Hi, everyone. This is Part II of Kataang9's request. Enjoy! (Nope, don't own it; sorry.)


Aang moaned and opened his eyes, quickly shutting them due to the sudden exposure to the morning sunshine. When he opened them again and his eyes adjusted, he started to push himself off his bed. But he felt a sharp pain in his chest and fell back down, crying out in pain.

Apparently, someone had heard him because he heard footsteps rapidly approaching down the hallway.

His bedroom door opened, revealing Katara. "Aang? You're okay!" she exclaimed. She knelt next to his bed and grabbed his hand. "I was so worried about you."

"Worried? Why?!" Aang asked weakly.

"Well…you were kind of unconscious for a while," Katara told him.

He gasped. "What?! How long?"

"Uh…ten days," she said.

Aang was stunned. "Wow…"

"It was really scary," Katara breathed. "There was a terrible earthquake, and you were under the table…and it fell on you."

"Oh…I guess that explains why my chest really hurts," Aang said.

"I-I checked you out. You, uh, have a couple broken ribs," Katara explained. "You're gonna have to rest for a while."

Aang sighed. "Why does this sort of thing keep happening?" he groaned miserably.

Katara shook her head. "Don't talk like that," she said. "It was an accident, and you're going to be fine."

"if you say so," he replied with a cough. Then two more coughs. Then, five.

Aang coughed violently, to the point where he could barely breathe.

"Um…Aang?" Katara grew wide-eyed. "Are you okay?"

He shook his head and continued to cough, making a horrible whooping, wheezing sound.

She began to worry. "Here…put your hands up." She grabbed his other hand and raised his arms above his head, hoping for the terrible coughing fit subside.

It did eventually stop, leaving Aang red in the face and desperately gasping for air.

"Wow, that was scary," Katara remarked.

"No…kidding…" Aang panted.

Katara offered him her water pouch. "You should probably drink this."

"Thanks." Aang took a long sip from the pouch, before he winced in pain.

"Aang, what's wrong?" Katara asked. "What hurts?"

"My…stomach," Aang moaned.

Katara sighed. "How bad?" She put a hand to his forehead, displeased about her discovery that he was burning up.

"Awful," he replied. "I feel like…like I'm gonna—"

Katara looked away, knowing instantly that what would happen next was going to be very messy

Luckily, there was a wastebasket right next to Aang's bed. He vomited violently, sending most of it into the wastebasket. Some of it did land on the floor, though.

Aang was appalled by his own vomit, noticing a purplish fluid integrated with all the normal disgusting stuff. Yuck.

"Um…Katara, I know you don't want to look, but this looks really bad," he said weakly.

Katara turned and examined the stomach fluid, noticing the gross, purple color It had. "Oh, gross…what is that?!"

"I-I don't know…" Aang stammered. "Bile, maybe? B-blood?"

"W-well, Iroh knows about these sorts of things," Katara said. "Maybe he'll be able to tell us what's wrong with you. I'll—" She paused, not wanting to leave him alone. So she decided to get Sokka.

"Sokka!" she yelled, much to Aang's discomfort.

Immediately, Sokka hurst into the room. "No! He—he can't be—Aang can't just give up on us like this! Why must the good die young?!"

"Sokka, Aang's alive," Katara said flatly. "But not well. Get Iroh for us—maybe he knows something."

Sokka sped out the door just as Aang began violently hacking again.

Purple fluid again escaped the poor Avatar's lungs. He coughed and coughed, gasping for breath with every shuddering hack. His face began to color from lack of air as he continued to struggle through another miserable coughing fit. His cracked, broken ribs painfully hit against the inside of his chest every time his lungs convulsed.

Katara could only watch helplessly as Aang continued to suffer, more purply fluid landing on Aang's bedsheets.

It took him a minute or so, but Aang finally stopped coughing to the point where he could finally take a shaky breath. "It…hurts…" he said through hurried breaths.

"I know," Katara said softly, running a hand down his left arm. "Don't worry, Aang…we'll figure this out soon. You should try and rest."


Iroh came into Aang's bedroom, where Katara and the sleeping Avatar himself were. Aang's breathing was shallow and erratic, almost as though he had just run a mile.

"Let me see what is wrong," the sage old man said, stepping up to the bed. He noticed the purple splotches staining the sheets and recognized it instantly.

"Oh, no…" Iroh said gravely. "That's…that's definitely not good. It's infected mucus…mixed with blood. The Avatar has a rare form of tuberculosis…was he touching anything moldy? Did it get into his skin? Did he inhale it?"

Katara nodded. "There was a bowl of moldy food…it fell of the table and he got some shards in his arm," she said She pointed to his bandaged right arm.

"That will do it," Iroh confirmed.

"Will he be okay?" Katara asked.

"Well…there is but one cure for this rare disease," the elderly man replied. "Nectar from the golden panda lily."

"Okay, well…how do we find it?" Katara asked desperately.

"The golden panda lily," said Iroh, "only grows atop the tallest, most active volcano in the world—Mt. Wu Xing, in the unpopulated wastelands of the southern Fire Nation."