So this chapter is rather long and I worked on it all day practically and I hope you like it and thank you all for reading.
I don't own Avatar the last airbender.
Chapter 4: Breakthrough
Republic City…
Katara's blue eyes narrowed on the island that was just a ferry ride away. Air Temple Island, where Aang lived until he died. She looked over at the statue of him and knew that the answers to his death were on the island. She heard a familiar sounding roar and for a split second she thought that it was Appa but dismissed it when she remembered that Appa died with Aang. She looked up at the sky anyway and what she saw caused her to stagger backward and almost trip. A flying bison. She made the decision to swim to the island instead of waiting for the next ferry.
Northern Water Tribe…
Kailee tapped her foot impatiently, he wasn't just late by a few minutes but by a few hours. She had gone through the trouble of getting the sentries to let them train without being watched, not that Arlyn knew that, and she was starting to think that may not have been such a good idea. Her first day with the Avatar as her student wasn't going at all like she hoped it would, if Hiro found out she failed before the first lesson even started he would send her back to the South Pole for sure. She wasn't one to fail at anything and she wasn't going to fail at teaching the Avatar, she would make her parents proud.
She was glad that her father had insisted on teaching her and Ryuu the art of stealth, it made sneaking around the city a lot easier, the last thing she wanted was to run into the sentries. She had an idea of where Arlyn might be, she herself having done the same countless times after the raid. The only real place to be alone in the Poles was to be outside the wall and as waterbender getting outside the city was no problem. She dived into a canal and swam toward the wall, with no effort at all she bent a hole in the wall and swam into the beach. She surfaced and glanced back, she could see the wall and no doubt the guards could see her if they turned around Arlyn wouldn't risk being seen, he wouldn't risk his stolen freedom. She dived back into the water and swam in the direction of one of the secluded beaches she, Ryuu, and Judai had explored the other day when they went penguin sledding. She prayed to the spirits that he'd be there so she didn't have to turn around and head back to the other beach.
She surfaced and an involuntary smile broke across her face, he was not only there but he was bending. Sure it wasn't bending that would help him in a fight but it was bending nonetheless. She bent the water around her into a small iceberg and heaved herself out of the water, she took a seat and watched Arlyn bend the water around him as he surfed the waves.
"Do you come here often?" Kailee asked scaring Arlyn enough so that he lost his balance and fell into the icy water. She made the iceberg a tad bit bigger and patted the spot beside her. "Come sit, I have a couple of things to say to you."
Arlyn was surprised at how calm she was, especially since she had told him that she would not tolerate tardiness. He had assumed that once he disobeyed the rules the Fire Nation Princess had set up he'd get to see if she had a fiery temper. He swam in her direction and heaved himself up onto the iceberg beside her, no other master had shown enough interest in him to come chasing after him when he didn't show up to training but she had and that was why he was intent on hearing her out.
"What do you want to talk about Princess?" he asked keeping his tone indifferent.
"You don't like the sentries." It was a statement not a question. He turned to look at her, she was staring out at the beach. "They're constantly badgering you about your Avatar duties and watching your every move. I know what that's like and so does Ryuu, except we have imperial guards looming over our shoulders as opposed to White Lotus sentries. We know what it's like to be practically imprisoned in your own home being watched and badgered about your duties to your country. We weren't allowed into the city unless we had guards with us and that made it a lot harder to enjoy our few outings. When I moved to the South Pole I got the freedom to walk about the city by myself but it was basically the same thing seeing as I couldn't leave the city unless accompanied."
"What are you getting at?" Arlyn asked watching as she drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"What I'm getting at is that I know what it's like to have someone watching your every move. I know that people really can't perform under pressure, which is what I said to the sentries yesterday night. I didn't go home until they agreed to let me train you without their presence and in the Academy arena as opposed to the compound arena." Kailee said turning to look at him for the first time since he sat down.
"You did that for me?" Arlyn asked.
"Mostly." Kailee said. Arlyn quirked an eyebrow at her and she smiled back at him. He liked how her face softened and how her blue eyes lit up. "I don't feel like looking at Hiro for hours a day, him and his…"
"Permanent scowl." Arlyn laughed. Kailee stared at him before joining in. "In all the time I've know that guy he hasn't once cracked a smile, I don't think the muscles in his face know how to form a smile."
"So will you come to training?" Kailee asked.
Arlyn looked at her, she had come after him and gone through the trouble of getting the sentries to back off. In short she had done more in one day than any of his other masters had done in years. She was sitting here with him on an iceberg connecting with him as a person not the Avatar. They were both soaking wet and laughing at Hiro. She was wearing nothing but a red long sleeved shirt, black pants, and black and gold boots, her parka clearly forgotten in her haste to get to him.
