The icy breeze that coursed through her dark strands of hair didn't seem so cold to her. Life in the South Pole promised you would be often trembling and seeking to raise your body temperature at all times, but she didn't care so much about that anymore. She had to keep warm enough, granted, but she had grown fonder of ice as her heart became colder with every passing day.
Perched atop a watch tower, Katara looked at the village with narrowed eyes. Warriors were working half-heartedly on their weapons, women were taking care of the smaller children, elders were sitting by the currently empty fireplace, teenagers were sulking in corners. All in all, the Southern Water Tribe felt sad and empty.
"Katara…" said Hakoda, the Tribe Chief, having climbed the tower to reach her. "You should get some rest. You've been keeping watch for hours."
"I'm not tired," she replied curtly, without looking at her father as she spoke. She didn't care if her eyes were surrounded by dark circles. She didn't feel like sleeping.
"Please, Katara," said Hakoda, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I can take this shift. Take a break, please. For me."
Katara sighed and looked at her father. The gray streaks of hair on his temples weren't the only sign of his aging: the wrinkles on his forehead also showed the man's most glorious years had taken their toll on him. Katara honestly thought he was the one who needed more rest, but the way he looked at her compelled her to sigh and nod, climbing off the watch tower her brother had built a long time ago.
She walked through the village, her eyes clouded with grief. She had never known the Southern Water Tribe during its finest years, but back when she had been a child it had lacked the horrible sense of desolation that weighed upon it nowadays. She hated it here, to be completely honest. Ever since she had taken charge of the Water Tribe's resistance, she felt there was an immeasurable distance keeping her apart from everyone else. It hadn't been that way for her brother Sokka: he was always keeping everyone in high spirits, joking with men and women alike, training teenagers and kids so that one day they could be strong enough to defend their Tribe.
Who was she trying to kid, really? It didn't matter if she was the last waterbender of the South Pole: she would never be able to fill her brother's shoes.
Truthfully, she had never meant to replace him. She had only ever wanted to nag him, to watch out for him, to keep him in line. To make sure that, every time he came home, he would find her welcoming him with a smile and her arms wide open, ready to embrace him. But two years and a half had passed, and he still hadn't returned. He likely never would.
She felt no need to get any rest. She wasn't weary. She had grown used to the days of vigil, and she had found she could stay awake for two days straight without feeling any exhaustion. There was nothing for her to do in the village at the moment, though… sleeping might be a good option indeed. Yet she knew that dropping on her mattress would be of no use if she wasn't actually tired. She would simply stay awake for hours, mulling matters over until her thoughts pained her so much that she feared she would shatter. Whenever this happened she would find no better solace but to leave the safety of her igloo and practice her waterbending far from the village, developing new skills and techniques of her own creation. She knew her inventions wouldn't compare to what a real waterbending master could perform, but her rudimentary bending had allowed her to fight for her Tribe so far. And that was all she needed to do.
Deciding to skip over the awkward stage of rolling around in bed, Katara left the enclosure of the Water Tribe and walked through the icy tundra. Nobody followed her. Nobody asked her where she was going. She had become aloof to them, and they didn't enjoy her company half as much as they had back when she had been a teenager. She had become someone else, someone who used waterbending to fight off the Fire Nation invaders. She was no longer the little girl who helped deliver babies, nor was she the kind girl who would play with the kids… now she was Katara, their fearsome leader.
It was a position she had never wanted, but she'd had no other choice but to lead the Resistance herself. It had taken a week after her brother's disappearance for Katara to decide she couldn't let this matter end like this. She had gathered the Tribe's warriors, and she even convinced her father to accompany her and, with a well-assembled group, they had attacked the settlement again, in hopes to find Sokka or, if nothing else, his dead body.
They hadn't expected the Fire Nation to have reinforced the settlement, though. Fire Nation warriors fought back against them, and even though they were aghast to discover there was a waterbender now amongst the savages, they had retaliated at full force. Hakoda told them to retreat, but Katara wouldn't go back empty handed. She managed to capture one soldier and she tried to force him to tell her what her brother's fate had been. But the soldier had claimed he knew nothing about what she was asking.
