A/N This is a sweet and simple one-shot version of what I think should have happened in Crossroads of Destiny featuring an OC! I hope you all like it tell me what you think so R&R and read my other story The Balance (title sucks).
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, yet. I don't even own this episode idea! goes to cry in corner ;-(
It Makes a Man
Zuko was forced blindly into the rough walls of the underground. "Wonderful I get thrown into an empty cave!" Zuko declared.
"It's not empty, bozo." Katara said too tired to be polite.
He turned to the sound of the voice and saw her sitting against one wall of the cave surrounded by glowing tealish green crystals. The girl rose from her sitting position.
"So what is this? An elaborate scheme to capture the Avatar?" Katara snapped at the former fire nation prince.
"My days of hunting the Avatar are over." Zuko retorted.
"Give me one good reason to believe you! One!" Katara challenged.
Zuko couldn't think of any, not a single one. She grunted. "Hmph... I thought so." she said.
"You're just fire nation scum like the rest of them! You fight for power, only power. You destroy everything in your way towns, animals..." Katara paused " families."
"Because of your stupid war I'll probably never see my father again!" Katara shouted holding back tears. " And I know... I'll never...see my mother again... because..." Katara was now sobbing quietly and talking slowly. She turned to face the wall of the cave now sitting once again.
"The fire nation killed my mother." She clutched the necklace passed on from her grandmother and mother to her.
The banished prince had taken to sitting facing the opposite wall but at the last comment he turned around, a grim look on his face.
"That's something we have in common." He said flatly as if it was all he had and now it was gone. That one little sentence. He finally believed it all. The fire nation had actually killed his mother, fire nation royalty.
Katara stopped her flow of tears long enough to turn. "I don't want to spend more time in here then I have to." Katara told Zuko. "Can't you like... melt it or something?" Katara questioned.
Zuko looked at the metal door she was motioning towards. He stood up and walked to it without a word. He put his hand close to the door and let out a string of fire.
The strand continued for a minute but after little progress, Zuko extinguished it."It'll take too long and burn up all the oxygen meaning we'd suffocate." Zuko told the water-bender.
"I know what it means!" Katara snapped. Realizing her unkindness she apologized. "I'm sorry it's just-" she stopped.
"Is the ground...vibrating?" Katara questioned disbelieving.
Zuko quickly jumped into a fighting stance and prepared himself for what may come. Katara felt the shaking halt. She let out a sigh of relief.
Just then the wall smashed open and a little girl walked through and immediately went into a fighting stance. Katara was facing the new-comer and she looked into her eyes. She saw a glassy covering over them. She was blind like Toph.
Boulders were raised all around her and she was ready for an attack. Katara stepped toward the stranger who turned in her direction. "My name is Katara." she said calmly. Zuko shifted his weight uncomfortably.
"And Mr. Tightlipped over here?" she asked directing the question to Katara. However Zuko answered. "That's my business and no one else's!"
He let loose a pillar of fire toward the girl but she blocked it easily with a boulder she slid her foot on the earthen surface causing Zuko to slam into the wall. She bound him with earthen shackles — palms facing each other.
He scowled in distaste. Just what he needed another obnoxious, naive little girl in his vicinity. And on top of that she was blind — and had still defeated him!
Katara got her first good look at the girl. She had messy dirty blonde hair and those glassy green eyes that saw nothing. Her dress was similar to Toph's and she walked barefoot.
"What's your name?" Katara asked politely trying to make nice conversation with the girl.
"My name's Chala, what's it to you?" she replied in such a way discouraging Katara's manners.
Katara's pinched smile shrunk. "What were you doing down here?" She prodded.
"Taking a walk." was the off-hand-reply.
Katara quickly got annoyed as she had when she first met Toph and went straight to the point. "Can you just get us out?" Katara wondered being concise with Chala.
"Whatever." She answered. She walked up to the wall of the cave and felt for some sort of earth door.
"Can you let me go now?" came a pestering voice.
Chala flicked her wrist and the shackles crumbled away onto the ground. Meanwhile Chala continued feeling against the rough wall. To her surprise she found not an earth door, but a metal door.
She grinned at the challenging task ahead of her. She put up a hand to the door first to see if her mission was possible or not. She couldn't tell anything. It's not moving she thought.
