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 "I Found" by Amber Run

Rating: General Audiences. Warning: some scenes contain dark themes and minor violence

Chapter 8: The Swamp

I've moved farther than I thought I could

But I've missed you more than I thought I would

It's a cloudy day in the skies. Katara, Sokka, and Aang are all quite bored. The fun atmosphere of adventure and travelling has long since worn off, and the dread and fear of the Fire Nation trailing them has also almost disappeared. Even Aang, who is the most positive and bright-eyed of the group, has started to feel a bit homesick. He still tries to keep a smile on his face, but it's getting harder.

Sokka sharpens his blade with a stone. Katara reads a scroll on the elements she'd picked up at the last village they were in. Momo lays with his wings spread out on the saddle. Aang stares quietly down at the terrain beneath them.

Slowly Appa begins to descend. Sokka waits a minute before setting down his blade and turning to face Aang. "Hey, you taking us down for a reason?"

No answer. Sokka says in a louder voice, "Why are we going down?"

Aang shakes his head as if waking himself up. "What? I didn't even notice."

He rubs his eyes with the back of his hand. Around them, the clouds seem to become denser, almost claustrophobic. Sokka wants to get out of this weird weather pattern as soon as they can. And yet, Aang is still angling Appa downward.

"Are you noticing now?"

Katara stands and walks over. "Is something wrong?"

Aang stares at the ground and frowns. "I think that swamp is calling to me," he says.

His eyes look a million miles away. The poor kid has been pushing so hard for the past few weeks. Sometimes Sokka forgets how young he is. Katara is normally the one to mom them around, but her eyes are a bit glazed over, too, right now. Looks like Sokka's gonna have to step up this time.

He crosses his arms. "I think you need to get some sleep, Aang. Let me take over the reins."

"Listen," Aang insists.

"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat? Cause if not, we need to keep going."

"He's right," Katara says. Sokka turns in surprise to see her staring down with the same intense look. "I think the swamp wants us to land down there."

Sokka has to stop this madness. Something has gotten into both of them and he needs to get them out of danger before he's also compromised.

"No offense, guys, but I don't see any land to land on. It's called a swamp for a reason."

"That scroll I was reading said I need to listen and be patient," Katara says. "I was struggling so hard with earthbending in Fong's citadel, but now I can finally truly hear the earth. I don't think I should ignore this."

Sokka glances down again and shivers run up and down his body. "It seems a bit ominous to me."

Momo glances over and then hides between Sokka's legs. Appa roars. And yet Aang keeps angling them downwards.

"Aang, Katara, seriously," Sokka says with a sterner voice. "Animals have better senses than us humans, and look how Appa and Momo are reacting. I really think we should get out of here."

Aang turns to Katara. "Your choice, Katara."

She debates it for a long moment, then finally nods. "Alright. Let's keep going."

Aang pulls up on the reins. "Bye, swamp."

They've barely begun to rise when Sokka hears a strange noise behind them. He turns to see a tornado ripping through the swamp below and in the air behind them. It's approaching faster than they're flying.

"You better throw an extra 'yip' in there!" he calls over to Aang. "We need to get out of here!"

Aang steers Appa to the side as the tornado rides on their tail. Then he pulls a hard left and starts flying in a completely different direction. To their horror, the tornado changes course to follow them.

"That's not an ordinary tornado!" Sokka cries out as he and Katara watch it roar up towards them.

"Sokka!"

The wind starts to suck Sokka up, away from the saddle. Katara reaches out her hand and grabs his forearm, desperately trying to tether him to Appa.

"Hang on!"

Aang jumps over to the saddle and creates a wind sphere around Appa. Inside is a strange quiet. They can all see the tornado just outside, but they're completely untouchable - on the inside, at least. The sphere of wind is sucked up into the vortex of the tornado and they're flung around in wildly fast circles. Sokka and Katara hang onto each other tightly and close their eyes. Aang keeps his arms outstretched, groaning in his effort to maintain the sphere.

Aang is a strong Airbender, but the tornado is stronger yet. With a burst the sphere breaks and they're all flung off Appa and thrown to the wind. As they near the ground their fall slows until they are not quite gently dropped into a shallow pool in the swamp.

