SunSetSoItSeems: So, do you want to know what brought upon this great miracle of an update? Well, it was three things.

Digimon was one of them, and reader traffic was another (Just because it's cooler than anything ever)? I was doing all of my homework when all of a sudden I thought, 'remember that time I wrote the unplanned/pointless/pointless Tai/Sora story a couple years ago because I was wondering what the hell the writers were thinking while hooking up Matt and Sora?'

And then it came to me in a flash: 'Holy food pyramid. Updates…'

The third thing was Natashaaaaaaaaaa, or whatever her name is now, but I won't even begin to describe the horrid things that she used to make me update. Well, you can thank Digimon, my oh so eloquent cousin Natasha, reader traffic, and bloody Uncle Sam for this chapter or something. Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty

Toph dropped her suitcase immediately.

"What's wrong?" Aang worriedly looked at his friend. "What is going on?"

"Nothing." Toph started to fan herself. "It's just so hot!"

"Yeah! Haven't you heard all of the stories about this place?" Aang had. All of his friends from his school, especially Teo, said that Hawaii was hot as Hell. (They didn't know the half of it.)

"Nope. I haven't really been anywhere, though… This is my first real trip. Usually my parents just keep me inside." Toph sighed. "I know, how lame."

"No, it's not lame. I'm glad I could be the person that you got to spend your first trip with! Let's go get something to eat!" Aang grinned and started prancing toward near restaurants with Gyatso.

If Toph were any other girl, she would have blushed. She decided to follow Aang. Her first airplane ride had made her quite queasy, and she needed to walk it off.

"Oh my gosh!" Aang squealed and pointed at one of the buffet restaurants. "Look who it is!"

Toph giggled evilly. "I think fate has brought us here… for various reasons." Sure enough, a very familiar face was peering out of the window: the Boulder.

"Why do we keep seeing him?" Aang groaned. "He was kind of mean to us last time we saw him."

"Kind of?" Toph rolled her eyes. "Let's get something to eat."

"I agree." Gyatso, Toph and Aang walked into the nearest café they could find and sat down. As the three chomped on their food, a commotion brought their interest to the cash register.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MANGO SMOOTHIES?!?" The Boulder demanded.

"I-I'm not sure what to tell you, sir…" The cashier looked like he wanted to be anywhere else at that moment. "We don't carry smoothies here. Why don't you try the shop across the way?"

The Boulder looked furious. "Do you know who The Boulder is?"

The cashier shook his head reluctantly.

The Boulder scratched his head. "That makes sense." His voice then dropped and turned cold. "If you did, then you wouldn't be treating me this way."

The Boulder then seemed to see all of the attention he was receiving. "What are you looking at, punks?"

The audience of customers resumed their eating, trying not to draw any attention to themselves.

"He needs to seriously get some spa treatment or something." Toph commented. "It looks like he is constantly angry at something."

"And he keeps on showing up wherever we are!" Aang gestured vaguely at the man. "It's like he's following us or something."

Although the statement was in jest, Toph had a vague feeling that it was true. After all, she had run away from home. Her parents had near unlimited resources for finding her. If they had hired this 'boulder' character to locate her and Aang, then…

"Toph?" Aang waved his hand in front of her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think the sun is affecting me." Toph quickly lied.

"Is your sight still okay?" Aang scrutinized her face and Toph looked away quickly.

"Yeah, your face is pretty red. Maybe we need to get sunscreen." Toph mumbled something incoherent about the sun.

"Let's pay and get out of here." Gyatso commented. "That 'Boulder' guy has attracted a rather large crowd. I'm beginning to get a little claustrophobic…"

"I agree." Toph sighed. "Hey, I think I'm going to go look for a restroom really quickly. I'll be back soon!"

Before either Aang or Gyatso could respond, Toph was already a few yards away.

"Well then…"

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Toph clenched her heart as she entered the restroom, panting heavily. Was that man, the boulder, really sent by her parents? If so, then where could she go? Would her parents really go to such drastic measures to find her?

Toph was beginning to feel nauseous. She leaned up against the wall for support. Right now she needed to get out of there. The restroom was co-ed, and if the Boulder was really sent by her parents and had seen where she had run off to…

Squinting was usually enough to see when her vision got blurry with illness, but now when her vision was impaired it was impossible to see a thing, squinting or not. Her hand finally stumbled upon the handle of the exit door. Just as she was about to open it, the job was made easier when the door opened by someone entering. The presence was unwelcome, though.

Oh, god no…

"You're the Boulder…" Toph muttered faintly. By now her vision was gone, and it looked like the contents of her stomach were not much far behind.

"…and you're not going anywhere, Tophie." The cold voice that answered her was just what she had expected.

Toph felt hands, as freezing as his voice, grab her before she drifted willingly into unconsciousness.

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Zuko now held the maddening portal in one hand and a rather pointy looking rock in the other.

"Look, portal, if you don't let us talk to my mom, you don't want to even know what I'll do."

"Don't worry hot-head!" The portal steamed. Figuratively, of course. "I'm just here to finish the job I started. I have orders to obey what you say within reason. Just tell me what you want me to do for you."

"I just told you." Zuko rolled his eyes. "I need you to contact my mother. Her name is Ursa…"

"And she's related to you, right?" The portal asked sarcastically. "I'll do what I can."

In a whirl of pink smoke, the portal began to shake. Soon enough, the image of Zuko's mother began to fade onto the portal's clear face.

"Zuko!" She exclaimed, teary-eyed once again. "How are you contacting me?!"

"I have this portal…uh, never mind. It's not important. I have something to confess." Zuko looked distraught. "I know that when I was alive, I made it my goal for us to be as close as anyone. I never kept secrets from you then, and I'm not about to start now, especially when so much is at stake."

"Zuko, honey, I don't know what's going on, but no matter what I'll always love you," Ursa promised as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "No matter what."

"Okay. So not long after your death, I know that you suspected something was going on with Ozai, and it was. Not long after that… I died, as you may have figured out." Zuko breathed in deeply to calm himself. Katara placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Is there more?" Ursa breathed. She was taking this quite well.

"No," Zuko looked into the portal. "Well, I'm not sure if you figured it out, but… I went- I'm in Hell."

As Ursa's fears were confirmed she looked stricken with grief. "How..? Why?"

"I…" As soon as Zuko began to speak the portal began to close. "Oh, Hell no!"

"Zuko!" Ursa's eyes widened. "What's going on?"

"The portal's closing up!" He shouted. "Mom! I promise you that I'll get into Heaven! Just you wait! As soon as I get out of here I'll find you and clear this all up!"

"I'm proud of you, son!" She whispered and smiled. "I always have been."

Even as the portal bid its goodbye and poof-ed away, Zuko was still smiling.

"You did well," Katara smiled at him. "That looked pretty hard to do. I'm proud of you, too."

She planted a kiss on his pink cheek and stood up, blushing. "Um, anyway, I think we have to find another portal and adjust our list."

Zuko stood up also. "Uh, yeah. Let's get on that."

The two sort-of-friends walked away from the portal's last pink mist. Their feet clomped on as they conversed about whatever their plan was going to be, but neither was really paying attention to what was going on.

I hope he took that as a friendly gesture, Katara mused. Please don't tell me that he thinks I like him now…

Oh my God, Zuko ran his fingers through his hair. Does that mean she likes me now?

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Uh, yeah. Late update. I hope the Avatar fandom is still alive.

Review, please! Don't be too upset or I'll cry.