(Edited July 6, 2022: Been a while since I've edited these chapters, but I needed to iron out some details that are clarified later in the fic. Had a minor retcon here, too, but for the most part I just changed a few small details and added more description overall along with cleaning up general choppy writing mistakes).
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.
Book 1: Fire
Chapter 15: The Deserter
She moved like a dancer.
She was ethereal, glistening, shining, illuminating… He could sit there for hours using all different words to describe her – yet none of them seemed to do her justice. Her pond was clear in the moonlight, giving the impression she was some kind of nature spirit. He hid in the bushes, leaning his head against his arm, just watching with a faint smile on his face. He missed simple enjoyments like these. She never knew he was there, but it was better this way. She wouldn't have to know the depth of his feelings. Not yet.
And yet, Toph knew. She sensed his heartbeat whenever Katara was around. She knew when he walked off to find her training alone… He used to go under the pretense to protect her, since it was dangerous for them to be alone these days. Toph didn't buy it. Of course she didn't. It didn't take the master earthbender to know that Katara could handle any trouble by herself, especially under the light of the moon.
They were a little older now, each day a battle of survival in the world ridden with war. The memory of her lips on his felt like so long ago… It had only been once, an impulse, but ever since the first kiss on the Day of Black Sun, she never mentioned it again. The war took precedence in their lives.
They had no time for love anymore. All of them, and most importantly Sokka, had learned the hard way with the loss of Suki and everyone else they cared for.
As his mind wandered, Katara seemed to have spotted him. From her position on the pond, she touched one of her many ribbons of water and attacked the figure in the bushes with a twirl so smooth she could have still been dancing.
She had grown clever as much as she became more beautiful over the years.
With a cry, Aang fell back as she doused him with the water. Katara seemed to glide over to him, ready to attack again, but her water fell when she saw the person's identity.
"Aang?" She tilted her head, confused. Her almost luminescent blue eyes came into his view, and he grinned weakly.
"Hello," he said, in an attempt to be nonchalant. Katara gave him a curious, amused smile. "I was just coming to check up on you."
"Well, somehow, I caught the almighty Avatar off guard. You should have been more careful. I thought you were someone else… and I could have seriously hurt you."
"That's okay," he said, standing up with a smile. He seemed to reserve them only for her these days. He trusted her waterbending. It would never, ever harm him… She was much too gentle and caring. He had seen her fierceness in battle, but with her family, she was a different person. For Katara, waterbending was something to be cherished. It was part of the reason why he didn't bend water as much as the other elements. That element belonged to her.
"Come on, let's get back to camp. You're all dirty now," she said to him. And together, they returned to the rest of their family, walking side-by-side. He wasn't shorter than her anymore.
Aang woke up happier that morning. His sleep was much more pleasant than usual, but he couldn't remember for the life of him what he had dreamt that night.
His better mood didn't go unnoticed by the other members of his traveling group.
"You're looking unusually chipper this morning!" Ty Lee chirped, handing him a bowl of sweet grains for breakfast. "Did you sleep well?"
He laughed as Sabi jumped all over him, licking his face. Ty Lee took that as an answer and smiled.
"Aang seems so strange today," Zuko commented to Ty Lee and Azula, just barely within Aang's earshot. He didn't mind them talking about him. "He seems… like a regular kid."
Ever since he met them, Aang knew parts of his personality sometimes unnerved them. He was twelve but acted much older than he appeared. He pretended not to listen as they watched him shower affection on Appa, who was groaning appreciatively from the attention. "It's a nice change," Ty Lee said.
When Aang finally sat down next to the cooking fire to take his food, the smells of morning gingko tea filling his nostrils, Azula sprung a question on him.
"So where are we going next?"
Aang paused for a moment as he lifted his teacup to his mouth, then turned thoughtful. "Well, we should keep heading north," he said. "The Fire Nation really isn't that large, so we should reach the Golden City in just a few days."
Ty Lee, who was in the middle of shoveling a portion of tofu pudding into her mouth, choked and her grey eyes became wide.
"Ty Lee! Are you alright?" Zuko asked her hurriedly, moving to help her.
With one almighty gulp, Ty Lee swallowed her breakfast and took a deep breath. "Yes, I'm fine, thanks," she said through her coughing. "We're going to be there in just a few days?"
"I think so," Zuko said, unraveling one of the maps he kept close at hand. "Our detour through the Outer Islands slowed us down a bit, but we're back on track and in the mainland again, directly north of the old capital." This part of the mainland was dry and volcanic, the heart of the Fire Nation between Jie Duan and the Golden City that had been claimed by the Water Tribes. They had made camp the night before on a flat piece of otherwise sloped ground, the shallow shell of a dormant volcano.
Aang's expression returned to normal, his levity vanishing as his suspicion dragged him back down to earth. "Why do you seem so nervous about going to the Golden City?" he asked Ty Lee.
"Me? Nervous? What do you mean?" she asked, twiddling her fingers together and shifting her eyes quickly from side to side. "Lemme see that map!" She snatched the old piece of parchment from Zuko and quickly scanned it with her eyes and fingertip. "Oh, look! Right there! That's what I wanted to show you guys before we got to the Golden City."
"What is it?" Azula asked, her eyes narrowed. She was just as suspicious as Aang was, and they shared a glance with each other. He saw the apprehension in her eyes.
The acrobat handed the map to her. "Not too far away from here are the Water Gardens," Ty Lee explained. "It's one of the most beautiful places in the Fire Nation."
"What is it?" Zuko asked, a hint of distaste in his voice.
"It's a rainforest with a ton of rivers flowing through it," she responded. "I've been there once – there's so much water around because of all the rivers intersecting with each other. The plant life makes the place look so magical, especially at night. There are so many glowy bugs, and the rainforest is full of the most beautiful flowers!"
"And why would we want to go there?" Aang asked with his arms crossed.
"Yes, that seems pointless," said Azula.
"It's one of the Fire Nation's most romantic locales," she said, elbowing Azula. "I wanted to bring Zuko there."
Zuko flushed. "W-well, I don't mind," he managed to say, his face burning. "It could be worth seeing."
"But we'll have to wait around until nighttime. It's the best then," said Ty Lee.
"Alright, I suppose," Azula said. "It won't hurt to take a look, and it doesn't seem too far out of the way."
