Chapter Text
“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My father used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar mastered all four elements. Only he could stop the ruthless Firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.”
“How did he vanish?”
“Huh?”
“How did he vanish?”
“No one knows.” Carlos leant forward, as if about to divulge a great secret. “Some say he’s still alive somewhere, hiding from the Fire Nation.”
Bahadir propped his chin up in his palm. “But isn’t the Avatar an Airbender? They’re quite into balance and harmony between the elements, right? They wouldn't just let the Fire Nation keep doing what it's doing, Carlos.”
Carlos frowned, scratching the back of his head as he thought. “Well, not all Airbenders are brave peacekeeping heroes, Bahadir. Every element has its losers.”
“I guess.”
Bahadir traced a drawing in the snow. Carlos huffed, apparently annoyed that he wasn’t getting the correct response from his best friend. “C’mon, work with me here. What do you want to do?”
The ‘it’s not like we can hang out in the village’ was unsaid, but Bahadir heard it anyway. He sighed, and kicked his drawing - some sort of long blob with six sausages sticking out, three on each side, and an arrow down its back. Bahadir often doodled those. Arrow monsters, Carlos called them. When Bahadir had been younger people had implied he was maybe drawing an imaginary friend or something, which was very much not true. Bahadir had only one friend, Carlos, and he was very much real.
Carlos sighed, and flopped back, flipping his hood up to keep the snow from getting into his hair, and the two sat in silence for a little while. Bahadir looked around him, taking in the ice, the snow, the water and the sky - pretty much all there was to life in the South Pole. All blue sky and white clouds, blue sea and white snow, blue and white, blue and white, with perhaps the occasional dash of grey. Even their clothes were blue and white. Bahadir's fez, a gift from his mother, was probably the only red thing for miles around.
Distantly, he reached up to toy with the black tassel. He was bored. He was... restless. He felt as though he should be out there, doing something, but he didn't quite know what. When he was younger he'd thought that he just wanted to help out around the village, but he'd been quickly dissuaded. Partly because he wasn't really big enough to help out with any of the real manual labour, and partly because the villagers, well... they weren't very fond of the strange boy with the red hat, whose mother...
Bahadir shook himself. There was no point dwelling on the past. Either way, it wouldn't help him.
But Carlos would help him - spent most of his time trying to help him - and he'd been ungrateful. After all, whilst Carlos was certainly a social pariah, it was less to do with his blood and more to do with his insistence on hanging out with Bahadir. A half-Earthbender was unusual, yes, for the relatively homogenous Southern Water Tribe, but not the worst thing in the world. At least Earthbenders were courageous and brave, willing to fight evil to their final breath. There was teasing, there was mockery, but nothing too traumatising for the son of an Earth Kingdom soldier and a Southern Water Tribe warrior.
The son of a Waterbender and a Fire Nation soldier, on the other hand...
Bahadir stomped out the last remnants of his drawing.
It wasn't his fault - he'd never asked to be born. He'd never asked for some random soldier to take a liking to his mother. He'd never asked for any of this.
As if sensing his irritation and annoyance, Carlos sat up again, running a hand over his chin. He looked tired. Bahadir sometimes forgot that Carlos was only thirteen himself. Too young to be ostracised by his entire village just for sticking up for a kid even more hated than he was.
"Any ideas for what you want to do?" Carlos asked after a moment of his eyes skimming across the horizon. They'd taken a walk down to the coast, out of sight of the village but within sight of the smoke rising from the campfires, and had taken a rest on one of the larger blocks of ice. They could have gone further, but kids weren't supposed to go out of view of the smoke, and Carlos didn't want them to get into any further trouble. Bahadir thought it was ridiculous, since he really doubted that the villagers cared enough to stop them even if they'd walked all the way to the other end of the ice shelf and into the sea, but he didn't mention that.
"We could go for a walk," Bahadir suggested, wanting to cooperate but not really knowing what to say. Carlos sighed, before standing up on the block of ice and looking around them, squinting his eyes against the glare of the sun on the snow. Bahadir wasn't really sure what his friend was doing, but copied him anyway. Not that there was anything to see. Ice, snow, sea and sky. About a mile away he could see a group of otter-penguins waddling about, calling to each other. In the other direction he could just about see a trio of tiger-seals sunning themselves on a floating piece of ice. In the very distance on the open ocean past the ice flows, he could just about make out a Fire Nation patrol boat if he squinted.
"Bastards," Carlos grumbled, before jumping down from the ice block. "Still, though. Too far away to cause any trouble."
