That night Katara and Zuko waited for everyone to sleep again before sneaking off together to go after the factory.

"You think sokkas right for what he said?" Katara asked as she put her face paint on.

"Obviously me stopping little things and stealing isn't going to do enough, we need to stop it for good," Zuko put his blue spirit mask on.

"Is it true the painted lady is a river spirit?" Katara asked curiously as she draped the robe around her shoulders over her clothes.

"Something like that, protect the river life, another Mother Nature spirit," Zuko shrugged.

"And the blue spirit?" She put the hat on.

"He's a known thief, a vigilante, steals from the wealthy and gives to the poor," he nodded.

"Let's get to that factory," Katara smiled determined and they set off to their mission before anyone could stop them.

"Hello painted lady spirit and friend!"

"You got to be joking," Zuko and Katara froze hearing Aang behind them. Neither turned around though.

"Run," Zuko told her quickly and they both took off in a sprint.

"Did he hear us?" Katara hissed as Aang chased after them.

"Excuse me I don't mean to bother you but my friend is sick and we're on a tight schedule!" Aang started to get closer as they tried to lose the avatar.

"Split up he can't chase both of us," Zuko nodded and the two went opposite ways as Katara went for the river and Zuko went for the valley.

He went after Katara instead as she bended fog around her but Aang wasn't giving up, trying to connect to the 'spirit' and making conversation as he chased her through the village even.

Katara eventually got through the village and went for the valley when she thought she lost Aang eventually, hiding behind a rock trying to catch her breath.

But when she turned around Aang was right there.

"My names aang, I'm the avatar," he showed her his arrow and Katara tried to cover her face when he got close.

"Well hello avatar, wish I could talk but I am very busy," Katara played the roll seeing he didn't recognize her yet.

"Yea me too, where did your friend go?" Aang tilted his head to the side.

"The blue spirit doesn't interact with humans," she said in a raspy sweet voice with a hushed accent.

"Lucky him... you know your really pretty for a spirit, I don't get to meet to many but the ones I do meet.. not very attractive," Aang tried to look at her more closely but the hat and sheer netting covered her enough.

"Thank you but I must get going," she waved him off trying to turn.

"You seem familiar," he ducked to try seeing under her hat more.

"I get that a lot," she sighed shaking her head. "Farewell avatar,"

When Katara turned her back on him Aang waved his hand enough to bend air at her, making the large hat fly up but Katara gasp trying to grab it and place it back on her head.

"Katara?!" Aang was shocked.

"Hi Aang.." she groaned in defeat.

"Your the painted lady?! How?" His jaw dropped baffled by her identity.

"I wasn't at first but we were just trying to help the village, but since everyone thought that's who we were anyways..." Katara took the hat off so it was out of the way.

"Wait.. we? Who's the other spirit?" Aang placed his hand on his forehead.

"Uh hey Zuko, he found out," Katara saw the blue masked figure behind Aang and he walked over calmly.

"Zuko?!" Aang cried out again as the taller teen took his mask off.

"Great, a liability," Zuko held the mask looking at Aang annoyed.

"I thought you were sick too?" He didn't understand.

"I was, for the first day, we pretended I got worse to buy more time," Zuko nodded with his arms crossed.

"Your fever?" Aang blinked.

"Fire bender, made my body heat hotter," he shrugged. "Katara healed the migraine earlier today,"

"Is appa even sick?" Aangs put his hands on his hips

"He might be sick from the purple berrys I fed him, otherwise he's fine," Katara rubbed her neck with a shy smile.

"I can't believe you've lied to everyone so you could help these people," the avatar looked at them both.

"It's my fault, I asked Katara to help these people with me," Zuko took the blame even if they knew it was the other way around.

"No I think it was a great idea, I'm surprised Katara didn't come up with it," Aang smiled impressed. Katara looked at Zuko narrowing her eyes.

"It was both our idea," she smacked zukos shoulder. "We both wanted to do something about it, I've been healing the village while zukos been dealing with the factory,"

"But there's ones more thing we need to do before we go," Katara nodded firmly. "We need to destroy the factory,"

"I'm in," Aang grinned.

-

When the sun came up the three destroyed the factory and the piped stopped flushing pollution into the river. Zuko and Katara hid their spirit identities away so Sokka couldn't catch them. They walked back to camp together as Aang was gushing over how the factory was demolished.

