Hi guys! I'm finally back! I'm gonna try and get at least a chapter a week now! and here's were more action comes in. I know a lot of you guys are getting bored!!! Please don't leave! And thanks for all the awesome comments though! Love ya guys! And check me out at www. avatarone3. deviantart. com without spaces. All my avatar work is there! check it out!!!
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!!! ALSO, BRAND NEW STORY!!! I KILL SOKKA???? CHECK IT OUT!!!!
The Avatar searched for an hour on Appa, scanning the endless sea and sea of iced for his daughter. As he got closer to the ground, he suddenly spotted shallow footprints in the snow. Aang guided the bison down, where the footprints now were clear. He started to follow on foot, beginning at a run, Appa keeping up behind him.
The small blizzard turned into a larger one that moved in, but Aang could still clearly see the footprints as he airbended the snow from his path. He squinted his eyes in the snow towards the horizon, and he spotted the figure up ahead who was responsible for the tracks. It was Ara.
He ran to catch up, and he yelled his daughter's name.
"Ara!"
"Leave me alone!!!" she cried back, in a voice filled with sadness, anger, and overall, confusion. Aang tried again.
"Ara?"
"Zuko, I told you! Go away!"
"Ara! It's me! Your dad! Aang!"
Ara swiftly turned around, gasping, but the face Aang saw shocked him. Her eyes were circled in about two weeks' worth of dark rings, her endless tears fell and froze to her cheeks, her face was near blue from the cold, a deep reopened gash across her forehead bled, and she walked with a limp. Her eyes were full of sadness, pain, and confusion, and all light, joy, and peace were gone from them. He gasped, but tried to hide his surprise and shock at her appearance.
"You're okay," she whispered.
"Ara," he cried through the worsening storm, "it's alright. What's wrong? What the heck are you doing out her this far? Ara, we can help you!"
"NO!!!" she screamed, her tears flowing harder. "No one can! That's why I'm out here!"
"Why?"
"It's the only way I can forget about not remembering," she cried out to him.
"What do you mean?" he cried back.
"The war started, and I fought like everyone else," she yelled to him. "I killed unmercifully, but as I did, I realized that this was wrong! Killing was wrong, even in war!" she yelled, a full layer of frozen tears on her face. "So I only began to protect myself, just injuring or pushing away the enemy. It felt all wrong to me, dad. I was becoming a killer! I couldn't handle that. I wasn't myself!!!" she angrily screamed, the cold wind suddenly blasting in his face as she lost control.
"Death and killing wasn't part of me, dad. It never was! That part of me is because of your lineage! I am the element of air, the Air Nomads. I share their story!!!"
The ice began to crack under Aang's feet from his daughter's fury.
"I saved Zuko once and continued to fight after I drew away Azula's attack on him, and suddenly, everything went black and silent! I don't remember anything else. I don't remember ANYTHING!" she screamed in agony.
"Ara!!!" Aang cried, but she continued.
"Dad, I don't remember killing or war after that. Nothing except silence and blackness and pain. NOTHING! I only felt myself leaving this world. And I felt my soul pulling away. But then, I felt life being renewed, heat filling me and life being breathed back into my body. And then I felt the rain hitting my burnt skin. And that's it!!! And when I woke up, I was told I killed Azula, AZULA, with more rage, fury, and anger than anyone. I was told I killed so many more, in anger and rage, that I wasn't even me! Zuko said it was someone else in my place, that he couldn't see me in my eyes. A killer stood instead! I don't want to be known as a killer!!!"
"Ara, listen to me!!!"
"NO!" she yelled, more anger and confusion filling her face. "Why?! And how?! How could I not remember it? I'm so confused! I don't remember! I was a killer!"
"Ara," Aang yelled over the worsening storm, firm though compassionate, "war is different. You aren't a murderer. You killed in defense, and war is killing to protect the world and the ones you love!"
"I don't see the difference, dad," Ara yelled. "Two wrongs don't make a right. I see no difference. And you don't know what it's like, having many people's blood on your hands, when you didn't even know! Killing is still taking one person's life away, even if they deserve it! Killing is wrong!!!"
