Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

"When bronze and gold fight once more

Secrets uncover, tales of folklore

Battle ensues under full moon 

With betrayal and lies winning in tune

Thunder's child this victory will be 

When a year is left until they are free"

-

Part 1: Homecoming 

-

The waves were seeping in and out calmly of their small beach they had found and thus claimed. They had come here trying to avoid the busy crowds which had piled up on the main ones, eager to evade the looks that might have accompanied two scratty parentless kids amongst the middle-class American families.

Sokka looked out at the horizon, with the sun close to the sea as the sky changed into evening hues of yellow and pink. The irregular wind that had picked up earlier had now died down, and the last of the strangers on their beach had left, after Sokka had made sure they knew they were on their territory. It was quiet.

Too quiet.

As Sokka squinted to look far out to sea, he saw- movement? What was that?

Wait. It could only be one thing-

“Katara!” his voice was slightly shrill.

His sister looked up wearily from where she was sat in the water, playing with the fish swimming tentatively around her feet.

“What do you want, Sokka?” her voice sounded vaguely annoyed, which Sokka thought was unfair. This was a serious situation!

“I think I just saw a fin. Oh god, I think that’s a fin out there! Katara, are there sharks around here?”

She gave him a look. “How should I know?”

“You have a creepy fish connection!” he was stumbling through the water in an effort to get back to shore as quickly as possible. He was not about to come to his end by being an idiot Floridian who cant spot danger. He had watched Jaws before at his friend’s house once, he knew how these things went!

They were only a few feet into the water, it only coming up to his knees, with their clothes sat on the beach hidden in their rucksack in the trees, but Sokka didn’t know too much about sharks – could they reach him even this close to shore?

Katara sighed and held her ear to the water, as if she could listen to what the waves had to say. He   kicked the water mildly as he impatiently waited for whatever outcome his sister would come to.

If there were sharks, he would make sure to at least give them a good kick on the nose before they took him as dinner.

After a few moments she raised her head back up and towards Sokka, hair and beads she treasured dearly damp on one side. “There aren’t any sharks around here.” She declared, and looked back to down to the water and back to her fish. Sokka raised his eyebrow.

“How do you know that?” he said, looking suspiciously into the water as if he could tell what secrets it held.

Katara sighed and gave him a look. “didn’t you just say that I had a creepy fish connection?”

“Katara, you can’t seriously expect me to believe you can tell the shark content of this see by listening to some fish.” Sokka scoffed. She rolled her eyes at him and looked back to the water. Giving the sea a final warning look, he shrugged and sat next to her despite his worry. He had learned from a young age that Katara knew the water better than any of them. Better than Dad, who had spent most of his life on the seas.

When they were still living in Alaska Katara was the best at swimming where Sokka struggled, could tell when the current was too strong where Sokka was sure it would be fine.

Then when they had moved to Florida Katara had been more reluctant to go into the water, even if it was warm where the Alaskan seas was freezing cold. Sokka was upset by the move, possibly more than her, but Katara had just. Gone quiet, for a couple of years.

Like when their mother had died.

She had made him stop fishing even when there was nothing for them to eat.

Sokka had learned not to piss Katara off when it came to her fish.

After a few more moments resting in the Floridian sun Sokka could feel a stare aimed at the two of them. As sneakily as he could (which admittedly wasn’t terribly sneaky) he strained his eyes to see who the culprit was. After checking that their bags were still safely stored in the trees, he saw a strange man who was extremely tall looking straight at them, with two large dogs on leashes.

Shit.

“Katara,” he says as nonchalantly as he could, trying to keep the nerves out of his voice. It must have come out rather strangled still, as she looked up questioningly. He darted his eyes in the direction of where the man was, trying to communicate his alarm. She followed his gazed and stiffened. “Time to go.”

“Sokka, maybe if we just-“

“No Katara!” he hissed as they wade back towards the shore. “We have to move.”

This was the third strange person who had tried to follow them ever since that night with Dad. At first he thought they were just being paranoid – they surely hadn’t done anything that drastic to warrant the attention of the police – but this was the third stranger. This is why they had to keep moving.

They moved quickly to the white sand, and when they reached their pack Katara tried again.

