"It's time" I speak before the silence gets more awkward. She nods and goes to Suki, who is currently staring at her letter. She gets up and her face has makeup, her eyes lightly swollen but only if you focused enough on her face you'll see it. Both girls get out of the room and start walking towards the main room. I rush so I catch up to them.

I was nervous of how this would go. The first time someone was discovered with this disease dated back to the firsts scrolls I could find, but nothing else was written for hope. All of the subjects died after some days, and the unlucky ones, after months. Azula started showing this sickness while talking about our mother…how I still wish she was here to guide us.

"We will be fine" I hear Ty tell Suki while caressing her hand. Suki nods but doesn't turn to see her. We are now outside the room, my uncle waiting for us. I walk past them and hug him. I haven't felt scared for a while. He returns my hug, chuckling a little bit and patting my back.

"Sparky! I want a hug too!" I hear Toph said before hugging me from behind. A contained tear rushes down my cheek and I let go of my uncle to look at Toph. She looks concerned too, wouldn't dare to say scared.

Katara and Aang are hand by hand waiting for instructions, she looks upset. Suki looks at us with her cold face, her war paint helping her hide her emotions.

Uncle opens the door and we all enter. Sokka is in a chair with his feet in chains. I quickly turn to face him questioning why our friend was like that. Suki runs to his side and hugs him, burying her face in his chest. Sokka welcomed her too.

I can feel physical pain in my chest but I try to ignore it. Katara nudges me and stares angrily. I frown a walk to take a seat, trying to ignore how it hurts me. Katara sits next to me with Toph. Aang, Ty Lee and Suki take the other side. Suki grudgingly stops hugging him and sits so we can start, Sokka sits too, kicking a little bit his chains.

"Ladies and gentleman, the information I'm about to share must be taken slowly. I am open to answer all of the question that might arise." My uncle starts speaking, scanning the room. I wonder how all of our faces look.

Everyone silently agreed and my uncle continued talking.

"I will explain what is this condition Sokka is presenting. This is a rare disease discovered a long time ago, called the darkening. The symptoms include a dark aura, puking dark liquid from any part of the body, erratic behavior, paranoia and suicidal thoughts." He stopped talking so anybody could ask questions. Ty Lee immediately speaks.

"Dark aura as… dark dark?" She emphasizes dark while drawing a silhouette with her hands.

"Yes. This aura can be seen by simple sight, not necessarily one has to be an expert like you" He answers with a calm smile as Ty Lee whimpers, afraid.

"How can you fix it?" Toph interrupts, her face looking at Sokka.

My uncle takes a big breath and exhales.

"Well. No one knows how to. You can only make the symptoms go away and maybe eradicate it. But we need to know the source of the darkening for it to be effective. Only one record in all of the appearances of this pathology is effective."

I look at Suki. She is facing the table, her eyes fixed on something on it. Her hand is gripping his hard and I can slightly see it tremble.

Katara stands up and stares at the couple in front of us. She then turns to my uncle.

"Sokka has is right?" She asks the obvious. My uncle only nods and continues talking.

"The past days I talked with Sokka about it, we both thought knew what was causing it to rise. The fear of losing someone. But, the events that happened this day have shown me that is not the cause, and in fact, the darkening almost got to him, if it weren't for you." My uncle looks at Toph, she only nods back.

"Then…what is it?" Suki whispers, almost as if trying to fix a puzzle. I can see Sokka looking at her with concern too, his thumb caressing her, I almost gag at the jealousy.

Iroh walks towards them too, placing a hand on her shoulder. She looks at him and he only nods. Sokka looks puzzled and Katara opened her water pouch, I grab her hand trying to stop her but couldn't get her other one.

Water hits Suki's face and she coughs.

"What was that for?" Sokka asks angered, standing up.

"It's her fault! Look at how are you acting!" She says before Iroh coughs to gather attention. Katara doesn't back down and tries walking towards Suki, I manhandle her and make her sit. Aang stares at us with no comment.

