I know what you're all thinking, "Bitch, why the hell are you posting this when you still need to get your ass over to MYF(Meet Your Future) and post the next damn chapter before an angry mob shows up at your house with fire and pitch-forks and takes you down?" So I'd just like to assure you all that I will get the next chapter of MYF up as soon as I possibly can―'kay? So no angry mobs, no fire, no pitch-forks. Unfortunately.

Anyway, this fic is really short, so I figured I could take a few minutes to post it before continuing to work on the next chap of MYF. This fic takes place after the season finale of Book Two. "Crossroads of Destiny," I think it is. It came on the day before yesterday with all those pop-up things―I've been watching the Legend of Korra: Behind The Scenes thing this week and the Avatar Extras episodes that come on after the LOK episode―and it was actually the first time I've watched that episode from beginning to end in a couple of years now, and I started thinking about the first time I'd seen it when it first premiered all those years ago. Long story short, not too long after that episode aired, I wrote my very first fanfic. And it sucked. I thought it was the shit back then―God was I young and naïve!―but when I go back and look at it, I realize how much it sucks. Regardless, I kept at it―writing, that is―and I'm proud to say that I don't suck anymore. Anyway, after the episode ended the other night, I started thinking, and went back and dug through some old boxes and fished out my first few fanfics, none of which ever made it onto this site or were seen by eyes other than my own, and I came across this one, one of the few that were actually finished, and I thought, hey, I can make this better. It was the one that needed the least amount of work―and it needed a lot of work, so that's saying something about the quality of my early work―so I took it and I revised it, and this is what it became. It's a lot better than the original, but the idea and concept is still the same, I just went over it and made it better and all shiny and fit for public viewing. I did the best that I could with it considering I didn't want to change it too much, so if you've got any problems with this, feel free to take it up with 12 year old me, though I've gotta warn you, she was a total bitch. Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Azula had struck Aang down.

He had been down, he had been out, he had been gone, his spirit disappearing momentarily from his body and almost forever from the Universe. Slipping out of his body had been almost too easy. One second, he was in indescribable pain, just waiting for it to all end, and the next, he got his wish, the pain had ceased and his spirit, his essence, felt freer and lighter than it ever had before. At the core of his spirit, he knew he was too light. Being a spirit was supposed to be free, but he was also supposed to be weighed down by the weight of his previous lives, he was supposed to feel connected to the spirit world, his body, his past, his mind―but he felt nothing.

Well, almost nothing.

There was one thing he felt. It was a tugging and pulling sensation. Almost a nagging feeling, really, telling him he was gone but couldn't move on. There was something―something!―that was keeping him there, so light and free, yet frozen in place. He pushed on that feeling, the only thing he had, and urged himself to come to a conclusion, put a name or something to this feeling but... There was nothing else there, just this feeling of weightlessness, freedom, and being frozen in place.

And then suddenly, there was one more thing:

Katara.

It came to him suddenly. It was a name. He was sure it was a name, a lovely name, at that. And it belonged to a person. It was important to him,―both the name and the person it belonged to―oh-so-very important, but why? Before he could push on that feeling and question it, he felt a blue chill spread through him, a wave of calm and relief spreading over him. And then, he felt like he was spinning, being sucked into something, pulled away from his freedom and weightlessness and feeling suddenly trapped yet still so free. And with this sudden weight seemingly attached to his soul, the weight of the world seemed to be precariously balanced on his shoulders. For a moment longer, he still felt the cool feeling surging through him, the wave of calm and relief still holding its grip, only to slip away, being replaced almost instantly with a feeling of red, hot fire. It started at his back and coursed through his veins, traveling all through his body, heating him up and making every nerve ending scream out as his soul snapped back into its proper place.

His eyes opened with a moan and suddenly he was looking into the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. So beautiful, so deep…

Katara.

He smiled at her weakly, all he was able to manage, and the fire was extinguished as she wrapped her arms around him and another wave of calm and relief washed over him…

Everything was going to be alright, he told himself, because he had Katara. And that was all that mattered.

Aang's eyes closed once again, but this time his soul stayed grounded and he knew, somewhere inside, that she had saved his life. He also knew that dying and coming back to life was very tiring business and that Katara's arms were an excellent place to take a nap. And so…

He slept.

For just as long as he needed to, knowing that Katara's beautiful blue eyes would be there to welcome him back into the world as soon as he awoke. And that was all that mattered.

I've never read anything like this before, but I'm sure it's been done to death, still I wanted to post it.

Now that I think about it, early in my fanfic career before I discovered this website, I was on Nick―as in dot com―on the message boards and they had a fanfiction one for A:TLA, so I went on there and actually started a story on there. It was called, "Like The Moon And The Sun, We Too Are One," and I think it was pretty bad, but I got a lot of positive feedback for it. It was the first fic I ever posted for others to read, but I didn't get to finish it; I got in trouble and couldn't use the computer for a while, and by the time I got back on the thread had been taken down because too much time had passed. I didn't even save a copy of it or anything, so I couldn't tell you what it was about; but I'm pretty sure it sucked, just because my writing skills weren't at their best back then. I was a total noob and I didn't know what I was doing, but raw talent is pretty good most of the time on its own so it didn't matter much back then. Hmm, I'm curious, did anyone else ever go on those boards and just sort of wind up on this site one day and make their new home here? I don't even remember what my user name was on nick, though I'm pretty sure it had the word "Poke" in it, as in "Pokemon," but beyond that the name escapes me. Anyway, just thought I'd share that, even though it's highly irrelevant.

Anyway, be sure to let me know what you think!

Always,
~Hisa-Ai~