Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or LoK.

CHAPTER 3

"Sokka. Sokka." Small hands shook away the dream he'd been enjoying. He grunted and rolled over. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew his bedroll right out from under him, flipping him onto his face with an "oof." He surged to his feet, staring around wildly. "What was th—Aang!"

The airbender stood with his hands held in front of him. His face was apologetic before it morphed into confusion at Sokka's look of shocked relief. "Sokka, what's wrong? Where's Katara?"

Nonplussed, Sokka peered down at the empty bedroll next to him. Katara's waterskin lay across it, forgotten. That relief he felt vanished as his gaze slid haltingly from it to the spot on the edge of the cliff that was apparently no longer occupied by the spirit portal. The only evidence that it had been there was the small group of straggler spirits floating about that hadn't made it back before the gate closed. Realizing what Katara had done, he rounded on Aang.

"What do you mean, 'where's Katara'? Didn't she find you in there? Isn't that why you're here?" His unease dissolved into dread as his eyes bore into the boy.

Aang's brow furrowed. "No. I accidentally trapped myself in the Spirit World after I talked to Roku. Avatar Wan helped me open a portal to get myself out. I think I blacked out for a few seconds after I did it, and then the climb back up to it took a few more minutes. I also spent maybe two or three hours before then trying to figure out how to get out. I know that time works a little bit differently in the Spirit World, but I couldn't have been gone for that long, right? Why would Katara have gone in after me?"

By the end of his explanation, he spoke rapidly and glanced nervously toward where the portal had been minutes ago.

Sokka didn't notice that Toph had woken up to join them until she said, "Aang, you were gone for four days." Sokka watched Aang's eyes widen when Toph continued, gesturing vaguely in Sokka's direction. "Snoozles, here, was going to wait until morning to go in that portal after you, but it looks like Sugar Queen beat him to it."

She paused then, and her expression changed as she placed her hand on the ashy soil beneath them. "Or…maybe she didn't go in there at all, at least not by choice." Another beat of silence, "We're not alone."

Before either of the boys could respond, she made a hard motion with her arms, and a slab of earth jutted out beneath their feet. Then they were rocketing up the side of the volcano.

Sokka held onto Aang for dear life, shouting, "Do you mean to tell us that someone else is here?!" Instead of answering, Toph brought them to an abrupt halt at the edge of the crater facing the western shore. There, at the base of the mountain, rested one of the Mechanist's air balloons. Only, to Sokka's horror, it was adorned with the symbol of the Fire Nation.

"There's no one here," Toph whispered, a hint of confusion in her tone. "The balloon is empty. The rest of the island is empty."

Sokka did not find this confusing at all, and it gave him no comfort. He wasted no time when he turned back to Aang. "I don't know how or why that portal closed as soon as you came out of it, but you need to open it back up right now."

The kid looked like he was going to be sick. "Sokka, I don't think I can right now." His gray eyes were wide and glassy. For the first time since Aang woke up, Sokka noticed that he was visibly weak. There were dark shadows under his eyes, and it appeared to require considerable effort for him to stay standing. Creating that light beam had clearly taken a lot out of him. At the moment, though, Sokka didn't care. He needed his baby sister back.

"Katara is probably trapped in the Spirit World with some Fire Nation stranger! It's not like we can wait until the next solstice. You have to try."

Aang's face was contorted with anguish. For a moment, it was easy for Sokka to forget that he was the Avatar and not just a terrified 12-year old.

Toph cut in, "I'm normally all for pushing Aang past his limits, but Sokka, look at him. I don't have to see to know that he looks like he got run over by an ostrich horse. His chi is all out of wack."

Sokka glared at her. "Okay, then what's your excuse? This never would have happened if your magic earthbender ears had woken you up when my sister was being kidnapped!"

For a moment she looked stricken before she gritted her teeth, puffing out her chest. "I told you I couldn't see anything beyond that stupid light beam!"

