CHAPTER TWO:
SPARKS LEAD TO ASHES
SET IN:
EPISODE ONE: THE BOY AND THE ICEBERG & EPISODE TWO: THE AVATAR RETURNS

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  EVEN THOUGH APPA WAS A FLYING BISON, IT SEEMED HE HAD NO MOTIVATION TO LIVE UP TO HIS SPECIES' NAME. Instead of lifting off into the sky, the flying bison flopped less than gracefully into the icy waters around the ice-island.

  "Come on, Appa. Yip yip!" Aang encouraged, pulling on the reigns attached to Appa's horns.

  "Wow, that was truly amazing."

  "Sokka—"

  "Appa's just tired. A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see," Aang said cheerfully; somehow ignoring Sokka's rude sarcasm.

  Katara had sat closer to the front of the saddle gracing Appa's back, and as she reached to grasp onto the side of the saddle, Avi noticed that Aang's stare lingered on her for far too long.

  "Why are you smiling at me like that?" It seemed that Avina wasn't the only one who noticed.

  "Oh. I was smiling?"

  Sokka let out a groan of annoyance while Avina just snickered. It was quite amusing to her that Katara was so blissfully ignorant to the fact that Aang definitely was interested in her, even though it wasn't very difficult to figure out. Maybe I need to work with Tara on her boy skills. Avi thought, shaking her head in pure amusement.

  "Alright, everyone. How about we stop smiling at each other awkwardly and focus on getting home?" Avina suggested, amethyst eyes gleaming with amusement.

"Now that is something I can get behind," Sokka piqued up; finally not being sarcastic or just plain rude. Avi thought it was a miracle.

  "See! You are capable of being an at least decent person!" Avina exclaimed, nudging Sokka whilst he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

  "Hey! I'm more than decent!"

   "I'll believe it when I see it, Sokka."

▬▬ ☀︎︎ ▬▬

  THE TRIP BACK HOME WENT BY FASTER THAN EXPECTED. Of course, maybe that was because Avi spent most of her time trying to keep some kind of resemblance of peace among the group—particularly between Sokka and Katara, whose with normal annoyance with each other seemed to have spiked—but at this point she would take anything she could get.

The cold, crisp air nipping at her was now gone, replaced with the heat of the tribe's fires. Fire has always been more comforting than ice to Avina. Ice was harsh, bitter, and unforgiving. Fire was blazon, bronze, and fierce. While Avi was Water Tribe, who were said to have a natural affinity to water, ice, and especially the night, Avina's laid elsewhere. Hers was with the blazing flames, alight sun, and the bright, searing heat of the day. All the cold did was bring her shivers and uncertainty, and Avina never quite liked that.

Smiling without her teeth, Avi scanned the village, looking for Katara and Aang. They were supposed to be out by now to meet the tribe, but the stubborn blue-eyed girl and the lanky boy with arrow tattoos was nowhere to be seen. Sighing, Avina headed off towards Aang's tent. If they couldn't take care of themselves, then she guessed she would do it for them.

Trudging through the snow that quickly turned her smile into a scowl, Avi nearly ran into Gran Gran, luckily swerving at the last minute.

"Oh, Gran Gran, I'm so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going—"

"It's fine, Avina. Don't worry," Gran Gran comforted, placing a wrinkled, but calming hand on Avi's shoulder. "Now, where's Katara and the airbender boy? The village is becoming restless."

"I was just getting on that. Aang has probably not woken up yet, so I'll go get him," Avina said, eyes flickering towards Aang's tipi.

Gran Gran smiled. "Alright, Avi, thank you. You know, I fear you overwork yourself sometimes. Remember, your cousins are old enough to help you now. You don't have to do everything alone, at least not anymore." Gran Gran's creased but sincere eyes shined up at her, bringing her comfort.

