Hey guys, me again with another update. sorry it took me so long, AP Lit has been kicking my ass. not even two weeks in and i've had to do a project and read half of a three hundred page book. Needless to say, time has been a little stretched, but i did it finally. I finally decided on a title that fit both prompts just right, took me a while till i had almost finished to come up with this one. Without further ado, here's the next chapter in my tale for my loyal viewers.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. i really don't see the point of this though. i obviously don't own Avatar, because if i did, i would be putting this story into production. and it's not like it's uncommon, no one owns Avatar on this site. It would actually be far more interesting to see someone say they did own Avatar on this web site, to see mike and bryan writing a fic or two. now THAT would be something to proclaim. i guess i better go back and add this to all of my old postings before some official gets pissed at me.

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Everything ISN'T Perfect

Chapter 9: The First

Aang, Katara, and Sokka, had flown for about one and half days and would reach the North Pole by sundown. Aang looked down and patted Appa while he said to him, "Maybe we won't get frozen this time, right buddy? You got it from here right?"

Appa roared a yes and hopped back into the saddle to see Katara and Sokka. Katara was reading a book she bought in Ba Sing Se, some romance mystery novel filled with action she said was awesome. If Aang ever had a spare second he might look at it, but until he stopped being the Avatar, that wouldn't happen any time soon. She seemed to be very deep in her book and didn't even notice Aang sit next to her, which was peculiar indeed.

Sokka, conversely, was still pouting. Even though he wore his sword and boomerang on his back, he looked like a homeless puppy, so sad and lost. He had been like this since they left.

Toph had already left. The group had gotten up and said goodbye to her after breakfast, she said she needed to get an early start. And as they all packed, a silence began to grow over them. Sokka hadn't even left his room yesterday, which worried them all, and they could occasionally hear some yelling from Sokka and Suki upstairs, but it was mostly quiet. She only spent a good half an hour up there before coming down, her eyes blood shot, and she excused herself. Aang and Katara felt it time to make themselves scarce, and fly to the roof to overhear the conversation that was about to take place today.

"So…" Suki started quietly, not really sure what to say. She looked up at Sokka, who wore a very pained expression. They were standing in front of each other, knowing that Suki had a ship she needed to get to. They knew that now was the time to say bye, but neither could.

"Look, Sokka I-," Suki started before Sokka interrupted her.

"I was hopping yesterday was a bad dream, and that I would wake up and find you here in Ba Sing Se, but that couldn't be the case," Sokka looked down and his shoulders sagged as he turned around to finish his packing, but Suki seized his wrist.

She turned him around and pulled him into a very passionate kiss. This went on for twenty seconds until Sokka's head cleared and realized what was actually going on here and reluctantly pulled away. Suki cupped his cheek and whispered, "It will be okay Sokka, and everything is going to be alright. We won't be apart for too long, and you know were I'll be. I have to do this, but as soon as the heat dies down I'll come see you again."

Sokka pulled her into a tight embrace and buried his head in her hair as he said, "But that's just it, that's the problem. How long will it take for us to put Azula in jail? And after that you still have your duties to the warriors, and I'm the son of the southern water tribe chieftain, we'll both be busy and would we even be able to see each other? And what if Azula attacked Zuko, you could get hurt and I wouldn't be there to protect you and I don't know what I would do if you…"

Suki held him tighter and Sokka felt his shirt start to get damp as he heard Suki mutter, her voice shaky, "I know, I'm terrified for you too. You travel with the Avatar, what if she decided to go after you first? I don't know if I could go on if you…but I can't think that way. We both know what we have to do, and we will be fine. We just have to hope and persevere and we will see each other again."

Sokka's shirt was now seeped with Suki's tears and he felt some fall from his own eyes. He wanted to believe Suki, and hope everything would be okay, but there was always a needling thought in the back of his mind that this may be the last time he sees her. Sokka leaned down and gave her a small kiss on her forehead as he whispered, "We'll be okay," while he was wrestling with his own doubts.

She leaned up and kissed him deeply one more time, trying to get as much out of that kiss as possible. She pulled away slowly and whispered in Sokka's ear, "I love you."

