Chapter sixteen
Three days had passed since Doctor Shou allowed them to go free from her care. Aang had to stay for an entire week due to his condition after being saved by Katara, but no one fussed much about it, knowing that it was for the best that Aang healed up. It also allowed time for Suki and Katara to recover from the ordeal as well, and everyone appreciated time off from doing anything serious for once. Unfortunately, their time for rest came to an abrupt halt, and their journey had to continue once again.
"It was nice being with you guys," Zuko said, "Uncle and I have to get back to the ship though."
"The men must be curious as to why we've been gone so long." Iroh added.
The group of seven all stood outside of the main gate of the village, Aang had the bison whistle grasped in his hand. His orange clothes had been torn apart by the Fire Nation, so now he wore simple greens, and his arm was still slung over his chest, but now only a cloth was holding it for him, the wood was removed a few days ago due to Katara's impressive healing abilities.
Since meeting up with the rest of the team, Katara had also changed back to her Water Tribe outfit, removing the red one she had to wear, but she kept it anyway, claiming that it would be good just in case if she needed to pose as a Fire Nation civilian. Zuko didn't press for more information, not really caring. Her messed up hair was again neatly braided, and she looked far better than she had in weeks, the scar on her only causing mild discomfort now.
Suki's Kyoshi outfit was unfortunately destroyed as well by the Fire Nation cutting it apart, and she also wore similar greens as Aang did. On her back was her katana, and on the leather belt she wore were her two fans, even though one was damage, it was still a deadly weapon, and she would use it regardless of the damage done to it.
The sun was beating down on them as they all stood outside the village gate, walking a little ways. Zuko and Iroh had their cart with them being pulled by the Ostrich Horses, and Azula was knocked out cold inside the wagon. It was a far cry to the weather the village was experiencing a week ago, and everyone was truly thankful for it.
"We'll see you at the Northern Air Temple then," Aang said smiling at Zuko.
"Ok," Zuko quickly replied.
Katara came forward and quickly gave him a hug, "Thanks again Zuko."
Zuko hugged her back melting from the emotionless display he had shown previously,"You're welcome." With that Zuko let go, and began to walk in the opposite direction with his uncle. They had agreed to get going as soon as possible, and Zuko would not be the one to make them waste anymore time.
"Bye Zuko!" Sokka shouted, "Don't go missing again ok!"
When Zuko was a decent distance away, Aang brought the bison whistle to his lips and blew on it, and smiled widely as he saw Appa start to come towards him from the sky.
"Wow, he responded fast." Sokka said offhandedly.
"Thankfully," Toph mumbled, "I'd hate to wait in this sunlight for much longer."
"It's not that bad," Sokka said, waving her complaint off, "Now come on."
Appa landed in front of them with a small grunt, and he turned towards Aang and licked the boy, getting him completely soaked. Aang couldn't help but laugh as he did so, "I missed you too!" he said. Momo too was flying around him, happy to see him all right. "Come on! We need to start going you two!" Aang said, finally stopping Appa soaking him to the bones. Everyone was feeling lighter after the display, and their morale was high as they climbed atop the bison and flew off towards their next destination.
Sokka unrolled the now very crumpled map as he looked it over, the rain had made it much harder to read, and made it unable to roll up properly anymore. However it was the only map they had, so he had to use it. He looked at it for a small bit more, before he decided to talk, "It would take us roughly a week to reach the Northern Air Temple if Appa were to go full speed at our usual day schedule."
"Don't forget about Zuko," Aang said back to him.
"I know, if we slow down so he could catch up, it would take almost three weeks." He paused so the others could absorb this, "Do we really want to wait almost a month to get there?"
Aang shrugged, "We'll be fine."
"We've been wasting enough time as it is," Sokka commented, "We've been in the past for almost two months now if you remember."
"Sokka," Katara said, cutting in, "Even if it takes us another month to make it there, don't you remember we spent almost two months in the spring looking for a teacher for Aang? The rest of it we spent in Ba Sing Se."
Every shuddered at the thought of the city besides Suki, who looked questionably around at everyone tensing up at the name of the city.
"Look, I'm not saying we should leave Zuko behind, but the sooner he can start traveling with us, the faster we'll get things done."
"He's been a big help in the Fire Nation so far," Suki said, "His position hasn't been compromised yet, so he'll probably be there for a long time still."
Sokka sighed, "Yeah, I know. I just hope it doesn't make us too tight on time."
