Author's Note: Hello again! Sorry for the delay, besides preparing for my sister's birthday and working on about five school projects, I got a bit disinclined to write for the last while. Mostly due to a couple flames I received only a day or two after I posted the last chapter. Of course, this might not have bothered me so much… if it weren't for the fact that out of all the reviews I received two were flames and only one was an actual nice comment. I think that would get just about anyone down in the dumps for a little while. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with criticism, as long as it's given with the intention of helping me become a better writer instead of just shooting me down. Please just respect the fact that I am trying to improve, and to bear with me while I figure out how to iron out the kinks of my writing style.

Author's Note: Avatar the last Airbender and all related characters are the property of Nickelodeon, I'm just playing around with them.

Chapter 8: Two Souls, One Spirit

The girl stepped slowly toward the large bison, her few belongings held close to her chest. The sun had only just begun to rise over the purple-grey mountains in the distance, lightening the early morning sky into a dusky blue. She felt as a criminal might feel, with each step bringing her closer to her execution. The rider gave her a sad nod as she gave him her things, which he placed carefully in the large round saddle buckled around the torso of great beast. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned around to come face to face with Gyatso. He smiled at her reassuringly, but his weathered face showed the slightest sign of holding back tears. Tears of her own began to blur her vision as she wrapped her arms around his neck, she knew, for the last time.

"Never forget your home, my child. Someday it will find its way back to you." He whispered in a cracked voice. He held out one withered hand, revealing two small wooden charms. On one charm, the sign of the water nation was delicately carved on it's front, on the other the sign of the air nomads.

"Where you are going, and where you have been." He croaked as the girl took the charms. "You will always be connected to us."

Giving the monk one last tearful squeeze, the girl slowly pulled herself away. Her fingers felt numb and awkward as she gently tucked the charms under her sash. Wiping away the tears with the back of her sleeve, she tried to collect herself as she made a small bow, touching two fingers to the arrow on her forehead in the traditional farewell of the monks.

"May our paths cross again." She whispered, the ceremonial words of parting falling like a cruel mocking on her ears.

Gyatso silently touched two fingers to his own tattoo and smiled weakly.

Turning around, the girl swallowed the lump in her throat and prepared to alight onto the bison. She had just begun to channel the appropriate air currents when her ears picked up a faint sound. She squinted slightly. It sounded as if someone was calling her name. She turned back around to see a young boy some distance away racing toward her. Behind him, three monks followed in desperate pursuit. Ignoring the calls of the monks for him to stop, the boy bent the air currents around his legs, sending him at a breakneck speed into the girl's outstretched arms. The force of the impact was enough for the girl to have to take a few steps back to avoid losing her balance. When she looked down, she saw her brother's large grey eyes staring up at her.

"Aang..." The girl whispered, bittersweet tears forming in her eyes. She would have the chance to say goodbye to her brother after all, but as she looked down at him, the last piece of her family she had left, she no longer knew if she could.

The three monks that had been following Aang came to a stop a short distance in front of the two siblings, taking a moment to catch their breath.

"He got out of his dormitory." One gasped. "We couldn't catch him in time."

"Then maybe we should let it be." Gyatsu said sharply. "Treat it as the will of the universe."

The monk opened his mouth to protest, but quickly decided against it and shut his mouth again.

"You shouldn't have disobeyed the monks, Aang." The girl said softly.

Aang buried his face in her robe. "I know, but... I felt like you were sad." He grinned up at her. "The arrows make it easier for me to feel you."

"That is because they connect all who bear them." She murmured. Looking up at the monks, she slowly proceeded. "Aang... I will be going away for a while."

Aang seemed excited by this. "Where? Are you visiting the Earth Kingdom? Fire Nation? Can't I come?"

The girl put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Not this time."

The young airbender's face fell. "How long will you be gone?"

Crouching down, the girl gently put her arms around Aang. "Not for... not for a very long time."

Aang pulled away, a look of horror on his face. "Why? Why do you have to..." His large eyes began brimming with tears. "It's the arrows, isn't it? I don't want them anymore if they make you go away!"

The boy tried to conceal the arrow on his forehead, pulling his shirt over his head in a desperate attempt to make the problem disappear. The girl quickly reached out and pulled his shirt back down, revealing her brother's tear-stained face.

"No Aang, you must never think like that. The arrows are good, they're important." She looked him in the eye. "They keep us connected. No matter what, we will always be connected."

Aang wrapped his arms around his sister's waist. "What will I do without you?"

Hot tears rolling down her cheeks, she leaned in close to her brother.

"I will always be with you when you need me. I promise."

