Ah guys, I'm delayed posting again and I don't even have a good excuse for why. It's just that every time I've tried to write anything for the last week it hasn't happened, I couldn't make the words go. Urgh. But here we are, I finally scraped this chapter together. There's more Now We Are Five, Law Of Large Numbers, guest posts on friends' stories and one shots on their way too, I've just been too bleugh to get a lot of writing done. If it's any consolation I feel shitty about how bad I've been recently.
A note! Yeah, another one! So, I guess there's probably a ton of Avatar: The Last Airbender fans who are also reading Adventure Time fan fiction, right? So, the very end of this chapter is for you. Remember that episode of AT where Finn goes into the pillow fort and meets Roselinen and lives in Pillow World for a whole lifetime before being returned? Well, I did strongly hint at this reveal a few times, if you picked up on it. If not... surprise?
Content Warning: violence, language, exposition, vampire lore, feels, character death, minor crossover.
Matilda was sleeping soundly, for once not troubled by nightmares or difficulty breathing. Zoe had spent hours standing guard by her bed as she did every night, watching her lover's face unblinkingly like it might be the last time she ever saw it. And then without any warning the door burst open. Before she could move at all Marceline had Matilda up in the air by her throat, eyes blazing crimson with fury.
"Did you fuck her?" she snarled, voice thundering with demon rage.
"Wh- vnr-" Tilda choked. Zoe didn't even remember consciously moving, she was between them before she'd even thought about it and shoving Marceline's hands away from her lover's throat. So she'd finally been forced to choose, and she'd chosen Matilda. That was not a surprise.
"Get your damn hands off her, she's sick." Zoe snarled. And when had she transformed, why was she bigger than Marceline? But not for long. Her Sire assumed her own Hellbeast form and suddenly there were two twelve foot demons grappling in the bedroom while Matilda scrambled out of their way, hands massaging her throat and rasping for help.
"SHE STOLE MY WIFE!" Marceline howled furiously.
"Nobody stole anyone! Calm the fuck down, before I have to hurt you!"
"I'LL KILL HER!"
"Try it. Try me, you'll not put another hand on her. Calm down or I will put you down."
Zoe drove her point home by angrily pinning her Sire against the wall and holding her snarling and furious in place until she stilled and shrank back to her regular shape. How she'd managed to defy a direct order from her queen and hold back the most powerful being in existence was anyone's guess but she supposed distantly that abrupt terror for Matilda had given her an extra edge. And now more vampires were appearing in their doorway, drawn irresistibly by the noises of conflict among their own kind.
"Woah, what did you do?" Elliot gasped, staring around at them. In all her centuries she'd never seen anyone best Marceline the way Zoe just had.
"You had better unhand the queen before I destroy you, girl." Johnson added with a scowl and his eyes blazing with protective anger. He would have surged forward to Marceline's defence but Nia laid a calming hand on his shoulder and despite his dislike of being commanded by anyone Johnson stilled at the silent warning from his old friend. But Nia's dark eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Zoe's pale face too, she wouldn't hold him back for long if the girl really was intending to hurt her own Sire. There were only a few unforgivable crimes among vampires and that was one of the oldest of them.
"Put her down, Whitecairns." Nia ordered softly. "You do not want to be mistaken for a threat to the queen. Not now, not when tempers are so short. I would hate for there to be any accidents. Tell us what happened."
"I'm just protecting my mate." Zoe replied stiffly, backing away to block Matilda from Marceline's crimson gaze but with the cold snarl still lacing through her words. "She burst in here shouting accusations, insane things, about Matilda seducing her wife. As if she wouldn't be able to smell another's touch on the queen's skin, as if she owns her and has any say of who she takes to her bed."
"You wouldn't understand, you're not married!" Marceline interrupted angrily. "It's different, you can see who you want but we're committed, we don't cheat!"
"And where in your wedding vows did you promise monogamy?" Zoe asked with a vicious glare for her Sire. "Of everyone here, I expected you at least to be more enlightened."