"We still have almost two full months before spring even begins Sokka, you're just worrying too much!" Toph said, relaxing with her arms behind her head.
"Fine," He said, looking down at the map, "Though since we're going to the same location, but we'd get there faster than Zuko, there's a few villages we might want to check out along the way, some for supplies, and to get some more money."
He pointed out a few to the group, Suki and Katara leaning over the map. Aang was at the front guiding Appa, and Toph didn't for obvious reasons. Momo also seemed uncharacteristically interested in the map, and was leaning forward to look at it front atop Sokka's head. Sokka didn't seem to mind the new resident on his head, probably used to it due to years of travelling with the flying lemur.
"How about we go there then." Katara said, pointing at the map.
Sokka leaned forward to read the name, the text was faded, but he could barely make out, "Makapu Village?"
"If that's what it's called."
"Anyone object to going there?" He called out. No one did, "Ok then, that's where we're going. It's about a four day trip from here, so get ready for some make-up training guys – you've all ready been slacking off!"
Everyone but Suki groaned at that, causing Sokka and Suki to laugh at their plight.
It was exactly four days later when they spotted the village they were going to visit, and it was only late morning. They were still in the mountainous region of the Earth Kingdom, and all around there was a light layer of snow, a big difference compared to the constant storming of the past week they had to go through.
"I'm going to land Appa a little ways from the village." Aang said.
"Good idea." Katara answered him, looking down at the curious eyes they were attracting.
"You know, this place looks oddly familiar." Sokka said, eyeing the place intently, "Must be my imagination." He shrugged and leaned back on the saddle of Appa next to Suki.
They landed a little bit away like Aang said, and once they got off, they heard the sound of something growling. The group got prepared for a fight, looking all around themselves, but noticed they were in no imminent danger.
"False alarm?" Suki asked.
"No, it's coming from over there." Toph said, pointing towards the river, "It's hidden behind some trees – a monster is attacking a man!" She said, realizing what was going on.
"We have to help him!" Aang said, grabbing his staff with his good arm.
Everyone was way ahead of him, going towards the commotion, Sokka in the lead, and then he stopped dead in his tracks, watching as a man with a goofy grin was side stepping the attacks of an enraged platypus bear. Toph stepped forward and with a few quick moves with her Earthbending, hit the bear several times, making it run off in pain.
"Thank you." The man said, turning towards the youths, "But you really didn't have to." He dusted off his green clothes, and patted down his messed up mop of hair.
"What?" Toph asked, not quite sure she heard him right.
"Aunt Wu predicted I would survive that fight – so you didn't need to help me." He explained further, never letting his smile leave his face.
"Oh no…" Sokka muttered, "Katara, out of every place you could pick, WHY THIS PLACE?"
"How was I supposed to know this was that place!"
"You know I had nightmares of this village for WEEKS after we visited last?"
"Why? Because you were so shocked people could live off fortunes?"
'Because people were willing to risk their lives based on these useless tidbits of information!" Sokka shouted, "You!" He pointed at the man and walked up to him, "They reason you survived was because we came and saved you! Nothing other than that!"
"If you say so." The man said, seemingly indifferent to the boys nearly enraged state.
"Ahhhhrggghh!" Sokka shouted, falling to the floor, "Can we PLEASE skip this place?"
"Has your village recently been destroyed by a volcanic eruption?" Aang asked the man.
"Not recently, no." The man answered.
"Ok," Aang nodded, "We'll just stay here for a day, get some supplies, clean ourselves up, save a village from imminent destruction, get our fortunes told – the usual. Besides, you said go along with fate from now on right?" Aang said, turning to look at Sokka.
"You're mocking me, aren't you?" Sokka said, glaring at Aang.
Aang smiled back, but didn't deny it.
Toph and Suki were both utterly confused by what they were talking about, but Katara had no problem laughing at Sokka's situation.
The man ended up leading the five to the village, much to Sokka's dismay, and everyone else's amusement. It was a plain village really, but compared to the recent places they had visited it was far more lavish looking. Everyone was wealthy – probably from the plantations they handled nearby the village. It was a typical village of the Earth Kingdom, unaffected by the war so far. They were led up to the center of the village, and in the center there was a large and imposing building where Aunt Wu did her fortune telling.
"Here we are!" Aang said.
"Joy." Sokka mumbled.
They entered the building, and were met by a young girl with one of the oddest hairstyles any of them have ever seen… again.
"Hello!" She said, "If you're here for a fortune you'll have to wait a little bit – Aunt Wu is busy with someone else right now. You can sit down here as you wait."
