Chapter 30: Supernatural Shenanigans

Aang got a full night's sleep in his small room, one of many just like it in the base. He dreamed of being back on Earth and flying above the clouds, riding on Appa like the good old days. It was a dream he had every night, and sometimes the dream seemed more real than the waking world. The dream ended far too quickly, as it always did, leaving Aang missing his best friend every morning. Aang woke up early in the morning and got ready for the new day, preparing the things he would need for what he wanted to do, and waited for Katara to arrive.

Nearly everything was ready when she did, and when Katara opened the door she stared at the floor. "What's with all the candles?"

A wide circle of candles were spread out on the floor, two dozen of them each with a tiny flame burning. Aang was lighting the last one with firebending from his finger, and he smiled at Katara. "Oh, they're just to set the mood."

"Uh huh…" Katara muttered. She gave Aang an odd look. "Is it really the time for this?"

Aang noticed the look, and he smiled. "No, it's not like that."

"Then what is it?" Katara asked.

"I want to try something, and I need your help," Aang said. He sat down in the circle slightly off center, and he gestured for Katara to sit in front of him. "Come on, sit."

"Okay," Katara muttered. She sat down and looked at Aang up close. "Now what?"

"Close your eyes, relax, and clear your mind," Aang said. He settled into a steady breathing rhythm, and the flames of the candles matched the beat. "Alright, I think we're ready."

"Ready for what?" Katara asked. "You still haven't told me what we're doing."

"Oh, right," Aang said. "We're going into the spirit world."

"From here, with me?" Katara questioned. "Is that even possible?"

"I figured out how to do it a few weeks ago," Aang said. "I think it's our best chance to get Sokka back."

"Really?!" Katara yelled. "Let's get to it then!"

Aang nodded, rested his arms on his crossed legs, holding his hands palm facing up. "Okay, put your hands on mine, and don't think of anything at all."

Katara did as Aang asked, taking hold of his hands and thinking of nothing else. She saw Aang close his eyes, and she did the same, trying to block out as much sensation as possible. Aang cleared his mind and meditated, focusing on the task at hand, particularly on the physical connection he had with Katara. He felt the senses of the physical world fade away, the one with Katara being the only one remaining. Katara felt the same thing, very disconcerting at first, and wondering if this was supposed to be happening.

The feeling of the cold metal floor was replaced by a colder smooth ground, and a gentle breeze ruffled Katara's hair. She opened her eyes, and gawked at the sight before her. "What… Where… WHAT!?"

They were sitting in the middle of a nearly empty void, mostly devoid of features they could comprehend. The ground they sat on was like a pane of glass, impossibly smooth and crystal clear, as if there was nothing there at all. A dull white void was above and below them, and a breeze filled the space in between. Misshapen structures littered the place, all deformed and corrupted in some fashion, barely resembling anything in the physical world. It was like fragments of several different dreams mashed together, forming some bizarre nightmare.

"Well this is different," Aang said. He stood up and looked around, making sure to stay close to Katara. "The spirit world is weird here."

"Weird huh?" Katara said, standing up and staring at the sight. "More like bizarre."

"I guess Hoth doesn't have any native spirits," Aang speculated. In his mind that was a plus for this planet. "Without them, all that's left to shape this place is the thoughts and dreams of the rebels."

"Uh huh…" Katara muttered. She turned her gaze back on Aang. "So how did you pull me here with you? I didn't think that was possible."

"Yoda helped me figure it out," Aang said. "It won't last long though, so we should get moving."

"And go where, exactly?" Katara asked. She looked around again, seeing nothing beyond the closest misshapen structures. "There's nothing here."

"Just trust me on this," Aang said. "It's easier to get around in the spirit world than you think."

"I'll have to take your word on it," Katara said. "How do we do?"

"Focus on a place, imagine yourself being there, and you will be there," Aang described. "It really is that simple."

"Okay…" Katara muttered, trying to wrap her mind around the concept. "Hang on, that doesn't help us. We don't know where Sokka is."

