I have returned, I don't have anything to say about my absence other than I've simply been writing other things and have been rather busy with life in general. Last chapter I said I was going to try and do one chapter a week, that clearly did not happen and I don't believe it will be happening anytime soon. And I don't want to make any promises only to break them soon after, I am trying to be more active in general other than that all I can do is apologize for not being more vocal about what I was doing. Any way that's enough of me, let's get on with the story.

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Guiding the group through the desert proved to be far more challenging than Gaara initially realized. The annoyances had started out as minor problems; members of the group walking slowly, complaints of the heat and requests for breaks. Minor issues that were more than understandable for a group as ill-prepared for the desert as this one to have, but things slowly became less tolerable for Gaara as time passed. The blind girl, Toph, would stumble and fall at random points and would always say that the sand made things blurry. Whatever that meant. Then there was Sokka, who Gaara had decided was not mentally well, who would often stop to stare in random directions with drool leaking out the corner of his mouth. His sister was always the one to pull him back to reality and keep him with the group.

But the one who truly irritated Gaara was the boy with the arrow tattoos, Aang, who seemed content to drag his feet through the sand and slow everyone down. 'If I did not know otherwise, I would think that he wished for death.'

The only one who had shown themselves to be reliable was Katara; coaxing the rest of the group to continue moving forward and keeping pace just behind Gaara. At the sound of a grunt, followed by another sound of a body hitting sand Gaara glanced over his shoulder to see that, once again, Toph had stumbled over her own feet. Katara immediately walked over to help the girl stand, only to be waved off by Toph as she stood by herself. "I keep telling you, I'm fine. All this sand just makes it hard to see, that's all."

Katara only offered a sigh in response to the girls' attitude. "Still though... it might be best if we rest for a bit. It's better to save our strength as much as possible right now, right Gaara?"

In response to the question Gaara looked toward the sky and saw that the sun currently sat at the peak of its path and offered a quiet sigh. "It would be best if we continued walking." When Katara opened her mouth, most likely to object, Gaara continued. "But if you wish, we may rest for a few minutes." Gaara was greeted with a small smile at his answer as everyone except Katara and himself collapsed in exhaustion.

"If anyone's thirsty I have some water." It happened in almost slow motion, Katara innocently pulled out a water skin and uncapped it but instead of passing it around as Gaara expected her to, she seemingly pulled the water from the container. 'No hand signs, perhaps a bloodline ability? No, no village would let her simply get lost in the desert if that were the case. So then how was she able to control the water like that?' "Gaara? Hello?"

At the sound of his name being called he glanced up to see Katara standing in front of him with her water floating above her hand. "I was asking if you wanted some water, there's enough here for you to have some as well."

A quick glance at the water was enough to inform Gaara that there was in fact not enough left for her to be offering it to anyone other the members of her group. "I appreciate your offer but it is not necessary. I will be fine until we leave the desert." Katara opened her mouth, seemingly to protest, but closed it when she made eye contact with Gaara. "If you're sure..."

Katara slowly put the water back into her water skin before sitting down and wiping the sweat from her brow. The rest of the group chose to sit as well, with a certain amount of distance between each of them. The only one not sitting was Sokka; who was face first into the sand, while he licked it, while the lemur sat on his back, and chewed its own tail. Gaara dragged his eyes away from the sight and looked towards Katara. "I apologize in advance if this question offends you, but your brother... is he... unwell?"

She offered a sigh before answering. "He'll be fine, I think, he just drank some cactus juice." Both of them turned toward Sokka to see him pulling Momo's mouth apart in some strange attempt to see down its throat. "Speaking of which, you wouldn't happen to know anything about cactus juice, would you? Like, is it safe to drink?" Her eyes landed on her brother when she finished speaking, the look in her eye letting Gaara know that this thought had been nagging her for a while.

"it would depend on the cactus; not all are safe to drink, especially on an empty stomach. However, the only thing to be concerned of are hallucinations. Although I'm afraid I don't possess the knowledge of when he will recover, that would depend on how much he drank. So long as he did not eat any of the cactus, he should fine." Katara released a small breath and let a small smile creep across her face after hearing his words. "I'm afraid I have one more question." At the sound of Gaara's voice Katara looked back toward him. "Earlier your friend Toph spoke of the sand making it hard to see. However, she is blind, is she not?"

"Oh no! My secret has been revealed, how will I ever go on?" Both Katara and Gaara looked over to where Toph had dramatically interrupted their conversation to see her on her back with her arms stretched straight toward the sky before they limply fell to her sides. "Toph is an earthbender, she uses it to see. Like badgermoles." When Gaara remained silent after her explanation Katara stood up to make sure everyone was alright. Meanwhile Gaara sat stock still trying to make sense of what he had just heard.