Sokka groans and throws weeds off his forehead. Katara and Aang stand up and look around at their surroundings. It's oddly quiet in the swamp, only the sound of strange insects chittering and the ripple of the water as they step around. The only light comes in the form of dim and strained rays through the thick canopy of the trees.

"Where's Appa and Momo?" Aang asks, looking around. He suddenly flies up. Sokka and Katara strain their necks trying to follow him, but the tree branches are too thick.

"Sokka!" Katara says. "You've got an elbow leech!"

Sokka reacts the same way he does when someone tells him there's a spider or some other bug with creepy appendages on him: by screeching and dancing around wildly, shaking his arms and legs with the hopes that it falls off.

"Where?!"

Katara rolls her eyes. "Where do you think?"

He looks down to see a massive leech attached to his elbow. He swallows his fear, grabs the end of it, and rips it off, throwing it as far as he can. His elbow starts to bleed but he doesn't feel any pain. Not while his heart is still racing as fast as it is.

Aang swings back down, suspending above the leech-filled water on a vine.

"You couldn't find them?" Katara asks.

"No." Aang releases the vine and drops into the water. "And the tornado - it just disappeared."

Sokka takes charge, forging through the water and pulling out his machete. Good thing he just sharpened the blade. He chops through a swath of vines.

"We better speed things up." He doesn't want to stay in this creepy swamp one minute more than necessary.

"Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp," Aang suggests, wincing at the sound of the blade.

Sokka rolls his eyes. He likes the kid, he really does. But sometimes Aang's tree-hugger, peaceful beliefs can be a bit much. "They're just plants, Aang. They can't feel."

Katara puts a hand on his arm. "Maybe you should listen to Aang," she says in a quiet voice. "Something about this place seems...alive."

Sokka takes a deep breath to keep from yelling. "I'm sure there are a lot of things that are alive here," he concedes. "And if we don't want to get eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can."

He sweeps his machete through another wall of vines. Aang jumps over to where he is. He doesn't say anything more - and neither does Katara - but he doesn't look happy, either.

Night falls and the swamp becomes dark. Sokka didn't think it was possible for the place to get any creepier, but he was wrong. Every little shadow sets his heart racing. Judging by how close Aang and Katara walk behind him, they're on edge, too.

"Appa? Momo?" Katara calls. She does so every few minutes. Her voice is starting to wear out. There has been no response from the two other members of their group. Judging from how they were thrown out of the tornado, they could be anywhere.

"The swamp goes on for forever," Aang had said. "When I went up to look, I couldn't see any non-swamp land."

That had really cheered up all of their moods.

Finally Sokka gives up. They're in a relatively flat and dry area, so he decides to make an executive decision.

"There's no way they can hear us over the chattering off all the insects, and no way we can see them in the dark. We need to make camp for the night."

A swarm of mosquitoes suddenly fly into his face. He smacks some off his face and waves his machete through the rest, breaking up the swarm.

Underneath them, the swamp water bubbles and a cloud of gas floats up. Katara jumps and grabs onto his arm.

"What was that?" she asks with a shaking voice.

"Nothing. Just swamp gas." Sokka sighs. "Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here. Just a creepy swamp and some exhausted brains that are easily startled."

Suddenly a blood curdling shriek rips through the air. Katara and Aang and Sokka all grab onto each other. When it ends, Sokka realizes it came from a bird perched not too far away.

"See?" he points out in a trembling voice. "Just a bird. Although, I think we should build a fire."

He runs over to some nearby tree roots that are sticking out of the ground and chops up some pieces from it. Aang and Katara follow.

"The longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing that," Aang advises. Katara nods.

Sokka is tired of their superstitions. He knows Aang is a religious kid and he knows Katara is the Avatar, but he's lived his entire life on facts and logic and is hasn't let him down once. And neither has humor, so he decides to lighten up the situation.

"No, it's fine, I already asked the swamp. Right, Swamp?" He moves a branch back and forth and makes a high pitched voice. "Right, Sokka!"

Aang isn't happy but he quits protesting as Sokka chops up more wood and creates a fire. They all sit silently around it. Katara looks around at the surrounding swamp a lot.

"Does anyone else get the feeling we're being watched?" she finally asks.

