The Avatar's Love

by RainAndRoses

(3 years post-series) After a terrible fight with Katara, Aang flies off and doesn't return... for 5 years. At last, driven by love, regret, and a message from a mysterious stranger, Katara sets out on a journey to save him that will take her to the Spirit World and back. Meanwhile, Azula has escaped prison, bent on revenge. KATAANG! (w/some Zutara). Mild violence, language, & sex.

36. The Garden of Faceless Spirits

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to be at this part of the story! *Squee!* Sorry it took a me a little longer than usual to post this one; it's a huge chapter – and I'm not just talking about its obscene length, lol. It's been eagerly waiting to be written for a long time, and I wanted to make sure it was exactly right. Hope you guys like it. ^_^

Also, everyone, seriously, I know I say this all the time, but thank you all so much for the reviews! (200! W00t!) You have no idea how happy you make me. (Recent Guest reviewer who really liked Appa's chapter – your review got me all choked up! Really, it did. I wanted to thank you but I couldn't message you, so I'm doing it here, haha). This story is so long and complicated that, even though I love it dearly, I probably would have given up on it long ago if not for all the feedback. So, thanks again, everyone! :D

Mai: "Oh, look. I'm here now."
Aang: "Oh hi, Mai." :)
Mai: "Hey... So, care to explain what I'm doing here?"
Aang: "Well, see, I'm gonna be back in the story soon, so you've got to stay up here and chat with the author, since I guess she's lonely or something. I dunno. But she's got custard tarts!" ^_^
Mai: "Oh, joy. And I take it I'm not going to ever come back into the story, right, Miss Author?"
Rain&Roses: *awkward pause* "Well, you kinda died. Like, way back. So... no. Sorry." :(
Mai: "Uh-huh. I see how it is. So Baldy here gets to come back to life, but poor gloomy Mai is doomed to spend the rest of the story stuck up here in the boring Author's Notes making pointless conversation with some lonely writer who probably spends way too much of her free time writing fanfiction. I can barely contain my enthusiasm right now." -_-
Rain&Roses: "Aw!" *hugs Mai* "I'm so glad you're here, Mai!"
Mai: "Please don't touch me."
Rain&Roses: " 'Kay." :D

---

THE GARDEN OF FACELESS SPIRITS

"We have to hurry – there isn't much time!" Yue said again, taking hold of Katara's hand. Her skin was startlingly white against Katara's darker flesh, and Katara couldn't help but stare for a moment at the fingers that were grasping hers. She was still recovering from the shock of just seeing Yue again, in the flesh (so to speak), in all her vivid luminescence – her "lunar goodness," as Sokka might have said. She was so bright and elegant, Katara felt almost plain and dirty in comparison.

"Oh – okay," Katara gasped powerlessly, as Yue began to lead her swiftly away. "Where are we going? Where's Aang? Are we – we're not going to see the Face-Stealer now, are we?" Her stomach suddenly boiled with panic. Were they going right now? Right this second? She knew there wasn't much time, but she wasn't ready! Not yet – she needed to – she needed to prepare herself somehow first! What was she going to do when she got there?

But Yue glanced back at her, peering over her bare white shoulder, and shook her head gently. "No, you aren't ready yet," she replied, to Katara's immense relief. "But soon," she added. "As soon as possible." Then, suddenly, her vibrant blue eyes smiled a bit, and she looked slightly abashed, as if she'd forgotten her manners. "How are you, by the way? It's so nice to see you again."

Katara just gawked at her dumbly. It suddenly hit her how entirely disoriented she felt, by everything – by the Spirit World itself, by her own sense of ignorant helplessness, by Yue's startling presence, by the strange feeling of Yue clutching her hand as she led her through the otherworldly scenery, and by the unsettling casualness of Yue's question, as if they were merely two old friends running into one another by chance on a perfectly ordinary day back in the normal world.

"I'm..." Then Katara took a moment to actually think about the question. "Well, I've been better."

Yue gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. But I completely understand." Then she suddenly beamed gently. "How's Sokka?"

"Uh, he's... fine?"

"Just fine?"

"Well, he's... I mean, yeah. He's great. Still just... Sokka."

Yue laughed softly, glowing. "That's good. I'm glad to hear that."

"How – how are you?" The question stumbled feebly and confusedly out of her mouth.

"Oh, I'm doing very well. Thanks."

Katara looked around and saw that the tangled golden swamp she'd arrived in was now giving way to a thick wood, densely filled with tall, twisted trees; the ground beneath her feet became more solid as they went, and it soon was overtaken with gnarled roots and heavy mosses. She found herself wondering if Aang had ever been in this place. Had he seen these trees? Had he walked on this ground, during any of his journeys into the Spirit World? The idea made her a little happy – But maybe, she thought, the Spirit World was in a constant state of flux, and nothing was ever the same from one journey to the next. Not even this forest, though it looked like it had existed forever. Then, for some reason, Katara suddenly became conscious that she was barefoot. She'd left her boots behind in the Spirit Oasis. Was that okay? Yue was barefoot too, so perhaps it didn't matter. But then again, Yue seemed to float more than walk.

Her clothes were still wet from the Spirit Oasis pool and the swamp, so, while trotting hastily after Yue, she tried to Waterbend them dry. But when she waved her hand, nothing happened.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to Waterbend while you're here, Katara," Yue said, looking back at her once again over her shoulder as they ran through the forest. "But don't worry. You shouldn't need to."

"Oh – all right," Katara stammered, feeling more overwhelmed by her own ignorance with every step. Finally, she asked again, rather shyly, "Um, so... Where are we going? What are we doing now? Where's – where's Aang? Can I see him?" Her heart raced eagerly and frantically.

"Oh, Aang is..." Yue hesitated for a brief moment, as if she feared to upset Katara by saying too much – though her hesitation really only succeeding in making Katara more anxious. "He's – he's somewhere safe, don't worry. But not around here. We'll get there soon, though. It'll all be explained. But... Well, we have a lot to do. There's a lot you need to know, before you're ready. I wish you could have gotten here sooner."

"I'm sorry," Katara said, blushing with shame.

"No – it's all right," Yue said hastily, giving Katara another encouraging smile. "There's still enough time, I think."

"You think?"

"There is," she quickly corrected herself. "But we have to hurry. We have to find Avatar Kuruk. He's the first one you need to speak to."

"Avatar Kuruk?" Katara repeated the name blankly, frowning to herself, trying to recall if she'd heard of him before: which one was he? How long before Aang's time? She couldn't remember whether she knew anything about him or not. Her mind knotted with questions, mostly of the one-syllable variety: "Who?... First?... Why?"

But Yue chose to only respond to the middle question. "Yes – he's the first one. We've got three stops to make before you're ready to see Koh. Kuruk is the first." Then she said yet again, "Don't worry, Katara. Everything will be clear very soon."

---

"What do you think's going on down there?" Zuko asked, staring into the pond. He was sitting on the bank, legs crossed, watching the Koi fish swim in their endless circles.

Sokka sat beside him, also gazing into the pond, fiddling restlessly with his boomerang. "I dunno," he sighed.

Tenzin and Ursa were sprawled out in the grass nearby, playing some mindless game that involved quick reflexes and slapping one another's hands. Sokka scratched his head uneasily. It couldn't have been more than half an hour now since Katara had vanished, yet the time was passing with such unbearable slowness that it felt more like several hours. Several agonizing hours. The dark afternoon rolled on in lethargic, uneventful silence, and Sokka tried his hardest not to imagine that Katara was getting her face stolen – possibly right at that very moment. He distracted himself with trying to estimate the time: not an easy task, since it was already dark as night and would stay that way for quite a while.

Zuko, also, was struggling desperately not to think about the fact that Katara might be confronting the Face-Stealer even as they spoke. He wondered how long it would be before she came back – that is, of course, if she did come back (but he wasn't thinking about that). How long would they have to sit here waiting for her? What if it was days, or weeks?

At what point would they have to stop waiting?

No – he wasn't thinking about that.

The children, however, seemed entirely unconcerned at the moment. Seemed – that was the crucial word. Zuko knew they probably just didn't fully grasp the gravity of the situation, even if they understood it rationally. Or maybe they just weren't willing to fully grasp the gravity of it. Or, perhaps, they were simply unable, or unwilling, to dwell on worst-case scenarios the way he and Sokka were. Perhaps they simply had less tolerance for wallowing in worry, less endurance.

Whatever the actual case was, Zuko had no intention of dragging the two of them into their serious grown-up brooding, and neither did Sokka. Let them play silly games to pass the time; at least the time was passing more painlessly for them than it was for the adults.

"Ow!" Tenzin cried, as Ursa slapped his hands before he could pull them away. "Not so hard!"

"Don't be a baby," she scoffed. "All right, your turn now."

Sokka glanced sidelong at Zuko, and whistled rather awkwardly.

"So," he said, very slowly and carefully. "Is this... is this weird for you?"

"What?" Zuko murmured, looking at him.

"This," Sokka waved his hand vaguely. "All of this. This whole situation. With Katara, gone – you know, to – to bring back Aang and all, after you and her... had all that... stuff. You know." Sokka frowned, and felt his face flushing with discomfort; it wasn't the sort of thing he could just ignore, and yet now he wished he hadn't brought it up. But he glanced at Zuko again. "Is it weird?"

"A little bit, yeah," Zuko admitted after a moment, sighing heavily. He tore his fingers through his hair in frustration. "But I'm trying not to think about it too much. It's not really important right now."

"Yeah," Sokka murmured, also sighing, and shuffling his feet uncomfortably in the grass. "Sorry about – all that stuff. I mean, I'm sorry it had to be like this, Zuko. Things didn't really turn out... ideal, did they?"

"I'll be fine." Zuko hesitated, uneasy with the knowledge that Sokka felt sorry for him, because of Katara. He glanced at Sokka curiously, wondering what had suddenly made him bring this up. Was it just the need to talk about something, to pass the time? Was it the fact that they were the only two adults around at the moment, and Sokka figured now was as good a time as any to air the subject out? Perhaps Sokka was thinking about his old girlfriend who'd turned into the moon. That definitely hadn't turned out ideal for him; maybe the thought of her made him feel more empathetic than usual.

"Is this weird for you?" Zuko finally asked him, feeling quite embarrassed about the whole thing.

"Is what weird?"

"Just – sitting here, with me, for who knows how long, waiting for her to come back. I mean, waiting with me – knowing about... me and her, and everything." He paused, also flushing awkwardly. "I guess I mean, is it weird for you that I'm here?"

Sokka gazed straight ahead pensively, and nodded slowly. "Yeah, it's pretty weird," he said, first reluctantly, and then more decisively. "Definitely – yeah, definitely really weird."

Zuko stared sheepishly at the ground. "Sorry."

"Nah," Sokka shrugged, also dropping his eyes to the ground. "Don't be sorry. It's not like either of us could have controlled all this, you know."

Zuko didn't say anything more to Sokka, and Sokka had nothing else to say either. But their silence was thick with tangible regret, and anxiety.

"Haha!" Tenzin cried in triumph behind them, after giving Ursa's hands a slap sharp enough to reverberate around the Oasis.

"Ow!" Ursa growled. "Geez, monkey! Calm down!"

"Serves you right!" Tenzin snickered. "Okay, your turn again."

---

Katara had no idea how she was keeping pace with Yue: it felt as if they were moving at a remarkable speed through the trees, and Yue's feet didn't even seem to be touching the ground. Katara wasn't entirely sure that her own feet were touching the ground, either. Suddenly, a horrible suspicion came over her. Suppose this was all just another of her dreams? Suppose she hadn't actually made it to the Spirit World at all, and Yue wasn't really there, and as soon as she found Aang he'd just disappear again and she'd wake up to realize that none of it was real after all? The idea crept into her blood and made her heart feel sick and shaky.

