trans_9 | In my element [Open]

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In my element [Open]

After all, here was where water was plentiful, and she had lots of space to move. The past few days had been amazing of course: she got to know several different people and experience certain parts of their world. If anybody stepped in here though, they would know the part of Katara's world she stopped being a child. Her inquisitiveness was a way she coped with a truth she knew, and was sure some of the other "kids" shared: certain experiences were adult, and they called for adult action.

She had her hair free, and was breathing a little to ready herself. She'd already flexed and stretched enough: she planned to get a workout. She entered the nearest Sensorium and closed her eyes.

"The Earth General who went too far," Katara said, and the world materialized: there were the Earth Nation banners towering, and there were members of the Dai Li, coming at her full force. This was of course not accurate: there WERE no members of the Dai Li when they approached earth general Fong that attacked Aang in order to force him into the Avatar state. Still, Katara wanted them a part of this program anyway: it would be harder to get to that Earth general.

First they erected the rock pillars, like the day they'd uncovered Lake Laogai. That was fine: Katara knew what move would come after. There were fifteen strong: seven at the back and eight at her front. They hovered on the rock, waiting a moment, and then the ones at her back slid down quickly, the rock hands coming for her, the ones in front following suit.

She froze the hands first, then crouched down and arose with water tentacles. Katara hadn't gotten her octopus water attack down just yet then (that would happen when she fought Azula) but she did now, and the several tentacles went toward those at her back, knocking three down. Katara jumped up from that formation and rode a wave from the lake nearby, going to meet with the front attack of the Dai Li. She met them with a tidal wave and froze them all for several seconds before thawing, and the men, in a state of shock, fell uneasily to the floor, cold and beaten. Katara turned to the four remaining Dai Li and took them out with a far reaching water whip. Once they'd fallen, she turned her head toward General Fong and rose with a wave again. He looked shocked for a moment, then came at her with a rock pillar aiming toward her head.

"HA!" Katara grunted and split the rock easily in two: she'd learned a thing or two from Toph, a true Earthbending master. She flung her whip to the ground beneath the kings feet and froze, making him slip and ruining his stance. Katara was there in an instant, outstretched hand to his neck, her face grim with determination.

"You lose," the girl said, and froze the bottom part of his body. He growled and tried to free himself, but could not, of course. This was how Katara would have like their terms to end. In reality, General Fong had caught her by surprise and used her to push Aang into the Avatar state against his wishes.

If there was one thing Katara hated, it was being a victim. If there were another thing...it was being used to hurt Aang.

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"Children can be warriors, and some skills are better learned when young, but my people feel that children should have a childhood, and not be forced into dangerous situations," Sparhawk explains. "I am learning though, that many of the things on my world are considered to be wrong aboard this ship."

Sparhawk is fairly sure that he's not doing a good job of explaining himself, and not for the first time he wishes that Ehlana was here. Or one of his friends. They could make sure that he was talking sense.

He was about to give explaining another try, when the girl mentioned hurling fire. "Throwing fire? With their hands?" Now, why does that sound familiar to him?

Katara was satisfied with that explanation. "Believe me, if things were as it should be, I'm sure in my world we would be left to have a childhood. Even while we were fighting, there were our off times where we did get to act like kids. It just didn't get to happen often. On this ship though, the adults are still trying to keep us protected, and they don't realize that we've been through as much as they have."

Katara nodded. "I'm a waterbender, but there are firebenders too. They can throw fire with their hands among other things. They are responsible for much misery in my world."

"Then I apologise now if I fall back on my training should we end up fighting by each others sides," Sparhawk begins. "I am too long trained to defend women and children to easily stop, though here I'm learning that everyone is capable in some way."

He will try though.

Katara nodded. "In my world, even in my tribe they do that too. Our sister tribe of the North were a bit more restrictive too: their women's bending are only for healing, and they have arranged marriages. In my tribe, women are free to waterbend as a defense and offense, and they can marry whoever they want. The men in either tribe are ready and willing to defend women and children. It's not the worse trait in the world, just a little bit backward in my opinion. Women and children face situations where they have to defend themselves, otherwise they become either bargaining chips or sitting ducks. for crueler people."

Katara looked down a moment. "They can also end up killed without a way to protect themselves."

Sparhawk's warm expression fades to coldness, as memories return. He knows well that women can be used as bargaining chips, his own wife was kidnapped to compell him. He tries to collect himself, in case he worries, or angers Katara. Plus, her last sentence indicates that he may have brought up memories for her.

"Someone you knew?" he asks gently.

Katara didn't reply for awhile. She had mentioned this to several people, hoping it would get easier, but it wasn't. The weight was still the same, and the pain hardly ever seemed to fade anytime she thought about it.