"Oh, please," Sokka says as he tries to swat an annoying mosquito with his machete. "We're all alone out here!"

Suddenly a bright orb shines right above their fire. It grows and then in the surrounding swamp, a hundred pairs of eyes glow out, all of them watching the three kids around the fire. The orb flies away and the eyes fade back into the darkness.

"Except for them," Aang says.

"Right." Sokka wraps his arms around himself. He really wishes they had never come here in the first place.

They end up falling asleep back to back, too afraid to sleep alone.

Zuko is escorted out of the infirmary and back into the prison courtyard for the first time since being attacked. He doesn't see Shang or Guang or the others, so he wonders if they've been transported to another prison - or worse.

The sun is bright in his eyes and the hot, humid air stings his skin where his wounds haven't quite closed up completely. He's healed fast, but some of the cuts were deep enough to need stitches. And his right eye is still bruised and swollen.

As he walks through the courtyard, the prisoners part around him, staying at least three feet away. They all shoot him glances with varying emotions. Suspicion, of why he's here. Hate, because of who his father is. Disgust, because of how he was weak and didn't fight back. Those are just a few of the more common ones he sees.

He finally takes a seat on a bench in a corner with the other outcasts. These are the prisoners who are old, blind, or have gone insane. Everyone avoids these guys. When Zuko takes a seat by them, they pay him no attention. He's one of them now. An outcast.

He sits quietly on the bench for a while, staring at the ground. He only looks up when he sees a shadow approaching.

It's a middle-aged man with dark skin and dark brown hair. His eyes shine a bright blue. Despite the few gray hairs peppering his scalp, his muscles are still large enough to be intimidating. Zuko prepares for a fight. Why else would someone approach him?

The man takes a seat on the bench next to Zuko. The other outcasts look at him and scurry away. Zuko shifts a couple inches away.

"So you're the prince, huh?" the man asks. He has a deep voice, slightly husky.

Zuko nods. Although the man had phrased it as a question, they both know the answer is obvious.

"My name is Kodakah," the man says. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of the leader around here."

"What do you want with me?" Zuko asks, cutting past the unnecessary pleasantries.

"I saw what those other prisoners did to you," Kodakah says. "That group has always caused trouble here. They were never punished or transported to another prison because the people they targeted always fought back, so the guards claimed both sides were responsible."

"If they caused so many problems then why did the guards not want to get rid of them?"

Kodakah shrugs. "My best guess is that they didn't want to do the paperwork. But when you didn't fight back, the guards finally had to write up a report. They were transported to a smaller prison on the mainland. Their departure has made my work here a lot easier. So thank you."

Zuko stares at the man. He'd been expecting to be attacked, not thanked. And based on the way the other prisoners regarded him, he definitely didn't expect to be treated so civilly.

"Why are you here?" he asks the man.

"Here as in talking to you or here as in the prison?"

"Both."

Kodakah smiles faintly. "I was arrested as a war prisoner along with the rest of my Earth Kingdom unit. I was the leader so I was brought here, to be kept under maximum security. And I'm talking to you because I like you."

He likes him? Zuko doesn't understand that at all. They've never talked before. Never interacted before. And Zuko knows he doesn't exude a friendly or warm aura.

"I like that you didn't fight back," Kodakah clarifies. "Most of the soldiers or nobles here think they have to prove that they're tough. But violence just makes the problem worse. All of us are here because we resisted against the Fire Nation in some way. We should be working together, not fighting each other. When you were attacked, you didn't fight back. You could have made a huge scene and avoided a lot of pain but instead you were humble and took the beating. I appreciate that. It's a strong indication of character."

Zuko never thought about it from that perspective. He certainly didn't mean to act humble to refrain from making a scene. He just thought he deserved what he was getting. But isn't that also humility in a way? Accepting the consequences of your actions without complaining or getting defensive?

"So," Kodakah continues. "I heard that you're in here for treason. Heard you freed the Avatar from a Fire Nation prison."

Zuko nods. Kodakah's face lights up.

"What's the Avatar like?" he asks. "Who is it?"

Zuko can tell that this man is being sincere. He isn't trying to use Zuko or his strength to rebel. He's just a man in prison trying to make the most of his and everyone else's situation. So he decides to tell him the truth.