But before she could gather the courage to ask Yue if any of this was actually happening, she noticed that the trees were beginning to thin out around them, and the forest was passing into a desolate grayish moorland – its dead color contrasting strangely with the golden light – littered with bony, twisted shrubs and massive, jagged black stones that seemed to hover in the air. The landscape gave the impression of utter flatness, and yet it somewhat rolled – swayed and meandered – disappearing into golden mist in every direction. But Katara thought she saw the phantom-like shadows of even larger black stones hovering far away, floating in the mist – some as large as mansions, or even mountains. And among the floating boulders, almost so far off they were invisible, the shapes of fluttering bird-like creatures moved in and out of sight through the fog.

Yue kept going forward through the eerie moorland, dragging Katara along hurriedly, and she didn't slow her stride in the slightest. Not even when they ran straight past a person – an old bare-headed, white-bearded Airbender – lying perfectly still, eyes closed, in the gray grass.

"Who was that?" Katara cried, alarmed, straining to look over her shoulder back at the man, as an uncanny chill crawled up her spine. But Yue pulled her on, and soon the Airbender had dissolved out of sight into the mist behind them.

"Who was who?" Yue asked, sounding entirely unconcerned.

But Katara didn't have a chance to answer before they were passing by another person lying on the ground: this time, a dark-skinned old woman, with braided white hair and thick fur clothes that Katara recognized as belonging to a very ancient Southern Water Tribe style. Near the woman, a little further away in the grass, was yet another person, another older man – and his red robes reminded Katara of the Fire Sages' uniforms. And as they ran further on, Katara began to spot more and more of them: people of every race, scattered about the landscape, all lying completely still on the ground.

"Yue, what is this?" she shouted, her voice wavering slightly as a sickening dread churned in her bowels. "Who are all these –? Wait a minute, is that –? Stop!"

"Katara, we have to hurry!" Yue protested, but Katara pulled her hand away from hers, trotting to a halt and staring, transfixed, at one of the people lying on the ground far away from them. Despite the distance and the mist, Katara saw clearly that it was a woman – a very familiar woman – with a long, solemn face covered in thick white makeup: the tallest woman she'd ever seen, with the largest feet.

Something in Katara's mind crackled and broke a little bit.

"Is that – ? Yue, that's not Kyoshi, is it?" she sputtered, pointing at the great Avatar with a trembling finger, and staring wide-eyed, like a helpless child, as the blood drained from her face. "It can't actually be her, right? It's not! It's some kind of...?" The words trick, optical illusion, hallucination, all lurked at the borders of her mouth, but she forgot how to say any of them.

Yue sighed unhappily, as if she'd hoped they could have passed through this place without Katara recognizing any of the people on the ground, or even noticing them at all. "Yes, I'm afraid it is her, Katara," she said softly. "Avatar Kyoshi."

"What's...? And that's Avatar Roku!" Katara exclaimed, suddenly spotting the old Firebender lying on the ground a good distance away from Kyoshi, his form almost invisible in the golden mists.

Yue sighed again. "That's right," she said. "And somewhere over in that direction is Avatar Yangchen, and – "

Katara gaped at her in distress. "Why are – ? Are they all Aang's past lives?"

Yue nodded sadly. "All of them are past Avatars, yes."

"What's wrong with them? Are they okay? Why are they all just lying around like this? What happened?"

"Well," Yue said reluctantly, grimacing a bit. "There's nothing... seriously wrong with them. They're just, um, resting. That's – that's mostly what they've done for the past five years or so. Rested."

Katara just stared at her blankly, until Yue conceded to explain more.

"See – they're all still connected to Aang, through the Avatar spirit," she said, waving her hand vaguely in the direction of Kyoshi. "And so, ever since Aang's face was taken – mostly because of the, um... the unique condition he's in right now – they've all been very weak. But, don't worry. Other than that, they're fine. They're just sleeping. They're usually sleeping nowadays. All of them. That's how it's been."

With an expression of weary sorrow, Yue let her eyes wander around at the many slumbering Avatars. And Katara only gawked at the sleeping figure of Kyoshi, fascinated and appalled by her especially, more than all the others; even if they were all just sleeping and nothing more, the entire spectacle stirred up a murky kind of sickness within her. Yue soon took her hand again and began to lead her off once more, this time at a slower pace, while Katara continued to stare in helpless, horrified awe.

"Avatar Kuruk should be around here somewhere," Yue said, more to herself than to Katara.

They continued walking through the bleak, spectral moorlands, passing by hovering boulders and sleeping Avatars. At last, Yue stopped walking, and Katara came to a stumbling halt behind her; they'd arrived at the crest of a low hill, which fell from their feet into a small, perfectly round basin. At the center of the basin was a smaller, rounder pond – the water so absolutely still that it looked like golden glass beneath the misty twilit sky – and two large jet-black stones were set up like pillars beside the pond. And beside one of those thick stones, there lay another sleeping Avatar: a man, broad and rough, dark-skinned and bearded and covered in a bearskin pelt. A crude spear lay in the grass beside him.

"That's him," Yue said softly. "Avatar Kuruk. He was the Water Tribe Avatar who lived three lifetimes before Aang – "

"The one before Kyoshi?"

Yue nodded, giving Katara a solemn look. "He's been waiting for you. They all have – but him especially. Come on, Katara." And so saying, Yue led Katara slowly down the hill, around the edge of the little pond to the place where Avatar Kuruk was sleeping.

Releasing Katara's hand, Yue stepped forward and knelt beside Kuruk. She placed her pale white hand on his shoulder and stirred him gently. And Katara, feeling strangely uncertain and self-conscious, held back, watching curiously. It was surreal, in that golden light, in that desolate place, to see shining white Yue beside the rough Water Tribe man and his spear. Katara found herself doubting that she was actually seeing it. And, for some reason, she was seized all at once with a wild impulse to stop Yue from waking him – a sudden mad, bewildering feeling that, perhaps, all of this was actually his dream, instead of her own, and it would all end once he awoke.

But Avatar Kuruk's eyes opened slowly, and nothing remarkable or disastrous happened; he stared at Yue, and she seemed to whisper something to him that Katara couldn't hear. At once, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, instinctively reaching for his spear and blinking his eyes heavily. Then Yue straightened up herself, and waved her hand at Katara as a signal to come forward. Katara did come, reluctantly, feeling childish and out of place; and, at an encouraging smile and gesture from Yue, she sat down on the ground facing Avatar Kuruk, while Yue remained standing beside her.

"So you're here at last," Kuruk murmured, without even looking at her; his eyes were closed, his head tilted drowsily toward the ground, as if he was going to drift off to sleep again at any moment.

Katara wondered how he knew her already, but she was surprisingly unsurprised by the fact that he did. Possibly because she still couldn't shake the awful feeling that this was just another dream. It felt so inevitable. But why had he been expecting her? And what did he have to do with Aang's situation, or the Face-Stealer? She didn't know – she felt like she didn't know anything at all – but all she could do was accept it.

"Yes, I'm – I'm here," she said slowly, doubtfully. "You were waiting for me?"

He finally opened his eyes and looked up at her then, and she saw that his face was worn with weary grief, and his blue eyes flickered with something unsettling behind their distant lethargy – something bitter and savage and slightly unbalanced. A great swell of pity came over her suddenly, though she wasn't sure exactly why.

"You are the one, aren't you?" he asked, suddenly staring at her very hard, as if something important were hidden in her face – much the same way people sometimes examined her features trying to find a resemblance between herself and her mother, or her father, or Gran Gran.

The way he stared at her made her feel very strange, and his question only made her feel stranger. "Um – I guess I...? What do you mean?"

"Avatar Aang's love," he said bluntly. "That is you, isn't it?"

Katara blushed for some reason, and stammered awkwardly, "Well, I, um... Yes? I mean, I – I... I mean, yes. Me." It wasn't the sort of question she'd ever expected to be asked – at least, not phrased in quite that way – and it caught her off guard.

Kuruk scrutinized her for a second longer, then glanced up at Yue, as if for confirmation. Yue nodded her head slightly. He turned back to Katara, and seemed to suddenly realize that his spear was still in his hand; he set it down between them on the ground, the sharpened head pointing in the direction of the pond.

"It's good to meet you," he said slowly, yawning; then he forced himself to sit up straighter, and placed his large, rough hands on his knees. "I am Avatar Kuruk. You'll have to pardon my drowsiness, Katara – your name is Katara?"

It seemed to be a question, yet his inflection made it sound more like a declaration – like a fact he'd only just realized. Again, Katara was caught off guard, and she stuttered rather idiotically, "Uh – yes, that's... correct?" – as if she wasn't sure of her own name, herself.

"Katara," he repeated her name thoughtfully, bowing his head forward slightly; she couldn't tell if it was a gesture of respect, or if he was nodding off again. "Forgive me for my... what did I – ? Drowsiness, that was the word. Yes. Hrm – feel free to give me a little nudge if I drift off from time to time, please. It's been hard to do anything, these past five years."

"Uh... a-all right?"

Then he shook himself, and fixed his eyes on her again, squinting at her intently, unblinking, as if he still couldn't figure out something about her, though he was trying very hard. "Katara," he said again, with curious emphasis. "From the Southern or Northern Water Tribe?"

"Oh, the... South. Southern."

"Ah." And for the first time, he almost seemed to smile the tiniest bit. His eyes gleamed distantly, and Katara got the feeling that his mind had suddenly wandered somewhere far away. After a long pause, he blinked and shook his head, and said quietly, "I'm sorry. I was... You remind me a little of someone. Though I guess I shouldn't be that surprised... But – I'm sorry. We need to get on with business. Time is of the essence right now. You'll have to face Koh very, very soon."

"Right," Katara sighed, only feeling increasingly uncomfortable and useless. "About that... So, what exactly am I supposed to do? I mean, this is all really new to me. Everything here. I'm not sure what I'm doing at all. But – I take it you must know something I need to know, about the Face-Stealer, right? Or else why would you need to talk to me?"

He nodded slowly, and a dark, severe look clouded his eyes – that unbalanced bitterness she'd noticed before, stirring up into a storm. "Yes," he growled. "I know a great deal about Koh. I've hunted Koh for nearly five hundred years."

She gaped at him, astonished. "Five hundre...? For so long? Why?"

For a long while, he was silent – though this time, he wasn't falling asleep again. He was seething with rage. He closed his eyes tightly and clenched his jaw, and seemed to be forcing himself through some terrible pain: so terrible he couldn't even speak.

And Katara hesitated, beginning to guess what it was. The sudden surge of pity came over her again, this time deepened by sorrowful sympathy. "He took the face of someone you loved, didn't he?"

"The love of my life," he replied bitterly. "Ummi. He stole her on the day of our wedding, right before my eyes. Dragged her into the pond of the Spirit Oasis, and took her face."

"I'm so sorry," she murmured, wishing she had something better to say.

Kuruk opened his eyes again, and stared at her intently. "All I've done since that day is hunt Koh, trying to save her. But I've never been able to." He paused, blinking heavily, and inhaled deeply. "So, believe me, Katara. I can imagine better than anyone what you've gone through since Koh stole Aang's face. I've gone through it myself, for five hundred years."

"Five hundred years," she repeated again, in a daze, almost physically feeling the hope drain out of her. "And you never caught him in all that time?"

"I wasn't trying to catch him."

"Oh – right. I know. I – I meant that." Katara felt rather foolish, though she didn't think she'd actually done anything particularly foolish. Not yet, at least.

Kuruk blinked again, and for a second he seemed to be drifting off once more. Yue stepped forward and touched his shoulder, and he stirred himself, and pierced Katara intently with his eyes.

"What do you know about the Face-Stealer, Katara?"

"Well," she said slowly, hoping that she hadn't been misinformed, for fear of seeming more foolish. "He's... he's got the body of a giant centipede, right? And a white mask – sometimes. And he's cold and heartless, and doesn't make exceptions for anyone."