Avina has always been close to Gran Gran, even closer than Sokka or Katara. She didn't know why, but Gran Gran just knew her in a way that nobody else did, maybe even Avina herself. Avina was somewhat convinced that she actually did, and that she had been hiding something from her for a long time. It sure seemed like it. Every time Gran Gran looked upon her, there was a certain sadness in her eyes that Avi had never quite figured out the origin of. Of course, it didn't mean Avina didn't love or trust her, but Avi still had her doubts. It seemed she always had her doubts.

  Avina smiled softly. "I know, Gran Gran. I know."

  Gran Gran's cracked lips upturned into a small, intimate smile, before nodding and walking off towards the other villagers. Avi didn't stay to see her off, instead headed off quickly to Aang's tipi, thick-furred boots making dents in the dense snow beneath her feet.

  She arrived at Aang's tent swiftly, only to, once again, narrowly avoid bumping into someone. "Tara, there you are," Avina said, glancing behind her younger cousin as Katara dragged Aang from the tent. "Uh, Katara—be careful—"

"He's fine," Katara said nonchalantly, hurriedly pushing past Avi to meet the tribe in the center of the village. Avina followed suite behind the two, flashing the boy trailing behind her cousin with a look of sympathy. Once Katara had dragged him to the middle, she faced the village.

"Aang, this is the entire village. Entire village, Aang."

The small group of women and children looked startled as they gazed upon the young airbender, many of the elder women sporting eyes wide with disbelief. The children looked confused, but also curious, eyeing Aang with furrowed brows. However, nobody spoke, or moved. In fact, they all just continued to stare at him as though he was some Fire Nation solider. Avina resisted the urge to crawl into herself in secondhand embarrassment.

"Uh," Aang started carefully. "Why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?"

  Gran Gran was the first to step forward from the rest, eyes meeting Avi's before she replied to Aang. "Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct. Until my grandchildren found you."

  Aang's face fell at the notion of Gran Gran's words, his mind clearly racing. "Extinct?" he questioned, his grey eyes round and filled with a mix of confusion and disbelief. "Avina mentioned something like that earlier," Aang mumbled afterward, voice cracking slightly.

  Katara seemed to notice Aang's alarm, and went to discourse the subject a bit. "Aang, this is our grandmother."

  "Call me Gran Gran," Avi's grandmother insisted, a wistful look in her eyes. She suddenly wondered if Gran Gran was reminded of the past just upon looking at Aang. Avina definitely was.

  "What is this, a weapon? You can't stab anything with this." At some point, Sokka had decided to stop sulking in the corner and join the rest of his tribe. Apparently, however, he hadn't left his bad attitude in the corner. Having stolen Aang's staff from the boys' grip, Sokka was judging it; acting as though he had any grounds to judge a weapon. He could barely wield a spear himself. In fact, his favorite weapon was a boomerang of all things.

  Avi scowled, stealing the staff back from Sokka and sending him a deafening glare. "For the love of all things good, Sokka. Could you just not for like a second?" she scolded, amethyst eyes sizing him right back down where he belonged.

  Aang chuckled lightly at the sight, and then airbended his staff gently out of Avi's hands and into his own once again. "It's not for stabbing, Sokka. It's for airbending," he explained, suddenly pushing or pulling some kind of trigger in his staff that willed two wings of fabric to spiral out.

  Sokka yelped as the children giggled, a few asking Aang to do his "magic trick" again. Avina allowed herself to join in the laughter at the pure bewilderment on her cousin's face.

  "Not magic, airbending," Aang corrected, clearly enjoying the spotlight. "It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly."

"You know, last time I checked, humans can't fly," Sokka said in a matter of fact tone, crossing his arms against his chest. He was obviously just trying to get at Aang because he felt threatened by him for some odd male ego reason, even when the boy had quite literally been nothing but kind to him.

Aang, however, seemed to take no notice of the condescending nature of Sokka's words. He merely took them as a fun challenge. "Check again!" he exclaimed, creating an up waft of wind that launched him into the air. Eyes drawn by the sounds of wind and awe, Avi watched as he glided through the sky, at one point swooping down to pass over the small crowd.