"I promise you I'll make the attempt to go to training and if I don't show up you know where to find me." He said with a wink. "It's more than I've given any other master, so take it or leave it."
"I guess I'll take it." She sighed. "I guess I'll tell Hiro and Toku that we had a breakthrough today."
"They'll be ecstatic, though Hiro's scowl won't twitch at all." Arlyn said standing up. "I think we should head back to the city before anyone realizes we're not where we're supposed to be."
"It's a long swim back." Kailee said.
"I'll race you." Arlyn said with a mischievous glint in his ice blue eyes. "If I get to the arena before you we move back the time training starts two hours and if you get there before me…"
"We add an hour to your training." Kailee said standing up. Arlyn could see the excitement in her eyes as well as the determination, she wasn't going to let him win. She stuck her hand out toward him. "Do we have a deal?"
"We do Princess." Arlyn said shaking her hand. "Everything goes in this race."
"Are you sure, you're going up against a master?"
"I'm the Avatar." He said with a wink. "Ready?"
"Bring it." Kailee said preparing to dive.
"Go!" The two of them did a simultaneous dive into the water.
Air Temple Island…
Katara walked aimlessly around the island, she hadn't been there in such a long time and had no idea where to begin. She scanned the island for signs of life, at the air temples there were monks who Aang taught the ways of the Air nomads to but she assumed that Air Temple Island would be uninhabited.
The first person she ran into was dressed in a typical Air Nomad outfit. It wasn't the outfit that surprised her after all she had seen plenty of people wearing them at the air temples. No what surprised her were the tattoos on the young man, airbender tattoos, and the young man's strong resemblance to Aang.
"Hello." He said.
"Who are you?" Katara asked.
"Takumi, son to Padme and Avatar Aang." He said with a small bow. "It's an honor to meet you Lady Katara. Fire Lord Zuko is expecting you."
"What?" Katara said unable to comprehend what was going on.
Northern Water Tribe…
Kailee heaved herself out of the canal and sped up the current successfully pushing Arlyn back and keeping him from getting out. She was amazed by how much bending he actually knew, he knew enough to be classified as intermediate class not beginner like everyone assumed. He shot himself out of the water and started sending disks of ice at her. She thanked Agni for her father and Ty Lee's teachings, it made dodging Arlyn's ice disks a lot easier. She did a perfect backflip while pulling water out of the canal and sending it at Arlyn. He skidded back and she froze him to the ground.
"You're like something out of the circus." Arlyn said as he unfroze himself and hurled water at her, which she easily took control of and hurled it back at him.
"I know someone who was in the circus." Kailee said.
"Someone from the Imperial Guard?" Arlyn said as she flipped her way up to the roof of one of the buildings.
"Kind of." Kailee said gathering the moisture from the air and transforming the water into small ice spikes. "Think fast."
Arlyn made a very fine water whip and used it to strike down each of the ice spikes. "That fast enough for you Princess?" he asked sending the whip to where she was on top of the roof of the healing hut.
His whips caught her ankle mid-flip, with a satisfied smirk he pulled her down and into a canal. A water jet hit him square in the back knocking him onto the ground. Kailee pulled herself out of the canal just as Arlyn was picking himself off of the ground, he sent a stream of water toward her. She deflected it, froze it, and used it to slide up in front of him.
"The mark of a master waterbender is the ability to swiftly change from one state of water to another and rapidly switch techniques during combat, keeping the opponent off guard while constantly adapting to the enemy." Kailee said ice behind her.
"Got it." Arlyn said turning her wall of ice back into water and shooting it at her. Before it even got close to her Kailee changed the water into mist successfully hiding herself from him.
Air Temple Island…
Katara followed Takumi, she was still trying to process what he had said. There was no denying the fact that he was Aang's son, the airbending had confirmed all doubts she had. It was hard to process because it meant that both Aang and Zuko kept the existence of his family a secret from her, also the fact that Aang had children before she and Zuko. Takumi was, from what she could tell, a year older than Ayumu, which would make him twenty-three and Aang a fourteen-year-old father.
"Maybe I'm doing my math wrong." Katara mumbled to herself. "How old are you?"
"How old do I look?" He asked.
"Twenty-three."
"Mistakes happen." Was all he said.
"Zuko has a lot of explaining to do." She grumbled.
She nearly fainted at the sight of another boy with airbender tattoos standing beside her husband and his Uncle. Under different circumstances she'd run into Zuko's arms and kiss him feverously especially after being captured by the rebel forces and being traded to the Equalists and then escaping them. At least she could see that Zuko knew he was in for a world of pain.
