A/N I'M SORRY RANGI! AND KYOSHI!
Katara woke up to the sound of stampeding hooves. A group of war rhinos were circling the camp, soldiers on their backs.
Katara shut her eyes. She did not feel like dealing with anything before breakfast.
"Give up!" the lead soldier spat. "You're surrounded!"
Katara sighed and got out of her sleeping bag. "It's not even sunrise!" she grumbled. "Let me have breakfast first."
The leader sneered. "Do you want to know what's on the menu, pretty girl?"
Gross. "I'm fourteen!"
The man didn't answer. Maybe he was too surprised by her age, or maybe the fact that he was facedown in a pile of mud and gasping for air had something to do with it. Rina had her bag packed. "Come on!"
Sokka hadn't even gotten out of his sleeping bag yet, moving like an earthworm towards Sang, where Rina and Katara were running. A man with Yuyan tattoos fired three flaming arrows that pinned the back of his sleeping bag to the ground. Sokka freed himself and ran.
Then Katara realized something was missing. The box of scrolls was still sitting on a tree stump. "My scrolls!"
"My staff!" Rina cried. Her staff was leaning against the stump.
Both of them leapt off Sang and ran.
One of the soldiers threw his halberd at her, but she froze it in ice. She scooped up the scrolls and sprinted for Sang.
Another soldier removed a stick of dynamite from his belt. Rina narrowed her eyes, wishing she'd listened closer when Malu lectured her about explosives. She just barely batted it deeper into the forest, where it exploded.
"Fly, Sang!" she yelled as soon as she was on his saddle.
The leader fired a blast of flame at the retreating bison. "Wait!" Sokka cried. "My boomerang!"
"There's no time!"
"Oh, I see how it is. There's time to get your staff and Katara's scrolls, but no time for my boomerang?"
"That's correct!"
---
The seaside town was pretty, but Sokka was still in a funk.
"I'm sorry about your boomerang," Katara said. It was all he had left of their dad, just like her necklace was all she had left of their mom.
"I feel like I've lost part of my identity," Sokka moaned. "Imagine if Rina lost Sang, or you lost...your Avatar-ness. Or your hair loopies."
The merchant Rina was haggling with put a basket of food on the counter. "Alright, here's your produce, ponytail guy."
"I used to be boomerang guy." He put some money on the counter.
The merchant looked at it, surprised. "Hey, Water Tribe money!"
Katara just realized that might be a problem, since they were in the Earth Kingdom. "I hope that's ok."
"So long as it's money. Have a nice Avatar Day!"
Katara's interest was piqued. "Avatar Day?"
"You guys are going to the festival, right?"
Katara grinned.
---
Festival music played and green banners fluttered in the wind. "There's a holiday for the Avatar," Katara said, her voice full of wonder as she looked around. "Wow."
A float of Avatar Kyoshi rolled by. "Look!" Rina cried. "It's Kyoshi!" The Earth Kingdom Avatar's heavily made up face stared regally at the partygoers, who were cheering.
They ran to the main square. "And there's Avatar Roku!" The elderly Fire Nation Avatar's float rode out.
It was nice being appreciated, especially since she still hadn't had breakfast and had no intentions of checking out the firebender's menu.
A tattooed Avatar in Air Nomad robes was next. Avatar Aang, the Avatar before Katara.
"Mm! Deep fried festival food!" Sokka ran off to get some fried dough.
"Katara! Look! It's you!"
Katara admired the float of herself. "That's the biggest me I've ever seen."
A man ran into the square, holding a torch. "Now a torch, that's a nice prop," Sokka said through a mouthful of fried dough. "It's bright, dangerous, smells manly."
"Hey, what's that guy doing?" Rina asked as he jumped through the bottom of the Kyoshi float, setting it on fire.
"DOWN WITH THE AVATAR! DOWN WITH THE AVATAR!"
Fried dough fell out of Sokka's mouth as his jaw dropped open. The man lit Roku, Aang, and Katara's floats ablaze.
---
A couple walked through the streets of an Earth Kingdom village, carrying yokes on their backs. A shadow passed in front of them, and they gasped as they saw a masked warrior holding a pair of swords. They dropped the baskets and ran away.
