Hey everybody, Sokka's Fan-Lawyer here. After some time of thinking and some encouraging words, I've decided to continue this story. Now, since it's my first, it may not live up to what I want it to be, but if people want me to keep going with it, please feel free to let me know (and if you have any advice, that would be nice as well.). Now that's over, on with the Fanfiction!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything outside of the plot…which may not be worth as much as I would like.
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Dreams: Sokka's Homecoming
"…well, this is a problem…" Sokka stated calmly as APPA flew at a steady speed through the lifeless, dark, and dangerous void of space. Outside the window of the living room-like room between the spherical cockpit and the engine room, distant stars freckled the darkness of space; Sokka was staring at these distant dots of light, pondering just what they were going to do.
"No duh man! We're now on the Fire Nation's most wanted list! Do you have any idea of what that means? They have practically infinite resources, contacts, the whole nine yards! So, what are we going to do?" Aang, a bald, thirteen year old thief who happened to have experience with the Fire Nation, one of the –if not the- biggest mafia families in the whole galaxy, pressed.
Now, there was an excellent question: just what were they going to do? If what Aang was saying was true –of that, Sokka had no doubt due to their own little run in with one of the many bosses of the outer branches of the Fire Nation-, then how were they going to confront them? He, Aang, and Zuko were by no means going to be enough to take on a 'family' that has be in power for over a hundred years! And, at this point, there was no way for the trio to simply isolate themselves enough to prevent the Fire Nation from discovering where they were (that would involve them isolating themselves completely, since they wouldn't even be able to buy supplies without the Fire Nation finding out…hell, they couldn't even buy an ice cream cone without having a hundred or so agents hearing about it), the laying low strategy wouldn't end well….
Sokka sighed, he really didn't want to do this, but what choice did they have? "Hey Zuko, you listening?" "Yeah." Came the brief reply from the cockpit; Zuko, since Sokka couldn't make heads or tails of the controls and they sure as hell weren't going to let a thirteen year old drive, had been deemed the pilot. "Change course from the W Hole and start heading towards Water Tribe S." There was a brief silence, and then "You sure?" Zuko asked as he turned his seat around to face his two passengers. Sokka nodded, Zuko sighed, and got to work.
Aang, meanwhile was confused, "The W Hole? What the hell is that?" "Back when the human race first began to travel through space, it took them a little while to calm down enough to remember that planets are millions to billions of miles apart; once they did, however, they began to work on a means to shorten the distance considerably. What emerged from that research was our good old Drive," he nodded towards the engine room. ", and the Worm Hole. After learning how to create a worm hole, which is basically a hole through time and space, they tried to create them at various points in space as to shorten the distance between planets and how much time it would take to get there." "Oh." Aang said, understanding…but then he asked, "So…what's on Water Tribe S?"
"What do you mean?" Sokka asked.
"Well, Zuko seemed kind of worried when you brought it up, and you seemed hesitant to go there, so what's the deal?" Sokka shrugged off the question and just turned his head enough so he could stare out the window.
"God, what a teenager." Aang muttered as he pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes and tried to take a nap.
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The total trip was about roughly one day; so, by that time, Aang had gotten bored and was now flipping through the TV channels in a faint hope that there would be something good on to distract him. While he was doing that, Sokka and Zuko were discussing something that, for some reason, didn't include him. He sighed and gave up, turning off the TV and thinking about just who he had teamed up with.
Sure, they had tried to save his life from Xin Fu, but to be honest, he barely knew anything about them at all. When he had decided to go along with them for their little journey to the stars, it had been a little bit of a spur of the moment sort of thing. Just who were these guys? Where did they come from? Were they both from Earth or maybe one of the many colonized planets out there or what? Did they have siblings? Parents? Aang didn't know. And then there was the Avatar serum….
