5
Ba Sing Se has fallen, and Aang is critically injured. He awakes to find his group on a Fire Nation ship disguised in similar regalia. Sokka has planned a small-scale invasion of the Fire Nation to simply capture the Fire Lord's palace and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, making use of their previous plan to take advantage of a soon-approaching solar eclipse which will render all Firebending useless for eight minutes. However, instead of the Earth Kingdom army and navy, the invasion will be staged by a ragtag group of benders and warriors who became allies of the Avatar along his journeys in Books One and Two. Aang and his group then infiltrate the Fire Nation and travel to the rendezvous point for the invasion force. Also, Aang starts to have nightmares about meeting the Fire Lord. The invasion proceeds as planned with the group defeating much of the defenses and capturing the area around the palace, but Aang finds that the palace had been evacuated beforehand and the Fire Nation had foreknowledge of the invasion; the royal family has taken refuge in a nearby bunker under a volcano and prepared an air fleet in a surprise counter-maneuver. Aang never finds Fire Lord Ozai, but Zuko does, and uses the solar eclipse as his chance to confront his father and proclaim his decision to join the Avatar. As the group realizes they have failed in their main
Season Three (Book Three: Fire)
objective, they abandon the captured Fire Nation capital and make a desperate effort to reach their ships to escape. However, the pursuing air fleet destroys the protagonist party's ships. Now, only Aang's sky bison Appa can provide a means of escape, and Aang retreats with the children and teens aboard Appa while the adults stay behind and are taken captive. Zuko catches up with Aang at the Western Air Temple and offers to teach Aang Firebending, to complete his training as the Avatar and master all four elements. After a brief conflict, he is allowed to join the group. The two travel to unlock the Firebending secrets of the original Firebenders, the secretive "Sun Warriors". He and Sokka also plan an infiltration of "the Boiling Rock", a high-security inescapable Fire Nation prison surrounded by the boiling water