Dun da da da! Here comes the lovely Katara and her endless descriptions of things that are boring. No, no, just kidding. I actually admire Katara for her strength and love and bla bla bla. I just had to show some stuff that is normal!
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"Thinking, hm. Do you do that very often?" she asked playfully, trying to lighten up the mood. I smiled. It was working. The edginess was gone.

For the time being, I pushed the strange vision to the back of my mind, and proceeded to spit out a comeback.

Chapter 3: Katara

The next few days went on uneventfully. We flew without any specific goal, only to get as close to the Fire Nation as we possibly could without getting killed, and to prepare Aang in the best possible way before the summer ended. The day routine was usually the same.

Nika woke us up after she had prepared breakfast. After that, Aang practiced his Earthbending with Toph until lunchtime, since it was the art that required the most time. Then, after we had lunch, Aang practiced Waterbending with me during the first half of the afternoon, and firebending with Zuko and Nika until after dark.

Did I say uneventful? I meant uneventful for everyone except Aang. He was the one who did all the work, while the people that weren't training with him tried to find a minimally destructive way to spend their time. This became an especially large problem for Toph, who had a tendency to slam rocks into other rocks when she was bored. I personally preferred to clean up or wash clothing, while Sokka spent the entire day thinking up ways to destroy the most Fire Nation soldiers on record. The only person that Nika agreed with was me, because she though that the rock slamming was too loud, and that soldiers deserved a second chance as well.

Speaking of Nika, she continued to preach the importance of rest and relaxation, although she had begun to look a bit weary herself. So weary, in fact, that she, of all people, had to sit down during practices. As the days went on, it got worse and worse.

"Aang!" she scolded. "Stop working yourself so hard! You need to be well rested." She yawned.

"Shouldn't I be saying the same thing to you?" Aang asked. Nika yawned again.

"Same what thing?" she asked sleepily.

"The same thing that you just told me." he answered suspiciously.

"What did I just tell you?" she asked, obviously confused. Aang groaned.

"That I need to be well rested!" he said, exasperated.

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah." she said. It was obvious that her thoughts were somewhere else. "I think that we should take a break."

"But we just started ten minutes ago!" he protested. He threw a pleading glance in Zuko's direction, but Zuko just stared at his sister with silent resolution.

"Let her go." he mouthed. Aang nodded.

"Maybe you should go lay down." he said to Nika, who was about to fall asleep where she sat. She stood up and began to walk towards where her tent stood. It was always the first to go up, since she was the one that needed it the most.

I walked over to where the other two stood.

"You know her the best. Did you ever see her like this?" I asked Zuko. He shook his head.

"I haven't seen that girl in three and a half years. I'm sure that a lot of things have changed, so I don't know her any better than you do. But I did spend the most time with her. I'd say that this is definately not normal." he answered that wasn't the answer that I was hoping to hear. I turned around to catch up with her before she disappeared into her tent again.

"Nika!" I called. She turned around slowly. I caught up with her and looked her straight in the eyes, something that nobody did very often.

"You're tired." I said. "Why?"

"I dunno. I guess I've just had a few sleepless nights. Zuko snores." she answered.

"C'mon. Walk and talk." I said after a while. We began to head away from camp.

After we had walked out of earshot of the others, I began to talk.

"I can tell when people are lying to me. Maybe not like Toph, but I'm pretty good at reading people. That and I know for a fact that Zuko doesn't snore." Nika raised her eyebrows.

"You know for a fact that Zuko doesn't snore? How?"

"That's not the point." I said, not wanting to bring up our trip to the Southern Raiders. "The point is that you're tired for another reason. I believe that part about the sleepless nights, but not the reason why. So, I'll ask again. You're tired. Why?" She looked at me for a long time, and then sighed.

"Does it have anything to do with what Sokka saw?" I tried again. now I had her attention.

"How do you know what Sokka saw?" she whispered. We stopped walking and sat near a cluster of rocks.

"He cracks under pressure." I replied simply. "He was acting very weird and depressed, so I asked him what was wrong. He really tried to keep his mouth shut, but I guess I'm just too good."

"How much do you know?" she asked, only a small amount of sound coming back into her voice.

"Everything, from the Fire Sages to the little girl, to the mysterious and comforting voice." I answered. "But there is a lot that I don't understand. Who was that girl?"

Nika looked away. Then, it clicked.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I said, my stomach growing a bit queasy. "They did that to you, didn't they? How could they?" I gasped.

"For many years, I asked myself the same question. I was only a little girl. I was only five." She looked at the sky. "I WAS ONLY FIVE!!"

I grabbed the shaking Nika's shoulders and shook them.

"It's in the past!" I yelled. "It's all over!"

"It will never be over." she sobbed. "Never."

"Yes, it will if you want it to. But only if you want it to. Do you want it to be over?" I asked. She nodded and wiped a tear from her eyes. "Then make it happen!" I said. She smiled. I hugged her and she sniffed.

"For so long. I haven't had anyone to talk to about it. Back then, I was still too young to understand it, and by the time I was old enough to care, I was already alone."

I was touched.

"Well, you have us now. I told Aang this before, and the same thing goes for you and Zuko now. Your father and your sister are hunting you. They're not your family anymore. Sokka, Aang, Toph, Zuko and I are your family now. "

"And that's fine with me. Thank you." Nika said and stood up. "And now I have to kick Aang's butt. That is, if Zuko hasn't done it yet for me."

"That's the spirit." I said, and got up to follow the newest member of our little patchwork family.

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Awww! Look at Katara playing the mom again! Why do I get the feeling that it's in her nature? SENTIMENTALITY!!!!XD But that's normal, right? If Sokka won't tell Nika that she's loved, then Katara has to, right? WATER TRIBE LOVE BABY! Oh, and do you think its okay for me to put the endings of the previous chapters onto the next one? Tell me the answer when you...

REVIEW!!!

~Sweep~