Chapter 25: Run, Barry, Run

The morning was quiet. The sunlight shining through the seemingly deserted streets and into Jay's hole seemed lighter than usual. Not the usual orange sunlight that comes at sunrise. Aang sat on the dirt floor and pondered this. His heart has been racing since yesterday, it was a miracle he'd been able to sleep. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach. In the lonely, silent hours in the middle of the night when the others had been asleep, he had come to a conclusion. Something was wrong. It had to be. Thinking of all the blank weeks they had spent on Ember Island, why had everything happened like that? Now Aang doesn't blame himself for being suspicious of the new people for so long.

I knew something was wrong all along. But I shouldn't have taken it out on them.

The new people were even worse off than Aang and his friends. Being thrown into a whole new dimension would not have been easy to deal with.

But now that Aang knew he was onto something, what could he do about it? Sokka didn't believe him. The others would follow Sokka, not him. Sokka was the messiah. Aang was just a kid. When did being the Avatar stop mattering? Aang thought to himself. Not just to everyone else, but to me… that should have been my real priority all along. That's my responsibility...

Aang feels helpless, a feeling he isn't used to. He didn't even feel completely helpless when his entire world was pulled from under his feet and died along with his people. He always felt he could do something about it. He had a new family, Katara and Sokka, who cared for him like family did. He was the Avatar. He mattered.

But he was helpless now. He feels sick.

"Aang?"

Aang almost jumped, he was so on edge. But it was only Katara. A girl who he'd once trusted more than himself, but now he felt like he barely knew anymore.

"Hey. We need to talk. While Jay and Sokka are out; before they get back" Katara sat down next to Aang on the dirt floor, for some reason not worried about dirtying her dress. That seemed unlike her, or what she had been for the past few weeks.

"Okay." Aang tried to steady himself, and swallowed the lump in his throat. What did Katara want to talk to him about? Was she mad at him about what he had said yesterday? Had he been causing too much trouble?

Oh, I bet she'll say something along the lines of, "Aang, I'm like super sorry about this, but you need to leave! Me and Jay are getting married, and you're too short to be Jay's best man! Not that he wants you to be his best man anyways. And you're so annoying these days! You can go play Fortnite somewhere or something."

Aang shivered. No, I need to have faith in Katara. She's always been there for me. I need to have the same trust in her that I used to have.

Katara looked around, as if to make sure they were alone, which of course they were. Jotaro and Jay had left a little while ago, for what Jay had referred to as 'brotherly bonding activities'. It was obvious Jotaro hadn't wanted to go, but he had trudged out the door with Jay anyways. Zuko was still asleep in the bedroom. Aang had tried to wake him, but it hadn't worked. Kakyoin had gone for a 'morning stroll'. That was three hours ago; Aang assumed he had gotten into some kind of trouble involving the law, but that wasn't his problem. Or maybe it was. Maybe he should go look for him. But Aang couldn't move, he just sat there. Sokka had been gone when they had all woken up. No one knew where he had gone. No one talked about it; they skirted around it in their stilted, wary conversations. Everyone seemed on edge from yesterday.

Katara looked at Aang.

"I wanted to talk to you about what you said yesterday. I… I think you're right. About something being wrong."

Aang felt himself tense up. This was the first time anyone had mentioned what he had said yesterday. He'd thought it would make him feel better to hear someone acknowledge it, but instead he felt more nervous. It was like the air had gotten heavier, denser, as if something pressed down on the whole city, dampening and muffling everything.

"Okay." He muttered. He didn't look at Katara.

"I had a dream last night. About my mom. It's been so long since I thought about her. Since I thought about… why I'm here. Why I'm doing this. Who and what I'm fighting for."

Aang looked at Katara. Her clear blue eyes were focused on the necklace in her hands, twisting it around her fingers. Aang realized now that he hadn't seen her wear it in weeks, but now she was holding onto it as tightly as if she would never let it go.

"So… you believe me? You can feel it too?" Aang almost didn't believe it. Katara nodded.

