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Chapter 35

It was night time when Azula attacked us. I was awake at the time but Aang was the first one to notice. A bomb exploded waking everyone up. And more of them were thrown at us. I looked over to see three of those large air balloons rise up from the clouds.

They began firing at us. "Watch out!" Zuko yelled as he pushed Katara out of the way. A ceiling piece landed where they just stood.

"What are you doing?!"

"Keeping rocks from crushing you."

"Okay, I'm not crushed. You can get off me now." Katara slid out from underneath him, irritated.

"I'll take that as a thank you," he said, standing up.

Toph and Haru created a tunnel leaving the temple. "Come on, we can get out through here!"

Aang began pulling Appa towards the tunnel. "What are you doing?" He asked Zuko, who wasn't leaving.

"Go ahead, I'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit." He began running towards the three ships.

"Zuko, no!" Sokka and Katara grabbed Aang, pulling him back. The four of us began trying to pull Appa into the tunnels. While Zuko confronted his sister.

"I can't get him to go in there. Appa hates tunnels," Aang said. We couldn't get Appa to budge.

"Aang, there's no way we can fly out of here."

"We'll have to find a way," he said, loosening his grip.

Sokka ran over to the group at the tunnel. "We need to split up. Take the tunnel and get to the stolen airship."

"No," Katara walked over to them, "the Fire Nation can't separate our family again."

Hakoda placed his hands on her shoulders. "It'll be okay, it's not forever." Katara gave him a hug and ran over to them. Him and Sokka hugged too. Then Sokka pulled Suki over to us.

We all got onto Appa. "I can clear that away and we can fly out through there," Toph said as she got on Appa.

"Umm, there's an awful lot of fire in that general direction," Suki said.

"I can bend it away," I said. Whatever happened with the dragons completely healed the wound, fixing my bending.

"We'll get through, let's go." Appa flew up, heading towards Azula. She shot fire up at us, and whatever I couldn't bend away was blocked by a shield of earth. She ducked as Appa flew over her.

Zuko rose up on one of the balloons, surprising everyone. Apparently he fell? The two of them fought as he ran across the ships. Katara and I stopped any fire from hitting Appa. As the two of them fought, Azula joining him on the balloons. The two of them caused a huge explosion, rocking the balloon to the side. They're both thrown off.

We flew over to Zuko, and grabbed his arm pulling him onto Appa's back. "She's not going to make it," Zuko said. We looked over to see Azula falling. She grabbed the pin out of her hair, and used her bending to fling herself to the cliff. She slowed her fall using the pin. "Of course she did." We flew away.

"Wow, camping. It really seems like old times again, doesn't it?" We were staying on Ember Island, at Zuko's house, hiding in the fire nation again.

"If you really want to feel like old times, I could, uhh... chase you around a while and try to capture you," Zuko joked. We laughed.

Sokka raised up a cup. "To Zuko. Who knew after all those times he tried to snuff us out, today, he'd be our hero."

"Here, here," the five of us, excluding Katara, raised up our glasses.

"I'm touched. I don't deserve this." He smiled.

"Yeah, no kidding." Katara stood up and walked away.

"What's with her?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I wish I knew." Zuko stood up and walked off. He followed Katara.

"What's with him?"

"No idea." I ate my food.

That night, while unable to sleep, I sat awake watching everyone move around camp. Sokka was still awake, waiting for Suki, who bumped into Zuko who was heading towards Sokka's tent. That's going to be an awkward night.

"You're still awake?" I heard Toph ask from beside me.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm just not tired."

"You're lying."

"Okay, yeah, I'm tired."

"Then go to sleep."

"I can't, I had a nightmare awhile ago, and honestly I don't want to risk having another one." I shrugged. Zuko and Sokka continued talking, but I couldn't hear anything.

Suddenly Toph pulled me back, using her earthbending. She wrapped her arms around my arm and pulled me to the ground. I blushed, and she smiled. "Just go to sleep, okay?" I sighed and did what she said.

The next morning Katara and Zuko confronted Aang. "I need to borrow Appa," Katara said.

Aang was feeding him hay. "Why? Is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?"

"Yes, it is."

Aang seemed surprised by this. "Oh. What's going on?"

"We're going to find the man who took my Mother from me." Sokka stood up, laying a necklace he was holding aside.

"Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it. And I know how to find him," Zuko said.

"Umm... and what exactly do you think this would accomplish?" Aang asked.

Katara sighed and began walking away. "I knew you wouldn't understand."

"Wait, stop, I do understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?"

"She needs this, Aang." We all looked at Zuko. "This is about getting closure and justice."

"I don't think so. I think it's about getting revenge."

"Fine! Maybe it is. Maybe that's what I need. Maybe that's what he deserves."

"Katara, you sound like Jet." I awkwardly walked away from the conversation.

"It's not the same. Jet attacked... This man..... monster."

I walked back over to Toph. "So how'd you sleep?" She asked me.

"Good." I looked back over at the four of them who were still arguing. Sokka seemed shocked by something Katara said. "Anyway, do you want to do something today?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know... We don't have a lot of time before Sozin's comet, we should do something fun while we can. Like go on a date."

"A date?" She blushed.

"Yeah, we haven't had a chance to go on one. Although there was that picnic when we first started dating."

"Well then what's going to happen on our date?"

"Well uh... I didn't think past this part." She laughed. "I'll figure something out though."

The rest of the day was spent planning out the date. Which didn't go so smooth. That night Zuko and Katara snuck off on Appa. Well more like Sokka and Aang let them go. I only saw it because I stayed awake again.