A/N - This was a really fun chapter to write. I don't know if you guys will enjoy it quite as much, but if you do, please say so. I might make more chapters like this one if you guys like it. Actually, I might make more anyway because this was some of the most fun I had writing this story.
Also, I have my reaction to the movie at the end, and my reaction is... less than favorable, so check that out if you want to.
Thank you for reading, and please enjoy!
Chapter nine
Zhao knew that Zuko was not part of the Fire Nation any longer. When Zuko had won that decisive Agni Kai, he immediately left to tend to the girl, the very one he had let into the concentration camp a week ago. Zhao had watched as Zuko called for his uncle to help the Water Tribe girl, and very gently he led them through the now defunct prison to his ship, and Zuko left right there, not even sparing a glance back.
Not only was the behavior uncharacteristic of Zuko to care about his prisoners so much, but the way he acted during the duel. He was a confident young man, who could easily match Zhao, and maybe even surpass him in a fight. A month ago, Zuko could barely look Zhao straight in the eye without snarling at the man, but now he was calm and collected.
The pieces did not fall into place for Zhao, but he knew something had happened.
Two months ago, with his last run in with Zuko, Zhao saw how Zuko behaved then – like a spoiled child who was temporarily grounded. Of course, Zuko would deny it, but it was still true in Zhao's eyes. Now, the last thing on Zuko's mind was to get home, and Zhao wasn't even sure if that was his drive anymore.
"He's helping the Avatar." Zhao said his thoughts aloud, he stood on the bridge of his gigantic black ship, his hands crossed behind his back, and facing the direction the ship was going. The crew looked up at Zhao, but didn't say anything, they knew Zhao disliked Zuko, and hearing him accuse Zuko of such wild things was what they heard on a daily basis when Zhao was angry or deep in thought.
"Who, sir?" One of the men asked, humoring Zhao in the mean time.
"Zuko," Zhao said, "He cared too much for the girl. The girl he had let into the concentration camp about a week ago. Don't you agree?"
The man paused to think it over, "Well, if you think about it, maybe he was eager because he's just an adolescent boy, General, maybe you're thinking outside the box a little bit too much?"
"No, I know Zuko wouldn't do something like that." Zhao muttered, "He does have more honor than that, just barely." Zhao allowed, "I think he saved her because the Avatar was unable to with all the soldiers she was fighting. So he had Zuko do it."
"You're accusing the Fire Lords son of treason then?"
"He's not the Fire Lords son any longer," Zhao reminded, "I was there when he was banished from the Fire Nation. He has to hunt down the Avatar to restore his honor."
"Then why are we trying to capture the Avatar?"
Zhao glanced back at the man who said that to him, "Because he doesn't deserve anything. He forced his fate upon himself, and I fully intend to do anything in my power to keep him in his place in the world."
The tone of Zhao's voice and him looking back outside the window meant that the conversation was over. His crew shrugged, not sure why exactly Zhao had such an intense hatred for a child, but no one dared to question him further on the topic, so the rest of the day's patrol on the ship was awkwardly quiet.
Katara looked around, and tried not to panic. She was in a large black void of darkness, nothing to see around her for miles upon miles, except a girl a few yards away from her, sobbing loudly with her arms wrapped around her legs. Katara walked forward, and then noticed that she was in her older body, she was not much taller, her features were sharp, but slender, losing all the roundness that she once had in her younger days, and replacing it with muscle and womanly curves.
"Hello?" Katara spoke, her voice was deeper, but not entirely so.
The girl crying looked up, and through her tears she looked around, "W-Who's there?"
Katara walked over to her, but stopped halfway there. She knew this girl, in fact, she was this girl. It was her younger self, the fourteen year old version of her. She had her hair loops, and wore her long hair braided, something the future Katara never bothered with anymore. Young Katara was still quietly crying, but she wiped a few tears from her eyes, and continued to stare at the old version of herself.
"You're me?" Old Katara said, unsure of what to make of this development.
Young Katara still didn't say anything, hiccupping a few times, still trying to compose herself in front of someone new, even if it just did end up being herself looking older.
"Why are we here? What is going on?" Old Katara asked again.
"I- I don't know. I went to bed one night, and then when I woke up I was here."
"What?"
"Sokka and I were going to bed early that night because we were going to go fishing early the next morning." She said, divulging more details, "When I woke up though, I was not in my bed, I was here. I tried to find a way out, but all around here is just darkness. I can see only myself in here, and there is nothing else." Young Katara tried hard not to begin crying again, "I can't get out, I have tried and tried…"
Old Katara felt like she was just punched in the stomach repeatedly. She didn't want to acknowledge that she did this to this girl, herself, but the more she thought of it, the more she began to wonder what did exactly happen to their other selves? They were here before they came. Katara then came to her realization; we stole their bodies from them. It was sickening to think about, Six innocent children, taken away from their lives. No wonder she is crying, she has been stuck in here for weeks now with no way out possible.
