Broken Cycle

Disclaimer: I still own zip.

Warnings: SPOILERS FOR THE EARTH FINALE!!!! and darkness.

AN: This is how I percieve it. Right or wrong, I can't tell you. Not until February, at least. I may develop it into a full story (I've got some idea of how I would try to end it, but not much in between yet) but that depends entirely on how you guys feel about it. Continue or leave it as a Oneshot?

Also, since I'm trapped in the whirlpool of non-spellcheck that is Wordpad, I beg that you forgive any spelling errors.

Edit: Thank Kya for me. She went through and spellchecked the entire thing. By the way, this was written for her, too. And I'm still debating whether or not to make it into a full story, but it looks like you guys want one, so I'll work on it.

Aang woke, feeling unnaturally heavy and hollow. His arms had been transfigured into leaden weights, his legs were granite plummets. He could even feel his heartbeat, wearily forcing an unsteady stream of blood to channel through his beaten body. Everything hurt and ached with loss, but still it felt numb. Mourning what he didn't recognize, he plunged back into the seclusion of sleep.

Again he woke, dizzy and confused. The pain had subsided to a dull throb, and he forced himself to stand. Katara was at his side in a heartbeat--Toph and Sokka looked up immediately, worry etched into their faces.

"Aang?" Katara asked carefully. "How do you feel?"

"Not great," he managed to groan. How long had he been asleep? A chilled wind disturbed his thoughts and bit at his raw skin, sending a tremor down his body. Instinctively he sucked a breath in, summoning the warmest air to settle around him and guard him against the cold. The technique had been more natural to him than walking--it had been his first response to the slightest chill since before he could remember. Even when he slept, he had wrapped himself in the sweet warmth of the gentlest currents of air. Such a simple, loyal technique could not have abandoned him.

Seeing him shiver, Katara snatched up a blanket and draped it over Aang's shoulders.

"You need to rest," she said. "You were badly hurt, and I couldn't do much to help." Her voice was apologetic, and somewhere in the back of his numbing mind, Aang wondered what she could have to regret. Did she, could she possibly understand? The blanket that surrounded him gave him a meager offering of heat, but it did not stop him from trembling.

Because the air, no matter how hard he called it, would not come. And now as he moved his hands, no current of wind or moisture would pass through them. He shuffled his feet, and the earth remained deaf to his request. Cold and numb, he stumbled to the ground.

Whatever had happened, he couldn't Bend anymore.

"You okay?" Sokka asked as Aang tried to suppress a groan. In the past week, walking and running had proved dauntingly hard. Even the air he breathed seemed to be thin and cold, devoid of all the strength that he had always bent into it. He had tried jumping, but he could only leap a few pitiful feet from the ground without the help of the wind beneath him. Looking between his friends, he finally forced himself to ask the only question that might help him understand what was going on.

"What happened to me? Back in the cave, I mean."

"You don't remember?" the Waterbender said gingerly.

He shook his head. "I remember us fighting with Zuko and Azula...and then the Dai Lee came...and then nothing."

Katara looked sadly at him. "You went into the Avatar State...and then Azula shot you with her lightning. I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything..." He remembered that much, at least--she had summoned her best defense, but she stood no chance against the dozen soldiers who had surrounded her. She shuddered and continued. "When I picked you up, you were already cold. Your heart wasn't beating and you weren't breathing and..." she choked on the words.

Aang didn't need to hear them.

He had died. Azula had killed him.

"But...I'm here now...how...?" he managed to say.

"The Oasis water," Sokka said. "It was...stronger, I think. That was what brought you back, Aang."

Brought me back. But I was still dead.

In the Avatar state, you are at your most powerful...and you're most vulnerable. If you die while in the Avatar State, the cycle will be broken.

The Avatar was gone, and his powers with it. The thought terrified him. The reality was too much to bear.

"Aang?" Toph asked. She sounded worried. She had no idea.

"I know it's a lot to hear," Katara tried to sooth him, touching his shoulder, but he instinctively jerked away from her weight. "It's going to be okay."

"No, it's not," Aang said woodenly. His hands dug into the ground, trying in vain to move a handful of earth. "It'll never be okay."