A/N: If you haven’t forgotten the story already, it’s a little bit easier to follow, now that I’ve edited all the chapters multiple times. But it’s not your fault guys, it’s mine. I try to make everything a soap opera and then hate myself for it later. Well, you’re still going to get a soap opera whether I like it or not. I’m sorry, I’m just sick of trying with this thing. It’s going to fail, but at least I can say I finished it. So here’s my excuse(s): First was shear lack of dedication. I just don’t like this story, and especially hate writing action sequences. Second, my English teacher last year completely traumatized me. My first essay that I wrote in that class, I’m pretty sure I got a low C - and I was a straight A student,(most of the time ). That class pretty much slammed “BAD WRITER” in my face. In fact, that was the only class I got a B in too... So yeah, complete lack of confidence was also a key factor. And then high school in general, my gosh, how does anybody find time to do anything? And I can't say that huge break between seasons didn't have anything to do with it either...So yeah, I'm really sorry guys.

Phew. So what have I learned from this? Simple, avoid fight scenes altogether. Who needs fighting anyway, I mean heck, let’s have world peace! (I wish...)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of Avatar’s characters. I do own Aiden, and even though he’s kind of suckish, it’s better than him being a lightning bender and living in the real world.

Chapter 7

“Over there!”A dozen sparks of embers flew over their shoulders, missing them by mere inches. Katara drove them both downwards, following a gentle slope into a valley filled with spontaneously erected icebergs. The fire blasts followed them down, and desperate to lose them, she raced across an intricate path only she would have known of. Aiden was keeping up as best he could, but Katara soon found it too hard to keep track of him and run at the same time, and finally let go of his wrist.

A loud blasting sound from their left erupted, and suddenly the wall of the iceberg nearest to them burst outwards. Driving away the shattered pieces with a weak effort of waterbending, she kept running, turning her head around as she went to see the small group jump out of the hole in pursuit. Dipping her hand downwards, the path they had ran across suddenly caved inwards with the motion of her hand. With a crash, the militia fell into the ditch.

Aiden didn’t know how much more he could take. His legs, unused to the shifting snow, already felt like lead, and still, Katara seemed more willing to keep going than he would ever be able to even in the face of the most dangerous impediment. Unknowing at first, he slowly began to slip further and further behind the waterbender. His heart pounded inside of him, his legs felt like rubber.

She was at least five feet away, then ten, then fifteen, and soon enough it felt as if they were a mile apart.

A small figure from his vantage point, he watched her turn a bend and disappear behind an incredibly massive iceberg. Heavily panting, he followed her to the spot where she had disappeared and stopped abruptly. Before him stood an unusually tall ridge of ice, sloping up the middle of what looked like two paths. The one on his left swerved inwards, concealing the rest of the way no matter which way he looked at it. Mountainous icebergs framed it from all sides, which provided more suitable protection from the firebenders than the one on the right, which expanded right into the open, alongside the cool ocean. A trail of tracks went along both sides, one smaller, and one wider.

Gradual shouting suddenly reached his ears, and in a panic of what to do, he quickly took off down the left, instantly encasing himself in the shadows of the cliff. His eyes on the ground, he followed the tracks for what felt like hours, sometimes stopping until he could pick them up again as the shouting steadily became louder and louder.

Darkness seemed to close in around him as he ran. Chancing a glance over his shoulder, he found to his fortune that they had not yet founded the corner, although he could hear the sound of stampeding footfalls pounding closer and closer.

He quickened his pace, panting so hard he knew the army could hear him, and continued to follow the tracks, knowing that any minute now, he was bound to have caught up with Katara and they could fight them back together.

Then to his horror, the tracks stopped.

He slid to a halt, actually falling forward while trying to make a smooth stop on such a slippery ground. Spitting the snow from his mouth, he lifted his head up, only to find the bearer of the feet he had been following for so long looking straight back down at him through a pair of black, beady eyes.

...A penguin.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, searching the ground for further signs of tracks, but no. He had indeed followed a penguin into a dead end. Turning around, he saw that the militia had already rounded the corner and had no doubt spotted him. Ignoring the penguin waddling around his legs, he broke into a rapid run, though to no avail. He was trapped.

The firebenders were more resilient than she had expected. Accelerating even faster, Katara raced around a bend, the army’s shouting following her as she nearly ran into the front of an icy wall.

