Warrior's Heart
Chapter 1: The dream
By Sasha H.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, or any of its characters
Dedication: to NightmareBeforeChristmasFreak, who's been a real help to me as I make this transition to the Avatar section of this website.
[better summary: Suki is badly injured while escaping from a Fire nation prison, and Sokka knows her only hope of survival is in taking her to the Northern Water Tribe healers, but he feels strange and guilty about taking Suki to a place that meant so much to him and Yue. His guilt only increases when he goes to the Spirit Oasis and finds that Yue's spirit is still there. Now he must decide between the girl he lost, and the girl who's just barely hanging on.
[IMPORTANT: There are many in continuities in this story. Just pay no heed for now, I'll explain at the end of the chapter. Oh, and this starts off as basically a re-write of the end of season 2. just bare with me, please
It was a dark night. The darkest any of them had ever seen before, and ever would see. Clouds hung in the sky, shielding them from any moonlight above, and city lights from below. Or would there be any city lights on this night? Would the ground be just as black as the desolate midnight out of mourning for the once glorious Ba Sing Se? It seemed fitting, though it was impossible for any of its citizens to know about the demise of the Earth Kingdom. Not Yet, at least. Announcements would be made the next day, for certain. Azula was far too proud to let her great victory be remain unknown.
Or would she hide this night's events from the world as a part of some grand, unknown scheme? There was no way of knowing. But it didn't matter, anyways. Nothing really mattered anymore. What Azula, or Zuko, or even the Fire Lord himself did now was a trivial fact that changed nothing in this wretched war. Aang was dead, or at least he would be soon, and it was silly to even pretend they stood a chance without him. All hope died as the future became intruded upon by unspeakable certainties.
Katara's fingers trembled as she held Aang's still body. She found herself reaching up and tracing the blue arrow tattoo on his head. It had been a symbol of hope. The Last Airbender—The Avatar…and her best friend. Now, her last hope was the sight of his chest rising and falling shallowly with each breath, but even that wasn't as comforting as it should have been. Every breath came shallower and further apart than the last.
Katara became suddenly aware of the warm, wet liquid that covered her hands. She hadn't realized that his wounds had been bleeding. The darkness was too dense for her to have seen it. She let the blood run through her fingers, then passed her hand across her face leaving sickening darks streaks across her features. In a morbid, deranged way, it was comforting to have something of him on her skin, embracing and clinging to her as his blood did. It was like a makeshift war paint.
Katara felt a sudden, stray sob slip from between her lips. It was followed by another from the very recesses of her throat, bursting out of her mouth like a popped bubble. What was she doing! She was angry at herself for crying. She wanted to slap herself and bring her to her senses. Mourning prematurely wouldn't help Aang. But what would? That was the problem. She was helpless. Aang was dying right in front of her, and all she could do was watch.
'Just like when Mom died', Katara thought, and remembered the night. Her tears only flowed heavier with this thought. She looked over up at Sokka, who held Appa's reigns, but paid no heed to where they were flying. He just watched Aang with disbelief. Toph held tightly to his arm, so she would not fall off of the giant sky bison. Tears flowed down her cheeks as heavy as katara's, but they were out of fear, rather than mourning. She looked panicked and confused.
"What's going on?" she yelled, her voice breaking. Of course. She couldn't see Aang lying there with a hole in his back. She could hear Katara's Sobs, and feel Sokka's racing heartbeat, and she knew that something terrible had happened, but she had no idea what it was, and it scared her.
Katara wearily turned her head towards the distraught girl. Tears from her glazed-over-eyes left silvery paths down her cheeks, and her body trembled horribly.
Katara tried to find her voice, but when she opened her mouth to speak, only meaningless sounds of grief poured out. She looked back to Sokka, her eyes pleading for him to help her explain this.
"T-tell me what's going on!" Toph stuttered. The silence was unbearable for her. Sokka looked at Aang's body, then at back at Toph.
"Aang is dead," he told her, his voice weighted and scared. Toph's face crumpled in anguish.
"No," Katara's voice suddenly pierced the air like a dagger, "not yet." And she remembered the tiny vile of spirit water that master Pakku had given her. It was Aang's last chance, but Katara wasn't even sure if it would work. She sucked in her breath, and extracted the water from the vile. It glowed in her palm, lighting up everything around it. The water spun in circles in her hand, whirring as she brought it down to Aang's body.
Slowly, she bended the spirit water into his back, and it lit up his entire body. She watched in amazement as burned and damaged organs repaired themselves until the sight was blocked off by a thin, nearly transparent layer of skin that covered what used to be the whole in his back. Aang's arrows glowed, and then faded as quickly as they had lit up.
He didn't move.
Not a muscle.
Not an inch.
Katara was just as still as he was—she didn't even breath for fear of confusing her breaths with his if they ever came. But she must have been too late. Had he died before she had had the chance to save him? She thought he had still been breathing, but had she been mistaken? The spirit water might have had special healing properties, but nothing and no one brought back the dead. Not even if it was the Avatar--The world's last hope. Her body went numb.
