Chapter Ten: Somethings Gotta Change, Things Cannot Stay The Same

Katara, Yue

It had taken them a week to fully explore the small island they were on, another to figure out that no one was coming to get them, and then a few days to utilize their knowledge of boats and boat building to construct a sturdy little raft out of the native trees. They could see the mainland through the fog once Katara had waved it away, and the two were determined to get off this island, still not entirely convinced there weren't lost souls which dwelled on it.

As they sailed across the sea, it dawned on them or Katara at least, if Zuko had been indeed real, as they had thought before waking to find he'd disappeared again, then where had he gone? Had he come this way too? Yue broached another subject as she asked,

"Katara, we're in the old Fire Nation lands of the West, right? Well, um… do you think their spirits will be angry at us, two Water Tribe girls, stepping onto their land, I mean we were on an outlying island before and not the mainland, so…"

"I.. don't know… but I have already paid in blood for my people's transgressions." Katara was stoicly, sorrowfully solemn as she said this, something that Yue wasn't sure she ever wanted to see again.

Katara had always been hopeful and sometimes slightly moody, but never so solemn and sorrowful. Yue decided that it might be best if she didn't approach the subject again, although she still wasn't at ease for some reason about landing on the mainland…

Sokka

Master Pakku had been incredibly mysterious in his desire to get them to leave, sneaking them out in the middle of the night and such, but the thing he couldn't figure out was why he had done it. The last thing Pakku said as Aang jumped on Appa's head and he himself climbed up the saddle to join Suki and Toph burned in his mind,

"We failed once, due to our prejudices, but now we will not…"

Pakku had said it mostly to himself, but Sokka had heard it and so it left him with such burning questions, as did Avatar Roku's words to Aang, well, it was more his choice of words that drove him mad with curiosity. Aang had said he'd repeated Roku's words exactly, so why had Roku said,

"They are… Tui and La… Reunite with them and they will show you to…"

That part was confusing slightly, because Roku was fading out even then, but what drove him really up the wall was the wording,

"Reunite with them",

so Aang had already met them? It was so confusing, because then the Avatar had been reincarnated like, a billion times, so had Aang met them or had a previous incarnation?

Zuko

He'd strung together a hastily crafted raft which barely managed to make it to the mainland, but spent a week once there crafting a solid one for the journey to the Fire Sage temple on Crescent Island. It took a bit of trial and error, but he'd managed to finally build one, however, once he got to Crescent Island, the lack of firebender in the place for a hundred years became evident.

There was a reason firebenders lived in the Fire Nation, because by harnessing the power of fire they were able to somewhat control a volcano's fury, but since the Fire Sages had all been killed, it seemed so had their temple.

It would seem as though once he was removed from the temple, the entire place had been leveled in a volcanic outburst… or maybe it was simply the work of those Earth Kingdom terrors, manipulating the earth into destroying the only place where he could get answers. Defeated, he sat down and tried to think of what he was to do next…

He couldn't go back to the Earth Kingdom, the ones in authority there had a price on his head, he couldn't go to either of the Water Tribes, the strangeness of the sun and moon cycles would be the death of him there but really he would stand out far too much anyway, and the Air Temples? No, he couldn't live with a bunch of monks teaching kindness and forgiveness, not when they had done nothing to stop the destruction of his nation so long ago, no, he held them as much in fault as the other nations, which was why he was doomed to live alone, in the remains of the Fire Nation…

But he still wanted answers, why was he saved? What had happened to Azula? How had he actually been frozen in time for one hundred years? These questions wouldn't go away without some sort of answer to them, so he continued to ponder how to obtain the sought after answers when he realized, there was one place that he could get some answers…

It had been terribly long since anyone had been there though, and he wondered what exactly would be there waiting for him. Still, he headed out…

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

She finally managed to get Sokka's attention by hitting him upside the head with her fan, they were supposed to be setting up camp and Sokka wasn't helping, dazing off in his own world. The whole group had seemed to be in horrid spirits since the Northern Temple, but the hope they had fostered during their stay in the Northern Water Tribe had dissappated it seemed after the revelation that Avatar Roku really hadn't given them any information, other than to restore some sort of balance and that answers laid within the Earth Kingdom.

