Extraordinary: Fanning the Flames

Summary: The word 'extra' is defined in the dictionary as something additional to what was expected. In the story we all know, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. He popped out of an iceberg, and the balance was restored, through blood and loss and trial. In this story, he has something a little… extra on his side. Zuko/OC

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we still live. - Norman Cousins

Chapter One: Running Towards the Future (revised)

He was…

Akari couldn't bring herself to think the word 'dead'. That felt like it would make it come true, somehow.

Gone, she thought instead. It felt easier, more natural to feel like her brother had been lost, instead of lost. It might even be true; she wasn't exactly sure. Her brother-sense wasn't always completely accurate, but besides that… There hadn't been a body, you see.

Well, not Aang's body, anyway, Akari winced. There had been plenty others. Monk Gyatso, who had gone with the two siblings as they travelled the Four Nations. Monk Tashi, whom she had never wanted dead, no matter how many times she and Aang had pranked him for being so uptight. Of course, she realized now that he must have been right.

She and Aang, even Gyatso, had laughed off the seemingly over-concerned Elder. Tashi had been worried about the whispers of war, and had tried to push Aang into harder and more regulated training. A small, shameful part of Akari wondered if everything wouldn't have turned out the way it had, if Aang had been better prepared. If she had been better prepared.

Thinking rationally, of course, she had done the smart thing. She was pretty good, but she was nowhere near being a Master Airbender. She would have been minced sprouts for the soldiers. She told herself that, but that didn't stop the guilt.

Coward, her conscience whispered. You ranaway. You ran away, and you left them to die.

For help, she thought, and her hands shook as they held the reins of the ostrich horse she now rode. She swerved to the left for one terrifying moment, but an irritated click of her tongue, along with a quick blow of wind, got the animal back on course. The Earth Kingdom had some strange animals… If she hadn't lost her flying bison, Sceo…

Akari snapped the reins again, focusing her thoughts. Yes, she had run away. To get help. How was she supposed to know that it hadn't just been the Western Air Temple? She had snuck away, running for days – horrible, fearful days, where she'd spent every moment focusing on the next step forward – she'd had to leave Sceo, and take her glider. The bison would've been too conspicuous, and she'd been trying to survive, just long enough until she could get help...

And then she'd found out she really was alone, so much for that. She hadn't even arrived in time to help them fight. The only battle she could take part in was the battle against her stomach. The sight of all the bodies left on the floor, bodies that had so recently just been people… It had been a massacre. She'd tried to find Aang first thing. When she didn't find him among the dead, she had hope he was among the living.

She could feel something; his heart had stopped, his energy had stopped breathing, yes, but… But there was something there. A spirit, perhaps. She was his sister; they'd grown up together, and she knew him. And yet he was lost, they all were.

And all because she hadn't been strong enough.

Because the Air Nomads hadn't been strong enough.

The Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, the North and South Water Tribes… All of them had armies. All of them trained warriors, fighters, people to protect the civilians from the terrors of war.

It was all too clear for Akari. The reason the Air Nomads had been defeated so easily was because Air, itself, was a defensive element; it was not easily used in combat, or if it was, the Nomads hadn't thought to use it that way. They had relied too much on the height of their Temples, without any focus on their own might.

They hadn't been strong enough. It was as simple as that. Which was why Akari needed to learn how to protect herself. She would never be so weak as to need to run away again. Never again.

She was on her way to meet some of the other surviving Air Nomads. There had been murmurings of a refuge… A place for the people who had been quick enough, or lucky enough, to have kept their lives beyond the night of Sozin's Comet. She'd gotten the information from a few of the more daring Earth Kingdom citizens, who were disturbed at what the Fire Nation had done. They had been happy enough to give one of the Last Airbenders an Ostrich Horse and some food.

If things had been simpler, Akari mused, she would have been properly thankful at the goodwill the people had shown her. It had to have been dangerous for them, what with the Earth Kingdom – and the Water Tribes – at War with the Fire Nation, but even more so if they'd helped the Air Nomads. Unfortunately, Akari had seen far too much, far too quickly, and she was in no mood to be grateful.

Even more unfortunately, things only got worse.

It was the same scene over again, but worse. This time, she had allowed herself once more the luxury of hope – stupid, stupid stupid stupid, she chastised herself, as if the tears in her eyes and the burning in her throat wasn't reprobation enough. She had known the ostrich horse wasn't very quick, but she had made that up by travelling through nights. The anticipation of being with her People again had been tangible, a quickening in her pulse, a growing lightness in her step.

And then, of course, she'd come upon the sight of soldiers in black and red, burning the remains of several familiar-looking people. People wearing yellow, people wearing Air Nomad yellow. It had been a trap. Simple to see now, in hindsight, to realize that if there would have been a refuge, it wouldn't have been so near the cities. So near the Fire Nation border.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she cursed. For all her promising to become strong, she had planned on training with the other Nomads, once she'd heard of them. Deliberate rumors, meant to lure those who wanted them to be true the most, she thought, but pushed it away. She hadn't expected something like this so soon, and that was the kick in the gut. She wasn't ready, she was exhausted – Let them plan on getting rest where you want them, a perfect trap – and she had no choice. She bended herself back onto the ostrich horse, not trusting her legs, and set off Westward. If she was going to do this, she needed help.

It had been nearly two years since that night. It had felt much shorter, though, to Akari. Time flew by too quickly when she spent it studying, learning, and training. Anything that could help; anything she could use to help. She was still determined to find a way for Airbenders to fight using their element, and she had nearly perfected it. All too often Air had been used for defense, or evasion, but Akari was absolutely, positively done with running away. She had run twice, both times for her survival and that of the Air Nomads, and she was now going to ensure it.