The moment was priceless, and Avi was suddenly very thankful for the airbender boy who managed to put a smile on the faces of her friends and family who'd held unbreakable frowns for years. Still, the revelation she'd had before rung true: Aang was special. Now, however, Avi needed to figure out just how he was special.

The moment of bliss was painfully short-lived, though, as Aang lost focus and crashed into Sokka's prized watchtower.

"My watchtower!" Sokka exclaimed, rushing over to the old, now destroyed tower, crumpled up in a pile of snow behind Aang. Avina followed after Katara tentatively, glancing over towards Sokka as he inspected his broken tower.

"Sokka, you know we can just rebuild it, right? It's literally made out of the most plentiful material we have," Avina said, raising a brow as a small avalanche of snow toppled down onto him. "See, it's very eager already."

Sokka pouted. "And I'm the mean one?"

"Yup. And the sexist one. Oh, and the conceded one—"

"Okay, okay! You win," Sokka huffed, glaring at his older cousin pathetically while still being buried in the snow. "This is all great. He's an airbender, Katara's a waterbender, and Avi's just bossy. Together you three can just waste time all day long." Sokka got up and stomped off, leaving large imprints in the snow.

Avina glared after him, just barely holding her tongue. Forcing herself to turn away from her insufferable cousin, she walked back over to Aang and Katara. Aang was staring up at Katara in excitement, a grin plastered on his face.

"You're a waterbender?" he asked curiously.

"Well, sort of. Not yet," Katara replied, looking disappointed at her own answer.

Aang then turned to Avi. "Are you a waterbender too?"

Avina cringed a bit at the question, feeling slightly embarrassed and warmer than usual. Obviously, she wasn't a waterbender. She'd never been able to be as fluid and adaptive as a good waterbender should be, much less calm and collected enough for anything of the sort. Water was too tranquil for her. Too unresistant to change. Avi knew if she could bend something, it would need to be wild, and almost uncontrollable. Funnily enough, she spends most of her days controlling whatever wild she has chained by ice within her.

Sighing, she offered Aang the only answer she had. "No, I'm not. I'm definitely not a bender." However, the words felt odd to say. Like, for some reason, she was lying. Avi choose to keep this feeling to herself.

"All right, no more playing. Come on, Avina and Katara. You have chores," Gran Gran interjected, waving the two away from Aang and Sokka's destroyed tower. Avi sent Aang a quick smile before following after her grandmother, Katara trailing not far behind her.

  "I told you. He's the real thing, Gran Gran," Katara chirped excitedly, meeting Avina's eyes with glee. "I finally found a bender to teach me."

  Avi grinned at her baby cousin's excitement, but that did not stop her from noticing the look of suspicion on Gran Gran's face.

  "Katara, try not to put all your hopes in this boy," she warned.

  "But he's special. I can tell," Katara defended herself. "I sense he's filled with much wisdom."

  Just then, the three of them looked backwards, only to be met with a scene that may have slightly disproved Katara's words. Aang was surrounded by a few of the children, sticking his tongue to his staff to entertain them. Avina held in a chuckle.

  "Listen, Gran Gran. Aang may be a little immature, but Katara is right. He's special. Not just in the fact that he's an airbender, but I think there's also something else about him. I can just tell," Avi said, gem-like eyes serious as they found Gran Gran's.

  Gran Gran smiled softly. "I will believe it when I see it."

▬▬ ☀︎︎ ▬▬

  AVINA STOOD BESIDE SOKKA AS THE LITTLE BOYS WALKED AWAY. Once again, Sokka had failed to teach them his "superior" male warrior skills he'd decided it was his job to educate them on. Avi had thought the idea was incredibly stupid at first, due to the fact Sokka barely knew how to fight himself and the fact that the kids were just too young, but now, she still thought the same.

  "Sokka, they are too young. They aren't ready to learn just yet," Avi said, only receiving a glare in return.

  "Hey, you have no right to tell me that! What do you know about being a warrior?" Sokka replied harshly, crossing his arms against his chest.

