After witnessing the absolute disaster and tragedy that Jet and Zhao caused, they spent the next few days flying trying to find some place they could stop and retrieve supplies that could help close the wound that Kyojuro had acquired. Zuko, using his firebending, tried to forcibly cauterize the wound, but that did very little to calm the nerves of Katara who vehemently argued that he needed a proper healer. A village would have the supplies they needed and if they had to fly nonstop until they reached one then so be it.

"Katara, you should get some rest," Aang tried. "It'll be sun up soon."

"I'm fine," She barked back, not even realizing her tone sounded so sharp. Aang immediately knew she was lying and extremely on edge, but felt it would be wrong to ask her to stop looking after him when she was this worried about him.

"Well...just let me know if you're tired and we can switch. I just want you to make sure you're ok."

"Thanks, but I'm fine. I can keep watch until we reach a village that can help him," Katara responded once again, not taking her eyes off of him.

Kyojuro himself, hadn't so much as moved since being stabbed and his breathing felt very shallow which scared Katara even more than she already was. She felt like he could slip away from her at any moment so she personally kept watch over him while everyone else got some sleep. Kyojuro's weakened state reminded her of the way her mother looked when she found her after having her life snuffed out by that fire nation soldier.

After awakening from being knocked out, Sokka himself had been uncharacteristically quiet which was a stark contrast to how he normally behaves. While his mind primarily focused on Kyojuro's wellbeing, the losses he continued to rack up did no favors to his mental health. He was supposed to be Kyojuro's right hand man when it came to fighting and somehow, he felt like he was holding him back in the long run. Although he'd known the man for over two years at this point, he'd never seen him even close to going all out and had the feeling that the difference between them wasn't normal. It felt otherworldly at times and the fact that someone like Suki had taken to Total Concentration Breathing faster and more efficiently than he did puzzled the boy greatly.

"What am I doing wrong?" Laying alongside the saddle with his feet propped up, he glanced at the moon still determined to get stronger. Hearing all those people die still haunted his dreams so he figured it'd better to stay awake for now. The screams followed by rushing water submerging them...to say that it affected him greatly would be underselling it by a lot.

"If I wasn't so weak, none of this would have happened. Maybe we could've stopped Jet and Zhao from breaking the dam if we were just a little faster…" Then again who knows how things would've turned out even if they knew what was going to happen. Sokka was one punched into the ground and Kyojuro was taken out by a weird looking knife. Maybe nothing they could've done differently would have mattered. The one thing he could agree on was that he needed to get stronger so a tragedy like this never occurs again. He'd make sure of it the next time they ran into someone like that.

Flying for a few more hours, Katara was the first to notice a small village along the outskirts of the now rising sunrise and glowed at the prospect of finally being able to heal the man who she looked upon as an older brother besides her actual one. "Aang, there's a village ahead of us! I'm sure they have supplies that can help us heal, Kyojuro!"

Rubbing his eyes, Aang saw the village too and soon became determined to get them there as quickly as possible, "Right!"

"Sokka, wake up Zuko and tell him to get ready. The moment we land we all need to move as quickly as possible in order to get him the help he needs," Katara said. Looking at how pale he was, she swallowed a gulp and readied herself to do whatever it took to save him. She wouldn't keep sitting on the sidelines while things continued to go wrong.

Darkness.

He opened his eyes and shot up in a rush. Looking around and not being able to see sucked, but not being able to feel your surroundings didn't help matters in the slightest. "What's going on? Where am I?"

Kyojuro didn't know where he was nor how he got there, but the only thing he could see and feel was absolute darkness. It wasn't evil or anything of the sort, but it wasn't what was supposed to be here he could tell.

More importantly, his mind while still a jumbled mess was clearly bringing itself back together and when he remembered how his miscalculations caused an entire village of people their lives, his heart shattered and his expression fell. "I...I messed up. All those innocent lives…" He was angry. Angry at himself for the massive failure. Angry at the boy who orchestrated the entire event. Angry at the fire nation for even messing with the boy so much that he felt he had to produce something like that to make a difference.

But most of all, he felt tired. There were still demons running amok and someone had to clean it up. Of course that was going to be him. Fatigue wouldn't stop the Flame Pillar and it definitely wouldn't keep him down for long. He tried to focus his breathing and felt nothing coming from within himself.

"Oh right. I got stabbed by the boy." He placed a hand over his wound and immediately noticed how...blocked it felt. Something was wrong. Whatever he'd been stabbed with was strong enough to instantly block his use of Total Concentration Breathing.

Maybe it was his instincts screaming at him or maybe it was common sense, but he doubted a poison of some kind could've done that to him as quickly as it did. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say a Blood Demon Art was at play. I can't be sure, but I know for a fact I would've dispelled poison from my body using my Breath!"

"The moment I got stabbed it felt like my body started closing in on itself and shutting down without much buildup. No poison could ever do that to me."

Deciding he'd recover and find some answers on his own, he needed to get out of this dark place and return back to the physical world. Although he didn't even really understand how he got here in the first place. This definitely wasn't Agni's domain, but it also felt familiar.

"Rengoku-san."

He turned and tried to see who called his name as it was jet black and he could not even see his own body. "Agni? Is that you?"

"Yes and I implore you to listen to what I have to say. Our time is limited and the forces that I felt from our last time speaking to each other has grown even stronger. I thought it was something insignificant and something I, myself, would be able to handle."

"I was wrong. Because of my own arrogance, so many others have lost their lives to these...demons."

"So they really are here…" Kyojuro frowned knowing the truth, but was also grateful. He now knew what he had to do and destroying any traces of these creatures would be his goal from this day forward in this world.

"The jet black darkness you see and feel around you has completely clouded my entire domain up and has blocked me from directly interfering with the physical world. I don't understand how this happened, but as it stands unless you are able to become healed by another source, I cannot help you as it currently stands."

