Well, here it is! I had to put in a lot of research into doing this chapter in particular, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed making this chapter because of it. I find more and more as a writer that you have to let your characters lead you down the path they need to take and this chapter really proved that to me more than anything.

Also, I wanted to introduce some music in the middle of this chapter, so so in brackets I left a song for you, the reader, to search up and play in the background. The Avatar fans in particular will like what I have in store for them with this music.

Anyways, enjoy!

Weak, frail, pathetic…

Stupidly weak…

Kairi coughed into her arm before flipping onto her stomach, lying down on her cot. She shivered, moving her arms to re-tuck herself underneath the covers of penguin-seal fat insulating her weakened body. Grumbling, Kairi stared at the patterns on the wall, tracing them in her mind. The room she was in reminded her of the one she woke up in, but somehow more distant.

It had been almost a week since Kairi first woke up and despite Katara's healing and casting Curaga when nobody was looking, Kairi could barely walk for fifteen minutes around Katara's large home without feeling fatigue and returning to her bed, defeated. Katara told her that her body temperature, despite her efforts, dropped too low and that Kairi suffered symptoms of mild hypothermia when they found her. Katara remarked how lucky Kairi was for getting off with such a mild case despite the conditions as well as how resourceful she was with her waterbending. Kairi managed to recover from the hypothermia quickly – in no less than a day thanks to the surprisingly advanced medical system of the Water tribe and their healers, which was comparable to a modern hospital back in Destiny Islands – but not without residual pneumonia.

While Katara and the other healers told her that her pneumonia should wear off in a week, Kairi's body remained restless as her mind griped about Riku's disappearance. The men of the Water Tribe were unable to find any sign of Riku and part of Kairi feared the possibility that he might have not survived the storm. Kairi was lucky enough to pick up waterbending, but she could not say the same for the Keyblade Master. Kairi did have faith in Riku, however, and another part of her hoped that he had moved on and found a way to Ba-Sing-Se to meet up with Lea.

Katara was the real reason behind her ease of mind with Riku and her only reason for remaining in the Water Tribe instead of moving on. True, Kairi often had hours to herself, but occasionally, Katara would visit her to check up on her condition and to keep her company. Katara would often recount her adventures with the Avatar and her friends – her time in the North Pole training under her grandfather, Paku; about Ba-Sing-Se and the Dai-Le, their visits to Kyoshi Island (and a foamy mouth guy); Omashu and King Bumi; their time infiltrating the Fire Nation and the invasion plan; a man named Zuko and his rough past; and her fight against the Princess of the Fire Nation – and Kairi would intently listen.

"And right before she could strike, I waterbended the water up and around us and froze it all at once. Azula remained frozen as I melted the water around me and chained up her wrists, tying them to the grate. I felt like I was holding onto my breath for dear life, but as soon as I tightened the bonds, I unfroze all of the water, gasping for air," Kairi looked at her, astonished.

"Wow! You're amazing, Katara," Kairi beamed.

"Thanks…" Katara grinned, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"No really! You're a really powerful waterbender. I wish I was more like you!"

Kairi would often speak vaguely about Destiny Islands and her friends, Sora and Riku, to Katara in return. Kairi could not tell Katara everything, but considering how open the waterbender was to her, Kairi felt that she could trust Katara with her own experiences…at least the better ones.

"So we decided one day to build a raft and just see how far the waves could take us," Kairi reminisced, "the world seemed so small at the time, but I never knew how big it really was."

"What happened? Did you really build one?" Katara leaned in.

"Yeah, we did…" Kairi smiled bitter-sweetly.

"And?"

"A storm hit the following night, a really bad storm. I went to the island to tie in the raft, but the storm had already claimed it before I could get to it. The waves were becoming too powerful and I couldn't return to my house, so I decided to take shelter in my secret hideaway in a small cave near the center of the island to wait out the storm. I must have been tired because I don't remember anything after I entered the cave," Kairi knew what happened after that, but only because Sora told her and Kairi couldn't explain what happened next to Katara.

"So how did you get off the island?" Katara asked.

"I got off the island rather unexpectedly, actually. Even without the raft, Sora managed to find a way off the island the next day and I ended up traveling with him for a while before I returned. The places we traveled were rather small and remote, but Sora made a lot of good friends along the way. Sora's always been like that," Kairi smiled.

Kairi closed her eyes briefly, sighing. Katara told her that she should recover in a matter of days, so all that Kairi could do was rest. Kairi promised herself after her recovery that she would try and find Riku and head to Ba-Sing-Se, but frustration still occupied the Keyblade wielder's thoughts at her own weakness.

