Book One: Water
Episode One: The Girl in the Iceberg
Part One
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
My grandmother used to tell stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements, and only he could stop the ruthless firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.
A hundred years have passed and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the War. Three years ago, my father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Fire Nation, leaving me and my sister to look after our village.
Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken.
I'm one of them.
There's not much I can do in the Southern Water Tribe, but I haven't lost hope in my people. The world can't depend on the Avatar anymore; we have to fend for ourselves if we're going to survive the war.
The blue water flowed like a river, but instead of land, icebergs towered high on either side. The paleness of the sky blended with the white blanket of fresh snow on top of the icebergs. The wind was icy, lifting Kai's dark hair, biting his nose and pinching his cheeks. He looked down into the still water below, his canoe slicing through easily, causing ripples in its wake. Kai slowly took off his gloves, flexing his long, slender fingers. Truthfully, he hated how feminine his hands were; if his father hadn't left with the rest of the tribesmen, he probably would've grown up to be a warrior with rough, scarred hands. A true warrior's hands.
"It's not getting away from me this time," he said in a whisper, barely turning his head over his shoulder. Behind Kai, his sister, Sao, idly ran her thumb along the tip of her spear. She stared into the water at the other end of the canoe, saying nothing. Kai imagined she was rolling her eyes at him, bottom lip jutting out in Sao's trademark resting bitch face. He paid her no further attention, eyes searching for the school of fish they'd been following all day.
Kai nearly gasped out loud from excitement as soon as he saw one. The fish swam close to the surface right in front of the canoe, oblivious to its predators from above. Kai narrowed his eyes, focused, following its every movement. He extended his ungloved hand over the fish, took a deep breath, and started waving his wrist fluidly, up and down in a circular motion. He continued in this fashion, pulling his other glove off with his teeth. Kai's concentration caused deep creases to spread across his forehead, and the fish rose out of the water in a floating bubble, rippling as though still part of the ocean.
He grinned, a rare event. The muscles in his cheeks were unaccustomed to smiling; Gran Gran often said that he was too serious for his age. But every now and then, Kai's excitement was too much to bear, and he wasn't always able to hide it. "Look, Sao!" he murmured, voice still low, worried he might startle his catch. Kai glanced over his shoulder then, hands poised above his head, to make sure his little sister witnessed the miracle before her. "Told you I'd catch the damn fish."
The bubble of water rose ever higher, and a bead of sweat dripped down from Kai's hairline to his temple. The fish drifted out over his head to the center of the canoe. He turned with it, struggling to keep control, their dinner still unaware of its impending doom as it floated along. "Sao, check it out!"
She was picking the dirt out of her nails with her spear when she finally lifted her gaze, the fish now eye level. Sao jumped back, rocking the canoe, and yelped in surprise. Kai's eyes widened as he watched her fingers tighten around the spear, and he was just able to shout, "Sao, no!" before her arm shot out. The blade cut through the bubble, bursting apart the formation and Kai's concentration. He fully lost control and the water rained down, soaking her thoroughly as though she had just gone for a swim fully-clothed. The fish collapsed down into her lap, flopping closer and closer to the edge of the canoe.
"Hey!" Kai exclaimed indignantly. He threw his arms up in the air in defeat, and the water around their canoe rippled. Sao swiftly withdrew a knife from the inside of her parka and drove it straight into the head of the fish, glaring menacingly at her brother.
"Hey, you!" she shot back, and flung the fish at him. Kai caught it, but not before the tail smacked the side of his face. He let out a grunt of discomfort, shoving their limp dinner into the small wicker basket hanging off his shoulder. Sao removed her own gloves and squeezed the water from her hair, droplets falling into her lap. "I smell like fish now thanks to you," she scolded, and flung her less-damp hair over her shoulder. Then she leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "Your magic tricks are better left at home."
Kai's face screwed together in annoyance. "It's not magic, it's waterbending," he argued, preparing to delve into one of his speeches defending the art.
Sao lifted her hand, palm out, silencing him. "Yeah, yeah, it's 'an ancient art unique to our culture,' blah, blah, blah." She bobbed her head side to side, and lifted her fingers to make air quotes, mocking him. Then she leaned against the back of the canoe, face upturned to the sky. "Look, big brother, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers like you, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."
A repulsed snort erupted from Kai's nose, and he raised an eyebrow at her skeptically, arms crossed over his chest. "You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who blows kisses and gazes lovingly at myself every time I see my spiritsforsaken reflection in the water." He nodded then, smug, as she turned sharply, irritated at his interruption; she was, in fact, admiring her reflection just seconds before.
