Archive of Our Own

1)

If she planned it right, Katara will be half-way to the Southern Air Temple before anyone realises she’s gone. 

And because Katara’s so thoughtful and considerate, she left enough evidence to ascertain where she and Sokka were going. When they’re found–when, not if, as the Southern Water Tribe only has their best warriors assigned to watch her every move–she can at least return to her frantic parents, an agitated Master Pakku, and a relieved Gran-Gran with her head held high, arms full of airbending materials. By Sokka’s estimates, and the speed of his ship–heavily disguised as a ransacked merchant trawler–they’ll have roughly a month to crawl around the Air Temple ruins, but time is already beginning to dwindle.

As the shining jewel of the mountain range that crowns the Southern peaks, Katara can only get brief glimpses of the snow-capped temple as the fog and clouds occasionally parted. The sun is hazy, barely cutting through the grey sky above them, as they climb higher and higher throughout the hills. Before they set out, she knew there would be a degree of hiking, if her scrolls were true, but she didn’t anticipate the days of upward motion, the air getting thinner around them.

“Y’know, now is one of those times I wish you picked a more useful spirit guide.” Sokka grumbles as he shoulders his heavy pack. “Like, what was wrong with the humble Arctic Camel? Or even something cool, like an owl wolf or something? Then we could’ve been carried up the mountain. But no, you had to go with an oversized white winter muskrat.”

Next to her, as if Aniu can sense Sokka talking about her, her ears begin to curl in, paws coming to brace her face.

“Don’t be a jerk!” Katara says instead, cuddling her companion closer to her. She tucks her back into her parka, allowing her small head to pop out, serving as a means to keep Katara warm in the frigid chill. “She’s trying her best!”

As she climbs, Katara remembers her goal, renewing her determination to see it to completion. The Fire Nation grows desperate day by day, moving further and further into Earth Kingdom territory along an insidious warpath, and naval blockades restricting communication between the North and South Pole has confirmed the worst for Katara. 

Fire Lord Ozai knows the next Avatar has been found, and he knows they want to end the war. 

Katara can’t defeat the Fire Lord with three elements, and she certainly can’t be the only Avatar in history that didn’t become fully realised.

The odds are stacked against Avatar Katara, but in her short life, she has already accomplished so much. She keeps the South Pole safe against the Fire Nation, her identity a tightly held secret, even hidden from her wider tribe. She also heals the warriors when they return, feeling satisfied with the knowledge that while she is the Avatar and she will bring balance to the world, she has more practical ways of helping the people around her.

And when called upon, if the onslaught is deadly, she joins the warriors when they wage war amidst the ice caps, even if she can see the terror in her parents eyes. It’s one of the reasons she hasn’t been able to truly join the war effort in the Earth Kingdom, knowing how essential she is to their war effort, but a few weeks without her and Sokka won’t be too disruptive.

(“I wonder what Mom and Dad are doing right now.” Katara says as they set up camp on the first night, feeling slightly guilty as the night crept in around them, and hoping Sokka feels the same.

With a sigh, Sokka stokes their small fire. “Will you quit thinking about our parents? You know what they’re like, I bet they're mobilising the men and banging the war drums.”

“You think they’re worried?” She asks, biting on her lower lip.

“They better be! I’d like to think the parents of the secret Avatar are a bit worried that she’s out of their immediate sight for the first time in a decade.”)

Katara’s journey as the Avatar has been unconventional, to say the least. She mastered waterbending at the age of twelve, and became Master Pakku’s first female waterbending student, singlehandedly ending his long-held, sexist beliefs, a feat she knows she would’ve achieved with or without being the Avatar. She mastered Earth in less than eighteen months, kept in the fortress city of Omashu while her parents and her brother cut their teeth on full-scale war strategising. She mastered Fire in less than a year, this time with only Sokka for company, in a lake in the North of the Earth Kingdom with a Fire Nation defector.

Katara may not have an airbending teacher, but she does have determination, and a stubborn streak that’s been referred to as her greatest strength and greatest weakness, many, many times over. If no one will teach her the Thirty Six Tiers, she will simply have to do it herself

(And unlike Avatar Roku, she will lay the foundation for the Earth-element Avatar who will succeed her to do the same.)

2) 

Eventually, the mountain turns from its rocky terrain to small, dilapidated houses, huts, stone staircases that sometimes lead nowhere, the rocks jagged and sharp. Sokka continues his griping, continues to whine and moan about the cold, about his feet hurting, but he’s quick to jump in front of her, club raised, at the slightest sound of something lurking, poised to attack. It is almost always a humble creature who has made the empty Air Temple their home, but the further into the Temple grounds they traverse, the more aware Katara is of the loss that surrounds her, weighing heavy on her spirit until tears come to her eyes.

It is a grim sight, the devastation that follows her from room to room. She sees open-air gardens that have been overrun by wild plants that died when the weather changed, an interesting area where large, wooden poles are arranged in a sequence, and every floor and room has wide, arched windows, large enough for people to walk through. 

The wind rattles through the Temple and Katara can hear the voices of those who once filled its halls with life, joy and community.

“Hey,” Sokka says, placing his hand on her shoulder. In his other hand, he has a dried sea prune, one of Aniu’s favourites, and she emerges from Katara’s parka, running down the length of his arm to claim his peace-offering. “I’m here if you need me. You don’t have to do this alone.”

With a shaky nod, Katara leans into her brother’s strength, allowing it to bring her power, bring her strength. “I just don’t have the words.” Is all she says, and even that sounds futile.

As they meander the Temple more and more, the wind continues to howl, creating a cacophony of sounds, of shutters slamming and chimes jangling erratically. All at once, the wind picks up, stronger than the gales and gusts that come down South, forcing Katara and Sokka to hold onto each other. Katara bends the earth around her ankles to keep her and Sokka on their feet as the wind drives them deeper and deeper into the corridor.

Before them, a door with a series of wooden tubes, blue airbender sigils and golden links is at the end of the corridor. As the wind fills air through them, they begin to shake, and with a sick feeling settling in her stomach, Katara can only watch as each sigil begins to flip around.

“Sokka!” She cries, as she feels the air begin to lift her, releasing her from her tether to the ground. “Hold onto me!”

