A/N: One more chapter and we'll leave the South Pole. Sorry for the delay but I had to map out a lot of things in the story

because of what's happening in this chapter. The next chapter should be in March as I already have the outline ready. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Katara had already started running before Aang registered what she had said.

"Wait!" Aang called out as he ran after her, but she didn't even bother giving a response. There was nothing that would stop her from heading toward the village. Not even the Avatar.

Five minutes into their run and the heavy gusts had returned, buffeting the two benders. While the winds greatly affected Aang, slowing him down significantly, Katara showed no signs of exhaustion from her breakneck speed. She's probably used to the winds here, he thought as he watched her outrun him by a hundred meters or so.

Why can't I run that fast? He could feel the exhaustion in his legs start to set in, the lactic acid building up. Aang recalled memories of young monks breezing through the wind without any effort. They covered a large swath of distance in a blink of an eye.

What were they doing that we're not? Salviati asked.

Bending? Simplicio suggested.

Oh wait, Aang realized. I'm being an idiot. He wasn't bending. Instead, he was instinctively running like a normal person would. Aang tried to draw out the same energy he had felt in the morning but couldn't seem to find it. Maybe I'm too exhausted to concentrate. He stopped and started to catch his breath. I'm too tense, he thought, ignoring the present situation for now. He closed his eyes and searched for the energy following whatever muscle memories his body had stored. There it is!

Sitting somewhere near the center of his gravity was a well of energy. He could feel the energy distribute itself evenly throughout his body, pulsating at the same tempo as his heart, Now I just need to push some of it downwards. And as simply as raising a finger, a small portion of his energy cut itself off from the rest and sunk to his legs.

Yes, this felt right. Aang readied himself into a running position and took off as soon as the portioned energy had finished distributing itself. At first, he felt no difference, he was just running as usual. But this time the pain that was already there was being alleviated. He could tell by the rush of the wind against him that he was indeed running faster and gaining speed. He saw Katara out at least five hundred meters ahead of him, running desperately as she could.

Now if this damn wind didn't keep getting in the way, I could probably run faster, he thought and in response some of the energy moved towards his arms. Aang didn't fight it, instead allowing his muscle memory to pilot his body. Whatever he was doing seemed to be ingrained into him as a child. Suddenly the buffeting of the wind lessened as his speed quickly doubled. His arms were pushing, no, bending, the air around him leaving little resistance in the front.

This is amazing! Aang thought as he lost himself in the experience of running. It was like swimming, he realized, in a sea of air. His arms and legs pushed the air around him while the energy inside of him provided the thrust. If Aang had turned around he would have been awed by the trail of snow his airbending was pushing off the ground. At his peak, he was pushing snow two meters into the air.

Wait! Was that Katara? Aang thought noticing a blue blur in the background. He tried to turn his neck around, but his body resisted, which was probably for the best. The last thing he needed was a broken neck in the middle of the Antarctic. He looked toward the horizon and saw the village was quickly coming up now. Aang slowed his descent as he cut off the energy supply to his arms and legs.

Once more, the wind had returned, its howls piercing through his ears and he could feel the resistance of the snow restricting his movements. Aang turned around to see Katara rapidly closing the distance between them, her determination unfazed by Aang's speed.

"That was incredible," Katara said after she had caught up with him but was too exhausted to give anymore commendations.

"Are you alright? Do you need water?"

"Not right now." She wiped her face of the sweat that had accumulated. She was tempted to take off her coat, but there was no time to cool down.

The two silently made their way towards the village, making sure to observe their surroundings for any possible firebender. An hour ago she could still hear the sounds of the village from where she was now. The women talking, the children playing, all sounds distinct and discernible. But now there was only silence. A creeping dread started to fill Katara, sending shivers down her spine. The firebenders just arrived. They didn't have enough time to hurt anybody yet, she thought, trying to encourage herself. But it was futile. Katara knew from experience how quickly a firebender's attacks could prove lethal. She pictured Kiko finding herself an orphan, or worse, a mother losing her child. Katara quickened her pace, not caring if she were caught. Aang simply followed suit, hoping beyond hope that his cynicism proved him wrong and that everyone was safe. It was then, just out of the corner of his eye, he noticed shadows moving.

