Last Time…

I thought about what Avatar Roku said at the very end of my vision. What the heck was up with that? No, he must've been mistaken. I can't be a bender. I'm not even from this universe.

In the morning of the next day, both people who talked to Avatar Roku were stressed out beyond words. While Aang was hyperventilating and pacing around on Appa's saddle, I stood rigid at the back of Appa's saddle, glaring at the clouds as if they were idiot randoms in a game of Among Us. I worried my lip and tried to remember exactly what Roku said to me. Back home, I was notorious for having an especially bad memory. So on the best of days, the exact words would not come back to me, but now I was super nervous about the new information he gave me. It seemed impossible to me that I could possibly be a bender. I wasn't born a bender. During the first few weeks of our journey, I thought maybe the past Avatars might've been able to tell me how to get back. Roku just told me to let go of everything I know, even in this world, and basically just go away.

"Would you both just sit down?" Sokka interrupted my musing, looking very concerned back at Aang and me, "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off. What's bugging you two anyway?"

Aang confessed, "It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."

Sokka leaned his arm on the saddle casually.

"Well, let's see. You pretty much mastered airbending, and that only took you 112 years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer." He teased good-naturedly.

The joke flying straight over the airbender's head, he agonized, "I haven't even started waterbending, and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. What am I gonna do?!"

Katara grabbed his arm and pulled him down to her level.

"Calm down. It's gonna be ok. If you want, I can try to teach you some of the stuff I know."

"You'd do that?"

"We'll need to find a good source of water first."

"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in. What about you, Rei?"

"Same as Aang. I just can't believe that Avatar Roku didn't like me."

"Who could hate the control-freak, pretentious, loveable clutz that is you?"

I stomped over to him and slapped him on the head.

"Why don't you let me take the reins for a bit while you go get some rest since obviously your brain needs a reset?"

"I feel fine."

I hit him again.

"No, I think that would be great. I'll just go take a rest."

He slid around me and curled up at the back of the saddle. I smirked as I took up the front seat.

Within the hour, I found the exact spot we needed. I brought Appa down gently next to a small waterfall. It was connected to a massive river to the west, so we'd hopefully be out of the way enough that no one should interrupt us until long after we cleared out. After sliding down to the ground, I yelled, "We're here guys."

Aang jumped up and floated down after catching sight of the beautiful scenery. Katara widened her eyes in disbelief as she joined us at the water's edge.

"Nice puddle." Sokka grumbled.

Aang and Katara stood agape at the waterfall while Sokka grouched with his arms crossed. Appa flew up and crashed into the river, creating a huge splash that soaked and almost knocked Momo off the rock he was standing on. Appa flopped over onto his back leisurely.

Taking off his shirt, Aang yelled, "Don't start without me, boy!"

Katara reprimanded, "Remember the reason we're here."

"Oh right. Time to practice waterbending."

Sokka groaned, "Greaaat." He clapped me on the shoulder. "What are we supposed to do?"

"You could… clean the gunk out of Appa's toes?"

Aang held out a branch to us. My eyes widened in disgust at the implication and I looked towards Appa warily.

"So, while you two are playing in the water, we're supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?"

"Mud and bugs!"

Sokka shrugged, "Ok." He grabbed the branch. "Come on Rei."

I shook his hand off and backed away, quickly saying, "Oh, I'm gonna go explore the woods. Maybe find a town. Maybe find some edible berries or something."

He deflated. "Oh come on!"

I grinned and skipped away. "Have fun Sokka!"

"Don't leave me here alone!"

"Sorry Sokka! Can't hear you! Too far away! Have fun cleaning Appa's toes!"

"REIII!"

I laughed hysterically as I skipped farther and farther down the river. I reached the main river in no time and walked along it, appreciating the soft flowing and crashing sounds. The village wasn't far away and was frankly quite boring. I spent a bit in the forest, getting a lay of the land and looking for anything I knew to be edible, but the sun was still high in the sky when I found my way back to our campsite. Though, I had explored my way to the top of the waterfall.

I yelled, "Hey guys!"