"Yes. And when you see him, you must be very careful not to – "

"Right, right. I can't show any emotion," she said quickly, nodding. "Or else he'll steal my face."

Kuruk nodded as well. "Good. So at least you know that much. That's extremely important, Katara – even the slightest facial expression in Koh's presence, if he catches it, is an invitation for him to take your face. You must be in complete control of yourself at all times. And he'll do all in his power to make you slip up: he'll try to scare you, startle you, make you angry, anything. He'll probably use Aang's face against you, once he figures out who you are and why you've come here."

Katara swallowed hard. Somehow, she hadn't even thought about that – the fact that she'd likely have to remain completely expressionless, while Koh teased her with Aang's face, trying to provoke her. The idea of it nearly crushed her. Could it even be done? She doubted her ability to control herself in that situation. But she'd have to. She had no choice.

"So, um," she began again after a moment, voice trembling slightly, "could you tell me something? Is it – is it also true that Koh's never given back any of the faces he's stolen?"

Kuruk's eyes churned with grief and regret.

"Yes, it's true," he replied somberly. "As far as I'm aware, Koh's never willingly given up a face that he's taken. But there were two... Two that he lost. Only two that I know of, at least."

Surprised, she stared at him. "Lost?"

"One, he was cheated out of. The other, he destroyed."

"He destroyed someone's face?" Katara cried, aghast. "What – I mean, why? How? What does that mean? What happened to the person? And – wait, did you say he was cheated out of the other one? How's that possible? Who did it? How did that happen? Do you know how to – ? Do you know how it happened?" She felt suddenly rather excited by this revelation: if it had been done once, maybe it could be done again.

"It's a long story, and a tragic one," Kuruk said slowly, struggling not to yawn. "I unfortunately don't know all the details, but I'll tell you what I do know... You ought to know anyway, since it bears some connection to you and Aang, and to myself." He adjusted himself briefly, and – after allowing himself the yawn – began the story. "Several lifetimes before I lived, over nine hundred years ago, the Avatar was reborn as a Firebender named Tenzin – "

Katara jolted with recognition. "Wait – Avatar Tenzin! I know about him!"

He looked a bit taken aback by her interruption. "You do?"

"Yes!" she cried enthusiastically. "He restored balance by closing up some of the pathways between the Spirit World and the human world, right? And then he disappeared, and his wife went to sleep forever... I mean, that's the story I heard. Is that really what happened?"

"Ah," Kuruk said carefully, "yes, but – unfortunately, it's much more complicated than that. Let me start at the beginning: I assume you know, then, that in Avatar Tenzin's time, the Spirit World overlapped much more with the human world than it does now, and both spirits and humans could cross over more freely. When Tenzin was born, the world was out of balance because the spirits held too much power over the mortal world. These days, I fear, the balance may be tipping in the opposite direction – But, I'm sorry, I digress." He yawned again, and shook himself. "Avatar Tenzin was born into a noble family, and in his childhood he was close friends with a princess named Zara. They grew up alongside one another. And the story goes that when they were both still fairly young, before Tenzin even knew he was the Avatar, Zara once encountered Koh in the physical world – "

"Koh left the Spirit World?"

He paused, gathering his thoughts, and nodded slowly. "Like I said, the boundary between the two worlds was very indistinct back then, and many spirits lived almost in-between. As far as I know, Koh kept mostly to his own realm as he does now, and didn't actively seek out victims, usually. But if they wandered into his territory, of course they were fair game – and Zara did, probably on accident. And she would have had her face stolen right there, except that Tenzin slipped into the Avatar state and intervened to save her, banishing Koh to the Spirit World in the process... And this incident was, of course, when Tenzin first knew he was the Avatar; and I believe it was also what began him on his lifelong quest to close up the excess of crossing points between the two worlds. He drove a great number of other spirits out of the mortal world during his lifetime – something that many, on both sides, didn't always see as a good thing."

Katara furrowed her brow. "But – wasn't it necessary back then?"

Kuruk shrugged lethargically. "To an extent, yes... Of course, I wasn't there, so I can't say whether or not all of Tenzin's actions were entirely justified. But whatever the case, Tenzin and Zara grew up and eventually married, and all the while Koh harbored a grudge against Tenzin for his banishment, and especially for robbing him of Zara's face, which should have been rightfully his, since she'd come into his realm and had shown emotion in his presence." Kuruk paused again, and his face fell into a grim frown. "Generally, Koh is apathetic to all creatures other than himself. But if there's one thing I know about him, he can hold a grudge indefinitely."

"So did he come back and steal her face?"

"I'm getting to that," Kuruk held up his hand, breathing wearily. "... Avatar Tenzin earned himself a great many enemies in his time – not just Koh – because of his crusade to liberate the human world from havoc-causing spirits. Some of the spirits he subdued grew violent and vengeful, and began causing trouble wherever they could, at last attacking Tenzin's wife Zara and putting her into a deep sleep from which no one could wake her. So, to placate the angry spirits, Tenzin agreed to essentially banish himself to the Spirit World, to be their willing captive as long as they agreed to live in peace with the mortal world again, and to release Zara from her sleep."

Katara nodded, recalling the story that Iroh had told her years ago. "But then she went back to sleep forever anyway, right?"

Kuruk didn't reply immediately. His eyelids were fighting to stay open, and once again Yue gave him a gentle nudge. He shook himself again, and frowned at Katara, as if he'd forgotten what he was talking about.

"Sleep?" he muttered. "Oh, yes – Zara, sleep. Yes, basically, she put herself to sleep. Since Tenzin had widened the distance between the two worlds, the only way she could see him again was to cross into the Spirit World through deep meditation."

"So if he hadn't done that..." Katara's sentence trailed off, as she suddenly realized a new layer of tragic irony in the already ironically tragic story.

Kuruk nodded sadly. "If he hadn't... But he had, and there was no changing it. So, yes, Zara began to study various herbs and medicines, and finally created some concoction to put herself into a heavy sleep-like trance for long periods of time, to allow her to spend as long as she wanted in the Spirit World with Tenzin. They were apparently happy, for a time; as happy as they could be, at least, considering the circumstances. But then one day, when neither of them expected it, Zara passed into the Spirit World for her usual visit, and found Koh waiting for her there. Then Koh finally claimed his rightful prize from years before: he took her face. And so when Tenzin arrived, all he found was his wife's faceless spirit, wandering around blindly."

Katara shuddered at the thought. "Then what? Did he get her face back?"

"Well, I don't know what exactly happened," Kuruk admitted with a weary sigh. "No one does, really. Not even Zara herself. Only Koh and Avatar Tenzin knew – but Koh won't ever tell, and Tenzin is... Well, he's no longer able to tell. But whatever the details, it seems that Tenzin either tricked Koh, or coerced him somehow, into exchanging his face for hers. Zara was restored to herself, and Koh kept Tenzin's face instead."

"So – " Katara stammered, mouth hanging open. "So Zara's was the face he was cheated out of?"

"Yes. He was cheated out of it twice, if you want to count the first incident when they were children."

"And – and then, Tenzin's face was...?" She was already beginning to guess the rest of the story, anticipating it with dread.

"I'm getting to that," Kuruk said again, solemnly, with a vague wave of his hand. "After her face was restored, Zara chose to abandon the physical world for good. Her body had already wasted away quite a bit by then, and she had nothing left there, so she put herself permanently to sleep and stayed here in the Spirit World, spending all her time trying to find a way to save Tenzin from Koh. She visited Koh's realm day after day, for a very long time – I don't know exactly how long, but it must have been centuries. She and Koh, of course, became very familiar with one another over all that time, and their mutual hatred and enmity grew stronger and stronger. Zara mastered her emotions so completely that, even when she wasn't anywhere near Koh, her face was almost always as blank as stone. It still is – you'll see when you meet her. And Koh only grew to hate her more and more. He hated them both: Zara, whose face should have been his, but who never would be his again, though she constantly returned to haunt him and remind him of how he'd been cheated; and Tenzin, who'd been the cause of it all. At last, in a fit of rage, Koh destroyed Tenzin's face – partly for revenge on Tenzin, but mostly out of spite for Zara, and to get her to leave him alone once and for all."

Although Katara had already guessed that Avatar Tenzin's was the face that Koh had destroyed, she was still breathless with horror when Kuruk said it aloud. "So, what happened to Tenzin then?" she asked, frowning. "I mean – did that – kill him?"

"Oh - no," Kuruk yawned. "Tenzin hadn't actually been alive in the physical sense for quite some time by that point."

"So, what happened to him? What happens when Koh destroys someone's face?"

"His spirit was destroyed," Kuruk replied, almost in a whisper, and Katara saw him shudder as well. "Permanently ruined. I believe he's still kept somewhere in Zara's realm, faceless just like all the rest of Koh's victims, but completely lifeless. With no hope of ever being restored."

The idea of Avatar Tenzin's fate – not death, but obliteration – made Katara feel rather nauseous. Especially knowing that Koh could do the same thing to Aang any time he pleased. "That's..." she rasped. "That's the worst thing I've ever heard."

"Yes, I know," Kuruk sighed sorrowfully. "After that, Zara established herself forever as Koh's greatest enemy. To this day, she's – I guess you could say, she's Koh's antithesis, if you know what I mean. The light to his shadow. The yang to his yin... She took her husband's broken spirit to rest, and built her garden around him, and took on the role of a guardian. A caretaker of all of Koh's victims, gathering them from around the Spirit World into her garden, where they can find rest and be somewhat at peace, until by some impossible chance their faces are finally returned to them." He paused for a long while, losing himself in distant thoughts. "My dear Ummi is still one of those that live in her garden."

"And that's where Aang is now too, right?"

Kuruk nodded. "You'll see it for yourself soon. Yue will take you there before you confront Koh."

Katara took a moment to absorb everything, struggling to fit all the pieces together. She took a slow, steady breath, and then looked up at the grim Avatar. "So... what about you, and Ummi? How do you fit into all this? Why did Koh steal her face?"

Kuruk didn't respond immediately, though he seemed to grow more alert, more awake, at the question; his expression became more severe, and when he finally spoke, his voice was suddenly sharp with fierce hatred.

"Koh never forgot his grudge against Tenzin and Zara," he said. "And he only became more bitter after destroying Tenzin's face – bitter that Zara had tormented him until he was forced to destroy one of his precious faces. Especially since it was really her face that he wanted, not Tenzin's. He'd been cheated out of her face twice, and she hadn't even allowed him the pleasure of keeping Tenzin's face as a consolation. But, since he couldn't exact his revenge on Zara herself, he instead found an excuse to punish me. I – " He hesitated, and his voice grew a bit softer. "I wasn't a great Avatar, I admit. I was lazy and careless. Koh saw my weakness as cause enough to steal my love away from me."

She only gaped at him for a moment, astonished. "So he took your wife because you were lazy?"

"Passive, indecisive, ineffectual." He sighed with heavy regret. "Yes, lazy is one way of putting it. At least, that was Koh's justification for it."

"That seems a little harsh! Don't you think?"

"For the longest time," Kuruk went on, shaking his head in sleepy, baffled fury, "I couldn't understand why he'd chosen to punish me so terribly for such a – well, no, I won't say it was a small failure – but such a relatively harmless fault. Nothing I ever did, or failed to do, jeopardized the balance of the world, as far as I'm aware. It was a purely personal failure, you could say... But even more than that, I couldn't understand why he would choose to punish Ummi for my mistakes! It was only later, when I learned about Tenzin and Zara's story, that I began to understand... See, Koh has a tendency to view all the Avatars as a single being – which, in a way, we are. But we're also significantly distinct, as I'm sure you already understand very well, Katara. Koh does differentiate between one Avatar and another, but only barely – only when he feels like it. And I suppose, in his mind, he felt that stealing the face of my love was almost as gratifying as stealing the face of Avatar Tenzin's love, whom he could never have. I was merely unlucky enough to be alive at the time when Koh's bitterness rose to its climax... And Ummi was unlucky enough to be loved by a faulty Avatar – one whose punishment Koh could justify, if he wished."

