Fireproof

“I can’t do it,” Aang sighs, slumping against a pillar of ice. “I took out at least a dozen Fire Navy ships, but there’s just too many.” 

Everyone exchanges worried looks. Sokka and Katara seem to be gearing up to fight. Kelani gets ready to join them, but Chief Arnook stops her, a firm hand on her shoulder. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” 

He looks worried, but stern. 

“I can fight. Katara taught me how to waterbend. I don’t know much, but if I can help, I will.” 

Chief Arnook frowns. 

“Absolutely not. You just returned home by some miracle, you can’t risk your life in battle. You and Yue must stay back and keep each other safe.” 

Kelani turns to Yue, who shrugs in defeat. 

They stay back with Aang, and Yue tells him about Tui and La, the Moon and Ocean Spirits. His face perks up and he suggests he tries getting in contact with the Spirits. Kelani beams at her friend, and looks to Yue for approval. 

“I know a place.” 

Yue and Kelani guide Aang to the Spirit Oasis. It looks just as breathtaking as Kelani remembers. The last time she came here, Yue was grounded. That was the same year Kelani lost her parents and had to be taken in by the chief. As much as the two girls wanted to explore the palace together, they knew not to defy Chief Arnook. He wasn’t harmful, but he could get angry. And Yue hated making him angry. 

“Woah,” Aang gasps, taking in the warmth of the Oasis, with its Spirit Pond, bamboo garden, and waterfalls. “It’s so tranquil.” 

As he says this, Katara interrupts, following them to the pond. Kelani smiles at her, noting her friend’s nervousness. 

“I thought I should be here to help look after Aang.” The girls nod at Katara, and Aang smiles brightly, blushing. 

Aang readies himself to go into the Spirit World, and the three girls watch. The fish in the pond swim after one another in an endless loop. Aang watches them intently and his eyes start to glow, along with the arrows on his hands, feet, and forehead. Kelani gasps. She’s never witnessed anything like this before. It’s beautiful. 

“Should we help him?” Yue asks, sounding alarmed. 

“No, he’s the Avatar, he’ll be fine. Besides, I’m his friend. I can protect him.” Katara reassures, and Kelani nods. 

Out of the corner of her eye she sees someone else enter the Oasis. Her mouth drops open. 

“Zuko?” Kelani breathes. Katara looks alarmed, spinning to find Zuko standing at the opposite end of the Oasis. 

Katara readies a fighting stance, and Kelani scowls at him, trying to mirror his stance. 

He smirks, watching the two waterbenders get ready to fight him. He turns his attention to Kelani and throws his first shot. She washes it out with a blast of water. Yue runs off to find help.

“Katara, you protect Aang, I’ll handle Zuko.” 

Katara wants to object, seeing as she’s had more practice with waterbending, but she can see that there’s some unresolved issue between Kelani and Zuko, and focuses on being backup. 

Zuko laughs bitterly as Kelani charges towards him, her hands engulfed in water. He throws another shot at her, and she dodges it. His face falls into a scowl to match hers. 

“Didn’t know friends fought other friends.” He spits, his feelings of betrayal bubbling to the surface. 

Kelani pauses for half a second.  

“They don’t!” She shouts through gritted teeth, flooding his face with water. He spits water out of his mouth and shakes his hair out, letting out an angry breath of fire. “But you don’t have to do this, Zuko. You’re choosing to make things harder for yourself because you think it’ll make everything better. It won’t!” She spins out of the way of his fists hurling a double punch of fire at her. She whips water at him, extinguishing his flames for a few seconds. 

He can’t rebut her statement, too focused on throwing fire at her. He never imagined they’d be fighting like this. His anger starts to become overrun by sadness. He thought they could be friends, and he could work his way up to earning her affection, not this. She looks at him like she hates him, and it breaks his heart. 

While she has a gap in between throws, she discards her new coat, feeling sweat break on her forehead. Zuko stops, stunned by her beauty in the familiar pink robes. He can’t explain what it is about her that takes over his mind, but he watches her swing back and forth, bending water from the nearby waterfall, sweat glistening on her forehead, a few stray hairs falling out of her braid. All of a sudden he’s not angry anymore. He just wants this to stop. 

He stands, not readying another thrown, and she takes this as an opportunity. She hurls water at him in quick punches, spinning to create a wave and throw him back against the wall of the Oasis. 

“Stop!” He pleads, watching her through a wall of water headed his way. 

“Not unless you leave now, without Aang!” Kelani shouts over the roaring waterfall. 

“I can’t! You know I can’t.” His face falls. 

Kelani stops for just a second. 

“No, Zuko. I know you can, you just don’t want to.” She looks at him with sadness in her eyes and throws another wave his way, slowly freezing around him so he’s against the wall. 

With him frozen in place, she walks up to him. 

“Your father scarred you, Zuko. Do you really think he cares about you? I don’t. I don’t think it matters whether or not you capture Aang. He’s not going to care about you, or ‘restore your honor’. He’s a monster with selfish intentions. And I know you want to see him again, and you want to go home-” Kelani chokes on a lump in her throat. “But I know you’re better than him, and you don’t need him to validate you. You let Aang go once, so why are you still chasing him?” 

Zuko doesn’t bother to struggle in the ice trap. He stills, listening to her. He knows she’s right. She sees that there’s good in him. He can feel it in himself. 

“Zuko, I know you could be a hero, don’t be a villain.” Kelani tries again. 

His heart lurches. She really believes he can better. 

But the thought of defying his father and his nation, and his duty as the Crown Prince, and leaving everything he’s ever known or ever wanted behind in the ashes makes him uncomfortable. Vulnerable. Scared. 

