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Borealis: A Zutara Story	By : jaded_priceless Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > AU/AR - Alternate Universe/Alternate Reality Views: 33555 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, any historical figures or events, or easily recognizable persons, places or things. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction

Chapter List
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Chapter 314

Aiama retreated quietly. It pained her heart that Aang could not see her, but she understood this was part of his punishment for running away from his duty. It was an unexpected consolation that these children had moved in here. She was traveling with her oldest daughter when their bison grew tired. This was the closest resting point so they came to this temple. She didn't mind being here as this was home to a man she frequently spent time with during the gatherings and she knew he'd be happy to see the two of them. The Fire Nation attacked on the fifth day. He perished giving them time to get to the stables not knowing the Fire Nation had slaughtered the bison. His spirit had moved on.

Hers became trapped. She blamed herself. If she had not wanted to stay with him a little longer they would have resumed their journey and would have been in Ba Sing Se. Her daughter's was trapped as well. They had gone North on her daughter's whim. But here in this place they'd seen proof of the words carried by the wind. The Fire Nation had not killed all of them. It was confirmed in the Avatar’s visit. They lived on in the boy on wheels and in two of those that remained behind when his father traveled elsewhere with him. But these children, these round faced grey eyed children in residence and those who visited fed her soul. She was filled with such overwhelming joy at the sight of them.

The joy upon seeing them was a sensation only surpassed when their aged grandmother visited. Her presence was so elevating that they could have moved on several times but chose to remain here, in the place where they died trapped with the other earthbound spirits. This happiness upon seeing Aang, and little Nima living among her descendants certainly surpassed any blessing they would have received in heaven.

It was proof that a tiny portion of their family lived.

~*~*~

"Seon? Seon? Best big sister in the world to little brother, come in Seon," Byeol said trying to get her brother's attention. Calling him little brother normally did it.

"Huh? What?"

"We need to go; the sun will be up soon. We don't want to get caught down here."

"Oh yeah," Seon muttered. "See you later Aang. We'll try to come back but I'm not sure when."

"Thanks," Aang said calmly unaware his visitors could see the hope in his eyes.

Aki and Byeol stepped forward but Seon leaned over and whispered to Aang, "The lady. She called herself Aiama and said she loved you."

Aang's eyes widened as Seon walked away. Aiama, he knew that name. He couldn't remember her face but he remembered her name. She was from the Western Air Temple and he spent most of his time with Iio at the Eastern. But there was something special about Aiama, something he could not remember. Aang repeated the name softly completely unaware the spirit was once again stepping into his cell.

He closed his eyes while whispering, "Aiama loves me" as he drifted off to sleep.

~*~*~

Aiama smiled at her daughter, "Dawa, he sees and hears us. He conveyed my love to Aang."

Dawa smiled, "We should go before the evil one is upon us."

Seon opened his eyes, Aki and Byeol slept on beside him but he heard the women softly calling his name, "Mom? Aunt Quanli?"

The younger one smiled, "Dawa. Dawa is my name. Yours is Seon."

"How do you know my name?"

This time the older one spoke, "I am Aiama, Nima links us to you."

"Nima? Grammy Nima?" he whispered as wakefulness slowly dawned on him.

The woman smiled and held her arms as if she were cradling an infant, "Little Nima".

She then reached forward and caressed his forehead along with Byeol's, "Little Nima's littlest ones."

Dawa spoke, "Aiama has three children two daughters and a son.” She pointed to herself as she called her own name, “Dawa, Aang, and Nima."

Seon frowned, "But...that's? You can't mean?"

Even as he protested he could feel the truth they were speaking. It settled into his spirit and he felt something loosen.

The two spirits glanced at the window then took a bending stance as sunlight filtered into the room.

Agni smiled as she watched the two ghosts preparing to defend the sleeping children. "Foolish little ghosts. What can mere shades do against me?"

They remained vigilant as Agni passed through them and inspected the children on the bed. She started closest to the wall, the portion of her within Aki sat up. Agni uttered, "A child of Soizin. What are you doing here?"

