The sun was just beginning to peek above the horizon, painting the bottom of the sky with soft pinks and reds when Katara reached the mainland. As much as she had missed waterbending, it was hard to enjoy the act while battling the rough sea and left her tired and wet and more than a little confused.

Zuko’s words and actions were still replaying in her mind as she dragged the boat across the sandy shore, hardly making any sense. Because he was Zuko; he didn’t just let things go, especially not two things he had been freakishly obsessed with. Not without an ulterior motive, at least.

And yet, there was no denying her freedom, Aang’s safety, and Zuko setting a flawless escape plan that excluded only finding her friends.

So what hidden agenda could he possibly have?

Shaking her head (‘That isn’t what I need to worry about right now’), she carefully lifted Aang out of the boat, his limp and waterlogged body heavier than before. With effort, she carried him from the shore and danger of a rising tide, stopping to rest – and more importantly, think – on drier, higher ground.

Bending the water out of their clothes, she contemplated the issue of contacting Sokka, Jet, and Toph. Somehow, she needed to create a signal that wouldn’t catch the attention of the palace, but would alert her friends to where she was.

Smoke would never work – it was the Fire Nation, after all. She didn’t have any kind of flare or explosive to set off, and if she did it still ran the risk of unwanted interest. And anything involving waterbending would be far too obvious.

Plus, who knew where the others were? The Fire Nation was small compared to the other nations, but still big enough that there was the chance of her friends being too far away to see – let alone understand – any signals she might set off.

“Great,” she muttered, flopping back on the dirt and staring up at the almost-full moon that still hung in the slowly brightening sky. Her mind had otherwise drawn a blank, and she was beginning to wonder if maybe this was all part of Zuko’s plan. Leave her stranded on the shore with no way of contacting her friends and an unconscious Avatar at her side, so there would be no hope of getting away in time to avoid the palace’s search team. . .

“Katara?”

Sitting up, she twisted around to see the person addressing her, a wide grin splitting across her face. “Jet! What are you doing here?”

He was already sliding down the steep hill behind her, obviously not concerned by grass and mud stains, stumbling in his rush to close the distance between them when he reached the bottom. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her to her feet and into a crushing, relieved hug.

“We’re camping out on the hill,” he explained, still not relinquishing his grip on her. “I’m on lookout tonight, so I saw you coming into shore. I wasn’t sure if it was you, but then I noticed Aang’s arrow. . .” he trailed off, finally stepping back to hold her at arm’s length, looking her up and down. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

There was no need to specify who “he” was.

However, before she had a chance to respond, Jet was grabbing her left wrist, staring the partially healed flesh on her palm with a smouldering gaze. “He burned you? He burned you?”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Katara quickly said, tugging her hand free and not quite sure why she was defending Zuko, the third-most evil human on the planet (first was his father, then Azula).

Either Jet didn’t hear or he chose to ignore her, moving toward the shore as he released a string of expletives that seemed to involve killing a “dirty, kidnapping, Fire Nation son of a bitch”.

“Jet, don’t be an idiot,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him back toward her. “The palace is crawling with guards.”

“Well, I’ll get him tomorrow, during the invasion. Where’s his room? Wait, how would you know – did he ever drag you there against your will? Is burning some kind of Fire Nation kink? I swear, if he laid one finger –“

“We can’t go through with the invasion!” she blurted, the mention of their plan reminding her why finding him and the others had been so urgent. “They know all about it.”

He stared at her, silent, the rest of his rant seeming to have died in his throat. “What? How?”

“I –“ she hesitated, contemplated telling him about the tea and Azula and the whole catastrophe, decided that would only fuel his rage at Zuko more, and settled for saying, “I messed up big time and let it slip that we were planning to attack during the eclipse tomorrow. But, well, even if they didn’t know. . .” She gestured to where Aang lay behind them, the sight still causing her heart to lurch.

Looking closely at him for the first time, Jet paled, eyes widening. “Is he –?”

“Just sleeping,” Katara quickly explained. “I don’t know how long it’ll take for whatever drugs they gave him to get out of his system. I doubt it’ll be in time for tomorrow.”

He sighed, continuing to stare out across the water, where the capital was a small spec on the horizon. “So. . . what are we supposed to do?”

“Right now? Find somewhere safe to let Aang recover. We can’t do anything about stopping the Fire Lord if he’s not back to his old self in time.” As she spoke, she knelt beside Aang, slinging one of his arms over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get him to camp.”

Jet seemed reluctant to accept defeat so easily, but helped her carry Aang up the hill nonetheless.

XxXx

“Prison? Are you sure?”

Ty Lee nodded.

“Well,” Azula said, lips lifting in a smirk, “this worked out better than I could’ve planned.”

“Even with the Avatar gone?”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “Honestly, Ty Lee, I thought you’d know better. The Avatar planned on attacking during and eclipse – today. But, seeing as he hasn’t eaten in a week and has been drugged for just as long, it’s safe to say that’s not likely. And I somehow doubt he and his little friends thought o prepare a Plan B.”

“But. . .” Ty Lee trailed off, sensing there was something wrong with this supposedly-perfect situation but unable to pinpoint what. According to Azula, this was exactly what they wanted and needed – Zuko was out of the way of the throne, the Avatar was no longer a threat, and Azula remained the favoured child. Everything would run smoothly from then on.

