Ok! so here's chapter three, sorry it's so short but just read and review it anyway!

Disclaimer: Don't own it...yet.

PLEASE READ A/N AT VERY END. IT'S SOMEWHAT IMPORTANT.

Chapter 3: Enlightenment

"Actually, Aang, I think you need to. Once the word gets out that he's escaped, the world might panic, and it would help calm their nerves to know the avatar is out to stop him again." Zuko said calmly. "I'll have to stay here but you five need to go and keep the peace."

Iroh suddenly spoke from the left of Zuko causing several of the gaang to jump. They hadn't even realized his presence until he spoke. "No, Zuko, I think you should go too," Iroh said, not bothering to beat around the bush. "If the fire nation sees that you are trying to stop Ozai from regaining control, it might build not only your nation's trust but the trust of the other nations as well. I can handle everything here," he finished, answering the question he knew Zuko would ask.

Zuko looked around, shooting an inquiring gaze to each of his friends that asked if he was welcome. He hardly needed an answer though.

"Were not a team without you, Zuko," Katara answered, knowing Zuko was still skeptical of how concrete his acceptance was within the group. He knew he wouldn't have trusted himself so easily. It warmed his heart to know he was welcome among them and knowing Katara was the one to voice it made it seem so much more solid in his mind's eye. She had been the least friendly and the most cynical of the group when he first joined and knowing she felt his presence was important to the group meant more than she could probably know.

"So, do we even know where to start? Where do we go first?" Aang asked worried they wouldn't begin to know where to go.

"Well, there was always this fire nation children's story that spoke of a feather of the phoenix which fell into a volcano and never burned. The story says that the feather was more powerful than the boiling volcano and would never be burnt because the bird which it fell from could bear the heat of the hottest fire and rise from its ashes. It's supposed to teach kids that fire can burn you only if you're too weak to let it," Zuko said, saving a significant amount of bitterness for the last comment. He'd obviously been taught so and remembering it was unfavorable.

"But what it's really doing is telling us where we're going to find what we need. Do you think Ozai knows it's in a volcano then? Do you know what volcano?" Aang inquired.

"He probably does, and I think I have an idea of what volcano," Zuko said, recollecting the story and trying to remember which volcano was mentioned. "Mount Keihatsu. That's the volcano it talked about in the story. That's where we should go first," Zuko finished, finally recalling the name of the volcano and sending the group into a meditative silence, minds all wandering on the same thing.

The afternoon arrived in a cool breeze, softly blowing the orange and brown leaves across the stone ground. Autumns in the fire nation were comfortably warm once the dead summer heat had passed. The gaang was packing anything and everything they might need. This trip would be a lot more comfortable and a lot less stressful than the gaang's many months of camping while running from the fire nation. This time they would be taking a boat so there would be plenty of room for not only the necessities but the unique knick-knacks each member treasured as well.

The day was young but the gaang decided it would leave the next dawn so they wouldn't have to be traveling at night, giving them plenty of time to reach almost any given destination.

Aang didn't have much to pack. Being raised by monks, he was taught that the idea of worldly attachments to material possessions was childish and impractical. He had the essentials, such as his bison whistle and glider, and wasn't sure if he should take his air nomad robes. Seeing as how fighting was again going to be very possible, a change of wardrobe was in order. Aang wore a sleeveless yellow shirt with thick orange stitches down the middle which kept the shirt sealed. The shirt had an orange collar and was tucked in by an orange belt, much like his old nomad attire. He wore lose brown pants which tucked neatly into his boots just below the knee. Zuko had his tailors make him new clothes for the occasion but try as he might to make them as air-bendy as possible, it still had its few fire nation quirks, such as the strip of orange cloth that was part of his belt that hung to just above his knees and the fact that his shirt was sleeveless. But Aang just felt that it was thoughtful of Zuko to even tell his tailors to make it some way which might be more appealing and comfortable to Aang. He was grateful for Zuko's consideration.

Aang's wandering mind jumped back to reality when he heard a few hard knocks on the door; it was Sokka asking if he had anything ready to go out on the boat and that they were almost done packing everything they needed onto the boat and finally that they would be having an early dinner, much to Sokka's pleasure, so that they could get to bed early and get an early start the following morning. Aang nodded and said he had nothing on which note Sokka turned and went to Katara's room where he heard Sokka deliver the same message.

Aang laid on his bed, lost in thought. Everything had happened so quickly: the news of the fire lord's escape, the confirmation of Aang's fear of the existence of the relics. He wasn't sure it had fully hit him yet.

