AN: Quick clarification in regards to canon events, both in TLA and Shippuden: I would warn against assuming that anything of canon in either of these universes directly took place, unless/until specifically referred to, i.e. Sasuke talking about Itachi in the first part. This isn't to suggest that certain things have or have not happened, just don't want people getting their hopes up for certain things, or conversely, having people assume things haven't happened when they very well may have. Safe to assume there might be a mix, but I dare say no more than that.

Hope you all are enjoying thus far!

Chapter 5: The Warning

Aang's eyes snapped open as he sucked in a long sharp breath through his nose. He tried to sit up quickly but a hand pushing gently but firmly on his chest kept him from exerting himself too strongly just then.

"Easy now, twinkle-toes."

As he blinked sight back into his eyes, Aang took in his surroundings as his heart pounded rigorously and he tried to solidify himself in reality as his head continued to race.

He appeared to be in one of the palace's guest rooms, orange lighting from the crackling fireplace throwing the several occupants that inhabited it into sharp relief.

Aang was lying on the couch that was situated somewhat near the fireplace, Toph kneeling by his side and her hand on his chest. She was smiling, but the corners of her mouth were twitching with worry. Suki, Sokka, Zuko, Ty Lee, and Mai were all standing in a sort of half-circle around the couch, all with varying looks of stress, worry, confusion and fear on their faces. At seeing him awakening, there were several sighs of relief and slight relaxing of tightened shoulders; Ty Lee and Zuko were both shouldered past roughly as Katara came rushing towards the couch, her expression wild. Not quite able to get any words out in time, Aang simply lay there as Katara threw her arms around him and held him close. Toph gently pulled her hand away and stood up, walking slowly back to stand next to Ty Lee where they affectionately rubbed shoulders, both looking to be feeling some level of alleviation. Katara on the other hand didn't seem quite so willing to show signs of relief as she held him all the tighter and Aang allowed himself a small smile as he put his face in her shoulder and closed his eyes, relishing her smooth skin and warmth as he smelled her hair.

"Hey, I'm okay, I'm okay," he murmured in an attempt to ease her and she pulled away from him, her expression still wild with a touch of resentment in her eyes.

"You'd better be," she said and Aang realized as he looked into her eyes and heard her voice trembling that she had been crying.

He reached out and took her hand, wanting to do more to ease her, but he found himself wondering what exactly had occurred outside of his head to cause such a stir.

"I only passed out," he tried to say, with a light inflection in his tone. Based on the look Katara then gave him, he knew that attempting to play this off wasn't going to be something he could do.

"As if," came a sneer and Aang looked over to the fireplace to see another person he had not previously accounted for leaning against the mantle, hidden mostly in shadow. Azula's smoldering eyes blinked out of that shadow; her voice echoed of the smirk that she seemed to always wear, but there was an edge in it too that Aang couldn't recall having heard in years.

"Azula found you on the upper balcony above the ballroom," Suki said tersely. "Your eyes were glowing like you were in the Avatar State, but you weren't breathing, and were kicking around on the floor."

"I was able to hold you down and keep you from hurting yourself until your fighting ceased and your breathing resumed," Azula said from the mantle. "You rather sort of seized up, though your eyes kept glowing. From there, I was able to carry you here."

Aang didn't know what he found more immediately confusing, the fact that his fainting spell had taken him into something akin to the Avatar State, or the fact that Azula had not only been the one to find him, but also had been the one to potentially have saved him.

"The Avatar State…" was about all he could mutter in response to this, his eyes drifting down. Katara scooted closer to him and held his hand tightly.

"Aang," she said sternly, like she was trying to keep her voice steady. "You've entered the State several times over the years, but you've never been able to actually commune with the Spirit World, not since before the war's end. Is that what you were trying to do just earlier? Speak with the spirits?"

"What had happened to me… was not of my doing," Aang said carefully. He was still doing everything in his power to try and piece together the nature of his sudden collapse, but while he did so, he had no intention of saying anything that might set off Katara or anyone else in that room. Saying that he had potentially been 'attacked' was a one-way ticket to disaster. "I believe that someone was trying to contact me. Through very particular means."

"What do you mean?" Sokka asked, stepping forward and cocking his head. "A spirit trying to reach out to you, you mean?"

"A spirit, maybe," Aang said, maintaining a slow and steady cadence to his tone. "Or something else."

While he merely added this last bit in an attempt to not draw too specific a conclusion, he realized just how much his words made it sound like there was in fact a very specific person to whom his words sounded like they were referring to. He watched Ty Lee and Suki both stiffen as Sokka gave a deep swallow and Mai very slightly bared her teeth; Toph grabbed for Ty Lee's hand and squeezed it in a knuckle-white grip as Zuko's expression seemed to age him twenty years. Katara pulled back from Aang with a very small, but very noticeable jerk, but Aang found himself looking foremost to Azula, who hadn't moved from where she leaned against the mantle. Still, her eyes had narrowed, two fiery slits that gazed upon him with enough intensity to bring chills along his arm.

Feeling some sharp concern, Aang immediately tried to correct course.

"I don't think it was him, that's not what I meant!"

He didn't say the name, but he knew he didn't need to. Katara was watching him with very attentive eyes as she asked, "Then what did you mean?"

"I just meant that… well, no communications I've had with any spirits have been quite so… abrupt or sudden. They usually always make it their priority to announce their presence as to not alarm me, so that they can speak with me without fear or trepidation."

"And you felt nothing like they were actually trying to make themselves known?" Mai asked, her expression still fierce, but her voice sounding like she was trying to not sound too worked up.

"No," Aang said, shaking his head firmly. "As I think to it now, all I can remember after I passed out were a series of bright lights and sounds that didn't quite sound like voices. I felt no singular presence, no particular attempt to speak with me. It was like something was just trying to reach me, with that being the only goal."