"I know," Aang said. He gave Katara a crafty smile. "But we have a workaround. Focus on Sokka. Remember every memory with him in it, from your childhood to when you last saw him. Picture him in your mind, as lifelike as you can. Make it seem like he is standing right there."

Katara nodded, closed her eyes, and thought about her brother. "Okay, here goes."

She thought back to the earliest memories, when her entire family was playing some silly game in the snow. Then came the worst day of her life, when she had told Sokka she was going to find Mom, and they had lost her forever. It was followed by the best day of her life, when Sokka had asked her to go fishing with him, and they stumbled across the boy in the iceberg. She remembered flying to the North Pole, trekking across the Earth Kingdom, sneaking through the Fire Nation, sharing the experience of helping the Avatar complete his journey.

All the playful teasing came to mind, from getting Sokka wet in that canoe to him drenching her on Hoth. All the good times were remembered fondly, learning about the Water Tribe together to helping restore the world in peacetime. All the bad times came back too, fleeing from Fire Nation soldiers, surviving the widespread destruction in a city, somehow making it through the war with her brother at her side. All the silly jokes got her to smile again, and she imagined all the new ones Sokka would make at a time like this.

Aang saw the surroundings start to lose focus, and he quickly put his hand on Katara's shoulder. "Okay, here we go."

The misshapen structures around them were lost to the unfocused surroundings, this part of the spirit world being left behind. A maelstrom of color whirled around them, passing by in a hurry yet not touching either of them. An unimaginably long distance went by, yet it felt like they weren't moving at all. Even the ground they stood on was moving beneath their feet, slipping through as smooth as ice. Aang thought he saw planets go whizzing past them, though he couldn't be sure of it. The colorful maelstrom ceased as quickly as it came, and the surroundings changed to a completely different place.

"Huh…" Aang muttered. He looked around in every direction, more confused than anything else. "This is new."

They were standing inside a bizarre jungle, unlike anything they had ever seen before. Gigantic palm trees surrounded them, clustered together all over the place. Deep black sand was beneath their feet, hot enough to be uncomfortable but not enough to burn. They heard the calls of strange creatures, nowhere to be seen but heard all around them. Various ferns and bushes of many colors obscured the view, bunched around the giant palm trees with few clear paths in between. Aang didn't have any idea where they were, and Katara got the feeling they were completely lost.

That is, until she heard a very familiar startled scream. Katara's head snapped towards it, certain that she wasn't imagining it. "Sokka!"

Katara ran towards the scream, barging through the foliage without regard for anything living in it. This spooked up a swarm of tiny bugs from the bushes, which Katara swatted away from her face without slowing down. Aang followed close behind, spun his hand around to airbend the bugs away, only to remember that his bending doesn't work in the spirit world. The bugs flew away on their own accord, the swarm dispersing in the presence of two trespassers. They heard the familiar scream again, this time with less panic and more rage.

After crashing through more bushes, Katara finally saw him, recognizing the face underneath the long unkempt hair and the fuzz of a young beard. "There you are."

Space sword drawn, facing down monstrous foes, Sokka's head snapped toward the voice. "Katara?"

The distraction got Sokka struck in the shoulder by a hard fist, nearly knocking the sword out of Sokka's hands. He backed away from that particular foe, which resembled a man made of stone with exaggerated proportions. Next to it was a large black snake with clawed arms, tail coiled up and ready to spring at him. On the other side of the stone man was a strange bird, having small wings but long legs and standing head and shoulders taller than Sokka. All three of them were about to pounce on Sokka, their backs toward Aang and Katara and seemingly unaware of them.

Katara ran towards the closest monster, leaping onto the big bird from behind and wrapping her arms around its thick neck. She tightened her grip around the bird's throat, strangling it until it fell over onto its side. Aang ran for the stone man, going for a leap and kick to its head. The blow knocked the stone man over, falling to the ground with a loud crash. The snake sprang toward Sokka, suddenly alone in its assault, only to meet the edge of Sokka's sword. The black blade cleaved the snake from head to tail, splitting the monster into two symmetrical halves.