"Guys, stop." Aang put a hand on each of their shoulders, resolve evident in his features. "I will do everything in my power to get Katara back. Of course I'll try to open another spirit portal."

Not waiting for their responses, he leapt back down the volcano the way they came.

When Sokka and Toph arrived back at camp, Aang was standing on the cliff, his back facing them. He was in a bending stance, making circular motions with his arms.

He did this for several minutes, but nothing happened, and eventually, the arm motions started to slacken. Then he stood upright, took several deep breaths, and tried again. And again, and again.

Sokka wasn't sure how much time had gone by when Aang's knees started to wobble. He crumpled, his head in his hands as he curled in on himself. Sokka glanced dismally at Toph, who wore a deep grimace as they made their way over to the airbender.

"I'm so sorry, Sokka. I tried so hard, but I just can't do it right now," Aang stammered through tears. Even the effort of weeping seemed to exhaust him as he looked up at Sokka with hooded eyes.

Sokka felt a rush of guilt as he watched the boy shake with sobs. "Hey, buddy," he murmured, placing a hand on his shoulder and forcing himself to smile. "I think you need to get some rest now."

Aang looked like he was ready to protest, but his head lolled to the side, and a shaky sigh escaped his lips.

Toph gave him a light punch on the arm as she and Sokka helped him stand and limp back toward camp. "It's okay, Twinkletoes. You can try again when you're ready and we'll get Katara back. Besides, you and I both know she can take care of herself."

Sokka could only hope that she was right.

Zuko was momentarily blinded as the scene of Roku's Island dissolved into an expanse of bright white nothingness. Then, he was falling, tumbling down a cliff into a sea of hazy unknowns.

Landing flat on his back with a dull thud in a surprisingly forgiving patch of grass, the firebender let out a low groan, eyes closing involuntarily. His entire body pulsated with a combination of the pain from his fall and the fatigue that had been threatening to overwhelm him for the last several hours. Attempting to stand was fruitless, so he begrudgingly settled for propping himself up on his elbows as he absorbed his surroundings.

Above him, he could just make out the light of the spirit portal through the mist. He had landed in a thicket of what appeared to be banyan-grove saplings, their exposed roots twisting and tangling themselves over nearly every available surface. The flora that sprouted at the bases of the trees and the crevices of the roots encompassed a range of peculiar shapes with dazzling colors. Tiny spirits lazily floated in and out of the trees. Every aspect of the landscape that Zuko could see appeared to glow as if bathed in moonlight. There was, of course, no moon to shine on them. His current surroundings were shrouded in darkness, but he had observed daylight during his brief time above the veil of fog that blanketed the grove.

At a point, Zuko decided not to trust his own perceptions. He had a suspicion that he might be hallucinating some of them. Making another attempt to stand, he managed to half-succeed by leaning heavily into a trunk of one of the trees. A sharp pain shot through his ribcage as he did so, and his breath came out in short hisses through his gritted teeth. This was not a great start to his journey of self-discovery.

Mentally cursing Uncle, he pulled the silk of the most casual tunic he had been able to find in his royal wardrobe to assess the damage. An angry purple bruise already occupied most of his right side. Huffing out a sigh, then wincing from the pain of doing that, he gripped his hair in irritation.

"What am I even doing here?" he grumbled to himself, looking up just in time to see none other than the Avatar stumble by him.

Zuko nearly keeled over. It made no sense—he had seen him sleeping outside with the earthbender and the Water Tribe guy. Okay, now I'm definitely hallucinating.

The boy did not notice Zuko gaping at him as he made his way toward the base of the hill Zuko had just tumbled down and began a slow climb back up, presumably toward the spirit portal. The airbender looked like he had reached the bottom of the hill in a similar way that Zuko had as he limped up the ridge and disappeared into the mist.

Zuko briefly considered following him back out of the portal and ending his Spirit World trip early. He was, after all, in no shape to continue. Maybe he could make another attempt after some rest and a session with the royal healers.