"An attack," Sokka said rather firmly and Aang winced; he had hoped to avoid such a damning conclusion for the sake of keeping everyone around him from feeling too worried, and at Sokka's words Katara drew herself up, a furious fire in her eyes.

"How can that be possible?" she demanded, turning her questioning in Aang's direction though he had done nothing himself to confirm that what Sokka had said was true. "We know that there are those who have a strong spiritual connection; could one of them have been employed by one of the radical elitist factions perhaps, and made an attempt at Aang through their mind?"

Immediately, things were starting to derail; the factions that Katara had mentioned were composed of several groups of very single-minded and nationalistic people, all of Earth, Fire and Water Nation birth individually, who believed that the uniting of the Nations was an impossible and dangerous ideal. They had done everything from organizing protests and riots, to outright attacking legislative and executive buildings; Aang himself had experienced two close calls on his life in the past couple years, both of which he had successfully managed to hide from Katara, with only Zuko knowing that these attempts had even transpired. Aang had pleaded the case that Katara could potentially fall into a very overprotective and ferocious mindset were she to learn of such events, as she had been known to do with much less dire circumstances in the past and Zuko had agreed. They both had kept such knowledge just between the two of them, but now, in the dim lighting of Sokka's guest room, Aang and Zuko exchanged nervous glances as Sokka replied to his sister.

"I wouldn't put it past some of those groups, like the Talons or the Dwellers; they'd be perfectly capable and willing of trying to win over some more spiritual people, people with deep ties to the Spirit World, like Iroh, and then try and use that influence to generate some form of mental attack on Aang."

"Who's to say it's even an attack that came out of our world?" Ty Lee asked. "Could a spirit living in the Spirit World have reason to want to harm him?"

"That's a good point," Mai added in her low and resolute tone. "The stories Aang told about beings like Koh, maybe one with more malicious attempt tried to use the Spirit World as a conduit to try and strike at Aang?"

Aang looked at the look on Katara's face that was growing steadily more negatively impassioned and knew he had to calm things down quickly. In an attempt to gain attention, he pushed himself quickly upright and to his feet; at once, everyone looked around, stepping forward and expressing that he shouldn't be moving so quickly. Feeling his head spin at the speed of his rising, Aang felt relief that he had been able to recapture attention away from such negative and potentially dangerous thinking as Katara moved to his side and pulled his arm around her shoulder in an attempt to keep him steady.

"You shouldn't be moving so quickly, you need to—" she started, but Aang cut her off as he put as much emphasis on his words as he could.

"I don't think this was an attack," he said firmly. "If it was, things would surely have gone much worse with me being so totally unprepared for something like that. We have no proof or evidence that anyone deeply spiritual has any abilities like the ones I possess or the ones you suggest, and what possible reason would a spirit, even one that thinks unfavorably of me, want to do with attacking me? It would gain them nothing, so meaningless an attack."

He looked around, daring anyone to suggest otherwise and was relieved when he watched the expressions of Katara and everyone else soften into more contemplative and thoughtful ones, rather than ones with such aggressive intent.

"You're right, we shouldn't jump to conclusions…" Katara muttered as she turned her physical support of him into half a hug as she held him tight. Aang kissed the top of her head in reassurance and was hoping he could continue to lighten things up, but Azula's silky voice picked up before he had a chance to.

"Let's say, for the sake of discussion, that it was in fact him," she started and Aang felt Katara's grip on him tighten, though surely not out of affection for him. Mai crossed her arms and glared over at the princess.

"Stop it, Azula. If Aang says it wasn't him, it wasn't him."

Raising an eyebrow in gentle amusement, Azula stepped away from the mantle and more into the light of the fireplace with all the elegance her royalty brought on.

"My goodness, so insistent on his part," she practically cooed dismissively before turning to Aang.

"Avatar, despite what you say, you have no way of knowing for sure what it was came over you? That forced you into such a helpless state?"

Zuko stepped forward, his voice warningly firm, "Azula…"

She ignored her brother and continued to look at Aang expectantly; Aang felt a slight surge of annoyance in his gut at how she described him as being so vulnerable, and even though he had a pretty good feeling why Azula was asking, he knew deep down that he had no way of truthfully denying the possibility.

"Why would Sasuke reach out through whatever means to do just that to me?" he asked, and immediately regretted what he had said.

Katara dug her nails into his side as Azula lifted her chin slightly, slowly inhaling through her nose. Sokka's eyes flicked around nervously as Suki tightened her lips and crossed her arms and Zuko seemed to try and fight back a flinch. Toph closed her eyes and her face scrunched just slightly like she was trying to keep herself from shouting angrily or bursting into tears as Ty Lee pulled her close, looking at Aang with sad eyes. Mai turned her head sharply towards the fire and Aang could see her eyes flashing wildly with were surely a large variety of emotions and he wondered if he ought to apologize.

Sasuke… if only you could see what just someone saying your name does to everyone.

Before he could think of something to say, or anyone could offer a reply to his question, Aang felt some a slight tingling on the back of his neck, the telltale sign his body gave him when something not yet privy to his observation was amiss. Being battle hardened and needing to be ready for danger brought this feeling upon him often and he mentally lamented that it had been of no use just an hour prior to his mental assaulting.

It was clear that this feeling was picked up by everyone else as well as gazes turned to look sharply around. Mai reached into and under the cleavage of her dress and drew a pair of knives just as Ty Lee took a step towards the darker and unoccupied part of the room, arms adopting readied expressions, but in a much more general show of force, the water in the tub of Sokka's washroom burst forth and flashed instantly into several dozen icicles that swept through the air and came to a rest hovering menacingly above the far side of the bed in the blink of an eye.

"Who's there?" Zuko called out in a powerful voice, not something he usually brought out around them all. For a moment, there was a silence as Mai and Ty Lee both moved to stand closest to the bed at the ready, while Katara's arms and hands remained suspended as her impending attack remained at the ready. Then, there was soft shuffling as a voice quietly called out.