Chala carefully examined her choices and threw them all in the trash bin, metaphorically speaking of course. She thought of a new plan and reared her leg back and slammed it against the metal door with great force causing it to vibrate visibly. Her hand flew up to the door and she felt for it.
Her grin grew wider as she felt it's presence. Tiny bits of earth. In the metal. The metal was bendable!
Katara and Zuko looked on with wonderment, not understanding the point of all these strange actions. They began to shift weight and move around, the beginning signs of cabin fever.
Chala had been trying to concentrate on the door ahead of her when she exploded "Stop it! Can't you see I'm trying to get you out of here?". Katara and Zuko were silent.
"Wait until I get through here. The first one's always the hardest." she explained.
"There's more than one?" Katara exclaimed frantically growing impatient.
"Calm down, Sugar Queen." was Chala's only answer. She concentrated harder and moved the pieces of earth with great concentration. The moving bits trapped the impurities and forced them aside as well. The metal door slowly but surely scrunched to the side.
"There!" she said proud of her work. She felt through the ground. "Eight more." she reported to the people in the cave behind her.
"Did you call me Sugar Queen?" Katara asked suspiciously.
"What? I'm blind now you have to be deaf?" joked Chala targeting not only Katara but herself.
"Toph used to call me that." she informed them slowly."She looked at some of the similarities. "You guys are related aren't you?" she asked Chala.
She had just finished bending the second door aside. "Yeah, so." she said impatiently. She began to work on the third door.
"What if I told you I knew where she was?" Katara said in a way taunting the girl she had begun to dislike already.
"I don't know." she said sounding bewildered. The third door smashed to the side. This was getting easier.
"Well, she was with us when we were traveling as a group." Katara informed her.
"You don't say." said Chala sarcastically as the fourth door moved to the side with a sickening, bine-chilling creak. In reality her ears had perked up at the bit if information.
"Mind you I said was." Katara pointed out. "Meaning no longer. Her mother sent her a letter telling her she wanted to see her."
Abruptly, Chala stopped her work. "Our mother?" she said not believing her ears. "Wow, I guess I'm deaf too now. Our mother's been dead for years." Chala continued speaking and began to tell the tale of how her parents died. She was working the whole way through. "We had just come back from a fishing trip, me and Toph were six at the time. Crash! We found an army of fire nation soldiers waiting for us when we came back. Unfortunately we didn't want to go through the wall since they would follow us in. When we wouldn't go in they decided to kill our family. Smash! They killed our mother and father as we watched, yes we could see at the time. And then they called the general over to us. Boom!"
Zuko now became interested in the story at the mention of his Uncle Iroh.
"Well, he sent this whip of fire at us but me and Toph were able to bend some earth and block ourselves partially. Up to our necks. Unfortunately there was an angle on top that directed the fire right into our eyes. Bam! We're lucky we're still alive today. Toph tried bending some earth, but it didn't come straight. A giant wave of earth just poured over them and we ran." Chala finished.
"Wait so who was Toph with when we met her?" Katara questioned.
"Probably her foster parents. They don't care about her too much to check on her and let her still be free." Chala said mistily putting a hand to the last door.
"So they must have set up a trap!" cried Katara in realization.
"Took you long enough to piece it together, Sugar Queen." taunted Chala. "This last doors a little harder it may take some time." she said before dutifully getting back to work.
"I may not be blind, but I still took a blow to the eye from some fire." Zuko finally spoke. "I'm Zuko by the way."
Katara walked up and looked at the scar. She placed her hand over his eye. She withdrew it and began to rummage through her robes.
"What are you looking for?" he asked her confused.
"A-hah!" she cried and revealed a painstakingly detailed tiny vial. "It contains special healing water from a spirit oasis in the north pole." she explained to him. "Here, let me try something." she said as she slowly bended the water out of the vial.
Zuko's voice startled her, "Don't." he said. "It sounds weird but, this scar makes me a man." he told her sheepishly.
"Is that what your heart tells you?" she asked him honestly.
A pause. "Yes."
"But it also tells me to take this opportunity." and he released her hand.
Katara slowly bended the water into his wound and used some healing techniques. As she pulled her hand away from his face the crystal's glow diminished and they were left in the dark with one last big bang.
