ECHOES

Suki lingered on the ramp of the airship, her arms closed around herself as she watched the sun slowly sinking behind the horizon, as if the world itself was tipping into the unknown.

With one more day gone the eclipse was even closer, not that the date held much meaning anymore. Whether they wished or not, Zuko and her were both depending on others to move forward, their plans now becoming a jumbled mess of faith and intention that felt awfully familiar.

It turns out that things weren't as simple as revealing the truth about them and expecting everything to be accepted at once. Their first reaction, when Zuko said the words 'future' and 'time travel' was to laugh. Even Mai managed a skeptical twitch of lips to break through that blank face of hers.

"It is the truth" She had jumped into the conversation after calmly waiting for their reactions to subside. "Zuko and I, we're both from the year one hundredth seventy-eight after the beginning of the war, about seventy-eight years from now."

There was a long pause in the room until Sokka slapped his knee and chuckled. "That is good Suki, really good, wow, you and Angry over there, you almost caught me, I admit it. Now come on, keep it real now."

Reacting to their disbelief had been tough, it was all Suki could do not to rip her own hair out in frustration. "We're telling you the truth. Toph, tell them."

"At least they believe what they're saying." The earthbender supplied, not taking sides.

"If you're saying it and if it's truth, how is that even possible?" Katara questioned, and Suki had been glad for the question, it allowed her mind to get back on track.

"Well, it was all thanks to the Avatar."

"Me?"

"No." Suki added at the young monk's bewilderment. "Your successor, she will be a very talented young woman. After we discovered that time had been tampered with, the plan was to come back and stop it. She managed to bent our spirits so they would regress back to our younger bodies."

"That is amazing!" Aang cried, his enthusiasm bringing a smile to her face. "Does that mean I can do that too? I mean, I could go back and do so much! Right!?"

"You could go back and protect the Earth Kingdom!" Katara suggested.

"Even better, you could go back in time and defeat the Fire Lord while he is still a nosy little twerp!" Sokka put in, and Suki found her words drowned in their musings.

"Wait, so now you believe me?" Suki asked crossing her arms.

"Well, it's crazy Avatar stuff, I'm learning to just roll with it." Sokka said with a shrug. "Think about it, you use your crazy Avatar powers and you could go after Sozin himself…"

"I'm afraid you're all too far ahead of yourselves." The interruption came from Iroh, whose voice seemed able to focus the attention of the room without ever been raised. "This subject is a delicate matter, even under the Spirit World's more malleable rules, messing with time can bring catastrophe."

"What do you mean?" Aang asked.

"Unintentional consequences." Zuko explained, tiredly. "We were warned very early. Sometimes it might seem we're doing something good, but it might cause something bad to happen later. Trust me I know what I am saying, I already tried to help people with… Horrible consequences."

"You mean…" Ty Lee barely spoke, but it was clear she suddenly came to an understanding.

Gingerly, Zuko took her hand in his. "I'm sorry Ty Lee, I tried to bring Azula to our side this time. This war, it didn't end well for her, I tried to protect her from it, show her that she wasn't alone, but in the end, my actions only made her snap at me sooner."

"The same goes for us" Suki explained. "Given our current situation, we can't be sure the war will end in the exact circumstances we remember. We knew exactly what needed to happen, but now, well, any of you could be hit by a stray fire shot, or a spear and we wouldn't know."

"We were only trying to stop the many deaths that the day of the eclipse would bring to both sides, but we never planned on telling you everything until last night."

"You mean those crazy monsters." Toph said.

"Those spirits were clearly a sign of the enemy; after that we couldn't leave you guys in the dark." Suki explained. "We wouldn't risk your lives."

Silence lingered over the occupants, everyone seeming digesting their words, dowsing their hopes. Suki was only glad they seemed to have accepted their story so far.

"If time travel is so dangerous." Mai suddenly said, her eyes coming to rest on Suki, inquiring and demanding. Familiar. "Then, why were you sent back? Who is the enemy?"

And there it was, the terrible truth they had hoped to avoid for as long as possible, or at least until Ozai was gone. Slowly, Suki studied her friends. Katara, whose hatred still burned deep down within her, Sokka, who until now, had seen an end to the war as clear as the shape of his boomerang and Aang, the young Avatar, on whose shoulders she was about to drop an even heavier burden than the balance of the world and the legacy of his people. Toph would be fine.

"We came back, because there was no other option. Because the world was ending." Zuko bluntly clarified.

