(A/N)- I emerge from my Bad Things Happen Bingo spree to bring y'all a new chapter! Lol.
Predictably though there is still much angst. (It's "The Deserter" what else did you expect?)
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Boy, sure would be nice to own a big franchise.
Burn
Angka was fidgeting as she perched on the rock, staring down intently at the leaf in her hands, in which a tiny hole was burning slowly wider. Her brows were furrowed in concentration and a trace of annoyance. Katar could see the restless energy moving through her even from his position on the riverbank, watching the training session.
Jeong Jeong had left some time ago, called away by some urgent matter. Katar had wanted to help but the firebending master had rebuked him almost as soon as he'd twitched to stand.
Katar picked at the grass, mashing several blades in-between his fingers and slowly tearing them, resisting the urge to sigh in boredom. He could hear cricket-toads croaking from somewhere upstream, birds calling idly from tree to tree, and yet the silence seemed almost oppressive, heavy with a physical weight.
Angka gave a dissatisfied huff.
"This is taking too long," she declared. She whole-body squirmed in her sitting position, her hands tightening on the edges of the leaf as she fought to hold back the burning edges of the hole. "I know I'm ready for more, why is he treating me like a baby?" she complained.
Katar felt a flutter of amusement. He pulled another grass blade free and dropped it. "I'm sure there's a good reason," he encouraged. "He just wants you to be safe."
"But I can do so much more!" Angka insisted. Frustration flared up in her expression. She stared down at the leaf even more furiously, her brows furrowing.
It was a cute look, but Katar didn't have long to appreciate it, for a spark popped between Angka's hands, replacing the leaf with a brilliant ball of yellow flame that blossomed between her hands.
Her eyes lit up with excitement and she stood up out of her indian-crouch. "I did it!" she squealed happily. "I made fire!"
Katar felt a momentary twinge of pride... and then a rushing wave of subtle terror, his eyes fixating on the glowing ball with a far away stare.
The glowing light of it was almost mesmerizing, and his mouth felt suddenly dry and tight.
It was such a fragile, small thing, barely more than a pomegranate... but it made him nervous beyond words.
"Y—You should take it more slowly," he stammered, anxious pins and needles inside him propelling him to his feet.
He watched, horrified, as Angka began juggling the ball between her hands, the licking edges of the flames far too close to her fingers for comfort.
The rippling, dancing fire flickered in Katar's eyes, making the breath catch in his throat, making his veins freeze with ice and his heart pound unbearably loud inside his own head.
"S—Stop!" he cried. He took a step involuntarily further down the bank, frozen a moment before darting forward. "You'll hurt yourself!"
One foot splashed into the water and then he was on the rock with her, trying to grapple her arms, trying to force the flames smaller, more manageable.
Angka jerked at his intrusive touch. "Hey! Cut it out!" she protested, curling around her fireball protectively.
"You shouldn't be doing that!" he cried, his tone sterner and harsher than he'd meant, scolding.
"It's fine! I know what I'm doing!" she insisted.
"Angka please—" he begged, grabbing after her wrists, which she kept slipping away from him, the wobbling ball of flame flaring and puffing as they wrestled.
"I don't need your help!" she cried, angry now, her gray eyes flashing. "I can do this!"
"Just put it—" he insisted, reaching out with a hand.
"Kat-ar," she protested, elbowing him and keeping her precious flame out of his reach. "Just—"
Her frustration and annoyance reached a fever pitch and she flung her arms out to break his hold.
"STOP!"
Time slowed to a crawl as the flames reacted to Angka's agitated arm movements, flaring and flashing out far, far, more than she'd intended.
Katar's eyes widened as the licking flames rushed around her body, up around his hands, still hovering over her with concern.
His outstretched palms felt a growing heat...
And then pain, sharp and hot and burning. The fire licked around his fingers, scalding them, and Katar gave a wretched cry as he jerked himself back.
Angka's eyes grew wide with horror. She flailed her arms down, and the flames extinguished, dying out with her agitated gesture, but Katar, fumbling back with awkward steps to the river's edge, was already hit, already wounded by her outburst.
Katar gasped, the shock of the pain reverberating through him, and pressed his hands tight into his stomach, heaving at the horrible crackling sensation in his fingers, the burnt flesh smell invading his nose. He couldn't even think it hurt so much.
"Katar! I'm—I'm so sorry!" he heard Angka saying, sounding heartbroken and panicked. He managed to glance up to see her standing there, stiff with horror, face frozen with a look of anguish.
From their side came a sudden crash of bramble and brush. Sokki emerged from the forest edges, eyes furious, poised like she was ready to throw hands.
"What happened?!" she demanded, angry and bristling.
Angka's eyes welled up with tears. "I... I..." she stammered.
The tears overflowed and she burst into sobs, turning as she pressed hands against her eyes and fled the scene.
Sokki stayed wound for several moments, before her hands went to her sides and she walked up to her brother.
"What happened?" she asked again. "Are you okay?"
