A/N; 1k votes. Literally cannot put it into words - you guys are insane and I love all of you <3
Time for the Completely Ordinary Swamp ™ (trademark by Sokka inc.)
Just an FYI - in case it isn't clear already, I'm not afraid of retconning some canon stuff in favor of doing my own thing here. I know that's probably a given, since this is a fanfic, but just keep that in mind when you get to a... certain part of this chapter. You'll know what I mean when you reach it.
Aang P.o.V.
For a while now, the gaang had been flying over this swamp. The day had been largely uneventful, without much conversation or anything as they flew. In fact, there was something about the silence... it was almost like it wasn't empty. Like even though he couldn't hear anything, he had this feeling that the swamp was special somehow.
Almost like it was... talking to him. Like it was alive.
"...Aang, why are we going down?"
The airbender shook his head, waking himself from the stupor he'd fallen into. He hadn't even realized how close they were to the ground, but Sokka's voice had managed to bring him back.
"What?" Aang asked tiredly, before rubbing his eyes. "I didn't even notice."
Sokka's derision echoed from behind him. "Are you noticing now?"
He definitely was - now that he was paying attention, it was easy for him to see they were losing altitude. It was so odd to him - he'd never fallen asleep while flying before, and it wasn't anywhere close to nightfall yet either.
"Is something wrong?" Katara asked worriedly.
Aang frowned as he observed the swamp beneath them. "I know this is gonna sound weird, but I think the swamp is... calling to me."
"Is it telling you where we can get something to eat?" Sokka lazily asked, some loud slapping sound filled the air immediately after.
Aang shook his head slightly as the weird feeling returned again. "No," he muttered. "I... I think it wants us to land there."
"No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on," Sokka reasoned.
"I don't know," Aang wondered aloud. "Bumi said to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen. And now, I'm actually hearing the earth. Do you want me to ignore it?"
The others all hesitated a moment before responding, all three agreeing to leave, followed by Appa groaning as well. "See? Even Appa and Momo don't like it here," Sokka insisted.
"Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this... bye swamp," Aang lazily agreed with a shrug before flicking Appa's reins. "Yip yip!"
They immediately took off upwards, climbing high into the sky again. Only a moment later, though Sokka was panicking from behind him. Taking a peek behind him, Aang's eyes widened at the sight of a giant tornado heading straight for them.
No matter how much he tried to veer them away from it, the tornado kept following them, getting progressively closer to them as it ripped up trees from the swamp below. Soon enough, it got too close, and Sokka was ripped off of Appa's saddle. Azami had reached out to grab onto him, and Katara then had to hold onto the firebender with one hand and the saddle with the other.
Making his choice about his priorities, Aang quickly let go of Appa's reins and jumped to the back, where he summoned a huge ball of air to surround and protect them. The three all fell onto the saddle, and before he knew it they had been sucked inside the tornado. No matter how hard he tried, though, he couldn't maintain the air ball for more than a few seconds, and the four were soon whisked off of the saddle and thrown down into the swamp.
Sokka and Katara both ended up diving headfirst into the mucky water below them, while Aang and Azami both used their bending to slow their decent before landing upright.
After assuring himself that the others were alright, Aang took a quick look around him and realized - the four were alone.
"Where's Appa and Momo?"
He quickly scaled a nearby tree, leaving the others behind. Once he reached the top, with a pretty good view of the swamp, he called out to the two animals, but to no success at all. After a moment, he climbed back down in defeat.
Azami P.o.V.
As Aang searched for their missing companions, Azami helped Katara and Sokka back up. The swamp water was kinda gross, but after wading through that disgusting sewage in Omashu, this was fine.
"Sokka, you've got an elbow leech!"
The boy in question immediately panicked as Azami just rolled her eyes, having grown accustomed to his antics by this point. "Where! Where!" he screamed.
"I'll give you a hint, Ponytail," she muttered. "It's called an elbow leech. You know, the outside part of where your arm bends?"
He didn't even seem to notice her comment as he yanked the leech off. "Why do things keep attaching to me?"