"My mother," Katara said finally. "She was killed to defend the last Waterbender in the South Pole. They wanted that bender, so she lied and said that she was to protect that person. The firenation normally take them prisoner...they just weren't taking prisoners that day, and my father was distracted by a raid on our village. I tried to get him as soon as I could, but by then, it was too late."

Sparhawk solemnly bowed his head. "I am sorry to have pried," he apologied, "And I am sorry for your loss."

He wants to offer to help enact vengeance should the killers appear on Stacey, but he is unsure what she would think of that. Instead, his fingers find the comforting leather wrapped hilt of his sword, and he stays silent in respect.

"I met him once," Katara said. "I tracked him down. I was obsessed with vengeance, and I wanted to kill him. It's not a time I like thinking about much, because I let that feeling control me. I really wanted to kill him, and by then I knew a way to make him feel a lot of pain.

"But I didn't want to be that person. If I gave into that feeling, the cruelty I experienced would have warped me, made me like them. So I let him live. My mother would have wanted me to do that, not become a killer like them."

It was weird, admitting that out loud. She'd never told anyone that, least of all a stranger. Still, saying it, Katara knew every word to be true...and was painfully reminded of the person who helped made her remember that.

"Sometimes vengeance is what is needed though. I understand not wanting to turn into your enemies, but if the vengeance is righteous, and you have good friends, there should be no fear."

It's probably not what Katara wants to hear, but Sparhawk is big on the ends justifying the means.

"Are there none on your world who, when you return, would aid you in seeing justice done? Your hand would not strike the blow, but they would be re-paid."

"I know," Katara said. "I thought that too. But in my world, its easy to become an aspect of the people that have made life so hard. I've seen fairly good people turn to evil because of the things that have happened to them. It just wasn't the path I wanted to go down. I'm very strong in my world, and it would be easy to misuse my powers like that.

"Actually, I did have someone help me track him down, but he knew that taking him down was what I had to do, by myself. In the end, that decision was going to be one I'd have to live with. I wouldn't have let anyone else do it anyway."

That reminded her: she'd have to have a loong talk with Zuko soon.

Sparhawk's face showed his understanding, and his empathy for the young girl. "I can understand, to those I have faced, I must seem like a greater monster than they appear to be. I tell myself that I do it for my Queen, the Church and my family, but is that the truth?"

The broken-nosed knight isn't used to second guessing his own actions, but Katara has made him think.

"You may be the wiser of both of us."

Katara gave him a sad smile. "I don't deserve all of the credit. I had a friend try to remind me that revenge isn't the best way to deal with unresolved issues. I didn't listen at the time: not until I met up with the man and learned the person he meant to kill was actually me, and mom lied to keep me alive. Even then, knowing that, I couldn't kill him. Taking a life would make me just like him, even if it was for revenge."

Katara looked quizzical. "What's this about a Queen, church and family though?"

Sparhawk is surprised. "You discovered that you were the one he was to kill? And still you spared him? The more I learn, the more I regret thinking of you as just a child.

"I am a Knight of the Church, and so I have to obey the commands of our Holy Mother, as passed down through the Archprelate," Sparhawk explains. "I am also the Champion of the Queen of Elenia, and have to obey her commands. And I'm married, with a daughter, and have to consider them in everything. I'm spread rather thin at home when trouble arises."

"It was unexpected," Katara replied, not that it was really an answer. "All this time, I thought the Fire Nation simply were cruel because it was their nature. That day I learned it was just another way to wear us down, o weed us out until there was nothing left. If I killed him, all that would leave me with is a small satisfaction. I knew the man was twisted and cruel. But my mother would be devastated to know I turned into a murderer because of him."

Katara listened, thinking a moment. "So you can't question any of this Queen's decisions, even if you don't agree with them? How do you know that the queen intends to do good things?"

"Do you believe in a place after death?" Sparhawk asks. It might seem like a deviation from the conversation, but he wants to make sure of her beliefs, before he mentions anything about her mother being proud as she watches over her daughter.

He knows that Kurik is proud of his son, on his world.

Sparhawk smiles. "My Queen welcomes discussion of her decisions, even though hers is the final ruling. But I raised Ehlana from a child, I taught her everything I could to make sure that she would be a good ruler, and a strong ruler. We clash over some things, but there is always compromise."

Katara nodded. "I do. In fact, I know, because of my friend, that a part of me believes in reincarnation too. I think certain friends can see each other again, will recognize the way they were once and feel at home without ever really knowing all of the details. It may sound naive to some people on this ship, and that's OK. There are some things I believe I'm simply not willing to compromise."

Katara was definitely interested now. "So you actually raised the queen? That's so cool! I think I'd like to see what your world is like!"

"Reincarnation?" Sparhawk queries. "I'm not familiar with that, Lady, would you mind explaining?" He's curious to learn more about how people think. He knows that he's not the most open of people initially, but he can learn, and grow.

