Avatar: The Last Airbender
Water.
Earth.
Fire.
Air.
It has been six years since the end of the Great War. Since Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai.
The citizens are working hard to reconstruct their battered countries, and there has been great success so far. Fire Lord Zuko had reclaimed his nation's honor; Toph is now a great earthbending trainer; Sokka is chief of the Southern Water Tribe, with Suki at his side; Aang had started up a group called The United People's Society.
Great progress had been made in reuniting the Four Nations. Much is being done to maintain order and peace. But my friends and I know that where there is light, there is shadow.
No matter how far we've come, there is always more work to be done.
Chapter Five: White Fire
"I guess I would have jumped at any chance to be with Zuko again. I love him."
Katara's words echoed eerily in the Avatar's mind. He had known that the waterbender had feelings for Zuko, but he hadn't been prepared to hear her say she loved the Fire Lord.
"Uh, Aang?" Toph's high-pitched voice pierced through his thoughts. "Are we going or what?" She was standing in the doorway of his house, her hands propped on her hips.
"Going where?"
"Uh, hello! We're going to The United People's thing, remember?" Toph frowned.
"Oh, right." Aang grabbed his wallet and house key off the living room table. "Let's go," he said, and followed Toph out the door.
"So, what are we going to discuss at the meeting today, Twinkletoes?" Toph asked, nudging him.
"Um…" Aang paused, thinking. "I'm not sure."
"You're not sure?!" She stopped, turned around and glared at him with unseeing eyes. "This is the damn United People's Society! How the hell could you not be sure of what you're discussing today? Don't you create an outline for every meeting?"
He squirmed under the intensity of her blind glare. "Honestly? No."
"Wait." She took a breath. "You're telling me you never plan out a meeting. You just start some random discussion?"
Aang shrugged. "Uh, yeah, I guess."
Toph shook her head. "So you just waltz in, totally unprepared?"
"Yeah."
She scoffed, and gave him a playful punch on the arm. "You're a loon, Twinkletoes!"
They came to the large front doors of the Fire Nation Town Hall. From the roof hung flags and banners depicting the insignias of the different elements and countries. As Aang gazed at the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and Water Tribe banners, he felt a pang of sadness. Then the feeling vanished as he realized what was hanging in the very center of the array of flags: The banner of the Avatar, depicting a circle with an elemental glyph positioned at north, south, east and west ends. In the very center of the circle was a diamond of white, representing the way an avatar's eyes would glow with the spirits of the avatars past.
The banners were arranged in the elemental cycle of the avatar: There were Water and Earth flags towards the left end, the Avatar flag in the middle, and on the right there were Fire and… Aang gasped as he recognized the banner of the Air Nomads. He hadn't thought the extinct airbenders would be included in such a display.
"Don't forget, you're representing all the Air Nomads," Toph said suddenly, as if in response to his thoughts.
"I know," he murmured.
"Dude, this isn't the first time. You can do it, even if you have to improvise." She nudged him teasingly. Toph pushed open the door, and the two entered the Town Hall.
"Aang!" cried a voice from behind them. The Avatar turned to see a young woman hastily walking towards him. She had dark skin and bright green, almond-shaped eyes. Her long black hair was tied in two braids.
"Neela," he said, and greeted the girl with a quick hug.
She grinned happily. "I didn't think you were coming," she said.
Aang chuckled. "Uh, yeah, why wouldn't I come to my own—?"
"Baldy here got off to a late start today," Toph suddenly interjected
Neela gave a short laugh. "Um, pardon me, but you are...?"
The earthbender stepped forward. "Toph Bei Fong."
"Oh, wow!" Neela's eyes widened as she shook Toph's hand. "You're one of the Five!"
"Uh, you mean six."
Aang leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Suki's not included."
"What?! Why the hell not?" she whispered back.
He didn't respond. He didn't know why Suki wasn't included, either. Maybe because she's not a bender?Aang thought to himself. But then that doesn't explain why Sokka's included....
"I've heard so much about you, Toph," Neela continued, breaking through the Avatar's thoughts.
"Such as?"
"That you fought tirelessly at Aang's side, that you're the greatest earthbender alive—"
Toph smirked. "You got that right, sister."
The dark-skinned girl laughed. "I'm an earthbender, too."
"Really?"
Aang thought he heard a hint of disinterest in Toph's voice.
"Yeah, um..." Neela played with her braids as she went on, clearly a little embarrassed. "But my earthbending skills aren't nearly as awesome as yours. Do you think you could train me, perhaps?"
The smirk returned to Toph's face. "Maybe. I'll think about it."
"Hey, wait." Aang paused, and looked at Neela. "Why don't I train you? I'm an earthbender too."
Toph jabbed her elbow into his side. "Yeah, but you're nowhere near as awesome as me."