"Katara, right?" Old Katara said, kneeling down in front of the young girl, "As you can probably guess, I am Katara too."
Young Katara looked up at the older version of herself. She had suspected as much, but to see herself become a beautiful image brought a small smile to her lips, "You look nice."
"Thank you." Old Katara said, patting her younger self on the shoulder as she sat next to her, "I think I know what happened to you too."
Young Katara glanced over at her, "What?"
"I am sorry," Old Katara mumbled, realizing her younger self just wanted the novelty of talking to herself to last. It was an odd concept, since they both thought similarly, but nowhere near the same things. Instead she decided to reveal the big news once she was done telling her younger self everything she wanted to know, "We can talk about other things first if you want."
Young Katara showed her a grateful smile, "I'm sorry, I have just been here for so long, and I don't want you to go so soon." She said, her smile falling at the mere thought of being alone came across her, "It's quiet in here."
"I can see." Old Katara said, looking around the place, "So, what do you want to know?"
Young Katara's puffy eyes lit up in excitement, "Are you really me from the future?"
"Yes." Old Katara answered, "twelve years from now."
Young Katara stared in amazement, "How? why?" She asked.
"It's not a happy story," Old Katara warned. She paused to think about where to begin, "In my time, the Fire Nation won." Her younger self gasped in horror, "The Earth Kingdom was completely destroyed, and the Water Tribes were scattered ruins, both north and south. Only a small group of people still fought, even though it was completely useless." Old Katara smiled slightly at that, "The group consisted of the Avatar, Sokka, Me, and three other people you don't know." Katara revealed.
"The Avatar?" Her younger self said in awe, "He came back?"
"Yeah," Katara mumbled, "I found him when I was your age."
"Then… What? Is all of this supposed to happen?" She gestured around to the place they were in.
"Spirits no!" Old Katara said, laughing a small bit, "No, what did happen to you is something I don't think I can ever forgive myself for."
"What happened?" Young Katara said, her heart pounding in her chest. She had wanted to hold off on this particular topic, but seeing as her future self was involved in it somehow, she was now curious to know the truth.
"Like I said, my friends and I were fighting against the Fire Nation who had already won. There was little point to it, and sometimes we just considered going after Ozai and ending it in a massive fight." She sighed at that, "Of course it was suicide, but at that point it didn't matter. We weren't a real threat to him; we were more of a nuisance to him at best. Then we found a scroll." Her eyes glossed over as she recalled what it said, "It said something along the lines of, 'this will fix your past mistakes'."
"Sounds vague." Young Katara said, listening intently.
"Yeah, it was very vague. We didn't know what it meant by past mistakes, but we figured we would give it a shot, we had nothing to lose, and it gave us hope." Old Katara said, "It did something wonderful, and as I found out, something terrible as well." She looked down sadly, "It brought us to the past." She sighed, "I returned to the day Sokka and I were going to go fishing, the day that we found the Avatar."
She let the implications sink in for her younger self, not saying a single word.
Finally young Katara got over her shock, "S- so, all of this…" She gestured around, "Is because you came to the past?"
"I took over your body." Old Katara said bluntly, "I took your life away from you, and I didn't even think about if there was someone else who was in the body before me." She covered her face in shame, "I can't believe no one thought of that."
"Maybe you were busy with other things?" Young Katara suggested.
Old Katara looked over to her younger self, and tried to talk, but couldn't force herself to. Is she not mad? She wondered.
Upon seeing her older self's reaction, young Katara, looked away, "You did it for a good cause. If it's between my life and saving the world, I'll do what's right."
"You're that selfless?" Old Katara asked, "You're acting as though this isn't a big deal!"
"You and your friends came back to save the world right? And you didn't know what the scroll meant anyway. You guys came back to repeat everything over again, just so you could get a shot at the Fire Nation again. It's admirable." Young Katara said.
"You're just letting it off the hook like that?" Katara asked.
"There's nothing left to do other than forgive and forget." She said, smiling at her older self, "If I am stuck here, at least I know my body will be used to save the world – that reminds me, did you ever master Waterbending?"
Old Katara watched in pure amazement at her younger self, and she leaned forward to give the younger girl a hug. Young Katara was a little surprised, but she embraced her older self, and soon she was silently crying into her shoulder. Older Katara just held the quietly crying girl, a young girl who thought there was no way out of her predicament, trying to make the best of everything that happened to her.
She looked down at her younger self, Had I been like this at one point? She would like to think that she was good, but she didn't know if she could forgive someone like her younger self did to her. It just didn't seem possible, in her own way, she is much stronger than me. She rubbed the crying girls back.
When she was done crying again, young Katara parted from her older self, and sat next to her again, "I'm sorry, I have been crying a lot lately."
"It's understandable really." Old Katara said.
"So can you tell me about my life then? Did I ever master Waterbending?"
