The voices above me drifted like waves against a shore, blending with one another in muffles. I attempted to open my eyes, but winced and closed them tightly against the sudden rush of light and color. Something cool was pressed against my side and gave a soothing, tingling sensation on my skin. I tried to open my eyes again, and was a fairly more successful this time around. I caught a glimpse of the figures hovering above me, only one of them distinguishable: Iroh

"It's been two weeks, Iroh," I heard a man say. "I don't think anything is going to work."

I wanted argue, to say Hey! I'm not dead!. But all that came out was a gurgling noise.

"She's waking," said another voice. This one was much more familiar. How? I don't know. But I was certain that I had heard it before. "She is very strong, Iroh. She shouldn't have survived for so long with that wound, but she did. I knew that she was a fighter, but I didn't expect such resilience."

"She is a very strong girl," Iroh concurred. "Thank you for healing her, Pakku."

Pakku... Now I was sure that I knew this man from somewhere. I couldn't think clearly. I wanted so badly to stand. I wanted open my mouth and speak. But, most importantly, I wanted to kill that recruit — Aiko, I think Bao called him — for putting in this situation in the first place. Relax. Bao will take care of him, I scolded myself. Focus on getting better.

My vision began to clear, but things were still fuzzy. I could just barely make out the five bodies around me, dressed in identical blue and white robes. They muttered among themselves. As my vision came more into focus, I quickly recognized one to be Iroh, and, soon after, the man known to as Pakku. Once I'd seen his face, I realized where I had last seen him. The Northern Water Tribe, just before my departure with Katara and the others.

A hand tightly grasped mine. "Saki," Iroh spoke quietly. "Can you hear me? How do you feel?"

I croaked my response. "Like I've been stabbed in the side." He wasn't so fond of my dry humor, but I bet Sokka would've laughed. Iroh sighed in relief. He cradled my hand with his other hand and assisted me in sitting upright. A bolt of sharp pain shot throughout my body, and I gripped my teeth together to keep from shouting.

"You will be better very soon," he reassured me.

"Iroh, where are we?"

Another man replied, this one looking much more gruff than the others with his untamed white hair and matching facial hair, a scar crossing the crease of his right eye, and a permanent scowl on his face. "You are with the Order of the White Lotus. I am Jeong Jeong"

Before I could ask any follow-up questions, another man chimed in. He looked fairly young in comparison to the others. Brown skin, tight Fire Nation-style bun, sharp facial structure, and focused eyes. "I am Piandao," he introduced himself with a customary bow, even though I couldn't do the same. "Iroh brought you to our camp after your escape from the prison. I must say, after everything he has told us, I am honored to finally meet you."

A goofy-looking, familiar old man snorted in laughter. "I remember you! You were with Aang when he and his friends came to get me from captivity!" King Bumi gave a childish grin. "Hello again!"

I looked to my side, where Pakku's hands still were pressed against my healing wound. He looked up as he continued to heal me. He gave me a nod. "I don't believe that we have properly introduced ourselves. My name is Pakku, and I would like to thank you for your help in protecting us during the invasion."

"You're welcome. Thank you for healing me," I nodded in return, then looked at the others. "Thank you all for helping."

"I have heard many tales," Piandao said, "but yours has been the most extraordinary of them all. You have quite the legacy on your hands."

"I only wish my pupil, your uncle Zhao," Jeong Jeong chimed in, "had shown such potential."

The reminder that I was related to that walking sack of garbage left a bitter taste in my mouth. "He had the potential," I said. "He used it to become a monster."

Iroh frowned. "That's enough. Saki has only been awake for a few minutes. She doesn't need to have such negative thoughts already."

"It's okay, Iroh," I said, but his tightening grip on my hand insinuated that he disagreed. "I'm okay now."