"The Avatar is a Waterbender named Katara," he says. "She was imprisoned in the ice for one hundred years after the Fire Nation attacked the South Pole and killed almost everyone there. But she's free now, and working on bringing balance to the world."

Kodakah smiles. "A Waterbender," he repeats. "My grandfather was one of the few children that escaped the genocide. He, like the others, escaped to the Earth Kingdom and assimilated. I remember hearing stories about the South Pole and the Waterbenders when I was young. It's nice to know that there's hope for the Water Tribes to one day be rebuilt and repopulated. And it's fitting that the one who finally kills the Fire Lord and ends this war is a victim of the very first atrocity."

Zuko stares at the ground. He understands Kodakah's point of view. And he knows - he's always known, since the moment Katara revealed to him that she was the Avatar - that one day she'll have to fight his father. And he knows his father well enough to know that it will be a fight to the death and that Katara will win. She has to.

But despite the horrible way his father has treated him, Zuko isn't sure how he feels about him dying. Zuko is much more like his mother in almost every way, but he looks exactly like his father. His anger comes from his father. The way he can be so harsh comes from his father. His bending comes from his father. Zuko doesn't like those traits, but he can't deny them. He can't deny that he's his father's son.

"You knew that by freeing the Avatar, you were sentencing your father to death, right?" Kodakah asks after a moment of silence. "She has to defeat him to bring the world back into balance."

"I wasn't thinking about my father when I freed the Avatar. I was thinking of my people. I was thinking about all the people." And I was thinking about myself and my guilt, he doesn't add.

"I don't envy your position." Kodakah stands and then offers a hand to Zuko. "Come. The prisoners listen to me. I'll make them see that you're not a threat here. No one will bother you again."

Zuko stares at his hand for a long time. When he finally takes it, he's not sure why. He's always preferred to be alone. But maybe that was always his problem. He never had someone to watch his back before.

He hopes he can trust Kodakah.

Katara is thrust awake when her body is suddenly yanked away from Sokka and Aang and she's pulled along the ground of the swamp. She hears their cries as she loses sight of them as they are also dragged away. But she can't worry about them right now; she has to break herself free, first.

She reaches her arm around to open the water flask at her side and then bends out blades of water to slash through the vines entangling her. As soon as they break off more wrap around her. She keeps slicing through them with her water knives.

As soon as she catches a temporary break in the attack, she takes off running. She can't fight the vines forever but hopefully they can't wander too far from whatever tree they came from.

Sokka cuts through the vines with a wide sweep of his machete. He looks around, and just when he's beginning to think he's safe, another group of vines come out of the fog towards him. He takes off running, knowing that he can't fight them.

Aang creates an air sphere around him that pushes the vines away from his body. Then he jumps straight up and starts hopping from tree branch to tree branch. Mid-air, a vine wraps around his leg and drags him back down. He splashes down hard into a pool of water. When the vine starts to pull on him, he shoots himself away with a blast of air and keeps going until he's safe.

When he finally stops and looks around, he has no idea where he is. "Guys?" he calls out into the fog. There's no answer.

Appa and Momo swim down a river. They'd tried flying out of the swamp, but the vines are too thick and tangled them all up. They'd walked for a while but finally Appa was too tired to continue. So now he drifts along with the current, hoping the river takes him out. Momo perches on his back, happy that he's just not alone.

An insect buzzes around him face, taunting him. He watches it for a few seconds and then hops off of Appa to chase it down. He catches it and right as he's about to eat it, the log he's sitting on shifts and roars. Momo glances at the mouth full of sharp teeth and quickly takes to the air.

The alligator follows him through the water right into Appa's mouth. Momo hovers in the air, watching as Appa spits him back out into the water. The alligator looks back at them and then swims away. Momo hisses a warning as he flees.

As he regains his perch on Appa, Appa growls a warning at him. The swamp is dangerous and they're alone without their humans. They have to stick together.

Appa might not be the biggest animal on the food chain here.

The sun rises not too long after the kids are separated. Katara doesn't see the sun rise, but the light filtering through the canopy becomes lighter and she doesn't feel as fearful as before. The fog is still pretty heavy but it doesn't seem quite as scary.

"Aang? Sokka?"

