Wow, okay, so in The Promise, there's this image of Aang saying "Fine, I promise, blah" and then it skips ONE WHOLE YEAR. Gene Yang, gurl, what are you doing? He totally missed a fabulous opportunity for awesomeness and… stuff. And I really wanted to see the gang all grow up and know what happened and see Kataang in the glorious comic book style. Dramatic sigh. Right. Anyway, since it is a whole year that I need to cover and since the actual fanfic is based primarily on the plot of the Promise, the next two chapters are devoted to basically skimming over what happens in those 365+ days. It's going to be long… I mean, I haven't written it yet, but I assume it'll be a whopper. And *cue Dark Knight theme* here. we. go…
0.o
Post War's End – Day 31
It had been one entire moon cycle since the war ended. An entire month since Aang defeated Ozai and Azula was imprisoned and the Kyoshi Warriors had been freed. It had been just over two weeks since the celebration in Ba Sing Se and the announcement of the Harmony Restoration Movement.
For Toph, it had been two weeks of living a normal, complacent life. Again.
And holy badgermoles in the sky, did she hate it.
The blind girl groaned in picked her feet up off of the ground, tossing them carelessly onto the table in front of her.
"Something troubling you?" An older man came from behind her, setting a steaming cup of tea near her fidgeting hands.
She sighed, picking up her tea. "Nothing is troubling me," she said. "And by that, I mean the fact that there is nothing to do in this big city of wall and nothingness. Obviously I'm happy with the end of the war, but I almost miss being chased by crazy, Fire Nation assassins."
Iroh chuckled, sitting down next to her.
"Or you and your nocturnal nephew," Toph continued. "Seriously, all that kid does is pace around at night."
The Dragon of the West smiled at her. "Ah, what it is to be young and so full of energy. Here I am, more than content with serving tea in a peaceful city for the rest of my days," he mused. "But you have case of the cabin fever. I think it would be wise for you to explore this city. I find that by traveling, we are often able to realize what it is we truly want from our lives."
"But that's the thing," she responded, placing her feet back on the ground. "I want to get out of this city! Even with the Dai Li and those creepy Joo Dees out of the picture, I feel like I'm trapped in this giant cage."
He chuckled again. "I see you do not find much to appreciate in this city of ingenuity and architectural genius. Perhaps you should go beyond the walls. I trust you have seen much of the Earth Kingdom in your adventures, but there is always more."
She looked down, bangs covering her sightless eyes. "But I can't just, I mean," she paused. "What about my friends? After all we've done together… How do I just leave them behind?"
"There is no universal answer here," said Iroh, picking up the cup, now empty except for remnants of tea leaves sitting at the bottom. "Your friends will surely be traveling. I believe Aang understands his Avatar duties are just beginning, and he will always be called upon for help. You must then decide whether you wish to join him or carve out a separate path for yourself." He rose from his seat. "Either way, they will always be your friends, no matter where you find yourselves in the world."
Toph was then left alone to consider her options. She sighed heavily, realizing what she would have to do.
Never was much of a follower.
0.o
For Aang and Katara, it had been two weeks of pure, blissful togetherness.
The couple lay next to each other in the backyard of the group's house in Ba Sing Se, hands interlocked between them.
"One month."
A soft smile.
"One month."
A light laugh.
"It's hard to believe it's really over," she sighed, a mixture of contentedness and disbelief.
He gave her hand a squeeze and said nothing. There was nothing to add, and they always had been more than happy to sit in comfortable silence.
They watched the birds fly above them and listened to the children playing in the streets. Aang turned to kiss her on the cheek and she grinned upon contact. She rolled over in her side to face him, her head leaning against her hand, elbow planted on the ground. He shyly moved to place a loose hand around her waist.
The two smiled at each other, breathing quietly, face inches apart. "I don't know if I've ever been this happy," he said thoughtfully.
"Me neither."
She closed the gap between their lips for a few moments and pulled away.
"You know," her hand idly tapped the air pendant on his necklace, "not that much has changed between us this past month."
His hand stiffened at her waist and he looked at her confusedly. "What do you mean?"
"Well," she started, "we're still best friends and we've always loved each other. Now we just hold hands and kiss more," she blushed a bit at her words.
"I definitely don't have any complaints about that," Aang replied, grinning and pressing his lips softly against hers.
Never was much of a problem.
0.o
For Zuko, it had been just over two weeks since his coronation as the new Fire Lord.
He groaned at the paperwork in front of him and let his head fall into his hands.
