Legal necessities: If history has taught me any lessons, it's that I don't own A:TLA

Chapter 10: History Lessons

"You don't have to do this!" Aang shouted, staring at Kana pleadingly.

"Aang's right," Katara said nervously, "he'll get this, you don't have to push him."

"You believe in him, don't you?" she asked, with a pointed look. Katara couldn't say anything against that, so she simply backed away, eyes averted.

"Please," he begged, "I'll get it, I promise!"

"I always knew you'd get it, Aang. But this is the only sure fire way you'll get it now, there isn't time for you to work it out on your own, you're going to Earthbend right now! Toph!"

"Already ahead of you, Water Mama." The Earthbender said, making her way up the hill.

"I trust you, Aang, with my life." Kana whispered, gently placing the blindfold over his eyes.

"Here it comes!" Toph shouted from above, slamming her fist into the bolder. It tipped over the ledge, and started it's decent downwards.

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They had been meeting in secret for a while now, but he was sure everyone already knew. If he were anyone else, if she was a noble, it wouldn't matter being seen together publicly. Yet when the sun set, and they sneeked away to have a moonlit picnic underneath a cherry blossom tree, it all seemed worth it.

"What are you thinking about?" Tian asked, cuddling into his chest as she stared into the starlit sky.

"About how much I don't care what people think of us." He whispered into her ear. She turned her gray eyes onto his gold for a moment, then pressed her lips to his.

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He couldn't do this! He wasn't going to be able to stop the boulder, and it'd crush Kana! He could feel it getting closer with each passing moment, causing sweat to drip down his contorted face. Aang wanted to move, he'd never wanted to move so bad, it seemed like his heart was going to explode!

Jump now! His brain screamed, and time seemed to stop. He could see Kana clearly in his mind, stuck to the ground without any way to move, expecting him to save her. His fist slammed out, and the rock exploded around him.

Shakily he rose the makeshift blindfold from his eyes, coming face to face with Toph's grinning face. "You were supposed to stop the rock Twinkle Toes, not break it." She said, slapping him on the back, "But congratulations, you're an Earthbender!"

"Woohoo!" Aang shouted, leaping into the air before engulfing Toph in a bear hug. She wasted no time in slapping a palm to his forehead, knocking him to the ground, eliciting laughter from the entire group.

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"Have you heard the news?" a soldier asked, holding a scroll in his hand. "General Iroh broke through Ba Sing Se's outer wall, it's only a matter of time before the war's over, and we can go home!" cheers erupted around him, but all he could feel was an ache in his chest.

Later that night when he talked to Tian, she already knew, and for the first time ever, he saw her upset. He had always been ignoring the fact that she was from the Earth Kingdom, and had an opinion about the war. She didn't want the Fire Nation to win. It wasn't that with the wars ending he'd have to leave, but that the battle would be lost.

He didn't respond when she started yelling at him, or said horrible degrading words, or even when she broke down crying. She didn't have any way to express her feelings about the Fire Nation without punishment, he was the only outlet she had for her anger, so he could bear being her punching bag.

Yet, he had to admit, even when she threw herself into his arms, it didn't completely kill the pain caused by her words. Not because he didn't forgive her, but because what she said had been true, and he'd never thought badly about his country before.

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"I guess hole beats Boomerang Man, huh Sokka?" Kana snickered, hands on hips.

"Yeah, yeah, could you get me outta here please?" he grumbled, making her shrug. With a swift kick to the ground, Sokka popped up, and Toph pulled him out by the head.

"You have no idea what being stuck in the ground, thinking you're going to die is like!" he whined, wiping the dirt from his clothes.

"Yes, because being trapped in an ice burg for one hundred years is no comparison to your being in a hole for three hours." Kana drawled sarcastically.

"She's got you beat, Meat Head, don't even try to argue, there's no way you could win against Water Mama here." Toph said, stopping Sokka from arguing, causing him to pout as they walked back to camp.

"Katara, we found your idiot brother!" she shouted as they all entered camp.

"Sokka!" Katara yelled excitedly, "Where were you?"

"Master hunter here got beat by a little saber tooth moose lion cub." Kana laughed, jabbing a thumb at him.

"That's not what happened! I got stuck in a hole for hours!" he shouted.

"Yeah, and you made promises to the universe you broke the moment you saw us." Toph snorted, crossing her arms.

"Hey, the universe should have known I was weak willed." He said, shrugging.

The conversation carried on like this with everyone chiming in, even Aang had taken an interest. Yet besides the fact that Sokka only had a bald monk on his side, sometimes, he continued arguing his point. It lasted until Kana finally had enough.

"Spirits Sokka, what will it take for you to admit you're wrong already?"

"I shall never admit defeat!" he shouted, leaping to his feet.

"What about a vacation, would that get you to shut up?" she asked jokingly, leaning back to stare at him properly.

