Author's Note: disclaimer, this really isn't after the CoD since I'm writing about the last like 30 seconds of it but eh. its a technicality, and I feel like this is a major turning point for Katara emotionally. Anyways, read, review, thank you for sticking with me this long! Book 3 will be posted in a week or so. ATLA owned by MDD and BK

After: Crossroads of Destiny

He is heavy, she thought abstractedly. The last time she'd held him like this, it had been on Kyoshi Island after the Unagi had thrown him into the water, and he hadn't been that heavy, then. She had drawn the water out of his lungs, he had coughed a little, and then opened his eyes and made a light comment. He had been hurt, but everything had turned out alright.

She held him tighter. The wind tore at her hair as Appa raced away from Ba Sing Se. It was getting harder to hold him, but not even a Dai Lee agent could have pried him from her right now. Her arms were trembling. He really was heavy. Months of training in Waterbending and Earthbending had made him lean and powerful, more so than the average boy his age. When he moved, it was with strength and an unconscious kind of grace.

He wasn't moving now. He wasn't even breathing.

She buried her face in his shoulder, tears leaking onto his singed shirt. His head hung back limply, eyes closed. His arms and legs were dead weight; they slid this way and that with every turn Appa made, redistributing his weight and causing Katara to have to adjust with him.

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she cried, and there were still spots in her vision from Azula's lightning. Although she and everyone else in the huge chamber had been facing Aang as he hung in suspended animation, a bright, ethereal light surrounding him as his past lives empowered him, she had caught a small movement out of the corner of her eye. Her attention was drawn elsewhere.

She had watched Azula quickly shift her weight through the stances, watched the exaggerated motion and arcs of blue leaping and dancing from her fingertips. Azula had completed the sinuous, almost beautiful form, and then pointed that burning blue light at Aang. The lightning had raced from her fingers. It had been so bright. So bright. It had burned Katara's eyes. Even now, it still hurt.

Aang's body had convulsed as the lightning struck him. Remembering it made her sick. His head had flung back. His shoe had flung off. He had fallen… he had fallen so fast, she barely had time to register what was happening.

She had only known one thought: Get to him. Reach him before they do.

The huge wave swept everyone else in the room under as it carried her to him, and she had caught him in her arms. That was when she'd first noticed how heavy he was. His weight falling into her arms from such a great height had knocked the wind out of her, left her breathless. Before Zuko and Azula and the agents of the Dai Lee could recover, Iroh had shouted at her to leave, and she had bent herself and Aang to the world above. They had been quickly picked up by Sokka, deftly guiding Appa to them.

Sokka took one look at Aang's lifeless body, and his face shuttered. Where she had crumpled, he had hardened.

"Is he dead?" Sokka asked tersely.

She couldn't answer him. Her voice was lost to her.

Kuei was there, too, and Toph. Toph didn't speak, but her expression spoke for her. She looked lost. Bereft. Dimly, Katara was aware that Toph must be able to feel the same thing that Katara could feel… nothing. No heartbeat. No breath.

No, she thought, despairing. Not Aang. She would heal him, she would save him. She'd give him her own life if she had to.

"Is the Avatar dead?" King Kuei asked, repeating Sokka's question.

Hot anger coursed through her. He wasn't the Avatar right now, he was Aang. He was her source of hope. Her inspiration. A person she looked to because he was good and kind and warm. Her best friend. He wasn't any of those things because he was the Avatar, he was those things because he was Aang, and he couldn't be dead. He couldn't be.

It was strange how, in this moment, her world and priorities rearranged themselves. On the very few occasions that she had allowed that dark, secret part of her mind to imagine what would happen if they failed to defeat the Fire Lord, she had always imagined that she would keep fighting. There were a hundred different circumstances that could bring about the Avatar's demise, the dark part of her mind whispered. His was a dangerous job.

Katara now realized that she could never have envisioned this moment. Her anatomy, her very existence, had never allowed her to invent such a desperate circumstance. She'd only imagined the Avatar dying. She had never imagined Aang dying. It hadn't seemed like a real possibility. A world where he didn't exist? A world where they didn't practice Waterbending, laugh, joke, lean their heads together as they whispered their hopes and dreams and secrets to one another while everyone else slept nearby?

A keening sob tore through her. She clung to him tighter, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder, her forehead pressed against his neck.

A tiny, sharp pain cut into her collarbone. She ignored it, until Appa shifted to the left, and Aang's weight was thrust closer into her. The pain grew enough that she pulled her head away to see what it was.

The necklace that Pakku had given her. Water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. 'The water has special properties', Master Pakku had told her.

Katara didn't allow herself to think. She rested his body against Appa to free her hands, and unstoppered the small vial. Using bending, she pulled the water out, where it floated above her open palm. Her heart raced ahead of her, but her mind felt a stab of doubt. She'd always thought the water would feel different. This water felt like just… water.

Ignoring her doubt, ignoring everything around her, she spun the water around her palm, faster and faster and faster until it emitted a cold blue glow. Using her free hand, she leaned Aang forward to gain access to where the skin of his exposed back was torn and singed and burned; the damage Azula's lightning had caused him. She brought the water to the wound, and waited.

And waited. Lifetimes passed in that moment. An eternity. And nothing happened.

Grief welled up inside her, burning its way out. She half-sobbed, half groaned, pulling him back into her arms.

And then, brightness. The faces of the people around them were illuminated by the light of Aang's bright tattoos, and his eyes cast a strange pink light as they glowed beneath his closed eyelids, before the light faded and at last he drew in a weak breath.

He opened his eyes. Gave her a small smile. A light, weak smile. Just like on Kyoshi.

He didn't stay conscious for long, but it was long enough. Long enough for her to breathe a sigh of relief, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes. Katara leaned back against Appa, resting Aang on her shoulder, holding him close to her. He was alive, but only just. She leaned her head against his and placed her hand gently over his heart, a lifeline, connecting her to him.

"The Earth Kingdom has fallen," Kuei said into the wind.