Chapter Text
In the moments after she woke up, there were three things that Katara was eventually made aware of:
1) The Avatar was real, and very much alive given that she was tied up on the back of his flying bison
2) There may have been a chance that her father lied to her about why she was taken to the fire nation when she was eight
3) She needed to get back to her brother as soon as possible
Before those last few revelations could be made though, the water tribe boy, Sokka, was busy trying to interrogate her, something Katara quickly realised he wasn’t very good at.
“What exactly were you doing on a fire nation ship?”
Silence.
“Why did you need to come to the south pole?”
Silence.
“What was that weird body control stuff you did to me and Yue?”
“...How did you know my name?”
“Hey! I’m the one asking questions here! What was… wait. So your name is Katara then?”
Katara sighed and nodded. It wasn’t like she was in any more danger than she already was by giving these people her name seeing as she was currently their hostage. Besides, somehow, this Sokka boy already seemed to know who she was.
She tried to think back to her earliest memories to try and see if she knew this boy from somewhere, but once again, the furthest back her memory travelled was waking up on the boat leaving the earth kingdom, with Yon Rha explaining her rescue and head injury which had caused her amnesia. She couldn’t remember these people being in her life whatsoever. Unless… no. It would have been the adults in her life who had imprisoned her. If she had been isolated from everyone else in the tribe, then she never would have met Sokka. He had to have mistaken her for someone else. Yes, that had to be it. For all she knew, ‘Katara’ could have been a very common name in the southern water tribe.
She tried to lean back as comfortably as she could against the edge of the saddle, but was quickly stopped by two arms wrapping themselves around her shoulders.
“What in Agni’s name- Get off!”
“Spirits, it’s you! You’re alive! They didn’t kill you, you're alive!”
“What are you talking about? Get off of me!”
Katara finally managed to push Sokka away from her with her feet, easier said than done seeing as they were both tied together with possibly the itchiest rope ever.
Spirits, why couldn’t she be a firebender like Zuko and Azula? Then she could actually burn these ropes away and jump off of the side of whatever this thing was.
“What’re you talking about, Katara?” Sokka looked even more confused, and even slightly hurt. “Do you seriously not remember me?”
Katara looked at him incredulously.
“No! What the fuck?! Why would you just run up to an enemy, who you kidnapped by the way, and hug them?! Especially when you’ve never met them in your fucking life!”
Sokka looked like Katara had just slapped him in the face, as he slowly sat down, and held his head in his hands.
“I- I don’t understand. It all adds up, but why don’t you remember me?”
The white haired girl, Yue, placed a gentle hand on Sokka’s shoulder, trying to comfort him.
“Sokka, is it okay if I try something? I think I have an idea.”
Sokka nodded, too disheartened for words as Yue sat cross legged in front of Katara.
“Katara?” She asked, cocking her head to the side.
Katara rolled her eyes.
“Yes, that’s my name. This has been established so many times now.”
Yue just ignored the retort and took a deep breath.
“Do you remember anything from before you were eight years old?”
Katara froze, eyes wide.
“How did you…”
She trailed off as Yue motioned for Sokka to follow her to the front of the bison where the Avatar was sitting.
“Sokka, come with me for a second. I think she needs some time to process.”
“ She needs some time to process?! What about-”
“NOW, Sokka.”
Sokka muttered something under his breath as he followed Yue to the front of the bison, the two of them forming a small huddle with the Avatar, leaving a very confused Katara, still tied to the saddle.
“Oh, hey guys! What’re-”
Yue cut Aang off by holding a finger to her lips, motioning for the two boys to huddle beside her.
“What?” Aang asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “What is it?”
Yue turned to Sokka with a sad smile.
“I think I know what’s wrong with her.”
Sokka’s eyes immediately lit up with hope again.
“Seriously? Oh Tui and La, Yue. If we weren’t already betrothed I would propose to you on the spot.”
Yue giggled at that statement, but if truth be told, it only brought her dread. She loved Sokka, yes, but not in that way. And she had a slight feeling that he felt the same about her. The two of them knew that, seeing as they were now both so close to being of marrying age in the water tribes, the second they finished this quest with Aang their wedding would take place. It made sense, Yue was the only child of the northern tribe’s chief, and Sokka was the only boy in the south left who would be eligible. Not to mention they needed a way to strengthen the ties between the two tribes. The concept as a whole was perfect, aside from the fact that the pair had never truly loved each other, except for the childish crushes of ten year olds.
