It's been a couple of hours since the last class that Yagoda had to teach had left, leaving her to tidy up the small healing hut she's been teaching in for the past few decades. The elderly woman has a similar wrinkled expression to Pakku and silver gray hair framing her face in wavy bangs. It doesn't take long to actually clean, the floor is mostly covered in pelts and those don't exactly need to be shaken down, just need the water pulled from the furs so that they remain dry. There isn't exactly dirt to be trekked in when there isn't any dirt beneath their feet. The pelts are changed out every few weeks to avoid them rotting and today she's placing down new pelts to keep the icy hut warm. As she's dragging the medical practice dummy back to its spot a figure darkens the door, as she looks up from pulling the dummy to see Prince Zuko in her doorway. "Avatar Zuko?" She questions seeing him step inside the healing hall. "Did you get lost? This is the healing hall, you're not hurt are you?"

"No. I'm fine, and I'm not lost." Zuko begins, "I wanted to talk to you actually, there was an incident earlier and... I learned I can use waterbending to heal." Yagoda's eyes widened slightly hearing this statement from Zuko. "I... accidentally scalded Princess Yue while trying to waterbend but when I went to help her with the burns... I healed her."

"So you came to me to learn how to heal then? Why not stick with Master Pakku and work on learning Waterbending more?" Yagoda asks, causing Zuko to tilt his head to the side allowing the older woman to get a better look at his scar. "Ah, how recent is the wound?"

"Three years old, my father burned my face in an Agni Kai, it's a fire duel. It's the mark of the banished, the burn took my sight and my hearing on that side." Zuko explains, running his fingers along the edge of the scar.

"I've worked with old wounds before, and I can tell you it'll take a while for it to heal completely but we should be able to heal it. Though it will probably take a very long time to do." Yagoda says, "Do me a favor and drag the dummy back to the table, I should have asked one of my students to help move it but I didn't and my back is killing me." She complains and Zuko does as his new teacher asks.

Setting the wooden training dummy on the icy table above a pool of water, Zuko watches as Yagoda slowly makes her way to the large pelt closest to the wooden dummy. The mannequin has lines throughout its entire body centered around the chest and abdomen with lines leading throughout. "Healing through waterbending relies on flowing the chi of the one being healed to the area that is damaged. The chi focused so densely in the area allows the body to heal itself quicker than it would normally. The younger the wound, the easier it is for the body to heal it to the state it was before the injury took place. You can even use your own chi to heal instead of their own and you can use it to heal yourself." Yagoda explains as she draws the water upwards into the air with a subtle movement of her arm before steaming it towards the mannequin, the water coats her hand and flows into the crevices in the dummy before beginning to glow a bright blue color.

Far to the south.

Iroh sighs to himself as he and Lieutenant Jee walk towards the staging tent that Iroh is very familiar with. A field command tent, usually on the battlefield, is meant as a command post for the higher rank members of the firenation army to command their troops from the front lines. Admiral Zhao had requested General Iroh to attend this meeting, and around them the ships of other generals and admirals are present in the northernmost base in firenation territory. From the reports Iroh has gotten from the members of the white lotus, Avatar Zuko and his company had left the northern air temple nearly a week ago and have certainly made it to the north pole by now. "Zhao is likely going to ask me to assist in his invasion of the north pole. This will probably be my only chance to catch up with him, the boy still has much to learn." Iroh thinks to himself as Lieutenant Jee pulls aside the tent flap into the mock war room Zhao has set up. The mutton chop sporting man himself is standing at the far side of the tent studying a map he has posted on the wall that shows the travel lines of Zuko and his group. As Iroh steps inside the tent, each of the other officers stand and bow to pay their respect to the former crown prince turned General.

"Ah, General Iroh, I'm glad you've decided to join us. I was hoping to enlist your expertise for this siege." Zhao says with a smirk on his face, "This is a recovery mission really, I had been ordered by the firelord to capture Avatar Zuko and bring him home." Iroh can immediately tell that this is a lie.

"Hopefully my brother is forgiving with Zuko, he should understand that those he had traveled with were the ones driving his actions these past few months." Iroh lies in return, needing to keep the ruse up that he doesn't intend on betraying the firenation for his son.

"All in due time General, please have a seat, there's refreshments if needed and we can get to work." Iroh takes a seat at the head of the table and almost the moment he sits down Lieutenant Jee offers him a small cup of tea. "Now, our scouts report that Avatar Zuko is heading north. After the most recent attack of his at the northern air temple, we can assume that he has mastered two elements. The avatar is in search of a teacher, he is learning waterbending."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!" Colonel Shainu declares rather impatiently.

"A situation like this requires patience, the northern watertribe has stayed out of this war for the last century. Their civilization is an icy fortress built into the permafrost, their culture raises every man as a warrior, and we will be fighting them in their own element where the very ground we walk on can be used against us. This will require a massive invasion force, larger than anything this war has seen until now."

