Chapter Text
Katara simply smirked. Her suspicion was confirmed. “Well, it seems like destiny really works in funny ways. Bringing me back to the place I was born in.” She laughed.
Zuko turned to her with his good eye widened, mouthing ‘No way...’
Once she stopped laughing, the girl took her time to recover her breath. “That’s why this all looked so familiar.” She turned to glare at the old woman. “You must be the one I called Gran Gran.” What a stupid name, she thought. She then turned to the boy on the ground. “And what was your name? My brother... ‘Sakko’ was it? Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“Katara, my granddaughter, you’re back...” Gran Gran had gotten closer, and was going to softly grab one of Katara’s shoulders before the princess turned around, glaring.
“Stop, you old hag.” She scanned her up and down. “Who do you think you are to address a princess of the Fire Nation like a common peasant?!”
Sokka's eyes widened even more. Princess of the Fire Nation? His head started to spin.
Katara raised her hand to forcefully grab Gran Gran’s parka, but the other girl smacked her wrist with the blunt of her machete, getting in between them. “Don’t touch her.” The girl’s voice sounded as sharp as her weapon.
Katara grunted, rubbing her wrist. Zuko was about to intervene, but she stopped him. “This one is mine.” She whispered loudly to her brother. “So, who are you, then?” She narrowed her eyes. “I can’t seem to remember you. But, by the looks of things, you must be very close to these two.” She grabbed the girl’s chin. “You must be someone who Hakoda,” she said, practically spitting poison with his name, “...picked up as my replacement.”
Atka had narrowed her eyes too, examining the other girl’s features. She definitely looked similar to Sokka and Hakoda, but the parallels stopped there. She stood tall, perfectly still, her head held high, and her stare firm. There was no trace of what she remembered of the little girl she knew. She looked down at Sokka, who was still on the ground, trying to process what was happening. After a few seconds, she sighed, relaxing her posture. “I’m Atka, daughter of Bato.”
Katara looked away, grabbing her chin. “Mmmm... Atka...? Bato...?” She whispered, then shrugged. “Doesn’t ring a bell.” She then turned to her brother, who seemed to be trying to process everything too, missing his chance to get the Avatar, who was in the same state.
She chuckled. What a disappointment. Well, it seems like I’m going to have to do all the heavy work. She thought. “Here’s the deal, Avatar, come with us, or...” She unsheathed her katana, pressing it against Atka’s neck in the blink of an eye, the girl dropping her machete instinctively.
This seemed to get the boy’s attention. His eyes widened at the sight while holding his hands high. “You wouldn’t hurt them, right?” He asked with such innocence that it made her sick. “They... they are your family.”
She laughed like the thought was genuinely funny. “Oh, Avatar...” Her amused eyes narrowed to glared at him, katana pressing further into the paralyzed girl’s neck, a tiny trace of blood now exposed to the arctic cold. “They mean nothing to me.”
“No! I’m coming with you. Just leave them alone.” He dropped his staff in a rush, and his hands were restrained immediately by two faceless firebenders who took him to the ship, the staff being collected by a soldier with a mustache. He looked back towards the village and its people, his eyes meeting Atka’s, who looked terrified. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” He said, which won him an elbow to his ribs, before disappearing into the ship.
Katara smirked, seemingly satisfied. She lowered her sword, starting to walk back to the ship. “Come on, Zuko. Our job here is done.” She said without batting an eye at her brother as she went past him.
Zuko took a few seconds to react. First, he looked at the villagers, but especially at the girl, who was rubbing her neck, which soaked some of her glove in red. Would she have gone through with that threat? He thought while getting back to the ship, his thoughts lingering there, trying to avoid thinking too much about that Sakko boy, Katara’s biological brother.
Katara stopped and turned her head enough to glare at him. “Zuko.” She said authoritatively.
He shook his head and walked back over to her, a fake cough included. “Yes. Yes...” Katara resumed her way, with him following, though not without taking a quick last look at the village.