Well, Earth Kingdom happened to be the largest kingdom of the four, so the answers weren't being found, their friends were still unaccounted for, and the Spirit World wasn't helping out anymore either… Thus a fog of depression and angst fell over the camp... She had had enough!

"All right! We're in the Earth Kingdom now, so we're gonna get our answers soon, like Avatar Roku said, so let's just not fight our enemies until we can see them!" She burst suddenly, startling the other three to the point where Sokka made a slight squeak when she first shouted.

She wasn't one for the touchy-feely, "let's talk your problems out" sort of comfort, but she wasn't going to let these guys, her friends and allies, beat themselves up trying to figure out some crazy, mystic, Spirit World hocus-pocus and riddles. She believed in two things, things she could fight and things she couldn't, so she would fight what she could and not bother with what she couldn't.

"I don't know if the others are alive or dead, I don't know if there is a way to restore whatever the balance is that Avatar Roku talked about, and I certainly don't know how to find Tui and La, but I do know that there's no point in worrying about what I can't change, so we'll just jump off those bridges when we come to them, alright?"

Toph, for once, seemed quite satisfied with this little speech that she made and added,

"Yeah! So let's just follow the path before us, it's easier than trying to decide if another path is better."

And that was how Suki broke through the thick cloud of doubt, worry, and confusion that hung over the GAang, Suki style.

Yue

It was the middle of the day by the time they had managed to actually reach the mainland, and her fears of landing on the mainland hadn't quite gone away. Actually, she felt more trepidation the closer they came to the shoreline. Katara hopped out onto the ground first, easing her fears slightly, but as she stepped closer to the edge of the raft, she felt fainter and fainter.

She didn't notice the sweat pouring down her forehead and arms as she took the step off the raft. As her foot touched the scorching sand, the world around her went black. She didn't even hear Katara shout her name…

Toph

They had been flying around, not entirely knowing where they were going anyway, they just assumed they'd know it when they saw it, and if that were true then they supposed they were meant to be in this swamp… this creepy swamp.

Aang had directed Appa to land without even realizing it, and when Suki and Sokka had tried to tell him to pull up, or not land in the creeptastic swamp, he replied that he hadn't even realized he was. One tornado and a dive into the swamp later, and here they were….

Well, sorta. It seemed they'd all been split up, and as astonishing as it was, even though her feet were planted securely on the ground, she couldn't "see" any of them. Aang and Appa? They could have been flying, but the others? She was very confused, but she at least still had Momo firmly planted on her shoulder, so she proceeded along through the swamp.

Zuko

It would have felt nostalgic, being back here, except for the hundred year old skeletons that still littered the streets. He'd heard stories during his captivity in the Earth Kingdom about the mass suicide that his father had lead in the capital and how no one from the other nations dared to even approach the city, but seeing it for himself, he just felt… hopeless?

How could so many have just ended their lives like this? What was it all for? But then he was reminded of the fact that all the other people of his nation had been killed by either Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe forces anyway, so perhaps they had just rather died in service to their lord than by the enemy's whim. Still, it really didn't matter now, did it? They all died irregardless…

He didn't have time to contemplate which death was better, he had a certain secret entrance to find… There! The entrance to the dragon bone catacombs, the only place left that he could think of that would hold any information on the Fire Nation or the Fire Sage Temple and what could have possibly happened to him inside said place.

Sokka

Well, this was just great! As though walking through a scummy swamp wasn't enough, he was seeing things on top of that! There in front of him was this ginormous owl, looking at him through evil glaring eyes. He looked at it in awe for a moment, before deciding it must be an illusion, and turned and walked away. He could feel a warm breeze blowing along the back of his neck, along with…sand?