“Sokka, if we just talk to him, maybe it’s all a misunderstanding and he will take us to a police station, and it will be over.” She says with big eyes. Sokka softens slightly. She’s only 14. She’s his little sister.

“Katara, you know what they did with Dad. We can’t trust them. I have to protect you, it’s what Dad would’ve wanted-“

He is cut off by a rustle in the trees. They look at each other, startled, and turn to see the man walking towards them, body obscured slightly by the trees.

“Come on!” Katara grabs his sleeve and then they’re running, through the trees, stumbling down the obscured path with the man and his dogs on their tails.

As they run, Katara turns to him and slightly breathlessly says, “I don’t need you to protect me, Sokka. Who was the one that distracted that lady when she tried to take you away?”

They run until they reach the streets next to the beach, busy tourists sweeping them away in the crowd. Sokka looks back to see the man looking curiously around, not spotting them amidst the hustle and bustle surrounding them. Sokka quickly swipes some ridiculous over sized sunglasses while Katara grabs caps, and they head towards the arcade, determined to shake the man for sure.

“Of course I need to protect you, ‘Tara. Your my kid sister. And you’re a girl.” She comes to a halt

“Sokka!” She scolds indignantly. Sokka smiles cheekily as he walks past her towards the entrance of the arcade.

-

Katara was still mildly annoyed at her brother as he loudly played in the arcade, using money left over from rich families who didn’t need the spare cash. She was still looking around their surroundings, keeping an eye out for any irregular characters stalking them. In the last few weeks since they were travelling around the city they had come across an array of peculiar people, their interactions ranging from attempted kidnappings to deathly looks. Sokka is convinced they were sent by the police – or even FBI – and were responsible for their Dad’s disappearance, but Katara wasn’t so sure. The police officers she had met in the past had all had an authority about them – an aura of kindness or judgement or ambivalence – but these people didn’t have any of that. They didn’t feel like anything at all.

After a while, the last of the evening light had gone and she saw that people had started leaving. She rolled her eyes when she looked at her brother’s antics – he was exclaiming to a twelve-year-old girl – and she walked over to him, apologized to rich looking parents, and dragged him towards the exit.

They head out with Sokka pouting slightly. Katara rolled her eyes again.

“Did you actually win anything?”

Sokka perked up slightly. “Uh, yeah, I won this!” he produced a toy which looked slightly like a duck with a turtle shell on it.

“I’m sure that will be very helpful to us right now.”

“Hey, don’t be mean to Perry, he will look after us,” he says wisely while stroking the fluffy animal. Katara sighed softly while a small smile pulled at her lips. He really could be a child sometimes.

Sokka had always said that he protects her. But since her mother, since her father, she knew that it would always be the other way around.

They wondered down the beach they had grown familiar with over the short period of time they had spent in this city that was far away from their town in Florida and impossibly further from their home in Alaska, looking for their usual tree that was slightly more comfortable and slightly more hidden than others. Though, it stood out when you go close to it– it was large and old looking; it was out of place among the other trees more suited to the Floridian landscape. But she had been drawn to it – the same pull she usually had when she was swimming, when she swore that the fish she swimming next to was communicating with her, telling her the secrets of the sea – and persuaded Sokka to set up camp there night after night.

As they laid down to sleep – on an empty stomach again, and tired feet, a relatively common occurrence these days – Katara closed her eyes and did what she usually did to get to sleep – imagine her mother putting her arms around her to keep her warn against the Alaskan cold, her Dad holding her hand and Gran-Gran looking over to her. Sokka grabbed her hand and under the starry Floridian sky, they fell asleep.

There were children all around her, ages ranging from around 12 to 18. They were all taking part in different activities – fights and games were going on. It seemed to be some kind of summer camp, but all the children were dressed in strange ancient armor and weapons.

She had this dream twice before. She couldn’t reach out the children, couldn’t speak or hear them. She wandered through the camp as if she were a ghost, looking at all the children having what she could now ever have.

She settled down next to a statue. It seemed to be a Greek God – she looked over to see that they held a lightening bolt in one mighty hand. Zeus, then? She didn’t know much about Greek mythology – she grown up with the teachings of the inuit tribe – but she knew that Zeus was the King of the Gods.