'Earthbender? Badgermole? Does she mean an Earth Release user? Yet I have never heard of a blind shinobi using jutsu to give them sight before, this group truly is strange.' Gaara scanned the group as they sat idle, his eyes resting on Katara as she checked on the Aang. 'The way she spoke of earthbending, it was so easy, as if I already knew what that was. Perhaps it has something to do with what she did earlier with the water. Now that I think about it, they had mentioned something about sandbenders not too long ago perhaps I-' "Gaara, can you hear me?" Gaara quickly snapped out of his own thoughts and looked up to see that Katara's group was standing over him. "I was just saying that we should probably keep moving forward."

A glance toward the sky showed that the sun had remained perfectly still since they had sat down, using his hand to push himself up Gaara wordlessly turned around and resumed the previous march. 'Twice now I've been caught with my attention somewhere else. This lack of caution must end, or it could be an enemy who catches me unaware next time.'

With more attention on his surroundings Gaara flexed his fingers checking to see if he was capable of performing any of his jutsu; the sand only rose an inch before Gaara felt a small tug on the back of his mind. 'It would appear that I need more time before anything can be done.' The sand fell back to the earth harmlessly back down as the group continued forward, either nobody had noticed what had just happened or they cared too little. 'If I am required to wait, then so be it.'

With nobody willing to waste energy on a conversation the group continued onward in silence, the occasional request for water was met with Katara wordlessly pulling out a ball of water and floating it into the mouth of whoever had asked. With nothing to distract the group night fell slower than they would have liked and by the time Katara called for them to take another break everyone, minus Gaara, collapsed from their own weight. "Is there any more water?" Katara approached Toph and pulled out the last bit of water.

"Everyone can have a little." The water hovered in the air for a few seconds before violently exploding as Momo burst through it in an attempt to drink as much as possible. This was met with a frantic Sokka throwing himself in front of the now wet sand and claiming Momo had killed them, only to be relieved as Katara pulled the water from the sand.

Out of the corner of her eye Katara noticed bundles of paper sticking out of Sokkas' bag and allowed herself to smile. "Sokka let me see those maps you got from the library." She was met with heavy denial and a delirious declaration that the lemur had ratted him out. While he was busy reducing the lemur to tears Katara removed his bag and brought it over to Gaara.

"Here, I don't know how much help they'll be to you but I figured they're better than nothing." Gaara nodded in response and watched her for a moment as she turned around to speak with the group.

'So, they travelled to a library...strange, the only library of use in the desert is in Sunagakure. Yet there was not a single description of outsiders such as them entering the village. Perhaps it was a library somewhere else...no, Sokka acted as if he had stolen them recently.' Gaara quickly abandoned his train of thought and looked toward the maps he had been given. 'I am putting far too much weight behind their actions. They are-' Gaara once again cut off his thoughts as he read the map. It was a star chart, useful in areas like the desert or the sea where there weren't many landmarks but what truly got his attention were the stars themselves. They were wrong, constellations that Gaara had never seen before were drawn across the paper. His head quickly shot toward the sky and saw that the stars on the paper were indeed the same as the those in the sky. Gaara slowed his breathing, closed his eyes and raised his hands in the sign needed to break genjutsu. When he opened his eyes, he saw that nothing had changed.

HIs head slowly turned toward the group to see that everyone was asleep except for Katara who was looking at him with a tilted head. "Everything okay Gaara?"

An innocent question but Gaara could only turn his head back around and pretend to examine the star charts. "I apologize if I caused you unnecessary concern, I simply realized that I did not ask where you were travelling to."

"Oh, we're going to Ba Sing Se." Once again, a new word that Gaara had never heard before and it was said so easily, like he was supposed to know what that was.

"I see, and what is in Ba Sing Se that requires you to go there?" He hoped that he had pronounced it correctly, if Katara thought that something was off then his chances of getting any more information would drop.

Apparently, he had gotten the name right as Katara was quick to respond. "Well we have information about the Fire Nation that the Earth King needs to hear." Gaara rubbed his hand against his eyes, nothing made sense right now. Fire Nation? Earth King? What on earth was this girl talking about? He felt something at the back of his mind spin and another glance toward the sky reinforced that feeling.