"What's wrong?" Mai's voice came from the doorway.
Zuko turned around and his lips twitched briefly, as if attempting to look mildly pleased to see her. But he was under so much stress. There was everything to do and everyone wanted an answer, a resolution, immediately.
"Minister of Commerce is worrying about trading," he said. "I mean, of course he is. The last hundred years, we've just been taking everything we need from the Earth Kingdom. But we still need their resources and chances are, they're not going to want to trade fairly with the nation that nearly destroyed them and the entire world.
"Minister of Foreign Engagements is having a field day. He needs to get my approval on all of the deals he's making with the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom to somehow repay them for murdering their people, taking their land... He doesn't even know what to do with the Air Nomad situation," Zuko ran a hand over his face and flipped a few pages over. "Then Aang and I have been working on future plans for the Harmony thing."
"Seems like you have-"
"And," he interrupted, "apparently there are some underground rebel plots in the southern Earth Kingdom. We might have to go down there soon, seeing as it really wouldn't be a good idea to get the Fire Nation army involved. That doesn't exactly scream 'let's all be friends!'"
Mai walked over and kneeled next to where he was sitting, placing her hands on his shoulders. "Zuko, take it easy. It will take some time to get everything in order again. No one's expecting you to fix it in a month."
"Well then maybe I expect more from myself than you do," his eyes sharpened faintly.
Mai released his shoulders and sighed, sitting down fully. "Things would probably be easier to handle if we weren't still in this hellhole. How long do you plan on staying here?"
"Not much longer," he said. "I just wanted to be here for the celebration and I needed to talk to the Earth King."
A pregnant pause filled in the room.
"Zuko," she crossed her arms. "I've known you almost my whole life, and you love celebrations as much as I love the color orange. What is it?"
He almost laughed. "I never asked to be Fire Lord. And I'm honored to have the opportunity to restore balance to he world. But sometimes I wish I could grow up a little slower. Be with my friends."
Mai sighed. She couldn't disagree. She understood, of course. For most of the life, she had been controlled, forced to behave and act like an adult from a very young age.
She rose to her feet and pecked him on the corner of his lips. "Take some time," she said. "I'll be ready whenever you are."
She left the room, leaving him to mull over the endless pile of letters of treaties. He groaned once more.
Never was much of a leader.
0.o
Post War's End – Day 49
The night was cool as an early autumn breeze swept through the small Ba Sing Se home. The groups sat around a small table filled with teacups and trays of small sandwiches and tarts, laughing as Sokka retold the story of when he became trapped in the crack in the ground and Aang was just barely able to save him from the giant sabertooth moose lion.
Many of them had planned to leave the city within the next week so they were all trying to spend as much together as they could.
"And then Toph was just standing there," Sokka exclaimed, his arms waving excitedly, "the entire time as Aang tried to give this giant beast a dance show!"
"Oh, that reminds me! Did we tell you all of the time when Aang threw a secret dance party for some Fire Nation kids?" Katara smiled at the memory and looked at the Avatar, sitting on the pillow beside her.
Suki, Mai, Zuko, and Iroh shook their heads.
"Well, when we first got to the Fire Nation, we decided to get some disguises," Aang began. He tightened his grip on Katara's hand for a moment. "My disguise happened to be a school uniform so when-"
Four loud knocks came from the front of the house in rapid succession. Suki got up quickly and opened the wide green door and a frantic-looking man with a long braid stood in front of her.
"Please," he said, "I have an urgent message for the Avatar and the Fire Lord."
The messenger handed her a rolled-up piece of parchment and swiftly turned and walked away. Suki unraveled the paper as her eyes brushed over the symbols printed in messy black ink and widened.
"What is it?" Zuko asked.
"There's a small uprising. In the Southern Earth Kingdom," she answered. "Underground rebels attacked an Earth Kingdom village."
A heavy pause filled the room.
Aang rose from his seated position, releasing Katara's hand. "We have to go."
Sokka stood up as well. "You're right. We can make it there by early morning is we leave now."
"Shouldn't we talk to the Earth King first?" said Katara.
"I'm sure he's already been notified. Beside, by the time he sends any reinforcement the town might be burnt to the ground," her brother responded. "And just seeing Aang will probably be enough to scare off the rebels."
Aang's eyes grew darker.
"Come on then!" Toph earthbended a small sack from the corner of the room into her hands.
0.o
They had been in the air for nearly two hours now. At first they discussed the uprising and any plan of attack. It was concluded that they couldn't know exactly what they were going to do, as the situation was unknown. Then Sokka began to tell every bad joke he could possibly think of, much to the chagrin of everyone else.