Through the pain, Katar gasped out, "It's not her fault. It—it was an accident."
Sokki snorted. "What did you do, you idiot?" she pressed, reaching his side, standing over him with hands on hips.
Katar blinked back tears. "She... made a fireball. I... I tried to stop her."
"Well what did you do that for?" Sokki knelt down, her shoulder brushing his. "She's never going to learn this stuff if you freak out like an overprotective sparrowhen every time she tries. Lemme see," she ordered, grabbing his left wrist and pulling his hand away from his stomach.
Even that small motion made him bite his lip and whimper, and Katar squeezed his eyes closed as pain blossomed along his palm and fingers.
Sokki winced, expression growing immediately sympathetic. She hissed slowly through her teeth.
"That looks... pretty bad," she said. "You'd better go soak those burns under running water," she suggested.
Katar nodded mutely and wobbled to his feet, pressing hands against his stomach again, darting off to an area downstream where the water ran more noisily.
-ATLA-
Nausea pressed on the back of his throat. Katar stumbled to his knees, resisting the urge to cry. His skin felt blistered and hot like it was boiling in volcanic water. His hands cried out for just the smallest of relief, and with that urge, he pulled his ruined hands reluctantly from his belly and thrust them into the running stream.
The water stung for an instant, then began cooling.
Katar sighed in relief, shuddering full-body, then pursed his lips as an odd sensation began. The cooling settled into his hands and then... expanded... warming almost. Katar blinked eyes open to watch the warming ignite into a soft blue glow, surrounding his hands in the water and tingling on his skin.
He stared down, bewildered, watching as his blistered skin grew smooth and whole, the burns disappearing as though they'd never been.
He drew his hands from the water and marveled. The glow tinted to white and faded away, leaving him staring at his own, unremarkable, and astonishingly unburnt hands. Not even scars remained. The pain lingered, but even that was rapidly fading, forgotten as if the injury had never happened.
Katar gawped in disbelief, trying to wrap his head around what had happened and if it had been real.
"You have healing abilities."
It was Jeong Jeong's gruff voice from behind that gave word to what Katar had just witnessed, had just, apparently, done. He looked up over his shoulder as the white-haired old master walked up, still wide-eyed and struggling to comprehend the firebender's declaration.
There was a glimmer of admiration and envy in the older man's eyes as he came and sat down stiffly by Katar.
"The great benders of the Water Tribe sometimes have this ability," he said in explanation, grunting as he folded himself
"I... I can heal?" Katar repeated in disbelief. He looked down at his healed palms, his heart beating rapidly, breath catching.
"I have always wished I were blessed like you," Jeong Jeong said wistfully, "free from this burning curse."
Katar was only half-paying attention, still staring wide-eyed down at his hands. Surging emotions were rushing through him, fragmented thoughts he almost couldn't comprehend.
He could heal. He had healing abilities. If someone he loved got hurt, he could help them, ease their pain, save them.
A swell of grief threatened to choke him for a horrible moment.
Why didn't he have this before? Why hadn't he known? Why... only now...?
Katar's throat became tight, strangling from the flood of conflicting sorrow and elation and terror and excitement. He was angry. He was glad. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry.
"I..." he wavered, closing his hands into fists and dropping them into his lap. "I wish I had known..." His voice hitched, catching on his breath as he fumbled with his words. "I wish I could have had this when... when my mother..."
Jeong Jeong slanted a sympathetic gaze towards him, reaching to place a hand on his shoulder. "It only manifests after many months of intensive training," he said. "Your abilities would have been too fresh, too underdeveloped, to unlock such a technique," he continued, with a knowing wisdom that pierced to heart of Katar's unspoken trauma.
Katar's eyes swelled with tears and he gasped, reeling back with a choked sob, accepting and yet rejecting the master's reassurance. "But I could have saved her!" he cried.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not," Jeong Jeong shrugged. "It will do you no good to dwell on what could have been. You can only accept what is, and what you can do now."
The words reverberated inside his head and he thought immediately of Angka, and Sokki. The two most important women in his life. He felt a renewed resolve.
He could heal. He could undo grievous injuries. He would never have to witness someone he loved dying again.
The thought was like a thrilling, heady wine, making him dizzy with the revelation.
A spike of concern pierced through his elation. Angka. Oh no, Angka, he realized, a cold sinking pulling at him. She must feel so ashamed of herself right now. For hurting him, even accidentally. For being fidgety and impatient.
He needed to tell her it was okay.
He rose quickly to his feet.
"I gotta go," he said.
Jeong Jeong glanced up the stream and didn't argue, rising stiffly to his own feet. "Go get your friends and flee," he ordered, with a swipe of his hand. "Do not come back here or you will all be destroyed! Hurry!"
It wasn't his usual hyperbole. Katar could glimpse the Fire Nation landing craft coming up the river and with a spike of panic piercing his heart, he turned tail and ran, stumbling over brambles and roots and swiping aside branches as he rushed back towards the old master's hut.