She opened her mouth, meaning to degrade his waterbending further, when suddenly the canoe shuddered. They wobbled with the boat, gripping tightly to the edges from fear of falling into the water. Kai whirled around toward his end of the canoe frantically, hoping and praying to the spirits that they didn't get caught in a current.
But of course they were. "Shit," he muttered, and wildly scrambled for one of the oars. The current was rough and unforgiving, pulling them swiftly toward a jungle of large, sharp glaciers, the lofty walls of ice coming together at a dead end just a hundred feet ahead. The current hurtled them along and Kai paddled furiously, turning the boat right and left in tiring attempts to steer clear of floating chunks of ice. Two smaller icebergs drew together and he managed to gain enough speed and momentum to propel their boat forward, wood scraping dangerously against the ice, just as they collided into one another. A string of curses flew from Sao's mouth behind him as they were nearly pinned again and again, narrowly escaping death each time.
"Go left!" Sao suddenly cried out, and Kai peered ahead. In the corner, right before the end of the river, was a tight, confined opening. He nodded once; it was either that way, or straight into the iceberg.
He rowed furiously, directing their canoe towards the mouth of the passage. But despite all his efforts, it veered to the right, following the current. Kai's eyes widened as three large chunks of ice came together, and, realizing they were trapped, he spun around and hastily grabbed Sao by the collar of her parka. He leaped from the boat and onto one of the floes, hauling her along after him, just as it was completely crushed under the ice. Kai slid across the ice towards the other side and into the water, his momentum carrying him at a worrisome speed. He raised his hands, thinking this would be the moment his waterbending proved to be more than just a magic trick, when he jerked to a sudden halt at the floe's edge, his parka taut at his neck. Kai looked back and saw Sao's arms spread open wide, one hand clenching the bottom of his parka and the other her spear, the tip embedded into the ice.
Sao let out a huff, blowing strands of hair out of her eyes. Kai scooted back and away from the edge, dragging his butt along the floe so that he was sitting up next to his little sister. They regathered themselves silently for a few moments, looking around. Isolated, Kai realized, irritated. They were trapped on an island of ice in the middle of a river. No boat, and no one around for miles.
"You call that left?" Sao criticized, bitterness adding a metallic bite to her voice.
Kai's own voice was low, barely maintained. "You don't like my steering? Well, maybe you should've grabbed the other oar and helped me!"
His sister started waving her hands, mockingly imitating Kai's waterbending. "You know, maybe you should've waterbended us out of the ice." Then she gestured her arms out wide to the water surrounding their little ice island. "Or maybe you should focus on waterbending us out of this."
He whipped his head around, glaring daggers at her. "This is my fault?" When she only nodded, crossing her arms across her chest, Kai rolled his eyes and shifted away, his back to her. "I should've left you at home," he grumbled, "I knew you'd screw things up."
Sao's face contorted with fury and she stood shakily, the floe wobbling as the weight shifted. Kai turned just enough to allow him to peek at her behind his hair, although his face was still hidden. Behind her was a massive, towering shard of ice, its craggy peak rising high above the siblings. Maybe we can climb it, he speculated, and was just about to suggest it to his sister when she started screaming.
"You are the most sexist, immature, nut brained - spirits forgive me, I'm downright embarrassed to be related to you!"
Kai closed his eyes, squeezing his fingers into a fist. The water around them began rippling manically, little waves causing the floe and other chunks of ice to sway and bob up and down. Or we can just wait until her damn tantrum's over.
Sao started pacing back and forth across the floe. "Ever since Mom died, I've been doing all the work in the village while you've been off playing magician!"
He exhaled hotly and flexed his fingers, extending his arms forward. "Don't let her get to you, don't let her get to you," he chanted in a feverish whisper. The ripples grew rapidly into larger waves, each word hurling another wave directly into the towering iceberg behind her.
"I even wash all the clothes! Yours, mine, Gran Gran's, and everyone else's in our spiritsforsaken tribe! Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!"
A loud, splitting crack broke the top of the iceberg when Kai suddenly shot up to his feet, hooklike fissures arcing across its surface, leaving a spray of ice in its wake. He stood a head taller than Sao, so when he stepped toward her, he glowered down at her past his nose, chin tucked to his chest. Kai's Adam's apple moved up and down slowly as he swallowed, clenching his jaw. Through gritted teeth, he demanded, "Sao, settle down. Now."
"Settle down?!" she repeated, incredulous. She roughly pushed his shoulder aside to walk past him, fueled with rage. Continuing in her wrath, she waved her arms around her head, pacing. "No, that's it! I'm done helping you! From now on, you're-" Sao spun on her heel, forefinger out, ready to poke Kai menacingly in the chest, but her words caught in her throat. Her previously furious expression morphed into one of terror. Sao's eyes widened, seeing the iceberg, the cracks deepening.