"Vacation, huh?" he said, rubbing his chin.

"That's a great idea!" Katara grinned, "We could all use a little break to take our minds off of things."

"I was kidding, Katara, there isn't time for that." Kana said, shaking her head.

"Actually, she might be right." Aang piped up. "The monks use to tell me that one doesn't master something through pure relentless work, but by knowing one's body, and limitations. Besides, we already have all of our bending teachers picked out. Choosing a vacation would definitely help us to relax and rest up."

"Fine, but I get to pick where we go first." Kana conceded, stretching back on the ground.

"Wait a minute, I just thought of something!" Sokka said, "If you're an Earthbender, couldn't you have just stopped the rock yourself?"

"I might have conveniently left that part out of my motivational speech." Kana smirked.

"What!?" Aang screamed.

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There was fire. So much fire. The village was under attack from rebels, and they didn't care if they hurt the towns people. "Tian!" he shouted, "Tian, where are you?"

"Here, I'm here!" she yelled back, running through the chaos in the streets, and into his arms. He hugged her to his chest tightly, pulling her into a secluded corner.

"You need to leave Tian, it's not safe here."

"Where do I go?" she whispered.

"The cherry blossom tree," he murmured, pressing his lips to hers, "I'll meet you there after dealing with the rebels."

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"So tell me, why are we going to a Fire Nation colony again?" Sokka grumbled.

"Because that's where I picked to go for my vacation." Kana said wistfully. "Besides, it's not just any Fire Nation colony; it's where Hariti was born.

"Who's Hariti?" Katara asked, scooting closer in order to hear over the wind.

"She's the nun who raised me since I was very young, she was more of a mother to me than my own."

"Why is that?"

"It wasn't that she was bad, or paid no attention to me, I loved her very much in fact. Yet she was so busy taking care of the tribes that she had to ask Hariti to look after me most of the time. And after it was discovered that I was the Avatar, I left for two years, came back for a month, and left again. After everything that had happened, everything that I experienced, it was Hariti who got me through it. I have no doubt that my mother wanted to be there for me, but through no fault of her own, she just couldn't be."

"Is that why we're going to Yu Dao, because you want to be closer to Hariti?"

"Yes and no," Kana smiled, "Hariti always told me that she'd take me when I was older, because only than I'd be able to understand."

"Understand what?" Sokka snapped, throwing out his arms, "That the Fire Nation is evil, and took over a defenseless village? We already know that, there's no reason to go tramping around enemy territory!"

"Toph, would you please hit him?" Kana joked, and just as she let go of Appa's saddle to do just that, the sky bison banked hard to the left. Without being able to see, Toph leaned to the wrong side, and in slow motion, flung herself off of his back.

"Toph!" Kana screamed, lunging for her glider, only to be stopped by Aang.

"You won't be fast enough, I'll get her!" He yelled determinedly, leaping from his spot on Appa's head. Everyone held their breath as the seconds turned into a minute, and as fast as it had happened, it was over. Aang and Toph emerged from the clouds in a single swoop, the blind Earthbender clinging tightly about his torso, arms wrapped around him. They landed hard, and Aang gave everyone a thumbs up from around Toph's shoulders, who quickly let go of him.

"Maybe you should sit up on Appa's head with Aang." Kana laughed with barely contained relief, earning a sharp jab to the shoulder.

"Not a chance, that was a one time thing!"

"I doubt it, Katara and I had to take turns sitting up there to learn how to keep from falling off."

"Sokka's right, Toph." Aang said, giving her a goofy smile, "The monks had children sit up on the head with them not only teach them how to properly sit on a flying bison, but how to fly as well."

"I don't need to know how to fly this fluff ball, in case you can't remember, I'm blind!" she snapped, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Toph." Kana growled in a warning tone.

"Are you really using your mothering voice on me Water Mama… you're crossing your arms, aren't you?"

"Yup." She sang, making Toph scowl.

"Come on Twinkle Toes, why don't you try to teach the blind girl how to fly a giant death monster." She grumbled, crawling over to Appa's head – where Aang was already seated – leaving the two Water Tribe siblings staring dumbfounded at Kana.

"She hasn't quite figured out that she doesn't actually have to listen to me anymore."

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He ran as fast as he could through the flames' nipping tongues, shadows dashing all around him. It was too unclear if these people were rebels, soldiers, or even just fleeing towns people for him to risk attacking. There was no way he could go on serious offense until he found some of his own people.

But when a boulder flew at him from within the flames, he dove out of the way, sending a jet of fire in the direction of whoever had sent the projectile. "What do you think you're doing soldier?" he heard someone bark into his ear pulling him back by the collar.

"Colonel Mongke, what are you doing here?"

"General Iroh sent me with a troop of soldiers, we had received information that rebels from Omashu planned on attacking this town."

