You've drilled your way into my iron clad heart and now there is no coming back out.

-

-

-

Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you

zwischen

-

-

-

-

That dream was bothering. Seriously, before it was workable, really she could deal with it! It was just her memories of the past that could do nothing but torture her emotionally. But now, she's dreaming of herself DIEING? What's gone wrong with her mind?!!

I'm scarred for life, Haine thought pitifully.

So what is she going to do about it? Hmm.

Never forget who you are, Haine-chan.

I'm not. I just can't…, Haine thought tormentfully.

We love you

We love you

We-

"Haine"?

"Huh?" Haine turned around to see Kaito looking worriedly at her.

"Is…Is that dream bothering you again?" he asked hesitantly, knowing his friend did not liked to be broached upon that painful topic of her parents.

Haine looked at him, seeming to debate within her whether to answer or not. Kaito's eyes darkened.

"Haine. You should tell me these things, Aunty and I. We want to help you. You are not alone anymore," he said in a firm voice.

Haine's eyes slid downwards, not looking at him. When she still hesitated to answer him, he was surprised to feel a seed for fury rest at the bottom of his stomach.

"Don't hide inside yourself!" he snapped.

Haine's head snapped up and she stared wide-eyed at him. Kaito-kun had never spoke with this tone at her before.

Kaito's eyes softened when he saw her sadness and he said gentler, "We care about you, Haine-chan. We…"

love you

We love you

We love you

His mouth set straight in a thin line and he closed the distance between them and hugged her tightly.

"We love you," he whispered into her soft hair.

And Haine trembled in his hold and wrapped her own smaller arms around him.

Thank you…Kaito.

Kaito pulled back but kept his strong, wiry arm around her frail shoulders. No, he thought darkly. She is not frail. She is not weak even though she thinks she is. Hell, she can beat me at penguin sliding, he thought amusedly.

"Hey, do you want to train?" she asked. When he looked down at her, he saw that her eyes were hardened with a sense of determination and unwavering stubbornness.

"Ah…yeah, sure…" he said, taken aback by her tone. She looked up at him and he stilled, seeing a light shimmer of fire in her eyes.

"I don't want to die, Kaito."

Kaito eyes widened, pulling her tighter against him. "Hey, ne, don't worry about those things, Haine-chan. You're not going to die," he said frantically, worried at what had made her think that.

"No, Kaito. I'm going to die. That's what I dreamed of. I…I was bleeding," she said her voice wavering. Kaito just stared at her wide-eyed, frozen and unable to speak. But he watched as her lips turned down into a fierce frown and she looked up at him again.

"But I'm not going to die so easily. I want to fight against it. So I'm going to train to be stronger," she said with fierce determination lacing her words.

You have no idea how strong you are, Haine-chan.

But he nodded. He hated to admit it, but Haine's dreams always had an annoying uncanny habit of becoming true. Like the time she dreamed that he would lose his pants to an angry penguin. He blushed. That was an embarrassing day.

And the other time she had seen a Fire Nation flag stand on their water tribe snowy grounds.

His eyes darkened. That time, they had been lucky to fight off the small sized army. With Haine's warning, they were prepared for the onslaught.

Their water tribe had managed to remain in secret existence for a long period of time until Fire Nation accidently stumbled upon it a few decades back. With both the Northern and Southern water tribes invaded, their water tribe had tried to keep its existence quiet as possible to avoid confrontation by the war. They were located just a bit east of the strong Northern tribe that provided unconscious protection for them.

Kaito himself, and Haine were the main reasons they were able to fight off the Fire Nation armies. Kaito, a strong water bender already, combined with his ability to bend air, had scored a major advantage over the Fire Nation.

He snorted. Although, the army was dumb enough not to notice he was airbending. He smiled; Haine was smart enough to teach him to disguise his airbending with her waterbending. Which led to the other advantage. Haine was a waterbending genius, although she refused to acknowledge it herself. Because water is always in the air, she labored months and months to finally learn the secret of airbending.

And he hadn't even noticed she was airbending until he recognized the familiar moves she had used. Haine had an uncanny ability to manipulate anything with water in it. She could probably even earthbend, now that he came to think of it.

Their village was safe, he was sure. And so was Haine. She was incredibly strong, and her healing powers had only increased after…saving him from a near row with death.

He shuddered, thinking back to the battle when he was too preoccupied with taking on a whole legion of soldiers on his own. Nah, he was exaggerating, but the numbers were overwhelming. He had taken a nasty burn to the whole right side of his body and a spear wound in his shoulder.