Suki cleans her face without her make up suffering for it. That's some good make up.

"It is not her fault, I understand your concern about your brother. Lashing out on her is not the correct way of handling this" My uncle says placing now both hands on Suki's shoulders. She looks hurt at Katara's reject.

"Then it's the way the relationship is handled?" Aang asked intervening, trying to focus on a solution.

"Why is everybody in our business again?" Sokka interrupted, feeling angered at the treatment of her. "I wanted to leave her so I could get better and…stop making this dynamic so weird"

"She should leave, you are my brother, you were here first." Katara quickly interrupted, spite in her voice.

Suki kept quiet, brainstorming. She seemed to ignore Katara and focus on the table a bit too hard.

"Katara why are you so angry at her?" Now I step in

"Shut the fuck up" She lashes at me and slaps me. Her face was shocked at her actions and I touch my cheek. "I'm…I'm sorry…" she babbles and tries to touch me. I reject her and turn to my uncle, who is looking at everything.

This is getting longer than I thought.

Darkening? What is this joke?

I feel cold. I brainstorm what could possibly be the reason behind Sokka and his attitude. His clothes were stained, but it could have been a lot of things. Then again, the other reunion he was acting this erratic way….

Katara is not happy with me. Not that matters anymore, Sokka is who matter the most to me right now. I involuntary shiver, the water was cold and my clothes are wet.

How could this happen to him? He was cheery and…sarcastic. He didn't built up all of his emotions with me so I thought that would help…

Iroh moves me a bit, making me look at an angry Katara. Zuko is looking at me so intensely that I frown too, knowing I probably missed some vital information.

"Suki?" I can hear Sokka call me, I look at him and his blue eyes are worried. I blink.

"What?" I ask, now looking at Ty Lee by the other side. Her eyes are wide and scared. I pat every part of my body and face, unsure of what she was so scared of. "What?!" I repeat trying to stand up, Iroh's hands pressing me down.

"I knew it…" Ty Lee whispers "She has it too! We need to help them!" She stands up and grabs Katara, dragging her towards us. Sokka stands up and tries to get in front of me but the shackles won't let him do it.

"Fuck" I hear him mutter and I turn to him, he looks angry too. He notices me gazing and looks worried again, those pretty blue eyes have suffered so much, how can I help him?

Katara walks past by me and grabs Sokka's head. He mutters and sits down. He looks at me as Katara bends some water off my clothes and into her hands already glowing. She closes her eyes and focus making the room shine.

The shine eventually stops and Sokka looks at me again, almost as if waiting for me to say something. I couldn't. What was I supposed to say? Congrats?

"How do we know this worked?" I asked unaware of how rude that was worded. Iroh shrugged.

"There is no way of knowing until something that triggers it comes back" He says, my worst fear coming to life.

"You mean…"

"It's your fault Suki" I hear Katara say.

"What?" I now raise my voice.

"When something eventually happens to my brother, try sleeping around some other fire nation boys or earth kingdom citizens so Zuko doesn't get it too after you ignore him"

That's it.

I throw a fan and it hits her hands, she yells and immediately jumps to the table to grab me. I dodge and close my fist ready to punch the shit out of her. That was it. How hypocrite to try and cuddle me first then slut shame me? For what?

I can feel Sokka's arms around my waist as he pulls me off Katara. She stands up and coughs blood. Bring it on, I don't care what else she might try to do to me. I get off Sokka and runs toward her.

"Katara NO!" I hear Aang scream. I freeze.

I can't move. I can't move. Why I can't move?!

"That's the face I wanted to see" Katara says smiling. My limbs feel heavy and with a mind of their own…I feel so…so powerless. I'm cold. My feet are off the floor and she starts pulling me towards her. Iroh is looking at us in shock and Zuko is running towards Katara, Sokka fails to reach me.