The door opens and closes in a split second. The darkness is thick and suffocating until her eyes adjust, the air stale. Sokka is already pushing back against the door with heaving grunts, but within the sanctum, Katara’s breath hitches. 

Before her, a great, white beast is curled into itself, its head bowed. Atop of its head, a teenage boy sits in a meditative pose, eyes closed and his fists held together. Around him, dozens of statues fill the room, spiraling above into the ceiling. With a start, Katara can see the blue arrows on the back of his hands and along his scalp. He looks preserved, almost in a trance, as much of a vestige as the very Temple they stand in. She can feel Sokka behind her as she creeps forward, and then moves with a start once she realises the boy is falling forward, straight into her arms.

“Katara, don’t cradle dead bodies!” Sokka hisses, reaching out to pull her away. “The Temple is mummifying people!”

“Stop it!” Katara says, forcing Sokka’s thoughts from her head. Her hope flutters inside her chest as he begins to stir. 

Sleet grey eyes meet hers, and he gasps softly, as if air has filled his lungs for the first time in a long while. Katara’s heart hammers in her ears as he begins to mumble.

“I need to… ask you something…”

“What, what is it?” Katara asks, leaning forward. Next to her, even Sokka is on guard, hanging onto every breath.

Suddenly, the boy’s mouth splits into a broad grin. “Do you wanna play airball with me?”

“Uh, sure, I guess.” Katara says, dumbfounded.

With a swift gust of wind, the boy is up and out of her arms, standing at full height before her. He does it in a quick, effortless way, as if he didn’t just accomplish the greatest bending feat in the last one hundred years.

Katara can hardly believe her eyes when she feels Sokka help her up off the ground, and her voice is full of joy as she laughs.

“You’re an airbender!”

And all of a sudden, Avatar Katara feels hope unfurl itself from her chest with a shuddering breath.

3) 

Avatar Roku tried his best to prepare the world for his successor, and the horrors and strife that would follow the Avatar spirit. And while Katara found a lot of his arrangements essential to her training, she still wishes he took a second or two to respond whenever she tries to connect to her past life.

Other ways Avatar Roku prepared the Avatar that would be born into the Water nation after he died included, but were not limited to; defecting against his homeland, keeping the Fire Nation’s expansion of the world at bay, assembling a secret sect of powerful individuals–bender and non-bender alike, from all four Nations–to keep the Avatar safe, and living to the wisended age of 109.

His preparations had ensured that Master Pakku from her sister-tribe relocated to the South with a moment’s notice when it was apparent she was the next Avatar. She mastered waterbending at the age of twelve, and became Master Pakku’s first female waterbending student, singlehandedly ending his long-held, sexist beliefs, a feat she knows she would’ve achieved with or without being the Avatar. 

His preparations meant that she was still able to learn to earthbending from King Bumi, selected for his formidable strength and talent, but also for the security the fortress city of Omashu would provide her. She mastered Earth in less than eighteen months, while her parents and her brother cut their teeth on full-scale war strategising.

His preparations also meant that the Fire Nation defector network was its own autonomous system, that helped not only those trying to flee the war, it also ensured there were people like Jeong Jeong who were willing to teach her firebending. She mastered Fire in less than a year, this time with only Sokka for company, in a lake in the North of the Earth Kingdom.

And then there was the issue of learning to airbend…

In her past life, Roku was twenty five when Fire Lord Sozin threw his childhood friend off to complete his Airbending training in a remote part of the Southern Air Temple, then launched a grotesque campaign against all four Air Nation Temples. The motive, if any, is still lost to history. By the time the smoke reached the Avatar, now the last known Master of Airbending left in the world, there was nothing more that could be done, apart from meet fire with fire.

Roku’s preparations are full of grand, vast plans that can’t be shared with her, due to their sensitivity, due to the ever-changing reality of the war that grips the nations. She knows she has allies across the world, in expected and unlikely places, those who are loud in their belief that the one to end the War will be the Avatar, born again into the Fire Nation’s opposing element, and the few, very few, who know her identity, keep it like a secret, sworn like an oath. Learning the elements is only the first part of Katara’s role.

If she didn’t have Sokka to keep her grounded in a life that suppressed her identity, in fear that the needle of the Fire Nation’s compass would move South, she thinks she would’ve gone mad by now. 

But in the sixteen years since Avatar Roku’s death, the Fire Nation begins to advance at a pace they couldn’t achieve before, now that there isn’t an all-powerful being with the four elements at his disposal. Avatar Roku was ruthless, but where he could, he tried to keep the fighting isolated. Avatar Roku was renowned for his attempts at calling an Agni Kai with the Fire Lord–from Sozin, to Azulon, to Ozai–to minimise the civilian devastation, appealing to his former countrymen that their Fire Lord would rather see his people slaughtered than face an elderly man.

Avatar Roku would also raze forests and Fire Nation colonies to the ground, if his hand was forced. Tsunamis battered the coasts of significant Fire Nation industrial hubs, leveling towns and villages. Entire terrains were uprooted and earthquakes followed with the push of his hand. Hurricanes and twisters rained from above. While he did it to protect the people of the world, he also sowed fear, caused destruction, creating a legacy that Katara had to find a place within.

Roku was also only one man. Where he tried to quell one fire, there was always more, and with every attack, the Fire Nation managed to learn from them. If Avatar Roku waged war from the sky, on the back of his dragon Fang, the Fire Nation were already manufacturing war balloons to meet him there.

When she tells Aang all of this, his eyes seem distant. The beast he sat upon in the Air Temple Sanctuary isn’t a beast at all, but instead his Air Bison, Appa, who joined him in his slumber. Katara and Sokka tried their best to explain to Aang what happened to the Temple before he ran out to see the tomb left behind, but he was too quick for them and met the crushing realisation with full force.

(Katara held him as he wept and wept and wept, and with a hushed breath, promised that she would protect him, as the Avatar should.)

They sit on Appa as they fly above the South Sea. It was an easy decision to ditch Sokka’s ship and use Appa to return home, given their urgency. Katara is careful with how she speaks to him about her status as the Avatar, even if on the inside, she feels as if she might burst at the excitement that she will actually become a fully realised Avatar, if Aang is willing to teach her. Aniu seems to be a big fan of him, at least, sitting in his lap and purring, but she isn’t the biggest fan of the winged lemur that’s imprinted on him.

