Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything associated with it except my fanfiction

Oh no.

Actually, this one is kind of fun. What do you keep the same? What do you change? Who specifically do you swap with?

I'll probably go with a generic swap in which I switch their nationalities. The only issue will be their ages and how I pull off the sibling duo.

It will also be very lacking and rushed because firstly a role swap done properly is a lot. of. work. also... Kataang Week's already over.

I'm so far behind... aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

All was quiet save the rushing of the water.

Aang looked back guiltily at his brother, who was pouting on the floating piece of wreckage they managed to grab ahold of.

"Seriously, man, you just *had* to get us into that ice flow. What is it with your antics and your penchant for landing us both in the tightest spots?"

"Hey! I *did* tell you to go to the left instead of the right. There was a very clear and obvious path out - difficult to navigate but we could do it with your rudder dexterity and my limited waterbending. Meanwhile, you choose the path that made us the substantial part of an ice sandwich. Great job, big brother."

Sokka glared at Aang. It was pure luck of the draw that Sokka happened to be the older sibling. As twins, they were technically the same age, but Aang couldn't resist rubbing it in that he was, in all intents and purposes, the younger of the two, since Sokka was the one who emerged first. Although, in the end, after all the responsibilities Sokka had to endure as the man of the house, he eagerly anticipated the far-off day when he would become chief and boss his brother around.

He sighed. "I can't believe it. You're almost as bad as a girl!"

"Nothing wrong with being one, Sokka. Especially when there's boys like you. And yes, I said boy, not man. Which is a good thing - men are holistically worse than boys. Although I gotta admit - they definitely do more work than the average male - cleaning clothes and dishes, cooking, child-bearing and caring, and a billion more domestic tasks that seem a lot harder than hunting or fishing."

"Not like you'd know anything about it," muttered Sokka viciously as he and Aang paddled themselves to a nearby iceberg.

"Who's been doing all those chores now?" Sokka opened his mouth. Closed it. Looked at Aang with new eyes. Then sighed magnanimously and gestured Aang onto the ice floe first.

"You seriously couldn't ask the women to do the work for our family? I'm joking about the misogyny though. If there's anyone who's opened me up to a possibility of gender equality, it's you. There's no way I can think tasks are relegated between people if you're literally proof before my eyes that that isn't the case. Even so, in this community, everyone helps each other, you know. And they'd understand if you didn't do as a boy in the past, or as a man, let alone as a son of the chief. Official authority You're my age! Younger brother or not, we're past manhood! We should be out fighting with our dad! Not... here," he stared with melancholy out into the receding torrent.

"Come on. You both know we were too young at the time they left. Not to mention that *someone* had to stay behind, in order to look after everyone else. That left us two. And if I'm to be honest, we make a pretty good pair." Aang deftly froze seawater to the sides of their berg, making their temporary vehicle larger and more stable. "I take care of house stuff - which I've always done after Mom was gone, anyways - and you actually are a decent chief, despite obvious shortcomings from youth and inexperience."

Sokka shrugged, reluctant to let the praise get to his head. "Whatever you say. I mean, the inexperience definitely applies here - although I'll know better than to listen to you again - hey, Aang?"

Frantically scanning the frigid landscape, he finally saw a narrow bridge of ice - and at the very end of it, a very aggravating Aang who was exploring an alien iceberg that glowed a sickly, perilous green.

"AAANNNGG!"

Aang briefly paused, cocked his head back, gave what Sokka could only assume was a wink, and boldly dashed onward, heedless of his brother's warning cry.

Sokka shook his head. Of all the things... He quickly gave chase to his brother, slipping, sliding, and swearing all the way to the vomit-tinged ice orb, then crankily stomped his way towards Aang, who had his nose pressed against the glass, trying to see what was inside.

"Aang..." Sokka was a scientific person, but no matter how much he denounced wishy-washy spiritualism (despite it making up the majority of his world), this threatened everything he stoically stood against. Firstly, the ice was green. Not green green, but more like the kind of watery green one found in the waters north of the South Pole. He'd only been there once, as a child, but he still remembered the awe as he peered out through his father's legs at the strange world he didn't care for. And now the water was here. What was it doing here? Then there was the fact that the ice berg was a near-perfect sphere - what someone would expect from rolling and shaping a snowball, without the inherent difference that frozen shards of water made up snow, while the globe... only a few ripples lent proof to its realism. Then there was the figure inside.

A figure that appeared to be a person.

A person who looked about their age.

A person who was a girl.

