Rating: T or M (depends on how you look at it)

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Chapter Four

As the day progressed from dusk to midday everyone seemed to have settled from Anju's awakening. Kamarua, once finishing his chores, begin his search for the girl when he noticed his sister surrounded by the young boys of the tribe. A few girls lingered, eavesdropping in soft-curiosity. It was typical to see the chief's daughter gathered around the younger generation- usually lecturing them about what a true wolf warrior was- but the girls would stray as far whenever Sukul was in that mood, or as the girl likes to call her mood her-war-meeting-phrase.

The group of children were sitting down, staring up at her as the girls shared looks behind her. He headed in their direction.

"Now men," Sukul glanced towards the girls, who acted as if they weren't listening, "and woman: the most important thing you need to remember when you come face-to-face with your opponent is to never show fear. Becoming afraid only gives your enemy something to thrive on. Show no fear. Show no doubt. You don't want to give your opponent the upper hand. Even if they trap you, you can't ever back down! In the water tribe, we fight to the last man standing. We have to show those firebenders that we are not to be taken lightly. Either as children, as elders, as nonebenders, as women: we fight together as the wolf against the dragon! For without our courage, how can we call ourselves warriors? What mockery on our ancestors' graves?"

The girls from the gathering departed and went on with their day. The boys shred looks of boredom. Sukul wasn't the greatest with speeches, much less people, and most times she tends to repeat what number of speeches she's made. This was one of them.

Desperately as others followed suit, she said with simply directness, "The men are gone. Leaving us to defend our land. We have to fight for our Homefront until they-"

"Until what?" One girl snapped. She kneeled and picked one up of the younger boys, "This war was raged for centuries. There won't be anything left once it ends. Besides, I doubt they'll come back that so-called chief of ours."

Sukul stilled. Kamarua watched as a demonic screeched tore form his sister's throat as she lunges across the fire at the younger girl. Before he could stop her, two of the girls caught her and held her back as she struggled against her and he knew from experience she was not as dainty as she appears. "You slime-rotting-steel-toed-snake!"

The girl's eyes go wide and she made move towards Sukul. "Kalaka," another girl with three braids shouted. She made a move to grab her sister but Kalaka easily side-stepped and pressed her face against Sukul's. The younger girl sneered.

"You keep ordering us to give up our humanity in order to win, just as you father told our fathers," reminded Kalaka, "He's leading his own people to their graves. Every time he returns, more than half the men he takes with him turn up dead! How do we know you won't do the same?"

"And if we wind, soulless, without an ounce of humanity left in us, we've already lost. You said the enemies thrives on us? Then tell me, why are you sneering and growling at me as if you're a baby polar-bear-dog? Maybe you should take your own advice and see where it takes you."

She twisted on her heel and she, along with several others, headed in the opposite direction away from the trainee. Everyone fall silent. Sukul twisted and escaped the girls' hold. Rubbing her now sore wrists she turned towards the kids.

"Sukul?" one asked, "is Kalaka right?"

Her eye twitched, "Class dismissed."

"But we've only…"

"I said. Class. Dismissed."

Kamarua approached his sister hesitantly as her class left her. He called her name and grimaced as she screamed at his sudden appearance, she elbowed him for sneaking up on her. He chuckled and pretend he heard nothing that had been said moments before, "Have you seen Anju anywhere? Gran-Gran said she was looking for me earlier."

She stood, tensed, back turned towards him with her arms crossed. She sniffed, "How would I know? It's not like we're friends. I don't know about you, but so far that girls has been nothing but trouble."

"Trouble? Is that some kind of joke? She hasn't done anything. Literally. She just woke up six hours ago."

Ignoring his comment, she went on, "She's a nuisance. She's already messed up our schedules and I had to stop her form ruining the watch tower! And she's treating the trainees as if their-" she fall silent.

"As if their kids? Sukul, I've tried talking to you about this. They're not men, they're not warriors: they're young boys. They should be enjoying themselves, having fun."

"Well, we all can't have a good time, can we? Not with the war! We should be preparing for when the fire nation comes back. We weren't prepared for when they came last time… and you saw what happened."