Haine had healed everyone, including him. His skin, today, is unmarred by the fire of that soldier.

He sighed. If only she would firebend, he thought ruefully.

But he knew Haine-chan. She was a kind soul and could not bear to kill anyone. Which was why she used her medical genius to paralyze and disable enemies.

She's really one of a kind.

He took Haine's hand and they walked toward their favorite place to play.

There, they would train for many hours, preparing for what Haine was sure would evolve into a bloody massacre.

-

-

-

-

-

-

You carve love into my heart and say you love me. Somehow, I hear you through the drip drip of my spilled blood. Is it possible for love to be as painful as this?

-

-

-

Several months into the future

"We're DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!"

CHOMP

"DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED I TELL YOU!"

Pieces of food fly everywhere.

CHOMP

Twitch

"DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—AHH—GMMMMPHH!"

"I hope you choke on that piece of turkey, dumbbutt," Toph said, after having brutally stuffed a large piece of turkey leg into Sokka's open, LOUD mouth, a tick visible on her head.

Katara, thoroughly annoyed at her much annoying brother, declined to help her brother regain his ability to breathe. "Nice aim, Toph," she congratulated.

Toph blew her bangs out of her face and shrugged. "I try," she said.

Sokka, had meanwhile regained use of his mouth and throat. He took a mighty breath and prepared to holler at Toph until this time, Toph, wanting him to keep his mouth shut, threw a plate of mashed potatoes at his face.

Sokka was preoccupied with that for just a short minute until he had slurped up all the delicious mush and prepared once again to rant at Toph.

Katara stepped in this time, adding a suggestion. "Toph, maybe you should throw Momo at his head this time."

Sokka wisely snapped his mouth shut. He glared fiercely at Toph until Katara noticed. "Toph's blind, Sokka."

"Aw, no, I never knew that! Of course I know she's bl—oh…" he stuttered, aware Toph was oblivious to his FAMOUS NUMBER ONE BOOMERANG SOKKA DEATH GLARE.

After being foiled, he brightened, and then started making nasty faces at Toph and making poopy noises, pulling down his eye and sticking out his tongue, wagging it around until-

BAM

"I can sense vibrations, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum."

Toph had used earthbending to tip over Sokka's chair, causing him to fall backwards hard on his head.

"Uwwwwahh…uhh..huh…owwww…" Sokka moaned.

Katara smiled. "Thanks, Toph."

Toph blew her bangs up, sucked in a breath and spit.

"No problem."

Katara cringed.

-

-

-

A few minutes later found Sokka still fuming over the incident. "All I was doing was stating the facts and what do I get in return? I buttload of crap tasting turkey. I WANTED CHICKEN," he screamed.

Katara and Toph ignored his ramblings, leaving him to the background.

"Toph, what should we do now? We haven't found any information on the girl yet. All we know is that she… nah. We don't know ANYTHING about her. Just that she's somehow connected to Aang's friend in Fire Nation," Katara said.

Toph shrugged. "Beats me," she deadpanned. She lied down and closed her eyes, putting her arms behind her head.

Twitch.

"The Day of Black Sun is coming soon, and we need to use the Fire Nation's moment of weakness to our advantage! We need to find that girl and have her help us!"

"Uh-huh." Her eyes still closed.

Twitch.

"And we've gotten no closer than we were a few months ago!!"

"Sure."

Bigger twitch.

"Otherwise, we will be doomed like Sokka said!"

At the magic word, Sokka began screaming again. "DOOOOOOOO—UMMPH … huh… ah… OW HEY WHAT WAS THAT—UNNGH …ha…uhhhh…OWWWW!"

A bullfrog croaks.

"Okay, here's the plan. We know she's a waterbender, right? And we know she's not in Fire Nation, we've been searching for her for months. So, she's gotta be somewhere in the Northern Water Tribe, right?" Sokka said logically.

Katara thought hard. "No, I don't think so, Sokka. Remember Master Pakku's bias against girls waterbending? She wouldn't have been allowed to waterbend there and train. I'm sure she's hiding somewhere else. Maybe somewhere we haven't looked yet."

"Well, then, she's gotta be somewhere where there's a lot of water for her to work with. Maybe somewhere up north where we didn't look, maybe," Sokka said.

Toph sighed. "Idiots. Don't you remember? Twinkletoes," the group flinched at the mention of his affectionate nickname. "said that she had the ability to bend all the elements. She doesn't have to be near water. She could be practicing earthbending for all we know."