As they sat down, Suki turned towards Toph, "Is she related to you? She sounds just like you do."
"I don't have any siblings." Toph answered, sounding annoyed.
"You can call my Meng!" the girl that led them in said, not hearing Toph and Suki's quiet conversation. She looked around at her guest, Toph who looked bored, then at Suki who looked slightly interested, then to Sokka who looked like he was ready to maul someone if given the chance, then to Katara who had a light smile on her face as she kept glancing at Sokka and laughing every little bit, and then to Aang.
Her heart stopped for a split second, and her mind instantly put a frame around Aang's face as he smiled at her. Suddenly she was swept away in her imagination, the bald boy was going to marry her, propose in the most surprising and romantic way. She eyed the arrow tattoo, and felt her heart melt even more – she liked a boy who had tattoos.
"What's your name?" She said, leaning in towards Aang.
"I'm Aang." He answered, still smiling at her.
Sokka noticed the interactions, and started to laugh at Katara, who now looked like she was ready to maul the little girl. Suki rolled her eyes at the sibling's antics, and Toph just listened intently.
"Can I get you anything while you wait Aang?" She said his name slowly, adoring the way it just slid off her tongue, and she felt her eyes closing as she looked at him, wishing she had the courage to simply lean forward and get that kiss.
"WE wouldn't mind something while we wait." Katara said, wrapping an arm around Aang and narrowing her eyes at the little girl.
Sokka and Toph were openly laughing now, tears forming in their eyes. Katara didn't seem to care as she glared at the girl, and Aang just looked confused in the crossfire between the two girls. Meng returned the glare tenfold, and after a few seconds, she turned around and walked away with a huff, presumably to get them something to eat while they waited.
When she left through the door away from their waiting room, Katara turned towards Aang, "I can't believe you'd just take it all in stride like that!"
"She was just a cute little girl," Aang said, rubbing his head nervously.
"She was falling head over heels for you and you did nothing to stop it from happening!"
"Aw, is wittle Katara jealous?" Sokka said, and received a smack on his back with her Waterbending as she glared at him like a saber tooth moose-lion would look at its prey. He let out a little yelp and leaned away, not wanting to invoke the wrath of Katara anymore. Toph was now rolling on the floor laughing, and Suki just rubbed Sokka's back as he looked away from Katara.
"You seem a little different." Suki said to Katara, "Usually you wouldn't let something like that get to you."
Katara looked confused, but then her eyes widened and she smacked herself on the forehead, "How could I forget to tell you guys?"
"What?" Aang asked, forgetting about the wrath of Katara he was about to suffer.
"Not now," She said shaking her head, "I'll tell you guys after we leave this house."
Sokka shrugged, "Suki is right though, you are acting a little different."
Katara sighed, "Like I said, I'll tell you after we leave this building."
At that Meng came back carrying a small tray of fruits for them to eat. Sokka dug right in along with Toph, while Suki nibbled on a few things. Even Aang had a few of the things on the tray, but Katara was looking at Meng, and vice versa. Eventually after a few minutes, a woman came out of the room, crying in what looked like relief.
"Oh thank you Aunt Wu!"
"Please, it's not me who deserves your thanks." Aunt Wu said, waving off the thanks, "Now, who is next?" She walked forward to the five kids, and gasped, "The Avatar!"
"Hi." Aang said, waving at her.
"Oh my, I'm humbled to be in your presence!" She said, bowing to the boy, "Do you wish to learn your fortune?"
"I would love to learn it." Aang said, standing up, "I need to tell you a few things too."
As they walked away, Meng stood in awe over what she learned, "The Avatar…?"
"Don't get any funny ideas." Katara said, watching the little girl, renewing their intense glaring contest.
Aang and Aunt Wu went into a dark room, with only a fire pit in the middle and two cushions for them to sit on either side of the fire. There was also a bucket full of bones next to one cushion, assumedly where Aunt Wu would be sitting down, so Aang went to the other seat in the darkened room, and watched the shadows play across Aunt Wu's face as she sat across from him.
"I must warn you young Avatar; you might not like the future which I predict."
"I know."
"Then let us begin."
She picked up a bone and looked it over before throwing it into the fire. It cracked once, then again shortly after, and then again. Her eyes widened as it continued to break apart, until it simply exploded with in the fire, sending small shards of bone all over the floor. She picked up several of the shards and looked at them, and then frantically began to pick up more.
