A gong sounded.
   "And with that, we end our meditation." Aang announced to the group of pupils he had started teaching. He thanked his students for coming, heading to get some tea from Iroh's shop and thanking his assistant when Katara and Sokka showed up.
   "Great timing! You ready to head to the South Pole?"
   As they began to reminesce, a messenger hawk appeared. Aang took the letter out and began to read. "It's Rose and Zuko. They need our help. Spirits."
   Sokka groaned. "Spiritual problems always take forever!"
   Katara smacked him before turning to her boyfriend. "You go help them. Take Appa so you can meet us at the South Pole."
   "I'm sorry, Katara."
   "It's ok. Just say hi to her for me."
   "I will."
   Aang got on Appa and headed off.
                            * * * * *
   Jasper and Aurora were holding court when a messenger entered the room. "Your majesty, milady, there's urgent news from Fire Lord Zuko and his lady."
   He handed the letter over to Jasper who head over it. "The kemurikage? I thought they were a myth?"
   "They're very real, my love." Aurora answered. "And a very real threat."
   "Then we have no time to waste. Pack us a bag and prepare Thorn for travel." He ordered a nearby servant. She bowed her head and rushed to obey.
   "Darling," Aurora turned his head so he was looking at her, "you should stay."
   "But this is my sister and brother by marriage!"
   "I know. But with everything that's happened, the Aether Realm must be protected. You're soon to be the king, Jasper. This is your destiny. I can help Rose and Zuko defeat this threat."
   Jasper grabbed Aurora, pulling her close against his chest. "But I don't want you to leave." He sighed. "I never had anything that was mine. Will was always meant to become the king, Rose was the prodigy and meant to be the Avatar. I was always the lone wolf. And now that I have you, I never want you to leave my side."
   Aurora smiled. "I can sincerely promise that once we are married and you take the throne, I will never leave your side again."
   He enveloped her lips in his. "Then go. Take Thorn and help my sister. Then come back to me."
   "I will. I promise."
                                * * * * *
   Aang hopped off of Appa and rushed to help Aurora slide off Thorn. "Hello again, Aang." Aurora said, kindly. "It's a pleasure to be working with you."
   "You too. And congrats. I heard you and Jasper were getting married."
   "Yes." Aurora said, blushing slightly. "A man like him is one that you'd find maybe once every fifteen lifetimes. I'm a very lucky woman indeed."
   The pair rushed into the palace to greet Rose and Zuko.
   "It's good to see you, buddy." Zuko said as he hugged Aang while Rose hugged Aurora. "I'm glad to see you, old friend. So...have you and Jasper set a date yet?"
   "We're still thinking on it. I imagine you and Zuko have a similar outlook on all this."
   "We had planned for the wedding to be sooner." Rose agreed as she rushed to hug the boy that had been like a brother to her for over a century. "But then this business with the spirits started."
   "So what exactly is going on?" Aang asked.
   Mai walked in, alongside her new boyfriend and the constable and Zuko explained that there had been kidnappings recently. Mai further explained how they had taken Tom Tom. She had fought them herself.
   "Strange." Aurora spoke up. "The kemurikage haven't been seen in years. Why come back now? And to kidnap a child?"
   "Reports have been pouring in from all over the capital city." The constable explained. "Though the boy was the only abductee."
   That's when Ukano showed up, angrily reprimanding Mai and Zuko. "Our Fire Lord needs to grow a spine! Everyone knows the Spirit World starts to act up when the human world is weak!"
   "That's not how the Spirit World works." Rose argued, calmly. "And Zuko is not weak."
   Ukano and Rose began arguing over how best to handle the situation. Aurora cut in, "This arguing will solve nothing!"
   "Then tell our Fire Lord that he's being foolish by letting a mere girl determine how we solve this problem."
   Zuko cleared his throat. "Rose has proven herself wise council. I trust what she has to say. You can see yourself out."
   A guard escorted him away.
    "Zuko," Ophelia said, "there's something that concerns me. If what Mai says is right, the kemurikage will be going after everyone's children. What does that mean for your sister?"
   Zuko looked over to where Kiyi was arguing with Ursa, shrugging her off in favor of her father.
   "We need answers. Aurora, what do you know about the kemurikage?"
   Aurora sighed. "This will take awhile."
                             * * * * *
   The guard contemplated what Ukano had told him about the kemurikage and watching his son. It was on his mind when he retired home that night and he couldn't even listen to his wife.
   A sudden noise scared him and he rushed to his son's room in time to see the kemurikage kidnapping the boy. "Let him go!"
   A fight broke out but the kemurikage disappeared in a puff of smoke. They'd taken the constable's son.
                             * * * * *
   Ukano slept soundly in his bed when a sudden knock woke him out of a dead sleep. He rushed to the door to see the constable.
   "I'm sorry, Ukano. Forgive me for not believing you about the kemurikage."
   "They've taken your son, haven't they?" Ukano asked, sympathetically.
   "Not just mine. Reports have been popping up all night. Multiple people's children have gone missing. We can't wait for the Fire Lord to get his head on straight. We must do something now."
   "Never fear. I have a plan."
                             * * * * *
   Aurora stood before her friends as she explained. "Keep in mind this story is kind of complicated.
  "Many years ago before the beginning of the Fire Nation, the Fire Islands were ruled by warlords. They fought over territory and often, the common people were caught in the middle of these fights and suffered dearly.
   "All the warlords were cruel and ruthless but none so much as Toz. Feast or famine, Toz demanded an offering every year from all the villages in his territory. He was a tyrant, an evil human being."
   Her eyes began to glow as she continued the story, her voice magnified tenfold as she reached for the memories from so long ago.
