CHAPTER 2

Katara literally went kicking and screaming the whole way there. Luckily, Zuko, their father, had been well-off, as the house was nice, had lots of open space, and was away from the general public. However, Katara's screams were loud and bloodcurdling. For a girl with a raspy voice like Katara generally naturally had, she could put out a very loud, high-pitched shriek that would hurt one's ears.

However, although this was Katara's weapon, Sokka had one that was even more effective, and was the anti-Katara. A few seconds after she started screaming, his hand clasped the scruff of Katara's neck. Immediately, she went limp. Katara did not slow her screaming and trashing down, she just ceased instantly. This was the only thing that enabled him to get her there without any further trouble.

Keeping a tight grip on the scruff of her neck, Sokka marched her all the way there. They both were used to walking long distances, so neither of them cared that it would take all day. They did stop a few times to eat and rest, and it seemed that during these times Katara found a new tactic. The first time they stopped, which was on a mountainside near some cliffs, she was harsh towards Sokka whenever she could be, and otherwise did not speak to him or act like she knew him. Sokka, being the 'voice of reason' that he so often was, tried to get her to listen to him; it was two immovable forces colliding.

Again though, Sokka knew his sister very well—much more than she knew her brother, let alone his tactics. He began running his fingers through her ratty, messy, curly dark brown hair. Once the "stun-trap" [Sokka grabbing the scruff of her neck] had been 'activated' and Katara was limp, this was the finishing blow.

"Alright," she said," not moving, and not showing any sign of emotion other than bitterness, "I'll listen to what you have to say."

"I just want to know why you're so upset," Sokka replied bluntly; one thing that whole family had been known for was their direct approach to things, and their blunt, straightforward way of speech.

"Because dad's gone," Katara replied, "and he was my last hope of ever gaining control of my power. Now I'm a lost cause. And then mom has to ruin my life even further by kicking me out. What's up with that? I'm thirteen years old? What does the woman expect?"

Sokka grabbed Katara by her shoulders. "Don't talk about mom that way," he said, "she's been trying everything to keep YOU under control. You don't listen to anyone. You've been actively trying to kill her for the past two years. Do you realize that, Katara? You listen here, and damn it, you listen well. You have been actively trying to kill YOUR OWN MOTHER for the past TWO years."

"Kill her," Katara scoffed, crossing her arms and turning away form Sokka's face, "that's a lie. My whole life is a lie. You know what, damn you, damn mom, and damn everyone else stupid enough to think I'm going to ever be able to live past my 16th birthday!"

She suddenly hand-planted and kicked Sokka in the face, and then took off running. Sokka, though a passive young man, was not about to take a beating from anyone, let alone his own younger sister. He took off after her, running top speed to keep up.

Katara was in very good shape, being a very swift runner and strong enough to oust many young men her age. This was because of the constant training she put herself through to keep herself in control of her power, and it was somewhat effective—or so she said, since she was still alive. Nonetheless, even she doubted that she would live past her 16th birthday. She continued running, Sokka slowly but surely catching up to her. He shot a jet of water in front of her that he swiftly froze, and she lost her footing, colliding painfully with the ground. Right as she meant to get up, Sokka dove through the air, caught her around the waist and landed on top of her scraping them both a few inches on the ground, leaving blood behind them.

However, just because Katara was down did not mean that she was out. She was going to keep fighting until Sokka subdued her. The two siblings were clawing and biting at each other, because they were locked in close combat, and neither one wanted to chance trying to put distance between them to use bending moves, and so this was the type of fighting that they had reduced to.

Eventually Sokka was able to get a firm grip on Katara, lift her up and then slam her back down. He let her go, letting her stagger to her feet and then launched his foot at her stomach, landing it in her gut. She spit up blood and was knocked backwards until she hit a rock wall of a cliff. She was not unconscious, but both of them were badly bruised.

Sokka looked almost like he had been mauled, while most of Katara's bruises were on the inside, and she had likely broken something.

"Damn it, Katara," said Sokka, half-guiding half dragging Katara towards the town, "I try to talk to you for one minute and you freak out and try to kill me. You've got some serious issues, girl. No sister of mine is going to kill anyone related to her; you got that?"

"Shut it," she replied, and attempted to bite Sokka's arm. Sokka's response was a smack to the side of her face.

"Katara," said Sokka, though they both had lost and were losing large amounts of blood, and were likely to fall unconscious at any time, "family—that's the one thing you said mattered to you."

"Daddy was the one thing that mattered to me," Katara replied, "mom is just a selfish witch who wants us out of the house."

Katara had had a bond with her father before his death. Conversely, Sokka had a bond with his mother that was the same as Katara's with her father. He was not going to put up with anyone, not even his own sister, talking bad about her.

Sokka just suddenly let loose, pummeling every inch of his sister that his fists and his fury could reach.

