I still don't own Avatar.

Chapter 2

Aang had his first nightmare of this sort in the Serpent's Pass, of all places. One would think that any of his dreams from that night would be about Appa. His mind, surely, would try and force him to understand that his sealed-off act was hurting him more than helping, or at least relayed messages of sadness and loneliness. He should have dreamt of Appa's muzzle, of Appa's cage, of Appa's tears. But he didn't. He dreamed of Koh.

Why Aang was dreaming of Koh at that particular time was part of a mystery that would take some time for Aang to solve. Of course, Aang had no way of knowing at the time that this nightmare would continue to haunt him throughout his travels and even after the end of the war, shifting and changing in his mind like the world around him. Whatever shape the nightmare came in, it always began with Aang standing in the mouth of his spirit acquaintance's cave.

He called out, as usual. "Hello? Koh? I'm back. Are you here?" He searched farther into the cave, hearing drops of water echoing around him, but listening for the clacking of giant centipede legs. Single-mindedly, Aang explored the deep cavern for the face-stealer, but he could only find darkness and amorphous echoes. "Where are you?" Aang called. "Today's the day, right? Why can't I find you?"

The first time Aang had this dream, on the Serpent's Pass, it ended like this:

After searching for what seemed to be hours, Aang's eyes started to adjust to the darkness, or there was a light in the far distance seeping in and partially illuminating his way. Whatever it was, he kept marching forward, calling out for Koh, watching as the walls of the cave grew clearer and clearer until it eventually became familiar. He looked up to see a cluster of unlit crystals on the cave ceiling, and suddenly he realized where he was. Then he was taken over by fear. If there was one place where Koh could capitalize on his weakness and steal his face, it was here. He turned back and forgot everything but his instinct to run back into the darkness, scrambling with all his might and speed to flee the doomed cave. Enveloped in darkness again, he had nothing to do but run and run and run until he hit a bend in the cave, and just as he was about to slam into the rocky wall he snapped back into consciousness, safely under the moon on the small sliver of land that knifed through the sea.

As far as nightmares were concerned, this was not so bad for Aang. Its consistent recurrence was the big trouble. Not only that, the dream began to develop as time went on. While he was recuperating from Azula's lightning strike, entrapped by weeks of sleep, the dream ended with him trampling over countless nameless bones as he fled Koh's Cave of Two Lovers. By the time he had failed at the invasion, those bones had become those of Monk Gyatso, just as he remembered from his discovery at the Southern Air Temple, talisman and all. The clarity of the dream's ending became clearer with each repetition until Aang felt himself crushing the bones of 100,000 Monk Gyatso skeletons as he sprinted away.

For some reason, Lo and Li made Aang think of the dream, and it never failed to come at night ever since they had been apprehended. His subconscious was telling him something, alerting him to the connection between these twins and Koh's cave, though Aang couldn't begin to fathom what that connection might have been. Zuko was dealing with them himself; he had known them growing up. But all it took was a small peek in their direction to trigger Aang's thoughts of Koh's cave and the expanse of bones.

The ancient identical twins, perhaps Bumi's age, wore what used to be elegant Fire Nation robes, reduced to ragged clothes that could barely pass for foot towels due to the pair's extended hideout in the forest (Zuko admitted he had no idea of how they could have survived so long on their own considering their age). Their faces, though, still beamed of life and purpose, even through the wrinkles that seemed to concentrate in on their noses. It made Aang think of trampling over a pit of Gyatso skeletons, and he had no clue as to why. Actually, the dream had started to fade in intensity ever since the war ended, so it was more than a little startling to be thinking about it again after all this time.

Then the twins introduced themselves to him:

"Hello, my name is Lo," said Li.

"Hello, my name is Li," said Lo.

And so Aang's nightmares returned to him.

As he woke up on this particular night, panting and sweaty after three days of frightening dreams in a row, he realized his dream had changed further, ending with him frantically digging his way out of a pile of bones and Air Nomad talismans, each one belonging to his beloved childhood mentor. Even upon awakening Aang found it hard to transition from fear to any other emotion, but when he finally did he felt only disturbed. He stepped off his sleeping ledge and walked out to the balcony of the Ba Sing Se house, his feet remembering the crunching of bones beneath them as if they were still walking over them.

Aang looked out over the city, the sun beginning to rise slowly and majestically over the grand wall in the distance, and he wondered what his recurring dream could possibly mean. Why was Koh's cave the same as the Cave of Two Lovers? Why were Gyatso's bones littered across the ground? And why was he so desperate to meet with Koh in the first place? These were all questions he had asked himself before, and, as usual, there was no answer to be found. Instead Aang tried to bring his thoughts to his fondest memory of this balcony, the kiss he shared with Katara. He felt that he needed her support more than anything right now.

As if she knew he was thinking about her, Katara's footsteps began to pat lightly against the smooth surface of the ground behind him. "You had another nightmare, Aang?" she said softly.

Aang nodded. "The same one," he said. "It's always the same one, about Koh and Gyatso and the Cave."

Katara rested her hand on his shoulder. "And this has continued even though you've been drinking Iroh's tea?"

Aang smiled sadly. "The tea helps the most when I am awake. Other than that, there's nothing it can do."

"I'm so sorry," yawned Katara. She was such a saint to bear all these early mornings with him, not to mention their late nights working on the Reconstruction together. Combined they were barely sleeping enough for a single person to be comfortable with. "You could really use your sleep now that we're investigating Lo and Li."

"I'll be fine," said Aang.

"You know," Katara began in a small voice, blushing a little, "if it would help at all, I could sleep in your bed with you. I know I said no at the beginning, but maybe, you know, if I was closer it would ease your mind."

Aang couldn't help but laugh, and he felt himself blushing as well. He couldn't deny how badly he wanted it, but he thought of Koh lying in wait in the Cave of Two Lovers for Aang's emotional vulnerability, and he shook his head. "No, what you said was right. We're too young for that right now. Especially me."

"Oh, okay," said Katara, her voice falling.

"It takes a lot of will power for me to say that," smiled Aang, catching the sadness in Katara's reaction.

She leaned her head into his shoulder and yawned again. "Well, sometimes I wish you didn't have so much will power."

"Hey, it's what you said first." Aang kissed her on her forehead, happy to see that she was smiling now. With all the work the two of them had been doing lately, there didn't seem to be much cause for smiling. "Either way," said Aang, "I don't think this nightmare will just go away, even if you were with me for every moment of the night. I need to resolve something inside myself to make these dreams go away."

"But what does it have to do with Koh?" asked Katara. "I don't want you to see him again. He's dangerous."

"The last time we saw each other he said we would meet again, but we never have. But, as you said, he's dangerous. So if I ever have to meet him again, there would have to be a very good reason."

"Well, I hope there is no reason good enough," said Katara flatly.

"But he seemed so sure of it," said Aang with a sigh. "It makes me think that he knows something I don't."

Katara grunted. Aang glanced over to see that her eyes were closed, peacefully lingering between sleep and consciousness. Her dreams these days were probably light, and they probably involved the two of them sleeping in the same bed. "Let's not talk about this anymore," she said. "We've got to meet with Lo and Li again tomorrow, and it won't help to be thinking about these nightmares. I'd rather enjoy this sunrise."

"Yes," Aang agreed, looking out over the city with sadness and remorse. "I would like to enjoy it, too." The silence was terrible. Katara's soft breathing wasn't enough to drown out the clacking of Koh's centipede legs inside Aang's head.

To be continued…

------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the delay. This one was picky.

-samtana