The Mysterious Traveler

Okay, I am so sorry for the long update. I didn't mean for it to take this long. Things got busy once the holiday season started, not to mention work was involved with that as well. However, when the holiday season ended, I was so tired from all of the craziness that I needed a break from everything. But then, once I got my mojo back, I ended up thinking about the future of the story and where it was heading. So, I took my time mapping out future chapters and potential story-arcs. And that's why I haven't updated in so long.

For those who are wondering when I'll be getting back to 'Redemption', I can promise you that I am continuing that story as well. I'm just working through some plot points and character development decisions. Apologizes for the long wait on that one too.

Oh, yeah, I should mention that I did do rewrites on the chapters to correct my mistakes and try to make the story flow a lot better.

Anyway, I'm happy that you guys are enjoying the story so far. Thank you once again for the amazing reviews and for following.

Chapter Eight:

Survival & Fear

Like before, he was back in the abyss, heading towards the light in the distance. Though it was closer than before, he still couldn't help but feel that it was still out of reach. A part of him wondered why he was chasing after it, even if it was the only source of light.

Suddenly, he heard a loud boom and felt the ground shake.

"Alex!"

Acting on instinct, his hand reached for his wand, and he grabbed ahold of the figure above him, bringing the wand into the throat of his intruder. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw the terrified face of Katara.

Relieved, he let go of her and got up from where he was sleeping, wand ready in hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He refused to look her in the eye, "Bad dream."

Behind Katara, both Sokka and Aang stared at him with uncertainty.

"Um, okay... but that wasn't why I woke you," she replied back, slowly regaining herself as she rubbed her neck. "There's something wrong."

"Like wha-"

He felt the same shake on the ground from his dream, echoing through the forest they were in.

Appa made a grunt as he stood up, anticipating danger.

"It's coming from over there!" Aang pointed towards the direction the sound came from and began running, promoting Katara and Severus to follow.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not toward them?" Sokka cried out from behind, despite quickly joining them, along with Momo.

Reaching a large log, they saw someone ahead, and hid behind it. Looking up from their hiding spot, they saw a boy moving giant boulders with his hands. The sight made Severus watch in awe at the boy, trying to process what he was seeing.

"An Earthbender!" Katara exclaimed, watching in awe as well.

"Let's go meet him," said Aang.

Severus shook his head, trying to hold in his sneer at how reckless the Airbender was.

"He looks dangerous," Sokka stared at the Earthbender with vigilance, "So we better approach cautiously."

Severus couldn't help but nod in agreement with him, glad that someone was using their brain for once.

"Hello there!" yelled out Katara, who had ran ahead of them and was now out in the open. "I'm Katara! What's your name?"

Severus slapped himself on the forehead and groaned into his hand.

Definitely classifying you as a Gryffindor!

The Earthbender turned towards Katara with a surprised look on his face, dropping a boulder he was currently trying to move with his power. What Severus didn't expect to see was fear in the boy's expression, almost as if he didn't want to be seen by anyone. Not a second later, the boy was running away from them, heading down the empty creek. Before disappearing, he jumped up and used his hands to cause a large pile of rocks to fall behind him.

Getting up from the log, they approached Katara, who was saddened by the boy's rejection.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang called out, making Severus roll his eyes.

"I just wanted to say hi," said Katara.

"Hey, that guy's got to be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village. And I bet that village has a market."

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" exclaimed Katara, who began running with Aang back to Appa.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" defended Sokka, only to sigh when Momo made a purring noise while flying over him. "Yeah, I hate them, too."

Severus rolled his eyes as he began walking with him back to Appa.

Once repacking their stuff onto Appa, they immediately began flying around the woods, hoping to find the village that the boy belonged to. Since they were in unknown parts now, they kept themselves hidden from sight by flying slightly above the trees.

Everyone was excited to reach civilization once again, having been flying for days. For Severus, he was just happy that they had reached the shores of the Earth Kingdom, having grown sick of the open ocean and the islands.