As soon as the ship had moved away from Wolf Cove, and the soldiers and Avatar were out of earshot, Zuko grabbed Katara’s arm and pulled her to the side. “What the–?”
“I thought we agreed that I was the one to capture the Avatar.” Zuko grumbled.
Katara shrugged at his concern as if a mild annoyance. “What did you want me to do? You seemed to freeze on the spot. So, I just...” She circled her hands around each other. “Accelerated the capturing part.” She smiled, trying to look innocent.
Zuko struggled to say anything, so Katara continued. “Oh, don’t worry. It’s still your achievement. You spotted this big spirit light, and said ‘sure, that’s the Avatar.’” She started to move towards the stairs. “And it’s not like father needs to know that you froze on the spot. Right?”
Zuko looked down and clenched his fists. Obviously his moment to shine was stolen by his sister, and all because they ended up in the village she was... “Wait!” He said just in time, as Katara was reaching the stairs. She stopped. “How are you feeling?” She paused with calculation, feeling so immensely befuddled by his question as if he were speaking a foreign language. “Why does it matter?” She said without a hint of emotion.
He decided to take a few steps closer. “Because that was your real fami–”
She frowned. “Those savages are not my family.” She took a breath, her lips quirked up, then turned around to gently stroke his arm. “You are. I don’t have any ties to those people.” She turned back, touching one of her hair loopies.
“I never did.”
Zuko closed his eyes and nodded.
She sighed to break the tension that had been formed. “Alright. Let’s formally meet our– your prisoner.”
It was warm inside the igloo. Atka hoped it would help a trembling Sokka calm down.
She got to her bed and started packing. “What are you doing?” Sokka asked, looking at the fireplace.
“Isn’t it obvious? We need to go help Aang. So, come on and help me out here once you’re back in our world.” She said bluntly.
Sokka raised an eyebrow. “And how do you expect us to do that? It’s not like we can catch a warship with a simple canoe.”
Atka smiled. “I thought of that already. Since they didn’t take Appa, we can use him to catch up with them.” She said with a lot of pride from coming up with that idea.
The boy’s eyebrow was kept up. “Uh-huh...” He turned back to the fireplace, his hands facing it. “Our duty is with our village. I don’t know about you, but I can’t just–”
“For so long, I had lost hope.” Kanna suddenly said while entering, interrupting her grandson's rant. “But Aang is the Avatar, he is the world’s only chance. And you both found him for a reason. Your destinies are now intertwined, his, yours, and Katara’s.”
Sokka and Atka looked at the old woman, not quite sure how to feel about her words.
“Long ago, the Fire Nation took her and Kya away from us. But, today, there’s finally a shimmer of hope in the sky.” She got up and prepared some supplies for them.
“You both have a long trip ahead of you,” she gave them a pair of bags, “my little warriors.”
Atka smiled. Sokka looked away, hand on his arms. Kanna meanwhile got something from a shelf near Atka’s bed. “Before your father left, he gave you this.” She placed her hand on Sokka’s, leaving a blue necklace. “And you made a promise.”
He looked at the necklace for a few seconds, at the deep blue ribbon holding a carved cerulean stone. “That I would give this back to Katara one day, just as mom intended.” He whispered.
Gran Gran smiled. “We can take care of ourselves here, my dear. A far greater journey awaits you both.” Atka got an arm around Sokka’s shoulders. “Go save Aang and Katara.”
Both teenagers nodded. Atka seemed more than a little excited to travel the world, Sokka determined to fulfill his promise.
“What’s your name, young Avatar?” Iroh asked in front of Aang, who was still being restrained by two faceless soldiers on the deck of the ship.
“Aang.” He said, looking around. “What’s yours?”
Iroh smiled to lighten the mood. “Oh, of course. My name is Iroh, son of Fire Lord Azulon.” He dipped his head.
The boy raised an eyebrow. “You seem so relaxed compared to your children.”