As he was rubbing his elbow, Aang swung back in on a vine hanging from the canopy above. "Were you able to find them?" Katara asked hopefully.
"No," Aang sighed as he dropped back into the swamp. "And the tornado, it just disappeared."
The others all looked ahead into the darkness of the swamp that lay before them, but Azami... to her right, she noticed a strange light in the distance. It was faint, but something about it seemed to transfix her, and she slowly started walking to it. What am I doing? she thought to herself, but her body seemed to have a mind of its own as it kept heading towards the light.
At least, it did before a hand quickly yanked her back by the shoulder. "Are you okay?" Sokka asked her nervously, and Azami shook her head as the weird feeling and the light disappeared.
"Y-yeah," she replied shakily, still unsure of what just happened.
Hours later, and they were still stuck in the swamp. The whole group was getting impatient, none of them liking the situation they were now stuck in. Azami had repeatedly seen that same light appear, each time its hold on her mind and body getting stronger. Thankfully, one of the group had always managed to hold her back, but that wasn't going to last.
"We better speed things up," Sokka announced as he started cutting away at the vines ahead of them with his machete.
"Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp," Aang suggested nervously.
Sokka scowled back before he just continued onwards. "Aang, these are just plants. Do you want me to say please and thank you as I swing my machete back and forth?"
"I think you should listen to Aang," Katara muttered, and Azami felt herself starting to agree with them as the waterbender's words echoed her thoughts. "Something about this place feels... alive."
Unfortunately, Sokka remained skeptical. "I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive here, and if we don't want to wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can."
As Sokka kept hacking, Azami felt a strange prickly sensation on the back of her neck. It was almost like she was back in the Northern Water Tribe again... like she was being watched, but she didn't know from where.
Katara P.o.V.
First, the tornado. Then, the swamp gas that decided to burst right in front of Katara's face. And now the screeching birds, too?
Okay. Things had officially gone from bad, to worse.
That feeling, like the swamp was alive? It had grown a hundred times stronger in the time it took for night to fall. As darkness began to engulf them, to the point where their only source of light was Azami's bending, Katara couldn't shake the feeling that something about this place was almost... beckoning her. Like it wanted to drag her into its depths, never to be seen again.
She'd already had to help stop Azami from wandering off in some trance-like state multiple times, and now she herself was starting to feel something similar. As though some of that weird gas that had popped out of the swampy water was starting to cloud her mind, muddling her thoughts.
There was something else, too, though. Not just the swamp, but something... else. "Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched?" She didn't miss the way Azami seemed to both relax and tense at that statement, as though she'd had the same thought and was now worrying about it even more.
"Please, we're all alone out here," Sokka scoffed. A fly then flew in front of him, and after he swatted at it for a bit, it suddenly glowed brightly before flying off into the gloom, revealing dozens of glowing eyes watching them that then slowly faded into darkness.
The gaang all hugged together around Azami, who seemed to be the only one not completely freaking out right now. Probably understandable, as she had to quickly move her fire away from herself so as not to burn any of the others.
"You guys get some rest," Azami announced to the others, and Katara immediately felt a slight sense of relief. "I'll take the first watch."
As she laid down, plenty of thoughts filled Katara's mind, but one was overriding the others. If they couldn't find Appa... they may be trapped down here forever. Alongside her gut feeling that the swamp was alive, she couldn't shake the conviction that the swamp also had plans for all of them. And it wouldn't let them go until it got what it wanted.
Azami P.o.V.
This stupid swamp would not leave Azami alone.
Every once in a while, one of those stupid birds would shriek again, or a pair of glowing eyes would appear in the darkness. That strange distant light still appeared to her, but its hold seemed to have weakened from before. That, or she was just too sleep-deprived to even notice. At least the others were getting some quality sleep.
For her, though - she was starting to regret taking the first watch. Her eyelids were so heavy, she could barely force them to stay open, let alone prevent the bluriness that was slowly overtaking her vision.
