Chapter 26: Acceptance

Silent moon beams gently caressed the land below illuminating every silver tear drop that streaked across Meg's face. It had been a lifetime since those soft light brown eyes had shed tears and therefore her body took its time regaining control. The chilling breeze seemed to penetrate into her very bones for the first time in her life…

Meg was truly recovering from shock.

Katsu waited patiently by her side. He had been gently stroking her hair during her moment of weakness as his only way to be a comfort. When she was through with crying she made no move to leave his side and for some reason having her apart from him left him with an longing inside. He would later find it ironic that he felt he had to protect a protector.

She sniffled.

"You know," Katsu began now that she was still, "I can't imagine what you've had to go through. I've tried to imagine it many times but I have always fallen short. But I can say this, and I hope you take no offence, but every time I see your face I feel every bit of raw emotion from you as if it was my own and I've come to admire you and care about you." He was just now surprised at what he said but then realized that he meant it. "I just want you to know that you have someone you can trust and rely on." Then he added, "I will never betray you or judge you… you don't need to put up a front with me."

They were both cold but as Katsu was shivering from the harsh night air on the outside, Meg shivered from the cold within her that still lingered from her dream, yet both continued to ignore it. Meg was just so overwhelmed. She had spent her youth training to suppress her emotions and for the most part had done a pretty good job at it. However on a night like tonight she had no defenses. Even her body betrayed her with an overpowering sense of exhaustion, burning red eyes, headache and the feeling of ice left her feeling completely weak.

"I'm sorry," she said at last.

The silence crept in again but Katsu didn't mind. He would not rush her; after all he had all night.

"I didn't mean to hurt you again."

"I'm sure I'll live."

"No," she said as she pulled away from him to look into his face. "You shouldn't be taking this so lightly. I've attacked you now twice. How can you forgive me so easily? How can you trust me?" she felt miserable.

Katsu already missed the warmth of her body at his side. "I told you already, I care about you."

Meg just shook her head at the very thought, "You're ridiculous." So many of her friends or various people that had raised her had either died or been captured or had been separated so she just didn't bother with getting too close to people.

"Metog, can you tell me about your dream?" Katsu didn't want her thinking too much about what he said but rather he slowly wanted to coax her into talking about what was on her mind so they could work through it together.

She sighed and leaned back up against Katsu to his surprise. "It wasn't a dream but a night mare," she whispered. "Several years ago I was able to visit one of the Earth Kingdom's prisons. I had a Fire Nation Captain in my prized possession and escorted him there and was able to get a tour. The prison was special, although I can't remember its name now, but it was designed solely to house dangerous Fire Benders. As an enemy they can be deadly. Even a bound man can still spit fire at will, so the Earth Kingdom developed special holding cells just for them which incorporates a steady supply of water… I, I dreamed I was in one of them."

She began to shake again at the fresh memory. The sounds and smells seemed so real.

For Katsu, she didn't need to say more. Now he had a little better idea of what was wrong.

"I can't believe I'm a Fire Bender," she said at last.

Something then darted through the trees and Meg's automatic response kicked in causing her mind to be on high alert to her surroundings. Katsu heard it as well and looked out ahead of them with little concern. The trees rustled in the breeze above then two lemurs leaped through the branches and off into the woods.

"It's alright," Katsu reminded. "It's just a few lemurs who haven't gone to sleep yet. These woods are filled with them."

She physically relaxed some, "I remember," she mumbled a bit defeated.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is a Fire Nation Colony?" Katsu now remembered to ask. She had said it earlier that day but he had never heard of it before.