"So they did commit adultery then. I fucking knew it! And you, you backstabbing piece of shit, you covered for them! Get out of my way before I kill you too!"
"You want to talk about backstabbing, about betrayal? Try being forgotten about for four hundred years because the person who swore they'd come back for you got fucking distracted and forgot you existed! Try only being remembered because your Sire's wife's butler is a shady little bastard with dark connections! You come in here and throw around accusations, threaten people, you have no idea how much we've all suffered because of you! Lay a single hand on Matilda again and I'll crush your skull like a fucking melon."
It could have ended badly for everyone if Stefan hadn't arrived then. Elliot could have done it too but for whatever reason she chose not to intervene, and along with all of her other transgressions he knew he'd never forgive her for that either. But the heavyset blonde man shouldered his way past the undead crowd at the door in time to assess the minds of everyone involved and tackle Marceline before she could destroy her own lineage. He scanned their minds, no time to ask for consent when lives were at stake, and pushed back his revulsion at what he found there to deal with later. He needed to solve the problem in front of him before he could focus on the much bigger issue of the rebels having unlimited access to Bubblegum's memories.
"Garrett did this. Nobody has betrayed anyone." he told Marceline in a rush. "And turning you against each other is what he wanted! By attacking Zoe and Matilda you're playing into his hands, he wants to isolate you from the people closest to you!"
"Garrett... you mean Estelle's lineage?" Matilda spoke up for the first time. She was staring over Zoe's shoulder, eyes wide with fear and a reddening fist shaped bruise already beginning to blossom on the pale skin of her throat.
"He's no simple lineage. He's got a whole gang of his frat brothers backing him up." Zoe supplied. "He's... he bit them, after he'd been Turned. So Estelle's lineage has lineage. Meta-lineage. It makes sense that she's gone crazy with the power. During the first rebellion she kept him hidden, nobody knew he was anything but a normal lineage. And now, now I guess she's grown arrogant and overconfident, she lets Garrett rule as her 'King' and his Zeta Psi gang run around him like adoring puppies."
"Abominations." Johnson whispered in horror. "To allow lineage to create their own lineage... She's not even trying to hide how unnatural she is. They must be destroyed, all of them."
"Your young princes' axe will taste their blood, I have felt it. My Talent tells me his blade will claim many vampires." Nia reassured him.
"No. Not Finn, he's not going to be part of the fighting. He's just a child."
Marceline had been silent while they spoke, held in place by her lineage brother and trying to understand what was happening. Estelle had lineage, everyone knew that. She was Old Blood, that meant she had been strong enough to live through her Sire dying and their bond breaking and had bound others in her service as lineage. But to allow Garrett to bind this friends to himself while he was bound to her was... Johnson was right to call it an abomination. No Sire could withstand the mental feedback from the lineage of their lineage, especially not if there was a whole fraternity of them. Estelle must have been slowly losing her mind for centuries with Garrett feeding from her power and being supported by his own lineage It was madness to let him do that, even she thought so and she'd defied almost every law vampire society had once upon a time, she'd treated her own lineage as lovers and equals, murdered her Sire, banned the drinking of human blood. But Marceline was different, she always had been. She was their queen. Estelle had her crown but she didn't have the mental authority to maintain that kind of stress on her magic and mind. Marceline almost felt sorry for her. Almost. But she wasn't going to sit back and let Nia comfort Johnson by risking her son's safety, not even hypothetically.
"Marceline, where is Queen Bubblegum?"
Stefan's voice pulled her from her thoughts and she shrugged his hands away from her shoulders.
"The throne room. She wanted to be alone." she replied softly.
"Come on, we'll go and speak with her. However bad this is for you it will be worse for her, she has Garrett's Talent in her head." Stefan sighed. Before they could leave the room Nia drifted forward, slowing their way for a moment.
