Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or 'Dance, Dance' by Fallout Boy. I highly recommend their album 'From Under the Cork Tree.'

A/N: Due to the overwhelming response to the previous chapter, I've decided to post this early. Thanks so much to everyone! Btw, Katara-12, Zuko-14. Still a maybe-AU, bit of OOC, I guess. Yes, it means exactly that.

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I'm two quarters and a heart down
And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds
These words are all I have so I write them
You need them just to get by…

"…something's happened in the capital, with the royal family, I think, so it's the best time to launch an attack." Her father elaborated as he helped Gran-gran pack supplies for the men during their journey.

"But why can't I come?" Sokka whined. "I've been training with Uncle Dred and Jericho to be a warrior! I want to fight too!"

"Sokka…" their father gave him a stern look. "You're too young, simply put."

"But Maging and Basta are coming too! And they're my age!" He protested.

"Maging is nine months older than you, and Basta's fourteen, the legal age for battle. If you were closer to that age, like Maging is, maybe I'll let you come along. But even if you were…

"There's a very small possibility I'm taking you with me."

"Why?"

"Sokka…" he put a hand on his 13-year-old son's shoulder. "Listen carefully to me. You and Katara are all I have left, and I'm not even going to risk losing you two. You're going to be the eldest male around now, so I'm expecting you to be act like a mature adult and be responsible. You have to take care of the tribe, Sokka. You have to grow up and be a man. Will you do that, son?"

"Fine," Sokka grumbled.

"Will you get me a new ribbon?" Katara asked impassively, after watching the argument between her father and Sokka without noise.

Her father sighed. "Katara…"

"Yes?"

"These are perilous times right now. Everything we're doing is for survival, but…" He halted in mid-speech upon seeing those sapphire eyes well treacherously with tears (albeit crocodile ones). Where had he seen them before? He rubbed across his face with a hand.

"Okay, I'll try to get that ribbon for you…" Never mind telling her that he might take years to be away from them.

"Will you buy a red one, Baba?"

"A red one? How so?" Never mind to say that he might die in the war.

"Well, aren't you going to the Fire Nation?" Said without contempt. "I heard from Nevasa that red, black and gold are the only colors they have there, and I like red better than the other two."

(Black for smoke and darkness, gold for wealth and greed, red for blood and death…)

"Okay. I'll look for a red ribbon. Sokka? You want anything?"

"A boomerang. The ones I carve are sloppy, and I need to copy the designs."

"Alright then. A ribbon for Katara and a boomerang for Sokka." He leaned in to kiss their foreheads. Never mind that this might be the last time he'll do this.

"So long, my dears. I love you." An embrace from Gran-gran. He opened the flap of the tent to the raging blizzard outside, packages hanging from his back.

"Don't wait up for me." A wink. Never mind that he might never be coming back.

Later…

As she slipped into dreamland that fateful night, the surroundings weren't the eternal autumn she had gotten used to. It was raining heavily, the drops slapping unto her hard and blurring what was right in front of her. The fall trees were being uprooted by the fierce gales, and the sky was a miasma of crimson and silver, with the occasional swift flashes of lightning, followed by roaring thunder.

'What's going on?' She thought as she hugged herself, drenched and cold, taking bold steps forward to find the firebender.

"Where are you?" Her voice didn't stand a chance against the chorus of the storm. Then, amidst the bellows of the tempest, she heard him, unmistakably him. She darted toward the sound, holding on to it for endurance in the merciless squall.

He was down on his hands and knees, one hand covering his face, his body racked with angry sobs.

"A fool… an accident, failure…" Was all she could make out. She rushed to him and stooped to his level, a hand on his back. At the feel of the contact he shoved her backwards, already on his feet, a hand still at the left part of his face. She could've sworn the skin underneath was blackened…

"Leave!" He barked, livid, with the rain pouring down on both of them. "Just… go away!"

"I don't…"

"Can't you see? I'm done with all this! It's over!" Thunder boomed, loud and apparent.

"Why is--?" She was cut off again.

"My throne, my honor, my country… I've lost them all!" The rain was as furious as his voice, and that was all she heard when he opened his mouth.

"Please, let me…"

He stared down at her, glowering all the way. "You want to see?" Mocking now. "Don't you value your freedom at all?"

With that, he withdrew his hand, and a horrified gasp slipped from her lips. Thunder rumbled, and lightning illuminated his misshapen features. Where there was once smooth, porcelain skin was a large scorched mark, black as soot, where blood and pus oozed from the damaged tissue. Once-kind hazel eyes glared with a vicious hatred and fury, though she doubted it was caused, nor directed, only at her.

Harsh wind whipped her hair around her face. "What happ--?"

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened!" He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her, though not only physically.

"I'll tell you a story, you stupid girl! There was once a little boy who believed in dreams and hope and justice, and one day, he made a mistake! HE SPOKE OUT OF TURN!" He howled the sentence in her face. His expression rivaled the ones of demons Gran-gran fabricated in midnight tales, and his golden eyes were ablaze with something so dark it made her recoil in fear. That, combined with the revolting burn that extended to his left ear and nearly closed one eye, made him more terrifying than anything she'd ever seen before.

"He only had his nation's best interest at heart! And where does that get him? HE WAS BANISHED, LIKE A STREET RAT!"

She couldn't understand, though it wasn't really her fault. "Please, I can…"

"What? Help me?" Where those tears, or just the rain? "I am beyond help. The only thing that can redeem me is that damned Avatar…" The last word was said so lowly she couldn't hear it.

"But, no matter…" He let go of her and began to walk away, just as the storm began to settle. "At the very least, I now know that dreaming is for fools…"

"Wait…!" She ran to catch up. "Does this mean…?"

He whirled around, and only now did she notice that he was far bigger than her now, and when he grasped her wrists she felt the heat of the fire in his blood, through his veins (dangerous)…

"Yes, it means exactly that."

"But, you said…" her eyes hurt from too much crying, too much crying…

"I said what? That I'll stay, forever? Well, let me tell you something else: FOREVER ISN'T REAL!"

She couldn't bear to meet his gaze. "You promised that…"

"Promises are for the weak-minded."

He dropped her again, leaving and fading, fading…

And then he was gone; and then the storm subsided, leaving the destruction in its wake.

The best part of believe is always the lie.

Dance, dance
We're falling apart to half time
Dance, dance
And these are the lives you love to lead
Dance, this is the way they'd look
If they knew how misery loved me…

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A/N: My take. Don't sue me. Epilogue coming up, but only if you

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