Katara poked through her bowl for something worth putting in her mouth. She eventually put the bowl down in front of her, dropping her hands into her lap as she sat cross-legged in a circle with everyone else. She looked to her right, where Akio had Lane's head in his lap as she curled up to him, then to her left, where Jet and Ursa were in a heated disagreement as to why there was a separation between two classes in Ba Sing Se. Surprisingly, neither of the scenes managed to make her smile. The night had fallen over the campsite, and the moon hung high in the sky, half of it hidden from the world.

She picked up the bowl yet again, poking through it for something worth tasting. Again, she realized there was no point. She looked across the campfire in the middle of the circle, seeing the blue mask that had offered her solace earlier that morning. He was watching her with just as much fascination as Katara had for the bowl of rice in her hands, which strangely was quite a bit.

She noticed he wasn't eating his food either. It sat in a wooden bowl in front of him, completely untouched.

"Hey, are you going to eat that?" Jet elbowed him suddenly. He simply turned his head and glared at him through the mask, and Jet immediately backed off and turned back to Ursa.

Katara looked down, and then took a breath, before standing up and throwing the bowl down in defeat. The rice scattered across the dirt floor as Jet shouted after her.

"Hey, I could have eaten that!"

She turned her head to give him a last glare, before walking away with a look of emptiness on her face. Akio and Ursa both looked to Zuko and raised an eyebrow each. He glanced between them with a shrug. "What?" he asked.

"Are you going to talk to her?" Akio asked, before shoveling a spoonful of rice into his mouth.

"No. Why?"

"Why not?" Ursa answered, putting her bowl down.

"I don't know her. You go." Zuko looked to Akio. He was making it up, yes, and he had other reasons not to go too, most of them involving that she had threatened to kill him that morning, but this way it was just simpler.

"Hey, I don't know her either." Akio shrugged, poking through his bowl.

"I'll go." Jet immediately sat up straight, moving to get up. "Me and Katara go way back."

At this, Zuko shot up to his feet in a quick movement. "On second thought." He glared down at Jet, not even having to finish. He walked around Lane and Akio, following Katara. He found her standing at the edge of the water, using her bending in a furious fashion. She whipped at invisible opponents in the water with thick slashes of her element, extending from her arm's motions. "Hey." Was all he said.

Katara turned and looked at him, before facing the water again with another snap of the waterwhip. "Hey." She answered emotionlessly. It reminded him of Mai.

"Can I ask you something?" he leant against a large boulder.

"Knock yourself out." She dropped the whip, drawing up an orb of water. She swirled it into a stream and lunged it forwards, freezing it into ice shards.

"You're a waterbender. So you're a good swimmer."

"I'm from the south pole. How much time do you think I spent swimming there, genius?" Katara answered, her back to him.

"Okay, you can use your bending to keep yourself from drowning. And yet you came up and you were coughing up water."

"Your point being?" she frowned angrily, looking at him finally.

He paused. "Did you give up or something?" he crossed his arms. "Because that's the only logical solution I can think of, short of creepy mythical squids or octopi."

"I had a panic attack." Katara turned back to the water and pulling a thin sliver out, she snapped the head of it in liquid form, its end becoming hard ice beads that splashed into the lake.

Zuko was silent. Katara continued talking.

"I've never seen that much blood before." She dropped her water, her hands falling to her sides. "It just … I panicked, and … I froze up." She simplified.

"Hm." Zuko approached her slowly. "Are you okay?" as soon as the words were out, he cursed them. Of course she wasn't.

"No." she snapped, turning fully to face him. "My mission here was to keep the Earth King from getting killed and bring down the Dai Lee. I failed that mission. And Zuko took off."

"I don't think he wanted to take off."

"The point remains, he took off, I'm with a bunch of strangers and an idiot, the mission is failed, the Dai Lee are probably still intact, and here I am feeling sorry for myself," she lifted her hands to her face and rubbed her temples slowly. "It's pathetic, and nothing is okay." She looked up and glared at him. "Not now."

