Chapter Text
You instinctively recognize your soulmate the first time you meet them outside of the dreamscape. The exact trigger for that recognition varies: for some, it was their soulmate’s laughter, for others, it was their touch.
For Aang it was the eyes. He blinked his grey eyes open, met blue and knew.
“River?”
For Katara, it was the voice. Her eyes flooded with tears as she realized who she was holding in her arms.
“Cloud?” She whispered in disbelief.
For Sokka it was scent. He was far enough back that he didn’t register who the boy in the iceberg was right away.
“Katara! Get away from him!” Sokka advanced with his spear.
“Sokka!” Katara protested, choking up. She clutched Aang close. Aang groaned, feeling light headed. Everything was a lot. He was cold. Colder than he’d been during the polar plunge dare by the water near Moonbeam’s city. And everything felt so much. His clothing, River’s arms around him, it was all so tactile and present. He froze as he reached up for his head. His hand was fleshy and solid.
His hand was normal. The vapor that had composed his body was gone! Replaced with the skin and bone of his physical body!
Aang jumped up out of River’s arms with a rush of air. “I’m awake?! How?! What’s going on here?!”
“You tell us, kid!” Sokka snarled, his spear tight in his hands. “How did you get in the ice? Why aren’t you frozen?” He poked Aang with his spear and Aang looked at him.
“Cub!” He cried as their eyes met. Sokka only had time to frown for a moment of confusion before Aang flung himself at him.
When Sokka found his face buried in orange and yellow fabric he gasped and got a strong whiff of the airbender. He dropped his spear.
“Cloud?!” He choked, his arms raising to return the hug. “You’re- You’re awake?!”
“I’m awake!” Aang pulled away, eyes bright and alive in a way the siblings had never seen before. “I’m awake!” Aang leapt back, wide eyes taking in the landscape. “I’M AWAKE!” He jumped and flew thirty feet in the air, his laughter echoing through the icebergs. He landed on another outcropping of ice and jumped again.
“Cloud!” Katara called, seized by the sudden fear that they’d lose track of him in the ice and snow and wouldn’t be able to find him again. “Cloud! Hang on a second!” A sneeze echoed over the landscape of ice and snow.
“I’m okay!” Their soulmate shouted in the distance. Katara and Sokka exchanged a shocked, baffled glance. Katara started forward a bit, calling for Cloud.
Sokka shook his head, still gob smacked. A sudden rumble emanated from the crater and Sokka startled violently. He snatched up his spear and crept forward, climbing up the edge of the crater.
His jaw dropped when he reached it. “Is that Huggy?!” In the crater was the solid, furry version of the huge bison that he’d grown up with. Gone were the wisps of mist, replaced with a grey and white coat of coarse fur. Sokka slid down the side of the crater. “Huggy! You’re alive, right?!” He tried to wake him up. “Come on, Huggy!” He grunted, pushing at his head. The rumble started again and then a massive, familiar tongue licked Sokka, nearly taking him off his feet. “Yep, that’s Huggy.” Sokka said, arms held out as he dripped spit.
Appa lumbered to his feet and stretched with a huge yawn. “That’s it, Huggy, work out those kinks.” Sokka flicked off as much of the spit as he could and scratched Appa’s favorite spot behind his ear.
“Appa! You’re awake! Are you okay?” Aang landed in front of him. “You alright?” Appa sneezed and a blast of snot covered Aang from head to toe. Aang blinked a couple of times. “Yeah, that’s fair.” He flung the mucus off of him with airbending.
“Did you say that Huggy’s name was Appa?” Katara asked, sliding into the crater after them.
“Appa,” Sokka tried it out. “Wow, that’s weird.”