“Who are you?” She jumped as an unfamiliar voice called out for her. This had never happened – could never happen – in this dream. She couldn’t interact with any of them, she was always alone, she-

“Hey!” the voice was closer now. She peered around the statue to see a small bald boy who looked to be about twelve with big gray eyes looking curiously at her.

“I’ve never seen you in the camp before. Are you new?” the boy cocked his head to the side in questioning. He wasn’t afraid of the stranger that stood before him – his expression was filled with wonder. She couldn’t remember when she had last looked like that – with her face filled with innocence and curiosity rather than skepticism and anger.

“I’m not actually here. This is a dream.” She decided to answer. The boy was, after all, gatecrashing her sleep, so she might as well let him know of his predicament.

“You’re dreaming? Me too!” the boy looked even more excited at this prospect. “Usually I just see everyone who is here in real life. It helps pass the time. People can’t usually see me.”

“Pass the time? Why?

“Because, I am here all time. Have been for a while and will be- uh, forever.” The boy’s voice changed to a slightly melancholic tone.

“forever?” she frowned slightly. She couldn’t imagine being here forever – not being able to communicate with anyone, only ever watching what she couldn’t have.

“Well, sometimes I just rest for a while. But when I want to, I can visit camp. And I do mostly, because I like knowing what’s going on.” The boy fidgeted with his clothes – strange clothes – with badly concealed energy.

“What happened?”

“I got sick, and my Dad tried to help. That’s my current theory,anyway. Or I could be a ghost. But I don’t think so, because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to talk to me.” He peered up at her. “do you talk to ghosts?” this seemed to be a serious question.

“No, sorry,” she said absentmindedly. “if- if you’re sick, I might be able to help.” This was a dream after all, and she might as well try to help this boy, even if he was just a part of her subconscious.

But somehow that didn’t seem to be the case. Impossibly, this boy seemed be very real.

“Help?” the boy said somewhat doubtfully. “How?”

“Well, once when my brother was sick, I was able to heal him slightly. He didn’t believe me, but I swear I could. There was a light and-“

“I believe you.” He came closer. A small child ran past them holding a sword up above his head, moth open in a silent battle cry. “How would you do it?”

“Well, I don’t know If this will work. I’ve never really tried to do it on purpose, I don’t even know how-“

“I trust you.” The boy says simply. “How would you do it?” he persists. This is stupid, she thought. This is a dream, and she knew – rationally, she knew – that she couldn’t really have healed Sokka. But the boy was looking at her in expectation, in anticipation, and this is a dream, and-

“Give me your arm,” she decides, and he does. She closes her eyes, and feels the same pull, the same connection she has to the ocean, to the tree, and focuses in on it. She feels her eyebrows furrow in concentration, as she focuses on the boy’s pale arm, focuses her anger on the situation she had been forced into in the last few years, oat the injustice and incompetence of the handling of her father’s disappearance. On her grief that she still carries for her mother, on her homesickness for Alaska and Gran-Gran. After a few seconds a light appears, and a slightly high-pitched sound appears, and-

She opens her eyes with a start. She’s breathing rapidly, a light still surrounding her hands illuminating their surroundings. She takes her mother’s necklace out from her clothes to cling on to, trying to calm her heart rate. She starts to get her breath back when she notices a body on the ground.

Oh god.

“Sokka. Sokka!” she shakes her brother awake.

“Whatdoyouwant” he slurs as the last few seconds of sleep leaves him. he sits up when he sees the panic in Katara’s face and shakes his head in effort to wake himself properly.

“What?” he says in a more serious tone, but Katara is already crawling to where the boy was – she could just make him out in the light of the dawning sun and uses the dwindling light still illuminating from her hands – and she turns him over so he’s on his back and-

No.

It can’t be.

She gasps as the boy sighs and opens his eyes slightly to reveal gray.

It’s impossible. But -

It’s the boy from her dream.

Chapter Text

The day their father disappeared was the same day Katara turned 14.