I look at my arm that is bended in an unnatural angle and my back starts giving in. I wanted to scream but the shock won't let me. I have never seen anybody do this. I look at her and she moves her hand around, my feet twitching and my neck feeling tighter than before. She keeps pulling me towards her.

I can't move my head. My eyes wander at Sokka's, who is looking back at me scared. I'm centimeters away of Katara before Aang gushes wind to her and knocks her down. I don't feel cold anymore and my limbs give in to my commands again, falling to the floor.

I feel sick.

"Why…why did you do that?!" Sokka looks at Katara in shock. "You promised you would never do that again!"

Zuko is by my side, I can see his face staring directly at my face and I can't register anything more.

"Why? Why do you hate me?" I ask to no one in particular.

I feel so small. I feel powerless again. Only this time he won't rescue me.

No one will.

The room was silent after what happened. No one dared to say anything for some minutes. Katara broke the silence, stepping closer to Suki and Zuko.

"I'm sorry… to both of you. I'm so so sorry" She said with tears falling down her face.

"You should be! What the hell Katara?" Toph said across the room "I never knew you would do something so…"

"I'm sorry! I'm trying to protect Sokka too! It's not the way and I forgot to actually forgive and…"Katara rambled as Sokka interrupted her

"Forget it! Let me live Katara! Hurting my friends and the most important person in the world is your way to protect me? Seriously?" The sibling said angered. Toph immediately broke the chains in his feet. He walked towards her and didn't hesitate to judge her, Iroh stepped between them.

Suki was in a blank state, her breathing getting gradually slower.

"Why do you hate me?" The warrior asked again. Zuko looked puzzled, shaking her a little bit.

"Suki? No one hates you" He whispered to her, looking at her eyes who were void of any emotion. Zuko looked at Sokka then towards Ty lee, who ran to him scared.

"Suki, Suki…we are here." Ty Lee repeated hugging her, the leader of the Kyoshi kept unresponsive. Dark mist started to engulf her, scaring Ty Lee and backing away. Zuko eyes widened too, standing up to grab Sokka, who was already by their side.

"Why…" She stood up, the mist growing in intensity. Sokka was the only one not afraid of it, stepping closer and taking her hands.

"Suks… it's us. Calm down." He whispered, trying to snap her out of it. Aang and Toph now ran towards Katara and Iroh, looking at her disappointed (At least in Aangs case).

"You cured Sokka, cure Suki" Toph said to the waterbender, the later already pulling out water to go at her aid, her hands glowing and slowly getting closer to her.

"Do not get close now, miss Katara. It will make everything worse" Iroh told her, she now looked at her friends and Iroh, trying to think fast what she should do.

"I need to do something.." she muttered, ignoring his advice. Aang grabbed her wrist, pleading her to listen.

Zuko and Ty Lee stood by the side watching everything. Unsure of how to help any of them.

"I'm scared for her, you know what your uncle said about the darkening!" The acrobat spoke while looking at the firelord, whom he only sighed, unsure.

"Maybe we could…aisle her? Azula's treatment seems to work, but she doesn't have to see we are going to muzzle her, other wise she might fight too" Zuko talked low to her, while Ty Lee nodded.

Suki's mist was clouding Sokka now, he coughed at how strong the fog was in his throat. He hugged her and tried to make her hug him but there was no response.

"Suks, come back please, it's me, Sokka with an okka…" he said in her ear, trying his best to evade a cough in her face.

"But you hate me" She answered, finally pulling him apart. Her eyes were dead and her face was serious.

"No, I don't. Nobody here hates you. We all want you to get better." He continued talking, running to grab the fallen fan and show it to her. She didn't follow him with her eyes, instead looking at the wall were Katara, Aang, Iroh and Toph were. He came back and opened it, catching her attention.

"See? This is your fan. You love using it to fight, you even made me beg to stop training with those fans. Hahaha…" He awkwardly laughed, trying to make a kata he learned from her. She pulled up her arm to grab it, in which he returned it with a bow. She took it but said nothing else, standing still.