She could probably only go another league or two without collapsing, and who knew how long Aiden could survive. There was no way he was as used to treading through snow as well as she was, even if he was born into a similar climate. Looking to the right, she remembered a small cave in a nearby cliff they could hide in. Riding on the right side of the cliff, she ran on, using her waterbending to push the snow beneath the base of the ridge upwards with an incredibly powerful force, erecting the ice at least ten feet higher to prevent anybody else from seeing them so easily. If they reached the cave in time, she would be able to hide their tracks as well.

She had probably only gone a few meters when she heard the firebenders voices carry themselves to where she was. Then they slowly waned into their sharp fire blasts and crunching footsteps on snow. She listened, her ears intent on catching their numbers. By the reasoned that they had split their party in half, the two sides searching both sides of the wall. That was fine with her though. The less, the better.

Turning her head to inform Aiden of her assumption, she suddenly realized that for the first time that he wasn’t there. She stopped, hoping that he would magically appear around the corner, slow, but not lost. Anything but lost. Panic struck her when the little time she gave him slipped by and he didn’t come.

She had to do something fast. Hiding was pointless now; finding Aiden should be her cardinal objective now. She had no time to dig through the wall when firebenders were coming toward her, even now. And if they reached Aiden first, there was no telling if they would attack him or not. No, there wasn’t even any time to think anymore. She would have to fight them and then see what she could do.

Just as she had reached this thought, a light wave of sound floated to where she stood. Turning back to the direction she had come, she waited on the spot for the army to come. Get rid of the firebenders first, then Aiden, she reasoned.

A meteoric flurry of fire blasts rocketed through the air in her direction the moment the small party had rounded the corner and spotted her. She deflected them all, using chips of the cliff wall as her ammunition. Dodging another, she ducked down low, setting her gloved hands over the snow and swiftly raising them upwards and back down. The ground rolled underneath her fingertips, gaining acceleration until it hit its target. A few, depending on where they were hit, went flying, while others were able to partially deflect it.

Standing once more, she shifted her position to the ocean beside her, watching the soldiers clumsily rise to their feet out of the corner of her eye. When they had regained their composure, they began to make a gradual charge, flaming fists held out. A tight smirk tugged at her lips as she effortlessly brought both her hands up and over her head, a massive tidal wave following her movements. They saw the wave coming a moment too late, and without warning crashed into the wall, paralyzed on the spot until the water finally seceded its hold on them.

Three of the eight remaining were the first to get back on their feet. Charging towards her, one launched a fiery punch to her shoulder, but she quickly dodged it and knocked the man out of her way with a sharp pillar of ice. She took out the next two by bringing the ground upward and out, sending them flying into the wall again at an alarming speed. Shifting her gaze back to the five remaining, she brought a sufficient amount of water and shaped it into a dense block, freezing it with a soft breath of air. Before the five had enough time to begin an attack, she launched the block at them, pressing them back against the canyon wall.

She brought her hands back at her sides, her head bowed as she calmly approached them. The others had all but fainted, lying helpless on the ground as she stepped over them, making her way to the five she had just trapped.

The man closest to her threw her a scornful look, and leaning down so that they were level face to face, she asked in a partial growl, “Where’s the boy who was with me?”

“How should we know?”he snapped.

“Don’t give me that. What did you do with him?”she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Let us go you scum, and maybe I’ll tell you.”

She released his gaze, standing upright and scanning the wall, knowing that her attempt to get information was futile. Ignoring the squirming soldier, she approached the cliff, her hand lightly running across its surface as she contemplated how to best tunnel through.

“Now where have I heard that before?”she mused aloud as she found a thin enough section a wall. The cliff wall was at least fifty feet deep, but for now, until she reached the other side, she would have to start picking away at the side here little by little.

He could hear the soldiers shouting at him to stop. He ignored them all and kept running though. It was so impossible, he thought inwardly, that even if he hid behind an iceberg of some sort, he would either get lost or they would see and pursue him.

A blast of fire suddenly whizzed over his shoulder. He glanced backwards, abruptly stopping when he realized to his horror, that he had reached another dead end. Before him stood a massive iceberg, completely blocking his way. There was no way out, unless he wanted to get lost in the ice. And even those were cut off by the advancing soldiers.

Reluctantly turning to face his death, he clumsily took his stance, his mind uncomfortably foggy at such a critical time, when his back was up against the wall and the only way out was through a firewall. Literally.

