Title: "Between Two Worlds"
Author: A6
Rating: K – Katara/Tenzin bonding
Word count: 2560
Summary/Notes: Even the strongest people among us, when faced with terrible crises and wholly unexpected circumstances, experience periods of self-doubt that they need to work through. Tenzin and Katara are not immune to this either, as they deal with the psychological impact of being son and wife to the previous Avatar, but also being trainers and counselors to the next Avatar, partly by choice, but partly by necessity. They draw strength from each other and - unexpectedly – from another special person in their lives, and ultimately celebrate the richness of their lives from living with and loving two Avatars.
...
Katara was visiting Tenzin and his family, since their overnight stay at the South Pole had been so short weeks ago. She wanted to see how her protégé Korra was doing with life in the big city, after her dead-of-the-night exodus from the South Pole White Lotus Training Center weeks ago. Korra had taken a clever way out by snow bending an underground tunnel. Katara couldn't ever recall snow bending on such a massive scale. She mused that each generation improves upon the skills of the previous one. It took awhile for Katara to cover the snow tunnel at the source to delay the White Lotus sentries discovering she was gone.
Late one night after dinner, Tenzin whispered to Pema about his need to chat privately with Katara.
Pema caressed his face, "I'll tuck the kids in bed, Tenzin. Go to her. I think she needs you just as much as you do."
Pema was always so intuitive. It made Tenzin love her more.
"Mother, we have to talk. We need to go to Father's Memorial."
"Why dear? He's not there. Those are just his ashes. We both know he's alive in the spirit world. Can't we just talk here?"
"I know Mother. I just need to be close to something of his right now."
Katara noticed his normal inner strength was shaken somehow, so she didn't argue further.
The waters of Yue Bay were pretty rough, and although elderly Katara was a still a world-class water bender, it was a lot to ask of his mother to calm the waters as they went - even the short distance to Aang Memorial Island.
"How about we fly over, Mother?" asked Tenzin.
She got a gleam in her eye, "Oh Tenzin, could we? It has been so long."
He popped open a two-person glider, and mother and son wrapped one arm around each other's waists, grabbed the hand holds with their free hands, and prepared for flight.
She smiled broadly at Tenzin, "It's just like riding a Sky Bison, son. You never forget how!"
They crouched and pushed off, soaring high over Air Temple Island. Tenzin took his time, knowing how much his mother liked flying with his father, and how long it had been.
"I miss this, Tenzin," said Katara as she peered across the great expanse of the skyline.
"I know Mother. You and Father always were so happy flying together. You both taught me so many simple joys of just being with and touching the ones you love. It makes flying with Pema that much more special for me."
"You have always been a good student, son."
She was so happy, flying for the first time in nearly 18 years. She and Aang regularly flew together hundreds of times over a lifetime together.
The flight over to Aang Memorial Island seemed so short.
It was quiet, and the flood lights illuminating Aang's inspiring statue and Memorial hummed with energy. They walked into the Memorial, still damaged from Amon's surprise attack on Korra.
Tenzin could not help but peer into every shadow for danger. Korra had trusted a lying monster to be a man of his word to meet one on one. Instead he let over a dozen henchmen subdue and render her powerless before he ever dared to show himself to her. Amon was - behind that grim mask - ultimately a coward as well as delusional. It didn't make him any less a dangerous madman, however. Tenzin praised the spirits Amon was so overconfident with his own superiority over benders that he had spared Korra to be the eyewitness to the enactment his insidious plan. Any lesser thug would have taken full advantage of his helpless prey right then.
They reached the undamaged portion of the Memorial. Even a revolutionary like Amon would not dare to disturb the dead.
There, Tenzin and Katara sat by the flickering eternal flame, in front of the crypt that forever held Aang's cremated remains. They sat alone and talked. They felt some comfort being next to the man they both had loved so dearly for so long.
Tenzin began, "Mother, I am very confused. Right here, not ten steps away from us, she collapsed in my arms, shuddering in fear and sobbing in tears! I...I didn't know what to do. I was so worried Amon had taken her bending. I had my own fears."