"It got me thinking, why did I do what I did? Why did I get married? It was ridiculous, now that I think about it. Why did I get back together with Jet? He died! He died in Ba Sing Se!" She looked at Aang, fear showing on her face. "Why did he come back? How did he come back? And where is Toph, really? She's been gone for weeks. That letter we received sounded nothing like her. I don't know who or what wrote that, but it wasn't Toph."

Looking back at her hands, away from Aang, she took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "Why is my brother not even my brother anymore?" Katara said, barely audible, her voice breaking.

As glad as Aang was that Katara believed him and was talking to him, he still hated seeing her sad. He always had. He used to be able to make her feel better, sometimes. Aang remembers something Katara had once said to him. "You give people hope."

She had looked at him and he knew what she meant. Aang, you give me hope.

But that felt so long ago. Things were different. Aang was a coward now. He is now afraid of so many things. About what will happen next. Maybe, deep down, he always had been a coward. Aang couldn't make her feel better now.

But there was another thing that Aang knew. If he couldn't make her feel better, she would go and do something about it. She would be overcome by her righteous anger and need to do good. She would go out and help the people who needed her. Aang hadn't seen Katara do that in a long time. But now he was sure she would.

"Aang, what I'm saying is that my Mother and what the Fire Nation did to my people is the reason I left home to come with you. But, we don't even think about that anymore. I don't even know what is going on with the Fire Nation right now. With the war. With my dad and my brother. With me. I don't know, and no one is talking about it except us."

Grabbing Aang's shoulders, Katara spoke quietly and clearly.

"Aang, we need to leave. Just the two of us. The others have no idea what's going on, and I don't think we can convince them. I've tried talking about this with Sokka as well, but he doesn't believe me. But if we go now, we can kill Robert: he's vulnerable to my waterbending, and you're the avatar: together we can beat him!"

Aang jerked back from her. This wasn't like Katara, to suggest they leave the group. But then he realized: this was like Katara, just not the old Katara. She's not being influenced any more, but she's changed. She's more willing to take drastic measures.

"Katara, no." Aang shook his head vehemently. "We can't just leave everyone, we have to convince them what's going on, and tell them-"

"Tell them what, Aang? I've already tried. Sokka won't listen, he's-"

"He'll come around! We can convince him, and convince everyone else! Katara, it'll work. I'm sure it will."

Just then, the round green door to Jay's house creaked open, and Jotaro walked in, trying unsuccessfully to shake large quantities of mud off of his black coat. Warm sunlight streamed in, lighting up the dusty room. It illuminated the odd cracks in the wall, the dirt in the corners. The broken table.

"So, Jay attacked me." Jotaro said matter-of-factly, looking around the room. Katara jumped up.

"What? Why? Did you provoke him?" She seemed shaken.

Jotaro sighed and shook his head. The momentum of the head shaking caused a large chunk of mud from his coat to fall onto the ground.

"If you consider accusing him of being a servant of Roberts as provoking him then, actually yeah. Maybe I did provoke him. But we need to find Sokka and Kakyoin and get out of here immediately." Jotaro began to make for the bedroom, probably going to grab his stuff.

Katara was clearly irritated by this, so she stomped after Jotaro. Aang simply stood there, unable to take in anything that had just happened.

"What are you talking about?" Katara fumed, "What do you mean Jay is a servant of Robert's? You can't just drop that stuff out of nowhere! What happened?"

"Well, he started trying to convince me that 'Robert isn't that bad'. I don't know why he expected me to not be suspicious, because he was so obvious about it." Jotaro shrugged. "He's a horrible liar. And I told him just that. Then he got all freakin' defensive. He told me that I was just jealous of him. He was all like 'me and Katara are definitely gonna get married, and you're jealous, my little Joot!'. So I told him he was crazy and that he better shut his goddamn mouth or I'd beat the living shit out of him right there. Then he freakin' attacked me." Jotaro looked at the ground and muttered quietly. "He was a lot faster than I expected, and he threw me in the mud."

