Okay… I don't generally do AU's that are this big of changes, but I decided to take a walk on the wild side and try something new. All the characters have their same spot as in the original Avatar, but I tweaked their personalities and some of their history a bit. Pairings: Kataang, Sukka, and Maiko
I'll just inform you on a few quick things before you start reading. Sozin's Comet only comes once every 500 years. Aang will be entering the world as a 16 year old, around a year before Sozin's Comet returns. The war is evolving very SLOWLY. Only now, under the rule of Ozai, everything is picking up. The world is in a state of devastation. That's about all you need to know... Here is the character ages:
Katara: 17
Sokka: 19
Aang: 16
Toph: 15
Zuko: 20
Mai: 19
Chapter 1. Mystery Boy
"Boo!"
"Ah!" Shortly after the yell was a series of crashes and clatters. Afterwards a fit of giggling was heard.
"That was not funny!" Sokka said completely irritated.
"Oh, lighten up." Katara kneeled down to help her brother pick up the pieces on a 'invention' he was working on.
"Lighten up? You tell me to lighten up? You-"
"Just be quiet Sokka," Katara cut him off. "It's not like your 'inventions' do anything useful, nevertheless actually work."
"Your just jealous that dad let's me fight in the war and not you!" He added, and was triumphant when he realized he hit a nerve.
"ME jealous of you?" The words turned over in her head a little longer before she burst out laughing. "You can keep thinking that," she muttered. She was done cleaning up the mess on the floor. The metal pieces were neatly pushed together in a pile.
"So why are you here?" He asked her skeptically, she never came down just to see him.
"What do you mean? A sister can't visit her brother?" She asked him innocently, sticking out her bottom lip ever so slightly. He stared at her, unmoving.
She let out a sigh, knowing she lost. "Dad needs your help to think up another invasion plan."
He looked away thinking about it, "we just failed our previous plan and he already is trying to think up another?"
She simply shrugged her shoulders and walked up the latter towards the deck.
"There you are son, I've been waiting for you." Hakoda patted Sokka's shoulder with a fond smile.
"Yeah. So we are making plans for another invasion?" Sokka asked, quirking his eyebrow towards his father.
"Yes, our next best time to invade is several months away. Our men should be healed up by then," Hakoda knew Sokka wasn't very happy with the idea of pushing their warriors. Why? He did not know.
"Maybe we should hide? If you ask me, a water tribe ship in the middle of the ocean is quite noticeable. But if we where in a patch of glaciers, then we will be well hidden until it is time to attack." Sokka said triumphantly at how quick he was able to form a plan.
"Very good idea. I do believe there is a glacier field not to far away from here," Hakoda mused thoughtfully.
"We are loosing out here dad," Sokka said abruptly. Hakoda looked at his son, not sure where this was going.
"We can't stop fighting son, you need to remember that." He hoped this wouldn't turn into another argument with his son, he hated doing that.
"It's just, no matter what we do, we fail. Not one invasion has worked out! What's the reason of fighting? There is hardly a world left to save, a small ship like us doesn't stand a chance against the Fire Nation. It's only a matter of days till the Fire Nation tracks us down and burns us all!" Sokka stood up almost shouting. He gave up hope a long time ago and to him, it was useless to waste good men on something they can't win.
"I understand, but we have to at least try. I'd rather die a failure and know that I did my best, rather than die a failure and not have tried at all." Hakoda said calmly, he knew the war was tough on his kids, but they had to face it. "Right now we need a secret weapon, something to surprise them, something they were least expecting."
Sokka quirked a eyebrow up at his father. "What about Katara? They don't know you have a daughter, and they will be very surprised to see a waterbending master go at them." As much as he hated to bring his sister into the war, he knew he had to, it was their last chance.
"I don't know if I could bring her into this, but I'll think about it." Hakoda gave his son a hug and dismissed him.
"So we are going to hide behind glaciers?" Katara asked.
"We need to hide, they are our best chance," Sokka leaned over the rail watching the ocean pass below them.
"They can't hide us to well, glaciers are mostly transparent, unless covered by snow." She watched him closely. "What's our new plan?"
"You."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"You are our new plan." Sokka sighed turning to face her. He knew she would probably be thrilled to get to fight. She was a natural warrior at heart.