But Kai didn't notice her sudden mood change. "You're not the only one who's had to take on a shit load of responsibility, Sao!" he exploded, copying her extravagant gesticulations. Each time his arms went up, new splits and cracks shook the water and the iceberg, and when they came down, chunks of ice fell with a loud splash into the water. All of this was unheard and unnoticed by Kai. "When Mom died, and Dad went off to fight with the Earth Kingdom, along with all of the other men, who was left? Me! There is no one else here to help me! The whole spiritsforsaken village is depending on me, and I have no idea what I'm doing!"
With his last sentence, Kai stamped his foot and his clenched fists slammed at his sides. His movement created a huge wave rising twenty feet high. It covered the sun, producing a sudden shadow that forced a petrified gasp from Sao's lips. Kai turned to look behind him, and he gasped despite himself, finally aware of his unconscious waterbending. Large fissures snaked their way up the iceberg; one reached the top and split the glacier completely in half. The two halves fell away from each other and collapsed into the water, radiating a wave larger than the last in all directions. It pushed their floe backward with such force that Kai and Sao fell onto their backs.
Kai reached out to Sao and threw an arm over her, squeezing her shoulders. She turned to him so that they were facing one another and she clutched his parka, face buried into his chest. They clung to one another and their ice island for dear life, waiting for the waves to subside. When the floe eventually stopped rocking, Kai loosened his grip and sat up on his knees. Sao looked up at him from where she lay, propping her head up on her arm. "Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Kai," she said dryly, and then flopped onto her back.
He didn't say anything at first, wide eyes staring in astonishment at the now calm water. "You mean I did that?" he said softly.
Sao smirked and lightly punched the back of his arm. "Yep. Congratulations, big brother, your magic tricks almost got us killed."
Just as he was about to respond, small bubbles appeared on the surface of the river. Kai and Sao regarded the boiling water warily when suddenly the bubbles came together. Deep below the surface, a bright bluish spot grew steadily into a large, brilliant glow. The siblings scrambled back to the other edge of the floe in renewed terror as an immense, spherical iceberg emerged, breaking the surface.
"What did you do now?" Sao shouted incredulously, once again clinging to her brother.
The glacier rose above the surface, glowing bright as the sun. Waves generated by the iceberg's rising pushed the floe backward further as the berg itself rocked to and fro before coming to rest. Mesmerized, Kai strayed closer, staring at the iceberg. "Did I do that, too?" he wondered, bewildered. He began to reach out to it, stretching out his hand, fingers itching to touch the ice, but Sao grabbed him by the hood of his parka and yanked.
"You don't know-" she began, then stopped as she studied the glacier more closely. In the center of the iceberg was a shadow resembling a human shape, posed in a lotus position, below a huge, indistinguishable mass that almost took up the whole size of the berg. Assuming the shadow was indeed human, it had glowing arrows on its head and hands. Sao dropped her grip on Kai, arm swinging down to her side. Her mouth dropped open, recognizing the form of a young boy thanks to the reflected light.
Suddenly, the boy opened his eyes, the same dazzling light emanating from them. Kai staggered backwards in shock, but Sao jumped forward, pulling her club from its harness at her back. "He's alive!" she shouted, "We have to help!"
She pulled her hood over her head and sprinted forward towards the boy trapped in the iceberg, jumping lightly across a makeshift bridge of floating ice. Kai clambered after her hurriedly. "Sao, watch out! We don't know what that thing is!"
Sao reached the iceberg first and struck it over and over again with her club. On her fifth strike, she broke through its surface, and a powerful blast of wind erupted from within the iceberg, throwing her and her brother off their feet. The iceberg began cracking, and in the next second a tremendous outward explosion completely destroyed it. Kai and Sao gawked in awe as a beam of light surged from its core and upward into the sky.
Kai's eyebrows furrowed together as he watched the light rise higher and higher. "Nice job, Kai," he muttered to himself, and banged the palm of his hand against his forehead. Anyone for a hundred miles would see that ray of light. Anyone, including any Fire Nation ships patrolling the south.
A stream of light cut through the sky, a giant bright blue pillar, slicing through the pale heavens. With it came a sudden gust of wind, lifting Zen's ponytail in a swirl around her shoulders. The pleats of the skirt of her military uniform fluttered. "Finally," she breathed, and turned around eagerly to face her uncle, also dressed in uniform. He sat at a small table with cards and tea. "Uncle, do you realize what this means?"