“Right! We should introduce ourselves with our real names.” Aang was still giddy from joy and an adrenaline high. He bowed to them, to the soulmates he helped raise. His much younger brother and sister who were now older than him and said his own name for the first time in over a decade and a half. “I’m Aang. I’m from the Southern Air Temple. This is Appa. He was born in the Eastern Air Temple but he lives with me in the Southern Air Temple.” Katara and Sokka were smiling, fighting laughter. He’d always wondered what they would look like outside of the dreamscape. They were so cute and pretty! (Maybe he was predisposed to think that as someone who raised them, but he was sure that everyone would agree with him.)
“I’m Sokka.” Sokka began.
“And I’m Katara! You’re at the South Pole.” Katara jumped in eagerly.
“Sokka and Katara. Katara and Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe, which is in the South Pole. Sokka is older. Katara is younger.” Aang bounced, beaming while he babbled.
“Having fun with those proper nouns, Aang?” Sokka snorted fondly.
“So much fun!” Aang laughed again, reveling in the sound of his own name.
“Our grandmother’s name is Kanna.” Katara added, amused, giving Aang more names to play with.
“Kanna!” Aang repeated delighted. “I’m going to meet Kanna while I’m in the South Pole!”
Katara’s eyes widened. “You’re going to meet our village.” She breathed. “You’re really here. You’re really awake.”
“I’m really here, Katara.” Aang could finally breathe. “I’m really awake.”
Once Aang calmed down a little bit and Sokka remembered their canoe had been destroyed (not good for the village, they collected all of the pieces they could to repurpose them), they climbed on Appa’s back. Instead of flying he ended up doing a belly flop into the water and swimming in the direction Katara pointed them.
“Is Hug- Appa okay?” Katara leaned over the saddle to try to get a better look at him, brow furrowed in concern.
“I think he’s just tired.” Aang assured them. “Appa will be up and flying in no time.” He turned in the saddle to face them. “So, what happened. How did the two of you wake me up?”
“Katara got mad and broke an iceberg.” Sokka jerked his thumb at his sister.
“Sokka!” She scolded, before looking at Aang sheepishly. “It was really strange. Your bending mastery tattoos were glowing.” Aang stilled. “And then your eyes opened and they were glowing too.”
“At which point my genius sister decided to hit the scary magic iceberg with a club.” Sokka said sarcastically, clearly back to smarting over their fight from before they found Aang.
“I wanted to get him out!” Katara protested. “I panicked!”
“Thank you for panicking, Katara.” Aang said seriously. Katara and Sokka looked at him. They were still a little astonished that he was there. It didn’t feel real. Aang kept looking down at his pale, skin toned hands and running them over Appa’s fur. Gazing at their physical faces with an awed expression.
“Of course, Aang.” Katara smiled, misty eyed.
“I mean, it worked out crazy well, but don’t do it again.” Sokka rubbed the back of his neck. “The next time it might spit out something other than a bright light and our weird soulmate.” He frowned. “Hopefully that ship didn’t notice.”
“There isn’t anything to find there now and they’ll probably just think it was the celestial lights.” Katara replied. She moved to sit next to Aang. Hed forgotten how vibrant the real world was. He could feel her warmth beside him. He could feel the ocean spray carried on the wind. How Appa breathed underneath the saddle he sat in.
He was awake.
He was alive.
Aang was familiar with a version of the Water Tribe village that did not exist. He was surprised by how small it was. (Sokka later told him that the village in the dreamscape kept architectural features that were abandoned or destroyed, making their home seem much larger in the dreamscape than it was in reality.) Katara brought him around the town, introducing him to people he’d heard of but never had names for. Sokka filled their surprised Gran-Gran in on what had happened. It was surreal. Aang had spent longer in the dreamscape than he had in the physical world and he was savoring every minute of the time awake.
Aang spotted a small version of the igloo that Katara had practiced so long to perfect and the ice watch tower than all of them had designed together in the dreamscape on Cub’s Sokka’s request. (It wasn’t very tall but it was sturdy. Moonbeam had asked some architects for tips and learned a good amount about waterbending construction as a result.) After a few kids questioned him about airbending he took the excuse to flick out his glider and do a lap around the village. It was so good to be free! He got a little carried away, spiraling upwards, looking out over a landscape that didn’t have a clearly defined end. Miles of water and snow and ice curving away to the horizons below.
