The Mysterious Traveler
Hey guys! I am so terribly sorry for how long it has been since the last chapter.
I know a lot of you are wanting to murder me for the huge hiatus since my last update and I just want to say that I'm sorry. I've been busy with a lot of things; from moving, to work, and other issues. But the biggest of all would have to be the fact that I was plotting out the story. You see, I plan on diverging from the main series and going a new route. And trust me when I say that I have gone through a tone of ideas and story-arcs.
While I don't have everything planned out, I can say that I do have an idea on where I want to go. Part of the reason I wasn't updating was because I wanted to figure out what the story was going to be and what direction it was going, so I put all writing on this story on-hold. However, because I know what I want to do, I'm officially back in business.
I appreciate the reviews you've all posted and I hope the story is living up to your expectations.
Please enjoy Chapter 15!
Chapter Fifteen:
Down The River
The moon shined with only a slice of itself in the sky, the stars ruling the darkness that covered everything, and the sound of creatures echoing through the forest. In a small part where there were no trees, a campfire kept the darkness at bay, allowing for warmth against the cool breeze in the air. Everyone was asleep, getting their rest for the journey ahead in the morning.
As the night slowly went by, the eyes of Katara opened and rolled onto her stomach in her sleeping bag, checking to make sure everyone was fast asleep. Her eyes drew on Severus, who she knew would be the one to take the most advantage of rest. Aside from her brother. A feeling of pity overcame her as she watched him, the shadow of the revealing she had discovered about him creating a hole in her heart.
Pushing her feelings aside, she slowly rose from her covers and snuck over to the bag that contained the water scroll, managing to get it without making a sound. As she backed away, she turned to find Momo on the trunk of a tree that had been cut off, staring into her eyes from inches away, purring.
"Shush, Momo!" she whispered. "Go back to sleep!"
Sneaking past him, the lemur made a noise, earning another 'hush' from her as she kept on walking, heading straight for the river.
Unknown to her, Severus had heard her speaking to the lemur, which had woken him up. He shook his head at seeing her leave with the scroll, despite what she had said about not using it anymore. Letting her wander off, he tried to get back to sleep, but found himself unable to, which he found interesting. After all the times he had been so tired, it seemed to have worn off. As if his body was more awake and energized.
Frustrated with just lying there, he quietly got up and went straight for the river, wanting to get a drink. Walking through the quiet forest helped clear his mind, finding some sort of peace. Once reaching the river, he was surprised to find Appa there as well, drinking from it.
"See you couldn't sleep either."
The bison turned and grunted, as if greeting him.
"Yeah, I can use a drink as well."
Appa went back to gulping large amounts of water, getting his fury wet.
Severus got to knees, despite the wet ground and used his hands to drink from the flowing river, enjoying the peace noise of rushing water around him. Once getting back up, he stood next to the bison, looking up towards the stars.
Hesitating at first, he slowly reached out and touched the creature's fur. He was surprised when the animal did nothing, as though he was okay with it. Going further, he began to pet him, liking the warmth and comfort of his fury.
"Your lucky to have such luxury against the cold."
Appa turned to him and grunted.
Katara groaned in frustration as she tried and failed to attempt a waterbending move from the scroll.
"Shoot! Come on, water, work with me here!" she cried out as she tried to do it again.
Unknown to her, the two ships of Zuko and the Pirates were nearby the shore, hearing her cries of anger. Landing their ships to shore, behind some bushes as cover, the pirates and Zuko quickly began to circle around.
Having heard noise of the boats landing, Katara slowly approached the bushes and looked through them, seeing them just a little ways from her position. Gasping, she turned to graph the scroll, only to run into a pirate. Attempting to turn the other way, the pirate reached and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"No!" she protested. "Let go of me!"
Performing a water move she taught herself, she managed to hit the pirate in the face with a wave of water, freeing herself. However, before she could get away, she immediately found herself in front of Zuko, who took her by the wrists and brought her to a stop.
"I'll save you from the pirates," said the Fire Prince.
Turning towards his men, he ordered them to tie her up against a tree, immediately grabbing the scroll from where it was lying.
