"At the thousandth step," comes Roxie's voice, filtered in that same half-conscious, half-present way as before, "you'll come to a guardian who you'll have to defeat to continue on to the last step. The guardian always comes from yourself, so I can't help you with this one."

Katara has just passed the nine-hundred-ninety-ninth step, she retroactively realizes; with one more the stairwell will suddenly open into a vast hollow space carved out of the earth, neatly bisecting natural caves and small underground rivers. Though interrupted, the stairs continue downwards, but standing between the downwards path and Katara is...

Katara.

Well, not exactly. The example of herself standing before her is noticeably older, maybe even as much as middle-aged, though the other-Katara hasn't lost any of her natural beauty to age... of her body, at least, to judge by what her fine (royal?!) Fire Nation robes show. But her face is covered by a porcelain mask, though the always-familiar loops of her hair are visible.

"You," she hisses, and there's a rasping to her voice that exceeds what mere aggression could produce.