"Stop right there!" a shout came. Three soldiers clad in black and red uniforms jumped out and surrounded the two. One soldier wore a skull mask and red armor while the other had his face revealed but bore a spear aimed at Katara. The third one, however, wore a black uniform with borders of red. "Surrender immediately," Lieutenant Jee, the third man, spoke.

"Is that him sir?" Wu Li asked. "Is that the Avatar?"

"Shut up and concentrate!" Jee ordered.

"Aang run away!" Katara said, getting into a fighting stance.

"I'm not leaving you," Aang replied assuming the same stance as Katara. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"No you don't understand. You have to ru-" Katara was interrupted by a flame that nearly hit her.

"Surrender now," Jee said after he sent his warning shot, "Or you can surrender after we burn you."

Before Aang could respond, Katara ducked under the arm of the masked firebender and froze his legs. "Aang run right now!" She pushed her victim forward causing him to fall onto his knees.

"What! A waterbender?" the firebender said in shock as Katara quickly froze the masked man's hands so he couldn't move. However, that five second delay allowed Jee to get the upper hand on her as he threw another set of flames, which Katara again ducked from.

Bollocks! Got to help her, he thought. He looked at the spearman in front of him and quickly pushed the energy in his body towards his legs.

"Stay where you are," Wu Li, the spearman shouted, but Aang had already jumped twenty feet above him. "What the…" he said as he saw the boy soar.

You do realize we have no plan Salviati said. They have flamethrowers in their hands and all we can do is jump.

Yes, but we can jump really well and gravity here is our friend, Simplicio replied and Aang extended his leg towards Wu Li's head as he started to make his descent. He saw Aang's leg and immediately knew what he was going to do, but it was too late. The airbender moved too quickly and struck the spearman directly in the chest knocking him to the ground. Before Aang could turn around to help Katara he heard a scream and shout.

"Enough!" Jee said as he held a knife to Katara's throat. "If you don't give up, I'll slit her throat faster than you can imagine."

Aang immediately froze upon hearing the threat. Behind him the masked man got up after melting the ice around his hands and feet. Even Wu Li was already recovering from Aang's strike. "Stop," Aang said as he slowly moved his hands to his sides. "I'll surrender if you don't hurt her."

"No! Aang, don't worry about me, you have to run!" Katara said. There was definite fear in her eyes, but also growing anger and defiance. She tried squirming out of his hand but found his grip to be too tight.

"It's alright," Aang smiled. "We'll get through this."

"But—"

"Shut up girl or I'll carry out my promise," Jee said as he tightened his grip. "Daichi, tie him up quickly. Wu Li, if he so much as even moves, I want you to spear his legs. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir!" Wu Li said as he got in position.

Five minutes later and both Aang and Katara had their hands tied. Jee was in front while Daichi, the masked firebender, in the middle, and Wu Li in the back.

"Be on your guard men," Jee said. "We can't afford the Avatar escaping."

"Where is the Avatar?" Zuko shouted at the villagers. "Where are you hiding him?" Half an hour of searching had proven fruitless. As soon as the ironclad cruiser arrived, Zuko and his soldiers stormed the village and gathered its residents together. They searched the tents, igloos, and even the immediate areas surrounding the village, but there was no sign of the old man.

"Where is he?" he yelled as four skull-masked firebenders stood beside the prince. But out of fear, anger, or ignorance no one responded. Zuko swiftly moved his hand above the crowd spitting flames as far as he could. The children screamed while the women quickly dodged.

"There were two other villages south of here. We visited each one and burned through them looking for the Avatar. Their tents, their clothes, their food, we burned through them all," he said, putting as much malice as possible into each of his words. "Now I know the Avatar is here. There's no other place for him to go in this barren desert you call home. Give him up now and we'll leave immediately. Any resistance," Zuko grew a small but intimidating fireball in his hands, "and we'll burn right through it."

Zuko waited for the villagers to start confessing, even if they were lying. At least that way he'd be able to interrogate the confessor and find out more about the village. Any information now was good information. But no one spoke. He studied each person and saw the usual fear and resentment, but no sign of surrender. There was one woman in particular, perhaps the elder of the village, who showed no signs of fear.

"I don't have time for your games," Zuko yelled, grabbing Gran Gran by the wrist and pulling her towards him.

"No!' Sokka yelled as he began to charge the prince but was immediately bounced back by the soldiers.

"Sokka stay where you are! Don't do anything rash. All of you, please stay calm, we will get through this," Gran Gran said in a stern but motherly tone that the villagers often found comforting.

