Author's Note: What's going on, everyone? I'm coming at you all with another update, but first I have to discuss a few things. Firstly, I'm very well aware that I have broken my promise of consistency. I had just bragged about it, too! Lol. Well...It's been roughly two days since a chapter was added, but it's not necessarily due to my laziness. While I admit that it DID take me longer to get started on this chapter, I did have a couple of other obligations that demanded my attention. So it was very distracting. I'm not making excuses, but hey...life interferes with things sometimes. Don't fret though! I plan to get right back on track.
Secondly, there's something I want to emphasis on in order to avoid any unwanted confusion as this story progress. Moments may come where this fic seems to get borderline angst. Just please keep in mind that this is solely for dramatic effect and is in no way the predominate theme of this story. I simply want to create the right image when you all are reading this. I want you to feel the emotions that I am trying to convey through each individual character, as well as the situation. You know what I'm saying
Anyway, I won't drag this out. The bottom line is I only want to accent the fact that nothing is all "sunshine and rainbows", not build upon it. I'm a fan of tragedies as well as happy endings, so trust I'll incorporate both throughout this story. I might not believe in fairy tales, but I do think that they make for the best kind of cliche.
So without further delay, here it is! And as always, enjoy!
Chapter 7 - Oddity
In a desperate effort to treat Aang's injuries, the group had hurriedly transported him to the village. Katara had given her best to heal heal him the best that she could, but the water bender's abilities where limited. Her concern for the boy's life left her aching to do so much more, but she could only go so far.
Fortunately, Sokka and Suki returned rather quickly. They'd managed to locate an elderly doctor named Weiss who had a clinic in town. After they made him privy to their situation, they convinced him to accompany them back to the shore. When he assessed Aang's condition on the scene, the old man recognized several potentially broken bones, the majority of which were ribs. Fortunately, no damage had been done to his spinal column, making him safe to move. They'd placed the unresponsive monk on a stretcher and carried him back to the doctor's clinic.
Roughly an hour had passed since then.
Katara, Sokka, Suki and Toph sat on their knees by the mat Aang rested upon. The water bender was watching the bandaged-up boy's face with a distant expression as Weiss finished another, more thorough diagnostic.
The old man cleared his throat, stroking his gray beard thoughtfully as he sat upright. "Well, I'm afraid I have good news...and bad news for you children," he stated solemnly. "The goods new is: there is no severe damage done to his body. Aside from a fractured forearm, three broken ribs and a slightly dislocated shoulder, there isn't anything I can see more grave."
"And...so what's the bad news?" Sokka asked the question on everyone's mind.
The doctor sighed. "I'm afraid that the reason for his low heart rate goes much deeper than these old eyes can see. There are a number of possibilities, none of which are any more pleasant than the other. Now, kids, I'm not gonna sugar-coat it," he asserted gruffly. "If I had to narrow it down, it'd say it's either due to head trauma or internal bleeding."
Katara lost her breath. She pressed a hand to her chest as she leaned forward, regarding the elderly man with a desperate look. She understood the serious of either one.
"Now hold on!" Weiss waved the girl down, trying to calm her before she could speak. "Let me finish. I'm just making an educated guess here, but there's a problem with that too. There are no clear signs of either at this point. I'm not trying to make you all worry over what could potentially be nothing. I just want you young whipper-snappers to recognize the possibility, and brace yourselves for the worst."
Katara's eyes dropped to the floor. The last thing she wanted to do was consider the worst outcome. She didn't even want to acknowledge what was happening, let alone imagine that it could still become more nightmarish than it already was.
"This kid...he's the Avatar, ain't he?" Weiss asked, going off topic.
Sokka nodded. "Yeah."
The old man pinched the bridge of his nose. "Now how does the likes of the Avatar go from dethroning the Fire Lord one day, to being in this shape the next?" He sighed before adding, "It's definitely a freak tragedy if you ask me."
"It's...all my fault," Toph stated glumly. She couldn't forgive herself for what her over-anxiousness had caused. "I'm the one...who did that to him."
"Ya'll said it happened in a sparring match, right?" Weiss inquired, recalling the memory of the brief and hurried summary of the incident that they'd relayed to him. "How is it that the embodiment of the world isn't strong enough to defend himself from a little blind girl?"
