AN: Alright, this is chapter 1 of Bending the Legend. I hope you all enjoy it!
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Aztec 13 - Technology is something I have been thinking about, but I think if there are any technological changes it won't be for some time and probably not in huge ways as you may think (though I personally would believe that sort of thing would help explain the technology in LoK, if I ever explore it).
One thousand years later…
"So, what do you think it is, Katara?"
"Why are you asking me?"
Sokka shrugged at his sister. "Oh, I don't know. This is strange, and you're as strange as it gets. I think the connection fits pretty well."
The comment earned a stern glare from Katara, her annoyed expression framed by her dark hair loopies. "And what do you want me to do? Waterbend the thing to life?" she deadpanned.
"Uh, no thank you. Thanks to your magic, you already soaked me once and got us stranded on this ice… along with this thing!"
Katara frowned. Only minutes ago, her brother was mocking her for her Waterbending, calling it "magic." Of course, manipulating water with her mind always left Sokka soaking wet, and she ended up doing much more, breaking a huge iceberg into dozens of tiny pieces. Now, they were stuck on an iceberg, in the middle of South Pole, and with no way back. There was only them… and the 'thing' that Sokka mentioned.
That 'thing' was a body.
At least, that was what Katara thought. It looked like a metal copy of one, all broken up and scattered over the ice in skeletal-like fragments, not too far away from the giant canister it came out of. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't human.
Katara trailed her eyes to the now-empty canister on the small island of ice. When she approached it to learn more, her brother thought otherwise. "What do you think you're doing!?"
"I'm going to take a look inside," Katara answered.
"Katara, no! Something might come out and grab your face!"
Rolling her eyes, Katara popped her head into the canister. Unlike the frost-covered shell, the inside was clean and smooth. Strange yellow lines spread all over, glowing faintly ad they interconnected with each other to form equally strange shapes. To top it off, it was oddly warm enough that Katara pulled down the furry hood of her blue coat.
"Woah," she uttered. "Sokka! Come over here!"
"What happened? Did something come out and grab your face?"
"What-no! Take a look at this!"
"Just what…" Sokka stopped as he popped his head in canister. "Woah…"
Katara shot a curious glance at him. "What do you think it is?"
"I dunno… It doesn't look like it's from the Fire Nation…" Sokka trailed off, pulling back his own hood and showing off his 'warrior's wolf tail.'
Katara drew herself out and pulled the hood back up before the cold air could nip at her ears. She envied Sokka enjoying the inside of something nice and warm-almost, anyway. The canister, the whole thing, was just strange. What it was, what had been inside it, and how it became frozen in the ice were among the many other questions lurking around Katara's mind.
'I never thought I could do something like that,' she thought, looking down at her mitted hand and remembering how her own powers shattered the ice surrounding the canister.
Suddenly, the air grew colder. The South Pole usually was between mildly cold and to below freezing, so Katara thought it was nothing. However, when she rubbed her arms for warmth, a slight rattle made her realized that it was not 'just nothing.'
Katara's eyes darted back to the broken body some feet away. The lone rib cage, head, and even the fingers shook ever so slightly. Among the limbs, a severed arm moved towards the main body-
Wait.
The arm was moving. On its own.
Gaping, Katara barely heard her oblivious brother. "You know, it's not much, but I think we could work with this. Maybe we can use this thing to get back home."
"Uh, Sokka!" Katara called out, eying another arm and two legs crawling to the torso.
"Not now, Katara."
"Sokka!" She pulled her brother out and spun him around. "Look!"
"Just what do you-WAH!" Sokka protested then spot the recombining body. "K-Katara, that arm is moving!"
"I noticed," Katara quipped.
As if it could not become any stranger, lines of white energy leached out of the main torso and attached to the scattered limbs like umbilical cords. One such limb, a leg, was dragged near Sokka's own feet. "GAH!" he jumped away. "Just what's going on?!"
Katara gave up of thinking for an answer. "I… I don't know!"
The two stood there, bodies shaking in fear and from the sudden drop in temperature while watching the thing combine. First, the arm joined the still torso. Then, the other arm, and soon, the two legs. Limbs once bent out of shape straightened themselves out, and a hand gripped at a circular shield. The other hand on a straight-edged sword, the thing rose itself on a pair of blocky feet, and an equally blocky head swirled around with a pair of glowing eyes.
"It's looking this way!" Katara whispered.