Zuko and Ty Lee were now by Sokka's side. Zuko pulled him away from Suki while Ty Lee tried talking to her.

"Suki! I'mm… I'mm so happy your alive…" Ty Lee wobbled while talking, scared at how…eerie her friend looked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Suki spoke fiercely, stepping closer to Ty Lee. She gulped, her eyes widening.

"My…you you were fighting and I'm so glad we stopped fighting!" She continued, forcing herself to hug her. "You are one of my bestest friends and I would be super sad if you left the warriors at my charge"

Suki kept still, the mist fading a tiny bit. Ty Lee couldn't hold it and coughed hard.

"Are you okay?" Suki asked, even if she forced herself to feel humane, she couldn't anymore. "I can feel how scared she is" she thought. The mist growing and getting more intense. Ty Lee yelped and backed to where Zuko and Sokka where, pulling from Zuko's robe.

Both boys turned around to see her.

"Katara! Come here!" Ty Lee screamed scared, preparing for a fight. Zuko and Sokka stood in front of her, unsure of how to act. Katara tried to aid them but both, Iroh and Aang, stopped her.

"They are calling!" She said angered at being told what to do and not to do.

"It is not the way" Iroh calmly responded.

"Katara…" Suki pronounced her name and turned around to see her. A small gasp escaped Katara. From the back the warrior didn't look so terrifying! Her dead eyes kept looking at hers for some minutes. "Katara hates me" she finished her sentence, now walking towards her.

The eeriness in the room was high. Her walk was graceful, as if Suki was still her old self, but her eyes denoted how…disatached she felt.

"Why do you hate me?" The warrior asked again, stopped mid path. The mist only increased, her face starting to disappear.

"Brother!" Katara screamed, her tone uneasy and her water already on her hands, glowing. Sokka seemed shocked, staying still in his place. Zuko grabbed him by the shoulders.

"You need to get her back, she is dying" Zuko said anxiously, knowing well that the watertribe boy was the one who knew her more deeply.

"But… but I couldn't get her back earlier…" Sokka said brainstorming.

"Think about something else!" Zuko lashed out "Or else we will do it my way" He warned, getting out of the room. Sokka shook her head and walked towards Suki. The warrior felt him and frowned, turning at him.

"Stop, now." Sokka frowned too, putting up against her in a whole new approach. Seeing him act so… firm made Suki smile a little. She started laughing, making him step closer to her.

"So you are approaching me? I haven't even done anything!" She opened her arms, waiting for a hug. "Hug me please! No one wants me in this damn room! Might as well die in your arms"

Sokka stopped, hurt at her statement. He got closer to her, searching for something in his pocket. The fog was stronger than before, immediately making him cough and gasp for air. Aang diligently send a gust of wind towards them, but the fog didn't flinch.

"Ssuki, you are not yourself anymore." Sokka said face to face, crying, unsure if it was of pain or the mist hurting his eyes.

"Tell me what I am then! Everybody has an opinion and are bold enough to let it out. Cmon, I already now that I'm dying…" Her smile never left her face, startling him.

"Please, let my sister heal you." Sokka plead to her, embracing her. She returned the hug, her fan still on her hand.

"She hates me, remember she just twitched my body like a rag doll?" She said, throwing him to the floor. Walking faster towards the waterbender. The sibling hands never stopped glowing, readying herself to heal her.

Toph instead pulled the ground to trap her feet, she caught Suki off guard while Sokka recovered from the initial shock and ran in front of Suki.

"Suki, stop. We are trying to help you" Sokka said trying to grab her wrists, in which she evaded. He was frustrated and scared of her state, running out of ideas of how to approach her and make her come down.

Suki huffed and looked at him.

"You are not going to save me, stop it. We are trying to help you. My business with your sister is another topic for another day. Toph, put me out of this!" She screamed, her throat was becoming raspier as the fog started coming out of her mouth too.

Toph kept her still, instead grabbing both of her arms with earth. Iroh looked at the situation while Aang looked shocked.

