as she helped Sokka place bags on Appa. Her shoulders were tense as she thought of their plans for today and the people she'd have to face. She stared down at her feet with her eyebrows furrowed as the other's talked amongst themselves.

"If it means anything... I'm proud of you." Uzume looked back up with a sad smile on her face. Azula's head shot up to look at her, eyes wide, not used to the positive affirmations, eyes filling with tears.

"I'm proud of you and I love you."

Uzume was startled out of her thoughts when a pale hand softly touched her shoulder. She sharply turned and met Zuko's worried eyes.

"Aang isn't in the house, we're going to check the beach right now."

Uzume lowered her eyes from his and nodded softly. She took his hand gently and followed him down to the beach, joining the others.

"Look! There's his footprints." Uzume pointed to the sand and followed them. She was stopped abruptly by the ocean, "The trail ends here."

"So... He went for a midnight swim and never came back?" Suki suggested. Katara looked at the footprints, visibly worried, "Maybe he was captured." She held her hands to her chest as she pictured the horrible things that could have happened to Aang. Uzume winced at the slight chance that Aang was hurt, immediately regretting that their last words were them yelling at each other.

Sokka shook his head, "I don't think so. There's no sign of a struggle." Toph bent down from beside him, "I bet he ran away again." Uzume slapped Toph's shoulder,

"He wouldn't run away again, especially since he's already been gone 100 years," She paused and looked at the others with doubtful eyes, "Would he?"

Sokka shook his head again, "No. He left behind his glider and Appa."

"Then what do you think happened to him oh sleuthy one?" Toph asked Sokka sarcastically. Sokka shrugged nonchalantly, "It's pretty obvious. Aang mysteriously disappears before an important battle? He's definitely on a Spirit World journey."

"But if he was, wouldn't his body still be here?" Zuko spoke up, watching Sokka with doubtful eyes. Sokka visibly slumped his shoulders, "Oh yeah, forgot about that."

Suki placed a hand on Uzume's shoulders, "Can't Uzume do something? Can you do some spiritual airbender stuff and find him?" Uzume looked at Suki unimpressed, "Spirit Bending? No. I can't even properly airbend without fans."

Katara sighed and interrupted Suki's suggestion, "Then he's gotta be somewhere on Ember Island. Let's split up and look for him."

Toph swiftly grabbed Zuko's arm and leaned into him, "I'm going with Zuko!" As if she could sense everyone looking at her curiously she defended herself, " What? Everyone else went on a life changing fieldtrip with Zuko. Now it's my turn. Plus I wanna ask him some things about Uzume." Uzume raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Alright, Sokka and I will stay here in case he comes back." She and Sokka walked back to the house while the others went out to look for Aang. Sokka studied his friend's posture as she sat herself down on the steps of the courtyard.

"You're scared." He suddenly said. Uzume groaned in frustration and tugged at her bangs. "It's all falling apart." She placed her face in her hands as she slouched into her knees.

"Aang's missing and the last thing I did was yell at him. And on top of that, I was yelling at him to do something that I don't think I'd be able to do."

Sokka looked at her curiously, "Kill Ozai?"

Uzume shook her head and laughed humorlessly, "No, Azula. I know she'll be apart of this fight. And I know... I know I can't convince her to not fight." Sokka sat himself down next to her and wrapped an arm around her.

"Just remember, it's either you or her," He paused and took a deep breath, "And personally, I'd rather not lose my new best friend." Uzume raised her head and gave him a soft smile.

"Thanks." He nodded to her and returned a soft smile. Sokka noticed the others returning and stood up quickly, "Judging by the looks on your faces, I'm guessing you guys didn't find Aang either."

Zuko sat himself next to Uzume, "No. It's like he just... disappeared." Toph threw herself to the ground, dejected, before she quickly sat up again, "Hey, wait a minute, has anyone noticed that Momo's missing too?"

Sokka turned to Appa quickly, "Oh no! I knew it was only a matter of time. Appa ate Momo!" Sokka opened Appa's mouth and began to crawl in, "Momo, I'm coming for ya, buddy." Suki sat herself down next to Uzume, exasperated.

Uzume turned to the tired warrior with a humorful smile, "You're dating that boy." Suki nudged the girl softly and returned her smile, "Your boyfriend burnt down my village." Uzume turned to Zuko in shock. Zuko avoided her eyes and pretended to admire the sky.

Katara put her hands on her hips, "Sokka, Appa didn't eat Momo. He's probably with Aang."

Sokka turned from the entrance of Appa's mouth, "That's just what Appa wants you to think." And he continued to move into Appa's mouth.

"Get out of the bison's mouth, Sokka. We have a real problem here. Aang is nowhere to be found and the comet is only 2 days away."

Katara turned from her brother and faced Zuko, "What should we do Zuko?"

Zuko stood up, "I don't know." He looked at everyone's faces, surprised they were all looking at him, "Why are you all looking at me?"