The big bird shook Katara off and stood up, saw the bleeding halves of the black snake, and ran away as fast as those big legs could take it. The stone man sank into the ground from right underneath Aang, as if simply disappearing into the dirt, and it did not reappear anywhere nearby. Then the halves of the split snake stopped bleeding and turned into thick smoke, dispersing into the air and leaving nothing behind. It left the three teenagers alone in the strange jungle, getting up and walking towards each other.

But Sokka still held up his space sword, as if to challenge Aang and Katara. "Get back!"

"What?" Katara said, startled by her brother's reaction. "Sokka, it's alright. You can put that away."

Still, Sokka did not sheathe his space sword. "I said get back! I'm not falling for this trick again!"

Aang put his arm in front of Katara, as if to hold her back from Sokka. "Something's wrong here."

"I noticed," Katara said. She held up her arms and kept her hands apart, trying to look as nonthreatening as possible. "Sokka, it's us. We came into the spirit world to find you."

"You're not fooling me!" Sokka warned. "You spirits do all sorts of tricks to get my guard down!"

"You think we're spirits in disguise?" Aang surmised.

"I didn't realize spirits could do that," Katara said. "Sokka, can't you tell that it's really us?"

Sokka braced his legs and held his space sword higher. "Enough of this act!"

He lunged toward Aang and Katara, swinging his space sword at both of them at once. Aang dodged to the right, Katara leaped to the right, and the sword swung through the open air in between. Sokka went after Katara and swung his sword again, but she backed away and the sword missed again. She had to keep on the move to avoid more swings of the sword, and she didn't dare attack him. Katara ran around one of the palm trees, only for Sokka to cut it down in a single swing of his sword. The tree fell ahead of Katara, cut off her path, and Sokka closed in on her.

Katara held up her right arm. "Sokka Stop!"

The blade came down on Katara's arm, just below the elbow, and cut through in one swing. Katara screamed in pain, worse than anything she could imagine. Yet there wasn't any blood, not even a single drop, and Katara's forearm did not fall off. Instead the severed ends of flesh were connected by a blue light, something otherworldly and certainly unsettling. Before her very eyes the blue light changed back into flesh, and Katara watched her arm become whole again. The pain vanished with the light, but the memory of it was fresh and lingered on.

"What the…?" Katara muttered, wishing that she had imagined the experience. It was a reminder that she was in the spirit world, and did not have her physical body. "Oh right… it's just my spirit here."

Sokka was staring at Katara's arm, having seen the entire thing with his own eyes. He had never seen anything like that before, and he had seen a lot of strange things in the spirit world. The wheels were turning in his head, his train of thought quickly moving toward the only possible conclusion. This was not what he had assumed, a spirit masquerading as his sister to lower his guard, but something else entirely. He looked into Katara's eyes, shaking with pain and concern for his sake, something he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Katara…" Sokka muttered, barely above a whisper. He saw something else in Katara's eyes, something that could not be faked, the same look his little sister made since they were children. "It's really you? Oh god… it really is you!"

"Of course it's me!" Katara scolded. She stood up tall, cradling her right arm, the phantom pain hurting even though her arm looked normal. "You tried to cut my arm off!"

"I'm sorry! I'm very, very sorry!" Sokka said. He sheathed his space sword, difficult while his hands were trembling with regret. "Last time I saw you in this place, it was a spirit trying to trick me. I nearly died when it attacked while still looking like you."

Although she was still upset over the failed maiming, Katara could understand why he did it now. "Just… keep that thing away from me. Alright?"

"Yeah sure," Sokka said. He made sure his space sword was sheathed tight, and he took a step back from Katara. Then he realized something, now that he had time to think. "How are you even here? I thought you couldn't go into the spirit world."

A particularly loud cough got their attention, as Aang was standing not far away. "I'm right here."

"Oh, right, that makes sense," Sokka said, turning toward Aang and walking over to him. "When did you figure out how to bring someone else with you?"

"A few weeks ago," Aang answered. He walked around Sokka and went over to Katara, taking a look at the arm that seemed none the worse for wear. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," Katara said. "Just feeling drained now."

"Good thing you didn't bring your body," Aang said. He turned back toward Sokka, remembering that he had been brought to the spirit world in the flesh. "How is yours holding up?"