"Okay, so two pistachinuts were walking down the street. One was a salted."
The water tribe warrior doubled over in laughter at his own joke. The rest of the group just stared at him. Zuko's unscarred eye twitched.
"Your sense of humor is astounding, Snoozles."
"Get it? Like, you know, salted. One nut was a… salted. Assaulted…" Sokka sighed. "Just trying to lighten the mood."
"At least it's something to do," Mai offered with her monotone inflection.
"No arguments there," Toph said.
Sokka grinned. "I have missed kicking some bad guy butt."
And they were soon launched back into a conversation about their days during the last year of the war. Appa flew southeast, his back to the setting sun.
"Aang?" Katara climbed nimbly over the edge of the saddle to the bison's head.
"Yeah?" He smiled softly and slid over to make room for her.
She sat down and placed a hand on his back. "Are you okay? You've been really quiet ever since we left Ba Sing Se."
The Avatar sighed and set the reigns down, turning to her fully. "I'm fine," he said, and then took both of her hands in his. "It's just, I – " he groaned. "It's so many things. I knew that ending the war wouldn't be the end of my duties. So I don't know why this rebellion bothers me, but I just hate that the violence doesn't stop."
"I know what you mean," Katara consented. "It seems like it all just ended and already we have this to worry about. But you know that you have the full support of all of us." She cupped his cheek in her hand. "We'll resolved this in no time at all."
He leaned in to kiss her, her hand leaving his face and moving to his shoulder. She frowned a bit when his lips left hers much too soon. "There's something else."
Aang nodded. He didn't say anything at first, so Katara just sat by him patiently and waited for him to speak. A breeze blew over the giant animal and she instinctively curled up closer to his body as he wrapped both of her arms around her frame.
"I still need to perfect my earthbending and firebending," he finally said. "It's not a problem, really, but I haven't quite mastered them yet. Iroh can teach me how to create lightening, and I might be able to convince Toph to teach me some metalbending."
Katara looked worriedly into her lap at the mention of lightening.
"I'll be careful," he murmured, sensing her concern. She gripped his torso tighter and exhaled into his robes. "Katara?"
"Mmh."
"Are you -" he stuttered, looking away into the darkening sky, trying desperately to avoid her gaze. "Are you afraid of me? Not all the time, I mean, I'm not very threatening. But with the Avatar State and…"
"Oh," she breathed. "No, I'm not afraid of you, Aang."
"But, with the Avatar State -"
"I used to be afraid of the Avatar State. You remember that crazy Earth King general, but you probably remember what I told you then, too. You used to only enter the Avatar State when you were hurt or in danger."
"Or when you were in danger," he added quietly as his thumb trailed over the side of her face.
"Or if I was in danger," she blushed. "But now, you're in control of it. You saved the world with the Avatar State."
Aang nodded very slowly, letting her words and the wind wash over him. He was in control of the Avatar State, yes, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. For him, anyway.
"I could never be afraid of any part of you," Katara continued, looking up at him. "I love you. All of you."
He held her tighter, shifting his arms from around her shoulders down to her waist. "Spirits, you're wonderful." He then proceeded to kiss her soundly, one hand firm on the small of her back, the other entangling itself in her hair. Her hands gripped at his robes and at the back of his neck as her lips moved against his.
"Love you," he mumbled against her.
"Uhm, guys," Sokka's disgusted voice cut them off. Katara cursed him under her breath as the kiss abruptly ended.
"Every time…" Aang muttered, eliciting a giggle from the waterbender.
"We don't have to go over the rules again, do we?" He prodded.
Toph peered over the side of the saddle. "No making out in front of us."
"Or not in front of us."
0.o
Post War's End – Day 50
The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon, and a small town was beginning to form in the distance. Aang had just woken up and promptly gripped the reigns, directing Appa in the direction of civilization.
"Almost there, buddy," he said, petting the soft fur of his animal guide. "Guys!" he called back to the sleeping forms in the saddle.
"What is it?" A groggy Zuko was the first to wake.
Plumes of smoke rising from the town became visible. Aang squinted and saw red and orange licks of fire and grimaced. He pointed to the black clouds. "We're almost there."
By the time Appa landed, everyone was awake and at least somewhat lucid. The town was made up of five rows of stone and wooden houses and shops, with a larger building set aside at the end of the main road. They touched ground just feet from this structure and were met with a frail-looking old woman. The group jumped off of the bison and the old woman approached them, bowing.