"Kairi?" Katara entered through the arch, moving aside a blue sheet that acted as a door.

"Are you awake?" Katara asked in a whisper.

"Yeah," Kairi stretched her muscles before sitting up.

"I have some good news for you! I was talking to the other healers and they think it would be a good idea for you to get some more exercise. Not only that, but the Winter Solstice festival is beginning today, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to ease your mind a little."

"Thanks, Katara. I think that's just what I needed," Kairi nodded her head in appreciation.

"I'll help you up," Katara walked over before Kairi held out her palm in refusal.

"I've got it," Kairi lifted herself off the bed, straining her legs and using a clump of covers as support in her hands. Kairi stood in place as she tried to find her balance, sighing in relief as her legs stopped shaking and her spine aligned with the icy floor.

"Do you think you can make it?" Katara asked.

"I'm good. Don't worry about me," Kairi remained determined as the two walked out of her lonesome bedroom and into the looming hallway ahead.

"So, you're Kairi, eh?" a tan young man with a wolf tail pulling back his dark, ruffled hair gazed at her with wide eyes. He wore basic water tribe garb, a blue and white tunic, and displayed a sword on his back, with beautiful craftsmanship. A boomerang was also tucked away in a sheath next to his sword.

Kairi was standing with Katara in front of a merchant's tent in town. The sun was beginning to set out in the distance, the rays reflecting harshly off the spears, swords, and shields lying on top of a tarp covering a counter made of ice. Pelts, pouches, and other kinds of merchandise lined the table, hugging the proudly displayed weapons.

"I guess Katara wasn't kidding when she said you were pretty."

The man received a punishing slap across the back of his head.

"Oww…I was kidding. That seriously hurt," he turned to the perpetrator, a pretty young woman his age with simple, brown hair and skin as fair as Kairi's. She was dressed slightly different; wearing a similar parka as the other women, but hers was green instead of blue and displayed an octagonal insignia in the middle.

"That's what you get when you flirt with other women, Sokka," she placed two hands on her hips indignantly.

"You know I didn't mean it, Suki," Sokka tenderly wrapped his arm around Suki's waist, "after all, I carved that necklace for you, didn't I?"

"Hmm…you're off the hook…this time," Suki glared for a brief moment jokingly, startling Sokka, before smiling and cuddling up next to him.

Katara leaned towards Kairi, whispering audibly, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I heard that!" Sokka walked away from Suki and mimicked Katara, "Sorry about my sister."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Katara crossed her arms.

"Hey, I'm just apologizing to our guest," Sokka taunted.

"You're so infuriating!" Katara's arms shook in frustration.

The siblings kept bickering, Kairi moving away from the entire mess. Suki rolled her eyes.

"This is normal. They actually are closer than you'd think," Kairi turned to Suki.

"I've never had siblings, but I always used to see Sora and Riku bicker and compete over the tiniest little things," Kairi laughed a little bit, "it's a little nostalgic, actually."

"Usually, Aang would resolve these little scrabbles, but after he left…it's interesting how things can change after one person leaves."

"I know the feeling," Kairi smiled.

"So I'll grab your Armor for you," Suki entered the tent to Sokka's shop briefly. Kairi could hear the clang of metal and the rustling of the tent before Suki emerged from the shop with the rerebraces in tow. A brown pelt with white lining covered the armor everywhere, including the sleeves that extended from the Armor originally, except for the buttons right in the middle.

"Sokka can explain the modifications better than I can. Sokka?" Suki looked at the siblings, witnessing the heat of the battle: Katara childishly pulling at Sokka's wolf tail and Sokka trying to pull her off without damaging his hair.

"Yes?" Sokka said sheepishly.

"That's enough playing with your sister for now."

Sokka grumbled as he freed himself from Katara's grasp and made his way behind the table, a disgruntled, childish look on his face.

"Now, if I have you attention," Sokka takes the Armor from Suki's hands, "Unfortunately, for these pieces of Armor, they will never see battle again…at least down here in the tundra. Metal such as this becomes brittle in the harsh winter conditions, making it essentially useless. I made modifications so that the metal can endure the cold for a brief period of time exposed, but they cannot be worn." Kairi looked disappointed.

"Don't worry, though. You're Armor should be completely wearable if you ever decide to leave the South Pole," Sokka reassured her, "and I even have a back-up prepared for you."

"Anyways, like I was saying, most metals naturally have a rough time in the cold, but an inventor friend of mine from the Northern Air Temple recently learned about a metal called aluminum. Not only is it incredibly common, but it can easily withstand cold temperatures! All I needed to do was get a few earthbenders to dig up some aluminum from the earth, forge the aluminum at a high temperature and bam! Weapons and armor that can resist the cold!"