"You will learn of a well guarded secret in due time." She said, reading one them of, "You'll learn of it, and it will affect the outcome of everything you know!" She picked up another, "You will be in a climactic battle, between the forces of good and evil! You will fight the Fire Nation, the Fire lord himself! And you shall-" She picked up another shard, and immediately stopped speaking.
"Well?"
"You're destined to fail…"
She rubbed her forehead, "No, that cannot be true… but… but the fortunes never lie." She looked up mournfully at the Avatar, "I'm so sorry…"
Aang was struck by how accurate her reading was to his previous life, and felt his chest well up with dread, anxiety, and most of all, fear. "Maybe you read them wrong?"
"No," She said shaking her head sadly, "This is the outcome the bones predict."
"Throw another one on!" Aang demanded, "That can't be how it ends!"
Aunt Wu obliged to his wish, and they both watched as it again exploded, "It's the same as before."
He groaned, "What is the secret then?" That was the only thing from his previous life that he couldn't remember, which means it probably didn't happen. If I can figure out what it is…
"You must find out yourself, for I do not know."
Aang groaned, "Just great…"
Both stood up wordlessly, and walked out of the room. Aang never felt so numb before, he had doubts, and fears about failing again, but to be told that he would fail was something he didn't even imagine he would hear. He heard nothing as the door opened, and he walked over to his group of friends, he didn't even pay attention to Katara and Meng's antics. Instead, he just walked out of the building, leaving it all behind, too numb to deal with it right now.
"Aang?" Sokka called, but watched as the boy walked out, "Oh no." He looked towards a sad looking Aunt Wu, "What did you say to him?"
"That's for him to disclose to you."
He cursed under his breath, and got up, the other three right behind him as they left the building and surrounded Aang, "What'd she say Aang?" Katara asked, shaking him a little, and grabbing hold on his good arm so he wouldn't walk away further.
He blinked a few times, and sighed, "She said I was destined to fail against the Fire Lord."
"She said that?" Sokka mumbled, "Right in front of you?" Sokka said, feeling his anger begin to bubble over.
"She warned me before she told my fortune that I wouldn't like it."
"Was there anything else?" Katara asked, pressing further.
"She said I would learn of a well guarded secret that would change the outcome of everything." Aang answered, "But she didn't know what the secret was."
Katara felt her heart lurch, "I do."
"What?" Sokka asked, turning towards her.
"I know the secret – what Aang needs to know in order to defeat the Fire Lord! Zuko and I figured it out!"
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Toph asked.
"It didn't cross my mind until today," She admitted, "So much has been happening that it just kind of left my mind."
"Whatever! What is it?" Sokka asked. Everyone looked intently at her, making her feel a little self-conscious, but she swallowed her nervousness down, looked around to make sure they were away from any other prying ears, and began to talk.
"When we came back, we came back into our younger bodies, right?" She said, everyone nodded, not knowing what she was getting at, "Well, we never took the time to consider what happened to the bodies before we came back, were they just empty before we came, or whatever. It turns out that we came back and took then over from our past selves."
"What?" Suki gasped.
"Seriously?" Toph said.
"No way." Sokka mumbled.
Aang just quietly waited for Katara to go on, "The secret is our past selves, they can change everything for us." Everyone just looked confused, so she elaborated, "You got to go see them, in your mind. When I talked to my past self, we merged into one person, and because of that I feel better, I can remember a lot of things I had forgotten, and it dulls the pain of what happened to us in the other time."
"So we have been locking in our past self in our minds?" Suki said slowly, sounding sick, "Are they ok?"
"They are fine." Katara said, "Though I found mine after being here for three weeks, and she was crying when I met her… I'm not sure how your past selves will react to being alone for so long."
"So, that is why you're acting different." Toph said connecting the dots, "You merged with your past self, and it made you into a kid again!"
"Not a kid," She said, resenting how that sounded, "I am still the same person, kind of. I mean, I guess I am kind of a kid, but I still have been through everything with you. Iroh said that I merged 'more' with my younger self if that makes any sense."
"Kind of." Sokka said, "But how will this change the fate of everything? I can see how it would be helpful, but to save the world?"
"Because Aang's past self didn't die while in the Avatar State." Katara said, looking around at the other four.
Sokka stopped talking, too surprised by the information, Suki and Toph were in a similar state of shock.
"That explains it then," Aang mumbled, "I can feel other spirits now whereas in the future I couldn't after I 'died'." He nodded, "So I need to merge with my past self, right?" He said, looking at his friends.