“I guess I really am the last air bender.” Aang says, tucking his knees up to his chin. “I knew I shouldn’t’ve gone in there! I just needed somewhere to hide… and then…”

Katara puts her hand over his, meeting his eyes with a caring smile. “It’s not your fault, Aang.” She says, and tries to push as much reassurance and care into her voice. 

She feels oddly drawn to him, feeling the same strong gale as the one in the Temple at her back when she sits with him on Appa. She was once told that Avatars need spiritual leaders too, someone to help them navigate their role as the bridge between the spirit world and their world. She wonders if this is who Aang is meant to be for her.

“They attacked during a Holy Festival, Aang, you weren’t to know.” Sokka says, in the same comforting tone he uses when Katara feels the crushing weight of her title.

“Why did I survive, when no one else did?” He mutters to himself. Katara can’t find an answer for him, but she does hold his hand tighter. “I’m not some… great master, and I should’ve been a better Monk. There’s so many… there were so many better people this should’ve happened to.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know why, Aang.” Katara says, as her voice turns from warm reassurances, to a hardened steel. “But what I can say is that we’re glad you did, and we’ll do everything in our power to make sure this never happens again.”

4)

The Avatar State feels like she is out of her body, above herself, watching it unfold as if the person at the apex of the water vortex isn’t her. 

“Katara, come on! Snap out of it!” Sokka yells against the chaos, huddled behind one of the flipped over Fire Nation tanks. She can see from here the devastation on her brother’s face, and for a second Katara feels shame at the fear in his voice, until the hurt and pain comes back with an aching throb. 

“It’s her Avatar Spirit!” Aang calls back to him. At first, before she understood the full extent of the Fire Nation attack on the Southern Water Tribe, she was fixated on watching Aang fight with an extinct bending style. He is fast and evasive, able to redirect the force of the fire benders with a power that seemed nearly incompatible with his lanky stature, and graceful movements. He’s able to quell the air currents to prevent the fires from spreading, with strong gales he can even displace snow, nearly like he was water bending, and when it’s needed, his hand-to-hand fighting is precise. “Your mother… that must’ve triggered it.”

When he says it, Katara hears herself let out another anguished howl, the noise deafening across the battlefield. The pain she feels is overwhelming and all she wants to do is scream and scream and scream  until every single Fire Nation boat that attacked her home sits at the bottom of the sea.

(The soot that fell soft as snow was the first inkling something was wrong. As they flew closer and closer, it was evident that the fighting had been going on for hours, if not days, and without hesitating, without questioning it, they flew into action.)

“I’m gonna try and calm her down. I’m the only one that can reach her up there.” Aang shouts, tossing his glider to Sokka.

(From across the battlefield, she saw it happen. One moment, Mom was standing with her jaw blade raised, until someone came down hard from behind and then–)

“Please, Aang.” Sokka pleads, and Katara struggles with the knowledge this is from her hand, from her doing. Their father holds Sokka against him, tears streaming down his face. Katara is hurting her family, and the spirit inside her only seems to feed off of it. “She’s gonna destroy herself, and take the whole Tribe with her.”

(Katara could only watch. She was too far away. She’d never make it in time. She could hear the flames igniting, the sound of each blooming lick ringing in her ears.)

Aang nods firmly, his hands spinning to create a current of wind to propel him up.

(“Mom! No!” Katara felt a surge of grief, and suddenly the noise stopped, everything stopped, white light filling her eyes and mouth and turning all her pain into power.)

“Katara, I know you’re upset, and I feel your pain, as much as I feel my own right now.”  He calls to her, trying to break through to her. “Your mom… and Monk Gyatso… and the other airbenders,” She remembers with a jolt that Aang’s grief is fresh and raw, akin to her own right now. But he doesn’t meet it with anger and rage, putting that aside to help her. “But you’re not alone, Katara, I’m here with you, and so is your family.”

Katara hasn’t even known Aang longer than a week, but she feels overwhelmed by his care for her, as he meets the Avatar Spirit with kindness.

Avatar Roku used the Avatar state in vengeance, sending the nation of his birth into ruin and wreckage. And now as his successor, Katara does the same.

The water begins to ebb, releasing her from the whirlpool at her feet. There are no Fire Nation soldiers left, their ships sent off to sea, and the stragglers, those brave enough to go diving into the freezing ocean to save themselves, all look at her in horror.

Back on the cracked ice, Katara can feel herself return to her body, a slight comfort. She can feel Aang’s presence next to her, his chi warm and bright, the same feeling as the sun shining on her face.

“We aren’t going to let anything happen to you, I promise.” He says, taking her hand, and slowly, steadily, like the tide ebbing and flowing, Katara comes back, collapsing against Aang with a soft thud. 

“I’m sorry.” She can sense him tuck her head under his chin, arms circling around her. She’s so sad and so tired, feeling the course of the day wash over her. 

“It’s not your fault, Katara.”

“I wasn’t here when they attacked!” She heaves and the tears she couldn’t shed in the Avatar state roll down her cheeks. “And I was too weak to stop them, I can’t be the Avatar if I can’t protect–”

The people I love goes unsaid, as Sokka and Dad fall to their knees next to her.

5) 

The Fire Nation raid has three consequences.

The first is significant damage to the Southern Water Tribe’s defenses. The Tribe were no strangers to conflict with the Fire Nation, but this was the first time the War came on land, and attacked the innocent. Homes destroyed, families split apart, extensive casualties to their forces. Katara helps where she can with healing, pushing through her own grief as children with burns and soldiers with wounds come to her for aid.

The second is that now the world is aware the Avatar has returned. Master Pakku gets an urgent scroll delivered by a distinctly fire nation-looking messenger hawk, but the seal is that of a white lotus pai sho tile. When Katara entered the Avatar state for the first time, the elemental sages across the world were alerted through bright bursts of light.

“I mean, traditionally, isn’t the Avatar sixteen when they get announced to the world?” Aang says, and Katara can tell he’s trying to be positive. “You’re sixteen, right, maybe it was always gonna happen like that.”