"I am sorry, Marceline. I tried to tell you. He is a mind bender, he has seen your wife in more detail than you can ever hope to. He knows her as he knows himself now. But he must make himself open to her too, the link goes both ways. Perhaps he has left more than he intended to inside her mind." Nia spoke softly, trailing a comforting hand along Marceline's arm in that unconsciously intimate way that vampires so often used around each other. It reminded the queen of the times many centuries ago now that she'd tasted the dark woman's skin, indulged her physically like a good vampire monarch should. She'd spent too long with mortals, maybe, been too used to monogamy and morals. Perhaps it was time to return to her roots. But the memory of Bonnie's horrified, betrayed face returned to her mind and she shrank back from the beautiful vampire. Maybe one day she'd rule from her bedroom like most of the Old Blood wanted. But not that day, not while she had a wife she still loved even if Bonnie didn't remembered her. Instead she shook her head and turned to her lineage.
"I won't deny that there was a mutual attraction, I wanted her and she wanted me and we both knew it. But I never acted on it. I couldn't hurt you like that, or her either." Matilda murmured. Her eyes were downcast and her hands were cradling her growing belly protectively, where her human child grew. With a sick twist of her stomach Marceline realised she'd been a second or two away from murdering the unborn along with her oldest friends.
"I'm so sorry. I just... I..." she trailed off, unable to defend herself.
"I know. I understand. You're afraid to be alone. And you love her more than anything else." Matilda replied softly. She shuffled forward and held her arms out for a hug although she still didn't manage to meet her Sire's eyes. Marcy allowed herself to lean forward and wrap Matilda into a tight embrace. She buried her face in the redhead's shoulder for a long minute and pressed her eyes closed until the tears retreated back where they'd come from. She couldn't lose face like that, not in front of Nia and Johnson. Finally she let go of Matilda only to discover that Zoe was there to replace her lover a moment later. They'd been through so much, Garrett would have to try much harder if he wanted to tear apart a friendship that had lasted nine hundred years, she thought.
"Come on then. We'll see what can be done."
...
Bonnie didn't understand what was happening and she was tired and scared and very confused which was really only ever going to result in her reacting with anger. She slapped Stefan's hand away from her when he reached out to take her shoulder comfortingly and spun on her heel, marching the length of the throne room in frustration.
"This is insane. It's bullshit, I want to see Tilda." she snarled.
"Please, your majesty. We need to be certain how far back the damage goes. Do you remember the night you were returned from your brain injury and you suffered your first night terror?" the big vampire man asked her gently.
"You mean the night I was rescued by my wife, the woman I have been married to for almost twenty years who I know fine well is not some grey skinned stranger? Stefan, I understand what you're saying to me, but this is madness! I want to speak to Matilda, I order you to let me see her!"
"Your memories are all there but they've been subtly altered. Garrett's a mind bender. He excels at switching memories. You don't remember Marceline because he removed her from your mind. Please, you know I would not lie to you about this." Stefan pleaded.
"I know that you wouldn't. I know that you think this Marceline woman is my wife but I know differently. I remember every single thing about my marriage, all the details are there. I remember Matilda asking me to marry her, I remember the first night we flew together, I remember everything. How could I have over a hundred years of fake memories?" she demanded.
"Because he simply replaced me with Tilda in your thoughts." spoke the black haired vampire woman unexpectedly. She was sitting in Matilda's throne with her head in her hands, slumped wearily and defeated. It made Bonnie mad, who the hell did she think she was to sit in her wife's throne? And where was Matilda? "Think about it, Bon. Do you remember where Matilda got your engagement ring?"
"I'll thank you to call me Your Highness, only members of my family are permitted to use my first name. And of course I remember where she got the ring. It was her mother's." Bonnie replied angrily.
"So what happened when she gave you the ring? How did she do it, what did she say?" the stranger pressed, looking up at her with eyes swirling intensely green.
