Katara, Sokka, Toph, and I sat on the front stairs watching Aang firebend.

"More ferocious." Zuko growls. "Imagine striking through your opponent's heart."

"I'm trying."

I looked up at Sokka. "Can I pierce your ears now?"

"No." He replies.

"But you asked me to last time." I whine.

"Because I was hallucinating on cactus juice."

"Please, it'll be just a little pinch."

He sighs. "Alr-"

"Who wants a nice cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara asked.

"Ooh, Ooh, me, me, me!" Aang replied running over but got stopped by Zuko.

"Hey, your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!"

"Come on, Zuko." I spoke. "Just take a break. What's the big deal?"

"Fine." He say letting go of Aang. "If you wanna lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day, then go ahead!"

"Hey!" I yelled. "I practiced today. Look what I learned." I said shifting the sun a bit.

Zuko growled, walking away.

"When'd you learn to do that?" Sokka asks.

"I just said today. Keep up babe."

"Maybe Zuko's right." Sokka says. "Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy."

"Speak for yourself."

"Hey!" Sokka yells at me.

"I know just the thing to change that, beach party!" He yelled pulling off his clothes and diving into the water.

We all got to the beach as I set down my towel and put on my sunglasses.

I watched as Sokka collected buckets of water and seaweed, back and forth.

I turned around to see what he was doing but he yelled at me not to look until he said so.

Toph and Aang walked over to us. "Try and top that, Sokka."

"Ta-Da." He said as we looked.

I couldn't believe my eyes. What was that?

"Is that a blubbering blob-monster?" Aang asks.

"No." Sokka growls. "It's Soul!"

My eyes popped out of my circuits.

Aang and Toph started laughing. "Soul we'll all understand if you break up with him over this."

I swallowed my thoughts. "I think it's sweet."

Sokka run over and kisses my cheek.

"But it doesn't even look like-" Aang was cut off as the sculpture of "me" got destroyed.

We looked up to see Zuko firing blasts of fire at Aang.

Sokka ran over to the sculpture, fixing it.

"What happened?" Katara asks.

"Zuko's gone crazy!" Sokka says. "I made a sand sculpture of Soul and he destroyed it! Oh, and he's attacking Aang."

I grabbed Sokka's hand as we all ran over to see Zuko get blasted off the house.

"What's wrong with you?" Katara asks. "You could have hurt Aang."

"What's wrong with me?" Zuko shrieks. "What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's comet is only three days away?"

We all stared at him.

"Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?"

"About Sozin's comet," Aang says. "I was actually gonna wait to fight the FireLord until after it came."

"After?" Zuko asks.

"I'm not ready," Aang replies. "I need more time to master firebending."

"And, frankly, your earthbending could still use some work, too." Toph adds.

"So, you all knew Aang was gonna wait?"

"Honestly," Sokka says. "If Aang tries to fight the Firelord right now, he's gonna lose. No offence."

"The whole point of fighting the Firelord before the comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the war. But they pretty much won the war when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse."

"You're wrong." Zuko explained that the day before the eclipse when he attended a war meeting, where he was glad his father had finally accepted him back.

The generals in the meeting discussed rebellions inside the Earth Kingdom that must be stopped. Ozai believed that they must destroy their hope, and Azula suggested burning down the Earth Kingdom.

Ozai accepted the idea and decided to use the power of the comet to permanently crush the Earth Kingdom, just as Sozin used it's power to wipe out the Air Nomads one hundred years prior.

With this last piece of resistance gone, he could rule the world unopposed.

Katara falls on her knees. "I can't believe this."

"I always knew the Firelord was a bad guy. But his plan is just pure evil." Sokka shakes his head.

"What am I gonna do?" Aang whimpers.

"I know you're scared." Zuko comforts. "And I know you're not ready to save the world. But if you don't defeat the Firelord before the comet comes, there won't be a world to save anymore."

"Why didn't you tell me about your dad's crazy plan sooner?" Aang yelled.

"I didn't think I had to. I assumed you were still gonna fight him before the comet. No one told me you decided to wait."

Aang paced around. "This is bad. This is really, really bad."

"Aang," Katara says. "You don't have to do this alone."

"Yeah," Toph adds. "If we all fight the Firelord together, we've got a shot at taking him down."

"All right!" Sokka cheered. "Team Avatar is back! Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Arrows and sword."