She didn't mind, "over the years the Fire Lord's have all had their sights on the Earth Kingdom. As they gain more ground they began to create their own towns and villages within the Earth Kingdom. They're called Fire Nation Colonies. There are some occasions where we have been able to destroy or take back some of the smaller colonies but for the most part we end up outnumbered and usually stand no match against their machines," she sadly admitted. "If you're wondering about me, well, I can only guess that I was from one of those colonies. It must have been a fairly new one and was destroyed by the surrounding Earth Benders. I don't know if someone deliberately saved me or if I was just found in the rubble but all I know is what I was told, that I was found in a wrecked home and that whoever found me took the sword off my father's body and the necklace from my mother's neck and sent it off with me as my only inheritance ." It took a lot of courage on Metog's part to talk about her past… she never had to speak of it in twenty years.

Katsu then looked over her dark earthy hair to where she had thrown her sword away. The moonlight helped him see something glistening around the handle… it was a necklace.

"And now you no longer want them?" he asked gently. He now knew why she was so set on getting her sword back, back when she first arrived to the island.

A few tears began to fall again. "No, they belonged to a man and woman from the Fire Nation… why would I want them," she nearly sobbed.

It sounded like such a childish thing to say yet, Katsu thought about that and couldn't think of anything he could say.

"I had grown up hating Fire Benders for killing my real parents and had always wondered if they were even buried properly. Now, I don't know what to think."

"I can only imagine. You've had to carry a heavy burden but this latest discovery doesn't have to be another burden."

She didn't respond.

"Metog, I have a feeling I know what part of your problem is."

"Go ahead," she said defeated.

"I believe you think all Fire Benders are inheritantly bad."

"Now I never said-"

"Let me finish. I think you believe deep down that all men and women who can bend fire are naturally more evil than the rest of the people of the world. Now, I know you have allies in the Order who are Fire Benders, most originally from the Fire Nation, but I believe you see them as men who have been turned. It's as if they are fortunate enough to have had someone work in their lives to make them into the good people they are today because they couldn't have done that on their own. But when you come down to it, a Fire Bender is just plain worse than any other."

Meg was going to say that he was wrong, but the more he had talked the more she began to see that his words were true. The silence fell upon them again as she worked to identify her core beliefs in the middle of the night.

The fact that she didn't deny it now told the Air Bender that he was right so he continued, "Despite what you may think, Fire Benders can be just as much good as any other type of bender… it all depends on ones upbringing. One hundred years ago the Fire Nation was just as peaceful as the other nations. The Avatar at that time was a Fire Bender as well. Can you honestly tell me that they had a stronger dose of hostility back then?"

"No, I guess not."

"Then you have to accept this truth. All benders are created equal."

She didn't argue nor agreed with him. The concept was hard to grasp although hearing it out loud caused mixed feelings but she was beginning to at least entertain the idea.

"You have no idea how bizarre that statement is for me," she said aloud. "No one in their right mind outside of this island would agree with such words."

"And yet they are true."

She paused to think about how much the Order knew that the 'world' didn't know about so why start siding with the ignorant? "Alright, I agree with that in theory, but it will honestly take me a long while until I actually accept it."

Katsu nodded in understanding. "I imagine it's a big step. Transitioning from that environment into this one can't be easy."

"You're telling me," she mumbled.

Katsu was done for the moment having spoken his peace on the subject and was feeling slightly better about the whole thing. Meg on the other hand was just coming full circle in her mind and settling back on her dream and the truth that she was in fact a Fire Bender.

Katsu couldn't handle the cold much longer. Winter was certainly on its way and while the day wasn't so bad as of yet, the night however was getting miserable. Watching the last of the embers begin to fade, Katsu got an idea. Reaching for a stack of wood, Meg watched as her pillow moved away from her to add new logs to the fire pit. Now turning back to the woman nearly in his arms Katsu spoke with a rather matter of fact tone.

"All right, now that I'm a block of ice I would like you to try and start a fire."

"You're joking," she said depressingly.

"Not at all. Come on," he nudged her away from him. "Now just remember what Guru Pathik taught you earlier. Don't focus so much on the outside but first focus on the inside."

Sitting up on her own she could see that he was pretty enthused about the idea, and now that she thought about something other than herself she noted that he was in fact shivering involuntarily.