Ever since their encounter with Prince Zuko on Kyoshi Island, the whole group were convinced to directly make their way to the Earth Kingdom and follow the coastlines up North, which would lead them to the Northern Water Tribe. It meant progress, which he believed was seriously lacking from their journey. But that didn't mean that Aang was done with his visits just yet, making Severus upset with him.

Once they had made it to the coastlines, Aang made course for a city known as Omashu, where he wanted to ride a cart down what he described as "the world's greatest super slide". While Katara and Sokka were interested in going to see the city, Severus decided to stay behind with Appa. Despite he had an interest in seeing what an Earth Kingdom city looked like, he needed to have some time to himself, especially after the events at Kyoshi Island.

Needing a way into the city without being spotted, Aang was disguised as an old man, using hay for hair and his staff as a walking stick, hoping it would be enough to convince the guards to let them in. Deciding to bring Momo along, which Severus really questioned, they hid him within the hay on Aang's head. Meanwhile, both Sokka and Katara would be passed off as his grandkids, going by the last name, Pippenpadlopsicopolos.

The name almost made Severus laugh.

Once they had left for the city, Severus was more than happy to be alone with his thoughts. He sat right next to Appa, his back against the bison's fur.

Since awakening from his fight with Zuko, Severus was startled to learn from Katara that his wounds from the fight had healed to near completion, although not entirely. He literally used his wand to check himself over, trying to understand everything that was happening to him. Being able to do wandless magic, even wordless, was something he was getting used to, especially when his own body was already making changes by itself. But now he was discovering that he had super-healing.

Never before had he heard of anything like this before, a wizard who could heal without the use of magical spells. It was something out of those superhero comics that Muggles loved to read. And it was driving him crazy in trying to understand how he was able to do all of this.

The only logical explanation he seemed to come to was that his magic seemed to be much stronger in this world, than in his own. If anything, it seemed his magic was actually protecting him, even working with him. But he still didn't know for sure.

Needing something to do, Severus began training with his wandless magic again, but he struggled to cast anything.

By the time the sun began to set, Severus went on down to a nearby river and cleaned himself up, including his clothes.

Seeing that Appa was thirsty, he used his wand to levitate some water towards him, who accepted it would a happy grunt. Meeting the bison's eyes, they stared at each other, exchanging a silent moment between the two of them.

Severus nodded at the animal, "Hagrid would have loved you."

Sitting next to the bison, he started to become worried as nighttime approached, fearing the worst once a few more hours passed. Not wanting to do anything reckless, he decided to wait till the next day. Lying back against the fur of the sleeping animal, he stared up at the sky, enjoying the sight of so many beautiful stars.

The next day didn't help, as Severus began to believe that the others had been kidnapped and/or captured, promoting him to question what he should do next. If they had been captured, then it meant that it was only a matter of time before the enemy found him and Appa too. So, he had two options, leave or rescue them.

His Slytherin instincts told him to leave with Appa and continue his mission to find a way back home. However, he had a feeling that Appa wouldn't leave without Aang, so it would just be him. But there was another side that told him he couldn't leave Aang, Katara, Sokka or Momo behind. That he couldn't leave them to their fates when he needed them as guides in this world.

Hating himself for even thinking about it, he concluded that he needed to find a way into the city and rescue them. All without risking his capture too.

When the sun began to set for the evening, Severus decided to make his way to the city of Omashu, fully believing that his friends were indeed captured. But before he could leave the campsite, he was surprised and relieved to find Aang, Sokka and Katara, along with Momo, making their way back.

When asking them what happened, they explained that they had gotten themselves arrested for destroying a merchant's cabbages, right after riding a brick cart and causing disruption to a chute mailing cart system. Including other damages. But they had been cleared of all charges by Omashu's king, Bumi.

However, before they could leave, Aang was forced to complete three trials and figure out the King's name. After completing the trials, Aang figured out that the king was his old friend from a hundred years before.

Severus almost didn't believe their story, until he went back with them to Omashu and met King Bumi himself. Even for him the old king was way too crazy, despite that he liked his philosophy of thinking outside the box.

"I like this friend of yours, Aang!" Bumi exclaimed, laughing as they all ate at the large dinner table. "Never encountered one who could do magic before."