"I love you too," Sokka whispered back in her ear, and with that Suki pulled away, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door, tears beginning to stream down her face. Sokka stood there a little stunned, watching her go, before he collapsed on the cot and yelled out, "You guys can go now!"

Aang and Katara quickly vacated the roof and the general area, knowing to give Sokka his space.. It was now when Aang and Katara found a bookstore and decided to have a peak around before going. Katara picked out a couple of books and Aang found a history book about the war he thought would be useful. He had specific memories of people talking about famous battles and people he had never known of, being at the time frozen in ice. He decided, now that he wasn't on the run living in the forest as much, it was time he spent some time to educate himself, even though there was a small voice in the back of his mind that told him this was partially his fault. He suppressed the voice as much as he could by telling himself that there was nothing he could have done, and would have died with the rest of the air benders, but it never fully went away.

They walked by chatting, books under their arms, and came to the house to find Sokka sitting on the porch on his bag, wearing the expression that would plaster his face for the next two days. They asked if he was okay, but he didn't respond or even acknowledge their presence. Aang said they had better get going, and Sokka silently got up, climbed Appa, put his pack down, and sat in a corner of the saddle starring out at nothing, where he would remain for the entire trip.

He had been like this since they left. He didn't say or do anything when the set down for camp yesterday, just ate one fruit and went to bed without a word. This left Katara worried, but Aang held her back, telling her he still needed some space. Katara looked up from her book as Aang put his arm around her and asked, "Does he still need time?"

Aang sighed in defeat, for she had been pestering him every hour of the day since he told her this and said, "Fine, I give up, go talk to him. All I know is that I would be doing the same thing in his shoes, and I wouldn't want to talk to anyone. But fine, go ahead and try, I'm going to go back to Appa for when this all blows up in your face."

Katara waved Aang's last bit of advice off as she went to sit next to her brother. He did not acknowledge her presence or move at all, much as Katara had expected he would. She decided to just dive right in as she asked, "Want to talk about it?"

Sokka didn't move.

Katara wouldn't give up quite so easily, "Come on, I'm your sister, you can talk to me about anything."

Sokka rolled over on his side away from her.

Katara was now officially mad at being blown off as she shook his shoulder and yelled, "Come on Sokka, talk-!"

Sokka interrupted with the first words he had said since Suki left and yelled, "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Katara backed off and sat back near the front of the saddle where she had been and picked up her book again in defeat. Aang stood up and leaned against the edge of the saddle from Appa's head as he muttered in a singsong voice, "I told you so." Katara gave Aang a venomous glare that Aang passively took and calmly shrugged off as he went back to flying.

Soon they arrived at the North Pole and was greeted by the entire tribe at the gate. They landed to lots of waves and praise, they last time they had seen any of them was during the Siege of the North. The city showed no signs of the battle, but walls of ice were easy to rebuild in a city of water benders.

The group walked up to the Water Nation palace and entered to find the chief who welcomed them warmly. They all went and sat down in his chamber for a very large feast with the entire village. After they had finished the food and entertainment, Aang turned to the chief and asked, "So what's this spiritual problem I heard about?"

The chief began to dismiss the village and his features became darker as he muttered, "Your going to have to see this one for yourself." With that he stood and led the Aang and Katara to the spiritual oasis. Sokka opted to go to his room and pout some more without a word. The chief was about to open the door to the oasis when he stopped and stood up, starring at the two and asked, "Are you sure your ready for this?"

Aang and Katara glanced at each other nervously before Aang nodded and the chief opened the door. The two had their jaws drop at the sight. The oasis looked the exact same, but every bit of it was glowing bright blue, every blade of grass and every inch of water, all blue. Aang stepped in nervously and immediately began to feel a sharp pain at the base of his skull and in his head. He collapsed to his knees and held his head tightly at the pain, and immediately felt a presence behind him, probably Katara, who wrapped her arms around him to try to comfort him, but Aang could barely feel it, like his feelings had become numb and distance. Even when he whispered he was fine, his voice felt faint and distance.

"Aang, we should turn around, I have a strange feeling that something just isn't right," Katara whispered half pleading half fearful.

Aang turned and saw her shaking nervously and wrapped his arm around her as he whispered in response, "I know, I feel it to, but I'm the only one who can fix this. What's new?"