Katara frowns, focusing on putting all of her aggression and frustration into twisting the pestle deeper into the dried seaweed. Everything is out of her control right now, but ensuring that the Tribe is stockpiled with poultices is something she does have control over. “I don’t think we can rely on tradition, Aang. Avatar Roku lived until he was 109. I feel like a lot has changed in one hundred years.”

“Don’t I know it.” Aang says with a laugh, making Katara smile.

“Sorry,” Katara flushes. “I need to remember I can’t say that so… non-chalantly.”

“No, no, you can be as chalant as you like.” Aang grins. He’s fifteen years old, but has a quick-witted way about him. From the corner of the room, Katara can see Dad watching the two of them closely. “Anyway, wow! Did Roku really live to be 109?”

“Why,” Sokka drawls, clearly feeling bored in the fledgling medical hut, but also not wanting to be away from this family. “Did you know him or something?”

“Well, I definitely saw him around,” Aang says, with a casualness that disturbs everyone in the room. “He came to the Air Temple a few months before I…” He goes quiet for a second, and then starts speaking again, the momentary dip in his voice forgotten. “But because we had the same airbending Master, I heard a lot about him. For airbending, it's said that a connection is formed with those who were taught by the same masters, hours apart, days apart, years apart, generations apart, no matter how long it’s been! It tethers spirits, lets you pass on your master’s legacy.”

“Really?” Dad asks, a fragment of a smile on his face. “Does that make you tethered to Avatar Roku’s spirit, then?”

Sokka’s eyes widen, the same reaction he makes when one of his contraptions doesn’t burst into flames on his first attempt. “Which means, does that make you tethered to–”

Katara feels her face warm. In theory, maybe they’re tethered, but that has an implication that Katara can’t deal with right now.

“Yes, Aang!” She cuts Sokka off, turning to face Aang with a forced smile. “Avatar Roku did live to be 109.” Pointedly, she doesn’t comment on his and her past life’s tethered spirits.

“It’s not that crazy when you think about it.” Aang says with a shrug. “I mean, I’m technically 115. Oh! And Avatar Kyoshi lived to 230!”

In shock, Katara nearly spills the contents of her mortar.

“I could live for another two hundred years!?!”

The third consequence feels similarly weighted to the second. Aang didn’t even have a few days to deal with the fact he’s now the last airbender, let alone figure out how he would announce the return of the fourth element. 

“My tattoos are pretty identifiable, huh.” He says one day, a month after the attack. He still wears his airbending robes, as he salvaged from the dormitories that also remained untouched to time, and cold weather doesn’t seem to phase him. Left with no choice for fabric, Katara repurposed one of the giant Fire Nation flags into a cape that she lined with fur, with gloves and a hat to match.

Katara hesitates to answer. On one hand, she doesn’t want to discourage him, and she wants him to be proud of his culture and his survival, but there is also part of her who wishes she could go back to a time where it was easier for her to hide she was the Avatar, so she understands his plight.

While she has no truly distinct characteristics, the decision for her, Aang and Sokka to leave the Southern Water Tribe was one she took with a heavy heart, but it does expose them to more dangers as they travel across the Earth Kingdom continent. The next phase of Avatar Roku’s preparation is set to begin, and it’ll bring them to Ba Sing Se to meet the Earth King. It’ll be easier with Appa, of course, but now the world knows the Avatar is a typical Water Tribe girl, travelling with the only airbender in existence, with the only Air Bison in existence. It’ll be hard to stay discreet.

“I’m sure we can find other ways to hide them, if you’d want.”

As the preparations for their departure grow and grow, Katara feels like no matter what she does, it will be the wrong choice. She’s afraid to leave in case they attack again, this time harder and stronger and with more destruction. She’s afraid to leave Dad and Gran-Gran, so soon after Mom died. Of course she’s been outside of the Tribe for learning Earth and Fire, but they felt like controlled situations, where the calls were made for her, where she was secure in the knowledge that her family supported her.

She’s afraid to actually use the elements she has at her disposal. She’s the most concerned about Earth Bending, not only because it’s an element she has no access to, but she remembers being unsure if she was strong enough to move something so certain, so solid, when she relies on the adaptability of water to feel safe, secure. King Bumi was an excellent teacher, but he had a teaching style that meant Katara did a lot of learning as she went, always being thrown from one lesson into the next, unsure what she should expect next.

Firebending was the hardest element for Katara to learn so far. Her bending power came from her emotions and her feelings, making her feel vulnerable and exposed. There were days when Jeong Jeong would meet her after breakfast outside of their little huts set up opposite each other, and simply shake his head, able to tell just from her greeting that she was too anxious and too pent up to be trusted with an element as volatile as fire.

The next element is air, the next stage of her journey in becoming a fully realised Avatar, and she’s afraid with all the change that has happened in such a short time.

Aang knows all this. Not just because he lets her prattle on about it at any moment, but because he can see in her face, as he pulls her out of the medical tent for a round of penguin sledding. She can forget about leaving home, learning the elements, defeating the Fire Lord, as she chases Aang down winding tunnels and crisp snowbanks, his cheers the only sound she wants to hear.

One time, his hat gets knocked off, and Katara freezes as she notices the short fuzz of dark hair against his skin. It doesn’t cover his arrows–yet, she thinks–but eventually it will, and depending on how long he grows it, or if he has a headband or two, he might actually conceal it. She notices then that he’s taken to wearing the three-hole mittens like the men in her tribe, with bandages up his forearm.

“I’m proud to be the Last Airbender, but I don’t want to put that on you either.” He says with a smile, but Katara can’t quite place the emotion. 

“Aang,” Katara starts, and her voice wavers. “You really don’t have to do this, there are other ways to disguise you–disguise us, even!”

“I said I wouldn’t let anything happen to you and I intend to keep that promise. The Fire Nation knows the Avatar is travelling with someone with my tattoos. It’s a no-brainer, Katara.”

With a sigh of defeat, she nods numbly, feeling guilty that he has to do this. “I see your point.” Then she turns to face him, and at the same height, she points at his head. “But as soon as you can, you’re shaving it! You hear?”