For a second, he wished he wasn't under a mask; just so he could hug her and tell her everything was going to be fine, but he'd sucked himself into something stupid now. 'Idiot' he told himself.

"I know you're trying to help, but really, what I need right now … is to beat the living hell out of something." She clenched her fists at her sides. "Like hogmonkey over there." She glanced past him to the campsite, referring to Jet.

Now, Zuko wasn't one to pry or anything, but this was something he wanted to know. "So what, is he an ex-boyfriend or something?"

"Something like that." She grumbled. "This is so pathetic." She lashed out at the water near her, and it sank inwards as if she'd hit it with an invisible sword. She looked back to him. His arms were crossed and he looked at her with no emotion apparent through his mask. "What about you then? Are you just some rogue patriot or have you got an ulterior motive for breaking me out of there?"

"I have a thing for damsels in distress." Zuko smirked inside his mask.

"Great." Katara grumbled. "Where you from?" she added curiously.

Zuko was ready for this. "Don't do that. You think you can figure out who I am by asking me loads of questions you're sure I didn't see coming." He crossed his arms carefully.

Katara scoffed a laugh. "You're good." She noted, looking up to the sky. "I'm going to bed." She examined the stars. "We've got to cross this pass tomorrow with as little camp-stops as possible. The best places to camp are the highest ones." She thought aloud, walking past him, toward the campsite. "Night, Blue." She added.

"Night." Zuko replied, his gaze tilting up to the sky. The stars were visible; that meant it would be sunny tomorrow. Maybe this Blue Spirit stuff was getting too risky. It would probably be best for him to find a way for them to not see that Blue and Zuko were one and the same. Damn; he couldn't think about all this now. He'd sleep and think about it tomorrow.

The next morning, the sun shone down harshly from the highest point in the sky as they woke up. Katara cursed that she'd missed so much sunshine with her sleeping, but all the same, packed the camp onto the ostrich-horses and gathered her crew to mount up. They got about an hour up the pass, perhaps two miles into it, before Katara tried to make conversation, as the voices and thoughts in her own head were going stir-crazy.

"So, Lane; how far along are you?" she asked conversationally to the girl on the ostrich horse behind hers.

"I'm overdue by a week." Lane answered thoughtfully. "It probably isn't smart for me to be traveling with you; I'm going to slow you down."

Katara tilted her head one way, then the other as if thinking about this. "No, I've delivered plenty of babies. It would be better with the right herbs, though. As long as we get across the pass before you go into labor, we should be fine." She kicked her heels into her ostrich horse to keep it going. Ursa seemed to be dozing off behind her.

"Why have you delivered babies?" Lane scoffed a laugh, as if at the irony and state of the world.

"I'm from the South Pole. I was the only waterbender there, so … It just became my job. And one I delivered on this pass, ironically. We were traveling to Ba Sing Se during the war, we had tickets, but there was this family who'd had their stolen. So Aang, that's the avatar, he decided we'd escort them across to Ba Sing Se."

"Well, then, I have no intention of repeating history." Lane gripped onto the horn of the saddle.

They fell back into silence, shuffling along the path at a snail's pace by nightfall, as the cold settled on the desert pass. The animals were hungry and tired, and their riders were falling asleep at the rein. When they stopped to camp, Katara didn't think she'd walk straight ever again with how sore her behind was. It was the same story with everyone else. Zuko discreetly began the fire, and they all took their places around it, Katara beginning to cook them some plain rice to eat. It was the last of the food.

"So, Ursa; if you could make one new law in the Fire Nation, or get rid of one old one, what would you do?" Jet asked curiously, warming his hands by the fire.

"I would call against the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell of the Fire Nation Militia."

The Blue Spirit choked and looked up at Ursa. "You're pro-homosexual?" he shook his head incredulously.

"I'm pro-human. It's exactly the same as the discrimination some Fire Nationals still hold against the other nations. It was Ozai who instilled such a rule, and we've all come to the decision he made some terrible decisions, no?" Ursa held her hands apart as if making a statement to the public. She held a very good point.