The soldiers easily surrounded him, blocking all exits.

“Where’s your friend?”one called out. He tried desperately to stay calm, though he was sure his heart was beating faster than the speed of light by now. Attempting to meet the soldier’s eyes, he uttered a small mumble and hung his head.

“She went that way,”he finally muttered, pointing a shaking finger back up the hill. The soldier’s eyes followed the direction he was pointing to, turning back to the avatar and giving him a fierce glare.

“Do you think I’m stupid?”he asked. He didn’t answer.

“Let’s force it out of him,”another threatened, lighting a ball of fire in his palm.

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Liar,”one muttered.

“Hey wait, isn’t he supposed to be a mute?”another suddenly called out.

“That’s right...,”what he supposed was the leader said thoughtfully, then ordered, “Take off his hood. I want to see his face” At this simple command, he found his fingers shooting up to secure the hood concealing his identity. Out of the corner of his eye, a man had begun to approach him, his arm stretched out to yank it out of his weak hands.

Closing his eyes, he heaved in a deep breath, and just as the hand had made a move to close around his wrist, he had swung his arm around, sending a surprisingly powerful blast of snow at the soldier. The man staggered back, taken by surprise, as was he.

The group reacted cautiously when they saw this. Weapons were drawn, and random flames burst from some’s fists.

“Commander,”one said to their leader, “Our records last showed that there was only one waterbender residing in the South Pole.” Aiden’s knees almost gave way.

“Impossible,”he replied with a heavy glare at Aiden.

“Alright then, who are you?”he shouted to the frightened bender. He tugged at the hood, pulling it over his eyes, unable to say anything to this.

“Fine,”he suddenly muttered, “We’ll do this the hard way.” Knowing what was coming, he just barely managed to conjure melted snow up to shield him just as a blast of fire shot towards him. The blast rapidly dissipated as the two elements collided, and though he could barely see through the thin line of steam that had issued from the collision, he could just barely make out the bright form of another ball of fire whizzing straight towards him. Panicking, he ducked, turning to every side, unsure of where to look or aim. He was surrounded.

Trying to remain as calm as possible, he slowly set loose a clumsy water whip, failing to correctly hit his intended target, but managing to forge a gap between the line of firebenders advancing towards him.

The attack failed miserably, and panicking, he searched his mind for a lesson he had learned from Katara that would save him. And all he knew were basic maneuvers and how to melt and freeze.

In his muddled panic, his eyes fell downward. And then, as if the spirits had suddenly opened a window for him, he had an idea. Concentrating on the ground, he hesitated as fists raised, poised to attack. Holding his breath, he focused what energy he had left on the ground. Using all his concentration, he focused on one area, holding onto it until it’s breaking point when the energy would snap back.

In what felt like a minute, but was really no more than a nanosecond, he looked up to hear at least twenty simultaneous splashes. Hardly unable to believe his eyes, he made a complete turn, incredulous. The snow beneath where every soldier had been standing had miraculously melted into a perfect ring of water.

He took the moment to his advantage. He made a dash back the way he had come, though he only made it a few yards before one of the more resilient soldiers was able to swim his way back up to the surface, spot Aiden, and scramble out of the water in time to shoot a blast of fire in his direction. The embers grazed his neck, spitting outward like firecrackers.

When another blast pelted towards him, he managed to bluff a ridiculously horrible counter attack, blindly swerving a blast of water at the flames. Slipping on the snow, he fell to the ground just as another fireball whizzed over his head. He tried to get back on his feet, but failed miserably when the snow slushed beneath him. Still on the ground, he rolled to the right as another fireball rocketed towards him, licking the surface of the ground with its unmerciful heat.

One had managed to get behind him, and too distracted to notice him, the soldier grabbed the young bender by the back of his hood and yanked it backward. His fingers shot up to pull it back, but he was too had seen him.

“The avatar?”the man said incredulously Kicking against the soldier, he finally managed to break free by stomping onto the man’s foot. However, it wasn’t enough time to hide himself. The anger in their eyes had turned to greed in a matter of seconds.

“Seize him!”

The soldiers were advancing, slowly beginning to move away from the iceberg from where they had came. Aiden either ducked or defended with water, though he was too outnumbered to even have a chance to make many offensive attacks, and those he did manage to make were usually clumsy and easy to dodge.