"How many war ships and troops do you think will be required for this invasion? We also have to contend with the avatar himself. By the time it takes us to get there at our current time line he will have been training with the waterbending masters for nearly a month. Not to mention we have to focus on the phases of the moon since their bending will be stronger the closer the moon gets to full." Commander Chan questions, his mutton chops not nearly as pronounced as Zhao's but he does sport a bushy mustache.

"It is our plan to invade as soon as possible, and while ideally we'd wait for a new moon we don't have that time. The longer we wait the sooner it comes that the avatar learns and begins to master his third element. After that, he'd nearly be unstoppable. Only Firelord Ozai himself could contend with him at that point." Admiral Zhao responds, "As for manpower, we'd need an armada of at least a hundred ships and one hundred thousand men."

"It will take time to gather that many war ships and volunteers for the invasion but it will result in the water tribe being under our control and the only nation left to conquer being the earth kingdom." General Iroh says, continuing to play the part.

"Yes, we will succeed where you failed General Iroh. We will make history. To the glory of the firenation." Zhao states as he raises his cup upwards. The other commanders around the room copy the same action, holding their drinks up and echoing Zhao's words.

"To the firenation!"

The North Pole.

The lesson with Yagoda has given Zuko hope, something he hasn't had in a very long time. Since the wound is on such a delicate spot on Zuko's face, Yagoda has him apply the healing to his own eye. Zuko draws the water from the basin in the center of the room covering his right hand in the liquid. As he raises it to his left eye and ear the water begins to glow, as he touches the water to his skin the sensation he feels is warm and comforting. The feeling is something he has been longing for, for almost 7 years now, the sensation reminds him of his mother's embrace. He breathes a sigh of relief feeling the healing effects on his skin, while the pain had been gone for a long time this act of placing the healing water on his skin made it feel normal. After a few moments, the glow in the water fades and he allows it to drip back into the water basin he gathered it from. Keeping his eye closed for a moment, he gently rubs the still scarred skin soaking up the water before opening the eye to see... nothing. Yagoda sees his reaction to the lack of sight in that eye and sighs.

"It didn't work..." Zuko mumbles to himself, "Not even healing from waterbending can fix it, I still can't see out of that eye."

"I was afraid that this might happen, I mentioned that it would take many healing sessions to repair the damage since it happened a long time ago. Though there may be something that can heal it much faster than the normal means." Yagoda says causing Zuko to turn and look at her. "It is the most sacred place in the north pole, and the waters there have been able to even heal mortal wounds. I'll bring you to the Spirit Oasis, where you should be able to heal your wounds."

After the whole fight earlier between himself, Zuko and Hahn, Sokka now has a bit of a predicament. He has to carve an engagement necklace for Yue before asking her to marry him. This is already a hard enough task itself but, Sokka has never learned how to carve the ice to make the engagement necklace. His father left the southern watertribe when he was just 13 years old, far too young to have even gone ice dodging, much less learning to carve the engagement necklace. The ice that it's made from is sourced directly from the permafrost, something about the ice there keeps it from melting no matter what environment it's in. Katara's has been exposed to temperatures over a hundred degrees fahrenheit when they were on Crescent Island and even hotter when dealing with the volcano a couple weeks ago. Though an idea comes to mind, he could ask Katara to use the design on their mother's necklace, and while Katara wears it to remain close to Kya he is as much her son as she is her daughter.

Sokka resolves himself to go and ask his sister for the necklace, at least for a few days so that he can practice carving the engravement enough to be able to replicate it. After double checking with Yue about her injury from Zuko and to confirm that she actually wants to be with him, he sets out to find his sister. That task isn't hard to do, since Katara has made it a point to be a part of every class that Master Pakku has been teaching. So, after stuffing his face at one of the local restaurants, he makes his way back to Pakku's training field to go and speak with his sister. It also would help to ask Yue what she thought of the design, spirits forbid she doesn't like it it would mean he has to come up with a completely different design and that isn't something he's the best at. Luckily for him, Katara and Yue are both present at the last class of the day for Pakku.

"Hey Katara?" Sokka asks as his sister finishes the last technique Pakku has been teaching his advanced class. "Can I talk to you for a sec? And Yue I want your thoughts on this as well."

"What do you want my thoughts on?" Yue asks, her tone bright and uplifting as she walks over to Sokka's side.

"What'cha need Sokka?" Katara asks.

"I wanted to ask if I could have our mother's necklace for a few days." Katara looks slightly surprised at this question from her brother. "I wanted to use its design for the necklace I'm going to make for Yue and I also want her to see it. I want to know if you'd like it."

