~With Luna~
After Luna had woken up from resting, she decided to take Appa out and wanted to test something out. They landed somewhere in the middle of the dead forest with a container of water with her.
"This should work right? I mean if I can heal a person using water, then why would't it work on plants?" Luna asked Appa knowing that the flying bison wouldn't be able to answer but still needed to ask it out loud.
"Okay let's start off nice and easy." she sighed as she walked to one tree and sat down in front of it.
She used her water bending to pull some water out of her container and then used it to cover her hands before placing them on the dead tree and before she knew it the water glowed and the tree started to come alive again.
What was once burned to a crisp, was now regaining it's water and natural color.
"Oh my god, it worked! Appa it worked!" she shouted hugging Appa as the tree grew to a large size. It was an interesting sight, the one large and healthy tree surrounded by burned remains.
After she had used up all of the water she brought with her to heal as many trees as she could Appa started flying back to the village.
But as they flew Zuko saw the large flying bison in the sky alerting him that the Avatar and his Saphire was near.
"Appa, I think I see a person over there. Fly that way." she said seeing one moving thing on a trail.
~With Zuko~
Zuko had sent his soldiers back to the ship to wait for his return so that he could track his uncle faster and more stealthy.
He was going to turn to track the Avatar after seeing the flying bison in the sky but he shook his head and went back to following the trail that the earth benders animals left.
It had been a few minutes after he had seen the flying bison when he heard a noise behind him making him turn around.
"What the-?" he started saying when he saw what was behind him.
The Avatar's bison had landed on the trail right behind him. But because of the height of the large creature he couldn't see if there was anyone on the back of it.
"Hi, I saw you on the trail and I was wondering if you were lost or something?" Luna said as she climbed down the side of Appa's saddle.
"I-" Zuko tried forming words but she had rendered him speechless.
"Sorry, I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Luna, you're Zuko right?" she questioned as she offered her hand for a handshake.
"Y-yes, that's right. I'm Zuko, it's nice to meet you Saph- I mean Luna." he said as he gave her a nervous smile as he accepted her hand but instead of shaking it like she expected him to he brought it up to give it a gentle kiss making her blush and turn away in hopes to hide the pink tint on her cheeks.
"So, why are you on this trail without your soldiers and Uncle?" she asked him curious as to why he was alone.
"Oh, I was actually searching for my Uncle. He's been kidnapped by some Earth Kingdom soldiers." Zuko explained.
"Iroh's been kidnapped? That's terrible. Do you need some help?" Luna asked worried.
"Why would you want to help me? I attacked your village and have done nothing but chase the Avatar down." he questioned feeling skeptical of what she was offering.
"Yeah, but I mean it seems you have more pressing matters and your uncle has been very nice to me in the passing moments that I've met him. It would be very wrong of me to judge you and your uncle just because you're from the fire nation. You guys seem nice and my dragon doesn't seem to think you two are any threat to me and I always trust her judgment." Luna explained to him with a kind smile.
Her explanation left him speechless. How could someone be so beautiful on the outside and inside. Usually when someone back home was nice to him, it was because he was the Prince of the Fire Nation and they just didn't want to get on his bad side.
But here was his Saphire being nice to him and offering to help him find his uncle even though he's been tracking down her Gaang.
He fell for her more everyday.
"Come on let's go save your uncle." she said hopping back onto Appa's saddle and flying right beside the edge of the cliff that the trail was on.
~With Aang~
Aang was still riding on the back of Roku's dragon with Harmony next to him.
"Woah!" Aang said when he saw his real body sitting criss cross on a statue of a bear. He looked like he was meditating.
"Not again!" he groaned as Roku's dragon flew straight into the statue of the bear his body was sitting on.
But this time instead of going straight through the statue it's like they were absorbed into the statue and then Aang woke up.
Then he jumped down from the statue and Harmony shrunk back down and landed on his shoulder to rest from her happy and tiring day.
Aang stared up at the statue of the bear and it was like something dawned on him. He opened his glider and flew off to get back to the village.
~With Iroh~
Iroh was now kneeling in front of a rock where his hands were forced to stay in place.
"These dangerous hands must be crushed." one of the earth kingdom soldiers said before lifting up a large rock into the air right above Iroh's hands.
But before he could drop it onto Iroh's hands Zuko came out of no where and kicked the rock away. While he was doing that Luna who had taken some water from a few plants used it to freeze the chains that kept Iroh's hands together then used her water bending to make it break, separating his hands.
But Zuko did an axe kick pretending that it was him that broke the chains as to not alert them that there was someone else helping them.
"Excellent form Prince Zuko." Iroh praised his nephew and he would've complimented Luna too but she was hiding in the shadows not wanting to be seen as an enemy of the Earth Kingdom.
"You taught me well uncle." Zuko said as he and his uncle went back to back to fight the Earth Kingdom soldiers.
"Surrender yourselves. It's 5 against 2. You're clearly outnumbered." the Captain of the soldiers told them.
"Uh, that's true. But you're clearly outmatched." Iroh responded as he got into a proper fighting stance, ready for any attack that they threw at him.
2 soldiers send large boulding flying Iroh's way but Iroh used the long chains that were still connected to his wrists to break them before it hit him.
Zuko kicked and punched fire at two other soldiers and efficiently took them down in no time.
Luna who used her bending to try and sense if the soldiers had any water on them sensed that each of the soldiers carried a pouch full of water which is smart since they travel long distances but for right now it helps her more than them.
She used her bending to control where they went. When she saw that a soldier was getting ready to send a boulder flying at Zuko she knocked him down which then caused the soldier become unfocused and dropped the boulder which landed on his foot.
