Book 1: Water

Part 1

When Katara wakes up, people look at her differently. She doesn't completely recognize the looks, but what she does recognize is their expectation for change. How she is supposed to change anything when she is only an eight year old girl, Katara doesn't know.

Only, she's not just an eight year old girl anymore, is she?

Large spikes protrude from the ice around her home—or what used to be her home. Where once stood a sturdy igloo was now simply chunks of snow piled on each other. The chunks themselves were too clean-cut for her home to have been destroyed by anything other than a saw...or, according to her father, a very powerful wind.

"I did that?" Katara asks, her voice shaky. She wonders if the tremble is from fear, pain, or the sliver of awe she can feel well up in the pit of her stomach.

Then she remembers that her mother is dead, and apparently it's Katara's destiny to save the world.

It's not too hard to beat back the awe after that.

"Yes," her father replies, voice solemn, "you did."

Sokka stands beside him, watching her with yet another look she can't quite read.

"The North Pole," suggests a tribesman, and Katara watches as most of the other adults nod in agreement.

"Yes, sending the girl to the North Pole is our best option," continues one of the elders. "Our only option. We have no other waterbenders to teach her here."

"They don't teach women waterbending there, everyone knows that," counters Bato.

"They will have to make an exception. After all, she is the Avatar. She must learn if we ever want this war to end."

Her father is silent, listening but not actively participating. His fists are clenched, but the tired frown on his face is a familiar one. It's the face he makes when he knows what to do, but does not want to do it.

Katara thinks she might have been excited, once. A week ago, she would have been grinning, eagerly awaiting the chance to learn how to control her waterbending. But now, she feels only dread.

She is the Avatar. For a hundred years, a war has raged on, and now she must be the one to stop it. She must face the Fire Nation, the people who took her mother from her only days ago, and she must defeat them.

"The fate of the world rests in her hands," one of the warriors say, and Katara feels her shoulders slump.

There is no way they miss the tears on her face, but they say nothing. Katara doesn't know if she's grateful or resentful for their feigned ignorance.

Life is harder in the North Pole. Not so much the training, as it turns out she's a natural. It's everything else; the homesickness, the loneliness, her destiny...

She wishes she hadn't been born the Avatar.

Sometimes, she imagines running away, ignoring her destiny to live a normal life. Whenever the thought crosses her mind, though, a part of her flinches violently.

She wonders why.

Two years later, Katara is ten and a master waterbender. She feels proud of her accomplishment for all of five minutes before the other children of the tribe force her out of it.

"It's only because she's the Avatar," an older boy says, sneering down at her.

"If she weren't, she'd probably be at the bottom of the class."

"If she weren't the Avatar, she wouldn't have even gotten into the class," another boy claims with a roll of his eyes. "She'd be just another dumb girl in the healing house."

They laugh, and Katara wants to scream that she'd be just as good even if she weren't the Avatar, but she can't know that for sure. Instead, she waits for lessons to begin, then she kicks their butts.

She tells herself that that's enough for her.

(It's not.)

Master Pakku finds her later that day, staring absently into the koi pond. She does this often, hoping that being in this sacred place will help her find her way. It never does. But it does give her peace away from the people who make her feel so...other, and that's better than nothing.

"You are the best student I ever had," he says to break the silence, a fond smile on his face. "And it had nothing to do with you being the Avatar. You are clever, creative, and more stubborn than a goat gorilla — just like your grandmother. Even without your destiny, you still would have been the most powerful waterbender I will ever have the pleasure to meet. Except for me, of course."

Katara giggles at that last part, but settles down soon afterwards.

"I'm leaving soon, aren't I?" Katara asks, even though it's unnecessary. She needs to learn the other elements, and so she must leave to seek out teachers. Of course, they could send for teachers to come to her, but she knows they won't do that. Avatar or not, many of the tribe see her as a stain to their traditions, and they would not taint their way of life further by welcoming even more strangers into their home.

No, they would just rather send a ten year old girl out into a war-torn world by herself, with a fate far too heavy for her to bear alone.

Katara is only a little bitter about that.

(She's very bitter.)

"You won't be alone," Master Pakku says, seemingly reading her mind.

Before she can question him, he stands with a wink, and leaves her to her thoughts.

"Are you just gonna splash around in the water all day, or am I gonna get a hug?"

Katara almost trips, startled by a voice she hasn't heard in two years.

"Sokka!" She cries, running into her brothers arms at top speed. She sobs, holding him tightly, because it's been so long, she's felt so alone, and he smells like home—

"Please don't leave me," she whimpers, and it's pathetic, but she needs him there with her.

She doesn't notice how he stiffens at first, tense with fear, before softening at her words. This is still his little sister, he realizes at once. This is his little sister, and she needs her big brother.

"I won't," he promises, and he dares anyone to try and make him break that promise.

A pair of hands pat them both on their heads, and Sokka flushes in embarrassment when he remembers that they're not alone.

"Bato!" Katara greets with a smile, face still wet with tears.

"Good to see you again, Katara."

"What are you both doing here?"

"We're here to help you find your next bending teachers, duh. Dad wanted to come too, but he's the chief, so..."

Katara is relieved to hear that. She's not sure she could face her father just yet.

Not after he sent her away.

"We'll be heading to the Earth Kingdom soon," Bato informs her, startling her out of her thoughts. "You should say your goodbyes."

Katara shakes her head, careful to keep her face neutral. "To who?"

The silence that follows is awkward, and she almost feels guilty.

Sometimes, when the moon is full, Katara hears things. It was harder to notice in the North Pole, where she lived alone and only spent time around people during the day. But now, on a ship in close quarters with her brother and Bato (and a small crew that will take the ship back home once they've been dropped off in the Earth Kingdom), it's impossible to ignore the steady cadence coming from the people around her.

It sounds like a heartbeat. If she listens closer, she swears she can hear the flow of blood.

She's reminded of how she sways with each push and pull of every wave, how she can feel every drop of water that touches her skin with hypersensitivity. With this realization, she knows that she could probably bend the very blood in someone's body if she tried.

She doesn't try.

The temptation remains.

AN: If anyone actually reads this, I hope you enjoyed it. I don't have a beta, so I hope there aren't too many mistakes. The part where Sokka and Bato come in reads kinda awkwardly to me, but oh well.

Unfortunately, what with my spotty wifi and the fact that I haven't seen the show in a while (like 5 years at least), the next chapter probably won't be up until July or August.