Kuei organizes a city-wide party in the Earth Kingdom to announce the launch of the Harmony Restoration Movement. Before the celebrations begin, the friends visit Iroh, Zuko’s uncle and former heir to the Fire Nation throne, at his new tea shop, the Jade Dragon. In a scene replicated from the last episode of the animated series, Aang and Katara share a kiss on a balcony outside the shop. Sokka walks out onto the balcony and discovers them kissing. He and Katara briefly bicker about public displays of affection before Sokka announces that the other friends want to take Appa, Aang’s flying sky bison, for a ride.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Zuko, and Toph watch the celebratory fireworks from atop Appa. Toph, who is blind, does not enjoy the fireworks very much since she only experiences how noisy they are. Aang notices that Zuko also seems upset. Zuko says that he has recently visited Ozai in prison and asks Aang to destroy him if he ever becomes evil like his father. Zuko is unsure if the pressure of running the Fire Nation, especially at such a critical time, will eventually corrupt him. He wants assurance that should that ever happen, Aang will prioritize the world’s well-being. At first, Aang is hurt that Zuko, his friend, would ask him to do such a thing. But with Katara’s encouragement, he finally promises that if Zuko ever becomes like Ozai, he will kill him.

A year later, Fire Lord Zuko has survived five assassination attempts and is paranoid about people trying to kill him. One night, while asleep in his bed at the Royal Palace in the Fire Nation capital, he is woken by strange noises. He tells the guards outside his door that another assassination attempt is underway, but they assure him that he is imagining things. 

However, the guards are suddenly knocked out by a masked assailant, who then turns to attack Zuko. Zuko uses his firebending to defeat her and pulls the mask off to reveal Kori, the teenage daughter of Mayor Morishita of Yu Dao, the Fire Nation’s oldest colony in the Earth Kingdom. Kori tells Zuko that he is a traitor and that the Harmony Restoration Movement is destroying her home.

Zuko brings Kori back to Yu Dao and confronts her parents about the assassination attempt. While the mayor is initially apologetic about Kori’s behavior, he chafes at Zuko’s insistence that the Harmony Restoration Movement is a force for peace. Morishita asserts that his family has lived in Yu Dao for generations and played an essential role in the city’s development; he argues that they do not deserve to be forcibly removed from their homes. He goes on to compare Zuko to Ozai, arguing, “[Y]our father would never have let the Avatar and the Earth King bully him into something so obviously bad for his own nation’s citizens” (26).

The mention of Ozai sparks a flashback for Zuko, and he remembers going to visit the defeated Fire Lord in prison. Zuko demanded that his father divulge the location of Ursa, Zuko’s long-lost mother, whom Ozai had banished at the start of his reign. In response, Ozai taunted Zuko, telling him that they should have the conversation over a warm cup of tea. As Zuko stormed out of the room, Ozai said that he would inevitably be changed by the pressures of being Fire Lord and that he, Ozai, was the only one who would be able to give Zuko counsel from experience. Returning to the present, Zuko furiously pins Morishita against a wall and yells that he is nothing like Ozai.

At the same time that Zuko is in Yu Dao, Aang, Katara, and Sokka escort a group of Fire Nation colonials from their homes in Yu Dao to the Fire Nation. The colonials are nervous because they have lived outside the Fire Nation for generations. Aang dismisses their concerns, telling them that they will have fun and reconnect with their culture in the Fire Nation’s homeland. When the group docks in the Fire Nation, however, a Fire Nation soldier tells them to stop unloading and return to the Earth Kingdom. He informs Aang that Zuko has rescinded his cooperation with the Harmony Restoration Movement.

After the end of the Hundred Year War, Toph, Aang’s earthbending teacher and friend, established a metalbending academy. Aang, Katara, and Soka find her there, and Katara fills her in on Zuko’s change of heart. Meanwhile, Aang meditates, hoping to gain some clarity about what to do. In his spirit form, Aang converses with the spirit of Avatar Roku (Aang has access to the spirits of all previous Avatars since they are reincarnations of one another). Roku, Aang’s predecessor who died at the start of the war, apologizes to Aang because he is “still dealing with the consequences of [his] own indecisiveness” (40). Roku says that he regrets not killing Fire Lord Sozin, his childhood friend, when it became clear that Sozin was trying to take over the world. Aang is shocked by this, but Roku remains resolute that Aang should prioritize the needs of the world over his friendship.