Chapter 3: Interrogated by the Water Tribe
AN: Look at that! A somewhat consistent upload! I'm hoping to get better at writing with this story, but still don't think the writing is too good. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this third installment :)
Chapter Reviews:
Chapter 1 Reviews:
aliyaallen3635- I'm so happy to hear that you are enjoying this story! The Kataang arc with this story is going to be extremely unique and have it's ups and downs, but I think it will be a great adventure :)
HiddenTreasure13- Yes! I think the mature themes will be fun to add a little bit of "twist" to the show. Something that a kids show can't really touch on! Thanks for reading and reviewing :)
michaela.s14- Glad to hear that you're curious about this! Thanks for reading and reviewing :)
wormylol2- Thank you for the encouragement! Glad you find this concept cool! Thanks for reading and reviewing :)
JDisk98- My man! Thanks for the review! Definitely was a heartwrenching beginning, but Aang's backstory is very much that way! Thanks for the review and reading :)
Chapter 2 Responses:
aliyaallen3635- Thank you for such a kind response. It was extremely heartwarming and touching, and made me feel so good when you said you enjoyed my writing. As for the story, there's lots of adventures ahead for those two! I'm trying to write Sokka in a similar style to the show but add my own small twist on the character in this version, hope you enjoy it!
The walk from the igloo that he was staying in to the large community hall was by far the most uncomfortable walk that Aang had ever been a part of. There was an uneasy tension shared between Katara and the warrior. Katara was also confusing Aang. Moments before, she was staring into her eyes, telling him that she would be there for him, and he believed her. For the first time since he had arrived here at the South Pole, she gave him a glimmer of hope. Now, she wouldn't even meet his eyes. She grabbed her left arm sheepishly as she trotted towards the community hall, her head down and eyes glued to the ground.
The warrior was even more strange to Aang. He had forgotten his name, though Katara had just shouted it moments before. He stood between the two, shifting glares to the both of them from time to time while triumphantly marching ahead. The warrior was clearly upset with him, and Aang couldn't figure out why. Not that he really cared though. Aang had never felt this depressed before in his life. They could be marching him to his death sentence for all he knew and he didn't have one ounce of care to deal with the current situation.
Finally, the group arrived at the entrance of the community hall. The warrior and Katara both stopped in front of each other, sharing a silent glance, before the warrior gave Katara a nod and she reluctantly headed inside. As soon as Katara was out of their sight, the warrior pounced on Aang, grabbing him by his collar and shoving him against the wall. The young airbender had his eyes wide open, still in shock from the warrior's actions, before he tried to wriggle himself out of the warrior's grasp.
"Hey, what's your problem?" Aang exclaimed, his voice growing heated. The airbender was exhausted by the day's events. He just wanted to be left alone.
The warrior only glared at him, snarling at Aang before getting right in his face. "Keep your eyes off of her, I don't want any funny business going on between you two."
Aang almost let out a half smile as realization finally dawned on him. This dude clearly must have been Katara's boyfriend, and a very jealous one at that. "Don't worry, I have no intentions on making a move on your girlfriend," Aang let out flatly, rolling his eyes. He couldn't believe how trivial this entire conversation was.
What Aang wasn't prepared for was the warrior's face turning green as he looked utterly repulsed. "GIRLFRIEND?" The warrior yelled out, letting go of Aang and keeling over pretending to puke. "She's not my GIRLFRIEND. That's my sister!"
For the first time since the Great Comet, Aang had to stifle his mouth as he let out the smallest giggle. This one singular moment allowed him to forget about everything, as this warrior was making an absolute fool out of himself. Just as quickly as his laugh came though, it was gone, and Aang put on a serious face. "Oh, my apologies. You were just really defensive over her, that's all." The airbender let out while rubbing the back of his neck. "You have my promise though," Aang continued. "I have no intentions with your sister, uh, . . ."
The warrior looked seriously unimpressed, letting out a sigh as he crossed his arms and stared flatly at the airbender. "Sokka." The warrior let out with an annoyed tone. "My name's Sokka."