Rocky was out there. Moonbeam was out there. Star was out there.
And now he could finally go find them.
Katara went to bed first. She didn’t mention it to Sokka or Aang, but she was worried about how her other soulmates were dealing with Cloud’s disappearance from the dreamscape.
Her concerns were well founded. The instant she appeared in the dreamscape she was covered with tendrils of light and being tackled by her luminous soulmate in an uncharacteristically physical display of emotions.
“He’s gone!” She cried. “Cloud is gone!”
“He just vanished!” Rocky yelled, clinging tightly to Katara’s arm. “Huggy is missing too!” Rocky was climbing her now, the way she used to with Star (and only with Star, how afraid was she to climb Katara like this).
“His stuff is still here!” Moonbeam babbled. Her coils of light were curled over Rocky too. “And I swear, it wasn’t the same as Star, but I don’t understand how it happen-”
“It’s okay!” Katara interrupted in a rush. “We woke him up! He’s just awake!”
“What?” Moonbeam pulled back. Her face was covered with shadows which meant she’d been crying.
“That’s impossible.” Rocky said, her arms wrapped a bit too tightly around Katara’s neck. “Cloud doesn’t wake up. He can’t. Do you have midnight sun madness?”
“No.” Katara shook her head, unable to contain her wide smile. “Cub and I found him.” She told them what had happened: about the iceberg, the blue light emanating from his tattoos, and breaking him free. “I knew as soon as he spoke.” She added. She and Sokka had always known their recognition triggers. Even after the initial recognition, there was still a burst of rightness and comfort when exposed to her soulmate’s voice, especially after time apart. It was the same with Sokka, her parents used to love embarrassing him with stories about how often they’d catch him sniffing his baby sister. “He really is alright, Moonbeam.” She squeezed her shoulder. Rocky had slid down from Katara as she calmed down, but was still holding on to both of them. “He’s incredibly excited and still getting used to being awake again. Oh! And Huggy is there too!” She clapped her hands. “He’s more tired than Cloud and hasn’t flown yet, but they both seem completely fine!”
“When you wake up, you’d better tell Cloud to go to sleep.” Rocky ordered, relieved but pushy as ever. “Look at how bad he scared Moonbeam!”
Moonbeam did not contradict her, not even a faux protest, which just drove home Rocky’s point. The number of light filaments had reduced but a dozen still wound around each of them, trembling with agitation.
Moonbeam had been there with her when Star vanished. Seeing the one soulmate who was always present in the dreamscape disappear before her eyes would have sent Katara into a tailspin too. She suddenly felt guilty for not trying to take a quick nap on Appa immediately after finding Aang. Not that she was sure she would have been able to sleep but she should have tried.
“I’ll make sure he goes to bed right away.” She promised.
“I want to go with you.” Sokka said from behind Aang. Aang looked back at him. Sokka was standing just inside of the door of the large tent, his voice pitched low to avoid being overheard. “I know you are going to leave. You’ve been desperate to travel since I was born and with Star out there, there is no way that you would just stay here in the South Pole.” Aang smiled wanly at him.
“I guess I wasn’t hiding my wanderlust very well.” He said. Sokka shrugged.
“Anyone would be restless in your situation, especially with how you grew up.” Sokka scratched the back of his head. “You and Appa were always going to travel if you woke up… but I don’t know if I would be asking to go with you or not if it weren’t for Star.”
“I remember.” Aang said. Sokka’s vow to find Star had helped Aang a lot after Star disappeared, but it hadn’t been just for him. That promise wasn’t changing now that Aang was awake to search for their lost soulmate too. “I would love to travel with you, Katara too, if she wants to come.” Sokka looked a little uncomfortable at the addition of his sister to such a dangerous journey but he didn’t object. “This isn’t the world I know.” Aang continued, a little sad. “I know I can’t just fly into the Fire Nation like I used to, but I would appreciate your help remembering that.”
