Author's Note: I did an almost full rewrite of "The Astronomer," so that's why this chapter is a bit later than usual! I plan to do the same with "The First Guru." Together, those two chapters are, in my eyes, among the worst of this fic, and together they mark the point where I first started losing interest in this over ten years ago and I think it showed in my writing.

Book 3: Water

Chapter 6: The Spiritsong Grotto

The growl of airship engines intruded on the quiet, misty morning, and all at once the peaceful ravine erupted into chaos.

She saw the temple come into view as she ascended and the bombardment began. The force of the attack threatened to make it fall from the underside of the cliff. The wind whipped at her hair and behind her she saw Mai and Ty Lee, ready for a fight along with her. Mai looked stormy.

Metal shutters enclosed the temple. Zuko emerged from behind the pillars and leapt across the chasm and for a moment she thought he would fall but he managed to reach the airship, scrambling for balance. She felt a thrill of satisfaction and commenced her own assault, attacking him with a whirling kick of blue fire.

He met it head on.

The bison flew by overhead and dropped the peasant with the sword and another she remembered as her favorite prisoner, and the Avatar continued to flee but the six combatants engaged on top of the zeppelin. Mai said something but she fought Zuko regardless.

She spoke with Zuko and the words sounded far away and her fingers crackled with power and she circled her hands to gather more of it before firing it at her brother with the full knowledge of what would happen, but she wanted to see, wanted to know what technique he had gleaned from Uncle Iroh. And he caught it in his hands just like she predicted he would, just like Father said he would, but instead of returning it to her his eyes latched onto Mai standing between them and he pointed the lightning at the sky, also just like she predicted.

The Avatar on his bison fought off the onslaught of firebenders and flew back around to pick up the peasant and the prisoner but Zuko didn't leave. She clashed with him again and blue fire whirled around her fist and red flames burned around his and when they collided both of them were thrown back by the force, careening over opposite sides of the zeppelin.

She fell, floundering as the harsh wind tore at her and both she and Zuko disappeared into the fog deep in the ravine, and for a moment she wondered if this would be the last time she ever saw her brother alive until the bison swooped down and caught him.

Jets of blue flame stopped her fall and her momentum carried her to the side of the ravine, where she used her crown that was as strong as a knife to stab into the stone where she finally halted.

The bison escaped with the Avatar and her brother but she smiled with the knowledge that they would fight again. There wasn't much time left for them, after all.


A snowstorm raged through the night on the icy tundra, and in one tiny igloo she shared with a waterbender in the middle of nowhere Azula awoke with a gasp, the memory of her dream fresh in her mind. She still felt like she was falling forever into a cloudy void and that feeling did not go away when she turned over and tried to go back to sleep.


After they flew over Kuruk's atoll, Aang told Sokka everything he had learned about Emperor Aniak's life while Zuko sat at Appa's reins. To his credit, Sokka reacted with disgust at his ancestor's actions and knew little about Aniak's life other than how he united most of the southern tribes, and later on even the northern ones. Though he did latch onto the fact that Aang was the reincarnation of his adoptive great-great grandfather with something like sarcastic displeasure.

"So how did Aniak die, anyway?" Aang asked him. His eyes passed over the distant shores of the Southern Water Tribe as they flew past the mainland toward the eastern peninsula.

"By all accounts, he was actually pretty young," Sokka replied, shrugging. "They say his wife died and he kind of lost his mind somewhere in middle age. One night he just wandered out into the cold and the next morning they found him frozen to death. And weirdly his son Emperor Kanektok died the same way years later."

"Family curse?" Zuko called from Appa's head.

Sokka scoffed. "Nah. Emperor Kvichak, my grandfather, died of a heart attack in his sleep. Broke that coincidence before it became a pattern."

That one must have been Kanna's husband, Aang surmised. He wondered what kind of man he was that she married him rather than Pakku, as in his world. He hugged his parka tighter to block out the cold. "Hope the same thing doesn't happen to you."

"I'm touched," Sokka said, putting a hand on his chest in a mockery of Katara. "But I've got a while yet before my time comes."

As if searching for a change of subject, Zuko cleared his throat. "We should be seeing the tip of the eastern peninsula soon."

"Is it really a good idea for us to head down to the spirit portal that way?" Sokka asked, raising his objection so quickly that Aang assumed he waited for the perfect opportunity to mention it. "The whole reason we went this way was because Katara suggested it. And now we know that she was likely full of it when she said she would guide us through the peninsula safely."

"True," Aang said. He stroked Sabi as he pondered his response, who snuggled close into Aang's lap for warmth. Momo had already claimed the inside of his parka. "But she did have a point. If clans loyal to Hakoda make up most of the mainland, it might be too dangerous to travel across that way, especially if we ever have to land and go on foot." Navigating the icy tundra by air was a dangerous proposition, not just for Appa, who could handle most cold, but also for his occupants. "Even if we don't know the best route without Katara, I still feel like it's a better idea to travel through clan territories that might not be loyal to the emperor."

Sokka slouched against the luggage, his arms crossed. "If you say so. I still don't trust Katara or Azula, whatever they have planned."

"It doesn't matter if you don't trust them," Aang said, his face darkening. "I trust Azula. And as much as I want to go find them, we already took too many detours. Saving Toph and Yue is my biggest priority right now." Both Azula and Toph would surely have something to say in protest if he turned back now to go find Azula.

Zuko said nothing and only snapped the reins as Appa descended from the clouds, revealing the view of the strait snaking between the peninsula and mainland. The land jutted out high above the water, creating high walls around the strait that made both peninsula and mainland look more imposing. The sheer cliff face on both sides looked smooth and solid, like a massive wall or a fortress enclosing the Southern Water Tribe. Appa descended into the valley between the two walls and all of them fell silent, their size and majesty dwarfing the bison. Aang felt as if they flew into the strait with giants watching their every move.

Most striking of all, it didn't feel dark when they passed into the shadow between the two walls. Both were the color of pearl and reflected light that made Aang think they passed through a hall of mirrors or ice. According to Sokka, these were called the White Cliffs; though they didn't actually show Appa's reflection as he flew, they reflected enough sunlight that it actually felt warmer down between the cliffs than Aang expected. Waves sloshed between the two landmasses as they progressed and the distance between cliffs closed in on them.

He started to think that the White Cliffs might have actually been made of ice when he saw a face that interrupted his musings. A scowl appeared in the cliffside and he gasped when he saw it, but they passed by too quickly for him to get a good look. Then he saw a woman with one eye and knew he didn't imagine that or the scowl, but in a flurry of snowflakes she vanished from the cliff that looked like ice and diamond.

"Guys," Aang said, fixing his gaze on the cliffs for more signs. "I saw something. I think a spirit is trying to get my attention."

"But you just had a spirit quest," Sokka said, groaning. "You're really gonna get some spirit visions again so soon?"

Zuko halted Appa. "What do you think it's trying to say?"

Aang's eyes scanned the cliffs on the peninsula side. The face he saw looked human like the Painted Lady, though unpleasant, and if a spirit chose to reach out to him then she must have wanted something or needed his help. Not that he needed other things on his plate at the moment, but he supposed there was something significant in the fact that one chose to reach out to him the moment he reached Water Tribe lands, and he could use all the help he could get. Close to the water, he spotted a hole in the cliff face just big enough for Appa to crawl through that he was certain wasn't there before. "There," Aang said, pointing to it. "I think she wants us to go through that way."


