This one might be just a little messed up. I finally caught episodes 19 and 20 and had to rewrite a lot of my story, but I did go backover it. If I messed something up, just tell me. Some things may not make sense, but meh..Now, read! XD
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"Zuko, please don't struggle!" Katara yelled through the pirates.
"I won't let them hurt you!" he yelled back, but stopped struggling anyway.
The captain walked up between them, that creepy parrot sitting on his shoulder mocking them. "I knew tha two of ya would end up together," he started. "You were all too nice to her last time, Prince Zuko."
Katara jerked forward against the ropes that tied her against the tree. She hated it when they did that to her, rope burn hurt. "LET us GO!" she yelled, still jerking against the ropes. The pirates were too busy to notice the waves everytime she did that. She didn't even notice them.
"What do you want?" Zuko asked in a low voice, almost too low for Katara to hear and she was only five feet away from him.
"I got what I want. I have your little Avatar friend and the banished Prince of the Fire Nation. I'm sure the Firelord will pay a hefty sum for the likes o' you two. More than enough to replace that waterbending scroll that yer little girlfriend stole all those months ago."
Katara looked around when he mentioned Aang and saw him standing at the edge of the sand in shock. She was about to yell for him to run when she saw the other pirates walking up behind him with Iroh. They grabbed both of them by the shoulders and pushed them forward, bringing the little group back together on the beach. Another pirate came trailing behind them carrying Momo by the ears. Wait, she thought, where's Sokka?
"Where's my brother!" she yelled at the captain, still jerking her ropes. "If you did ANYTHING to him, you'll PAY!" The waves were getting bigger, the clouds all around were being pulled in to that island. It made sense because clouds are made of water, they found that out a while back on their trip when Aang dived into them, but she still didn't notice. She never notices anything when her temper is up. "Let us GO!" Another big wave. That one, a couple of the pirates noticed.
"Dear child, now what would I do that for? All me money is in yer two friends here." He pointed to Zuko and Aang. "I can't just be lettin'em off so easy, now could I?"
"Let them GO or I SWEAR I'll get free and TAKE them BACK MYSELF!" This time a really big wave hit the beach and everyone noticed, except for Katara of course. Something strange was happening to her though. When Zuko looked up to see her big blue eyes, they weren't blue anymore.. they were gold. Almost the same shade as Zuko's amber eyes. "I can do a LOT more damage to you than ANYONE you've ever been up against!" More tugging against the ropes, bigger waves everytime. Now the clouds that had come for their master were growing dark, rain starting to pour from them in sheets immediately soaking everyone, but still Katara didn't notice. "NO ONE messes with MY friends and gets AWAY WITH IT!" Lightening struck nearby, the clouds started to swirl making the wind pick up into a hurricane. The waves were getting so big they were about to swallow the poor island.
Aang looked around, completely unaware of how this was all happening, then looked at Katara and noticed her eye color too. Something was happening, Katara's own form of Aang's "Avatar State" perhaps. But where was she getting the wind? he wondered. He looked up at the swirling clouds and guessed that her moving the clouds was causing it. He looked at her face as she continued yelling at the captain and realized that she was the only one not getting drenched, and she didn't look a bit aware of what was happening! How is she doing this? he asked himself. He looked back at Iroh, who was just as stunned as he was. He had to help somehow. While everyone was busy watching Katara in fear, Aang drew in a deep breath through his nose so he wouldn't breath in the rainwater, and blew. A big gust of wind knocked the captain so far that one of Katara's waves attacked him and pulled him under.
"Do you really want her to make this any worse?" He yelled at the pirates over the storm. They all looked at him and shook their heads immediately. "Then let us go now! You saw what happened to your captain! Unless you want the same fate, you'll let us go!"
They all looked at each other, then took off towards their ship on the other side of the island in a hurry. The storm was still going, Katara's eyes still an amazing shade of gold. Of course it was still going, Zuko thought, she didn't even know it was going on. He stood up fast, burning off the ropes around his hands, and ran the few steps over to her. "Katara!" He put his wet hands on her face and made her face him. "Katara, are you doing this!" He was trying to yell over the storm. Nothing was happening. He thought maybe if he kissed her, it would snap her out of it so he went for it. Suddenly her eyes faded slowly back to their normal soft blue, and so did the sky. He untied the ropes behind her and she fell to her knees, exhausted. "Katara, are you okay?" She looked up at a soaked Zuko.