"Wait, so doesn't that mean-"

"Yes, it means you are not only trapped here, but your breathing techniques have been completely sealed."

"Seriously!?" Kyojuro couldn't see himself, but felt his face frown at the thought of being trapped here until someone was able to heal him.

"That's not all. Whatever it was you were stabbed with contained trace amounts of an unknown liquid even I have no knowledge on. That is the source of your breathing becoming blocked which led to your body failing you."

"You should thank the stars that those pupils of yours are so quick witted because had they not managed to stop the bleeding, you'd have died and your journey would have ended once again."

Kyojuro kicked himself yet again when trying to imagine the sheer panic they must've been in seeing him in such a state.

"The final thing I need to speak to you about is whatever caused this incident in the first place. It was shrouded in darkness and far too powerful for me to deal with on my own, but as it passed through my domain laying siege to it, it passed through me briefly and allowed me to "connect" with it for a short time. In doing so, I was able to peer inside its mind and while I wasn't able to see much, I was able to piece together a few things that I implore you to take heed in."

"The Northern Water Tribe was the only location I could see when looking into its mind and at the centerpiece of it all was a princess."

"A princess?"

"Not just any princess, one who has a great connection to the spirits themselves. Her name is Yue and whatever that darkness was, it was after her specifically. I fear these people are in great danger."

"I understand you and the Avatar are headed there so he can receive training. I need you to beat this spirit to that location and warn these people about the coming danger this spirit possesses to them. If I couldn't contain it, I don't want to think about the odds mere mortals face."

"So...it seems as if fate is guiding us to the North Pole," Kyojuro felt his heart speed up a bit when remembering the voices of all those people losing their lives to the dam and when coupled with Demons somehow existing here as well, it made for a bad combo for anyone on the receiving end of his wrath, "So be it! I assure you, I'll complete my duties and protect the innocent until my last dying breath!"

He couldn't see her, but he could feel warmth coming from this place, "I'm glad…"

"I'm so glad that these failures and setbacks haven't discouraged you, Rengoku-san. Most people would sink into depression with the things you're facing, but instead of letting that happen, you're facing them head on."

"Well of course! I wouldn't be the Flame Pillar if I let heartbreak and tragedy discourage me from doing my job. I hold every death that the demons snuff out my responsibility and until they face justice, I won't rest until they are all exterminated!"

"But in the meantime, it looks like I'll be here a while."

"It seems so," Agni agreed.

"Waiting a bit might do him some good," Agni thought. "This might be the time he needs to cool down and properly think about his next moves before he rushes headfirst back into action."

Kyojuro was exactly the type to rush into action with fury in his heart and get himself killed. If he died before the Avatar could master the elements then all hope would be lost as Aang stood no chance against the demons from this world in his current state.

Iroh already knew that his niece would not take that defeat all too well, but he'd severely underestimated her temper. After chewing out her crew for their incompetence in her eyes and threatening to send him to an early grave to meet Lu Ten, she stormed into her room where she'd been for the past several days. Other than requesting that two messages be sent out, no one had seen Azula since the defeat. While it had been peaceful, Iroh would be lying if he said it didn't feel like a storm was brewing right under his nose.

"Any word from my niece," Iroh asked the guard on standby near her room.

"Not even a peep, sir. Other than those letters she wanted delivered, she hasn't left the room at all."

"Well that's worrisome," Iroh responded. They weren't particularly close, but he still had love for his niece even if she was much much different from Zuko.

Knocking on the door, he received no answer which didn't set his mind at ease. "Azula, can you hear me in there?"

No response yet again other than slight movement. That at the very least let him know that she was still alive in that room. "I understand you may have been discouraged by the failure from earlier, but the making of a great leader isn't determined by their successes. It's determined by how they rise after the fall."

"I know I may not be your favorite person to talk to, but if you ever feel the need to open up, I'll be here for you."

Hearing nothing else he started to walk away from the door somewhat satisfied he'd gotten his message to her, but it soon creaked open revealing Azula standing in her fire nation gear, make up and all.

"Jeez, and I thought Zuko talked a lot…" Azula muttered.

Iroh opened his mouth to speak, but was swiftly cut off by Azula walking past him quickly, "If you're worried for my mental health, it's appreciated, but not needed at all. I only needed to heal from the concussion I sustained along with the shame from my own failure."

"I'm fine now and my head is clear so you no longer need to worry."

"Well what are your orders, princess? We've been sailing with no destination in mind and the crew is becoming restless."

"We wait."

"We wait?" Iroh asked.

"Those letters I sent out should've reached the people I needed it to, so it shouldn't be too much longer now."

"Would you care to elaborate on what exactly was in these letters of yours?" Iroh could never really read his niece like he could his nephew. Whatever she was plotting, it was either fairly harmless or absolutely diabolical in its goal. Hopefully it was the former.

"I don't believe I'm at liberty to divulge the contents of what I wrote, but rest assured that help is coming and you know that I don't take asking for help lightly," Azula answered smugly.

Iroh stroked his beard in thought before responding, "That is true...but when will this help of yours arrive?"

"Hopefully before the end of the Winter Solstice," She answered. "If all goes well, those two will be a welcome addition to our group."

"Two?" So it was two individuals she was seeking to recruit. Iroh racked his brain, but failed to come up with two individuals Azula held in high enough regard that she felt the need to bring them into this little game of hers. Then again, Iroh never could read her as well as Zuko so he really shouldn't be surprised at whoever showed up to their boat.

Landing in the village, their immediate goal was to find supplies that would allow them to heal Kyojuro. Katara being the one closest to him was already giving orders to everyone else trying to speed up the process. She had this feeling that the time they had was limited and rushed everyone else off of Appa and turned them towards the village.