Sokka whispered back, "Don't move. Maybe it won't notice us." His hope was just a sliver behind a layer of fear.
Not a minute later, the metal thing fixed its gaze elsewhere and walked away.
"Huh," Sokka blinked, "that actually worked."
Just as surprised, Katara looked at the creature. Its legs moved forward, creaking and squeaking loudly atop the ice. "Quick, while its busy!" Sokka said then made a run for it.
Katara grabbed his arm to stop him. "Sokka, wait!"
"Katara! We gotta go!" he begged.
"Where to? We're surrounded by water!" she argued, keeping her voice low.
"Anywhere, but here is good! Now let's go before it sees us and-"
Another loud chink stopped Sokka's sentence when the thing bent down and rose up. It now held something in its free hand, a round mask as white as the ice. It turned, slanted blue eyes fixated on the arguing siblings.
"Aaaah, great…"
Just as Sokka's words came out, Katara could only watch the newly-made being put on the white mask. Its body was covered in the same aura of energy that brought it together. "Ah!" Katara screamed, she and her brother blinded from the white flash.
When the light faded, the thing towered over Katara and Sokka. Everything about its white body remained unchanged, except for the three scopes covering the right eye. They extended and retracted into the mask, like they were getting a closer look at Katara and Sokka.
Sokka shakingly held up his spear. "Stay back!" he cried out to the unmoving figure.
"Sokka, I don't think that's going to work," Katara whispered from behind her brother.
"Quiet! I'm trying to keep us alive!" he whispered back.
Then, the figure took a step forward.
"Hey, I'm warning you!" Sokka neared his spear a little too close to the white mask.
The thing stopped and stared back, the right scope retracting and the left eye narrowing at the spear wielder. A metal jaw lowered and an irritated sound left the mask.
"Kati," it said, the voice deep and chilled as the cold air.
Katara gave a inquisitive look, and even Sokka lowered his spear out of confusion. That was not any language either of them had heard before, and maybe no one knew about it. Katara was curious enough to walk past her bewildered brother and address the metal man. "Look-"
"Katara, what are you doing?" Sokka exclaimed.
Katara ignored him and went on. "-I'm sorry about my brother here. We don't mean any harm. We were lost when we… uh… found you, I guess…" she said. In spite of Katara's friendly expressions and hand gestures, the metal man renewed its silence.
"I don't think it understands you," said Sokka.
Clearly seeing that, Katara placed a gloved hand on herself. "I'm Katara. Ka-ta-ra."
The thing continued with that cold stare. Fortunately, it-or he-managed to wrangle a sound as cold as the last one out of the mask. "Kataara," was said in near-perfect clarity.
She smiled hearing her own name. "Yes. What's your…?"
"Kopaka."
Katara raised an eyebrow. "Ko… pah.. ka?" she repeated slowly to make sure she was pronouncing the name correctly. Thankfully, she received a nod. "See Sokka? Everything's fine."
"Yeah, sure. Nice way to break the ice, Katara," he said in his usual sarcasm and went his way to the canister. "You keep gossiping. I'm going to do something about that over there."
Katara glanced to the expressionless mask of 'Kopaka' for a comment then to her brother. The Water Tribe boy first tried grabbing the edge of the canister and lifting it. When that didn't work, he tried pushing his shoulder against it to no avail, much to Sokka's frustration. "Come on! Move!" he cried, now slamming his speartip on the ice without a care in the world.
"Sokka, careful!" Katara cried out. "You could break the ice that way"
"Hey, I'm trying to find a way off this block before we freeze to death!" Sokka snapped over his shoulder and returned back to chipping at the ice.
"But how? I don't think even Waterbending can help us out," argued Katara, who was too busy to notice her new white-clad friend had turned around and went in the other direction.
"Well, it's not like we could just walk back-"
The sound of a thousand clanging icicles whipped Sokka and Katara's gazes to Kopaka. From the iceberg's other end, white particles spread across the blue water, coalescing into one large spread of ice that stretched almost endlessly. At the tip of the newly-formed ice bridge was Kopaka's sword, glowing white with an aura that disappeared in seconds.
Kopaka curiously raised his blade in his metal hand and studied it, flipping the one from one side the other, unaware of the two spectators now watching him. And one of them was speechless, for once. "You're… you're…" a dumbfounded and gaping Sokka tried to say.
Katara finished with brightened eyes. "A Waterbender! Another Waterbender!"