Yue's heart pounded as she ran across the open plain, a shadow land in a perpetual storm that soaked her through her robes. She pushed back her hair that had been plastered to her face by the rain and nearly stumbled on the rocky, uneven ground nearly as dark as the sky. Streaks of lightning struck the towers scattered across the plain, lighting up her path enough to tell her when to change direction and run the other way when she saw more monsters in the distance headed for her.

She had no particular direction in mind. She had lost her way long before, and the insect spirits with their hard carapaces and too many legs had come to hunt her down.

Something hissed at her back and lightning flashed and she whirled around to cut down the spirit that lunged for her but before she could gain her bearings another environment became superimposed over the endless storm. Brackish water pooled around her ankles and the sudden pressure almost made her trip and fall but she caught herself on a moss-covered tree with bark soft from rot. Shadows danced at the edge of her vision, peeking at her from between the boughs, but before she could focus on them the landscape changed back to the stormy plain and she ran for her life again.

The instability of the Spirit World had flared again like a fever and the rapidly changing environments felt more disorienting than ever.

She had glimpsed into the domain of Koh the Face Stealer, and she knew now without a doubt that the insects that pursued her answered to him. These creatures were the same ones that hounded Yue and Nagi when they first came to the Spirit World but now their numbers were far greater. The beasts and vermin that crawled upon the earth without faces of their own had been driven by base instinct to hunt the only humans trespassing in their world, perhaps lured by promises of their visage being returned.

Koh's masked faces watched her with every flash of lightning, but she pressed onward, steeling her face against all emotion.

"Nagi!" Yue called, her lungs burning. Her vision swam and she found herself in Koh's swamp again and then out of it just as quickly. "Toph! Where are you?"

She couldn't tell if she cried or not. But so far through their journey in the Spirit World, she had never been alone until now. She thought she had been strong, that this world could be awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measure, but she had never been so mistaken. Alone, she was scared. Alone, she was weak.

Thunder boomed and crashed in a pattern and it took Yue a moment to realize it wasn't thunder at all, but the pounding of stone against stone. She climbed to the top of a twisting rock formation - keenly aware that she made herself a target for the lightning - and saw an earthbender in the distance throwing huge blocks of stone at the spirits that assaulted her. Yue jumped down from her vantage point and almost tumbled when she slipped on the slick rock, but caught herself and continued onward to reunite with whoever it was.

Lightning struck in front of Yue and scorched the ground, but she shielded her eyes and blinked away the blinding flash. Each time she opened her eyes her environment altered back and forth between the plain and the swamp, but she saw her companion on the plain and knew she had to be there so she concentrated as hard as she could on the plains ravaged by lightning. When she finally got close enough to see that the figure was Nagi, tall and graceful with her cowl and circlet still over her hair, her knees almost gave out in relief.

Nagi fought with quick jabs of earth, staying mobile by sliding across the earth and pumping her elbows to keep up her own attacks. Stone knuckles launched forward from her hands and pulverized the attacking spirits while others grasped and threw her enemies away. Sand and mud swirled to make an effective defense for her, which she bent with all the fluidity of a waterbender, but she halted when she spotted Yue rushing toward her, katana swinging.

"Nagi!" Yue swept her blade out in a wide arc as she made her way to Nagi. "Are you okay?"

"Yue!" she called, and the relief was palpable in her voice. "Yes! Come on, let's move!" She stomped her foot and spread her hands so that more of the spirits blocking her path to Yue fell before her. Yue twined her hand with Nagi's as soon as they met in the middle, and felt thankful that Nagi didn't let go as she carved a path forward for them. Somehow, despite everything, she didn't look panicked or overwhelmed - Yue supposed that was her Dai Li training at play. Her presence felt steady and reassuring, as if touching Nagi's hand helped restore Yue's balance.

Water sloshed around their knees when they found themselves in the swamp again, the sudden silence disorienting. "Where's Toph?" Yue asked. To her, her voice sounded small. "Either of them?"

A streak of blue light burst from the trees that startled Yue until she recognized Spirit-Toph. "What happened?" The spirit scowled at them, putting her hands on her hips. "I dunno how we lost you, but my body is this way."

Spirit-Toph directed them to a drier clearing awash in a dull golden light, as if the sun was setting over this spirit swamp. But compared to normal sunlight it looked sickly and muted, with murky flecks of dust floating in the sunbeams that filtered into the clearing. Nagi finally let go of Yue's hand once they found Toph's faceless body there, and the moment Yue's hand dropped back to her side she found herself missing Nagi's strength already.

Yue looked around the clearing, bare except for a single boulder directly underneath the gap in the canopy overhead. "We need to leave this place," she said. "I think this is Koh's domain."

Spirit-Toph smirked. "Or we could fight him."

"Can you even fight well in that state?" Nagi asked, wringing the water out of her braid. "Wait, can spirits lose their faces?"

"You saw the beasts without faces, I'm sure," Yue said. "I think Spirit-Toph is in as much danger as any of us. But I'm not sure I'm ready to find out what happens to someone who loses their face twice, both in their mortal body and in spirit."

Spirit-Toph cracked her knuckles. "Alright, whatever, but I don't lose the same fight twice. Ever."

The very voice that haunted Yue, deep and chilling, resounded through the clearing. "Losing a face twice, you say? How fascinating. I can't say I've ever added a matching set to my collection. Twins are one thing, but even they have differences, so minute, barely noticeable…"

From the shadows at the edge of the clearing, a white face with a red smile emerged.


"Seems totally safe to follow the face of some scary lady deep into a cave in unknown territory. It's a wonder I never caught you before when you do crazy reckless things like this." Sokka's complaints continued as they carefully coaxed Appa into the opening that seemingly appeared from nowhere at the bottom of the White Cliffs, just above the sea level. Though Appa resisted, Aang eventually decided to leave him in the company of the lemurs at the entrance, which turned out to be a tunnel that led to a grotto laid bare by low tide.

The tunnel opened up to a cavernous hollow, a maw with stalactites and stalagmites in a toothy smile. Sleeping lionseals lumped together near the water's edge and the cloying smell of raw fish combined with the humidity made Aang realize this was their den. One of them lifted its head when they entered and snorted at them groggily but otherwise didn't react. Aang lifted a finger to his lips and gave Sokka a significant glance to stay silent, which he responded to by rolling his eye.

Aang expected it to be dark. But a cluster of pale blue crystals hung from the ceiling while more cast a glow from under the water, causing light to dance across the cavern in a way that reminded Aang of the crystal catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se. It made the grotto feel ethereal. Without speaking, Zuko pointed to an opening toward the back and they sidled their way around the dozing lionseals. In the next cavern, they found another piece of blue crystal at a junction that led to a lower level, spiraling downward like the inside of a massive conch.

At this crystal, they saw the same woman Aang noticed outside.

She seemed human at a glance, but when Aang looked closer he could tell she was anything but. Her hair was dark, woven into thick braids coated in rime and ending with metal rings that dangled nearly to her waist. Her face and clothes indicated she was born of the Water Tribes, with an eye patch that indicated she lacked the same eye as Sokka but her remaining eye was a deeper blue than his. She had a stocky figure and a strong jaw that made her look stern and unforgiving, and a shade of grey tinged her features but he couldn't tell her age. If he passed her in a village, he would have thought her to be a fishwife, but all of the spiritual senses he had told him that she radiated a kind of power and timelessness he couldn't comprehend.