Given this sleep deprived state, it wasn't surprising that she missed the vines slowly creeping up towards the gaang. Before she could even process what was happening, the others were all suddenly yanked away screaming while several vines quickly lashed themselves around Azami's body, jolting her back to being fully awake and dragging her away.
Thankfully, they didn't get far before she was able to burn all the vines off of her, but it was still far enough away that the others were completely out of sight.
So much for taking the first watch.
Hours passed, and after having taken a quick nap - which may not have been the wisest choice, seeing as she was alone, but she felt like she was going to collapse if she didn't - she continued wandering the swamp. The place was an absolute maze, and even when she backtracked nothing ever looked the same.
The only constant thing that remained was that stupid light in the distance, which refused to leave her alone. It kept buzzing in the back of her mind, like an itch she couldn't reach, constantly begging for her attention.
So, after muttering some choice words that would've gotten her mouth washed with soap when she was younger, she finally acquiesced and let the light guide her through the swamp.
With every step she took, it seemed like the vines kept growing thicker and thicker, forcing her to constantly brush them out of her way. Unlike Sokka, she wasn't about to cause any damage to this place that she didn't understand. Even if it would've been far easier to use her fire, something in her gut told her not to.
The light streaming from the branches continued to grow brighter as Azami grew closer to it. Pushing more branches out of the way, her eyes widened in shock as the world around her suddenly collapsed into darkness, obscuring even the tiniest amount of vision. She looked around in panic, but could barely make out even the roughest of shapes in the gloom.
One thing was certain, though - the swamp was gone.
The vines that were previously resting on her arms and shoulders, the water reaching up to her shins, even the smell of it was gone.
Glancing up, she noticed the sky had shifted back into night, not a single cloud blocking the view of the stars. And the stars were wrong, too. It didn't take long for her to realize that all the constellations were messed up.
In the distance, she could barely make out the quiet snores of some large animals, and the faintest sound of footsteps in the distance. Nothing about this made any sense. She tried to wander forwards a bit, but after tripping almost immediately that was ruled out as a good idea. Desperate for any vision, despite her gut telling her not to use her fire, she pulled out a small blue flame anyways.
Even more mysterious, however - the flame did nothing to brighten her surroundings. Only her body seemed affected by it.
Her initial instinct was that she had somehow wound up in the spirit world yet again, but that didn't make any sense either - neither she nor Aang were able to bend when they'd visited it previously. She was honestly glad for that - her last visit to the spirit world had been... less than pleasant.
The next time she blinked, the sky suddenly started to turn blood red. It was strange, as the light didn't seem to come from the sun - and the source was moving far too fast. In the distance, she saw a massive shining light rising on the horizon, its light blinding as the sky began to glow ever brighter in its presence.
Azami took the opportunity to look around her, and she was shocked to see that she recognized where she was. How she had gotten here was beyond her understanding, but the groves, the towers - the bison stables...
She was back at the Southern Air Temple.
Before she could even begin to process this information, loud echoing cries sounded around her and her vision became filled with hundreds of massive fireballs arcing up and towards the temple. She reached out to stop them, but her bending again had no effect - it was as though she wasn't even there.
One of the fireballs smashed right into the stables, and Azami had to force herself to look away as the animals' screams pierced her ear. The sound was easily the most horrible she had ever heard, and before she knew it there were air nomads racing out of their rooms, some engulfed in flames, others fleeing for their lives.
Climbing up all sides of the temple were Fire Nation soldiers, some in tanks, many others on foot. They were all attacking without mercy, cutting down anything and anyone that came near them. The flames they unleashed were massive, too. Even the foot soldiers had powers beyond Azami's understanding - it was as though all of their bending had been amplified beyond belief.
That was when it hit her. The red sky, the attack on the temple, the enhanced bending...
Somehow, she was witnessing the beginning of the war. When the Fire Nation had used the power of her f- of Sozin's comet to wipe out the Air Nomad civilization.
