I have been reading so many stories that were so amazing but were either unfinished or did not go the way I was looking forward to, so after a while, I decided to try my hand at it. Well here goes. This is set around the Southern Riders episode, follows the GAang until after the war. Everyone is aged up and each season is a yearlong, so Aang has been with Sokka and Katara for 2 and a half years at this point and is 17 and so on. I feel like this works better for a more serious/ darker take at the series events.
More notes will follow for each chapter, but for now, here goes nothing!
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Katara knew she could hold a grudge. She did when she was little and her brother hit her with a snowball as she was doing her hair, and she does now that Zuko is suddenly "good" and "has changed" and "wants to help the Avatar defeat his father". She does not believe it one bit. And she does not understand why everyone is so accepting of him. She is so frustrated that they don't see it, so sure that he will just betray them like he betrayed her in Ba Sing Se. So she holds a grudge, it's all she can do for now, and she watches him as he gets closer to her brother, to Aang, and to everyone in the group really. Can you blame me? she thinks. She is weary, and the worst part is that she can see he's being more attentive, less angry, trying to butter her up. She can't help thinking it will just make it hurt more when he betrays them again. Except this time, she expects it, so she will be ready.
She is lost in her thoughts when she hears Aang comment on how they're camping and it's just like old times, then Zuko makes a joke about chasing them again.
"If you really want it to feel like old times, I could, uh… chase you around a while and try to capture you." He says and she can't believe they actually laugh with him!
"Ha-ha" she musters as sarcastically as she can, looking at the ground.
"To Zuko" Her brother says. "Who knew after all those times he tried to snuff us out, today, he'd be our hero." And everyone toasts to Zuko. Katara still can't look at any of them, her blood is boiling.
"I'm touched, I don't deserve it" She hears him say, and finally, she can't sit through this anymore.
"Yeah, no kidding" she says before leaving without turning back or giving them the chance to stop her. She just wants to be alone.
Zuko is confused, well he'd been confused for a while and about so many things in his life, but he thought that part was over. He had abandoned everything he had ever known and become a traitor in his own country just to join the Avatar and his friends, to help Aang learn firebending and ultimately defeat his own father. He was so relieved when they had finally accepted him, and he was trying so hard to redeem himself to them all. So when the group was sitting around, making jokes and drinking his tea, he finally felt accepted. But then he saw Katara's face, how she wouldn't look at any of them, and her jab when the group toasted to him, and the confusion came back all over again.
"I wish I knew." He replies to Sokka, who is wondering what's wrong with his sister, and gets up to follow her. She is obviously angry, but what more does she want from him? What more could he possibly do?
He follows her to the edge of the cliff where she is sitting on a rock and facing the ocean, determined to get everything out in the open.
"This isn't fair" He starts and wonders if it's the right way to begin the conversation, too late now anyway. "Everyone else seems to trust me now. What is it with you?" He doesn't mean to sound so angry, he just wants to understand, but his voice betrays how he truly feels.
"Oh, everyone trusts you now?" She shouts back, hurt and anger clear on her face. "I was the first person to trust you, remember? Back in Ba Sing Se, and you turned around and betrayed me, betrayed all of us."
How could he forget? It was one of his biggest regrets. He closes his eyes in shame and guilt. He had tried to make up for it, doesn't she understand how difficult it was to leave his whole country behind to join them? This isn't the time to argue, he thinks, it would only make her angrier. "What can I do to make it up to you?" He asks instead.
"You really want to know? Hmm, maybe you could reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King" She is in his face now, and so angry. "Or, I know, you could bring my mother back." She leaves before he can respond, and he finds himself standing alone, thinking that this is all so unfair, and that she will hate him forever.
Katara can't believe he actually followed her and had the guts to say it wasn't fair. She was so unbelievably angry, and frustrated, she cannot stand him. Or anyone else tonight for that matter. So, she just goes to her tent and tries to sleep, hoping she will feel better in the morning, and deciding to limit her conversations with him to the strictly necessary from now on.
She sleeps like shit and wakes up just as tired and angry as she was when she went to bed. And to top it off, Zuko is sitting in front of her tent, seemingly waiting for her.
"You look terrible." She comments, he does, and she doesn't care. Why is he here anyway?
"I waited out here all night" he says as he stands up. Does he want a prize?
"What do you want?" she still doesn't want to look at him. But then his reply comes, and she is left speechless.
"I know who killed your mother." Her heart starts pounding "and I'm going to help you find him." Is this some kind of trick? She wants to kill him, but she also wants to hear him out now. How did he find out who her mother's killer was? Why was he doing any of this? She doesn't ask any of her questions though. She is too angry, too anxious, too everything. Her body feels like a string about to snap, and she does not want to back out now, she'll get the details later.
"Then let's go." She says as she starts walking towards Appa, Zuko follows her.
"I need to borrow Appa, she informs Aang as she sees him feeding the bison. Why does everything she says sound so angry? What is wrong with her?
"Why, is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?" The monk replies, a hint of playfulness in his voice.
"Yes, it is." Aang can feel the seriousness now, worry creeps into his features. "Oh... What's going on?"
This isn't going to be good she thinks, but she's too angry to stop herself. "We're going to find the man who took my mother from me."
"Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it, and I know how to find him." So that's how Zuko found out.
Aang doesn't understand, she knew he wouldn't, Sokka doesn't understand either, and she says something she immediately regrets. She is enraged, shouting, and it's all fuzzy. She registers Zuko standing up for her and supporting her, Aang being the peaceful monk he is, her brother looking hurt and concerned, and she walks away. Being angry and walking away seem to be the only things she does anymore. When will this stop? When she finds her mother's killer, she hopes.
They end up leaving in the middle of the night, after Aang and her brother try to make a lesson about how they forgive her for taking Appa, because forgiveness comes so easy to them, and they just don't understand why she needs this. It makes her feel guilty, as if she just let them all down, but she needs this so much it burns her from the inside. So she coldly lets them know not to stop or follow her and leaves with Zuko who follows her lead. She will finally get her revenge, she will finally be OK, or at least she hopes so.
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Please let me know if you think this is worth continuing. Thank you for reading.