The hand that placed itself on his shoulder almost made him jump, he quickly turned to see Katara staring directly into his eyes. "I just wanted to thank you for helping us. I really appreciate it and so does everyone else...they're just not very good at showing it right now." With that Katara walked a few feet away and laid down. "Since we have those maps it would be better to rest during the day while it's hot and travel at night while it's cold. For now, we should rest, we can start again in a few hours."

Gaara offered only a nod in response before looking away. After a few moments of pretending to read the star charts Gaara crossed his legs, closed his eyes and interlocked his fingers in order to relax himself to better meditate. 'Shukaku is not usually helpful and prefers torment in place of guidance, and given his silence since my awakening it is unlikely he will be of any use. But right now, I have no other option.'

His breathing slowed until he could barely hear it and his thoughts faded into an inky darkness leaving him in absolute silence. The sound of a single drop of water landing in a pool alerted him to his success allowing to open his eyes. Instead of being surrounded by an endless desert Gaara was standing on top of a pool of water, with a small ripple making its way across the surface. He could only see a few feet in front of himself due to the rest of the area being covered shadows. 'It was never this dark before...Whatever's going on it's effecting me more than I'd like.'

"Shukaku!" His voice echoed throughout the area, bouncing around before finally fading away. "I know you are here Shukaku, answer me!" The only response he received was silence as the beast chose to remain silent. 'Strange, Shukaku is quick to answer, especially if I enter my mind of my own will.'

With no other choice Gaara elected to take a few steps forward, the darkness moving with him and exposing more water. "Shukaku! I want to speak with you!" Even more silence followed, his only companion appearing to be his voice.

A shiver ran up his spine at the sound of something running across the water. Gaara spun in the direction of the noise only to have it suddenly change its location to once again come from behind him. He spun around several more times only to have the exact same thing happen over and over. When the sound was directly behind him Gaara spun on his heel, only to have his vision blocked by a large shadowed claw. The tips of its fingernails were inches from his eyes and mere moments away from grabbing onto him. Only to be saved when his eyes in reality snapped open.

He felt a single bead of sweat make its way down the side of his face and released a breath that he had unconsciously been holding. 'That was...unsettling. Shukaku has never outright attacked me before, perhaps it would be best to wait for him to make first contact.' Gaara took a moment to check on everyone in the group and saw that they were just beginning to wake up, and a quick look toward the sky showed him that it was still dark out. Gaara stood from his position and was about to make his way toward the group when Aang suddenly grabbed the water skin from Katara's hand and turned his staff into some type of winged...thing and flew into the sky. Before Gaara could stop himself, his mouth spat out the first thing that crossed his mind. "Did he just...fly?"

Three heads turned toward Gaara at his question and Toph merely scratched the back of her head before answering. "Yeah but you get used to it, just avatar stuff I guess. Ow! What was that for?!" A flick to the ear from Katara left Toph rubbing her ear as she grumbled something unintelligible.

"Our friend Aang is the avatar, but he's also an airbender, it's just something he learned to do." Gaara gave a slight nod, too wrapped up in what he just heard to truly offer a response, as Aang returned from his flight and handed the water skin back to Katara.

"Oh, there's hardly any in here." Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say as Aangs' response was less than kind. "I'm sorry okay?! It's a desert cloud and I did the best I could! What's anyone else doing?" The response from the group was stare wide-eyed at the outburst.

The only one to respond in some form was Katara, who slowly turned toward Gaara and crossed her arms. "So... which way?" Gaara released a quiet sigh at the scene that had just played out before him but chose to ignore it for now. Luckily for Gaara the star charts had shown him a direction out of the desert, whether or not it lead to Ba Sing Se was not his current concern. With that in mind Gaara changed their direction slightly north and wordlessly began to walk.

Once again, the group began to silently make their way through the desert which allowed Gaara to think more on what he had just learned. 'Airbender and avatar? The longer I stay with this group the more concerning my situation becomes. They spoke of a city outside the desert, perhaps I'll be able to get some answers there.'

"Hey Katara, Momo wanted to know when you were gonna give him his ears back. I said he'd get them back after the cabbage king returns but I don't think he can wait that long." Gaara peered over his shoulder to see Sokka trying to hold a conversation with his sister only for Katara to sigh in disbelief. "Sokka his ears are on his head."

The delirious teen merely shrugged before turning back to the lemur on his shoulder. "I told you she wouldn't give them back so easily, maybe if we make an alliance with the carrot lord he'll-" Whatever Sokka had been trying to say was cut off as Toph tripped and fell face first into the sand.

"Ugh! I hate not being able to feel where I'm going." Making his way over to the fallen girl Gaara offered her a hand only to have her stand up by herself. "I mean, whose stupid idea was it to bury a boat in the middle of a desert anyway?"