Her, a few of her friends, and Sokka (dragged along against his will but at the insistence of the few girl-friends she had made at school) went to see a movie (something crappy and forgettable) and when they came back, their house was unlocked, empty, and still with unwashed dishes in the sink.

And their Dad was gone.

No dramatics, no weird circumstance, no big arguments.

Just emptiness.

Katara was upset at first – this was her 14^th birthday and she had been promised her favorite meal and presents and a hug and – but Sokka had reasoned that he had probably just gone to the store and would be back in no time. He had made pancakes which were burnt yet slightly uncooked as they were both hopeless at cooking which they ate anyway. It was nice.

Until it was the next day, and he still wasn’t back.

They knew something was wrong, something was very wrong, Hakoda would never leave without telling them, something had happened to him, something very bad –

And then a police officer knocked on the door.

-

When Sokka pictured glaring intimidatingly at boys talking to his sister, he’d admit he didn’t expect said boy to be bald, twelve, and batshit insane.

He was clearly some kind of con artist.

Sokka was still slightly sleepy, as his sleep had been rudely interrupted by his sister shaking him awake and chasing after a small boy who was running towards the see. When Katara had run after him, Sokka had been left keeping one eye on the two kids to make sure she was okay, and the other helping his hands frantically collecting the small items they had for sleeping and stuffing them in Sokka’s school bag they used as the sole barer of their home.

When he had finished packing away, he ran through the sand (which wasn’t that easy) towards where the kids where talking.

He reached them and decided to look around discreetly before he interrupted them, trying to see if there was someone waiting to rob them while they were distracted.

Or if there were cameras.

After unsuccessfully scanning the area, he decided to take a more direct approach.

“Who are you?” he asked forthright. The boy and Katara stopped their conversation that Sokka hadn’t been bothered to listen to (something about dreams and camps and healing) and noticed he was there for the first time.

“I’m Aang!” the boy was practically vibrating with excitement. Sokka noticed his sister shaking slightly – which was odd for his sister as she usually was able to keep her cool in pretty much every situation – but when he reached out to her shoulder she jerked away. Sokka frowned and was about to speak when he noticed that the boy – Aang – was doing something very strange. He seemed to have pulled out a skateboard from behind his back – was he holding that this whole time? – and managed to skate around on the wet sand, doing elaborate tricks while laughing like a maniac.

Sokka wondered if this was all part of the trick – probably – or if this kid just really wanted an opportunity to show off his admittedly insane skills. Maybe both?

Sokka rolled his eyes. He was probably just trying to impress his sister.

Speaking of –

Well.

Speaking of Katara, she was currently staring with her mouth hung wide open and eyes bulging.

Ugh. Great.

“You – he – how is he doing that?!” she exclaimed.

“Well, its not that impressive – I’m sure if anyone picked up a board every now and again then they could – “

“Can’t – can’t you see it?” she questioned, turning her wide eyes towards him. Before Sokka could reply yes, he could see it, and no it didn’t mean they could trust him because he could do a few tricks, Aang had stopped and plonked himself in front of them once more, and started doing weird things with his hands in front of the dawning sun.

“How did you do that?!” Katara exclaimed.

“The rabbit? Well, you see I put my thumb here and –“

“No! why would I – how can you do that thing? With the wind?”

“I’m the son of Zeus,” he shrugged, as if he just said last week I ate chips and not oh yeah, I’m the son of the king of the Greek gods.

“Uhh…” Sokka gestured with his head to his sister to follow as he started backing away. “Well, it’s been really nice meeting you, but –“

“Sokka, stop. And – what do you mean? Are you – how is that possible?” Katara asked Aang, and wait, was she actually believing this??

“Well, how did you heal me in our dream?” heal? In their dream? What?

“Katara!” Sokka have yelled and half questioned.

“What? Did you not see him flying? And you know I can do things with water, Sokka it all makes sense!” she was now looking as excited as the kid was, and Sokka closed his eye hard for a moment just in case this was a dream, and he wasn’t surrounded by crazy people.

“Katara, Greek gods aren’t real! We are Inuit! We – “

“They are, actually. Real that is. So are the Roman gods, Norse gods, Egyptian gods…” Sokka and Katara were quiet as Aang explained. After he was done talking he shrugged. “That’s just who we know about. It’s not one or the other, it’s all of them at the same time.”

