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Only One
Katara had thought long and hard about it. It had been nearly a month since Azula had captured her and she hadn't heard anything about any of the others. All she knew was that Azula was still after them, and she would stop at nothing to get Aang.
Ty Lee would come through any moment to give her a small amount of food and water and reapply the chi blocks to make sure she couldn't waterbend. When the acrobat came through, Katara would go through with her plan.
It's for the best, she promised herself, Spirits, forgive me.
The door down to her little cage opened and in slipped a woman. But it was not Ty Lee bringing her food and water today.
"Mai?" the waterbender started, slightly shocked.
The girl looked sharply at her prisoner when she said her name. "What is it?"
"I would like to request an audience with Azula," Katara explained as Mai gave her the food.
There was a noticeable crease in Mai's brow. "Why?"
Katara bit her lip. "I want to make a deal with her. I think she might be interested in what I have to say."
Mai looked the Water Tribe girl in the eyes and searched her face. Her skin was pale and she was noticeably thinner than she had been when they'd first captured her. Solitary confinement was not something that was doing her any good.
"I'll talk to Azula and ask if she'll see you."
Mai walked off before Katara could say anything more.
While Katara ate her food, she prayed that everything would turn out alright. What she was about to do, many people would kill her for. But she'd thought about it long and hard, and she had to do it. It was this sacrifice in place of another.
Azula would catch up to them all eventually. She wasn't going to stop until she had Aang and squished him like a bug. And she'd kill anyone who tried to get in her way. Sokka… Toph… they'd never let her near him without putting up a fight. And the Earth King, who had been travelling with them when Katara was taken, would try and get a say in the matter as well. At least this way Katara might be able to get them safely out of the way. At least this way they might still be able to live. They'd probably never forgive her for this, but she'd rather have them hate her than not have them there at all.
Mai knew the girl was up to something. But it was going to be something that would make her suffer more than anyone else.
Why would she be trying to do something that would cause her pain?
Mai didn't understand.
"Azula, the Water Tribe girl wants to speak to you," Mai sighed in monotone.
The Fire Nation princess turned away from the map spread out in front of her which she was examining viciously. There was some maniac glint in her eyes, which told Mai she was losing it.
A smirk spread across her face, "Finally."
"So, you're telling me that you're willing to help me capture the Avatar, as long as I do no harm to the rest of your little friends?" Azula summed up, basically repeating what Katara had just said.
The Water Tribe girl did not look up as she bowed at the evil princess's feet. "Yes."
Azula smirked deviously. "Excellent."
Without another word, she turned on her heals and left the room, Ty Lee skipping lightly behind her with a confused expression on her face – she hadn't been expecting something like this, but it appeared Azula had.
There was silence in the prison hold once the door swung shut. Katara did not stand up, nor did she sit up. But from where Mai stood, she saw the tears streaking silently down the side of her face.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but they'll never forgive you if you sacrifice Aang," she said, matter-of-factly.
Katara sniffed a couple of times and straightened up. She wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand before she made a come back. "Don't you think I know that?! I've had a whole month to think about it. I don't expect them to ever forgive me for this…" She looked back down at the floor. "I don't even plan to forgive myself for this. But in my head, it's at least better than all of them being killed."
Katara tried to calm her breathing down and stop the tears from falling, but it was a fruitless attempt. When she looked back up, Mai was gone.
Whatever she's thinking, she's insane! Mai thought as she lay down. Would she really choose to give up the life of the Avatar in order to save the lives of her other friends? Would she really help us capture him to make sure the others wouldn't be hurt in the process? Or does she plan to double-cross Azula? Whatever she's thinking, she's absolutely insane.
"Mai, are you feeling alright?" Ty Lee asked timidly.
"I'm fine!" Mai snapped. "I'm just tired."
"You look angry and upset about something. I haven't seen you like this in a long while. Are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about?" she asked.
"No," was the blunt answer she got.
Ty Lee's eyes were downcast as she left the room to her own.
Mai curled up under the blankets. After a little while of thinking, she noticed something wet and warm on her face and realized she'd been crying.