"I've never permitted the blood of the deceiver to enter my Spiritsong Grotto," she said, fixing her gaze on Sokka. Her voice even sounded taut, like a fisher's line. She stood in their way, barring their path toward the descending ramp. Though she wielded no weapons, Aang had the feeling she could still be a threat to them if they did something to offend her. Perhaps she could bend the frost in her hair - she certainly looked as if she had been carved from ice.

Sokka frowned and Aang had the passing thought that his expression matched hers. "You mean Aniak's blood, don't you?"

She nodded. "He who upset the balance, who had slain peaceful spirits and tricked others. He who was arrogant enough to take the name of a spirit - and not just any spirit, but the one who I loved many eons ago."

"Who are you?" Zuko asked, narrowing his eyes.

Sokka stiffened at Aang's side. "You're Sedna," he said. "The ice spirit… who married Seiryu?"

"Not in the same sense as you mortals wed," she replied, her face pinched in irritation. "But yes, we were once bound together."

Aang stepped forward. "But you're in a mortal form now. I didn't think it was possible for a spirit to take a human's form." In his experience, any spirit that took a mortal form always chose the guise of creatures, like Suza, Tui, and La.

Sedna fixed her gaze on Aang. "Why not? I am not the first to do so, Avatar. You may be familiar with Lady Tienhai, the guardian."

He didn't know that spirit, but she didn't need to know that. "But why did you take a mortal form?" he asked. "And why did you call me here?"

"It's not you I called," she said. She pointed at Sokka. "But him."

"Me?" Sokka asked, raising his brow and pointing at himself as if to confirm. "I'm not the spirit-y guy, the Avatar is. And I thought you didn't like my blood or something."

"I don't," Sedna confirmed with a grunt. "In fact, I swore vengeance against your whole line. The only reason you are here is at the will of another, one of the humans in my grotto under my protection. One who wants to see you, whose wish I will respect just this once."

"Me?" Sokka repeated, in the same tone. "And why do you want vengeance against my whole family? What did we do to you?"

Aang and Zuko both tensed, but Sedna finally turned away and descended further into the grotto. "Not your whole family," she said, looking at him over her shoulder. "Just the ones directly descended from the union between Aniak and I."

Sokka thrust out both of his hands and shook them in denial. "Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying you're the same Sedna as the one that Aniak married? It wasn't just a coincidence that she shared the same name?"

"No," came Sedna's answer. "It was not just coincidence."

"Hang on, so you're telling me that you're my great-great grandma? I'm descended from a spirit?!"


Koh the Face Stealer coiled around the trees at the edge of the clearing, his centipede body cloaked in shadow. He twisted and writhed, a slow and undulating dance as he circled around the four of them at the center. Careful to keep her face expressionless, Yue pulled Toph to her feet, who barely seemed to react to the presence of the monster that stole her face. Nagi took a combat stance and Spirit-Toph hovered on top of the moss-covered boulder and Yue dearly hoped that she didn't need to remind them not to show any emotion.

"It was quite a surprise to see that you two did not abandon this faceless one," Koh said. His voice seemed to reverberate through the clearing, as if his domain itself reacted in deference to him. "Especially knowing that I always eventually return to it."

"Even though she lacks a face, Toph is not an 'it'," Nagi said. "She deserves more than that."

"Oh? But without a face, it is only a doll. So it continues to hold sentimental value, then," Koh continued. His hundred feet tapped on the bark of trees and he circled around behind them.

Yue and Nagi turned with him, keeping the spirit in their vision. "What do you want?" Yue asked.

"I collect faces such as yours," Koh said. His face blinked and changed to that of a nondescript man with an arrow tattoo. He continued to coil just at the edge of the clearing so they couldn't see the full length of his body. "Each one has memories. Feelings. An identity. From the basest of creatures to the greatest of kings, I just find each one so… delicious."

Yue felt a tightness in her throat but she gulped it down. "Does that mean you… devour them?" Did that mean Toph's face was gone forever? So far, none of the spirits could truly help them. Suza told them it was useless to try and leave the Spirit World. And now if they couldn't retrieve Toph's face, what could they do? Had they fought and persisted for nothing? Did they have any hope of succeeding? Even surviving?

Spirit-Toph clenched her fists and closed her eyes. "No way," she said. "She's gonna get her face back. And she's gonna go home."

Koh smiled and blinked again and then he wore Toph's visage. He did it to shake them, all of them, and Yue was ashamed to admit it almost worked. He spoke with his own voice, making it even more eerie when her face smirked and stared at Spirit-Toph with sightless eyes. "What does it matter? It is you from another world. Its fate, that of a lost doll, is entirely independent of yours. It has no need to eat or sleep and does not feel pain. A blank slate, stagnant and unchanging, unable to create or grow or live or die. I am doing it a favor - one that I graciously extend to all of you in turn."

Yue was about to ask what he meant about another world, was about to decry his methods and deny his "generosity," when Toph turned toward him and made her feelings known with a forceful jab of both hands.

Her movement ripped up the ground in a wave that struck Koh and hurled him backward with an otherworldly screech. And then he was all squirming legs and monstrous sounds and horrid faces, each one appearing and disappearing like the snap of a hand fan. Tremors rumbled through the muck under their feet as the earthbenders fought and Yue almost fell forward into the water around her ankles when Koh suddenly appeared in front of her and roared with the maw of a wolf.

"I owe you, girl, for the legs that blade cut from me!"

She almost gasped, almost shouted in surprise and almost fell backward into the water to be at his mercy, but mud came up between their faces and stuck to his eyes, peeling him back from her. Koh thrashed and his back end slammed into Nagi, making the mud wall in front of Yue drop as Nagi skidded back into the swampwater. Yue wanted to shout her name but didn't think she would be able to keep the concern out of her voice, so instead she focused on swinging her blade.

Toph hurled the moss-covered boulder at Koh and then jabbed her elbow forward, dredging up the solid earth deep below the mud to strike him continuously in a relentless attack. Massive blocks of stone pinned the Face Stealer in place as more struck him in the head and the softer parts beneath his carapace, and his body coiled in on itself to defend from her assault. Even so, she didn't let up, and her disembodied spirit spoke above the crashing earth and splashing water, arms crossed as she stood above them all.

"Give. Her. Face. Back," Spirit-Toph said, and Yue didn't know if coldness counted as an emotion but she used it well regardless.

Koh shouted and uncurled from his nautilus shape, closing in on Toph with his claws aimed for her throat. "How do you still fight?" He punctuated his question with the face of a battle-scarred warrior. "How do you grasp to your feeble identity, the face, the destiny - that she crafted for you all those years ago? It is lost to you now! It is mine!" He changed to a screeching baboon. "You can't have it!"

Nagi stood and pelted him with more mud just as Toph pushed him away with a wall of earth, and as Koh shouted Yue could only think of a child throwing a tantrum. And then his words fell into place; his childlike demands made sense to her, like the unruly children who refused to share their toys. She remembered Suza's words, and the spirit that the phoenix entreated them to find.

"Your mother is the one who crafts faces," Yue said, lowering her blade. "And you covet them in turn. Because she makes those wonderful toys, those identities, for everyone else except for you, doesn't she?"