Seeing no other explanation, she excitedly rushed over to Kopaka's side, ignoring her brother's whispers of "Not another one, please not another one…" while he held a hand over his worried face. Her smile grew when she stared up the white being. "I… I can't believe this," she breathed. "I get to meet another Waterbender in the South Pole!"
There was only that blank stare, and Katara was interrupted by Sokka cutting in between her and her newfound hope. He ignored her indignant glare and put a foot on the new ice. "Well, it's not breaking," he murmured to himself, planting both feet. "Alright Katara, let's go home."
"Wait, what about him?" Katara pointed to Kopaka, and Sokka waved him off.
"He's not wearing any clothes, and he's not freezing. I'm sure he'll be fine."
"Sokka-"
"Katara, home! We might as well take the magical ice bridge while it's here." Sokka waved a free arm to the ice he stood on then quietly added, "... I can't believe i just said that…"
At first, Katara listened. She slowly stepped on the bridge and followed after Sokka. She spared a long look at the white metal 'bender' standing there. He didn't seem to be in trouble, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad… Still, that Waterbending...
Her curiosity winning herself over, Katara stopped and waved for Kopaka to follow. "Hey! You coming?!" she called out to him.
Sokka objected immediately, shaking his head with every syllable. "Oh, no-no-no-no-no! This isn't a penguin, Katara. This is a…", he stumbled for the right word, "... a… whatever it is!"
"Well, he just helped us out. We can't just leave him here," Katara gestured a hand to Kopaka. "Don't you know what this means, Sokka? Someone who can Waterbend! He's following us anyway."
As she said, Kopaka was on the icy bridge. "I, you-" Sokka started only to roll his eyes in defeat. "Fiiiiiine! Let's just get going!"
"Thanks, Sokka." She waved some more to Kopaka. While he approached, Katara turned back to her brother. "I can't wait to tell everyone back home about this."
Glancing at their new friend, Sokka scoffed, "Oh, I'm sure Gran-Gran will be surprised…"
"I'm surprised, Sokka," Gran-Gran said with a stoic face, her ancient eyes blinking past her white hair loopies. "By far, this is the strangest thing you and your sister have brought back from your hunting trips..."
Besides Katara, the frowning Sokka sunk his head a little from the figurative guilty crown their grandmother put on it. After walking across the icy bridge onto the mainland, they all went across more frozen ground to their lonely little village, perhaps the only that could be seen in miles. Their welcome wasn't exactly receptive, but Katara still smiled.
"That's one way to put it, Gran-Gran," she said to her grandmother then everyone, "I'd like for you all to meet our friend, Kopa… ka…"
Her voice and smile faded when she noticed the shocked silence from her entire village. The young children, no older than five, were placed behind their mothers who tried not to gape at the white giant looming behind Katara and Sokka. Some were almost anxious enough to rush back and hide in their tents. Some even had faces as pale as snow around them.
Gran-Gran, the only one with an iota of calm, hunched in front of the group as their elder and leader. She looked at Kopaka then up at Katara, her large chin scrunched up like her forehead. "He's certainly a strange one, Katara. And you said he bended an entire bridge?"
"We wouldn't have gotten back to the mainland without it," Katara nodded. Looking to the village's shocked faces, she tried to assure them. "Look, I know he might seem a little scary, but I think you should just give him a chance. He's not so bad. He managed to help Sokka and I, and I'm sure he'll be happy to stay here…"
"Katara, he's gone," Sokka spoke up.
Katara whirled around. "Gone? Where did he go?!" The entire village and its tents blurred before her eyes before they saw Kopaka walking towards the snowy walls. "I got to go after him…"
"Katara, wait," she heard Gran-Gran and stopped to look at her. "We should leave him alone for now."
"Gran-Gran, let me talk to him some more. It seemed to work last time," Katara suggested.
"Maybe, but you can't worry about that now. Whatever he's doing, I don't think you could change his mind…"
Katara opened her mouth to say something, anything to convince her audience. By then, the crowd dispersed and returned to their duties. Katara's voice died in her throat, leaving her to Gran-Gran come up and say quietly, "Come, you have chores to do."
Seeing everyone-Sokka included-head off, Katara walked with Gran-Gran. She could only glance over her shoulder at Kopaka, whose back was still facing her.
The more time passed, the more anxious Katara grew. In the time of completing her chores, the sun was past its zenith and the slightly-less cold was replaced by the afternoon's bitterness. Not to mention, she could hear everyone in the village, especially the young children, speak about the tribe's newest arrival when she went around looking for him.
