The gang is happy to have Appa back and after their fight with the Dai Li, find refuge on a small island on Lake Laogai. With Appa back, Sokka wants to fly to the Ba Sing Se Earth King's palace and give him the information on the eclipse and expose the Dai Li. Although Toph and Katara are first skeptical, they all finally agree after seeing ships that are presumably Dai Li searching for them.
While approaching the palace, they are attacked by earth kingdom soldiers. The gang fight their way through the soldiers all along trying to let them know they don't want to fight them and they should all be on the same side. Once inside the palace, they finally reach an inner chamber where they find the Earth King with Long Feng standing beside him. To show they are not attempting to overthrow him, the kids drop their weapons only to be rock-tied behind their backs by the Dai Li soldiers at Long Feng's command. After finally convincing the Earth King that Long Feng is a liar by exposing the bite that Appa left on his leg, the gang then must convince him that there is a war going on. First they take him to Lake Laogai to show him the prison where all the brainwashing was taking place only to find it has been destroyed already, presumably by the Dai Li. Once they cohearse the Earth King to travel to the outer wall on Appa's back, he finally realizes there is a war going on when he looks upon the drill with the Fire Nation emblem. The Earth King orders the Dai Li to arrest Long Feng to face charges of crimes committed against the Earth Kingdom.
Meanwhile, we see Iroh and Zuko returning from Lake Laogai. Zuko begins to get blurred vision and collapses. He is stirred awake by Iroh explaining to him that his actions in freeing the Avatar's Bison have started a reaction inside him and that once he awakes from his turmoil, he will be the beautiful Prince that he was meant to be. Zuko first dreams has him sitting in the Fire Temple's chambers being addressed as Fire Lord Zuko by a blue dragon with Azula's voice. Zuko's scar is gone and the Blue Dragon is trying to get him to sleep but the Red Dragon, with the voice of Iroh, wants him to stay awake and leave. The Blue Dragon tells him to sleep again, just like his mother. Zuko's dream then changes to a vision of his mother asking him for help which he is unable to give as he gets sucked into a black hole.
Back at the palace, Sokka and Aang fill the Earth King in about the comet and the eclipse. He agrees to provide troops to assist in the attack against the Fire Nation. Their meeting is interrupted by General How, the leader of the Counsel of 5, a group of highest ranking Generals. He advises the group that they found items of interest while searching Long Feng’s office. Aang is given the note from the Guru that was attached to Appa’s horns. Toph is given a letter presumably from her mother asking to meet her at a location in Ba Sing Se. Sokka and Katara are given an intelligence report detailing the location of their father. The group decides to split up to follow these leads with Katara staying behind in Ba Sing Se to assist the Earth King with plans to invade the Fire Nation.
As Aang and Sokka are preparing to leave on Appa, they are interrupted when the Earth King approaches them with news of a group of individuals calling themselves Kyoshi Warriors who are asking for an audience with the king. Sokka assures the Earth King that they are valuable and trustworthy allies in the fight against the Fire Nation and he agrees he will greet them as honorable guests. Before leaving, Aang attempts to tell Katara how he feels about her. Sokka breaks into the moment and the gang shares a tender moment together when they realize the won‘t be seeing each other for awhile. Aang and Sokka are seen flying off on Appa with positive thoughts that everything is finally going in the right direction.
Again, we see Zuko waking up and going to splash water on his face. As he brings his face up to look in the mirror, he is shocked to see that he has an airbender's arrow on his bald head and once again, the scar is not present. Zuko jerks awake to realize it was just a dream. He slowly raises his hand to his face, touching below his right eye feeling where the scar is still present.
The scene shifts to a prison, where we see a Dai Li soldier sliding a dinner plate under a door to Long Feng. The soldier states that the military and the Counsel of 5 are loyal to the Earth King but the Dai Li is still loyal to Long Feng.
Back in Ba Sing Se, we see Toph approach a house and knock upon the door. Entering inside calling for her mother, she realizes something is wrong. A large metal coffin drops from the ceiling, enclosing her inside. We see Master Yu and Xin Fu drop from the ceiling and approach the coffin stating that somebody has been a bad wandering so far from home.
We finally see the procession of 3 Kyoshi Warriors approaching the Earth King. As the warriors march past the soldiers, they bow down to present themselves to the king as he welcomes them. The head Kyoshi Warrior raises her head wearing the head piece of Suki, but instead we hear Azula’s voice say, "We are the Earth King’s humble servants." The 3 Kyoshi Warriors are actually revealed to be Azula, Mai and Ty Lee.