"I heard that some of your people have gotten sick," said Aang as he ate some noodles.

"Yes, it's quite curious how that happened. Now, why don't we go on a ride on the super slide!"

After spending one more day in Omashu, they then bid their goodbyes to the king and left, heading further up the coast.

Since then, they had trouble finding any sort of civilization, until they saw the mysterious boy in the woods.

Finding a nearby village, they landed Appa in an area to conceal him and headed into the settlement, this time leaving Momo behind as well.

While Aang and Sokka messed around, Severus and Katara bought what food they could for the journey ahead.

Just as they were all done, Katara grabbed Severus and pointed towards a shop, seeing a boy go on in.

"It's him!" the Waterbender exclaimed. "We should go talk to him!"

"No!" he cried out to her.

Katara waved him off and ran towards the shop, "It'll be fine, Alex. I highly doubt a young boy would get us arrested."

Severus shook his head and followed her into the store, signaling for Sokka and Aang to do the same. Entering the building, they heard the boy's mother scowling him about his chores.

"Hey, you're that kid," Katara spoke, getting the boy's attention, who turned around with worry in his eyes. "Why did you run away before?"

"Uh... you have me confused with some other kid," replied the Earthbender, stubbornly.

"No, she doesn't," Aang walked forward. "We saw you Earthbending."

The boy and his mother gasped, eyes widening in fear. It was a reaction that Severus was all too familiar with. Without warning, the woman rushed to shut the window and front door, then turning to her son with an expression of anger and worry.

"They saw you doing what?!"

Severus's eyes widened, understanding completely what was going on.

"They're crazy, mom," the boy desperately looked for a way out of his situation. "I mean, look at how they're dressed. Especially him."

Severus raised an eyebrow at him before rolling his eyes at the sight of the others, who were looking down at their own clothes because of his remark.

"You know how dangerous that is. You know what would happen if they caught you Earthbending."

Severus looked at Katara, getting her attention as he used his head to motion towards the door. He had the urge to leave the village before something unexpected happened.

"Open up!"

Everyone almost jumped at the sound of banging on the door, making Sokka take a peak out the window to see who it was. Eyes widening, he turned back to them all and whispered, "Fire Nation! Act natural!"

As everyone pretended to be ordinary guests of the store, which Severus found to be amusing how over-the-top they were, the woman opened the door and a Fire Nation soldier stepped on through, eyeing everyone.

"What do you want?" the woman demanded, irritated at the soldier's presence. "I've already paid you this week."

The soldier turned to the woman, "The tax just doubled. We wouldn't want an accident, would we?" He began forming a ball of fire in his hands, half-smirking. "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."

He allowed it to disappear, smiling.

The woman looked down in defeat, reminding Severus of the look his mother used to make when it came to his father. She went to her shop desk and took out a box, opening it to give the soldier some coins. Taking a second to count what he had, he separated a few coins and allowed them to fall from his hand, reasoning that they were no use to him.

As he walked out of the store, everyone was glaring at him.

"Nice guy," said Sokka, sarcastically. "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"

"Five years," replied the woman, picking up the coins from the floor. "Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships. The mountains and forest are used as resources for the war."

"They're thugs!" the boy cried out in anger. "They steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it!"

"Quiet, Haru!" the woman snapped at him. "Don't talk like that!"

Severus took note of the boy's name, now knowing what to call him.

"But Haru's an Earthbender," stated Katara. "He can help."

"Earthbending is forbidden," the woman said with a hard voice. "It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities."

Severus felt a wave of anger begin to arise within him when he heard those words reach his ears. Telling someone like Haru not to use their abilities was like telling someone not to breathe. Or even himself not to use magic.

"How can you say that?" Katara demanded, horrified at what she was hearing. "Haru has a gift. Asking him not to Earthbend is like asking me not to Waterbend. It's a part of who we are."

"You don't understand," the woman said, bitterly.

Severus had to agree with the woman's words. None of them understood something like this. Even him.

"I understand that Haru can help you fight back. What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

Severus felt the urge to stop her, closing his eyes at knowing what the woman would say next.

