Ow. Ow. Ow.
Chin up, Katara. It's not as bad as that time we were hit by a boulder.
It's definitely second place, though.
Then we'd better heal ourselves, hadn't we?
She cracked an eye, then opened both. She was hanging in the branches of a tree, surrounded by thick forest. It had been morning when they'd been
zapped
but it was only a hazy twilight now. Either she'd been out for a dangerously long time, or the thick canopy was blocking the daylight. There was pain everywhere, but especially at her thigh, ankle, ribs, one elbow, and her neck. Her dress was torn, and there was a trail of splintered branches around her. Her waterskin was gone. A long red string was tied around her pinky finger, and trailed down to the forest floor. There was a constant chik-chik-chik and brr-rrrIII of birds and insects calling to each other.
Appa must have crashed, and I was thrown and knocked out. But what's with this string?
It wasn't tight, her circulation was fine, but it was very firm; she worked at it with her free hand, but it stayed put.
Who put it there? And why?
Follow it and find out.
She worked her clothing free from where it had caught on broken branches, then climbed down. If even she'd been in better shape, she wasn't great at climbing – it hadn't come up at the South Pole – and had to move very gingerly, but she made her way from branch to branch. Eventually, she got to the lowest branch, awkwardly hugged it, and dropped down the last ten feet. She landed in a mud puddle and splashed herself with swamp gunk. She sighed and stepped onto the tree roots, which were dry, but she'd already lost both shoes, and her ankles started throbbing, so she stepped back into the mud, which if nothing else was cool and soothing.
She bent at the mud, but it ignored her: too much earth in the way, or maybe she was too banged up to bend properly. Nothing responded to her. Instead, she tugged at the string. It led into the puddle; she pulled it up and tried to follow it, wrapping the slack around her wrist as she went. It was slow going: the swamp was thick with undergrowth.
Where is everyone? Sokka, Aang, Zuko … even Joo Dee.
What about Azula? How far was I thrown, that even she couldn't find me? Surely she would have taken me hostage rather than just ignore me.
Maybe they didn't see me up there. Maybe she came and already caught everyone else.
Should I call for help? I might find the rest of the Gaang, but if Azula's nearby …
So what if she is? She'd have a doctor with her, and the sooner I get patched up, the sooner I can escape and rescue the others.
"Hello?"
There came a crashing off to her left. Moments later, Sokka hacked through a thicket of vines and wrapped her in a hug.
She leaned into it for as long as she could bear, before her cracked rib got too much and she had to push him away. He was grinning madly, although he was scraped and bruised as badly as her, where he wasn't filthy with mud, and there was a spot of dried blood under his nose that he didn't seem to have noticed. Momo was flitting around, either wary of danger or looking for bugs to eat.
"You're okay! I was looking for you –"
"Have you seen anyone else –"
"No, I just got out. I was stuck in this mud pond, I almost drowned. I really could've used you there."
"I wish. I can't bend this mud, it's too thick. I can't heal either."
"Right, that explains it."
"Explains what?"
"Why you look like the south end of a north-facing sky bison."
She gave him a look.
"Hey, what's with that string?" he asked, squinting. She supposed it was hard to see in the twilight.
"I don't know. I got knocked out when I fell off Appa. It was there when I came to. I can't think who would've tied it."
Sokka looked disturbed.
It's weird that we aren't. Someone ties a piece of string to our finger while we're unconscious? And up a tree?
I know, but … I kind of like it. It's warm.
"Come on," he said, "let's keep looking. The others have to be around here somewhere. How far can we have been thrown?"
I'm going to have a lot of healing to do. We probably all have concussions.
Ugh. Zuko's contagious.
"Come to think of it," Sokka went on, nodding to Momo, "where's Appa? How do you lose a ten-ton flying bison? He should have smashed the forest to bits when he went down. Remember the good old days when we could always find each other just by following the trail of destruction; what happened to that?"
