I am seriously dissapointed with all of you guys. I posted the last chap. nine days ago, and do you know how many reviews I got? TWO! I ONLY GOT TWO! Now I never bug you about this stuff, but seriously, c'mon guys! If you liked it, tell me. If you didn't like it, tell me that too, and tell me why! Nasecoeur 42 and Mr. Average; you two rock! Thanks for reviewing. Both of you are amazing and I owe both of you big time!
Seriously, I love all of you guys, but I want to hear from you. The reviews are just about the only things that keep me posting!
Once again, I'm sorry for killing Gran Gran! I felt bad about it too!
Disclaimer: Do I own Avatar? Shakes magic 8 ball Magic 8 Ball: Don't count on it. Me: Damnit!
Chapter Nine: Ty Lee's Powers of Distraction
Katara's POV: Yesterday, Pakku had us stay overnight. Last night, I did something that I haven't done in several years. Sokka and I slept right next to each other. Not on opposite sides of the fire, not across a tent, right next to each other. I fell asleep, his hand under me, supporting my head. I needed the support then. I had felt hollow.
Early this morning I woke up to prepare breakfast solemnly. When Sokka and Pakku woke up, I handed them two bowls of rice. It was just plain rice. I didn't add anything to it.
When the sun was more than a quarter of the way in the sky (A/N 9:30) all the troops came to meet us at the boats from both the Northern and Southern tribes. Sokka pulled out twenty of the best benders and sent two to each boat. Pakku and I took the one in the lead. Everyone filed onto the boats that Sokka had assigned. I looked over the ocean to the horizon, but all I could see was water. I couldn't wait to get back to Whale Tail Island and back to my friends, who would comfort me. With the huge waves we'd be taking, it should be a half a day's trip, even less now that the tides were with us.
I jumped up at the same time as Pakku, and we through our hands back in a graceful movement and a giant rolling wave came up behind us and began to carry the boats towards the small island where my friends were waiting.
I overheard Sokka talking about a small field near the water that was a ten minute walk from the barn where the volunteer troops could set up camp. The barn and the field were separated by only a tall hill. I was still glad that the troops would be some distance from us.
I needed the quiet of the barn. I needed a silent haven to cry.
Toph's POV: Mai went into town today. She said that there was a kiosk with some exquisite, decorated knives she wanted to look at. She said something about knives that could be disguised as hair chopsticks. Personally, I don't see the point of decorating knives. If you're actually going to use them in a battle, the studded crystals or carvings won't make the weapon more deadly, or faster, or more accurate. It really won't matter.
Teo was gone too. No one really knows where he always goes, all we do know is that Ty Lee always seems less peppy than usual. I've learned not to ask her about it.
Not like I would though. I just realized, I was alone on this farm with Ty Lee. Of all people, I was with Miss. Peppy. She was probably going to suck me into a huge sparring session with her too.
As if on cue, I felt a familiar body cart-wheeling up to me. She sprung up in the air and I paused, losing sight of her for a few moments. I felt her reappear, very loudly, right in front of me.
"Hey Toph! I was wondering if you could spar with me today!" I winced at her high pitched voice that rung in my ears. One day I'll go deaf because of that girl. I paused and crossed my arms, trying to ignore the ringing in my ears. She began again. "Y'know, cuz Katara's gone and Mai's out, and the boys still aren't back. So how about it, let's go! I want to get you back for clobbering me yesterday!"
I sighed as the ringing in my ears was drowned out by her voice again, which only increased the ringing some more. I shook my head to get the sound out, then paused before I replied. "Whatever, at least it'll give me a chance to clobber you again."
We went to the usual sparing area; the large clearing in the woods by the stream, but without too many trees, and very hard-packed earth. I blinked as I felt around. There was something odd about it.
"Hey, something's not right." I said without thinking. Ty Lee looked at me and glanced around for a minute before she turned to me with what was probably a confused face.
"What? Do you feel something?" She asked. I shrugged.
"There's something here, but I can't recognize it and I can't find it." I said in a frustrated manner. I felt Ty Lee stamp her foot in annoyance before she straightened her spine and her muscles stiffened up.
"Is it dangerous? Is he a threat to us?" She asked in the best interrogation voice such a peppy voice could muster. I rolled my eyes at the question.
