Chapter Ten: Reunions
"So, you're telling us that everyone has their story on this wall, it just depends who is looking at it?" Zuko frowned.
"That's correct." Roku smiled.
"And that we each have a spirit guardian that watches us and places our story on the wall?" Katara asked warily.
"Yes."
"Zuko, did you slip me some cactus juice? Because I'm having a hard time believing this."
"Cactus juice? What's that have to do with this?" Zuko questioned in confusion.
"You never had any?" Katara smirked. "Remind me and I'll get some for you. And I'm sorry Roku, but this whole story is a little hard to chew on."
Roku held up his hands. "I know it seems strange. But if you like, I can summon your spirit guides to prove it."
"Then yes. Do that." Katara said crossing her arms. "I'd love to see this spirit guide who knows my entire life."
Zuko paled. "Something just hit me. If these spirits are watching our every move... they don't watch us bath and umm... use the facilities do they."
"Oh great, now I have to worry about dead perverts!" Katara sighed. "It's bad enough dealing with the live ones."
Roku let out a chuckle. "I assure you they don't watch you at those times. So private moments stay private. I will return with your guides." They waited until he disappeared to even talk.
"What do you think?" Zuko said as he turned around to look at her.
"I want to believe it, but come on. Someone watching over us. If someone was, we wouldn't keep getting into so much trouble where ever we go." She scoffed. "But I want to believe it's kind of real. How else could our story be on the walls here?"
"I know what you mean." Zuko bowed his head. "If we had spirits watching us so much how could such horrible things happen to us."
She nudged him with her elbow. "Yeah, but we had some good things happen too. It might have taken me a little, but I started seeing you as a friend. And if it hadn't have been for you, I probably wouldn't have been able to get rid of Ozai. You kept me sane while we were in the palace."
He smiled warmly at her. "You were never sane." He pulled away to duck her punch. "But you know what, I like that about you. Although, when we first met I thought you were a snobby know-it-all."
"And I thought you were a pompous ass." She shot back and dove to tackle him. He managed to pull her weight so he could pin her down, but forgot about her legs. A water whip smacked him in the back of the head.
"Hey! No fair! I can't bend without hurting you!" He mock pouted.
"Oh boo hoo." She giggled as she used her legs to flip him over and land on top of his chest in victory. The water pinned his arms and legs down as she sat on his chest smirking like a mad woman. "I WIN!"
"This is different."
They both turned their heads to see Roku with his head cocked to the side in wonder. Behind him was a woman with her face in her hands giggling, and beside her was a young man not much older than Zuko himself.
Katara's face paled. "Mama?"
The woman's hands pulled away from her face to reveal an older looking Katara. "Hello my little snow bear." She said as a tear fell from her eye. Katara ran to her mother and was surprised when she could actually hug the woman. "I missed you so much." Kya whispered.
Zuko stood up and walked to the man next to Roku. "Hello Lu Ten." He said halfheartedly.
"What's the matter little cousin?" Lu Ten frowned. "I thought you'd be happy to see me."
"Oh I am." Zuko said quickly. "But I thought you'd be looking after Uncle, and well... I was hoping to see my mother too."
"Your mother can't be your spirit guide..." Lu Ten smiled.
"But Katara's mother..."
"You didn't let me finish. Your mother is still very much alive." He finished.
Zuko's eyes grew large as he let the last sentence sink in. "But..."
"We'll talk about that later. Right now, let's catch up. And let's start with that girl who had you pinned down." Zuko blushed as he looked over to Katara. Her mother must have said the same thing, because at the the same moment their eyes met. He noticed she was blushing as well.
The Freedom Fighters were having the time of their lives. Smellerbee had certain squads assigned to each village. The number one rule was, make sure the information they had was correct before they took action. Her rule had been short so far, but since she took over they had more food in their stomachs and money in their pockets.
They specifically enjoyed the fact that she took the time herself to decide which information was worthy of their time or not. With Jet, all they did was attack for no reason, and steal from who ever happened to cross their paths. It made people hate them, even if they were trying to help them. But with Bee, the villages they helped seemed to praise their good deeds.
Today was the day they planned to take down a man who was stealing the children of the Rocky Meadows Village in the Earth Kingdom. There were four teams assigned to this specific village, and now they understood why. The village was more of a city, if it weren't for the run down state it was in.
Teams Sparrow and Robin would do the scouting for the children, while team Hawk and Falcon find the man responsible and eliminate him. But the way the village was set up, it would take them a long time to find either. So they had to come up with a way to lore the man out in order to find the children.
"Aang! That was not a distraction! That was amazing. And Toph, you're little stone people we awesome." Sokka had been ranting for the past half an hour on how great they were in distracting the port city inhabitants.
"You don't have to tell me how awesome I am, I already know that." Toph said as she puff her chest out.
Aang chuckled from his perch on Appa's head. "Since we're closer than we were before, it shouldn't take us too long to find where we're going."