"We found out some time before, that the Avatar first appeared when a human fused with an ancient spirit of light."

"I… I have a spirit inside of me?" Aang blinked, placing a hand on his chest.

"You do" Suki confirmed, before continuing her story. "Unfortunately, a man figured that out as well, and he found a spirit that was equally powerful. He became an Avatar, but different, dark, deranged. The spirit he fused with hated humans, and so he begun to corrupt other spirits to his will."

"The Earth Kingdom, the South and the North Pole, the Fire Nation, everywhere was overrun by armies of Dark Spirits." Zuko amended. "They tired our defenses piece by piece."

Katara was shaking her head, clearly in denial. "That is madness, there is only one Avatar, everyone knows this."

"There are many things we don't know about the Avatar." Iroh offered, rubbing his chin. "I remember an old legend of an Avatar, whose powers allowed him to bond two souls together so they would always find one another through the ages. That was how our marriage rituals were first created. The fact is that many mysteries were lost through time, for although the Avatar's many lives live within him, it's only natural that not all voices can be reached. For one person, it would be impossible to live with so much knowledge, without actually entering the Avatar State."

Suki could clearly see that his words had moved Aang in some way, the airbender was hunched over, staring at his own hands in deep thought, as if he could reach in and pluck the answer from the somewhere within.

"Couldn't your Avatar stop him though?" Ty Lee asked.

"She did stop him." Zuko answered. "The first time at least, before another spirit came back to the past and made sure the Dark Avatar would survive their battle. He had been smart the second time, he spent years disrupting the balance in the spirit world, being powered by it. By the time they fought again, he was too strong."

Suki sunk her teeth on her lower lip, wishing for the taste of blood if only to brush away the bad memories, they were too many, all rushing back into her mind. Soldiers cut down by sharp claws, strangled by tentacles and vines, a sea of darkness overwhelming a fleet, her own fan cutting down foes until they were nothing but a goop of shadows, and finally, the screams, the blank eyes, her pain. No mother should have to see her child die. It should be the other way around.

"No one is lying" Toph whispered. She had taken her feet off the bed and was now staring straight ahead, as if her blind gaze could find a way to say otherwise.

"All right, fine! Then it's truth, you're both time travelers, great!" Sokka cried out. "Then why you two? Why not one of us?"

"We found out that the flow of time was messed up at some point after the war ended, in the coming years. After that we needed someone who was alive at this age." Zuko said. "It would help if it was someone who would be in a position to help."

"You and Aang were not an option." Suki took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair as she studied the metal ceiling. "Katara and Toph, they were both meant to come with us, but Korra, the Avatar, needed time to make the travel work. When our defenses were crumbling, you both went out to fight. Zuko was already wounded, h-he could barely breath on his own. I almost thought he hadn't made it back until those officers showed up to get me out of the Boiling Rock."

"You..." Zuko's eye widened, she hadn't mentioned that yet, heck, she hadn't even allowed herself to delve on it, but yes, those first days in prison, Suki had really wondered if the mission had become her responsibility alone.

She tried to shrug, as if it wasn't a big deal, but she couldn't really look at Zuko's face at the moment or else risk be seeing so vulnerable.

"Anyway, it's the two of us, because there was no one else."

There weren't really any more questions after that.

They had all split away to their own rooms, or camp, and Suki had stayed behind, waiting for privacy so she could cuddle with Zuko until she felt better. Now she was alone, wondering when was the last time that seeing the future as a dark road had felt this ominous and dangerous. Her wedding perhaps, when every noble family in the Fire Nation had a bone to pick with her, from spreading scanty rumors to downright opposing her politics. Agni, she missed those days.

"I thought you and Zuko would be having some crying out session right now."

The bland voice could only belong to one person, but the words were more surprising than her arrival. "Excuse me?"

"You and Zuko." Mai sat by her side on the ramp, brushing her bangs away from her eyes. "I'll say, I almost puked myself at the way he was looking at you. He used to look at me like that, as if we could trade affection through our eyes, it was so annoying."

Suki took her words in. "So you figured that out."

"It wasn't too hard, the time travel explained it all." Mai leaned back, and for a while both girls, one of them with the mind of an old woman, were silent. "I presume I was dead too at the time you came back."

"We never learned, last I heard you were commanding our rearguard in our travel to the Southern Air Temple, when all contact was lost, well..."

"I see." Mai still wouldn't look at her. "So, I take it we knew each other very well."

"We will be friends."

"Yuk."

