Chapter 19

"So, where do we start?"

Zuko, Katara, Sokka, Aang, Haru, The Duke, Pipsqueak, Suki, Ty-Lee, The Boulder and June looked over a map of the world, and one of the Earth Kingdom, while Toph and the Kyoshi Warriors tried to teach Hippo to step quieter, for 'stealth purposes' they had said. Teo had gone to say goodbye to his dad.

"I don't even know. There is so much ground to cover." Aang said, a defeated tone to his voice.

"We can rule out Ba Sing Se, and say, 10 miles around the outer wall, and anything on the way to Ba Sing Se from the sea, the White Lotus will have that swept and checked." said Suki

"And the Water Tribe men, and the Mechanist are going to cover the mountainous regions, and the coastal areas, with the air-o-plane, and then the boats." added Sokka

"That still leaves us with the Si Wong Desert around the Misty Palms Oasis and up to Si Wong Rock, and having walked through most of it, I have no desire to again if we can help it, as well as the city of Omashu, because there is nowhere in the city for the air-o-plane to land, The Great Divide, another place I have no desire to walk through again, the Swamp, and the forests, across the entire kingdom, but we should probably focus on the forest near Gaipan." Katara informed them

"Actually, we don't need to sweep the Swamp. I got a message to Huu. Him, Due and Tho are going to sweep that for us." Sokka said with a small smile

"We also have the entire Fire Nation to search, just in case." Zuko's voice was hard and emotionless, his hands balling to fists on the table. This task was starting to look impossible.

"I don't think he will still be in the Fire Nation, not with a three days head start." The Duke mused, looking down at the map

"I think we should still do sweeps of the colonies, and the border villages where Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom nationals live side by side." Pipsqueak said grimly

The usually smiling Ty-Lee looked at Zuko, a deep frown set on her face, "How are we going to do this without causing panic? Or even worse, without someone who might be hiding Jet to alert him? It will turn into a wild goose chase."

Suddenly, the doors to the room swung open, and three knives landed in the map, exactly over three border villages. Zuko's eyes widened as he looked from the map, to the doorway.

"Mai." he stated the obvious, looking to his ex-girlfriend

She curtsied respectfully, "Fire Lord Zuko. I think I can be of some service."

"Azula has been put under house arrest, for her own protection, in the house in the mountains, where it was suggested she went. Ty-Lee obviously left some time ago, to go back to training with the other warriors. Azula was to blame for that, by being a brat. Then when she was put under protection, I decided to come back to the capital. See what all the fuss was about. See if I could help. I came back with only two guards, and three eel hounds, and we saw a man who was thin and bruised running through the forest, being pursued by...something. We thought nothing of it until we reached the city, and saw the posters with the picture of the man we had seen. So I came here first, to tell you what I could." She finished

"It has to be Jet. Heading for the mountains...he's going for stealth. He knows those mountains, and he knows we cannot launch an army after him into the mountains, too dangerous and it would take too much time. He couldn't have known we would just have 25 of us in our group to head off after him, but he must have been counting on someone spotting him, and making this our plan if it hadn't been already." The Duke explained, "But he has three days on us, and we do not know his final destination."

"The Boulder would like to know which mountains you speak of" he said, a determined expression on his face

"The mountain home of the Fire Nation royals is in the bordering mountains of the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation, near the ocean pass to the Crescent Island, why?"

"The Boulder knows those mountains. I trained there as a young Earthbender. There is a pass that leads to somewhere you spoke of. There is a direct path to the forest around the village that was Gaipan."

"You're sure?" asked Katara

"The Boulder is positive"

Sokka, Katara and Aang exchanged looks with the Duke and Pipsqueak.

"Something to share?" asked Suki

"That forest is where we, Katara, Sokka and I first met Jet, and Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke and Pipsqueak, and the other freedom fighters. We watched as Jet and the others flooded Gaipan, to destroy the Fire Nation army outpost there, but Sokka alerted the people in time and evacuated them. Jet called us traitors to the cause." Aang explained, as Teo rolled into the room, and Toph, Hippo, and the Kyoshi Warriors came over.

"In all the time I knew him, it was the first defeat I had watched him experience. He didn't take it well. Me and The Duke left shortly afterwards."

"I froze him to a tree." Katara said loudly, letting a small laugh slip out of her mouth. Aang spluttered a laugh as well.

"Yeah, after you'd kissed him." Sokka stated

"I..." Katara stopped giggling abruptly and stammered, "Irrelevant."

Toph changed the subject back to the topic at hand, "If everyone is calm again, shall we all take a seat and get together a plan of action, so we can go and bash this guy?"