A burst of fire suddenly lit up the wet ground, and taking a step back to avoid the flames, he tripped. Unable to react quickly enough, the split army took advantage of the moment and sent a simultaneous fire blast at him, the blow greatly amplified with their combined forces.

Two things happened at that moment. A gigantic crash sounded off on his right side, pale vaporization clouding the culprit’s identity so that he had no way of finding out why or how the crash had been made. The noise seemed distant, unimportant, however, as the flaming orb drew closer.

Aiden looked up as the blast came hurtling towards him. In that split second, he somehow saw the fire differently than it really looked. Like really, it was only the air resistance pushing it back that made it look scary. Now, it looked more like...a spark. Like a candle. And then a crazy thought occurred to him: What if he could try blowing out that candle?

The second passed and inspiration took the place of reality. Then out of a more subconscious instinct than anything else, the thought seemed to blossom into common sense, and without thinking, he had heaved a deep breath and blew it out as hard as he could a split second before impact.

A rippling whirl seemed to encase him; a chaotic sort of breeze brushed against his body, though from which direction he was unsure. It seemed more around him than anything else, though he was too afraid to open his eyes. The thought was ridiculously stupid, he thought to himself as he waited for the fire to pelt him.

But the impact never came. Slowly opening his eyes and lowering his arms, he found empty space coming to kill him, at last noticing that the soldiers were somehow at least fifty feet away from him, though what really puzzled him was the fact that they were all sprawled across the ground.

Shock ceased him for the moment, and even the steady fading of the smoke from the surprise explosion couldn’t wake him from his reverie for the moment. Only one thought came to mind, one that he couldn’t explain, but never the less knew it had to be true: He had airbent.

“Ai-uh...Terrence?”a voice called to his right. Slowly his senses came back, and turning, he found Katara shoving a block of ice aside, standing just outside the opening of a small tunnel that stretched all the way across the width of the cliff wall. He made a move towards her, balking when a soldier came close.

The waterbender shooed the mist away with a swipe of her hand, climbing over the mounds of ice to join him just as the rest of the firebenders began to stand. Aiden found himself taking a cautious step forward, not back this time, a small bubble of pride rising inside him, despite the dangers before him.

“Did you just airbend?”she asked, taking her stance. He hesitated before copying her, nodding his answer.

“That was actually... pretty good,”she commented. He blushed, though the grin remained firm on his face.

“T-Thanks,”he stammered, still smiling. This small bit of pride could never suffice for the humiliating loss he had yet to inform her about.

The majority of the firebenders were on their feet by now, and ignoring their motionless comrades still sprawled across the snow, they charged, fists lighted with fire. A sharp intake of breath passed the waterbender’s lips, and directing her eyes towards the cliff above them, she let the snowy peeks fall under her hand’s conduction, submerging the brigade of firebender’s under a thick blanket of snow, which she quickly froze into ice. Straightening, she searched the area for anymore signs of the enemy, then turned back to Aiden.

“That’ll stall them for a while,”she said, almost absently, but smiling when she saw his incredulous expression, continued in her harsher tone, “Don’t ever do that again, you scared me to death.” The unbelieving countenance remained, as if he was ready to say, “Really?”

“Um...what now?”he asked instead.

“We’ll have to talk with the village later. They’ll have a lot of questions...,”she softly replied, “And we can’t just leave them here...but first things first. Did they find out who you were?”

“Uh...well, kind of,”he replied, embarrassed. She didn’t try to hide her disgust.

“What? Oh, no...”she said, then stepped back, glanced at the pile of snow, and sighed, continuing, “Right, then we should hide before they get out of there.”She motioned for him to follow her. He obliged, tailing her as they plowed through the pile of snow, slipping as they went and eventually having to use waterbending to shove aside a clear path.

They had reached the dead end when they realized that they had heard something. They turned around, straining their ears to listen for the noise as its volume grew to a point where they could distinguish the sound as tramping feet mixed in with the subtle background of unfamiliar voices.

“Run!”Katara suddenly shouted. She brought her hands up to shoulder height, then thrust them outward, throwing the wall of snow back into the far distance. The bottom clung to the ground, however, and forged a slushy road for them to trek.

Glancing over their shoulders to see the other half of the squad bursting out of the tunnel with spears in hand, they sped down the alleyway, keeping close to the shadows in hopes that the army would miss them.

