The Island of Kyoshi: Part Three
Time was irrelevant in the Spirit World.
One always had to be mindful of the fact that the laws of physics truly did not apply at all here- it was an aspect that carried over when Aang left the Spirit World, and allowed him to do things that he had never been able to do in life, even with airbending (walking through people was always great fun). However, there were downsides to visiting the Spirit World, and the most prominent one was the curious shifting of time. What might seem like a simple visit comprising of few minutes or a quarter of an hour could, in all actuality, easily be hours or days- possibly even weeks- spent away from home without ever knowing it until you got back. Aang gleaned that particular little pearl of wisdom after his first return visit half a year after his death, when he found he had accidentally spent an entire month away from his new home as he sought out his past lives to find out more about the Avatar Spirit and how it worked. (He had been surprised to find upon returning that snow had fallen, blanketing the yellowed tundra grass and hardy little blue flowers that were prized for their distinct dye; and he found to his pride and disappointment that Katara had learned to crawl at an impressive speed in the time he was absent.) As a result, he rarely visited, and was always careful to try to get back as quickly as possible.
Getting back this time, however, would take a while. Whispering swirls of pale mist danced around Aang as he slowly made his way though the new swampy landscape. The standing water reached up to his knees, the soft silt and mud sucking at his boots and churning in a cloudy mass with every step he took, making his progress slow going. The cool water vapor caressing his skin momentarily reminded him of Katara, however, and it was a pleasant distraction from his uncomfortable surroundings. He thought of his friend's soft touch whenever she gave him a hug, of her soothing presence, and of how she naturally seemed to shift and flow in all aspects of her daily life. Even her airbending held a watery quality, come to think of it; she flowed with a grace that was different than the light, quick motions he himself had been taught. She's going to be a terrific waterbender, being so in tune with her element and all. He thought with a small smile, I don't think she's even aware of how connected she is to it.
She was unaware of a lot of things, actually. The young monk frowned as he remembered why he was here in the first place, and shook himself from his musings as he looked around in earnest for Roku. "Hello? Roku? ...Anyone?"
The only response he received was the subtle layers of soft whispers murmured by the mists, and Aang frowned as he wished for the umpteenth time that the Spirit World would stop changing from visit to visit. The last time he was here, it was bright and sunny, and it appeared he was in a grain field. This time, he was wading in a shrouded, dream-like swamp, filled with spirit glowflies and whispers that seemed more and more like actual words, if only it was a little more clear. It didn't bother Aang as much as it had when he first encountered the swirling mists a few years ago, but it was still unsettling to hear the many layers of childish voices come from all sides.
Brushing a flowering vine out of the way, Aang paused a moment to try and get his bearings. "Okay, I came from back there, so I must be heading... well, somewhere, I guess." He looked around and he realized, much to his disappointment, that he seemed to be walking around in circles, and would possibly keep on doing so for the remainder of his trip here. He leaned on the massive tree trunk next to him and heaved an aggravated sigh. Perhaps this is the Spirit World's way of saying I just need to go home, and talk to her anyway. He grimaced at the idea, imagining the firestorm that would be Katara upon finding out what he had been keeping from her.
No, she would definitely not be pleased.
As unappealing as that option was, however, it seemed that there was very little else left to do. Just as he was about to give up and go back however, the sturdy tree he was leaning against very suddenly withered and shriveled under his weight, and, without warning, gave way completely into nothingness, dumping the young monk sideways into the muddy water with a startled cry. As he floundered around and got back to his feet, sputtering and wondering what on earth could have caused that, a voice separated itself from the mist behind him.
"It's been a while, Avatar Aang."
Aang yelped, spinning around and nearly tripping again in his shock at the sound of Avatar Kyoshi directly behind him. Tendrils of mist wafted off her glowing form as the giant of a woman regarded him with a very faint smirk. He grinned apologetically, rubbing his arrow and blushing in embarrassment at his jumpiness. "Avatar Kyoshi! Heh heh, sorry about that. I'm still not used to how you guys can appear out of nowhere..." His eyes darted around, searching for any other past lives that might be hiding in the mist.