"Well as you can see, the reports are accurate. It's a good thing you arrived when you did too."

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Surprisingly, they walked around town without drawing any attention to themselves. Aang, Katara, and Sokka had on cloaks hiding the fact that they weren't Earth Kingdom citizens, or Fire Nation. Kana still wore Kyoshi's dress, and Toph was just Toph.

"The people in Yu Dao sure are friendly." Katara said offhandedly.

"Friendly for evil people." Sokka grumbled back, making Kana bump him playfully with a hip.

"Oh lighten up," she snickered, "we're in the oldest Fire Nation settlement in the world, and maybe if you go snooping around, you can find some deep dark secret to help take them down." At her words, Sokka's back suddenly went ramrod straight before he ran off, Katara hot on his heels.

"I'm going to make sure he doesn't get in to too much trouble!" she called back, waving.

"Penguin!" Aang screamed, dashing off to a children's toy store.

"I guess it's just you and me now, Toph," Kana smiled, "do you want to do anything?"

"Whatever's fine with me," she shrugged as they continued walking, "it's your vacation."

"I think I'd just like to walk around. It's nice to just take everything in."

"You're one strange chick, Water Mama." Toph snorted.

"What do you mean?"

"Well for one, no one just likes to walk around after finally arriving at a place they've waited to see for years, and secondly," she made a face at this, "you like Sokka."

"Wait, what?" Kana asked, putting a hand on Toph's shoulder to get her to stop.

"You're always teasing him, and your mood brightens when he's around-" she started before Kana doubled over in laughter, earning her a hard punch to the shoulder. "What?" Toph demanded.

"I don't like Sokka, Toph." Kana chuckled. "He's in love with my great-great-niece. I tease him because it's funny, and I'm happy around him because not only is he a friend, but because Yue loves him too!"

"You can like people that love someone else though," Toph argued, "I'm pretty sure Katara likes Aang, and he's in love with you." Kana's laughing demeanor halted immediately, and she stood up straight.

"First of all, Katara doesn't like Aang, I'm not even sure she'd know how to like someone who doesn't make it apparent that he likes her. There were no men in her village for her to know the signs, and second, Aang is in no way shape or form in love with me."

"Right, and I'm not the best Earthbender in the world." Toph snorted.

"Okay, we need to sit down, this conversation is going to become a history lesson, I just know it." After moving to an out of the way bench, Kana crossed her legs, and turned to her blind friend.

"What Aang and I have is very complicated," she started, "we share a soul."

"So what, he's more than in love with you, he's your soul mate?"

"Sharing a soul and being soul mates are very different things, though they sound similar. When someone finds their soul mate like Kuruk and Ummi, their love transcends life itself. Every life they have, they spend unknowingly searching for this person."

"How is that any different from sharing a soul?" Toph asked with crossed arms, making Kana chuckle.

"It's different because each person is another half of the whole. The connection Aang and I have spans back to the very beginning of the Avatar. We have shared, loved, died, hated, been to war, and everything else imaginable together. But there is one thing that will always keep us apart, and that's our duty to the world."

"But wouldn't being together make the world stronger?"

"Unfortunately no. When the spirits first decided to make the Avatar human, they couldn't agree on which nation should receive such a gift, so each spirit made their own Avatar, and decided whom they'd be born too. It is no surprise that the Air spirits decided to have a cycle to show fairness: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air."

"So Aang's the Air spirits Avatar." Toph said, and Kana nodded.

"That's right. Now the other spirits wanted different things besides fairness. Tui and La thought it'd be best to have the Avatar born as the natural opposite of the Air spirits Avatar to keep balance."

"But Aang's an Airbender, that means you should have been an Earthbender like me."

"Actually, I was born while Avatar Roku was still alive. Technically speaking, I was born to be his opposite, not Aang's."

"But that's crazy! Why would you have been born so close to his death?" Toph exclaimed, throwing her arms out.

"You never let me finish explain before bombarding me with questions." Kana smiled lightly, "Now as I was saying," she gave a pointed look at Toph the the blind girl couldn't see it, "Tui and La wanted the world to remain in balance, so only when the world was thrown out of balance would their Avatar be born."
"Like when the Fire Nation was preparing for war in order to take over the world."

"Which happened close to Roku's death." Kana confirmed. "Now Agni had a much different approach to both of the Air and Water spirits. He wanted his Avatar to be born in whichever nation held the most power at the time. No matter how much one nation received this blessing; his Avatar would be able to grow stronger in an environment that would desire their growth, or at least, that's what he thought."

"What do you mean?" Toph asked, making Kana sigh.

"I'm getting there, be patient!" she scolded. "Now the Earth spirits were the most stubborn, so they decided that their Avatar would always be born in the Earth Kingdom, no matter what was going on in the world."

"I don't understand what this has to do with you and Aang not being able to fall in love!" Toph snapped, getting annoyed.