"I never expected her to be so helpless and weak. She's the Avatar, Mother. And I never expected to be so unprepared to teach her, much less comfort her. I was certain I had studied everything I needed to do and thought I knew everything about her."
"But I had to be strong for both of us that night. Like Father always was. I could barely do it. I was always expecting to just be her air bender teacher. I never anticipated being her mentor and a source of strength...and even a father figure. All I could do is recall the simplest of verses that Father taught me as a child. Truly, right then and there, Korra was a child. Not the Avatar."
"And I know now it is wrong of me to have such high expectations of her. I've watched her grow from a small girl, guided by her parents and you. Sure she is different than Father in her aggressive combat skills, but I always saw her confidence and enthusiasm as she grew, which convinced me she'd be a good Avatar from the start. After just a few weeks here in Republic City, even with her mistakes, I felt she was beginning that journey to be a good Avatar. Less than a week ago, she was completely broken, and she is still not completely recovered."
"I guess I was really expecting Korra to be a younger, female version of Father. I..I didn't expect to see her so...crushed. I certainly didn't expect to get so emotionally involved with Korra, like a father would."
Tenzin sat silently for a few moments and just sighed.
Katara tried to comfort her youngest son, "Oh my dear Tenzin, I had so hoped that through all my years of teaching and mentoring Korra, I could spare you this, so you could just teach her air bending to fill in the final piece for her to become the fully realized Avatar. That was the plan world leaders asked you to accept."
"You are already fully burdened with the work load of a City Council leader and father, with a beautiful wife, two young girls, a very young boy, and a baby on the way. Now you are being asked to 'parent' a teenage girl as if she was your own. If there had not been Amon, it would not have been that way. I had no idea. I am so sorry, Tenzin."
He lifted her chin, "Don't be sorry Mother. You didn't know. None of us did. No one in Republic City had any idea of this...this evil among us. He can take bending completely away, Mother. Yours and mine too. Some days I am just as afraid as Korra is."
His voice wavered.
"Me too, son. Nothing in history has prepared us for someone who seems to energy bend like your Father, but has darkness in his heart."
They sat silently again.
"Mother, I have to ask."
"Go ahead son."
"How did you cope with the knowledge that the Spirit who lived in Father is now this young, teenage girl?"
"It was very hard son. Imagine me trying to accept a cute, precocious girl as the Avatar? I did of course, because I had to, but I knew full well that not four years before, that tiny new Spirit was my beloved husband and your dear father. I was still in mourning, son."
"I know mother, weren't we all then? Aren't we to some extent mourning even now? Especially when we need him most," Tenzin replied.
"Well he's gone now, dear, and you and I are blessed more than all the people of the world to have had two Avatars directly involved in our lives. One we both loved and learned from, and the other we certainly have come to love, but have to train and counsel. You know well what your father told us about friendships lasting more than one lifetime. It seems we are living that miracle. We need herthe most now, Tenzin, because she is all we have to save us from Amon. And thank the spirits for that."
"We both know the blessing we have in Korra. Remember how quickly her personality and charm grew on us, even as a little girl. I know you thought of her often as a baby sister. She was so eager to learn. And while she's quick to fight first and ask questions later, and she wouldn't know which end of a prayer book to start at first, she has your father's zest for life and fun."
Tenzin nodded his head in agreement, "She does have that effect on everyone, Mother. Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo all treat her as a big sister. Pema loves her, and even though her advice about boys didn't work out right, maybe we'll get a head start on dealing with teens through her before Jinora gets to that stage."
Tenzin sat back and reflected, "This all makes me feel better, Mother. There hasn't been anyone I could share my burden with except you. It would be so unfair to dump that on Pema. I cannot ever show weakness to anyone outside of family, especially now. Not with Amon's spies everywhere."
"Now you know how I feel too, son."
"It's good we have each other Mother. But I'd give anything to have just one moment with Father."
"Well that would be nice but not likely, Tenzin. Let's just pray."