Sokka then ducked underneath his ice table and set a replica of Kairi's armor on the table, also covered with a brown pelt with white lining, but the button gleamed metallic. Kairi picked up the new armor, and then set it next to the old Armor.

"You're new rerebraces should also be much more lightweight than your previous gear. I placed penguin fat underneath the pelt lining to ensure the metal remained insolated as much as..."

Kairi attention suddenly shifted from Sokka to her normal Armor as Kairi heard her Armor shake on the icy surface. The rerebraces flashed for a brief moment underneath the fur pelt before the Armor engulfed itself in an orb of light. The orb of light moved over the new rerebraces before slamming right into it, briefly engulfing the new piece of armor in light as the old Armor melded into the new. The light dissipated. A red crown insignia was left on the button of the new Armor that Sokka made for her.

"…possible…Ok, that's great. I've already seen enough spirit-y things for a lifetime, so I'm not even going to ask," Sokka turned his head, refusing to register what had just occurred.

After a few seconds, however, his eye peaked at the new Armor curiously before his head immediately shifted, "Ok, is nobody going to explain is?" Sokka pointed at the Armor, looking around at everybody's baffled faces for an explaination.

Kairi didn't even understand what just occurred. Master Yen Sid had never mentioned that the Armor acted on its own. Kairi did remember Master Yen Sid saying that the Armor was capable of changing form, however, so perhaps the Armor was trying to adapt to its new environment by fusing with the cold resistant rerebraces? Kairi decided, rather than continuing her internal game of twenty questions, to quickly come up with an excuse for the sudden transformation and try on the Armor to learn what happened.

"Well…as I told Katara, I have a deep connection to the Spirit World," Kairi lied, "my Armor is kinda special; it's not like normal armor," While Katara and Suki seemed to buy her excuse, Sokka eyebrow raised, his arms crossed. He remained distant, silent.

"I should try it on and see if it fits."

Kairi secured the rerebraces into place on her skinny, dark blue, white fur-lined parka. Kairi could sense the reinforced warmth of the fur as she shipped her arms through the sleeves. A perfect fit.

Kairi made a mental note to try and transform the Armor at a later time in privacy, but for now, Kairi decided to take her mind off the Armor and focus on enjoying the Winter Solstice festival with Katara and her friends. Sokka closed up his shop for the day, placing a nicely carved sign on his front table before walking away.

"Aren't you afraid somebody's going to steal anything?" Kairi asked him.

"Nope," Sokka waved his hand, dismissing any concern, "We're in the middle of the South Pole; where else can they go? Every boat that comes and leaves is monitored by the city and everything else is a wasteland. Besides, most people here know each other anyways and there are hardly ever any tourists."

Kairi shrugged her arms. This community seemed rather peaceful and Kairi knew this was a large world, but she was perplexed. Where are the evil spirits, the Heartless? Wouldn't the Organization have found her by now? This world seemed to be peaceful thanks to the Avatar."

Was she really needed here?

The four of them walked down the icy streets towards the center of town through gathering crowds of people. Large totem poles made of ice lined the streets; ceremonial lanterns wrapped around these totems, lacing across the streets and illuminating the buildings in place of the darkening, evening sky. The large building from before – Kairi recognized this structure to be similar to that of a pagoda – towered over the city's center with intricately carved, detailed symbols and patterns of the Southern Water tribe decorating the exterior. Kairi marveled at the attention it commanded over the small city.

"We built that structure to symbolize our new friendship with the Fire Nation," Katara explained, "Aang and Zuko believed that for our world to progress, nations needed to start communicating rather than living separately; exchanging ideas could be the first step towards healing old wounds and making the world a better place."

"Having your people, those hearts, connecting with one another and sharing wisdom is truly an amazing thing," Kairi placed a hand to her heart, "the connection between people is invaluable. I love it."

"Come on, we're not going to be able to do anything standing around," Suki took Katara and Kairi's hand and pulled them with her. Sokka managed to keep up with the group of girls, whining "wait for me" as they weaved through crowds. Music filled the air as they approached the center of the city; icy buildings began taking the place of igloos; vendors with all kinds of steamy, hot food attracted all kinds of crowds with alluring fragrance. Suki finally lead them to the center of town, a hexagonal shaped clearing where six major streets converged, the large pagoda guarding the center of the Southern Water Tribe. A group of people in red clothing were playing all kinds of instruments in the courtyard, most of them being around their age.

