A/N: Reviews are appreciated, as are critiques. Flames will be scoffed at, as you need not read, so why leave a comment? However I do accept ideas for new stories either plot or pairings, just send me a PM or leave a comment, whichever will get your idea across and i'll get back to you with a link once the first chapter is up. Ciao amici.

Chapter 1

Creeping Darkness

In the dream he floated within the nothingness of black, it wasn't even space; there were no stars. It was as if the entirety of everything had vanished leaving nothing but a dark blank canvas. Suddenly Aang was tossed to what could only be described as solid ground and a shadow with eyes of white comes at him, surrounds him from all sides as an oval with misshapen and seeming torn edges like an old cloth and collapses it's immense form upon the young avatar. When it lifts up off of him to this creature the Avatar becomes nothing but a helpless puppet, vine-like blackness bind his ankles and wrists. The shock being too much, he awakes with a scream.

But the usual friends who comfort Aang whenever he awakes with fright in his heart are not there, instead he is at the edge of a cliff and Aang sees before himself is nothing but black sky and pitch in front of his eyes, with no clear direction or point of reference to which way the others are, Aang sends a blue flare into the night with a powerful punch to the air, it arcs and dies away, and he waits. Hoping someone comes.

An orange flaming flare he recognizes as Zuko's shoots up roughly an hour's walk away. He hears Appa's roar almost ten minutes after Zuko's flare dies, with Sokka and Katara being the first to call my name. "Aang!" they called as Appa lands near me. Katara jumps off the saddle and hugs me tightly. He hears Sokka's sword being drawn slowly in the dark, and Zuko suddenly appears as he lights his face and body with the glow of orange flame illuminating the darkness.

"What happened?" Katara asked with a worried tone all her own.

"I think he was sleep walking." Zuko said looking at the soles of his feet, they were clearly scratched and pebbles still clung to the heels and soles of his feet where he obviously applied the most pressure; clearly he hadn't been running from anything.

"Please no more adventures Aang, we're just getting to the next village." Toph's voice rang out from the top of Appa's saddle; she sounded tired and consequently somewhat annoyed at his disappearance.

The next day, Katara decided to do a healing session to see if she could figure out what went wrong last night. They had retired to their earthen tent, the floor lined with pelts and a hammock served as their bed, fitting really, Aang said it reminded him of floating on air currents on his glider and Katara was reminded of the sea and her father, as hammocks served as the beds on water tribe ships. For this though, Katara needed a stationary place to work with Aang, so while Aang laid on the floor Katara knelt over him. She kept feeling something at the base of his spine, some kind of foreign energy. "Aang, I don't think what happened to you was a result of anything to do with your health…" To her this was obvious, as was the case with all their healing sessions from various ailments and injuries, with his shirt off she noticed his smallish arms of a boy his age but with the definition and musculature of an earthbender.

"Oh well that's a relief." Aang sighed deeply. Then he realized something. "What happened to me the other night, do you have an idea?" He asked simply.

"Well see that's the thing." Katara pulled on the energy at the base of his spine a little. "Feel that?"

Aang winced in pain. "Yeah." He responded trying to shut out the remaining twinge.

"That's not you Aang, it's something else…." Katara told him simply "I think it's alive." She cringed at her words, this made no sense at all.

"What do you mean, like a spirit?" He asked

"I think it's possible that with your last trip to the spirit world, you brought something back with you." Katara's voice was serious and concerned; this was the Avatar she was talking to. "Whatever this thing is." She continued, rubbing her eyes from lack of sleep as she spoke. "It must be powerful indeed to be able to overshadow you in such a manner and be able to lie dormant like this, almost as if it bonded to your soul." Katara hugged him from behind. "It'll be okay though, you've come face to face with some of the most fearsome spirits there are, and you've come back relatively unscathed." She smiled weakly. He just let out a small laugh.

Katara took a step back in shock and cringed "How are you laughing, aren't you worried?" Katara asked slightly incensed.

He just shrugged and, assuming Katara had finished her analysis on him began putting his shirt back on. "You said I met the most fearsome spirits there are face to face, I remembered Koh." He smiled.

"Glad you're entertained." She suddenly got the joke and now felt like laughing with him, she laughed quietly. He smiled again at her and walked over to where she now stood; their faces a couple feet apart only. He caressed her cheek; she just placed her hand over his wanting to touch him as she herself leaned into his touch, his affection.

Suddenly she felt overwhelmed. Her bottom lip trembling as she felt tears come. "Hey..." Aang cooed, trying to calm her. "Katara look at me, La…please." Aang had called her La after the ocean spirit, as a term of great respect as his waterbending teacher after the war ended, as their romance developed he began to call her 'La' when he wanted to be extremely serious or loving towards her.

"Aang I…" Her words caught in her throat as she vented to herself now angry. "I know you can't help being the Avatar." she choked through her tears. "It's just sometimes I can't deal with the constant danger that kind of duty brings with it." He hugged her. "If something happened to you… I don't-" She stopped as Aang just rubbed her back gently, trying to reinforced his words to her. "It'll be okay, it always is La… even when I almost died in Ba Sing Se, you brought me back. Also back when you first saw me enter the avatar state when I fell off Zuko's ship in the South Pole. I here your voice, and everything else is blocked out… I tell myself I have to get back to her I have to save her… my will to save you saved me more than a few times actually." They broke the embrace and Katara held his hands in hers, not wanting to be apart.

She laughed as she dried her tears, "Yeah." She admitted. They sat in their hut and talked politics and waterbending. Until finally the sun started to set, then set to go to bed.

A/N: Chapter 2 soon to come guys just a couple days or so perhaps sooner, I have to work like everyone else, plus I'm about to start watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. The next chapters won't be as boring... I promise.