"Sukul?"

"Don't. Just… don't…" she stared at the necklaces strapped around his neck in envy. She snorted, turned and feed the fire more of its burning ice, "It doesn't matter anyway, it happened so long ago-"

There was a sudden break of laughter from the side of the walls. It was normal to hear kids laughing here and there, but never something so loud. The siblings shared a look and raced towards the direction the sound came from. They turned just in time to see a kid fall into a pile of cotton-fluffiness. Anju, struggling against the stiff fabric of her coat, sat atop Appa with her legs tucked beneath her. She laughed along with the kids as they slide down the bison's tail, which was being propped up in the air, creating a makeshift slide. Another kid jumped down Appa's tail and landed face-first into the pile of snow. The kids broke into fits of laughter and Kamarua soon joined. Anju floated off of Appa, and swished the kid out of the snow. She begins brushing the snow off him and he beamed up at her.

"Stop!" everyone jumped. Sukul sprinted towards them, "Stop it right now." Shouting in alarm, the children booked it out of the area as Sukul neared Anju. She shrieked, "Is this some kind of joke! What is wrong with you?"

"Why are you yelling at me? I didn't do anything wrong."

"Augh! We don't have time for fun and games with the war going on! Those kids should be training! Not goofing off like a bunch of babies!"

"What war?" Anju broke in, tensing, "What are you talking about-what war?" There is no war. That much she knew. The last she heard of such a thing was the war between the Earth Kingdom citizens, otherwise the four nations have lived in harmony for centuries.

The siblings shared a look of astonishment, "Is that a joke?" How could this girl, no older than them, not know about the war that thundered for centuries? Its destroyed more than half of the world and affected all in its way, no one has been spared. How could she pretend it never happened when her entire race was killed off-leaving her to be the only remaining airbender.

Anju titled her head towards them. They stared at her as if she had grown a second head right before them. Something wasn't adding up…Reaching up, she tugged harshly on a lock of hair, "Whatever. I… I'm going to go meditate. I'll see you guys later." Arms hugging her torso, she headed back into the village ignoring the worried looks she received in her ill-walking state.

Kamarua sighed. He had gone looking for Anju once again and after a half-hour of searching he gave up and headed back to his tent. He feet ached and he just wanted to relax. Hopefully she'll be back by the time he finishes his book. He entered the tent and froze.

There was a young girl redressing herself in his tent. The coat Anju had been borrowing that day was folded neatly next to the cots along with the silted kimono leaving her in nothing but her borrowed artic pants and bandaged binding her chest tightly, looking almost painful. It hadn't been his intention to peek. Really, he wasn't trying. He had plan on hurrying out of the tent as fast as he had entered but then he saw it. It being the brilliant blue tattooed arrows wrapping around her body from the center of her back ending to her hands and feet and stretching up he neck.

He barely recalled the tip of an arrow when they met but he just thought it as something else. He didn't say anything but his gasp alerted the young girl. She tensed. Kamarua prayed she wouldn't air slap him as she had his sister, he doubted he would be able to control his bending from defending himself. Instead, a few seconds later, she said after a moment of silence, "I'm dressed. You can open your eyes now." He hadn't realized he had closed his eyes. Anju was standing in front of him, her face aflame and her arms cross. Before he could apologize, she blurted hurriedly, "Your grandmother let me mediate in here."

"Oh?" He grimaced at his tone. He sounded like he was accusing her and by the look of shock on the girl's face, she could hear the none existing accusation herself.

"I," justified Anju, her face darkening, "don't make a habit of being n-naked in boy's tents! I couldn't get in the proper pose with my coat and kimono on- they were restricting-so I had to take them off to get into the lotus-fold correctly! Besides, its stuffy in here."

It was stuffy, Kamarua realized. The fire was much hotter than it should be, and around the room several large candles were lit along the floor and reflecting off Anju's pale skin. A mirror of reckless. She pulled on the coat, leaving it open, and crossed the room to lay down. Confused, he silently walked along the skirt of the tent and sat on his cot and stared. She fluffed Sukul's throws and tossed herself down. Kamarua pulled out a scroll from beneath his cot and continued to stare at her.