Zuko picked up the baskets and returned to the forest. He slipped the mask inside the hollow of a tree and entered a cave.
"Where did you get those from?" Iroh asked as Zuko deposited the baskets.
"Where does it matter where they came from?"
Iroh nibbled on a pastry. "Mm!"
---
"DOWN WITH THE AVATAR! DOWN WITH THE AVATAR!"
Katara had the same look on the face as when the soldier offered to show her his menu, and Rina couldn't take it anymore. She extinguished the fires with a blast of air.
"Hey!" a spectator cried. "That party-pooper's ruining Avatar Day!"
Katara unfroze. "That party-pooper's my friend!"
The mayor gasped. "It's the Avatar herself!"
"She's going to kill us with her awesome Avatar powers!" another spectator wailed.
"What? No I'm not-"
"I suggest you leave," the mayor spat, regaining his composure. "You're not welcome here."
"Yeah, I could sort of see that."
"Why not?" Rina challenged. "Katara helps people!"
"It's true. I'm on your side." Although if that mess with General Fong had taught her anything, they weren't necessarily on hers.
The mayor pointed an accusatory finger at her. "I find that hard to believe, considering what you did to us in your past life."
"Huh?" Katara asked. "Who?"
"It was Avatar Kyoshi! She murdered our glorious leader, Chin the Great."
"You think that I murdered someone?"
Katara had killed several people since the start of the war. So had all her friends. But those casualties were just that, casualties of war. They'd never intentionally killed someone, although Rina had come pretty close.
"We used to be a great society before you killed our leader!" A hideous old man pointed to himself. "Now look at us!"
Katara cringed away from him.
"Katara would never do something like that," Rina defended. "No Avatar would. And it's not fair of you to question her honor!"
"Let's tell her what we think of the Avatar's honor!" a spectator yelled. He blew a raspberry.
"Come on," Katara pleaded. "Give me a chance to clear my name."
"The only way to prove your innocence is to stand trial."
"I'll gladly stand trial."
"You have to follow all our rules," the mayor explained. "That includes paying bail."
"No problem!"
A pillroy was locked around her head and arms. Rina and Sokka massaged their foreheads outside Katara's cell.
"What?" she protested. "How was I supposed to know they wouldn't take Water Tribe money?"
Sokka sighed. "Some people don't like you, big deal. There's a whole nation that hates you! Come on, let's bust you out of here."
"I can't."
"Sure you can. A little waterbending slice, and we're on our way!"
Rina sighed. "I think what he's trying to say is that you need to save the world. You can't do that if you're locked up in here."
"Save the world?" Katara asked. "We've just been wandering around aimlessly in the hopes of finding the girl with the boar. I can't save the world with people thinking I'm a murderer."
"We've all killed people, Katara. You freeze people in ice. Sokka slices people with his machete or smacks them with his boomerang. I literally bend the air out of people's lungs."
"Battle casualties don't count."
"And how are we going to prove your innocence?" Sokka asked. "Kyoshi lived hundreds of years ago."
"That's ok, Sokka. For some reason, I thought you were an expert detective."
"Well, I guess I can be classified as such."
Katara nodded as best she could. "Back home, he was famous for solving the case of the missing seal jerky."
"Everyone wanted to blame it on a polar leopard, but I figured out it was Old Man Jarco wearing polar leopard boots," Sokka bragged. "See, a real eight hundred pound polar leopard would have left much deeper tracks. Ok, I am pretty good."
"So you'll help me with my case?"
"Of course. But I'll need some props."
Sokka pulled out a hat from his bag and extended a magnifying glass from the rim. "I'm ready."
---
The armored wagon traveled through the forest, pulled by an ostrich horse. Inside, a wealthy merchant giggled as he counted the coins in his chest.
Suddenly, the wagon stopped. The merchant gasped and protectively pulled the gold to his chest. A few moments passed where nothing happened, and he sighed in relief. Then he screamed as a blade sliced through the roof, revealing a masked warrior.
The merchant offered up the chest. The warrior took it without a word, gone as suddenly as he had arrived.
---
Mayor Tong led Sokka and Rina to a small temple on a cliff overlooking the water. "This is the crime scene."