He chuckled. “Oh, they are not my children, they are Fire Lord Ozai’s, my brother. Even if I love them like they were mine.”
“Oh, wow...” He looked down. This whole family stuff just kept getting bigger. “Can I ask about Katara?”
Iroh stroked his beard with a curious look. He opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the princess and prince stepping closer.
“I don’t think that fraternizing with the enemy is wise, uncle.” Katara said, staying behind Zuko once again, who had also opened his mouth before being interrupted by his sister.
“Oh, niece. You would be surprised at what you can learn from those-” Katara glared at Iroh, and he shut his mouth while narrowing his eyes.
She turned once again to the Avatar. “You were asking about me?” Aang nodded. “So... you’re from the South Pole?”
She rolled her eyes with a grunt. “I’m from the Fire Nation. And for your own sake, I suggest you stop asking stupid questions.” She stood straight for a moment.
The girl then coughed with a glare at Zuko, signaling him to say something.
He scrambled to add something before grabbing the staff from one of the guards, clearing his throat. “This will be an excellent gift for my father. I guess you wouldn't know about fathers. Being raised by monks.” He said, shoving the staff back to the same guard. “Take this to my quarters and take the Avatar to the prison hold.” Just as the three royals were walking off Aang thought of one last thing.
“I know enough to understand that separating a kid from her family is wrong!” Aang shouted as he was being lowered down the stairs.
Katara stopped, turning to watch him disappear from her view before grunting and continuing on. That kid wasn't worth her effort.
Zuko gave Iroh a glance, and the General nodded, before making his way out.
“And again.” Zuko sighed.
She shrugged without looking at him. “He asked about me. He had already moved the spotlight, Zuko.” She smirked.
He grunted. “Just like home.” He faked a smile.
“Just like home.” She whispered with a smile of her own before entering her quarters.
“The Avatar has escaped!” The siblings both turned to each other, and then to the staff. The kid would probably come for it. They nodded at each other.
“Good luck, my children.” Kanna said from below, as Sokka got comfortable on Appa’s saddle, Atka taking the reins.
“Thank you, Gran Gran.” Sokka responded, turning to his companion. “So, do you even know how to make this thing fly?”
Appa growled.
“Sorry, Appa.” He rolled his eyes.
Atka stroked his fur. “I in fact do, yes.” She cleared her throat, looking straight ahead with a smirk. “Appa, tap-tap!”
...
Nothing happened, except for Sokka laughing. “Uh-huh. Sure you know.”
Atka scratched her chin for a few seconds before remembering. Her determined look coming back. “Appa... Yip-yip?”
The bison growled with effort as he lifted his tail and himself off the ground.
“Goodbye, Gran Gran!” Atka waved, steering the beast in the direction the ships had gone. “Now, let’s go save that kid.”
Aang slowly stepped back as he realized that his staff was in the room he had just passed. “Yes!” He ran towards the item, grabbing it before hearing the door slamming behind him.
“We really underestimated you, Avatar.” Zuko said coldly. He punched a burst of fire towards the kid, which was swiftly avoided. Zuko kept sending bursts of fire against him, but the Avatar kept making him spin around.
With this barrage turning up the pressure, Aang started air scooting around the room. Zuko switched from bursts of fire to continuous flames that Aang barely got away from, until Zuko finally was finally able to disrupt his scooting with a low kick that sent the Avatar against the wall.
Zuko smiled, but Aang surprised him by getting him wrapped in a Fire Nation banner. The prince quickly burnt it away, but it wasn’t quick enough, as Aang was able to recover his staff in time, which he subsequently used to hit the teen against the wall, then the ceiling, both making horrid, metallic sounds, before making his dashing escape.
Zuko grunted as he saw him do so, eventually getting up and following him.
The ship’s bridge. Aang scanned the room, getting a clear way out. He ran past the confused helmsman, opened and launched his staff forward, then reached it with a mighty jump. The wind hitting his face felt so refreshing. He couldn’t wait to-
A nasty water tendril grabbed his ankle, tugging him down with full force.