Feeling his gaze, she turned, "What?"

"Nothing."

With a huff, she pulled a throw over herself and slowly went to sleep with a few glances his way. He tried finishing his story but his eyes kept wondering towards the sleeping girl in his tent. Sukul would not be pleased. She seemed almost boneless as she laid there and… dead looking. He shivered. That was not something he should be thinking. Her eyes shifted beneath her lids and she would gasp and groan ever once in a while as she slept in a trance. Anju's muscles would tense and loosen as the drifted further away from reality.

There was a staff along the side of the tent that Kamarua did not recognized. But he knew they belonged to Anju.

The temple was crowded, filled with noise, as monks and visitors talk over the melody of the singers, two things Anju was most comfortable with. Yet, she had yet to be told why she was forced to intend the gathering, saying how there was a surprise waiting for her and that she would enjoy herself. She giggled, enjoy your youth the monks had told her. Maybe they should have been the others that, she thought as she watched her friend Kuzon grumbled and pout around the brightly lit plaza. Snatching a glass of bubbling liquid, she danced along the trail of the partiers and found herself trailing along the firebender's side. Just as most firebenders, Kuzon wasn't fond of loud gatherings.

Anju couldn't blame anyone but the guests. Saiia, daughter of the chief of one of the smaller Southern Water Tribes villages, was a horrible flirt and didn't mind flouncing herself around despite the younger boy showing no interest. Bumi can be overwhelming and many avoided the boy likes a plague. There were also the twins from the Western Earth Kingdom who, Anju couldn't remember their names to save her life, were annoying and were contently trying to start a fight with the bender, and the boy preferred keeping the peace. It was entertaining to watch, to say the least.

She cupped her chin and gazed up at him. She knew she had a few too many drinks, even if the drinks shouldn't have been acholic- there are teenagers here. Her robes were muffling her steps as she neared him. He sighed and Anju reached around and snapped her fingers under his noise, and the boy jerked back in honest shock and nearly tumbled off the wall. "Hey there," she laughed as he glared at her for breaking his daydreaming.

He watched as she watched him skeptically, awaiting his response, "Hello, Anju." He greeted as she leaned against the wall with him, she leaned against him allowing him to hold her weight. He said nothing.

"You don't like it," It wasn't a question and Kuzon knew it. The plaza of the Southern Air Temple was decorated colorful banners, stages filled with music players and dancing girls cladded in nothing but curtains, and tables of food crowed by mingling cultures. It was too loud. Measly, she brushed a piece of hair back into place as her traditional hairpiece failed her. "I heard you're joining the Fire Navy. What branch?"

"The northern wing."

There was an comfortable silence between the two. "I'm guessing Bumi dragged you here."

"Very."

She giggled, "Of course he would. Sounds just like Prince Bumi." They stared at the crowd.

"Isn't there," Kuzon interrupted their silence, "somewhere can go that's quiet?"

Anju raised a brow and teased, "Are you trying to get me alone, good flam-o?"

"One of the reasons, Spirit Maiden."

It had always been an inside joke to them. They both had known about their attractions for each other, but those thoughts never ran any deeper. "There's the praying field or maybe the dormitories. However, knowing my dormmates, and truth me I do, some might be breaking scarce law in those roims." She felt more then heard Kuzon's laughter.

"Praying field, it is."

"Don't let my teachers hear you."

She smiled at him, her full toothy smile that she only gave to him. She took him by the arm and lend him down into the most favored ground on the mountain. The praying filed as large, much larger than the Earth Royal Palace, large enough to contain the four hundred pupils during their daily praying practice to the spirits. The ground was leveled and replaced by carved stone, in the center was a large column covered in silk curtains draping from them creating a strange tent-like shape.

Kuzon mumbled something, and Anju hushed him, "I'm not supposed to be in here after hours. If you get me caught I swear Kuzon, I'm tossing you off this mountain myself." He tickles her hip in a teasing manner. Rolling her eyes, she reached forward to the curtains before her.

Pushing back the last curtain to enter the filed, Anju's eyes were engulfed in flames.