"I'm sorry keeping you up… but thanks for the talk. I-" this was getting more uncomfortable to talk about. "Well, I can see you're cold and I don't like the feeling either."

"Then how about you give it a try," he encouraged. She rubbed her eyes in frustration.

"All right, I'll give it a shot. But if you get burned don't blame it on me!" she said with more life back in her than before.

Katsu watched as she identified the embers and then closed her eyes. Katsu then wisely slid back a little ways from the fire pit… just in case. Meg then raised her right hand and held it out in front of her. Her face seemed composed and peaceful when the flow of energy within her was her only focus. It was quite the contrast to her typical facial expressions. Slowly the embers began to glow brighter and within a blink of an eye they pulled together and a flame was formed in the palm of her hand.

"Metog, you can open your eyes now"

Slowly she did just that. For a moment the flame flickered and risked going out but she focused again and the flame held. She still didn't know how to make her own fire but she was beginning to get the idea of how to hold it.

"Now what do I do?" she asked while trying to sound calm.

"Focus on the flow of energy within you. You can send it into your hand now try and increasing your confidence and send it out towards the logs. Keep in mind that you are sending it to a specific location. Don't just increase your energy or it can expand and burn you." He didn't want to scare her but fire could be a dangerous substance.

Meg slowly stood with the flame still in her hand. Having seen the motion several times before within battle, she mimicked the attack of casting out a stream of fire in one quick and confident motion. All at once the logs took to the flames and a fire had successfully started.

"Wow, Metog that was amazing. How on earth did you know how to do that?"

She was surprised at herself and was even more surprised that she was grinning. "I watch my enemies very closely," she somewhat bragged.

"You are certainly full of surprises and now I can warm up a bit."

Meg once again shook her head at his words but with a smile. This man was pushing her into all sorts of area's outside of her comfort zone yet he made her laugh along the way. Now that her inner fire was strong again she no longer was cold. She had never noticed before why she never really got cold but now that she knew she was a Fire Bender it was one less mystery in her life. She knew she would still have issues with her bending ability, but for now she simply remained in the company of a friend and put off her worries for the morrow.

Meg walked briskly as she dismissed the double-winged butterflies that were surfacing in her stomach. It had been four weeks since she had found out about her less than desirable heritage. After two weeks with Guru Pathik and one week with a Fire Bending teacher to learn the basics so she wouldn't hurt herself, Meg had went to work on preparing for her first class she would be teaching. The council had met with her and reviewed a few selected pages from her volumes and, after telling a few fibs to protect its origins, the council quickly agreed to Council Member Katsu's proposal. So now a week later she was ready for her very first day of teaching History.

To say that she was out of her area of expertise was an understatement in her mind, yet she had something unique to offer in sharing the information she had in her possession… firsthand experience. Nothing could replace that.

Walking past the uniquely carved petrified wooden doors of the mountain, Meg made her way down a side path to the right. After descending several levels, she turned into an open door without hesitation. The room opened up into a huge and spacious auditorium that the island's school mainly used from time to time. Now it was Meg's personal classroom.

Having entered from the top, she began to descend the shallow steps of the center isle towards her podium. The room was filled with a few hundred of the islands' elders and those of high authority who were chosen to be the firsts to take the course which was mandatory for everyone over the age of 16. One of the reasons the council had decided to make it mandatory was the fact that some of the younger residents were growing a lack of concern for the island's safety and even a few doubted the severity of the past or the current state of the world. None had seen it, and even Prince Zuko's brief visit wasn't quite enough to full set the stage of things.

Meg now stood center stage with a full and quieting audience. She had acquired other clothing that was typically worn on the island however today to make a statement she had worn her original brown leather attire with her sword forever at her side… she had made some peace with it.

She held a confident stance as if going into battle and began to address her group as if they were her own troops. "Good morning," she spoke clearly. The sound of her voice easily carried to the top back of the room due to the unique design of the auditorium.