So, why didn’t she feel happy about it?

‘It’s Mai,’ she decided, glancing over at her friend, who had been unusually silent since the news was announced. Unusual because of the way the silence felt – it wasn’t the same bored or uninterested or not-allowed-to-speak silence typical of Mai. It was sad.

And why shouldn’t she be upset? The boy of her dreams – her soul mate, maybe – had just been shipped off to the Boiling Rock, the worst (or best, depending on your perspective)prison in the entire Fire Nation for the worst betrayal imaginable. It didn’t help that Katara was obviously involved somehow, having disappeared from the palace that same night. Plus, she couldn’t easily vent her feelings, on account of Azula keeping an extra-close eye on them and making them shut up if they said anything about Zuko (unless it was “good” news, of course) to ensure the previous day’s disloyalty never reoccurred.

Azula must have noticed Mai’s odd silence, too, snapping Ty Lee out of her thoughts by saying, “Oh, try not to look so glum. He was a waste of your time, anyway.”

It may have been Ty Lee’s imagination, but Mai appeared to prickle at her words.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Azula said, turning on her heel, “I must go console father and earn my place on the throne.”

Then she strutted away, leaving Mai and Ty Lee alone in the corridor, where the latter of the pair had run up to her friends shouting about Zuko’s imprisonment just moments ago.

“How are you holding up?” she asked as soon as Azula was out of earshot.

“Fine.” A lie – they had been friends long enough for Ty Lee to notice.

She thought to embrace her, but drew back before the action could be carried through, remembering Mai’s aversion to hugs (or any physical contact). “Oh, I. . . I’m sure you’ll –“

“What? Get over him?” she practically snorted, voice sharp and hinting at anger. “I’ve liked him since I was six.”

“Well, there has to be something we can do. Maybe there’s some way you can still be with him.”

“In prison?”

“What are the chances of him being left in there to rot?”

Mai stared at her, the silent response seeming to indicate that there was a very high chance of that happening.

“But his uncle,” Ty Lee continued, determined to make her see the bright side. “General Iroh wouldn’t just leave him, would he? And I’m sure he’d let us help him.”

“Why? We’ve been on Azula’s side since this whole thing started. He has no reason to trust us.”

Frowning (why did Mai have to be so negative?), Ty Lee stared down at her shoes and wracked her brain for some way around their history with Azula, Zuko’s imprisonment and probable suspicion, and Iroh’s distrust. It hardly seemed fair that everyone was so reluctant to trust them – they had only been following Azula’s orders. Didn’t they know how scary she could be?

Well, if they wouldn’t willingly let Mai be with Zuko, then maybe the two of them would just have to force their way into his company.

Anything to cheer up a friend.

XxXx

“So, what you’re saying is: Sparky came to his senses just in time for the invasion, but there is no invasion because the Fire Lord knows about it?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“That blows,” Toph grumbled, leaning back in her rock-chair and crossing her arms.

The reunited group was gathered in a circle in the small campsite at early morning, Katara having just relayed the bad news to them. Aang was laid out under a shady out-cropping of rock a few feet away, still unconscious.

“So, the new plan has to be the old plan?’ Sokka asked, brow furrowed as he stared at their barely-visible target in the distance. “I don’t know if. . . . We’ll have to work Aang extra hard to have him anywhere near ready in time.”

“Don’t forget that we still have to actually find a firebender willing to teach him,” Katara added. Beside her, she could feel Jet tensing.

“Who says he has to learn firebending?”

“Jet, come on, he’s the Avatar,” Sokka tried to reason. “Master of all four elements?”

“Yeah, but does he really need it?” Jet asked, letting his dark-brown gaze sweep across the group, his tone taking on the familiar authority of his leader self. “Why make him learn another element when he can use that time to perfect the ones he’s already been taught? It seems better to send him into battle with three mastered elements instead of four almost-mastered elements.”

“But how do we know what environment he’ll be fighting in?” Sokka asked after taking a moment to consider the suggestion. “If there’s no water or earth nearby, then he’ll be stuck with airbending, and there’s no way he can kill someone with that. It’s completely defensive.”

“Well, I could teach Twinkle Toes metalbending, but I’m not sure how much good it’ll do against Lord Hot-Pants and his army,” Toph said with a shrug, referring to the rather unique ability she had discovered just after they left Ba Sing Se, when Xin Fu and Master Yu had attempted to capture her. “I haven’t tested it in a real fight yet.”

Scowling in apparent dislike at having his plan challenged, Jet said, “Well, just don’t make it our immediate priority. I’m sure there’s other ways Aang can defeat the Fire Lord.”

“And if we can’t find any?” Katara asked, leaning forward so she could catch his gaze with her own serious expression. “You have to be willing to accept the possibility of travelling with a firebender.”

Frown deepening, he broke eye-contact and grumbled, “Fine.”

Behind them, Aang stirred, still asleep and oblivious to his increasingly-dire situation.

Author's Notes: So, basically, this si just a breather, "What-do-we-do-now?" chapter more than anything. Which is why it's kinda short and uneventful. Still, I hope you guys enjoyed it. =D

Comments and crisitism are welcome and loved!

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Avatar' or any of its characters.