Northern Water Tribe…
Kailee dropped down beside her parka that she had left on the arena floor. After her trick with the mist she took off running leaving multiple obstacles in Arlyn's path as well as more mist. The door to the arena opened and she was about to rub her victory in Arlyn's face but refrained from doing so as it wasn't Arlyn that walked in.
"Where's the Avatar?" Hiro said his scowl deepening.
"He'll be here soon, probably." Kailee said feeling small under Hiro's murderous glare. She then remembered that he was breaking the terms of their agreement by being in the arena. "What are you doing here anyway, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't come here while we were training?"
"What training? The Avatar's not here." Hiro said walking up to her.
She stood up, grabbing her parka as she did, and matched his murderous glare with one of her own, "First of all he's a person not just the Avatar so you should use his name and secondly he is my pupil and I have the right to train him in whatever way I see fit which is what we did today."
Before Hiro could say anything the door to the arena opened, "You don't know how many ice columns I hit."
"Every single one." Kailee said shoving past Hiro.
"What's he doing here?" Arlyn asked.
"He need's the arena." Kailee said walking past Arlyn. "We're done using it anyway, come on I think there's a classroom reserved for me."
"I think they're going to expect us to clean up the city." Arlyn said as they walked down the hallway toward the classrooms and away from the arenas.
"We'll lets make that your next lesson." Kailee said.
Air Temple Island…
"He's older than your nephew!" Katara screeched.
"Our nephew." Zuko corrected hoping that after she knew everything he'd still have a wife. Katara gave him a look that would have him dead if looks could kill. "I promised Aang that I would keep his family safe and a secret from everybody except the Order."
"Why would he ask you to keep it from me, he and I were best friends!" Katara screamed more hurt that Aang would not trust her with his secret.
"The less people that knew the safer they'd be." Zuko said placing a comforting hand on Katara's shoulder that she slapped away.
"This whole island knew who they were!"
"About that." Zuko said scratching the back of his head. "Someone had to teach them the Air Nomad ways."
Northern Water Tribe…
Kailee and Arlyn walked into the compound arena, where Ryuu and Judai were engaged in a swordfight. Ryuu hit the Judai's blade with the flat of his own. Kailee saw it, the look of fear in Judai's blue eyes and the look of triumph in Ryuu's amber colored eyes. Ryuu twisted and put all of his strength into a downward thrust. Judai's sword hit the ground with an echoing clang.
"Man I was starting to think I had you up until the end." Judai said picking up his sword and sheathing it. They bowed to each other before turning to their two-person audience. "Hey look who it is."
"My future student and my baby sister." Ryuu said with a teasing smile. "Did you guys actually do some bending or did you spend the day fighting with each other."
"Both." Kailee and Arlyn said simultaneously.
"He actually knows quite a lot of bending." Kailee said folding her hands behind her head and looking up at the darkening sky. "Something sunk in after all, even if he wasn't aware it had."
"I thought that was more like street fighting." Arlyn said.
"Whatever it was it was something." Kailee said dropping her hands to her side. "Is dinner ready?"
"Yeah Kala was just waiting for you guys to get back before serving it, thanks for taking your sweet time." Judai said grumpily. Kailee shot up faster than Arlyn thought possible for someone that wasn't an airbender. With the help of a graceful flip she had her cousin in a playful headlock. "I really wish I had taken Ty Lee's offer to train with her."
"You think with your stomach as opposed to your mouth Jude." Kailee said with a laugh. "You and your dad are one in the same."
"Let's just go eat." Judai said as Kailee shifted so that she was now in a perfect position for him to give her a piggyback ride to the dining hall.
Air Temple Island…
"Tell me everything." Katara demanded of her husband and his Uncle.
"Are you going to come home if I do?" Zuko asked cautiously.
"Just tell me Zuko." Katara sighed. Katara was upset and angry but there was no way she'd turn her back on her family, Ayumu, Ryuu, and Kailee were everything to her and despite this little fight with Zuko she loved him. "How are the kids?"
"They're keeping busy." Iroh said before Zuko could say anything.
"With what, are they together?" Katara asked.
"Yes, Ryuu, Judai, and Kai are up at the North Pole training the Avatar. Ryuu went back to the Royal Naval Academy." Zuko answered. "The kids will be coming to Republic City in a couple of weeks so the Avatar can learn earthbending from Misaki and Hikaru and so that after Ryuu teaches him firebending he can start with Takumi and Daichi."
Katara nodded, she couldn't say that she wasn't proud that her kids were going to train the Avatar because she was, it made her sad that they'd have to grow up faster than regular teenagers. Their destinies were intertwined with his, just as hers was with Aang, and she knew that they had it in them to stop a war before it even started.
To be continued...
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