"Alright, alright."

A small figure moved from around the bed and into the light away from where it had been crouched down and Aang heaved a sigh of relief along with several other people.

"Damn it all, Soza…" Mai muttered as her arms fell to her sides, knives dangling loosely from her grip.

"Sorry, Auntie Mai," Soza said with an insincerely rueful look on her face that twisted into a smile. "Just didn't want to be left out of anything was all."

As she delicately approached them all, Aang couldn't help but reflect painfully on just how much like a young version of her mother Soza was. From her smile to her composure to that attitude that made it seem like she never felt she was ever in any danger of being in trouble, it all just sickened Aang to his stomach even as he felt such an overwhelming sense of pity.

"I'd appreciate if you'd take those icicles away from my daughter."

Aang looked over and felt his heart catch in his throat as he saw a flame dancing from Azula's fingertip as she waved it almost playfully back and forth, but he could tell from the look in her eyes that if Katara didn't banish her prepared attack, she would have no problem bringing things to force. For a moment, he wasn't sure Katara would comply as she glared angrily back at Azula's composed expression before the icicles turned back to water and raced back to the washroom to splash back in the basin. Clearly not done having expressed her annoyance with just a look however, Katara whirled back to face Soza, her voice an angry snap.

"What do you think you were doing, sneaking in here and spying like that?"

Soza shrugged an infuriatingly passive gesture. "I heard a lot of raised voices and running around in the hall. Poked my head out to see what was going on in time to see mother carrying the Avatar into Captain Sokka's room and Auntie Ty running to go get everyone else. I slipped in before everyone got here and while everyone was fussing over Avatar Aang. Just was curious to what was going on."

They way she presented her side of the story like it was the simplest, most innocent and practical thing in the world, Aang could hardly believe it. He watched as the muscles worked in Katara's jaw as she surely tried to figure what was best to say in response to that but clearly being able to come up with nothing. Everyone else was wearing expressions that expressed similar anger, shock, or both as everyone regarded Azula's daughter. Soza looked around at all of them, not looking at all fazed by the glares directed her way and when no one said anything after several seconds, she asked what was possibly the worst question that could have come out just then.

"Who's Sasuke?"

Aang wasn't sure if Mai or Katara looked more so like they wanted to explode more at this question and he swapped panicked expressions with both Zuko and Sokka as Ty Lee made a dumbfounded and frightened expression that would have been comical were the situation not so serious. Suki looked back to Azula who seemed to regard her daughter with a mixture of interest and pride, which Aang found deeply disturbing and terribly unhelpful to the moment at hand.

He was stunned even further as Toph took a couple steps forwards Soza, her expression surprisingly light.

"We should probably get you off to bed, it's pretty late for everyone, especially you."

She half turned back towards the rest of them and Aang felt his eyes drift slowly to Azula, who was staring at Toph, her eyes hard and unblinking. Then, that expression eased and the smile returned.

"Of course, I would very much appreciate it."

Soza pulled a face. "Mother, I didn't mean to—"

"It's alright, dear," Azula said smoothly. "It's only natural that you were curious."

It was clear from the expressions on the faces of Katara, Suki and Mai that they were trying to rein in their disgust for how lenient Azula was being with her daughter, but not a one of them dared suggest that different action should be taken.

"C'mon, Soza," Toph said and took her hand. Azula's daughter gave a last glance around, her eyes flicking between her mother and everyone else in the room; Aang couldn't quite shake the feeling that she was analyzing them just as closely as a fully mature mind might and he noticed how her gaze settled on him the longest. He wondered what it was that she was piecing together in her head about what she had overheard.

Finally, she allowed herself to be pulled to the door which Toph opened, letting light flood into the room.

"Good night," she said without addressing anyone in particular, though Aang saw the slight bow she gave his way. The door closed behind her and Toph, and the room became lit only by the fire once more.

"We all should probably be in bed," Sokka quietly remarked. Katara looked around at him sharply and then back to Aang, clearly not pleased with how the conversation had rather anticlimactically ended, but she also gave a small nod.

"You're right. There will be time to deal with this all tomorrow."

Slowly and quietly, everyone began to bid one another good night. Azula made no remark to anyone as she moved to the door, offering only Aang a low bow, and he saw the glint in her eyes over Sokka's shoulder as he hugged his friend.

It worried him almost more than the mental assault he had taken just how much even the mention of Sasuke might be affecting the princess.

Soza allowed Toph to pull her down the hall and around the corner to where her room was nestled at the far end. She stayed quiet, but her mind was racing; she had heard so much by way of interesting admittance, the fact that the Avatar had collapsed, perhaps as the result of an attack, the accusatory tones that several of them had taken up at the possibility of who might be behind it, and then this last, more interesting moment.

Sasuke.

It would never have struck Soza as a particularly interesting or noteworthy name, but peering over the edge of the bed, she had seen what a stir it had caused. Over the years, she had been told many stories from her mother, from Auntie Mai and Ty, from her uncle, from Toph and Suki and Sokka, even from the Avatar himself, but not once in any of those tales had she ever heard this name. Nor had she ever seen any of these people who she had come to know as powerful and composed people in their own right been brought to such a standstill as this. Even her mother had seemed to have been stunned into silence at the mention of this Sasuke person, and Soza had seen too the expressions on the faces of Auntie Mai, and Toph, and that uppity Katara woman. Whoever this person was, he had made quite the impression on every single one of them.

"I know it's your mother's place to say, not mine, but you shouldn't spend your time sneaking around like that, Soza," Toph said, bringing Soza from her curious thoughts.

"Well, what am I supposed to do? There was nothing to do tonight, so when I heard all the fuss…"

"You didn't think to come up to me or your mother or anyone else and ask if it was alright if you stayed to listen in?" Toph asked and Soza fixed her with a furrowed brow.