"Probably more than you, since you can barely wield a spear," Avina retorted, smirking as she heard Sokka grunt and begin complaining about how that was unfair because there was, apparently, more "pressure" on him to be a good warrior. Avi just laughed it off. She'd learned long ago to take Sokka's words with a grain of salt.

"Have you two seen Aang?" Katara's voice called out from behind them, interrupting Sokka's rambling. "Gran  Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago."

  Avina's eyes were drawn suddenly to where the little boys were headed, and just then, Aang popped out of an igloo. Apparently, he had a knack for popping up out of nowhere.

  "Wow! Everything freezes in there," he joked while laughing, making the little boys burst into giggles.

  Sokka scoffed. "Katara, get him out of here. This lesson is for warriors only," he demanded, pouting as he went to walk away, before they all spun around upon hearing shouts and yells of joy coming from where Appa stood.

  Aang had brought them over to see Appa, and now, all the boys were sliding down Appa's back—giggling and simply just enjoying their time. Aang himself was sat on Appa's top, grinning as he watched the kids have fun. 

  "Where's your supposed warriors now, huh?" Avi teased, quickly joining Katara in laughter as Sokka threw a harsh glare over his shoulder and began stomping loudly over to Appa.

  "STOP! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Sokka yelled, causing the kids to pause and the giggles to disappear. "What's wrong with you? We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

  Avina swiftly trekked over after hearing Sokka's outburst, Katara following quickly afterwards. Her eldest cousin stood below beside Appa, his spear stabbed into the ground as he stared up at Aang. Avi sighed, about to attempt to calm him down, before Aang uttered something that truly shocked her.

  "What war? What are you talking about?"

  The air stilled for a moment, and the three Water Tribe cousins looked at Aang in what could only be described as pure confusion. How long had he been in that iceberg, that he wasn't even aware of the War? A very long time. Avina answered for herself, her gaze softening with sorrow. She was definitely right. Aang was special—very special.

  "You're kidding, right?" Sokka stated flatly, now just looking appalled.

  Aang's attention span must resemble that of a baby's, since after spotting a penguin stood at the top of a hill, he dashed off. Airbending his way after the startled penguin, he left a trail of snow in his wake. Avi and her cousins all just stared after where the airbender disappeared to, clearly all three still in mild shock.

  "He's kidding, right?" Sokka questioned, looking to Avi and Katara for an answer.

  Neither said a word in response.

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   AVINA SOON FOUND HERSELF AT SOKKA'S SIDE ONCE AGAIN, SAT BESIDE A NEWLY LIT TORCH OF FIRE. Sokka had always been someone who enjoyed venting his thoughts and feelings to others, especially Avi, who he regularly went to for guidance—whether he would actually call it that or not.

  "I just don't understand. Why does everyone trust him so easily? He's literally just some airhead kid who floats around shouting nonsense," Sokka complained to Avi, rolling his eyes. "He's not special at all."

  Avi raised a brow. "Really, he isn't?"

  "Yes!" he exclaimed. "He's just annoying, that's what he is."

  "Sokka, do you not realize that he is the first Airbender to be seen in a hundred years? And the fact that he was in a literal iceberg for who knows long. And the fact that he doesn't know of the War, the Airbender Genocide, or literally any of the events of today. He is special, Sokka," Avina said, watching as Sokka scoffed and rolled his eyes again.

  "Not you too. You're supposed to be the grounded one," Sokka sighed, shaking his head.

  "I am the grounded one." Avi's gaze lead her over to the torch, watching as the flames flickered through the air. A feeling of uncertainty rose in her chest the longer she gazed at it, an emotion that she couldn't quite explain beginning to burn along side it. Avina eventually willed herself to look away—to go back to glaring at the snow and ice beneath her feet. As she always had. "And from what I'm hearing from you, I think you're just jealous."

  "What? Me, jealous? Heck no! Why would I be jealous of him?" Sokka defended himself poorly, his voice cracking midway through his sentence.