"How am I your invasion plan?" She asked skeptically.
"They don't know about you, and they will be surprised to see you as a waterbending master. But we aren't too sure. We still don't know how we will invade them, and I am pretty sure we are going to fail. One more warrior won't do us much."
"Your right." She sighed, looking over the edge of the ship. A rather large fish was swimming by, and a smirk grew on her face.
"What are you thinking?" He asked her with concern, hoping she didn't think up so stupid plan.
"Dinner."
"Dinner?"
"Dinner." She repeated firmly. Moving her hands in a circular motion, she created a bubble around the fish and scooped it up out of the water, hovering it above deck. Sokka's jaw dropped, that trick never ceased to amaze him. Instantly he began to drool thinking about it cooking, and betters yet, eating it.
"I love you!" He jumped at her wrapping her up in a giant bear hug causing her to drop the fish.
"Sokka," she growled trying to escape his hold on her.
"Oh, sorry." After that he completely ignored her and set off trying to catch the jumping fish. She rolled her eyes and started to mindlessly play with the water that fell off the fish.
"Katara, Sokka, go check the waters and make sure it's safe." Bato said as he lowered the fishing boat into the water.
"With pleasure," Katara jumped down into it, waiting for Sokka.
"I call dibs on the first Fire Nation guy we find," Sokka said planning his attack.
"If we find any," Katara rolled her eyes and began to move the boat using her waterbending. She knew this was going to be a long boat ride.
So far they spotted nothing. Sokka grew bored so he decided to annoy Katara with songs.
"Secret tunnel, secret tunnel-" he sang out loud. It was a old song telling about this old legend. Sokka heard it once from these traveling nomad people. He only heard it once, so the only part he knew was the chorus.
"Uh, Sokka," Katara was trying to grab his attention. Floating in the water nearby was a huge spherical iceberg, it was glowing a bright white/blue color.
"Secret, secret, secret-" Sokka boasted out loud, trying to ignore her. His eyes where shut tight to add drama to the last verse of the song.
"Sokka!" Katara seethed, he was so annoying.
"SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET TUNNEL!" He yelled trying to drown out her voice.
"SOKKA!" Katara yelled and water whipped his forehead.
"OW!" He shouted rubbing his forehead angrily.
"I'm trying to get you to be quiet, this is serious!" She said pointing towards the glowing iceberg.
"What's seri-" his mouth dropped open. "What the hell is that?" He asked her.
"It looks like a iceberg to me, braniac."
"Let's just leave it, it could be some Fire Nation trap."
Katara nodded her head and bent the water underneath them so they could move faster, trying to gain as much distance as possible from it. The sun was getting low in the sky, and once she looked at it again, but this time from another angle, the sun shone through the iceberg, showing off the silhouette of a boy and some weird shaped object.
"Sokka! Someone's in there!" Katara gasped and jumped out of the boat, creating frozen stepping-stones.
"Katara wait! Come back!" He yelled, but he knew it was useless. Once Katara set her mind, there was no setting it back. His only option was to follow her. So he warily set out on the stepping stones, wobbling and almost falling off many times.
When Katara reached the iceberg she placed her hand on it slowly, trying to determine how thick the ice was. It was strange ice; it didn't feel natural to her. It was thick, and strong. When Sokka reached her, she ran up to him and snatched his boomerang before he could say any protest. She then swung at the mammoth iceberg with all her strength, trying to break it. It took several tries, and then it suddenly cracked. It didn't crack in rough lines and random breaks, but in a perfect straight line. When the crack reached the top of the iceberg, a blinding blue light never-ending blue light shot straight into the sky. The iceberg popped open with almost a explosion, not of fire, but of air.
"What have you done!" Sokka shouted angrily at Katara, now every Fire Nation ship will know where they are. Katara ignored him, mesmerized by the light.
Eventually the light died off to reveal a passed out boy lying next to a passed out monster. Silence filled the air as Katara and Sokka stood there not knowing what to do. A deep breath was heard from the boy as he began to breathe in and out of his nose.