Disputes began anew between the Fire Nation settlement and the Southern Water Tribe. They kept clashing against one another, but they were always even. The shifting periods didn't make much of a difference, since most the people defending the settlement were warriors rather than benders. Katara's fighting prowess was better during the dark period, but she fought to her utmost every single time she needed to, be it under the influence of the sun or the moon.
But they still didn't know anything for certain about Sokka's fate. Haka's theory made sense: he thought there was no way they would have killed him without boasting about it. They would have likely hung his dead body on the walls of the settlement if that were the case, trying to send the rest of the resistance a message. Katara agreed with him, but she refused to be hopeful regarding her brother. She had kept her hopes up for all her life, only for them to be crushed time over and time again. To hope was to long for a happy ending that would never come to pass.
And so, after a struggle that had lasted almost two years, both the people of the settlement and the Water Tribe were tired of their pointless conflict. The Water Tribe wasn't strong enough to push the people from the settlement back to where they'd come from, and the Fire Nation soldiers weren't strong enough to destroy the Water Tribe either. So there was an uneasy truce between them now. Katara knew this peace wouldn't last long, but she would use it to develop her skills in order to defeat those Fire Nation invaders when the right time came.
She had no idea where her feet had taken her to, for she had been spacing out as she walked through the ice. The dark period always formed more layers of ice on the pole, and she was sure she was around some of those new layers right now. By summertime they would melt again, but for now they would suffice for her waterbending training.
She began moving her arms in circular motions, producing ice spikes as she did. The exhilarating feeling of controlling an element remained as one of the few enjoyable aspects of her life. She spun with the needles she had produced, directing them with her fluent but inexperienced movements. She had always wished to find someone who could train her, but she no longer let hope dictate her actions. She would make do with her own skills and creativity to come up with new moves.
She continued bending for what felt like hours, letting herself become one with the ice she was controlling. Out of all the forms of water, ice was the one she liked bending the most. Probably because it felt very familiar to her… when she was younger she had liked snow best, because it was pure and beautiful. But seeing how she wasn't interested in purity and beauty nowadays, her favorite water stage had changed all the same as she had. Ice was deadly, and it was the most aggressive of all of water's forms. Learning to use it for her advantage had already come in handy many times as she fought against the Fire Nation's warriors.
She stopped bending for a moment and glared at a large ice mound in front of her. She needed to master new skills, it was necessary for her to do so if she wanted to change the odds of their struggle against their enemies for good. She took a deep breath and began bending, breaking the ice slowly. Cracks showed up all over the previously smooth surface as she created icy shards, in order to use them as weapons later on…
She was taken by surprise when something lit up several feet below the ice she had just broken. She stared at the ice in confusion, not understanding what had happened. She looked around, wondering if by some absurd chance another waterbending master was responsible for the light under her feet, but she confirmed she was alone in the ice plain.
Or was she? The ice mound began cracking, as if it had a will of its own. It shattered loudly, and Katara had to shield her eyes with her arm to keep the ice pellets that had flown towards her from hurting her face. The ice broke into two halves and fell apart loudly, collapsing and leaving a large hole in the ground.
A white fog surrounded the broken ice structure, and it compelled Katara to look inside…
She didn't know what lay down below, but she could make out that a large figure was trapped within the ice. She gritted her teeth and began bending again, to release whatever was stuck below. She ripped the ice apart harshly, struggling to keep control of her bending.
But the ice broke out of its own accord once more, and a blinding light was released from below along with a powerful force that swept her off her feet for a moment. The glimmer shot up towards the clear skies, glowing for a few seconds before it faded away slowly. Katara stared at the hole that she had opened… no, something else had opened it. She didn't have the strength or skill to break the ice like that by herself.
She got back on her feet and approached the ice crack, cautious. What exactly had she just released from a frozen prison…?
Her mouth dropped wide open when she saw the largest creature she had ever laid eyes upon. Its fur was mostly white, although there were also brown hairs that formed an arrow over its huge head. She had never seen an animal like this one. The creature groaned and opened its eyes slowly, scaring Katara. Would it be friendly?
But her caution was soon forgotten when she heard a weak whimper from within the hole. She approached the rim and realized the white animal hadn't been alone: there was someone else down below.
