Let the Chapter Begin! Warning: Might not be how some of you imagined. Please enjoy.
Sokka had thought he would simply wake in his young self's body.
That idea was quickly canceled out, as he felt himself being squeezed and then pushed out of the warm darkness that had overwhelmed him.
He was frustrated and cranky. As his body met cold air, making him cry out in distaste of its chilling bite.
Noticing he couldn't see as he tried to take in his surroundings. Everything was blurry and dark. All he could make out was dark shapes and blobs moving around him.
What happened!? What was going on?!
Raava said he would be sent back in time. So where was he? Or perhaps when was he?
He could hear the blobs- no people talking hurriedly about something before he found himself being handed to another blob- person.
His frustration at not being able to see frightened him. So Sokka did the only thing this body for some reason would let him do. He cried and screamed as loud as his lungs would let him. Voicing his displeasure at this turn of events.
The reaction to his screaming was immediate, every blob- person around him started speaking loudly in panic. Only egging on his crying as he didn't understand why?
He was a baby! A freaking baby!
Why was he a baby?
He would have continued to if not for a gentle sound that seemed to be louder than the other loud voices. Sokka felt himself being pulled closer to the sound to the point he was against it and it vibrated through his small body.
Calming him down and lulling him to sleep as it continued.
Like the waves of the ocean, he felt his body being pushed and pulled. As he was lulled into sleep.
That was okay, though. It was a dream, had to be a dream.
He'd figure it out when he woke up. But for now, he'd embrace the warmth around him and sleep.
It wasn't that long before he woke up again and when he did he realized it hadn't been a dream. Not only that but he was really a baby again.
Damn it. How had this happened?
Sokka noted mentally that he couldn't do much as a baby but cry when he needed something or simply sleep. So he spent his early days? Or months? Thinking and planning for what was to come and how to change things.
Though that didn't help distract him from having to grow up again and this time being knowledgeable of the happenings around him.
Making it a confusing experience for a while, as he couldn't tell how much or how fast time past. Even with having his adult mind, the fact that his body was that of a baby's kept him from really being able to tell or do much. As he really couldn't go anywhere around the village unless carried by his mother.
At this stage, his body only complied with three things Eat. Sleep. Go to the bathroom. Two of which required someone else to do.
Which was feed him! He didn't need to know he was breastfed!
The other one was worse and embarrassed him even more!
Having his nappy changed! But unfortunately, he did. He couldn't do it himself, nor could he control when he went.
Thankfully as time past slowly but surely he could see things and he even started to walk-toddle as he got bigger.
Around the same time, he found he was still respectively Hakoda and Kya's son, they were still his parents. When his mother would leave the tent with him in tow, he noticed the other members of the tribe would point and whisper about him and it only continued when he began speaking.
Was it too early to start talking?
Dang it. What was normal around this age? Not knowing only caused him to be frustrated and worried.
Finding out why later, when he asked Gran Gran about it. Only then did it make sense, the whispers and gawking that is.
She explained to him that when he had been born –reborn. It had been on a peaceful night where the only oddities were that the moon was much larger than normal and the ocean was silent and still.
While odd, it had caused no alarm. No, what had caused the alarm was when his mother gave birth to him. The ocean had risen up with his first breath and settled back down with his second.
Now this would have been overlooked if not for when he started crying the ocean became unsettled. Shifting and rising like it would during a storm, only to settle back down when
he fell asleep from his mother's singing. That wasn't the only time either did the ocean respond to him when he was a baby, she told him, before speaking of a few other times.
When she finished Sokka was wide-eyed and shocked.
She probably would have continued the telling him, if she wasn't called away to help some of the other ladies of the tribe.
But it didn't really matter. Sokka understood what she implied well, without her telling him.
It was said that only the most powerful waterbender's or the avatar could bend the ocean.
Impossible. It couldn't be. Sokka thought to himself.
He wasn't a bender. He was Sokka the boomerang guy, a none bender. Unless?
Could this be what Raava meant by gifts?
It was only later on when he noticed his mother's stomach swelling and came to the conclusion she pregnant. Did he start trying to figure out what year was it?
"Dad how old am I?" he asked his dad, Hakoda when he saw him.
The best way to find out the date was to ask his own age. After all, he was born in 84 AG and Katara a year later in 85 AG. But Katara wasn't born yet. Unless their mom was pregnant with her right now and he was younger than he thought.
"Your two right now but you'll be turning three real soon." He chuckled taking Sokka's thunderstruck expression as a regular child expression of amazement.
What was going on? Raava said he would go back in time, so why was everything off?
"Dad when was I born?" he asked.
"Well you were born in 81 AG Sokka and it's currently 84 AG, hence you'll be three," Hakoda explained laughingly lifting him up to carry him. Merely thinking his questions were because he was curious about the world around him like all kids were at his age.
Later on, when it was night time and his parents were asleep, Sokka snuck out of their tent and went near the ocean, to mentally freak out.
It was 84 AG! He was supposed to be born this year!
But he was already here so who was the new baby supposed to be? Was it Katara?
No, it couldn't be Katara. She wouldn't be born for another year.
"Raava!" He whispered harshly, knowing if he yelled he'd be discovered. He really needed to speak with the spirit of light. Everything was off! Was he even in the past? Gathering himself up to whisper-shout again he squealed when he was picked up.
"And what do you think you're doing young man?" his dad asked sternly while holding him. "You know you're not to leave the tent without your mother or me."
"I'm sorry," Sokka stated dejectedly.
"Back to bed then."
Sokka hung his head as he was carried back to the tent and place under his furs.
Even as he laid there it took a good while to fall asleep as he couldn't stop thinking of everything that was happening. But his child body decided the outcome however as it was late and his body wasn't used to staying up past the bed time his parents set.
"Got to talk to Raava." He mumbled falling to sleep.
'Sokka. Wake up small one.'
'Hmm? Where am I?' he wondered. Opening his eyes, he was greeted with darkness, the same endless sea of darkness that had surrounded him before.
'Raava?!' he tried calling.
'I am here. You have questions for me?' the spirit merely replied not appearing.
'Yeah, I do! Why am I a child and how do I exist when I am supposed to be born sometime this year! He shouted stopping his foot down childishly.'
'I told you before I sent you back. You would not be who you were. For who you were is not who you were supposed to be.'
'What does that mean?!' Sokka yelled, his child-like voice cracking.
Dang it! It made him even sound childish when he was being serious.
'If everything had ended correctly, you would not have become the war-torn soul you were when dying. If it had gone correctly, you would have been very different. To correct this, I had to create a body to house the war-torn you. So your younger self would be you, you were supposed to be.' Raava finished explaining.
Seriously. Was it him or did all spirits speak confusingly?
'So what you're saying is the baby that's going to be born is going to turn out how I should've?'
'Essentially yes. Think of life like a string of thread woven together. Yours was torn in two when everything went wrong, to fix this all that you were and are has been given a new shell to hold you.'
'What of him?' Sokka muttered thinking about the baby that would take his place.
'He will not be you nor is he connected to you spiritually. He will be his own entity, only having a destiny that was once designed for you.'
'Wh-!"
'I must go now Sokka. Remember you must alter history as you knew it. Help put the war in young Aang's favor this time. Remember.'
'Wait!' he shouted.
But Raava had already left. Leaving him to fall unconscious into darkness.
AN: I know it's not much but there will be more next chapter! Also, I hope a few people's questions were answered. Heads up for next chapter. Expect small time skips, they won't be too large but there will be some to speed it along a bit. Thank you and I hope you review as I do enjoy the feedback as it helps me write.