-ATLA-
She hated herself.
Jeong Jeong had told her she wasn't ready, that she had no respect for the power and destructive capabilities of the element she wanted so desperately to learn to control.
Why hadn't she listened?
In her head, Angka heard echoes of the old master's voice, berating her, telling her she was a foolish child playing with power she could not comprehend. She was too weak. She had no patience.
Angka felt it like a firm lash across her shoulders; she teared up and blinked furiously, willing herself not to cry.
It was her fault. All her fault. Jeong Jeong was right. Fire was too wild for her to wield, too temperamental and uncontrollable. Why did she ever think it would come as easily to her as waterbending?
She had just been... so anxious... so eager to get it handled. To prove to herself that she was ready, she was a proper grown-up Avatar that could face the Fire Lord, could match him in power...
She was such a fool.
She wouldn't cry. She would accept this burning shame, but she wouldn't let it spill out onto her face. She was strong. She wasn't a silly little girl who would cry at the drop of a hat.
Her resolve was severely tested when she heard the tent flap rustle behind her, heard Katar's gentle, worried calling of her name.
"...Angka?"
Everything inside her wanted to break. She firmed her lips and hardened her heart, and her determination.
Iron. Steel. She wasn't a baby. She was strong.
She inhaled slowly.
"Jeong Jeong tried to tell me that I wasn't ready. I wouldn't listen," she confessed, the implied apology rushing out of her.
I'm sorry Katar, she said inside her own head. I'm so, so—
"I'm never going to firebend again," she declared firmly.
She shuddered silently at the confession, knowing that it flew in the face of what she had to do, what she had to become to accept her destiny. She didn't care. Firebending was a curse, just like Jeong Jeong had said. She should have listened to him.
"You'll have to eventually," Katar pointed out, sounding strangely unbothered.
She shook her head. "No," she insisted. "Never again." If she had to defeat the Fire Lord with only three elements mastered so be it. She wasn't risking the chance that she could hurt anyone... hurt him... ever again.
She hated firebending. She wished she had never been curious about it. She had hurt him. She had hurt the boy she—
"It's okay, Angka," Katar rushed to assure her. "I'm healed."
That hit like a flashbang on her mind, whiting out her thought processes. She turned around from her seat, flabbergasted. "What?" she blurted. "How?"
She scanned quickly down Katar and noted that his hands, though she had most definitely burned them in her carelessness, didn't show any signs of damage or hurt. She wondered and marveled about that for only a moment, before Katar breathlessly explained about Admiral Zhao and his forces showing up.
Then she was rising to her feet, hot determination in her blood, pumping through her veins, declaring firmly that she would help the old master, however she could.
She brushed past Katar, hurrying on to save the man who had only tried to warn her, tried to keep her from making surely the same mistakes he had, that she'd only just repeated in her haste.
Katar tried to hold her back, of course, but even his protective spirit couldn't break past her need to atone. To repay the man for all his lessons and teachings and warnings.
So she used Zhao's arrogance and impatience against him, knowing it would work, because it had worked on her, had caused her to damage things she shouldn't have, and it worked magnificently, Zhao torched his own boats in his rage.
Angka felt a thin satisfaction as she took up a place on Appa, Momo curling around one arm, and Katar tending to the other, demonstrating his impressive new healing skills.
Her heart still ached as she looked at him, ears ignoring Sokki's indignant complaints, knowing that if it weren't for his healing abilities Katar would have been permanently scarred by her carelessness, wounded and singed by her disrespect for fire and its fury.
She vowed to never take things frivolously again. People were counting on her. And she... she had to protect them.
No matter the personal cost.
(A/N)- Angka suffers the first of her major personal failures (that will later get cleaned up chakra-style in "The Guru" chapters) and angsts about it a lot, Sokki shows that she actually does have a protective side towards her brother deep down, Katar's over-protectiveness gets him in trouble before he unlocks his healing abilities (Chekov's Skill gained!), I make a few callbacks and call forwards that hurt, and Jeong Jeong really would just like people to take his anti-firebending rants seriously dammit, this is a powerful element that you have to respect.
Not too much canon divergence in this one, mostly just continuing and setting up character arc beats that will be drawn out and touched on more later. Katar's elation at being able to heal but also his sorrow and guilt that he didn't have the ability to heal when his mother died. Oh yeah, that's all a big tangle right now. A delicious angsty tangle.
On Angka's side, I'm picking up the seeds I sort of planted in the "Jet" chapter: Angka feels stunted, like the world grew up and left her behind and now she has to desperately catch up. Basically the opposite of Aang's issue with being forced to grow up too fast and end his childhood too soon, and crumbling under the very grown-up, adult pressures that came with that, Angka instead is trying to desperately shed that childhood innocence and lack of skill and force herself into maturity and competence. She's trying (subconsciously) to be more like Jet, or like she imagined Jet was like—brave and confident and inspirational.
I am looking forward to developing that, let's just say.
Thanks for reading! See you next time!