Katara was surprised to find a man in such getup at the South Pole. His orange and yellow garments looked thin and unlikely to retain heat. He was completely bald too, which was not recommendable in this environment either. Had he been brought down to the South Pole against his will? Nobody in his right mind would come down here with that appearance, unless he was trying to die from frostbite…
The man turned around, still shivering badly, but now he was face up towards Katara. She caught sight of the strange blue arrow tattooed over his forehead and, despite it felt like an inappropriate thought, she noticed he had quite a handsome face too… but who was he? And why had he been encased in ice? Rather, for how long had he been there?
But Katara postponed asking all those questions when she realized he needed help urgently. She slid into the hole, forgetting completely about the possibly dangerous animal nearby. Her mind was set on reaching the young man.
"Hey… hey," she said, taking him in her arms. "Can you hear me?"
"It's…" replied the man. His voice was far kinder than what Katara was used to. She never would have imagined men could speak so softly "It's cold…"
"Yeah, it is," she said, taking off her parka and wrapping up his shoulders with it. "Didn't you think it would be before coming to the South Pole…?"
The man didn't reply. His body kept shivering violently even when Katara was trying to get him in heat once more. Clearly, her parka wouldn't be enough to warm him up.
"I need to get you out of here somehow…" she said, biting her lower lip.
She could propel both of them outside using waterbending in some way, right? But while she struggled to come up with ideas to do that, the creature next to them moved and roared loudly. Katara's eyes widened when she saw it had six feet. The animal looked down at the man in her arms, and Katara was certain she could see concern in his large eyes. There was something that looked like a saddle tied to the creature's back. Katara had no idea why she hadn't noticed it before.
The creature groaned at Katara, startling her. It seemed that, for some reason, the low temperatures hardly affected him. The creature shook its head, as if prompting her to get on board so that they could get out of where they were. Katara blinked a few times, insecure, but she decided to trust the creature. If it was saddled, it probably meant it was tame… maybe it was the man's pet or something.
The animal crouched to let her lift the man onto the saddle, which she did with some difficulty before climbing on herself. As soon as she was settled on the saddle, the creature got up and began the ascent from their hole and back to the surface. Katara blushed slightly as she hugged the man tightly. He continued shivering, his breath white and cold. She had never been forced to hold a stranger like this. She knew about the best techniques to warm up his body, but she didn't think stripping both herself and the man naked while riding a six-legged creature would be a good idea.
Once the animal had made it outside the crevice, it seemed to wait for Katara to guide the way. She realized there were reins tied to the animal's horns and she grasped them, pulling towards the direction where her tribe stood.
"This way, big guy," she said, and the creature replied with another groan. Katara wasn't used to working with animals, but she was pleased to discover it wasn't as hard as she feared it would be. The creature seemed quite docile.
Katara hugged the man again, looking at him intently. He had to be around eighteen years old, give or take… or perhaps a little older, depending on how long he had been frozen within the ice. But he was freezing. If she didn't manage to get him in warmth quickly enough, he might not survive.
To her relief, it didn't take the creature too long to reach the village, but the rest of the Water Tribe people didn't share Katara's sense of relief once he arrived. Many of them screamed when they saw the animal from afar, and several warriors came out, ready to attack if the beast happened to be hostile…
"Don't!" yelled Katara, surprising the men just as they had been getting ready to throw their spears at the furry animal. They hadn't noticed the creature was saddled and carrying two passengers with him. "Everything is alright! I found this creature in the ice, and also…"
"That… that's a sky bison, Katara," said her grandmother, Kanna, looking at the animal with reverence.
Katara's eyes grew wide at the revelation. A sky bison, encased in ice? How did that happen…? Well, she'd have time to seek out those answers later. She had to tend to the man in her arms first of all.
"Good to know, Gran Gran," she said, once the bison halted. "But there's something more important than that right now."
Everyone watched with wide eyes as Katara climbed off the saddle with the young man in her arms. Several warriors dropped their weapons and helped her with her endeavor. The man tried to open his eyes when he was carried down, but he felt too weak to deal with the world at the moment. There was nothing he could do right now other than sink into unconsciousness once again…
He felt warmer when he came to. A fire was crackling nearby, although it took him a moment to place that familiar sound. He had been tucked under some thick covers that felt like animal fur. He cringed at the thought.