He pointed to a small footprint. "This is the footprint of the killer, Kyoshi. It was at sunset two hundred and seventy years ago today that she emerged from the temple and struck down Chin the Great." He pointed to a marble statue of a man in regal armor. "After that tragic day, we built this statue to immortalize our great leader. Feel free to appreciate it."
Sokka examined the statue, and then the temple. "This temple and the statue are carved from the same stone," he declared.
Rina gasped. "So if they were built at the same time, that means-"
"Shh! I want to solve it! That means Kyoshi never set foot in this temple."
"That's a big hole in Mayor Tong's story, but not big enough to prove Katara's innocence."
"You're right." Sokka pulled out Rina's bison whistle.
"Hey, where did you get-"
"We need to go to Kyoshi Island."
---
"Pretty girl," said one of the other prisoners, a voice said. A muscular man restrained by chains stalked out of the shadows. "You'll fit in well here."
---
A watchman clanged a bell as Sang swooped down onto Kyoshi Island. The village leader, Oyagi, looked up at the sky bison and smiled.
Everyone cheered as Rina and Sokka dismounted. Here, Kyoshi was known as a hero rather than a villain. And, by extension, so was Katara. "Oyagi!" Rina called. "Katara's in jail. The town of Chin says she murdered their leader in her past life. They say it was Kyoshi."
Oyagi looked incredulous. "Kyoshi? That's crazy talk! I'll take you to her shrine. Maybe something there can help you clear her name."
---
"So...uh...what's Suki up to?" Sokka asked, trying to act casual. He'd never forgotten the Kyoshi warrior who had taught him feminism. Rina hadn't forgotten either. Sokka had been pretty insufferable until they'd met Suki.
"Actually, she and the other warriors left to fight in the war. You kids had a pretty big impact on her. She said you inspired her, and she wants to help change the world."
"Oh. Well...that's great."
They approached a temple. "This temple was converted into a shrine to Kyoshi," Oyagi explained. They entered the shrine, which was filled with relics of Kyoshi's life.
"The clerics tell us that these relics are still connected to her spirit. That's her kimono." He pointed to her trademark green and black kimono.
Sokka examined a pair of fans. "These fans were her weapons, right?"
A picture caught Rina's eye. She picked it up and examined it closer. It showed a Fire Nation girl in red and black armor. "Who's this?"
"Please don't touch that," Oyagi said quickly. "That is a picture of Rangi, Kyoshi's girlfriend."
Girlfriend?
Rina still had a mess of emotions from the Cave of Two Lovers. Katara hadn't brought it up since then, and neither had Rina. She distracted herself by looking at a pair of boots. Yes, they were very interesting. The leather was old, but still supple. They were also quite large. Very interesting.
"Those were Kyoshi's boots."
"Wow. Her feet must have been enormous."
"The biggest of any Avatar!"
Wait a second. Her mind flashed back to the tiny footprint outside the temple.
"Little footprints? There's no way-"
"Ahem." Sokka cleared his throat. "Special hat? Mean anything to you?"
"You're right," Rina said mockingly. "I'm sorry. Please."
"Aha! There's no way Kyoshi could have made that footprint, so there's nothing linking her to the crime scene!"
"Truly brilliant, Sokka."
---
"That guy you're talking about?" the chained prisoner said as he and the other prisoners sat in a circle. "He'll come around."
Katara pulled her head and arms out of the pillroy. "You really think so?"
"Sure!"
"Yeah!"
"You're a catch!"
Katara didn't like him in the romantic way, but she didn't correct that. "He's suffered a lot, and I don't think he's had a choice about a lot of the stuff he's done. It's true that he's hurt me and my friends, but..."
"Hey," the chained prisoner interrupted. "You've just got to hang in there. You're smart, funny, gorgeous. It doesn't matter that you're the Avatar. If it does to him, then he's not worth it."
"You guys are great."
Another prisoner sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye. "Don't be afraid. All he needs is a friend who will understand him."
---
Oyagi pointed to a mural of Kyoshi standing on the island. "This piece is called 'the Birth of Kyoshi.' It was painted on sunrise on the day this island was founded. Today, in fact, two hundred and seventy years ago."
Sokka spat out his pipe. Where he'd gotten a pipe, Rina didn't know. "Two hundred and seventy years? Are you sure it was today?"
"Seeing how it's Kyoshi Day, yes. I'm sure."