While he helped support Katara, they walked farther into the dwelling, even though Aang was barely supporting himself. He worked hard to fight back the pain in the back of his skull, but with each new step, it became more invigorated, more powerful. They walked on the bridge and the pain was so terrible, Aang had to clench his eyes and hands shut. Katara looked over worryingly. She was starting to develop a bad headache, but whatever was affecting her was affecting him a hundred fold, probably from his affinity to all things spiritual. She didn't know where it switched from him supporting her to her supporting him, but while they walked on the bridge, Katara almost had to carry him to the oasis.

As soon as Aang foot touched the grass, she was blown back by a wave of energy. She sat up and looked to find Aang was hovering about a foot off the ground, his back arched and head flown back to almost unnatural extremes. She tried to get close while she shouted, "Aang!" but felt herself being forced back, like she was fighting a powerful wind. Aang hovered over to the lake and hung there, his features contorted in pain, which made Katara even more afraid.

The blue glow from the surrounding area began to circle Aang in a sphere of light. Katara could barely see him through the light when it suddenly struck his body like a thousand shards of ice. Katara vaguely felt tears fall from her eyes as she watched the bombardment as Aang's entire body began to glow a bright blue and spasm. She saw his eyes and mouth flash open, the blue light escaping from them, and then slowly recede from his body, until only his arrows were glowing with the blue light as if he was in the Avatar State.

His body suddenly went limp and collapsed in the water, and Katara couldn't hold herself back anymore. She ran over to pull Aang out of the water, who floated face down. She picked him up from the knee deep water and set him down on the shore, tears openly falling. She felt a pulse, but it was faint and shouted, "Aang, Aang can you hear me!? Wake up!...WAKE UP!"

His arrows still glowed the same blue, but he didn't move or show any sign he had heard her. She pulled his body into a tight embrace, but didn't feel his limp form hug back, and tears fell more. She vaguely registered that her headache had gone away, but in its place was an overwhelming feeling of dread. "Aang…" she whispered quietly as she buried her head in his shoulder, pleading to the spirits to have him holder her back. She needed to hear his voice right now to comfort her and tell her it was okay.

"Is he alright?" The chief asked, but Katara vaguely registered his presence.

"I…I don't know, he's never been yanked into the spirit world like this, normally he goes on his own. But this was so...violent," She whispered quietly, her voice very shaken and worried. She pulled Aang closer, even though his limp body didn't respond, and buried her fears in his chest.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Aang wretched his eyes open and found himself in a realm of pure white. He glanced around and saw nothing, anywhere at all, not even the floor he felt himself lying on. He sat up, trying to shake the receding headache as he called out, "Katara, are you here? Where are you?"

"She is fine, young air bender," Aang heard a distant and airy voice whisper as if he was right next to him. The voice rang like a thousand angels reflecting their voices in a small glass room.

"Who said that?" Aang asked as he spun around, trying to find the source. All he saw was the same blank nothingness.

"I did," Aang heard from distinctly behind him, while also having that same echoing quality from before. He turned and saw what looked like a water tribe woman in her late twenties, standing with her arms behind her back, smiling nicely, as she rocked back and forth on her feet. She vaguely reminded Aang of Katara with her amazing blue eyes, but the rest was different. She was taller and her straight hair fell down her back with a lose braid resting on top of it, and her outfit looked like a much older and more primitive version of Katara's.

"And who are you?" Aang asked as he turned to face her.

"I'm the first Avatar," She said with a kind smile and waved him over as if she was greeting a long lost friend.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Azula stood up, curious as to where the good doctor had gone. She went to the door the doctor went through and tried to open it, but found it was locked. "Now, what is the good doctor trying to hide?" She asked with a twisted smile on her face as she melted the lock.

She pulled the door open with ease now that the handle had melted away and found shelf upon shelf of medicine. The room must have been twenty yards in length and width, stocked with medical supplies. Azula was about to turn back when she noticed something odd…no doctor.

She turned around and yelled in a high-pitched demented voice, "Oh doctor, come out come out wherever you are."

