Title: Ill Met By Moonlight
Author: Moriah Muse
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Avatar, and Koh were all born of the genius of Michael DiMartino and Brian Konietzko, and are owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom, Inc. This interpretation is mine, spawned from withdrawal from the show, too many viewings of the season finale, and message board discussions on Distant Horizon ( http/ ), where I'm known as badgerling. I was influenced by everyone who commented in that thread, but especially fierymetis, Mutant Goldifsh, waterygrave, daydream11, 2xbroadsword, shadowrfox, Spring, and horyo for reminding me to cite/thank people (he's doing his own fic! NEAT!). Also, I'm pretty sure some of the stuff I saw at Avatard: the Last MiSTer ( http/ ) inspired me to attempt a fanfic using decent grammar...and semicolons! Thanks, everybody! Episode-wise, this was heavily influenced by the Siege of the North (Part II) and The Swamp.
Rating: PG-13 for violence, sadness, some big(ish) words, and a lot of evil dialogue
Summary: Koh mentioned stealing the face of someone the Avatar loved eight or nine hundred years before Aang. This interpretation of that idea tells of how the Avatar encounters Koh the night of the solstice when it happened.
Author's Notes: (Skip these if you're irked by verbosity; you'd best save your patience for the actual fic!) This idea has been fermenting for a long while in my head (i.e. ever since we first met Koh in the season finale), but I didn't write anything down until a discussion popped up on DH. Then, my fingers flew over the keyboard like Momo toward a snack. The Avatar is nameless in this story not just because I think we'll learn his real name later in the show, but because in discussion he was "Avatar Anthony" and will always remain such in my mind. When horyo mentioned starting a fanfic, I remembered that I had already started one and was motivated to finish it! I didn't use all the ideas from discussion, unfortunately; the idea had solidified in my head and couldn't be changed by the time some of the theories were posed. I made some assumptions and took artistic liberty to the point of artistic anarchy. I made the huge assumption that Koh is not always immortal, I'm pretty sure I had some Samurai Jack/Aku moments (some Iroh irony there), I assumed you're tangible enough to fight in the spirit world and the outcome of that fight affects you in the real world, and I had Koh refrain from stealing a mask (even though he can obviously steal those, too). And I can't write fight scenes. Seriously. I had all the banter planned out in my head, and had to strain to put action in between. I'll lament my further plotholes later, but overall, I'm actually pleased with this piece.
Satisfaction slowly drew the corners of her mouth into a smile, and her eyes gleamed with pleasure at the sight of him.
"One of my loveliest acquisitions, wouldn't you agree, old friend?"
He felt hot and heavy and sick, as though his stomach had filled with lead, but the sudden, terrible emptiness pained him more.
"Zara," he gasped, his breath staggering over the crack in his voice.
The smile widened.
He closed his eyes against that beloved image. Breathing deeply, he desperately sought peace and detachment, laboring to withhold grief from his expression.
When he opened his eyes, his anguish and loathing did not reflect in them.
"Koh," he said with strained calm. "Why hers?"
Koh flexed the claws surrounding his stolen face, prying the smile into a mockingly thoughtful expression.
"Why, indeed?" he arched his centipede-like form pensively, weaving. "She never knew me at all. I certainly had no reason to despise her. She did not begrudge or disrespect me as you did, on so many occasions. If I had a quarrel with you, for all your years of arrogance, surely I should have sought you on the solstice, and not her." Chuckling, he brought the face up to that of the man who had so adored its every feature. "Why, then, instead of stealing the face of the Avatar who insulted me, did I take hers?"
The Avatar strained to show no emotion. "You knew it would wound me more deeply."
"Yes," Koh purred, twisting that beloved face into a spiteful and malevolent grin. "Does it hurt?"
A drop of sweat ran down the Avatar's temple and followed the line of his cheekbone into his eye, where it stung like the tears he labored to contain.
"Yes,"
Koh laughed, contorting the beautiful face with his cruel and unrestrained mirth.
The Avatar's stoic expression suddenly hardened. Koh stopped laughing and blinked, exchanging the beautiful face for a white mask, but maintained his amusement.
"Really," he smirked with bright red lips. "This overreaction will merely waste your energy."