  "Because the village is giving him more attention than you," Avi said surely. She could read both her cousins like a book. However, they could never read her back.

  "What—what? I don't care about that—"

  "Really, you don't? Then why did you get so mad earlier when the kids ran off to play with Aang?"

  "Because he interrupted my lesson!"

  "You were barely even teaching, Sokka."

  "Now that—that just hurts."

  "Am I wrong?"

  Sokka stayed quiet. His silence was all the answer she needed.

  The silence continued for a bit before Gran Gran rushed over to the two cousins, huffing with a worried expression edged onto her face. "Katara and Aang are gone! We don't know where they are! I told her not to trust that airbender boy!"

  Avi's gaze snapped up from the snow, and her eyes found that of Gran Gran's. They were startled beyond belief, and almost angry. Clearly, her mistrust of Aang was not helping her view of the situation.

  "Okay, let's not jump to conclusions. I bet they just went out penguin sledding and got a little distracted," Avina attempted to reason, hearing Sokka scoff from beside her.

  "Or Aang kidnapped her!" he blurted.

  Avi slapped him so hard he reeled backwards.

  "Avina!" Gran Gran scolded.

  "What? He needs to learn to shut up sometimes," Avi grumbled, standing up.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she nearly fell backwards; only managing to hold herself up by leaning against the side of a nearby tent. Something was causing a tremor in the ground—which was an unusual occurrence at such a magnitude in the South Pole—and it immediately brought her a rush of fear. Eyes bolting upward, in the sky she saw a burst of light that suspiciously resembled a Fire Nation firework. Gulping, Avi's mind began to race.

Nothing ever happened out here. That was something Avina had always deeply disliked about the Southern Water Tribe. However, now she felt extremely embarrassed for thinking that way. At least then they were safe. Now, Avi had no idea.

The only explanation her mind could conceive was that Katara and Aang had something to do with the explosion, and that there was a high possibility her people were about to be in danger. The Southern Water Tribe had the advantage of being small and unnoticeable, which made it so they were never threatened—because most people thought them extinct, or just had forgotten them. But that also meant complete and total isolation.

Avina thought it a double-edged sword.

Though, right now, she found herself hardly thinking about it at all.

"We need to find Katara and Aang immediately."

Luckily, finding the two was not difficult. As Avi was preparing to leave, they had just strolled right up. Racing to the front of the small crowd, Avina took her place next to Sokka and Gran Gran, sporting a look of both relief and disappointment.

The little kids ran to Aang almost instantly when he was close enough to see, giggling and shouting in joy. Though, it seemed the kids were among the only ones who had any happiness in seeing him.

Sokka stepped forward, his face twisted in anger. "I knew it! You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare!" He pointed an accusatory finger at the airbender boy. "You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?"

"Aang didn't do anything," Katara defended him almost immediately. "It was an accident."

"Yeah, we were on the ship and there was this booby trap and, well, we—we boobied right into it," Aang explained, scratching his neck in awkwardness. Avi could tell just by looking at him that he was telling the truth. After all, he wasn't Fire Nation. They had no reason not to trust his word.

Gran Gran let out a sigh. "Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship. Now we could all be in danger."

"Don't blame Katara."

Avina raised a brow. It surprised her that Aang would come to her baby cousin's aid so quickly. Usually, it was only her willing to take the blame for things. Sokka had a bad reputation for being a little snitch, and Avi often paid the price for it.

Aang continued. "I brought her there. It's my fault."

"A-ha!" Sokka let out, as though he'd been interrogating Aang and had just gotten him to secede a vital piece of information. "The traitor confesses! Warriors, away from the enemy! The foreigner is banished from our village!"

Avi's breath froze, spinning around towards her eldest cousin quicker than she expected herself capable. "Sokka, you don't have that kind of authority." Her voice was harsh. From either the cold always nipping at her throat, or her anger with Sokka—she couldn't tell. All she knew was that Aang had done nothing wrong, and that he didn't deserve this. "He's done nothing wrong. You have no right." And he has no where to go. She added on silently, attempting to spare Aang some embarrassment by not uttering those words out loud.