“Huh.” Sokka tried to rap his head around this concept for moment before he realized what he was doing and gave up. “Still, you can’t expect us to believe this. It’s… you’re… it’s impossible!”

“And?”

-

And that was how he ended up eating ice cream sat on a wall with the child of Zeus who had a crush on his sister.

After the kid Aang had explained some more about his predicament – something about a camp he had to get to, Sokka was still taking this all with a pinch of salt – he then had requested ice cream. How old was this kid anyway, 10?

Katara (who was in charge of the money, for reasons Sokka didn’t quite agree with but couldn’t find enough evidence to fight her with other than he was older and he was a boy and- ) had decided that yes, this was a good way to waste what precious dollars they had left.

Aang was back to bouncing with excitement as he ate like he hadn’t eaten in a hundred years.

Which, according to him, he hadn’t.

Which they had found out after Sokka had made an off-hand comment about the 21^st century and Aang’s weird clothing. Aang had stopped his constant movement and said “21^st?” in a quieter tone. Apparently, from where-ever his dreamscape was he knew that time was passing, a lot of time, but as he was only there now and again (“time was meaningless, there. I didn’t change or grow,”) he hadn’t realized how much time had passed.  

“So, you don’t have hoverboards yet? Or flying cars?” Aang had sounded disappointed about the lack of cool things he thought the future would hold.

“Aang, you can fly!” Katara reminded him.

“Yeah, but a flying car would be much cooler.”

Sokka was had now reached the threshold of protesting every word that came out of the kid’s mouth, and instead focused on his ice cream eating while his sister indulged him.

Apparently this bald, weird, short kid was a bald, weird, short old man. Sure. Fine. Why not?

And his sister was somehow part of it. They had met… in a dream? And he could fly?

After a slight lull in the conversation (which was currently a mostly one-sided one between Aang and Katara) the kid jumped up, off the wall they were sitting on and was again filled with the seemingly endless energy he had possessed.  

“Hey I –“ he cut himself off, looking around abruptly. He turned and looked at Sokka. “Where are we?”

Sokka, feeling slightly uncomfortable for the attention to be suddenly on him, answered loudly. “In the great state of Florida!”

Aang furrowed his brows. “Florida… right…” he then looked at Katara to ask his next question. “Do you have anywhere I can stay?”

Just as Sokka was about to interject that people don’t normally invite themselves to stay with two kids they just met, Katara looked away and replied, “We don’t…” she looked ashamed and upset. “I can’t…”

“Our dad disappeared a few weeks ago and then the police took our house,” Sokka stated stoically, determined to save his sister from embarrassment before he could wonder why he didn’t lie to a complete stranger about their living situation as he had done to many before. Aang was the first kid they had actually talked to other than themselves for the last two weeks, as they had realized that the few friends they had managed to form in the time they had moved to Florida were too middle class and not close enough for them to turn to help. However much he doubted and didn’t trust this kid, Aang, there was something about being able to talk about what they’ve been through and just be truthful to someone who wouldn’t scoff at them that was too appealing to miss out on.

There were a few seconds quiet before, “Oh.” Aang looked inspired.

“That mean you can come to camp with me!” great. The kid wouldn’t take a hint and leave them alone.

“Camp? You mean… the one in our dream?” Katara pondered. Even better, Sokka thought, the camp was actually a weird dream camp!

“Yeah! It’s called Camp Half Blood, and it’s a home for people like you and me!”

“weird and freaky?” Sokka suggested.

“A demi-god!”

There was a slight silence.

“Um, Aang?” Katara answered. Aang looked over to her, “I’m not a demi-god.”

“You were in my dream, and you healed me, which means you must be something like that. Uh,” he peered up at Sokka, “I guess they would allow you to come.”

“Great.” Sokka didn’t want to part of whatever weird god thing thy had going on anyway. He was normal, and he wasn’t insane.

“Would they really let us stay?” Katara questioned, and wait, she wasn’t really –

“Katara, we can’t follow a random kid to a magical camp that isn’t even real -!”