Old Katara laughed at her younger self's questioning, "All right, I have a lot of time on my hands, and yes, I am a master Waterbender, I taught the Avatar after all." Her one person audience took that well, she gasped in awe and leaned forward to hear more.
And more she was told, Katara poured out every detail of her last life to the girl. She didn't know if it were cruel to tell her so much of this, since she was locked in this strange world, but old Katara figured her younger self had a right to know. She went over The North Pole, and how mean Master Pakku was.
"Not teaching a girl to Waterbend?" Her younger self said, scoffing at that, "What a stupid rule!"
"That's exactly what I said!" Old Katara laughed.
She then went over the siege of the North Pole, and how they ended up winning because Aang fused with the ocean spirit. She then went over meeting Toph, she went over Ba Sing Se, and how horrible a place it was, she talked about the Dai Li, and how they took over the city with the Fire Nation princess. Katara told how evil Azula was, and how if she ever met the girl, she should just run. She then went over the fight in the city's catacombs, and how Zuko betrayed her and Aang.
She then went over the death of the Avatar, much to her younger self's horror.
"She shot him with a bolt of lightning in the back as he was rising into the air with the power of the Avatars surrounding him. That bolt of lightning killed him." Katara looked down, "I watched in horror as he fell, but thankfully I was able to catch him."
"What did you do then?"
"Iroh showed up," Old Katara said, "He's part of the Fire Nation, the general who laid siege to Ba Sing Se about six years ago. He's a good man though, he knows the war has to end, and he would do anything to help us end it. After that, I escaped with Aang, and used the spirit water from the oasis I got from the Northern Water Tribe."
"Did it bring him back?"
"Yeah, but just barely. He was badly injured, and if he didn't receive medical attention, then he would have just died right away. Thankfully, as a Waterbender I can heal, so we were good."
"Waterbenders can heal?" Her young self said in awe.
"Sorry, I forgot to go over that with you, there's a lot to tell."
Her young self only gestured for her to continue, so she did so. She began to explain what life in the Fire Nation was like, and how the Fire Lord doesn't treat his people right. She then went over the failed invasion, and then the defeat of the combustion man, and the introduction of Zuko into their group.
"I didn't trust him at all." Old Katara said, "I would rather Aang have killed him than to let him join the group. So the night he joined us, I told him I would kill him if he stepped out of line."
"Did he?"
"No," Katara sighed, "He was genuinely trying to help us. He wanted me to trust him, but I wouldn't, so he told me he knew who killed our mother." At this her younger self got very quiet, "I wanted revenge, but Aang stopped me and told me to think things through, and to not kill the man who killed our mother. I was so furious with this man, that I did something I didn't think I would ever resort to doing, and will never use again…"
"And what is that?"
"Bloodbending." Katara said, "During a full moon, a very skilled Waterbender can bend the blood in people's bodies. You can stop their blood flow, break their bones, and many horrible things. I did it to who I thought was the man who killed our mother, but it wasn't him. I remember seeing Zuko's expression when he saw what I did. He didn't say anything aloud, probably out of fear that I would do it to him, but I could tell he was afraid of me for a moment there." She shuddered at his haunted expression.
"What did you do when you found the real guy?"
"He was a frail weak old man, and I was fully intending to kill him. I told him who I was, and he recognized me as the little girl from back then. I formed a lot of ice spikes from a rain around me, and threw them at him, then at the last second, I stopped."
"You stopped?"
"I couldn't do it." She mumbled, "I couldn't take another man's life, especially out of revenge. Aang's words went through me, and I realized that killing this man would be a mistake. He was a pathetic man, and I refused to stoop to his level."
Katara was quiet. Even after all this time, talking about her mother still hurt her. She couldn't imagine how her younger self felt about it all. "It's good that you listened to Aang," Her younger self said, and Katara didn't hide her shock.
"What?"
"It's wrong to kill people for what they did in the past. Killing is wrong." Young Katara said firmly.
"I was your age once, I know whenever I thought about it, I would get angry, and want to hurt the man who dared to take mother away from me!"
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind yelling and screaming at the man, maybe give him a permanent scar or two, but to kill him?" She sighed, "I don't know if I could kill."
Old Katara looked at her younger self, did I really think like that once? She wondered. "Maybe it was the hardships I was going through."
"Yeah."
It was quiet for a few seconds, which stretched into minutes.
"So, what happened after that?" Young Katara asked.
And so she went over the liberation of Ba Sing Se, the forces led by Iroh of all people. She went over the fact that Aang was missing, and then went over the fact that she and Zuko had to go to the Fire Nation capital to make Zuko the new Fire Lord instead of his sister. She went into great detail of the fight, since that is the one she was there for, but she mentioned that Sokka, Toph, and Suki destroyed a huge amount of airships, while Aang fought Ozai.
"Question!" Younger Katara said, interrupting Old Katara.
"Uh, yes?"
"I keep hearing a lot about Zuko, did you and him start a, uh, relationship?" Her younger self asked, a small blush crossing her cheeks.
