Sokka's eyes fluttered open abruptly in the early hours of the morning. It had been about 2 days since they had met up with Jet's freedom fighters and something didn't seem to sit right with him. Though the commotion outside didn't help his uneasy feeling about Jet. The day prior, He, Zuko and some of Jet's lackeys allegedly stopped an assassin sent after Jet with Zuko backing the story about the assassin having insider knowledge on the firenation. Even so the two of them were not exactly willing to trust Jet yet, especially when Zuko had noticed that Jet had lied about what he actually uses his hook swords for. Now however he's faking being asleep waiting for the commotion to stop. Across from him Zuko is out cold though he usually was first to bed and first to wake. Aang was also asleep in a hammock a few feet above them in the shack. Katara had her own shack upon her request, months of travel with 3 snoring men must have taken it's toll on her psyche. Sokka's thoughts are dragged back to the matter at hand however as he quietly gets to his feet and peers out the open folded cloth covering the shack entrance like a door.

"Be Careful!" Smellerbee scolds just above a whisper, behind her Pipsqueak had nearly dropped a keg of blasting jelly after bumping into Longshot. "You drop one of those and the whole forest will wake up and we'll be cleaning what's left of you off of five trees."

Sokka watches as the group carries the casks of blasting jelly down the pulley system towards the forest floor. Once the coast is clear, he stealthily makes his way down another pulley tailing the group from a far. Part of him was thinking in hindsight about getting Zuko to assist in following them but it was a bit late now. Sokka keeps his right hand firmly on the club at his waist just in case he needs to draw it and follows the lot as they make their way through the forest floor.

"Smellerbee? What's gonna happen to all the people in the town when we blow the dam?" The Duke questions but the bowl cut sporting girl doesnt know how to answer. "Won't all the water kill them?"

"Jet has it handled, he wouldn't have us blow the dam with the village still inhabited by all those people, but we will be blowing it to flood the town and flush out the firebenders garrisoned there." She replies, but even Sokka can hear the uncertainty in her voice. "We just need to trust Jet and all these firebenders will be gone."

"Do you think Avatar Lee is a good guy?" The Duke questions again and Pipsqueak pipes up this time.

"He helped save Jet from that assassin yesterday and from what we heard he even helped free a bunch of earth kingdom slaves from a firenation shipyard. There's no way an Avatar could be evil, he just looks mean because of the scar." Pipsqueak reassures the youngest member of the group.

"He probably scowls all the time because of what happened to his face and the fact that the people he use to look up to are now hunting him down like he's their arch enemy." Sneers responds. "It's hard to believe since we've only known the firebenders as bad but he grew up in the firenation so to him they might have not been bad."

"Or he could have just been force fed all their propaganda." Jet interjects, the group hadnt even noticed that they wandered all the way to the rendezvous point above the damn. "What we do know for sure is that he's against the firenation, the people he grew up around and once called friends chased him from the colonies and burned his face. He knows what they're capable of, and we need to remember what happened to us as well." Jet instructs. Having heard enough, Sokka pushes away from the tree turning to head back to the hideout but instead as he turns he sees a steel arrowhead pointed right at him. Longshot had snuck up on him while he was eavesdropping on the others.

"Move." Longshot instructs, the singular word stern and forceful. Sokka couldn't even dream of drawing his club before Longshot loosed the arrow he was pointing at his chest and so the water tribesman complies with what he's told. Sokka raises his hands and turns back towards Jet and begins walking.

"Sokka!" Jet says in shock seeing him emerge from the bushes at arrowpoint. "I thought I could trust you."

"And I thought I could trust you, blowing up the dam? You're gonna kill everyone in the town if you don't go and warn them right now." Sokka responds as the morning sun gleams over the forest floor.

"Sometimes you need to make the hard decisions. If we warn the people down there then the firebenders will know as well and escape."