"Oh . . . yeah, right." Aang shyly squeaked out in response. The conversation was starting to grow extremely awkward as the two boys stared at each other, waiting for the other one to speak. "I'm supposed to be speaking to your father, right?" Aang tried to remind the boy, wanting desperately to get out of this conversation.
Sokka narrowed his eyes at the young airbender, looking him up and down a couple times before finally releasing his stare. "Yes, yes." He sighed, before pointing his arms to the door, motioning for Aang to enter. As the young airbender moved through the doorway, he was met with a giant room, and he instantly became overwhelmed.
A giant table sat in the middle of the room, housing at least 12 chairs around it. Men of the Southern Water Tribe all adorned their traditional gear as they sat around the table, and as soon as he entered, eyes immediately found their way to him. Aang felt nervous under their gaze. He didn't know why he was being studied, but he felt highly uncomfortable. Aang nervously scanned around the room, trying to find a familiar face, when he found Katara, sitting in the back corner of the room in a chair by herself. Sokka went and took one of the last empty chairs at the table, and Aang realized that it was only men sitting there, with Katara being the lone girl sitting by her lonesome.
From the head of the table, a deep and warm beckoned him. "You must be Aang," the voice boomed out. Aang followed the noise of the voice to the person speaking, and immediately found that this person had some sort of authority. The headwear that he wore was a lot more elegant than the others, and Aang was able to deduce that this was the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. This must be Katara and Sokka's father.
Not knowing what to do, Aang decided to just be as respectful as possible, just as Gyatso had taught him when he took him to diplomatic meetings around the world. Practicing the Air Nomad bow, he quickly bowed to the table. "Yes, I am Aang. It's a pleasure to meet all of you." The young airbender nervously let out.
The Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe pointed to a seat that was next to Aang, facing the rest of the table. "Please, have a seat Aang. We look forward to hearing all about you." As the airbender took his seat, the Chieftain continued to talk. "My name is Hakoda, and I am the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe. I take it that you have already had the opportunity to meet my son and daughter, Sokka and Katara."
Aang simply nodded. "Yes sir, it was a pleasure to meet both of them." A small moment of silence followed, so he felt the need to fill it. "Katara especially did a great job taking care of me, I never had the chance to thank her." He looked up solemnly to the corner of the room where Katara was sitting. She had her head down and eyes toward the floor this entire time, but he swore that he could have seen her let out a small gasp and a small smile after his statement.
Chief Hakoda smiled as his face beamed with pride. "Yes, my daughter is one of our Tribe's pride and joy. She is the best waterbender that both the North or South Tribe has ever seen, and she has become quite the healer." Aang quickly noticed that while the Chieftain's face was full of pride, that there was a lot of animosity and hidden looks of disgust showing from the other male members at the table.
"Anyways, Aang." Hakoda began to continue. "The reason why we have called you here is that we are quite concerned about you." Aang furrowed his brow as he instantly wondered what the Chieftain could be talking about. "You made quite the entrance into our Tribe only a couple of nights ago, and then my daughter reported to me that you are still going on and on about the claims you made that night."
Aang once again sneaked a look back to Katara in the corner, who was now looking back down again to the floor in shame. A sense of betrayal immediately struck Aang in the heart. He was vulnerable with her! He told her all about what happened to his people and she immediately turned around and told it to everyone else? His face immediately flushed red as he looked back down to the ground again. He felt like he was going to cry again. Aang knew what they were about to ask him about, and he wasn't ready. Turning around, he saw that no one was guarding the door, he could turn around and make a bolt for-
"Aang, are you okay?" Came Hakoda's voice, suddenly bringing him back to attention.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I guess so." Aang nervously scratched the back of his neck as he tried to think of a way he could evade this situation.
The Chieftain looked at him with concern, and it was clear that he thought that the young airbender was crazy. "I'm sorry to be blunt here, but we have questions for you Aang. When you arrived at our village, you made claims that they were all dead. Who is "they" Aang?"