A screamed teared throughout the tent and Kamarua found himself tensing in horror as he realized where it was coming form. Anju's eyes flew open and he could have sworn, just for a moment, they had glow blue. She curled in on herself shaking, gasping for air. She continued to shiver, Anju glanced around her surroundings in utter confusion before noticing Kamarua's tense frame that had been half away between bolting to the exit and wanting to help.

"S-Sorry," she laughed breathlessly, "didn't mean to give you a scare."

"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring her statement, as he moved towards her. She stared at him with a blank expression. She hadn't heard him. "Anju?"

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. I must have forgot to disconnect my connection to the spiritual world after mediation. They do love to scare us, free entertainment." She laughed, but her heart was not in it and it was the first time Kamarua saw the glint missing form her eyes. She was still shivering and shaking, breaths coming out in short affectional huffs.

In a moment of wistfulness, he offered her a walk. He told her that Sukul tends to do so whenever she's having difficulty with something or just needs to clear her head, and would walk for miles before returning home. Anju didn't seem keen in the idea until he offered to go with her and soon the two fourteen-year-old found themselves walking afar from the small village of ice into the icy wilderness.

Only one person saw them leave and Sukkul was left with a bitter taste in her mouth.

"…And sense then," Kamarua summarize after hours of walking, "the waterbender population decreased dramatically, because waterbending can only be pass own in bloodlines. It practically vanished during the raids forty years ago. In the end, I became the last known waterbender in the whole Southern Water Tribe and I didn't even know it until I was maybe eight."

Anju frowned at the snow, "Whoa. I didn't realize how serve it was," she worried, "I remember Saiia telling me the waterbenders were disappearing but I never thought…"

Beside her, Kamarua laughed coldly, "Yeah. Most people don't. Guess that was kinda why I got so excited when I met you."

"Me?"

"I was hoping you could teach me watchbending."

"What?" Anju stopped, her face fall, "Kamarua... I'm honored… But I don't know how I can break this to you, but I'm not a…"

"I know- I know. My Gran-Gran and Sukul both got onto me about that. You're an airbender not a waterbender. But I don't know- you seem like you traveled around a lot and you've talked about your friends from around the world. So, I thought maybe you could have some advice or picked up something that could help me."

"I'm sorry Kamarua, but there isn't anything I can do. The elements are completely different form each other. Air; it's like a leaf traveling along the currents. Water… It's more like a pull and push factor, I don't know how to explain it much less understand it. It's not my nature."

"I figured."

"But," Anju quickly interrupted Kamarua's disappointment. "I can take you to the Norhtern Water Tribe. I have a friend up there, his mother's a master and there's thousands of them, I have no doubt they'll be happy to teach you. You could find a master there."

"And how do you suppose I do that? Our sister city isn't exactly 'turn right around the next glacier' it's on the other side of the world."

"You forgot, I have a flying bison. I can easily get us there in a few weeks, that's a month shorter than the quickest ship."

He smiled sadly, "That sounds amazing but I've never left home before. Unlike you, whose free to travel the world, I have to cake of everyone here with my sister. They need us here."

We need you Anju.

He nearly crashed into the frozen girl in front of him. She had gone pale, "Huh? Anju? Anju? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

They entered a frozen shore of ice and things got deadly serious with what stood before them. Kamarua cursed himself as he realized what route he had taken Anju down. He had been so engrossed in their conversation he hadn't noticed how close they had gotten to the Valley of Ashes as the elders called it. The shore stretched out largely but ended abruptly with an encased Fire Nation ship sticking up above the shore with shards of ice formed by benders holding it in the air. As strange as it was, he knew the story behind it.

The metal had large chunks missing from where the ice had once puncture it and the sides were brunt and chard with age. Heavily damage beyond prepare. It's symbolic flag of fire was teared and was flapping in the wind hundreds of years later. It was beautiful in Anju's eyes and Kamarua must noticed, "What is that?"

"A," said Kamarua mournfully, "very bad memory for my people." Anju glanced at him; turned and approached the ruins mesmerized. "Anju! Stop! It's forbidden to go anywhere near this thing," he warned, tugging on her coat.