She knows it's useless to look for them. They were all taken in different directions. She just doesn't know what else to do. She's completely lost in this enormous swamp.

She can only hope that whatever voice called her down here had a reason.

Katara sees a girl standing a few feet away in the swamp. She has short black hair and a green dress on. She puts her head into her hands and laughs.

"Hello? Who are you? I'm Katara!"

As soon as Katara steps towards the girl she turns and runs.

"Wait! Come back!"

Katara takes off in pursuit. Maybe the girl lives here in the swamp. Maybe she knows how to navigate it. Maybe she can help Katara find Aang and Sokka and Appa.

She catches glimpses of the girl around trees or in the reflection of water pools or sees the fabric of her dress flash as she runs. Katara chases for her several minutes, hoping that she's not making a huge mistake and just getting even more lost.

"Aang!"

Sokka cuts his way through the swamp. He's not scared anymore, just frustrated and angry. He didn't want to be here in the first place and now he's spending way more time here than he cares for. He's sick of mosquitoes and leeches and vines that try to kidnap him and the humidity is driving him crazy, not to mention everywhere he steps his wet.

"Stupid swamp," he swears as he cuts through more vines. "Katara!" He turns to the trees. "You think you're so tough, huh?"

He trips over a vine and lands face-first in some mud. When he looks up, he sees an apparition glowing ahead of him.

No - not an apparition. A spirit. And a familiar one at that.

"Yue?" he calls out softly, not quite believing what he's seeing. He stands up and wipes the mud off his face. The closer he gets the more recognizable her features become. She looks just as young and beautiful as the last time he saw her.

A strange sort of feeling fills him. He never thought he'd see her again - not in a form other than the moon, of course. She was a short, tragic chapter in his life that he'd found peace and closure from. Seeing her again is strange.

He also feels guilty. He thinks of Suki and for the first time wonders how Yue feels about him moving on. Is she upset? Is she jealous?

Or maybe she's upset because he didn't protect her. Sokka should have known to protect the moon spirit as well as her when those soldiers came to the North Pole over a hundred years ago. He thought he had been thinking about the big picture but instead he was obsessed with her. And she died because of his carelessness.

This can't be, he decides. It's just a trick of the light. Maybe swamp gas. She can't be here. It's daytime, anyway, and she's the moon spirit. His mind is sleep deprived and running crazy. Or maybe he hit his head harder than he remembers when the vines took him away.

He looks back and sees her still levitating a foot above the waters, watching him with an emotionless face. He wants to run but he knows he can't. He has to face her.

He walks closer. When she speaks, her voice echoes oddly.

"Did you even love me?" she asks. Sokka stares with wide eyes. Her mouth stops moving but the voice sounds again and again, saying those same few words over and over again. He reaches up to rub his eyes and when he looks again, she's gone.

Sokka's head falls. It wasn't real. Just a trick of the swamp. An illusion playing upon the fears in his head.

But it still felt so real.

He turns to start walking and then yelps as he almost runs right back into Yue. She's standing at normal height now, the glow behind her toned down. Her once blue but now washed out eyes bear into his soul.

He stumbles back and falls into the water. When he looks up again, she's gone. He makes a thorough check and then pulls out his machete.

He's done with this swamp. Completely done.

"Katara! Appa!" Aang steps over some branches and back into a pool of water. He's been looking for them ever since they were separated. He's not giving up hope yet. He has faith that he'll find them. After all they've been through together, it's going to take more than a swamp to keep them apart.

Aang sees a figure standing with his back turned in the distance. He approaches slowly, and when he gets closer he realizes the man is wearing the orange robes of a monk. And it's not just any monk.

"Monk Gyatso?" Aang calls. "What are you doing here?"

He walks closer. "Of course, I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm really excited to see you again! I've missed you and other monks. But you were completely right. The Avatar needs my help and I needed to get out of the air temples for a while."

Gyatso keeps his back turned. Maybe he's meditating.

"How did you find me here?" Aang continues. He is right behind the older monk now. "Monk Gyatso?"

He touches the man's shoulder, but he's just grabbing at thin air. The monk fades away as if he'd never been there in the first place. Aang stumbles back, confused and upset.