Zuko knew he had made the right choice. If he could show that even she could be afraid, then the resistance among the villagers might crumble. He concentrated the fire in his hand into a small jet-like blade two inches long. "If I don't see the Avatar before me, I will personally burn everything and everyone in the village," he said, bringing the blade closer to his hostage's neck. "Starting with her." He had expected her to flinch, even struggle a little bit, but she remained eerily still as if she had no care in the world.

With each passing second, the tension increased, growing rapidly between the three groups. Zuko was intent on glaring at the women and children, the firebenders assumed their statuesque position, not moving until their prince gave an order, and the villagers did their best to look down and not attract attention. Just as the tension was about to reach its climax, everyone heard footsteps in the distance. There wasn't just one pair of footsteps, but multiple, each pair crunching the snow and disturbing the uneasy silence that was there before.

"Who's there? Zuko shouted. The sound seemed to be coming from behind the wall that surrounded the village.

"Sir," Lieutenant Jee said. Accompanying were two soldiers, a young boy, and a girl. "We think we found him! We found the Avatar."

Damn it! How did they get captured? Gran Gran sighed.

"Katara?" Sokka said looking at his captured sister. "Let go of my sister, you bastards!"

"Sokka!" Katara cried trying to wriggle free from her captor's hands, but to no avail.

"What?" Zuko asked, too excited to bother with the outbursts between the siblings. He released his hold on Gran Gran as one of the firebenders took hold of her arm. "Where is he?" He looked at the group and saw only one other captor, a small boy.

"This boy here was airbending," Jee said, pointing to Aang. "We watched him clear half a kilometer in less than twenty seconds"

"Him?" Zuko said, hiding his awe under the veil of indifference. Looking at him from head to toe, he was indeed almost an exact model of the airbenders his uncle had paintings from. He even had the blue arrow tattoos on his arms and head. "He's an airbender alright, but doesn't he seem a little too young Jee?"

"Sir, isn't the Avatar an airbender?" Jee asked.

"Does he look a hundred to you?"

"No, but—"

"Then how could he be the Avatar?" Zuko interrupted, before turning to Aang. "Are you the Avatar?"

"No. I'm not the Avatar," Aang quickly replied. In his experience, it was better not to antagonize bullies, especially if they were teenagers. A quick response, a display of obedience, should be enough to keep the bully at bay. What insane military structure puts a teenager in charge?

"But you are an airbender?" Zuko asked, brushing aside Aang's response. If he had said either yes or no, it would have been met with the same amount of skepticism.

"Yes."

If he were an airbender, Zuko figured, then there was a significant chance he was the Avatar. Does the Avatar have eternal youth? Zuko thought. But he quickly dismissed the notion. If they had eternal youth, then they wouldn't ever get older. At the very least he could interrogate the boy to find other airbenders, who could lead him to the Avatar. "Bring him along, we'll sort this out later. What's with the girl?"

"She's a waterbender," Jee said.

"A waterbender? I thought there weren't any waterbenders left in the tribe."

"That's because you took them all," Katara said in all the anger and disgust she could muster.

"Bring her along as well," Zuko said, ignoring her altogether.

The group of soldiers, Gran Gran, Zuko, Aang, and Katara were about to head for the stage stairs when they heard a shout from up above.

"What's with all the commotion?" Uncle Iroh yawned from the top of the stage stairs. He had tried to keep up with his nephew's enthusiasm yesterday but found himself tired out after twenty hours. And just as he had fallen asleep, he could hear Zuko's yelling, and more disturbingly, the screams of the villagers.

It hasn't even been an hour and my nephew has already got himself hostages, Iroh sighed. The boy still had a long way to go when it came to diplomacy. He walked down the staircase inspecting each of the hostages until he noticed a familiar face.

"You?" Iroh exclaimed, his face paling when he saw her.

"What are you doing here?" Gran Gran asked, raising an eyebrow. And that's my cue…

"You two know each other?" Zuko asked.

"Zuko get away from her now!"

"What?"

"Bonsai tree!"

What? Zuko thought before he translated the code word for extreme danger. He jumped back, but it was too late as Gran Gran twisted around and a palm flashed forward to hit him square in the chest. A burst of energy erupted from the impact as Zuko flew back five feet into a pile of snow.

