Sokka opened his eyes to find himself in his room at the upstairs level of the Jasmine Dragon, the warm sunlight streaming in through his window. He stretched his arms above his head lazily, taking in the smell of breakfast cooking downstairs, the birds singing outside, and the general light-heartedness of a beautiful morning.
However, everything changed when he came into the upstairs lounge to find a morose Katara poring over the Companion. "What's wrong, sis?" he asked, unable to keep out the cheerfulness from his voice.
Katara looked up at him with an expression suitable for announcing the start of Armageddon. "Kara's back."
A few minutes later, the rest of Team Avatar were greeted by the sight of the two Water Tribe siblings hunched over the book with sombre faces. Aang's happy grin dropped slightly. "Is there something wrong?"
"There's a new chapter for The Tale of Kara," Sokka announced as if he was pronouncing that Aang had brain cancer.
Toph raised an eyebrow. "So what? That doesn't mean you two have to sit around looking as if all of Ba Sing Se had collapsed."
Zuko rubbed a slight groggy eye. "Actually, if all of Ba Sing Se had collapsed, they would be looking as if they were buried underneath rubble and half-dead."
"Oh, right. Never knew your sense of humor was this good in the morning," Toph grinned.
The scarred teen shrugged. "I didn't know that either."
"So, um... why don't we have some breakfast first before reading it?" Aang suggested tentatively.
Katara slowly looked up at him. "That sounds good," she replied, smiling finally for the first time that morning.
...
"So what compelled you to check the Companion so early in the morning anyway?" Toph asked as the Gaang settled themselves on the couches around the low table, their stomachs full of a hearty breakfast courtesy of Iroh.
Katara shrugged. "I just thought I'd like to check out the Companion for some stories, and then I came across this."
Sokka patted his round belly. "Never knew you'd also started reading the Companion leisurely."
"It's nothing," Katara said casually, not wishing to divulge the secret of her dream last night that involved her and Aang doing... um, clandestine things, thus putting her in a rather odd mood for the morning and also a whim for some Kataang stories from the Companion.
Sokka pulled the Companion onto his lap with the air of someone about to do something not entirely pleasant but unavoidable. "Right, let's get this started then."
Zuko reached out a hand and grasped Aang's arm tightly. "You are my prisoner, Avatar. I'm taking you back to the Fire Nation."
"And here we have the exact same sentence as the last one from the previous chapter," Katara muttered.
Sokka looked up at her. "You certainly have a good memory for this story."
"Unfortunately," she grumbled.
I immediately stepped forward. "No! You can't take him! You said we would be free to go after the test!" I shouted at Iroh, even though I knew he wasn't to blame.
Katara sniffed. "Well, if you know already, why still say so?"
"Katara, if you have something against this story, you can just choose to not listen," Toph said. "Otherwise, stop criticizing Kara at every sentence, even though she's really an idiot."
"Fine," Katara sighed, although she still wore a look of disapproval.
Iroh looked slightly crestfallen - sad, even. "I apologize. I should have explained further. If you failed the test, as all others did, you were free to leave. But, as it turns out, you are the only one in the entire world who could pass this test. It is truly an honor to be in your presence, Avatar," he said as he bowed respectfully to Aang, who looked as if being respected was the last thing he needed right now, which was pretty much the situation.
"Well, she got that right," Aang pointed out.
Sokka nodded. "Yeah, she did. As compared to everything else she didn't."
"True," Toph agreed.
"No!" I tried to push Zuko away from Aang, but he stood his ground firmly and raised an arm to push me backwards. Struggling to regain my balance, I looked into his amber eyes and gave him my best glare. He returned it, although - was I imagining this? - there seemed to be something else mixed in his look. Something like... longing.
Zuko groaned. "Is this the part where I start to have this huge crush on her?"
"Looks like it," Toph grinned. "Though you're not alone; you've got Twinkletoes as a companion."
"Funny how he always ends up with one of my sisters, whether fictional or not," Sokka remarked. "Either way, I'm gonna end up as his brother-in-law."
"Well, you did say you'd rather it be him than Jet," Katara recalled.
"Whatever. Jet's dead anyway."
A shadow of sadness passed across the waterbender's face. "Yeah."
"You are free to go," he said monotonously. "My soldiers will escort you off the ship and back to your village. Forgive us for wasting your time, Miss Kara."
"Wait, hold on," Katara spoke up. "How did Zuko know her name?"
"She could have mentioned it in an earlier chapter." Sokka flicked back the pages to check. "No, not at all. Weird."