Koh halted his attack on Toph and whirled around to face Yue, and when he showed the face of a little boy with black hair and golden eyes she knew she was right. The boy's mouth opened impossibly wide, his jaw unhinged, and his eyes narrowed to slits. "You … I'd face the wrath of the Nightseer if it meant taking your face. She will not protect you from me."

"No," said Nagi, standing side by side with Toph as they both raised their hands. "But we will!"

The swamp felt like it upturned itself, a great mass of mud and stone erupting from underneath Koh that wrapped all around his carapace. It dragged him down into the muck, pinned him in place, and when Spirit-Toph shouted encouragement at her, Yue stabbed down at his face.

But before her blade pierced the spirit's flesh, the young boy's face stretched and contorted further, melting away like wax. She froze, because underneath she saw nothing at all - a black void that seemed as if it pulled her in. The carapace body halted its movements and a tiny pinprick of light shone within the darkness. It reflected in her eyes and she felt entranced by it - she wondered if this was his true form, a hollow shell.

"You are mistaken," she heard his voice say, calm and somewhere far away. "I do not envy. I seek to understand. I was born with a simple, inscrutable law: any emotion shown to me, whether it be love or hate, had to be taken that very moment."

She kept her face blank. "So it's a compulsion. Something you can't control."

"I do not envy. I seek to understand," he repeated. He sounded calm, even introspective. His conversation drowned out all other noise. "To experience."

The energy around them shifted and the swamp water drained away, taking Yue, Nagi, and both Tophs with it. But before the darkness enclosed her, Yue witnessed Koh's change.


Sokka's thoughts whirled in a maelstrom as they passed a hall of petrified coral and rock formations weathered down by years of ocean waves. How could he be descended from a spirit, especially one as ancient as Sedna? He didn't care for spiritual things. His Gran would have appreciated it more. Even Katara respected spirits more than he did. Perhaps they should have been here instead.

He eyed the snow spirit's back, at her metal rings in her hair that clattered together when she walked. "What do you have against your own blood?" he asked.

"As far as I am concerned, you are human. And I am not," Sedna replied without looking at him. "You are no kin of mine."

"But you're in a human form now," Aang said. Sokka didn't expect the Avatar to take his side in this, but he was glad for it. Now that he thought about it, wasn't that his job to mediate between humans and spirits?

"Not by choice," she said, snorting. "I continue to live as a human to do what needs to be done. After the last Avatar's death, Aniak visited the Spirit World and tricked me into taking human form. I had long ago dismissed any human affairs, but he appealed to my kindness toward sea creatures. They needed my help, he had said."

"He didn't try to kill you, like he did to Suza?" Zuko asked. Crystal light refracted from pools around the caves danced across his face, set into a stern frown.

"No," she answered, her response gruff. "He chose to display his human arrogance in a different way: he seduced me, wed me. He thought he was too good for any mortal woman. It took him time. I wasn't impressed at first, but eventually he won me over. And I was happy for a time, blind to his evils. I came to enjoy the mortal world and all its human failings. I bore him a son, and I loved them both. At least until he wiped out all the airbenders and I saw his true colors - and learned that all he wanted from me was a vain mockery of the passion I once shared with Seiryu."

"Seems like everyone thought he was a nice guy," Sokka said, shrugging. "But he was a big jerk. We know that."

"Do you?" she asked, turning so that her eye fixated on his. "I swore revenge for his slight against me, against the balance of this world. Spirits do not typically get involved in human affairs but he pulled me in and gave me no choice. I have my pride and he tried to wound it."

"Well, he's long dead now," Sokka said, frowning. "So's his son, and his son after him. I don't know what you want to accomplish but I had nothing to do with what he did."

"No, but you perpetuate it," she said, scowling and continuing her descent into the grotto. On her, the scowl made her look fiercer than any warrior. "I chose to stay in this world, to take in those lost souls cast out from your tribes. The outcasts and the downtrodden alike, women and men who had been abandoned to their fates. Handed over to the snow. But I am the snow. And it was I who lured Aniak and Kanektok out into the tundra with whispers and visions, I who won in the end. The cold took them both." She proclaimed her last sentence with finality and triumph.

Zuko blanched and spoke in response before Sokka could. "Your own son? How could you?"

"Do not presume to judge me based on human morality, boy," she said, stopping and turning toward him. "Kanektok grew into a man just as cruel as his father and half as smart. I meant to do the same to Kvichak before his wife took care of him before me." Sedna turned back toward her path and kept walking. "Do you want to know how I've managed to live in this mortal world for over a hundred years without my body perishing? I've had to take new ones, women left for dead in the snow, those labeled as 'taboo-breakers.' Those are the kinds of leaders in your family."

Sokka's gaze dropped to his feet. The maelstrom in his thoughts continued to churn.

"That's exactly why spirits shouldn't intervene in human conflicts," Aang said, his face twisted into a frown. "I get that you've been hurt, but leave Hakoda and Sokka to me. You can go back to the Spirit World."

"Gee, thanks," said Sokka.

"Hurt? No, I haven't been hurt," Sedna said, drawing up to her full height. "As I've said, Aniak simply slighted me. And I could not go back to the Spirit World now if I wanted to - you cut it off from this world, did you not?"

"Only for a little while."

Sedna scoffed. "I see. Well, Avatar, you and I could be allies. A common goal unites us. Now that you've returned you can claim your destiny. Oh." She paused, tilting her head. "That's interesting. You don't belong here, do you? It's a destiny you stole from another."

Aang shook his head. "I'm going to defeat Hakoda to restore balance. Not for vengeance. And I didn't steal any destinies."

"Is that so? Even after what Aniak did to your people?"

"The Avatar's not the type of person to carry a grudge from previous generations," said Sokka, speaking up for Aang. Looking at her, he could only think of how her thoughts and motivations were so alien despite the fact that she wore a human face. A dead human's face, but he tried not to think about that. "I get that Aniak wronged you. And I want to fix things, too, but if you kill me I won't get the chance to do that so please don't. So, my Great-Great Gran, we'll appreciate it if you hold off on your vengeance quest thing and give Aang and I a chance." He let himself ramble on out of nerves but he hoped it would be enough to prevent her from confining him to the grotto forever or something.

Neither Aang nor Zuko said anything and only looked at him, but Sedna rolled her eye in a way that made him think of Katara. "The Avatar and the emperor's son together, eh?" she asked. "I'm still not convinced. And don't call me that."

"You don't need to be convinced," Sokka replied. "We're not doing this for you." He wasn't sure why he had joined up with the Avatar anymore, how much it meant betraying his people and his father that he decided to teach Aang waterbending. Rescuing Yue was part of it, sure, but had he gone beyond that? He pushed those turbulent thoughts aside and focused on something Sedna had mentioned earlier. "You said someone here wanted to see me."

"Yes," she said, turning again down the tunnel slick with water and ice. Down here, the fishy smell had either vanished completely or they had just gotten used to it. "In my grotto."