To say the scenes were horrific were an understatement. Even though she now understood what she was witnessing was nothing more than a memory, or a vision, she knew that everything she saw would be forever branded in her mind. What she witnessed... she gasped as a realization hit her. If this was the Southern Air Temple, on this day...
Gyatso.
As soon as the thought hit her, she blocked everything else out and raced towards the old, collapsed building where she and Aang had found his body months ago. Though she was unsure about where to find it, her body seemed to know exactly where to go as she raced through the conflict. This time, unlike before in the swamp, she trusted it to guide her.
It pained her more than anything to ignore the screams of the Air Nomads, most of whom weren't even fighting back but were instead either fleeing or pleading for forgiveness. At one point, she ran straight into a Fire Nation soldier, and passed right through him without feeling anything, solidifying the knowledge that she was helpless here.
By the time she finally arrived at the sunken building, she was panting for breath and struggling to keep her emotions in check. Part of her had simply tuned out what was happening, as if she were completely unable to process the events that were unfolding. Pulling aside the tarp, she walked straight through dozens of Fire Nation soldiers before arriving at the center of the ring they had created.
There, standing calmly, was Gyatso, as he faced what appeared to be the Fire Nation's general. The Air Nomad appeared unharmed - untouched, even - but Azami knew him well enough to recognize the pain he was hiding. It wasn't hard to know why, either - this must have been only weeks after she and Aang disappeared.
"Where is she?" the general growled, his voice startlingly familiar.
Gyatso spread his arms, his expression unchanged. "I have already told you everything I know," he replied, his voice remarkably steady. "I am truly sorry, but I do not have what you seek. None of us do. Take my life if you must, but please, spare the others."
"Spare them?" the general spat, before removing his helmet and tossing it aside, causing Azami to gasp. Once again, she was face-to-face with her brother, only now his anger was familiar to her. She'd seen it in almost every one of her dreams ever since the solstice. "No. If you will not return my sister to me, then you shall all pay the price."
Please, Azami silently begged as tears started streaming down her face. It's my fault, not theirs. Please don't do this.
"I am sorry, Prince Azulon," Gyatso said sadly. "But your sister is gone."
No, I'm here, she cried, already knowing what was about to happen. I'm right here!
Azulon's face twisted even further, and he let out a scream of rage as he fell to his knees, holding his head in his hands. A massive ball of fire began to swirl around him, and Azami could barely comprehend what was happening before Azulon had suddenly whipped his head back, shrieking in pain as everything else in the room was incinerated - Gyatso and the Fire Nation soldiers alike.
Azami reached out to her brother, trying to hug him, but again her arms passed clean through. Slowly, the vision faded, returning her to the swamp. Her eyes were still blurry as she looked around, nothing about her surroundings familiar at all. She collapsed to her hands and knees, her mind spiraling out of control as she struggled to comprehend what she had seen.
Shutting her eyes, she tried taking in deep breaths, to little success. Her heart was still beating wildly out of control as the scene kept replaying over and over in her head.
It wasn't real, she repeatedly told herself. Dwelling on the past isn't going to get you anywhere. It was just a vision, nothing more.
It wasn't real.
Stealing her nerves, she forced herself to get up and continue searching for the others.
Sokka P.o.V.
"Aang! Stupid swamp... dumb, ugly vines... Azami! Katara!"
Sokka didn't care if no one could hear him, he just kept venting his frustration to the swamp. Cutting through the vines was getting more and more tiresome, and it had been hours since he'd been dragged away from the others.
He snarled as his foot caught on a hanging vine, effectively trapping him in place. "You think you're so tough, huh?" he spat as he cut away at it with his machete. After a moment, he freed himself, and proceeded to faceplant straight into the water below. "Stupid swamp."
Pulling himself up, he had to blink twice at the sight before him. Floating, not twenty feet in front of him, was Yue, dressed in the same gown she'd worn when she first became the moon spirit.
"Hello?" Sokka asked nervously. "Yue?" He then grasped the sides of his head, shaking it in disbelief. "This is just a trick of the light... swamp gas. I hit my head running away last night. I'm... going crazy."