She inclined her head, her painted lips twitching upward a little more in amusement. "Don't worry yourself. I was the same way when the Mother Superior of the Eastern Air Temple taught me how to enter the Spirit World through meditation." She seemed to be remembering some private joke before she grew solemn, her jade eyes losing the warmth they briefly held as she studied him. "You are here for advice, correct?"
"How did you know?" He asked, a little awed that she guessed so quickly.
"You only ever come here when something is troubling you." She said bluntly, disapproval coloring her previously even tone. "Much time has been wasted, when you could have come more often and gained more knowledge to teach the new Avatar."
Aang winced, the remark hitting a nerve. "I...I know. That's part of why I came this time, actually. I've been waiting to tell Katara about the comet, and about the Fire Lord. How should I tell her? I've waited so long already, because I was afraid to say anything about it, and now that it's getting so close..."
Kyoshi was an intimidating woman even when she was friendly and open (which was not too often), and at Aang's words she drew herself up, her brow creased in a stony frown. The (now quieter) mist seemed to take on a chillier temperature at the mood change, and Kyoshi's frigid tone was the sternest he had ever heard in a person. "...You have not told her?"
He grimaced at the dangerously soft tone, knowing he was in a lot of trouble. Truthfully, he had already expected it upon coming here. "No. I was scared to. I didn't want her to grow up knowing that there's the possibility of her dying and failing. It's not fair, not after all the stuff she's been through that's making her grow up too fast as it i-"
"Life is not fair, Aang, and it cannot be helped that Katara is being made to grow up before her time." Kyoshi cut him off sharply, looking more severe than he'd ever seen her. "You should have spoken to her about this much sooner. She would have had more time to prepare herself for the battle she'll have to face. Now there is the chance she won't be able to master everything she needs to know before the comet arrives."
She drew herself up fully, her impressive height dwarfing Aang's slight stature. "Do not forget that this is not about her feelings, or her well being. This is about the world. Everyone must sacrifice something in the end, Aang. She is strong enough to deal with the various possibilities. I believe that she would have made peace with the possibility of herself dying, if it means bringing peace to the world. By telling her now, however, being so late, she has far less of a chance to succeed."
There was no hiding the harsh condemnation, and Aang whimpered, realizing for the first time just how harmful it was to have waited so long. If Katara did die, it would largely be his fault, for not giving her time to prepare herself and train. In trying to spare her the pain and fear he himself had felt that day in the Council Room, so long ago, he had unknowingly hindered her chances of living to see the end of the war.
His eyes stung as it sank in, and he gulped down the miserable lump in his throat and tried valiantly not to cry in front of the previous Avatar. He hesitantly met Kyoshi's unrelenting gaze when she knelt down in the water to his level and prompted him to look at her, her fingers surprisingly gentle as she tilted his chin upward. Her firm expression softened just a tiny bit with an almost motherly annoyance. "I know you are very young, and that it's hard to be a good guide. I struggled too, at first, and Kuruk was simply terrible at guiding me. However, you must meet your responsibilities. This is incredibly important. Your actions have an impact on everyone's lives now, not just yourself and Katara. Do you understand?"
He nodded, once, twice, and managed to blink away unshed tears with some effort. Thankfully, his voice was steady as he answered her. "Yes, Avatar Kyoshi."
"Good." She stood, and tilted her head to the right, as if listening in on something that remained unseen in the dense swamp in which they stood. "Go on now. It would have been best had you spoken to her earlier, but that is in the past. Make things right with her, and guide her to the right teachers. For now, that is your duty, and it is her duty to learn as quickly as possible. Until next time, young one..."
Kyoshi's form had been growing more and more translucent as she spoke, until she became a part of the surrounding mist and dissipated away into nothing upon her last words, leaving Aang alone in the spirit swamp. He gulped down the stubborn lump in his throat, staring forlornly at the water and hugging himself as the surrounding mist seemed to murmur softly, echoing the disquiet he felt over the matter. The boy blew out a slow, steadying breath, and closed his eyes as he began to focus his energy on passing over to the physical world. I guess I have no choice but to go back and tell her everything, from start to finish, He thought as he began to fade, I just hope that I'll still be her friend by the end of this...