Aang quickly tried to shake his head clear of such thoughts; when he had fought Xin Fu, he had not been himself at the time: he hadn't been in control of his actions. To be honest, he couldn't really remember what had happened in that fight beyond him escaping from his prison while Sokka and Zuko were choking and then…nothing. He wondered what he done to himself exactly when he had injected himself with the serum that Gyatso had given him before he had died, in vain attempt to stop the Fire Nation from getting it back…as well as hoping that Gyatso had somehow managed to get rid of the data; but if that was the case, then the Fire Nation was getting close to recreating it if Xin Fu's ability to manipulate the earth, as if he was bending it to his will (Aang liked the word 'bending', so he then decided that that would be what he would call the ability from then on). Hopefully, he would learn more about how to control his abilities with practice.
"Hey Aang!" Sokka's call was loud enough to shake Aang from his thoughts. "Yeah?" "We're entering the planet's atmosphere, so you better put on your harness." "Yeah, yeah…whatever." Aang muttered as he got up, grabbed a bungee jumping suit and strapped himself in. Apparently, despite its odd appearance, the suit would somehow keep him in place while they went burning through the planet's atmosphere like a freefalling meteor…hopefully they wouldn't end up like one too.
A few minutes of shaking and rattling and they were safe; they quickly removed their harnesses and got ready to land. Aang looked out the window to try and get a peek at this new world…but there wasn't much to see. The land was covered in ice and snow, the water below them had a bunch of icebergs, and there were penguins…everywhere. "So…I'm guessing this place isn't that warm, huh?" Aang said to Sokka. Sokka just rolled his eyes and walked over to where Zuko was trying to find a place where they could land. "There's a port right up ahead. Just keep going in this direction." Zuko nodded and adjusted a few settings; Sokka just sighed and heading back to where Aang was sitting on the couch. "So…do you know this planet?" Aang asked curiously. Sokka replied, "Oh yeah, I know it real well." Before Aang could press him anymore, Zuko announced that they were about to land.
Once they landed, one of the walls opened up, so Aang and Sokka were immediately hit by a cold breeze. "Damn! It's freezing here!" Aang cried while hugging himself for warmth. Sokka just sighed, "I guess spring's already started here." "What?! This is spring?!" Aang exclaimed in disbelief. Sokka nodded and threw him a coat, then grabbed two and threw one to Zuko, who was just walking out of the cockpit. "Nice flying." Sokka remarked as they finished zipping up the coats. Zuko only nodded, due to him being practically frozen from the cold temperature. Both he and Aang were shivering as the three teenagers walked through the snow towards what looked like a village filled with people and huts…even two or three regular buildings. Sokka noticed and sighed, "Man, you two are wimps. This is hardly the coldest it gets to be around here." "Sh…shut…u…up." Aang said through chattering teeth.
After a few more minutes, the trio walked into the village, with few people wearing similar coats and gear were staring at them in surprise; then again, seeing two rather pale guys, one of which having a burn that covered almost a half of his face, while the rest of the people had…a skin tone similar to Sokka's. They were actually staring at him more so then the other two. Aang took note of this, but didn't think that now was the best time to bring it up. Instead, he looked at the village: it had been built in a circular fashion, with a wall to the sea surrounding the place, the huts and regular buildings were placed evenly from each other, in what seemed to be a random fashion and huts were at least twice the size of Aang, who was about 5 foot 5 inches. The huts were all made of black material though; Aang guessed that it had to do with collecting the sun's heat for the interior, but he didn't know whether that was the case or not.
Sokka led the way to a building that seemed to be positioned in the center of the village; the building was grayish in color and seemed just as tall as the wall, which was roughly about thirty feet up. There were multiple windows surrounding the building's exterior, and an automated sliding steel door was at the base of the building so people could get in. The door opened, Sokka took a quick breath, and entered. Aang and Zuko followed him.