"What happened? Why are you guys wet?" She looked around and saw that she was the only dry thing on the island. "Where are the pirates? Where is Sokka?" She looked confused and scared, but Zuko sat down next to her and held her. Then she passed out.
Sokka came running out of the trees near where Aang and Iroh stood. "Okay, does someone want to explain that? There were pirates, I was hiding to try to take some of them out, then a storm came out of nowhere and they left. Freak storm? Or is there an explanation?"
Aang looked over at Sokka, shocked and confused. "That was all Katara"
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When Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee reached the top of the mountains they had been climbing, Azula almost burned it up with her flames. There was nothing on the other side but more ocean.
"OOH, where did they go!" Azula screamed through clenched teeth. Mai turned and started back down the mountain. "Where are you going?"
"Well, since there's nothing up there, there's really only one direction to look now."
Ty Lee agreed with her, "We know the ocean is in front of us and on our left, behind us are mountains that we've already been through, so the only direction left for us to go is way off to our right."
"Yeah, that's where all the.." Mai stopped short as she noticed that all the clouds were headed that way, not just the ones from their direction but the ones way far away. They were all headed for one spot way to the right of them, where they were now headed.
"Where all the.. what?" Ty Lee asked.
Azula noticed them just as Mai stopped short. "The clouds. What's happening?"
"What are you- oh.." Ty Lee trailed off as she looked up and saw them.
"Come on girls," Azula pushed on. "We have a way to go still."
Going down the mountain was a lot easier than going up, so they were back at the bottom in no time. Now Azula they had to do was shoot a little fire and their ostrich horses would run and they'd make good time, perhaps reaching the place the clouds were going in the same day. They didn't know what was happening, but they were going to find out. Surely it had something to do with the Avatar's little group. They were hauling through the plains following the clouds, but they weren't fast enough. They were still a little ways off from the ocean and the village that had been very busy earlier today whenever the clouds stopped.
"Hey look," Ty Lee pointed to the sky, "they stopped."
Azula and Mai looked up and the clouds just sat there, not moving. "I wonder what happened?" Mai asked.
"We don't even know why they did that, why is it strange that they stopped?" Azula pointed out.
"We should keep in that direction anyway, there might be something there." Ty Lee said as Azula shot another flame and took off again, the other girls following.
They didn't make it to the town by the end of the day, so they camped near the river they had been following. They didn't know that they were right outside the town, but they were tired and had to sleep soon. They made a little fire, ate whatever food they had gotten from the last town, and passed out, not knowing how close they were to their goal.
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After Katara woke up and everyone explained to her and Sokka what had happened, it was nearly dark. They both still had a lot of questions, but were wore out. Aang and Sokka started to set up camp there, still talking about it. Zuko had Katara in his arms, she was shaking pretty badly from earlier. It had taken a lot out of her and she needed to eat soon. Iroh was out looking for Momo, who had run off when the pirates dropped him. Appa was just laying on the beach, still a little wet but he was relaxed.
"Gold? But.. how?" Katara was asking Zuko.
"I have no idea, but they were almost the same shade as my eyes. Not quite as dark though."
"I don't even remember it happening," she was still going on.
"I've only ever seen power like that whenever Aang goes into his Avatar State. When I noticed what was happening, I thought it was him but I looked at him and he looked just as surprised as me. I looked up at you and thought it was impossible, but it wasn't. You are probably the greatest waterbender I know now, but you can't even remember it. Well, actually you were great before that when you beat me in the North Pole."
"I think I need to talk to my Gran Gran, maybe she'll know what's happening to me."
"Well, I think right now you need to eat," Sokka said, walking over to her with food. "That was amazing and I want to find out what happened just as much as you do, but right now we have to get your strength back up. We're sleeping here tonight and we're off in the morning."
Katara nodded in agreement. "Can we start heading back for the South Pole, though? I really need to talk to Gran Gran, maybe even Master Pakku if he's still there."
Aang looked over at her, his eyes still confused about what happened. "Yeah, we might actually be safer there anyway. We'll head out at first light tomorrow in case someone wants to come check out what happened."
Iroh came walking back to camp with Momo on his shoulder, ready to go to sleep. He had been looking for him for a while and was really tired. "I had almost given up and assumed the pirates took him before I found him hiding in the trees."