She had spent her time in the Palace of Ba Sing Se. She had taken refuge there with some of her best friends, Crown Prince Bumi and Princess Sela. Over the months she had spent there, she passed the most time in the Royal Library and the Princess's Training Grounds. Nearly nobody knew she was there, and she was free to prepare herself.

Her days spent learning, both mentally and physically, had taught her about Air: the basic necessity for all life to, well, live. Air was something you took for granted, something you forgot about until it disappeared. Something that didn't seem important until it wasn't there anymore.

And Akari was hell bent on making it disappear, for those who had made the Air Nomads disappear. She would take their breath as they had taken the breath of her family and friends and people.

But how to do it?

If she attacked now, a year after the Massacre, she would surely be apprehended by the Fire Nation. She had earned her Air Mastery (at least, she thought she had), but one Air Bender could not win a war. And it did not look like the Earth Kingdom-Water Tribe Alliance was going to win, either. Besides revenge, she had to think about staying alive… It did not escape her that she was very possibly the last hope of reviving the Air Nomads.

And while people had been eager to help her right after the Massacre, it was a different scene now that war had hit them. People knew now what it was like to lose those they loved, to lose their comfort and safety. They were scared, afraid for themselves… And Akari did not blame them. Still, help would be a scarce commodity.

No, she could not do it now.

Do it now, and she would appear lucky. An accident, someone they overlooked. She would be found, and they would make an example of her.

Do it later, and she would be Legend. How had she escaped? Where had she come from? They would laugh her off as rumors, but lock their windows at night in fear of her.

She made up her mind.

"Thank you, Hama," Akari said sincerely. "Really, I hope you know how much I appreciate this. Not many Waterbenders would agree to freezing the last Airbender and throwing her into the ocean."

Hama shook her head, braided loops of black hair falling into her eyes. "I won't pretend I completely understand, Kari, but you're my friend, and I'd do anything for a friend. Especially when said friend would be hunted down and killed if I didn't." There was a wry look in her eyes that would have been funnier, had it not been absolutely true. Akari had messed up on her way to the Northern Water Tribe, and had a nasty run-in with a Fire Nation ship.

She'd had to change route and head for the Southern Tribe instead. Not her preferred destination, considering the fact that they weren't nearly as well-equipped to defend themselves if she brought along trouble, but she wasn't going to lead them straight to the North Pole. At least this way, she'd gotten to see Hama, too. They had become close friends before the war, and now the war had brought them back together.

I really will miss her, Akari thought with a soft smile.

"Now," Hama said briskly, rubbing her seal-mittens together for both warmth and purpose, "Do you have everything you need with you?"

"Water, check. Food, check. Clothes, check. Blankets, check."

Hama let out a soft, nervous laugh. "You have to find me when you thaw, alright? Though I'm not exactly looking forward to seeing you, young and energetic, while I'm old and wrinkly…"

"Of course. You'll be one of the first people I look for," Akari promised. "You remember the message?"

"The codes we've come up with to make sure we're both who we say we are? Yes, of course, 'The moon shines bright when clouds blow behind it – '"

"No, no," Akari cut her off, biting her lip nervously, "You can't mean to say – "

"Relax," Hama said calmly, placing a steady hand on Akari's shoulder. "I was joking, trying to lighten up the mood. Of course I remember, Kari, don't think so lightly of me. 'When the people are ready to fight'. I'll pass it down to my children if I must. We won't forget about you."

Akari exhaled noisily, and a cloud of frost escaped her lips like a sigh. "I know you know. Thank you, Hama, I cannot thank you enough. Really, I know how much you risk here. Remember, too, to tell all the rest – "

"That we went fishing, and you died," Hama said smoothly, wrapping her arms around her friend in one last hug. "Attacked by an elephant-shark, and it swallowed everything. I tried to bend, but it was all ice, and I will be training my fingers off for the next few months until that isn't a weakness anymore."

Akari sighed, but there was a smile on her face. "And it's completely coincidence that the ice also helps in, say, you sticking me into deep storage." She shook her head, and pulled her sealskin rucksack closer to her body. "Let's do this now, Hama."

"Very well, Kari. Should I record your last words, for posterity?" There was an almost imperceptible tremor in Hama's voice, even as she raised her arms up in a Waterbending stance. The waves cracked through the ice they stood on, and moved to encase Akari on the small iceberg she stood on.

"Don't be ridiculous, we've tested this on plants and seals. It will be fine, Hama, I trust you. But for posterity's sake… Let's see how long your Granny's Dried Meat really lasts, huh?"

Author's Note: This is where the first version, which I wrote three years ago, ended. In the revise, I've fixed the name problems (the thought of which still brings horrible embarrassment to me; anyone interested in being a beta?) and hopefully it's a better read, too.

This is going to be different take on A:tLA. If you think about it, Aang could have been a lot more affected by the Massacre. For one, he didn't witness it; for another, he only realized it had happened a century after the fact, and it wasn't like he was alone, either. Akari, on the other hand, did see it, firsthand at that, and had to deal with the emotional upheavals of running away, getting her hopes up, and having them smashed into puny bits and pieces, twice. That does something to a person, and she'll be stronger and darker as a result. Much weaker, too, emotionally, and I'm already excited about her and Zuko bonding over dark pasts. (That, I think, is one of the failings of Zutara; she can't really relate to him on that level, and that's something Mai-Zuko has in its favor.)