The young avatar instantly became sheepish, pain filling his eyes as the events of the Great Comet immediately filled his memory. Images of Monk Pasang, Monk Tashi and Gyatso began to fill his mind. The fire dancing across his eyes, the screams of injured monks, the smell of burning flesh. Looking up, he stared at the rest of the group and felt every single eye in the room on him. The enormous pressure was too much to handle for him. "My people." Aang finally responded in the smallest whisper.
One of the men sitting on Aang's rights then slammed his fist on the table, annoyance and irritation etched across his face. "What, I can't even hear the boy!" The man grouched, as he then turned towards Hakoda. "Chieftain, I told you that this boy is wasting our time, we need to-"
The older man was cut off by the Chieftain placing his hand up in the air. "Silence, Ronar. The boy is telling us what happened. We need to give him his respect. Now, Aang. Who are these people that you are talking about?"
Aang once again made a side eye towards the door, everything within him wanted to get up and run. He knew that he could outrun everyone here, but his problem was that he didn't know where to go. It was funny, an Air Nomad who was supposed to travel the world when he grew up was desperately aching for home. Trying to ground himself, he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. "The Air Nomads from the Southern Air Temple. The monks." He managed to state out with more confidence, only looking at the Chieftain.
"When you say that your people are gone, Aang. What do you mean?" The Chieftain pointedly replied, clearly trying to get to the bottom of this story.
It took every ounce of strength that he had to admit the truth, but Aang mustered up the courage. "They were murdered, sir." The young airbender whispered.
The old man that Hakoda had identified as Ronar earlier threw his hands up in the air. "See, I told you that this boy was crazy, who in the world would try to attack the Air Nomads? Not to mention, he's acting like the entire population of the Temple was wiped out!" The old man's voice was filled with doubt and contempt, and Aang instantly felt the anger boiling within him.
"How DARE you claim that what I am saying is all a made up story." The young airbender stood up, and yelled at Ronar. Aang moved from his chair and immediately got in the old man's face, who's composure was still very much intact.
Ronar only could sneer back as he laughed in the young airbender's face. "Tell me, boy. If what you're saying is true. Then who did it? Airbenders are the strongest benders in the world, if someone truly attacked them they wouldn't have a chance."
Aang crossed his arms as he tried to defend himself. "The Fire Nation did it! They attacked us on the Great Comet and they killed everyone!" His voice rose as he finished his sentence, the anger and pain very much evident in his voice.
What the young airbender didn't expect was for another person to snort behind him. "Hah, the Fire Nation? We had all just met with the Fire Lord Sozin not so long ago, there is no way that he would ever start a war at his old age!" Aang turned around to see another old man looking almost amused as he stared at the Avatar with a glint of humor in his eyes.
Ronar immediately jumped back into the conversation, eager to dogpile the insults on Aang. "See, I told you that the boy was full of nonsense. Probably the monks trying to send him over to pull one of their stupid pranks. All he wants is attention."
Now, Aang was fuming. Not only was he being forced to relive the atrocities that happened to him and his Nation, but no one believed him. To make matters worse, they were now throwing jabs at his people. "Don't you ever talk about my people like that again." Aang growled at Ronar, his eyes filled with hatred.
"ENOUGH OUT OF ALL OF YOU," came the deep booming voice of Chief Hakoda. All three of them who were arguing immediately turned their heads towards the Chief, instantly becoming silent. "Aang, sit down, I have more questions for you." Hakoda instructed, this time with much less warmth in his voice. The airbender reluctantly complied, slowly moving to his seat and dropping down into his chair. "Thank you." The Chief calmly continued. "Now, here's my question for you, Aang. Let's say that the rest of your story is true, the Fire Nation attacked the Southern Air Temple and killed everybody there, how did you make it out alive?"
Once again, the room fell silent as other men across the table silently nodded in agreement as they also were wondering that question. Aang could feel a small knot growing in his stomach as he thought about the reason he was alive. He couldn't let them know the truth. Aang wasn't even sure if he had fully accepted the truth yet. So, he thought of the best next thing that wasn't even a lie. "My mentor Gyatso sacrificed himself for me so I could escape." The young Avatar explained, choking on his last few words of the sentence.
