Book 1: Water

Part 2

Katara stares out at the waves, watching every spray of water against the ship with rapt attention. A drop of water lands on her arm, and she focuses her attention on using it to trace patterns on her skin, pointedly ignoring what, to her senses, feels like large sacks of water wandering around the deck of the ship.

Despite her best efforts, forcing herself to ignore the problem has only made her hyper aware of it. Katara clenches her fists, annoyance growing at the persistence of this new ability she's developed.

Or, rather, an old ability that she's only just realizing the potential of.

She recalls her life in the North Pole and wonders how she could have missed this development, then comes to the conclusion that she'd simply disregarded it as nothing of importance.

Whatever the case, she curses the fact that the moon will continue to be full for a couple more hours. With the way the awareness has steadily become weaker as the night passes, she knows that as the moon begins to wane, so will the strength of her ability—bloodbending, as she's taken to calling it.

Not that she knows for sure that she can bend blood, as she is yet to try, but there's something in her that just knows she's right.

She wonders idly if this is an Avatar ability, though she can't think of any stories to support this. It makes sense, though. She already knows being the Avatar comes with a whole lot of unrealistically powerful abilities (controlling all four elements, the Avatar State, reincarnation, and a weird relationship with the Spirit World), so why not add "controlling people's blood" to the list?

Still, if that's true, that just means bloodbending is just another part of being the Avatar that scares her.

Nothing new, really.

The real surprise will come when she finds a part of being the Avatar that she actually likes.

Her new green dress itches. Though, looking at the light stains dotting the edge of her sleeves, maybe "new" isn't quite the word she should be using. The material is coarse, and obviously well used. She thinks the shirt must have belonged to someone thinner than her, too, judging by the tightness around her chest and upper arms. She's almost afraid of moving too much lest she rip the cloth in half.

However, despite the uncomfortable feel of it, she's glad for the change. They'd only just arrived in the Earth Kingdom and already the change in climate is getting to her. The air is warmer here than in the North Pole, or the ocean they crossed to get here. The shirt was obviously made for weather like this, unlike the thick material of her usual Water Tribe attire.

"Did you steal these?" Sokka asks Bato, struggling to fold over the sleeves of his own much too large "new" shirt.

"Of course not. I left a few copper pieces by the door," Bato explains, somehow unaffected by the fact that the collar of his own shirt sits too tightly around his neck to be comfortable.

"Just out there in the open? What if somebody else takes it?"

"Then that would be terribly unlucky for them. To be robbed twice in a day—before sunrise, even!"

"Why couldn't we have just bought some new clothes?" Katara asks after a moment. "Legally, you know?"

"We need to blend in as much as possible," Bato explains. "Members of the Water Tribe—North or South Pole—aren't often seen outside our own lands. We can't just go out into villages in our Water Tribe clothing, it's too conspicuous. Especially if we are then seen in brand new Earth Kingdom clothing."

Sokka makes a noise of understanding. "Oh, and this way, with clothes that have obviously been worn and worked in, we look like regular Earth Kingdom people."

"Exactly."

Katara, who has never claimed to be any sort of strategist, feels lost. She thinks she understands the advantages in claiming to be Earth Kingdom (less questions, they won't be standing out too much, more freedom to explore and find herself a good earthbending teacher, etc.) but she doesn't quite understand the necessity.

"But why do we need to blend in?" she pipes up, looking at Bato curiously. "Why shouldn't the world know who we—who I am? People deserve to know that there's hope out there."

As she says it, she knows that she truly believes this. For two years she has struggled to accept her destiny, and even now she hates it, but the people of the world don't deserve to suffer more because of her own weakness. They should be able to wake up in the morning with the hope that the next will be better than the last. They deserve to believe in something, even if that something is her: Avatar Katara, the girl who still wants to run away from her destiny, and actually might if given the chance.

—And there it is again, that odd rush of panic that makes her body freeze whenever she thinks of escaping. She wonders if this feeling comes from her own fear of what might happen to her if she did run, or if it's maybe her Avatar abilities warning her against fighting fate.

Bato sighs, stopping to kneel before her so that he can look her straight in the eyes. His expression is warm, yet firm, and she suddenly feels much younger.

(Or, maybe she's starting to remember that she is young, and not as grown as she has been so desperately pretending to be.)

"Katara, I know you want to help people, and you will, but not yet. You may be the Avatar, but you haven't even remotely begun to reach your potential. As the Avatar, you already have many enemies—enemies that you aren't yet ready to face. So for now, we have to find you suitable teachers in each of the elements before even thinking about informing the world of your presence. It may not seem like it, but the world will be fine until you're ready. It has lasted a hundred years without the Avatar, it can wait a few more. Do you understand?"

Katara wants to argue, but knows it would be useless, so she simply nods her head.

"Good," Bato announces, standing up fully, but not before giving her a brief hug. "Now to find a map."

"Why don't we already have a map?"

"We do, but it's always better to have one used by locals for comparison, they'll have more useful information by virtue of having been there, after all."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Sokka asks, and Katara realizes that she, too, has no idea where Bato plans to find her an earthbending teacher.

"Omashu. King Bumi is known to be the most powerful earthbender to ever live. And even if he can't teach you, I'm sure he knows someone who can."

The first village they come across is small, and the people in it are dirty and tired. The villagers eye them warily, and Katara feels a stab of anger at herself—or rather, her past self. It's not fair that these people have had to suffer like this, to live so sad and untrusting.

She doesn't know what happened to the Avatar before her, but she knows there was one. She can feel him there in a way she can't explain—if she focuses, she can almost see her past selves lined up beside her. They're nothing more than silhouettes, shadows against a blurry background, but they're there.

And it's there, between herself and a figure she recognizes as Avatar Roku, that he stands. The mysterious Avatar that left the world to burn.

AN: Sorry this took so long. Honestly, I thought I'd already posted this like a month ago. I must've just not finished posting it and then thought I did, I guess? I don't really know what happened. I only realized it wasn't up because I went to double-check something I wanted to write for next chapter to make sure it wasn't already mentioned in this chapter, only to see I only had one chapter up still.

Anyway, this one kinda ends mid-scene, which is a bit weird, but I felt like it fit.

Ironically, I picture Katara having a better sense of her Avatar abilities than Aang did. Aang didn't fully accepted his Avatar destiny until when? Halfway into the series maybe? (no seriously when, I haven't seen the show in years) Meanwhile Katara completely understands who she is and what she must do. She hates it, and finds it unfair and scary that she has to fix the worlds problems (because it is unfair, she's like ten years old), and she wants to run away from it all, but she accepts that this is her fate.