Long, flowing hair, in a meditative state, fists pressed together, weird arrows on her head, hands, and feet glowing with an eerie brilliance (was it maybe the light of the person's eyes that made the iceberg appear that way? Sokka didn't know if that made him feel better or worse). She didn't appear to see them - in fact, she seemed unaware of her surroundings, trapped in an iridescent prison. And through Sokka's stigmatism, he had a feeling this girl's appearance was deceptive - that she was far older than what he or anyone could have expected.

None of this boded well once added together.

"Aang, this looks bad. Let's get outta here before the thing -"

"Sokka, she's trapped."

"No, I don't think so! I think it's a trap for us. Strange colored icebergs don't just appear in the middle of nowhere housing a glowing alien who looks like she could put us in the fight of our lives with so much as a glance."

Aang bit his lip. "It's a gut feeling. Trust me."

Sokka instead put his nose to the ice, mimicking his brother. "Wait. Oh, I see. She looks hot, doesn't she? Your type, maybe? Weird glowing arrow alien who wants to kill you?"

"That has nothing to do with it! I mean -" Aang backpedaled desperately as he realized his fatal error. Sokka leaned over him emphatically.

"That's how you die. Use your brain, meathead. And yes, I just called you that. You would think that your abstinence would prevent such a condition from happening, but - nope! Here we are! Veggies clearly didn't get rid of all the pollutants and toxins muddling your brain. We're out in the mid -" Sokka stopped talking as he realized he wasn't getting through to Aang, as he stared listlessly at the encased figure. "Oh, forget it. This is going to bite us in the blubber no matter what I do or say, since you never really listen to me whenever you don't feel like it. I'm just going to give up and make sure our deaths aren't too miserable."

"You're such a pessimist," Aang said without a thank you.

"You're welcome. And you'd be surprised how often my predictions come out to be true. Like ninety-nine percent of the time." Aang didn't listen, as he pickpocketed Sokka's club, blew on the ice, and then gave a mighty swing to the weapon.

Crack!

And the world exploded.

Again.


Aang staggered back as the force from the explosion threw him off.

He thought he heard a splash in the water, but he didn't care. He was too enthralled by the girl in the iceberg.

Who was she? Where was she from? He had heard stories of the Air Nomads and their tattoos and meditating and lifestyle from his mother, but they all became extinct a century ago. What was she doing, then, alive but in stasis in a frozen wasteland? He wondered if he had to tell her about the Air Nomads, and he felt a twinge of guilt for the girl. Whoever she was, she was in a world by her own.

As the light faded and the final crumbling of ice dissipated, he took a few experimental steps towards the original location of the girl, but before he went far, a gale force tossed him to the ground.

Scrambling on his hands, he watched in horror, awe, and enrapture as the girl rose, glowing threateningly, staring down at him with malice, as though he were an insignificant patch of kelp on the ocean floor. He wondered if he had breathed his last - so intense was the girl's stare - when suddenly, the glowing faded, and she wilted towards the ground. Not fell. Not tumble. Wilt, as though a leaf in the wind floating gently to rest.

When he got to her, her eyes were closed. And she was beautiful.

Not that it mattered to him. It was just... that about her. She was beautiful. An aspect. Nothing more. Her perfect lips, her nose, eyelashes, brows, arrows, hair - everything was just perfect, almost as though out of a fairy tale his mother used to tell him. It was just who she was, nothing more, nothing less.

That was what he was telling herself when she opened her eyes.

Instead of a glowing, a soft grey met his gaze, and he froze. A grey of a gloomy cloud that seemed to shift with the time, from melancholy to stormy to calm and light. It shimmered with the sun, and Aang could not look away even if he tried.

A splash sounded, and a string of swearing ensued. Sokka came rushing over to Aang and tossed him back, and he ungracefully landed on his back. Glaring at his brother for the humiliating introduction, he was stopped by a rigid arm as Sokka drew his club on the girl.

"Not a step further!" he shouted angrily, gripping onto the club as a lifeline. "You're trespassing on the Southern Watertribe!"

Her eyes darkened, and she took a few curt steps forward, then snatched the club from his hand and tapped him with the handle.

"A sorry soldier you make," she said. "Of course, you seem my age." She breathed a great big sigh, and it was as though the wind and the heavens sighed with her, a testament to her power and her influence and responsibility.

"You're an airbender, aren't you?" Aang said nervously. Try though he might, he couldn't muster the strength to keep his tone neutral. Crap. No matter how smooth a talker he was and how sociable he was, it simply did not stand against this woman who crumbled his fortifications like she seized Sokka's club.

"Of course I am." She whipped out a staff that Aang did not see before and cleaved what remained of the iceberg in half. "Air slice. Short and simple. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to tend to my bison. I have no idea how I ended up here, but if I'm here, Appa is as well."

"Hold on. Bison you said?"