The sun had set, two meals had been eaten in uncomfortable silence, and Zuko and Aang were lighting the lamps when the latest arguments erupted;

"I am as capable as anyone else at this table! Little knife tricks?! I'll show you little knife tricks!"

"We haven't associated with him in nearly two years! We have as much right as you to be here!"

"Fan dance?! You sound like Sokka!"

"I'm in a chair, so what!?"

"So I hunted the Avatar, big deal! So did the Fire Lord, and it may have escaped your notice, but I answered the call for allies! Something you really need right now!"

The group had been like this all day; conflicts erupting between everyone over petty things, all because they were frustrated that they could not come up with a concrete plan that still ensured everyone's safety.

Zuko looked at Aang, and Aang shook his head. He then ran, jumped onto the table and blasted a bubble of air out into the room, knocking out the lamps he had just lit, and everyone back into their seats with interesting hair do's. Zuko sent a line of fire around the lamps again, and relit them, then looked to Aang,

"If only you could do that at world council meetings, we would have had peace a long time ago..."

Aang turned to Zuko and blew him into his seat as well. Katara and Mai laughed the hardest out of the group, then awkwardly caught each other's eye contact. They quickly looked back to Aang.

Zuko ruffled his hair back flat.

Sokka stood up next to Aang,

"We need to stop this fighting, or else no-one is going to take us seriously. We are responsible for ensuring that the nut job that is after Zuko is brought down, and we aren't going to get that done by arguing about who deserves to be here, and whose pasts are less than clean. We all answered the call for help, we all deserve to be here, we all know why we're here, so let's stop acting like 5 year olds, and get this plan down." A stunned silence followed Sokka's speech.

The maps that had been blown aside in the arguing and then by Aang, were adjusted, and everyone started perusing them again;

"I think," Sokka stroked his chin as he spoke, "That we should travel together as far as the Earth Kingdom border, then split into two groups, and one group takes the mountain route, while the second group takes Appa and goes towards the far edge forest and makes their way in, and we all meet at Gaipan, and hope that we catch Jet somewhere between the two."

"How are we going to split the groups?" Katara looked warily around at her friends, and her allies.

"Split the groups of benders and non-benders in half, so each group has equal bending?" Suki suggested

Aang shook his head, "While we have a good amount of earth benders, me, Toph, Haru, Boulder and Hippo, that could be split between groups, we don't know who is going to need Zuko's fire, or Katara's water, or my air for that matter."

"We haven't got any other choice. If we don't split up and make some bending sacrifices, he could slip by us and escape through whichever way we don't approach from, or he could hear us coming." Katara's eyes may have flicked to Hippo, "Besides, we don't need to completely rely on bending anyway. The Kyoshi warriors are skilled healers, just without water, and they can care for the wounded in both groups if we split them up, and Mai and Ty-Lee have the power that comes from being Fire Nation in their blood, even if they can't bend fire. We can do this even with splitting the benders up. I suggest group one, the ones that are heading for the mountains, should be Ty-Lee and half the warriors, Mai, Toph, The Boulder, Hippo, Haru and me. The second group should be Aang, Sokka, Suki and the second half of the warriors, The Duke, Pipsqueak, June, Teo and Zuko. That way the majority of earth benders are going where the majority of the earth is going to be, I will be where there are likely to be more injuries, and The Boulder knows the mountains, meanwhile, The Duke and Pipsqueak know the forest and Jet's possible hideouts, Aang can fly Appa from the border overhead, to spot Jet from above, and Zuko can burn down any forest in the way, although try not to." Katara caught Zuko's eye and smiled.

A nod of assent went around the table, followed by a lot of yawns.

Zuko looked outside, "It must be gone midnight. Go to bed everyone, we will set out tomorrow afternoon when the sun starts to go down, so we can travel at night until we are out of the Fire Nation, and the heat."

Everyone mumbled their goodnights and made for the doors. Zuko remained behind to tidy up and fold away the maps, when a pair of arms wound around his middle and a head rested on his shoulder as he bent over. He smiled.

"Since it is past midnight Fire Lord, I believe it is your birthday."

Zuko smiled, stood up straight and spun around to face Katara. Katara did not move her hands; Zuko's hands mirrored hers now.

"I do believe it is." He bent down slightly, and kissed Katara deeply, like it was their first kiss all over again. Like they were the only ones in the room, but of course,

"Hey Zuko, oh, OH! I'm going, I'm leaving, I'm going to gouge my eyes out!" The couple split apart in time to see Sokka flee from the room. Katara leaned her head onto Zuko's chest, and laughed out loud, her whole body shaking. Zuko too laughed long and deep. It would be the last laugh they shared for some time.