Kuruk grimaced as he spoke that last sentence, and his voice shattered faintly. Katara could see how severely he blamed himself for the entire thing, and she understood his pain completely. Quivering with pity and rage, she stammered, "I'm so – I'm so sorry. I can't believe..." Then she trailed off momentarily, struggling to gather her thoughts, and at last furrowed her brow at him quizzically. "But – what about Aang? What does all this have to do with him? Why did Koh take his face?"

Somehow, Kuruk grew even more somber, and his eyes fell to the ground almost ashamedly. "I'm... I'm afraid that might be my fault, too."

She stared at him. "What?"

"I've hunted Koh for centuries," he said, "trying to slay him and save Ummi. But only about five years ago did I ever finally come close to succeeding. I attacked Koh with a poison made by Zara, and I would have defeated him, had I only been able to... But never mind. You'll learn more about that from the others. The point is, it wasn't very long after my failed attack that Koh stole Aang's face. Honestly, I don't know for sure why he went after Aang specifically – maybe the others will know more – but I personally think that he was simply furious that I'd come so close – so close – to actually defeating him... and he wanted to punish someone for it. He couldn't punish me; I hid myself well from him. But there was Aang... Like I said before, Koh doesn't usually seem to see much difference between one Avatar and another, especially when he doesn't want to." He paused, closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again forcefully and went on. "Of course, it could be that he already had some grudge against Aang on top of that, or possibly some other motive – but I really don't know... It seems to me that Aang was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Koh took the opportunity."

Katara was boiling, trembling with fury. "That's – that's not fair!" she sputtered savagely. "How could he – ? Just because he – !" She stopped, unable to speak anymore, too overwhelmed, thinking about how much both she and Aang had suffered – and everyone else, too – all because of Koh's temper.

"I'm sorry, Katara," Kuruk murmured with solemn earnestness. "If this was my doing, I can't possibly apologize enough. I know how you feel, more than anyone, and I'd never wish my own grief on anyone else... But like I said, all I can do is speculate about why Koh stole Aang's face. The others might be able to tell you more."

"The others?" Katara frowned at him. "Who are the others?"

Yue suddenly spoke again, startling Katara, who'd almost forgotten that she was still there. "You'll meet them soon, Katara," she said. "In fact, we ought to be moving on. There's isn't much time left."

"Here," Kuruk said, with sudden urgency, as if he'd just remembered something important. "Take this." And he reached into his fur coat and pulled forth a small, strange plant – a bulge of knotted roots – and handed it to Katara.

"What is that?" she stammered, baffled, but taking it from him nevertheless.

"It's one of the ingredients for the poison I used in my last attack on Koh," he explained slowly. "A root from the farther end of the Spirit World. The last one I have... the others will provide you with the rest. Give it to Zara when you see her – she'll make it for you. You'll need it if you want to defeat Koh."

Katara examined the odd mass of roots for a second, then glanced up at Kuruk in uncertainty. "Will that... will it – kill him?"

"The poison?" Kuruk blinked dazedly, then shook his head. Katara could tell he was fading fast, and would soon be fast asleep again. "No, no. The poison itself won't kill him. Defeating Koh isn't going to be quite that simple, unfortunately. If it was, I would have slain him myself long ago... But you'll still need it."

"Thank you."

"And one more thing, Katara – "

She looked at him. "What?"

In a sudden final burst of alertness, he fixed her with a very solemn, very stern gaze. "When the moment comes," he said, "run for the light. And don't stop."

Staring at him, Katara shivered with an uncanny sense of déjà vu, and once again she wondered fearfully if this wasn't all just an especially vivid and detailed dream. His words mystified her, but they didn't quite perplex or surprise her; she felt almost as if she'd been waiting for them, without knowing it, even though she had no idea what exactly he meant. For a second, she thought about asking him to elaborate – but something about the way he spoke, the finality in his tone, told her that their conversation was finished, and that she'd understand it soon enough. So she merely nodded, and rose to her feet.

"Thank you," she said again.

"I wish you the best of luck, Katara," he said, already beginning to surrender to sleep once again. "I believe you can do what I couldn't. And when you succeed, believe me, you and Aang won't be the only ones who'll find peace."

---

"It's taking a long time," Tenzin sighed uneasily, cautiously skimming his toes against the glassy water that rippled against the brink of the pond. "Why isn't she back yet?"

"Just be patient," Sokka said. "It hasn't been that long." He hoped that his voice didn't give away how anxious he was himself, or how much Tenzin's question had been haunting his own thoughts.

Zuko was on his feet now, pacing slowly at the far end of the little island, saying nothing. Ursa came and sat in the grass beside Sokka, staring at the circling Koi fish as if she were hypnotized by them. Her stomach growled loudly enough for Sokka to hear it. He glanced at her.

"You hungry, squirt?"

"Yeah, a little," she admitted reluctantly.

"Me too," Tenzin said timidly, glad someone else had brought it up first. "But I don't want to leave."

"Me neither," Ursa said. "I mean, what if she comes back when we're gone?"

Sokka sighed. He'd been feeling hungry as well, but had hoped to wait it out until Katara returned. But who knew how much longer it would be?

"Well," he said, rising to his feet and stretching with a groan. "I can see if one of those Waterbenders standing guard outside the door can bring us some food. That way we don't have to leave. How does that sound?"

Both Tenzin and Ursa approved of the idea very fervently, and Tenzin offered to walk with Sokka back to the entrance of the Oasis. After the two of them crossed the bridge, leaving Zuko and Ursa alone on the island, Zuko came and sat down beside his daughter with a weary sigh. She looked at him.

"Are you worried, dad?"

He didn't reply at first. Then he glanced down at her. "Are you?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Me too. A little."

Ursa hesitated. "What's gonna happen if she doesn't come back?"

"She will," Zuko said, firmly and quietly. "She'll come back."

"But what if she doesn't?" Ursa asked again in a hush, her voice trembling a bit. "What are we gonna do?"

The despair in her question startled him, and he wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't want to simply insist again that Katara was, without a doubt, coming back, because he didn't fully believe it himself, and it had been eating him alive that that final glimpse they'd had of her disappearing into the water might very well be the last time any of them ever saw her. And it didn't seem right to pretend for Ursa's sake that he wasn't thinking about that possibility. To act like it was impossible for Katara to fail – to pretend that things didn't sometimes go horribly wrong, and that sometimes people just didn't come back. He couldn't pretend; he couldn't deceive her like that.

He looked down at her pensively for a moment, studying her face – her anxious amber eyes veiled beneath the dark line of her bangs. For a second, he saw how much of her mother was in her, and thought of how much they'd both lost already. But he put his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest, holding her tight, and she wrapped her arms around him.

"We'll take care of each other," he said. "No matter what. All right?"

"Okay," she whispered. And again she began to stare – entranced – at the circling Koi fish in the placid pond.

---

As Yue led her on through the surreal landscape of the Spirit World, deep into a different and darker forest than the one they'd come through earlier, Katara scrutinized the strange bulbous root Kuruk had given her. She'd never seen any plant like it in the normal world, and she wondered where exactly it came from, what it was called, what it did.

And she wondered also, again, what she was going to do, what she was supposed to do, when she finally confronted Koh. After her conversation with Kuruk, she was gathering some vague ideas, but they were all tangling together confusedly in her mind. Before, she'd had the vague notion that she might just talk to the Face-Stealer, somehow appeal to him to give back Aang's face; but that didn't even seem like an option now. Especially since Kuruk had given her this thing, to make some kind of poison – which wouldn't kill Koh, but was apparently still important, for some mysterious reason. Perhaps she was supposed to threaten Koh into giving up Aang's face? – No, just the idea of that seemed ludicrous. How could she possibly be threatening to the Face-Stealer? And she was terrified that if she made him too angry, he might just destroy Aang's face, the way he'd done with Avatar Tenzin. Perhaps she could... trick him, somehow? But how? That idea seemed absurd, too.

– And even if she managed to save Aang, one way or another, what about all the other faces? What about Ummi? Somehow this had become about more than just Aang now. Kuruk seemed to think that Katara was going to defeat Koh and save everyone.

Defeat Koh... Would she have to – to kill him? It seemed like that was the only alternative left – but could she really do that? Slay the Face-Stealer, even though Kuruk hadn't been able to do so for five hundred years? Was that even possible, to kill Koh? Was that allowed? It felt wrong somehow. And how would she even go about such a thing? And what would happen to all his stolen faces if she killed him? What was she supposed to do?

"What are you thinking about?" Yue asked her suddenly.

"I'm wondering what in the world I'm doing here."

"What do you mean?" Her brow furrowed softly.

"I mean," Katara stammered, closing her eyes and surrendering to her own utter helplessness for a moment. "Why am I the one doing this? It all seems so much bigger than me now. And I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do, or how, or why... I mean, I guess at least I have a better idea now of why all this happened, but – what am I doing here? How can I do anything? I don't even know where to begin."

"You've already begun, Katara," Yue said, with a small smile. "Remember, we still have two more places to stop before you face Koh. By the time we get done, you'll feel very different about everything, I promise."

Katara hesitated. "Yue, I – I have a kind of strange question..."

"What is it?"

"Am I – " She paused, struggling with what exactly she meant to ask. "Am I supposed to – you know – kill Koh? Is that what I have to do? Is that even right? I mean, obviously I have to save Aang, and I'm starting to get the feeling that killing Koh might be the only way to do it. And – it's not that I – well, honestly, I kind of think Koh deserves it. And clearly Avatar Kuruk had no qualms about it. But... I'm just thinking, wouldn't it be bad to slay an ancient spirit, no matter what they'd done? Just bad for – for the balance of the world, or something?"

For a few seconds, Yue only gazed at her uncertainly. "Well," she said slowly, "yes, generally, it would be extremely ill-advised, even though – even though Avatar Kuruk's been trying to do it for centuries. But, Katara, I'm afraid this isn't going to be a matter of just killing Koh. It's a bit more complicated than that. See, if you were to just kill him, you'd almost definitely destroy all the faces he's stolen as well."

"What? Really? Are you sure?"

Yue nodded carefully. "It's very likely. Though, I'm not any kind of expert about Koh myself. That's why you need to talk to the others; they know a lot more about this than I do. But – yes, as far as I know, that's what would happen. So, um... you don't want to do that. I think that's one of the main reasons Avatar Kuruk's never been able to defeat Koh. He couldn't kill him without destroying Ummi, and everyone else, in the process."

Katara gaped at her, feeling dizzy with the seemingly impossible task before her, suffocated by her own inadequacy. "Well, if I can't reason with him, and I can't kill him, then what am I supposed to do?"

"The others will tell you more, when you talk to them," was Yue's simple response.

"The others? Who are the others?" Katara demanded in exasperation.

"We're here," Yue announced very suddenly, raising one of her pale white hands and pointing straight ahead. Before them, on the top of a small hill, stood what looked like a kind of temple: a towering pagoda supported by dozens of tall, slender stone columns, shining like a vibrant white crown in contrast to the dark trees below. The light here, Katara suddenly noticed, was cool and wintery – quite different from the golden light of the moor where she'd spoken to Kuruk. The sky shimmered with streaks of green and violet, almost like the aurora she'd often seen at home in the South Pole. She hadn't noticed the changing light when they were walking, and it surprised her – and also filled her with a strange new sense of dread. It gave her the feeling that time was passing very quickly, and the hour was getting late.

But she allowed Yue to lead her up the hill, and they passed into the mysterious temple, into the circle of columns. There, Katara had to blink for a moment against the bright whiteness inside, and when her eyes adjusted, she saw an astonishingly large crowd of people, all arranged in a spiral, like the columns themselves. Some stood in a circle around the bottom floor, and others stood above them on level after level, ascending to a ceiling that was so far away Katara couldn't even see it. There were men and women of all races – too many to count – and Katara just stared in awe for several seconds. The place was larger, much larger, on the inside than it had appeared from the outside.