"Why?" She questioned, "It looks abandoned. What's the worst that could happen?"

"It could be booby-trapped. This was the only ship my ancestors managed to capture during the raid. We've never stepped foot inside, who knows what's in there."

"The more reason to do so. Don't you want to see what's on the inside?"

He did. He truly did. It was one of his darkest thoughts, about the armor and weapons inside, the left-over corpses buried beneath the snow. But there was no reason for Anju to know that. He sighed and tried belittling the idea. Sense he was a child he wanted to climb up to the deck and venture under, but he knew the danger and Anju wasn't seeing reason.

"Kamarua," Anju said simply, "I'm going to give you some bender advice right now. If you want to be a bender, you need to let fear go and do as your heart and gut tells you. I'm not scared; neither should you. It's just abandoned ship." She turned and headed for the ship, leaving Kamarua in the shadow of the ship.

It was a challenge. She was testing him to see if he would overcome a small obstacle, and see what he could make of the problem. To become a true bender, he needed to let go of fear. As he started for the ship all Kamarua could see was his mother's smiling face before she told him to leave as the man in red-and-black armor towered over her, he knew who the man was and what his nationality was and where he could put blame. Reluctantly, he followed the spiritual airbender into the creepiest place he'd ever been.

She crawled over the railing, almost slipping to her death, and observes the snow-covered deck. The framing of bones sticking up from the snow layered ground followed by tones of armor that peaked and shined at her. Armor that she knew by heart. Fire Nation armor. Strange, she thought. She doesn't remember the shoulder spikes being flat.

Turning, she went to shout down to Kamarua when she bumped right into him. She would have taken a tumbled if he hadn't cart her. She smiled, "So you finally decided to show up."

"Couldn't let you have all the fun."

Anju smiled at him and turned, heading into the opened doorway that lead into the ship. He quickly followed behind. The ship was mainly empty with selective rooms filled with ice and snow from torn walls and ceilings. They walked around in the darkness of the corridors, passing many darkened empty rooms. Snow BirdRats running past, up and down pipes to their nests. They came across a few rotten corpses, which they quickly glance away from and continued. The mess hall had spikes of ice shooting through it and the two realized where the ice holding the ship launched to.

Eerily in appearance but the recherché of it was enchanting. In a word, breathtaking.

Kamarua gripped Anju's wrist, as though fearful of losing her. He was just glade she hadn't slapped his hand away. Truthful, she didn't seem to mind. They wonder the ship some more and found a room filled with weapons. The weapon vault's doors had been broken off by a few spikes of ice shooting up from the floor. Anju quickly ventured in followed by an cautious Kamarua.

The room was packed from the floor to the ceiling of various Fire Nation weapons. From throwing knifes to broadswords to long-bladed sword to several Jiis to San gu cha and many bolas. Anju noted the Jiis, those were Kuzon's favorite choice of weaponry. Watching him practice with the blades were always astonishing to her, much to the monks' displeasure. Kuzon had always told her that everyone she knows how to fight with a weapon, because there could be a day when the peace between nations would fall and you won't be able to rely on your element to save you.

He had been one of few to try to reason the Monks' of the Air Nomads into allowing their students to train with weapons. He had always been escorted out of the Room of Elders by the end of the day.

Skeptical, Anju picked a Jii up and twirled the crescent moon-shaped bladed spear in her hand. The weight was more then she expected, but she figured it must be from the blade. The Fire Nation has always been known for its fine metal work. Focus on the spear, she nearly missed what Kamarua had said.

"It was so long ago," he hesitated, slowly, "Almost eighty years. My Gran-Gran was just a little girl, not even our age when they arrived. From that point on forward, the waterbending population decreased rapidly."

Anju stared him, "Surly it wasn't just a simple attack that did that. Maybe the spiritual aura here decreased, that can lead to a drop of bending."

"Well sort of," Kamarua answered truthfully, "We no longer performed the Spirit Festival anymore. It's too dangerous. Besides, nobody here remembers what's done during the Festival. We haven't had one in almost three hundred years." Anju chocked on her own tongue, he turned around confused placing the knife he had picked up down, "Is something wrong?"