Sokka sighed heavily. "Let's stay for one last week here in Fire Nation. If we can't find anything then about her, then we'll travel to the Northern Water Tribe and search for her there."

The group nodded.

One week.

-

-

-

-

And one week later, they had found something. Or to be more precise, something had found them.

EHHH?!!

-

-

-

Haine had dreamed of another future event.

The redcoats are coming.

And this time, they are bringing LARGE reinforcements. And as much as Haine tried to make Kaito believe her, he would not budge. There was something he refused to believe in her words. Haine had told him that the waterbenders would be captured this time. He would not believe her. And it saddened her deeply.

Haine had dreamed that the firebenders were coming, and this time, they were coming to capture the airbender. Haine had always feared that Kaito would be discovered for his airbending and it seemed her fear was coming true.

This time, the firebenders would not leave until they captured the Avatar.

Muffled conversations…

"…the avatar is still alive?!" an angry voice. Female

"I-I-I'm not sure…an airbender, near the n-n-north pole. H-h-he… was airbending when our ship passed by…w-we could feel the wind from him."

"…capture…STATIC…water village…kill them all…"

"…yes…Princess Azula…"

She had seen her face. Golden eyes that every fire nation soldier had. Eyes her father had. Golden, like the sun.

But this woman's eyes. They were evil, nothing like the warmth her father had radiated. Her eyes held no remorse for the countless people she was sure to have killed and they were as hard as diamonds.

Haine shuddered unconsciously. This princess was definitely strong, and someone to watch out for.

But what worried Haine the most was her best friend.

"Kaito, I really- "

"Aww, come on, Haine-chan. It's not going to happen alright?!! Don't let your imagination take over your life," he had said cheerfully.

But she refused to back down until she had convinced her friend to leave the confines of their home and travel to Fire Nation, the least likely place the troops would be searching for them. He had looked at her in shock, thinking that she was joking, but she would not relent.

"We're going to Fire Nation, Kaito-kun," she said firmly.

She had seen him die.

And she would not let that happen. Even if the rest of the water village had to be captured to save Kaito, she would do it. They could always try to save the rest another time, right? Kaito-kun was too strong to lose, and too important for her survival for her to bear to be not left with.

Finally, Kaito had relented and agreed to accompany her to Fire Nation.

She let herself grin. She had managed to get him to come by threatening to go by herself, knowing that the two of them could never bear to be separate from one another. When Kaito had seen the resolution in her eyes, he could do nothing but give up and go along with her wishes.

They had warned the rest of the water tribe, telling them to seek refuge in the Northern Water Tribe. Of course, most of the villagers were not happy with this, having to leave their home, but they trusted more in Haine's dreams than Kaito did.

Hopefully, the fire armies would not dare to attack the Northern Tribe again. The waterbenders there were as superb as the benders at home.

"Kaito-kun, we're keeping our loved ones safe," she had said.

Lair.

You're selfish

You only want to save Kaito-kun.

That's not true, Haine thought. The corners of her mouth turned down.

She focused on their travel. They had borrowed a humble boat from the men in their water tribe and had packed for a week's journey to Fire Nation. She and Kaito had fun amidst the race to escape the redcoats, using their waterbending to ride huge waves on their boat.

Unbeknownst to them, a fire nation ship had seen the boat on the humungous, unnatural waves. The captain took one stunned look at the waves, the boat, and then the benders on his scope and alerted his ship immediately,

"Set course back to Fire Nation, full speed."

-

-

-

And here they were, finally at their destination.

Fire Nation.

Father…

This was once your home…

"So, Haine-chan. What are we going to do here? When are we supposed to go back? Don't feel guilty, I might enjoy this vacation with you here actually," Kaito chirped happily, still unwilling to believe Haine's words.

Haine shrugged. "I guess when we hear of fire ships coming back from the northern waters."

And they went off to explore the Fire Nation. "Ne, Haine-chan, are you recollecting memories," Kaito nudged Haine when she had stayed quiet for an extended period of time.

Haine looked up at him and smiled sadly. "Yes."

Kaito immediately regretted asking. Her eyes had become downcast and her shoulders tensed visibly. He sighed.

"Hey Haine-chan! Let's go try some Fire style snacks!!"

Haine's big eyes popped wide and she turned on him with a huge beautiful smile. "YEAH!" Then her eyes scanned the area, spotting a restaurant almost disappearing from her line of sight. She pointed to it.

"Race you there, Kaito-kun!" she said and took off at full speed, dust trailing behind her.