Katara chases the girl with the green dress farther into the swamp. The girl ducks under a low branch hanging with leaves and disappears. Katara follows, pausing as she pushes the branches back.

"Who are you?" she asks, but the girl keeps her back turned. Katara starts running up. She gets closer and closer than she's gotten before. Maybe the girl has finally decided to stop running.

When Katara is mere feet away, the girl turns. But it's not a girl anymore; it's Aang. His eyes grow wide as Katara barrels right into him. They go tumbling down a sloping hill. A few seconds later and they hit Sokka and keep rolling.

When they finally stop, Katara and Aang stay laying on the ground for a few seconds. Katara holds her head, which she bumped somewhere along the way. Sokka jumps up straight away.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" he exclaims. "I've been searching all over for you!"

"I was looking for you guys, too," Aang says.

Katara sits up. "I was chasing a girl," she admits.

Sokka frowns. "What girl?"

"I don't know." Katara accepts Aang's outstretched hand and he pulls her up to a standing position. "There was a girl in a fancy green dress and she was laughing. So I followed her. But then she turned into Aang right as I caught up to her."

Aang hangs his head. "I thought I saw Monk Gyatso," he admits.

Katara sets a hand on his shoulder. She knows that Gyatso is like a father figure to Aang and that he misses him. Aang is so tough and powerful and positive that she often forgets that deep down, he's also a twelve year old boy who has never been away from the air temples before.

"Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us." Sokka motions with his arms. "That's why we all saw things out here."

Katara stares at him. "You saw something, too?"

Sokka turns away. "I thought I saw Yue," he admits. "But that doesn't prove anything. She's someone I miss and often think about. And Aang saw his best friend from his home, who is someone he misses a lot."

Aang frowns. "But what about Katara?" He turns to her. "You didn't know the girl you were chasing, right?"

She shakes her head. "But all of our visions led us here," she says. "But where is here? The middle of the swamp? And why?"

Aang points to a huge tree towering over them. "Yeah," he says. "The center. The heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here."

Katara listens for a moment. She opens her mind to the swamp around her, and it feels familiar. "I think you're right," she says.

"It's just a tree. It can't call anyone!" Sokka puts his hands on his hips. "For the last time, there's no one calling us. There's nothing magical happening here."

Suddenly the pool of water under them swells up. A huge wave crashes over them and a monstrous creature made out of swamp plants rises up. They all rush together and hold onto each other tightly.

The swamp creature reaches out and slaps the ground right in front of them. They split up, running away from it. It goes after Sokka first, grabbing him and slamming him into the water. Before it can repeat the action, Aang sends a sharp wind to slap Sokka out of its hand.

The monster slaps Aang away. Sokka desperately tries to cut himself loose with his machete while the beast is preoccupied. The vines just grow back as thick as before and the monster takes hold of Sokka and starts fleeing down the river.

Katara rides a wave of water and cuts the monster off, sending long and thick ice spears through its shoulder. The arm drops Sokka but the vines are already re-growing even as she watches.

Sokka is still trapped by some vines. Katara sends a wave to push the monster against a hanging tree branch. The arm with Sokka ends up on the other side and his cries are muffled as he disappears.

Katara rushes forward but the creature forms a third arm to shove her away. She goes flying back past Aang with a cry. Aang watches and then turns just in time to get hit with the arm again.

Then the monster begins to absorb Sokka.

Aang and Katara get up and try again, this time together. Aang rushes forward and twists the monster's appendages up together with a mini tornado. As the monster teeters, Katara takes a stand and sends an icy ribbon to encase Sokka in a cube of ice. Then she uses a water stream to punch Sokka straight through the monster. They both land in the water on the other side.

The swamp creature isn't even phased. It summons up more vines to fill the hole in the middle of itself and then advances again.

Aang flies into from behind and delivers a lethal wind-empowered kick. The swamp creature straightens up again and punches Aang away. He goes flying. Katara stands and faces the monster again. She's starting to get annoyed with this thing.

She pinwheels her arms, waterbending a volley of blades of water to cut the monster into slices, almost like bread. The monster continues to mend itself, but it's not as fast as Katara is cutting.

"There's someone in there!" Sokka cries from behind her. "He's bending the vines!"