"Oh right, like that Katara or Auntie Mai would have been even a little okay with that."

Toph pulled her lips in a tight line as they neared her room. "That's not the point. It becomes hard to trust you when you go and pull things like that."

Soza raised her eyebrows and gave her shoulders a slight shrug.

"Mother says that trust is a weakness that only those too lazy to keep an eye on those around them resort to."

"I don't care what Azula said!" Toph suddenly shouted and Soza was barely able to keep herself from jumping in fright at the sudden outburst. She looked up at her friend with careful eyes as they came to a halt; she looked back behind them to see if anyone had heard the shout before looking back to Toph.

Her mother had done a great deal of training with her in recognizing the emotions that could be deduced from a person's expression, just as she had been taught how to hide and bury away her own weaker feelings. Right at that moment, Toph was nothing short of completely enveloped in her own emotions and it made reading her face all the easier; Soza could see pain, sadness and fear all masked behind a scowl of anger and such an array of feelings pained her to see. Toph had always been someone Soza had known to be very strong, and seeing her exposed and weak like this made her rather uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," Toph finally said, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. Soza had gotten so used to seeing Toph in a ponytail, that seeing her hair done up like this seemed just about as odd as anything else.

"It's okay. I know you're probably worried about the Avatar, that's a pretty good reason to be upset," Soza tried, by way of being comforting. Kindness was something she gave about as rarely as anything, but to one of the only people in her life that she genuinely cared for, she wanted a good deal to make Toph feel better.

Toph grinned, and rubbed a hand tiredly against her face. It seemed just as much an exasperated gesture as anything and Soza knew that whatever she had just said hadn't been quite enough to fully bring her out of her distressed state, but it felt good to see her smile nonetheless.

It was a whim and spur of the moment feeling that caused Soza to ask the same question she had tried to innocently pose not a minute earlier.

"Who's Sasuke?"

This quick change of subject was something she had distantly hoped would have been just enough to get Toph's mind off what she had just been so upset about, hopefully a swift enough change to make her answer, but as Toph's face paled and her back stiffened, Soza had to wonder if this wasn't maybe the reason that Toph had been so distressed in the first place.

"Is he someone you know?" Soza pressed. "Or someone you knew? A traitor maybe?"

There was then a very strange feeling that Soza felt pressing against the bottom of her feet. It was a very perturbing feeling and one that she had felt before; during her time in the Earth Nation and even during her time at home in the Fire Nation, so situated as it was amongst volcanic islands, Soza was no stranger to earthquakes. They would come on quite suddenly and she despised how helpless they made her feel. But there was a sense that came about always just before an earthquake, the barest of a tremor, just one that was enough to suggest that something was about to go very wrong before the true shaking began. This was the feeling that Soza felt now, just the slightest ripple beneath her feet.

"Soza," Toph said in a very, very even voice. "You would do well not to mention that name ever again."

She walked away without another word, leaving Soza standing there in front of the door to her room, mouth slightly agape, wondering just who this person could have been to have caused Toph to show her such disrespect.

The traveler listened to the dock creak beneath his feet and the following patter of feet on the wooden planks as his companion running up behind him brought his own advance to a half. He turned to face her as she drew to a halt in front of him.

"She requested I meet with her alone, you know."

His companion drew herself up and adopted a firm gaze. "I just wanted to make sure you're not planning on doing something that puts our mission at risk. Something that you were told to avoid doing under any circumstances."

The traveler narrowed his eyes at her ever so slightly. "I haven't forgotten."

She crossed her arms and regarded him, her eyes slightly concerned. "I know you haven't. But I've gotten to know you a little bit. And I know that caution is not one of your strongest suits. Just be careful how you approach this."

He gave her a look of mild disdain before turning away.

"Wait on shore. This won't take long."

There was a moment where he expected her to say something else or continue to follow after him, but he was reassured when he heard the sound of her footfalls treading back the way she had come, gentle and hesitant steps. He knew that she didn't trust him with something this delicate and he supposed she had reason not to; they had only been traveling together a matter of weeks, but they had both started to piece together what they thought of one another. Of course she wanted to stay and make sure he did everything as properly as he should, but the captain had requested a private meeting and the traveler thought he had a pretty good idea as to why.

He tread along the wooden boards of the pier and approached a black silhouette, a shadow against the moonlit horizon behind her.

"I have to be honest, there was a part of me that wasn't sure you were going to show," the captain said as he approached.

"Why would I not?" the traveler asked. "To my reckoning, you are my best hope for passage east and I don't intend to so foolishly squander my chances."

She didn't reply to this and he knew it was because it wasn't so much that she had been expecting him not to come, it was because she very likely had been hoping that he would show.

"Captain, I can tell you are a woman of purpose, just as I am a man of such. Silently debating the practicality of honesty does not become us."

The captain shifted where she stood.

"Well put."

It was as his eyes adjusted to the light of the moon over the brighter gleam of the torchlight that lit the port a distance behind him that the traveler could see how impressive the captain was. She stood tall, taller than him and held herself with a confident, yet not arrogant poise. It seemed that at any minute she was ready to draw one of her two swords and cut the life from any man who dared oppose her. It was no wonder her crew were so blatantly loyal to such a woman, he supposed. She radiated power and class.

"I suppose you've guessed by this point why exactly it is that I'm entertaining your proposition and didn't have you thrown from the tavern for wasting my time," she finally said, and the traveler nodded.

"Well deduced."

"Humor me with your assumption of my person," the captain said, leaning against the railing. The traveler crossed his arms and stiffened his back before blowing out a relaxed sigh. At this point, he figured he was pretty spot on as to just why it was the captain was here talking with him, but any doubts he still had were about to be either confirmed or silenced following his words.