"Hopefully these people have supplies we can use," She said. "Just hang on a little more. You'll be good as new soon…"

A loud crash and an entire building toppling around them caused them to pause in confusion before it slowly turned to panic.

"Guys what is that?" Before he could say anything else, the creature in question dashed over to him, knocking Aang into a building before continuing to rampage.

It knocked over buildings in its attack and none of them could do much other than watch and pray it didn't come for them next. Katara still hadn't left Kyojuro's side knowing that if she made a run for it, he'd be completely defenseless. Sokka tried to move and use his breathing, but as his concussion was still fresh from earlier, he could barely keep his balance. Zuko was helping Aang to his feet after he had the wind knocked out of him and wasn't close enough to help them.

The creature and Katara locked eyes and it soon shifted its eyes over to Kyojuro as it roared in anger once again. "This is bad! This is very very bad!" She panicked. "I can't protect myself and Kyojuro, can I?"

It was as if time froze for her as the creature burst forward leaving nothing but dust and wreckage as it was coming for her. What could she do to stop it? She wasn't the best combatant even with Kyojuro training her nor was she a great specialist. Weighing her options she determined she had none.

"I…"

"I can't…"

She looked down at Kyojuro and before she even realized what was happening, she could feel an anger and determination begin to force itself into her heart. He looked nothing like the man who saved her all those years ago and opened her eyes about some firebenders being good. Instead he looked so weak and defenseless that it made her heart ache, so instead of cowering away in despair, she steeled herself ready for whatever was to come.

So she couldn't fight this thing with what little understanding of waterbending she possessed. Big Deal. Kyojuro went through worse when fighting off that invasion and still managed to protect them all.

"I...I promise you, no matter what happens to me, I will NOT let anything happen to you!" She looked down once more at him before leaping off of Appa's saddle and charging at that thing head on.

She pulled the small amount of water she had on her and began thrashing it at the creature hoping to discourage it and force it back. It did very little to deter it as it simply knocked her backwards into an already destroyed building.

"Katara!" Sokka cried and tried to move, but his body just would not respond to him. "Screw this! I've gotta help her!" Focusing his breathing and leaping off of Appa's saddle, he ran towards the creature as it attempted to grab him. He was faster than it could reach him and he slid under it and grabbed his sister who was attempting to get up from the ground.

"Katara, are you ok?"

"*Huff*...Why'd...you leave...Kyojuro?" She gritted her teeth and stood back up in defiance. That attack definitely didn't have much behind it and yet she could feel her ribs pinching her. She'd definitely cracked a few which wouldn't bode well if she kept this up.

"You were hurt and I thought-"

"Well you thought wrong. Kyojuro should be our main priority. You of all people should know that."

She tried to walk forward as her body wobbled left to right in an attempt to force her to stop.

"Katara, I think you should stop, I'll handle it from here," Sokka tried.

"No! You can't handle this on your own either. You're hurt!" She'd had enough of everyone trying to shoulder more than they could handle especially when others were there to help. First Kyojuro, now her idiotic brother...enough is enough.

"You can barely stand straight and now you're trying to lecture me? Now of all times! We don't have time for-"

She cut him off by using the remaining water supply she had on her and froze his feet to the ground, immobilizing him from stopping her.

"What are you doing!? Unfreeze me, I can help!" He cried.

"Both of you keep doing what you want. As if no one else's opinion matters." She started to walk forward still injured as the creature wreaked havoc on the town. Nine times out of ten, she'd never be able to stop whatever the hell this was, but maybe she'd be able to buy enough time for them to figure out what to do.

"Kyojuro goes off and does what he thinks is right while shouldering all the weight and responsibilities on his shoulders and now my own brother is following in his footsteps. I'm done."

"I've had it up to here with whatever the hell's been going on with him and I know he's hiding something big. I don't understand why he doesn't trust us like we trust him, but I want an explanation and I'll be damned if this creature takes him away from me before I get an answer!"

She looked back at her brother once again, "Just...look I'm not asking you to stop the whole macho and manly act, but when you need help ask for it and stop thinking you're all invincible and untouchable when you're not. Even if I'm weak, I'll gladly pick up some slack when you guys need it." She knew this was mainly directed towards Kyojuro and even if the man couldn't hear it, it felt good to finally verbalize after so long.

"And fortunately for me," She took off in a full sprint toward the creature as it was completely unaware of her charge, "It's my turn to pick up the slack!"

"Katara, stop, it's too dangerous!" Sokka tried to pull his feet from the ice, but it was no good as his injuries still hampered his breathing technique. "Dammit!"

Using a small amount of water that was laying around thanks to the creature destroying so much of the housing, she formed a small ice ramp and slid upwards as she leapt into the air and grabbed hold of its back as it roared in anger.

It thrashed about trying to get her off, but she was resilient and would not let go even if the whiplash was causing her body to ache. "Oh no you don't!" It ran itself into multiple other buildings hoping to finally throw this human off its back, but she was stubborn and refused to let go. If she let go, who knows what would happen to everyone and they still needed time to recover.

Sokka was still trying to pull his feet free as he could watch as Katara held onto the creatures back in whatever this crazy act of defiance this was supposed to be. Unable to pull his feet free, he couldn't feel his body heat up as he tried to sweat, but instead grew colder and colder for a reason he didn't understand. While curious as to what he was feeling, he didn't have time to ponder about it as the creature turned away from the village and began dashing towards the forest.

"No! Katara, let go! You did good, ok!" He shouted to no avail as she'd passed out while retaining her iron grip she had on its back.

"Cmon! Cmon! Cmon! I've gotta get out of here!" His heart began to pump faster than normal and he could no longer feel the heated embrace that his breathing technique was supposed to give him. Instead he felt cool. No...if he had to be accurate, he felt like...a calming wave of water oddly enough.

