Deimos

"When are we finally going to rest Sokka?" Aang complained.

"I told you, Aang, we only have another 13 days until the solar eclipse we have to get to the Fire Kingdom before that in order to regroup with the Water Army." Sokka relied like every other time he was questioned.

"But why can't we just take a break? Just a little one!" Aang was getting too tired to walk he started to sway a little bit, "we haven't eaten anything for about 12 hours either."

"Aang is right, we are really at the end of our energy here Sokka. Just let us take a few minutes to rest, maybe we can find something to eat." Katara was also quite tired and wanted the break, "I am sure that Toph wouldn't have anything against it either" Katara looked at Toph who seemed to not be interested in the debate about rest but rather something else.

"Toph?" Katara was now standing next to her looking into her face, "What's wrong?"

"I just felt someone fall, the person is now crawling, I think he's hurt" Toph replied concerned.

"Well it wasn't any of us because we are all standing," said Sokka.

"I know that, you idiot," replied Toph, "It's further away. Come on, follow me."

Sokka muttered under his breath, "Follow me said the blind girl"

"I heard that," replied Toph indifferently. A while past and the group finally found a small dark cave, some blood was on the ground of the volcano mountain they were climbing. To get to the Fire Kingdom in time, Sokka had planned that the only way was over this dormant volcano.

"So you are sure that there is a unconscious guy in that cave there?" asked Sokka turning away from the cave and facing Toph.

"Absolutely and because you ask the stupid questions you can go in and check" Toph smiled as Sokka turned around again, now to face the cave.

"Why can't Katara or Aang go? Why always me? You guys have the power to defend yourself," Sokka complained, but Aang had snuck up behind him and gave him a small push forward.

"Now there is not turning back," Aang shouted into the cave that was so dark that Sokka had been swallowed.

In the cave Sokka was holding on to the wall with one hand and moving the other around as if he was blind. He was muttering under his breath again at the unfairness of it all. Toph would have done better here since she can feel her way… Suddenly Sokka felt something soft at his feet, he had bumped into it, suddenly a warm fluid ran onto his foot and he moved back. He knelt down to feel what it was, and it groaned, a groan filled with pain. Sokka stood up again and ran back shouting, "There is a man in there! Quick light a fire and come in" When the benders heard this they shot up from their sitting positions, and quickly found wood to burn. Before Sokka had reached the end of the tunnel they had a log on fire.

"Comon quick, I think he is bleeding quite badly," Sokka looked down at his foot that was not drenched in what he knew was blood, "yeah, make that he is bleeding a lot"

Now everyone was running towards the person who was in the cave, soon they arrived, and looked at him for the first time. It was a boy that looked around 17 years old, and he had burns all across his face and body. Most of his clothes were burned off and all that was left was a dark red cloth, which was still bound around his waist. Katara immediately picked his upper body up and laid it on her lap, and started to stroke his hair. "Poor guy, he was probably ambushed by Fire Soldiers" she looked at the rest of his body and saw a large gash on his stomach. Aang sat down next to Katara and touched the wound.

"It's not very deep but could be fatal, let's get him some food, so that he can heal better." He looked at Toph and Sokka, "How about you two go out and get some food, and I will lay a fire and stay with Katara and this guy, ok?"

"You want me to go out with Toph?" Sokka asked getting really red in the face.

"Comon Sokka, let's go!" Toph said quickly and took him by the hand and led him out of the cave.

Aang looked around the cave and found some dry wood, which he piled against each other and placed the torch they had under the construction.

"Fire" the boy suddenly said and Katara and Aang looked at him quickly. He was awake, but barely. He looked up at Katara with tears in his eyes, the dark red eyes seemed to trap Katara in a trance, and she said nothing, until Aang snapped her out of it by rushing to the boy and asking him his name and his origin.

"Deimos, my name is Deimos" he whispered weakly, then turned his head towards Katara, looked at her again, then slowly his eyes closed from weariness and blood loss, and he escaped into sleep once again.