Glowing blue eyes regarded the spirit without feeling, without thought. At a sweeping gesture from the Avatar, the wind howled disconsolately and flung itself at Koh, but the Face-Stealer skittered low across the ground, allowing the gale no force against nor lift beneath him. Koh blinked again, assuming an owl's face. Immersing his claws in the earth, the spirit braced himself while he considered his powerful aggressor. The gust did not relent, dismembering trees and driving the debris toward Koh; his claws raked the soil as the air continued to assail him.
"An emotionless tantrum," Koh remarked. "Witty fool,"
He evaded the concentrated blasts of wind by moving half of his body at a time, always keeping enough claws in the earth to anchor himself. Koh moved with steady swiftness in this way, scuttling in a patient circle, evading the flying flotsam and shifting faces as he went.
"You are vulnerable this way, you know," he called with an old man's face. "But not as vulnerable as…"
Koh glanced indifferently at the thing the Avatar had forgotten. The faceless body of his love astoundingly remained standing in the center of the clearing, perhaps by clever positioning and deliberate elusion on the part of Koh. A huge and splintered tree branch hurled toward the familiar figure. Her clothing whipped in the windstorm, but the body did not move.
The air abruptly ceased thrashing. The branch fell to the ground before the faceless woman as the Avatar himself crumpled to the earth, his eyes no longer aglow.
"A waste of energy," Koh repeated derisively.
The Avatar looked up at him, exhausted. "I loved her."
Koh inched forward, detecting emotion wavering behind these words. "I have no doubt,"
"You--" the Avatar faltered. The sinister spirit crept nearer, donning a blue ogre mask.
"You--" Pain and turmoil seethed in the pause.
Koh drew eagerly up to the Avatar's face.
"You will not go unscathed!"
The Avatar lashed out with a blast of fire. Koh hissed and darted to the side, narrowly escaping the sudden blaze. He had neglected to notice the Avatar regain his footing. His face determinedly blank, the Avatar rose and sent shockwaves after the retreating spirit, setting the earth cracking and crumbling beneath his claws. Koh's reactions were quick and cunning; each attack came close, but none struck.
"I've no time to stay and admire your mastery of every element," the Face-Stealer sneered. "The solstice is nearly ended. Farewell, old friend."
Koh turned and swept off into the forest in a glint of blue light.
"NO!" the Avatar screamed, his rage and horror released. He raced to the spot where his foe had disappeared, but only shattered tree branches lay there. Behind him, the faceless body of the one he loved collapsed.
Most Avatars, when they met with Koh, had done so to learn or verify some fact known only by the oldest spirits; this information would aid them in resolving discord among the nations. The current Avatar first encountered Koh on a selfish mission when he was young.
He entered the Spirit World and immediately set off to find the ancient spirit.
"Where are you going?" inquired a reproachful female voice.
He continued sprinting through the swamp. "Don't you know? You are the most recent of my past lives."
The previous Avatar appeared in front of him. He halted. Avatar Midori stared at him sternly, wise and powerful and exuding authority. She knew where he was going and why, and what he should be doing instead.
She greeted him unsmilingly. "I told you of Koh simply to prepare you for future--"
"Can Koh answer my question?" the Avatar interrupted.
"Yes," Midori granted. "But his powers are dangerous. If you reveal any emotion when you speak with him, he will steal your face."
"Why would a spirit steal a human's face?"
"Give him no reason to do so. --You have no reason even to speak with him, however."
The Avatar frowned. "I have an urgent reason."
"An urgent reason as the Avatar? Or an urgent reason as a grieving youth? Koh will not--"
Brushing past Midori's image, the Avatar heatedly resumed his journey toward the massive tree. He did not turn to watch Midori fade into the water. He paused only once he reached the great tree, gazing at its gilded upper branches. Clearing his face of expression, he descended through a hole in its broad roots.
"Koh!" he called.
A masked face appeared before him, ringed with claws.
"Welcome back, Avatar. To what may I credit this visit?"
The Avatar inhaled quickly. "I need to know. My--my father has died, and I--"
"I'm afraid I must interrupt with my own question." The white mask changed to a leery, mustached face. "What does your father's death have to do with keeping balance between the nations?"
Midori had broached the same point, but the Avatar refused to believe that his past incarnation knew what was best for him, for his feelings.
