Disclaimer: All rights belong to Nickelodeon, Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino, and all the men and women that created the A:TLA show, books, and comics. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made. The lyrics are from the song "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons
Rating: General Audiences. Warning: some scenes contain dark themes and minor violence
Author's Note: To clarify the confusion on the timeline: All the Water Tribe memories/events happened in the past, during the time of Sozin's reign. At the end of the last chapter, Sokka was reflecting on his memories of travelling to the North Pole with Katara to train her waterbending with the masters there. That was also when Yue turned into the moon spirit after an attack from the Fire Nation - also the first attack of the war.
Nothing else has already happened from the show, with the exception of character backstories (like Zuko's banishment, Iroh's failure and loss at Ba Sing Se, the death of Katara's mom, etc)
Chapter 4 - The Last Waterbender
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age
Zuko is just finishing dressing when the ship suddenly lurches to the side. He's thrown across the room and hits the opposite wall with a dull thud. The ship slowly turns straight, and he bursts out of his room and runs through the hallways.
"What's going on?" a crewman asks as he passes. Zuko ignores him and keeps sprinting. He takes the stairs two at a time until he emerges onto the deck, right in time for the ship to lurch sideways again. This time he grabs the doorpost and manages to stay upright.
His uncle is clinging onto the railing on the port side for dear life.
"What is it, Uncle?" Zuko yells over the shrieks of crewmen.
"Kraken!" Iroh yells back.
The young prince curses. He hates water, and he hates all the nasty creatures that hide in water. Krakens happen to be some of the worst. Unlike sea serpents, which wrap their bodies around ships and crush them, krakens have dozens of tentacles that snatch men off the deck and drop them in its huge mouth - a massive maw that's lined with thousands of razor sharp teeth.
And their Fire Nation ship isn't equipped with the right weapons to take out such a beast.
"Get below deck!" Zuko orders the crewmen. This is a fight that requires master Firebenders. He can't afford to lose his crew. It's not like his father will give him a new one.
They all start running for the stairs. The kraken slams into the ship from the side again, and slimy, seaweed-covered tentacles start slithering over the railing and searching for vulnerable prey.
Zuko watches as one unfortunate crew member is caught around the waist. He screams for help. The prince runs and shoots a flame of fire at the tentacle. With an ear-splitting squeal, the scorching tentacle drops its victim.
Iroh regains his footing and he and Zuko stand back-to-back in the center of the deck, watching as dozens of creeping tentacles advance.
"Short, quick bursts," Iroh advises. "Krakens are creatures of the sea. They hate fire."
"Won't it just anger it?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
They begin firebending, slapping attacking tentacles away with bursts of fire. The creature shrieks and smokes, but continues attacking.
"We need to draw out ts head!" Zuko yells over the clamor of the fight. "We're not doing any real damage!"
Iroh inhales deeply before sending a bolt of lightning towards a particularly thick cluster of slimy appendages, which explode. Zuko is slightly irritated that he has not yet mastered lightning, but he pushes the thought away and focuses on keeping the grasping limbs away from his uncle.
Iroh prepares to send another shock of lightning when suddenly the kraken's head appears. A giant wave pushes the ship to the port side, and both Firebenders lose their footing. They tumble on the deck in a tangle of limbs.
"I drew out its head," Iroh remarks. Zuko growls. He starts to climb to his feet, only to be shoved back down by another slam from the sea monster.
"It knows we need steady ground to fight it back! What are we supposed to do now?"
Iroh is already standing up again, grasping the railing tightly. He leans his back against it. "We must try to keep our footing," he says calmly before releasing a stream of fire at the creature.
The prince stands and shoots a couple quick bursts before the rocking of the ship knocks him down again. He's starting to tire, and they've only made the creature angrier.
"I am not dying at the hands of this creature!" he seethes. "I am the heir to the Fire Lord!"
From a few feet away, Iroh comments, "I don't think the kraken cares who you are."
Zuko jumps up from the deck and puts everything he has into his firebending. He scorches and burns and destroys, the anger inside of him amplifying the intensity and heat of the fire he bends. Every time his fire connects with a part of the creature, smoke rises.
When the smoke is too thick for him to see anymore, he stops. And waits. He's given everything he has. If the creature is still alive after his attack, then nothing is going to stop it.
The smoke clears. Zuko is surrounded by dozens of tentacles ready to grab him. The water around the ship is boiling. The kraken is furious. And it has its sights set on Zuko.
He looks around wildly for any chance of escape. Nothing. He's shaken to see a tentacle snatch up Iroh. The old general burns through it but another replaces it. There is no escape from this beast.