About half an hour later Sokka and Toph reappeared with grins on their faces, "We caught so many animals, I didn't even know there would be anything living up here." Sokka threw a bundle of meat at Aangs feet, "Now, It's your turn to cook. Oh an Katara," Sokka went on, "it's raining outside, pretty badly too, so could you please fill this bucket with water, we could use it to cook."

"Sure" Katara replied and slowly lifted Deimos' head and let to slowly down to the ground. She quickly picked up the bucket and ran to the end of the cave.

"So has he said anything yet?" Toph asked Aang.

"Yeah, he said his name was Deimos" Aang relied, while fixing a pot above the fire he made.

"Nothing else?" Sokka added.

"Nothing else." Aang replied.

"Well how do we know we can trust him?" Sokka said staring at the fire.

"We just have to, and any way this guy is half dead, what can he do to us?" Toph assured him, holding his hand. Aang raised an eyebrow slowly at the site of this, but forgot about it as Deimos groaned again. Aang looked worryingly at the boy, he wished he could find out exactly what happened.

Katara came back and immediately gave Deimos a drink, and said without anything else that she would give him a healing session in a back room of the cave.

Sokka shouted after her; "don't you even think about giving him another sort of healing!"

Aang looked at Sokka confused, "You know, that made no sense…"

"Shut up" Sokka said and looked down at his feet.

The food was cooking and the smell filled the room, Katara came back into the main room, fixing her hair. And sat down next to Aang who was stirring the food in the pot. Her brother stared at her with eyes as big as eggs.

"He really has an amazing strength that guy," Katara said smiling at Sokka whose mouth widened with disbelief.

"You didn't… did you?" He said still staring.

"Oh common, I barely met him, I just sensed his power as I gave him the healing session." Katara replied, "You worry too much. He is now sleeping back there, and I told him that I will check up on him soon, and bring him some food."

The food was then served and the entire group was eating quickly, since they hadn't eaten for so long. Sokka finally broke the silence, when he asked if Deimos was to be trusted.

"I still believe we should just leave as soon as possible, now that he has been through a healing session he will be fine." Sokka said, "Also we only have another 12 days to get to the Fire Kingdom."

Aang didn't say anything, he wanted to keep out of this, but was looking suspiciously at Katara.

"I don't think that we should talk about him without him here. We should wait until he wakes up then we can talk to him, and ask him questions. You never know he might even be able to help us."

"I agree" a dark voice suddenly said from behind them, they spun around quickly to see Deimos standing weakly, holding himself up on the cave wall. Katara immediately ran up to him and hugged him.

"Thank God, your ok!" she said, come sit with us, have some food. Deimos and Katara sat down next to Aang who leaned over the pot to scoop some food into a bowl. Deimos ate graciously for a few minutes while everyone, except Katara stared suspiciously at him. Sokka stood up suddenly and walked towards the other side of the cave, looking away from this person he didn't trust.

"Hey Sokka, don't be that guy, common now" Aang said to him as he walked away. Aang stood up and as he did, knocked over the bucket of water. The contents spilled over the entire fireplace plunging the cave into darkness.

"Aang you idiot!" Sokka shouted.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to" Aang replied.

"Well someone go out and get some more wood" Katara suggested.

"It's raining, everything is still wet" Sokka replied.

"Now you know how it feels to be me." Toph said with a laugh.

Suddenly a blinding light filled the room aided with a hot burst, and the room was visible again. A fire crackled in the fireplace again, and a hand with its palm aiming at the fire was connected to the burned arm, which belonged to Deimos. Now every one moved away from him, as he slowly lowered his arm and grinned.

"Thank you for healing me, now that I am fed and healed. I can do away with you benders and the Avatar." Deimos said, standing up slowly looking straight at Katara. He walked slowly, as Katara, with tears in her eyes was shocked into paralyzes. Toph immediately stuck the ground sending a boulder towards Deimos, who simply moved his hand quickly exploding the rock in many tiny pieces. His smile grew bigger and bigger, until he started to laugh. However it wasn't an evil laugh, more of a heart filled laugh, a laugh you wouldn't expect a person from the Fire Nation to have. Deimos sat back down and explained while laughing, "You guys, I was joking. Common, seriously I am not a bad guy. I don't want to kill you." He looked at Katara again, "Especially not you, beautiful" Katara blushed and looked away.