"Wow, are you full of yourself, or what?" He chuckled. Instead of a polite giggle, he caught Toph glaring at him. "Um, never mind."
"Don't forget I'm the one who trained you. Avatar or not, I don't think you're in the position to train anyone in anything but airbending." She chuckled as she added, "Or being a goof."
Even though he felt that as a minor insult, Aang couldn't help but laugh at Toph's remark.
Suddenly someone cried out, "Hey Toph!"
The earthbender yelled her reply, and with a nod to Neela and Aang, she was off.
Neela turned back to him, and gave him a small smile. "Your girlfriend's really awesome, Aang. And funny."
He twitched with surprise. "Wait, what? Toph?" He laughed. "She's not my girlfriend. No way."
"Really?" Her green eyes sparkled with amusement. "You two seem really close. I think she'd be perfect for you."
Aang swallowed, feeling extremely awkward. "Um, yeah, we are really close. We've been friends for several years—just friends."
"Hmm." She stared at him. "I wouldn't have guessed. But—" Neela put her hand on his shoulder and smiled up at him. "Since you two are just friends, how about you and I go out sometime?"
"Um," Aang stuttered nervously. "Uh, sure. That'd be great."
"Great." She paused. "How about The Great Bear, tomorrow night?"
The Avatar blinked, and stammered his reply. "Uh, sure, tomorrow night. Awesome."
"Great," Neela said again, and stretched up to give him a peck on the cheek. "I'll be seeing you," she whispered, and flashing another smile, walked away.
Aang's heart was thumping in his chest with a combination of nervousness and excitement. As he watched Neela stride to the other side of the room, he spotted Toph out of the corner of his eye, staring at him with an expression of surprise on her face.
Aang wondered why she looked so shocked, but the mental question quickly ran from his mind as he focused on the United People's meeting.
The Avatar made his way to the front of the room and cleared his throat, attempting to catch the attention of the people. The loud chatter fell into silence, and as Aang scanned the room, he noticed that Katara and Zuko were among the crowd. He locked eyes with the waterbender's, and she smiled warmly and gave a brief, encouraging wave. Aang's heart swelled with energy, and he took a deep breath. "Welcome all to the quarterly meeting of The United People's Society." He paused and scanned the group. "Will the three representatives step forward and give their updates?"
Two men and one woman stood beside the Avatar, facing the crowd.
Among the small group, a man dressed in traditional Water Tribe garb spoke first. "All seems to be well in the Water Tribes. We are working on making some construction adjustments, and we are even discussing building a large commons area within each Tribe."
"Very good." Aang gave a short nod of acknowledgment to the Water Tribe representative. The man returned the nod, and walked back to his original seat amidst the crowd.
The man dressed in Earth Kingdom warrior clothes spoke next. "All is calm as well in the Earth Kingdom. Progress is slow in the reconstruction of Omashu. King Bumi had retired, giving rise to King Dao Len."
Aang felt a jolt of surprise upon hearing of his old friend's retirement from the throne, but quickly shoved the thought from his mind as he beckoned for the Fire Nation representative to speak.
The woman cleared her throat. "I would like to say the same for the Fire Nation. But not all is well here." She swept her hard, piercing gaze across the crowd. Aang tried not to flinch as her gaze flickered on him. Gee, I would NOT want to piss her off, the Avatar thought. The representative continued. "The Fire Nation is anything but peaceful, even in these days of the new world," Yin Lee said with an icy edge to her strong voice.
"Isn't the Fire Nation more peaceful now than it was?" Aang heard himself ask.
Yin Lee's hard stare studied him. "Granted, it is quieter than in earlier times. But we are still struggling. There has been a lot of warring between provinces—"
"Strange," the Avatar interrupted. "I have not heard anything of this."
She ignored his comment. "Lives have been lost as blood has been shed. There are rumors of treachery within our offices." Yin Lee's gaze suddenly hardened as she stared at Aang. "Looks like your beloved Avatar has not lived up to his promises."
He felt a great pang of combined disappointment, anger and fear. Aang swallowed hard before confronting his Fire Nation representative. He opened his mouth to retaliate, but someone from the crowd beat him to it.
"How dare you challenge the Avatar?" came a furious shriek. Aang quickly recognized the voice. It was Neela. "Without him, you would not be alive today!"
The Fire Nation woman narrowed her eyes at Neela. "And without him, the Fire Nation would have risen to its rightful place as the great empire of the world," she replied in an eerie tone.
A ferocious bellow erupted from Neela's mouth, and Aang leapt backward just in time to see about a dozen deadly shards of stone hurtling for Yin Lee. He watched in awe as the woman maneuvered like wind to dodge the shards. As she came to a halt after the last of the shards slid past her, Yin Lee's amber eyes flashed with frightening rage. She spread her arms out to her sides and whipped them through the air around her. Aang saw sparks fly from her motions as a shield of white fire took form.