Normally whenever he used his ability, his body would heat up and he'd sweat like crazy as power would surge within him. This was different however. Whatever was happening here, his body felt like it possessed no type of heat whatsoever and instead it felt like the power was rippling throughout his entire being.

He could feel it. "My breathing?" It certainly felt different from normal, but as he ripped his feet from the ice with no problems at all, he only had one thought in mind.

Reach her.

The creature along with Katara on his back slowly began to flicker out of existence and he knew he only had one chance to help her.

Bursting forward with a speed completely unknown to him he caught up to the creature almost faster than it could get away from and grabbed hold of it. He dug his feet into the ground and pulled and pulled and pulled as hard as he could muster and surprisingly he slowed it down.

It roared in anger once again before continuing toward the forest. Whatever was happening confused Sokka, but he'd be damned if this thing took his little sister away.

"Ugh…" His head began to hurt and nausea crept up his throat causing him to panic again.

His grip began to loosen and he started seeing double, then triple as his concussion reared its ugly head once again causing the moment of weakness the creature needed to throw him off, causing him to skid across the ground.

"Noooooooo!" Was all he could get out as the creature faded away into the forest with his sister still holding on.

Blinking slowly, Katara slowly rose from the ground she was laying on as she held her ribs that were surely damaged.

"Where am I?"

Gauging her surroundings, she didn't recognize where she was at all. Instead of being at the village fighting a giant monster, wherever she was, was much too different to be considered normal by her standards.

As far as she could tell she was on a beach under the starry night sky. A full and bright full moon shone down upon her which brought a certain calmness and fullness to her that she did not understand. She looked around at her surroundings as she could barely believe what she was seeing. If she had to describe it in one word, it'd have to be-

"Beautiful."

Walking around the beach, she found that she was completely alone. She clearly remembered riding on the monster's back so that's most likely the reason she got here in the first place.

"What the heck is this place?" Katara groaned to herself in exasperation. "This doesn't make any sense! Where is everyone!?"

Unless her situation drastically improved, it seemed like she was stranded here with nothing but her thoughts. She didn't have time to waste in this place. Kyojuro needed her and every minute she wasted on this beach, was every minute he could slip away from her permanently.

"Damn it!" She kicked up some sand in frustration as tears made their way into her eyes, nearly about to fall. She was lost, stranded, scared and now wasting valuable time that could be used to help him. "How come I'm always so useless?" Realization and dread soon began to set in when she thought about the implications of her being trapped here.

What if I can't leave? Will everyone forget about me? Am I going to die here?

Thoughts such as these pinballed around her head attempting to break through the surface, but the moon above her calmed her before her panic could grow any larger. Staring at it brought her comfort and calmed her nerves. "I've seen the moon thousands of times so why do I get the feeling this one's different?"

Her instincts kicked off as she tensed up. She could feel someone watching her, but she was sure she was the only one here. Rustling broke out around and she could hear sand shuffling. Someone was walking near her and she jumped up, ready to defend herself, but stopped when seeing what exactly was watching her.

It was a shadowed silhouetted figure. She couldn't tell whether or not it was a spirit of sorts, but it did not attack nor inch closer, instead it just stood there and watched her.

"Who are you?" Katara asked.

The figure did not move nor say anything. It kept watching her as Katara backed up ever so slowly hoping to create even more space between them.

"Stay away from me, I'm warning you!" She summoned a small amount of water and aimed it in the direction of the figure which said nothing in its defense.

"Either you answer me or leave! I don't have time to deal with whatever weirdness this place has to offer." Katara needed to get out of there, but the beach looked endless to her and other than the ocean in front of her, it was nothing but sand on top of sand on top of sand and it stretched for miles as far as she could tell.

Not good. Not good at all, especially since that meant it was just the two of them with nowhere for her to run should things turn dangerous.

The figure raised it's hand and brought one of its fingers down causing Katara to stop completely. Her body contorted at unusual angles and she no longer had control of her movements. "What the heck is happening? Why can't I control myself?"

She noticed the figure move her fingers in a way that resembled a puppeteer and her blood ran cold. Was she being controlled? How the heck is she doing this and why can't she break free? It was as if invisible strings were pulling her body that forced Katara to move against her will.

The figure made her turn towards the ocean and begin walking toward it. Since she could no longer control herself,she had no choice but to comply as this creature was possibly going to kill her. Struggling did no use as the only thing she could muster was mere grunts against whatever power this was. Making her stop once she was standing amongst the waves, she made Katara place her hands in the water and forced her to use her bending to manipulate a small coating of water which remained on her hands. The water began to glow. Water wasn't supposed to glow, right?

"What's it doing?" Katara soon found her answer as the figure moved her hands up to her ribcage which was injured and forced her to keep her hands there. "I don't understand...why is it doing this?"

A soothing sensation crashed into her almost causing her to melt when feeling the pain and tension her injury was causing her drain from her body. Was she...healing herself? While she wasn't uneducated, she rarely had knowledge of waterbenders that could heal seeing as she had been the only waterbender in the South Pole for a majority of her life.

It was an odd sensation, but a somewhat welcome one as eventually all the pain she had was gone and the grip the figure had on her soon faded as she gained control of her body.

Turning to it, Katara looked at it very confused and cautious. On one hand this figure just hijacked her body and forced her to do whatever it wanted. On the other hand it apparently showed her that she was a healer which was a rarity among waterbenders. She didn't trust whatever this was nor did she feel like approaching it, but if it only wanted to show her what she could do, then maybe it wasn't exactly evil like she originally thought.

"Wait a minute…"

Healing? Her eyes lit up in realization as she had the perfect answer to the problem that had been plaguing her mind since running away from Zhao.

"I can heal Kyojuro!" She felt her body relax and determination along with relief flooded her very being, "I...I can finally help you in a way you can't do for yourself. I promise once I get out of this place I'll heal you."