As soon as they entered, Aang noticed that the building was heated. He quickly stripped his coat, boots, and gloves and basked in the warmth. Zuko was doing the same a second later. Sokka just rolled his eyes and quickly scanned the room: The interior color was the same as the outside, but there were chairs and stools with outdated magazines next to those chairs, and then there was a reception window, which is what Sokka immediately made a dash for. He rang the bell and waited; fortunately, it didn't take long. A girl, who looked like she was a year younger then Sokka, with the same skin tone and blue eyes, came out. She was wearing a pair of jeans with a t-shirt and sneakers…but what really caught Sokka's eye was the weird hair…loopies (for there was no other word to describe them) that connected the hair from the hair covering her forehead and that of the hair braided into a ponytail in the back.
"I'm sorry sir, but the doctor is busy right now so you are going to have to take a seat for a while." She didn't even glance at Sokka, she just wrote stuff down on a pad of paper. "Hi Katara." Sokka greeted. "Mister, I'm not interested, so you better…" She looked up and her eyes widened, her mouth left open in mid sentence. "Long time no see." Sokka grinned as he waved to her. "Sokka?" She asked, still surprised. "Yep, that's me, so how's it…" He got interrupted by Katara's fist nailing him in the face.
The blow knocked him backward and caused him to fall on his butt; naturally, this had Aang and Zuko's attention. They hurried over to their friend's side and helped him get up; Sokka was holding his nose, trying to keep the blood from spilling out onto the floor. "Hey, what the hell are you doing, you crazy bi…" Sokka silenced Aang and then said, "Well, I guess I deserved that." Katara was already in the waiting room, walking straight towards them, looking rather pissed off. "Youguess?! After you ran off for three years!! You never called us, never wrote, or even an e-mail or a text message…FOR THREE YEARS!! We didn't even know if you were alive!!" She yelled at Sokka while he just stood there holding his nose, not even trying to make any excuses. Suddenly, the door next to the reception window opened, "Katara, I've just finished up with the last patient, so if you can put that down in your records and close up shop, that would be great." An old woman sporting similar hair loopies walked out.
She looked roughly around sixty to sixty-five, she also had blue eyes, gray hair, a white lab coat, and she seemed to be around Katara's height. "Katara, did you hear…me." Her eyes widened as she dropped the clipboard she had been carrying at the sight before her.
"Hey Gran Gran." Sokka waved while making sure his nose had stopped bleeding. "…Sokka…" She said, shock still apparent across her wrinkled face. "Yeah, it's Sokka, come back from the dead. But what I want to know is where the hell were you for these three years? Where's Suki? Didn't you run off with her?" Katara demanded. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly at the mention that name, but he didn't say anything.
Now, Aang was REALLY confused. Zuko and Aang stood off to the side of the room, watching this reunion unfold. Zuko was staring, silent, but Aang could tell that he was feeling sorry for his friend; but then he wondered why Zuko seemed to have gotten so quiet, it must have been the cold temperature…but that didn't answer who these people were. "So Zuko…who are they?" "His sister and their grandmother." He answered curtly. "So…Sokka used to live here?" Zuko nodded, "He didn't really tell me much about his life here, but he did tell why he left." Aang waited for Zuko to continue…and waited. Finally, he asked, "So why did he leave? Who was this Suki person? Where is she now?" Zuko shrugged, "Why don't you ask Sokka?" "But he's busy right now. Could you tell me?" Zuko shook his head, "Maybe later, but not now." Aang shrugged, satisfied with that response, and went back to watching Sokka getting his ass handed to him by his grandma and his sister.
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Sokka moaned slightly as Aang pressed a frozen steak to his head. After a few more snippets of conversation, Sokka's grandmother offered them a room in the clinic; Katara still seemed angry about the whole thing and had mad her feelings apparent by punching Sokka in the head before storming out. Gran Gran, after hearing about the serum Aang had injected into himself, had offered to give him an examination; an offer that Aang had decided to take her up on. She was examining said data as they were sitting in their room.