Chala spoke up. "I feel someone coming."
"I need to tell you something. When Toph made the giant wave of earth I got caught in it's path." Chala admitted solemnly.
"Were you hurt?" Katara asked. Chala's lack of reply answered it all. "But...how?"
"Around the same time the balancing spirit for the elements brought himself over to the real world and left the spiritual world forever. Shortly after he was mistakenly killed and I found myself in the spirit world. When there I could see."
"It was amazing. But the previous Avatar Roku cam to explain the current situation. When he finished he asked me if I was ready and I never asked for what. I told him I was and just like that I became the balance spirit."
"I'm still blind and I have nothing against that. Now I have the power of the old balance spirit and let me tell you they're amazing!" she grinned though no one could see. "Though I never had the power to do this. Please tell Toph I miss her and I never forgot."
Katara was still registering all the information but she agreed with a heavy heart.
"Now when I first went to the spirit world I saw the foretelling of this long battle. And I just have to say fight hard, Katara, and tell all your friends that as well." she exclaimed. "Now I saw some things in there but not everything. One thing I do know is this is where I go down fighting. I may not be able to die but I sure as hell am gonna kick some butt." she rallied. "Now who's with me?" she asked to a hollowed cave and her own echo.
Katara shouted in agreement and got ready for one of the biggest fights of her life. Her heart was racing as the girl could tell. At that moment Chala bended the last door into place as a last act of defense. However the oncoming fire bending princess, Azula, melted it with ease, now that it was weakened.
"So I see we have another little friend here." said Azula as she lit the room with her fireball in her hand, and about 20 visible Dai Li agents followed her into the room. Zuko backed into the shadows. Chala flicked her wrist and bound Azula palms facing each other like she had Zuko.
She threw large boulders at all the Dai Li agents and caught some off guard, however, they recovered rather quickly. Katara bended what water was left from her pouch and created a whip which she used on the Dai Li agents. Meanwhile Azula struggled with her shackles. One of the free Dai Li agents undid them and Azula caught Chala off guard with a large blast to the face. The Dai Li forced her into a rather large metal box that had just been brought down. Katara and Zuko saw a her lips curl into a faint smile.
Avatar Aang all of a sudden burst through the wall with Uncle Iroh. Aang grabbed Katara and quickly fled while Iroh stayed to fight.
Inside the box Chala felt him move. Him! The one who killed me and my parents and blinded Toph! I can't believe it! He's fighting against Azula? thought Chala as she had been following Azula's footsteps for some days now.
Meanwhile outside the box, Uncle had been encased in the no longer glowing crystals by the Dai Li Agents. Only his face was now visible.
"Hello brother. I see you've been enjoying yourself in Ba Sing Se. However I am in need of some assistance. How would you like to join the real winner's side again?" she asked.
"Don't do it the choice is your's and only your's ." Iroh said barely audible.
Azula became aggravated by the old man and the Dai Li agents covered him completely. "Listen to your heart, choose your own destiny Zuko." Uncle's voice muffled by the choking crystal.
Azula followed the path the Avatar had taken with the girl and prepared for a fight. The Dai Li agents followed along with the box containing the balance spirit. Azula walked into the large earthen room. A large stream flowed through providing the water-bender with a source. Azula scowled.
" Oh well what's two minutes of my time." she sighed. She aimed a stream of fire at Aang but he dodged it fairly easily. Aang whipped his staff around in the air and slapped and end down on the earth causing a large rip in the earth to follow to Azula. Unfortunately she dodged the attack as well. They continued fighting like this for a long time.
Meanwhile, Zuko had joined the room. In the light Katara could see his scar was gone! She smiled at her work. But the smile wiped off her face as she realized he was not on their side. He approached her with two fiery whips.
"I thought you had changed!" shouted Katara angrily.
"I have," was Zuko's simple, curt reply.
"I meant for the better." clarified Katara to the dumb former prince.
"I told you I have." He said obnoxiously causing him to be totally of guard when a large wave of water washed over him slamming him into one of the pillars. He didn't show any pain though Katara hoped his ungrateful soul felt it.
Then at one moment the pairs were switched though Katara and Aang didn't now how as they were caught in the hustle and bustle of the battle trying to keep fighting. However, they were slowly losing their battle to stay alive.