"He's alive!" Katara rushed over to him and cradled him in her arms. He was the strangest looking person she had ever set her eyes on. He looked around her age, and he seemed tall and was lightly built. He had a baldhead, and on that baldhead was a large sky blue arrow that ended on his forehead. It also appeared on his hands, and on the top of his bare feet. His garb was strange to. He was wearing orange and yellow, rather than reds, blues, or greens. She hasn't seen anyone wear those colors before. It looked more like a robe than any shirt or pants.
"He's weird." Sokka stated the obvious truth.
"No kidding," Katara muttered. The boy in her arms began to stir, his eyelids fluttered and he let out a groan. Weakly, his eye's partially opened up taking a look at who was holding him.
The memories hit him like a flood. He remembered crashing into the giant wave, getting lost under the icy depths of the ocean. Then an eerie glow surrounded him and everything turned black. Now he had an angel standing over him, worriedly looking into his eyes. Suddenly his eyes snapped fully open to behold the beauty that stood before him.
"Where … Am I?" His voice cracked from lack of use.
"Your in the South Pole," Katara said gently. His eyes widened and he seemed to awaken from his sleepy state.
"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes," He remarked, staring deeply into her eyes making her blush.
"Don't you dare flirt with my sister! Who are you? What are you, some Fire Nation spy?" Sokka asked angrily, pulling him away from Katara.
"Sokka, be nice!" Katara scolded.
"No, I understand. I'd be worried to. I'm Aang, and no I'm not a Fire Nation spy, why would I be?" Aang answered confused.
"Aang," Katara breathed, "I never heard that name before," she whispered to herself.
"I don't like you." Sokka said as he poked his head with a stick. Aang shrugged it off and jumped up suddenly when he heard a grunt behind him.
"APPA!" He yelled excitedly as he ran up the monster's head and gave him a hug. Whatever the creature was, it licked Aang's body and released another grunt.
"What. IS. That?" Sokka seethed, his jaw dropped in shock.
"This is my flying bison, Appa." Aang said with a smile. Katara and Sokka both stared at him like he was some alien. "What, you haven't seen a flying bison before?" They shook their heads robotically. "Well anyway, who are you guys?"
"I'm Katara, and this is my annoying brother Sokka." She replied easily. Sokka scowled at her.
"Nice to meet you, Katara," Aang smiled dreamily, he was obviously day dreaming about something. Sokka scowled at him as he saw that Aang was spaced off smiling slyly at his sister.
"Quit grinning like a fool at my sister," Sokka said with his best menacing voice. Aang looked at him abruptly, slightly confused.
"I was smiling?" He asked wondrously.
"Ugh!" Sokka nearly face palmed himself. He couldn't take any more weirdness today. Katara rolled her eyes at Sokka, he always overreacted to things and he was always annoying when they met someone new. Sure, its good to be cautious, but Aang seemed more then trustworthy.
"Sokka, we've been gone for a while. We should head back to the ship," Katara said hoping to change the mood that the previous conversation between Aang and Sokka started.
"How?" Sokka said as he saw that their boat was taken by the current and crushed by some nearby glaciers.
"Appa can take us to your ship," Aang suggested kindly. Katara smiled fondly towards him and walked over towards the beast.
"Wait! Katara! We can't take Aang to the ship! I won't allow you to get on that monster." Sokka stomped his foot on the ground, trying to make a point that he would stay firm on his opinion.
"Sokka, it is our only way. We are trapped here if we don't take the ride. Besides Aang needs a home, he doesn't have anywhere to go. We can't just send him off to wonder aimlessly on his bison in the middle of the ocean. Not even you are that heartless." Katara crossed her arms; she knew she would win this argument. She was stubborn, and everyone knew you couldn't persuade a stubborn girl.
"I hate women," Sokka grumbled and walked cautiously towards Appa, hoping he wouldn't become the animal's next meal.
"Don't worry. Appa doesn't find sarcastic brothers tasty," Aang commented with a smirk, only to receive a half growl escape Sokka.
"Guys!" Katara threw her arms up in the air frustrated. Aang jumped up onto Appa's head easily, taking the reins into his hands.
"Hold on," He warned. "Yip yip!" Aang shouted, snapping the reins to add affect to his words. Appa groaned and plunged into the water, swimming casually.
"Some flying bison," Sokka said with fake amazement.
"She's young and still in training," Aang excused as he laid flat out on his belly on top of the Bison's head.
"Where are they?" Hakoda muttered as he paced the railing nervously.