But by the time they got back, Sokka and Toph were awake and waiting.

"Where have You been?" Sokka cried out with his arms crossed.

"Hi Sokka, we were just out on a morning stroll?" Katara smiled awkwardly as the two boys stood behind her.

"Oh really? A morning stroll? Is that why you two filled your beds with hay?" Sokka held up one of the beds as straw fell out.

"Ah shit," Zuko mumbled.

"I know your the painted lady, sneaking out at night and lying about appa and feeding him purpl-izing tongue berries," Sokka pointed at his sister then at Toph who stuck out her purple tongue.

"Katara what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy," he crossed his arms disappointed.

"We knew we'd be fine with the schedule," Katara sighed.

"We?!" Sokka cried out.

"My bad," Zuko put his hand up.

"I'm not even surprised, when do you ever listen to us," Sokka shook his head at the duo.

"I'm not going to either," Zuko agreed.

"We are leaving right now!" Sokka motioned for the three to March back to the camp.

"And how long did you know?" He accused Aang next.

"I just found out this morning," Aang put his hands up in defense before scurrying off.

"I can't believe we got caught," Katara muttered while she handed stuff to Zuko to put on the saddle as they all started to pack up.

"We couldn't have hid it from him forever," Zuko rolled his eyes. "He'll survive it's not that big of a deal,"

"But we were just trying to help," Katara defended.

"You can have good intentions but there are still consequences," he reminded her but she paused and looked at him.

"Are you still talking about our sneak outs?" She asked.

"I don't think Aang remembers the fight," he whispered looking over his shoulder at Aang.

"I don't think he does either, I've been leaving it to you but did you want to ask?" Katara noticed as well.

"Ask about what?" Toph butted in.

"None of your business," Zuko immediately shot.

"But it can be," she smiled.

Katara was about to argue but they heard some sort of buzzing in the distance and everyone heard, they went to the edge of the cliff to see the fire nation soldiers from the factory going to the village.

"The fire nations going to the village," Sokka looked over the edge.

"What the fuck did you two do?" He looked slowly at Katara and Zuko.

Katara whistled innocently as she avoided her brothers eye contact.

"We destroyed the factory," Zuko told him.

"You what?!"

"It was your idea!" Katara yelled back.

"I was joking! I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises!" Sokka cried out.

"Did You even think this through? The army is going to blame the villagers," he huffed rubbing his face frustrated.

"What was I suppose to do?" Katara snapped.

"Leave! Do nothing!" Sokka yelled again.

"No! I will never ever turn my back on people who needs me!" She snarled sternly and got up from behind the rocks.

"I'm going down to the village and going to do whatever I can," she stood tall over those who crouched behind the rocks.

"Zuko?" She raised a brow.

"It's my mess too I'm coming," he groaned pushing himself up.

"Wait," Sokka sighed going after them. "I'm coming too,"

"I thought you didn't want to help," Katara looked at him unsure.

"You need me, and I will never turn my back on you," he touched her shoulder.

"Sokka You really do have an heart," Katara smiled relieved and hugged her brother.

-

The army from the factory stepped onto the village with five soldiers as the village crowded towards them confused. They didn't know the factory was destroyed nor what the soldiers wanted now.

"I thought we could live as neighbors in peace, You steal our food, our medicine, and then destroy our factory?" The leader of the soldiers stood before the villagers with a sneer.

"We didn't do any of that, it was the painted lady who brought us food and healed our sick," shoe or dock popped up from in the crowd.

"Oh right the mysterious painter lady, and she also drew the army emblem on your containers too?" The leader didn't buy it.

"This is a town of thieves and liars," he barked then sent a blast of fire to destroy one of the houses.

"We're going to cure the world of this bastard village," he glared and sent the soldiers to start destroying the houses and broke the banisters that held parts of the village up.

They went to light an oil drum to burn the village down it was suddenly blasted with air to put out the fire. The soldiers looked at each other and lit it again, before it even caught on fire it went out once more.

"Where is it coming from?" A solider looked at the others, not understanding.

"I don't know, something strange is going on," the other soldier frowned.

A fog crawled over the river and surrounded the village while a grumbling roar echoed the valley while the soldiers looked freighted and the villagers seemed relieve.

"It's the painted lady," the little boy whispered with a smile.

"There is no painted lady!" The leader snapped at him.

