Zuko didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he woke with a start, water lapping at his legs and feet. He was on the shore lying next to what remained of the ice raft. It had broken into three pieces, and each had significantly shrunk so that no one would be able to stand on them in the water without tipping over.

Katara lay next to him on the river-worn rocks. Her breathing was deep as it had been the night before. Given how tired she had been, it wasn't much of a surprise that she slept so soundly but—he glanced at the water's edge a step or two away—How did we get here? Surely they would have felt the boat coming apart or washing up on the rocks. And how did we get so far up the shore? The river wasn't strong enough to push them up the shoreline.

His focus traveled farther up and—Isn't that the trail? It looked different now that it wasn't pitch black out, but it had—yes, it had the same large rock Katara tripped on the night before last at the start of their hike up.

The dull blue sky signaled early morning. The sun was about to rise, Zuko could feel it, and along with it would be Sokka, Toph, and Aang.

"Katara." He shook her beside him. "Katara," he said again, a little louder.

She let out a gasp and, like him, started awake. "What?" she breathed. A look around answered her question.

"We need to go. They'll be up soon." He directed her attention to the trek ahead.

She nodded. They stood and went towards the trailhead, but she only took a handful of steps before stopping with a sudden jerk.

"What?" Zuko asked. He directed a glance downward at her wrapped leg.

"I—It's better," Katara said, her surprise audible.

"What do you mean?"

Katara didn't immediately respond as she untied the strips of Zuko's clothing with a kind of frantic joy. Instead of blackened skin and blisters that had been there hours before, her leg was completely healed. There was, however, one clue left behind where the wound had been: a tan color that was several shades darker than her skin, but upon closer inspection her skin was otherwise unblemished.

Katara probed and massaged it. "It's like a birthmark," she remarked.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, and," she said, her tone rising happily, "I'm really not that tired."

"Okay…"

"No, I mean, I feel really good. Like I got the best sleep I've had in a long time."

"Oh." Zuko evaluated himself to see if anything had changed for him. Huh. "I don't feel tired either." Sure, he had just woken up, but neither was he sore like he'd had a fight hours ago.

The sudden feeling of being watched came upon Zuko, and he turned to look back at the river. It flowed as it had done so before, slow and quiet, but it felt different now: alive and, in the cool morning light, not necessarily kind.

"We should go—" he began, but as he spoke, Katara went to the river. "Katara—"

"Hold on," she called back over her shoulder.

Zuko took a step. "Katara, I wouldn't."

Going down on one knee, Katara cupped her hands and placed them in the water. She whispered something Zuko couldn't quite catch except lone syllables here and there. Then, when done, she stood and walked back to Zuko.

"What did you say?"

"I thanked her," Katara replied, "and said the villagers still believed in her."

"The Painted Lady?"

Katara nodded.

He gave her a questioning look.

She shook her head. "She didn't say anything, but the river isn't clean yet. It'll take time before all the trash and everything is washed away."

"Maybe that's when she'll be powerful again."

"I hope so," Katara said quietly.

The sky was turning, laying the foundation of what would be a beautiful sunrise. Blues had lightened and given way to faint yellows and pinks that brought much needed warmth to their surroundings. The river didn't look as dangerous, neither did the climb look as steep as it had in the dark.

Gravel shifted and crunched underfoot as Zuko took a step toward the trail. "We should go."

-o-0-

It was Sokka's luck that his tent was facing the rising sun at just the right angle, and that there was a small parting right in the sun's path so that a beam of irritatingly bright light shone through. It felt like he had been stabbed right in the eye. Morning already?! No!

He turned over, hiding his face from the dreaded portent of morning, and slept.

Or tried to sleep. Something was off that bothered him enough to raise his head. It was quiet, save the constant breeze that swept through the mountainside.

Cracking one eye open, Sokka was rewarded with the view of the interior of his tent. It was the same as it always was: bare, except Boomerang and his pack that held essentials like an extra set of clothes, rope, and a small sewing kit for said clothes. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Sokka stepped out from his tent. Arranged in a loose circle, Katara's tent was to his right, Toph's was across from them, Zuko's was on Sokka's left, and Aang, along with Appa and Momo, were snuggled together in a sea of white fur between the tents belonging to Zuko and Toph. In the center were the remnants of their campfire from the night before, the smallest tendril of smoke still rising from it.

