chapter 4 – Reflecting

Aang, with Tylee was traveling for a couple of days now and made a quick stop at Lake Laogai so Appa could catch a drink, Aang, Tylee and Momo jumped off to walk around for a bit, sitting for hours was almost as exhausting as hiking at times. Aang knowing that they were only hours away from the Earth King, he decided to journey to the spirit world by meditation there were a few questions that he needed to answer or at least have some context for those visions he has been having. He looked around, Appa was drinking water that he was half submerged in, Tylee was teaching Momo some hand stands and other gymnastic moves, so he got into position and meditated.

Aang found himself in what he recognized as the spirt world, it looked like as it always had looked, tall over grown trees, and ancient buildings, but then he got an inclination to go into one building, it was clearly floating in the air but it did have vines dangling from the sides and bottom and he saw a tree that was close enough to jump from, so he made his way to there. After climbing up to the entrance of the building, but seeing that he was in the air and normally being impossible to fly or air bend in the spirit world, he took opportunity to take in the view, with many floating islands, floating spherical lakes, colossal serpent creatures that looked like they were made of any one of the elements and it being bright as noon day but yet there is no sun,

"the spirit world really is something else"

he said happily but then he turned around and looked this building over, it looked like an Air temple but about the size of Iroh's tea shop, and Aang walked in.

Tylee was doing acrobatics as Momo flew around her when Appa came out of the lake and started coughing and she went up to him

"you all right?"

she asked but Appa just kept hacking in a violent way, not knowing what to do she turned to Aang who was still in deep meditation so turned to Appa

"sorry"

and she did a couple of chi blocking attacks on Appa's neck causing him to stop cough then she asked Appa

"ok, open up, um please…"

and Appa laying on his side opened his mouth with tung rolling out, Tylee looked at the back of his thought and could see something back there so she climbed in and grabbed it pulling it out of Appa's wind pipe and she climbed out covered head to toe in Appa's drool "OOGGIIEE!"

she said to herself as she shivered, then she looked at the thing she grabbed and could see what it was a blue spirit mask, the paint was flaking off and the stapps were worn.

"ok"

and she turned to Appa who got up now the chi block has worn off, and he immediately licked her covering her in more drool and she sighed

"this is the spiritual journey that I need not that I want, according to madam Wuu"

and she placed the mask near her bag.

after walking in Aang immediately noticed this building was much larger on the inside than the out

"that's the spirit realm for yea"

he chuckled. Looking around the relatively dark interior he noticed a life-sized statue of himself, so Aang approached it, it was wearing the outfit he wore at Iroh's tea shop after the war. Examining the white marble statue, it almost looked alive in a Strang way, even more life like than anything Toph can create. He looked around feeling like someone was watching him, then he found statues depicting his adventures from when he left the southern air temple all the way to his triumph over Ozai. Then a sinister voice started to speak

"it's been a while since my halls have been graced by the presents of the Avatar"

and Aang turned around and could see the shape of something in the shadow

"who are you?"

Aang asked

"I take many forms… many faces"

and Aang held a neutral face

"Koh?"

and the voice laughed

"ha, ha I am not that face stealing, attention desperate centipede. My face reflects those who come to visit my little palace"

and Aang confused and the figure stepped into the light, and it was Aang and Aang was about to wave at him like one does with a mirror and the other Aang with Aang's voice

"I'm no mirror"

and feeling a little awkward Aang apologized

"sorry about that"

and other Aang replied

"no problem, I was about to do the same thing"

and the two laughed then Aang had to ask

" so… what's your name?"

then other Aang thought

"well, I would say Aang, but your Aang and…"

and Aang then finished

"Aang2?"

and other Aang then shook his head then Aang suggested

"I know, Aung?"

and other Aang thought it over

"hmmm, not the same, and has a odd twist to it!"

and the two shook hands and in unison

"agreed" in agreement.