Momo saw Aang and jumped over to him, right up to his head. "Hey Momo," Aang said quietly. He really didn't know what to think about Katara's storm. He was happy that her bending has improved.. no, improved is an understatement. Dramatically increased is better, but still not good enough to describe it. He was just wondering how she could do all of that, especially when just a few months ago he was better than her. And the storm happened with her hands tied down! That's what a waterbender uses to move their element, but all she did was jerk herself against her ropes and a whole storm came to her command!
"Aang, are you okay?" Katara asked suddenly, making him jump a little.
"Yeah, I was just trying to figure out what happened," he said before jumping up on Appa to get his sleeping bag.
"Hopefully that's what we're going back home to figure out," Sokka said.
"Yeah," Katara yawned after she finished her dinner. She laid down in her sleeping bag and went to sleep almost instantly. Zuko sat next to her for a little while, watching her sleep. He pulled something out of his pocket and started carving into it with a dagger he kept in his boot. He had gotten some paints while he was in the last town and after everyone had gone to sleep, he painted the thing he had been carving. Then he laid down next to Katara, his head touching hers.
The next morning, Iroh and Zuko were up just before the sun and packing up what they could until everyone else got up. Right before the sun touched the water, they woke everyone and got things packed quickly. By the time the sun peeked over the horizon, they were already off for Sokka and Katara's home in the South Pole.
This time Sokka drove Appa. He wanted to give Aang a break from all the driving he's been doing the last few days. Aang sat next to Iroh and talked about what his next lesson is going to involve and, as usual, Katara and Zuko sat next to each other. No one said anything about Katara's new appearance, they had wanted her to discover it herself. Katara had her face buried in Zuko's chest, still thinking about the day before. She couldn't get it out of her head. She tried, she shook her head a little but felt something weird. She shook her head again and felt it again. It was on her neck. Slowly her hand traveled to the spot she felt it. Iroh watched with a smile as she felt what it was.
Her necklace. Her eyes got wide and her heart skipped a beat as soon as her fingers touched the smooth stone and traveled to the ribbon it was hanging from. Zuko unfastened it for her in the back and she looked it over. It wasn't her mother's.It was the one he had promised her. The stone was red and blue, fire and water. The colors were in a yin-yang shape, half of the Water Tribe symbol on the blue side, the other side with half of the Fire Nation symbol. The ribbon it was on was purple, the color red and blue make when they come together. It was perfect.
"I know I was banished from the Fire Nation, but that is who I am and who I will be again when all this is over," Zuko said, watching Katara trace the Fire Nation symbol with her fingers. "With you by my side, we can rule it together and make the world right again."
She looked up at him, a big smile on her face. "It's beautiful. I love it." She hugged him probably harder than she ever had before. "Thank you."
Iroh reached out for the piece, which Katara gladly handed him. "Is this what you stayed up half the night making?"
He hugged her again. "Only for her."
"That's what I was hoping to hear," Iroh smiled. He studied the necklace with great interest before handing it back to its new owner. "It is very beautiful. Fit for a queen, you might say." Iroh chuckled at his little joke.
Sokka finally spoke up in the front, "I think we're out of Earth Kingdom waters. We only have a couple stops left until we're at the South Pole. Are there any troops that you know of at the Air Temple? That's our next stop, we could stay there tonight if it's free."
Zuko looked up. "Not since the first battle there that I know of. We could fly over and see, but I'm not completely sure."
"Let's hope not," Aang finally looked up. "That's where I grew up, I'd hate to have to destroy it fighting to get them back out."
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Azula and her crew were up at dawn. They only had to travel a little ways to get to the small town on the coast, but they traveled quickly to see if they could see the Avatar flying away anywhere. They had just missed them again. When they got to the town, the people were watching them. There were only a few soldiers that she could see so she called a couple over for questioning.
"Was he here?" That was all she had to say.
"Yesterday. There was trouble here and we recognized him almost immediately." Azula glared at him as he spoke, wondering how it could've been 'almost' immediately with a big arrow on his head. "We almost didn't recognize him without his scar-"
"Wait, what?"
The soldier started off slow, figuring maybe he said something wrong, "I said, we almost didn't recognize him without his scar?"
"Zuko? Without his scar! What about the Avatar!"
"We didn't see him, but we did see his animal flying away right after Prince Zuko and the Water Tribe kids ran off. We think he is hurt."
"How so?"
"When he was running away, he slipped and we think he hurt, if not broke, his arm.. and maybe his leg as well. His girlfriend helped him up and they took off before we could catch them."