Katara didn't know how to react to that, so she just laughed a little bit, but it soon followed with full blown laughter, "Zuko? No!" she cried out, her sides beginning to hurt from her constant laughter, "Spirits no! What would ever give you that idea?" Old Katara asked, wiping tears from her eyes she laughed so hard.
"You guys just end up paired a lot," Young Katara said, a small blush on her face.
"Yeah," Old Katara said, "It must be divine intervention of something, like someone likes to see us be together."
"Huh, that's weird." Her younger self said, "So who did you end up with?"
"How do you know I ended up with someone?" Old Katara asked, "For all you know, I may have stayed single the entire time while fighting the Fire Nation."
"Yeah, but I know now because that answer gave it away." Young Katara said, "Now who was it!"
"You probably wouldn't believe me."
"Come on!" Young Katara pleaded.
"I'm with Aang." She said, watching as her younger self blinked a few times.
"The Avatar?" She asked in wonder.
"The one and only."
"How?"
"It was obvious from the beginning, to everyone but me anyway, or that is what Sokka tells me, and I take everything about relationships he tells me with a grain of salt. Anyway, he told me he was always trying to get my attention throughout our travels, until he pretty much just outright told me before the invasion by kissing me outright before we went to battle."
"That's sudden." Young Katara sounded disappointed.
"Yeah, but he had to go face the Fire Lord then, and we weren't sure if he would make it back or not, so I guess he thought to just get it over with and deal with the consequences later."
"That's not very romantic." Young Katara sighed.
"Romantic?" old Katara laughed, "Aang is not romantic at all, but it's charming in a way." She said smiling, "He is the kindest person I could have gotten to be with me, and whenever I see him, I get a warm feeling inside of me." Old Katara gushed.
Young Katara looked at her oddly, "You're head over heels for him." She concluded.
"Well, not all the time. We know when to set our relationship aside and do business, but when it's not time for that, we're practically inseparable."
"When did you realize you liked him?"
"Well, he admitted he loved me at the invasion by kissing me, outright told me before while we were on Ember Island, but the moment I realized I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life? Would probably be when he failed to defeat Ozai on that day…"
"Oh," Young Katara said, "That sucks."
"Yeah, he was close to dying, but Sokka, Toph, and Suki were able to rescue him then." She sighed, "That is when things started to go downhill. Zuko was acknowledged as the Fire Lord, Ozai then began his conquests of Ba Sing Se, after it was weakened by two battles in the same year. The outer wall was damaged beyond repair at that point, and the inner wall was crumbling around them. He then set his sights of the North Pole, and utterly decimated them."
"Where were you during all this?"
"We were fighting off the sieges. It was in the North Pole when I killed my first person." She said, "You will never forget your first kill…" She mumbled.
"Who was it?"
"I couldn't even see his face, but it was some soldier who was about to kill an innocent child inside the city, I didn't even think as I rushed forward and Waterbended a jagged piece of ice in my hands. The child thanked me, but I was still shocked and appalled that I did it. Back then I would constantly wonder why I didn't pin him to the wall, or do something. I think though, the reason I did it, was because the little girl reminded me so much of me, and I didn't want harm to come to her."
"Wow, so you never, um, ended people after that?" Her younger self asked.
"I have killed seventeen people." Old Katara said.
"Really?"
"I will never forget. Each death is still inside my head…" She mumbled, "A- Anyway, so yeah. We would occasionally come across some resistance forces, and they usually had initial success with us, but then the Fire Nation army would come and decimate us. Soon, no one would take us in or hide us, so we fled to the South Pole and hid out with Gran Gran."
"Did the Fire Nation find you?"
"Yeah, they always do." She sighed, "They wiped out the whole village."
"So Gran Gran-"
"Yeah, she didn't make it."
They were quiet for a little bit, until her younger self finally interrupted the silence, "So the rest of your story is like that? You guys running?"
"Pretty much, but Azula's friends Mai and Ty Lee were helping us at this point. They died in an ambush though, that we all would have died in if it weren't for Aang…"
"Sounds tough."
"You could say that." Old Katara sighed, "And that's my story." She looked around, "Can you tell how much time has passed in here."
"No." Young Katara admitted, "I haven't been able to tell. Why? Are you going to leave?" Old Katara couldn't help but look away when her younger self looked like she might begin to cry again, "Will this be the last time I see you?"
"I think I came here to escape the pain from my injures. The furthest part of my mind…"
"Injures?" Her younger self asked, "Are they bad?"
"I got burned really badly."
"That isn't good."
"No, I need to get out to heal it, but I don't want to leave you here alone." She said, "There has to be a way I can get you out…"
"Don't worry about me." Her young self tried to reassure her, but old Katara wouldn't hear any of it.
"You are getting out of here one way or another, or else we're going to be stuck here together."
At that declaration, the room flared white, the brightness overwhelming their senses, making them cover their eyes. Upon seeing the white room, both stood up and walked next to each other for a little bit.