"What?!" Aang exclaimed, turning to her. "A second ago you were on my side!"
"Then it's decided!" Ty Lee clapped her hands together.
As the others began to pack up camp, Aang glanced at Ty Lee again, noticing her face fall. But when she noticed him staring at her, she beamed again. That time, though, her smile didn't look as convincing.
"There is no doubt about it now," said Sokka, poring over his maps with his lieutenant, Kinto. "The Avatar is definitely heading to the Golden City to find a firebending teacher. He must've thought he could throw me off with his detour. Or he was lost. But this time he's going in that direction for sure."
"Doesn't he already have a firebender with him, sir? That girl?" Kinto asked.
Sokka's fingers automatically moved to the flame headpiece in his pocket, rubbing the delicate piece of jewelry. "She's weak," Sokka said. "I've observed her closely in battle. She also has to be searching for a master. Aside from the Avatar, the only member of their little team worth worrying about would be the other girl, and she doesn't even have any weapons…"
Kanna entered the galley with a tray of seal biscuits. "Do not underestimate her, Prince Sokka. She already messed with your plans twice."
"I don't plan to, grandmother," he said coldly, refusing to stare into her direction. "She's a formidable chi blocker. I've studied her too." He knew the basis of her fighting style; there were some among the Water Tribes who practiced a similar martial art. Her fighting style was rare, but not impenetrable.
Kanna looked over Sokka's shoulder at his map and let out a hum of appreciation, but then she almost pushed him out of the way to get a closer look. She bent her wrinkled face close to the parchment, a grin growing on her face. "We're near the Water Gardens! Can we please go see them?" Her eyes twinkled as she turned back to her grandson.
"We've got to beat the Avatar to the Golden City," said Sokka. "One of the Water Nation's strongholds are at the Gardens—I don't want to risk running into Bato again." He pulled his machete from his sheath and twirled it in his fingers, then grasped it tightly and stared at his reflection in the blade. "He's been in my way this whole time."
"But the Water Gardens are magical," said Kanna. "At night, the spirits light up all of the water and the plants and the air. It draws many tourists, and there are plenty of places to waterbend, but best of all, there will be plenty of girls there that are your age, sighing romantically in their loneliness…"
"I said no," Sokka said sternly.
"It is a good place to look, and from what we've learned of the Avatar's movements, he surely likes to visit these tourist spots!"
He didn't reply; he just rolled his eye and looked back down at the map. It was potentially in the Avatar's route from the Outer Islands...
"Bato's going to get the Avatar first if we don't go."
Sokka tapped his foot. And then scratched his chin. And then crossed his arms and frowned and furrowed his brow.
"You'll get an extra helping of seal biscuits," she crooned.
Sokka groaned and hung his head. "Someone tell the captain to set a course for the Water Gardens," he said, finally.
Below the galley, in the ship's dark cargo hold, a masked figure leaned forward into the light coming from the limber hole, listening to the conversation above.
Appa's tail lapped against the clear blue water as he swam through the narrow river system with the passengers on his back. Sabi batted at gnats in the air. Ty Lee was hanging off of Appa's horn, lowering herself as far as she could into the water and staring at her reflection, her fingers trailing in the river. Zuko kept looking all around to take in all the sights around them, while Aang gave Ty Lee a suspicious stare and Azula seemed uninterested.
Aang could see why the Water Gardens were well known. Although it was unpleasantly hot and his clothes and hair stuck to his skin, the water was refreshingly clear and blue, and giant plants lined the sides of the river, a thick barrier of vivid green. The rainforest had tall, leafy trees, some thin and some fat, but Aang saw mostly mangroves along the water. Many of them hung over the river and some branches reached almost all the way to the other side, draping a curtain of leaves that Aang parted with his staff for Appa. The river was calm, but it occasionally intersected with others that fed into it that were shallower and more rapid. Enormous, colorful flowers stood out from the greenery; he saw spotted blue orchids and carnivorous pitcher plants, pink water lilies and passion flowers, and many stranger ones with dozens of petals that he couldn't identify. One even looked like a fierce monkey's face - he could have sworn it had made a noise at one point, but that could have been the hog-monkeys howling somewhere in the distance.
Even though little of his attention was on his surroundings, being in an area where life was hitting him with all of its intensity was truly amazing. He was used to war-torn lands, fire, and destruction… And it was a rarity in this world, too. According to Zuko and Azula, as well as Haru back in the Earth Kingdom military outpost outside Jie Duan, much of the Earth Kingdom had become a dry, dead wasteland or a sprawling desert.
"Does anyone wanna go swimming?" Ty Lee suddenly asked, turning her head to them. "The water is so clear and cool…"
Zuko gave the water a look of distaste. "I don't know... back home, the deepest rivers in the jungle had all kinds of flesh-eating fish or venomous eelsnakes. Appa probably has nothing to worry about, though."
Ty Lee promptly pulled her fingers out of the water. "Oh, well. Heh. Just a suggestion."
As Aang directed his stare to the pristine water, he seemed to feel the coolness calling to him… If only he could waterbend again… He thought momentarily about going for a swim, despite Zuko's warning. It would be fun.
"Sokka!" Azula leapt up out of her seat, staring avidly down the river. Aang's gaze shot to that direction, spotting a ship turn a bend to head right toward them.
"How do you know it's him?" Zuko asked, jumping to Appa's head to grab the reins.
"All the times we've faced him, you don't recognize his ship yet?" Azula rolled her eyes, turning to Aang. "Are we running or fighting?"
"There's really no point to fighting him when we can just fly away…" Aang mused, leaning over the saddle to stare deeper into the water.
"Uh-oh," said Ty Lee, staring in the totally opposite direction. As Aang watched, the river seemed to be halting its flow… even moving in the other direction. He looked up as a shadow passed over the bison and they drifted underneath a canopy of vines and flowers. Sabi squeaked with fear.
Three skiffs sailed towards them, coming from one of the many rivers that forked into the main one behind them. Several waterbenders stood on each, moving as one to gather a large wave to topple the Avatar's bison.
"Fly!" Aang shouted.
"I'm on it!" Zuko returned, snapping the reins. "Appa, yip-yip!" The bison needed no further encouragement, sensing the fear and danger that quickly approached them. With a mighty flap of its tail, which splashed water everywhere, the bison leapt into the sky and Aang blasted the canopy of vines out of the way.