Katara agreed. "Sokka, Avi's right. You are making a mistake."

"No, I'm keeping my promise to Dad," Sokka declared. "I'm protecting you from threats like him!"

"Aang is not our enemy!" Katara shouted back, her anger clearly rising. "Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time—fun."

"Fun? We can't fight firebenders with fun!"

"You should try it sometime," Aang suggested.

Aang's lighthearted reply only served to anger Sokka more. "Get out of our village—now!"

Avina stepped forward. "Sokka, stop. Aang is innocent. And Katara's right. Ever since he's been here, things have actually happened here. He's brought a life to this village that I haven't seen since my dad and Uncle Hakoda left." Really, that I haven't seen ever. The thought came so suddenly that she didn't even have time to stop herself.

Sokka shot her a glare. "You can't compare him to Dad."

"She wasn't, you idiot," Katara butted in, stepping forward as well. "Grandmother, please, don't let Sokka do this."

Gran Gran showed no sign of letting up. "Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden. Sokka is right. I think it best if the airbender leaves."

Avina's amethyst eyes widened in shock, darting over to lock with her grandmother's blue. She begged her silently to reconsider, but Gran Gran simply shook her head. If not even Avi could convince her otherwise, then Aang was surely doomed.

"Fine, then I'm banished, too!" Katara exploded, turning around and grabbing Aang's arm. "Come on, Aang. Let's go."

"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka loudly questioned his sister, who was dragging Aang towards Appa.

"To find a waterbender! Aang is taking me to the North Pole!"

Aang didn't seem to be as informed about this as Katara thought he was. "I am? Great!"

  "Katara!" Sokka suddenly yelled, stopping her right in her tracks. "Would you really choose him over your tribe, your own family?"

  Avina watched as Katara considered the weight of her words, still not turning to meet their eyes. Avi was stricken with some kind of paralysis. Normally, she would have raced over and done everything she could to change Katara's mind—to calm her down and find some sort of peace of the situation. However, her legs would not move. Her mind, on the other hand, was a different story.

  She understood Katara's reasoning almost too well. Even if she would never admit it aloud, Avina had thought about leaving many times. Considered letting go of whatever force she held within, and letting it guide her to whatever destiny she was truly meant to have. But Sokka's words rang true. Every time she'd even thought of leaving, the next thought was her tribe—her family. No matter how much Avina wanted to leave, she would never be able to leave her family.

  Even if the fire that blazed within her only grew.

  Even if she—deep down—knew that she could never truly stay here.

  Stop, Avina. She scolded herself. These thoughts are selfish and foolish. You have no place in your life for such things.

  She observed in sadness as Aang left on the back of Appa, who still had yet to fly as the airbender said he could. Katara stood still, seemingly unable to make herself move. Avi made her way over to her cousin behind Gran Gran, ready to extend her a hand—

  "You happy now? There goes my one chance of becoming a waterbender!" Katara snapped at their grandmother, storming off. Avina caught her eye in a fleeting moment, and all she read from it was that Katara just wanted to be alone. Nodding her baby cousin off, Avi walked over to give Sokka a piece of her mind.

  "You are such an ass, Sokka. Aang did nothing wrong and you know it. The only reason you did that was because of your jealousy." Avi stared right into his eyes, and he shrank back. "You seriously need to get you and your stupid little ego together."

Sokka opened his mouth to respond, but seemingly decided against it. Maybe that slap had taught him to shut up.

▬▬ ☀︎︎ ▬▬

  THE VILLAGE PREPARED FOR WHATEVER THE FLARE HAD ALERTED. Their speed actually surprised Avina—given that they hadn't had a serious situation like this in years. Sokka had taken to dressing himself in the traditional Southern Water Tribe warrior attire, even painting his face in the colors that Avi remembered seeing the men bare on their faces before heading off to war.