"They could take Haru away," the woman replied, her eyes showing fear and anger. "Like they took his father."

Haru's expression was one of anger as he looked away, with a sympathetic Katara looking at him.

Silence went around the room, letting the moment sink in.

Severus spoke up, "We should leave. It won't be long before it's time to set up camp."

The woman waved her hand, "Haru and I live on a small farm just outside of the village. You all can sleep in the barn."

"Actually, can a flying bison fit inside this barn?" Aang asked.

Haru's head shot up, "You have a bison?!"

"Yep!"

"So cool!"

"Even a fully grown bison would be able to fit, it'll be fine," said the woman.

"Great!"

"I've got a few more hours before I'll be closing up shop for the night," the woman approached her son. "Haru, why don't you show our guests to the barn and then get started on your chores."

Haru nodded and then led them outside, following them to where they left Appa. The young Earthbender stared in awe at the bison, having only read about them. He was even more amazed by Momo, who settled on Aang's shoulder once they arrived back. They then followed Haru back to his family's home. Once getting settled inside the barn, Katara and Haru walked off together, leaving Sokka, Aang and Severus alone.

"Well, this isn't so bad," the Airbender smiled as he studied the barn, only for his mouth to drop wide open when he turned around. "Appa, no! Don't eat all the hay!"

Once nighttime fell, Severus stood outside of the barn, looking up towards the sky. Out of all of the things he had seen in this world, the stars were his most favorite sight of all. They just shined brighter than back in his home world. With the cool wind blowing against his face, he took allowed himself to enjoy the peaceful moment to himself.

Sensing the approach of someone behind him, he turned to see Katara as she walked right up next to him, watching the stars as well.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?"

Severus nodded as he looked back up.

A few seconds of silence passed.

"Alex, there's something I need to talk to you about," she sighed. "About what happened back on Kyoshi Island-"

Severus sighed. "I'm don't want to."

"Then when will you want to?" she demanded, turning to look at him. "Ever since you fell out of the sky, you've been a huge mystery to me and the others. And to add to the list, you can do extraordinary things that no one has ever been ever to do. But the biggest surprise was when you healed from wounds that can't be healed from. You've got all of these questions surrounding you and I can't even answer a single one of them."

"What part of 'I don't want to talk about it' do you not understand?!"

Katara glared at him, "Aren't you a ray of sunshine!"

Severus felt his frustration growing, struggling to control it, "All I want is to get back home and continue my-" He stopped himself, sighing as he resumed. "What's the point in telling you anything?! Once I'm back home, you'll all go on with your lives."

"Doesn't mean we'll forget you," she countered. "Not after all we've seen you do."

"You sound so sure about that."

"I'm not afraid to know whatever it is you're hiding. I can take it."

Severus sneered, "Spoken like a true Gryffindor."

His eyes widened, realizing his slipup.

Katara frowned, "What's a... Grif-in-door?"

Severus shook his head, "Doesn't matter."

Katara opened her mouth to press on but hesitated, recognizing that she was losing a fight she couldn't win. Sighing, she decided to switch to a different subject.

"By the way, Haru saved a man with his Earthbending today," she said.

Severus looked at her with a worried expression, "What happened?"

"An old man got stuck at the entrance of a mine and was buried under rumble. Haru and I couldn't get him out with just our hands, so I convinced him to use his Earthbending to save him. And it worked!"

Severus shook his head and began to rub his forehead, sighing, "Bad mistake!"

The Waterbender glared at him, almost horrified, "How can you say such a thing? Haru saved a man's life-"

"-By possibly condemning his own," he looked her in the eyes, silencing whatever she was about to say next. "Seriously, do you realize the risk you've put him in? Especially us?"

Katara's mouth hung open, unable to form coherent thoughts.

"But... we saved him... and no one was around to see us..."

"But there are so many other possibilities playing into this," he explained. "What if that old man turns him in?"

"Why would he betray the one person who saved him?" she asked, although it sounded more to herself than to him.