"You are from one of the Nations to the east. The barkeep told me your story, apparently it's a rather well known fable around these parts; you were adrift on some flotsam to the east many years ago when you were picked up by the ship you now currently command. You killed the captain who deludedly found raping you a worthy exchange for saving your life and have captained the Bjorn ever since. My guess is you were aboard a ship that attempted to make the passage through the east, or, from the Nations, to the west. Ship was obliterated, no surprise there, and you were lucky enough to have survived."

He watched her carefully but her body language was still enough to keep from giving anything away.

"You seemed to perk up quite readily when I mentioned the Fire Nation and the Fire Lord of, so I assume that you have some grievance with the Fire Nation, or perhaps I'm reading too deeply into that and you just heard some terminology you haven't heard in years of sailing about the archipelagos, and that was enough for you to become interested."

There was a pause as she surely considered his words before letting out a sigh of her own.

"Your observation serves you well. Though you tell that story with personal touch enough to make me think perhaps this isn't the first time you've heard it."

She said it as much as a question as anything else and he felt her watching closely.

"I've offered payment and the objective of my travels as exchange for transport," the traveler said flatly. "I haven't much interest in divulging more than that."

For a moment, he felt a stab of worry, like his caginess might be enough for him to drive him off then and there, and was sure that if his companion had been present at that point, she would have awarded him a sharp kick in the shins for his words.

But the captain didn't seem as put off by his comment as he might have feared and instead crossed her arms herself, her expression difficult to make out with the moon just behind her.

"Very well, stranger. I will admit you have more than struck my attention with your information and your request. And I understand if you are not willing to trust me with more personal information than you already have. But you'll surely understand my own need to ask this as well as gain an answer to it."

She took a couple steps towards him and the traveler found himself very close to her, flicking his eyes up as she peered down at him, her eyes flickering in the orange light cast by the port far behind him.

"Through some manner, you have traveled the same way I have at some point in your past. You know that the myths are untrue and that surviving such an expedition is in fact possible. But you also know what it is that lies between here and there. And though my crew and I have braved many a dangerous voyage, and even if I were to be amenable to your desire to cross the eastern seas, you know as well as I that there is no point in even considering the possibility if you don't first tell me how it is you plan to deal with… it."

Though her subjective use of the word 'it' might have been excessively vague to some, the traveler knew what it was she referred to.

"You told me you had a way of dealing with it, or ensuring that it will not hinder us from making a safe passage. I would know what it is that you intend to do about it."

There was a strange tone to which she carried herself now, as though even speaking of the calamitous circumstance that rested to the east was something that gave her a most taboo feeling. The traveler could understand that; he had experienced this same disaster she had, and while his own skills and abilities were enough to have saved him, he knew that the fortune this woman must have had to survive the ordeal on a piece of driftwood was incredible. The fact that she was even considering his proposal after what she had seen was rather shocking in its own right.

She isn't considering this for the money, nor the infamy in doing so… she wants to go back. Something is there she wants, or misses.

He resisted the urge to smirk. In a very real sense, he had her under his thumb if his sensing was accurate. If she truly maintained the desire to journey back to the Nations, then he only had to guide her into believing that such a trip was possible.

"I would speak before you and your crew," he said. "I intend for the information I share to be transparent and while I am not implying that you wouldn't be forthright with this, I would have them hear this from my mouth, just as you will."

This was a very delicate step he had just taken, he knew; though he had done all in his power to make this request not at all sting of the idea that he was looking to undermine her authority, there was no telling how she would take this. In reality, he had no problem telling her face to face, but this was a multi-part test that he was setting forth on with this request.

The captain regarded him, her eyes narrowing a touch.

"You continue to surprise and confuse me, stranger, but that's hardly an unreasonable request I suppose."

She turned away from him with an air of finality. "I will have my crew assembled on deck just before first light. Come back in a few hours at that time and you can address all of us about what you're asking. But don't expect all my men to be as agreeable to your proposition as I am."

Beginning to march away, she turned over her shoulder to call back to him a last time as she walked towards her vessel.

"Oh, and if you happen to arrive early and I have men still milling on the pier, they will likely stop you from getting too close. Just say Captain Ursa requested you."

With that, she left him standing in the dark and the pale moonlight, leaving the traveler to stand there for many long moments as he tried to remember if that name meant anything to him. After determining that it rang no bells, he slowly walked down the pier in the opposite direction, where his companion waited to hear what had been discussed.

Aang slowly opened his eyes and turned his head gently to look next to him in bed. Her body slowly rising and falling, Katara looked to be well into the depths of sleep, her surely worked up mind finally catching up with how exhausted she was with all the fretting she had been doing throughout the evening. On nothing remotely close to a positive note, everyone had left Sokka and Suki's room and gone to their own guest dwellings, surely to ponder over what had just occurred. Aang could practically hear Ty Lee bombarding an annoyed Mai with questions as they both changed into their evening gowns and he could imagine Sokka doing the same with Suki as she tried to tell him to get ready for bed and that there was nothing they could do about it. In their own room, Aang had been forced to contend with Katara, however, and that had been more than enough to wear him out beyond even what he had felt before.

She had immediately begun quietly firing questions at him and Aang had done what he could to both appease her and keep himself from feeling that the situation didn't ring quite like of an interrogation. He knew that she was only trying to look out for him and get to the root of the problem, but Katara had a very real way of making him feel like a child and that any assurances he made were as useless as anything could be. She would ignore him when he tried to tell her he was fine, and she only demanded further information from him when he assured her he had told her everything. It was a very rare thing he had to deal with, surely something he would had to suffer through had she known about the attempts on his life, but if anything, circumstances like this only enforced in his head that he would never tell her about those instances.

