Disclaimer: Avatar the Last Airbender copyright Dante Dimartino, Brian Konietzko and Nickelodeon Studios.


"I can't sacrifice the Water Tribe to protect the Fire Nation." Katara felt her throat constrict, frustration bringing her close to tears.

"Then, we fight." Mai's voice was resigned.

Katara closed her eyes. She remembered the merchants from the marketplace and the fishermen from the beach; she recalled the soldiers lining her castle halls and guards that had sometimes drank with her on her voyage South. She thought back to the villages she'd visited during the war, sometimes as a freedom fighter or a refugee, once even as a benevolent spirit.

The Painted Lady.

Katara smiled. "Maybe, there's another way."