But why? I don't have a reason to be crying!
She'd only been thinking of Katara – the isolation she'd been experiencing for the past month, the terror of being in the enemy's hands without a friend beside her, the trauma of her new decisions, the lack of proper nourishment, the constant stress she would be under…
Why the hell do I care?!
That was the last thing Mai thought before she fell asleep.
The four girls were standing not far off the Avatar's campsite a week later. Azula turned to Katara and spoke sharply to her.
"If you dare muck things up, I will ensure that your death is slow and torturous," she hissed.
Katara felt an involuntary shiver run up her spine, but she did not flinch. She'd promised herself when she made this decision that she would not show anymore weakness. She would take everything that was thrown at her with her head held high.
Mai nearly cringed as she noted the only sign that Katara was in pain – the paling of her skin. But honestly, what did it matter to her? All this girl was to their group was a puppet – bate for the Avatar.
"You go in there, you show them all that you're alright, you make up some miraculous story about how you escaped me, you make it look like you weren't followed, there's nothing wrong, nothings going to go wrong and you are all going to go on with your little journey without a worry in the world. Then, when everyone's settled down enough, you ask the Avatar if he'll go for a walk with you, you lead him this way, making small talk so that he'll think you're just taking him for a nice little romantic stroll to catch up for lost time. And you lead him straight into our trap. Once we come out of hiding, stand aside and don't you dare interfere without my say-so, or you will regret it dearly."
Katara answered with a small nod, not looking at her master at all.
"Once we have the Avatar, you and your friends are free to go, but be warned, if any of you get in my way or try to ruin my success, I will not hesitate to blow whoever it was to hell," she spat.
Again, all Katara could do was nod.
"You have until midnight, or we will attack the campsite. Now go."
The only thing Katara could hear after she parted ways with the girls was the rapid thudding of her heart. She hoped to the Spirits that they'd situated themselves farther away enough for Toph not to have noticed them or heard them. And she prayed as hard as ever that Toph would not have her figured out quick enough.
"GUYS!!!" Toph's voice screamed gleefully. "IT'S –"
She stepped into the campsite for them all to see her.
"KATARA!!!!" several excited voices yelled in a mixture of relief and delight. Everybody moved so quickly, she nearly couldn't see them. All she really noticed was the excited mix of voices which she could not separate as they greeted her and told her about how worried they'd been. She couldn't breathe and she noticed that everyone had captured her in the most bone-crushing hug she'd ever experienced.
"Guys… can't… breathe…"
They all let go of her at the same time and took a step back while she panted. Once she had her breath, she straightened up and smiled at all of their teary faces and wiped the tears from her own.
"It's great to be back!" And she wasn't lying.
While Mai watched the Avatar and his friends welcome back their waterbender, she felt a bead of acidic heat rise in her throat. As they all embraced her, she wished she could have been among them, wrapping their arms around her and holding her closely.
She shook that thought from her head. Why would she want something like that?
Mai dismissed it as instinct, because she knew that this may well be the last time the poor girl would be embraced so joyously by all of those people. She felt sorry for Katara for what she was about to put herself through.
It was her choice to do this, and so she must suffer for it.
Katara, Aang, Sokka, Toph, the Earth King, Appa and Momo all sat around the fire and talked excitedly.
"How did you escape?!" Sokka asked in amazement as he looked wide-eyed at his little sister.
"I'm not so sure. Azula was distracted for a moment too long and I just saw a chance to run and I took it!" she smiled, creating a convincing lie. Her heart was still beating so fast from the reunion, she knew Toph would not be able to tell the difference.
"We're so glad that you're ok!" Aang cheered.
The Avatar threw his arms around the waterbender and hugged her.
"So am I, Aang…" she whispered into his ear as she hugged him back.
Mai just barely caught herself from pouncing down from her tree and attacking Aang when she saw that. She didn't understand why.
But she dismissed it for instinct again. She knew that this boy was about to cause Katara a lot of pain, and naturally, Mai didn't want that pain to be any more intense than it needed to be.
Being back with her friends was sweet. It was relaxing. But it hurt, because she knew that she'd be parting ways with them again too soon.