"W-where am… what's…?" he mumbled, struggling under the heavy furs.
"Shh," he heard an unknown voice nearby. It took him a moment to realize it was a female voice. "You're going to be okay. We're going to make sure of that."
"W-what was…? What happened to me?"
"I wish I knew. I found you frozen cold, deep in the ice. I was actually hoping the one to tell us what had happened would be you."
"I don't… I…"
"No worries, though. If you're not strong enough, there's no need for you to speak. But… can I ask what your name is?"
His name… that was something he could remember, right? It was there, teasing him just like all those things that had slipped off his mind after being frozen, things that were only starting to make sense now. The knowledge was right in front of him, he only had to try and seize it… and, by doing so, he began recalling who he was.
"I'm… Aang," he replied, breathless, as if the mental effort to recall his name had exhausted him. "Y-you…?"
"Oh, sorry. Where are my manners? I'm Katara. I'm a member of the Southern Water Tribe"
"The Southern…?" muttered Aang, frowning. Yes… yes, the Water Tribe. Things were coming back to him slowly. He had been training, learning waterbending. Toki had been teaching him the advanced set and he had told him he would be ready for his test soon. Yes, yes… everything was starting to return to him.
He felt someone lift his head and place it under a cushion of some sort. Then he felt a hot, salty liquid seeping into his mouth. The soup he was being fed would have never been his first pick if he had gotten away with selecting a meal, but he swallowed it regardless. Once he realized he wasn't being fed with any instruments he made the connection in his mind:
"You're… a w-waterbender… right?"
"Yeah," said Katara, smiling slightly. Aang's eyes were still closed, so he missed her grin. "You need to eat this, Aang. It'll help you get better. I have no idea how long you spent frozen, but it's a miracle you survived. And we can't let that go to waste, can we?"
"Sure…" replied Aang, and Katara bent another handful of soup to his mouth. He grimaced again, swallowing with difficulty. It felt as if he hadn't eaten anything in over a century.
They continued with the feeding process until Aang asked her to stop. It seemed he couldn't handle eating that much at the moment, and Katara didn't insist. She sat by him for a moment, feeling at a loss as to what to do… until he opened his eyes and looked at her.
Their gazes clashed for a moment. Aang's eyes had difficulty getting adjusted, he couldn't see the girl properly, but even so, he could see those blue eyes, the typical eyes of a member of the Water Tribe. Yet they weren't so typical. Something about them made him feel strange on the inside…
"Say…" said Katara, biting her lip again. "My grandmother said that you have the getup of an Air Nomad. Are you… are you really one of them?"
"Y-yeah…" he muttered, lowering his eyes as he blinked a few times, trying to keep his vision from growing blurry. "I'm… I'm an Air… Wait…"
"Wait?" repeated Katara, as Aang's face formed a frown. He gritted his teeth before turning as if to get up, but he didn't have the strength to move.
"My people, they need me…" he gasped, grimacing. "I was told about it… I have to go now! Or… Or else, the Fire Nation will… the Fire Nation can't…! W-why would they even…?"
"Aang, you're not… you're not making any sense," said Katara, worried. Aang struggled to lift his body out of the furs.
"Y-you didn't hear? They're after the Air Nomads… they were going to attack us… I have to do something, or else…"
"No… no way," said Katara, staring at him in shock. "Y-you don't mean what you're saying, do you, Aang?"
"O-of course I do!" he said, cringing again. "I have to…! They need me!"
"No, Aang, no," said Katara, her hands going to his shoulders as she pushed him back to the bed. "You've… you couldn't have been frozen cold for over a hundred years, could you?"
"A… what? A hundred…? Y-you don't… that's not… no way…" stuttered Aang.
"Aang, I'm so sorry," said Katara, biting her lip. "But the Air Nomads… they're gone. And so is the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation wiped them both away in the span of a hundred years…"
Katara didn't think too much about what she was saying. She never would have thought she would come to face a person who wasn't aware of the events from the last century. Had he truly been encased in the ice for that long? But of course, speaking so thoughtlessly brought forth consequences she hadn't envisioned.
Aang heard her words, his eyes opening again as he looked at nothing in particular, his mouth twitching.