Slammed against the hard steel of the deck, Aang groaned as the sound of his body being catapulted against metal continued to ring in his ears.
“Oh, did you really think it was going to be this easy?” Katara chuckled.
“Hey!” Zuko shouted from the bridge. Katara just raised an eyebrow at the prince. “I almost got him!”
“Uh-huh... If almost getting him meant letting him fly away, then sure.” She grunted. “Just get down here.”
Zuko rolled his eyes and ran back down to the bridge. The princess observed the airbender with a sharp gaze, Aang still recovering from the hit.
“You really are a pain in the butt, aren’t you?” Katara got her sword out, quickly launching forward, swinging her weapon in the nomad’s direction. He swiftly moved to the side, getting behind the princess. Or at least he tried. As he was so focused on the swipes of her katana, he didn’t realize when she grabbed his leg with a water tentacle and made him drop to the floor, again. “And very disappointing as a fighter.”
He rubbed his back. “And you are...” He spotted a familiar figure and giggled.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Oh, nothing, just...”
“AANG!” The voices of his friends accompanied by the roar of his animal companion were enough to distract Katara, allowing him to blow air at her legs with his staff as he got up, standing off to the side and close to the edge.
He suddenly stopped, turning on the spot and using his staff to block an incoming fire attack by Zuko. The air being pushed by it gave him enough time to defend himself.
Zuko kept throwing fire bursts in Aang’s direction, moving to the side, pushing the kid starboard, away from the approaching animal. Aang had no option to keep walking backwards, concentrating on keeping his staff spinning, Zuko not stopping with his attacks and Katara now attacking his bison with ice projectiles.
The air currents changed behind him, there was a wall. He should have changed direction, but he jumped up to the ship’s railing instead, managing the landing at first. Yet...
“Aang!” Sokka and Atka screamed.
Aang was barely able to process what had happened before hitting the water. The cold waves swallowed him quickly. He tried to swim back up for a few seconds, but soon his body gave up. Was he going to fail again? Was he going to disappear again? He gave hope to his new friends and took it away again...
‘NO’ A voice spoke inside him.
Katara turned around when she heard the splash, running to Zuko’s side. She smiled.
Zuko leaned on the railing as soon as the kid fell over. He tried to grab him, but it was too late. There it went, his only opportunity to get back his honor. He frowned with confusion.
Appa roared, having just dodged dangerous ice shards from Katara. Atka covered her mouth. Sokka looked away in shame.
...
“Sokka, look!” Sokka leaned over to see how the water was bubbling in the place where Aang had sunk, wondering what was happening, and immediately having his question answered, as a water spout carrying Aang erupted from the arctic ocean.
‘That’s some really good waterbending...’ Sokka thought.
Katara meanwhile froze on the spot. The height of the spout, the speed of the currents pushing upwards. She had only seen scrolls with the technique but had never been able to lift herself up. She was never able to maintain the currents for long. She narrowed her eyes in spite.
Were his eyes and tattoos glowi–?
She got slammed against the railing of the ship, Zuko getting thrown overboard.
The world was wobbly, and her field of vision blurry. Time looked like a drawing strip in those stupid Caldera’s informative pamphlets.
There were soldiers slowly getting to their feet.
The water tribe dorks were getting Aang up that beast.
And Zuko was nowhere to be seen. That idiot.
She shook her head. There was still a hint of a ringing in her ears, but at least her world wasn’t shaking anymore. She looked around. The deck was full of puddles of water. Good. She heard someone walking out, turning to spot Iroh still waking up from his nap. She rolled her eyes, catching Zuko finally getting back up to the ship.
“DON’T LET THEM ESCAPE!” She moved to form ice shards from the puddles on the ground, immediately accelerating them towards the beast flying away.
Iroh and Zuko meanwhile got in sync to generate a massive fire burst, which melted her ice shards. Rude. She’ll scold the boys later for this and... What was the kid doing?
