Sokka and Katara were playing in the middle of the village when black snow began to fall. Knowing what it meant, the siblings shared a look.
"I'm going to find mom." Katara worriedly said to Sokka as she ran to their igloo. Sokka gathered the children that were still outside playing and told them to follow him and that they needed to hide. The warriors of the tribe rushed to fight the Southern Raiders who had invaded their home once more.
"Mom!" Hearing his little sister Katara yell, Koda woke up. He ran his hands through the dark brown hair that he wore in the same style as his father without the braids, wondering why Katara was yelling this early in the morning. He had snuck out last night to go penguin sledding and wanted to sleep in today. Getting up and looking into the room he heard the yell, he was surprised when he saw his mother talking to a fire nation soldier.
"Just let her go." Kya said while on her knees, defeated. "I'll give you the information you want."
"You heard your mother." Yon Rha tilted his head and sneered towards Katara, "Get out of here!"
Katara's eyes were watering and she was shaking. "Mom, I'm scared..."
"Go find your dad, sweetie." Kya looked and smiled at Katara. "I'll handle this." Katara looked into the Fire Nation soldier's eyes and ran to find her father.
Yon Rha turned back to face Kya. "Now tell me... who is it? Who's the waterbender?"
"There are no waterbenders here. The Fire Nation took them all away a long time ago."
"You're lying. My source says there's one waterbender left in the southern water tribe." He threateningly advanced on Kya. "We're not leaving until we find the waterbender!
Unable to think of any other options, she agreed. "If I tell you, do you promise to leave the rest of the village alone? Yon Rha simply nodded and waited for her response.
Utterly defeated, Kya looked down and acquiesced. "It's me. Take me as your prisoner."
"I'm afraid I'm not taking prisoners today." He said with an evil sneer, pulling his arm back to strike down the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.
Koda watched fearfully as his mother told the man she was the waterbender he was looking for, knowing she was protecting Katara. He saw the firebender's arm pull back as he told Kya he wouldn't be taking any prisoners.
"No!" Koda screamed as he ran out, shoving his arms forward in a futile attempt to stop the man from killing his mother. His anger over the Fire Nation attacking their home and his need to protect his mother awakened something deep inside. Snow suddenly jumped up and encased the man as both Kya and Koda looked on in shock, as neither had known Koda was capable of waterbending. Surprise soon switched to fear as Yon Rha easily melted the snow encasing him and let the water drip off his body.
"Fool." He said to Kya with a smirk. "Lying to protect your son was admirable, too bad he's too stupid to stay hidden!" He yelled as flames came alive from his fists, headed straight for the 11 year old boy. Not fully understanding his newfound ability, all Koda managed to do was raise a small wall of snow before the fire made contact, sending snow everywhere and crashing him through the wall of the igloo leaving a large hole in his wake.
The captain chuckled at the child's failure. Clutching the sides of the hole, he calmly pushed himself through and gazed at the trail in the snow the boy's body had made that lead to a large pile against a nearby igloo. He began to slowly approach, savoring in the final extinction of the Southern Water Tribe waterbenders.
Still dazed from the blow, Koda found himself buried under a foot of snow. Remembering what he had done to the Fire Nation soldier, he was amazed. He was a waterbender! The only one in his entire tribe was Katara, and she wasn't able to do anything on the scale of what he did! Remembering Katara, he realized he and his family were still in danger. Shaking the snow off him, he stood tall.
A sick smile awaited him on Yon Rha's face as he laughed at him. "So your the last waterbender, and all you can do is toss snowballs around. You surprised me, but playtime is over now." Dropping into a fighting stance, he began to throw small fireballs at Koda. Prepared this time, he was able to avoid being hit by throwing up snow to block and dodging the bigger blasts.
The Fire Nation captain, annoyed the child was better than he originally thought, increased the power and frequency of his strikes. Koda was no longer able to fully block the stronger and more numerous fire blasts, and began to take small hits. Tiring quickly, Koda realized he needed to do something before he was killed. Having gotten the hang of his power, he ripped the snow out from under the raider, making him fall on his back as Koda took a few needed much moments of rest.
"Enough!" The man screamed as he lifted himself off the ground. Enraged, he threw a huge red-hot blast from both fists, launching Koda into the middle of his small village. Now burned and exhausted, he was unable to do anything but watch as the cruel soldier made his way towards him.