The ice cracked beneath her and Aang, and the avatar fell to his knees in the snow. Appa groaned loudly from the frozen earth shaking beneath him.
Ara's tears froze over her face, neverending water freezing like icicles to her chin and cheeks. "I can't forget not remembering!" she screamed. "I was a killer, and I can't forget--I won't! It haunts me!"
Suddenly, as if she were the Avatar, not her father, her tears and her necklace began to glow, not her eyes and tattoos as Aang's did, and she airbended herself off the ground, high into the air on a cyclone. The snow swirled around her and the ice cracked. The cold wind blew her hair and clothes wildly, and it blew Aang, and even Appa, backwards. But the Avatar was ready. He dug his feet into the ice, bending it around them, keeping him steady. One by one he thrust each let forward, bending the ice with each step. He then bent the ice down into water, which he bent around himself, lifting him to her height. He pushed off towards his daughter with air bending, and when he was about five feet in front of her, the man stopped. His heart broke at the close sight of his daughter. She wasn't the smiling, happy young woman he had come to love the most in the weeks that he had known her. She wasn't Ara anymore. She was a stranger to him.
And at that moment, Aang did the only thing he knew to help his daughter. He did the only thing that Katara did that helped him when he lost Appa.
He said nothing as he slightly leapt forward and hugged his daughter tenderly, yet firm, with love and understanding filling her through him. He held her as Katara held him when Appa had been taken from them. No one could calm him, except the love his best friend and now wife had shown him in just an embrace, to show him that it would be okay, that she loved him, that she was there, that the person who loved him the most cared for him with all her heart and soul. It was sincere, honest, and pure love.
Only this love was a bit different.
This was the love a father and his daughter.
The Avatar held his daughter through the storm that she had created, throught the wind, the snow, and he could feel the sorrow--and the power-- that she held within. He just hugged her, his chin resting on her head, rubbing her back gently. He just held her.
Bit by bit, the storm ceased, the winds dropped, and the snow fell softly. The young water-airbender, finally exhausted, dropped her airbending and completely clung to her father, who continued airbending until he gently had his feet on the ground once more, still holding his daughter, as he then fell to his knees, tears falling. Ara held him tightly, her anger gone, her tired body shaking in his grip as her tears still fell and froze. Aang wrapped his arms tighter around her, just trying to comfort her.
At last, her tears stopped, and Aang looked up. Appa was slowly getting comfortable a few feet away, but all around it was nothing now but white silence. Aang softly bent the snow and ice from around them into a large hardened cave over them, and it shut out most of the cold. Appa, still scared of caves, was more than happy to curl up at the entrance and block it with his warmth.
Ara's frozen tears began to thaw and fall, her face still blue from the cold, her body shivering. She curled into her father's arms, and he leaned back against the wall of the cave, just letting his daughter cry all she had left. Finally, she relaxed.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"There's nothing to be sorry about," he replied, looking down to his chest where Ara's head rested. He took her chin in one hand and tilted her head up to meet his gaze. Her beautiful grey eyes locked onto his own. "I understand exactly what you're going through, what you feel. Remember, I too share the Air Nomads' past. And I have a plan for you. But just rest now. I'll get a fire going."
Aang got up and walked over to Appa, where the bison was already snoring. He took some firewood and blankets from the saddle, patted his animal guide, and walked back in. He bent a small hole into the ice, placed the wood in, and gently fire bended a small flame onto it, which the dry wood quickly caught and started to burn. He walked over and sat next to Ara, who was curled up on her side, her knees almost to her nose. She slowly got up as he sat down and he widened his arm so she could lean against him once more. She wiped her thawing tears as her body became a bit warmer.
"Hold on," Aang said as he sat up, bringing his daughter with him. He removed his gloves and took her face in his hands, and heating himself from the core, focused his firebending into warmth which radiated from his hands into her face. He melted the layer of frozen tears from her cheeks, and the bluish tint disappeared.