"What? What do you mean I only have two years?"
The heavy rumble of thunder and wet downpour of torrential rain outside were the only sounds to be heard in the (now ridiculously dim) dojo as everyone stilled at Katara's question, all eyes on the young avatar as she stared aghast at youngest Kyoshi Warrior.
Suki's expression was one of utmost confusion as she reeled in her brain from her petty argument with Sokka and tried to process the growing confusion and fear on her friend's face. "What do I mean?" She echoed, confused, "The Great Comet- I mean, Sozin's Comet...everyone knows that it comes once every hundred years. It'll be back in two years."
Two years? Katara shook her head, slowly at first, and gradually faster as it became more of a nervous tick than a conscious effort on her part. "What on earth does a comet have to do with any kind of deadline I have?" She wondered aloud, bewildered and still too deep in shock to be angry at the fact she had a deadline at all. "What does it have to do with anything?"
Alarmed, Midori took in the shell shocked expressions as a bright flash of lightning briefly illuminated the water tribe siblings' faces with a stunning white light. The following crack of thunder seemed to rattle inside everyone's chest, and the rain poured harder, if that was possible. Momo screeched in fear and curled himself closer around Katara's shoulders, his little head buried beneath his paws and his fur standing on end.
"You really have no idea?" Midori asked quietly, waiting for the trailing rumbles of thunder to fade out before she spoke. "Neither of you?"
Upon seeing the confused siblings trade dismayed glances, she threw her hands in the air with a noise of disbelief, appalled that this all important bit of information was actually news to them. "Sweet mother of Kyoshi, you of all people should know about that, Avatar Katara! Your own past life probably died when the firebenders used the comet's power when it came last time. That's how the Nomads died."
At the mention of Aang, Katara drew a horrified breath, her mind flashing back to her nightmare from last night. Slowly at first, the puzzle pieces that had been bugging her for the last few days finally fell into place, and the full realization was a terrible thing. The wanton destruction of everything dear to her best friend... it wasn't from regular firebending. She had wondered, upon looking at the ruins of the Southern Air Temple, how an entire beautiful, strong culture such as the Air Nomads could be killed off in such a short time; how thousands of years of history ingrained in the very stones used to build the Temple could be reduced to rubble, still blackened and scorched nearly a century after the deed. Now it was clear how all the airbenders, so clever and elusive, could have fallen at the hands of the Fire Nation...
...and how Aang's insistence that he really was the very last of his nation could be true after all.
"The Fire Nation used the power from the Comet as it passed by!" Sokka said quietly, arriving at the same awful conclusion. "I thought it was just the invading army!"
Yoko, a rather beefy looking fifteen year old with mousy brown hair swept up into a long tail beneath her headdress, fidgeted nervously as the rest of her comrades traded troubled glances. "How could you have not learned of it in your history lessons? Every child who goes to school knows about the genocide of the Air Nomads, and how it happened. The Fire Nation will be wanting to use it again, I'm sure, should they have a plan to invade Ba Sing Se and possibly end the war for good. Tactically, they'd be stupid not to."
It was like a shock of cold water to them both, and it left Katara gasping for air. She had known that she would have to defeat the Fire Nation someday, but now 'someday' was a lot sooner than she expected. The idea that she would have to prevent another genocide and end a near century long war, sometime before her fifteenth birthday... How is this even going to work? I'm just one kid! She began to panic, her thoughts becoming a muddled mess as she tried desperately to come to terms with it all. I'm nowhere near ready for that kind of responsibility! I haven't even mastered my own element, and I'm not done with airbending training. How in the world am I supposed to stop an entire nation if I'm not a fully realized Avatar?