Aang looked around and asked,

"what is this place?"

and Aung sat on a stone bench

"this is the room of reflecting, it's a place to well… reflect"

and the two of them looked at the statues and Aung then pointed out

"well, you had quite the experience in relatively recant times"

and Aang looked at the statue of himself and Katara hugging at Iroh's tea shop with a somber look and Aung looked at it

"hmm… this one bother you?"

and Aang got out of his train of thoughts

"no, just thinking"

and Aung then looked at the Statue then to Aang's somber, and a dark smile crept on his face

"oh… I see, you see this as one of your failures"

and Aang shocked at this looked at Aung

"WHAT" and Aung then went up to the statue

"common"

and he waved his arm through the statue and faded like mist then it reassembled into a statue of both Katara and Aang kissing and Aang was even more shocked

"what did you do!"

and Aung smiled

"don't deny this is what you wanted… what we wanted"

and Aang backed off then Aung then made another statue of Katara and Aang at that dance party he set up

"why are you doing this?"

Aang shouted then Aung laughed

"these are your doing, your desires"

and Aung the waved his arm again and made a statue of Katara and Aang in the cave of two lovers, then another of Katara in her swimming outfit, and he continued to make more and more.

Aang then ran headed for the entrance and Aung laughed

"you can't run from the truth"

and he stomped on the ground that made a statue of Zuko on the ground, Aang in the Avatar state with Katara in between them, after seeing this Aang ran out of the building, but Aung shouted

"and you came here to find out about this, but now you run despite your acomplishments! Always running!"

and Aang climbed down the vines and trees, but Aung laughed

"IT MATERS NOT, I WILL FIND YOU… THIS WORLD OR THE MORTAL… AVATAR!"

Aang awoke from his meditation and could see it was night now, he looked around and could see Appa asleep, with Tylee nestled on his arm and Momo asleep on her lap. Massaging his temples he took a breath and thought to himself

"what is wrong with me?".

Toph now had her students in a row with a piece of bamboo in front of each of them trying to get them to launch a small metal coin but not a single one was able to make the coins budge, no matter how hard they tried

"common your lily livers! Launch those coins"

and her students were exhaustion

"were Doomed!"

Ho Tun exclaimed

"I don't want shoes anymore! Just rest"

said Penga on her hands and knees

"what ever… I can't do this anymore"

the student known as the Dark One said in disgust then Toph put her foot down

"keep practicing"

then a condescending voice

"you aren't the best at teaching, are you"

and Toph with a heavy Huff

"I wasn't asking the peanut gallery"

and Yasuaki took a sip from a glass bottle

"I know, and I care very little"

the Toph tapped the floor then asked

"at least I have my students here, yours are gone"

Toph smiled smugly and Yasuaki smiled

"my students are not here because I sent them home for evening"

and Toph shouted

"huh? What time is it?"

and Yasuaki looked out the window

"id say its at least ten at night, sunset was over an hour ago, and I am not one who exhausts his death"

and Toph looked to her students and feeling their exhaustion she sighed

"go home, that's all for today"

and all three of them took a breath of relief and walked out the door. Toph sat on the floor on the far side from Yasuaki and she asked him

"so why aren't you home?"

and Yasuaki took another sip

"this is my home" and he points to a sleeping cot

"and I just wanted to see how your metal bending lessons were going. I'm not at all impressed"

and Toph already exhausted from lack of sleep

"what do you know about teaching?"

and Yasuaki got up and put the bottle in a cabinet and locked it

"well for one you don't really understand your pupils very well, and your trying to teach them advanced bending skills without understanding what they are already capable of, and if you keep working them to exhaustion you will run the risk of loosing them"

Toph then smirked

"your one to talk, you don't challenge your students at all!"

and before Yasuaki could respond Toph continued her rant

"I know fire bending forms and arts and I know you are not letting them see their potential, just repeating the same old basics"

Upon hearing this Yasuaki didn't say anything but Toph could sense he was quite annoyed and continued

"and whatever, If I fail to get results this whole operation goes down and both of us with it" then Toph walked out side and made herself a stone tent and threw a sleeping mat and climbed in.