Behind them, the revived soldiers split, half to pursue the two teens and the other to retrieve their fellow comrades from the snow.

The cliff began to slant inward, approaching a gradual end as they raced towards it, struggling through sleet. Katara lead them around the bend, only to be thrown back by a surprise fire blast. Staggering backwards, Katara quickly blocked a second attack coming from the same direction, the firebenders who Katara had dealt with on the other side of the cliff charging at them.

Katara took her stance, her hands dipping with the roll of her breath, thrusting her element outward full-force to bury the oncoming men. The ground rolled, knocking them all down. Seizing the moment, Katara wheeled back around, pulling Aiden with her as they tore back across the way they had come.

A sudden fire blast sizzled past them, alerting them of their pursuers. The cliff wall however, only grew wider, and in the faint distance they could both make out the end of it: the winding U-shaped cliff wall.

“Dang it,”the waterbender muttered, “We’re on the wrong side.” Looking about her as she ran, she wondered if she could chance dragging Aiden through the ambush party of soldiers to get to the other side of the cliff. Desperate, she began to make a turn, then caught sight of the two groups advancing towards them. She quickly swerved around and pulled Aiden into the icebergs, darkness encasing them once again. Behind her she could hear the faint, “Quick! They went into the icebergs” and pursued, threading her way through the maze.

At some point she stopped, collapsing to the snow with a breathy, “Rest here” to Aiden, who didn’t hesitate to drop to his knees.

“We can’t...keep running...forever,”he panted heavily. Katara waited for her breath to slow down before answering.

“We can’t hide either...they’ll find us.”

“If we fight, we’ll never make it.”

“We might,”she commented, though half-heartedly, “Together maybe...as long as we don’t split up again.”

“I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

“I don’t want to either, but it’s not like we have a choice...”

“I could help by airbending...”

Katara fed her attention to the ground, an exasperated sigh passing her lips. “Look, that was good for someone who didn’t know how to airbend, but that wasn’t real, that was blowing air.”

“What does it matter? It worked.”

“Fine,”she answered bitterly, “It’ll never amount to anything if just keep blowing air though.”

He shrugged, answering with a hint of sarcasm, “Better than splashing water in their faces.” She slowly got back on her feet, pacing back and forth.

“Augh, this is exactly what I was afraid would happen. And just our luck too, your avatar spirit won’t activate, now that you’re in real danger.” Her comment was dry, snappy, and left a dreadfully uncomfortable silence to lurk between the two where the topic had left off. Both knew what the other was thinking about. She glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest and just glared at him, suddenly hating him, though she didn’t have a cause to be. She caught his gaze and held it for a minute, and to acknowledgment of his guilty avoidance to her, she returned his implicit reply with a soft sigh.

“I wish you had never found out about him,”she finally replied, averting her eyes to the ground. He was quiet, uncomfortable.

“What’s happening to me?”he finally asked, raising his eyes to catch her gaze, “I know you know.”

“No...I don’t know what’s happening,”she said softly, “But you have to listen to me. I think you have a right to know this. I don’t know how or why, but the avatar state isn’t acting normal. With Aang...it didn’t react around petty threats like it’s been doing with you. It came up when he was...at the end of his rope, emotionally and physically. It triggered only when he felt like he had no place left to turn but with violence. With you...it comes up because of stupid things that won’t even hurt you, and what’s more, is that when it does, it behaves...very strangely.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not as violent...not as scary,”she said thoughtfully, “And I think it might have something to do with Aang.”

“What makes you think that?”he asked.

Her cheeks flushed bright pink, and not wanting to explain why she thought so, she answered, “It just...makes more sense.” He waited for her to continue.

“Aang...has some sort of connection with your avatar spirit. And that’s why...I don’t want to go back out there and fight, even if we can take them. With that kind of sensitivity to trigger the spirit, both you and Aang could get into serious danger, regardless of how powerful he is.”

“And I couldn’t bear it if he died again,”she added inwardly to herself. He nodded, and the tense feeling in her heart eased, as if just the look on his face could suggest that he really did know what she was talking about.

“I understand,”he said quietly, and looking at him, Katara wondered if he really did. Probably not.

An uncomfortable silence fell between them, eventually broken by a soft chuckle.

“This is so weird. You and Avatar Aang...I would have never thought,”he said softly, smiling, “Were you two close friends?”

