Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar
Half an hour later, Katara found herself hurrying to pack her bags for what she would need to go to Omashu. She swiftly folded up her clothes that she was not currently using and packed them as her heart pounded in her chest. Aang's rush to leave made her feel the need to get ready as fast as possible. He had gathered his stuff and hurried out the door before she had even reached their room. She guessed that he went to go get Appa ready but for whatever reason she had a bad feeling in her gut. Katara could feel that Aang was stressing and he also seemed a little confused about something. That made her uneasy. Aang always seemed to do something irrational when he was like this.
She closed up her bags as she finished packing and ran down the stairs to see that Sokka was already there waiting for her to go and her dad was standing next to him. Once Hakoda saw her come down he walked up to hug his daughter.
"I'll miss you," he said gently.
Katara hugged him a little tighter, "I'll miss you to. We shouldn't be gone long though."
Her father broke away and smiled at her, "If things are more chaotic then they seem, send me a message and I will get there as soon as I can."
Katara nodded but Sokka spoke up, "What about the city. You just can't leave it."
"The council can run it while I'm gone," Hakoda said, "that is what they are there for. Depending on what is taking place, the other nations might need to work together to solve this problem and I need to play my part if it gets that serious."
"Hopefully it's not as bad as we think," Katara cut in.
"It'll be fine," their father assured, "You two helped end the Hundred Year War and I know that you can help end this to. I just want you to know that I couldn't be more proud of you."
The siblings smiled and hugged their dad goodbye once more before making their way out of the house. They made their way out of the city and towards Appa's stable but to their surprise, Appa was no longer there.
Katara nearly felt her heart stop, oh no. She ran forward and began to look at the area around the stables with Sokka close behind her. However, Sokka stopped as something caught his eye.
"Katara over here," Sokka called out.
His sister quickly turned around and ran over to him to see what he was looking at. A trail of footprints were imprinted in the snow and by the looks of them, they were Appa's. Katara ran forward following the trail, praying to the spirits that Appa wasn't too far away.
Sokka began to run after her, "Wait up, just slow down a minute!"
Katara didn't listen though. She ran for another minute before she spotted Appa walking away from her in the distance and she stopped, breathing heavily.
"Finally," Sokka breathed as he caught up to her, spotting the bison in the distance, "See there he is. No big deal."
Once again though, Katara didn't seem to hear him, "Aang?" she said softly, sounding as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Before Sokka could stop her, she ran forward again, calling out Aang's name over and over desperately.
Sokka's eyes widened, finally figuring out what Katara had found out when they saw the empty stable. The young warrior quickly followed her towards the bison and to his relief, he saw Appa stop when his sister reached him.
Katara slowly walked around to Appa's head were she found Aang sitting, staring at his lap.
She looked up at him, "What were you doing?" she demanded.
Aang looked away from her ashamed and Katara's breath hitched as she realized that her suspicions were right.
"Were you trying to leave us!" Katara accused, raising her voice in disbelief.
Aang only looked further away from her and squeezed his eyes shut. She felt a mixture of emotions coming from him but she couldn't quite tell what they were and frankly, she didn't care. She was furious and she knew that was exactly what Aang could feel from her.
"I can't believe you!" she yelled, clenching her fists, "I can't believe you would do that, after all that we have been through! How could you try to leave us behind!"
Aang kept silent as his heart ached from the pain he knew that he had caused her.
"Answer me!" she demanded, feeling tears gather in her eyes.
Aang tuned his head to look at her through the corner of his eyes, "I just…don't think it is safe for you to come."
"WHAT!"
Aang visibly flinched from her tone, a tone that she rarely addressed towards him, "It might be dangerous. We don't know what we are going up against."
Katara glared long and hard at him, a few tears lining her cheeks. She barely registered Sokka standing a few dozen feet away from her to give the couple some space. After taking a few heavy breaths she spoke up again, not lowering her voice, "You think it's too dangerous? I helped you fight the war Aang. Sokka and I both did. How can you tell me that anything could be more dangerous than that!"
"I just don't want you to get hurt," Aang told her gently, trying to calm her down, "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you."