Sokka was walking down a road a fair ways from Yu Dao. He couldn't sleep, his mind was a constant rush, his guilt seamed to destroy any ability sleep or rest. But his walk was interrupted by seeing some guys in masked men who saw him, and they approached him, there was at least 5 of them and all were heavily armed, and one asked him

"you fire nation BOY?"

he asked in a threating tone as he lifted his stone hammer but then one stopped him

"stay your hand, that is Sokka. He helped compose the Harmony Restoration Movement" and the other ones just start talking and compliment him, much to Sokka's disgust. Sokka then asked them

"so… what are you guys doing?"

and what he assumed to be the leader just put a hand on his shoulder

"just enforcing Harmony"

and they left, Sokka wanted to walk down the road in the opposite direction, but he turned and joined them. It was a good hour of walking until they came to an abandoned overgrown barn, and they went in then one used earth bending to open a secret door on the floor of the barn and they climbed down, in a few minutes Sokka could hear people having some sort of meeting then one of the masked men shouted

"hey, look who we brought Sokka!"

and everyone stopped talking and looked at him and Sokka just enviously waved (his experience with underground moments hasn't been the best) then one of the guys said, "hey isn't he the one who helped bring down the Pheonix King's air ships?"

and Sokka felt a little pride, then another person said

"yea, and he helped make the Harmony Restoration Movement"

and like that his pride was crushed but looking around he could see well over a dozen masked people, some of whom he recognized as some the freedom fighters but he decided to say nothing. Then one of them spoke up

"why did you bring him hear?"

and one of the guys put a hand on his shoulder

"hey you said the enemy of our enemy is our friend"

Upon hearing this Sokka quietly tucked his fire nation officer badge deeper in his pocket then he decided to speak

"well um… what is this meeting… gathering all about?"

one of masked people he recognized as Smeller-Bee explained

"look, you seem trust worthy and probably want to have a more active approach to enforcing the Harmony Restoration Movement, the Fire Nation refuses, and the Earth Kingdom is too slow to act!"

she placed a map of all the western colonies, with markers on specific spots, including Yu Dao

"we need to make the ash-makers know they are not welcome, we need to disrupt business, harass them, vandalise their properties. What ever it takes to send them to that warmongering cesspool that they call the Fire Nation with the rest of the ash-makers"

the crowd cheered but then Sokka approached the map

"and what of their families"

everyone stopped and looked at him and Smeller-Bee asked

"what about them?"

Sokka took a gulp of air

"you know these families are earth-benders and Fire-benders who have been married, siblings that one or the other. Should we force them to be separated?"

then one guy shouted

"the ash-bedders and their spawn matter little to us, we need to get them out!"

everyone cheered, and Smeller-Bee then nodded

"couldn't have said it better my self"

she started to go over the plans and started to give assignments to different groups and Sokka just looked at it horrified.

It was clear stary night Zuko being unable to sleep was at the Stirn of the ship looking at the direction of Yu Dao and in deep thought, Yu Dao was well out of sight now, he couldn't even see land in all directions. Looking at the crescent moon and its reflection on the wavy water, just had him remember back to his days on his smaller ship hunting for the Avatar, he felt like his mind was orbited by millions of thoughts he remembers back when he first went to visit his father in prison.

1 year ago-

"Where is my mother"

Zuko asked in a firm tone, but Ozai wasn't going to release that information so easily

"you ought to bring me some tea, Zuko. We'll talk while sipping from steaming little cups, as you did with my traitorous brother. I'll give you advice on how to be good fire lord. Wouldn't that be nice? Enen the subject of your mother may come up"

Zuko got back up and turned around "I don't need this!"

he started to walk away but Ozai then shouted

"do you think being Fire Lord is easy!? The throne comes with pressures, and those pressures will change you!"

Zuko stopped for a moment but didn't face him as Ozia continued

"however, if you can stand the HEAT, you'll become something more. Of all the people in the world, I have the wisdom that only comes with experience!"

Zuko started to leave

"be honest with yourself Zuko. Do you really think you can handle it on your own?"

