Daughter of the Moon - Book Three: Fire

Chapter 23: Sozin's Comet

- Elara -

I should have known that everything wasn't going to magically go back to normal after I had finally admitted my feelings for Zuko, but surely things could have gone better than they did. I was surprised to find that it didn't take long for Zuko and I to fall into a familiar rhythm after the special conversation we shared in the Moon Caves, but what was even more shocking was seeing how the other members of the group reacted once we made it back to camp.

Aang, Toph, and Suki were quick to congratulate the two of us the moment Zuko and I had landed, almost as if they were expecting us to reconcile on this trip (Aang, the sly dog). However, the Water Tribe siblings were a little more hesitant to accept the facts. Sokka was about two seconds away from losing his cool when he saw Zuko barely even touching me (which we had anticipated), but what really unsettled us was the fact that Katara was about two seconds away from snapping Zuko's neck pretty much anytime he was within twenty feet of her (and I had a feeling that had little to do with me). Luckily, I was able to work things out with Sokka while Zuko made amends with Katara on another special "Zuko Field Trip," so we were finally able to get over all our past grievances and start working as a real team.

Unfortunately, things were never that simple for this little group of ours. After all that relationship garbage had been taken care of, there was still one major elephant-koi fish in the tank; Sozin's Comet was speedily approaching, and Aang wasn't ready. We had taken refuge at Zuko's old vacation home on Ember Island while we prepared for this great battle, but it was clearly evident that Aang was having a hard time taking his training seriously. It didn't help that Zuko had neglected to tell us that his father was planning on ending the war by using the power of the comet to wipe out the Fire Nation entirely, but it was also poor planning to keep the fact that Aang wanted to wait until after the comet to face-off the Fire Lord a secret from him. There was just no way for anyone to win.

And so, we began to speed-run Aang's training in a last-ditch effort to prepare him for that fateful day, but it didn't go too well. Aang was constantly stressed about his duty to kill the Fire Lord because he was insistent that death wasn't the answer (we all made sure to avoid the topic of all the people he may have inherently killed by blasting them out of war machines and off the top of tall buildings), and a certain production of a stupid, little play did little to help team moral. We were all at our wit's end with our battle preparations, not to mention that there were a few shared mental breakdowns the longer we were left alone with our thoughts, but then Aang had to go and make things worse by pulling another Avatar Act at the most inopportune time.

He had disappeared. Just like that. Aang was gone, and he didn't leave a trace. We had followed his tracks to a dead end at the ocean, we had overturned every stone on the island, and I had even counseled with Yue in hopes that we might be able to find him and finish his training, but to no avail. He had simply disappeared.

Our situation didn't get much better once we had expanded our search to the Earth Kingdom, and we quickly found ourselves reacquainted with an old asset. Zuko and I had to endure a fair amount of sarcastic ridicule in order to get her to comply, but June proved to be somewhat helpful in our attempts to save the Earth Kingdom from complete and utter destruction once we had prodded her a bit.

Unfortunately, the woman and her shirshu had confirmed our worst fears as we tried to track down the Avatar—he didn't exist. Aang wasn't dead, which had to count for something, but his literal lack of being was rather concerning. And seeing how the Fire Lord wasn't going to stop his fiery parade any time soon, we had to settle on the next best thing.

We followed June and her shirshu to the crumbling remains of the great wall of Ba Sing Se, and there, we were reunited with Iroh and the other members of the White Lotus. They had gathered themselves together to prepare for battle, and they had plans to reclaim the city of Ba Sing Se on behalf of the Earth King.