disclaimer: ATLA & everything associated with it belongs to Bryke, nothing you recognize belongs to me.
author's notes: another chapter that took forever to write! apologies if this appears disjointed, i swear i'm not ignoring certain characters or rushing their development, i just want to get into the meat of the storyline already! but there's a lot of groundwork to lay, so...here we are. also, this ends on a bit of a cliffhanger so i apologize for that as well.
thank you so very much to everyone who's reviewed, y'all the best xxx. please keep them coming, it keeps this fickle girl's muses faithful!
i give you...
southern lights.
chapter iv. when it rains
your feet's in the earth, your boots are sinking
sink with the memories of long-lost thinking
-
"marching song"/esben & the witch
Left foot. Right foot.
She moves lightly, gracefully, on the balls of her feet as she has been taught. There is a terrible ache in the arches of her feet, but she can ignore it for now. She wears her armour but is barefoot, her long dark braid swinging behind her with every leap she takes.
"Very good!" chirps Ty Lee, who has been coaching her the whole time. "Now, let's work on some of those defensive moves. Arms up!"
Obediently, Katara raises her arms, tucking her upper arms close to her body as instructed. She uses her forearms to deflect Ty Lee's precisely aimed blows, and manages to block three successfully, before she is sharply jabbed in the elbow and lets out a shriek.
Her left forearm dangles uselessly in front of her, numb and inanimate.
"Oh, that's too bad!" Ty Lee exclaims, ceasing her swift onslaught and standing before Katara apologetically. "But you managed to block me a couple of times now! That's always an improvement!"
Katara grimaces.
"If you say so," she grumbles. Her lessons at the military training base have become more and more humiliating by the day. When she isn't being fed to Toph and Aang, she is being poked and prodded at by non-benders, of all people! How this is supposed to improve her own style of bending, she has no idea.
"Well, compared to when you first started, anyway," Ty Lee offers, grabbing Katara's immobilized limb and massaging some life back into it.
Katara can't disagree. Out of all the strange duels she's fought during cross-training sessions, her first one with Ty Lee was undoubtedly her worst episode by far. The bubbly girl in pink moved lightning-fast and knew the weak points of the body like the back of her hand. It hadn't taken her ten seconds to jab the waterbender in four of her major joints and completely block her chi for the rest of the day.
"It's not so bad," Ty Lee reassures her, letting go of her arm. "You took the blow well. I can already feel the pathways opening up. You should be fine after a bit of rest."
No news sounds more welcome to Katara at the moment, so she nods and mumbles a thanks before walking over to one of the low-lying stone walls and seating herself upon it. Idly, she massages her numb arm with one hand, trying to feel for the blockage and working it out.
On the training grounds, Ty Lee is now facing off against Suki, and it's a sight to behold. By now, Katara has learned that she had been a fool to underestimate the non-bending specialists at the base. Both girls squaring off before her are strong beyond reckoning, disciplined, and know how to press their advantage. Suki's fighting style is grounded and balanced, gaining power from the shifts in momentum that Katara recognizes from her own bending. Ty Lee, on the other hand, is quick as an arrow, and her acrobatic prowess makes it seem like she knows how to fly. Coupled with her knowledge of the human body, it is no wonder that she makes such a formidable opponent. Even Toph and Aang find it difficult to fight her.
But Suki, who has never relied on bending, who has always had to be quick and strong and precise, holds her own against the devil in pink with an easiness that Katara envies. Her fists are iron, her movements are sure, and when Ty Lee whirls in out of the air, Suki blocks her over, and over, and over again, until at last they are both satisfied and cease fighting in a certain draw.
Now that was cross-training worth watching, Katara thinks to herself, flexing her hand experimentally. To her delight, the fingers respond infinitesimally. At least it is taking less and less time to recover from Ty Lee's attacks.
Suki leaves and walks over to where Katara sits, before leaning against the wall next to her amicably.
"How's it going?"
Katara shrugs.
"Oh, you know," she replies noncommittally, "I just can't use my arm. It'll pass, though."
"Hey, it's only one arm," Suki points out, sitting down next to Katara. There's a wry smile on her face as she wipes the sweat off her brow with her forearm.
"Still didn't do as well as you did," Katara points out, somewhat begrudgingly. "How did you get so good at fighting her?"
Suki shrugs.
"I got really good at losing to her," she explains as Ty Lee faces down Mai in the arena, "and then after a certain point, I got really good at holding her off, and then after that, I just got good at fighting her." She flashes a quick smile at Katara. "You're just on the first step there, that's all."
The sounds of metal blades whirring through the air punctuate Katara's thoughts.
In front of them, Ty Lee takes a flying leap and somersaults five times in the air in rapid succession, dodging a salvo of flying knives. She lands on one hand directly behind Mai, and jabs her in the left shoulder with a pointed toe.
Mai exhales sharply in pain and lets her right palm fly. Two whirling shurikens catch the leg of Ty Lee's pink trousers, and pin it to the ground, effectively immobilizing her.
Both girls are down for the count and a draw is called.