"I can handle myself just fine Aang! You know that!"
"I know it's just…"
"It's just what Aang! She interrupted.
"It's just safer for you here. I know you can handle yourself but," Aang paused not knowing how to continue, "I just…I think this is something I can handle on my own. There is no need for you to put yourself in danger."
"What if you can't handle it on your own," Katara lowered her voice slightly, trying to use reason now, "What then? Am I just supposed to sit here waiting for you to return? I can't do that Aang. We do this together, don't you remember? That's what you said."
"I know what I said," Aang looked down at her, his heart breaking when he saw her hurt expression, "but some things change."
"Well this doesn't," Katara told him sternly.
"Just trust me okay? I can handle this alone. Katara please, I need you to understand," Aang pleaded, his voice rising. Part of him knew that he was being a little ridiculous but he only wanted to protect her. He didn't want to risk losing her and he felt he needed to convince her to stay.
"Understand what?" Katara retorted, hands on her hips, "Why you would leave me behind? I'll be fine Aang."
"You don't know that," Aang said, still trying to convince her as he felt himself getting more frustrated, "we knew what we were going up against during the war. We don't know that now!"
"You're right we don't," Katara agreed, feeling as though she was about to get through to him, "But I do know one thing, and that is that I need you, and you need me."
"Katara for the last time, I don't need you, I can do it on my own!" Aang yelled at her forcefully, but quickly stopped when he realized what he had said. He forced himself to glance down at her and he didn't need their spiritual connection to understand what she was feeling: hurt and betrayal.
Katara's whole body shook and she looked down at the snow, clenching her eyes shut as she tried to stop the tears from falling. She didn't know what to say. She and Aang always depended on each other, especially during the war. It broke her heart to hear Aang cast her off like that. She had always felt that it was her duty to protect him but apparently, he didn't need that.
"Katara I…" Aang started, but he was quickly interrupted.
"Shut up! Just shut up!" she looked back up to him and the anger and pain that he saw in her eyes forced him to look away, "Sokka and I are going with you and that's final!"
"I don't want you to get hurt," Aang pleaded one last time.
"Well if you haven't already noticed, you're hurting me right now Aang!" Katara yelled at him.
Those words seemed to pierce Aang's heart and he put his hand on his chest as a result from the feeling. He could also feel his eyes begin to water, what was I thinking? She was right, how could I do that?
Aang gulped and he looked cautiously at her and found that she was looking away from him now, gazing off to the side, but he could clearly see the tears that were falling from her eyes, "Alright Katara, you guys can come."
She looked back up at him, her voice quivering when she spoke, "Oh is that what you want now! After you essentially just got done telling me that I'm worthless! Go off on your own if you want! See if I care!"
"I don't want that," Aang told her, looking at her pleadingly, "I'm sorry Katara, I didn't mean that I swear. I 'm just nervous and stressed and…"
He didn't finish because Katara abruptly turned and walked away from him. He thought she was leaving but a few second later he felt two figures climb onto Appa's tail and up to the saddle.
"Yip yip," Aang said halfheartedly as Appa took off.
He hated himself right now. He couldn't believe that he had said that to her, that he had lied to her like that in his desperation to get her to stay. Now she was mad at him, furious even. He hugged his knees to his chest as a few tears formed. For the first time, Aang had felt her more negative emotions come through their connection and it felt terrible to know what she was feeling right now; it shattered his heart into hundreds of little pieces.
The worst part is that she believed what he had told her was true and he knew very well that it wasn't. He needed her, more than she could imagine, and he only hoped that he would be able to make it all up to her and that she would be able to forgive him.
Tau watched through the window of the control room as more patrols from the search party passed below them. After escaping Omashu, the city had sent out an enormous group of soldiers to hunt them down and it quickly became apparent to Tau that they couldn't out run them without the risk of being discovered.
Sorin had eventually managed to guide the airship into a small crevice in a large plateau that they had come across and Tau decided that it would be best to wait until the majority of the patrols were called off from their search before going anywhere. So, for the past few days, they had simply been waiting for that to happen. From the look of things, they would be able to move out soon. The patrols were coming around a lot less often and Tau guessed in a couple of days they would be free to go.