Once satisfied she couldn't free herself, Zuko stood in front of her, with both his men on side of him and the pirates on the other. Along with his uncle being there as well.
"Tell me where they are, and I won't hurt you or your brother."
"Go jump in the river!"
Turning to the side, an idea came to Zuko as he allowed his voice to become more gentle, walking around her.
"Try to understand, I need to capture both of them to restore something I've lost. My honor."
Katara refused to face him.
"Perhaps in exchange, I can restore something you've lost," he took a necklace and presented it to her.
Katara's eyes widened and gasped, "My mother's necklace! How did you get that?!"
"I didn't steal it if that's what you're wondering," he stood in front of her again as he put the necklace into his pocket. "Tell me where he is!"
"No!"
The leader of the pirates groaned, "Enough of this necklace garbage! You promised the scroll!"
Taking the scroll into his hands, he lit his other hand on fire and hung it over the flames, "I wonder how much money this is worth."
"No!" one of the pirates cried out.
"A lot, apparently. Now you help me find what I want, and you'll get this back. Then everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the others she was with and bring them back here."
"Fine!" the leading pirate growled as he and his men began to wonder into the forest.
As the sun slowly began to rise in the distance, Sokka woke to find the campfire having died out and his sister missing.
"Where did she go?!" he began searching his bag, beginning to connect the dots. "I don't believe it!"
Aang yawned as he rose from where he was sleeping, "What's wrong?"
"She took the scroll! She's obsessed with that thing! It's just a matter of time before she gets us all into-AH!" he screamed as a black piece of rope came out of nowhere and went around his wrists, and pulling him forward against the ground. Looking up at his attacker, he saw a pirate beginning to make a second attack, just managing to dodge the rope as it hit the ground.
Rolling to the side, he grabbed his club and quickly rushed towards his attacker, ready to fight.
Meanwhile, Aang tried to use his airbending against a net that was fired from a pirate with two crossbows, but was too slow to build momentum as it wrapped around him. Sending him rolling against the ground, another pirate grabbed ahold of the net and began to drag him.
"I've got him!"
"Where's the other one?!" asked the pirate that knocked Sokka to the ground.
"I don't know! Maybe a few of us should stay behind and search for him."
"Alright, take the monk back, while we stay behind."
Sokka got up and shouted, "Ah, what, I'm not good enough to kidnap?!"
A net was shot from a distance and wrapped around him, knocking him back to the ground as they made their way back to the river.
Severus began walking back to the campsite, while Appa remained behind. As he got closer, he began to hear voices that didn't sound familiar to him, making his mind begin to assume the worst, keeping quiet as he approached the area.
Hiding behind some bushes, he saw three men walking where Aang, Katara and Sokka were supposed to be, with all of their stuff on the ground.
"Have you found the other one yet?" one of them cried out.
"No, not yet."
"I've about had it with that face scarred, firebender!" the third complained. "It'd be best to kill him and his men, and just take the scroll. Maybe even sell that boat of theirs for a good price."
The mention of a scarred, firebender immediately made Severus think of Zuko, connecting the dots of what was going on and who the men were. Keeping quiet, he slowly circled around the three pirates, cursing himself as he realized he didn't have his wand with him.
Hoping his wandless magic skills were good enough, he waited until he was good for an opening and rushed out from the bushes, crying out Stupefy at two of the pirates.
Before they realized what was happening, the two men he was aiming for went down in seconds. The third one turn towards him, fear and shock deep in his eyes as he turned to run.
"Stay... stay away..." he cried out as Severus ran for him, fully focused on taking him down.
Raising his hands, he casted a Impedimenta and made the pirate fly into the air and onto the ground. Quickly grabbing ahold of him, he looked into his eyes and shouted, "Where did you take them?!"
The pirate froze at the sound of his voice, fear rising at anger that was radiating off of him.
"I won't ask a third time, so you better answer me. WHERE DID YOU TAKE THEM?!"
The pirate nodded, "Alright! They're over by the river, upwards!"
