Please R&R.
Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA.
Chapter 21
Katara was pulling Aang through the crowded, bustling streets of Ba Sing Se. She was happy and excited that Aang was drawn out of his blank state. Suddenly, his whole body became stiff. He became frozen like a statue. Katara immediately turned around to see Aang's eyes and tattoos glowing.
"Aang? Aang? What's wrong?" Katara asked, worry starting to spread on her face. "Aang? Can you hear me?"
No answer.
"Oh spirits..." She started to panic and shook him vigorously. Katara made another impulsive decision and decided to try and kiss him out of the Avatar State. Nothing worked.
"Koh?" he asked.
"Hello Avatar," Koh greeted as he paced around Aang. His legs creating a sound whenever he scuttled around.
"Where are we?" Aang asked. He stood in a defensive position and kept his eyes on Koh's face.
"My mother, the Mother of Faces, passed down all of her skills to me. She gave me the ability to steal faces, but you already know that. One of my other abilities is to steal, alter, and create memories. Like this one for instance." Koh motioned one of his arms and the darkness faded into the balcony of Ba Sing Se. The place where Aang and Katara initiated their relationship. Except it was different, instead of Aang being on the balcony with Katara... it was Zuko.
Aang watched the false memory in horror. He knew the memory was wrong, but he couldn't remember what was wrong with it. Koh laughed at Aang and wiped the memory away. Aang instantly remembered that it was he who had kissed Katara, not Zuko. Aang was furious. That little change in memory caused him to rethink his whole life. "Why are you doing this?" he cried out.
Koh laughed as if he heard the stupidest thing in the world. He walked farther from Aang and stopped to look out into the dark abyss. He stopped laughing and immediately launched toward Aang, leaving an inch between their faces. "This is a sample of the pain you'll go through if you keep going down the same path as him," Koh responded.
"Who's are we talking about? Who's him?" Aang asked in confusion, still maintaining a straight face.
"Kuruk," Koh said, seething with anger.
"Toph, Toph!" Katara said as she ran.
Toph threw a ball, knocking over the three bottles stacked upon one another. "Yeah, Sugar Queen?"
"I need your help! There's something wrong with Aang!" Katara sputtered out quickly.
"Give me a sec," she said as she aimed the final ball. Before she could finish, Katara grabbed her by the sleeve and started dragging her towards Aang. They arrived a few seconds later.
"Where's Twinkletoes? I don't feel him anywhere," Toph said, confused.
"Hold on, I froze him to the wall." Katara unfroze the ice and water spilled everywhere and caught him in her arms. She then set him down on the ground.
Toph's expression changed from annoyed to worry and confusion. "Holy spirits," she muttered.
"What? Tell me what you feel."
"His heartbeat is going crazy! Sometimes I'm not even able to distinguish the pauses between the beats and sometimes it's not beating at all. His body temperature is wack too! Sometimes it's dropping to extreme cold and other times it's rising to the temperature of the freaking sun!"
Katara held Aang's stiff body in her arms. "We need to get everyone."
"How am I going through the same thing that Kuruk went through?" Aang asked with confusion.
Koh coiled around Aang and set his head right in front of Aang's body. "The Avatar should be dedicated to balancing the physical and Spirit worlds. The worlds should be the Avatar's top priority and should be put above their personal life. I've been watching over you for the past couple of months. You've done nothing but waste time. Even though you ended that war, you should still try to resolve any conflicts that are arising." Koh began to pace around again. "I'll give you credit though, Avatar Aang. You've already done more than Kuruk ever did during his lifetime."
"Are you doing this because I'm one of Kuruk's future lives?"
"I'm doing this because you're acting like Kuruk. I had no problem with the Avatars before and after Kuruk, they all did their duty to the world and did it well. Kuruk was a disappointment, a failure. Let's not hope you'll end up like him.
Mai and Zuko looked up into the night sky as the fireworks went off. They turned to each other, staring adoringly, before sharing a quick kiss. They walked through the streets as everyone looked up to watch the fireworks.
"Toph, Toph!" they heard Katara yell. The Fire Nation couple began walking over to investigate what was going on.
They guided through the crowd before seeing Katara yank Toph from her carnival game and running in the opposite direction. Mai and Zuko nodded to each other in understanding and immediately started to chase after them. They eventually found the two and saw Aang's glowing body being held in Katara's arms.
Toph turned around. "Oh, we were about to look for you."
"Hey, what's up with Aang?" Mai said as she approached Katara.
"We don't know, but there's something really, really wrong with him," Toph explained.
