Sokka slowly became aware of the crackle of a fire, the soft sounds of conversation, and the gentle patter of rain. He was warm, almost too warm, and comfortable in his sleeping bag. His body was relaxed, as if he had been tense and uncomfortable for far too long and was only just now able to rest, the exhaustion still lingering in his bones. If it wasn't for the pains of hunger making itself known in his stomach, he would have rolled over and gone to sleep again.

That, and the cold thing in his mouth had started to move.

Wait, what the fuck? He jolted upright, spitting the thing out of his mouth and into his hands. There was a frog there, wriggling and cold and why was it in his mouth? Sokka was known to eat strange things out of curiosity but even he wouldn't put a whole ass live frog in his mouth. With a sound that he was most definitely not proud of, Sokka threw the frog and attempted to get the gross slimy swamp taste out of his mouth.

From the sounds to his left, he knew that Katara woke up in the same predicament.

A breeze settled around him as Aang shot over, babbling excitedly: "Wow you guys are awake, the frogs worked! How are you feeling? What do frogs taste like? They must taste bad, but I guess I'll never know because I'm a vegetarian and putting live things in my mouth is against what the monks taught me, but-"

From somewhere behind Aang there was a sigh. While Sokka did not know who did the sighing, he knew instantly this was from a person who was just now realizing that Aang really did not have an off switch. He loved the little guy, he really did, but the kid had no situational awareness. Bombarding a person with questions about what frogs taste like when they did not consent to finding out in the first place was not a good way to go about greeting someone.

"Aang!" Katara choked out, still attempting to spit out the swampy slime. "What's going on? Why did you put frogs in our mouths?"

"The old lady told me to! Remember, I told you I was going to find you guys some medicine?"

Katara clearly did not remember that conversation. Sokka didn't even remember Aang leaving. "So you just put frogs in our mouths because an old lady told you to?" He asked, aghast.

"Zuko and Azula said it worked, too."

Before he could ask who Zuko and Azula were, and if they had gotten degrees in frogology or whatever, someone shoved a cup of tea into his hands.

"You'll want to drink that," the person said. "To get the frog taste out."

And that's when Sokka's frog-addled brain finally realized that there really were two strangers here. When he looked up, a girl was there. She was dressed in all black, and her dark hair was pulled into a low ponytail. But it was her eyes that Sokka focused on: deep amber eyes, with flecks of gold.

There's only one group of people that Sokka knows who have gold eyes.

"You're Fire Nation!" He exclaimed, pointing his finger at the girl. A boy stood up from the fire and moved to stand next to her as she rolled her eyes.

"What does that have to do with anything?" The boy asked, crossing his arms. Sokka turned to look at him, and found another set of golden eyes, these ones lighter in color. A nasty scar peeked out from under his hair, and crept down his neck before disappearing into his shirt.

"Sokka," Katara said exasperatedly. "You can't just assume everyone is Fire Nation, they might be-"

"Oh, we are." The girl said matter of factly.

"See!" Sokka shrieked, pointing at the girl again. "I told you!"

"Whoa, whoa," Aang yelled, and he leapt in front of them with his hands held out. "Sokka, calm down. Zuko and Azula are helping us."

"Helping us! They told you to put frogs in our mouths, they were probably trying to poison us!"

"Those frogs weren't poisonous," the girl snapped. "If I wanted to poison you, I would drug your tea. Which I didn't do," she added hastily, as Sokka gulped and glanced down at the cup in his hands.

"Why are they here, Aang?" Katara asked. "How do you know we can trust them?"

Sokka listened, aghast, as Aang told them about his harrowing capture and rescue in a cheery voice. Zhao captured him? Aang was in prison while he and Katara slept? The Blue Spirit was there?

"Wait," he interrupted. "I'm confused. You said the Blue Spirit rescued you. Where are they now? And when did you run into these two?"

The boy held up a mask. "We are the Blue Spirit," he said. "It's been us this whole time."

Katara gasped. "You've been fighting the Fire Nation? We've heard all about you!"

"That's what they say," Sokka interjected. "The guy just has a mask, Katara. Anybody can buy a mask. Why would they need to sneak around all the time if they can firebend?"

"Because we don't want to be recognized," the girl said. "And people tend to react poorly when they see us bend."

"I wonder why they would do that," Sokka replied, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm. He rubbed his eyes. He still felt exhausted from his fever, and now he had to wrap his mind around this. The Blue Spirit was actually just two teenagers. Firebending teenagers. Who were apparently single handedly fighting back against the Fire Nation. And he hadn't even had breakfast yet.

"You see?" Aang smiled. "They're here to help."