Although when she looked along the still empty beach besides the figure still watching her, she had the feeling she might be here awhile. "Just wait for me…"

Seemingly ignoring her internal conflict and monologue, the figure walked into the same waters it had forced Katara into and began using a waterbending stance Katara had never seen before. It was beautiful yet dangerous as Katara still had no clue what this thing wanted from her. It just did whatever it pleased without a second thought.

Katara watched as the figure repeated the attack motion over and over while looking over at her after every attempt.

"Are you...showing me the move?" She asked.

The figure, instead of not replying as it had always done previously, nodded it's head to her question before readying the stance hoping she'd join it. "Is it really wise to learn something from a spirit that just tried to control you not even five minutes ago…"

Then again as she was stuck here until further notice and running away seemed like a waste of time, what's the harm in seeing what this thing had to offer. "I don't exactly get you, but I don't have a way home as of now and it looks like we'll be in each other's company for a while."

"I'll indulge whatever this...teaching you want me to participate in, but NO controlling my body! That was just creepy and wrong."

The figure merely nodded as if to agree and began moving the water as it waited for Katara to follow as well. Sighing and looking at the moon one more time, she truly hoped that she wasn't going crazy by agreeing to train with something that she didn't trust or understand.

Tui La, Kyojuro and Sokka were really starting to rub off on her weren't they?

Morning came and the villagers who had watched the entire affair came out of hiding and quickly ushered the three remaining boys (And a still comatose Kyojuro) to their village center where they patched up Sokka and Aang who had a few bruises from their fight with the creature. Upon hearing the village leader's speech and how the Avatar should be able to deal with spirits, Sokka was about to blow a fuse.

"You really expect Aang, a twelve year old kid, to somehow be able to communicate with the spirit that rampaged through here, took some of your villagers, took MY sister and then fix the entire problem, just like that!"

"Sokka, I know I'm not one to talk, but maybe you should calm down so we can think," Zuko responded. "I still don't like any of you, but I don't want her hurt as much as you don't. I've studied up on the Avatar and if the legends are true, then communicating with the spirit world is possible for him to accomplish."

"Just calm down and weigh our options."

"Either we panic while she's missing and Kyojuro's still half dead or we let the Avatar handle things as best he can and if even he can't fix it, then we panic. Got it."

Sokka barely wanted to hear any of that garbage. His little sister was taken from him by some crazed spirit and he was supposed to sit around and do nothing? Weighing his options though, it didn't leave him with much choice other than panicking or gambling everything on Aang who by his own admission was still very new to spirit related business.

Aang, deciding to break the tension, turned towards Sokka and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm still new at this whole Avatar thing, but I promise you I'll figure out where they took her."

Sokka, hearing those words, calmed down just a little and sighed, "Fine," He walked over to a wall and leaned against it still frustrated, "So how are you supposed to even get to this...spirit world?"

"Um...maybe...if I focus really hard I can just go there!" Aang quickly lit up when remembering Monk Gyatso mentioning something about meditation being the gateway to the spirit world for air nomads. If he was right then this should be doable for him since he's the Avatar and an air nomad.

"You sure that'll work?" Sokka asked.

"Positive!" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Mostly anyway…"

Smacking his hand over his face, Sokka basically had come to the conclusion that his sister had a high likelihood of being trapped there forever. That's a great thing to have rattling around in your head when you're already panicking like crazy.

Not even mentioning whatever the hell was going on with his breathing technique. Instead of burning up, his body felt as cool as water and it still confused him as that's not what was supposed to happen. Although his movements were definitely more explosive and his body felt far more responsive than normal. Maybe it'd be better if he talked to Kyojuro about it.

Glancing over to the non moving man, Sokka grimaced at his weakened state. "I don't like this plan...but it's all we got."

All three boys nodded as Aang sat crisscross on the floor and put his fists together. He concentrated not really knowing what was supposed to happen, but hoped that with enough focus, something would happen.

Minutes went by with not even a hint of something spirit related happening. "Maybe, I'm doing something wrong. This isn't working!"

"No, I think you're on the right track," Zuko said. "Since you've never done it before, I doubt you'd get it right away. Just try and place your thoughts with a single goal in mind while meditating and maybe that'll work." Agni help him; he sounds just like Uncle!

"Ok, I'll try that," Aang closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on something that should be his topic priority at the moment.

Katara.

He needed to find her specifically and fix whatever problem was going on in this village. Sure he had never done this before, but at the same time, what choice did they have? Her smile shone throughout his thoughts and his determination rose. He'd definitely pull this off even if he had to stay like this all day and night. He'd save her, no matter what.

Plus what kind of student would he be if he couldn't pull this off? Kyojuro was a man who made the impossible possible so as the Avatar and his student, he had a lot to prove to a man that he viewed higher than himself.

He focused and focused and focused until his brain hurt, but alas nothing was happening. He didn't want to say it was a lost cause, but he'd be lying if he said otherwise. "Guys, I don't think it's work-"

"Whoa," Sokka said. "What is that?"

"I think he's doing it," Zuko answered, still in awe at what he was seeing.

Aang stood up annoyed, "What do you mean, I'm doing it? I don't feel any different."

Zuko and Sokka didn't so much as look at him as they were staring at the floor for some strange reason. He waved his hands in front of their faces in an attempt to get their attention.

"Helloooo! I'm up here." The two were ignoring him and he moved directly in front of them reaching out to touch them, but his eyes shot open when his hand went straight through Sokka.

He pulled it back and tried the same with Zuko. He couldn't touch him either. "Wait a minute…"

He looked down at the thing they were staring at and realized why they had shocked looks on their faces. "They're staring at me." His body was still sitting in the lotus position as his tattoos glowed signifying his descent into the Avatar state.

"But if that's me then does this mean I'm-", He ran outside and tried to glide into the forest, but his airbending failed to materialize so he crashed into the ground below.