Ty Lee sat back into the saddle with a sigh of relief. "Oh man, that was a close one!"
"Were those Bato's men?" Azula wondered aloud. "What were they doing here? Sokka and Bato would never work together…"
She trailed off as her question was answered.
From the sky, they could all see the Water Tribe encampment in the center of a deforested section of the Water Gardens. Trees had been dried out and withered. Sleek, narrow ships docked along the rivers' banks; many of the largest rivers seemed to converge there. The flag of the Water Tribes was proudly displayed over the landscape. This was territory claimed by the enemy. Both Zuko and Azula gasped.
Azula rounded on Ty Lee, who was silent with her shoulders hunched. "You knew!" Her tone came out accusatory and harsh.
On the other side of the saddle, totally removed from what was going on around him, Aang stared over the side of Appa toward the ship below them. His grey, stormy eyes met Sokka's angry blue one. After contemplating his decision for a moment, he jumped.
The wind ripped at his clothes and hair as he fell towards the ground and the water, his arms and legs sprawled out on all sides. His companions' panicked shouts were lost to him as he soared, feeling free of all troubles, captured wholly by the pure exhilaration of falling, falling…
Aang unfurled his glider and seemed to float the rest of the short distance, landing right in the middle of Sokka's deck in a crouch. He swept his staff out in a circle, knocking several of the warriors away with a blast of wind. Sokka was on his toes and quick to retaliate, gathering streams of water from the river below him and sending them at the Avatar, constant and unwavering.
Aang dodged the spear of another offending warrior, swung his staff upwards once, and then brought up the other side and slammed the man into the deck with air-powered strikes. The force of the attacks knocked him unconscious, but Aang moved again before the warrior even hit the ground. He kicked off of the balustrade, swept the floor of warriors, rode the wind, and came crashing down again with astounding force. He ducked under a vicious boomerang attack and turned to his only remaining opponent.
Sokka deftly caught the weapon as it returned obediently to him, staring the Avatar resolutely in the eye.
Aang, to the prince's surprise, dropped his staff in a gesture of surrender. "I don't want to fight you. We need to talk."
"You should listen to him, Prince Sokka," said the voice of an old woman, arriving on the slippery wet deck. Bato's ship slowly but surely approached, only an arrow's shot away. "A hand of diplomacy is a welcome one."
"Maybe for you," Sokka shot at her. "Leave me. This is our business."
Aang nodded his head in acknowledgement of the old woman, glad that she didn't advise Sokka to attack. Perhaps she was a good influence on him.
She nodded back to Aang, disregarding Sokka's order. "What is it that you'd like to say?" she asked.
"Sokka, I… I know that, somewhere, there is good in you—"
"You are a naïve fool." Bato interrupted them, his ship was now close enough to speak and be heard. Sokka didn't move, didn't even look at the other waterbender. "Our most esteemed prince exiled himself out of an arrogant, selfish need to prove himself. He sought glory at the expense of his countrymen. 'Good?' No, he never used to be good. He used to be great; the prodigal son. A genius in the making. But then he failed his manhood ceremony and now he's been whittled down to a simple boy who doesn't do anything except chase his latest obsessions like a child who can't decide on his favorite toy. Girls, inventions, food, the Avatar... which is it, Prince Sokka?"
Aang's eyes widened. He didn't know Sokka in this world. But maybe, underneath the scowls and the anger, the waterbending, the loss of one of his eyes... could parts of the Sokka he knew be buried? Was there a chance he could bring that Sokka back? He had to try. Bato's words, his description of Sokka, made him think the two versions of his friend had more in common than he thought. Though scathing, it told Aang something valuable. His heart swelled in elation.
"I would tell you to get away from here," Kanna said, fists clenched. "But since you formally defeated him in Sedna'a…"
"Stop it," Sokka growled, his voice low and dangerous. "Don't say another word."
Nobody had a chance to. Suddenly, arrows, men, and weapons flew from the trees surrounding them, dirty brown and green and blue cloaked figures swinging by vines to land on either of the two ships. Bato's soldiers immediately responded to the attack, brandishing their weapons, but the assailants felled them quickly. The mysterious fighters swarmed the two ships with concentrated skill, helping Aang out of a situation he was disgruntled to see interrupted.
One of the fighters, a boy scarcely older than Zuko or Sokka and wielding a ball of water, spoke to him. "Follow us!" he said in a rush, hurling the concentrated sphere. "Your friends are safe."
That was all the confirmation he needed. As soon as most of the soldiers were down, the attackers fled from the scene. Aang followed with equal speed, which was saying a lot. Theirs was astounding. Their carefully practiced feet stepped over any knot in the uneven ground, around any rogue branch, through the swampy ground. The sounds of battle were lost behind them as the cloaked men rushed back into the foliage. Aang was heavily reminded of the swampbenders back in his own world. Was this the new representation of them here? Why were they in the Fire Nation?
Suddenly, without warning, the group was thrown into a clearing. Aang, who met no more resistance from the rainforest, almost stumbled and fell. He caught himself just in time and looked around.
He spotted Appa first, with Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee still sitting upon him, looking tense and wary. His eyes passed over them quickly, wanting to get a feel of the terrain around him just in case they needed a quick escape. It was just a small clearing with a fierce river cutting right through the middle and dense forest on all sides. A meager camp had been set up all around them, filled with waterbenders in brown cloaks and tents made for quick construction and collapse.
"What is this place?" Aang asked the waterbender who rescued him. "Who are you guys?"
"We're all deserters from the Water Nation navy," the young man said proudly. "Of course, we're not the first. Our leader, Master Pakku, is. He's a great man and a powerful waterbender."
A jolt of excitement burned through his veins, and Aang smiled. Another old friend – and this time, he was on Aang's side.
"My name's Sangok," the young man continued. "I'm the second person to desert the Water Navy and survive… and the youngest, by far. I think I should get some notoriety for that."
"My name's Aang," he said. "Can I meet Master Pakku?"
"Of course. We already know you're the Avatar. Did you come here to master waterbending?"
"I would be honored," Aang said hurriedly. He had great respect for the man – he, too, died during the war for Aang. It would be nice to see Pakku again.