"True, I guess. It would encourage the growing number of homosexuals to join the army. I suppose the military rules could change, now that were not in wartime." Zuko thought about it. "And they need as many soldiers as possible on the anti-nationalism patrol."

Akio leant forward to ask a question. "You seem to know your politics well; what's the difference between patriotism and nationalism?" he scratched his head in thought.

"It's a thin and blurring line." The Blue Spirit explained. "Patriotism is supporting your country and its traditions, Nationalism is the skewed belief that your country is superior to all others. It's the reason that the Fire Nation began the war."

"Right." Akio nodded in thought. "And what's the terrorism like in the Fire Nation?"

Zuko made a face beneath his mask that the others couldn't see. "Uh … well, worse now with the global change in government. Sozinians they call themselves, the terrorists." He explained. "Why?"

Akio seemed to be thinking. "What's the real-estate like there?"

Lane exhaled in exasperation. "I'm not going to live in the Fire Nation, Akio; she just said there's segregation and discrimination there still going on. I'm not having my baby growing up like that."

Ursa smiled apologetically. "I hope one day members of all nations will be able to live wherever they please, without racism and partide."

"Me too." Katara spoke up, serving rice into wooden bowls. "I still get funny looks in the Fire Nation capitol. Some people are even afraid to make eye-contact with me."

"That happens; they are afraid that you will believe they are just staring at your ethnicity." Ursa explained. "They're trying not to be racist, as it were."

"Yeah." Katara answered. "They'll talk to me until they see my eyes. There are dark people there, even with brown hair. They get all jittery when they see my eyes."

"Maybe that's just because they're pretty." The Blue Spirit couldn't help himself but to say. "Plenty of people get jittery around pretty girls. Even me."

Katara smiled softly. "You say that like it's below you, Blue. What are you, only half-human or something?"

"There you go again, trying to figure out my identity."

Katara laughed and handed out the bowls of rice. "I'll get you."

"You'll try."

The next morning, everyone was up at what, if they had such a candle, would have called ten-o-candle. All except for Lane, who hadn't left her tent, even after everything else was packed up onto the ostrich-horses. Katara looked to Akio, who shrugged unknowingly, then glanced from one to the other of the rest of the crew. "I'll check on her." She approached the tent and peeked in.

Shit.

Lane was sweating, clutching the sheets in both hands and twisting so hard they would stretch. Katara pulled a face and climbed into the tent. "When did it start?"

"Daybreak." Lane grunted out through gritted teeth.

Katara pushed open one of the tent flaps. "I need sheets, towels, a knife and a bucket of heated water!" she yelled to the others. Herbs would've been nice, but she knew something was wrong, and she'd have to act fast. The others scattered and grabbed for everything she'd asked for, the Blue Spirit grabbing a bucket and beginning the descent down the rocky side-path toward the water below.

A/N: IT. HAS. BEEN. FOREVER. I am so sorry; it's been ages! I haven't really known where I wanted to go from where I left it. It's been at least three months, probably more. No humor this time; just dark-twistiness. I like Katara calling Zuko 'Blue'. It's kinda cool. Just a random thing I have to say; my laptop has NO sound at all. The soundcard or something is disconnected, I think. It hasn't had sound for at least two years, still hasn't been repaired 'cuz Macs are expensive to repair. I may have to give up my laptop soon to send it for repair, which will mean a hiatus in my writing. Won't be long though; possibly a week at the most.

Anyway, I don't know how far I can take this, it started as my first fic, and I've evolved since then. While it's arguably my best-known, It's not as good as some of the other stuff I do, by my own opinion. I'm seriously considering putting it up for adoption, or writing a quick, cut-off end-chapter or something. The storyline has become too messy and loose-ended for my liking, and I agree that what I've done with Zuko is really stupid. It's a lot to think about. So I'll think about it tomorrow.

Okay, well, here's a quote for you!

Iroh: The crew wanted me to wish you safe travels.

Zuko: Good riddance to those traitors.

Iroh: It's a lovely night for a walk. Why don't you join me? It would clear your head. (Iroh's smiles falls away as Zuko refuses to respond.) Or, just stay in your room and sit in the dark. Whatever makes you happy.