"It's in one piece, for what that's worth," Sokka answered. He stretched his left arm and his legs, shuddering at the thought of a few close calls he had over many long months. "These spirits, they try to do a lot of weird things."

"I don't think I want to know," Katara said. She finally put her hand down, and she looked at Aang. "I think we should leave before we find out. How do we do that?"

Aang opened his mouth to answer, hesitated, and need a few seconds to think. He paced back and forth, holding up his hand as if to grab the concepts involved. "We might have a problem."

"Of course we do," Sokka complained. He groaned and shrugged his shoulders. "What is it?"

"If all three of us were here in spirit form, we could just return to our bodies at any time," Aang said. Then he faced Sokka. "But you have your body with you. So that's not going to work. We need to find a physical way out of the spirit world."

"Those exist?" Katara asked.

"They'd have to," Aang said. "If there's a way in, there has to be a way out. It would keep things balanced after all."

"Do you know where to look for it?" Sokka asked.

"Not a clue," Aang admitted. He sighed and threw up his hands. "But we're not leaving the spirit world until we find one."

Since none of them knew which way to look, they picked a random direction and started walking in a straight line. The strange jungle they were in gave way to rolling fields quickly, with an endless sea on their right and a stone cliff on the horizon to their left. The rolling fields were filled with tall grass in a variety of colors, and the wind made the grass seem like a fluid rainbow. Various tiny critters darted back and forth through the grass, making little lines in it that quickly vanished. It would have been a beautiful sight to behold, if they were here to sightsee.

They were halfway across when Sokka stopped walking, out of breath and resting his hands on his knees. "Hang on guys. I just need a breather."

Katara stopped and turned around, feeling none the worse for wear after the walk. "You're exhausted already. We haven't gone that… oh wow we have gone a ways."

Aang looked back the way they came, and the strange jungle was barely on the horizon. "Huh… all that walking and I don't feel a thing."

"Lucky you," Sokka said. The brief rest was enough for him to stand tall again. "I guess there's a benefit to not having your body. You're not wearing it out."

"True," Aang said. "Then we're going to need another approach."

"Can we try that thing we did to find Sokka?" Katara suggested.

"Wouldn't hurt," Aang said. "We'd better hold onto each other so we don't get separated."

"What are you two talking about?" Sokka asked.

"You'll see," Katara promised. She walked closer to Sokka, and Aang was right behind her. "So what should we focus on when we do this?"

Aang needed a moment to think about it, and something came to mind. "Best I can figure is that we focus on the physical world. Hopefully that will bring us to where the spirit world and physical world are closest together."

"I'll have to assume you know what you're doing," Sokka said. "Let's get to it then."

Katara put her right hand on Aang's shoulder, and put her left hand on Sokka's shoulder. The boys crossed arms too, Aang putting his right hand on Sokka and Sokka putting his left hand on Aang. Sokka was a little confused by this, but went along with it anyway. Aang imagined the physical world as best he could, all the sensations of reality that were absent here. Katara remembered all the intense moments of her life, times when it seemed like her life was in danger, the rush of adrenaline that made her feel the most alive.

The scenery started moving around them, slowly at first but steadily picking up speed. Sokka looked at everything moving around them, startled by the sensation of moving while standing still. He wished he had known about this a long time ago, as it would have helped him navigate on several occasions. The shapes and colors moved around them quickly, losing focus and becoming a colorful blur. The rolling plains were left far behind, as well as the sea and stone cliffs gone with it. All three of them watched the blurred colors move by, but noticed something off.

They weren't moving as fast as they had before, and they could still make out a few distinct shapes from time to time. To Aang it felt like they were dragging against something they could not see, some force working against their intended movement. Katara had to tighten her grip on the boys, fearing that she might lose them both. For a moment Sokka thought he was going to be sick, like his insides were being scrambled together. The moving surroundings began to slow down, coming back into focus, eventually coming to a stop.

Now standing on a sandy beach surrounded by shallow seas, Sokka let go of the others and dropped to his knees. "What was that?"

Aang let go too, and he looked around the wide open space. "I guess we have different ideas for where the exit would be. That might be why we ended up here."