“The best,”she answered slowly. The deep sadness written in her voice slowly made the smile disappear. Her aura possessed a melancholy reverence, contagious, for he suddenly found himself quiet and thoughtful as she was.

The silence, however uncomfortable, proved faithful to their benefit. At the sound of a sudden crunch, they realized that the enemy had drawn nearer to them than either had hoped. Springing to their feet, Katara guided him to the left, slinking her way on an iceberg’s back.

The voices had muted, to their discomfort, because they knew that if they didn’t have a need to shout orders at each other’s divided groups, then they must be moving as one colossal force. She stopped short, listening, while Aiden slowly moved on.

The wind had died, giving silence birth as the minutes dragged on. Impatient for a sign, Katara’s eyes scrutinized the area with utmost care, listening for the smallest sound, looking for the quickest flash of a shadow.

A light tap on her shoulder forced away from her scrutiny, and turning around she found Aiden pointing towards a far-off iceberg, painted red and black by the armor of a firebending soldier’s reflection. Nodding, she motioned for him to follow her, holding her breath as she led them into the open, away from the shadow.

Their feet seemed to make all sorts of obnoxiously loud noises as they scurried across to the next iceberg, and Katara could barely resist looking back to make sure that the second set of footsteps really were just Aiden’s and not a soldier’s.

Once inside the safety of the clusters, she moved on, rotating a full circle with every step until she grew dizzy. Another flash of red, and she led him in a different direction, only to stumble on three others, so close she could have sworn she saw a head turn behind the block of ice. Hiding behind another, they nearly ran into another. Plotting their positions, she slid through two adjacent icebergs, jumping back just as Aiden had managed to stumble through it. In front of them were three soldiers, already poised to launch an attack. Scrambling back through, they ran back towards the opposite direction, only to be thrown back by a sudden explosion coming from their right.

Smoke obliterated their vision for a split second, then a ball of fire suddenly shot out towards them. Katara quickly deflected it, using whatever water was left to throw a water whip at the attacker. Another fireball sliced through the air, next to her shoulder. She turned and deflected it, while Aiden shot a pile of snow at another attacker.

By now flames were shooting at them like cannon fire. Abandoning her previous strategy, Katara reshaped the nearest iceberg and used it as a deflector that protected both of them from all sides. Extending her arms outward, she allowed it to rapidly grow until it knocked every soldier around them to the ground, then took off, with Aiden dragged by the wrist.

A massive blast sounded from their left. In the next second, nearly forty fire balls had come hurtling at them from an unknown source. Katara felt herself being thrown back, a sudden force knocking her back towards the opposite direction. A fireball, too quick to be noticed, had struck her and separated her from Aiden. She tried to get to her feet, noticing a sharp pain in her left arm when she tried to bend. Glancing down as she ran forward, she saw that her forearm had been singed. She had no time to heal it now, though. Aiden was momentarily defenseless.

She plunged back into the fight, trying to plow through the wall of soldiers separating her from Aiden, but six soldiers blocked her, using short-ranged attacks to break her offenses. She pushed against their forces, drawing excessive amounts of water to slash against their relentless fire blasts and occasional punches.

“Terrence!”she screamed, trying to see past the thick vapors of steam and red helmets. A soldier threw a flaming punch at her, and she quickly ducked down and froze his legs together. This strategy seemed to only work for a moment, though. She used that moment to scream his name again, launching a well-aimed water whip at two soldiers behind her, then turned back towards the cliff wall, raising her hands and jerking them towards her. The top of the cliff’s face suddenly ripped itself off the wall, violently crashing onto the ground. Katara quickly bent the snow out of her way, desperately looking for Aiden. Beside her, nearly half of the soldiers had deflected the blast in time by shooting a blast of fire over their heads. It shielded them from the crashing snow and allowed them access to quickly retaliate when the landslide had ceased.

“Terrence!...I mean Aiden! Whatever your name is!”she screamed, slashing a double water whip at her attackers, “Back off!”

Meanwhile, Aiden had been cornered against the wall. The team who had found him began to break apart, however, rejoining a muddled group of red somewhere far off, where he assumed they had just realized the threat Katara posed for them. Even with decreased numbers, though, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to last long.