"N-no… n-no… y-you can't be serious… n-no way… No way!" he shrieked, with more energy than Katara would have expected him to. Where had he found the strength to shout when he hadn't even been able to keep his eyes open?
She stopped trying to make sense out of his outburst when she realized the nomad's tattoos were glowing all of sudden. His eyes also lit up as his lips curled back and his teeth formed a snarl. He seemed infused with powers Katara couldn't even start to comprehend… what was going on? That glow… it was the same light that had appeared back when he had been frozen.
He began levitating, frightening her when he did. Wind began blowing inside the igloo, scaring Katara. It seemed the Air Nomad was an airbender… and a waterbender too, judging by how the ice below them began melting and water began spinning around as wildly as the wind, and Katara knew for certain she hadn't been the one to conjure that.
"Katara!" yelled her grandmother, who had been just outside while Katara tended to Aang. People were beginning to notice the ruckus within the Chief's igloo. It was hard to miss that the ceiling was breaking down: Aang was wrecking it with his bending as he floated, his body alight with grief.
"Katara, get away from him!" yelled Hakoda, running into the house and trying to reach his daughter, even though the strength of the gusts pushed him away.
For reasons she couldn't quite understand, though, Katara wasn't as badly affected by the uncontrolled airbending Aang was currently performing. She pressed her teeth tightly together as she took a few steps forward, towards him. Her hand reached out for his, and she began pulling him down to the ground again.
As she did, she realized there were tears streaming down his face. He was crying. She had truly been tactless, hadn't she?
Aang's glow dimmed as she pulled him in for a hug, begging him through whispers to forgive her for speaking so rashly. He began sobbing silently, his weak hands seizing the front of her parka as he wept for the fate of his people, whom he should have saved…
Hakoda and Kanna watched them from the threshold of the room, ignoring the way the ceiling had collapsed after Aang's outburst. Their eyes were set on the man Katara was holding, and they both were starting to realize who he was. That glow, and the fact that he could bend both air and water, led them both to the same conclusion:
That kid was the Avatar.
It took a week for Aang to recover. Most the people of the village were unwilling to approach him after his reaction when he heard about what had happened to his people. Hakoda had dealt with fixing the igloo's roof with Katara's help while Kanna took care of the newest arrival to the Tribe. Hakoda told Katara about his suspicions of the man's true identity, and Katara nodded in agreement. She had realized that there would only be one person who would be able to bend two elements… and it would have to be the person who could bend all four. But she had been too concerned about the man at the time of his outburst to care much about who he might really be.
Now, several days after that had happened, she sat by the open fireplace in the center of the village, her eyes fixed on the dancing flames. The Avatar… the Avatar. She had given up on him reappearing back when she was still a teenager. She had figured the spirits wished for the Fire Nation to triumph in the war, seeing how they had provided them with Sozin's Comet for a second time so that they could finish the Earth Kingdom off. And if the spirits didn't care for them, then, surely, neither did the Avatar. Never would she have imagined that he had been frozen cold several feet under the surface for over a hundred years. All the blame she had placed on him was, most likely, undeserved. Being frozen probably hadn't been the Avatar's fault. If she had found him earlier, maybe the rest of the world would have had a chance against the Fire Nation…
She was surprised when she heard muffled footsteps behind her. She turned around to find the tattooed man, the Avatar, clad in Water Tribe garments, with the hood of his brand new parka covering his bald head. He walked clumsily to the side of the igloo, where he patted his pet, the sky bison, which Katara heard him call Appa. He spoke to his bison for a moment before spotting Katara by the fire, and, after muttering a short good-bye to his friend, he decided to join her.
"Hey," he said, smiling weakly at her. Katara knew his grin wasn't too honest, but that he had the courage to at least try to smile was impressive regardless.
"Hi… are you okay? Should you be out here in the cold?" she asked, as he sat by next to her, his legs crossed.
"Your grandmother said I have recovered my strength quickly," replied Aang smiling. "She advised me to come over to the bigger fireplace to get warmer. And, well, I didn't feel like lying down for much longer. I've been asleep for a hundred years, apparently… I think I've rested long enough."