But when the fog cleared in the distance they saw the woman in a red robe and large veiled hat standing over the water. Within a split second she raced over the river and jumped onto the wooden planks, reaching her hand out for air to blast past her and blew the soldiers headbands off. Causing them all except the leader to run away in fear of the 'spirit'.

"I'm not afraid of you," the man glared.

Katara looked at the leader of the army, she bended the water in a sharpe motion to destroy their water vehicles, slicing them with the water and sending others to crash against the cliff in a wave.

The other soldiers leaped on their water vehicles before they were destroyed to make their escape. The leader growled in frustration at their abandonment.

"Fine, I'll take care of you my self," he got in a fighting stance.

Aang and Zuko were under the dock as they controlled the other elements for Katara, Zuko had his blue mask on as he noticed the mama stance. He crawled around to the side in case he had to jump in, he had a bad feeling about the man's attack.

But Katara showed no fear and waited silently.

The man roared in rage and sent a large blast of fire she wouldn't be able to dodge.

Aang gasped air and blew her high above as Zuko rolled where she was and split the fire in two so it wouldn't destroy anything else.

"Another spirit?" The mans voice trembled in fear as Zuko stayed crouched when Katara landed behind him.

Aang and Zuko used the moment together and blasted air and fire together at the leader, sending him flying into the water with a cry.

Katara stood over him at the end of the dock as he gasped for a breath looking at her like she was a spirit of death.

"Leave this village and never come back," Katara snarled down at him.

A soldier came back for the leader and helped him on the water vehicle and they raced away quickly before they angered the water bender anymore.

Katara smiled at the successful mission and saw Aang giving her a thumbed up from under the deck. She smiled back and turned to Zuko while the village was cheering for the two spirits.

Sokka and Toph rowed over to grab Aang from the deck and went around to join them above while the crowd was thanking painted lady.

"I knew you'd come," the little boy smiled as his mother held him.

"Praise the spirits," a man cheered.

"Me and my brothers really owe you and your sidekick a lot," dock walked up to them.

"Hey Wait a minute, I know you," he pointed seeing the face paint was fading. "Your that colonial girl,"

"You've been tricking us, a water bender!" Dock pointed at Katara accusingly but the blue spirit stepped in front of her with his emotionless mask staring at them.

"How dare Yoy act like our painted lady!" A woman yelled.

"And which of your little friends is this one?" Another villager scoffed.

"Watch it, she was just trying to help you," Zuko yelled back putting his mask up.

"Because of her that factory won't be polluting your river and the army is gone! You should be down on your pathetic knees thanking her!" He barked with rage in his eyes.

"Zuko, it's okay," Katara took her hat off and stepped forward.

"We shouldn't have acted like someone we aren't, and I shouldn't have tricked you, but I felt like I had to do something," she took a deep breath.

"It doesn't matter if our spirits are real or not, but your problems are real and this river is real, you can't wait around for someone to help you, you have to help yourselves," Katara looked at the villagers hopeful.

"She's right.. but what should we do?" Dock looked lost and guilty now.

"We should clean the river!" Toph called from the back of the crowd.

"Yea let's clean the river!" The crazy old man agreed excitedly. The crowd agreed as well and cheered to fix their river, a start to a new life for their small village.

They spent the rest of the day helping the village clean the river till the water was blue again instead of the disgusted brownish green it was before. The five of them decided to stay one more night to rest before the long weeks of traveling again.

Under the moon Zuko sat at the river while the others slept, he placed a leaf in the clean water and watched it float away while he had his blue spirit mask at his side.

He remembered his mother telling him stories about plays she's seen, she had these types of masks in the library of the palace and would tell him about the nuo operas she's been to where people would wear them. He hated theater but he loved watching them with his mother knowing how much she enjoyed them.

He wondered why he put on a mask.

"You okay?" Katara found him alone.

"I'm fine, why?" Zuko looked over his shoulder.

"Your sulking," she smiled sitting next to him and looked at the mask on the ground. She grabbed it and held it between the both of them.

"I am not, I'm admiring," Zuko shrugged.

"It was pretty amazing today, we changed so many lives, you helped your people," Katara nudged him a little.

"Don't say it like that," he rolled his eyes.

"I know I know, but it's an accomplishment still," she grunted standing up and held out her hand to him.

"Let's go to bed, time to move forward," Katara tilted her head to the side looking at the soldier.

"Okay," he took her hand.