Nevertheless, despite how much he was trying to reassure himself that this wasn't real, he still approached Yue's image. Her expression was solemn, almost as if she were disappointed in him.
"You didn't protect me," her voice echoed, as though she were speaking from far away.
Sokka rubbed his eyes, and looking back again he saw that Yue had vanished, leaving only a stream of light coming from the canopy above. He sighed, turning around to leave, before flinching back in terror as he saw someone standing right behind him. It was strange, she looked like some strange cross between both Azami and Yue.
"How can you possibly protect anyone else?"
The apparition vanished as he blinked once again.
Wary, he pulled himself back up, and took out his machete again for good measure. Whatever was in this swamp, he was more sure than ever that it wasn't safe for them to be here. Whether it was swamp gas messing with his brain, or just him being tired... he needed to find the others. Immediately.
Fortunately, that didn't take too long. Within a few minutes of wandering the swamp, he soon spotted Azami at the edge of his vision, and raced over to her. "Azami!" he exclaimed, and the firebender turned to face him in shock.
"Sokka?" she wondered, before looking around. "Where are the others?"
He shook his head as slowed down to stand next to her. "I don't know," he admitted truthfully. "I'm guessing you haven't had much luck either, then."
She just shook her head in response, before glancing away from him. Something about her seemed... off. Actually, he was almost reminded of how she was after the solstice. "I saw something out there," Sokka blurted out, and Azami's eyes widened as she met his gaze. "It was almost like-"
"A vision?" she finished, and Sokka nodded in agreement. Her gaze then fell downwards, and her eyes became unfocused. "I... I saw something from a long time ago, but I don't know why. What did you see?"
Before he could answer, out of nowhere something barrelled straight into the two of them and knocked them both over. Glancing up in shock, he saw the other two benders were also lying down around him, groaning from the impact of their collision.
"What do you guys think you're doing!" Sokka exclaimed. "We've been looking all over for you!"
Katara glared at him. "Well I've been wandering around looking for you!"
"I was chasing some girl," Aang admitted as he quickly bent himself back upright.
Azami glanced over at him in surprise. "What girl?"
"I don't know," he replied nervously. "I heard laughing, and I just... saw some girl in a fancy dress."
Oh, sure. Everyone conveniently had visions at the same time? "Well, there must be a tea party here, and we just didn't get our invitations," Sokka scoffed.
"I thought I saw mom," Katara muttered sadly.
Sokka's eyes widened in surprise. While his sister may talk about their mom, a lot - arguably too much - actually seeing her was something else. "Look, we were all just scared, and hungry, and our minds were playing tricks on us," he insisted. "That's why we all saw things out here."
"You guys saw something too?" Katara asked in surprise.
He frowned, turning his back on the others. "I thought I saw Yue," he admitted. "And... someone else, too. But that doesn't prove anything. Look, I think about what happened in the North Pole all the time. And you saw mom, someone you miss a lot."
"What about me?" Aang asked, seeming unsure about Sokka's reasoning. "I didn't know the girl I saw. And all our visions led us right here."
Azami glanced around in confusion, asking the question they were all thinking. "So where is here, then? The middle of the swamp?
"Yeah... the center," the airbender wondered as he looked above them. Following his gaze, Sokka had to admit that was one huge tree towering above them. "It's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here! I knew it!"
Uh-huh. Sure. "It's just a tree," Sokka groaned, getting thoroughly annoyed by all this nonsense. "There are no magic trees, okay? It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us, and there's nothing magical happening here!"
Azami P.o.V.
Azami's feelings on the universe were very mixed.
On the one hand, she was getting sick and tired of all these depressing visions she seemed to be getting. Like why exactly did she need to see events from a hundred years ago? Was it just to add more fuel to her nightmares? Seriously, she would really love a proper night's rest already.
That being said, the universe did have its moments. Like whenever Sokka makes a statement. Even though it turned out the swamp monster was really just an old man bending the vines, it was still hilarious how well timed his arrival was. Fortunately, they'd all gotten out of that fight in decent shape, without anyone burned or injured in any way.