He was about to turn back around when suddenly something pushed him face first into the swamp water. Pushing himself back up with a vengeance, he wheeled around to see that it was Suki who had toppled into him…

Katara

Catching Yue as she fell forward, passed out, from the raft, she wondered if maybe she was wrong about the islands of the West, maybe they were cursed… No, she was sure Yue was just tired from the waterbending which had gotten them here in less than a half a day and the heat pouring down from the sun wasn't helping either.

Half dragging the other girl, she retreated to a shaded area, safe from the sun for a while. It was then she realized the pained expression on Yue's face and also that she was drenched in sweat. Placing her hand on Yue's forehead with a slight degree of trepidation, she was severely worried for her friend now, and as soon as her hand touched the flesh of Yue's forehead, some of her fears were confirmed, Yue had a bad fever.

She needed help, but they were in the lands of the West and Katara, although she'd tried to learn from Yue, had failed miserably in every attempt to heal with her bending… Maybe a passing Air Nomad would see them, if they were high enough to be spotted from a flying bison…

Quickly stitching together a few brambles, she made a makeshift cot for Yue to rest on as she dragged it along behind her, trying to find any sort of structure or high place to try and signal an Air Nomad and get help…

Aang

Well, things had certainly gotten quite exciting, besides the unintentional visit to the swamp and the disappearance of Appa and his friends, leaving him alone, he had seen something in blue moving through the swamp, what it was, he couldn't tell for sure, as he was unable to get a good glimpse of it. Following along through the thick underbrush and murky waters, he finally came to a small clearing in the area; a fallen tree had apparently cleared the area when it collapsed.

It was the first direct light he'd been able to see in the smoggy forest. A dark, malevolent sounding voice spoke from behind him saying,

"I can see it now... Yes, of course, I would be summoned forth by your mind, but you don't really know what it is that I am, do you?"

"Is someone there? Have you seen my friends? We crashed here together, but were split up... Two of them are Earth Kingdom and one is Water Tribe, along with a flying bison and a lemur." he replied to the disembodied voice, and reflected that there was something so very familiar about the feminine voice itself, but he couldn't quite place it.

A sound similar to moving water echoed through the swamp as the voice switched location to beside him instead of behind and once more spoke,

"I am the changing tides, the darkness of the sea…" Again the voice moved, to his other side as it continued,

"And you would still try to catch me? We will see…"

"I don't want to catch you! I don't even know who you are! Have you seen my friends or not?" he replied back, quite confused and somewhat frantic, he really just wanted to find his friends.

"Really, Aang, I thought you'd have figured it out."

This time he knew the voice, it was Katara!

Author's Note: Yeah, a lot going on, and yes, I did change what Sokka saw in the swamp, 'cause he has no reason to see Yue this time, because he doesn't really know her, some of you guys might realize what the dream was referring to, but maybe not… J ( I thought I made it obvious, maybe not though….) …as yeah, it is the adventures in the swamp which they are going through.

BTW: Toph can't "see" the others 'cause that swamp is… like, really freaking weird.

So yeah, here's the part where we start getting answers, only a few, if you're sharp. If you're really sharp (a.k.a. reading my mind) you already saw this coming.

Um, oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't get the name of the place where they keep all the important records right, I called it the Dragon Bone catacombs, but I think I'm wrong… so, whatever… Let's just pretend Zuko remembered the name wrong…

And yes, I have for a special reason made Katara unable to heal, there is a VERY good reason for this, so don't kill me! You will see eventually…

So I wasn't too impressed with this chapter either... and I figured out why... no freakin' action. So we'll get back to that... soonish. I'm not sure if I can actually put a whole lot into the next chapter, but I'll try!

Um, so yeah, next chapter: Yue: sick, why? Toph's swamp dream? Suki's swamp dream? Aang sees Katara again? And Zuko's adventures in the record books?