Yue quickly shook aside her woes and began to explain her story.
“One time when I was listening in on one of my father’s council meetings, I overheard someone talking about how the king of Ba Sing Se had these secret police officers called the ‘Dai Li’. And what they did was any time a person acted seriously out of line, the Dai Li would arrest them and they’d be gone for a few days, before randomly turning up again and acting as if nothing had happened.”
Sokka raised an eyebrow, looking sceptical.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I’m getting there.” Yue whispered. “There’s rumours that the reason these people who get arrested act so strangely, is because the Dai Li use hypnosis techniques as a form of brainwashing.”
Aang bit the inside of his cheek, thinking.
“So what you’re saying is that Sokka’s sister could have been taken to these Dai Li people when the Fire nation captured her?”
Yue nodded.
“It makes sense. There’s also been rumours spreading up north that the king of Ba Sing Se is secretly in kahoots with the fire nation. What better way to keep a potential enemy from fighting you than to force them to join your side. Not to mention gaslight them into thinking that you were the good guys all along.”
Sokka glanced back at Katara, crossing his arms.
“Even if you’re right, Yue, how’re we supposed to get her real memories back? We can’t exactly march into Ba Sing Se and demand that they turn her back to normal.”
The white haired girl pursed her lips as she tried to think of a solution, then, all of a sudden, it hit her.
“The spirit oasis!” She cried, accidentally raising her voice and causing Aang and Sokka to shush her. “Sorry.”
“What about it?” Sokka and Aang both asked in unison.
Yue was now grinning like an idiot.
“Well, it would mostly be a last resort if normal healing didn’t work. But there’s a small oasis hidden right in the centre of the northern tribe that’s got some really strong connections to the spirit world, and the water is supposed to have special properties. It’s how I was healed when I was sick as a baby,” Internally, she felt slightly guilty for not giving the full truth about how she was healed. Not even Sokka knew the full story, purely because she didn’t want him to worry or panic. “Maybe it could help heal Katara’s mind?”
There was a long stretch of silence after that suggestion, until Sokka flung his arms over Yue’s shoulders, smiling uncontrollably.
“Yue, you beautiful, beautiful genius! Have I ever told you how smart you are? For a girl at least.”
Yue immediately dropped her smile and punched her betrothed in the shoulder, causing him to shout out in pain.
“Of course you had to go and ruin the moment.”
Sokka was about to complain, when the trio heard a sharp laugh from behind them. They all turned to see Katara laughing her head off, and when she saw everyone staring at her, she didn’t stop grinning.
“What? He deserved it! You were being such a little shit!” All of a sudden, she stopped smiling and her eyes narrowed. “Why’re you smiling at me like that?”
Yue and Sokka turned to Aang, who was now frowning at Katara.
“Oh, I was smiling?”
To say that Zuko was furious would be a severe understatement. After years of searching, he’d finally found the Avatar. He was finally able to restore his honour, but then he was able to fly out from right under his nose.
That alone wouldn’t have been too bad, he supposed. At least he had confirmation that the Avatar was alive. But then he and his two little water tribe friends just had to take it further and kidnap his sister. He was absolutely inconsolable. Not even Iroh could get near him without the threat of a fireball being thrown at his face.
“Prince Zuko,”
“Get out.”
“Please, just-”
“I said GET OUT!”
At his nephew’s outburst, Iroh genuinely expected to be backing away from a huge blaze. Instead, the absolute unexpected happened.
Zuko broke down crying.
Iroh hesitated for a moment, before sitting down next to his nephew, and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Zuko…”
Zuko looked up at his uncle, his eyes red and puffy from crying.
“It’s my fault. It’s my fault she’s gone.”
The ex general frowned and shook his head.
“Zuko, I can assure you that none of this was your fault.”
“No, it was my fault, Uncle! If I hadn’t spoken out of line then I’d never have been exiled, and Katara wouldn’t have claimed to need to go with me, and she wouldn’t have needed to come with me to the south pole, and she wouldn’t have been captured! I wouldn’t have lost the sister who actually gave a shit about me!”
Iroh immediately pulled his nephew into a hug, and was surprised to see Zuko reciprocate.
“We will get her back to us, Zuko. We’ll get her back and then capture the Avatar.”
Zuko froze, then pulled away from the hug.
“Of course,” He mumbled. “She’s with the Avatar.”
And in the blink of an eye, Zuko’s mood did a complete 180 flip, as a smug grin began to creep onto his face.
Two birds with one stone.