The airbender scowled at Sokka. "Yes. Flying Bison. Ever heard of one of those?"

Aang's eyes grew wide. "Wait! A flying bison? I've never seen one before! I've only heard about them in the stories but maybe we could ride it on the way to our village food and refreshments are waiting and it'll be so awesome to fly through the sky and -"

He received a slap on the shoulder by Sokka. "Ow!"

"You know those things aren't real, right? She's messing with you. Bison can't fly!"

At that moment, a large roar sent Sokka skidding into the water again. When he came out, what was presumably Appa - a big, fluffy creature with two horns, six legs, and a massive tail Aang thought could serve as a good blanket - licked him dry.

"Eeeeeeewwwww! Bison spit! Gross!"

"You just love showing affection to strangers, don't you, Sweetie?" the way she said those words and the way she looked at the bison proved to Aang beyond a doubt that she was, at heart, a pure soul. "Hmm. It doesn't look like this boy likes your affections very much, Appa."

"His name's Sokka. My name's Aang," he said eagerly.

The girl froze for a moment. "Aang, you say?"

Aang nodded. "My mother always loved the story of the Air Nomads... convinced our father to name me Aang instead of Amaq. Could you imagine?" he shuddered.

She nodded. "You don't seem like an Amaq person... I like Aang. It suits you." He smiled timidly. "But... you mentioned... stories? Why stories? Have you never met my people?"

Aang's mouth dropped. He had "entertained" the possibility, for sure, but he never truly expected the reality that the girl had no clue what happened. "Um..." his face apparently told enough, for the girl's face paled.

"There was... a genocide..."

The airbender sank to the ground, hands over her face. Quite impulsively, Aang wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and he was surprised to see she didn't try to wrest free.

"I'm sorry. But it gets even worse. It happened over a hundred years ago."

He was blasted off her as she retreated to the last standing wall of ice.

"You're lying," she said flatly. Aang shook his head.

"He's telling the truth. The Hundred Years' War lives up to its namesake. After Avatar Roku died, we had no knowledge of a new Avatar. Then we heard about the genocide. Then the Earth Kingdom was invaded. The Water tribe... well, most of the men have gone off to war. There aren't many of them to begin with. We're the last two males left in the South Pole, asides from the little ones. We were... too young to join them. They left when we were nine."

The girl nodded slowly, clear grief and pain etched into her face. Aang's heart twisted at the sight of her in such a sorry state. "I'm... I'm sorry."

"For what?"

The girl slowly curled a finger, and a trickle of water came up from the ground.

"That wasn't me," Aang said with mounting shock and disbelief. And Sokka couldn't bend. But she was an

"I was just beginning to learn waterbending, on my way to the North Pole, and then there was a storm..." she trailed off, tears falling down her face. "My people..."

But she recovered as quickly as she fell, and she wiped her tears on her sleeve. Aang noticed that even though she was only wearing one thin layer of clothing, that she remained completely comfortable in the cold. "I suppose we could head to your village to talk. A war for over a hundred years... my people gone... there is much I need to digest, and my stomach seems to mewl. I thank you for your hospitality - how did you end up here in the first place?"

"Glacier barrage. But it also led us to you. Maybe destiny played a hand in this..."

The girl shook her head, hair shivering slightly. "Destiny or no destiny, past or not, there is nothing we can do about those events. We must concentrate on the present and do what we must." She hopped aboard Appa, whispered something into his ear, and Appa angled his tail as a clear entryway to his back, which held a large saddle. "Come."

Aang excitedly slipped and tripped his way up the tail - which almost brought a hint of a smile to the girl - while Sokka grumpily stepped behind, careful not to tromp on the beast's tail lest it cast him into the sea once more.

"Are you two ready?" she asked, eyebrows raised. Aang excitedly nodded. "Brilliant. Sokka, you might want to hold on tight. Appa! Yip yip!"

Sokka nearly leapt from the saddle, raw indignation at his mistreatment finally boiling over the edge. "Okay, listen here, airhead. First, you treat me like I'm an absolute braindead idiot. Then you try to insult me, and now you're telling me to hold on tight and not Aang who's clumsier than even me, and still pretending bison can - EAAAGGGHHHHHhhhh-"

Suddenly, Appa bounded forwards, jumping higher and higher each time his deceivingly short legs sprung off the ice, until finally, just at the edge of the ice when it seemed as though they were about to rush into the water, Appa sprang up into the sky, flapped his mighty tail, and -

They were flying.