"We need to do something. Now." Aang turned to face Iroh and Toph.

"We are doing a lot letting them vent their feelings. They all seem to have bottled them up." Iroh said as he stepped further from the scene and in the shadows, letting the scene flow.

"I don't think that's a good idea! Look how I have muzzled Suki, its painful for me too" The earthbender said running to Suki, Zuko entering the room again and following behind Toph.

Suki was livid, she hadn't felt her blood so warm and palpable in her body. She felt as if they were containing something so tribal. "I only want to talk to her, why does she hate me so much?! Is it really my fault?" Suki thought while trying, in vain, to pull out of the earth,

"Suki, S u k i" Toph spelled, waving a hand towards her. "Snap out of it!" she screamed.

"Let me go already! I'm not the same girl you met, we all grow, we all change and we all make mistakes." Suki said feeling pain on her limbs, coughing some of the fog that entered her.

Zuko turned to Sokka, disappointment in his face. He stepped up to Toph and Suki, the latter looking at him with worry.

"I, Zuko of the royal family, current fire lord, apologize for all the deep trouble I have caused" He said kneeling down and bowing his head down.

"What?" Suki asked, her eyes for a split second showing emotions. Sokka noticed it and followed his example, kneeling by Zuko's side and bowing his head.

"I'm so sorry, for everything Suki." His voice broke between sentences, acknowledging the damage he has done to her and the group of friends. "I'm sorry again, for acting like an ass. For playing with your feelings."

The fog decreased significatively, making Katara lower her guard. She looked at Aang who in return only nodded, closing his eyes as if watching would hurt her.

The waterbender nervously got close to the scene. Toph kept Suki in place so there was no danger in another confrontation. Suki looked at Katara and tried to move away. Katara's hands glowed with her water as she stepped in front of her, placing them in the warriors temples.

"It's not your fault. I apologize, I was wrong. We are all." The fog dissipated from Suki's body. Her purple eyes came back to life again, her eyes finally seeing something else: The siblings, the blind bandit and the fire lord in front of her, looking at her.

Letting her out of the restrain, she backed away, bumping into the table, in fear. Sokka and Katara followed after her and she backed away more, gripping her fan. Sokka got the upper hand and grabbed her, surprised at how unresponsive she was at him touching her, he realized why she ran away.

"Katara, don't get closer" He said turning to her sister.

"I need to check her" She still showed worry, looking over his shoulder to see a fearful girl.

"Don't. I will" He firmly said, shielding Suki from her view.

Katara looked at Aang who was observing disappointed at everything. Iroh came back from the shadows, coughing to get everyone attentions.

"We have the solution" He said, looking at the frightened group. "Support. Talk. Forgive. That's how the darkening weakens, as shown by Suki."

Suki blinked, trying to suppress some tears of her own. Sokka hugged her, feeling relief at the grip Suki was pulling on him.

"Is this…all over?" Zuko asked, hope in his voice.

"No. It will never be" His uncle answered, Suki pulled away from Sokka. His blue eyes worried for a second before seeing her puke dark liquid all over the floor. Her coughs and wails were heart wrenching to everybody.

"What? So my healing abilities…" Katara said before being interrupted by Iroh again.

"This is not a physical thing, miss Katara. Mental health is something often understudied and, by the looks of todays events, can happen to anyone at any moment. You lost yourself for a moment while you…did that atrocious thing to Suki" He said looking at her with compassion.

Katara grabbed her hand and cried silently, regretting her anger build up and lose her way again. Aang came from the back and hugged her, kissing her cheek to cheer her up.

"Don't….I traumatized her. She fears me." Katara whispered while hearing Suki puke her bowls out.

Aang sighed "We will all recover from this. Time heals, as long as we support and forgive each other" he lectured her. She looked towards her brother and friend. The image she sees is heart touching.

Sokka is pulling the hair out of Suki's face, telling bad jokes about meat and the snow. Suki stops puking at times to look at him and try to smile.

