Avatar: the Last Airbender

Yin and Yang.

Chapter 8

by RebLaw and Mdalia

Sokka and Katara of the World of the Avatar of peace had not had a good day. Aang had been acting mysterious, Sokka even believed Aang was stealing things, and just being weird, and then he vanished. To make matters worse, they ran into some Fire Nation troups that captured them.

Luckily for them they were captured by Prince Zuko and his guards, who were too busy tracking Aang to spare too many men to watch the siblings. Zuko had only ordered one of his guardsmen to take the two adolescents back to the ship. The young prince knew he'd need every man he could spare if he were going to confront the Avatar.

Having one person in charge of keeping two from escaping is a challenge; keeping two people who work together from escaping, is more than one man can handle. Unfortunately for the guard, while he might have wanted to peaceably take them to the ship, load them in the brig, lock the door and play a card game with the other guard left behind, the siblings had other plans.

When the ship was in sight the duo nodded at each other and started running in opposite directions. The guard, weary from all that walking in the cold, sighed as he realized that chasing two teens who grew up in weather like this was likely about the most futile thing he could do.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Ha!" Katara laughed. She and her older brother Sokka, had just met up again after ditching the poor guard Prince Zuko had told to take to the brig of his ship. "That wasn't very hard. We need still need to find Aang."

Sokka frowned slightly. "I doubt we'll find him before Prince Zuko does, if he's found at all. I think we should wait here, see if he comes back."

"Let's go find Appa," Katara suggested. "Maybe we can look for the other water tribes while we're waiting."

Sokka nodded, silently pondering to himself where Aang was and what he was up to.

- - - - - - - - - -

Aang, the Avatar of war, who wasn't really the Aang Sokka was interested in, was on his way to the world of the Avatar of peace to do more spying. He smirked to himself over how much chaos the two worlds interacting with each other was causing. His 'goody-two-shoes' copy was somewhere in this peaceful world, being delayed from bringing peace to his war-torn home world.

The Avatar of war briefly wondered if he was going to run into the Katara and Sokka on his way back, and if he did how to explain himself. He had the nagging feeling that neither of them were going to be too happy about how he just ran off. He'd have to make something good up. Maybe something about helping someone, or something stupid like that.

The boy sped off on the air he summoned to carry him. He decided that, while he was in the north pole anyway, he should probably pick up some water bending. The Katara of the world of the Avatar of peace did teach him a little, but he wasn't sure he could find her again. Also she seemed to have already taught some to the Avatar of peace.

It didn't take Aang, the Avatar of war, very long to find a village. He was counting on the water benders of this world not hating him like the water benders of the other world. Not that he really blamed the water benders of his own world, after all, he was the one who spurred them into a bad battle that cost many lives. But, that had been a fun day all and all.

The Avatar of war was right on, the tribe he found did not all run away from him. Instead they approached him cautiously, as they hadn't ever seen a child sitting on a ball of wind before.

- - - - - - - -

"Hey hey!" a little child shouted running into the tent where Sokka and Katara were enjoying a meal. It had been a while since the two had food similar to the stuff they grew up eating.

"Come see!" the young one said jumping up and down with excitement. "You'll never believe it!"

"Eh?" Sokka asked between mouthfuls. "What are you talking about?"

"Theresthisguy," the child said talking far too fast to be coherent. "Andhesdifferent, andheswearingweirdclothes, andhesflying! Come see!"

"Wha?" Sokka mumbled, vaguely amused that the kid was able to yammer constantly without passing out due to lack of breathing.

"Maybe it's Aang," Katara suggested. She had managed to pick out "weird clothes" and "flying."

"Come see!" the child insisted tugging gently on Katara's hand leading her out of the tent.

"Aang!" Katara yelled, recognizing the orange and yellow outfit from a distance. While it technically was Aang, it was Aang the Avatar of war, not the Aang she and her brother had found in an iceberg before the start of their journey.

"Katara!" Aang shouted in the best fake happy voice he could muster. He got off of his spinning ball of air and walked over to her, realizing that he had some explaining to do, and he'd rather not shout it for the whole village to hear. "Sorry I ran out, I needed to go do something"

"Actually," Aang explained, whispering into Katara's ear on tiptoe. "I noticed that the Fire Nation was trailing us. I figured it'd be best if we split up. Then they'd follow me, and I'm fast enough to lose them easily."

"Oh," Katara said. That was what seemed to have happened. Most of the Fire Nation did follow Aang. "Next time tell us though."

"Hehe," Aang giggled, trying to look sheepish. "Sorry,"

"Oh, that's right," Katara said happily. Things were back to normal she thought. "I found a water-bending teacher! I'm sure she'll be willing to teach you too!"

"Neat," Aang the Avatar of war said, trying to sound enthusiastic. Truth be told, he was itching to learn earth or fire bending – what little of water-bending Katara had taught him was enough for him now. However, apparently the Avatar of peace had wanted to learn water bending.

"Come," Katara said smiling. "I should introduce you to her. I'm sure she's going to be really honored to not only met but teach the Avatar."