"Very good friends."

Mai hummed, nodding to herself. "I should've known. The way you played me at Pai Sho, it was like you knew my every move before I made it."

"We played a lot."

By now, Suki couldn't stop her smile, it was breaking through her face like a long wished sunrise. Around them, the night was cold, and the moon bright, but none of them cared all that much.

"In the future, does Zuko still have a pile of oils and creams for his hair?"

"Oh, Agni! He does!"

They giggled.

"I say this is all a bunch of baloney, seal baloney, you know? Like dad used to try and make for us?"

"I say this is all giving me a headache." Katara mumbled, rubbing her eyes as their small group gathered on what used to be their camp.

They had argued that they needed to come and get their stuff and it was a very good opportunity to talk about what they heard inside the airship. Time travel, a new avatar, evil spirits, it all swirled around Aang's mind like a whirlwind without control. He thought that mastering the Avatar State had been his big challenge, but that was gone and now he was listening about things he couldn't even start to comprehend. It was all a mess.

"I thought the Fire Lord was a problem, but..." His voice drifted away, ending under Toph's yawn.

"What is the big deal? We still have to beat him up, don't we? We just need to add a new bad guy to the list."

"Toph! Do you even understand what we heard back there?!" Challenged Katara "There are evil spirits and some dark avatar destroying the world!"

"They WILL be destroying the world, I thought Suki was pretty clear on that. We have time, sugar queen, thinking about it won't do us any good."

"She is right." Sokka said tiredly. "We need to deal with this one problem at a time, although I have the impression they aren't telling us everything."

"So we agree that they are for real? Are we seriously going to work with them? With the Fire Nation?" Katara asked, rubbing her arm seeming as uncomfortable as Aang felt.

"I guess." He mumbled.

"You guess?" Toph snorted. "Need I remind you that you're the Avatar, Twinkle Toes? If anyone here should make a decision about joining Zuko, it should be you."

"I know! I know! I'm just… I need some time to think!" He exclaimed, walking away and eager for a form of peace as the grass ruffled under his bare feet.

"I still feel there's stuff they're not telling us." Sokka was saying behind him.

Aang e walked, he didn't know for how long, until he came to the edge of the island, where he could taste the salt in the air, the connection with his bending was so strong under a fresh breath of wind that he allowed his worries to vanish within it. As an airbender he had been taught earlier to not give in to earthly bonds, but if his time with Guru Pathik taught him anything was that he wasn't exactly ready to deal with that in its entirety, because when it came down to it the people in his life were more reason to fight than everything else, without them, he might have given up long ago. The thought made him feel ashamed. The world was out there, crying out for his help, and yet Aang felt only the urge to curl into himself and let the storm pass him by. The Fire Lord, dark avatars, evil spirits and time travel, how was he supposed to deal with all of that?

"I'm just a kid." he whispered, although he wanted to scream.

Closing his eyes, he took a shivering breath, remembering the last time he run away from his problems. He run away because he didn't want any of this, he wanted the fun and the smiles, and the caring eyes of Monk Gyatso, he wanted his people to be well, but all he did was not be there when they needed him.

He was still sitting there when he saw the first glow coming up on the far side of the island. Then followed another and another, a dozen fires like dots of light coming from where the airship was, each one sprouting colors just like Zuko had last night. Curious, Aang hesitated only for a moment before jumping to his feet, following along the coast, walking down hills and through the bushes until he came to a fence of torches tied to poles sunk into the earth.

"Aang?"

Surprised, the avatar jumped into a fighting stance, still not used to hear that voice calling him with anything but a threat. Immediately at seeing the Fire Prince in front of him, he felt a rush of heat burning his cheeks. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, I understand." Zuko smiled, which was still weird. He was carrying a load of spikes in his arms, all of them fitted with torches on one side, and as Aang watched he planted a spike on the ground, produced a small flame in his hands and lit the torch at the end, exhaling a bittersweet sort of smell.

"What are you doing?"

"It's a very old purifying ritual, you would be impressed with how many old stuff we dug out to protect ourselves. I'm not sure if the dark spirits will be back or not, but if they do this will keep them away." He lit a tiny rainbow flame in his hands and held it out to him. "Wanna help?"

"Huh, sure, I can carry the torches and…"

"Not what I meant."

He stared at Zuko confused as to what he meant, while the fire painted his face in a dozen different hues. When he understood the offer, he quickly backtracked, waving his hands in front of him. "No, sorry, but I-I don't know if that is a good idea."