An earsplitting noise broke him out of his deliberation. It was similar to the one he had heard when the portal was first opened; only it was much closer to him and, to his chagrin, much louder. After the initial rumble, a strange sound—like something being suctioned—followed it. Horrified, Zuko realized that he no longer had a choice in staying or leaving the Spirit World.

He stared above at the place where the light beam had been visible beyond the mist. It was gone. The portal was closed, and he was trapped. The Avatar must have closed it behind him when he left.

He breathed a jet of flame toward the gnarled roots below him, his scream of frustration becoming a strangled cry as he doubled over, clutching his ribs. Through the haze of pain, he took a brief moment to wonder how he was able to firebend. All accounts he had heard regarding the Spirit World reported that bending was not possible here.

However, there was no time to sit on that thought as the roots and branches around Zuko began to move. He fixed a fearful gaze up at the trunk upon which he leaned. Hollow, unseeing eyes etched into it stared back at him, an unmistakeable rage radiating out of them.

Instantly regretting the fire blast he had just shot into this tree's roots, he heaved himself off the trunk with a grunt and attempted to back up. Then, a knobby branch shot out from somewhere Zuko could not see, took hold of his ankle, and knocked him hard onto his face.

For a moment, all he could do was lay there, too drained to address his current predicament. He eventually lifted his head, which felt much heavier than it previously had, his vision swimming in front of him. He could see the colorful flowers he had observed earlier slither toward him, wrapping themselves around him.

Zuko closed his eyes and began heating up his body. I'll burn these stupid plants.

With satisfaction, he saw steam rising from the spirits that constricted him, but it was not enough. They squeezed him tighter until he could hardly breathe, and therefore could no longer firebend. Dark spots appeared in his vision, threatening to take over as he tried to blink them away, wheezing and writhing against the restraints.

There was a brief moment of stillness, then the last thing he saw was the blurred shape of a tree root as it struck him over the head.

Afraid to anger the spirits by calling out to Aang, Katara resigned herself to thoroughly searching every facet of the Spirit World until she found him. But after deploying this method for hours in vain, she was beginning to worry. She had checked every valley, tree hollow, cave, and canyon within a few miles' radius of the spirit portal, finding no trace of him.

It was becoming rapidly clear to her that the Spirit World was much more vast than she had initially thought, and that it would likely take more than a few hours of searching to find him.

She found it difficult not to marvel at the mysterious beauty of the Spirit World. If Katara had not been so determined in her pursuit of Aang, she would have made frequent stops along the way to admire her surroundings. But she eventually needed to pause to rest, choosing to do so near a stream that appeared to flow in a large circle around a verdant clearing. If only she had brought her waterskin from the encampment, even if just to drink from.

Her mind wandered as she sat, staring into the stream at the small cluster of spirits that glided along with its current. She idly attempted to bend some of the water into her mouth to drink. To her shock, the simple movement was successful. Recalling the water's sacred nature at the spirit oasis of the Northern Water Tribe, she chose only to take a few gulps before bending the water back into the stream.

Sokka's words from his earlier reminder that she couldn't waterbend in the Spirit World came back to her. He had been right; Aang did say that it wasn't possible to bend here. So, what's different for me?

She considered how she had entered the Spirit World through the portal that Aang had created, and realized that it had to be the reason her waterbending was intact. When Aang made trips to the Spirit World, he managed to project his spirit from his body, leaving his physical form in the Mortal World. Katara had entered the Spirit World using her physical body, walking through the portal. Of course, it made sense that Aang had not known about this loophole of sorts since Katara knew he had never previously opened a spirit portal.

Smiling, she swirled the water from the stream around her fingers.

Her reverie was disrupted by a bizarre sound coming from the direction of the portal. Head snapping up, Katara gasped as the beacon of light began to fade away in the distance. "Aang!" she cried, and she was on her feet, sprinting back toward the portal. That had to have been him. She ran along winding paths and vaulted terrain without stopping, a fierce determination in her heart.