When everyone had relaxed and talk seemed no more than the usual for the gang, Katara smiled warmly at Aang and whispered to him, "Come for a walk with me?"
The Avatar was on his feet in less than a second, clearly eager. "Sure thing!"
Azula smirked as they slipped away from the campsite, and Katara led the Avatar right into her trap.
"So, do you want to talk about something?" Aang asked lightly, smiling at his friend.
Katara smiled back, "Not really, my head hurts a little from all the talking back there. All this excitement from being back with you guys is making me dizzy," she laughed, lying.
Aang laughed too, "Aw, don't worry Katara, just tell us if you need us to give you some quiet and we'll shut up!"
Katara smiled and looked away quickly as her expression contorted with pain. She knew what was about to happen to her best friend and it would be all her fault. It had to be done, but she didn't want to have to see any of it.
"Katara? What's the matter?" Aang asked, immediately worried as the girl's head drooped.
Azula was on edge as soon as she saw it.
"Don't you dare back out now girl!" she hissed under her breath. "Don't you dare."
Mai looked sideways at her and glared, wondering how this girl who she'd known for so long still couldn't grasp the concept of human emotion, sacrifice, and pain.
Katara pulled herself together before the tears could escape and turned to smile at Aang again.
"Nothing is the matter. I'm just so relieved to be back with you all. I haven't seen any of you in over a month! It's been hard. I missed you so much…" she said. It was an honest truth, but not the reason she'd been tearing up.
But Aang believed her. "Well, you're safe now, and you're back with us… you're back with me." He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes, smiling gently. "And I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you, Katara."
The waterbender managed the weakest of smiles for her friend. He had to stand on his toes, but he pressed his lips gently against hers. It wasn't what she wanted, but she knew she was about to lose him, so she let it be. Maybe he'd taste her secret goodbye in their one and only kiss.
Mai had her weapons ready to use as soon as she threw herself out of the tree. She landed on the ground with a thud and straightened up immediately, glaring at Aang. Ty Lee shouted her name in shock, giving her away completely. Azula glared at both of them.
"Now, Ty Lee!" Azula ordered suddenly. Both of the girls jumped out of the tree and landed around Katara and Aang.
Aang looked around wildly, not realizing that Katara wasn't panicking.
"Stay back! Don't take her again!" he yelled at them.
Azula threw her head back and laughed. "What are you talking about, Aang?"
Mai ran to Katara and pulled her away from Aang while he was looking at Azula. The water girl stood next to her.
"Why would we take Katara again – we made a deal with her that we wouldn't harm her or the rest of your little friends here if she would help us get you, and we'd let them all free once we had you. The only exception is if one of your friends tries to stop me from taking you – then I have the right to attack them," Azula explained, her voice dripping with venom.
Aang's mouth fell open and he dropped his defensive stance and turned around to see Katara. She was standing next to Mai, her head bowed and her eyes squeezed shut, tears streaming down her face.
"Katara…?"
"I'm so sorry, Aang. I wish there was a way I could have saved you too," she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear.
"AANG!" Toph's voice yelled from the campsite.
They were busted – she had sensed them.
"Toph…" Aang murmured.
"No!" Katara shrieked.
Azula was faster than lightning with what she did. None of the others had time to see her take the young boy's life. But there was a single eerie blue flash of light and then Aang's dead body hit the ground.
Katara's eyes went wide as she saw him, dead. She opened her mouth to scream out his name, but she couldn't hear her own voice to know if it worked. She ran to his side and cradled him in her arms, shaking him, begging for him to wake up. She had his blood on her hands. She felt sick to the stomach.
She heard nothing else, not even when something forced her away from her dead friend. It was earth – Toph.
She and Sokka and the Earth King appeared in the clearing. Katara could see their lips moving as they shouted and screamed. Toph was pointing her finger at her, screaming accusations which Katara couldn't argue with, firstly because she was in hysterics and could not calm herself enough to speak, secondly because they were all true, and thirdly because she could not actually hear them to be able to tell which order Toph was screaming them in.