"But did you at least, I don't know, beat him up a little bit?" Katara asked desperately.

"WELL, KATARA, maybe it would have gone better if I had my extremely powerful freakin' stand, Star Platinum. But you took it. Anyways, he's coming here right now, so we'd better haul ass. Pack your stuff. Tell Aang to get ready too. Tell him to wake up Zuko. We have to find freakin' Sokka and Kakyoin." Jotaro quickly shoved his stuff into his bag.

Katara just stood there, frozen to the spot with panic for a moment. Then she sighed.

"Jotaro, me and Aang have to tell you something."

"Well, it will have to wait. Unless you want your ass beat by Jay. I certainly don't want to be here when he gets back." Jotaro moodily intoned as he turned back to face Katara, his bag slung over his shoulder.

"No! This is important! If you don't care what me and Aang have to say, then just know you're probably missing out on a way to get your stand back." Katara smiled and walked out of the room.

Jotaro turned, staring at Katara. "Wait. If there is a way to get my stand back, tell me. I feel like I'll get really freakin' depressed if I'm apart-" He was cut off by Katara.

"God, you just said we are running low on time! Don't give me a big monologue about your emotions, just wake up Zuko and I'll tell you both!" Katara walked back over to Aang.

"Come on Aang. Get ready to leave. We'll get through this."

Aang began to scramble around the hole, collecting his things. Upon finding his collection of Fortnite paraphernalia, he paused, his hand hovering over his xBox. Then he stepped back. I don't need or want you anymore. I remember who I am.

"ZUKO! WAKE UP! YOU'RE FRICKEN' STILL SLEEPING!" Jotaro shouted at full volume into Zuko's ears.

"AAAIIIEEEEEEEEEE! MOM DON'T LEAVE!" Zuko wriggled uncontrollably and fell off the bed, right onto Jotaro's mud covered shoes. Jotaro stepped back with distaste. Zuko blinked hard, then looked up at Jotaro.

"Oh! Sorry Jotaro! You woke me up in the middle of a nightmare! The usual one, where my mom leaves me and my sister alone with our abusive father. But I'm okay." Zuko looked around, disoriented.

"I don't give a shit about youre stupid dream, man. Just get the hell out of this goddamn room; Jay's getting here pretty fast, so we gotta leave."

Zuko hopped out of the room.

"Okay, what's going on? Why did you wake me up?"

Katara sighed exasperatedly.

"Me and Aang have important information to tell you guys, but it has to wait. Jay is on his way here to probably kill us."

Zuko's eyes widened.

"What?"

"I just told you! Now we all have to hurry! We have to find Kakyoin and Sokka! Qu-"

Bang! The door burst open. A tall silhouette stood there, framed by the bright sunlight which hurt everyone's eyes. Was it Jay, come to kill them? Had they been too slow? The gang looked in horror, thinking Jay had caught up with them and they would soon meet their deaths. But the figure slumped against the door frame, and they could then see that it wasn't Jay at all.

"Kakyoin! What happened?!" Katara asked, rushing over to the bruised and bloodied Kakyoin. He waved her away, accidentally producing a cloud of butterflies with the gesture.

"I'm fine, but something's up with Jay. I saw him on the way here; he tried to kill me!" He said quickly, looking over his shoulder into the street. "I slowed him down; I opened a dimensional rift in the street, but he just… jumped over it." He looked worriedly around at everyone else in the dark hole. "There's no way he should've been able to do that."

Jotaro tossed Kakyoin a bag full of anonymous very clunky objects.

"So he got you to, huh? Looks like you got beat up worse than I did."

Kakyoin caught the bag.

"What, this?" he asked, gesturing to his black eye and numerous cuts and bruises. "Oh, this wasn't Jay. This was from a totally unrelated incident; Jay didn't land a hit on me."

"You guys can talk later!" Shouted Katara in a panic. "We have to go!"

She peered out the door, and apparently seeing nothing threatening, ran out. The group followed suit; Zuko lagging behind with sleepiness.