"I didn't grow very tall…" Young Katara said, almost eye level with her older self.
"Please, don't get started on that." Old Katara sighed, "I hear it all the time from Toph."
They looked forward, and as if out from nowhere, a simple white wooden door stood. They walked around it, and upon seeing nothing on either side, opened the door. The light shone brighter inside the door than the brightness outside, so they quickly closed it.
"What is that?" Young Katara asked.
"I-" She paused, a ton of thoughts pouring into her head as she thought of the door, "It merges us into one person."
"What?" Young Katara asked.
"If one walks through this door, they get control of the body. If both of us walk through the door, it will merge us into one person."
"Wait, so I won't get to talk to you anymore?" Young Katara didn't look too happy by that prospect; even though the thought of getting out did excite her.
"We'll be one." Old Katara said, "I'll leave it up to you, we both can go through, or just you."
"What?"
"I stole this body from you, so it's your decision if we merge or not."
Young Katara knew the right thing to do, and so did said, "Let's both go through." Before Old Katara reached to open the door though, her younger counterpart gave her a hug, "I'm going to miss you!"
"We'll always be together, literally."
"Yeah, but talking to yourself is a little insane," Young Katara said.
Her older self laughed, "Yeah, it's usually frowned upon." She reached out and grabbed her younger self's hand, and the two opened the door and walked through together. They spared each other one last glance before the brightness became too much, and both of them were merged into one being.
Zuko sat over Katara, putting another wet cloth over her forehead. After her near life threatening injure, she got a fever, and was declining quickly. Fortunately, he and his uncle managed to find a doctor at a nearby village, posing as refugees to get their aid. They gave her as much treatment as they could, and then told them what to do from then on out and gave them some things to use on the burns. Thankfully, the fever hadn't gotten worse, and she wasn't wincing as often anymore when she slept, something which she had been doing constantly the first few days of her injuries.
He leaned forward and pulled the blanket over her shoulders, where the fabric of Iroh's robe he put on her were showing slightly. He knew it was a pointless gesture, but he detested not feeling useful when his friends were harmed. He looked around his room, as if hoping that something would pop up to help him wake her up, but nothing appeared.
"Of all the people this could have happened to, why did it have to be her?" He mumbled. Katara was the group's healer. Aang never learned that branch of Waterbending unfortunately, though now he might have to as a precaution, in case if another situation like this happened.
One of the worst things though, was that he was sailing blind. He truthfully had no idea where Aang or the rest of his friends were at. They were supposed to tell him at the prison, but Zhao's arrival there had screwed everything up. They were very lucky he got there when he did, and that he saved Katara from that man. Zuko felt his stomach twist, knowing that if Zhao had gotten Katara, that she wouldn't be alive now.
Zuko leaned forward, about to fall into another restless sleep when suddenly Katara groaned. He looked up hopefully. She had made noises in her sleep a few times in the past, but it was all just false alarms.
His prayers were answered though, when she slowly began to open her eyes. They were cracked open, and she opened her mouth to speak, but she ended up coughing.
"Your mouth probably feels like a dessert." Zuko said. Katara's eyes widened upon hearing him, "Don't worry, I'm a friend, Zuko."
Her eyesight began to focus and she looked over at him, she swallowed, though her mouth was so dry it was very painful to do.
"Here," Zuko said, giving her a small cup of water he poured from a small barrel of clean water, "This should clear up your mouth."
Katara gratefully took the cup, and downed the entire cup. She coughed a little bit more, "Thanks." She said, "More."
"Sure thing." Zuko said, filling it up with more. However, when he was doing that, Katara sat up, and she immediately let out a painful shout. She went to lay back down, abdomen on fire from that simple movement, and tears threatened to fall from her eyes. Zuko had dropped the cup full of water out of shock, but when he saw what she had done his face went white, "Don't sit up!" He shouted, "You were hurt really bad!"
She glared at him, tears beginning to fall, "Thanks for the warning." She said through gritted teeth. Reflexively she wanted to arch her back from the pain hurting her so badly, but from doing that it caused even more pain. She was gasping for breath, the pain nearly knocking her out.
Zuko was nearly panicking, "Oh crap, oh crap!" He then dug through a bag the doctors had given him, filled with creamed and ointments to use on burns. "Don't move Katara," He said, it looked like from the intense glare he was receiving she was about to talk back, "Save it!" Zuko said, "I'm going to try and get rid of the pain for you!"
She was still breathing heavily, but she nodded, and allowed Zuko to roll the blanket off of her. He then began to remove the robe covering her body. He was blushing like mad, but thankfully she wore her wrappings around her chest, the doctors applied fresh ones for the girl. Even so, Zuko did his best to act like a gentleman, cursing inside of his mind, I have seen a girl's body before! Why am I blushing? He cursed again.