At her statement Katara ran over to the object and after a few seconds of inspection made eye contact with Aang who swung his staff and created a strong enough breeze to blow away all of the sand that was once covering the boat. Katara quickly ran onto the boat and checked it over.

"it's one of the gliders the sandbenders use. It even has some kind of compass on it. Gaara, do you know anything about these?" At her question simply shook his head and while Katara's initial disappointment was easy to notice it was quickly covered up once a new thought entered her mind.

"If we follow the compass I'm sure it will take us out of here, Aang you can bend a breeze so we can sail it. We're gonna make it!" After Katara's declaration all members of the group climbed onto the sand glider and took a seat as Aang bent a breeze into the sails, allowing them to move forward.

What would have taken an hour instead took a few minutes. The group watched as a large rock formation came into view in the horizon which Katara believed to be what the compass was pointing toward. With increased energy Aang channeled more wind into the sail allowing them to reach the rock much faster.

The second that they reached the rock Toph jumped off of the sand glider and gave landmark a huge hug. "Oh, solid ground, how I've missed you."

"While I'm sure we're all touched by this heartwarming reunion, shouldn't we be climbing this thing to see what makes it tick?" Gaara was surprised to see that Sokka had recovered from his cactus juice delusions and was actually making some form of sense. Toph responded with a large grin and stretched her hands forward before turning them into fists and bringing them back into her chest. The rock seemed to respond to this by spitting out a platform large enough for all five of them to stand on.

Once everyone had climbed on Toph spun her arms in circles before sticking her arms straight up into the sky, which caused the platform to begin rising to the top of the rock. As soon as they reached the top Gaara took notice of multiple caves sticking out of the center of the rock. The group began making their way toward the formation without Gaara, who stared at tunnels with narrowed eyes. "I think it would be best to avoid the caves if at all possible. It's unlikely that they were formed naturally."

"That's true, but it's not like we're going in very far, just gonna poke our heads in and see if there is anything to eat." Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow at Sokka's response, but before he could give his own retort the group had wandered into the cave. Gaara sighed at their course of action and was about to turn away when all four of the group came running out of the caves.

"Buzzard wasps!"

Directly behind the group a swarm of creatures that did hold a remarkable similarity of both buzzards and wasps came flying out after them. In response the group formed up around Gaara. "Stay behind us, we'll keep you safe."

He watched the group defend themselves from the attackers in only reactive situations; if a buzzard wasp landed on the ground Toph would send it flying with her earthbending, if one stepped too close Aang would blast it with his airbending. In time the group was forced backwards as Katara stated that she had no water to bend and Sokka realized that he had been fighting an imaginary enemy. Before the group could fully retreat a buzzard wasp swooped in and grabbed Momo who had be sitting just outside of the fighting area. The first to react was Gaara, as soon as he saw the creature fly over the sand he stretched his hand out in front of him and waited to feel any sort of resistance. When there was none Gaara flicked two of his fingers towards the sky and watched as sand rose from the desert and wrapped itself around the buzzard wasp.

With the creature secured Gaara formed a circle using his two fingers which caused the sand to swing the monster in a circle, loosening its grip on Momo and flinging the lemur toward Sokka who caught Momo with his chest and sent him crashing backwards. With Momo no longer in any danger Gaara wrapped his sand around the wasp and crushed it, the creatures lifeless body was dropped toward the sands below as Gaara ordered his sand to circle him. When another buzzard wasp swooped in toward him his sand formed into a large spike, effectively impaling the creature from its own momentum. Several more creatures tried a similar tactic but met a similar end, noticing the swift death of their allies the remaining buzzard wasps fled back into their caves.

Gaara briefly considered filling the caves with sand as a way to prevent them from causing any more harm but was stopped before he could properly consider the thought as his sand rose in defense behind him from a blast of wind.

"Aang! What are you doing?"

Gaara turned to see an irate Aang glaring at him from across the distance. "Tell me where Appa is! Right. Now!"

"Aang stop! He's been helping us get through the desert since we met, why would he help someone who he robbed?" Katara had charged in front of Aang and stood directly between him and Gaara.

"He was probably just leading us into a trap." Despite his reasoning Katara refused to move which caused Aang to tighten his grip on his staff.

"I told you before, I have no knowledge of what a sky bison is and neither do I have any knowledge of where it might be located."

"You're lying!" "No, he's not." All heads turned toward Toph to see her standing there with her arms crossed. "Gaara's telling the truth Aang, he had nothing to do with Appa being stolen."

