Chapter 2

Doran watched Katara out of the corner of his eye, as Appa sore through the air towards the earth kingdom. Her beauty had distracted him since Appa first took off from the stream. They had landed a couple of times for her to teach Aang waterbending, and he worked with unlocking the new talent. He often thought of what life would be like if he stayed here with her, and if she cared for him the way he cared for her.

"Katara, we're out of food again," complained Sokka and shook the supply bag.

"Sokka, this is the third time we've had to stop for food in two weeks, have you been sneaking midnight snacks again?" asked Katara accusingly.

"Nooo! It's Momo, he's trying to frame me!" exclaimed Sokka pointing at the small flying lemur.

Momo looked at sokka blankly and cocked his head to one side.

Doran laughed quietly to himself, and suggested, " I can see a town down there, most towns have markets do they not."

"Yes, but we're out of money," said Katara, looking into the money pouch.

"Then I'll get a job and get the money we need for food."

"Just don't go on a fishing trip," said Sokka.

"All right Sokka," said Doran laughing silently again.

Aang had Appa fly down into a near by forest clearing, and the group walked into the town. As they walked into the town through the front gate, and found that there was nobody in the streets despite the time of day.

"Where is everybody?" Asked Aang, looking around the immediate area.

"Oh no," muttered Doran and ran down the street toward the center of town.

"Doran!" yelled Katara as she started to move after, " where are you going?"

Aang and Sokka were forced to follow them to the center of town. As they entered the town square, they stopped and saw Doran kneeling at the base of a pile of bodies that were missing massive amounts of body parts and chunks of flesh.

"Who could have done this?" asked Katara looking in horror at the bodies.

"Not even Fire Nation would kill this many people in could blood," said Sokka, looking at the bodies for signs of who did it. " There's no scorch marks and the blood is still leaking out of some of them, I've never heard of Fire Nation soldiers acting like this."

"No, this wasn't Fire Nation, it was me," said Doran, looking at his hands and shook his head.

"This wasn't your fault Doran, and you were with us the entire time since we found you," said Katara solemnly and placed a caring hand on his shoulder.

"Yes it was Katara, I provided the tool for this to happen," he said rising.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Just as there are multiple universes and worlds, there are multiple copies of me. In a previous universe, I encountered one of these copies. Being so early in my exile, I thought he was exactly like me, and he asked me to build him one of these swords. I did so. He then turned on me, and I had to run to the next universe that he fallowed me too within the next week. He killed several people there, including a copy of my mother. I've moved from universe to universe trying to keep him from killing any more people. But he's bested me at every turn. I will never make another one of these swords," said Doran looking down at the hilt. He catches a hint of motion out of the corner of his eye and looks up to see a mirror image of himself creeping towards the others. He dove at them and pushed them all to the ground as the sword flashed above their heads. He rolled off of them, jumped up, drew his sword and dropped into a shallow defensive stance, and yelled, "RUN!"

They jumped up and ran towards where they had left Appa.

"Why is it that you always get the prettiest girls in every dimension?" asked the other Doran with an evil smile.

"She's not mine, no man can own any other being. But if you mean how do I get girls to care for me, it's a good guy thing," said Doran, locking his eyes with his twin.

"Good is a point of view, I view myself as good, but you view me as evil," retorted the other.

Doran had grown tired of his copies constant tries to lure him into a sense of false security. Using a power from another world, clones of him began appearing in a circle around the copy. They said in unison, "It's time you left reality!" and they all jumped at him, slashing downward at the copies head. But when they were about to make contact, the copy vanished and the clones cut themselves down rather than hitting the copy.

"That's the one problem with fighting yourself, you can't do anything with out the other knowing what's going to happen next," said the voice starting to fade away, " until we meet again my ignorant friend."

At that moment, Appa rose above the buildings and landed next to the mound of bodies. Sokka ran down Appa's tail towards Doran. "Where is he, I'll beat him to death!"

"Hahahaha, calm yourself Sokka, he's gone, which is probably for the best, he would have killed you, not the other way around," laughed Doran as he walked over tone of the more intact citizens and started feeling in the pockets.

"What are you doing?" asked Katara, looking at Doran with curiosity.

"Checking him for money, I'm going to check them all, then we'll bury them."

"Looting from the dead, isn't that bad?" asked Aang with a doubtful look on his face.

"It can be considered immoral, but that's only if you don't give them a proper burial. I plan to bury them all after I've removed any thing of value," he said counting three silver pieces. He had also found a small piece of parchment with his name on it: Mason. Doran moved his hands in an intricate manner and tapped into another power. A small orb of light appeared in front of him, and slowly shaped it into a square headstone reading, " Here lies Mason, may his soul rest in piece." He continued this, laying the bodies in front of their corresponding headstones. Some of them did not have ids, and not hose head stones he put, "Unknown, Rest in piece." It took him a couple of hours to sort through the bodies and make the headstones. By the end, his hands were covered in their blood; he had nine silver pieces, twenty copper pieces, and five gold pieces. Most of the people were carrying no money, but had some jewelry and weapons that could be worth some money. He then found several huge barrels full of water, broke the top of them with his fists, and waterbended the water under the bodies and removing the dirt allowing the bodies to gently sink to the bottom of a six foot deep, three foot across rectangular hole. After he was sure each one was properly placed at the bottom of the hole, he pulled the water out of the holes, and used it to deposit more dirt on top of the bodies and push the headstones into place.

Through out all of this, none had spoken a word. Doran silently washed his hands of the blood in the barrels and climbed back onto Appa's back. He handed Katara the money and curled up into a ball on the far side of the basket. Aang only spoke to Appa once while they were still on the ground, observing the reverence of the ceremony, and they flew onward 'till the town was long behind them.