"… Have I forgotten something?" Katara wondered aloud. "You don't always remember the last moments before you get knocked out. Maybe I tied this to Aang so I could find him if we got separated?"
"That would have been really, really stupid. Like – that's your best idea for not losing him? Why not use a rope? Or tie it so that it won't cut off circulation if you pull on it."
"I know, but do you have a better idea?"
At that moment, she shrieked, because something under the mud grabbed her foot. She tugged at it, without effect. Sokka came back, hatchet raised; she shooed him away, worried he'd chop something off.
"You," said a soft, masculine voice with a very clipped, precise accent, "aren't supposed to be here."
She looked around: no sign of whoever said that.
"Who's there?!" Sokka demanded, waving his axe around. "Show yourself!"
"I answer to no human," said the voice. "I tend this marsh."
"I'm sorry!" Katara said, louder than she'd intended.
Being grabbed from below was way too similar to being buried. Sokka's words, almost drowned, echoed in her ears; as with all echoes, the final syllable lasted longest.
The voice paused. "You aren't like the earth people who sometimes come by," he said. "Who or what are you?"
"We're from the Water Tribe," Katara said, trying not to panic.
Whatever had her foot wrenched sideways, splashing her into the mud with another shriek. Sokka dropped his hatchet and caught her arms. The thing had her tight; it was all he could do to keep her head above the surface of mud.
"That's a lie," the voice breathed. "I know the Water Tribe people. They call this place their home. They respect my rules, and I respect them in turn."
"We're from the Southern Water Tribe!" Sokka yelled. "There are lots of us! We – we're with the Avatar! We just got separated!"
"Is that so," it said, sounding vaguely amused. "So typical of her. Still, she respects me, so I suppose my respect should extend to her servants." The thing let go of her ankle; she wasted no time in scrambling up onto a root. "When you find her, tell her she should visit, it's been too long. In the meantime, there are more intruders over that way." Off to one side, the undergrowth receded: vines and ferns crawled out of the way, making a narrow path. "You might tell them that this marsh isn't for them."
"… Okay?" Sokka asked. "Wait. Are they Fire Nation? If there's a Fire Nation girl –"
"Why would I know or care about that?" asked the voice.
"Because she's really dangerous, to everyone. She attacked us – twice, now …"
There was silence.
"Are you still there?" Sokka asked.
Slowly, the noise of birds and bugs buzzing returned.
"Are you okay?" Sokka asked her.
Not really.
"I'm fine," she said, which wasn't true even on a superficial level: her ankle was now twice as sore, and she didn't feel like resting it in the mud any more. "Come on. Hopefully Aang's this way."
"What even was that? Some weird variant waterbender?"
"Maybe you can learn to bend mud with enough practice?" she wondered, setting off, now with a limp. Luckily, the string led in the same direction. "And ferns? You can bend seawater, even though there's salt in the way, earth. Maybe a true master can bend the water in mud, or even plants?"
Maybe Pakku was right. I'm not a master if I can't mudbend. There's still more to learn.
There came a splash, then a thud, a snarled "You crazy –!", then another splash. Without a word, Sokka took off at a run, Katara limping after him. They came to a clearing just as Zuko, covered head to toe in mud, punched Joo Dee in the face. She fell backward into the swamp with another splash.
"Zuko!" Sokka yelled, running forward to pull him back, as he moved forward to kick her while she was down. Katara made to help Joo Dee up, then held her back, because she made to go after Zuko. "What are you doing?!"
"That lunatic tried to kill me!" Zuko shouted.
"Everyone's tried to kill you," Sokka said.
"," Zuko replied, wishing he could contradict this.
Have we ever? I can't remember, but we must've tried at least once.
Give it time.
"Are you okay?" Katara asked Joo Dee, who had a hand pressed to her nose.
Joo Dee staggered, punch drunk. She squinted at Katara. "Hey, aren't you that Water Tribe girl who was with the Avatar?" she asked. "Remember this jerk?"