"So what, you're gonna stoop as low as they do and instead of burning their town to the ground you're gonna flood it instead? What about all the women and children down there? What about them huh? Weren't you in the same position they are now unaware that some madman was about to murder them all? You said it yourself, you're the only one who escaped when your town burned down because of the firenation, so you're just going to do that to them now? Some freedom fighter you are, You're no better than the Firenation." Jet's face twisted into a scowl hearing this statement from Sokka and the others around somewhat believed the meat loving man over their leader, what they were doing is no better than what the firenation did to their homes.

"Pipsqueak. Smellerbee. Take him for a walk and get him out of my sight." Jet orders leading to Longshot tying Sokka's hands behind his back and shoving him towards Pipsqueak and Smellerbee.

"Come on Sokka." Pipsqueak says, leading him away.

"And you called Lee a monster. The firebenders aren't the only evil ones in this world." Sokka scoffs as he's led away by Jet's lackeys but his words are still hanging sharply in the air. Those words echoing in his head as he makes his way back towards his camp.

With Aang and Zuko.

The master and apprentice find themselves seated on a tree limb meditating in the early morning air. Leaves that had fallen from the trees around them levitate in mid air as the two airbenders breath in slow methodical rhythms moving the air around them. The large red-sycawood leaves float up and down with each deep breath forming a floating circle of leaves caught in the influenced air. Katara watches in amusement as Momo tries to catch a leaf that is continuously being lifted out of his reach with each breath the two airbenders take. She stirs the wooden spoon around her rice porridge that some of the others were so kind to give her, taking another slurp of the viscous liquid before a set of footsteps draws her attention away from the two airbenders.

"Hey, Lee, Aang, Katara I got a new job for you today" Jet announces, his voice stirring the two airbenders from their meditation and finally releasing all the leaves to make their final descent to the forest floor. "I need you to help fill up the reservoir above the town."

"Hold on what? Isn't it already filled with air?" Aang questions causing Zuko to arch an eyebrow, count on his fingers as if he's doing math then have a face of realization strike his expression.

"Technically yes... but I mean fill it with water." Jet clarifies.

"How are we gonna help with that? I may be the avatar but the last time I tried water bending I boiled the water and made it blow up... wait a second how is Aang gonna help? He's an airbender."

"I don't know but we can figure that out when we get there." Jet responds before turning and walking off expecting the three to follow him.

"Where's Sokka? I haven't seen him all morning?" Katara questions, Jet stops in his tracks before answering over his shoulder.

"He's with a scouting party, out with Smellerbee and Pipsqueak. Come on, it'll take us a bit to get there on foot." Jet insists before continuing down the wood steps.

It didn't take long for them to make their way towards the reservoir dam outside of the town. Though Aang decided to have another race with Zuko on the air scooters leaving Jet and Katara alone to continue walking towards the village. Katara laughs as she sees Zuko leap off his air scooter and tackle Aang off on his own, the two tumbling into the dirt. The young air nomad laughs hysterically as Zuko celebrates his victory in finally catching Aang. His celebration is cut short when Aang airbends at his face and undoes the wraps around his ponytail causing it to fall flat on his head like a mop. Zuko growls in annoyance before walking off to collect the ribbon he ties his hair with before resuming the journey towards the town.

"Slide down the bank here," Jet instructs as the come to the side wall of the dried up reservoir. "These geysers fill the reservoir but they're not all that fast, but since there are geysers here that means the water that would be in the reservoir is underground. Think you can bend it up here to fill it?"

"I've never bent water that I couldn't see before."

"I can't bend water to begin with."

"I bend air."

"You mentioned that you boiled the water last time you tried to bend it right? Maybe it'll be easier if it's already hot when you try to bend it." Jet suggests, Zuko turns to Katara before she just shrugs. Leading Zuko over to one of the openings of a geyser she begins their next waterbending lesson.

"Let's pick up where we left off, push and pull the water and try to get it to come up through the hole." Katara demonstrates, flowing her arms vertically in front of her trying to coax the water from the hole. Zuko mimics though he's uncertain as to if he can even bend the water but nevertheless he continues to do so. For several minutes he continues to push and pull the water like Katara demonstrates but all that he manages to do is create more hot vapor to escape the vent.