They sat quietly holding hands and concentrated deeply on their prayers seeking strength. As they sat, the image of his mother dissolved in front of him and was replaced with a shimmering translucent blue image of a middle-aged man sitting cross-legged like Tenzin. He was bald, with an arrow-shaped cranial tattoo. The image gave Tenzin the Air Nomad sign of greeting.
"Did someone just call me?" smiled the apparition.
"Father!"
"Tenzin, my son, I have missed you so much."
"And I have missed you too, Father. How are you able to visit me? Only a few people have ever been privileged to be visited by spirits or even seen them."
"Well this is one of those special circumstances. I called in a few favors with my fellow spirits, because you are troubled, Tenzin."
"I feel that I have lost my way, Father. The 'little boy' still in my heart tells me that you are and always will be the Avatar. Even after 17 years of you being gone. It's been easy to escape that reality and just bury myself in my job as a Council member running the City. But now I can't run away from facts. The new Avatar is living in my home."
"I have to accept a new Avatar with a tiny fraction of your knowledge and experience. I willingly accepted the task to teach Avatar Korra our air bending skills and Air Nation philosophy. I failed time and again at first teaching her, Father, but now making some progress."
"But I just barely helped Korra through a terrible crisis of fear and uncertainty. I even feared she had lost her bending to Amon. I have no idea how to counsel her and others to defeat Amon, with his terrible power that only you possessed."
Aang answered, "I know Tenzin. I have watched from afar. You have to keep bringing her closer to me, son, so I can finally reach her, and then I can help you both. Despite how uncertain you feel, Tenzin, with the progress you are making, she really won't need much of my help. I am very proud of what you are doing. She trusts you so much."
"Father, I am just not used to having to be strong for the Avatar and for the World. You were always there to be the strong one for me, and for all of us. The World seems so mixed up and out of balance right now."
Aang gave him a gentle look, "There is a time in every man's life that the son takes over from the father before him to be strong for everyone he knows and loves. That is the way things are for us men. That is our role as fathers. And you are such a good father. Your children are wonderful, and now, for a time, you have another daughter you must be a father for. I know you are able to be the mentor and 'father' that Korra needs now, even more than an air bending teacher."
"But rebalancing the World is always the responsibility of the Avatar. That is not your burden, son. She will find her way to that inner revelation through you. You are a great teacher and mentor. You just don't realize it yet. I will be there for you as you guide her, and once I can reach her, then we with both help her realize her full potential as Avatar."
"You must always realize Tenzin, that although the Avatar Spirit of this World is always the same – infinite and eternal – each Avatar is different, chosen by the Spirit according to their personality and skills, to rebalance the problems facing the World at the time they are needed."
"While Korra and I are both one in the Avatar Spirit, we are each different. Because the World needs us to be different. So remember me, but embrace her. She is the Avatar now."
"Good bye son. For now."
The apparition dissolved into the smiling image of his mother.
"Mother?"queried Tenzin.
"Yes dear. He came to you, didn't he?"
"How did you know?"
"He came to me too. To reassure me. To thank me for letting Korra come to you, and for bringing her along so far in her teachings to make it easier for her to learn from you."
"Yes, Mother. He praised me for my teaching too. And being a good father."
He smiled with satisfaction. Katara stroked her son's cheek, and returned his smile.
"That you are, Tenzin, and as usual he is always right. You needed to hear that son, as only he could tell you not only as your father, but as an air bender."
"Will we see him again, Mother?"
"I suspect so dear. He was so connected to this world, and to all of us in this beautiful family we created. He celebrated life, dear, every day since I met him, even to the very end."
"Really?"
"Yes dear. I also told him to go visit Kya and Bumi. They need him too."
In the air over the bay on the way back, Katara said to Tenzin, "Son, can we just stay up here awhile? Take me a tour of this wonderful city your father loved so. I'll tell you where to fly."
Wordlessly, mother and son flew late into the night, celebrating and remembering the constant example provided by their beloved Aang. Each was recommitted and confident in the work Aang was still doing through them for the new Avatar who needed them both very much as teachers, mentors, and family.