"I'll go get him!" the excited youth said. Aang watched him run off to one of the tents and he walked over to his friends.
"Guys, we're safe here. You can come down now," he said.
"Aang, they're waterbenders," Azula said, which she thought explained everything.
"I know, but they're on our side," he replied. "How'd you guys get here?"
"We were going back to help you after you made your stupid move, but they caught us and told us to come here," Azula said sharply, emphasizing the word stupid. "We just found out they were waterbenders."
"Yes, which is why they're going to teach me," he said with a grin. Zuko almost fell over with shock, but Ty Lee looked relieved.
"Won't that take a lot of time?" Ty Lee asked. She seemed almost… hopeful.
As Aang gave her a calculating glare, two men emerged from a tent. One was Sangok with an expectant grin. The other was an old man with a sour expression. The top of his head was bald and scarred, but the hair that he had was white. He wore faded blue skins and walked with the experience that came with age.
Pakku was almost exactly as Aang remembered him.
"You are a strange boy, Avatar Aang," said the old waterbender, who looked at him with a scrutinizing eye. "You are a child and you claim you don't know how to bend the other three elements, yet you walk as if you were a fully-realized Avatar, one with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Your eyes have seen pain and destruction. You have lost people who were important to you. I do not believe that you have not mastered waterbending."
You are as perceptive as ever, Master Pakku, Aang thought to himself, trying not to smile. And you are skeptical. I'm glad you haven't lost that.
"Oh, but I have," Aang responded with the same tone, to the surprise of his friends. "I have mastered waterbending a thousand times over. I have lived a thousand lives worth of pain and loss. Yet I'm doing it again… and again… and again. That is the way of the Avatar, Master Pakku."
"Now there is not a doubt in my mind – you even speak with the deflective tones of a master waterbender. Despite that fact, I will teach you as you wish."
Aang's façade was lost as surprise flooded into his expression. "What? That's it? You aren't even going to lecture me about mastering the elements in the wrong order?"
"I should, shouldn't I?" he wondered aloud, stroking his beard. "Why bother? You must already know this. Besides, Avatar Kuruk visited me in a dream very recently, and told me of your… situation. It is imperative that you master waterbending… for the thousand-and-first time. Thousands of years of tradition thrown out the window, just like that. I wonder if the order that the Avatar is supposed to master the elements matters at all, in the grand scheme of things."
Aang's eyebrows went into his hair and his mouth hung open. Was Pakku insinuating that he knew about the arrival of Seiryu's Moon, or that he knew Aang was from a different world? Pakku was staring at him knowingly. Aang nodded to the old man.
"That's all well and good, but if you're running from the Navy, why are you hiding in their territory?" Azula interjected. "It seems stupid to me."
Pakku smirked. "Because they would never think to search for us here. We are located next to the roughest river in all of the Water Gardens – treacherous for any of their ships, nobody ever follows it. Decoys led the officers pursuing you to an area outside of the Water Gardens. We are perfectly safe, for now. This place has been under control of the Water Navy for almost five years." He gestured for Sangok to go away. The young man nodded and left. "We move frequently enough, but we've been in the Water Gardens for the last month or so."
That was exactly what Azula wanted to know. She rounded on Ty Lee. "You must have known this place was under control of the enemy!" she hissed. "You've been here before. You brought us into danger, knowing full well what would happen!"
"That's right," Aang said, having forgotten about Ty Lee. "You have been hiding something from us. Before, I respected your privacy. Now, since your secret is endangering us, I'd prefer that you tell us." He suppressed the small part of him that wanted to shout out his own secrets, fully aware of his hypocrisy. But his secrets weren't a danger to anyone.
Ty Lee looked so small and afraid, staring at her feet and holding her braid close. Her lip quivered and her eyes looked wet. "I-I can't tell you…"
Aang didn't look at her eyes as he spoke, a weight in his chest that felt heavier when he remembered how she stood by him when Zuko and Azula almost left him for Zhao. "Then you can't stay with us."
"No!" she shouted, leaning forward to hold his gaze. "Don't make me leave! You guys are my friends! You have to trust me on this…"
"What reason do we have to trust you?" Zuko finally spoke, his head turned toward the river. Ty Lee looked as if she had been slapped in the face.
Pakku stared at Ty Lee with his usual scrutiny before he yawned. "Are we going to start your training or what?" he interrupted the knot of friends.
"I apologize, Master Pakku. Ty Lee's been with us for a while, but… she is hiding things," Aang explained.
"And I know exactly what she's hiding," the old man responded. All four faces looked up at him in shock. Ty Lee's was the greatest. "But that is her secret to keep. It is not a terrible burden, I'll tell you that much." And then he crossed his arms and Aang knew him well enough that he'd stubbornly refuse to say anything else.
"Look…" Ty Lee started. "I promise… that I'll tell you once we get to the Golden City. Okay?"
Aang, knowing that was as far as they would get with her, nodded reluctantly. "Fine… you can stay. But as long as your secret doesn't endanger us again."
Ty Lee nodded, letting out a deep breath of relief even as Zuko turned away from her with his shoulders slackened and Azula glared at her back.
Luckily, when learning waterbending, Aang did not have to suffer through any tedious breathing exercises or strict discipline. Pakku simply taught of the movement and grace and cutting ability of waterbenders – the power to adapt, redirect, and balance. Waterbending was the element of change.
The master waterbender began the same way Katara did, all those years ago. They first tried the simplest of all waterbending moves – shifting the water up and down the riverbank, like ocean surf washing up on a beach. It was on a much smaller scale, and Aang grasped it well the first time around, but something happened this time that surprised him.
He exhaled, and the coldness in his heart seemed to manifest itself as the water froze solid beneath him, anchoring his own feet into the ground.
However, as they progressed further, something didn't quite feel right; he still felt rigid and hesitant with his movements, and whenever a bending form reminded him of Katara he felt his grasp of the water quiver and splash at his feet. He had hoped that whatever happened when he initially learned firebending in this world would happen again; that an empty bowl would fill with his memories of water.
Nonetheless, Aang smiled. Ice was enough for now. He was a waterbender again.
Pakku and his men did not plan to move from the middle of the lion-turtle's den any time soon. They hadn't been discovered yet, they reasoned, and they seemed reasonably confident that they could make an escape quickly enough to avoid danger if necessary. As a result, Team Avatar made the same decision to stay.