"Sure, Zuko, hit the girl who already has a concussion in the head," Katara muttered. "Joo Dee, can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?"
Joo Dee squinted at her and wiped some mud off her face. "That's not my name," she said. "I'm Suki."
"Suki!" Sokka exclaimed, his face breaking into a smile. "From Kyoshi Village? Katara, remember?"
Katara gave him a look of Remember what? I saw her twice, and no-one ever even told me her name. What's your excuse? You spent all day together!
She was always wearing makeup then! Sokka's expression replied. Caked on an inch thick! Why do girls do that?! I had no idea what her face looked like!
Suki blinked groggily. "Sokka? What're you doing here?"
"We were travelling with Aang," he said. "And so were you, but, calling yourself Joo Dee. And acting really weird. What happened to you after we left Kyoshi?"
Her memories are incomplete too. But ours go back much further than hers. Is there a connection, or is it a coincidence?
"I," Suki began haltingly. "After that guy burned our village –"
Katara gave Zuko a stern look. He gave her an exasperated one back, Are you seriously going to hold every village I've ever burned down against me forever?
"– the Warriors decided we couldn't keep being neutral if the Fire Nation was going to bring the war to our territory, so we set off to Ba Sing Se to help fight. When we got there …" She trailed off. "Trying to get through customs was a nightmare, they kept thinking we were refugees, then they accused us of being Fire Nation soldiers in disguise. Apparently the Fire Nation uses women, but Ba Sing Se only lets men enlist. I told them it was a centuries-long sacred tradition in honour of Avatar Kyoshi, and we kept going from one stupid bureaucrat to another … I don't remember getting through it. Then I woke up here."
Katara and Sokka exchanged looks.
What's that all about? his face asked. What on earth can make someone act like that?
I don't know, hers replied. I've never heard of anything like it. She glanced at Zuko, but he didn't say anything. Maybe Aang has? "We got separated from Aang," she said. "We need to find him and get out of this swamp. Why don't we stick together? We want to go to Ba Sing Se too."
"What about him?" Suki asked, of Zuko.
"He's travelling with us too," Sokka said, then, seeing her expression, "but don't worry, he's on our side now."
"I'm sure he's sorry for what he did," Katara said, giving Zuko a steely look, "and will be happy to apologise."
"Oh sure," Zuko said, "I completely regret that I fought back to protect myself and my men, after a gang of neutral partisans, who'd harboured the Avatar, sneak attacked us without provocation –"
Suki tackled Zuko into the swamp and tried to drown him.
"Aren't you going to help?" Katara asked Sokka, wishing she wasn't too messed up to do it herself.
"She's doing a pretty good job on her own," he said.
"I meant him. I know he was asking for it, but he's still on our team."
"Sure, but doesn't everyone deserve one good swing at Zuko?"
He had a point, but still, they pulled Suki off him.
"Are you insane?" she yelled. "He's Fire Nation! He'll stab you in the back the moment you let your guard down!"
"I love that it's a partisan who relies on sneak attacks who's saying that," Zuko said, sitting in the mud.
"Shut up, Zuko," Katara said. "Look. Yes, I know he's completely insufferable, but we've gone through a lot together."
"Is this," Zuko began, then he did a double-take. His eyes widened.
Katara looked down and around, but she couldn't see what had startled him.
"… right," he finished, lamely, getting up. Mud slopped off him. Katara gave him a questioning look; he pretended not to notice.
"Besides," Sokka said, "there's something out there that doesn't like us. We should really get out of this swamp and sort it out later."
Suki was still angry. "Fine," she said. "But you're explaining everything."
"Yeah. Come on," he said, pulling her to one side to catch her up. This left Zuko and Katara taking the lead through a likely-looking animal trail.
"Can you please not antagonise her?" she asked, pitching her voice low.
"I don't suppose there's any chance at all of you telling her off for physically assaulting me."