Sokka's chest pounded as he allowed himself to consider the gravity of her words. "People abandoned to the snow…" He gulped down a lump in his throat as the possibilities added up in his mind. "No way…"

Sedna turned another corner and the dark stone formed an archway with stalagmites and stalactites that had touched each other and melded together. Sokka gasped when he stepped through and the narrow tunnel opened up to a cavern far larger than any beneath Ba Sing Se, a wide blue expanse. The far side of the Spiritsong Grotto had a wall made of smooth ice that displayed the sea floor and all the creatures that swam in it. The grotto itself contained a village that they overlooked from the entrance, with natural stone homes formed from the ocean currents and long dead coral and shells. Blue crystals embedded into the walls provided a cool glow, but one particularly giant piece of it made up the center of the village, the source of most of its light.

He saw one woman standing at the forefront of the village, hands folded as she faced the entrance as if waiting for them. She pulled back her fur-lined hood, displaying hair in loops pinned back to a long braid that rested over her shoulder. Her lip trembled and broke into a teary smile when she saw him, her arms reaching for him.

After seven years, Sokka had forgotten what her face had looked like. He'd always been too ashamed to admit it. But now that he saw her, it all came rushing back and he recognized her at once, tears brimming in his eye.

"Mom…"

His emotion welled up in his throat and before anyone could see him cry, he turned back toward the cavern and ran away from them all.

It was too much. Hearing his Gran's story of the night his mother disappeared, he considered the possibility for the first time that she could be alive. But now that he had been faced with her so unexpectedly, he found that the words wouldn't come. It was too unbelievable, too fantastic, like a dream conjured up by his childhood. After everything, he didn't know if he could face her - not without Katara, who missed her just as much. If not more, as much as she tried to hide it.

Sokka stopped when he came to a waterlogged tunnel with a hole that led to the sea. He wondered if otterpenguins or other creatures used it to enter the grotto, and considered the idea of making his own escape before dismissing it as foolhardy and reckless and cowardly. As he bent over to catch his breath, he heard footsteps running up behind him.

"What're you doing?" It was Zuko. "Wasn't that your mother?"

"I can't do it," he said, unable to face the firebender. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything!" His voice sounded anguished, for some reason. "She's right there. She's alive, all you have to do is be with her!"

"Growing up I was told that she was just… gone," Sokka said. He stared down into the water hole and wished it would just swallow him up. He never felt so ashamed before, and wondered if Sedna's vengeance might have had something to do with it, too. "Then my Gran told me what happened the night she disappeared. But the odds of her surviving… I didn't want to let myself get my hopes up. But there she is. And I… I can't think of what to say."

"For once. Come on, we've always been a smooth talker. Go see Mom! You're overthinking this!"

"You're overthinking this," Zuko said, and it was almost a perfect echo of the voice in Sokka's head, his conscience. "Just… let yourself feel it. I lost my mom, years ago when the Water Nation attacked our village." Sokka turned around to face him and all the pain in his eyes - it felt like a punch to his gut. "I… I didn't see it happen. Azula was the one who found her. But I know I'll never get to see her again. But you can see yours, right back there. I wish Azula was here to tell you you're being an idiot."

"Didn't Gran-Gran tell you that you think too much?"

Sokka let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "When I think about what Sedna told us, it makes me realize that the Water Nation took my mother, too. My father is the reason for it, and he did it because he was upholding the same beliefs that Aniak did." He stared down at his hands. "Maybe Azula would be right to say that. Maybe this is pretty crazy to say, but I wish Katara was here, too. She… doesn't even know anything about what happened to our mom. And it hurts to think about."

"Look at you, talking about your feelings! I'm proud of you."

"So maybe you and your mother should find Katara together and tell her everything," Zuko said, crossing his arms. For the first time, Sokka realized that the other boy was taller than him. He wasn't sure how to feel about that observation. "I get that it's overwhelming. But you've got to do this."

"It must've been pretty heartbreaking for her to see me run away like that, huh?" Sokka asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

Zuko frowned. "Yeah, so go fix it. And apologize."

Sokka walked past Zuko back toward the village entrance, briefly grasping his shoulder. "Wipe that glare off, it's like you're trying to be like your father." Zuko only scowled deeper in response.

"Hey, for the record, you totally know by now that I'm not just your conscience, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sokka said out loud, picking up his pace.

Zuko followed at his heels. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Sokka emerged from the tunnels back into the village that lived under the glow of a soft blue light, and found Aang and Sedna overlooking it together, deep in conversation. Further down, he spotted his mother walking away from him, her shoulders slackened and head lowered. He felt his eye burn with tears again and this time he let them fall, thankful to Zuko that the other boy didn't let him make one of the most idiotic decisions of his life. "Mom!"

She turned to face him at once, her eyes wet with tears, and before he knew it he had his arms wrapped around her and he squeezed her tight. It really was her, she was real, and they had been reunited. He couldn't believe that his father and everyone back home had ever tried to convince him that she never existed.

Kya buried her head into his shoulder and he couldn't help but think of how much smaller she seemed. "Sokka… My son," she said through her tears. "You've found me again, all on your own."

"I'm so sorry for running away just now," he said, and the shame of his cowardice burned. "I just… I was just surprised."

She choked on her tears and it took Sokka a moment to realize that it was a laugh. "Oh, sure, it only made me think you expected to be grounded for something. Nothing new there."

He laughed with her, glad that she hadn't lost any of her sense of sarcasm. Her cheek touched his when she hugged him and he flinched when it felt like ice. "Mom, you're so cold. Where's your parka?" He drew back to look around - as cold as she was, he was shocked that she only wore her tunic without even any gloves. His voice shook when he spoke; he wasn't about to lose her to illness now that they had just been reunited.

"It's fine," she said, and made a movement to cup his face in her hand but stopped herself and grasped his wrists instead. "I have so much to tell you. But know this: I've never been more proud to hear that you made the choice to travel with the Avatar to help bring balance back to the world."

She smiled at him but he felt as if he had been dragged back down to earth. "Yeah," he said, scratching under his wolf tail. "About that. I dunno if I did decide to do that yet."


Yue coughed and sputtered when she found herself on dry ground again. Her shoulders bucked against her two companions as they found themselves in what felt like a whole different world - the ground was hard and smooth, like dense wood, but blue. Trees sprouted from the same material in a forest around them, with leaves that could have been made of ice or crystal. Silence and solitude permeated through this place, the only sound a gentle ringing that echoed through the trees. Nagi's hand found hers as they stood and the gesture gave her comfort again as Yue looked at them to make sure Nagi and Spirit-Toph still had their faces.

"Did we… beat him?" Nagi asked.

Yue's face fell to Toph, who looked listless as always. "No… I don't think so," she said, frowning. She looked up at the sky, a shroud of night but with more stars clustered together than she had ever seen in her life. Gaseous shapes in bright green and indigo stained the sky among the stars. Constellations twinkled brighter than the ones she knew from home, and with all of the starlight the sky shone almost as much as it did by day. Of all the sights in the Spirit World, she had never seen something so beautiful and she didn't think she ever would again for her whole life. Even the crystal shards from the trees seemed to split from their branches and float away into the air, as if they supplied all the energy to the stars above.

"We should get ready in case he chases us," said Spirit-Toph, her teeth grit. Yue felt bitter about her words, wishing they could relax for once and enjoy the beauty around them. "I don't like whatever he did right before we left. And I have no idea how the water grabbed me with it. Something happened and I don't like not knowing what."