At around noon the next day, Pakku decided to leave Aang and the others alone along the riverbank that ran through the camp. Zuko and Ty Lee relaxed together on the lip of a rock that jutted out above the river while Aang and Azula practicing their firebending. He was forbidden to try waterbending without Pakku around, which caused Aang's firebending to be more aggressive and angry than normal. He hated being treated like a child.
"You're not concentrating," Azula snapped at him after a few minutes. "You nearly burned me."
"I want to waterbend," he said frankly. His grey eyes peered at the rough river – deep and foreboding. A single rock poked out of the foam near the center.
Azula rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you're thinking about going there. You can waterbend perfectly fine from over here."
"Not for what I have in mind," he said with a very Azula-like smirk. He took a few steps backward, carefully calculated the distance to the tiny rock, and jumped. The air currents easily brought him over the distance safely, but when he landed his feet almost slipped. He turned back to Azula once he stabilized himself and gave her a triumphant grin. She rolled her eyes again.
Occasionally, water lapped up over the surface of the rock and threatened to pull him along with the river. He quickly remedied this by freezing his feet to the rock. Satisfied and facing against the flow of the river, he held out his hand to divert the flow; instead of wielding it himself it was easier for him to slightly nudge the river's path. Next, he tried to lift a short, circular wall of water that surrounded him on all sides, but it quivered and looked shapeless before falling back into the water. He lowered his hands and let the water fall around him as he prepared another move in his mind, trying to picture Katara doing it in his place. Getting more and more frustrated at his lack of progress, he slapped the water with his hands.
Ty Lee waved at him from the lip of rock she was seated on, and she shouted something, but he couldn't hear her over the roar of the river.
Just as he was about to try something else, he heard a shout from much closer. Ty Lee ran toward the riverbank, looking panicked and pointing frantically, and it took him seconds too long to notice what had happened.
Behind him, Azula's form had been ripped downriver and she did all she could to keep her head above the water. Aang yelled out to her and tried to jump after her, but his frozen feet anchored him in place and he almost fell into the river himself. He wrenched his feet free and was prepared to follow her before she was lost, but he didn't have his glider. His breaths came hard and fast as he thought of the best way to go rescue her.
Despite the fact that he would never make it in time, he jumped across the river back to shore to find his glider and follow her through the air, but was distracted by Master Pakku swooping into the river and surfing down it on a board of ice faster than he could follow. As Aang landed on solid ground, Zuko and Ty Lee rushed over to him.
"Why weren't you paying attention?!" Zuko demanded of the boy. "Your waterbending pulled my sister into the river!"
"Stop shouting, I'm sure it was an accident…" Ty Lee tried to intervene.
"SHE COULD BE DROWNING!" Zuko roared, and he seemed ready to jump into the river himself.
"Zuko, she's going to be fine!" Aang yelled over him. He had no idea how that happened, his waterbending wasn't strong enough for that, there was no way he could have done that. Especially once he remembered a distant, similar shame regarding Katara. He never would have let something like that happen a second time. "Pakku's going after her—she's safe now!"
Zuko ran along the riverbank regardless, pushing past Aang. "She's all I have left!"
Hidden among the forest undergrowth, Bato smirked as he watched the group of close-knit friends clash. "This could be advantageous," he thought aloud. He was the one who had thrust his hand out and swallowed the girl in the river. It had been so easy; the Avatar's pitiful waterbending display was the perfect culprit for splitting up his merry band. He knew they were strong together, but they could be broken. And it would be just as easy as finding them in the first place - his old master's attempt at deceit came as no surprise.
And above him, on the branch of a tree, the Blue Spirit stared.
Pakku caught up to her quickly, seeing the girl's raven black hair among the white foam of the river. Before he even reached her, he lifted one of his hands and thrust the water up from under her, throwing her onto solid ground. He skidded across the ice and landed next to her as she sputtered on her knees.
"That boy is a fool," Pakku said immediately, not even asking if she was all right. Just as he showed no compassion, she offered no gratitude.
"Tell me about it," Azula coughed. She brought her hands up to both sides of her mouth and expelled small bits of fire, both to warm her up and clear her lungs. It sounded much like a violent cough.
Pakku regarded her, examining her features while she distracted herself with her coughing. Something about her seemed familiar. Or maybe he just spent too long in the Fire Nation. Without knowing why, he found himself speaking. "I always wanted to be a firebender."
She looked up at him, eyeing him with a curious, penetrating stare. That look made him wonder again if they had somehow met before. She uttered one word. "Why?"
"Water and ice are cold. As you just witnessed, it can be fierce and dangerous. Fire burns with warmth and life."
Azula snorted and stood. "Fire is life itself," she said. "It breathes and grows and eats just like a living being… to the point of being out of control, sometimes. I always thought fire was the most dangerous. But I love it for that." She laughed in a way that seemed almost derisive. "And Aang told me you were wise."
Normally, Pakku would have scolded her for being so disrespectful; when he was younger, he might have scolded her for speaking out of line. But instead, he said nothing.
Aang kicked a loose stone on the ground as he trooped off from the camp and away from the others. Zuko was still angry; instead of going off into the rainforest, he had taken to pacing back and forth by the riverbank. Azula and Pakku weren't back yet… but it had only been a few minutes. And Ty Lee was keeping Zuko company. As Aang walked, he had only one thing on his mind.
Sokka didn't hold grudges as long as Zuko.
And it made him miss his old friends even more.
"What's wrong, Avatar?" Aang's head snapped to the voice, easily recognizing the derisive tone as Bato's. Before he could move, vines snaked up his hands and feet, binding him in place.
"What do you want, Bato?" He wore a snarl, but he wasn't fazed by the man who was hiding in the trees. He did not make an effort to escape, but the vines crawled further around his body, completely constricting him. Then he became unbalanced and fell.
This was all he could do?
"Just some conversation," the waterbender replied from the dense foliage. "Now if you'd come with me…" The man began to use his waterbending to drag Aang across the ground, pulling him in the direction of the river. If he thought he could drown Aang easily, he was in for a surprise. If it was an ambush, he could escape. He was not concerned. "Why are you separated from your friends?"
"Well, I wanted some time alone, but I was rudely interrupted," Aang replied without batting an eye.