"The ceremony didn't take place at sunrise." Sokka pointed to the shadows. "It took place at sunset."
"They point east," Rina explained. "So the sun must have been setting in the west."
"So what?"
Sokka shoved Rina before she could open her mouth. "If Kyoshi was at the ceremony at sunset, then she wasn't in Chin committing the crime! She has an alibi!"
Rina grabbed his pipe and hit him over the head with it.
---
"Honorable mayor," Rina said. "We've prepared a solid defense for Katara. We did an investigation and found some strong evidence."
"Evidence? Hmph. That's not how our court system worked."
Katara's eyes widened. He couldn't have explained that before she agreed to stand trial, could he. "Then how can I prove my innocence?"
"Simple. I say what happened and then you say what happened and then I decide who's right. That's why we call it justice. Because it's just us! Hah!"
Katara gritted her teeth as Mayor Tong began the trial. "Everyone loved Chin the Great because he was great. Then the Avatar showed up and killed him! And that's how it happened. Accused, present your argument."
"You can do it," Sokka whispered. "Just remember the evidence."
"Yes! The evidence." Katara cleared her throat. "According to the story Mayor Tong told my friends, Kyoshi stepped out of the temple and killed Chin. Then you carved a statue to commemorate him." The crowd muttered in agreement. "However, an investigation has proved that the statue and the temple are carved out of the same rock. That means that either the temple was built later, or the statue was already there. Furthermore..."
"The feet," Sokka prompted.
"Yes! Avatar Kyoshi had very large feet. And the footprint that you claim she left was very small. Finally, she was founding Kyoshi Island the sunset you claim she killed Chin. Kyoshi Island is all the way in the South Sea, so there's no way she could have founded the island and then come back here to kill Chin before night fell. I rest my case."
---
"Looks like you did some serious shopping," Iroh noted as Zuko put down an ornate tea set. "But where did you get the money?"
Zuko ignored the question. "Do you like your new teapot?"
"To be honest with you, the best tea tastes delicious whether it comes from a porcelain pot or a tin cup." He put a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "I know we've had some rough times lately. We've had to struggle just to get by. But that's nothing to be ashamed of. There's a simple honor in poverty."
Zuko scowled. "There's no honor for me without the Avatar."
Iroh sighed. "Even if you did manage to capture the Avatar, I'm not so sure it would solve our problems."
"Then there's no hope at all."
"No, Zuko! You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road, and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength."
---
Rina was getting desperate. Katara's testimony had been flawless, but the crowd didn't look appeased. "Mayor Tong, I'd like for the court to hear one last testimony!"
Mayor Tong jumped up in anger. "I told you, it's just me and the accused! You cannot call in any witnesses!"
"This isn't just any witness. I'm going to call...Avatar Kyoshi herself!"
The crowd murmured as Katara stepped forward, wearing Kyoshi's kimono and headdress, her face painted like the Avatar.
"What are you doing?" Sokka hissed.
"Well, she is Katara's past life," Rina defended. "Maybe wearing her stuff will trigger some memories."
Sokka adjusted his eyeglass. "I do believe in the power of stuff."
Mayor Tong was protesting. "This is a mockery of Chin law!"
"Please! If you could wait just one second, I'm sure Kyoshi will be here."
Katara lowered the fan she was holding. "Hey, everyone!" she said in a high-pitched voice. "Avatar Kyoshi here!"
"This is ridiculous. For the murder of Chin the Great, this court finds the Avatar-"
A whirlwind cut him off. Clouds passed over the sun, darkening the land. The whirlwind dispersed, revealing Avatar Kyoshi standing in Katara's place.
Kyoshi lifted her head and faced the crowd. "I killed Chin the Conqueror."
---
"A horrible tyrant. Chin was expanding his army to all corners of the Earth Kingdom."
Kyoshi watched as Chin ascended to the Earth Kingdom throne, silently daring anyone to challenge him. No one, not even her, did. A terrible mistake she would pay for dearly.
"His army killed many innocent people, including my Rangi. That was when I knew that he had to be stopped. So when he came to the neck of the peninsula where I lived and ordered my surrender, I refused to back down."
Chin and Kyoshi faced off against each other. Chin was by no means a small man, but Kyoshi still towered over him.