  However, Sokka also insisted that he was to guard the village alone. Avina had immediately disagreed with him, but Gran Gran had told her to just let him see for himself that it was a bad idea. And that, technically, he was the only warrior in the village. Avi had just scoffed at the last part.

  Avina stood beside Katara, her eyes occasionally glancing upwards to check on her younger cousin. Even if he was a royal pain, she still did not want him to get obliterated by the Fire Nation for all of them just because he just so happened to be the only elder boy in the village. Katara, though, seemed to have no care in the world for him at the current moment.

  "He just thinks he's so high and mighty, doesn't he?" she ranted, rolling her eyes. "Really, he's just low and weak."

  Avi giggled. "Low and weak?"

  Katara cracked a smile. "Shut up, Avi. It was funnier in my head, okay?"

  "Okay, Tara."

Almost directly after Avina had uttered those two words, the atmosphere tipped. A deep, almost familiar rumble began to growl from the ground, and the icy ground itself began to crack all around the perimeter that was built around the village. The perimeter was the Southern Water Tribe's only defense from whatever enemy crawled up through the thick fog clouding Avi's view. In short, they were doomed. And everyone knew it.

Avi had frozen, eyes squinting to try to get a decent mental picture of their attacker, arm instinctively reaching for Katara's. Her younger cousin held onto her, blue eyes dashing around the village. Everyone was still with fear. They were all helpless.

Yells and screams erupted into the clearing. Women and their children ran for cover, cowering behind whatever structure they could find. Avina took matters into her own hands raced forward with Katara, both attempting to reach Sokka to warn him down from his perch on the tumbling wall of snow and ice. However, as the enemy stalked closer, they were paralyzed by the sight in front of them.

A single Fire Nation ship was creeping its way to the small village, tearing its way through the ice by brute force. Sokka stood alone against it, his silhouette casting a shadow near where Avi and Katara stood. Suddenly, after being pulled back into her body by something she could not name—possibly fear, or even bravery—Avi clasped Katara's hand with her own and dashed as quickly as she could for a nearby tent tucked into the back of the village.

Now shielded from the destruction, the two cousins yelled out to Sokka in desperation; trying to get him to move out of the way of the rapidly approaching Fire Navy ship. Though, their attempts were in vain. When the ship finally finished the wall, Sokka was the first to meet its wrath.

Avi's breath stopped. Watching with wide eyes, the ship let of a waft of steam. Sokka, by a mere miracle, was still on his feet, standing at the foot of the ship. Since the rumbling had ended, the villagers peeled out of their hiding places, all sharing the same look of unprecedented fear.

Katara reached for Avina's hand once again. She accepted it.

Out of nowhere, the ship's front barreled downwards, heading right to where Sokka was stood. Luckily, he had enough sense to skittishly stumble away, landing messily on his arms and legs. More steam blew from the darkness of the ship. The air didn't chill as it normally would in a dangerous environment. Instead, it heated.

To Avi's horror, she didn't recoil at the heat as everyone else had. Scarily enough, it was oddly comforting. She quickly forced herself to react in disgust.

When the steam and smoke finally cleared, a group of Fire Nation soldiers were revealed to be dissenting from their monster of a ship. Seconds after clocking them, Sokka rushed at them, weapon raised above his head and pathetic war yell echoing around the clearing of ruin. Before he could even make a move, the first soldier, whom Avi assumed was their leader, had kicked him square in the face and off the incline into the snow. Great. Avi thought. I actually was right about his warrior abilities.

Avi's gaze lingered on that of the leader. He looked significantly younger than the rest in stature and size, and he was the only one who's face could actually be seen. He was the one who creep forward, yellow eyes scanning the crowd of women and children skeptically. When he looked to her, Avi froze.

His face. She thought. What horrors had been done to him? Almost the entirety of the right side of his face had been burned, leaving behind a nasty patch of scarring. Only fire could have left a scar like that. And only the fire of a firebender could have been so precise. She shuttered at the thought.