Unperturbed, the old man rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he gazed at the cards laid out before him. He placed a tile down before glancing up at his niece, and said calmly, "I won't get to finish my game?"
Zen turned back around again to face the light. She sighed, exasperated at her uncle's apathy. "It means my search is about to come to an end." Iroh copied her sigh, uninterested, and continued with his game. Growing impatient, Zen stomped forward, gesturing wildly at the light. "Uncle, that light came from an incredibly powerful source! It has to be him!"
Skeptical, her uncle shot back, "Or it's just the celestial lights. We've been down this road before, Princess Zen." She groaned and spun around, irate, but her uncle carried on. "I don't want you to get too excited over nothing." When she continued pacing impatiently, staring intently at the light, Iroh patted the table fondly and motioned to the tea. "Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?"
The princess spun around furiously. "I don't need any calming tea! I need to capture the Avatar!" She pointed dramatically, directing her next command to her crew as the light slowly dissipated and faded away. "Helmsman, head a course for the light!"
Kai released Sao from his protective embrace as the gale finally began to settle. The snow and ice gleamed with fluorescent pulses. The siblings looked up at the mountain of ice warily, now a hollowed-out crater. Kai held Sao's elbow, keeping her close, as the shadow they had seen trapped in the ice morphed into the skinny body of a young child, emerging slowly and shakily. She brandished her spear in defense once again, stepping in front of her big brother. "Stop!" she barked, as Kai scrambled to pull her back behind him.
The mysterious figure slowly stood at the top of the crater, eyes and arrows ablaze with the same bright luminescence. He seemed to be looking right at them, and the siblings stared back, more fascinated than afraid.
The light evaporated as soon as the boy stopped glowing. He went suddenly limp and fell forward in a faint, a moan of exhaustion gurgling from the base of his throat. Sao gasped and ran forward to catch him before he hit the ground, Kai hovering nervously over them. She cradled the boy in her arms, and after a few seconds of hurried observation, her head snapped up and she said to Kai in surprise, "It's a girl!"
Kai's brows furrowed together as he looked at the boy more closely. The face was slender and angled with high cheekbones; almond-shaped eyes were framed by long, curling lashes. Sao was right; the boy was actually a girl. They had assumed otherwise because she was bald. Instead of hair, her smooth scalp adorned intricate designs tattooed in the middle of her forehead, coming together to form into the shape of an arrow. The tattoo extended over her head, down the base of her neck, and presumably across her back as well, covered by her yellow clothes.
Sao leaned the girl gently against the foot of the crater, holding her upright by the shoulder. The girl's eyes moved back and forth beneath her eyelids rapidly before slowly fluttering open. Her gray eyes continued moving to and fro, glazed and nervous, but as soon as she focused on Sao, she gasped, seemingly in awe. Kai's sister smiled at her in relief, deep blue eyes crinkling in the corners. Kai regarded the pair tensely, but couldn't help but recognize that he hadn't seen his sister smile like that in years.
The iceberg girl's lips moved as she tried to speak. Kai and Sao both leaned closer, straining to hear. Her voice was weak and raspy, unused in a long, long time. "I need to ask you something," she croaked.
Sao nodded eagerly, and Kai fought the urge to throw himself between the two. "What is it?"
"Please… come closer."
His sister inclined her head forward curiously. "Yes?" she urged.
The girl's half-lidded eyes suddenly popped open and when she spoke again, her voice rang clear, happy and hopeful. "Will you go penguin sledding with me?"
Sao blinked and pulled away, startled. She glanced at Kai awkwardly before regarding the strange girl again. "Uh, s-sure," she stammered out, and brought herself up to her feet. "I mean, I guess?"
The girl rose elegantly in one swift motion, almost as if the air itself lifted her up. The siblings retreated a few paces, Sao balancing the spear between her twitching fingers, but Kai jerked his chin in a signal to be still. They watched the girl attentively, silently, as she turned in a slow circle, taking in her surroundings and rubbing her head in confusion. "What's going on here?" she asked, uncertainty raising the pitch of her voice.
Sao lifted her spear, then, and pointed it at the girl aggressively. "You tell us!" she demanded, and redirected the tip of her spear to the top of the crater. "How did you get in the ice? And why in the spirits' name aren't you frozen?"
She shrugged, lazily rubbing her hands across her face."Couldn't tell you," she said. The girl opened her mouth, meaning to say more, but was interrupted unexpectedly by a deep growl emanating from somewhere within the crater of the iceberg. Her face brightened and she quickly scrambled up the ice, disappearing down the other side. Sao and Kai looked at each other, bewildered, before running around the corner.