As Katara and Yue stood there on the threshold, the last person standing in this strange spiral of people – an elderly woman with soft hazel eyes and long brown hair tied back in a traditional Fire Nation style – stepped forward and bowed to Katara with a smile. Something in the woman's face – in her maternal smile, or perhaps in her eyes – reminded Katara of Zuko's mother.

"You must be Katara," she said. "It's so good to finally meet you, dear."

Katara stared at her – at all the people – in bewildered uncertainty. They were all gazing at her, as if they expected something, as if they'd all gathered here precisely for her arrival. Awkwardly, Katara glanced aside at Yue, but Yue only gestured for her to speak to the older woman who'd greeted her.

"I'm – I'm sorry," Katara stammered at the woman. "Who are you? Who are all of you? And how do you know me?"

"My name is Ta Min," she said softly. "When I lived, I was the wife of Avatar Roku."

Then the man who'd been standing beside Ta Min in the circle – a very tall, noble-looking Earth Kingdom man, with a subtle spark of wit in his eyes and a way of carrying himself that reminded Katara, strangely, of the Earth King Kuei, just a little bit – stepped forward beside Ta Min and also bowed to her.

"My name is Jianyu," he said, with a small but good-humored smile. "When I lived, I was the husband of Avatar Kyoshi. Pleased to meet you, Katara."

"Ummi can't be here, of course," Ta Min said, with a somber look. "And you'll meet Zara later. But all the rest of us are here – " She waved her hand around at the great multitude of people in the room, who all bowed their heads in respectful greeting to Katara.

"Wait!" Katara cut her off in astonishment, her stomach quivering uneasily. "Wait – so, are all of you...?"

"We're all as you are yourself, Katara," Ta Min said, rather cryptically, but still with a gentle smile. "Those that connected with the Avatars, spiritually and emotionally, in a way no one else ever did, and shared with them the deepest bond of unity that can exist between two people. And we're all connected with you, because of your connection with Aang. It's taken you a very long time to get here, dear. There's a lot to explain, and very little time left – "

"Wait," Katara choked again, holding up her hands, overwhelmed. She took a step back, breathless, feeling rather lightheaded. "I don't – I need a minute."

Helplessly, she just closed her eyes and hid deep within herself, processing. Trying to understand, trying to find her bearings. Yue placed a hand on her shoulder worriedly. "Katara, are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm just – " Katara gasped, opening her eyes again and gaping at the innumerable crowd of people, who were all staring intently back at her with anxious expressions. She felt suddenly both uncomfortably important and horribly insignificant at the same time. "I'm just not – I'm not sure I understand. I'm not sure how to take this. So – what? You're all the... the people who were married to past Avatars?"

"Oh, uh... Well, no. Not quite." Ta Min looked slightly taken aback by the question, and shook her head. "Not all of us were married. Life isn't always that simple, unfortunately. We're just..." She frowned, and glanced up at Jianyu, who was quite a bit taller than she was (but still not as tall as his formidable wife). "How else would you describe it, Jian?"

Jianyu just shrugged. "I thought you explained it pretty elegantly, actually."

Ta Min sighed in slight frustration, furrowing her brow. "Well... It's really very simple, Katara. See, we're all..."

"The Avatars' great loves," interjected a complaisant-looking Airbender woman from elsewhere in the room.

"Yes! That." Ta Min nodded, turning back to Katara with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "Those that the Avatars loved most. The greatest loves of their lives. All of us here shared a very deep connection with one of the Avatars – the deepest bond there is. The sort that lives on even after death. And since we're all so closely bound to the Avatar, we're also, in a strange way, bound to one another. Kindred spirits, if you want to think of it that way."

"We've been trying to reach you for a long time, Katara," Jianyu said. "To let you know what had happened to Aang, especially since the past Avatars have all been somewhat out of commission, as you probably noticed. But with – with Aang in the rather... unusual condition he's in now, it's been a little difficult."

"Wait – I'm still not sure I understand," Katara stammered, flushing with great discomfort and bewilderment. "So you all know me, because I'm – ? Because of Aang? So, are you all – ? This isn't some kind of... reincarnation, sort of thing, is it? Because I really don't think – "

"Oh, no, no!" Jianyu interrupted her, shaking his head and chuckling a bit. "It's not anything like that. That's something unique to the Avatar spirit. They're all the same, but different. We're not the same; just connected, because of our particular relationship with the Avatars. All of them are connected; therefore, so are we, to a lesser extent. But we are similar, in a lot of ways – which is fairly logical, when you think about it. We've all got something in common, whatever it is, that the Avatars felt drawn to. We're sort of, uh... spiritual relatives. Or – what'd you say, Ta Min? Kindred spirits? Yes, I like that. That's very nice."

"Thank you," Ta Min said, looking a little pleased with herself. "Anyway, the only reason we've all gathered here now is because of you, Katara. You don't have much time, and we want to help you in any way we can, because you're one of us."

"Am I?" she breathed faintly.

"Yes, you are," she said. "You and Aang had an attachment that he never had with any other person in his life. His love for you was very powerful – "

"Is," Jianyu corrected her hastily.

"What?" she frowned at him.

"You meant it is very powerful," he repeated, giving her an anxious look. "The boy's still around, remember."

"Oh, is! Right, I'm sorry." She shook her head fiercely, with another absentminded wave of her hand, then quickly went on, gazing at Katara earnestly. "Katara, you're going to confront Koh very soon, and you need to know what you're getting into, if you want any hope of succeeding. And it just so happens we all know quite a lot about Koh, thanks to Zara – since she's one of us too, of course. We want to give you as much help as we can before you go. This is extremely important, dear: you have to defeat Koh and bring Aang back to the physical world, as soon as possible. You're the only one who can."

"I'm – why am I...? That's – I mean, I already knew I was the one who had to do it." Katara frowned at her in a daze. "They told me that from the start, that I was the only one who could do it. But... I guess, I still don't get why? Why did it have to be me?"

"It's always been you, dear," Ta Min replied gently. "Aang attached himself to you from the first moment he saw you. And you were his balance – the one who kept him from losing himself in his darkest moments, and reached him when no one else could. From the very beginning, it was always you."

"But – how do you know that?" Katara stammered wildly, flushing, feeling as if her privacy were being severely invaded somehow – as well as a storm of other uncomfortable emotions that she hadn't quite sorted out yet.

"Because it was the same for me," Ta Min said. "And for all of us. The instant attachment, the balance – the love that wouldn't fade, even through years of hopeless separation. That is how it was for you, wasn't it, Katara?" She gave her a knowing look, and smiled softly.

Katara didn't reply; only stared at her, completely at a loss, feeling dizzy and slightly queasy still, though she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Really, this isn't anything all that unusual," Ta Min went on, when Katara remained silent. "Most human spirits seek to connect with another in this way – to find another person they can love completely, and receive complete love from in return. It's almost built into us, to want that. To want someone who balances us, and makes us more ourselves than we are on our own. The Avatars all seek that love, just the same as any ordinary human. The only thing that makes it... somewhat extraordinary, is that, of course, the Avatar isn't just an ordinary human. There's another dimension to it – their peculiar spiritual nature, which seeks to be a part of the world and everything in it, and needs a center of balance. A kind of anchor."

"Like the Moon and the Ocean," said an old Waterbender man elsewhere in the room, in an enigmatic tone. "Two that are one. They move us, and we pull them back toward the earth."

"And while many people in the world may never find the right person," Ta Min continued, "or might not recognize them if they do, it seems to be different for the Avatars. Their spirit draws us to them, like a magnet – or maybe something draws them to us – either way..."

"When they do find the right person," Jianyu interjected, and one corner of his mouth suddenly twitched into a subtle grin, "the attachment happens in the blink of an eye. It always does. Doesn't matter how old or young they are. Doesn't matter how long it takes for us to figure it out ourselves – and it sometimes takes... awhile." He sighed, and chuckled; he seemed to be speaking from experience. "None of that matters. Once it happens, it happens. And they just know. There's no stopping it. And there's usually no breaking that attachment once it's made, either. It's a powerful thing, the Avatar's love."

"There's nothing particularly special about any of us," Ta Min continued, "other than that we just happened to be the right person. It happened the same way for me and Roku, and for Kyoshi and Jianyu, and for Kuruk and Ummi – all of us. Just the way it happened for you, Katara. You were – are – You are Aang's great love. You're his center, and his balance. You've saved him many times before. Which is why you're the one who must save him now."

"You must," Jianyu echoed her emphatically, staring at Katara with sudden urgent intensity. And the entire crowd in the room stirred and rippled, while the words reverberated anxiously among them.

"It's your destiny, Katara," Ta Min said gently, as the others began to quiet down.

"And it's more crucial than you might realize," Jianyu added, with a grave look.

But an unbearable storm of guilt had begun to fall oppressively over Katara as they spoke – though she still wasn't completely sure why, or where it had come from so suddenly. She only felt increasingly filthy, treacherous, unworthy. She didn't belong here – she wasn't one of them, no matter how much they thought she was. She couldn't be. Not after – not after what she'd done to Aang. Not after she'd broken his heart. Everything they were saying only made her feel even more despicable about what she'd done to him, and all she heard as they spoke was condemnation. She couldn't be the right one. She would never – never – have done that to him, ever, if she was really the right one. And if they knew what she'd done, how she'd crushed him, they wouldn't be saying all these things, or offering to help her.

"I – I don't think this is right," she muttered miserably, flushing and wincing and reaching feebly towards Yue for support.

Yue steadied her, scrutinizing her intently. "Katara, what's wrong?"

Katara didn't answer her; after a moment, she looked up at Ta Min ashamedly. "So – um... let me ask you something. Say, hypothetically, if – if Aang hadn't gotten his face stolen, and... and for some reason, I – I did something to – to break his heart. Are you saying he'd never...? – I mean, exactly how bad would that be?"

Ta Min gazed at her sadly for a moment, and Katara wondered if, perhaps, she did know. Perhaps all of them knew.

"Well," she finally said, with a sigh, "Like I said earlier, life isn't always as simple as we'd like it to be; it's complicated and messy. His attachment to you might even be broken, but only with a great deal of pain and difficulty. But it's more likely that, even if the two of you grew apart, that connection he had with you would always be there, in one form or another, unless something very drastic happened. Not all the Avatars married, you know; yet they all still had someone in their lives who filled that role, and few that I know of ever broke the attachment entirely. And if they did, usually they never quite recovered. They still loved, of course; but never the same way again."

"I just – I'm not sure I'm the one who should be doing this," Katara admitted, closing her eyes and holding her head faintly. A tear burned suddenly in her eye, simmering with guilty regret and devastating shame. "I haven't – I haven't been very good at this so far, I mean. What if I'm not the right one?"

"You are, Katara," Yue suddenly protested. "Of course you are."

"You are," Jianyu agreed, nodding quietly. "We all know you are. We've known for some time now."

"Katara, listen," Ta Min said urgently, taking a step forward towards Katara and fixing her with a stern, almost motherly stare. "I know you might feel right now like you can't do this, but believe me, you can. We all know you can. And you must! There's much more at stake here than just Aang's personal welfare – though, of course, we'd all like to see him returned home safely. But, you see, because of what happened when Koh took Aang's face, the Avatar cycle might just come to a standstill if something isn't done."

"What?" Katara gasped, taken aback.

"This might be a little strange to think about," she went on anxiously, "but when Koh attacked Aang, he went about it in a very unusual way. Most of his victims are spirits, without physical bodies. But in this case, he actually abducted Aang straight out of the physical world – body and all – and stole his face here, in the Spirit World. Luckily, he didn't take his face while Aang was still in the mortal world – "

"Yes, faces are generally important for things like... living," Jianyu remarked, with a grim shudder. "At least, in the physical world, they are. Here, it doesn't matter so much."