"Where are you hiding him?" he simply asked, standing right before Avi, Katara, and Gran Gran.

When no one answered, he darted forward and grabbed Gran Gran, forcing her into his hand. "He'd be about this age, master of all elements."

Avina's eyes widened larger than she ever thought possible. He was looking for someone... and not just anyone. Master of all elements. His voice echoed in her head. He was looking for the Avatar. He thought they of all people, had the Avatar.

Foolish. Avi thought. Nothing of value resides here.

Unsatisfied by their lack of answer, he shoved Gran Gran back into Katara's arms. Avi stared him down, eyes gleaming dangerously in the sun that had managed to poke through the thick air. Clearly angered and impatient, he raised his fist and firebended a wave of fire at the villagers that flew over their heads.

"I know you're hiding him!" he boomed wildly, in a way a child would have a temper tantrum.

By then, Sokka seemed to have recovered, as he had mustered up the courage to run and strike him from behind. Once again, her cousin was flung into the air, but, this time, he barely landed on his feet. Twisting back around, Sokka dodged the soldier's fire before launched his boomerang at him.

The boomerang narrowly missed him, but in a rush of hope, one of the little boys had thrown Sokka a spear, and he was once again rushing at the soldier. However, he made not even a scratch on him. The spear was broken before it even touched him.

The soldier used the back of the spear to wack Sokka in the forehead multiple times, sending him falling backwards back onto the ground. Though, to Avi's delight, Sokka's boomerang came back like all boomerangs do, and it hit the soldier in the back of the head.

Fire now poured from the soldier's fists, anger twisting in his yellow eyes. Sokka skirted backward beside the rest of the tribe. Fear wound in her people's face.

Avi's stare sharpened into a glare.

When the soldier stepped forward, the fire in his hands nearly matching the fire in his eyes, something snapped within her. Avi's palms began to rapidly heat as her gloves were burnt to a crisp, the ashes falling and painting the snow beneath her in black. Before she could even think to stop, she had raced forwards, hands outstretched.

A whirlwind of fire raged from her fingertips, surprising him and sending him reeling back in pure and utter shock. Adrenaline and fire raced through Avina's veins. Gasps of horror rang behind her. She didn't hear them.

The boy soldier found her gaze of undeniable hatred. Though, she did not see the same reflected back in his eyes. All she saw was the shocked expression of recognition.

"No... there's no way."

He had barely managed a whisper, his eyes shrouded in confusion and... solace?

Avi did not have the chance to mentally process what had just occurred, as she had ungraciously stumbled back into Katara. Aang had miraculously appeared again, riding on the back of a penguin, and knocked the soldier back and on his head.

Katara caught Avina before she quickly pulled away, causing her to glance backwards into the blue of her baby cousin's eyes. They held none of their usual warmth. Instead, they were cold and rigid, like newly formed ice. In them, she saw blankness. As though they had never met before.

Avi looked away in shame, eyes drifting down to her palms. The snow had put out the fire, but her bare hands still steamed. Finally, her mind caught up with the moment.

That fire was hers.

She wasn't a non-bender like she had always believed.

Avina was a firebender.

▬▬ ☀︎︎ ▬▬

Katara after Avina firebends:

Well hello hello! I'm well aware it's been a year since I updated this poor neglected book, but I finally did it! I actually adore this story, and honestly, want to see it out to the very end. So I'll be trying to focus in on this, my One Piece fic, and my Daniel LaRusso fic for the next few months. Key word: trying.

Anyways, this chapter was... interesting. I've had the end scene in my head for ages, so I was very happy to finally get it down in writing. Though I'm not sure I'm 100% good with the finished product, I think it suffices for now. But yeah. Avi's a firebender, and now her, and everyone else knows. Just a heads up, next chapter is gonna be very interesting. Katara and Sokka's reactions are going to be extremely complex and interesting to explore—as you already saw a bit with Tara's reaction. Needless to say, they don't take it well.

But anyways, I'm gonna go eat dinner, so bye!