“Is that an Avatar promise?” He asks with a grin, bashfully running his hand along the fledging hairs.

“That’s an Avatar order.”

6) 

Travelling with Aang feels like she’s been given the world to hold in her hand.

He takes them to places she’s heard of before, like Kyoshi Island. The little island village is just as deeply affected by the war but still life goes on. It’s Sokka who suggests they stay there for a few months for Katara’s airbending training to begin, but they can’t stay on Kyoshi Island long-term, as it seems too obvious, and the Fire Nation presence they stumble upon is enough reason for them to stay clear. 

When she returns to Omashu, it turns out that King Bumi is an old friend of Aang’s, and her stomach flips with his connection to her Avatar spirit. Again, Sokka proposes for them to remain there for a few months, so Aang and Katara can properly begin her air bending training, but it becomes a non-viable option very quickly. Not just because he tries to encase Sokka and Aang in growing crystals for old time’s sake and wind Katara up, but he must prioritise the safety of his people, with the Fire Nation at their gates.

(It is also King Bumi who says, in no vague, or uncertain terms, that Katara must defeat the Fire Lord, and bending and strength will not be enough. Aang reassures her that she shouldn’t mind Bumi’s ‘nonsense ramblings’, but she can tell that it’s bothered him too.)

Aang doesn’t talk about how strange he feels, to see the world he once explored so thoroughly, now so different. His hair grows thick and dark, but Katara finds she misses his arrows. Aniu takes to their nomadic lifestyle in her stride, but her winter coat means she’s either in phases of shedding or getting overheated in the balmiest of climates.

Katara can’t believe she thought the world began and ended on the icy plains of the South Pole, or in the controlled world the White Lotus has reluctantly given her access to. The world is so much bigger than she could’ve ever imagined. 

She helps liberate an Earth bending prison, and accidentally draws a large amount of attention to the fact that, absolutely, the Avatar is back, and she will bring balance to the world, with three out of four elements under her belt. None of the villagers are Masters, but Katara tries her best to pass along her knowledge, until it becomes obvious they must move on again. She makes a promise to Haru that she’ll return with the proper resources, sending a scrawling hawk to Pakku at home to see what he can do.

They make a fine trio. Katara practices her bending, getting stronger and stronger every day, Sokka takes his role as chief strategist annoyingly seriously, Aang risks life and limb to ride an elephant koi fish and makes friends everywhere he goes.

His role as her spiritual guide feels like a blessing when she ventures into the Spirit World for the first time. Even if Aang himself isn’t confident, she’s grateful for the wisdom Monk Gyatso passed on to his pupil.

“Well, he was always telling me this stuff when he thought I wasn’t listening, but if it’s helpful for you, I’m glad I managed to remember it.” 

When she shares that they need to go to the Avatar Temple in the Fire Nation, Aang doesn’t even hesitate to change Appa’s course.

Meeting Avatar Roku fills Katara with a heaviness she didn’t realise she was carrying. Ever since she found out she was the Avatar, she’s been crying out for a chance to speak to someone who understands. Not like the way Sokka tries to understand, or how Aang has a common threat on his back, but actually, truly, understands what it's like to be the Avatar.

(It hurts to think about Mom, who always tried her best, who thought the hardest conversations she’d be having with her daughter would be about puberty, periods and crushing on boys. Unlike Sokka, and by extension, her dad, Mom had a way of just being there, without needing to find solutions or needing to rationalise everything. Mom was able to hold her tight, kiss her forehead, and calm her down, giving her the space to figure out what she wants to do.)

“It’s good to see you, Katara. What took you so long?” Roku says, his voice warm and friendly. 

In the Spirit World, Avatar Roku does not look 109, but still aged, possibly at the prime of his powers. Katara has seen the products of her predecessor’s fight against the Fire Nation, seen in the Earth Kingdom, in former Fire Nation colonies, or attempts of colonies, and even here in the Fire Nation, at the site of his own Temple. When face to face with the man, she feels his power, simmering beneath the surface.

His words bring dread. “Sozin's Comet will return by the end of this summer, and Fire Lord Ozai will use its power to finish the War, once and for all. If he succeeds, even the Avatar won't be able to restore balance to the world. Katara, you must defeat the Fire Lord before the comet arrives.”

Finally, some wisdom from her past life, but it shatters what little security she felt about the plans the man himself in front of her made. If he could’ve informed her of this when she was first discovered as the Avatar, maybe they’d have more than a year to prepare. A lump settles in her throat at the implications, as a lonesome road stretches out before her.

But without realising, he reassures her that she will never be truly alone.

“Oh, I see you’ve met Aang, or Gyatso’s shadow, as I knew him.” Roku’s smile is pleasant, and Katara is pulled into a memory, one that tastes like marmalade and jam, of incense floating on the wind. It’s the same Temple Katara and Sokka scaled, months prior, just whole, with chimes ringing, ash replaced with laughter and song. The softness in his voice as he speaks makes tears well in Katara’s eyes. 

“I always wondered what happened to him. He went missing a few months before the Temples were attacked. It broke Gyatso’s heart. Who could have known that he never went too far from home…”

She sees a boy, maybe twelve, perhaps younger, tugging on an older Monk’s robes. The memory turns dark, like the arrival of dusk, and Roku stands in front of an ashen statue, his head hanging low. “I thought of Aang often. I wondered where he’d gone, if he was safe, if he’d grown old and lived a happy life, despite everything. But now I can see this for myself… how strange is fate.”

“But now, I must see to your safety.”

A great threat awaits her in the Temple, and casting her a distant, sad expression, Roku clears the path for her, her head swimming as she comes to. Roku’s grasp of the Avatar spirit leaves her shaken, his fierce might and power leaving an ache in her chest.

“You’re not alone, Katara, you know that right?” Aang says afterwards, escaping on the back of Appa. She sits with her head tucked into his shoulder as Sokka sits on Appa’s head, navigating them higher and higher into the sky. “You have Sokka and your dad and Gran-Gran and Master Pakku and…”

Katara thinks of her friend, stuck waiting, hidden away from so much tragedy and destruction. She thinks of Aang’s infectious smile, his courage. To Aang, every day is fresh, with no mistakes in it. If Roku knows what drove Aang into the sealed chamber, she hopes he never tells her. She only wants to hear it from him.