"Any reason is very much possible. Maybe he's biased against Earthbenders. Or maybe he's a Fire Nation sympathizer. Or maybe he'll do it out of fear. Any one of those reasons are very much possible. But what's worse is that your actions could have put us at risk too."

"Have you considered that maybe he's grateful and will be able to keep his secret?" she slowly began to regain her confidence. "You may see the worst in people, but I choose to see the best in them."

Severus sneered, being reminded of someone similar, "There's a difference between blindly believing in something good and being prepared for the worst. Maybe you're right about the old man keeping Haru's secret, but you're doing it out of belief that is what he going to do, not what he could possibly do."

Anger rose in Katara's eyes, a fierce determination behind those blue eyes, "What was Haru supposed to do? Let him die?!"

Severus didn't reply, not sure of the answer himself. Saving the man was a Gryffindor's response to the situation, but one with great risk. A Slytherin's response was to not risk exposure. Surely there had to be a middle ground in all of this, a way for the man to be saved and Haru to still be safe from being discovered. But he knew that Haru and Katara weren't smart enough to think things through.

Why couldn't being smart and doing the right thing have a compromise?

Katara shook her head and turned away, "Haru did the right thing, and I don't regret encouraging him to do it."

Without replying, he watched as she walked back into the barn and sighed. Turning his attention back towards the stars, he resumed enjoying the view for a little while longer. Once he began to feel tired, he silently entered the barn and fell asleep on a blanket of the pile of hay. He watched the others sleep peacefully, sneering at Sokka's drool as it fell from his mouth.

Soon enough, he allowed his eyes to close and began to fall asleep as well.

Once again, he entered the dark void and saw the light in the distance, resuming his walk towards it.

"They took him!"

Grabbing ahold of his wand, Severus threw the covers off of himself and got into a defense position, studying his surroundings. The sun was shining through the open door of the barn, Appa was sound asleep, and both Aang and Sokka were packing their supplies. He relaxed when he saw Katara at the doorway, only to feel that worry return when he saw her face.

"They took Haru away!" she exclaimed.

"What?" a shocked Aang asked, Momo landing on his shoulder.

"Theoldmanturnedhimintothefirenation!" Katara failed to control herself as she spoke very fast, making her words blur together. "Itsallmyfault! Iforcedhimintoearthbending!"

"Katara, calm down!" Severus interrupted her, lowering his wand. "Now, tell us, what's happened?"

The Waterbender took a deep breath, "Remember what I said about Haru saving that old man with his Earthbending?"

Everyone nodded.

Tears appeared in her eyes, "Well, that same old man turned him in to the Fire Nation. Haru's mother just told me that they came for him last night and took him away." She turned to Severus, her eyes full of regret. "I'm so sorry, Alex. You were right."

Closing his eyes, Severus nodded, "We need to leave. Now!"

Katara's mouth dropped in shock, "What?! We can't just leave! Haru's been taken by the Fire Nation! We need to get him back!"

Sokka turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Alex. It's too late to track him. He's long gone. And to make matters worse, we've also put ourselves in danger. I say that we pack up and leave as quickly as possible."

Katara pulled away from him and turned her back on them, "Well, I'm not leaving! Not until Haru is free!"

Severus shook his head, "And how do you mean to track where they took him?"

"For one, we don't need to track him," she replied, wiping away the tears. "Because the Fire Nation is going to take me directly to Haru."

"And why would they do that?" Aang raised an eyebrow.

"Because they're going to arrest me for Earthbending!" she declared, head rising with determination in her eyes.

Severus nearly laughed, but managed to control himself, "I don't mean to break your spirits, but this plan of yours isn't going to work. Say that you do manage to get arrested for Earthbending, what happens after they take you to whatever prison they have for Earthbenders and find Haru? Even if we free him, he'll still be hunted for what he is."

"So your answer is just to abandon him and leave?" she turned to look him in the eye. "Sokka and I didn't have to come and rescue both you and Aang, but we did it anyway."

"First off, we didn't ask you to come and rescue us!" his anger was building at her stubbornness. "And second, that was against a small scouting warship. This is an actual prison, with tons of guards and more inmates. That means that the moment we make our move, we'll be sending up a signal for all of the Fire Nation to come looking for us. Unless if you've forgotten, we're wanted!"