Sokka sighed. “Do you even know where in the Fire Nation Star could be?”
“He lived in the Capital.” Aang answered immediately. “Star’s family is unquestionably involved in politics and the architecture he added mostly matches what I remember from the Capital the last time I visited before tensions started getting bad.” He sat down and cupped his chin with his palm thoughtfully. “The beach looked like one of the higher end resort islands, maybe the Sansu Archipelago or Ember Island.” Sokka gaped at him and Aang snorted a laugh. “You seriously have no idea how much I missed proper nouns, Sokka… of the South Pole.” He added with a cheeky grin.
“I have some.” Sokka managed to shut his mouth. “Still, we can’t exactly march into the Fire Nation Capital and start asking questions.” Aang sighed. It hurt but he understood it. Sokka continued, cupping his own chin, deep in thought. “I will think about our options. I bet there’s more of them than we realize.”
Aang nodded in agreement. “The information we have is too limited.” He said. “We’ll gather more after we leave and come up with a plan.”
Sokka smiled tiredly at him. “I’ll sleep on what we do know and see what I can come up with for now.” He fought back a yawn. “And Cloud, Aang?” He corrected himself. “I’m really glad that you are awake.
Aang smiled back. “Me too.”
There was no way that Aang was going to sleep. He was wired and he wasn’t ready to go back to the dreamscape yet. (He was a little afraid that if he did he wouldn’t be able to wake up again.) So, when Sokka went to bed, Aang went for a walk. He left Appa to get some sleep, the bison was more worn out by their ordeal than he was.
He was slowly reacclimating to his physical body: the gurgle of his stomach, the aches from rusty joints, the release of stretching, the feeling of gravity resisting his airbending in a way that didn’t quite translate to the dreamscape. Even sore muscles felt good.
He kept walking, enjoying the quiet of nothing but ice, water, and wind around him. He liked people and he loved his soulmates, but time alone had become a valuable commodity that he could only grab snatches of for years. This time by himself was almost as novel as being awake at all.
He’d been wandering and exploring for an hour, even taking a minute to penguin sled and making a mental note to insist on doing it with Katara and Sokka before they left the South Pole, when suddenly, he was surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers.
“Hello, airbender.” A young man with a ponytail and partially shaven scalp stepped forward. He couldn’t tell how old he was, maybe eighteen or nineteen? Aang met his golden eyes, his gaze instinctively drawn to his most noticeable feature. The large scar and the flicker of relief warring with a scowl on his face. “I have some questions for you… about the Avatar.”
Kanna shook both Sokka and Katara awake shortly after Rocky and Moonbeam woke up. “The Fire Nation ship has come to shore outside of the village.” She warned. “And your soulmate has not come back from his walk.”
Sokka snatched up his parka and boomerang and raced out of the tent, still woefully underprepared for the cold. Katara took a little more time, throwing on warmer clothing and grabbing what Sokka had forgotten.
Sokka rushed out of the village, heart beating hard. His eyes darted around and he spotted Aang’s trail meandering off the beaten path, vanishing as he, presumably, used airbending and reappearing twenty feet away. Sokka chased after it, one eye on the ship no more than half a mile off. Two years of that ship showing up and keeping its distance, bar that initial meeting when it first showed up and they approach the day after he and Katara wake up Cloud? The Fire Nation killed all the airbenders. What would they do if they found one now?!
Sokka found them quickly. The soldiers surrounded Aang. There were four soldiers and a guy with a ponytail tied high on his head while the rest of his scalp was as bald as Aang’s. He looked like he was the one in charge. Sokka crept forward. Whatever the Fire Nation jerk was saying had Aang spooked even though the guy’s hands were placatingly open. (Good to know that Cloud knew not to trust the empty gesture.) Sokka tried to think of a way out of this. Five soldiers, including the jerk in charge, weren’t that many, but he was alone and at least three of them were benders judging by their stance and empty hands. They needed to get out of there.