"Appa!" they heard the girl croon. "Are you all right? Wake up, boy."
When the siblings came back into sight, they found the strange iceberg girl poking and prodding a giant, fluffy bison. They stopped dead in their tracks, jaws dropping as soon as their eyes laid on the beast. It grumbled, disturbed from its sleep, and then the creature opened his mouth, a large red tongue flicking out to lick the girl. She let out a squeal of delight and placed her forehead against the bison's nose. "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!"
It lifted itself up, six woolly legs taking turns to stretch, as its tail rose and slammed back down onto the ice with a thick thud. Kai blinked rapidly in disbelief. "What is that thing?" he gawked.
The girl smiled, turning over her shoulder. "This is Appa," she answered, matter-of-fact, "my flying bison."
Sao snorted, stifling a laugh. "Right," she said sarcastically, nudging her brother forward, "and this is Kai, my flying brother."
They both looked at Sao questioningly, but after a moment the iceberg girl simply waved her hand, as if in dismissal. "So, do you guys live around here?" she inquired, and smiled innocently at the siblings.
Kai snatched his sister's spear and squatted into a defensive stance, earning an incredulous look from the girl. "Don't answer that!" he cautioned his sister. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy!"
Sao rolled her eyes and took back her spear, suddenly deciding the iceberg girl was no longer a threat. "Oh yeah, I'm sure she's a spy for the Fire Navy," she drawled, and placed her hands on her hips. "You can tell by that evil look in her eye." The girl's face once again broke out into an earnest grin, and Sao gave Kai a pointed look. To the girl, she introduced herself, "My name is Sao. The paranoid one is my brother, Kai. You never told us your name."
She blushed sheepishly, apparently embarrassed for forgetting her manners. Smile widening, she extended a hand out. "I'm A…" she began, but stopped short, her nose screwing up and nostrils flaring. Suddenly she sneezed, and a blast of air rocketed her high into the air. When gravity caught up with her, she drifted down, completely unharmed. "I'm Ai," she finished, and rubbed her nose with a sniffle.
Kai and Sao stared at Ai in disbelief. "You just sneezed…" Sao gawked, and threw her hands up in the air, gesturing towards the sky. "You sneezed, and flew ten feet in the air!"
Ai turned her face up, one eyebrow cocked as she thought quizzically. "Really? It felt higher than that."
Kai gasped, realization dawning on him. He raked his gaze up and down Ai's body, taking in with new clarity the swirling designs in her arrow tattoos resembling the emblems of the Air Nomads and her yellow-orange clothes. It wasn't necessarily a rule, but the Water Tribe tended to wear blue, the Fire Nation red, and the Earth Kingdom green. His jaw clenched and he swallowed, trying to come to terms with the impossible. "You're an airbender."
The sky was no longer pale like the snow and icebergs, reflecting instead different shades and hues of red and purple as the sun retreated beneath the horizon. The beam of light had disappeared hours ago, but Princess Zen stood like a rock at the helm of her ship, staring off silently into the distance.
Her uncle waddled forward, yawning and stretching. "I'm going to bed now," he said, and peeked at his niece with one eye open. Seeing that she had yet to acknowledge his presence, he stretched his arms above his head and continued, "Yep, a man needs his rest." Iroh paused, waiting, before impatiently abandoning his attempts at a veiled suggestion. "Princess Zen," he requested more directly, his tone reflecting the exhaustion and fatigue in his face, "you need some sleep. Even if you're right, and the Avatar is alive, you won't find him. Your father, grandfather and great-grandfather all tried and failed."
She didn't budge, her hands clasped together behind her back. "The men in my family failed because their honor didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture. Mine does," Zen hissed through clenched teeth. She stepped forward to edge of the ship and grasped the railing with white knuckles. Her eyes narrowed and steam rose from her hands, the smell of burning metal floating through the air. "This coward's hundred years in hiding are over."
A/N: I hope you guys liked part one! I'm still brainstorming where the entirety of this show is headed with the genderbended characters, but I was so excited to get started I wanted to write and publish the first episode, at least. Let me know what you think!
The characters (in case you are confused as to who's who):
Obviously, the personalities of the characters will alter, or else what's the point in writing this story?
Katara = Kai
Sokka = Sao
Aang = Ai
Zuko = Zen
Uncle Iron = still Uncle Iroh
Gran Gran = still Gran Gran (aka Kanna)
Are you a beta? If you are a beta and you are available to help me with editing this story, please DM me! Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters nor the plot to A:tLA. If I did, there would be lesbians and Zutara would be canon.