"Why not?"

Aang balked at the simply question, feeling horribly uncertain. If Zuko's story was true, then he probably knew him, and there was something really unsettling about that, still, even when they were enemies, he had looked at Zuko and wondered. "The last time I tried firebending, things didn't go so well."

Zuko hummed. "You're afraid."

"Of course I'm afraid" Aang shrilled. "Last time, I burned someone, okay? Someone important. I can't let that happen again."

Right away, he regretted snapping like that, but he was scared, and tired, and sleep had been flimsy and uncomfortable, there wasn't much helping him right now, but still. "Sorry…"

"Don't be." Zuko said, prompting Aang to look at him. "You have every right to feel like you do, and I understand, you know? Fire is dangerous, it can and will hurt people, but that is exactly why learning control is important."

The monk sighed. "I guess."

"Why don't we make a deal? You hold the fire, and I won't let anything go wrong, how is that?"

Aang shrugged, and it seemed to be all that Zuko needed The firebender gently guided the fire to his hands, the flame almost disappearing before Aang let some of his chi go into it, juggling the fire uncertainly, torn between letting it go and burning the whole island by accident. He was starting to feel like a crazy person when Zuko's hand suddenly hovered over it, and the flame gained size again and Aang finally allowed himself to relax, struck by the feeling.

It was different than how he felt fire before.

It pulsed in his hand, warm, almost like a tiny heart of joy. "Wow."

"I know" Zuko smirked. "Now, I'm gonna take my hand away, all right? You keep it burning."

By himself? "I don't know if I can do it."

"I know you can, you're a talented kid."

Saying that, Zuko took his hand away, and surprisingly it didn't vanish right away. It certainly got smaller, but Aang kept it burning nonetheless, carrying it along the fence with growing confidence as they worked.

Aang would plant a pike on the ground, lit its fire and Zuko would lit the next, everything almost seamlessly under the stars and soon, Aang felt his mind at ease under the task, so much it took him sometime to remember who was really by his side, so when the job was done and a circle of colors surrounded the airship, the observation popped from his mouth before he could stop it.

"This is weird."

Zuko smirked. "I suppose it is."

"How did you learn to make fire like this?"

"Dragons"

"Dragons!" Aang smiled, he remembered dragons, there were dragons all over the world at his time, but he hadn't seen any since… "What happened to the dragons?"

"Sozin happened" Zuko said, a strange somberness hitting his features. "He proclaimed dragons were a prize to be hunted. They are almost extinct now, but I know a place where they are safe."

"Where is it?"

"Don't worry, I'll take you there sometime, it will be a great firebending lesson." Zuko stopped short. "I mean, if you accept me as your teacher, if you want it I can just tell you where it is, I mean, I'm not making a condition you know… Because… Well…"

Aang stared at the stammering teenager in front of him and felt a small degree of comfort. "You know, I think you might not be a bad a choice for a teacher, my hotman."

"Oh Agni." Zuko groaned. "I thought I might get rid of that nickname."

"Nickname?" Aang grinned. "So I call you Hotman in the future? That is cool! If you teach me I could call you, Sifu Hotman! Master Hotman! Sensei Hotman!"

Zuko groaned louder.

Sokka sat down, overlooking the line of torches around them.

Zuko told them some story about the colorful flames protecting them from Dark Spirits, but he didn't trust that at all until he saw it for himself. He was proud to know about a lot of stuff, but if there was one thing that slipped under his feet was that spiritual mambo jambo, that was more of Aang's territory. It made him feel stupid, a fish out of water, and it didn't help that everything he planned for the day of the eclipse had gone down the drain as well.

Soon enough all his friends would be here at the meeting point and he didn't even have a plan. Fantastic. Was he supposed to make a plan for the end of the world as well?

He almost wished the stupid spirits would've gone away, then he could deal with the real world, of numbers and men and weapons. Then the reminder of his future failure hit him like a brick. The invasion would fail, he was told, they were expected already. The world's best hope turned to ashes with a few simple words. Looking back, he caught sight of his friends, their shapes lying down in the shadow of the airship. He wondered how they managed to sleep at all, and then he wondered if they really were, but even when he paid attention he couldn't make anything out beyond Appa's snoring.

I wanted to build you an armor, he remembered, but now the pile of metal he brought along was still sitting among their supplies.

"It was a stupid idea anyway."

"What was stupid?"

Sokka cringed, gritting his teeth, his eyes looking do he wouldn't pay attention to the newcomer. "Nothing, I was just thinking out loud."