Ara closed her eyes, the warmth from her father's hands soaking through her skin and heating her entire body, warming her and thawing out her frozen form. She shivered and fell against him again, trying to get warmer. Her body still shook from shock as well, but as she leaned against him, it gradually subsided.
Aang sat up still, and he looked down at his daughter. The nasty gash across her forehead still bled freely, and he decided to clean it up. He tore off a piece of his robe underneath his parka, bent up some ice, and held it above the fire until it was warm. He bent it back toward him, held up the rag and soaked it with warm water. The extra water he bent back into the icy ground, and he turned to Ara. He took her face in one hand.
"Now hold still," he said gently. "This might sting."
He began to wipe away the fresh and dried blood from his daughter's face. She winced a bit.
"How did you get such a bad cut?"
"That's the problem. Ow! I don't--ow! Remember. I was delirious when I got it. I don't remember doing or seeing or hearing anything, just the pain and my own death. That's why it scares me. I killed and I was killed. And I felt my soul leave. But it was still dark. All I knew was that when I was dead, I didn't even feel anything either. But then I felt fire inside, and I felt my life again, and I felt all my wounds and the rain on my burnt skin. I was in so much pain, but I couldn't scream, open my eyes, or move. All I felt were strong arms lifting me up, and then I blacked out again, even though I was still unconscious anyway. That was when I probably slipped into the coma, when everything was lost to me again. It's just a fading dream, but it's there. I was a killer. And I can't forget that, even if I don't remember what happened. I can't remember the story. And that's enough to haunt me."
Aang finished cleaning his daughter's forehead. "You've been through too much for your age. But I have a solution." He patted it dry. "There. When we get back, be sure to ask your mother to heal that."
"No."
"She'll fix--wait, what?" Aang looked at her, surprised. "What do you mean, 'no?'"
"Dad, the war has affected the world, it has affected my family, it has affected me. I will keep what has been given to me, no matter how painful. It's how I know my part has been played, and I have overcome all that has been put in my path. The scars will help me remember what I have gone through. They help me remember the memory I've lost."
Aang looked deep into his daughter's matching storm-grey eyes. "You are so strong Ara," he whispered, moving a lock of her hair, fallen down, to behind her ear. "I am so proud of you. But I never wanted this for you. Before your mother's and my wedding, I told myself that any children we had would never grow up in war and would never have to experience the pain we did as kids. That was when we thought the war was over. But I see now that it was part of destiny that you were born and saved us all, in one way or another. I am so proud that you are my daughter, and I am so proud that my girl is strong, just like her mother."
Ara smiled. "And like her father."
Aang smiled as well. "Yeah. Like me." He puffed out his chest jokingly, and Ara laughed. She poked him in the stomach, and he doubled over, letting out his breath and laughing, while Ara started to laugh even harder than he did, and soon both father and daughter were sprawled out, laughing and gasping for air.
The two eventually settled down, and Ara curled into her father's arms once more, taking in his scent, his feel, while she buried her cheek into the fur in his parka. He wrapped his arms around his daughter, holding her close. "I love you so much, Ara. You mean everything to me."
"I love you too, dad. So much." she looked up at him, her chin on his chest. "I'm so proud of you. Thanks for everything."
Aang leaned down and kissed his daughter's arrow. "You're welcome. But before you fall asleep, can I ask you a question?"
Ara raised her head and looked at him. "Yeah. What?"
"How did you save me from dying?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came except an "oh." She stared up at him. "I just felt for your spirit instead of your body. You and I are connected not just by blood, but by the soul and spirit of the airbenders. I am the last besides you, dad. And by searching for the airbender's spirit, as well as your Avatar spirit, I was able to heal them as well as your body to keep you going. The airbender's spirit means freedom and peace. The avatar means balance and harmony. Your body had none at the moment, and so I needed to heal what was part of me in order to save you…I didn't actually know what I did to save you, but when Zuko first told me you were dying, something spit out the words 'I know how to save him' from my mouth, and so I followed it. And I didn't know what I did until I focused on it much later in silence."