Zuko slammed the door shut.

Present-Zuko just looking up at he sky

"it's never easy, and that is the way you like it?"

he spoke to the night sky with exasperation

"then why is it that when I think we have a clear solution, then five new problems seem to arise that have no clear answers!"

he punched the air, sending a fire ball off to the horizon

"is this some sort of cruel joke? Just another form of punishment for thinking peace was a possibility?"

he turned to see Katara leaning against rear most smokestack of the ship and Zuko now feeling a little embarrassed asked

"how much did you hear?"

with a sly smirk she answered

"um from the five new problems onward"

Zuko just sighed and Katara approached and stood beside him and just stared out to the ocean as he did. Katara glanced at him, as if encouraging him to speak but seen that he wasn't she decided to start

"I take it would be an understatement to say you have a lot on your mind?"

Zuko breathing heavily through his nose

"I just don't know what to do, both solutions to Yu Dao and the colonies are horrible"

he leaned on the railing staring out to sea with a look of anger, and concern, Katara knew this look well

"am I just being like Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin? Am I just another warmongering…"

but Katara placed her hand on his, and gently placed her other hand on his scar and turned his face to Her's and looked him in the eye and then placed both hands on his shoulders and the two just stared eye to eye for five or so minutes

"no you are not. Not even close"

she said with a stound firmness

"you are a leader who is prioritizes the welfare of people over his political image. if you were like anything like them you would have declared war already"

Zuko seemed to relax a little and she took her hands off him and he smiled

"you are a neutral party in all this, what are your thoughts on all this?"

Katara looked out to the ocean

"I'm no politician, but promises are important to keep…"

Zuko looked down but Katara continued

"but tearing families apart is far too horrendous for keeping a promise"

they looked each other in the eyes again and he addressed the issue

"this can lead to another war, or even a civil war"

Zuko started to have some tears well up then Katara hugged him

"you are a good, brave, honorable man Zuko, you helped me with my troubles and comforted me when no one else would"

she looked up to him

"what ever decision you make… I'll support you"

Zuko smiled standing strait feeling a sense of relief

"Thank you Katara"

Katara and Zuko just stared at each other, and they started to bring their faces closer together and before either of them realized it, their lips made contact and upon realizing this both of them withdrew and blushed but neither of them tried to walk away they seemed to be able to communicate with each other through their eyes alone and Katara took Zuko's hand and led him to his room and as he got changed to bed clothes she brewed him some calming Jasmine tea that she learned how to make from Iroh, and seeing him drinking the tea she quietly left and gently closed his door. Katara walking to her sleeping area and sitting on her cot she gently touched her lips with her hand and blushed again and thought to herself

"what have you done Katara?"

It was the crack of dawn, Toph was showing her students how to bend a sheet of metal, and none of them seemed to be able to bend it, other than Hon Ton, but he was bending with brute force rather than the art of Metal/earth bending. Toph sighed and took the sheet from him and gave him one that was twice as thick

"is this my Doom?"

he asked nervously she didn't say anything just was disappointed and left. Then she listened to the Fire bending students practicing their forms, she had to admit it they have form, they have structure in their lessons. She decided to approach them, and they stopped

"um, hello master Toph?"

and they did that bow thing that fire-benders do, some of these students were older than she was

"thank you, well would you mind introducing yourselves to me?"

the youngest bowed

"sure thing, I'm Wang. And I'll be The Flying-Fire!"

he does a perfect back flip and Toph smiled

"you have confidence I see, very good in a student"

Wang bowed thanks then Toph approached the largest one who was a very tall girl and very muscle bound

"and you?"

she stared to get nervous she mumbled quietly, then Wang spoke up

"sorry, she is very shy. Her name is Satomi"

Toph sensing her nervousness she just smiled "well, I hope to know you better"

then she approaches a student who she would think was dead apart from the faint heart beat

"what's up"

she said in a very mono-tone, and Toph was about to ask but she answered first

"I'm the Night Mistress"

Toph just nodded

"ok…"

Wang just walked up to her

"her name is Kyla, and don't let that dark exter… deminer fool you, she's really nice"

Toph just nodded and went to her students. Then Toph felt two people coming up to the school, one she recognized as Yasuaki so she and all the students came out and they could see Yasuaki and a black smith and Toph had to ask, "um who's this?" and Yasuaki placed a hand on his shoulder

"this is Tonto, he'll be our school black smith"

Toph asked

"why? A black smith?"