Toph was telling the others what she knew Katara had done. She'd betrayed them all – Aang, the gang, the whole world. She'd led the Avatar into the Fire Princess's trap and let her kill him. He was dead because of her.
Sokka was glaring at her. He didn't want to believe it, but he knew as well as Toph that it was true.
Katara looked at Aang's body. There was nothing else she could do in the deafening silence that surrounded her. When she looked around, she found that the three girls who had been part of this plan were already gone. They'd probably left before the others had gotten there.
Katara saw them take his body and leave. They abandoned her there. She'd betrayed them and for what she had done, they could not forgive her. She did not try to stop them, or try to make them take her with them, or forgive her. She would never forgive herself. She let them go.
"Mai, come on, what are you waiting for?!" Azula barked.
"I'm waiting to see what will become of Katara," she breathed.
"We need to move, now!" Azula yelled.
"Go on ahead," Mai said. She turned to face the princess, "I'll catch up."
Azula growled, "Fine, we're leaving without you! You're a fool, Mai! You could have cost us the whole mission, so I don't really care if you never catch up!"
It stung – it truly did. To know that your best friend did not actually understand you was a horrible feeling. But it soothed her when Ty Lee put a hand on her shoulder and smiled sadly at her.
"Go with her, Ty Lee. I'll see you again."
The girl nodded sadly and followed her leader.
When her two companions were gone, she looked back towards Katara. The Water Tribe girl was curled up on the forest floor, her face tear-stained and her body shaking with a mixture of cold and shock. The air itself wasn't cold, but Mai knew it would be a cold from her sudden and sever loss.
The others were already gone, so she approached.
The world around Katara seemed to be fading into darkness. Everything she valued … everything she loved … it was all gone. Whether it had been taken from her or had left her, it was gone and it wasn't coming back.
But as she started to accept the fact that she was no longer of any use to the world, she heard the first sound she'd heard since she'd seen Aang's body hit the floor. Footsteps, moving over the dried leaves, coming towards her.
And in her fading world, there suddenly was an angel.
Mai put Katara's head in her lap and gently stroked her hair, picking the little bits of leaves and twigs out of it.
"This is your own fault," she whispered sadly. "You are the one who chose for it to be like this."
Katara's body shook violently as she tried to stop herself from crying, so she could listen.
"I'm so sorry for what you've put yourself through." Mai bit her lip and she tried to hold back her own tears. Suddenly her voice became bitter. "But I don't understand," she hissed, "Why?"
It was a dark angel – not the kind Katara had heard about it stories. But she was an angel, nonetheless.
"Why?" the angel asked. "Why did you do it?"
Katara pressed her lips together while she tried to formulate her answer. The angel did not speak again because she knew that Katara was trying to answer. She was a patient angel.
With trembling breath, and starts and stops, Katara answered, "I… did it… because…" she whispered.
Mai ran a finger gently over the girl's exposed cheek and wiped away the tears. She stroked her cheek soothingly as she finished her answer.
"…Because… it was the… only… way…"
Katara started to lose her grip on herself again and her sobs became violent again.
Mai bent down and whispered into her ear, "Only way for what?!"
She was annoyed – she'd admit it. Aang had been the only hope left for the whole world and Katara had basically given him to Azula on a silver platter.
"T-the only way… for the rest of them… to keep living!" Katara wept, finally managing to get her answer out.
Mai bit her lip as she straightened back up. She already knew this – so why was she asking? It was because she didn't understand, still. She knew Katara's reasons, but it didn't mean she understood.
But what Mai did understand was that Katara only had those few people left in the world, and if she hadn't have done what she had just done, she would have lost them all. But this way, she'd only needed to lose one.
But that wasn't entirely true either – she had lost them all. The difference was, only one of them had actually died. The others had left her on their own free will, but they continued to live. If she hadn't have sacrificed Aang, Azula would have killed the others as well.
But maybe that was all there was to it. Maybe Mai did understand. She just didn't know that it was so simple. She just didn't understand how there couldn't be more to it.
Hours later, the two girls still sat in the clearing. Katara's head was still on Mai's lap and she was still weeping slightly.
