Disclaimer: In case you were wondering, things haven't changed, I still don't own any rights to ATLA. I wish I did. But as I don't, this is something I do for fun.

"Kenzi! Kenzi wake up!" I heard a distressed voice cry, and lurched up to see Katara.

"What's wrong?" I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes.

"The Fire Nation are coming," she answered spitefully, though I could still see the fear on her face. I also immediately launched myself up, throwing on the water tribe clothes that I had been lucky to have received. Everything was tense.

It was odd, how everyone knew they were coming. And yet none of us knew when they were going to arrive. It only added to the already existent fear. Everyone was tense. Concerned about themselves. Concerned about their families. Concerned that we had no one to defend us.

Even knowing that we were safe, that we would have someone to fight for us I was nervous. Maybe I had changed things in talking to him about the dream… maybe he had already moved on. Maybe I'd screw up something in our attempt to rescue him.

All the thoughts flooded my head as I tried to help with settling the other villagers along with gran-gran, Sokka and Katara. I was noticeably less successful than any of the others. They didn't seem to take well to outsiders.

Or at all.

That's when the rumbling started. The entire ground was moving, so similar to an earthquake. Gasps and cries of distress echoed through the otherwise quiet village, and I tried my hardest to shuffle people into their houses. It may have been a false sense of security, but it was exactly that I was aiming for. If they weren't as scared, they could act more rationally. And from my memory none of the igloos had been destroyed when Zuko had come to the South Pole.

I was just hoping that in this case, the cartoon was right.

Thankfully that part was true, everyone was safe and no one injured by the ship. Unfortunately however, everyone had come out again in order to watch what was happening, despite their fear. Not knowing what else to do I joined them, waiting for the banished prince to exit the ship. I was scared. And knew for the next few months I'd probably be constantly terrified of him.

But I also knew that I had to help him.

That would help with so much that we were going to have to go through.

Unfortunately I had a feeling a hug wouldn't be enough.

And I also knew that I really had to learn how to fight, now that the 'series' had started. I was definitely going to have to have a talk with Sokka soon.

As he walked down, I had to admit that Zuko was intimidating. He was tall, in armour, and the scar definitely helped. Add two, even larger men, that were flanking his sides and it was definitely not good. Especially with Sokka as the only warrior. I could feel myself trembling, the small breaths escaping me not under control at all.

And then he knocked Sokka out of the way effortlessly.

"Where are you hiding him?" he demanded, scanning us. I tried to keep my eyes down. Tried to detract attention from myself. I felt as though I probably just looked even more guilty though. After a few moments pause he reached for gran-gran quite harshly and my eyes were drawn to the scene. Widening as I looked at the woman that had nursed me to health again.

Katara thankfully caught and steadied her as he threw her out of the way. Though with the following, painful, silence, he attacked with firebending. Hearing the cries I couldn't stay quiet, even if I was going to lie. I had to buy him some time. I had to stop Zuko from actually causing damage.

"The avatar isn't here," I called out. "He's been gone for a hundred years, we don't know anything!" I finished off, daring to meet his eyes. If it were any other situation I would've said they were beautiful. Both a literal golden colour. Unfortunately that thought was torn from me as he stalked over to where I was standing.

"You aren't from the Water Tribe," he spat out looking at me.

"She is a member of our village!" Katara spoke up, and I looked at her with a smile despite the situation.

"That doesn't matter! Tell me where the avatar is!" he bellowed, followed by the sound of a war cry. Glancing at Sokka over Zuko's shoulder I cringed. The point of a sneak attack is to sneak, and not to be obvious. That boy definitely still had a lot to learn. I cringed again as he was thrown over Zuko's shoulder. With ease. In fact Zuko looked like it took about as much effort as swatting a mosquito, too concerned with sucking blood than the threat to it's own life.

Thankfully he avoided the fire, and threw the boomerang. It was followed by a failed spear attack. I cringed as he landed on his ass. My brain was screaming for me to do something, anything really. My body however was completely frozen.

I sighed in relief as the boomerang hit the prince in the back of the head, knocking him forward and extinguishing the flame that had appeared in his hand. A growl left his throat, the fire reappearing in the shape of daggers in his hands. That was when my body let my brain take over, helping Sokka up and placing myself half in front of him.

The intense moment was thankfully broken by the penguin sledding airbender that knocked the fire firebender right off of his feet. The sight was actually fairly comical. All the children were cheering for Aang, who after being knocked off by the penguin calmly sat on the ground looking at us.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka, hey Kenzi," he greeted with a lopsided smile. Grinning back I waved, noticing Katara's hopeful smile and the deflated look on Sokka's face. I nudged him, smiling in approval as he was nice to Aang in his greeting.

It was a start.

A rather good start.

Though it seemed to border on sarcasm.

"You're the airbender? You're the avatar?" Zuko demanded in a low voice as they stood, prepared to fight. Hearing the expressions from those around me a smile crept back on my face.

"Are you really that surprised?" I asked.

No one responded.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training. Meditating. You're just a child!" the annoyance in his voice was obvious. Aang just looked confused, and I couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped me. Thankfully no one's attention ended up on me, everyone too absorbed in the following attacks Zuko launched.

Cries, screams, whimpers of fear echoed throughout the villagers. I'd grabbed a child from the front pulling him back behind me to protect him as best as I was able to. I knew that this was the moment. I knew from the look on Aang's face. It both encouraged and worried me. The look of responsibility and concern. He was too young to face something of this nature, and yet he was the main player in the end of this war. The concern though. That truly showed the man that he would be, his willingness to do anything to protect. In some ways he really was wise beyond his years, despite being that goofy kid.

If I could've I would've hugged him.

