AN: What if Katara wasn’t pulled back by Zuko when Aang made his outburst about not killing Firelord Ozai?

Comfort

“We’re trying to help.”

“Then when you figure out a way for me to beat the Firelord without taking his life, I love to hear it!”

“Aang, don’t walk away from this.”

She watched him storm past the scene in an attempt to solve things on her own. A hand went on her shoulder: Zuko’s. He tried to pull her back, saying that Aang needed to be alone, but she just shrugged it off and walked past him. The eyes of her brother, Suki, and the banished prince bored into her back, and the questioning expression of Toph’s staring blankly into the ground. But she didn’t care. Her eyes were only set to the retreating figure of her best friend.

Katara ran after him, her arms and shoulders working hard and burning as she saw him make a turn up creaking wooden stairs. She blinked back tears as a couple particles of dust entered her vision.

“Aang!” she called as she emerged to an open balcony. When she reached him he was already set, cross-legged next to an untouched tray of food and four lit candles with white wax melting off their sides. He didn’t respond, nor did he bother to turn around and face her. He was meditating, she guessed, trying to calm himself for the impending battle ahead of him. Part of her didn’t want to try talking to him for fear of disturbing his thoughts, but Katara knew that deep down, he needed this.

“Aang,” she whispered, gently prodding his shoulder. “You can’t just avoid you’re destiny, you know that.”

After a moment of silence, she thought he was completely ignoring her. The waterbender almost gave up, silently turning around with her head bowed. But she thought too soon.

“I’m not,” she heard him murmur; “I’m just facing it my way.”

By the time her front wholly twisted to face him, she found that his back stayed toward her direction; he hadn’t moved at all.

The light of the fire reflected off the oak of the floors, walls, and the dark, tawny tones of the fruits that lay on the untouched food tray before him. Silence seeped through to the nighttime air, as if a humming hush surrounded them, haunting them like an unwanted phantasm.

“I can’t…kill someone, Katara. It isn’t me. It isn’t what I was taught. Even if everyone expects me to do this, I want to find another way, any other way. I don’t care what it is, as long as there are two survivors at the end of the battle.” He sighed, “But if I can’t find another way to win this I’ll have to force myself to do something I can’t bring myself to do.”

Katara still stood there, motionless behind him, staring at him at the back. “But you have to save the world. We’ve been working to this point since the day we started to the North Pole!”

The Avatar’s voice started to raise, his back still to her. “He’s still a human being!” His arms finally flexed and he put them down on the ground and forced his body to twist and face her. “Even if the world is better off without him, you can’t wipe out anyone! What Avatar Roku told me about his past, he wanted me to understand that everyone should be treated like they should be given a chance.”

“Right. But…”

“I can’t do that if I’m not giving Ozai one.”

For the first time, Katara began to think of the position Aang was in. For the first time, she realized how selfless he was being, even if he partly still wanted to follow his teachings. She realized that in his heart, he stayed true to himself, and when she really thought about the situation it all made sense.

“You don’t have to take his life, Aang.” He turned around, surprised.

She comprehend that taking another person’s life into consideration, no matter how horrible they are, was the most unselfish thing anyone could do.

She touched his shoulder and knelt near him. “I know you can do this and be true to yourself. I think I know now by what you told me that you’re right, and I hope you find a way.”

If she was hoping to change his mind, it happened the other way around. As for comforting him? That happened the other way around too.