"Right," agreed Bahadir, still not seeing where exactly this was going. Apart from their regular monthly check ins, the Firebenders always left them alone. Bahadir had always got the distinct impression that most of the soldiers hated being on the South Pole Guard just as much as the Southern Water Tribe hated them being there. "So?"
After one more furtive look around, Carlos jumped back down off of the block of ice, and hurried towards Bahadir, who narrowed his eyes. He knew that look. It was the look Carlos got when he was about to do or say something stupid.
"Show me that thing again," said Carlos, "Go on. There's no one around."
Bahadir hesitated, but his friend was right. There'd be no harm in showing Carlos again.
Carlos watched eagerly as Bahadir removed his thick gloves and closed his eyes, concentrating. The small pile of snow he'd kicked up by scuffing out his drawing began to melt, and the water spiralled upwards, twisting until it reached Bahadir's hands. It coiled around them, cool and sinuous, more like a living being than just water.
"Awesome," breathed Carlos, eyes wide as he watched.
Bahadir bit his lip, concentrating. He wasn't really very good at this - how would he be, with nobody to teach him? But he'd had a dream about doing something like this, and he wanted to check it out, see if it worked and all.
Slowly, he shifted into a stance, barely noticing as Carlos scuttled backwards out of the way.
With slow and deliberate movements, he formed the water into a ball, hovering between his hands. This was a simple move - or it seemed simple enough, from what he could remember - and he stretched his arms carefully, trying to make the ball of water into some kind of whip. He'd practiced this often enough in his and Carlos' tent, when Carlos was out running some errand and no one could see him, but he'd never got it to work properly. Even after Carlos figured out just why he'd often come back to wet clothes and bedding, and they'd found several secluded spots to practice in, he'd been incapable of doing it right.
But this time...
Bahadir stepped again, the water now held in a long whip-like shape, and - and inevitably slipped on a bare patch of ice. His foot flew forwards, his concentration broke, and the water broke from his grasp and splashed down, soaking him in icy water.
At least Carlos had the decency not to laugh this time. He had the first few times this had happened, but after a while it had apparently become less amusing, and now he just looked sympathetic.
But his sympathy was pointless. Bahadir was angry. Really angry. Why couldn't he even do this one stupid move? He'd been practicing for months. Just one stupid move.
He stayed sat on the ground, trying to calm down, with gritted teeth and clenched fists. It didn't work. Why did he have to be so useless? He couldn't even bend right, and this was an art his own mother had been known for, had been a master at. He should have inherited even a little of her talent, shouldn't he? Or had his stupid father even ruined that for him?
"Hey, uh, Bahadir-" Carlos voice sounded nervous, like Bahadir was doing something that was freaking him out. He finally opened his eyes, about to tell his friend to just leave him alone for a moment, when he realised what was happening. Thick tendrils of water surrounded him and Bahadir into what looked like a cage.
"I'm doing it!" He gasped, anger melting away, "Carlos - Carlos, I'm doing it!"
"Yeah, but Bahadir-"
"Do you think I can do the water whip?" Bahadir asked excitedly. "Well?"
"Bahadir, seriously, stop-"
"Why should I? Carlos, I'm doing it really well this time!"
"Bahadir-"
"What are you doing?!"
Bahadir flinched. The water dropped to the ground with a noisy splash, soaking him once more, but he barely noticed. One of the men from the village was staring at them, his jaw basically hitting his chest. Bahadir looked around slowly. There was him, still sat on the ground, wide eyed with disbelief; Carlos, with his arms raised to try and catch Bahadir's attention; and the man, staring at all of them.
They all remained like that for a few moments, stuck in a circle of shock, before the man slowly backed away, expression horrified, before he turned tail and ran.
Bahadir's stomach felt like lead as he and Carlos watched the man go. He was stupid - so stupid. There was a reason they had to be careful with his bending - it was illegal. In fact, it was one of the main reasons the Fire Nation kept a patrol in the area, even though the Southern Water Tribe was practically the least dangerous country of the world right now for the Fire Nation - waterbenders had been all but eradicated, they had few resources that hadn't been seized by the Fire Nation, and, to be honest? Most of them had lost hope, these days. They'd been fighting this war for over a hundred years. If there had been able to stop the Fire Nation, someone would have figured it out by now.
If that man told the Fire Nation patrol that he'd seen Bahadir waterbending, they'd take Bahadir away, whether or not they had any proof. That didn't matter to them. Not when there was the chance of someone being a waterbender. They'd arrest him, even if he was just a kid who couldn't even do one simple move, and they'd take him to the Waterbender prison, and he'd stay there until he died.