"Three hundred years?" questioned Anju in disbelief, "Is that some kind of joke? I may not travel to the south pole very often but I've been for a Spirit Festival just four years ago here."

It was his turn to be confused. He said, in a dry tone, "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Acting like you don't know. I thought at first you just didn't want to remember the extinction of the Air Nomads but you sound like you honestly don't know."

"Pardon? 'Extinction'? We Air Nomads are not extinct! There's millions of us, all over the world. The Western Temple, Eastern and Northern Temple, the Southern Temple. When was the last time your tribe had any connection with the outside world?"

She received no reply. Kamarua was fixed on her, intellectual. He then asked, "Anju, how long were you in that iceberg?"

"I don't know," Anju was thoughtful of her answer and answered with doubt. Kamarua was staring at her as if he knew something that would break her, he knew something she didn't, something big. Something that could destroy her. How right she was, "A few days maybe."

He stared at her strangely and she shifted unnerved by his gaze. The eyes of a man who witness death… He furrowed his brows. He knew something. Anju thought he would tell her why he asked her such a strange question when he asked, "Anju. Who's the Earth King?"

That was even a stranger question. She answered without hesitation, "King Chintamani III."

"Anju…" Kamarua said softly, "Who's the Fire Lord?"

"What's with all the questions?" she pondered. Something was wrong, something was very, very, very wrong. These questions should not be asked in such a tone, that much she knew, "Everyone knows who the Fire Lord is. He's legendary."

"Please just answer the question."

She answered with a tired tone, "Fire Lord Sozin. He was crown nearly hundred years ago." Kamarua had gone pale and she was filled with a sense of dread. What was wrong? She knew the Fire Lord was Sozin, she and her dorm mates had gone to the capital just a year prior to witness the new law allowing travels to meet with the Air Nomads.

"This ship," he explained to Anju, "arrived eighty years ago in search of the reminding waterbenders of the South Pole. It was one of thirty. This place has haunted my people since Gran-Gran was a girl. It was part of the last Fire Nation attacks on our shores, and we know it will not be the last. The Fire Nation has gone completely mad. Fire Lord Ozin ordered his military to invade all other nations and place them under his rule."

Anju blinked. And blinked. She stared at him in pure confusion, "That isn't true."

"Why not?"

"No offense, but I've been to every nation and I have friends all over the world. That includes the Fire Nation. Everyone there is so nice, so sweet and friendly. They're nothing more than huggable. I've been everywhere and I've never heard nor seen them attack anyone or anything. Much less a war."

"How long where in that iceberg?"

The question repeated itself and slapped Anju in the face. She stared doubtfully, "I don't know."

"How many people live in the Eastern Air Temple?"

"I… I-I don't know? A million? Three million?" she heard her heart pulsing in her ear.

How was he supposed to tell her, to tell her about his theory without her going nuts? "Millennium."

"Pardon?"

"The war itself is over a millennium old." Kamarua said seriously, "You don't know about it, because, somehow, you were in that iceberg the whole time, maybe even longer. It's the only explanation that makes sense. Fire Lord Sozin died nine hundred years ago, his descent, Ozin is Fire lord now. The Earth King Chintamani III died thirty years after the Avatar went missing. Earth Prince Keui became the 78th Earth King as of twenty years ago."

He saw the confusion cloud in those silver eyes as Anju tried to make sense of what he was saying. It should be impossible, yet, it made sense in a way as impossible as it sounds. "That's impossible," she exclaimed, "Do I look like a 1015-year-old woman to you?" A millennium? Was that even possible? Surly for the human body that couldn't be. To be trapped in an iceberg for a thousand years, how could she have survived with no air? If so, all her friends have passed, everyone she loved gone forever. Gyatso… Kuzon…

She hadn't realized her knees were wobbling until she collapsed against the wall. Anju shook her head, she didn't want to believe it but as Kamarua spitted out facts her mind shut down. Sliding down the wall tears swelled in her eyes. "That's not possible, right?" she asked Kamarua in doubt.