Zuko takes a deep breath and summons up the last of his fire. He begins the motion, but right as he releases the flames, a tentacle knocks him down. The fire ends up hitting his own arm. He can't help the shriek of pain that tears itself from his mouth. The last time he was burned this bad was when he got the scar on his face…
A tentacle ensnares itself around his ankle and whips him up into the air. He cradles his burned arm to his chest as a dozen other appendages attach themselves to him.
In the moment, he's not sure how he feels because so many conflicting emotions are swirling around his head. There's anger, that after all he's lost and all he's suffered, this is fate chooses to end his story. Despair, that he'll never have the chance to earn his honor back and that he'll die disgraced. Shame, that he lost to a soulless beast.
And, if he's being honest, there's a tiny bit of relief that his suffering is going to end so soon.
Then he sees her. The hatch opens and Katara emerges from below the ship, her hair loose and blowing in the wind. Despite the chaos of the flailing tentacles and the pools of water on the deck and the shrieking beast and the few unfortunate souls that are hanging in the air, about to be eaten, her expression is completely calm.
Zuko is about to yell a warning to her when she slowly raises her arms. Everything quiets. The water stills, the kraken freezes, and even the wind seems to hold its icy breath.
Then she brings her arms down and turns in a sharp circle, and everything explodes into chaos again.
The water on the deck rises and whirls around her in a stream before whipping the kraken. It screams and redirects its tentacles towards her, dropping Iroh and Zuko onto the deck. Zuko scurries into an upright position and watches as Katara deftly sends spears made out of ice into the beast, halting its attack. It thrashes in the water and the boat rocks wildly, but Katara simply moves with the motion instead of against it to keep her footing.
She summons water from the sea and bends it around the kraken before turning it to ice. The creature cries and uses its free tentacles to try to break itself out, but she continues to attack. Whenever it tries to take her out, she protects herself with a wall of water or a sheet of ice.
For a few minutes the struggle continues. Katara's eyes shine brightly as she manipulates the water to do her bidding. The creature doesn't have a chance. After Katara severs a handful of its tentacles with ice shards, it wails and detaches itself from the ship, slinking back into the water where it came from.
It's so quiet after the kraken disappears. Zuko pulls himself to his feet and stumbles towards her.
"You didn't tell us you were a Waterbender!" he accuses.
Then he stops when he sees her looking at her hands in shock. Her gaze lifts and she stares at him with wide eyes.
"I didn't know I was," she says. "At least, I didn't remember."
Iroh joins them. "You saved our lives. Thank you." Then he turns back to Zuko. "See, having her on our ship is a good thing."
But with the adrenaline of the fight over, the throbbing pain in Zuko's burned arm has taken over. He struggles to keep his face clear, but inside he's gritting his teeth together. He takes a change and glances down and instantly regrets it.
His entire arm is pink, all the skin burned clean off. Parts are black where the sleeve of his robe had burned straight into his flesh. Looking at it somehow makes the pain so much worse.
"I need medical attention," he says as calmly as one can when they have an injury that gruesome.
"Wait." Katara grabs his other arm. "I think I can help."
He's about to shake her off when she summons water and wraps it around her hands. She then lays her hands gently on his burned arm. Despite the softness of her touch, pain still flares up. Zuko sees black spots in his vision and he can't help a quiet hiss that escapes from his mouth.
But even as he watches, his skin begins to grow back. After a minute Katara removes her hands and he stares at an arm that shows no evidence of the horrendous injury it had just suffered. He tentatively feels it with his other hand, and is shocked at the lack of pain. It's as if he had never burned himself.
"I - I think I need to rest," Katara says, her voice shaky. He looks up at her and notices how pale her skin has turned. Fighting the kraken and healing him must have taken a lot of energy out of her.
"Of course," Iroh says. "My nephew will escort you back to your room."
Zuko is still too stunned by her display of both destructive and healing powers to protest. Although he feels awkward when she leans on him as they walk, he doesn't shake her off.
He helps her down to her room. She immediately lays on her bed. He hangs awkwardly in the doorway, not sure what to do.
"Do you need anything?" he finally asks.
"No. I think I just need to sleep it off."
Another awkward moment of silence.
"Thank you," he says quickly, then shuts the door on his way out.
She dreams of waterbending. She remembers learning how to manipulate the water, first on her own and then with another bender from her tribe. She remembers the first time she created a water whip, and the joy and excitement that came with her success. She remembers her parents sending her up to the North Pole for a summer to train with other Waterbenders her age. She remembers returning as a confident and able Waterbender, ready to help her tribe.
She doesn't remember any faces. She doesn't remember any names. Just blurry images with her clearly in the middle. She's grateful to remember some things, but it's frustrating to only remember parts.
Can a person be the same person without their memories? Our past is what shapes us into who we are today, but if she can't remember her past, does that make her a completely different person? Or does she still retain those memories in her subconscious and they still affect her decision making without her even realizing it?