"Well, whatever it is I happen to know for a fact that your ideas are not stupid." Her weight settled down on the grass, her shadow turning into dozens of translucent streaks under the many sources of light. "It should help if you talk about it."

"Are you offering?"

"Yes."

Plucking some grass from the ground, he decided there wouldn't be any harm in explaining. "I wanted to build Appa some armor."

"He will surely need it." Suki cautioned. "I think there is plenty of people willing to help too."

He frowned. "You mean Fire Nation."

"Yes" He felt her fidgeting around and wondered if he sounded as harsh as he felt. "They will be useful to you, if you let them."

"As if I can be of any help, I'm sure you future people got it all figure out at this point."

Her laugh was short and a little bitter. "Hindsight is not really all it turns out to be, Sokka."

"Right."

"I can be of great help though, think about it, with two time travelers, one of them a fire nation prince you can make a plan to stop Ozai in no time."

"Right." He felt a smile coming, plucking more pieces of grass, maybe he could do the whole island, turn it into a plowing field. "So, how does that work anyway, are you an old woman now?"

"I'm still me." She declared and he caught a glimpse of her scratching her leg, the skin having a sharp contrast with the red trousers, which went only as far as her knee, leaving her bare feet free and dirty. "More experienced, more knowledgeable and more patient I like to think, but it's me all the same."

"Right." He licked his lips, wondering if he had any right to say more, but he needed to know and the words were out before he could stop it. "When was the last time you saw me?"

The silence stretched itself around them like a piece of rubber, the tension growing until you could only guess the moment it would snap and, eventually, it did.

"The last time I saw you, we were both meeting about matters of state, boring stuff. We met in your apartment, which I don't think you had cleaned in a while. There were all sorts of drawings on the walls and the floor, everywhere, but I didn't say anything because you already got your scolding from Katara." Her voice had a fondness to it, and he caught himself trapped in her words. "You made me tea, which was actually good. We talked about our lives, you said you were thinking about retirement, which made me laugh, as if you could keep quiet for long. It was a nice talk, we joked and made fun, and complained about young people like two old grumps."

He stopped, but he wanted more, his curiosity demanded. "Then what?"

"One week later you fell defending the new Avatar."

He didn't need clarification on that, but the knowledge brought him an odd sense of peace. At the least he had gone down for something important, still, her story was still strange, still missing things and, finally, he allowed himself to look at her.

It was still odd, to see her without the war paint, but nothing could deny Suki her beauty. Her skin had a healthy tan to it, glistening with a layer of sweat, while the muscles of her arms stood out by hugging her legs. Blue eyes, the ones he dreamed about in hormone charged nights were sad though, eerily soul, and Sokka almost backed away from his own memories.

"Last time I saw you, was on the Serpent's Pass."

"I know."

"We kissed." She nodded, not looking at him. "We kissed and more."

He still remembered that night when he confessed his loss, when they reconnected so long after his time on Kyoshi Island. Their kiss had meant a lot to him, it had eased a part of his being he wasn't even aware had been in pain all that time. It had been sweet, caring, and turned warm and urgent before he knew what was happening. They were both experimenting then, he struggling with his clothes, and she daring to take out her armor as they found a secluded place away from everyone else. When they joined together, it was all he could do to believe he was alive, and although the war loomed over everyone, they had parted with silent promises of repeating that night one day.

"I want to kiss you." He stated, watching for anything on her face and finding nothing but control. "You don't want to kiss me."

"I want to hug you." She answered making him cringe, but still she kept speaking. "I want to hold you, tell you how much you mean to me, how much you're loved, and how much I missed you, but no Sokka, I don't want to kiss you, not like that."

"Why not?" His throat seemed to be closing, but he uttered the question anyway, he wanted, needed, to know.

"Because in the future we are not together anymore."

And there it was, the answer he had been dreading, the sensation he was in the dark all along, and scurrying around blind.

"Why?" He rasped.

"You wanted a family and a house, I wanted to be a warrior and fulfill my duty. You were in one place I was in another." A pause. "You fell in love with someone else and so did I."

Sokka felt a scowl on his face, his control slipping slightly as the silence grew ten times what it was and then a little more. Then Suki got up, wished him good night, and was gone. The tears came all at once, sobs that racked his body even as he fought them, trying to keep quiet his shame and his sadness.

When Katara's arms wrapped around him, holding him, he knew he had failed, but was glad nonetheless.