"Should I go get Sokka and Suki?" Zuko asked.
"No, it's okay. I'll do it, just watch over him while I'm gone," Katara replied. She set Aang down gently on the ground and immediately hopped up and started running through the streets.
During this whole mess, Sokka and Suki had made a picnic on a hill and watched upon the fireworks. He had pointed to a firework in the shape of an elephant-koi before noticing the full moon right behind it. Suki had noticed that his expression had changed.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing why do you ask," Sokka said, eyes fixed upon the bright, shining moon.
"It's the moon, isn't it? That Water Tribe princess?"
"Yeah..." he sighed.
"Wanna talk about it?" Suki asked, fixing her gaze on the moon as well.
"I fell in love with her... we were in love." His eyes started to get teary. "I was there when she sacrificed herself. I even swore that I would protect her at all costs," he choked. "But when it came down to it," he sobbed. "I couldn't protect her."
"Sokka..." Suki whispered before pulling him into a hug.
"Can you leave us alone for a bit?" he whispered into her ear.
"Of course." She let him go and gave him a peck on the cheek before walking down the hill.
"Yue, what do I do?"
No response.
"I still have these lingering feelings for you. I want to forget the pain, I want to forget you. But for whatever reason, you keep getting into my head!" he lashed out onto the moon. He brought his hand up and wiped his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."
He looked up to see any sign that she was listening, but the moon stayed the exact same. No twinkles, no beams of light. Nothing.
"I met this awesome Earth Kingdom girl. She's incredibly smart and really, really brave. Her name's Suki. I honestly feel like she's too good for me. But I don't think this is fair to you or to her! We were in love and now I'm in a relationship with someone else. This isn't fair to her because I still have feelings for you. I'm so confused right now. I don't to betray you and I don't want her to feel like a second-place trophy when she's so much more than that!"
He looked up once again only to find nothing.
"What am I doing right now? I'm just talking to myself," he grumbled before turning around and kicking a rock.
"Hey Suki!" Katara said as she ran towards her.
"Hey Katara, what's up?" Suki responded.
"Wereallyneedyoutocomeit'surgent," she spewed out.
Suki grabbed Katara's shoulders. "Hey, slow down. What's the issue?"
"There's something wrong with Aang."
"Sokka!" Katara called. "Are you finished?"
"Yeah," he groaned as he laid on the picnic blanket.
"Did you talk to her?" Katara asked.
"No, I don't even think she heard me," Sokka said as he sat up. "But I really, really needed this. I needed to get some things out of my system."
"Like what?" Katara asked.
Sokka sighed. "I... I feel like I'm being unfair to Suki. I'm in a relationship with her, but I still love Yue. I can't forget about her, it's like she permanently engraved the moon into my brain. What if I don't actually love Suki, what if I'm just using her as a coping mechanism?"
Katara slapped Sokka in the face. "Are you kidding? It's pretty clear to me that you're in love with her. Every time she enters the room I see your eyes light up. Just being with her makes you jittery and overwhelmingly happy! You're addicted to her and you can't get enough of her! I should know this because that's how I feel about Aang!" Katara blushed.
Sokka laughed and then smiled. "You're right, I am such an idiot. I'm gonna go down there and make sure she knows how much I love her!"
"Erm, well, she isn't down there anymore. She left," Katara explained.
"What? Why?" Sokka asked, worried that he had made her upset or angry.
"There's something wrong with Aang," Katara said before taking off.
Sokka scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I swear, there's always something up with that kid."
"Avatar, heed my warning. If you don't return to your Avatar duties soon, something just might happen. I'm giving you a little taste of it right now. Let me give you a little hint, it's not going to be enjoyable," Koh said before disappearing. The darkness started to shift into an endless, vast white atmosphere. Then the ground started shaking before it cracked open.
"Ahhhhh!" Aang screamed. He fell through the ground before countless memories, smells, feelings, tastes, started to surround him. It went on for what seemed like forever before it turned into pitch-black once more. Aang turned around to see a gigantic Koh laughing at him.
Aang sat up instantly, panting hard. Team Avatar surrounded him and bombarded him with many questions.
However, he ignored their questioning and whispered one word. "Koh."
I have no why, but I always read Koh's voice in James Spader's voice (AKA Ultron, Robert California from 'The Office').
A/N: I thought that Koh being able to manipulate minds/spirits wouldn't be too far-fetched. As we see in 'The Search', the Mother of Faces was able to manipulate the mind into forgetting memories. It would make sense for them to able to add in memories too.