The sun was up, and he was the first to awake. Weird. Katara had been laid up most of the day yesterday but, even then, she had gotten up. And Zuko…He was always up early. "Rising with the sun," as Katara had described it, yet Zuko wasn't presently trying to make his overcooked rice or trying his hand at other actual breakfast foods. Definitely weird.

Sokka went back and grabbed Boomerang before going to Katara's tent. Couldn't be too careful. "Katara?" he called softly through the thin canvas wall. Nothing. "Katara?" he asked again, louder this time. No sounds of movement. Covering his eyes with his hands, Sokka announced, "Katara, I'm coming in!" With a sweeping wave of the hand holding Boomerang, he swept aside the tent flap.

No shrieks of "Sokka, get out!" or sleepy groans as she slowly woke up from a deep sleep. He dropped his hand. Katara's bed was there, but the water pouch she usually kept with her wasn't.

Confusion and worry began to creep into Sokka's mind. He left the tent to go to Aang next—he'd know where she was—but when he left Katara's tent, Aang was already awake and walking towards him. "What are you doing?" the airbender asked. "Where's Katara?"

"How do you know she's not here?"

"Momo woke me up. She and Zuko usually feed—"

Zuko. Not waiting for Aang to finish, Sokka turned and strode to Zuko's tent.

"Hey, what are you…?" Aang asked, trotting after him.

Sure enough, Zuko and his dual swords were gone too.

"Toph!" Sokka yelled, whirling around and stomping over to her earthen tent. "Toph! Come out! You know something about this." She'd been acting strange when she and Katara said they hadn't been feeling well. Sokka had chalked it up to them actually not feeling well, but now….

He arrived at her tent. "Toph!" he said, kicking the closed entrance with more force than he had wanted, and a shock of pain raced up his leg. "Ow!"

The entrance slid open, and the earthbender stuck her head out. "What?" she demanded.

"You didn't hear me before? Aren't you supposed to have the best hearing or something?"

"They're gone," Aang supplied. "Katara and Zuko."

Before Sokka continued to pile on, he noticed Toph's expression shift from cool expectation to surprise. No, she didn't know they wouldn't gone either, but she did know something. "You better tell us, Toph," Sokka said, crossing his arms. "No lies; all the details."

"I didn't lie—"

"Toph." A hard edge lined his words. "Tell us."

And she did. Everything—giving all the details she knew about their trip to the village.

Trying to keep his anger in check while she spoke, Sokka finally asked when she had finished, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Would you have been okay with her going if I had?"

He started to ask more questions, but Toph pointed in the direction of the village. "They'll fill in the details," and added, "Everyone's okay from what I can tell."

Sokka and Aang ran to the overlook as Katara and Zuko were finishing the last ten or so steps up the mountainside. "Katara!" Sokka cried out, relieved to see her silly hair loopies.

Her head jerked up at the sound of her name. "Sokka! Aang! I—we were—"

Toph stepped up next to the boys and called down, "You guys are so busted."

Sokka set that aside for the moment. He took Katara's hand and helped her up the last step. Forgetting what Toph had said a moment ago, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" Aang asked, and Sokka gave her a cursory look over.

"Yes. I'm fine."

Her pantleg was torn at her thigh. "What this?" Sokka asked, moving to pull the cloth aside to reveal whatever injury was underneath.

Rather than showing him, Katara pivoted and pulled away. "Nothing. It's healed."

"What's healed?" Looking closer, the clothing around the tear looked burned. "Did he…?" He quickly glanced at Zuko then back at her.

Both replied in unison: "No!"

"Okay! Okay! Just asking!"

"But what happened?" Aang persisted. "Did you go to the factory?"

Katara glared at Toph, but the meaning was lost to the girl. "Yes, we did. We fought some firebenders, and I got hit by one." She gestured to her leg. "But it's okay now. Healed."

It was, but the skin looked darker underneath, like a scar. It must have been a bad injury if she hadn't been able to heal it all.

Aang tilted his head as he looked at the exposed skin. "It kind of looks like a fish."

Katara glanced down and pulled back her pantleg further. Copying Aang's head tilt, Sokka had to agree. It looked like a fish's arched body, down to the forked tailfin.