"You're not engaged?" Yue asks, watching as Katara removes the necklace from her neck. This question perks up Master Pakku's attention with the older man deciding to listen in on the conversation. "I thought you were engaged to a boy from the southern tribe, or even Avatar Zuko for that matter."

"Oh heavens no," Katara says, "Zuko is my friend, but I couldn't like him like that. This necklace was a gift from my mother when I was a little girl. Her mother gave it to her when she was little too. It's the only thing I have to remember her by... when I was three years old there was the last firenation raid on the southern watertribe. They were hunting down the last waterbender since I was the only person that could be a threat to them in their eyes. My mother sacrificed herself for me but the firebenders didn't take her as a prisoner, they killed her."

"It's beautiful, I really like the design. I think it'd be perfect for the design you're going to make for me, Sokka." the princess says looking over the rolling wave design of the necklace. "What was your mother's name?"

"Kya, my grandmother's name is Kana." Katara responds.

"Your grandmother's name was Kana?" Master Pakku asks as he approaches the small group of teens. "I was once engaged to a woman of the same name, I even carved her a necklace. May I see it?" He requests, offering a hand out to Yue who places the necklace in his hand. "This is the necklace I carved for her... sixty years ago."

"You were engaged to our Gran-gran?" Katara asks as Pakku studies the engravings on the necklace.

"She was the daughter of Avatar Kotak, born here in the northern watertribe. He was the man who trained me in waterbending and when she turned 16, my father and Avatar Kotak arranged for us to be married but it never went through. Shortly after we got engaged, we got a message from our sister tribe that the firenation had attacked them and began kidnapping their waterbenders. Avatar Kotak left to go assist our sister tribe and Kana went with him. It was the last time I saw her." Pakku says, his voice filled with nostalgia. "You look almost exactly like her."

"Our great grandfather was the avatar?" Katara asks, looking to Sokka and then Yue in utter confusion.

"Does this mean Zuko is our dad?" Sokka asks prompting Pakku, Yue and Katara to all deadpan at him. "What?"

"No, no it doesn't." Katara says.

"Your soon to be husband is an idiot." Pakku says to Yue. "Sokka, you mentioned that you needed help carving the necklace right?" The waterbending master asks.

"Yeah, my father and the rest of the men in our village went to fight the firenation when I was just 13. He never got around to teaching me how to carve it." Sokka responds.

"Then allow me to help you, we'll even get the ice from the same spot I got it from." Pakku says as he walks up the stairs towards the main palace. Sokka, Katara and Yue are quick to follow the waterbending master. "I don't know where you get the material to make the engagement necklaces in the southern tribe, but here we source the ice from the glacier that protects our home. At the top of the city there is a very special place, where the ice there never melts and we use that ice to create the carvings."

After explaining this, Pakku remains silent for the rest of the walk as the group makes their way up the stairs and into the chief's long house. From there Pakku leads them through the main gathering hall where their first meeting took place, to a door off to the side of the large room. Passing through here they see a small bend behind the building touching a large ice wall with a wooden torii gate style door embedded into the ice. The wooden gate has a small circular door in the center of it with a simple metal latch on the side. Pakku grabs the handle and pulls it open allowing his students and Sokka to pass through it. Upon getting to the other side, they're greeted with a large open air spring with a small island in the center.

The island is made of stone, has grass and plants growing on it and the air is warm here. Another torii gate sits above a pool in the center of the small island with large flowering bushes behind it. On the far side of the oasis two large waterfalls flow into the water surrounding the miniature island with bridges that lead up to it. What they don't expect to see is Zuko seated alone with his legs crossed in front of the water. "Avatar Zuko?" Pakku asks upon seeing the young firebender here at the spirit oasis. "What are you doing here?" Zuko doesn't respond, probably not hearing Pakku over the roar of the two waterfalls near him. The group watches as Zuko lifts his hand upwards pulling a small amount of water out of the small spring in the center of the island. The water covering his hand as he puts it up to the scar over his eye. As soon as it makes contact it begins to glow a bright white color, brighter than the normal glow of water when used for healing. Pakku is speechless watching Zuko use the spirit oasis water to heal the wound over the side of his face, Katara Yue and Sokka are just as awestruck seeing him do this. After a few moments, the glowing water around Zuko's hand disappears and he returns the water back to the oasis. Calmly he raises a hand to his eye dabbing away the water that still wets his skin.

"Did Yagoda tell you to come here?" Pakku asks as the group approaches the prince.

"Yeah," Zuko answers, turning to look at Pakku and opening his eyes. "She said that the water could heal my sight and my hearing."

"Did it work?" Pakku asks, the scar on the left side of his face is still present.

"Yes," Zuko responds, his burned eye being able to open almost fully without pain. The amber color of his irises looking back at them. "It did." He says, shifting his gaze to his friends. As he does so, for the first time in three long years... Zuko smiles.