"Yeah, I guess you have," said Katara, smiling slightly before sighing deeply. "I… I'm sorry I told you everything like I did. I wasn't thinking straight…"
"No, no need to apologize," said Aang, smiling back at her. "I would have found out sooner or later. I just… wasn't expecting to have been frozen for so long."
"It must have been quite an unpleasant shock," said Katara.
"Yeah. You can't even start to imagine just how unpleasant it was."
Katara looked at him sideways, finding sadness in his dark eyes. She was moved by the sight of him; he was so young, yet he carried such a heavy weight on his shoulders.
"Aang, are you… the Avatar?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer to that question.
Aang turned to look at her, worried about the consequences of admitting the truth. But he sighed and nodded slowly.
"I was told of my identity when I was twelve years-old. The monks told me who I was and they also said there were storm clouds gathering or something… I didn't really understand what they meant. They sent me down to the Water Tribe so that I could continue with the next part of my training, seeing how I had already mastered airbending. I spent seven years here, developing my waterbending skills… but then a message arrived, telling my instructor, Toki, that the Fire Nation was attacking the Air Temples. Apparently their strength was enhanced for some reason… at least, I think the letter said something like that. But it didn't say why they were attacking us in the first place. The letter said I had to stay in the Tribe, to continue training until I mastered this element and was ready to start with earthbending… because, if the Air Nomads weren't able to fight back and were forced to submit to the Fire Nation, I would be their only hope on the long run.
"But I… I didn't want to listen. I couldn't let my people face the threat of the Fire Nation like this, so I jumped on Appa and I tried to go to the Southern Air Temple. But a storm caught us, a very bad one. I can't remember what I did, exactly… I think I froze us both when Appa fell into the sea, but my memory fails me a bit. I think my last thought was that I'd get out of the ice once the storm was over, and I'd get to the Temple once I did… I never expected to be stuck in there for a century, though."
"Of course not," said Katara, looking at him sympathetically. "But, say… why were you dressed in Air Nomad garments? Had you worn those clothes during all the years you were here?"
"Not really," said Aang. "But I wanted to wear the clothes of my people when I returned to them."
"Huh… I see," muttered Katara, nodding.
"It's just so hard to believe," said Aang, shaking his head. "One hundred years have passed by and I'm still nineteen… but nineteen in another era, apparently. I'm so confused…"
"Well, if there's anything I can do to help you, you can let me know…" said Katara, eyeing him with worry.
"Uh… actually, there might be something," said Aang, lifting his head and looking at her with passionate eyes. "Are there still penguins around? They haven't gone extinct after all this time, have they?"
Katara was taken by surprise by his sudden question. Penguins seemed like a very random topic…
"Y-yeah, they're still around. No extinction," she said, smiling uncomfortably.
Aang sighed in relief and beamed at the fireplace.
"Well, at least there's that. I'll go penguin sledding one of these days, then. And I'll get to see if the penguins have changed in the span of a hundred years…"
Katara couldn't quite understand his enthusiasm, but she smiled at him. He seemed younger than nineteen to her.
"In any case," he muttered, his façade growing stern slowly. "There are more things I need to know. For one… what happened to the world while I was gone?"
Katara lowered her eyes back towards the fireplace, unwilling to tell the tale of the Fire Nation's long history of triumphs. But the man next to her was the Avatar: he deserved to know.
"Well… a hundred years ago, around the time you froze, a comet showed up in the sky," said Katara. "It was named Sozin's Comet after Fire Lord Sozin. He vanquished the Air Nomads by using the Comet's power to enhance his firebending, and the firebending of his people."
"Then… there's nobody left?" asked Aang, aghast.
"No idea. I mean, you're around," said Katara, shrugging. "I don't know anything for certain, truthfully. I've been in the Water Tribe all my life… and I honestly wouldn't want to go anywhere else."
"Why?" asked Aang, surprised.
"Because of the Fire Nation," replied Katara, sighing. "After overpowering the Air Nomads they attacked the Tribes… they didn't manage to destroy us as easily, since water beats fire most the time. Still, they killed all the southern waterbenders. They slaughtered them because they knew that, if the waterbenders stood up against them, the Fire Nation wouldn't have a chance at winning the war. After that, they went to the Earth Kingdom. They destroyed it a few years ago, when the comet showed up again, a century after it first appeared."