"Yes, Ty Lee! By hearing this person's heartbeat and listening to its breathing I can totally tell whether or not he is dangerous and I can also tell if he is plotting against us, judging on the position of its spine, because things like that can easily be determined by how it walks!" I sarcastically throw at her. She puts her hands on her hips.
"Sheesh! Calm down will ya!? It was just a question! No need to go all sarcastic at me!" She yelled back to me. I closed my eyes tight and knitted my eyebrows in annoyance. Ty Lee sighed and put her palm to her forehead. We both knew that this stupid almost-argument wasn't just because we were complete opposites of each other and happened to have some kind of annoyance rivalry going on.
"Sorry, I've just never had trouble locating where someone is, or what it is. It's annoying me." I said slowly, gritting my teeth at having to apologize. People are becoming wimps if they can't handle a sarcastic remark or two. I felt her relax her tensed muscles and nod.
"S'okay!" She said in her usual bubbly manner. I bit my lip one more time to avoid wincing at that voice. "Now let's actually spar!" She said. I rubbed my ear once then nodded.
Ty Lee's POV: I was doing okay, but not great. Toph was easily beating me. I constantly had to jump out of her traps, but could only go in one direction, which was away from her; in other words, I couldn't touch her.
I thought back to yesterday and smiled, jumping up and landing in a tree. I was about to jump when Toph stood up straighter and a large grin that I haven't seen on her in forever flung itself across her face.
"Sokka and Katara are coming to the clearing!" She cried out in joy. I smiled, understanding now. She seemed so happy; even more so when they actually appeared through the bushes and Toph literally launched herself into his arms. Then she went to hug Katara. Even from high up in the tree I felt both of the sibling's auras weighed down with sadness. Mai didn't tell us what was in the note, so neither of us knew what was going on. I moved to jump out of the tree, but my leg was stuck in a web of branches. I sighed and tried to get down.
Toph's POV: After quickly kissing Sokka, I turned to hug Katara. Both seemed sad by their body posture, then again, they could just be tired.
"Where're the troops?" I asked them.
"Back setting up camp in a field by the water. It's just a hill away from the barn. We came to see you. Where's everyone else?" Sokka replied, looking around. He smirked. "I mean, I see Ty Lee stuck in that tree over there, but where's everyone else?" He asked, pointing at the tree when he mentioned my sparring partner. I rolled my eyes at his bad rhyme and shook the ground until I heard a thump and felt Ty Lee land in a pile on the ground. I heard an "OW!" from her direction.
"I'd better go heal that." Katara said, running over to the acrobat. I turned back to Sokka smiling.
"Mai is in town shopping for some fancy knives, Aang and Zuko aren't back yet, and Teo is… well, actually no one knows. He always ducks in and out during mealtimes, but he's MIA the rest of the day." I summed up, frowning when I realized I was rhyming now too. It was annoyingly contagious.
"It's good to be back!" Sokka said, yawing. Then his mind seemed to shift elsewhere. "Now, I don't want any more Spirit interventions until the wave comes. Strike that, I don't want them intervening at all. I don't even want to hear about them for a few days."
I started to ask why, and if the Spirits had intervened with anything on his trip, but before I could say a thing, an invisible and non apparent force. I felt myself flying backwards before I landed near where Katara was helping Ty Lee up.
"Toph!" Sokka called. I shakily stood up and felt Sokka start to run to me before that weird thing came back, only this time, it took form and I could clearly feel it. It was a Spirit with human legs which slowly changed to a body of a snake with long, sharp claws attached to arms.
"Giver." It hissed, standing in between Sokka and me, Katara and Ty Lee. "I have bisssssnesssss with you." It held out the s's and drew out the word "business" in a creepy way. What business? He grabbed Sokka by the arm and lifted him up.
I frowned in anger and confusion. I didn't like that sound of "business" and didn't wait to ask questions. I slammed my foot hard to open up a crack in the ground. I felt the crack run up to the Spirit before he quickly stopped it with some type of anti-bending. He laughed as I stood confused.
"Ha ha! Niccccce tttry little girl; that almossssst ssssucccccceeded in touching me. " The snake swiveled to sneer at me. What had went wrong? I tried pulling some jagged rocks out of the ground, but he expertly broke each one just as it started to come up. It was like he saw what I was going to do before I did it.