Raising his fist, he struck the pirate and knocked him out, letting his body fall to the ground.
Without looking back, he immediately ran off, heading towards the river.
"Nice work," Zuko nodded at the sight of the Avatar and the Water Tribe boy tied up, beginning to feel a sense of relief. He took out the scroll and approached the gang of pirates, who held onto them.
"Where's the other one?" he asked, beginning to fear his worries were true about Alexander Blackwater.
"He wasn't there," the leader of the pirates responded. "But my men will find him if he is near the area."
"Aang, this is all my fault," Katara spoke.
"No, Katara, it isn't," Aang tried to reassure her.
"Yeah, it kinda is," said the bald man next to Katara.
"I won't hand over the scroll until the other one has been captured," Zuko spoke up, refusing to believe his fears were true. He turned to Katara, "Tell me where Alexander Blackwater is!"
Katara turned away, refusing to look at him.
"Stay away from her!" Sokka cried out, struggling against the ropes on his wrists.
"That wasn't part of the deal," the leading pirate spoke. "We brought you two of the three you requested. That should be more than enough."
The bald man approached Zuko by the side, whispering, "Prince Zuko, please end this. Best to take what life has given you, as opposed to being left with nothing when its too later."
"No, uncle! I've come this far and I'm so close to victory! To regaining my honor!"
Katara raised an eyebrow, "Uncle?"
"But all you need is the Avatar. This Alexander Blackwater can wait. He would be nothing more than an additional prize. Leave him be."
"No!"
"Enough of this!" the pirate leader shouted. "Give us the scroll, or you'll never get these boys!"
Sokka frowned, "You're really going to hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?"
Zuko's stomach dropped, "Don't listen to him! He's trying to turn us against each other!"
The pirates began to look at the monk with suspicion, some even with greedy-ful eyes.
"You're friend is the Avatar?" the pirate leader asked.
"Sure is!" Sokka smiled. "And I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."
Zuko's eyes and face lit up with anger, "Shut your mouth, you Water Tribe peasant."
"Yeah, Sokka, you really should shut your mouth" Aang whispered.
"I'm just saying, it's bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire Lord will pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life."
The pirate leader turned to Zuko and pointed at him, "Keep the scroll! We can buy a hundred with the reward we'll get with the kid."
Zuko's face was red with anger as he responded, "You'll regret breaking a deal with me!"
Just as Zuko and two of his men were about to firebend at them, a figure came running out of the woods, surprising both sides. The figure shouted mysterious words and a series of lights came from his hands, striking the ropes that held Aang, Sokka and Katara hostage. Without stopping, the figure of Severus Snape shouted more words and began taking down more of the hostiles.
One of his spells hit a bag of smoke bombs and filled the entire area with smoke, blinding everyone. And in the confusion and chaos, a battle broke out between the two rivaling sides.
Severus managed to find Katara, who was struggling to find her way through the smoke, taking her hand as he ran. Somehow, his senses were on full alert, almost as if they knew exactly where to go in the smoke and where not to. He dodged every attack on instinct, keeping Katara with him through it all. Soon they found themselves outside of the smoke, hearing the cries of war and fighting behind them.
Meanwhile, Zuko engaged in a battle with the pirate leader, using his firebending skills against art of the sword. While distracted, one of the pirates attempted to get the scroll with his whip, only for Momo to snatch it before the rope could make it come to him. However, the pirater leader's iguana parrot attacked the lemur in midair, making the scroll fall into the smoke and land next to Sokka, who was crawling his way to freedom.
From corner of Severus's eyes, he saw Aang hoping over the smoke, while Sokka crawled his way out and Momo struggled to escape the iguana parrot as it chased him.
As he attempted to run into the woods, he felt Katara pull him towards one of the boats on shore.
"What are you doing?"
"Quick, help me get this ship into the water!" she began pushing the front of the wooden, pirate ship, along with the help from Aang and Sokka.
"It's no use!" he started to become irritated. "We should make our way back to camp and find Ap-"
He was interrupted as a pirates charged him with a spear, quickly dodging it and bringing his fist into the pirates face.