"Watch it, geezer!" Sokka jumped to the bandit's defense. The way the old man voiced the question ticked him off. "She just happens to be the best earth bender in the world."
"Sokka!" Katara snapped at him, shutting him up.
Laughter rumbled in Weiss' chest. "Easy. I'm not trying to step on nobody's toes. It's just a difficult thing to get my beard around."
"It was an accident," Katara explained. "Something...happened, and Aang didn't react to Toph's attack."
"Did you all see anything out of the ordinary?"
Toph answered the question. "Yes. Well...technically I didn't see anything, but I did hear the rhythm of his heartbeat. It spiked for an instant...before taking a sharp drop."
"And this was before the attack connected, correct?"
She nodded.
"Hmm." Weiss' dark eyes settled back on the unconscious boy. "Where there any physical indications that something was off?"
"Yes," Katara responded. "He fell to his knees. His expression seemed so agonized, like something was hurting him. Everything happened so fast, though...that none of us were able to catch anything else."
"This is certainly an odd case indeed." The doctor closed his eyes. "I regret to say that it is a dilemma even my years cannot help solve. I cannot begin to pinpoint the source of his original pain, but I will say that it may have something to do with his current heart rate." He hardened his voice. "Expect the worst, but hope for the best. That's the best advice I can give to you. Now, the little Avatar will be under my care from here on. You are welcome to come and go as please, but I'm going to need some time alone to concentrate."
The water bender interjected nervously, "Um...I was hoping maybe I could stay here with you. I'm a great healer, after all. I might be able to help."
She wanted to remain in close proximity to the unresponsive boy on the floor. Her compassionate nature wouldn't allow her to do anything other than watch over him. The group had always made reference to her motherly disposition; it was just something that was triggered instinctively, as she cared enough about any one life to do her best to save it. Her value for Aang's life, however, was completely different. It was almost unparalleled. Her tendency to worry and fret over his well-being stemmed from something that was rooted deep down inside her. Something that had grown over the course of their numerous escapades together and truly blossomed.
Weiss contemplated the woman's request. He humored the idea with thoughtful eyes, before saying, "So be it then." He rose to his feet. "Far be it from me to turn down the face of a pretty young lady like yourself. If you want to be of assistance so badly, you can go down to the mart and grab some supplies. As for the rest of you, I ask that you please leave...for now. You'll be welcome back in a couple of hours."
Sokka, Suki and Toph nodded in understanding. They stood up and and turned towards the door.
"We'll be back in a while then," Sokka announced over his shoulder, waving his hand through the air as they exited.
Katara watched them leave before turning back to the elderly doctor and addressing him. "So...what all kinds of supplies should I get?" she inquired. Running errands hadn't been what she was necessarily aiming for, but it would ultimately allow her to stay closer to Aang, so she didn't complain.
Weiss answered by swiftly lifting a piece of parchment up to her face. He handed it off to the girl, providing her with a small pouch of copper and silver currency. "Now hurry back quickly if you want to help your friend," he asserted in a suspiciously eager voice.
Katara reviewed the list that he'd presented. Her eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute," she started. "Two heads of cabbage, a bundle of carrots, a pound of potatoes and beef?" She placed a hand on her hip, letting the arm holding the paper fall to her side as she regarded the doctor's back with a disbelieving and irked expression. "You're sending me grocery shopping for you?"
"I'm having beef stew tonight one way or the other," Weiss asserted in a gruff voice. "Ain't no half-dead Avatar falling into my lap gonna change that! If you got a problem with it, then I can stop what I'm doing right now and take care of it myself."
The water bender got the message. She frowned, slanting her eyes in an annoyed manner at the elderly doctor's back as she approached the door. "Fine. I'll be back soon."
The nerve of him! At a critical time like this, she thought to herself as she exited the clinic. "How can he be more interested in eating than taking care of the savior of the whole freaking world?" Katara muttered, visibly angry.
If ANYTHING happens to Aang while I'm gone...so help me!
She stormed down the path that lead further into the fancy settlement, stomping towards the market briskly. The girl wanted only to complete the absurd task that she'd been assigned and return to the clinic so she could continue keeping a close eye on Aang. If something went awry, she wanted to be present for it.