"The Face Stealer will not pursue you," said a voice behind them. Yue whirled around to face the newcomer with her blade ready while Nagi bent her arms in an earthbending stance. The being in front of them had more height than she expected; he was a tall spirit, with long dark hair in a topknot and a silver circlet. His face looked almost human - something about it looked smoother than a normal face, and inhumanly pretty, except for the fact that he lacked a nose and only had snake-like slits. He wore long white robes trimmed in black and blue, but underneath them he did not have legs, but the tail of a serpent with blue scales. "I have brought you to my sanctuary."

Nagi stood protectively in front of Yue and Toph. "What do you want with us?"

Yue grasped her shoulder. "It's okay," she said. Though impressed by Nagi's bravery and grateful for her protection, Yue did not want to show this spirit any disrespect. "I know this spirit. I've seen his imagery all over my tribe. This is Seiryu, the spirit of the cold moon."

"Yes," said Seiryu, eyeing Nagi and both Tophs distastefully. "I care not for earthbenders or for your squabble with the Face Stealer or his vermin, but by the grace of the Nightseer's chosen you are safe here." He held a silvery jian dao in one scaled hand and Yue had the feeling that he would not hesitate to use it on Nagi and Toph if they did not stand down.

Yue fell into a deep bow, so exhausted from the battles and constant fear that she had forgotten to show her tribe's patron protector the proper respect earlier. "Great Seiryu, I thank you for your sacred hospitality. It is an honor and we are so thankful to rest in your sanctuary."

Nagi stiffened as she looked up at Seiryu but inclined her head toward him. "Yes, thank you."

"Oh, you're the cold moon guy," said Spirit-Toph, and Yue felt her stomach clench at the way she addressed the ancient spirit. "Cool."

"Priestess of the dark," he said, his white eyes falling on Yue. "Out of companionship to the Nightseer you will be allowed to remain here as long as you need to, until the time comes when the bridge to the mortal realm is restored and my moon begins its next journey across the sky in your world. Then any protections in this place will also be lost."

"Is there any way we can come with you?" Yue asked, joining her hands together. Hope flourished in her chest when she realized the potential for their escape.

Nagi pursed her lips. "Do we even want to get back to our world with the same moon that can wipe out the whole Earth Kingdom?"

Seiryu tightened his grip on his blade and his tail shook. "Your human arrogance is astounding to me if you think that you would be worthy to join my journey."

And like that, he had cleanly dashed Yue's hopes. "Do you know how our friend can get her face back?" Yue asked him.

"No," he said. "And I care not for that human's plight. Do not push my capacity for generosity, child. I do not involve myself in human affairs, and it is only out of respect to the Nightseer that I have helped you this far." Head held high, he slithered away from them, disappearing into the crystal forest without another word.

Nagi put her hands on her hips. "Well how rude can that spirit be? He reminds me of Wan Shi Tong."

"Nah, that big owl is even more of a jerk," Spirit-Toph said. "Trust me, we have issues."

"Careful, or else you may invoke him," said Yue. She stared around their environment, looking for what might be the comfiest place to rest, and then slid to the floor against a tree with knots of rope tied around it. Paper talismans dangled from the knots - protective charms like the ones she recognized from Kokkan Island. "Seiryu is the great protector of my people. You cannot disrespect him. Ever since the moon and the ocean abandoned us, my people now owe fealty to the cold moon and the night."

"Even if he is the harbinger of such horrible things?" Nagi asked her. Yue saw the hurt in her eyes and that pained her - she did not like that expression on Nagi's face.

Yue stared down at her clasped hands. "I was always taught it was for the greater good," she said. "The will of the spirits that protect my tribe. I don't like this war. I don't like all the fighting. But I always knew Seiryu would end it, just as he started it, and then the suffering of my people would end."

"It's not Seiryu who will end it," Nagi said, her voice soft. "The spirit will come to our world no matter what. It's Hakoda and Arnook who will use the cold moon's power to their advantage."

Her shoulders felt weighed down. "You're not wrong," she admitted. "But as the princess of the North Pole I have to do my duty to my people. I need to be strong for them, united in our purpose."

"That won't end well for you," Spirit-Toph said, drifting over to sit near them. She wrapped her arms around her knees. "Aang's gonna fight you, and he's gonna win."

In all of their tribulations in the Spirit World, Yue had almost forgotten that she was on the opposite side of the war as them. But she didn't want to be. Struggling together as they had, both Nagi and Toph had become her friends, and she was beyond grateful to have their company through this struggle. "I'd rather not fight the Avatar," she said. "Nor the two of you. I just wish… we could come to a peaceful resolution."

Both of them fell silent at that. Yue wondered if they considered the option or had no words for her because they knew it could never come to be. But her eyes fell on Toph's faceless body, which lay flat against the ground and stared up at the sky, unseeing. It almost felt silly to worry about the war and whose side they were on when Toph struggled with such a plight.

"Several spirits we've met so far speak of different worlds," Nagi said suddenly, her eyes fixed on Toph just like Yue's were. "Our world and the Spirit World, yes, but Suza and Koh made it seem like there were others."

"I thought so, too," said Yue. If she had to be honest, she didn't have much time to think about it with everything else happening.

Spirit-Toph shrugged. "Weird, huh?"

Nagi craned her neck to look at her. "You are hiding something from us," she stated. "There is something you know. Related to your friendship with the Avatar, I suspect."

The spirit waved her hand. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I believe a lot of things," said Yue. "And many of the things we have encountered here certainly beggar belief."

She scoffed and shrugged. "Well when you put it that way… Whatever. Yeah, those other spirits are right. There are other worlds besides this one and the world you three come from. I come from a different one, where the Fire Nation started the war instead but things went really, really bad." Spirit-Toph spoke distantly, as if her mind was somewhere else while she recalled her memories. "Aang hitched a ride from that world and that's why I was able to meet you here in the Spirit World. It's some Avatar stuff, don't ask me the details of how it happened. But it did, and now it messed a lot of things up and that's why the Spirit World is all funky."

Yue's head spun. "A world where the Fire Nation started the war instead? I suppose I understand how a mix-up like that can cause instability in the Spirit World, but everything else…"

"That Toph isn't me," Spirit-Toph said, gesturing to the faceless girl on the ground. She still hadn't moved. "She's the one from your world. We've all got copies in other worlds - people who are like us but with different stories. Aang's one of my best friends in that world, too. But so are Katara and Sokka, and Suki was, too. Zuko used to be a bad guy but he's with us now and we fight against his sister all the time. But… Sozin's Comet came and destroyed everything, so now we're just trying our best to survive. We lost a lot of people important to us."

Nagi stood up and paced, taking a deep breath as she occasionally stared up at the unnaturally starry sky. "You mentioned that comet before, with Suza. If Suza's Comet empowered firebenders like Seiryu's Moon empowers waterbenders, it's only more proof that we'll be faced with devastation, isn't it? We can't allow that to happen!" She clenched her fist and turned back to Spirit-Toph. "Where do I fit into all this?"

Spirit-Toph nodded. "That's the idea," she said. "And I have no clue about the other Nagi. Never even heard of you in that other world."

Nagi deflated. "Oh."

"And Yue, well… I don't know the details, but something bad happened to that Yue before I even met Aang and the others," Spirit-Toph continued. "Sokka never liked to talk about it."

Yue wrung her fingers together in her lap, unsure what to make of that. "I see," she said. Her eyes wandered to Toph's body again. "So… that explains a lot about this Toph. But does she know all this?"