"Spirits…" Katara whispered, "please, forgive me."
Mai smiled – something she was not use to doing. But just then it came so easily. Gently, she pulled a strand of hair back behind Katara's ear.
"I forgive you, honey," Mai whispered, softly.
Katara turned her head, acknowledging her angel properly for the first time. As she looked up into Mai's eyes, she understood that Mai had figured her out. She knew why she had done it, but she understood why.
"You took the coward's way out," Mai whispered. "You've cost the world everything. Aang was our last hope to end this war."
"Why do you care? You were one of the people hunting him…" Katara hissed.
Mai wiped more tears from the girl's eyes.
"I was only hunting him because I wanted to please my best friend. Just like you only gave him up to save the rest of your friends."
Katara looked away from the older girl, not wanting to have to look at her. She was right – giving Aang up was the coward's way out.
"You could have stayed by his side till the end. You could have kept fighting till the last man standing. But you did this – took the coward's way out. But I understand why. You did it because you love them. I forgive you, even if no one else will."
Katara tried to hide her face from the older girl, shame on her.
"Don't hide your face," Mai insisted. "Face the world!"
She pulled the girl's face around to look at her and Katara did not struggle against her. As Mai wiped more tears from her cheeks, her face drifted closer to the waterbender's.
"Why?" Katara asked, lost for reason.
Mai looked down, into those blue eyes which had just cried out the ocean. A sad little smile appeared on her angel's lips. "Because… just like you loved them… I love you."
And that was all she needed to say. Mai bent down a little more and pressed her lips gently to Katara's, shutting her eyes as she sighed contently. Katara shut her eyes too and wished for the kiss not to end. But Mai pulled up and brushed the one tear that was still sitting on Katara's cheek away.
"Go to sleep, honey. You're tired."
Mai kept stroking the girl's hair long after she was asleep. She watched over her all night.
Katara was awoken the next morning by Mai shaking her violently.
"Katara," she whisper-yelled. "Wake up!"
The waterbender sat up, slightly startled. "What's wrong?"
Mai pulled the girl to her feet and started leading her through the trees. Both of the girls struggled to keep up their pace and tripped and stumbled too constantly. But as Katara became more alert and more awake, she heard them – people following them. They were all around them, hiding in the trees and chasing them through the forest.
"Who are they?" Katara asked as they moved swiftly.
"I'm not sure. I think Azula sent them after us. But I know that they are definitely looking for us!" Mai explained, leading the way.
The forest sloped downhill, and they followed the slop involuntarily. They were too tired to try and defy gravity.
After what felt like forever of running, Mai and Katara felt their hairs stand on end. Mai's eyes widened as she understood what was about to happen. She wrenched Katara in front of her and both girls fell over. Mai tried to shield Katara with her arms, but it did nothing to help.
Neither of them knew if it was just their imagination, or if they really could hear Azula cackling as her lightning took their lives.
As the two girls lay on the forest floor, they looked at each other, silently saying their final goodbyes.
Katara, Mai thought, you don't deserve to die. Not now. Not yet.
But she knew that fate was against them. The coward would pay for her deeds.
Katara looked to her angel as the black spots invaded her vision and all of the world around her slowly began to fade. The one thing she liked about death was that the ach in her heart was subsiding. The faster things faded away, the less she hurt.
Mai… Katara thought helplessly as she saw that her angel would die as soon as she would. I love you…
Katara was gone.
Mai took it in slowly – the fact that Katara was already dead. She did not struggle or try to speak or fight off the growing darkness which was taking her too. After all, what was the point? It was where they all ended up in the end. And Katara was already on the other side, waiting for her.
The reminisced in those last few seconds of her life.
She was the only one who had stuck by Katara when she chose to give up the hope of the world in order to save most of what was left of the ones she loved.
Spirits, forgive her.
The end.
Ok, tell me what you thought of that. It took me a long while to write it, and I had to rewrite parts a few times. Maitara is not something I usually write, but I'm glad I did it. Everyone tell me what you thought. I hope I satisfied doctor anthony. Please review.