"That's right." Katara said, happy that Aang was out of his depressed mood now.
"Ok, so we need to meet our younger selves." Sokka said, "And how do we do that?"
"I don't know," Katara mumbled when everyone looked at her, "I did it when I was badly hurt."
"Let's see if we can do it without getting hurt." Suki suggested when Sokka looked thoughtful at the prospect. He sighed, at that and looked away towards the volcano.
"Right, we need to worry about that," He said, "But we need to deal with that right now." He turned towards Aang, "Did you tell Aunt Wu about that?"
"No," Aang said shaking his head, "I completely forgot."
"So what did she do?" Sokka mumbled, "She messed with the clouds right?"
"She read them." Katara said, "And Aang had to change the shapes of the clouds to make her tell the people that the volcano here is active."
"All right, so what was the shape that needed to be up there to make people realize that they are about to die?" Sokka said, looking up to the sky.
Zuko's ship was currently docked at another Fire Nation port, still quite a while until they reached the Northern Air Temple. He was on the bridge of his ship playing Pai Sho against his uncle, and he was losing horribly. He had two fingers on his forehead while his thumb was on the side of his head. He slowly reached out with his other hand, and with his index finger he slid a tile across the board, towards his uncle.
"An interesting move nephew," Iroh commented, looking at the board as he stroked his beard.
Zuko didn't respond, and watched as his uncle completely countered his attack by moving a tile to intercept the one he just moved. It was his turn again, and he looked at all his pieces, and then back to his uncle, before he moved another tile towards his uncle's lotus tile.
"Oh? Why would you do something like that I wonder?" Iroh said.
Zuko watched as Iroh moved another piece to the center of the board, and he realized that his uncle didn't have anything else to do to counter what he just did. His eyes widened, and he smiled as he reached forward to begin to defeat his uncle, but it was soon ended when one of his men burst into the room and rammed into the table on accident, knocking the tiles off the table and abruptly ending the game.
"NO!" He cried, "What is it?" He turned to the man, "It better be important!"
"Sir," The man said, not stuttering at all, "there's a Fire Nation ship incoming."
Zuko got up from the table, and went out onto the deck, since the bridge of the ship was facing the port town. He walked around on the deck of the bridge until he could see the open sea, and he pulled out a small telescope and brought it up to his good eye, "Zhao," He muttered darkly, "What does he want now?"
Inside the bridge Iroh looked at the man who came up, "Jee was it? Would you care to play a game of Pai Sho?"
"No thanks." Jee said, leaving the room to go back to the wreck room. Iroh shrugged, and went back to setting the tiles up to hopefully play his nephew again. He was thankful Jee had come in and knocked over the table, he was beginning to lose, and a master like himself should never lose to a novice like Zuko.
Zuko walked back into the ship, and went straight towards his uncle, "we need to talk, alone."
He said, pulling his uncle out of the room, not even giving the man time to compose himself as his nephew continued to drag him away. They reached Zuko's room, and the door slammed shut behind them, and Zuko locked it before turning to his uncle, "Zhao is coming."
"Oh, well that's not very good."
"Could you please act a little concerned?"
Iroh shrugged, "Do you believe he knows that you're holding your sister and her guards' prisoner on this ship?"
Zuko blinked a few times, "Oh spirits, maybe we shouldn't have done that – the crew is obviously suspicious of what is going on... Do you think he knows?"
"No, I don't." Iroh said, allowing Zuko to sigh in relief.
"What is he coming for?"
"I don't know."
Zuko sighed, "Then we'll have to wait for him to come to us…"
The two walked onto the bow on the ship, and waited for the much larger boat to pull up aside them. It took quite a while, and Zuko wondered for a bit why he always did this when he could be inside his ship playing a round of Pai Sho with his uncle. He shook his head, and sighed, knowing that that he would be far too nervous to do anything other than wait for the general to get to his ship.
And so he waited, allowing the sun to beat down on his back and armor until the ship pulled up to them. The ramp lowered down to his side and soon Zhao was walking down it with two guards on either side. He smiled down at Zuko, who was glaring right back at him.
"What do you want now?" Zuko asked.
"Tsk tsk," He said waving his finger, "Manners Zuko. After all, you're addressing an Admiral now."
"You were promoted to Admiral?" Zuko asked, clearly unable to believe it.
"Yes, I was, and so I've began to amass quite a large force to begin exclusively hunting down the Avatar among other things."