"She, she was away for a day first. Finding it. I think she went to- somewhere she had some family, I-"
Bonnie stuttered to a halt, clutching her head against the sudden pain that flared when she tried to focus more on that memory. She could see Matilda so clearly, the petite redhead dropping smoothly to one knee and announcing she'd been thinking about family and about raising their boys together and that she loved Bonnie's scars, that they were evidence of her strength and bravery. Bonnie could see it all, she could see the box with Matilda's mother's treasured possessions that she'd recovered from her father- but, but he had been a human, he was dead-
The pain was like someone slowly splitting her head open with a woodcutter's axe. Bonnie was on her knees writhing against the agony when she came back to her senses and she pushed the grey hands that tried to gently caress her face away in disgust. No, it made no sense but she remembered it; that was what had happened. Wasn't it? But how, how could that have happened?
"The night you met her, the very first thing she did was sing for you. Do you remember that?" the grey woman was asking in a rush, garbling the words around the harsh pain evident in her voice.
"Yes! I remember, she sang about the White Queen for me, I thought it was a warning!" Bonnie replied desperately.
"Matilda can't sing. Matilda sounds awful, she can't carry a tune in a bucket. And how did she know about the White Queen? That song was written almost two decades before the bombs fell, more than a hundred years before Tilda was even born! You think they had working ancient record players or perfectly tuned guitars in the Tribes? They barely had iron tools!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Bonnie screamed, enraged and agonised.
"How could Matilda have done any of those things? How could you have met her father?" Marceline demanded, all of her frustration and grief spilling over into fury.
"Marcy, stop! You're hurting her!" Stefan yelled, blocking the smaller vampire with his bulk and catching hold of her wrists to keep her still. "Every time you tell her something that contradicts what Garrett did to her brain it damages part of that thought process. You're literally driving her insane!"
Marceline stilled and stopped fighting him, slumping limp in his hands and shivering like she was repressing a sob.
"I know this is real, too, somehow. But I know Matilda is my wife and I want to see her! Why can't I see her?" Bonnie gasped around the pain
"We can't hide it from her forever, Majesty." Peppermint Butler said quietly to the strange woman Bonnie apparently no longer remembered. She nodded, black hair falling into her face and masking her sharp features.
"What? What can't you hide from me? Tell me!" Bonnie demanded as she struggled back to her feet.
"You don't remember, do you? Tilda's sick. The doctor said she's dying."
And just like that Bonnie's world caved in. She collapsed back to the floor, no longer able to move under the weight of grief crushing her. Someone was lifting her; Stefan, she thought distantly. And they were drifting out, away, back to her private rooms where he could talk to her alone and try to assess the damage Garrett had done.
...
"Hullo, Finn."
The voice was flat, hollow. He didn't remember his Mom ever sounding quite like that before. Her shoulders were slumped and head bowed as she sat with her back turned to him on the edge of the roof, gazing out at the magnificent blanket of stars stretching endlessly above them to the horizon where a thin grey glow told him dawn was approaching. He was still dressed in his fancy suit, he'd been sitting up in the rose garden talking to Victoria when he'd heard shouting from inside and found out that his family had fallen to pieces while he wasn't looking. Stefan had been carrying his Mama who was crying uncontrollably against his shoulder and the big vampire had told him what had happened, told him to find his Mom. So he'd left Victoria to rest in his bedroom and come straight up to the roof. He knew where she'd be, she was predictable when she was sad.
"Mom? Why are you out here in the middle of the night? " he asked quietly, coming to sit beside her.
"Because I wanted to be alone."
"Oh. Do you want me to leave?"
She sighed, staring out blankly at nothing for a long minute before replying.
"You probably should. You should leave and never come back, get it over with. But I never said I wasn't selfish, son. I want you here even if I know it's just delaying the inevitable. Even if I know you'll leave me one day, I just don't want that day to be today."
"But I'm not going anywhere, am I?"
"Of course you are. You've been leaving bit by bit since the moment I found you. You just don't see it yet because you're young. Finn, how old am I? " she asked, finally turning to gaze solemnly at him. He wrinkled his nose in confusion, trying to work out the trick in the question.
"Uhh... you're nineteen?" he finally hazarded.
"And how old will I be on my next birthday?"
"You'll still be nineteen. You're a vampire, you don't age."
"So when you're sixty, how old will I be?"
"Nineteen."