WOW HAINE-CHAN RUNS SUPER FAST WHEN HUNGRY

"HEY, SO UNFAIR!" and he took off running too.

Haine chanced a look back to see if her friend had caught up and missed noticing the group of friends she was heading directly at. Kaito saw however, and his eyes widened.

Haine saw his eyes panic and giggled. "I'm going to beat you Kai—AHHH!!!" And she barreled straight into Katara, bowling them both over.

Katara, disgruntled and already in a bad mood that she had found nothing relating to the girl they were searching for took out her anger on the intruder. She heaved the smaller girl off her roughly. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" She said, a bit coldly.

Kaito came running up and helped his friend up.

"Haine, are you okay?" he asked worriedly. Then he turned on Katara. "It was an accident, don't treat my friend so roughly," he said with an edge.

Katara was about to retort when she saw his eyes. She gasped.

Time freezes.

She stared into beautiful eyes, the same shade as Aang's.

And his eyes narrow at her before turning back to Haine who is collecting the coins she had dropped when she had bumped into Katara.

Sokka bent down, helping her with the coins. "Here, lemme help you with—"

He gasped. Those coins… were water tribe money.

He looked up into piercing gray-blue eyes.

"Thank yo—"

"You're from the water tribes?" Sokka asked.

Haine and Kaito tensed. Were these people enemies or friends.

Katara sucked in a breath. "Are…you the…Avatar?" she asked shakily.

Haine relaxed and Kaito burst into laughter. "HAHAHA, that is so ironic, Haine-chan. They think you're the avatar…they have no clue how—"

He was cut off when Haine slapped her hand on his mouth, effectively silencing him. "Shhh," she cautioned.

"Are you from the water tribes?" Sokka repeated his previous question.

Haine looked at them, her expression guarded. "…Yes," she answered hesitantly.

Toph startled Haine by speaking for the first time. "Finally, our search is over!" she huffed, relieved they had found the girl finally. Toph frowned. The boy had an uncanny ability to stay completely still for a long period of time and it bothered Toph that she had difficulty sensing him. The girl… she was very easy to sense. Her emotions, Toph could tell, were warring with each other by the subtle shaking of her shoulders and the nervous shifting in her feet.

"Toph, we have no idea if this is the right girl…" Katara said, shaking her head, still staring at the beautiful boy. Eyes so much like Aang's.

We will meet again

"Oh, it's her alright. I can feel the heat from her."

Haine tensed immediately, uncomfortable at how much the girl could read from her. "Who…are you?" she asked nervously.

Kaito sensed the distress in her tone and moved automatically to shield her from the confuzzled friends. Sokka noticed this and raised his hands in a soothing gesture.

"Hey, we're not here to pick a fight. We're just looking for some mystery girl who has the power to bend all four elements…Avatar stuff you know. We need to find her and get her to help us defeat the Firelord and all that destiny yadda yadda, you know?"

Kaito's eyes narrowed. "Help you…defeat the Firelord? And end the world?"

"Yes," Katara said. "Is your friend the one?" she asked hurriedly.

Kaito glanced down at Haine's tense form. "Haine…?"

Then Toph quickly reacted. "Hey, boys, girls, we gotta run. People are starting to listen," she said reading the movements of the crowd around them. The crash the girl had initiated had attracted the attention of people and now the strained conversation was attracting more.

Kaito started to walk away, towing Haine along until Katara's arm shot out and grabbed his free wrist. Kaito whirled on her, expression livid.

"Please, will you help us?" she pleaded, her face melting his anger, confusing him. "What…Haine?"

He looked down at the girl he knew he would follow anywhere. Haine looked down, not meeting his gaze.

"I think we should go, Kaito." He nodded.

They turned to walk away and Katara made to stop them but Sokka's arm shot out and stopped her.

"Wait, Katara. Don't cause a scene here. Let's follow them silently. Maybe they'll listen to us after we have a more private place to talk. At least we know that she's here in Fire Nation," he reasoned.

Katara stared longingly at the retreating backs of the two strangers and then nodded.

The three kept the two in their sights as they followed them, weaving through the crowd, always watching the two strangers.

Let the chase begin.

-

-

-

-

-

Their following led them to the restaurant Haine was headed for. Katara wanted to go in and confront them but Toph shook her head no. The place was still too public and if the conversation headed somewhere physical, here was not a good place to be found waterbending and earthbending.

Katara nodded her understanding and the group rested outside the restaurant, out of view, hidden and watching through the window. Momo chattered impatiently as the group continued their sneaky antics.