Aang's hands and forehead started tingling. Anger and exasperation boiled up inside him. He felt numb as another part of him took over.
"Stop!" he roared with a voice of many voices. Suddenly wisps of air, water, earth and fire started spinning around him. Crap! Aang thought. I didn't mean to slip into the Avatar State! He spoke again. "Six years have passed, and this world has been under a new order of peace and recovery. I will not let our order collapse!"
"Maybe you should pay more attention to your world," came a threatening snarl.
The Avatar turned his glowing eyes on Yin Lee. This woman was obviously vicious and careless, but he wasn't about to let his anger get the best of him. It's happened before, and he still regretted the result. Not to mention it goes against everything I believe in. Finally, he spoke. "It is not the sole duty of the Avatar to take care of every person. It is the duty of the Avatar to protect the world and keep it in balance. That is precisely what I have done, and what I continue to do. However, what you do within your own nations is your responsibility and your business. It is your task to care for your own country."
Yin Lee looked unaffected, and held his glowing gaze steadily. "What about the Fire Lord?" She sneered. "Isn't it his position to care for the great Fire Nation?" She automatically pointed in Zuko's direction.
The firebender squirmed uncomfortably under the sudden attention.
Aang opened his mouth to speak, but Yin Lee cut him off. "Oh, but wait. He was removed from office."
A shocked breath escaped the Avatar's mouth.
Yin Lee widened her eyes, and plastered a fake expression of innocence on her face. "Oops. I guess you hadn't heard of that, either."
Aang felt his hands and forehead cool off as he slipped out of his Avatar State. The firestorm that Yin Lee had started whipping around her was now collapsing into the air.
"What?" he finally managed to whisper. Aang scanned the crowd. There were stunned whispers and gasps coming from them, and their faces all held blank, completely dumbfounded expressions.
"I don't know how I could have been any clearer," Yin Lee said. Grinning mischievously, she turned to their audience. "Fire Lord Zuko is now just plain Zuko. He was removed from office after allegations of extramarital affairs. Actually—" Her evil grin widened. "They're not just allegations. We have proof. You all know of Katara, of the Water Tribe?"
Aang's heart dropped to his stomach.
Yin Lee continued. "You may have noticed a bit of a baby bump appearing. Katara and Fire Lord Zuko have been...well, I think you get the picture by now."
Aang was desperate to say something, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He stood there for several minutes, unable to speak as he listened to the shocked murmurs from The United People's Society.
Unfortunately, Yin Lee was not finished with her destruction. "After these claims arose, Fire Lord Zuko was, and I quote, 'deemed unfit to lead the Fire Nation, as infidelity with his wife bring about questions of his fidelity with his country.'"
Finally, Aang was able to speak. "Yin Lee, you are unfit to participate in The United People's Society." He was surprised at how cold and harsh his words sounded.
"Avatar, should I pretend I give a damn?" she said, still sneering.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katara bolting for the exit, with Zuko following not far behind her.
"You have dishonored your own nation, Yin Lee," Aang continued, his voice thick and rough with stifled fury. The more he spoke, the more he began to feel like an ancient leader who had just been faced with mutiny within his country. "To bring about the weaknesses of your nation is to betray your loved ones. Your words may very well be the beginning to another great, dangerous battle. When it erupts, you will be on your own. Your words are destined to be your own demise."
When he finished talking, Aang couldn't help but feel an icy pang of regret, and wished desperately to take back his words. Suddenly, a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts began spinning within him. He grew lightheaded, and stumbled to the nearest exit.
Aang pushed through the doors and collapsed to the ground outside the Town Hall building.
"Aang!?" Neela cried as she burst through the doors and knelt beside him.
"I'm just sayin', that earthbending trick you did was pretty awesome," Toph was saying as she followed Neela outside. Then she paused, and stood beside Aang, staring down at him with unseeing yet concerned eyes. "You okay, Twinkletoes?"
Aang sniffled, and replied honestly, "No." He wiped at his eyes—he didn't realize he had been crying—and looked up at the two girls. "What if Yin Lee is right? What if I did fail for not trying to keep the Fire Nation together?"
"Hey, that moron should be lucky to be alive," Toph snapped.
Neela nodded in agreement. "You saved the world; isn't that enough?"
"No." He shook his head. "It's not. An avatar has to keep the world in peace, and I haven't."
"You may not realize it," Neela began. "But you have kept the world in peace. I mean, look at us. We're not living in fear anymore. Aang, you did a lot for the world already. It's time for us to take care of ourselves." She leaned forward and rested her hand on his shoulder. Aang lifted his head and locked his eyes with hers. Neela's green eyes held great compassion and warmth. For many minutes, the two gazed at each other.
"Wonder where Katara went," Toph said suddenly, shattering the silence. Aang was sure she purposely interrupted his and Neela's moment.