“Of course they would!” Aang interrupted, ignoring Sokka completely. “There’s loads of us who don’t have homes or parents. I used to stay there all year round.”

“Hey, we have parents –“

“And they would just let us in?” – Sokka was feeling a little indignant at being cut off yet again – “We wouldn’t have to… sign paperwork or anything?”

“Nope! It’s kind of different when dealing with –“ Aang cut himself off, looking towards the crowd of holiday goers. “Oh no.”

“What?” Katara asked, and she and Sokka looked around to where he was looking.

“Shush!” Aang instructed him just as Sokka was about to open his mouth to say something clever and funny when –

Oh.

Oh no.

It was the police officer who took their house.

The one who dismissed their dad’s disappearance as nothing but a widower who can’t handle two teenage kids.

And she was looking straight at them.

Chapter Text

Sokka felt like an ice cube was being put down the back of his grubby Pokémon t-shirt as the intense green eyes of the woman he currently hated most stared back at him.

Feelings he had tried his to ignore and push down for the last two weeks, of despair, loss, frustration, came flooding back. This woman represented all his hatred towards what he had been put through – all that his baby sister had been put through – even if it wasn’t totally fair to put the blame of his mother dying, them moving to Florida away from their home on her.

There was plenty that she had done that he could blame her for, though.

Aang and Katara were the first to move, seemingly communicating without talking that they needed to go, and they needed to go now.

Sokka was frozen for a split second, captured in her gaze and his memories, before Katara grabbed the hem of his shirt and then they were running along stone before they were on to the beach again.

Sokka was getting real sick of running through sand to avoid creepy adults that won’t stay away.

This particular adult was worse than the others though. They knew her. And worse, she knew them. She would try to do exactly what she tried to do before they ran. She would make sure Sokka and Katara were split up, with him going to some random home for boy’s even though they had a perfectly good Gran-Gran at home. She had already made sure that their Dad’s case was closed and never looked at again, not even bothering to take their information or looking for evidence or anything.

They had run, like they were running now, and Katara was all that he had left right now, and he would not lose her.

“We’ll get a bus,” Sokka gasped out when they finally stopped after running for around 5 minutes straight. They were far down the beach now, with only one or two people around who paid no attention to the teenagers interrupting their sun time. “They keep following us, and we need to leave the city. Maybe even further.”

“They’ve followed you before?” Aang asked curiously. Before Sokka could confirm Katara cut in.

“N-never like that,” she sounded terrified. Sokka frowned - she had never reacted like this before, usually it was Sokka panicking while she kept her cool.

Although this wasn’t like the others. This was that woman. Should he put his arm around her? Or would that just annoy her like it did usually?

“What was that?! That – that thing!” Katara’s voice was wavering between terror and demand directed towards Aang, who was fidgeting nervously, and yep he should probably put her arm around her.

“Empousa,” Aang answered which, wow, thank you, very helpful. Katara battered his arm away.

“Is that her… name? how do you know that?”

But Aang wasn’t listening, instead fervently rummaging through his pockets.

“Hey, I don’t think their gonna let you pay with dollars from a century ago if that’s what you – “

“They had.. flaming… hair… how…” Katara was muttering to herself while running her hands through her hair before she turned to Aang once more and demanded –

“Tell me what she was! And… that I’m not going crazy!” Aang stopped his movement as he heard the slight crack to her voice.

“Of course, you’re not crazy. That was an Empousa – they’re monsters. One of them at least. They are sent after kids like us. I guess you’ve never encountered one before because you didn’t know you were a demi-god. Your scent gets stronger the more you know – that what draws them to us.” The kid’s voice was gentle as he explained.

“Monsters?” she sounded horrified.

“Uh, not that I believe either of you crazy people, but we’ve encountered her before.” Sokka interjected, glaring at the kid for upsetting his sister.

“We have?” Katara frowned, looking puzzled. Sokka stared at her. How could she not remember?

“Yeah? The morning,” he glanced at Aang, “The morning Dad went.”

“Oh. Her. Yeah that check out.” Katara’s face shuttered slightly as she was reminded of that night, morning, and everything after.

“What were you looking for, anyway?” Sokka questioned after a small note of silence.