"And when you finally die, ancient and wrinkled surrounded by your great grandchildren, how old will I be?"
"You... Oh."
"I should have faced this a long time ago, Finn. Nia tried to warn me but I wouldn't listen. It's in my nature to be left behind. Grod knows I've had enough practice at it by now. And today I was left behind again, by the one person I never dreamed would forget me. By now it should be obvious that it's pointless for me to try told hold on to people. Is this just my life now? Am I destined to just go through the same cycle of being forgotten over and over again until the world ends? Sometimes I think I should just sit here until the sun comes up, stay out here until my ashes blow away. Beat immortality at its own damn game."
She murmured it quietly, eyes never once leaving the worn silver wedding band that had fit snuggly over her left ring finger for as long as he could remember. And that more than anything was what made Finn realise he'd grown up. The night his mother spoke to him adult to adult, allowed him to see that she was hurt and scared and just as lost as he was.
"Mama's gonna get better." he replied confidently.
"Is she? Why? Because I want her to? Because you say so? I wish I could believe that was true, little man. But there's no particular reason she won't just stay this way forever. As long as Garrett lives she'll be under the power of his Talent, her memories are his plaything now."
"Then we'll kill him. Kill Garrett, give Mama her memories back, and everything will be fine again." Finn replied with naive enthusiasm. "Mom, don't cry. I'm gonna fix everything. I'm a hero."
"Your optimism is sweet. Just, when it doesn't work and things just stay broken please try not to be too crushed, ok son? I know you mean well." Marcy replied softly. She allowed him to slide his arm around her and draw her into a hug, too broken and worn down to fight it.
The small trapdoor on the other end of the building that lead up to the roof closed slowly and the silent watcher retreated to her rooms, wondering how to feel. That boy was her son, she remembered the first time she ever held him, she remembered bathing him as a baby and teaching him to read and kissing him goodnight so many times. And that dark haired vampire woman was a stranger. Bonnie knew it was a result of the rebel vampire's magic, knew she'd had her mind screwed with. But she'd felt nothing when she locked eyes with Marceline, when she'd screamed in shock and terror at finding a stranger lying in her bed. More than anything Bonnie wanted to curl up in her wife's loving arms and rest. She wanted Matilda. But that was one thing she couldn't have. Bonnie swallowed down the panic and grief in the back of her throat and went to bed, although the sun was up and the day was well under way long before she fell asleep.
...
He left at first light, striding across the early morning countryside without even noticing the sparkle of dew drops on the grass or the dramatic glory of another brilliant sunrise. Not today. Head bowed and joints cracking painfully with age he simply plodded on. Today Billy wasn't a hero, he was just a man weighed down by grief and time. And there was the palace up ahead gleaming like a champagne mirage in the dawn mist. Nobody had missed them, nobody had even wondered why they'd been absent from Princess Phoebe's birthday celebration or had ignored the summons that came with the warning of vampire attack before that. And he knew the queens had more than enough to worry about without him adding to their woes but there was nothing he could do, time waited for no man. Or woman.
With arthritic hands Billy curled a fist and knocked on the town gate before being ushered inside by the Banana Guards; distantly behind the weight of sadness in his mind he made a mental note to remind Queen Bubblegum that they were far too trusting about who they let in through the day. Nobody checked it was really him and that could be a dangerous mistake if the vampires found a way around their weakness to sunlight. But soon the knowledge of his quest was occupying his thoughts again and Billy plodded on towards the palace proper with slumped shoulders and a bowed head.
Peppermint Butler met him at the main entrance and efficiently ushered him into a reception room while Billy waved away the offer of refreshments. He had no space to worry about more than delivering his message and returning as quickly as possible.
"I'm afraid Queen Bubblegum is... indisposed." the candy butler told him. Something about the way he said that had Billy peering at him curiously; Peps was avoiding his eyes and fidgeting more than usual, a sure sign he was hiding something.
"Oh. Are her migraines bothering her again?" the old hero asked listlessly.