"But… wait," said Aang, shocked. "You mean the Fire Nation is in control of everything now?"
"Pretty much," replied Katara, shrugging.
"But… it doesn't make any sense," said Aang, troubled. "I mean… the Fire Nation has no reason to take over the rest of the world. Back when I was young I visited the Fire Nation a few times and their people were kind to me. I never got along with their food, but one of my best friends was Fire Nation, even!"
"Well, Aang… times have changed," said Katara, sighing. "The people you used to know… they're no longer around. Your friend might have been the last nice person in the Fire Nation, for all we know."
"No… no," said Aang, shaking his head. "I don't think so. I mean… even if the Fire Lord and most his people are bad, and they're throwing the world out of balance, there's no way the entire nation has gone awry. I can't believe it."
"I'm not just saying this, Aang. I mean it," she said, sternly. "If there was some good in the Fire Nation, the Fire Lord wouldn't get away with all the destruction he has brought to the world. They're jerks who think their deeds are justified because they believe they're superior to everyone else."
"But… they didn't use to be like this," said Aang, sighing. "They didn't…"
"What do you want me to say?" said Katara, shrugging. "It's the way things work now. Only the two Water Tribes are still fighting against the Fire Nation… the Northern Water Tribe is dealing with most the Fire Nation navy, from what I know. Meanwhile, the Southern Water Tribe has to fight with this metallic settlement they established down here about six years ago. We've lost many people because of the Fire Nation… we keep trying to get them out of our territory, but they won't go no matter what we do."
"You've lost people?" asked Aang, biting his lip as he glanced at the girl next to him.
"Yeah," said Katara, sighing. "Many years ago, there was a raid where a firebender killed my mother."
"Oh… I'm sorry," he said.
"And well… two years ago, it was my brother," said Katara. "He arranged an attack to the settlement, but it didn't work for some reason…"
"And…? What happened to him?" asked Aang, when Katara fell silent for a moment.
"Actually, I… I don't know for certain," she admitted, hugging her knees as she brought them up to her chin. "My brother… well, I thought they would have killed him, seeing how they killed my mother without a second thought. But we attacked them later, and they said they didn't know anything about a Water Tribe warrior being slain there. They didn't have his body. We wanted to give him a proper funeral, but they said they didn't have it."
"Then… what happened to him?" asked Aang, confused.
"I wish I knew," said Katara, her forehead on her knees. "My father said he might have been captured, but I don't know if the Fire Nation would have bothered taking him prisoner. What could they gain from doing that?"
"I don't know," said Aang, truthfully. "But maybe… maybe they're not as ruthless as you think. He might have been captured and perhaps he escaped somehow…"
"No, Aang," said Katara, shaking her head. "I'm done with that. No more hoping, no more dreaming, no more thinking about what could be if the spirits were kind to us. The world is as it is, and hoping for it to be otherwise is just asking to get disappointed."
"Hey… there's no need for that," said Aang, his hand on her shoulder. "The monks taught me many things, and one of them was to never give up hope. If you give up on your dreams, you're making sure they'll never come true."
"That's only true for things you can control, Aang," said Katara. "Sokka's fate… I have nothing to do with it as I am. There's nothing I can do for him. And hoping pointlessly for him to be alive… you're pretty much asking for me to mourn him twice. I lost my brother once already and it was the most painful period of my life. Losing him again, deluding myself in hopes that he'll return here on his own somehow… it would be a fool's errand. My brother's gone, Aang. The only thing I can do about it is accept that and keep fighting against the Fire Nation in every way I can."
Aang sighed and nodded, giving up. Maybe one day she'd change her mind…
Looking at her right now, Aang realized she was truly beautiful. Her hair was quite pretty, and her eyes were dazzling. The color of her skin also mesmerized him for a moment. When had he last met a pretty girl close to his age? When had he met a girl his age at all, actually? He had met several nuns, and he had traveled the world a few times… but for some reason, he never got to meet younger girls. He was thankful for that, though. If he had met a beautiful girl back then, he was certain she wouldn't have survived to this day, and it would crush him if that were the case… But he had no need to fill his minds with ideas of what might have happened. He had to focus on doing whatever he could about the world as it was right now.