"Aang?" she called his name in a futile attempt to bring him back. All was still. "Aang…please…" she begged him. She wanted to shake him or slap him—anything to bring him back—but she resisted her urge, reason telling her it would make no difference, while her heart cried otherwise.
Then, suddenly, Aang's body quivered and sighed. A low groan escaped his lips, and he opened his eyes.
"What happened?" he mumbled, dazed and confused, and barely able to make out Katara's silhouette in the darkness. But Katara couldn't answer him, no matter how much she wanted to. She was laughing and crying both at once, and hugging him much tighter than what was healthy for boy with a whole in his back. Aang yelped in pain, and Katara quickly loosened her grip on him.
"Thank the spirits you're alright," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes. Sokka abandoned Appa's reigns and crawled over to where Aang and Katara sat.
"Is he going to be alright?" Sokka asked, squinting in the darkness to see Aang's form. Katara nodded.
"I think so," Katara mumbled, more to herself than to her brother. "He just needs rest." She thought for a moment. "Go get a sleeping bag for him. He can lie down on Appa's saddle"
Sokka climbed up Appa's back and to the back of his saddle and untied the rope keeping the sleeping bags on. He pulled out Aang's, and then retied the chord. Sokka unrolled the steeping bag, and his sister pulled Aang over to it, then slipped him inside. Before they could even ask him if he needed anything, Aang was asleep.
Sokka climbed back over to Appa's reigns, and Katara sat beside him.
"Where do we go from here?" Sokka asked, looking blankly out at the night sky. He looked for a star to guide him, but they were blocked out by the clouds. He wasn't even sure where they were anymore.
"It doesn't matter," Katara mumbled. "Anywhere—let's just get away from here." She wanted nothing more but to get out of this stupid city.
"Why don't we land for the night? I think we all need some rest." Sokka replied, looking back at Toph who was already sprawled out on the saddle, asleep. "It's been a long day."
"Just get out of the city first. They're on the lookout for us, I'm sure." Katara told him, then fell back into Appa's fur.
-x-x-x-x-
Sokka flew for another few minutes until he was sure that he was past the walls of Ba Sing Se, then he coaxed Appa down to the ground in the center of a forest. He woke up Katara, and Lifted Aang off Appa's saddle, and to the ground. No one dared to wake Toph. The consequences of that could be fatal.
Sokka laid out his sleeping bag last and crawled into it. He was so tired, it didn't take long for sleep to come, and with it came dreams…
Sokka sat at the top of a hill covered in grass. It was night, but the moon shone bright in the navy sky and illuminated everything around it with its Aura. Even the sun would have paled in comparison to the brilliance of that night's moon. Sokka stared at the orb, thinking of Yue. Could she see him from there? He wondered.
Sokka looked down at the hill he was sitting on. There, by his had, was a panda lily. It was small, and had escaped his vision before, but now it gleamed brightly in his eyes. He carefully picked the flower, then stood on his toes, reaching the bloom out as far as it would go, offering it to the moon. But she was so far away! He wondered if he would ever reach her. But then, just as he was about to give up hope, Yue appeared before him. She was young and beautiful, and her silver hair licked at her bare shoulders temptingly. She took the flower Sokka offered to her and lifted it to her nose, breathing in its fragrance with a sad smile.
Wordlessly, she reached out her hand to him. He considered it for a second, then slipped his fingers into hers. The moment their hands touched, the world began to rush around them. They were no longer standing atop a green hilltop, but traveling through blurs of streets and alleyways.
And then it stopped.
Sokka looked around. They seemed to be at the mouth of a cave. Trees clouded the entrance, almost hiding it, which explained why it seemed uninhabited. Yue pulled Sokka along into the cave and he noticed lanterns along the walls, illuminating their path. The farther through the cave they went, the more he began to realize that this wasn't a simple cave—it was a prison. Cells were carved into the stone walls, with heavy steal bars, smelted by the fire nation lining their fronts. There must have been fifty cells, but they were all empty. He started to think that the prison had been abandoned, but then, in the very last cell of the row, he saw by the dim light a figure sitting alone in the corner. Yue was walking faster now, almost running, pulling Sokka with her. Sokka's heart raced. They stopped in front of the cell, and Yue nodded. Sokka looked between the bars and saw a girl looking down at the ground, her face hidden by her hair. Her skin was pale and chalky, and a green dress hung loosely around her thin frame. He willed her to look up at them—let them see her face and know who she was.
And she did.
The girl's hair gave way to mistrusting and angry face. Her eyes were piercing as she looked up, and her lips were curled down at the edges in a grimace of mistrust and anger. But then, after realizing these were not her captors, but, in fact, her rescuers, her expression changed to one of relief and excitement.
But Sokka's recognition of the girl did not bring him relief. It was Suki—Suki was the prisoner, starving in this spirit forsaken cave. He glanced over to Yue, and her eyes calmed him. She stroked the petals of the Panda Lily he had given her, still in her hand, then slipped its stem into Sokka's fingers. He didn't understand. She was giving the flower back? Why? He looked at her, confused, but she just smiled back, then looked over to Suki...and without a word ever being spoken, Sokka understood what Yue wanted him to do.