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Almika sat on her knees in front of one of the few trees that grew outside the outer wall. The snow was soaking into the fabric of her skirt, but she took no notice. After much convincing, she had persuaded Zuko to return to the camp, leaving her alone to fully grasp what had happened. A single tear ran down her face as she ran her thumb over the thin carvings on the two small wooden disks she clutched in her hand. She untied the knot on the bottom of the piece of twine that had held them together and slid one of the disks off. She held it in the palm of her hand for a moment, gazing at the familiar spiral insignia of the air nomads. Almika touched the wooden piece to the arrow on her forehead in the same way she had done when she had bid her last farewell to Gyatso over one century ago. Gyatso was wrong, there was nothing left to connect her to her old home. She remembered the large grey eyes of her brother looking up into hers, and the promise she'd made him. Closing her eyes, she placed the wooden charm in the snow at the base of the tree and returned to her sitting position, her hands, now empty, clasped together in her lap. She hung her head, feeling a second onslaught of tears beginning to well up inside her.

"I'm sorry Aang. I failed you."

With this, she covered her face with her hands and wept.

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Aang picked his way along the rocky landscape, careful not to make too much noise. Sokka had been adamantly clear that they were not to make so much as a sound while he was tracking. This, Aang soon found, was to be a very difficult task. He could hardly contain his anxiety, and making it worse was the horrible hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach that had been plaguing him since late that morning. Frighteningly similar to the feeling he had experienced at the Southern Air Temple. Not exactly the most comforting feeling to have on a mission to find your long lost fire nation captive sister. Aang gave a slight shudder, praying that her captors hadn't harmed her.

As if reading his thoughts, Katara crept closer to him and whispered, "Don't worry, Aang. She'll be okay."

"I heard that whispering." Sokka hissed, earning himself a frosty glare from Katara. "What about 'complete and utter silence' do you not understand?"

"You're whispering too Sokka." Aang grinned.

"Well that's just because… you…" Sokka gave a frustrated groan. "Can we all please be quiet before we're captured by firebenders?"

Aang and Katara gave him a thumbs-up. Annoyed, Sokka returned to his tracking.

They walked in silence for a while, Sokka in the lead with Aang and Katara trailing behind. Finally, Sokka raised his hand, signaling them to stop.

"What is it?" Katara asked.

Sokka put to fingers to his lips and cupped a hand to his ear, silently telling them to listen carefully. Katara gave him an exasperated look, but Aang stood frozen. He had heard it too.

A gentle sobbing, drifting over them with the wind. Aang knew instantly. It was his sister.

He couldn't take it anymore. Dashing out from behind the outcropping of rocks they had been using for cover, Aang ran blindly in the direction of the sobbing. He vaguely registered the frantic voices of Katara and Sokka, urging him to come back, but he didn't stop. His sister was here, she was in trouble, and he was going to find her no matter how many firebenders stood in his way.

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Zuko slumped against a snow-covered rock, examining the flame cupped in his hand. It flickered for a moment, then extinguished as he smothered it in his fist. He sighed. The waterbender had added much more complication to his life. Complication he did not need. He closed his eyes and thought of his father, of what he would say. His deep authoritive voice roared in his head like some mighty caged beast.

The girl is an enemy. An enemy to the fire nation. You have all you need to know from her, now continue on your quest for the Avatar! No, don't second-guess your actions, that is a sign of weakness. The water tribe miscreant's welfare is none of your concern. I don't want to see you fail me again.

From somewhere deep in his mind, his uncle's words echoed in.

The girl has feelings for you, Zuko… people are not pawns for you to use. There is more to life than the Avatar…

Zuko shook his head. His uncle was wrong. Finding the Avatar was everything! Why, the search for the Avatar…

He was just a boy… he was just a little boy…

Almika's soft voice rang through his head, each heartbroken word bringing deeper pangs of guilt. He finished his thought: …the search for the Avatar led to the destruction of lives. Many lives. Zuko's mind returned to his own dogged pursuit of the Avatar, and suddenly it was his own voice that echoed in his head.

Including your own.

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Aang was close now. He could more than hear it, he could feel it. In his frenzied rush, he stumbled over a low outcropping of rock. The land under the rocks sloped downward sharply and Aang found himself falling with a soft thud in the snow. A bit sore, he picked himself up and looked around to see where he'd ended up. Once he registered what he saw, he stood motionless, his breath coming in short shallow gasps. A sixteen year old girl sat in front of a dead tree, her shoulders hunched with her hands on the ground, supporting her weight. Her entire body jerked with the ferocity of her sobbing.

Aang took an unsure step forward. The name he hadn't spoken in over a hundred years came to his lips like an old friend.

"Almika?"