"Avatar Aang, Fire Lord Zuko, noble and honorable heroes," her voice was squeaky and her legs trembled. "It is an honor to welcome you. We thank you most profusely for coming to our aid. If you would, please follow me to Mayor Sa Fang.
Aang bowed respectably. "It's a privilege to make your acquaintance," he said kindly and smiled. They were lead up the steps to the entrance of the building as Katara walked up next to him. He looped his arm through hers and they all walked through heavy wood doors into a small chamber. A rather rotund looking man in official dress was waiting for them behind his desk in the back of the room.
He jumped up at their arrival. "Ahh!" His blubbery arms were outstretched in welcome. "Esteemed visitors! My deepest gratitude." He rose to meet them, his large belly hitting the sideof the table, ang soon forgot social graces to tell them about the recent attacks.
"For the last three days, bands of men have come and attacked the town, setting many shops and homes on fire and injuring some of my citizens. When I went out to speak with them, they just kept shouting something about the greatness of the Fire Nation and Ozai. Many of our men were killed in the war, or I wouldn't be calling for your help. We now only have a very small number of people able to defend our women and children, and I'm afraid that this will either continue or the rebels will soon launch a full-fledged attack."
"Do you know who's leading the rebellion?" Katara asked.
"No," said the mayor, "but I'm under the assumption that there is some kind of headquarters beyond our town. I believe the leader will be there."
"If we can find him, we can try to talk some sense in him," Aang suggested. "See if he comes to see reason, and if not…"
"We arrest him and anyone else not willing to back down," Zuko stated. "We can take them back to the Fire Nation and give them a sentence."
Toph bent down to touch her hand to the ground. "I think I see some-"
A sudden explosion rocked the building.
"That must be the rebels," said Sa Fang, uncovering his ears.
"The first thing we need to do is protect the villagers," Sokka said. "Suki, Katara, Mai, and I will get everyone inside and fend of the rebels with the town's force. Aang, Zuko, and Toph, you need to locate the leader of the rebels and, er, well, do something with him."
Everyone nodded.
"Aye aye, Chief," Toph saluted.
At a loss for what to do or say, Sa Fang mumbled a quick "good luck" and turned to walk back into his guarded chambers. The young warriors started towards the door, cautious but confident. The Avatar grabbed at the waterbender's hand and they both stopped before reaching the threshold. He held her hands in his and they faced each other.
"Hey," he said breathily, smiling a bit.
"Hey," she returned, chuckling despite herself. He leaned forward and their lips met in a soft kiss.
"I guess we didn't really need all that nostalgia over kicking firebender butt."
She laughed, the tension from the situation lifting momentarily. Her grin waned slightly and she gave him a meaningful look. "Be careful, Aang."
"Only if you are," he told her lightly.
She hugged him close to herself and he wrapped his arms around her in turn. A loud blast shook the hall again.
"I guess that's our cue," Aang said as they broke apart reluctantly. The two ran outside where the chaos was already beginning. Two houses were on fire one block away and civilians were shouting and running from the second block where over a dozen people dressed in black and red wielded various weapons and were flinging fire bombs. Screams came from adjacent streets, where more smoke was visible. Sokka and Mai were strategically working their way to the rebels, careful to avoid oncoming artillery while Suki was pushing children away from the main street and into shelter. The town's small band of soldiers advanced to meet the rebels, but clearly without any plan of attack. Zuko and Toph stood near the entrance of the town hall, where the earthbender's feet were planted firmly on the ground.
Katara and Aang shared one last glance as she ran off to aid her brother.
"It's a bit fuzzy with all the commotion," Toph said, "but there's a group headed down this way, and a smaller gang down that alley," she continued, pointing to her left.
"They can handle these guys," Zuko said. "It'll be easier to capture the others and get them to tell us where the leader of this thing is."
Aang slammed the bottom of his glider into the ground. "Hold on tight."
The three of them clambered onto the blue contraption and they took off. Aang could only manage to get about ten feet off the ground with the extra weight, but they flew quickly over the fighting. Sparks and fire blasts soared around them and the monk barely managed to avoid them. He turned sharply down a side street and eight more rebels came into view. The three landed clumsily on the ground, narrowly missing an onslaught of arrows. Heavy metals chains flew towards the three as they scrambled to their feet. Aang jumped in front and used his staff to airbend the chains back in the direction of the rebels, where it caught two of them at the ankles and brought them easily to the ground. Zuko sent a large wave of fire towards them as Aang and Toph earthbended tight holds around the remaining insurgents.