"Your friends no longer trust you, do they?" Bato dragged him to the open riverside and Aang was suddenly blinded by the bright sunlight, but his eyes adjusted quickly. He felt the heat on his face, and after a few deep breaths he felt the vines around his wrists grow hotter.
"What makes you think that?" Aang asked him face-to-face, now that he was visible.
Bato folded his hands behind his back and now Aang could see that he smirked. "There is no peace among your little group. You all have your… secrets."
"What do you know?" Aang asked him, anger seeping into his voice. "You've been spying, haven't you?"
"That may be so… But why don't you leave them? They don't want you nor need you. They don't care. Why train with the disgraced Master Pakku when I could train you instead? I'm a better warrior and waterbender than he is."
"Wait, you really want me to join you or something like that? Sorry, but I'm not about to fall for something so stupid, Bato."
"That's Chief Bato, you little brat." The waterbender's eyes narrowed to slits. "So… I see that is your decision. Loyal to your friends like a good little Avatar, aren't you?" Bato took a step back and clenched his hand, causing the vines around Aang to tighten. "You have no choice. You're my prisoner now."
"You wish," Aang replied, straining against the force of the vines. He breathed in and out, centering the heat of the sun on his hands and torso. Concentrating, he threw his hands from his constraints in a burst of fire which burnt the vines to crisps. He took a firebending stance, but went on the attack quickly, hurling a fireball at the older man.
"Fighting head-on just isn't my style," said Bato, drawing water from the river into a shield, absorbing the attack. He returned it back to Aang and jumped towards the water, walking across it like a waterbending master. Before Aang could unleash another fireball from his fingertips, Bato raised both of his hands and water washed all around them both, coiling around the two and shielding Bato from Aang's view. Then, it froze. "Welcome to my domain, Avatar. Lesson one: ice can be molded into whatever shape you wish, as long as your imagination allows it."
Aang looked straight up at the only opening in the ice and jumped toward it, but it sealed together and froze quickly. Aang smirked and waved his hand over it, unfreezing the ice himself. The water splashed onto him, but he jumped out of the ice prison and looked around him.
Bato had constructed a large dome of ice with few holes interspersed throughout the surface, designating small tunnels underneath. Well, if he wanted to play that game…
"Then let's play," Aang said quietly to himself, a grin growing on his face. He loved games. He dove headfirst into one of the holes.
It was a narrow fit, but using a combination of both his firebending and his very limited waterbending, he was able to melt most of the ice around him and continue whenever there was a block in the tunnel. Very rarely were they large enough for him to stand. Sharp-toothed fish glared at him from in the ice as if it was his fault they had been immobilized like this. Under here, Bato had frozen a whole forest of round, leafy plants and at one point when unfreezing part of it one of the eelsnakes Zuko had mentioned earlier almost fell on Aang's head. Finally, he reached solid ground – the river bottom – and was able to stand up straight. There was no sign of Bato.
And then an ice spike shot from the wall, nearly impaling his shoulder. He narrowly dodged, but both sides of the tunnel closed, imprisoning him. He used what little airbending he could in the tight space to jump near the ceiling, where he dug his hand into the ice to hold himself. Next, he blasted the ceiling away with a concentrated burst of fire, where he emerged into open air once again. Immediately, he noticed that the dome was constructed of many walls. The ceiling ice was taken away to form even more of a maze. As such, he was able to see Bato through some of the spires of ice. The chief moved quickly through the walls he had made, sealing them back up again and sending concentrated water blasts or spikes of ice at the airbender. Aang dodged each of them or countered with as much fire as he could muster, but Bato quickly stopped his movement by melting the ice he was standing on instantly and freezing his legs inside up to his thighs.
Aang struggled to move, condensing heat on his feet while he simultaneously sent small fireballs at Bato or generated winds with his hands. The ice around him melted further and the water dragged the Avatar in until he was completely submerged.
The surface of the water froze, sealing off his only escape and trapping him in a globe of water and ice. Aang held his breath, as it was the only thing he could do. He couldn't even see through the murk kicked up from the riverbed, past the plants and weeds. A jolt of fear when he saw a movement that made him think of one of the flesh-eating fish almost made him gasp in a panic. He wanted to curse Bato and his deceptive style of fighting – it was something he definitely wasn't used to; even Fire Lord Azula was more direct when she fought. The ice cutting off his escape froze and thickened further, rapidly limiting what little space he had. Instead of trying to shout at Bato, he concentrated on his chances of survival, which were getting slimmer. Airbending was useless underwater. Earthbending wasn't an option. Firebending? The ice was too thick to melt, and without his breath his options were limited. And his own meager waterbending would never work against Bato's superior power…
If only he had a sword… He remembered Sokka's weapon cutting through steel. That would have been useful here. Unfortunately, he had never picked up a sword in either of his lives.
Aang was beginning to feel lightheaded. His chest began to pump. His eyelids became heavier… His space became smaller and smaller… Unable to hold it in anymore, he opened his mouth as if to scream.
And suddenly, he was thrust up and out of the water, meeting warm air once again. He gulped in huge breaths, but forgot about the water in his system and began to hack it out. When he was able, he managed to look up to see the brown cloaked form of Pakku. But Pakku wasn't looking at Aang.
Aang looked behind him, following Pakku's gaze, noticing for the first time the place where two rivers came into one. They were feeding into the main, large, vicious river where Pakku's camp had been secretly nestled. And two Water Tribe riverboats followed the flow of the river. Aang spotted Sokka at the helm of one – the other ship must have belonged to Bato.
Aang stood on shaky legs, keeping his balance on the ice as Bato smirked. Bato had only been distracting him.
"Step back and go with your friends," Pakku said to Aang, his voice stern. "They are safe behind us."
"But what about you?" Aang asked.
"I'll deal with the warriors," the old man said with a characteristic smirk. The ice prison all around them melted except for the small platform they were on, which simply lowered to ground level. Pakku raised his arms and summoned all of the melted water which rose into a great orb around the two and blasted it toward the two ships. The boats were instantly swept up by the torrent, but at least a dozen warriors – plus Sokka and his aged companion – jumped from each.