When Aang came to, the young boy found himself in the depths of darkness once again. He stood on the same patch of earth before the bizarre, ridiculously secured door from earlier on. He recollected the vague memory of how that it had mesmerized him. It almost felt as though it was beckoning him towards it during the preceding encounter. Thus far, however, he had yet to feel anything akin to that.
The monk allowed his eyes to roam as he surveyed the doors' features once more. He immediately recognized a deep, nasty crack in one of the links of the massive chains that were coiled around it. It appeared to be on the very verge of breaking. In addition, a feeling of foreboding started to grip his spirit. The sensation only strengthened the longer he kept his vision fixated on the monolithic structure that towered in front of him.
It was almost like something was trying to warn him...
"Are you still having a hard time seeing, Avatar?"
Aang frowned as the voice echoed sinisterly throughout the infernal nothingness. He looked left and right, making another futile endeavor to obtain a visual on to whom it belonged. "Why did you bring me back here?" he called out. "What do you want?"
"Maybe you should propose that same question to yourself," it countered.
"I want you to stop being vague!" the monk roared in frustration. "I want you to either tell me why you keep calling me here or to just go the hell away!"
It's dark laughter resonated through the emptiness. "I am not the one that calls you into your own soul."
Aang fell silent as the words settled in. His visage went blank as he repeated, "My soul?" He peered once again into the darkness. "This...horrible place...is inside me?" the boy asked numbly.
"At last...you begin to open your eyes."
The monk struggled with the information. The environment was so...lifeless and cold; it was the complete opposite of what he would envisioned his soul to look like. What he saw around him was unexpected and it disturbed him significantly. He just couldn't believe it.
"Why...why is it like this?"
"The more your light shines...the darker your shadow becomes," the voice riddled.
Aang gritted his teeth. "Agh!" he groaned in an infuriated manner. "Just give me a straight answer for once! You say this is my soul. If that's true, then what are you doing in it? Just who the hell ARE YOU?"
This time there came no response. The silence settled in thickly.
Aang waited and waited for the voice to speak, but it never did. He was completely alone in the abyssal nightmare. One from which he could not wake, regardless of how greatly he willed himself too.
The darkness of his own soul seemed to ensnare him once more.
He caught movement out the corner of his eye. He turned back to the large door, his eyes widening as he witnessed a lilac steam begin to leak through the cracks in its structure. It spewed out ceaselessly, amassing in a fog that descended slowly to Aang's level. He watched it begin to creep towards him.
The monk's instincts told him that there was danger. Whatever the mist was, he didn't want to be near it. He could sense the evil that it was emitting.
Aang started to back away as the violet haze began to cover the distance between them. He felt his left heel slip off the edge of the tiny patch of suspended earth. He looked over his shoulder nervously into the void beneath him. There was no where to go. He turned back to the mist.
It was almost upon him.
Aang looked desperately for a way out, but there wasn't one to be found. The boy was trapped within his own soul, as ironic as it was. The situation was definitely something he had never, ever expected to find himself in.
"Wake up! Wake up!" he repeated to himself desperately, directing every ounce of his concentration to forcing himself back to consciousness. He shut his eyes as the haze rolled over his feet and began to inch its way up the length of his leg. "Wake up! Wake up!"
Aang could feel it twist up his torso. His arms suddenly felt restrained. He became increasingly aware of a numbness in the lower half of his body. Wherever the mist traveled, it stole away any and all feeling; it was like it was disconnecting him from his spiritual form.
He struggled to call out, to thrash against it and fight, but it was overwhelming. The monk was completely enveloped by the haze. He could feel it begin to force its way down his throat. He coughed harshly.
"W-wake up," Aang managed in a choked voice. He felt suffocated. A deeper darkness began to creep in around the edges of his mind. He felt less and less aware of what was transpiring, like he was slipping into a dream within a dream. "W-wake...up!"
It was fruitless. He would not wake.
He collapsed to his knees, clutching helplessly at his chest. Everything became distant. His thoughts grew obscure as things began to fall out of focus. Ultimately, he could only go for so long before it came to the point that he could fight it no longer. The boy let his defenses crumble.
He surrendered to the inescapable blackness as the voice came one last time.
"I'll be watching, Avatar,"it hissed. "When your friends turn on you, I...will be here waiting."