"Those are some of Aang's friends when we were in the Fire Nation. He attended a school briefly and even threw them a dance party before we had to leave. After the war, a lot of them decided to be a roaming band, spreading music and dance across the Fire Nation and to the rest of the world," Katara crossed her arms, "Aang may be a little goofy at times, but he touched a lot of lives during our travels."

Sokka, finally catching up, bent over to catch his breath. He looked up, "Oh yeah, I remember these little Fire Nation brats," Sokka then began to stroke the air around his chin, as if he had a beard, in fond memory, "why haven't I grown out a beard yet?"

"Let's dance already," Suki grabbed Sokka's hand and pulled him into the fray of dancing people, leaving Katara and Kairi alone. A guy offered Kairi to dance, but she turned him away, feeling shy about dancing.

"You really should dance," Katara turned to her, "it's more fun than you'd think."

"Thanks, but I'm not much of a dancer," Kairi rubbed the back of her head, "and besides, you're not dancing either, Ms. Hypocritical." Somewhere in the crowd, Kairi could have sworn she heard Sokka laugh.

"Na. It's not really the same without Aang," Katara smiled, "he's a fantastic dancer."

"Then how about we change that," Kairi decided, holding out a hand, "I guess there's no point in standing around."

"But what about your sickness?" Katara asked, concerned.

"Well, you did say I should start moving around, right?" Kairi reasoned, "It might be good for me if I dance."

Katara considered this before Kairi took her hand and pulled her into the crowd. Kairi didn't know how to dance, so instead she decided to add in some of Riku's sparring moves to spice up her moves and improvise the rest. She started out by holding a crane stance, jumping from one foot to another, moving back and forth horizontally. She began settling into a horse stance, jumping from one side to another, her arms in a circular motion. Katara fell in foot with the familiar-looking movements, studying Kairi. Kairi then jumped back into a crane stance, and while keeping the circular flow of her arms, she jumped back and forth vertically now, maintaining the shift of her crane stances, Katara followed in suit, keeping her arms level with Kairi's, noticing the parallels.

Her movements…they remind me of waterbending!

Katara's epiphany leads her to tap Kairi's shoulder and as Kairi turned, Katara held out an arm, palm facing the sky. Katara would test to see how much Kairi knew; Kairi met her arm in the same stance, seeming to understand Katara's intentions. Katara was reminded of the night in the cave with Aang when he invited her to dance, except this wouldn't be a romantic dance; this would be a test to see Kairi's potential. The two began circling each other, Katara staring intently into Kairi's eyes for any sign of familiarity and found confident, understanding eyes staring back at her. Katara was the master and Kairi would fall suit into Katara's movements. A crowd began to gather around them, but neither of them noticed; the intensity of their dance, their spar, limited their perception of the rest of the world.

Katara threw out the first jab, which Kairi dodged gracefully, leading to Kairi swift retreat into a crane stance before stepping forward and jabbing upward. Katara moved underneath Kairi's jab in a crescent, moving her arms in a circular motion underneath. Katara kept a firm stance as she cut into Kairi's outstretched arm with her own, but Kairi expected this and moved elegantly to Katara's side, entering a side stance before twisting and moving up into a crane stance. Katara swiftly retreated forward, turning around to mirror Kairi's stance.

They began performing Kairi's move from earlier; moving back and forth sideways on their feet, Katara began to bend the water from the ice beneath, moving the water with her arms to make an infinity sign. Kairi nodded and began to mirror Katara, moving the water from the icy ground up and moving the water using similar movements. The crowd cheered as the two of them evaporated the water in the air, but made way as Katara began moving to her left. Remembering a basic move from the waterbending scroll she…borrowed, Katara fell into a front stance, right leg out, moving her right arm above her head, her left arm outstretched. Kairi mirrored her movements, placing her left leg out. Katara then began to flow through the movements with elegance, moving her arms in a windmill, the water moving out from underneath her with every step. Kairi successfully picked up Katara's lesson, and remembering Riku's advice, she kept her arms relaxed as the water flowed from underneath her in a wave. With the final arm outstretched, Katara moved the wave up by retreating back a step, allowing for the flow of water to return to her in a stream. She continued moving her arms and body back and forth vertically, allowing for the water to orbit her body. Kairi fell into step and shifting to face each other, Katara streamed her water to Kairi, who caught it in her movements. Kairi then returned the water to Katara, who caught it and recycled the process. The two waterbenders sped up their movements, moving the water back and forth in a larger infinity sign, smiles on both of their faces.