Aang stared at her, open mouthed, with tears in his eyes. "Ara…" he whispered. "You know more about my spirit than I do. You saved my life…" he held her tighter. "And for that I owe you everything. Thank you."
She smiled. "I told Zuko it was the airbender's secret."
He laughed. "Well, then, we'll keep it the secret. But just rest now. You look exhausted, and we're stuck out here for a while. Get some sleep, and I'll be right here."
Ara curled up against her father and yawned. "Ok," she sighed and closed her eyes, falling asleep to the beating of his heart. The Avatar pulled the warm fur blankets up over them, tucking one around his daughter, the other placed over both of them. And softly, Aang leaned his head onto the top of hers, closing his eyes and falling asleep, while the snow started to fall swiftly outside.
Many hours later, with the fire burned out and cold seeping through his clothes and skin down to his bones, Aang woke. He looked down at Ara, who, since she hadn't gotten sleep for over two weeks, slept fitfully. He slowly leaned up, took the blanket off of himself, held gently off himself, and wrapped his blanket like a pillow. He put it under Ara's head, placed her on the ground and tucked her in. She flipped onto her stomach, stretched out, and then winced.
Aang stopped moving when she softly groaned, and he looked at her. Then he noticed a long deep trail of blood seeping through the left side of her parka, going all the way down her back. Tears filled his eyes, as he knew she was still seriously wounded from the war, yet she was so strong in dealing with the pain she felt.
He made a mental note to have her get bandaged up when they went home, and he got up as slowly and as quietly as he could and walked over to the opening of the cave. It was blocked by fur. He smiled and poked the furry wall jokingly yet lovingly. The furry wall moved and still silent light flooded in.
The Avatar blinked a few times and then stepped outside, where white surrounded him. He looked at Appa, who had at least two feet of snow and ice on top of him. Aang smiled. "Looks like we got ourselves an Appa-sickle, huh boy?" He laughed as the bison groaned loudly and licked him affectionately. Aang wiped off his face, and he looked up in time to see his friend shake a few hundred pounds of snow off his back, onto Aang. "No Appa!" he laughed as he was covered in snow. But he quickly bent it off of him, stood up, and rubbed the bison's head. "Love ya, buddy," Aang said, and he walked back inside.
Ara was still fast asleep, and Aang didn't want to wake his daughter, so carefully and quietly, he slowly picked her up in his arms. She sighed shakily and got comfortable, and the Avatar smiled. He kissed her forehead which rested against his chest, and sighed. "I love you, Ara," he whispered. He carried her outside, and with airbending, slowly bent both of them up onto Appa's back, where the bison took off gently.
Aang set Ara down comfortably, tucked the blankets around her, and climbed to the bison's head, where he set his course for home.
Another hour later, with the evening slowly coming, Aang stopped and let Appa rest a ½ mile from the city. And he decided to carry his sleeping daughter the rest of the way. He never had the chance to hold her as a baby, never had the chance to comfort her, to love her, to watch her grow up. And for the time that he got to hold his 15 year old who had already been through so much in her life, it affected him deeply. Had it only been four months since she came into his life?
Aang looked down at her. For someone so strong and built, she was incredibly light. Like air, he thought. She has the spirit and fight of her father, the attitude and compassion of her mother. The lightheartedness and warrior of her uncle. The toughness of her aunt. The stealth and precision of Mai. The flexibility and graceful balance of Ty Lee. The honor and pride, and sometimes, temper, of Zuko. The connection between all of us.
Then it hit him; just like he was the bridge and connection between the real world and the spirit world, Ara was their families bridge and connection. She was like each of them and had a part of who they were within her. And at the same time, she was her own person. Ara, the waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. Ara, the airbender of the Air Nomad Temples. Ara, who joined together with her family to save the world again.
He reached the gate to the city and the doors swung open wide. He walked in calmly and quietly, yet every hustling and bustling person he passed stopped and stared as the Avatar carried in his daughter. Many had worried looks in their eyes as they knew the young woman. But Aang just smiled at them, telling them without words that she was fine. They then smiled and continued onward. Appa made his way to his warm barn, while the Avatar carried his sleeping daughter, wrapped in blankets, up the steps to their home.