They didn’t give him much time to recollect what he remembered from Katara’s lessons. Concentrating, he slowly melted the snow into water the way he remembered practicing. A sudden fire blast suddenly pelted into it, hissing out a thick line of steam. Panicking, he tried again, each time becoming sloppier and sloppier and each failure racking him with panic. Why couldn’t he do it fast enough so he could at least throw a hit at someone? What was it that had saved him last time they cornered him? Katara, that was right. So why didn’t the avatar spirit take over yet?

He was so panicked, he barely heard his name being screamed. Ducking aside instead of blocking to avoid the hiss of steam, he glanced in Katara’s direction, though he couldn’t actually see her through the blockade of red uniforms.

“Aiden!”

There it was again. He felt reassured, hearing Katara’s voice, that if he could only hold them off for a few more minutes, help would come. He just needed to stay far away from them, to avoid their sharp and unpredictable short-range attacks.

Stepping back, he bumped into the cliff wall. They seemed to be advancing now, seeing that with the five or six that were left, it was futile to shoot fireballs when he had an unlimited supply of water. He clumsily defended himself, unable to melt the ice in time to actually throw an attack at anyone and instead using it as a reviving shield.

The assaults were coming on faster now, jagged thrusts producing increasingly deadly fire blasts as Aiden desperately trying to defend himself fast enough.

“Aiden! Can you hear me?”

There it was again, this time slightly closer. He didn’t dare look up now, though. If he broke his concentration for even a second, he knew he would get hit. He tried to blow out huge gusts of air as he defended himself, but it just came out as regular breath. Hadn’t he been able to airbend just a while ago?

There was no way he would make it at this point. Either something was wrong with Katara, or they all conveniently decided that he was more fun to pick on. There were at least ten now, advancing rapidly and shooting as many fire blasts as humanely possible, flames furiously licking their hands and wrists as they tore at his defenses. He felt his strength draining him, his concentration faltering as he tried to focus on the entire group instead of the individual attackers. His hands, icy cold from holding himself against the wall, felt dead and useless as conjured another shield. Everything was going wrong!

“Aiden!”

That fleeting voice seemed impossible to comprehend. For a moment he thought it was he who was crying out for help, begging for some relief from the aching panic he felt.

The soldiers were feet away from him now, and it was only a miracle that he was able to duck and bend a shield for himself at the same time. Katara? Anyone? Help!

Desperate and unsure how to react, he balled his frozen fingers into a fist and lunged for a soldier. He shot back as his fist collided with the man’s flaming palm, clutching his burned hand while ducking under a fiery slash.

“Aiden!!!”

Why was it like this? This was so stupid, this whole war was so stupid. For the first time he felt...anger, at himself, for Katara, for everyone. He should have tried harder to understand what Katara was teaching him. Katara should have told him about Aang. She could have helped him understand his avatar spirit, she could have helped him control it... They both could have done things a lot differently, he suddenly realized.

It was over. He couldn’t possibly conjure defenses any faster than he already was, and they weren’t going any slower. One handed, his defenses were weak, his balance worse. A hand flew toward him, and, distracted by another blow, he was too late to block it. He staggered for a moment, and fell, defeated. He could feel the final blow burning his skin before it even came. A fist beside him flew upwards, poised to attack...

“AIDEN!!!”

...And something inside him snapped. A forgotten part of him that had been buried away for so long ripped itself out of its prison and filled him with a sense of assuredness and control. Katara’s scream rang in his ears, then everything went dark.

And Katara didn’t quite know why she screamed. Having plowed her way through her enemies to the edge of the icebergs, she now stood on the brink of his attacker’s circle, waiting for the inevitable. Through the cloud of red, a flash of light flared, illuminating the dark wall with a blinding light emanating from the wall, where she could see Aiden, crumpled on the ground. He suddenly stood up just as the firebender fired, effortlessly bending the attack back to it’s owner, its size doubling as it went so that it hit all of them.

Tears seeped into Katara’s eyes for some reason. She could see him clearly now, the malevolent glow of the avatar spirit radiating from where he stood. And at a time like this, all she could think about was that that might be Aang, and that he might get hurt again.

The ground that the firebenders stood on effortlessly rose from the ground, throwing them aside so that the area on which he stood was clear. Katara stared at him, her tears warm against her icy skin. She felt her legs pushing her forward, toward him.

“Aang...?”