"We both know she couldn't touch you if you didn't let her. You weren't bending or augmenting."
"Have you really not noticed?" he asked.
"Noticed what?"
"That we're in the Spirit World."
Her eyes widened as things clicked into place.
We could make up stories about not being able to bend mud, but he doesn't have that excuse, of course he'd figure it out right away.
"We can't bend, there was a strange voice before we met you, maybe something about Suki's memories … wasn't there something else –"
He didn't answer, because at that moment, they pushed through a final thicket and came to another clearing, and in this one was Avatar Kyoshi.
The statue at Kyoshi Island had been thirty feet high, which meant obviously it was scaled up; which obscured the fact that Kyoshi was actually gigantic, two feet taller than Katara. Zuko stumbled backward, tripped over a root, and fell into the mud again. Suki's expression was one of pure awe, and she knelt in reverence. Katara and Sokka stood there awkwardly.
"Hello," Kyoshi said.
Katara's father had presence and gravity. He could walk into a room with twenty men he'd met only once and be perfectly assured that every one of them would fight shoulder to shoulder with him against impossible odds, and they'd believe they'd all make it out okay. Kyoshi made him look like a child. He was just a man; she was a god.
"Avatar Kyoshi," Suki breathed.
"Custodian," Kyoshi said. "Rise. I have need of your service."
Suki obeyed. "Anything."
"You must protect my current incarnation. He has only mastered two elements, and must master the last two before the Great Comet returns. You must protect him from the Destroyer's pawn until then."
"With my life, Avatar," Suki said. "Um – who or what is the Destroyer? Or his pawn?"
"Do you mean Azula?" Katara asked. "Or the Fire Lord?"
"Azula, perhaps," Kyoshi said. "A firebender gifted by one of the most powerful spirits, Shiva."
Zuko started.
"You know about this?" asked Katara.
"He's the old stories," he said, nervously glancing at Kyoshi. "His cult used to be one of the biggest after Agni, back before we had Fire Lords. You know how I said the spirits were dangerous? I was thinking of him specifically. He's the kind of spirit you worship because you don't want him mad at you. If Azula got firebending from him, no wonder she's so good."
Kyoshi nodded, then turned to Katara. "Healer," she said. "I need your assistance too."
"Of course," Katara said, then, "Are you … Aang?"
"Aang is dying," Kyoshi said. "While I'm out, he will last longer, but not forever. Once we return to the material world and I leave, you will have only minutes to save him."
Katara's hand went to her necklace, where Pakku's vial of Spirit Oasis water dangled.
Kyoshi turned to Zuko. "Lost Prince," she said by way of greeting.
He looked away for a moment, then met her gaze and squared his jaw. "… Are you going to kill me?"
"I would no sooner harm you than my own child," she said.
He didn't look entirely reassured at this.
"Besides, you have your part yet to play. You might reflect on your mother's penultimate words to you."
His mouth fell open for a moment, before clicking shut into an expression Katara recognised as barely-repressed fury.
Kyoshi turned to Sokka.
"I'm sorry," she said awkwardly, "– who are you?"
"I – I'm Sokka," he said, put out. "Son of Hakoda, Chief of the Wolf Cove tribe."
"You are untouched by destiny, Sokka, son of Hakoda," she said, a little wistful. "Any success you enjoy, you will have earned. Of all of us, you are free to do as you will."
"I want to protect my sister," he said.
"The Healer," Kyoshi said. "Then perhaps she will help heal the whole world. For now, though, we must hurry. Time is short."
She led the way through the swamp, and the undergrowth parted for her, like it had when the voice had let them pass.
"… Where are we going?" Sokka asked.
"To find the last member of your group," Kyoshi replied over her shoulder.
"You mean Aang?" Katara asked.
"Aang and I are one and the same," Kyoshi not-answered.