"Was he a diplomat? A leader? A master?" Koh asked, assuming faces to suit each title.
"No, he was none of those. He was my father, and I want to know if I can find some connection to him here in the Spirit World and bring him back with me."
Koh donned a child's face--that of a small girl--and turned, indicating the overlapping roots around them.
"The roots of this tree are laced deeply in the earth beneath this swamp and extend throughout great portions of the Spirit World. They, like every living thing, are connected to something greater. Drawing on and understanding this connection can enable us to locate individual beings…"
"So you can find my father here?" the Avatar asked excitedly.
Koh turned back toward him at this, but the Avatar's expression had not changed.
"Easily," the spirit said dispassionately. The Avatar was wrestling back a smile when Koh switched suddenly to a furious mask. "But I will not."
Now the Avatar fought a frown. "What?"
"I am one of the oldest spirits, child. I have seen humans make their first ungainly attempts at bending. I have seen the nations form, the battles wage, the Avatars endeavor to bring order and unity. I have masses of knowledge few could grasp and many would kill to hear. And you, the Avatar, come to me asking about your father. No, I will not find him for his selfish son. The Avatar should understand the connection, the balance between life and death, between his life as the Avatar and his life as a fatherless child, and not arrogantly waste my time with his mortal concerns."
The Avatar fled then, before anger could engulf his expression.
Ever since, the Avatar's relationship with the face-stealing spirit was cold and antagonistic. The Avatar hated Koh for denying his request and only opportunity to take back his father, and Koh hated the Avatar for so deeply disrespecting him.
The Avatar stood for the last time before the great tree, his eyes cold in their resolve.
"Koh!" he called.
A deep and melodious voice answered from beneath the roots.
"Welcome back, old friend. To what may I credit this visit?"
"Come out and fight me!"
An echoing chuckle answered him.
"Bending cannot aid you here. However, if you wish to go through the ceremony of battle for the sake of vengeance, I shall of course indulge you."
The face-stealing spirit emerged wearing a warrior's countenance, rearing up to an imposing height. His eyes narrowed at the sight of his foe.
"A sacred sword," Koh observed. "Yes, that might lend you some defense here."
The Avatar's grip on his weapon tightened as he assumed an offensive stance.
"That, however," the spirit sneered, indicating the battle mask the Avatar wore. "Will be no hindrance to me."
The two lunged at one another, sword striking claw. Leaping to the side, the Avatar evaded successive blows from more of Koh's many legs. The spirit twisted sharply in time to parry a downward slash.
Koh knocked the sword aside and grinned with an ogre's face. "If rage drives you in this fight, I will win."
"I fight not out of rage," the Avatar said, using the momentum of Koh's deflection to sweep his blade in a half arc and stab it suddenly forward, jamming it between two plates in the spirit's armor-like shell. "But out of love."
Koh's face became a white mask of pain and fury. He wrenched himself free and rose to bear down upon the Avatar with his claws extended both to defend and to damage; but instead of attacking the spirit's underside from his position below, the Avatar darted behind Koh and ran partway up his back before raising the sword again. Koh pivoted his upper body and caught the blade.
An old man's face glowered at the mask of the Avatar. "You'll not slay me so easily."
As Koh threw him off, the Avatar swung in the air and severed one of the Face-Stealer's legs.
"I'm used to difficulty," he replied grimly.
The spirit howled and lunged again with a foaming boar's face, but the Avatar had directed his fall toward a tree and pushed off from the trunk, meeting him mid-attack.
"I think you have no face of your own," the Avatar said coldly as he clashed with Koh's claws.
He landed only long enough to propel himself again toward that hated centipede body.
"Or perhaps you are ashamed of your true face," he added as he sprang sword-first at the spirit's head.
The face of his beloved greeted him. He balked, and one wicked claw connected with his chest, sending him and his sword flying in opposite directions.
"I, ashamed?" cried Koh, assuming again that sinister white mask as he allowed the Avatar to painfully strike the ground before pinning him beneath a claw. "I have never dishonored my position with selfish searches."
The Avatar gasped scornfully. "What about tonight?"
"Ah," Koh purred. "That was--"
Seizing the leg that pinned him in both hands, the Avatar twisted fiercely. When the claw withdrew sharply, he rolled out from under the spirit. He knew his body in the mortal world was bleeding.