"But, if it had been different," Ta Min said. "If Koh had stolen his face while Aang was only here through meditation, in his spirit form – "

"Then his body would have gone on living in the mortal world," Jianyu finished, "while his spirit would have been stuck here without a face. To anyone who saw him out there, he would have seemed like he was just sleeping, or unconscious. You wouldn't have been able to wake him up, but he'd still be alive, and he'd age like normal and die eventually, even if his spirit never returned to him."

"But this is a completely different situation," Ta Min continued. "The way it is now, Aang is still here, in his physical form, stuck here. And as long as he's here, he won't die, even without a face. But he also won't age. He'll simply live forever, faceless."

"And thus, he'll never reincarnate," Jianyu said. "And the next Avatar will never be born. The cycle will be – well, stuck."

"So you see how disastrous this is." Ta Min studied Katara anxiously. "You saw how all the past Avatars are now, didn't you? The reason they're all so weak is because Aang is still technically alive – still technically the current living incarnation of the Avatar spirit – but he's trapped in this strange in-between, not-really-alive-or-dead kind of state. The Avatar spirit is dormant. And unless he's saved from Koh and brought back to the mortal world, then, for all intents and purposes, the Avatar will cease to exist."

Katara gaped at her, head spinning. As the full weight of the situation finally hit her, all she could manage to croak out was, "Oh."

"Understand, Katara?" Ta Min asked. "You see, you must save him. Not only for his sake, but for everyone's."

Katara shut her eyes, feeling as if she were being crushed under a terrible weight. She wondered if Aang had felt this way when he had to fight the Fire Lord. For a moment, she wanted nothing more than for him to be there with her, so she could hold him tight and tell him all about how she felt right now, and they could sympathize with one another and both feel a little better.

But Aang was elsewhere, caught between life and death, only alive for now through a technicality. She was on her own, and she had to save him. She had to save everyone, because she was apparently the one.

"But – why is it like this?" she moaned miserably. "Why did this happen?"

"You mean, why did Koh steal Aang's face?" Ta Min asked, furrowing her brow.

"Yes, and – " Katara stammered, too lost and overwhelmed to understand her own thoughts. "Why all this? I mean – what am I supposed to do?"

"Katara," Jianyu said softly, "you spoke to Avatar Kuruk already, didn't you? Did he give you anything to help you?"

"Uh, yes," she said reluctantly, holding the mysterious knotted root out for them to see. "He gave me this thing, and said I should give it to Zara. But I don't really know – "

"Ah! Good," Ta Min interrupted her, nodding eagerly. "Don't lose that."

"What did Kuruk tell you when you spoke to him?" Jianyu asked.

Katara shook her head, and pressed her palms against her skull wearily. "He told me – he told me about Avatar Tenzin and Zara, and how Koh stole Ummi, and he had some vague idea about why Koh might have done this to Aang – but he wasn't even completely sure. And now there's all this pressure that I've got to save everyone, and it's my destiny, and the Avatar cycle's going to get stuck if I don't, and if I do it wrong then everyone's going to die, and – "

"Kuruk told you why Koh attacked Aang?" Ta Min asked her, frowning almost incredulously, as if she doubted Kuruk's knowledge on the matter.

"Well," she said slowly, forcing herself to exhale calmly. "He guessed that Koh went after Aang because... Basically, Koh was angry at Kuruk and wanted to take it out on someone, and Aang just happened to be there. Which just seems stupid and horrible – "

"Ah, I'm afraid it's slightly more complicated than that," Jianyu said dourly, with a bitter sigh.

"Some think," Ta Min also sighed, scowling, "that it wasn't just a coincidence that Koh went after Aang. That Koh deliberately planned to take his face in the specific way that he did, in order to halt the Avatar cycle and weaken all the past Avatars."

"What?" Katara sputtered in bewilderment. "But why would he want to do that?"

"Several possible reasons," Jianyu grumbled. "Revenge. Centuries of spite. Protection for himself. But probably mostly that last one – protection. It definitely got Kuruk to stop hunting him, for one thing. For another, it made going between the worlds a bit more difficult."

"Also, according to Koh," Ta Min said slowly, with a surprising fierceness in her voice, "Aang's power was too great. The power to bend another's energy. That was a skill that existed before the time of the Avatars – before the era of bending the elements – and none of the Avatars have ever known how to do it, except Aang. Koh argued that no Avatar should ever have so much power, over the elements and over spiritual energy." She shook her head. "He says it would only lead to imbalance and abuse, especially if Aang were to pass on his knowledge. Or even if someone else just saw Aang's power and tried to imitate it. Therefore, Aang needed to be... removed."

Jianyu suddenly glanced uneasily at Ta Min. "And – there was also – "

"Yes, that." Ta Min's eyes darted at him briefly, and then she gave Katara an apologetic look. "I hate to even bring this up, but – Katara, Koh also says that, in his view, Aang failed as an Avatar because he failed to put the world's needs above his own spiritual needs when he chose to use that power to take away the Fire Lord's bending, rather than simply disposing of the Fire Lord."

"What?!" Katara cried, incensed. "But he – ! But he ended the war! He restored the balance! Why does it matter how he did it?"

"I think Koh saw it as more of a personal failure on Aang's part," Ta Min sighed.

"He punished Kuruk for a similarly questionable reason," Jianyu said grimly. "And in that case, we're all fairly certain it was just more of an excuse. It's possible that Koh really does believe what he says, that Aang failed as an Avatar. But many of us think it's just as likely, or even more likely, that Koh was only looking for a way to justify his attack on Aang, the same way he did with Kuruk."

Ta Min paused, gazing sadly at Katara. "So, yes," she finally murmured. "It's a little complicated."

"But, what you said before, Katara," Jianyu added after a moment, "about Aang just conveniently being there, and Koh taking advantage of the opportunity – well, that's not really wrong either. Things probably wouldn't have turned out this way if Aang hadn't just happened to stumble across a place where Koh's realm intersects with the physical world, not very long after Koh was attacked by Kuruk."

"He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ta Min nodded, "and Koh noticed, and saw the chance."

Katara was beginning to feel lightheaded and nauseous again – reeling with all this new information – and she felt Yue's hands on her arm, and leaned against her wearily.

"Okay," Katara said slowly, breathing. "I've – I've got another question. How am I supposed to defeat Koh? Why couldn't Avatar Kuruk do it? He's been hunting Koh for hundreds of years, and he couldn't beat him. How can I possibly do any better? I just – I know I'm supposed to, but I don't feel very equipped for this, and I don't understand."

"Avatar Kuruk can never defeat Koh," Ta Min said, rather sadly. "He might have at one point, perhaps, when he was still alive. But he's only a spirit now, like the rest of us. The only way he can take physical form now would be to manifest himself through the currently living Avatar; but unfortunately, right now that's Aang. So it wouldn't do him much good. Therefore, he can't possibly defeat Koh. None of the past Avatars can, and obviously none of us can either. This is something that can only be done by a living human."

"Why?"

"Because it must be done in the physical world," Jianyu said.

Ta Min nodded. "You won't be able to do any real harm to Koh here in the Spirit World. That's just the way it is. Remember Tui and La, and how easily the Moon Spirit was slain in the mortal world? The two of them, of course, chose to live there, understanding how delicate their existence would be. Koh's not going to be so willing to leave the Spirit World, especially since he'll probably be expecting some kind of repercussion for stealing Aang's face. But you'll have to get him to leave, one way or another, if you want any chance of defeating him."

"But – how am I supposed to do that?" she asked breathlessly.

Ta Min and Jianyu glanced at one another for a moment, and several of the people in the room shifted and rustled uneasily. Then Jianyu said, "Well, you'll probably have to... to lure him there."

"But how?"

Jianyu hesitated. "Very, very carefully."

Katara scowled bitterly. "Thanks. That helps a lot."

"And once you do get him there," Ta Min went on, "unfortunately, you won't be able to just kill him. It has to be done a certain way. The only way to be sure that all his stolen faces aren't destroyed when you defeat him is... is for you to, uh..."

"You're going to have to – remove his face," Jianyu stated bluntly.

"WHAT?!" Katara exclaimed, almost laughing with hysterical despair at the very idea of it.

"But not just any face," Ta Min said hastily. "His true face."

Katara's voice rose to a frantic shriek. "So you're saying that I have to steal the Face-Stealer's face? And just how is that done, exactly?"

"Now, don't panic!" Jianyu held his hands up quickly. "It shouldn't be that complicated. I imagine just, uh... just cutting it off would do the trick. Don't you think, Ta Min?"

She nodded, though her brow furrowed with slight uncertainty. "I don't see why not. But of course, only in the physical world. You couldn't do it at all, here."

"And cutting off his face wouldn't just kill him?"

"Well, we actually don't know if it'll kill him or not," Ta Min admitted uneasily. "But even if it does kill him, it's still the only way to do it that will ensure his stolen faces aren't destroyed."

Katara forced herself to breathe, and shuddered violently. "Okay," she rasped. "Okay. But only his true face, huh? Well, which one is that?... Is it – is it that white mask? I used to see that one a lot in my dreams – "

"No!" cried everyone at once, startling her.

"Not that one!" Ta Min shook her head vehemently. "That's the face he wears the most often, but it isn't his true face. He likes people to think it's his true face. But it's really just what it looks like: a mask. Nothing more."

Katara gawked at all of them helplessly. "Okay. Then – but – but he must have a million other faces! How am I supposed to know which one is the right one?"

Jianyu sighed heavily, and shifted his feet uncomfortably. "Um," he murmured. "Well, it's – it's the only one he'll never, ever show you."

"But if he never shows it, how am I supposed to – to remove it?" Katara sputtered, trembling with frustration.

Ta Min cringed, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "Ah, you see, dear, it's... It's, uh... Well, there's only one time you'll ever get to actually see it... Unfortunately, he never shows it, except... when, um..."

"Wait," Katara scoffed bitterly, already guessing what she was trying to get out. "Don't tell me. The only time you can ever see his true face is when... is when he's stealing yours. Is that right?"

Everyone in the room glanced at one another, all grimacing uncomfortably. Then Ta Min looked back at her and sighed. "Yes."

Katara covered her face with her hands and groaned miserably. "So," she said slowly, "so, let me – let me sort this out for a minute. So, the plan is... I've got to go to Koh's lair, or wherever he lives. And, without getting my face stolen, I've got to somehow get him to follow me into the physical world. And then, once we're there, then I've got to actually let him steal my face, but quickly take his face before he gets mine. And if I accidentally mess it up and kill him some other way, then all the faces will be destroyed. Is that... is that about right?"

Ta Min gazed at her with something like pity. "Well," she sighed. "Yes, that's about it."

Katara chuckled savagely – in that way that meant she had a powerful urge to hurt someone – and turned away from all of them for a moment, trying desperately to gather her sanity. "Well! Okay," she snapped. "Sure. Sounds like a plan. Doesn't seem too hard. I can't believe no one's ever done this before!"

"Just because it's never been done," Jianyu said gently, "doesn't mean it can't be done."

Katara didn't respond to that; she didn't have the energy. With an exhausted sigh that dissolved into a miserable groan, she looked back at them. "And what happens if I accidentally... remove the wrong face?"

Ta Min winced again. "Then you'll just destroy that person's face. And you'll also make Koh very angry."

"So, if I accidentally cut off, say, Aang's face? Then I would basically just kill Aang, right?"

"Ah, yes. Essentially. And – and then you'd probably also get your own face stolen immediately, before you even knew what happened. So, um... don't do that. Please."

Katara nodded dazedly. "Right... I'll do my best not to do that, then."

"Please," Jianyu said again, urgently.

"Here, Katara," Ta Min said, suddenly holding forth a small flower with vibrant red leaves, and all its tangled web of roots still attached, dangling raggedly from the stem. "Go to Zara. Bring her this, along with the root Kuruk gave you. She'll make you something to help you handle Koh."