The sobbing ceased. A red, tear-stained face turned to look at him. Their eyes met, and the blood drained from the girl's face.

"Aang?" She whispered. "How… how is it possible?"

Tears of joy sprang to the young boy's eyes as his sister stood up. It had been three years since he'd last seen her – only a year older than himself when she left. In those three years much had changed. Her hair had grown long and she had traded in most of her air nomad clothing for water tribe garments. She had always been strong willed, but with the passing of years had gained a deeper sense of maturity and inner strength. But her eyes still sparkled in the same way they always had whenever she saw him, and Aang couldn't help but smile at the soothing familiarity.

Almika spread her arms wide and Aang was only to glad to comply. He rushed into her outstretched arms and stood with her in tight embrace.

"I thought I'd lost you forever." His sister whispered, not daring to loosen her grip on the young boy in her arms for fear he'd be swept away from her again.

Aang buried his face in her robe and smiled through tears of joy. All the years they had been apart, the war, his responsibilities as Avatar, all melted away. He was back in his sister's arms, back where he belonged, and all was right in the world.

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"Why didn't you stop him?" Sokka hissed, attempting to run stealthily through the snow.

"I couldn't! He just… just ran!" Katara cried, on the verge of tears. She was well aware that she should have been quicker to react, and she knew that she would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to the young airbender.

"Okay, okay, let's just find him." Sokka said quickly. He turned. "He went this way."

The two siblings crept their way through the snow, following the small trail of footprints. The trail came to an abrupt stop at an outcropping of snow-capped rocks. Sokka bent down into a crouch, pulling his sister down beside him, to take shelter behind the cover of the rocks.

"Wait here until I tell you." He whispered. "We don't know what we'll find."

Katara bit her lip and nodded as her brother snaked his way over the rocks to get a better view. She waited in silence, until she heard her brother's voice.

"What the…?" Sokka rasped in confusion.

"What? What do you see?" Katara hissed, impatient to know the well-being of her friend.

"He's hugging some girl…"

"What?" Katara exclaimed, then quickly controlled herself. "…You mean his sister, right?"

"It can't be. She's way too young. Couldn't be more than a couple years older than us. I'll admit, the resemblance is uncanny, but…"

Katara didn't even hear the last sentence. She was too busy clawing her way up the rock.

"Aang!"

The spell was broken. Aang looked over at the rocks, now home to two faces peering over it. He felt his sister move, looking as well.

"Guys! Come here!"

Katara was quick to come, but Sokka took longer, reluctant to leave his safe cover of rocks. Katara stood a short distance away from Aang and Almika, eyeing the girl critically.

"So Aang… who exactly is this?"

Aang grinned as he and his sister parted, facing Katara and Sokka.

"This is my sister."

Katara and Sokka were speechless. Finally, Sokka broke the shocked silence.

"That's impossible! Your sister is over a hundred years old, that couldn't possibly be her!" Sokka exclaimed.

"Well I'm a hundred and twelve years old, and I look good for my age." Aang looked up at his sister nonetheless. "But… how is it possible?"

"You tell me. Apparently I've been entombed in a wall of ice for the past hundred years." She squeezed her brother's shoulder. "How are you here? I thought… I thought you were gone."

"I was trapped in an iceburg, but they saved me." He pointed to the two water tribe siblings.

Almika gazed at them thankfully. "Thank you. You have no idea what this little guy means to me." She buffed the top of the young monk's head playfully with her sleeve.

Katara nodded, understanding completely. Sokka however, was not convinced.

"Wait a minute, you two are trying to tell me that you both were frozen in ice, at pretty much the exact same time?" He shook his head. "It just doesn't make sense!"

The group was silent for a moment, letting this sink in. It really didn't make any sense, aside from the extremely minute chance that it was in fact a coincidence. The whole situation did indeed seem utterly impossible. Was it by the power of some outside force? Aang didn't think that even the Avatar's power could do such a thing. Suddenly, it dawned on Aang. It wasn't a completely sound theory, but it was the best he had.

"Of course… the Avatar spirit!"

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Whew, that took longer than I expected. Slightly rushed ending, but other than that I think I really like this chapter :D Hope you like too! I'll try to get the next chapters up quicker (I'm already planning a sequel to this which I can't wait to start working on) and maybe later I'll post some little tidbits of a script I'm working on at the bottom here. Yes that's right, I write scripts. Not professionally at the moment, but hopefully soon. Makes sense now why I have a tough time sometimes putting in all this little detaily nonsense that's supposed to be in stories, now doesn't it? I'm too used to just putting in the basic actions and dialogue with the character's name over it XD So please, read and review! My ego needs feeding!

And remember, critique… no flames. Not nice.