Toph, who could feel a little through the ice, was the first to know her best friend was back. A smiled overcame her face, and she nudged Sokka, who had nodded off while reading.
"Sokka," she whispered. "Sokka, they're back…"
"Wha--what?" he mumbled, then sat up straight. Both of them scrambled to their feet and ran outside the tent, where they both got Mai and Zuko. Sokka ran to his sister's tent.
He opened the flap and walked in. "Katara?" he asked.
"Hey Sokka. Just doing some water bending. Whadcha need?"
"They're back."
Katara immediately dropped the water and looked up at her brother. She smiled. "Really?"
"They're walking toward us as we spe--"
Katara was already up and pulling her parka over her head as she rushed past her brother to the tent flap.
The sun just sank below the horizon as she opened the tent flap and walked out, the cold breeze and light snowfall both moving her hair and sticking in it. She smiled at the rest of the gang, and started to join them, but she stopped as she saw Aang's form walk up the steps. He was silhouetted by the setting sun, with the snow falling around him and his outline highlighted. But what made her smile was to see her husband proudly carrying his sleeping daughter up the steps toward them.
Katara smiled gently and tears filled her eyes. Suddenly her husband wasn't standing there; the form of him as the little 12-year old stood instead, and he smiled a big, goofy smile. "Will you go penguin-sledding with me?"
Her vision switched back, and she smiled at how much her best friend had grown, in every way he could. It was the reason she loved him. It was the reason she smiled at him now.
Sokka, Toph, Zuko, and Mai all stepped forward, worried for the young girl Aang held in his arms, but he quickly brushed them aside, walking toward Katara.
When he reached her, she searched his eyes. The light grey pools locked deep into her soul, and she expected sadness, fear, pain, and suffering to mirror out from them. She couldn't look away from his eyes, expecting to see a sadness. But for some reason, she saw only relief and peace. Then he broke their gaze as he looked down at their sleeping daughter. Katara looked down as well. She touched Ara's cheek, and then looked back up at him. "Is she okay?" she whispered.
"She'll be fine," he answered back quietly, smiling. "She's been through so much. She's seen and done too much, and she saved my life. She just needs time, healing, and rest. And that's what she deserves."
Aang walked past her toward Ara's tent as the waterbender stared after them. She held herself in her arms as the rest of the group came and stood next to her. Sokka put a hand on her shoulder, Toph gave her a punch, and Mai and Zuko smiled. "She'll be fine," Katara whispered, looking towards them. "She's okay."
Aang set Ara down among the pillows and furs of her bed, tucking her in and moving a lock of her hair away from the cut on her forehead. He leaned down gently as he closed his eyes and kissed her arrow, which glowed dimly blue in the evening light let in on one side of the tent. She mumbled a little, and then sighed deeply, all of her features going limp in comfort, deep in sleep. "Thank you for saving me," Aang whispered and smiled as he tucked the blanket a little more around her figure, blew out the candles, and walked out.
Katara was the only one still outside the tent, waiting for him. She smiled at him, and slowly and gently, he wrapped his arms around his wife, placing his lips on hers. She gladly returned it smiling through their kiss. As they parted, he put his forehead on hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, his arms around her waist. "Are you okay?"
He looked up at her. Worry filled her deep ocean eyes. He smiled and chuckled at her. "I'm fine too."
She smiled back and hugged him in the silence of the oncoming night. "Good."
Aang wrapped his arms around her in a comforting hug, a loving embrace, and then they both walked hand in hand to their tent.
Alrighty then! so any questions, just send me a comment and I'll try to reply, hope you guys liked, I only got like 3 reviews last chapter... Is it getting too long? Cause I've still got a story to tell! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, I started a new story, called JOURNEY OF THE WARRIOR, and I kill Sokka?????????????? Check it out!
Also, I'm putting together an all-avater convention in 2010. Anyone interested?