Yasuaki sighed

"look, weather we like it or not, we need our students to succeed at what we are teaching them"

he pulled out a sheet of metal from a bag and handed it to her

"what do you feel?"

Toph tapped the metal a few times

"its metal but with way more…"

then something just clicked in her head

"I can't believe… I'm such a dunder head"

she broke it into three smaller pieces and handed each to her students

"try bending these"

her students brushed their thumbs on the metal strips, and they started to coil up like snakes and Hon Ton felt ecstatic

"this is, is…"

the Dark one just said

"Doom?"

in his mono-tone voice but then Hon Ton then finished

"amazing!"

then Penga then fiddled with the metal

"look!, new shoes!"

then the Dark one made a flower out of his and went up to Kyla

"here this is for you"

he said in his monotone voice and she took it

"it's pretty, thanks… want to hang out tonight?"

she replied in the same tone and he said

"yes… let's party"

in that same voice. Then Yasuaki smiled then clapped his hands

"ok students! We have some new forms to work on!"

Toph was ecstatic then did the same "ok lily livers, now that we found what you can bend, lets practice some shots"

Zuko's ship had made to port in the early morning, Zuko and Katara disembarked from the ship and were greeted by a large procession of women who were cheering and making all sorts of noise. Thankfully there was a small army of palace guards able to keep them at a reasonable distance as the two of them boarded the carriage and started for the palace. Katara looking at them she then turned to Zuko

"so… you got a passionate fan group I see"

Zuko chuckled

"one of the unforeseen consequences of formally breaking up with Mia"

Katara peeked out the window at the screaming fan girls

"let me guess, these girls are ages 15-19 of Nobel families"

Zuko just gives a strait up "yep" then Katara with a goofy yet adorable smile

"and their parents are trying to climb the political ladder?"

Zuko just nods

"most likely"

Katara places her hands on her lap

"yikes"

Katara was thinking and started to laugh and Zuko looked at her and smiled asked

"ok what happened?"

"Huh?"

Katara staggered

Zuko continued

"the way you are laughing, seems to tell me that you can relate to me on this topic"

and he points outside with his thumb. Katara nervously tapped her thumbs together

"well… you remember the Northern Water tribe?"

Zuko nodded and she continued

"well when I first visited there, I was left relatively alone by the boys because of my mother's betrothal necklace"

Zuko knowing where this going

"they thought you were TAKEN for lack of better words"

Katara laughed

"yea, but after the war they figured out that this (pointing to her necklace) was a memento rather than a marriage proposal. my next visit was very awkward…"

Zuko laughed

"I take it they fallowed you with one of their hands in their pocket…"

Katara finished his sentence

"caressing their betrothal necklaces for me"

the two of them laughed together for a good minute and they took a breath. The two of them were quiet for a moment and thinking on the same thing, seeing the silence wasn't going anywhere Zuko then asked

"so… last night?"

Katara sighed

"I didn't… I mean…"

but she didn't have any real way out of it

"I…"

she looked down blushing a little, Zuko tapping his thumbs then with his hand, he gently lifted Katara's chin to have her facing him, then Katara gently held Zuko's face and brought him closer and they kissed with more passion than their kiss on the ship. They then broke the kiss and just looked at each other and both knew that this was no accident, no exhaustion or even caught up in emotions like last night, this was deliberate, intentional, with purpose and they liked it and kissed again. Then the carnage door opened by a guard, even though the two of them broke their kiss, it was witnessed by several servants and guards, and they knew it, so Zuko got up and stepped down from the carriage and then reached his hand helping Katara down from the carriage and they entered the palace hand in hand.