"Maybe she's got psychic powers where she can implant her name into the mind of any male she passes, along with a burning desire for her love," Toph joked before taking on a fake mystic tone. "My name is Kara and you WILL fall in love with me!"
As the others laughed, Zuko suddenly had a disturbing thought. "Does 'any male she passes' include my uncle? Because the last thing I need right now is unpleasant mental images of him and some weird girl together."
"Don't worry, Iroh's awesomeness makes him immune to her powers," Toph assured him.
"And so Aang and I are not 'awesome' enough?"
"Yup. Too bad for you chumps."
"I'm not leaving without Aang," I insisted. I did not want to leave him alone on this Fire Nation ship, where who knows what might happen to him. He was the Avatar, our world's last hope for peace and harmony, and I would not have the Fire Nation take him away like they did everything else.
"Funny how the Fire Nation hasn't taken away the only thing they should be taking away yet," Sokka quipped.
"They already took her aboard their battleship," Aang reminded him.
"And where has that gotten them? All we have now is Zuko falling for her!"
"That is pretty bad," Toph agreed.
Zuko's gaze hardened. "I already said you are free to go, but if you persist, you leave us no choice but to -"
It was then that Aang suddenly raised his free arm and sent a great gust of air at Zuko, blowing him backwards and causing him to slam against the wall. Now free, he grabbed my hand and blew open the door with another blast of air before we ran through it out of the room. I quickly turned around and closed the door shut, pulling the latch down and locking it so that the people inside could not pursue us. It was a shame about Iroh, who had not meant us any harm, but if Zuko came after us we might not be able to escape from the ship.
Toph sighed. "Poor Iroh, locked in on his own ship by some sickeningly perfect weirdo."
Katara smirked. "I got a feeling that if Zuko really knew what she was like, he wouldn't even bother going after her."
"Yeah, but he's still under her spell, remember? Unless if he was trying to rescue Aang from her evil clutches..." Sokka trailed off thoughtfully.
Aang and I ran down the corridor, taking out a few soldiers along the way with our combined airbending and waterbending. I decided to stick to waterbending since I hadn't learned any firebending yet, and I was still trying to get used to my new identity of a hybrid bender.
"No worries, sweetheart; we're still trying to wrap our minds around the fact as well," Sokka told the book.
We soon made it onto the deck of the ship, but now I had no idea what to do. I wasn't planning on taking a dip into the freezing waters below, and it wasn't like we could just fly out of there. Wait... fly...
Aang produced his glider, which sprang open at a mere tap on the ground.
Aang looked confused. "Wait, I have my glider this whole time? I thought Zuko took it away when I was first taken aboard the ship."
Zuko nodded. "Yeah, I did."
Sokka flipped back the pages again to check. "Well, Zuko just happened to skip that part in here. Maybe the author forgot."
"But then I could've escaped much earlier!" Aang cried.
"Yeah, but you're still bewitched by her, remember?" Toph reminded him.
Sokka shrugged. "Let's just take it that both Zuko and Aang don't really have their wits about them in here, along with everyone else. I just wanna get this over with."
I eyed the contraption warily. "There's no way the two of us can fly off on that."
"We have to try. Grab my hand!" he shouted as he offered his palm.
"No Aang, just leave her to get toasted by the firebenders! Or better yet, go dump her into the sea!" Sokka advised the book, but that wasn't much help anyway.
Just then I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see Zuko running onto the deck. One of the other soldiers must have freed him and his uncle. Zuko came to a stop when he saw the two of us, with Aang's gilder spread out in his hand. His eyes darted swiftly between me and the glider, ready to bear its owner away at a moment's notice.
I got into a waterbending stance. "Aang, leave. Now."
"But Kara -"
"Go! I'll be fine." I sent him a warm smile to reassure him, even though I wasn't sure whether I'd still be alive after a few minutes. After one last hesitating look at me, he nodded once and turned around, preparing to fly away.
Katara snorted. "Oh wow, heroic Kara is back. Seriously, doesn't she get sick of all those 'reassuring' smiles?"
"Considering she's pretty sickening herself, I don't think she feels a thing," Toph said, and the waterbender nodded in agreement.
Aang was baffled. "Am I really going to leave her alone just to save myself? I would never do that!"
"Maybe you finally broke free of her curse and saw her for who she was, and you couldn't wait to escape," Toph suggested.
"Or maybe you're still under her control and you're just blindly following her orders," Sokka speculated.
The Avatar groaned. "Now I'm confused."
"Don't worry, we all are," Zuko told him.