The spirit raised his arms, gracefully waving his arms in intricate patterns. Without warning, every inch of snow within what looked like a half-mile radius flew up to the sky, and quickly bending her small patch of ground out of her way, she watched as the firebenders either melted whatever they could or fell to the ground. At first she wasn’t sure what he was doing, but then as he raised his weight higher toward the cliff top, she realized what was about to happen. She sprang forward, running as fast as she could towards him.

“Aang, stop!”she screamed.

The spirit swung his arms toward the cliff wall, and the obedient snow followed the motion of his hands and struck against the cliff face. A deep rumbling began to issue from the mountain. She could feel the ground shaking from underneath her as she ran, as if the earth itself was shaking in fear.

She was afraid. It seemed so silly, but she was actually afraid that at any moment, the spirit would allow his own avalanche to crush him. She could hear the white inferno lunging toward the bottom, but she didn’t dare look up in fear that she would stop to defend herself. Blindly grabbing for his wrist, he shoved her aside. Katara quickly retaliated, spinning around and raising her hands, ready to defend him.

“Aang, please don’t get hurt...”

Standing behind him, she watched as he quickly bent the falling snow out of the way, seconds before contact. The cliff, completely defaced of its white features, began to cease its low rumbling, and after a few moments of waiting for the smokescreen to clear, Katara could see that the entire valley had been buried in snow. Even if the firebenders managed to escape the full-on force of the collision, there was no way they wouldn’t be unconscious right now.

Katara felt tears sting at her eyes. They were safe - he was safe. But this didn’t seem right.

“Aang?”she croaked, taking a step closer to the spirit. It ignored her, standing completely motionless, like a statue. His bright blue eyes suddenly began to fade...

“Aang! No, wait!”

She sprang forward, ready to catch Aiden if he fainted. But surprisingly, he remained standing, swaying a bit as he regained consciousness.

“Ugh..what...happened? Katara?”he groaned, just barely noticing her there next to him and noticing her tears, “Katara, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

She couldn’t speak. Opening her mouth wouldn’t make words come out, staring at him wouldn’t make him understand that she had been let down once again. He waited for her answer, staring at her with concerned eyes, completely clueless to the wreck she was inside.

“Katara, I...heard you calling Aang. Is...Aang...?”-

That did it for her.

“Let’s go,”she managed to say. Of course her voice cracked as she said this. She didn’t feel any weaker for admitting that she was openly crying. What bothered her was that she had caused herself this torture. Stupid, if she had never thought that Aiden’s avatar spirit could possibly be possessed by Aang, she wouldn’t be hurting now. She had hoped again. She never seemed to learn her own lesson, even repeated over and over again. Why was she doing this anyway? Did she honestly think that Aiden could ever match up to what he just displayed?

Why did she keep hoping that everything would be better?

Katara found a suitable hiding place without much effort. She didn’t bother making a camp for them. Instead, she sunk against the icy wall, buried her head in her knees, and cried like the small girl she wished she was. Aiden sat beside her, silently, sometimes putting his hand on her shoulder or telling her it’ll be all right at random intervals. She was neither comforted nor repelled by his presence, but rather treated him as if he weren’t there at all.

The next day, once they checked to make sure that the surviving firebenders had left, they walked back to the village together, silent and thoughtful.

- - - - - - - - - -

The soldier watched his crew shuffling about, removing excess snow from the folds of their armor. A chilly wind picked up, softly moaning his own reflections of grief in his ear. His comrades, his friends...nearly half of them, all dead. It was a miracle even he had survived the avalanche.

He felt his remaining crew’s eyes boring into him, waiting for his command. Raising his head to the darkening sky, he heaved a heavy sigh and turned to face them.

“This loss was...very unfortunate. However, from our defeats... come greater victories...”

“Sir? What are your orders?”

“Return to the ship, for now. Gato, send a message to the firelord immediately, and tell him that we’ve found the avatar’s hiding place. Next time...we’ll be ready for him.”

- - - - - - - -

A/n: Bwa ha ha. "I'll be back." Just had to say that. I can give you guys a time line right now of how it's going to be from now on. I’m actually looking forward to the next chapter, so it should actually be up way sooner than never. From then, however, this story is a black hole waiting to happen. So expect a huge hiatus after chapter 7. Yay...? Thank you guys so much for dealing with my stupidity. And for those who didn't, trust me, I would have given up waiting after the first month if it were me, so I don't blame you. Review if you think I deserve it. And if I don't deserve it, review anyway.