Don't let the falling rocks turn your smile to a frown!"

Nevermind.

"So the play didn't say exactly how they got through?" Katara asked. They had been walking for a while in comfortable silence (well, as comfortable as one could be while traversing endless death tunnels).

"It just said they're love guided them through." Zuko said. "But I didn't know this was a real place until today, so I didn't think too much about it."

"How did you know about an Earth Kingdom legend, then? I didn't think the Fire Nation royalty would read literature from other cultures." She only grew up with traditional Water Tribe stories, but that was because their village was so isolated.

He smiled softly. "My cousin sent us some theater scrolls when he was campaigning in the Earth Kingdom. Mom loved them, she had copies made to send to local theater groups."

He didn't talk about his mother very much. Katara knew how she died, and she had told him how her own mother died, but they didn't go beyond that. It was just too painful. It was odd how it was more painful for them to talk about their happy memories with lost loved ones than it was to share how they were taken. Maybe someday those happy memories would comfort them, but now their grief was still too raw, too strong. It was easier to hide behind the anger over their loss. But sometimes it became too much, and Katara felt as if she were losing her mother all over again if she didn't talk about her.

"My mom used to tell us stories, too." She said, "Every night she would tell us our favorites, and sometimes make shadow puppets with her hands."

"Did she do the voices when acting out the characters?"

Katara giggled, suddenly remembering her mother's face grotesquely twisting as she pretended to be an ice wraith. "Yes! She loved to try and scare us."

It was like a dam broke inside of her. She told Zuko about her mom's favorite foods. How she always embroidered their parkas with their favorite animals. How she and her dad met. How angry she would get when they tracked snow into the beds. Her comforting presence as they slept. Her five flavored soup recipe that Katara was still trying to perfect. An enormous wave of relief swept through her as she talked, as if she had been holding all of it in since her death. It still hurt, that was never going away. But it was like she was finally letting the poison out of her body.

She learned about Zuko's mother, too. Her name was Ursa. She was going to be an actress before she married his father. They would go to the theater together every chance they got. She always wore jasmine perfume. Her favorite play was Love Amongst the Dragons. She had a lovely singing voice. She hated floral teas but loved dark teas. She gave herself up to protect them.

"That's something that we have in common," Katara said softly. A wave of understanding seemed to pass between them. She didn't even blush when he took her hand as they walked.

She liked him a lot. Not just for his looks, although she did like those, too (she had nearly smacked herself with a water whip when he had taken his shirt off). She had been drawn to him, like the tides to the moon, since they first met. They just clicked in a way that she hadn't ever felt with a boy before. Haru was sweet, but there was a spark missing between them. With Jet there were plenty of sparks, but he took his anger out on innocent people. Zuko had a lot of anger, too. But he used it to help people.

She was startled out of her thoughts as Appa sprinted ahead, a large stone door looming above them. He charged right through the door.

All the excitement left her as they entered. "This isn't an exit."

Zuko stopped beside her. "No, it's a tomb." He scanned the room warily. "This must be where Oma and Shu are buried."

Katara gazed at the mural above their tomb. Their love was strong enough to find each other in these endless tunnels. Strong enough to end a war. "Love is brightest in the dark." She read outloud. Glancing at Zuko, she blushed as an idea began to form.

"There's another tunnel at the end there," Zuko was saying. "But we're probably at the center of the mountain."

"I have a crazy idea." Katara started. Zuko looked at her curiously, making her stomach flip. "Nevermind, it's too crazy."

"What is it?"

She turned back to the mural, taking courage from it. "I was thinking… the curse says we'll be trapped here forever unless we trust in love."

"Right."

"And here it says, 'love is brightest in the dark,' and has a picture of them kissing."

Zuko stared at her. "Where are you going with this?"

She forced herself to say it, her face heating up. "Well, what if we kissed?"

His mouth fell open. "What?"

"It's either that, or we can wander the tunnels again." Katara said defensively, suddenly nervous at his confusion. "Would you rather do that than kiss me?"

"No, no, that's not what I was saying!" Zuko said quickly, waving one hand frantically, the fire in the other hand flickering sporatically. "I was just surprised. We can try that if you want to."

"So you don't want to?"

"I never said that!"

"Then why are you making this so difficult?"

"Because I didn't think you would want to."

Katara blinked, unsure if she heard him correctly. "Zuko, I like you. I've been making it so obvious."

He flushed, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "You do?"

She stepped closer to him. "Why do you think I've been watching you train Aang? It wasn't the shirtless twelve year old I was staring at."

Zuko's mouth opened and closed for a moment. "I've been staring at you, too." He admitted sheepishly.

Katara grinned. "I know."

Slowly, they both leaned forward.

Zuko's fire sputtered out as their lips met.

Above them, thousands of crystals glowed in the darkness.

"How did you guys get out?"

Katara blushed. "Just like the legend said. We let love lead the way."

"Really? We let huge, ferocious beasts lead our way."

NOTES:

The Gaang doesn't know that Azulon is keeping their identity a secret. Nobody except Ozai and Azulon know that they are alive