I wrote this after watching a great movie. Cookies for anyone who can name the film. (If you've seen it, this will be very obvious - I practically even quoted it.) I know that the time and scene changes are hard to follow, but each paragraph is a new scene and there is a pattern if you look. I should have spent more time cleaning it up, but I just wanted to get it on.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. If I did, it would say 'Claimer'. Duh. .
Aang watched from behind a tree. Katara stepped gently from the forest, pushing aside bamboo stalks as they wavered in front of her sparkling blue eyes. She was searching for someone. Aang knew it wasn't him. She descended in to the murky swamp water with out hesitation.
ATLA
Katara saw the column of smoke in the distance and took off. Her feet crunched and slid on the snowy slopes, making it hard to gain speed.
"Katara! Katara, wait! Come back!" Someone was trying to shield her. She didn't need to be shielded: she needed the truth.
Then it appeared – the crumbling walls, peeping children, soot stained ground, and burning tents. A wailing baby.
ATLA
Aang stopped and saw them on the balcony. Their lips were pressed together as if nothing could ever chisel them apart. They kissed. Again. And Again. She ran her fingers through his dark hair. Aang backed up and walked swiftly down the hall in long, dark strides. Away.
ATLA
Katara ran up to the soldier. Her breath came short and ragged.
"Please, please! Just let him through!"
"I'm sorry, m'am. We can't do that. This man is a enemy of the Southern Water tribe. An ambush during peace: disgraceful!"
ATLA
"Hello?" she called. The swamp seemed to throw her question back in her. There were fluttering wings, breezes, lapping water, whispers, and a humming eternal energy. The voices she longed for were not among them.
ATLA
She scrambled towards the skin-covered home she dreamt of so often. The front sagged wearily, and as Katara brushed back the hanging material, a drift of snow fell before her face. She fell to her knees at the sight of an old woman, lying still on a pile of furs and blankets and very, very pale, despite the tan leather skin that was stretched across high cheekbones and etched with lines.
ATLA
Zuko handed it to him.
" Please make sure this reaches Katara on your next trip. You'll probably get there before the next hawk."
ATLA
"Listen, you have to take my word. My name's Katara, I'm the last water bending master of the South Pole. I – "
"M'am! We have strict orders. I don't care if you're the Avatar. He will be peaceful returned to his ship, but he can no longer set foot on our land. NO one is permitted to see him. Have you forgotten what happened?!" he barked. She barely heard him.
ATLA
There was a splash to her left. She warily peered around a warm mangrove tree. There was another, closer splash.
ATLA
"H-how?" she managed to rasp out as a box floated out among the icebergs and was lost from sight.
"Firebenders. A group of them, they attacked at dawn. She was never hurt, though. She died of smoke inhalation" Katara's throat constricted. Of all the ways it could have happened . . . her mother . . . her grandmother . . .
ATLA
Aang slowly folded the paper and slid it back beneath his shirt. Zuko. He what? He wants to what?? NO.
ATLA
She could only watch helplessly as guards pinned her arms behind her back. She watched him, searching for a sign. She needed to know if it all was true.
ATLA
Katara held her breath and waited for them to reveal themselves. The whole swamp seemed to quiet with her. A butterfly danced by, swerving a hanging vine.
ATLA
She carefully packed what belongings GranGran had left. There wasn't much, but everything there was worth more than its weight in gold in Katara's eyes. If only Sokka had been here . . . she fought the urge to break down and sob. She pressed her fingers to her eyes for second before hurrying on with her work.
ATLA
"A witness said that he was present during the attack, but if you saw him then he couldn't have been both places at once."
Aang looked down at his feet, and then out towards the sunset, "No, I didn't see him. "
"You didn't see him once?"
"No. He wasn't here."
ATLA
He looked up as he was pushed roughly down the dock. He could have shoved them all away in an instant, but such actions could start wars. Their eyes met, and Katara read the truth written within the amber-gold orbs. He didn't do it. The bitter wind tore across the ice and bit at her heart.
ATLA
A flash of red caught her eye and she leapt out, "Zuko!" Then she was pounding through the murky gray-green water towards him.
