but love is the sky and i am for you
just so long and long enough

-E.E. Cummings

The air was thick with mist. Somewhere, beyond the mist, the sun was shining brightly. So brightly, in fact, that Katara felt warm for what seemed the first time in many months. She looked around, expecting to see thick foliage and dense trees. Instead she saw that she was surrounded by an endless whiteness. It wasn't the glaring white of the South Pole at noon in summer, but the soft white of snow falling at twilight. Katara tried to remember where she was… what had happened before this place. But she couldn't seem to remember anything. She had a foreboding sense that something important was happening, but all she could see was the eternal white of her surroundings and soon it had driven all other thoughts away.

She didn't know how long she had been here, thinking of nothing, looking at nothing, being nothing. And then suddenly she thought she heard voices. Glancing around and seeing no one, she concentrated on listening. The voices sounded far away… and one in particular sounded familiar… it was a man's voice. She tried again to find any memories. Her mind still seemed as white and blank as her surroundings, but a feeling began creeping up from her stomach. Was it… guilt? Yes, and the voice belonged to Sokka! Her excitement was short lived as the memories began filling the blankness around her.

"I think it's time to go home."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to get sick."

"I don't want you to say anything unless it's what you want to say."

Pain followed the guilt and the memories as the full weight of what was happening fell on her. Some of it was old pain, from her mother's death, and then her father's death, and now, she was letting Sokka down. She remembered this feeling, this situation, like it had all happened before. Memories continued to assail her and she realized this had happened before, that she was reliving that awful sickness again, that Sokka was reliving it with her… Voices crowded her now, growing louder and louder, hurting her ears and sending fresh waves of guilt coupled with images of snow and illness and anger and unhappiness…

The rush of memories faded abruptly, leaving her in the whiteness once again, only now it was accompanied by quiet sobbing that she vaguely recognized as her own. Tears floated away from her cheeks and hovered in the air around her, reflecting the opaque mist in a thousand tiny mirrors. When her eyes dried, she stared unfeelingly ahead, regretting that she had remembered anything at all and wishing that she had been content with the harmless whiteness and its soothing warmth. She attempted to return there, trying to erase the horrible sounds and sights she had just endured. She sat numbly, waiting for the feeling of guilt to subside, because she knew it would. She knew, somehow, that if she waited long enough all the feelings and voices and painful memories would go away. She knew in a way that made her feel she had done this before. Her eyes began to close and she thought this time would be the last time because it felt just a little different this time, just a little more permanent…

Movement flickered in her peripheral vision and reluctantly she stopped closing her eyes. She turned to her left to get a better look. There seemed to be a figure out beyond the mist, but she couldn't make it out. She focused her eyes a little more and discovered the figure was moving closer. As she watched the figure approach, she began to make out the general form: long hair, graceful movements, blue clothing. And when the figure seemed just beyond her outstretched hand, a voice infinitely warmer than the mist would ever be floated towards her.

"Katara, don't give up." The voice pierced her core; it was her mother's.

"Mom!" Though she had thought all her tears had already been spilled, more and more dribbled off her cheeks to join the others suspended in the mist.

"Katara, Sokka needs you."

"But… I… Mom, I'm sick. I—I think I'm dy—"

"You are a Waterbender and a Healer. Heal yourself." Katara's eyes opened wide at these words, and then the blue figure in the mist just beyond her reach disappeared. Katara's tears crowded around her and she began to feel like she was drowning in them.

"No! Wait! Please…" But the figure did not return and Katara was left alone. Alone…She again decided she should let it all go, try to wipe her mind once again. Before she could, however, her mother's words echoed in her head.

"Sokka needs you."

She wasn't alone; she would always have Sokka because he would never, never leave her alone. She grabbed onto the thought as if it was a piece of driftwood in her sea of tears and clung to it. She would not drown here, she could not drown here. If Sokka wouldn't leave her alone, then neither could she leave him alone. The thought reverberated with such clarity that she suddenly knew what she had to do. She reached deep inside herself and took control of her floating tears and the mist. The whiteness surrounding her slowly began to turn blue, glowing brighter as she directed it towards herself. The glow pulsed, flashing till she felt blinded by the blueness of it. She lifted her head and was covered in the blue glow, closing her eyes because of the strength of the light. As her consciousness began to slide away from her, she thought she heard a voice whispering in her ear.

"I am so proud of you…both of you…"