A:TLA does not belong to me, nor do these characters. They belong to VIACOM. They only take part in any way this story takes me.
Chapter 14: Demons Prevail
Sokka had always had a natural curiosity. Be it licking honey off the walls of a cave in a desert or drinking cactus juice. Admittedly, Sokka had enjoyed the latter the most.
This profound curiosity was what persuaded him to gaze over Aang's shoulder and read the writing in the book that everyone had been stressing over.
Although, Sokka was intrigued and slightly anxious when he saw something that he didn't think was possible. His eyes glazed over the scripture that Aang was reading and felt -yes felt, not saw- the words on the page melt together like snow on warm skin. The appearance of it was almost indescribable. If Toph had asked him to put what he saw into words, he would have found himself unable to speak. It seemed as if the words were being crafted into his soul. For a brief moment, he thought he saw his father murdering Fire Nation soldiers. Sokka winced his eyes shut, trying to ignore the cruel visions.
And when he reopened them, he saw that there werewords. As he squinted and demanded his eyes to make sense of the scripture before him, Sokka saw four words that stood out like a sore thumb and willed his blood to run cold.
'Katara...' Sokka uttered, realisation hitting him with a mighty thwack to the cranium, Aang had smashed his head with a heavy rock fist. 'RUN, KATATA RUN!' Sokka screamed, leaping up to try and wrestle Aang to the floor.
Horror barely registered on his features when he saw Aang's tattoos glowing- but they were different. Sokka's mind was racing, his head was throbbing and he didn't know if what he was seeing was a hallucination or the real deal. Aang's tattoos were black.
Sokka's eyes fell on Katara who was stock-still, frozen in place, a rabbit in the headlights. 'Protect Katara,'Sokka heard his father say. Sokka lurched forward and although he knew it was futile, wrapped his arms around Aang's neck.
Aang grabbed Sokka's arms and threw him over his head into the floor, the concrete beneath him shattering as he made contact with the harsh, unrelenting ground. Sokka heard the sound of not only smashing concrete but the sickly crunch of misplaced bones. Aang rose ten feet in the sky. He felt a yell leave his throat and watched in hopeless dismay as Aang shot a thunderous bolt of lightning at Katara.
'NO!' Sokka and Toph shouted in unison. The silvery blue streaks crackled toward Katara's screams and were hastily redirected by Zuko. Relief swooned over Sokka, and he tried feebly to stand. He felt Suki beside him, slinging an arm around her neck and pulling him back.
'Suki! Get out of here!' He urged, trying to push her away. Suki shook her head resolutely.
'No!' Was all that Suki replied. All that Sokka could do was watch helplessly whilst Zuko tried to defend his baby sister.
'What's going on?' Smellerbee yelled from behind them.
'Aang's gone insane!' Suki yelled back.
'No!' Sokka shouted, refusing to acknowledge that it was Aangwho was doing this. 'The demons have taken over him; he's trying to kill Katara! You need to hide!' Smellerbee and Longshot exchanged a horrified glance before nodding at Sokka and disappearing into the temple.
The demon in Aang was relentless; he shot an overwhelming blast of fire that looked shockingly like a myriad of different, screaming faces twisting and morphing into each other. Zuko expertly divided to save Katara who was cowering behind the Fire Prince. Aang was quick to retaliate, ripping every single drop of water from the fountain and sending a huge torrent of water toward them, Zuko was barely able to respond when Katara broke from behind him and bent it all into harmless specks of snow, it seemed to buy them a little time as Aang tried to look past the screen of white and locate his victim. Sokka felt a choked plea of 'RUN!' stuckinhis throat. Zuko pushed Katara behind him.
'Stay behind me!' He urged, 'please.'
Katara complied, and ducked behind him one more. Sokka couldn't take it- why weren't they running? By the looks of it, Aang was fully intent on murdering them all. They needed a diversion; Sokka knew that Katara would be safe in Zuko's hands, so they needed into the forest- and quick.
'GET HER OUT OF HERE ZUKO! LEAVE!' He screamed again, desperate for his sister to be safe. Zuko stood as stubbornly as a rock. Although his stance was stony and unbreakable, his expression seemed doubtful and hesitant. He wanted to go but he neededa distraction...
An earthbending move was issued, hundreds of jagged rocks protruded from the floor in a single deathly row, quickly advancing on Zuko and Katara. There was little that the water and firebender could do about this attack. Sokka clenched his eyes and shied away from what he feared to see and Toph appeared from the ground in front of the pair, reflecting the attack. Sokka had never been so happy to see the kid. Zuko took his chance and grabbed Katara's hand, sprinting toward the Fire Nation forest.
'AANG! AANG LISTEN TO ME! STOP, WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS, PLEASE!' She deflected all of his attacks on the fleeing teenagers. Sokka had to admit; she was an admirable bender.
'The waterbender needs to die. She is a distraction to the demise of the Firelord,' Aang said in a thousand different voices, his eyes as black as his tattoos. They no longer looked like the soulful eyes of a familiar airbender, rather the meaningless, doomed eyes of a murderer. Two gaping black holes of nothingness.
'AANG! YOU'RE IN THERE, LISTEN TO ME!' Toph screamed. Sokka watched in awe as Aang's black glowing tattoos flickered but remained. 'You don't need to kill anyone! YOU DON'T WANT TO! You never wanted to! You love Katara,' she stuttered.
If Sokka didn't know any better, he would have thought Toph was crying.
'You- You can't KILL her! I won't let you!' She yelled, shooting herself toward Aang on a jab of rock. He didn't move as she took his hand in hers and held the side of his face with one hand. 'We're so different. You always go out of your way to harm nothing, and,' she chuckled, 'I go out of my way to harm people. I need you Aang, you're my opposite.'
Tears in fact, did run down her pale face. 'My Yang.'
She kissed his lips very gently and his tattoos completely dimmed back to their original pale blue. The life left his grey eyes and he fell to the floor to be caught and cradled by Toph. She placed her hand over his heart for a few silent seconds, and looked toward an utterly stunned, half broken Sokka.
'Sokka, is he dead?'