In the mean time, the group had been looking around the airship to get familiar with it and that was what Sorin and Ryu were off doing now. It had been agreed that one person would always be in the control room in case something happened and now, it was Tau's turn to wait there.
The truth was though, even when they are able to leave, Tau wasn't quite sure on where they would go. At the moment they had reached a dead end. The missing pages to Kuruk's Journal had not been in the Omashu archives. However, Tau knew that it was possible that they were moved somewhere else with the other things that had been on those empty shelves, but he also knew that he had no idea of where they would be moved to. He hadn't brought it up to Ryu or Sorin yet, but at this point, he figured that it wouldn't hurt for them to know. Maybe they had an idea.
As if on cue, both of his companions walked through the door a few seconds later.
"Anything new yet," Sorin asked, sitting down on a chair.
"No, just the same things we have seen for the past few days," Tau replied turning away from the window.
"Where are we even going to head to once we do leave?" Ryu asked as he leaned against a wall near the door, crossing his arms.
"I was just thinking about that," Tau told him, "Honestly, I don't know, but I do know that the missing pages might have been moved from the Omashu archives."
"What makes you think that?" Sorin questioned, leaning back in his chair
"Right before we had to leave the archives I saw something," Tau explained, "There was a whole section of documents that was missing. I think they may have been moved and the pages may have been part of it."
"Well that isn't very helpful," Sorin stated, "where would it have been moved to?"
Tau shook his head, "I don't know but if we want any chance at finding those pages we are going to have to find out."
"Ba Sing Se," Ryu said.
"What?" Tau looked at him.
"They may have been moved to Ba Sing Se," Ryu told him.
"How do you know," Sorin asked.
Ryu was silent for a few moments, "Before the Avatar showed up, the Dai Li had complete control of Ba Sing Se. No shipments came in and nothing happened without us knowing. A few years ago I, along with a few other Dai Li, was assigned to help transport a large group of documents in to Ba Sing Se's archives."
"The documents came from the Omashu archives?" Tau guessed.
"Correct," Ryu nodded, "I was the one in charge of making sure the transportation was successful and it was."
"So if the missing pages were part of that move then they are now in the archives in Ba Sing Se," Sorin said.
"Do you know if the missing pages were a part of that move?" Tau asked Ryu.
Ryu shook his head, "We didn't look at each individual document. There were simply too many. We did look over a few but I don't remember seeing the missing pages. They could possibly still be there however."
"So I am guessing that is where we will be going next," Sorin said.
"It's the best chance we have," Tau shrugged, "Unless you have any other ideas."
Sorin thought for a moment, "No, Ba Sing Se sounds good."
"If that is where we are going then we should probably move out now," Ryu informed.
"What? Why?" Tau asked.
"Once Ba Sing Se learns of what happened at Omashu, they will tighten their security on the archives," Ryu explained.
"I thought Ba Sing Se kept its archives open to the public," Tau said.
Ryu smiled and laughed a little, "Not really. The archives that you are talking about are just a proxy. Sure, it has real documents but the only documents there are about things that are common knowledge."
"Why have them then?" Sorin asked.
"Because it makes people believe that the government is being open with them and therefore, it makes people more comfortable," Ryu said, "the real archives with all of the Earth Kingdom's dirty little secrets are located below the proxy archives."
"Is that where the missing pages will be," Tau questioned.
"It couldn't hurt to look in the proxy archives, they might be there," Ryu crossed his arms, "but more than likely they are in the real archives and those are tightly guarded. Only people with the highest security clearance are allowed into them."
"That might be a problem then," Sorin said, "Omashu was hard enough and Ba Sing Se will be more difficult to get out of if things go wrong again."
"We'll deal with that when we get there," Tau said nonchalantly, "in the mean time I say we take Ryu's advice and head out."
"There are still quite a few patrols out there," Sorin stated.
"We'll be careful then."
Sorin nodded and sat down at the controls and began to prep the airship for launch.