Zuko, on the back with Toph and Ty Lee, breathed more calmly, the rush of adrenaline going down. Zuko felt heartbroken at how everything developed again from this reunion to help his friend after an indirect suicide attempt, now, he saw his love almost die too without having the power to stop it.

It almost reminded him of how useless he was in helping Azula overcome it, now, a part of him always wonder if talking more towards her and obsessing less about his father would have stopped the madness in which she now was in.

Suki finally stopped puking, part of her robes and face black of the liquid she just puked out. The smell was almost as if acid was in the room and the dehydration was severe in her body, making her feel light on her head.

"You want some water?" Sokka asked while putting some hair behind her ear. She focused on the sincerity of his words and the love his eyes was showing her and felt the need to cry.

So she started to sob, guilty of running towards his friend and dragging him to her problems with Sokka. Ashamed of fighting with Katara. And mostly, scared of losing somebody as important to her for her fault.

It wouldn't happen again, after how her dad died.

"Suki? It's okay, Come here" Sokka said pulling her in a hug. The scent of him filled her nostrils, "Sokka is alive. Sokka is fine. Why am I not fine?" she thought, another sob escaping her.

The eighteen year old girl broke and fell to the 5 year old scared on the bloodied floor. A big sob escaped her mouth and finally broke down crying in his arms. Ty Lee came to her and hugged her too, ignoring the elephant in the room. Toph and Zuko followed, hugging the trio on the floor.

"N…n..no…" She said between gasps "Blood…."

"Shut it. We have hug in way worse conditions" Toph interrupted her while squeezing harder, making Zuko chuckle.

"We are all here for you, both of you" Aang said approaching them with Katara, who looked at them with tears and regret.

"Can I join in?" Katara asked, her voice thin and fragile of the sadness. Sokka looked at Suki for approval. Suki was scared of her, as her heartbeat sped up at the moment Katara got close to them. She gulped and nodded, unsure of how she would react to the touch.

Katara kneeled and hugged her directly, making her way between Sokka's and Ty Lee arms. Suki tensed, her memory relieving how powerless she felt when Katara waterbendend her.

"I could never hate you Suki, you are like a sister to me" Katara choked, crying with her. Suki gave in of the sincerity in her and cried, making it a first for everybody, except Zuko, of how soft her voice sounded while crying. The rest of the group hugged them tighter, showing the support.

"Can I have water?" Suki asked katara with a smile, making her immediately unclap her pouch and put it in her face, happy tears because Suki seemed to start pulling herself up again.

The girls reunited again, putting aside their bad feelings. Iroh looked happy, after all, his plan had worked. Group chat seemed to work in the treatment for patients with the "darkening", oddly, the ones who displayed it had similar issues.

"So this went Sokka, Suki, now, are we back at Sokka again or how we will handle him again if he tries to run away?" Toph asked, receiving a punch in her arm by Sokka.

"I think I feel better, talking it is, indeed the way" he said while pulling Suki closer to him. "I might need some work on my attachment issues, but nothing you I can't pull off"

"Nothing we can't pull off" Suki interrupted, prompting a laugh from everybody,

Tomorrow was ambiguous, but today, the night seemed to be good for everybody. They retired to each of their rooms, with the exception of Sokka, who was walking to Suki's room, escorting her.

Reaching it, they sheepishly smiled to each other, a moment of silence between the silent stares they shared. She turned around to open the door and get in.

"Good night" Sokka said seeing her close the door. She was happy to feel…weightless, recovered, and seeing Sokka like that increased it. He turned around to walk back to his room but stopped as he heard Suki open the door again. He looked at her puzzled.

"Are you going to stay the night in your own room?" She asked, putting her weight in the side of the door.

"Well, yeah, kinda the idea" He said nervously, putting his hand in the back of his neck.

"Can you stay with me today?" She flirted with a grin in her mouth.

He couldn't say no to her.

He obliged.