"Uh, Sokka, you know I can firebend too?" I said.

"Shh," he whispered in my ear. "I don't wanna be left out."

I kissed his cheek. "Fine."

"Fighting the Firelord is gonna be the hardest thing we've ever done together." Aang says. "But I wouldn't wanna do it any other way."

"Aw, Aang, you're gonna make me cry." I said, hugging him as the rest of the team did as well.

We looked over at Zuko.

"Get over here, hot stuff." I said. "Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs."

He groaned a bit, but eventually joined the hug.

Appa crashed onto us as Momo flew, landing on my head.

Zuko was teaching Aang the techniques of lighting redirection. They asked me to join but I was busy doing other stuff.

"Sokka, it's not gonna hurt," I huff. "Just a little pinch."

"Soul! Please I'm scared." Sokka shrieks.

I grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss.

"I promise it's not gonna hurt. I have 6 of them."

"Okay," he sighs. "Promise."

He grabs my thigh, squeezing it tight.

I took my needle out and began going through both his ear lobes. I quickly put the stud in.

"All done."

Sokka slowly opens his eyes. "That's it?"

"That's it! See it didn't hurt. Did it?"

"Ppft, who said it hurt?"

I playfully rolled my eyes.

I pulled out my mirror. "Do you like it?"

Sokka grabbed the mirror. "Hey! I look pretty hot."

*ೃ༄ *ೃ༄ *ೃ༄

"Gather around, Team Avatar." Sokka spoke, putting a melon on a dummy. "In order to take out the Firelord or in this case, the Melonlord, our timing has to be perfect." He started drawing in the dirt. "First, Soul and I will draw his fire. Then Katara and Zuko charge in with some liquidy hot offence, and while the Melonlord is distracted, Aang swoops in and bam he delivers the final blow."

"Uh, what about me?" Toph asks.

"For now, you're the Melonlord forces." Sokka replied.

"So, I get to chuck flaming rocks at all of you?"

"Whatever makes the training field more realistic." Sokka replies.

"Sweetness."

I lit Toph's rocks on fire.

"Done." I smiled.

"Thanks." She laughed.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Sokka and I began to run as Toph earthbended fake guards, launching them towards us. Sokka and I quickly took them down.

She threw a huge rock at us which I flipped over it.

I looked back to see Sokka still behind the rock.

"Watch it, Toph!" He yelled.

"I am not Toph, I am Melonlord!"

We continued running. "Now Aang." Sokka yelled as we all hid behind a rock.

"What are you waiting for?" Zuko asked as Aang stood in front of the dummy. "Take him out!"

"I can't." Aang replies.

Sokka angrily walked over. "What's wrong with you? If this was the real deal, you'd be shot full of lighting right now."

"I'm sorry," Aang apologizes. "But it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself."

Sokka pulled out his sword and sliced the dummy's head. "There! That's how it's done."

Momo quickly ran over to the melon and ate the piece that fell.

That night as we were eating dinner Katara came down with something in her hand.

"I have a surprise for everyone!"

"I knew it!" Toph exclaimed. "You did have a secret thing with Haru!"

"Uh...no." Katara answered. "I was looking for cooking pots in the attic and I found this." She said letting the scroll fall. "Look at baby Zuko! Isn't he cute?"

We all laughed.

I looked over at Zuko to see he wasn't laughing. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, lighten up. Hot stuff, she was just teasing."

"That's not me." He replies. "It's my father."

My cheeks got warm. "Even better." I murmured, grabbing the scroll.

"But he looks so sweet and innocent." I said caressing the scroll.

"Well, that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster. And the worst father in the history of fathers."

"But he's still a human being." Aang spoke up.

"You're going to defend him?" Zuko asked.

"No," Aang answered. "I agree with you. Firelord Ozai is a horrible person, and the world will probably be better off without him, but there's gotta be another way."

"Like what?" Zuko scoffs. "You want Soul to kill him?"

I raise my eyebrow. "I'm not killing your dad, he's too fine- I mean.."

Sokka eyed me.

"I don't know." Aang sighs. "Maybe we can make some big pots of glue and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore."

"Yeah, then you can show him his baby pictures and all those happy memories will make him good again." Zuko sarcastically said.

Sokka and I tried to keep in our laughs but eventually failed.

"Do you really think that would work?" Aang asked.

"No!" Zuko snapped.