Agni placed her hand on Byeol's head and gasped as the spirit within her also sat up, "You. You are one I share with Vayu."

Tears came to Agni’s eyes as she touched Seon. He shuddered but there was no other recognition. Instead he spoke to the Air Nomad spirits, "Aiama, Dawa? Why are you looking like that? What is happening?"

The Agni within Byeol whispered to the Sun Spirit, "He is my twin. Seon cannot Firebend."

Agni placed her hand on Aki and Byeol's head, "Sleep children. Sleep and do not remember."

Agni caressed Seon's face, "There is some of me inside you but your soul is filled with another.”

She whispered “this will hurt” before pressing her lips against Seon's. His small body began to twitch and his limbs began to flail and Agni knew that unlike the children of pure fire or even those of mixed elements this child felt as if something inside of him were burning. Agni pulled away; tears spilled from her eyes as she whispered, "Sleep child and be at ease. Forget me and these troublesome spirits. Do not awaken little one. Sleep until the one who has hidden you returns."

After leaving the children's room Agni drifted to the one who'd called her. It was rare to hear from this one although she heard quite often from her sibling, "Little Azula, what troubles you?"

Agni sank into the princess's troubled mind then laughed at what she saw. It was a nightmare, a simple nightmare which led her to desperately call upon the sun spirit for strength. Agni patted her head and chuckled, "My dear you look so beautiful in your wedding dress".

The Agni inside Azula made a face along with a lewd gesture causing the eternal spirit to laugh even harder. Even as she laughed, Agni-Eternal approached Agni-Azula and placed her hands around the younger spirits neck, "Suffer you insolent whelp, sleep, in torment inside this arrogant human."

The spirit whimpered as she too fell into a deep sleep along with Azula and dreamed of being a very unhappy bride.

~*~*~

Zuko's eyes opened with the dawning of the sun. Katara's face was next to his and he could feel her wrapped around him. He caressed her face, tracking the dried tear tracks with his thumb. His last nightmare had been rough and it had taken a lot to calm him down. He didn't believe it was her at first and he'd fought. She'd pulled snow in from the openings at the ceiling and slammed him into the wall before he could touch her but it had been what had finally woken him up. There were tears in her eyes as she screamed his name and froze him to the wall. He knew it was her and not some undead creature manufactured by Pol to look like her. No one but Katara would kick his ass so compassionately.

He nuzzled his face against hers and whispered, "Much beloved Katara, my precious wife, angel of my heart, I bind myself to you and vow upon my honor as a man to always cherish you. I have but one heart, it belongs to you. I have but one body, it belongs to you. I have but one mind, it belongs to you. All that I am, all that I have belongs to you my beautiful wife. I will protect you with my strength, my honor and my fire. You are mine to comfort mentally, physically and emotionally just as you comfort me. You are and forever will be my everything. If I have but one morsel of food, I will ignore my hunger to feed you. If I have but one loincloth, I will ignore my nakedness to clothe you. If I have but one breath, I will give it to you.

“I am yours. Until the day Agni carries one of us to the spirit world I am yours. If you go first, I vow to chase after you. If I go first I vow to find a way to return to your side. If I am reborn I will search until I find you. Not even death can separate us. I am yours in this lifetime and the next, for all eternity. I am yours, my heart is yours. I belong to you as you belong to me."

Katara's fingers ghosted over his scar and she sighed softly but showed no other signs of waking. Her breath remained deep and even. Zuko closed his eyes as the sound of her light snores and touch of her hand soothed him into a light brief slumber that was free of nightmares.

Zuko woke again to a small finger poking his cheek, "I think he's dead. Daddy usually wakes up when we do this."

"You're doing it wrong, scoot over,"

"Stop bothering him. Let me wake up Big Sister Katara,"

A cold breeze assaulted the five little faces, "Big Sister Katara is already awake. So is your Cousin Zuko."

A gruff voice rasped, "You shouldn't have said anything. If you pretend to be asleep long enough they do go away."

Zuko opened his eyes and glared at his cousins, "How did you runts get in?"

The six year old pointed at the closet, "The top shelf is connected to the one in the other room."