Katara cuts the monster's head right off. As it falls to the ground, a length of vine creeps up under the water and grabs her, holding her in the air. She struggles against the grip. Then Aang returns, landing on the vine in front of Katara and delivering a solid blast of wind. The vines, already deteriorating from Katara's attacks, blow away to reveal the man beneath the monster.

Aang keeps his hand held out in front of him as a threat.

"Why did you call us here just to kill us?" he demands.

"Wait!" the man says. He shrugs his arms and the final vines fall away. The man has gray, unkempt hair and is wearing only a loincloth made of vines and leaves. He smiles sheepishly. "I didn't call you here."

Katara walks over, brushing off some vine remains. "We were flying over here and we heard something calling us," she explains.

"She's the Avatar," Sokka says, still brandishing his machete in front of him. "Stuff like that happens."

"The Avatar?" The man's eyes widen. "Come with me."

They all exchange glances and unanimously decide that they have no better option.

He leads them along a trail that he seems to know by heart despite it being just as overgrown as the rest of the swamp.

"So who are you, then?" Katara asks as they hike.

The man bends a vine out of the way for them. "I protect the swamp from people who want to hurt it," he explains. "Like this fellow, with his big knife." He gives Sokka a distasteful glance.

"See?" Sokka says, sheathing his machete. "Nothing supernatural. Just a reasonable fellow wanting to protect his home."

"Oh, the swamp is a mystical place all right," their guide corrects. "It's sacred." He takes a seat under a huge tree between roots. "I reached enlightenment right here under the roots of the Banyon Tree." He crosses his legs and resumes a meditation stance. "I heard it callin' me, just like you did."

"Sure you did. It seems real chatty." Sokka rolls his eyes.

The man takes no notice of him. "See, this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink and take root and then spread some more. One big organism, jus' like the entire world."

"I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world?" Aang asks.

"Sure! You think yer any different than me, or yer friends, or the whole world? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every livin' thing breathin' together. You can feel everything growin'. We're all livin' together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we're all branches of the same tree."

"But what did our visions mean?" Katara asks.

"In the swamp we see visions of people we've lost, whether to death or simply a different path in life. People we loved. People we think are gone, or that we aren't sure when we're going to see them again."

He smiles peacefully. "But we're not. The swamp tells us that we're still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death and distance."

"But the girl in my vision was someone I've never met," Katara says.

He shrugs. "You're the Avatar, you tell me."

Katara thinks it over. "Time is an illusion…" Her eyes widen. "So it's someone I will meet."

Sokka stands and stretches. "Sorry to interrupt yoga and meditation class, but we still have to find Appa and Momo."

Katara closes her eyes. "I think I know how to find them," she says. The man's words echo in her head: Everything is connected. She sets her palm down on the root of the tree and concentrates on the swamp.

It's amazing. She can see and feel and hear everything all at once. It's like she's in a completely different plane of existence. She focuses on how she remembers Appa looking and feeling like. A river comes into view. Men in boats are throwing a net around Appa. Momo is nowhere to be seen.

Katara's eyes pop wide open. She stands up. "We have to hurry! Appa's in trouble!"

Aang bursts onto the riverbank, throwing a blast of wind to knock over the canoes. The men are flipped overboard, but Aang doesn't pay them any attention.

"Appa!" he calls. Two of the men are still standing in front of his bison. He blasts them with wind and one of them drops a sack. Momo comes flying out of it with a chitter.

The last man standing in the canoe bends a wave towards them. Katara jumps onto the scene next to Aang and bends the water back. For a few seconds the water shimmers where it is, both sides trying to bend it.

"Hey!" Katara exclaims. "You guys are Waterbenders!"

"You too?" The man drops his stance. "That means we're kin!"

Katara cringes. The water drops back into the river. Sokka and the protector of the forest come running up.

The Waterbender on the boat looks at the man by Sokka. "Hey, Huu!" he calls up. "How've you been?"

Huu shrugs. "You know," he says. "Scared some folks, swung some vines. The usual."

Katara, Aang, and Sokka look back and forth between their new friend and the Waterbender. The men are dressed the same and speak in the same accent. It isn't so unbelievable, then, that they know each other.

Sokka stares at the man who had just an hour earlier been attacking them as a swamp monster. "Huu?" he asks.

