Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: A spirit is an inhabitant of the Spirit World, something supernatural. It can be associated with a specific place in the regular world.

TORONTOSUN: Thanks!

Zigzagdoublezee: Mostly I would agree, there's certainly nothing majestic about his personality or achievements. But I can appreciate a good sideburn.

As Always, Please Review!

When Yue came to, she was kneeling on the ground. Sokka was kneeling in front of her with his arms around her, and he was whispering something in her ear. The wind was howling, but even as her consciousness returned it died away, replaced by sudden stillness and silence.

She was greeted by a sight of devastation. The villagers had disappeared; so had the Fire Nation. Only Rinzen and Katara looked at her, surrounded by smashed carts and stranded riverboats. The Fire Nation ships had been plucked out of the water en masse; one had been stuck at the top of a tree, which creaked under the weight, several were embedded bow- first into the ground and one had been pushed clean through the middle of another, fusing them together into an X-shape which was also embedded into the soil. They all smouldered gently.

"Tui and La..." Yue said weakly. "What happened?"

It was then she realised that her carefully prepared hairstyle had come undone and now her white hair flowed loosely and messily around her, curling over her shoulders and around her upper body down to just above her waist.

"You happened," Sokka told her. "It was... it was-"

"A force of nature," Katara supplied. "You were glowing."

"Glowing?" Yue looked up at her. "What does that mean?"

"Glowing," Katara repeated. "You lit up. Your eyes and hair, that is."

Yue sat back as she tried to absorb that information. She couldn't really picture herself glowing, not literally.

"What happened to the villagers?"

"They ran," Sokka told her. "Over that."

He pointed over her shoulder towards the river, and she turned to find an entirely new bridge made out of rock- and a Fire Nation Riverboat embedded within- spanning the water.

She pointed.

"Did I do that?"

The others nodded. Yue's head suddenly hurt. What had happened? And why couldn't she remember? Was this some special Avatar power? She suddenly remembered the rage she had felt just as she had slipped, and all she had done before that moment, and put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry," she admitted.

"For what?" Katara asked, sounding confused. "You saved us!"

"No," Yue shook her head. "It saved us. I nearly got us all captured."

"It's not your fault," Sokka consoled her. "They were going to take everyone prisoner anyway. You just let everyone escape them."

A more troubling thought occurred to Yue then.

"Zhao knows I'm the Avatar now!" She exclaimed. "He must do after that."

"The Fire Nation knew you were the Avatar anyway," Rinzen pointed out.

"There are probably messages going south right now telling all of them that." Sokka agreed. "Zhao knows nothing he wouldn't have known soon anyway."

But this did not placate Yue, who struggled to her feet, swaying for a moment before taking a step towards the edge of the water.

Sokka rushed to help keep her upright, but Yue waved him off. She had just smote an entire battle squadron of Fire Nation riverboats, she could manage standing up under her own steam.

She stared down at the rushing water as it lapped gently at her shoes. Her own face, framed with her loose hair, stared back, a certain wild quality to it. She had never seen herself looking so unkempt.

Katara had said that she had been glowing- her eyes and hair had lit up. She stared down and tried to imagine it, see her own mouth twisting in untameable rage, her body no longer hers, taken over by a wrathful power and used to inflict crushing, indiscriminate violence upon anyone unfortunate enough to get in its way-

She had to turn away, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Sokka asked. He had been standing not far behind her, watching her worriedly.

Yue looked back at him and was at a loss for what to say.

"Did I... did I hurt anyone?" She asked, uncertainly.

Sokka looked at the others.

"I don't think so," he said. "You did dump a lot of soldiers in the river."

"What about the villagers?"

"They seemed frightened, but no more."

Yue slumped, guilt eating at her.

"I only wanted to help them..."

"You did!" Sokka gestured again to the bridge. "Don't beat yourself up about it!"

"I could have hurt people!"

"But you didn't."

"I scared them!"

"And gave them a way out. This wasn't a disaster!" Sokka tentatively took her hand and held it. "You did well!"

Yue didn't remove the hand, but she knew the praise was unearned. She knew she had botched the situation, and the only reason they were having this conversation here, instead of in chains in the hold of a riverboat being taken into the clutches of the Firelord was a factor she hadn't even known existed. She didn't know if she could control that power, and she wasn't sure whether she even wanted to try. Which meant one thing; she needed to start her waterbending training soon.

At that moment, there was a crash as the riverboat finally fell out of the tree. Yue and Sokka both jumped and turned to look at it.

"I think the crew all jumped into the water..." Sokka said uncertainly, to preempt Yue's question.

She didn't even acknowledge it. All of a sudden, all she wanted to do was leave this place.

She went past him and began walking back towards the others. Gembul was behind them, munching on some grass and looking entirely unaffected by the scenes of devastation surrounding him. Yue envied the bison in that moment.

"Can we just go?" She asked. "I need to get out of here."

"Absolutely!" Rinzen was acting immediately, ushering her up into the saddle and preparing Gembul to fly. As he did so, he lingered for a moment, giving her a reassuring smile as if to say he knew what she was going through. Then he was off again, making sure all the bags were still strapped to the saddle. Soon, Sokka had joined them, and finally Rinzen vaulted onto Gembul's neck. He grabbed the reins.

"South Pole still?" He called back. Yue did not answer. She was too absorbed in thoughts of water bending training. She would have to get Katara to teach her what she knew as soon as they landed, but they couldn't do it here.

Rinzen took her silence as acceptance.

"Alright!" He turned to look where they were going.

"You heard her, Gembul! Yip Yip!"