Gran Gran immediately ducked as flames erupted overhead as the other firebenders got ready to attack. She swept her leg under Wu Li who immediately fell to the ground and took his spear before the others could react. Five seconds into the battle Gran Gran had armed herself with a spear and with one foot, pinned Wu Li to the ground.

"Anyone else care to try?" Gran Gran taunted as the other firebenders started to approach her.

"Enough!" Iroh yelled leaping down the stairs and into the middle of the fight between the firebenders and Gran Gran. "No more fighting, all of you!"

"But General Iroh—" Jee said.

"Did I stutter?" Iroh said in a rare fury that no one had ever seen him in. "Help Zuko get to safety. The rest of you are to stay here and guard the boy and girl. If I hear any of you even so much as look at the villagers in the wrong way, I'll throw you overboard myself. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" the soldiers yelled at once

"Are you willing to talk?" Iroh asked Gran Gran who simply nodded.

"We can talk over there," Gran Gran said pointing to a spot behind the ice wall. "But not before he releases my granddaughter."

Iroh turned around to see Katara being held by one of the soldiers. "You heard her. Release the girl."

"Understood," a soldier said before releasing Katara from her binds.

"You are all to remain here until I come back," Iroh said. He then turned towards Gran Gran. "Let's go." The two immediately began to walk towards the wall.

"What just happened?" Katara asked, to which no one had a response.

"White or red?" Gran Gran asked as soon as they were out of view behind the ice wall.

"What?" Iroh asked.

Gran Gran parted her coat to reveal a small wooden and metallic object aimed at Iroh. "Are you with the White Lotus or Red?"

"Is that…" Iroh said, his face paling even more than before as soon as he recognized the weapon, "Is that a gun? They gave you a gun?"

"Yes, so good of you to notice," Gran Gran commented. "If you want, I can demonstrate its use. Now answer the damn question."

"Kanna, it's me," Iroh pleaded.

"The Iroh I knew would've never attacked an innocent village much less three. So I'll ask again: Are you still with the White Lotus or did you finally join your brother?"

"Look," Iroh took out his Pai Sho piece and threw it toward Kanna. "Does that answer your question?"

Kanna studied the markings on the somewhat newly minted coin. There were some signs of weathering, but it was indeed authentic as it matched her older coin exactly. "They finally made you Master First Class?" she asked skeptically.

"Two years ago. Apparently, promotion is only through seniority," Iroh laughed but Kanna betrayed no hint of emotion.

"You could have stolen the coin," she said throwing the token back at him. "What's the passphrase for this week?"

"Wait, you get a copy of the paper?"

"What's the passphrase?" Kanna said raising her gun.

Seems she still takes things over the top. "Red skies at night," Iroh said as he remembered how he spent an hour decrypting the code from the most recent edition of Rising Dawn. With the advent of the telegraph and backing of the state, in five years since its first publication, Rising Dawn outpaced its competitors to become the Fire Nation's most popular newspaper. Everyday hundreds of thousands of copies of the newspaper were printed out and distributed throughout the various cities in the nation. For the first time, people would receive information within minutes or hours instead of days or even weeks.

It had become so popular in fact that messenger birds would deliver copies to distribution centers in the colonies and even personally to the South Pole Fire Nation post. This mass form of communication, of course, wouldn't go unnoticed and as such every week the White Lotus would place adverts in the newspaper with encrypted instructions and passphrases.

Kanna took a minute to inspect the general before putting her percussion cap pistol away. "My messenger bird fetches a copy from Lotus South every week."

"But I thought you retired?"

"Of course I did," Kanna said. "Doesn't mean I can't keep up with the news. But enough about me. Do you want to explain why your ship's literally in the middle of my village?"

"That would be my overzealous nephew," Iroh sighed. "I'm willing to pay for the damages."

"What am I supposed to do with your money? You're lucky our tents weren't ruined," Kanna retorted before the former statement registered. "Wait, that's Ozai's son?"

"Yes," Iroh gave a small smile. "He's a little rough around the edges, but he means well."

"He means well? He held me hostage, terrorized the villagers, and threatened to burn everything! You're lucky I only stopped the chi flow in the boy."

"Yes, and I thank you for your restraint," Iroh said. "But if it's any consolation he wasn't going to burn anything down. He might have done a thorough investigation, but he wouldn't have harmed anyone."