Bahadir's heart thumped painfully as Carlos stumbled towards him.
"It's okay," the older boy was saying, sounding as though he was trying not to panic. "It's okay - they won't tell, you're just a kid, and we're all one tribe."
"No we aren't." Bahadir's voice was shaking badly no matter how calm he tried to appear on the outside. "I'm the son of a Firebender, Carlos. They've been looking to get rid of me for years and you know it."
"No," said Carlos, swallowing, attempting to look brave despite the terror in his brown eyes. "I won't let them. We'll run away. We'll hide. We'll - we'll..." He seemed to run out of ideas, his gaze darting everywhere as though looking for some way out of this mess. Then his face crumpled. "This is my fault," he moaned, "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have made you do it. I'm such an idiot."
"No," said Bahadir. Perhaps Carlos' fear had washed his own away, because he was now filled by a sort of dull numbness. He followed his best friend as Carlos sank to the floor. "No, it's going to be fine."
"You're right," agreed Carlos, sniffing and scrubbing his sleeve across his eyes. "You're right - I'm sorry. What do we do?"
"I don't know," replied Bahadir, looking around him again. He wondered if he'd ever get to spend another day playing with Carlos amongst the icebergs, or even going penguin-sledding or eating sea prunes, even though he didn't like sea prunes. "But there's nothing we can do. We can only hope he doesn't tell the Firebenders."
"You're right," Carlos repeated, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," answered Bahadir. "Come on. They won't be there immediately. We have time to think."
"Right," agreed Carlos. "Maybe we could cross the Bridge of No Return and try our luck out there."
"Uh huh," nodded Bahadir, although he doubted that two inexperienced kids like them would be able to survive out there on their own. The pair stood, brushing away the cold snow.
"Or the old Fire Nation ship!" said Carlos, beginning to sound more hopeful. "We could live on that! No one goes near that thing."
"Right."
The pair began walking back towards the village. It was still very light out, the glare bouncing off the white snow almost blinding in places, but in the land of the midnight sun that meant very little. According to Bahadir's body clock, it was probably around the afternoon or evening time. He couldn't be certain, but after living in the South Pole for many years, you got an eye for this sort of thing. Carlos continued to talk, coming up with ideas ranging from stealing a row boat and sailing to the Earth Kingdom to finding one of the larger hollows in a glacier and living the rest of their lives under the ice. Bahadir nodded, well aware that none of these plans were feasible in any way, but willing to humour his best friend. If this was what kept Carlos from panicking, then that was fine.
The village seemed even less friendly than usual as he and Carlos passed through the boundary gate. Eyes turned to watch them frostily as they walked towards their small tent, towards the back and almost against the wall that encircled the village. The main fire was still flickering, and three elders were sat around it.
The back of Bahadir's neck prickled with discomfort. In a corner, he could see the man who'd seen him waterbend muttering to a couple of the other hunters. He felt sick.
If this had been anyone else in the whole tribe, in the whole South Pole, in fact, no one would have told on him. No one would have looked at him as though he was some sort of disease. They would have been happy. Proud, even, that waterbending hadn't completely left their tribe. They'd have hidden him from the Fire Nation. They wouldn't have sold him out the moment they had something against him.
"Leave us alone!" snapped Carlos when he saw one of the elders sneer at them. The elder in question turned to her fellow elders and they all laughed nastily. Inside the empty Fire Patrol office, the messenger hawk that they left for cases such as this was missing. The snow around them quivered. Bahadir grabbed Carlos' arm and dragged him towards their tent.
"Why can't they just leave us alone?" Demanded Carlos, once they were sat on the furs in their tent. "We've never done anything to them - we've always tried to help them and they're just going to..." He trailed off, apparently unable to say it out loud, and sighed. "It's just not fair, Bahadir."
"No," answered Bahadir, curling his fingers into the soft pelt. "It isn't, is it?"
Soon after that, they went to bed. He hadn't eaten since the seal jerky that morning, but he wasn't hungry. In fact, he felt a little sick. Without Carlos' ideas to distract him, he had to think, and that was a bad thing.
He knew about those Fire Nation prisons. Waterbenders were kept in the dryest locations possible, in deserts and the like, where there was no access to any liquid. Food was usually dry things such as crackers. When they were given water to drink, Waterbenders' arms were chained up and the water was fed to them with a cup on a stick. They were all kept in bare metal cages, like rats. They were never allowed to wash.
