Realizations in What Must Become
She could feel the wind whipping around her, no, not her, her spirit. Confusion swept over her. Where was she?
She took a look around. It looked like your typical forest. It would've been breathtaking to her had she not been so confused and suspicious of her surroundings. She spotted something, a blue dragon. She recognized this dragon. Why? The knowledge hit her like a lightening bolt. It was Avatar Roku's dragon. He had called her here through the first avatar's statue.
She walked to where the dragon was. It laid down for her in a means to tell her to sit upon it. She took the memo and climbed aboard. It took off much faster than she had expected. They flew for a while until they came to a gentle halt. The dragon landed in front of Roku, bending down to allow Katara to get off.
Katara got off and bowed to Roku. Roku motioned for her to sit.
"Princess Katara I have called you here for a purpose." Roku began.
Katara nodded.
"Princess Katara you have been chosen to carry out a mission. You and you alone will have to take on a position of leadership. You finding this house was no coincidence, it was fate for you to find it. The current avatar is only a child. He cannot be in a leadership position. He simply isn't ready. We, his past lives, have guided him to you. He should be arriving soon. You must lead benders to stand up for themselves and take back their rights as human beings. Their hope has been diminished. Give them hope. Remind them what they should fight for."
With that Katara's spirit was sucked back to its home in Katara's body. She inhaled deeply. She stepped away from the statue and took Zuko's vacant seat. Zuko stared at her wide eyed. She didn't say anything for a few minutes. Zuko began to worry. He turned the chair so he could kneel in front of her.
"Katara?"
She didn't answer, just stared ahead of her with a blank expression.
"Katara?" He took her face between his palms and made her face him.
"Zuko, I…I…I've been assigned a mission."
"What kind of mission? Who assigned it?" Zuko asked his face showing his worry and slight confusion.
"I have to…no it's not just that I have to, I want to."
"Want to what? Come on, details are great. Want to let me know some?" Zuko said exasperatedly.
"I'm going to lead all benders to take back what's rightfully theirs, their rights as human beings." Katara said determined.
"Katara you can't! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"Zuko, don't you want your life back? And plus, you're going to be with me every step of the way." With that she walked off to bed, leaving Zuko with his jaw hanging open almost hitting the ground.
But the more he stood there and thought about it, he knew she was right. He couldn't help the slight smirk that appeared on his face. She was still the same determined, brave, beautiful girl that he had been best friends with all those years ago.
***
It was a few hours later when Katara realized that the avatar, when he arrived, was going to need a room to sleep in.
"Crap!" She thought to herself. Toph isn't the sharing type so she wouldn't move in with me and Zuko, well, he's not going to share his room with a what, twelve year old? How old is the avatar? Roku only said he was a child. She sighed. She would just have to deal with it when the time came or just talk about it with Toph and Zuko in the morning. For now she needed rest.
***
Aang sat aboard Appa traveling by the cover of nightfall. Appa didn't really need to hide, flying bison were few in population but seen from time to time, but Aang could not be seen. His arrows were a dead give away to what he was. After all the tradition is…or was that when an air bender mastered air bending that they received the tattoos. So there he was flying with Appa and his lemur Momo, his oldest and most cherished friends.
***
"Ok let's go over all we know about the enemy." Katara began.
"Does anyone know who is leading in each nation?" Toph asked.
"In the fire nation, Zhao seems to have taken the position. My father has become a figure head; he even takes potions to hide his bending, and so does Azula. Zhao does as well, but his main idea is probably to be the last fire bender. He wants to be some artifact or something. It's ridiculous." Zuko stated.
"Well for the water tribes it would seem Auntie Hama has the same ideas as Zhao just more extreme. She has turned the tribes against my family. The people still hold love for my family somewhat though, but that's mainly because only my mother was known to be a bender and they took her away. They never knew about my bending so I ran before then could find out. My remaining family is trapped in the palace. It's nearly impossible to escape…for them." Katara looked to Toph.
Toph gave a snort. "Really, who else would start something like that in the earth kingdom?"
"Long Feng." Zuko and Katara answered in unison.
Everyone had heard over the years how shady Long Feng was. So it made sense that he would do something like this.
"Bingo, and you know what? I was fine living at home. My parents kept me so sheltered; no one even knows I exist. They hid me away from the general public, but that's not me. I wouldn't ever be prosecuted at all. I'm proud of what I am so I left the Bei Fong house and to tell the truth I couldn't be happier." Toph proclaimed proudly.
Katara's eyes lit up. "Toph you're a genius!"
Zuko gave Katara a "what the hell?" look.
"Thanks Sugar Queen. Care to enlighten me as to why I'm a genius. I mean I know that I am and all but-"
"You were sheltered! No one knew about your bending!" Katara exclaimed.
"Uh…did you get hit in the head and loose a few brain cells or something?" Toph asked sarcastically.
"No I see where she's going with this. There are other benders out there blending in with non benders, hidden in plain sight, or that 'don't exist' meaning their hiding under false identities." Zuko said.
"Looks like I've found out my step number one. Find the benders in hiding." Katara stated.
"And how do you propose to do that?" Toph asked.
"In style of course." With that Katara pulled out Zuko's blue spirit mask.
"Hey! How'd you get that?" Zuko asked.
"It's amazing what you miss when you're sleeping Zuko." Katara said smugly.
"Why were you in my room while I was sleeping?!!" Zuko exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it." Katara smirked.
Toph rolled her eyes and got up from the table they were all seated at and stalked off to her room.
"You know going into people's rooms when they're asleep is stalker behavior right?" Zuko said while smirking.
"Oh shut up you're flattered." She said and then jokingly patted his cheek and then up the stairs she went to her bedroom.
She would never tell Zuko why she was really in his room. She had heard him moan and thought he was in pain. It turned out he was having a nightmare. He kept muttering over and over "Mom come back." Every time she heard him utter those words she felt her heart lurch. She quietly walked over to him and moved his hair out of his eyes. That action had somehow soothed him in his sleep and he calmed. That was when she caught sight of the mask. She hadn't meant to take it but it was still in her hands when he began to wake up. So without thinking she rushed out of the room, mask in hand.
Oops!
***
A/N: Ok this one should be longer. I actually took the time to make sure it was longer.