"Wait, they slipped and you still didn't catch them?"
"The, uh, boy in the Water Tribe clothes kind of knocked us in the head with his boomerang.. really hard. It took us a minute to get our vision back, but by then they were taking off in the air on that bison."
"You IMBUSILS! You are a disgrace to the Fire Nation!" Flames jumped out on her fists, ready to attack one of them.
"Th- there was a disturbance on that island over there after they left here!" one of the soldiers butted in, trying to save his skin.
"Is that where the clouds were going yesterday? That island?"
"Yes. We managed to catch a glimpse of a pirate ship heading over there right before the storm, but right before it ended it looked like they were fleeing. It was strange because it was only over that little bit of island. It came on so fast and left even faster and didn't go anywhere else. We have a boat over there now checking the island for signs of those kids."
"Those kids have the Avatar with them. He's gotten too powerful already, judging by what you've told me. My father won't be pleased with this news. I assign you the job of delivering it to him. Did anyone see anything flying away from the island this morning?"
"One person did. An old fisherman. He said it looked like they were heading south."
"I know where they're going.. you can tell my father he is safe for now and I am closing in on his trail as well. Now go, both of you! Tell him what we've discussed here, nothing more, nothing less! Make sure to include my brother's scar." She grinned her famous evil grin.
"Yes, Princess Azula!"
She watched as they took off, surely to be destroyed by Firelord Ozai once they told him the news. She had to smile at that. She looked towards the remaining soldiers. "We'll need a ship.. NOW!" She smiled as they scattered to get a ship ready for her. Luckily they had a Fire Navy ship ready in case of emergencies and she ordered the soldiers to go with her and her friends as her crew. They dared not argue with the daughter of the firelord. They were off in no time, heading straight for the South Pole.
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Sokka, don't leave me! Zuko, Aang, someone help! Come on, Sokka. Open your eyes, you can't leave me! It'll be okay, you'll be okay, please hold on! Someone help me!
Katara jumped up, startling everyone. Zuko grabbed her shoulders to calm her down and she wipped around, a scared look on her face.
"Whoa, easy. It was just a dream. Calm down."
Katara was still breathing hard, looking around. "When did I fall asleep?"
"Not long after we left the island. You've been out most of the day, I'm guessing yesterday's deed left you more wiped out then we all thought." He tried to smile at her, but saw the fear in her eyes that still lingered from her dream. "What was it?"
"I.. I don't know. I know it was just a dream, but.." she looked up in front of her. Iroh and Aang were looking at her concerned, Sokka was too busy driving to notice that anything even happened. She crawled over to him, Iroh and Aang moving out of the way, and hugged him. It caught him completely by surprise and he jumped, but she had him too tight for him to go anywhere.
"Okay, what happened to you?"
She kissed him on the head. "Thanks for being a great brother, Sokka. I just wanted to tell you that. I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to you."
He patted her on the head and smiled. "Thanks Katara. If it wasn't for your storm, I don't know where we'd be right now.. even if you didn't know you were doing it." He laughed a little, making her laugh. They all thought that was a wonderful sound right about then. She crawled back over to Zuko with a tear in her eye. She was still a little shaken up over her dream, but she was happy right then. He grabbed her face and turned it towards him, wiping away the tear.
"Don't let them see your weakness." She smiled, then leaned into his chest with his arm around her and tried to fight sleep.. but it was still calling her.
Aang and Iroh were talking among themselves again. "When we get to the Air Temple, I know the perfect place to practice."
"Is that so?" Iroh said with a familiar tone of voice, the one he always used when Zuko used to tell him he was ready for the next move before he really was.
"Yeah! There's a balcony where me and my friends used to play. They invented a game there with an airbending trick I made up and showed them.. I wasn't allowed to play it though."
"Why not? It was your trick that they were using."
"After I showed them the trick, I was called to speak to the council. That's when they told me I was the Avatar. They said they normally don't tell them until they're 16, but they feared war was brewing and they needed to start my training right away. After that, I went back out to play with my friends again but they wouldn't let me because they thought it would be unfair to the team I played against."
"But you had just found out, there was no way you could've known your other elements then."
"That's what I thought at the time, but I didn't want to push them."
"What happened?"