Pakku stood up. "She's right. She's healed now. It's as if it never happened." This, however, was a bit of an exaggeration. As the day passed and I finally left the tent they'd kept me in for the past couple of weeks, my side ached with each movement. I'd convinced Pakku that I was well enough to train, but this was quickly disproved when my impressive water tentacles fell to far less impressive puddles. Iroh frowned as he watched, telling me that I was so much like Zuko. As much as I hated the comparison, he couldn't have been more right. Piandao then invited me to paint with him, which I could only assume to be his way of telling me that I wasn't ready to train just yet. That was quickly rebutted by Bumi, who wanted to show off some phenomenal earthbending tricks, and Jeong Jeong, who'd many stories he wanted to share with me.

These old men quickly treated me as their own, just as Iroh had always done. This included them treating me like a child. That night, Iroh opted to meditate in his tent. As the rest of us sat and enjoyed cups of tea under the stars, Bumi stood up and looked around. "Someone is near," he declared. "Quite a few of them, actually."

"Let's go," was all Piandao said as he readied his sword.

I stood up. "I'm coming, too."

"No," Jeong Jeong's scowl deepened in a forbidding fashion. "You will stay in your tent."

Each old man looked at me, silently scolding me until I obeyed and crawled into my tent with my cup of tea. Quietly, I applied new bandages to my side, subconsciously paranoid that the wound would reopen. Not much time had passed when I heard the group return... and they'd returned with additional voices. Ones that I could never mistake, except for one. There was one that I didn't recognize at all.

One voice came very close to my tent, sadness unmasked. "She hates me," I heard Zuko say. "After everything I've put her through? She won't even look at me. I wouldn't even look at me!"

"Yes, she will," said the voice that I couldn't pinpoint to any particular person. "Even in the few instances that I've seen you together, I've seen the way you two are. You're inseparable — a match made by the spirits." She paused for a moment, presumably thinking something over. "I'll go first." Zuko fought to get the right words out to stop her, but it was too late. The girl had already intruded my tent, and was standing in front of me. Small heart-shaped face, dark hair, and eyes that reminded me vaguely of the color of swamp water. "Hi!" She grinned at me. Still, I could quite figure out where I'd seen her before — and, based off of what she said to Zuko, I had seen her before. "You probably don't remember me, b—"

"You're right," I cut in, sound much more rude than intended. "I don't."

Her smile fell a bit. "My name is Mika. You saved me back in Ba Sing Se," she said without explaining any further. "Look, I came in here because... because Zuko has been feeling guilty about everything that happened— whatever that was — and he wants to apologize. But he's scared. I haven't known him for as long as you and the others have, but I can see he has a good heart. He's helped me out of some serious problems." She paused to await my response, but she didn't receive one. This made her demeanor change. Mika now seemed a little nervous, as if this wasn't going how she'd thought. "That's... That's all, I guess. I'll go now." She turned on her heel and left the tent, speaking in a low voice to Zuko. There was silence for a moment, then Zuko was next to enter.

He stared at me for a moment and hesitantly stepped forward. I had to fight every fiber of my body that urged to jump up and hug him, both for my sake and his. He dropped to his knees in front of me and hung his head, tears rapidly flowing down his cheeks. "I am so, so sorry," he wept. "For everything, Saki. I hurt you and betrayed you and continued to disappoint you. I understand why you hate me. I would hate me too if I had to go through everything that you did." He didn't stop to let me reply. "But I'm a changed person now, Saki. I'm teaching the Avatar firebending! I finally followed my heart and did what was right, just like you wanted. Please, please forgive me, Saki. I— "

I couldn't take it anymore. I had never seen him so broken, and I didn't like what I was watching. I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around his neck, despite the pain that came with such a sudden movement. "I forgive you; I always do. I forgave you a long time ago," I said quietly. I pulled back to look at his shocked, tear-stained face. "I love you, you idiot. You know that right? You're my best friend, so don't think for a single moment of your life that I could hate you."

"I love you, too," Zuko said, pulling me in for another hug. His arms tightened around my waist, triggering a sharp cry of pain from me. He pulled away quickly and wiped his tears with the ball of his wrist. His attention shifted to my bandages and his eyes filled with concerned. "Did I hurt you? What happened to you?"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine now." I looked at the sadness still visible in his eyes. "Go see your uncle," I said. "His tent is right next door. He'll be so happy to see you."