When Katara had stepped out on that deck today, she hadn't known she could waterbend. She just felt like she was supposed to go up. And then when she saw the kraken, her body had responded instantly and her waterbending instincts had taken over. Is every action she does influenced by her forgotten memories like that? Or was that a special case?
It worries her. Katara knows there's still so many important things she has forgotten. What if she's never presented with a situation that brings them back?
After wrestling with these questions and switching back and forth between sleeping and lying awake in her bed for a few hours, she decides she's had enough. She straightens up her room, which had become messy from the ship being knocked back and forth, and then makes her way up to the deck.
Zuko is sparring with a couple of crewmembers. She watches as he masterfully wields two twin swords. His motions look the same as when he firebends, which she finds interesting. Iroh is playing Pai Sho with another crewmember.
"We live awfully boring lives on this ship," he says when he sees her.
"That kraken attack really was boring," she says wryly as she takes a seat near him. He laughs.
She alternates between observing his Pai Sho game and Zuko's fighting for a while. They're anchored, the other crew members making repairs to the ship. Although she's a little anxious about the wait, she knows it's necessary.
Besides, her village isn't going anywhere. One stagnant day won't ruin her chances of finding her tribe.
As she's watching Iroh play his chips, she hears footsteps coming her way and looks up to see Zuko standing over her. He's sheathed his swords and is watching her.
"You showed some pretty good waterbending this morning," he says. "You must have a lot of natural talent."
Katara recalls some of the memories she'd recovered. "Actually, not really. I struggled for months on the basics. But I just kept working hard and eventually I progressed to where I am now."
"Then we have something in common." Zuko sets his swords down on the deck. "Would you like to practice with me?"
She feels her eyes widen. Practice her waterbending? Against a Firebender? It seems dangerous. She can still clearly see in her mind how badly Zuko's arm had been burnt.
But it would be good practice, she reasons. Especially if the Fire Nation really is trying to take over all four nations. She'll need to know how to defend herself and her tribe in case Fire Nation warriors ever come back to her village. Besides, if she gets hurt, she can just heal herself.
"Sure," she agrees. "But let's start slowly. I'm still getting my memories back."
They move to the middle of the deck and circle each other slowly. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see the crewmen putting down their tools and watching with keen interest. A Firebender against a Waterbender. This is probably one of the most interesting things to happen on this ship (not counting things that are trying to kill them).
Katara summons a bit of water and swirls it around her body, loosening her limbs a bit. Then she goes for a simple but effective water slap.
Usually effective, she should say. Zuko blocks it with a small burst of fire from one hand and with the same motion sends another flame her way with his other hand. She brings a stream of water in front of her, quenching the flame before it can singe her.
She redirects the streams so that it surrounds her opponent, then makes a fist with her hand, turning the water into an ice shackle. Zuko uses his hands to burn through it and then sends another shot her way. She sidesteps the flames and shoots a blast of water straight at his chest.
They continue sparring, progressive moving faster and faster and using more complex techniques. Katara finds that although her mind doesn't remember everything, her muscles do. They move her automatically, blocking flames and counter attacking. She barely even realizes what she's doing before the motion is finished. Whoever trained her honed her reflexes to that of a master's.
She's not sure how long they practice together, but eventually her arms start to tire and she responds to the attacks slower and slower. She finally raises her hand to stop. Zuko stands down immediately, quenching the flames encircling his fists.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I'm still tired from this morning."
Zuko puts one hand into a fist and holds it against his opposite palm and bows slightly. Katara recognizes it as a sign of respect from his culture.
"Thank you for training with me. It's an honor to work with another master Bender."
She smiles nervously. Master? That seems a little exaggerated. Surely she's not that good. But even as she thinks that it feels wrong somehow, as if her absent memories tell another story.
She returns the gesture. "I learned much from you, also. If you permit it, I would like to continue training with you."
Zuko nods. Katara turns and heads back towards Iroh. As she takes her seat next to him, he says, "You should not take that compliment so lightly. My nephew has a history of problems with respect."
She watches the lone prince standing at the head of the ship, staring into the sunset. She can tell there's a lot going on inside his mind, but she has no idea what exactly. It must have something to do with what Iroh said.
"He respects me," she says, and turn to look back at the old general. "Why?"
Iroh shrugs and places a lotus tile in the very center of his Pai Sho board. "That is a very good question."
Sokka wakes up with the feeling of cold sand beneath him. His eyes refuse to open for a few seconds, so he has time to think about how annoying it will be to wash the gritty material out of his hair.
Then he thinks, Wait, sand? There's no sand in my village!
His eyes open and then he knows he's dead and went to a heavenly afterlife because a cluster of the most beautiful girls he's ever seen are standing over him, their angelic eyes staring into his.
"Death really isn't so bad after all," he mumbles before his eyes drift closed again.