Pulling up breathlessly at the base of the hill atop which the portal stood, she bent the sweat from her brow. Spinning in circles, she forgot her previous caution and called out to Aang. There was no answer, but she heard a loud 'thwack' that sounded like it came from the opposite side of the hill. Shouting Aang's name, Katara dashed around the base of the ridge until she came upon a scene she had not expected.

A boy lay crumpled on the ground, tangled in tree roots. It took her only a second to determine who he was, and she recoiled with disgust as disappointment and hatred arced through her. "Zuko?" Of course, he was here. Of course.

"Here to capture Aang again?" she spat with all of the venom she could muster. Her eyes burned with the memory of his confession and subsequent betrayal under Ba Sing Se.

It took her several fuming moments for Katara to realize he had not responded, and she took in the prince's battered appearance. His clothing had torn in places, revealing red flesh underneath. His head was bleeding profusely. He looked, frankly, awful. Worse than that, she noticed now, he did not move or open his eyes. His chest moved faintly, his breathing shallow.

Swallowing her revulsion, Katara made her way to Zuko's still body, telling herself that Aang would have wanted her to help him. She attempted to pry the roots away from him, but they fought her back, squeezing him harder. Something in his body crunched, and his feeble breath hitched. Katara pulled back in alarm, her stomach turning, then steeled herself and grabbed hold of Zuko's restraints with renewed determination.

The tree that entrapped him came fully alive then, and Katara ducked just in time for the branch that swung at her to miss her head. Snarling, she leapt to her feet and glared into what she assumed were the tree spirit's eyes carved into its trunk as she shouted, "Stop it! Can't you see he's hurt? Whatever he did to deserve this, you've punished him enough!"

The spirit growled, the vibration of the sound shaking its branches. Suddenly, it unwrapped itself from Zuko and directed its full force toward Katara. Her reflexes took over, and she did not think. She swept her arms through the air in a wide slashing motion, and a wave of water materialized out of thin air—or so she thought. The branches froze in midair and snapped. Its roots shriveled. The tree spirit, now completely devoid of water, wilted before her eyes.

All of the suspended water splashed to the ground as the spirit went still. Katara could only stare at her hands with a mix of awe and horror. How did I do that?

There was no time to contemplate it further. Shaking her head, she turned her focus back to the firebender splayed out in the grass that the spirit had occupied moments ago. The firebender who had spent the better part of a year trying to ruin the world's only chance at peace, the firebender who deceived and betrayed her.

No. Aang would want her to help him.

Kneeling, she reached down to roll him flat onto his back and carefully worked him out of his tattered shirt. It became immediately apparent that the sound she had heard earlier was one of several cracked ribs as she examined the discoloration on his torso, a stark contrast against his pale skin. There were several deep gashes from where the roots cut into him on his stomach and arms, along with a grisly wound on his head, which she decided required the most urgency.

Katara couldn't help but smirk at the irony of the situation as she bent the water that she had taken from the spirit and gloved her hands with it. Moving Zuko's matted dark hair to the side, she placed her hands atop his forehead. They glowed blue as the injury was soothed.

In the back of her mind, there was a small amount of relief when it became clear that it would not leave a scar.

Methodically, Katara moved her still-glowing hands to his damaged ribs. It was a good thing they were only cracked; she had no idea how to heal broken bones. Closing her eyes, she visualized the water working its way between the bones' fissures, reinforcing them. As she worked, she could hear his breathing become steadier.

Once the ribs were done, she made quick work of the cuts and leaned back to admire her work. It was then that she noticed Zuko's strange gold eyes staring up at her.

The waterbender hovered above him, her eyes closed, her brow furrowed as she held her hands to his right side. Her face was illuminated by the blue glow of the water as it healed him.

