Disclaimer: I won't ever had a chance of owning ATLA or its characters. TT . TT

Katara's eyes drifted open. A warm feeling was swelling deep inside of her being. Sitting up, she squinted. 'Where am I?' She looked around, but a clouded mist completely surrounded her, blocking out anything within a few inches from her face. Very carefully, she stood up, and slowly took a step forward. She breathed deeply. It smelled familiar, peaceful, like a place she'd been before. Her body felt heavy, like she was moving in a still lake up to her neck. The pressure crushed down on her, leaving her light headed and weak.

Something was off about this place.

"Hello?" Katara called out. "Who brought me here?" As soon as the words passed her lips, the shroud of mist started drifting away, and a person's shadow appeared a few feet away.

"I did, Katara." A familiar voice floated around her. She knew that voice. It was so soothing and warm. Gasping, Katara immediately knew where she was. She was back at the spirit oasis. A tear run down her cheek, not from sadness, but from shock. She rushed forward. Her mother was glowing radiantly, smiling with her arms held wide open.

Katara swiftly ran into her embrace, she couldn't believe that this was happening. She buried her face in her mother's soft parka, tears that were now falling freely from her eyes. Gently, her mother held the weeping water bender in her arms. After a few moments, she took Katara and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Katara, you have gone through what no one should have to, but nothing can change what will happen next." Katara looked searchingly into her blue eyes. She couldn't tell what this meant, but she didn't question her either.

"Katara, look down." Katara looked down and saw her own reflection in the oasis. She gasped—she was literally standing on sacred water. "Look deeper." her mother whispered. Katara peered into the still water. In the next few minutes nothing happened. But all at once colors exploded before her eyes.

It was like she was seeing herself from out side her body. Glimpses and pictures flashed before her. A glimmering dagger was held in her right hand and in a swift movement, she watched in horror as the thick rope of her braid fell to the ground. It had taken her years to get it at that length. Katara saw herself leaving behind her little 'Gaang'. The picture quickly darkened and the full moon was hanging high overhead. She was in a narrow alleyway, clutching a small child to her breast. Panic flooded her senses. The sound of metal grating on metal reached her ears. Colors swirled again and she found herself in a courtyard, a candlelit fountain stood in the center. Katara noticed that she looked like a different person in this picture. Her once long braid was gone, now hanging free only but a few mere inches below her shoulders, her hair loops replaced with a tiny braid on one side. Her blue clothes were traded out for green, and her water pouch was nowhere in sight. She blinked and saw her self come face to face with a laughing blue demon mask. Strangely enough, she felt a cold shiver of recognition crawl up her spine.

The images faded and blurred out of focus, though still at the moment, and a mystery to her.

Katara looked questionably at her mother. Her mother looked sadly at the water, and stroked its surface, the images faded back into the blue swirling water. She looked into Katara's eyes. "What you saw was what will happen." She let go of Katara's hand and walked over to middle of the small pond. Beneath her, the coy fish silently encircled her in their eternal dance.

The water came up in beautiful spirals surrounding the older figure. She called Katara's name, and Katara obediently came one step at a time. She knew something was about to change her life, yet she wasn't afraid. She drew a deep breath in and opened her eyes.

Katara looked at her, details blurring as she fought back fresh tears.

"Your journey has barley started and you have much to do. None will compare to you, but no one will know the burdens you will carry, it will be hard at times, but never give up…."

The waterbender felt something open up inside her. She felt a tingly sensation all over, starting in her center and working outwards. She glanced down at her fingers, flexing. They were practically itching to bend.

But she missed the sad tear that rolled down her mother's cheek. "My advice to you is taking the road less traveled, but be wary of things that seem to good to be true. You don't always need an available water source and you don't need a full moon for your bending to be at its peak. Water is everywhere, Katara. Where there is life, there is water. All you need to know is how to find it and use it to your advantage. "

With her last words, her mother whispered, "The man with two faces, Katara, is someone you can trust…"

A sudden mist swirled everything out of her sight. Her heart clinched. "Mom!" Reaching forward, she started running. It was if she was suspended in midair, moving and struggling, but getting nowhere. Crying out an unspoken anguish, she fell to her knees, struggling to keep herself together.

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Sweat beaded on her forehead ad her eyes flew open. Katara jerked into an upright position, shivering. She clasped her hand to her mouth, making sure she didn't make a sound. What just happened?

She blinked, once, twice. She quietly took a glance at her surroundings. When Katara had landed Appa, she figured they were only a few miles on the outskirts of Ba Sing Se. And by the looks of it, she was the only one up. Did that really happen? Katara let her eyes wander. Momo was curled up on Appa's head; the Earth king and Basco were sleeping in what looked like a rather uncomfortable position. Sokka was snuggled near Katara's feet, Aang had been placed in the center and Toph had placed an earth tent rather close considering the situation.

Katara sighed. It had only been a dream, a very realistic dream.

All at once, the visions she had saw in her dream were coming back to her. Painfully, glimpses and pictures swam before her eyes, but she saw them from a different angle this time, not like a third person, but through her own eyes.

She was thrown into a large crowd; every person around her was clad in either brown or green. Panicked, she turned around. Where am I? Katara looked scanned through the large mass, trying to meet people's eyes, desperately trying to find something familiar. The hairs on the back of her neck started to tingle. A scent reached her nose, like the faint trace of charcoal mixed with something vaguely sweet. Surprise. Addicting. Familiar.

He'd found her.

Again.

Almost as quickly it came, it left they same way they came. Gasping, she jumped to her feet and ran towards the woods. She didn't stop until her legs collapsed underneath her.

Laughter rang in her ears. "Katara, sing…"

As she calmed down, she obeyed her mother's last words. Savoring the honey coated feeling, she let it go—her pain, her sorrow, her regrets…she let the healing wash away it all. The song she sang was simple, but she sang with all she had. The notes soared towards the heavens, filled with emotion she didn't know she could express. Pushing the disbelief away, she sang.

A slight breeze rolled as she returned back to her family. Something had changed inside. Her heart felt lighter, less troubled. A hint of a smile tugged at her lips. Of all the things that had just happened, how was she still able to see the good inside of bad situations?

Yesterday morning, she would have laughed at the person who came up to warn her about the following events. In less than a day's time, she had been thrown into prison, forced to share the same space with someone she would have rather hated, fought for her life, and seen her best friend die. If only she had never trusted that person. Her rage had fueled her bending— a violent new part of her had burst forth and threatened to take over. Now, she could barely remember the incidents that had happened in that glowing prison. She remembered a few seconds here and there, but otherwise, nothing else came back to her. A sharp throbbing in the back of her head had probably been the cause.

With shaking fingers, she had used the water Pakku had given her. Truthfully, she had seriously doubted it would work. When it had, she swore that when tomorrow came, she would do anything she could to avenge Aang.

Tomorrow had become today, as it seemed. So with that in mind, she pulled water from the nearby stream and continued the complex healing process on her unconscious friend.

My computer hates me. It hates me, it really hates me. I've crashed the stupid thing like four times in the last two weeks. Thank God for laptops! Eh, this is just something I did to pass the time while my writer's block was stalling my other story, ADITM.

I really hope you enjoy this story.

Until later,
heflo