A/N: Lyrics used by Vertical Horizon, "Best I Ever Had"
(so you sailed away into a gray sky morning)
When Katara woke, it was with the feeling that something was horribly, horribly wrong.
The air around her felt too heavy. Her heart was beating too hard for someone who had just woken up.
She scrambled out of bed and dashed out of the bedroom she was occupying in the Fire Nation's royal palace. She nearly ran down several servants and attendants on her no-holds-barred race to the throne room.
The doors banged open when she tossed her weight against them. She stood in the open doorway, breathing hard, still feeling that sense of wrongwrongwrong.
Zuko stared impassively back at her. He was the only one who met her eyes. Sokka, Toph, General Iroh—they all looked elsewhere, anywhere else but at her.
"He's—" she began.
"Gone," said Zuko tonelessly.
The not-looking-at-her became more avid and concentrated.
The wrongness around her intensified.
"No," she whispered. "No. Where—where would he—why would he—"
"He's the Avatar," Zuko offered with a slight shrug. "No one questions him."
"That's a lie," Katara snapped. Her heart was racing even faster now, and the air was tightening around her throat. She almost couldn't breathe. "That's a horrible, horrible lie. You, of all people, know how much of a lie that is."
There was a tiny not-really-a-smile at the corner of Zuko's mouth. "True," he said. "Well, no one else questions him. He left early this morning, apparently, while mostly everyone else was asleep."
"No," Katara says again, and again, "No. Why would Aang just leave like that?"
"Katara," says Sokka softly, and she rounds on him.
"We're his family," she lashes out at him with words, half-wanting to see a physical mark of their force against his skin. "We helped him fight in the war. We protected him. He wouldn't just—just abandon us!"
"Who says he did?" Toph interjected. "For all we know, he's just out flipping around in the sky on that stupid glider of his." But her normally confident tone is slightly hesitant, slightly unsure.
"Then he wouldn't have left so early in the morning," Iroh said gently. "Before dawn is not the best time to go flying, I am sure."
"Then—then where—" Katara's voice caught. "Where would he go?" she asked again.
No one had an answer.
"Appa," said Katara suddenly, backing up. "Did he leave Appa here? Because that means he'll come—"
But the looks on their faces confirmed her fear: Appa was gone along with his master.
"But—but—" She looked from face to face. Once more, Zuko was the only one who met her panicked, stricken gaze. His eyes were full of sadness and a knowing sort of empathy. She remembered that he, too, had once awoken to find the person he loved most in the world had disappeared without a word.
And she knew, suddenly, without a doubt, that Aang was not coming back to the palace today. Not tomorrow. Not for a long time.
He'd survived the battle with Ozai. With Azula. With the armies. With the allies of the Fire Nation. He'd persevered, and he'd triumphed. He'd avenged the deaths of his friends and loved ones—the genocide of the Air Nomads, the destruction of the temples and the only history left of Aang's past. He'd saved the world and protected his friends and restored his honor.
And now he had left the sight of his victory, had left the side of his companions and comrades and family. He had taken Appa, the only remaining link to his past.
And he wasn't about to come back anytime soon.
Part of Katara understood the twelve-year-old's reasoning: he probably wanted to be as far away from the memory of war as he thought it possible to be. But the entire world bore the scars of the Fire Nation's century-long onslaught, so where in the world could he go to be free of the war's long shadow? Even the North and South Poles were tainted by the fighting. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run.
Except the sky. Aang's own element. The symbol of freedom. His personal escape hatch.
No. He wouldn't be back.
"He didn't even say goodbye," she whispered, her eyes staring unseeingly at the intricately tiled floor.
Toph let out a sigh of exasperation. "Well, duh, Sweetness," she said with more than a touch of asperity in her voice. "Of course he didn't. Because it's not."
Katara, startled, looked up at her.
Sokka blinked, then smiled weakly. "She's right, you know," he said to his sister, meeting her eyes at last. There was a bright hope in them, and a warm reassurance she always associated with her older brother. "If Aang didn't say goodbye, he must intend to see us again soon."
Iroh was nodding now, sagely. "He is the victor of the war," he said, "but he is still very young, and probably very confused and tired. Let the boy have some space in which to breathe air free of smoke, and some time in which to come to terms with…the particulars of the fight."
Katara flinched. She knew that Aang, raised as a monk, would naturally have balked against killing. But with Ozai and Azula, there had been no other foreseeable options. Thankfully, Aang had not had to kill anyone himself. Zuko had faced his sister, and taken her down. Iroh had faced his brother Ozai, and emerged victorious. Aang, in his newly restored Avatar State, had brought Sozin's comet out of the sky and sent it hurtling back through space, never to be seen again.
The implications of Aang's Avatar State had not escaped Katara. Obviously he'd found a way to unlock his seventh chakra; he'd found a way to leave behind all earthly attachments. But now that he had done so, where did that leave the rest of them? Did he no longer need them now that he was a fully-realized Avatar? Was that really why he'd left? And what about Katara? What place did she hold in his life, and in his heart?
The fear that she didn't made her feel queasy.
"He's—he's not healed yet," Katara said, searching for some excuse, any reason at all, to go after Aang, to bring him back, to help him, to heal him, to hold him—
"He won't be for a while," said Zuko quietly, and Katara's eyes turned to him once more. "He's going to be hurting for a long time, but he'll eventually heal it himself. It's not something you can do for him this time, Katara."
This time, the jolt of hearing her name spoken in such soft, gentle tones brought a rush of tears to Katara's eyes. She quickly brought up her hands to wipe them away, then just pressed them against her face.
"I don't want him to be alone anymore," she whispered into her palms.
"He's not," Toph denied. "He's got us, always. I'm sure Twinkletoes knows that."
"Yeah," said Sokka in a bolstering voice. "Look, he's probably just out on a vacation or something. Aang needs some alone time as much as the next guy. He'll be back."
Katara looked up from her hands. "Not here," she said quietly. "He won't come back here for a long time."
Iroh sighed heavily. "No," he agreed sadly. "I am afraid he will not."
Zuko, too, looked regretful. "I don't blame him," he said in a low voice. "I don't like being around the Air Temples, knowing what my ancestors and my country's people did to his." He took a breath, let it go. "I can understand why he wouldn't want to stay in the Fire Nation."
Katara hesitated at the prince's admission, then lifted her chin.
"Then we'll go where he will want to stay," she said calmly.
Sokka peered at her. "You know where that is?"
Katara smiled gently. "Home," she said.
--
(And it may take some time to
Patch me up inside
But I can't take it so I
Run away and hide
And I may find in time that
You were always right)
--
A/N: So, does Katara mean Aang's home in the Southern Air Temple, or her and Sokka's home in the Southern Water Tribe? You decide. Either way, looks like everyone's headin' south for the rest of the summer. Yes, this is the end of this fic. BUT—this story is a prequel for a multi-chaptered Avatar fic I'm planning. So stay tuned!