Tora's adventure in the Spirit world.

Exactly what the title says.

Oh, and the other day I was fiddling around with the internet, and I noticed my story had 26 favs. 26 favs, and we're only on chapter 12! So thank you all so, so much.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything but Tora and her mother. And the idea for the story. But that's it.

Edit: New version! Changes in the chapter. Some of them are subtle, but they're there. Watch out for them.

"Tora..."

"Nnngg."

"Tora."

"NNNGGG."

"TORA!"

I screamed and punched upwards. My fist was met with something hard. I sat up, shaking my fist in pain.

"Ow, jeez Tora! You punch hard!" Sokka exclaimed, rubbing his nose.

"Sorry, Sokka." I sighed, brushing hair out of my face. Then I noticed our surroundings.

We were sitting in the middle of a large grassy field covered in flowers of almost every color. There were mountains that stretched across the ground miles away from where we were. There was a large lake nearby, with small grassy islands floating in the middle of it. Clouds were floating along the ground. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.

"Where are we?" I asked, getting to my feet.

Sokka shrugged. "Spirit world?"

"Oh, that's very helpful Sokka. I meant where in the Spirit world."

"How should I know?" Sokka demanded, still rubbing his nose. "I think you broke my nose!"

I sighed. "Men are such babies." I faced the mountains. "Well, wherever we are, it sure is beautiful."

I heard Sokka suddenly give a small screech behind me. I sighed again. "Oh, Sokka, don't cry because I punched you in the-" I turned around and saw the real reason Sokka screamed.

There were small little white lights floating all around him. Every time he tried to swat them away, they kept coming back. They stuck to him and wouldn't let go.

"Sokka!" I yelled, reaching for him. Right before I touched him, he disappeared in a flash of golden light.

I gasped at where he had disappeared. "Sokka! If this is some sort of joke, I'll kill you!" I yelled, spinning around in a circle. Damn, I don't think it's a joke.

I heard something. I spun to face then noise. "Sokka, is that-" I came face to face (nose actually) with a large panda bear. I looked up, and saw that the bear was staring down at me. "Uh, hello?"

The panda snuffed softly, then nuzzled me. "Hey, what are you doing?" The panda breathed in my face, blowing my hair backwards. Then he got down on the ground. "What, you want me to get on?" The panda slowly nodded, and I swear it looked like it smiled at me. "Well, what do I have to lose?" I sighed, swinging one leg over its back. As soon as I was on, the panda got to his feet and raced off. I screamed and clenched his fur in my fists. Wow, this is almost as bad as Hei-Bai.

Then I remembered what had happened to make us wind up here in the first place.

Oh, Agni, I hope Aang is okay. Katara must be worried sick!

"Think you could slow down, buddy?" I yelled over the wind.

The panda stopped so suddenly that I lost my grip on his fur and was sent flying over his head and onto the ground.

"Oh, dear, are you alright?"

I looked up from the grass and saw the person that had spoken.

Standing a few feet away from me was a young woman. She looked like she was in her late thirties or early forties. Her hair was long and messy and black, reached her waist, and had one single braid in the midst of the mess. She was wearing a long dark blue dress with long bell shaped sleeves that fell down almost to her knees. She had gold earrings in the shape of a circle, and imprinted on them were the two water tribe symbols: A crescent moon with three wavy lines, and the other one was a symbol similar to Katara's missing necklace.

Then I saw her eyes. They were gold, and her skin was pale. This woman was Fire Nation. But she seemed familiar.

"Yeah, I think." I got to my feet, brushing grass off my clothes, keeping my eyes on the woman. Just in case.

The woman suddenly gasped. "Oh, dear Spirits... I can't believe it..."

"What?" I demanded, reaching for my sword, except it wasn't there. Then I remembered I had dropped it when I attacked Hei-Bai.

"Tora?" She asked, her eyes shining with tears.

"Yes...?" I asked cautiously, wondering why this woman knew my name.

"You're beautiful! And you've grown so much!" She said, coming forward. I raised my fists in a firebending move. Then I remembered: bending doesn't work in the Spirit world.

"Stay back!" I ordered, keeping my fists up. If Sokka was anything to go by, I could punch pretty hard.

She stopped walking toward me. Her eyes filled with hurt, but I didn't feel guilty. "You don't recognize me, do you?"

"Why would I recognize you?" I demanded.

She smiled. "Well, for one thing, your father's house is full of portraits of me. And for another," Her eyes spotted my necklace. "You're wearing my necklace."

"No way!" I snapped, putting a hand against the necklace, shielding it from her view. "This necklace was my mother's!"

"Exactly." She smiled again. I narrowed my eyes. Wait a minute...