How strange is destiny. His eyes are the colour of the stars around them.

“And you?” Katara asks, her body sinking against him.

His arm comes around her shoulders, and she can feel his grin against the top of her head.

“And me, of course.”

7)

She thinks of Avatar Roku and his words as Aang begins to teach her airbending and while traversing the Earth kingdom. Her anxiety since speaking to her past life pushes her towards the soft soil and the dense stone that pave the world for her. She suddenly doesn’t have a lot of time to get to the Earth King.

If anything, on the road, Katara doesn’t think she’s done more waterbending in her life. There is always someone to heal, she notices. Always someone with a bad burn from being chased by soldiers, or a nasty wound that needs attention. Once, Katara introduces herself as the Avatar, the person she’s healing flinches, as if she struck them again, and she chooses to focus on the sensation of healing, of mending, instead of the dread curling in her stomach.

And the fact that she simply can’t airbend.

“Roku didn’t leave you the best reputation, did he?” Sokka says, while they rest in the sprawling network of tree houses. The Freedom Fighters are fierce, respectable warriors, and they welcome them with open arms.

Katara is sick of having to defend herself all the time, having to defend the previous host of the Avatar spirit. She never asked for it, this parasite that allows her to bend all the elements, but refuses to help her. Avatar Roku’s idea of balance is so far removed from hers, but frighteningly close at the same time. She remembers the power she held in the South Pole, how it felt to watch it all unfold, to be nothing more than a vessel for devastation. It would be easier to follow in his footsteps.

Jet seems intrigued by her and Aang. Katara feels her face burn every time his eyes wander across her. He doesn’t just ask her about being the Avatar and the Avatar state, instead he asks her about her mother and fighting against the Fire Nation from the bow of a ship. He asks her about power, specifically, her power, the innate waterbending proficiency she would’ve possessed even if the Avatar spirit wasn’t born in her.

He trusts her too, ensuring that her and Aang have a place in their next retaliation against the Fire Nation.

“This could be the start of a wonderful friendship, Avatar Katara.” Jet says with a smirk, and for once Katara doesn’t feel like it’s just her, alone, fighting against the Fire Nation.

The shelter provided by the Freedom Fighters gives them a bit of time to slow down and try, in earnest, for Katara to practice airbending. They meditate together for hours on end, but Katara can’t stop getting distracted by the buzzing sounds of the forest around her, or the sensation of the crunchy leaves under her, or the smell of the fresh dew in the morning. Aang has her move her body in an undulating, airy motion, that just makes her feel ridiculous every time someone happens upon them.

“Airbending is all about spiral movements. When you meet resistance, you must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice.” He reminds her, time and time again, when she defaults to her waterbending stances. There’s an overlap between the fluid forms of firebending and the defensive strategies of earthbending, but ultimately, airbending is wholly unique to her, like nothing else she’s ever seen before. 

After what feels like hours of trying to will a whisper of air into existence, they decide to take a break. With Sokka imparting all his tactical knowledge on the Freedom Fighters, she and Aang are spending more time together alone. 

“This would be a lot easier if we had airbending gates…” Aang says with a thoughtful rub of his chin. 

“Airbending gates?” She asks, tilting her head. She’s glad for the break, stretching her legs out in front of her with a grateful sigh.

Aang nods, digging a dozen twigs into the ground to demonstrate. “A time-honored tool that teaches the most fundamental aspect of airbending.” He picks up a dried leaf, using his bending to guide the leaf around the twigs delicately, weaving in and out. “The goal is to weave your way through the gates and make it to the other side without touching them. You must be the leaf”

“Seems easy enough.” Katara says, reminiscent of how her previous bending teachers appraised her solid grasp of the fundamentals.

“Oh, I forgot to say,” Aang’s grin is unusually cheeky. “You gotta make it through while the gates are spinning. Really fast. But alas,” He blows his structure down, a short mighty gale pulsing from his palm. “They’re only in the temples. And I’m not sure if that’s the safest place to go right now.”

“Couldn’t I just… I don’t know, make some from rock?”

The answer hangs between them for a second, as Katara hangs her head. “You know what, I think that sums up why I’m having such a hard time with airbending.”

Later that night, they gather around the tree top camp fire, and toast to good fortune as Jet announces he’s conceived a plan to save the forest they call home. There’s laughter and singing and music, and Katara forces herself to have a good time, even if Sokka’s sulking is trying to ruin her mood.

(“You know what I think? You're jealous that he's a better warrior and a better leader!”

“Katara, I'm not jealous of Jet. It's just that my instinct–”

“Well, as the Avatar, my instincts tell me we need to stay here a little longer and help Jet.”)

She’s never pulled that card on Sokka before. She has countless times to her bending teachers, to her parents, to stubborn Water Tribe warriors who won’t heed her healing instructions, but never in earnest.

Katara is so deep in her thoughts she doesn’t even notice Aang standing in front of her, the music thumping. His hand is outstretched, a plain invitation to join him at the fireside dance he’s been singlehandedly conducting, getting people up on their feet, teaching them moves. Aang has never been 115 than he is now, as he regales the group with tales of Ba Sing Se ballrooms and Air Nomad festivals.

“I don’t know, Aang.” She says, nervously pulling at her hair. He’s looking at her the same way he would when proposing she go penguin sledding with him, a chance to remove herself from her title and simply just be. 

“Take my hand.”

And as always, Katara has complete trust in him.

The dance starts slow and tentative, until Aang stops to whisper in her ear.

“Let’s try tier 5!”

“Are you sure?” Katara asks, suddenly aware of the eyes on her, as the dancers at the campfire dwindle to just them. She barely notices Jet’s gaze. “Everyone’s watching.”

“Don’t worry about them.” He only looks at her. “It’s just you and me right now.”

With renewed confidence, Katara allows herself to fall into her body, without worry and judgement, without fear and shame. She lunges forward and dips and spins in tandem with Aang, until their faces get so close together, mere inches away from his rosy cheeks and full lips. For a split second, his eyes flicker down to her mouth, before they pull away again.