Watching his sister come dangerously close to tears, Sokka scowled at the increasingly uncomfortable looking female warriors and he shooed Momo away from Katara's shoulders before looping a protective arm around her in an attempt to steady her (preferably before she could enter into a potentially dangerous, freaky freak out like she had before with Mom). "So you people think it's perfectly okay to harass my little sister with questions of what she's going to do about the Earth Kingdom, when you guys have a bunch of earthbending soldiers with our Tribe backing you up, and not to mention you yourselves?" He snorted indignantly. "She's twelve, not twenty! Only a few years ago she was playing with dolls, for crying out loud! We've just left home, and now you want her to take on responsibilities you people are too afraid to take on, in two year's time?"
He rubbed her arm in an awkward attempt to comfort her, even as he glared at the guilty looking girls in disgust. "I don't know about you, but the sooner we leave stupid, pushy people like you behind and get to the North Pole, the better."
Suki had nothing to say, her pride and her conscience stinging under the water tribe boy's surprisingly bold defense of his sister, and all the girls present shifted uncomfortably under the rebuke. It was a different way of looking at what they were doing, and coming from a culture who hated cowardice, the young warriors couldn't deny that it looked like they were being selfish and unpatriotic to everyone else by not participating in the war effort.
The drawn out silence- barring the raging storm outside- allowed Katara to process everything long enough to realize that she couldn't possibly do this alone. She was going to need help if she was going to have a chance at fulfilling her calling, and looking at the girls assembled before her, she realized Sokka was right (if a little harsh). These girls were capable of so much, and she needed all the help she could find.
She took a deep breath and straightened, visibly pulling herself together as a strangely hopeful confidence gradually filled her and chased her fear and anger over the matter to the back of her mind. Perhaps, with some help, her impossible mission might not be so impossible after all. Perhaps she would actually survive the battle and be able see a world that Mom had always wanted, free from suffering and hardship.
Meeting the girls in the eye, she looked for just a moment much older than any twelve year old ought to as she spoke. "I know tradition is important, and I know how hard it is to leave home," She said slowly, gathering her thoughts and becoming more certain as she voiced aloud her idea. "But Sokka is right- you can do so much more to help the world than stay here. I've seen you fight! I've seen you train, and I know you can help me end this war! Please... help me. I can't do this alone. You honor Kyoshi by fighting in a style she invented. Will you honor me now as your Avatar, and fight for your kingdom as well as your home?"
Sokka looked at his little sister as if she had sprouted two heads, wondering where the heck this sudden, very mature sounding inspirational speech had come from. Whatever the cause of it was, however, it seemed to have a profound impact upon the warriors. After a long moment, Midori's sharp green eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled a truly genuine smile, the kind reserved for friends and equals before tucking her hands together in front of her chest and bowing before the startled water tribe girl. "As leader of this division of the Kyoshi Warriors, I can say that we would be deeply honored to join you on your mission, Avatar Katara."
The storm did not allow anyone to leave shelter for a few hours, and once it finally tapered off to a sprinkle, the Avatar and her friends emerged from the dojo and took in the sight of gnarled, uprooted trees and general chaos and destruction everywhere they turned. It was then that they realized the storm had been in fact a small hurricane, and as the storm left Kyoshi Island's (rather waterlogged) vicinity, it barreled furiously northward over the next few hours, skirting the coastline and heading right for the Interceptor as she cut across the sea towards General Fong's base.
Unaware of the oncoming foul weather, Zhao and his men had made excellent time in their day's travel, and after debriefing his men, he dismissed them. He made his nightly report in his log and went into his quarters for the evening, a poster bearing Fong's likeness in his hand. He studied it with interest as he paused by his bed, taking in the long beard and squat topknot, and taking special note of the smirk that adorned the middle aged earthbender's face. By tomorrow we'll start our invasion on the General's base, He thought, sneering at the poster. It's almost a pity, he doesn't even know that we're coming into his waters. Such a short but glorious battle it will be.
He imagined wiping that stupid smug grin off that bearded face, and with one last look at the belligerent looking Earth Kingdom General, he clenched his fist; the paper alighting in a brilliant burst of flames before curling into indistinct ashes to the floor. Zhao allowed a feral grin as he took off his armor and got ready for bed. If he had anything to say about it, Fong would match his portrait this time tomorrow.