Katara took the flower, staring at it dully, and felt as if nothing was real anymore – including herself. Ta Min must have sensed her despondency, because the next moment she gave her a small, encouraging smile.

"I know this is a lot to take in, dear," she said softly. "And I know it must seem impossible, right now. But don't let it cloud your mind. Think of Aang. He loves you, and he needs you. And that's all that really matters. My sister used to tell me, when love is real, it finds a way. And we all believe you'll find a way, Katara. You can do this. For Aang."

And Katara, still feeling far away and half-asleep in her lost despair, nevertheless gazed up at Ta Min, and at Jianyu, and at all the others. And finally, she merely nodded, too overwhelmed to do anything else.

---

The Spirit Oasis was utterly silent now. The moonlit afternoon had drifted on, unchanging, into a moonlit evening, and all sense of time felt irrelevant. Tenzin and Ursa had both fallen asleep in the grass, breathing steadily, lulled to sleep by the heavy, tranquil warmth in the air and the constant murmuring of the waterfall. Zuko was beginning to drift off himself, when he was suddenly startled out of his doze by the sound of Sokka laughing quietly to himself, for no apparent reason.

"What's so funny?" Zuko asked drowsily.

"I was just thinking about something," Sokka chuckled, shaking his head. "It's stupid. I don't even know what made me think of it."

"What?"

"Oh, just – " Sokka leaned back, gazing up at the moon with a distant grin on his face, "this one time, way back – I mean, like back when you were still a bad guy, back – "

"So, pretty far back."

"Yeah. We stopped at this town somewhere in the Earth Kingdom – me and Katara and Aang. I can't even remember what the stupid place was called now. But there was this fortuneteller who lived there, and everyone in the town was crazy. I mean it – crazy. They all believed every word this lady said, so much that they almost got wiped out by a volcano – "

"That's hilarious, Sokka."

"Anyway, I remember Katara went all crazy over this lady's fortunes too. Started bugging her all the time and asking about her love life, and how many kids she'd have, and how she should dress in the morning. It was ridiculous. And even Aang fell for it, a little bit, 'cause I remember apparently this fortuneteller put the idea in his head that if he got some flower off the top of the volcano, he'd get a girlfriend, or something like that. He dragged me all the way up there with him to get that stupid flower. We never actually got it, though, because – well, we got a little distracted. But anyway... I don't know why I was thinking about this at all, but – I only just now realized, he was probably going up there to get that flower for Katara." Sokka snickered again softly, shaking his head. "What a sap. And I didn't have a clue. You know, come to think of it, I bet he wanted it that way, that little sneak."

Sokka fell silent, gazing away into the distance, smirking faintly to himself. Zuko didn't say anything for a while; he only studied Sokka thoughtfully. Finally, though, he decided to tell a story of his own.

"Back when Ursa was born," Zuko said, "Aang and Katara came to stay in the Fire Nation for a few days. Katara wanted to help with the delivery and everything. You weren't there, were you?"

Sokka glanced at him, and shook his head.

"Yeah, I didn't think so. Anyway, I remember," Zuko chuckled quietly, "I had to go outside while the whole – birth, thing – was going on, because I felt like I was losing my mind. And Aang came out and found me, and – I don't know, I guess he decided it was his job to calm me down or something, because he sat me down and tried to get me to meditate with him for a little while. But, uh, I wasn't really in the mood for that at the time, and I remember being pretty annoyed at him. But then after a while we ended up just talking, and I started to feel better. He got me talking about Mai, mostly – and about other things, too. I ended up doing most of the talking. I just really needed to talk, so that I wouldn't have to think; and I think he knew that, so he just let me go on. I got so distracted – I don't even know what I was rambling about, but I went on and on for probably at least an hour, and he hardly said a word, which was weird since usually it was the other way around, you know." Zuko almost chuckled again, but didn't. "Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he interrupted me and said something like, 'Zuko, you're gonna be there when my kids are born, all right.' He just kinda said it – like I didn't have a choice. Like that was just the way it was. And almost right after he said it, Katara ran out and announced that Ursa was born. Perfect timing. It was like he knew, somehow."

Sokka stared at him, and then they both stared at the ground, sinking into deep silence, thinking and thinking about many things. And Zuko let his eyes linger on Tenzin, where he was sprawled peacefully in the grass next to Ursa, and thought regretfully about all the things Aang hadn't known, and couldn't have known, back then.

"He was such a sap," Sokka muttered again, after a long pause.

"Definitely a sap," Zuko murmured, nodding in pensive agreement.

Then both of them allowed their eyes to wander back to the glassy surface of the pond, to the Koi fish, to the eerie depths below. And for the first time, they both – simultaneously – truly realized that Katara might be coming back up through that pond any second now, lugging Aang along with her, and then he'd actually be alive again, for the first time in five years. They both thought about it – thought very, very hard about it – but neither of them felt the need to speak their thoughts aloud. So they sat there, just thinking in silence, and the moonlit evening continued drifting on around them.

---

Some time after leaving the others, Yue and Katara were once again traversing the Spirit World's bewildering terrain alone, on their way to Zara's realm, where all of Koh's faceless victims were kept. The final stop before Katara's confrontation with the Face-Stealer himself.

Katara was still in a rather miserable daze, clutching at the two strange plants with one hand, at Yue's with the other, and stumbling blindly along after her. Yue guided her onward, and felt the muscles in Katara's hand seize up intermittently, as if recurring spurts of panic and anxiety were plaguing her. But Katara herself still kept perfectly silent the entire time they walked, and Yue couldn't help but glance nervously back at her every few seconds.

Yue was beginning to worry. She'd hoped that Katara would be in a more hopeful mood by now – now that she actually had some concrete idea about how to defeat Koh. But Katara only seemed more despondent than ever, and Yue feared that what she was about to see in Zara's realm might only make it worse, rather than better...

And, there was another concern that had been troubling Yue as well, for quite a while. Something she felt obliged now to tell Katara, while she still had a chance; yet she hesitated for fear of how Katara would respond.

"Are you all right?" she finally asked, with an anxious frown.

"Huh," Katara grunted feebly. "I'll be okay. I'm still just... trying to... absorb it all."

Yue glanced ahead for a moment, cringing before she even began to speak. "Katara," she murmured reluctantly, "I know you must be feeling really overwhelmed right now, but – I think there's something else you need to know. About Aang."

"What?" Katara's heart pounded faster immediately, already dreading whatever Yue was about to say. She couldn't imagine how the situation could possibly be more hopeless than it already was; but something in Yue's tone gave her the feeling that it was.

"When Aang returns to the physical world after all this is done," she said quietly, sorry that she was the one to have to tell Katara this, "it's – it's not going to be easy, I'm afraid."

Katara, half-numb by now, gaped at her for a few moments. "What do you mean?"

"While he's been here in the Spirit World," she began, choosing her words tentatively, "his body hasn't aged. But as soon as he goes back, all that lost time is going to catch up to him, really quickly." She paused, looking back over her shoulder at Katara, monitoring her reaction. "If he'd been here only a few days, or even a couple of weeks, he wouldn't feel a thing. But..."

"After five years?" Katara's voice only faintly scraped out of her dry throat.

"It's been such a long time," Yue sighed, shaking her head. "I'm afraid the return journey's going to cause him a great deal of pain. And he might... he might not survive."

"What?!" Katara cried, wrenching her hand away from Yue's in horror.

"That's why it was so crucial that you came here by the Solstice, Katara," Yue went on hastily, turning to face her. "Once the Solstice passed, it would almost certainly have been too late for him to return home alive. His body would have been here for too long – it wouldn't handle the stress of going back."

Katara was gasping wildly for breath. "But – " she sputtered frantically, "but we still have time, right? It's not too late yet, is it?"

Yue shook her head. "No, he definitely has a chance, now that you're here. But – even still, there's – there's no guarantee that he'll make it..."

Shaking with violent rage, Katara spoke now in almost a shriek. "So – so you mean that – that even if I manage to somehow go through all this and save him from the Face-Stealer, he might just die the second I try to bring him back home?!"

"He's going to age five years in a matter of minutes," Yue said softly. "I can't say what kind of toll that'll take on him. I hope that he'll make it, but – I thought it was better for you to know now, rather than later. Just in case he... you know..."

"Dies."

"Yes."

For a minute or so, Katara couldn't speak at all – she only stormed, clenching her teeth, bottling in an agonized scream and practically pulling out her hair. "But – !" she finally roared, her voice shattering with pain. "But – ! No, this can't – ! I mean, isn't there some way to – to prevent that? To – I don't know! – ease him into it gently? What can we do, Yue? There must be something!"

"No, there's no way around it, Katara. It's just a risk you're going to have to take... I'm so sorry."

"This is – I don't believe this! I can't! – It's too much! I can't do that to him! It's too much, Yue! I can't bring him back with me if it might kill him! I can't do that!"

"But there's no other choice!" Yue cried desperately, her eyes churning with remorse. "You heard the others. If he stays here, the way he is, then the Avatar cycle will come to a standstill. You have to bring him back home, no matter the risk!"

Hardly breathing, quivering helplessly, Katara choked and coughed and began to sob bitterly – though her tears were vicious and full of rage. "I can't!" she thundered. "I can't! I can't do that to him. I – I won't be able to handle it if he dies, Yue! If after everything – five years, and coming all the way here, and all this – after all that, if I actually save him, but then he just dies, and it's my fault because I dragged him back there with me..." She covered her face with quivering hands and moaned. "No, I can't! I won't be able to – I won't be able to live – I'll just go insane! – I'll just... Please, Yue..."

Her words started to dissolve into nonsense, and Yue quickly came and put her arms around her tightly, holding her still until she began to, reluctantly, calm down – still gasping desperately for breath and sobbing violently.

"It'll be okay, Katara," she said gently. "Be strong! I know you can do this. You can't lose hope, understand? There's still time. It's not too late. And you've also got me to help you, remember? No matter what happens, I promise I'll do whatever I can when the time comes. All right?"

Katara shuddered – an icy quake that began in her toes and rippled all the way up through her body – but then she exhaled slowly, and then again. And finally, she just nodded, staring numbly at the ground before her.

Releasing her, Yue took her hand again and led her silently up to the top of a jagged ridge. And on the other side, there stood a massive walled garden in a realm of violet-colored sunlight. The tall stone wall stretched very far in both directions, encircling the entire realm, and the high gateless entrance into the garden lay just before them.

"Here we are," Yue said softly. "This is our last stop, Katara. Let's go."

Katara didn't say a word; so Yue quietly led her down the slope, down to the wall and through the archway into the enormous garden.

Inside, everything was eerily silent, teeming with an uneasy kind of tranquility. It was the most beautiful garden Katara had ever seen – and yet, there was something grotesque and terrible about it as well, though she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was. A tortuous maze of paths ran through it in all directions, hedged by carefully arranged bushes, colorful and alien flowers bursting from everywhere. Elegant bridges leaped impulsively over flowing crystal streams, but in unexpected places, unconnected with the paths. And the streams, though lovely, were oddly muted – the sound of their babbling water was so unnaturally quiet that Katara, at first, couldn't even hear it. Graceful gazebos, fountains, arches all rested in the shade of tall, abundant cherry trees, and a heavy, peaceful fogginess lingered over it all, blurring the distant areas.

But it was the impossible silence that was most noticeable, and utterly crushing; the entire place was filled with sorrow and bitterness, and Katara could almost taste it in the air, a sour flavor.

And in every corner of the garden were creatures: some lying lifeless under the trees, on the bridges, in the gazebos, beside the fountains; others wandering blindly about, like sleepwalkers, or ghosts in the foggy distance. Many were human, or at least they appeared to be – men, women, children, of all ages and races. Some were animals. And others were simply unspeakable things – exotic spirits, both gruesome and breathtaking. The overwhelming number and variety of creatures in the garden was astonishing.