“Be the leaf, Katara!” Aang shouts above the crowd of cheering and clapping, ducking into a squat so she can kick her leg over his head.

She pictures the airbending gates, coming to her mind so clearly and succinctly she can only imagine this is a memory from a past life. Katara mirrors the gentle movements of the leaf, so certain in her intentions, contrasting the spinning wood and Aang’s solid form. When she meets resistance, like Aang’s outstretched hand spinning her, she changes direction, side stepping out of his spin with ease. Katara realises they deviated from the fifth tier of airbending when her hands hit the forest floor in an elaborate handstand. 

This is so silly, she thinks, launching herself into the air with a soaring flip. This is so silly!

8)

When Sokka tries to tell her about Jet’s intentions with the village, part of her ignores him because she simply doesn’t think he’d be capable of that, but the other part of her, smaller and secret, wishes that she could pass it off to someone else. Let someone else command the Avatar, let someone else bring balance. Let someone else make the divine say on what is right and wrong. 

In her past life, Avatar Roku believed the ends justified the means, and if the Avatar could wage war against soldiers and civilians alike, what hope did Katara have in trying to keep peace.

(This doesn’t mean she shouldn’t at least try.)

For a second, it seems to fall to Aang to make a judgement. “Jet’s gonna blow up the dam.”

“What? No, that would destroy the town. Jet wouldn’t do that.”

Aang doesn’t say anything, but he does unfurl his glider with a click, looking at her with a determined expression. “We have to do something.”

She doesn’t know why Jet’s betrayal hurts so badly, like an ache in her chest. Is it because he was the first ally she’d made by herself, without someone interfering on Roku’s, predestined behalf? Is it because he was the first ally who didn’t automatically assume she had all the right answers? 

“Katara, you would too if you just stopped to think. Think about what the Fire Nation did to your mother. Think about what Avatar Roku did, how he fought the Fire Nation! The Avatar did it before, and you can do it again!”

“This isn’t the answer.” Katara presses, thinking of the destructive nature of water. It doesn’t discriminate when it has found a target, and Katara feels the furthest from the Avatar State than ever, as if her rage and disgust is what keeps her tethered, as opposed to 

“I want you to understand me Katara, I thought your brother would understand too–” Suddenly Jet’s hand is on her face, warm and comforting like the way it was when they first met.

“Where’s Sokka?” Katara shouts, calling the water from her pouch, sending Jet flying. She shifts her stance, ready to bend the Earth beneath him, until Jet’s smile flashes something menacing.

“See, there it is, that Avatar spirit!” Jet taunts her, appealing to the rage that curls at the bottom of her spine. “You’re no better than Roku!” 

His words hit Katara the same way she knocked Jet down, a cold fear. Is there no way for her to escape this? There’s a whole village in danger, the water rushing and surging in tandem with her heart.

“Katara, ignore him, he’s messing with you! We need to get to the dam!” Aang says, lunging for his glider, only for Jet to reel it back with his hooked blade.

“What good could she do? She’s just a half-baked Avatar, she can’t help anybody!” Katara squeezes her eyes shut, hoping if she ignores Jet long enough, then there’s nothing he can say that will hurt her.

“Hey!” Aang shouts, twisting his body in that curious, evasive way Katara has become familiar with. Aang is always on the defensive, it seems, always trying to subdue rather than charge, always ducking and rolling and trusting the air around him to keep him safe. Katara can’t pull her eyes away from the “Katara is her own person, it doesn’t matter what Avatar Roku did!”

For his sin of coming to her defence, Jet knocks Aang down with a grunt, lowering his swords with a cocky smile. A hungry, predatory smile, of someone craving violence and chaos.

So unlike the forlorn, desperate Avatar Roku.

She can’t waste time on fighting Jet, summoning water from the stream behind her, freezing him to the tree her assault flung him against. Katara is powerful, and no one who calls her a half-baked Avatar should forget that.

“I can’t believe I trusted you!” She gives herself one moment to lash out. “You lied to me! You’re sick and I trusted you.” She turns away from him, balling her fists, letting the power within her blur the edges of her vision. Katara doesn’t push away the Avatar state, instead tries to encourage it to her, tries to prove that she can be trusted to be good. “I won’t let you hurt these people.”

The whistle is deafening. Jet’s response is clear across the river.

“You’re too late.”

The Avatar disagrees

On a whirling wind, Katara leaps from the cliff edge, down into the valley below and plunging into the river. The sand is soft as she touches the riverbed, the white glow of her eyes lighting up the dark. She rises from the water with a pillar of earth to keep her centered in the face of the dam, at the same moment the flaming arrow meets the keg.

“I’ll never turn my back on the people who need me!” A thousand voices scream all at once, but this time to bring hope, rather than sow fear. People suffered under Avatar Roku’s power, but Avatar Katara will be the one to bring balance to the world, holding back the flood with everything she has. “You can’t knock me down!”

Every step brings her closer to the mouth of the dam, as the water folds itself back behind the broken wooden barrier. The wind turns to frost to stop the largest waves in their tracks, concocting a blockade to hold the water back, while her other hand calls the earth to grow above the ruins of the dam. With a harsh tug on the wind, the trees along the river bank fall in to reinforce the earth, like the structures made by the woodland creatures. It’ll take some effort to dismantle the makeshift dam in front of her, but the village remains intact, and no threat of the structure failing. It will hold, because Katara has made it so.

Every step brings her closer to her legacy. Starting as a whisper in the Earth Kingdom, rising to a roaring celebration in the Water Tribes, turning to a voice like thunder in the Fire Nation.

The world will know that Avatar Katara will help, or at least, do no harm.

9)

The Avatar state feels so much different than it did in the South Pole, as if she’s the one in control, rather than being possessed by power and strength. Her bending is much more polished, much more refined, each and every one of her past lives moving in tandem with her, and all of their skills and experience. She feels pulled out of her body again, only this time she becomes more and more stable, summoned by the spirit, rather than her rage.

“It’s time you learned what I was not able to.” Roku’s voice finds her, rumbling across the world he once reigned terror upon. “The Avatar State is a defence mechanism, designed to empower you with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars.” She sees those who came before her, connected through the glowing energy that ties them together, in awe of their mastery and legacy.