Fate, however, seemed to have other plans. It was several hours into the night when a bell could be heard, the sound slowly seeping into Zhao's subconscious as he slept. "Rouse the Captain! A storm is coming upon us, I need him to keep our heading!" Shouted the helmsman, prompting the second watchman to ring the bell and send the warning throughout the ship.
A crew member still shaking off sleep barged into Zhao's quarters, staggering a little as he accidentally hit his head on the door frame in his haste, and the flame in his hand sputtered out briefly before he regained his composure. "Captain! A storm is coming up, the crew needs you topside now!"
Zhao grunted as he dragged himself from the last vestiges of sleep, his topknot askew and his eyes bleary as he peered at the man and realized that he was not dreaming about the sound of a bell after all. "What? There was no signs of foul weather last night!"
Nevertheless, the violent rocking of the ship proved to him the truth in his soldier's plea. "Get out of my way!" Zhao snarled as he tried his best to muster his muscles out of the stiffness from sleep and reached for his armor, swiftly dressing and heading topside. When he reached the deck Zhao was shocked at the violence of the weather, his crew fighting the best they knew how against the storm and obviously floundering as the wind and waves repeatedly buffeted them. The seas were the highest he'd seen since early on in his career, and that was caused by nothing less than a tropical hurricane before it made landfall.
Setting his resolve to ride out the storm he ran up towards the bridge. "Helmsman! What's our heading? Give me the bearings!" Zhao barked over the noise of the gale force winds.
"43 degrees east, 78 degrees south, Captain!" replied the helmsman, blinking rapidly to clear the rain out of his eyes and as he read the instruments.
Zhao swore, feeling his previous ire mount tenfold. They were disastrously off course. "Idiot! You should have called me sooner! Now we have to turn her around - at this rate we'll hit the Earth Kingdom coast eighty miles to the south!"
"I'm sorry sir, the storm came up so fast we didn't have the time to alter our course before it struck!"
It was a stupid excuse, but Zhao didn't have the time to chew him out. He shoved the man aside. "Give me the Helm! Get midship and call out my orders to the rest of the crew, they wont hear me in the bow!"
"Yes sir!" The helmsman snapped to attention and he ran down to the center of the ship, only to shriek in surprise when the ship pitched sharply to port, a monstrous wave nearly washing him overboard. The blasted rain didn't make matters any easier on the crew, and Zhao sputtered as he was thoroughly drenched head to toe. This is getting ridiculous. Worst of all, it's too late to head into the eye of the storm. If we're lucky, we'll get out of this with minimal damage.
If that was going to happen, he needed everyone to cooperate with him as he fought to keep the Interceptor from getting too far off course. The waves were almost too much for the ship to bear, but with careful maneuvering Zhao rode out every one while trying to regain the correct heading and barking out orders. "Secure all canons and catapults! Tell the men in the watch tower to get lashed down! Get more coal in the engines!"
The sounds of their captain's shouting kept stirring the soldiers to hold out longer, knowing that Zhao had it the hardest of them all with the wind and the rain beating down on him from every angle. Finally, Zhao resolved that the power of the hurricane was too great for him to try to keep their course steady and turned the ship to the south were it had came from. It'll be the fastest way to get out of it and save my men, He resolved, Three have already been swept overboard, and I'll be damned before I lose any more!
The last order many of the men heard out of their captain was for all firebenders to stay below deck; and as the soldiers hunkered down for the night, they prayed the sailors and their captain would be successful in controlling the ship, and that Agni's glorious light would shine soon.
When Aang reentered into the physical world, it was immediately apparent that he had been gone far more than the few hours like he had originally planned. Dawn's rosy hues colored the sky and filled Sokka and Katara's bedroom with warmth and light, and from the vantage point of the window it illuminated the soggy wreckage that was once a tidy little town. His eyes widened as he stared out the window for a full minute before turning around and frantically looking to see if his friends were still here.