The airbender used his staff to change the fireball’s trajectory, causing it to bang into the side of a massive glacier wall, getting a ton of snow to effectively bury Zuko’s ship, and causing Katara’s own vessel to ram Zuko’s, as there wasn’t enough time for it to stop.
“Good news for the Fire Lord. The greatest threat to the Fire Nation is just a little kid.” Iroh remarked as everyone got up after falling.
Zuko grunted. “That little kid, uncle, just did this!” He turned to his crew that was still recovering from the impact. “I won’t underestimate him again.”
“We won’t underestimate him again.” Katara stepped closer to the pile of snow blocking their path and started to dig it out with her waterbending. Layer by layer, grunting with each thrust of her arms, any elegance or technique usually associated with the art missing completely. She turned back to the rest of the crew on deck. “NOW, EVERYONE HELP OUT WITH THIS!”
The crew got to it immediately, some using firebending to melt the snow. The non-firebenders used their helmets or other tools.
“That includes you.” She glared at Zuko with her head only turned halfway towards him, the cold tone of her voice making him shiver and join the task immediately.
The wind hitting against his face felt nice, added to the comfortable fluffiness of Appa. For him it was only a day or so, for the world it had been a hundred years, apparently.
“That was so cool!” Atka exclaimed like at a sports game. “The water lifting you up, and how you fought off all of those jerks at once! How did you even do that?!”
“I don’t know. It just... happened.” He hugged his knees.
“Why didn’t you tell us you were the Avatar?” Sokka in a more mature tone.
“Because... I never wanted to be...” He gazed at the setting sun that was slightly ahead, coloring the surrounding clouds in a beautiful shimmer of yellowish orange.
Sokka had gotten close to Aang and put a hand on his shoulder, which surprised the airbender. “I guess it must have been too much for a kid like you.” He says softly.
Aang nodded.
“The world has been waiting for the Avatar for a long time now. Waiting for whoever to come back and put an end to this war.” Atka said.
Aang nodded again. “And how am I supposed to do that?” He looked back at the setting sun.
“Well, if I remember the legend correctly, you have to first master water, then earth, and then fire, right?” Sokka tried helping him.
“That’s what the monks told me.”
“Well, if we go to the north pole, we could find you a master that could teach you waterbending.” Sokka said, for the first time sounding slightly optimistic.
“And in the process, we could visit a whole bunch of places!” Atka added.
Aang smiled and jumped to the inside of Appa’s saddle. With a map already on hand, he told them about all the places he wanted to visit. And while Atka smiled like a complete dork Sokka found himself warming up at his two companions just a tiny bit. Or maybe it was the setting sun.
A few days had passed and the ships had finally reached warmer waters.
Katara was standing on the balcony of her royal cruiser, eyes closed as she got the feel of the warm sun rays hitting her skin. She took a few deep breaths. It was nice to finally be out of the arctic cold.
She had previously spent quite some time in her quarters, a messenger hawk resting on her hand meant to carry her efforts. She softly scratched its head before attaching a scroll with a black ribbon around it. “Make sure this message reaches father.” She whispered to the hawk before raising her hand and allowing the bird to take flight.
She kept her eyes fixated on the animal. Not having noticed her uncle staring from the accompanying vessel, who retired himself from the deck before she could have noticed him.
Fire Lord Ozai
I managed to reach Zuko’s vessel. From what I’ve observed and listened to, the prince is still fully loyal to the Fire Nation, even with the influence of General Iroh. With this in mind, I offered to help him with his task, after observing a strong occurrence of spirit lights, something that Zuko considered a strong lead.
It was a lead that proved Zuko’s good instincts. The Avatar has returned, father.
An air nomad, who is still somehow alive, is the Avatar. He slipped from our grasp once, as we underestimated him. But I promise that I’ll capture him, and stop the threat before it can take root.
I would recommend for this news to remain a secret, as I have already seen how his presence would give hope to those beneath us.
Your loyal daughter
Katara