Zuko was just sitting in an armchair, flipping through the manual for APPA as well as checking on his laptop for possible bids on upgrades that they could purchase…when they actually had money of course. The room they were currently in was dull in color with two beds, an armchair, a table, and a lamp. There was a bathroom down the hall. Sokka and Zuko had managed to talk Aang into sleeping in the armchair for time being; they had called upon their authority as the oldest of the group to delegate who got what bed. When Aang had protested, Sokka had calmly offered him a bed of snow outside; after that, Aang just muttered about it, but had accepted it nonetheless.
I wonder where that girl is…, Aang thought to himself, remembering Sokka's sister. I hope she's okay…. She had seemed genuinely angry about Sokka's sudden return…as to why that was, Aang had yet to discover. This was mostly because Aang had yet to work up the guts to approach the topic after seeing how Sokka had reacted to it when his sister had brought it up. Aang just sighed and subconsciously applied more force to the steak then he needed to. "Ow! Be careful with that!" Sokka complained as Aang hurriedly tried to correct his mistake…but then he thought of something.
"No." He replied as he put more force on it.
"No?! What do you mean 'no'?"
"Not until you tell me who this Suki is." Aang demanded, knowing that he was trending on dangerous ground. Zuko had stopped reading and was watching the spectacle before him. Sokka's eyes narrowed slightly, but then he sighed, "Fine, it's not like it's a secret or anything. You were going to find out eventually, so it's no big deal." He paused. "Suki…was this girl I had met this one time while I was visiting a space port with my dad, who works for the Galatical Federation as a police chief that is currently trying to crack down on mob activity, and I sort of insulted her and she kicked my ass. As it turns out, she was an instructor at a local dojo; so I went and picked up a few moves…." For some strange reason, Zuko chuckled at this, as if remembering something particularly funny that Sokka wasn't mentioning.
Sokka just glared at him…or at least, glared as well as he could with one eye, and then continued, "We kept in contact, but eventually I began to want to explore; I was beginning to get sick and tired of just the same old ice and snow. I wanted to see space! The ships, other worlds, you know. But since I didn't know anything about what the world outside was like, I enlisted her help. She helped me get off the planet and we sort of began to travel like that for one or two years, but then she…" Sokka stopped and was silent for a few minutes. "Anyway, there you go." Aang waited a few seconds.
"So…she was your girlfriend?" Sokka shrugged, "I guess you could consider her that, if you wanted to." There were a few more minutes of silence…at least until Sokka's grandmother knocked on the door. She opened it and walked in, "Aang, I've finished my research of the data that I got from your examination, and frankly…it's incredible. Come with me, all of you." With that, she turned around and walked back out, as if she assumed that they would loyally follow her commands. She must be Sokka's grandma, Aang thought as he got up and, followed by Zuko and Sokka, walked out the door.
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After walking down a few hallways and flights of stairs, the group entered a room that was filled with equipment and doctor's utensils; Aang guessed that it was the place where 'Gran Gran' conducted her business and patients. She waved them over to a computer screen with various photos of Aang and him attempting to recreate the poses he had done against Xin Fu.
"Now then, Aang here told me about this serum thing that he injected into himself; naturally, he couldn't tell anything at all about the components that made up said serum, but that doesn't matter for the conclusion that we are attempting to reach, which is how Aang –as he calls it- 'bends' the elements around him." Aang seemed slightly confused by the way she worded it, but Sokka and Zuko were nodding their heads in understanding, so Aang just went along with it.
"From what I interpreted from the story that you three told me about this fight against an 'earth bender', I have to say that the serum utilizes the body's natural energy and extends it into the elements around it. Depending on the type of serum you have, your 'chi' would be affected in different ways, making it more efficient with a certain kind of element."
"But how does your chi leave your body?" Sokka asked.
"The pores that are all over your body; as I stated earlier, the serum enables you to control your chi, extend it out of your body, and into that of the particular element you have, effectively linking your motions to the element, not unlike that of a puppeteer manipulating the strings of his puppet."