“Drachma. I need it to contact the camp, but it seems I didn’t have any on me when…” he trailed off, looking in the direction of the sea.

“What happened?” Katara asked gently, placing a comforting hand on Aang’s shoulder.

“Yeah, how do you get turned into a tree anyways?” Sokka intended to ask demandingly, but his tone turn softer when he saw the slightly lost look on Aang’s face.

“There was an attack. I – there was a quest, and – monsters. Lots of monsters.” Aang’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet, and he walked further towards the shore before flopping down onto the hot white sand. Sokka ad Katara shared another look before following him to where he was sitting. Katara went to sit next to him while Sokka decided to keep standing.

“People died. That I remember. There was too many of them, and only eight of us. And – and it was my Dad’s quest. That’s why –“

He stopped, his voice even smaller.

“That’s why when I fell he saved me. He preserved me…  in my tree,” Aang’s shoulder’s slumped and he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Sokka ad Katara were quiet as the boy who they had known as being upbeat and full of energy fell quiet.

-

Katara wished she could remember anything about Greek mythology that she might have picked up in her life.

Unfortunately, it had never really come up. And now she’s wondering – if she’s really a demi-god, if she believed that she wasn’t going mad and she really did pull a boy out of her dream and see a police officer with flaming hair – what it means for her family. Because surely, if one of her parents was a God, that meant that one of her actual parents wasn’t her real parent.

That gave her mixed feelings. They were mostly negative. Was Sokka even her brother? did her parents know about her heritage and lie to her?

Did they even know?

So, she decided not to think about it. After all, this was all rather far-fetched, and apart from the flamehairmonsterred thing she saw earlier she didn’t have any real proof.

Accept for her abilities she’d never been able to quite explain.

And the aforementioned dream-pull-tree-boy.

She shook her head slightly to get out of her thoughts and focused on what was going on around her. They had been waiting for the bus they had decided on getting for about twenty minutes. After the beach, Sokka had persuaded them that they needed to get moving, to get out, and Aang had agreed only if they headed to New York.

Sokka had seemed exasperated about their direction of travel, but Katara had pestered him slightly knowing he’d concur (he did). She had known Aang for less than a day, but for some reason she felt a – a connection with him. And New York was a good a place as any for two teenagers and one preteen on the run, especially with the possibility of an all-expenses-paid summer camp.

The bus arrived and they stepped onto it. She deliberately got on last so that they would have to sit next to each other.

Sokka would have to stop giving Aang death stares at some point, might as well get them to spend some time together. Sokka needs some friends more his speed anyway – he had far more in common with the slightly hyper-active 12-year-old than the older teens he hung out with anyway.

She was crafty like that.

Katara placed herself next to a large, middle age man and tried to get settled. Out of the window she could see houses and roads and cars go by and she hoped they were doing the right thing by leaving and not letting her father down.

Any more than she already had, anyway.

After they had been on the bus for about half an hour, she looked over to talk to her brother and Aang as she had been doing for the duration of the journey, but she saw that her new friend was asleep on her brother’s shoulder. When Sokka noticed her looking, he straightened up and tried to look a little more manly, as if to say ‘I am only just tolerating this kid and am very annoyed at him’ and not ‘even I cant refuse to be a human pillow of someone who used their magic powers to help a bird fly earlier’. She smirked at him and he gave her his ‘I am your older brother, and you have to listen to me’ which she frequently ignored. Even so, she let them be and turned back to look out of the window.

The man next to her moved suddenly, so he was in the little space she already had, and she was pushed half off her seat into the aisle. She coughed a little.

“Excuse me, do you think you could move over slightly?” she asked, trying to put as much politeness as she could muster in her voice and not show her irritation. Unfortunately, the man simply turned her head a little and stared at her intently, not speaking. She bristled slightly under his disturbing gaze, before seeing the earphones attached to his ears. Well, fair enough, he didn’t hear her, and he might be a little socially unaware. Not wanting to push anymore, she spotted another free seat next to a nice-looking old lady who was asleep. She smiled at the man who was still gazing at her with as much nicety as she could manage and got up out of her chair and moved over to the spare seat.