Finally, through some gentle words, shoulder rubs and soft kisses, Aang had been able to persuade her to come to bed with him and try and get some sleep. Later, he promised her, they would be able to talk more about what had happened, what might have caused it and what they could do about it. But they weren't getting anywhere just working their minds into a frenzy when they were as tired as they were; a good night's sleep would give them fresh minds to work with in the morning. Katara had taken this at long last and changed from her dress into her evening gown, climbing into bed beside him.

"I'm sorry, Aang," she had said, lying there and reaching out to stroke the side of his face. All the frustration and annoyance he had felt with her relentless questioning had vanished as he had seen her eyes glistening.

"For what?" he had asked with a smile. "You didn't cause my connection with the Spirit World to go totally wild."

"No, I mean… I know you can't stand this. The way I get when I'm frightened or upset," she had said quietly. "But I really do just… I really just care a lot about you, Aang."

She had given a wet laugh then and Aang had pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers.

"I know. I love you too."

With that, they had held one another and Aang had felt her drift off as he pretended to do the same. Now, he was lying next to her, tired beyond belief, but knowing he couldn't sleep just yet as Katara was. Gingerly, he pulled the covers off himself and pulled his legs gingerly over the side of the bed, being very careful not to wake her with his movements. Pulling on a robe, he walked silently to the balcony and gently opened the glass door that kept them shut from the night air; he looked back a last time to look at the moonlight streaming through the windows and illuminating the sleeping form of the girl that he believed was the most perfect person in the world, feeling a pang in his chest. Then, he stepped out onto the balcony.

His first instinct was to look back and forth along the side of the palace. Along the stretch of it were several other balconies, all connected to the other guest rooms which were in turn occupied all by the people that had just been congregating with him in Sokka's room only hours ago. Had any of them been out for a breath of evening air as well, he could have been spotted in what he was about to do, and Aang very much wanted to make sure that what he was about to do was not knowledge privy to anyone else, even the people closest to him.

Tucking his legs up, he generated a sphere of air beneath him and drove it against the side of the palace. It carried him up the side of it a hundred meters up with only the slightest whooshing sound and took him onto the vast curving roof; he hopped free of the sphere as soon as he was able to walk on a level field. He looked around again even as he pressed his hands to the roof itself. It was an earthbending trick that he had spent a great time learning from Toph and though he never thought that he would get anywhere close to perfecting the technique, he supposed he had it well enough mastered to know that he was alone on the roof as he let his earthbending search the top of it in gentle waves.

Well, it's now or never.

There was a moment of trepidation as he didn't immediately act upon his own thoughts. But there was so much emotion running through him just then that he didn't know just how well he was going to be able to handle what he was about to do. Curiosity, resentment and anger all raged inside of him, but he finally lowered himself into a sitting position, his legs crossed as he adopted a stance that he hadn't taken up in years, following his belief being solidified that this wasn't something that would ever grant him results again.

Connecting to the Spirit World hadn't been something he had been able to do through the Avatar State since before the war had ended. He had tried many times following to try and make contact with his past lives, or even just a spirit in general, to no avail. A few years after that, when he had taken note of Katara's general concern over his inability to commune with the Spirit World, a concern that also had spread to Zuko, Toph and others, he had conjured up a lie to keep them from growing concerned; the spirits, he said, were recovering from the damage to their world that Madara had done to it and thus were not able to spend a great deal of time with him. He could detect them, but it would be quite some time before genuine communication was managed. Years had gone on and he had flippantly replied to all questioning of it that things were indeed getting better, whenever Katara or someone would ask him, before feeling a dredging stab in his gut at the relieved smile he had received. None of this was true, the spirits and his past lives had been as silent as the grave for over a decade now.

I wonder if there's ever been an Avatar who's lied as much as I have.

Aang shook aside the self-despising thought and focused in on what he was about to do. Perhaps today would be the day that he would finally manage to find some truth amidst the wasteland of unknowingness that had become his relationship with the Spirit World.

Pressing his hands against his knees as he sat crossed legged, Aang lowered his head and cleared himself of thought, as best as he was able. An emptied mind helped ease himself in to this process, but Aang knew he would never be able to keep himself from drawing to thoughts of what this would mean, at least somewhat. This might make for a rocky entry into the Avatar State, but he knew that was just as much in part due to the fact that it had been quite some time since he had done this. He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could, letting out a breath in a single, relieving act.

There was a great rushing feeling as though he were being flung towards a great precipice with nothing to slow his racing towards an untimely end. He felt a shocking feeling as though his body had just been doused in a lake of ice water and his eyes snapped open as he sucked in air.

Aang looked around to see that everything seemed to have gone according to plan. He was standing, looking down at his body which remained seated on the roof, cross-legged and eyes now wide and ablaze with an unnatural light as his posture remained motionless, his anchor in the real world and the will allowing his transposition. Drawing a hand over his astral head, Aang let out a sigh through his nose, disheartened at how alien this feeling seemed to him; when he was younger he had made so many attempts to breach into the Spirit World to speak with his past selves, and the spirits who shared their world for help and advice and comfort even. Their silence after the war had only made him more desperate to hear from them until he had finally reached a point where giving up felt like the only thing he could do.

So as Aang felt a presence just behind him, it was impossible not to feel indignation and something resembling spite as he turned to face his newfound company.

It had been years since Aang had seen this face, but it was impossible to mistake the spirit for anyone else as it gleamed before him with a light blue hue to its silhouette.

"Roku," Aang said, with a bitterness in his voice that betrayed his feelings. It was difficult to tell if Roku took any sort of offense at the cold greeting as his face remained passive and unshaken. When he spoke however, there was an undercurrent of something that Aang would never have expected to hear out of a spirit, let alone one quite so powerful and omniscient as one of the past Avatars.

"I'm sure you have a great deal on your mind, Avatar Aang," Roku said. "Chiefly, no doubt, why it is that you haven't been able to so much as touch the Spirit World in quite some time. All will become clear in time, but I have need to inform you of the danger that threatens your world, and all within it."