"Yeah," said Spirit-Toph. "I've been with her for a while, but she's slipping away. We gotta do what we can to save her, but we also just need to get out of here to help Aang fight. The longer he's in the wrong world the worse things will get. Apparently it'll lead to some kind of end of all the worlds, blah blah, spiritual breakdowns, blah blah." She flicked her hand and looked supremely unconcerned about the whole thing, but nonetheless it made Yue shiver.

"If the Spirit World is unbalanced, maybe we can do something from this end to help the Avatar?" Nagi suggested. She clasped her hands together. "Oh, it'd be amazing to say I've helped the Avatar in a spiritual matter!"

"What're you on, cactus juice?" Spirit-Toph said. She snapped her fingers as if realizing something. "Ah, that'll be your nickname - Prickles! After a cactus. I almost settled with 'Sandy' but I like that so much better."

"Huh?" Nagi slumped forward and Yue found the incredulous look on her face to be kind of cute and it made her giggle.

"We should leave spirit junk to the Aang," Spirit-Toph continued. "He's better suited to that kind of thing. Let's just focus on finding Koh's mom and get out of here."

Learning all that, Yue supposed she should have been intimidated. Or overwhelmed. But finding a goal in saving all of the worlds, as impossible as it seemed, felt like it heartened them - gave them purpose. That purpose united them, and that meant, for now, they couldn't be enemies. And that relief felt so powerful that Yue couldn't stop smiling, since it didn't interfere with her duties at all, and only meant that those duties to her people had only become more important. She could do something. She could change things. Now, she knew, she had the strength to face whatever might come after.

"We'll do it," Yue said, and she hoped the strength of her resolve was evident in her voice. She stood and walked over to Toph, brushing her bangs to the side to reveal her lack of a face to the stars above. The softness of her touch made Toph's fingers twitch in recognition. "We'll save you, Toph, and then we'll do what we must to help the Avatar save all the worlds."


Sokka and his mother huddled together in an alcove against the grotto wall that she used as her living space, behind partitions made of stretched leather over wooden frames for privacy. To Sokka, it felt like the inside of his childhood home; her textile work covered the walls and floor, patterns in blue and white. She had taken to making carvings of wood and bone shaped into all sorts of animals and he admired them in his hands as they sat in front of the fire she started for him. In her time away from Aniak'to, she had created all sorts of things with her hands from fur or bone, leather and wood and cloth. She painted and weaved and carved and cooked and dyed. She said it helped to pass the time, and she enjoyed learning these crafts from her neighbors.

Other people passed by outside of Kya's alcove - men, women, and even children who lived here in somber peace. Many of them spoke in whispers, in muted laughs and stifled words, in a way that reminded Sokka of the silence in the world on the morning of a first snowfall. Kya had said that many of them had been here in the grotto for decades but Sokka only saw a few of the elderly strolling through the village. For those elderly, it must have been difficult to ascend back to the surface. He wondered if they ever missed the sun.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for your ice-dodging," Kya said to him. She glanced at his missing eye and then her eyes fell to her hands joined in her lap. "Everything in your life would have happened so differently if I had been there."

Sokka shook his head. "No, it's not your fault."

"Whose is it, then?"

"I don't know," Sokka admitted. Through a gap in the partitions, he saw the massive ice wall spanning the entire length of the village and the bottom of the deep sea ravine behind it. Jellyfish drifted by like ghosts. "Do you blame anyone for what happened?"

"I used to blame Hakoda and Gran-Gran both," she said. "But I have forgiven her long ago. Killing Kvichak might have been bad in the short term, but in the long term I think it was better for our nation and our family that she did what she did. She was always just as trapped as I was. Just as you and Katara and Suki were."

"I don't know about Katara," he said. He turned over the wooden carving of a wolf in his hands. "She should be here. She needs to see that you're alive. I don't know what it would change. But I do know that things will never be like they used to, even if you do come home and we can be a family again."

Kya glanced out toward the ice wall at the sea turtlephant that swam up to the ice and examined it with its long trunk. "And would that include your father, knowing what he's done? What he plans to do?"

"I don't know what he plans to do," Sokka admitted. "Aang and Sedna both think he'll try to flood the Earth Kingdom or something. Which is wrong, and I totally get that, but I don't think he'll do something that crazy. So many of our own people live on the Earth Kingdom's shores."

"And yet you won't turn against him?" She ran her hands through the fur-lined hem of her skirt. "You could help the Avatar. All these years, I have tried to convince Lady Sedna to turn away from her crusade in an effort to protect you, but…"

Sokka shrugged. "I mean, I sorta did. Katara tried to kill the Avatar but I basically helped him because of more important stuff going on and now I'm teaching him waterbending which he needs to use to beat Dad and since both Katara and I messed up in Ba Sing Se and we ran into Chit Sang who knows I'm willingly fighting alongside the Avatar he probably disowned us both at this point. Or something."

Kya laughed. "Sokka, you let your words get away from you again. Take a breath. You're trying to find a logical explanation for everything just like you used to, but I don't think that's the solution this time."

"Yeah, I'm overthinking. Everyone's saying that."

"My brilliant, intelligent boy," she said, and when she grasped his hand he didn't mind that it felt like ice. "I'll always be proud of that side of you. But, obviously, I'm more impressed that you picked up my sparkling wit and sarcasm, though that might be my bias showing."

He grinned and she grinned back. "I'm glad to have you back, Mom. When things are safe again, you can come home and see Gran and Katara and Suki, even Yue."

Her smile faltered and she pulled her hand away. "I'm sorry, Sokka, but I don't think that'll be possible."

His stomach fell. "What do you mean?"

"With the way things are here… none of us can leave this grotto." She stared into the hearth fire and took a deep breath. "Our lives are tied to Lady Sedna. It's like… we're frozen in time. If I left this village, the power she uses to sustain us would end."

He felt frozen, then. At her words, in his thoughts. And then he felt it melt away, the anger toward the cruelty of it all burning through his gut, the thought that he had finally been reunited with his mother only to learn that they would never truly be together again. It was so unfair that he could go on living while she had to stagnate here, deep below the ocean in the ice to stew in her own sadness and loneliness. Part of him considered the idea that he could just stay here and hide away from it all.

In the South Pole, the winter months felt like constant night, with a brief flash of midnight sun before it set and didn't rise again until it was time to herald the spring. But down here, it was always winter. His mother would never see a sunrise again.


Aang and Zuko decided to give Sokka time with his mother before they moved on. They'd asked Sedna if she could give them any aid in their journey to reach the South Pole, any information at all in regards to finding them or restoring Toph's face, but she had nothing for them. She had only called them here for Kya's sake. They were on their own.

Aang had been about to go retrieve Sokka when both he and his mother walked up the slope toward the entrance of the village toward them. Seeing Kya, he could only think of how much she resembled Katara, and the vivid memories of her pursuit of Kya's killer came to him before he brushed them away, focusing on the present. Sokka looked downcast, but Aang supposed it had to do with the fact that his reunion had to be cut short.

He watched a creature from the ocean depths swim up to the ice wall, a squid-like being he had no name for, and shivered. But despite being the domain of an ice spirit, it wasn't actually as freezing here as Aang thought it would be, something he had only just realized. His heart quickened when he started to connect the dots and he turned to Sedna to voice them. "That ice wall… will it ever melt?"

"No, Avatar," she said with a smirk. "I'd be a pretty poor ice spirit if any ice I made always melted."

