A/N: Hey guys, so this is my first ATLA fanfic, so I'm pretty excited about this. Yes there are a few fanfics based on the same basic idea, but I hope that you guys enjoy this and that I'll make this quite different. I'll also be trying to explore more of the culture, and the way of life of the different groups of people, so I hope you all enjoy this.

Disclaimer: So much would be so different if I owned ATLA, so... I don't own anything?

A variety of different things make up life. All of them unfortunately inevitable, even when one tries their hardest to avoid them. Change. Secrets. Lies. Questions. Mistakes. All of them have a way of finding a person, and all play a role in creating who a person is. Their identity. What they understand of the world around them.

Change is the most obvious, and completely unavoidable. The change of weather from day to day. The world as seasons come and go, making their presence obvious throughout the entire environment. The change in relationships as one grows older, between family, friends and partners.

Change is something ever present, something that most people are used to, even if it can be scary at the beginning.

But for me, change didn't occur in a way that I could have ever predicted. And following change, there also came secrets, lies, mistakes and questions that all spiralled out of control in a way I never was able to predict.

Even now, even though I know that this is far too obscene to be anything other than reality, I wake up every morning with a doubt. That small voice that tells me that this is impossible.

In my case, change decided to hit me when I thought that everything was at it's best. When I felt comfortable, happy and wanted time to just stop in that moment.

The universe really seems to have an odd sense of humour.

Rock climbing.

Perhaps it wasn't exactly a usual thing to be do, but that didn't ever matter to my family. In fact the 'romantic' tale of how my parents met actually began with rock climbing, so I suppose that my brother and I never really had a choice in the matter. There were pictures of the two of us on an indoor rock climbing course at the tender age of 4.

"Not scared now are you Kens?" I heard a voice call from behind me as I was double checking my harness. I rolled my eyes at the mocking comment.

"Checking my gear doesn't mean I'm scared, it just means I don't have a death wish," I answered, a grin on my face as I turned to see my brother. Twin brother actually. Though that wouldn't be obvious at first… if at all.

Both of us looked completely different, and we were also fairly different. The things we did have in common were an enjoyment of teasing one another, music and rock climbing. The prior was probably one of the reasons that arguments between the two of us were unfortunately common.

"How about we make this interesting?" James asked me, a smirk playing on his lips as he leaned on the rock face that we were about to climb. I paused for a moment, narrowing my eyes at the words he spoke. I almost immediately knew that he was going to suggest a bet, though why he was going to was beyond me. Despite being confident in my abilities, I didn't see the appeal in betting. And James? He knew exactly what was going through my mind, vocalising his thoughts almost immediately. "Come on Mackenzie…"

Raising an eyebrow at his whining, I shrugged. "What do you want to bet?" I asked without thinking. If I at least considered it, he couldn't hold it against me. And there was a small, but still distinct chance that this would even somehow work out in my advantage.

"Hmmm," he paused in thought for a moment, not having seemed to have thought this far. "Last to the top takes the winner's chores for a month?"

"A week."

"Deal," my brother commented with a grin, reaching out to ruffle my hair. "Though my dear little sister, you'll be regretting that you decided to agree on this soon enough."

"I'm older than you," I grumbled as he walked away, glaring at the back of the blonde spiked up hair as he wandered over to where our parents were still discussing something.

If I'm being completely honest, that's where my memory gets a bit blurry. I can remember our parents starting on the climb before we did, and after a while of listening to my ipod I remember us also beginning the climb.

It started off normally enough, I was actually slightly ahead by the time that we reached the halfway point. But only barely. That alone was enough to fuel my determination to go faster. My determination to win.

Unfortunately that insistence on speed came with a price.

I wasn't thinking clearly. I wasn't focussed on what I was doing, instead caught up with what my brother was doing. I wasn't checking the ropes as carefully as I had in all of our past climbs. I'd gotten away with it in the past, and figured that I could get away with it again.

That was where I was wrong.

Sometimes the first sign of trouble already comes too late. For me on that day I'm certain that it was. I can't remember what my brother had said, but in response I made a few quicker, less thought out moves. Maybe I hadn't actually heard what my brother had said. Maybe it was just his voice.

