Yeah so basically this is the next installment to my Kataangy week….ness. I wanted to do something different from what everyone else was doing—since with all the same prompts floating around it'd be kind of boring to read the same thing over and over……and over so I hope this is slightly different than the norm.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar

Today's Kataang week topic is: Smoke and Mirrors

Mastered

It was the most terrifying thing he had ever experienced, being trapped in that tiny earth tent and gasping for air. Why him? Why was he, a twelve year old boy, forced to be at the dying mercy of an all might lord?

Katara…..

He knew that she would pop into his mind eventually, guessing it would be at sometime like this, and it was the only thought that made him keep his stance strait even in the scolding heat of the rock cover.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

He didn't really remember much from then on, like a still fog, or smoke covering his mind but all he knew was that, somehow, he was being pushed forcefully out of the earth sphere he was shielding himself with and was jammed into a rock…right against his back. He couldn't even describe the severe pain he felt as he fell from the spot into the pile of rocks that was once his safe haven.

But it was that moment he felt it, the pain that redistributed through his body ran on a new course of absolute power. He knew it was the Avatar state—there was no doubt about it—but it was at that moment he couldn't help but wonder why it was he could never come to true control over it.

It was as if a dark mask had covered his body and mind smoking it over in a rage that gave his hands an urge to kill. It almost scared him in a way unfamiliar. Sure, he had a slight trepidation of this state of his but right then, when he was feeling so powerful and the split of his mind to bend all four elements was utterly alarming. He only could see a faint view of what he looked like from the back of his mind and it wasn't very admiring.

For the people who love you watching you be in that much pain and rage is really scary…

Katara's voice flooded back into his mind, her soft soothing voice calming him a bit but only to the true brink that he didn't take every open opportunity to waste Ozai right then and there. Taking another foggy look at himself he only saw the reflection of a scorned young boy forced to feel such great pain and rage and to use it to kill, the very thing that scared Katara away.

He wondered to himself about how she would feel right now if she saw him like this? He didn't even think she'd watch, she's probably look away in terror or sadness at the fact that he had somehow gotten himself into this situation again.

"Aang…" he heard in just a faint whisper as though at that very moment Katara was thinking about him.

"It'll all be okay Aang, I'm here for you…..and I'm not going anywhere." She had said that right after he came out of the Avatar state in the desert something similar to how she comforted him after the siege of the North was completed. He only wished he knew that somewhere Katara was waiting for him, there to comfort him when he was so controlled by his state's urge to kill it actually hurt.

"Katara," he cried to himself in that back of his mind. "Please, help me." To Aang when he arrived in the Avatar state his thoughts almost went into a different part of his body, his location taking the form of an empty purple room in which he floated solely, usually striving at the very hardest to break free from his lives prior.

"Aang," Katara voice called to him again, and his eyes snapped open from his hands which covered his face.

"Katara, please! I don't want to kill anyone; especially when I don't even have the choice. Please you're the only one who can bring me back…don't, don't abandon me." He screamed to the heavens of his prison, hoping that the still voice of his love heard his pleads.

"It's only when you don't rely on me anymore when you can truly master the Avatar state." Her voice returned, slightly more urgent.

"What do you mean rely on you?" Aang asked, he never thought of it but now that he was thinking back when in the Avatar state he always had a faint hope that Katara would come to his assistance.

"Every time you enter the Avatar state you wait for me Aang, and now that I'm not here you can't find the way to control. Let me go Aang."

"I-I can't Katara, I won't let you go….I love you too much."

"If you do love me like you say you do, then you'll understand. You'll understand that you have to stop relying on me, let your attachment on my abilities go, only then can you master it."

"I don't understand Katara. Why are you asking me to give you up? Don't you-" Something silenced him, as if she was putting a finger on his mouth gently.

"Many Avatar's have felt an attachment to something in hopes that it would bring them out of the Avatar state. They became attached to it and that was solely the purpose preventing them 

from gaining true control. Only when you let go of your reliability." Aang stared blankly in a dumbfounded manner. All this time, all this wasted time, he never had to give her up entirely just his reliability on her ability to take him out of the Avatar state. He could still love her, always love her.

"Let me go Aang."

He breathed; hearing her voice fade away as it finished.

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this

He felt her slowly exiting his mind, slowly his attachment to her abilities faded and he became one with his control. His vision slowly cleared, all the smoke and demons being chased away along with his fears. Aang came back to his state of mind finding that his voice was not his.

"Fire lord Ozai you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now you shall pay the ultimate price!"

The last move his spirits made was taking the water, earth, and fire in a whirl that could only result in death.

"No!" He screamed before finally slipping out of purple abyss his mind had always set him in and back into his own control. He slowly let himself out of the Avatar state stopping this before he did something he would regret.

"No, I'm not going to end it this way,"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ozai was defeated, his bending taken away and his attachment to Katara cleared. As his last line of duty he went into the Avatar state one last time, clearing his head and inhaling before feeling a douse of power surging within him as his arrows glowed brightly and just as easily faded. With his wrist movements the water obeyed his commands, depleting the fire.

He had finally done it. He had mastered the Avatar state.

No more smoke, no more mirrors.

I guess I kind of had a different view on things with the whole "letting Katara go" theory, as you read, and it makes sense I suppose. The meaning to this topic "smoke and mirrors" was basically describing how Aang sees himself in the Avatar State….everyone loves a good metaphor right? Plus, Katara was sort of the voice of reason, but I actually had a plan that Roku kinda set up this, maybe he thought Aang would only listen to Katara at that point?

Review responses:

nutshak—thanks, I try to be different. And yeah Fay was here but it didn't hit my area as hard as it could've. Oh, and Mr. nutshak Fay huh?

wildimagination—Yeah, poor Aang but everyone knows he'd be sweating the whole thing anyway.

FFMMCLXIV—Nope, my power stayed, and I remember Charley, my power was out a good long while as well.

avatar209—I thought the whole "Katara taking notes" thing was appropriate since she's just as inexperienced as Aang is (which some people seem to down play). And I now dub you as a regular reviewer of mine. I honor your reviews avatar209!

SilverKyo—I get all my shipping week stuff from LiveJournal. Normally you can find them in the "AangxKatara" or "Avatar-Fans" communities. You can find them on my LJ page if you can't get to them yourself, though.

CptData—The couple never gets old to me either, I just love them so much because they can pretty much relate to anything.

XxFaithXxHopeXxLoveXx777—thank you and don't worry, Fay didn't hit my area too bad.

Xeaphon—Thank you

Argorok34—Well, thank you. And sorry that part scared you I didn't mean Aang was wearing as dress as well, sometimes I just don't catch those things even when proof reading.

Thanks for the reviews people.