She walked past shelf after shelf, not finding a thing until she noticed something odd on the wall. In between two shelves was a brick wall, but was odd about this wall was that all the bricks between the shelves lined up perfectly to form a straight line from the top of the shelf to the floor in the mortar. She saw on the other side of the shelf to her left it did the same thing except for two bricks where hinges would normally be.

"I wonder what's behind door number one?" She asked to herself quietly as she kicked the door open forcibly with a fire blast. In the room was a lit lamp on a desk with a lot of paper. Above it was a fairly large hole in the wall that she barely caught a glimpse of a hawk flying through. What really amazed her was on the hawk's case was a special symbol. She saw the doctor standing in front of the desk, stunned silent.

"Well hello doctor, funny place to find you isn't it? So, who was the letter for?" She asked as she turned her head to the side and a devilish smile spread across her face. She approached him slowly and saw the doctor flinch and back up.

"My wife," he said, his voice calmer then his body language would lead one to believe.

"Really, but that was such an odd symbol on the hawk, it almost looked like a white lotus," She said as she stood in front of the doctor, who stood there and stared her down. A silence dawned on them both, as they both knew what was about to happen.

The doctor did a front flip much more agile then Azula would have thought he was and sent a wall of fire at her with his heel, but she smoothly side stepped it. The doctor then spun and sent a fire arc at her with a roundhouse kick, which Azula easily leaned back and ducked. The doctor then sent a fire blast at her with his fist, which she sidestepped again.

By this point, the doctor's age was starting to catch up to him as he began to wheeze and clutch his chest. Azula stood up and raised her eyebrow and asked, "What, my turn already?"

Azula waved her arm and sent an arc at the doctor who had no time to react as it cut straight through his neck. His body fell to the floor limp as his head rolled away on the ground to Azula. She picked it up and whispered to the dismembered head, "You shouldn't have tried to tattle on me," and with that she flung it over her shoulder.

If the doctor had sent a message about her, she would need to build some distance between her and this town, but first she would need supplies. She could go see that family that had offered to take care of her and take some of their supplies. They live outside town so it would be easier to rob them then it would a store in town.

And so she walked outside town down the road she had pretended to pass out on to where the family lived. It was only a good half a mile from where she came out of the forest up the road when she found the man who helped her working in the field. He looked up and gave her a small smile as he called to her, "The doctor let you go?"

"He is very preoccupied and I didn't want to trouble him, so I decided to take you up on your offer for one night," She said to him as she forced herself to bow to this peasant, which was much more difficult then she had thought it would be. He waved her in where little Seya was sitting in the one room that combined a dinning room and kitchen, waiting for her mom to finish dinner.

She looked up and then ran over to hug Azula, who starred at her very awkwardly before gently patting her on the back. Hugging was not something she did often. Her father walked in a quickly reprimanded his daughter, "Seya, where are you manners?! You bow to a house guest, and you especially don't hug someone who was grievously injured!"

Seya backed away with a blush and bowed muttering, "I'm sorry. Welcome, my name is Seya."

"Um…it's okay," Azula replied very awkwardly. She had not expected such manners among peasants. No matter though, she would still need to gather her necessary supplies, manners or not.

"Please sit down, you must be tired from walking all that way with your injuries," The wife urged as she pulled out a chair.

"Thank you, but my injuries are not that bad, really," She muttered as she forced a smile, trying to play the picture of humbleness. She sat down as the mother served dinner. They ate in silence, the family too polite to bring up questions about her horrible fictional past. The food was not the cuisine Azula was used to, but after a month of prison food, it was delicious. Sick of the silence, Azula started to feed them some lies about life before slave traders captured her. It was the warmest dinner Azula had had in her life, and it made her stomach turn that she was forced to eat with these peasants, but she bared it with stride.

"Did you hear dear, about what happened in Shu Ten?" The wife began.

"No, what happened?" He asked as he looked up from his plate off food.

"That gang I told you about totally took over the town. The one that wore rock over their hands," She continued as Azula's head flew up.

"Rock's on their hands?" She asked curiously, wondering if that could be the Dai Lee.

"Yes, they came about two weeks ago and began to boss everyone around. They are terribly strong earth benders that like to bind people with earth they wear on their hands. They kicked out the old Earth Kingdom officers and took total control of the town," The wife elaborated. Azula was almost sure that it had to be them; she had her next destination.