He got the robe off fully, even though the back of the robe rubbed against the burn making her hold back another whimper of pain. He then grabbed the ointment his uncle had used on her, and dipped his fingers into it, I don't know how to apply this stuff... He thought, "Forgive me if this hurts Katara." He said, deciding that he didn't want to risk her falling unconscious from the pain, "You're doing really well, You're tolerating the pain really well."
She was about to say something back, but then he began to rub the cream onto her scorching wounds, and she let out a sigh of relief as the pain began to recede, and the cool cream did its work. It was as if Ice was put on heated metal, her shoulders began to loosen, as the tension they once held began to melt away.
"I need to get your back too," Zuko said, mastering his blush a little more. He had watched his uncle do this, thankfully, so he very gently roll her to side, making her lean that way, and then he applied the ointment to the burn wounds on the back, "You need to sit like that for a few minutes so the cream doesn't wipe off onto the bed," Zuko said, "Are you ok with that?"
Katara nodded, though she could still feel pain, it wasn't nearly as intense as it was just seconds before, "Thank you."
"No problem." He said, getting onto his knees next to the mattress, and letting out a big sigh.
Her face was facing away from him, and she was glad. It felt like she was meeting a new friend when she saw Zuko, and the thought of the merge entered her mind, "Hey, Zuko, something weird happened when I was sleeping."
"Hm?" He grunted, grabbing the cup off the floor, and filling it up with water, "Here, drink some more water."
She accepted the water, making sure not to spill it from her awkward position from the cup. Instead, she slowly moved her hand, and bended the water out of the cup and into her mouth. Zuko leaned over again and grabbed the empty cup out of her hands when she held it up.
"So what happened in your dream?" Zuko asked, "More water?"
"No thanks." She said to his question, "I, well, it wasn't even a dream really."
"Oh?" Zuko muttered, now it was beginning to interest him.
"Yeah, I went to this weird black place, and in there I met my younger self." Her voice turned very serious, "Zuko, when we came back to the past, we pushed our other selves out of their bodies, and put them in the back of our mind!"
"I know."
"What?" Katara said, she attempted to roll over to look straight at Zuko, but he was able to reach out and hold his palm on the back of her wrappings.
"Don't move." He said seriously.
"Right," She said, "But you know?"
"Yeah, I had the same experience. You went into a dark room and met yourself, and now you're have a small crisis trying to figure out which personality you are, right?"
"Uh," Katara thought about it, "No, we merged. We're one now."
"And you just accept that?" Zuko asked.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I? There's no reason to think on it."
"It's been bugging me for over a week now." He sighed, "Whenever I do something, almost anything, I begin to question whether it was my future self, or my past self. I feel like I have to organize my actions, and it's driving me insane."
"But you're not two separate people now." Katara said, wishing she could give Zuko her 'you're acting stupid' look.
"Yeah but-"
"Do you always have to be brooding about something?"
"It's all I have been able to do since this happened to you." Zuko admitted, "I have had more than enough time to think."
Katara allowed a guilty face to come across her face, "I'm sorry."
"There's no need to be." Zuko said, shrugging, "You did what had to be done. I'm just glad I was able to get you out of there in time. The doctors uncle and I took you to said that if you had arrived a few hours later, they might not have been able to save you. They said something about infections, and stuff like that, I wasn't listening - I was just glad you were ok."
"Thank you." She said, "For saving my life."
"I couldn't let you die." Zuko said, "You're a good friend of mine."
At that Katara smiled, "You're a good friend too."
Zuko nodded, filling the cup with more water, "Here, you should drink more." He leaned over to hand it to her again, and she accepted it again. She bended it like before, and handed the cup back again, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah, It still hurts a lot, but not nearly as bad." At that she looked thoughtful, "How long was I out for anyway?"
"A week." Zuko said, watching as her shoulder tensed, "You were really sick."
"An entire week?" She whispered.
"That's right. Even worse though, I have no idea where everyone else is going. We had to leave so quickly that Aang couldn't tell me at all. I have been blindly wandering the ocean, hoping to find any source of his location, but I haven't been so lucky. I was hoping that you'd have some sort of idea."
"Not that I would know of." Katara said, "We were going to decide with you, but like you said, we had to leave quickly."
Zuko sighed, "You don't have any idea where we could possibly go then?"
Katara thought hard, "Maybe," She said, an idea popping into her head, "I remember Aang telling me he was getting visions to go to see Roku at the Fire Sage temple, like last time. Has the winter solstice passed yet?"
"No," Zuko said, "It's in three days though, but you can't seriously expect us to go there. I'm banished, remember? Going there is just asking for trouble, plus we're not sure if Aang is even going to show up there or not."
"It's the only lead we have right now." Katara said firmly, "Unless if you have any bright ideas."
Zuko grumbled, "Fine, we're just lucky that we're within three days distance from the temple."
With that settled, Zuko began to wrap bandages around her wound again, and soon after he grabbed Iroh's robe to put back on her. Katara noted the motion, and with her help, he slid it back on her, and she was able to lie down on her back again. She let out a sigh, and grinned as Zuko brought the blanket up to her shoulders, "Are you my personal slave now?"