"King Aldreas thought that it would humiliate me to raise a little girl. Those who controlled him were trying to break the bond between my family and the Crown. As it was a command from my King though, I took things seriously. And though I may have resented it at first, I grew to care, and to love her."

"Yes," Katara said. "Reincranation is the belief that you can exist in a new life, in a different body but with the vague feeling that you've been through things like this before. There's a boy who is the Avatar in my world, and his teacher wound up being a close friend of the previous Avatar. Ever since then, I've always wondered if the spirit, once released from the old body, carries on to another again annd again until it achieves what it set out to do, and moves on to whatever higher spiritual plane of existence comes next."

Katara smiled. "That's a wonderful turn of events. I've heard so many different stories copming onto this ship, and not too many positive ones. I think its why Stacy chose so many different people with different powers. Whatever we're supposed to do, we'll be strong because of what happened in our own worlds."

That explanation makes sense. It's opposite to what Sparhawk knows of himself, that he was born specifically to fix things on his world (and wasn't that hard to understand when he found out). "We believe in a place after death, one for the faithful, and one for the damned. We only pass through our lives the once, so it's up to us to do our best with what we have been granted."

Sparhawk doesn't consider himself a scholar, and he knows that he is not the right one to be instructing anyone on the intricacies of the Elene faith. But, he's the only one here.

"We will work well together, if we can put aside the differences," and this is something that Sparhawk is worried about. "Too many people here seem to be happiest working on their own, and how can that work here?"

Katara smiled. "I've heard people with beliefs like that, actually. In a way, reincarnation is a little like that, except the 'bad' place is having to live another life in the world all over again. The 'good' place is achieving a nirvana where you can move onto the next step of your spiritual growth. But I could relate to caring a lot about what you make of yourself in this world. In a way, it might take me a long time to get to another plane of existence anyway: I love my world, and the people in it."

And that was exactly what Katara wanted to hear. "I think that too. I don't mind learning about other people's cultures and way of life, mostly. The only real thing I carry from my world is wanting to protect people I care about at any cost. That can be a fault of mine."

"The same was true for friends of mine," Sparhawk agrees. "Not all of them were ready to ascend to another plane with their God, but another friend of mine removed the barriers that prevented them." The hard-bitten knight smiles. "I was honoured to be there."

"Why would you consider it to be a fault to protect those you care about? A Knight who fights for something he believes in is a better warrior than one who just fights because he is told to." That's what Sparhawk believes, and that is the way that he tries to educate the novices. When he actually has time to sit down and do anything.

"Then your friend is truly special, and so are you. I was also lucky enough to be involved with a friend who could have ascended to his own spiritual nirvana. In a way, I think the reason he hasn't is because he's wanting to be with me longer. It sounds conceited, but I also know him better than he thinks. He's still very protective of me. I am of him too."

Katara sighed. "Because even doing that can be a little blinding. It's possible to care about people enough that you can lose sight of some important things. Caring about people is something I'll never stop doing, but its also a powerful emotion, and that can always be used against me. If there's one thing I've learned in my world, its that its never good to be led on strictly by emotion."

"My enemies kidnapped my wife once. They thought that it would get me to do their will. I was ready to leap into the saddle and try to ride six ways at once, and assault the gates of hell to get her back. I had good friends though, who talked me out of doing anything rash. I understand about caring for someone too much, but I would not give up the feelings. And sometimes those emotions give you the drive to prevail."

Sparhawk isn't telling this just to hear the sound of his own voice, he is fascinated by the differences between their worlds. With the Styrics, when he saw their true home, he hated them for a moment, because of his ingrained belief that Elene's were superior. But with people from another world, what does superiority matter?

Katara definitely looked as if she understood. "People can be like that. They'll use whatever they can as leverage to get what they want. Once, when we were in another city, a child from our enemy wandered with us by mistake. Our enemy thought we kidnapped him, and was ready to make a deal to get him back. It was one of the first times I saw that even an enemy has feelings, and feels pain when they think the one they love is taken away from them. But I agree with you about how strong emotions are too. They helped me then, and later on when I saw a village of my enemies stripped down to just that: a people in trouble, suffering. My empathy made me realize that enemy or not, people are people, and when they're in trouble, you help them."

Katara laughed nervously. "But I'm sorry to get off the subject! Emotions can help you, and always have, but relying on them too much can hurt you too."

Katara reminds Sparhawk of a combination of his wife, and his daughter. While he's fascinated by her, he's starting to feel equally as protective. He knows that it won't be needed, he has seen her skill, but he still intends to keep an eye out for her, in case he can be of assistance.

"Have you been told yet which team you will be on?" he asks her. "You'll be an asset, wherever you are."

In my element [Open]

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