NOTE: This is my first fic ever and may be rough around the edges, sorry. Rated T for now, may increase if I decide to keep up with this because future Zutara. It is obviously AU, Katara is twelve when her mother dies and 15 at the time of this story. Yay, onward!

CHAPTER 1

The day that the ships came had been a turning point in Katara's life. Even now, three years later, she couldn't say whether the change was for better or for worse. She only knew that it was a change. And today, she knew that the fat snowflakes falling from the clouds above, sticking in her eyelashes and hair, were not a welcome presence. They shifted in front of her, twisting into black spots of ash, clouded her mind and burned her throat with the memory.

She had been twelve when they came. Twelve when the soldiers marched menacingly into her homeland. Twelve when her mother was killed. Twelve when she hadn't stopped them.

"Katara!" A stern voice shook her from her thoughts. "You still have much to learn. And you won't miraculously master waterbending from standing there in the snow. We have practice to see to."

Katara frowned. "I don't think that's entirely fair, Pakku." She let her gaze soften as she stared into nothing beside him and bent a stream of water gracefully into the air between them. "Do you remember what today is?" With a slight movement of her fingers, the water twisted and formed into the glistening, rippling shape of a Fire Nation warship.

The waterbending master's eyes softened as he took in the watery ship between them, and he refrained from correcting her with his typically scathing "Master Pakku, if you please." He did know what the day meant to her. Of course he knew. Every member of the Northern Water Tribe knew what the day meant to her. It was the third anniversary of her mother's death. The pain in her cool blue eyes was evident.

"Of course I know, my dear." He allowed his hand to rest on her shoulder and coughed softly, struggling to find the words to continue. "I only meant- we should…" he trailed off.

The third anniversary of her mother's death also meant that it was nearing three years since Katara and Hakoda had arrived at the North Pole. Pakku knew as well as she did that there was nothing more he could teach her in the art of waterbending. He looked again at her ship floating between them, took in the level of precision and detail she showed in the figure. Then she flicked her wrist again and it exploded between them in a flurry of glittery ice. It had been months since Katara had surpassed him in skill, but they were both terrified to admit that they did not know how to move forward.

"You're right," he finally said with a wan smile. "I was being unfair. Go. Spend the day with your father. We will… You can speak to the council another day."

"Thank you… Master Pakku." Katara gave a small, grateful bow and turned up her fur-lined hood against the still-falling snow as she hurried away, towards home. Home now, she thought bitterly to herself, cursing herself silently for falling back into her previous memories.

She had been twelve when they took Kya away from her. Twelve when she stumbled into the tent, when she saw her father broken like she had never seen him before. Sobbing, howling with grief, doubled over her mother's lifeless form. Katara had stood in the opening of the tent for what seemed like hours, taking in the scene with a cold, horrified expression frozen onto her face. When her father had finally composed himself as much as he could, finally lifted his swollen eyes to meet his daughter's wide, unblinking stare, she had whispered, "She was… protecting… me."

"Katara, love, of course she was protecting-" Hakoda began, reaching for her.

"She was protecting ME!" She had been unable to stop the strangled scream before it escaped from her throat, and she stumbled backwards out of her father's grasp, kicking the furs on the ground away from her as she staggered back to her feet and bolted.

"Katara!" her father had shouted behind her, but as she ran his words were drowned in the wind, muffled by the snow. The silence had been eerie, after the ships had gone. They had disappeared as quickly as they came, leaving only that disgusting black film over everything, over the igloos and tents and the blankets of snow around them.

She ran out of the tent, down the pathway between all of the other families' homes, past her brother and her Gran-Gran and past all the other kids of the tribe- kids all huddled together, staring towards her and her family's tent with expressions of pity and fear. It wasn't until she fell, gasping, onto her hands and knees a hundred yards away that Katara noticed that the tent, her childhood home, had gone up in flames.

Katara pulled her hood tight around her chilled face and lifted her eyes to the sky. Silver clouds floated peacefully above her, but the sky was otherwise clear. Except for the damned snow. She frowned again. Before, snow had delighted Katara. When she first discovered her waterbending, as a small child, she used to sit for hours, waggling her fingers at the sky and trying with all her might to make the snowflakes move. She allowed herself to smile sadly and exhaled, her warm breath flooding her hood and fluttering against her cold cheeks. She looked upward again and made a decision.

Now striding more purposefully down the icy path, Katara took a left turn where she would have continued straight to the small home she shared with her father. She walked more quickly now, afraid of losing her nerve, and when she finally arrived in front of the tall blue double doors of the council building, she only hesitated for a moment before knocking sharply. Speaking with Chief Arnook could wait no longer. The ways of the Northern Water Tribe may have been outdated, but there was no doubt in her mind that the council would hear her out. She only had to speak to the Chief first, to sort her thoughts out and to hear out his own plans for her.

When the doors finally swung open, Katara froze in the doorway. Five familiar faces stared back at her, and she shook her head slowly in confusion as her eyes met her father's. "Um… hi?" she said awkwardly, stepping inside the council chamber. It wasn't until after the heavy doors had behind her that she noticed the sixth figure in the room. Katara barely had time to survey the strange woman's unfamiliar appearance before she bowed respectfully and addressed her for the first time. "Avatar Katara," she said warmly. "We have been expecting you."