Katara shrugged her shoulders, "Well, you are kind of the expert on tracking Aang."

Zuko dramatically gestured towards Uzume, "What about her? She's tracked you guys before." Uzume looked up at him in shock and feigned innocence, "Me? Half of that trip, I was too busy doing everything Azula said."

Toph nodded with Uzume, "Yeah, if anyone's got experience hunting the Avatar, it's you." Zuko groaned and began to mount Appa.

"Sokka, c'mon, we're leaving." Uzume called out to the saliva covered boy who was slipping around the courtyard. The others followed Zuko's lead and got onto Appa.

It quickly turned to night time as they flew on the bison. Sokka looked down at the ground and furrowed his eyebrows, "Zuko, I don't want to tell you how to do your job but why are we heading towards the Earth Kingdom? There's no way Aang's there."

Zuko continued facing away from them, "Just trust me."

Once they got to their location they quickly unmounted Appa and they stood in front of a building. Uzume opened the door and looked around in surprise.

"And the reason you brought us to a seedy Earth Kingdom tavern is what now?" Katara watched the people in the building with wary eyes.

Zuko raised his arm and pointed at a woman sitting at a table dismissively, "June." Uzume watched with wide eyes as June stopped an attacker with her legs while drinking her tea,

"Oh yeah, that weird bounty hunter with the giant mole." Sokka bluntly recalled.

Suki pushed forward, "Mole? Her skin is flawless." Uzume nodded quickly, "She's very hot." Uzume watched as June continued to fight while her friends looked at her surprised.

Sokka eyed Uzume as he slowly turned to Suki, "No, she has this giant mole creature she rides around on."

Zuko stared straight ahead at the woman with narrowed eyes, "Her shirshu. It's the only animal that can track Aang's scent anywhere in the World. It's the one shot we have of finding him."

June threw her cup in the air as she threw her opponent over her shoulder and then quickly caught her cup. Uzume's mouth dropped as she admired the older woman.

Toph smiled to herself, "I don't know who this June lady is but I like her. And apparently Uzume does too." Toph crossed her arms smugly as Uzume shoved her.

"Hey, I remember her. She helped you attack us!" Sokka raised his voice slightly. Zuko smiled sarcastically, "Yup, back in the good old days." Zuko charged forward and the group followed him.

June looked up at him and smiled sickly sweet, "Oh great, it's Prince Pouty. Where's your creepy grandpa?" She asked while she refilled her cup.

"He's my Uncle, and he's not here." Zuko replied sternly.

June eyed Katara and Zuko and then down to Uzume's hand holding Zuko's, "I see you didn't work things out with your girlfriend? Sorry, ex." June lazily gestured to Katara who jumped away from Zuko in disgust.

"I was never his girlfriend." Katara shouted at the same time Zuko said, "She was never my girlfriend."

Uzume smiled sweetly to the hot woman and raised her hand, "I'm his girlfriend."

June raised an eyebrow at Uzume and chuckled, "Okay, okay, sheesh. I was only teasing. So what do you want?"

Zuko once again spoke sternly to the woman, "I need your help finding the Avatar."

"Hmph. Doesn't sound too fun." Zuko noticeably got fed up with her as he leaned closer with narrowed eyes, "Does the end of the world sound like more fun?"

June quickly followed them outside to her shirshu. She lifted up a piece of meat to get it's attention, "Nyla," She threw the meat at her and began to rub Nyla affectionately, "Who's my little snuffly wuffly. Okay, who's got something with the Avatar's scent on it." June turned to the teens.

Katara stepped forward, "I have Aang's staff." June took the staff from Katara and handed it to Nyle, who began to sniff it. Nyla walked around in a circle before lowering herself into the ground and rubbing her snout sadly.

Zuko crossed his arms, "Well, what does that mean?"

"It means your friend's gone." June said to them bluntly.

Toph sighed, frustrated, "We know he's gone, that's why we're trying to find him."

June stood up, "No, I mean he's gone, gone. He doesn't exist." Uzume clenched her chest, heartbroken at June's words.

"What do you mean Aang doesn't exist? Do you mean he's... you know, dead?"

June shook her head as she pet Nyla, "Nope, we could find him if he were dead. Ah, it's a real head scratcher. See ya." June began to mount Nyla as the group muttered to themselves.

"Wait," Zuko stepped forward, "I have another idea. There's only one other person in this World who can help us face the Fire Lord. I'll be right back with a smell sample." Uzume perked up at his words as he went to his bag and pulled out a sandal. Katara, Suki, and Sokka immediately reacted from the smell, but Uzume couldn't smell it since she was too excited from Zuko's plans.

"You saved your Uncle's sweaty sandal?" Sokka looked at Zuko in disgust. Toph shrugged, "I think it's kind of sweet."

"Let's do this." June allowed Nyla to sniff the sandal before zooming off into the forest.