"Are you guys still fighting against the people from the settlement?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but it's no use," said Katara, sighing. "We're evenly matched. They've got soldiers well trained and ready to kill their enemies. Our warriors are good, but not that good. I make up for it, though, since I'm a waterbender… but I'm the only one left. Those raids I mentioned to you before… well, they were done in order to wipe out the waterbenders. They never heard about me bending, I think, so that's why they didn't try to kill me back when they sent those raids."
"And have you mastered waterbending by now?" asked Aang, surprised.
"No… actually, no," she said, sadly. "The South Pole hadn't had waterbenders in about ten years until I was born. There was nobody to teach me any forms… My grandmother recalled a few movements from the waterbenders she had known back when she was a kid, but mastering a couple of forms wouldn't have been enough for me to become a master. I've made up a few moves, but I'm definitely not half as powerful as the waterbenders of old…"
Aang blinked a few times before smiling cheerfully. Katara was surprised by his grin.
"Why are you smiling at me like that…?"
"Just thinking… you can become a better waterbender," he said, still smiling. "I trained under a powerful southern waterbending master, and I'm pretty sure I could teach you a move or two."
Katara's eyes widened in disbelief.
"You… You would teach me?" she asked, her eyes glowing with an emotion she had discarded a long time ago: hope.
Aang beamed as he saw her lips forming a smile. He nodded promptly as she began laughing with joy.
"I'll… I'll be taught to waterbend by the Avatar. This is the sort of things that I could only ever dream about!" said Katara, smiling broadly.
Aang couldn't help but laugh too. The girl was pretty when she was hopeless and moody… when she laughed she was absolutely beautiful.
"You have no idea how much that would mean to me, Aang!" said Katara, looking at him gratefully. He chuckled lowly and smiled.
"I think I can imagine," he said, smiling. "You never thought the day would come when you would actually have a chance to learn waterbending from an almost-master, did you?"
"No, I really… never," said Katara, chuckling. "You, you're just… I really can't thank you enough, Aang."
"No worries," he said, shrugging carelessly. "You can pay me back for the lessons by not discarding hope, no matter how desperate the situation seems to be. If you stop hoping, you'll stop living, Katara."
She blushed slightly when he said her name. She nodded, although she didn't feel all that hopeful anyways. It was one thing that her random wish to find a waterbending master would come true, but it was something really different for her brother to be alive. She hated the Fire Nation too much to trust them to spare Sokka's life…
Aang realized she hadn't quite complied with his request, but he knew he would have more chances to give her hope. Maybe one day he would take Appa for a ride and they would go looking for Sokka…
Because Aang knew nothing about him, but he could tell that Katara loved him dearly, and he knew Sokka loved her, too. A Water Tribe man who knew his family was awaiting him would never leave them longing for him for more time than necessary. He was likely facing some hardships, but he would come back to his family, Aang knew he would. Because just as Katara was missing her brother so badly right now, Sokka was probably out there somewhere, missing his dear sister as well.
A/N: Yes, I know… many of you must have crooked an eyebrow when Aang showed up as a nineteen-year-old instead of a twelve-year-old. Yes, I needed to age him up a notch and give him a different background story for a few reasons that I'm sure you guys will understand. Now, as for technical stuff… Yeah, I find it plausible for Aang to have been nineteen instead of twelve. Roku lived in a volcanic island, and the volcano could have erupted at any time. So making it erupt seven years before it happened in canon isn't that long a shot, I think. And of course, Aang was born after Roku passed away and there we go! Continuity remains! Yes, I wanted to keep most of the happenings totally canon… but yeah, for plot devices, I kinda needed to change things as I did, and well, it's a fic after all ^^U giving things a tweak or two is perfectly legal!
In any case, I hope you're happy with this chapter ^^ Gladiator wasn't going to remain Avatar-less forever!
I will point out, though… as Mahavia stated on a review several chapters ago, this story is only just beginning. This chapter officially closes the introductory arc to Gladiator! And yes, I know many of you are desperate for the Sokkla romance to get started… and I'll have you know it will, from here on ^^
P.D: just a heads up,BEWAREthe beginning of the next chapter if you're underage!