"You are all here today to learn about World History but I will start off by telling you all a little bit about myself." She paused slightly between each sentence. "My name is Meg but my real name is Metog, and one of my most used aliases is Sheath. I was raised by rebel fighters in the Northwestern part of the Earth Kingdom. I lived as a Non-Bender and fought against the invading Fire Nation soldiers."

Meg then walked past her podium and stood in front of it. "As you all can see by my arm band I am a Fire Bender," she said matter of fact with her arms crossed. I just recently discovered this and have deduced that I was a Fire Nation Colony orphan." She received many blank stares but continued on unaffected. "I will explain more on that later. I am highly skilled with this weapon but it also belonged to my real father whom I've never met and therefore I keep it close with me. If anyone has a problem with this they can sit further away from this stage next time but I will not be removing it."

Katsu was sitting in the crowd near the front and couldn't help but smirk at her directness. She could intimidate anyone with just one look and he felt privileged to be the only one in the audience who wasn't.

"I know I may seem a bit harsh," she echoed Katsu's thoughts, "but as we go on I hope that you'll all come to an understanding that my abrasiveness and straight forwardness is just some of the effects from living in a world of war. So, that being said I not only ask of you to take note of the information that I give you but also try and tune in on how I speak and act on each subject… you'll pick up more by doing so."

She then moved back to the stone podium and from her smaller trunk sitting at its base she pulled out the first volume and set it next to her notes. Skipping the first few chapters of tiny printed words, she found her starting point then looked back up.

"Feel free to raise a hand if you have any questions but if you can, try and wait until the end. I'm sure I will be covering many things you will not know about, I'll be breaking it all down as we go however I may take something for granted so don't be afraid to bring it up."

She looked around the wide sea of faces and found no questions. Her eyes then found a soft gray pair that was watching her own with hidden mirth. She smiled, "alright then, let's get started!"

Meg then went into her first lesson of many. She started out on a brief intro on what the world was like before Avatar Roku died, then went into the history of the Air Nomad's and how each one was destroyed by the Fire Nation as well as covering the reasons why no one believed there were any survivors. She left nothing out, save the information that was for flowers only; knowing that with every gruesome and horrible detail she gave tears would fall within some of her students. Yet she knew she would cause many more with lessons to follow. She was desensitized while they weren't with the exception of a few old gold ribboned members.

After class she had answered many questions, more than she was expecting, and waited until everyone had left… that is except Katsu.

"You did fantastic," Katsu praised while trying to forget the pain he had felt from the lesson.

"You don't think it was too dry did you?" she asked unsure.

"Not at all, in fact it was far from it. It's a lot to take in though."

"Today should have been mostly a review. Doesn't everyone know what happened to the Air Temples? I wasn't expecting so many questions on that."

"Actually we don't. The surviving Air Benders were ones who escaped just before the attacks. What the world as well as the Order for that matter didn't know was that the Western Air Temple was able to get a message out to the other Air Temples just before the comet came overhead. No one saw any fire or Fire Benders."

"I never considered that," she said. "I can see that I have my work cut out for me."

"I hope its work you want to do. I'd hate to think that I pressed you into this."

Meg looked at him and saw that he was truly worried about how she was doing. "Ha, you'll have to do a lot worse to get me to do something that I don't want to do. Try and not worry too much about me. All in all this has been a vacation."

"Vacation?" he asked.

"Oh never mind." Meg then but the volume into her trunk and locked it for safe keeping.

Katsu waited patiently for her to finish before he addressed her again; she stood.

"Metog, I have something special I want to show you if you have the time." He asked.

She was instantly guarded. "The last time you sprung me on something I ended up finding out that I was a Fire Bender. What dramatic life changing event are you going to put me through now?" she asked.

"And you say you have no sense of humor," he mocked in good nature. "Come on, its not too far."

She rolled her eyes dramatically but couldn't entirely hide her up turned lips. They walked out of the airy auditorium and out towards a ledge; Katsu picked up a staff.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you think you are doing with that?"

He answered by opening the glider with one spin.