"There's no doubt about it. I'm in the spirit world!" Normally he should've been happy with this breakthrough, but now that he's here, he can't even check to see where exactly he is and how he's supposed to find Katara.

"Just great. Now what am I supposed to do?" Seeing no other option in front of him, he started to walk and made his way through the forest until he heard a rustling coming from far ahead of him.

"Is that… a dragon!?" Aang stood in disbelief as a massive blue dragon made itself known to him and flew towards his direction. It was far too fast to run from so he braced himself for an attack, but it never came as the dragon simply landed in front of him with a look.

One of his whiskers touched Aang's forehead and memories about Roku along with Katara's location were pumped into his head all at once. It was a lot to process, but he was thankful that this dragon wasn't an enemy.

"You're Avatar Roku's spirit animal." The dragon nodded and now bigger questions flooded his mind.

"Where is Roku, I need to speak with him." The dragon touched his head again and a small island along with a timer syncing with Roku's statue popped into his head. A large and massive comet also popped into his head as well, but this one filled him with a sense of dread he didn't even know he had. Almost like he'd witnessed it before.

"Wait a minute. I can only speak with him only when that light reaches the Roku statue I saw in my vision."

"But that island is in the middle of the fire nation! How am I supposed to get in there to speak with him?"

The dragon said nothing which made Aang theorize that he had to figure this one out on his own.

"Ok, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. What about Katara? You showed me a vision of her on a beach, but where is that? Can you take me to her?"

He fully uncurled himself, signifying for Aang to get on and once he did, the dragon flew off into the skies. Aang began to hold on even tighter than he already had when the dragon continued to pick up speed. It kept going and going and going until Aang didn't feel like they could go any faster.

Aang looked around as the world surrounding him started to grow shaky and fade in and out. "This is weird," he groaned as the speed they were moving didn't give him much time to think. Once the dragon was at max speed the world finally settled down and changed from day to night as the world itself changed from mountains, islands, sunny skies to a beach like area with a starry night and a full moon.

Aang could not believe what he was seeing and his spiritual sense was going haywire. Wherever this place was, it definitely was not in the physical realm. They continued to fly until they reached the sandy shores and spotted Katara waterbending with a shadowy figure.

"Katara!" Aang shouted before leaping off the dragon and landing in the water below. Belly flopping off a giant dragon hurt, but it hurt his pride even more when he realized he couldn't airbend in the spirit world.

"Aang?" Katara rushed over to him and helped him up out of the water usingher waterbending.

"Are you ok? We were so worried about you!" Aang leapt into her arms and hugged her as if she would disappear again.

"I'm fine. I guess that creature brought me here after I passed out." Katara didn't hesitate to return the hug.

"That's good, but we should probably get out of here while we have the chance," Aang said.

He made eye contact with the shadowy figure that was beside Katara and tensed, "Katara, what is that?"

"Honestly I'm not sure myself," She admitted. "It was the first person I saw when I got here and although we started off shaky, whatever it is, I'm positive it's not dangerous."

"It even showed me that I'm a healer!" She forced a small amount of water onto her hands and moved them around Aang's body to demonstrate.

"Wow, that feels really soothing," Aang blushed.

"I know right. If I didn't meet this thing, I'd have never known about my ability. With a power like this, it should be nothing to heal Kyojuro!" She locked hands with him not even realizing what she was doing.

"He's going to be ok!"

R-right," Aang meekly responded, still nervous from her extremely close contact.

"So what about that?" He pointed to the figure watching. It hadn't so much as moved since Aang showed up.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't be right if I just left without saying goodbye." She walked over to the figure and tried to hug it, but was swiftly stopped as she lost control of her body again. Aang shared the same fate as Katara as his body turned and contorted at unnatural angles.

"What's...happening…" Aang could barely even get the words out as he was too busy fighting for control of his own body.

"This is what it did when I first met it."

"Why's it doing this again?" She thought.

The glowing white moon soon started to change into a sickening blood red moon as the fear they were both feeling skyrocketed. The sand around them started to rumble and shake as hands popped up from under it.

The undead? No, that was something out of a bad story Sokka would tell to her when they were kids. There was no way this was happening. Uh uh. No way. No how.

Multiple bodies that weren't decayed crawled up through the ground and Aang's heart dropped when he realized who these people were.

Air nomads.

Whatever this thing was, it was manipulating their bodies to do whatever it wanted and it made Aang sick. One of the bodies in particular took command over the rest and brought sadness to his heart.

"Gyatso...it can't be."

In the flesh, eyes completely whited out, but other than that he was completely untouched, clothes and all. Before they could get any closer they all stopped in sync and the figure put its hands down and stared at them once again.

Neither of them could move or defend themselves from whatever was happening, but unless their mind was playing tricks on them, they could've sworn it smiled through that shadowy haze it was covered in.

It lifted its hand once again and started to force Aang and Katara over to the dragon and onto its back. Once they were on it, the figure released them as the dragon took off into the atmosphere charging up speed to leave the spirit world.

"Why did it do that? I thought it was going to kill us," Aang wondered.

"I...I don't know. Even as we were being controlled I didn't sense an ounce of hostility within it," Katara admitted. "So why did it do that?"

That's the million dollar question that they'd be leaving with no answer to.

Then again Aang had a question of his own that he had to ask her. "How come you can waterbend in here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well we're in the spirit world and I can't use any airbending, but somehow you and that thing could use waterbending. I just thought it was weird."

"Maybe it's just a waterbending thing. Airbending just might not be possible here," She tried to reason.

Somehow both of them knew that it was most likely a lie, but they left this place with more questions than answers to begin with.

It was almost nightfall back at the town Aang had left Sokka and Zuko and they grew worried that he might never come out of this trance he was in. It had been almost a full day since he'd been in that glowing state so you could imagine their surprise when the glowing suddenly stopped and Aang jumped to his feet and ran towards the door.

