A.N.-This takes place during the episode "The Painted Lady" and is in the spirit's POV.
The Painted Lady-Redux
There is only so much one spirit can do, and she has slowly been losing her power in this place for a while now. The pollution in this part of the river is a barrier; she barely has the power to cross over from the spirit world and show herself now, let alone help her river village. She needs help.
She did not know it would come to this. The factory was beneficial to her little river village at first; it brought in trade and they prospered for a little while. The pollution was an unfortunate side effect, but she was stronger in other places where the mountain springs give her river life and where it fed into the ocean. So it did not matter, she still had enough power to watch over her clever children of fire who built their home with her. By the time she realized the factory was killing her village and her river, she was not powerful enough to stop it.
So she let her river carry her to the ocean, to ask its spirit for advice. It talked of the Avatar. She is not all knowing, or even half the age of the venerable Ocean, so she asks and listens to his story. The Ocean tells her of how the Avatar froze himself away in his depths for close to a hundred years, but was released recently. He tells her of how the Avatar helped him avenge the death of the Moon, on the fleet of fire, when she was slaughtered, but then miraculously resurrected. The Ocean stops his tale to convene with the Moon, for she watches the Avatar and his friends closely since she was returned to life. He tells her to wait until the Avatar comes, that he and the Moon will tell her when he approaches her island. So she waits.
And waits. And waits. Then the Moon comes to her and tells her of the defeat of the Avatar and how he barely survived, but that he is coming to the Fire Nation soon and that he may come close to her island. She hopes she has enough power left to come to him in his dreams and beseech him for help.
Through luck or fate, the Avatar and his group stop on her island, and come to her favorite village for supplies. The water surrounding the village and factory is little better than sludge now. She can watch them interact, but she does not know if she has the strength to contact the Avatar for help.
She watches their group, as they lie down to sleep. The Watergirl does not fall asleep. This is interesting. The girl waits for the others to sleep and sneaks off. This is not the Avatar's help for which she has waited but it might be exactly what she needs.
The Watergirl sneaks to the factory and settles down to wait for the workers to leave. The girl dozes lightly while waiting so she touches her dreams. The girl barely sleeps for a few minutes, and she wakes up with a vague idea for a disguise in her mind. She drapes her cloak around her and steals a hat for herself along with the food for the villagers. She bends the containers of food and herself to the village in the river and tries not to be seen, but some villagers see her as she bends away on the river and whisper excitedly to themselves. Watching from the spirit world, the Painted Lady smiles.
The next day, the Watergirl rises early to feed their giant Air Bison purple berries and tells the other children they need to wait for him to heal. She watches the children return to her little village and hears her name for the first time in many a year. She knows her little statue must appear almost familiar to the Watergirl, even if she does not quite remember why.
That night, the Watergirl sneaks off again, but before she leaves she completes her disguise with curls of red face paint. This time she steals back the medicine from the factory and uses it and her natural ability to heal most of the villagers. Her watcher from the spirit world wonders how much more she will do, before being caught or forced to leave.
The third day the group of children visit the river village, the villagers are placing her statue in the center of the town. She wonders how the Watergirl feels about this, and sees the look in her eye as her brother and the Avatar joke about the destruction of the factory. She has a bad feeling about this but is still blocked by the pollution. All she can do is wait and watch.
So again, the Watergirl dons her disguise and sneaks off, but it followed and eventually discovered by the Avatar. Instead of stopping her, they both destroy the factory. It is a large victory for her, but it will take many years for the river to clean itself without help, before she will be powerful enough to protect it once more.
She watches in the morning as the Watergirl and Avatar are found out and chastised by their friends. Then they see the army swooping down on the village. She can see a little of herself in the Watergirl ("I will never turn my back on people who need my help") and wishes she had a brother like the girl's (ages ago), even if he is terribly pragmatic, when he to offers to help.
Had she any breath, she would be holding it as she watches the children come together to scare off the soldiers. Watching their bully of a leader, she is vaguely ashamed of what once were her people have become. She is even more so when the village turns on the Watergirl when she is discovered. But her brother shames them in return and, miracle upon miracles, they come together to restore her river.
A master Waterbender, a master Earthbender, the Avatar, and most of the village working together is all it takes to clean away the years of damage and pollution from the factory. She has never felt stronger, even when she first became a spirit. She has also never been more proud of her little village.
That night, she watches again as the Watergirl goes down to her river. There is so much she wishes she could say about the risks she took, the deception of her friends, what could have gone wrong, all for her village's sake. But as she appears before her, she only needs two words to express her gratitude:
"Thank you."