Since seeing Roku now, Aang had been desperately trying to overpass the overwhelmingly strong feeling of relief that came from seeing a spirit again, any one at all, but as he heard these words, that relief gave way to a splintering anger; he felt a burning behind his eyes that only came when tears were brought on, unbidden.

"Oh? A warning? Over a decade of silence from you all, and now I'm given a warning? A warning sure would have been nice before Sasuke, I suppose. But in all your wisdom, I'm sure you saw reason to keep us all in the dark, right up to Madara nearly enslaving all the people of this world."

Roku's face creased around the eyes as he noted Aang's growing distress.

"We were fighting very hard to contain him, to try and isolate how he was accessing our world and using it to penetrate yours, but—"

"But nothing!" Aang very nearly spat. It was a very strange feeling to feel such genuine anger pulsing through him. He had grown so used to being able to control his more dark and twisted emotions and now, he was finally given cause to give in to his ire and he couldn't believe how good it felt to let this out.

"You were all arrogant enough to assume that it could be handled that you didn't even think to warn me that the physical world was in danger! It was Sasuke and only Sasuke that was able to protect us all and defeat Madara! And I'm assuming that part of it at least went well, since we haven't seen Madara since…"

Roku's face was enough to tell Aang that there was nothing he would have liked more than to ease the frustration that was gripping him, but the spirit had the wherewithal to seem to understand that letting Aang vent might very well have just been the best course of action regardless.

"So, now you come back to me, after years and years of silence, to tell me there's another threat. Well, go on, lay it on me: what is it exactly that I have to look forward to coming along this time and ruining my life and those of everyone I care about now?"

The silence that followed was almost long enough for Aang to suddenly wonder if Roku wasn't even going to tell him what the threat was, before the specter of the old man said something very odd and perturbing indeed.

"From us, Aang."

If there had been anything that could have been said to jolt Aang from his angry ranting, that was it. There was no real lessening of the anger that already gripped him, but Aang could feel a rush of confusion thrown into the mix that was powerful enough to take control of his next question.

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"The threat will come from our world, Avatar," Roku said, his face still ripe with the agony that delivering this information was bringing him. Aang shook his head slowly at first, then quicker as his aggravation with such vagueness came over him.

"Explain," he said curtly and Roku began to talk quickly and with the impression that everything that he shared was cathartic for him to reveal.

"I know you must have felt such resentment for us when we closed ourselves off from you, but the truth of the matter is that, after the three became one and Madara and Obito were banished and removed from placing the physical world under immediate threat, the Spirit World fell into utter chaos. Fear and anger over how someone like Madara had pierced our sacred borders was as palpable as anything could be, and what was once a very vast and immeasurable place became cramped with opinions and arguments; you might have thought this time long during which you have heard nothing from us, but the truth is that lifetimes have passed within our world wherein great disagreements have taken place on how to proceed."

"Proceed," Aang said, repeating the world with a curious trepidation. His anger was dwindling, ever-present, but giving way to curiosity and worry.

"Yes," Roku said with a nod. "It is not by my choice I have only been able now to reach you; there has been a great uprising in the Spirit World by those who seek to change things here in the physical world and it is by their doing that I have been unable to reach you for so long, to tell you of the madness that now rules the Spirit World."

Though Aang knew that Roku couldn't age as a spirit, there was a very real sense that he had grown drastically older as a result of some great stress and force that had been laid upon him. Aang's still leveled anger kept him from feeling pity just yet, but the change in Roku's overall demeanor was impossible to ignore.

"You were prevented from reaching me? Then how are we talking now?" he inquired.

"I have spent so long sending probing strikes at varying outlets within the Spirit World to reflect and reach you here; to explain it is rather difficult, but it was quite like standing before a saltwater ocean with one fresh water drop within, and picking up one drop at a time, hoping to find the fresh water piece of the ocean, such was my trying to reach you. But finally, after such a great period of time, I connected with you, found a level at which I could reach you and it is with great relief I found that you took my message and acted upon it, entering the Avatar State to speak with me, as I've found passage finally to speak with you beyond the eyes of my fellow Spirit World dwellers."

"Giving me a seizure is not exactly a very straightforward message," Aang remarked flatly.

"I had no choice, it was the only way to reach you with such a speed and manner that might relay to you the possibility that you were being pulled to the Avatar State. You understood, or at the very least, acted on a hunch as to why this happened to you."

Aang spent a long second regarding Roku. He had never before questioned the previous Avatar's sincerity and even despite his anger now, his burning resentment digging red-hot quills into his heart, he found that blaming Roku wasn't something that he felt would do anything beyond exacerbate his frustration, not provide any sort of cathartic anger towards his situation. Accepting this with a great deal of self control, he fought back his previously boiling rage and turned instead to the questions that were swirling in his mind, knowing that this would be a far better use of his time, especially considering he didn't know how long they had and he chose to address this first and foremost.

"How much time do we have?" he asked and Roku almost seemed to make to look back over his shoulder as though he were expecting to being watched.

"I haven't the faintest idea," he replied. "The connection I am currently sharing with you could be discovered at any moment, so I intend to tell you as much as I possibly can. Ask any question you have, and I will answer it to the best of my abilities."

Though a myriad of questions swirled in Aang's head as he considered Roku's words, he let out the first question that came to his lips, not wanting to waste any time.

"Why was I left in the dark after the war?"

"There were many who were very much opposed to the idea, but even at first, it was agreed that the Spirit World should not be even so much as opened to touch at any other dimensional plane, including yours. There was fear that doing so would open ourselves up for another invasion or breach, and we determined deciding our best course of action should be done before reaching out to you. Had I known what would happen to the Spirit World however, I would have broken the agreement and tried to reach you much sooner."

"And it's been so difficult to reach out to me, why?"