The guy in charge stepped forward, raising his voice and Aang flinched back. Without thinking, Sokka chucked his boomerang, nailing him right in his ponytail. It wasn’t a smart move. Sokka just saw an aggressive firebender scare his newly awakened soulmate, the only soulmate that had truly been safe from the dangers of the world for Sokka’s whole life, and he reacted.
In that instant, Aang threw out an explosion of air that sent all of the soldiers flying, except the ponytail guy who flipped as the air pushed him back and landed cleanly on his feet.
Sokka darted forward, catching his boomerang and planting himself solidly between Aang and the Fire Nation guy, barely noticing the huge scar on his face. The guy hesitated for a moment.
“Are you from the village?” He asked, narrowed yellow-gold eyes looking him up and down.
Sokka’s mind snapped through his answers in an instant. “No.” He said firmly. It probably wouldn’t keep his village out of this, but he could try.
“Good.” The firebender’s expression relaxed and he attacked him.
Sokka was so grateful for the sparring and drills he’d created with Star. They were the only reason that he was able to hold his own against the firebender, parrying his fire, breaking his stance, avoiding his strikes. He was still being pushed back, but he wasn’t being overwhelmed.
“Prince Zuko!” One of the soldiers shouted. They had recovered and were circling Aang, Sokka, and the jerk. Two of them held spears and the others had their hands raised, ready to bend.
“Look, can we just talk about this?” Aang asked as if he were mediating an argument between Moonbeam and Rocky instead of facing down firebenders and soldiers. Luckily his words distracted the Prince Zuko guy Sokka was fighting and he was able to lunge forward with his first counterstrike… completely missing the two spears flying towards him. Two spears that Aang saw clearly, as if in slow motion, about to strike the soulmate he’d practically raised.
His eyes widened even as they began to glow.
And Aang entered the Avatar State.
Katara had always seen Cloud as an adult. Even if she looked older than him now, her earliest memory of him was being picked up and set on his hip while Star bickered with her big brother. Star and Moonbeam were her older siblings but Cloud was always more like her youngest guardian. So, she wasn’t surprised that he was hiding something from them. Adults did that a lot. She was surprised it was this.
Aang was surrounded by all four elements. Fire Nation soldiers were scattered around him, flat on their backs, save one with a scar and a ponytail who stared at Aang with horror and elation.
“The Avatar!” He shouted loudly enough for Katara to hear him. Sokka gaped up at Aang. The glowing faded and Aang collapsed on to the snow. The man with the scar started forward. Katara used what bending she could from this distance to raise the snow up around his legs and freeze him in place. Sokka took the chance to grab Aang, pulling him onto his back and running with him. Katara snatched up the staff, which had been thrown far enough away that she could retrieve it without the man she’d trapped in ice seeing her. He was melting through the ice rapidly while shouting at the other soldiers.
Katara ran.
Aang came out of his daze while they were running and when they reached the village, Kanna had already packed their things.
“It will be best if you can make a big show of leaving.” She told them gravely. “If they follow you, keep going. Give us time to relocate. I trust you to find us without any problems whenever you return.” Katara and Sokka hugged her. Aang went to thank her but she interrupted. “Hold on to this.” She handed him a Pai Sho tile. “You are very showy, young man. I don’t know if it will help, but it is good for you to have.” Aang nodded, surprised by the White Lotus tile in his hand but he didn’t have time to ask more.
“Thank you, Kanna. I’m sorry for the trouble.” He said, jumping on Appa’s head.
“It was good meeting my grandchildren’s other caretaker. Pity we don’t have more time.” Kanna waved. “You’d best survive so we can trade embarrassing stories about them.”
“Gran-Gran!” Sokka protested, flushing as Appa took off.
Aang swooped over the place where they’d fought and the Fire Nation ship, shocking an old man on the deck, then headed northwest. As they hoped, the ship shuddered to life and followed them.
Safely in Appa’s saddle, Sokka turned on Aang. “You’re the Avatar?!”