"I warned him that I would not stand passively while he took my home, but he did not give in. On that day, we split from the mainland."
Kyoshi closed her eyes and entered the Avatar State. She jumped up and extended her left fan. It sliced through the left half of the peninsula. She repeated the action with her right fan, and then closed them in a smooth motion. She jumped up and struck the land with her closed fans.
Chin did not move.
A fissure opened in the ground, lava pouring out of it. Then Kyoshi created a massive gale that blew the peninsula away from the mainland.
Chin screamed in frustration. The rock crumbled under him, and he fell to his doom.
"I created Kyoshi Island so my people could be safe from invaders." She lowered her head and was consumed by another whirlwind.
Thanks, Kyoshi.
"What happened?" Katara asked after it dispersed.
"You kind of confessed," Sokka said. "Sorry."
Mayor Tong brushed off his robe. "And I find you guilty! Bring out the wheel of punishment!"
---
"Uncle, I thought a lot about what you said."
Iroh was pleased. "You did? Good, good!"
Zuko nodded. "It's helped me realize something. We no longer have anything to gain by traveling together. I need to find my own way.'
Iroh slumped down as Zuko picked up his pack and walked away. "Wait!" he cried. He handed Zuko the reins to their ostrich horse.
Zuko took one last look at his uncle and galloped away.
---
"The accused will now spin the wheel of punishment to determine her sentence."
Katara gulped. The wheel was split into eight wedges, each with a fun-sounding punishment like 'pit of razors' and 'burned alive.' Also, community service.
"I said I'll face justice, so I will." Katara spun the wheel.
"Come on, torture machine!"
"Eaten by a bear!"
"Razor pit!"
"Community service," Rina pleaded. "Please stop on community service."
The wheel came to a stop. "Looks like it's boiled on oil," Mayor Tong said smugly.
The crowd cheered. Then a firebomb hit a nearby building.
It was the leader of the rhino riders. "We've come to take this village for the Fire Lord! Now show me your leader so I may dethrone him!" He blasted Chin's statue with fire.
Someone pointed to Mayor Tong. "That's him, over there!"
Mayor Tong cowered behind the wheel of punishment. "Avatar! Do something!"
"Gee, I'd love to help, but I'm supposed to be boiled in oil."
Mayor Tong spun the wheel to 'community service.' "There! Now serve our community and get rid of those rhinos!"
Katara grinned. She ran towards the nearest rhino, opening Kyoshi's fans. She easily froze him with water. Then she whipped his rhino and it ran away.
The mayor screamed as three horns poked through the wheel. "Rough Rhinos, to the town!" the leader ordered.
The archer fired flaming arrow after flaming arrow at the town while the leader used his firebending. The explosives user dropped three sticks of dynamite into a wagon.
Another rider charged at Rina, holding his flail high. Rina threw him off the cliff.
Sokka adjusted his eyepiece as the archer loaded two flaming arrows. He shifted his head slightly so it reflected the sun into the archer's eyes.
The archer cried out and fired. His arrows missed, hitting the explosives user's dynamite bag. Sokka ducked as the bag exploded.
His helmet rolled passed Sokka, along with a bag containing...
"Boomerang! You do always come back!"
The archer aimed more arrows at Sokka. He threw his pipe around them, extinguishing the flames.
Rina sliced through the straps on a rider's rhino. He fell off, dragged by the rhino.
Katara was still wearing Kyoshi's uniform as she ran down the street. The firebending leader faced her. She readied herself as he charged.
Then she jumped over him, using the fans to power her airbending. She created an ice slide and dodged his next burst of flame.
The two stared at each other again. Then Katara blasted him with water, crashing him into a wall.
---
Fireworks exploded and confetti was tossed as the three friends stood by Mayor Tong. "From now on, we'll celebrate a new Avatar Day!" he declared. "In honor of the day Katara saved us from a rough rhino invasion!"
He gave them all bowls. Sokka frowned. "What's this?"
"That's our new festival treat! Unfried dough. We eat it to remember how the Avatar was not boiled in oil."
The three hesitantly picked up a glob of unfried dough, vaguely shaped like a girl with hair loops. Katara forced a smile as she bit down. "Happy Avatar Day, everyone."