"No."
Katara pouted, "That's no fun."
"Get over it."
Katara let out a small chuckle, "I'm just kidding Zuko."
"I know. Now get to sleep. You need to rest still."
Katara didn't argue the point, feeling a little sleepy herself, "Ok, but don't forget. We need to get to the Fire Temple, then we can see Aang again." At the thought of Aang she slowly fell asleep, and Zuko let out a sigh as he stood up and went to leave the room. He looked back at her to be sure that she was asleep. Satisfied, he turned and left the room, fully intent on finding his uncle, and letting his crew know about their new directions.
He walked through the steel halls of the ship, the lanterns casting ghostly shadows all across the area. It had originally disturbed him when he first came back to the past, not being used to the environment of the metal monstrosity he was on, however, since the merge, he had lost his tense nature around the ship, and now was able to walk through it with ease. He knew the ship like the back of his hand now, every nook and cranny, and it bugged him.
Not bugged, that isn't a strong enough word. He didn't like not knowing who he was. Katara had told him to man up and accept, in lay mans terms anyway, but even then could he really accept that he was now a completely different person? He was glad that he saved himself in the black void, No, my past self. He reminded himself. It was getting harder and harder to pin point which self's personality was slipping through now.
Did he really need to be organized though?
"I need to stop thinking about this. Katara's right, I'm just being a drama queen." Pushing the thoughts aside, he walked up a set of stairs to reach the bridge of the ship. Opening a door, he walked in, forcing to be cool and collected. One of the perks of the merge is that I don't have to act in front of these guys anymore, the past self of my mind knows how to deal with these guys more than my future self ever could.
"Men, change course to the Fire Sage Temple in the Fire Nation." All the men stopped what they were doing when they looked back at him, "What are you waiting for? The girl told me that is where they might be heading! I am not going to lose my lead on the Avatar because of my banishment!"
"But sir, you could get into serious trouble if you're caught..."
"It doesn't matter." Zuko said, "We're going one way or another."
His men looked reluctant, but disobeying Zuko was something they didn't want to risk doing. After a small moment, the man steering the ship turned to him, "Very well Prince Zuko, we'll go there immediately."
"Good, be sure to make it there in three days."
His crew nodded, and with that he left the bridge in search of his uncle. It didn't take long before he saw his uncle drinking some tea in the wreck room, and thankfully there were very few other men in the room. Zuko crossed the room, and sat across from his uncle, and just stayed silent as his uncle continued to drink his tea.
"Hello Prince Zuko." His uncle finally said, "How may I help you?"
"Uncle, something happened, and I need to talk to you about it, alone."
"Oh?" His uncle mumbled.
"Yes, it's very important."
"Does it involve the Water Tribe girl?"
"No. Speaking of her though, she woke up earlier and we talked, about the thing I need to tell you about." Zuko said looking straight at his uncle.
"Very well, let us go in my room." Iroh said, standing up and stretching a little bit. Zuko followed his uncle to his room, and right when Zuko closed the door behind him, and let out a sigh, "Uncle, about what you said to me the last time we talked..."
Iroh nodded, feeling slightly guilty for not having spoken to his nephew for about a week now, "What of it?"
"After that talk, I went to sleep, and I met myself." He paused, "I met younger me, the one you were talking about. We talked about a lot of things, and then after that we merged." Zuko summarized quickly.
"You merged with your past self?" Iroh said, raising an eyebrow as he sat on his bed. Zuko deciding to just lean on the wall instead.
"Yes."
"That is great news then - you're part of your past self and your future self." Iroh said, "I'm glad - I was worried that you ended my other nephew's life coming back."
"I keep thinking about it. I know it was right for us to merge, but now I can't determine who I am anymore! Before I was certain that I was good, helping the Avatar, there were no doubts in my mind, my future self's mind. Now, I have doubts about that! I feel like I can still gain my father's affections if I take Aang and give him to the Fire Lord! It makes me sick just thinking about it! I know it's wrong, and I knew it was wrong before the entire merge!"
"It's all right Zuko to feel how you do. You must remember you're no longer your future self, you're one entity now. So all the feelings of both of you have been mixed together."
"Yeah," Zuko said, "But I don't like it. I have all this doubt building within me now. Am I doing the right thing? Should I be helping the Avatar?" He let out a groan and began to pace, "I need your advice uncle, what should I do."
"Zuko, you're making a much bigger deal out of this than it truly is. Just look within yourself, and you will find your answers. You already told me what you want to do."
"When?" Zuko spun towards his uncle, "I don't want to hurt my friends!"
"You won't Zuko!" Iroh said sternly, "You act as though all that doubt and feelings within you will possess you and make you choose what you don't wish to do! Zuko, you're your own person. It's normal to have those feelings, just think, before the merge, you must have told your past self everything about yourself right?"