Inside the restaurant, Haine and Kaito ordered and waited patiently. Haine kept quiet and Kaito spoke.

"Haine…how did they know you could…"

"I don't know," she said, her gaze worried and confused.

"Well, they didn't seem like they were from Fire Nation. I think two of them were even water tribe people. Don't you think we should help them out?" he said, interested in how the blue-eyed ones knew of their secret.

"I…I don't want to, Kaito," she said slowly, eyes looking down.

Kaito looked at her sharply. Haine-chan was never one to refuse to help someone in need. She was the most compassionate person her had ever known. She hated to hurt people…

And then his eyes dawned with realization.

"You don't want to fight, do you?" he said gently. His had slid over and covered her small one. She looked up at him hesitantly and her her eyes darted away when she saw the sadness in Kaito's eyes.

He wanted to fight.

Haine knew that Kaito held a grudge against Fire Nation for extinguishing the Air nomads. One of which was his great grandfather, who had fallen in love with his great grand-mother, a waterbender. Even though he had not known his great grandfather, he was told of his love and devotion and kindness toward his wife and the rest of the waterbenders. He was also taught of the brutality and cruelty of the Fire Nation.

The air bending ability had skipped two generations until it had appeared in Kaito. His mother had been horrified when he accidently sneezed himself up 15 feet into the air on his 13th birthday. At first, he was forbidden to show his talent which angered him, but he understood the danger and relented.

That is, until one day, a waterbender caught him airbending secretly. The secret had traveled only among the water tribe members, his mother speaking fiercely for him, telling them to keep their mouth shut.

They did, grudgingly seeing the advantages of him being an airbender.

However, he was excluded from play with the other young waterbenders. No one wanted to play with someone with an unfair advantage.

Kaito had become depressed by the confusing and sometimes fearful glances people threw at him.

That was until he met Haine. Someone who shared his pain, someone who held an even darker secret.

Katio's grip on her hand tightened. "I'll follow you wherever you want to go," he said determinedly even though the longing to participate in the war showed through.

Haine looked ashamedly up at him. I'm holding him down, she thought.

Am I… a burden to him?

Kaito saw the indecision in her eyes as her emotions warred against each other. Then her eyes cleared and she looked deeply into his.

"What do you want to do, Kaito?"

The boy in question widened his eyes.

"You don't need to follow me anywhere. I'm sorry I dragged you along to Fire Nation. I was being selfish," she said remorsefully, her eyes sliding downwards. "I know you…want to fight," she whispered. "And I won't stop you."

Kaito did not speak for a few moments and Haine started growing more uncomfortable. She started to pull her hand away. Kaito's grip tightened.

He looked at her with clear blue eyes and said, "I want to do anything that will make you happy. Because you helped me in my moment of need," he said with a clear voice.

She smiled a breathtaking smile at him.

"Kaito-kun…it is you who have helped me at my most darkest time."

He was frozen in shock, her words piercing through him. Before he had time to react, the food arrived. Haine's eyes glittered vibrantly.

"YAY! LET'S EAT KAITO-KUN!!!"

-

-

-

-

On this frozen piece of ice I will forever roam. Until I find what binds me here, I cannot go back home.

-

-

-

-

-

Really, it was such horrible timing. A captain had spotted waterbenders, one of them suspected to be the airbender, making there way here to Fire Nation, and she has to leave for a stupid campaign meeting with Father somewhere in Earth Kingdom.

Azula sighed. It was really too unfair.

Azula had no choice but assign her brother to take care of the nuisance. And it would have been so interesting to battle them and defeat them.

She sighed again. She doubted Prince Zuko could handle the challenge so she enlisted the help of Ty lee and Mai to accompany.

Mai had jumped at the chance to spend more time with Zuko and had even cracked a smile. Very unusual…what was Zuko doing to her? And Ty lee seemed to be relieved not to have to accompany her…Hmmm…

Oh well, Zuzu backed up with the strongest non firebenders was sure to succeed, though a part of her wished that he wouldn't be so lucky so she could have her chance.

When she had informed Zuko of his task, he had seemed a bit reluctant to take it on.

"What's the matter, Zuzu?" she had asked. "Are you afraid," she mocked him.

He had whirled on her angrily, stomping past her and out of the room.

She laughed at his immaturity and then sighed exasperatedly for another time.

This was going to be so boring.

-

-

-

When I'm frozen in time with my most dreaded fears, you erase them from my mind and send the world spinning.