"He looks so strange..." Katara overheard one kid say. "What do you think he is?"
"My mommy says he's a Spirit," came from another another.
"Come on, Spirits aren't real!"
"They are so!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
Drowning the two out, Katara heard a third kid. "Do you think he's cold? He's just standing there with no clothes on."
"I'm wondering if how he does it," spoke up a fourth.
"You mean eating? Through his mouth. That's how everyone does it."
"That's not what I'm talking about. I mean what about-?
"Bathroom!" cried out a fifth.
"See! He gets it!"
"No, I mean I gotta go!"
Katara caught sight of a little one rushing past her with his stubby little legs dancing about. Continuing past the main igloo where a group of children discussed with each other, her eyes went from one corner of the tiny village to the other. She spotted Sokka atop his makeshift 'mighty watchtower' of snow and called out to him.
"Have you seen Kopaka around? I've been looking all over for him!"
Sokka popped his head up. "I've been up here all day!" he called back. "The last time I checked, he was by the shore! Haven't seen him since!"
Katara's worried face whirled for any sign. "He's got to around here, Sokka. Are you sure you didn't see him?"
"Why? Are you worried you'll lose sight of your Waterbending friend?"
Her eyes turned to the tower, now lit with anger. "I mean it, Sokka!"
That knocked the teasing smile off Sokka's face. "Woah, woah, okay! Seriously, I haven't seen him," he said and went down his tower. "Honestly, I kinda like it. Things have been nice and quiet. I actually get to train our warriors, for once."
"You mean barking orders at the kids?" Katara smirked at Sokka's twitchy eyebrow. "Come on, we need find Kopaka."
"Why? He's left us alone. Maybe, he wants the same thing." Now, Katara's eye twitched, and Sokka spoke before she could. "I'm just saying it might not be a good idea to bother him, Katara. The last thing we need is some outsider poking his nose around here."
For the second time today, Katara glared at her brother and was willing to give him a piece of her mind. She would have if not for Gran-Gran. "Katara…" the old woman said quietly as she came up to her grandchildren, "... can I speak to you for a second?"
Katara spared one angry glance at Sokka before following her grandmother further into the tribe's dwelling. "Can you believe him, Gran-Gran?" she huffed. "I can't believe Sokka would say such a thing after everything Kopaka did for him, and-"
"Katara," Gran-Gran gently cut her off, "have you thought that Sokka might be right?"
Katara's feet stopped in the snow. "Gran-Gran… how can you say that? He helped me and Sokka out. He's done nothing but help us," she said, her voice raising with every word.
Gran-Gran stopped and turned to address her granddaughter. "I understand, Katara, but I don't want you to get your hopes up only to become disappointed."
The festering emotions began to boil. "Gran-Gran… you know what this means to me, right?"
"I do," answered the quiet question. "You want him to teach you Waterbending."
"So, why say all that?"
"Because if what you told me is right, I don't think he understands it himself," Gran-Gran shook her head. "You saw him leave earlier. He probably doesn't know what he is, let alone what he can do, and I can guess he won't stay here to find answers. And you said he is a Waterbender."
Now, Katara could not longer hold it in. "Yes, he is! He's the only other Waterbender besides me!"
Gran-Gran met Katara's defiant glare with a sad face and a soft voice. "I know… and I know he's too different from us that he easily stands out. With what he is and the things he can do, it won't be long before the Fire Nation finds him. And when they come here, what do you think will happen if they find him with us?" She placed an old hand on Katara's cheek. "With you?"
Katara's eyes widened. Any response she wanted to give was suppressed by the truth behind Gran-Gran's words. She was too stunned, too taken aback that she didn't even realize the old hand drew away from her cheek.
"You should go get some rest," she heard Gran-Gran say. "You've been busy all day."
Slowly, Katara turned away, and her steps were slow and heavy. Her mind was not focused on where she was heading. It was grasping the last straws of hope, and her eyes looked to find Kopaka anywhere. When he was not in the village, Katara walked past the walls to see if he was outside.
She only saw snow covered in the faint glow of the afternoon sun.
It was not long before day gave way to night. The blue, cloudy sky over the Southern Water Tribe was replaced with twinkling stars in a purple backdrop. It was a sight that Katara would watch for many hours, even as far as she could remember.