"No time to talk, I found Katara and she can heal Kyojuro!" He shouted back to them as he used his airbending to speed run out the door, leaving both boys confused.

"Hey wait up!" Sokka shouted as he chased after him.

Zuko rubbed his temples in annoyance before chasing after these idiots as well. Since Kyojuro's still out, it looks like he'd have to be the dad of the group until he was relieved of his duties.

Katara awoke in the middle of a forest and she could hear Aang bursting around the trees to her location as he'd seen it when the dragon transported them back here. She stood up and met him halfway and they locked eyes before hugging each other again. Even though they'd just seen each other, it felt different when they were actually here and not in the spirit world.

A huge just seemed different with tangible bodies when factored in and all. Sokka and Zuko soon caught up to them and Sokka leapt at them, joining in on the group hug. Zuko stopped short of that and hesitated. It's not like he wanted to join in. Nope. Not even close. He definitely did not want a hug.

"Katara, are you ok!? You don't know how worried you made me!" Sokka cried.

"I know, I know," Katara repeated.

He pulled away from her while keeping his hands on her shoulders, "Don't ever do something so stupid like that again, you hear me?"

"It wasn't stupid-" She cut herself off when noticing the fear and sleep deprevation her brother was suffering from. He clearly never stopped worrying about her while she was gone so even if she wanted to argue, she found it hard pressed to continue right now.

"Ok, I promise I won't do anything like this again," She lied. It was sincere enough that he bought it and hugged her again before looking at Aang.

"You said she can heal him?"

"Yeah," Aang responded.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Sokka scooped his sister off her feet and focused his breathing.

His body felt cool and there was no doubt about it. His breathing technique was changing and he couldn't stop it. Although from what he was feeling, it felt suited to his needs far better than that other one.

He shot forward completely clearing the forest even faster than Aang did and was back at the village in less than three seconds. Well that was new. Energies rippled as if a flowing river was empowering him.

"I've gotta talk to Kyojuro about this when he wakes up."

By the time everyone else had caught up to them, Katara was already in the midst of healing Kyojuro. Her hands moved in a circular motion, feeling out the wound as her hands glowed.

The damage started to fade away, but the scar it left remained as she did her best to eliminate all she could from his body. Something was wrong though. It felt like something was blocking her from getting even deeper into the healing process so she waterbended whatever was stuck inside of him, out and she had no idea what it was supposed to be.

It was a greyish liquid that had been lodged within the wound. "This is it…"

"What is it?" Sokka asked.

"This is why Kyojuro couldn't use his breath. Whatever this is, it severely dampened his powers and shut his body down completely."

"All that from such a small knife," Zuko grimaced. If something like that did this to a man such as Kyojuro, what would happen if it made contact with someone weaker. If his hypothesis was correct, they'd most likely die. Kyojuro was a remarkable bender in Zuko's eyes, but he wasn't even close to normal. If anything he was comparable to Azula, his father and his uncle due to the fact that he would be classified as a bending monster.

"Well either way, it should be a matter of time before he wakes up," Katara confirmed.

Everyone decided they could all use some rest after the exhaustion day they had and with Sokka not getting any sleep, they all decided it'd be best to turn in for the day.

Blinking his eyes open a few times before sitting up, Kyojuro clutched his side instinctively, remembering he'd gotten stabbed not too long ago. He was bandaged up and was in a bed of sorts not understanding how he got there.

"Kyojuro!" He heard Sokka, Katara and Aang shout as they rushed over to him. They all but tackled him in a deep hug as relief flooded their faces. Zuko stood to the side not willing to get all mushy, but sighed a great breath of relief at the man's awakening.

"Hahaha! I take it I must have worried you all!" He released them from the death grip they had on him and swiftly bowed down, "Please forgive me for worrying so and I assure you an incident like this will not repeat itself!"

"Kyojuro get up! Getting stabbed by a coward is nothing to apologize for," Katara insisted.

"But that's not all!" He kept his head down as his expression changed to one of uncertainty and regret.

"Because of my failure to complete my duties, all those people in that village lost their lives and that's unforgivable on my part! My own failure to stop that will haunt me until the day I die!"

"My precious pupils also had to take care of me in my sad and defenseless state and I know that must not have been easy! Even if it was hard and full of hardships, I'm glad to have each and every last one of you by my side!"

He raised his head with a bright determination filling his face, "I won't ever allow anyone else to suffer like they did! On my honor as the Flame Pillar, I won't allow any more injustices to exist within my blade's grasp!"

Kyojuro meant every word of his speech and if that meant turning things up a notch then so be it. Demons were running amok and he had people to protect.

"Actually Kyojuro, there's something you should know," Katara didn't exactly know how to rip the bandage off so she figured it'd be best to just come out with it. He needed to know about him.

"Zhao's alive and he's partly responsible for the dam breaking."

"Zhao? That's impossible! I made sure that he paid for his crimes back at the South Pole!" Multiple scenarios ran through his head when trying to determine whether or not it was really him they saw. He saw with his own two eyes a devilish man whose eye's he sliced before finishing him off with flame breathing.

"She's not lying," Sokka chipped in. "He even gloated about how Jet enacted their plan to a tee along with not even caring about all the innocent lives he took. He's sick in the head."

Kyojuro looked over to Aang and Zuko who nodded in solidarity. His worst fears were being confirmed.

Wait. Remembering how Zhao looked as if he was cursing him as he was drowning brought dread running through his entire being. How could he be back, running around causing havoc unless…

"He's a demon?" Kyojuro paled and it was noticeable to all of them that he had some idea of what was going on.

"Is this my fault as well?" Had he unintentionally doomed people because of his transportation to this world. If Zhao truly has become a demon then who knows how powerful he has become over the past two years. This was bad. This was extremely bad and Kyojuro didn't even know where to begin. First the earth kingdom village where Haru was from, now another earth kingdom village that Jet tried to liberate and who knows what else has been done right under his nose.