"Ahh!" he screamed in pain making Zuko turn around to see that the other soldier got ready to throw another boulder but this time his uncle caught it with his chains and spun around and around until he released the boulder back at the two soldiers knocking them out.
Finally the last soldier standing was the Captain and Zuko tried knocking him out by sending fire his way but he dodged and prepared an even bigger attack by lifting his hands in the air making 2 large columns of earth rise up beside him until it finally touched above him.
Luna who was behind him knew that he wouldn't be able to see her before she could knocked him down so she came out from the shadows and made the water from his pouch come out and wrap around his ankles pulling them backwards making him fall face first into the floor and causing the rocks he was controlling to fall on top of him knocking him unconscious.
"I'm glad that we found your uncle but I should be getting back to the village now. It's almost sundown, but I'm sure that I'll be seeing you guys soon. Bye Zuko, by General Iroh." she said as she kindly smiled at the both of them while climbing onto Appa.
"Thank you, you helped my nephew save me. Please call me Iroh, or even Uncle Iroh if you wish." Iroh said with a happy smile.
"Alright, goodbye Uncle Iroh. See you guys soon." she said before flying off.
"She is a very nice young woman. How generous of her to help you find and rescue me." Iroh told his nephew.
"I know." Zuko said with a lovesick smile as he watched her fly off.
"Now would you please put on some clothes." he said in an exasperated voice when he turned back to his practically naked uncle.
~With Luna and Aang~
Luna had flown back to the village as quick as she could and when she arrived back at the village it seemed that Aang had arrived a the same time.
"Luna! You're okay!" he said happily as he rushed over to her and gave her a tight hug.
"Yeah, Appa took good care of me today. What about you and Harmony, are you guys okay?" Luna asked him.
"Yeah she had fun today. Thank you for sending her with me. I'll tell you all about my day later. Why don't you, Harmony, and Appa go take cover. Hei Bai will be here soon and I don't want you guys to accidentally get hurt." Aang told her as he gently picked up Harmony and placed her on Luna's shoulder.
"Here, Appa you take Harmony and go back to the barn where Momo is. Make sure to take good care of them. I'm gonna stay here with Aang." Luna said as she placed Harmony in Appa's saddle.
Appa roared gently in response before nudging her to come with them.
"No I'll be fine here. I promise. Now go hide." Luna said shaking her head at him.
Appa huffed in defeat before he walked off to where he was resting before.
"Luna-" Aang started to say.
"No, Aang. I want to stay. I not only trust you to protect me if I was in any danger but I also know that I can protect myself." she said cutting him and his protests off.
"Fine." he sighed.
They waited for a few minutes while staring at the forest, waiting for Hei Bai to come out but when nothing happened they started walking away.
"AAH!" a loud roar was heard along with a big crash as Hei Bai was seen popping out of a random building destroying it in the process.
"Woah!" Aang yelled as he used his staff to create a ball of air around them protecting them from the wood from that flew everywhere.
The creature got ready to destroy something else but stopped when Luna ran in front of him. Aang quickly followed by jumping over it and touching it's forehead as he softly landed down.
He saw through the creature and saw the form of the statue that he was sitting on earlier inside of the angry spirit.
"You're the spirit of this forest. Now I understand you're upset and angry because your home was burned down. When I saw the forest had burned, I was sad and upsest, but my friend gave me hope that the forest would grow back." Aang said and as he said that last part he turned to smile at Luna who smiled back at him.
"I can help your forest. I can heal the burned trees and water the soil so that it will grow back stronger and bigger." Luna told Hei Bai as Aang placed down one of the acorns that was in the forest.
Hei Bai roared in response as he picked up the acorn walked away while turning back to his natural form of a panda.
As he walked away a bunch of bamboo grew at the entrance of the village and all the villagers that Hei Bai had kidnapped walked out of it.
"Sokka!" Luna shouted as she ran forward to give her brother a hug.
"What happened?" Sokka asked her confused.
"You were trapped in the spirit world for 24 hours. How are you feeling?" she asked him.
"Like I seriously need to use the bathroom." he responded before running away to go to the bathroom.
After everything and everyone had settled down from being reunited with their loved ones the Gaang was now standing with the officials of the village.
"Thank you Avatar and Luna. If only there were a way to repay you for what you've done." the village leader told them.
"You could give us some supplies and some money." Sokka suggested but then got elbowed by Luna in response.
"What? We need stuff." he said with a shrug.
"It would be an honor to help you prepare for your journey." the village leader said unbothered by Sokka's suggestion.
"Is there a lake or some sort of natural source of water that I can use to help heal the forest nearby?" Luna questioned the leader after he had come back from arranging the things for them.
"Yes, not to far from here there is a river. If you travel west of the forest you will find it. Thank you for everything that you have done for our village Luna. You helped heal out injured and helped the Avatar calm the spirit of Hei Bai." the leader told her gratefully as a few villagers loaded some supplies onto Appa.
"It was no problem, really." she said with a dismissive wave.
"I'm so proud of you Aang, you figured out what to do all on your own." Luna said giving him a hug.
"Actually Harmony helped and I also had a little more help. And there's something else." he said as he thought back to the comet he was shown.
"What is it?" Sokka questioned.
"I need to talk to Roku, and I think I found a way to contact his spirit." Aang told them.
"That's great." Luna said with a smile.
"Creepy, but great." Sokka agreed.
"There's a temple on a crescent-shaped island, and if I go there on the Solstice, I'll be able to speak with him." Aang explained.
"But the Soltice is tomorrow." Luna pointed out.
"Yeah, and there's one more problem. The island is in the Fire Nation." Aang told them with a worried look on his face.