"I thought I taught you to never make empty threats," Kanna furrowed her brows. "The enemy might take them seriously."

"So you did. It seems I haven't taught him that lesson yet."

"I suppose then the other two villages you visited are fine?"

"You suppose correctly," Iroh said. "I have a question of my own: are you insane?"

"What?" Kanna asked.

"You heard me," Iroh said. "Are you insane? You're supposed to use the pistol as a last resort. If you had revealed it to my troops… I can't even begin to imagine the consequences."

"Pretty sure a Fire Nation cruiser splitting my village in half is a good time for a last resort."

"Perhaps," Iroh said, "But you can only fire one bullet before you have to reload and we both know you would have been fine without one."

"I would have been until I saw you," Kanna smirked.

At that Iroh looked at her in surprise. Never before had she admitted she needed any kind of assistance or advantage. She had always worn an armor of invulnerability, never letting any weakness show. It seems time indeed does change everything Iroh though. "I don't know if I should be insulted or flattered," Iroh laughed.

"Why not both?" Kanna said revealing a small smile.

Iroh too smiled as he realized his friend and mentor still had her snark. "Is he truly the Avatar?"

"You have to ask? You saw the markings on him."

"But then how is he so young? Of all the powers the Avatar ever had, I've never heard of eternal youth being one of them."

"Are you sure? Kyoshi lived for two hundred years after all."

"Yes, but she still aged, albeit very gracefully," Iroh commented as he summoned a little fireball in his hand. "I hope you'll forgive me, but it really is frigid. I have no idea how you can put up with the cold," Iroh laughed.

"Like everything, you get used to it over time," Kanna shrugged. "If what my granddaughter said is correct, then he put himself in suspended animation."

"Suspended animation?"

"My grandchildren found him stuck in an iceberg in the Avatar state. When they released him—"

"So that's what that light was!" Iroh said before the next line of thought entered to the forefront of his mind. "He was in there for a hundred years?"

"And to think," Kanna said, taking her turn to laugh, "your family scoured the world for him for so long."

"Seems like a fit punishment for our hubris," Iroh said not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "What's his name?"

"Aang," Kanna said as she tried to remember events earlier in the morning, which now seemed an eternity ago. "He's strange but polite. Apparently, he doesn't know he's the Avatar yet."

"Makes sense," Iroh nodded, "Usually Avatars are told who they are at sixteen. And I'd be worried if he weren't strange."

"Don't underestimate him," she warned. "He might seem shy but he often probes for information, even when he isn't asking questions."

"Interesting," Iroh said as he increased the size of the flame. The temperature was dropping rapidly as the sun had started to make its descent. "What do we do now?"

"Keep him here until the White Lotus can come for him. That was the original plan at least until you barged in."

"I can escort him to central."

"Escort him? As your prisoner?"

"No, as my guest," Iroh countered.

"And you think he'd want to be your guest after all your nephew has done?" Kanna looked at him incredulously. "You'd be lucky if you escaped with your life."

"What else can we do? If we keep him here and news escapes, Ozai will send a fleet."

"Then the news won't escape," Kanna grimaced as she started to plan how to keep the return of the Avatar a secret.

"Damn," Iroh said as a thought popped into his head. "It might already be too late."

"What are you talking about?"

"As you said, he was in the Avatar state when he was released from the ice. And whenever the Avatar is in that state, the temples of each nation—"

"Harmonize with him," Kanna said completing the sentence in horror. How she forgot that fact Kanna would never understand.

Eighty years ago the Fire Nation had invaded the Southern Water Tribe and captured all their waterbenders. If the Fire Nation were to invade again it would be a slaughter. "You're right. We have to assume everyone already knows. You need to get him to headquarters as fast as possible. Maybe spread some news that he isn't in the Southern Water Tribe anymore."

"Wow," Iroh grinned.

"What?"

"It's nice you finally admit I'm right about something."

Kanna scowled. "It's time you leave, Iroh. As much as I'd love to catch up, we can't afford the reds capturing Aang."

"Agreed. It's a two day trip from here to the next safe point, but if we hurry, we can make it there in one."

"One more thing, Iroh," Kanna said as they headed back to the villagers and soldiers. "If I find out you lied to me, I will come for you."

Iroh didn't say anything as he was already used to his friend's ruthlessness and paranoia. If anything, that's how she survived for so long.