DC: I do not own A:TLA
Unknown Illness
Katara rinsed the rag feeling the cool water drip into the bucket, spatted it on Aang's forehead as he laid unconscious in bed, she had been doing this for a while.
Sokka came up from behind her. "How's he doing?"
Katara choked out a sob. "Not good," she stared down at him with tears in her eyes. "I don't understand! He was fine, then he clutched his stomach and said he wasn't feeling well. Then...then he just got worse and went unconscious! What's happening to him?" she cried.
"Katara, the healer is here," said Sokka. "Let's leave so he can examine him. Maybe he can figure out what's wrong."
"I can't leave him!" Katara wept, taking a hold of Aang's limp hand.
Sokka put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Please, Katara," he said, "for Aang."
Katara reluctantly let go of Aang's hand, Sokka guided her towards the door as she took one final glance at Aang hoping to see those grey eyes once again full of life; those eyes that had given her life again.
The healer came outside, Katara didn't waste a second. "What's wrong with him?" she said.
The healer's shoulders slumped forward, he shook his head sadly at her. "I don't know," he said.
Katara looked ready to pounce on him. "What do you mean you don't know!" she yelled clenching her jaw. Sokka tried to calm her down. "Please, there has to be a reason?" said Sokka.
"I don't understand it," said the healer with puzzlement in his eyes. "His body is reacting as if it's fighting off a disease or virus. But I can find no reason why his body should be acting this way, he has no illness. His body is attacking itself," he paused," it's...killing him."
Katara felt the wind get knocked out her. "K-killing him?" she said falling to her knees completely oblivious to everything else as her eyes stared blankly in front of her. This couldn't be happening. He was fine. After all he's been through...he couldn't just...die. She couldn't lose him...not now...not until countless years of happiness. Why was this happening?
Katara slept by Aang's bedside, she woke to see no change in him, then Aunt Wu entered the room.
"Aunt Wu you came!" she exclaimed. "I didn't know what else to do! Can you help us?"
"Your brother told me that your past had visited," Aunt Wu. "And then returned."
"Yes, do you think that's why Aang is sick?"
"I can feel that the timelines are unbalanced," said Aunt Wu. "The past is somewhere it isn't supposed to be. Something is happening in the past that is affecting him now."
Katara stared at her with desperation in her eyes as her lip quivered. "Can...can I do anything?"
Aunt Wu hung her had, shaking it dejectedly. She felt sorry for such a young child to have already gone through so much pain to be met with more. "I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, my dear. Only the past can determine the survival of the future."
Katara leaned against the wall as she tried to catch her breath while holding Aang's unconscious body. She could felt the tremors running through his body, his face was clammy with sweat, and his breathes were becoming shallower.
Katara tried to take a couple more steps while supporting his dead weight. What was happening to him? Did he catch something? Why did it hit him so abruptly? Was he feeling ill before and he just didn't let on? She stared down at his pale face. He...he looked deadly ill. This wasn't just an everyday illness.
"Katara?"
She looked up to see her brother ahead of her. "Sokka!" she exclaimed so relieved to see him. "Help me! I don't know what to do! Something's wrong with him!" she said in heart wrenching cries.
Sokka rushed up her, taking some of Aang's weight. He looked startled to see Aang in such a state. "What happened?"
Katara started sobbing, her tears falling onto Aang's cheek. "He...he just complained about feeling dizzy, then he just went unconscious! He won't wake up!"
"Don't worry, Katara," said Sokka. "It will be okay."
"DON'T TELL ME THAT!" she snapped, she held onto Aang tighter. "They told me that when mom died, and nothing has been okay since! And just when I started to feel whole again...," she took a deep breath, "there's no chance of me ever feeling okay, if something happens to him!"
Katara and Sokka managed to carry Aang back to his secret place. Katara supported his head in her lap as she sat on the floor and damped his forehead with a cloth she soaked in a bucket of water that Sokka had found.
"He's shaking so much," Katara choked out. A couple of minutes later Aang became completely still.
"That can't be good," said Sokka looking at a lost what to do.
"What's happening to him?" Katara cried out. "I don't understand it! How can he become so ill so quickly? I just can't sit here doing nothing! I'm going to ask the monks for help, maybe they can do something!"
"No, Katara!" exclaimed Sokka. "If they know that we're here it could change—"
"I DON'T CARE! DOES IT LOOK LIKE I CARE?" she screamed, then her lip quivered she buried her face into Aang's chest listening to his heart beating; such a delicate state life was, how it was there and could just be gone within a second. "We have to do something," she wept. "He's...he's...dying."
Aang squinted his eyes against the blinding light that seemed to surround him. "W-where am I?"
"Hello, Aang," he heard Roku's voice say, it sounded as if he was talking from the end of a tunnel, he could faintly hear him. "We are in your mind. Your body has gone into a coma like state."
"What's...what's happening to me?" said Aang trying to gather enough energy to speak. "I...feel so sick."
"You have been away from your own timeline for too long," said Roku's voice. "The timelines are starting to react to your absence. Your body is starting to reject this timeline, like a foreign object attacking your body. Your friends will start to feel it too, you are only feeling it first because as the Avatar you are more in tune with it. Come to us Aang, we can only help you if we are in close distance. If you stay much longer in this timeline...it will kill you."
"I can barely focus in my own mind," said Aang weakly," how am I suppose to wake myself up?"
"You don't need to wake up," he heard Kyoshi's faint voice through the blinding light.
"We are here in your mind," said Roku's voice, "we are a part of you."
But the state of your body has weaken your spirit, and we can't reach you," said Yangchen's voice.
"You need to come to us," said Kuruk's voice, "fight through to unlock the four chakras of your mind that are blocked by...
"Self-criticism," said Yangchen's voice.
"Self-doubt," said Roku's voice.
"Self-loathing," said Kuruk's voice.
"Self-pity," said Kyoshi's voice. "You must face them all."
"But I don't know the way," said Aang weakly.
"You will always know the way Aang," said Roku's voice, "It's in your heart, you just need to follow it."
"Come to us Aang, before it's too late," he heard all of his past lives say in unison before everything went black.