Katara frowned in anger before charging at the Snake Spirit with a large wave in toe. I felt her come within six feet of the Spirit before he flung his free arm out in Katara's direction, and she went flying just like I had. The wave splashed around him harmlessly, he didn't make any movements to tell if he got touched with a single drop of water.
"Sssssssstupid kidssss! I am the Sssspirit of Sssspeed and Reflexssss! No bending can touch me, and I am the only sssspirit who can come to thisssss world any time of the year, and not jussssst on the Ssssolsssticcce!" He spun back to facing Sokka who was trying to reach his sword. The Spirit Grabbed the sword still in the sheath and unwrapped it from his body before throwing it into the tall bushes. "The cleanssssing ssssspiritssss ssssent me here to get rid of the Giver, to enssssure our victory." I froze at his words. I was unable to move. Katara bent some water out of the stream and reformed her thick ice sword before charging at the Spirit.
"Don't you dare hurt my brother!" She screamed as she ran at Snake Man faster than anyone I've ever felt run before. He turned to block, but wasn't quick enough to beat a sister's panic for her brother; she stabbed him in the chest. While he was shocked she pulled out some water from her water skins and bent his free arm to his body. Thank the Spirits she practiced with swords… well the good Spirits at least.
The Snake dude frowned, and I felt him release Sokka momentarily while he flung Katara back into the stream and yanked the ice blade out of his chest and broke the bindings on his arm. In that time, I felt Sokka's sword and bent the space sword right into Sokka's hand. He tapped out a thanks.
The Snake Spirit turned back to Sokka and I could've sworn his nails/claws grew until he had a sword-like thing on his hand. The Spirit attacked Sokka, and then a somewhat fight began, all the while, the Snake was talking to us.
"Niccce try, but I didn't come to sssstay, ssssso I am not in a mortal form. That will hurt a sssssmall bit, but you can't kill me sssssso eassssily!" I felt that Sokka was losing as he ducked around trees and rolled out of the way of the claws.
I felt Katara tap me, and drag Ty Lee and I into a huddle.
"What are we going to do!?" I whisper-screeched, I felt Katara smile and looked at her suspiciously.
"Look in the sky, don't you see?" She asked, I sighed impatiently.
"Yes Katara, because I can totally see what's going on in the SKY!" Katara reacted embarrassedly and I rolled my eyes.
"It's Aang, he's back. I'm going to quietly send him a message through the water in the air, but I need a distraction to help Sokka and so he won't pick up on what I'm doing." We both looked towards Ty Lee. She noticed and started furiously shaking her head.
"Why me, why can't it be you Toph?" Ty Lee asked quickly
"Your reflexes are just as good as his, and you have agility to top it. Plus, neither of us can touch him." Katara explained.
"Distract him, or piss him off!" I said quickly I began to push her towards the Snake who was attacking my winded boyfriend. She resisted and turned back to look at me.
"No, no, no! What if I can't do it, he ignores me, or knocks me back, or ignores me! I can't think under pressure!"
"Don't worry Ty Lee! I have faith in you! There is no one you can't piss off!" I said. She smiled and started a thanks before she realized what I had said and jumped up to glare at me. To try to help I sent a large pillar at him. He merely jumped away from the rising column and continued fighting, only this time he started talking to me.
"I told you little child, you can't help your ssssssweetie. I can't be overpowered by bending!" He bragged. Then that shrill voice cut though the air again with added peppiness.
"NO CRAP!!" She squealed, and I winced, fighting the urge to cover my ears. "What about nonbenders!?" She jumped in the air several times, and jumped around him several times, and even went in between his legs once just to bug him. He ignored Sokka now and started flinging his arms in order to hit her with his claws. She popped up and disabled his right arm quickly.
I felt Katara tap me on the shoulder and whisper that Aang was coming down and knew how to send this guy back to the Spirit world… into the judgment of the Spirits who didn't turn against us.
I nodded and turned back to the fight just in time to feel… the Spirit nicking Ty Lee in the shoulder. There was a long slash in the skin and I felt that there was blood coming out. She faltered for a moment and the Snake threw her back again into the ground where she scraped her back on the earth and rocks. Katara ran to heal Ty Lee, and in a minute she was carefully helping the acrobat up to her feet.
The Spirit turned back to Sokka who was still catching his breath and charged. Sokka didn't have time to react, and he had tripped and his sword was knocked a good ten feet away.