"They all are," one of the four year olds added as she took sat next to her sister on top of him.

"We snuckeded into one and crawleded all the way over," her more vocal twin explained.

"So why are you here?" Zuko asked as he sat up and dumped the children using him as a pillow onto the bed.

"We're hungry."

"We want meat,"

"Mama fed us jook and went back into the room with Daddy."

"Yeah he doesn't feel good."

"Will you make us meat?" the children asked Katara as they scrambled over to her.

Katara smiled sadly but unlike Zuko she didn't push them away. She put her arms around the smallest one so she didn't fall out of her lap as she sat up fully, "Will your Mama get upset if I give you meat again?"

"Uh-huh, she told us to go find Aunt Ty Lee and have her make lunch for us."

"But Aunt Ty Lee is sparring with Seon."

"And you cook better than she does,"

Zuko wrapped his arms around Katara and pulled her into his lap. He wiped away a tear forming at the corner of her eye and whispered, "We'll have a family, Katara. I promise that one day we'll be woken by our own hungry children asking you to cook for them."

Katara closed her eyes and bit her lip to hold her sob in. Once more Zuko had read her mind and was telling lies that she wanted to believe in.

"Okay you runts, scram. Katara and I need to get dressed before she can go cook," Zuko said as he lifted them off Katara and set them on the floor next to his side of the bed.

Katara groaned as the eight year old lifted the covers and the seven year old poked Zuko in the chest while asking, "How come you two are in bed together and half dressed?"

"Mommy said only mommies and daddies could be in bed without clothes together."

Zuko grabbed Katara's left hand and pointed at her ring, "Do you see this?"

The children nodded and reached for it. He batted their hands away with his fingertips and showed them his ring, "Do you see this one on my hand?"

He gave them a moment to inspect both pieces of jewelry then said, "They match don't they?"

The children nodded and he used that moment to confuse them, "How can we be half naked if we're wearing the same thing?"

Their little faces scrunched up in contemplation. Before they could realize the absurdity to his question Zuko picked them up two of the little ones and dumped them on the other side of the door. He grabbed two of the medium sized ones and shoved them shrieking and giggling in the closet before grabbing the biggest and depositing her on the other side of the door. "Katara freeze it so they can't get back in."

"What?"

"The door. Freeze the door. Put faces or something on it to distract them. They have the memory of gnats. I really don't want to have to answer that question."

"But you explained it pretty well to Gau-Ruk," Katara argued.

"Yes but Gau-Ruk wasn't Fire Nation. He didn't have a grandfather, two grandmothers, uncles with wives and mistresses all on one side of the family - the common side. You don't even want to know the things that happen on the side where there are nobles," Zuko replied slightly panicking. "Eun Lee and Meili have come up with the same story to tell their children and it has been made clear there will be negative repercussions to those to tell them differently."

Zuko's flashed a mischievous smile at Katara, "Or do you want me to tell them that you are a dirty hogmonkey woman that gave me fleas? We don't have clothes so we can check each other's bodies for yummy bugs and eat them."

Katara's jaw dropped and she couldn't suppress her giggles, "Dirty hogmonkey woman?"

"Yes. Eun Lee doesn't like or approve of Lady Sakura so she told them that about her and Father. Father is fond of Eun Lee so he accepted the prank she pulled using her children. He told them -," Zuko blushed as he remembered Ozai telling the little children the best fleas lived in secret hairs and the trouncing Eun Lee gave him afterwards. "Well let's just say I now understand why her national service requirement was fulfilled by being Lu Ten's sparring partner. This was at Mu's wedding and shortly after she'd given birth."

"She Firebends?" Katara asked.

"And chi blocks," Zuko huffed. “She's not strong in either of them but she's fast, flexible, and has immaculate control. Imagine if Ty Lee and Azula were one less powerful person with a better sense of timing and ability to read a battle. If she hits you with a chi strike you can still bend, but only small flames unless she hits you twice on the same chi path. She did a flip off Father's head and double tapped both of his knees to bring him down."

"I'm doing this for the children" Katara explained as she froze the door.
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Borealis: A Zutara Story