"If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?" the silence was tense. Probably even worse than the music that would be playing if this was a movie. It made me grip onto the child I'd moved from danger earlier, I was expecting something to go wrong now.

Zuko's golden eyes stayed trained on the avatar in his fighting stance, before looking around the villagers. Finally, he straightened himself up, a nod giving the answer to the situation we found ourselves in. I watched the fire nation soldiers take him away, watched Katara silently as she tried to plead with Aang, letting go of the child. As he turned I gave a nod, and he gave a weak smile in return.

I hoped that he remembered my words. Hoped that they had also given him a little extra to fight for.

"Don't worry, it'll be ok" I heard him call back to us and I gave a sad smile. Not that it would be all too long until we met up with him again.

As the ship sailed away all of us were somber, slowly getting to work fixing up the village. I didn't realise how long I'd been working until I noticed both Sokka and Katara were missing. Eyes widening in surprise I ran.

"Find Appa before they do, find Appa and take him to them," I muttered to myself, trying to keep an even footing as I scurried along the frozen plains.

Thankfully the giant flying bison didn't camouflage in this environment.

Though I doubted it could camouflage anywhere.

"Come on Appa, let's get to Katara and Sokka and then we'll go save Aang," I whispered to him as I saw him. He let out a loud sound in return, causing me to cringe. I wasn't sure what he meant. Still I took that as a positive, hoping that maybe he understood more of this language then anyone gave him credit for. Except maybe Aang now that I remembered a few 'conversations' the two had.

Holding my breath I climbed up onto his head, and thankfully when I was perched comfortably he started moving. Even if I did almost fall off the moment he started walking.

Seeing Katara and Sokka with all their stuff packed into the canoe I grinned, Appa walking up to him as I stayed perched on his head with a silly grin.

"I'm sorry Sokka, but I doubt you're good enough to catch up with a warship." My announcement was highlighted by another noise of Appa's creation. It kind of reminded me of an odd mixture of a purr, growl and yawn. Probably over-analysis.

Sokka just glared.

However, Katara was all too happy to climb onto the saddle and shortly after was followed by her brother. Having never officially seen Aang fly Appa I shut my mouth and let them figure out that they were meant to say 'yip yip'. We had more than enough time.

Though there was a nagging voice in my head that was saying that going early would be a good idea. But I wasn't going to change things just yet.

When we got to the Fire Nation ship, Aang and Zuko where fighting on deck already. While I'd kept them open for the last fight, I knew I couldn't watch this. Katara's cry alerted me to the fact that Aang had been thrown over the side of the ship, which was when I dared to open my eyes again.

'You could've avoided this,' the voice in the back of my head said. Still I was sure that I'd done the right thing. In the avatar state he'd do a significant amount of damage, and giving Iroh the time to get on board he'd ensure that they couldn't immediately follow us. 'But that mean's Zhao will also be on your backs… if you were earlier maybe you wouldn't have had to worry about him for a while.'

It was a painful amount of time until Aang reappeared. The water circled around him, eyes and tattoos glowing. I could imagine the look on the faces of those on the ship. I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. This had to happen, I reminded myself, it had to. But… it was scary. It was terrifying. Perhaps while just watching the cartoon I hadn't understood but… that goofy kid turning into this. I could understand why Katara had said it was distressing to see him in the avatar state.

He passed out while we landed, and I immediately slid off of Appa, heading towards the young airbender along with the siblings. Still I let my eyes scan around. I had to be ready. Ready to alert them that we had to fight again.

Or that they had to while I tried to cause some kind of distraction.

"Hey Katara, hey Sokka, hey Kenzi. Thanks for coming," he murmured weakly. Seeing the impact of the avatar state on the boy's body also made me feel bad about doing nothing.

"Well I couldn't let you have all the glory," he answered cockily, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I dropped my staff," Aang murmured, and I watched Sokka run towards it.

"Katara, help me get him to Appa," I said gently, as the two of us moved to help the boy up. As we steadied him on his feet, we both had to give him a bit more extra support as we began walking.

"Ha! That's from the Water Tribe!" I heard Sokka yell victoriously, causing me to glance over, seeing him holding the staff victoriously above his head. Raising an eyebrow, I shrugged at Katara as we helped Aang up onto Appa. Unfortunately the guards were also starting to regain consciousness now. Getting up and approaching. Quickly, I got up onto Appa, watching as she accidentally froze Sokka and started the attack on the soldiers.

"We need to get out of here quickly," I called out to Aang, holding a hand out to help Katara up and then running to pull Sokka up onto the saddle as well. In my attempt to help Sokka I stumbled, still successfully keeping both of us in the saddle as we started flying. But it was all a lot less gracefully than hoped. In fact it ended in both of us practically face planting while Katara laughed at the situation. Almost a second later I found myself clinging to the edge of the saddle looking at the fire ball coming our way. "Aang!"

Almost immediately the airbender was there, deflecting it and accidentally causing an avalanche in the process.

Despite the laughter that came from Aang, Katara and Sokka I looked on to the destruction caused sadly. They were also people. I had caused this.

'There's so much that you could prevent… so much you could change' the voice reminded me again as I lay down looking at the sky quite listlessly.

I didn't sleep that night.

A/N: So we're finally getting into the actual series, now... this will mean more exploration of Kenzi as a character, as well as looks into the characters and the ways of life and the different cultures of the ATLA universe. I was hoping that this would show the increasing doubts that Kenzi is having about not getting involved, which will ultimately lead to her starting to try to 'fix' things.

Rosezelene Ersa: Thank you for your lovely review! I'm glad that you like the story, and here's that quick update you were asking for... Also, I'm looking forward to changing a few things to be honest...