He let out a breath of relief when he spotted them in their beds with Momo curled up on Sokka's back, though he was a little surprised (and slightly dismayed) to find that both siblings were caked with dry mud from the shins on down, and Sokka's blanket was comically drawn halfway over his body with his legs entirely exposed, like he had crawled into bed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Katara wasn't much better, her hair was still loosely bound in her braid, and dark half moons appeared underneath her eyes, further adding to the sense that the two had merely crashed instead of going through their usual nightly routine. He wondered uneasily if they had been caught in the middle of the chaos that was outside. Hopefully not, though their filthy and bedraggled appearance testified otherwise. He gently shook Katara's shoulder, determined to find out what happened. "Psst! Hey...Katara?"
She gradually roused with a moan, sitting up and swaying slightly as she blearily blinked up at the worried face of her translucent friend. "Aang? Wha- what time is it?" She half yawned, dragging a hand over her face and missing his worried frown.
He regarded her cautiously. "Umm... well, it's most definitely sunrise, so I'd say it's just a little bit before we normally get up. What happened to you and Sokka? How long was I gone?"
Katara blinked away the sleep still clinging so stubbornly to her, and as the fog cleared from her brain, she remembered a few important details:
One: After the storm allowed them to leave the dojo, she and Sokka helped the Kyoshi Warriors do a quick scan of the villagers (and Appa), directing the ones who had the most damage to their homes towards proper shelter with a neighbor before going back to Oyaji's and practically falling into their beds with exhaustion. It didn't help that she had very little sleep the night before, so it was no surprise that she felt a little lightheaded and irrationally irritated with Aang for waking her up so soon.
Two: She remembered that yesterday afternoon, Aang had left for the Spirit World for some reason or another, and he must have just come back. She felt a little of her annoyance drain away at his concerned expression until she remembered detail number three:
"Aang, before you ask me what happened last night, I have a question for you..."
The spirit boy tensed at the deceptively conversational tone, instinctively getting a very bad feeling about where this was going when she turned rather haunted looking bloodshot eyes towards him.
"...When exactly were you going to tell me about the Comet?"
Sokka was startled awake with the furious airblast that Katara tossed across the room seconds after Aang's intelligent response of "Um... right now?". The blanket (and a screeching Momo) were immediately caught up in the erratic breeze and flung across the room, prompting Sokka to swivel partway up from his stomach and onto his elbows, looking wildly around with half unfocused eyes. "Ughsfhvh?! Wha-what's going on?"
"You knew about it the entire time, and you never thought to tell me about it until now?!"
Sokka sat up fully, peering at his very loud, very angry sister in confusion and annoyance, absently shushing a traumatized Momo as the lemur scurried over to his side and chattered at Katara irately. Ugh. It's way too early for this... "What are you talking about, Katara?"
She ignored him, and seemed to pause for a few seconds before uttering an outraged noise of disbelief. "I had to hear it from the warriors, Aang! I looked like an idiot in front of them, and-"
Oh. Aang's back. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, and stared at his sister as she gestured and raged at her invisible past life with all the scathing fury of an ice storm. Normally, he'd feel sorry for whatever poor sap was on the receiving end of Katara's righteous anger, but this time Sokka was genuinely torn between feeling like coming to Aang's rescue, and letting the spirit boy have it for withholding the information he did.
After ten minutes of watching Katara shout and rave at the air, his belly decided that Aang had enough of the well deserved tongue lashing. He staggered out of bed and clumsily patted Katara on the shoulder on his way out the door. "Hey, I know you need to chew him out an' all- I do too, actually- but we need to eat something. We never had any dinner, and I'm starving! See you two down stairs."
Katara's stomach growled loudly, echoing her retreating brother's point and making her realize just how hungry she really was. She sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, propping her hands on her hips in an unconscious echo of Mom's classic scolding/deeply annoyed stance as she glared at him. "Alright. We're going to talk about this later, Aang. For now, we need to eat, and we're supposed to meet up here with the Kyoshi warriors for breakfast anyway." She stiffly turned on her heel and made her way to the door, and briefly glanced back over her shoulder before she left the room.