Katara had finished putting everything she might need on the boat and was told it was about time for dinner. She headed off towards the dinning hall and entered to find Sokka, Suki, Zuko, Toph and Aang already there. She saw Aang sitting with his back to her and smiled fondly at his new attire.

"I like your new clothes," she said genuinely. She liked the style of the fire nation and was glad his new look had a little of that flare in it.

Aang turned to meet her gaze when his mouth dropped in awe of Katara's beauty. She was wearing clothes similar to her old fire nation clothes but these were much more suitable for fighting and much more water tribe looking. She wore a blue top much like the red one she wore for so long while hiding out on the fire nation. Her shirt wrapped over the top of her left shoulder and tied together just above and to the right of her belly button, exposing her stomach and lower back. Her light blue skirt flowed to just above her knee caps and, like her water tribe attire, had two slits up the sides. She wore short, dark blue shorts under her skirt, revealing a lot of her legs. The look suited her well and Aang's expression upon seeing it was proof enough. She laughed at his reaction and sat down between him and Toph.

"You look great, Katara," Aang said still in shock at how beautiful she looked. She merely smiled in response.

The group had dinner in an almost reverent silence. None of them felt conversation was necessary as they did at most meals. All thoughts were elsewhere at the time being. When Aang had finished he soundlessly got up and left for his room again. He hadn't bothered to say goodnight because he assumed no one would hear him anyway. His feet led him routinely back to his room where he was startled to see himself at already. He entered and sat on his bed thinking of everything he hadn't stopped thinking about the entire day. What would happen if Ozai got his fire bending back? Would he be able to defeat him again? This time would he have to kill him? Or was there some way he could destroy the relics? But was that wise? The questions seemed to roll over him like endless waves over a beach, washing in new questions and taking out the old to be washed in again several waves later. His thoughts were interrupted once again by several knocks on the door. This time though, it was Katara.

She cracked the door open and peaked her head in, wondering if it was ok to come in. Aang smiled welcomingly to her, cueing her to enter his empty room.

"It almost seems more normal to be going back out there and doing something again, you know? But who knows how long it'll be before we get alone time again," Katara said walking towards Aang who was smiling at the thought he knew they were both sharing.

"I know," he said playfully, going along with her excuse to why they should be alone in his bedroom, "it might be weeks."

She crossed the room and sat on Aang's bed, looking deep into his eyes. She leaned in and kissed him passionately, moving her hands up to rest around his neck. Aang wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer and further deepening their kiss. After several moments, Katara pushed Aang back and laid on top of him. She reached for his collar and began tugging at it softly. Aang began to comply but stopped himself with all the will power he had and broke free from the kiss.

"Katara," he said while trying to catch his breath, "hang on." They both sat up and Katara looked at him with concern, worried she had almost taken it too far. "I just think we should wait. I don't know if we're ready," he said not sure how else to go about saying it. She smiled and hugged him which was the last thing he expected her to do.

"It's good to know at least one of us has self control," she whispered softly in his hear before pulling away to look lovingly into his eyes. He smiled, blushing slightly, and was glad he'd made the right decision. She kissed Aang softly on the lips and got up slowly walking towards the door leaving him wanting more as he did to her just the night before. "Now get some rest. We have a big day ahead of us," she said leaving and softly closing the door behind her.

So there you go, a lot of people wanted Zuko to go too so I got Zuko in there and I made a good enough excuse to make the story believable that he's there. (ps. I wanted Zuko to go too so I'm glad we've all agreed that he should be there :) )

Sorry the chapter was so short. I was going to merge this day and the next day but I decided that the day they leave will be a pretty long chapter so I had to just cut it off here in order to update in a timely manner.

Also, thank you so much to all my reviewers! You guys have had so many wonderful things to say and it just makes it that much easier to update when so many people are so supportive. I'd love to keep individually thanking each of you but there are too many to keep going back and forth typing out all your names, not that I am complaining at all though!

Just a side note, Keihatsu (the name of the volcano) means enlightenment if you were wondering where i got the chapter title from

Semi-Important A/N:

As you can see this story hasn't been updated in several months. I'm sorry to say that it's been dropped. With the absence of new episodes, I've sort of lost interest in Avatar. I was going to replace this chapter with the notice of dropping the story but I've decided to just add it to the end. Sorry if I've disappointed anyone terribly. The story wasn't that far yet so it shouldn't be a big deal.

If anyone wants to adopt it, feel free to please let me know!