"Yes, I did."
"Don't you think it's hard to accept all of that? He was merely a child, wishing to regain his father's love by capturing the Avatar. Then the future self came, and told him everything he knew was wrong, and that he was friends with the Avatar."
"I see." Zuko said.
"I feel that if you were to meet the Avatar in person now, your doubts would go away. Half of you has not even talked to the boy, so when you do, I feel your doubts will fade away, and you will realize what it is you must do. Also, don't you realize that the Avatar trusts you fully? To leave her behind like that, I feel that it is not an easy task for him."
"It's even worse than you think, they love each other." Zuko muttered.
"Then you must realize you have the full trust of the Avatar, Zuko. You know what is right, and what must be done."
And like that, his doubt began to fade away, and in its place, he began to feel really stupid. "Thank you for talking to me uncle." He said, hugging the man tightly.
"It's no problem Zuko." Iroh said, holding his nephew.
As soon as they parted, Zuko bowed down to show his respect, "I will be back in my room watching over Katara."
"Hm, can you wash her for me then?" Iroh said.
"U- Uncle!" Zuko shouted, "No! She's woke up! Can't she do it herself?"
"She is badly hurt Zuko," Iroh said, but he was laughing ,"But I will continue do it if you insist!"
Zuko allowed his still beating heart to slow down, and when he was sure he could speak again, he turned to his uncle, "She is a Waterbender - our group healer in fact, when she wakes up again, do you think it would be wise to have her try to heal herself?"
"If possible, maybe a little bit." Iroh said nodding, "But you mustn't push her to do this. If she can't sit up, don't bother trying to have her do it."
"All right."
The two continued to walk down the hall towards his room, when his uncle turned to him, "Zuko, I have been hearing a ridiculous rumor that you ordered the crew to take us into the Fire Nation, where would they possibly get an idea like that?"
Zuko stopped in place, not even considering how his uncle would take the news, "Well, there's a funny story about that," Zuko said, "Truth is, we are."
Chapter nine - End
A/N - I saw the movie, and it's bad. Really bad. Actually, bad is being too nice. This piece of crap is garbage. I went into the theaters with low expectations, however, I came out with my expectations blown out of the water, in the opposite direction. This was worse than I thought it would be. Here's a short story for you guys to enjoy, don't worry it doesn't contain too many spoilers for the movie, if for some reason you actually do want to see it:
Team Avatar walked out of the theater, none of them were joyously laughing, or making any attempt to talk about the movie they had just seen. It was completely quiet until Katara finally broke it with a groan of annoyance, "Argh, I was so useless in that movie!"
"What? At least you did SOMETHING! I got, what? TEN LINES?" Sokka shouted at his little sister.
"You two have no right to complain one bit!" Suki huffed, "I was cut out of the movie!"
"What are you guys talking about? I thought it was awesome!" Toph exclaimed, "Hands down the best comedy of the year!"
"I dunno, I kinda liked it too." Aang said from Katara's side, she glared at him, and he quickly added, "A little character development would have been nice too! By the time we got to the North Pole it was like we didn't even know each other." She smiled at the criticism.
Zuko looked at the group, and tried to think of something, but just sighed, "At least I was played by one of the only good actors in the movie..."
"That's not saying much. He was still about as stiff as everything else." Katara sighed, "I wish my actress would have, you know, acted a little bit."
"To be fair, I think it was the directors fault." Sokka said, "He was the one who allowed all of that to pass. Any competent director would have redone the shot, but not here. No, he allowed his ego to get in the way, and took advantage of the built in fan base!"
"I guess it was a good thing I wasn't in it," Suki said after a moment of thought, "Especially considering how badly Haru was butchered."
"Where did he go anyway?" Aang asked, "I saw him in the theater, but now I can't find him at all!"
"He's out in the streets destroying everything he finds."
"Oh wow," Aang mumbled, "Do you think we should stop him?"
Toph shrugged, "After the way the movie portrayed him, he has a legit excuse to tell the Omashu guards."
"Teo left after seeing how the Northern Air Temple was portrayed." Zuko said, "I saw him begging his father to get him out of there."
"I wish I left when he did." Katara mumbled darkly.
"Well, at least it looked good." Sokka decided, "The special effects were occasionally really cool, the costumes were fun, the music was nice, and the landscapes were at some times amazing to look at!"
"That doesn't excuse the horrible story, the horrible acting, the horrible pacing, and-" Suki paused to take a breath, "I think I will just stop there."
They had walked outside, and they let out a heartfelt sigh of depression.
"So, who's up for kicking some Fire Nation butt after all that?" Toph asked. There were no objections, and soon the group was heading straight for the Fire Lord, not caring how heavily guarded he was, or what the possibly chances of failure was. All that was on their mind was getting that god-awful movie out of their heads.
A/N - So that's all. The story is discontinuity, cause it makes no sense in any context, similar to the movie. GOD I HATED IT! ARRRGGGHHH!