Zuko quickly sent a fireball at Aang, but I deflected it with the water from my pouch. Growling angrily, he ran forward and began to duel me, fire against water. I used every move I knew on him,
"Which couldn't be much, considering she's never properly learned waterbending before," Katara analyzed. "Oh wait, she already figured it out completely because she's so perfect," she sniffed.
determined to keep him from hindering Aang's escape, but then he directed a blast of fire straight at my stream of water, which evaporated with a hiss. Rendered temporarily defenseless, I took a kick from him to my ankle and fell onto the deck, looking up to see him leap up and grab Aang's ankle. As Aang could not free himself from Zuko's grasp, and the glider was clearly not meant to hold two like I noticed before, the two of them ended up crashing onto the deck. Just as they stood up to face each other, a loud growl could be heard from overhead. We all looked up to see my two siblings riding on Appa, who was soaring right above the ship.
It was the first time I'd seen a flying bison actually in the sky, and the sight of my younger brother and sister only made it all the more surprising.
"Probably because for the first time in her life, she'd actually seen us do something she hadn't learned before," Sokka grinned. "Bet you can't fly a sky bison! Take that, Kara!"
"Sokka, don't be so childish," Katara told him, although she was grinning as well.
I stared open-mouthed for a moment, but then Zuko quickly turned to Aang and launched a series of fire blasts that forced him to the edge of the deck, knocking his glider away in the process. I couldn't just stand by and watch him knock Aang into the cold ocean below, and so for the first time in my life, I used firebending voluntarily.
Zuko obviously did not see my fireball coming, for he only noticed it when it was too late. The fire scorched his palm and he gave a shout of pain before turning his raging eyes on me. The fact that this was the second time I'd burned his hand only served to fuel his rage even more, and now even Aang's presence was driven away from his mind as he focused his entire self on attacking me.
"Wooh! Way to go, Zuko!" Toph cheered.
"Congratulations on breaking free of the enchantment at last," Sokka grinned at the scarred teen, who grinned back.
"Thanks. Great to be back."
This time I was the one forced to the side of the ship, and I tripped when trying to avoid a fireball aimed at my foot. Having fallen onto the deck for the second time, I looked up to see his arm outstretched, ready to deliver the final blow. As Aang shouted my name in fear, I closed my eyes tightly, anticipating the pain.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew over me and I opened my eyes wide to see Aang on the other side of the deck, his eyes and tattoos glowing a bright white. Raising his arms high above his head, he caused a huge wave of water to shoot up from the sea and forming a spinning wall of water. With a stern expression on his face, he directed the water straight at us, knocking Zuko off his feet and sending quite a few soldiers flying as well. Then the glow disappeared from his eyes and tattoos, and he crumpled onto the deck.
Katara's eyes widened. "Woah, back up. Did Aang just enter the Avatar State back there?"
Sokka squinted at the book's words. "Looks like it."
"But Twinkletoes wasn't in any dire danger or anything," Toph pointed out.
"He does that sometimes when someone close to him is in danger, but that's supposed to be my sister only!" Sokka said indignantly.
"You mean your real sister," Katara reminded him.
"Right, of course. On the other hand, he's only known Kara for like how long?"
"He did pretty much fall in love with Sugar Queen the moment he broke out of that iceberg, if what you guys always say is true," Toph reasoned.
"Yeah, but unlike Kara, I actually exist," Katara said.
"True."
I quickly ran to his side while Appa landed on the ship. Katara and Sokka quickly joined me, helping Aang up to his feet. While Sokka went to retrieve Aang's staff, Katara wrapped him tightly in a hug. "Are you alright, Aang? We were so worried about you!"
"Give him some space to breathe, won't you Katara?" I said.
She glared at me. "Shut up, Kara! If it wasn't for you getting attacked, he wouldn't have been like this!"
"And now I'm bitchy Katara again," Katara sighed. "This is getting kinda predictable; I'm the childish and insensitive one, Sokka's the idiotic one, Aang's the cute lovesick kid, Zuko's the bad guy with a 'longing' for Kara, and Kara herself, is reassuring, kind, and basically oh-so-perfect."
Sokka shrugged. "That pretty much sums it up. In fact, maybe the reason why we never stop reading this is because it's so bad it's actually good."
"Which makes no sense, but then again, when has anything to do with this book made sense?" Toph added, and the others nodded.
Oh, now she's blaming it on me? But I felt perplexed; how had Aang achieved that great feat of waterbending? It was the most amazing thing I'd seen, but only a great master would be able to achieve that, and he'd never mentioned learning waterbending before. However, that could come later, for now we had to get Aang out of here quickly.
"At least she still got her priorities right, although that's probably to keep up the oh-so-perfect act," Katara mumbled.