They all looked up and waved at me.

"I found a town!" I pointed southwest, "That way!"

I could almost hear Aang yelling, "Cool! We can't hear you!"

Smiling and shielding my eyes, I looked up at the sun to check the time. It was about midday. Lunchtime. Idly, I wondered what our rations would be today.

The crashing of the waterfall suddenly got massively louder and I barely looked down at the water at my feet before I was forcibly flung out into the air. I screamed and water rushed up to catch me, but it was too late. When I hit the ground, I heard a loud, sickening snap. Pain flooded my left leg, spreading throughout my body. I cried out in shock and fell over, unable to hold myself up.

My friends all rushed over to me screaming my name. I groaned and cursed. Getting closer, Katara gasped and started alternating between covering Aang's ears and eyes. Sokka grabbed me and pulled me out of the water. He took one look at my foot, yelped in fear and noped himself away from it. Aang airbended out of Katara's grasp and went completely white. Katara bit her lip, looking worried.

"What guys? Surely it's not that bad."

I looked down... and screamed. The movement made pain shoot like lightening up my leg and I hissed through it.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. That's my foot. Why does it look like that? Katara? Help! Come on. Please. It probably looks worse than it actually is."

I looked down at it again.

"Oh god. That doesn't look good."

Katara bent down and looked it over. I gasped in ice cold pain as she gently moved it.

"Yeah. Your ankle's broken." She turned on the young avatar. "Aang!"

He shrunk under her angry gaze. "I'm sorry."

"You need to think these things through before you do them."

"You were the one who told me about the move."

"Well, I didn't-"

I yelled angrily, "Guys! Shut up! My ankle is broken. It's done. What do we need to do Katara?"

"Well, we're going to have to find someplace with medical supplies. If needed, we can get by without bandages and making our own splint, but it might heal wrong."

Sokka jumped in with more good news, "And our supplies got washed down the river with that big wave."

I sighed slowly, trying to suppress my anger at the situation, "There's a town near here. Go to the main river and go south. Then when you get to the bridge, cross it and go down the road. It's right there. I don't remember if there was a doctor though."

"It's worth a shot. Let's go." Sokka grabbed his boomerang sheath and hastily put it on.

Katara stopped him. "Wait, we can't just leave her here."

"Oh here. Sorry Rei." He dropped his bag and rushed back over, taking up position behind me. "Can you get her leg Aang? I don't want to move it."

With some airbending, repositioning and some painful yelps from me, they eventually got me off to the side under a tree, with my blanket under me and two large rocks on either side of my ankle to hold it in place.

After a prolonged pain-filled struggle, I finally managed to doze off. When I woke, it was to the sight of my friends huffing and puffing, sprawled out of the ground. I pushed myself into a sitting position while asking, "Did you guys get into trouble again?"

Aang and Sokka both jerked up in surprise at my comment.

"Well, did you?"

Katara sighed, "Yes."

"So, who's after you this time?"

"Pirates. You know, I used to think they were cool, but those guys were terrible."

Katara shuffled nervously.

"Why were they angry with you?"

Sokka cried, "They just attacked us out of nowhere!"

"Is that really what happened, or do you have something to tell us Katara?"

Slowly, she brought out the scroll from behind her.

"Katara?" Aang gasped.

Katara mumbled, "Sorry Rei." I held out my hand for it. She hesitated.

"Give it here Katara. I just want to see what was worth risking all of our lives for."

She handed it over and I unfurled it in my lap. It was all there. The water whip and some other assorted waterbending moves that I both recognized and was unfamiliar with. I rolled it back up.

"That was risky, Katara. Our first priority is to slip through undetected and unnoticed. If you can't steal something with precision and stealth, don't steal anything at all. Nothing is worth our lives."

"But the scroll can help Aang-"

"I know!" She pulled back at my outburst. I rubbed my forehead and sighed, "Look, Katara. You have to think things through before you do them. You got angry at Aang for doing the same thing this morning. Yes, the scroll will be helpful, but it's not worth losing one or all of you. Please tell me you understand that Katara."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"Now, you and Aang can practice using this." I handed the scroll back and she grabbed it much too quickly. She blindly hurried over to the river, studying the scroll as she walked. Aang followed after her and Sokka sat down next to me.