Just as dinner was finishing and the mother began to clean up, there came a furious pounding at the door. Azula turned around while the man answered the door. In the door way was a young man in his twenties who was gasping for breath.

"Your late," The father said sternly.

"I'm sorry dad, but you won't believe what happened in town. The doctor was found in his clinic beheaded!" The son gasped out. His father turned from the door, eyes wide and stared at Azula.

"You…" He started but at a loss for words.

Azula stood with a sigh and wiped dirt from her simple prison uniform. She turned to face him and muttered, "I was really hopping to avoid this, but I guess I have no choice now. May as well go for the direct approach, I need supplies, and you will give them, unless you all want to end up like the doctor."

"You killed the doctor!" Seya yelled in terror and stood up to run, but her mother caught her.

"If anyone runs, they die," Azula muttered simply as she huddled them over by their father. They stood in fear as Azula continued, "I need a couple pairs of clothes from your wife's dresser, about a weeks worth of food that can travel easily, some camping supplies, and a ride. And just to show how serious I am…"

Azula pointed her hand straight at the son's leg and fired her red lightning, severing it completely. He howled in pain as he rolled on the grown clutching his new stub of a leg. Seya screamed in terror, and her father moved to attack, but was held back by his wife, who urged him to think rationally. He calmed down and crouched by his son one last time before sitting up to gather the requested supplies.

"Make sure the dresses are pretty, or someone else may lose a limb, and be quick about it!" She called in a high pitch giddy voice, glad to be soon rid of these rags. She turned back to the son who still clutched his leg in pain. She pulled over a chair to sit in front of the trio while she muttered, "You know, you may want to burn that wound shut or he may bleed out. If you don't he may have to go see the doctor soon, although I don't know how much help he would be. Just a thought."

The mother glared daggers at Azula, who shrugged it off. Seya looked up, tears streaming her face as she asked, "Why, why would you do this?"

"Because it would be annoying to find all of these supplies if I killed you all. I have no idea where you keep everything," She said simply, the true question flying right over her head.

Within five minutes, the father returned with all the supplies she asked for, and even a carriage to ride on. Azula hopped up and muttered, "How thoughtful, I didn't even consider taking that."

"I wasn't offering it," The father whispered quietly under his breath.

"Well it's mine anyways, unless you care to see more blood spilt," Azula replied as she hopped up on the cart.

She began to drive away when she barely caught the whisper of, "Fire nation bitch,"

Azula immediately stopped the cart and did back flip, landing in front of the four by the doorway of their house and muttered maliciously, "Who said that?"

They all looked away in silence. "What, no one wants to come forward?" Azula asked silently and coldly as she looked from face to face, but no one would look her in the eye.

"Fine, then you all get to be punished!" She yelled with a twisted grin on her face as she did a roundhouse kick that arced and sent a wave of fire at the four. They were all sent back in a burst of flame. She strutted over and leaned over the four of them and picked up the wife by the hair and muttered, "Your first."

"NO!" Her husband yelled from his position and tried to get up, but in vain. Azula pointed her fingers at the woman's heart and unleashed lightning though her body, making it shutter and spasm in her grip before going limp.

She then turned to the man, who struggled with all of his might to get to her, but had trouble standing with his body seared and burnt. Azula muttered, "Angry? Don't worry, in a few moments, you won't feel a thing." With that, she put her foot on his chest while he kneeled before her, and unleashed a small explosion that ripped his body asunder, no more then a pile of limbs and seared flesh.

"You…you son of a bitch," The son whispered as he smacked his hand on the ground, sending a earth pillar up at Azula's feet to crush her against the ceiling, but she just hopped off and landed sitting on his chest.

"What, mad are we? Do we like saying mean things?" She asked in his ear while she held her hand over his mouth. She slowly began to heat up her hand and heard his muffled scream as she burnt his flesh and mouth to ash. "Well, lets make sure we don't do that again." She then heated up her hand more until his jawbone melted away. Some time during the process he died, but Azula didn't seem to notice, just kept burning until she was satisfied, which was when his eyes had rolled back into his skull and there was nothing left of the lower portion of his face.