"Pansies," Toph scoffed. "Frankly, I was hoping for a little more of a fight than that."
The two boys chuckled as they approached the imprisoned rebels.
"We're not looking for any excess violence," Aang began. "We want to talk to your leader."
He was only met with a half a dozen snarling faces. One man spit at Zuko's feet. "Traitor."
Toph kicked the ground near her feet and the earth encasing the spitting man's body suddenly covered his face as well.
"You don't need to hurt innocent people to get back at us or prove anything."
The Avatar sighed, as he was once again met with silence. The sounds of terror and pandemonium could be heard from the main street. Aang closed his eyes, preparing to enter the Avatar State in order to frighten the rebels into talking.
"Alright, listen here, you lily-livers!" Aang turned to his blind friend as she stomped her foot and the ground and a sharp piece of rock hung over the head of one of the radicals. "You tell us where your leader is or this rock does the tango with your eye ball."
The man gulped and said very quickly, "The archway at the entrance of the nearby forest. Start there and go a mile west. You'll find them at a campsite."
The rock pointed at his head dropped back to the ground and he watched the three turn and sprint towards the woods. "I didn't think it was possible, but your threats have gotten much more terrifying in the recent weeks, Toph," he heard the Avatar say jocularly to the short, angry earthbender.
0.o
Sokka's sword cut through three arrows as he sidestepped and turned, all in a fluid motion. He glanced behind his shoulder and saw that Suki and his sister had managed to get everyone inside and were now racing toward him. Mai flung dozens of knives at the oncoming rebels and elegantly pinned three of them to a wooden structure.
"Hm," he looked at the trapped and writhing men and wondered for a moment just where she kept all of those weapons.
"Sokka!" Katara's shrill voice hurled him back into reality. "Watch out!"
He saw the incoming fire blast right as water soared past his head and put out the flames before they reached him. He grinned sheepishly as his sibling and shrugged as she rolled her eyes and jogged past him.
Katara bent the water out of her pouch and set to work freezing and water whipping every rebel she could find as the Sokka and Suki worked together to knock in the heads of many a firebender. The town's earthbenders busied themselves with putting out residual flames and encasing a couple of the rebels who had made their way closer to the town hall.
In a matter of seconds, the attack was quelled and the flames were put out.
"I don't know why," Sokka scratching the back of his neck and placed his boomerang back in its holster, "but I thought that would take, you know, some effort."
"Yeah," Mai agreed, smirking. "You guys were way more fun to fight."
"Well they did say small uprising," Katara said. "Do you think we should we go after Aang, Toph, and Zuko?" She began to refill her waterskin with water from an ostrich-horse trough.
Sokka looked up at the sun, directly above his head. "No," he said finally. "We don't know where they are. It they're not back by sunset, we'll go looking for them."
"Okay," she consented, rubbing her arms nervously and wishing they were wound around Aang. She hoped, wherever they were, that he and her other friends were safe.
0.o
It didn't take long to reach the edge of the forest and find the stone archway the rebel had told them about.
"Okay, west," Aang said, and they continued into the trees. "Wow," he continued a minute later, gazing at the trees. "This definitely reminds me of traveling to the North Pole. One time, Sokka decided that it wasn't a good idea for us to take Appa because we were near Fire Nation troops. Said it was his instincts or something. Anyway, we're all walking and we get past some bushes and-"
Toph gripped his sleeve. "Hold it," she commanded. "I think I feel something."
The two boys looked at her patiently as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the earth. "Yup, there's a camp not too far from here. Looks big, maybe a hundred people or so."
"One hundred?" Aang repeated, bewildered. "So much for small…"
Zuko ran his hand through his shaggy hair. "Well that's annoying."
"So what's the plan?" Toph asked.
The three stood there, thinking and saying nothing, when finally Aang snapped his fingers.
"I've got it!"
0.o
Teehee. I'm not used to writing battle-ish scenes, seeing as I usually settle for cheesy fluff or some angst or something. Wow, I basically write chick-flicks, don't I? Anyway, hopefully it wasn't too painful to read. I'll update as soon as I can with the next chapter, and then they should start coming a tiny bit faster since I can base it off of "The Promise" more. Hope you're all enjoying summer and Kataang Week! I just love the resurgance of the AtLA fandom with Korra and everything. Warm and fuzzy feelings and all. Anyway, review or something maybe please. I might actually do three chapter of this year long gap… hm, we shall see! Over and out.