"Well this isn't working." Zuko says dismissively as he drops his hands to his sides. "It just had to be waterbending didn't it."

"Uh.. Lee?" Aang asks, causing Zuko to turn to him right as a geyser erupts mere inches from his face. "You know that thing that Sokka did when we were with your uncle?"

"What put his mouth on the tea pot and blow into it? Didn't that make the Oooohhh." It suddenly clicked.

"Let's try blocking off some of the geyser holes with some dirt and rocks then use airbending to force air into it."

"And since the water has no way to go it'll be forced upwards! Wow, I didn't think Sokka's stupid trick would come in handy." Katara exclaims.

"I'll leave you three to it then." Jet responds as he turns to make his exit but he's stopped by Katara.

"We'll catch up to you later!" Katara declares.

"Actually let's meet up at the hideout."

Jet doesn't catch the questioning look that Zuko gives him as he walks away, Zuko then turns to the task at hand. Using the same technique that he used with Haru to free the old man in the collapsed mine, Zuko earth bends the topsoil and rocks to cover the openings of the geysers until one remains. With all but one closed, he and Aang spin a cyclone of air above themselves before forcing it into the geyser. With the tornado of air being forced into the aquifer below the water is suddenly forced through the soil erupting through the covered holes and dumping thousands of gallons into the reservoir. So much water flows out so quickly that Aang is forced to grab Katara and airbend the two of them to the top of the embankment shortly followed by Zuko.

"That worked a lot better than I had imagined, let's go head back."

"Actually, let's catch up with Jet. We got done early so I'm sure he'd be happy to see us."

"Whatever." Zuko groans. All throughout their journey back towards the camp, Zuko can't shake this nagging feeling in his stomach that something isn't right. The event the day prior with the elderly man, who allegedly was an assassin, still unnerved him. While Katara and Aang chatted about what they should do going further with Zuko's training, the Avatar still went over the events of yesterday in his mind. It didn't add up, the old man was unarmed, he had been the one to search him but somehow Jet had that knife. As well as the fact that Jet's hook swords were dented and slightly rusted in the inner blade under the hook. Getting to the plateau above the river, Zuko turns towards where the dam is and his blood runs cold. Lining the base of the dam are the same red barrels that held the exploding jelly.

"Is that the..." Katara questions before her voice trails off. "Oh no..."

"That bastard lied to us! He's going to blow the dam!" Zuko roared, expelling fire from his mouth in anger.

"But Jet wouldn't." She tries to protest before being cut off by Jet.

"Yes Katara. I would and I am." Jet interjects, "Once the dam is blown it'll flood the valley and flush out any and all of those firenation soldiers."

"Are you completely insane?! You're about to kill everyone down there in that city, women, children, elderly?!" Zuko's voice drips with the fire and fury of dragons as he turns towards the hook swordsman.

"This valley will be free from the firenation."

"What freedom do a bunch of corpses have?! If you blow that dam, I'll cut you into as many pieces as people died today! You hear me!" Zuko's fury now beginning to burn the ground around him as he draws his duel swords. "Aang, Go quickly, get as many of them out of the city as you can!"

"You're not going anywhere without your glider!" Jet declares before trying to swipe the glider staff with his swords only to have them parried by Zuko's duel swords. "I never should have trusted you. All of you firebenders are the same!"

"You're one to talk! You're as much a monster as the same people who burned down your village. It probably wasn't even firenation soldiers, more likely some bandits. Our soldiers just don't go burning down any village for no reason unless ordered otherwise." Zuko shouts before breaking the blade lock and making a wide slash for Jet's chest and wrist. The freedom fighter dips backwards evading the blow before pushing himself backwards in order to gain distance.