But despite their variety, they all had one thing in common. All of their faces were covered up, their heads wrapped in white cloths.

Katara shuddered with dread, feeling yet again that she'd wandered into another of her nightmares, this one more vivid than any she'd ever had before in her life. Yet she was grateful, at least, for those white wrappings that covered them up; grateful that she didn't have to actually see their facelessness.

"Come on, Katara," Yue said gently, and her voice was more somber than it had been before. Katara got the feeling that Yue was just as unsettled by the place as she was.

Yue led her down one of the garden's many paths, carefully avoiding the wandering faceless spirits, and stepping gingerly around those that lay motionless on the ground. As they crossed one of the bridges, Katara accidentally brushed up against the spirit of a faceless elderly woman, and a violent chill instantly crawled down her spine. For several minutes afterward, she couldn't shake the uncanny feeling of the faceless woman's touch from out of her skin.

Finally, standing at the end of their path, they spotted the person they'd come to see. Zara, the guardian of all the faceless spirits. She stood tall and slender, dressed in white robes that, Katara thought, were rather similar to Yue's. But unlike Yue, her hair was long and dark brown, and she wore a red blindfold across her eyes. Her face was beautiful, but it was grim and expressionless – hard as stone.

As they came closer to her, Katara couldn't help but stare, transfixed by the blindfolded figure that was so familiar to her from the painting back in the Fire Nation palace – the woman who'd shown up so often in her dreams over the past five years. Now that Katara knew all the details of her history, Zara seemed to her both more awe-inspiring and terrible, and also more tragic and pitiful, at the same time.

"Zara," said Yue solemnly, when they reached her. She made a respectful bow to the blindfolded guardian, and Katara followed suit.

Zara was in the process of wrapping up the face of a small boy, and she turned her head and nodded wordlessly at them, despite the fact that she was blindfolded and (presumably) couldn't see them.

Meanwhile, Katara's awestruck gaze wandered helplessly from the expressionless face of Zara, to the little boy spirit whose face was currently being wrapped up in white cloths. The boy didn't look any older than her own little Tenzin. Her stomach crunched and curdled, and she hoped she wouldn't throw up.

When Zara finished with the boy's wrappings, she sent him away, and he wandered off stiffly – as if his mind was asleep, and his limbs were moving on their own. Katara continued to gape at him as he walked away, and only Yue's gentle nudging pulled her out of her horrified stupor.

"Katara," she whispered. "The ingredients?"

Katara blinked at her dazedly, shaking herself, and then looked back at Zara. The strange guardian was turned towards them now, her face fixed directly on Katara, as if she were staring at her straight through the blindfold. She didn't say a word, and her blank expression never wavered in the slightest. Feeling very uneasy and unreal, Katara held the roots and the flower out to her, and Zara took them from her hands with a solemn, silent nod. Then she held up a hand towards them, gesturing for them to wait, and stepped away into one of the nearby gazebos.

While Yue and Katara waited in silence for her to return, Katara found her eyes wandering all over the garden, attaching themselves to one faceless spirit after another. She tried not to let herself imagine who they were – who they'd been – how they'd gotten their faces stolen – what it must have been like, when it happened – what it was like to be them now. She tried not to imagine it, but she still did; she couldn't help it. But, more than anything, her eyes scoured the place for any sign of Aang. She knew he was somewhere nearby, and her heart began to thud wildly at the thought of being so close to him, after so long. But she didn't see him anywhere, and the more she looked at all the other spirits, the more she began to feel that perhaps she didn't really want to see him just yet. Not like this.

After several minutes, Zara returned, carrying a small vial full of a strange amber-colored liquid. She held it out to Katara, without a word, without moving a single muscle of her face.

Katara took it from her, staring blankly first at it, then at the blindfolded woman.

"What should I do with it?" she asked, feeling remarkably foolish yet again.

But Zara still said nothing. She turned towards Yue, and Yue gazed back at her for a moment, and Katara watched the two of them curiously. Then Yue nodded at Zara, and glanced at Katara.

"It's a poison that'll make Koh violently ill," Yue explained. "It won't kill him, though. But it'll make him angry – very angry."

"Shouldn't I... try not to make him angry, though?"

"But if he's angry enough," Yue said slowly, "he'll forget himself. You might use it to make him chase you back into the physical world. As long as you don't get caught before you get there, of course."

Katara swallowed hard, and shivered. "And where should I go?" she asked in a hush. "How do I get back to the physical world, once he's chasing me?"

Yue first glanced back at Zara, as if she were somehow translating Katara's questions straight into Zara's mind. Zara still didn't speak, but after a moment, Yue turned back to Katara.

"There's a place in Koh's realm that connects with the physical world," Yue explained. "It probably leads to the same place where Koh attacked Aang. But – I'm not sure exactly where it is."

Katara sighed wearily, and shuddered again. "All right," she murmured, tucking the poison away into her pocket. "I guess I'll just have to find it, then." She felt exhausted already, and she hadn't even done anything yet. And, although she did at least feel much more equipped to face Koh than she'd been when she first arrived, she still didn't feel ready. It all seemed utterly hopeless, and her chances of success felt laughably slim.

As she stood there, brooding miserably, Zara reached out and gently touched Katara's arm – it wasn't a particularly sudden gesture, but it still made Katara jump slightly in surprise. She stared at the strange blindfolded woman. And though Zara remained silent and expressionless, and though Katara couldn't see her eyes, something like understanding – sympathetic grief – passed between the two of them in that moment. Katara recalled the feelings she'd had the first time Uncle had told her the story about the painting, back in the Fire Nation years ago; she remembered how strongly she'd been drawn to it, how she'd felt a strange, sad kinship with Zara, even back then. And now, she felt it again, almost as vividly as the first time. And in that moment, suddenly all of Ta Min's talk of "kindred spirits" finally began to make a great deal of sense in Katara's mind.

Tilting her head as a signal to follow her, Zara began to wander off down another of the garden's many paths. And, almost in a trance, Katara followed, with Yue coming close behind.

They strolled along for what seemed like an enormous distance through the garden, following paths that wound and twisted so much that Katara began to feel very sure that they were merely going in circles. She didn't know where Zara was leading her, but she still kept following, without questioning it, just knowing that she was supposed to. And finally, the blindfolded guardian stopped walking, and raised her arm, pointing forward down to the end of the path.

There, under the leaning bough of a mournful cherry tree, lay a figure that Katara recognized immediately, even though his face was wrapped up in white cloths just like all the rest of them. He was spread out in the grass, lying perfectly still, with his tattooed hands resting on his chest.

Katara momentarily forgot how to breathe.

"Is – " she gasped, "it's – it's actually him? Really – right there?"

Zara turned her blindfolded eyes to Katara, and nodded silently.

Without wasting another fraction of a second, Katara burst into a frantic sprint, racing towards Aang and falling to her knees in the grass beside him. Every particle in her body felt as if it were on the brink of an explosion. She trembled uncontrollably, and her head felt so light and cloudy that she almost couldn't even remember who she was. Yet, despite her excitement, for several moments she couldn't bring herself to touch him; she just knelt there, gaping at him, bursting with joy, but afraid. Yue came and stood beside Zara, watching. And Katara continued to hesitate breathlessly, hands quivering, pulsing with the desperate need to feel that he was tangible and real, and yet boiling with a dreadful, overwhelming, childish terror that he wasn't.

Aang didn't move at all; he didn't even breathe; he looked almost as if he were dead. But, at last, when Katara lifted her shaking hand and, carefully, placed it lightly on his own hand – the same hand that she hadn't touched in five years – she felt the warmth and life of his skin, and a burning jolt quivered in her spine and erupted into her pounding heart. She could feel his own pulse, slow and lethargic; his aliveness, and his realness, swept over her in a glorious torrent.

For several seconds, all she could do was sit like that, touching his hand, just savoring the concrete feeling that he existed. Then, finally, she grasped his hand firmly and held it between both of hers and began to move her fingers in and out and around his, in a state of absolute wonder, as if she'd never seen another human hand before in her life. She distractedly traced out the shape of his arrow tattoo with the tips of her fingers. And then, her gaze turned to his face. She dropped his hand and reached out for the white cloth wrappings that covered it.

"Katara – !" Yue cried, surprised and alarmed to see Katara about to uncover Aang's face. Hastily, she stepped forward to intervene, but Zara gently held her back, shaking her head solemnly.

Meanwhile, Katara's trembling fingers finally found the end of the cloth, and she tugged at it and began to unwrap it carefully. The layers of it began to peel away, and at long last she caught a single small glimpse of his skin beneath the cloth – just where his left eye ought to have been. But there was nothing there. Nothing but blank flesh.

She instantly recoiled, dropping the cloth and lurching away from him, unable to look at any more. She quaked violently, breathed frantically, choked and finally vomited in the grass beside her.

Yue watched anxiously, as Katara only sat there for a long while in a shuddering heap, struggling to recover, turned away from where Aang's missing face lay partially exposed. At last, Zara stepped forward, without a word – placed a hand gently on Katara's heaving shoulder, and then turned to Aang and began to carefully re-wrap his face.

Still quivering and reeling, Katara fought to breathe, to compose herself. At last, though, she coughed, and wiped her mouth, and rose shakily to her feet. Her fists clenched fiercely, and she turned back to Yue – and her eyes were blazing with powerful rage and intense resolve.

"Take me to Koh."

---

Mwa-ha! Wow, that was a lot of stuff. *passes out from exhaustion*

Anyways, I wanted to share (i.e. confess) some of my nerdiness with you all, because I can...

So, you know the whole Tenzin/Zara/Koh story? Well, the reason I came up with that was two things: One, I always thought that the explanation of why Koh stole Ummi's face was really odd, and it seemed that there had to be something more to it than just "Kuruk was a lazy Avatar, therefore Koh attacked his true love and ruined both their lives for all eternity. Because that's completely fair and appropriate." Ye-e-e-a-ah... And Two - I was watching the Season 1 finale long ago, and when Aang was talking to Koh, Koh said, "How could I forget you? One of your previous incarnations tried to SLAY ME... nearly 8 or 900 years ago." But! I thought, Kuruk could have only lived 4 or 500 years before Aang, at the most!... So, holy crap, what if Koh wasn't talking about Kuruk? What if there was another Avatar BEFORE Kuruk who had issues with Koh? WHA-A-A-AT!... And my head exploded.

Yeah, I know, it was probably just a writing mistake, and the creators hadn't really fleshed out Kuruk's story at that point. But hey, you know what? I thrive off of little details like that. ^_^

And the idea of the Avatars all having that instant attachment to their true loves? That came about because I noticed there seemed to be a very common "love-at-first-sight/hopeless infatuation" pattern among the Avatars. The ones whose love lives we get to see, anyway. And I thought it would make sense that since, in a way, all the Avatars are the same (but different), then all their true loves would also be, in a way, sort of similar (but different). Kindred spirits. ^_^

... I also came up with a really kind of adorable backstory about Kyoshi and Jianyu as I wrote this. Sadly, it's entirely irrelevant to this story, lol. Oh well. Maybe another fanfic one day. And by the way, yes, Kyoshi was married and had a daughter named Koko (thanks, Avatar Wiki!). But her husband was never given a name. Much like another super-awesome Earthbender I could think of... (psst, I'm talking about TOPH). What's the deal with these powerful Earthbender ladies and their invisible husbands? Seriously.

What else? Oh, the idea of Aang aging rapidly on his return to the human world came from an old Japanese fairytale called "Urashima and the Turtle." Except the dude in that story was gone for 100 years, instead of 5... It did not end well.

AND... the ingredients they gave Katara to make that magic poison are based on the ingredients used to make real-life syrup of ipecac, which induces vomiting (thanks Wikipedia!) ^_^

Do I put too much thought into this story? Hm... Yeah, probably. Soon Yakko Warner will be coming to hit me with an anvil on behalf of the "Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation." (I really hope someone gets that reference, lol). :D