"Could you teach me?" Katara asks Suki tentatively. In this pit of firebenders, if she cannot trust an Earth Kingdom girl with no bending, then she can trust no one. And that leaves her more vulnerable than she wants to imagine.
"I could show you a few tricks," Suki agrees, the small smile on her face spreading. "It'll be fun." She pauses. "Besides, fighting Ty Lee is so much more satisfying when you're not paralyzed on the ground a minute in."
"…this leaves us room to assume, that, whenever they are ready, we will have in reserve a single battalion of troops waiting in line over here, ready to replenish our line over here if in combat it should fold back from this position here all the way back to here…"
The imperious captain drones on and on in the sweltering room, occasionally emphasizing his words by jabbing a long wooden pointer at various parts on a large map of the Fire Empire. Katara longs for fresh, open air, but inside the General's war tent, their strategic discussions are guarded with utmost secrecy.
It takes all her energy to not simply fall asleep where she sits. Toph, who sits on her right side, is not faring particularly well, snoring a little as she dozes listlessly in her chair.
Aang, sitting on her other side, simply looks bored, his chin resting in one hand, as he absent-mindedly bends a small air current with his other. Even though it is slightly distracting, Katara does not tell him to stop as the tiny breeze is welcoming in the stifling heat.
"Excellent proposition, Captain Shu." General Shinu nods his approval. Katara notes that at least he had been paying attention, unlike everyone else in the room, who look like they would love to be elsewhere. Even the spoiled brat of a prince appears to be daydreaming across the table from her, his eyes far away and glazed over.
"Sifu Katara, what do you think?"
It takes Katara a second to realize that the General is looking at her expectantly, and so, apparently having decided to suddenly pay attention again, is everyone else in the room.
She swallows nervously.
"Perhaps Captain Shu could explain his tactics again?" she asks tentatively, in a small voice. "I couldn't quite follow what he was trying to say."
The look the General gives her is not a pleasant one, and she fights to keep herself from wilting beneath it.
"That is a very prudent suggestion," Prince Zuko speaks up suddenly, and he's straight-backed, meeting the General's eyes in earnest. "Like Sifu Katara, I too, had difficulty understanding Captain Shu's proposed strategies."
Captain Shu opens and closes his mouth as everyone around the table nods their assent.
"I…I was simply suggesting that…we keep a reserve in wait behind our main line, just in case…"
As he goes on to describe his plan in much simpler terms, Katara feels the characteristic swell of fury rise in her again.
Who does he think he is, she thinks heatedly to herself, that he can just barge in on a conversation between the General and I, and make it all okay, just because he's a prince and he says so?
It's probably the same instinct that drove him to seek her out, that first day of cross-training, she reflects, and magnanimously proclaim his penitence, when he hadn't the faintest idea what he was apologizing for. An angry flush rises to her cheeks as she contemplates the arrogance of it, the thought that she owed him her forgiveness just because he was a prince who deigned to care what the peasants thought of him.
Across from her, Prince Zuko shifts his eyes from the General's face, and she catches him watching her, intent on trying to meet her gaze.
She turns her head away instead.
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him slump a little.
"The first step to mastering the blades," says Mai, "is to master yourself."
Katara cannot deny that she has dreaded going head-to-head with the gloomy Fire Nation noble. The prince's girlfriend has a gravitas about her that even the prince himself lacks, something forbidding and unapproachable, that gives reason for pause and caution before engaging. It has less to do with the dozens of concealed knives on her person that she can use expertly, within the blink of an eye, and more to do with the imperturbable set of her regal face and colourless eyes. She is altogether unsettling, and that admission in itself is the highest praise Katara can give anyone.
Nonetheless, she isn't about to back down from this girl. After all, if she's willingly chosen to date the Fire Prince, then there must be a part of her that's quite stupid.
She just needs to find it, draw it out during battle, and exploit it.
Mai pulls a stiletto from her sleeve and throws it carelessly. It buries itself into the middle of Chan's topknot, quivering slightly as it lands.
"Hey!" Katara hears him protest, as he claps a hand to his topknot and whirls around in fury. "What was that for?"
Mai shrugs impassively.
"Because you're annoying and I don't like you," she answers coolly.
Chan realizes that it's Mai he's talking to, swallows whatever further gripe he was going to make, and instead, occupies himself with fishing the small blade out of his hair.
Katara swears there is a very small smile on Mai's lips.
"It didn't even cut his hair," she continues, her voice bored. "I don't know why he's so angry."
"It didn't?" Katara takes a closer look, only to see that Mai is right. Her eyes widen. "How did you do that?"
Mai shrugs again.
"Balance and precision," she says, "are two things you have to learn before you can start throwing things around."
For the rest of their time together, she has Katara practicing how to stand on one foot properly.
Every day, she spars with Suki in the woods behind the encampment. At first, the warrior from Kyoshi Island overpowers her easily. Katara may be a master of her element, but she now realizes that her prowess in hand-to-hand combat is lamentably limited. It makes her especially susceptible against the earthbenders, whose bending is characterized by their rooted stance and strength.