With water constantly feeding his arsenal, Pakku rode upon tall, spinning water snakes and blasted water at the dozens of warriors below him, wiping several out with each wave. Pakku's arms moved with the grace only a full master could acquire, bending his wrists and washing the warriors repeatedly – switching between the states of water at a whim. Finally, he froze down most of Sokka and Bato's men in an expansive snowfield or prisons of ice.
Aang spent no time being awed by the display of power, but Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee did. He snapped them out of their trances by calling to them.
"Azula, help me take care of Bato and Sokka," he yelled to the firebender. She tore her eyes away from the spectacle and nodded, her face set in an expression that told Aang she was ready to make things burn. He wanted to apologize to her, but that would wait. Seconds later, their two targets arrived as if expecting this fight to happen. Or perhaps they were racing to get Aang. He didn't care, either way.
This time, Aang took his refined airbending stance while Azula readied her own. Quickly calculating the strength of his opponents with his eyes, Aang decided how this battle would turn out. To win, he would have to fight Bato and leave Sokka up to Azula.
Aang built up inertia with a quick circular motion and unleashed the winds on Bato, sending the man flying away from Sokka. Aang followed relentlessly, flicking his wrists to send blasts of air at Bato, but he rolled to the side to avoid it, kicking out his feet.
Meanwhile, Sokka attacked Azula first, as if to get her out of the way so he could claim his prize. She blocked the water attack with a hastily constructed wall of fire, circling around Sokka and shooting a fireball from her fingertips in a counterattack. Her thick, black hair whipped at her face, nearly blocking her view. Sokka absorbed the attack and retaliated with a concentrated sphere of water, which she dodged by rolling to the side.
"You fight like an airbender," Sokka said, his eye narrowing. "You clearly don't know your own art. Just mimicking the Avatar in the absence of an actual master?"
"Shut up!" she shot back, lunging forward with the force of her own punch. A wave of fire launched from her fists, but he used the water on the ground around him to construct a wall that deflected it. He then condensed that wall into ice and shot the spikes at her. She ducked, lacking the power to stop the attack. Since her method wasn't working, she decided to try and distract him with words. "I'm getting my headpiece back today," she growled at him, bent low. She was ready to move at a moment's notice.
"I'd like to see you try," he responded to the challenge. He pulled the flamed headpiece out of his pocket and stuck it into his warrior's wolf tail, openly mocking her. "There. Try and take it." Azula jumped up into a kick and sent an arc of burning fire his way, but he ran to the side and used puddles from the ground to launch discs of water at her. Azula took a move from Ty Lee's book and cartwheeled out of the way of each one. She smirked.
"You can't hit me," she taunted. She shot small daggers of fire at him next and charged forward right behind them, gathering more fire at the tips of her fingers. As Sokka concentrated on blocking the small projectiles, she pulled the fire up and seemed to slash at him, leaving a tail of fire like a whip in its wake. Sokka barely managed to block the attack, but she reached her hand up and wrapped her fingers around the pronged headpiece…
But she had left her midsection open. Sokka blasted her in the gut with a ball of water, hurling her several feet away. She landed on the ground, gasping in pain. Sokka smirked in victory and was about to go over to defeat Aang, but he felt a lack of weight on his head. His face turned to one of shock.
The flame crown was gone.
From the ground, despite being beaten, Azula smirked. She held her prized possession in her hands once again.
"You got lucky," he hissed. "Doesn't matter. That's a small loss. Keep it."
Azula, totally spent, couldn't find the energy to stop him as he went toward Aang.
"How the heck did I get matched up with the old lady?" Ty Lee asked, in a loose combat stance as they faced each other on the mud. Mangrove roots made a tangled wall on Ty Lee's right side and a few fish flopped around their feet. She tried not to think of any eelsnakes slithering through the mud. Kanna held her hands behind her back, tilted her head, and smiled.
"You must never underestimate old ladies," Kanna responded, giving the girl a smile that reached her eyes. "I know plenty of powerful ones. Though even that old man over there is something of an old friend. If you wouldn't underestimate him, you shouldn't underestimate me, either."
"Okay, stand there like a nice old lady," Ty Lee said, slowly approaching her. She seemed to ignore every word Kanna said. "You're a cute little thing, you know that? Anyways… this won't hurt. Just stand still. I gotta stop your bending, just in case."
"Oh?" Kanna asked, interested. Ty Lee raised her hand to strike the woman's shoulder, but was stopped abruptly when Kanna flicked her hand forward, gathering all the water and frost on the ground and locking her in a great pillar of ice.
"What? Hey!" Ty Lee tried to struggle, her arms and legs sprawled. She couldn't move. "Darn you, old ladies!" she cried to the sky.
Kanna just laughed into her hand.
Pakku surfed downstream, escaping the notice of the Avatar and his friends as he fled back to his camp. His followers, not knowing of the battle, would be waiting. Now that they had been found, they had to leave. He had confidence in the Avatar's abilities - they would escape from Chief Bato and Prince Sokka without too much issue. Besides, it wasn't right to disrupt the balance and teach the Avatar waterbending before fire or earth, no matter what a vision claimed.
A black-clad figure jumped from the trees to his left, gliding through the air on columns of water that froze into a solid wall of ice that split the river completely. This happened so fast that Pakku nearly collided with the wall. The figure skidded across the top with apparent ease.
As soon as the unknown waterbender stopped, balancing precariously atop the wall, Pakku observed her figure and blue oni mask. Aside from the mask, she was dressed completely in black. Any hair that she might have had was concealed inside of her hood, and her hand was loosely grasping a sheathed sword on her back. Standing on the surface of the water, Pakku spoke to her.
"And who might you be?" he asked, as if someone had simply approached him on the road.
The figure lifted her fingers to the chin of her mask, pulling away the hood and lifting the mask at the same time. Tanned skin, mahogany hair, and blue eyes met him at once. Her hair was pulled back by a clasp, and her eyes settled in a fierce gaze.
"Hello, Elder," she said. "Or should I just call you Pakku?"
"It is good to see you again, Katara. No need to be so formal. I was almost your master at one time, wasn't I?"
"Almost." The princess of the Water Nation stared at him coldly. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Still have a grudge about that, do you? You already had two other teachers at the time. I didn't see a need to add any more ingredients to the soup."
She tightened her grip around the sword at her back. "Answer the question."
"You know me… I flow wherever the water decides to take me," he replied with a grin.