"How does this work?" Sokka asked. "Is there, like, a map of pathways between the Spirit World and normal world, and can we go through here to get to Ba Sing Se? Because it'd save us a lot of trouble if we didn't have to worry about the Fire Nation all the way."
"That would result in the end of the world," she said.
"Not the world! I live here!"
Kyoshi's mouth fell slightly open.
"There are many spirits with many differing beliefs," she said, choosing to just power through it, "but all agree that the Spirit World is not to become a battlefield for human wars. That means not abusing it for tactical gain. Soon, spirits will begin to suspect that's exactly what I'm doing. They will investigate, and if you are still here then, they will turn against the Avatar. We must be gone before that happens. As an aspect of the Avatar, I will still be able to provide certain assistance, but not this."
Suki took a skip-step forward to catch up, because Kyoshi's huge stride covered a lot of ground.
"Avatar Kyoshi," she said, beaming like a little girl. "I – the Kyoshi Warriors, we did our best to live up to your teachings. We, we aren't benders, like you – of course, we're not the Avatar – Aang is – um, but, did we do well? We all tried our hardest to be like you …"
Kyoshi's gaze slid over to her, and she settled into nervous fidgeting.
"You did well," she said, and Suki lit up. "But I didn't. To err is human, and when those mistakes are magnified by the power of the Avatar, they can doom a civilisation."
"When you split Kyoshi Island off from the mainland," Suki began.
"I did that during a period of conflict across the Earth Kingdom," Kyoshi said. "One so bad, the Earth Kingdom itself was in question. I quelled the conflict. But, I didn't answer the question. I had to … I chose to act by creating a power, one that stood for stability at the time, but that has since critically upset the balance between the material and spirit worlds, and now is poisoning both."
"The Fire Nation," Suki said balefully, eyeing Zuko, who ignored her, but Kyoshi shook her head.
"The rise of the modern Fire Nation was the doing one of my previous incarnations. I'm talking about another. My point is, you shouldn't learn only from others' triumphs, but also our failures. If you do, you'll realise that you shouldn't be like me. You should be the best you."
Suki contemplated this, which meant she fell behind a bit. Katara took the opportunity.
"Can I ask something?" she asked. "Something similar to that, I think. A few weeks ago, we met someone who said Aang should use the Avatar State and go fight the Fire Lord right away. We decided not to. Was that the right choice?"
Kyoshi took a moment to pick her words.
"The Avatar must learn bending from humans, every incarnation," she said, "because that way, he also learns human values, and can represent them to the spirits. The Avatar State exists only to protect the Avatar. It cannot dispense justice, because it is a spirit, and spirits do not understand human justice. Only the Avatar's human incarnation, Aang, can do that. You were wise not to discard him. Here."
She pushed through a row of overlapping shrubs, and revealed a clearing, where Appa lay. He was bathing in the brackish swamp water, cooling a long streak of burnt fur down his side, where the lightning blast had exited Aang and run down his body before jumping to ground. His saddle had been torn loose and lay in the mud, in which most of their supplies were soaking.
"Oh, poor Appa," said Katara, approaching.
"You can heal him, right?" Sokka asked. "Or is your thing human-only?"
"I should be able to, once we're out of the Spirit World. Animal chi is similar to human."
Kyoshi found a dry patch atop some thick moss to sit on. "The Healer should have faith in her ability to heal," she said. "I leave it to you."
The light was suddenly brighter and crisper, like a cloud overhead had just passed. The red string was gone. Aang slumped to the moss. There was the stink of burnt meat.
Katara dashed forward, tore the vial of oasis water from her neck, bent it out, and pressed it against his chest, where there was an angry red welt the size of a dinner plate, with jagged red paths leading down his legs and foot.
What the heck is this?! I've never seen an injury like this! What did that witch do to you?!
Why couldn't Yagoda have taught me more about burns? I know they aren't common at the North Pole, but we're at war with the Fire Nation, they're kind of relevant!