"The Fire Lord won't be pleased when he hears how you're wasting his resources to hunt for a kid." Zuko countered.
"Yes, well, I'm sure he won't be disappointed when I find the Avatar and present the boy to him, will he?" Zhao said, trying to get a rise out of the boy - it was almost like a goal for him to rile Zuko up now, since he got it to work so little lately. However, Zuko just continued to glare, unfazed by the jab at him.
"Anyway, I've come here to take your crew. I need manpower, and I figured I would take it where it's being wasted first."
"You can't do that!" Zuko immediately yelled, "I need them to work my ship!"
"That's too bad."
"They won't work for you anyway, they're loyal to me!"
"We'll see." He said, another group of guards walking down the ramp right behind him carrying a chest of money, "This is enough incentive to leave you, don't you think?"
Zuko groaned, knowing that it would be more than enough, considering the amount of respect and money he gave to his men was abysmal compared to that, and much to no one's surprise, an hour later all of Zuko's men were leaving the ship, waving at Zuko as they walked by. Zuko remembered this from his previous life, and had his arms crossed and he glared at his men, while Iroh was silently mourning them leaving, "I can't believe they're gone!"
"Good riddance." Zuko grumbled, angry that his men would leave him.
Iroh looked around, and saw that Zhao was busy overseeing his new crew members, and he leaned towards Zuko, "Did this happen last time?"
"Yeah," Zuko whispered back, "Though I don't think it happened quite so early…"
Iroh nodded, keeping that tidbit of information in mind as Zhao walked back over towards them, "Iroh, you know you're welcome to come as well. I could use someone like you to assist me in capturing the Avatar. There are also some other things I wouldn't mind having your input on."
"I'm sorry Zhao, but my place is here with my nephew. I'm afraid I am going to have to reject your offer."
"Fine," Zhao said, though he didn't look happy at all. He turned to Zuko and then said, "I heard rumors that the Princess is with you, is that true?"
"No." Zuko denied, "She isn't welcome on my ship, and neither are you."
Zhao laughed at that, "Of course, Prince Zuko, whatever you say." His gaze lingered on Zuko for a few more seconds, as if he was waiting for the boy to crack and tell him everything. He fortunately didn't get his wish, and he shook his head, turning around and leaving the port and Zuko behind.
"Well…" Zuko said, looking around at his crewless ship, "How are we going to leave port now?"
Iroh shrugged, just as clueless as his nephew.
"Are you serious?" Sokka shouted a happily married couple, "Of course you're going to have over twenty kids if you keep it up! Why would you WANT twenty kids?"
"You have to wash sometimes!"
"You're just being a moron!"
Sokka was going out of his mind, "I hate this village, I hate this village, I hate this village…" He kept repeating, sitting down on a bench as Suki calmly pat him on his back, "Why are they like this?" he asked her.
"They just really believe in her. You should just let them believe what they want." She offered, "You're making a big deal out of nothing."
"But it is going to kill them all!"
"We're here, so technically her prediction that we're all safe is right."
Sokka felt his eye twitch, and he just covered his face with his hands and tried to calm down. An hour ago Aunt Wu did her cloud reading, and she claimed that the volcano was not active, even though it truly was. Aang was currently getting the book, and spirits knew where Toph and Katara were.
"Where's Toph and Katara?" Sokka suddenly asked.
"Well, Toph said she wanted to explore the village while you went on your frenzy, and Katara followed her shortly after."
"We are supposed to stick together now! I wasn't that bad." He exclaimed, but Suki just started at him with a flat look, "Oh come on, really?"
"You were."
"Fine," He hesitantly agreed, "When is Aang getting here?"
"Right now," Aang said, walked over to them, holding his glider in his hood hand and gripping the book with his hand on his broken arm, "Here's the cloud we need to form, so I just need to get on top of Appa, and then we'll bend the clouds to this shape, right?"
"A skull, huh, very spooky, very onimous," Sokka grumbled looking at the picture in the book before pushing it back towards Aang, "get Katara to help you, it'd probably be easier if you had her with you."
Aang hesitated for a little bit before nodding, "yeah, I'll do that."
Aang wandered through the town really quick, looking around until he spotted both Katara and Toph wandering around looking at some of the shops. Toph was following Katara at this point, bored out of her mind.
"Hey, Katara." Aang said, running up to her.
"Hello Aang!" She greeted warmly.
"Come on, we need to bend the clouds." He lifted up the book, "I need some help since I can only use one arm."
She nodded in understanding, "Of course."