   "One year, a village dared defy Toz, denying him an offering. And so, to teach them a lesson and punish them for daring to defy him, he had all the villager's children kidnapped. The villager's children were never seen again and the mother's died of sadness."
   Tears began to pour from her eyes. "I could not save them. They disappeared long before I had a chance to look for them."
   "Where was I?" Rose asked.
   "Maybe it was before your time?" Zuko thought.
   "It was not." Aurora answered. "But there was nothing you could've done either. Now listen. Soon after the mother's deaths, dark spirits began to haunt Toz and his men. Every so often they would drift into the warlords encampment in the middle of the night. The next morning, a child would be gone. Out of fear, Toz's men abandoned him and his regimen collapsed.
   "However, the kemurikage still appear to this day, their sadness insatiable. They punish the wicked by taking their loved ones. That's why this doesn't make any sense."
   She made a sudden noise. "There's something here."
   "I can feel it too." Rose said, moving forward.
   A tendril of light began shining from somewhere in the distance. "It wants us to follow it." Aurora whispered, knowingly.
   Suddenly, she and Rose took off. "Wait, love, don't run off like that! You don't know what that thing is!"
   "Um, Zuko?" Mai asked. "Does this kind of thing happen often?"
   "With my fiance? Most definitely. Stay here."
   "No argument there."
   Zuko took off after Rose and Aurora, catching up to them in a room far beneath the palace. The tendril had shapeshifted into the kemurikage.
   "Greetings, Avatar. Greetings, old friend." She greeted Rose then Aurora.
   "The kemurikage." Aurora whispered, falling to her knees and bowing low.
   "You're the original, from so long ago." Rose added.
   "I am." The kemurikage nodded. "For centuries, my sisters and I haunted the warlords of the Fire Islands for their horrible crimes. We haunted them until the islands formed a single nation--the Fire Nation. The first Fire Lord--the one whose crypt you stand in now--brought the warlords to justice and ushered in an era of prolonged peace. Our sadness receded. We never set foot in the human world again."
   Aurora stood. "But then, great spirit, why do you attack the people of the Fire Nation now?"
   "We have not set foot in the human world since the time of the first Fire Lord."
   "Then they must be imposters." Rose thought out loud.
   Aurora smiled. "I knew something seemed off about them. They didn't feel the same as last time."
   "Then we have a problem."
                           * * * * *
   Zuko paced the floor, his thoughts all of the place. "If they are not the spirits, who could possibly be impersonating the kemurikage?"
   "I don't know, love, but we'll find out soon."
   "I'm afraid we have more problems than just that." Mai spoke up. "It seems my father has been making orders behind your back."
   As the group headed out into the streets, Mai explained what her father had told her when he snuck in earlier. The group confronted Ukano who explained that more children had gone missing and he and the constable had founded a group of young men who had successfully saved a child from the kemurikage.
   "You're hiding something." Mai stated, flatly.
   "As much as I appreciate trying to protect our people, I will not have anyone undermine my authority." Zuko said. "Constable, you are as of this moment, suspended. Ukano, take your band of renegades and disband before you are arrested."
   "Fine! Sit by and do nothing! It's what you're good at." Ukano took his men and left.
   Rose took Zuko's hand. "Love, don't you think you're being a bit too harsh?"
   "I'm doing what I have to. If people start undermining my authority, we'll have more problems on our hands."
   "I understand. I only wish youd let me help."
   He took her in his arms. "I need your help more than ever, my heart. I don't know how to make it without you."
   He then kissed her desperately before they disappeared to their room.
                           * * * * *
   Zuko woke up in the middle of the night and looked over at where his beloved lay sleeping. He groaned and tried to roll over but sleep eluded him. Tossing off the blankets, he decided to take a walk.
   Down one of the corridors, he heard a voice calling, "Help me, ZuZu!"
   Zuko entered Kiyi's room. "Kiyi? What are you doing up?"
   "She's holding me too tightly with her cold hands."
   Zuko looked over at where his mother was sleeping and sighed. "Would you like to sleep in the other room?"
   "Yes please."
   Zuko picked her up on his shoulders, smiling. They began to talk about their day but Zuko left out most of the scary parts of it. He carried Kiyi to another room, laid her down in the bed, and tucked her in.
   "Why can't I sleep with you, ZuZu?"
   "Because my wife is asleep right now and I don't want to disturb her."
   "But I wanna sleep with you and Ro!"
   "Another time, ok, Kiyi. Get some sleep."
   He kissed her forehead then left back to his room.
                                * * * * *
   In a secret room, a group of children played. Ukano opened the door and went to hug Tom Tom.
   "Daddy? How come we gotta stay here? I miss mommy and Mai."
   "Patience, son. Just a few more days. Soon I will make the Fire Nation strong and safe again."
   "The scary ladies that brought me here, they're your friends?"
   "Yes. And they're not so scary once you get to know them."
   He whispered goodnight to his boy and left.
                              * * * * *
   Zuko and Rose jolted awake when they heard a noise. Quickly, they dressed and rushed to find the cause of the noise.
   "That came from Kiyi's room!"
   The pair rushed into the room in time to see the kemurikage grabbing Kiyi. They began bending as the Kyoshi Warriors, Aang, and Aurora ran in.
    "Chi block them!"
    "I can't get a grip on them!" Ty Lee shouted.
    "You're no spirit!" Aurora spoke, reaching for her power. A burst of light filled the room and the kemurikage rushed out the window, the group hot on their tails.
    "Give me back my sister!" Zuko shouted.
    A cloud of smoke appeared around them but Aang banished it with his airbending. One of the kemurikage paused and lightningbended. It was then Zuko knew the truth.
    "Azula?!"