Zuko could only stare, mystified. He had never seen a waterbender's healing powers in action. Still dazed, he wondered if this was what the Avatar saw while she healed him after Azula had nearly killed him.

He could vaguely remember the girl yelling at the tree spirit and the grip of his restraints slackening when she, he assumed, killed it—or subdued it? Did spirits die? Otherwise, he had no idea how she had found him here. He could feel himself relaxing while he watched her work, the last of his injuries fading away. When the girl finished, she sat back on her knees and Zuko found himself meeting her startlingly blue gaze.

Abruptly, she was on her feet, scowling down at him. "Why are you here?"

Zuko didn't really know why he was there. He knew he was looking for answers, but he wasn't entirely certain about what the corresponding questions were.

"…Self-reflection," he muttered after a beat.

She scoffed. "Yeah, okay. So it's just a coincidence that I found you right where Aang opened that spirit portal?" Shaking her head, she added, "Why don't you just give it up already, Zuko?"

Zuko glowered at her as he sat up. "Anyone within a hundred miles could have seen that portal appear, and everyone heard it. You're lucky someone worse didn't come looking for it." His mind flitted to the assassin currently hunting the Avatar.

"I have no reason to capture the Avatar anymore," he continued. "I've already restored my honor." The nagging voice in the back of his mind knew that this wasn't entirely true—especially if his assassin did not succeed—but he ignored it. There was no point in explaining his inner turmoil to this girl.

Her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing and a question he'd meant to ask bubbled to the surface. "Why did you help me?" The girl clearly hated Zuko.

Deep down, he didn't blame her for that.

She looked away for a moment, pursing her lips, before mumbling, "Because it was the right thing to do." Then, she turned on her heel to leave. Zuko made to follow her, and without turning around, she sent a whip of water into his face. "Don't follow me!"

Clutching his stinging cheek, he called after her. "Since we're both trapped here now, don't you think it's best to—"

She interrupted him. "What do you mean, 'we're trapped here'?"

Zuko turned to look back toward where the portal had been. There was no sign that it had ever existed. He didn't see the waterbender's eyes trail after his, but he heard her gasp. "No, no, no," she whispered. "This isn't right. Only Aang could have closed it."

"He did close it," replied Zuko, though he was pretty sure she hadn't been talking to him. Her eyes met his briefly before she turned away again, breathing, "He made it out."

Composing herself, her glare fixed itself on Zuko again as she spoke. "Well, trapped or not, you are the last person I want to be here with. I'm going to find another way out of here, and you aren't going to come after me." She turned around one last time and stalked further into the trees.

Zuko wasn't particularly keen on spending his time in the Spirit World with her, either, but he saw no choice in the matter. Standing up for the first time, he felt good as new. Even the exhaustion that overtook him earlier had dissipated.

He shook his head in wonderment and decided to trail the girl at a distance. If she did discover another way out, he would slip out after her unnoticed.

Katara trudged along, paying no attention to her surroundings as her mind raced. It hadn't occurred to her earlier when she saw the beacon of light start to fade that it meant the portal was closing.

Her relief that Aang had made it out of the Spirit World far outweighed her fury that she was now trapped. He needed to save the world with or without her—if anything, her current dilemma was only proof that he did not need her. However, she couldn't help the hot anger that flooded her at the thought of not being able to do something. But here she was, stuck with Zuko, of all people. The thought of him creeping along behind her right now—and she guessed that he was—repulsed her. She had to find a way out.

Tears threatened to spill over as she made her way along a trail flanked by piles of flat black stones. The fine gravel beneath her feet reminded her of the volcanic soil of Roku's Island. It appeared to darken as she walked further, creating a strange gradient of black to...darker black. She was pulled from her thoughts of escape when she realized that the gradient extended beyond just the path. It seemed that the further along it she ventured, the darker her surroundings became.