"A distinct faction of spirits has risen under a common goal. All have their own ideas about what needs to be done, but this particular group believes that there is only one path forward; they suggest that the only reason things have gotten so out of place is due to our own negligence from the beyond. They suggest that Madara wouldn't have been able to breach his way inside our world were we not more vigilant, and that the your Nation would have not been wiped out, nor would the Fire Nation have come so close to nearly crushing the Earth and Water Nations as well. When this number of spirits came into the forefront, they instructed the rest to keep from making contact with this world in any way; the protections of our world became like brick walls to me, and I've been trying to find a weakness to reach through ever since."

Still and steadily, Aang could feel his anger dripping away into a much worse feeling. With every word, Roku began to instill a feeling of real dread within him, a dark anxiety that resembled a feeling that Aang couldn't recall having felt since he was a child.

"Something's coming, isn't it?"

He asked the question and even as he did, Roku's ghostly form gave a great writhing jerk and the past Avatar bent over with a look of pain on his face.

"They've found me out. I'm afraid I have only moments. They'll know I have talked to you, so you mustn't let any of what I say reach any other ears, do you understand?!"

Roku asked the question with an angry intensity and Aang could only nod quickly in response.

"If they find out you know what I've told you, it might radically change their plans, and they must not change their plans, not until he's back and can make the difference which I know he'll have to."

As Aang listened intently to every word coming from the now flickering form of Roku, he furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Wait when you say 'he', are you talking about—"

"I've already managed to reach him many days prior to now. He was far away but someone from our world with similar interests to my own has stepped across the Spirit World to join him and guide him back."

Suddenly feeling more overwhelmed than anything, Aang shook his head and stepped forward. "Wait, how can someone just cross over to our world, I though that—"

"There is no time!" Roku practically exclaimed. "You must be ready, Aang. For what is coming is not something I can prevent or even hardly stymie in the slightest."

There was the barest pause and Aang was surprised at how calm and low his voice sounded when he asked his last questions, what with how wild his insides felt, being torn about with emotion and fear.

"You haven't told me what's coming, Roku. What do these spirits want? What's going to happen?"

Roku's form gave another violent flicker and he winced as he replied to Aang's queries.

"They have spent much time trying to undo the barriers they forged between our world and yours; when they succeed, they will swarm this world and do what they believe they must to restore order. They have sensed the imbalance as we all have, and they wish it removed before it becomes something they stand even less of a chance in predicting, and I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to do more than that. They fear how powerful the Nations have become, the threats they pose to one another during this peace. They fear for another Hundred Year's War and what that might do to your world as well as the Spirit World. It is not their place to decide, or dictate, or alter, but my warnings have fallen on deaf ears; they wish to create a balance according to their own will."

His form began to fade and Roku raised a hand in warning, his face alive with fervor at the gravity of what he was saying. Aang was feeling on the urge of having an anxiety attack as everything he was taking in now seemed too much for him to be able to bear. His anger was all but gone now, replaced by a burning curiosity and worry over what he was hearing.

"Tell no one of this, wait for him to return!" Roku called, already sounding distant. "But their wish is to enter your world through the Fire Nation where they believe the catalyst for a portal might be strongest. He knows this, and is on his way, but I have failed in remaining hidden from them, so they will be watching you now, now they know we spoke! They will watch you from every shadow the moment I am gone, to see if you heard anything worthy of acting upon! Speak not a word of this to anyone, but know that, even if they change their plans, they are coming."

Aang felt sudden panicked fear spear him through the heart as he called out, "Wait, they're going to be watching me?! What do I do?!"

The last question was so pathetically desperate but he prayed for some kind of answer to guide him, but Roku seemed to have nothing else he was able to say as he faded away. His spectral form evaporated into blue mist and Aang reached for him stupidly, as though he could stop Roko from vanishing. Even as his appearance disappeared, Aang heard him a last time though before he sank to his knees, feeling that dread overwhelm him.

Three words that made him feel so helpless as he took it against everything else that Roku had said; he wanted to explode down into the palace and scream warning to everyone who would listen, to tell Zuko that his nation was in danger, but if Roku was correct and revealing what he knew might completely derail any chance to plan ahead, he could say nothing. He could plan in his head, sure, he could imagine what they might have to deal with, maybe, but his inability to share this knowledge was enough to almost drive him mad.

It was too much to take in and Aang leapt back into his physical form, feeling that freezing rush again before he was sitting on the roof in his body again, sucking in air and panting somewhat wildly. He wondered for a wild and desperate second if he had perhaps dreamed everything that had just happened, but he knew that was nothing short of wishful thinking.

They were danger, then. Again. From an enemy they couldn't hope to predict against, nor could Aang even so much as even warn anyone of what was coming for fear of making things worse.

Spirits… we're going to be attacked by spirits.

Roku had said they were looking to bring balance, to remove something that they felt threatened that. He hadn't been said by name, nor had Roku given much by way of actually identifying who this was, but Aang had a pretty good idea he knew who it was that Roku was referring to. And he was coming back. That thought alone was enough to send chills through Aang's body as he considered even the possibility that what he was guessing at was true.

He never left. He was still here all along.

This was perhaps a very dangerous thing to assume was true, but Aang felt the thought sting his mind over and over as he retreated off the roof and slipped back through the balcony to his room. He walked quietly to the bed and slid slowly back in besides Katara; the desire to reach out and wake her, to tell her everything he had just heard was enough to bring tears to his eyes with frustration at the knowledge that he couldn't, and he settled for kissing her back and she shifted slightly in her sleep. Aang jammed his eyelids shut, trying to shake the feeling that he was being watched and knew now that there was no way he could remove himself from the idea that the eyes of otherworldly beings were now on him at all times. The only thing he could do was repeat Roku's final words in his head over and over until he finally fell into a fitful and agonized bout of sleep.

"They are coming."