"I can't let you do that." The young woman tied her demon mask to her hood and let it rest on her back. "You are a wanted criminal, after all."
"Where is the old Katara? I didn't teach you to be as cold and impolite as the ice you wield," he responded. "Oh, wait... I didn't. If it is a fight you want, you'll get it." Before he could even gather water beneath him, Katara sprung from her perch, twisting in the air and lifting water far beneath her to fly at the old man. He rose above the attack on a water snake, unleashing razor blades of water on her.
They didn't faze her. She slid to a stop on the muddy riverbed, using her hands to steady herself as well as call up a flood of water which he blocked, but she circled it around and struck him again with it. The princess called up great amounts of water with all of her attacks, which she used to crush her foes under the sheer amount of weight.
But she could be quick and precise when she desired, as he well knew.
She unsheathed the short blade from her back and swung it at Pakku, gathering water along the blade's length which sharpened like an elongation of her sword. When the attack missed, she held her sword and let the stream of water hang from it like a whip, which she used to lash at him from a distance.
Pakku was not about to let her dominate the fight. He whipped up a wall of water and flung it at her, turning it into ice spikes while it was in the air. She simply raised her other hand and stopped them in midair, reversing the points and sending them right back at her master. She stood rigid – her mouth in a grim line, her eyes solid and steady.
She broke this pattern as Pakku neared, spinning rapidly with her arms extended on a slant, and calling up ice spikes from the moisture in the ground. She spun three quick times, summoning ice with each one. Water snaked up her arms, coiling into whips which extended towards the other waterbending master.
The roar of an animal above her seemed to distract Katara long enough to look at it. Her eyes followed the Avatar's bison, most likely going to where the Avatar fought her brother and Bato. When she looked back at her opponent, he made sure to disappear into the trees. What a turn of events, he thought as he retreated. To meet both Bato and Katara again in a single day... And there had been a certain someone on Sokka's ship, one he didn't dare hope to see again. But it couldn't have been her.
Katara reached for the mask on her back and pulled it back on, hiding her identity once again.
Aang returned the two consecutive water jets with a rain of fire, expanding it and letting it grow with a soft breeze. Sokka and Bato both covered their faces and immediately went onto the attack again. They were both fighting viciously, as if competing against each other to see who could defeat the Avatar first. Well, Aang wouldn't let either of them win.
He jumped up onto one of the tree branches surrounding him and took a look over the site of battle. Bato and Sokka's warriors were still frozen to the ground. Azula and Zuko continued trying to chip Ty Lee out of a pillar of ice. Pakku was nowhere to be seen.
This battle had ended.
Before either of his opponents could attack him, he pulled out his bison whistle and blew. It did not faze the two – in fact, they seemed to be moving faster. Aang put on a burst of speed and shot from the tree, running across the barren river, its flow of water still blocked, with speed only an airbender possessed. He reached Zuko, Azula, and Ty Lee on the other side before Sokka and Bato made it to the mud. Zuko handed Aang his glider staff.
"We're done here. Appa's coming," he said. He melted the rest of the ice with a wave of his hand and freed Ty Lee, much to her gratitude. Aang noticed the fire crown prominently displayed on Azula's head, but he didn't get a chance to say anything as Bato and Sokka neared, both gathering water in their hands.
Aang jumped forward and swung his staff with all his might, striking Bato with a powerful blast of wind. Sokka managed to throw himself to the ground just in time, but as he moved to get up, another blast of wind flattened him, courtesy of Appa.
Aang kept an eye on Sokka as Appa landed on the ground and the other three boarded. The prince's head was face-down in the mud, but as Aang watched, he lifted his face to him slowly. Then, without warning, Sokka shot his hand out and pulled an ice spike from the mud under Aang, but with his quick reflexes, Aang was able to avoid it and jump into Appa's saddle. The bison flew away, leaving this mess of a visit behind them.
Aang looked regretfully down at his old friend, but knew he couldn't do anything now. He vowed to himself to help Sokka later, somehow. However he could.
Sabi curled around Ty Lee once she sat in the saddle, who looked miserable and angry at the same time.
"Well… that was eventful," Aang said to them.
"I'll say!" said Ty Lee. "I got beaten up by an old lady! An old lady!"
"I won my fight," Azula said proudly, gesturing to her newly-returned headpiece. Even covered in mud, it did little to damper her victorious smirk. Ty Lee awed at it. "And we did get to see quite a bit - you were right, Ty Lee. These gardens were beautiful at night. What happened to Pakku?"
"He'll be okay," said Aang. "He needed to do other things, I'm sure." Try as he might, it was not his time to learn waterbending yet.
Zuko crossed his arms from Appa's head. They were able to hear the anger in his voice. "At least you guys got to fight someone. I had to do all the clean-up work."
"It's okay, Zuzu. I'm sure there will be plenty of other Water Tribe heads to knock," said his sister, smirking.
"I feel useless," the older boy said in a low tone. "I don't even have the excuse of not being able to bend. Ty Lee can't, and she's amazing at fighting," Zuko went on. Ty Lee lowered her head.
"We're sorry," she said to him.
"Don't be," he replied, albeit a little harshly.
As Sabi switched over to Aang's shoulder and nibbled on some of their food, Aang looked over to the horizon ahead of them as Zuko brooded. Try as he might to feel sorry for his friend, his mind was elsewhere.
That whole time, he couldn't stop wondering where Katara could be in this world. She should have been here to teach him waterbending instead.
His gaze focused to the back of Ty Lee's head, her braid whipping the air behind her. She seemed to be staring reluctantly to the north... toward the direction of the Golden City.
What will await us there, I wonder?
Author's Notes: Finally! I know there was a long gap, and I don't really have an excuse, but I hope I made up for it with a long and epic chapter. I know I might get a lot of bashing here for practically ignoring Zuko through all of the fighting, but it was done on purpose. He will get his time to shine… sooner than you'd think. (Cough) Next chapter (cough).
Also, mramirez1991 was kind enough to make a graphic of Distorted Reality for me! It looks a lot like what a Season 1 Boxed set DVD for this story would look like :) Check it out, the link is in my profile! Thanks, Marcus!
Hopefully, since I'm kind of excited about the next chapter, it will be out sooner. Until then, Happy Halloween, everybody!