"We need a team of rhinos to push this ship," said Sokka.
"A team of rhinos, or two waterbenders," said Aang, looking into Katara's eyes, who stared back with a sparkle in hers. A sight that made Severus sneer and shake his head at.
Using their ability, the two began to cause water to flow onto the shore, lifting the ship off land and into the river. Climbing onto the rope ladder, they got onto the ship and began to set sail, hoping to get as far away from the fight as possible.
As the fighting continued, Zuko and the pirate leader were suddenly stopped by the bald man, who had been watching everything unfold from a small distance.
"Are you so busy fighting that you can't see your own ship has set sail?!" Iroh asked.
Zuko sighed and turned to face him, "We don't have time for your proverbs, uncle!"
"It's no proverb," he pointed towards the pirate ship down the river.
"Bleeding hawk-monkies!" the pirate leader ran off, being followed by his men.
Zuko began to laugh, until he realized that the pirates were taking his ship as a replacement and that all of his men had been taken out.
"Hey, that's my boat!" Zuko began to chase after them.
"Maybe it should be a proverb," Iroh rubbed his chin as he lost himself in the thought.
"Come on, uncle!" Zuko cried to him, getting his attention to follow.
Despite getting a good distance down the river, the four of them found themselves being chased by the pirates.
"Sokka, can't you make it go any faster?" Aang cried out.
"I don't know how!" Sokka replied. "This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe."
Severus slapped himself on the forehead as he prepared for a fight.
Once the pirates had caught up with them, they began to board, flanking them from all sides.
Katara used her waterbending to wash a few of them over the side and into the river, even managing to get the water whip right against one of them, while Sokka found himself being strangled by one pirates, despite having his legs over the neck of another.
"Little help!" the Water Tribe boy cried out as he was thrown against the sail.
Severus casted a few Stupefy spells and took out a few of the pirates, including the ones that Sokka was struggling with.
Meanwhile, Momo managed to trap the iguana parrot by wrapping the pirates flag around it on the pole.
As the fight continued, both Katara and Severus's eyes lit up at the sight of the waterfall ahead of them.
Seeing the final pirate attempt to attack Aang, who had taken out a whistle of some kind and began to blow into it, Severus casted a Impedimenta and sent him flying into the river.
"What are you doing, Aang?!" he shouted at him. "That whistle isn't going to stop this ship from going over!"
"It isn't supposed to," the monk responded. "Katara, help me push and pull the water! We need to buy us some time!"
"Time for what?" Katara, Severus and Sokka, who had just came to, all asked at once.
"Just do it!"
Without hesitation, Katara joined him as they began to use their ability to create a whirlpool, slowing down their speed.
"It's working," exclaimed Katara.
"But we have another problem," said Sokka, making everyone turn to see the ship that the pirates were on heading directly towards them.
Before they had a chance to react, the ship collider with them and they went directly over the edge of the waterfall, flying directly into the air. As they fell, they all screamed, except for Severus.
Time slowed down as he closed his eyes and waited for the end at the bottom. A million thoughts and emotions ran through him at once. But the one thing that kept on reappearing was the thought of Lily. He hated the idea that he was about to die without ever knowing if she was alright. Or that he wouldn't be able to see her again. All he wanted was to see her one more time, to see that she was happy and safe. Just one more time to see her beautiful green eyes and red hair.
Accepting his fate, he waited for the end.
Until he felt himself crash on the surface of something that wasn't rocks or water. Feeling his body react to the force of the impact, he realized that he had landed on something else. Despite the pain he was in, he opened his eyes and recognized the saddle that was always on Appa under him. Managing to sit up, he saw that they were in the air and the head of the bison letting out a grunt.
"I knew a bison whistle would come in handy," Aang held up the whistle that he had seen him blow before they had fallen over the waterfall. "Thanks, Appa."
"Thanks, Appa!" Katara cried out with joy.
"Yeah, we owe you one," Sokka replied as Momo flew down and settled on his shoulder.
Finding himself under awkward circumstances, Severus closed his eyes and forced his emotions to the back of his mind, "Thank you... Appa... for saving my life..."
