A/N: The shortest chapter title, yet the most meaningful.
Okay, so this took a bit longer than usual due to uh, multi-tasking. I just finished my Sonny With A Chance fic (feel free to check it out if you're a SWAC fan! :D) and I had an idea for another ATLA one-shot (which I will be posting sometime soon). I also started reading Parlor Tricks by Lyralocke (yes, I know, I'm quite late . . . but time has no effect on her awesomeness :D)
Anyway, thank you thank you so much for the RFFs! I'm glad to see you guys were excited for this chap :D
I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra.
Aang was right in the middle of the battlefield when he heard a cry. He didn't have to think twice; only one voice could have pierced his heart like that.
"KATARA!" He instinctively started running towards the sound of her voice, clearing a path between the rebels with a strong blast of air. He forgot about the fight, the army, everything. His only thought was to reach her.
It took him only seconds (courtesy of both the adrenaline running through his veins and his airbending), but he stopped the moment he saw her. Or more accurately, them.
His heart sank. No, that wasn't the right term. It felt more like it had ripped apart. Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin were desperately trying to shake their mother awake, tears rolling down their faces. His wife was on the ground, part of her back and most of her left arm badly burned. Part of her long, dark hair was charred, as well as her clothes. She didn't seem to be breathing.
He was at her side in an instant.
"Dad! I—I was going to give you your g—glider and then a firebender was about to attack me so M—Mom saved me a—and . . ." Bumi didn't need to continue.
"Katara? Katara! Katara, please wake up," he begged, turning her so that she was facing him. It frightened him to see how pale and lifeless she looked. He felt for a heartbeat, a pulse: nothing. If there even was one, it was too late. He was no healer; Katara had always been there for them. She was the best healer in the world; it never crossed his mind to learn healing or to make sure another healer was on the island.
"Katara, please," he sobbed.
"D—Dad, is Mom gonna be all right?" Kya asked. Watery, puffy eyes looked up at him; blue, just like her mother's. Her mother's eyes which he would never see again.
He had looked into those ocean-blue eyes and gotten lost in them countless times. He had looked into them with such sincerity when he promised her that their children would never have to go through what they had: the pain of losing a parent.
He had looked into them when he promised that he would never let anything harm her. When he promised her a world of safety, security, and happiness.
He had meant every promise. And yet what had happened was the exact opposite.
He hated the rebels. He hated Azula. He hated Zuko for not keeping an eye on Azula.
But most of all, he hated himself.
He should have been there. He should have been more alert. He should have been faster. He should have listened to Katara and brought his glider. He should have made sure Azula had no way to round up an army of rebels. He should have . . .
It didn't matter. He was too late and Katara was dead, or at least as good as dead. He shut his eyes, and tears of anger, self-hatred, guilt, and misery ran down his face.
Katara was gone. And it was all his fault.
"D—Dad, I'm so s-s-sorry," Bumi's voice shook. "This is all my fault—Dad?"
The Avatar was shaking hard. His face was contorted in an expression Bumi had never seen on him before. Sure, he'd seen his father mad when he pushed Tenzin into the pond once and when he accidentally broke an ancient air nomad relic with his boomerang, but this—this was beyond anger. This was a whole new level. This was . . . rage.
"D—Dad?" Bumi asked, scared.
Aang's eyes snapped open, and the three gasped and backed away in terrified shock. Their father's friendly, playful gray eyes were gone and had been replaced with a glowing white light. The same happened to his arrow-shaped tattoos. The expression on his face was one of pure fury, emphasized by his tightly clenched jaw and intense glowing glare. The temperature dropped and everything suddenly became darker. The air around them started to swirl around violently, gathering into a ball that surrounded the Avatar, carrying him up.
"He's in the Avatar state!" someone yelled. The frightened rebels started to scatter.
Tenzin watched in an awestruck terror as his father, who was now some fifty feet in the air, started bending furiously. A tornado formed, and a number of rebels were sucked in. Some more were washed away by a tidal wave that made Katara's look nothing more than an innocent splash of water.
Aang spread out his arms, and Tenzin could see that they were shaking from the effort. Suddenly, the ground started shaking as well, A crack appeared, eventually widening into a fissure. He raised his arms, and lava rose up. The tornado deposited the men right there, leaving the poor rebels to hold on to the edge for dear life.
"Dad?" Tenzin whispered. This wasn't his father. His father would never cause devastation like that. His father was a peaceful man, an Air Nomad, the Avatar; he created things, not destroyed them. What had happened to him? Why were his eyes and tatoos glowing? Was Mom going to be alright? And what was that Avatar State thing he heard someone yell a while ago? Was that why his Dad was acting different?
Maybe Kya and Bumi knew. His eyes scanned the area. Where could they—
"DAD! What's happening?!" someone yelled. He turned and saw Kya running up to as close as she could get to the enraged Avatar. He watched as her sprint turned into a trudge as the winds got stronger.
Unfortunately, no amount of sheer courage or determination could compare to an Avatar, least of all one at full power. The bold waterbender eventually had to give in, screaming as she got blown away.