"Any last words, boy? You put up a much better fight than your people did!" He chuckled arrogantly. Barely conscious, Koda lifted his head. He saw the women and children of his tribe peeking out of their igloos, watching the fight. Disappointed by his people's weakness, and disgusted by his own, he dropped his head. The firebender raised his hand once
more. Out of the corner of Koda's eye, he saw Sokka charge at the soldier and Koda froze.
"No! Sokka, get out of here!" Koda frantically hoped that for once Sokka would listen.
Growing increasingly tired of children trying to fight him, Yon Rha unleashed a flaming inferno bigger than anything he had yet demonstrated.
Horrified at what would happen to Sokka, time slowed down for Koda. Pushing himself to stand, he called all of the water from beneath the ice to save his little brother. Cracks appeared in front of Sokka as water burst through and completely absorbed the fire. Now entirely drained of energy, he could do nothing but watch as the soldier picked up Sokka by the collar and threw him down hard. He turned again towards Koda, a wicked gleam in his eye. Picking him up by the neck, the man looked him straight in the eye. "I've faced grown men with less fight in them than you kid. Pity you were born a waterbender." He said, drawing his hand back for the final blow.
But just before anything else could happen, a boomerang hit the man in the back of his head and he released Koda, falling into a heap on the ground.
Hakoda held his hand out as the boomerang returned to it. He quickly bound the man in rope before looking over his injured son. Katara, who had gone to warn their father, had returned just in time with him to save his eldest son before he had been killed. Kya, who had ran to Sokka when he was thrown, joined the group as they looked down at Koda in both worry and awe.
"Is he going to be alright dad?" Sokka asked while he sat down next to his older brother as Katara joined him.
"It doesn't look like he's in great shape, but he'll make it. If that display was anything to go by, your brother is going to be a great waterbender one day."
Momentarily forgotten when the worried family doted over their injured son and brother, Yon Rha regained consciousness and managed to burn his bindings before fleeing with the rest of the Southern Raiders.
Upon waking up, Koda saw his siblings beside him talking. He didn't get much chance to think before-
"I didn't know you could waterbend too Koda, why didn't you tell me?" Katara asked, pouting.
'I didn't know I could, until now." Koda replied, "Really!" he blushed as she didn't look convinced.
"Yeah, Yeah, mystical water powers are great, but did you see dad with his boomerang?" Sokka exclaimed with stars in his eyes. "He took out the big bad guy in one hit!" The entire family rolled their eyes at him.
Katara looked annoyed. "And what part of your brain thought it was a good idea to charge that "big bad guy" with nothing but hot air?"
Watching Sokka stumble trying to defend himself, Hakoda and Kya were just glad nothing worse had happened. "I guess there's your answer if you thought the kids would be troubled about this." He said chuckling.
"This is Sokka we are talking about, we should have known." Kya smiled. "But I'm worried about Koda, he hasn't said much since waking up."
Hakoda's grin lessened. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him." Approaching his children, he told the younger two to leave the room and let Koda rest. They protested, but Kya managed to shuffle them out.
"Now son, what you did was amazing. You protected your mother and your brother with all you had and more. But you could have been killed yourself! If you hadn't been able to waterbend, we might not be having this conversation."
"I know, dad." Koda somberly replied, but there was something else in his voice. "But I shouldn't have had to protect them! You're the chief! You're supposed to protect everybody, especially your family!" It was anger. His father had left every single woman and child at the mercy of the southern raider captain, completely defenseless! What kind of chief was he?
"Koda." His face was now hardened and full of regret. "I took the men to fight the raiders before they had a chance to enter the village for this exact reason. I had no idea one had snuck past me and it almost cost us everything. You saved your mother and your brother and I am so proud of you." He defended himself and showed a small smile at the end.
"Yeah, well... don't let it happen again, ok?" Koda weakly replied, still exhausted from the day's events.
"Of course not son," Hakoda said as they shared a look, "Now I have to keep Sokka away from my boomerang. He thinks it's a toy!" He exasperated. Ending the conversation with laughter, Hakoda left the room.
After his father left, Koda thought about Yon Rha, the Southern Raider captain that had strolled into his village and done as he pleased. 'Now that I know I can bend, I have to get better. If the Fire Nation shows up again, I won't be useless! I'll protect everyone! I won't let Sokka or Katara get hurt again.' He thought with determination before falling asleep.