Aang's reluctance as he hovered meekly by the window sent an unexpected prick of guilt as he looked up at her with wounded eyes that pleaded for her to understand. A few seconds ticked by, each moment working to drain the fight and fury in Katara away until there was nothing left but hurt. She looked down at the floor, her throat aching with the need to cry. Even though she had the right to be furious with him it wasn't accomplishing anything, but to further the distance between them. Time was short, and she needed Aang ...more than he could ever know. She needed him to help her and be upfront with her, and that wasn't going to happen if he was going to be afraid of her flipping out over the harsher realities that this whole stupid Avatar thing brought with it.
Her voice unstuck itself from her throat as she swallowed her pride. "I'm... I'm sorry, Aang. I'm sorry for shouting at you." She hesitantly turned around fully to face him, and though she fought it, tears started to sting her eyes and roughen her voice as the one question that had been rolling around in her mind voiced itself at last. "It's just... how could you keep this from me, Aang? I thought you were my friend."
"I am your friend!" Aang protested stridently, taking a few steps forward in alarm. "You should know that by now!"
"Then why didn't you tell me about this? Friends don't keep secrets from each other, and this wasn't your secret to keep!"
If it was possible, the spirit boy seemed to wilt further."I know that now, and I'm so sorry... I just didn't want you to live your life being afraid of having to defeat the Fire Nation. I was so scared when I found out about being the Avatar that I ran away, and died because of it. I didn't want that for you. You deserve a life of happiness and peace. I thought... if I could just wait until you were just a little older, you wouldn't have to live life afraid. No kid should be afraid to die."
It felt like she was back to being eight years old again, standing with Aang on top of the bright ocean water in her dream and asking why he never told her the truth of who she was. He had said then that he was afraid, but he never really clarified. Now she finally understood just how afraid he had been, and why. It still didn't wash away the fear she felt, but it was good to finally have everything out in the open.
They closed the small distance between themselves, and she buried her head in his shoulder, a few tears escaping as she held him tight. She was unreasonably grateful for Aang's returning grip, and for his murmured reassurances that she wasn't alone. "It'll be okay. We've all gone through it before, and I know how scary this is." The nomad pulled back, and Katara was relieved to see the beginning of a smile tug at the corners of his lips. "But Kyoshi was right, you are strong enough to handle this, and you're going to be strong enough to win the war. I'm going to be with you every step of the way, and I'll be there at the end to tell you 'I told you so'. I promise."
Katara nodded with a watery smile, pulling him off balance as she tugged him into another brief hug. It was Aang's simple conviction that she would win the war that banished some of Katara's fear, for the moment, and helped bolster her own hopeful confidence. Perhaps, with a little time and help, she really would win this war after all.
They pulled away with a sheepish laugh when her stomach growled insistently, the moment passing and reminding them how late it was getting. "Come on," She beckoned with a nod towards the door before turning to leave, "Sokka and the girls are waiting. There's a lot you missed out on while you were gone."
Author's Note:
Agni, in case you don't know, is the Fire Nation's name for the sun, and it appears to be their primary deity aside from the Avatars past (Roku seemed to have been immensely respected in canon, enough to where he still has his own temple on Crescent Island.)
Kyoshi appeared instead of Roku because Katara had unknowingly made contact with her (by touching her fans in the shrine), and because Aang needed a Toph-like kick in the pants. Plus, Kyoshi's cool. Don't mess with her.
The weird whispering mist was directly inspired by The Secret of Kells. If you haven't seen the film DO IT. It's fabulous!
A huge shout out to my awesome hubby, who knows far more about nautical stuff than I could ever hope to learn about! He handled a lot of what Zhao would be doing on a ship, and he's my official go-to man when it comes to the Fire Navy and what they would realistically do. Just another reason why I love him!
Next chapter should be written a little more quickly than this one, since I've actually got a plot for the next chapter written out (and I won't be writing with a vicious cold clouding my brain). So, I blame the cold if there are any mistakes that made it past this final edit. I'll try to re-read this chapter later, after I go to bed and wake up feeling better in the morning. Ciao!