"Just make sure you keep us low to the ground. It makes us harder to spot unless a patrol is right next to us," Tau told him as the ship began to lift off.
"Right, not to mention that we may appear to be a part of the patrol from a distance," Ryu agreed.
Luckily, when they flew out of the crevice, there didn't appear to be anything else around them. Sorin gently guided the ship towards the ground and once they were only a few dozen feet in the air, he began to move the ship forward. Tau and Ryu looked out the windows to try to spot any one of the numerous patrols. Sure enough, Tau spotted some far out in the distance but they only appeared as small black dots so he wasn't worried about that particular group spotting them.
"How does it look guys," Sorin asked as he focused on controlling the ship.
"We are all good," Ryu assured, "No patrols in sight yet."
"Save for a few too far off in the distance to do anything," Tau finished, "just make sure we go slowly. We don't want to run into anything unexpectedly.
"You got it," Sorin smiled.
"It's going to take us a week to get to Omashu going this speed," Ryu observed, "You sure we shouldn't go a little bit faster?"
Tau shrugged, "It's better to move slowly than having to fight off constant waves of soldiers. We need to be as discrete as we can. We can't afford to pull another stunt like we did in Omashu."
Ryu just nodded understandingly. If there was one thing he knew about Tau, it was that the man knew what he was doing, and Ryu wasn't about to start doubting him now.
Sokka sighed as he leaned against the edge of Appa's saddle. They had been flying for hours now, it was early into the night, and no had said anything yet. Aang stayed on Appa's head and Katara was as far away from that as possible, leaning against the very back of the saddle.
Being between them right now was a little awkward for Sokka. The atmosphere around them was unsettling to say the least. He had tried to occupy his time by sharpening his boomerang but even that got old after a while. Now, he just sat back and tried to ignore the tension surrounding the group.
Looking back, he figured he probably should have stepped into the argument between Aang and Katara but he had felt that they would solve it on their own. They always did but not this time, and Sokka regretted that he hadn't done anything. He understood where Aang was coming from, it was the typical protective boyfriend attitude, but at the same time he was a little disappointed in Aang for trying to leave. Not to mention that he was a little angry at him for hurting his sister.
Speaking of which, Sokka glanced at her worriedly. Her back was to him and if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that she was asleep because of how still she was. He knew she was awake though and he also knew that this problem would have to be solved eventually. He slowly crawled over to Katara and put a hand on her shoulder causing her to turn around and look at him.
"Hey, we need to talk," he said gently.
She sat up straight and faced him, "What do we have to talk about?"
"You know," Sokka told her.
She looked away from him and towards Appa's head, "That's none of your business."
"Sure it is," he said, "You're my sister."
Katara was silent for a minute or two before she spoke up again, "I just don't understand why he said that. I don't know why he would try to leave like that."
"He loves you," Sokka shrugged, "And when people care about someone as much as you two care about each other, they can do some pretty irrational things. Like he said, he was just trying to protect you."
"How could he just leave me like that though?" Katara persisted.
"Because he's Aang. You know how he gets sometimes when something goes wrong. He feels like it's his job to fix what happens in the world and he doesn't want us to risk ourselves to help him," Sokka explained, "Don't you remember all of those other times he has done that? After he woke up from Azula's lightning strike and then there was that one time after the war and he tried to convince us to go home while he stayed to clean up the world. Can you really say that you were all that surprised to find him sneaking away?"
"I had a feeling that he might do something stupid when I was packing," Katara started, "but that doesn't change anything. You don't know what he told me, what he promised me."
"What are you talking about?"
"A few weeks ago," she said a little bitterly, "I was worried that something would happen in the world like what happened in Omashu and he told me that I didn't need to worry about that. He promised that we would solve it together and then the first thing he does when something actually does happen is try to leave me behind and go off on his own. He lied to me. Not to mention he essentially told me that I was just a burden to carry along with him."
"Katara, Aang didn't mean that," Sokka told her sympathetically, "he was just stressed and he was trying to convince you to stay and he said things he didn't mean."
Katara shook her head sadly, "But it's true Sokka, whether he meant it or not. He's the Avatar. Why would he need either of us?"