"I see," Hakoda stated as he pondered the airbender's story. The room grew silent as no one said a word, everyone taking a moment to take in the story that Aang had shared. They believed that he was just a goofy kid trying to pull a prank on all of them. But, if what he was saying was true, then this would be devastating news. If Aang was correct, a war would be starting.
"I have one final question for you, Aang." Hadkoda pressed, as the two made eye contact again. Aang let out a sigh of relief, anxious to finally be done with all of these questions. "Tell me, why would your mentor sacrifice himself for you? Why would you be more important than any other child that was living at the Temple at this time?"
Aang could only stare at the table as he felt stuck. He could feel sweat forming on his palms as he pondered on how he should respond. He was backed into a corner now. What if he told them the truth? Maybe if he revealed that he was the Avatar, they would believe him. Then, they could help him. He didn't know how to continue. Aang didn't know where home was. Maybe his life could change for the better.
Reluctantly, he took a deep breath. Gathering all the strength and courage he could muster, he revealed his biggest secret to the room before him.
"Because I'm the Avatar."
There was a moment of silence in the room after Aang made his statement. Katara's eyes were currently wide open, her mouth agape. Aang, the boy that she had taken care of for the last two nights, the Avatar? He had to be joking, right? She thought he had potentially been making up his original story, but the more details he had shared, she started to actually believe him. The problem was, no one else in the room did.
Finally, the silence was broken by her father. He burst out into a deep belly laugh, and was quickly followed by the rest of the men in the room. Some of them slapped the table in front of them as they curled over and laughed at Aang. Katara's heart immediately fell for the young airbender. She watched as the airbender's face turned red, and then he wordlessly stood out of his chair and turned towards the door, exiting as fast as he possibly could.
Katara immediately leapt out of her seat to follow him, she knew it was against Water Tribe customs to leave before the Chieftain dismissed the meeting, but she didn't care. All she cared about was Aang right now. As she made her way to the door, she heard her father shout behind her, "Katara, wait!" The waterbender hesitated for the briefest of seconds, before pressing on ahead and outside of the community hall.
As she stepped outside, she desperately looked around for Aang. She looked in every direction, and she wasn't able to locate him. Finally, she turned around and saw that he was trying to climb up a glacier behind them. Though he was far away, she was determined to get to him. "Aang, wait!" She shouted after him as she started sprinting towards the airbender. Aang seemed to ignore her though, as he continued to struggle to climb up the glacier, the injuries that he had sustained clearly holding him back.
Finally, she caught up to him, and she tugged at his robes to try to bring him back down to her. At last, she pulled Aang down with all of her strength, tugging him down with her to the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief, Katara thought she would be able to calm him down with a hug. Moving to wrap her arms around the airbender, Katara was shocked when Aang pushed her away.
Aang looked at her with swollen red eyes, anger and pain strewn across his face. "What is wrong with you?" The airbender exclaimed out of frustration?
"Me, what are you talking about?" Katara immediately shot back, crossing her arms in defense. "I didn't do anything!"
"I trusted you! I shared that with you in confidence thinking that you would keep it to yourself, but no! The entire Tribe has to know! Now they think that I'm some lunatic! They think that I'm LYING about my people being MURDERED!" Aang yelled the last part of his sentence. The airbender had lost his temper at trivial things, but he had never been this mad at another person before.
The waterbender took a step back, her face falling as she watched Aang trying to hold himself together. A deep well of sympathy drew from within her, and she gently whispered out into the open air. "I believe you, Aang. I'm sorry about the others inside."
Aang looked up at her, and for a brief moment, the hurt and the anger disappeared. For that small moment, Katara felt that she had gained the airbender's trust again. To her dismay, Aang then shook his head, sniffling out loud. "Why did you tell them, Katara? I felt like I finally had a friend and they went and betrayed me."