"Alright then! Who are you?" Sokka shouted, still worried about any trust he could give him.

"Alright I will explain, just sit down and relax. I won't hurt you." Deimos looked into the fire, then looked at Katara again.

"You probably know Zuko. Well… he is my brother." Deimos started.

"What? That makes you even more suspicious" Sokka interrupted.

"Chill! Let me explain: When I was born my mother found that I was different, she knew that the second my father found out that I was not able to do his bidding he would have me killed. With fear of that she brought me to an Earth Nation family, who took care of me for a long time. Then, my mother ran away from the Fire family, and came to me again." He paused a little but then continued, "Zuko still wrote letters to my mother, and when she passed away a few months ago, he didn't stop. Zuko still doesn't know. Instead of him writing to his mother, he was writing to me. I never replied, my handwriting would have made him suspicious, but he kept on writing. The letters were filled with plans to over throw his father. Zuko just wants peace in the land again. And I promised to find him and help him do this."

Katara looked at Deimos and said slowly, "But you are about his age, how old are you?"

"Just as old as Zuko, he is my twin brother. We have a connection, I feel all his pain and he feels mine."

"And what happened to you here?" Aang asked.

"Well a few fire guards found me resting outside this cave, and thought I was a wonderer. So they beat me. But then a general came, and told them to just leave me alone, I would die anyway, and they had more important things to do."

"That's horrible" Katara said slowly.

"You know what?" Sokka started, "you owe us for helping you back on your feet. How about you join us and fight the final battle in 12 days?

"I owe you nothing, Just Katara." Deimos said, "but I cannot fight alone against an army, sure I will join you. However." Deimos paused "I will meet you there, on the day. I will not travel with you."

"How come?" Toph asked.

"I have some things to clear up, but I promise I will be there."

"We might need someone of your strength, I mean you just deflected Tophs rock with ease." Sokka said.

"Well we should get some sleep, tomorrow we break off then." Aang said tired, and walked to a place where he lay down.

Everyone was sleeping, everyone except Deimos. He sat alone at the slowly dying fire, and watched it. Katara woke up and saw Deimos sitting there, and decided to join him. She scuffled along to where he sat and placed herself next to him. Deimos didn't move, he did nothing just stared into the flame.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked, breaking the silence.

"That flame there, is my brother." He said, just staring into the dying flame.

"What are you talking about?"

"The flame there is dying, just like my brother's power. Slowly but surely he is losing the will to live. Therefore his power is decreasing too."

Katara leaned her head against Deimos' shoulder and put her arms around his waist. Deimos finally moved and looked at her. She noticed that there were tears in his eyes. "You really mean it don't you? I've always seen your brother as a powerful man. I could have never thought that he would lose the will to live."

"That's the thing, I don't know why he doesn't want to live, I can only feel his feelings." Deimos looked at Katara again, staring deep into her eyes. Deimos was about to say something, but Katara put a finger to his lips to silence him and leaned in further to kiss Deimos. The slightly burnt lips felt rough and soft at the same time to Katara, and she pushed Deimos down slowly to the ground, making sure he didn't touch any of his wounds. Deimos smiled at Katara, "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I've never been surer my entire life," Katara replied and leant in to kiss him again, this time more passionately.

Morning broke and Deimos stood up from where he had slept with Katara in his arms. She woke immediately and they kissed. "I am going to make myself on my way now" Deimos told her. "But I will see you again, in 12 days, I will see you on the battlefield. And believe me after the horrible war is over, we can live together in peace." With that Deimos took a cloth bag that Katara hadn't noticed before and pulled out a dark red robe. He quickly got dressed in his Fire Nation Uniform, and put his hand into his bag again searching for something. Evidently finding it, he walked to Katara, took her hand and placed a ring on her finger.

"This is my favorite ring, I want you to have it. To remember me by." Katara smiled, and kissed Deimos one more time. Deimos stood up turned around and ran towards the light at the end of the tunnel. His shadow slowly being absorbed by light flooding the cave with warmth, as Katara put her hand on her stomach, and felt something she had never felt before. Love.