"Don't... ever... talk... about... my... mother... that... way!" he roared, hitting her during every pause, the final blow dislocating Katara's jaw. However, Katara was laughing.

"You lose," she smirked, and suddenly the two of them were blasted apart by Katara's bending energy, which had decided to let loose at that particular moment. They both were stopped by large rocks, and had both likely broken something by this point.

"Brilliant, Katara," said Sokka indignantly, "now we just get to lie here and die. Or I suppose you expect me to get up and drag us both back into town like I've done so many times. It's your call, sis. What now?"

Katara didn't say anything, but she did scream really loudly. Sokka chucked a rock at her to shut her up. It hit her arm, and she glared at him, launching a fireball in his direction. Sokka quickly blocked it with a water wall, and then just lay there a few yards from Katara, both of them lying in their own blood.

"Katara," he said, knowing that he would have to be the better sibling, and the example at that, "your mother loved you. Do you know why she had to send you away? It was my idea not hers."

"WHAT," Katara exclaimed, "This... you... me... mom... I..."

She let out another bloodcurdling scream.

"Your mother was dying," he said, pulling himself over towards him. It seemed that his legs were broken. "And it was because of YOU. She was stressing out, and stressing herself to death. Do you know why? Because she didn't want her daughter growing up to be a monster; keep this up, why don't you? I'll tell you what: let's go back, let her see that you've become even worse, and you can slowly watch her succumb to grief. How does that sound, Katara? How does that sound?"

Sokka was now sitting next to Katara, his mission completed. She was no longer yelling, not even at him.

"Look," said Katara bluntly, "I'm just mad, alright? I miss dad, I miss mom, I hate my bending abilities, and my life sucks right now."

Sokka looked around, "we kind of did get ourselves into a bind here."

"Obviously," said Katara, "but just... maybe..."

"Maybe what," Sokka asked,

"Maybe I need to be away from both of you. I... the more I think about it, the more I just think that I'm dangerous to everyone."

"Katara," said Sokka, "well... you kind of are. That's why I want you to be able to control it—control your powers; your emotions. If you do you could become the single most powerful person in the world."

"I don't want power," she said, "I want a normal life."

"I know you do," Sokka replied, "and I want to help you get as close as you can, and to do that, we just need to get you in control of that power of yours."

"I can't say that my emotions will be that easy to regulate," she warned, "and I'm not going to try an excuse myself. However, it's going to happen."

"Then I'll be ready for you when it comes," said Sokka, cracking his knuckles, "but first we need to figure out how we're going to get to a medical center. Look at this place. It looks like there was a battle here."

Sokka had a point. Blood was everywhere, and they both were sitting in large pools of their own blood and some of the other sibling's blood.

"I guess we'll have to think," said Katara bluntly, and Sokka nodded in agreement, but with both of them bleeding profusely, moving was not a wise idea. Besides, neither of them could walk either.

Their answer came several minutes later as a boy clad in Earth Kingdom attire appeared, gliding by, his bare feet on two different rocks. He was bending to move around. He passed by Sokka and Katara, and upon seeing them, he jumped off his rocks and looked at them. His skin and hair color were almost the same as those of Sokka and Katara, and he looked around 14. However, his eyes were green and he was obviously an earthbender, so they both knew that this was just a coincidence and not some "long-lost sibling".

"Need a hand," he asked; his voice was very deep. Sokka and Katara both nodded. His clothes were battered and bloody as well, so for all they knew he really could have been their sibling [but he wasn't].

"Hold on tight then," he said, and he lifted Sokka and Katara onto his shoulders. He was really strong, which might have been in part because he was an earthbender, but the fact that he was only about 14 made it more surprising that he was able to carry a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl on his shoulders with little difficulty. He stamped the ground and began gliding across it again on his way to the next town. Upon reaching it, he left them at the nearest medical center with a bit of money, which he seemed to have an abundance of. He explained to the medical staff how he found the two siblings [though he didn't know they were siblings because of their different-colored clothing, which he assumed meant different nationalities] in a very blunt and straightforward manner, and then without another word to them, other than that he needed to be going, he sped off again, his bare feet still gliding on the earth via his bending.

By this time, Katara had gone unconscious, and Sokka was barely hanging onto consciousness. The establishment they had been dropped off in did not seem to be the fanciest one around, but the staff there was deadly efficient with doing what they needed to do when they needed to do it. Sokka, who observed this before going unconscious, figured that they sacrificed quality of the establishment itself for quality of staff performance. Either way, he was glad that they were alive.

The last thing he remembered before drifting off into sleep and/or unconsciousness was looking over at Katara, glad that she was alive, and determined that he was going to help her with her problems, both physical and emotional, and then finally take her back to see their mother again. It was his goal, and he was sticking to it.