"I'll go slow," Suki says at last, holding out a hand to the fallen waterbender sprawled out on the ground before her. "That way, you can pick up the technique first. Speed can always come later."
Fighting Aang is a tricky ordeal, she has come to realize by her third or fourth duel with him. At least when she had fought him alongside Toph, he and Toph had been preoccupied with each other, turning the brunt of their strikes upon each other.
Now, there is no distraction and she finds herself subject to an onslaught of lightning-fast strikes.
She fights to dodge, to stay one step ahead. But her opponent is swift, like air itself.
Toph presents the most formidable foe, Katara concludes after her first month of regular cross-training sessions. Not only is she a flawless master of her own element, she is deceptively powerful physically and is keenly aware of the motions of the world around her – a fact belied by her slender frame and unseeing eyes. By now, Katara has deduced that Toph has some sort of seismic sense, an ability to perceive her surroundings by feeling the vibrations of the earth. It certainly explains why she has greater difficulty fighting opponents who are quicker and lighter on their feet, like Aang and Ty Lee.
Seeing with earthbending. Katara has never heard of bending being used in such a manner, but she cannot deny its obvious advantages. She wonders how such a technique could be applied to her own abilities.
The firebenders continue to be the greatest thorn in her side. The stupid ones who'd taunted her from the first day maintain their arrogant swagger in her presence. She is convinced that a couple of them were the ones who'd spied on her while bathing, and she catches them giving her significant, insolent stares.
Even worse is the prince, who seems to think that putting on a show of long-suffering penitence is the way back into her good graces. He doesn't talk to her anymore, perhaps finally respecting her demand for him to stay away, but he is subtly devious in other ways. He agrees with the others when they compliment her skills and how quickly she's had to learn in order to keep up with everyone. He tells off the other firebenders when they're giving her a headache. He quietly speaks in support of her whenever she says something controversial in war meetings.
And always, his eyes, cautiously watching her. Even when he thinks she isn't looking. It drives her mad.
At least she can count on repeatedly defeating him in their cross-training bouts. Her attacks have decreased in their savagery since, mainly because he's stopped trying to win.
It is a cool, dewy morning when Master Jeong-Jeong assembles them all, just before the crack of dawn. In the crisp morning air, Katara's breath fogs before her as she shivers and lets out a yawn. She is wearing her frayed old robe, hugging it as close to her body as she can to keep warm.
"Why did you do that? I'm not that cold," Mai, who is sitting in front of her, is complaining to Prince Zuko, who has conjured up a roaring yellow flame to light a torch for heat.
"Well, if you don't want it, give it to someone who does," he answers gruffly, shoving the handle of the torch into Mai's hand. He crosses his arms across his chest and looks straight ahead.
From where she sits, Katara thinks he looks somewhat put out.
With a roll of her eyes, Mai turns around and passes the torch to Ty Lee.
"Thanks! I'm freezing! How are you not cold, Mai?"
"Because I actually wear clothes," comes Mai's sardonic reply before she turns her back on them and crosses her arms too.
"Yikes! Everyone's in such a bad mood today!" Ty Lee exclaims, wide-eyed. She turns to Katara, who is sitting beside her, and offers the torch, which Katara reluctantly accepts. The warmth is welcoming in the chill air.
"Mornings," Suki, who is sitting on Katara's other side, explains wryly, putting a hand out by the flame. "No one is happy to be up at this hour."
"I'll say," Katara mutters. As a waterbender, she is most alive in the dead of the night, when the moon is full and tugs on the chi in her body. Running on Fire Nation hours, which maximize time spent under the sun, has been a long and exhausting adjustment for her.
At that moment, Jeong-Jeong clears his throat and raises his hand. Almost instantly, the lot of them go silent.
"Thank you," he says in his deep voice. "You may be wondering why you have been summoned here, all of you, so early in the morning."
Katara takes a quick peek at the group gathered with her. She notices that it's everyone who has been involved in the cross-training exercises, and that the commanding officers of the military, such as General Shu, are conspicuously absent.
"What we are gathered here to discuss," Jeong-Jeong continues in measured tones, "is a matter of utmost secrecy. The observant among you have perhaps guessed as to its nature, and wondered to yourselves about the change in the Fire Empire that is to come. You are the select few that we have hand-picked to prepare for this, to be ready and lead us into a new era. But be warned. This is a test of the acutest kind. What you do is not for glory or reward, but for loyalty to your countrymen and to the Empire itself."
Oh great, Katara thinks darkly to herself.
"Where is General Shu?" Prince Zuko asks, his voice raspy in the morning air. "Why is he not here with you, Master Jeong-Jeong?"
He receives a piercing look from the old Master in reply.
"He is not here," Jeong-Jeong replies slowly, "because even he is not aware of the true purpose of this…exercise."
Suddenly, Katara remembers her briefing from the first day, so many weeks ago now. General Shu had said their training was for attack development. She'd thought Master Jeong-Jeong had clarified as much, but…but…
Jeong-Jeong steeples his fingers together in front of him. In the rising sunlight, his old, scarred face appears carved from stone.
"Tell me," he says softly, "what do you know about the legend of the Avatar?"