"I think it is."

Her face fall in despair. She looked up, glancing through her bangs, at Kamarua, "W-What's happened sense then?"

He couldn't tell her. He just couldn't. Talking about the war was one thing, for when she was to leave she would hear the nonstop talk of gossip of what villages were recently attacked. No, it was better to tell her about the war, telling her about her people was a different story. He would only tell her about her people when the time is right.

"A thousand years…" Kamarua jumped when Anju spoke so suddenly. She hesitantly wiped her tears with her sleeves. "I… I just can't believe it. I have to see it with my own eyes."

And he prayed that she wouldn't. He kneeled next to her, caressing her hand in his. "I'm so sorry, Anju. Maybe, somehow, there's a bright side to all this?"

She sniffed and thought back to what she woke up to. The worried and weary looks on his and Sukkul's faces, the first things she saw. Anju glanced down at his hand engulfing hers and gave it a squeeze, she missed the flustered look when she smiled, "I did get to meet you and Sukkul, even if she is a bit of a pain." She breathed, gently, "I can't change what happened. The past is in the past, and there's nothing I can do for it. All there is, is the present."

Kamaura frowned. Letting go of her hand, he got to his feet, hiding his reddening cheeks. "Come on, let's head out of here." He suggested.

She smiled, whole-hearty, up at him.

Kamarua and Anju tried exiting the way they came in, only to realize with the slight upward tilt of the ship made it nearly impossible with the ice and snow and Kamarua didn't want to take the chance of either of them getting hurt. Having no choice, and with a pout from Anju, the two travel up the ship until they could find a way out, much to their annoyance. The sun was beginning to set and they knew they didn't have much time before some realized they were missing, that's if they haven't yet. One ladder took them to the observation deck, which also happens to be the control center of the ship. The room had clearly been raided of all useful information the tribe could have used, maps and planners and journals gone, and ice and snow layered the floor and machinery, deeming them useless.

There was a horrible feeling in the pit of his gut, Kamarua waited in the hall. Something wasn't right with how the snow sat, he thought. It was piled up against the doorway, as if someone pushed it there and the windows were still intact so no wind could have brought any of it in. Anju entered the room, ignoring his warning, but she quickly regretted it when she tripped of a thin wire.

And the spirits were let loose.

Bars from the ceiling came down and caged them within the room. They gasped, pulling on the bars to no avail. Laughing nervously, Anju turned away from Kamarua's seething gaze, "Guess I should have listen to you earlier." But the jokes were gone when the rattling sound of pipes and alarms came as machinery around the room started operating for the first time in eighty years. The sound was followed by gas filling the room from the pipes above, the smell was revolting.

Both teens gagged and Anju was filled with dread when she recognizes the smell. Kuzon, back when he was beginning in training for military, would let her meet up with him when he was station in the colonies and allow her to watch him train with the flammable gas. Her eyes bugged when she saw the middle of the floor open a small apartment and saw a warning flare within.

"the Fire Nation's flammable gas," Kuzon had once told her, "is the strongest and more lethal in the world. Nobody has ever been able to top it. It can melt the metal it touches within minutes, we've never tested it on a human or animal, but its theorize that it'll turn us into dust. If you ever see it, run as far as possible. Promise me.."

She had been disgusted when he had told her so but now she knew the real danger of it. If that flare went off they would be nothing more than ashes in the snow and nobody would know. Quickly, she glanced around the room for an escape and saw a small slit in the ceiling, and, with a flick of her wrist, the slit expanded and created a gabbing hole within the roof.

Kamarua stared at her as if she gone insane, he dry heaved. She took him by the arm and bended them both out of the room onto the ceiling in just the nick of time. The warning flare went off, exploding the room and the sudden gust of wind sent both benders flying. Anju bended the currents to pull them onto one of the ice spikes holding up the ship. Kamarua stared as flames escaped from all openings of the ship, the fire hadn't stayed just inside the control room, it traveled throughout the ship as well. Everything was ablaze, nothing was going to remine.