"Uhh. Sort of. Um. Anyway, I'll send someone down to formally greet you, we expected you before now. Are Olgar and Eagle Mask not with you?" Peps added. He glanced around like Billy might be hiding them under his chair or something but the giant shook his head regretfully.
"Just me today." he replied softly.
"I see. Well. I'll go see who's awake, I'm sure someone will be."
Billy barely noticed he was alone again, he was too lost in his own head. After an indeterminate amount of time the door opened again and a voice spoke.
"Uncle Billy! I'm so glad you came! Where were you last night? Something awful happened and now everything is donked up, did you know Finn got Victoria pregnant too? And Mama lost her memories, she got attacked by a rebel vampire. I... I could have used your help, I'd have liked someone to talk to. Billy? What's wrong?"
It was Phoebe, stuttering to a confused halt as she took in the grim expression on her uncle's face. He raised his eyes to her own, so young and still so innocent, and shook his head wearily.
"Your aunt Eagle Mask is dying." Billy told her quietly without preamble. No sense in trying to soften it for the child, she needed to know the truth. Phoebe stared back at him with her mouth open and eyes wide in shock.
"Oh Grod, no, they got her too?" the princess whispered in horror. It was almost enough to pull the tiniest rueful smile to his lips.
"No, child. She's just old, it's her time. And she'd like to see you all again before the end."
It was a sombre procession that left the palace an hour or so later. Billy led, with Finn walking beside him and Marceline drifting along underneath a huge black parasol with her pale face arranged into perfect blankness. Only her eyes gave away her internal turmoil; Billy wished there was anything at all he could do for her, or for Bubblegum. They both looked so broken and this extra grief on top of everything else they were dealing with must be crippling. Behind Marceline came three more vampires, three he'd never met before who were apparently bodyguards for the royal children, followed by their own vampire bodyguards or servants or... Billy had no idea how vampire society was organised but something about the three when he looked at them drew his eyes much more strongly than the creeping, cringing silhouettes that followed them. Bringing up the rear were Bubblegum and Phoebe, riding on a magically stretched Jake. The queen was still weak and tired from her blood loss the night before and it seemed there was no quick fix for her memory loss. Everything else was there but her wife had been altered in her mind in what Billy considered to be a cowardly attempt to cause discord in the palace. From what his niece had told him it hadn't done more than piss Marceline off for a few hours before spurring her even harder to destroy her enemies and return her wife's memories. Nobody seemed to be completely certain if that was even possible though, if killing this Garrett creature would undo his Talent or if there was some other way to repair the queen's mind. She'd already been through so much.
Soon they came up the mountain path into the village and Billy's thoughts returned to his dying friend as inevitably as they had for the whole of the last week. The whole village was eerily quiet, faces appeared in the windows of the long houses as the procession of mourners passed but nobody called a greeting or came out to meet them. A baby cried and was hurriedly hushed; other than that the only noise was the scuff of feet on flagstones and the wind in the trees. Finally they came to one of the last houses on the village outskirts; a long, low wattle-and-daub building surrounded by beds of snowy white flowers that swirled restlessly in the breeze as they passed. The new vampires hung back outside at a quiet order from their queen and only the royal family entered, trailed by Billy.
Eagle Mask lay in a bed in the main room, surrounded by her family. To one side Olgar tearfully clasped her hand and to the other Caleb and his sister Astrid knelt by her bed and spoke in quiet voices. Eagle turned her head very carefully as the door opened, smiling beneath her mask when she recognised the family.
"Hello, little man." she rasped with a smile when she saw Finn with his hair bound up in the same braid her husband wore. "Come closer, I can barely see you."
Finn joined Caleb where he knelt by the bed as the rest of the family trooped in behind him. Eagle reached out a frail hand to grasp his for a moment.
"Aunt Eagle, you're not really gonna die, are you?" he asked with a definite tremble to his lip.
"I am indeed." she confirmed weakly. "I'm glad you could all come. Do you know, your family has made me feel more alive for these last years of my life than I had since the Honour Guard disbanded? I wanted to thank you."