Koh swung about with a violent, bearded face, looming between the Avatar and his sword.
"Are you so determined to die?"
In answer, the Avatar dashed for his sword. Claws caught at him as he ran, but he ignored the slashes and dove for his weapon. His fingertips made contact with the hilt for an instant before one of the claws still hooked in his sleeve dragged his arm away. He wrestled, plunging his feet like roots into the ground, and heaved his other arm toward the sword. This time, his hand closed completely around the hilt.
He stabbed at the claws, but Koh had already removed them.
"Such unfocused fury," the spirit said as the Avatar charged at him. "No wonder she so worried about you…"
The Avatar froze as Koh again confronted him with the face of his love. Koh donned the warrior's face again, mocking his enemy's battle mask as he attacked.
"She worried about your uncontrolled wrath, your inability to balance your individual life and your life as the Avatar."
Dodging and defending, the Avatar returned few of the blows. He ran toward the water, hoping the swamp would impede the many-legged spirit, but Koh followed unfalteringly.
"She went out into the forest on the solstice," Koh continued, suddenly wearing that dear and beautiful face once more. "Imploring the spirits to help you," He replaced her face with his cold white mask. "And I answered."
The Avatar swung furiously and missed. He continued to slash at the despised Face-Stealer, but his efforts grew more and more futile as Koh pressed him without relent, shifting faces constantly as they battled but always, always returning to hers. Sweat matted his eyelashes beneath the mask, blurring his vision until only her face was discernable.
"You could not protect her," Koh accused, bringing the face up to that of the man who had so adored its every feature.
Battered and ill with grief and fatigue, the Avatar sank to his knees in the mire. His eyes filled with love and tears, at last displaying his sorrow in their expression. Seeing this, the Face-Stealer grinned.
"I win," he laughed softly.
Further Author's Notes: (You can skip these, too, if by some miracle you're not bothered by plotholes.) I'm leaving it ambiguous as to whether Koh actually steals the Avatar's face or even kills him, because we just don't know. He might steal the mask after the fic ends to show that he could have. His leg does grow back, by the way. I wrote two fight scenes, one in the mortal world and one in the spirit world, because I had wondered how each would turn out. Actually, I'd originally thought that Koh could only be hurt in the mortal world, and that fighting him in the spirit world would be pointless. After all, the Avatar can go into the Avatar State in the mortal world and bend all the elements--that's the time to fight! I had Koh be more cautious in the mortal world for this reason. That's probably why he left so soon. He ended up getting injured in the spirit world instead because that fight came second, and by that point I had to give him a reason for being angry with the Avatar for trying to slay him. One of my assumptions was that though you can't bend in the spirit world, you can bring weapons with you if they're sacred/inscribed (same with the battle mask). I then assumed that these weapons could actually do damage. BIG assumptions, there.
Koh probably has more powers than just being able to steal faces (perhaps these faces imbue him with certain powers?), but I had him hold back. Even Hei-Bai has a sonic roar--logically, Koh should have more amazing powers we don't know about. Koh didn't use any special powers in this fic because--well, it was really just me being nasty to the Avatar again, saying "Koh's so awesome, he doesn't even need to use all his powers to pwn you!" Shameless Koh promotion on my part.
I didn't address what happens to the bodies of the people from whom Koh steals faces. I left it so her body could be lifeless or a zombie shell. We just don't know what happens from the brief Koh coverage in the show. I can only hope for more, and that we don't find out by seeing the faceless body of a beloved character!
Another thing I left ambiguous in this fic was the Avatar's nation. I suspect we might learn that later as well, but mostly I didn't want to bias the reader. I did sort of have a nation in mind, though, and actually, it wasn't Air. I had him use air in the Avatar State because I've associated it with grief ever since The Southern Air Temple. Really, he probably used it because it was most convenient.
I'm not a fan of Avatar Midori--I didn't want to name her, either, but a conversation between two nameless Avatars would be downright confusing. I put her in the story because I realized the past Avatars probably wouldn't let the present one go around doing the stupid things mine did without a warning. Midori can't force him to do anything, but she can try to influence his decisions--bringing us back to the theme of how much being the Avatar should affect one's personal life.
I do apologize for my paranoid rambling--really it was all just an apology for the plotholes! Shutting up and shoving off.