"I guess it does," Katara noted. Then, as if she had been caught doing something wrong, she covered up her leg and said quickly, "Kind of. Not really," but nothing she could say could hide her flushed cheeks. "Probably a blessing from the Painted Lady."

"Like, the Painted Lady?" Toph asked, dubious.

"Yes."

Sokka looked to Zuko, who nodded. "It's the only reason," the firebender explained.

"Reason for what? What happened?" Concern and curiosity rose quickly in Sokka's mind. "When did you leave? Why? Start there."

"It's a long story—" began Katara.

"Zuko, you get a fire going—"

"He's really tired. Maybe I can do it?" Aang volunteered, looking to Zuko for permission. Zuko gave it with a nod.

"Great. Aang'll start a fire, and we'll heat some breakfast. Then you'll tell us everything." Katara was slow to meet Sokka's eyes. Copying the tone Dad would use with him sometimes, he repeated, "Everything."

-o-0-

They sat around the campfire, breakfast long over. Aang listened to Katara's story without interrupting. Sokka and Toph interjected several times, with Zuko answering what Katara could not; but from the start, all the excitement to hear her had been run out of him. She didn't want me to come with her. It was everything Aang could do to not cry.

Why did she not tell him she was going to help the villagers? He would have happily come and not tried to talk her out of it like Zuko had. What happened? Weren't they still friends? Is this what it's like to be the Avatar? To not be of the world anymore?

Sokka had been talking, but Aang only heard him as he finished: "—Aang's upset! Are you okay?" The older boy looked at him expectantly, and Katara appeared even more guilty than when she had first seen them that morning.

"I…" he said, hearing his voice sound weak and upset, but he couldn't help it; he was upset, "…I don't know why you didn't tell us. You could've gotten—you did get hurt."

Tears welled up in Katara's eyes, but before she could speak, Sokka said, "We're a team. We have to trust each other—"

"I do trust you!" she cried.

"Then why did you go without us? And you," Sokka turned his attention to Zuko, "why in La's depths did you not stop her?!"

"I told you I tried!" Zuko retorted.

"At first! You didn't say anything when you went to the factory."

"You know she would have gone whether I was there or not."

"But you could have told us. Zuko, she could have died!"

"You think I don't know that?! I did everything I could to protect her!"

"STOP!" Still partly crying, Katara's face was puffy and red, but she took a couple of deep breaths and spoke quietly: "I don't want us to fight. Please. We shouldn't have secrets, and it's my fault we do. Toph was being a good friend, so don't blame her, Sokka. And Zuko's right: I would have gone without him. I'm glad he came; I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't.

"But I needed to do it, and I don't regret it for a moment. Those people don't have—" a wave of emotion swept over Katara, but she continued, "—don't have time to wait for us to defeat Ozai." Turning to Aang, Katara said slowly, "And I didn't tell you because I didn't know I was going to do it until I grabbed my stuff and left. It was luck that Zuko heard me."

Looking at each of them one at a time, Katara finished, "But I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It's so close to Day of Black Sun, and we can't afford to be divided—but it's not just that." Tears were flowing again and her breathing wavered. "You're my friends, and you don't treat your friends like that." Katara's gaze rested on Sokka, whose expression had lost its intensity well before she had finished so that, if Aang's eyes didn't deceive him—which they never did—Sokka was tearing up as well.

Sokka let his crossed-arms fall, and he stepped forward to bring his sister into a hug. "It's okay," he said, his voice muffled against her. Then, separating, added, "Just don't do that again, please?"

Katara wiped her tears away as she smiled. "Okay."

Instead of turning to Aang like he expected, Katara first went to Toph. "Are we good?"

"Almost always, Sugar Queen," replied the earthbender with a smile. "As usual."

At the same time, Zuko talked to Sokka: "Am I…?"

"Are you what?"

Zuko's eyes widened slightly, then he changed topics: "I really did try to stop her."

"I know you did, buddy."

"What do you think is going to happen?" He jerked his head towards the village.

"It's going to be hard to hide the destruction of the factory—it was totally destroyed, right?"

"Not totally, but enough that no one's going to be making or mining anything there for a while."