Aang could never have dreamed of such a marvel. For once getting a birds-eye view of the South Pole, the formidable icebergs shrank to miniscule balls of blue as they continued to gain height. He gripped the side of the saddle in sheer exhilaration, watching the ice stream past and the waves gentle down and the reflection of the sun nearly blind him with its pure brilliance. It was such an astounding experience, that it had to be ruined by Sokka who had lost his balance and fallen over back into the sea.

The girl glanced down and merely shook her head. "Hypocrite much?"

"Actually, he isn't wrong. I'm usually super clumsy. I'm actually surprised I haven't tripped once since I've met you. I don't know why. Usually from what I've heard, when you meet someone beautiful and handsome you lose all control of your motor skills - ah -" He realized what he just implied, blushing a fierce red. He berated himself for not having his hood up like the rest of his tribe, for the girl had full view of his face and his reaction. But he also saw that she blushed as well, her face coloring sweetly like a warm sunset. He gaped at her, for her unrestrained, unconscious beauty, and also for the fact that someone like her existed in the world.

But he was being too rash, wasn't he? He was always impulsive, which did not couple well with his awkwardness or his social skills. Besides, he had a brother to save.

"S-sorry." he mumbled out, half-earnest. "Could we save my brother? He is my last remaining family member, and I'd much rather not be in contention for chief - I mean, look at me! Do I look like leader material to you?"

Her face broke out into a small smile. "I mean, you certainly do have some aspects of a leader... but I guess it's up to you. I wouldn't have thought of saving your brother before you pointed it out," she joked.

"Don't blame you. He can be such a pain in the blubber sometimes. But usually he's a really great brother and friend, just... skeptical and pessimistic."

"A little bit of pessimism is good, though. It lets you endure turns of events," she observed.

"But too much is intoxicating. Like, say, if I was pessimistic, I'd think my brother died and drowned from the fall and that there was no point in saving him."

"Fair enough," she conceded, pulling on the reins to her left. Appa lowed and began spiraling downwards in graceful yet swift descent. As they almost reached the ocean's surface, she stiffened, and then turned around bashfully to meet Aang's eyes. Caught off guard by them once more, Aang almost missed the words she almost dedicated to him and him alone.

"You can call me... Karamia."


"So what's your real name?" Aang asked as their shoes crunched in the snow.

Karamia started. "How did you know?"

"I almost missed it, but it was a subtle shift of your eyes downward. I also talked about it with Sokka - he's sure that, since you're airbenders and all and more in tune with the sky, that if you're looking down like that it would be almost like a sign of shame or guilt of something. You said that day that you had to move on from your people, and I know you miss them and feel bad, but..."

"Close, but not accurate," she said with a forced laugh. "Do you know the meaning of the name?"

"Yes... oh."

"It is a sort of juxtaposition between its intent and what its holder enacted upon her people," she continued bitterly. "But you were right about it not being my real name."

"That was another reason why I was suspicious. It's too perfect a name for your role. When are Avatars discovered?"

"Around the age of four. I was discovered when I chose four toys that belonged to past lives of the Avatar. Out of thousands."

Aang's mouth was only held up by the thick collar of his parka. "Wow." He couldn't imagine the odds, that out of thousands of prosaic little toys, that someone would only choose four - and those four toys happened to prove one's identity as master of the four elements. "That's..."

"Hard to believe? Yes. But here I am, and here you are." She paused in the middle of their perimeter walk of the modest village, and surveyed the neverending sea between the South Pole and the rest of the world. "It's Kannika."

Aang blinked slowly. "Really? Did I hear that right? Karnchana?"

Katara blushed furiously. "No! I said Kannika!"

"I woulda sworn Karnchana would be your real name... it fits you even better than Karamia, I'd say." Katara's face could melt the ice. It certainly melted Aang a very long time ago. "But... your name's Kannika?"

"Yes," she said, picking her legs up and stepping down meekly on the ground, hands behind her back.

"I suppose that fits you as well. But do you mind me calling you Karnchana from now on?"

"Hey!" she shouted. "That's not my name!" But Aang could see a smile growing on her face, and as he attempted to escape her playful wrath, he felt a happiness that he'd never known before.

And saw a strange black ship in the distance he'd never seen before.

Unfortunate that I have to stop there and that I had to cut out several scenes and make shortcuts in plot. But this was very, very intriguing. Has anyone actually made an AU of this theme? I really hope someone out there has, or that someone will some day... would be very, very interesting.

Also, in case you got lost, this AU "Katara" goes by many names: At Birth, Kannika; In Public, Karamia; With Aang, Karnchana. From my flawed hasty name-searching, Kannika means flower. Karamia is a form of beloved peace. Karnchana means beautiful. Sorry you had to read very far for the Kataang moment, but I hope it was nice!

And yeah I missed Kataang Week by a lot...