"Then we leave once rescuing Haru!" she fought back. "Do whatever you guys want to do, but I'm going to rescue him! With or without your help!"

Severus sighed and shook his head, very upset with the Waterbender in front of him. But as tempted as he was to let her attempt this crazy rescue mission by herself, he found himself unable to do so.

"Alright, fine!" he growled. "But if we're going to do it, we'll do it my way!"

Katara's face lit up as she ran forward and embraced him, only to be pushed away.

"And what is your plan, exactly?" Sokka raised an eyebrow at him.

A few hours later, Severus and Katara stood in the middle of a rocky field, which was right next to a small road. They waited patiently until footsteps could be heard heading their way.

"They're over here!" Sokka cried out from a distance. "I saw them Earthbending with my own two eyes!"

"Get ready," Severus nodded to Katara, who nodded back.

Readying his wand, Severus levitated two small rocks and threw them into the air, heading in the direction of the marching footsteps.

"Hey, those rocks came from over there!" Sokka declared, his over-the-top tone making him roll his eyes.

"We need to be a little more convincing," Katara whispered.

Seeing a slightly large boulder ahead of them, Severus levitated it and used a lot of his magical strength to send it flying into the air, hoping it would catch the attention of anyone nearby.

"Did you see that?" a voice that wasn't Sokka declared in the distance. "Whoever these Earthbenders are, they must be powerful!"

Hearing the marching of the footsteps getting closer, Severus whistled. From behind a pile of rocks, Aang emerged, along with Momo on his shoulders, and ran towards them, taking his wand.

"Remember, you guys have twelve hours to find Haru and get him out. We'll be right behind you," said Aang, immediately rushing right back to his hiding spot.

A few seconds later, Sokka and a small group of Fire Nation soldiers appeared. Both Severus and Katara pretended to do a pose, like as if they were about to Earthbend.

"See, I told ya!" Sokka pointed at them. "I saw them Earthbending!"

"Yeah, we heard you for the hundredth time already!" one of the guards shoved right past him. "Hey, you two!"

They turned towards the man, pretending to be surprised by their presence.

"Earthbending is against the law!" the Fire Nation soldier declared, nodding towards his men. "You're under arrest by the power of the Fire Nation!"

The rest of the guards quickly rushed to their sides and took ahold of them by their arms, making them begin to walk down the path they had come from. Looking back, they saw Sokka regroup with Aang, immediately making their way back to Haru's home to get Appa, so they could follow them.

Once reaching the village, they were bound in chains and led to the docks on a metal wagon, where a warship was waiting for them. Once they were out at sea, they soon came into view of a large prison rig, made out of complete metal.

Looking back behind them, they could spot Appa, high in the sky.

The closer they got, the more the sun began to set behind the rig, creating an orange color ahead of them. The sight was terrifying, but yet beautiful, all at the same time. The experience made them feel like they were heading for the gates of hell itself.

I had decided to skip the 'King of Omashu' episode. I did originally plan to have Severus be part of what happens in that, but it felt pointless to me. It would just be the same episode all over again, just with Severus to witness the events, and I felt bored just writing it. So, I decided to gloss over it and go directly for 'Imprisoned'. But I did want to have a line of dialogue from Bumi on his thoughts on Severus/Alex.

Also, I decided to leave out the scenes involving Haru and Katara from the show, because I just felt like it would be pointless to recreate them. As I've said before, I am relying heavily on people reading this fanfic to have seen the show. I did originally plan to write a sequence with them, but only one piece of dialogue would have been new, and I felt that it wouldn't have done anything for the plot. For those wondering what that sequence of dialogue was, it was just Haru asking Katara who Severus/Alex was, only for her to reply that she 'doesn't really know'. Annnnd, that's it. Yeah, pretty boring.

Anyway, sorry for the long update guys! Hopefully I'll get back into a better rhyme of publishing chapters again. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Please review and thanks for the support! See you guys in Chapter 9! :)