"You weren't there! You know nothing! How dare you compare me to them!" Jet screams coming in for a hard overhead strike towards Zuko. "How would you know what firenation tactics are huh? You're just a colonist!" The blades clash once more sparking as bits of metal flake off of the blades.

"That's were you're wrong. Lee is just an alias. I am the Avatar and I am Prince Zuko! I am the good firebender and I won't let you kill all these people!" Zuko shouts before kicking Jet solidly in the chest before stamping hard on the ground launching a stone towards Jet. The freedom fighter looks on in murderous fury cutting through the stone with both blades causing it to crumble.

As Jet tries to recover from the deflecting the attack, tightening his grip on the hook swords but Zuko doesn't give him the window to recover. Jet is immediately pushed backwards by gail force winds being bent by Zuko. Jet digs the blades of his hook swords into the ground in order to anchor himself but this immediately causes a shift in Zuko's strategy. Using his swords, Zuko throws slash after slash of bent air towards Jet, each strike doing it's part in uprooting Jet's anchored swords. His blades are knocked free by one of the blasts of air and the one following it slams into Jet's chest, sending him backwards hard into a tree. As Jet goes to pick up his swords he's suddenly splashed with water. Zuko turns to see Katara exhaling towards the water that she bent at Jet causing it to freeze. The water soaking into his clothes freezes solid and freezes Jet to the tree immobilizing him.

"Stand down." Zuko declares pointing his sword to Jet's neck.

"I trusted you, Jet. You lair! How could you do this to all those people!" Katara questions but she doesn't get an answer. Instead Jet calls Zuko's bluff at killing him, whistling in the similar call of a warbler. The whistle echoes through the treetops reaching Longshot mere moments after Jet whistled. The archer lights the tip of his arrow, aims and fires towards the barrels of blasting Jelly. Katara mutters a protests, barely above a whisper before the valley erupts in a massive explosion. The dam is completely destroyed, flooding the valley below, thousands if not millions of gallons of water floods and drowns the city below leaving nothing left. Zuko turns in rage at Jet before he gloats in satisfaction of what he's done.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet." Sokka declares as he marches up the hill alongside Aang. "I managed to warn them just in time, along with Aang's help."

"Sokka you fool! You dirty traitor!"

"No, You're the one who betrayed yourself when you decided to go this far and sacrifice all those people just to get rid of a few soldiers." Sokka retorts, causing Jet to look on in fury at the water tribesman.

"How did you warn them in time?" Katara asks.

"At first they thought we were spies, but the old man from yesterday vouched for us and got them to hede our warning. The town may be gone, but everyone made it out alive."

"Aang, go get Appa. Let's go."

"You're nothing but a fool, thinking he's doing good through evil deeds." Zuko scoffs before sheathing his swords and walking away leaving Jet to thaw alone against that tree.              

Meanwhile in the Firenation Capital. 

The fast paced taps of the leather shoes on the marble tiles of the palace floor echo through the massive corridor of the firelord's palace. An elderly man garbed in red regal robes of a priest with a silly hat at the top of his head rushes towards the antechamber of the Fire Lord. Important news has been discovered by the Fire Sages, something that must be brought to the attention of the Fire Lord at once. The massive corridor seems to stretch on for miles as the sage rushes through the empty hall towards a closed door with the insignia of the Fire Nation on it. At both sides two armed guards with spears stand guarding the antechamber. As the sage approaches the guards cross the spears in front of the door preventing him from entering the war room. He sputters to a stop, completely out of breath before the two masked guards, panting as he bends over and leans his hands on his knees.

"State your business Fire Sage, The Fire Lord is in the middle of deliberation with his top generals." The guard on the left speaks from behind the white painted skull like mask. "Unless this is of utmost importance none shall enter the antechamber until the meeting has concluded."

"I do..." The Sage pants before regaining his breath and standing up straight, having to fix he hat at the top of his head preventing it from falling. "I have urgent news regarding the Avatar, The Avatar has returned and we know his identity." He frantically says.