Now, they were following him up one of the dozens of massive roots leading out from the central tree. "So who are you, then?" Katara asked.
"I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it," the man replied as he bended a vine out of their path. "Like this fellow, with his big knife. You could really take a lesson from your friend here, at least she was sensible enough to keep her fire away from the vines."
Sokka rolled his eyes, but nevertheless looked smug. "See? Completely reasonable. Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home. Nothing mystical about it."
"Oh, the swamp is a mystical place alright," the man countered. "It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan grove tree. I heard it calling me, just like you did."
"Sure you did. It seems real chatty," Sokka muttered skeptically, and Azami happened to be in agreement here, at least in part. It sounded all well and good, but if reaching enlightenmeant meant walking around in a loincloth made of leaves, that would be a hard pass from her.
She definitely couldn't deny that the swamp was calling to her, though.
The stranger simply smiled as he sat down, cross-legged facing towards them. "See, this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles," he explained. "Branches spread and sink and take root and then, spread some more - one big, living organism, just like the entire world.
"I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world?" Aang questioned, also seeming doubtful.
"Sure," the man smirked. "You think you're any different from me, or your friends, or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We are all living together even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots, and we are all branches of the same tree."
Katara stepped forward, seeming confused. "But what did our visions mean?" Azami tensed, also curious to know the answer. If there was one.
"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone," the man replied. "But the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to 'em. Time is an illusion, and so is death."
Well... that doesn't help.
If what he was saying was true, then that honestly wasn't very reassuring. Though she loved the family she once knew, she didn't really want to be connected to it anymore. And why, then, would the swamp show her such a vision? Why did she need to see how many people had suffered in her name?
If the swamp was trying to teach her something, then she wasn't sure she wanted to learn.
Sokka P.o.V.
"How you like that possum-chicken?"
"Tastes just like arctic hen," Sokka admitted truthfully as he glanced down at his dinner. Honestly, it wasn't the best, but he was so hungry at this point he could probably eat an entire banquet and still be hungry. "So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa and Momo? You've got plenty of those big things wandering around."
He gestured to one of the crocodile-looking creatures, and the swamp-benders just stared at him in horror. "You want me to eat ol' Slim?" one of them whispered. "He's like a member of the family!"
"Nice Slim," Sokka smiled before tossing a cooked bug over to it. Rather than eating it, Slim just hissed at him, causing him to flinch back in surprise.
Ignoring the conversation for a bit, he returned his attention to his kebab, layered with two cooked fish, a giant bug, and another possum chicken. Bit of a weird assortment to say the least.
After taking another bite, he turned to face the others (specifically Katara). "Well, I hope you realize now that nothing strange was going on here. Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp."
"What about the visions?" Katara demanded.
Sokka just shook his head as he reached for his next source of food. "I told you, we were hungry! I'm eating a giant bug!" He had in fact grabbed a massive insect, and was now biting into it. Yes, it was a disgusting as it sounded.
"But what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were?" Aang asked nervously.
Sokka glanced over at Azami, who was picking at her food gently, seemingly lost in thought. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't trying slightly to convince himself at this point - the visions were pretty weird. Nevertheless, he was a man of science, and he knew what was and wasn't possible for a tree.
"That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count," he reasoned before turning to look at Hugh. "The only thing I can't figure out is how you made the tornado that sucked us down."
Hugh just gave him a look of shock. "I can't do anything like that. I just bend the water in the plants."
"Well, no accounting for bad weather," Sokka muttered as he returned to eating once again. "Still, there is absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp."
I hope.
A/N; God I had so much fun writing this chapter - I kid you not, I wrote all of it in like two days. Man does it feel good to be excited about writing again. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I did :)
As I probably stated somewhere else before now, Avatar Day is just straight up worthless garbage that I'm not gonna waste time on, so prepare for our holy lord and savior next chapter - the time has come for Melon Lord to join the gaang >:)