Katara continued along apprehensively, and by the time the trail ended in front of a small spring, the world was dark as a moonless night. The only source of light came from the various pools of faintly-illuminated water that dotted the clearing. Suddenly feeling quite dehydrated, she made her way over to the nearest one. Briefly, she wondered if drinking unfamiliar Spirit World water was the most prudent thing for her to do, but her needs outweighed her logic.

She paused in her preparation to bend the water from the pool when she noticed her reflection displayed in its depths with remarkable clarity. Only, the reflection wasn't really her. The girl looked several years older than Katara was now. She wore her hair long and loose, in contrast with Katara's currently-braided hair. She was wearing only a long tunic that appeared much too large for her small frame. Its design and material were unlike anything she had ever seen. The girl's eyes were closed, her hair splayed out around her head and her breathing deep, as if she were asleep.

Bewildered, Katara moved to another pool, only to discover yet another crystalline image of herself. This new reflection was much more familiar to her. It was her, except she was about eight years younger than she was now. She was clutching her stomach, laughing hysterically. Katara smiled faintly before her eyes fixed on the burgundy and gold colors of the Fire Nation garb that adorned the girl's body. She jumped back from the water as if it had burned her.

She continued flitting between the pools for some time, staring at the images in each. Some were older, some younger. One of them looked about Katara's age, but she had dyed her hair a different color. A few were Water Tribe; a few more were Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. She even saw an Air Nomad version of herself. Many of the reflections gave no indication of nationality, and some even appeared to be from a different time. All were in varying states of consciousness and moods. In a few of the pools, there was no reflection at all—a fact that disturbed and fascinated her simultaneously.

The clearing seemed to expand as she looked at each new version of herself, with more pools materializing before her eager eyes. Awestruck, she investigated the spring for what felt like hours.

Eventually, her exploration was interrupted by a noise coming from the trees at the edge of the clearing.

The spirit Xiànshí perched lazily atop a boulder, watching a young mortal prance around his spring.

It had been many years since he had last seen a human, and as a result, his existence had become quite dull. After all, how was one meant to be the guardian of a spring that never required guarding? Other spirits didn't bother visiting his domain—they, of course, had no reason to do so. The Spirit World was the anchor for all realities.

He looked on with idle interest as the girl discovered glimpses of the various planes of reality within which she existed. Her amazement became increasingly evident on her delicate features as she roamed from pool to pool.

Xiànshí sensed another presence enter the area. In the darkness of the trees just beyond the spring's edge, he could see another mortal, watching the girl. She apparently noticed him at the same time Xiànshí had because she suddenly raised the water from one of the pools and shouted, "I told you not to follow me!" So, the girl was a waterbender.

More intriguingly, she had clearly come with her physical body through the portal that had opened a few hours ago. Xiànshí watched her send a wall of water in the direction of the trees, and the boy was washed out, soaked and sputtering. The waterbender gave him no chance to respond as she released another gush of the sacred spring water that hit him squarely in the face.

Snarling, the boy shot blasts of fire at her in a series of punches and kicks—ah, another bender. She retaliated with more force, freezing the water into spikes before launching them toward him. He dodged, and they stabbed into the trees on the edge of the clearing.

At that moment, Xiànshí remembered that he despised humans. His annoyance mounted quickly as he watched them fight, destroying his spring.

The final straw for him came when the girl took water from every single pool and sent it crashing down on the boy in a vortex, leaving flooded chaos in her wake. Xiànshí decided then that it was time to intervene.

He had not had the opportunity to inflict punishment in years, and beneath his anger, he felt a thrill as he stretched his arms to their full length. He grabbed both of the humans, one in each fist. They had no time to do more than yelp in surprise before he dragged them down into one of the pools. A satisfying splash followed, and then all was quiet once more.

Xiànshí huffed out a sigh and relaxed back into his position on the boulder, smiling despite himself.

AN: Thank you again to everyone who has reviewed so far! The next chapter might be slightly delayed while I travel this week. I hope everyone is staying safe!