"Yeah," Neela said, pulling her gaze away from Aang. "And Zuko."
"We should find them," the Avatar agreed.
Neela rose to her feet, and helped Aang to his feet. She flashed him a sweet smile, and took off, following Toph. Aang walked after them.
After a few minutes of walking to nowhere, Toph suddenly stopped. Aang and Neela were silent as they waited for the blind earthbender's report. Then, she spoke. "They're going in that direction," Toph said, pointing to their left. Aang trusted her and her seeing feet, and followed.
"Katara!" he yelped as soon as the waterbender came into view. He sped off towards her. "Katara, wait!"
Finally, she turned around. Zuko, who was walking in front of her, turned also. As Aang neared her, he could see her eyes were bright red, and her cheeks were streaked with tears. He screeched to a halt beside her. "Katara, what's wrong?"
"What the hell do you think is wrong?" Zuko—always the hothead—yelled. "Your Fire Nation representative just blurted out to my country—to my people—that I was dethroned."
"I'm so sorry..." Aang murmured.
Katara waved her hand, dismissing his apology. "It's not your fault, Aang. There was no way you could have controlled what she said."
"Maybe with a little bloodbending," Toph put in.
Everyone turned to glare at her. She shrugged lightly.
"So it's all true?" came Neela's soft question. "The rumors—you're really pregnant with the Fire Lord's child?"
Katara bowed her head sadly. "Yes, it's all true."
"How...?"
The waterbender looked confused. "How what?"
Toph interjected, "She means how could you have stooped so low as to do whatever with Hothead over here?"
"Toph!" Aang scolded.
Katara shook her head. "I admit I did stoop pretty low—"
"Hey!" Zuko looked at her, clearly offended.
The waterbender smiled, and nudged him teasingly. "You didn't let me finish." Her face fell solemn again. "I regret what I did. I feel guilty like you don't know. But there's nothing I can do now except move on...or try to."
Zuko wrapped his arms around Katara and pulled her into an embrace. "And I'll be with you every step of the way." He pressed his lips to hers.
"Aw, gross!" Toph made a pretend vomiting sound, which made the group erupt in laughter.
Several minutes passed. The group was silent, staring at each other and reveling in their tight friendship.
Suddenly, Katara looked up at Zuko, and her words pierced through the silence. "I think we need to move."
Aang couldn't believe what he'd heard her say. "Move? But why? Where?"
Her hands rubbed her baby bump thoughtfully. "Well, Zuko's no longer the Fire Lord. And I think pretty much the whole Fire Nation hates us."
"Not true," Toph surprised everyone by saying. "Just because one moron shows you in a bad light, doesn't mean everyone's going to believe it."
"You heard Yin Lee," Katara said, but Toph broke her off.
"Yeah, we heard her. They all heard her; what's your point?"
"Jeez, let me finish my sentence!" Katara sighed. "She said there's some warring going on here, and..." She rested her gaze on her swelling abdomen. "I don't want to raise my child in this violence. We all grew up in the middle of violence, and we know what it's like. I don't want my child to go through it."
"So where do you want to go?" Zuko murmured, rubbing Katara's back comfortingly.
She met his amber gaze. "I want to go back home, to the Southern Water Tribe. Sokka's there, and Suki, and Dad, and Gran-Gran...." She trailed off.
Something inside Aang twitched with sadness as he saw a tear slide down Katara's cheek. He leaned forward, and cupped his hand on her face. He locked his eyes with hers, and saw a great homesickness swirling within her blue eyes.
"You're going to the Southern Water Tribe," Aang affirmed. "And I'll be close behind."
"No, Aang." She pulled away from his hand. "You should stay here and try to patch up the Fire Nation. I'll—"
"Katara." His voice was stern. "I'm coming with you to the Water Tribe."
She smiled through tears. "All right, Aang. If you insist."
"I'm going, too!" Toph said, stepping between him and Katara.
"What?" Aang chuckled. "Why? You hate cold weather."
Katara grinned. "Actually, 'cold' is a bit of an understatement. How do feel about wearing parkas?"
Toph shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't care how cold it is. I wanna stay with my friends."
"Wow." Aang raised an eyebrow at her "Do I detect a fragment of sentimentality beneath that rough, rugged Toph exterior?"
"'Rough'? 'Rugged'? You better not be calling me ugly, Twinkletoes!"
"Nah, of course not! You're not ugly!"
"So you're saying I'm pretty?"
"What?" Aang gulped, suddenly feeling very awkward.
"So what, now you're saying I'm not pretty?"
"No I mean, uh—" Aang groaned.
The others laughed as he struggled for words.
Toph gave him a light punch in the arm. "Relax, Aang. I'm just teasing."
"Oh. Okay." He chuckled awkwardly while his ears burned with embarrassment.
End of Chapter Five.