"How's your leg, Rei?"

My attention strictly watching the two benders, I absently said, "Yeah, sure." Katara had Aang hold open the scroll for her and I recognized the beginnings of the water whip movement. Oh, I really hope this isn't going the same way as it did in the show.

"Rei? I asked, how's your leg?"

"Yeah Sokka. That's great."

"Rei!"

Shocked at the outburst, I swiftly turned and accidentally moved my leg. I hissed in pain, clutching it and replacing the rocks in their positions. Sokka drew back nervously, shifting his eyes between my leg and my face.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Sokka. What is it?"

"Nevermind, what's up with you? Were you lost in thought?"

Katara yelped from an unfortunate water whip to the forehead. I drew in a quick breath.

"I'm just worried about Katara. She's only ever been the only waterbender in the tribe. I'm worried about how she'll react now that she's not the only one."

"I'm sure she'll be fine. After all, you're the one who gets super competitive."

"Ugh! Sokka! It was one time!" I smiled despite myself.

"You threatened to cut off my ponytail!"

"You cheated!"

"It was a game of complete chance! How could I have cheated!?"

"You… just- did!"

Sokka raised an eyebrow at me.

"Good comeback."

"Shut up."

Momo screeched after being hit on the bum by a horribly placed water whip.

Stomping her foot angrily, Katara yelled, "Ugh! Why can't I get this stupid move?!"

"Calm down Katara! You'll get it." Sokka yelled back.

"Sure Sokka!"

"I'm sure you'll get it Katara, but if you get angry and frustrated, it'll only be harder. You need to relax." I yelled.

"She's not gonna relax."

"Yeah, I know."

Aang put down the scroll and tried the water whip for himself, getting it on the first attempt. He started to say something, but Katara cut him off, "Will you please shut your air hole!? Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes. Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!"

"Katara!" I shouted.

"What!" She shouted back, glaring at me. When I returned the glare with the same intensity, her face softened and I saw the realisation dawn on her. She said some soft words to Aang, then turned and walked away into the woods.

"Aang! Can you come here for a second?" I yelled, then in a much softer voice, "Sokka, can you give us a minute?"

The two boys crossed each other and Aang carefully sat himself next to me. "Yeah?"

"Look, you know as well as me that Katara can get competitive, but that's something she has to work out herself. You can't let it deter you from learning waterbending. She needs some time right now, but after she's done cooling down -and maybe in a couple days- you can help her understand the water whip a bit better."

His lip perked up a bit. "Yeah, ok. Thanks, Rei."

"And it wouldn't hurt to tell her how beautiful and awesome you think she is more often. That'll definitely get you into her good books."

Aang blushed something fierce and mumbled something about not true and shut up. I giggled and waved him off. "Go learn some waterbending. And get some rest. Y'all run around way too much even for growing young children."

He laughed as he walked back to the scroll with a pep in his step. I leaned my head back satisfied with my hard day's work. Sokka wandered back to me and asked, "What's with that huge smile?"

Rolling my head over to look at him, I simply said, "I'm just happy because I managed to cheer Aang up a bit. And young love is just so adorable."

"You mean, Aang? And Katara?"

I raised an eyebrow amused. "You didn't know?"

"No! Why would I even think about that?"

"I guess that's true. You're a boy after all."

"What does that have to do with it?!" He shrieked, jumping to his feet.

"It's the problem with guys. They're absolutely obviously to the matters of the heart. I'm just glad Aang knows about his crush and doesn't just sit on it being weird like lots of little boys do."

Sokka laughed, "I wonder if Soras still has a crush on Luteya. He'd just run after her allday doing everything and anything for her."

Laughing wildly, we reminisced about the old gossip from the water tribe. It lasted well into dinnertime when Aang asked about it. Sokka and my tales about the drama were greatly exaggerated, which Katara called out, but it was all in good fun. We all went to bed with smiles on our faces, except for a certain waterbender.