Then I remembered why she seemed so familiar. What she said was true. I had seen her face before... my father had painted it at least a thousand times... the portraits all over the house (or at least, they were, I didn't know if Dad had kept them up after I left)... always the same face... a young woman, smiling, a heart shaped face, long black hair either tied back or loose, sharp golden eyes, and she was always wearing my necklace.

"Mom?" I finally gasped. My eyes filled with tears when she nodded. We both stood silently for a minuted, tears in both our eyes.

"MOM!" I screamed, sprinting to her and flinging my arms around her waist. She burst out laughing when we both fell to the ground.

We both lay on the ground, laughing and crying at the same time.

"Mom, I can't believe it!" I exclaimed. We both suddenly felt hot breath blowing our hair, and I looked up to see the panda that had brought me here.

Mom laughed. "Well, hello, Hei-Bai!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, sitting up. Mom sat up as well. "That panda is the Spirit monster that's been attacking that town?"

Mom frowned. "Hei-Bei, really?" The panda looked down, almost looking ashamed. "Oh, honestly. You should have the sense to know it was the Fire Nation that burned down your forest, not the village." Hei-Bai gave a whining noise, then nuzzled me with his nose. Mom allowed herself to smile. "Well, you brought my daughter here, so I can't be too mad at you."

Hei-Bai whined again, breathing on my hair. I sighed, and patted his nose. "Alright, I forgive you."

"So, you came here with a boy?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, Sokka."

"Water Tribe name, isn't it?"

"Well, he is Water Tribe."

"Hmmm. Interesting." Her eyes sparkled. "And, this Sokka... is he anyone special?"

I stared blankly at her for a moment. "What do you mean?"

She seemed taken aback by my confusion. "Well - I mean - is he romantically linked with you in anyway?"

Another blank stare. "No. Why would he be?" I swear I saw a bead of sweat slide down the side of my mom's face. Then I frowned, looking around the field. "Where is Sokka, anyway?" I muttered, mostly to myself. I was surprised when my mother answered.

"He's with his own mother. And, unfortunately," Her face became sad. "Neither of you will remember this experience."

"What?" I gasped. "But... that's not fair! Why won't we remember?"

"I don't make the rules, dear." She said sadly, brushing a hair out of my face.

"The Spirit world has rules?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded.

"It's still not fair..." I said. I started feeling tears prickling in my eyes. I brushed them away furiously, but they kept coming. Finally I gave in and let them fall. I started sobbing uncontrollably, and mom hugged me tightly.

"Oh, my little Painted Lady..." She murmured, brushing my hair back. That just made me sob harder. I wouldn't remember any of this. None of this. I hadn't seen my mother since I was five, and now that I had, I wouldn't remember anything? It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!

While I cried and held onto my mother, I tried to hold on to the memories while I had them, thinking that maybe if I remembered them well enough, I would remember - Spirit rules be damned.

"Mom, Dad sent me away!"

"He did what?" She asked, her eyes widening.

"He sent me away! One of the White Lotus members bullied him into it, and he sent me away! Two years ago! And he didn't even tell me what he was doing! He didn't say anything!" I yelled, balling her hands into fists and clutching her robes tightly, tears streaming down my face and staining her clothing. "How could he? I'm his daughter!"

"Oh, sweetie…" Mom sighed, and stroked a piece of hair out of my face. "I don't know why he did that… but he loves you. I know he does."

"No, he doesn't." I snapped, instantly letting go of her clothes. My tears stopped coming - something about what Mom had said made them stop. But they were still on my cheeks, I I lifted a fist and forcefully wiped them away. "If he cared, he would have Agni-damn told me what he was doing. But he didn't. He doesn't care. And why would he?" I let out a bitter laugh. "I wasn't any use to him. I was just a burden to him. No wonder he took the first chance he got to get rid of me."

Mom looked taken aback. "Who said you were useless?" She demanded, lifting my chin up and looking directly into my eyes - eyes that were so much like hers. "Did your father say that?" Her eyes narrowed to slits, and I got the feeling that if I said 'yes' to her second question, she would do as much as she could to curse my father from the Spirit World.

"No." I said, giving her hand a light slap, brushing it off. "He didn't. But it's true." I looked away, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. I rested the side of my head on the top of my knees, staring at the field surrounding us. "If something isn't of any use to anyone, then why keep it? I never did anything in his favour, so why keep me?"

My mom put her arm around my shoulders, pulling my closer so my head was now leaning against her shoulder. "Don't be stupid." She said flatly, taking me by surprise. So this was what father meant when he said I got my attitude from her… He didn't exactly like to talk about mom that much when I still was with him, but on one rare occasion that he did, he had said that I pretty much got my temper and attitude mostly from her. "You're not useless. It may be true of things - objects - that when they're useless you should get rid of them, but not when you're a person. You may not have done anything for him, but you were with him when I couldn't be. I don't doubt that you're the only person he interacted with for the last however-many-years-it's-been. Besides Fat, of course. But besides that," She turned her head slightly, looking at me. "Making people happy is being of use. You made your father happy when I had to leave him behind-" I held back a snort at that - "And you make your friends happy by being their friend. You can be useful in more ways than just physical, you know. I heard from another Spirit how you comforted the Avatar when the two of you were leaving the Southern Air Temple. You made him feel better. Clearly, you're useful in emotional ways as well as physical ways. Wait, I'm rambling - why didn't you tell me?! The point is, just because you don't think you're useful to someone doesn't mean you aren't, and you can be useful to people in more ways than just doing things for them."