Sokka reached out through the bars, the panda lily resting loosely between his fingers, offering the flower that was once Yue's to Suki. She accepted the flower, and her smile widened, but then she vanished.
"Suki!" Sokka yelled involuntarily as he shot up, awake. He was drenched in sweat, and shaking all over.
Katara peeked her head groggily out of her sleeping bag. She still had Aang's blood wiped across her face, but she didn't notice, and Sokka's mind was buzzing so much, it didn't seem to matter to him.
"What's wrong?" Katara asked sleepily, wishing her brother hadn't woken her.
Sokka didn't answer, but hurriedly rolled his sleeping bag and tugged on his shoes. This caught Katara's attention, and she sat up in her sleeping bag now, worried that whatever it was that had Sokka so worried would be bad news.
"Is the Dai Li coming? Have they found us?" she asked frantically. "Sokka, what's happened?"
"Get up, Katara," was all he said, and she could hear how serious he was. Katara got up, and rolled her sleeping bag, then went to Aang.
"Wake up, Aang," she said softly, not wanting to wake him, but knowing she had to. She shook his shoulder gently until his eyes opened. He stared at her strangely—taking her in. He saw the dried blood on her face, and his face contorted into a look of confusion.
"Wha…What happened last night?" he asked, unconsciously reaching up to touch the blood. Katara shook her head.
"that's not important now," she told him. "I need to get you on Appa's saddle," she told him, before she scooped him into her arms, since he was far too weak to even walk yet, but she struggled to carry him to the bison. Sokka took Aang from her, and easily lifted him onto Appa.
Toph woke up from the noise and looked around, still tired from the night before.
"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Katara asked, expectantly. Now that she had followed his orders and they were ready to leave, she expected answers.
Sokka didn't reply. He looked behind him. Katara, Aang, and Toph were all on Appa, and their sleeping bags were tied to the saddle. They were ready to go.
"Yip Yip!" Sokka said, and the giant bison growled and took to the air.
"Sokka!" Katara spoke louder now--Partly so she could be heard over the loud sound of rushing wind, and partly because she was getting angry. "We deserve to know why you rushed us out of there like that!"
"Suki" was all Sokka said. He tried to concentrate on finding the cave. He wasn't really sure where they were going, though he assumed it was in a forrest, and somewhere near Ba Sing Se.
"What about Suki?" Katara asked. Sokka groaned, exasperated at her ignorance, though he hadn't even put two and two together until just the night before.
"Do you remember when you found out that Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were in Ba Sing Se, pretending to be Kyoshi warriors?" Sokka asked. Katara nodded.
"Well, where do you think they got the uniforms?"
Katara thought for a moment.
"Do you think they ambushed Suki and the other warriors?" Katara questioned. Sokka nodded. "And now we're going to go get Suki?" she asked. Again, a nod from Sokka.
Katara sighed. "Sokka…We don't have time for this! We need still need to find a master firebender to teach Aang, and we don't even know if Suki's--" Katara stopped as she saw the look on Sokka's face.
"We don't know if Suki's…what?" Sokka snapped, looking murderous. She had never seen him look angry like this—at least not towards her. Katara sat quietly, afraid to say another word. "Well? Say it!" he ordered.
"Dead," she said sheepishly. With this one word, all the anger drained from Sokka's face, melting away to reveal the undertones of sadness and shame behind his rage. He looked down at the ground, searching for a familiar landmark, then looked back up at Katara.
"Please," he asked quietly with pleading eyes. "Just let me try to find her." He thought for a moment. "Don't let me lose her too."
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(A/N: I know you're all anxious to go and flame me now, but I'm going to ask that you restrain yourself. I'm leaving my comfort zone of the nightmare before Christmas section to write an avatar story. I'm very afraid of all of you…I feel like a new kid in school, with no friends, and no affiliations. (I've never even read an avatar fan-fiction before!) I don't know what is accepted on here, and what isn't. Please don't scare me away!
As for in continuities:: I write how I want to write. I totally cut out the Earth King without explanation, because I don't like him. He's annoying, and I don't want him and his stupid bear in my story (I would have cut out Toph too, but that'd be far too noticeable…and people would riot because she's so well loved). This is written as if season 3 doesn't exist….like this is my own season 3. Screw season 3 (actually, I'm excited as hell for it! XD) So, if it doesn't fit in between the two seasons, I don't care. It's not written to. This story is based on theories I have about season 3 (it started with "I bet Sokka will be worried about a Yue repeat when he goes searching for Suki" and escalated from there), but I'm adding in other ideas I have about what could happen in season 3. I've already completely mapped out every scene for this story, so if some of my guesses come true, it's because I'm a clever little girl, and not because I'm copying what they did on the show. Just wanted you to all know that.
Anyways. I hope you liked the first chapter, and continue reading the story.)