Even if she'd tried, I don't think she'd know about lightning strikes. What even is this? Skin is good at stopping fire, you need a lot of fire to burn through it; but this went straight through. Oh, Aang. Your heart, your nerves, everything …
The lightning burn was a mass of entropy, lines of chi melted apart and randomly fused to each other, impossible to even begin to untangle. Instead, she focused on her water. It echoed with the strange otherworldly presence from the Spirit Oasis.
What was it the spirits said? I AM HEALING, I AM LIFE?
I am. I am, I am. I'm the Healer, Avatar Kyoshi said so. Can't I do this?
Or is that the wrong mindset? I don't heal, not really. I use my chi to encourage the body to heal itself. I just nudge it along.
It relies on his strength, not mine. That's perfect. Come on, Aang, you're the Avatar. You're the strongest person I know. And I survived being hit by that boulder. Come on!
She told herself that, but she was conscious that at the same time, he was still just a kid, she could feel how fragile he was. He was always so light on his feet, she pictured him as having delicate hollow bird bones, although logically that was probably just subtle airbending to make him buoyant.
A kid, and the Avatar. If healing is restoring someone to what they're supposed to be, am I bringing back a child, or the Avatar? Something in between?
Neither. You can't ever go back, not really. You don't heal back to some perfect ideal version of yourself, you just close the wound, stop bleeding, and hope the scar isn't too ugly. You find a compromise that you can live with, and you live with it.
Mom's never coming back, but Sokka and I kept going. The Air Nomads aren't coming back, but Aang keeps going.
She was abruptly aware of Zuko, out of the corner of her eye. He was staring down at them, unblinking.
You were banished, but you keep going, because you're convinced you'll complete your mission this summer and get to go home. If Aang dies, you'll be banished for good … but you're deluding yourself. Even if he lives, and even if everything goes perfectly for you …
It was a weird dream-like moment, and the logic clicked perfectly.
"You can't go back," she murmured.
"What?" Sokka said. She started, she'd forgotten he was there, and the moment was gone, because right then, Aang jerked, coughed, breathed in, then went into a coughing spasm.
"Help –" she began, but Zuko was already beside her, turning Aang onto his side into the recovery position.
"Is he going to be okay?" Suki asked.
"Don't worry," Sokka said with a touch of pride, "my sister knows what she's doing. Although, speaking of sisters who know what they're doing … that was one hit from a hundred feet away that two master benders blocked? And it knocked Appa down, too. Now I feel better about when I fought her."
"You lost?" Suki guessed.
"It was basically a tie," he said.
Aang finally managed to keep a lungful of air. He swallowed and looked up at her. Without hesitation, she leaned forward and hugged him, trying not to cry.
"Owww," he said.
"Maybe not the time to squash him," Sokka observed.
Shut up, Sokka.
Aang didn't seem to mind. "What happened? We were flying along, there was a tank … You wanted to fly past it for some reason …"
"Zuko's sister popped out of it and zapped you, then there was some spirity stuff," Sokka summarised.
Zuko gave Katara a look of Spirity stuff? Really?
She responded with You can't talk, your sibling just tried to kill us all.
How long are you going to hold that against me? his eyes asked.
Probably at least through dinnertime, she replied.
"Azula," Aang said. "So she broke out of wherever the Water Tribe put her."
"Yeah," Sokka said, then, glancing at Zuko, "In hindsight, we should've seen that coming."
Imagine if we'd taken her up on her offer to teach Aang lightningbending. She'd've blasted him at the first chance.
"About that," Sokka said. "What's she playing at, using lethal force against you? If the Avatar dies, you just reincarnate."
"I think I know why," Zuko said darkly. "I'm the rightful heir. I was banished, putting her first in line for the throne, but now I'm close to capturing the Avatar and reclaiming my position. If you die, that's all over. My mission's failed, and she becomes the next Fire Lord."
They pictured Fire Lord Azula.
"Let's not let that happen," Sokka said.
"Good idea," said Aang.
12