"One wanted balance, the other power. One wanted fairness, the other was uncompromising. Just as the spirits were this way, so were their Avatars. And as time went on, battles the world had never seen before were waged. Each had a different approach to how they should protect the world, and one was always standing in their way. In one of our lives, both Aang and I had killed the Avatar that was our opposite."

"But… if you're born opposite to the current Avatar, and that's the reason the other two were killed…"

Kana simply nodded.

"That can't be right!" she shouted, "You aren't his opposite, Water and Air get along just fine!"

"But there are still vast differences. It might take years, we might be at the end of our lives, but something will come up. And the way we will want to deal with it, will be so vastly different, a battle the likes of which the world has never been seen, shall again, be waged. But," Kana said fiercely, "sometimes you can beat the cycle, even if you lose."

"You're going to sacrifice yourself for him, aren't you?" Toph whispered, closing her eyes in pain as Kana said her next words.

"Yes I am."

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Betrayal. It left a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had known he'd die in the heat of battle, but never expected it to be at the hands of an ally instead of an enemy. It wasn't as surprising as one might think though; Colonel Mongke was loyal to his uncle after all. The uncle that was so power hungry he'd apparently have his family killed.

Yet as the town crackled with the raging inferno, and a pool of crimson blood collected around him, he found it was getting harder to think of anything but Tian. He never thought that it'd be worth dying for love. He had never actually seen true love, his mother died in childbirth, and his uncle and aunt had an arranged marriage. No there was no true love in his family life, so he was just glad he got to experience it, even for a short amount of time.

He felt his chest rise, his heart beat, a tear fall; and knew it was the last time he'd do each of these things. With a dagger fitted snugly between his shoulder blades, he gave his last smile. It was worth it, for her.

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Aang never thought that a mini vacation could tire everyone out so quickly. He could understand how Katara could be sleepy, Sokka had been kicked out of a store and she had to convince the shopkeeper to not call the guards. What he didn't understand was how Kana, and especially Toph, was so tired. They had just walked around, and Toph was already asleep!

Appa's reigns were tightly wrapped around her hands to keep her from falling from his head, but now Aang was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her head had rolled onto his shoulder when he had made a turn. So as he was flying everyone to his chosen vacation spot, he had to decide whether it was worth it to let her sleep, or wake her up.

It could go any – painful – way with Toph. When this had happened with Katara, she had blushed and apologized. And when Sokka did the same thing, he drooled all over Aang's shoulder. There was only one thing to do. He turned his head around to ask Kana for help.

But when he went to ask for her advice he couldn't help but smile warmly. She was resting on Katara's lap, who was using Momo as a pillow, Sokka's head lolling back onto her belly, mouth open wide. It was a miracle that he wasn't snoring when positioned like that. It was such a warm scene that when he saw tears coming from her sleeping eyes, he couldn't fathom what they could possibly be about.

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He sat in front of the gravestone, rain pounding on the ground. The black tendrils had returned, and encased everything but the man crying for his deceased son. "My beloved Lu Ten, I will see you again."

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Ya, like we all didn't expect it to be Lu Ten -.- If you didn't, that makes me happy. I tried not to make it too obvious, maybe it was just obvious to me because I'm the writer. Also we finally have the history that comes with Kana's existence and ability to be another Avatar! I always thought that there should have been more than one so that what happened to Aang wouldn't plunge the world into total chaos. You guys agree? Anywaaaays, I HOPE YOU ALL LIKEd THIS CHAPTER.

Character Questions Answered

Question for you the author: What was the random flashbacks about? The random italics? So confused!

Me: Good, I'm glad, you're going to have to continue reading to find out why they were there ;P

Question for Katara: So there have been no other Waterbenders in the Southern Water Tribe since your Mom died? Isn't there anyone who has scrolls or history books around? Or did the Fire Nation burn them up? Kind of touchy I know but curious anyways.

Katara: My mother wasn't actually a Waterbender, though I did get my bending from her side. And yes, there were some scrolls, but none of them were about bending unfortunately. The Fire Nation destroyed most of our texts when they raided us, they were trying to wipe out our entire culture. I wish I understood why.

Question for Aang: So do you and Kana ever get together and compare notes about Avatar stuff? For example, if Roku told you one thing and Kana another thing, do you guys compare notes or do you just both get the same message?

Kana: I know this was a question for Aang, but he's off training with Toph right now. I've never met Avatar Roku, and he's only seen Avatar Kyoshi, so we do compare notes I guess you could say. Also, it just depends on the situation about what message we receive, just like during the Winter Solstice how we both learned of the comet, but he was never told to do whatever it takes to learn Firebending.

And finally Zuko: I just feel so bad for you... :( it must be hard.

Zuko: I don't need your pity.

Iroh: I don't think that was a question, my nephew, so you didn't actually have to answer.