Once again, Aang didn't quite understand what she was explaining, but pretended to anyway. "Now in Aang's case, the extent of the serum wasn't just limited to one element; they were trying to make it effective to all the main elements. So when it was injected, it wasn't nearly as stable as having only one, which by itself is risky, so when Aang was about to be killed, he summoned the power that the serum had given him, but he took the full power of the elements at his disposal, without having any previous practice or mastery of them; so his body reacted, in an attempt to prevent his mind from being over run, by putting him in a semi conciseness state or auto pilot, so he wasn't able to control his actions."
Silence met this revelation while the trio tried to take it in; until Sokka asked, "You said that he was capable of summoning this power, right? Would it be possible to have him master this state and use all four elements when ever he wants?"
She thought for a moment, and then answered, "Yes. Right now? No. If he tried to use all four now, it may destroy his mind or leave him unable to control himself. With time and mastery of one element at a time, however, would probably be able to have him get used to it and, eventually, able to use all four at any time. But he first needs to work with only one, to get his body to adjust to the kind of chi it needs to put out, and with time, he can move on to the next one." This answer seemed to satisfy everyone; Aang felt unsure about the repercussions the act of using the elements could lead to, but if they were ever going to be able to bring down the Fire Nation, then he was going to have to try. With that, Gran Gran showed them the door, looked back, and shut off the lights.
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With that done, Gran Gran offered them to stay for dinner; with the crew of the APPA well aware of just how many rations they had left, they were quick to take her up on the offer. After she had lead them down a few more halls, they found that she had lead them to the room where she and Katara lived; the apartment was humble, with a kitchen, a table that had plates and such scattered on it, a TV, and two doorways, which one had the sounds of a shower running coming out whereas the other was where the two slept.
"Gran Gran? That you?" Called Katara from the bathroom; the shower shut off and they heard a door open and close. "I was wonder when you were going to get back; so, am I making dinner tonight or are you…?" She asked as she emerged with a towel wrapped around her. When she saw that her grandmother wasn't alone, she quickly jumped back into the bathroom and shut the door. Sokka was trying hard not to laugh, Gran Gran looked amused, Zuko had adverted his eyes to a spot on the floor that had suddenly gotten interesting, and Aang was just staring into the spot where she had once stood, amazed by what he had seen.
After some apologizing and death threats were exchanged, the five people had at last settled down for dinner; apparently, they were going to be eating a water tribe delicacy. Once Aang saw it however, his appetite disappeared and he just gave his plate to Sokka, who was eating as if it were his last meal…a concept that could have been deemed ridiculous except, with the glares Katara was giving him, it might have been.
Once the meal was over (and Aang had found some chips to eat instead), there was a sort of awkward silence that filled the room. "So…Sokka, just what were you up to since I last saw you?" Their grandmother asked, trying to break the ice. He shrugged in response, "Well, I got to travel a lot, seeing some sights and visiting famous space ports and stuff like that. Well, that lasted for a year, until Suki and I –you remember Suki? She visited here a few times…" Once Gran Gran nodded affirmative, Sokka continued.
"Well, she was the one who happened to be traveling with me, and when we got to this one port on earth –you've heard of Ba Sing Se, right?-, some things happened and Suki ended up disappearing; we just happened to be unlucky people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a fight broke out between two of the local gangs in the area. Well, she ended up joining just to protect us so that we wouldn't get hurt in the bedlam, and during the fight, I lost track of her. Once the fight was over, I tried to look for her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find her. I would have gone after both the gangs that were fighting (I wasn't really being realistic at that point, I was just pissed and determined), but I ended up being preoccupied by something…" For some reason, both he and Zuko glanced at each other at this statement; an action that wasn't missed by the attentive Aang and Katara. "By the time I was ready, both the gangs had skipped town, heading off to another planet in an attempt to escape the cops, and I ended up sticking around Ba Sing Se, not able to afford anything due to Suki being the one who happened to handle our money, and have been there ever since. I wasn't able to call or anything due to all my money going towards just keeping me alive." With that explanation, Sokka fell silent.