Not tonight, though. After everything that happened, after speaking with Gran-Gran, Katara's hopes had left with the sun. She only felt disappointment as she stepped outside her tribe's dwelling, past Sokka's 'battlements' and the snowy mounds. She wasn't sure how long she had been walking-at this point, she didn't care and trailed down the freezing shoreline.
When the village was a mere dot, Katara stopped. She stood on the edge of the frosty snow, her eyes set on the water sparkling with moonlight, and she breathed. The visible puff of cold air passed over her free hands as she bent her wrists back then extended her limbs forward.
'Push and pull. Push and pull,' Katara chanted to herself, moving her body back and forth ever so slightly to match the water.
Under her slight suggestion, the waves fell up and down the shore, mimicking her movements instead of the other way around. It was the basic of lessons Katara taught herself and mastered over the years, and she would have slowly proceeded to the next set techniques. In her current state of mind, Katara skipped the basics and went for the near-impossible.
She raised her arms up, expecting the water to rise. It did at first, a small section swelling upward. It stopped short, and Katara's frown stretched across her face. She focused more on the water, closing her eyes and tensing her arms to act as its master.
The water only budged a little, to her consternation.
"Come on…" left Katara's lips.
Still, there was nothing.
"Come on…" she whispered again, begging the water bulge to listen to her and become a mighty wave.
Instead, it froze over.
A surprised Katara let go of the frozen ball while in mid-air. It fell into the ocean, and the wave Katara wanted rose in its place. "Ah!" she cried as water fell on her.
A resounding SPLASH later, Katara's head was dripping wet. "… now I know how Sokka feels," she moaned before gripping her hair braid. It took a few good twists to get the water out, and when she finished, her eyes briefly froze on whom she spotted a few feet away.
There Kopaka stood, in the shadow of a large snowy hill with his scope staring back at her.
Exhausted by today's events already, Katara spoke nonchalantly. "How long have you standing there?" She received no answer and sighed. "Right, I forgot."
Those metal legs made those strange noises again as Kopaka strode to the shore. Katara's eyes trailed down to the shoreline to avoid any eye contact with Kopaka standing beside her… not that looking would do any help now.
"Everyone says you're some kind of Spirit. My mother used to say Spirits could grant wishes, and I…" Katara swallowed, failing to hide her sadness, "... I wish I could talk to you… I wish you could help me… I'm not exactly normal around my village. I have an amazing gift, something that was passed down my tribe for generations. Before, we could practice it openly, but now… everyone like me are all gone… there is no one else and I have to hide my gift... It wasn't like that, though…"
Kopaka was ever silent. Knowing full well she opened the floodgates, Katara sighed as she sat on the snow-covered plains. She might as well tell the whole tale while she was at it.
Hugging her knees close to herself, she began in a wistful tone, "When I was little, my grandmother used to me stories about the old days. A time of peace. When the avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads…" Her face darkened, as did her voice. "... but that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked…"
With just the girl's voice and his mechanical sounds filling the wind and snow, Kopaka listened to the would-be Waterbender's tale, which was told in little more than a whisper. "Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop the ruthless Firebenders… but when the world needed him most, he vanished…"
Katara paused to collect her thoughts. "It's been a hundred years since then. The Air Nomads are all gone, and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war… Two years ago, my father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight against the Fire Nation, leaving me and my brother to look after our tribe… Some people believe that the avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads and that the cycle is broken, but I haven't lost hope."
Her icy friend remained silent, and Katara laughed at herself. Look at her-talking to a Spirit who could barely understand a word. "I guess you think I'm crazy. That's what everyone in the village says. Even Gran-gran. They might be right, but…" she continued, looking at the distant glaciers. "… but I still hope. I still believe that somehow the avatar will return to save the world… and I hope I can Waterbend without fear…"
After she finished, Katara thought Kopaka would say something, anything. She thought he would scoff, at least give that cold glare she had grown used by now. However, Kopaka did not. He silently stared into the distance, and the wind felt less cooler than earlier.
Then, a cold breeze struck Katara's face. The sudden drop in temperature turned her to Kopaka, still staring but now tightly gripping his sword and keeping his shield at ready. Katara opened her mouth to ask what was wrong…
"Quiet!" Kopaka's low voice bounced off the icy wasteland around them, the word clear for anyone to hear.
Katara watched Kopaka carefully. His expression was more unreadable than before. The three scopes on his mask extended and rotated, as if each would allow him to see farther than anyone alive. Katara could only wonder what Kopaka had found.
She didn't have to wonder long as a giant beam of white light shot up in the distance.