"Kya!" Tenzin quickly ran over and cushioned her fall with his airbending.
"Boy, it sure is good to have an airbender for a brother," she said as she caught her breath.
He smiled weakly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Kya! Tenzin!" They looked around to see Bumi running towards them.
"Woah!" He dodged a fireball that had landed right next to him.
"Bumi! Are you okay?" Kya asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "You guys?"
"We're fine," she answered. "But Dad . . . and Mom . . ." Her voice shook.
"I know," Bumi said miserably. "Glowing Dad is scary. What are we going to do?"
Kya looked up, and, through her teary eyes, saw both her brothers watching her expectantly. "Why are you looking at me like that? You're usually the plan guy, Bumi," she said.
"Yeah, well . . . I got nothing." He rubbed the back of his neck.
She sighed. "Honestly, I have no idea what to do. But I guess we should make sure Mom's somewhere safe."
They nodded, though they knew that wouldn't really solve anything. Still, it was something to do, and it would provide a distraction, to some degree.
As they walked, Tenzin asked her, "Kya, do you think Mom is d—"
"I don't know, Ten."
They were quiet after that and instead focused on dodging the occasional fireball, jumping over an uprooted tree, and other "glowing Dad" related things.
They found Katara right where they had left her. She seemed to have been unaffected by Aang's bending, and Kya thought that it was no coincidence.
It was the sight of her mother that finally cracked her. She broke down and ran, falling to her knees beside her lifeless body.
"Mom . . ." she sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I'm the eldest; I shouldn't have let Bumi run out there. I'm sorry," she whispered, and gingerly closed her hand around her mother's unscathed wrist.
Kya was a gifted waterbender, and her mother had been training her well. She had excelled in combat and usually ignored her mother's attempts at teaching her how to heal. However, healing was innate, and no matter how much Kya denied it, Katara had always known that her daughter was a healer.
And so, it was instinct that told Kya that the very faint beating she felt was a pulse. She couldn't explain it, but somehow, she knew that her mother was alive.
With this knowledge, hope and determination renewed in her. She knew what to do.
"Bumi! Tenzin!" she called, and the two boys immediately ran to her. "Mom is alive. Just barely, but she's alive."
They gasped. "But there was no—"
"Healer's instinct," she said. Her mother had once told her something about a "healer's instinct." However, she didn't remember anything other than that (probably because she had tuned out everything Katara had said at the mention of the word "healer.")
Bumi looked at her incredulously. "I thought you said you weren't—"
"I am a healer. It's in my blood." It was the first time she had ever admitted it, and the words sounded foreign to her. But she had never been so sure of herself before. "I have a plan. If we can get Mom to a pool of water, maybe she can heal herself."
"But what about Dad?"
"Mom might know what to do. She always does," she said, unwavering.
"Okay, but where do we take her?" Tenzin asked. "The bathroom?"
"That's too dangerous. Dad could destroy the house at any moment."
Bumi remembered their fight earlier that day, which had already seemed so long ago. "The pond. It's the nearest place possible. Also, it's behind a stone wall, which I think will give us enough protection."
Kya smiled at her younger brother. "Great thinking, Bumi! Now, you carry Mom by her feet, and I'll carry her by the head. Tenzin, could you use your airbending to support the middle?"
"Yep." He used a simple pushing move his father had taught him.
"All right, let's go."
Unfortunately, their father's fireballs had melted some of the ice prisons Katara had made, and a number of the rebels had been freed. "Bad guys!" Bumi exclaimed.
Kya's eyes narrowed. "Good, 'cuz I've been wanting to give them a piece of my mind." Without thinking, she let go of Katara's head and took off.
"Woah, woah, careful!" Tenzin exclaimed, catching his mother's head with some quick airbending.
"Yeah!" Bumi exclaimed, running off as well.
"Hey!" Poor Tenzin was left trying to support his mother's entire weight. He tried as gently as he could to set her down, then ran after his brother and sister.
"This is for hurting Mom!" Kya roared, taking down three rebels with a single waterwhip.
"This is for what you did to Dad!" Tenzin hurled random blasts of air at them, and eventually sent a mini tornado their way.
Meanwhile, Bumi had found his father's staff (which he had dropped when Katara grabbed him) on the ground. "You're going to regret ever showing your sorry faces here!" Bumi yelled, using it as a sword and knocking them down.
Soon, every rebel within five feet of them was either unconscious or frozen to the ground.
The three examined their work proudly.
"Nobody messes with the Avatar kids," Bumi stated.
"Or our parents," Tenzin added.
"You got that right, little bros," Kya smirked.
Yes, the Avatar kids can kick some serious butt :)
So, I kind of made a headcanon based on this story. The part of the island that gets cut off by Aang's fissure will later become Avatar Aang Memorial Island. Yay! :D
*sigh* Okay, that was random. It wasn't exactly well-thought out either, but oh well. Btw, credits to Avatar Kyoshi and the episode "Avatar Day" for the idea. ^.^
Tell me what you think of one of the (if not the most) pivotal chapter in this story. I don't really specialize in Aangst (No, I did not misspell that :))) so please tell me if the chap's okay :D