"Wherever here is," Katara said. She saw palm trees scattered around the beach in a gigantic spiral, the seas conforming to the same pattern. "Anyone recognize the place?"

"Nope," Aang said. He spotted movement in the distance, and he turned his head toward one group of palm trees. "Did you see that?"

Sokka had his hand on the hilt of his space sword. "Where?"

"That way," Aang said, pointing at those particular trees. "Something's behind there."

"Could be a spirit," Sokka said. He drew his space sword and readied his space shield. "We'd better deal with it before it calls for more of them."

Before Aang could object Sokka was already running towards the trees, and Aang had to sprint to keep up with him. Katara ran after them too, hoping that Sokka wasn't going to get them into too much trouble. He was a few feet away when his approach startled a small creature, resembling a brown bear with stubby arms and legs. It moved surprisingly fast for its size and conspicuously small limbs, easily matching Sokka's pace as it fled. Aang struggled to keep up with Sokka's longer legs, lacking the wind to add to his speed, and Katara overtook him in pursuit of Sokka.

The small creature ran along the edge of the water, leaving small paw prints in the wet sand. Sokka closed in and swung his sword, but was still too far away to hit it, the tip of the blade passing through a bit of brown fur. He swung his sword a few more times, clipped the brown fur bit by bit, not quite reaching the creature's flesh. The creature ran faster to get away from the blade, and Sokka pumped his legs even harder to keep up. It ran past the trees toward the center of the spiral, though Sokka didn't realize it was leading him there.

Falling behind the others, Aang's perspective showed him the danger. "Look Out!"

Katara slid to a stop in time, seeing more of those creatures emerge from the other trees of the spiral. "Sokka, stop, it's a trap!"

Nearly at the center of the spiral, where a clearing separated the curved lines of trees, Sokka quickly found himself surrounded. "Crap."

Three dozen of the creatures were closing in on Sokka, like an army of little bears going for the kill. One of them got ahead of the rest and leaped at him, only to impact his space shield and bounce off. Another leaped from the other side, and Sokka swung his space sword at it, slicing the creature in half at the waist. The two halves fell away and hit the ground, exploding into clouds of dust and fur on impact. More of them leapt from several directions, some knocked back by the shield, others sliced in half by the sword, yet they kept coming at him.

Katara charged in, took a moment to punt a bear over the others, and kicked others that got in her way. It didn't matter that she didn't have her waterbending here, she was going to help her brother no matter what. A few of the creatures pounced on her instead, one receiving a punch to the face, the others latching onto her arms and needing to be thrown off. She was helped by Aang kicking a creature away, and he shoved others away from Katara. Their presence drew attention away from Sokka, making it easier for him to fend off the rest.

After shield bashing a ninth time and slashing an eleventh creature in twain, Sokka only saw more of them coming. "There's no end to these things!"

Aang kicked a creature out of his way, jumped on top of another, and leaped over to Sokka and stood back to back with him. "We need to get out of here!"

"Yeah, sure," Sokka said. He sliced another creature apart, and he felt Aang's back against his own. "They're not giving us an exit!"

Almost through to them both, Katara punched another creature out of her way. "Then we make one!"

She charged through the creatures, passed by the boys, and kept on going in that direction. Aang and Sokka followed the path she made, fending off the creatures that tried to get behind Katara, working together to prevent the creatures from flanking them. Together they carved a path through the creatures, leaving behind the vanishing remains in their wake. Their path forward took them closer to the center of the spiral of trees, into the gap between the ends of each curved line. The creatures followed for a time, but stopped just short of the exact center.

There the ground shook, and Sokka expected something worse. "What now?"

The creatures fled from the tremors, right before the ground split apart. Crevices formed in between the three teenagers, threatening to split the three apart, until Aang and Sokka jumped over to Katara's slice of land. The moving ground brought them closer to the far side of the spiral, toward a line of trees on that side, but their attention was still on the center. A deep hole grew wider every second, the edges of the ground breaking off and falling in, the pieces hitting something rising up from the depths of the underground.