There, the unnerving feeling that she had gotten had disappeared, and she felt her heart rate which had unwittingly sped up begin to slow down. Looking over to her brother she saw that he had also fallen asleep, resting the side of his head on top of Aang’s, and had not paid mind to the conversation of the movement of hers.

Wishing she still had her phone (she had made her and Sokka dispose of theirs as soon as they went on the run), she looked at her hands while trying to think about everything that had happened. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the same feeling that she had concentrated on when there was Aang in front of her, arm outstretched and trusting.

She felt the feeling build inside of her, as if it was rising and surging and threatening to get out. She furrowed her eyes as it cascaded and overflowed and then –

She opened her eyes with a start as a scrunching noise interrupted her impromptu meditation. Looking over to the seat in front and across from her, she saw a broken water bottle which was tipped over, with water pouring out. The owner didn’t have seen to have noticed.

She went rigid against the back of her chair.

That wasn’t – that wasn’t… her?

Right?

Before she could think more about that can of worms, a dark shadow passed over her, blocking out the sun coming from the other end of the bus.

The man was staring at her.

He had walked over from his seat – with his earphones still in, the cord dangling aimlessly – and was now stood next to her, staring directly at her.

She looked up at him again, closer this time. There was something – not right, about him.

Something not right at all.

And as she opened her mouth to speak, to question who he was and what he wanted, the bus lurched.

She was thrown on to the other side of the vehicle, which was now moving from one side of the road to the other rapidly, with big, forceful movements that were a total contrast to the slow, clunky nature it had been plodding along like before.

It was almost like something completely different had taken ahold of the bus and forcing it to obey their whims.

The light dimmed slightly, and she blacked out for a second. Lifting her hand to the back of her head, she made a noise when she felt damp.

Before she could properly grasp her baring again, the man picked her up like she weighed nothing and thrusted her closer to the front of the bus. She twisted, pushing her body with as much strength as she could muster. She glanced desperately in the direction of her brother, but they were still both asleep despite the movement of the bus.

“NO!” she yelled, and shoved against the man. He started, and she managed to get herself free, and scrambled onto on of the pairs of chairs that had been made free.

The man turned to her with a look of fury in his eyes. If she concentrated, she could see his form flickering slightly, as if it were on TV. She trembled at the sight of the man reaching out towards her.

She needed something, anything, to distract him with. In the few precious she had left before she was in his clutches again, she looked around desperately to find something, anything she could use against him.

There!

It was a book. It had a hard cover, and before she could question anything that could go wrong, she grabbed it from beside her and launched it at the man’s head.

“Ngha!” the man yelped as it came flying towards him. In the time that he was diverted, Katara leaped over the top of the chairs as best she could manage, before running down the aisle to the opposite end of the bus.

She reached her brother and Aang. They were still asleep!

“Sokka!” she yelled, shaking him. How come when she actually needed his help, he wasn’t there to give it her?

“Aan-ah!” she was cut off as the bus lurched to a stop. The emergency doors opened next to her, and with one frantic look at the still-sleeping boys and the man down the aisle, she ran out.

“Half-blood! You can not run, stupid girl!” the man roared. His speech was slow, but he was not.

In seconds he caught up with her mad dash and managed to grab ahold of wrist. He forced her to a stop, and she was on the ground below him before she knew what was happening.

“You’re lucky he wants you alive,” he sneered down at her.

No.

She was not getting captured like this.

Not like her Dad did. He needed her. Sokka needs her. Aang needs her.

Aang.

She got an idea. A mad idea, that would never work.

But a lot of things should never had worked in the last few days.

“Shut up,” she told the man, who was monologuing in the background. She closed her eyes.

Aang. Wake UP!

She breathed out, and opened her eyes once more.

Time for plan B.

There was gas leaking beside her, and with one last scramble along the concrete road, she concentrated on it and –

“Gah!”

–it landed right in his eyes.

“Right, that’s it, you little –“

But before he could say whatever he was going to say, there was a big, loud crash!, and –

Her and the man both craned their necks to see the source of the noise, and as her head was bleeding and the light started failing, there she saw her flying savior.

And then all hell broke loose.