"The head monks wanted to send me off to the EasternAir Templeto start training, but I didn't want to go. I didn't want that responsibility yet. I'm 12 years old! I just wanted to be a kid, I didn't ask to be the Avatar. Anyway, I ran away. I took Appa and headed south, right into a storm. A big wave buried me and Appa and I guess I went into Avatar State and formed an iceburg around us, keeping us alive until Katara and Sokka found us over 100 years later. I found out soon after that the Fire Nation attacked the Air Temple right after after I left and killed everyone."
"That's terrible. I understand why you left, but don't feel bad about it. You could've died right along with the other airbenders if you had stayed. Do you see how happy Katara is? She never would've met him if it weren't for you." Aang looked down at that, but Iroh continued. "She never would've met you either. For all we know, she would still be stuck in the South Pole with her brother. She never would've learned from Master Pakku in the North Pole, she never would've seen Omashu or met your friend King Bumi, she would probably be miserable. You have changed her life, and the lives of everyone you've come in contact with. You are a miracle to this world, and their last hope."
"Wow," he said, "I never thought about all that." He looked over at Katara, who you could tell was fighting sleep. I wonder how her dream was so horrible she's still fighting sleep? he thought. How is she still sleepy? When I go into Avatar State, I'm only weak for a few minutes. She's been sleeping almost the whole time since yesterday's storm. Maybe something's wrong.
"Aang, are you okay?" Iroh asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I think maybe something is wrong with Katara.. I mean, besides the whole 'storm' thing yesterday. She's been sleeping almost the whole time since then and she's still falling asleep over there, but she's fighting it."
"I guess the sooner we get to the South Pole, the sooner we'll know, hopefully."
"Does anyone else see those clouds in front of us?" Sokka asked the guys that were sitting behind him.
"Oh no, it's happening again," Aang said, his eyes even wider than normal. He looked at Katara but she was sleeping, then looked at Zuko with a question in his eyes. He was watching ahead of them, probably seeing the clouds before Sokka pointed them out.
"I don't know, she's asleep. What's happening?" He wanted to go up front with them to watch it, but he couldn't leave her.
"Maybe it's a real storm this time," Iroh thought out loud.
"It doesn't look like one. All the clouds are gathering up again." Aang started to get worried, but calmed a little when he thought that maybe he could use his own waterbending skills to make it through the storm. Splitting big waves, maybe trying to calm them down some. He already tried to fight the storm, to push it away, but it wasn't having that. "Sokka, do you think we can go around it?"
"Are you sure it won't follow us?" he almost yelled as thunder rolled in the nearing storm.
"We'll just have to see!"
Zuko just sat and watched as Appa turned to change course slightly. The storm was following them. He looked down at Katara and his stomach flipped. "Um, I think you guys might want to see this!" They all turned around and looked at the strand of hair he was holding. It was Katara's. It was gold. "She's doing this in her sleep!"
"Well, wake her up!" Sokka yelled as they entered the storm, all of them instantly getting drenched again except Katara.
"We don't know what could happen, it might be dangerous!" Zuko watched in horror as more streaks of Katara's long brown hair turned to gold and the storm got worse. "But it may be all of our lives at risk here. I'm going to try it!" He tried whispering in her ear, but of course that didn't work. Then tried shaking her shoulder a little. No luck. Then he got out from underneath her to sit in front of her. He took her face in his hands and tried yelling her name. Still nothing. Then he kissed her, hoping that would bring something again. Unfortunately it did.
Her gold eyes popped open as lightening struck nearby. Zuko let go of her, turned to his uncle and yelled, "That can't have been her, lightening is firebending!"
"Maybe it's just the clouds then!" he yelled back. "Maybe she dragged regular storm clouds over here!"
She sat up by herself, Zuko backing off a litte still calling her name. Iroh got up on his knees, arms facing the sky at an angle, preparing to defend them from the next bolt of lightening. Katara was staring straight ahead, not saying anything. She slowly started looking up towards the sky. No one knew what she was doing, but they were unable to take their eyes off of her. While everyone was staring at her, the biggest wave any of them would've ever seen, had they been looking, hit them head on and pulled them under.
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I hoped you liked this one. Ha! Another cliffhanger! Mwahaha! Tell me if anything is messed up, like I said. Thanks for reading and please try to review:)
One more question. Was the ocean spirit's name La? I wasn't sure about that.. but the next chapter will be up soon! Gotta leave ya hangin' again.. Mwahaha!
Jenn, waterbending master of the south