Katara firmly stepped forward, grabbing Aang on the wrist, and sitting him down. "Aang, I had to. Like I said, I believe you. What happened to you and the rest of the Southern Air Temple is a tragedy and I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am. But my Dad is right. This just isn't some attack, if the entire Southern Air Temple has been decimated, this is a start of a war. There are serious implications for the world at stake here. I had to tell someone."
The airbender looked back up at her, red puffy eyes sticking out like a sore thumb. "I'm sorry." He finally whispered. "I'm sorry for getting upset with you, I just don't know what to do right now. I don't know who to turn to, I don't know who to trust-"
"Aang," Katara stated soothingly. For some reason, the airbender really seemed to calm when he heard his name from her voice. "I told you before, I'm here for you. That promise isn't changing because you're the Avatar. Nor is it changing because the rest of the men are dimwits and don't know how to run anything."
The Avatar looked up at her with wide eyes, a look of bewilderment twinkling in them. "You believe me when I say I'm the Avatar?"
The waterbender was never given the chance to respond to him. "THERE THEY ARE!" A familiar voice shouted in the distance, and Katara looked over to see her father, her brother, and Ronar heading towards them. Katara silently cursed under her breath, protectively standing in front of the airbender as the group of Tribesmen approached.
As they arrived, her father stood out to meet her. "Katara, you need to let him go. We as a Tribe have voted and Aang needs to leave and go back to his home. He can't be trusted with the pranks that he's trying to pull."
She had somehow during the entire meeting managed to keep her mouth shut when the rest of the pigs were being idiots, but her own father? Katara freely let her temper boil over as she let her father have it. "Are you kidding me, Dad? Are any of you numbskulls smart enough to realize that he may be telling the truth? No! You all are too selfish and only care about yourselves! Because Aang's a kid you think he's pulling a prank on you! Have you ever considered what would happen to the Tribe if Aang IS telling the truth? I'm sure you haven't! Because what if we're next on the Fire Nation's list? Are we going to be the next group of people who die?"
Her father looked at her sternly, opening and shutting his mouth multiple times before letting out a sigh. "Katara, you have to let the boy go. We can't have him causing panic across the tribe. He needs to go home. Aang has no proof, so we have no reason to believe him."
Katara was about to argue right back with her father, but Aang beat her to it. "Fine, you want proof! I'll show you proof. Come visit the Southern Air Temple with me. If you have to see the damage and bodies for yourself, be my guest."
The Chieftain just laughed in return, shaking his head. "Son, you need to head home. Tell your fellow Monks that it was a good prank, but seriously, it's getting old. No one believes you. It's time to go."
"I BELIEVE HIM!" Suddenly, all eyes landed on Katara, and she wanted to cower under the attention, but she knew that she needed to be strong. She triumphantly stepped forward. "I believe him," Katara repeated. Then, turning to the young airbender, she placed her hand on his arm and spoke softly. "If you absolutely need to go back, I'll go with you, I won't let you face that pain alone."
"No way!" Sokka immediately cut in to interrupt her. "There is not a CHANCE that I am allowing Katara to head off with that freak by herself."
"Well, I'm going no matter what you say Sokka, so you better deal with it!" Katara shot right back to her brother.
"CHILDREN!" Hakoda bellowed, silencing the two bickering siblings. Letting out a long sigh, he turned to Ronar. "My daughter is way too stubborn that she won't let this go. If taking a quick trip to the Southern Air Temple will silence her, then I'll get this over with."
"Chief, you can't possibly be serious!" Ronar rebutted. "There is no way you are going to let children convince you of their silly stories!" When Hakoda responded with a shrug, he angrily stomped on the ground. "Fine. Then count me in too. When I get there I am going to have a word with this young man's mentor. These pranks are getting out of hand!"
Aang still was staring with a little bit of awe at Katara, amazed by the power of persuasion that she had just mustered in order to get someone to trust them. Finally, he looked at the Chief. "It's settled then, we will head off the first thing tomorrow morning. For now, it's time to get some rest."
As the young airbender headed back to the igloo that he was staying in, everything started to dawn on him on what he just got himself into. He couldn't even think about what had happened to his people without getting sick. Now, he was going back in person? What did he just get himself into?