"Let him pass, The Fire Lord needs to know this at once." The right guard says to the other, pulling his spear away from the door and opening it for the elderly man. "Here's hoping you catch him in a good mood." The guard says, knowing what happened to the last person who interrupted the Fire Lord. The Fire Sage bows to the guards and sprints down the next hallway into the main antechamber that is the throne room and war room.

Inside, a council of 10 generals and admirals sit cross legged at a floor map in the center of the room. Above them on a stage surrounded by fire is the firelord himself. The flames shrouding his face in shadows but it does nothing to intrude his attention to what the generals have to say about enemy troop movements and strategies. Suddenly from the far end of the room, both doors are pushed open with a loud bang as the elderly Sage practically falls through them. Several of the guards and generals snap to their feet at the intrusion but relax upon seeing the wiseman.

"You have a lot of nerve interrupting this meeting, Niuan. You better have important news to be interrupting a meeting of such importance." The Fire Lord himself declares upon seeing the face of the fire sage that is now in his presence. "Why have you come here... Speak!" He shouts, causing the older man to shudder at the volume of his voice.

"We have discovered the identity of the new Avatar, your highness. It is a firebender." The Sage begins, before bowing on his knees putting his face to the floor and stretching his arms out as far as possible in front of him in reverence of the firelord.

"Excellent, I knew that it would be my prodigal daughter, I shall have her collected and sent to the Fire Nation colonies at once to begin her training. She shall be the key to winning this war and destroying Ba Sing Sei." Ozai grins, knowing that his prodigy of a daughter was destined since birth to bring the fire nation glory.

"Lord Ozai, I beg that you do not harm the messenger, but the identity of the Avatar..." Niuan stammers fearing the firelord's reaction to what he has to say. "Th-The avatar is..." He tries to get the words to form.

"Speak damnit! End your sniveling and tell me the identity of the Avatar at once!" The Fire Lord declares standing from his throne. The raise in his voice and his angry tone cause the flames around him to rise in tandem with the Firelord's response.

"THE AVATAR IS THE BANISHED PRINCE ZUKO!!!" The Sage yells in fear causing the eyes of every single general in the room to widen in shock, going pale at the realization their mouths hang open unable to find the words to react. The Fire Lord goes completely silent upon hearing this information standing over the flames and over the others processing what the Sage has said. "He has already begun training in mastering the elements, but we have been unable to contact him or General Iroh of his whereabouts or his progress sir."

"Th...Thank you for the information Niuan. Dismissed. All of you." Ozai declares sitting back on his throne and watching the others leave the room. Internally his fury was boiling at the information yet he dared not show it in front of the Generals. He bides his time until they exit the room before it explodes in fury never before seen.

The fires around him glow white hot in his unbridled fury, his failure and disgraceful son is the Avatar? This cannot be, this will not be. The boy was a failure in every sense of the word, the sages should be rounded up and executed for their treachery and false information. Then it hits him, the day he burned Zuko's eye he saw something awaken in the boy. His eyes glowed white for the briefest of moments as if he was about to enter the legendary Avatar State right in front of him. A bellowing roar of anger, regret and fury echoes from the Fire Lord's lungs as the fires around him glow so hot the room begins to combust around him just from the ambient heat alone. As the last of his fury filled breath exits his lungs the rest of the fires are snuffed out in an instant leaving the firelord in the pitch darkness of the room. Slowly the flames begin to grow back from the troughs beside him. As a scheme begins to manifest in his head.

The Avatar cannot reincarnate into a nation that no longer exists.

Perhaps his Father was right, he should have ended the boy all those years ago, but an iota of humanity speaks out in the recesses of his mind. Instead of killing the boy, he could use him. Use Zuko to end the war in his favor, manipulate him into believing that his honor has been restored and he can return a hero. After the war is over, he'd have him and the Avatar cycle ended permanently. It would take time, he'd have to undo the corruption his traitor brother brought on him, but it is possible. Once he is of no use, he'll be discarded like the failure he is.