Disclaimer: Do not own.
Lightning crackled, and raindrops pattered on the cold wet floor. Her arrival accompanied by an air of purpose, the water avoiding her, almost as if it respected her, feared her, and she walks dry in the deafening crash of the pouring rain. In the darkness of the moonless night, one can barely make out the angry features on her face, and in the flickering orange glow of the lantern she holds, the angry tears on her face might just be raindrops.
They told her the old lady left, not long after her first visit. They told her she no longer told fortunes, but the girl in red not to be deceived. The fortunes were her life, the prophecies she told were her future.
It was just one old man who knew the truth. His voice was raspy, his skin wrinkled, his bones weak, and the girl wearing the hood could tell he did not have long to live.
"They say she read a prophecy that was too much for her." He rasped and wheezed, looking around cautiously and hiding behind his door as the girl listened, still and silent. "Some say she went mad, others, that she stopped fortune-telling altogether. But I don't believe them…"
He looked around cautious.
"I say she still does. She has to. She has to look out for the one… There will be someone coming after her for the fortune she refused to tell… She is still reading the signs, biding her time till he comes…"
Comprehension dawned in his eyes, and he jumped inside, and slammed the door shut. Sounds of locks and latches could have been heard by his silent visitor, if she had not already turned to leave.
The old lady was not the only one who could read signs. The hooded girl knew where to look, but was not quite sure what to do when she found what she was looking for.
Her anger is limitless, as is her sorrow. Before, there was always someone to help her contain her pain and rage; but now, she is alone. And her fury holds no bounds.
She sees a small yellow tent in the forest she is in now, and a campfire put out by the rain. She is here.
Lightning tears the sky apart, and rain thunders down, harder, louder, as if echoing her rage.
Slowly, she enters the tent. The woman she is looking for is facing the other way, her hair greyed, and her shoulders slumped. Who was once reminiscent of an old grandmother baking cookies for her grandchildren now sat like a wizened, ancient lady, whose years of wisdom had told her more of the world she lived in than she wanted to know.
"You." A low growl escapes the lips of the younger girl, whose form throbs of health, life, power, and an overpowering wrath.
"I have been expecting you," is all that the old lady says.
"You KNEW!" A shriek, an accusation, and an insult; her words are louder than the thunder outside.
"This is the way it had to be."
"You foretold love. You did not tell me he would DIE!" More thunder. Does this girl control the weather?
An epic battle foretold – its outcome, kept silent. This is the way it had to be…
"He had to."
"WHY?"
Her cry tears the night apart, louder than the thunder, more piercing than shrieks of the birds she sends flying away. Why? The question burned in her soul, she could not comprehend it. There was no reason. It could have been averted, if she had only known…
Raw pain echoes in her cry, and for just a moment, every creature in the night lies still, silent in sympathy, mourning with her.
But that moment passes, and the rain grows loud again, and the fearful power of tonight returns.
"His death was inevitable. His duty to the world has now been fulfilled. He may rest in peace."
"His duty was to love me!" Her voice falters, and tears of pain and rage sting at her eyes, and pour down her cheeks. She is too proud to wipe them away; leaving them there to glisten in the firelight. Her selfishness astounds her, and she knows, as the words leave her lips, it was never meant to be.
"His duty was to the world. As is yours."
"I have carried out whatever favour I may have had to this world. I am ready to leave it."
She means it. She has no reason left. Her brother is happy, and she sees no future for herself.
"I promised you true love. I promised you a long and happy life. No matter what you do, you cannot escape the future."
She disagrees. She has learnt that she can shape her own future. She is no longer the naïve girl who believes in destiny. She has the power to change the days ahead, and the will to prove the prophecies wrong.
A pause. And then:
"Why didn't you tell me he was going to die?"
The old lady sighs, her wrinkles becoming more obvious in the dim light of the girl's lantern.
"It would only serve to prolong your suffering. You would not have believed my full prophecy, and you would have not lived to see it fulfilled."
"Wha-?"
"Katara, I believe there is someone outside that would like to speak to you."
In the lantern light, all she sees is the scar; the scar and the hand he holds out for her. And that is enough.
The old lady was never to see her again.
And, as she lies in her bed, cold, and slowly slipping away, she reflects on life and its cruelties. How cruel it was that those given the gift of knowledge are often burdened by it. How cruel it is that whom you believed you loved was not, in fact, your soul mate. How cruel the feeling of helplessness is, when you know terrible things, and can do nothing to prevent it.
How cruel it was, that when a person completed their purpose in life, they were soon to die.
Knowledge was a heavy burden to bear, which is why she never revealed everything she saw to those who came to seek her wisdom. But no matter how much she withheld, she could not escape the truth herself.
Which is why she chose not to burden others with it.
Which is why Aang did not know of his young, brutal death.
Which is why Katara would never know the full story of whom the stars wrote was meant to be her true love.
So she lies alone with knowledge she wishes she didn't have, and clings on to consciousness even though she knows the task she had been sent on earth to do was done.
Yes, knowledge was a heavy burden to bear.
A/N: Review! Tell me what you think. Fixed it up a bit.