Once the formalities are cleared up, the men release Appa and escort the kids to their camp in the swamp. Night falls so they start a fire and boil hot water for soup.

"How'd you like that possum chicken?" the man called Due asks Sokka.

"Tastes just like arctic hen," Sokka says. "So, why were you guys so interested in eating Appa?" He points to a stuffed crocodile. "You've got plenty of those big things crawling around."

"You want me to eat Old Slim? He's like a member of the family!" He tosses the crocodile a fish and the kids realize for the first time that the creature is still very much alive.

"Where'd you say you was from?" the other man, named Tho, asks.

"The South Pole," Katara says with a smile. She's gotten over her initial disgust of the men. Once they talked for a bit, she realized that they just look rough on the outside - but on the inside, they're actually quite nice. And of course she's relieved to not be the only Waterbender left. She doesn't think these men have ever left the swamp, however.

"I didn't know there was Waterbenders anywhere other than here," he replies, reaffirming her suspicions. "They got a nice swamp there, do they?"

"No, just snow and ice," Sokka replies.

"Hmm. No wonder you left."

Sokka spreads out his arms. "I hope you realize now that nothing strange was going on here," he says. "Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp."

"What about the visions?" Aang asks.

"I told you. We were hungry! Look, I'm eating a giant bug right now!"

"And what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were?" Katara questions.

Sokka shakes his head. "That's Avatar stuff. That doesn't count. The only thing I can't figure out is the tornado."

Huu frowns. "I can't do anythin' like that. I jus' bend the water in plants."

Sokka shrugs. "Well, no accounting for weather. Nothing mysterious going on here."

Katara and Aang trade glances and shake their heads, but neither of them say anything. They have a bit more faith in the supernatural forces of the world than Sokka, but if he doesn't want to believe in it then they can't make him.

They finish eating, Sokka and Aang and the Swampbenders (as Katara has begun to call them) trade stories. She smiles when appropriate, but her mind is elsewhere. As the campfire dwindles and everything begins to wind down for the night, she decides she's not going to be able to sleep until she takes action.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she tells Sokka and Aang. "I'll be right back."

"Don't wander off too far," Due warns. "The swamp can get scary at night."

"Oh, we know," Sokka says.

Katara walks far enough away that she can't hear them anymore but not so far away that she can't see the glow of the torches from the camp. Then she finds a solid tree root and sets her palm against it.

If you listen hard enough, you can hear every livin' thing breathin' together, Huu had said. Everything is connected.

She listens hard. She focuses on the person she's looking for, picturing his golden eyes and black hair and half scarred face. She recalls his voice and the feeling she had around him. She breathes deeply and searches.

She enters that strange dimension and travels. She's in the Fire Nation now, the capital city based off the elegant buildings and expensive decorations. She goes up the steps and into the palace. She goes down a few halls and passes a closed door with guards stationed on the outside.

At the end of the room is a brazier of red and orange fire. A chair sits among the flames. As she gets closer, she sees the man who sits upon the throne. A man who looks exactly like Zuko - except that his skin is completely clear. His golden eyes lock on her and he smiles cruelly.

Katara rips her hand away from the tree branch. "No! I'm looking for Zuko, not the Fire Lord!"

She takes a deep breath and tries again. Once again she's in the throne room and Fire Lord Ozai is staring at her with an amused expression.

Katara stands up quickly. Her head spins. She knows she's in the swamp, safe for the time being, but she can't shake what she saw. Why did she keep seeing Fire Lord Ozai when she was searching for Zuko?

The only thing she can think of is that Zuko is dead and his father killed him. But why wouldn't she see an apparition of him, like Sokka saw of Yue?

Although, the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that seeing an apparition would be worse. Although Sokka has played it off, he seems a bit shaken from the encounter. Katara doesn't want her last image of Zuko to be a ghost or a spirit. She'd rather think of him shooting down his sister and staying behind to give her the chance to escape.

Katara waits until her heart stops pounding to return to the camp. She's feeling a mix of emotions right now, but mostly she feels numb and empty. She can't believe that he's really gone, whether he's dead or somewhere unreachable. It just doesn't feel real.

That night, despite being surrounded by good people in a safe place, she finds it extremely hard to sleep.