He couldn't breathe. Kyojuro felt his lungs run dry and his mouth and throat soon followed suit. He didn't have time to worry about himself. He had people to protect and demons were far away from what they could handle.

No one from this world could handle a normal demon let alone a ranked one, if ranked ones existed here now as well. "Keep it together…", He was trying and failing to calm himself, but the weight of his blissful ignorance along with the guilt he was feeling for all the deaths attributed to demons was eating at him.

Was he a failure? Could he not make a difference in this world? Did he just doom an entire world to fall under demon control where lives would be nothing more than livestock for them to play with. The little breaths he did manage to push out were shaky at best.

Kyojuro.

Someone was calling his name but who? He could hardly focus on it. Maybe it was the fatigue from waking up in this state, maybe the crippling guilt or a combination of all three, he couldn't be sure, but the person calling out to him grew louder and louder before he was snapped back to reality.

"Kyojuro!" His eyes snapped open as Katara had kneeled down with him, worried about the mini breakdown he was about to have.

"Are you ok? You zoned out for a minute there." She prayed that he would open up to them, to her, about whatever the hell has been eating at him.

"I'm...I'm fine! Sorry for worrying you again! Hahaha!" She could hear how hollow and fake that sounded.

"Why won't he just open up?" She was done beating around the bush with him.

Grabbing both sides of his face, she forced his face extremely close to hers before starting, "Enough!"

"I don't understand why you don't trust us enough to tell us what you're hiding and I don't get why you feel as if all of this is your fault. You've been like this since we found Haru's town and enough is enough. Kyojuro we care about you too much to let you self destruct under whatever you're hiding and I won't stand for it anymore!"

"Katara, I-"

"No, you listen to me! Sokka is one thing, but you...you're not invincible and it's ok to admit when some things are too hard for you to handle alone. That's what we're here for. We are family and I hope you trust your family to be able to listen when you need to vent or get things off your chest."

"Hell if I'm being honest, I just want you to talk to someone, anyone even! Whether that's us, our dad, Kishna or anyone else you're close with, I know you and you'll bottle things up thinking you can handle them until it becomes too big to handle anymore. Am I wrong?"

And what could he say to combat this? She was right. After all, it was something he was always good at. From his mother dying to his father's descent into being a drunk, Kyojuro always knew how to bottle things up and persevere. Even if Katara was right, there's nothing she could do to help the situation here anyway. The strong should protect the weak and he'd protect them until his body could do so no more.

He smiled at Katara before replying, "Katara, I understand your worry and appreciate the amount of care you have for me, but...for the time being I cannot allocate to the things I'm withholding from you all. No matter how much I might want too, until things change, this is my battle to endure and I cannot in good faith drag you all into it anymore than I already have…"

"But!"

He stood up and looked at all of them with another sincere smile, "If the time comes where things become too much for me to bear, you will be the first one's I open up to! That's a promise!"

Nobody said anything other than take in what Kyojuro said. He was hiding something and it was big enough that Katara had no other option but to call him out on it, but his promise to talk to them if even someone like him can't handle it on his own was a deterrent to push things further.

"I just don't want you to burn yourself out...but if you feel like you can handle it for now then I can't fault you just yet. Plus you did promise to talk to us if things become too much and you never go back on a promise do you?"

"Never!"

"Well then I'll accept that answer. What about everyone else?" Katara looked around and everyone else was in agreement with her. Even Zuko's grumpy and antisocial ass.

"So...what do we do now?" Zuko broke.

"Well we can't stay here, we need to move now," Aang replied.

"There's a lot we need to catch you up on."

"Interesting! So this comet you speak off is tied to this statue you need to reach in order to speak with your past life?"

"Exactly, but it's right in the middle of fire nation territory and I don't even know where to begin in trying to figure out how we can sneak in without being detected," Aang said, dejected about their prospects of failing.

All eyes fell on Zuko who raised his hands in defense of himself, "Uh uh, nope I cannot help you here. My people have the second best security in the world only rivaled by Ba Sing Se itself. Trying to sneak into the Fire Nation is literal suicide and I won't be apart of a plan that'll kill me."

"Well we only have a few days before the dial reaches the Roku statue so it's not like we've got a lot of time here," Sokka joined in.

"Well if we can't sneak in then we won't!" Kyojuro boomed.

"We won't? Then how are we supposed to get through the defenses?" Zuko shot back. "Did you not hear me when I said trying to get around their defense is literal suicide!"

"I hear you loud and clear, so I've come up with the perfect solution to our problem! And it's one I'm sure I can pull off perfectly!"

"And what would that be?" Zuko glared hoping what was about to come out of his mouth wasn't nonsense.

"If we can't sneak around them then we'll do the best next thing…" His expression lit up in determination, "We'll go through their defenses and obliterate them completely!"

Zuko didn't know whether to start writing his will now or later and apparently everyone else in the room shared a similar settlement, but they all knew once Kyojuro got that look in his eyes, there was no changing his mind.

For better or worse, they were about to charge headfirst through an untold number of defenses. Surely this won't end badly. Not a chance. Not a chance at all.

Why couldn't he have gotten kidnapped by someone not absolutely out of their mind?

I definitely took this chapter title from Tyler The Creator's new album. It's so good...

Enough about that though, Yue will play such a big role in this story I can only wait to finally touch on her. Sokka's also going through quite the change with his breathing technique. Anyone wanna guess what's happening to it?

Katara finally managed to acknowledge that he's hiding something big, but he's not quite ready to reveal everything yet. But at least he has the option in front of him should he wish to take it.

PS: Does someone wanna tell Kyojuro that diving headfirst into enemy territory might not be the best idea?