Not wanting to argue, I just nodded.

And we spent the rest of my time in the Spirit world just talking. She asked me about my friends, about what I liked, about what I didn't like, things like that. I asked her about her life before my dad (she didn't really talk about that much), about what she liked, about her friends. It was something I had dreamed about for years, and it was finally coming true. Yes, she did a little bit more of the talking and had a habit of rambling, but it was still a dream come true.

Unfortunately, good things like that don't last forever. Sokka and a woman dressed in blue that looked a lot like Katara appeared, and Sokka was smiling in a way that I hadn't ever seen before.

"Tora!" He exclaimed, rushing forward and grabbing my arm. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I am." I smiled. I glanced at the woman. "Who's..."

"This is my mom. My MOM!" Sokka shouted. He was practically bouncing in place. I felt horrible. He was this excited about seeing his mom, but he wouldn't remember. Of course, the same could be said for me.

"This is my mom." I introduced Sokka to my mother. She smiled.

"Akemi." She said, shaking hands with Sokka. I was surprised. I knew my mother had a name, but I never knew what it was.

"I'm Kya." Sokka and Katara's mom said, coming forward and smiling at me.

"It's nice to meet you." I said. "Katara talks about you alot." I glanced at Sokka, then back to Kya. "Katara... um, she lost her necklace. Do you know if she'll find it?"

Kya laughed. "Yes, she will."

"Good! She doesn't look right without it."

Mom and Kya stood next to each other. A bamboo patch suddenly grew in front of me and Sokka. I panicked. This was the way out of the Spirit world. I knew it. I knew I had to leave. But I didn't want too. I didn't want to forget.

"Don't worry." Kya said, seeing our worried faces.

"You'll be fine." Mom said.

I gave my mom one last hug, Sokka did the same. Then we exchanged looks, and walked into the bamboo.

~~Water~~

Sokka and I emerged from the bamboo and walked into the village. I saw Katara rush over to us and hug us both. "Sokka! Tora!"

"What happened?" Sokka asked, rubbing his head. I groaned. I had a major headache.

"You were both stuck in the Spirit World for a whole day! How are you feeling?"

"Like I really need to use the bathroom!" Sokka yelled, running over to a house. I laughed, then winced as I held my head.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked, looking concerned.

"Nothing. Just a headache." I groaned again.

"What was the Spirit world like?" Katara asked curiously.

"Yeah! What was it like?" Aang said, coming over. I smiled and hugged him. When I let go, I slung my arm around their shoulders.

"To be honest, I don't remember." I said, frowning. I knew something had happened in the Spirit world... I just couldn't remember.

~~Water~~

Later on, the chief wanted to thank us. Mostly Aang. He said that he wished there was a way he could thank Aang for what he did. Sokka spoke up, and said that we needed supplies and money. While I elbowed him, Katara told him not to be so rude, and Sokka told us that we needed stuff. As soon as the chief left to get our stuff, Katara beamed at Aang and told him that she was "so proud of him" for figuring out what to do all by himself."

"Well, I had a little help." Aang admitted, looking down. "And there's something else - I found out a way to contact Avatar Roku's Spirit. I need to talk to him."

"That's incredibly creepy, but fantastic!" I said, beaming.

"There's a temple on a crescent shaped island. If I go there on the day of the solstice, I'll be able to talk with his Spirit." Aang explained.

"Wait." I frowned. "I know that island. I've heard of it." I closed my eyes, snapping my fingers, trying to remember where I had heard of it. When I finally remembered, my eyes opened and widened as I stared at Aang in horror. "But it - the island - it's-"

"What? It's what?" Katara asked, frowning at me in confusion.

"It's in the Fire Nation." Aang said quietly.

Finally, the chapter is over!

Awww, poor Tora! She finally meets her mom, and she doesn't remember! Poor Sokka too!

(Crying in corner.)

Edit:

Edit: So how'd you guys like this new version? I liked it better than the old version – and I'm not just saying that because the old version could help in getting the story deleted.

Also, you guys – don't worry. If this story is deleted (and I'm working hard to make sure it isn't) I'll change some things around and repost it. So don't you guys worry, alright?

So my plan is to work on a chapter a day. First I'll work on this story, and then I'll move onto my other stories – but I'm going to work on working on both stories very fast.