"Goodbye Giver, I'll be back to kill you again nine days into your next life. See you soon." Both Katara and I reacted fearfully to his words, and began to run at the monster who was about to shish-kabob my boyfriend.
He swung his arm up, before starting to bring it down, but I never felt the contact being made from the Snake's claw to Sokka's frantic heart. What I did feel was Aang touching the Spirit's forehead with his hand. He literally fell onto the Snake's forehead.
There was a surge of power through the earth, and the Spirit slowly disappeared from the earth, into Aang's body. The fourteen year old Avatar struggled and squirmed a bit painfully, until I only felt Aang again. Aang continued down to touch the ground in an awkward standing
position, his body trembling frighteningly/ His legs gave out on him, and he tumbled to the ground.
Katara ran to her boyfriend as I sped over to Sokka, hugging him tightly. I rocked back and forth a little and he sat up slightly. I could hear his pounding heart.
We both turned to see Katara looking over a still fainted Aang. I helped Sokka up and we both ran to him. Ty Lee stood over and stared at him, probably reading his aura.
"He's just exhausted," Ty Lee said after a second. "He should wake up in about five seconds." We looked over to her and I counted out the seconds on my hand before I heard a long groan and Aang rubbed his head slowly.
Katara smiled and helped stand him up, and helped him shakily walk back to the barn. He slowly recovered on the slow walk back. By the time we were right next to the Apple Blossom tree by the side of the farm, his footsteps had more or less returned to the normal flighty pace.
We paused while Aang leaned against Appa for a minute. If that was the after-effects of sending
A Spirit back, then I knew that Sokka and Aang would both exhaust their energy way before all the Spirits were sent back.
When Katara knew that Aang was okay, she turned to Sokka and hugged him tightly, and I was positive I heard a little whimper that one usually makes when crying. But it was so quiet, I couldn't be sure if I heard it or not.
"Don't you dare die right now! You hear me!?" She said quietly. I looked at her curiously before I realized, she hadn't thought about Sokka dying, she only thought about Aang. Sokka's heart skipped a beat before he replied.
"I promise Katara." He was lying.
I then felt him tap out a Morse message to Aang. "Aang, we need to talk."I turned, and walked over to where I felt the earthbender troops Aang must've rounded up. I decided to lead them to the hill, to set up their camp in the valley right by the Water Tribe volunteers.
Sokka's POV: Sure, I was shaken up by the hideous snake monster who was trying to kill me, but what worried me more was the after effects of dragging that one Spirit back for Aang, I was even more shaken up with Katara's comment. I couldn't believe that I was going to have to leave Katara right after we had lost Gran Gran, the last member of her family. If luck was headed our way, Katara would at least survive, even if she'd be the last one left in this small family.
I had realized when Toph reacted weirdly to Aang's summary of what we had to do for the battle. That was when I knew Aang and I was going to die.
I just wanted to make sure that Aang knew that. I waited for him by the Apple Blossom tree. Sure enough, he walked over a few moments after I got there. I took my finger out of the little hole in the side of the barn and turned to face him solemnly.
"What's going on Sokka, I need to go train the Earth Kingdom troops. Plus the Water Tribe troops too." I paused my train of thought to look at the young monk. His clothes were wrinkled and he was ever so slightly dirty. He had heavy bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept more than two hours in about… five days. The five days he was gone.
"Hey, man. Instead of training the troops, have you thought about, I don't know… sleeping? Or bathing for that matter!" I asked, the words themselves were joke-like, but the voice was serious. Aang quickly shook his head.
"No, everyone has to be ready. The world can't end on my fault, so I have to make sure everyone is ready. I have to go soon, so, did you want to see me for a reason, or did you just want to ask me about my sleeping schedule?" He cracked a smile, but still looked sad. I frowned, dropping the subject and went back to my question.
"I just want to make sure you know who's definitely not surviving this battle." I said subtly, just in case he didn't know. He sighed sadly and nodded.
"I completely realized today when I sent the Spirit back. I know that neither of us is surviving. There aren't any other people on earth who can do that bring the Spirits back to the Spirit World. I know that we'll both have to exhaust both of our energies if we can send all of them back." I nodded sadly.
Aang looked curiously at me before he asked me a question. "Okay, I know that you're siblings, but why did Katara react so dramatically to your almost death? Is this because of Chief Hakoda, may he rest in peace."