Either way I felt one of my feet slip, felt my body slam against the cliff face. A panicked shout caught my attention, though it was probably my own. Finally my fingers slipped, and at some point I was glad that I couldn't tell what was happening, my last memory being a scream.

I was certain that I was dead. It should have been impossible to be anything but dead. But by the amount of pain, the conflict of what I was feeling. Sweating. Freezing. Panic. Calm. Hunger.

And thirsty, I was so damn thirsty that I wished beyond anything else that I could get something to drink.

But I was in too much pain to move. Before I ever opened my eyes I was unconscious again.

"Do you think she'll make it?" was what I woke up to when I next regained consciousness.

"It's possible she will, however she has been asleep for almost a week, it's also possible that she may never wake up…" the second voice was definitely older. And it scared me. Never wake up? I was awake. They couldn't give up on me now. I had to survive. I couldn't let myself die. I couldn't let them give up on me.

With that thought I managed to get a groan past my lips as I tried to move my body a little bit. The reaction was almost immediate.

"She's awake," the younger voice announced, and I could feel that someone was immediately by my side.

"Help me sit her up Katara, and bring some of that water," the moment the older woman said those words I was terrified. I hadn't yet mastered the strength of opening my eyes let alone sitting. I could already imagine the pain that that would cause. Forcing my eyes to open, the entire area was blurry. I could see white, and two people dressed in blue. But I knew that this definitely wasn't a hospital.

Thankfully they didn't actually force me to sit up entirely, only moving me enough to make it easier for me to drink. But even after that my body collapsed, exhausted.

"Thank you…" I managed to murmur, before I allowed myself to sleep again.

There were a couple of times that I faded in and out of consciousness after that. In fact it was just over another week before I'd managed to get to a point where I was able to stay awake. Even more exciting was the fact that I was able to eat and drink by myself.

It's funny how quickly the little things we don't pay attention to are forgotten. After two weeks of feeling completely useless though, it was one of the best feelings in the world.

"What's your name?" the dark skinned girl, who seemed about a year or two younger than I was asked, that first day I was starting to regain some sense of independence. Her grandmother, or gran-gran as she called her, was dealing with something else going on. So it was just me, and the other girl.

I couldn't remember her name for the life of me, but she seemed familiar, and so was her voice. It was probably just due to the fact that she'd been taking care of me for the last few weeks.

"Mackenzie," I answered after a few moments, not really thinking about it. "But… everyone calls me Kenzi, or Kens."

"That's a strange name…" she commented, though she looked at me with a smile while I looked in confusion. I knew that wherever I was, it was far from home. And I was still trying to figure out exactly how I got here given it seemed like I was in an igloo of sorts, but I lived in an area where it never snowed.

"What's yours?" I asked her, a sleepy smile playing on my face.

"Katara," she answered, continuing to look at me, seeming to judge me. "How old are you? Are you from the Earth Kingdom? Can you remember what happened? Are you a bender?"

At that moment I understood everything.

And I wasn't sure that I really wanted to anymore.

It was shortly after that, that gran-gran had returned and allowed me to leave the igloo with Katara, just to look around.

"It's beautiful," I whispered the moment we stepped outside, looking at the town. Katara smiled at my comment, also looking around. I realised that none of the men were here, something that shouldn't have surprised me. Unfortunately that also meant that the world was still at war.

I felt as good as dead.

Living in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender might have been a childhood dream, I couldn't remember how often I had watched the episodes when I was about 10 years old. Now, 5 years later and in said world, I was much more aware of what this meant.

There was a war going on. Medicine really wasn't that good here. People had the ability to control the elements, and I was pretty certain that was one thing about me that hadn't changed.

"It's only a small village… and we're all that's here at the moment," she explained, her shoulders sagging as she looked in a different direction.

"The war?" I asked her, and she nodded her head. Thinking about how she was fourteen made my stomach sink. She should be talking about boys, or learning waterbending, enjoying her life. But growing up in an era of war meant she had to grow up so fast. And now, standing beside her I was able to see the effect it had. She was trying to be strong, she had to be strong. But she was still just a girl.

In that moment I made a promise to myself, a promise that I'd do my very best to save as much of this messed up world as I possibly could.

Now if only I could re-watch all the episodes to prepare myself…