"I'll just stay here and be bored." Toph answered.
Aang smiled lightly and patted her on the back, "I'm sorry, you'll have something to do later – I promise!"
"Does it involve digging in the ground?"
Aang paused, "Maybe?"
Toph just sighed and turned away from him and walked off. Katara just shrugged and soon the two were off into the forest surrounding the village.
The two went to Appa, and climbed atop the beast, Aang grabbed Katara's hand and brought her up, though he didn't stay close to her, as if the second he let go of her hand he didn't want to be around her. He went to the front of Appa and flew him up into the sky. However, this odd behavior immediately stuck out to Katara, who looked at him with concern.
"Are you all right?"
"I- I'm fine." Aang said, shaking his head, "Really."
She looked at him as he turned away, feeling confused and a little sad at how he was acting. She let out a sigh, and instead focused on the task at hand.
With that both Aang and Katara went to change the clouds around to form the skull shape once again atop Appa, Momo tagging along. It was mostly Katara who weaved the clouds, subtly making them change shape so the people down below wouldn't get suspicious. Aang didn't even have to help out, because Katara was easily handling it on her own, so he just ended up staying back as she gracefully moved her arms about bending the clouds to her will. It took her maybe five minutes with her expert bending art.
"I think that's good enough!" Aang called back to her, the rushing of the wind made it harder to hear things up in the clouds.
"Ok!" She shouted, doing a few final touches.
On the ground, Sokka and Suki practically dragged Aunt Wu out and showed her the cloud, making her gasp in horror, "Oh no! The Volcano is going to erupt soon!"
"You need to assemble the crowd so we can tell everyone what to do." Sokka pressed.
"Yes, right away!" She said, getting onto her podium in the middle of the town where she gave off her cloud readings before. The crowd saw her there, and immediately people began to gather around her, curious as to what she needed to say this time.
When the crowd was large enough, she stepped aside, to allow Sokka to speak, "Aunt Wu was wrong! The volcano is active, and is ready to erupt at any time now! If you want to save the town, we have to work fast, and work together. We're going to build a trench around the village to allow the lava to flow away from the village! Any Earthbenders in the crowd, even if you're inexperienced, need to start now, the rest of us will help dig!"
And like that, the crowd began to do their assigned jobs. Toph grabbed the group of Earthbenders and along with them, easily was able to make a very deep and long trench. The rest of the villagers started to dig.
Katara and Aang came to the town a little time after that, and Aang immediately went to help Earthbend, while Katara started to dig by Suki. Though there was chaos, and shouting all over, Katara turned to Suki, wanting to get her thoughts out of her mind.
"When I was up in the air, I noticed something," Katara said to Suki.
"What?"
"Aang is acting weird."
"Why do you say that?" Suki asked, sparing a glance at Katara before getting back to work.
"He's being more… distant."
"He's just having a hard time accepting what Aunt Wu told him," Suki said, "Give him time and he'll act like he always does."
Katara nodded, though she didn't look convinced, "All right."
Like in the past the managed to complete the task in time before the volcano erupted, and with the extra help of Toph and Aang's Earthbending it went even better than expected, with the lava poured into the deep trench, oozing along, Aang watched from above, being careful not to burn himself. He smiled as he watched the trench easily holding up, and he knew that he wouldn't need to do anything else to save the village.
His friends were watching from far away, ready to go help in a moment's notice, but it wasn't required, as he was walking back towards him.
"It's going to work." He said to them.
"That's a relief." Sokka sighed.
Katara went forward and hugged Aang who stiffened in her grasp, "What's wrong?" She asked, letting him go when he just patted her on the back.
"Nothing," He said evasively, "We need to leave soon."
"If there's something wrong, you're going to tell me." She said sternly, not allowing him to back out of this one.
Sokka coughed, "Hey, before you two lovebirds argue, can you at least wait until we're gone."
"I agree with Sokka." Suki said.
"We're also standing next to an active volcano that is still pouring lava, are you sure you want to have a conversation here?" Sokka added.
"We're safe." Aang said, "The trench is enough to hold it off this time."
"More importantly is that we went along with fate, and nothing bad happened!" Sokka cheered, "So that is how we're supposed to do this!"
"You didn't seem very happy to come here in the first place Sokka." Katara reminded him, "It sounded like you'd rather be anywhere than here, regardless if it was 'fate' or not."
"Yeah, well, things change."