“In the Avatar state, you are at your most powerful, but you are also at your most vulnerable. If you are killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken–”

The Avatars stand shoulder to shoulder, and for a moment Katara doesn’t feel the burden of being. It is still shared, even if it’s across generations, across nations, across bending types. But as quick as they come, they fade away into the haze.

“And the Avatar will cease to exist.”

All of history seems to come to a point, as all their past lives turn to look at Roku. Suddenly, the world spins, the smell of smoke and ash burning her throat, the heat pricking her hands. “That’s why Sozin attacked the Air Temples. He tried to–”

“Kill me and end the Avatar cycle.” It’s a simple statement, but there’s still so much raw pain there, as if a hundred years hasn’t passed, as if both men aren’t long dead. “Though the Air Nomads were more than just collateral. Sozin abhorred their pacifist beliefs, as when the world was in balance, even the lowest Monk’s voice was given the same respect as the Fire Lord’s. I regret telling him of the secret, yet time and time again, I gave him opportunity after opportunity.”

“Roku…” Katara speaks, hoping her voice doesn’t tremble too much, but with Aang’s words echoing, she is her own person. Now that she’s seen the impact her powers can have, how it can be used for good. “You caused so much pain with the Avatar state. That wasn’t defence, that was… destruction.”

“If anyone is to blame for the state of the world, it is me.” Roku says, standing in front of her with his head bowed. Shame, Katara thinks, as it ricochets between them. The same shame she’s shouldered since her awakening. I should have seen this war coming and prevented it. I shamed my predecessor, Avatar Yangchen, for not protecting her people, and I shamed the title of the Avatar with what I did, and what I failed to do.”

It is a small comfort to hear him say that.

“I still need your guidance, Roku.” Katara says. “There’s so much I don’t know… I’ve mastered three elements but I still feel as lost as I did when I found out I was the Avatar.”

With a long sigh that only a man who lived to 109 can muster, her past self gives her one last smile, as she feels the Avatar spirit begin to dim. “You are young, Avatar Katara, but your instinct has never failed you, and your faith in your friends and family has never led you astray.”

She thinks of Sokka, her bending teachers, her parents, Aang; grateful for the precious trust they’ve given her.

“And I believe you are destined to redeem me and save the world.”

10)

When she comes to, she feels the wind brush against her face. The air is crisp here, and her head is laid on a soft pillow.

She opens her eyes slowly, Aang’s face hanging above her.

“Hi.” He says simply, his smile crooked but relieved.

Katara sits up abruptly, disoriented as the blue sky above becomes the blue sky all around her, as she realises that she’s on Appa’s back, flying through the endless clouds. Of course her soft pillow is actually just Aang’s lap. 

Aniu, in her glee, lunges at her, her companion squealing and squeaking in delight. She must’ve been so frightened, Katara thinks, tucking her under her chin and grounding herself in the sound of her soft purrs.

“Katara! You’re okay!” Sokka is next, launching himself into her arms. “You were out for ages!”

Panic surges. “The village–the dam–Jet–what happened?!”

“Sokka had it all handled, didn’t you buddy.” Aang says, tilting his head.

Sokka recounts how he evacuated the villagers before Jet’s meticulous plan could start. Pride for her brother swells, as Katara throws her arms around him. There’s so much she wants to apologise for, but her brother doesn’t let her.

“But Katara, you were incredible! You stopped the flood! You saved the village!”

“Sokka, I really didn’t–”

“No, seriously Katara,” Aang stops her, putting a hand on her shoulder, warm and safe. “You were a real, proper Avatar. Like the ones you’d hear about in the songs.”

They make camp after what feels like an eternity, just off a cave with a babbling stream running down the mountain. She wrestles with telling Aang and Sokka about Roku’s wisdom, and the true motive of the Fire Lord who began the war, but before she’s bent a table and chairs from the ground, it all comes tumbling out, her chest tight and fraught. She thinks of Roku’s trust in his best friend, his liege lord, his childhood companion, everything but a lover, and how brazenly that was taken advantage of. But Sokka is her brother and Aang is… Aang is…

“If you want to be left alone, I get it, but Sokka heated up some seaweed noodles if you’re hungry.”

The cliff edge is tucked under the starry sky. Behind her, in front of the fire, Sokka pours over maps and intel. Aniu is nestled against him, acting as a reassurance that his sister is never too far from him. Katara knows he’s trying to keep busy, doing anything to keep his mind off of the ultimate gamble that is the Avatar state. She wonders how much of the White Lotus’ plans revolve around harnessing that power.

Pushing all that to the side, she realises she’s done with being alone.

“Hey Aang,” She says, turning to face him. “What did you mean earlier? About the Avatars in the songs?” A smidge of her self-pity slips out as she fiddles with her hair. “Holding back a flood isn’t something that gets sung about.”

With permission to enter her space, he comes to sit next to her, their shoulders brushing lightly. “Of course it is, but I can’t think of anything off the dome.” She laughs weakly at his joke. The wind ruffles through his dark hair, and Katara misses the sight of his tattoos. “I just meant… I can see how worried you are about your legacy as the Avatar, before you’ve even got a chance to make one for yourself. Saving that village is just the start of it.”

After a beat of silence, Katara draws a breath in. “I don’t want to be good just so people will write songs about me. I know why I want to be a good Avatar, restore balance.” She chooses to ignore Roku in this pledge, determined that today she stops the comparisons, with the stars as her witness.

Aang doesn’t speak, but his eyes meet hers, and she can see the question lingering.

“When you become a healer, you have to take an oath.” Katara starts, ignoring how Aang blinks in surprise as she changes the course of their conversation. There’s a point, she promises. “It’s very lengthy and you must swear to Tui and La and not everyone takes it as seriously as they should but–” She stops when she realises she’s rambling, then smiles at Aang shyly, who hasn’t taken his eyes off of her, not even for a second. 

“Go on,” He says, nodding his head. “I’m listening.”

There’s a rushed, fluttery feeling inside her. “The first line says ‘Practice two things in your healing; either help, or do not harm.’”

Katara has never broken this vow before, and with blinding clarity, like a burst of sunlight, she’s always known the path ahead of her.