"Calm down, I'm sure they are fine. They probably stopped to fish or something." Bato reassured his friend, placing a hand on the back of his shoulder.
"Just what if something happened? They could of drowned, or they could of-"
"Relax! A master waterbender cannot drown." Bato interrupted Hakoda's worried rambling.
"Sir! We have spotted a cream-colored monster swimming towards us. What do you want us to do?" Panted a crewman, he must of ran from the lookout post to him.
"A cream-colored monster!" Hakoda repeated, instantly thoughts of his children being attacked by it flooded his mind. "Attack at once!" He demanded, and hurriedly, the crewman scurried off to repeat the orders that were just given to him.
Taking out his binoculars, he scanned the ocean searching for the monster. It wasn't easy to miss; right there was indeed a giant cream-colored monster swimming towards them. As they sent out the first bomb, he saw a water tentacle reached up and grab it, throwing it off to the side.
"HALT!" Hakoda yelled suddenly, he knew only his daughter could do that because she was the only waterbender that he could think of being out of the ship.
"Sir, why did you command us to cease attack?" One crewman asked curious.
"My children are on that thing!" He said rushing over to the railing to get a closer looked as they neared the boat. Soon the bison was right up next to the ship, and sure enough, there was his to children riding the back of it. They were sitting in some kind of saddle. They weren't alone, on the head of the beast, the one who looked to be commanding it, was a boy. He was in odd clothing. A orange and yellow robe he wore, and he had bright sky blue tattoos on his arms, legs, well on his whole body.
"DAD!" Sokka yelled up relieved to be safe at home. Hakoda made a hand notion, and instantly the crew was off sending ropes over board to wrap around the beast. Once they were secured, they crew members strained to pull the bison out of the water. Katara helped them by raising the water underneath them, and after a lot of work the bison and three children aboard it where safe on the ship.
"Dad!" Katara said happily as she jumped off the bison and into her fathers arms giving him a well needed hug.
"Katara! Sokka! You're alright! I was worried about you two. You were gone for two hours out of the expected time." He looked at the boy and the bison again and gave his daughter a skeptic look. "I think you guys need to explain."
"Well you see, we were just floating around and ready to return to the ship. Everything went well. Until we came upon this huge glowing iceberg-" Katara said, but Sokka interrupted her.
"Dad, it was bigger than our ship." Sokka said with no trace of sarcasm or exaggeration. Hakoda looked at them in disbelief.
"Anyway, we planned to just drift by it, but as the sun lowered in the sky, it shined through it, revealing the silhouette of a meditating boy, and some kind of beast." Katara said, pointing towards Aang and Appa. "I jumped off our boat and ran over to the iceberg and cracked it open with Sokka's club. It was hard, but eventually it broke. The weird thing was that it broke in a perfectly straight line, and when it did a explosion of air knocked me over backwards and this huge beam of light shot up into the sky!" Katara rambled excitedly, clearly the adrenaline from the previous adventure was still coursing through her veins.
"I noticed that light, it was massive, and impressive." Bato commented, but Katara ignored him.
"We found him unconscious next to his bison. He woke up and by the time we were introduced, our boat floated away and was crushed, so he offered us a ride back to our ship." Katara said hugging her father once more. "Dad, can he stay?" She asked hopeful. She looked like some little girl who found a baby animal and was begging her dad if she could keep it.
"I might consider it if I knew who he was," Hakoda said smiling at his daughter. He had never seen her act this way before. She hasn't smiled or laughed much since her mother died, and now she acted like her old giddy self.
"I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. I am Aang, and this is my Flying Bison Appa." Aang bowed respectfully, he put his two fists together and the tips of his arrows connected. The surrounding people stared at him like he was some freak.
"Nice to meet you, Aang. I am Hakoda, the chief of the Southern Water tribe, commander of this ship. But tell me, what did you just do?" He asked staring at him with a weird expression.
"Uh, I bowed." Aang said stating the obvious.
"I no that, but why?" Hakoda asked him.
"It's a way of expressing respect, and it's how people greet each other, isn't it? I thought everyone did that." Aang replied confused.
"People haven't done that in five hundred years," Hakoda remarked suspiciously.
"Really? I did not know that." Aang then started to wonder how long he was in that iceberg.