Aang, Sokka, and Zuko all looked at each other. "Peach Petal Island," Aang said. "There's an airbender that Aniak froze in the ice a hundred years ago."

Senda put her hands on her hips and held her head high. "You think Aniak was capable of making ice like that? No, child, that was me. He caught her flying to the South Pole during Seiryu's Moon, and in his purge of the Air Nomads he fought her, made a spectacle of her. This was when I was exposed to his cruelty for the first time, and in my efforts to protect her, I told him that if she were truly the Avatar it would be better to freeze her forever instead of killing her, so she could not oppose him in her next life. But, of course, I did not sense the Avatar Spirit within her."

Sokka's mouth dropped open. "Whoa, this changes everything!"

"Is she alive?" Zuko asked.

Sedna crossed her arms. "She could be. My ice has special properties, but if she lives then she will need care. And I am no healer."

Kya spoke up, folding her hands together in front of her. "There's a village not far from here. In the world above. An herbalist lives there who has found many of our own on the verge of death before Lady Sedna comes to retrieve them. By all accounts, she is a kind woman."

Sedna rubbed her chin. "Yes, I could take the girl to her." She looked to Aang. "As a gesture of good will. Let it not be said that I am incapable of kindness. I do still think we could be allies in this fight." He looked at her and he felt the weight behind her words. "Though do not forget - if you make a deal with a spirit, you must be prepared for the consequences if you break our agreement."

Aang set his gaze, resolved to save Sangmu from her fate. He asked her the question that he already knew the answer to. "What do you want in return?"

"I want the blood of Aniak spilled upon the snow," she said, and she said it with certainty that brooked no argument. "Are you willing to break your oath of airbender pacifism if it means bringing back another from your culture?"

He remembered the way everyone in his life pressured him to do what needed to be done with Ozai, and how he had resisted for as long as he could. He stared into the ice wall, at the darkness beyond, and the memories of his battles rang through his head. Back then, he didn't have to make that decision with the life of another airbender hanging in the balance. Back then, he was the only one left to uphold those values. "I'll do it," he said finally. He would worry about the how or the why of it later, along with the ramifications of his decision. "Bring Sangmu back."

Sedna turned to face Sokka. "And what of you?" she asked him. "Will you finish what Aniak started, or will you redeem yourself by protecting the girl from harm?"

Sokka clenched his fists and closed his eye, but then he turned to face his mother. She looked up at him, hopeful, and when he spoke it was without looking at Sedna. "Everyone's been telling me I have to do what I feel is right. Not what I've been raised to think is right. And… I feel like this is what I have to do. I'll consider her safety my responsibility." He locked his gaze to Aang's. "I'll help you reach the spirit portal, and after that defeat my father."

"We all will," Zuko said, nodding with Aang. "Maybe we'll find Azula and Katara, or maybe we won't, but we have to trust them to do whatever it is they're doing while we finish this on our end."

Sedna smiled. "Very well. I will bring the girl to the village above. You better get going. My grizzly eagle flies quite fast."

Before they departed, Sokka embraced Kya one last time. Aang saw tears in both of their eyes, though he turned away before they would think he intruded on whatever words or emotions passed between them. But he heard them regardless.

"Bye, Mom," Sokka said, wiping at his eye. "I love you. And one day maybe I'll be able to bring Katara, Gran, and Suki here to see you."

"I love you, my son," she said, and she cupped his face. "My brave warrior. You've made me proud. And so, so happy."


A blizzard fell upon the mining village, one that none of the villagers or sailors expected to come to Peach Petal Island. They all slept in their homes as the snow built up through the night and a grizzly eagle's wings beat toward the salt mine's entrance. The guards huddled together with their flames and their parkas and the cold descended on them as swiftly as sleep, so none witnessed the ancient spirit in human form pass through like the falling snow.

Ice coated the pink salt within the maze of tunnels. At this hour, even the miners had vacated their posts, the night shift withdrawing from the extreme cold of the sudden storm above that had somehow, inexplicably, reached its icy grip into their workspace. Snowflakes whirled and blew out the salt lamps, casting the tunnels in darkness. But still the spirit proceeded, her breath like a silent gale. At last, in the final chamber, she discovered the girl. When the spirit placed her hand on the ice and it melted away, the airbender took her first breath in a hundred years.


In order to hasten their progress, Azula and Katara stopped in one town to pick up a pair of caribou-panthers to guide them across the icy tundra for their journey to Aniak'to. Azula found herself glad for the furry beast, and not only for its speed - it always felt warm in the way Appa often did, and when she rode it she found it easier to draw upon her breath of fire. It was a massive beast with both a deadly bite and antlers, clawed paws in the front and hoofs in the back, and Azula decided that she liked the beast for its surprisingly friendly attitude under a dangerous exterior.

She tried not to think of what Aang and Zuko must have thought of her, their shame and hurt over her betrayal, and instead threw herself into her objectives: reach Aniak'to. Get Katara back into Hakoda's good graces after her failure at Ba Sing Se. Dispose of Hakoda's enemies. Change the Water Nation at its core. She still didn't quite know why Katara needed her for this, but siding with her had silenced Fire Lord Azula for the time being, and she knew this must be the right path.

They stopped at a river that cut through a vast plain, though a snow-covered slope blocked Azula's view of the land ahead of them. When they dismounted to let the caribou-panthers drink, Azula removed her gloves - even if that meant exposing her hands to the stinging cold - to rub her palms together and summon fire to warm them along with her insides. She couldn't firebend with the gloves on without burning them away and she hated that.

"That fire breath thing you do looks pretty handy," Katara said, removing her mount's saddle. "Get it, handy?" When Azula didn't laugh, Katara frowned. "You know, since you just used your hands for that? Oh, nevermind. I suppose I'm just too tired to tell a good joke."

Azula thought Katara hadn't told one good joke since they started traveling together, but she supposed humor was neither of their strong suits. She felt her own attitude worsening with the increasingly lengthy nights, which messed with her sleep schedule and made it difficult to tell the time. She wondered if Katara's attempts at being friendly were meant to bring Azula's guard down. Regardless, she always made sure to be prepared for the possibility of Katara turning against her. "There's something I've always wanted to ask you," Azula said. "Ever since I've come to realize who you were."

Katara looked at Azula over her shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"You were the Blue Spirit," Azula said. "The one who rescued me from that stronghold in the Fire Nation. Why did you do it?"

The cold winds blew and both of them briefly turned their backs to it before Katara spoke. "Ah, I wondered when you would bring that up. Yeah, that was me. I guess at the time it was a naïve attempt to get Sokka back in my father's favor, if Sokka was the one to capture the Avatar instead of Bato. I thought I needed him to make my nation the way I wanted it, but I've since come to learn I have to do it myself."

"So you meant to rule the Water Nation through him."

"Something like that." Katara tapped her chin. "You know, Azula, I have to say, you've given me a pretty good idea. Next time we stop at a town, I think I'm going to go mask shopping."


Author's Note: Again, I apologize for the wait, but it was due to rewriting a previous chapter. I think I'm going to do the same for "The First Guru" before the next chapter comes out, or at least write parts of it. After that, though I don't think I'll do any other full rewrites - just smaller edits like I have been doing.

Please review, and be sure to check out the avatardistortedreality tumblr that Rocket Axxonu made!