"Mom…mommy, wake up," Azula heard a muffled whisper next to her. It was Seya, whose arm was burnt, but not too bad, and besides a few minor cuts and bruises, looked relatively unhurt; someone must have shielded her from the fire. Azula stood and walked over to her. Seya looked up, tears streaming from her face. Azula pointed her middle and index finger at her, ready to fire her red lightning, but felt something odd. As much as she tried, she couldn't shoot her. It was maddening and perplexing.

"You can't hurt her Azula," She heard from a faint whisper form behind her. She turned and saw none other then Lady Ursa, standing in her fire nation gown, with a small frown on her face.

"You! What are you doing here?!" Azula shouted at the image of her mother. Her mother stared back with pity and contempt.

"I'm here to stop your rampage, your destruction, your pain," she muttered quietly in a small airy voice.

"How could you help a monster like me?! I hate you and you hate me!" Azula yelled as her rage began to raise the temperature of the room and boil the water on the stove.

Ursa shook her head in pity and gave a small smile, "I don't hate you Azula, I love you."

"You think you can control me, that you know me?! I will kill this little girl right now!" Azula roared in paranoid fury as she picked up Seya by her collar. Seya, who had been watching this in shock the whole time as Azula yelled at someone who wasn't there, now screamed as Azula put her fingers to Seya's chest, ready to shoot her with lightning like she did her mom.

"No you won't. She's a sweet innocent, one of the first to show you the infallible kindness a child can bring, and you don't have it in your power to harm her, just like how you can't harm me. Your rage has subsided when faced with her kindness," Ursa replied quietly as she held out her arms to embrace Azula.

Azula turned away, tears streaming as she screeched, "Just shut up and GO AWAY!" She then cast her arm to Ursa and unleashed a massive cone of fire. The fire burnt everything in its path to ash, and when it died away, there was only a pile of burnt wreckage left of the house. Only the wall behind her that covered the corpses remained standing, about a fourth of the size of the actual house. There was no trace of Ursa, no body, no anything, as if she hadn't even been there.

Azula dropped the stunned girl on her butt and walked out the half archway that remained of the front door to the cart. With that she hopped up and rode away into the night, south to Shu Ten and the Dai Lee. Seya watched in silent fear and fury before returning to crying over the corpses of her family.

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How was that for an exciting chapter, huh? Aang was forced into the spirit world, and why, to see the first Avatar? find that out in the next chapter. And something Azula couldn't kill, interesting isn't it considered how evil i've portrayed her. don't worry, she won't be going good anytime soon, she's Joker sadistic, but her leaving Seya alive could really come to bite her in the ass. Seya will be my first OC, although albeit her role won't be very large for quite some time, but she will be there, we'll visit her every once in a while. And there's one thing i would really like to know. Does the Earth King or Northern Water Tribe Chieftan have a name. i don't really care too much about Seya's family because...they're dead. i really won't have to talk about them much, and it probably isn't a subject she wishes to dwell on. but the King and the Chief really bug me. they're pretty big characters who we run into a while, especially the king, but they don't have names. and let me tell you, the first few times of writting the king or your majesty was kind of cool, like he's above a name he's so powerful, but after doing it for eight chapters (he didn't appear in chapter 1), i'm starting to get really sick of it. if anyone can inform of a name either of these two officially have, that would be great. if they don't have one, i may just give them random names. but i admit i never really read the Avatar books, truely believing it was an experience that should be seen, and i didn't want to spoil the suspense by reading the books, but if they are more detailed i may have to pick them up. who know's the ending with Aang and Katara might even contain this wonderful thing called words, which as you can tell, i love, writing almost 40,000+ words for this story so far, and i'm not even half way done.

One last time, i would like to thank everyone who reviewed. i got 33 at the moment and the stream is growing. i've seen longer stories then mine get less reviews then this, so truly, thank you all. and if you didn't review, please do. i love to hear from you all, my readers, no matter how trivial, and i tried to read your stories. If you see a story by Liselle129, please read it, she is a fantastic writer and i love her work, along with lyraloch (sorry if i typed those a little wrong). i hope to hear from you all soon.