Aang slowly lowered his staff and turned to face away from everyone, with that the silence that fell over the group was heavier than most would enjoy. Only broken when Aang walked toward the ledge and used his glider to float down. "So, why exactly did you choose to avoid telling us that you were a sandbender?"

Gaara saw that all three of them were staring at him, expectantly waiting for an answer a few flew through his mind, not all of them acceptable and most of them would leave him in a worse position. He even considered admitting that he wasn't actually a sandbender, until the thought of what his blind friend would do in this situation and despite himself Gaara allowed a small smile to make its way onto his face. "You never asked."

The silence that followed was quickly crushed by Sokka who offered a shrug before responding. "I mean... he's kinda got a point." Whatever Katara was going to say was cut off by Toph running to the rock platform that had brought them to the top. "We've got company down below, more sandbenders."

Without missing a beat Sokka and Katara made their way over to the platform, followed by Gaara. As they made their way down Gaara took notice of multiple sand gliders at the base of the rock with Aang standing defiantly between the two. Toph, Gaara, Katara and Sokka were able to make it to the bottom just as the sandbenders got off of their gliders and stood before Aang.

"What are you doing in our land with a sand glider? It would appear that you stole it from the Hami tribe."

"We found it buried in the sand, we're travelling with the avatar but our bison was stolen and we have to get to Ba Sing Se." At Katara's statement a younger man stepped forward clearly upset. "You would dare accuse our people of stealing while you ride around on a stolen sand surfer?"

Out of the corner of his eye Gaara noticed Toph's eyes narrow at the sound of the younger man's voice. And when he apologized for his outburst Toph's eyes widened. "I recognize his voice, he's the one that stole Appa."

At this statement Aang stepped forward and leveled his staff at the younger man. "You stole Appa. Where is he!?"

"They're lying I didn't steal anything!" The younger man backed away as the rest of the sandbenders glared at him

"You said to put a muzzle on him." After hearing Toph's last statement Aang began from his eyes as well as his arrows and when he next spoke it was he was using hundreds of voices. "Tell me where Appa is."

In response to the new threat the young sandbenders eyes went wide "I'm sorry! I didn't know he belonged to the avatar. I traded him, he's probably in Ba Sing Se by now. Please I'll guide you out of the desert we'll do everything we can!"

The more the sandbender pleaded the angrier Aang seemed to grow angrier causing a violent wind to begin swirling around him causing Gaara to raise his sand in protection while everyone else ran away. The only one who didn't back down in anyway was Katara who walked into the storm and place her hand on Aangs arm and pulled him into an embrace.

With the brief danger having passed the sandbenders cautiously walked back toward the avatar, with one of their sand surfers directly behind them. The older sandbender stepped forward once again. "My people have wronged you avatar, we will aid you in any way we can." Aang wordlessly made his way toward the sand surfer, Katara at his side, and simply sat down with his back facing the group. The sandbenders glanced at each other before one stepped forward and made his way onto the surfer, followed by Sokka and Toph. Gaara made his way toward the surfer as well, and noticing his approach, Katara placed a hand on Aangs shoulder, before giving him a small smile and hopping down to stand level with Gaara.

"Thank you for everything Gaara, I know we probably weren't easy to deal with but without you I don't know how far we would have made it. If there's anything we can do for you just name it." Gaara's response came without missing a beat. "I would like to accompany your group to Ba Sing Se."

Katara sputtered for a second before recomposing herself. "Well... I don't see why not." Katara looked back at the surfer to see Sokka shake his head, Toph nod hers watched Aang simply shrug his shoulders with his back facing them. "Welcome aboard Gaara."

Gaara placed on foot on the sand surfer before stopping in his tracks, turning around and placing both hands on the sand. The sand slowly wrapped around his fingers before working its way up his arms, down his back, over his legs and around his face. At the familiar feeling of sand covering his body Gaara flexed his fingers and smiled before commanding the sand to take the familiar shape of his gourd and strapping it to his back. 'It's good to have this feeling back.' Gaara turned back toward the sand surfer and saw that everyone was looking at him bug-eyed, except Toph, who wore the largest smile he had ever seen.

"Is there something the matter?"

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Okie dokie chapter 3 is finished and boy did that take way too long, but I will be focusing on this story and this story alone until its completion. Also, in terms of parings I have prepared a pole on my page, vote if you want to, or don't your choice really. If you guys have any other questions or comments feel free to leave a review, or if it's earth-shatteringly important go ahead and send me a pm. Until next time.