"Don't think that," he said, hugging her to try to give her some comfort, "Aang does need you and you know it. You are his emotional support; you're what keeps him going."
"Yeah, he told me that before to," Katara murmured, "and look at what he said today."
"Katara…" he sighed exasperated.
"Can we just stop talking about it now," she pleaded, "I'm going to try to get some sleep."
Sokka sighed again as his sister turned away from him to lie down. He didn't really think he had gotten anywhere with their conversation except now he knew that this was something that they would have to work out on their own. At the same time, he knew they never would unless they were able to be alone for a bit and that would not happen as long as they were on Appa. Sokka thought of an idea that would give them an opportunity to talk to each other and to his delight, the idea that popped in his head seemed to work out for his own purposes to.
Once he was sure that Katara was asleep he went up to peak over the front of the saddle and saw Aang lying on Appa's head.
"Aang, you awake?"
"Yeah," Aang answered softly.
"I want to ask you something," Sokka told him, "get up here."
Aang sighed as he climbed up onto the saddle, "What is it?"
Sokka was silent for a few moments as he studied the boy in front of him. He looked like a mess. Dried up tear lines framed his face and his eyes were red. I guess the argument is hurting him as much as it did Katara, he thought.
"Sokka…" Aang started, drawing the older boy from his thoughts.
"Oh yeah, right," Sokka shook his head as he regained focus, "I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to stop by at Kyoshi Island. We should be able to get there by morning and Appa has to rest sometime. "
Aang shook his head, "Mai said we need to get to Omashu as soon as we can."
"We will only be there for a day," Sokka persisted.
"Did you want to see if Suki could join us? Is this what this is about?" Aang raised an eyebrow.
"Yes…among other things," Sokka answered cryptically.
Aang looked at him skeptically for a few moments, trying to figure out his other motives, "I guess it couldn't hurt," he conceded, starting to make his way back onto Appa's head.
"Wait Aang," Sokka grabbed his arm to stop him, "I'll fly Appa for now, you get some rest."
Aang nodded slowly before looking across the saddle and spotted Katara's sleeping form and Sokka swore that he could see guilt flashing across the younger boy's eyes.
"Is she mad at me?" Aang whispered.
"What do you think," Sokka said a little sternly.
Aang sighed, "I can't believe that I had even said that to her."
"Yeah, you were pretty much a jerk," Sokka said bluntly causing Aang to glare at him.
"Thanks for that," he muttered sarcastically.
"Don't mention it," Sokka shrugged, "just calling it like I see it."
Aang looked down at his lap, "Are you mad at me to."
"For what?" Sokka asked, "For trying to leave us behind or for hurting my sister?"
"Either."
"Look Aang," Sokka said gently, pausing for a few moments until Aang looked back up at him, "I know your reasons and I understand them but I also think you were being incredibly stupid. I am not mad at you for trying to leave…I guess I am just a little disappointed. I thought you learned a long time ago to not try to go at it alone."
Aang's head fell at Sokka's words but he heard the older boy continue.
"As for my sister…you better make it up to her soon, or else I will be mad," he finished sternly.
"I'm sorry Sokka," Aang said.
Sokka shook his head, "Apologize to her. She doubts a lot of what you have told her now."
"I didn't mean what I said…"
"I know you didn't," Sokka interrupted, "but she feels that there is some truth to what you said, whether you meant it or not."
Aang sighed and held his head in his heads, "Do you think she'll forgive me?"
"Of course she will," Sokka assured, "it'll take a lot more than that for her to stop loving you, trust me. You just need to talk to her and clear things up okay."
Aang nodded and after a few moments, Sokka decided to hop on to Appa's head so Aang could rest.
Sokka took hold of Appa's reins and gently steered him towards the direction of Kyoshi Island, hoping that when he got there, Suki would welcome him with open arms and that Aang would manage to mend things with his sister.
So I know this isn't the happiest chapter in the fic but I hope you enjoyed reading it nonetheless. For those of you not liking Kataang arguments, you should know by reading the end of this chapter that it will be resolved pretty quickly so no need to fret about it.:)