Katara then took the water and plunged it into the ice, dropping into a horse stance. She gathered more water underneath her and moved it up and around her by outstretching her hands while maintaining the horse stance. Kairi stood in a similar stance, but chose to watch Katara first. Katara maintained the circumference of water around her and began pulling water whips out of the halo of water, forming what looked like an octopus's tentacles. Kairi moved the water up and around her with calm precision, creating a ring of water and pulling out water whips of her own. Katara then began moving the whips of water towards Kairi, Kairi deflecting the whips with her own. Katara then freed her intensity and began to move her arms rhythmically, her water whips swaying around her. She looked at Kairi intently, signaling with her eyes to follow her next move with no hesitation. Kairi nodded.

Katara moved the water whips up into two streams and moved the whips to her arms, making both of her arms engulfed in water whips. When Kairi created her own, Katara then began chopping at the air, the whip moving with her. Kairi moved her arm in an upward block and as the two water whips collided, droplets of water flew into the air, glittering in the light of the lanterns. Kairi followed up with a chop, which Katara deflected, sending more water droplets flying into the air. The girls continued this display rhythmically, filling the air with water particles. Katara then signaled for Kairi to drop her water whips and dropping her own, Katara then started bending the loose water particles in the air. Moving them in a sphere above them, Katara froze all of the water particles and allowed for them to collide, Kairi watching in awe. The colliding ice particles sent more sparkling particles into the air. Katara then collected all of the ice particles into two streams, sending another stream towards Kairi, who caught it. Katara then sent her stream flying into the air, Kairi instinctively firing her stream up as well. The streams of ice particles collided perfectly, sending down a rain of snow to the crowd below, who cheered at their display.

Kairi bent over, huffing in exhaustion as Katara approached her. Katara was just as tired, but a huge grin was plastered all over her face.

"Kairi, you never told me you knew how to waterbend!" Katara looked excited, "I thought you might have never seen another soul waterbend in your life when I first met you. You were amazing!"

"But I don't know how to waterbend," Kairi scratched her head, "I was just using the self-defense moves Riku taught me and mimicking you. I never used these moves to bend water before."

"Really? I thought that you might have had a Waterbending master."

"Well, Riku isn't a waterbender, but in many ways, he was my master," Kairi finally stood up after recovering, "he taught me how to defend myself in case I didn't have my weapon. Riku prefers to fight with a blade, so I rely on the swordsmanship he taught me, but I never thought my hand to hand self-defense would ever come in handy." Kairi laughed, flustered.

"Well, I'd be honored to teach you anything I know…if you want to, of course," Katara gleamed at the idea of teaching another student. Kairi picked up on her enthusiasm quickly. Kairi knew that she couldn't stay in the Southern Water Tribe for long, but she also believed that her familiarity with this new skill and a master teaching her could be invaluable for the journey ahead. Her fatigue broke while she was dancing and this ability had saved her life twice already; besides, Kairi needed to get some exercise and rest a little more before she was ready to travel to Ba-Sing-Sei on her own.

"I'd like that. I can't stay for long, but I'd be honored if you would teach me," Kairi bowed respectfully. Katara returned her bow.

"We'll start early in the morning tomorrow, just as my old master had me train," Katara smiled, "get some rest."

Sokka and Suki approached the two waterbenders baffled.

"Wow! That was amazing!" Suki beamed, turning to Kairi, "and I didn't know you could waterbend."

"But I ca-"

"She performed excellently," Katara interrupted, "I plan on teaching her tomorrow. Sokka, would you mind sparring with Kairi as well? I think it would be good exercise for her," Sokka looked surprised.

"Does she know how to use a sword?" Kairi nodded, believing the Keyblade was close enough to a sword anyways. Of course, she would probably use a regular sword to keep her identity hidden.

"I have no problem with that," Sokka agreed, "but I should probably test you first."

"How?" Kairi asked, but then noticed screaming coming from the crowd. A mob of people were running away and Kairi's heart sunk into her stomach as she recognized the source.

Heartless, a whole horde of Heartless, but they weren't alone. Whether crawling on the floor or floating from above, enemies she had never seen before attacked alongside the Heartless, dark entities that she had only heard of recently.

Dark Spirits.

"How about you start with them…" Sokka pointed, gulping.

And the action begins!

As a quick note, all of the movements I had Katara and Kairi perform are based off either the waterbending scroll seen in the episode with the Pirates, movements I saw on the show, or my own limited martial arts experience. I was actually dancing a bit to the music to synthesize some of the more improvised moves while I was writing their sequence, so let no one tell you a writer isn't active, haha!

Next chapter will be up soon, but I hoped you enjoyed!