"But your mask." Jake added, coming forward too. "Doesn't the mask keep you alive? Immortal?"
She laughed, and it was a thin sound echoing through a frail body but still full of genuine warmth and humour.
"Jacob, sweet puppy. Everything dies, in the end. But that isn't something to be sad about, it's part of living. It's time for me to go home."
They spent the day with her, reading to her, talking about their shared memories, describing the flowers her eyes were now too weak to make out. Marceline and Bubblegum took every care that their own personal grievances should be put aside for their friend; they had both lost people enough times not to want to cause a scene at that moment no matter that it was painful for them both to be in the same room as each other. And as the shadows began to lengthen and the light slanting through the window took on the golden glow of evening Eagle Mask motioned her husband forward and with his help she half sat and he half lifted her upright.
"Take the mask off, Olgar." she told him softly.
With shaking hands he reached out and unclasped the bronze mask where it was held in place at the back of her head. It fell away to reveal an old woman, sharply lined with age but still handsome and with a sparkle in her blue eyes that told of her humour and intellect. She smiled at them all and rolled her shoulders.
"So good to have a little air on my skin." Eagle rasped in a frail voice. She allowed her friends and family to embrace her one by one and placed a soft kiss on each cheek before Olgar wrapped his thick arms around her and she closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest.
"So strong, my beautiful man. I loved you the moment I met you." she whispered to him. "Don't grieve for me, Olgar. We had such good times together. Goodnight my sweet one."
She pressed a final kiss against his cheek before closing her eyes one last time and greeting Death with a smile. He took her hand and lead her up and away, in a direction that had always been there but she'd simply never noticed before.
"Will you come to the next world? Or do you want to go back home and take the adventure on its way to you?" Death asked conversationally. She considered for a moment.
"I'd like to see my brother again. What were we doing? It's been so long."
"You were playing with the water, you fell from your canoe." Death reminded her. It was hard to tell if his skull's fixed grin grew wider at the memory of another time and another place completely.
"Oh, yes that sounds like me. Ah. I... won't drown the moment I return, will I?"
"You have adventures waiting."
"I suppose that means 'no'. Then, let's go."
There was movement and colour and the many faces of Grod and then there was icy cold water all around, her lungs were on fire and her and her vision was turning black and- Death couldn't lie, could he? Was this drowning?
A hand closed around her flailing wrist and pulled her towards the glittering light of the surface just as the last threads of consciousness darkened in her mind. When she opened her eyes she was wrapped in a sealskin and sitting in a familiar canoe, drifting between ice bergs with her older brother rubbing her back worriedly while she coughed up salt water.
"What where you thinking?" he berated her angrily. "After Mom died and then Dad left, you can't just go throwing yourself into the sea like that! How come every time you play with water I end up getting wet?"
"Sokka, I-"
"Save your breath, Katara. Come on, we're going home. How am I supposed to explain to Gran Gran if you drown trying to mess around with your stupid water magic?"
She watched the ice drift past as he sailed, wondering about the vivid drowning dream she'd had about being a hero in a distant green land. There'd been a man with purple skin and a smile that made her heart sing, there was a woman coloured like the sunset and a monochrome woman and a golden baby and they were somehow a source of great joy in her life. She'd had too many adventures to count, she'd lived for years and died at a great old age surrounded by her friends and family. But when Katara slipped her sealskin gloves off and examined her hands they were every bit as smooth and supple as a fourteen year old could expect. Once she was certain Sokka wasn't paying her any attention she stretched a finger out over the grey waves, concentrated, and a single jet of water leaped up into a graceful curve before settling back into the sea. Katara smiled; she'd missed her water bending. By the time they'd reached the village again she'd almost forgotten about the strange dream of the other life she'd found by swimming through a door in the seabed all those years ago when she'd been so scared to drown, just that morning. But the memory of that warm man and his wonderful smile stayed with her, warming the back of her mind and her brain with quiet love. And so Eagle Mask went on to her next big adventure, returning to the world she'd originally come from.