Katara rolled her eyes, "Ok, how about you take Suki and Toph so I can have a little chat with Aang?" Aang gulped at that, and looked pleadingly at Sokka, but Sokka just shrugged.
"If you say so." He then mouth 'good luck Aang' before he turned around, Suki behind him and dragging Toph, who was yelling about wanting to hear all the drama unfold.
Though it was night time, the fires from the lava provided more than enough light so they could look each other in the face without hiding their emotions. Aang was looking away towards the destruction force, while Katara was trying to catch his eyes with her own. After over a minute of this, she sighed, and reached forward and grabbed his chin and turned his eyes towards her.
"Now, what's wrong?" She asked again.
"Look," Aang said, trying to get it out, "I just have a lot on my mind right now."
"Yeah, we all do. I just told you the secret that Aunt Wu predicted, so what's the problem? You can use the Avatar State to defeat the Fire Lord!"
"I don't know if that's the secret though," Aang admitted.
"What else could it be?"
"I don't know, I just have a feeling that that is not what she was talking about."
"Is that why you're acting like this then? You've practically been ignoring me since I told you, what's your problem?"
Aang noticed how hurt she looked, and that made him feel a lot worse than he already did, "It's just that, you merged with your past self, and you're like a kid now, and… I just don't feel right when we act like how we usually do together."
"W- What?" She mumbled, too surprised to say anything else.
"You're too… innocent now, I guess." He sighed, "I just don't feel right thinking of you how I usually do, and I think we should stay away from each other for a little while…"
He thinks I'm a kid? She initially felt a wave of anger, but it quickly dissolved when she thought further on it. She was acting more childlike, her behavior was definitely a little different. Was it because of how she acted towards Meng earlier that day? She began to examine everything she did that could possibly make Aang come to that conclusion, and she blinked rapidly, maybe I should give him space… Let him have time to deal with it…
She forced herself to let out a shaky breath, and noticed that Aang was watching her the entire time, "Aang… I'm still the same person I have always been. I went through everything with you in the future, I remember it all, and I remember everything we've done with one another, but…" She sighed, "I understand."
"You do?"
"Yeah," She said, pained to say that at all, "I still love you though; I only hope you can see that…"
He looked away guiltily again, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." She said feeling another stab pierce through her heart when he didn't say he loved her back just then, "Come on, we need to go to Aunt Wu."
"You're not mad?" Aang asked, sounding clearly surprised.
"No." She answered, walking away.
Aang felt like he had just done something wrong, very wrong. For now though he simply followed Katara, wondering if he had done the right thing.
They made it to Aunt Wu, who was watching the village from afar with the villagers behind her hiding in the woods, "Thank you for saving us Avatar." She said when Aang came trotting up with Katara, Sokka, Suki, and Toph were all nearby, "if there is anything we can do for you, simply ask."
"Well," Aang said slowly, "We do need some supplies…"
Admiral Zhao sat across from several men wearing black; all of them had dark yellow eyes, that stared almost lifelessly ahead at Zhao, who was simply examining them. The lantern on the table was the only thing in the room providing light, the sun having gone down a few hours ago, and the metallic black ship did nothing to stop the oppressing darkness from being even worse, but it didn't seem to faze any of them there.
After a few minutes of staring the four men down, Zhao finally spoke, "I have gotten word back from the Fire Lord. He wishes for his failure of a son to be dealt with, so that is why I want to hire you four to deal with him in any way you can. I have several barrels of blasting jelly that you may find useful in the cargo hold, and I will allow you to use it how you please, so long as Zuko ceases to exist by the end of the week. Try not to kill his uncle, but if you have to, do not hesitate to do so."
He looked at the men, who silently watched him, not acknowledging anything he had just said. Good, he liked these guys, they were professional.
"You're dismissed. Once I hear word of Zuko's death I will pay you all."
The men walked out of the room, again not saying a word, but they didn't have to. Zhao knew that they would do it, and he knew that Zuko would soon be out of the picture, permanently.
Chapter sixteen – End
A/N – Hey! It only took me 2 months to come out with the next chapter! That's not too bad compared to other stories out here, right? RIGHT? Anyway, I have no excuse for how late this is. I actually had this chapter done for that entire 2 months, but just now got around to posting it after I editted it. The next chapter will take a while to come out unfortunately, but the good news is that I have the first two thousand words written.
Until then, have a good day.
OH! One more thing! I have a poll going on in my profile on which pairing I should go with for Zuko. pairings isn't the focus of this story obviously, but I am curious as to who you guys believe he should be with, Toph or Mai?