That was where they were going to send Bahadir. That was where he was going to stay where he died. This was it - his life was basically over. A shuddery sort of fear went down his spine, and he reached beneath their shared blanket to grab Carlos' hand. His friend didn't say anything, but he squeezed his hand back. Bahadir wondered if he was as scared as he was.
He didn't sleep that night.
The next day, the Firebenders arrived. Bahadir and Carlos hadn't left their tent. None of their ideas were workable in any way. There was no way out of this.
The ship was fairly small compared to the huge warships that sometimes visited with supplies, made of dark metal and flying the blood red flags emblazoned with a curled up sea raven. They were the Southern Raiders, though they didn't do much raiding these days, now that the Southern Water Tribes had been successfully shattered into many tiny villages who didn't have the organisation or manpower to put up any real struggle.
Their leader, a grizzled old guy with a sullen mouth, whose scraggly grey hair sometimes fell into his face from under his red and black helmet. He glared around at the assembled crowd. Bahadir felt a horrible, shivery sort of fear travel through his whole body. His hands began to shake. Carlos turned to him at the entrance of their tent, his eyes determined.
"Go back inside," he ordered in a whisper, "Hide under the skins. I'll tell them you ran away during the night."
Bahadir opened his mouth to argue that this was a stupid idea, and that the Firebenders would have to be qualified morons to buy it, but it wouldn't hurt to try, would it? Either way he'd be taken away and imprisoned.
He ducked back inside the tent, and buried himself beneath the mountain of furs they used as their bed. Through a tiny gap, he could still see out of the tent doors to where the Commander of the Southern Raiders was interrogating the man who'd seen Bahadir waterbend yesterday. Bahadir could hear his breath roaring in his chest as the Commander and the man, along with two other soldiers, began walking towards Carlos, stood about ten feet from the tent. Bahadir could see the tension in his shoulders and the way he'd clenched his fists to keep his fingers from trembling.
Bahadir could feel his pulse thundering in his ears as the Commander stopped before Carlos, looking huge in his black and red armour, looming over Bahadir's friend.
"Is this the one?" The Commander asked the hunter, not taking his eyes off of Carlos. Bahadir could see his friend take a breath and prepare to tell him the lie as the man nodded feverishly.
"That's right, sir," he agreed, a horrible light in his eyes. "That's the waterbender."
What?
"Grab him, men," said the Commander carelessly. The two soldiers stepped forward and grabbed Carlos' arms. Bahadir's friend seemed rigid with shock and confusion, not even putting up a fight as the Firebenders began dragging him away. The Commander nodded to the hunter, and followed his men.
Bahadir watched for a moment, frozen to the spot with horror. He thought of Carlos with his hand raised as he, Bahadir, had been waterbending; he thought of how he'd shifted the snow just as Carlos had yelled at the elders; he thought of how that must have appeared to the rest of the village. Time seemed to stand still, locked in this one horrible moment. He blinked slowly, and then, all of a sudden, time sped up again. Carlos began kicking and yelling as Bahadir wriggled free of the furs and sprinted out of the tent.
"Wait!" he yelled, chasing them as they approached their ship once more, "Wait! Don't take him!"
"Let go of me!" cried Carlos, struggling desperately, but the soldiers kept a strong grip on his arms and dragged him steadily forward.
"It's not him!" Bahadir shouted, reaching the Commander and grabbing his wrist.
"Don't, Bahadir!" Carlos turned to look over his shoulder at him as they began walking him up onto the ship.
"I'm the waterbender!" Bahadir insisted, tugging the Commander's sleeve as the man tried to shake him off. "Leave him alone!"
The Commander snorted derisively, summoning a handful of fire and bringing his hand around to hit Bahadir in the face. Before it could make contact, Bahadir instinctively dropped his wrist and ducked away, falling to his knees in the snow.
"Wait!" he half-sobbed, "You can't take him. You don't understand!"
"I understand well enough, boy," said the Commander, glaring down at him. "I understand that you want to save your little friend. If you weren't half Fire Nation yourself, I might arrest you too. Be grateful."
"You can't take him away!" Bahadir screamed as the Commander turned again and started walking towards the ship. Carlos was being held still as they fitted handcuffs around his wrist, his eyes wide and terrified. Tears spilled over, and Bahadir began to sob. They couldn't do this - they just couldn't take Carlos away. It wasn't fair. Carlos had never hurt anyone in his life. He wasn't even a bender! "Wait!"
He hurled himself forward and just managed to catch the Commander's ankle before he stepped onto the boat. The man grunted in annoyance, and the last thing Bahadir saw before the Commander's metal-clad foot made contact with his head was Carlos' petrified eyes staring at him from the ship. And then, darkness.