I sighed sadly, knowing where this was going. "When I was at the South Pole, Gran Gran got much more badly sick. You know she's been sick for a few months, but the coming Spirit attack made the disease twenty times worse. I sent for Katara, and Gran Gran passed away just after she came." I said, not wanting to look Aang in the face. I continued. "Now Katara and I are the last of our family, and she doesn't want to lose her last living relative… but she's going to have to." I paused and fully realized what was going to happen to Katara if we win. An angushed face crossed Aang too as he figured it out.
"Oh no." I whispered. "Katara's going to have to lose both her fiancée and her brother on the same day." I said only loud enough so Aang could hear. He nodded miserably. We both knew that would kill her. If she didn't die in the battle, she'd die inside.
Suddenly I heard a sob and saw something move away from that little hole in the side of the barn. I realized who it had to be, and we went around to the front to see Katara running out of the barn in tears. She had heard every word of our conversation.
I quickly tapped out a message to Toph who hadn't gone anywhere, but looked like she was about to. She froze for a second, then nodded towards me and changed direction to follow Katara.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mai return to see Toph running towards Katara.
"What did I miss?" She asked.
"Katara's upset, Toph went to go comfort her." I didn't feel like telling her about the Snake attack. She nodded sadly.
"I'll go too." She said, starting to follow Toph, but paused for a second and turned back to me. "And Sokka, I'm sorry about what happened. Maybe she'll meet my Grandma up there. I hope they become friends." I stood there speechless as she continued to run after my girlfriend and sister. I barely noticed that a certain pink acrobat was nowhere to be found.
Katara's POV: I had a feeling Aang wouldn't make it, but I didn't know why, and I didn't even think about Sokka, but when they spoke about it, it seemed so obvious. Large tears rolled down my face again for the zillionth time in the past two days.
Toph ran up to me and I immediately went to hug her tightly. I couldn't let go and we rocked for a few seconds. Remembering that Toph would have to lose Sokka too, I wrapped around her tighter.
"Okay Katara, breathing… starting to become a problem!" Toph choked out, and a bitter laugh forced its way out as I let go of the hug. I realized that Toph wasn't crying, but it seemed she knew exactly what was going on.
"How long have you known?" I asked sadly. She lowered her smile considerably so the upward turned lips carried more of a sad feeling than a happy one.
"A while, I just wanted you to be in the dark for a while." She replied sadly. I looked at my feet and words just poured out.
"There's so much I wanted to do!" I said quietly. She just nodded and I continued. "I won't have my wedding, and I've been waiting for a year and a half. I wanted Sokka to give me away. I wanted it to be at the Spirit Oasis, and I wanted to wear Mom's dress. I wanted you to be the Maid of honor, and Mai and Ty Lee would be other bridesmaids."
"There's a lot that I wish I could do too. There are places I wanted to show him, and places he wanted to show me." Toph said, agreeing sadly. "We were going to be married when he was twenty in two years and I turned seventeen. We weren't sure where we would have it. We were planning to shove the cake in each other's mouth's and I was planning to miss and hit him in the middle of his face before I finally got it in his mouth. I can tell that he wants to do the same thing." Toph said sadly. She paused for a moment. I didn't know what to say, so she continued. "I wonder what happens to the Key if the Giver dies before her. Do you think I'll die too? I don't think I'll get married to someone else, because the "soul mates" thing was in our job description. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I'll do after that, if we do survive." She said sadly, and I wrapped an arm around her to comfort her. She laughed bitterly and I looked at her.
"Maybe we'll both just waste away together. We'll grow old and stay lonely with each other and turn into old hags who live in a huge city like Ba Sing Se, and we'll live in the same house and yell at the kids who live near the house that them and their shenanigans are ruining the city. I bet they'll joke around and say something like "Shenanigans? We have shenanigans? Are they contagious?" And we'll just glare and you'll make a tree attack them and they'll run away. I'll bet we'll even die on the same day, within hours of each other. And we'll be thinking about Sokka and Aang just before we go; knowing we'll finally get to see them again." I smiled bitterly as I pictured us as two old hags scaring the children populace of Ba Sing Se.
"I suppose that's our future." Said sadly, agreeing.
Sorry Mr. Average, it doesn't get happier quite yet, but soon... however soon might not be as soon as I thought!
Review (if you didn't get the idea to do it from my rant earlier on.