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The next day, Sokka announced that they were leaving. He said it was because they would need to hurry before the wormhole would be reset to a different location in the galaxy, thus ruining their planned route, but Aang suspected that Sokka just wanted to leave the planet itself, but didn't say anything. The trio ended up sticking around for lunch at Gran Gran's insistence, but after that, they found themselves back in the lobby, pulling back on their gear and coats. Katara and their grandmother were standing there as the teenagers prepared; once they were done, the two approached them.
"Sokka, where you may be off to is anyone's guess, but if you see your dad along the way…" Sokka nodded, understanding what she wanted him to do without her saying it. Aang looked questioningly at Zuko, who whispered, "His father hasn't been home ever since Sokka was ten; he only visited occasionally to take Sokka and Katara to a near by space port or whatever. His job has kept him away for all this time." Aang nodded, understanding now. None of them noticed Katara slipping back behind the reception desk.
"Zuko, I want you to look after Sokka…" "What else is new? That's all I've been doing ever since I met him." Zuko responded while Sokka glared at him pointedly. She just laughed and moved on to Aang.
"Aang, if you truly want to master the 'Avatar' abilities you've acquired, just do as I've prescribed: pick one element to start with and master it, and then just repeat the process. Naturally, I would recommend a teacher to help you on an element or two, but the likelihood of that is…well, you know." She patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave when the door next to the reception window opened.
Katara emerged, where her coat, gear, and carrying a backpack filled with what looked like supplies. She looked past Zuko and Aang and said to her brother, "I've not forgiven you for what you did, but from what you guys have said, it sounds like you are going to need some help." "Katara…" She cut him off, "And even if you weren't going up against the Fire Nation, I would still follow you. For all I know, after it's over, you wouldn't even come back here. So I'm going with you to ensure that you come home." Sokka was speechless, but he seemed to understand the main reason she wanted to come; he nodded, "Fine, but you'll find that our ship isn't really that big, so for now, some of the bigger medicines will have to be left behind." She rolled her eyes, "Obviously. I assumed that any ship that you would be able to afford wouldn't have room, so I packed with that already in mind." Sokka didn't know whether to be insulted or not.
Gran Gran just shook her head, as if she had expected this to happen. She walked up to Katara, hugged her, and mumbled something into Katara's ear, but the trio wasn't able to make it out. Katara nodded and headed out the door, quickly followed by Zuko and Aang; Sokka hung back for a second, and then began to walk through the door when Gran Gran said, "Sokka…" "Yeah?" "Be nice to your sister." With that, she patted him on the back and left. "Gotcha Grandma, I got it." Sokka muttered as he quickly ran to catch up with the rest of the crew.
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After they had taken off and had showed Katara around the ship, Aang remembered something, "Hey Zuko." "Yeah?" he called from the pilot's seat. "How come you laughed when Sokka brought up Suki's dojo?" Sokka gave Zuko a warning glare, but Zuko paid it no heed. "Well, you see, Suki's dojo was a women only dojo, so in order for her to teach Sokka some moves, she had Sokka dress like a woman. It was quite the sight." Katara and Aang were silent for a moment, glanced at each other, then glanced at Sokka's reddening face, picturing what he would have looked like…and then burst out laughing.
"Hey, shut up!" Sokka yelled. "I'll never look at him the same!" Aang laughed. "Why Sokka, I didn't know you were into that sort of thing. I would have loaned you some clothes if you really wanted…" Katara began, but was cut off as Sokka threw a bottle of water at her. "Silence!" He yelled as he jumped at them, and the APPA continued its silent flight toward the wormhole and, what was going to be, their destinies.
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Well, chapter two is done, now time to move on to chapter three! I wonder what's going to happen on the first major space port that the brave crew of the APPA is going to. Maybe a bounty hunter? Some grim news may be thrown in as well, so read Dreams Chapter Three, coming to a Fanfiction Site near you!
Remember, if you have any complaints, ideas, or advice, please let me know!
Read and Review or I'll…SUE YA!!