The bison let out a grunt as he flew directly back to their campsite.
Once landing, they wasted no time in gathering their things and taking off again, hoping to get far away before Zuko or the pirates caught up with them.
Reaching the edge, Zuko looked down to see his boat damaged by the fall.
"My boat!" he cried out.
Struggling to catch his breath, Iroh began to laugh as he realized something.
"Prince Zuko, you're really going to get a kick out of this," he reached into his sleeve and pulled something out. "The Lotus Tile was in my sleeve the whole time!"
Lost in an ocean of anger and frustration, Zuko snatched the tile and threw it over the edge, bouncing off the head of a surviving pirate down below.
"Well, that wasn't very nice."
Zuko ignored his uncle as he stormed away, "I almost had him! ALMOST! Until that Alexander Blackwater got in the way! I swear, uncle! I swear that I'm going to take him down!"
With tears in eyes in his eyes, Iroh looked down below the waterfall, "So long, Lotus Tile. You've served me well."
As Appa flew through the air, Severus listened to Katara as she apologized to Aang for her outburst, which he immediately forgave. Something he wasn't surprised by. Though he did find it amusing when Sokka presented her with the scroll and gave it to her as long as she admitted that stealing was wrong, only for her to immediately counter that it was alright to steal from pirates.
But as they continued their journey up North, Severus lost himself in his thoughts, affected deeply by the fact that he had almost died. The realization that he had almost took his final adventure on a world he barely knew and wasn't his own. A realization that made him both afraid and motivated. He needed to be smarter and safer now. He had no intention of dying before going back to his world. And that was a promise.
"Alex?"
He looked up to find Katara right next to him, seemingly worried and sorry.
"Look, um..." she stopped. "I just wanted to apologize for last night. I didn't mean to pry like I did. It wasn't my place."
Severus continued to look at her as he thought about how he should reply.
"No, don't be," he forced himself to say, earning a surprised look from her. "I was out of line when I took my anger out on you. And besides... it was only a matter of time before you figured it out."
Katara gasped, "You mean... those..." She stopped herself, sighing as she reached over and touched his arm, tears appearing in her eyes. "Just know we're here for you. And please know that..." She closed eyes for a second. "... that you have a place with us."
Removing her hand, she sat down next to her brother and covered herself with a blanket, beginning to fall asleep as the night came once again.
Staring at her and Sokka for a little bit, he looked up towards the moon and smiled, feeling a sense of peace as he allowed himself to fall asleep.
I know the chapter is pretty much a retelling of 'The Waterbending Scroll' from the tv show. I originally did plan on introducing a few new developments in Severus's growing powers and even take a new different route with the ending of the episode, but I felt it was too early for right now.
I can promise I do have some new ideas for the next chapter that will be doing the episode of 'Jet'. However, I should warn you, I plan on going a different route on this next one. Part of the reason is because I've never really liked Jet as a character, except for certain moments in season 2. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Jet's character, but he came off as one-dimensional to me. Even his grand-plan in the tv show never really made much sense. So just a fair warning, the next chapter will diverge a little bit.
Message to 'Johnson': "I appreciate the reviews. I love the ones that are huge and detailed. However, I can't deny nor confirm any of your questions. Even if they were all false or true, I can potentially ruin the story by giving any answers. But I do appreciate your reviews. Keep 'em coming!"
Message to 'PiffyEQ': "Thank you for the reviews you've done. Hope the story is living up to your expectations. Glad to see you back for this one."
Message to 'DanReid4': "Hey, sorry for the late update. But I do appreciate the reviews you've left. And I'm sorry that Severus's cover name isn't working out for you."
Anyway, I appreciate the feedback guys and I hope you all are doing fine.
Also, if you're interested, this story is part of the Severus Snape series I'm doing, so I recommend checking out my other stories like 'Redemption' and also my newest addition called, 'The Unknown Hero'. 'Unknown Hero' is the third installment to my series and deals with an idea I've been very interested in doing, while still tying into all of this. Please give it a read if you want to.
Well, I'll see you guys in Chapter 16!