"Hm."

"Aang." Katara stepped towards him. She tried to catch his eye, but he kept them downcast. "You know I'm really sorry, right?"

He nodded.

She paused then asked, "What is it?"

A shrug.

Katara opened her mouth to reply but then shut it. He could tell she was looking at him like the answer was written on his face, but the truth was he didn't know. Of course Katara felt bad, and after she apologized and explained herself there shouldn't have been much to be upset about. Yet his heart still ached.

"Okay," she said finally. "Let me know when you want to tell me." Katara gave him a warm smile, and he returned it with a quick one of his own.

"I will."

Katara nodded and went to Sokka.

Momo flew to Aang's shoulder and ate a purplish-red berry. "Is that pretty good?" murmured Aang.

Sokka announced, "Well, if that's taken care of, we should probably be leaving."

"Will we have time to make it to the next town?" asked Katara.

"We should," answered Zuko.

Adding to that, Sokka said, "We'll be getting a late start, but we'll get to Shu Jing by nightfall."

As was routine by now, and even with the delay of Zuko changing his ripped tunic, they were packed and ready to leave in less than an hour—a record since Zuko joined them.

They were in the air soon enough, and Aang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, not just for leaving behind the recent bad memories, but because he was back in the air where he belonged. The air swirled around him and through his clothes like it was trying to carry him along.

Sokka was driving Appa at the moment, and Katara mended her pair of pants the best she could. Meanwhile, Toph had draped herself across the side of the saddle and stared sightlessly below, along with Zuko who was actually looking at the land that passed beneath them.

It was quiet besides the wind and the periodic grunts coming from Appa, but it was by no means a peaceful kind of quiet. Maybe it was just Aang, but the air felt charged or, rather, like the way it felt if a strong wind gripped the sails of his glider and threatened to break it.

Moving from the head of the saddle, Aang sat next to Katara at the rear. She looked up briefly and acknowledged him with a smile before turning back to her work. He watched her hands move deftly, guiding the needle and thread in and out of the material.

I like you. The words danced along his tongue of its own accord, fighting against what he knew he must do, what he must be. He resisted those selfish feelings, though he couldn't help indulging the fantasy of Katara reciprocating them.

Katara continued making progress, adding in a patch of dark, blood red fabric where the original material had burned away. Then, pulling out another piece of material from her pocket, she started on a second, smaller patch over a tear.

"So it doesn't hurt?" he asked.

"This?" Katara patted her right leg. "No. It's like when I heal anything for you. It just healed differently."

"Is it like a scar?"

"No, it's smooth and it feels like my own skin."

"Hm."

There wasn't much more to say so they sat in silence for a minute, Katara working away at the patch and Aang watching.

"I was so scared for you."

Katara paused then set down the fabric. Softly, she replied, "I know. I'm sorry. But I'm okay now, aren't I?" She turned and offered him a small smile, though its meaning mirrored his question: You're okay now, aren't you?

He looked down at his hands and nodded. "I just wish I'd have been there. Protected you, you know?"

"I got back okay."

"But you almost didn't. You said—"

"I know, and I am so glad Zuko was there."

He didn't have anything to say to that other than, "Yeah."

"Aang." He glanced up and noticed that the warmth had begun to leave her eyes. "I love that you want to protect me, I do, but what's done is done. I survived—with Zuko's help, yes, and I've apologized for not telling you and everyone else and for sneaking off. What else can I say?"

"N—Nothing!" Katara wasn't usually this blunt. "Sorry."

Closing her eyes for a moment, she shook her head. "It's just—you have the whole world to take care of, Aang, not just me." She looked him in his eye, and he knew she was remembering that time at the beach when he confessed he liked her, liked her more than only a friend. Katara had said something similar then, too.

It was true: in the end, everyone around him, including Katara, would have to come second to the needs of the world. There was no going around it. It wasn't fair if he put himself and his desires above the world's future when it would be around long after his era came to an end. And it wasn't fair to Katara to keep her second, if he could do that, anyway. She deserved someone who would put her first every time.

"I know," he finally said. "I'm working on it."

"I know," she replied. Her melancholic smile said more than Aang wished it did: things hoped for that wouldn't come to pass, and a love that had to be left to wither or adapt to drought.