"You seem nice, but where do you come from?" Hakoda asked him, looking him over.
"I'm from the Air Nomads," Aang said proudly. Everyone gasped at him.
"The Air Nomads? They've been extinct for nearly five hundred years!" Katara said astonished.
"W-w-what! I've only been gone for a few days, not five hundred years!" Aang took a step back and looked at them all like they were crazy.
"Hey, don't give us that look. You're the crazy one. How are we supposed to believe that you are a Air Nomad?" Sokka folded his arms across his chest with a smug look on his face.
"Oh, I can prove it," Aang said with a mischievous gleam in his eye. His face was distorted with what looked like the beginning of a sneeze, and sure enough it was. "AH-AH-AHHH-ACHOOOOOO!" His voice echoed as he was launched nearly a hundred feet in the air. Everyone around him was knocked to his or her butts from the violent air explosion.
"Show off," Sokka muttered as he stood up and held a hand out to help Katara.
"You're an airbender!" Katara said dreamily. Her whole life she dreamed to meet one these spectacular people. She heard they were raised as Monks and Nuns, they respected all life and they didn't have parents. Also every one was born with bending abilities, not one person was born a nonbender.
"Sure am!" Aang smiled and admired his arrow tattoo on his hands.
"So the clothing, the tattoos, the bending, is all from the Air Nation." Hakoda mused. The boy was young, and he looked scrawny. Guess that is expected from someone who was in a iceberg for five hundred years. He was tall and very lean, probably normal for Air Nomads to be lightweight with a light build.
"Yes, the tattoos show the status of a master airbender. Usually they receive them at the age of fifteen to sixteen." Aang replied looking back up from his hand to the glorious eyes of Katara.
"So your tattoo's are new?" Bato asked him, they didn't look new.
"No, I've had mine since eleven. I'm the only one who has ever been able to get them at such a young age. I'm a prodigy, and I'm the best airbender there is." He said boastfully, getting carried away.
"Prodigy eh,?" Katara tried her best attempt to ignore his boastfulness and show off attitude. "Say, if you were in the air temples five hundred years ago, that was about the time the Avatar was here. Did you know the guy?" Katara asked him, secretly hoping he would say yes. It actually surprised her when she saw his attitude quickly change and he suddenly grew fidgety and nervous.
"T-t-the Avatar? Well, I, uh, um never knew the guy, but I, uh, knew people, who knew him?" He stuttered at loss for words.
"Dad, I think he is hiding something. We shouldn't let him stay with us." Sokka clearly noticed his change of demeanor.
"We have to let him stay, he is actually an Air Nomad. He is our ally, and the last of his kind. We must treat him with hospitality, unless he starts to take a step out of line," Hakoda raised a questioning eyebrow and Aang gulped.
"I swear you won't regret having me," He said looking over to Katara hesitantly.
"Okay, enough to see here, everyone back to work." Hakoda yelled and walked away. He made sure Appa had something to eat and a place to stay to.
"Aang, I'll take you to your room." Katara's silky voice said quietly. He nodded his head and willingly followed her. They walked towards a latter that disappeared underneath the top of the ship and she stepped onto it and worked her way down. When they reached the end of the latter they were in the ship and walking along hallways of rooms.
"Here, this one is mine," She pointed to a room at the back of the ship. "This one is Sokka's," she motioned toward another room across the hall from hers. "And finally, this is your room." She opened the door to the room that was right next to hers to reveal a small sized room (obviously) with a medium sized bed and a dresser with a mirror hanging over it.
"It looks nice," Aang was used to simple things, back in the Air Temples he was raised to have no wordily possessions.
"The bathroom is right next to Sokka's room. We have a bathroom for every five rooms. Sure sometimes you have to wait a while, but it's better than nothing." She said and walked out to the hallway.
"So I'll see you again at dinner?" Aang asked her before she closed the door. She looked up at him and a small smile appeared on her angelic face.
"Yeah, I guess so." That was all that was said between the two before the door was shut. Aang floated over to his bed and landed softly into the pillows. He wanted to get to know Katara better, she seemed like a really nice girl, and there was no doubt a crush was forming for her. He would be honored to be her friend. He could tell that his times on this ship were going to be fun, and worthwhile.