He refuses to look at her, and his lip trembles like he might cry. Just then, the sun peeks through the roof of the Oasis, and he feels himself getting stronger. He breathes out, and the ice around him melts. As a reflex, he hurls fire in her direction. She’s standing so close to him that it hits her, and her shoulder starts to burn. 

Kelani lets out a cry in agony, and Zuko’s head snaps up to look at her. Tears fall freely from her eyes as she clutches her burned skin, and it starts to blister. 

Caught off guard, Katara rushes over to her to heal the burn. 

“No, Aang, protect Aang!” Kelani demands through gritted teeth, sobbing at the pain. 

Zuko halts, seeing the pain he’s caused her, hearing it rake through her body in sobs.  His entire body heats with shame. Once Katara is by her side, Zuko rushes to grab the Avatar, and leaves. 

Once Yue returns with Sokka, they explain how Zuko got away with Aang, and the girls mount Appa’s back to go looking for the Avatar. His soul is suspended in the Spirit World, but without his body to tether to, he’s not safe. 

“I’m sorry, Kelani.” Katara starts. “It got too deep, you were too close. It’s going to scar.” 

Yue frowns, resting her hand on Kelani’s unharmed shoulder. The burn reaches all the way down her shoulder blade, almost like a plait of armor. Sokka looks back at everyone, his face sorrowful, but his eyes angry. 

“I am going to kill Zuko.” 

Kelani’s body aches with pain and fatigue as they soar through a blizzard looking for Zuko and Aang. She rests her head on Yue’s shoulder, her hand in Katara’s lap with their fingers interlaced. The warmth from her friends and her coat that smells like Yue, mixed with her exhaustion, are enough to knock her out. 

She wakes at the sound of Katara’s glee. They watch as Aang’s spirit flies past them, into a tunnel. 

“What the fuck?” Kelani grumbles, cozying herself into Yue. 

“His body must be over there.” Katara points. 

Sure enough, his body rolls out of the tunnel into the snow. He’s tied up with rope, and Zuko runs after him as he snakes through the snow. Appa lands in the snow, and Katara slides off to retrieve Aang from Zuko. 

“Let him go! Haven’t you done enough?” 

Zuko glares at Katara, but gazes back at Appa to get a good look at Kelani, snuggled into the Water Tribe Princess. His eyes soften. Katara uses this to her advantage, and hurls him up in the air, slamming him back down to the ground, unconscious. 

Sokka slides down Appa’s back and over to Aang, untying him. They get on Appa, ready to leave Zuko face down in the snow as the blizzard continues. Aang hesitates to signal Appa to fly away. 

“We can’t leave him here, or he’ll die.” 

Reluctantly, they allow Aang to hoist Zuko onto Appa’s back using his airbending. 

“Oh, sure, he’s constantly tracking us down and trying to kill us, but let’s save him!” Sokka grumbles, rolling his eyes. 

Kelani lazily turns her head to look at Sokka. 

“Thanks, Sokka, but he’s right. We can’t just let him die.” 

Sokka sighs, and pats Kelani’s hand that rests in her lap. Yue smiles over at Sokka, and they both blush. 

Suddenly, the sky turns a dark red color. Yue slumps into Kelani’s side. 

“I feel faint…” She whispers. 

Aang agrees, explaining that the Moon Spirit must be in trouble. Yue frowns, and goes on to explain how the Moon Spirit is the only reason she’s alive. Kelani heard the story before, once or twice when they were children. 

Appa swoops down, into the Oasis. Zhao stands, holding a bag with the fish of the Moon Spirit wriggling inside. Momo attacks Zhao. Kelani feels sick to her stomach even being in the same room as Zhao. She hurls an ice ball at the back of his head using her good arm.

He spins to find Kelani smirking at him. He rubs the back of his head, and his eyes galare into her, full of that sickening evil lust. Sokka hurls his boomerang at Zhao, knocking the fish out of his hand and back into the pond. 

Kelani notices Iroh come in, and he tries to coax Zhao away from the Spirit Oasis. Zhao grins, throwing a roaring flame into the pond. The world goes dark. No light from the moon can be seen in the sky. Iroh sends flames towards Zhao. He escapes the Oasis, and Iroh’s flames. 

“It’s over, there’s no hope.” Yue cries, watching La helplessly circle the now dead Tui. 

Aang enters the Avatar State and slumps forward, into the pond. They all watch as he gets absorbed by the water, encapsulating the Ocean Spirit. The group watches in awe as Aang makes his way out of the Oasis, through the Tribe, and to the ocean. 

“Part of the Moon Spirit is alive, in you.” Iroh says, gesturing to Yue. 

She nods, understanding what she has to do. Sokka tries to stop her. 

“Your father asked me to protect you, I won’t let you do this!” He cries, holding her hand in his. 

Kelani watches on, sadly, as Yue sacrifices herself to save the world. Her heart breaks, watching Yue fall faint, and then slowly disappear. Her spirit appears, a faint glow around her as she floats above the pond. She reaches out and caresses Kelani’s cheek. Kelani reaches up to put her hand over Yue’s. They smile sadly at each other, and Yue turns to Sokka. 

“I’ll always be with you,” she says, kissing him goodbye. “Please, protect each other.” Sokka looks on sadly as Yue disappears. 

Kelani only nods, accepting Yue’s demands to protect Sokka. Tears start flowing down her face. She turns to Sokka, who looks dumbfounded. 

“She’s gone…” 

“I know.” 

Kelani walks over slowly and sits down next to Sokka, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and crying into his chest. Her tears leave tiny stains on his blue coat. She instinctively pulls her own coat closer to her body, taking in Yue’s smell as a memory. She sobs into Sokka. 

The moon returns to the sky, and the light of the moon lights up the entire world.