"Nope, I'm not going near that edge." She declared as she eyed the other flying passer-byers. "Not a chance."

"Come now, you can't tell me that you are afraid of heights?" he teased.

"I can't fly remember," she answered back defensively.

Instead of arguing Katsu slowly approached her and with the glider in on hand he rested the other on her shoulder. "I know that I'm not aggressive and that I've never fought in a battle before but don't underestimate my strength. Please," he softly asked.

Meg found herself quickly melting which was apparently one of her new found abilities. "Okay," she consented. There was something in his misty gray eyes that was hypnotic.

Without wanting to give her a chance to change her mind, Katsu placed her hands on either side of the tip of the glider so she would ride on top. "Hold on tight," he advised as his only warning then leaned forward and sent them both into a temporary free fall. Meg screamed and he laughed as he leveled out flying North along that level.

"Not funny," she gasped as her knuckles began to turn white due to her death grip.

"Just wanted to make sure you were holding on," he said beneath her.

"Well I am, so don't do that again!"

"Here we go," he called out just as he reached the point where he could fly straight up. Meg held on for dear life with her eyes clamped shut. Up and up they climbed until they finally reached the apex. With little to no traffic up top, Katsu circled the cluster of amber glowing crystals and Meg couldn't help but open her eyes.

"Wow," was all she whispered.

Katsu slowly veered the glider off and towards an opening in the side of the mountain. The top was too steep to reach from the outside so there were a few ports that were open to allow fresh air in as well as a little bit of natural light pending that there was no rain that would cause an Earth Bender to close them up.

Meg held on as Katsu stopped and perched on a shallow ledge in front of an opening. It took a little coaxing, but Meg was finally able to remove her grip from the glider pending that she didn't look down. After closing the glider and setting it aside, Katsu led the way outside the mountain.

The sky all at once seemed to open up all around in the afternoon light. Meg was captivated by the view and was surprised that her guide simply took a seat but had no problem sinking down next to him.

They sat there for some time just enjoying the view. No words were needed.

Eventually Katsu felt free to share. "This is my secret getaway place. Growing up I'd hide up here but as I got older it became more of a place to think although I'd have to admit that I came up here more often once my mother suddenly passed on. She was the one to show me this amazing view."

Stretched far in front of them held the expanse of the ocean. They could hardly make out any rocks below them but the area was well enough level to provide a secure enough spot where Meg had no fear of falling. A few clouds wisped across the sky and various hyena-gulls could be seen fly far below where they made their nests in the cliffs.

"I have to say, this view takes my breath away. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life," she turned to the man next to her. "Thank you for sharing this spot with me," she said genuinely.

Unintentionally their eyes lock and they both found that they couldn't look away. Meg just then realized what Katsu had already figured out... their hearts were becoming linked. Slowly they were being drawn closer together.

"Metog," he whispered. He still was the only one who called her by her by her real name and she found that she liked the name on his lips. "I didn't intend this, but if you don't say something I'm going to end up kissing you."

The moment lingered on. "Oh really," she softly baited, but rather than wait for a reply she grabbed a fist full of his shirt and pulled him into her with a kiss that easily left the rest of the world behind them.

It could be said that their love for each other was fated from the start but that didn't make it any less real to them. The pair they made was so polar opposite that a relationship like theirs didn't happen all that often, but both Meg and Katsu were quickly falling hard for the other. In time their bond would grow but for now they wouldn't rush things. They still had so much to learn about the other yet come the graduation of Meg's first class, Katsu proposed and with a slightly surprised audience and to their dismay she said… "Yes."

Finally Meg has found her place on the island. It will be a few years before the residents have another visitor but what they do not know is what lays in store for their futures. Meg's teaching was destined to prepare this generation for the day the world will know that the Avatar is not the last Air Bender! The era of Book One Water is fastly approaching. That is... after Momo's into ;) You'll know what I mean shortly!

Reviews are always appreciated!

-ArcticTwilight