He could tell that Aang believed this. After hearing about what they did for Aang, Sokka was starting to believe them too. But they needed to be cautious. Just because they were helping Aang doesn't mean their intentions were pure. Look at Jet; he helped them too, but only to use them for his own purposes.

Katara seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Sokka. "Why would you help Aang?" She questioned. "Why would you fight the Fire Nation at all? They're your people."

Their faces darkened. "They're not our people anymore," Azula spat. The boy, Zuko, placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Azula and I rescued the Avatar because he's the only way to end the war," he explained. "We want to help him defeat the Firelord."

"What do you have against the Firelord?"

"He's our grandfather. And we're going to help you kill him."

The rain slowed down to a trickle by the time they finished breakfast. It was a very long breakfast. Learning that the two teenagers who rescued you were actually the Firelord's grandchildren was definitely something he was not expecting. Actually, the last twelve hours were full of surprises for Aang.

Despite Sokka's lingering suspicions, Aang was not really bothered by it. Zuko and Azula rescued him. They risked their own lives to get him out of Pohuai Stronghold and that more than proved their intentions to Aang. Not to mention they were also the Blue Spirit- they've been fighting the Fire Nation before they even knew that the Avatar returned. But more than that, Aang instinctively knew that this was how it was meant to be, just as he knew that Katara and Sokka were meant to travel with him.

And Zuko and Azula were nice! Well, Zuko was. Azula could be a little impatient (okay, sometimes she was just mean), but maybe he could teach her to be nice while she taught him firebending. It's not like Sokka was that nice to him when they first met anyways.

It's strange, Katara thought, how someone could tell you they were related to the actual Firelord one moment, and then minutes later they were gently prying an inquisitive Momo off of their arm. Momo loved meeting new people, but he was infatuated with Zuko. No matter how many times he was moved he would eventually creep back onto the firebender's lap. It was hopelessly adorable and Katara couldn't help but smile at Zuko's mixture of amusement and exasperation.

She was warming up to him. Making them breakfast definitely helped. Katara loved her brother and Aang, but they were no help with the cooking. She didn't even have to do the dishes afterwards! Despite Sokka's stubborn distrust, she wanted to keep Zuko around. It was different than with Jet, she knew it was. Jet was charming and passionate, but after his betrayal she now realized he was just a traumatized kid who didn't know how to cope with it, and that led to him doing terrible things.

After losing her mother, Katara had to step up to take care of her brother, and eventually Aang as well. Sokka was obsessed with taking control, of preparing for the worst. Aang wanted to deflect and distract himself from his responsibilities. Jet was no different than them, yet he directed his hatred towards the wrong people. Katara hoped he learned who the true enemy was.

Zuko and Azula fought the Fire Nation. They were passionate, too. Katara understood their pain, their fury at the injustice done to them- to their mother. They did not go into great detail about how it happened, but she could understand their grief. Unlike Jet, Zuko did not allow this fury to consume him. Katara found herself connecting with him, even after only knowing him for a few hours, because she felt like she understood him; pushing down all the pain and anger in order to take care of those who depended on you, even as the injustice of it all ate at you.

Sokka would say she was crazy. But she knew that she was right to trust Zuko.

Azula, on the other hand, she had more trouble with. The girl wasn't rude necessarily; but her manner of speaking was impatient, sharp, and even borderline hostile. Compared to her brother, who could be awkward at times but earnest and kind, Azula was more difficult to connect with, almost as if she didn't even want to. Her expression was always guarded, and she almost always stuck close to Zuko.

That was one thing she learned about Azula- something that didn't take Katara long to pick up on despite how closed off the girl was. She loved her brother. Even with just one morning of observing her, Katara saw the intimidating look on Azula's face as her brother handed them their breakfast. Not even Sokka turned down the food. How could he with Azula glaring over her brother's shoulder? It was very sweet. The soft look in her eyes as Zuko tended to the fire beside her was easy to miss. But Katara knew better. She was a little sister too after all.

And she was glad to have more company as they continued their journey to the Northern Water Tribe, even if they were basically strangers. With Zhao constantly on their tail, it wouldn't hurt to have two firebenders on their side.

And Azula's cutting remarks about Zhao were hilarious.

The Avatar escaped. There was no sign of him or his allies in the forest, and now he must report his failure to Prince Ozai. His first encounter with the Avatar as an Admiral was stolen from him by two thieves. The Blue Spirit they were called. But Zhao knew better. Spirits did not firebend. Spirits could not be touched by mortal weapons.

Spirits did not leave things behind.

Zhao ran his fingers down the crack in the mask, something he's done countless times since he found it on the crossroads the night the Avatar escaped. These thieves were human- most likely army deserters. They were clever, even Zhao had to admit it, but they were not going to slip away from him again. If he could catch the Avatar, then he could catch these traitors.

It was time for him to contact an old acquaintance.