Katara fought off Azula with all her strength. She was holding up better than Aang who was now fighting Zuko. Zuko had just slammed Aang into the balcony above and behind him. As much as they didn't want to show it they were losing.
Azula blasted Katara with a fiery pillar smashing Katara against one of the nearby rock clusters. Little did she know from inside the box, Chala had moved the cluster as much as she could without it being noticed so that it would move back and absorb some of the force. The idea worked and Katara was not seriously hurt, however Katara's hair had fallen into a simple down look with her two bands still in place on her bangs.
The Dai Li had closed in on Katara and Azula was no longer fighting her. She formed a large ring of water around her with arms seeming to jut out of it.
About 50 Dai Li, Azula, and Zuko now all stood ready to attack Aang. He went to his last resort. He used earth-bending to surround himself in the now -glowing crystals as a sort of shelter as Katara and everyone else watched. Inside the dome Aang fought back tears as he came to the decision heavy-heartedly.
"I'm sorry, Katara."
Aang rose out of the crystal dome now trying to achieve the Avatar state. He saw himself about 100 times larger inside before him as he floated in the cosmos. Just then a flash of lighting wrecked the vision. Aang began to fall in his vison and in real life.
However, if you die in the Avatar State, The Avatar cycle will be broken forever. No more Avatars!
Katara saw him fall and began to rise amidst a DNA shaped water pillar. She created a large wave and caught Aang just in time. Every one was washed over by the wave. Katara held Aang close to her.
"Aang are you all right?" she questioned frantically trying to penetrate the silence forced over him. But there was no reply. Katara began sobbing.
At that moment large crack was heard down the tunnel Aang made. Then shattering and soon Uncle Iroh appeared in front of the Dai Li. Chala had been waiting for this moment. She burst out of here metal box and landed next to Uncle Iroh.
"Ah! You again. I assume you are the new balance spirit." Iroh said to Chala.
"Correct as always." Chala joked. "Let's kick some butt." she said to Iroh.
Iroh turned to Katara. "Run! I'll hold them off as long as I can!" Iroh said and began fighting as hard as he could. Meanwhile Chala told Katara to wait a little longer.
Chala turned to Zuko one-on-one. "It makes a man." she sneered using some of Zuko's own words. She breathed a long breath of fire finally displaying other bending skills. The fire hit Zuko exactly where his old scar has been. And out of some crazy miracle his old scar began to come back.
"What crazy witchcraft is this?" expressed and agitated Zuko.
Chala bended a long winding icy path in the air. She used her air bending threw her breath and blew a vial with a string attached down the path. When Katara received the object at the other end she saw it was the same vial her spirit oasis water had been in that she had left in the cave.
Katara gently shook the vial and sure enough the vial was still in there. She didn't even ask. She just started at the scene unfolding through teary eyes.
She could see they were fighting a losing battle. Chala herself said this was were she went down fighting. She remembered Toph and decided to ask Chala one more thing.
"What should I tell Toph?" Katara braved.
There was a pause. "I'm sorry." was all she said.
Just then when she was distracted a large fiery blow from Azula hit her dead on in her chest. She was thrown back wards into a pillar and it toppled onto her.
Katara couldn't watch any more she ran up to the surface where Toph, Sokka, The Earth King, and his bear Bobo were all waiting on Appa. "Let's go!" commanded Toph. She's not different from Chala at all thought Katara as she boarded Appa with Aang. Momo arrived just then and all were glad he was safe.
"What happened?" they asked pestering her. She only told them of how Aang was shot down in the Avatar State. They all were silent as Katara bended the oasis water into his back wound.
"The Earth Kingdom...has fallen." The Earth King said solemnly. A moment of silence was observed.
"Now all that stands against the fire nation is the water tribe... and us." Sokka said seriously. They all sat thinking about how much weight was on all their shoulders or other wise the fire nation would rule all.
I hope you all liked that little one shot! Anyways R&R plz !!!!!! Tell me what you think, flames if necessary are accepted.
He brought us tears of joy and sadness and even laughter.
his voice seemed to be able to comfort us when we were down.
When I heard him i smiled and felt happily ever after
But I most aprreciate him when he's no longer around
----- In memory of Mako the voice of Uncle Iroh