He had begun to wonder what would happen to the ice holding up the ship when the spike he and Anju stood on shook and cracks been spreading up from the bottom. Kamarua didn't hesitant, he grabbed Anju and jumped off the spike onto the deck and over the railing to the distinct icy floor. He hardly remembers moving.

Someone screamed, and neither could tell who it was as the ice gave out below the ship. The ship, that has stayed afloat the ice for eighty years had finally been released back into the ice that shattered below its weight allowing it to escape back into the sea as if it had never left. The gapping openings were quickly filled with water and Kamarua took Anju's hand and sprinted as far away as possible.

Anju watched, astounded, as the flare exploded in the air, raining down showers of sparks that could be seen for hundreds of miles.

What has she done…

Words: 6,171

Views: 2,088

Everything in bold are the official couples: I've added in the reviews and both pervious polls and this was the outcome!

Anju x Zuko: 20

Sukul x Male!Suki: 19

Kamarua x Anju: 14

Kamaura x Fem!Jet: 10

Fem!Jet x Zuko: 8

Male!Mai x Ty Lee: 8

Teo x Toph: 7

Kamarua x Fem!Haru: 6

Sukul x Ty Lee: 4

Male!Mai x Zuko: 3

Azula x Ty lee: 3

Kamarua x Zuko: 3

Ty Lee x Fem!Haru: 3

Sukul x Toph: 3

Male!Mai x Sukul: 2

Male!Suki x FemHaru: 1

The Duke x Toph: 0

Fem!Jet x Ty Lee: 0

Time to answer the reviews!

ObeliskX: I'm sorry to disappoint you but Kataang lost but I really hope you stay to read the rest of my story because I promise there is going to be some flare with the two, I swear it. I love Kataang but I also love Zukang as well, I don't favor one of the other. They're both cute. Yes, Kamarua is the shy guy, a lot like Katara but has more control over his emotions. He's really not shy (you'll see later on. Hint. Hint.), it's just Anju is someone he would never dream of because she is just so different and he doesn't know how to react, especially sense all he's known is his tribe. An Sukkul is aggressive, as you could tell in this story. Thank you so much for your review, hope you enjoy the chapter!

M: Thank you! Trying to rewrite the beginning of the series my way is pretty difficult because the series showed the beginning perfectly. I'm just adding in scenes. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Guest: Yeah, the story is weird and I know the whole iceberg underground was a little out there but I do have a reason for it and I'll explain a little of it. It's been a thousand years sense Anju disappeared and her iceberg mended with others and a portion of her iceberg was left in the underground craven. This is common with ice especially sense during the first few years of her disappearance there was still numerous of waterbenders in the south who could have pushed her iceberg around without knowing it. And Sukkul isn't a crybaby, really. Emotional yes, but that's because we girls are naturally more emotional, and with everyone against her it's a little harder on her. Much like Katara trying to prove she could do anything. Thank you for the review, really.

SoManyBooksSoLittleTime2017: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it that much. I've read Waves of the Water too, that's actually what got me interested in writing this story, I love that author style. It's beautiful and so unique. I really wished she finished the last few episode of the series but we can't have everything, I'm just glad she got as far as she did. Thank you for your review, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Guest: Not trying to be rude but the millennium thing is staying because I saw so, but thank you for telling that I need to stop lengthen everything. I really do have a flaw for that, so I hope the paraphrase in this chapter weren't overbearing.

RiverDownTheWay: Sorry about the AN, really. And I promise Jet will be more in it and I thought the same about Toph, I wanted to genderbend her but I truly wouldn't make a difference and I thought I would be cute to have Kamarua babying her. Azula? Don't know yet, she won't been sense until after we meet Toph so I still have time to decide on her. And for the 'Bun in the Oven', you got it wrong but I like the idea. Could I use it for after the war? Lol.

Warning: Next update will be in July! I'm moving again in June and so I won't have a lot of time to write but I promise I should have a chapter up by July. Sorry guys, it literally came out of nowhere. My dad and mom can't find jobs here because the city is overpopulated and so we're moving back to our old town. I will be updating this tory but I may take longer than it has been. So, sorry.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Tell me what you think down below. Thanks!