ATLA
Katara sat down in the snow and looked out, far across the ocean. The moon cast purple shadows across the dips and banks of white between her and the sea. She exhaled its tangy scent and wondered if the wind currents would eventually push her breath across the space between them and to another shore.
ATLA
'You didn't see him?'
"No. I didn't see him. Not once."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure of it."
The water commander bowed, and left.
ATLA
"Come back to me. Come back to me." was all she could say. She knew that he heard her, before the ship pulled away. Then she cried. Day after day, she wrote to him and dusted treasured memories of him.
ATLA
He caught her in his arms and spun her around. She looked just as he remembered. They slowed down after a bit and finally stopped breathless and smiling. Zuko tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Their faces grew closer and their breath made the muggy air even hotter.
ATLA
More than once, her hand flew to her throat where her mother's necklace had hung, but met a different one. Zuko had sent it with one of his letters after she had sent him hers, to remember her by. Little did she know that he fell asleep each night with its ribbon crumpled in his hand.
ATLA
"NO."
She ran a hand through his hair.
"I didn't see him. I'm sure of it."
A servant entered and stated that a mysterious man had come.
"He wasn't there."
They kissed. Again. And again.
"I didn't see him. Not once."
The man entered and his maroon hood fell back, 'I need to ask your advice on a matter between the fire and earth nations."
"I'm sure of it."
The paper shook in Aang's hands, 'I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want our children to love you. I want you in every way you can imagine.
"No, I didn't see him. Not once, I'm sure of it."
"I'm sure of it."
"I'm sure of it.'
"I'm sure o-"
Aang started out of his daydream and focused on the clouds brushing by. He hadn't meant for this to happen. And his conscience played an imagined voice in an imagined scene of penance: Zuko hoarse and accusing.
"You didn't? You never meant to lie to the world? Or did the words just spill out on their own that I am responsible for her grandmothers death, and an attack on the water tribe during a peace pact, an attack which was orchestrated by rebels refusing my jurisdiction!!"
ATLA
Through her tears, elders sat within their icy seats and stated with icy hearts that she could not leave. Could not turn her back on her people.
ATLA
They slowly sloshed towards the shore and Katara led Zuko past the bamboo shoots, to a meadow. Aang shifter further into the shadows and watched. With easy smiles they collapsed on the grass and stared at the sky.
ATLA
Zuko leaned over top of Katara and traced her jaw. He leaned closer and she waited expectantly . . . but instead he tickled her. She doubled up in laughter before lunging at him. He quickly jumped up, but she was hot on his heels and managed to wrap her arms around his shoulders. Zuko swung around and picked her up by her waist. He spun her around and her braid swung out behind her. She laughed like there was no tomorrow. Then they both collapsed and rolled down the hill. Landing on top of each other, they laughed even harder, trying desperately to untangle their limbs.
Aang slowly moved away. As he carefully made his way back, a solitary tear coursed down his cheek.
This had never happened amidst the frost bitten hills of the Water tribe, the amber wheat fields of the fire nation, or the rolling green plains of the Earth nation. Aang never had the chance to reconcile himself with Katara and Zuko, and Zuko and Katara never saw each other after that fateful day.
He knew that that could never have happened because: during the Winter Solstice, Katara was killed in a skirmish with the Dai Li. Two months later, Zuko was assassinated, to the sorrow of his nation. The throne was passed to his younger sibling, Lu Ten, who had been born during his mother's exile. And Zuko and Katara never had the time together they both so longed for and deserved – which ever since Aang felt he prevented.
So, this was Aang's last gift to them. His reparation. To give them what they lost out on in life. With Yue's help, he made their spirits at peace to live on in the spirit world. He made his atonement.
He gave them their . . . happiness.
As Aang left with Habai, Katara brushed the hair out of Zuko's eyes and fingered his scar. Then they kissed. Again. And again.
Okay, I got the inspiration from the movie Atonement. (which i thought was awesome. i cried at the end.) The Scene pattern is: 1.The Spirit World 2. Katara's Village 3. Aang POV 4. Southern Watertribe Capital 5. Swamp (cycle starts again)
It might make more sense if you read it with that in mind.
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