An enormous worm emerged from the hole, accompanies by thinner tentacles on ever side of it. The worm bent over to put its head over the three humans below it, all of them staring at the sight before them. A tentacle whipped at them, was sliced apart by Sokka's sword, only for the severed end to regrow immediately. The worm roared at them anyway, using a mouth that seemed far too big for its head, which then lunged at the three below. They had to jump out of the way, and the mouth snapped at open air, getting a small bit of dirt as well.

"Run!" Aang yelled.

"Obviously!" Sokka yelled back.

"Already Running!" Katara yelled to both of them.

Everyone was moving as quick as they could, Sokka getting in the lead and Aang in the rear. It didn't matter when the tentacles whipped at them, easily long enough to reach them all, snaring each by the legs and lifting them off the ground. They screamed as they were flung into the air, thrown above the head of the worm, mouth opening to swallow them all whole. As they fell Aang grabbed one side of the worm's mouth, Katara grabbed the other side and held on for dear life, and Sokka fell in between them and into the mouth of the worm.

Falling face first Sokka held his sword in front of him, the tip of the blade pointed down as he fell into the worm's throat. He was screaming all the way down, heard Katara's screams from above, both fearing that he was about to die screaming. Halfway down the throat the sword pierced the worm's flesh, its sharp edge cutting through with ease, slicing all the way down into the worm's stomach. The resulting gash split apart, wider and wider the longer it was, the flesh along the sides vanishing into a growing void.

The worm thrashed its head around and let out a roar that shook the ground, flinging both Aang and Katara away from its mouth. They hit the far side of the spiral and tumbled for a bit, stopping just short of hitting some of the trees. Aang recovered first and saw the worm flailing about, spotting the growing gash in its side. It was like a giant zipper coming apart down the length of the worm, the lower end moving beyond Aang's sight into the hole. The higher end moved up as well, reaching the worm's head and splitting it in half.

One last roar came out of the worm, garbled by the split throat, its head raised high into the air. The split in its side grew wider, flesh vanishing into the ether, leaving a void in its place. Aang and Katara stared as the worm vanished from left to right, eerily silent as the entire thing faded away into nothing. When it was completely gone they had trouble believing it, and all they could see now was the big hole in the ground. Then they ran up to the hole and looked into it, seeing nothing but a bottomless pit inside.

"Sokka!" Katara yelled. She leaned over the edge of the hole, cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling even louder into the pit. "Sokka! Say Something!"

The only answer was an echo, which Aang heard as he got to the hole. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know," Katara answered. She looked for Sokka, hoping that he was clinging to a tree root or anything sticking out from the dirt, but there was nothing down there. "I saw him fall into that thing, and then it threw us off. I didn't see him come out."

"Me neither," Aang said. "He must have stabbed the thing, wound from inside."

"Killed it from inside," Katara said. "But where did he end up?"

"No idea," Aang admitted. He turned toward Katara and held a hand out to her. "Let's find out."

Katara grabbed Aang's hand and held on tight, making sure that she wouldn't lose him too. She closed her eyes and focused on her brother, now with today's brief reunion added to the memory of him. Aang waited for the landscape to move around them, but this time it did not happen. They remained exactly where they were, the only change being a gentle breeze ruffling Katara's hair. She opened her eyes and saw Aang's bewilderment, clearly having no idea what was wrong. Katara let go of Aang and clenched her fists, her confusion turning to frustration and anger.

"What are we doing wrong?" Katara asked. "This worked before!"

Aang didn't have an answer for her. "I don't know. I honestly don't know."

Darkness greeted Sokka when he awoke, looking into a place with no light whatsoever. He was lying face down on a cold stone floor, feeling pain in just about every part of his body. He felt the hilt of his space sword digging into his palm, yet his fingers didn't feel whatever had to be pressing down on the blade. It was difficult to push himself up and onto his knees, as if there were a ton of bricks on his back holding him down. Even when we was sitting upright the weight was still there, and he had a bit of trouble just lifting his sword off the floor.

It was pointless to look around in the absolute darkness, and Sokka knew he was lost in just about every sense of the word. "Okay, where did I end up this time?"