Aang sighed and started pacing around. "This goes against everything I learned from the monks. I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like."

"Soul does that." Sokka says.

"No, I don't." I replied, slapping his arm.

Sokka rubbed his arm and got up groaning. "Sure, you can. You're the Avatar. If it's in the name of keeping balance, I'm pretty sure that the universe will forgive you."

"This isn't a joke, Sokka!" Aang yelled. "None of you understand the position i'm in!"

"Woah, calm down little monk boy, do-"

Katara shushed me. "Aang, we do understand. It's just-"

"Just what, Katara, what?" Aang snapped.

"We're trying to help." She snapped back.

"When you figure out a way for me to beat the Firelord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it!" He stormed away.

"Aang, don't walk away from this." Katara says following after him, but got pulled back by Zuko.

"Let him go. He needs time to sort it out by himself."

The next morning, we began preparing to leave the beach house.

"Okay, that's everything." Sokka clears out.

"No, it's not." Toph says. "Where's Aang?"

We all looked at each other not realizing he wasn't with us. We all split up as Sokka, Katara, and I  walked up the balcony. Sokka picked up Aang's glider."He left his staff. That's so strange."

Zuko and Toph appeared. "Aang's not in the house. Let's check the beach."

We walked down to the beach.

"Look!" Sokka says. "There's his footprint. The trail ends here."

"So, he went for a midnight swim and never came back?" I suggested.

"Maybe he was captured."

"I don't think so." Sokka says. "There no sign of a struggle."

"I bet he ran away again."

"Uh Huh. He left behind his glider and Appa." Sokka says. "I don't think so."

"Then what do you think happened to him, oh, sloothy one?" Toph asked.

"It's pretty obvious." Sokka says. "Aang mysteriously disappears before an important battle? He's definitely on a spirit world journey."

"But if he was, wouldn't his body still be here?" Zuko asked.

"Oh, yeah." Sokka sighs. "I forgot about that."

"Then he's gotta be somewhere on Ember Island." Katara says. "Let's split up and look for him."

Toph slides over to Zuko and gripped his arm. "I'm going with Zuko!"

We all stared at her.

"What?" She replies. "Everyone else went on a life changing field trip with Zuko. Now, it's my turn."

Katara and I went into town and saw a crowd chanting Aang's name. We looked at each other and pushed through the crowd, only to see the ember island player, who played Aang.

We looked all over town and still couldn't find Aang. We eventually decided to go back to the house.

Zuko and Toph were sitting on the front stairs as Katara and I joined them, waiting for Sokka to return.

Sokka came back on Appa. "Judging by the looks on your faces, I'm guessing you guys didn't find Aang, either."

"No. It's like he just disappeared."

"Hey, wait a minute." Toph says. "Has anyone noticed that Momo is missing, too?"

"Oh,no!" Sokka fell on his knees. "I knew it was only a matter of time! Appa ate Momo!"

"Sokka," I muttered. "Appa didn't eat Momo. He's probably with Aang."

"That's just what Appa wants you to think." He said, slipping into Appa's mouth.

"Get out of the bison's mouth, Sokka." Zuko ordered. "We have a real problem here. Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only two days away."

"What should we do, Zuko?" Katara asked.

"I don't know."

We all stared at him.

"Why are you all looking at me?"

"Well," I responded. "You are kind of the expert in tracking Aang."

"Yeah," Toph agrees. "If anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar, it's you."

I heard a grunt and looked down the steps to see Sokka slipping in Appa's mucus. I cringed and yelled at him to go take a shower.

We packed up and got on Appa.

"Zuko, I don't wanna tell you how to do you job, but why are we headed towards the Earth Kingdom?" Sokka asked. "There no way Aang's there."

"Just trust me."

We arrived at the Earth Kingdom and stopped at some kind of bar.

"And the reason you brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?" Katara asked.

"June." Zuko pointed, to a female who was gathered around in a crowd.

"Oh, yeah," Sokka says. "That weird bounty hunter with the giant mole."

I squinted my eyes. "Mole? Her skin is flawless."

"No," Sokka says. "She has this giant mole creature she rides around on."

"The Shirshu." Zuko says. "It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the world. It's the one shot we have of finding him."

We watched as June fought a guy and caught her cup without it spilling, the slightest.

"I don't know who this June lady is, but I like her." Toph says.