Fire | Distorted Reality [ 1 ] | ATLA

16

"The tournament"

He couldn't breathe... He couldn't move... He couldn't bend... And he was so, so cold.

Unable to take it any longer, he opened his mouth and reflexively took a deep breath, sucking in whole mouthfuls of water.

He was going to die.

  🌊  🌳  🔥  🌪

Once out of his dream, the boy shot up and took a deep breath, sucking in mouthfuls of air. As soon as he realized he could breathe, he calmed himself.

Aang fell back into his pillow on the ground, thinking about how helpless he was when Bato imprisoned him in a cube of ice, filled completely with water. The man had tried to drown him. The whole time he was in this world, he has never come closer to dying. His airbending was useless underwater. His firebending wasn't hot enough. His limited waterbending wasn't good enough to break Bato's hold. And earthbending wasn't even available to him.

Only a solid, material object could have broken – no, ripped – through that thick ice. Aang didn't want to admit it to himself then, but he was scared. Even in his home "world," his own bending never failed him.

The night was dark and quiet. The only thing Aang heard was the wind shaking the trees and the steady crackle of their fire. Deep in thought, contemplating his weaknesses, Aang fell back into an uneasy sleep. His dreams were filled with numerous moments of Sokka – the Sokka he knew, his best friend – wielding his meteorite sword like a master, cutting through metal with ease.

On the other side of the camp, Zuko's eyes were wide open as he was turned away from the fire. He heard Aang's deep breaths as he awoke – one of the telltale signs of Aang having a nightmare – but he did not do anything to indicate to the younger boy that he was awake. Zuko's eyes were fixed on his sheathed swords laying an arm's length away from him.

Little did Aang or Zuko know, their contemplations were the same... but Zuko's were noticeably darker.

He was incompetent with his blades. He was weaker than the rest of them, unable to do anything to help his friends in a fight. Aang, Azula, and Ty Lee all had skills to call their own. He could not fight on par with Sokka or Bato, constantly being removed from the fights. He was always forced to watch from the side as Aang or Azula were bending. His sister didn't even have a formal master and her skills were growing at a prodigious rate.

And he couldn't even use his lack of bending as an excuse. Ty Lee was one of the strongest fighters he knew.

The light training he received from Mai, the shuriken-jutsu master, did little to help. She also wasn't a bender... yet she threw her knives with deadly precision. He still had all of her knives, darts, and needles, and he was even able to buy some of his own. She was another example of a nonbender who still managed to fight well.