After Sokka and Katara had helped Aang onto Appa's saddle, I was about to climb up myself when from the corner of my eye I suddenly noticed Zuko getting to his feet and rushing towards us, ready to attack again. "Sokka, Katara, fly Appa away now! Don't worry about me!" I shouted, and Katara jumped straight into action as she took Appa's reins and yelled "Yip yip!" without so much as a backwards glance.
Katara huffed. "Oh of course, go right ahead and add 'heartless' to the list of bad qualities I'm building up."
"Which is really wrong, because the real you actually goes so far as to be too, er, 'heartful'," Toph grinned.
The waterbender stared at the blind girl. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? Coz it's not working."
"Oh well, I can't please everyone."
As Appa took off from the deck, I turned to face the Fire Nation prince, and this time, I wasn't going to get knocked down again.
With the surplus of water strewn about on the deck, I definitely had the upper hand against Zuko who hadn't completely recovered from the water blast earlier. Just as I knocked him down, I looked up to see the sky bison a safe distance away. It may have been a foolish move to tell them to go on without me, but now at least Aang was safe, and that's what was important.
"Don't worry, he's as safe as he can get without you around, and the rest of us too," Sokka grinned. "I think this calls for a celebration!"
"Easy for you to say," Zuko muttered. "Have you forgotten whose ship it was that she got dumped on?"
"Oh come on," Toph said, punching the scarred teen in the shoulder casually. "Seriously, you guys are taking this a bit too literally. It's just a story."
"Without you in it," Aang observed.
The earthbender grinned. "Which is why I'm not complaining much, didn't you notice?"
"Just you wait; one of these days we'll find a story where you have an elder sister who's awesome at earthbending without learning, probably can see through her feet as well and makes you out to be a total spoiled brat," Katara retorted with a smirk.
Toph shrugged. "Nothing lost there, I already am a spoiled brat. And don't I have you to call me a brat already?"
"Yup, and I don't mind that one bit," the waterbender said smugly.
I turned around to see Iroh emerging onto the deck and helping Zuko to his feet.
"Arrgh!" Zuko lifted his fist to try and send another fireball at me, but Iroh restrained him. "We must not hurt our guest, Prince Zuko. It would be impolite."
"So I'm not going to be your prisoner?" I asked, for I had been sure they would have thrown me into a locked cell right away.
"But because you're oh-so-perfect, they've decided to make you queen of the ship instead," Sokka sniggered. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really feel sorry for the firebenders."
"The same goes for all of us," Katara agreed, "and especially for Iroh. Guess his awesomeness wasn't enough after all, eh Toph?"
Toph sighed. "Bummer."
"A prisoner does not choose to stay of free will, Miss Kara, so I can safely assume that you are not one," Iroh smiled. Zuko looked as if he would like to protest, but he simply kept silent and continued to stare at me. The same mixed emotions from before were in his eyes again: fury mixed with a bit of longing. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
"As opposed to me; I absolutely don't know what to make of the fact that I somehow fell for a strange girl who can bend two elements and called me a handsome jerk!" Zuko moaned.
"You have our condolences," Sokka told him solemnly.
"Thanks."
Iroh gestured to the door that led into the ship. "Come. It would be unwise to remain outdoors in this cold weather." And so we all followed him in, while a variety of thoughts was running through my mind. Would Aang and the others be alright without me? Would Gran Gran be worried about me? And most importantly: what lies before me now?
Katara fake-swooned. "Oh, of course Kara's fate is the most important here, while in the runner-up place is how we would all cope without her. What an absolute nightmare."
"Well, at least the chapter's over," Sokka said as he looked up from the book at his friends. "I guess the only good news here is we got rid of Kara and managed to dump her with Zuko's crew, which is quite an achievement in itself. Pity we didn't do that the first time."
"Oh, I'm not regretting not having a sickeningly perfect elder sister to dump on Zuko," Katara smirked.
"I wonder what happens next though," Aang mused. "We don't know what happened to Zuko after that first encounter, right?"
"I don't know much of what happened to you guys before I met you at all," Toph piped up.
Zuko spread his arms across the back of the couch. "Hey, I'm right here; you can just ask me if you want to know."
"Nah, we'll take Kara's perspective instead; keeps things interesting," Sokka grinned before browsing through the pages. "So, who wants another story?"
Guess the teenage hormones finally got to the Gaang, especially Sokka and Katara, otherwise a new chapter for The Tale of Kara wouldn't have been considered the end of the world to a bunch of teens who liberated the four nations. Ah well, they're still human. Reviews are welcome, and hope to see you all soon!