Sokka looked back at the woman and Ty Lee. Both had fallen asleep shortly after taking flight. He knew they had to be exhausted, since their captives only gave them enough food to survive. He started to feel exhaustion creep up on him, but he was trying to fight it.
"Momo, I think I need a nap." He mumbled as his eyes slid shut on their own accord. The lemur flew to him and curled up on his chest, before falling asleep as well.
Toph rolled her blind eyes. "Well Twinkle Toes, looks like it's just us again. Everyone else is sleeping."
Aang looked back and blushed. "I guess you're right. Want to come up here?"
After a few minutes silence, she crawled to the edge of the saddle. "I actually have a better idea." She dove off the bison. "Aang! You'd better catch me!"
He snapped his head back to see her falling. "Toph! I'm coming! Keep going buddy." He said quickly to the bison before grabbing his glider and flying after the crazy metal bender.
He caught her and felt his stomach unclench. "I'll take you back to Appa. Are you alright Toph? How did you fall off?"
"Fall off? What are you talking about? I dove off! Nutsy made it sound like fun!" She said in excitement. "Now, take me up higher and drop me!"
Aang shook his head as he followed her orders. "You know, I think Bumi is a bad influence on you." He said before he dropped her again.
"Maybe, but at least he knows how to have fun!" She shouted back to him as she dropped through the air.
Zuko and Katara were upset to hear they could only speak to their mother and cousin for a few minutes. But they felt better knowing who was watching of them. They half expected Roku to leave with them, but were surprised when he stayed behind.
"I have a few more things to talk about before I leave." He said as he sat down. "I have a little more freedom due to my being the avatar."
"That makes sense." Zuko added.
Katara wasn't really paying much attention to anything the two men were saying. She was trying to remember every feature in her mother's face, and how when she laughed her nose would crinkle just the tiniest bit.
But she would remember the way her mother hugged her. She felt safe for the first time in years. Yes, when Zuko hugged her or held her when they slept, she felt safe. But this was a different kind of safety. This was something only a mother could give.
"Katara?" Zuko was inches in front of her face waving his hand. "Are you there?"
She blinked. "What? Oh, sorry. Where's Roku?" She noticed he was gone.
"He gave me his message already." He said awkwardly. "Apparently, we have a hell of a ride in front of us. Oh, and he said he felt a disturbance on the surface. We should probably check it out, just to be safe."
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm starting to get hungry anyway. Let's go see what this disturbance is." She said as she stood and dusted her head off. "Did he happen to specify what we were in for?"
He shook his head. "Just said, 'The road to come will be more difficult than any we have encountered to date.' and left." He scowled.
"Aang always said the spirits were vague and talked in riddles." She smiled as she dove into the water shortly followed by Zuko.
It took them a lot less time to get back to the surface than he remembered, until he realized she was water bending them up faster. When they were on the shore of the pond, they heard voices through the trees. Unfortunately, they were to far away to discern any of them.
"Let's get a closer look." She whispered.
"Wai..." He sighed as she was already running through the trees. "Noooo... don't listen to me. Even though it could be enemies."
He found her standing frozen at the edge of the forest. "What's wrong?" He asked quietly trying to see what she was looking at.
"They're here!" She smiled. "Sokka and them are here."
"Are you two just going to stand there, or you gonna come out and say hi?" Came Toph's voice from the shoreline.
"Where are they?" Sokka's voice followed.
Katara bolted out and tackled her brother. "I'm right here, big brother. Did you miss me?" She released her hold on him with a frown. "You feel... thinner."
Sokka blushed. "Long story. I'll explain it after I get so meat in my stomach." He looked around in panic. "There is meat isn't there? Please tell me there's meat!"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "Of course there is. You just have to catch it. Why don't you go ahead and hunt for a rabbit or something." Sokka was already in the woods with is club in hand.
"Don't bring any rocks back that look like nuts this time!" Toph bellowed after him.
They heard something that sounded like "Shut up Toph." before they burst into laughter. Zuko went over to help Aang take Appa's saddle off, and was bombarded with a large tongue knocking him into the sand. He kept his eyes closed until he felt the offending appendage retreat, and he opened his eyes to look down at himself.
"Aww man, Appa. Why do you always do that to me?" Zuko whined as he sat up.
"Funny, I kind of remember this happening to you when you were a child. Only it was a fountain, and you said 'girls are crazy' before storming off into the palace." A womanly voice chimed.
Zuko scowled as he pulled his slobber coated shirt off. "Yeah, and they still are." He looked up and froze at the woman standing beside the bison. "M-mom?"
Aang and Ty Lee caught him as his legs gave way and he fainted.
"Sparky, you're such a chick sometimes!" Toph rolled with laughter.
A/N: I'm not sure if I'm getting off track here or not. But, I just write whatever pops into my head. And the last two days here I've been getting a lot and trying to make them work. Let me know if it gets too far fetched.