markofthebrave | Backdated to the 7th

[It happened quickly. One moment she was fourteen, her back aching as the wings stretched across scars, the next she was seventeen and the relief of pain was almost dizzying. The memories sorting in and through her were easily as dizzying.

She fell down to her knees as her two lives collided and when she rose, both sets of memories were confused, but she knew who she was. And she wanted to see her family. She didn't walk. She ran all the way home.

Much later, she made a post to her journal, filtered to her friends.]

Hi, everyone. I know that I don't say this enough and... I know that this month is kind of stressful. But I just wanted to say how glad, how really glad I am to have met all of you. I don't say it enough. You're all people I've come to rely on, and I'm so glad you're in my life.

...and I remember you now, just in case you were wondering. I hope I'll see you all very soon.

((OOC: If you're wondering if you're on her friends filter, you probably are! If you want to run into her resuming her normal routine the 8th-9th, that's OK too!))

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"Ozai." That man was scary to think about now. He could only imagine what he would have been like to a little girl. "I guess you-- she figured that was the smart thing to do, huh?"

"If I was being taken away for waterbending, I thought maybe if I didn't bend..." something. Anything. Maybe they would take her back. Maybe she'd be in less trouble. Anything.

"...but it didn't work out that way once I saw Ozai."

It was strange to say his name. The fear and loathing he had inspired were hard to shake.

He swallowed, ware of hearing where this was going. The man was cruel enough to burn his own son's face. He could only imagine what he'd do to some girl from another nation.

"What did he do?"

"Not much at first. He just dismissed me, since it didn't seem like I could bend and he said some... things. And that's when I realized that he was behind everything, everything that had happened. And I wasn't going to get out of trouble anyway. So I tried to attack him."

"Oh no." It was a wonder the girl even lived. "How bad was it?"

"Most of the scars... came from that," she said slowly. "And after that, he locked me in a waterbender prison."

To die.

So there were more.

It had been bad when he saw her before. But if there were more. For a moment, he couldn't help but shudder.

"You escaped?"

Katara shook her head. "I was there for two months."

This was hard to talk about. It felt like it could only come out in bits and pieces.

Two months was a long time. Especially for a little kid. A terrified little kid. But it didn't add up. "Two months... How did you get out? You were so little."

"Hama came. On the night of the full moon. She saved me."

Edited 2013-02-16 03:57 (UTC)

It all made sense. Hama. Of course. She'd been in a prison like that. She could break back into one easily. She'd be eager to do so, for the sake of finding a successor to--

Oh. Oh.

"... Hama. So then. That other you, she was raised by Hama."

Katara nodded soberly.

"Then that other Katara..." No. Sokka shook his head. That didn't make sense. "But she wasn't like Hama. She was hurt and scared. But she wasn't like that. She was good."

"Hama wasn't all evil, Sokka. What she did to the villagers was wrong, what she did to us was wrong, but... she was just twisted up inside. And so was I."

Edited 2013-02-17 04:59 (UTC)

Wasn't all evil. Maybe not. But evil enough, as far as he was concerned.

"So what happened next?"

Katara shrugged one shoulder. She looked at Sokka, then away. "Hama raised me. She taught me everything she knew."

Everything.

"Everything." He knew exactly what that meant. He sighed. "Was she trapping people too?"

Katara shook her head, "She and Hama parted ways over that. She - I - didn't see the point in attacking civilians."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, "I had other targets in mind."